Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa22578; 1 Feb 92 18:08 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08010 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 1 Feb 1992 16:27:57 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23530 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 1 Feb 1992 16:27:36 -0600 Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 16:27:36 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202012227.AA23530@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #101 TELECOM Digest Sat, 1 Feb 92 16:27:32 CST Volume 12 : Issue 101 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement (S. da Silva) Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement (David Niebuhr) Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement (H. Hallikainen) Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator (Bob Turner) Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator (Devon Davis) Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan (Raymond N. Shwake) Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Part 68 Help! (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Part 68 Help! (Bob Danek) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva) Subject: Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 09:22:45 GMT In article , bei@dogface.austin.tx.us (Bob Izenberg) writes: > My January phone bill from Southwestern Bell contained an explanation > of what they call the Universal Service Fund Surcharge. > Relay Texas is a statewide service that operates 24 hours a day, > seven days a week allowing telephone calls, through the use of special > operators, between people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech > impaired and those who can hear or speak. > I'm of two minds on this surcharge. Until proven otherwise, I'll > believe that's it's doing someone some good. I suspect, however, that > I'm paying for a service that I will never use. I have used Relay Texas a number of times. My sister is deaf and uses it to call me (as well as anyone else she needs to call) and is absolutely delighted by it. One of her biggest frustrations in life has been that she has never had the convenience of being able to use the phone. (This is something I really can't relate to since I'm phone-shy and I'll avoid talking on the phone at all costs). But to help you picture her dilemma better, try an experiment. Don't use the phone for an entire day. Try to get other people to make calls for you -- you'll find it isn't as a very easy thing to do at all. Thinking that you are wasting your money because you'll never use the service is a very short-sighted attitude. How it works is she'll use her TDD to call up Relay Texas and that will get her an operator. The operator will then call me and act as a go-between. I'll talk to the operator voice while s/he types to my sister. At first I found it rather awkward (and a little slow), but after a while I got to the point where I now pretty much ignore the operator and we'll find ourselves talking about personal things and even having minor arguments -- the same as if two hearing people were talking on the phone! One time I put my two year old daughter on the phone to say "Hi!" which amused all parties involved. :-) Is it worth it?? YES!! I really can't believe that you're complaining over a measly extra 34 cents. When I saw that surcharge, I was surprised that it was so small and I had to pay it three times since I have three phone lines. This service is worth that many, many times over. Stephanie da Silva Taronga Park * Houston, Texas arielle@taronga.com 568-0480 568-1032 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 08:50:52 -0500 From: niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) Subject: Re: Texas Universal Service Fund In bei@dogface.austin.tx.us (Bob Izenberg) writes: > My January phone bill from Southwestern Bell contained an explanation > of what they call the Universal Service Fund Surcharge. The text that > follows is the complete text from the bill, translated to mixed upper > and lower case. (The SWBT announcement is all in upper case.) > I'm of two minds on this surcharge. Until proven otherwise, I'll > believe that's it's doing someone some good. I suspect, however, that > I'm paying for a service that I will never use. While the amount is > so small that I'll pay it and never miss it, taking that 34 cents from > all Texas SWBT customers adds up to a fair chunk of change. The flyer > itself doesn't tell enough about the service to gauge the service's > value. I'll call the 800 number (and hope that it's not a 900 number > in disguise :-) to hear what they say. I use the New York Relay Service quite frequently when I have to communicate with my deaf computer operators at home be it either to call them in early for a special shift or to take calls from them when they're going to be absent. As for the service, we've had it for several years and the cost of the service is billed monthly in our basic charges so there's no telling what it costs other than getting a copy of the tariff. It's not a 900 number disguised as an 800 number at least in New York since my employer has 900/976/etc. blocked on outgoing calls. In addition, we have a TDD unit near our consoles and use that also when communicating with the deaf operators. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 12:17:20 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > I'm of two minds on this surcharge. Until proven otherwise, I'll > believe that's it's doing someone some good. I suspect, however, that > I'm paying for a service that I will never use. While the amount is > so small that I'll pay it and never miss it, taking that 34 cents from > all Texas SWBT customers adds up to a fair chunk of change. The flyer Never thought I'd use the similar service here in California, 'til I hired a deaf employee. It was nice to be able to "talk" to him on the phone. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ From: turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu (Bob Turner) Subject: Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator Organization: Univ. of Dayton, School of Engineering Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 17:46:13 GMT In article mike@bs2.mt.nec.co.jp (Mike Collinson) writes: > I am seeking a simple low-cost black box for home use for > connecting modem to modem or modem to fax machine and letting then > think they were on a real phone line. The only optional bell or > whistle would be the ability to simulate a noisy line in some way. > Before building such a thing I wonder what is on the market. Here is a post from last year regarding the same equipment you're looking for. Joseph Chan wrote: I have a standalone fax machine and a fax modem (send/receive at 9600 baud) installed on my 286 machine. There is no RS232 port on the fax machine. I have one phone line at home. Here is what I am trying to accomplish (i.e. use the fax machine as a scanner): 1. Connect the fax machine to the fax modem thru a regular telephone cable. (rest deleted ... describes how he wants to be able to send from the fax modem to the fax machine, and vice versa, without going via a regular phone line.) Paul Cook responded: This is easy to do with a CO line simulator, like the ones made by Proctor & Associates. They simulate regular central office lines, with dialtone, ringback tone, ringing voltage and everything, and can be used with any device that will work on a standard phone line. The four line unit is the model 49200, and it sells for $475. It will work with both rotary and tone dialing, and uses two digit dialing for each line. There is a new two line unit that is less expensive, the model 49250. It sells for $259.95, and uses only tone dialing. To dial the other port, just dial the # key, or any seven digit number. If the fax machines don't have to dial and don't need to hear dial tone, one could get by really cheap with a ringdown circuit. The Proctor model 46220 sells for $179, and as soon as it detects an off hook condition on one jack, it sends ringing to the other. With any of these devices one can do anything that one would do with a standard phone line. Modems can talk to modems, fax boards can use fax machines as printers, and phones can talk to other phones. Proctor & Associates is at 15050 NE 36th St, Redmond, WA 98052-5317. The phone number is 206-881-7000, and fax is 206-885-3282. All prices are FOB Redmond, WA, and Proctor accepts Visa or Master Card. Paul Cook Proctor & Associates Redmond, WA 206-881-7000 3991080@mcimail.com --------------- Bob Turner Network Manager, School of Engineering 513-229-3171 turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu Univ. of Dayton, Engineering Computing Center-KL211, Dayton OH 45469 ------------------------------ From: ddavis@mailbox.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com (Devon Davis) Subject: Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator Organization: Fort Worth Research and Development Center, Motorola, Inc. Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 21:13:54 GMT A comany called Teltone produces a telephone line simulator (model TLS3) for about $540. The address is: Teltone Corporation 22121-20th Avenue SE Bothell, Washington 98021 U.S.A. Phone: 1-800-426-3926 or 206-487-1515 Fax: 206-487-2288 They require a 110 volt power supply. There are two RJ11 jacks on the front of the box. One jack can call the other jack by dialing a two digit preassigned phone number. The box is meant to demo or test fax machines, phones, and modems. I have worked with these boxes for over a year and consider them a very useful tool. Devon Davis The opininions expressed here are not the opinions of any resonable person. ------------------------------ From: media!ka3ovk!raysnec!shwake@uunet.uu.net (Raymond N. Shwake) Subject: Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan Date: 31 Jan 92 19:05:03 GMT Organization: A/C International In article , andys@ulysses.att.com (Andy Sherman) writes: > 5ESS TO JAPAN -- AT&T Japan has supplied a switching system for > Japanese mobile phone company Nippon Idou Tsushin, its first such > order in the Japanese market, an AT&T spokesman said. I recall AT&T's efforts in the mid 1980's to sell that first 5ESS switch. Reports indicated that those efforts stalled on the insistence by the Japanese prospect that the full source code driving the switch be provided. So, it only took seven years for them to make their first sale ... There's a story in there somewhere. uunet!media!ka3ovk!raysnec!shwake shwake@rsxtech ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 11:49:38 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > Hmm, maybe American switches will sell better than American cars over > there ... Which side is the steering wheel on? Harold ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 11:19:34 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Part 68 Help! Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > I have an aquaintance who is developing a product that will be > attached to the telephone line, and will therefore require testing and > certification under FCC Rules part 68. Like most garage operations, > they're undercapitalized, and need to defer their certification for at > least several months. > I suggested they tell their customers that it is "... designed to > comply with part 68, but not yet certified, and it may be connected to > private PBXs, or to a phone line only with the explicit permission of > the phone company." Such a claim would be truthful, and not > misleading. Of course, most people will just plug it into their RJ-11 > and be done with it. The product is a small volume, high ticket item > with a technically sophisticated user base. > There are bound to be some users who for various reasons choose to be > completely legal. 12 years ago, they could have bought an 'STP' > adaptor, which was certified on one side, and nobody cared what was > connected to the other. > I'm looking for a contemporary equivalent. What I *don't* want is > private email from people who have two STPs in their basement and > would be glad to send them to me. What I'm also not looking for is any > of the modules that can be soldered to a circuit card and provide a > line level to phone line interface. > What I am looking for is a box that will connect to a phone line, a > phone-type device, and presumably a power supply, and behave like it > isn't there. If this can be ordered directly from the manufacturer by > my friend's customer, so much the better. If not, my friend would > probably be willing to become a reseller to service his customers. It seems to me that something that provides "adequate" protection of the telephone network while appearing invisible (provides loop current, regenerates ring, etc.) would be too expensive. Since this is a "high ticket item", how about using an approved DAA from Cermetek or someone like that. You can design your own DAA and put it on the board, along with holes for an already approved DAA. Until your DAA is approved, buy the Cermetek ones and solder them to the board. When your DAA is approved, solder in your components and stop buying the Cermetek. I think that in small quantities, Cermetek wants $30 to $50 for their DAA. This cost of FCC part 68 approval has been part of what encouraged us to design our latest product around the AT bus. We can buy low cost FCC approved modems, fax modems, voice synthesizers, etc. and just plug them in. We still have to deal with part 15, but at least the testing is cut down somewhat. In an existing product, we use the Cermetek CH1770 modem module, which mounts on one of our boards. This carries the transferrable part 68 registration, just as the suggested DAA would. Something for DAA manufacturers to consider ... how about including the RJ11 connector? I'd like to see a DAA where we could just punch a square hole in the rear panel of our product along with two holes for mounting screws. An appropriate number of .025 inch square pins spaced on a 0.1 x 0.1 inch grid would stick out the bottom of the thing. We could then solder the module directly to our board or run a mass terminated ribbon cable over to our board. Also, for more info on FCC part 15 and 68 approval, see the Compliance Engineering Reference Guide from Compliance Engineering magazine, 629 Massachusetts Ave, Boxborough, MA 01719. Phone 508 264 4208. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ From: danek@evax.gdc.com Subject: Re: Part 68 Help! Date: 31 Jan 92 09:42:49 GMT Organization: General DataComm, Middlebury CT In article , 74066.2004@CompuServe.COM (Larry Rachman) writes: > I have an aquaintance who is developing a product that will be > attached to the telephone line, and will therefore require testing and > certification under FCC Rules part 68. Like most garage operations, > they're undercapitalized, and need to defer their certification for at > least several months. > What I am looking for is a box that will connect to a phone line, a > phone-type device, and presumably a power supply, and behave like it I think what your friend is looking for is something like a "DAA" offered by Dallas Semi under the part number DS2249. This device provides an interface to the public switched network which is compliant with part 68. Bob Danek ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #101 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29348; 2 Feb 92 15:39 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14416 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 13:08:27 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14336 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 13:08:05 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 13:08:05 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202021908.AA14336@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #102 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 13:07:52 CST Volume 12 : Issue 102 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Administrivia: Getting Through to JUNET (TELECOM Moderator) Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? (Mickey Ferguson) DTMF Decoding by Ear (Rolf Meier) Answer Supervision on DMS-100 Central Offices (Vance Shipley) Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code (Syd Weinstein) Indiana Bell Rate Increase (Doctor Math) BC Tel Newsletter (Nigel Allen) Data Voice Multiplexer Question (Peter Orban) The Waves of Fax (Jim Haynes) Radio Modem (Scott Loftesness) Telecom and Science Fiction (Rune Henning Johansen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 12:35:14 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Getting Through to JUNET Would someone please help JUNET get back on track where telecom is concerned? Those folks are rejecting all the comp.dcom.telecom postings ... even the ones I send (which are the ones they should be accepting). And ... the people who have had articles in comp.dcom.telecom recently are getting back notes from JUNET saying 'you are not authorized'. Something strange is going on somewhere. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 17:21:28 PST From: mickeyf@vnet.ibm.com (Mickey Ferguson) Subject: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? Organization: Rolm Systems Does anyone know of any acoustic couplers available for modems? The specific problem I'm thinking of is when the business person travels and stays at a hotel with all digital phones. The idea of unplugging the phone and plugging the wire into the modem won't work, because the modem expects a regular analog line, not the digital line. Two questions come to mind: 1) Are there any modems available which have the old acoustic couplers (you know, the kind with the foam rubber receptacles where you place the handset in it) which work at today's speeds and improved error correction rates, etc? 2) Does anyone make an acoustic coupler-to-telephone line connector so that the traveler can work with the phone, regardless of the type (analog or digital) and also whether or not it has a hard-wired connection or an RJ-11 jack? (For you inventors out there, I would think this could be a potentially profitable venture...) Remember, I said it here first! :) ______ _________ _________ ( /\ ) | | | . . . | / \---------------| |--------------|_________| /____\ |_________| /___________\ Telephone Black Box Laptop with Modem (Acoustic Coupler) (RJ11 Connection) For the above picture, one would just place the handset into the acoustic coupler, and the black box would have no smarts in it at all, except to take the analog signal and output over a standard telephone wire to make a connection with the laptop's modem. What do people think? Does this exist? Is it feasible? This is all off the top of my head at 7 PM on a Friday, so I may be completely overworked and in desparate need of getting out of here! :) Mickey Ferguson Rolm Systems mickeyf@vnet.ibm.com ------------------------------ From: meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) Subject: DTMF Decoding by Ear Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 15:25:09 -0500 Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada. Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? Just curious. Rolf Meier Mitel Corporation ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Answer Supervision on DMS-100 Central Offices Organization: SwitchView Inc., Waterloo, Ontario Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1992 17:05:37 GMT As a follow up to the recent discussion regarding the availability of answer supervision signaling on CO lines, here is the feature description for the DMS-100 central office that applies. Feature title: Answer Supervision to PBXs for Toll Calls Part of packages: NTX008AB: PBX INTERFACE I NTX007AB: PBX INTERFACE II Feature Number: F2430 A typical network configuration has a PBX homing on a class 5 end office which in turn homes on a class 4 CAMA center. Both the PBX and the class 4 CAMA provide call detail records of toll calls, hence both require answer supervision. The class 4 CAMA center sends a steady off hook signal back to the DMS-100 class 5 end office as an ANI-request (for ANI spill). Return of answer supervision is not normally required on an incoming CAMA connection. This feature allows the class 4 CAMA and the class 5 end office to retransmit answer supervision back to the PBX. In the case where the class 5 end office has LAMA, then the DMS-100 also has the ability to provide answer supervision back to the PBX. The PBX-CO interface can be either: - Line card; - Two way DID/DOD analog trunk; - Two way DID/DOD digital trunk; or - Two way INWATS/OUTWATS digital trunk. When this feature is provided, toll diversion and message registration will not be supported. Glossary: CAMA Centralized Automatic Message Accounting LAMA Local Automatic Message Accounting ANI Automatic Number Identification DID Direct Inward Dialing DOD Direct Outward Dialing Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@ltg.uucp ..uunet!watmath!xenitec!vances ------------------------------ From: syd@dsinc.dsi.com (Syd Weinstein) Subject: Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 22:58:22 EST Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM In my local Bell of PA directory, which the latest issue came this week I was flipping through the first few pages just to see what was there, (actually looking to see if anyone listed a TDD listing after all the fuss the intro pages made about them) and I came across AT&T's listing. Now, I am in a surburban Philadelphia white pages book, so I wasn't expecting much, just the usual residential stuff, you know, LD, conferencing, phones ... lo and behold ... one of the 800 numbers is listed as "UNIX System V Source Code". Gee, is the source code free for calling? :-) Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator - Current 2.3PL11 Datacomp Systems, Inc. Projected 2.4 Release: Mid?? 1992 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd Voice: (215) 947-9900, FAX: (215) 938-0235 ------------------------------ From: drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) Subject: Indiana Bell Rate Increase Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 20:59:53 EST Organization: Department of Redundancy Department An article in the Digest some time ago mentioned that Michigan Bell, our neighbor to the north, was going to institute local measured calling for everybody whether they wanted it or not. Since MI Bell is owned by the same parent company (Ameritech) as Indiana Bell, I've been waiting for the same thing to happen here. An article in Friday's local paper confirmed my worst nightmare. Indiana Bell now claims that if they are not allowed to institute local measured calling for everybody, they will seek (and get?) a rate increase of 25%, which is about $5/month for the "average" residential customer. Under the measured calling plan, they intend to charge some amount for each call over the first 400 in any given month, claiming that this would only affect "about 6%" of the subscriber base. (Something tells me that this 6% is probably distributing Usenet news :-). To most people, 400 calls/month probably sounds like quite a bit; in reality, this breaks down to 13.333 calls/day. Upon hearing this, my neighbor said, "I easily make more than 13 calls a day." My feed site would likely exceed its 400 call allotment in less than a week. What is our PUC doing about it? Not much. They seem to be leaving that to the Senate, which has passed a three-year ban on local measured service. The House version of the bill bans local measured service forever. Each is waiting for the other to vote on its bill. I've decided that if local measured service goes into effect, I'm going to have all three of my lines disconnected, and I'm going to tell them why. I can get my news over NNTP at work, and probably get a better rate on calls to my mother as well. ------------------------------ From: nigel.allen@canrem.uucp (Nigel Allen) Date: 2 Feb 92 (03:59) Subject: BC Tel Newsletter Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto Reply-to: nigel.allen%canrem@lsuc.on.ca I though TELECOM Digest readers might enjoy reading this synopsis of a typical "statement stuffer" from a Canadian telephone company. Note the way sales pitches are interspersed with informative articles and public service announcements. (A suggestion: Ask friends or relatives served by different telephone companies to save newsletters that are enclosed with their utility bills. They can make interesting reading.) Some highlights from Dialogue (January 1992), a newsletter from the British Columbia Telephone Company inserted with telephone bills: Wired for the future: The Pacific Place development on the former Expo 86 site on the Vancouver waterfront will be North America's "first fully-operable fiber optics community." Pacific Place will feature 7,600 residences and three million square feet of development. Outgoing calls only: B.C. Tel is "introducing outgoing-only service throughout the province." [It isn't clear whether all pay phones would become outgoing only, or just those where "loitering and illegal activities" are a problem.] Learning from a distance: Using ISDN and multi-media workstations designed by B.C. Tel subsidiary MPR Teltech, the Open Learning Agency and the Vancouver School Board have linked four adult learning centres in Vancouver for a pilot project in distance learning. The project is funded by the Canadian [federal] Department of Communications and the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education. Two courses are planned: Western Civilization and Mathematics. Save on Fax: B.C. Tel's discounted long distance service for fax messages, FaxCom. Telephone Tips: Be sure to dial all 11 digits when you are calling a 1-800 number. Simply dialing the last seven digits, even if you are within the local calling area, will not get you through to the party you are calling. Reminder: Directory assistance charges apply for numbers listed in your local directory, even if they are long distance for you. Call Alert is suspended when you make a 0+ call. You will not hear a notification call of a second call and the calling party will hear a busy signal. Telecom Centre for Special Needs: equipment and services for people with disabilities Green Scene: If you don't need remittance envelopes included with your phone bill, ask the business office to discontinue sending them. Enquiry B.C.: a brief description of the British Columbia government information service. Questions about AIDS or HIV? Call the AIDS Vancouver Helpline at (604) 687-2437. B.C. Winter Games: B.C. Tel is a corporate sponsor of the games in Greater Vernon this year. Canada Remote Systems. Toronto, Ontario NorthAmeriNet Host ------------------------------ From: ORBAN@ciit85.ciit.nrc.ca Subject: Data Voice Multiplexer Question Date: 2 Feb 92 09:32:10 +0600 Organization: National Research Council I have picked up a data-voice multiplexer in a surplus store. It is a Siemens SA820R. According to the user guide it can be used for transparent data communication over a phone line with an other unit installed in the "central office". It uses "time compression and digital baseband modulation techniques with forward acting error correction". The DTE/Network interface is "CCITT V.24/V.28; EIA RS-232-C standard". I have hooked it up to my computer, and it works in the local analog loopback test mode. I would like to know if it can be used for communication with other regular modems, or only with another special anymal like this? My initial guess is that it would work only with another multiplexer, but I would like to hear others' opinion. Has anyone used data-voice multiplexers, has anyone seen this Siemens unit? Thanks. Peter Orban | Internet: orban@ciit85.ciit.nrc.ca National Research Council of Canada | Bitnet: orban@nrccit.nrc.ca 435 Ellice Av. Winnipeg, MB. | Phone: 204/983-0670 Canada, R3B 1Y6 | Fax: 204/983-3154 ------------------------------ From: Jim Haynes Subject: The Waves of Fax Date: 2 Feb 92 08:11:55 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz I've been wanting to prepare an article on the fax business; but I don't know enough. So I'll just outline what I've been thinking and maybe others will fill in some of the blanks. 