From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 24 23:07:03 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id XAA10929; Wed, 24 Jun 1998 23:07:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 23:07:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199806250307.XAA10929@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #101 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Jun 98 23:07:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 101 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Fall VON Additional Info (Al Niven) AT&T News Conference at Noon EDT (Monty Solomon) Final Boundaries Approved for 619 Three-Way Area Code Split (Tad Cook) 900 Numbers Are a Cautionary Tale (Monty Solomon) AT&T 50% Price Increase - Fair? (Robert Eden) Bogus Dialtone in Airport Payphone Scam (Tad Cook) Anonymous Callers Soon to be Shut Out by Pac Bell (Monty Solomon) Please Join tollfree-l@makelist.com (Judith Oppenheimer) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: alniven@earthlink.net (Al Niven) Subject: Fall VON Additional Info Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 00:55:58 GMT Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc. Fall '98 Voice on the Net: Sept 14-17 in Washington, D.C. Our 3rd Annual Fall '98 Voice on the Net Conference takes place September 14-17, 1998 in Washington, D.C. at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center (1300 Pennsylvania Avenue.) At Fall '98 VON you will have an opportunity to not only listen to the senior executives responsible for driving the industry forward, but you will have a great opportunity to meet with these players and take advantage of the unique business networking opportunities. Conference keynotes includes: Ascend, AT&T Worldnet, Bellcore, Cisco, FCC, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Level 3, MCI, Microsoft, NTIA, and QWest. From the "Big Boys with Fiber" to the traditional carriers and NextGen Telcos you will have an unique opportunity to meet with the players who are driving the industry. In addition to hearing first hand information from the carriers and service providers who have been early implementers of VON technologies, this conference will be paying special attention to "Carrier Grade" Applications and the relationship between the converging IP and Intelligent Network/SS7 worlds. Attention will also be given to the emerging IP Voice over Cable industries as well as the standards (H.323) and the alternative protocols (SIP / SGCP) which have been the focus of recent VON industry debate. Since the venue is in Washington, D.C., there will be several sessions focusing on the Regulatory aspects of IP Telephony (both Domestic and International) and we will have keynotes from both the FCC and the National Telecommunication Information Administration (NTIA) which should provide a leading indication on where the Administration and the FCC see Internet Telephony Industry headed in the United States. On September 14th we have four pre-conference workshops including: - The NextGen Telco Summit - Building the IP Based Central Office - The H.323 Workshop (H.323 Ver 3.0 Preview, Gateways, Gatekeepers, Applications) - IP/PSTN Gateways, Gatekeepers and Billing Solutions Our exhibit hall (with over 50 exhibitors) will be open Tuesday- Thursday with a special pre-conference screening on Monday night from 5.30-7.30 pm. We have made arrangements with 13 hotels to provide rooms for conference delegates. The two closest hotels are: The Marriott at Metro Center (+1.202. 737-2200) and the JW Marriot (+1.202. 393-2000). If you are planning on attending the conference, we strongly suggest that you make your hotel reservations today. To register for the conference please vist: http://pulver.com/von98/fall98 or call +1.516.753.2640. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 11:42:24 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T News Conference at Noon EDT AT&T and TCI to Merge; AT&T To Create Separately Traded Unit to Provide Consumer Communications and Entertainment Services NEWS CONFERENCE - AT&T will hold a news conference at NOON EDT today at its world headquarters at 32 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. AT&T Chairman C. Michael Armstrong and TCI Chairman John C. Malone will co-host the news conference. SATELLITE COORDINATES - A satellite feed of the news conference is available at the following coordinates: Ku band satellite TELSTAR 5, transponder 11. Downlink polarity, vertical; downlink frequency, 11929 Mhz; location, 97 degrees west. NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 1998--AT&T announced today that it has signed a definitive merger agreement with Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) for an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $48 billion. Under the agreement, AT&T will issue 0.7757 shares of AT&T common stock for each share of TCI Group Series A stock and 0.8533 shares of AT&T for each share of TCI Group Series B stock. Immediately following the merger, AT&T will combine its current consumer long distance, wireless and Internet services units with TCI's cable, telecommunications, and high-speed Internet businesses to create a new subsidiary - AT&T Consumer Services. The company will trade as a "letter" or "tracking stock" on the New York Stock Exchange and have a significant public ownership. AT&T will also issue separate tracking stock to holders of TCI's programming arm, Liberty Media Group, to continue the holders' interests in the assets now represented by those shares. AT&T Consumer Services will provide the broadest set of consumer communications services -- including local, long distance, wireless and international communications, cable television, dial-up and high-speed Internet access services -- all under the AT&T brand name. AT&T Consumer Services will own and operate the nation's most extensive, broadband local network platform. Following the merger, the new unit intends to significantly accelerate the upgrading of its cable infrastructure, enabling it to begin providing digital telephony and data services to consumers by the end of 1999, in addition to digital video services. "Today we are beginning to answer a big part of the question about how we will provide local service to U.S. consumers," said C. Michael Armstrong, chairman and CEO of AT&T. "We are merging with TCI not only for what it is but for what we can become together," Armstrong explained. "Through its own systems and in partnership with affiliates, AT&T Consumer Services will bring to people's homes the first fully integrated package of communications, electronic commerce and video entertainment services. And it will do it with the quality and reliability that people have come to expect from AT&T." "This merger is a tremendous growth opportunity for TCI's shareowners and employees," said John C. Malone, chairman and CEO of TCI. "As TCI continues the large-scale deployment of advanced digital set-top devices, AT&T's extraordinary brand and resources are ideal complements to TCI's broadband cable distribution and operations. AT&T Consumer Services will offer consumers a wide variety of entertainment, information and communications products, which thoughtfully address personal tastes, needs, choice and convenience." John D. Zeglis, currently president of AT&T, will be chairman and CEO of AT&T Consumer Services and will remain on the AT&T Board of Directors. Leo J. Hindery, Jr., currently president of TCI, will be the new unit's president and chief operating officer. Malone has agreed to become a member of the AT&T Board of Directors. AT&T Consumer Services will provide its services to consumers through a combination of its own broadband networks and services it will procure from others, including AT&T. The new unit will include all of the cable television systems AT&T is acquiring in the merger with TCI, as well as AT&T's fixed wireless technology and related spectrum rights covering more than 90 percent of the nation. When the merger and pending TCI cable system transactions are complete, AT&T Consumer Services' wholly owned and affiliated cable systems will pass 33 million homes. ------------------------------ Subject: Final Boundaries Approved for 619 Three-Way Area Code Split Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 15:38:48 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Final Boundaries Approved for 619 Three-Way Area Code Split New 858 Area Code - California's 25th - Begins Service on June 12, 1999; New 935 Area Code - California's 30th - Begins Service on June 10, 2000 SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 23, 1998--The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently approved final boundaries for the three-way geographic split of the 619 area code. The split will create two new area codes. The introduction of the new area codes, which are California's 25th and 30th area codes, is needed to meet the rapidly growing demand for additional phone numbers in the 619 area code and across the state. Local telephone service competition as well as the explosive demand for high-technology are driving the demand for more phone numbers. The approved boundaries split the existing 619 region into three portions, northern, central and eastern. The 619 area code will be retained in the central portion. The northern portion will receive California's 25th area code on June 12, 1999, and the eastern portion will receive California's 30th area code on June 10, 2000. The details are as follows: - Central Portion - The central area will retain the 619 area code. Some of the cities and communities in this area include the downtown portion of the city of San Diego and small portions of Lemon Grove and National City. - Northern Portion - The northern portion will receive the new 858 area code. It will begin service on June 12, 1999. Some of the cities and communities in this area include Rancho Santa Fe, Solano Beach, Del Mar, La Jolla, Poway and the northern portion of the city of San Diego. - Eastern Portion - The eastern portion will receive the new 935 area code. It will begin service on June 10, 2000. Some of the cities and communities in this area include Coronado, La Mesa, Chula Vista, Lakeside, El Cajon, Alpine, Pine Valley, Campo, Jacumba, Imperial Beach, Santee, the majority of both Lemon Grove and National City and the southern portion of the city of San Diego. Permissive Dialing Periods During the permissive dialing period, people calling from outside the area can dial either the old 619 or the new area code to reach customers in the new area code. Also during this time, customers in the 619 and new area codes can call between the two area codes using seven-digit dialing (prefix plus four digit number without area code). A six-month permissive dialing period for the northern region will begin June 12, 1999 with the introduction of the 858 area code. A six-month permissive dialing period for the eastern region will begin June 10, 2000 with the introduction of the 935 area code. Mandatory Dialing Periods The mandatory dialing period for the 858 area code begins on December 11, 1999, mandatory dialing begins on December 9, 2000 for the 935 area code. When mandatory dialing begins, callers must use the correct area code to complete their calls. For three months after the beginning of mandatory dialing callers who forget to use the new area code will receive a recorded message reminding them that the area code has changed, and they will be required to redial using the proper area code. The recorded reminder ends for the 858 area code on March 11, 2000, and on March 10, 2001 for the 935 area code. The 858 area code is expected to accommodate the need for new telephone numbers for 11 years and the 935 area code is expected to last 21 years, while the 619 area code is expected to last 13 years. Price of Calls Will Not Be Affected California Area Code Relief Coordinator, Doug Hescox, who oversees area code relief efforts on behalf of the California telecommunications industry, said the introduction of the 858 and 935 area codes will not affect the price of telephone calls. `What is a local call now will remain a local call regardless of the area code change. Call distance and time determine the cost of a call, not whether or not you dial an area code.` Things to Remember Hescox said the permissive dialing period is a great time for customers to get used to the new area code and make important changes. Some of those changes include: - Change stationery, business cards and advertising to reflect the new area code - Notify friends, relatives, business clients and customers of the new area code - Update fax machine group calling lists that have numbers affected by the change - Reprogram speed dialers, auto dialers, alarms and PBX (private phone systems) to reflect the change (contact your equipment vendor for assistance) - Reprogram outdial lists on personal computers that have numbers affected by the change - Check with their wireless phone and paging service providers as well as Internet Service Providers to see if reprogramming is required Area code relief plans are collectively developed by a telecommun- ications industry group composed of more than 30 companies including AT&T, AirTouch, the California Cable Television Association, Cox California PCS, Cox Communications, GTE, ICG Telecom Group, L.A. Cellular, MCI, Mobilemedia Communications, Pacific Bell, Pacific Bell Mobile Services and PageNet. California-Nevada Code Administration is an independent planning group that coordinates area code relief planning on behalf of the California telecommunications industry. The California Public Utilities Commission makes final decisions on all area code issues. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: 900 Numbers Are a Cautionary Tale Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 22:12:39 -0400 Netly News ... http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/ 900 Numbers Are a Cautionary Tale by Steve Baldwin Could the Net become a discredited medium like the 900-number phone business? So claims Jeff Richards, executive director of the Internet Alliance , a 15-year-old trade group previously known as the Interactive Services Assocation whose members include America Online, AT&T, Intel and assorted other industry biggies. "Remember, 900 numbers were designed to provide us all kinds of fascinating, highly personalized services," says Richards. "But once a swiftly moving perception that 900s were 'rip-offs' took hold, the business went from a booming $2 billion a year to a half-billion a year. It happened very quickly and the damage was irreparable." Richards believes that the Net's best chance of escaping the fate of the 900-number business is for its leaders to address difficult concerns such as privacy, spam, fraud, taxation, content regulation and marketing to minors head-on. He also realizes that getting the online industry to march in step is difficult to do, and suggests that a well-known actor or celebrity might be needed to provide a unified, trustworthy voice expressing industry concerns. If the Net could benefit from having its own Charlton Heston to plead its case to the masses, where will this leader come from? "The problem is to find someone with enough gray hair to impress the policy-makers, but someone young enough not to alienate the Net entrepreneurs", Richards says. Tom Hanks with a Palm Pilot? ------------------------------ From: Robert Eden Subject: AT&T 50% Price Increase - Fair? Date: 23 Jun 1998 10:38:50 EDT Organization: Concentric Internet Services As mentioned previously in this forum, AT&T has increased Texas In-State rates under their "One-Call Plus" plan from 0.10 to 0.15 (a 50% increase) effective 6/1/98 without notification to existing customers. The way I see it, I had a contract with AT&T to provide flat rate service. What right do they (or any service provider) have to change said agreement in effect retroactively. (With the exception of this forum, I would have not known about it until the bill arrived.) What protects me from a LD provider changing to $100/minute after I switch to them? Sure, they will be dropped like a lead balloon, but who knows how many calls will be made before I get the bill. I have no problem with any company raising rates. My problem is the lack of sufficient (or any) notice. Robert ------------------------------ Subject: Bogus Dialtone in Airport Payphone Scam Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 11:57:11 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) (I wonder if these guys used some scheme so that the phone never went on-hook? It seems they would need to do that so that the connection would not be broken. Tad Cook tad@ssc.com) Bogus dial tones used in airport calling card scam NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five people were charged Friday with running a scheme using bogus dial tones to steal telephone calling card numbers from travelers at major U.S. airports, including Chicago and Houston. Federal authorities said some 47 phone carriers were affected by the scheme and that losses could be in the millions of dollars. AT&T, Bell Atlantic and MCI cooperated in the investigation, prosecutors said. According to charges filed in Manhattan federal court, the defendants were able to dupe unsuspecting callers by generating false dial tones on airport pay phones. They then recorded the tones as victims punched their card numbers into the phones. The defendants allegedly sold the calling card numbers after they were stolen. Prosecutors said telephone records revealed that between fall 1997 and Thursday, hundreds of calls were placed from apartments in Manhattan and the Bronx to airport pay phones. The defendants, three men and two women, allegedly used a conference call feature on their phones to generate what sounded like a dial tone on the airport pay phones. When travelers picked up one of the phones, many believed they had an outside line and tried to use their calling cards to charge calls. The defendants allegedly recorded the tones generated when callers punched in their card numbers and used a decoding device to translate the tones into corresponding telephone keypad numbers. A device labeled a "Voice Controlled 5 Hour Dialed Number Recorder" was found in each of the four apartments searched, prosecutors said. They said it recorded both telephone conversations and dialed numbers and converted dialed tones into their corresponding numbers. In addition, other telephone devices, lists of calling card numbers, telephone numbers of airport pay phones and tapes were seized at the apartments. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Anonymous Callers Soon to be Shut Out by Pac Bell Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 13:50:38 -0400 Anonymous callers soon to be shut out Pac Bell service won't accept cloaked calls BY STEPHEN BUEL Mercury News Staff Writer Californians who told Pacific Bell to block their phone number from appearing on Caller ID boxes soon won't be able to complete their calls to some of those numbers. Using a new feature that Pacific Bell plans to offer in about two months, such callers will instead hear a recording that tells them their call won't go through. It will give them three options for completing their call: unblocking their line, calling from another phone line or making a 95-cent operator-assisted call. The California Public Utilities Commission gave Pacific Bell permission Thursday to offer the service, called Anonymous Call Rejection. It is viewed by the company as a privacy-enhancing new feature. Customers who use the service -- particularly those who've already signed up for Caller ID -- will be able to selectively block communications from any caller unwilling to reveal their number, even those with unlisted phone numbers. In approving Pacific Bell's request to sell the feature, the PUC rejected the criticisms of consumer advocates who say the service will violate the privacy of customers who want the right to make phone calls without revealing their phone number. They worry that some people will be forced to divulge numbers that should remain private, such as psychologists who work from home, or abused spouses who nonetheless need to stay in contact with their ex. Privacy concerns turn up on both sides of the dispute -- Anonymous Call Rejection enhances the privacy of people who receive phone calls by stripping away a bit of the caller's privacy. ``What about the people receiving the call?'' asked Pacific Bell spokesman John Britton. ``They have a right to privacy too ... Californians are going to love this product because this is going to enhance their privacy.'' The PUC gave Pacific Bell the go-ahead to offer the service for two years. But before the company can do so, it must engage in a public education campaign and secure commission approval of the exact wording of its marketing materials. Consumer groups agree After months of wrangling over the issue, even the consumer advocates at the Utility Reform Network ended up cheering the commission's ruling Thursday. Although they say they would have preferred for the commission to deny Pacific Bell's application entirely, they didn't expect that to happen and were pleased that the PUC agreed to exercise controls over the way the company will be able to spread the word about its service. ``When we reviewed Pacific's plans, we really felt that they were using Anonymous Call Rejection as a way to market Caller ID,'' TURN Telecommunications Research Director Regina Costa said. ``What the commission did was very good. At least they said that the commission staff will track the situation and at least they required Pacific to provide neutral information.'' Pac Bell will work with the PUC on the language of its bill insert, white pages information and the recorded message encountered by customers who fail to connect with the person they're trying to call. Costa's agency and the PUC's staff have been critical in recent months of many of the marketing methods used by Pacific Bell to encourage customers to sign up for Caller ID. PUC consumer advocates have sought to have the company slapped with a cease-and-desist order, charging Pacific Bell with using unethical, high-pressure sales tactics to push its phone products, including Caller ID. Although Caller ID and Anonymous Call Rejection will be marketed as separate products, they clearly are intertwined. Deployment of Caller ID in California has lagged far behind that of other states because of a state-mandated public awareness campaign that encouraged many consumers to ask Pac Bell to block their lines. With 46 percent percent of all residential lines in California blocked from working with Caller ID, would-be subscribers to the $6.50 monthly service have found it much less useful than people in states where more calls are actually ID'd. That's one reason that only 7.5 percent of Pac Bell customers have signed up for Caller ID, far lower than the roughly 50 percent of all Texas consumers who've signed up for similar service from Pac Bell's parent company, Texas-based SBC Communications. Texas does not grant consumers the option of blocking Caller ID. ``It's going to be very interesting, when so many people block, to see what happens,'' said M.J. Purcell, a regulatory analyst with the PUC. Although the PUC will need to approve the exact prices, the company hopes to make Anonymous Call Rejection free for the duration of 1998 and then charge customers 50 cents if they already subscribe to Caller ID and $2 if they don't. Customers whose calls are rejected by the service will have three options, Britton said. They can temporarily unblock their line by dialing ``*82.'' They can ask an operator to assist them with the call, at a cost of 95 cents per call. Or they can call from a different, unblocked phone line, such as a pay phone. Anonymous Call Rejection is not new. It's been offered in other states and even in California. Customers served by GTE Corp., which serves Los Gatos and Morgan Hill in the South Bay, have had the service since May 1997. Impact on businesses Still, widespread deployment of Anonymous Call Rejection will make life difficult for large companies that block their outgoing lines but use phone systems that won't permit individual users to unblock their lines, such as telemarketers, newspapers or bill collectors. Companies whose high-volume phone traffic requires them to have call-switching systems inside their buildings aren't technically able to let individual phone users block or unblock their lines, said Joan Mataraci, Pacific Bell's product manager for Caller ID. If such companies wish to continue blocking their outgoing phone lines, they'll have to install new lines or resort to the operator in many cases. It's not clear how many companies this might affect. Patrice Cottle, owner of the San Jose telemarketing firm American Marketing Services, said it wouldn't hobble her company because all her phone lines willingly reveal their numbers to Caller ID customers. ``We have nothing to hide,'' she said, conceding that some other companies in her field may operate differently. ``We run a pretty straight and narrow ship.'' Before the PUC staff will permit it to offer the service, Pac Bell also will need to provide assurances that all the back-and-forth traffic generated by unsuccessful calls that encounter the company's new recording won't cause the company's phone network to crash. The commission asked for Pac Bell to provide it more information on how this worst-case scenario will be avoided. ``There was concern on the part of some of the commissioners that you have these calls going back and forth and not going anywhere,'' Purcell said. ``Is it going to create a glut on the system? ... I don't know; it's really something we have to find out.'' ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jun 1998 21:53:01 -0000 From: Judith Oppenheimer Subject: Please Join tollfree-l@makelist.com Reply-To: tollfree-l-sc.898725181.cmaplnoadephlbopmghj-editor=telecom-digest.org@makelist.com This is an invitation to join the tollfree-l mailing list. Here is a welcome statement provided by the list manager: ------ You are invited to subscribe to Toll Free-l, a new moderated internet mailing list for the discussion of management, marketing, policy, engineering, logistical and regulatory matters related to the business use of toll free service and toll free numbers. List manager/moderator is Judith Oppenheimer, publisher of ICB TOLL FREE NEWS (http://icbtollfree.com) and president of ICB Toll Free Consultancy (joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com). ------ To accept this invitation, simply reply to this message; your mail program should have a 'reply' feature that inserts the correct subscription address automatically. Alternatively, you can accept by going to the following Web location: http://www.makelist.com/subscribe?email=editor@telecom-digest.org&list=tollfree-l&code=95620461 If you do not wish to join, please just discard this invitation. If you have questions, please feel free to contact the manager of this list at joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com --- A mailing list hosted by FindMail. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I want to wish Judith Oppenheimer the very best of luck with her new mailing list. I know many of you will want to participate with her also. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #101 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 25 00:38:05 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id AAA14945; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 00:38:05 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 00:38:05 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199806250438.AAA14945@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #102 TELECOM Digest Thu, 25 Jun 98 00:38:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 102 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Microsoft Appears to be the Winner (TELECOM Digest Editor) Telecom Update (Canada) #138, June 22, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) Updates: Numbering/Dialing/Translations/Routing Issues (Mark J. Cuccia) ADSI / Powertouch Tricks (Gregory Stewart) Multiple Electronic Use of Same Phone Line Boosted (Monty Solomon) Last Laugh! Monopoly Power! (Monty Solomon) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3140 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 23:00:00 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Microsoft Appears to be the Winner In the news Wednesday morning, in addition to the report of AT&T's latest merger/aquisition was a report that Microsoft appears to have won its battle with the Justice Department. I say 'appears to have won' because although the judge came down on their side in most respects where the current controversy about the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows is concerned, there are still a few issues the government can raise if it chooses to do so. It is not at all clear that the government will continue its pursuit of the matter at this point. In the same proceding, the court tossed Larry Lessig out on his ear. Lessig was the government's choice for 'special master' in the case; but his ability to be impartial in the matter -- as any person in his position appointed by the court should be -- was questioned on several occassions by Microsoft as a result of things Lessig had written which spoke negatively about the company before the case even got underway. Lessig dealt with his dismissal by the court in an honorable way: he was quoted saying that 'Microsoft had every reason to question his impartiality based on things he had written ... he had no objections to being removed and wished the best to Microsoft in the days ahead'. I suspect in a way Lessig *was* glad to be done with the matter. Some readers here have pointed out that he received a huge amount of abuse in the form of email from netters questioning Lessig's impartiality, etc. Readers will recall I spoke poorly of his appoint- ment in this Digest myself for the same reason. He was very gracious in accepting his dismissal by the court, and I hope netters who castigated him in the past will now take a minute to write him and express their thanks for him at least having been willing to try and help; something that few others would have wanted to get entangled with owiung to the complexity of the case and the people involved. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 11:15:59 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #138, June 22, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * =20 * Number 138: June 22, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * Bell Canada ................. http://www.bell.ca/ * * City Dial Network Services .. http://www.citydial.com/ * * Computer Talk Technology .... http://icescape.com/ * * fONOROLA .................... http://www.fonorola.com/ * * Lucent Technologies ......... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE:=20 ** Bell, Cogeco, Hydro-Quebec to Build Fiber Link ** Call-Net Ups Bid for fONOROLA ** NBTel Says Price Cap Rules Won't Work ** MetroNet Begins Build in Quebec City ** Bruncor Sells Stake in Genesys ** fONOROLA Fields Small-Business Plan ** Speech Recognition Speeds Quebec 4-1-1 Service ** Vision.Com Registers as CLEC ** Clearnet Sells Phones on Line ** Look's Wireless Cable Starts in August ** Ottawa Seeks Comment on Wireless LANs=20 ** TIW Expands Brazil Cellular Holdings ** AT&T, General DataComm Begin Multimedia Demos ** BCE Purchasing Rest of ExpressVu ** Entrust Launches IPO ** 10,000 Customers for Cantel's Pay-as-You-Go ** Bell Mobility Adds Text, Prepaid Services ** Stentor's Stephenson to Chair ITAC ** Clarification on AT&T Canada ** 25 Telecom Strategy Reports BELL, COGECO, HYDRO-QUEBEC TO BUILD FIBER LINK: Bell Canada, Cogeco Cable, and Hydro-Quebec have agreed to share a new $12-Million optical fiber link between Quebec City and Rimouski. Construction, managed by Cogeco, is to finish in October. CALL-NET UPS BID FOR fONOROLA: Call-Net Enterprises has raised its bid for fONOROLA to $67 a share from $60; the new offer expires June 26. fONOROLA says it continues to seek an alternative bidder. NBTEL SAYS PRICE CAP RULES WON'T WORK: On June 18, just six months after the new price cap regime began, NBTel told the CRTC that "the price cap rules ... are not workable." The= telco has asked the Commission to make major changes in the plan and allow it to cut contribution rates. ** NBTel wants its 1998-99 business rates to be reduced less than the Commission ordered under its first price cap rulings. METRONET BEGINS BUILD IN QUEBEC CITY: MetroNet Communications says it will complete a $17-Million 40-km fiber network in the Quebec City region by the end of 1998. BRUNCOR SELLS STAKE IN GENESYS: New Brunswick's Bruncor has sold its 3% holding in California-based Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories for $21 Million. Bruncor says the companies will continue joint work developing network-based call center products. fONOROLA FIELDS SMALL-BUSINESS PLAN: fONOROLA now offers Line One, a small-business plan featuring flat-rate calls in Canada for 12.5 cents/minute and U.S. calls for 15 cents. SPEECH RECOGNITION SPEEDS QUEBEC 4-1-1 SERVICE: Bell Canada directory assistance in Quebec now uses Nortel's Frequently Requested Listing service, which provides certain business= numbers without operator intervention. VISION.COM REGISTERS AS CLEC: Vision.Com, the cablecos' R&D organization, asked the CRTC on June 12 to register it as a competitive local exchange carrier, so that it can participate as a shareholder in the Canadian Numbering Administration Consortium. ** Vid=E9otron, the only Canadian cableco to register as a CLEC so far, told the CRTC on June 4 that it has met all= requirements to operate as a local service provider. It will initially provide service in Montreal. CLEARNET SELLS PHONES ON LINE: Clearnet Communications now sells its phones and accessories at its Web site; secure real-time online payment is provided by InternetSecure. http://www.clearnet.com LOOK'S WIRELESS CABLE STARTS IN AUGUST: Look Communications, majority owned by Teleglobe, says it will start wireless cable (MMDS) service with 80 channels in the Toronto area in August. Pricing will start at about $20/month. OTTAWA SEEKS COMMENT ON WIRELESS LANS: Industry Canada is seeking public input on a proposal to allow unlicensed wireless LANs in frequency bands in the 5 GHz range. Comments are due by September 21. http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/spectrum TIW EXPANDS BRAZIL CELLULAR HOLDINGS: Telesystems International Wireless is negotiating a partnership with Brazilian pension funds to bid for two Brazilian cellular companies being privatized in July. TIW has just raised $162 Million through an equity offering. AT&T, GENERAL DATACOMM BEGIN MULTIMEDIA DEMOS: AT&T Canada LDS and General DataComm are beginning demonstrations of ATM-based voice-video-data services in Toronto and St. Laurent, Quebec. BCE PURCHASING REST OF EXPRESSVU: BCE is buying the 10% stake in ExpressVu held by Cancom and WIC for $15.3 Million. ENTRUST LAUNCHES IPO: Entrust Technologies, a BCE-owned company which makes encryption technology for the Internet, has announced a US$100-Million initial share offering on NASDAQ. 10,000 CUSTOMERS FOR CANTEL'S PAY-AS-YOU-GO: Less than one month after the product launch, Rogers Cantel says it has signed up more than 10,000 customers across Canada for it analog Pay-as-You-Go cellular service. BELL MOBILITY ADDS TEXT, PREPAID SERVICES: Bell Mobility has introduced enhanced text messaging to its digital PCS service and launched a prepaid option for analog cellular. STENTOR'S STEPHENSON TO CHAIR ITAC: On June 18, Carol Stephenson, President and CEO of Stentor Resource Centre, became Chair of the Information Technology Association of Canada. http://www.itac.ca CLARIFICATION ON AT&T CANADA: AT&T Canada has non-exclusive agreements to use prepaid phonecard platform services of both Telesonic Communications Inc, ACC's phonecard partner, and Phonetime International; both use the underlying AT&T network. Telecom Update #136 mentioned only Phonetime as a platform provider. 25 TELECOM STRATEGY REPORTS: Until June 30, new subscribers to Telemanagement will receive a free copy of Telecom Strategies Today: 25 Reports for Canadian Decision Makers, a collection of recent Telemanagement articles. Included in the bonus: ** Competition Goes Local ... and Global (5 reports) ** New Technologies, New Choices (8 reports) ** Competitive Strategies (12 reports) ** "Angus's Laws for Understanding and Surviving (and Possibly Profiting From) the New Telecom" (bonus report) For more information about this Bonus offer, visit http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html or call 1-800- 263-4415, ext 500. HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE=20 Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There=20 are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week. Point your browser to http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the messag should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 10:59:20 -0500 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Updates: Numbering/Dialing/Translations/Routing Issues There are _SEVERAL_ numbering/dialing/translations/switching/routing issues mentioned in this post, regarding: AT&T, BellSouth (local/landline telco), BS-COCOT payphone chips, BellSouth Mobility, and Cellular South (Gulfport MS). AT&T _FINALLY_ was able to route to NPA 450 (PQ)! :) The first test call I made via AT&T thru _VARIOUS_ access methods that were all successful was as of 6:15am Central Daylite Time, Saturday (13 June 1998). Other LD-carriers were beginning to route to the new 450 NPA at various times on Thursday and Friday. BellSouth's "COCOT-ized" payphones _finally_ have toll-free SAC NPA 877 loaded into its chips, as a free-call! They also have 1+ coin for NPA 450 (PQ) loaded in as well, at US$ 5.00+ from Louisiana/Mississippi. They _DON'T_ have any NPA's after 13-June-98 loaded into their "chips" for 1+ coin-toll, unfortunately. NPA 786 for the _overlay_ for the Miami FL area takes effect on 1-July-1997 and _this_ NPA will _NOT_ have a 'permissive' dialing period using the 'old' NPA, as this is an _OVERLAY_. If BS-COCOTS don't have NPA 786 loaded into its "chips" for 1+ coin-toll by then, one will _NOT_ be able to reach such 786 numbers paid by coin! :( BS-COCOTs _STILL_ are missing four _other_ _DOMESTIC-rated_ NPAs from their "chips" for 1+ coin-toll calling, and these are _all_ now mandatory-dialed using these NPA's as 1+NPA: 787 Puero Rico, 340 US Virgin Island, 670 CNMI, 671 Guam The _NON_ US NANP-Caribbean as well as 011+ International/Overseas dialing is not in the "chips" for "sent-paid" coin-toll dialing, as the "coinage" for the first three minute period (as well as additional minute periods) is probably _too_large_ for the "escrow" bucket to hold. And since these BS payphones are now using a COCOT-like interface with the network, BellSouth and AT&T Operators can _NOT_ assist on _ANY_ coin-paid calling anymore! :( I _did_ try several recent US/Canada NPA's as 1+ from the BS-COCOT, and these _were_ loaded into the "chips" for 1+ coin-toll, including NPA 867 in Northern Canada (Yukon's split from NPA 403 Alberta, _ALL_ of NWT/Nunavut's split from NPA 403 Alberta and 819 part of Quebec). BS-COCOTs charge (US) $5.40 for the first three-minutes for NPA 450 in Quebec and (US) $5.60 for the first three-minutes for NPA 867 in Yukon/NWT/Nunavut! BS-COCOTs consider 203-xxxx to be invalid, however. But 203-xxxx numbers _DO_ work from my cellular. I dialed it during an overnite and weekend time-frame (which for me is 'free' airtime), so I'll see if it itemized on my bill, albeit as $0.00-charged airtime. Since BellSouth's COCOT-ized payphones _do_ allow (101-XXXX)-01+CC+nn+('#') dialing, I was able to get to UIFN numbers from these phones, via AT&T, as: (10(10)288)-01-800-xxxx-xxxx-('#'). Other 0+ carriers/AOSlime do _NOT_ (yet) seem to allow 01+ routing to CC +800, so if the inTER-LATA 0+/01+ chosen carrier of the payphone is _NOT_ AT&T, you will need to dial AT&T's 10(10)288+ CAC first. Of course, BellSouth's COCOTs don't allow (101-XXXX)-011+ calling, not even to CC +800 UIFN. Speaking of UIFN, on Saturday, I called up (US/AT&T) "Toll-Free Directory", 800-KLondike-5-1212, and asked for a listing for "Hong Kong Direct". She told me to 'hold for the listing' and put me on auto-quote (and I'm going to paraphrase here): "NOTICE: This is a toll-free international number. Dial zero-one-one, eight-hundered, two-zero-zero-zero, two-thousand" Incidently (011)-800-2000-2000-(#) isn't (yet?) available from our good-neighbor to the north. (Surprising, with the number of Hong-Kong refugees/immigrants in Britsh Columbia ... but _MAYBE_ Hong-Kong Direct's UIFN is dialable from GTE-BC-Tel territory?) I called back to 800-555-1212 and asked her if there were a _US_ Domestic (NANP) 800- number for HK-Direct. She only had the UIFN number. While on the phone with one of my Canadian friends this weekend (he's in Toronto ON), he 3-wayed to (Bell-Canada / Stentor provided) 800-555-1212 and asked for HK-Direct. There is _NO_ such number listed (whether NANP-based 800/888/877, or UIFN +800). I was on the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Sunday (late afternoon and early evening). I usually have turned my cellular phone _OFF_ or set it for no-roaming when about to cross over the state line, and out of the BS-Mobility (New Orl) service area, into the Cellular South (Gulfport) service area, as roaming/airtime/toll charges can be QUITE high. But yesterday, I decided to _KEEP_ the phone on and in a roamed mode, for incoming calls, and to do some tests ... Prior to leaving home, early Sunday afternoon, I called up BS-Mobility Customer Service, to verify the roaming-on/off codes, and to see if when roaming were turned off (as well as the cellphone itself), would my voicemail service from BS-Mobility in New Orleans would pick-up those calls. Well, GUESS WHICH SERVICE-REP ANSWERED THE LINE?!?! You got it, "Suzie"! Well, this time she was _very_ helpful and polite! Roaming from BS-Mobility into Cellular-South (MS) had "Auto-Call Delivery" for incoming calls. I do _NOT_ have to enter '*18-SEND' anymore (I used to about two years ago to activate incoming calls when roamed-to there). If I'm in Cellular-South (MS) and need to turn-off the phone, for my BellSouth Mobility voicemail (New Orleans) to take incoming messages, I will need to de-activate romaing before turning the phone off, with '*19-SEND'. I don't have to enter '*98-SEND' to turn-on the mobile-memo incoming message service - anyhow, since I'm not a Cellular-South (MS) customer- only roamed-to there, it probably wouldn't know what to do. When I turned the phone on an hour later, I still needed to enter '*18-SEND' to reactivate roaming for incoming calls ... Just prior to entering *18-SEND, I used a nearby payphone and dialed (with my AT&T-Card) my cellular number (504-460-etc). It seemed to stay routed only within BS-Mobility New Orl, and was about ready to go into Mobile Memo. Incidently, while the phone was turned off, I did have an incoming message left in my Mobile Memo voicemail! But I wouldn't have been able to retrieve it while in Mississippi, with *99-SEND... I could dial either the voicemail retrieval number which would 'bill' as long-distance from MS whether dialed from cellular or card/payphone- but I dialed, with my AT&T Card from a payphone, my cellular number, and it went to voicemail right away since there was at least one 'new' not yet listened to message- I hit '*' when I hear my outgoing message, and then BS-Mobility asks for my passcode to be punched in. But when I entered *18-SEND on my cellular and then dialed to it from a payphone with my AT&T-Card the call routed to my cellular and it rang! I hit '#' right away on the payphone (billing to AT&T Card), for a 'sequence' call, since I didn't 'answer' the ring to my cellular. Now, for Cellular-South in Mississippi ... I dialed an 800- ANI Readback (non-suping) number, and it quoted: 228-000-0000. '00' went to AT&T's OSPS, with FULL initial automated menus, just as it does from my residential line, or when I dial (10(10)288)-0('#'/0) at (most) payphones. Yet, when using BS-Mobility in New Orleans, '00' goes to "(musical jingle) AT&T. Please hold for Operator Assistance. AT&T-how may I help you?", withOUT the usual initial automated menus! :( One benefit of having AT&T auto-prompts/menus on '00' Operator access is that one can DTMF-enter a NANP destination number (1/0)-ten-digits or non-NANP destination number 01(1)-CC-nn-(#), and then get a verbal prompt for card-billing or option to cut-thru to a live operator. But if one enters a NANP-based toll-free number 800/888/877-seven-digits or a UIFN (worldwide/global) toll free number as 01(1)-800-xxxx-xxxx(#), such toll-free dialstrings get the response "Thank you for using AT&T", withOUT needing to enter any card-numbers! Of course, if the NANP-based 800/888/877 number is _NOT_ one handled by AT&T you will get a recording from the AT&T #4ESS toll-switch that the #5ESS=OSPS switch routes thru. One might think that by simply asking an AT&T operator to connect one to a UIFN 011+800-xxxx-xxxx number might be all that is needed when one can't dial it direct. It isn't all that easy. It doesn't seem that all AT&T Operators and Supervisors have yet been trained on +800 UIFN. When I've asked Operators (and Supervisors) about +800 UIFN, some have told me that "there isn't any 'country' code 800 - that I must be referring to domestic-based (+1) 'area' code 800 toll-free numbers which call-forward overseas". One supervisor _did_ seem to know about +800 UIFN, and said that AT&T is referring to it as "International Toll-Free 800". This supervisor told me that _any_ AT&T Operator can simply key-in 011-800-etc. for me, and the call will go through at no charge to me, billed automatically to the called party wherever in the world the number terminates. But when I called '00' from my cellular phone (while in BellSouth Mobility New Orleans), and went directly to a live operator, who did seem to know about 011-800-, she told me that her board wouldn't allow the call to proceed! Another explanation is that maybe the controls for her position aren't yet programmed for UIFN +800 translations. There are AT&T Operator Centers and positions all over the US, and these days, when one reaches an AT&T Operator from anywhere in the US, the operator could likewise be located 'anywhere'. Whichever operator is first available 'anywhere' is the one that the calling customer is connected to. Continuing with Cellular-South (MS) ... Cellular-South (MS) properly database-dipped, translated, and routed Toll-Free 877! :) BellSouth Mobility (New Orleans) has also now been properly database-dipping, translating, and routing properly for about a month now! :) BS-Mobility allows 01+CC+nn+SEND okay - I go to the 'bong' tone at AT&T OSPS in Jackson MS, however BS-Local doesn't seem to have UIFN toll-free CC +800 in its tandem which BS-Mobility 'homes' on- I'm usually blocked with a local/wireline recording from the tandem when I enter 01+800-xxxx-xxxx+SEND from my cellular. BS-Mobility sends 0-NPA-NXX-xxxx+SEND to AT&T's OSPS in Jackson MS for a 'bong' tone if the NPA-NXX-xxxx is out-of-LATA, and to the BellSouth TOPS in downtown New Orleans for their 'bong' tone if the NPA-NXX-xxxx is within the LATA. However, Cellular-South in MS (and maybe BellSouth local? in that LATA) don't know how to properly translate and route 0+/01+ from a cellular phone. Maybe it was because I was a 'romaer' and not an accounted local cellular customer of Cellular-South, in Gulfport. When I was roamed into their area, 01+CC+nn+SEND went to a recording from their MTSO. 0+NPA-NXX-xxxx+SEND went to a BellSouth local/wireline recording, which seemed to be a local end-office recording rather than a 'tandem' recording. I wonder if Cellular-South in MS is a type-1 interconnection rather than a tandem-based type-2 interconnection with local BellSouth? The recording from BellSouth local/landline when I entered 0+ten-digits(NANP)+SEND was the "We're sorry, you must first dial a '1' or '0' plus the area code code when calling this number". Obviously, 011+ for direct-dialed sent-paid international/overseas is blocked at the Cellular-South MTSO. BellSouth Mobility customers are also 'default-blocked' from 011+ calling, unless they specifically request access to it. I haven't, as I don't make that many calls to non-NANP locations, and from a cellular the rates would be even more than from my residential phone. SAC NPA 700 works from BellSouth Mobility! When I enter (1)-700-KL.5-4141 plus 'SEND', I get the (non-suping) AT&T verification recording. But Cellular-South's MTSO rejected my attempts to reach SAC NPA 700. I'd wanted to see which IXC my '1+' cellular toll calls from Gulfport MS would have routed through and been billed by. Cellular-South in Mississippi _ALSO_ had "CAC" dialing blocked in their MTSO. I was _UNABLE_ to reach _anything_, other than their MTSO recording when dialed as: 10(1X)XXX+ {1+/0+/011+/01+} +etc. BellSouth Mobility in the New Orleans MTSO _DOES_ allow "CAC" dialing for inTER-LATA calling as 10-XXX+ {0+/01+} +etc. At this point in time, it is _only_ the 'five-digit' 10-XXX CAC codes. I have reported to their Tech-Support department that 101-XXXX+ expanded seven-digit CAC dialing needs to be allowed prior to 1-July-1998, as the expanded version becomes _MANDATORY_! Some of the above dialstrings not properly translating or routing in Cellular-South territory _might_ be attributed to the fact that I was _roaming_ and not a 'home' customer. But that doesn't explain why I was able to reach long-distance numbers from Mississippi (as 1+) on _most_ area codes (those around for decades), yet I was getting _blocked_ in their MTSO for calls to those area codes which only took effect last year or earlier this year! That's right! Placing 1+ type calls to such area codes as: 678 (GA, 1998, OVERLAY!), 435 (UT, 1997), 336 (NC, 1997), and many others were _BLOCKED_ by the MTSO, as if they hadn't been loaded into MTSO-translations! :( And I'd thought that BellSouth Mobility was sloppy in various 'special' translations! :) On Monday, I called up an 800- number for Cellular-South (MS), to report the mis-translations or missing NPAs from their translations. They told me that it would be better for me to call _my_ cellular provider (BellSouth Mobility) and report such problems during Sunday's roaming in Cellular-South territory. BS-Mobility tech-support would then relay the problems to Cellular-South. So, I reported all of this to my good tech-support contact with BS-Mobility in Baton Rouge. One more thing. And this regards BellSouth inTRA-LATA 0-/0+ TOPS services. I've noticed that _sometimes_ when dialing 0-/0+ from within a BellSouth exchange (in the New Orleans LATA), I am routed directly to an operator on 0- who simply answers "Operator", or routed to a 'bong' tone on 0+. I am _supposed_ to get a 'branding' of a pre-recorded "Bell-South" prior to "Operator" or 'bong'. And recently when in the Baton Rouge LATA, and yesterday in the Gulfport MS LATA, from BellSouth payphones incidently, dialing 0+ inTRA-LATA calls which do route to TOPS, while getting the 'branding' identification "Bell-South" were not going to the automated 'bong'! I was getting a brief ring and then a live "Operator". But I'd dialed 0-PLUS, and _NOT_ 0-MINUS! ? Anyhow, One Bell System _SURE_ did work! :) NWORLASKCG0 (BellSouth #1AESS Cl.5 Local "Seabrook" 504-24x-) NWORLAIYCM1 (BellSouth-Mobility Hughes-GMH-2000 Cellular-MTSO NOL) NWORLAMT01T (BellSouth DMS-100 "Metairie" Tndm; Cellular routes thru) NWORLAMA0GT (BellSouth DMS-100/200 inTRA-LATA/fg.B-C-D Tndm "Main" 504+) NWORLAMA20T (BellSouth DMS-200 TOPS:inLATA Opr.Svc.Tndm "Main" 504+053+) NWORLAMA04T (AT&T #4ESS Class-2 Toll 060-T / 504-2T "Main" 504+) JCSNMSPS06T (AT&T #5ESS OSPS:Operator-Services-Tandem 601-0T 601+121) JCSNMSPS14T (AT&T #4ESS Class-3 Toll 040-T / 601-2T; OSPS routes thru) NWORLATUDS0?(PBX NEC-2400 504-862-3/8xxx, 504-865-4/5/6xxx) NWORLACACG0 (BellSou.#1A Cl.5 Lcl "Carrollton" 504-86x-; PBX 'homes' on) MARK_J._CUCCIA__PHONE/WRITE/WIRE/CABLE:__HOME:__(USA)__Tel:_CHestnut-1-2497 WORK:__mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.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: Gregory Stewart Subject: ADSI / Powertouch Tricks Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 14:22:07 GMT Organization: Bell Solutions Hello all, I just bought a used powertouch (vista) 350, and was wondering if anyone has played with these from the experimenters viewpoint. Has anyone out there created any strange "ADSI phone tricks" for their own amusement? I am pretty sure a USR Courier V.Everything modem can generate the required 1200 V.23 FSK half duplex modem signals, (as well as send and recieve all 16 touch tone characters...) It just seems like something that would be fun to experiment with. The only thing you couldn't do with the modem is generate the appropriate CPE alert signal, but then you could use your computers speaker to do that ... "Stupid phone tricks" could range from emulating call waiting when calling someone else, to making up amusing ADSI scripts, (which would definitely require access to the BELCORE specs I'm sure) ... Pointers to any websites with ADSI specs (in detail) would be appreciated ;) Greg ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Multiple Electronic Use of Same Phone Line Boosted Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 22:30:47 -0400 http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/business/docs/homenet22.htm Published Monday, June 22, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News Alliance pushes multiple-use phone line system Plan would boost networking for home PC users BY JON HEALEY mailto:jhealey@sjmercury.com Mercury News Staff Writer A personal computer, like a teenager, often demands its own phone line. But what does a family do if it has more than one computer, and more than one person eager to log on to the Internet? Install multiple phone lines, or take turns? And if a line is shared, who gets first dibs, and for how long? A group of computer-industry heavyweights has joined forces to promote a simple solution to this problem, which would enable multiple computers to dial into the Internet simultaneously on a single phone line. Their proposal, based on technologies developed by two Bay Area companies, also would permit computers and other electronic gadgets to share information at high speed through a home's phone wiring, eliminating the need for extra cables or multiple printers. The Home Phoneline Networking Alliance, which expects to have its first products out later this year, sees a bigger payoff down the road. In a few years, alliance members say, people could connect a host of electronic gadgets -- video cameras, televisions, DVD players, computers, scanners, Internet-enabled phones and the like -- to each other just by plugging them into ordinary phone jacks. The alliance will push for new, international standards for high-speed, in-home networks that use existing phone lines. Such standards, members say, will encourage the makers of electronic devices to build in the necessary networking technology. Rich Doherty, an industry analyst at the Envisioneering Group, said he expects home computer users to react enthusiastically to the prospect of easy networking, despite the initial price tag of up to $200 per home. ``The cost to pay for this comes out of dollars that used to go to multiple printers,'' Doherty said. On the other hand, Boyd Peterson, a telecommunications analyst at the Yankee Group, said he didn't see much of a market yet for home networks. Demand will grow, he said, only if innovative companies develop products and services that make a home network seem compelling. For the computer industry, making it easier for consumers to link their PCs encourages people to have more than one such device in their home. That's important to the industry because growth in the number of homes with computers appears to be slowing. The alliance argues that the number of homes with more than one computer is already great enough to fuel the need for easy networking. Dataquest, a company that tracks the computer industry, estimated that 15 million homes have multiple PCs, and that 60 percent of all new computer sales go to families that already own one. The alliance's 11 initial members include Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and International Business Machines Corp.; Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Rockwell Semiconductor Systems; and 3Com Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc. and AT&T Corp. The key phone-line technology comes from Tut Systems Inc. of Pleasant Hill and Epigram Inc., a Sunnyvale start-up. Notably absent at this point are Microsoft Corp., the world's leading manufacturer of operating systems for personal computers, and any consumer electronics companies. Both Microsoft and Sony, a consumer-electronics powerhouse, have been proponents of an extremely high-speed connection protocol known as ``firewire'' that today's phone lines cannot support. Other companies are developing wireless links and connections that use the home's electrical outlets. The alliance, which is accepting new members, says its goal is to allow people to combine several different networking technologies -- including those built on phone lines, firewire, electrical wiring and wireless links -- into a single system. One core principle of the alliance, though, is that people not have to string new wires in their homes in order to create home networks. Connecting two PCs today typically requires extra networking gear and additional wires -- a logistical challenge when the computers are in separate rooms at opposite ends of the house. The alliance's approach would eliminate the extra wires, although adapters would still be required in most cases. The alliance is backing Tut Systems' ``HomeRun'' technology as the way to create phone-line networks this year. The HomeRun adapter boxes and plug-in cards encode digital information into electronic signals, which they transmit over phone lines at high frequencies. The frequencies are far higher than those used by conventional phone traffic, freeing the lines for calls while information is being passed between devices. The signals move 1 megabit of data per second, about 20 times as much as the fastest conventional computer modem can deliver. That's enough speed to handle the accelerated Internet connections that the phone companies are starting to deploy, as well as providing the capacity for up to 25 devices to pass information simultaneously. Where it falls short, though, is when video is added to the mix. Each high-quality video signal, such as those transmitted via cable television, consumes more than 1 megabit of capacity per second. To accommodate those beefier signals, the alliance plans to propose a standard in the second half of 1999 that will move at least 10 times as much information on in-home phone lines. One of the founding members of the alliance already has developed such technology: Epigram, a company formed in 1996 by former employees of several Silicon Valley computer and networking firms. Tony Zuccarino, marketing vice president at Epigram, said his company's technology enables people to transmit signals from a digital satellite dish, VCR or DVD player through the phone lines to TVs or PC monitors in any room in the house. A high-speed connection from the Internet to the home -- for example, a cable-modem service or a phone company's digital subscriber line -- could deliver high-quality audio and video from the World Wide Web to a central home computer, which in turn could distribute the sounds and pictures to PCs or monitors around the home. Any new standards the alliance proposes in 1999 won't make obsolete equipment bought under the standards to be proposed by September, said Mark Carpenter, director of home networking for Compaq. Under the alliance's approach, at least two pieces of additional equipment will be required to run a home network: an adapter to transmit the signals at high speeds, and another adapter to receive them. These adapters can be reduced to microchips, however, meaning that they could be built into computers, cameras, cable converter boxes and any other device one might want to connect to the network. The alliance estimated that separate adapter boxes would cost less than $100. If the technology were built into an electronic device, however, the cost would be much less -- ``in the low tens of dollars,'' Craig Bender of Tut Systems estimated. The home networks will communicate in a standard networking format known as Ethernet. That means devices will have to be equipped with Ethernet circuitry in order to link to the network, or users will have to buy adapter boxes that can convert information into Ethernet format before transmitting it at high speed. IF YOU'RE INTERESTED More information on the alliance is available at its Web site (www.PhoneLAN.org), which was scheduled to be activated today. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon" From: Monty Solomon Subject: Last Laugh! Monopoly Power! Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 23:02:34 -0400 -- forwarded message -- From: "jrosenberg@usa.net (Jim Rosenberg) " Reply-To: jrosenberg@usa.net Subject: Monopoly Power! AT&T is reportedly interested in buying America Online. If this occurs, federal regulators are concerned the merged corporation will have a total monopoly on busy signals. [Original material from http://www.wirecom.com/jim] Selected by Jim Griffith. MAIL your joke to funny@netfunny.com. Attribute the joke's source if at all possible. A Daemon will auto-reply. Web users, you can read a random joke from the archives just by bookmarking http://www.netfunny.com/cgi-bin/randomurl/rhf/jokes/masterlist This joke's link: http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/Jun/signals.html ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #102 ****************************** ISSUE 103 GOT MAILED OUT OF SEQUENCE AND IN THIS ARCHIVE IT APPEARS *FOLLOWING 104 AND 105*. IN OTHER WORDS, 101, 102, 104, 105, 103, 106. From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 2 22:11:00 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id WAA25548; Thu, 2 Jul 1998 22:11:00 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 22:11:00 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807030211.WAA25548@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #104 TELECOM Digest Thu, 2 Jul 98 22:10:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 104 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson 56th UCLA Engineering and Management Program (Bill Goodin) NANP Caribbean; NANP (US) Pacific (Mark J. Cuccia) Puerto Rico no se vende (Dale Wharton) [tollfree-l] What is TOLLFREE-L for? (Judith Oppenheimer) Ameritech, and a Supposedly FCC-Mandated Charge (Steve Sobol) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bgoodin@unex.ucla.edu (Bill Goodin) Subject: 56th UCLA Engineering and Management Program Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 22:37:26 GMT Organization: University of California, Los Angeles September 20-25, 1998, on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. For more than 40 years, UCLA Extension's Engineering and Management Program has provided "how to" answers to the challenges that technical managers face daily. The program is designed for experienced first-level technical supervisors, mid-level technical managers, technical professionals (engineers, scientists, and software professionals) with high advancement potential, and non-technical managers in technology-based organizations. A special benefit is the opportunity for participants to personalize their own curriculum by selecting four courses, each one meeting two hours per day. Participants may choose from 28 course offerings to address these and other important management questions: o How can I develop products and services that will have a market? o How can I use technology as one of the drivers of organizational change? o How can I influence persons who do not report directly to me or to my boss? o How can I create a culture that nourishes creativity, customer service, risk taking, and accountability? o How can I successfully communicate in-house with peers, subordinates, and superiors, and with global customers and suppliers? o How can I carry out my managerial role in the face of major change in the organization? o How can I prepare myself for emerging trends and an uncertain future? o How can I better use or change aspects of my style of leadership to get desired results? o How can I identify and eliminate costly, nonvalue-added activities? Instructors are drawn from the UCLA faculty, other universities, and the business community. All combine research and theory with practice and application. The program advisory committee, which includes technical managers from Hewlett Packard, Trillium Digital Systems, TRW, Sandia National Laboratories, Amgen, Boeing, Walt Disney Imagineering, 3D Systems, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tanner Research, and ARCO, actively participates in the selection and evaluation of the courses and instructors. The program fee of $2,095 includes all texts and materials for courses in which the participant is enrolled, five continental breakfasts, five luncheons, social events, parking at UCLA, and use of University facilities and equipment. For additional information and a complete program booklet, please contact Beverly Croswhite at: Phone: (310) 825-3858 Fax: (310) 206-2815 e-mail: bcroswhi@unex.ucla.edu WWW: http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 10:28:24 -0500 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: NANP Caribbean; NANP (US) Pacific On Wednesday, 1-July-1998, I tried dialing Guam/CNMI via _MCI_ (101-0222+), and as 01(1)+ country-code '+671/670'. While AT&T and Sprint had _BLOCKED_ 01(1)+ cc '+671/670' access to Guam/CNMI _LAST YEAR_ when those two US Pacific areas officially became part of the N.American Numbering/Dialing Plan and domestic billing from the US, MCI continued to allow one to place calls as 01(1)-671/670-etc. On 1-July-1998, I got an MCI rejection recording when I dialed both 01(1)+671/670-etc, indicating that I needed to simply dial 1+, not 011+. Of course, Frontier (101-0444+) has my line 'blocked' against placing calls on their network, since I am not an 'accounted customer'. But some other carriers I tried dialing 101-XXXX+ calls to Guam/CNMI as 01(1)+671/670-etc. either went through to (!), or else got a 'generic' rejection recording or re-order (fast-busy) from that carrier. Today, 1-July-1998, is supposed to be the mandatory date for calling Guam/CNMI as (+1) and _NPAs_ 671/670, but not all carriers have blocked the non-NANP access yet. Also, today, 1-July-1998, is _supposed_ to be the mandatory date of dialing seven-digit 101-0XXX+ CACs (four-digit '0XXX' CICs) for previously existing five-digit 10-XXX+ CACs (three-digit 'XXX' CICs). When I tried to dial 10-XXX+ this morning, my local central office _ALLOWED_ such dialing/access! It may take some time for the telcos to block such outmoded dialing in their switch translations. They'd better do it ASAP, since LM-IMS-NANPA is _eventually_ going to begin assigning 101-2XXX CACs (2XXX CICs), and this will conflict with any 'old' 10-12X CACs (12X CICs), the 'old' ones must _NOW_ be dialed as 101-012X! Canada doesn't begin mandatory seven-digit CAC dialing until about the spring of 1999. Also, what is described now is something that has been a PROBLEM for MANY YEARS NOW ... And it can only get WORSE! :( :( Many NANP-based (as well as non-NANP) Telcos and LD carriers are _STILL_ showing the NANP-Caribbean and NANP/US-Pacific islands' +1 NANP area codes (NPAs), "as-if-they-were" ITU/CCITT-assigned _COUNTRY_ codes, which they are _NOT_! These errors are in the instruction pages in the front of local telco directories, as instructions, lists of NPAs and CC's, and/or maps ... or else in instructional literature from the IXC's. Even a Sprint _OPERATOR_ [Hello, Ron H.] recently told me to dial 01(1)+868+seven-digits to place a call to Trinidad and Tobago!!!! ???? _MOST_ local directories which have this error _do_ correctly indicate Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as NANP-based NPA codes, 787 and 340, respectively (unless they are erroneously still showing NPA 809). But the non-US but still NANP-based Caribbean is frequently erroneously indicated as separate country codes, or even all 'defaulted' to (WRONG) "Country" code 809!!!! ???? BellSouth and BellAtlantic are _BOTH_ guilty of this error in the front instruction/list/map pages of their directories. Bermuda REALLY is +1 NANP NPA-code 441, NOT "country" code +441 Trinidad REALLY is +1 NANP NPA-code 868, NOT "country" code +868 etc. !!!!! I recently got a copy of the Poughkeepsie NY white/yellow pages, dated December 1997, which my dad picked up for me when my parents (retired) were recently vacationing in the Hudson River Valley. The directory indicates Bell Atlantic all over (no more NYNEX). The Area Code list (numerical) in the front of the directory is one of the most 'unique' I've ever seen in a 'public' telephone book, as it includes such SAC NPA codes as 456 (International Inbound), 500 (Personal Communications), 600 (Canada TWX), 700 (Carrier Services), _710_(US Government)_, 888 (Toll Free 888) - as well as 800, 880 and 881 (Paid 800/888 calling), and 900. Most (but not all) of the new NPA's through 1997 are shown in this list, including 787 PR and 340 USVI. However, 671 Guam, 670 CNMI, 867 YT/NWT/Nunavut, and _all_ non-US (but still NANP) Caribbean NPAs are omitted! Such are shown on the "international" pages, as if they are "country" codes, including many with "country" code 809. Yet in the 'numerical' list of NANP area codes, 809 is shown as "Caribbean Islands". I don't know if any telcos/carriers in Canada are in error in their public literature regarding the NANP-Caribbean. I do know that there are _some_ overseas (non-NANP) telcos have erroneously indicated the NANP-Caribbean area codes "as if they were country codes" as well. As for Guam/CNMI being shown as (+1) NANP area codes 671/670, it may take a little while for the reprinting of directories, literature, etc. to indicate the _PROPER_ numbering/dialing. I must say that Pac*Bell in California _DOES_ show the NANP-Caribbean as it _REALLY_ is supposed to be! The US-NANP-Caribbean (PR/USVI) is shown in the 'domestic' and Canada section of maps/lists. And while the non-US but still NANP-Caribbean is shown separately near the "international" section, it _IS_ shown as dialed as a NANP-based call, 1/0+NPA+seven-digits, although it is _BILLED_ as an international/ovs call. _WHY_ can't the _OTHER_ LECs/Carriers/etc. in the NANP (and the world) follow Pac*Bell's CORRECT identification of such areas! I think it is time that ATIS/Bellcore/LM-IMS-NANPA/TRA/etc. _REMIND_ all carriers via PL's, Emergency Notification letters, in meetings, conference calls, etc., of the NANP-Caribbean status, and the erroneous info being distributed by the offending service-providers!!! If I am calling Anguilla, (+1)-264-etc., I _DON'T_ want to be told by some operator or telco/carrier literature that I'm 'supposed' to dial 01(1)-264-etc. instead of 1/0-264-etc. I want my call to route/rate to _ANGUILLA_, _NOT_ Namibia/SWAfr.!!! In other numbering/dialing/translation/etc. issues, my local BellSouth central office (504-24x) now has all NPA's known to become active (at least in permissive dialing) through 3Q 1998, already loaded into originating switch translations. This includes: 786 (Overlay on 305 FL), effective 1-July-1998 727 (Split from 813 FL), permissive 1-July-1998 831 (Split from 408 CA), permissive mid-July-1998 651 (Split from 612 MN), permissive mid-July-1998 (*) 251 (Split from 504 LA), permissive mid-Aug-1998 720 (Overlay on 303 CO), effective 1-Sept-1998 (*) this split is a 'crazy' one with the duplications of NXX c/o codes in certain communities... AT&T has all of these NPA codes already loaded into their OSPS switches which I have the chance to access (Jackson MS, Dallas TX, Sherman Oaks CA, New York City). And AT&T has all of these NPA codes already loaded into (or in the case of NPA 651 is in the process of loading them into) their national network of #4ESS toll switches. NWORLASKCG0 (BellSouth #1AESS Cl.5 Local "Seabrook" 504-24x-) NWORLAIYCM1 (BellSouth-Mobility Hughes-GMH-2000 Cellular-MTSO NOL) NWORLAMT01T (BellSouth DMS-100 "Metairie" Tndm; Cellular routes thru) NWORLAMA0GT (BellSouth DMS-100/200 inTRA-LATA/fg.B-C-D Tndm "Main" 504+) NWORLAMA20T (BellSouth DMS-200 TOPS:inLATA Opr.Svc.Tndm "Main" 504+053+) NWORLAMA04T (AT&T #4ESS Class-2 Toll 060-T / 504-2T "Main" 504+) JCSNMSPS06T (AT&T #5ESS OSPS:Operator-Services-Tandem 601-0T 601+121) JCSNMSPS14T (AT&T #4ESS Class-3 Toll 040-T / 601-2T; OSPS routes thru) NWORLATUDS0?(PBX NEC-2400 504-862-3/8xxx, 504-865-4/5/6xxx) NWORLACACG0 (BellSou.#1A Cl.5 Lcl "Carrollton" 504-86x-; PBX 'homes' on) MARK_J._CUCCIA__PHONE/WRITE/WIRE/CABLE:__HOME:__(USA)__Tel:_CHestnut-1-2497 WORK:__mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.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- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 22:59:59 edt From: Dale Wharton <1@dale.CAM.ORG> Subject: Puerto Rico no se vende THE NEW YORK TIMES June 30, 1998 STRIKE OVER SALE OF PHONE COMPANY THREATENS TO SPREAD By Mireya Navarro SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico--A coalition representing tens of thousands of workers has called for a work stoppage to protest the government's sale of a majority interest of the publicly owned telephone company here, turning an uproar that has roiled the island for weeks into one that threatens to paralyze it. The Greater Committee of Labor Organizations, which claims 58 unions with at least 150,000 government workers and thousands more employees in the private sector, voted Sunday for a work stoppage of unspecified duration to be announced just hours before it starts. The action, expected this week, would broaden a strike by 6,400 telephone workers that began June 18 into one involving workers in electrical, public transit, water, and sewer and other industries. Already, the strike has been accompanied by intermittent stoppages by other unionized workers, acts of sabotage that have cut service to as many as 345,000 telephone users, and bombings by a clandestine political group and others. Many countries, particularly in Latin America, have sold or tried to sell their telephone monopolies over the last decade. The deals were ways of raising money while improving telecommunications services by letting others make the investment necessary to modernize the utilities, telecommunications experts say. But the $1.87 billion sale of a controlling stake of Puerto Rico Telephone Co. to a consortium of investors led by GTE Corp. of Connecticut, has sparked a burst of nationalism seldom seen on behalf of a phone company, the experts say. "We're defending the Puerto Rico Telephone Co. not only because it's our rice and beans but because it's a national patrimony," said Annie Cruz, president of the Independent Brotherhood of Telephone Workers, one of two telephone unions on strike. Telephone workers fear large numbers of layoffs and higher telephone rates after privatization, and argue that the telephone is a basic service that should remain in the public domain. But they also criticize the government for negotiating the sale in secrecy and agreeing to what they view as unfavorable terms in order to get money to help fulfill election campaign promises. Suspicions are heightened because the sale is part of an aggressive privatization program under Gov. Pedro Rossello, whose administration has already sold off the island's shipping company and is selling publicly owned hospitals and hotels. And because the governor is pushing statehood for Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory with 3.8 million residents, political opponents also charge that privatizing is another way to make the island more palatable to Congress, which is considering a bill to allow a vote here on Puerto Rico's political status. "There's no doubt that there's a strategy to eliminate things that differentiate us from the states," said Anibal Acevedo Vila, a representative in the Puerto Rico House and president of the Popular Democratic Party, which advocates Puerto Rico remain a commonwealth. But in 1990, it was Acevedo Vila's party that proposed selling Puerto Rico Telephone to finance improvements in education and public works. Acevedo Vila said the company was not sold because no buyer would meet the price and rate and job guarantees required then. But if the two main parties here have played politics with the "Telefonica," as the company is known, public opposition has been consistent. The most recent newspaper polls show that up to 65 percent of Puerto Ricans oppose the sale. Under the terms of the sale, the government of Puerto Rico will receive $1.87 billion for a 50 percent-plus-one-share stake in the telephone company. A consortium that includes GTE, Banco Popular of Puerto Rico, and other local investors will pay $375 million for that majority stake. The other $1.5 billion will come from a commercial loan taken by the privatized telephone company. The money from the sale would establish a $1 billion fund to invest in infrastructure. The telephone company was once in private hands, but thrived only after the government bought it in 1974. Profitable and technologically modern, the company pays about $80 million a year in lieu of taxes to municipalities, education, and the island's public broadcasting station, and is considered so productive its unofficial symbol is "Fortunata," a dewy-eyed cow. But Rossello says legislation passed by Congress in 1996 mandates that the company end its monopoly on intraisland calls. Rossello regards that as a cue to get out as he tries to reduce the role of government in competitive areas in order to invest in those where he said it can be the most productive, like education and public safety. Telecommunications experts say privatization usually results in expanded services and bigger reach, although layoffs occur and rates sometimes go up. Opponents are directing much of their ire at Banco Popular of Puerto Rico, which is identified through advertising and civic sponsorships with Puerto Rican culture. The bank has been denounced by the unions as a "traitor," and its branches have been the target of boycotts, picketing, and small bombings, including one by the Boricua Popular Army, a clandestine group known as Los Macheteros. In a letter sent to The Associated Press here, the group said: "The sale of the Puerto Rico Telephone Co. is nothing more than a declaration of war. Now they will know what war is." Despite the protests, the Puerto Rican Legislature approved the sale this month. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the year, pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission and other regulatory requirements. To complicate matters, Spain's Telefonica Internacional last week made a purchase offer which the company says surpasses GTE's and which the government must consider while a sale is finalized. The unions want to stop any sale or, at the very least, negotiate with the new owners over better terms for the workers. Some are also calling for a referendum on the sale. Rossello said there are no plans to change course. "I know this is the right thing to do," he said. ------------------------------ Reply-To: tollfree-l@makelist.com Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 19:59:30 -0400 From: Judith Oppenheimer Organization: ICB TOLL FREE NEWS. 15 Day FREE Trial: http://icbtollfree.com Subject: [tollfree-l] What is TOLLFREE-L for? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Last week a message here gave instructions for subscribing to the new mailing list dealing with toll free numbers. As I pointed out shortly thereafter, the information was incorrect and would be reposted shortly. The message which follows from Judith gives details for subscribing. PAT] ------------------------------------------- I had occasion today to speak with a subscriber of tollfree-l, who'd signed on due to his involvement in the industry -- but who has not a clue as to what a mailing list is, or what to expect from this list in particular. So it occured to me that perhaps many of you are very busy and indeed, may not be participants on other mailing lists. Which may account for the stark lack of activity here, even though we've attracted almost 70 subscribers in less than one week online. That said, here's the lowdown on mailing lists for the novices among you (extrapolated from Liszt, a mail list server service). What's a mailing list? Internet mailing lists aren't for ads, as some people mistakenly believe. Send any ads to this list, and demons will come and pull out your toenails. Neither is this list for news broadcasts - for that, you can sign up for ICB TOLL FREE NEWS (http://icbtollfree.com). Rather, Internet mailing lists are usually just communities of people sitting around discussing one of their favorite topics by e-mail. For example, other telecommunications lists include RITIM (Telecommunications and Information Marketing), TELECOM Digest, an electronic journal devoted mostly telecommunications topics, and telecomreg, which covers a broad range of regulatory issues. Internet mailing lists have been around since about 1975. It was the first and original type of online community, pre-dating Usenet, IRC, and the rest of the gang. The mailing list format lends itself to calm, thoughtful, literate, mature discussion, where relationships between the list members actually grow and deepen over an extended period of time. (Yes, even in our volatile business, thoughtful discussion can ensue. ) Most Internet experts feel that the mailing list format is the most civilized type of online community. So, that said, TOLLFREE-L is for the business discussion of toll free issues and concerns, of which there are certainly a good number on any given plate. Do 877 numbers work from PBX'es? Should the FCC's anti-brokering rules be rescinded? How should payphone companies be compensated for toll free calls? Should they be compensated at all? Are there any global 800 (UIFN) numbers producing for anyone yet? The email address to post messages to this list is tollfree-l@makelist.com. Introduce yourselves. Ask your questions, state your opinions, air your gripes. Be calm, be thoughtful, be literate, be mature! But at least, be present. your humble (and impatient) moderator, Judith Oppenheimer ------------------------------------------------------------- TOLL FREE SERVICE USERS LIST (TOLLFREE-L) To POST MESSAGES, email tollfree-l@makelist.com TOLLFREE-L is a moderated internet mailing list for the discussion of management, marketing, policy, engineering, logistical and regulatory matters related to the business use of toll free service and toll free numbers. TOLLFREE-L is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Judith Oppenheimer, Publisher of ICB TOLL FREE NEWS service, and President of ICB Toll Free Consultancy. ICB NEWS service offers a 15-day free trial subscription, at http://icbtollfree.com. =====> To SUBSCRIBE to TOLLFREE-L mailing list, send an empty email =====> message to tollfree-l-subscribe@makelist.com =====> To UNSUBSCRIBE to TOLLFREE-L mailing list, send an empty email =====> message to tollfree-l-unsubscribe@makelist.com To POST MESSAGES, email tollfree-l@makelist.com To CONTACT THE LIST OWNER on administrative matters, etc., email tollfree-l-owner@makelist.com 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. Read this list on the Web at http://www.FindMail.com/list/tollfree-l/ To unsubscribe, email to tollfree-l-unsubscribe@makelist.com To subscribe, email to tollfree-l-subscribe@makelist.com -- Start a FREE E-Mail List at http://makelist.com ! ------------------------------ From: sjsobol@nstc.com (Steve Sobol - BOFH) Subject: Ameritech, and a Supposedly FCC-Mandated Charge Date: 30 Jun 1998 15:03:51 GMT Organization: North Shore Technologies Corp. 888.480.INET This has appeared on my June 19th, 1998 Ameritech residential phone bill. LOCAL CALLS Local Calling Plus Calling Area A Minutes - Initial - 8am-9pm - x minutes billed at $ .04 each Additional at .01 each Minutes - Initial - 9pm-8am - x minutes billed at $ .02 each Additional at .005 each This page contains itemizations for three calling areas, A, B, and C. There are charges on this page. Now, I'm still getting itemized charges for local toll calls, and the flat rate I pay every month has not changed. Ameritech flat-out refuses to tell me what phone numbers I called that generated "local calling plus" charges; when I asked who I called that I got charged for, I was told "We don't have that information." Now, it's not a big deal to pay the grand total of 7 cents on the June bill, but I have a feeling I am going to be charged more than that in the coming months, and I don't imagine Ameritech will be any more forthcoming with information on why they are charging me or how they are computing these charges, except for the information already offered to me detailing which local communities are in which calling area. Flat rate is flat rate, period, end of discussion. And I'm already getting charged toll rates for local toll calls that I make. What the hell is going on? Should I write PUCO (the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio) and the FCC, and complain that Ameritech is cramming? Am I way off base here? Steve Sobol, President, North Shore Technologies Corporation [www.nstc.com] Sales reps wanted! Call 1.888.480.INET or e-mail sjsobol@nstc.com Fight unsolicited broadcast email! http://www.ybecker.net http://www.cauce.org "My nose is on fire, and my trousers appear to be full of weasels." -- Steve "Blighty" Atkins ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #104 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jul 4 18:38:25 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id SAA16241; Sat, 4 Jul 1998 18:38:25 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 18:38:25 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807042238.SAA16241@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #105 TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Jul 98 18:39:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 105 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "ADSL and DSL Technologies", Walter Goralski (Rob Slade) Telecom Update (Canada) #140, July 6, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) AT&T Backs Off 50% Texas Intrastate Increase (Robert Eden) AT&T New Communications Services Through Excite, Lycos (Mike Pollock) CRTC Opens Pay-phone Competition (Chris Farrar) Code For New Chicago NPA Announced (Adam H. Kerman) Even More LM-NANPA Planning Letters (Mark J Cuccia) Folklore: Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them (Michael Covington) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 11:25:23 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "ADSL and DSL Technologies", Walter Goralski Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKDSLTCH.RVW 980409 "ADSL and DSL Technologies", Walter Goralski, 1998, 0-07-024679-3, U$45.95 %A Walter Goralski %C 300 Water Street, Whitby, Ontario L1N 9B6 %D 1998 %G 0-07-024679-3 %I McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne %O U$45.95 800-565-5758 fax: 905-430-5020 louisea@McGrawHill.ca %P 379 p. %T "ADSL and DSL Technologies" I first saw the effect on calls to my ISP (Internet Service Provider). Instead of getting a busy signal, I would get a voice interrupt telling me that all circuits were busy. (This, incidentally, played havoc with my automated redialing attempts.) Since my ISP happens to also be a long distance provider, one could assume that the problem lay with a certain lack of cooperation between the two corporate telecom entities. However, these voice interrupts are becoming more frequent in local voice calls from all parts of the city. It seems clear that BC Tel is seeing a milder form of the "brown down" Goralski describes in his introduction, and for which ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a possible solution. Most people see ADSL simply in terms of faster Internet (and usually Web page) access, whereas the Goralski points out that there are advantages for the telco as well. Chapter one gives a historical background to the Internet and the World Wide Web, pointing to the nature of the connection to, and traffic with, the end user. The argument being developed is extended somewhat in chapter two with an overview of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Chapter three starts to get close to ADSL technologies by dealing with the increasing digitization of the PSTN, and also the physics and engineering involved in the local loop. The final factor in the mix is the difference between circuit switching (necessary for voice traffic) and packet switching (the most efficient use of bandwidth in data networks), covered in chapter four. Chapter five looks at the various technologies that compete in the market to provide higher speed access to the home or small business, including high speed modems, cable modems, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), satellite, and so forth. Each has significant limitations not shared by ADSL. ADSL is only one of a family of DSL (sometimes referred to as xDSL) services, and these are introduced in chapter six. Chapter seven explains High-bit-rate DSL (HDSL), a symmetric technology often used to terminate T-1 lines. The ADSL signalling is covered in chapter eight. The interface and frames are explained in chapters nine and ten. Chapter eleven looks at applications and use. (I was amused, recently, to have to explain to a company that the asymmetry involved in ADSL was a necessary function of the fact that the telco would be able to "push" data at you faster than they could "suck" it from your system. They had envisaged being able to get faster than T-1 speeds, bi-directionally, by getting two ADSL lines.) The telco side of ADSL is the Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) discussed in chapter twelve. One of the advantages of ADSL is the ability to use much of the existing infrastructure without extensive refitting. Chapter thirteen looks at migration issues from analogue service to ADSL, and from ADSL to possible followons. One such followon is Very High-speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL), described in chapter fourteen. While ADSL is starting to become available, a number of questions are raised in chapter fifteen that remain to be addressed. An additional collection of international issues are presented in chapter sixteen. Appendix B lists a very useful set of contact information for members of the ADSL Forum. Goralski`s exposition here is every bit as good as good as that in his explanation of SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) (cf. BKSONET.RVW), albeit more people know, or think they know, what ADSL is. The mass appeal of ADSL will probably mean that most users will be looking for something a bit shorter, although the explanations contained in this book are clear enough for anyone. Every ISP, though, should have a copy on hand in order to determine what *they* (the ISPs) need to do (see chapter twelve), and to field the inevitable questions as ADSL starts to roll out beyond the trial areas. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKDSLTCH.RVW 980409 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 15:24:47 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #140, July 6, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 140: July 6, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * Bell Canada ................. http://www.bell.ca/ * * City Dial Network Services .. http://www.citydial.com/ * * Computer Talk Technology .... http://icescape.com/ * * fONOROLA .................... http://www.fonorola.com/ * * Lucent Technologies ......... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Telecom Update Takes a Holiday ** CRTC Opens Payphone Competition ** Call-Net Replaces fONOROLA Executives, Board ** Stratos Buys Teleglobe Satellite Assets ** Nortel Wireless Expands in Calgary, Winnipeg ** Carriers Told to Improve Services for Visually Impaired ** CRTC Sets Rate for Bell Wireless Access ** CRTC Denies Telus Bid for Separate Signaling Hookup ** Bell Mobility Expands PCS Coverage ** Bell Mobility to Unify Ontario Government Two-Way Radio ** NBTel, Balisoft to Develop Internet Call Centers ** Northwestel Told to Upgrade Rural Wireless ** Northwestel Reduces Toll-Free Rates ** BC Tel Installs Internet "Payphones" ** Rogers Sells Security Division ** Microcell Expands Resale ** PowerTel Changes Name ** "Managing in Surprising Times" ============================================================ TELECOM UPDATE TAKES A HOLIDAY: We're taking a short summer break: the next issue of Telecom Update will be published on July 13. CRTC OPENS PAYPHONE COMPETITION: On June 30, CRTC Telecom Decision 98-8 opened the local pay telephone market to competition. Prices of alternative providers are not regulated, but they must register with the Commission and abide by consumer safeguards. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/decision/1998/d988_0.txt CALL-NET REPLACES fONOROLA EXECUTIVES, BOARD: Call-Net Enterprises, which assumed ownership of fONOROLA June 26, has dismissed 31 of fONOROLA's senior managers, including CEO Jan Peeters, and replaced fONOROLA's Board of Directors with Call-Net nominees. (See Telecom Update #139) STRATOS BUYS TELEGLOBE SATELLITE ASSETS: Toronto-based Stratos Global Corp. is paying Teleglobe $82 Million for its Inmarsat mobile satellite business and its 29% stake in Stratos Global's wireless subsidiary. Stratos Global is majority owned by NewTel Enterprises. NORTEL WIRELESS EXPANDS IN CALGARY, WINNIPEG: Northern Telecom has opened a new wireless lab in Calgary to check product conformance to regulatory standards. Nortel is also expanding its Calgary wireless manufacturing facility and is building a new broadband wireless R&D lab in Winnipeg. CARRIERS TOLD TO IMPROVE SERVICES FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED: CRTC Telecom Order 98-626 tells carriers to provide bills and billing inserts, upon request, in Braille, large print, or on computer diskette. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98626_0.txt CRTC SETS RATE FOR BELL WIRELESS ACCESS: CRTC Order 98-623 sets the paging and telephone-number access rates paid by wireless carriers to Bell Canada at 14 cents/month per active number and 4 cents/month per reserved number. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98623_0.txt CRTC DENIES TELUS BID FOR SEPARATE SIGNALING HOOKUP: CRTC Order 98-625 denies a bid by Telus to require wireless providers to connect to the CCS7 signaling network on Telus territory. The Commission says the CCS7 network is "effectively a Stentor network," so interconnection can be made anywhere in Stentor territory. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98625_0.txt BELL MOBILITY EXPANDS PCS COVERAGE: Bell Mobility has extended its PCS digital network to cover Brantford, Kitchener-Waterloo, and an Ottawa-Quebec City corridor. BELL MOBILITY TO UNIFY ONTARIO GOVERNMENT TWO-WAY RADIO: Bell Mobility has signed a $300 Million 15-year deal with the Province of Ontario to build a unified digital radio network, replacing the five separate radio dispatch systems now run by Ontario public safety agencies. NBTEL, BALISOFT TO DEVELOP INTERNET CALL CENTERS: NBTel is working with Toronto-based Balisoft Technologies to develop products that equip call centers to serve callers over the Internet. Balisoft was founded in 1997 by former Delrina President Mark Skapinker. NORTHWESTEL TOLD TO UPGRADE RURAL WIRELESS: CRTC Order 98- 622 sets a usage rate of 4 cents/minute for all airtime on Northwestel's Ruraltel remote-area service and tells the telco to file action plans to upgrade the quality of Ruraltel service. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98622_0.txt NORTHWESTEL REDUCES TOLL-FREE RATES: Northwestel has the CRTC's okay to bring its per-minute toll-free rates closer to those offered south of 60 and to reduce the disparity between rates in its eastern and western operating areas. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98636_0.txt BC TEL INSTALLS INTERNET "PAYPHONES": BC Tel has installed two "NetLink" terminals in the Vancouver convention center that provide high-speed Internet access plus use of word processing and spreadsheet programs. Users pay 35 cents/minute plus 23 cents per printed page. ROGERS SELLS SECURITY DIVISION: Rogers Communications has sold Rogers Canguard, Canada's fifth-largest security alarm company, to California-based Protection One. MICROCELL EXPANDS RESALE: Microcell's wireless service now has a second reseller, Vancouver-based start-up CityFone Telecommunications. POWERTEL CHANGES NAME: Calgary-based PowerTel Communications has changed its name to Equess Communications. "MANAGING IN SURPRISING TIMES": Bell Canada President John MacDonald discusses the telco's plans to acquire new capabilities for the next millennium in "Managing in Surprising Times," an exclusive interview in the July-August issue of Telemanagement. The July-August issue, available this week, also features: ** A critical look at the Teleglobe/Excel merger by Ian Angus; ** A report on early implementations of fax-over-Internet by Gerry Blackwell. To subscribe to Telemanagement, call 1-800-263-4415, ext 225 or visit http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week. Point your browser to http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: Robert Eden Subject: AT&T Backs Off 50% Texas Intrastate Increase Date: 02 Jul 1998 18:10:26 EDT Organization: Concentric Internet Services http://www.Austin360.com/biz/07july/1/1att.htm The _Austin American Statesman_ reports that AT&T will refund the 5 cent increase to "One Rate Plus" subscribers charged since 6/1/98. The original 10 cent rate will revert until 9/1/98 when the new 15 cent rate will take effect. The article doesn't mention if they will actually *NOTIFY* One Rate Plus customers of the increase before it is re-imposed 9/1/98. Yesterday, I got my bill with the "new" rate. The increase was not even mentioned but shown in the call detail. Complaints to various regulatory and consumer agencies were going to go out this weekend (they refused to adjust my bill yesterday). In response to a previous post, people had asked about fine print in the AT&T offer. Both on my first bill under the plan and in a separate letter, the rates were detailed without a "rates subject to change without notice" message. The welcome letter even states: "With AT&T One Rate Plus, you always know in advance what each call is going to cost." Yea sure ... Robert ------------------------------ From: Mike Pollock Subject: AT&T New Communications Services To Be Offered Through Excite, Lycos Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 10:12:14 -0400 I saw a link to this during a recent Anywho search, but I haven't gotten up the gumption to try it. --------------------------------- Monday June 29, 8:33 am Eastern Time Company Press Release AT&T Unveils New Communications Services, Combining Power of Internet With At&t Voice Network First AT&T Inter@ctive Communications To Be Offered Through Excite, Lycos BASKING RIDGE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 1998-- AT&T (NYSE:T - news) today introduced the first of a family of AT&T Inter@ctive Communications services that enable consumers to engage in a variety of new communications experiences using the Internet. Developed by AT&T Labs, these new services place a variety of communications capabilities at Internet users' fingertips. Now, consumers can turn any online chat into a phone conversation, initiate and manage a conference call with up to seven people, and utilize other services that leverage the power of AT&T's voice network and the World Wide Web. ``These new services add voice to today's most popular Internet activities and applications, including online chat sessions and Web directories,'' said Dan Schulman, President of AT&T WorldNet(R) Service and AT&T Interactive Communications. ``As the Internet evolves into a rich multimedia experience, AT&T will be there, driving the transformation from text-based communications to voice-enabled applications.'' AT&T Inter@ctive Communications are an integral part of the company's strategy to enable Internet users to go anywhere on the Web to experience the IP communications of tomorrow - today. Beginning today, these services are accessible through leading portals Excite (Nasdaq:XCIT - news; www.excite.com) and Lycos (Nasdaq:LCOS - news; www.lycos.com), as well as the AT&T Web site (www.att.com) and the AT&T WorldNet(R) Service site (www.att.net). Available now, the first AT&T Inter@ctive Communications services require one telephone line separate from the Internet connection. They are: AT&T Chat `N Talk (www.chatntalk.att.com): What is it?: Internet users can add the warmth of voice to a textual online chat session. Make a phone call to anyone in a chat room while retaining confidentiality. How does it work?: Chat participants who want to have a one-on-one phone conversation click on an AT&T Chat `N Talk icon, enter their phone numbers and billing detail, and then establish contact through their second phone lines. The AT&T network connects both parties without revealing phone numbers. AT&T Click2Dial (sm) Conferencing (www.click2dial.att.com): What is it? Internet users set-up and control their own conference with up to 7 people at any time, without operator assistance. How does it work? The conference host uses a Web interface to enter the telephone numbers of the people they want on the call. They can then oversee a variety of conference functions, including the ability to mute, add or delete participants. AT&T Click2Dial (sm) Directories (www.click2dial.att.com): What is it? People can auto-dial a person found in AT&T's Anywho (sm) directory (www.anywho.com) with the simple click of a button. How does it work? Enter the name and state of the person to be contacted, and a second later, the phone number and address of every person matching the criteria appears. Simply click on the appropriate person and connect with him or her on a call. AT&T Inter@ctive Communications are economical and easy-to-use. Click2Dial Conferencing and Click2Dial Directories are available for $0.15 cents per minute, per each person called anywhere in the continental United States, Hawaii and Alaska. There are no additional fees for using Click2Dial Directories. AT&T Chat `N Talk has a set-up fee of $0.50, with a charge of $0.25 cents per minute. To expedite the evolution of AT&T Inter@ctive Communications, AT&T will open up the service's APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for licensing later this year, empowering developers to create additional applications. These applications will eventually benefit online gamers, shoppers, educators and others seeking to enhance their communications experiences on the Web. System requirements: 486 or higher PC, running Windows 95 with at least 16 megabytes of RAM; Internet Explorer 3.02 or above, Netscape Navigator 3.0 or above; one phone line separate from an Internet connection. About AT&T AT&T is the world's premier voice and data communications company, serving more than 80 million customers, including consumers, businesses and government. With annual revenues of more than $51 billion and some 121,000 employees, AT&T provides services to more than 280 countries and territories around the world. AT&T runs the world's largest, most powerful long-distance network and the largest digital wireless network in North America. The company is a leading supplier of data and Internet services for businesses and the nation's largest direct Internet service provider to consumers. AT&T's businesses are backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, which is working to create the information services and communications network of tomorrow. About Excite Founded in 1994, Excite, Inc. is a global media company offering consumers a personalized Web start page on www.excite.com and a `back to basics' Web search service on www.webcrawler.com, and advertisers the best one-to-one marketing services available online. The Excite Network consists of two of the largest brands on the Web, Excite and WebCrawler, and its subsidiaries; Classifieds2000, MatchLogic, Inc., Excite Japan Co., Ltd. and Excite UK, Ltd. Localized versions of Excite are available in France, Germany, the UK, The Netherlands, Sweden, Japan and Australia. Based in Redwood City, Calif., Excite, Inc. has strategic relationships with America Online, Inc., Apple Computer, Inc., CUC Investments Inc., Intuit Inc. [Nasdaq:INTU - news], Netscape Communications Corp. [Nasdaq:NSCP - news], Prodigy Internet and Tribune Company [NYSE:TRB - news]. About Lycos Founded in 1995, Lycos, Inc. is a New Generation Online Service that combines all aspects of community, leading Web navigation resources and cutting-edge business and consumer e-commerce solutions. Located at http://www.lycos.com, Lycos - ``Your Personal Internet Guide'' - is dedicated to helping each individual user locate, retrieve and manage information tailored to his or her personal interests. Through the acquisition of Tripod, Inc., the leading community site on the Web, located at http://www.tripod.com, Lycos has become the most full-featured community-oriented home base on the Internet, providing free personal homepages to all users. Headquartered near Boston in Waltham, MA, Lycos maintains U.S. offices in New York City, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. International offices are located in Japan, Germany, Italy, France, the UK, Spain and The Netherlands. Click2Dial is a service mark of AT&T -------------------- Contact: Jonathan Varman AT&T ------------------------------ From: Chris Farrar Reply-To: cfarrar@sympatico.ca Subject: CRTC Opens Pay-Phone Competition Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 22:46:31 GMT Organization: Bell Solutions In the Canada Day (July 1, 1998) edition the Toronto Star reports that the CRTC has ended the last remaining monopoly in the telephone industry in Canada, pay-phones. Currently, all pay phones are owned by the phone company. Michael Janigan the executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa refered to the news as "Competition in the pay-phone industry is a solution in need of a problem. Most people are quite happy with the service that exists. And if you look to the U.S., where the market is deregulated, it has led to higher prices and consumer ripoffs." Having has the U.S. model as a case study, the CRTC has tried to avoid similar problems in Canada through more stringent regulation. Any company deciding to enter the pay-phone market will have to comply wiht the following consumer safeguards: Pay phone providers will have to provide access to emergency services through 911 or 0. Pay phone providers will have to provide access to all long distance carriers. Pay phone providers will have to prominently display the rates for local calls. Pay phone providers will have to display the name of the long-distance company it has choses as the default. Pay phone providers will have to dispalay the amount (if any) of the surcharge non included in the price of the call. Access for the physically disabled must also be provided. The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) intends to review the impact of the decision over the next three years. Canada Payphone Corp. of British Columbia is expected to be the first on the scene with COCOTs. The company has been gearing up for deregulation for the last two years. The service will launch in Toronto & Vancouver by August, and then fan out across the country. CPC's phones will be branded with the AT&T Canada logo (their default LD carrier). In return, CPC ges access to AT&T's business sales team. It should be noted that in Bell Canada territory (Ontario & Quebec), pay phones are still 25 cents (Canadian) per call no matter how long you talk. Chris Farrar | cfarrar@sympatico.ca | Amateur Radio, a VE3CFX | fax +1-905-457-8236 | national resource PGPkey Fingerprint = 3B 64 28 7A 8C F8 4E 71 AE E8 85 31 35 B9 44 B2 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 12:47:02 CDT From: Adam H. Kerman Subject: Code For New Chicago NPA Announced The code for the new Chicago NPA has been announced: It's 224. However, the Illinois Commerce Commission has not issued the order. It is assumed that a "creeping overlay" will be implemented, starting with 847 (north and northwest suburbs) and spreading to the other local area codes (630 far west suburbs, 708 near west and south suburbs, and 773 and 312 in Chicago). And, when it's overlayed, it'll mean mandatory use of the 1 dialing prefix for intra-NPA calls! Aargh. There are NO possible intra-NPA toll calls within 847. And, of course, Chicago has NEVER used the "1" dialing prefix for toll alerting. Prior to 1982, toll calls within the original NPA 312 were quite common, depending on what "Call-Pak" a business or residential customer subscribed to. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See my remarks on this 224 code following the next message by Mark Cuccia. According to Mark in the message following, 224 is now 'permissive'. See my notes after his article on what happened when I tried using it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 14:56:08 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: Even More LM-NANPA Planning Letters LM-IMS-NANPA has _SEVEN_ recent Planning Letters over the past few weeks! :) On Monday 15-June-1998, LM-IMS-NANPA added five new Planning Letters (PL's) to their website. On Wednesday 01-July-1998, there were two additional PL's added! These are downloadable/viewable/printable FOR FREE ! :) in Adobe-Acrobat .pdf format from: http://www.nanpa.com/planning_letters/planning_letters.html PL-NANP-122 (dated 9-June-1998) regards an extraordinary jeopardy situation in all four eastern Massachusetts NPA codes (508, 617, 781, 978). PL-NANP-123 (dated 9-June-1998) regards the split of NPA 504 here in Louisiana, with new NPA 225 splitting off covering the Baton Rouge area. PL-NANP-124 (dated 26-May-1998) regards an extraordinary jeopardy situation in NPA 914 in New York state. PL-NANP-125 (dated 26-May-1998) regards the overlay of NPA 310 in the Los Angeles CA area, with new NPA 424. PL-NANP-126 (dated 12-June-1998) regards the extension of permissive dialing in Utah, in the 801/435 NPA split. The two PL's added on 01-July-1998 are: PL-NANP-127 (dated 30-June-1998) regarding the overlay of the north suburban Chicago IL area's current NPA 847, with new NPA 224. PL-NANP-128 (dated 30-June-1998) regarding the 3-way split of NPA 619 in Southern CA, with new NPA's 858 and 935. In PL#123 (504/225 Louisiana Split) it is mentioned that permissive dialing begins 17-August-1998, and mandatory dialing begins 5-April-1999. There are _two_ test numbers: 225-291-6715, for the Baton Rouge LATA termination BTRGLASBDS0 Baton Rouge SB = "Suburban" switch 225-874-7712, for the Jackson (MS) LATA termination N.Cornor LA ratecenter, served out of the WDVLMSMADS1 (Woodville MS) switch BellSouth has _both_ test numbers up and running now, and _neither_ one returns "off-hook billing supervision"! :) i.e., they are _supposed_ to be _FREE_ of any toll, coin, airtime/roaming, etc. charges to call them. The recorded verification announcement is identical for each number. At this point, NPA 225 can't be reached via most LD carriers, but I have been able to replace NPA 225 with 504 to reach the test numbers recordings. AT&T is already routing calls to the test number NXX c/o-code prefixes when dialed with NPA 225. There are some errors/ommissions in this PL. It is not NANPA's errors/ ommissions, but seems to be that of BellSouth. Three 504-NXX codes which are remaining in NPA 504 are ommitted from that part of the PL. These three 504-NXX codes are outside of the New Orleans LATA: 504-444 Offshore LA, in LATA #999 (special services) 504-548 S.Osyka LA, in the Jackson MS LATA (served out of the Osyka MS switch) 504-531 Pearlington LA, in the Gulfcoast MS LATA (served out of the Pearlington MS switch) And there are two NXX codes which are in the New Orleans LATA, but not in NPA 504, which are 'shown to be continuing as part of 504'. The ratecenter of Crossroads is in the state of _Mississippi_, although associated with the New Orleans LATA, and is served out of the Bogalusa LA switch. The two NXX codes shown are 772 and 958. The 601-772 code has been around for decades, but I am unaware of the (601)-958 code! Incidently the 958 prefix is frequently reserved in most NPAs for test functions! I called up both the BellSouth and AT&T Operators and asked for "nameplace" on both 601-958 and 504-958. According to both operators, the 958 prefix doesn't exist in either NPA 601 or NPA 504, although they 'could' be used for testing. PL#125 for the overlay of NPA 310 in Southern California with new NPA 424 mentions that 'formal' permissive 1+ten-digit local dialing begins on 17-July-1998. Mandatory 1+ten-digit local dialing begins 17-April-1999. New 424-NXX codes are to become effective for service on 17-July-1999. The test number is 424-654-0424. PL#127 for the overlay of NPA 847 in the Chicago IL area with new NPA 224 mentions that 'formal' permissive 1+ten-digit local dialing for the entire Chicago metro area began on 11-May-1998. Mandatory 1+ten-digit local dialing for at least calls within NPA 847 begins on 07-Nov-1998, when new line-numbers and NXX codes within the new 224 NPA code are to take-effect. The test number is 224-444-1234. While not mentioned in the LM-IMS-NANPA Planning Letter, it is assumed that this overlay will be a "creeping" overlay, which will eventually cover all of Chicago metro's area codes, i.e. the region once covered by NPA 312, prior to 1989, when NPA 708 first split off. (I wonder if the boundaries between all of Chicago Metro's area codes will eventually be 'erased', similar to Atlanta, and what is expected for Houston and Dallas. Well, with number-portability between LECs _within_ a ratecenter, it probably will be de-facto anyhow!) PL#128 for the 3-way split of San Diego Metro's NPA 619 mentions that the northern suburban area will split off into new NPA 858, permissive on 12-June-1999, mandatory on 11-December 1999. The test number is 858-745-0858. The southern/eastern suburbs will split off into new NPA 935 about a year later, permissive on 10-June-2000, mandatory on 09-June-2000. The test number is 935-745-0935. NWORLASKCG0 (BellSouth #1AESS Cl.5 Local "Seabrook" 504-24x-) NWORLAIYCM1 (BellSouth-Mobility Hughes-GMH-2000 Cellular-MTSO NOL) NWORLAMT01T (BellSouth DMS-100 "Metairie" Tndm; Cellular routes thru) NWORLAMA0GT (BellSouth DMS-100/200 inTRA-LATA/fg.BCD Tndm "Main" 504+) NWORLAMA20T (BellSouth DMS-200 TOPS:inLATA OprSvcTndm "Main" 504+053+) NWORLAMA04T (AT&T #4ESS Class-2 Toll 060-T / 504-2T "Main" 504+) JCSNMSPS06T (AT&T #5ESS OSPS:Operator-Services-Tandem 601-0T 601+121) JCSNMSPS14T (AT&T #4ESS Class-3 Toll 040-T / 601-2T; OSPS routes thru) NWORLATUDS0?(PBX NEC-2400 504-862-3/8xxx, 504-865-4/5/6xxx) NWORLACACG0 (BellSou.