1. One of the earliest successful fax applications was for distributing photographs to newspapers. (a) before TV, pictures were very important competitive features in selling newspapers. (b) the technology involved photographic development (for receiving) and newspapers already had the necessary darkrooms and technicians. 2. There have been periodic futuristic predictions that fax would replace newspapers. (These are in the same equivalence class as the combination automobile-airplane-helicopter in every suburban garage.) Hasn't happened yet. 3. Another application is fax for weather maps, related to aviation industry. How long has this been going on and what technologies have been used? 4. Western Union did a lot of work on fax, including the Desk-Fax machines put in customers' offices. Invented Teledeltos, a dry electrosensitive paper for recording. Desk-Fax depended on private wires between customer and WU office, and handling of message by WU personnel; hence costly. 5. In early to mid 60s we had Bell introducing switched-network modems attachable to customer-provided equipment. Principal fax recording technology at the time was electrolytic marking on wet paper. Principal equipment makers were Hogan and Alden, and Stewart-Warner was in there too. At this time there were some attempts to set up businesses handling messages by fax for the public, using the switched network for transmission. Carterfone decision allowed customer-provided modems. 6. 56kb circuits became available, and Xerox got into the high-speed fax business. Progress in microelectronics allowed consideration of encoding schemes to improve speed/bandwidth. Technology of making marks on paper moved along too; consider the T.I. hardcopy terminals using heat-sensitive paper. Personal computer industry led to a great flowering of low-cost printing methods. 7. Modern fax. I imagine progress in office-copier technology has something to do with it. Is there any U.S. technology/manufacturing or is it all Japanese? Bell System breakup has driven down cost of toll calls. Microelectronics allows elaborate bandwidth compression. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ From: sjl@glensjl.glenbrook.com (Scott Loftesness) Subject: Radio Modem Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 07:19:21 PST Organization: Glenbrook Systems, Inc. Reply-To: sjl@glenbrook.com In TELECOM Digest V12 #98, Will Wong writes: > I'm building a radio modem for telecommunication links and I need an > interface that can handle both an office line and an subscriber line. > In other words, it has to be able to operate as FXO and FXS. I'm > looking for either a chip that can handle most of the BORSCHT and more > functions or a board that can interface with the phone line (both two > and four wire). > Can anyone give me some hint? You may want to contact Cylink Corp. in Sunnyvale, CA for information on their radio modem. It sounds like something very close to what you're attempting to build. Here's their address and telephone number information: CYLINK 310 N. MARY AVE. SUNNYVALE CA 94086 (408) 735-5800 (408) 720-8294 fax Scott Loftesness Internet: sjl@glenbrook.com 515 Buena Vista Avenue Others: 3801143@mcimail.com Redwood City, CA 94061 76703.407@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: rune@pandora.nta.no (Rune Henning Johansen FBA) Subject: Telecom and Science Fiction Organization: Norwegian Telecom Research Date: 2 Feb 92 17:55:28 We're collecting information about the role of science fiction within telecom. We're investigating how authors and film makers describe telecom networks, both technologically and sociologically -- and how their views may have influenced the use and development of tele- communications. One example is the picturephone in Asimovs "Naked Sun". Any pointers to film, literature, software or whatever is appreciated. Proper credit will be given to all contributors if we find it worthwhile to write a report or paper. H&kon & Rune, Norwegian Telecom Research. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #102 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07315; 2 Feb 92 19:35 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17022 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:55:23 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06910 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:55:03 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:55:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202022355.AA06910@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #104 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 17:55:01 CST Volume 12 : Issue 104 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services (Carl M. Kadie) Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services (Roy M. Silvernail) SUMMARY: Re: Rotary Dialers Go Home! (Dave Strieter) Re: France's Minitel Service (John Rice) Re: Centel For Sale (John Rice) Re: PIC's From RBOC Payphones (John David Galt) Re: Exchange Boundaries (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: kadie@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie) Subject: Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 16:20:24 GMT brown@NCoast.ORG (Stan Brown) writes: > Quotes are from the newspaper article cited below. > The aim of the law is to protect minors from "indecent" messages. It > seems not to apply if the services bill customers directly, rather > than having the phone company handle the bills. 900 services that are > not sexually explicit are also not affected. > Obviously, the "purveyors of dial-a-porn" are not happy about this. > they "contend that the cumbersome process of collecting written > requests from customers may drive them out of business." In the long term, this Supreme Court decision not to hear this case is a bad sign for electronic freedom of speech. Helms, himself, said that he is trying to stamp out all pornography (which apparently means anything "R-rated" or above.) Helms offered this amendment only after an amendment that banned all adult material from telephones was overturned by the Court. To me, at least, it is clear that the main purpose of this law is to reduce the access adults have to Constitutionally-protected material. In my opinion, the mechanisms required by the law are not only not the least restrictive, they are, in fact, the most restrictive that Helms thought he could get away with. Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ Subject: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services From: cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 15:14:37 CST Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN brown@NCoast.ORG (Stan Brown) writes: > Quotes are from the newspaper article cited below. > A 1989 U.S.law requires that sexually explicit message services be > available only to individuals who file written requests with the > telephone company. The law says that if a phone company acts as a > billing agent for companies that offer sexually explicit messages, the > phone company must prevent access to those services from any phone > where the subscriber has not requested them in writing. A similar article appeared last week in the {Minneapolis Star-Tribune}. Eight paragraphs in, there was this local color: 'Bennie Cohen, a U S West spokesman in the Twin Cities, said U S West stopped offering the 976 service a while ago for business reasons. There was no revenue growth involved," he said.' I remember hearing that USWest had killed 976 just after the MFJ was modified. But I thought their excuse was some 'technical difficulties' smokescreen. This quote from Cohen would seem to support the popular suspicion that the RBOCs want the IP trade all to themselves. The Twin Cities had _dozens_ of those 976 sex lines. I cannot believe there was "no revenue growth involved". (No, I'm not promoting phone-sex. It's just the most visible of the 976-type IP services.) > Obviously, the "purveyors of dial-a-porn" are not happy about this. > they "contend that the cumbersome process of collecting written > requests from customers may drive them out of business." The RBOCs may like this turn of events, though. They already have a record-keeping system in place that could easily handle maintainence of subscriber requests. Beautiful solution, actually. They kill 976 by local fiat, and smother 900 under a mountain of paperwork. That leaves RBOCs as the only providers. Don't you just love a level playing field? Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu ------------------------------ From: strieterd@gtephx.UUCP (Dave Strieter) Subject: SUMMARY: Re: Rotary dialers go home! Organization: AG Communication Systems, Phoenix, Arizona Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1992 21:08:57 GMT In article I wrote: >> Several Digest readers have commented that it is cheaper for the telco >> to provide DTMF than rotary pulse dialing, but I fail to understand >> how they come to that conclusion. I can't speak for the 5ESS or >> DMS-100, but on the GTD-5 dial pulses are counted by software which >> monitors the output of an opto-coupler device connected to each line, >> whereas DTMF tones must be decoded by a more-expensive circuit which >> feeds the decoded digits to the software. How does "more expensive" = >> "costs less"? Thanks to all who replied via e-mail and postings. No thanks to the *one* person who found it necessary to flame me, but whatever turns you on! His accompanying response was interesting nonetheless. From the e-mail I received and the follow-up postings I saw, it appears that the GTD-5 (to which, you'll notice, I limited my comments) is enough different architecturally from the other digital switches to result in different conclusions to the question. Perhaps a quick GTD-5 tutorial in this area is in order: Standard line-interface circuits are packaged eight to a card (read: circuit board.) Each line interface circuit contains a device to sense loop current. This device is used for sensing on-hook/off-hook, dial pulses if any, and provide ring trip in many cases. These cards plug into a line-unit frame which connects to one of the from-1-to-64 TCUs (Time Switch and Control Units) which contain a processor and both originating and terminating time switch stages. (It's a time-space-time switching fabric.) DTMF (and MF) receivers are packaged four to a card and plug into a slot that could otherwise be occupied by a trunk-interface card (which also contains four circuits) in the trunk-unit frame which also connects to a TCU. The GTD-5 assigns a receiver to a line/trunk on origination and it remains connected until digit collection is complete. If the subscriber's line is not marked for DTMF service then the receiver is not connected. Thus, although the DTMF receivers *are* "integrated" into the switch, they are add-on costs. The telco can buy as many DTMF receiver cards as it determines it needs from the number of subscribers that have purchased DTMF service for their line(s). Every slot used for receivers is one more slot that is not available for providing trunk access. Eventually this causes the telco to have to buy more facility interface frames and TCUs to connect them to. The DTMF receiver circuit (I went and looked at one) contains a lot more than ``a couple of ICs (which is all that comprises that fabulous "more expensive circuit")'' as John Higdon put it. Perhaps the receivers could be redesigned with current-state-of-the-art components, but they would still need to be only four to a card or else the interface frames would have to be redesigned too. (Recall that GTD-5, DMS-100, and 5ESS all have their roots in 10-year-old designs.) All this adds to the hardware cost of providing DTMF service versus dial-pulse service. In David G. Lewis wrote: > If I recall correctly ... > the digit receivers on 5Es and 1As are integrated units > that collect either DTMF or DP digits. With DTMF, the address is > typically sent in less than half the time taken to send the same > address with DP. If the receiver holding time is half as long, > (approximately) half as many receivers need to be provided in the > office. Half as many receivers = less cost for the office. A local AT&T contact confirmed that your memory is intact. The 5ESS has an "originating register" (another replier's term) of sorts that collects digits, whether DP or DTMF. This argument certainly applies in that case. However, on the GTD-5 there are no originating registers or register/senders in hardware. The equivalent is the DTMF receiver itself, which is only used for DTMF; DP sensing is built into each line circuit. And while I'm on that topic ... In Bud Couch asked: > BTW, Dave, when did the -5 start using an opto-coupler for line > current detection? The original design had a rather elegant technique > (patented) that used a miniature relay coil and a Hall device to > supply battery feed and detect current flow. (Sort of like an "A" > relay. :-)) Umm ... I knew. I just wanted to see if you knew! :-) Caught me! I haven't worked on line circuits for quite some time and I knew the multi-party ringing control card used the Hall-effect sensor but I guess I slipped back into a previous system when I said that the interface on the line circuit card used an optocoupler. However, the implication to this discussion is the same. Every GTD-5 standard line circuit uses the same sensor to detect on-hook/off-hook (and also provide ring trip in many cases) as is used to detect dial pulses. There is no additional hardware required to detect dial pulses, and no hardware to be saved if there were no rotary-dial lines. Therefore, the DTMF receivers are still completely an add-on cost, hardware-wise. ----- Now, regarding the on-going costs such as CPU time and non-billable holding time, I asked the guy