#1A Cl.5 Lcl "Carrollton" 504-86x-; PBX 'homes' on) MARK_J._CUCCIA__PHONE/WRITE/WIRE/CABLE:__HOME:__(USA)__Tel:_CHestnut-1-2497 WORK:__mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.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- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Mark says, 'formal permissive 1+10 began in Chicago area May 11', and 'test number is 224-444-1234'. I do indeed note that 1+847 works here on my calls within 847 (I had not thought to try it before), however a/c 224 is definitly *not* in service from my central office 847-675. If I dial 1-224-anything or just 224-anything my call is immediatly intercepted after the 224 portion -- before anything else is dialed -- with an intercept saying 'we were unable to trace the last call you received. Ameritech customers can call the Ameritech Call Annoyance Bureau at . Thank you.' Dialing just 444-1234 (from 847-675) reached an intercept saying the number was not in service. Unable to trace the last call I received ?? I thought that is what *51 was used for ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael A. Covington Subject: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 11:05:44 -0400 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Recently I was warned by a well-meaning netizen that I should not challenge spammers because if challenged, they'll do all kinds of things like mail-bomb me, steal my credit card numbers (how?), turn me in to the police on false charges, etc. etc. Balderdash. That sounds like a rumor started by a spammer. In three years as computer security chairman at the University of Georgia, I've never encountered a spammer with any detectable amount of courage. If anybody actually tried to do those things, we'd gleefully catch and prosecute them. One *sure* way to turn a neighborhood over to criminals -- either in physical space or in cyberspace -- is to get everybody afraid of *imaginary* crimes that haven't happened and haven't even been threatened. Criminals love it when that happens. Let's not let it happen to the Net. Michael A. Covington / AI Center / The University of Georgia http://www.ai.uga.edu/~mc http://www.mindspring.com/~covington <>< [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Bravo! Amen! In the case of real neighborhoods and real people (as opposed to the net) those stories are often spread by the police; they do not like citizens trying to horn in on their 'law and order' monopoly. Consider how the police always like to give you the BS about 'if someone tries to rob you or hold you up (at place of business for example), never resist, always give them whatever they want; why, they might try to hurt you or they might have a gun, etc.' ... to which I always tell the cop he is full of it. If someone tries to hold me up or assualt me, my response is to try and kill them; yours should be too. Certainly I value my own life, but I am the sort of stubborn person that if some person wants to rob me of five or ten dollars, I'd just as soon see them -- if they get caught -- be tried on murder charges as well. You might try living your life in the manner Johann Sebastian Bach lived his; he was not afraid of death, in fact he welcomed it. His attitude was 'take me anytime, Lord ...'. I am neither afraid of death, nor do I 'welcome' it; but if I cannot live my life in peace and quiet and harmony with others then damned if I am going to let my assilant do it either. *Never* submit to a crime against yourself with at least making the assailant wish he had left you alone. Blind him, maim him, cripple him, whatever. That way the police can have something real to complain about instead of their all-to-frequent nonsensical belly aching. Now regards the same principle and the net: When you have some form of practical and effecient recourse against a spammer, **use it**. Stay within the law -- even in a physical assualt you should try to do only what is necessary to stop the act -- but definitly make the spammer come to grips with the realities of the net ... make certain he goes away realizing his spamming was not a smart thing to do. We often times have tell-free numbers for them; use those numbers in a way to make sure the spammer understands the vast readership on the net and how so many millions of people saw his message. . If he has a *valid* email address, I suggest punishing his ISP if the ISP otherwise won't assist. Make sure they feel the wrath. Make certain they go away wishing they had never even gotten an internet access account. As Mr. Covington points out, most of them are cowards. And if they want to steal your credit card numbers or use your address for their email, I say **good** -- great in fact. Cause now you really have a good beef with them, and a way to force the issue and see them in jail. Why settle for erasing spam all day and complaining about it when maybe you can induce one of the goofs to act out against you so you can *really* kick his ass good? PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #105 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jul 7 21:54:31 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id VAA09632; Tue, 7 Jul 1998 21:54:31 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 21:54:31 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807080154.VAA09632@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #103 TELECOM Digest Tue, 7 Jul 98 21:54:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 103 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Airport Pay Phone Taps Used to Steal Calling Cards (Tad Cook) Pacific Telecommunications Council: Essay Prize 1998 (Puja Borries) New Codes Causing Glitch in Phone Systems (Monty Solomon) 800's and Lax Computer Security (Judith Oppenheimer) Legal Recourse for Telemarkedorks? (Victor Escobar) Is AT&T Learning Customer Service From TCI? (David A. Jensen) [Note: Somehow issue 103 did not go out correctly last week, so I am sending it out now, although number-wise it is out of sequence. Sorry about that! PAT] 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Airport Pay Phone Taps Used to Steal Calling Cards Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 15:14:32 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) (This story has greater detail than the one recently on using 3-way calling to steal calling card numbers. tad@ssc.com) Airport pay phone taps used to steal calling cards New York Times NEW YORK -- Federal investigators said the scam was ingenious in its simplicity: Five people in New York City would tap into public pay phones at major airports across the United States, and then steal calling-card numbers punched in by unsuspecting travelers. After a seven-month investigation by the Secret Service, the scheme ended last month with the arrest of four men and one woman. The case, which investigators and telephone-company officials said is the first of its kind in the nation, is only the latest machination in a $4 billion-a-year telephone-fraud industry that keeps reinventing itself. "This is something new that we have not seen before," said Boyd Jackson, the director of network security at AT&T Corp. and one of the industry experts who helped federal investigators on the case. "And there is nothing I am aware of that customers can do to fully protect themselves." Federal investigators, who said that calling-card theft costs telephone companies and consumers millions of dollars annually, have yet to establish an exact figure for how much this scam netted. And because of the scheme's simplicity, and the fact that a thief can tap into phones from hundreds of miles away, the authorities are fearful of copycat crimes. Mary Jo White, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, whose office is prosecuting the case, left open the possibility of more arrests, saying an investigation was continuing. Investigators said the suspects stole hundreds of calling-card numbers by dialing into public telephones in O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, Houston International Airport and Denver International Airport. Federal documents say the scheme worked this way: The defendants would call phones at the airports. When someone waiting to use a phone picked up a ringing phone, they would hear what sounded like a dial tone, which was activated when the suspects initiated the phones' conference-call feature. Even if the caller was startled by the dial tone and hung up, the tap remained activated for 15 seconds, ensnaring callers if they picked up the phone again or if someone else waiting in line tried to use the phone. Calling-card numbers that the victims punched in were recorded by the suspects, who then would translate the tones back into corresponding numbers using a device called a dial-number recorder, prosecutors said. Such recorders are commonly available at electronics stores. "This is the first time we have ever seen this type of setup with these dial-number recorders," said Denise Gibson, a spokeswoman for the New York City field office of the Secret Service. "Unfortunately, these are well-known and readily available electronic devices." After obtaining the calling-card numbers, thieves typically make a profit by selling them on the black market to other criminals and unwitting consumers. The Secret Service, a branch of the Treasury Department that investigates financial crimes, was tipped off to the scam by AT&T, Bell Atlantic Corp. and MCI Communications Corp. after they received an unusually high number of complaints from customers who had recently used their calling cards in airports. On June 18, Secret Service agents arrested Benito Lopez, Juan Morel, Miriam Mercado Florian, Julio Olivo and Gladys Brito, all of New York. In the suspects' apartments, investigators said, they confiscated dial-number recorders, audiotapes, lists of public-telephone numbers and lists of calling-card numbers. The five suspects, who each could face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of fraud, could not be located for comment. They were arraigned and released on bail last week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where they are scheduled to reappear for a preliminary hearing July 20. Federal and telephone-company officials said they were concerned about not being able to prevent copycat crimes because under such a scam, a thief does not have to be on location and there is no way for consumers to differentiate between fake and real dial tones. Calling-card scams began with the actual theft of cards. That scheme was foiled by telephone companies providing customers with personal security codes not printed on the cards. Thieves responded by glancing over the shoulders of callers and writing down their calling-card numbers and security codes as they punched them into telephones. Telephone companies say they put a dent in this so-called "shoulder surfing" by furnishing pay phones with automatic card readers, and plastic shields and other measures to obstruct the view of potential thieves. In recent years, more enterprising thieves have obtained calling-card numbers and security codes by contacting customers and telling them they were telephone-company operators who needed to verify their card numbers. One federal official expressed a grudging admiration for the latest scheme. "From a personal perspective, I thought it was rather ingenious," Gibson said. "It has alerted us to a potential problem that we are sure other criminals will be able to duplicate." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 11:21:32 -1000 From: Puja Borries Subject: Pacific Telecommunications Council: Essay Prize 1998 Announcement for PTC's Essay Prize 1998 The Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) is a non-profit, international membership organization that promotes the development and beneficial use of telecommunications in the Pacific Hemisphere. Eligibility The PTC is pleased to announce an essay competition designed to promote fresh inquiry into telecommunications-related topics, as enumerated below. The competition is open to all individuals who are either actively working on a degree or have obtained undergraduate or graduate level degrees (BA, BS, MA, MS, Ph.D., etc.) within the last five years. PTC willtake no interest in race, national origin, creed, ethnicity, sex or age of the participant. $$$ A maximum of three prizes, which include a monetary award in the amount of US $2,000 for each prize, will be awarded to the authors of the best paper(s) in the following research areas: Research Areas 1. Electronic Commerce: including sub-issues such as Internet regulation, encryption, and different tariff, tax and content issues. 2. Telecommunications and development, particularly with respect to the present financial situation in developing countries. 3. Information technology and education/distance learning: for the Asia/Pacific/Americas region with large, dispersed rural population. Deadline for submission is July 31, 1998. Winning entrants will be invited to present their papers at a session of the 21st Pacific Telecommuncations Conference, Honolulu, in January 1999. Travel assistance will be made available, if needed, for this purpose. For information and application contact: Ms. Puja Borries Publications & Publicity Coordinator Pacific Telecommunications Council 2454 S. Beretania St., Ste. #302 Honolulu, HI 96826 Tel: 808 941 3789 ext. 122 Fax: 808 944 4874 Email: puja@ptc.org ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: New Codes Causing Glitch in Phone Systems Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 10:19:42 -0400 Posted at 7:01 p.m. PDT Monday, July 6, 1998 New codes causing glitch in phone systems Knight Ridder News Service A low-profile change in the nation's long-distance routing system has stymied telephone systems around the country, leaving calls mysteriously connected to nowhere. The glitch -- which primarily affects businesses with computer-driven phone systems -- stems from the July 1 addition of ``10'' to the front of each of the long-distance access codes. The codes allow users to choose a specific carrier before making a long-distance call. For example, 10-321 has become 10-10-321 and 10-288, AT&T's access code, is now 10-10-288. The Federal Communications mandated that the extra digits be added, effective July 1, because of the high demand for area codes that the old style needlessly consumed. For calls dialed directly, the change simply means punching two extra buttons. But private branch exchange or switchboard systems might require reprogramming to include the new digits -- and therein lies the problem. People such as Elizabeth Ruese, an administrative assistant for Armanasco Public Relations in Monterey, Calif., discovered that without including the extra digits, calls go nowhere. ``Nobody told us,'' she said. ``We've been having problems with the phones all day (July 2).'' Other businesses might have the glitch without anyone knowing yet. ``There are some people who are being affected and they may not even realize what's wrong right now,'' said Sam Bishop, president of Totlcom, which sells and maintains business telephone systems in Central and Northern California. Bishop said that the access-code change hasn't been widely advertised. ``I didn't know about it until two or three weeks before,'' he said. The heaviest promotion of the code change has been by 10-10-321, a carrier which depends primarily on direct dialing by residential customers. But many businesses use other long-distance access codes in an attempt to save money, and some route their local toll calls through the access code of a national carrier. ``Businesses often have their telephone system preprogrammed to be smart enough to do that,'' Bishop said. ``Companies have put this in and forget about it. As of (Wednesday), when they dial particular area codes, it's not going through.' Totlcom workers anticipated the snarl, and already have fixed the systems of most customers, said Bishop. Anyone still having problems connecting calls should contact the vendor who sold the phone system, or seek help from the appropriate long-distance carrier. Steve Dandy, a technician for MCI, said his company's service lines have been swamped with customers seeking a repair for the glitch. The company has set up a special hot line, (770) 284-3277, to offer a remote fix for its customers. ``It's not been a complete disaster,'' he said. Nilda Weglarz, spokeswoman for AT&T, said the company is not directly affected, since it no longer sells equipment. Customers having trouble should call their phone system vendors. Sprint also was inundated Thursday with calls for help, according to one of the company's operators. Sprint customers who have trouble dialing out can try 10-10-333 to connect the call, according to the service operator. ------------------------------ Reply-To: tollfree-l@makelist.com Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 20:02:31 -0400 From: Judith Oppenheimer Organization: ICB TOLL FREE NEWS. 15 Day FREE Trial: http://icbtollfree.com Subject: 800's and Lax Computer Security CMP Media's TechWeb reports that a number of Australian companies that operate toll-free phoneline connections to their computer networks are leaving themselves open to security breaches, according to a new study. According to the article, Australian security company Shake Communications used a modem to dial up every toll-free number it could locate in Australia. Two percent of the 48,000 numbers called let Shake connect to a computer system, some of which offered no resistance to intrusion. Shake's modem was able to connect to 1,389 computer systems, and to get information from 166 of them without breaking the law. Under Australian law, any attempt to penetrate a computer system is illegal, so Shake was limited to dialing the phone number, seeing what was at the other end, then hanging up. Shake's modem took more than 500 hours to dial all the numbers. Of the 166 phone numbers connected to computers, 16 of them had no authentication procedures, two allowed callers to bypass log-in procedures, and another three gave callers access to the computer's root directory, usually reserved for system administrators. Just over one-third of the computers revealed their operating system and version. Only four of the systems connected to appeared to have a sophisticated means of establishing user authentication, said Shake's technical director, Simon Johnson. "I was astounded at the lack of security," he said, adding that banking and finance companies, followed by IT and media, appeared to be the most lax. "In some cases, we were automatically logged on to their internal networks," he said. The article concludes with the obvious lesson: Don't use 1-800 numbers for internal corporate access, Johnson said. "If you do -- and I advise not to -- at least have some strong authentication," he said. Also noted: Ben Barton, business-development manager with the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team, a Queensland computer-security company, said Australia was probably little different in regard to lax computer security than anywhere else, especially the United States. The level of computer security in Australia is unlikely to be significantly lower than in the United States, said a computer-crime specialist with the Australian Federal Police. Judith Oppenheimer TOLL FREE SERVICE USERS LIST (TOLLFREE-L) To POST MESSAGES, email tollfree-l@makelist.com TOLLFREE-L is a moderated internet mailing list for the discussion of management, marketing, policy, engineering, logistical and regulatory matters related to the business use of toll free service and toll free numbers. TOLLFREE-L is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Judith Oppenheimer, Publisher of ICB TOLL FREE NEWS service, and President of ICB Toll Free Consultancy. ICB NEWS service offers a 15-day free trial subscription, at http://icbtollfree.com. To SUBSCRIBE to TOLLFREE-L mailing list, send an empty email message to tollfree-l-subscribe@makelist.com To UNSUBSCRIBE to TOLLFREE-L mailing list, send an empty email message to tollfree-l-unsubscribe@makelist.com To POST MESSAGES, email tollfree-l@makelist.com To CONTACT THE LIST OWNER on administrative matters, etc., email tollfree-l-owner@makelist.com 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. Read this list on the Web at http://www.FindMail.com/list/tollfree-l/ To unsubscribe, email to tollfree-l-unsubscribe@makelist.com To subscribe, email to tollfree-l-subscribe@makelist.com ------------------------------ From: sydbarrett@rmond.mindspring.com (Victor Escobar) Subject: Legal Recourse for Telemarkedorks? Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 14:28:34 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Reply-To: spamsucks@shovespamupyourarse.com I was interrupted from slumber early this morning (~6am) to this woman who asked for a Gary Mendoza. I told her that I've had this number for years and she said, `Our records show you as being Mr. Gary Mendoza. What is your name so I can update your records?' I said, `Who are you and why do you want my information???' Her answer was that she sold LD and was I interested in signing up for 15c/min continental US calls? There are a couple of suspicious themes here: #1: When I asked for the name of her company, she said she couldn't give it to me, but could only say that she sold LD time wholesale. #2: 15c/min was the prevailing rate, what, 10 years ago? What idiot would think I'd go from paying 9.5c/min (with Excel) to 15? Is there any legal recourse in case this happens in the future? Luckily I gave her bogus info (including a bogus name) and told her I'd contact her (which will be when trees sprout wings and start singing Zippity Doodah). ------------------------------ From: David A. Jensen Subject: Is AT&T Learning Customer Service From TCI? Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 08:57:35 -0500 PAT- I hadn't used my AT&T calling card (with the old style account numbers) for quite a while, so I was unpleasantly surprised to see my telephone bill last month. I called AT&T to see if there was an error. The customer service rep told me that $0.40 per minute was the correct rate because I had not used an AT&T card and did not have an AT&T account (one line is PICed to Frontier, the other is AT&T). Informing her of the number that was PICed just moved her back to the "you don't have an AT&T Calling Card." I was not pleased with their incredibly high rate, but, didn't check the card at the time to see if it was an Ameritech or AT&T card. After I got off the phone, I checked the card. It was an AT&T card and only had AT&T information on it. I called AT&T back asking for their $0.30 per minute, "we gouge you less" rate, for AT&T calling card customers. (The CSRs claimed that $0.40 and $0.30 were the only calling/charge card rates. Is that accurate?) The CSR claimed that this was not an AT&T calling card. I informed her that it was. She speculated that it came before the breakup. No, this card could be no older than 1990 and only had AT&T and the deathstar logo. AT&T only sends their cards to those who ask for it. Yes, I have one. No, you don't. Could she have the charges rerated? No, this is not an AT&T card. May I speak to your manager? Yes. [hold....] After ten minutes, I was cut off as the tape was telling me that I would not be.... AT&T customer service had gotten better in the early nineties, far better than their 1980 nadir, but it appears that they are trying to fit into TCI's culture. What is it about the big LD carriers with their own networks? Each seems to have an extensive collection of totally unhappy customers and ex-customers and a culture that seems incapable of understanding that they may have made a mistake. Is Bob Metcalfe right? Are telco executives as stupid as he believes? Dave ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #103 ****************************** ISSUE 103 WAS MAILED OUT OF SEQUENCE. ISSUES 104 AND 105 APPEAR BEFORE IT. ISSUE 106 FOLLOWS NEXT. From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jul 11 23:45:07 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id XAA28479; Sat, 11 Jul 1998 23:45:07 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 23:45:07 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807120345.XAA28479@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #106 TELECOM Digest Sat, 11 Jul 98 23:45:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 106 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" (Toby Nixon) Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" (Walt Auch) Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" (Adam Kerman) Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" (Glen Roberts) Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" (Phil Leonard) Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" (Lou Raphael) Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" (John Levine) 16th International Teletraffic Congress (Dave Songhurst) Nader, CPT Ask FCC Proceedings on ISDN Tariffs, Release Survey (M. Solomon) Who Compares Cellphones and Services? (Chris Norloff) Re: Can CellularOne do This to Me? (Brian Turnbow) Cellular Networking Perspectives, July 1998 (David Crowe) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Toby Nixon Subject: Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 14:46:34 -0700 In TELECOM Digest V18 #105, Michael A. Covington wrote: > Recently I was warned by a well-meaning netizen that I should not > challenge spammers because if challenged, they'll do all kinds of > things like mail-bomb me, steal my credit card numbers (how?), turn me > in to the police on false charges, etc. etc. > Balderdash. That sounds like a rumor started by a spammer. It isn't balderdash, in my experience. Here's what happened to me. I received a spam that included a fax number but no identifiable email address. Being relatively new to receiving spam and not understanding the fact that responding just makes your email address more valuable as "confirmed active", I sent a fax to this spammer demanding to be removed from their mailing list. Well, sure, I sent it a few times -- I wanted to make sure that it was received. After about a half-dozen times, their line was busy and wouldn't accept any more calls (I wonder why?). I didn't report them to any government agencies, just faxed to them directly. I didn't even think about the fact that my fax software sends out our fax number in the header of the first page (even though I suppressed the cover page). Well, within a day, I received several one-page faxes, through Microsoft's main fax number, each of them indicating that it was from a different, perverted magazine (bestiality, pedophilia, wife-swapping, you get the idea). Each fax was formatted like a letter, expressing "regret" that I had discontinued my "subscription" after so many years. Well, of course I had never subscribed to any such thing. The letters were intended to get me fired -- or at least start rumors about my engaging in disgusting practices. At a smaller company, that might have succeeded -- the inbound fax machine is often just there in the mailroom, and whoever happens to notice a received fax grabs it (reading part of it, of course) and puts it in the mail slot of the recipient. At Microsoft, inbound faxes go into a central server and get distributed by email, and are never printed in paper form -- the only person who sees them, besides the addressee, is the fax server operator who reads the cover sheet, looks up the email ID, and routes the fax as an email attachment. I scrambled to contact the supervisor in the fax room and make sure she knew these letters were false and in retribution, and she said not to worry -- the fax operators handle lots of private and confidential faxes and are sworn to secrecy regarding what they might see on the cover page while scanning for a name to route to. I let it drop -- and have since been much more careful about how I respond to spam. Basically, if I see something that is clearly a pyramid scheme or other scam, I forward the mail to the FTC and Washington attorney general's office, but otherwise I just delete them -- it's not worth the time or risk to contact the spammers directly. Sometimes when I get really pissed I send email to the ISP, but in my experience 99% of headers are forged -- or, if they give an email address in the body of the message, it is false and intended as a mail-bomb of the target. The spam I get these days has obviously false email addresses in the headers (or no addresses at all, most of the time), and the source IP address fails when you try to do a reverse DNS lookup. At least I'm not personally paying for connect time. Interestingly, I'd SWEAR I'm getting MORE spam these days, since the new Washington state anti-spam law went into effect. But if you forward a spam to the attorney general's office, they just auto-respond to you with a huge questionnaire to fill out about all the things you've done personally to try to get off the spammer's mailing list -- which is no help at all. -- Toby ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 05:55:57 -0500 From: Walt Auch Subject: Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" Regards the Editor's Note which was attached: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Finally, an editor who will not only publish an article on self reliance, but will endorse and promote it. I certainly didn't expect this breath of fresh air from the land of "Teddy the Huge" or "mit.edu". Walt [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for your kind words. I just felt I had to comment on that one; it is extremely common these days for people, when confronted, to just back down and hand over whatever is demanded. Well, I am sorry, but I do not have that much of anything available to me to just hand over what I do have without a fight. You can come here and ask me for anything I have in a decent way and if I can I will share it or just give it to you. I have all in life I *really* need anyway. If you feel you need to point a gun at me to gain my cooperation, my advice is you might as well go ahead and pull the trigger. When you get caught, which is likely, you'll be the loser, not me. I've already had a full, rich and mostly rewarding life. You on the other hand will get to spend the rest of yours in a prison, which I think is a great idea. And seriously, most of those punks will back down, and run off like scared little rabbits. They are as afraid of you as they are hoping you will be of them. Do not accept police BS to the contrary. About fifteen years ago, I witnessed a crime -- a small minor thing -- in the building where I lived. The cops signed me on as a witness, and a couple days later the two bozos involved showed up at my door and tried to 'convince' me to forget what I had seen. My response was to go to the State's Attorney's office the next morning and relay this information. The State's Attorney who I chatted with and the police officer who sat in on the meeting both smiled and liked what I had to say. The SA said to the cop, "Go out and see them tomorrow and let them know what they did is known as 'Felony Contact With State's Witness'; ask how *they* want to handle it. :)" . Sure enough, the cop was at their door the next day and told them very succinctly where things were at: 'you want to stay out on bail until your court date or you prefer to wait sitting in jail? Stay the f--- away from the witnesses or I'll lock your asses up. You've been warned.' They stayed away. The key here is take an agressive stance right from the beginning. Don't wimper, don't run and hide, don't act scared. On the net, admittedly it is easier many times to just erase the spam and get on to other things. But when you have a 'hook' into the identity of the perpetrator, i.e. an 800 number, a *valid* email address, etc, don't hesitate to give them all the grief you can. And when you have a valid email address, let the ISP know you are sick of him also. Speaking of which, I sure would like to find out who is sending out that 'Bulls Eye Gold' spam; I get that one about ten times per day -- seriously -- but the rules I use to filter it with are that it is always between 6000-6300 bytes in length and there is *never* a subject line. If an email fits that criteria it goes in the trash. Plus, the phrase 'Bulls Eye Gold' will always be in one of the first three lines of text. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ahk@chinet.chinet.com (Adam H. Kerman) Subject: Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" Date: 11 Jul 1998 01:24:10 -0500 Organization: Chinet - Public Access In article , [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > Consider how the police always like to give you the BS about 'if > someone tries nbto rob you or hold you up (at place of business for > example), never resist, always give them whatever they want; why, they > might try to hurt you or they might have a gun, etc.' ... to which I > always tell the cop he is full of it. If someone tries to hold me up > or assualt me, my response is to try and kill them; yours should be > too. Certainly I value my own life, but I am the sort of stubborn > person that if some person wants to rob me of five or ten dollars, I'd > just as soon see them -- if they get caught -- be tried on murder > charges as well. What's with the death wish tonight? Windows95 not behaving? I really must point out that if you are dead, you won't "see" them tried on any charges at all. I'd like to believe that if I'm ever in a life threatening situation, that I can accurately assess whether the enemy truly intends to kill me whether or not I cooperate, and then act to preserve my life. Not having had experienced such a situation, I really don't know. > You might try living your life in the manner Johann Sebastian Bach > lived his; he was not afraid of death, in fact he welcomed it. His > attitude was 'take me anytime, Lord ...'. Jealous musicians were the major threat he faced, hardly the same thing. And, his wives did most of the work raising all those kids. ------------------------------ From: glr@ripco.com (Glen Roberts) Subject: Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" Date: 11 Jul 1998 13:34:35 GMT Organization: Ripco Internet BBS, Chicago I had ONE spammer threaten me. He said if I didn't remove the email harvesting block from my web pages (actually, it is my own version of wposion), he would spam with my email address for the return address. The end result? The hotmail account he used to threaten me, canceled. The CABLE internet account he used to harvest email addresses from the web (and probably spam from), canceled. I suspect that cable account won't be quite as easy to get another one ... as compared to dialup accounts! Glen L. Roberts -- "political provocateur" -Newsday (3/30/97) The Stalker's Home page: http://www.fulldisclosure.org/stalk.html "His ironically named Stalker's Home Page has become the definitive source for information about how your privacy can be violated online" - Time Magazine Full Disclosure Live -- Daily: Midnight Live: WGTG (5.085 mhz) True Spech (anytime): http://www.fulldisclosure.org ------------------------------ From: pleonard@newsguy.com (Phil Leonard) Subject: Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 00:30:27 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com/~pleonard In article , from the [comp.dcom.telecom] newsgroup: > Recently I was warned by a well-meaning netizen that I should not > challenge spammers because if challenged, they'll do all kinds of > things like mail-bomb me, steal my credit card numbers (how?), turn me > in to the police on false charges, etc. etc. What responding WILL do, though, is tell your spammer that he/she has a live address. Never respond to spam. Never reply to get off of their mailing list. That will just subscribe you. Go ahead and complain to their postmaster all you want with a full header. Unfortunately, even a traceroute will often become fruitless when you realize that your complaints to the postmaster are in fact going to the owner of the site who is the spammer him/herself. I've come to the conclusion that the best remedy is to filter it locally and forget about it. It's like swimming against the tide. ------------------------------ From: raphael@cs.mcgill.ca (Louis Raphael) Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1998 22:25:41 EDT Subject: Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" Organization: Societe pour la promotion du petoncle vert Amen to this as well ... Personally, I'm not afraid of death ... but serious injury is another matter. Long ago, however, I decided that I could no longer live with myself if I let a goblin get my five or ten dollars (or whatever) without at least a fight in such a case, so I decided I'd take my chances if I had to, which I hope I never do. In the case that I /should/ have to "deal" with someone, woe to him if I should come out on top, though ... Louis [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A dear old lady I know (seriously, she is old, in her middle to late sixties) owns two apartment buildings on the west side of Chicago in a *terrible* neighborhood. She goes over to collect the rent every month, and to her credit she keeps the buildings very nice looking and well-secured. She just drives over, gets the money from tenants, gets back in her car and drives away. I asked her if she was not concerned about getting robbed. Her answer was, "someone can try to rob me if they want; they may succeed or maybe they won't ...". She told me she has a gun in the car; the serial number on it is defaced. She obtained it from someone, somewhere. She said in a worst case scenario she would shoot the person if she had to, "... then I would leave as fast as I could get out of there and ditch the gun in the river after I had wiped it clean.' And if the police stopped her for some reason and found the gun in her car? " ... it is just a minor violation to have an unregistered gun, a violation most cops in that neighborhood would laugh at; I have no prior record; I would get probation at worst." This came up in a 'social issues' discussion group we both go to now and then at a synagogue in Chicago. A very liberal rabbi by the name of Louis Berman was moderating the discussion. He looked absolutely horrified and said 'if everyone acted in the way you propose, there would be anarchy in the United States ...' My answer to him was, "Lou, we already have anarchy in the USA; we have had it for years now. What's the big deal?" ... to which several people in the audience applauded me. He looked all the more horrified at that. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 11 Jul 1998 04:17:27 -0000 From: johnl@abuse.net (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Folklore: "Spammers Will Hurt You if You Challenge Them" Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg, N.Y. > Recently I was warned by a well-meaning netizen that I should not > challenge spammers because if challenged, they'll do all kinds of > things like mail-bomb me, steal my credit card numbers (how?), turn me > in to the police on false charges, etc. etc. > Balderdash. I agree. I run the fairly high profile abuse.net service (see www.abuse.net for details) and am a board member of CAUCE. I've never even had a spammer call my phone number, which is listed, much less mail bomb me or otherwise try digital vandalism, even though I've sent of close to 10,000 spam complaints so far this year. Regards, John Levine, postmaster@abuse.net, http://www.abuse.net, Trumansburg NY abuse.net postmaster PS: I can't wait for them to turn me into the cops. The local police chief and I would certainly get a good laugh out of that. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869 johnl@iecc.com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 11:17:56 +0100 From: Dave Songhurst Subject: 16th International Teletraffic Congress Organization: Lyndewode Research Hi folks, The Call for Papers is out for the 16th International Teletraffic Congress, ITC16 "Teletraffic Engineering in a Competitive World" to be held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Scotland, UK 7-11 June 1999 . It is on-line at http://www.iee.org.uk/Conf/ITC16/ ITC16 will reflect three major themes: * New Performance issues arising from the development of new technologies and the convergence of telecommunications and multimedia. * The impact of an increasingly competitive market. * The Gathering pace of technical development. Electronic submission is the strongly preferred route, with papers due by the 9th October 1998. The proceedings will be published by Elsevier. Papers submitted by students will enter a student papers competition. Further details from the Web page or from ITC-16 Secretariat, Institution of Electrical Engineers itc@iee.org.uk Many thanks, Peter Key Technical Programme co-chair Microsoft Research Ltd, Cambridge, UK Dave Songhurst ITC Council member (UK) Lyndewode Research Limited dave@song.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 04:01:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nader, CPT Ask FCC Proceedings on ISDN Tariffs, Release Survey --- forwarded message --- Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 19:49:48 -0400 From: James Love Subject: Nader,CPT ask FCC proceedings on ISDN tariffs, release survey Message-ID: <3594339C.C01D6D8D@cptech.org> ------------------------------------------------------------ Info-Policy-Notes | News from Consumer Project on Technology ------------------------------------------------------------ June 26, 1998 - Ralph Nader and CPT ask FCC Chair Kennard to hold public hearings on ISDN pricing. The letter asks Kennard to examine six policy questions. - CPT releases survey of state ISDN tariffs http://www.cptech.org/isdn/6-98-survey.html fmi Jamie Love Michael Tofias 202.387.8030 The letter to FCC Chair Kennard follows Ralph Nader P.O. Box 19312 Washington, DC 20036 Ralph@essential.org James Love Consumer Project on Technology P.O. Box 19367 Washington, DC 20036 202.387.8030; fax 202.234.5176 http://www.cptech.org love@cptech.org June 26, 1998 William E. Kennard Chairman Federal Communications Commission 1919 M Street N.W. Washington DC 20554 Dear Chairman Kennard: We are writing to provide your office with evidence that pricing of residential digital ISDN lines is irrational from both economic and policy perspectives, and to ask that the FCC hold a public proceeding to consider the following issues. 1. For what percent of the U.S. population is ISDN likely to be the best alternative to POTS service over the next seven years? 2. What does it cost Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) to convert residential POTS lines to ISDN lines? What does it cost an ILEC to route ISDN traffic to an ISP, either through a circuit or via a packet transport? Is it appropriate to estimate Internet usage costs using older average cost pricing models based upon voice traffic that has sharp peaks and low daily loads on switches? 3. How much did consumers pay (already) to switch analog switches to digital technologies, and why aren't the ILECs providing reasonably priced digital modulation to consumers for Internet connections? 4. Are ILECs deliberately reducing support for analog line quality to reduce the efficacy of so-called 56K modems, and what connect speeds do consumers actually get over these devices on typical POTS lines? 5. In what ways would broad deployment of low cost residential ISDN threaten ILEC profits from "features" services such as call waiting, or the sale of second lines? 6. What changes in regulatory models are needed to ensure that consumers can benefit from mature and inexpensive digital technologies? Consider particularly those consumers who live in areas that are not likely to benefit from cable modems or high end xDSL technologies in the foreseeable future. The attached is a survey of residential ISDN tariffs in all 50 States plus Washington, DC, under 12 carriers. (http://www.cptech.org/isdn/6-98-survey.html). As you can plainly see, there are huge differences in the tariffs, which are often extraordinarily high. Moreover, as indicated in several filings before FCC, ILECs have indicated that the non-traffic sensitive costs of BRI ISDN service are only about 12 percent higher than the NTS costs for POTS line. It is also not difficult to demonstrate that ILECs have often made straightforward misrepresentations of traffic sensitive costs for Internet usage. For example, see, the attached excepts from "ISDN Pricing, What Went Wrong," (http://www.cptech.org/isdn/wrong1.html) (paper presented June 24, 1998, at the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project Policy Roundtable on Next-Generation Communications Technologies: Lessons from ISDN, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD). We look forward to receiving your thoughts on this issue. Sincerely, /s/ Ralph Nader /s/ James Love INFORMATION POLICY NOTES: the Consumer Project on Technology http://www.cptech.org, 202.387.8030, fax 202.234.5127. Archives of Info-Policy-Notes are available from http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/ Subscription requests to listproc@cptech.org with the message: subscribe info-policy-notes Jane Doe ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 11:05:42 -0400 From: Chris Norloff Subject: Who Compares Cellphones and Services? Hi, I recently signed up for AT&T Digital PCS in the Washington,DC area, with a Ericsson LX77 (PD328) digital/analog phone. Lousy is the best way to describe it. Fine when it connects at full-signal strength in the digital mode, and unusable otherwise (like at home and at work - where I need it). Its fall-back analog mode puts me into CellularOne's analog network, which just so happens to never put my call through. So, who compares services? Those digital coverage maps are a joke - I'm 30 miles inside the border, 10 miles from the center, and I can't get digital? Since each company says THEY'RE the best, are there any unbiased sources of info? And, who compare phones? The phones seem to be sold purely on the basis of features, but I should think some are better phones, that is "radio transmmitter/receivers", than others. Are there any unbiased sources of comparative info about cell phones? Many thanks, Chris Norloff cnorloff@norloff.com ------------------------------ From: Bturnbow@my-dejanews.com (Brian Turnbow) Subject: Re: Can CellularOne do This to Me? Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 07:26:09 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion In article , james1416@hotmail.com wrote: > I have cellular service from Cellular One -- base rate $11.95 per > month. Recently I switched jobs. Cellular One sent me a letter > telling me that since I don't work for the original employer, I am not > eligible for the rate I was being offered; the new rate will be $24.95 > per month. > I read carefully through the service agreement that I signed. Nowhere > does it say that the lower rate I was offered was because I was > employed at this particular company. Nor does it say that the rates > are contingent upon my continued employment. The service is > not being paid by the employer; it is not a business service, I am > paying for it for my personal use. > So I wrote to Cellular One saying that they should either a) cancel my > cellular service AND waive any early cancellation fees or b) keep my > rate at the originally agreed upon rate. > More than a month has passed and no response to my letter. Now, I > received the latest bill from them where they have retroactively > applied the increased rate beginning two days before the date on which > they informed me that they are going to increase the rates. > Am I screwed and stuck paying the higher rate? Any advice or > suggestions are deeply appreciated. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are you *certain* there was no promo- > tional rate or deal at the time you began the service which involved > your previous employer? If you did not tell them that you had changed > employers, then how did they find out (other than your former employer > telling them; why would that have happened unless former employer was > subsidizing part of the bill and did not wish to subsidize a former > employee)? If you are certain none of the above occurred -- regardless > of whether it is in the printed contract or not -- then my sugggestion > would be to to pay on a prompt basis at the old rate, each time in- > forming them in a note with your payment that the monthly rate by > contract is the lower amount, in a contract which does not expire > until whatever date. PAT] I worked for a Cellularone authorized dealer in S.F. Cal. They got so bad with us we refused to renew our contract with them! Look on your contract to see what rate plan they signed you up on, they have many plans that are corporate plans but are billed and paid by employees. Unfortunatly C1 generally refuses to help you unless you spend an arm and a leg every month on your cellular bill. I personally know how nasty they can become. I wish you the best of luck. Brian Turnbow ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular Networking Perspectives, July 1998 From: 71574.3157@compuserve.com (David Crowe) Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1998 16:30:45 -0600 Organization: Cellular Networking Perspectives Ltd. The July (encrypted) quiz for Cellular Networking Perspectives is available at: http://www.cnp-wireless.com/quiz.html In this month's issue are the articles: 1. CALEA Deadline Extended Until October 1, 2000 2. Y2K and Wireless (a CTIA certification program) 3. Near Chairman for Analog Standards Subcommittee TR-45.1 4. New Subcommittee for Wireless Network Management Standards: TIA TR-45.7 5. Enhanced Wireless 9-1-1 (E911), Part III 6. Status of IS-41 Rev. C and TIA/EIA-41-D Implementations 7. TIA TR-45.1 Analog Air Interface Standards Report For more information on the monthly Cellular Networking Perspectives standards and technology bulletin surf to http://www.cnp-wireless.com or phone 1-800-633-5514. - David Crowe, Editor ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #106 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 17 09:31:57 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id JAA15450; Fri, 17 Jul 1998 09:31:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 09:31:57 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807171331.JAA15450@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #107 TELECOM Digest Fri, 17 Jul 98 09:32:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 107 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging (areacode-info) Long-Distance Calls on Internet May Be Bargain for Some (Tad Cook) New 800 Leadership at AT&T (Judith Oppenheimer) New Telemarketing Regs Passed in NYS (Danny Burstein) Telephone Speed Dial tip (ggreco@netcom.com) Did You Know That You May be Sharing Your Telephone Line! (Mike Pollock) Caller-ID: Any Way to Automatically Screen Calls? (Robert Maas) AT&T Publicphone 2000 Update (73115.1041@compuserve.com) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: webmaster@areacode-info.com From: webmaster@areacode-info.com Subject: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 03:49:48 -0400 For further information, contact: Dave Pacholczyk, 312-750-5205, david.a.pacholczyk@ameritech.com Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With = Bootlegging Local Phone Numbers. Company's Illegal Scheme Devours Precious 847 Numbers. CHICAGO -- Consumers and businesses in Chicago's numerous area codes are being shortchanged by one local phone company's misuse of scarce phone numbers, Ameritech is charging in a complaint filed today with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) Ameritech charges that Chicago-based Focal Communications is skirting the operating rules for the use of possibly hundreds of thousands of phone numbers in the state and violating its interconnection agreement with Ameritech by incorrectly billing calls made to Focal's customers. Customers in 847 may soon have another area code to contend with, and those in other areas are running low of phone numbers, in part because of Focal's anticompetitive, anticonsumer business scheme," said Doug Whitley, president of Ameritech Illinois. What Focal is doing is creative, but it's also illegal and patently unfair to customers. We think the ICC ought to remind them of the rules of the market they've chosen to enter." According to Ameritech's complaint, Focal's "Virtual Office" offering ties up Chicago area numbers, and "improperly manipulates" the phone numbering system, giving phone numbers in suburban area codes to Focal customers elsewhere. In Focal's scheme, Ameritech's complaint points out, the numbers are not assigned to "local" customers in the area code at all, but rather to businesses with locations in downtown Chicago. Here's how it works: Ameritech, as the local phone number administrator, doles out phone numbers at Focal's request. Under prescribed industry guidelines, those phone numbers are to be used in the areas in which they're assigned. For example, 847 numbers would normally be given to consumers and businesses in the 847 area code, 630 numbers to customers in that area code, and so on. But in Focal's scheme, the local numbers are typically assigned to business locations in downtown Chicago. When an employee of those companies, working from home, calls what would appear to be a "local" phone number in the outlying suburbs -- such as Schaumburg or Aurora -- the call is actually sent to an office location miles away in Chicago, thereby tying up a phone number that could be assigned to customers in those suburban areas. Focal is amassing "a large store of local telephone number prefixes for Virtual Office purposes ... in areas where it does not provide local exchange service," the complaint says, which "unnecessarily aggravates the mounting problem of telephone number exhaustion within area codes." We're concerned that this may be the tip of the iceberg in how phone numbers are being misassigned," said Whitley. "We're strong advocates of local phone competition and support companies wanting to enter the local phone market. But competition is no excuse for any company to bend the rules to disadvantage consumers." ------------------------------ Subject: Long-Distance Calls on Internet May Be Bargain for Some Consumers Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 01:09:34 PDT From: tad@ssc.co (Tad Cook) Long-Distance Calls on Internet May Be Bargain for Some Consumers By Leyla Kokmen, The Denver Post Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Jul. 14--It's the coach class of long distance. It'll get you where you want to go, but there won't be any free cocktails. Internet telephony. Phone calls that travel over the Internet, or similar The calls are cheap, cheap, cheap. But the quality varies -- and it isn't always great. And you'll have to get your fingers in shape to punch the 20 or more digits you may have to dial in order to make a call. "Now, we make a price and quality trade-off," said Christopher Mines, a director at Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass., research firm. Prices are as low as a nickel a minute, but sound sometimes comes across like you're under water -- more like a cell phone than a land line. The Denver area is a hot spot for this burgeoning industry, with companies including Rocky Mountain Internet, Qwest Communications International and ICG Netcom rolling out the services here and nationwide. Those services probably won't appeal to everyone, Mines said, but if you make a lot of long-distance calls -- especially to foreign countries -- it's something to consider. Also, people who are used to pre-paid phone cards, or those who use calling cards and don't mind punching in a lot of numbers, are likely customers for the services. Internet telephony is no gee-whiz computer nerd kind of service. In fact, you don't even need a computer to use it. It's simply a different way of carrying calls from phone to phone, city to city, country to country. Those phone calls, also called IP telephony because they use the Internet protocol, differ from traditional circuit-switched long distance. In that method, a steady amount of capacity is dedicated to a phone call; the same amount of space is used for the connection, even if you put your phone down and don't say anything at all. But when you make an IP call, your voice is compressed and broken into packets, or small parcels of data, that are electronically coded and sent through the network to be reassembled at their destination. The same pipeline can be filled with packets from many different phone calls. That uses the network more efficiently, which cuts costs, as well as the price to customers. While it's a new technology that makes this possible, that's not the thing that turns customers on to the service. "You put in your number, and your party answers it," said Bernie Friedberg, a Denver real estate investor who uses IP telephony service from IDT Corp., a Hackensack, New Jersey company. He uses it for business and personal calls, and his son uses it to call home from Oberlin College. "If the call is actually coming in through Finland, you're not aware of it." Low prices, in the end are what's building the buzz around IP telephony. "It's inexpensive, and it works," Friedberg said. "There's no need to make a call for 15 cents a minute when you can make it for a nickel." IDT offers its Internet long-distance service for 5 cents a minute in 50 cities, including Denver. Outside those 50 cities, IDT offers an IP phone rate of 8 cents a minute. Right now, the bulk of the savings on costs for IP telephony providers comes because they don't have to pay access charges to local phone companies to use their networks, like traditional long-distance carriers do. That may change over the next year or two, but for now it helps these companies offer bargain-basement call rates. Some of the equipment to route the calls over the network is also cheaper than traditional phone switches. The sound quality of the call, Friedberg said, is occasionally worse than a traditional long-distance call. But "90 percent of the time, I don't think you could tell the difference." The IP industry has started to bloom over the past couple of years, Mines said. He estimates that U.S. customers will spend about $50 million on Internet telephony service this year, but that could rise to $350 million by 2000 and $2.5 billion by 2004. While that's still only a small percentage of the total long-distance market -- about $50 billion this year -- it's a significant amount. Pioneers in the market were companies such as IDT and the Israeli company Delta Three, which primarily uses IP technology to offer cut rates on international calls from the United States. IDT now has about 50,000 customers, and Delta Three has about 25,000. More recently, spry companies such as Qwest, Rocky Mountain Internet and ICG Netcom have broken into the market, using their fiber-optic, data-driven networks and Internet backbones to offer IP telephony. Rocky Mountain Internet began offering its Ephone services in Denver and Colorado Springs earlier this year and plans to begin a heavy marketing push soon. Qwest launched its Q.talk service in February in Denver, California, Salt Lake City and Kansas City, and plans to have 125 cities hooked up by year's end. ICG, which bought the California Internet service provider Netcom earlier this year, will use that company's network to roll out its IP telephony service, first in 15 cities next month, then into 151 more by the end of the year. And finally, long-distance giants such as AT&T have started moving into the IP arena. AT&T is the furthest along, offering a trial of IP long distance in Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco. Other major long-distance companies such as Sprint, MCI and Frontier all say they are planning to offer IP telephony in the near future but have not released detailed plans or price lists. So how does this service work? Right now, there are at least five companies that offer, or are about to offer, IP telephony service to Colorado customers: Delta Three, ICG Netcom, IDT, Qwest and Rocky Mountain Internet. Each has slightly different service plans and prices, but there are similarities between them. Most route the calls over their Internet backbones or private networks, not through the public Internet, which can be heavily congested and cause poor sound quality. Rocky Mountain Internet, IDT and Delta Three are like pre-paid calling cards; to set up your account, you use a credit card to buy an amount of calling time. Then, whenever you make a call, the company debits your account and lets you know how much calling time you have left. ICG Netcom requires a credit card to start the account, but it's billed monthly only for the amount you spend on calls. Delta Three also has a similar post-payment option. Qwest offers monthly billing for the service, so you'll get an invoice in the mail. To place a call through most of the services, you must first dial a local access number, then enter your account number, code number and finally, the long-distance number you want to call. That can mean upwards of 20 digits to place a call, although it's possible to program a speed dial to do that. When you dial that local access number, you're calling into a server that compresses your voice into the packets of data before routing it over the network to the point you're trying to call. If traffic is high, people might get busy signals when they dial the access number. ICG Netcom, instead of having customers dial in through a local number, lets you simply dial 1 plus the area code and number you're dialing, like traditional long-distance services. But while other services allow you to place the call from anywhere, as long as you're within that local calling region, with ICG Netcom you must place the call from home, said David Gandini, president of long-distance services. That's because the system uses your home phone number to verify who you are and whether you have a valid account. To use the Delta Three service, the access number you dial is an 800 number, similar to a calling card. More digits, but you can call from anywhere in the country. Worth noting, however, is that Delta Three's rates within the United States, at 20 cents a minute, aren't very competitive. But Kim Malone, Delta Three's executive vice president for business development, stresses that the greatest cost savings come from international calls placed from the United States to developing countries and places where Delta Three is building its network. Delta Three calls to Hong Kong, for example, cost 19 cents a minute, to Israel, 30 cents a minute, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, 40 cents a minute, which is well below the standard rates of other carriers. Most of the services have little hitches consumers should be aware of when shopping around. For example, ICG Netcom offers rates of 5.9 cents and 8.9 cents a minute; to get the lower rate, calls must begin and end on the Netcom network. So if you're calling a city other than the 166 ICG will have online this year, you'll pay 8.9 cents a minute. And to sign up for Qwest's service, it could take seven to 10 business days, while the other services activate their accounts immediately. Most of the services let you sign up online if you want, and you can check your current balance and phone activity on the Web site. Rocky Mountain Internet's new Web site for the service was scheduled to go up today, at www.ic-ephone.net, said Michael Schaefer, vice president of marketing. Qwest also plans to offer online sign-ups in a couple of weeks, said Catherine Perkins, program manager for Q.talk. But as far as the technology goes, said Mines, it's improving all the time. Now, it's a little hit or miss; sometimes, you'll have crystal clear connections, sometimes it'll come through a bit tinny, or you'll "trip over" the person you're talking to because the connection is slow. But eventually, "they will match and ultimately they will exceed the quality of the traditional phone network." It will take time for IP telephony and data networks to supercede today's more dominant long-distance networks, Mines said. But in the distant future, packet-based networks are likely to merge with and overtake that infrastructure. "This is like rebuilding the railroad system," he said. "This is something that's not going to happen quickly." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 09:56:32 -0400 From: Judith Oppenheimer Reply-To: joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com Organization: ICB TOLL FREE NEWS. 15 Day FREE Trial: http://icbtollfree.com Subject: New 800 Leadership at AT&T John Cushman, the now-former head of AT&T Toll Free Services who drafted the original replication proposal at SNAC, has been promoted and now has responsibility for AT&T's Business Electronic Services and E-Commerce applications. Over the years John has been both accessible and rational, a rare voice of reason in toll free issues. His replacement as the new head of AT&T Toll Free Services is Tom Angeline, who's worked with John since last fall and was responsible for AT&T's rollout of 877. Judith Oppenheimer Publisher, ICB TOLL FREE NEWS News & Information Source for Service Providers, & Commercial Users, of Toll Free Service 15-day, no-obligation FREE trial: http://icbtollfree.com Moderator, TOLLFREE-L Read this list on the Web at http://www.FindMail.com/list/tollfree-l/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 20:49:18 EDT From: Danny Burstein Subject: New Telemarketing Regs Passed in NYS Linkname: GOVERNOR: LEGISLATION PROTECTS CONSUMERS FROM TELEMARKETERS URL: http://www.state.ny.us/governor/press/july13_98.htm [Note: I have to wonder, given that the Feds have preempted lots of other "local" telecom regularions (including payphone charges!!) whether this new law will hold up.] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 13, 1998 Governor: Legislation Protects Consumers From Telemarketers [INLINE] Governor George E. Pataki today signed into law a new consumer protection that gives New Yorkers an important new way to avoid unwanted telemarketing calls. "Whether it's protecting New Yorkers from telephone slamming or helping to safeguard seniors from mail fraud, our commitment to consumers has never been greater," Governor Pataki said. "This new law adds another weapon to our arsenal to help protect consumers from annoying or unscrupulous telemarketers," the Governor said. "All of us have been hassled by a telemarketer who interrupts dinner, story time with our children or the few hours we have to relax after work or on the weekends. Now we have a way to fight back." The new law will prohibit telemarketers from blocking identification of their names and telephone numbers on consumers home caller identification-devices which will help to alert them that they may be receiving a telemarketing phone call. "This bill provides consumers with another means of determining whether to take a telemarketing phone call, making it their choice," the Governor said. "It will help end the questionable practice of hiding a phone number so that consumers are unable to choose whether they want to answer a telemarketing phone call." State Consumer Protection Board Chairman and Executive Director Timothy Carey said, "Governor Pataki and I have made it a priority to fight telemarketing scams and unscrupulous telemarketing practices. From prize offers, to checks in the mail, to out-and-out deception, telemarketers have tried everything in the book to get your business. This new law will help to inform consumers that they may be receiving a telemarketing phone call enabling them to choose whether to take the call or not." Governor Pataki also advised consumers who wish to be left undisturbed by telemarketing that they may exercise several other options designed to eliminate unwanted telemarketing calls. These include: Federal law allows a consumer to place his or her telephone number on the telemarketers "do not call" list; Contacting the Federal Trade Commission. Telemarketers not adhering to those consumer requests may be fined by the Federal Trade Commission; Consumers who do not wish to be disturbed by calls from any entity that does not reveal its own telephone number can purchase a "block the blocker" service from his or her telephone corporation--such services do not connect calls for which callers block transmission of identifying information; and, Consumers may use answering machines to screen their calls. For more information, consumers can call Governor Pataki's consumer hotline at the State Consumer Protection Board toll-free at 1-800-697- 1220. dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: ggreco@netcom.com Subject: Telephone Speed Dial Tip Organization: Netcom On-Line Services Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 01:51:37 GMT If you use the long distance telephone service of Sprint, MCI, AT&T, etc., and you have to dial their code when making a "local toll call" outside of your area, you now have to dial a seven digit number. All companies have added another "10" to their code number. For example, say your long distance carrier is the XYZ company and their special code is 1010789. If you make a "local toll call" you have to dial 1010798 and then the phone number 123-4567. Otherwise, your "local toll call" will automatically be billed by your local carrier (Pacific Bell, etc.) probably at a different rate. This only applies to nearby "local toll calls", as your "long distance" calls should be automatically handled by your long distance carrier. A "local toll call" is that calling area between "local", or free, calling and "long distance" calling. If you put the new telephone numbers into your Speed Dial (memory) buttons you may have a problem. You may need "18 digits", but many Speed Dial (memory) buttons only have the capacity to hold a number 16 digits long. Using the above example of the XYZ's 1010789 code, to dial a "local toll call" outside your telephone area code (to area code 408, etc.) you have to dial the telephone number 1010789-1-408-123-4567, which is "18 digits long". Many telephones allow you to enter part of the 18 digit telephone number using one Speed Dial (memory) button and the rest of the number using another button. For instance, to call area 408, Speed Dial button #1 can be 10107891408. And, Speed Dial button #2, or #3 etc., can be 1234567. First press Speed Dial button #1 and listen for the number to be dialed. Then press Speed Dial button #2, or #3 etc. The call should be dialed properly. ggreco@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: Mike Pollock Subject: NOTICE! Did You Know That You May be Sharing Your Telephone Line! Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 17:01:47 -0400 The following piece of propaganda was handed to me in the form of a blue piece of laser-printed paper as I waited for my Long Island Rail Road train into Manhattan this morning. We've got four lines coming into our house. Is this something I need to care about? -------------------- NOTICE DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU MAY BE SHARING YOUR TELEPHONE LINE! You pay the full rate for your service each month, but many of you are sharing your line with your neighbor and don't know it! Instead of adding new cable or repairing old ones, BELL ATLANTIC is using a line sharing device called AML, where two customers, or maybe as many as eight customers share one pair of wires. This can affect your service in many ways, particularly if you use a computer modem, have a door answering device, or your neighbor has line trouble. CALL 890-6611 and demand to know if your service is being provided on an AML. If so, demand your own line. After all, YOU PAY FOR IT! This message has been brought to you by the CWA as a public service message. ------------------------------ From: Robert Maas Subject: Caller-ID: Any Way to Automatically Screen Calls? Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 22:56:14 -0800 Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services > TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > There is no way to 'reach back' from your end to the central office > and get it to release the calling party's number. ... Your only real > recourse is to refuse to accept phone calls from 'private' callers. Is there any equipment that can do that automatically, so when I get twenty calls in a row while I'm trying to sleep, each with UNAVAILABLE instead of a number, I don't have to wake up twenty times in a row to bitch at the caller and hang up, and don't even have to hear the phone ring each time? Pacific Bell says as far as they know there's no such unit, but I should call private companies such as Radio Shack or Fry's to ask if they sell any such unit. Both Circuit City and Fry's say they don't have any such unit. I haven't tried Radio Shit yet because of their shoddy quality of things I purchased from them previously (portable 6-band radio, reel-to-reel recording tapes, cassette tape recorder, cassette tapes). ------------------------------ From: 73115.1041@compuserve.com Subject: AT&T Publicphone 2000 Update Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 02:07:23 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com AT&T has recently updated the software in the Publicphone 2000s around the country. These are the phones with the built-in keyboard and VT100 emulation that were disabled for all but phone use due to a lawsuit over what could be offered without regulator approval some 10 years ago. The new software pretty much eliminates visual references to anything except standard telephone services. Ken ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #107 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 17 12:50:15 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id MAA02151; Fri, 17 Jul 1998 12:50:15 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 12:50:15 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807171650.MAA02151@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #108 TELECOM Digest Fri, 17 Jul 98 12:50:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 108 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FBI Seeks Access to Cellphone Locations - NYT (Monty Solomon) Preferential Treatment of Wireless in Overlays (Linc Madison) Re: Who Compares Cellphones and Services? (Howard Eisenhauer) Remote Control of Call Forwarding/3-Way Calling? (Andrew Grell) Unit to Connect Two POTS Lines (AKA Extender, Diverter (dieselboy37) Three-Way Split For Long Island (516)? (Linc Madison) Blocking International Collect Calls (Louis Cifer) Telcomine: A Telecom & Technology Newsletter With a Difference (S. Dhawan) Baby Bells Out to Gut Telecom Act (Monty Solomon) Internet Phone Leader Vocaltec Eyes Deals (Monty Solomon) UCLA Short Course on "Optical Fiber Communications" (Bill Goodin) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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, 17 Jul 1998 09:40:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FBI Seeks Access to Cellphone Locations - NYT NEW YORK (Reuters) - The FBI has asked a Senate committee to add language to a Justice Department appropriations bill to require phone companies to provide police with the precise locations of cellular phone users, the New York Times reported Friday. Quoting civil liberties groups, the newspaper said that FBI Director Louis Freeh met last week with members of the Senate Appropriations Committee about the proposal. The paper said Freeh asked that the locations be provided without a court order in certain "emergencies." Those would include the suspicion of a felony, the pursuit of a fugitive or cases where human safety is deemed to be in jeopardy. The paper quoted FBI officials as saying that the agency needed to keep up with rapidly changing technology that was confounding law enforcement agencies. Attorney General Janet Reno is scheduled to meet Friday with Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard to make the case that such legislation is needed if the agency is to keep up with evolving technology that allows criminals to use mobile phones to avoid detection. Civil liberties groups and the telecommunications industry have begun marshaling opposition to the proposal, the newspaper reported. Privacy advocates say it is a dangerous and unconstitutional invasion of privacy, and the telecommunications industry predicts that implementing such a law would cost billions of dollars. ------------------------------ From: Telecom@LincMad.NOSPAM (Linc Madison) Subject: Preferential Treatment of Wireless in Overlays Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 23:31:52 -0700 Organization: LincMad Consulting; change NOSPAM to COM I just sifted through the prefix lists for the upcoming three-way split of area code 619 in the San Diego area. One item that caught my eye was that *almost* all of the prefixes scheduled to remain in 619 are in the "San Diego: San Diego" rate center. However, there are twelve prefixes that will remain 619 even though they are assigned to rate centers that are changing to either 858 or 935. All twelve are cellular prefixes, located in Chula Vista, La Jolla, La Mesa, El Cajon, Poway, Mira Mesa, and Linda Vista. No existing cellular prefixes are being moved to either 858 or 935. The language of the FCC regulations is quite clear: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 47 CFR 52.9 General requirements. (a) To ensure that telecommunications numbers are made available on an equitable basis, the administration of telephone numbers shall, in addition to the specific requirements set forth in this subpart [includes 47 CFR 52.19]: [...] (2) Not unduly favor or disfavor any particular telecommunications industry segment or group of telecommunications consumers; and (3) Not unduly favor one telecommunications technology over another -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- No other telecommunications technology is being allowed to disregard the geographic boundaries in the 619/858/935 split. This decision is clearly "unduly favoring" one particular telecommunications industry segment/technology (cellular) over another (wireline). It's not okay to favor wireline over cellular, but it's fine to do the reverse. That's what we call a "level playing field." ** Do not send me unsolicited commercial e-mail spam of any kind ** Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * Telecom@LincMad-com URL:< http://www.lincmad.com > * North American Area Codes & Splits >> NOTE: if you autoreply, you must change "NOSPAM" to "com" << ------------------------------ From: aa988@chebucto.ns.ca (Howard Eisenhauer) Subject: Re: Who Compares Cellphones and Services? Date: 16 Jul 1998 14:37:43 GMT Organization: Chebucto Community Net There's a website at web.globalserve.net/~punter/ that gives very good comparisons between the variuos phones and also gives you a good idea of the strengths/weaknesses of the different network technologoies. It's very highly thought of by people in the cell/PCS industry, even when it points out some of the warts on your own network ;>. It's really aimed at the Toronto area, but most of what's there should apply to any system in North America. You may also want to check out some of the "alt.cellular" newsgroups as well, although I havn't seen any dedicated to AT&T. From what I've read in some of the groups a lot of people are not happy with the Cntel/AT&T system up here north of the border which uses the 800Mhz IS136 TDMA system, which is what I believe AT&T proper is using in the States. Chris Norloff (cnorloff@norloff.com) wrote: > Hi, I recently signed up for AT&T Digital PCS in the Washington,DC area, > with a Ericsson LX77 (PD328) digital/analog phone. > Lousy is the best way to describe it. Fine when it connects at full-signal > strength in the digital mode, and unusable otherwise (like at home and at > work - where I need it). Its fall-back analog mode puts me into > CellularOne's analog network, which just so happens to never put my call > through. > So, who compares services? Those digital coverage maps are a joke - I'm 30 > miles inside the border, 10 miles from the center, and I can't get digital? > Since each company says THEY'RE the best, are there any unbiased sources > of info? > And, who compare phones? The phones seem to be sold purely on the basis of > features, but I should think some are better phones, that is "radio > transmmitter/receivers", than others. Are there any unbiased sources of > comparative info about cell phones? Howard Eisenhauer on Chebucto Community Network Halifax Nova Scotia aa988@ccn.cs.dal.ca ------------------------------ From: Andrew Grell Subject: Remote Control of Call Forwarding/3-Way Calling? Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 10:20:31 -0400 Organization: Digital Telemedia Inc. My mobile phone package includes unlimited calling to any one number I select, and I've chosen my home phone number to be that target. Now, at home I have three phone lines and a variety of computers and modems and stuff. I think that I should be able to call my house from my mobile and remotely transfer my call to some other number, which I would then pay for at a land rate rather than a mobile rate. Any suggestions? My local provider, RCN, is not too clear about whether or not they offer variable/remote call forwarding and I'd like to be able to do this on my own. Thanks ag [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For further discussion on this see the next message in this issue on call diverters and call extenders. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dieselboy37@hotmail.com Subject: Unit to Connect Two POTS Lines (AKA Extender, Diverter, Gold Box Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 16:17:16 -0500 I just found the TELECOM Digest homepage and one of the first things has caught my attention is the talk of WATS extenders and such. Phreaks build their own extenders called "diverters" or "gold" boxes. These work the same way but are much more crude and there is virtually NO security designed into the basic gold box module. These boxes (and most others) can be made from over-the-counter parts. Allthought many boxes have been defeated by advances in technology there are still many more in use today. Kevin (Circuit$ativa) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Years ago, when there were substantial differences in the price of local and long distance calls, many companies used extenders/diverters of the type you mention to cut back on the expense incurred by employees outside the office needing to make long distance calls. Instead of paying several dollars at a pay phone, the employees (as well as unauthorized persons, unfortunatly!) would dial in to the company phone network as a local call, and then dial out via one of the devices mentioned. You can still buy the parts to build one, but these days I **DO NOT** recommend building one or installing one found elsewhere without making sure it includes very good security. Years ago, large companies never bothered with security on their phone systems, and like Unix administrators they had to learn some tough lessons the hard way, in some cases to the tune of millions of dollars in fraud. This kind of device however might be just the perfect solution for our other correspondent in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Telecom@LincMad.NOSPAM (Linc Madison) Subject: Three-Way Split For Long Island (516)? Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 19:46:23 -0700 Organization: LincMad Consulting; change NOSPAM to COM I happened across a Bell Atlantic web page today that seems to hint at a three-way area code split for Long Island (area code 516). The map shows the 516 divided into three zones. The westernmost zone looks like it's Nassau County, plus the town of Oak Beach. The other two zones divide up Suffolk County. All three are labeled as 516, and the only other text is a notation that an update is being prepared. The web page in question is: Does anyone have details on plans for relief in 516? Of course, from looking at the corresponding page for 914, there is also the possibility that these colored zones have to do with something completely unrelated. The map for 914 shows four zones, not coinciding with county boundaries. The 1998 COCUS (which has just been re-uploaded in a different format, ) shows 516 as running out of numbers by the end of 1998, so we certainly ought to be hearing something about proposals, at least -- if there is any consideration at all of a geographic split, it needs to get underway immediately. ** Do not send me unsolicited commercial e-mail spam of any kind ** Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * Telecom@LincMad-com URL:< http://www.lincmad.com > * North American Area Codes & Splits >> NOTE: if you autoreply, you must change "NOSPAM" to "com" << ------------------------------ From: eldemonio@hotmail.com (Louis Cifer) Subject: Blocking International Collect Calls Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 01:09:55 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion Does anybody know if there is a way to block collect calls from abroad? My local telco, Sprint local (in San Diego, CA) said that they can't do it and the big long distance companies (AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc.) also said the same thing. I beleive that they can, but choose not to because they would be losing a very lucrative source of income. Since all my efforts have failed to persuade my significant other not to accept these calls (she tells me to take it out of her share of our disposable income every two weeks, which I've done with no financial strain on my part), I've seriously toyed with the idea of not paying AT&T and MCI but I am leary of having them report the charges to the credit bureaus (although I have never given them my social security number to identify me). Any ideas on how I should proceed? and please, no snide, self righteous remarks about yours truly dumping his mate (divorce,and possible alimony and child support payments are hardly money saving ways to go). Thanks, Louis Cifer [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Several months -- maybe a year -- ago, a reader in Iowa asked a similar question regarding a person he was responsible for; I am not sure if it was a guardianship arrangement, or if he was doing it just to help the person. It seems the person that our reader was assisting had a son who could not be convinced through normal ways to stay away from 900/976 numbers; the bill each month was outrageous as a result. All conventional wisdom had failed; reasoning with the person had failed; our correspondent was reduced to chanting. ... I finally recommended violence. I suggested he have telco disconnect the service entirely, and that he personally remove all the phone instruments and mutilate the phone jacks and wiring inside the premises. Then as a final effort, take the worthless son and toss him out of the house, change all the locks and then watch the phone bill the next month and see if there had been any improvements! ... You say you do not wish to file for divorce, and I assume if you can avoid beating her senseless you would prefer to do so (police action can be a pain also). That leaves one thing which will work and solve your problem at least a little bit, some of the time: have your local telco add ** Billed Number Screening ** to your lines. This is a 'negative listing' type database of phone numbers around the USA which do not wish to accept collect calls under any circumstances. If your local telco is one of the traditional Bells (by whatever name in these current times) or GTE or several of the (traditional) 'independents' which always worked along with Bell on everything in the past, then you can probably get Billed Number Screening added to your lines. The major long distance carriers (AT&T, MCI, Sprint) all dip the database and honor any billing restrictions noted. A few other long distance companies also honor the negative database. What this means is that in the future, any *domestic* long distance caller attempting to call you 'collect' or attempting to bill their call to you as 'third number billing' will be rejected. Typically, they will get a recorded intercept (or an operator will tell them) that, 'The number you have given does not accept collect or third-number billed calls. Please hang up, select some other method of paying for your call, and dial again.' I will not get into all the nitty-gritty here, but this will block 90-95 percent or more of the *typical, average* user's long distance bill where that type of call had been a problem. No guarentees can be given if you are a pervert or into phone sex like that worthless son in Iowa who brought such disgrace to his mother ... ... by the way Bruce, how did that matter ever turn out? Did you ever get him under control or finally just wash your hands of it? Ah, but your inbound collect calls are *international* rather than *domestic*; will being listed in the negative database for Billed Number Screening still work? It will if the telecom in the other country also dips the datebase, and some of them, like British Tele- com do use it. Some do, some don't; the worst that can happen is you'll find the telecom admin in the country where your calls are coming from does not. But even then there is sometimes hope. The way incoming calls are handled from foreign countries means that some of them will land on AT&T circuits when they reach this country; some will land on Sprint or MCI, etc. 'Little differences' in the way the call is handed over means that in some cases the domestic USA carrier will 'see' that the foreign carrier is attempting to call collect and will do a database dip for them anyway. Someone who tested this internationally found that in cases where the foreign carrier did not automatically dip the database (as I am told British Telecom always does) about a third of the time the USA carrier which got the call handed to it went ahead and dipped anyway, then tossed the call back to the source with the 'subscriber does not accept collect calls' message. It depended on it the call was dialed direct with digits on the front for 'operator handling' (like our international '011' versus '01') and if through the operator, how she keyed it in, etc. There were lots of variables. By all means, get Billed Number Screening on your lines from the local telco. You won't lose anything and you may find it does the job you want on international calls as well as domestic ones. Don't bother the rep with all the outrageously boring details above, just ask that Billed Number Screening be put on your line. The Bells do it all the time, I am sure Sprint Local serivce can as well. PAT] ------------------------------ From: seemad@my-dejanews.com (Seema Dhawan) Subject: Telcomine: A Telecom & Technology Newsletter With a Difference Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 09:36:37 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion I am happy to present before the readers of this group, the index for the seventh issue of Infozech's newsletter on Telecom and Technology. In a brief period of 6 months, this monthly bulletin has earned a reputation for itself of recording trends and developments in frontline IT Technologies. With a current subscriber base of 3000+ people, this service is free. To subscribe please send a mail to nl@infozech.com. Previous issues are available at http://www.infozech.com/telcomine.htm *****TELCOMINE************ Wealth of Information about Telecommunications Volume 7, July 1998 1 Software on hire online from IBM, Microsoft: Piracy may be reduced. With IT giants Microsoft and IBM-Lotus, plunging into the software renting business, it seems that in the future software needs may be largely met by the Internet. 2. Etching 1.6M Microfilms on a Disc Norsam Technologies of Los Almos, Mexico, claims to have found a way of directly etching 1.6 Million pages of microfilm on a single disc making information everlasting 3. Direct Satellite linked Mobile Phones coming The mobile phone need not be "cell" bound anymore. Very soon a new mobile phone directly linked to a global network of 66 satellites should be available at any point on earth , providing "a truly universal global mobile service". 4. Handhelds to overtake PCs for Net Access Desktop PC may be supplanted by cheap handheld devices for Internet access by the mass-market within the next six years. 5. Instant Credit Card Processor: ICVerify Producing packages for instant processing of credit cards has come as a big challenge to the software industry. ICVerify is one such product. 6. Y2K litigation costs to surpass $1 trillion The litigation costs over Y2K service and product failures could soar to an alarming $ 1trillion or more. 7. After Korea, Ebill set to enter China and Europe After expanding its successful American operations into Korea, Infozech now looks to the Chinese and European Markets for its billing solution, eBill. For more details on eBill please visit http://www.infozech.com/ebill.htm Thank you. Seema Dhawan INFOZECH Software for Telecom Service Provider Newsletter: http://www.infozech.com/telcomine.htm email: seema@infozech.com Visit us at http://www.infozech.com ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Baby Bells Out to Gut Telecom Act Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 18:35:45 -0400 http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/13519.html Baby Bells Out to Gut Telecom Act Reuters WASHINGTON -- Regional Bell telephone companies will ask a federal appeals court this week to toss out parts of a 1996 telecommunications law and allow them to offer long-distance service immediately. If the court agrees, the Baby Bells could become big players in the US$80 billion long-distance market while important incentives in the law to promote competition in the $100 billion local market would be erased, attorneys and analysts said. San Antonio-based SBC Communications Corp. (SBC), which provides local service in seven states from Texas to California, filed the lawsuit a year ago in a bid to overturn parts of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Few in the industry thought SBC, later joined by US West Inc. (USW) and Bell Atlantic Corp. (BEL), had much chance of success until a surprise New Year's Eve ruling by a federal judge in Texas. The decision by US District Judge Joe Kendall rocked the stocks of the telecommunications companies, sending the Baby Bells higher and knocking the shares of AT&T Corp. (T) and MCI Communications Corp. (MCI) lower. The long-distance companies had joined the government and urged the courts to uphold the law. The ruling upset the delicate balance struck by Congress in the 1996 law requiring the Bells to open their local networks to competitors before being allowed to offer long-distance service to customers within their regions. So far, the Federal Communications Commission has rejected all four long-distance applications by Bells, including one by SBC, finding the companies had not opened their local networks enough. While the Bells have sued, they are also trying to further open their networks to comply with the act. "The case goes right to the fundamental premise of the 1996 Telecommunications Act," said Kathy Wallman, a former top telephone regulator at the FCC and now a consultant in Washington. "Upholding it would be a very troubling change to that basic premise," she said, referring to Kendall's ruling. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case, with a decision expected a few months later. Constitutional scholar and Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe, representing the Bells, will square off against Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein in the hour-long session. Although a decision either way will almost certainly be appealed to the Supreme Court, investors are likely to bid up the Bells if they win again, said industry analyst Scott Cleland at the Legg Mason Precursor Group. "SBC and the Bells have a better chance at victory in this court that most anticipate," Cleland said, noting the three judges hearing the case were all appointed by Republicans. "The Bells got very lucky in the draw. They need judges who are more skeptical of government for their argument to gain traction." SBC's legal argument is based on an obscure clause in the Constitution designed to prevent Congress from acting as judge and jury. Under the clause, Congress is prohibited from passing laws aimed at punishing specific individuals. The so-called bill of attainder clause has been used only five times by the Supreme Court to strike down laws such as those barring employment of former members of the Communist Party. Unlike most regulations enacted by Congress, the 1996 telecommunications act does specify by name the 20 Bell companies that were created in the 1984 break-up of the old AT&T and now constitute units of the five regional Bell corporations. "The essence of our case is that Congress has made a judicial-type distinction of who's good and who's bad," said SBC general counsel James Ellis. "If Congress is permitted to single out these 20 companies, then God help us when they go after less-favored people." Government lawyers respond that the clause has never been read to prohibit economic regulations on companies. And, they argue, the Telecom Act's restrictions on the Bells are actually less severe than those contained in the 1982 breakup agreement and therefore cannot be considered punishment. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Internet Phone Leader Vocaltec Eyes Deals Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 17:45:37 -0400 Reuters By Neil Winton, Science and Technology Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - VocalTec Communications Ltd. of Israel, which pioneered cheap phone service over the Internet, plans to maintain its market lead with an aggressive acquisitions program. In an interview with Reuters Television, VocalTec Chairman Elon Ganor said the money-losing company hopes to become profitable in the medium term. VocalTec wants to expand its fax business and move into video conferencing. VocalTec of Herzliya, Israel, wrote the book on Internet telephone service software. This provides long-distance service at the fraction of the prices charged by traditional service providers like British Telecommunications Plc and AT&T Corp. Analysts said the cheap service offered by companies like RSL Communications Ltd.'s Delta Three Inc., which use VocalTec software, was a direct challenge to the bottom line of the traditional telephone service providers. German giant Deutsche Telekom AG showed what it thought of the threat from Internet telephony last December when it bought a 21.1 percent stake in VocalTec for close to $50 million. Analysts say that the likes of BT and France Telecom SA are quietly planning their own Internet telephone services. AT&T has already started a service in Japan. The potential market is said to be huge. Research company Datamonitor said in a recent report that more than 10 percent of international telephone traffic will be carried over Internet networks by 2002. Revenues will reach $2.5 billion in the same year. VocalTec expects this burgeoning market will ease its way to profitability. ``Our goal right now is fundamentally to get as high market share as possible and we hope to be profitable in the future. We certainly hope to be profitable and not in the extremely long term,'' Ganor said in the interview. In the first quarter of 1998, VocalTec lost $2.4 million on revenues of just under $5 million. Vocaltec will seek acquisitions and partnerships in its quest for growth, Ganor said. ``Since the early days, we've been looking around for shortcuts to other markets or technologies. We are always looking for opportunities and we will pursue those,'' he said. In March, VocalTec bought Radlinx Ltd., an Israeli developer of Internet fax products. Last month, VocalTec and Compaq Computer Corp.'s Digital Equipment Corp. announced a strategic alliance to build large-scale Internet telephone networks. Internet telephony works by turning analog sound into data packets, pinging them across networks, then turning them back into voice again at the receiving end. According to Garon, there were two main reasons for the low cost of Internet telephony: The regulation of the voice business by monopolies that are often government-owned kept prices artificially high. Switching voice into data, which was often unregulated, allowed Internet phone prices to be significantly cheaper. The cost of equipment for traditional voice service was high. ``The switch equipment that the traditional products companies use is pretty expensive; around five to 10 times more expensive. This is significant for a newcomer that wants to provide telecom services.'' Datamonitor analyst Gavin Parnaby agrees that big, traditional telephone service providers are poised to launch their own Internet phones. ``Datamonitor believes that 1999 will be the year when the vast majority of service providers begin to offer IP (Internet Protocol) telephony,'' Parnaby told Reuters. And that might spell the end of VocalTec's independence. ``VocalTec was a pioneer in this field, but it is a small player and will probably be bought out by someone else in the end,'' said Parnaby. ------------------------------ From: Bill Goodin Subject: UCLA Short Course on "Optical Fiber Communications" Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 19:00:40 -0700 On October 6-9, 1998, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Optical Fiber Communications: Techniques and Applications", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Tran V. Muoi, PhD, President, Optical Communication Products; Del Hanson, PhD, Principal Engineer, Hewlett-Packard; and Richard E. Wagner, PhD, Manager, Optical Network Research, Corning. This course offers a review of optical fiber communications fundamentals, then focuses on state-of-the-art technology and its applications in present and future communication networks. The course begins with the major building blocks of optical fiber communications systems (fiber and passive components, sources and transmitters, detectors and receivers). Actual design examples of fiber optic links for short-haul and long-haul applications are studied, and recent technological advances in addressing problems due to fiber loss and dispersion are presented. The impact of fiber optic technology on communications is highlighted in the latter half of the course. Recent developments in local and metropolitan area networks to support multimedia traffic (i.e., data, voice, and video) and their evolving architectures and standards are fully covered. The treatment on telecommunications systems includes various technological options for subscriber networks, exchange networks, and the global undersea networks. Network architectures evolving from the traditional telephone and CATV networks are contrasted. Technology trends and directions for realizing the so-called information superhighway are examined as well. Finally, optical networks using wavelength routing and multi-wavelength cross-connects are presented. UCLA Extension has presented this highly successful short course since 1994. The course fee is $1395, which includes extensive course materials. These materials are for participants only, and are not for sale. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses/ This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #108 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jul 18 19:00:13 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id TAA12331; Sat, 18 Jul 1998 19:00:13 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 19:00:13 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807182300.TAA12331@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #109 TELECOM Digest Sat, 18 Jul 98 19:00:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 109 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Focal Communications Corporation's Response to Ameritech (dmeldazis Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging (Blake Droke) Funny PBX Problem Involving Voicemail (Robert G. Schaffrath) Identification of Pacific Telephone Area (Pat Bradley) Spam Law Bares Teeth (Monty Solomon) Incoming 800 Numbers (Pete Holsberg) Massachusetts Equivalent of "Filed Rate Doctrine?" (Jeremy Greene) My Experience With AT&T's IP Telephony Product (Joseph Norton) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: dmeldazis@focal.com Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 13:31:29 -0500 Subject: Focal Communications Corporation's Response to Ameritech CHICAGO, July 13, 1998 - Focal Communications Corporation (Focal), a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), attributes the following statement to Robert Taylor, Focal's President and CEO, regarding an Ameritech complaint filed with the ICC claiming that Focal is improperly utilizing phone numbers. "This accusation is truly absurd. The numbers speak for themselves. We have fewer codes within the 847 area than other carriers. Of the 679 codes assigned in 847, Ameritech has assigned itself approximately 50% or 336 codes. Further review shows that several other entities serving the 847 area are assigned many more codes than Focal; 57 codes to one, 43 to another, 40 each to two others and 31 to another, and on and on. Focal ranks 11th on this list. Furthermore, Focal understands that some of these CLECs do not currently utilize any of the codes in the provisioning of local phone service in the Chicago area. Focal's 10 codes hardly "devour" the 847 area code as Ameritech alleges. "As of March 31st, Illinois Bell had nearly 7 million access lines in service while Focal had 11,535 access lines in service. This represents an access line ratio of 0.00167. We are amazed but hardly surprised that Ameritech would choose to attack Focal, one of the smallest of all their competitors in Illinois. Focal made clear its concerns regarding the proposed SBC/Ameritech merger in a June 24th testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee claiming that the merger would make life much more difficult for CLECs. Focal urged Congress against approving the proposed merger without significant safeguards to protect competition. Now, Ameritech is bringing the weight of its huge monopolistic corporation against Focal. "It is clear that Ameritech's strategy is to litigate and to challenge every issue with its small competitors in order to drive them out of the market place. Focal will continue to focus its resources on providing high-quality local phone service, while Ameritech attempts to protect its aging monopoly through the court system. Ameritech appears to believe that local competition is illegal competition. Its actions underscore the concern expressed by others with the proposed SBC/ Ameritech merger: If they act in an anti-competitive manner now, what will they be like to deal with if they're allowed to merge with SBC resulting in a monopoly controlling one third of all telephone lines in the United States? "Ameritech is clearly trying to use heavy-handed legal tactics to win back customers it has lost in the market place. Ameritech has more lawyers at its beck and call than Focal has employees. Ameritech in its complaint, has called Focal's use of numbers to provide one of its services an "illegal scheme", yet Ameritech provides similar services." Focal has been assigned numbers in accordance with the North American Numbering Plan, which is administered by Ameritech in the Chicago area. Focal has as many numbers as it needs to comply with and compete with Ameritech's arcane rate structures, 911 system architectures and number portability requirements. Ameritech in its unfounded attack has specifically singled out Focal's use of numbers as one of the reasons that the 847 area code will soon be exhausted. On Tuesday, July 14th, Robert Taylor will discuss the anticompetitive impact of the proposed Ameritech/SBC merger before the Telecommunications Policy Committee of the ICC. The day-long meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. CST and conclude at approximately 3:30 p.m. CST, on the fifth floor, room C-500, of the State of Illinois Building, 160 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago. Focal Communications Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is providing sophisticated telecommunications users with facilities based, switched local telephone service. Focal currently serves 6 MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas) in Chicago and New York, is under construction in 22 MSAs and on track to reach a total of 43 MSAs in ten metropolitan markets by the end of 1999. Focal is privately held by several major institutions and its employees. Focal offers unique communication services to major corporations, Internet Service Providers and value-added partners. Focal is focused on providing customers with the diversity, reliability and sophistication that they demand. Additional information can be found on Focal's website at www.focal.com. ------------------------------ From: Blake Droke Subject: Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 00:00:21 -0500 Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc. Reply-To: bdroke@sprintmail.com webmaster@areacode-info.com wrote: > Here's how it works: Ameritech, as the local phone number > administrator, doles out phone numbers at Focal's request. Under > prescribed industry guidelines, those phone numbers are to be used > in the areas in which they're assigned. For example, 847 numbers would > normally be given to consumers and businesses in the 847 area code, > 630 numbers to customers in that area code, and so on. > But in Focal's scheme, the local numbers are typically assigned to > business locations in downtown Chicago. When an employee of those > companies, working from home, calls what would appear to be a "local" > phone number in the outlying suburbs -- such as Schaumburg or Aurora > -- the call is actually sent to an office location miles away in > Chicago, thereby tying up a phone number that could be assigned to > customers in those suburban areas. > Focal is amassing "a large store of local telephone number prefixes > for Virtual Office purposes ... in areas where it does not provide > local exchange service," the complaint says, which "unnecessarily > aggravates the mounting problem of telephone number exhaustion > within area codes." > We're concerned that this may be the tip of the iceberg in how phone > numbers are being misassigned," said Whitley. "We're strong > advocates of local phone competition and support companies wanting > to enter the local phone market. But competition is no excuse for > any company to bend the rules to disadvantage consumers." I'm wondering, how does this differ from the Remote Call Forward service that has been available for years, from both CLECs and ILECs? Take for an example in my area (Memphis, TN), many, many businesses in Olive Branch, MS (about 14 mi. southeast of downtown Memphis) have RCF numbers from the Memphis Main central office. Olive Branch is a long distance call for most Memphis telephone customers, but most businesses there get RCF numbers in the Memphis Main exchange. For example, I have a pizza restaurant coupon, listing all their numbers in Metro Memphis, when it comes to their Olive Branch location they list the number as: Mississippi: 601-895-xxxx Tennessee: 901-527-xxxx Both numbers are routed to the same place. This is an agreement between two ILECs, BellSouth in Memphis and CenturyTel in Olive Branch. (Despite the state line, both areas are in the Memphis LATA.) Is this article saying that CLECs should be barred from such arrangements? It does seem strange that ILECs have been doing this sort of thing for years, and it didn't seem to be a waste of numbers, until a CLEC tried to get into the act. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, there is no difference, except that Ameritech does it and gets away with it (legally, I might add; there is nothing unlawful about the type of service offered) while the competition is not supposed to market the same product or service. Let's look at one of the oldest service offerings available: foreign exchange service, also known as an FX line. An associate of mine who has operated the bus station in Skokie, IL for a number of years has the usual type of phone service one would expect from the local exchange (a couple of public information lines and a fax/modem line) which is 847-675. He also has had for many years an FX line out of 773-539. The reason for having this number is obscured by the passing of time; it was set up many years ago when Bell's local calling rates made it a useful thing for calls to/from downtown Chicago. It began in service as 312-539 and became 773 when that conversion occurred. I urged him to disconnect it and put an additional Skokie-based line in its place (there are times an additional line is really needed), and when Ameritech found out, they encouraged him to keep the (now-days) mostly unused FX line for umpteen extra dollars per month. So how about it? Is Ameritech squandering numbers and depriving someone physically in 773-land of a number by encouraging an 847 person to keep their unneeded FX line? No, Ameritech does not waste numbers. Only their competitors waste numbers to hear them tell it. I hope Focal Communications stomps them good on this one. I have problems of my own with the CLECs, but as usual Ameritech is trying to play the role of innocent middleman in the affair. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Robert G. Schaffrath Subject: Funny PBX Problem With Voicemail Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 12:08:26 -0400 Organization: Totally Disorganized A rather humerous problem occurred recently with a Lucent Partner ACS (with Partner Mail VS) phone system. I had installed this system in a friends office three months ago and it had been working fine. One of the features he wanted enabled for his voice mailbox was outcalling so he could be notified offsite when there was voicemail waiting for him. About three weeks ago, his secretary, who uses the system mailbox #10, had several strange messages which appeared to be corrupted. When you played the message the system would tell you it was transferring you to extension 11 (which is my friends extension). There were several of these "corrupted" messages and due to the problems I decided to do a reset of the mailbox. The problem seemed to go away for a awhile but started up again. Lucent technical support had been contacted by folks in the office and were told that it sounded like the voicemail hard drive had a bad spot and that I should call them up for instructions on how to relocate the system mailbox to another location on the hard drive. Well I got into the office this Friday and my friend said he had 40 messages waiting on his voicemail. When we proceeded to play them, the system would come back with additional instructions that did not work when you pressed the button you were told. I cleaned out the mailbox and then proceded to do some unrelated work while the office was empty. While I was sitting in an adjacent room, I kept hearing my friends extension ring. With no one else in the office, I decided to do a remote call pickup and was surprised to hear the voicemail system talking. I hung up and decided to get Lucent on the phone as soon as everyone returned. I got a different technician who said the problem with the voicemail system was that the system was recording its own instructions probably due to cellphone calls which were being dropped. I was told there is no workaround but that anytime we pressed 0 to hear a message and got the voicemail system that it was only a recording and not the actual system. While we were talking about this, the secretaries phone rang and the LCD display said "Voice Messaging System". I was rather surprised and asked the attendant what was going on. She said it sounded like outcalling was in operation. When I said I did not think anyone had activated outcalling, my friend who was on another call and overheard me nodded his head yes. At that same moment, the display suddenly changed to indicate it was forwarding the call to extension 11. The technician immediately had me turn off call forwarding and then advised me to check the outcalling setup. This is were it gets funny. Three weeks ago my friend had decided to test the outcalling feature by having it call his 800 service. He had entered 1-800-###-#### but had forgotten to dial a 9 first. The result was that the system was dialing extension 18 rather than outside the system. Extension 18 currently has no phone attached so after 4 rings it would forward to the secretary. When she was not in to answer messages, the voicemail system would leave a message on her mailbox confusing the heck out of us and lead us to believe it was corrupted (during the day, no messages appeared in my friends mailbox because she handled all of his calls). This past Thurdsay, because of the suspected corruption with her mailbox, she decided to forward all calls from her extension (#10) to my friends extension (#11) so that his voicemail would pickup the message and nothing would be lost. Well what wound up happening was: a message would get stored in mailbox 11. The voicemail system would initiate a call to extension 18. After 4 rings extension 18 would forward to the secretary on extension 10. Extension 10 would forward to extension 11 which would answer the phone and dutifully accept the message from the voicemail system. It would then proceed to initiate outcalling to extension 18 and start the whole process all over again! Needless to say, it was an interesting afternoon. | Robert G. Schaffrath, N2JTX | mailto:rschaffrath@acm.org | | (914) 425-9819 or (516) 676-2971 | mailto:rschaffrath@computer.org | | http://tonto.netsurftech.com/rgs | mailto:rschaffrath@ieee.org | | ALL SPAM IS REPORTED IMMEDIATELY! | mailto:n2jtx@weca.org | ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 11:25:31 -0700 From: Pat Bradley Subject: Identification of Pacific Telephone Area Would you have any idea how I could find out the boundaries of the service area of Pacific Bell for the phonebook area known as "Campbell, Saratoga and San Martin" of Santa Clara County, California in l979? Or, even at the present date of 1998? I have called over thirty people at Pacific Bell and they will not tell me what geographical area this phone company services. I need to know if it was done by boundaries of the cities, by zip code area, etc. Info is crucial to us. Thanks for any help you can give me. Pat Smith email pat@bayarea.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 23:12:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Spam Law Bares Teeth http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/13783.html Spam Law Bares Teeth by Ed Murrieta 2:10pm 16.Jul.98.PDT Anti-spam advocates welcomed a Seattle man's US$200 payoff today from a company that sent him unsolicited commercial email. The settlement is apparently the first of its kind under Washington state's new anti-spam law. "It's a good example of why we support the private right of action," said John Mozena, co-founder of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail. "Obviously when you give people a financial incentive to track down the sender of a spam, they're going to work harder and maybe more people will work at it," said Mozena. Washington's anti-spam law, which went into effect 11 June, allows recipients of unsolicited commercial email to collect $500 in damages for each piece of spam. Internet service providers may collect up to $1,000. The law applies only to email sent or received from Washington state. Bruce Miller, a contributor to computer publications, had received a spam from an Oregon outfit pitching Tahitian Noni Juice. He called an 800-number listed in the spam and received an order form for the product. After a bit more research, he printed out the original spam and wrote to juice distributor Stan Smith, essentially threatening legal action, but adding: "p.s. I'm willing to settle for $200." This past weekend, he received a money order from another distributor of Noni Juice who had come up with a juice promotion spam scheme. "I'm sure people will be very happy to see somebody claim a victory for the Net," said Miller, who spent about an hour seeking recourse. John James, a California distributor who described himself as someone with a part-time job who is just trying to make a buck, said he paid Miller only because he wanted to keep Smith out of trouble -- since it wasn't his idea to spam. "Bruce Miller was using extortion and blackmail techniques against Stan," James told the Seattle Times. "If Bruce thinks he's striking a big blow at a spammer, he's wrong." Anti-spam advocates would have to concede that point to James. "It sounds like this guy [Miller] was lucky in his ability to narrow where this spammer was and locate him quickly," said George Nemeyer, a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers' Coalition. "Others probably won't find the spammers as [quickly]. Going after the spammer is a gamble." It's a gamble that Miller is apparently willing to take again. He said he's spent an additional 12 hours sending "demand" letters to 30 other spammers. "Obviously it is a landmark," Nemeyer said of the payment Miller received. "[But] I'm cautions to say that it will open the floodgates. What I do hope is that word will go around to spammers that at least Washington will prevent them from doing it. But then again, spammers have proven themselves to be notoriously clueless." Nevada has a law in place which penalizes spammers who don't comply with recipients' requests to be removed from lists, and anti-spam legislation is being considered in Congress. But anti-spam advocates say Washington's state law may be the only type that truly protects consumers. "If the FTC or some other regulatory bureaucracy were charged with investigating spams such as this, it would be years before anything happened," Mozena said. "This shows that when consumers are given the right to defend themselves against unscrupulous marketers they will exercise the right themselves and don't need the government to intervene," Nemeyer said. "But the problems with junk email is that under present federal law there's no clear legal right defined to allow consumers to recover their costs or damages." ------------------------------ From: pjh@mccc.edu (Pete Holsberg) Subject: Incoming 800 Numbers Date: 16 Jul 1998 18:14:06 GMT Organization: The College on the Other Side of U. S. 1 We have a terminal server with 30 incoming analog phone lines. We also have faculty and administrators who travel and dial in to get their email. The college reimburses them for the long distance charges. Recently, a VP indicated that the process he had to go through when on a trip was quite awkward, and asked if there was any kind of simple incoming 800 number that we could get. We can give up one of the 30 lines for a dedicated 800 line, but I wonder if there's any other option. I'll eventually turn this over to our chief telephone operator but she knows as little about computer communications as I do about phone systems, so any help you can offer will be appreciated. Thanks, Pete [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All you need is a single 800 number which is programmed to ring on the first line in your existing hunt group. That is, whatever number you tell your users to dial in on, have the 800 number programmed to call in on that number as well. Now, you will be able to receive as many 800 calls at the same time as you have lines otherwise available. Do not bother with a 'dedicated' line for the 800 number; those are expensive and not really needed. The only reason you might want to use a dedicated 800 line would be if you want only one 800 call at a time, and if you want to have that line go through a special password-checking process so you can easily detirmine *who* made the incoming call for the purpose of billing it or charging it against their budget, etc. In that case, that one line would terminate on your computer on a port that required extra valid- ation of some sort. But you can still accomplish the same thing with a 'regular, non- dedicated' 800 number by taking the *last* number in your hunt group and having the 800 number routed to it instead. Then, if someone is calling in via 800, that line will be busy and subsequent calls will have no where to go. Have that one line go through whatever special treatment you want on your network to specifically identify the caller. In other words, use the first line in the hunt group if you want the flexibility of receiving many 800 calls at one time (but having no real way to separate them from 'regular' callers for the purpose of requiring additional billing information from them or putting any additional restrictions on them) or use one of the back lines (or *the* very last line where no further hunting is possible) and the user cannot 'get lost' among all the other callers. Be sure and tell the 800 carrier you want real-time ANI if possible for billing purposes, or at the very least a full printout with each month bill showing where calls came from, and at what time, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jeremy Greene Subject: Massachusetts Equivalent of "Filed Rate Doctrine?" Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 14:04:14 -0400 Organization: UltraNet Communications , an RCN Company http://www.ultranet.com/ I am familiar with the recent Supreme Court ruling affirming that, as a result of the "Filed Rate Doctrine," the tariff a telco has filed with the FCC is the only contract that binds the provider and the customer with regard to rates and services. My questing is: does anyone know if the State of Massachusetts has adopted a similar attitude towards tariffs? Also, in Massachusetts, are customers "conclusively presumed" to know what theses rates are? I have tried to obtain answers from the Mass. Dept. of Telecommuni- cations and Energy, but the employees there are not very informed, and their lawyer will not be able to respond to my question until next week. One of their employees said that she thought the tariff did not weigh very heavily in my case because my case involves a business buying from a CLEC. [As opposed to a residential customer buying from an ILEC.] She seemed to be saying that we and the CLEC could have a contractual agreement and it wouldn't have to be filed as a tariff. I thought that _all_ providers were required to file tariffs and charge customers accordingly. Thanks for any advice you can give ... -Jeremy [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You talk about the public serpents who staff PUC offices and how ill-informed they are, you should try Illinois sometime and the Illinois Commerce Commission office in Chicago. If you call them to complain about something Ameritech did or said, they'll either tell you to call Ameritech to straighten it out (duh, been there, tried that) or they'll tell you someone will get back to you and they will have someone from Ameritech call (of course, already tipped off due to the source that you are, in Ameritech's parlance, a Complainer) to resolve it. On occassion, a staff member may talk to you, or rather, talk down to you, and tell you why Ameritech is correct in whatever it was they did or said. For years, and maybe still, most telcos have three categories of customer service priorities for how problems get resolved: the first priority are the Commission complaints; i.e. those customers who have gone to or called the PUC. The PUC will almost invariably call someone at telco and tell them to 'work it out with the customer' however needed. Rarely will the PUC ever specifically order telco to do anything on a customer-by-customer basis. They 'just assume' telco is handling things correctly. The second priority at telco is handling Management complaints; that is, those customers who have appealed to the Chairman or the President's Office. No one ever actually *speaks directly with* the chairman or president of course; response to the customer comes from a highly-placed flunky who is authorized to make responses in the name of the chairman or president ('Mr. Chairman received your letter/phone message and was quite concerned about your problem; because he is very busy at the moment but wanted you to have an immediate response he asked me to reply/take your phone call ...'). Chances are likely the highly-placed flunky used to be (in actuality still is) a customer service representative like all the rest but with a difference. S/he is entitled to use the name of the company's officers in a limited way to resolve whatever the Complainer wants done, and usually has the authority to make write-offs with a higher dollar amount than the 'average' representative. Last, as time permits each day after responding to the Commission complaints and the Management complaints are the subscribers who dialed in on the phone and have been waiting on hold 'for the next available representative' to assist them. So even though a lot of PUC staffs may be as good as useless, still they hold enough authority over telco that it makes sense to use them for complaints now and then, even if they do nothing more than call a supervisor at telco and ask them to 'look at his account and then call him back and try to satisfy him.' PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Norton Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 18:12:34 -0400 Subject: My Experience With AT&T's IP Telephony Product Hi all: Recently, I signed up with AT&T's Connect 'N Save service. This is AT&T's initial entry into the IP Telephony business. I would like to share my initial impressions and findings with the list. Availability The AT&T Connect 'N Save service is only being offered as a limited market trial in Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco. You do not need to live in these cities to use the service, however, you probably will not benefit much from the service unless you can dial the local access number without incurring additional charges. The service is accessed via various local access numbers (see AT&T's Web Site at for a list of the three access numbers currently available). Otherwise, the service works much like any prepaid phone card. AT&T says they plan to add portability to the service in the near future. Initial Signup There are two ways to sign up an AT&T Connect 'N Save account. The preferred method is to use your Web-browser. To do this, point your browser to and follow the links. For those of you who do not have a browser capable of accessing "secure" sites (url's beginning with "https:") or those who do not have a computer AT&T provides a toll-free number for customer service. Call 1-800-345-0995 Monday-Friday between 9:00 A.M. and 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time for more information or to sign up. In either case, the charges for the service must be billed to a major credit card. You will be asked to choose a prepaid amount of $25.00, $50.00 or $100.00 and this amount will be charged to your card before you can use the service. You can replenish your account at any time by using the Web form or calling Customer Service. You will also be asked some questions (e.g. First Name, Last Name, E-Mail address etc.). There are a few answers that are optional--you are asked for (but not required to give) your Social Security number for account validation when speaking to a Customer Service rep in the future. After you have provided the required information, you will be given your account number, pin and local access number and should be able to start using the service within minutes. Rates This is probably the major drawback for this service. The domestic rate for making calls varies depending on the city you access the service from. Currently, the rate for calling from San Francisco is 7.5 cents per minute, 8.0 cents per minute from Boston and 8.5 cents per minute from Atlanta. AT&T does not recomend using the service for international calls, instead, they recomend you use a rate plan such as AT&T's International One-Rate plan. AT&T says they may offer additional discounts on international calls later. After the marketing trial ends on September 30, 1998, AT&T will also charge a $2.00/month minimum for those who have not used their account for the past month. This will cause your account to eventually "run down" if you do not use the service for a long period of time. Usage Basically, the service is pretty strait forward. You dial the local access number and are prompted for your account number and pin. The system tells you your current account balance and prompts you for the number you wish to call. Dial the area code and telephone number for domestic calls. Dial 011 plus country code, city code and number for international calls. The system will tell you how much time you have remaining for the current call and then puts the call through. There is no provision for making sequence calls. Technical issues The audio quality of the service could be said to be a little better than that experienced usingmost digital cellphones. This is due to the audio being highly compressed for transmission over AT&T's IP network. If either party sends DTMF tones, they will be decoded, sent over the network as part of the data stream and re-encoded at the far end. This is because the DTMF tones can be slightly distorted in transit due to the audio being highly compressed. An unpleasant side-effect with this is that, due to the way this "feature" is implemented, the DTMF tone is re-sent as a short burst of a few hundred milliseconds at the far end no matter how long the person at the other end sustains the tone. Also, the voice path of the sender of the DTMF is muted as long as the tone is sustained. This may make it impossible for a user of the service to use any system (e.g. some answering machines) which requires long DTMF tones. Calls from all three cities currently seem to be routed through the same AT&T 4-ESS machine (011-T). The irony is that, the closer you are to this particular 4-e machine, the more expensive the call will be. Of course, AT&T may route calls to other 4-E's during conjested periods, but, it's impossible to be conclusive on this. It would seem to be more efficient to route calls through the IP network to the 4-E closest to the destination number rather than sending all calls to 011-T and then routing the call in the normal manner. Of course, this may change as the trial progresses. Disclaimer The above observations are merely those of the author. For official information, refer to . --Joseph (Joe) Norton N4ZWX Dalton, Georgia, U.S.A.--The Carpet Capital of the World! Spellchecker not found. Press --[DEL: to continue ... ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #109 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Thu Jul 23 04:41:14 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id EAA12484; Thu, 23 Jul 1998 04:41:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 04:41:14 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199807230841.EAA12484@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #110 Subject: TELECOM Digest Latest Issue TELECOM Digest Wed, 22 Jul 98 21:24:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 110 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Nurse Fired in Hotline Mixup (Jim Weiss) The Ultimate Long-Distance Combo Deal (jarettk@removethis.aval.com) Florida to Weigh $5.5 Mllion Fine For AT&T Slamming (Monty Solomon) Area Code 314 to Split Again (areacode-info.com webmaster) Telecom Update (Canada) #141, July 20, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) Line Quality For Modem Connections (Steve Liu) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: NBJimWeiss@aol.com (Jim Weiss) Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 16:47:19 EDT Subject: Nurse Fired in Hotline Mixup In a message dated 98-07-19 11:52:51 EDT, AOL News writes: Nurse Fired in Hotline Mixup .c The Associated Press By DEBORAH HASTINGS FONTANA, Calif. (AP) - Nurse Linda Reno was working the night shift at San Bernardino Community Hospital when a distraught man called. He said he was the convicted stalker of a teen-age girl. He needed a toll-free crisis hotline, someone to talk to when he felt manic. Ms. Reno searched a resource directory kept at the nurse's station but found nothing. So she looked in the white pages. In the newest GTE phone book, under ``Crisis - A 24-Hour Emergency Help Line,'' Ms. Reno found an 800 number. She gave it to him. That simple act launched a series of events that got her fired. It also highlights a problem the telephone industry says it can't do much about: the reassignment of defunct crisis line numbers to the adult sex industry. The man dialed the number. ``Get it hot ... with the naughtiest girls around,'' said the tape-recorded female voice, who then explained how a conversation with an underage girl or a porn queen could be charged to a credit card. The man called the hospital back and complained. When Ms. Reno learned about his angry call, she feared she'd taken the number down wrong. Double-checking, she confirmed that, yes, she'd given the listed crisis line number. But it had been disconnected, the number reassigned. She set out to solve the problem. On her day off, she called phone companies, the state Public Utilities Commission and the attorney general's office. The calls, she said, were exercises in futility. ``No one was listening to me,'' she recalled. ``I said, `Listen, this has to be taken care of right away. Anyone in a crisis, if they called that number and got a sex tape, that could be their last call.' ``I just kept getting transferred, or referred to other numbers. At one point, I think I ended up in the warehouse where the phone books are printed.'' So, she called her local newspaper. On May 28, The Sun of San Bernardino ran a front-page story about the hotline, and quoted Ms. Reno. The next day, she was fired. ``They said I put the hospital in a bad light,'' the 15-year employee said. ``But I just don't understand how that can be.'' A hospital spokeswoman declined comment but faxed this statement: ``Community Hospital of San Bernardino believes it acted appropriately regarding the situation with this employee.'' Ms. Reno has consulted an attorney and may sue over her dismissal. She is not the only person who tried to get the sex line unplugged. Pat Pina, executive director of Hotline Help Center Inc., a nonprofit crisis intervention service in Orange County, tried in early May to get the number disconnected, based on complaints to her agency. ``AT&T said they couldn't do anything. We complained to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and they said they couldn't do anything,'' Ms. Pina said. She knows of two similar incidents this year, Ms. Pina said. Mental health advocates keep no national statistics on this issue. But they often hear of it. ``If someone is calling a crisis line and they get this stupid, horrendous sex message, it might just push them over the edge,'' said Helen Riddick, who publishes a social services directory for Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Ms. Riddick has distributed a written warning to her customers - including churches, social service agencies, police departments and hospitals - advising them to call numbers before giving them to clients. The sex line in Ms. Reno's case was operated by Network Telephone Services and Pacific Marketing, a phone solicitation firm in Woodland Hills, Calif. Company attorney Dan Coleman said the toll-free number was disconnected May 27, after officials learned of the hotline mix-up from a Sun reporter. ``We obviously wouldn't want to use a number that had been a suicide hotline,'' he said. The crisis line apparently went out of business last July without notifying authorities. Its number reverted to an industry-run pool, from which toll-free numbers are reassigned to new customers. ``To stop this, it's almost impossible,'' Ms. Pina said. ``There's no one policing it. There's no kind of monitoring going on.'' Industry officials acknowledge she is correct. But little can be done, they say. The FCC has little involvement in the highly competitive market for toll-free numbers, said spokeswoman Anna Gomez. Mostly, its regulations affect only how numbers are allocated - on a first-come, first-served basis. There are no rules that prevent a suicide hotline number from being reassigned to a phone sex line. Incorrect phone book listings cannot be changed between publications. The 1998-99 phone books won't be published until fall. ``Outside of removing a bad number from directory assistance, there is nothing GTE can do,'' said spokesman Larry Cox. AT&T spokeswoman Janet Wyles said the phone company has no authority to disconnect numbers under such circumstances or to force customers to change numbers. Ms. Reno, who is divorced and now unemployed at age 53, wonders what can be done for her. ``People say, `You didn't do anything wrong.' But then why did I get fired?'' she asked, her eyes filling with tears. ``I'm the one who's terminated. No one is going to want to hire me.'' A licensed vocational nurse, Ms. Reno says she had never been disciplined in her decade and a half at Community Hospital. She said hospital officials classified her as an ``at will'' employee who worked without a contract and could be fired without reason. The day the Sun story ran, Ms. Reno said she was called to her supervisor's office and told she was immediately suspended. The next day, she was fired. She doesn't regret trying to help. ``I tell you, I felt awful having given that guy a sex line number. Of all people, to give someone like him that number. It must have seemed like a sick joke to him.'' ------------------------------ From: jarettk@removethis.aval.com Subject: The Ultimate Long-Distance Combo Deal Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 21:54:53 GMT Organization: NetVista Info Corp Here's my version of the ultimate discount long distance deal, which uses a combination of two carriers. First, sign up for Sprint's Fridays are Free business service. To do so, you'll have to demonstrate your status as at least a part-time business to Sprint. This is easier to do if you've already filed IRS form SS-4 and gotten your federal tax ID number. If not, you'll have to use a social security number, which is what some sole proprietors use to identify their businesses. Sprint will give you up to $1000 per month of free use on Fridays, for calls within the USA. You have to spend at least $50, or they'll charge you the deficit. As a safety measure, you'd better put a PIC freeze on your line if you plan to rack up the Friday calls! The next step is to apply for several calling cards and give them out to any and all associates who can be trusted to make calls only on Friday, and to reimburse your business for any of those annoying 30-cent payphone surcharges. All calls made within the US on these cards are free on Fridays, except for the payphone surcharges. This multiplies your one business line into many free lines on Fridays. Unless you go absolutely nuts giving out cards, you'll be in no danger of exceeding the $1000 monthly free usage limit. Because international calls are never free, and because Sprint's international rates, while reasonable, are far from the lowest available, you can easily make your $50 minimum on international calls. A side benefit of this approach is that international calls count toward the $50 minimum before the 20% discount is applied. This can lower your minimum usage to as low as $40. What if you make a lot of international calls, and you'd really like to get better rates? Easy: just guesstimate your $40 worth of calls using Sprint, then switch to another service. The one I've found is Quest Communications, at (800) 466-0116. They use IP telephony on their own fiber optic backbone. There's a slight delay, similar to that of a satellite hop. Quest will sign you up without changing your default carrier (you didn't forget the PIC freeze, right?) and you just dial 1010056 in front of your international calls. Their rates to Europe are 40% below Sprint's, and their Caribbean rates are simply amazing. No, I don't have any affiliation with Quest. So there you have it. Spend $40 per month at normal rates to get up to $1000 of free calls on Fridays, and get the very best rates on the rest of your calls. This deal is better than anything to come along since two and a half years ago when when Sprint went temporarily insane and included international calls in Fridays are Free. Keith Jarett jarettk "at" aval.com ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Florida to Weigh $5.5 Million Fine For AT&T Slamming Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 13:30:44 -0400 By Michael Peltier TALLAHASSEE (Reuters) - Florida utility regulators will decide Tuesday if AT&T Corp. should pay $5.5 million for switching customers' phone service without their consent. The Florida Public Service Commission was scheduled to decide how severely to punish the U.S. telecommunications giant as part of its continuing attack on the practice, called slamming. AT&T was the latest target in the commission's efforts to combat an increasingly common practice, PSC spokesman Dick Durbin said. Last year, MCI Communications Corp. agreed to pay $240,000 in fines associated with slamming, and a defunct company called Phone Calls Inc. was fined $860,000. The commission also has drawn up stricter slamming sanctions, which are being challenged by AT&T and the rest of the industry. ``The public service commission has really focused on the problem of slamming here in the last year or so,'' Durbin said. ''We've opened up 14 or 15 dockets against companies.'' Between Jan. 1, 1997 and May 18, 1998, the PSC recorded 183 confirmed cases of slamming against AT&T, Durbin said. In many of the cases, customers were switched back to their original companies and received refunds of a few dollars in response to their formal complaints. Among the complaints was one from a Pensacola, Fla., woman who said her phone service was switched based on a faked signature alleged to have been made by her dead husband. PSC staff members who investigated the complaints determined that AT&T has not gone far enough to shore up its marketing efforts to eliminate slamming and recommended fines of $30,000 per incident. ``It appears to staff that AT&T believes it is more cost-efficient for the company to issue rate adjustments and apologies in response to complaints than to investigate the cause of (and cure) many of its slams,'' staff members wrote in a 52-page recommendation. If the commission approves fines Tuesday, AT&T will be given time to show why such fines are excessive or inappropriate. An AT&T spokeswoman Thursday commended the PSC staff for their attempts to protect consumers but said the proposed fines are ``totally inappropriate.'' ``No other long-distance company has done more to curb this industry-wide problem,'' spokeswoman Julie Spechler said. ''We've said this before, that AT&T is committed to a zero tolerance policy against slamming.'' In March, AT&T proposed a series of anti-slamming procedures, including suspending the use of marketing firms that were not meeting quality standards, she said. In addition, the company has set up a 24-hour slamming resolution center to handle complaints and will charge companies that resell AT&T services if valid complaints are found. ``We have done a lot to clean up our own house,'' Spechler said. ------------------------------ Reply-To: areacode-info.com webmaster From: areacode-info.com webmaster Subject: Area Code 314 to Split Again Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 19:26:49 -0400 314 to Split, Pooling to be Implemented PSC DECIDES 314 AREA CODE ISSUE Jefferson City (July 22, 1998)---The Missouri Public Service Commission has determined that a geographic split and a new area code should be used to alleviate the exhaustion of available telephone numbers in the current 314 area code. Exhaustion is due to occur in the fourth quarter of 1999. At the same time, the Commission has opened a new case to evaluate and implement number conservation measures designed to lengthen the time before number exhaustion occurs again in the St. Louis area. "The Commission has placed this case on an expedited schedule in order that we may quickly evaluate and then implement various number conservation measures to extend the life of these two area codes," stated Commission Chair Sheila Lumpe. Regarding a geographic split for the current 314 area code, the Commission reached its decision based upon the recommendations of the Office of the Public Counsel (OPC) and those citizens who attended local public hearings and/or wrote letters on the issue. The Commission found that evidence concerning customer impacts clearly and unequivocally tipped the scale in favor of a geographic split over an overlay. An overlay had been recommended by several parties in this case. At local public hearings, customers stated it would be simpler and more convenient to continue to dial seven digits for local calling within their own area code than to dial ten digits on every call within both area codes. The Commission noted in its decision: "The customers have made their assessment of these issues clear on the record before the Commission, and the Commission therefore finds that, from the standpoint of customer impacts, a geographic split is preferable to an all services overlay at this time." In its decision, the Commission has determined that the St. Louis principal zone as well as the exchanges of Spanish Lake, Florissant, Hazelwood, Bridgeton, Ferguson, Riverview, Overland, Creve Coeur, Ladue, Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Sappington, Mehlville and Oakville will retain the 314 area code as proposed by the Office of the Public Counsel. A new, yet to be determined, area code will be issued for all of the other exchanges currently in the 314 area code (such as St. Charles, Wentzville, Jonesburg, Washington, Union, DeSoto and Festus). The new area code number assignment will be made by Lockheed Martin, administrator of the North American Numbering Plan. A proposed three-way geographic split was rejected by the Commission because it would result in such small area codes that the benefits of a geographic split would be significantly reduced. It is important to note that even with a geographic split, there will be some customers dialing ten digits to complete a local call (area code + the seven digit telephone number of the called party). For example, subscribing customers of the Metropolitan Calling Plan (MCA) will have to dial ten digits to call to another exchange in the MCA plan if that exchange is in a different area code. That call is still a local call. If the customer can complete the call using the ten digit number without using a 1 in front of the number, that call is still a local call even though it may be in a different area code. The primary advantage with a geographic split is that it retains seven digit local calling, it retains a geographic identity associated with the unique area code, and it minimizes or eliminates claims of competitive disadvantage associated with overlays. A technical committee formed in 1995 to evaluate area codes issues in Missouri has been ordered by the Commission to develop an implementation schedule for the conversion to the new area code for affected customers. That schedule is to include a public education process for the new area code, as well as dates when the permissive dialing period will begin and when mandatory dialing will occur. During the permissive dialing period, a customer can begin using the new area code. In addition, calls placed to the new area code using the old 314 area code would still be completed during the permissive dialing period. A report is to be filed with the Commission no later than August 6, 1998. Number conservation issues: Parties in this case offered a number of methods for conserving number resources including 1,000s block number pooling, sequential number assignment and rate center consolidation. The Commission has determined that none of these methods are ready for immediate implementation. However, the Commission finds that "1000s block number pooling, sequential number assignment and rate center consolidation have significant potential for promoting the efficient utilization of numbering resources in the future and could dramatically prolong the lives of the NPAs (numbering plan areas --- area codes) if implemented as soon as possible." As a result, the Commission has established a separate case for the purpose of addressing the above three methods of number conservation. Parties in this case are to file a sequential number assignment report within three months; a report on rate center consolidation within five months; and number pooling (1000s block number pooling) within seven months. Some of the technical changes that would be required to implement 1000s block number pooling are currently being discussed at the national level and national standards for implementation are being developed. ---0--- Case No. TO-98-212 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 16:50:09 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #141, July 20, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 141: July 20, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * Bell Canada ................. http://www.bell.ca/ * * City Dial Network Services .. http://www.citydial.com/ * * Computer Talk Technology .... http://icescape.com/ * * fONOROLA .................... http://www.fonorola.com/ * * Lucent Technologies ......... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** RSL and Mike Kedar Buy Westel ** Bell Cuts Overseas Rates ** No Regulation for Cableco Internet Rates ** CRTC Prescribes Interim LNP Solution ** Sprint, BC Tel Offer Flat-Rate Calling ** Microcell, Clearnet Sign Up 50,000 Each ** Rogers, TelcoPlus Register as CLECs ** City Dial Buys Montreal Reseller ** BC Tel Bundled Services Approved, Appealed ** New NBTel Business Rates Approved Under Price Caps ** Bell Centrex Changes Rejected ** MT&T Centrex Changes Approved ** MT&T to Test "One-Stop Shopping" for Business Telecom ** U.S. Regulators Okay Teleglobe-Excel Merger ** Stentor Cuts Fees for 900-Number Access ** Videotron to Provide High-Speed Link to Quebec Schools ** QuebecTel Must Consider Requests for New EAS Links ** Cogeco Adopts @Home Internet Service ** Cantel Extending Wireless Data Coast to Coast ** How to Tame the E-Mail Flood ============================================================ RSL AND MIKE KEDAR BUY WESTEL: Long distance carrier Westel Telecommunications, owned by a BC government corporation, has been sold for $55 Million. The buyers are Bermuda-based RSL Communications, headed by Ronald S. Lauder of Estee Lauder cosmetics, and MK Telecom Network Inc., a new company owned by Mike Kedar, the founder of Call-Net. BELL CUTS OVERSEAS RATES: Bell Canada has reduced Advantage Optimum overseas rates by an average of 28%. UK calls anytime now cost 28 cents; calls to Japan are 82 cents. FirstRate residential rates now start at 24 cents for off- peak UK calls. NO REGULATION FOR CABLECO INTERNET RATES: CRTC Telecom Decision 98-9 says that the Commission will not regulate the prices charged by cable TV companies for retail Internet access, or for security, telemetry, videoconferencing, LAN, or WAN services. The CRTC will regulate the rates and terms under which cablecos provide services to other Internet Service Providers. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/decision/1998/d989_0.txt ** Telecom Public Notice CRTC 98-14 seeks comment on the provision and tariffing of high-speed access services provided by cablecos or telcos over cable TV facilities. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9814_0.txt CRTC PRESCRIBES INTERIM LNP SOLUTION: In Telecom Order 98- 678, the CRTC affirms that Local Number Portability is to be available by July 28 in Calgary and Vancouver, and August 31 in Toronto and Montreal. If commercial service on the Lockheed Martin LNP database is not ready by then, competitors may manually input numbers to the Stentor LNP database. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98678_0.txt SPRINT, BC TEL OFFER FLAT-RATE CALLING: ** Sprint Canada now offers residential customers unlimited off-peak calling in Canada for $20/month. Weekday and U.S. calls are 22 cents/minute. ** BC Tel's North American residential plan offers 250 minutes of Canada-U.S. off-peak calling for $22; extra minutes are 22 cents (peak) or 10 cents (off-peak). MICROCELL, CLEARNET SIGN UP 50,000 EACH: ** Microcell's Fido PCS service gained 52,679 new customers in the second quarter, bringing its total to 149,846. (See Telecom Update #128) ** Clearnet signed 52,410 new wireless customers, 35,754 of them for PCS. Its PCS customer base reached 120,462. Clearnet users now receive automatic U.S. roaming. (See Telecom Update #127) ROGERS, TELCOPLUS REGISTER AS CLECS: Rogers Communications and Toronto-based start-up TelcoPlus Communications have registered with the CRTC as Competitive Local Exchange Providers. CITY DIAL BUYS MONTREAL RESELLER: City Dial Network Services has purchased Gescom F.R.L., which provides Extended Area Flat-Rate Calling in Greater Montreal. BC TEL BUNDLED SERVICES APPROVED, APPEALED: On July 7, the CRTC approved BC Tel Solutions for Small Business and BC Tel Residential Package, which bundle a single access line, one hour of LD service, and up to three SmartTouch or Integrated Voice Messaging services. ** The Canadian Cable Television Association appealed this approval on July 8. The Commission will consider this appeal together with the earlier appeal of telco bundled services filed by a group of competitors (see Telecom Update #134). http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98669_0.txt NEW NBTEL BUSINESS RATES APPROVED UNDER PRICE CAPS: On July 10, the CRTC set NBTel business line rates at $31.10 (single lines) and $54.50 (more than four lines) retroactive to May 19. These rates comply with the existing Price Cap formula. NBTel's application to revise the formula is still under consideration. BELL CENTREX CHANGES REJECTED: The CRTC has turned down two applications by Bell Canada to revise its Centrex tariffs: ** Telecom Order 98-680 rejects a new "Centrex Essentials" package for customers with under 10 lines, on the grounds that it would not be available for resale, and the rates in Band D (rural and remote areas) would not cover Bell's costs. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98680_0.txt ** Telecom Order 98-702 rejects Bell's proposed restructuring of Centrex service charges as "unjustly discriminatory against Centrex resellers." http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98702_0.txt MT&T CENTREX CHANGES APPROVED: CRTC Telecom Order 98-668 approves an MT&T proposal to simplify and reduce rates for its small Centrex (under 29 lines) service. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98668_0.txt MT&T TO TEST "ONE-STOP SHOPPING" FOR BUSINESS TELECOM: In September, MT&T will begin customer trials of integrated billing for business local telephone service, long distance, wireless, paging, and Internet services. Trial participants will also have a single point of contact for sales and customer service. U.S. REGULATORS OKAY TELEGLOBE-EXCEL MERGER: Teleglobe and Excel Communications have been granted early termination of the waiting period for their merger required by U.S. antitrust legislation. STENTOR CUTS FEES FOR 900-NUMBER ACCESS: Charitable organizations signing up for Stentor's Advantage 900 now pay a $350 application fee, reduced from $1,500. The same reduction applies to qualified business or government organizations. VIDEOTRON TO PROVIDE HIGH-SPEED LINK TO QUEBEC SCHOOLS: Videotron Telecom will provide 10 megabit fiber access to the schools of the Marie-Victorin School Board in Greater Montreal and the Decouvreurs board in Sainte-Foy. QUEBECTEL MUST CONSIDER REQUESTS FOR NEW EAS LINKS: QuebecTel asked the CRTC in February to approve a moratorium on all new requests for extended area service links for 1998, so that it could develop a new EAS rate structure. In Telecom Order 98-689, the CRTC denies the moratorium request. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98689_0.txt COGECO ADOPTS @HOME INTERNET SERVICE: Cogeco Cable has bought an 18% stake in @Home Canada, which caches popular Internet sites to provide faster service, and will relaunch its Internet service under the @Home name in September. (See Telecom Update #78) CANTEL EXTENDING WIRELESS DATA COAST TO COAST: Rogers Cantel has announced plans to complete most of its Mobitex wireless data network from Halifax to Victoria by the end of the year. (See Telecom Update #122) HOW TO TAME THE E-MAIL FLOOD: The July-August issue of Telemanagement explains how to optimize your handling of increasing volumes of customer e-mail: ** "New Management Tools Help Tame the E-Mail Flood," by John Riddell ** "Preparing Your Call Center to Handle Customer E-Mail," by Todd Tanner To subscribe to Telemanagement, call 1-800-263-4415 ext 225, or visit http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week. Point your browser to http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: Steve Liu Subject: Line Quality For Modem Connections Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 14:52:10 -0400 Hello, I just got a 56k modem and have still not been able to ever get any connection above 26.4kbs. I understand that 56kbs is actually not possible currently but I expected at least 40kbs. So, I called Bell Atlantic about this and asked if there was anything that can be done and the CSR just told me that the lines are only guaranteed for 9.6kbs, is this true? She said that nothing can be done unless I get an ISDN line? Does this mean that I have no chance of getting connection above 26.4kbs unless I pay more for ISDN? I find this incredible because so many people have 56k modem or at least 28.8 modem and I have trouble believing that everybody would just put up with getting less than what is possible and not be able to do anything to get better connection. What should I do? Thanks, Steve Liu liu@amarex.com Product Manager - Amarex Technology Inc. Phone: (212) 759-0838 Fax: (212) 888-2386 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #110 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 23 22:52:13 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id WAA27299; Thu, 23 Jul 1998 22:52:13 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 22:52:13 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807240252.WAA27299@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #111 TELECOM Digest Thu, 23 Jul 98 22:52:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 111 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Payphone Fee on 800 Numbers (Louis M. Taff) Seattle Man Makes Spammer Pay (Monty Solomon) Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging (Jack Decker) Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging (Fred Goldstein) Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging (Operator) Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging (John Gilbert) Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging (P. Stemwedel) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Louis M. Taff Subject: Re: Payphone Fee on 800 Numbers Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 12:31:22 -0400 Pat - I sent this response to a comp.dcom.telecom posting a few weeks ago. However, I haven't seen it appear, and since I've had some trouble in past sending mail from my browser, I thought I'd give it another try. I've emailed the original poster directly, but thought others might be interested as well. Lou Taff Barton Fisher wrote: > This fee has added almost 30% to our telephone bill. Actually, we > would perfer not to accept any calls from a payphone. Currently we > are on four T-1's with WorldCom. They do not (can not or will not) > offer us blocking. I'm ready to switch to a company that can provide > this feature. > Any help out there? > Bart I forwarded this posting to people who should know, and I was told that AT&T offers the ability to block calls from payphones. Email me if you have a problem ordering this service from AT&T. Lou Taff: ltaff@att.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 10:04:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Seattle Man mMkes Spammer Pay http://www.seattletimes.com/news/local/html98/spam_071598.html by Peter Lewis Seattle Times staff reporter Chalk one up for the anti-spam forces. A Seattle man is celebrating a $200 money order he received after demanding payment from a Salem, Ore., distributor of Tahitian Noni Juice that pitched the product over the Internet using unsolicited commercial e-mail, popularly known as spam. Bruce Miller, a longtime contributor to computer publications, thinks he may be the first person in the state to collect under Washington's new anti-spam law, which went into effect June 11. It outlaws unsolicited commercial e-mail that contains false information about how it moves across the Internet, which most spam does, experts say. When Miller received the Noni Juice solicitation last month, he telephoned the 800 number mentioned in the e-mail. He asked for more information about the product, which was pitched as a cure-all, and from Stan Smith, the Salem-based independent distributor, Miller received a packet in the mail that included an address for ordering. Miller then did a bit more research on the distributor, printed out the original spam, and sent a letter demanding compensation. He cited Washington's new law, which provides that individuals may recover up to $500, and Internet Service providers $1,000, or actual damages, for each piece of unwanted spam. All told, Miller figures he spent about an hour on his personal enforcement action. Miller decided he would settle for $200, figuring it was fair compensation, and also that the spammer might view it as a reasonable sum to avoid paying more. This past weekend, Miller received the $200 money order. It was paid for by John James of Orange County, Calif., another distributor of Noni Juice. It was James who came up with the idea of using e-mail to promote the product. In a telephone interview last night, James said he paid Miller only because he wanted to keep Smith "out of trouble" since it wasn't his idea to use mass e-mailing. "Bruce Miller was using extortion and blackmail techniques against Stan," James contended. "If Bruce thinks he's striking a big blow at a spammer, he's wrong." James said he paid $99 to send 100,000 e-mails around the country, and got 20 responses, which more than covered his investment. "We're just people with part-time jobs trying to make a buck, and that (the e-mail promotion) was an experiment," he said. Still, James said that in the future, he'll stick to "safe lists," meaning he'll send only to recipients who have specifically consented to receive bulk e-mails. In the meantime, Miller has posted a notice of his victory to an Internet newsgroup, and in less than 24 hours, he has received more than two dozen congratulatory messages. Miller also received congratulations from Washington state Assistant Attorney General Paula Selis, who pushed for the new law and may be filing enforcement actions on behalf of consumers. "To my knowledge, this is the first time it (payment from a spammer) has happened," Selis said. "It's a fabulous result, and I think it's empowering to individual recipients (of spam). I hope they take Bruce's experience as an example and run with it." Miller said he has about 30 other "demand" letters outstanding to other spammers, on which he has spent an additional 12 hours or so in complaint and collection efforts. "I'm sure people will be very happy to see somebody claim a victory for the Net," he said. Peter Lewis' phone message number is 206-464-2217. His e-mail address is: plewis@seattletimes.com Copyright ) 1998 The Seattle Times Company ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 13:23:55 -0400 From: Jack Decker Subject: Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging On Fri, 17 Jul 1998 03:49:48 -0400, webmaster@areacode-info.com wrote: > CHICAGO -- Consumers and businesses in Chicago's numerous area codes > are being shortchanged by one local phone company's misuse of scarce > phone numbers, Ameritech is charging in a complaint filed today with > the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) Every so often it's nice to have an example of how a company like Ameritech can put a spin on something to make it sound like their position is the right one, even though they're dead wrong. Apparently they realize that the ICC is going to see through their interpretation, but they are hoping that the telephone-illiterate public won't, so they are cranking up the PR machine on this one. If I'm reading the article correctly, all that the competitors are doing is offering FX ("Foreign Exchange") service. This is something that almost all telephone companies, including the baby Bells that became Ameritech, used to offer through at least the first part of the 70's, and possibly well into the 80's. It was a service where one could obtain a local line from a distant phone exchange and use it as though you were actually located in the same city as the exchange (with no toll charge on calls placed or received via that line). Generally, you only paid mileage charges on the line, plus some additional charges for equipment to extend the local loop. What you did not pay was any kind of per-minute charge. That all changed sometime in the last couple decades, when Ameritech discontinued the flat rate FX service in favor of a revised service with per-minute charges. Those that had the old FX service could in many cases keep it (and I believe that you can still find pre-divestiture FX service installed in a few places), but if a business moved or went out of business, they were migrated to the new version of FX with per-minute charges attached. Many businesses found it cheaper to simply place outgoing calls via a discount long distance service, and receive calls via a Remote Call Forwarding (RCF) line. Now it appears that one of Ameritech's competitors has discovered that there is still a desire to purchase the old-style FX service, and if I'm reading between the lines correctly, that is what they are offering. Of course Ameritech would hate this because it cuts into the little local call gouging scheme they have set up in Chicago (isn't it true that in the metropolitan Chicago area, any call of over 8 miles distance is charged a per-minute rate?). It has absolutely nothing to do with any shortage of area codes, but that's the only way they can frame the issue to make their side plausible to the general public. It has everything to do with Ameritech's Chicagoland cash cow, which is now being gored. In any other state, I can't imagine that the PUC would fall for this for a moment. But Illinois is a very strange state politically, and if Ameritech has an "in" with the right people, they may be able to hamstring their competition's efforts temporarily, at least until that company can appeal to a higher authority. I can't imagine that Ameritech can make this stick - after all, if a competitor wants to offer different local calling areas than Ameritech does, or FX lines, or any other service, it ought to be none of Ameritech's business. That would be like AT&T telling Sprint that they can't offer free Fridays because of some trumped-up reason. Once the area code "shortage" in the Chicago area is relieved (something that probably won't happen as soon if Ameritech perceives a shortage to be to their benefit), I'll bet Ameritech tries to come up with some other reason that their competitors shouldn't offer this service. This is also exactly why viable local competition is need. As long as Ameritech is as big and powerful as it is, it can pull these sorts of shenanigans. They need to learn how to compete fairly, by giving customers the services they want at a fair and reasonable price. But, that sort of thinking is apparently simply not in the mindset of Ameritech executives. Jack Michigan telephone users: The next rewrite of the Michigan Telecommunications Act takes place in 1999! Subscribe to the MI-Telecom mailing list via the web page at: http://www.maillist.net/mi-telecom.html To reply via e-mail, please make the obvious modification to my return e-mail address. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging From: fgoldstein@bbn.NO$LUNCHMEAT.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Organization: GTE Internetworking - BBN Technologies Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 16:27:00 GMT In article , webmaster@areacode- info.com says ... > Ameritech charges that Chicago-based Focal Communications is skirting > the operating rules for the use of possibly hundreds of thousands of > phone numbers in the state and violating its interconnection agreement > with Ameritech by incorrectly billing calls made to Focal's customers. Ameritech has been on a bender, trying to screw CLECs out of their reciprocal compensation payments due on ISP-bound calls. This is just another Big Lie in their campaign. It's almost libelous against Focal and the dozens of other CLECs -- and possibly a few ILECs -- who do the same thing. .... > According to Ameritech's complaint, Focal's "Virtual Office" offering > ties up Chicago area numbers, and "improperly manipulates" the phone > numbering system, giving phone numbers in suburban area codes to Focal > customers elsewhere. .... > But in Focal's scheme, the local numbers are typically assigned to > business locations in downtown Chicago. When an employee of those > companies, working from home, calls what would appear to be a "local" > phone number in the outlying suburbs -- such as Schaumburg or Aurora > -- the call is actually sent to an office location miles away in > Chicago, thereby tying up a phone number that could be assigned to > customers in those suburban areas. What Focal is doing is offering a form of Foreign Exchange service. This is something Ameritech has been doing forever. What makes it different is that Focal, like almost every other CLEC, doesn't have separate switches in every little town. They have one switch in Chicago which serves the whole region. In general, CLECs operate that way, with one switch (or a small number) per region. Since they're not delivering analog loops *directly* from those switches, this works well. If a CLEC wants to deliver analog lines to a bulk business customer (eg, Centrex) or to a mix of customers in an area, they typically put a multiplexor in that area, perhaps in a telco colo cage (to use ILEC loops) or on site. They get LOCAL numbers for that location, either their own prefix or, more recently, ported pre-existing numbers (Local Number Portability). They can stick these muxes (also called DLC, SLC) anywhere, for hundreds of miles, where they have bandwidth. Remember, they CANNOT put switches in telco colo rooms (not allowed), and usually CANNOT run voice-frequency analog lines from their switches into telco colo cages, even if they wanted to! They mux lots of sites onto one switch. THEREFORE the CLEC metropolitan switch has a LOT of prefix codes on it, based on the areas it serves. Now, let's say a company, say, Sears, decides it wants to have dial-in "telecommuter" service. If they went to Ameritech, Ameritech would run FX lines (usually over T1s) back to the COs they were serving. So besides their downtown location, they might pay intra-LATA FX mileage (usually around $20/mile/T1) to get numbers local to other places. (Ameritech-IL only has an 8-mile local radius.) A Kankakee number pays mileage to the Kankakee switch. But by using Focal, they connect to the same switch, and simply assign a Kankakee number in addition to the Chicago number. No FX mileage, since it's the same switch, though Focal has to connect its switch to the same Bell (Ameritech) tandem that Ameritech's Kankakee CO connects to. In other words, CLEC metropolitan switches do FX more cheaply (not a tariff artifact, but really cheaper) than ILEC switches. Focal has a "full house" of prefix codes in Ameritech's Chicago LATA. That means that they have as many prefix codes as it takes to be local (within 8 miles) of every Ameritech exchange. They all come back to one switch. And they AGGREGATE these prefix codes onto the same hunt group, so 312-abc-9876 for Chicago Loop and 773-def-9876 for Chicago-Kedzie and 847-ghi-9876 for Waukegan, etc., all point to the same lines. This is wonderful for dial-in pools. Lots of ISPs have moved to Focal, as have other businesses. And number aggregation is what CLECs do everywhere. MFS/UUNET all over. PacWest all over CA. GlobalNAPs and XCOM in Massachusetts and soon elsewhere. Brooks all over. Phone Michigan out of Flint. Lots of others. Many prefix codes on one switch, so it's local to everybody. And it's what some ILECs do! PacBell for years has had "San Francisco" rate center numbers in their suburban switches, so they could provide FX without hauling the calls all the way. GTE has "Fairfax" prefix codes in its Dulles, VA switch, so airport-area subscribers can have local-to-Metro-DC numbers without having to get them from Bell COs. SNET even has its own "full house" service now in Connecticut, where 12 well-selected prefix codes are aggregated for statewide coverage. This not only pleases the ISP subscribers, but it takes all that "pesky" ISP traffic off of the local COs, some of which weren't, after all, sized for heavy incoming loads, but just happen to be local to the right places. So far as I know, number aggregation (combining FX prefixes onto one line) was actually pioneered in the UK, by Energis, a few years ago. They map dozens of local numbers onto your selected ports. No LATAs there to deal with, either. Number conservation is important. Number portability and prefix-sharing should be implemented, to allow CLECs to have local numbers wherever they want them without wasting entire prefixes. Focal is only doing what they have to do under today's inefficient rules. But that's not what Ameritech is upset about. They just don't like competition. Period. Fred R. Goldstein k1io fgoldstein"at"bbn.com GTE Internetworking - BBN Technologies, Cambridge MA USA +1 617 873 3850 Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: Operator Subject: Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging Date: 23 Jul 1998 15:23:50 GMT Organization: KRAY Consulting Does everyone here realize who Focal's primary customers are? And ILLEGAL is a strong statement to make ... they found and use a loophole in the 'rules' to OUR BENEFIT. Their primary customers are ISPs. Without them your costs would go from the typical $10-$15/mo back to $30-$45/mo that it used to be years ago. So companies in downtown Chicago have remote POP's in the 708, 630, 847, and 815 area codes supplying customers IN THOSE SAME AREA CODES. So what? Another area code in 847? I don't doubt it. Don't have a problem with it. I have a problem with Ameritech not being able to implement a overlay area code properly so that anything in my 847 dialed from area code can be dialed as seven digits and anything else as the standard 11 digits. Confusing? No more so that it has already become in dealing with 815 (a lot of LOCAL calls to there for me from here, some to Focal lines :), even some 708 numbers are local. Some 815 is long distance. Most of 708, 312, 773, and 630 are local toll. What's one more area code in the area when you think about it? OVERLAY IT ALREADY! I would have NO PROBLEM getting a another line in XYZ area code or calling my neighbor 11 digits (and knowing it's local). It a switch programming nightmare that they are worried about and avoiding. Sounds to me like Ameritech just doesn't like some healthy STRONG competition! This email address is used for posting purposes ONLY. Incoming email is NOT allowed here and doing so will cause your IP block to be denied at the router level for future connections (PAT @ the telecom digest excluded of course :). If you have something to share post it. ------------------------------ From: johng@comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 17:56:07 -0500 Organization: Motorola LMPS > But in Focal's scheme, the local numbers are typically assigned to > business locations in downtown Chicago. When an employee of those > companies, working from home, calls what would appear to be a "local" > phone number in the outlying suburbs -- such as Schaumburg or Aurora > -- the call is actually sent to an office location miles away in > Chicago, thereby tying up a phone number that could be assigned to > customers in those suburban areas. Gee, isn't this what used to be done by the telcos using "Foreign Exchange Service?" Doesn't Ameritech now provide an identical service to the "Focal Scheme" using call forwarding setup at the time of the order without any physical telephone line to the suburban customer's telephone? Sounds to me like a very poor attempt at squashing competition from the little guy ... John Gilbert | Motorola Land Mobile Products Sector IL02/2523 KA4JMC | Private Trunked Systems johng@comm.mot.com | 1301 East Algonquin Road, Schaumburg, IL 60196 ------------------------------ From: Peter Stemwedel Subject: Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 18:44:59 +0000 Organization: InterAccess Co. Blake Droke wrote: > I'm wondering, how does this differ from the Remote Call Forward > service that has been available for years, from both CLECs and ILECs? > Take for an example in my area (Memphis, TN), many, many businesses in > Olive Branch, MS (about 14 mi. southeast of downtown Memphis) have RCF > numbers from the Memphis Main central office. Olive Branch is a long > distance call for most Memphis telephone customers, but most businesses > there get RCF numbers in the Memphis Main exchange. I believe Ameritech claim may be that they have a switch physically located in each call center; Focal only has one switch. Of course every time you order a T1 with riders from Ameritech they assign a separate number for each DS0. Focal only has one number assigned to each hunt group. (I'm not sure if that's a function of them using a DMS500 rather than a 5E or not, but even with a T1 terminating into a Nortel from Ameritech they assign 24 numbers to it.) Peter ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #111 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 23 23:37:08 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id XAA29315; Thu, 23 Jul 1998 23:37:08 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 23:37:08 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807240337.XAA29315@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #112 TELECOM Digest Thu, 23 Jul 98 23:37:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 112 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Pacific Bell to Hang up on Firms That Cram Bills (Tad Cook) PacBell, MCI May Get Unprecedented Contract (Monty Solomon) Manhattan Telephone Problems Looking for Solutions (John Sanders) Book Review: "Killer Whale", Elizabeth Quinn (Rob Slade) Radio Commercial Promotes Toll-Free 877 (Mark J. Cuccia) UCLA Short Course: Digital Signal Processing for Cellular (Bill Goodin) Ameritech's New Call Screening Service (David Sorkin) AOL Reveals User Name in Court Case (Monty Solomon) Long Distance Joke (Monty Solomon) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Pacific Bell to hang up on firms that cram bills Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 08:17:42 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Stephen Buel Mercury News Staff Writer Pacific Bell no longer will provide billing services for 20 companies accused of bilking thousands of consumers by charging them for telecommunications services they didn't order. The suspensions were among a series of steps Pac Bell announced Wednesday in response to a new phone-industry campaign against the practice known as "cramming." A growing problem for local phone companies, cramming occurs when unscrupulous businesses load up consumer's phone bills with fraudulent charges. Heeding a plea from the nation's top telephone regulator, the regional Bells and other local phone companies unveiled voluntary guidelines Wednesday to combat the phantom charges. The guidelines, which Pac Bell generally plans to follow, should help keep unauthorized or indecipherable charges off consumers' bills. At least a half-million California consumers, and probably many more, are thought to have received bills for services they never ordered -- although there are no good estimates of cramming's pervasiveness. Many customers don't study their phone bills long enough to detect these renegade charges, which industry officials say frequently result from deceptive phone pitches or bogus sweepstakes entry forms. "It's obviously extremely lucrative for it to have become such a big deal in such a short amount of time," Pac Bell spokesman Stevan Allen said. The genesis of the problem is the federal requirement that telecommunications companies be permitted to bill their customers on the local phone company's monthly bill -- a change aimed at promoting competition. For Pac Bell, this requirement has produced billing relationships with hundreds of communications and information companies, from long-distance titans like AT&T and Sprint to tiny local firms offering paging, voice-mail, Internet access, and even phone-sex services. The 20 businesses booted by Pac Bell were of the smaller sort -- so small, in fact, that the phone company required them to submit their bills through a separate billing clearing house, Allen said. As a result, Pac Bell didn't have a contractual relationship with any of the firms, and in some cases it didn't even know their locations. Allen said Pac Bell is renegotiating its contracts with such clearing houses to give it a better picture of what kinds of services it's billing consumers for. Identities withheld Pac Bell declined to identify the 20 companies, citing company policy and the possible legal ramifications involved with publicly accusing the alleged crammers of fraud. "With the competitive landscape being the way it is, we are extremely sensitive to any accusations that this is anti-competitive," Allen said. "We have tried to work with companies throughout." Allen said the firms generally were providers of services for which there were monthly fees, such as psychic hotlines, debit cards and calling cards. All of the firms also generated a high volume of customer complaints or requests for refunds, he said. In many cases, Allen noted, the products or services were completely unrelated to telecommunications. Pacific Bell will no longer bill for any service with regular -- and often questionable -- monthly fees, he said. Wilson Lewis, chief of enforcement for the consumer services division of the California Public Utility Commission, said fraudulent charges often turn up under official-sounding names. For instance, the acronym FTC, which consumers might reasonably take to be the Federal Trade Commission, was actually the acronym of accused crammer Future Telephone Communications. While not necessarily on the list of companies Pac Bell will no longer do business with, the firm was convicted of defrauding consumers in Southern California, Lewis said. "It's a problem that we're very concerned about," Lewis said. "It's probably the most out-of-control problem that we have right now in the enforcement branch." In perhaps the most far-reaching charge of cramming yet reported in California, PUC officials recently raided the offices of Coral Communications, a Florida firm that Lewis said has been accused of cheating about 500,000 consumers out of a total of $5 million. The push to come up with an industrywide response began with an April 22 letter by William Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. In that letter, and again in a May 20 workshop, Kennard urged the telecommunications industry to develop a set of voluntary guidelines to help solve the problem. The guidelines announced Wednesday call on phone companies to screen the products and services that companies bill consumers for, verify that consumers actually have authorized the services they're charged for and provide enough billing detail for consumers to recognize and dispute questionable charges. Consumers also should be provided the option of controlling whether third parties have billing access to the phone bill. Industry task force The recommendations came from an industry task force that included representatives of GTE Corp. and Pac Bell's parent company, SBC Communications Inc. A GTE spokeswoman said Wednesday that many of the guidelines originated with her company, which largely plans to abide by them. In the Bay Area, GTE provides local phone service in Los Gatos and Morgan Hill. The PUC's Wilson praised the steps taken Wednesday by Pac Bell. "What they're doing is welcome here," he said. "It's not going to cure cramming, but it's a step in the right direction." ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: PacBell, MCI May Get Unprecedented Contract Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 14:52:43 -0400 BY KAREN KAPLAN AND ELIZABETH DOUGLASS Los Angeles Times California is poised to hand over its statewide phone system to a team made up of Pacific Bell and MCI, giving the companies a $1-billion contract that for the first time would privatize the government's telecommunications network, according to sources familiar with the decision. The contract, put out for bid last fall, would provide government employees with a range of services, including 300,000 phone lines, long-distance service, data transmission, Internet access, calling cards and video conferencing. Officials from the California Department of General Services and the state Department of Information Technology will announce the winner of the 10-year contract Tuesday morning in Sacramento. The phone network will replace CalNET, an in-house system the Department of General Services has run for the state since 1991. If CalNET were an independent business, it would be the third-largest phone company in California. By buying telecommunications services from private companies, the state hopes to save millions of dollars a year and avoid paying for costly equipment upgrades. Privatizing the phone network was one of the major recommendations proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson's Task Force on Government Technology. ``This is going to save a great deal of money -- the California taxpayer will be very happy with our announcement,'' said Pete Dufore, a spokesman for the General Services Department. ``Running a telephone system as large as this one with all the new technology is not necessarily the core competency of the state government.'' The MCI-PacBell team bested rival bids from long-distance giant AT&T and local phone company GTE. GTE led the team that built CalNET in the early 1990s and currently operates the network as a subcontractor to the state. State government officials would not identify the winning bidders late Monday. PacBell declined to discuss the announcement, and MCI and GTE spokesmen said they did not know who had won the contract. AT&T could not be reached. The deal is likely to be challenged in court, as is often the case with big-money contracts. Equipment-maker NEC America, ousted early in the bidding process, is said to among those planning to fight the pact in court. As part of the deal, MCI and Pacific Bell would essentially buy CalNET's physical assets. The companies would then invest in the network to upgrade switches and other key elements, said Dana Hoelzel,, assistant director of the State and Consumer Services Agency. When the contract ends, the two companies would own the network. After seven years, the state can again put the contract out to bid. Some observers have questioned the legality of the deal, citing a prohibition on the sale of state assets without first gaining approval from the legislature. Dufore said the transfer is legal. ``This has been gone over by our legal folks, and they feel that we're doing everything well within the spirit and the letter of the law,'' he said. In addition to benefiting from lower rates, the state will be relieved of $25 million in equipment debt and will no longer need to spend $10 million to relocate switches from buildings that have been damaged by earthquakes. The fate of the GTE employees now working on CalNET is unclear, but officials said state employees will not lose their jobs. ``However, their duties may change a little bit.'' Dufore said. One state telecommunications systems analyst, who asked not to be identified, said many CalNET employees are worried that they may be transferred to non-telecommunications positions. The employee also questioned the wisdom of selling off the state's network now that it has become self-sufficient after years of losses. The 35,000 state employees who use the phone network will not notice any difference, because the changes will affect only behind-the-scenes telecommunications equipment. Tens of thousands of workers at cities, counties, schools and other institutions around the state use the phone system as well. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 19:26:19 -0400 From: John Sanders Reply-To: dejola@computer.net Subject: Manhattan Telephone Problems Looking for Solutions Organization: Computer.Net I oversee our telephone system in an office of roughly 60 people in Manhattan. I am not a trained telecommunications professional. We have a Rolm 9200 phone system and an Octel Overture 250 voice mail system. Our local carrier is Bell Atlantic and our long distance carrier is Frontier. Lately we have been plagued by sporadic problems completing calls, some of them local and others long distance. In addition we have had incoming problems. We have 16 DID trunks. Outside callers have reported they dial a direct dial number and the phone just rings and rings, or they receive busy signals, even though we later learn the intended recipient has been by his or her phone and off the phone. Sometimes when someone answers a phone they hear harsh intermittent buzzing. We usually call our phone vendor and a tech comes by usually within 24 hours and either finds a problem or tells us its a Bell Atlantic problem, at which time we turn the job over to Bell Atlantic. Sometimes we find out from Bell Atlantic that one or more (as many as eight recently) of our DID trunks are down (not blinking). Then our vendor talks to Bell Atlantic and reseats one or both of our DID trunks, which clears the problem and the formerly down trunks are blinking again in the central office. Case closed ... until next time. And lately there is always a next time. Other instances have occurred where we have found that on an intermittent basis we cannot make outgoing calls. With our system when you pick up the phone you randomly grab a c.o. line, one of 16. If the line you grab happens to be bad you go no where -- dead air. Eventually, if you're lucky, you grab a good line and complete your call. In these kinds of problems techs, both our vendor and Bell Atlantic, have found loose or disconnected pairs at demarcs either in our phone room forty floors above street level, or in the building's basement phone room which is said by techs to be a mess, a crow's nest with a gaggle of wires and cables, many in need, they say, of rehabilitation. I'm wondering what happens that can make our DID trunks go down and necessitate their being reseated. One Bell Atlantic tech told me that our building's DID trunks are very fragile and the slightest line noise or other anomoly can cause them to go down. He also said Bell Atlantic had been doing some badly needed rehabing in that basement phone space but they were pulled off the job because Bell Atlantic started getting so many trouble calls from the building's tenants, including us. How these pairs keep getting loose or disconnected is another mystery. Does anyone have any comments or know how one can get to the bottom of the recurring problems so that we can enjoy reliable telephone service on a sustained basis? Some in our office say we need a new phone system. Others say we need a different local carrier. Still others feel we need to hold Bell Atlantic's feet to the fire and demand that they do what they have to do to fix the problems permanentely I will be most grateful to hear from you. Thanks, John ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 10:07:18 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Killer Whale", Elizabeth Quinn Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKKLRWHL.RVW 980519 "Killer Whale", Elizabeth Quinn, 1997, 0-671-52770-3, U$5.99/C$7.99 %A Elizabeth Quinn ebarnard@magick.net www.magick.net/~ebarnard %C 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 %D 1997 %G 0-671-52770-3 %I Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books %O U$5.99/C$7.99 +1-212-698-7541 %P 241 p. %T "Killer Whale" This book was *not* supposed to make it into the series. After all, how many mysteries set in America's last frontier and with a strong environmental emphasis do you expect to have some technical content? But it does, and the content is very good, at that. Email is used effectively and realistically, even to the point of being able to retrieve your email from a variety of computers. Some of the plot turns on the recovery of files that have been deleted. The one instance of data corruption is just a *tad* too convenient, and UNDELETE is not the only means of recovering data, but in comparison to most other mysteries and thrillers that have touched on computers this gets a very strong nine out of ten. The fact that the author has both an email address *and* a Web site comes as no surprise. Looking at other aspects of the work, the characters are very sympathetic and attractive. Background is solid, and backed up with a bibliography at the end of the text. (I was just a bit surprised that net references were not present.) The plotting is interesting and well paced. (I did figure out whodunnit about two thirds of the way through, but what do you expect from a professional paranoid?) I very much enjoyed it, I liked the fact that the computer content didn't make serious errors, and being able to put it into the series is a bonus. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKKLRWHL.RVW 980519 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 19:11:52 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: Radio Commercial Promotes Toll-Free 877 I've started hearing a new nationally produced radio commercial, mostly on network/national programs on the ABC Radio Network's Dallas-based Satellite Music Network, promoting the new NANP Toll-Free SAC-NPA 877. The commercial is 'generic' in nature -- i.e., it doesn't promote any specific Long Distance nor Local telco. All it does is 'generically' inform the listening public that there is now a _third_ toll-free area code in use (in the NANP), 877, in addition to 800 and the recently (just shortly over two years ago) introduced 888 toll-free area codes. The 'tag-line' mentions that the commercial was sponsored by "SMS/800". SMS (if I remember right) is the "Service Management System", which is the 'top-level' administration/maintenance body for NANP-based toll-free (800/888/877/future) numbers. I think that either Lockheed-Martin Toll-Free's NASC body (Number Assignment Service Center) or Bellcore's DSMI subsidiary (Data Base Service Management Inc) presently is the "SMS/800" body. (But I'm not 100% certain _who_ actually 'owns' the SMS, though.) Now if the telco/carrier industry could have a generic radio/TV/ print commerical or advertisement mentioning that there are new area codes when the permissive date gets close, or during the permissive dialing period. Such an "industry" sponsored commercial or advertisement could also be 'generic', carrier-neutral. MARK_J._CUCCIA__PHONE/WRITE/WIRE/CABLE:__HOME:__(USA)__Tel:_CHestnut-1-2497 WORK:__mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.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: Bill Goodin Subject: UCLA Short Course: "Digital Signal Processing for Cellular Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 17:45:46 -0700 On October 19-21, 1998, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Digital Signal Processing for Cellular Mobile Wireless Communications" on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Zoran I. Kostic, PhD, Member of the Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Laboratories; and Babak Daneshrad, PhD, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering, UCLA. This course describes the application of digital signal processing to several practical cellular systems now deployed or to be deployed in the future. Basics of digital signal processing theory and cellular wireless communications systems are presented, followed by examples of TDMA and CDMA-based systems that describe step-by-step implementation of transceiver functions and subsystems. Architectures, algorithms, and software and hardware designs are presented, and algorithms used for physical layer transceivers are described, such as pulse shaping, synchronization, demodulation, equalization, interference rejection, and error correction coding. Floating point and fixed point issues are addressed as well, along with C-code and DSP assembly code designs. Lectures discuss the use of digital signal processors, ASICs and micro-controllers, including partitioning functions into the hardware. Hardware interfaces, interrupt structures, process flows, and sw/hw timing are addressed, and aspects of the course are devoted to the application of simulation tools for communications system design and performance evaluation, along with the use of digital signal processing in system-level simulations. One section of the course is devoted to the presentation of digital signal processing algorithms and techniques that are candidates for application in third-generation mobile wireless communications systems. The course fee is $1195, which includes extensive course materials. The course materials are for participants only, and are not for sale. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses/ This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ From: David Sorkin Subject: Ameritech's New Call Screening Service Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 08:18:09 -0500 Organization: MCSNet Services This notice appeared in my Ameritech bill (local residential phone service) dated July 7, 1998: CALLER ID USERS CAN SCREEN OUT UNWANTED CALLS WITH PRIVACY MANAGER Ameritech will begin offering our new Privacy Manager with SalesScreener to Cller ID users, on a phased-in basis, starting July 14, 1998. This service protects your privacy by requiring callers to announce their name on calls marked "private", "out-of-area" or "unavailable" on your Caller ID display. You can then choose to answer or ignore the call. The SalesScreener feature lets you send a pre-recorded message to telemarketers informing them that you do not buy from telemarketers and legally requesting that your name be removed from their calling list. With Privacy Manager, you can protect your privacy at home by keeping telemarketers and unwanted calls from disturbing you. Privacy Manager with SalesScreener is just $3.95 per month, plus the monthly rate for Caller ID with Name. Order before August 13, 1998 and receive free installation. To subscribe or for more information, call us at 1-800-244-4444. Some restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. ----- [Ameritech charges $8/month for Caller ID with Name.] I called Ameritech's 800 number on July 15 and was told that the new Privacy Manager service was not yet available, and had been delayed because it wasn't ready. The representative couldn't pull up any other information about the service on his computer screen. He mentioned "anonymous call rejection" but implied that Privacy Manager is something slightly different -- perhaps because it gives the caller a chance to get the call put through. I believe I've heard that a similar service may be available in California or elsewhere. Can anyone who's used such a service (one offered by a phone company, not a Radio Shack plug-in device that does something similar) address these questions? - Can the service distinguish between an intentionally blocked number (e.g., a telemarketer hiding behind a Centrex system, or a harasser who blocks Caller ID on a per-call basis) and a caller whose phone isn't capable of sending Caller ID data (e.g., a cellular phone user)? - How does the caller "announce" his or her name -- by speaking it to a computer (as in a collect call), or by typing in his or her own phone number? Based upon what the Ameritech rep's supervisor guessed, the former is true, and then the computer rings the called party and asks whether he or she wants to accept the call. How much of a delay is introduced by this process (for both caller and called party)? - If one frequently receives both "good" and "bad" calls without Caller ID data, does the burden this service would place on the "good" callers outweigh the relief from the "bad" callers? David Sorkin http://www.sork.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 00:12:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AOL Reveals User Name in Court Case http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,3441,2120868,00.html By Michael Fitzgerald, ZDNN July 18, 1998 11:39 AM PT In a case that may stifle free speech online, America Online Inc. has provided the real identity of one of its users to the Orange County Register, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported that AOL has revealed to the Register the identity of a user who ran a Web site devoted to the Santa Ana, Calif. paper. The site featured anonymously submitted rumors, gossip and complaints about the paper, the Times said, and was run by an AOL subscriber who used "Slave4OCR" as a tag. The Times said the site had been taken down this past Wednesday. The Times said AOL (NYSE:AOL) released the name on Tuesday, after it was subpoenaed by Freedom Communications Inc., an Irvine, Calif. company that owns the Register. Freedom has filed a trademark infringement suit against two "John Doe" defendants for running a site called the "Orange County unRegistered Press," the Times said. AOL notified "Slave4OCR" that it would reveal its owner's identity to Freedom, the Times said. The Times quoted legal experts as saying they were concerned that the suit might result in the limit of First Amendment rights on the Internet, and noted that it was ironic that a news organization of the libertarian bent of the Register could be responsible for this. Unlike a recent case where a customer service representative gave the U.S. Navy the name of a user, which then resulted in the beginning of a nasty court case. The Times said Freedom obtained the name by using a loophole in AOL's terms of service policy. AOL says that it will release a member's personal information to comply with a valid legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena or court order. Once notified, AOL contacts the targeted member and alerts him of the legal action, the paper said. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Long Distance Joke Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 12:44:22 -0400 http://www.arrgh.pair.com/jokes/files/joke9522.htm ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #112 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jul 28 23:47:03 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id XAA04748; Tue, 28 Jul 1998 23:47:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 23:47:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807290347.XAA04748@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #114 TELECOM Digest Tue, 28 Jul 98 23:47:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 114 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Fleet Bank Requires 900 Number to Verify Funds (Phil Leonard) How to Fix Erroneous Pay-Phone Surcharges? (keith@tcsi.com) Re: The Ultimate Long-Distance Combo Deal (H. Peter Anvin) Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging (Ed Ellers) TCG Applauds Federal Court Decision for ISP Traffic (areacode-info.com) 900 MHz Phone to Laptop Modem ... How? (Samir Agarwal) Pocketalk, Pocket-Sized Portable Answering Machine (Mike Pollock) 424 Mandatory 11 Digit Dialing Starts Early - For GTE (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections (Dave Perrussel) Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections (Melvin Klassen) Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections (Mats Wichmann) Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections (Thomas P. Brisco) Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections (Reed) Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections (Tony Pelliccio) Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections (Steve Sobol) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: pleonard@newsguy.com (Phil Leonard) Subject: Fleet Bank Requires 900 Number to Verify Funds Date: Tue, 28Jul 1998 23:21:34 GMT Organization: S.P.O.T.D. http://extra.newsguy.com/~pleonard An "interesting" problem occurred at work yesterday. I had to verify funds on a returned check that was drawn on Fleet Bank in Boston. After wading through a slew of menu options, there was no option for a non-Fleet customer trying to verify funds, so after listening to about 15 different options, I was instructed to dial "0" for customer assistance. After being put on hold and listening to some silly commercials for another 5 minutes, an operator tells me I have to dial a 900 number to verify the check. Once I heard 900, I of course asked, "How much?" and I was told that a $2 US charge would appear on my phone bill. Since this was a $6500 check, it was worth it. Problem is, that our company (as most companies do) had blocked all 900 outgoing calls. After dialing "900" failed, and no one in our company could do anything about it, I used an employee's cell phone. For some reason that was blocked as well once I hit "900". I vaguely remembered that we did have a Fleet account somewhere during my "futile frustration" and went through the whole set of menu options again finding the number to enter for Fleet Bank customers verifying a customer's check, and was simply asked (by computer) for our Fleet account number (no other verification whatsoever) in order to waive the $2 charge. Of course the check was still no good after all of this. Thoughts include what an absolute waste of time (certainly more than $2 of my time) and what an inconvenience for a non-Fleet bank customer and why wasn't this 900 option available in the original menu and banks are really starting to rip off the public and don't these sort of decisions ever get made after talking to the ultimate users? etc. etc. Simply amazing. ------------------------------ From: remove_this_part_to_email_keith@tcsi.com Subject: How to Fix Erroneous Pay-Phone Surcharges? Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 18:51:16 GMT Organization: NetVista Info Corp I have an ongoing problem with payphone surcharges for calling card calls from a particular phone which is *not* a payphone. I'm pretty sure that this is due to an erroneous database at the local telco (Bell South), but getting it fixed has proved intractable. Nobody at Bell South seems to know how their system flags pay phone-originated calls when they are delivered to the long-distance network, or even that such a system exists. Given that fact, it's not surprising that they can't identify the trouble. Are there any magic words that I need to use to describe this problem, or a special department that I need to ask for? Keith Jarett jarettk "at" aval.com Please edit my email address when replying ------------------------------ From: hpa@transmeta.com (H. Peter Anvin) Subject: Re: The Ultimate Long-Distance Combo Deal Date: 28 Jul 1998 03:27:16 GMT Organization: Transmeta Corporation, Santa Clara CA Reply-To: hpa@transmeta.com (H. Peter Anvin) Followup to: By author: jarettk@removethis.aval.com In newsgroup: comp.dcom.telecom > What if you make a lot of international calls, and you'd really like > to get better rates? Easy: just guesstimate your $40 worth of calls > using Sprint, then switch to another service. The one I've found is > Quest Communications, at (800) 466-0116. They use IP telephony on > their own fiber optic backbone. There's a slight delay, similar to > that of a satellite hop. > Quest will sign you up without changing your default carrier (you > didn't forget the PIC freeze, right?) and you just dial 1010056 in > front of your international calls. Their rates to Europe are 40% > below Sprint's, and their Caribbean rates are simply amazing. No, I > don't have any affiliation with Quest. Here is a carrier I have tried with reasonable success: Telegroup, Inc. http://www.tgld.com/ Their rates to some specific countries (e.g. UK, Sweden, Australia) are *very* good compared to the Big Three ($0.12, $0.14, $0.16 respectively); these probably reflect the countries they have their own wires into, I would guess. I use their auxilliary service (dial an 800 number, like a calling card.) Their chief disadvantage (besides the problems I had getting subscribed to their service in the first place) seems to be a high rate of disconnects; and it seems a call is *always* terminated shortly after 90 minutes. To me, this is mostly a nuisance, but I probably would not recommend them for business use (making a customer think you hung up on them can be expensive!) I have no affiliation with Telegroup except as a mostly satisfied customer. -hpa PGP: 2047/2A960705 BA 03 D3 2C 14 A8 A8 BD 1E DF FE 69 EE 35 BD 74 See http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/ for web page and full PGP public key I am Bahai -- ask me about it or see http://www.bahai.org/ "To love another person is to see the face of God." -- Les Miserables ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Ameritech Charges Illinois Competitor With Bootlegging Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 23:50:49 -0400 Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc. Blake Droke wrote: "I'm wondering, how does this differ from the Remote Call Forward service that has been available for years, from both CLECs and ILECs?" The difference is that RCF and FX are both based on the use of a CO *in the desired area.* Here's another good example -- a company in Louisville, Kentucky, that does a lot of business with Fort Knox might want to have either RCF or FX to provide a local phone number in Radcliff. If they do it through the ILEC the call goes to a CO in Frankfort and then is either forwarded, or transported, from there to the customer's real CO and then to the customer. If the customer makes a call to Fort Knox on the FX line that call is transported to the Radcliff CO and then handled in the usual way in that area. Now here's the tricky part. If a hundred Louisville companies each have RCF or FX in Radcliff through the ILEC, that will consume a hundred numbers in whatever NXX(s) they are in, since the ILEC already has a CO there. If, however, a facilities-based CLEC starts providing FX-to-Radcliff to Louisville customers using a Louisville switch -- without going through an existing switch in Radcliff -- they will need an entire NXX of their own (10,000 numbers) in Radcliff to do it whether or not they're actually providing local service in Radcliff. If Focal is really using a block of 10,000 numbers to serve a few hundred lines in a given suburb, I'd say that's a waste. But if they are in fact providing local service in a real way in the suburban areas involved, then that would be very different. ------------------------------ Reply-To: areacode-info.com webmaster From: areacode-info.com webmaster Subject: TCG Applauds Federal Court Decision for ISP Traffic Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 05:08:19 -0400 CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 1998-- Ameritech Must Comply With Its Illinois Contracts Teleport Communications Group Inc. (TCG/NASDAQ: TCGI) today applauded the decision of a federal court judge finding that Ameritech must resume paying TCG compensation for terminating local calls to Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The federal court affirmed the earlier decision of the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) requiring Ameritech to comply with its contracts and pay TCG for use of its facilities. Ameritech paid TCG compensation for such calls for months, but unilaterally ceased making these payments in July of 1997. This case was initiated by a TCG complaint to the ICC. "We are pleased that Judge David H. Coar affirmed the ICC decision and reached the same conclusion as two other federal courts, one state court and 19 state public utility commissions: local telephone calls from a consumer to an ISP are just that, local telephone calls," said Madelon Kuchera, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for TCG's Central Region. "We hope that this decision will encourage Ameritech to honor its contracts and pay us for the call termination we provide to Ameritech." Teleport Communications Group is the nation's first and largest Competitive Local Telecommunications Carrier (CLEC), using both fiber-optic and broadband wireless service to provide information-intensive businesses with an array of advanced local and long distance voice, data, video and Internet services. TCG currently operates in 83 major markets. On January 8, 1998, AT&T and TCG agreed to merge in a transaction that at the close of business that day was valued at $11.3 billion. The agreement is subject to state and federal regulatory approval. For more information on TCG, visit its website at www.tcg.com. ------------------------------ From: samir@tcsi.com (Samir Agarwal) Subject: 900 MHz Phone to Laptop Modem ... How? Date: 28 Jul 1998 22:53:50 GMT Organization: TCSI, Berkeley, California Hi, I have done my rounds of CompUSA and Radio Shack without any luck and decided to seek shelter in this newsgroup. I have a 900MHz cordless phone. The handset has an opening where you can plug in a headset jack (like the ones you see on walkman headphones). I am looking for a cable whose one end is a jack such as the headset's and the other a regular phone jack (RJ11?). I can plug the phone jack into the laptop modem and then I could move with my laptop and phone anywhere in the house with no (phone) strings attached. Radio Shack tells me that such things are not made and not feasible. Perhaps someone out there has thought of this (or done this). Please let me know. Thanks, Samir Agarwal TCSI | email : samir@tcsi.com 1080 Marina Village Pkwy. | Work : (510) 749-8730 Alameda, CA 94501 | ------------------------------ From: Mike Pollock Subject: Pocketalk Pocket-sized Portable Answering Machine Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 12:55:12 -0400 I'll take one! --------------------- Friday July 24, 9:39 am Eastern Time Company Press Release Pocketalk, the Pocket-sized Portable Answering Machine, is Launched in the Tri-state Metro Area by CONXUS Product Supported By Motorola Voice Messaging Technology Debut in New York City on July 27 GREENVILLE, SC--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 24, 1998-- Building on positive results from in-market trials of advanced voice messaging service in New York, CONXUS(TM) Communications today announced the launch of Pocketalk(TM), ``the answering machine for your pocket,'' in the Tri-State New York City metro area. With an installed user base already running ahead of projections, Pocketalk is one of the most successful ``new technology'' product launches in recent memory. It is estimated that nearly 90 million people in major cities will be covered by the various network systems. The product, which combines the user-friendly functionality of an answering machine and the convenience of wireless technology, will be available to New York City area residents beginning July 27, 1998. The coverage area for the product includes all of New York City as well as Bridgeport and Greenwich, CT extending into southern Westchester, all of Rockland County and Long Island northeast past Glen Cove and southeast beyond Patchogue. In New Jersey, the coverage area includes Edison extending southeast to Middletown and northwest past Morristown. ``We are excited to have the opportunity to bring advanced voice messaging service to Tri-State area consumers,'' stated Bill deKay, President, CONXUS. ``What's so compelling about this development is that it is a sophisticated new technology for messaging that offers the human touch of a voice message.'' The product, manufactured by Motorola, is being rolled out to major markets across the country by CONXUS. Initially, it was launched in South Florida markets, including Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, and the Washington/Baltimore metro area. In early 1998, Pocketalk service was made available in Dallas and Houston, Texas, Orlando and Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida, as well as Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta. New York joins Philadelphia as the most recent market launched. Ideal for people on the go, Pocketalk receives private messages in the caller's own voice -- eliminating the need to find a phone to check messages. ``When you consider that 80 percent of U.S. households use answering machines, it's easy to see why Pocketalk appeals to a broad range of consumers for their everyday communication needs,'' added deKay. ``This pocket-sized device is equipped with familiar features, making it ideal for both current answering machine users and for those new to wireless technology. It's truly a user-friendly way to stay in touch.'' ``There is significant consumer interest and enthusiasm for voice messaging, which offers the benefits of a fully functioning answering machine in a convenient, go-anywhere communications tool,'' according to Ellen Foreman, Director of Marketing, Global Two-Way Subscriber Product Division, Motorola. ``Motorola will help drive awareness of the pocket answering machine through an aggressive marketing program in top metro areas over the coming year.'' Pocketalk operates on a special wireless network based on Motorola's InFLEXion(TM) technology, which allows high-speed transmission of voice messages and translates to reliable -- and assured -- voice message delivery. ``We have learned from experience the importance of a reliable, high-quality network,'' noted Cecil Duffie, CEO of CONXUS. ``Our engineering team has designed and built a system that offers consistent in-building penetration throughout a sizable coverage footprint. Each market was then thoroughly grid- tested with literally thousands of pages to ensure that rigorous system performance standards were met.'' Service for Pocketalk will be offered by CONXUS, through its telecom industry distribution partners and hundreds of local resellers. ``We are excited by the enthusiastic response to Pocketalk by our broad network of distribution partners,'' added Steve Cook, COO of CONXUS. ``This product is widely viewed as one which can expand the industry.'' The systems for Pocketalk utilize technology and equipment supplied by Motorola (NYSE: MOT - news) and Glenayre Technologies (NASDAQ: GEMS - news). CONXUS(TM) Communications, Inc., headquartered in Greenville, S.C., is developing a nationwide narrowband PCS network based on Motorola's InFLEXion technology. The company launched its first service, Pocketalk(TM) pocket answering machine, in 1997, which will be followed by Pocketext(TM) portable email. For more information about Pocketalk, visit the CONXUS website at www.pocketalk.com. Glenayre Technologies Inc. is a worldwide provider of telecommunications infrastructure products and systems serving the paging, cellular, PCS, telco, voice processing and point-to-point wireless service provider markets. Glenayre's net sales exceeded $390 million in 1996 and the company employs approximately 2,400 people worldwide. Motorola is one of the world's leading providers of wireless communications, semiconductors and advanced electronic systems, components and services. Major equipment businesses include paging and data communications, cellular telephones, two-way radio, personal communications, automotive, defense and space electronics and computers. Motorola semiconductors power communication devices, computers and millions of other products. Motorola's 1997 sales were $29.8 billion. ---- Contact: Geltzer & Company, Inc., 212/575-1976 Steve Slutzky, sslutzky@geltzerpr.com Paula Goldstein, pgoldstein@geltzerpr.com ------------------------------ From: Robert L. McMillin Subject: 424 Mandatory 11 Digit Dialing Starts Early - For GTE Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 13:28:25 -0700 Organization: Syseca, Inc. Looks like it's been fixed now, but for some GTE exchanges, it appears as though 11 digit dialing was made mandatory. We couldn't get to certain 310 GTE exchanges from our MCI-provided local service in 310-land, though 11-digit dialing to those same sites via our IXP worked fine. MCI says other customers had the same problem, but it looks like MCI fixed it in their own switch (or likewise with GTE, though I have my doubts that they could do that on such short notice.). Robert L. McMillin | Not the voice of Syseca, Inc. | rlm@syseca-us.com Personal: rlm@helen.surfcty.com | rlm@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: bbscorner@juno.com (Dave Perrussel) Subject: Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 16:57:47 GMT Organization: The BBS Corner On Mon, 20 Jul 1998 14:52:10 -0400, Steve Liu wrote: > I just got a 56k modem and have still not been able to ever get any > connection above 26.4kbs. I understand that 56kbs is actually not > possible currently but I expected at least 40kbs. So, I called Bell > Atlantic about this and asked if there was anything that can be done > and the CSR just told me that the lines are only guaranteed for > 9.6kbs, is this true? She said that nothing can be done unless I get > an ISDN line? Does this mean that I have no chance of getting > connection above 26.4kbs unless I pay more for ISDN? I find this That's that most local telcos guarantee is a 9.6k connection. In most instances you should get more. It also depends on what local telco switch you get and if your lines are multiplexed. Local switches - if you have a modern switch (DMS-100, 5ESS or similar all-digital switch) then 56k is POSSIBLE (actually 53k due to FCC regs) but is not guaranteed. If you are on an older switch (1AESS or similar - or even older step-by-step or crossbar) it is not possible to get much better than 28.8k since the way that 56k works is that there is only one D/A conversion (digital to analog). If you have more than one D/A between you and an ISP, then its not possible to get the high data rate. Multiplexed lines - you did not mention whether or not you have more than one phone line in your house. If you have more than one line, the telephone company may have "multiplexed" the lines where 2 or more lines (sometimes up to 4 or 8) can be placed on one pair of wires. Where you used to have only one line on one pair of wires can be changed so you can share the same wires using multiplex technology. There's a "baseband" (regular) and a "multiplexed" line where its modulated at a high frequency (analog) or digitized (digital) and demultiplexed in the central office switch. That's fine and dandy for most cases for voice. However, when it comes to data this does not work well. My step son's data line was put on a multplexed line and he only got 24k at best. On the voice line (baseband) he got 40k or better. You and your neighbors can also be sharing a multiplexed line so even if you had one line you could suffer the same problem. Of course you can tell the phone company to switch what line is what - if you have a copper pair all to yourself. Hope this sheds some light on the matter. Dave Perrussel Webmaster - Telephone World http://phworld.home.ml.org or http://members.xoom.com/phworld ------------------------------ From: Klassen@uvic.ca (Melvin Klassen) Subject: Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections Date: 28 Jul 1998 20:59:36 GMT Organization: University of Victoria On Mon, 20 Jul 1998 18:52:10, Steve Liu wrote: > I just got a 56k modem and have still not been able to ever get any > connection above 26.4kbs. What should I do? Surf the web, to: http://WWW.56K.COM and read about "slow connects". ------------------------------ From: xyzmats@laplaza.org (Mats Wichmann) Subject: Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 04:33:19 GMT Organization: Southwest Cyberport Reply-To: xyzmats@laplaza.org (Mats Wichmann) On Mon, 20 Jul 1998 14:52:10 -0400, Steve Liu wrote: > I just got a 56k modem and have still not been able to ever get any > connection above 26.4kbs. I understand that 56kbs is actually not > possible currently but I expected at least 40kbs. So, I called Bell > Atlantic about this and asked if there was anything that can be done > and the CSR just told me that the lines are only guaranteed for > 9.6kbs, is this true? It's more like 14.4kbps. Mats Wichmann (Anti-spam stuff: to reply remove the "xyz" from the address xyzmats@laplaza.org. Not that it helps much...) ------------------------------ From: Thomas P. Brisco Subject: Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 11:55:44 +0000 Organization: American Interactive Media Whats amusing is that when I used to call in about 9600bps modems, Bell Titanic would claim that the lines weren't guarenteed for anything about 2400 baud ... (which is probably more correct given the characteristics for the line designed for a human voice) Thomas P. Brisco (v) 212 539 0706 Network Architect (f) 212 538 8380 American Interactive Media tbrisco@featfirst.com ------------------------------ From: Reed Subject: Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 21:12:20 -0600 Have you read all the FAQs at www.56k.com and www.v90.com ?? It is very possible for you to never get "56K" speeds, for a variety of reasons. If you read all the fine print, nobody ever *guaranteed* that anybody would get "56K" speeds. (for that matter, even 28.8/33.6 is not "guaranteed". Various State PUCs control what is minimum quality of local phone service (not the FCC), and most have no rule re modem speeds specifically anyway (or they are ridiculously low like 2400bps). The modem speed you can wring out of a *specific* local loop is very much a hit or miss situation. That's partly why Cable Modem and xDSL services are being rolled out and accepted. ISDN is now only used if they are not available (yet). Also lurk awhile at comp.dcom.modems and see what others experince is. Personally I went from consistent V.34/28.8K connections to K56flex/50K connections when I replaced V34+ modem with K56/V90 model. (ISP is K56) Waiting for Cable Modem(1-2 years away) Good Luck, Reed ------------------------------ From: nospam.tonypo@nospam.ultranet.com (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 23:22:35 -0400 Organization: The Cesspool There are a couple of things that could be causing your problem. The first is that you might have a bad pair. This is common in Bell Atlantic's New England territory. 