who's paid for figuring out such things. His reply, all IMHO, usual disclaimer, etc., etc., and without doing any extensive modeling and with some editing by me: > DTMF does take less time to scan and therefore uses less CPU time for > scanning. But DTMF requires connection to a receiver which adds to > the CPU time. The extra work to select a receiver, connect a network > path from the line to the DTMF receiver, and release the path between > the line and the DTMF receiver is roughly equal to the extra work > imposed by the longer scan time on DP. When viewed as a percentage of > the total processing time for a call, the difference is less than 1%. > Of course, in the GTD-5's distributed system, there is a > redistribution of how much work the different processors are doing. > The shorter holding time, with DTMF, on software data tables > collecting the digits would probably not be significant enough to > eliminate even one memory board. For a given TCU, the total percentage of CPU time occupied by call processing functions is limited. This includes scanning dial pulses, setting up DTMF receiver connections, etc. When this limit is exceeded subsequent originations and terminations on that TCU will be denied. But whether that all gets to be a problem depends on the telco's engineering of the site (line concentration ratio, ratio of lines to trunks in a given TCU, etc.) In Gordon Woods writes that dial pulses are a nightmare for digital loop carrier systems. I can sure believe it! However, I've never worked on one, so I don't have first-hand experience. Again, my comments are limited to the GTD-5 (and subscriber loops directly connected to it). In Colin Plumb writes: > Now, if the GTD-5 can generate dial tone and silence cheaply (pretty > easy with digital switching -- everybody's codec gets the same bits), > and polls the off-hook detector fast enough it can track dialing, and > buffers to hold half-dialed numbers aren't expensive (with memory > prices these days, I doubt it), then I guess it *is* cheaper. Well, > all I can say is, good work! Thanks! You've just described how it works! Tones (dial, MF digits, busy, re-order (120IPM busy), audible ringback, *silence*, etc.) are all pre-digitized and stored in a ROM in each terminating time switch. ("Terminating" here means the time switch which sends PCM out of the switch. It does not refer to the called party's end of the connection, although there could be a GTD-5 TTS there too.) All the switch needs to do to play a tone to lines or trunks is poke the right value into the time-switch control-memory locations for those lines and trunks so that the PCM samples are fed to those codecs. I've said my piece. Dave Strieter, AG Communication Systems, POB 52179, Phoenix AZ 85072-2179 *** These are not my employer's opinions. They're my opinions, not my advice. UUCP:..!{ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!samsung!romed!asuvax | att}!gtephx!strieterd Internet: gtephx!strieterd@asuvax.eas.asu.edu ------------------------------ From: rice@ttd.teradyne.com Subject: Re: France's Minitel Service Organization: Teradyne Inc., Telecommunications Division Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 00:24:52 GMT In article , Wolf.Paul@rcvie.co.at (Wolf Paul) writes: > The following appeared in Vienna's {Der Standard} on 92/01/19. > In its tenth year of existence the French videotext system "Minitel" > is breaking all records: six million of the small beige boxes are in > use today, five million calls are logged every day. > Even though business is going well for Telecom France as well as for > the private service providers, the French government is not satisfied > yet. They want to export the system. The first fat fish on their hook > is the American phone company, US West, which signed a contract last > October. Could this be why USW is trying to make life dificult for BBS owners ? John Rice K9IJ "Did I say that ?" I must have, but It was rice@ttd.teradyne.com MY oppinion only, no one elses...Especially (708)-940-9000 - (work) Not my Employers.... (708)-438-7011 - (home) ------------------------------ From: rice@ttd.teradyne.com Subject: Re: Centel For Sale Organization: Teradyne Inc., Telecommunications Division Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 00:30:05 GMT In article , David Brightbill writes: > There was a short item on the local (Tallahassee, Florida) news the > other night to the effect that Centel is for sale. I have no clue as > to whether they are dumping their Florida operations to raise cash or > if the entire company is on the block. A friend at Centel Cellular tells me that the entire company is on the block. John Rice K9IJ "Did I say that ?" I must have, but It was rice@ttd.teradyne.com MY oppinion only, no one elses...Especially (708)-940-9000 - (work) Not my Employers.... (708)-438-7011 - (home) ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: PIC's From RBOC Payphones Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 17:12:10 PST Andy Sherman writes: > Oh horse pucky. AT&T was busy establishing a lot of STP pairs to run > the bloody long distance network. What AT&T seems to stand accused of > here is making a substantial capital investment in its own business. > Your argument seems to be that if the OCCs are cheap that somebody > should shackle AT&T as well. It is amazing. In some quarters AT&T is > faulted for spending too little on the reliability of the network, yet > Mr. Florak thinks that building a lot of STP pairs is predatory > behavior. AT&T has an enormous lead on its competitors because so much of its equipment was bought during its days of (morally wrongful) monopoly, and was paid off before its competitors were allowed to exist. Judge Greene felt, and I agree, that AT&T should not be allowed to use this unfair advantage to drive its competitors out of business. STP pairs are not unique as examples. If AT&T were deregulated tomorrow, it would lower its prices to cost for, say, one month -- and all its competitors would go bankrupt! John David Galt ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 14:59:05 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Exchange Boundaries (Area code 516) I found 292 to be a Hempstead exchange. Was that a misprinted 282, which is Yaphank? Also, I find Selden exchanges 233 and 451. Why were they omitted? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #104 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07360; 2 Feb 92 19:37 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16698 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:15:23 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12112 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:15:06 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:15:06 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202022315.AA12112@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #103 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 17:15:04 CST Volume 12 : Issue 103 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: 900 Number From Payphone (Bill Huttig) Re: 900 Number From Payphone (Julian Macassey) 900 Directory Assistance? (Steve L. Rhoades) Re: Most Expensive 900 Call? (Vance Shipley) Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as 900 (tanner@ki4pv.compu.com) Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as 900 (martin@okstate.edu) Re: No Supervison on 900 Call (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Reverse Directory Information (Mark Brader) Re: Reverse Directory Information (mission!randy@uunet.uu.net) Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now (John David Galt) Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now (Colin Plumb) Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing (Tony Harminc) Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software (Ron Dippold) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: wah@zach.fit.edu (Bill Huttig) Subject: Re: 900 Number From Payphone Date: 31 Jan 92 19:21:29 GMT Organization: Florida Institute of Technology, ACS, Melbourne, FL In article 0005075968@mcimail.com (Jeff Garber) writes: > I thought you could not access a 900 number from a payphone (unless it > was a poorly programmed COCOT) ... The 7-11's around this area advertise a few 900 game numbers. When dialed from the payphone it reroutes the call to a 800 or long distance number and you then key in your Visa/Mastercard or LEC calling card number. It says the call may appear as a 700 number on your local phone bill (or a 900). ------------------------------ From: julian%bongo.UUCP@nosc.mil (Julian Macassey) Subject: Re: 900 Number From Payphone Date: 1 Feb 92 05:15:50 GMT Reply-To: julian@bongo.info.com (Julian Macassey) Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood California U.S.A. In article 0005075968@mcimail.com (Jeff Garber) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 97, Message 3 of 13 > I just saw a news story (on channel 9, KCAL, Los Angeles) about a 13 > year old girl who was killed after meeting someone she met off of a > 900 number party line. The story then showed a shot of a payphone and > said that this is where she made all the calls from to the 900 number. > I thought you could not access a 900 number from a payphone (unless it > was a poorly programmed COCOT) ... > [Moderator's Note: Well, you can't access 900/976 from Illinois Bell > payphones, that's for sure. Maybe the phone shown on the television > was a 'poorly programmed COCOT' ... then again, maybe its ratings time > for television news shows and the talking heads at channel 9 were all > in a dither looking for something scandalous. PAT] I agree with Pat. Channel 9 TV is three miles away from me. They run "National Equirer" type news. Their big thing is "Live Reports" -- Talking Heads ten minutes away from the studio talking about something that happened there hours ago. As an ex-gutter reporter, I think they are hopeless. KCAL TV claim they are in Norwalk CA, but are on Melrose Avenue (On the Paramount lot) in Hollywood. No one can tell me why they perpetuate this lie -- their transmitter is on Mount Wilson I believe, along with all the other TV transmitters. But they are owned by Disney, so maybe Mickey runs the news department. Julian Macassey, julian@bongo.info.com N6ARE@K6VE.#SOCAL.CA.USA.NA 742 1/2 North Hayworth Avenue Hollywood CA 90046-7142 voice (213) 653-4495 ------------------------------ From: slr@cco.caltech.edu (Steve L. Rhoades) Subject: 900 Directory Assistance? Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 04:40:52 GMT Whilst roaming through the 900 network the other day, I came across an interesting recording on (900) 555-1212: "Due to a network architecture change, the 900 directory assistance number has been disconnected ..." I remember back in the early days of 900 when they used to list the current "Dial-It (tm)" numbers. There were only about 5 or 6 "900" services at the time. I think they were operated by the Bell System. As "900" grew they added about 30 different services to the recording. The recording went from about 20 seconds in the early days to about four minutes long the last time I heard it. Hopefully, my recent calls to this number will be free. (But wait, calls to the "555" prefix are FREE ??! -- nah ... not this again ... :-) Internet: slr@caltech.edu | Voice-mail: (818) 794-6004 UUCP: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!tybalt!slr | USmail: Box 1000, Mt. Wilson, Ca. 91023 ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: Most Expensive 900 Call? Organization: SwitchView Inc. Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1992 01:26:50 GMT In article trebor@foretune.co.jp (Robert J Woodhead) wrote: > only pay $300 an hour if I could speak to DEAD Psychics, but ... Not even close! A friend of mine rented another friend's house in Florida. The babysitter he used while there made several calls to a 900 number that showed up as $250.00 a call. The calls were only two minutes long. Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@ltg.uucp ..uunet!watmath!xenitec!vances ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 23:59 EST From: tanner@ki4pv.compu.com Subject: Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as a 900 Number Organization: CompuData Inc., DeLand I got one of the cards, and just now decided to call the number. No charge for the call to 800/422-2313, of course, but it announces that it is a special automated service, and that "You will be billed separately by the sponsor for its use." ...!{bikini.cis.ufl.edu allegra uunet!cdin-1}!ki4pv!tanner ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as a 900 Number Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 11:30:40 -0600 From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu As of 10-45 on Friday, January 31, 800-422-2313 is still alive and separating the sheep from the wool. There is a payphone just upstairs from where I work and I just had to give it a try. I dialed the number and it answered very quickly. Since I didn't have an award form, I just started randomly pressing digits when prompted. After about 12 digits, the original voice came back on the line and introduced the reading back of the number I had entered. A truly brain-dead sounding synthetic voice read back each digit followed by the first voice prompting me to enter a 1 if correct or 2 if not. I entered a 1 and the system announced that this was not a valid form number. It asked me to enter it again. I waited for about five seconds and it prompted me once again. I entered 12 more digits picked at random with the same results as before. When I entered a 1 to indicate correctness, the voice politely said that their equipment could not verify my award number and I would just have to send in the card. It also said, "You won't be billed for this call." I knew that already. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 12:11:19 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: No Supervison on 900 Call Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > 900-884-xxxx is carried by AT&T. There is an 800 (and presumably 900) > service of AT&T that implements some interactive call routing in the > network. You dial the number, listen to an announcement, and press a > menu selection. Calls through this services don't supervise until > they are routed. Since this is implemented in the network, there is > no voice path between the caller and the 800/900 customer prior to > supervision. What is the purpose of this "interactive call routing"? Why not just assign a different phone number for each service? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 13:59:00 -0500 From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Reverse Directory Information >> ... Then I heard ring-no-answer for a whole minute. > [Moderator's Note: That is precisely the result I had a couple days > ago. I applaud them for their courteous opening message, but what > happened to the operator who was supposed to answer? PAT] Um, Pat ... HOW many readers does comp.dcom.telecom have in the US? My suggestion is that the free advertisement in comp.dcom.telecom caused the service to be overloaded with callers! [Moderator's Note: Flattery will get you everywhere! :) At this time I think comp.dcom.telecom has about 50,000 readers worldwide; I would suppose the majority of those are in the USA. I do like your idea that this little newsgroup wields some influence somewhere. I never really thought it mattered that much. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mission!randy@uunet.uu.net Subject: Re: Reverse Directory Information Date: Thu Jan 30 18:33:13 1992 In Telecom 12.56, stewart@sco.com asks for a source to turn a phone number into a name and address. In Telecom 12.72, nin15b0b@lucy. merrimack.edu supplies a 900 number. When I've found strange phone numbers on my bill, I just call the local telephone company. They call the company serving the number (if different) and ask them, then let me know. This is useful for resolving phone bills amongst roommates. ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 18:08:33 PST This happened to a friend of mine at work, who was our house datacomm wizard. He would call all the local BBSes to download software; and often he would make the calls from work (through our network modems, so there's no way to pick up a phone and hear call progress). One day, he heard about a new BBS (on another BBS) and decided to call them up. What he didn't know was that the BBS message which gave him the number had two digits transposed -- and was in fact the high-security dial-in line of a bank computer. So my friend told the modem to dial this thing up, and got back NO CARRIER. (The bank computer used a non-standard carrier frequency.) He told the modem to keep redialing, but gave up after an hour or so. He tried again the next day, and the next. One morning, my friend shows up for work, and three cops are waiting for him and they arrest him. Naturally (?), they won't say what he's supposed to have done. It was two or three days before things got straightened out. Moral: A good Trace capability is no substitute for common sense. John David Galt [Moderator's Note: Absolutely. However, to hear the banks tell it, they can do no wrong, and everyone else is always in the wrong. When the First National Bank's fax machine misdialed a family in Germany for two or three weeks running night after night, that was supposed to be overlooked as a simple error. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 10:16:26 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > I was having difficulty trying to establish a modem connection to the > UK via this carrier. If the UK modem was set to answer on the first > ring, I would hear ringing, followed by "fast busy" (re-order?) on my > end. The UK modem would answer and get dial tone. The number of > rings detected before answer would have to be increased to four before > it would work. This made the local connections fail, probably due to > timeouts before negotiating carrier. In the UK, you can't set the > timeout above 60 due to local laws (?) After playing around with all > of the settings that we could think of, I finally on a whim, decided > to try using AT&T to make the call. Sure enough, with the modem set > to answer on the first ring, the call went through first time, every > time. Similar thing happens here. Using a fax modem, I've been trying to send a five page fax to Taiwan. Using our normal LD carrier, the call at first would fail about half way thru the first page. Retries would have the call fail during fax negotiation. Running the call thru AT&T, it worked the first time. We have had no trouble running faxes thru this carrier on domestic calls, but considerable trouble on international calls. Talking with their customer service, they suggested putting pauses at various places in the dialing sequence (which makes no sense to me, since the call was being answered at the other end). The pauses did not fix the problem. They then suggested trying their 10xxx access number (we usually go in thru a 950 number). This didn't work either. They called back yesterday wanting me to try it again, but I haven't had a chance yet. I have no idea what carrier they are using to get the call to Taiwan. Any ideas as to what the problem might be? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ From: colin@array.uucp (Colin Plumb) Subject: Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 03:25:35 -0500 Organization: Array Systems Computing, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA All of the information available to a CO technician about a currently-connected call is quite substantial. I had an old friend call me once a few years ago (but still past the demise of universal MF signalling and 2600 Hz + KP + ... fun) from the states. Why, I asked, were we getting all this delay on the line? Oh, that's because he wasn't paying and the call was being sent via some outdated equipment is Australia (!) where the technicians were all asleep! (P.S. Did anyone see the recent issue of 2600, where they reproduced a form banning the magazine from prisons, with page number references to the construction of blue boxes and so on? The kicker was that there were five approved reasons for banning a publication -- liable to incite riot, and the like. Checked was (d) likely to cause sexual deviancy among inmates. As the editors said, 2600 has been called plenty of things, but *this* is new!) Colin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 13:26:31 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) wrote: > Winsdor, Ontario is both South and East of Detroit; therefore, where > does Windsor get its routing from, Detroit or from some point in > Canada? Windsor gets its routing the same way as every other Canadian city. It is in NPA 519, homes on Toronto as Sectional Centre and Montreal as Regional Centre. Of course the significance of the hierarchy of toll switches has decreased in recent years. Why would Windsor's position to the southeast of Detroit make any difference ? A lot of southern Ontario is south of a lot of the US. By the same token, does Detroit get its routing from Windsor ? Of course not. There is a heavily used telecom border crossing at Windsor/Detroit, mainly because it's geographically on the way from Toronto and east to points in the US mid-west and west. Tony H. ------------------------------ From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) Subject: Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 22:13:35 GMT ito@nttslb.ntt.jp (Mitsutaka Ito) writes: > I would like to know CDMA technology impacts on base-station > software and mobile unit software. I will appreciate any information > on this topics. Thank you in advance. "Impacts" is a bit fuzzy. Basically, the software is far more complex, if you mean as far as that goes. FM is simple enough that you can easily program the phone on a simple microprocessor in assembly language. Speaking as one of the CDMA programmers, I think you could write a CDMA system in assembly, but I sure wouldn't want to do it. "Living hell" comes to mind. We wrote everything in C (and I'm sure we'll get some snide remarks about C being structured assembly ...) Comparing CDMA software to FM software is pretty much like comparing the control software for a USR Dual Standard modem to a 300 bps modem. You get far better performance in exchange for more complexity. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #103 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09329; 2 Feb 92 20:41 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23050 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 18:49:23 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21104 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 18:49:01 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 18:49:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030049.AA21104@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #105 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 18:49:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 105 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom (Jim Budler) Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom (Doctor Math) Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom (Ken Sprouse) Re: Posting Choices: Telecom-priv or Telecom (Peter da Silva) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Joe Mann) Re: Wilmington (Del.) Directory (Carl Moore) Re: What is a Linebacker? (Jeff Hollingsworth) Re: Part 68 Help! (Patton M. Turner) Re: Background Regarding 206 Dialing Change (John David Galt) Re: Mu-law, A-law (Harold Hallikainen) Re: IRS Experiments With Filing by Phone (Brandon S. Allbery) Re: France's Minitel Service (Harold Hallikainen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jimb47@netcom.netcom.com (Jim Budler) Subject: Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 08:47:30 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) In article toddi@hindmost.mav.com (Todd Inch) writes: > I would like to see TELECOM related For Sale/Wanted articles in the > Digest, but not datacomm stuff, especially common modems. > Particularly, I'm interested in voice datacomm equipment that doesn't > seem to have a more appropriate place anywhere on Usenet. I think > most/many readers can find a more appropriate place for the datacomm > stuff, although I realize that sometimes the data/voice telecom line > can be thin. But who is to review and decide what's proper? Pat has said he is heavily loaded anyway, and he has chosen not to accept for sale articles for such review. If there is a real need for this perhaps someone will volunteer to moderate a telecom for sale mailing list. jim jimb47@netcom.com jimb@silvlis.com 72415.01200@compuserve.com [Moderator's Note: I am hoping (admittedly it is a long shot) that before long I will have a small source of income which will in effect subsidize some of my work on this Digest, thus allowing me to spend more time on it and made some badly needed changes. PAT] ------------------------------ From: drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) Subject: Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 21:31:56 EST Organization: Department of Redundancy Department toddi@hindmost.mav.com (Todd Inch) writes: > I would like to see TELECOM related For Sale/Wanted articles in the > Digest, but not datacomm stuff, especially common modems. I second this. Modems can go anywhere, but when someone's got a 1A2 key system or a bunch of old WUTCO time clocks, there's no better place than here. Who else would want such things? :-) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom Date: 31 Jan 92 00:06:14 EDT (Fri) From: sprouse@n3igw.pgh.pa.us (Ken Sprouse) Pat, I would like to add my two cents to a message I saw a few days ago saying the sender would like to see a continuation of telephone related items for sale in TELECOM. I would also like to see jobs offered and wanted continue. Just in case you have changed your mind about the for sale items here is something I picked up from the Radio and Electronics bulletin board on GEnie. I thought it might be of interest to this group. --- begin forwarded message --- FOR SALE: Private Payphones - these phones take credit cards and have a built in card reader. They use a regular DTMF dial pad and are a wall mount unit. Great deal for someone who wants to learn about payphones or you can use it as a regular phone in your home! Price is $80 each plus $15 shipping. E mail if interested. Thanks. Bill Rogers, 2030 E. Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas, NV. 89104 (702) 382-7348 I will be happy to send additional info to anyone interested in the payphones. --- end of forwarded message --- As of right now there is no gateway from the Internet to GEnie so if you are interested you will have to commuincate via a phone call. What a novel idea! :-) Ken Sprouse / N3IGW sprouse@n3igw.pgh.pa.us GEnie mail KSPROUSE Compu$erve 70145,426 [Moderator's Note: Only $80? I have to wonder about their quality. If anyone invests in a unit, let us know how it works out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Posting Choices: Telecom-priv or Telecom Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 05:05:15 GMT How about a new newsgroup for telecom-priv? Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. [Moderator's Note: I think it is distributed to an alt group already. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri Jan 31 10:35:56 1992 From: joem@orbit.orbit.cts.com (Joe Mann) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Let us not forget that US West is aggressively marketing it's new service "COMMUNITY LINK" in two of it's states, and has plans to 'roll it out' in others. COMMUNITY LINK is US West's version of Prodity, or Compuserve. It was locally introduced at the SuperBowl, when US West installed thousands of terminals around the Twin Cities hotels. COMMUNITY LINK is delivered via a joint venture of US West and French owned Minitel; the new partnership is named CLM for COMMUNITY LINK / Minitel. CLM owns the 'switch' that routes the calls to the various Information Service Providers or ISPs. It also sells / rents the terminals to the end users to access COMMUNITY LINK. It should come as no surprise that the largest ISP is US West's partner Minitel. Minitel provides many services that would potentially compete with the privately owned BBSs. It now seems that in addition to 976 information providers, BBS owners are on US West's 'harassment list'. US West fought 976 providers in much the same way, before the PUC's. This action only two or three years after actively promoting 976 Information Providers to 'get into the business'. The best way for US West to ensure success for COMMUNITY LINK, is for it to pre-empt any competition before it starts the service. I suspect that the BBS owners in Oregon are in for a protracted and eventully losing battle. After all it's tough to fight a 25 billion dollar company's agenda. [Moderator's Note: It has to be a little more involved than that. Suppose all the BBS people said okay, and started paying business rates. Then what? The BBS' would still be out there competing with Community Link. You think for a few dollars difference in the rate each month telco would then be satisfied, if what you are saying about the need to 'pre-empt any competition' is correct? I think all telco is trying to do is treat BBS lines the same as churches or any other non-profit phone line; that is, if not strictly for personal use, then the line is for business use. Those are the two (admittedly poorly named) choices. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 9:43:05 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Wilmington (Del.) Directory I have received a message saying: "I'm just curious, but why have all these non-traditional area codes been assigned before 909?" This apparently refers to area codes 510,410,310,210 (210 has been announced for split of 512 in Texas, but is not in use yet). In my response, I guessed that California is growing rapidly and needed to gobble up 909 relatively early ( 909 is also not in use yet). Notice that 510 is now in use elsewhere in California, in a place where 909 would not be as good a choice (510 is next door to 707). <-- Yes, I know about area 705 and the future 416/905 split. ------------------------------ From: hollings@cs.wisc.edu (Jeff Hollingsworth) Subject: Re: What is a Linebacker? Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept. Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 00:16:52 GMT > However, wouldn't you think that the apartment owners are responsible > for repairs of wiring inside your apartment? > [Moderator's Note: Not really, since if the apartment is leased, then > it really is no longer under the control of the owner, but rather, > that of the 'temporary owner'. PAT] California has a new law (went into effect Jan. 1) that makes inside wiring the responsibility of the landlord. So it you are a renter in CA with Linebacker, you now have overpriced insurance that covers something that is not your responsibility. Jeff Hollingsworth Work: (608) 262-6617 Internet: hollings@cs.wisc.edu Home: (608) 256-4839 X.400: Home: hollings@warthog.madison.wi.us ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 19:36:52 CST From: Patton M. Turner Subject: Re: Part 68 Help! I installed a phone hybrid today that had an interesting comment in the manual. During the purchase of two of these units, involving two calls to the manfuacturer's tech support number, we were never told, nor was it ever stated in their catalog, that the hybrids were not Part 68 approved. This is only mentioned once in the manual: 2.2 Send Equalization The FCC requires 18 dB of attenuation at 4Khz. This is accomplished by an eliptical low-pass filter with a 3Khz -3dB point. 2.5 Telephone Line Interface Circuit The telephone line is buffered by a transformer ... Metal Oxide Varistor blocking cap to keep DC voltages off the transformer. Although the TI-101 is not type-approved by the FCC for dirrect connection to the phone line, it is completely protected should this occur. I don't have the whole manual with me, but I read the whole thing (I got real bored), and saw no other mention of any FCC requirements. There was a mention in the appendix regarding DAA's and holding coils. This is how at least one firm handled the problem. Pat Turner pturner@eng.auburn.edu KB4GRZ @ K4RY.AL.USA ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Background Regarding 206 Dialing Change Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 09:46:45 PST cmoore@BRL.MIL (VLD/VMB) writes: > Splits done since 1980 without the use of N0X/N1X prefixes were: > 714/619 California (and I still see no N0X/N1X despite the gobbling > up of 909 so that 714 can split again!?) There are lots of N0X/N1X prefixes in both 714 and 619. Some directories don't show them, because Pac Bell lists for you only those prefixes which are (a) in your Service Area (LATA), and (b) are not cellular phones or special uses such as 950 and 976. 619 is spread across THREE Service Areas. It would be nice if the complete lists were available. John David Galt ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 10:27:11 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Mu-law, A-law Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo I haven't studied mu and A encoding, so please excuse my ignorance in this area. I wonder, though, what running a nonlinear encoded signal thru a band limited channel does to distortion. If we (for the moment) ignore the A/D and D/A, and we put a 1 KHz sine wave into a reversible nonlinear circuit (such as u-law or A-law), we will get the 1 KHz out along with various harmonics. When we run that "distorted" signal back thru the "decoder", the original signal (the 1 KHz sine) is re-formed (without distortion, ideally). If we put a low pass filter between the encoder and the decoder (like the A/D anti-alias filter), we are removing the harmonics created by the encode process. I'd imagine that these missing harmonics would create a distorted signal out of the decoder. So, it looks like the use of nonlinear encoding results in an improvement in dynamic range in trade for poorer distortion performance. True? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 11:49:08 -0500 From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) Subject: Re: IRS Experiments With Filing by Phone Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.org (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) Organization: North Coast Public Access *NIX, Cleveland, OH As quoted from by king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist): > 0005000102@mcimail.com (Randall C Gellens) scribes: >> In Wednesday's {Los Angeles Times} (Business Section) is a story about >> an IRS experiment which permits taxpayers to file by phone, dialing a >> number and keying in the figures (such as W-2 income amounts) which >> they would normally fill out on a form. > Gee, I'm surprised that this service isn't restricted to "authorized > preparers" the way the IRS's file-by-computer service is. I assure you it's not. The IRS sent me a for 1040-TEL along with the standard 1040EZ. From the inside front cover: "File by Phone using the 1040-TEL and TeleFile! "You Can File by Phone if: "- You have use of a touch-tone telephone. "- You meet the requirements found on page 6 for filing Form 1040EZ. "- Your name and address are correct on the IRS label that came with this booklet. Your refund will be mailed to this address. "All You Have To Do Is: "1. FILL IN Form 1040-TEL "- Check the answers to questions A and B. "- Fill in the dollar amounts for lines C and D using your W-2 form(s). If you have more than one W-2, enter the totals for each line. "- If you have taxable interest, fill in the total dollar amount on line E from your 1099-INT form(s) or other statements. "IMPORTANT: You must drop all cents when you enter dollar amounts. For example, $65.75 becomes $65. If you do not want to drop cents, do not use Form 1040-TEL. Instead, file Form 1040EZ. "2. CALL 1-800-829-5166 24 HOURS A DAY! (No Charge) "- Before you call, be sure ot have your filled-in Form 1040-TEL, the IRS mailing label, and a pen or pencil. "- The TeleFile computer will ask you to enter each item from your filled-in 1040-TEL using your touch-tone phone. TeleFile will read back each entry so you can correct any mistakes. "- For your security, TeleFile will ask for the two letters that appear before your social security number on your mailing label. "- Answer the Yes/No questions on lines A and B using 1 for Yes and 2 for No. "- Press the # key (called the pound key) after entering the dollar amounts on lines C, D, and E. "- TeleFile will tell you the amount of your refund or what you owe. Write that amount on Form 1040-TEL. TeleFile will also tell you your Adjusted Gross Income --- which you will need to complete your State of Ohio income tax return. "IMPORTANT: You must stay on the line until TeleFile tells you your return has been accepted. If you hang up befdore this, your return and refund will NOT be processed. "3. SIGN and MAIL Form 1040-TEL." My next report on this is likely to be to RISKS, not to Telecom: I plan to use this service, just to see how much of a security risk it is. Certainly their "security" described above doesn't seem very secure ... Brandon S. Allbery, KF8NH [44.70.4.88] allbery@NCoast.ORG Senior Programmer, Telotech, Inc. (if I may call myself that...) [Moderator's Note: Hey, if someone wants to sign my return and pay my tax for me, I won't complain. And if the refund (if any) is mailed to the address on the form then how could that be tampered with? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 11:44:39 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: France's Minitel Service Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo I seem to remember that when Minitel was first announced, the cost was justified by the savings of not having to print phone books for every subscriber every year. How does the actual cost of Minitel compare with printing phone books? Once they gave away the terminals, who owns them? Who is responsible for maintenance? As modem technology changes, are they adopting the newer technologies, or staying with the old to maintain compatibility (I seem to remember a lot of European stuff using FSK modems with something like 1200 bps to the user and 150 bps from the user). How do private information suppliers like the telephone company competing with them? Is there an online telephone directory here in the US (that I can call with my modem)? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI [Moderator's Note: Compuserve has an online directory. (GO PHONES). Some telcos such as Illinois Bell sell directory assistance in bulk via terminal and modem. Ours is called 'Directory Express' and it runs a couple hundred dollars per month for a couple *hours* of time on line. The main customers of this are credit/collection services. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #105 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11938; 2 Feb 92 21:41 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08992 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 19:50:16 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18727 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 19:49:59 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 19:49:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030149.AA18727@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #106 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 19:49:41 CST Volume 12 : Issue 106 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear (Jacob R. Deglopper) Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear (Patton M. Turner) Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities (owsl_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu) Re: Indiana Bell Rate Increase (John Higdon) Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Czech Connection to American BBS (Richard Budd) Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? (Jim Haynes) Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? (John R. Levine) Re: 800 OCN List (Linc Madison) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob R. Deglopper) Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear Reply-To: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob R. Deglopper) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 21:44:31 GMT In a previous article, meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) says: > Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by > ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? This isn't quite the same, but it's close. My rescue squad pagers are tripped by a standard Motorola two-tone sequence broadcast over the fire dispatch channel. These are sequential tones, not simultaneous, however. These tones are transmitted before the voice messages, and after a few years, people tend to decode the tone pairs in their heads. Even when the calls are for other stations, most of us recognize the busier tone pairs, and those for "interesting" calls, i.e. hazardous materials, high-angle rescue team, and helicopter tones. _/acob DeGlopper, EMT-A, Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad -- jrd5@po.cwru.