56K connections require that there's only one analog to digital conversion, or else they won't give stellar performance. Your only mistake was mentioning that is was a modem line. Never, never, ever tell a phone company drone what the line is for, just say there's noise on the line. And harass them constantly. That's the only way to deal with "The Phone Company", and as far as Bell Atlantic is concerned, they don't have to care because they're the phone company. That's why I don't use Bell Atlantic anymore. Tony ------------------------------ From: sjsobol@nstc.com (Steve Sobol - BOFH) Subject: Re: Line Quality For Modem Connections Date: 28 Jul 1998 04:09:40 GMT Organization: North Shore Technologies Corp. 888.480.INET Rumor has it that liu@ny.amarex.com said: > So, I called Bell > Atlantic about this and asked if there was anything that can be done > and the CSR just told me that the lines are only guaranteed for > 9.6kbs, is this true? This is what most telcos will tell you. It IS true that the 56K modem protocols *really* *really* stretch the limits of an analog phone line ... however, there are several things to consider when making a 56K connection. 1. Obviously you must be running the same 56K protocol as your ISP. 2. The distance from the telco Central Office servicing your line influences how likely you are to be able to make a good connection. 3. Sometimes the telco will put splitters on the lines at the CO that will allow them to service more phone numbers without making a significant investment in equipment. This may be affecting your ability to connect at high-speed. In your case, since (according to your signature) you are in an area with many more phone lines than many other metropolitan areas, I think this definitely may be a factor. 4. If you have noisy lines, this affects the ability to make a good connection with any modem. High-speed modems are especially sensitive, and just because you don't *hear* noise doesn't mean there isn't any. Bell Atlantic should at least be willing to check your line for noise. > She said that nothing can be done unless I get an ISDN line? ISDN isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's digital both ways (as opposed to 56K analog, which isn't) and does not suffer from analog problems like line noise. Of course, I don't know if ISDN is a practical idea for you. I happen to have the good fortune to live in an area with some of the lowest ISDN rates in the country (and I'm using ISDN now and would not want to switch back). You may not have ISDN available to you, or it might be quite expensive. > What should I do? As mentioned, first ask BA to check for line noise. Also, talk to your ISP, since they will undoubtedly know more about the phone lines in the New York area than I do, and may have suggestions that I have failed to give you. I live in Cleveland, myself, and have no clue how telephone service is out in NYC, and I've never had to deal with Bell Atlantic. :> Steve Sobol, President, North Shore Technologies Corporation [www.nstc.com] Founding Member/ISP Liaison/Network Administrator, F.R.E.E. [www.ybecker.net] Occasional Tech Support Droid, New Age Consulting Service Inc [www.nacs.net] Providing Dialup Internet Access and Web Hosting & Design to Northern Ohio and the World... ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #114 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 30 00:14:06 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id AAA04865; Thu, 30 Jul 1998 00:14:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 00:14:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199807300414.AAA04865@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #113 TELECOM Digest Tue, 28 Jul 98 13:30:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 113 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #142, July 27, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) Bell Atlantic and GTE - Reportedly Talking Merger (Jon Stahl) Seeking Introductory Texts on Cellular Standards (Misha Davidson) US Telecom Merger Frenzy Continues (Tad Cook) Outgoing But no Incoming Service Because of Cable Shortage? (Roy Smith) Book Review: "The Web Navigator", Paul Gilster (Rob Slade) Wanted: GR-303 Test Site (5ESS, DMS100, etc.) (Mike Dorin) US Worst Slamming? (Anthony Argyriou) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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, 28 Jul 1998 11:12:13 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #142, July 27, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 142: July 27, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * Bell Canada ................. http://www.bell.ca/ * * City Dial Network Services .. http://www.citydial.com/ * * Computer Talk Technology .... http://icescape.com/ * * fONOROLA .................... http://www.fonorola.com/ * * Lucent Technologies ......... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Telus Offers Flat-Rate LD ** Local Number Portability Starts This Week ** CRTC Favors Deregulation of Telco Internet Services ** Cablecos Rename, Reprice Internet Access ** Bell Writes Off TV Trial ** Lucent Wins Sprint Local Phone Equipment Deal ** BC Tel Offers Anonymous Call Block ** AT&T, BT Form Global Venture ** Distributel Announces Flat-Rate Plan ** Rate Rebalancing for Northwestel ** Videon Intros 10 Mbps Internet Access ** Bell in Telecom Venture Fund ** BC Tel Takes InfoInterActive ICM ** AT&T-Teleport Deal Okayed ** Rates Set for Directory File Service ** Stentor Adds U.S. Calling Option ** Microcell & Nortel Join for Wireless Data ** Canada Payphone Plans Internet Kiosks ** Cantel Extends "Pay As You Go" Plan ** Teleglobe-Excel -- "Worse Than Corel-WordPerfect" ============================================================ TELUS OFFERS FLAT-RATE LD: Telus's new "Your Way Unlimited" plan offers Alberta residential customers unlimited evening and weekend long distance calls in Canada for $19.95 a month. Daytime weekday calls in Canada, and all U.S. calls, are 22 cents/minute. Telus says it will refund the difference if a customer would have paid less using the main calling plans offered by AT&T or Sprint. LOCAL NUMBER PORTABILITY STARTS THIS WEEK: Local Number Portability, which allows customers to change local phone companies without changing phone numbers, will be commercially available in Calgary and Vancouver on July 31. Toronto and Montreal will get LNP at the end of August. CRTC FAVORS DEREGULATION OF TELCO INTERNET SERVICES: In Telecom Public Notice 98-17, the CRTC invites comment on its "preliminary view" that it would be "appropriate to forbear from regulating" the Internet services provided by telephone companies and other carriers. To participate, notify the CRTC by August 21; comments are due by August 31. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9817_0.txt CABLECOS RENAME, REPRICE INTERNET ACCESS: Cablecos Shaw and Rogers have changed the name of their "Wave" high-speed Internet access service to Shaw@Home and Rogers@Home, and cut the monthly fee to $39.95. BELL WRITES OFF TV TRIAL: BCE Inc's second-quarter financial statement includes a complete write-off of its "TotalVision" multimedia trial in London, Ontario, and Repentigny, Quebec. The $100-Million charge reflects Bell's decision to compete in the TV market using the ExpressVu satellite service rather than a fiber-coax network. ** Bell President John MacDonald discusses Bell's changed view of broadband and multimedia services in an exclusive interview in the current issue of Telemanagement. (To subscribe, call 1-800-263-4415 ext 225.) LUCENT WINS SPRINT LOCAL PHONE EQUIPMENT DEAL: Sprint Canada has awarded Lucent Technologies a contract worth up to $400 million, to provide the switches, access systems, and software for Sprint's planned local telephone service. Sprint says it will enter the local telephone market early in 1999, and roll out to 25 cities within three years. BC TEL OFFERS ANONYMOUS CALL BLOCK: BC Tel's new Anonymous Call Block, activated by a star code, blocks calls from callers who block the display of their names or numbers. It is free to Call Display Plus users. AT&T, BT FORM GLOBAL VENTURE: AT&T Corp. and BT (British Telecom) are forming a joint venture with US$11 Billion expected annual revenues to provide and market global communications services. DISTRIBUTEL ANNOUNCES FLAT-RATE PLAN: Distributel now offers unlimited evening and weekend residential calls in its Ontario-Quebec calling area for $15.95/month; daytime minutes are 15 cents. RATE REBALANCING FOR NORTHWESTEL: CRTC Telecom Order 98-717 approves Northwestel's rate rebalancing proposal, which includes a $4 local service increase, effective August 1. VIDEON INTROS 10 MBPS INTERNET ACCESS: Winnipeg businesses can now get 10-megabit-a-second Internet connections from Videon FiberLink for $549/month, including Internet access charges. BELL IN TELECOM VENTURE FUND: Bell Canada is the corporate partner in CenCom V, a new "electronic communications venture incubator" formed by New York-based North River Ventures. Other partners Centennial Funds of Denver and Vanguard Venture Partners of Palo Alto. BC TEL TAKES INFOINTERACTIVE ICM: BC Tel will deploy Halifax-based InfoInterActive's Internet Call Manager, which notifies users when a voice call is waiting on a line connected to the Internet. (See Telecom Update #139) ** InfoInterActive says that Bellcore (Bell Communications Research) has agreed to help distribute ICM in the U.S. AT&T-TELEPORT DEAL OKAYED: On July 23, the Federal Communications Commission okayed AT&T's $11.3-Billion purchase of Teleport Communications Group. Teleport is the parent company of Canadian long distance reseller ACC TelEnterprises. RATES SET FOR DIRECTORY FILE SERVICE: In Telecom Order 98- 728, the CRTC sets the rates that directory publishers must pay to obtain telephone listings from Stentor. The Commission cut the rates sought by the telcos by about 25%. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98728_0.txt STENTOR ADDS U.S. CALLING OPTION: The Stentor alliance has established a toll-free number, 1-800-555-1111, which allows customers, while in the U.S., to connect directly to Stentor's network and use their Stentor calling cards. MICROCELL & NORTEL JOIN FOR WIRELESS DATA: Microcell, Northern Telecom, GSM Capital, and Omnipoint Communications have formed a joint venture to develop information, e- commerce, locating, and other data services for PCS wireless phones. Market trials are to start by year end. (See Telecom Update #133) CANADA PAYPHONE PLANS INTERNET KIOSKS: Canada Payphone has placed a $1.1 Million order for "hundreds" of multimedia Internet kiosks from Toronto-based King Products; deployment begins in October. (See Telecom Update #128) ** Calgary's Palco Telecom, has signed a deal to distribute payphones made by Missouri-based Acoustics Development Corp. CANTEL EXTENDS "PAY AS YOU GO" PLAN: Eight weeks after its launch in seven Canadian cities, Rogers Cantel's Pay as You Go prepaid analog cellular service has 20,000 customers and has begun a rollout in 25 additional cities. (See Telecom Update #134) TELEGLOBE-EXCEL -- "WORSE THAN COREL-WORDPERFECT": In the July August issue of Telemanagement, Ian Angus explains why he thinks the Teleglobe-Excel merger "is worse than Corel's decision to buy WordPerfect." ** Also in this issue: Henry Dortmans reveals "How to Waste Money on a Consultant." ** For subscription information, call 1-800-263-4415 ext 225, or go to http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week, at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: aljon@worldnet.att.net (Jon Stahl) Subject: Bell Atlantic and GTE - Reportedly Talking Merger Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 16:02:15 +0000 The following 'hit' the news wires 7/27. This is clipped from Bloomberg News at their web-site (URL: http://www.bloomberg.com): Mon, 27 Jul 1998, 11:42am EDT Bell Atlantic, GTE Reported to Be Discussing Merger Worth Up to US$55 Bell Atlantic and GTE Discuss Merger, Person Says (Update4) (Updates with attribution to person familiar with discussions.) New York, July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Bell Atlantic Corp., the largest U.S. local phone company, and GTE Corp. held talks about a merger valued at about $55 billion that would give the companies control of a third of the U.S. local service market, said a person familiar with the discussions. An agreement could come as soon as this week, though the talks may still break down, the person said. Bell Atlantic President and Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg declined to comment, as did officials at GTE, the No. 3 local company. The combined company, with about $53.5 billion in annual sales and 63 million phone lines, would be a stronger competitor to SBC Communications Inc., the No. 2 local phone company, which recently agreed to buy Ameritech Corp. for $70.3 billion. The global phone industry is consolidating at an unprecedented pace as markets open to competition and companies seek to offer a full range of services through one bill. ``We're seeing a battle of Titans,'' said Jeffrey Kagan, president of market researcher Kagan Telecom Associates. ``The companies all feel like they've got to get bigger.'' The combination, first reported by the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, is sure to draw close scrutiny from U.S. regulators. Bell Atlantic and GTE have extensive and overlapping local and wireless operations. Bell Atlantic is prohibited from providing long-distance services, while GTE has more than 2 million long-distance customers. ``These are two companies that would have probably gone head- to-head against each other,'' Kagan said. Stamford, Connecticut-based GTE has been moving quickly to push into the fast-growing data market. Last year, it paid $616 million for Internet service provider BBN Corp., a pioneer in the industry, connecting companies to the global computer network. ========================== It is surely beginning to look like what many of the telecom industry analyst's have been predicting for some time: the telecommunications and data markets will soon be 'controlled' by just a few (maybe one?) very large corporation(s). Too bad the old 'Bell System' wasn't left alone because there must be something in that old phrase that says something like: "what comes around, goes around." Because an almost exact replica of its old self is seemingly starting to reamerge from it's ashes - albeit under a different name but it is coming back, as surely as day follows night (or is that night following day?). ------------------------------ From: Misha Davidson Subject: Seeking Introductory Texts on Cellular Standards Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 19:52:59 +0400 Dear all, Could you please point me to web sites where I could find some introductory texts on current cellular standards AMPS, GSM, CDMA, DCS, NMT. I am interested in both technology and economics (cost structure, economies of scale etc.) of those standards, and also comparisons of their relative advantages and disadvantages. I would appreciate your responding to either news group or directly to my e-mail davidson@skate.ru. Thank you, Misha Davidson ------------------------------ Subject: US Telecom Merger Frenzy Continues Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 21:49:41 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Jessica Hall NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. telecommunications companies continue to race for partners as the voice and data business becomes increasingly global and the Internet blurs country borders. "Everyone's in play. Everyone's always in play for the right price. ... The people who are the busiest right now are the investment bankers coming up with proposals on how to roll up these different companies," said Daniel Briere, president of industry consulting firm TeleChoice Inc. Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. are holding merger talks to create a combined company with revenues of about $53 billion and control of about one-third of the local telephone market, a source familiar with negotiations said Monday. These talks follow the announcement Sunday by AT&T Corp. and British Telecommunications Plc that they would merge their international operations in a $10 billion global partnership. These deals, on the heels of other megamergers in the industry, puts new pressure on the other regional carriers and long-distance companies to find a mate before all the prime partners are gone. "Competition of the future is nothing like that of yesterday, and the phone companies of the future look nothing like they did in the past," said Jeffrey Kagan of Kagan Telecom Associates. Each new deal stretches the concept of a telecommunications giant, creating a large scale on which companies must compete. Companies must be able to provide a wider range of services to customers who want the convenience of having their telephone, Internet, wireless and paging service from one provider on one bill. Traditional voice telephone carriers are increasingly becoming data companies due to the explosive popularity of the Internet and data services. Corporate clients also require a more sophisticated level of service as their own businesses become more global and more fast-paced and competitive. "Solo companies can survive. But they will not thrive if they can't compete on the same level as the titans," Kagan said. Telecommunications companies have been snatching up rivals to acquire new businesses or expertise such as data services or wireless technology, and to extend their geographic coverage to serve a wider range of customers. The AT&T-BT alliance "puts a lot of pressure on Sprint. They need to their act together with GlobalOne. Sprint is really at the crossroads where they could really fall behind," Briere said. GlobalOne is Sprint Corp.'s international partnership with Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom. Sprint has said in the past that it believes it can thrive on its own. but analysts expect the company would agree to a takeover for a high enough premium. The possible GTE-Bell Atlantic merger shows the need for both geographic reach and new technology, analysts said. A combined GTE-Bell Atlantic would result in a company with local phone operations in 41 states. The deal would also allow the two companies to link GTE's national fiber optic network with Bell Atlantic's Fiber Optic Link around the Globe, or FLAG, analysts said. GTE's data business would accelerate Bell Atlantic's efforts to build its own data network. "Competition is one piece. Another piece is their own growth rate. Together they can do more and grow faster. The transition of customers from (a) voice-only world to (a) packet data world is changing the business," said William Vogel, a telecommunications analyst with NationsBanc Montgomery Securities. Over the past nine months, the U.S. telecommunications industry has seen two Baby Bells, Ameritech Corp. and SBC Communications Inc., agree to merge in a $61 billion deal. Industry upstart WorldCom Inc. made a surprise $37 billion bid for MCI Communications Corp., wrestling the long-distance carrier away from BT. AT&T also announced two deals to buy Teleport Communications Group Inc., which provides local telephone service to businesses, and Tele-Communications Inc., a huge cable television operator. "There are these big, grand old telephone companies that are reinventing themselves. The new emerging companies that have the network of today are looking for the customers and traffic," Kagan said. The merger frenzy has led to a strong run in telecommunications stocks, pushing the American Stock Exchange's North American Telecom Stock index up 30 percent this year, compared with an 18 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 index. The rise in stock prices gives each company a stronger currency with which use in a transaction, but it also makes each potential takeover candidate more expensive. Still, analysts don't expect the merger rush to quiet down any time soon. Companies such as BellSouth Corp., and emerging companies such as Qwest Communications International Inc. and Level 3 Communications Inc. are seen as potential takeover targets. As AT&T shifts its international strategy away from its largely unsuccessful WorldPartners and Unisource alliances to work with BT, some of those foreign carriers may look for new allies in the United States. Strong foreign carriers such as Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. of Japan may also be attractive partners for U.S. companies. "I would bet Bernie is brushing up his Japanese, and Bill Esrey, too," said Briere, referring to WorldCom Chief Executive Bernie Ebbers and Sprint Chairman Bill Esrey. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 11:36:56 -0400 From: roy@endeavor.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Subject: Outgoing But no Incoming Service Because of Cable Shortage? Organization: NYU School of Medicine, Educational Computing I ordered new phone service last week at a house I just bought. The previous phone service had been turned off. There was still dial-tone, but you couldn't place any calls. Over the weekend, outgoing service began to work, but not incoming. Talking to the phone company, I was told that they are having trouble with the cables in the area and are pulling new cable, and that's why they can't give me incoming service. They estimate another week. Does this many any sense at all? If I've got dial tone and outgoing service, obviously, I have a good loop back to the CO, right? Actually, it's a relatively remote part of the city, with the nearest CO several miles away, so I'm reasonably sure the local loop goes to some kind of concentrator/slik type thing then some sort of trunk back to the CO. Not sure if that makes any difference. Roy Smith New York University School of Medicine [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It doesn't make a lot of sense does it? Do you have an update now that a few additional days have passed? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 11:04:25 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "The Web Navigator", Paul Gilster Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKWEBNAV.RVW 980523 "The Web Navigator", Paul Gilster, 1997, 0-471-16495-X, U$24.95/C$34.95 %A Paul Gilster gilster@interpath.com %C 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor, Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 %D 1997 %G 0-471-16495-X %I Wiley %O U$24.95/C$34.95 fax: 416-236-4448 lwhiting@jwiley.com %P 490 p. %T "The Web Navigator" Since the rise in popularity of the World Wide Web to *the* interface of choice to the Internet we've had all the various introductions to the Internet that concentrate solely on the net via browser. Now comes the useful one. Chapter one states outright that the view of the net in this book is limited to the browser window, in contrast to most works in the genre that imply the Web is all there is. There is the obligatory collection of different types of sites on the Web, but Gilster manages to use the space to point out features and ideas rather than simply presenting a montage of KEWL! screen shots. The history of the Web is accurately and interestingly portrayed in chapter two. Getting connected to the net can never be completely covered but chapter three manages to present an astounding range of information. It is also backed up by a very useful appendix dealing with dial up networking in Windows 95. Gilster admits his choice of Netscape Navigator in chapter four before going on to give a review of the major browser functions. Unfortunately some material is specific not only to the browser but to the release as well, but this is unavoidable with the graphical interface. Chapter five, dealing with plug-ins and other components, is valuable, but also shows how quickly these items go in and out of style. The advice on email covers not only configuration, but also advanced topics such as netiquette in chapter six. Most of chapter seven concentrates on accessing Usenet news via the browser, but it also deals with telnet and gopher functions. Advanced or coming technologies like Java, Internet telephony, and the Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) are quickly reviewed in chapter eight. Searching, in chapter nine, covers all aspects including search engines, directories, people finders, and agents. Publishing on the Web is discussed more in concept than in detail in chapter ten. Issues of security and privacy are covered clearly in chapter eleven. While the book starts very strongly indeed, matching the quality of "The Internet Navigator" (cf. BKINTNAV.RVW) and "Finding it on the Internet" (cf. BKFNDINT.RVW), later chapter are sound but not quite as vital. Still this book would have to have serious consideration as possibly the best introduction for those approaching the net through the Web interface. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKWEBNAV.RVW 980523 ------------------------------ From: mdorin@my-dejanews.com (Mike Dorin) Subject: Wanted: GR-303 Test Site (5ESS, DMS100, etc.) Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 13:34:07 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion EDI Enterprises is currently looking for a site to test our Embedded Operations Channel software. Using our test device, we would simulate a GR-303 RDT. We would need the following: 1) A small place to setup equipment 2) 2 DS1's (connected to an IDT with TMC/EOCs provisioned) 3) We would like to provision perhaps a half dozen analog lines 4) A 5ESS switch running 5E9(2) software or later. If anybody is interested in working with us or knows somebody who is please email me at mike@chaski.com. I would sincerely appreciate any help in this matter. Mike Dorin EDI Enterprises, Inc. www.cmise.com ------------------------------ From: anthony@alphageo.com (Anthony Argyriou) Subject: US Worst Slamming? Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 02:29:03 GMT Organization: Alpha Geotechnical Reply-To: anthony@alphageo.com Yesterday at work, I got a call asking for the "Accounts Payable". I asked who it was, and what they wanted. The woman gave a name, said she was from Pacific Bell, and said it was about the phone bill. So I gave the call to the boss (there're three of us), who told me afterwards that the woman started fishing around for the name of our Long Distance carrier. He didn't give it to her, and asked for her name and number on the pretense of calling her back later. She gave the same name, and a number which turned out to be US West. Something fishy is going on here -- does US West offer LD in PacBell Land? Or is some sleaze LD company giving out US West's number to get them in trouble? Anthony Argyriou http://www.alphageo.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #113 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Aug 9 15:13:04 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id PAA16280; Sun, 9 Aug 1998 15:13:04 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 1998 15:13:04 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199808091913.PAA16280@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #115 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Aug 98 15:13:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 115 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Net Domains Doled Out by Japan `Cartel' (Tad Cook) The Caller-ID Wars Continue (Monty Solomon) Meeting Held in Geneva to Privatize DNS (Ronda Hauben) Canadian Flat-Rate Unlimited LD (Ralph Doncaster) E-mail Flaw May Make Net a Perilous Place For Months (Monty Solomon) East Coast Telco Strike and Other News (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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Net Domains Doled Out by Japan `Cartel' Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 11:13:40 PDTo telnet From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Michael Zielenziger Mercury News Tokyo Bureau TOKYO -- The Internet, that agile new technology that offers instant access to global commerce and communication, supposedly flouts political boundaries. Just point and click, proponents say, and the technology of the "virtual world" can easily defy the trade barriers that inhibit conventional commerce. Not so in Japan, as entrepreneurs like David Shepherd are learning. Tangent Computing Ltd., Shepherd's software distribution company, was bounced off the World Wide Web in late July by Japanese authorities after he switched to a U.S.-based Internet service to host his company's e-mail accounts. It seems that a group of Japanese-based Internet providers, operating with the approval of the government, controls who gets to play -- and how much they pay -- to get access to the World Wide Web in Japan. "Basically, we were shut down for not using a Japanese Internet provider," said Shepherd, a Canadian, who does 90 percent of his software distribution business through the Net. Dozens of entrepreneurs such as Israeli businessman Todd Walzer have found they could not use their Internet addresses in Japan -- known in Internet parlance as a "domain names" -- unless they also used a Japanese Internet service provider. Japanese firms, however, are usually slower and far more expensive than overseas providers, foreign businessmen say. The lack of competition is a key reason that Japan, despite its reputation for high-end technology, lags far behind the United States and other developed economies in its use of the Internet. Japan has only 40,000 domain names. The United States, a bit more than twice Japan's size, boasts more than 1.2 million. Moreover, while the United States is fourth in domain names per person, Japan ranks 21st, according to data compiled by Michael Borrus, co-director of the Berkeley Roundtable on International Economics in California. The Japan Network Information Center, or JPNIC, the quasi-governmental group that assigns domain names to users, is essentially run by Japan's Internet service providers. These firms pay about $3,500 to join the association and another $2,150 in annual dues. As members of JPNIC, these providers have the power to "approve" new domain addresses -- but they approve only those new addresses that use Japanese Internet providers, according to Naomasa Maruyama, JPNIC vice president. Not unusual ... Mysterious, cartel-like organizations that set prices are not unusual in Japan. Steel manufacturers, concrete producers, construction companies, stevedores and dozens of others have been accused of conspiring to regulate prices, keep foreign competitors at bay and regulate domestic competition. But even some Japanese are surprised to hear that a cartel of Internet providers decides who can be assigned a Web domain address within Japan -- those domains that carry the "jp" address. "It's really an obstacle, isn't it?" said Yuichiro Anzai, dean of the faculty of science and technology at prestigious Keio University. JPNIC officials, however, insist they are the real free marketeers. "There is a difference between freedom and a free ride," said Maruyama. "We are very proud the Japanese Internet developed without the support of the government." Maruyama also rejected the argument of JPNIC critics that some of the center's policies have stifled Internet use in Japan. According to JPNIC policy, for instance, only a company registered for business in Japan can obtain a ".jp" domain name. No individual can obtain a domain name. And any corporation can obtain only a single domain listing. No such rules apply in the United States or in many other countries. Aimed at scams ... Maruyama said JPNIC's strict rules were created to prevent individual "cyber scammers" from buying up the domain names of famous companies so they could later sell them back to the companies. (A case such as this occurred in America this week, when a Silicon Valley man was paid some $3.3 million by Compaq Computer to relinquish the "altavista.com" domain name. AltaVista is an Internet search service acquired by Compaq when it bought Digital Equipment Corp.) But Bradley Bartz, an early Internet pioneer in Japan, said JPNIC is a cartel that conspires "to make any .jp address the most expensive domain name in the world." Registering a domain name, which costs about $75 in the United States, can cost four times as much in Japan, he said. "It's an Old Boys club designed to protect the growth of Internet," Bartz said. "It's all about control. By preventing the growth of domain names, they are preventing entrepreneurs from expressing themselves and preventing the expansion of commerce." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 15:30:01 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Caller-ID Wars Continue Excerpt from PRIVACY Forum Digest V07 #13 Date: Mon, 27 Jul 98 08:57 PDT From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein; PRIVACY Forum Moderator) Subject: The Caller-ID Wars Continue Greetings. It's starting to look pretty clear--there's a new war over caller-ID, especially for California telephone subscribers. When per-call ID blocking was mandated nationally, and complete (all-call, with selective unblocking) blocking was made available in states like California, it looked like the protracted battle over caller-ID was over. Far from it. As has been discussed in the PRIVACY Forum in the past, there have been increasing reports of what some would call "high pressure" sales tactics by Pacific Bell representatives attempting to sell caller-ID services, and also attempting to convince persons to switch from complete to "selective" (per-call) blocking--the latter sends the ID on all calls by default. PacBell's latest hope to increase their caller-ID related services is the implementation of "anonymous" call blocking, which blocks incoming calls unless the caller is willing to provide the number of the phone line they are calling from (and often now the name associated with that line) to the caller. In a fascinating move, PacBell is even marketing this service to people who don't subscribe to caller-ID and couldn't see the number/name of the line calling in any case! PacBell has gotten extremely aggressive in their add-on services sales to any subscriber that calls for almost any reason--I can verify this myself. Unfortunately, reports are that they're even pushing some of these expensive services on persons who call to order low income "lifeline" plans. The problems have reached a level where the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has begun looking into PacBell's sales tactics. The problems, risks, and failures associated with caller-ID services have been well documented in the past here in the PRIVACY Forum in previous issues, so there's no point to reiterating them here. But this escalation in PacBell's aggressive sales efforts seems to be correlated with their acquisition by Southwest Bell (SWB), who apparently has set very specific goals to try to drastically raise the number of subscribed "features" per telephone subscriber in California. SWB is used to much higher rates of caller-ID service penetration in their home state of Texas, where per-line complete blocking is not available. It obviously is distressing to them to have to deal with a state like California, where about half the phones lines are subscribed to complete blocking, and more than half the lines are reportedly non-published. When I recently spoke at length with PacBell spokesman John Britton, he made it clear that PacBell had every intention of marketing these services to their utmost, and suggested that the excessively high-pressure sales tactics reported by some were aberrations by individual sales representatives, not company policy. He seemed to blame the high percentage of complete blocking in California on the educational campaign that the CPUC had mandated. I asked him about a statement from the San Jose Mercury News where he was quoted as saying, "If consumers don't like it, they can stand up. They don't need a lot of pushy people at ORA [Office of Ratepayer Advocates] standing up for them." He acknowledged the essential accuracy of the quote, but admitted that, in retrospect, he perhaps should have left out that comment about the ORA. Pacific Bell certainly has a right to market their services. But given that they still operate in what amounts to effectively a monopoly position when it comes to residential local service (theoretical competition in local service notwithstanding), I think it's reasonable to hold them to the highest standard in their dealings with their subscribers in this and other areas. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein Moderator, PRIVACY Forum http://www.vortex.com ------------------------------ From: rh120@columbia.edu (Ronda Hauben) Subject: Meeting Held in Geneva to Privatize DNS Date: 7 Aug 1998 17:04:21 GMT Organization: Columbia University Reply-To: rh120@columbia.edu Following is an account of what happened in Geneva at the meeting to create a private organization to privatize the DNS. It is important that this all gets discussed online and that people who care about the Internet and its future find a way to deal with what is happening. Ronda ronda@panix.com ----------- Report from the Front Meeting in Geneva Rushes to Privitize the Internet DNS and root Server System by Ronda Hauben ronda@panix.com There's a battle being waged today, one that is of great importance to the future of society, but most people have no idea it is taking place. I just returned from Geneva, Switzerland where a meeting was held Friday July 25 and Saturday July 26 to create the organization that Ira Magaziner, advisor to the U.S. President, has called for. It's an organization to privatize key aspects of the Internet, the Domain Name System (DNS) and the control of the root server of the Internet. The meeting was the second in a series that are part of the the International Forum on the White Paper (IFWP) (1). The U.S. government, without discussion by the U.S. Congress, the press or the public, and contrary to the direction of the U.S. court (in the case ACLU vrs. Reno) is throwing a bone to the private sector and offering them the possibility of making their millions off of the Internet. And while in Geneva, I saw folks from several different countries grabbing at the bone, in hopes of getting themselves some of the same kind of exorbitant profits from selling gTDL's (generic Top Level Domains) that the National Science Foundation (NSF) bestowed on Network Services Inc (NSI) several years ago by giving them the contracts for selling gTLDs. There's money to be made, or so these folks seem to think, and so any concern for the well being of the Internet or its continued development as "a new medium of international communication" (ACLU vrs Reno) has been thrown to the wind by Mr. Magaziner, IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) under the direction of Mr. Postel, which has the U.S. government contract to administer the Internet Addresses and Names and to administer the root server, and the others who, without any ethical considerations or social obligations are rushing through this process and sqelching discussion and dissent. It's called "consensus" we are told. I went to the session setting up the Names Registry Council provisions for the bylaws of what we are told is to be the new private organization controlling these key aspects of the Internet. At the beginning of the meeting, I made the mistake of objecting when all were asked to register their consensus with the provision for a Names Council. I wanted to hear some discussion so I would know what I was voting on. I was scolded by one participant for asking for a discussion as, he claimed that they were *not* here for people who had not read the bylaws proposal that appeared online only a few days before. I had read the bylaws proposal but was naive enough to think that one would hear discussion and clarification before being asked to declare one's adherence. In that way I thought one would know what one was agreeing to. Instead, however, I soon learned that that was *not* how business (or really religion) was being developed in the session I attended. After harrassing me for asking for clarification and discussion, the meeting continued. The Chairman asked people to brainstorm and list the functions for the council. When I asked that the activities of the council be reported online and that there be online discussion with anyone interested being allowed to comment on all issues concerning the council, the scribe miswrote what I had proposed. When I asked it be corrected, I was told by the Chair that there was no "wordsmithing" allowed, i.e. that it wouldn't be corrected. After a number of people had listed functions for the council, it was announced that the meeting would vote on the functions to determine if there was "consensus". Then a vote was rammed through on the items. However, instead of counting the numbers for or against each function, there was a declaration of "consensus" if, we were told, it seemed as if there were 60% of those voting who had voted for the listed function. For the first few functions those opposed were allowed to voice their objection. The meeting was being tape recorded, we were told, and there would be a record kept of it. But that soon ended as someone in the room objected to hearing any objections. The Chair said that this was how this was done at the telecom meetings he knew of, as there the players were large corporations with large bank accounts that could afford big law suits. Here, however, it seemed those in control of the meeting judged this was not the case. A short break was called. After the break it was announced that those with objections could no longer voice them on the record during the meeting but were told to come up after the meeting was over. So the vote continued on, consensus continued to be declared for most of the items voted on, despite the fact there were those indicating their opposition to all of these items. But the record would no longer contain any note of the objections. The Chair and others marvelled at the roll they were on. Even though it was time for the meeting to end, one of the Chairs of the plenary meeting allowed this meeting to continue as it on such a roll. Then to the Plenary meeting. Here there was joy and praise for this democratic process from the Chair and spokespeople from the different sessions. When I tried to go to the microphone and say that the consensus in the session I had been in to determine functions for the Names Council represented "no discussion allowed and no noting of those who objected," the Chair of the Plenary Meeting told me I was not allowed to speak there. This all followed the invitation that had been extended in the press lunch on Tuesday, July 21 at INET, where all members of the press were invited to come to the Friday and Saturday sessions of the IFWP and were were invited to participate. However, by Friday and Saturday the invitation clearly had changed, especially if one had a question or objection to raise about what was happening. And this is how the supposed new private organization that is to administer and make policy for the Domain Names System that is the nerve system of the Internet and the Root Server System, is being created. No one with any but a private commercial interest (in normal language, a conflict of interest) is to be allowed to participate in the process, no discussion to clarify what people are being asked to vote on is allowed to take place, and no objections could be voiced in the session creating the Names Council, which is one of the crucial aspects of the organizational form, as it is groups with a commercial interest in the sale of gTLD's who have decreed to themselves the right to set policy and recommend actions regarding the gTLD's. What's the significance of this process as a way to create an organization to take over control and administration of the nerve center of the Global Internet? The Internet was developed and has grown and flourished through the opposite procedures, through democratic processes where all are welcomed to speak, where those who disagree are invited to participate, and to voice their concerns along with those who agree, where those who can make a single contribution are as welcome as those with the time to continually contribute. (See Poster "Lessons from the early MsgGroup Mailing List as a Foundation for Identifying the Principles for Future Internet Governance" by Ronda Hauben, INET '98.)(2) Also historically, the processes for discussion ------------------------------ From: Ralph Doncaster Organization: DCI Subject: Canadian flat-rate unlimited LD Date: Sat, 08 Aug 1998 23:14:03 GMT Sprint started last month with $20/mth for unlimited within-canada calling on evenings and weekends. Other telco's quickly followed with similar programs. What I don't understand is how this works. Canadian like US LD requires contribution charges. I'm in Ottawa, Ontario, so when I use sprint, they have to pay 2c/min to Bell Canada. They may also have to pay ~2c/min to the terminating telco (i.e. MT&T if I was to call Halifax, Nova Scotia) but I'm not sure of that part. Even assuming just 2c/min contribution charges, if I use 17 hours of LD on the evg and weekend sprint would loose money. Am I misunderstanding the regulations regarding contribution charges or is Sprint just playing the averages and assuming the typical customer will not use many hours? Ralph Doncaster, Doncaster Consulting Inc email: ralph(at)doncaster.on.ca 2816 Richmond Rd. Ottawa, ON K2B 6S5 ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: E-mail flaw may make Net a perilous place for months Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 21:49:36 -0400 E-mail flaw may make Net a perilous place for months BY DAVID L. WILSON Mercury News Staff Writer The danger posed by the devastating hole in some of the most popular electronic mail software in the world likely will persist for many months, or even years, putting many thousands of people at risk. The extremely widespread nature of the flaw, which was revealed publicly last week, combined with the difficulty of ensuring that patches for the flaw get installed, is likely to make the Internet a much less stable environment as malevolent Internet users begin using the flaw to disrupt activities on the Internet. The situation illustrates the difficulties of developing secure systems, particularly as the software that runs on computers gets more complex and unwieldy. And it's a taste of the difficulties that lie ahead as more and more of the nation's everyday activities become tied to the Internet. The flaw allows an outsider to send a booby-trapped piece of electronic mail. Under some conditions, the booby-trap can be activated without any action on the part of the victim. The poisoned e-mail can execute code on the targeted computer, up to and including erasing the hard drive. One self-described member of the ``black hat'' hacker community -- black hats are malevolent hackers, sometimes known as ``crackers'' -- said his group is working on a number of variants of booby-trapped e-mail. The plan, he said, is to send out thousands of such booby-trapped e-mails to users around the world. Bomb has two stages The payload on these bombs would be delivered in two stages. In stage one, the booby-trapped e-mail directs the host e-mail application to send out thousands more booby-trapped e-mails. Once that task is completed, the original e-mail will attempt to reformat the host hard drive to complete stage two, which is designed to make tracking the assault back to its originators that much harder. All those new e-mails will attempt to do the same thing on any host computer where they become active, creating a tidal wave of assaults throughout the Internet that could bring things to a grinding halt. Experts say it may not be an empty boast. ``Clearly the person has some idea what's involved,'' said Eugene H. Spafford, director of the new Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue University. ``But this would not be a trivial thing to do.'' The description of the attack is strikingly similar to a technique used 10 years ago by Robert T. Morris, a graduate student at Cornell University, to bring down the entire Internet using an electronic ``worm,'' a bit of software whose only goal was to spread through the system and make copies of itself. Patches for the holes exploited by Morris soon were deployed. The current e-mail problem is different in that the fix isn't aimed at the high-powered machines that keep the Internet humming but on the standard desktop machines, which often must be serviced one by one. ``We would rank it as a fairly significant problem, one that's unusual because it affects consumer-level software more than the kind of software that internet service providers might run on their server machines,'' said Shawn Hernan, leader of the vulnerability handling team at the CERT (formerly the Computer Emergency Response Team) Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute. Many people suspect that the problem will be around for many months because people will fail to install the patches as they become available or neglect to upgrade their e-mail software. Update -- or else ``Now that the crackers know how to exploit this, people who don't update will be hurt,'' said Paul E. Hoffman, director of the Internet Mail Consortium. ``Unfortunately, that might be the majority of people.'' Corporate computer system administrators today often find themselves overwhelmed inside a company. Security concerns often take a back seat to the more pressing matters of installing a bigger hard drive or monitor. ``We have no plans to patch company-wide immediately,'' said David Hart, who works in the Internet industry. ``We'll probably patch laptop users right away because they go for longer periods of time without hard drive backups. We'll probably roll out Communicator 4.5 (with the patch included) in October or November. Our network is set up in a way that damage caused by a hack would be reduced and more easily reparable compared to most other PC network configurations,'' he said. ``Please don't print my employer's name. I'd hate someone to interpret my boast as an invitation to hack.'' Long time to create patch The flaw has been confirmed in three programs: Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook Express and Outlook 98 and Netscape Communications Corp.'s Messenger Mail, which accompanies versions 4.x of the Communicator Web browser software. Researchers are continuing to study other software packages to see which are vulnerable and under what circumstances. Oftentimes a patch for a security hole can be created within a day or two. Because of the variety of ways this flaw can be exploited, it's taking companies an exceptionally long time to build something that guards against all the possible permutations, yet doesn't interfere with function or create new problems. Experts remain concerned that users will be less likely to install the patches if the process takes too long. ``Vendors need to be very proactive in getting the word out,'' Hernan said. ``This story has received a lot of public attention, so there is some hope that it will get a larger level of the public mindshare.'' ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Telecom Strike on East Coast and Other News Date: Sun, 09 Aug 1998 14:00:00 EDT Pardon me for not being around much this past week. A bit of illness combined with an overwhelming amount of work helping my friend Jim at his bus station (this is August, and a very busy month in the bus business) have made other things difficult to manage. Then too, a small problem with the computer that took a good part of a day to get repaired added to the backlog. In the news Sunday morning comes word that Bell Atlantic/Nynex employees went on strike as of midnight Saturday night. I do not yet know the details, except that a contract had expired and the new terms were not yet agreed upon. These days with so much of telecom totally automated, it is hard to say what effect the strike will have on users, if any. I suppose new installations will be affected, and the usual amount of sabatoge can be expected. Readers who wish to report any experiences as a result of the strike are welcome to write. In other news, I *may* have a new corporate sponsor for the Digest of the magnitude (financially) or better as Microsoft. I won't confirm it until I have absolute evidence of it, but suffice to say I am going to my post office box daily looking for a window envelope with a 'pay to the order of' visible when the envelope is held up to a strong light. The new sponsor, if it happens, has three letters as the abbrev- iation to its name, and it is not AT&T or MCI. They'll want something for their money of course. More details when I can print them without making a fool of myself (this week, I still reserve the right to take that posture on other occassions -- smile!) PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #115 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Aug 16 22:17:16 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id WAA02293; Sun, 16 Aug 1998 22:17:16 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 22:17:16 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199808170217.WAA02293@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #116 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Aug 98 22:17:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 116 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Many Small Towns in West Still Without Phones (Babu Mengelepouti) Commentary on Some Towns Without Phones (Babu Mengelepouti) AT&T Charges GTE with Unjust Access Fees (Monty Solomon) Court Upholds Phone Regulation (Monty Solomon) New Area Codes: Dallas 469, Houston 832 (Greg Monti) Media Coverage of Privatizing of Internet Root Server System (Ronda Hauben) What's With Ameritech Pay Phones in GTE Territory? (Jack Decker) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 08:41:14 -0700 From: Babu Mengelepouti Reply-To: dialtone@vcn.bc.ca Organization: US Secret Service Subject: Many Small Towns in West Still Without Phones I ran across this article in the {Seattle Times}, but it's originally from the {Oregonian}, based in Portland. I think that it's very well written, and should be published in the Digest. The URL is http://www.oregonlive.com/todaysnews/9808/st080214.html and I've included the text in case the link is dead by the time you read this. Granite, Ore.: Outside the loop The tiny mountain community of 25 residents, once a booming mining town, has never had phone service Sunday, August 2 1998 By Su-jin Yim of The Oregonian staff The cream-colored business cards that lodge owners Pat and Mitch Fielding hand out must be a rarity in the lodging industry. The cards ask customers to "please write for reservations." The Fieldings don't live in the 19th century, but their communications link to the outside world does. Granite, a tiny mountain town located about two hours south of Pendleton, does not have phone service. That means fellow businesswoman Lucy Myers, who owns the general store, can't order supplies out of her distributor's online Web site. Instead, she uses a 2-year-old catalog when she calls her sales rep on her cell phone. Late-night gabbing is a near impossibility, unless you want the neighbors to hear. The town's de facto local phone network is CB radio. Granite's situation highlights the consequences of living in remote rural America, where the lack of basic services that urbanites couldn't live without are widening the gap in an information-driven society. In essence, the United States, one of the most connected nations in the world, is creating two worlds: those with access and those without. Some experts predict those consequences are bound to get even more dire as telecommunications needs expand beyond basic phone service into access to advanced services, such as the Internet, telemedicine and distance learning. More than 6 million U.S. households, roughly 15 million people, lack basic telephone service for one reason or another, according to the federal government. The 1996 Telecommunications Act was supposed to change that. Among other things, the now much-criticized act, designed to bring competition to the monopolistic industry, promised equal access to every American. But two years later, the national battle over rural telecommunications is raging as federal regulators and politicians push and pull to force the act to live up to its promises. That's left places like Granite; Pearl, Idaho, and small rural communities in the South unconnected. "What you'll find in a community lacking basic infrastructure, basic telephone service, basic education, basic health care is . . . we're paying for more of their child care, their food stamps," said Scott Duff, Oregon director of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "If we disinvest in rural America, it will have a cost." Isolated by economics Granite, whose population has tripled from eight to 25 full-time residents in two years, has never had phone service. A once-booming mining town founded at the turn of the century, the growth dried up when the dredges did. The town can get satellite TV and has electricity, but there are no Internet addicts here. No one surfs the Web, sends electronic mail or even faxes. Other services lag too: the town gets mail only three days a week and has no local emergency services. US West, which is looking into ways to provide phone service, says it alone can't afford to pay the nearly $1 million price tag of running fiber-optic cable to the roughly 30 people in and around Granite. The town, reached by winding, two-lane mountain roads, is surrounded by the Umatilla National Forest on all sides and sits on rocky terrain. The closest land-line phone and central telephone office is in Sumpter, 17 miles away. "We are hard up against the tyranny of distance and density," said Larry Huss, US West Oregon vice president. US West's proposed solution would have each Granite customer pay their share of the total equipment and construction costs. That's roughly $30,000 per person. "That's going to be a real problem if they come to a price everybody has to pay. We'll never get a phone," said Myers, who is on the town council. It isn't surprising that Granite, with a median income of $15,000 and median age of 58, isn't a priority for US West. Like other regulated phone companies who are laboring to compete in the post-Telecom Act world, the Denver-based Baby Bell is feeling pressure on nearly every front. Its new rivals, called competitive local exchange carriers, are cherry-picking the most lucrative customers -- businesses -- while leaving the traditional phone company with the headache of providing expensive, but less profitable, rural service. During the past several years, US West has been selling off old rural phone exchanges throughout its 14-state territory. "That gives you a sense about where they see their business going," said securities analyst Bob Wilkes, who follows US West for Brown Brothers Harriman in New York. Before the Act passed, US West's reluctance would have easily left the door open for Pine Telephone, a tiny company in Halfway almost at the state border, says Pine president Rodney Huff. But now, his company, which wrote an engineering study and planned to provide service, also can't afford to loop in Granite without promises of subsidized loans from the Rural Utilities Service. Serving rural areas has become more complicated since 1996. The federal government and industry giants are squabbling over how large the universal access fund that would subsidize costs should be, and how the money would be handed out. Without the promise of federal aid, rural service is a riskier proposition for the small telephone companies that serve hundreds of customers ignored by the Bell operating companies. Leaving the city behind Not everyone in Granite is aching for phone service. The townspeople are mavericks, says Mayor Mike Hammer, a former air traffic controller. Many of the residents moved to this mountain community precisely because they wanted less contact, not more, with the bustle of urban life. But that puts them out of touch, and for the few businesses in town, that's especially difficult. The Fieldings say they poured $400,000 into building their gleaming wood lodge with a spacious wrap-around deck, on the perennial promise that phones were coming. Pat Fielding recently removed the Lodge's Web site from the Internet. The immediacy of the Internet just didn't make sense when potential customers couldn't even call for more information or to make reservations. Former US West employee Dee Schnitzer, who joined her husband in Granite last year, can't take advantage of the free phone service she earned as a longtime employee. The consequences can be dire. After a 40-year career that pushed his family all around the West, Oregon native Glenn Myers wanted to come home. So the retired midlevel executive and his wife, Lucy, moved back to Eastern Oregon and bought the town store. The town's lack of amenities didn't deter the high school sweethearts who had met while attending school in Baker City, about 50 miles from Granite. But when Glenn Myers, 58, had a heart attack in May, their cell phone spit static at them. Daughter-in-law Diane Myers called for an ambulance, but couldn't make out the dispatcher's instructions. Panicky moments led to a tortuous hour of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before an ambulance reached town. "I wanted them to quit," said Lucy Myers, a quiet-spoken woman wearing a blue Granite Store T-shirt. This year, Paul Schnitzer, a city councilman and reserve deputy who performed CPR on Myers, has written numerous letters to politicians and others. Few of the recipients, who included state legislators, utility commissioners, President Bill Clinton and Rush Limbaugh, had an answer. Some states force companies to serve rural areas. Alaska's Public Utility Commission told Alascom, a subsidiary of AT&T, that it had to provide phone service to any town of 25 residents or more. Alascom uses low-orbiting satellites to bounce electric signals from earth stations hooked up to wired central offices. But Oregon's PUC says it won't force US West to offer service to Granite at a loss. Alaska's satellite system, the early beginnings of which came about to link the state's military outposts with the rest of the nation, wouldn't work in Granite because it doesn't have any land lines to begin with. And US West isn't pursuing that technology. Huss, the US West Oregon vice president, said an early 1990s satellite trial in Wyoming provided poor service and cost too much. The company hasn't found any other low-cost technology that would help, he said. Huss says Granite's situation speaks to the larger issue of universal access and blames slow-moving regulators on the company's inability to provide service economically. Huss, who grew up in Montana, said the FCC needs to take action before it leaves rural America behind permanently. "At some point in time, US West, GTE and others will not serve these areas, because they can't afford to serve them," Huss said. "There's no question we will create a society of technological haves and have-nots for basic service." ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 08:46:15 -0700 From: Babu Mengelepouti Reply-To: dialtone@vcn.bc.ca Organization: US Secret Service Subject: Commentary on Some Towns Without Phones I have a comment on this article, too: US West claims it would cost a million dollars to run fibre to Granite. Why in the world would they do this? Clearly, if cellular service is available, it should be possible to establish a microwave link, and probably at substantially less cost. They do this already in Fields, OR -- they run a SLC to there from (if I remember correctly) Burns. I think that this is just political posturing, and it's leaving the residents of Granite without phones in the meantime. US West continues its reign as one of the slimiest telcoes in existance. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T Charges GTE With Unjust Access Fees Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1998 17:37:20 -0400 AT&T Charges GTE with Unjust Access Fees Company says Michigan Telephone Customers Unjustly Penalized August 13, 1998 1:34 PM EDT LANSING, Mich., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Stating that GTE (NYSE: GTE) refused to negotiate an access charge reduction that would benefit the state's long-distance telephone users, AT&T (NYSE: T) today filed a complaint with the Michigan Public Service Commission asking the commission to order GTE to reduce access charges to comparable rates in its other Midwest states. If the fees were reduced, the reduction would amount to $21.5 million. "GTE's charges for toll access services are excessive, unreasonable and discriminatory when compared to the access charges it imposes in AT&T's other central region states," said Ray O'Connell, AT&T public relations vice president, central states. "As a result, the monies GTE generates in carrier access fees in Michigan place a disproportionate burden on Michigan's long-distance customers." In its complaint, AT&T indicated the company had been unsuccessful in getting GTE to agree to negotiate a reduction in its intrastate Primary Interexchange Carrier Charges (PICCs) which far exceed the comparable GTE PICC rates in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. "Such an arbitrary rate design unjustly penalizes Michigan long-distance customers and is inconsistent with the procompetitive intent of the Michigan Telecommunications Act," added O'Connell. According to AT&T the PICC rates established in January by GTE in Michigan are the highest among those of the five-state AT&T central region and ensure that Michigan long-distance telephone customers pay more for telephone services in Michigan than do consumers in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. "For example," continued O'Connell, "a Michigan customer who uses approximately 10 minutes of telephone service per day will pay approximately twice as much for access than an Illinois customer." In addition, in its filing AT&T is seeking a reduction in other rate levels so that the revenues GTE generates in Michigan are more in line with Michigan's "fair share." If AT&T's proposals are adopted, GTE Michigan's common line revenues would decrease from 36 percent of its total access of the five-state region to 20 percent. "This figure is equitable given that 20.7 percent of GTE's total five-state access lines are in Michigan," added O'Connell. "With these high access charges we're at a competitive disadvantage," said O'Connell. "We're simply asking the Michigan commission to order GTE to reduce the access charges. If it does, we will pass any savings on to our long-distance customers in Michigan." SOURCE AT&T ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Court Upholds Phone Regulation Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1998 17:38:07 -0400 Court Upholds Phone Regulation August 10, 1998 6:53 PM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) _ A government regulation aimed at helping companies provide competing local phone services was upheld Monday by a federal appeals court in St. Louis. The court's ruling preserves the status quo and won't have any immediate impact on local telephone customers. But the Federal Communications Commission was pleased to finally score a victory after losing several court cases involving its efforts to break open the $110 billion local phone business to competition. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit upheld an FCC decision requiring major local phone companies to lease out to rivals certain network facilities _ mainly trunks and switches _ that carry calls between local phone switches and long-distance companies. These facilities, dubbed shared transport, carry the traffic of multiple phone customers or phone companies. GTE, Bell Atlantic and other local phone companies asked the court to overturn the ruling. The FCC, long-distance companies _ AT&T, MCI and WorldCom _ and others that want to provide local phone services argued that the rules be retained. The FCC's regulation was part of its efforts to implement a 1996 telecommunications law, which freed local, long-distance and cable companies to get into each others' businesses. ``We conclude that the plain meaning of the statute supports the FCC's determination,'' a panel of three judges wrote in an unanimous decision. The court's ruling may help the FCC in another, crucial case pending before the Supreme Court, said a FCC attorney, speaking on condition of anonymity. Last year, the 8th Circuit said the FCC lacked the authority to set prices for would-be rivals to lease pieces of existing local phone networks or to buy local service and resell it to customers. Only the states can do that, the court said. The decision has deterred companies from getting into the local phone business. Given this ruling, FCC attorneys said they don't expect Monday's decision to have an immediate impact on local phone customers. Still, the most recent ruling is important to would-be local phone providers, the FCC attorneys said, because they'll have access to these ``shared'' facilities and won't be forced to lease more expensive dedicated lines to route calls. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 23:22:15 -0500 From: Greg Monti Subject: New Area Codes: Dallas 469, Houston 832 In the Tuesday, August 11, 1998, {Dallas Morning News} is an article on page A1 entitled, "Dallas, suburbs to ring in 469 as third area code". A summary: Beginning on December 5, 1998, the boundary between the 214 and 972 area codes will be erased and either code can be assigned on either side of the line. On the same day, all local calls in the Dallas area will need to be dialed with 10 digits. 7 digits will no longer be allowed. No change to toll calling: will be 1+10 digits, same as now. Beginning in July, 1999, new numbers will begin to be assigned in the 469 area code. Ten digit dialing for local calls is already in service in Maryland, Atlanta and Miami. The article notes that "officials believe that this will be the last new code that Dallas it its suburbs will need until at least 2005." More than half of the 800 possible area codes in North America have already been assigned or reserved. The story says the three-digit area code system will exhaust in about 2025 and the number of digits required for a local call may rise "to 12 or 15," according to Texas code administrator Bill Adair. Houston will also get a third area code, 832, in January, 1999, also using the overlay method covering the 713 and 281 areas. Greg Monti Dallas, Texas, USA gmonti@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~gmonti ------------------------------ From: rh120@columbia.edu (Ronda Hauben) Subject: Media Coverage of Privatizing of Internet Root Server System Date: 16 Aug 1998 16:17:09 GMT Organization: Columbia University Reply-To: rh120@columbia.edu "The domain name issue is of critical importance... for the continued well functioning of the Net..." I have been doing some research on these issues. I found a meeting on July 30-31 1997 on the subject and the report of that meeting noted: "As many have noted, the domain name system is a running service, used by millions every day. It is also a sensitive system, where a small mistake can cause a lot of damage...." Yet a significant change in who controls this system is being made with no public attention and oversight over what is happening. Questions: Are some industry entities taking this over and why is this being done in such a shroud of darkness? Who will have the control? How can a crucial aspect of a vital communications infrastructure be be handed over to something that is not accountable to any public process or entity? I wondered if anyone has seen any media coverage of the changes that are being planned in how the Internet Domain Name System is administered and in the control over the root server system that is the nerve center of the Internet. It is interesting that this is such an important aspect of the proper functioning of the Internet and yet I have seen very little press coverage of the issues and controversy involved in this. If there is no accountability in how these are adminstered and controlled all who are on the Internet are at the mercy of those who have control of these vital functions. There is a meeting going on in Singapore now to plan this privatization and there was a meeting last month in Geneva and there seems to be no responsibility taken by those doing this privatizing to explain the importance of these systems and the great amount of control over the Internet that those who gain control of this private organization will have. It is a sorry symptom of our times that more of the press (I am mainly speaking of the U.S. but wonder what the situation is abroad as well) is not shedding any light on what is going on so Internet users and the public can know what is happening and that the important questions are being asked. (Unfortunately, my experience is that the folks doing this change don't allow for any questions. Instead they are rushing to declare "consensus" with their plans and activities.) Also it is important that there be discussion and debate on this on Usenet and the Internet. There are some mailing lists where I have heard this is being discussed but it is not even clear where they all are -- I know of one or two. How can this issue be opened up to public scrutiny? What seems to be the problem is that the Domain Name System is being used in a way not originally intended. It was originally intended as a way to identify organizations online and there was a hierachical architecture which meant the organization was responsible for getting messages to the machines in its organization. So an address xxxx.xxxx.xcollege.edu would go to xcollege and xcollege would have to take over the responsibility to send the messages onto their proper recipient at their site. Now there seems to be an effort to use the DNS to advertise products and to insist on increasing the top level domains rather than respecting the need for the hierarchical architecture. There is also a lawsuit against the NSF going on to increase the number of top level domains and it doesn't seem that the NSF was defending against the lawsuit. Thus those who are pushing through the privatization seem to be those who want to be able to add more top level domains (gTLD's) which can mean big bucks for those who get to sell them. But instead it would appear that a directory service is what is needed for the names of products and that the Domain Name System shouldn't be used as a means of advertising a product. This is a serious question and along with the DNS will go the root server system which is the nerve system for addressing all messages on the Internet. The Internet is a computer system not a public relations system and its integrity is at stake in the current push to privatize these key aspects. I welcome comments, suggestions etc. toward having these issues discussed much more broadly before the Sept. 30 fiat that is being planned to grab control off these vital systems. Ronda ronda@panix.com See also http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/ and http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/dns-supplement.txt Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook also in print edition ISDN 0-8186-7706-6 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1998 22:40:57 -0400 From: Jack Decker Subject: What's With Ameritech Pay Phones in GTE Territory? I've started to notice something unusual recently: Ameritech pay phones in a GTE service area, namely Muskegon, Michigan. I first noticed these in Meijer stores (Meijer [rhymes with "tire"] is a large regional department store/supermarket chain that is probably more popular than K-Mart or Wal-Mart in its home region, which includes parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky and perhaps one or two other adjacent states), and thought that perhaps Meijer had some sort of contract with Ameritech that let them put pay phones in all Meijer stores. But then I noticed Ameritech pay phones popping up at other locations, such as the Clark gas station down the road from Meijer. These phones have the standard Ameritech logo plastered all over them, and the card on the phone says that AT&T is the carrier for calls outside the LATA, and that Ameritech handles calls inside the LATA (I don't think they actually used the term "LATA", but that was the gist of it, and I didn't have a pen and paper to write down the exact phrasing). Well, as best I could determine, that's not quite true. In my very limited testing, it appears that from those phones, ALL toll calls go to AT&T, unless you dial "zero" only to place a call, in which case you get the GTE operator. If there is any way to get an Ameritech operator from those phones, or have a call routed over Ameritech's network (without going through some other company first), I couldn't discover it. Also, the phones have local phone numbers (associated with the local GTE exchange), so they're not being backhauled to any Ameritech switch. I'm just kind of curious as to why one LEC would place pay phones in another LEC's territory, when they otherwise seem so unwilling to compete. What I mean by that is that if you live on a street that is the boundary line between a GTE exchange and an Ameritech exchange, and you want service from the company that serves the homes across the street from you, and there is a pole right across the street and all they'd have to do is drop a normal drop wire to your home, they still won't do it because you're in another company's service area, and those exchange boundaries are respected as though they were an international border or something to that effect. If we are supposed to be in a new competitive era, why are the big phone companies apparently so unwilling to go into each other's territories? The smaller companies seem less inhibited in this regard. For example, the Allendale Telephone Company (which I have praised from time to time for their great service and extremely great rates) is expanding their service into Coopersville (both localities are far suburbs of Grand Rapids, Michigan). Coopersville is currently served by GTE, and the Allendale Telephone Company appears to be laying their own cables and putting in their own pedestals, so that in some locations you see what appears to be a shiny new Allendale Telephone Company pedestal alongside a somewhat older GTE pedestal. This, to me, is how local competition should work - the competitors should build their own cable plant and use their own switches, and not just resell the incumbent phone company's service. But even though a few of the small companies seem willing to compete, the big LEC's seem to have a "hands off" policy toward each other - with the aforementioned exception of Ameritech pay phones in GTE territory. I've never seen the reverse (A GTE pay phone in Ameritech's service area, although that doesn't mean that none exist, it just means that I haven't run across any). Anyone have any ideas as to why Ameritech has decided to cross the almost-sacred exchange boundary to provide pay phone service? Jack (To reply via e-mail, please make the obvious modification to my e-mail address.) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #116 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Tue Aug 25 18:47:06 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id SAA15809; Tue, 25 Aug 1998 18:47:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 18:47:06 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199808252247.SAA15809@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #117 TELECOM Digest Sun, 23 Aug 98 22:36:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 117 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telephone Line Complication and Bellsouth (Res Judicata) Telecom Update (Canada) #144, August 10, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) Book Review: "RISKS-FORUM Digest", Peter G. Neumann (Rob Slade) Bell Atlantic and CWA Reach Agreement on New Contracts (Mike Pollock) Network Connection Centers (iiicom@my-dejanews.com) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Res Judicata Subject: Telephone Line Complication and Bellsouth Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 10:15:27 GMT I move into a new house week before last. It was pre-wired with a three-pair cable. I have three telephone lines (A, B, and C). Bellsouth ran two cables to the network interface box. Line A, the main line, has one of those cables. Lines B and C, share the other one. I was planning to use line B for my 56K modem. However, I could never make a connection with my ISP over 24000 bps on that line. Out of curiosity, I connected to line A. Voila! I was hitting 40K and above, depending on the time of day. Why, the difference? Okay, so I call Bellsouth with what I thought was a real simple request, since we didn't need a real clean line for voice calls. I asked them to flip-flop the line number assignments between lines A and B. Holy smokes did that simply request ever start a n avalanche of frustration! They can't get it right. I figured it would be as simple as doing a central office procedure. First they started calling, and went through a series of questions about all sorts of unrelated troubles with the line. Then they sent a repairman out, who said his order listed things like multiple voices on the line. I explained to him what I wanted. He switched the facilities around, but that didn't affect what I wanted. It did, however, cause some heretofore unnoticed occurrences, like the sound of a number being dialed while I'm on a voice call, a hissing sound on the line, periodic clicking during a conversation, as well. I called them back to tell them as much. About an hour later, a woman from the "data transmission resolution center" called to tell me that the FCC only required 19.2 line quality, that line A and line B were on different kinds of cable, blah, blah, blah. Geezus! All I want is for B to have that A's cable assignment, lady. Can anybody `splain to me what gives with these folks? Is what I requested all that complicated a deal? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 10:25:46 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #144, August 10, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 144: August 10, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * Bell Canada ................. http://www.bell.ca/ * * City Dial Network Services .. http://www.citydial.com/ * * Computer Talk Technology .... http://icescape.com/ * * fONOROLA .................... http://www.fonorola.com/ * * Lucent Technologies ......... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** BC Tel Bundles Long Distance, Local Services ** More News From Flat-Rate Front Lines AT&T Canada BC Tel MTS Telus ** Resellers Can't Be CLECS ** Ottawa to License Rural Fixed Wireless ** Cantel Adds 25,000 Subscribers ** Cantel, Royal Bank Offer Wireless POS Transactions ** Clearnet's Mike Connects Wireless Business Communities ** BC Tel Parent Merges With Bell Atlantic ** ISPs Seek Public Notice on Bell ADSL Tariff ** Newbridge Reorganizes ** Payphone Competitors Register ** Telesystem Buys Brazilian Cellcos ** SaskTel Extends High-Speed Internet Services ** Financial Reports Amtelecom CGI Group Rogers Cantel Teleglobe ** Web Site Resources Aid Telemanagement Readers ============================================================ BC TEL BUNDLES LONG DISTANCE, LOCAL SERVICES: BC Tel's new Value Bundle offers residential customers a package of long distance, local, and SmartTouch services for about 15% less than they would cost separately. (See Telecom Update #141). MORE NEWS FROM FLAT-RATE FRONT LINES: ** AT&T Canada's Dime Time residential plan now caps charges for off-peak Canada calls at $20/month; other Canadian and all U.S. calls are 20 cents/minute. AT&T also offers a 5% pre-authorized payment discount and an Aeroplan Miles bonus. ** BC Tel's No Limits Canada caps charges for 10 cents/ minute off-peak Canada calls at $20; other Canadian and all U.S. calls are 22 cents/minute. ** MTS' First Rate Unlimited charges Manitoba customers 9 cents (Saturdays) and 10 cents (Sundays and evenings) to a maximum of $19.95; off-peak calling card calls are 10 cents (Canada) and 20 cents (U.S.). ** Telus says its Your Way Unlimited flat-rate LD plan signed up 25,000 Alberta customers in its first week. Sixty percent transferred from other long distance companies. RESELLERS CAN'T BE CLECs: CRTC Decision 98-12 turns down ACC TelEnterprises' request that "non-Canadian carriers" (in particular, foreign-owned resellers) be allowed to become Competitive Local Exchange Carriers in Canada. The Commission reiterates its May 1997 ruling that only facilities-based carriers may be CLECs, because it would be unable to enforce CLEC obligations on resellers, which are not regulated carriers. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/decision/1998/d9812_0.txt OTTAWA TO LICENSE RURAL FIXED WIRELESS: Industry Canada says it will immediately begin licensing fixed wireless communications in the 3.4-3.7 GHz frequency band for voice and data service in rural areas. Bell Canada has been using this frequency in parts of Ontario, under experimental/ developmental licenses, to upgrade multiparty customers to single-line service. CANTEL ADDS 25,000 SUBSCRIBERS: Rogers Cantel posted a net second-quarter gain of 24,900 subscribers, twice the number of the previous quarter. About 400,000 Cantel subscribers (25% of the total) have digital service. Monthly disconnects rose to 1.87% (last year: 1.5%). (See Telecom Update #131, #143) CANTEL, ROYAL BANK OFFER WIRELESS POS TRANSACTIONS: The Royal Bank has certified wireless point-of-sale transaction processing via Rogers Cantel's AirPOS service, which runs over the Mobitex data network. CLEARNET'S MIKE CONNECTS WIRELESS BUSINESS COMMUNITIES: Clearnet's Mike wireless service links 650 construction businesses and 4,000 users in a "wireless community," which offers instant phone contact via two-way radio. Other "Industrynet" services have been launched in six additional sectors. BC TEL PARENT MERGES WITH BELL ATLANTIC: GTE, which owns a majority of BC Tel and QuebecTel, plans to merge with Bell Atlantic in a US$53.4-Billion deal. "It's good news," BC Tel CEO Don Calder told the Financial Post, since the West Coast telco will "fill a gap" for Bell Atlantic. ISPs SEEK PUBLIC NOTICE ON BELL ADSL TARIFF: Bell Canada Tariff Notice 6249 proposes an ADSL access service for Internet Providers who wish to provide ADSL to business customers. The Canadian Association of Internet Providers has asked the CRTC not to approve the tariff without a "full public process." http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/proc_rep/telecom/1998/8740/b2-6249.html NEWBRIDGE REORGANIZES: Newbridge Networks is dividing its networking business into three groups -- telecom switches, Internet and networking products, and access products. The change was announced by new President Alan Lutz, who joined the company from Compaq in June. PAYPHONE COMPETITORS REGISTER: Canada Payphone Corporation and Paytel Canada have registered with the CRTC as Competitive Pay Telephone Service Providers. TELESYSTEM BUYS BRAZILIAN CELLCOS: Telesystem International Wireless, which is controlled by Charles Sirois, heads the consortium which has won the bidding for two newly privatized Brazilian cellular companies. Bell Canada International failed to win either of the Brazilian cellcos it bid for. SASKTEL EXTENDS HIGH-SPEED INTERNET SERVICES: SaskTel's Sympatico High-Speed Internet service, which uses ADSL technology, is now available in Weyburn. FINANCIAL REPORTS: ** Amtelecom, an independent Ontario telco, took a $2.5- Million charge in the second quarter, mainly to pay for downsizing its unprofitable U.S. courier/fulfillment business. Revenue was $34 Million, 16% above last year; the net loss was $1.2 Million. ** CGI Group, buoyed by its acquisition of Bell Sygma, recorded $158 Million in revenue for the three months ending June 30, a 123% increase over last year. Net income rose 218% to $7.7 Million. (See Telecom Update #115) ** Rogers Cantel's second-quarter revenue dropped 0.7% from last year to $306 Million, as revenue per subscriber fell 8.7%. Net loss was $10.3 Million, down from a $19.7- Million loss in the previous quarter. Rogers Communications lost $44 Million, while revenue increased 6% over last year to $716 Million. ** Teleglobe's second-quarter earnings were $45 Million, up 33% from last year. Increasing U.S. and European traffic boosted revenue 21% to $575 Million. WEB SITE RESOURCES AID TELEMANAGEMENT READERS: Many of the resources on the Angus TeleManagement Web site are designed to assist readers of Telemanagement: The Angus Report on Business Telecommunications in Canada. ** The Web site's Telecom Resources section gives Internet links to all communications organizations mentioned in Telemanagement. ** The Web site Telecom Calendar provides links to events mentioned in Telemanagement's Calendar. ** Comprehensive Web site subject indexes and content lists enable readers to locate past articles on any topic. Visit the Angus Web site at http://www.angustel.ca For Telemanagement subscription information, call 1-800-263-4415 ext 225, or go to http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 10:31:00 -0800 Subject: REVIEW: "RISKS-FORUM Digest", Peter G. Neumann Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca MLRISKSF.RVW 980607 "RISKS-FORUM Digest", Peter G. Neumann, 1985 - , , free %E Peter G. Neumann risks@csl.sri.com %D 1985 - %O news:comp.risks http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks %P ~ 20 articles 3 times per week %T "RISKS-FORUM Digest" RISKS-FORUM Digest, generally referred to simply as RISKS, is not the oldest mailing list on the net, nor even the oldest moderated list. It is definitely long lived, extremely consistent in this most ephemeral of worlds, and, quite simply, one of the best. RISKS explores the hazards and failures of technology, and specifically computer technology. However, this is no mere neo- Luddite decrying of the dehumanization of civilization, but is often written by the technologists themselves. While the list is open to everyone, the names of those regularly posting to RISKS also tend to show up in conference catalogues around the world. Computers and software are the main topic of discussion, but the involvement of computing in almost every area of modern life ensures that subjects discussed range from overripe tomatoes (calling emergency services) to rocket launches (lost because of missing punctuation). Many discussions in RISKS deal with stories ignored in the mass media. This is not because of any secrecy or confidentiality, but simply because the general press does not understand the importance of the issues involved. On the other hand, a number of items that eventually appear in the media may do so because of discussion, and even movements, started by postings in RISKS and other similar venues. In other cases, RISKS deals with news that is made public, but provides background, details, and analysis not available in newspapers (and certainly not on TV). While some of the credit for the status of RISKS has to go to a relatively stable international coterie of high quality contributors, the lion's share of the honour goes to the moderator, Peter G. Neumann. Neumann's moderation is in large measure responsible for the continued support of these contributors, and in a net world of spam, junk email, and flame wars, RISKS remains an exemplar of mailing list maintenance. Although an occasional hoax or diatribe gets past him, Neumann is generally attentive to each posting (not least because he is constantly on the lookout for opportunities to make pun-laden editorial comments). Controversy and opinion are not avoided, although if it starts to generate more heat than light the discussion may be relegated to a "special edition." RISKS, as any other net entity, is subject to Usenet, mail, and IP spoofing, as well as diatribes, rants, mailbombing, and other breaches of netiquette. Over the years it has managed to stay refreshingly free from these abuses, overall. The archives of the list (available at http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks) are an extensive and valuable resource. Many of the dangers in the use of technology come not so much from specific technical details, as from social issues of use, testing, management, and so forth. Therefore, RISKS postings as not as subject to dating as those of other technical mailing lists. The worth of this collection can be seen in the compilation recently used by Neumann to produce "Computer Related Risks" (cf. BKCMRLRS.RVW). For those with access to Usenet news, the simplest way to get hold of the Digest is to subscribe to the comp.risks newsgroup, which is a mirror of the mailing list. RISKS is only available in digest format, even on the newsgroup. Newsgroup access is also the technically preferred means of access. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 MLRISKSF.RVW 980607 ------------------------------ From: Mike Pollock Subject: Bell Atlantic and CWA Reach Agreement on New Contracts Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 12:25:08 -0400 Bell Atlantic and CWA Reach Agreement on New Contracts Employees Return to Work August 11, 1998 Media contact: Steve Marcus Susan Kraus 212-395-0500 NEW YORK -- Bell Atlantic and the Communications Workers of America announced today a tentative agreement on new two-year contracts, ending a two-day strike. Donald J. Sacco, executive vice president of Human Resources for Bell Atlantic, said, "The best news is that all our employees will be back on the job and can focus on our primary mission, customer care. We apologize for any inconvenience this work stoppage may have caused our customers." He added, "This settlement meets our goals: It's fair to employees, fair to customers, fair to the company, and in line with other recent settlements in our industry. I'm grateful to both of our negotiating teams and to Morty Bahr, CWA president, for the leadership they demonstrated in reaching consensus on a variety of issues to put an end to this strike." Wages will increase by up to 3.8 percent effective Aug. 9, 1998, and up to 4 percent, effective Aug. 8, 1999. Pension increases will range from 11 percent to 20 percent. The union will submit the agreements to its members to be ratified within the next 30 days. Contracts will cover more than 73,000 workers in 13 states and the District of Columbia. The previous contracts expired Aug. 8. "The new agreements recognize new competitive realities," Sacco said, citing cash awards for union-represented employees based on customer care levels and company profits. The company will also provide its union-represented employees with additional opportunities to participate in the company's growth -- similar to provisions in contracts the union has negotiated with other telecommunications companies. Sacco said, "Since the start of the new Bell Atlantic, we have recognized the need to forge stronger partnerships with our unions to work together to expand our business in high-technology areas." As part of the agreements, the company will immediately transfer certain work to union-represented employees now performed by contractors. The company retains the flexibility to use contractors to meet marketing and competitive needs, particularly where the company does not have the requisite skills. Beginning in October 1998, customer account work in the Bell Atlantic Plus megacenter will be transferred back to Bell Atlantic's unionized customer service representatives at the telephone companies. Bell Atlantic Plus will continue its telemarketing services at the megacenter. The agreements extend an enhanced retirement program in New York that was incorporated in the 1994 contract with NYNEX and the CWA. "This allows us to complete this offer in a more orderly and efficient way. Extending the program also puts the company in a much better position to match attrition with productivity improvements," Sacco said. The agreements also contain these other major provisions: New York and New England Union-represented employees will receive a $500 cash payment next month and an additional $400 in 1999. In addition, union-represented employees in certain bargaining units will receive lump sum payments of $700 each in 2000 and 2001 if customer care standards, to be determined by the union and the company, are met. Pensions will increase by 20 percent -- 5 percent effective Oct. 1, 1998, and a minimum of 15 percent effective July 1, 2000. In New York, the enhanced retirement program, known as "6 & 6," was due to end on Aug. 8. It will be extended through Dec. 31, 1999, for currently eligible employees, who will leave in managed phases over the next six quarters. Eligible employees can also choose to remain with the company until Jan. 1, 2001, and receive improved pension benefits. Mid-Atlantic States Union-represented employees will be eligible for corporate profit sharing awards based on a standard award of $400 in 1999 and $500 in 2000. Actual awards are based on the company's profits and can vary by up to 200 percent of the standard award. Pensions will increase by 11 percent -- 4 percent on Oct. 1, 1998, 4 percent on Oct. 1, 1999, and 3 percent on July 1, 2000. In addition, a trial program under which employees can choose to take their pensions as a lump sum will be extended through December 2000. There will be improvements in the administration of disability absence, changes in the company's policy concerning medical restrictions, and an extension of employment security commitments. Vacation policies will be liberalized; and there will be policy changes in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to encourage greater use of volunteers for overtime. In Pennsylvania, differential pay for late-hour tours will be increased, and a Saturday differential will be established. Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and information industry. With more than 41 million telephone access lines and more than seven million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market leaders in wireless services and the world?s largest publishers of directory information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the world?s largest investors in high-growth global communications markets, with operations and investments in 23 countries. ------------------------------ From: iiicom@my-dejanews.com Subject: Network Connection Centers Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 19:37:20 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion Switch and Data Facilities Corp. has a new twist on an old concept -- colocation. The company is opening America's first chain of network connection centers, independent (carrier-neutral) colocation centers. Switch and Data Facilities Co. (www.switchfacilities.com) opened its first Network Connection Center at 401 North Broad Street in Philadelphia, a building that is home to many long distance companies and resellers. Similar centers are slated to open shortly in Los Angeles and Miami with sites being planned in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Newark, New York City, Phoenix and San Francisco. The centers help small to mid-size long distance companies, resellers, internet companies and competitive local exchange carriers enter new markets quickly and cost-effectively. Customers can select the carriers they want to use and can negotiate with carriers to get the best rates. They can easily interconnect their equipment because most of the major carriers operate in the building. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #117 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Aug 30 22:35:32 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id WAA12128; Sun, 30 Aug 1998 22:35:32 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 22:35:32 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199808310235.WAA12128@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #118 TELECOM Digest Sun, 30 Aug 98 21:35:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 118 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Boulder, Colo., Businesses Prepare for 10-Digit Dialing (Tad Cook) Brewing Dispute Over MS Coverage Roils the Press (Monty Solomon) Frustrating "Customer Service" (Tad Cook) More Area Code Splits! (Rob McMillin) Book Review: "Web-Based Training Cookbook" Brandon Hall (Rob Slade) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Boulder, Colo., Businesses Prepare for 10-Digit Dialing Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 00:41:34 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Boulder, Colo., Businesses Prepare for 10-Digit Dialing By Kris Hudson, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Aug. 29--Three extra digits have kept Larry Halpern and his staff at Safe Systems of Boulder on their toes for seven months. Within a couple of days, those three extra digits will play a role in the daily lives of nearly everyone in the Denver metro area. In a move to accommodate growing demand for new numbers, U S West plans to debut 10-digit dialing on Tuesday for phone numbers in areas now covered by the established 303 area code. As a byproduct of introducing the new 720 area code to handle the growth, U S West will require 10 digits for all local calls. For Halpern's 32-employee company, the change has meant a prolonged scramble to reprogram the alarm systems of thousands of Front Range customers to dial 10 digits instead of seven whenever those systems contact the company's central monitoring station in Boulder. Most Safe Systems' employees have worked weeks of overtime to prepare for the conversion, including weekend and late-night shifts. The stress caused one worker to quit. "This has been a major, major program for us," Halpern, Safe Systems' president, said last week. "Due to the size of our company, we've been working on this since Feb. 1. It has put a strain on all of our staff. Some of our accounts we are able to do over the telephone by just programming them, but with many customers, we have to go out and visit them." Halpern estimated on Thursday that his staff completed "99 percent" of the reprogramming work needed to prepare Safe Systems customers for the advent of 10-digit dialing. He suspects other firms might be behind. "I was talking to one of our competitors in the area who just started this three weeks ago," Halpern said. "And I can't see how anyone could have started just three weeks ago." Not to worry -yet. Though the 10-digit conversion will start happening for most Denver-area phone numbers on Tuesday, U S West and the state Public Utilities Commission are delaying the conversion until Dec. 1 for several phone number prefixes that serve alarm companies. All told, the Dec. 1 deadline extension will apply for 28 of the 600 prefixes in the Denver metro area. U S West and PUC officials announced the deadline extension in a press conference last week, explaining that they had heard some alarm companies are still preparing for the conversion -and others might not have started yet. "I would say the majority haven't completed their work," said Jack Ott, U S West's numbering plan administrator. Aside from the extension for alarm companies, U S West said last week that it will start the 10-digit conversion on Tuesday, regardless of an ongoing strike by 34,000 Communications Workers of America union members. U S West has helped all of its large business customers with the "oneto two-minute software change" needed to prepare them for 10-digit dialing. While the strike won't delay the start of the conversion, it will likely lengthen the process. U S West officials originally expected the conversion to last about two weeks, but it might now last four to six due to labor shortages created by the strike. Therefore, callers who insist on dialing seven digits might find themselves able to do so for most of September. "All of the local phone providers, beginning Sept. 1, are going to start switching people over to 10 digits," U S West spokesman David Beigie said. "Will it all happen in one day? No. ... We want everyone to be ready on Sept. 1, because it will begin happening then, day by day." Though U S West completed the majority of its preparation for the 10-digit conversion before the CWA strike began, some striking U S West employees in Boulder were doubtful last week that U S West will pull off the conversion without a hitch. They pointed to the company's introduction of the 970 area code in northern and western Colorado a few years ago, which ran into difficulties even though U S West had all of its workers available. "It will be on a scattered basis if they do it, because it requires a lot of work and time to do it and they don't have the people to do it," said Eldon Hesselius, a central office technician picketing U S West's Boulder central office last week. Even so, U S West officials are urging customers to reprogram their fax machines and computer modems and to contact their alarm companies about the conversion if they have not already. Customers with questions about 10-digit dialing can contact U S West's help line at 1-800-244-1111 or access the company's Web site, www.uswest.com/areacodes/. Customers uncertain of how to reprogram their modem should contact their Internet service provider. The Denver area's 10-digit "overlay" region includes all of Boulder, Adams, Arapahoe, Elbert, Douglas, Jefferson and Denver counties as well as portions of Weld, Clear Creek and Park counties. Fifteen other states include area code overlay areas, and another seven will soon have them, U S West officials say. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Brewing Dispute Over MS Coverage Roils the Press Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 12:12:39 -0400 Media Grok - August 28, 1998 Brewing Dispute Over MS Coverage Roils the Press When The Wall Street Journal ran a fascinating story yesterday about a private lawsuit accusing Microsoft of planting an intentional, anticompetitive bug designed to crash competing software in Windows in 1992, few people noticed that two days before, Red Herring ran the same story on its Web site. (In fact, by midday Thursday, both Reuters and CBS Marketwatch had repeated the story, crediting the Journal piece as a scoop.) The Herring piece, by journalist Wendy Goldman Rohm, was culled from the reporting Rohm did while researching her upcoming book, "The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates," to be published next month by Random House. Herring has filed an update today with more potentially damaging excerpts from internal Microsoft e-mail. The gist of the story is that a private antitrust suit in Utah alleges, based on internal MS e-mail, that Microsoft created a bug in early evaluation copies of Windows designed to crash Novell's DR-DOS in order to make it appear to developers that Windows was compatible only with Microsoft's own version of DOS, driving developers away from the use of the competing version of the operating system. Now Rohm is sore at the Journal for not crediting her reporting. Rohm claims that her publisher, Random House, sent advances of her book to the Journal reporters and that yesterday's Journal story should have included Rohm, her book and the earlier Herring pieces. Either way, the Tuesday Herring piece by Rohm certainly preceded the Thursday Journal story by writer John Wilke. Today, meanwhile, ZDNet's Brett Glass filed a story about Rohm and her book. In the Microsoft-denial sidebar by Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft spokesman Greg Shaw says, "We expect book stores will want to position this in their fiction section." And Rohm apparently admitted to Glass that she "'fictionalized some events' and included 'fictional quotes' in order to make the book more readable." Shaw told ZDNet that the book concerns events already investigated by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, and issues that were found to have merit were settled in a 1995 consent decree. Microsoft's compliance with that decree is at the heart of the current DOJ case against it. Update: Consumers Were Pawns in Microsoft's Battle http://www.herring.com/insider/1998/0827/microsoft.html Microsoft Planned to Sabotage Competitors http://www.herring.com/insider/1998/0825/msft.html Explosive New Microsoft Tell-all Makes Strong Allegations http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,3441,2132482,00.html Microsoft Says Tell-all Book is Pure Fiction http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/1,3441,2132489,00.html ------------------------ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is turning out to be a fascinating topic. I read the newspaper report and and waiting anxiously for the book to be published. I will wait and reserve my own judgment until after I read it all along with any Microsoft rebuttals. What I find of equal interest however is this most recent example of how the all-mighty all-powerful print media thinks nothing of ripping off what they find on the net with little or no credit given to the original author let alone bother to obtain permission to reprint while castigating netters who print *their* material in newsgroups, etc. I am particularly fascin- ated by the posture taken by the {Boston Globe} not that long ago with this Digest. Admittedly I printed one of their articles, but considering their prolems in the past couple months, I have to wonder now if I printed a work of fiction ... ... so the liars on their staff of alleged news reporters get angry when someone reprints their fairy tales -- the ones they sell on their own web page -- without permission. And I must call your attention to the latest attack on the net by no less a source than the {Chicago Tribune} and its Tribune Media Services. I am referring to the "Brenda Starr" comic strip which they distribute to newspapers everywhere. Brenda has been a star reporter for the Flash newspaper for as long as anyone can remember. I've read the strip for the past thirty years or so, and she had been around for years at that point, when the strip was called "Brenda Starr, Reporter". It seems this old witch now has it in for a guy who works on the Flash's 'internet edition', as well as the guy who writes the gossip news (in actual practice) on the net today. The strip depicts both of them (the gossip guy and the fictional character who does the 'Flash internet edition') as total perverts; nasty, despicable people. The strip has the Flash/internet guy sending anonymous pornographic letters to Brenda, and an indignant Brenda preparing a feature story on the gossip columnist and how much of a liar he is. If I published the {Boston Globe} I would be embarassed to run a comic strip discussing liars in the media ... ... anyway, do read "Brenda Starr" if it runs in the paper in your community. You'll get a good laugh out of this latest little barb at the net by an industry that is running scared because of this new technology. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Frustrating "Customer Service" Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 23:18:16 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) >From Salon, August 27, 1998: http://www.salonmagazine.com/mwt/tisd/ ANONYMOUS FORCES ARE ROBBING ME BLIND, AND CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TELLING ME TO DROP DEAD. BY SALLIE TISDALE I read my bills carefully these days. My telephone company, U.S. West, provides me with a bill often several pages long, broken down in the abbreviated style of computer coders everywhere by "chg" and "srv." A few months ago, I noticed a charge of $14.41 on the last page labeled "Consumer Access," a name I didn't recognize. At the top of the page was a logo for "US Billing" and 1-888 number. It wasn't easy to get through ("Your call is important to us and will be answered in the order in which it was received"), but when I did, I found out "US Billing" is merely a kind of collection service for more than 200 essentially unregulated long-distance carriers of various types. They passed me along. Eventually ("We are experiencing an unusually high volume of calls"), I found a company that had issued a long-distance credit card to someone who had given them my telephone number as his own. Well, OK. No, it wasn't that easy. The woman on the other end of the line -- I finally got her name but still have no idea where she was, what state she was in -- didn't think it was her problem. I suggested that her company might want to check whether or not the numbers given are legitimate. She said, and I do quote, "We have thousands of customers, ma'am. We don't have time to check them out." She wanted me to just pay the bill and stop complaining. So I didn't, and eventually the charges were credited to my account. I thought we were done -- until the next month and the month after, when I found charges for a few dollars here and $10 there labeled "Telco Partners Serv Chge," under the logo for "US Billing." I reached my old friend eventually ("All circuits are busy now"), and she informed me -- rather tartly, I think -- that her company is not Telco. Back to US Billing. On to Telco? I think not. I tried ("Please call back; we are unable to access that number at this time") but finally went back to U.S. West. That is how I found out, after a time ("Please hold; your call is important to us), that I'm in trouble. So are you, if you have a telephone. A reasonably nice fellow I found eventually told me that his company is required by the government to provide "billing opportunities" for fly-by- night companies in unknown locations and that I am required to pay my bill. That some of my charges are fraudulent is not his problem and not the problem of U.S. West. Unless I want to go delinquent with my phone company, I had better pay up. So next week, I'm on to the state Department of Justice and the Public Utility Commission, the same agencies I dealt with last year when I was "slammed" out of MCI by Sprint. I was surprised on a business trip in another state last summer by a polite recording telling me that my MCI card was invalid, and surprised again when I came home and found that all the long-distance charges I'd made in the last month were being billed to Sprint. I went back to MCI, didn't pay Sprint and the charges finally disappeared, but it took weeks and a lot of calls. The same with the $50-some charge on a credit card for a Los Angeles billing service I'd never heard of before, for an e- mail service I'd never used. The same with the restaurant that billed me twice on another credit card. The same with the department store that failed to credit me for returned merchandise and then billed me a collection fee because I hadn't paid for it. All the same: "Your call is important to us, we are experiencing a high volume of calls, we cannot access that number at this time." I've quit using credit cards almost entirely, partly because of this problem. That doesn't help me with the telephone company, of course, but I'm not yet willing to give up my phone. So this week I'm on a cash economy, writing a personal check at a local department store. And the mysterious machine by the cash register rejects it. The clerk gives me a little slip with a 1-800 number and the words "YOUR CHECK WAS NOT APPROVED BY TELECHECK," all in capital letters, like a command. I used a credit card, drove home and called Telecheck ("Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received") and in time spoke with a woman who declined to give me her name but who insisted she could not help me until I gave her my driver's license number, birth date, checking account routing number and home address, at which point she informed that there was nothing wrong with my check, it was just that Telecheck machines didn't like the checks themselves. "The machines have trouble reading your checks," she said. "This has happened before." And then she named the last four merchants to whom I'd written checks, who'd been kind enough to take them anyway. In a way, I was relieved. No one had stolen my identity and left a trail of fraud across the West, as I'd feared during my long wait on hold. No one had emptied my account. "So, how can we stop this from happening again?" I asked. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "You can't. If it happens again, you can ask the merchant to call us. Sometimes they'll do that. Not always, though." What strikes me in these increasingly frequent periods, standing in the kitchen on the telephone listening to the insincere chorus of recordings, is that an essential part of the dehumanization of the economy and the decline of service is the rising attitude that one shouldn't complain. One is supposed to be gracious and, above all, acquiescent. After all, the invisible people who answer my calls tell me again and again it's not their fault, it's a policy, a regulation, a necessary result of volume, it's just the way it is -- they're working stiffs like me and no, they aren't going to give me their names, and no, the supervisor is not available. "We don't have time to check them out," the woman told me, with just enough frustration and impatience in her voice to let me know that, as far as she's concerned, I'm somehow at the root of this problem myself. If I'd stop complaining, she seemed to imply, there wouldn't be anything to complain about. After all, it's just a few dollars. Somewhere in between the meek willingness to be used and the tide of rant and annoyance I keep to myself is the art of the gracious complaint. That is the firm and steady voice, words of persistence and determination delivered in a calm and courteous tone. We are fools if we accept the gargantuan pattern of profiteering abuse built into the information economy, the destruction of privacy, the conspiracy between government and conglomerate to steal a few dollars more. I am slowly pulling myself out of the economy in all the ways I can find -- though I still want a telephone and a checking account -- but almost every day gives me the opportunity to practice the art of gracious complaining. It is an art we all might do well to develop. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some calls to make. ------------------------------ From: Rob McMillin Subject: More Area Code Splits! Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 14:08:40 -0700 Starting April 16, 1999, area code 424 will overlay 310, California's first overlay. All calls originating in 310 will have to be dialed as 1-310-nxx-xxxx, even if the originating phone number has a 310 prefix (grumble, gripe). BUT ... NANPA, the North American Numbering Plan Administration, estimates that this arrangement will last for all of *one year* before yet another area code will be needed. Luckily, they didn't decide on yet another split... and, well, 714 will exhaust in Q1 2000, meaning 1999 will probably see another overlay or a split. See http://www.nanpa.com/number_resource_info/cocus.html for details on this amazing statistic. Robert L. McMillin | Not the voice of Syseca, Inc. | rlm@syseca-us.com Personal: rlm@helen.surfcty.com | rlm@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 10:37:17 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Web-Based Training Cookbook", Brandon Hall Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKWBTCKB.RVW 980703 "Web-Based Training Cookbook", Brandon Hall, 1997, 0-471-18021-1, U$39.99/C$56.50 %A Brandon Hall info@brandon-hall.com %C 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor, Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 %D 1997 %G 0-471-18021-1 %I John Wiley & Sons, Inc. %O U$39.99/C$56.50 416-236-4433 fax: 416-236-4448 %P 482 p. + CD-ROM %T "Web-Based Training Cookbook" When I first started dealing with online distance education, less than a dozen articles had been published on any aspect of the topic, and the Web had yet to be invented. Now there are whole books on specific sub-topics. However, I'm not sure that there should, or can, be a cookbook on training or education. In any case, this isn't one. Part one presents background information on the World Wide Web and its use in training. Chapter one lists examples three different types of WBT (Web-Based Training), ranging from simple page turners to interactive multimedia. Unfortunately, the printed page is not a good medium for explaining interactive material, and the screen shots tend to confuse the explanatory text. The set of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) in chapter two are basically limited to promotional level material. Yes, Web-based training is platform-independent, but only if you stick to "common denominator" functions and avoid the more esoteric plug-ins and features. Firewalls will not stop negative feature programming that is submitted via ActiveX and similar controls. A quick overview of Web and related technology is given in chapter three. The list of hardware and software required for running WBT, in chapter four, is somewhat daunting and heavily slanted towards commercial developers. Part two deals with the development of WBT. Chapter five outlines a possible development process but one crucial step is notable by its absence: nowhere is there any mention of learning objectives. This "cart before the horse" order is emphasized by the fact that chapter six, which attempts to sell the course to management, follows development. Although the miscellany of factors that are discussed should be considered, chapter seven does not really tell you how to convert a curriculum to the Web. Chapter eight does mention objectives, and places instructional design first in the list of important factors, but the actual content makes two points very clear: first, multimedia is really the primary concern, and second, the book does not make any strong distinction between Web-based training and any other form of computer-based training. Online testing is definitely Web-based since chapter nine is only a list of Web query tools. WBT management systems are enumerated in chapter ten. Part three looks at the actual implementation of the training system, although the planning section has dealt more with specifics than principles. Chapter eleven reviews text and graphics. Other than the addition of interactivity, chapter twelve isn't much different. And, since multimedia doesn't really come across in books, neither is chapter thirteen. The introduction boasts that the book holds everything needed to successfully start producing Web-based training. That is simply not correct. None of the underlying Web technologies, including such basic ones as HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CGI (Common Gateway Interface), are covered in any detail. The author no doubt considers these fundamentals redundant, since there are commercial tools to deal with the necessary functions, but that does mean the reader must then go out and buy those tools, not having the requisite skills to do without them. The real shortcoming of the text, though, is the total triumph of style over substance. This is merely a compendium of programs to add flash to Web presentations, and has almost nothing to do with training at all. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKWBTCKB.RVW 980703 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #118 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Sep 15 21:16:14 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id VAA11261; Tue, 15 Sep 1998 21:16:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 21:16:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199809160116.VAA11261@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #119 < TELECOM Digest Tue, 15 Sep 98 21:15:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 119 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson What I Have Been Up To Lately (TELECOM Digest Editor) Bogus Charges From Slammers Outrage Columbus,Ga. Phone Customers (T Cook) FCC 1, RBOCs 0 (Danny Burstein) 800 Number Study (Judith Oppenheimer) AT&T Dials up Tougher Online Privacy Policy (Monty Solomon) Book Review: "IPv6 Networks", Marcus Goncalves/Kitty Niles (Rob Slade) Numbering Plan Change in Argentina (egoni@zfm.com) For the Sake of Nostalgia, Creating Exchange Names (Kevin J. Brewer) What Was the Standard 555-xxxx Phone Number Used in Phone Books? (K Brewer) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. 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Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* In addition, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: What I Have Been Up To Lately From: TELECOM Digest Editor Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 14:00:00 EDT It has been awhile ... I've been ordering and configuring a new voicemail arrangement for my associate at his bus station in Skokie. There were some real problems all summer with *satisfactory* phone information service for customers which frustrated me no end. The problem in a rela- tively low volume station like his (as compared to much bigger stations in major cities) is that there is no way financially to justify more than one employee on duty at any given time, nor more than one employee *at any time* except in the three months of summer when a second part time employee can be used a few hours on the busiest days. The problem arises when the customers 'do not cooperate' in spacing themselves out in their appearance at the ticket counter and/or on the telephone. The clerk can sit for an hour and do nothing; then a dozen customers will arrive at once, typically a few minutes before one of the nine bus departure times daily. Good business procedure calls for taking care of customers at the counter with cash in hand *first*, and then taking phone calls from people seeking information about the bus schedules, etc. Through the summer, there were three or four 'spills' daily. A 'spill' occurred whenever a bus was due to arrive momentarily, two or three customers were waiting for tickets to be written, and both telephone information lines (two numbers in a rotary hunt) were 'on hold' waiting for someone to help them. Invariably upon hearing that their time on hold might be ten to fifteen minutes before the clerk would be able to speak with them, the phone callers would jump ship, i.e. abandon their call and free up the information lines only to be replaced *immediatly* by two other callers who would have to be placed on hold. Of course the clerk had to stop what he was doing to answer the call, announce the estimated wait time to the phone caller and then go back to what he was doing. This had the effect of making what he was doing take that much longer, to no one's satisfaction. Many of the phone callers were that breed of individual known to phone room personnel as 'hoppers'; that is on being placed on hold and told customers were taken in the order of reciept and that a best guess as to their time on hold would be five to ten minutes, they immediatly hang up their phone and dial in again, convinced they will get the attention of someone who will respond to them promptly. Of course as often as not, in the few seconds they were off the line between calls, someone else would dial in and cause the 'hopper' to receive a busy signal, infuriating him all the more, while the newest phone caller was being told he'd be on hold several minutes ... In the last week of June as people were beginning their travel for the Independence Day holiday weekend, at one point there were sixteen people waiting in the ticket line and the phones simply had to be left off hook, 'busied out' for about two hours. My solution -- and I know this is going to sound like an advertisement but seriously, it is not -- was to get 'enhanced voicemail' from Ameritech. Between the bureacracy at Greyhound (they pay the phone bill for the agency and had to approve the changes) then getting the order placed with Ameritech and finally installed, it took longer than planned but I finally got the whole thing finished *and working correctly* (big grin!) as of a few days ago. In the process of ordering voicemail and it actually working as it is supposed to, our hunt group got broken twice; once all calls went to voicemail totally out of our control to intercept them first, and then once calls would not go to voicemail at all on busy but only after several rings *on one line* and not at all on the other line. I originally had the two customer information lines in a 'circular hunt'; that is, if line one was busy it would hunt line two, and if line two was busy it would hunt line one. That allowed for both line one and line two to be 'listed numbers' for different purposes, with callers from either direction having two chances to get through to the clerk. Ameritech said voicemail was totally unable to deal with circular hunt, and they proved it twice by the way things got bolixed up while circular hunt was in place with voicemail at the same time. Someone at Ameritech suggested that although circular hunt would not work with voicemail, 'two separate hunt groups' would work, and they set it up where one hunted two then stopped and went to voicemail and two hunted one then stopped ... but they never could get it to go to voicemail. And on and on it went for a few days, me never quite knowing for sure what the status of our lines, hunt group, and voicemail was at the minute, and still the calls would roll in all day. Ameritech's solution finally was to put an 'alias' in voicemail which told it calls to our second line should be pointed to the main box of our first line. The final result now, and as satisfactory as it is going to get is as follows: Line one transfer on no answer after four rings to voicemail. Line one busy hunt line two. Line two transfer on no answer after four rings to voicemail. Line two busy immediatly goes to voicemail. Callers direct to line two (as opposed to hunting placing them there) go to voicemail if line is busy. I'd like to have them hunt line one first, but Ameritech says absolutely not possible. Our voicemail has a main box and three 'extension mail boxes'. The Ameritech business office said 'extended absence' was possible in order to prohibit messages from being left in the extension boxes (which I am using only for informational recorded announcements) but the people actually maintaining the voicemail system insist that 'the model being used in your central office does not have extended absence as a condition. 'No way to prevent callers from leaving messages back there ...' :( We'll see about that! I want any messages left overnight (or during phone overflow) to be left in the first, main box only. I asked for 'operator escape' and got various conflicting answers. The first rep said operator escape (caller presses zero to transfer out of voicemail to somewhere) was only available to centrex sub- scribers. Knowing that the more often you ask the more likely you are of finding someone who will do as you request, I tried a different rep a few hours later who said it was available to any voicemail subscriber.She told me she would have it programmed that same day, and in fact a couple hours later pressing zero in voicemail did in fact get me the nice lady who told me 'one moment please, your call is being transferred'. My call was transferred alright, right back to me! Our phone rang and voicemail picked it up again. A lot of good that does; if someone had been able to respond to the caller it would have occurred before the call went to voicemail. I placed another call and asked for operator escape to be programmed to dial the Greyhound national information line, an 800 number. She insisted that could not be done; her answer was 'operator escape can only be programmed to another number on the very same exchange or prefix as yourself; i.e. you are on 847-675, operator escape has to go to 847-675-something.' This morning another rep said it could go wherever I wanted and she would fix it to dial the 800 number I requested. We will see on Wednesday, when it is supposed to be done. The final result (assuming OE gets sent to the national Greyhound information line) is this: Main box announces hours station is open and advises callers that if they are calling during business hours and reached this recording it is because all phone lines are busy and/or no agent is available to speak with them. They can leave a message if they wish to do so, but first, there are several informative recorded messages they can listen to which may answer their questions. At any time -- Press 1 for location of station, directions for reaching station, location of other stations in northern Illinois and their phone numbers, acceptable methods of payment. Press 2 to hear the schedule of busses daily for Skokie; north to Milwaukee and south to Chicago, plus most common connections in those cities. Press 3 to hear about promotional offers, special prices and discounts available when purchasing tickets. If you need more information, leave a message so we can call you back during regular hours or as soon as an agent is available. If you need immediate assistance in finding a schedule, press zero and your call will be transferred to the National Information Center. It concludes by saying 'to hear this message from the beginning, press the star key followed by 847-675-xxxx' (our number). Admittedly that is a bit bogus, but Ameritech voicemail does not have any way to recycle the caller otherwise. The customer has to suggest to voicemail that he has a box on the system. The caller then either leaves a message for the station or else he hangs up or perhaps he hits zero or else he does the star plus our number over again to go back to the start. The individual boxes each have a message about five minutes in length with the topics mentioned. In order to discourage messages from being left in the extension boxes ( a nuisance to have to go them one by one to seek out where a message might have been left when the stutter dial tone and blinking light on the phone so indicate) each of the boxes concludes its outgoing message like this: If you have heard the information you need, please hang up now. To listen to other recorded messages or to leave a message for us, press the star key followed by 847-675-xxxx to return to our main menu. If you need to speak with someone immediatly, press zero; otherwise thank you for calling and goodbye. Please make a choice or hang up now. ------------------------------- A curious, undocumented 'feature' in Ameritech's voicemail which I discovered by accident involves '9'. A caller pressing 1,2, or 3 gets the associated 'extension mailbox'. Zero goes to operator escape, star responds by asking for 'mailbox number please' and pound (#) when in the context of a caller to your mailbox responds by taking the caller to the end of the outgoing message so that he can leave one of his own. Pressing 4,5,6,7, or 8 does nothing on the system I am installed on. Pressing 9 brings the nice lady around to ask 'your password please?'... and if it is one of your own pass- words (for the main or an extension box) you are immediatly dropped into maintainence mode for your account. Of course, I asssume you could enter the system's master password at that point or some other user's valid password. I don't know what would happen in that case. I do know you are given exactly two chances to produce something valid at that point, and failing to do so tosses you to the operator escape. All this for just $13.95 per month, plus of course the cost of each call transferred to voice mail. PAT ------------------------------ Subject: Bogus Charges from 'Slammers' Outrage Columbus, GA Phone Customers Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 23:09:50 PDT From: tad@ssc.com By Greg Groeller, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Sep. 4--Gloria Hodge got more than she bargained for when she switched long-distance phone companies in April. Hodge, an office manager for Bass Small Engines in Columbus, thought she was switching her company to a new long-distance plan offered by BellSouth. But when she got her August phone bill, BellSouth was nowhere to be found on the long-distance portion of the bill. Instead, she found charges totaling $34 from three companies she had never heard of. Worse, she checked over the company's phone bills for the previous three months and found she had unknowingly paid $14 in bogus charges to various long-distance companies. Hodge had been "slammed," a scam in which phone customers are switched to new long-distance companies without their knowledge. "I resent this," Hodge said Thursday. "This is my privacy. There should be a law to make sure this doesn't keep happening." Unfortunately for Hodge, and millions like her across the United States, there isn't. In fact, it was a 1996 federal law that kicked off the slamming scam in the first place. The law forced Baby Bells to provide billing for all companies licensed to offer telecommunications services such as long-distance or paging. While most of the companies are honest, some claim to have signed up customers when they really haven't. In west Georgia and east Alabama, more than 10,000 customers were victimized by slamming in the last two years, says Lou Marcotte, president of the Better Business Bureau in Columbus. "We get calls about it all the time," Marcotte said. Tom Alexander, a BellSouth spokesman, said BellSouth is helpless to stop slamming. The law allows long-distance companies to sign up customers without written approval, so BellSouth essentially must take the long-distance companies' word for it that the customer has consented to the switch, Alexander said. "Under law, we have to bill for them," Alexander said. "As long as they are certified, we have no way to stop them." Many times, telemarketers will call and say they are affiliates of BellSouth, Alexander said. That may be technically accurate because they have billing contracts with BellSouth, but it often confuses customers into thinking the caller is a BellSouth employee, he said. "If you're not listening carefully, it might sound like they are employees of BellSouth," he said. That may be what happened to Hodge. She says she's pretty sure the person who called her identified himself as a BellSouth employee. But she can't be positive. Whatever the case, Hodge says she was angry when she noticed the bogus charges on her August bill. So she called each of the three companies listed on her bill to complain. One of them, Texas-based Hold Billing Services, told her they simply handle the billing for another long-distance company, Least Cost Routing. Hodge says that when she called Least Cost, a representative insisted that she had signed up with the company. Deborah Weaver, manager of customer service for Hold Billing, said the company does billing for more than 100 long-distance providers. "We screen all the companies we bill for," Weaver said. "But every once in a while, there's going to be one that slips through the cracks." Weaver said Hold Billing isn't responsible for charges made by other companies, even if they are false. "What we're doing is completely legal," she said. A man identifying himself only as Mark at Least Cost Routing said the company never misrepresents itself to customers. "We don't claim to be BellSouth," he said. "We could be arrested for that." He referred further questions to Herb Zerden, Least Cost's president. Zerden didn't return phone calls. Calls to the other companies listed on Hodge's bill -- OAN Services and USBI -- weren't returned. Hodge says BellSouth told her to subtract the bogus charges from her current bill. But that's little comfort to Hodge, who worries that she could get slammed again. "I was just floored that anybody can do this," Hodge said. "What's next month's bill going to bring?" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 02:38:52 EDT From: Danny Burstein Subject: FCC 1, RBOCs 0 Law governing entry into long-distance business upheld By JEANNINE AVERSA The Associated Press 09/05/98 1:09 AM Eastern WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government won an important victory when a federal appeals court ruled that provisions governing the entry of regional Bell telephone companies into the $90 billion long-distance business are constitutional. The 2-1 decision Friday by a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a legal setback to efforts by regional Bell telephone companies to freely provide long-distance service to local phone customers without first having to obtain government approval. The appeals court, based in New Orleans, reversed a lower-court ruling last December that opened a clear path into the long-distance business for three of the nation's five Bell companies -- SBC Communications, US West and Bell Atlantic. "This is fantastic," said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard. "I hope that this will send a message to ... the Bell companies that they need to get on with the business of opening their local markets to competition." The Dec. 31 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Joe Kendall of Wichita, Fall, Texas, had declared key provisions of a 1996 telecommunications law unconstitutional. The provisions require the Bells to open their local phone markets to long-distance companies and other potential rivals as a prerequisite for selling long-distance service to local customers. The law's provisions go to the heart of the government's effort to open the $110 billion local phone business to competition. Kendall's ruling had not taken effect because he postponed implementing his order until the appeals case was resolved. Given that, telephone customers will not experience any changes as a result of Friday's ruling. The Bell companies are likely to challenge the appeals court's ruling before the Supreme Court. "We are reviewing the decision," said Bell Atlantic spokeswoman Susan Butta. "We continue to pursue entry into long-distance vigorously, most notably in New York state." Long-distance companies, which sided with the government in the case, hailed the appeal court's ruling. "This decision is a clear victory for competition," said MCI Communications Corp. spokeswoman Jamie DePeau. "I hope this decision puts this line of attack to rest," said Mark Rosenblum, vice president of law for AT&T Corp. The three Bell companies' initial victory in December spurred a copycat lawsuit by BellSouth Corp. A federal court in Washington, D.C., has not ruled in that case. SBC, US West and Bell Atlantic had argued that the law's provisions discriminate against them because they do not apply to GTE Corp., Southern New England Telephone Co., Frontier Corp. and other local phone companies. Specifically, the three Bell companies said the provisions in the 1996 law constitute a "bill of attainder" -- punishing the Bells for the past anticompetitive sins of their former parent, AT&T, and for any offenses that they may commit in the future. The Constitution bars Congress from passing any "bill of attainder" that inflicts punishment without a court trial. The appeals court disagreed, saying the law's provisions don't discriminate against the Bells and are constitutional. "First and foremost, we think that the (provisions) are not punitive because they do not impose a perpetual bar" on Bell companies' entry into the long-distance business in their states, Circuit Judge E. Grady Jolly wrote in the majority opinion, which was joined by Judge Rhesa Barksdale. "We simply cannot find a constitutional violation in this case." Circuit Judge Jerry Smith dissented, disagreeing with the majority's logic. No Bell company has won FCC approval to provide long-distance service to local phone customers. The FCC has said companies have not sufficiently opened their local markets to competition as the law requires. The Bells are free to provide long-distance service outside their local phone markets. But the Bells see their local markets as their opportunity to offer one-stop communications most cheaply and efficiently. These markets also are where the entry requirements are toughest and the potential greatest for local phone companies to have local customers subsidize the companies' investment in long distance, which is not allowed. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 16:18:03 -0400 From: Judith Oppenheimer Reply-To: joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com Organization: ICB TOLL FREE NEWS. 15 Day FREE Trial: http://icbtollfree.com Subject: 800 Number Study Burlington, VT September 9, 1998 (ICB TOLL FREE NEWS) Twenty-four percent of television commercials contain a toll-free number, 91% using the 800 prefix and 57% of which are vanity (numbers that translate into words for easy recall), according to a new Response Marketing Group study of TV advertising. A sign of Internet popularity, 19% of television commercials contain a World Wide Web address. Overall, 37% of commercials feature either a toll-free number or an Internet address, or both. ``Television advertisers know the value of direct response,'' said David Greenhaus, President of Response. ``After seeing a commercial, consumers may be ready to learn more or to buy immediately. Without a direct response mechanism, they have no way of acting on their impulse.'' Seventy-nine percent of commercials with toll-free numbers display the number prominently, the study found. Forty percent emphasize the number with a voice-over by an announcer. Only 19% of the commercials featuring toll-free numbers are time sensitive (``act now'' or ``limited time''). The Response study, Toll-free Numbers in Television Advertising, monitored seven networks for over a month, analyzing nearly 5,000 commercials airing during 170 hours of evening, news, sports, and morning programming. Response Marketing Group has been providing marketing and telecommunications services since 1990. The principals of Response have over 30 years experience in the industry and are continually developing innovative ways for businesses to market their products and services. Additional Findings: The flood of 888 numbers has had little impact on TV commercials. ``Consumers have had 30 years to get familiar with 800,'' Greenhaus explained. ``They've only been exposed to 888 for the last two years -- advertisers see this as a big risk. They can't afford to gamble on consumers misdialing their phone numbers.'' The study also found that national advertisers are using vanity numbers more than numeric ones, and local advertisers use them about half the time. ``The public is most familiar with and accepting of vanity numbers,'' continued Greenhaus. ``They are also easiest to remember over the long term.'' Industries using toll-free numbers most often are real estate, telecommunications, and lodging, the study found. Game shows are the favored program. The top time slot is late afternoon/early evening. ``Toll-free numbers are no longer seen as a late night, hard-sell tactic,'' Greenhaus explained. ``They've come of age as an integral part of marketing and advertising.'' The study further found that 79% of 15 second commercials with toll-free numbers use vanity numbers, as do 75% of 30 second commercials. ``Advertisers know their numbers must be easy to remember to be effective,'' Greenhaus said. Judith Oppenheimer Publisher, ICB TOLL FREE NEWS News & Information Source for Service Providers, & Commercial Users, of Toll Free Service 15-day, no-obligation FREE trial: http://icbtollfree.com Moderator, TOLLFREE-L Read this list on the Web at http://www.FindMail.com/list/tollfree-l/ ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T Dials up Tougher Online Privacy Policy Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 19:10:30 -0400 Excerpt from Internet Daily http://www.cbsmarketwatch.com/news/current/netdaily.htx AT&T dials up tougher online privacy policy It may not have any qualms about calling you at dinnertime to ask you to switch long-distance companies, but AT&T said it's taking steps to protect your privacy on the Internet. The telephone giant has developed a single policy standard for all of its online businesses, which includes the assurance that such information as customers' names, addresses and phone numbers will not be sold to third parties without the customers' consent. And with the Federal Trade Commission's new, tougher stand on privacy policies for children, AT&T said it will not solicit information from children and teens under 18. Plus, the company will not link to or accept advertising from other online operations that collect data from children. Perhaps most appealingly, AT&T said it won't bombard people with ads for its online services if they request to be spared. This opt-out program begins Oct. 15, the company said in a statement. ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 20:30:48 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "IPv6 Networks", Marcus Goncalves/Kitty Niles Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKIPV6NW.RVW 980626 "IPv6 Networks", Marcus Goncalves/Kitty Niles, 1998, 0-07-024807-9, U$49.95 %A Marcus Goncalves %A Kitty Niles %C 300 Water Street, Whitby, Ontario L1N 9B6 %D 1998 %G 0-07-024807-9 %I McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne %O U$49.95 905-430-5000 fax: 905-430-5020 louisea@McGrawHill.ca %P 461 p. %T "IPv6 Networks" Limitations and foreseeable problems with the current Internet are driving the development of the next generation suite of protocols. Sometimes known as IPng, it is more correctly referred to as Internet Protocol version 6, or IPv6. Multiple problems are sometimes being answered by a single modification, but this book seems to take that approach too much to heart. Certain new aspects of the protocol suite are discussed in a number of chapters strung throughout the text, making it difficult to grasp the totality of some functions. Chapter one introduces the current (IPv4) version of the Internet Protocol, and notes some of the problems that have arisen. The drive for, and process leading to, the development of IPv6 is detailed in chapter two. The basic differences between the two versions is reviewed in chapter three, and some issues for transitioning and co- existence are raised. Chapter four again looks at the specific issues of addressing, performance, security, and virtual LANs in the production of IPv6. Various protocols related to routing are discussed in chapter five. More detail for addressing is provided in chapter six. IPv4 headers are described in chapter seven, which then goes on to explain the new version and the additional fields and functions. Chapter eight looks at internetwork communications, and again reviews routing related subjects. Performance issues are discussed in chapter nine, including aspects of quality of service. Implementation and the actual transmission of IPv6, plus the 6bone test-bad, are talked about in chapter ten. Chapter eleven looks briefly at some management and error messages for the new ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol). A number of the new security related protocols are reviewed in chapter twelve, in varying levels of detail. This continues with issues of key management in chapter thirteen. There is a rather terse description of the new DNS (Domain Name Service) system and the new AAAA format records in chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen discusses a number of issues related to address cutover preparation for the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. More details of transition and co-existence are given in chapter sixteen. This, the most recent book on the topic, has the advantage of the latest information. It is also loaded with Internet contacts and references for the projects and references on the subject. As an introduction, however, the seeming disorganization and redundancy of material make it less helpful than the older "IPng and the TCP/IP Protocols" (cf. BKIPNGTP.RVW). copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKIPV6NW.RVW 980626 ------------------------------ From: egoni@zfm.com Subject: Numbering Plan Change in Argentina Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 11:12:09 -0300 Beginning January 24, 1999, two digits will be added to the actual phone numbers of the customers located all over Argentina: one digit before the local numbers, and one digit before the area code. Number 4 shall be added before the local numbering of all the customers of the country. Another digit shall be placed before the actual area codes, according to the following distribution: Federal Capital and the Great Buenos Aires: 1 Southern Argentina (Telefonica's operating area, see map): 2 Northern area (Telecom's operating area): 3 http://www.telefonica.com.ar/INGLES/CHANGE/mapa.gif shows the Telefonica's operating area map. http://www.telefonica.com.ar/INGLES/CHANGE/Cambio_Num.htm gives more complete information about the changes. ------------------------------ Subject: For the Sake of Nostalgia, Creating Exchange Names for Prefixes Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 15:52:15 EST From: c2xkjb@eng.delcoelect.com (Kevin J. Brewer) Organization: Delphi Delco Electronics Systems, Kokomo, IN USA Now that we are beginning to have prefixes with 0 as the middle digit (sorry, I can't do much about the ones with 1 as the middle digit) and therefore such prefixes are obviously not on AT&T/Bell's 1955 list of recommended exchange (prefix) names, I've started coming up with a list of exchange names for these prefixes. Somewhat similarly, the AT&T/Bell list of recommended exchange names contains no recommended names for the prefixes of 55x, 57x, 95x, and 97x which were reserved for radio telephone numbers at that time. While everyone is of course familiar with KLondike being the comedic exchange name for the 55x prefix, note that San Francisco, Columbus Ohio, and Philadelphia actually used KLondike as its exchange name and Toronto, Ontario used the name LLoydbrook instead. It is assumed, in each of these cities, that the third prefix digit was never a 5. To view AT&T/Bell's 1955 list of recommended exchange names as well as a list of unique exchange names already in use in some cities before that time, see "The Telephone Exchange Name Project", http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html. So, here's the list of exchange names I've come up with so far (if anybody comes up with others, please let me know): 20x - AZalea, AZimuth, AZtec, AZure, CZarina 30x - EZekiel, EZra 40x - 50x - 60x - OZ, OZarks, OZone 70x - 80x - UZi 90x - 55x - KLondike, LLoydbrook (existing unique exchange names) 57x - KRemlin 95x - 97x - WRitings, WRitten, XRay Sorry, that you have to have an ancient phone like the one described below in order to know that the "Z" is on the "0" key (well, actually, in the "0" hole of a rotary dial). Believe it or not, I've noted recently that some people in the present day have been forced to actually know this trivia. One of the actors who plays a doctor on "ER" does commercials for Key Bank. [Key Bank branches are located at least in Indiana and Ohio.] For "ages" they've had a phone number 1-800-KEY-2-YOU, but recently he's been in ads for helping small businesses and that phone number is 1-800-KEY-4-BIZ. No, the "Z" is not an 8th digit which doesn't really need to be entered or such. It is the 7th (last digit) of the "800" number. Does anybody have any ideas about the "Z" in this phone number? For those who don't believe that there used to be "Z"s on phones, 6 months ago, I pulled one of my Western Electric (Bell System) handset model F1 phones with a remanufacture date of "8-8-59" out of the closet to use it instead of the one which was currently in the bedroom. The "0" is inscribed as shown below: Z OPERATOR 0 with "OPERATOR" in much smaller type. Kevin J. Brewer ------------------------------ Subject: What Was the Standard 555-xxxx Phone Number Used in Phone Books? Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 16:52:11 EST From: c2xkjb@eng.delcoelect.com (Kevin J. Brewer) Organization: Delphi Delco Electronics Systems, Kokomo, IN USA I remember a very standard 555-xxxx number that the phone companies used when the phone number disk or strip was visible in pictures of phones in the phone book and advertisements. I think that the number was 555-2368. Does anybody remember if I'm right? I seem to think that I remembered it via a mnemonic mechanism of it being the digits of the wavelength of a helium-neon laser (6328 Angstroms) mixed around. Kevin J. Brewer [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are mostly correct. It was given as KL-5-2368 in all the advertising that (the old) Illinois Bell did, as well as national advertising for AT&T. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #119 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Sep 15 22:13:13 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id WAA14063; Tue, 15 Sep 1998 22:13:13 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 22:13:13 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199809160213.WAA14063@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #120 TELECOM Digest Tue, 15 Sep 98 22:13:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 120 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Jan. 1, 2000, Isn't Only 'Doomsdate' (Monty Solomon) Telecom Update (Canada) #149, September 14, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) U S West Strike May Foreshadow Contentious Future for Telecom (Tad Cook) Bell Labs Scientists Shatter Limit On Wireless Transmission (Monty Solomon) UCLA Short Course on "Design Patterns, Frameworks and CORBA" (Bill Goodin) UCLA Short Course on "ATM Communications Networking" (Bill Goodin) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 10:47:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Jan. 1, 2000 Isn't Only 'Doomsdate' http://webserv1.startribune.com/cgi-bin/stOnLine/article?thisSlug=Y2K13 Published Sunday, September 13, 1998 Jan. 1, 2000, isn't only 'doomsdate' Steve Woodward / Newhouse News Service Jan. 1, 2000, is The Big One, kids. By now, you've heard that many of the world's computers will roll the date clock forward from "99" to "00" with potentially disastrous consequences. Year 2000 authorities prophesy problems as minor as erroneous overdue notices from the library and as major as a failure of the nation's power grid. But that isn't the only computer "doomsdate" looming. A slew of lesser-known dates also could wreak technological havoc. So brace yourself. The first date to dread -- Jan. 1, 1999 -- is fast approaching. Jan. 1, 1999: The one-year-look-ahead problem Not every computer counts forward like you and me. Some look down the road one entire year and count backward to determine the date. (Please don't ask why.) On Jan. 1, 1999, some will look forward one year and see "00." Like humans, the computers may balk at having to count backward from 00. Jan. 1, 1999, to Dec. 31, 2002: The euro currency problem We all know that the year 2000 problem is the biggest software project in history. But many Americans are unaware that programmers throughout the world are also at work on the second biggest software project in history: converting the currencies of 11 European nations into a single currency called the euro. Banks and financial institutions will begin transacting business in euros on Jan. 1, 1999, although the actual bank notes won't be issued until Jan. 1, 2001. The introduction of the euro is to continue through the year 2002. There's no direct link between the euro project and the Y2K project, but the massive size of the simultaneous projects will soon take most of the world's available programmers. Aug. 21, 1999: The GPS rollover problem The world's 24 global positioning satellites record time by counting the weeks that have passed since their launch in 1980. The weeks fill up a counter much like the odometer on your car. But like your odometer, the counter rolls over to 0000 when it's full. At midnight on Aug. 21, 1999, the counter will be full. Equipment that uses the GPS signals may malfunction. Sept. 9, 1999: The 9999 end-of-file problem Many computers have been programmed to recognize 9999 as an "end-of-file" command. Perhaps some computers will conclude, quite logically, that a date of 9/9/99 means it's the end of all time. Oct. 1, 1999: The federal fiscal year 2000 problem Big Daddy rolls its clock forward Oct. 1, 1999. As of that date, the federal government officially enters its 2000 budget year. Every federal function will be affected, from defense to Medicare to payments on the federal debt. Jan. 4, 2000: The first-working-day-of-the-year problem Year 2000 begins on a Saturday. Corporate America will switch on most of its desktop computers Tuesday, Jan. 4, after a long holiday weekend. Boot up and hang on to your morning mochas. Feb. 29, 2000: The Year 2000 leap year problem, Part I Most programmers know the rules for calculating leap years: Any year evenly divisible by four is a leap year, except years that also are divisible by 100. So 1996 is a leap year, but 2000 isn't -- er, right? Well, there's a third, lesser-known rule that cancels the first two: Any year divisible by 400 is a leap year, including -- you guessed it -- 2000. The question is: How many programmers know that rule? Dec. 31, 2000: The Year 2000 leap year problem, Part II Some computers work by counting the number of days in the year. If they aren't programmed to know that 2000 is a leap year, the machines will be bewildered when they reach Dec. 31, 2000, the seemingly impossible 366th day of the year. Sept. 8, 2001: The Unix end-of-file problem Unix is the "other" major operating system, a set of instructions that, like Windows, DOS and MacOS, run the basic functions of a computer. Unix powers many commercial and Internet computers. Unix tells time differently, which means that it does not have a year 2000 problem. Unfortunately, it does have a Sept. 8, 2001, problem. In Unix language, that date is represented by the number 999,999,999 -- the same number that some Unix applications use to denote the end of a file. Circa 2025: The U.S. telephone number problem By the year 2025 or so, the United States will simply run out of available seven-digit telephone numbers and area codes. Telephone companies will have to add digits or revamp the numbering system. That, in turn, will force software programmers to overhaul every piece of software that uses phone numbers, plus all databases and archives that store phone numbers. Jan. 19, 2038: The other Unix problem The Unix operating system tells time by counting the number of seconds elapsed since Jan. 1, 1970. But like your odometer, there are only so many places on its counter. At seven seconds past 3:14 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2038, the counters on every Unix computer in the world will be full and will roll over to "0." Many computers will assume it's either Jan. 1, 1970, all over again (who wants to relive the '70s?) or that it's the end of the world (which may be a better alternative than the preceding). Circa 2050 to 2075: The Social Security number problem By 2075, the United States will have exhausted the 1 billion unique Social Security numbers possible under its nine-digit numbering system. Year 2000 expert Capers Jones suggests that the nation must be prepared by 2050 to expand or replace the many software applications that depend on those numbers. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 10:54:32 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #149, September 14, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 149: September 14, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * AT&T Canada ............... http://www.attcanada.com/ * * Bell Canada ............... http://www.bell.ca/ * * Lucent Technologies ....... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * MetroNet Communications ... http://www.metronet.ca/ * * Sprint Canada ............. http://www.sprintcanada.ca/ * * Telus Communications....... http://www.telus.com/ * * TigerTel Communications ... http://www.citydial.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Bell Intros "Per Call" Charges for LD ** A Bad Week For Satellites Telesat Iridium Globalstar ** Canada Payphone Signs MetroNet for Local Loop ** CRTC Wins Bertelsmann Prize ** Bell Proposes Enhanced 4-1-1 Service ** AT&T Canada and Cantel Offer Joint Discount ** Cantel to Offer RIM Two-Way Pager ** Bell Mobility Intros Wildfire Personal Assistant ** Telus Proposes "Name That Number" ** BC Tel Simplifies LD Internet Access ** Public Hearing on MTS Rate Increase ** Newbridge Sells Remote Access Supplier ** Stratos Becomes Canada's Inmarsat Signatory ** Com Dev Joins SkyBridge Consortium ** Microcell Offers Nokia 519 ** Remark Allies With MTI ** Teleglobe/Excel Merger Gets Okay From FCC ** Canadian Banks Spend More for E-Commerce ** Survey Counts 36 Million Internet Hosts ** Stay Ahead of Canada's Telecom Revolution BELL INTROS "PER CALL" CHARGES FOR LD: Bell Canada's new "Advantage Per Call" program for business customers charges for LD calls in 10 minute increments: 35 cents in Canada, 50 cents to the U.S. The rates also apply to inbound toll-free calls. Customers must register for the plan, which has no minimum or access charges. Service begins September 28. http://www.bell.ca/en/minisite/products/percall/ A BAD WEEK FOR SATELLITES: ** This fall's planned launch of Telesat's Nimiq satellite has been delayed until early in 1999. ExpressVu and Star Choice plan to use Nimiq for satellite TV. ** The start-up of Iridium's commercial satellite telephone service has been delayed from September 23 to November 1, to allow more time for network testing. ** A Ukrainian Zenit 2 rocket, carrying 12 Globalstar satellites worth US$15 Million each, crashed in Kazakhstan on September 9. This will probably delay Globalstar's commercial satellite telephone service by three or four months, to September 1999. CANADA PAYPHONE SIGNS METRONET FOR LOCAL LOOP: MetroNet Communications has signed a contract to supply local service to the 13,000 competitive payphones that Canada Payphone plans to install during the next three years. ** Roly Morris, formerly a regional VP for Starbucks Coffee, has been appointed President and CEO of Canada Payphone. CRTC WINS BERTELSMANN PRIZE: The CRTC is one of two winners of the 1998 Carl Bertelsmann prize for "Innovation and Responsibility in the Information Society." Edging out 100 other nominees, including the U.S. FCC, the Commission won recognition for its expertise in dissolving boundaries between telecom and broadcasting. BELL PROPOSES ENHANCED 4-1-1 SERVICE: In Tariff Notice 6276, Bell Canada asks the CRTC to okay expansion of its 4-1-1 Directory Assistance service to encompass all numbers in Canada and to include free connection to the requested number; the Directory Assistance charge would remain 75 cents. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/proc_rep/telecom/1998/8740/b2-6276.html AT&T CANADA AND CANTEL OFFER JOINT DISCOUNT: Under a joint promotion announced by Rogers Cantel and AT&T Canada Long Distance Services, customers who choose any of Cantel's paging, cellular, or PCS services and subscribe to AT&T residential long distance service before November 15 will receive a 5% reduction on each service through 1999. CANTEL TO OFFER RIM TWO-WAY PAGER: Rogers Cantel will pay $3 Million during the next year for two-way pagers from Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion. RIM's new Inter@ctive Pager 950 will send and receive alphanumeric pages and e-mail over Cantel's Mobitex wireless data network. BELL MOBILITY INTROS WILDFIRE PERSONAL ASSISTANT: On September 16 Bell Mobility will launch its Wildfire personal assistant service in the Toronto area. Wildfire uses speech recognition to dial numbers, manage voice mail, and provide other calling functions. Pricing starts at $20/month. TELUS PROPOSES "NAME THAT NUMBER": CRTC Public Notice 98-23 seeks comment on a Telus Communications proposal to give customers a subscriber's name and address information when provided with a telephone number. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9823_0.txt BC TEL SIMPLIFIES LD INTERNET ACCESS: BC Tel's free Cardconnect software configures a laptop computer for long distance and overseas access to Internet service, using the customer's BC Tel calling card number and Canada Direct. http://www.bctel.com/cardconnect PUBLIC HEARING ON MTS RATE INCREASE: In Public Notice 98-24, the CRTC announces a one-day public consultation on November 7 in Winnipeg to hear comments on MTS=92 proposal to phase in local telephone rate increases beginning January 1, in order to recover future income tax costs ahead of time (see Telecom Update #136). To participate, notify the Commission by October 30. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9824_0.txt NEWBRIDGE SELLS REMOTE ACCESS SUPPLIER: Newbridge Networks is selling its majority stake in California-based Advanced Computer Communications, which makes remote access equipment, to Ericsson for about US$170 Million. STRATOS BECOMES CANADA'S INMARSAT SIGNATORY: Ottawa has appointed Stratos Wireless to replace Teleglobe as Canada's signatory to Inmarsat, a treaty organization on mobile satellite services. Stratos bought Teleglobe's Inmarsat business in June. (See Telecom Update #140) COM DEV JOINS SKYBRIDGE CONSORTIUM: Com Dev International has joined the consortium developing SkyBridge, an 80- satellite broadband Low Earth Orbit (LEO) system initiated by Alcatel. MICROCELL OFFERS NOKIA 5190: Microcell Solutions has launched the Fido Nokia 5190, a 170-gram handset offering up to four hours talk time. Price: $75 for digital- or analog- only units; $150 for dual-mode. REMARK ALLIES WITH MTI: Remark Telecom of Oakville, Ontario, has concluded a strategic marketing alliance with Ottawa- based Modular Telephone Interface and will be marketing its products under the MTI name. TELEGLOBE/EXCEL MERGER GETS OKAY FROM FCC: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved the merger of Teleglobe and Excel Communications. Approval from many state regulators is still pending. CANADIAN BANKS SPEND MORE FOR E-COMMERCE: A study by Ernst and Young reports that financial institutions in Canada are spending 9% of their IT budgets on electronic commerce, compared to a world average of 3%. Telephone banking is expected to almost quadruple in the next three years. SURVEY COUNTS 36 MILLION INTERNET HOSTS: A survey by Network Wizards estimates the number of computers connected to the Internet in July 1998 at 36,739,000 and the annual growth rate at 40%-50%. http://www.nw.com/zone/WWW/top.html STAY AHEAD OF CANADA'S TELECOM REVOLUTION: New rates, new rules, new services, new service providers -- everything in Canadian telecommunications is changing at top speed. Telemanagement, edited by Ian and Lis Angus, enables Canadian managers deal effectively with this changing telecom world. ** "Time and again Ian and Lis have proven their knowledge, keen insight, and impartiality. Telemanagement is a 'must read.'" Wes Scott, Executive VP and CFO, Nortel ** Subscribe to Telemanagement by October 30 and receive the 25 reports in Telecom Strategies Today, a 50-page anthology from Telemanagement. Call 1-800-263-4415 ext 225 or visit http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE=20 Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the messag should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ Subject: U S West Strike May Foreshadow Contentious Future for Telecom Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 16:20:58 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) U S West Strike May Foreshadow Contentious Future for Telecom Industry By Roger Fillion, The Denver Post Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Sep. 9--The Information Age -- while unleashing all sorts of newfangled gadgets and Internet services -- is shaking the foundation underlying labor-management dealings in the $240 billion communications industry. And on the eve of Labor Day 1998, labor and management in the tumultuous communications business together stand at a crossroad: Fight each other? Or rally round the flag? In Colorado and the West lately, it's been a fight. The bitter 15-day strike at U S West Inc. may well foreshadow relations in the industry in the years to come, as former telephone monopolies try to cut costs more and boost productivity to battle upstart competitors that aren't unionized, labor and industry experts agree. That could spell more tension, more worker grievances, more strikes. "What we'll probably see is a lot more contention, a lot more of what we saw at U S West," says analyst Erik Olberter of the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington think tank that gets financial support from corporations and organized labor. "A lot of people in the industry were looking at U S West as a bellwether for the company to adjust to the future." But the experts also say the changes rocking the communications business ultimately could breed the kind of labor-management cooperation seen in other industries such as automobiles, airlines and shipbuilding. The reasoning holds that workers and managers at U S West and other Baby Bell companies -- as well as long-distance giant AT&T Corp. -- may realize that the real enemy isn't the party sitting at the other side of the bargaining table. Rather, it's the competition. Signs of such cooperation have begun to emerge in recent labor negotiations. "As competition grows, you generally find that workers and management find it more easy to cooperate," says Timothy Bartl, assistant general counsel at LPA Inc., a Washington trade group representing human resources executives at big corporations. Whatever the outcome, experts say, change looks inevitable. That's because the industry faces an explosion in new technologies involving the Internet and other digital services that require new workers. A wave of mega-mergers is rewriting the corporate landscape. And the massive birth of new companies is shaking up an industry long dominated by government-regulated monopolies. "Labor relations are changing because the environment is changing," says Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University. "The companies face an important decision," she adds. "Are they going to make their profits more dependent on cutting costs and weakening unions? Or are they going to look long term and move forward together with their workers?" The changing environment already is shaking up the regional Bells, which dominate the $110 billion local phone business. Analysts say these companies -- U S West, as well as Bell Atlantic Corp., SBC Communications Inc., Ameritech Corp. and BellSouth Corp. -- must become more competitive-minded to thrive. "The telephone company of tomorrow looks nothing like the telephone company of today," says analyst Jeffrey Kagan of Kagan Telecom Associates in Atlanta. "Between the new competitors and the new technologies, customers are expecting and demanding more than ever before." U S West and the other regional Bells, he adds, "have to profoundly reinvent themselves to meet the competitive realities of the new marketplace." The Bells face growing competition from non-unionized upstarts such as ICG Communications Inc. and WorldCom Inc., as well as more established companies such as No. 2 long-distance company MCI Communications Corp. -- which is merging with WorldCom -- and No. 3 long-distance carrier Sprint Corp. The competitors, including AT&T, already are going after the Bells' big business customers for local phone service. Urban residential dwellers are expected to be the next major target. "As the communications industry becomes increasingly competitive, this puts more pressure on costs -- and therefore labor costs in particular," says Leo Troy, professor of labor economics at Rutgers University in Newark. The drive to slash costs and consolidate operations already is evident at the Bells. Their own ranks have declined to five from the original seven, thanks to corporate mergers. The number soon could shrink to four: SBC has proposed to acquire Ameritech. The companies have slashed their ranks of employees since the 1984 breakup of the old AT&T that triggered the creation of the original seven. "The company is going to press for more efficient production," says Troy. "The union is going to resist." Employment levels at the Bells tumbled nearly 40 percent between 1984 and 1997, to 338,177 last year from 556,561. The drive to cut costs and boost productivity is expected to continue, given the prospect of greater competition. In 1984, U S West had more than 70,000 workers. At the end of 1993, that figure stood at 63,707. Today, it's 49,500. Reflecting the plunge in Bell employment, union membership in the communications and public utilities sectors has decreased as well, to 25 percent last year from 34 percent in 1988. The shrinking workforce was a key factor in the Communication Workers of America strike against U S West. CWA members demanded a reduction in mandatory overtime, saying they were being forced to work 60 to 70 hours a week because of a shortage of skilled workers. The two sides reached a tentative contract agreement on Aug. 30. Under the three-year pact, the company agreed to limit mandatory overtime to eight hours a week by 2001. U S West also pushed aggressively to introduce a performance-based pay plan for about 7,100 field technicians. The company argued that the controversial plan was needed to boost the level of customer service in the face of growing competition. The CWA, in the end, agreed to permit the performance-based pay plan to proceed on a voluntary basis, with input from union members. Experts say it's too early to know if the plan will attract a lot of employees. The pay package is the first of its kind among big phone companies. The CWA plans to tell members to avoid participating, saying the program is unworkable. Some experts warn it will be tough to draft the details to make it effective. U S West spokesman David Beigie counters: "We need to set the goals high enough so customers perceive a real quality difference, but also realistically enough so employees become interested in participating." The CWA also has waged strikes this summer against Bell Atlantic and Southern New England Telephone. The explosion in new technologies and businesses -- especially those involving the Internet -- was a key focus in the Bell Atlantic walkout. In the two-day strike there by 73,000 CWA members, a major issue was union representation of employees in rapidly growing operations such as Internet services and data networking. The union complained such work was being shifted to nonunion workers, posing a threat to the job security of unionized employees. Bell Atlantic and the CWA agreed to let the union represent such workers, while the company retained the option of hiring outside contractors under certain circumstances. So what happens next? Cindy Fukami, a management professor at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, says that labor-management relations in the United States have involved a long history of fighting over who gets a larger piece of the financial pie. But she says the two parties within the communications industry, in particular, now have a big reason to work together. The Baby Bells -- with their unionized workforces and vestiges of a monopoly era -- risk losing customers and profits. That loss would hurt workers and management alike. "Now they have to be concerned about profits. They have to be concerned about competing," she says of labor and management. A big-fisted confrontational stance, in the end, can backfire, she warns. "In times where survival is at stake, you can't really do that. It's like fiddling while Rome is burning," Fukami says. Fukami cites the shipbuilding, newspaper, and auto industries as examples where labor and management have forged cooperative relationships. Ford Motor Co., for example, has sought the input and cooperation of workers on design matters and the assembling of cars. In the U S West contract settlement, Fukami sees a sign of cooperation in an agreement that ensures labor has a voice in picking a free health-care provider. "There are a lot of good things that happen when there's cooperation," she adds. CWA spokesman Jeff Miller, meanwhile, argues that the union already is cooperating with other big companies and that the contentious strike at U S West was the exception. He points to the labor agreements with the Bells and AT&T that didn't involve nasty walkouts. "They want stable labor relations. They want good relations with their union and the workers," he adds. "Labor relations in the telecommunications industry are better this year than since the breakup" of AT&T in 1984, says Miller. "U S West was an aberration." ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Bell Labs Scientists Shatter Limit On Fixed Wireless Transmission Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 19:21:02 -0400 MURRAY HILL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 1998--Lucent Technologies today announced scientists at Bell Labs, the company's research and development arm, have developed a breakthrough technology that may potentially boost the capacity of certain wireless links by 10 to 20 times. This innovation, known as BLAST, may allow so-called "fixed" wireless technology to rival the capabilities of today's wired networks, while also providing faster and more cost-effective deployment. One potential application would be for businesses, where wires no longer would be necessary to transmit data between desktop computers, notebook computers and hand-held devices. Another possible use would be providing phone service to remote and rural areas, where wireless networks would connect homes and businesses to copper-wired public telephone service providers. "Technologies that provide a 10-fold improvement in wireless capacity come along once a decade," said Bell Labs President Dan Stanzione. "This is a very significant scientific development with long-term potential impact on our wireless business." The BLAST technology is not well suited for mobile wireless applications, such as hand-held and car-based cellular phones, because multiple antennas - both transmitting and receiving -- are needed. In addition, tracking signal changes in mobile applications would increase the computational complexity. The inspiration for BLAST (Bell Labs Layered Space-Time) can be traced to a challenge from Rich Gitlin, chief technical officer and Data Networking Technology Vice President in Lucent's Data Networking Systems business unit. Gitlin asked the researchers to take a fresh look at a 50-year-old mathematical theory developed at Bell Labs, which is the theoretical foundation of today's high-speed communications systems. The end result was cramming roughly 10 to 20 times more information on the same frequency band by developing new signal processing techniques. "The breakthrough results prove the feasibility of a technology which leapfrogs what we assumed about the limitations of radio communications," said Jim Brewington, president of Lucent's Wireless Networks Group. "While there is still a great deal of applied research required before we apply this discovery, we are very excited about its potential implications for our future wireless systems." The BLAST technology essentially exploits a concept that other researchers believed was impossible. The prevailing view was that each wireless transmission needed to occupy a separate frequency, similar to the way in which FM radio stations within a geographical area are allocated separate frequencies. Otherwise, the interference is too overwhelming for quality communications. The BLAST researchers, however, theorized it is possible to have several transmissions occupying the same frequency band. Each transmission uses its own transmitting antenna. Then, on the receiving end, multiple antennas again are used, along with innovative signal processing, to separate the mutually interfering transmissions from each other. Thus, the capacity of a given frequency band increases proportionally to the number of antennas. The BLAST prototype, built to test this theory, uses an array of eight transmit and 12 receive antennas. During its first weeks of operation, it achieved unprecedented wireless capacities of at least 10 times the capacity of today's fixed wireless loop systems, which are used to provide phone service in rural and remote areas. "This new technology represents an opportunity for future wireless systems of extraordinary communications efficiency," said Bell Labs researcher Reinaldo Valenzuela, who headed the BLAST research team. "This experiment, which was designed to illustrate the basic principle, represents only a first step of using the new technology to achieve higher capacities." The advanced signal-processing techniques used in BLAST were first developed by researcher Gerard Foschini from a novel interpretation of the fundamental capacity formulas of Claude Shannon's Information Theory, first published in 1948. While Shannon's theory dealt with point-to-point communications, the theory used in BLAST relies on "volume-to -volume" communications, which effectively gives Information Theory a third, or spatial, dimension, besides frequency and time. This added dimension, said Foschini, is important because "when and where noise and interference turn out to be severe, each bit (of data) is well prepared to weather such impairments." Remarkably, the initial BLAST experiment designed by researchers Glenn Golden and Peter Wolniansky did not use the technology of error correction coding to correct signal errors, nor did the transmitter have prior knowledge of which signal components would propagate easily and which would be severely impaired. Also, BLAST research by Michael Gans includes determining the optimal placement and number of transmitting and receiving antennas. If, for instance, the distance between antennas on each end were further reduced, the number of potential applications, such as mobile communications, might increase. In addition, researchers are trying to boost capacity even further and exploring how to enhance BLAST for all wireless formats. More technical information about BLAST is available at http://www.bell-labs.com/news/1998/september. Additional information about the BLAST research project is available at http://www.bell-labs.com/projects/blast . For technical information on the BLAST architecture, see Gerard J. Foschini, "Layered Space-Time Architecture for Wireless Communication in a Fading Environment when Using Multiple Antennas," Bell Labs Technical Journal, Volume 1, Number 2 Autumn 1996, pp 41-59 (or: http://www.lucent.com/ideas2/perspectives/bltj/autumn_96/paper04/ main.html . For more information on Claude Shannon's Information Theory, see http://www.lucent.com/informationtheory . Lucent Technologies (LU) designs, builds, and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, consumer and business telephone systems and microelectronics components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm of the company. For more information about Lucent Technologies, headquartered at Murray Hill, N.J., visit our website at www.lucent.com. ------------------------------ From: Bill Goodin Subject: UCLA Short Course on "Design Patterns, Frameworks and CORBA" Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 15:53:26 -0700 On December 7-9, 1998, UCLA Extension will present the short course, Using Design Patterns, Frameworks, and CORBA to Develop Object-Oriented Communication Systems", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructor is Douglas C. Schmidt, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, Washington University. This course describes OOD/OOP techniques and software that have been successfully used to reduce the complexity of developing large-scale concurrent communication software. These systems include online transaction processing, telecommunication switch management applications, network management for large-scale global personal communication systems, electronic medical imaging systems, and high-performance parallel communication protocol stacks, among others. The course illustrates how to significantly simplify and enhance the development of software that effectively utilizes concurrency and network services via the use of object-oriented design techniques such as design patterns, layered modularity, and information hiding; C++ language features such as abstract classes; inheritance, dynamic binding, and parameterized types; tools such as object-oriented communication frameworks and object request brokers (ORBs); advanced operating system mechanisms such as event de-multiplexing, multi-threading, multi-processing, and explicit dynamic linking; and emerging standards for distributed object computing such as OMG CORBA and Network OLE/COM. The course is intended for software developers who design and implement telecommunication switch management systems, video-on-demand services, network management applications, personal communication systems, client/server management information systems, WWW servers, upper-layer communication protocols, and other similar services. The fee for the course is $1295, which includes extensive course notes. These course notes are for participants only, and are not for sale. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ From: Bill Goodin Subject: UCLA Short Course on "ATM Communications Networking" Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 15:56:32 -0700 On December 8-11, 1998, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Communications Networking", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructor is Izhak Rubin, PhD, Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, UCLA. Integrating communication, switching, networking, traffic, service, computer engineering, and management principles, this course presents the fundamentals of ATM communications networks and their technologies. It examines technologies, architectures, planning, management, evaluation, and design, as well as the elements essential to the implementation and control of cost-effective, reliable, and responsive ATM communication networks that support multimedia applications. Basic networking principles are explained clearly without assuming prior networking experience or mathematical background. The underlying key technologies required for the implementation and efficient operation of ATM networks are then systematically described and evaluated. The course is designed for communications, computer, telecommunications, and system engineers; managers; system analysts; project leaders and scientists seeking to understand: * Principles of ATM computer communications networking, control, and management; * Up-to-date performance evaluations and design considerations for ATM telecommunications networks; * Interface standards, traffic management, switch operation, routing mechanisms, congestion, flow control, and scheduling mechanisms for the provision of multimedia guaranteed and best-effort services for the integrated support of real-time and non-real-time applications; * Support of other networking protocol across ATM networks, including TCP/IP network systems, LAN interconnections, and the Next Generation Internet; * Wireless ATM networks; * Next generation ultra high-speed optical networks; * Key networking concepts, applications, traffic models, traffic management procedures, and design and performance evaluations for test cases are demonstrated using the PC-based IRI PLANYST program. The fee for the course is $1395, which includes extensive course notes. These course notes are for participants only, and are not for sale. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #120 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Sep 28 10:36:05 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id KAA29173; Mon, 28 Sep 1998 10:36:05 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 10:36:05 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199809281436.KAA29173@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #121 TELECOM Digest Mon, 28 Sep 98 10:36:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 121 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cutting the Phone Cord to Stick With Cellular (Monty Solomon) Book Review: "Web Page Design Cookbook", W. Horton/L. Taylor (Rob Slade) A Tragedy! Southwestern Bell Terminating Voice Dial Service (Demuths) Book Review: "Web Security Sourcebook",Aviel Rubin/Dan Geer (Rob Slade) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cutting the Phone Cord to Stick With Cellular Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 13:31:33 -0400 http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/09/circuits/articles/17cell.html September 17, 1998 Cutting the Phone Cord to Stick With Cellular By ROY FURCHGOTT When Susan Kubira, an interior designer in the Chicago area, decided to disconnect her home telephone to go completely cellular, she faced raised eyebrows from her friends, employees and, most of all, phone company. Kubira, of the Chicago area, said a flat rate for 1,900 minutes of calling time on a cellular phone had persuaded her that she could save money by having her land-line phone disconnected. "They just didn't believe I wanted to do it," she said. "I said I wanted to permanently disconnect, and the person I called said, 'O.K., we will temporarily disconnect.' I said, 'No, I want a permanent disconnection,' and she said, 'Are you sure?' And I said, 'I'm sure.' It's been eight months, and I still don't have my deposit back." Phone companies might have to get used to it. More and more telephone customers are cutting the cord -- getting rid of their stationary wired phones entirely -- despite the occasional bad reception, dead batteries and broken handsets of the wireless phones. The changes are partly due to developments in the hugely competitive cellular phone landscape. Increased competition has lowered prices, and coverage areas have improved, reducing the number of cutoffs in mid-conversation that once characterized wireless phone calls. And the new portable phones are packed with features that make them more attractive. About one million customers sign up for cellular phone service each month, and industry forecasters say the number of cellular phones in the United States will more than double, to 113.7 million, in five years, compared with the current 53.3 million. Not every new cellular phone replaces a land line, and cord cutters are still relatively rare. But the trend is growing, analysts say. Richard Siber, who follows wireless communications for Andersen Consulting in Boston, predicts that cellular phones will achieve "25 to 35 percent displacement" of wired telephones in five to seven years. Ms. Kubira decided to cut the cord when reviewing her phone bill last January. "I realized I was paying a lot of money for a phone to do two things -- to sit on my bed table and to collect voice mail," she said. Her land-line bill ran about $80 a month for services that included an unlisted number, voice mail and caller ID. She kept her home phone on until January because the cellular phone service she had at that time was expensive. "The old service was $295 a month, but the bill was $700 due to extra charges," she said. She dropped the land line after subscribing to AT&T's One Rate plan, which charges her $149 for 1,900 minutes of connection time (that's nearly 32 hours) a month, without additional roaming or long-distance fees. Her cellular phone also has the caller ID and voice-mail features of a land line, as well as a 200-name speed-dialing directory and her favorite feature, a ringer that plays 37 tunes (her nephew likes to set hers to "The 1812 Overture"). Mario Micheletti, an owner and sous-chef at the Tyler Point Grille in Barrington, R.I., said he had decided to offer guests a cellular phone rather than installing a pay phone because it was cheaper. Micheletti said he figured that it would take $70 in calls each month to offset the cost of installing a pay phone from the phone company in his restaurant. Buying his own pay phone -- even used -- would cost about $800, he said. "Now I start to think, they had a weekend option on this Sprint PCS, and my busiest time was the weekend," he said. So Micheletti bought a handset for $99 after rebates, set up cellular service with Sprint for $29.95 a month and paid an additional $4.99 for an optional service granting unlimited calls between 7 P.M. Friday and 7 A.M. Monday. (Sprint PCS currently offers nights and weekends free as a promotion in some areas, including Micheletti's.) Now when a customer asks to check on a baby sitter, Micheletti hands over a cellular phone. Micheletti said he had not considered cutting his land line at home, but he admitted that he often talked on his cellular phone even when one of his four or five conventional phones was in reach, especially if he was making a toll call. Some calls that are long distance on conventional phones are within his cellular phone's local calling area, which extends as far as Boston, and are treated as local calls. One reason he keeps his land line is he always knows where his wired phones are -- which is not true with his wireless phones. "With the one phone, I might misplace it," he said. Robert Giovannucci, a printing broker in Los Alamitos, Calif., cut the cord, converting his voice phone to a data line, in early 1997. He solved the "where's the phone?" problem by having two handsets with the same number. "One stays by my bed," he said. The other is with him at all times so he can respond immediately to both calls from customers and problems on printing jobs. Giovannucci credits his new wireless accessibility for an increase in his business's revenue, to about $2 million a year, more than double his revenue before he went to cellular phones. He said the move had also helped him expand his service area; he now has clients as far away as Colorado. "I do twice or three times the business than when I had a land line," he said in a call from his car. Although he tried a pager, it didn't let him respond quickly enough. When there was a problem with a job on the press, the printer would stop printing and start charging a "wait fee" of $500 an hour while Giovannucci looked for a phone. Giovannucci has armed his two salesmen with cellular phones and racks up close to $10,000 a year in cellular-phone fees. Even though he pays Airtouch Cellular $125 a month for 1,000 minutes, Giovannucci said, he and his salesmen use double that and pay a premium for going over their allotted time. It was happenstance that Barry Atwood became a cord cutter. Atwood, a life insurance salesman for Allstate Insurance, said he had started using a cellular phone because he circulates around six offices in the St. Augustine, Fla., area. "If people are trying to locate me, I can't give them the number to five offices," Atwood said. "I don't know when I will be there." When he moved into a temporary apartment, he didn't bother to get a land line and discovered that he didn't need one. He had intended to get a new land line when he moved into a permanent residence because he found the 10-cents-a-minute calling plans attractive -- until he realized that he was already getting that rate with his 700-minutes-for-$70 cellular phone service. "When it comes right down to it," he said, "I probably don't need a land line -- it's a habit. A habit you have to learn to drop." At first, Atwood said, he feared that being constantly accessible through a cellular phone would prove overwhelming. "I thought, 'Hey, I don't want to be reached all of the time,' but it's a phantom problem," he said. "If I don't want to answer, I just don't answer. It has caller ID, so I can look at it and say no, I don't want to talk to them." Unanswered calls are forwarded to voice mail. Many frequent cellular phone users who intend to cut the cord find that they can't. Jordan Summers, a territory sales manager for WRQ Inc., a software company in Seattle, has carried a cellular phone since 1987, when they were nearly the size of suitcases. He recently realized that he didn't need a wired phone any more. "Even when I am sitting somewhere with a clear land line," he said, "I just find it easier to use a cellular phone." But when it came to cutting the cord at home, he balked because his 13-year-old son had taken over the land line. Cellular phones aren't always less expensive, but some cord cutters, like Lindquist Machine Corporation, say the advantages are worth extra expense and sometimes inconvenience. Lindquist, an industrial machine manufacturer in Green Bay, Wis., has replaced its central phone system with a network of cellular phones. "Last November, we decided wireless was the way to go," said Marsha Demuth, Lindquist's information systems and human resources manager. The company priced P.B.X., or private branch exchange, switchboard systems, three years ago, but decided that the up-front costs, about $160,000, warranted waiting. "We had our choice then of all of the P.B.X. systems, and even though they were state of the art at the time, we heard enough to know big changes were coming." So Lindquist kept the old system until last October, when it decided to go cellular. Within weeks, all but the 15 data lines were replaced. Sixty of the 140 employees were given cellular phones at less than half the cost quoted for land-line systems. "That's the nice thing about not having to put in major equipment and run lines," Ms. Demuth said. The company expected phone bills to double, but they are two and a half times as high. In July, the cost was about $4,000. The other 80 employees, most of whom work on the factory floor, share the wireless phones carried by "key personnel," Ms. Demuth said, which put phones on the factory floor for the first time. But there were some unanticipated problems. The Ericsson handsets, which were not designed for an industrial environment, were often broken. Reception was poor in the metal assembly buildings and in parts of headquarters as well. "We have some offices that are halfway into the ground," Ms. Demuth said, "so the people in them have to stand up when they talk to make sure they don't lose the signal." The company said the extra expense and problems were worth putting up with because the cellular phones had increased the productivity of the sales staff and engineers, and even the visiting consulting engineers, whom Lindquist keeps extra handsets for. "They don't have to be hunting a phone at $100 an hour," Ms. Demuth said. Clients calling in still get a receptionist who transfers calls, so no change is apparent to callers. For a lot of people who switch exclusively to cellular phones, the best part of cutting the cord is the satisfaction of saying goodbye to a phone company. "It felt great -- I just had them shut it off," said Caroline Morton, a fund-raiser for Senator Christopher S. Bond, Republican of Missouri. Ms. Morton is still steamed about the time her home phone malfunctioned and she had to leave work to wait hours for a repair crew. But she restrained herself from taunting the phone company when she cut off the service. "I told them I was moving," she said. "I'm not a vindictive person." ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 09:34:47 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Web Page Design Cookbook", William Horton/Lee Taylor Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKWPDCBK.RVW 980712 "Web Page Design Cookbook", William Horton/Lee Taylor/Arthur Ignacio/Nancy L. Hoft, 1996, 0-471-13039-7,U$34.95/C$48.95 %A William Horton william@horton.com %A Lee Taylor leetay@tellword.com %A Arthur Ignacio %A Nancy L. Hoft itech@mv.mv.com %C 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor, Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 %D 1996 %G 0-471-13039-7 %I John Wiley & Sons, Inc. %O U$34.95/C$48.95 416-236-4433 fax: 416-236-4448 %P 649 p. + CD-ROM %T "Web Page Design Cookbook" A disk of templates, two sprinkles of HTML, and hold the CGI. Chapter one provides a very Web-like introduction: it's quick, it's snappy, it jumps from topic to topic without too much order getting in the way, and after it's over you kind of wonder if you've actually learned anything. The attempt to list the requirements to get up and running, in chapter two, does give you the basics, but in such a terse fashion that it will likely only confuse the rank novice. The cookbook aspect starts in chapter three. The book now admits that the reader is not going to learn about HTML (HyperText Markup Language), tells you to use the templates on the CD-ROM, and then runs through a "flying fingers" demonstration of modification of a template that will probably leave you a tad bemused. Chapter four lists an enormous variety of interesting Web page templates. However, because there has been no background explanation I can see a number of users failing to understand why their newly created forms page does not populate the database they expected it to. Chapter five, therefore, starts to explain HTML, although in a very abbreviated fashion. Fonts, graphics, and audiovisual tags are in chapter six. There is a quick run through forms and tables in chapter seven, but buried in the middle is the admission that you are going to have to learn CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and the related programming yourself, therefore rendering this chapter more or less useless. Chapter eight presents a number of graphical options, although calling them design is pushing the term a bit. Chapter nine, on writing for an international audience, is not only excellent, but covers a subject that most Web design books neglect. A series of common questions would have been better if all the answers did not seem to start out "that depends" in chapter ten. Chapter eleven looks at general structures for Web site designs. A grab bag of topics, many of which have been touched on already, get retouched in chapter twelve. While the idea of putting together templates so that novices do not have to learn the tools has some merit, in practice, the lack of fundamental material will probably lead to disappointing results. Ironically, it may be more experienced workers who can use the cookbook material effectively. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKWPDCBK.RVW 980712 ------------------------------ Date: 27 Sep 1998 12:20:21 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com From: demuths@aol.com (Demuths) Subject: A Tragedy! Southwestern Bell Terminating Voice Dial Service In late August a printed letter was sent to Jerry McMahen (age 57) in North Little Rock, AR advising him that his Voice Dial Service would be terminated October 1 pending regulatory approval. The letter read: "Because of limited customer demand and the increased technical expense associated with keeping the product in service we apologize for any inconvenience the withdrawal of the service may cause you." As is rather common in such matters, there was no return address on the letterhead. They gave him an 800 number he could call for an alternate Speed Dial Service. The sad part of this story is that Voice Dial has been a fantastic service for Jerry as he is in bed 100% of the time and he can only move his head. Jerry's telephone, his computer, the Internet and his TV (lately on his computer monitor) are his life. Jerry is not alone in his appreciation of this service. A lady in Fayetteville AR learned of my concerns for Jerry and contacted me yesterday. Having a disability, she has experienced tremendous benefits from the Voice Dial system. She explained that she had talked to many supervisors with the company in an effort to keep the service, with no success. Her final words were "Frankly, I don't know who to contact now, or what to do about this. This has been very frustrating, and in the back of my mind I am counting down the days until I lose this service." My question is what can we do to help Jerry, the lady in Fayetteville and other disabled people who have this service or can have it in the future? Southwestern Bell serves Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. Does anyone know where the filings would be made for regulatory authority to terminate the service? Does anyone know if filings have to be made both = with Federal and State authorities? I have posted only one other message in this newsgroup. It was posted two years ago. The message produced tremendous results. The end result was the establishment satellite communication for medical-mission stations serving hundreds of thousands of destitute people in Haiti. There have been substantial side effects in Boston, Peru and Mexico. The last words have not been written on the results from the answers to the message of two years ago.There are many new developments that are currently underway. I trust that somewhere in the telecom community there is someone with that special bit of regulatory knowledge that can tell me how to prevent the termination of this wonderful service. Our time is short. Any help that anyone can give will be appreciated. M. Demuth [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are external devices which can be used the same way. That is, you speak to them and they then take the phone off hook and dial the desired number. Since the person in question is already (I assume) using his computer in the same way (by speaking to it and seeing what he says appear on the screen) it should be a simple enough matter to adapt a dialer program via his computer to respond to speech. Good luck in this, and I hope some Digest readers will be responding to you shortly. Anything he is doing at present to communicate via his computer can be adapted to cause numbers to be dialed on the phone. Also, I am wondering if in communications about this with telco anyone has mentioned to telco that the subscriber is disabled; the reason is, there are tariffs which have been created at one time or another for people who are unable to use the telephone in the 'normal' way. As an example, Ameritech (when it was Illinois Bell, at least) was always very generous and creative at finding solutions to problems like yours. The Telephone Pioneers organization has also always taken an interest in making the phone accessible to *everyone*. They cannot influence or change the general tariff which telco proposes to discontinue, but they can help develop an external solution such as the speech dialer described above. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 10:18:53 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Web Security Sourcebook", Aviel D. Rubin/Daniel Geer Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKWBSCSB.RVW 980711 "Web Security Sourcebook", Aviel D. Rubin/Daniel Geer/Marcus J. Ranum, 1997, 0-471-18148-X, U$29.99/C$42.50 %A Aviel D. Rubin rubin@bellcore.com %A Daniel Geer %A Marcus J. Ranum %C 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor, Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 %D 1997 %G 0-471-18148-X %I John Wiley & Sons, Inc. %O U$29.99/C$42.50 416-236-4433 fax: 416-236-4448 %P 350 p. %T "Web Security Sourcebook" As Steve Bellovin notes in the foreword, complexity and security are antithetical. To have a complete picture of the security of a single transaction in World Wide Web activity one must consider the hardware of the user, the operating system of the user, the client software of the user, the hardware of the host, the operating system of the host, the server software of the host, the base transport protocol, the higher level (generally HTTP: the HyperText Transport Protocol) protocol, the general structure of the network itself, and the various forms of content. To expect a short book to cover all of this material is unrealistic. The current work, however, is of inconsistent quality and falls short even of a much reduced target. Chapter one looks at basic Web history and technology plus a few illustrative security loopholes. While basic browser security information is presented in chapter two, the presentation is disorganized and seems to stress some relatively improbable risks. On the other hand, it does point out some important and little known problems with Internet Explorer. Advanced browser security lists a good deal of misinformation about cookies (along with some real dope) and discusses anonymous remailers in chapter three. The discussion of scripting, in chapter four, is simplistic in the extreme. While I would personally agree with the assessment that JavaScript and ActiveX are not worth the security hazards they represent, these technologies deserve more than the terse dismissal they receive in the text. Java gets somewhat more detailed discussion but the authors do not appear to distinguish between design factors and specific implementation bugs limited to a given platform. Server security is limited to UNIX permissions in chapter five. Chapter six looks primarily at commercial cryptographic products, but without having built a solid foundation for their effective use. Scripting is again reviewed in chapter seven, this time concentrating on (again) UNIX CGI (Common Gateway Interface) programming for sanitizing input from users. The overview of firewall technologies in chapter eight is reasonable and balanced, citing the different types of firewalls, their strengths and weaknesses, and the fact that firewalls can only be one tool in a larger security strategy, never a complete answer. Chapter nine presents the different protocols in transaction security quite well, but fails to give an analysis of the social and market forces that are equally important to the overall picture. Some systems for electronic payment are compared in chapter ten. Predicting the future is, of course, problematic, but chapter eleven seems to contains more faults than can legitimately be said to be inherent to the process. As only one example, the authors look forward with trepidation to "network aware" viruses. I'm sorry to tell you this, guys, but the proof of that concept happened in the wild more than a decade before you wrote the book, and has transpired depressingly often since. The presentation of this text as a sourcebook is probably valid on the one hand: the primary value of the tome lies in the mention of various commercial systems related to Web security. It cannot, however, be recommended as a sole source. Both a conceptual background and an overall review of the totality of Web security factors are missing. There are interesting points in the book, and even useful tips, but while it may belong on the bookshelf of the dedicated Web administrator it is not necessarily a must read for those with limited resources. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKWBSCSB.RVW 980711 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #121 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Oct 5 20:40:42 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id UAA08821; Mon, 5 Oct 1998 20:40:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 20:40:42 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199810060040.UAA08821@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #122 TELECOM Digest Mon, 5 Oct 98 20:38:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 122 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Denver Area Gets New Area Code (Tad Cook) Upstart Company Takes on BellSouth Over Legal Loophole (Tad Cook) FCC Reorg Eyes Convergence (Monty Solomon) Book Review: "Bank of Fear", David Ignatius (Rob Slade) Request from online mag. (David Neumann) Re: Southwestern Bell Terminating Voice Dial Service (Mark J. Cuccia) Employment Opportunity: CA Vine County Telcom Jobs (Laslo Chaki) Battle Over the Internet Heats Up - Comments Needed at NTIA (Ronda Hauben) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Denver Area Gets New Area Code Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 21:05:45 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Denver Area Gets New Area Code By Bob Diddlebock, The Denver Post Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Oct. 2--US West said Thursday that it has begun to set aside the new 720 area code for its own use, as well as for paging, wireless-telephone and long-distance companies. It may be a few months, however, before the new tag starts to turn up in the fast-growing Denver metro market because US West and some of its competitors still have some 303 numbers left. US West is using the 720 area code, as well as the new 10-digit-dialing system, to address the growing volume of requests for new residential and business telephone service in the Denver area. On Thursday, US West assigned the 720 tag to 24 batches of telephone numbers, each starting with a different, three-digit prefix. Each prefix batch includes 10,000 phone numbers. Among the recipients of the 720 designations, besides US West and its US West Wireless division: Denver-based ICG Netcom, NextLink, Teleport Communications Group, Sprint Wireless, Western Wireless, AT&T's local service division, Winstar Communications Inc. and Nextel. The 720 area code assignment was welcomed by Winstar, which has been delivering wireless telephone services to businesses primarily in downtown Denver, Cherry Creek and the South Colorado Boulevard corridor since June. "This is terrific news," said Randy Garlington, the vice president and general manager of Winstar's local operation. "There are a lot of service areas we haven't been able to get into because there aren't enough telephone numbers." With the 720 area code, he said Winstar, based in the Denver Tech Center, will be able to move into the lucrative DTC, Meridian and Inverness business park areas, as well as into other sectors throughout the metro area. Garlington said new Winstar customers will probably begin to get the company's first 720 area-code numbers in about 60 days. ICG, also in the Tech Center and another US West competitor along the Front Range, said it will begin to assign the 720 area code when it uses up its 10,000-unit batch of 303 tags. That could be late this year or in early 1999. ICG, which has been delivering local, long-distance and Internet-based telephone service over a wired network from Fort Collins to Pueblo, is now pushing state regulators to institute so-called "number portability." That would let US West customers keep their telephone numbers if they switch to another service provider, which ICG says would help competitors challenge US West. Emily Harrison, a US West spokeswoman, said the company's major service centers in Aurora, Littleton and Boulder also have been given the go-ahead to use the 720 area code. However, the telephone company hasn't assigned a telephone number with the new 720 tag yet, and may not for the time being, she added. The reason: Some phone numbers with area code 303 remain available in US West's network. Harrison also said US West will continue to hold on to 303 telephone numbers that customers may disconnect, and then reassign them. She added that more batches of new 720 area-code phone numbers will be released throughout October. Despite some customer dread about the advent of 10-digit dialing, Harrison said it has been "quiet" on the complaint front from US West's point of view. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission reported no major problems Thursday stemming from 10-digit dialing, which went into effect last month. ------------------------------ Subject: Upstart Company Takes on BellSouth Over Legal Loophole Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 21:02:10 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By David Poppe Knight Ridder Newspapers MIAMI -- BellSouth, mired in a monthslong fight with an upstart Miami telephone company before the Florida Public Service Commission, in late August hired away a senior PSC staffer who was overseeing the dispute. The move, while completely legal, has been assailed by upstart Supra Telecom & Information Systems as a blatant effort to change the tenor of a case that Supra says has gone badly for BellSouth. It also highlights a loophole in Florida law that allows PSC staffers to take private-sector jobs and immediately begin lobbying their old government co-workers. Since 1996, most state employees have been forbidden from lobbying their former agencies for two years after moving to the private sector. The case between BellSouth and Supra has been unusually contentious, but the August hiring of senior PSC staffer MaryRose Sirianni brought the companies' disputes to a boil. "The appearance of impropriety resulting from BellSouth's action is overwhelming," Supra says, in filings with the PSC. "It's a sham pleading," counters BellSouth spokesman Spero Canton. "The whole thing is a sham." On this particular issue, at least, the PSC staff agrees with BellSouth. It has recommended the five PSC commissioners punish Supra for filing frivolous pleadings regarding Sirianni's hiring by BellSouth. The commission is scheduled to vote on that recommendation Tuesday. Sirianni was the senior person handling complaints made by Supra against BellSouth. Supra is a startup company that got into the telephone business after the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 required monopolies like BellSouth to let new phone companies connect their equipment with existing phone company systems and resell service. Supra signed an interconnection agreement with BellSouth. But Supra contends that the agreement was never properly implemented, causing its customers to receive inferior service. Supra filed its first complaint with the PSC in January. By June, the PSC staff concluded that BellSouth had failed to properly implement the agreement with Supra. Among the findings, the staff said BellSouth made it too difficult for Supra to sign up new customers. While BellSouth customers generally can order a new phone line and get both the number and an installation date with one phone call, Supra claims it often was forced to manually submit a five-page order form to BellSouth. If the form contained any errors, Supra would have to resubmit all of it. BellSouth provides electronic ordering capability to competitors, but Supra says the system doesn't work well. "Supra has tried every which way from Sunday to use the system provided and has had trouble every time," says Suzanne Summerlin, Supra's general counsel. To Supra's delight, the PSC staff recommended BellSouth provide competitors with the ability to edit their orders online, so that errors could be quickly corrected. BellSouth spokesman Canton says BellSouth is trying to upgrade its electronic ordering capability, but is faced with the problem of developing one computer system that will interact with AT&T, MCI, Sprint and myriad smaller companies. "We are trying to come up with a standard that all other companies can use ... and one company is asking us to provide service above and beyond what everyone else gets," Canton says. In the midst of this process, BellSouth in early August offered Sirianni a job as manager of regulatory relations for Florida. That prompted an outcry from Supra. "This action by BellSouth is an example of the incredible arrogance of this regulated utility," Supra says in filings with the PSC. "It is not an accident that this staff person was offered a position by BellSouth at this point in time. ... BellSouth has made its job offer in time to avoid this staff person's involvement in the evaluation and recommendation of BellSouth's and Supra's motions." The Legislature viewed the corporate practice of hiring away government bureaucrats to lobby their former agencies as serious enough to warrant a new law in 1996. The law forbids former legislators from lobbying the Legislature for two years after leaving office. It also forbids employees of state agencies from lobbying their former agency for two years. However, the Legislature provided a grandfather clause to PSC employees who held their jobs prior to 1995. "Supra's accusations focus on an employment that is both legal and permitted" under state law, BellSouth says in PSC filings. Nancy Sims, director of regulatory relations for BellSouth in Florida and now Sirianni's boss, provided an affidavit that Sirianni was not offered a job in an attempt to influence the PSC on Supra matters. "Supra's allegations that BellSouth had some sinister motive in hiring the staff member does a grave injustice to both the staff member and BellSouth," Sims said. The PSC itself reacted strongly to Supra's filings, agreeing with BellSouth that they ought to be considered "a sham." PSC regulatory consultant Kevin Bloom said Supra itself has discussed jobs with some PSC employees, including a top aide to Commissioner Joe Garcia. Summerlin, he noted, is a former PSC staff attorney. Summerlin countered that the circumstances in those cases were quite different. Garcia's aide responded to a newspaper ad placed by Supra and later wrote a memo confirming that he initiated the contact. Summerlin notes she was in private practice when Supra hired her last year. Bloom also says all PSC policies were followed in the Sirianni case. The day Sirianni received a job offer from BellSouth, she filed a memo with her superiors and recused herself from all BellSouth dockets before the agency. Supra says that it isn't trying to limit PSC staffers' employment opportunities or criticize Sirianni. "MaryRose, in my opinion, is a great person and an absolutely great staff person," Summerlin says. "My theory is that the major reason BellSouth wants her out of there is that she is so valuable and so knowledgeable." Supra suggests the PSC restrict companies involved in adversary proceedings from offering jobs to staffers working on the cases. But PSC regulatory consultant Bloom says that senior PSC staff members handle so many dockets that they're always dealing with the state's major local phone companies, BellSouth, GTE and Sprint. "There's never a time a person in a supervisory capacity is not going to be actively engaged in dockets with all three of the large local incumbent companies," he says. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 03:03:29 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FCC Reorg Eyes Convergence http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,27106,00.html By Reuters Special to CNET News.com October 2, 1998, 4:50 p.m. PT The Federal Communications Commission will restructure its various departments next year to better oversee converging markets like digital television and high-speed Internet access, the head of the agency said today. FCC chairman William Kennard, speaking at the Georgetown University Law Center, said his agency's current breakdown into common carrier, mass media, wireless, and other bureaus had become outmoded. "When wireless carriers compete with wireline carriers, when cable companies provide telephone service, when broadcasters transmit data, when you can use fixed microwave licenses to transmit video or data, and when you can make a local telephone call via satellite, the world has changed," Kennard said. The emergence of many new technologies and modes of communication has challenged the current bureau and office structure that dates back to the 1934 law creating the agency, Kennard added. Mergers of companies like long distance giant AT&T with cable behemoth Tele-Communications also cross the FCC's current boundaries. "We need to begin to reorganize ourselves along the functional lines that make more sense in a world in which consumers and service providers no longer see distinct markets organized along traditional industry boundaries," Kennard said. As a start, he announced the creation of two new bureaus that would consolidate functions currently spread among several bureaus. A combined enforcement division will ensure companies abide by FCC rules and a public information unit will handle dissemination of information about all manner of agency proceedings. The bulk of the reorganization will be delayed until next year, after the agency completes a massive move into new headquarters here, Kennard said. The agency must gain approval from its union and from Congress to conduct a major restructuring, FCC officials added. ------------------------------ From: "Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 10:12:24 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Bank of Fear", David Ignatius Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKBNKFER.RVW 980804 "Bank of Fear", David Ignatius, 1994, 0-380-72280-1 %A David Ignatius %C 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 %D 1994 %G 0-380-72280-1 %I Avon Books/The Hearst Corporation %O +1-800-238-0658 %P 388 p. %T "Bank of Fear" While an exciting enough thriller, and one giving an unusually sympathetic and insightful view of the Arab communities, this book is rather disappointing both in the raggedness of its ending and in the unlikeliness of its conclusions. One must allow fiction writers some leeway to explain certain items, and this is usually done through dialogue. One character will expound to another on a given topic. It gets a bit annoying, not to mention straining the willing suspension of disbelief, when a banker has to be lectured on the precepts of banking, and a systems manager has to have a tutorial on the standard backup command. In general, however, the technology part of the book is pretty good. An important part of the plot involves finding confidential files on a known system to which access has been withdrawn. The solution is elegant, functional, and involves that reliable of all data penetration tools, ignorance on the part of management. Actually, the method doesn't even rely all the heavily on ignorance: most computer professionals would see backups as a security tool rather than a vulnerability. The use of UNIX as a platform is more of a literary convenience than anything else, since any common business system has the equivalent of an administrative user who can gain access to anything. The one weak point in this scenario is the quick realization of the importance of the backup tape on the part of people who were previously so lax that they didn't even use encryption for vital files. Other technical plot devices are used as effectively. There is a lovely piece of social engineering, again relying on management folly and a demand for convenience. Call back verification is used as well, and a neat conceptual way of using it to for system breaking is presented. And everything a desktop machine can do, a laptop can emulate. Communications technology does not get quite the same care. The universal nature of modem standards is mentioned, but not the functional difference (and audible similarity) between modems used on computers and those included in fax machines. No allowance is made for possible differences in systems and the need for different terminal types. The call back spoofing trick is cute, but relies on the ability of forcing a line to stay open after the remote end has dropped both the connection and the switch hook, and also on a remote user leaving a home computer on, with a communications program running, and an automated login script set up and ready to go. The worst error, however, is the one on which the final activity of the plot relies. Although there are gateways that can send electronic mail to Telex systems, Telex is a separate system and cannot be reached by the public dial phone system. Although you can get Telex devices that can be operated by computers, Telex does not use modems; at least not the same kind that are normally used for computer work. Telex lines, in fact, have different operating characteristics from phone lines, and even different voltages. Plugging a modem into a Telex line would fry the modem as surely as plugging an ISDN modem into an analogue line would fry the ISDN device. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKBNKFER.RVW 980804 ------------------------------ From: neumann@sfsu.edu (David Neumann) Subject: Researching Answering Machines For Newspaper Story Date: Mon, 05 Oct 98 04:46:48 GMT Organization: California State University Sacramento Hi, I am a reporter from the San Francisco-based online magazine "newsport". At the moment we are working on a story about answering machines for our next issue. I wondered if someone could maybe give us useful background information on this topic. What we are exactly looking for is: 1. Facts about the history of answering machines. 2. Prospects for the future. How will answering machines develop? 3. The effects of the broad use of answering machines everywhere. Are there sociological or psychological studies on the change of behavior due to the common use of answering machines? Why are there for example people who do not answer the phone in person at all anymore? In addition to these points we are also interested in nice anecdotes about answering machines. We would be glad if somebody could help us with information on any of these aspects. Thank you very much for your help. Sincerely, David Neumann newsport - real multimedia, real journalism http://NewsPort.sfsu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 18:11:30 -0500 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Southwestern Bell Terminating Voice Dial Service Regarding the pending termination of Southwestern Bell's (central office based) Voice-Dial Service, if the disabled have been using it (and it does seem like a great benefit to them from what I've read in the original posting), the Telephone Company might find out that they can _NOT_ simply remove the service, as the disabled could file complaints against telco via the federal ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Also, many telcos do have special departments to handle products and services for the disabled. This department is usually called the "Center for Special Needs Customers", and they might be able to intervene to have their Voice-Dial service grandfathered for customers meeting the disabled customer needs criteria. The "Special Needs" departments are usually listed in the front of the phone book, sometimes under one of several common logos indicating handicapped available service. If you can't find anything in the front of the phone book for the SWBell "Special Needs" Center, inquire about it from the (regular) Business Office, or from your state regulatory agency. Even if SWBell does completely discontinue (central office based) Voice-Dial service, their "Special Needs" Center might be able to provide, or make a reference to, various customer premesis based voice-dialing equipment for sale or lease, as PAT mentioned in his reply at the end of the original posting. MARK_J._CUCCIA__PHONE/WRITE/WIRE/CABLE:__HOME:__(USA)__Tel:_CHestnut-1-2497 WORK:__mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.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: lchaki@acdcon.com (Laslo Chaki) Subject: Employment Opportunity: CA Vine County Telcom Jobs Date: 05 Oct 1998 16:39:32 PDT Organization: ACD Careers in Engineering and related jobs: A few miles from North San Francisco, in the beautiful Vine County, a large TELECOM (xDSL and related technologies) company (just cut a large deal) is looking for Engineers, Telcom experts and related positions, like marketing and financing. (We provide US work visa if needed.) All Engineering positions require a BSEE, BSCS along with 2 to 5 years of experience in a telecommunications/data communications environment. A MSCS/MSEE degree is preferred. Several opportunities are available: Product Marketing Managers Program Managers Telecommunications Systems Engineers Test Development Engineers Electrical Test Technicians Electronic Assembly Manufacturing Engineers Production Planners Purchasing/Materials Management Vendor Quality Engineers Regional Sales Managers Finance Customer Support Services Every telecom expert is welcome, here are some specs: Hardware Engineers: IC designers, ASIC/FPGA, Firmware, embedded and PCB designers Software Engineers Experience working through a complete software lifecycle. Develop Motorola and Intel microprocessor embedded software and telecommunications software. Systems Engineers Technical Support Engineer Technician Please contact us for further information. Hardware Engineer Assist Manufacturing team with design related issues and prepare engineering documentation related to performed duties. Strong knowledge of voice-transmission parameters, telephone VF interfaces, and operational amplifiers usage. Must have knowledge of Analog/Digital and Digital/Analog conversion processes, microprocessors, PCM, and memory components. Trunk carrier or DLC experience strongly desired. Senior PCB Designer Design complex printed circuit boards; prepare final drawings, verify dimensions, tolerances and materials. Must have extensive knowledge of CAD/CAE/CAM, working knowledge of AUTOCAD, DOS, UNIX and ability to analyze complex technical information Senior or Staff Software Engineer Experience in data communications design and protocols such as, TCP/IP/PPP, Frame Relay, and ISDN. Knowledge of network management and real-time kernel (PSOS or equivalent) and device drivers. Systems Engineers Knowledge of Operations Administration and Maintenance aspects of transmission equipment. Hands on experience in telecommunications hardware and/or software design for DLC Channel Units. System Specification/Architecture for Trunks, loops, or DLCs. Knowledge of network equipment such as: optical mux, metallic line system, digital cross connect. Understanding of analog, digital, microprocessor, and software design principles and application, Bellcore specifications. Laslo ------------------------------ From: rh120@columbia.edu (Ronda Hauben) Subject: Battle Over the Internet Heats up - Comments Needed at NTIA Date: 5 Oct 1998 19:27:16 GMT Organization: Columbia University Reply-To: rh120@columbia.edu An important prototype battle currently is going on over the question of who is to control the Internet? Is the Internet to be allowed to continue to be a place where the people (users/ netizens) can represent themselves, or is someone's selected set of corporate representatives to take over to fundamentally change the nature and environment of the Internet. Up to now the Internet has been recognized as a way to make possible "power for the people", at least online. People can have their say and the U.S. Federal District court even noted that the U.S. Govt must protect this autonomy of the people that the Internet makes possible. (in the ACLU vrs. Reno case) The U.S. Government, however, has been saying that the essential functions of the Internet must be turned over to the private sector so they can own and control the Internet and make their millions off of it. The U.S. Govt is offering to set up a private corporation for them to be able to carry on their control over the Internet with no accountability or oversight over what they do. With this melodrama in the background, an important real battle appeared on the front lines: This issue is that as the Internet becomes more and more international, it is important that control over the essential functions be shared with the international community rather than the U.S. Govt. feeling it can determine who to give control to. So there is a battle on in Washington and around the world with the press being basically silent about what it is all about. The U.S. Govt has just posted three proposals for comment. Two are to privatize into a non accountable corporation ownership and control over the essential functions of the Internet (and big bucks will be possible for those who get control and the favor of this new entity. So there is quite a fight going on to get some of the handouts.) This might be comical except for the fact that it is our Internet the U.S. Govt is proposing to give away :-( It is the ownership and control of IP numbers, of domain names, of protocols, etc. These are the re1sult of huge amounts of tax money, lots of cooperative contributions by many people around the world etc. Therefore, third proposal is one I was asked to write by Ira Magaziner, who is a senior policy advisor on Internet policy to the U.S. President, after I complained to him and the world online and at ISOC in Geneva, about what was happening in privatizing these essential functions. My proposal is based on study of the history and impact of the Internet and Usenet. It proposes a prototype collaborative international research project to do work to figure out how to protect these essential functions of the Internet and how to put them into hands that will represent the cooperative International community. I expect the much of the commercial media will ignore my proposal as it doesn't help anyone to make their millions off the Internet, but I hope any media and those users online who care for the Internet as a precious means of worldwide communication will help get the word out that my proposal is up for comment and that there needs to be discussion on it. (One online hearst newsletter already totally obliterated the fact that there is a third proposal for comment at the NTIA online site.) Following is the information needed to get to the NTIA web site where the proposals are posted and the comments are being taken: The US Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration has published several proposals received for the New Domain Name Corporation. These can be found on: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/domainhome.htm See in particular Proposal of Ronda Hauben (English Version) http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/proposals/hauben/hauben.html and Proposal of Ronda Hauben (French Version) http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/proposals/hauben/hauben-fr.htm Ronda ronda@panix.com Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook also in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #122 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Oct 5 22:01:32 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id WAA12631; Mon, 5 Oct 1998 22:01:32 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 22:01:32 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199810060201.WAA12631@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #123 TELECOM Digest Mon, 5 Oct 98 22:01:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 123 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Newspaper Suit Raises Fair Use Issues (Monty Solomon) Block a number; block the block; help, Ma Bell! (Tad Cook) Texas Delays Southwestern Bell's Shutdown of Voice Dial (Tad Cook) Re: A Tragedy! Southwestern Bell Terminating Voice Dial Service (Sullivan) Book Review: "Using the Internet, Fourth Edition", B. Kasser (Rob Slade) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Newspaper Suit Raises Fair Use Issues Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 13:32:00 -0400 http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/cyber/articles/02papers.html October 2, 1998 By PAM MENDELS Depending on your point of view, a news-discussion Web site being sued for its unauthorized posting of news articles is either brazenly infringing the copyright of two major news publishers or boldy upholding the free speech rights of its Internet participants. The Free Republic Web site reproduces articles from other sites, such as this New York Post article. What is clear, however, is that the differences between the two sides in the case are stark, and that two principles -- free expression and intellectual property ownership -- are again clashing on the World Wide Web. In the suit, filed Tuesday in federal district court in Los Angeles, lawyers for The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post asked a judge to order the operator of the Free Republic site to stop republishing articles from the newspapers without consent. Free Republic, a discussion forum with a distinctly conservative political bent, encourages visitors to copy and reprint, in their entirety, news articles and commentary that have appeared around the Web, so that users may engage in a lively discussion of current events. The complaint cited 10 unauthorized pieces -- four from The Los Angeles Times, six from The Washington Post -- that had appeared on the site, which has been on the Web since 1996 and attracts about 50,000 visitors a day. But Rex S. Heinke, a lawyer for the publishers, estimates that there are "dozens and dozens," perhaps hundreds of articles on the site that have been republished and archived, without the publishers' permission. The site also contains articles from The New York Times and other publications. "We believe this is a straight copyright infringement suit, and someone who did the same thing as Free Republic and posted articles on a bulletin board at home or in the office would have the same problem," he said. ------------- The lawsuit asserts that electronic reprinting without the publishers' consent is financially detrimental to the newspaper companies. Among other things, Heinke said, if would-be Post and Times visitors are diverted to the Free Republic site, that means fewer visitors to newspaper sites that base advertising rates on their electronic circulation. Furthermore, he said, if Free Republic can, with impunity, repost copyrighted material in its entirety, what's to prevent "a hundred thousand" other sites from following suit, thereby "destroying" the news sites' franchises. For his part, Brian L. Buckley, the lawyer for Free Republic, argues that the posting is permitted under the "fair use" principle of copyright law, which allows for the publication of copyrighted material under certain conditions, including noncommercial use in the context of commentary. He says that the site fits neatly under the fair use umbrella, because it is not a commercial venture, although it does carry free advertising, and its purpose is to foster discussion and criticism. "We are not misappropriating anything," Buckley said. "The defendants are exercising their First Amendment rights. Their use fits squarely into the fair use exemption, and we will not back down." The operator of Free Republic, James C. Robinson, is a retired software company executive who is confined to a wheelchair as a result of multiple sclerosis. He runs a small Web design business from his home in Fresno, Calif. The business, Electronic Orchard, is one of the advertisers on the site, along with several political candidates, a new Web broadcast venture and others. Robinson said, however, that he does not charge for advertising. ---------------- Robinson also said he launched Free Republic in part to allow users to dissect what he perceives as a liberal bias in the media. The need for close inspection of articles in such critiques, he said, is one reason that users should be allowed to copy and re-post articles in their entirety at the site, rather than excerpting or summarizing the stories, as has been the case in other applications of the fair use doctrine. Buckley, Robinson's lawyer, accused the Post and the Times of launching the suit in retaliation for the site's conservative political bent, saying the plaintiffs want "to make Free Republic become as nameless an entity as Deep Throat," the anonymous source in the Post's coverage of Watergate. Heinke responded: "We couldn't care less what his political views are." Heinke also refuted the notion that an article needed to be copied in whole in order to be critiqued, saying this argument was akin to asserting that people who perceive left-wing bias in movies should be allowed to copy the full length of the films in order to analyze them. He added that users who want to read and dissect published news articles have an easy way to do so: by visiting the news sites themselves, perhaps by following links to articles from the Free Republic site. "We have not sought court relief so that you can't comment on our articles or criticize them," he said. "What we object to is whole articles being copied and archived in such numbers." This is not the first time that a group of media companies has sought to protect their copyright online. In February, 1997, six major media organizations filed a lawsuit against TotalNews, a Web site that posted content from other publishers within a border, which carried advertising, on the TotalNews site. That case was settled in June, 1997, when TotalNews agreed to stop putting borders, known as frames, around articles published by the news organizations. ------------------- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Interesting, isn't it that the newspapers are trying to play the role of such innocent victims here. The fact is that many newspapers *routinely* rip off things they find on the net and use them with impunity in their print media. They may or may not bother to attribute the source, and I can assure you it is a cold day in hell when they bother to obtain permission. Over the past fifteen years or so, think back over the number of newsworthy items which have had their origin in a Usenet newsgroup (admittedly now-days a lot of garbage but for years in the 1980's an excellent source of information) and later wound up in the news- papers. How many were ever attributed to their rightful author and/ or the newsgroup in which they appeared? Ah, but say the proprietors of the New York Times Company, The Chicago Tribune Media Services and others of that ilk, "We have the two-hundred fifty dollar per hour attornies on retainer, so we will do as we damn please. Go ahead and sue us if you want, but you will suck lively if you expect to survive at all ..." Then you have cases like the Boston Globe; ah yes, the dear old Globe which prints total fiction under the guise of news and when they get caught at it now and then they sacrifice a reporter here and there and claim they knew nothing about it. And Tribune Media Services continues its mud-slinging at the Internet each day through its 'Brenda Starr' comic strip. According to TMS and the Brenda Starr strips the past two weeks or so, netters burglarize the homes of honest, forthright people (like Ms. Starr) and rip off files from their computer to be used on web pages dealing in gossip and scandals. The *real* problem -- the reason the newspapers are all in an uproar and squalling so much is because their bottom lines have become so precarious. Circulation is way down; who needs them when you can connect with your favorite ISP and read the news anytime you want? They don't like it one iota that someone like you or I can connect to the net and have a news item or editorial commentary on line for the whole world to read in a matter of a few seconds time. They do not like it because we can criticize their advertisers and actually see our writing receive wide circulation. I mean, try writing some- thing critical about Marshall Field and Company or the First National Bank of Chicago and getting the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun- Times to print it. And every newspaper has the same thing; one or two major advertisers who call the shots. In summary, the newspaper publishers are unable to control you, the writer/reader any longer, the advertisers are beginning to question where they ought to be placing their ads, and the newspapers are beginning to see some hand- writing on the wall which says over the next couple decades they are going to be like ancient relics. So they give the word to their lawyers to 'get that damned net under control once and for all' ... meaning, of course, under their control. I am pleased to see the stance taken by Free Republic and encourage other net publishers/editors to take the same hardball approach.Some newspapers such as the Boston Globe claim you do not even have the right to link to them. They want to have their own web pages on line but at the same time change all the rules we have followed on the net over the years. The papers, like the rest of Big Business, will not be satisfied until the net -- or at least we the people of the net -- have been squashed and gotten totally under control. Please note the article Ms. Hauben sent me on a related matter which was printed in the issue of the Digest just prior to this. Meanwhile, to Free Republic and countless other newsgroup moderators and web page publishers, I say bravo ... and carry on. Don't let the hypocrites at the New York Times win this case. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Block a Number; Block the Block; Help, Ma Bell! Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 20:08:04 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Sue Hutchison Mercury News Staff Columnist EARLIER THIS week, while I was idling in traffic on Highway 101, I glanced over at the woman driving a mustard-yellow Mercedes in the lane next to mine. She picked up her cell phone, which must have been ringing, and swiftly removed one of her large, gold-knot earrings so she could put the phone closer to her ear. It was the elegant gesture of a bygone era. It was exactly the way Mrs. Robinson answered the hotel courtesy phone in "The Graduate" when Benjamin Braddock invited her to begin their May-December affair. This was when the telephone was not simply a public utility. A phone call received out of the office had a connotation of intimacy. The person calling was usually a friend or a neighbor or a relative or a lover. BUT NOW that we're deep into the "reach-out-and-grope-someone" era of telecommunications, many of us have come to regard our own phones as instruments of fear and loathing. If "The Graduate" had been set in the '90s, it's likely Mrs. Robinson would have been summoned by a ringing phone only to be greeted with: "Ma'am, have you ever considered the benefits of a comprehensive life insurance plan?" I was getting a half-dozen of these telemarketing or solicitation calls a day for months before I finally broke down and got myself a Caller ID box. Now, there are skeptics who say anyone with Caller ID is just a chump who's bought into a phone company gimmick to charge for the illusion of privacy. And I will admit there were a few kinks I had to work out of the system. For example, when a caller registers on the box as "Out of Area" with no phone number, it is usually a telemarketer who hangs up when the machine answers. But not always. So if one receives a phone call at a very early hour that's flashing "Out of Area," one should not necessarily pick up the receiver and commence shouting obscenities into it before hanging up. If this happens, one stands a chance of getting called back immediately and responding to the caller, "Sorry Mom, I thought you were someone else." For a while I considered blocking my own phone number. My friends had blocked their numbers so their calls registered as "Private Caller" on my Caller ID box. But when I blocked mine, they called me a hypocrite because I wouldn't let them screen my number when I was trying to screen theirs -- and they didn't have Caller ID boxes. ONE FRIEND even got a block-the-blocker phone service so telemarketers with blocked numbers couldn't get through. But I was blocking my number at the time so I couldn't get through to him and neither could any of his other "Private Caller" friends. We all e-mailed one another about this problem, trying to negotiate who would unblock their numbers and whether some of us had phone service plans that would allow us to selectively block or unblock our numbers depending upon whom we were calling. At some point during this message traffic, I wondered how I was going to understand a phone call negotiation system this complex when I don't even understand how the can opener works. In the end, my Caller ID box has not helped me erect barbed wire against telecommunicating intruders as much as it has helped me regain a sliver of civility. True, the telemarketers still call and hang up when my machine answers. And I'm forced to wait until my "Private Caller" friends speak into my machine before I know it's safe to pick up the phone. But some of my friends have made a bargain with me to unblock their numbers when we call one another. We've thrown caution to the wind. And when I see their names on the box, I actually pick up the phone before the machine does. It's almost like the old days. It's enough to make me wish I had heavy clip-on earrings to take off so I could settle down on the couch with the phone to my ear for a good chat with someone I know. ------------------------------ Subject: Texas Delays Southwestern Bell's Shutdown of Voice Dial Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 22:37:53 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Oct. 2--Southwestern Bell has delayed turning off its Voice Dial service while state regulators study whether it should be left on permanently as a benefit to the disabled. Bell originally wanted to shut down Voice Dial -- which lets callers dial numbers by speaking a word or name into the phone -- on Thursday. A Bell spokeswoman said the service doesn't have enough subscribers to make it worth continuing. But the Texas Public Utility Commission put the shutdown on hold in late September, saying it had received complaints from people who are disabled and unable to dial phone numbers manually. "It is being considered as a service for the disabled," said commission spokeswoman Leslie Kjellstrand. "Because of the nature of the service, it's very valuable to the people who are using it." Kjellstrand said the commission's staff originally recommended giving Bell the go-ahead to disconnect Voice Dial. But after receiving a handful of complaints, commissioners asked the staff to restudy the issue. Voice Dial is not on the commission's agenda for its next meeting on Oct. 8, which means the soonest it could be considered would be at its Oct. 22 gathering. As a result, the service should remain on until at least that date. Voice Dial, first offered two years ago for $4 a month, originally was touted as a convenience service. While it has not caught on with the general public, it has become popular with people who don't have use of their hands or otherwise can't dial a phone. "Voice Dial has required a significant investment by Southwestern Bell, and this year we were going to have to make additional investments to the service," said company spokeswoman Lisa Ward. "But Bell has not recouped its original investment." She said the company is offering alternatives to its customers who subscribe to Voice Dial, including two free months of Speed Dial service or an $84 Uniden phone with built-in voice-dialing capabilities. Voice Dial works by letting people record words that are associated with numbers. When they say the word, the phone dials the number. Karen Askins, a local woman who said she has complained to the commission about Bell's plan, said her 74-year-old mother is a stroke victim and relies on Voice Dial to make calls. Bell gave Askins' mother one of the voice-dial phones for free. She has not been pleased. "We had the police out at the house on Sunday," Askins said. "My mother said `Calvin' into the phone and it dialed 911." Ward said that is a hazard with all phones and services that rely on voice recognition to dial numbers -- including Bell's own Voice Dial offering. "If you have a cold, or are stressed out, or your voice otherwise sounds different than when you recorded it, it won't dial the number properly," she said. "That's been a complaint with our service as well." On Thursday, Bell turned the service off in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas after receiving regulatory approval in those states. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Reply-To: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: A Tragedy! Southwestern Bell Terminating Voice Dial Service Date: Mon, 05 Oct 98 01:07:27 -0400 Organization: DIGEX, Inc. - Beltsville, MD - http://www.digex.net On 27 Sep 1998 12:20:21 GMT, Demuths wrote: > In late August a printed letter was sent to Jerry McMahen (age 57) in > North Little Rock, AR advising him that his Voice Dial Service would > be terminated October 1 pending regulatory approval. The letter read: > "Because of limited customer demand and the increased technical > expense associated with keeping the product in service we apologize > for any inconvenience the withdrawal of the service may cause you." > ...The sad part of this story is that > Voice Dial has been a fantastic service for Jerry as he is in bed > 100% of the time and he can only move his head. Jerry's telephone, > his computer, the Internet and his TV (lately on his computer > monitor) are his life. > My question is what can we do to help Jerry, the lady in Fayetteville > and other disabled people who have this service or can have it in the > future? If the telco has been apprised of his condition, through several levels of responsibility, and has nevertheless insisted on eliminating this service, some effective approaches would be to submit petition(s) to the PUC, FCC, and/or agencies dealing with the handicapped, or to consider a lawsuit under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Any such petitions (and/or lawsuits) should be coupled with a press conference ... or at least get a sympathetic reporter from a paper read in the state capital to run a story. You might try to interest a local, statewide, or national disabilites-rights organization in making an issue of this. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are external devices which can be > used the same way. That is, you speak to them and they then take the > phone off hook and dial the desired number. Since the person in > question is already (I assume) using his computer in the same way (by > speaking to it and seeing what he says appear on the screen) it should > be a simple enough matter to adapt a dialer program via his computer > to respond to speech. Good luck in this, and I hope some Digest readers > will be responding to you shortly. Anything he is doing at present to > communicate via his computer can be adapted to cause numbers to be > dialed on the phone. There may well be alternative solutions, as Pat notes, but I suspect that the telco may respond to a news story coupled with a regulatory filing or lawsuit. Before trying these tactics, scope out the disabilities-rights organizations, though. > Also, I am wondering if in communications about this with telco anyone > has mentioned to telco that the subscriber is disabled; the reason is, > there are tariffs which have been created at one time or another for > people who are unable to use the telephone in the 'normal' way. As an > example, Ameritech (when it was Illinois Bell, at least) was always > very generous and creative at finding solutions to problems like yours. > The Telephone Pioneers organization has also always taken an interest in > making the phone accessible to *everyone*. They cannot influence or > change the general tariff which telco proposes to discontinue, but > they can help develop an external solution such as the speech dialer > described above. PAT] It is absolutely essential that the telco know about the subscriber's disabling condition -- at high levels -- before you move to a higher plane of activism. If the person with whom you are communicating doesn't seem to understand the need, ask to be "escalated" (magic word, use it) to a higher-level official. This should be continued until the company makes clear that it is unwilling to provide reasonable accommodations to the disabled. I suspect that most major telcos would respond to the situation out of civic duty and avoid bad publicity. Michael D. Sullivan, Bethesda, Maryland, USA mds@access.digex.net, avogadro@well.com ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 10:02:08 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Using the Internet, Fourth Edition", Barbara Kasser Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKUSGINT.RVW 980522 "Using the Internet, Fourth Edition", Barbara Kasser, 1998, 0-7897-1584-8, U$29.99/C$42.95/UK#27.49 %A Barbara Kasser bkasser@icanect.net %A www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/4487 %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1998 %G 0-7897-1584-8 %I Macmillan Computer Publishing (MCP) %O U$29.99/C$42.95/UK#27.49 800-858-7674 info@mcp.com %P 523 p. %T "Using the Internet, Fourth Edition" The first edition of this title that I reviewed was not impressive. I was, therefore, more than willing to pan this one. However, the author of this edition has added not only a fresh and readable voice, but an understanding of the net that can portray important concepts in clear language without simplifying to the point that accuracy is lost. Part one covers the fundamentals of the Internet. Chapter one is a basic introduction that manages to get across the crucial character of the net without once dragging in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Getting connected to the Internet covers a lot of ground, but chapter two does a good job of covering the major topics. It is, however, restricted to the specifics of Windows 95 release 2 with IE 4. While I still maintain that, for anyone who has used the Internet for any length of time, email is the killer application, for those coming to the net as newcomers these days the Web is what they have heard about. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer are briefly described in chapter three. Part two moves into actual use of the net. Again the Web takes pride of place and gets a solid introduction in chapter four. Search tools, both engines and directories, are described in chapter five. The discussion of files and downloading, in chapter six, is marred in several ways. The browser is the only downloading tool described, the section on viruses is extremely poor, ZIP is the only archive format mentioned, and the security concerns with component programs are not reviewed. Also, I am not sure why telnet is considered (and discarded) here. Part three looks at email and Usenet newsgroups. Chapter seven covers configuration of Outlook and Netscape. The management issues chapter eight covers are attachments, distribution lists, and mail folders. Chapter nine mentions other mail programs, but only describes Eudora Lite. Configuration and activities in Usenet news, and even the very useful DejaNews archive, are overviewed in chapter ten. Part four seems to be a bit of a grab bag. Chapter eleven is a very quick look at children's material and issues. Education gets a bit more space in chapter twelve. The material in chapter thirteen on job searching is much better than is found in most general works of this type. Online commerce is handled well in chapter fourteen, including the security issues surrounding cookies. The one caveat I should submit is that Internet shopping is not quite as easy, convenient, and available as the presentation may make it appear. I am nowhere near as enthusiastic about push technology as the author, but the information in chapter fifteen is useful if you want to explore it. I do not, however, know why people finders are listed at the end of it. Part five looks at real time communications, but in a limited way. Chapter sixteen does not really cover IRC (Internet Relay Chat) at all, even though MSChat will use it. Conferencing only uses the NetMeeting and Netscape Conference programs in chapter seventeen. There is essentially no coverage of Internet telephony, although CU- SeeMe gets a terse mention. Part six discusses producing content for the Web. Chapter eighteen walks through the generation of a personal Web page with page creation software. The important parts of getting a business up on the Web are covered, although there are lots of details that can't be included, in chapter nineteen. While the author does attempt to cover both the MS Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers, there is a definite Microsoft bias to the material. There are also numerous and very definite gaps in the coverage, even for the neophyte. However, as an introduction to the net, this is quite acceptable. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKUSGINT.RVW 980522 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #123 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Oct 5 22:49:17 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id WAA15053; Mon, 5 Oct 1998 22:49:17 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 22:49:17 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199810060249.WAA15053@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #124 TELECOM Digest Mon, 5 Oct 98 22:49:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 124 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson WebTV Granted First License to Export Highest-Level Encryption (M Solomon) Telecom Update (Canada) #152, October 5, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) ICG Set to Battle BellSouth Over Internet Telephone Fees (Tad Cook) Obstacles on the Road to Local Competition (tkoppel@mediaone.net) Exorbitant Pay Phone Charges (Robert Bononno) Area Code Plan Would Deep-6 Seven-Digit Dialing (Tad 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: WebTV Granted First License to Export Highest-Level Encryption Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 15:24:04 -0400 Lowest-Cost Internet Access Device Now the Most Secure MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq: MSFT) WebTV Networks today announced it is the first U.S. company to obtain government approval to export nonkey recovery-based 128-bit-strength encryption for general commercial use. WebTV Networks pioneered low-cost access to the Internet, e-mail, financial services and electronic shopping through a television set and a standard phone line. The WebTV(TM) Network service, combined with the WebTV-based Internet terminals and receivers, is the first communications system permitted by the U.S. government to provide strong encryption for general use by non-U.S. citizens in Japan and the United Kingdom. Such strong encryption allows Japanese and United Kingdom subscribers of WebTV to communicate through the WebTV Network (both within national borders and internationally) without fear of interception by unauthorized parties. "We are elated that we can now offer our overseas subscribers the same secure communications that we have always offered our U.S. and Canadian subscribers and partners," said Steve Perlman, president of WebTV Networks. "And it is truly in the spirit of the Internet that average consumers, rather than technologists or commercial interests, are the first to benefit from this powerful technology. This is a welcome step in liberalizing export controls on encryption. We are looking forward to even more progress." Previously, U.S. laws allowed exported products to use known-to-be-breakable 56-bit encryption keys while restricting strong (not known to be breakable) 128-bit keys to limited sets of users and applications. Recently, the U.S. government announced that it would broaden the base of users and applications permitted to use strong encryption. But general applications, even the transmission of simple e-mail messages, are still restricted from using strong encryption. WebTV Networks has been granted the first export license to use strong 128-bit encryption for any user and any application in Japan and the United Kingdom. So, for example, an e-mail message with personal information sent from a WebTV subscriber in Japan to a second WebTV subscriber in Japan will be sent securely because there is no known technology by which an unauthorized party could intercept and decipher it. Therefore, as part of the WebTV Network, the WebTV-based Internet terminal (starting at under $100) is now the most secure communications device available from a U.S. company. "WebTV Networks' export approval is a significant step for industry and reflects the U.S. government's commitment to promoting e-commerce abroad," said William Reinsch, U.S. undersecretary for export administration. "The WebTV Network provides secure communications for its customers and partners without posing undue risks to national security and law enforcement." The WebTV Plus system, which includes the WebTV-based Internet receiver and the WebTV Network service, seamlessly integrates television programming with Internet content and services, giving customers more choice and control over the shows they watch as well as new ways to enjoy more entertainment, information and services through Internet and special interactive programming. The WebTV Network Plus service has new features that allow users to customize television watching in useful and fun ways, from advanced VCR programming to sound- and image-enriched e-mail messages. The WebTV Network is one of the largest online systems in the United States, with over 450,000 subscribers. WebTV Networks, Inc. operates the WebTV Network service and designs WebTV-based Internet terminals and receivers available from companies like Sony, Philips and Mitsubishi at consumer electronics stores nationwide. Costs start at $99 for the Internet terminals and $199 for the Internet receivers, and $19.95 or $24.95 per month respectively for the WebTV Network service. WebTV Networks Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day. NOTE: Microsoft and WebTV are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. This publication and the information herein is furnished as is, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by WebTV Networks, Inc. Furthermore, WebTV Networks, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies, makes no warranty of any kind (express, implied or statutory) with respect to this publication, and expressly disclaims all warranties of merchantability, fitness for particular purposes and noninfringement of third-party right. The subscription fee for the WebTV Network and the WebTV Plus Network service is a flat fee. WebTV Network service and the WebTV Plus Network service are not available as a local call everywhere. Toll charges may apply. To check if you have local access, please call 800-GO-WebTV. WebTV systems, like other Internet devices, do not support all data formats. SOURCE Microsoft Corp. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 11:11:25 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #152, October 5, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 152: October 5, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * AT&T Canada ............... http://www.attcanada.com/ * * Bell Canada ............... http://www.bell.ca/ * * Lucent Technologies ....... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * MetroNet Communications ... http://www.metronet.ca/ * * Sprint Canada ............. http://www.sprintcanada.ca/ * * Telus Communications....... http://www.telus.com/ * * TigerTel Services ......... http://www.citydial.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** New Rules Set for International Telecom ** Telcos Keep Flat-Rate Plans ** Big Week for Federal Announcements ** Alberta Payphones Go to 35 Cents ** Nortel Changes Name, Takes Stock Hit ** Bell Opposes QuebecTel Plan ** NBTel Offers 15 Cent LD ** MetroNet Uses Inlogic For LNP ** Microcell Unveils Prepaid PCS ** NBTel Wireless Services Deregulated ** CRTC Revises "New Media" Schedule ** Internet Providers Merge ** Distributel Offers Quebec Flat-Rate Plan ** SaskTel and Credit Unions Join for E-Commerce ** Bell Offers Listings on Vista 350 ** Mobility and CANARIE to Fund R&D ** Clearnet Mike Comes to Vancouver ** MT&T Sues Rogers Cantel ** Correction -- BC Tel Mobility Rates ** Those "50% of Savings" Deals ============================================================ NEW RULES SET FOR INTERNATIONAL TELECOM: Teleglobe's monopoly on Canada-overseas telecom ended on October 1. In Telecom Decision 98-17, the CRTC establishes a new regulatory regime for international telecom services. Among other things: ** Effective January 1, overseas carriers, including resellers, must obtain a license from the CRTC. ** Until it sees evidence of overseas competition, the CRTC will continue to regulate Teleglobe's international rates. Teleglobe must make its services and facilities available for resale on a non-discriminatory basis. ** Routing restrictions are eliminated: Both Canada-Overseas and Canada-Canada calls may be routed through the United States. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/decision/1998/d9817_0.txt TELCOS KEEP FLAT-RATE PLANS: Bell Canada and BC Tel say that they will not cap usage on their popular flat-rate long distance plans. Last week, Sprint Canada introduced an 800 minutes/month ceiling on its $20/month plan, citing network congestion caused by unexpected traffic growth. (See Telecom Update #151) BIG WEEK FOR FEDERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS: In the past week ... ** Industry Minister John Manley announced that the government will not place any restrictions on the development, importing, or use of cryptography products, and will not implement mandatory key recovery or licensing. ** In Parliament, Manley tabled the Personal Information Protection and Electronics Documents Act, which is based on the Canadian Standards Association's Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information. ** Industry Canada loaned $4.8 Million to Spar Aerospace to develop new satellite communication products. ** The Prime Minister announced the government's strategy "to make Canada a world leader in electronic commerce by the year 2000." See http://e-com.ic.gc.ca/english/60.htm ** Minister of National Revenue Herb Dhaliwal asked four electronic commerce technical advisory groups to provide expert advice on how to prevent tax evasion on E-Commerce transactions. ALBERTA PAYPHONES GO TO 35 CENTS: CRTC Telecom Order 98-968 okays Telus's plan to charge 35 cents for local payphone calls everywhere in Alberta except Edmonton. ** CRTC Public Notice 98-28 seeks comment on the parallel application by Telus (Edmonton). Comments are due November 2. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98968_0.txt http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9828_0.txt NORTEL CHANGES NAME, TAKES STOCK HIT: Effective immediately, Northern Telecom is changing its brand name from Nortel to Nortel Networks. After executives briefed financial analysts on the company's prospects last week, Nortel's stock price dropped 20%. BELL OPPOSES QUEBECTEL PLAN: Bell Canada has urged Industry Canada to reject QuebecTel's application to install its own fiber facilities in Bell territory. The independent Quebec telco wants to route calls directly from its territory to Drummondville, Sherbrooke, St-Hyacinthe, Trois-Rivieres, Quebec City, and Montreal. It says it will not offer local or long distance services in Bell's territory. NBTEL OFFERS 15 CENT LD: NBTel's new Advantage CanAm plan offers small businesses Canada-U.S. calls anytime for 15 cents/minute. METRONET USES INLOGIC FOR LNP: MetroNet Communications has deployed a system developed by Toronto-based Inlogic Software to implement Local Number Portability. MICROCELL UNVEILS PREPAID PCS: Microcell has introduced Fidomatic, described as "the first prepaid PCS wireless communications service in Canada," in Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, and Ottawa-Hull. $100 gets an Ericsson 638 PCS phone, a smart card, and a $25 airtime voucher. Usage is 35 cents/minute. NBTEL WIRELESS SERVICES DEREGULATED: CRTC Telecom Decision 98-18 deregulates the services of NBTel's wireless division, NBTel Mobility. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/decision/1998/d9818_0.txt CRTC REVISES "NEW MEDIA" SCHEDULE: The CRTC will allow additional two weeks for second-phase written comments in its "New Media" proceeding, and has added an "oral final argument" phase. Second phase comments are now due November 2; oral final arguments will be heard February 8-12. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9820-1_.txt INTERNET PROVIDERS MERGE: Toronto-based Internet Direct and Vancouver-based ID Internet Direct have merged to create Canada's fifth-largest Internet Service Provider. DISTRIBUTEL OFFERS QUEBEC FLAT-RATE PLAN: Reseller Distributel Communications now offers unlimited residential calling within Quebec, anytime, for $20 a month. SASKTEL AND CREDIT UNIONS JOIN FOR E-COMMERCE: SaskTel and Credit Union Electronic Transaction Services (CUETS) have announced a joint venture to provide secure credit card transactions on the Internet. BELL OFFERS LISTINGS ON VISTA 350: Bell Canada's Electronic Phone Book service, available now in Toronto and Montreal, provides free directory listings on the display of a Vista 350 telephone. Access is by touch-tone or speech recognition. MOBILITY AND CANARIE TO FUND R&D: This week Mobility Canada and CANARIE will begin accepting applications for R&D grants for wireless voice and data applications and advanced Internet technology. Deadline for initial proposals for the $2-Million program is December 1. CLEARNET MIKE COMES TO VANCOUVER: Clearnet has extended its wireless Mike Network, which is based on Motorola's IDEN technology, to the Greater Vancouver Area. MT&T SUES ROGERS CANTEL: Nova Scotia telco MT&T is suing Rogers Cantel for $786,569.63. The telco says the amount represents charges for long distance calls made last winter by an illegal "call sell" operation in Halifax, using cloned Cantel cellphones. CORRECTION -- BC TEL MOBILITY RATES: Contrary to last week's report in Telecom Update, BC Tel Mobility's new $49.95 plan does not include free weekend calling. We apologize for the error. THOSE "50% OF SAVINGS" DEALS: A company promises to cut your corporate phone bills in return for 50% of the savings. How should you respond? What are the facts about "50% of savings" deals? ** Now on the Angus Web site: Articles from Telemanagement by Ian Angus and a contribution by Reg Arnold, Director of ProbeTel, on whether 50% deals make sense for clients. http://www.angustel.ca/reports/cont-home.html ** The October issue of Telemanagement is available this week (http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm98c-09.html). Subscribe to Telemanagement now and receive 25 telecom strategy reports free! Call 1-800-263-4415 or see http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm.html for details. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ Subject: ICG Set to Battle BellSouth Over Internet Telephone Fees Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 10:42:18 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Craig Karmin Dow Jones News Service NEW YORK (Dow Jones News) -- Setting the stage for a potential court battle or landmark ruling by government regulators, a local telephone company says it won't abide by BellSouth Corp.'s recent decision to charge access fees for telephone service delivered over the Internet. ICG Communications Inc. officials said Wednesday that BellSouth has no legal right to charge them access fees for offering telephone service over the Internet, and that the company doesn't intend to pay these charges. "We're not going to pay the fees, and I'm considering other legal options should (BellSouth) put charges on my bill," said Cindy Schonhaut, ICG's senior vice president of government affairs. ICG, of Englewood, Colo., recently began offering long-distance service over the Internet in 31 cities -- including Atlanta, where BellSouth has its headquarters. ICG is one of six companies BellSouth notified last week about the new charges, which a BellSouth spokesman said will go into effect in early November. He declined to say which companies have been notified. BellSouth -- the first of the Bells to impose these charges -- said the fees will apply to Internet telephone providers that offer phone-to-phone or computer-to-phone long-distance service. In what will likely serve as a test case for the industry, BellSouth contends it has the right to charge these fees, pointing to an April report from the Federal Communications Commission to Congress. In that report, the FCC indicated it could require Internet telephone firms on a case-by-case basis to pay per-minute access fees to local phone companies. Local telephone companies already charge long-distance carriers such as AT&T Corp., MCI Communications Corp. and Sprint Corp. fees to originate and terminate long-distance calls. But the commission stopped short of saying that Internet service should be regulated the same way as traditional telecommunications service, which has left open the door for interpretation of how the FCC would respond if a Bell unilaterally imposed such charges. Mark Cooper of the advocacy group Consumer Federation of America said the FCC needs to decide whether telephone service over the Internet represents a new innovation or simply the same service delivered through different technology. "It's not clear that Internet companies use Internet telephony the same way (as long distance companies)," Cooper said. "If what they're doing represents innovation, then charging for it could enable the incumbents to kill an innovation." ------------------------------ From: tkoppel@mediaone.net (Ted Koppel) Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 20:54:14 -0400 Subject: Obstacles on the Road to Local Competition Some months ago I wrote the Digest that my local cable company (MediaOne-Atlanta) was now making available local telephone service for a price that was around 24% less than the local BellSouth service. At that time, I switched one of my lines to MediaOne, in order to test their dependability and service for a while. My intention was eventually move the second line to MediaOne (thereby saving money), or if the service turned out to be poor, moving the second line back to BellSouth. After six months of testing, I decided that MediaOne had given me good quality, dependable service and repair, and that I would move the second line to MediaOne, thereby severing my long-standing relationship with Bell South. I made the request and set up the appointment with MediaOne for them to do the connection and wiring from their grey box to the demarc. I was told that, in order to keep the same phone number, I would need to wait five business days for Bell South to "release the phone number" to Media One for installation. That was fine, and fully explained to me by the MediaOne representative. On the day before installation was scheduled, I received a phone call from MediaOne, advising me that "BellSouth had not released the phone number to them and that I would therefore have to wait another several days until they did." My strong impressions is that the MediaOne guy was telling me the truth, and that the hold-up was in fact due to Bell SOuth's slow handling of my request to become a MediaOne customer. What's the deal here? I can see three possible reasons for BellSouth's delay - in ascending order of paranoia: 1. Bell South really and truly had a delay, and there was nothing malicious about it. A simple mistake. 2. Bell South likes me so much as a customer that they don't want to let me go - they'll hold on to their relationship with me even against my will. 3. Bell South is playing games with competition, and is deliberately slowing things down and trying to make MediaOne look bad, so that MediaOne's customers will become disgusted and angry, and stay with BellSouth. My vote is for number 3. I'm re-scheduled for installation later this week. Wonder if it will really happen .... Ted tkoppel@mediaone.net ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 18:38:12 -0400 From: Robert Bononno Subject: Exorbitant Pay Phone Charges Organization: New York University I recently had to accept a collect call from a pay phone during an emergency electrical outage in our building. The call was made from just across the river in New Jersey (I'm in Manhattan) and didn't last more than ten minutes (they billed me for nine, but I wasn't on the phone anywhere near that long). I assumed the call would be about two dollars. Well, I was wrong. I received my Bell Atlantic bill last week and found a charge for this call from a company called Opticom, for $17.00. I nearly fell off the chair. Is this legal? What happened to Bell Atlantic since the call was made from and to their territory? Who is the company billing me for this charge? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is likely that the owner of the phone where the call was originated (most likely a COCOT outfit with a bad reputation) sent the call 'paid' so Bell Atlantic never saw it as a collect call where their own network was concerned. The COCOT billing organization then generated its own collect charges in lieu of money in the box by the person placing the call and billed you on their own terms and conditions, submitting the bill through their normal channels at Bell Atlantic. In other words, the caller said he wanted to call collect, the COCOT people contacted you for your approval (I assume; although some do that in a questionable way), the COCOT then dialed it direct, etc. Provided you actually okayed accepting a collect charge, then yes, it is legal. They never claimed ahead of time that it would only cost two or three dollars, I'm sure. Even the genuine telco tends to be a bit pricey where collect calls are concerned with an operator surcharge and all that, but seventeen dollars is a bit much. Do you recall the conversation when you agreed to accept the charges? We have covered this territory here lots of times; there is nothing surprising about it at all, but to a novice or person unfamiliar with COCOT ripoffs it can come as a shock. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Area Code Plan Would Deep-6 Seven-Digit Dialing Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 13:38:43 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) New number for new lines in smaller 408 region urged By Jon Healey Mercury News Staff Writer The days of dialing seven digits to make a local call in the South Bay appear to be numbered. To cope with a shortage of available phone numbers in the South Bay, a communications industry panel has proposed a two-step overhaul of the 408 area code, which includes nearly all of Santa Clara County. There are disputes over parts of the plan, but there is general agreement on this: In about 2 1/2 years, everyone in what is now the 408 area code will have to dial 11 numbers on every local phone call, even if it is just to their next-door neighbor. And if the panel has its way, much of the West Valley and South San Jose areas will have their own area code about a year from now. Under the panel's plan, the new area code would be assigned to new lines in the scaled-back 408 region, beginning in mid-2001. To allow the two area codes to be used in the same region, the phone company's equipment would be programmed to require 11 digits -- 1 plus area code plus seven-digit number -- to be dialed on every call made there. The plan, backed by an administrative law judge, has run into opposition from Pacific Bell, business groups and local governments, a Pac Bell spokesman said. Rather than splitting 408 geographically, this faction wants to let anyone with a 408 number keep that area code, while assigning a new code to most new customers. Either way, residents and workers in the 408 area would eventually have to dial 11 digits for every number, even those in the same area code. The California Public Utilities Commission has the final say on what happens. The commission may take up the issue as early as Oct. 8. The main advantage to the 11-digit approach is that no one's current number would change. The main disadvantage is having to know and dial the area codes for local numbers. Because the area code would depend more on when the line was installed than where it was placed, it's possible that a children's or fax line added to a house would have a different area code from the original line. "This is really a reflection of how well our economy is going," said Joe Cocke, a phone-number planner with Lockheed Martin IMS, the company that administers area codes. "Lots of businesses are sprouting up, there's new communities growing, businesses are expanding." Another key factor is the growing number of competitors in the local phone and mobile phone businesses. Under the current system, these competitors receive numbers in blocks of 10,000 in every community where they wish to offer service -- even though they have no customers to start with. Pac Bell's competitors have opposed the 11-digit-dialing approach, arguing that Pac Bell controls a much larger supply of numbers. Thus, Pac Bell could offer customers numbers with the familiar 408 area code while the competitors were stuck with numbers in the new code. Sensitive to that issue, the utilities commission has approved only one other 11-digit area: the 310 portion of Los Angeles. And when it agreed to go that route in Los Angeles, the commission stated that it would not authorize any more 11-digit plans before 2001. At least one group of Bay Area officials -- the San Mateo County Telecommunications Authority -- opposes this technique, known as an area-code overlay. Brian Moura, chairman of the authority's board, said that overlays may not provide much room for growth, and once the commission takes that route, it can't go back. The intense demand for numbers in the 408 region had already prompted one split, with Santa Cruz and Monterey counties going into a new, 831 area code in July. The move didn't buy much time for the remaining part of 408, however. The industry panel liked the idea of 11-digit dialing, but it feared that numbers would run out in 408 if it waited until the 2001 deadline imposed by the commission. That's why it proposed to split off Campbell, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill, Gilroy and the southern tip of San Jose into a new area code. That move wouldn't bring much relief to the remaining part of 408, either -- no more than three years, by the panel's estimation. Hence the need for the second step, mixing the new area code in with 408. Under the panel's proposal, people in the area covered by the new code as well as those in the 408 region would have to begin 11-digit dialing in 2001. According to Pac Bell spokesman John Britton, all of the chambers of commerce and local governments in the 408 area are on record in favor of moving immediately to 11-digit dialing and mixing in a new code, rather than having anyone shift out of 408. "We definitely will be working with those factions to give the PUC an alternative" to the plan backed by the panel and the administrative law judge, he said. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #124 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Oct 20 23:00:22 1998 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id XAA21104; Tue, 20 Oct 1998 23:00:22 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 23:00:22 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199810210300.XAA21104@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #125 TELECOM Digest Tue, 20 Oct 98 23:00:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 125 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Fort Worth, TX-Area Phone Competition Disappoints Customers (Tad Cook) Service Review: The Most Online (Sprint Canada) (Rob Slade) Ameritech, Centrex, Call Transfer - Analog Lines (tazor@hotmail.com) Obituary: Internet Pioneer Postel Dies (Monty Solomon) FCC Gives Green Light For New Cable Internet Access (Monty Solomon) When AT&T Was Barred From Providing Data Processing Service (Chris Holst) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Fort Worth, TX Area Phone Competition Disappoints Local Customers Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 22:31:54 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Mark P. Couch, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Oct. 5--The contest for local phone customers in North Texas kicked off with a gust of hot air last summer. Southwestern Bell, the state's largest local carrier, invaded No. 2 GTE's turf in Plano and Irving, launching its multimillion-dollar challenge to the entrenched monopoly at a balloon rally. "That's when it began," says Carl Bracy, director of competitive response for GTE. Remember the Plano Balloon Festival? It may not be a battle cry for the ages, but that September 1997 face-off between the two companies was supposed to fulfill the promise of the new phone era -- local competition -- and set an example for the rest of the nation. So far, the results have been disappointing to those who wanted a model that could be transplanted to other parts of the country. "They are saying it's an open market, but just because they say it's open doesn't mean there is competition," says Leslie Kjellstrand, spokeswoman for the Texas Public Utility Commission. "On what services are they competing?" asks Janee Briesemeister, telecommunications analyst for Consumers Union in Austin. "It is possible that they are cherry-picking only the most lucrative residential customers." Briesemeister says phone companies plucking off rich residential customers doesn't accomplish the goal of lowering the cost of basic telephone service for everyone. Those customers are buying more expensive packages that include caller-ID, call-waiting and other services. "They're cream-skimming the residential market for those households that use those services, but for basic services, there's no competition," she says. Those basic services -- connection fees and monthly charges for one phone line -- must come down before Briesemeister will concede that a new era of competition has arrived. So far, those charges are the same in Irving and Plano as they are elsewhere in the Metroplex. GTE's service representatives say connection fees are $50 if a technician visits a customer's house, and basic monthly service is $15. Southwestern Bell says it charges $47 to connect and $15 a month for service. But what the Southwestern Bell incursion into GTE's market did bring is a taste of what phone companies will do when they have to sell local service as if it were laundry detergent or breakfast cereal. The companies have begun programs to build brand loyalty and extend name recognition. At Southwestern Bell, that meant ponying up $50,000 a year to get its name on the popular Plano Balloon Festival, which draws as many as 300,000 spectators. Southwestern Bell has the rights to the festival for the next three years, says Jo Via, executive director of the festival. The 1997 festival coincided with Bell's invasion into the heart of GTE's territory and also offered an opportunity to rattle GTE's cage. "GTE had been a lower-level sponsor for a number of years," Via says. "We went to them because they had the right of first refusal, and they turned it down." Southwestern Bell has signed some other sponsorship deals, but it doesn't need to break the bank because it already has a brand name known to most residents, regional manager Mark Ruffin says. "We were able to build on our name so we didn't have to spend a lot on mass marketing," Ruffin says. As for GTE, it has revamped its product offerings and combined services such as caller-ID and call-waiting into packages that included bulk-buying discounts. Those packages include combinations of three, five and 12 services and cost $5.25, $7.25 and $10.25 per month, respectively. To market the packages, GTE sent information to the customers who would be most likely to defect to Southwestern Bell. "You can't defeat the competition with more advertising," Bracy says. "We decided not to destroy the other guy, but to improve ourselves. That caused us to look at many things, like our pricing programs and our customer service. "We've started to look at this business much like any other consumer-products company." GTE also enrolled customers who bought the service into a raffle for a new $165,000 house. The house, which could be anywhere in GTE territory, was awarded to Rogelia Aguilar, who chose Rowlett. Southwestern Bell, on the other hand, is relying on direct sales to attract customers. Ruffin says Bell is contacting customers who can provide a high volume of calls, such as office complexes and apartment buildings. In that way, Southwestern Bell is similar to smaller start-up phone companies that target the lucrative niches of urban and suburban markets. But Bell is aiming to blanket Plano and Irving, not just pick up a few big customers. So far, Southwestern Bell has increased its revenues in Plano and Irving by 50 percent, but Ruffin concedes that it was starting from a small base. GTE estimates that it has retained 98 percent of its residential customers in the two cities. While several companies are battling for lucrative pieces of the pie, the competition for local customers hasn't swept into the rest of North Texas. In Fort Worth and Arlington, residential customers get Southwestern Bell, with few having any other choices. Bell still has a firm grip on most of its wires, too. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 gives local phone companies permission to sell long distance only after they open their systems to competitors. According to records filed with the Federal Communications Commission this year, only a small percentage of residential customers in Texas are getting phone service on lines leased from Bell or GTE. Southwestern Bell reported to the FCC that it has 5.9 million lines to residential customers and 3.3 million lines to businesses, schools and other nonresidential customers. It said it provides 195,000 residential lines to competitors and 88,000 to nonresidential customers. GTE owns 1.3 million residential and 548,000 nonresidential wires that it uses. It has 12,075 residential and 8,724 nonresidential wires that it leases to other companies. And despite the hoopla, many observers say they don't believe that the phone fights in Plano and Irving are the way of future competition because there are too many barriers blocking that path. Lawrence Vanston, president of Technology Futures in Austin and a respected telecommunications seer, says local-service carriers won't compete until they can find cheaper ways to reach into those households. "Excluding business areas and some very lucrative neighborhoods, I would be very surprised to see head-to-head competition between companies using traditional telecommunications technology," Vanston says. It's too expensive and too risky for a company to plunk down the wires and equipment it would need to serve a base of customers that it can't guarantee. Those estimates range from at least $2,000 per home to as much as $5,000 per home. "I think it will be very rare, except in major business areas," Vanston says. Jeffrey Kagan, a telecommunications analyst in Marietta, Ga., says some Bell companies are starting to strike out into their sister company's regions, but it's not a common practice. "It's not widespread yet, but it's an emerging trend," he says. Vanston says he believes that local phone companies are more likely to expand their wireless and cable operations because they offer more cost-effective ways to blanket local markets. In the meantime, the local phone companies worry that small firms will invade their markets to take pieces of the pie without the requirements of serving the entire market. "What keeps me awake at night is that there are so many people out there competing for some of the same customers," Ruffin says. WIRELESS, `CABLE VOICE' OFFER CHALLENGES: There are two major impending challenges to the local phone companies: wireless and "cable voice" telephone systems. Wireless phone companies are cutting prices and boosting coverage areas, and cable companies are speeding up improvements to their systems to so they can send and receive information. "I see voice service by wireless companies as attractive and data by cable modem," says Lawrence Vanston, president of Technology Futures in Austin. Within 10 years, the local telephone companies will lose almost 40 percent of their revenues to companies selling local phone service through alternative methods, Vanston predicts. But the local phone companies are holding their own right now. Few people have dropped their phones for wireless service, says Liz Dunn, spokeswoman for AT&T Wireless, the nation's largest wireless phone service. "We don't see it today as a big trend yet, but it's kind of like `Watch this space for more details,' " Dunn says. The cable TV industry is also planning to break into the local phone business. AT&T is hedging its bets by buying huge cable provider Tele-Communications Inc. of Englewood, Colo. "AT&T made a $47 billion bet that it will happen in cable," says Larry Schutz, vice president of network engineering for Charter Communications, a St. Louis-based cable provider. This year, Charter will become the second cable company in Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's stable of investments. Allen bought Dallas-based Marcus Cable last spring, and it will be consolidated with Charter when that deal is completed. Schutz says cable companies are pouring money into improvements that will allow their systems to send voice signals over the Internet. "The cable industry has been fervently and frantically upgrading for the last five or six years," Schutz says. "A number of companies are within a year of having their systems capable of handling the capacity." ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 10:50:10 -0800 Subject: Service Review: The Most Online (Sprint Canada) Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca ISSPRINT.RVW 980915 Comparison Review Company and product: Company: Sprint Canada (cf. CallNet) Address: P. O. Box 5100, Station Don Mills, Don Mills, ON M3C 3W4 Phone: +1-416-496-1644 Fax: Sales: +1-888-812-3279 Support: +1-888-395-3279 help@sprint.ca Contact: Email: support@sprint.ca Other: http://www.sprintcanada.ca Product: The Most Online Summary: "unlimited" dial-up Internet access Cost: C$22.95/month Rating (1-4, 1 = poor, 4 = very good) "Friendliness" Installation 2 Ease of use 2 Help systems 1 Compatibility 3 Company Stability 2 Support 1 Documentation 1 System required 2 Performance 2 Availability 2 Local Support 1 General Description: The Most Online is a usage insensitive dial-up Internet access service intended for home use. MSIE Internet access software is provided for installation. Installation is only available on Windows 95 machines. Comparison of features and specifications User Friendliness Installation An installation CD-ROM is provided for Windows 95 (and presumably 98) but for no other system. The CD-ROM contains the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, Outlook mail user agent, and related newsreader of the appropriate release level. The installation program installs the software on the target system and then invokes a call, through a scripted Web page, to an isolated, secure server for account setup. The account server (accessed via an 800 number) will only accept calls from a certain level of modem. Because of the use of standard Microsoft supplied modem data, I was not able to connect with this server on initial installation. Three calls to the first level of Sprint support did not resolve the issue, but upon finally reaching second level support I was able to get enough information to troubleshoot the problem myself, although only because I am well familiar with the configuration settings for modems and keep my manuals handy. Ease of use The service is a standard dial-up TCP/IP connection, so any standard Windows sockets program can be installed and used. The initial installation is configured with no automatic redial capability and a 20 minute idle time cutout. Help systems The installation configures the IE Web browser such that the Sprint Canada "The Most Online" page becomes the home page. This does provide a set of initial tips for using the net, but loaded extremely slowly. Compatibility No problems have been noted with Windows sockets programs attempted. Company Stability Sprint is both a long distance and Internet service provider in Canada. The parent company, CallNet, recently acquired another large long distance and Internet provider. Company Support Everyone who works with computers has a favorite technical support nightmare story, but in more than a decade of reviewing computer products I have never personally experienced technical support that is as bad as that I have received from Sprint. Only one of the first level technical support people that I have dealt with has made a single helpful comment, and not once has a problem been correctly diagnosed at first level support. First level staff, in general, appear to be woefully ignorant of even basic computer operations, let alone computer communications. One evening, after numerous dialling attempts had failed, I suspected that the whole modem pool was down and called to enquire if that was the case. I specifically asked about that eventuality, but it was only after ten minutes of pointless queries about my system on the part of the support person that she finally agreed to call the local modem pool number, checked the list on her computer for the number, and reported, "Oh! It says all the modems in your area are down." On another occasion technical support demanded to know which number I was calling (for some reason there are two calling numbers in the Vancouver area, and they seem to operate independently) before telling me which number was not working properly. While most staffers seem to be polite, if ignorant, there are a significant number who present a very smug, if not outright rude, attitude. One staffer took a positively sadistic delight in insisting on taking me screen by button by dialogue box through an irrelevant series of checks that had nothing to do with the problem at hand. When you call technical support there is an option to access a report for the status of all servers. However, this report always states that "all servers are operating normally," even when servers are known to be down, or only operating sporadically. On one occasion the system did admit that the authentication server was down, but it would be rather difficult to hide a problem like that. One of the most serious problems with support, however, is that Sprint refuses to even attempt to diagnose any problem unless you are running the originally supplied software. If you use any other programs, you are out of luck. In fact, if you attempt to upgrade to current levels of any of the supplied Microsoft programs you must "downgrade" to the versions supplied on the CD-ROM before Sprint will try to help. (Since many of the problems I have experienced with Sprint are intermittent and possibly related to specific modems in the pool, this action will often coincidentally solve the problem by forcing a reboot and reconnect.) If you are able to get through to second level technical support, you will find that the staff are more knowledgeable and courteous. However, only once that I have been able to get through to second level support has a problem been properly diagnosed, and never has it been properly remediated. As security consultants, my colleagues and I continually remind people that no Internet Service Provider or online service will ever ask you for your password. This is not the case with Sprint. I have been asked several times for my user name and password, even by second level support people. This is the more problematic since the only way to change your password, after the initial account setup, is to ask technical support to change it. (Sprint have been promising a password change function ever since I got on the system, but have yet to implement it.) Documentation No documentation is supplied. System Requirements Installation requires Windows 95 and probably a minimum v.42 level modem. Once the account has been set up, it can be used, with a manual transfer of the account information, by any TCP/IP compatible machine. Performance "The Most Online" service is intended for home use, and, paradoxically, this makes it very suitable for business use in many cases. The evening hours can be very active, but I rarely get a busy signal during business hours. However, the service is very basic. Although the sales agent promised multiple email accounts when I signed up, you only get one. (Sprint apparently feels that the promise of multiple accounts is adequately fulfilled by the fact that outside enterprises such as Hotmail provide "free" email accounts accessible via Web interfaces.) There is no provision of Web page space. Internet dial-up access, POP (Post Office Protocol) email service for one account, and a Usenet news server is the extent of the service. The mail server seems to be relatively stable, although I did have fairly serious problems with lost mail when I first signed up with the service. Mail access is fairly speedy if you have a good mail user agent (such as Pegasus) on your end. The SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server that handles outgoing traffic is considerably slower. The news server is very problematic. On the one hand, Sprint does supply a very large number of newsgroups, over 37,000 at last count. On the other hand, all manner of access to news group lists, headers, and the bodies of large messages is very slow. Speed varies according to the news reader used, but is never really fast even with the best program. Initially, on a slower computer, the frequent stalls caused numerous crashes of the newsreader program, but on a faster machine running NT the system seemed more able to recover from the timeouts. However, in recent months, approximately one third of connections seems to result in no access permission to the news server. This is unrelated to the newsreader in use at the time, and seems to be more probably associated with specific modems in the pool (although this cannot, of course, be fully diagnosed from the user side). This connection specific loss of privilege is the more annoying given Sprints frequent line dropping. Sprint provide flat fee, unlimited Internet access. Presumably in an attempt to keep people from tying up the lines all day, the initial installation configures the dial-up networking to drop the line after twenty minutes of no activity on the line. However, since this is configured in the Microsoft Dial-Up Networking, there is no way to prevent knowledgeable users from dropping this restriction. Sprint, therefore, seems to have instituted an enforced dropping of the connection from their end after a certain period of no activity. Whether related to this function or not, subsequently Sprint has demonstrated very frequent loss of carrier even during active transfers. In my own experience this seems to average about one loss of connection per hour of active online time. However, as with all random occurrences, this can happen many times in a short period. Frequently a connection will be dropped within a minute of it being established. General access to the Internet seems to be good. Speed of file transfers and access to Web sites seems to correspond to the particular sites, so it would seem that Sprint's backbone bandwidth is good. Note, however, that this only applies during business hours, which is not a busy time for the Sprint service. Access to mail and news, as well as file transfers and Web browsing can be extremely tedious during evening hours. Server access is particularly slow in the evenings, and it is not unusual for a download of the newsgroup update list to take over two hours. DNS (Domain Name Service) tables seem to be solid, although international sites can sometimes be a problem. An annoying aspect of the service, particularly in light of the intermittent connection faults, is the sporadic and unannounced bringing down of servers for maintenance. As of the latter part of 1998 service interruptions or slowdowns have been very frequent. At one time server status was reported in the recorded welcome message on the technical support line, but this practice has been rendered useless by a failure to update it. Even more annoying is the fact that support staff now ask for your identity before confirming that the service is, in fact, down. (It's rather a giveaway though, since if nothing is wrong they don't ask for your ID. If they ask, something is wrong.) (Interestingly, the one exception to reasonably rapid loading of Web sites is Sprint's own, which, of course, is configured as the default startup or home page on installation. During the final drafting of this review some programming loop had occurred on the page that caused an infinite loop while the site endlessly recontacted itself for the next section of the page. The only thing that actually got displayed was a highly ironic "Please wait while loading ......." legend. Sprint also now holds the world's record for most persistent and annoying insistence on setting a cookie, and is the first site ever to have forced me to disable *all* cookies.) Availability Sprint service access points have been available in 17 major centres across Canada since it started. However, while there have been ongoing promises for expansion of this list, in almost a year no new points of presence have been added. Local Support A Web site with minimal technical information is provided. Company support is available via a tool-free number. Support Requirements For nominal use, the system should be accessible even to novice users immediately upon installation. Reconfiguration of modem initialization strings is probably needed with less heavily marketed modems. Reconfiguration for automatic redial is desireable for home users. General Notes Sprint appears to be generally solid as an access provider, with some annoying, but not fatal, glitches. The insistence on the use of the MSIE suite of access tools is not as bad as it might be, since the 3.02 level required is less prone to security loopholes than the more recent 4.x versions. Once installed support should not be required, which is good, since it doesn't appear to be provided in any meaningful way. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 ISSPRINT.RVW 980915 ------------------------------ From: tazor@hotmail.com Subject: Ameritech, Centrex, Call Transfer - Analog lines. Date: Tue, 20Oct 1998 00:55:43 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion Hello! I would like to know if anyone has ever ordered (successfully) in the Illinois area call transfer for a plain old single line analog telephone with Centrex service. My situation is: I want to be able to call up party A. Flash the line and talk to party B. Flash the line and conference to all three parties. Flash the line once more and I disconnect from the conversation but party A and party B can continue to chat. I believe this would be called call transfer. Right now Ameritech has it that I can call party A, flash the line to dial party B, flash once more and we have 3 way calling. If I disconnect everyone is cut off (well... not exactly, my line will start ringing again and it's party B). I believe this is 3 way calling. Could someone: a. let me know if Ameritech offers this service in Illinois. b. Straighten me out if my terminology is out of wack. Thank you! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a business service offering at Ameritech which does what you want. They actually offer centrex service for *one line* installations, or I should say, the most common and popular centrex features. If you have a business line, call and discuss with them the 'custom calling feature pack' which allows what you want. By the way, you will continue to pay the bill as long as A and B continue to be connected. Isn't that a bit dangerous? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 22:26:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Obituary: Internet Pioneer Postel Dies Saturday October 17 8:19 PM EDT Internet Pioneer Postel Dies By TED BRIDIS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) _ Jon Postel, the Internet pioneer who wielded enormous influence managing technical details of the global computer network, has died of complications from heart surgery in Los Angeles, friends in Washington said Saturday. He was 55. Postel, considered by the Clinton administration to be a crucial player in the future of the Internet, died Friday night while recovering from surgery to replace a leaking heart valve, said Vint Cerf, a senior vice president for MCI Worldcom Inc. who worked closely with Postel. The death also was announced Saturday at an Internet conference in Barcelona, said Bill Semich, the president of .nu domain, another Internet company. Postel's death comes at a critical juncture for the Internet, with the federal government in the midst of largely turning over management of the worldwide network to a non-profit group that Postel helped organize. Though Postel worked behind the scenes and was hardly known outside high-tech circles, his role as director of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority allowed the Internet to match unique numerical addresses for computers on the global network with its millions of Web addresses, such as www.ap.org. So powerful was Postel that ``The Economist'' once dubbed him ``god'' of the Internet. ``Jon was a very private person and didn't seek the limelight at all,'' said Cerf, who attended high school with Postel in California. ``He preferred to exercise his stewardship role in a very quiet but competent way.'' ``Being famous never drove Jon,'' agreed another longtime friend, David Farber, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. ``He had tremendous influence, people respected his intellect.'' Earlier this year, Postel drew sharp criticism but demonstrated his influence when he redirected half the Internet's 12 directory-information computers to his own system. He told federal officials afterward he was running a test to see how smoothly such a t ransition could be made. A researcher at the University of Maryland at College Park, which controls one of those computers, told The Washington Post: ``If Jon asks us to point somewhere else, we'll do it. He is the authority here.'' Cerf said Postel underwent a heart-valve replacement in 1991, but the replacement value started to leak about 10 days ago. He was quickly hospitalized for surgery and was recovering when he died suddenly. ``One minute he was alert and laughing about a joke, and the next minute he was gone,'' Cerf said. ``It was very fast.'' Postel, who was unmarried with no children, was intensely private. When a recent trade publication profiled him and told him readers were interested in his personal life, he answered: ``If we tell them, they won't be interested anymore.'' Cerf said Postel is survived by a brother, Mort Postel, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We will miss him. So much of the Internet benefitted from his knowledge and help in his lifetime. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: FCC Gives Green Light For New Cable Internet Access Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 13:37:39 -0400 http://www.currents.net/newstoday/98/10/09/news5.html >From Newsbytes News Network FCC Gives Green Light For New Cable Internet Access - By Steve Gold, Newsbytes The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced it has given the thumbs up to CAIS Internet's OverVoice fast Internet access technology to be used on the public switched telephone network (PSTN). According to CAIS Internet, a first-tier Internet service provider (ISP) that is part of the CGX Communications group, the FCC permit has been made under the FCC Part 68 licensing arrangement. CAIS says that its OverVoice technology is the first to adapt the Ethernet standard used on PC local area networks (LANs) for use across standard copper pair cables, as used on the PSTN local loop. The OverVoice technology, officials say, supports Internet access at speeds of up to 10 megabits per second (Mbps), while still supporting simultaneous voice calls as normal over the phone line. "While Part 68 licensing is somewhat standard and routine for devices such as telephones and answering machines, it is a more complex issue with technology like OverVoice, which combines analog voice signals and high-speed data over standard telephone wiring," said Kevin Powell, CAIS' director of OverVoice product services. According to CAIS, the OverVoice equipment, which consists of a proprietary wall jack and control unit, uses a number of capacitors, inductors, transformers and terminators to form the OverVoice filters that allow simultaneous use of the wires by data and voice while ensuring interference-free communications. These filters, the firm says, enable the voice signal to flow freely between a telephone and the public switched network, and data traffic to flow freely between an end user's PC and the Internet at speeds faster than many of the DSL (digital subscriber line) technologies starting to become available. In addition this, the company says, OverVoice technology, which requires no outside power source, also removes Internet traffic from the public network and routes it over a private high-speed circuit that connects directly to the Internet. OverVoice is primarily aimed at shared usage Internet access applications, Newsbytes notes. The OverVoice technology allows an entire apartment building of a hotel to be connected into the Internet on an "always-on" basis, sharing the bandwidth between various users on a local network. At the building end of the OverVoice link, the high-speed Internet access line is connected to a server and an Ethernet Hub, which connects to a proprietary device called the OverVoice Control Unit. Next, a special OverVoice wall jack, which has separate openings to plug in a telephone and a computer, replaces the existing telephone jack. Existing telephone wires then connect the OverVoice Control Unit and wall jacks around the building. CGX Communications, the parent company of CAIS Internet, says it expects the OverVoice technology to play a major role in the nationwide and international expansion and growth of the company. According to the company, the technology is currently installed (or being installed) in hotels and apartment buildings across the US as part of commercial trials with Microsoft, Atcom/INFO, and OnePoint Communications. As reported in June by Newsbytes, CAIS has struck a 10-year, $100 million deal with Qwest Communications, calling on Quest to provide leased and routed Internet Protocol (IP) bandwidth on its 18,449-mile domestic fiber network. That deal, Newsbytes notes, has expanded CAIS's nationwide network from five cities to around 130. For the technically-minded, the OverVoice technology allows Ethernet networking over the twisted-pair phone wiring installed in hotels and apartment buildings. Installing OverVoice in a building requires replacing the wall jacks with special jacks that have separate connectors for voice and data, and installing devices in the telephone wiring closets that allow conventional Ethernet hubs to be connected to the existing wiring. A high-speed connection, such as a T1 line, is then installed to carry data traffic from the building to an ISP. The result is Internet access at 10 Mbps -- the same speed as a standard Ethernet network and close to 20 times as fast as a 56Kbps analog modem. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 18:07:16 -0400 From: Chris Holst Organization: Philolexian Society Subject: When AT&T Was Barred From Providing Data Processing Services Hello Telecom Digest, I am currently involved in some research for a possible article on the effects of the FCC's first Computer Inquiry decision (1971), which barred AT&T from providing computer services over their network. Consequently, am looking for perspectives from Digest readership on the issue. Anybody who was active in the industry remember any strong reactions to the decision? Was there evidence that this directly spurred the microcomputer revolution, or did the unfettered market lead to microcomputers without consciously acknowledging the lack of market distortion that AT&T's participation would have caused? Thanks to any who reply. Yours, Chris Holst ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #125 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Thu, 22 Oct 98 22:51:00 EDT Volume 18 : Issue 126 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson UCLA Short Course on "Digital Signal Processing" (Bill Goodin) Is a Voice Modem the Solution For my Call Center? (Leigh Webster) New ISDN Book (William Stallings) Know thy RespOrg (Judith Oppenheimer) Unveiling: The _NEW_ (and Improved) TRA Website! (Mark J. Cuccia) Pentagon Equipment Said Disrupting Phone Service Overseas (Tad Cook) Telecom Update (Canada) #154, October 19, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) Book Review: "How to Find Health Information on the Internet" (Rob Slade) 9-1-1 Service Unavailable in Many Places (Tad 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Bill Goodin Subject: UCLA Short Course on "Digital Signal Processing" Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 10:19:35 -0700 On January 4-8, 1999, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Digital Signal Processing: Theory, Algorithms and Implementations", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructor is Robert W. Stewart, PhD, Faculty Member, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. Each participant receives a Digital Signal Processing Reference Glossary (500 pages); multimedia reference CD-ROM featuring algorithms, DSP sample problems, graphs, and comprehensive notes; software and hardware workbook and manuals; and lecture notes. Participants use multimedia PCs in a UCLA Extension computer lab with the DSP design and simulation software, SystemView by Elanix. A complete workbook and more than 200 design examples are provided. This course presents the core theory and algorithms of DSP and demonstrates through laboratory sessions the real-time and real-world implementation of digital signal processing strategies. It is intended for engineers, computer scientists and programmers, and project management staff. After presenting the mathematical tools and theory of DSP, the course features practical laboratory sessions that allow participants to simulate and implement advanced DSP systems such as acoustic echo cancellers, psychoacoustic compression strategies, or software radio systems. Participants should obtain the tools and materials necessary to apply DSP methods immediately at their workplace, as well as: o Analyze discrete time systems using time domain mathematics o Analyze discrete time systems using frequency domain/Z-domain mathematics o Understand the fundamental theory relating to sampling rate, quantization noise and the architecture of a generic DSP system o Design and implement FIR, IIR, and adaptive digital filters for real-world applications in digital audio and acoustics and telecommunications o Understand the theory of adaptive signal processing systems and how to apply to real-world problems o Understand the DSP theory of signal coding and compression o Understand the key theory and achievable advantages of oversampling, multirate, noise shaping, and undersampling strategies o Undertake DSP system design using advanced analysis and design software o Implement real-time digital filters, and adaptive digital filters using DSP simulation software, and real-time DSP processor hardware o Apply DSP theory and algorithms in the application domains of modern computing, multimedia systems, and communication systems o Integrate theoretical and practical skills to undertake a DSP design project. UCLA Extension has presented this highly successful short course since 1997. The course fee is $1595, which includes extensive course materials. These materials are for participants only, and are not for sale. For a more information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ From: lwebster@my-dejanews.com (Leigh Webster) Subject: Is a Voice Modem the Solution For my Call Center? Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 13:15:48 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion Hi, I have a call center that handles around 10,000 calls an hour. We currently use Dialogic CT Connect but are thinking of switching to voice modems to connect to our Nortel Meridian 1. I am concerned about the effects and reliability of using the voice modems with such a large call volume. Does anyone know of any advantages/disadvantages of voice modems over CT Connect or vice versa? Thank you, Leigh Webster Please respond by email to lwebster@netdoor.com if you can help me out. ------------------------------ From: ws@shore.net (William Stallings) Subject: New ISDN Book Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 10:10:16 -0400 Organization: Shore.Net/Eco Software, Inc; (info@shore.net) This is to announce the publication of ISDN and Broadband ISDN, with Frame Relay and ATM, Fourth Edition. The book is intended to be both a professional reference and a textbook. A brief table of contents is attached. A more detailed table of contents and discount ordering information is available at the web site listed below. ISDN and Broadband ISDN, with Frame Relay and ATM, Fourth Edition William Stallings (Prentice-Hall, 1999, ISBN 0-13-973744-8) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION PART ONE DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS FUNDAMENTALS CHAPTER 2 DIGITAL TRANSMISSION CHAPTER 3 LINE CODING AND THE SUBSCRIBER LINE CHAPTER 4 COMMUNICATION NETWORKS PART TWO INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORKS CHAPTER 5 ISDN OVERVIEW CHAPTER 6 ISDN INTERFACES AND FUNCTIONS CHAPTER 7 ISDN PHYSICAL LAYER CHAPTER 8 ISDN DATA LINK LAYER CHAPTER 9 ISDN NETWORK LAYER CHAPTER 10 ISDN SERVICES CHAPTER 11 SIGNALING SYSTEM NUMBER 7 PART THREE FRAME RELAY CHAPTER 12 FRAME RELAY PROTOCOLS AND SERVICES CHAPTER 13 FRAME RELAY CONGESTION CONTROL PART FOUR BROADBAND ISDN CHAPTER 14 BROADBAND ISDN ARCHITECTURE CHAPTER 15 BROADBAND ISDN PROTOCOLS PART FIVE ASYNCHRONOUS TRANSFER MODE CHAPTER 16 ATM PROTOCOLS CHAPTER 17 ATM TRAFFIC AND CONGESTION CONTROL APPENDIX A FLOW CONTROL, ERROR DETECTION, AND ERROR CONTROL APPENDIX B THE OSI REFERENCE MODEL | | Descriptions, errata sheets and discount order info | | Bill Stallings | for my current books and | | ws@shore.net | information on my forthcoming books at | | | http://www.shore.net/~ws | ------------------------------ Reply-To: tollfree-l@egroups.com Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 07:16:43 -0400 From: Judith Oppenheimer Organization: ICB TOLL FREE NEWS. 15 Day FREE Trial: http://icbtollfree.com Subject: Know thy RespOrg (reprint of an editorial to appear in ICB TOLL FREE NEWS) Know thy RespOrg -- and to thine own subscriber rights, be true. Business has recently picked up for ICB Toll Free Consultancy -- great for ICB, but an indication of ominous goings-on in toll free-land. 800 numbers disappear during ports, get hijacked by RespOrgs from their own (smaller) customers for larger customers -- and securely moored unavailable 888s, rigidly rooted in set-aside at DSMI for safe-keeping, are recalled per FCC instruction, only to reveal -- nothing. They're just gone. Larger RespOrgs as a group, are aware that, for practical purposes, often times the lights are on but no ones home. An August 98 SNAC letter to the FCC asking for latitude in carrying out the Commissions 888 replication orders, explains innocently that RespOrgs have reported that it has been difficult to identify the subscriber contact to obtain a valid reply. Identifying the subscriber is the nuts and bolts of RespOrg-ship. If they cant identify you - the subscriber! - what the hell are they doing with your numbers? Whos minding the store? Now, before you readers on the carrier/RespOrg side get your feathers all ruffled, let me state for the record: every carrier/RespOrg has a few good RespOrg command center execs and staffers, who take their jobs, and customer interests, seriously. My friends, you know who you are. You are neither unrecognized, nor unappreciated. But the best intentions of a chosen few are useless in the face of a mass of poorly trained sales reps and customer service folks, who just punch clocks and collect paychecks, and could truly care less. Even those employees who'd like to do the right thing, haven't a clue what the right thing is. Rarely do regulatory rules and guidelines pertaining to toll free numbers and service, extend beyond the command center pit. The sales reps don't know. The customer service people don't know. And lord knows, carrier attorneys don't know. One recently expressed surprise at discovering that disconnected numbers were to return to spare for first-come-first-serve. He thought his company could just pick the next user -- from among their existing customers, of course. Another swore that the toll free service end user referred to the caller of a toll free number. No, we dont want to go there. Perhaps it is time for subscribers to give serious consideration to assigning RespOrg and traffic responsibilities, to separate entities. If necessary, become your own RespOrg, or port RespOrg control to a smaller, non-carrier RespOrg. Judith Oppenheimer Publisher, ICB TOLL FREE NEWS News & Information Source for Service Providers, & Commercial Users, of Toll Free Service 15-day, no-obligation FREE trial: http://icbtollfree.com Moderator, TOLLFREE-L Read this list on the Web at http://www.FindMail.com/list/tollfree-l/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 15:40:57 -0500 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Unveiling: The _NEW_ (and Improved) TRA Website! TRA (Traffic Routing Administration), the administrator of the RDBS/LERG/NIPC/etc. routing/switch/network data for the NANP, and billing/rating/V&H/etc. data for the NANP (and to a certain extent for Mexico) has developed its own website, filled with GOOD documents, files, and other info, of html pages and some available for the download too! This site is _NOT_ passworded! :) http://www.trainfo.com It is STRAIGHT-FORWARD, without frames/java/etc. and only has a couple of SIMPLE/BASIC animated .gif images which are related to the purpose of the website! The monthly NIPC file can also be found at the TRA site! I am curious (and I assume that _TRA_ personnel as well, and _their_direct_ email address is indicated on the site) as to your opinions on this new excellent (IMO) telephony resource website now being "unveiled" to interested parties! :) MARK_J._CUCCIA__PHONE/WRITE/WIRE/CABLE:__HOME:__(USA)__Tel:_CHestnut-1-2497 WORK:__mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.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- ------------------------------ Subject: Pentagon Equipment Said Disrupting Phone Service Overseas Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 20:23:33 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. military technology deployed overseas is disrupting emergency telephone service in some countries and causing other telecommunications glitches, annoying allies and incapacitating some weapons, a defense-industry publication reports. Quoting an internal Defense Department review, Defense Week said multibillion-dollar systems -- such as Patriot missile defenses and Predator unmanned aerial vehicles -- won't work to their full capabilities in some countries and, in others, can't be used at all. That's because their radio waves clash with same-frequency users in host nations, the newsletter said in its edition to be published Monday. "At least 89 telecommunications systems ... were deployed within the European, Pacific and Southwest Asian theaters without the proper frequency certification and host-nation approval," it quoted the Defense Department's inspector general's report as saying. This has caused telecommunications disruptions in Germany, Japan, South Korea and Bahrain. Billions of dollars worth of equipment "cannot be utilized to its full capability ... In some cases, fully functional equipment sits idle while its useful life expires," the report said. Pentagon officials said in written responses to the audit that they generally agreed with the criticism. They added that steps were being taken to deal with the problem, which they conceded was serious. The officials said a key problem was that the United States has little control over which radio frequencies host countries allocate to other purposes, and that often these change after the systems are deployed. The Patriot missile system's radios, radars and data-link terminals have interfered with Korean cellular phones. Pagers used by U.S. forces in Japan clash with Japanese aeronautical systems. In Germany, infant crib monitors used on U.S. bases have clashed with German telephone service, the report said. In Bahrain, SPS-40 and SPS-49 radars "are unusable because the equipment operates on a frequency that interferes with the Bahrain telecommunications services," the report said. Unless the conflicts are resolved, it said, some U.S. air defense systems may be unable to do their jobs. Host nations are angry about the disruptions, the report said. Germany has passed a law allowing it to confiscate U.S. equipment using frequencies not approved and to arrest the user. And Saudi Arabia barred the United States from using a $1.4 million satellite-communi- cations device because it had not gotten frequency rights. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 10:43:07 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #154, October 19, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 154: October 19, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * AT&T Canada ............... http://www.attcanada.com/ * * Bell Canada ............... http://www.bell.ca/ * * Lucent Technologies ....... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * MetroNet Communications ... http://www.metronet.ca/ * * Sprint Canada ............. http://www.sprintcanada.ca/ * * Telus Communications....... http://www.telus.com/ * * TigerTel Services ......... http://www.citydial.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Telus and BC Tel Confirm Merger Talks ** Telus Continues Air Miles Program ** WinTel Offers 5 Cent LD ** New Toronto Area Code Set ** TSE to Expand Electronic Trading ** MT&T Intros Mpowered Office Services ** Fidomatic Goes National ** Telus Cuts 9-1-1 Rates ** Bell TV Test to End in December ** Telefficiency Becomes Bell Agent ** Bell Issues Small-Business Guide ** TigerTel Buying Consolidated Technologies ** Nortel Sued Over Bay Networks Merger ** CrossKeys Allies With Ascend ** Global One Offers World ATM ** Web-Based Telecom Courses Offered ** 579 Telecom Links ** Speech Recognition Hits Prime Time ============================================================ TELUS AND BC TEL CONFIRM MERGER TALKS: Responding to a request from the Toronto Stock Exchange to explain heavy trading in their stocks, Telus and BC Tel have confirmed that they are "in discussions to explore the possibility of a business combination of equals involving a Canadian pooling of interest." (See Telecom Update #153) TELUS CONTINUES AIR MILES PROGRAM: Telus Communications says it will continue to offer Air Miles to its customers when other Stentor members discontinue this bonus at the end of the year. (See Telecom Update #153) WINTEL OFFERS 5 CENT LD: WinTel Communications now offers evening and weekend calling in Canada for 5 cents a minute. Daytime calls are 10 cents/minute; U.S. calls are 13 cents/minute, anytime. ** WinTel's parent, London Telecom, has expanded its flat- rate calling plans to include 5, 10, or 20 hours of off- peak calling at no additional charge. NEW TORONTO AREA CODE SET: The North American Numbering Plan Administration has assigned "647" as the new Area Code to be added when the supply of numbers in Toronto's 416 area code runs out early in 2001. http://www.nanpa.com TSE TO EXPAND ELECTRONIC TRADING: The Toronto Stock Exchange plans to expand its electronic trading capacities to give investors direct electronic access to its trading systems without going through a dealer. MT&T INTROS MPOWERED OFFICE SERVICES: MT&T's Mpowered product line now includes a proprietary suite of network- based office services based on Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Outlook. FIDOMATIC GOES NATIONAL: Microcell Solutions' Fidomatic prepaid PCS service is now available throughout its national digital coverage area. (See Telecom Update #152) ** Microcell added 30,992 customers in the third quarter, to bring its subscriber base to 180,838. (See Telecom Update #141, #153) ** Microcell has expanded its coverage area to include London, Ont. TELUS CUTS 9-1-1 RATES: Telus says the expansion of provincial 9-1-1 service to include Calgary has enabled it to decrease the per-line charge for this service by 15 cents, to 19 cents/month. BELL TV TEST TO END IN DECEMBER: Bell Canada will halt its cable TV-Internet trial in London and Repentigny on December 31. Bell plans a special ExpressVu offer to TotalVision's 2,000 subscribers. (See Telecom Update #142) TELEFFICIENCY BECOMES BELL AGENT: Telefficiency, an Ontario-based interconnect company, is now a distributor for Bell Canada services. BELL ISSUES SMALL-BUSINESS GUIDE: Bell Canada has published a guide to telecom products for new businesses, available through Bell's Teleboutique Business Centres. TIGERTEL BUYING CONSOLIDATED TECHNOLOGIES: TigerTel Services is offering about $1.4 Million to purchase Vancouver-based Consolidated Technologies Holdings. NORTEL SUED OVER BAY NETWORKS MERGER: A class action lawsuit filed in New York says that Northern Telecom withheld information about falling sales to ensure completion of its Bay Networks merger. Nortel says the suit is "completely without merit." CROSSKEYS ALLIES WITH ASCEND: CrossKeys Systems, an Ottawa-based telecom software manufacturer, has signed network supplier Ascend Communications as a reseller. GLOBAL ONE OFFERS WORLD ATM: Global One, a joint venture of Sprint, Deutsche Telekom, and France Telecom, has announced a worldwide ATM service. Global ATM is available in 13 countries, with more to be added in 1999. WEB-BASED TELECOM COURSES OFFERED: The Academy of Telecommunications Learning, a company based in Vancouver, has announced a set of Web-based telecommunications training programs. http://www.academytelecom.com 579 TELECOM LINKS: The Telecom Links section of the Angus TeleManagement Web site, newly expanded and updated, now includes links to 579 Web sites of interest to Canadian telecom professionals, including those of organizations mentioned in Telecom Update and Telemanagement. http://www.angustel.ca ** Send your suggestions for additional links to jriddell@angustel.ca SPEECH RECOGNITION HITS PRIME TIME: The October issue of Telemanagement describes how speech recognition is enabling callers to dispense with touch dialing on their cellphones or when dialing in to corporate phone systems. ** Also in Telemanagement #159, Ian and Lis Angus explain why the "real" telecom revolution is the approaching convergence of long distance and local service. ** Subscribe to Telemanagement now and receive 25 telecom strategy reports free! Call 1-800-263-4415 ext 225 or see http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm.html for details. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 09:44:21 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "How to Find Health Information on the Internet" Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKHFHIOI.RVW 980731 "How to Find Health Information on the Internet", Bruce Maxwell, 1998, 1-56802-271-9, U$35.95 %A Bruce Maxwell bmaxwell@mindspring.com %C 1414 22nd Street N.W., Washington, DC 20037 %D 1998 %G 1-56802-271-9 %I Congressional Quarterly Inc. %O U$35.95 +1-800-638-1710 fax +1-202-887-6706 kbeach@cq.com %P 350 p. %T "How to Find Health Information on the Internet" There are two major and important points made before the book starts. The preface notes, and the introduction reiterates, that all information contained in the book, and found on the Internet, should be checked with your doctor. Maxwell is not a physician, and a large amount of the data published on the net is created by people whose level of medical expertise you have no way of checking. Which leads to the second point. The introduction notes that content provided to you may be produced by people who are ignorant, opinionated, biased, or who have a proprietary interest in whatever they are recommending. There are excellent general principles, and even a list of points to check, to try and assess the quality and validity of information or sites that you find. Actually, the title of the book may be slightly misleading. Only part one, the second shortest section of the text, deals with searching for information, and that primarily for general references or resources. There are listings for directories, physicians, hospitals, news sources, libraries, and references. Although AltaVista is mentioned in the preface, there is no content regarding strategies to use when searching for health information using generic search engines or other net resources. Part two looks at specific conditions and diseases, from AIDS to substance abuse. Prevention and treatment discusses alternative medicine to drugs to women's health in part three. A variety of health care related issues have resources listed in part four, such as death, ethics, and health care policies. Grouped under the different specific topics are online resources. Most of these are Web sites, but there are also Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists. All Web sites have been visited and are described as to contents and possible reliability. Newsgroups and mailing lists are described very briefly, and there is little indication that they have been reviewed or observed for any period of time. The index is well organized: even when a specific area of interest is not one of the topic headings related listings should be able to be found. Contrary to popular belief, not all information is available on the Internet. If you have a specific need for medical information it is quite possible that the knowledge you want simply does not exist online. With the decline in interest in shotgun "yellow page" volumes, though, this level of reviewed and higher quality directory information may be very welcome to the growing audience of Web users. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKHFHIOI.RVW 980731 ------------------------------ Subject: 9-1-1 Service Unavailable in Many Places Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 17:30:19 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) In many areas, it's not available By Jeannine Aversa Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- If you're visiting Montezuma, Ga., and need help, don't bother calling 911. It doesn't work there and it won't work in dozens of other places across the country, either. "Many people think 911 is everywhere," said Woody Glover, executive director of the 911 network for East Texas. "But there are a lot of pockets of the country that aren't covered." By one estimate, roughly 700 mostly small and rural counties have no form of the service. By another estimate, 9 percent of the U.S. population lacks it. The major reasons: The estimated $1 million to $4 million in start-up costs -- primarily communications and computer equipment -- and the cost to run the system, including pay for round-the-clock dispatchers. These costs are paid by the people who live in communities with 911, and voters usually decide whether their state or county should get the service. Longtime residents of communities without 911 service generally know the number to call in an emergency. "The problem arises when people move into a community or visit it," said John Ellison, executive director of 911 service for Shelby County, Ala. In those cases, precious time can be lost, jeopardizing lives, public safety officials say. When people call 911 and it's not available, they typically get a fast busy signal or a message that the service is not available. To get emergency help, they must call the local, seven-digit number for fire, police or rescue, likely requiring a separate call to find out the phone number. About 260,000 calls a day are made to 911. Of the two forms of 911 service in the United States, "enhanced" service is the most common as well as the most helpful to emergency personnel: A dispatcher automatically gets the caller's telephone number and address, crucial information that speeds up emergency response time. The only exception is when people use cellular phones. But federal regulators are requiring cellular companies to install new technology by 2001 that will give 911 dispatchers location information. The other form of 911 service is called "basic," providing callers with an easy-to-remember number for emergencies but not giving dispatchers any information on the caller. About 85 percent to 90 percent of the population has some type of 911, covering 65 percent to 70 percent of the country geographically, said Bill Stanton, executive director of the National Emergency Number Association, one of the few groups that tracks systems. NEMA estimates 700 counties lack 911 service, but won't provide a list of them. Jim Beutelspacher, who oversees Minnesota's 911 systems and compiles nationwide population statistics on 911 availability, estimates that 9 percent of the U.S. population lacks 911 service. Lake County, Tenn., population 9,000, is one place without 911. "We're such a small county we feel like it would be quite a bit of an added expense to have 911," said county executive Macie Roberson. "So it was something we could not afford." Residents haven't pushed for it and know the numbers to call in emergencies, Roberson said. Not having 911 "has never been a problem -- never a problem." Montezuma, Ga., with 7,000 residents, also doesn't have 911 service but is considering an enhanced 911 system. "People seem fairly satisfied with the system now, even though they have to dial seven digits rather than just three," said Police Chief Lewis Cazenave. The 911 service, following a model developed in Europe after World War II, came to America after a U.S. presidential commission recommended in 1967 that a single number be created for reporting emergencies. One year later, AT&T announced it would set aside 911 for this purpose. The first systems began in February 1968 in Haleyville, Ala., and Nome, Alaska. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One thing that is done in a few small places is the phone switch accepts the digits '911' then translates it into an 800 number which terminates on a couple of phone lines at the appropriate law enforcement/public safety agency. Since it comes in on a toll-free line, they are also provided 'real-time ANI' on a caller-ID (or similar) display. A 'criss-cross' directory is located by that phone instrument so the person answering the call can immediatly flip to the listing and see the person's name and address in many or most instances. Remember, there are entire *counties* in the USA with fewer than a thousand people scattered over several hundred square miles. I know that seems strange if you come from a big city with several hundred thousand -- or even a couple million -- people in the city itself. A couple such counties in Wyoming, North/South Dakota and western Kansas literally have the Sheriff operating out of his home, with the occassional one or two prisoners for the jail in a small area built for that purpose. The Sheriff's wife cooks the food for the occassional prisoner, etc. A challenge in those sparsly pop- ulated counties covering huge geographical distances is how to support and justify as well as staff emergency phone service. One I saw demonstrated once involved 911 being translated to a number which terminated in three places: the Sheriff's home and office (same building) and the homes of two deputies, one or the other of whom was always to be available. If they all were gone for whatever reason then I guess the Sheriff's wife was around. All three had radios used to contact the officers in their cars, etc. The phone instruments did not signal in the usual way. The ringing signal sent by telco tripped a relay that cause the bell in the phone (or maybe it was a side ringer) to ring *continuously* -- almost like the case of someone sticking a piece of tape over your doorbell -- until the phone was taken off hook. Some of those sparsly populated areas are large enough geographically that it might take the Sheriff or a deputy 20-30 minutes of *fast* driving in his car to get to the location of the incident. Of course the tradeoff is they don't have three violent murders every day like Chicago, or ten thousand prisoners in jail each day like Cook County. Nor, a computerized system in the courthouse to randomly assign the (hopefully) least corrupt judge to handle a caseload of several hundred matters on his docket. And when it is time for the prisoner to go see the judge, chances are likely the judge has his courtroom in a small addition to the side of his house, and the Sheriff calls him on the phone when they have something to deal with, then mee him at 'court' a few minutes later. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #126 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Nov 9 21:54:20 1998 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id VAA28548; Mon, 9 Nov 1998 21:54:20 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 21:54:20 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199811100254.VAA28548@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #127 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 9 Nov 98 21:54:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 127 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Y2K: Where Will You Be When the Lights Go Out? (Monty Solomon) Feds Sound Y2K Alarm for Small Businesses (Monty Solomon) AT&T Wireless Slamming Own Customers! (Alan Boritz) Ralph Nader Wants to Stop Evening Telemarketing Calls (Nigel Allen) Telecom Update (Canada) #156, November 2, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) Book Review: "E-Commerce Security", Anup K. Ghosh (Rob Slade) Woz: 888-8888 Equals Babies (Donald M. Heiberg) Getting the Number of Prank Calls (Tad 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3140 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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 Nov 1998 01:36:06 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Y2K: Where Will You Be When the Lights Go Out? http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,8582,00.html Batten down the hatches... Senate Committee warns of widespread power outages and other dire events. by Eric Brown, special to PC World October 28, 1998, 5:32 p.m. PT Most of us see the Year 2000 problem as primarily a business issue. The likelihood is increasing, however, that the electrical utilities will fail to fix all their systems on time--and that could bring the problem home in a hurry. Senator Robert Bennett (R-Utah), chair of the Senate's Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, recently announced that U.S. citizens should prepare for possible widespread power outages in the early weeks of 2000. "The grid is made up of thousands of deregulated electric companies, and no one's taking the oversight to make sure that it holds together," said Robert Roskind, president of the Y2K Solutions Group, a company that disseminates information about Y2K issues. "If we lose power, the Y2K problem is manifested a hundredfold." Hoping to raise awareness of Y2K issues in the home, the Y2K Solutions Group has launched a Web site (see link at the right) that provides information and resources for surviving weeks or even months without power, water, or access to financial resources. It includes charts for determining food and water needs, tips on alternative heating and lighting, links to other Y2K sites, and books and videos from Y2K experts such as computer book author Ed Yourdon. Y2K Solutions' site offers some chilling quotes from government officials warning about Y2K dangers. Roskind points to a recent poll of computer-industry executives by The Washington Post as further evidence for concern. The poll revealed that 52 percent don't plan to travel during the millennium weekend and 38 percent plan to take extra funds out of the bank to tide them over during the first few weeks of expected turmoil. "Almost everyone who knows the problem is deeply troubled," said Roskind. It's too early to predict the extent of Y2K's impact, but considering how slowly the corporate world has been to attack the problem, a glitch-free millennial New Year seems unlikely. You may not want to convert all your money into gold and stock up on shotgun shells, but a few precautions are likely in order: * Make copies of important financial records and, if possible, avoid major financial transactions during the period. * Withdraw enough cash to last for at least a week or two of expected banking confusion. * Don't plan any unnecessary travel around the holidays, especially by air. * Check with your furnace manufacturer to make sure the control chips won't fail. * It's a good idea to fill all your prescriptions ahead of time and, and to keep at least a week or two of water and nonperishable food on hand. One final note: While January 1, 2000 is the "big one," there are likely to be tremors beforehand and aftershocks afterward. On April 9, 1999 (the 99th day of 99th year) some computers might start to hiccough, and in August, GPS devices might get the wrong coordinates. In February of 2000, leap year could cause additional headaches. But by then, we're likely to have sworn off computers forever. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 01:39:15 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Feds Sound Y2K Alarm for Small Businesses http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,8446,00.html Public awareness campaign will include workshops, IRS mailings, and even postage stamps. by Jennifer Peltz, Medill News Service October 19, 1998, 10:41 a.m. PT Many businesses -- especially small ones -- aren't planning to do anything about Year 2000 problems, recent surveys show. That worries the federal government, not least because nearly a quarter of the government's contractors are small businesses, according to Small Business Administration Chief Aida Alvarez. Hoping to goad small firms to address Y2K issues, the government has declared this National Y2K Action Week, and will be running Y2K workshops around the country. (For more information, call 800/827-5722 or consult the government Y2K sites on the right.) The Internal Revenue Service will send information about the potential problems to more than 6 million small businesses, said John Koskinen, who heads the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion. And in case the IRS doesn't get their attention, big-city post offices will cancel stamps with a special seal asking: "Are You Y2K OK?" No Small Problem for Small Business A study for San Francisco's Wells Fargo Bank found more than 80 percent of small businesses were at risk for trouble around January 1, 2000, but half of them weren't planning to try to forestall it. The Gartner Group, a Connecticut firm conducting a sweeping Y2K study, estimated businesses that experience critical equipment failures will have to spend $20,000 to $3.5 million to fix them. And addressing problems ahead of time isn't necessarily cheap. While some simple programs can be fixed with free updates, a small manufacturing company might have to spend $50,000 on reprogramming, Koskinen said. Government agencies are trying to ease the burden by spreading information. To encourage companies to do the same, Congress recently agreed to protect companies from lawsuits that arise from disclosing Y2K problems. But officials warn that they can do only so much. "This is not a problem that the government created," Commerce Secretary William Daley said on Thursday--or Day 442 until zero hour, by the Clinton Administration's clock. "This is not a problem that the government can solve. The private sector has to step forward." What the Feds Suggest Y2K problems need to be treated like any others that affect an entire organization, the Small Business Administration suggests. More specifically, it's urging businesses to take the following steps. 1. Assess the problem. List all your business computer systems -- and don't forget that can include alarms, heating and air conditioning, copiers, cash registers, and other devices that aren't computers. Prioritize fixing them, according to how critical each is to the business, how they interact, and how soon they are likely to start having problems. 2. Research the solutions. Ask vendors and technical support providers about what it will take to fix each system, or whether it makes more sense to replace it. 3. Do the work. 4. Test the results on a copy of your business data, not the real thing. Set the systems' clocks so you can watch them go from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000, and from December 31, 2000, to January 1, 2001. It's also wise to check February 29, 2000, as well as September 9, 1999 (programmers once used "9999" to signal abnormal situations). 5. Expand the research by asking your suppliers and partners whether they are ready. 6. Make a backup plan. Line up alternative suppliers, stock up on important items, and make hard copies of important records. ------------------------------ From: Alan Boritz Subject: AT&T Wireless Slamming Own Customers! Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 19:24:13 -0500 I just called information for a Long Island (NY) business phone number and realized that rather than getting a phone number, "AT&T Connect" had already extended the call and I was listening to ring tone. Then I realized that none of the "AT&T Connect" operators had ever given me the phone numbers for which I called them, while in my home area. While this may be an advantage for some people, I didn't want to place the call just yet. AT&T Wireless customer service told me that I had no choice but to accept their information service, that they would not discontinue their "enhanced" service for my account, and that they would not let me bypass it with a 1010XXX code. Experimentation showed that my PIXC's (AT&T) information operator is still reachable with a dial code, so it seems that AT&T Wireless is diverting all information calls to THEM, away from my chosen PIXC. I never gave AT&T Wireless permission to change my PIXC, so it would appear that the diversion may be illegal, but most certainly not authorized. Has anyone else had similar experience with a cellular company diverting your long distance calls (in your home system) without your permission? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 17:52:58 -0500 From: Nigel Allen Subject: Ralph Nader Wants to Stop Evening Telemarketing Calls The following press release was issued by Ralph Nader and Commercial Alert. I don't work for Nader or Commercial Alert, but I thought the press release might be of interest to readers of this Digest. For Immediate Release: Tuesday, September 15, 1998 For More Information Contact: Gary Ruskin (202) 296-2787 Nader and Commercial Alert Propose "Family Hours" Free From Telemarketing Intrusions Ralph Nader and Commercial Alert proposed today that Congress and state legislatures enact legislation establishing "Family Hours" between 6 and 9 PM every night, during which telemarketing firms could not place unsolicited commercial calls. "'Family Hours' would be the equivalent of hanging a 'no solicitors' sign on your telephone every evening from 6 to 9 PM," Nader said. "We ought to protect families against the invasions of corporate predators," Nader said. "Families should spend time together without interruption from commercial telemarketers. That's what 'Family Hours' are all about." "Families are more important than the mercantile bombardments of telemarketers," said Gary Ruskin, director of Commercial Alert. "Congress ought to preserve the sanctuary of home against those who would repeatedly intrude unsolicited commerce into the family's time." The telemarketing industry is booming. Between 1992-97, telemarketing sales to consumers grew at an annual rate of 6.6%, to $185.9 billion in 1997, according to the Direct Marketing Association, Inc. A June 29 article in Precision Marketing, stated that the telemarketing "industry is positively flourishing and has enjoyed another bumper year." Telemarketers boast of their political influence. "The telemarketing industry became a highly visible presence in a number of state legislatures this year," wrote American Telemarketing Association attorney C. Tyler Prochnow in the July 6, 1998 issue of DM News. "An effective one-two punch of hired lobbyists and company representatives participated in the legislative process to deliver a knockout blow for the industry." "It's time for parents and families to stand up to greedy telemarketers and their lobbyists," Nader said. "There's a long tradition of the dinner table as the family meeting place," Ruskin said. "On some days, dinnertime is the only time that parents have to talk with their kids. We ought to protect this precious family time against commercial intrusions." Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules currently prohibit commercial telephone solicitation calls to homes before 8 AM or after 9 PM. In 1991, Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which requires telemarketers to keep "do-not call" lists. It also regulates the use of automatic telephone dialing systems and prerecorded calls. In June, President Clinton signed the Telemarketing Fraud Protection Act, which strengthens penalties for telemarketing fraud. Commercial Alert is a new project devoted to helping parents, families and communities defend themselves against harmful, immoral or intrusive advertising and marketing, and the excesses of commercialism. Commercial Alert's web address is http://www.essential.org/alert/. (end of forwarded message) forwarded by Nigel Allen ndallen@interlog.com http://www.ndallen.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 12:28:36 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #156, November 2, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 156: November 2, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * AT&T Canada ............... http://www.attcanada.com/ * * Bell Canada ............... http://www.bell.ca/ * * Lucent Technologies ....... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * MetroNet Communications ... http://www.metronet.ca/ * * Sprint Canada ............. http://www.sprintcanada.ca/ * * Telus Communications....... http://www.telus.com/ * * TigerTel Services ......... http://www.citydial.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** MetroNet Buys Fiber From Ledcor, Call-Net ** SaskTel Bundles Local, LD, Internet ** Videotron to Build Integrated Network ** Bell Natco Leases U.S. Fiber, Names Execs ** BC Tel and Telus Restructure Deal ** Stentor Leased-Line Restructuring Approved ** NewTel, MT&T Set Up IT Partnership ** Subscriber Gains at Mobility, Cantel Mobility Canada Rogers Cantel ** Bell Mobility Plans Cancel U.S. Roaming Charges ** Orillia Utility Builds Local Telecom Net ** Bell Discontinues Newsletters ** Telus Offers Operator Services to CLECs ** Bell Gains LD Market Share ** Telesat Signs Anik F1 Customers ** Teleglobe/Excel Merger to Close November 10 ** NewTel Buys Oil/Gas Services Company ** New CEO at Rogers Cable ** Financial Results BCE Mitel Nortel Rogers Cantel ** Call Centre Seminar "Should Be Mandatory" ============================================================ METRONET BUYS FIBER FROM LEDCOR, CALL-NET: MetroNet Communications is spending $200 Million to acquire intercity optical fiber from Ledcor Industries and Call-Net. The company says it will use the fiber to link its voice, frame relay, IP, and ATM services nationally, "to create the largest competitive end-to-end voice and data telecommunications network in Canada." SASKTEL BUNDLES LOCAL, LD, INTERNET: SaskTel has announced the most comprehensive flat-rate bundles of telecom services so far offered by a Canadian carrier. Residential subscribers can receive various combinations of local service, long distance, SmartTouch features, and Internet access, for prices ranging from $44.95 to $108.95 a month. ** BC Tel has received CRTC approval for a promotional offer under which customers who use BC Tel local and long distance services will receive reduced rates on SmartTouch features for six months. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o981076_.txt VIDEOTRON TO BUILD INTEGRATED NETWORK: Groupe Videotron has contracted with Cisco Systems to deliver an Internet Protocol-based system supplying telephone service, cable TV, and high-speed Internet access over Videotron's existing cable facilities. Commercial service is planned throughout the company's service area by the end of 1999. BELL NATCO LEASES U.S. FIBER, NAMES EXECS: Bell Canada has agreed to lease dark fiber from New York City to Montreal and Toronto from Telergy Inc, a New York-based competitive local exchange carrier. The fiber will be used by Bell's new national broadband company. ** The new company's executive team will be: Terry Jarman, President and CEO; Charles Childers, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing; Marc Bouchard, Senior VP Business Development and Finance; and Tom Hope, Senior VP Operations and Technology. BC TEL AND TELUS RESTRUCTURE DEAL: To ensure that their merged operations meet legal limits on foreign ownership, BC Tel and Telus have decided to make one-quarter of the shares of the merged company non-voting. (See Telecom Update #154) STENTOR LEASED-LINE RESTRUCTURING APPROVED: Overruling objections from AT&T, Call-Net, and London Telecom, CRTC Telecom Order 98-1062 approves a restructuring of Megaplan tariffs that will increase large-customer costs by about 7.5%. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o981062_.txt NEWTEL, MT&T SET UP IT PARTNERSHIP: NewTel and MT&T plan to merge their information technology operations in a new, 1,000-employee company, IT Group, 80% owned by NewTel. SUBSCRIBER GAINS AT MOBILITY, CANTEL: ** Mobility Canada companies added a net 110,000 subscribers in the third quarter, 15% more than for this time last year, bringing their total to 2.77 million. ** Rogers Cantel's net additions for the quarter totaled 44,000. Its subscriber base rose to 1.63 million, including 61,900 users of prepaid service and 444,000 of digital PCS. BELL MOBILITY PLANS CANCEL U.S. ROAMING CHARGES: Two new plans from Bell Mobility offer a continent-wide airtime rate with no U.S. roaming charges. The $100 plan offers 350 minutes, extra minutes at 20 cents, and LD at 20 cents (peak) or 10 cents (off-peak). A 2,000-minute plan costs $350/month. ORILLIA UTILITY BUILDS LOCAL TELECOM NET: The Orillia Water, Light and Power Commission, in collaboration with AT&T Canada, is building an ATM network that will offer telecommunications services to local businesses. BELL DISCONTINUES NEWSLETTERS: Bell Canada has discontinued publication of its Global Digest and Regulatory Trends newsletters "due to budgetary cutbacks." TELUS OFFERS OPERATOR SERVICES TO CLECs: Telus is planning to offer Directory Information Service and Local Operator Assistance Service on a contract basis to Competitive Local Exchange Carriers and Wireless Service Providers. The CRTC has given interim approval to the plan. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o981077_.txt BELL GAINS LD MARKET SHARE: During the third quarter, Bell Canada increased its long distance market share to 63% from 61.5%. The gain, the first since LD competition began, came at the cost of an 8% drop in revenues. TELESAT SIGNS ANIK F1 CUSTOMERS: Telesat Canada signed the first customers last week for its Anik F1 satellite, which goes into service in the spring of 2000. Star Choice will use Anik F1 for its direct-to-home broadcasting; Northwestel, for communications in northern Canada. TELEGLOBE/EXCEL MERGER TO CLOSE NOVEMBER 10: Teleglobe and Excel Communications say they have passed the last regulatory hurdle (IRS approval) on the road to their merger and will close the deal November 10. NEWTEL BUYS OIL/GAS SERVICES COMPANY: NewTel Enterprises has bought a majority stake in St. John's-based AMI Offshore, which services the oil and gas industry, for $4 Million. NEW CEO AT ROGERS CABLE: Rogers Communications has appointed James H. (Trey) Smith, formerly with California-based MediaOne/Continental Cablevision, to head its cable division. (See Telecom Update #134) FINANCIAL RESULTS: ** BCE's third-quarter profit before special items rose 18% to $383 Million. Bell Canada contributed $330 Million in earnings (a 45% increase); BCE Mobile's profit fell to $3 Million; Bell Canada International's losses more than doubled to $53 Million. The Nortel-Bay Networks merger brought BCE a "dilution gain" of $3.6 Billion. ** Mitel's revenues of $364 Million in the quarter ended September 25 were 78% higher than last year, but the growth of semiconductor sales, now 45% of the business, has slowed to 5%/year. Net income was $12.8 Million. ** Northern Telecom recorded $241 in third-quarter profits before special items, 58% more than last year. One-time charges related to the Bay Networks merger resulted in an overall loss of $306 Million. Revenues were up 18% to $4.14 Billion. ** Rogers Cantel third-quarter revenues were $316 Million, down 1.6% from last year, but losses were trimmed to $15.3 Million, down 38%. Rogers Communications' overall loss was $42 Million, compared with $78 Million last year. CALL CENTRE SEMINAR "SHOULD BE MANDATORY": Participants are giving rave reviews to Angus Dortmans' in-house seminar, "Essential Skills and Knowledge for Effective Incoming Call Centre Management," led by Henry Dortmans. Among recent comments: ** "Should be a mandatory course for all call center managers and team leaders." ** "No matter how long you've been in the call centre business, there is something you can still learn by attending." ** "Material excellent. Software will be beneficial. Speaker knew the business. Formulas will be helpful." ** "The most knowledgeable facilitator I have had the pleasure of being with. You really know your stuff!" For information, call 1-800-263-4415 ext 300 or go to http://www.angustel.ca/angdort/adccs.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 11:28:36 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "E-Commerce Security", Anup K. Ghosh Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKECMSEC.RVW 981003 "E-Commerce Security", Anup K. Ghosh, 1998, 0-471-19223-6, U$24.99/C$35.50 %A Anup K. Ghosh %C 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor, Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 %D 1998 %G 0-471-19223-6 %I John Wiley & Sons, Inc. %O U$24.99/C$35.50 416-236-4433 fax: 416-236-4448 %P 288 p. %T "E-Commerce Security: Weak Links, Best Defenses" The title is ever so slightly misleading in that the topic is not electronic commerce as a whole, but the (admittedly most popular) Web segment of it. However, within this limit, the book does provide solid coverage and good advice for a whole range of issues. Chapter one is a general introduction to the factors involved, looking at some recent "attacks" of various types, and then reviewing the client, transport, server, and operating system components to be examined in the remainder of the book. Client (generally browser) flaws are covered thoroughly in chapter two. The breadth of coverage even includes mention of topics such as the concern for privacy considerations with cookies. Active content is the major concern, with an excellent discussion of ActiveX (entitled "ActiveX [In]security"), a reasonably detailed review of the Java security model, and a look at JavaScript. Unfortunately, very little of this touches directly on e-commerce as such, except insofar as insecure client technology is going to make e-commerce a harder sell to the general public. While covering the transport of transaction information, in chapter three, Ghosh makes an interesting distinction between stored account systems (where you want to secure the transmission of identification data) and stored value systems (where the data, once transmitted, is useless to an eavesdropper). Many books concentrate on either channel security or electronic cash systems, so this comparison is instructive. A server involves multiple programs, and may involve multiple machines. Server security can quickly become complex, and this is quite evident in chapter four. While a great deal of useful and thought-provoking information is presented, the complicated nature of the undertaking works against this chapter. Not all topics are dealt with thoroughly, or as well as the previous material was. Oddly, one issue not covered in depth is the firewall, which is handled very well in chapter five, with operating system problems. Ghosh sets up a classification scheme for OS attacks, illustrated by specific weaknesses in Windows NT and UNIX. The book ends in chapter six with a call for certification of software, greater attention to security in all forms of software, and, interestingly, for greater use of component software. (From the jacket material, it appears that Ghosh is currently involved in the promotion of component software systems.) Each chapter ends with a set of references. Unlike all too many books with bibliographies stuff with obscure citations from esoteric journals, the bulk of the material listed is available on the Internet. (RISKS-FORUM Digest readers may already have seen much of it.) A separate section lists Web sites used in the text. The various issues dealt with in the book are explained clearly, and generally present counsel on the best practices for secure online commerce. A compact but comprehensive guide to the current state of electronic transaction security. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKECMSEC.RVW 981003 ------------------------------ From: Donald M. Heiberg Subject: Woz: 888-8888 Equals Babies Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 12:07:27 -0700 The first and last portions of Wired Magazine article on Woz http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.09/woz_pr.html The World According to Woz Start up. Drop out. Have fun. Pass it on. By Gary Wolf Two decades ago, Stephen Gary Wozniak owned the first dial-a-joke service in the San Francisco Bay area. This was before Wozniak - known among the cognoscenti as Woz - almost woke up the Pope by calling the Vatican on his famed illegal "blue box," before he invented the Apple II and helped launch the personal computer industry, and before he gave up his brilliant engineering career and became a public school teacher. In 1973, Woz was working for Hewlett-Packard. His dial-a-joke service got more than 2,000 calls a day. He rented answering equipment from the phone company and often used a telephone lineman's handset to take calls live from his tiny kitchen in Cupertino or while lying on the mattress in his bedroom. Extremely shy, Woz didn't have much of a chance to talk to women, but he met his first wife, Alice Robertson, when she called dial-a-joke. Robertson heard a man say, "I bet I can hang up faster than you" - and then he did. Naturally, she called back. A more elegant object-poem on the nature of modern romance is hard to imagine. There is a recursive logic to the hang-up trick that would be at home in a story by Lewis Carroll. Woz has been systematically experimenting with pranks since he was a child. At Homestead High School in Silicon Valley he printed official-looking cards with false classroom changes on them, allowing him to easily disrupt an entire morning of classes. He built a fake bomb, complete with ominous ticking noises, that caused the evacuation of the school and prompted the guidance counselor to recommend psychiatric treatment. (SNIP) A long time ago, Woz had a number that matched the Pan Am reservation number. People in Silicon Valley's 408 area code who failed to dial 800 would get him instead - one of those minor miracles arranged by Charles Dickens, or by God. You think you've got Pan Am - but instead you've got Woz, who explored many variants of the special, rare case of the prank phone call initiated by the recipient. In one prank, which has the cruel simplicity of a Zen koan, he would quickly tell the caller that as the millionth passenger on Pan Am, they had won a lifetime of free travel. In the middle of collecting the caller's personal information, he would hang up, leaving them to confusedly call back and attempt to get confirmation of their fabulous and elusive prize. The proof that people are not completely slaves to our machines is that when the system fails, its failures are not necessarily random. The phone system, with its complexity, vulnerability, and illusion of privacy, is the natural home of the technological trickster. In Shakespeare, the prankster's domain is an enchanted forest.Today, it is the mysterious convolutions of the communications network. Among his other activities, Woz collects phone numbers, and his longtime goal has been to acquire a number with seven matching digits. But for most of Woz's life there were no Silicon Valley exchanges with three matching digits, so Woz had to be satisfied with numbers like 221-1111. Then, one day, while eavesdropping on cell phone calls, Woz begin hearing a new exchange: 888. And then, after more months of scheming and waiting, he had it: 888-8888. This was his new cell-phone number, and his greatest philonumerical triumph. The number proved unusable. It received more than a hundred wrong numbers a day. Given that the number is virtually impossible to misdial, this traffic was baffling. More strange still, there was never anybody talking on the other end of the line. Just silence. Or, not silence really, but dead air, sometimes with the sound of a television in the background, or somebody talking softly in English or Spanish, or bizarre gurgling noises. Woz listened intently. Then, one day, with the phone pressed to his ear, Woz heard a woman say, at a distance, "Hey, what are you doing with that?" The receiver was snatched up and slammed down. Suddenly, it all made sense: the hundreds of calls, the dead air, the gurgling sounds. Babies. They were picking up the receiver and pressing a button at the bottom of the handset. Again and again. It made a noise: "Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep." The children of America were making their first prank call. And the person who answered the phone was Woz. ------------------------------ Subject: Getting the Number of Prank Calls Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 23:32:07 GMT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Published Tuesday, October 27, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News By Jacquelyn Mitchard `YOU'RE sooooo beautiful, honey," the voice on the other end of the phone remarks, in a gruff yet suspiciously muffled tone. "Thanks," I answer, absorbed in cutting off a wayward fingernail. "Want to go out with me tonight?" "Nope," I reply. "I'm a rich movie star." "Yes, I know, Stephen. But what I really want is to talk to your mother and tell her what you're up to, you little prawn." Stephen is a buddy of my son's and right now he's having that (let me clean it up a little bit) oh-shucks moment. You know it. It's the one you have when you realize you've just thrown your arms around the back of a stranger you had thought was your college roommate. The one that overtakes you when you realize you've just introduced your new girlfriend using your old girlfriend's name. It's worse for Stephen, who's got to be all of 8 years old. Modern technology has sabotaged him. I didn't really recognize his voice, and he certainly didn't recognize mine. He planned on making his goofy phone call to the dishy 15-year-old babysitter who sometimes takes care of our younger kids. Caller ID and automatic dial-back gizmos are still sort of magical mysteries to children -- as fax machines were, for a long time, a kind of supernatural phenomenon to me. But those telephone devices have their poignant side, too. Instead of collapsing in giggles in a dark corner of his mother's bedroom, Stephen (and my son is probably in on this, too) is now totaling the damages in lost allowance. Sometimes, it seems that when it comes to mischief today, a kid can't get a break. Don't get me wrong. Even the few slightly menacing phone calls I've received from genuine cranks have been among the most unsettling experiences of my life. I once stood in horror while some man -- I don't know who -- called, muttered and hung up 19 times to the sound of my answering device. Something about a disembodied voice sneaking into your house, next to your ear, through the removed intimacy of the phone line has led to some truly terrifying movies (remember "When a Stranger Calls"?). I'm all in favor of anything that will let all callers, from solicitors to genuine nutso folk, know they no longer enjoy the cloak of anonymity. On the other hand, I kind of feel sorry for my kids. Did I make prank phone calls? Since my children might read this one day, I'll just say I knew nice, sane, well-reared friends who did. I'm sure no one in my area code any longer has Prince Albert in a can (tobacco). But even my kids know the old phone gag: "Why don't you go let him out, then?" You'd call a residence and ask, "Is your refrigerator running?" Or a bar, to ask for a Mister Al Kohalick? Or a fraternity house, to ask for Amanda Love? Not quite the stuff horror movies are made of, and yet, my children won't ever be able to do that. They won't be able to call their crush and hang up in hysterical relief at the sound of his voice. After all, he'd just have to hit Star 69. Last year, when, for the second time, a pair of middle-school girls who had a crush on my older son began sending pizzas with increasingly more bizarre ingredients to our house, it was almost with a sense of pity that I finally used the telephone number of origin -- plainly printed on the pizza sales slip -- to call one of the young women's parents. I'm considering sharing the favorite secret of my dating days with my children, when they reach that age: Many people have their answering machine code taped on their telephone. Should you happen to see that code and happen to use that code to find out who else is leaving messages, no one's the wiser . . . eeeeee! Next thing you know, I'll be toilet-papering houses. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #127 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Nov 9 23:08:07 1998 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id XAA02011; Mon, 9 Nov 1998 23:08:07 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 23:08:07 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199811100408.XAA02011@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #128 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 9 Nov 98 23:08:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 128 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #157, November 9, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) Book Review:REVIEW: "Newton's Telecom Dictionary",Harry Newton (Rob Slade) Adult Site May Sue Netscape (Monty Solomon) Law Enlists ISPs in Piracy Fight (Monty Solomon) Obituary: Tommy Flowers, Engineer Who Cracked German Code (Tad Cook) BMW MAYDAY Cellular Phone (Monty Solomon) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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 Nov 1998 11:55:39 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #157, November 9, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 157: November 9, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * AT&T Canada ............... http://www.attcanada.com/ * * Bell Canada ............... http://www.bell.ca/ * * Lucent Technologies ....... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * MetroNet Communications ... http://www.metronet.ca/ * * Sprint Canada ............. http://www.sprintcanada.ca/ * * Telus Communications....... http://www.telus.com/ * * TigerTel Services ......... http://www.citydial.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** CRTC Rejects Wireless Equal Access ** BC Reseller Offers PCS ** Bell Seeks Payment for Toll-Free Calls ** Rogers Offers Big Bundle ** WIC Connexus Cuts Staff, Fires CEO ** CRTC Rejects Bundling Appeal ** BC Tel Offers SmartTouch Bundle ** Comment Sought On Bell 4-1-1 Plan ** Compaq To Expand Ottawa Call Center ** Netcom On-Line For Sale Again ** Telecom Learning Institute Opens HQ ** Citizens Groups Issue Telecom Charter ** Iridium Launches Commercial Service ** Gedas Sakus Retires ** MT&T Mobility Speeds 9-1-1 Calls ** WilTel Buys CNG ** Will Y2K Affect Your PBX? ** Quarterly Results Bruncor Island Telecom Manitoba Telephone Services MT&T NewTel Teleglobe Telus ** 12 Tips For Better RFPs ============================================================ CRTC REJECTS WIRELESS EQUAL ACCESS: In Telecom Order 98- 1092, the CRTC rejects proposals to require cellular and PCS carriers to allow their customers to choose long distance carriers. The Commission says it is not appropriate to apply the rules set for monopoly wireline carriers to the competitive wireless market. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o981092_.txt BC RESELLER OFFERS PCS: Cityphone Telecommunications has launched PCS service in Vancouver with packages offering 50 minutes of calling for $13.95/month or 150 minutes for $26.95/month. Cityphone, which uses the Microcell network, plans to expand to Victoria, Edmonton, and Calgary by year end. BELL SEEKS PAYMENT FOR TOLL-FREE CALLS: Bell Canada wants to charge competitive carriers and prepaid card providers 25 cents per call when customers dial their toll-free numbers from payphones. In Telecom Public Notice 98-31, the CRTC asks for public comment. To participate, notify the Commission by November 16. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9831_0.txt ROGERS OFFERS BIG BUNDLE: Customers who subscribe to Rogers Cablesystems' top tier cable-TV package are eligible for a new VIP Program which includes 10% discounts on AT&T long distance, Cantel wireless services, and Rogers @Home Internet service. Also included: 8% off cable fees, free movie rentals, 10% discounts at RadioShack, and reduced-rate magazine subscriptions. ** CEO Ted Rogers says the company will begin installing digital set-top boxes by the end of March. WIC CONNEXUS CUTS STAFF, FIRES CEO: WIC Connexus, one of Canada's three LMCS (wireless broadband) licensees, has cut its staff from 50 to 25 people, and replaced CEO Bill Dunbar with Bob Watson, President of Shaw FibreLink. CRTC REJECTS BUNDLING APPEAL: In Telecom Decision 98-20, the CRTC reaffirms its decision allowing Stentor telcos to jointly market and bundle tariffed services with services provided by other companies. The decision had been appealed by a group of LD companies, ISPs, and wireless carriers. ** In a parallel case, CRTC Telecom Order 98-1106 rejects an appeal from the Canadian Cable Television Association to overturn a decision which allowed BC Tel to bundle SmartTouch features with single-line service. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/decision/1998/d9820_0.txt http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o981106_.txt BC TEL OFFERS SMARTTOUCH BUNDLE: BC Tel's residential customers who use the telco's long distance service can now choose up to 10 SmartTouch services for $17.95/month. Customers who use alternative LD suppliers will pay $19.95. COMMENT SOUGHT ON BELL 4-1-1 PLAN: CRTC Public Notice 98-32 seeks comment on a Bell Canada proposal to offer national directory assistance and automated call completion through 4-1-1, and to eliminate some current exemptions from Directory Assistance charges. To participate, notify the CRTC by December 4. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9832_0.txt COMPAQ TO EXPAND OTTAWA CALL CENTER: Compaq Canada says it will triple the size of its Ottawa consumer products call center, hiring 370 more people in the next four months. NETCOM ON-LINE FOR SALE AGAIN: ICG Communications is seeking a buyer for its Netcom On-line subsidiary, which it purchased just 10 months ago. Netcom On-line owns 80% of Netcom Canada, an Internet Service Provider which recently began offering long distance service. TELECOM LEARNING INSTITUTE OPENS HQ: Humber College's Telecommunications Learning Institute, which aims to provide education and training for the telecom industry, has officially launched its new headquarters in Toronto. For information: http://www.tlilearn.com ** Ontario Education and Training Minister David Johnson announced a $3.1-Million grant to Humber College to help fund the Institute. CITIZENS GROUPS ISSUE TELECOM CHARTER: A coalition of 25 consumer and advocacy groups has issued a "Consumer Charter for a Connected Canada" urging government to guarantee affordable telephone service and Internet access in rural and remote areas. The group says that telephone penetration in low-income households fell from 96.6% in 1996 to 94.1% in 1998. IRIDIUM LAUNCHES COMMERCIAL SERVICE: Iridium, the first global telephone service using low earth orbit satellites, launched commercial service on November 1. Service will be offered in Canada through Infosat, PageNet, Mobility Canada, and Microcell. GEDAS SAKUS RETIRES: Gedas Sakus has retired after a 36-year career with Northern Telecom. Sakus was the first engineer hired at Nortel's Bramalea switching plant, and during his career he has been President of Bell-Northern Research, President of Northern Telecom Canada, and President of Nortel Public Carrier Networks. MT&T MOBILITY SPEEDS 9-1-1 CALLS: Effective November 2, 9-1-1 calls on the MT&T Mobility network in Yarmouth, Digby, and Shelburne counties bypass the MT&T operator and go directly to the 9-1-1 call center. The company says it is the first wireless carrier in Canada to implement this. WILTEL BUYS CNG: WilTel Communications (Canada) has purchased CNG Computer Networking Group, an Ottawa-based company that provides multimedia network consulting and remote network management services. WILL Y2K AFFECT YOUR PBX? On November 10 at 2pm Eastern Time, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will hold a two-hour forum on how the Year 2000 problem may affect private networks and customer premises telephone equipment. The forum will be carried live on the Internet in Real Audio. For information, visit: http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/ QUARTERLY RESULTS: Comparing net income for the quarter ended September 30, 1998 with the same quarter last year: ** Bruncor: $10.4 million, compared to $10.5 million. ** Island Telecom: $3.0 million, up from $2.6 million. ** Manitoba Telephone Services: 23.4 million, up from $21.1 million. ** MT&T: $17.8 million, up from $15.3 million. ** NewTel: $9.9 million, down from $10.4 million. ** Teleglobe: $50.2 million (excluding unusual items), up from $38.5 million. ** Telus: $52.7 million, up from $47.9 million 12 TIPS FOR BETTER RFPs: In the November-December Telemanagement, available now, consultant Henry Dortmans offers 12 ways to boost your chances of getting better responses to telecom Request for Proposals. Also: Ian Angus on the Telus-BC Tel merger; John Riddell on AirIQ's vehicle tracking system; Gerry Blackwell on the next wave of satellite phone systems. ** To subscribe to Telemanagement call 1-800-263-4415, ext 225 or visit http://www/teleman/tm.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 10:48:57 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Newton's Telecom Dictionary", Harry Newton Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKNTTLDC.RVW 980621 "Newton's Telecom Dictionary", Harry Newton, 1998, U$29.95, 1-57820-008-3 %A Harry Newton harrynewton@mcimail.com harry_newton@email.msn.com %C 12 West 21 Street, New York, NY 10010 %D 1998 %G 1-57820-008-3 %I Flatiron Publishing, Inc. %O U$29.95 212-691-8215 800-LIBRARY fax 212-691-1191 %P 840 p. %T "Newton's Telecom Dictionary", 14th Edition The very beginning of the introduction to this book is a call for help, and a promise to mention you if you do help out. Since I last reviewed the dictionary, a couple of editions back, I have heard from Newton, about people who didn't help him; from people who wanted to help Newton; from Newton, wanting me to help him; and from people who wanted my advice on whether they should help Newton. Now, some of these people may never have passed along the help to Newton, but I find it odd that *none* of them got mentioned in the acknowledgements this time around. Which is really only to say that if you pass along some help and advice it will be for the warm feeling of contributing to the project, and not for fame or glory. And Newton can use the help, because this is a massive work. There are lots and lots of telecommunications terms, with a fair preponderance of telephony and internet listings. Computer jargon gets a fair amount of space, with MS-DOS related material getting the lion's share. BOB refers to the late, unlamented, and Microsoft- wishes-it-could-be-forgotten product. "Virus" is in there, and it isn't bad. (On the other hand, it hasn't gotten any better over the last two editions.) Management is remembered with the "Osborne Effect" and "Seagull Manager", and the description of "Digital Cash" is written by someone with a firm grasp of reality. The numeric entries for 1791 through 1996 constitute a quick history of telecommunications. The entry for "Call Waiting" refers to the trouble it may give to modems and mentions both the *70 command and the setting of the S10 register. Then there is telecommunications trivia, such as the part played by radio in the saving of the Eiffel Tower, the contribution of the telephone to the English language, and reflections on the Titanic disaster and telecom-related biographies. (You can even learn some erstwhile English terms.) There are useful tables, even within the text such as the listing of North American Area Codes. (Apparently, however, I live in an unimportant area. Other listings in provinces and states with multiple codes list the major cities involved: 604 is "British Columbia, Canada" and 250 is just "British Columbia.") Newton's serious attempt to include more material related to the Internet is evident, but so is a lack of familiarity with the topic. The double backslash (\\) is mentioned as a remote network object, and will be recognized as such by the Windows NT crowd, but the use of the double forward slash (//) for the same concept will be more familiar to the Internet crowd, as will the use of the tilde (~) as the UNIX shortcut for "home directory for this account," and neither of them get mentioned as such. Information on the "cookies" associated with World Wide Web browsing is reasonably good, although the Microsoft party line on the topic gets a lot of space. Ironically, the book then goes on to give you storage information for cookies that is applicable only to the Netscape browser. The listings are quite current, including items such as "SATAN", "RimmJob", "cookie" (with the associated controversy) and even "push" (without the controversy). However, a number of recent concerns, such as the "ping of death," "teardrop attack," and the security weakness in Outlook 98 are not mentioned. The reader will also find some esoteric technical entries, like "Hydrogen Loss" and "Zener Diode". While reviewing the book, I left it at a reception desk for fifteen minutes. That was long enough for the staffer at the desk to inform me, on my return, that the author was a pretty funny guy. Quite true. A number of the definitions are fairly lighthearted, and Newton isn't afraid to throw in subjective comments. A number of listings are *completely* off the wall. What does "Apocalypse, Four Horsemen of" have to do with communications? Or "Apologize", or "FORD" for that matter? Apparently if you are a friend or relative of Newton, there is grave danger that you will end up listed in here. Some of the humorous content does have a closer technical connection, like "Bogon", "Get a Life", and "Psychic ANI". The book is not without flaws. "Skunkworks" owes its origins to Li'l Abner, not a lack of soap. The entry for "Millenium (sic) Bug" talks only about COBOL, and apparently hasn't been updated since the beginning of 1996. ("2000" is a bit more realistic. Neither refers to the other.) And I can cut eight characters out of your "Fox Message." I was surprised not to see any entries for Mailstorm, REXX, or cascaded virtual circuit. "Freeware" is listed (and correct), but shareware and public domain share the same confused definition. (Indeed, the definition of "Sysop" confuses freeware and public domain software.) "Granularity" still doesn't understand that there is a valid technical use of the term, and "BLAST" does not note that it is a proprietary technology. (I *am* willing to forgive a lot to a dictionary that gets "Hacker" right, but Newton loses points by misusing the term under the entry for "SATAN.") Some of the errors noted in the twelfth edition have been corrected, but most have not. While extensive, the work is neither complete nor exhaustive. The book could use some discipline, not in excluding the humour, but in including more extensive, or more accurate, definitions in places. Still, regardless of shortcomings, this is easily one of the two best telecommunications dictionaries available today, and, for breadth of scope, probably *the* best. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997, 1998 BKNTTLDC.RVW 980621 ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Adult Site May Sue Netscape Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 16:54:18 -0500 Malcolm Maclachlan, TechWeb For months, Netscape has been using WhiteHouse.com as an example of the type of smut the Smart Browsing features on its latest browser can filter out. Now the adult website is fighting back. Netscape's Communicator 4.5 has a feature designed to take users to the site it is assumed they want. When a user types "whitehouse" into the address bar, they will be taken to Whitehouse.org, President Clinton's official site, rather than WhiteHouse.com, an opportunistically named adult site that had been capitalizing on mistaken traffic. On Tuesday, lawyers for Dan Parisi, owner of Secaucus, N.J.-based WhiteHouse.com, sent a letter to Netscape attorneys charging a Smart Browsing feature on Communicator 4.5 constitutes a possible infringement of the porn site's legal rights. WhiteHouse.com was the target of a letter from the White House in February, which said the government might take action over trademark infringement. However, WhiteHouse.com remains up at the same address, and even includes political spoofs and links to attorney Kenneth Starr's famous Starr Report. Parisi now owns one non-U.S. trademark to the name and is seeking a U.S. trademark. Parisi also posted the letter on the website NetscapeSucks.com, which he owns. "We believe Netscape's Keyword System is the first step toward the elimination of domain names and the 'Fortune 500 Colonization of the Internet' where free speech and expression will be things of the past," Parisi said in a short preface to the letter. He invites other domain name holders to join him in a possible lawsuit against Netscape, based in Mountain View, Calif. The letter from Parisi's attorney, Michael Calvey of the New York law firm of Armon & Sabatini, makes a number of claims. Foremost among these is Netscape is not complying with established trademarks. Netscape claims the Internet Keywords system recognizes domains that are registered trademarks. However, Calvey said this has been applied sporadically. In particular, other domains that conflict with government entities have been allowed to get traffic. For example, "sec" leads not to the Securities & Exchange Commission, but to a software company, while "Congress" leads to a lobbying firm. Furthermore, Calvey said Netscape has targeted adult sites in its language when talking about Smart Browsing, saying it "finds websites with keywords in lieu of an exact address" and "filters out sites you don't want to see." Netscape has not made an official response to the letter. However, Netscape officials have previously said anyone who writes out a complete URL, such as http://www.whitehouse.com, will go to the site they specified. Therefore, they say, the browser still functions with the established domain name system. Whitehouse.com is the most prominent of a number of sites that have capitalized on confusion in the Internet's addressing system. According to Web research company RelevantKnowledge, Whitehouse.com had 463,000 unique visitors, making it the 437th most popular website in the world. This put it far ahead of competitors such as the website for Penthouse, a long-established men's magazine. Other sites -- many of them also pornographic -- have capitalized on slight misspellings of prominent domain names. One company, TypoNet, has capitalized on this by buying up domains such as Yaho.com, a common misspelling of Yahoo.com, and flashing users' advertising before sending them to their intended destination. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 02:03:49 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Law Enlists ISPs in Piracy Fight http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,28357,00.html By John Borland Staff Writer, CNET News.com November 4, 1998, 5:30 p.m. PT A new set of federal regulations requires Internet service providers to register immediately with the U.S. government, lest they be held legally liable for pirated material that flows through their servers. The new rules, which went into effect yesterday, flow from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was signed by President Clinton last week. The law shields ISPs from being sued for copyright infringement based on their subscribers' postings, so long as they register with the U.S. Copyright Office. The provision is the product of negotiations over the original copyright law, and was accepted reluctantly by service provider industry representatives. "This isn't what we would have wanted. It's a Washington approach to a simple kind of problem," said Dave McClure, executive director of the Association of Online Professionals, a trade group that represents ISPs. Copyright holders had complained that some ISPs were not responding to warnings about pirated material located on their servers, or were claiming ignorance even after being notified. "Copyright holders pushed for a requirement that a person actually be physically designated to receive information about infringement," McClure said. The new law fills a legal gap left by the passage of the Communications Decency Act in 1996. Under that law, ISPs cannot be held liable for slanderous or libelous material that is posted on their services. That provision, which has been tested several times in court already, specifically excludes copyright issues. The new regulations require each ISP to designate a point-person to receive complaints about copyright infringement, and to send that information to the federal copyright office along with a $20 filing fee. The person's name and contact information also must be displayed prominently on the ISP's Web site. The rules went into effect November 3. Any unregistered ISP can legally be held liable for pirated material on its site from now on. The Copyright Office rules are only an interim step in the new law's implementation. Regulators will draft permanent rules and host a public comment period later this year or early next year. ------------------------------ Subject: Obituary: Tommy Flowers, Engineer Who Cracked German Code Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 21:19:38 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Tommy Flowers, engineer who cracked German communications, dead at 92 LONDON (AP) -- Tommy Flowers, who developed a pioneering computer that cracked German military codes in World War II, is dead at 92. Flowers died from heart failure at home in London on Oct. 28, his son Kenneth said Sunday. An engineering graduate of the University of London, Flowers joined the British Post Office, then responsible for all national communications, in the 1930s and experimented in electronic telephone transmissions. In World War II, he was sent to Bletchley Park, 50 miles from London where mathematicians, cryptographers and other experts worked on breaking German military codes. Flowers secretly developed Colossus, a one-ton machine that was able to unscramble coded messages electronically rather than mechanically as had been done. "Colossus had all the characteristics of the computer although it wasn't thought of as a computer at the time," Kenneth Flowers said in a telephone interview. "It could think and made decisions. Up to then these machines had been used just to make numerical calculations." By the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, Flowers had produced another Colossus that worked five times as fast as the original. By the end of the war in 1945, 10 machines were in operation. Thomas Harold Flowers, who was born in London on Dec. 22, 1905, received an honor, Member of the British Empire, for his work in the 1940s, but remained largely unknown to the wider public because the work was kept secret until the '70s. After the war, he returned to the post office and tried to persuade his superiors to use technology to produce an all-electronic phone system. "He spent 20 years trying to persuade them, but he wasn't so successful because he couldn't tell them he had already produced the machine," Kenneth Flowers said. He did not tell his own family of his achievement and the many lives it saved until long after the war. "He told us he worked on something secret and important," his son said. "They were allowed to tell that much in case their wives wondered where they were. But until the '70s he never said anything else. It was a point of honor really." Bletchley Park is now a tourist attraction with a replica of the Colossus. In addition to Kenneth, Flowers is survived by his wife, Eileen, son John, and three grandchildren. The funeral was to be held Monday at Hendon Crematorium in north London. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 21:41:10 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: BMW MAYDAY Cellular Phone Motorola's Telematics Technologies Power New BMW MAYDAY Cellular Phone November 2, 1998 9:32 AM EST SCHAUMBURG, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE--Nov. 2, 1998-- Retailer-installed system offers BMW drivers roadside assistance, emergency response, car-theft notification and remote door unlocking. Motorola (NYSE:MOT) announces it has teamed up with BMW North America, Inc. to introduce the BMW Mayday(TM) Cellular Phone. The new telematics system will be available on all BMW models in late 1998. The phone merges wireless communication and global-positioning satellite technologies to offer drivers 24-hour roadside assistance, emergency response, stolen vehicle notification and remote door unlocking via the BMW Response Center. The complete BMW retailer-installed accessory package will cost $1200, not including regular airtime. The system incorporates Motorola's high-speed GT Plus Oncore(TM) GPS receivers, proprietary cellular handsets, and telematics communications intelligence. The phone offers normal voice functioning and features a dedicated one-touch button for manual system activation to contact the BMW Response Center. In the event of an accident that results in airbag deployment, the phone automatically activates, calling the BMW Response Center with the car's location. The center dispatches emergency services, even in the unfortunate event that the driver and passengers cannot physically activate the system or are unconscious. Roadside mechanical or medical assistance can also be manually summoned via the phone's handset. Pinpoint location information is transmitted to the response center for swift dispatch. In addition to dispatching emergency services, the BMW Response Center can provide other information verbally to the driver. Other BMW Response Center-provided services, which will be available free of charge for the first six months after purchase, include concierge, route guidance and updates on traffic conditions. The system is equipped with a remote door unlock feature that assists the driver in the event that the keys are misplaced or locked in the car. In this instance, a driver can call the BMW Response Center, and upon provision of the proper password, the center will discreetly and remotely unlock the car doors. The phone also offers unprecedented theft protection services by automatically calling the BMW Response Center upon intrusion-alarm activation. The GPS receiver provides the center with the car's location and police are guided to the car. In the event that theft is suspected, but the alarm is not activated, the car owner can initiate a theft-screen inquiry. The service center places a call to the car and requests a password from the driver. If the password is incorrect, the center locates the car and again guides police to its location. "BMWs are vehicles designed for people who love to own and drive their cars," said Robert Denaro, vice president and director, Motorola's Telematics Information Systems. "We are very pleased that BMW of North America has selected Motorola's cellular and GPS technology and telematics expertise to ensure that BMW ownership is as safe and enjoyable as possible." BMW of North America, Inc. was established in 1975, at which point the company assumed marketing and distribution responsibilities for BMW automobiles in the U.S. from the previous private distributor. Motorcycle marketing and distribution were added in 1980. Since then, the company's North American operations have grown to include marketing, sales and financial-services organizations in the United States and Canada. BMW is represented in North America through a network of BMW Centers in the U.S. and Canada, including more than 375 for automobiles and 190 for motorcycles. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the brand's North American headquarters, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Information about BMW products is available to consumers via the World Wide Web on the BMW homepage. The address is http://www.bmwusa.com. Motorola is a global leader in advanced electronic systems and services. It creates software-driven products that provide integrated customer solutions and Internet access via wireless and satellite communications, as well as computing, networking, and automotive electronics. Motorola also liberates the power of technology by providing essential digital building blocks in the form of embedded semiconductors, controls and systems. Sales in 1997 were $29.8 billion. For further press information, including photos, please contact: Allyson Stinchfield, Citigate DGPR, Tel +1 312 372 6144 or Fax +1 312 372 1409 and e-mail: afield@mcs.net. Additional sources of information Company Profile - From E*TRADE: MOT Stock Charts - From Quote.Com: MOT SEC Filings - From EDGAR Online: MOT Company Capsule - From Hoover's Online: MOT Quick Facts - From Market Guide: MOT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #128 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Nov 19 16:54:55 1998 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id QAA24899; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 16:54:55 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 16:54:55 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199811192154.QAA24899@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #129 TELECOM Digest Thu, 19 Nov 98 16:54:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 129 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Web Navigation", Jennifer Fleming (Rob Slade) Rob Slade's Review of my Work (Harry Newton) GTE's Plan May Set Off Scramble for Phone Lines in Nebraska,Iowa (Tad Cook) Bell Atlantic Makes Long Distance Play (Monty Solomon) Last Workers Leave Ameritech Office in Milwaukee (Tad Cook) "When You Turn it Off, it Never Comes Back on." Y2K Item (T.Zafiropoulos) MCI Ordered To End 'Casual' Rates (Mike Pollock) All You Ever Wanted to Know About Tones (Garrett Wollman) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 10:05:57 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Web Navigation", Jennifer Fleming Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKWBNVGN.RVW 981017 "Web Navigation", Jennifer Fleming, 1998, 1-56592-351-0, U$34.95/C$49.95 %A Jennifer Fleming jennifer@squarecircle.com %C 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472 %D 1998 %G 1-56592-351-0 %I O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. %O U$34.95/C$49.95 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com %P 288 p. + CD-ROM %T "Web Navigation: Designing the User Experience" Chapter one is supposed to address the definition of "navigation" for the purpose of the book. Instead we have a very vague scolding of site designers for not paying attention to user needs. While I am in full agreement with the statement that Web design needs work, the material here doesn't seem to help, or even start to point the way. Most of the list of navigation principles, in chapter two, makes sense. However, some get too involved in the latest cute technology, and even fly in the face of one principle that is *not* included: sites should not demand specific technologies. This point is tacitly admitted in chapter three, where surveys of users note that demands to install plug-ins and instruction to enable JavaScript are not welcome. However, the titular subject of designing for users seems to get a bit lost. (There is also an odd reference to the "80/20 rule." Usually this refers to the Pareto principle, but here it is used to suggest that if 80 percent of your users are happy, that's good enough.) The standard suggestions for site organization are given in chapter four. Interaction design throws a few interesting conceptual ideas into chapter five, but little useful advice. Chapter six uses a standard planning cycle in a standard way. The latter half of the book looks at example sites in six different categories. Chapter seven reviews some retail sites, but in a very limited manner. For example, a major concern is said to be security. Reassuring a customer about security seems to be confined to stating "our site is secure." Similarly, several questions are raised about "community" Web sites but chapter eight's exemplar sites don't appear to address those queries fully. It is difficult to say anything about entertainment sites from chapter nine. I'm not even sure what chapter ten refers to as "identity" sites, but they look a lot like simple vanity pages. Perhaps the less said about education, in chapter eleven, the better. Chapter twelve's look at "information" sites is limited to the news media and more retail. The first six chapters provide some directions for further reading. There is also a "netography" in Appendix C. This book is no worse than dozens of others on Web design, but it's no better, either. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKWBNVGN.RVW 981017 rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@sprint.ca robertslade@usa.net p1@canada.com Subscribe to techbooks mailing list at techbooks-subscribe@egroups.com or via the WEb at http://www.eGroups.com/list/techbooks/ Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses, 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER) ------------------------------ From: Harry Newton" Subject: Rob Slade's Review of my Work Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 11:56:14 -0500 Newton's Telecom Dictionary - Updated Review From Harry_Newton@email.msn.com A sincerest thank you to Rob Slade for the very complimentary review of my dictionary, which you published in your Mon, 9 Nov 98 issue. Let me make some comments on his comments: 1. I really do make an effort to include all the names of the kind people who help me with definitions. If they help with many definitions, I include them up front in the Introduction. (It includes over 44 names.) If it's just one definition, I include them directly in the definition. If I've omitted someone, it's my fault and you should chide me in an email. I'll include you in the next edition. 2. I've taken out all the antique computer stuff, including MS-DOS. I buried Microsoft's BOB and Fax At Work. I think I've fixed the area codes, though I'm tempted to drop them since the Web does a better job. 3. I've fixed all the forward and backslashes. 4. I've including a vast panoply of new words covering all the new telecom technologies, including IP telephony, computer telephony, xDSL, cable modems, Bluetooth, etc etc. 5. I've expanded the dictionary to include every Internet definition relating directly or indirectly to communications. I've fixed all the problems Mr. Slade found. Actually he found very few. My dictionary now has definitions of over 16,000 words and is over 900 pages of teeny-tiny type. But I'm not perfect, nor is my dictionary. I make this offer to readers of TELECOM Digest. Contribute a word I don't have; fix a word that I have and I'll send you a complimentary copy of the latest edition of my dictionary. By the way, the cheapest and best place to buy a copy of my dictionary is www.Amazon.com ------------------------------ Subject: GTE's Plan May Set Off Scramble for Phone Lines in Nebraska, Iowa Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 14:03:43 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Melinda Norris, Omaha World-Herald, Neb. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Nov. 16--GTE's plan to sell its telephone exchanges in Nebraska and Iowa presents phone companies in the two states with a rare opportunity to expand their service areas. It also creates an opening for an outsider to become a dominant player in the Nebraska and Iowa markets. GTE has said it intends to raise $2 billion to $3 billion in after-tax proceeds from the sale of operations in 13 states. It would use the money to finance a plunge into the higher-tech end of the telecommunications field and into more urban markets. The company, which serves residential and business customers with 21.5 million access lines in 28 states, wants to sell all its operations in eight states and some of its exchanges in five others. "There's a lot of interest in our properties," said Jim Larsen, a GTE spokesman in Grinnell, Iowa. More than 200 companies already have indicated they would be potential buyers, the company said. Plans to sell exchanges in Nebraska, where GTE is the third-largest telephone company, puts phone service in 37 communities with 67,400 access lines on the auction block. In Iowa, GTE is much larger. Second only to U S West, GTE touches every corner of the state with 307,000 access lines. Access lines are the phone cables that connect the phone network to homes and businesses. Many homes may have one; a business may have dozens. GTE would continue to offer long-distance and Internet access and some other services in Nebraska and Iowa. One stipulation of the sale is that the buyers keep the GTE employees, 77 in Nebraska and 413 in Iowa. GTE is selling because it is changing its business strategy. The company has thrived as one of the largest independent providers of what the industry calls "plain old telephone service" to small-town and big-city residents and businesses. Now it wants to be a major player in providing high-speed and Internet-based technologies to customers in large metropolitan areas. Revenue from the sale of the exchanges will help GTE make investments in this new direction. Already, GTE is involved in one of the fastest roll-outs of ADSL technology, hoping to install the high-speed data service in 30 markets in 16 states by the end of the year. GTE also is buying a 25 percent stake in a nationwide high-speed, fiber-optic network that Qwest Communications Inc. of Denver is building. Qwest, which is competing with Omaha's Level 3 Communications Inc., intends to connect every major metropolitan area in the country. The biggest transformation for GTE is yet to come. In July, Bell Atlantic announced it intends to buy GTE in a $79.9 billion transaction, creating a telecommunications giant with operations in 38 states. The transaction is awaiting regulatory approval. "Strategically, it doesn't fit our future," Larsen said of offering basic telephone services in Nebraska and Iowa. "But for some other company, it may fit with their plans very well." Possible bidders in Nebraska would include Aliant Communications of Lincoln and Great Plains Communications of Blair. Aliant, Nebraska's second largest telephone company, already has expanded its telecommunication services beyond its original 23-county territory in the southeastern corner of the state. Acquiring GTE's territories in central Nebraska would be a logical move. "We're studying the opportunity," said Elaine Carpenter, Aliant spokeswoman. Great Plains is examining how a potential GTE acquisition would affect operations, said Dan Wengert, director of marketing. "We're always interested in this kind of opportunity and are reviewing our options at this time," Wengert said. Great Plains, which serves large rural areas throughout the state, is smaller than GTE with 33,000 access lines. By acquiring neighboring GTE territories, Great Plains would more than double in size and gain lucrative telecommunications markets, such as Columbus and Kearney. U S West, the largest phone company in Nebraska and Iowa, is not expected to make an offer for GTE's exchanges. A bid by the regional Bell operating company would be a reversal of its efforts to trim the size of its rural service areas. U S West sold 28 Nebraska exchanges in 1996 and 23 Iowa exchanges in 1997. Complicating a purchase is a GTE stipulation that it will sell each state network as a whole, rather than sell different exchanges within each state to different buyers. U S West had the same stipulation when it put its rural exchanges on the sale block. The Nebraska exchanges were purchased by a consortium of four Nebraska telephone companies, which divided up the exchanges among themselves following the sale. The same thing may happen with the GTE sale. Nebraska Central Telephone Co. of Gibbon, one of the four U S West consortium members, is interested in bidding for the GTE property with partners. "We'd be looking at one or two of the exchanges," President Duncan McGregor said. GTE owns the Ord exchange, which is surrounded by Nebraska Central Telephone. McGregor also is interested in Greeley. Nebraska telephone companies would have to move quickly to put together a consortium bid, he said. "They want to fast-track" the sale, McGregor said. GTE will seek final sales agreements by mid-1999, closing on the deals during the remainder of the year and in 2000. Bidders could come from out-of-state, said Gene Hand, director of the Nebraska Public Service Commission. The exchanges could be acquired through a purchase or a property swap. GTE has indicated it would swap the Nebraska and Iowa exchanges for facilities in other parts of the United States that would further its new business strategy. A swap would be attractive, for example, if GTE could expand operations surrounding its regional offices in Tampa, Fla., Thousand Oaks, Calif., and Dallas. Hand said an outsider would be interested in the Nebraska exchanges because they include service to the campus of the University of Nebraska at Kearney and a community with large manufacturing operations, Columbus. "Both Kearney and Columbus would be attractive properties," Hand said. Despite the opportunities for expansion, bidding on the GTE exchanges is risky considering the new competitive telecommunications environment, Hand said. "Whoever buys it is going to have a considerable amount of debt," he said. The buyer can't pass the acquisition costs on to the consumer by increasing rates because competitors could undercut the price, he said. When U S West sold its Omaha properties, buyers paid about $4,000 per access line, Hand said. Aliant and other Nebraska phone companies may decide such a price for GTE properties would be too expensive, he said. It might be less expensive to compete in the GTE markets by building their own facilities and leasing space on GTE's cables. "Why buy our way in?" Hand said of competitors' thinking. "Why not build our way in?" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 21:59:36 PST From: monty@roscom.com (Monty Solomon) Subject: Bell Atlantic Makes Long Distance Play Bell Atlantic makes long distance play By John Borland November 16, 1998, 5:55 p.m. PT http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C28878%2C00.html?sas.mail Bell Atlantic filed with New Jersey state regulators today for permission to enter that state's long distance telephone markets. The filing is the company's third attempt to gain state approval to enter long distance markets in its home territory. Earlier filings in New York and Pennsylvania are still under consideration by regulators. "We're working closely with [the state Board of Public Utilities] and our competitors to ensure that Bell Atlantic's long distance filing will receive the Board's support and the approval of the Federal Communications Commission," saidBell Atlantic CEO William Freeman in a statement. "The sooner we're allowed into the long distance business, the sooner we can provide customers with a full range of communications products and services," Freeman added. Bell Atlantic, like the other dominant local telephone companies around the U.S., are required under the 1996 Telecommunications Act to open up their home markets to competition before being allowed to offer long distance service to their existing customers. Each company is required to satisfy every point on a 14-step checklist, ensuring that they are opening their facilities, sharing their network resources, and genuinely allowing competitors into the market. The Baby Bells have filed for permission to enter long distance markets in more than a dozen states. To date, none of these petitions have been granted. Most recently, the FCC blocked BellSouth's entry into Louisiana's long-distance market. BellSouth asked federal regulators to reconsider that decision last week. Bell Atlantic proposed a series of commitments to New Jersey regulators, in return for the state Board of Public Utility's endorsement for the company's federal petition to offer long distance service. The company offered to package pieces of its residential services, such as Caller ID, with ISDN high-speed data service for competitors for a low monthly fee. Officials also said they would commit to developing a way for competitors' billing and operations systems to communicate electronically with Bell Atlantic's system. Much of this work has already been done, officials added. "New Jersey consumers will realize the promise of the Telecommunications Act when all players are allowed to offer all services," Freeman said. "Bell Atlantic is committed to becoming a full service provider, able to offer all our customers the benefits of choice, increased competition and the convenience of one-stop shopping.'' New Jersey citizens spend about $8 billion on telecommunications services annually, with about $3.8 billion of that going toward long distance calls. Bell Atlantic has sold about 35,000 lines to potential competitors for resale, which company officials say underscores their commitment to competition. The figure marks only a small fraction of the state's 2.5 million total lines, however. Meanwhile, regulators are also scrutinizing Bell Atlantic's business practices as a result of its proposed merger with GTE, the second-largest local phone company in the nation. Public comments on the merger are due to the FCC by December 23. ------------------------------ Subject: Last Workers Leave Ameritech Office in Milwaukee Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 09:47:43 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Lee Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Nov. 12--After buying pizza for the remaining 45 employees, Ameritech Corp. closed its customer service calling center in Milwaukee Wednesday afternoon. The office had employed 399 employees in March when the telephone company first announced plans to shut down the facility and move some of the jobs elsewhere. Ameritech said it was able to keep 60 percent of the workers, who took jobs at other call centers in its five-state region, or who went to work for other units of the Chicago-based local phone company. "We are delighted by the fact that 60 percent will be continuing their careers at Ameritech," said spokesman Ralph Deptolla. "These are highly skilled people, and we are thrilled that we could keep them." He said that about 240 people are staying with Ameritech about 140 took jobs at other calling centers and another 100 are working for other parts of the company. Eighty employees moved to Appleton to work in an Ameritech calling center there, and others have moved to centers in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, Deptolla said. But a Communications Workers of America official called the closing "tragic" because the decision eliminated an important business from Milwaukee's central city. "You just hate to lose jobs in the city of Milwaukee, especially good jobs like this, on a bus line in the central city," said George Walls, president of Local 4603. Employees were paid $246 to $712 a week, depending on seniority. Employees reached the top of the scale after five years on the job. The facility is located at 845 N. 35th S t. The last employees left about noon Wednesday after being treated to pizza, Walls said. "It was pretty somber; reality had set in," he said. "There were hugs and tears." A calling center in Lansing, Mich., also closed on Wednesday both closings the result of consolidation in residential calling centers by the company. Ameritech announced plans earlier this year to eliminate $3 billion in expenses through 2002 in the hope of sustaining ten percent annual growth in earnings. Walls said pressure by politicians helped stretch out the closing, but he said he never thought Ameritech intended to keep the facility open. Ameritech has no current plans for the building. ------------------------------ From: Tony Zafiropoulos Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 15:56:45 GMT Subject: When you Turn it Off, it Never Comes Back On. Year 2000 Nightmare Chesterfield, MO - November 12, 1998 - Archaic PBX User The Year 2000 mantra is on. The big question is... do we wait until 1/1/2000 or do we spend precious resources today to avert any 'potential' issues? The FCC brought together various factions to address the Y2000 issue, and these three items stood out: 1. User testing uncovers Y2000 problem with systems. 2. 15 to 20% of Bell Atlantics Nortel installed customer base has been Y2000 converted. 3. Y2000 software fixes will have distribution problems. In the forum two themes were prevalant, the manufacturer theme - Everything is ok, our products are compliant, we are doing everything possible, so there is no Y2000 problems. The second theme is the users theme - has anyone tested this PBX? Cathy Hotka, a representative of The Retail Federation tested a PBX of one of its members, she remarked: "One problem we've encountered with large retailers, as well as small ones, is we had one that looked at a PBX they had and tested it, so they moved the date ahead to February 29th, two thousand. It worked great. Until they did what any of us did in the computer business which is turn it off. People who are not in that business may not know that. When you turn it off, it never comes back on." Out of the millions of people with Nortel equipment the issue is, in getting to that end user. "I would give you an estimate that we're between fifteen to twenty percent converted on that install base. " says Tom Bohan from Bell Atlantic. John White with Nortel: "In Nortel's case the issue is not the switch. Our switches have been compliant since introduced so it is a software fix which will be relatively easy from a manufacturing standpoint. Our worry would be the distributor capacity to install that software upgrade if the fifteen to twenty percent doesn't move up in a hurry." FCC Y2000 commission forum November 10th, 1998 2-4 pm, website transcript is at FCC's Website http://www.fcc.gov ------------------------------ From: Mike Pollock Subject: MCI Ordered To End 'Casual' Rates Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 09:53:35 -0500 By JEANNINE AVERSA Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) MCI WorldCom must stop charging certain customers its highest rate, a practice federal regulators have concluded is illegal. The Federal Communications Commission's order Tuesday responds to two complaints against MCI, made before it merged with WorldCom Inc., over ``casual calling'' or ``nonsubscriber'' rates. These are customers who, for various reasons, are dropped from the phone company's billing system. Once that happens, customers who make long-distance calls are charged the company's highest rate. MCI's casual customers pay a $2.49 surcharge and 38 cents a minute for each call. MCI spokesman Brad Burns wouldn't say how many customers would be affected by the FCC's order, but he defended the legality of the company's ``nonsubscriber'' rates. The FCC didn't order MCI to make refunds to all affected customers, only to the two companies that filed the complaints. To be eligible for refunds, affected customers would need to file individual complaints. The FCC's action applies only to customers who selected MCI as their primary long-distance carrier and then were billed at the company's highest rate. It does not apply to people who have not chosen MCI as their primary long-distance carrier but use it occasionally by dialing an access code. Customers who choose MCI as their main long-distance carrier ``may reasonably consider themselves ``subscribers,'' the FCC said. ``The practice of charging these customers nonsubscriber rates is inherently confusing and therefore unreasonable,'' the commission concluded. The FCC said MCI's tariff for its ``nonsubscriber'' rates violates communications laws and regulations by not clearly and explicitly stating when customers would incur these charges. MCI WorldCom responded that it is ``confident our charges and practices fully conform with our tariffs and our tariffs fully conform with all applicable laws and regulations.'' The FCC ordered MCI to make refunds to the two companies that filed the complaints: the law firm Halprin, Temple, Goodman & Sugrue and Freedom Technologies Inc., a telecommunications consulting company owned by Albert Halprin, a partner in the law firm, and his wife. Together the refunds would total ``hundreds of dollars,'' said Kevin McGilly, who spoke on behalf of both companies. Industrywide, casual customers account for three to four percent of all U.S. long-distance customers, MCI officials have said. Halprin, a former regulator with the FCC, estimates consumers are being overcharged billions of dollars through these casual calling, or nonsubscriber, rates. MCI's rates are not subject to FCC approval, but the commission has the power to ensure phone rates are ``just and reasonable.'' The FCC concluded that MCI's practice of charging nonsubscriber rates is unreasonable, but didn't rule on whether the rates themselves are unreasonable. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 21:33:39 EST From: Garrett Wollman Subject: All You Ever Wanted to Know About Tones I thought TCD readers might be interested in the Web site mentioned in the mailing-list posting below: ------ start of forwarded message (RFC 934 encapsulation) ------- Message-ID: <36537C49.39E633FD@cs.columbia.edu> From: Henning Schulzrinne To: rem-conf@es.net Subject: Tones Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 21:02:49 -0500 In case people are interested in more telephone "folklore": a listing of all tones, from Albania to Zimbabwe, can be found at http://support.dialogic.com/resources/tones/. ------- end ------- Garrett A. Wollman | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same wollman@lcs.mit.edu | O Siem / The fires of freedom Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #129 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Nov 21 00:12:03 1998 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id AAA13857; Sat, 21 Nov 1998 00:12:03 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 00:12:03 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199811210512.AAA13857@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #130 TELECOM Digest Sat, 21 Nov 98 00:12:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 130 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #158, November 16, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) Southwestern Bell Competitors' T-1 Service Costs 26% Less (Zafiropoulos) Southwestern Bell Struggles to Keep Up with Demand in North Texas (T.Cook) New Arizona NPA (Dave Stott) Overlays in 215 & 610 in Pa. (Carl Moore) Kentucky to Split Area Code Region to Combat Number Shortage (Tad Cook) Teen Accused of Downloading Porn (Monty Solomon) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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, 20 Nov 1998 11:58:17 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #158, November 16, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 158: November 16, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * AT&T Canada ............... http://www.attcanada.com/ * * Bell Canada ............... http://www.bell.ca/ * * Lucent Technologies ....... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * MetroNet Communications ... http://www.metronet.ca/ * * Sprint Canada ............. http://www.sprintcanada.ca/ * * Telus Communications....... http://www.telus.com/ * * TigerTel Services ......... http://www.citydial.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Cancom, Star Choice Join Forces ** Bell Signs NCR for National Sales, Support ** Highpoint Buys 50% of North American Gateway ** MTS Intros Prepaid Cellular ** Revenue Rises at Clearnet ** AT&T Adopts Inlogic LNP Software ** Bell Offers New Messaging Options ** Directors Replaced at Phonettix ** Bell Blinks on SmartRoute ** Canada Payphone CEO Resigns ** Harris Expands Wireless Facilities ** Bell to Provide Airport Internet Kiosks ** Bell Mobility Adds E-Mail ** Comment Sought on Northwestel DA Charges ** Mpact Buys E-Banking Provider ** BCE Increases Teleglobe Stake ** Challenge to BC Tel Bundling Overruled ** Law Enforcement Net to Track Telemarketing Fraud ** MT&T Restructures Centrex ** Nortel Unified Messaging Adds Speech Recognition ** TIW World Revenue Grows ** Y2K Forum Transcript Available ** Canada's World-Leading Optical Network ============================================================ CANCOM, STAR CHOICE JOIN FORCES: Canadian Satellite Communications (Cancom) and satellite TV broadcaster Star Choice have announced plans to merge. Both are controlled by Shaw Communications; the deal is subject to shareholder and CRTC approval. ** Cancom has secured nine transponders on Telesat Canada's Anik F1 satellite, which is to go into service in 2000. BELL SIGNS NCR FOR NATIONAL SALES, SUPPORT: Bell Canada Gateways (Bell’s business terminal, cabling, and internetworking division) has signed an agreement with NCR, under which NCR will provide national installation and maintenance services and joint sales to business customers of Bell and Bell’s still-unnamed national broadband company. HIGHPOINT BUYS 50% OF NORTH AMERICAN GATEWAY: Vancouver- based Highpoint Telecommunications, which describes itself as "an emerging international carrier," has signed a letter of intent to purchase 50% of Toronto-based North American Gateway (NAG) for US$6.5 Million and 3 million Highpoint shares. MTS INTROS PREPAID CELLULAR: MTS Mobility has introduced Mobility to Go, a prepaid service which can be used on any cellular or PCS phone. REVENUE RISES AT CLEARNET: Clearnet's third-quarter airtime revenue was $40 Million, 24% higher than the previous quarter; losses before interest, taxes and depreciation decreased by $7.9 Million. Net loss for the quarter: $138 Million. ** Clearnet has borrowed $350 Million from CIBC and has begun PCS service in London, Ontario. AT&T ADOPTS INLOGIC LNP SOFTWARE: AT&T Canada Long Distance Services has become the second Canadian carrier to acquire a Local Number Portability system from Toronto-based Inlogic Software. (See Telecom Update #152) BELL OFFERS NEW MESSAGING OPTIONS: Ottawa subscribers to Bell Canada's Call Answer Plus and Sympatico can now use their PC to manage and reply to voice mail and receive a phone message when e-mail comes in. http://www.bell.ca/msglink DIRECTORS REPLACED AT PHONETTIX: Major shareholders, including company founder Dorothy Millman, have joined forces to replace the Board of Directors of call-center outsourcer Phonettix Intelecom. The new Board will be chaired by Tony Keenan. BELL BLINKS ON SMARTROUTE: Responding to "many comments received from its customers," Bell Canada has cancelled plans to withdraw the SmartRoute family of Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) services. (See Telecom Update #147, #153) CANADA PAYPHONE CEO RESIGNS: Roly Morris, the ex-Starbucks executive who became President and CEO of Canada Payphone only two months ago, resigned November 6 "for personal reasons." ** Canada Payphone now has several payphones operating in downtown Toronto, and expects to begin its Vancouver rollout shortly. HARRIS EXPANDS WIRELESS FACILITIES: Harris Canada plans to invest $133 Million (including $18 Million from the Federal Government) to expand its wireless and semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Montreal and Calgary. BELL TO PROVIDE AIRPORT INTERNET KIOSKS: Bell Canada says it will install 11 Internet and e-mail kiosks in Montreal-area airport facilities in the first quarter of 1999. BELL MOBILITY ADDS E-MAIL: Bell Mobility is joining with Wireless Knowledge (a Qualcomm/Microsoft joint venture) to offer wireless access to e-mail and information services. A market trial is planned early next year. COMMENT SOUGHT ON NORTHWESTEL DA CHARGES: CRTC Telecom Public Notice 98-33 seeks comment on Northwestel's application to increase its Directory Assistance charge to $1.10 from $1.00. Comments are due December 14. MPACT BUYS E-BANKING PROVIDER: Mpact Immedia, a Bell Canada subsidiary, has bought Thornhill, Ontario-based Newstar Technologies for $50 Million. Newstar makes electronic banking systems. BCE INCREASES TELEGLOBE STAKE: In connection with the closing of the Teleglobe-Excel merger, BCE is exercising its option to increase its stake in the combined company to 20%. (See Telecom Update #156) CHALLENGE TO BC TEL BUNDLING OVERRULED: CRTC Telecom Order 98-1135 overrules objections by Call-Net to the Commission's approval of BC Tel promotion that offers of SmartTouch and long distance bonuses to "loyal residential customers." (See Telecom Update #145) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o981135_.txt LAW ENFORCEMENT NET TO TRACK TELEMARKETING FRAUD: On November 13 federal and provincial consumer affairs ministers launched Canshare, an Internet-based network for law enforcement agencies. One of Canshare's goals is "faster tracking of deceptive telemarketing." MT&T RESTRUCTURES CENTREX: The CRTC has approved MT&T tariff changes which simplify and reduce Centrex rates for customers in Bands A & B, effective February 8. The new monthly rates range from $30.15 to $40.50, depending on number of locals and length of contract. The Commission has not yet ruled on an identical application for Band C, where these rates are below cost. http://www.crtc.gc.ca:80/eng/proc_rep/telecom/1998/8740/m1-722.html NORTEL UNIFIED MESSAGING ADDS SPEECH RECOGNITION: Nortel Networks has announced CallPilot, a unified messaging system featuring speech recognition, which will integrate with a variety of e-mail systems and PBXs. Availability: end of 1998. TIW WORLD REVENUE GROWS: Telesystem International Wireless, an international wireless carrier, reports third-quarter revenue of $124 Million, compared to $19.6 Million last year. TIW's loss for the quarter was $32 Million. Y2K FORUM TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE: A transcript of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's November 10 forum on the Year 2000 problem (see Telecom Update #157) is available at http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/archive/tr111098.txt CANADA'S WORLD-LEADING OPTICAL NETWORK: Bill St. Arnaud, CANARIE's Director of Network Projects, explains how Canada's CA*net 3, the world's first national optical Internet network, is leading the way to a new generation of low-cost, high-speed nets, in the November-December issue of Telemanagement. ** Also in Telemanagement #160: Lis Angus asks "Can You Be Tricked Into Switching Long Distance Carriers?" and Rob Slade reviews an outstanding book on xDSL services. ** To subscribe to Telemanagement call 1-800-263-4415, ext 225 or visit http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: Tony Zafiropoulos Date: Fri,20 Nov 1998 19:31:00 GMT Subject: Southwestern Bell Competitors' T-1 Monthly Service Costs 26% Less Computer Phone system takes advantage of new environment. CTiTEK Inc. Tony Zafiropoulos (314) 504-3974 tonyz@ctitek.com www.ctitek.com Chesterfield, MO - November 11, 1998- Southwestern Bell's (SWB) competition 'The CLEC Companies', are poised to overtake the prime business customers. If a business has more than 8 phone lines they will save money with T-1 services. CLEC stands for Competitive Local Exchange Carrier. In late 1997 the CLEC's were given permission to compete with SWB by the Missouri Public Service Commission. A standard business phone line costs about $60 per month. For 8 phone lines that would be about $480. Using one of the new competitors' digital phone service (T-1) 8 lines cost $355 (additional lines cost $20). SWB sells their T-1 line at a much higher rate, sometimes as much as $1000. (T-1 costs depend on distances from businesses to the SWB central offices as well as additional add-ons such as DID - Direct Inward Dialing) A T-1 line may require businesses to install new phone systems which can accept the new lower cost digital line. Zafiropoulos, the president of CTiTEK states:" The Artisoft TeleVantage phone system release 2.1 is designed to accept T-1 and standard 'analog' phone lines. It is the perfect complement of the new telecom environment." Old phone systems will not handle T-1 lines, thus requiring small businesses to upgrade. ------------------------------ Subject: Southwestern Bell Struggles to Keep Up with Demand in North Texas Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 08:03:55 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Bruce Hight, Austin American-Statesman, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Nov. 13--It's a new form of call waiting, but neither Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. nor its customers like it. Shawn Beers, of Round Rock, had to wait more than a month before getting a local telephone line installed. State regulations require Southwestern Bell to complete at least 95 percent of such orders within five working days. "I think what happened is that they didn't plan correctly for the growth in that neighborhood," said Beers, who moved into a new home in the Stone Canyon subdivision. and is an engineer at a major electronics firm. "I think they were just putting me off." Down in Southwest Austin, near Brodie Lane and William Cannon Boulevard Drive, Leslie Perrydore and her roommate recently had to wait several weeks before her line was installed, although she had moved into an older home. Southwestern Bell, she said, told her "a different thing every time" when she asked about the delay. In both cases, the reason was essentially the same, said company officials: Southwestern Bell had to install new equipment to handle a surge in demand for phone lines, both in new suqbdivisions and established neighborhoods. "I'm not going to kid you -- it's a struggle to keep up with the growth," said Dennis Harris, Southwestern Bell's regional vice president for network operations in North Texas, which includes the metropolitan Austin area. "But it's a good struggle to have." In the Austin metropolitan area, Harris said, Southwestern Bell is getting 13,000 orders for new service a month, about 30 percent more than three years ago. To meet that increasing demand, the company is spending a record $112 million this year on expanding and upgrading its network in the Austin area -- about double the amount spent just a few years ago, Harris said. And in the past three years, he said, he has's added 250 employees to network operations, including 200 installers and another 50 who back them up in Southwestern Bell facilities. Southwestern Bell says it has 718 employees in the Austin area assigned to network installation, connections and repairs. Part of the growth comes from ever more people moving into the area, but there's also an increase in demand from those who already have a line. Until a few years ago, Southwestern Bell built its network calculating it needed an average of 1.3 lines per household, Harris said. Now, because of the increasing demand for lines for fax machines, Internet connections, and second, third and even fourth telephones for various members of the family or those who work at home, Southwestern Bell figures about 2.5 lines per household is about right. "Only four years ago, there would have been a lot fewer (lines built in a neighborhood)," Harris said. "We've seen this thing just explode in the last three to four years." In the eight-state area served by SBC Communications Inc., which owns Southwestern Bell, none is growing faster than the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin areas, Harris said. Southwestern Bell beats the state's five-day goal for connecting new lines 97.5 percent of the time in the Austin area, Harris said. That slips a bit during particularly heavy order periods, such as the late August when students return to the University of Texas, he said. "From our perspective we're doing a good job of keeping up with it in spite of the way we're growing," Harris said. Still, there's that other 2.5 percent. Perrydore, who works at an electronics firm, said that although she waited about a month for her phone line, she finally got it, and "everything's fine now." Beers feels differently. Southwestern Bell records show that Beers first requested service on July 20 but didn't get it until Sept. 1. Beers, who moved here recently from Seattle, said Southwestern Bell employees gave varying explanations for the delay. And the delay was more than an annoyance; as an engineer on call all hours of the night, he sometimes got pages in the middle of the night. Beers said he would go to a convenience store to call the plant back. (The family has a wireless phone, but only for emergencies, he said.) The reason for the delay, said Kate Lowery, a spokeswoman for Southwestern Bell, is that the company had to install a "pair gain" to keep up with explosive growth in the area. A pair gain is an electronic device that can boost the amount of phone traffic carried by a trunk line. Beers said the phone company gave him a $100 credit on his bill for the delays and that his new phone line works fine, but when the opportunity comes he'll sign up with somebody else: "I don't want to give Southwestern Bell any more of my business." Southwestern Bell doesn't yet face much competition for its local service, but it expects to. So when told of Beers' comments, Harris moaned and said, "Of course, that's the worseworst thing I could possibly hear. We realize that if we have too many of these people that's going to hurt us and our market share. We don't want that." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 14:15:44 -0700 From: Dave Stott Subject: New Arizona NPA Well the Arizona Corporation Commission finally decided that the new NPA will overlay the 602 NPA. This means the news media is having a field day with 'ten-digit dialing' and 'two area codes in the same home' horror stories. Like we can't take 2 seconds to add 602 before the numbers we dial. Have a good Thanksgiving, and remember who you're thanking and why! Dave Stott 2HELP Consulting Phone: (602) 831-7355 Fax: (602) 831-1176 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 98 13:28:12 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Overlays in 215 & 610 in Pa. You've probably already heard of 215/267 and 610/484 overlays in southeastern Pa. Today, KYW news-radio in Philadelphia said, not these exact words, that permissive dialing begins in December with mandatory coming next June. I am hearing "10 digits" and it is not clear if the leading 1 will have to be included. 215 & 610 currently have: 7D for local & long distance within area code 1+NPA+7D (leading 1 is included, right?) for local & long distance to different area code and from earlier blurbs you probably know that that's different from what Maryland had before its overlays. (267 and 484, in old 215, were at Denver and Adamstown, and those places are now in 717, with Denver using 717-336 in place of 215-267.) ------------------------------ Subject: Kentucky to Split Area Code Region to Combat Number Shortage Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 22:27:44 GMT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Jamie Butters, Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Nov. 17--Reversing a previous decision, the Kentucky Public Service Commission announced yesterday that it would cut Kentucky's 502 area code in two. Louisville, Frankfort, Georgetown and points north will retain the 502 area code; areas to the south and west will get the new 270 area code. The commission did not set a date for the split. The decision implies that Central and Eastern Kentucky, served by the 606 area code, will also be split within a couple of years. On Aug. 18, the commission announced a plan for the 502 area to share or "overlay" the two codes. Under that plan, only new phone numbers would get the 270 area code and all established numbers would stay the same. But business and residential customers complained because the overlay system would have required 10-digit dialing for local calls. At public meetings in Bowling Green, Paducah, Owensboro and Louisville, speakers overwhelmingly endorsed splitting the 502 area to maintain seven-digit local dialing. Changing computers to accommodate 10-digit dialing was too big a burden to shoulder while also preparing for the year 2000, Doug Cobb, president and CEO of Greater Louisville Inc., the city's chamber of commerce, said last week. Another reason for splitting the area rather than using an overlay is that there is great variation in population growth rates within Kentucky, and the commission wants to use the same method statewide for setting area codes. "The Commission believes that the entire state of Kentucky should utilize the same dialing pattern to reduce confusion," the commission wrote. The 502 area is expected to run out of numbers in April -- and it will only make it that long by rationing numbers. The 606 area is expected to run out of numbers in about two years. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Teen Accused of Downloading Porn Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 19:16:59 -0500 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A very sad story indeed follows to close this issue of the Digest. My own comments will follow the article. PAT] MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. (AP) _ Calling it a first, prosecutors are investigating the case of a 14-year-old boy suspected of downloading child pornography from the Internet. ``We've had hundreds of adults that traffic in child porn, but never had any kids,'' said Mark Cavins, head of the sex crimes division at the Cook County state's attorney's office. Police were alerted by a computer repair company after employees working on the boy's computer discovered thousands of images that depicted adults and children in sexual poses and sexual acts. The boy told investigators he collected the images and shared them with others during computer chat sessions, police said. Lake County state attorney Michael Waller he planned to wait until an investigation is completed before deciding whether to charge the boy. Police and prosecutors are working with America Online to determine where the images originated. Mary Yarc, Lake County's chief of juvenile prosecutions, says it's unlikely that prosecutors would handle the case outside of juvenile court with a counseling program, but one child expert said pursuing the case in court would be wrong. ``The last thing this is is a criminal offense,'' said Anita Hurtig, an associate professor of pediatric psychology at the University of Illinois-Chicago. ``It could be a symptom of a more serious pathology. By making an adult issue out of it, you're reinforcing that pathology.'' [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is unclear to me how/why prosecutors in Lake County, Illinois were commenting on this matter since the village of Mount Prospect, Illinois is entirely within Cook County. In any event, the tragedy is that police/prosecutors became involved in the first place. I *could* be a bit sarcastic and say that the State's Attorney's Office must really be in its glory with this case; recall please that only a few months ago the same prosecutorial agency here placed murder and sex crime charges against two boys ages seven and eight years old despite a huge outcry in the southside Chicago black community that the lads were in no way involved. Chicago Police were apparently aware of this also, since some critical evidence retrieved at the scene of the crime (the sexual assault and murder of a fourteen year old girl) -- semen removed from the victim -- was deliberatly ignored. When a lab technician 'accidentally' let it slip out that semen had been recovered from the girl's body (about *three weeks* after the boys had been charged and taken into custody) police were quite angry about it. You see, their chance to put two boys ages seven and eight in prison for life was now shot. Even the Cook County State's Attorney only grudgingly admitted it was unlikely that the semen came from two boys of that age. All of them were quite angry at the lab technician whose search for truth in the matter led him to reveal what he found and what the police had been deliberatly ignoring in the hopes of setting a new record. When the lab tech told the news- papers about it then of course the police and State's Attorney had to deal with it. I'd rather suspect the Cook County State's Attorney will push hard on this case. Why settle for counseling and helping the boy to deal with what is perhaps the start of a long life ahead for him as a pedophile and/or gay young adult when he can be charged as an adult and sent to prison for many years and his life essentially ruined? That is the way things are done here, with pride I might add, by the rotten crowd which runs things in this neck of the woods. And a word of warning to anyone who considers using any of the chat areas of America OnLine which are other that the most straight and narrow: those areas are just full of police officers, wannabe police, and snitches of all sorts who take great efforts to keep stirring the pot just to see what they can get to come to the top. The Naperville, Illinois PD has one officer assigned to do nothing all day but sit on AOL under various screen names with fictitious identities -- and send out child porn to unsuspecting users, trying to get them to take the bait. Then of course if/when it comes to court he lies about it and says you sent it to him, etc. The Chicago Police Department now also has an 'Internet Task Force' whose main duty seems to be infiltrating chat rooms and newsgroups trying to spy on the participants. That's what our net has come to. I've gotten to the point I refuse to answer Instant Messages and requests to go to chat rooms from people I don't know. I hate doing it it, and it is rude, but I simply cannot afford to have police show up and ransack my laptop convinced they are going to find ten thousand kiddie porn pictures if they just look long and hard enough. Some people in law enforcement are working overtime to get this net shut down or at the very least under tight controls. Don't allow them to do it ... please. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #130 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Nov 28 16:51:20 1998 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id QAA11732; Sat, 28 Nov 1998 16:51:20 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 16:51:20 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199811282151.QAA11732@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #131 TELECOM Digest Sat, 28 Nov 98 16:51:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 131 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Cryptography and Network Security", W. Stallings (Rob Slade) Telecom Update (Canada) #159, November 23, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) AT&T Canada Calling (Monty Solomon) Will 1+ be Required in Penn. Overlay? (Greg Monti) Phone Sex Leads to Costly Affair (Tad Cook) "This is AT&T" Announcement on 1+ Calls (Lauren Weinstein) UCLA Short Course on "Genetic Algorithms Workshop" (Bill Goodin) Happy Thanksgiving (William Brownlow) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 11:10:07 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Cryptography and Network Security", William Stallings Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKCRNTSC.RVW 981010 "Cryptography and Network Security", William Stallings, 1999, 0-13-869017-0 %A William Stallings ws@shore.net %C One Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 %D 1999 %G 0-13-869017-0 %I Prentice Hall %O +1-201-236-7139 fax: +1-201-236-7131 betsy_carey@prenhall.com %P 569 p. %T "Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice 2nd edition" This book is intended to serve both as a textbook for an academic course of study, and as a self-study and reference guide for practicing professionals. The material has been extended to emphasize encryption and its central position in network protection. The structure and flow have been reorganized with both classroom use and solo instruction in mind, and additional teaching material, such as additional problems, have been added. Chapter one is an introduction to the topics to be covered. In a practical way it outlines the concerns involved in the phrase computer security, and the priorities occasioned by the networked nature of modern computing. There is also an outline of the chapters and sequence in the rest of the book. While the text does note that cryptographic techniques underlie most of current security technologies this is only done briefly. Examples in the major categories listed would help explain this primary position. Part one deals with conventional, symmetric, encryption and the various methods of attacking it. Chapter two covers the historical substitution and transposition ciphers. Symmetric block ciphers are discussed in chapter three, illustrated by an explanation of DES (Data Encryption Standard). The additional conventional algorithms of triple DES, IDEA (International Data Encryption Algorithm), and RC5 are reviewed in chapter four. The use of conventional encryption for confidentiality is outlined in chapter five. Part three looks at public-key encryption and hash functions. Chapter six introduces public-key encryption and its uses in confidentiality, authentication, and key management and exchange. Number theory is the basis of these modern algorithms, so some basic mathematical concepts are outlined in chapter seven. Digital signatures and message authentication is introduced in some detail in chapter eight. The algorithms themselves are explained in chapter nine, including MD5 (Message Digest algorithm), SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm), and others. Protocols using digital signatures are described in chapter ten. Part three takes this background material and relates its use in security practice. Chapter eleven looks at authentication, concentrating on Kerberos and X.509. The examples of email security systems given in chapter twelve are PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension). Security provisions for the Internet Protocol (IP) itself are reviewed in chapter thirteen. Web security, in chapter fourteen, again concentrates on protocol level matters, but also discusses the SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) standard at the application level. Part four outlines general system security. To the general public the primary concern of security is to deal with intruders and malicious software, so it may seem odd to the uninitiated to find that both of these subjects are lumped together in chapter fifteen. Chapter sixteen finishes off the book with a description of firewalls and the concept of trusted systems that they rely on. Each chapter ends with a set of recommended readings and problems. Many chapters also have appendices giving additional details of specific topics related to the subject just discussed. For the instructor, student, and professional, this work provides thorough coverage, clear explanations, and solid information. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKCRNTSC.RVW 981010 rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@sprint.ca robertslade@usa.net p1@canada.com Find virus and book info at http://www.victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.html Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses, 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 11:01:03 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #159, November 23, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 159: November 23, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * AT&T Canada ............... http://www.attcanada.com/ * * Bell Canada ............... http://www.bell.ca/ * * Lucent Technologies ....... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * MetroNet Communications ... http://www.metronet.ca/ * * Sprint Canada ............. http://www.sprintcanada.ca/ * * Telus Communications....... http://www.telus.com/ * * TigerTel Services ......... http://www.citydial.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Court Restores Complaint in Bell Pay Equity Case ** LNP in Ottawa by December 7 ** Cogeco to Offer IP-Based Phone Service ** Manitoba Tel Bundles Nearly Everything ** Y2K Problem Helped Doom "PrimeLine" ** Cablecos Challenge Look TV License ** Iridium Launches Global Messaging ** Sprint Offers Release Link Trunks ** CRTC Expands Ex Parte Rules ** CRTC to Review Regulatory Fees ** MetroNet Starts Quebec City Service ** Rogers Launches Internet Auction House ** Bell to Offer ISDN in Cornwall ** Unique Broadband Partners With Lucent ** APC Telecom to Offer IP Voice ** Phonettix Replaces CEO ** Financial Results Microcell Shaw ** Conferences Examine High-Speed Internet ** Consultants "A Joy to Deal With" ============================================================ COURT RESTORES COMPLAINT IN BELL PAY EQUITY CASE: On November 17, the Federal Court of Appeal struck down a lower court ruling that had thrown out a pay equity complaint made on behalf of 22,000 Bell Canada workers. Unless Bell appeals, the complaint now goes to the Human Rights Tribunal. (See Telecom Update #125) LNP IN OTTAWA BY DECEMBER 7: Local Number Portability, which was scheduled for the Ottawa-Hull area next March, will now be available for bilateral vendor testing on November 23, with commercial LNP service beginning December 7. COGECO TO OFFER IP-BASED PHONE SERVICE: Cogeco Cable has registered with the CRTC as a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) and says it plans to offer IP-based phone service to Ontario and Quebec customers in the Windsor-to- Rimouski corridor, beginning in late 1999. MANITOBA TEL BUNDLES NEARLY EVERYTHING: MTS Mobility now offers reduced cellular LD rates for customers who also use MTS local and LD service. MTS Sympatico customers who also use MTS local and LD service now get 40 extra free hours of Internet use a month. Y2K PROBLEM HELPED DOOM "PRIMELINE": Bell Canada says that its PrimeLine service "is not year 2000 compliant," a factor which "add[s] greater urgency to the need to destandardize the service at this time." Bell's application to withdraw PrimeLine is now before the CRTC. (See Telecom Update #147) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/proc_rep/telecom/1998/8740/b2-6264.html CABLECOS CHALLENGE LOOK TV LICENSE: The Canadian Cable Television Association has asked the CRTC to probe the ownership structure of Look TV, which it says violates the foreign ownership rules. Look TV is majority owned by Teleglobe, which recently merged with U.S.-based Excel Communications. ** Look TV says it has applied to the Commission to transfer shares owned by Teleglobe to Canadian-owned Telesystem, Charles Sirois' holding company. IRIDIUM LAUNCHES GLOBAL MESSAGING: Iridium Canada now offers World Page, a global alphanumeric paging/messaging service. Pagers cost about $1,000; the monthly fee ranges from $200- $400. SPRINT OFFERS RELEASE LINK TRUNKS: Sprint Canada and Nortel have developed technology which allows trunks on Interactive Voice Response systems to be freed for use by other calls when a caller is transferred to a live agent. Sprint says the application, developed for TD Bank, reduces trunk requirements by 20%. CRTC EXPANDS EX PARTE RULES: CRTC Telecom Decision 98-21 extends the tariffed services for which telcos can request price reductions on an ex parte basis to include High Capacity and Digital Data Systems. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/decision/1998/d9821_0.txt CRTC TO REVIEW REGULATORY FEES: Telecom Public Notice 98-34 seeks comments on proposed changes to the fees it charges carriers for regulatory activities. Comments are due by January 28. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9834_0.txt METRONET STARTS QUEBEC CITY SERVICE: MetroNet Communications is now offering local and long distance voice, data, and Internet services in the Quebec City region. ROGERS LAUNCHES INTERNET AUCTION HOUSE: Rogers New Media is partnering with Bid.Com International to offer a Canadian-based Internet auction site. http://www.bid.com BELL TO OFFER ISDN IN CORNWALL: Bell Canada will begin offering its ISDN Basic Rate service, Microlink, in Cornwall, Ontario, on January 15. UNIQUE BROADBAND PARTNERS WITH LUCENT: Unique Broadband Systems, a Markham, Ontario-based producer of wireless products, is partnering with Lucent Digital Video to develop land- and satellite-based video distribution systems. APC TELECOM TO OFFER IP VOICE: Through a reverse takeover of an inactive company, Toronto-area LD reseller APC Telecom has created a U.S. parent company for itself. The company plans to offer Canada-U.S. phone service on the Internet. PHONETTIX REPLACES CEO: Dorothy Millman, who heads the shareholder group that recently took control of Phonettix Intelecom, has replaced Michael Jarman as the company's CEO. (See Telecom Update #158) FINANCIAL RESULTS: ** Microcell says third-quarter revenue was $38 Million, 22% above the previous quarter. Customer turnover (churn) was 2.8%/month; the cost of customer acquisition was $685, a third lower than last year. Net loss: $92 Million. ** Shaw Communications' profits for the year ended August 31 were $13.5 Million, 18% less than last year; the results include one-time charges of $63 Million. Revenue rose 14% to $784 Million. CONFERENCES EXAMINE HIGH-SPEED INTERNET: Two upcoming meetings examine issues in deploying high-speed Internet services: ** The ISP Business Forum discusses how Internet Service Providers can gain access to local loops to provide their own DSL services. For ISPs only -- December 6-8, Monterey, California. http://www.ispbf.org ** The Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education (CANARIE) hosts the third annual Advanced Networks Workshop, December 15-16 in Ottawa. Advance registration by December 1 is required. http://www.canarie.ca CONSULTANTS "A JOY TO DEAL WITH": Angus Dortmans Associates, who provide independent telecom and call center management expertise, are "a breath of fresh air ... the most efficient group of consultants I have had the pleasure to work with," says Angela Smedema of the Ontario Legal Aid Plan. ** "A very efficient and no-nonsense report," says Catherine Drummond of Human Resources Development Canada. "I found them professional and a joy to deal with." ** To discuss your management issues, call Henry Dortmans at 1-800-263-4415 ext 300 or e-mail him at dortmans@angustel.ca http://www.angustel.ca/angdort/ad.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T Canada Calling Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 14:04:44 -0500 AT&T Digital One Rate Benefits Extended Into Canada With AT&T Canada Calling; No Roaming, No Long Distance To, From or Within Canada for $19.99 Per Month November 23, 1998 10:00 AM EST KIRKLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 23, 1998--New and existing AT&T Digital One Rate customers can now enjoy added freedom and benefits through their wireless service with the launch of AT&T Canada Calling. This add-on feature allows AT&T Digital One Rate customers to eliminate roaming and long-distance charges throughout Canada for just $19.99 per month. The new AT&T Digital One Rate feature applies for all incoming and outgoing wireless calls within Canada, from the United States to Canada, and from Canada to the United States. All other features and benefits of AT&T Digital One Rate apply. "The introduction of AT&T Canada Calling is part of our continuing commitment to deliver convenience, practical solutions and added value to our customers," said Bill Malloy, executive vice president of Wireless Operations for AT&T. "The number of AT&T Digital One Rate customers continues to grow at a tremendous rate. With AT&T Canada Calling, our customers now have a new level of freedom in wireless calling -- throughout the United States and Canada -- all at home airtime rates." AT&T Digital One Rate is offered on three monthly calling plans, priced as follows: 600 minutes of monthly air time for $89.99; 1,000 minutes of monthly air time for $119.99; and 1,400 minutes of monthly air time for $149.99. With the core service, for one simple rate, customers can make and receive calls with no roaming or long distance charges throughout the United States. Additional airtime in excess of plan is billed at a flat rate of $.25 per minute. AT&T Digital One Rate plans require the use of a Digital multi-network phone. These are the latest generation Digital PCS phones. They provide customers Digital PCS features across the largest digital wireless network in North America, operated by AT&T Wireless Services, and throughout the extensive digital network in Canada operated by Cantel AT&T. Digital PCS features include Caller ID, voice mail with message-waiting indicator, extended battery life, text messaging and other value-driven services. Digital multi-network phones also operate with other wireless carriers' digital and analog networks and, therefore, are capable of providing service to subscribers almost anywhere in North America. The combination of AT&T's vast digital wireless network and the multi-network capabilities of the phones make AT&T Wireless the only company which can offer customers such simple and flexible wireless service pricing nationwide. These phones provide wireless coverage throughout more than 7,000 cities nationwide by operating in the digital mode on 1900 MHz networks and digital and analog modes on 850 MHz networks. Prices for Digital multi-network phones begin at $99.00. AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. operates the largest digital wireless network in North America providing wireless voice, data and aviation communication services. At the end of third quarter, 1998, AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. had 9.1 million total wireless customers which included 4.2 million Digital PCS customers. AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T), the world's leader in telecommunications services and technology. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 11:50:11 GMT From: Greg Monti Subject: Will 1+ be Required in Penn. Overlay? On 19 Nov 98, Carl Moore wrote: > You've probably already heard of 215/267 and 610/484 overlays in > southeastern Pa. Today, KYW news-radio in Philadelphia said, not > these exact words, that permissive dialing begins in December with > mandatory coming next June. I am hearing "10 digits" and it is > not clear if the leading 1 will have to be included. There's been quite a discussion on the TelNum list (not nearly as much on TELECOM Digest) since Carl's post. Unfortunately, not one of those responding actually answered Carl's question. According to a Bell Atlantic press release reproduced at the http://www.areacode-info.com site, calls within the overlayed 215, 267, 484 and 610 area, whether local or toll, will be dialed with just 10 digits, with 1+ not required. Calls outside of those 4 area codes, whether local or toll, will require 1+10 digits. (Pennsylvania is not currently a toll-alerting state. 1+ has not meant "toll" in Pennsylvania since 1994 or 1995.) The quote from Sandra Scott at Bell Atlantic: "In addition, customers calling between the 215 and 610 area codes no longer will have to dial `1' first. However, their calls will still go through if they first dial `1.'" This is a new dialing plan for the NANP; it's never been used before (10 digits for the overlayed area, 1+10 everywhere else, without regard to toll). It appears this could be a transitional plan. Once people get used to dialing 10 digits on many calls, the 1+ could be removed from all calls, and Southeastern Pennsylvanians would be able to dial the entire NANP with just one dialing pattern: 10 digits. For those arguing the merits of toll alerting, a quick reminder that the non-toll-alerted portion of the US, while in the minority, is *not* a small oddity in any way. The non-toll-alerting states include New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California, all of which have much-larger-than-average populations. About 25% of the area codes, representing about 30% of the US population does *not* have toll alerting. Greg Monti Dallas, Texas, USA gmonti@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~gmonti ------------------------------ Subject: Phone Sex Leads to Costly Affair Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 01:25:04 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Phone sex leads to costly affair PERTH, Australia, Nov 21 (Reuters) - An Australian man has been ordered by a magistrate to pay more than A$2,600 (US$1,664) for phone sex calls made from a neighbour's house. The man had been charged with two counts of burglary after he allegedly broke into the neighbour's house to use the telephone to make the calls, Australian Broadcasting Corp radio reported on Saturday. Records show some of the sex line calls lasted 50 minutes. The man was unable to use his own phone, which could only accept incoming calls because of a huge outstanding bill. He was also ordered to complete 240 hours of community service. REUTERS [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is this man a sex addict or what? Not only does he incur a huge phone bill for the nothingness those services produce, but he is willing to risk getting time in jail (for the burglary/home invasion) as well. I've heard of people whose lives are controlled by their sexual desires -- in less polite terms we say they think with their private parts rather than their brain -- but this example given is ridiculous. You'd think he might have instead learned how to tap into the pair multiples around his neighborhood or learned a few simple toll fraud techniques if he was that umm, well, in need of sexual gratification, and if the phone was the only way he could get it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Nov 98 08:48:00 PST From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: "This is AT&T" Announcement on 1+ Calls Greetings. Persons using systems which might be confused by hearing a voice *before* the called party has answered should take note -- AT&T has apparently begun deployment of the musical "This is AT&T" announcement for at least some 1+ calls in some areas. This may be restricted to residential as opposed to business lines, but that is not clear at this time. Persons wishing to have the announcement removed will need to call AT&T and make the request -- reports are that AT&T is quoting a 48 hour turnaround for the related paperwork. There was apparently no warning of any kind to telephone subscribers that this change was coming, which is, as far as I know, the first insertion of a voice announcement in the midst of routine and successful direct dialed 1+ call setup sequences. --Lauren-- Moderator, PRIVACY Forum Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy http://www.vortex.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The same thing occurs on business phone lines, at least around here in the Chicago area. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bill Goodin Subject: UCLA Short Course on "Genetic Algorithms Workshop" Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 11:03:10 -0700 On January 4-8, 1999, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Genetic Algorithms Workshop", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Mark J. Jakiela, PhD, Washington University, St. Louis; and Matthew B. Wall, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. The robustness and versatility of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have spurred their application to a diverse range of problems, such as scheduling, structural optimization, computer animation, and software generation. As computation becomes increasingly powerful and inexpensive, more applications should follow. This course is aimed at the practitioner who intends to create these new applications. Genetic algorithms are inherently simple in concept and application, such that the course takes participants quickly to the actual use of GAs on real problems. Current theory is presented as needed to understand the operation and performance of GAs and to describe their historical context. Participants are encouraged to bring a real problem that they wish to solve, so that their working software prototype can be developed in a supervised laboratory environment. The course is conducted in a lecture and workshop format, where mornings are devoted to lectures and afternoons to related laboratory exercises. Dedicated computer teaching classrooms are utilized for the lab sessions. The course uses the genetic algorithms library GALib developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology CADLAB, an object-oriented library written in C++ that runs on MacOS, Windows, and UNIX. The course fee includes a single-user, for-profit license for GALib. (If participants would like to integrate GALib with existing software during the course, they should contact the course instructors as soon as possible to make arrangements.) The course is intended for anyone who is interested in any type of optimization, including engineers, managers, computer scientists, as well as those interested in planning, operations, and operations research. The course should also benefit anyone oriented toward basic sciences, such as biology and sociology, where evolutionary models may be useful. There are no limitations with regard to particular technical disciplines or industries. Prerequisite Participants should be reasonably proficient in C or C++ and be comfortable with the write-compile-debug process of software development. The course workshops use Microsoft Visual C++ as the development environment. The course fee is $1595, which includes extensive course materials. These materials are for participants only, and are not for sale. For a more information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ From: wbrownlo@my-dejanews.com (William Brownlow) Subject: Happy Thanksgiving Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 17:11:27 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion Pat, have a Happy Thanksgiving, and post when you have the time. Thanks for everything you have done for this group over the years. Sincerely, William "Bill" Brownlow "My employer has their opinions, I have mine. Occasionally they converge" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, thanks very much for your kind note and of course I wish the same to you and other readers of the Digest and newsgroup. This past year I have been doing a few projects intended to look after me financially, and as a result, there have been fewer issues of the Digest than in the past. Do any of the old time readers remember the early 90's when there were always six to eight hundred issues per year and twice over a thousand issues in a single year? I am thinking seriously about starting a new Digest at the first of the year, which will be totally unrelated to telecom topics. I expect this digest will continue as well. A reasonable ques- tion from readers might be if I cannot produce telecom as often as in the past how I will manage to do telecom and something new as well. That's a good question, and the main reason I am not yet going to make a commmitment to doing it. But the telecom forum is a rather narrow one and there is *so much I want to say* that is not telecom- related. Yes, I occassionally take liberties with this forum's charter, but no, I don't want to do it on a regular day-by-day basis. So that is my dilemma, and I need to do some serious thinking about where to go with it. I suspect I will absolutely need to do it on a sponsored basis; even for me there is a limit to my enjoyment of macaroni and cheese as a dinner more than once a month or so. In the meantime, with what is left of Thanksgiving, 1998, please pause for a moment and count your blessings. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #131 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Nov 28 20:46:19 1998 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id UAA22642; Sat, 28 Nov 1998 20:46:19 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 20:46:19 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199811290146.UAA22642@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #132 TELECOM Digest Sat, 28 Nov 98 20:46:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 132 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Competitors Complain About U S West Rate Settlement With Colorado (T Cook) San Francisco Bay Area Callers on Hold in Cellular 911 Calls (Tad Cook) Future of Internet? (Ronda Hauben) Re: Overlays in 215 & 610 in Pa. (Hillary Gorman) Book Review: "Internet Messaging",Marshall T. Rose/David Strom (Rob Slade) MCI Buying More Than Commercials on Roddenberry TV Series (Alan Boritz) Switch Manufacturers Abandon CMA Show This Year (Alan Boritz) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Competitors Complain About U S West Rate Settlement With Colorado Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 11:14:17 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Bob Diddlebock, The Denver Post Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Nov. 24--Several local telephone market competitors have told state regulators that a landmark rate settlement the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has worked out with U S West will only put more money in the Baby Bell's pockets at the expense of consumers. As expected, ICG Netcom, MCI WorldCom and McLeod USA have told the PUC that an agreement it has drafted with U S West that could save the telephone company's customers as much as $420 million over five years "is harmful to the public interest, anti-competitive and may contravene the procompetitive policies mandated by both state and federal law." At issue, according to the protesting companies, is how much U S West has earned in excess profits over the last few years. To settle a dispute over $84 million a year in U S West overearnings, the PUC and Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel have given the regional Bell operating company more flexibility in pricing and packaging its growing number of telecommunications services in exchange for making several guarantees to its customers. Paramount among them: a moratorium on rate increases. But ICG, MCI WorldCom and McLeod USA are charging that the deal shortchanges consumers, arguing that the $84 million figure is closer to $130 million, "and some believe the actual number may be more than double the settlement amount per year. That leaves a lot of money in U S West's pockets." A U S West spokesman said Monday that the agreement's opponents "don't want consumers to get the benefits of U S West competi- tion toe to toe with them." The telephone company's agreement with the PUC and OCC would give it more freedom in dealing with new competitors by allowing it to offer packages that include such services as high-speed Internet access, caller ID, voice messaging and the like. The agreement, crafted over the last five months, also eliminates a variety of proposed and scheduled rate increases, including a Dec. 31 rate hike originally scheduled to cover the costs of local calling in the 303 and new 720 area codes. The deal also would require U S West to make various investments in its network to insure call quality. What's more, if the company's service falls off, it will have to give back $15 million to consumers, according to the OCC. In a statement, an executive at McLeod USA, which says it delivers telecom services to eight Colorado cities, accused the PUC and OCC of "severely limiting their ability to fulfill their role as a consumer watchdog" in cutting the U S West deal. The agreement's opponents said the deal "does not freeze local phone rates or prevent U S West from seeking rate increases." However, Ken Reif, the OCC's director, said Monday that the U S West agreement favors such "small customers" as residences and smaller businesses, which would have born the brunt of most upcoming rate increases. Calling the deal "pro-consumer," Reif said it "isn't surprising that (ICG, MCI WorldCom and McLeod) filed. They've been unable, themselves, to agree on how to give U S West any pricing flexibility." A PUC spokeswoman said the commission's staff has endorsed the settlement, and suggested that the three commissioners approve it. However, she added that the full commission "will make its own decision." The PUC has scheduled a meeting today at 8 a.m., when it is expected to set the ground rules and timetable for considering the deal. ------------------------------ Subject: San Francisco Bay Area Callers on Hold in Cellular 911 Calls Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 08:06:38 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- San Francisco Bay area residents who dialed 911 from a cell phone are languishing on hold more than half the time and as long as seven minutes before their calls are answered. As recently as September, about 5,000 callers were delayed more than two minutes, and twice that many hung up or were cut off before reaching an operator, according to a report in Sunday's San Francisco Examiner. The callers were on hold an average of 39 seconds. Bay area dispatcher Josie Hodson said she was worried the delays would continue until "somebody dies -- and then everybody will be asking why it took a tragedy to make the state do the right thing." Highway Patrol Commissioner Dwight Helmick said two years ago that people would see improvement within a year. The California Highway Patrol hoped to field all 911 calls within 10 seconds. At the Golden Gate Communication Center in Vallejo, where all cell 911 calls from the nine-county area first go, the CHP has aggressively hired more operators and recruited retired CHP officers to work phones during peak hours. "I cannot argue that we have a serious problem with our 911, but we've been working very hard on it," Helmick said. "We're up against a very complex situation, but we've been taking a number of steps to help us answer these calls just as quickly as possible." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We finally started receiving cellular 911 service in the Chicago area; the central dispatch is operated by Ameritech! No police agencies are involved in it directly; they just get calls from the Ameritech dispatchers who it appears have been very well trained in local geography, village boundaries and the like. It is obviously a losing proposition for Ameritech financially since they provide the service free of charge to their subscribers who dial 911 from their cellular phone. I congratulate them for starting it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rh120@columbia.edu (Ronda Hauben) Subject: Future of Internet? Date: 28 Nov 1998 16:20:39 GMT Organization: Columbia University Reply-To: rh120@columbia.edu A story in {Wired} says that the U.S. government is rushing ahead with its plan to give away essential cooperative public Internet assets to the private corporation it has created that is being called ICANN. URL: http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/16469.html What started out as a situation to deal with making decisions over domain names has become an excuse to give away key control over the Internet to unknown people and powers. There was a great deal of dissent at the meeting in Boston on Nov. 14 where the ICANN Board of Directors appeared, and explained that they didn't know anything about the Internet and that was why they were asked to serve on the Board of Directors. But this Board of Directors is for a private corporation to make policy decisions and to get ownership and control over the essential functions of the Internet, including the domain name system, the IP numbers, the root server system, and the protocols, etc. This is no small matter for some people who know nothing about the Internet, and so it all raises the very serious question what is behind this, why is the U.S. government doing this, and what is their plan for the Internet if they are rushing ahead with a time table that makes no logical sense to many of those who are concerned about the present and the future of the Internet? Also the fact this has all been carried out via a very secret process, where no one knows who has made the decisions of who should be on the Interim Board of Directors, how the bylaws and article were created for the new corporation, etc. raises the question of who has to hide behind the scenes to carry this out and why. There has been a problem with domain names that needed to be solved. A recent post on Usenet suggested that domain names should be distributed like license plates, by an appropriate government agency for an administrative fee. This is only one of the kinds of proposals that could be discussed if that were the purpose of some group to solve the domain name controversy. But it is clear from the events surrounding the creation and formation of ICANN that its charter is to encompass control over the Internet's essential function, and it is to be given these precious assets, and thus it is *not* being created in any fashion to genuinely solve any problem, but instead to create a new and very serious problem for the Internet and its present and future. Several weeks ago I was invited to give a talk in Vienna about Internet governance and the lessons from the history of the Net toward understanding what principles would guide genuine Internet governance. (http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/talk_governance.txt) What is happening is the very opposite of creating any form of Internet governance because it is removing any of the important decisions regarding the present and future of the Internet from the Internet community and from those who have an understanding of the growth and development of the Internet and it is putting those decisions into unknown hands to solve in a way to serve very narrow and particular interests. At the Boston meeting, some folks talked about the need for an international public utility to administer these essential Internet functions, rather than a private corporation. However, the U.S. government wasn't listening, and doesn't seem to be able to hear anything people have to say at this point. Instead they seem to have a time table that is being moved along on, despite the concerns or contributions of people. So the problem to me seems to be that it is impossible for people to be able to communicate with the U.S. government officials conducting this give-away. And they are creating a Board of Directors and a private corporation that is equally shielded from any two way communication with the Internet community. Thus its policies and procedures can only be harmful to the Internet. And by giving this private corporate entity unbridled power and the ownership and control over very large sums of financial wealth (which belongs to the Internet community), the U.S. government is dooming the ability of this private corporation to play any but a very destructive role regarding the Internet. But this raises the questions of what is needed to own, control and administer these very essential functions and assets of the Internet? It seems the U.S. government has become incapable of playing any of the good role it has played in the past in both the building and the administration of the Internet. What then is to be done by the Internet community? At the meeting in Boston, the issue was raised that there are procedures that have developed as part of the Internet's development for making decisions. Why aren't these procedures being built upon? What is needed at this point to move forward? The Internet has been built by encouraging user participation and by encouraging cooperative processes and procedures. And the Internet itself has made these possible. The creation of ICANN by the U.S. government flies in the face of these processes and procedures and is being used to fundamentally change the course of direction of the Internet. It is an important matter to be discussed and for the Internet community to determine what means are needed to deal with this urgent situation. Ronda ronda@panix.com Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook also in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ronda, I think the problem is that this net is making a lot of very powerful people extremely nervous. There is no practical way for the government to control the 'pornography', the traditional information providers i.e. print and broadcast media have no control over the dissemination of the information (and as they lose control their advertisers spend less on them), the people who want copyright protections to last until hell freezes over are less and less able to control the distribution of what they believe is their intellectual property and the revenue it brings them, government bureaucrats are having a lot harder time operating in secret ... and more. Look at it from their point of view: the quicker the lid can be clamped on this monster and the tighter it can be twisted in place, the better off the world as they concieve of it will be. Unlike some entity in a single place where they can, under some bogus theory, simply raid the joint and shut it down, there is no way this net will be stopped short of reworking the entire telephone network. For every ISP which closes it doors, two more open. For every user who drops off the net, three or four more start communicating. Unlike a century ago where an 'anarchist' on the street corner preaching ideas the government did not like would simply be arrested and taken away to be hanged (witness the Haymarket martyrs here in Chicago who were murdered by the police), there is no way everyone can be rounded up and all the computers seized. Not the computers belonging to the banks and the newspapers of course, just the ones we common citizens own. There is no end in sight to this net and the incredible growth it is experiencing. Can you see how that scares the fecal matter out of a lot of people who would much prefer keeping the status quo? As Janet Reno said not long ago, do you like the idea of a man sitting in his kitchen in New York stealing a million dollars from a bank in Chile? And it is that simple. This net has put everything up for grabs; everything from the way we commit theft and fraud to the way we shop for groceries (see http://www.peapod.com) to the way we bank to the way we socialize and meet new people to the way we worship and practice our religious beliefs to the way we are entertained with Real Player and the Windows Media Player to the way we communicate with businesses to the way we earn our living by telecommuting to the way we convey our wishes to our elected representatives and oversee the work (or non-work perhaps) of our public serpents to the way we learn of events in the world and even, by God, to the way we molest children. I can shop for groceries at the Jewel store in Skokie while attending Sunday services at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA while checking my bank balance to see if ITU in Geneva has sent my grant money for the Digest yet for this quarter. And in the midst of it all, an Instant Message pops up from someone with the very tradi- tional greeting net-idiots pass to each other: "Are you M or F? How old?" I often times answer that question by asking one in return: "Why do you ask? So that you know if it is appropriate (by your lifestyle and standards) to proposition me or not?" You see Ronda, things are reaching critical mass here. The government and the people who like big government have never before had to deal with anything quite like this net before. You can see why they are running scared can't you? And when you are scared or offended, the answer is always to start a new government agency with lots of new laws and regulations and hope the Supreme Court goes along with it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hillary@hillary.net (hillary gorman) Subject: Re: Overlays in 215 & 610 in Pa. Date: 28 Nov 1998 01:39:58 GMT Organization: Debugging our net or deworming your pet... On Thu, 19 Nov 98 13:28:12 EST, wrote: > You've probably already heard of 215/267 and 610/484 overlays in > southeastern Pa. Today, KYW news-radio in Philadelphia said, not > these exact words, that permissive dialing begins in December with > mandatory coming next June. I am hearing "10 digits" and it is > not clear if the leading 1 will have to be included. 215 & 610 I think it's pretty clear the leading 1 is NOT included. You just have to dial ten digits. I guess you missed the BA press release: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 08:12:29 -0500 (EST) From: Bell Atlantic News Made to Order Reply-To: bounces@ba.com To: medialist@ba.com Subject: BA: Bell Atlantic Launches Campaign to Get Callers Ready for New Area Codes, 10-Digit Dialing Bell Atlantic Launches Campaign to Get Callers Ready for New Area Codes, 10-Digit Dialing Two New Codes Coming Mid-1999 in Southeastern Pennsylvania; Callers Should Begin Dialing 'Ten-number Number' Dec. 5 November 19, 1998 Media contact: Sharon Shaffer, 215-963-6200 Harry Mitchell, 304-344-7562 PHILADELPHIA - Bell Atlantic is kicking off a campaign to inform southeastern Pennsylvanians about the introduction of two new area codes next year and a new way to make phone calls. Beginning in July, local telephone companies may assign numbers in the new 267 and 484 area codes to customers who request new service, an additional line or - in some cases - who want to move their service. The new 267 area code will have the same geographic boundaries as the current 215 area code. The new 484 area code will parallel the boundaries of the current 610 area code. Existing phone numbers in the 215 and 610 area codes will not change, but all callers will need to dial the area code and seven-digit phone number - or "Ten-number NumberSM" - when they make any calls within or between these four area codes. "Customers in the 215 and 610 area codes should begin dialing Ten-number Numbers Dec. 5," said Sandra Scott, Bell Atlantic - Pennsylvania area code customer education manager. "If they forget to dial all ten numbers, the calls will still go through for the next six months while people become familiar with the new way of dialing. "But after June 5, 1999, callers who dial a seven-digit number will hear a recorded message instructing them to dial both the area code and telephone number," she added. "Bell Atlantic encourages customers to begin dialing the Ten-number Number on Dec. 5 to get used to this change as soon as possible." In addition, customers calling between the 215 and 610 area codes no longer will have to dial "1" first. "However, their calls will still go through if they first dial '1,' " said Scott. The demand for new telephone numbers is exploding as people are communicating more than ever using additional phone lines, cellular phones, pagers, computer modems and fax machines. In addition, Pennsylvanians increasingly have a choice of which company provides their local phone service, and these competing companies require phone numbers for their customers. This heavy demand for phone numbers is driving the need for new area codes in Pennsylvania and across the country. In fact, the new 570 area code will be carved out of the current 717 area to serve northeastern Pennsylvania, and the 724 code was created in western Pennsylvania by splitting the 412 area code into two parts earlier this year. What's Not Changing The additional area codes and move to Ten-number Number dialing in southeastern Pennsylvania will not affect current telephone numbers, dialing to reach 911 service, the price of telephone service or local calling areas. A local call today will still be a local call when 10- digit dialing and the new area codes are in effect. Customers can get more information on their local calling areas by checking the customer guide section in the front of their Bell Atlantic White Pages directories. What Is Changing Consumers and businesses must reprogram any telephone system or optional service such as Call Forwarding that dials other phone numbers in southeastern Pennsylvania by June 5. (NOTE TO EDITORS: A list of some equipment and services that may require reprogramming follows this release.) For customers who want an easy way to dial frequently called Ten- number Numbers, Bell Atlantic currently has a special offer for its Speed Dialing 8 service. With Speed Dialing 8, customers can program eight commonly called numbers and then dial them by pushing one button. Customers who order Speed Dialing 8 before June 1999 will receive the service free for three months. Speed Dialing 8 is $1.50 a month per line for residential customers and $5 monthly per line for businesses. Interested customers should call 877-246-3095 (toll-free) to order. For More Information... Bell Atlantic is kicking off its customer education campaign with a newsletter that describes the new area codes and dialing change. Called Extra!, the newsletter is included in customers' November telephone bills. The company also plans to distribute information on the new codes and dialing procedure at upcoming special events such as the Philadelphia Flower Show. "We want customers to adapt to these changes as comfortably as possible, and we will do all we can to help minimize any confusion and concerns," said Scott. Pennsylvanians can get more information on the area codes and dialing changes by calling Bell Atlantic's toll-free Area Code Information Line (800-500-2167) or visiting the company's special area code pages on the World Wide Web (http://www.bellatlantic.com/areacode). Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and information industry. With 42 million telephone access lines and eight million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market leaders in wireless services and the world's largest publishers of directory information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the world's largest investors in high-growth global communications markets, with operations and investments in 23 countries. ATTENTION 215 AND 610 AREA CODE CUSTOMERS: Reprogram Now for New Area Codes, Ten-number Number Dialing Business and residential customers with phone numbers in the 215 and 610 area codes who have telephone equipment or a Bell Atlantic service that currently dials seven-digit phone numbers in southeastern Pennsylvania should reprogram that equipment or service as soon as possible to dial the new codes and the Ten-number NumberSM for every seven-digit number they dial today. This reprogramming must be completed by June 5, 1999. Some examples of equipment or Bell Atlantic services that may need to be reprogrammed include: * Computers used for Internet access * Modems * Speed dialing lists * Automatic dialers * Cellular and mobile phones * Security systems (ask your security company) * PBX business phone systems (ask your PBX supplier) * Pagers * Fax machines * Call Block * Priority Call * Home Voice Mail or Answer Call with special delivery * Call Forwarding * Call GateSM Service * Do Not Disturb Service In addition, be sure to update phone lists, databases, billing records and address books to include area codes. Notify business contacts, associates, friends and relatives of your area code. And be sure to include the area code when exchanging telephone numbers. For more information on Pennsylvania area codes or Ten-number Number dialing, call Bell Atlantic's Area Code Information Line on 800-500-2167 (toll-free) or visit the company's area code pages on the World Wide Web (http://www.bellatlantic.com/areacode). Copyright (c) 1998 Bell Atlantic Corporation --------------- hillary gorman...........Official Token Female..........hillary@netaxs.com "So that's 2 T-1s and a newsfeed....would you like clues with that?" hillary@hillary.net: for debugging your net or deworming your pet Net Access...The NSP for ISPs....The NOC that rocks around the clock. ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 10:17:38 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Internet Messaging", Marshall T. Rose/David Strom Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKINMSSG.RVW 981011 "Internet Messaging", Marshall T. Rose/David Strom, 1998, 0-13-978610-4, U$44.95/C$63.00 %A Marshall T. Rose %A David Strom david@strom.com %C One Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 %D 1998 %G 0-13-978610-4 %I Prentice Hall %O U$44.95/C$63.00 +1-201-236-7139 fax: +1-201-236-7131 %P 307 p. %T "Internet Messaging: From the Desktop to the Enterprise" Email is pretty amazing. When I reviewed the first book I received on email I was disappointed because it dealt strictly with internal email for companies. When I received the first book on Internet email I was disappointed because it was a simplistic and limited look at this powerful tool. Rose and Strom have gone slightly beyond the naive user, but I am still waiting for a really solid book on the subject. Chapter one notes that although email is extraordinarily useful it is increasingly subject to annoyances and management problems that make it less effective than it might otherwise be. The material in the book is said to be based on twelve common problems, divided, two to a chapter, into a matrix of three activities (receiving, sending, and general) and two levels (desktop and enterprise). There is a big list of things that the book is not, although it is said to be directed at the corporate and business email user. Chapter two looks at the problems of handling large volumes of mail, and also at the diagnosing of error messages. Large numbers of messages may arise for both legitimate (mailing list) and illegitimate (spam) sources. The options for handling it are presented for MS Outlook Express 4.01, Netscape Messenger 4.04, Eudora 4.0, cc:Mail 8.1, WinCIM 3.02, and AOL's 3.0 mailer. The information on error messages contains a good deal of useful information, and explains headers very thoroughly. While the stated content of chapter three is the creation of mailing lists and integration with other applications, only the first of these seems to be addressed. Again, mailing list functions are described for a set of mailers (and the failure to include Pegasus is very noticeable at this point). The "integration" seems to relate only to the creation of attachments, and the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Message Extensions) standard. Identity and confidentiality do have some commonality in chapter four. As well as options for multiple mail identities and certificate signing, there is a brief discussion of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) as offered by Network Associates and S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Messaging Extensions). Most of chapter five is dedicated to means to get at your mail when you are not at your normal desk. The material covers a lot of ground, including some aspects of the new IMAP (Interactive Message Access Protocol) standard. The use of email for customer service is a minor add-on. Chapter six looks at LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and some commercial email to fax and pager services. I was rather surprised at the number of available search and gateway functions that were not mentioned. Problems with attachments and Internet compatibility of various gateways is reviewed in chapter seven. While some quite important pieces of advice are relayed other significant bits are left out, and I was not real thrilled with the recommendations on virus protection. Chapter eight closes off without really saying anything except that email is going to change as time goes on. This book does provide the email user with some handy information and suggestions that aren't necessarily widely known and can help make email a more useful tool. There is an abundance of material that can help the user with a year or two of experience under his or her belt. The specificity to the six programs dealt with does limit the advantage somewhat, although users of other systems can take hints from the content in the text to direct their own explorations. But I'm still waiting for the Internet email book. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKINMSSG.RVW 981011 rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@sprint.ca robertslade@usa.net p1@canada.com Subscribe to techbooks mailing list at techbooks-subscribe@egroups.com or via the Web at http://www.eGroups.com/list/techbooks/ Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses, 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER) ------------------------------ From: aboritz@cybernex.net (Alan Boritz) Subject: MCI Buying More Than Commercials on Roddenberry TV Series Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 04:28:24 -0500 It may have seemed "cute" that a character in Gene Roddenberry's "Earth Final Conflict" blurted out a pitch for MCI's 5 cent/minute Sunday calling plan on one episode, but now "MCI" appears to be mentioned within every recent show. In this past week's episode, the same character mentioned (in the story) he owed his computer business career to MCI, for allowing him to hack a UCLA (?) academic records mainframe. And wouldn't you know it, "10-10-9000" was a sponsor for both shows. 10-10-9000 is MCI's new directory assistance service just launched by MCI in October, however there's no mention of the service anywhere in their corporate web site (or anywhere else, for that matter, besides by CNN). ------------------------------ From: aboritz@cybernex.net (Alan Boritz) Subject: Switch Manufacturers Abandon CMA Show This Year Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 04:59:19 -0500 Disapointing vendor turnout at this year's CMA (Communications Managers Association) show in New York. Not a single voice switch manufacturer was showing product, with the exception of Lucent, with a small office switch. Nortel (Northern Telecom), NEC, and Toshiba didn't even bother showing up. Mitel was there, but wasn't showing voice switches, and they shared half their booth with Winstar. MCI and Sprint used to make a big showing, and didn't even show up. AT&T was there, but you could hardly notice. Gone also were Metropolitan Fiber (now owned by Worldcom, who owns MCI), and Teleport Communications Group. A lot fewer vendors this year than in years past. 10 years ago, they filled three floors and all available suites. The great emphasis was on Cat-5E and Cat-6 cable and ancillary devices, very little on the voice side. This year, two floors were not completely filled. I wonder if this is an indication that the CMA is declining in popularity, or if telecommunications vendors have lost interest in doing business in the nation's largest city? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #132 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Dec 14 23:57:05 1998 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id XAA07744; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 23:57:05 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 23:57:05 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199812150457.XAA07744@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #133 TELECOM Digest Mon, 14 Dec 98 23:57:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 133 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Competition Will Cost Phone Users up Front (Tad Cook) AT&T to Battle Southwestern Bell over Access Charges in Texas (Tad Cook) AOL Merger and Netscape Public License (Monty Solomon) Cellular 9-1-1 in Chicago (Greg Abbott) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3149 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Competition Will Cost Phone Users up Front Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 11:29:21 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) (from the San Jose Mercury News) By Deborah Kong Mercury News Staff Writer Competition was supposed to cut your local phone bill. But it turns out consumers are going to have to pick up part of the tab to help bring competition to California. Starting Jan. 1, Pacific Bell will levy a $1.92 annual surcharge for each telephone line its customers have. GTE Corp., which is the dominant local phone company in Morgan Hill and Los Gatos, will add a 25-cent surcharge. The money is supposed to help cover the costs of making government-ordered changes to the telephone networks to open them to competitors. Pac Bell says its biggest cost has been creating the technology that will allow customers to switch carriers without changing their phone number. Pac Bell's surcharge of 16 cents a month may not sound like a lot, but multiply it by the company's nearly 18 million active lines and it adds up to $34.9 million annually. "All that's happening here is we are being compensated for money we spent to comply with new laws," Pac Bell spokesman John Britton said. "We are just facilitating customers to be able to move to other carriers." The state Public Utilities Commission approved the surcharge over the objections of its Office of Ratepayer Advocates, which represents all public utility customers. Natalie Billingsley, an analyst in the ratepayer advocate's office, said Pac Bell shouldn't be allowed to recover the money until competition actually exists in the residential market. "To our minds, if residential customers and small businesses or anybody else are going to fund the costs of creating competition, they shouldn't be asked to pay for it until it's actually here," she said. In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress ordered dominant local phone companies such as Pac Bell and GTE to open their networks to competitors. But while businesses today can choose from among roughly 50 companies offering local phone service, most residential customers can get service only from their existing phone company. Local residential competition exists in one San Jose apartment building, where residents can choose phone service offered by the Tele-Communications Inc. cable company, which is also planning to begin offering local phone service later this month in Fremont. In some parts of Southern California, other cable systems have also ventured into the local market. GTE has also been offering local telephone service packaged with long-distance and other services to a small number of Bay Area residential customers, GTE spokeswoman Lois Kinman said. Long-distance giant MCI WorldCom, which earlier this year tried to enter the local home phone market, said it isn't fair for Pac Bell to be compensated for routine business costs. "I haven't seen any order that authorizes MCI to collect our costs of getting into the local market, and we think it's inappropriate for Pacific Bell to be recovering (costs) from all California consumers," said Richard Severy, an MCI regional director for public policy. Officials at another long-distance company, AT&T Corp., said they support the extra charge. "The point is consumers are going to have to pay for this introduction of competition sooner or later," said Glenn Stover, a senior attorney at AT&T. "(The charges) make it possible for all competitors to enter into genuine competition with Bell." Billingsley of the ratepayer's advocacy office questioned Pac Bell's claim that it spent $46.5 million in 1996 getting ready for competition. The commission plans to examine Pac Bell's figures in hearings over the next year. The 16-cent charge is an interim one, but the commission's order did not specify when it would end. In another move aimed at stimulating competition in the local phone market, the commission is set to decide Thursday whether to approve a process for more quickly settling disputes over housing competitors' equipment in Pac Bell's central offices. Competitors say the quicker they can install their equipment in the offices, the sooner people are likely to get a choice of local phone carriers. Pac Bell has countered that it's doing its best but has been overwhelmed with demand in what it calls an "Oklahoma-style land rush." ------------------------------ Subject: AT&T to Battle Southwestern Bell over Access Charges in Texas Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 00:40:03 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By Bruce Hight, Austin American-Statesman, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Nov. 30--AT&T will soon need every friend it can find in the Texas Legislature for a backroom brawl with Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. But in recent months the long-distance giant has shot itself in the foot -- with a machine gun. The fight will be over the access charge AT&T and other long-distance companies must pay Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. each year to complete their in-state toll calls -- about $800 million. Southwestern Bell wants the Legislature to extend a freeze on the access charge for another two years, while the long-distance companies want it to expire as scheduled Sept. 1. In recent months, however, AT&T has gotten more attention for its blunders than complaints about access charges. "I don't know if it is that they're trying too hard or if they're not coordinated," said state Rep. Steve Wolens, D-Dallas. "But it seems to be a rash of mishaps." Those mishaps include: -- With little public notice raising by 50 percent the cost of in-state long-distance calls under its widely advertised One Rate Plus plan. When consumers complained, AT&T service representatives blamed the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which had nothing to do with it. AT&T suspended the increase for several months while it did a better job of notifying customers -- and educating employees. -- Charging the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston $100,000 or more for calls made by residential customers. A state-hired consultant said the misbillings are much higher, perhaps as much as $400,000. -- Getting fined $300,000 by the state for slamming, the practice of switching a customer's long-distance provider without consent. -- An AT&T lobbyist, Vaughn Aldredge, being fingered in September by Wolens as the true author of language used by a legislative committee in a report that favored the phone industry over cities in a dispute about franchise fees. (Aldredge later said the language was a group effort by the industry, not his alone.) The controversy embarrassed the interim joint committee momentarily, but its chairman, Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, decided not to change the report. Still, it's Wolens who chairs the House State Affairs Committee, which customarily handles all telephone legislation. "They just keep stepping in it," complained Charles Land, executive director of the Texas Association of Long Distance Telephone Companies, whose 35 members are smaller long-distance companies generally allied with AT&T. (AT&T is not a member.) Edwin Rutan, AT&T's vice president for law and government affairs for a five-state region that includes Texas, said that in each case where AT&T goofed, the company acknowledged error and fixed it. For example, he said, to avoid slamming AT&T no longer uses third-party contractors to solicit new long-distance customers. And, Rutan said, he's confident that AT&T can hold its own in the upcoming legislative session: "As a company right now we are on a roll." Others agree that AT&T's self-inflicted wounds were not fatal. For one thing, AT&T is a giant in its own right. The company had about $51 billion in worldwide revenues last year. Rutan won't say how much of the Texas long-distance market AT&T serves, but he doesn't dispute one estimate of 63 percent of the residential market. And he said AT&T has about half of the business market. "When you're an 800-pound guerrilla gorilla with a whole bunch of zeroes on your balance sheet," said Land, "you're always going to be a force to reckoned with, and you're always going to have influence." Wood said he values AT&T as a counter-balance to Southwestern Bell, whose parent company, SBC Communications Inc. in San Antonio, had $24.8 billion in revenues last year. And Wolens added: "This is not a slam-dunk for SBC simply because AT&T is tripping all over their feet ... This issue is much bigger than AT&T. A legislative fight over 12 cents doesn't sound like much. But those 12 cents add up to about $800 million a year that flows from the pockets of local telephone customers to long-distance companies and, finally, into the bank accounts of Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. The 12-cents-a-minute is the "access charge" that the long-distance companies must pay Southwestern Bell to complete their in-state long-distance calls. "Anybody that's offering you the 10-cent-a-minute rate is losing money on the intrastate call," said Pat Wood III, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission. "They're not even recovering their access (cost), much less their marketing and billing (costs)." The long-distance companies say the state should slash the 12-cent rate, saving consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, because it costs Southwestern Bell less than 1 cent a minute to complete the calls. Most of that $800 million is "a naked shareholder subsidy for Bell," charges Edwin Rutan, AT&T's vice president for law and government affairs in the five-state region that includes Texas. And the long-distance companies fear that, if Southwestern Bell gets into the long-distance business, it will have a huge competitive advantage: It will be paying the 12 cents a minute to itself, enabling it to slice rates in a way its competitors cannot match. But David Cole, president of Southwestern Bell-Texas, says the $800 million from high access charges keeps monthly bills for local service affordable because the price for local residential service "is way too low" compared to costs. A 1995 state law effectively froze the access charge at 12 cents until Sept. 1, 1999. Under the same law Southwestern Bell agreed to cap its rates for local phone service until Sept. 1, which allowed it to escape state regulation of profits. The legislative theory was that by fall Sept. 1, 1999, Southwestern Bell's monopoly on local service -- 77 percent of the state's telephone lines -- would be cracking and the arrival of competitors would keep rates under down. But while some competition for business customers is beginning to appear, there's none for residential customers. So Wood has said the PUC, as of Sept. 1, could act on the access charge, which could lead to a broader review of Southwestern Bell's rates. Or as Cole put it, "The commission has threatened us with rate cases publicly, and they publicly stated that they would go in and unilaterally adjust our rates." Southwestern Bell, already seething with frustration because the PUC so far has kept it out of the long-distance business, says Wood is reading the 1995 law all wrong. The right reading, Bell says, is that, come Sept. 1, it can't raise its basic local rates without PUC approval, but that the PUC would have no right to start a rate case. And, it says, the PUC can't reduce its access charge unless Southwestern Bell itself comes in for a rate case. Just to be sure its reading of the law prevails, Southwestern Bell wants the Legislature, which convenes Jan. 12 for a five-month session, to extend both the access charge freeze and the rate cap until Sept. 1, 2001. AT&T and the other long-distance companies oppose those extensions. They have gotten support indirectly from the Senate Economic Development Committee, which recently said no new telephone legislation is needed. And it's always easier to block legislation than to pass it. Under the umbrella of the Partnership for a Competitive Texas, AT&T, MCI WorldCom and others have conducted a public relations campaign, including television advertising, for two years that has attacked the access charge. The ads ran often enough that most people now know it costs more to call from Midland to Marfa than from Midland to Honolulu. AT&T, with 7,500 employees in Texas, won't say how much has been spent on the ad campaign, but Cole said his research estimated about $10 million. Southwestern Bell, however, is a political powerhouse itself. The 1995 law, which began opening the state's local telephone monopolies to competition, was widely regarded as a victory for Southwestern Bell. Effective at mobilizing its work force for political support, the company today has 26,000 employees in Texas, plus 15,000 retirees. Behind the argument over the access charge is a tough question: How much are local rates subsidized by long-distance access charges? And if local rates move closer to actual costs, as they are expected to do as competition develops, will that leave some people unable to afford an ordinary monthly phone bill for local service? Southwestern Bell says the access charge subsidizes local rates. If local service was priced at its true cost, Cole said, the monthly rate would be about $20 instead of the $9.35 charged in the Austin area. (The $9.35 does not include various other fees and taxes added to the bill.) But Southwestern Bell's critics have hotly disputed for years whether local service is subsidized and, if so, how much. Rutan, of AT&T, said Southwestern Bell needs only about 3 cents a minute from access charges to keep monthly rates low. Throw in 1 cent for actual costs, he said, and the access charge would be about 4 cents. That would bring Southwestern Bell about $266 million a year, not $800 million. On Tuesday the PUC will consider slicing the access charge by about 3 cents per minute in connection with creation of a new fee for the Universal Service Fund, which would subsidize rates for particuarly low-income customers, services for the hearing-impaired and customers in high-cost rural areas. However, that 3-cent cut would not reduce Southwestern Bell's total revenues because it would be offset by revenue from the new fund. The new fee would be imposed on all telephone companies: local, long-distance and wireless. The fee, which the companies could pass on to their customers, is expected to be about 5 percent of a monthly bill. Customers might not notice much difference in their total telephone bills -- if the long-distance companies pass on the savings from a 3-cent cut, which they are not legally obligated to do. Southwestern Bell's critics also say the company could well afford a much larger cut than 3 cents in its access charge with no impact on local rates. The PUC staff completed a recent study that showed that, by traditional regulatory measures, Southwestern Bell had last year earned $288 million more than it would have been allowed if its profits were still regulated. a rate of return, a measure of profit, of 11.82 percent. That compares to the estimated maximum 9.47 percent Southwestern Bell would be allowed to earn if it were subject to a rate case today, the commission figures showed. In other words, Southwestern Bell is making so much money --"overearning," in regulatory parlance -- that it likely would face rate cuts by the commission but for the 1995 law. But Cole, who said his company is "not overearning to any extent," sounded agitated at the very idea of discussing Southwestern Bell's profits. The 1995 law ended profit regulation, he said, and the commission's estimates are "fraught with assumptions from 15 years ago that aren't even relevant today." If access charges were cut and local rates go up to make even only part of it, there's another conundrum: The increase in the local bill could be offset by the savings in the long-distance bill -- if the customer makes a lot of long-distance calls. But those who don't make long-distance calls could get hit hardest by a higher local rate, including those who least likely could afford the increase, because there would be no offsetting savings. "Our main interest is that access is priced too high," Wood said. "It should come down, but we want to make sure that it comes down in a way that all customers get to see the benefit. It may not be perfect, but everybody ought to see something." Southwestern Bell also points out that, even if the access charge were cut, the long-distance companies would be under no legal obligation to pass on any savings to customers. The commission, which has no power over long-distance rates, recently asked for ironclad guarantees from the big three -- AT&T, which still has more than half of the Texas long-distance market, MCI WorldCom and Sprint -- that they would pass on savings to customers in a way that all would benefit, not just heavy long-distance users. AT&T and Sprint were willing, but MCI WorldCom wasn't. "Our position has been that we will flow-through all of the access reductions -- we said that several times," said Neal Larsen, MCI WorldCom's regional director of public policy. "But don't dictate how that's to be done; let the competitive market take care of that." Wood and Commissioner Judy Walsh, however, indicated at a recent PUC meeting that they were reluctant to approve the new fee for the Universal Service Fund if there was no assurance that all customers would benefit from cutting the access charge. That would mean no 3-cent cut in the access charge. Perhaps, Wood said, the commission should delay action to see if the Legislature would give it authority to require that savings from cuts in the access charge cut be passed on to consumers. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 03:27:09 GMT From: Monty Solomon Subject: AOL Merger and Netscape Public License Passed along to Digest readers, FYI: Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 22:41:07 -0500 From: James Love To: info-policy-notes Subject: AOL Merger and Netscape Public License Message-ID: <365B7C53.5CFC2225@cptech.org> Info-Policy-Notes | News from Consumer Project on Technology November 24, 1998 The Netscape Public License and the AOL Merger Jamie Love, Nov 24 This is a brief note about one aspect of the AOL/Netscape merger -- Netscape's "Open Source" experiment with the source code for its browser. Tonight I was asked to look at the Netscape Public License (NPL), to see what AOL could do to the Netscape code if the merger goes through. It was pointed out that AOL could take all the contributions made by the volunteer community and release a version of the browser, with the Netscape trademark, under a different license agreement. There are several sections related to this, but especially the Amendments V.2 and V.3. I am not a lawyer, and will stand corrected by a more informed person if I am wrong about this. But it does seem as though AOL could "take back" the browser from the Open Source experiment, in the following way. AOL could not retrieve the code that has already been released, including any modifications that anyone has made, but it could make any future releases be protected under a new license agreement, including a non-free and non-open license. This would include all of the previous modifications to its code by volunteers. Indeed, AOL could continue to "take" future modifications to its release code by third parties, since they would still be covered under the terms of the NPL, particularly Section 3, "Distribution Obligations." As a practical matter, users could not use any new features added by AOL, without agreeing to the new license terms. I found it interesting that Mozilla.Org says that Netscape has been funding more than 100 full time positions to work on the development of the Communicator code, and it is not difficult to imagine a case where such new features would become important. It is also interesting to compare the Netscape Public License (NPL) to the Berkeley freeBSD license and the GNU Public License (GPL). Under the Berkeley license, the code and all modifications would be in the public domain, subject to embrace and extend, but by anyone (See http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/freebsd-license.html). Under the GPL or the LGPL (See http://www.gnu.org for details), all the code and modifications would not be subject to re-license as a non-free non-open product. This underscores Vinod Valloppillil's analysis for Microsoft in the Halloween documents that the GPL provides greater assurances that the code will continue to be available in the future. And in the wake of the AOL merger, it illustrates the shortcomings of the NPL. I welcome corrections or comments on this issue. Jamie Love CPT's web page on this merger is http://www.essential.org/antitrust/mergers/aol-ns/index.html The Netscape licenses are on the web at: http://www.mozilla.org/NPL Here is Section V of the Netscape Public License V. Use of Modifications and Covered Code by Initial Developer. V.1. In General. The obligations of Section 3 apply to Netscape, except to the extent specified in this Amendment, Section V.2 and V.3. V.2. Other Products. Netscape may include Covered Code in products other than the Netscape's Branded Code which are released by Netscape during the two (2) years following the release date of the Original Code, without such additional products becoming subject to the terms of this License, and may license such additional products on different terms from those contained in this License. V.3. Alternative Licensing. Netscape may license the Source Code of Netscape's Branded Code, including Modifications incorporated therein, without such additional products becoming subject to the terms of this License, and may license such additional products on different terms from those contained in this License. INFORMATION POLICY NOTES: the Consumer Project on Technology http://www.cptech.org, 202.387.8030, fax 202.234.5127. Archives of Info-Policy-Notes are available from http://lists.essential.org/info-policy-notes/ Subscription requests to listproc@cptech.org with the message: subscribe info-policy-notes Jane Doe To be removed from the list, the message should read, unsub info-policy-notes ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1998 13:17:01 -0600 From: Greg Abbott Subject: Cellular 9-1-1 in Chicago > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We finally started receiving cellular > 911 service in the Chicago area; the central dispatch is operated by > Ameritech! No police agencies are involved in it directly; they just > get calls from the Ameritech dispatchers who it appears have been > very well trained in local geography, village boundaries and the like. > It is obviously a losing proposition for Ameritech financially since > they provide the service free of charge to their subscribers who dial > 911 from their cellular phone. I congratulate them for starting it. PAT] Pat, I did some checking with some public safety folks in Chicago and found out that Ameritech is not operating the call centers which are taking cellular 9-1-1. Ameritech is simply forwarding the call to a 9-1-1 system or other answering point - so their investment is rather minimal. Except for some lost revenue from the air time, they really don't have much cost at all. We have been operating this type of service for about ten years in Champaign County. In most cases, the calls are routed to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) based on the location of the cell tower which the caller is using. This is not a perfect system, but it will work moderately well to get the 9-1-1 call answered until such time that the wireless 9-1-1 programs can be funded and implemented. In a few areas of suburban Chicago, the county or city may contract with a private firm to intercept the call and route it to the appropriate PSAP based on the information obtained from the caller. This works, as long as the caller knows where they are (which is sometimes a challenge) and as long as the caller can communicate with the 9-1-1 call taker. Anyway, Ameritech is one of the primary carriers, but they simply carry the call to the PSAP, the call takers you talk to are, in most cases, real 9-1-1 operators paid by governmental agencies. Just wanted to clear that up. Wireless is a hot topic among the 9-1-1 community ever since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 mandated that wireless users have the same level of access to emergency services that wireline users have. Take care, Greg GREG ABBOTT 9-1-1 COORDINATOR METCAD 9-1-1 Office: 217/333-4348 1905 E. Main St. FAX: 217384-7003 Urbana, IL 61802 email: gabbott@uiuc.edu www.prairienet.org/metcad "Saving the world - One call at a time" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is quite interesting. When I tested this prior to my previous message, I wanted to see if anything had changed from in the past, when dialing 911 from a cell phone reached a recorded intercept saying 'if your call is an emergency, please dial the operator ...' On that first occassion, when a live person answered after I dialed 911, I asked the person what police or other public safety agency I had reached. The person responded by saying 'this is not a police department; you have reached Ameritech's emergency response center. We relay your call to various agencies as needed.' For obvious reasons, I did not want to tie up the person or the circuit with a frivilous call, so I immediatly said thank you, sorry to bother you, and disconnected. After receiving your message, I tried it again, and the person answering my call this second time said essentially the same as the first person: 'You have reached Ameritech's emergency response center.' I wonder if the calls are going to some police department on special lines which allow that department to identify the caller as a cell phone user, and rather than confuse the caller by identifying themselves as the (name of village) police department -- possibly causing the caller to wonder how he reached that place, and spend precious time trying to explain himself and his circumstances -- that department is identifying itself as the 'Ameritech Emergency Response Center' on those calls only in order to get the callers to start talking about what it is they need or wish to report. The theory would be get the callers to immediatly report whatever is going on and let the experts who answer decide who needs to be dispatched, etc. I can see where ten or fifteen seconds or more of valuable time could be wasted if a caller was frantic and asked 'how did I reach (village) Police? I want the Skokie Police. Can you tell me how to call them?' Then the dispatcher has to respond that s/he will pass the message and the caller is not satisfied with that response and disconnects then dials back, etc. The dispatcher has to try and explain to the caller what is going on. Far better I suspect to simply have the call answered with a phrase the caller is familiar with, such as 'Ameritech' and have the dispatcher be sort of vague about who/where the center is located, encouraging the caller to start talking about the actual emergency instead of wondering *who to call and how to reach them*. Does that make sense? PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #133 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Dec 15 02:01:01 1998 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id CAA13791; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 02:01:01 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 02:01:01 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199812150701.CAA13791@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #134 TELECOM Digest Tue, 15 Dec 98 00:17:17 EST Volume 18 : Issue 134 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #162, December 14, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) What a Residential DSL Offer Looks Like (Greg Monti) Who Should Pay For Cellular Phone Calls, Caller or Receiver? (Tad Cook) New US West Features Refine Family's Control of Phone (Tad Cook) Deja vu: AT&T revivifies Feature Group A! (Linc Madison) FCC to Pull Plug on Baby Bell Mergers? (Monty Solomon) UCLA Short Course on "Genetic Algorithms Workshop" (Bill Goodin) 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@telecom-digest.org * 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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 847-675-3140 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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, 14 Dec 1998 11:15:04 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #162, December 14, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 162: December 14, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * AT&T Canada ............... http://www.attcanada.com/ * * Bell Canada ............... http://www.bell.ca/ * * Lucent Technologies ....... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * MetroNet Communications ... http://www.metronet.ca/ * * Sprint Canada ............. http://www.sprintcanada.ca/ * * Telus Communications....... http://www.telus.com/ * * TigerTel Services ......... http://www.citydial.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Microcell Calls for Wireless Number Portability ** Bell Gives Way, Will Continue PrimeLine ** Bell Launches DSL Lite ** Lucent Announces Canadian Expansion ** Nortel Acquires Newbridge Affiliate ** BC Tel Wants Right to Limit Payphone Calls ** Stentor Asks Looser Terms for Customer-Specific Tariffs ** AT&T Buys IBM World Network ** Microsoft Sells Canadian ISP Business to AT&T ** Look Launches Montreal Wireless TV Service ** Stephenson Leaves Stentor ** CRTC Cuts Proposed BC ADSL Rates ** MT&T Centrex Price Reduction Denied ** QuebecTel Rate Restructuring ** Siemens, 3Com Announce Joint Venture ** BC Tel Centrex Offers Combined Voice Mail ** AlphaNet Seeks Cash ** "Great A to Z on Call Centre Management" ============================================================ MICROCELL CALLS FOR WIRELESS NUMBER PORTABILITY: PCS carrier Microcell Telecommunications has asked the CRTC to order number portability for Canadian wireless providers. Microcell cited survey results indicating that 40% of wireless customers would probably switch carriers if they didn't have to change their phone numbers. BELL GIVES WAY, WILL CONTINUE PRIMELINE: Bell Canada says that strong customer response has convinced it to retain its one-number service, PrimeLine Executive. Bell and the CRTC have received more than 300 letters opposing Bell's application to discontinue the service. (See Telecom Update #161) BELL LAUNCHES DSL LITE: Bell Global Solutions has launched Sympatico High Speed Edition, offering Internet access at up to 1 Mbps in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City. The service, based on Nortel's 1-Meg Modem, uses copper wire and requires no inside wiring changes. Transmission speeds are less than ADSL service, which Bell now aims to market to business users. ** Internet Direct President John Nemanic says he will ask the CRTC to order Bell to allow other Internet providers to resell its new DSL service. (See Telecom Update #145) LUCENT ANNOUNCES CANADIAN EXPANSION: Lucent Technologies Canada says it is adding an additional floor to its new headquarters in Markham, Ontario, to accommodate a Canadian workforce it expects to reach 1,000 next year. Since January 1997, Lucent has tripled its employee base in Canada to 650. NORTEL ACQUIRES NEWBRIDGE AFFILIATE: Nortel Networks has bought Cambrian Systems, a Kanata, Ont.-based developer of optical network systems, for US$300 Million. Cambrian was 40% owned by Newbridge Networks, which retains access to Cambrian technology. BC TEL WANTS RIGHT TO LIMIT PAYPHONE CALLS: CRTC Public Notice 98-37 asks comment on a BC Tel request for authority to limit the length of payphone calls, at the request of a location provider, provided the limit is not less than three minutes. To participate, notify the Commission by January 7. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9837_0.txt STENTOR ASKS LOOSER TERMS FOR CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC TARIFFS: The Stentor companies say some large customers demand firm price quotes not dependent on conditions such as traffic volume and service locations. Stentor asks the CRTC to draw up new guidelines for customer-specific tariffs permitting telcos to make such bids. Public Notice 98-38 seeks comments, which are due January 15. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9838_0.txt AT&T BUYS IBM WORLD NETWORK: AT&T Corp. says it will buy IBM's global data networking business for US$5 Billion. IBM Global Network in Canada, which is operated by Bell Canada, is not immediately affected by the deal. MICROSOFT SELLS CANADIAN ISP BUSINESS TO AT&T: Microsoft is selling its 75,000 Canadian Internet access subscribers to AT&T Canada Long Distance, effective February 1. LOOK LAUNCHES MONTREAL WIRELESS TV SERVICE: Look Communications has launched its wireless digital broadcast service in the Montreal area, offering up to 110 channels. Look says it has 2,000 customers in the Toronto area. STEPHENSON LEAVES STENTOR: Carol Stephenson has resigned as President of Stentor Canadian Network Management (SCNM) and President/CEO of Stentor Resource Centre Inc (SRCI). She has been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of the new Business Services Division of Bell Satellite, effective January 4. ** SRCI will cease operations at year end. Ian Highet will be the new president of SCNM. CRTC CUTS PROPOSED BC ADSL RATES: The CRTC has rejected a BC Tel plan to charge more for business ADSL Access lines than for the equivalent residential service. The CRTC also ruled that ADSL Access is an essential service, so the telco cannot charge more than a 25% mark-up. (Telecom Order 98-1247) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o981247_.txt MT&T CENTREX PRICE REDUCTION DENIED: CRTC Telecom Order 98- 1246 denies an MT&T plan to restructure Band C Centrex rates. The Commission, which previously approved the restructuring for Bands A and B, says the proposed prices would not cover costs in Band C. (See Telecom Update #158) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o981246_.txt QUEBECTEL RATE RESTRUCTURING: Quebec-Telephone wants the CRTC's okay for a rate restructuring plan that will price all individual business lines at $49.50 and all residential lines at $23.50. To take part in Public Notice 98-36, notify the Commission by January 7. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/notice/1998/p9836_0.txt SIEMENS, 3COM ANNOUNCE JOINT VENTURE: Siemens and 3Com are forming a $100-Million joint venture to build equipment for converged voice-data networks. BC TEL CENTREX OFFERS COMBINED VOICE MAIL: CRTC Telecom Order 98-1235 approves a BC Tel Centrex option that permits customers to combine their Centrex and BC Tel Mobility voice mailboxes. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o981235_.txt ALPHANET SEEKS CASH: Toronto-based AlphaNet Telecom says it is seeking an investor or buyer to fund the operation and development of its international IP telephony network. (See Telecom Update #121) "GREAT A TO Z ON CALL CENTRE MANAGEMENT": Participants are giving rave reviews to Angus Dortmans' in-house seminar, "Essential Skills and Knowledge for Effective Incoming Call Centre Management," led by Henry Dortmans. Among recent comments: ** "Helpful to all call center people [including] senior management and agents." ** "The most knowledgeable facilitator I have had the pleasure of being with. You really know your stuff!" ** "A great A to Z on call center management." For information, call 1-800-263-4415 ext 300 or go to http://www.angustel.ca/angdort/adccs.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 21:22:08 -0600 From: Greg Monti Subject: What a Residential DSL Offer Looks Like Now that cable modems offering internet access are ramping up in the cable TV industry, what are the local telephone companies doing to compete? Here's some data culled from a mail offering for Residential Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service from Bell Atlantic Virginia. [Pat, I don't want this to look like an advertisement, but I thought Telecom Digesters would be interested. I have no connection to Bell Atlantic other than as a satisfied (analog cellular) customer.] Bell Atlantic's service is called Infospeed DSL. It works with any DSL-equipped Internet Service Provider, or you can buy bundled internet access from Bell Atlantic.net. It comes in six flavors: kb/sec to home kb/sec from home BA.net included monthly ------------- ---------------- --------------- ------- 640 90 yes $ 59.95 1,600 90 yes $109.95 7,100 680 yes $189.95 640 90 no $ 39.95 * 1,600 90 no $ 59.95 * 7,100 680 no $109.95 * * = plus your ISP's monthly charge There's no usage charge; it's flat rate. If one orders bundled Bell Atlantic.net internet service with a 12-month commitment, one can also purchase a Westell DSL modem for $49 (including the effect of a $50 cash back offer). The cheap modem offer only applies to the first 20,000 customers to order service by June 30, 1999. The fine print says the DSL modem is normally $349 and an Ethernet card for your PC is $50 to $60. It also implies that a DSL "splitter" must be installed in the home to split the POTS service from the DSL service, but doesn't state a cost. Startup fee is $99 with your own ISP, or $148 with Bell Atlantic.net as your ISP. The connection is always on, and the customer is not sharing bandwidth on the "last mile" to the home with any other user (since each house is on its own pair). Uses the same wire pair as the analog home phone. Curiously, Bell Atlantic's data service marketing left hand does not know what its Plain Old Telephone Service right hand is doing. I disconnected my POTS service from BA in March, 1998, and I haven't been a BA landline customer since then. The mailer was forwarded to me in Texas by the Virginia post office. The offer mentions "residence" and "household" in a few places but does not explicitly exclude businesses from ordering the service. If businesses can indeed get the service at these prices, it will undercut T-1 internet access by a factor of more than 10. The last time I got a quote for T-1 internet access for a business in New York City, the rate was $2,700 per month from MCI. Greg Monti Dallas, Texas, USA gmonti@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~gmonti ------------------------------ Subject: Who Should Pay For Cellular Phone Calls, Caller or Receiver? Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 19:06:41 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) LOS ANGELES (AP) -- When you take a cellular telephone call, who should pick up the tab? In the United States, users generally pay for calls they receive. In other places on the globe, the caller usually is billed. Fans say enforcing that "calling party pays" or CPP system in the U.S. would boost cell phone use. But they claim the issue is getting a busy signal from federal regulators. "I used to be more optimistic," said George Schmitt, executive vice president of wireless upstart Omnipoint Corp. "It's not a front-burner issue at the Federal Communications Commission." The FCC began looking into CPP in September 1997. It stopped taking industry comments on the topic in June but has yet to act. One reason, observers said, is that enforcing a nationwide plan might anger state regulators who want a say in communications policy. Also, the industry itself cannot agree on the issue. Observers note that even without a nationwide CPP standard, the number of cell phone users has doubled since 1995. AT&T Corp., the nation's largest cellular carrier with more than 8.7 million customers, had promised to jump-start the caller-pays system this year but instead has concentrated on a new national flat-rate plan called Digital One. "It's a question of priorities rather than long-term strategy," Scott Morris, a senior executive vice president for AT&T Wireless Inc., told Investor's Business Daily for an article published last week. "Digital One has greater urgency for us. Calling party pays isn't happening overnight." AT&T has begun testing CPP services in Minnesota but isn't ready to expand the test, partly due to Digital One's success. Digital One brought the company about 500,000 new customers this year. They don't have to pay the usual "roaming" fees for using their cell phones outside AT&T's coverage area. They also pay low rates per minute of use -- but must buy a lot of minutes. Rates vary from $89.99 for 600 minutes to $149.99 for 1,400 minutes a month. Because they have so many prepaid minutes, Digital One customers really don't need CPP, Morris said. "People who purchase large bundles of minutes are in a better position to take incoming calls," he said. Having the caller pay would benefit lower-usage cell phone customers, who typically pay about $40 a month. "There's a lot of opportunity in the low end of the market," Morris said. San Francisco-based AirTouch Communications Inc. offers CPP in nine states. The company said it has been unable to expand the system because some local Bell telephone companies are refusing to cooperate on billing contracts. Bell Atlantic Corp. said it supports CPP. "The FCC hasn't moved nearly quickly enough on this issue," said Dennis Strigl, chief executive of Philadelphia-based Bell Atlantic Mobile, the company's cell phone unit. Critics include the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which a year ago told the FCC it opposes national rules for CPP and contends they wouldn't pass legal muster anyway. "The FCC couldn't order calling party pays if it wanted to," said Brad Ramsay, the group's assistant general counsel. But the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, a Washington- based trade group, says CPP is needed and could prompt people to use cell phones for all voice calls. "The absence of CPP is an impediment to wireless being a substitute for local service," said Michael Altschul, the group's general counsel. ------------------------------ Subject: New US West Features Refine Family's Control of Phone Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 22:22:54 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By George Beran, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Dec. 12--US West is offering three new services that allow telephone customers to block incoming and outgoing calls at a separate monthly cost of $3.95. The services called US West Do Not Disturb, Dial Lock and Call Curfew give residential and business customers control of phone use by family members and employees. "Customers can block incoming calls at dinner time, restrict their teen-ager's phone usage or eliminate unwanted long-distance charges on their monthly bill," said Gloria Davy, a US West executive. Advanced network technology is giving US West and other telephone firms the ability to create services like these and generate more revenue, said Fred Voit, a telecommunications analyst with the Yankee Group. But the services may have limited appeal, Voit believes, since they are offered separately instead of as a package. "If you want them, they're great services, but I doubt they are mass market services. If they were bundled in a package, it would be a terrific differentiator in the market." Older services such as call forwarding, call waiting and caller ID are growing slowly by being included in service packages, but have relatively low market penetration rates, according to Voit's national statistics. Call waiting is the most popular option, with a 41.6 percent penetration rate; caller ID is next at 29.6 percent; call forwarding stands at 13.5 percent and remote call forwarding at 2 percent. With Do Not Disturb service, customers can block incoming calls during time periods when no interruptions are desired. Customers can designate numbers they want to receive, so they don't miss important calls. Dial Lock enables customers to block all outgoing calls with exception of emergency 911 calls. The blocking includes long distance, 900, 960 and 976 numbers, operator-assisted and directory assistance calls plus toll-free 800, 877 or 888 numbers. A special PIN code allows customers to override the blocking. Call Curfew blocks incoming and outgoing calls, except to 911, during time periods the customers select. Designated calls pass through but others get a recorded message that calls are not being received. No added equipment is required to receive the services. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:28:31 -0800 From: Telecom@LincMad.NOSPAM.com (Linc Madison) Organization: LincMad Consulting Remember good old "Feature Group A" long distance? Many long years ago, the alternatives to the AT&T Mothership allowed you to dial an ordinary 7-digit local number and then punch in your account code and the number you wished to call. Back in the early-to-mid 1980's, I had a little wallet-sized booklet of all the SPRINT (all caps, since it still stood for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecommunications) local access numbers. AT&T, of course, never got into the FG-A business, since at the time all 1+ or 0+ calls went to them. Lo and behold, what should I get in my mailbox yesterday, but a flyer advertising AT&T's new "Connect 'N Save[R]" service. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- MARKETING BLURB -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- So why is AT&T Connect 'N Save[R] Service a smart choice? * At 7-1/2c a minute, it's cheap. * It's easy. No switching. No bills. No long, itemized statements. * It's prepaid, so budgeting is simple. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- END MKTG. BLURB -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "No long, itemized statements" -- in other words, no way to check to see if you're really getting what you've paid for! What a feature! You pre-pay $25, $50, or $100 on your credit card, and there is a $2/month minimum usage. You can also sign up for the auto-refresh option. So far, they have only ten local access numbers: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Miami, Phoenix, and five in the San Francisco area -- Palo Alto (actually Redwood City), Pleasanton, San Francisco, San Jose, and what they mislabel as Walnut Creek (actually Santa Rosa, which is not only in a different area code, but also over FIFTY MILES away with no overlap in local calling areas!). If you're outside those areas, they have an 877 number you can use for 20 cents a minute, with a footnote that payphone surcharge may apply. (The web page indicates that they are waiving the 30-cent connection charge for payphone calls to the 877 number during a limited-time introductory promotion, to be withdrawn with 30 days notice on the web site.) I checked the international rates on the web page, and they're nothing short of exorbitant, with the quite curious exception of Mexico, which is only 35 cents/minute for all bands. Canada is a bit pricey at 49 cents/minute, and *every* other international call is over $1 per minute, ranging up to $5.99/minute for Myanmar/Burma and $9.75/minute for some Inmarsat calls. Calls to the U.K. $1.09, Australia $1.51, France $1.33, Japan $1.45, (South) Korea $1.82, (North) Korea $5.38, and so on. Most embarrassing, though, is the unbelievable gaffe of listing (707) 741-xxxx as an access number for Walnut Creek. WALnut Creek is in the new 925 area code, as we all know, and in fact the only 707 numbers that are local to Walnut Creek are in Benicia, which has only about 7 prefixes. In short, if you tend to make a lot of domestic calling card calls in the cities indicated above, this could save you a lot of money. For most people, though, it's a bust. If you want more info: ** Do not send me unsolicited commercial e-mail spam of any kind ** Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * Telecom@LincMad-com URL:< http://www.lincmad.com > * North American Area Codes & Splits >> NOTE: if you autoreply, you must delete the "NOSPAM" << ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: FCC to Pull Plug on Baby Bell Mergers? Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:58:29 -0500 Excerpt from Finance - Morning Call @ 12/09/98 ** The FCC reportedly may pull the plug on two upcoming Baby Bell mergers. According to the Wall Street Journal, federal regulators are concerned SBC COMMUNICATIONS INC's (SBC: 48-1/16, - 13/16) $56 billion acquisition of AMERITECH CORP. (AIT: 55-9/16, - 11/6) and BELL ATLANTIC CORP's (BEL: 56-3/8, - 1-5/8) $52 billion merger with GTE CORP. (GTE: 64-3/8, - 1-5/8) may not serve the "public interest." The FCC apparently is worried the deals could lead to a slippery slope, as the mergers would leave just four of the original seven Baby Bells in existence. The local phone service companies were created in 1984, when AT&T was split for antitrust reasons. Regulatory decisions regarding the mergers still are months away though, and the Justice Department appears unlikely to block either transaction on antitrust grounds because in neither case do joining parties compete. ------------------------------ From: Bill Goodin Subject: UCLA Short Course on "Genetic Algorithms Workshop" Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 11:03:10 -0700 On January 4-8, 1999, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Genetic Algorithms Workshop", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Mark J. Jakiela, PhD, Washington University, St. Louis; and Matthew B. Wall, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. The robustness and versatility of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have spurred their application to a diverse range of problems, such as scheduling, structural optimization, computer animation, and software generation. As computation becomes increasingly powerful and inexpensive, more applications should follow. This course is aimed at the practitioner who intends to create these new applications. Genetic algorithms are inherently simple in concept and application, such that the course takes participants quickly to the actual use of GAs on real problems. Current theory is presented as needed to understand the operation and performance of GAs and to describe their historical context. Participants are encouraged to bring a real problem that they wish to solve, so that their working software prototype can be developed in a supervised laboratory environment. The course is conducted in a lecture and workshop format, where mornings are devoted to lectures and afternoons to related laboratory exercises. Dedicated computer teaching classrooms are utilized for the lab sessions. The course uses the genetic algorithms library GALib developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology CADLAB, an object-oriented library written in C++ that runs on MacOS, Windows, and UNIX. The course fee includes a single-user, for-profit license for GALib. (If participants would like to integrate GALib with existing software during the course, they should contact the course instructors as soon as possible to make arrangements.) The course is intended for anyone who is interested in any type of optimization, including engineers, managers, computer scientists, as well as those interested in planning, operations, and operations research. The course should also benefit anyone oriented toward basic sciences, such as biology and sociology, where evolutionary models may be useful. There are no limitations with regard to particular technical disciplines or industries. Prerequisite: Participants should be reasonably proficient in C or C++ and be comfortable with the write-compile-debug process of software development. The course workshops use Microsoft Visual C++ as the development environment. The course fee is $1595, which includes extensive course materials. These materials are for participants only, and are not for sale. For a more information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #134 ******************************