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 18:12:04 CST From: Patton M. Turner Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear > Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by > ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? I've seen one person do it. She was the daughter of a CPE installer, and could decode DTMF since she was in grade school. Apparently the idea of using touch tones to dial a phone number intrigued her, and she would play with the phone for hours on end. The tones were usually about as long as the average person dialing. In all fairness I should mention that she now has a MA in music, and is an accomplished violinist. I really upset her one day with my HT DTMF pad, as she had never heard the A-D DTMF digits before. Pat Turner pturner@eng.auburn.edu KB4GRZ @ K4RY.AL.USA ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 11:07:11 PST From: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan > I recall AT&T's efforts in the mid 1980's to sell that first 5ESS > switch. Reports indicated that those efforts stalled on the > insistence by the Japanese prospect that the full source code driving > the switch be provided. So, it only took seven years for them to make > their first sale ... There's a story in there somewhere. Yeah ... so the question is, did AT&T knuckle under to unreasonable Japanese demands for technology in exchange for false promises of market access, as did American television manufacturers in the sixties, or did they hold their ground? Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com ------------------------------ From: owsl_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Owsla editor) Subject: Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 19:47:14 GMT In niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) writes: > In scott@asd.com (Scott Barman) writes: >> I was interested in looking into some option for my home phone. Items >> like Caller-ID, Last Call Redial... >> ...how technologically behind most of the COs on Long Island are >> and that NY Tel would have to do a major overhaul and replace switches >> to provide some of these new services. > As a resident of Long Island I can attest that NYTel is so screwed up > it is less than pathetic. The equipment is a disaster area and the > wires are just now being replaced, slowly. > For an advanced telco, try Rochester Tel & Tel. Forget NYTel. CLASS > service is probably years away due to the stupid Public (read Utility) > Service Commission, a messed up governor and the legislature. I too can attest to the "screwed up" service that NY Telephone offers on Long Island. My old phone number was in the 718 area code, i.e. a New York City number, yet, my entire central office was totally crossbar. I was always amazed when I would call up a friend in some remote locale and here the gentle "eet-eet" of the ESS busy signal instead of the hard "AAAAAHHHHHT-AAAAAHHHHHT" of the XB one. And something I always think when people who know nothing about telephony are screaming that the goddamned liberals/libertarians in NYC should let CLID through: I always slap my head knowing that it was just recently that Manhattan, center of the earth, phased out its last crossbar switch, and probably the real reason NY Tel didn't put up CLID (and exorbinant charges for it, of course) faster than a jackrabbit is they are still working on becoming digital. As you can see by my message header, I have wisely moved to a place that has already been attested to as having good service, though good luck to anyone who wants to CLID me through our messed up ROLM system ... you can't win, really ... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 14:43 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Indiana Bell Rate Increase drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) writes: > Indiana Bell now claims that if they are not allowed to institute > local measured calling for everybody, they will seek (and get?) a rate > increase of 25%, which is about $5/month for the "average" residential > customer. This is classic telco double-speak. On the one hand they claim that measured service is harmless and innocuous but then they threaten very annoying rate increases as an alternative. What Indiana Bell seems to be saying is that a switch to measured service will increase revenues by 25%. This would seem to indicate that the 6% of the subscriber base referred to would bear a tremendous amount of the additional burden. Once again, let us remember that the major cost in providing local service is the upkeep of the installed plant. This upkeep cost is the same regardless of the traffic. If the aforementioned "6%" were to suddenly stop using the telephone altogether, Indiana Bell's costs would not diminish. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 12:33:58 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > Does anyone know of any acoustic couplers available for modems? The > specific problem I'm thinking of is when the business person travels > and stays at a hotel with all digital phones. The idea of unplugging > the phone and plugging the wire into the modem won't work, because the > modem expects a regular analog line, not the digital line. I seem to remember just such an acoustic coupler for lap top modems. It was manufactured by Product R&D (I think), a manufacturer of modems for lap tops. I tried calling them, but no one is there today (Sunday). You might want to give them a try Monday. They are: Product R&D 1194 Pacific Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 phone +1 805 546 9713 Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ From: "Richard Budd" Subject: Re: Czech Connection to American BBS Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 17:06:18 EST In TELECOM Digest V12 #100 RCBUDD@RHQVM19.VNET.IBM.COM wrote: > I have been setting up an electronic link on BITNET between a > gymnasium in Prague, Czechoslovakia and a high school outside of > Poughkeepsie, NY. A fellow IBMer asked me to define clearly a European gymnasium warning me that Americans could confuse it with sports arenas and physical education In Europe, a gymnasium (pronounced gim-NAH-zyoom) is the equivalent of four years of American high school education plus the first two years of undergraduate school. Students who attend the gymnasium are preparing for further education in the University. On the other hand, a European high school is analogous to the American vocational-technical school in which students learn a trade. The Gymnazium Libenska in Prague includes a computer science curriculum for students who seek a career in programming or telecommunications. > The American high school has a BBS on FIDONET that a retired teacher > administers for students. We wonder if it is possible for the > students in Prague to access the BBS by dialing through the Marist > address. It would be prohibitively expensive for the Prague gymnasium > to dial the BBS directly, but there would be no charge to the > gymnasium if their students can access the BBS through a message to > the Marist address, since a telephone call between Poughkeepsie and > Marlboro, NY,where the BBS and high school are located, is local. To make it easier to explain what is going on, below is a chart of the communication system we are setting up between Poughkeepsie and Prague. (My apologies for not including it with the original posting.) USA CSFR Poughkeepsie Prague A _ _ c _________|M|<-Node Node->|C|_________ c | |A| BITNET/EARN |S| CZECH | o | MARIST |R|<============================|P|ACADEMYOF| u | COLLEGE |I|============================>|G|SCIENCES | n |_________|S| |A|_________| |t |__GJB1___|T| |S|_GYMNAZ__|<-' | |<-Phone Phone->| | | | Lines Lines | | | | | | |_| |_|<-Modem _ Modem->|_| |_| _|_ _|_ |W| _|_ _|_ | P | | M | |I| | L | | P | | O | | A | BBS->_____|L| | I | | R | | K | | R | | |D| | B | | O | | E | | L |-----|ACORN|C|====/ \ | E | | S | | P | | B | |_____|A| |_| <-| | N | | E | | S | | O | |T| | | | | K | | I | | R | |!| | | | | | |_E_| |_O_| Telephone |___| |___| Electronic Mail Accounts GYMNAZ@CSPGAS11 VM/CMS GJB1@MARISTB VM/MUSIC The question is whether it is possible for the Czech students to communicate with the bulletin board service through the BITNET link rather than directly by telephone (which would be expensive under Czechoslovak rates) Replies would be most appreciated. Sorry not to have been clear the first time. Richard Budd Internet: rcbudd@rhqvm19.vnet.ibm.com VM Systems Programmer Bitnet: klub@maristb.bitnet IBM - Sterling Forest Phone: (914) 759-3746 ------------------------------ From: Jim Haynes Subject: Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? Date: 2 Feb 92 07:45:12 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz I'm tempted to say 1880, when I hear W.U. was offered all the Bell patents for $1 million and turned it down, saying telephones are worthless. They were right, of course, as anyone knows who has been involved in a game of telephone tag. I'll have to look up what's in the business press and see if any of the business pundits have written on this subject. The cost of labor has been increasing for a long time, and WUs business has always been pretty labor intensive. The telephone business has been a lot more successful in reducing the labor content of the business, e.g. customer toll dialing and consolidating operator services. The continually dropping costs for ordinary customer-dialed long distance service have kept heavy pressure on other services based on private wire systems. Legal changes (e.g. the Carterfone decision) have made the switched network available for a lot of uses that formerly required private wire systems. Right after World War II the Bell System started putting in a lot of transcontinental bandwidth. The bandwidth needs of television networks paid for a lot of the freight. WUs efforts were much more modest, so their bandwidth was always more costly than Bell's. Perhaps WU should have done what MCI did later in competing with Bell in microwave services, and in fighting the legal battles necessary to get the local phone companies to connect their customers. WU put a lot of efforts into fax; perhaps they did too much too soon. There have been several waves of fax, and only the most recent has been a howling success. WU was in the satellite business for a while. I wonder if they made or lost money at it. One of their last big projects that I'm aware of was Autodin for the military. I wonder if that was a money maker or a money loser -- you can lose a lot of money very fast where computers and software are involved. I wonder if WU realized what was happening when packet switching came in; should they have competed with Telenet, Tymnet, and other value-added carriers? There was also a time when WU was dabbling in the computer services business, which put them into competition with the likes of General Electric. Will we be asking in a few years, "When did IBM start to die?"? haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet [Moderator's Note: Or the unthinkable -- "when did AT&T start to die?". And it will eventually. After all, who in 1930 would have thought that Western Union, The Bell System and privately owned railroad passenger trains wouldn't be around forever? Two of those three have all but vanished ... will Digest readers in 2030 post articles 'remembering AT&T'? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 2 Feb 92 16:13:22 EST (Sun) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) Pat asks: > Exactly when, if it can be pinned down to a certain time, did > Western Union start to die? Was it the introduction of fax and easy to > send email which cut into the heart of WU's business? Was it the > growth of services like Federal Express? Really, I think it was the advent of direct distance dialing. As soon as phone calls became fully automated, it became practically inevitable that the price of phone service would drop through the floor. So many people had a telephone that WUTCO's ability to deliver messages in person to a non-subscriber became irrelevant. Also, Most people can talk faster than they can type, and there are a lot more phones than there are telex machines, so for a similar price most people would rather make the phone call, talk to the recipient in person, and know that they got the message. So quite a few years ago telex and telegrams stopped being very useful for domestic communication. It was still useful for international communication, since it worked well across time zones between people who didn't speak the same language. Group 3 fax was the nail in the coffin, because cheap fax machines have all the same advantages and piggyback on the increasingly cheap phone network. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 20:11:01 PST From: linc@tongue1.Berkeley.EDU (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: 800 OCN List Organization: University of California, Berkeley I noticed several interesting trivia bits in the 800 listing. (1) 1-800-ATT-xxxx is owned by MCI. (2) 1-800-MCI-xxxx is owned by AT&T. (3) 1-800-SPR-xxxx is also owned by MCI. (4) 1-800-ITT-xxxx is owned by AT&T. (5) 1-800-WUT-xxxx is also owned by MCI. (6) 1-800-USS-xxxx is actually owned by U.S. Sprint! (7) 1-800-GTE-xxxx is owned by GTE/Florida. (8) every single prefix of the form N02 or N12 that is in use is owned by Radio Common Carrier Paging, which has no prefixes that do NOT fit this pattern. In particular, 1-800-RCCP-xxx is owned by AT&T. Linc Madison == Linc@Tongue1.Berkeley.EDU ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #106 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa13717; 2 Feb 92 22:35 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30258 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 20:47:16 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24753 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 20:46:56 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 20:46:56 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030246.AA24753@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #107 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 20:46:54 CST Volume 12 : Issue 107 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson MCI Billing via CD-ROM (Ken Dykes) AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 (David Ptasnik) US West and Minitel (Peter da Silva) One Fax Machine On Two Phone Lines? (John A. Weeks III) A New Switch (Dave Johnston) LEC Non-Subscriber Calling Cards (Nigel Allen) Bell ?? Cuts Superconductor Research? (John R. Ruckstuhl, Jr) New Cellular Phone User Seeks Advice (Dan Schein) Questions About Technophone PC 205 (Felipe Barousse) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 12:51:32 EST From: kgdykes@Thinkage.On.CA (Ken Dykes) Subject: MCI Billing via CD-ROM The following messages were found alt.cd-rom. Since it has not migrated in a natural fashion to comp.dcom.telecom, I thought I'd pass them on. There are other messages in the thread, this is just a sample. ken From: bergstro@src.honeywell.com (Pete Bergstrom) Subject: re: mci to put bills on CD Date: 30 Jan 92 19:50:03 GMT Organization: Honeywell Systems & Research Center Edward Vielmetti writes: > Communications Week (6 Jan 1992) p.17 reports that MCI will put > bills for its biggest customers (who currently generate on the > order of 100,000 pages/mo) on CD-ROM. "MCI is using CD technology > developed by Eastman Kodak Co, Rochester NY. [using] Kodak's > Photo ID Imaging Workstation". > A few questions - > This has to be a one-off sort of system, since there's no way you'd > go through the hassle needed to make many $2 duplicates of an > ordinary CD-ROM. But media for the ordinary one-write systems is > expensive enough (what, $75? $100?) that I wouldn't think it would be all > that economical to do. How much does 100,000 pages cost to buy, print, and deliver? Suppose next that this can be simply produced as just another mainframe report right onto a disk. Maybe by investing a few thousand dollars (<$10,000) in an excellent access system they give their clients real accounting control. I know that at the company I used to work for, the LD bill for just one city was about 1,000 pages long. Nobody in their right mind liked to go through it, but it had to be done quarterly. Pete From: MHELMS@UNMCVM.BITNET ("Mary E. Helms --UNMCVM", MHELMS) Subject: re: mci to put bills on CD Date: 31 Jan 92 14:20:06 GMT Reply-To: "Mary E. Helms --UNMCVM(MHELMS)" Organization: FUNET-NGW I figure that it would cost at least $.01 per page to print, so when you figure out time and shipping, you are talking over $100,000 to bill!! Why would cd-rom be cost effective? Although pressimng a cd-rom disk would certainly cost more that creating tapes, you could fit the entire bill on one cd-rom, but you'd have to use more than one tape. CD-roms would create ease of access for clients. Mary Helms University of Nebraska Medical Center mhelms@unmcvm.bitnet or mhelms@unmcvm.unmc.edu From: kdarling@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) Subject: Re: mci to put bills on CD Date: 1 Feb 92 07:35:49 GMT Organization: North Carolina State University emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti) writes: > Yes, I know that paper is expensive to print out and to ship, but > that technology is pretty well entrenched and not easy to make > obsolete just with a little effort. Aside from the central > facilities costs of producing one-off cd-roms, there's the whole > matter of ensuring that customer sites are prepared to > read the disks and make some use from them. A computer and a CDROM drive. It's highly likely that sites receiving thousands of pages of phone bill a month already own such equipment. If not, the cost is nothing compared to the ability gained to track phone usage. Of course, the downside might be: no more sneaking in long distance calls to relatives and girlfriends :) best - kevin From: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti) Subject: Re: mci to put bills on CD Organization: MSEN, Inc. -- Ann Arbor, MI In article "Mary E. Helms -- UNMCVM(MHELMS)" writes: > I figure that it would cost at least $.01 per page to print, so when > you figure out time and shipping, you are talking over $100,000 to > bill!! Why would cd-rom be cost effective? Yes, I know that paper is expensive to print out and to ship, but that technology is pretty well entrenched and not easy to make obsolete just with a little effort. Aside from the central facilities costs of producing one-off cd-roms, there's the whole matter of ensuring that customer sites are prepared to read the disks and make some use from them. Assume that's going to cost a new $1000 machine plus a $300 reader plus another $200-$700 in software to analyze things, to produce 250 of these disks and send them out might require $0.5M in capital investment. Sure, it pays off pretty quickly if all of the costs are properly allocated, but it's still a sizable piece of money someone has to sink into infrastructure. What is interesting about the process as some correspondents described it to me is that the Kodak equipment uses (will use?) write-once CD-ROM technology that's substantially cheaper than the existing stuff, with blanks in the $20-30 range rather than the $75-100. Naturally, your prices may vary, and since you'd typically be buying a service rather than just blank disks the end user cost may be quite a bit different. You can make a lot more mistakes at $25/pop and still come out ahead in the end ... ------------------------------ From: David Ptasnik Subject: AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 23:13:36 PDT It was recently reported that you could call an 800 number that would bill your phone number like a 900 number, if you stayed on the phone and pressed a few keys. The 800 number was an AT&T number. When AT&T was questioned, they admitted that this was a service they were offering to their 800 customers. Many people felt that this was an improper thing for AT&T to be doing, and a few of them complained. As of today, when you call the number you are no longer told that the call will be billed to your phone number (that's the good news). Instead you are told that you will be getting a bill in the mail (you can guess what that is). This implies to me that the company is getting ANI data including the name and address of the party responsible for the phone line (not the same as the person making the call), and now billing for themselves. Presumably they will turn people who don't pay over to collection agencies. It is my STRONG feeling that this is an inappropriate use of 800 ANI data (another reason to allow blocking of your phone number to 800 numbers, but I'll leave that for the caller ID/privacy mailing list). It means that individuals and organizations who don't allow dialing of 900/976 can still get bills for abuse of their lines thru 800 numbers. I think this still violates the basic principle that 800 calls are free calls. This one ought to get a few courtrooms buzzing, particularly as it appears to be a telesleaze bogus contest/prize company that is pulling this scam. Payphone owners look out. You'll start getting bills in the mail for phone calls that won't appear on your phone bill, and which will be essentially impossible to block. Dave davep@u.washington.edu ------------------------------ Subject: US West and Minitel Date: 2 Feb 92 10:49:46 CST (Sun) From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Here's an interesting pair of messages recently posted to TELECOM: First: > Subject: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary > 16. There is no truth in the idea that US West is trying to put BBS's > "out of business" or that they are in competition with any proposed > services they may offer. US West is interested in not allowing > residential BBS's to be subsidized when their use is non-residential. Second: > Subject: France's Minitel Service > Even though business is going well for Telecom France as well as for > the private service providers, the French government is not satisfied > yet. They want to export the system. The first fat fish on their hook > is the American phone company, US West, which signed a contract last > October. This is perfectly consistent with past LOC activity, for example Southwestern Bell's attempt at killing multiline BBSes in Houston by charging business rates shortly before starting their SourceLine service. The thing that's really sad about this is that the quality of the services they provided were pitiful in comparison with even the low-budget free BBSes running on TRS-80s, and SourceLine died in short order. Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. ------------------------------ From: john@newave.mn.org (John A. Weeks III) Subject: One Fax Machine On Two Phone Lines? Date: 2 Feb 92 19:41:46 GMT Organization: NeWave Communications Ltd, Lake Wobegon, MN I have a FAX machine that needs to both send and receive FAXes. I currently have it on a regular phone line -- which works OK. I also have a have a bank of outbound-only long distance telephone lines that are much cheaper to use than a regular phone line. Is there some kind of box available that can switch one FAX machine between two phone lines? It would be OK to have it switch to the long distance line for all outbound calls, it would be better to have it switch only when the outbound phone number starts with a 1. -john- ------------------------------ Date: 31 Jan 92 09:34 +0000 From: Dave_JOHNSTON%01%SRJC@ODIE.SANTAROSA.EDU Subject: A New Switch We at Santa Rosa Junior College are in the throngs of a RFP for a new switch to service ourselves as well as the K-12 school district in our area. We'll have over 1300 stations at 22 locations throughout our realm. We're on a VERY tight schedule for the process and I'm trying to do whatever I can to speed the process along. Here's where you can help. I'd like to hear from Telecom'ers that have installations that are over 600 stations and/or make use of Voice Networking via tie lines, T-1 or PRI. We're expecting responses from all of the major vendors and some of the not-so-major vendors including: AT&T Northern Telecom Fujitsu NEC Intecom Rolm Mitel Toshiba Ericsson Pac Bell(Centrex) I'd appreciate any comments you can make about how the product has worked for you, how the support has been, how reliable it is and whatever other comments you think would be helpful. PLEASE respond to me directly rather than to the list as I'm sure PAT has better things to do that wade through yet more responses. If there is sufficient response and interest I will compile the information and make it available through FTP. Thanks for your help. David Johnston Santa Rosa Junior College Supervisor, Campus Data/Telecommunications 1501 Mendocio Ave. davjohn@caticsuf.csufresno.edu Santa Rosa, CA 95401 Voice 707 527 4853 Fax 707 527 4816 ------------------------------ From: nigel.allen@canrem.uucp (Nigel Allen) Date: 1 Feb 92 (10:31) Subject: LEC Non-Subscriber Calling Cards Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto Other people have mentioned the "non-subscriber" calling cards issued by long-distance carriers to people (such as university students) without exchange carrier telephone service in their own names. In some areas, people without telephone service can get local exchange carrier calling cards as well. In Bell Canada territory, a "deferred applicant" calling card can only be issued with the approval of a second-level Bell manager, and many residential service reps are unfamiliar with the issuing procedure (or even with the fact that such calling cards exist). The British Columbia Telephone Company (B.C. Tel) will issue non-subscriber calling cards as a matter of routine. The service reps ask questions (much like those on a bank credit card application) from an electronic script. You have to provide an address in British Columbia, but this can be the address of a friend or relative. I don't know whether Bell companies in the U.S. or non-Bell local exchange carriers issue non-subscriber calling cards, but I suspect that policies vary significantly between carriers. Canada Remote Systems. Toronto, Ontario NorthAmeriNet Host ------------------------------ From: ruck@zeta.ee.ufl.edu (John R Ruckstuhl Jr) Subject: Bell ?? Cuts Superconductor Research? Organization: EE Dept at UF Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 12:58:19 GMT Sometime during the last week, I either saw on TV, or read in the {Wall Street Journal}, a news report which indicated that somebody just made a big cut in their superconductor research program. Now I don't remember if it was Bell Labs or Bellcore. Who was it, please? Thank you, John R Ruckstuhl, Jr ruck@alpha.ee.ufl.edu Dept of Electrical Engineering ruck@cis.ufl.edu, uflorida!ruck University of Florida ruck%sphere@cis.ufl.edu, sphere!ruck ------------------------------ From: heimat!rehab1!rehab2!dans@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (Dan Schein) Subject: New Cellular Phone User Seeks Advice Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 14:59:45 EST I am new to the world of cellular phones (OK, so I waited for the price to drop ;-). Like all my toys I have the desire to know more. Can anyone send me details on exactly how the communications work. Things like how they pass ID's and what type of ID's are used. How another system knows who I am when in 'roam' mode. How I tell what system I am roaming in (on?). What all the various portions of a NAM are. Details on the MID part works. Basically everything you can tell me will be appreciated. Reading Rehabilitation Hospital Dan Schein - Information Systems RD 1 Box 250 Reading, PA 19607 dans@rehab2.UUCP -or- ....{uunet,rutgers}!cbmvax!rehab1!rehab2!dans [Moderator's Note: Please respond direct to Dan, thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 18:35:28 -0500 From: febb@rm105serve.sas.upenn.edu Subject: Questions About Technophone PC 205 Hi all: I just got a new celular (portable) phone. Curiously, I assume I should not have the procedure to program new NAM's (Number Assignment Module ??) into my phone. The case is that I DO have such procedure because of a mistake of the dealer; he had to tell it to me. The phone is a Technophone PC 205. What I want to ask to you folks who know about cellular technology, is what each of the following terms is and what is it used for ? NAM (Num. Assignment Module ?) AMPS_A (or AMPS_B) (It asks which one is the default) SID (System ID ?) MIN2 (This has the country code and city code) MTS ( Same as the above) MIN1 (This parameter's value is the actual cellular phone number) Number (That parameter has the actual cellular number) ACCOLC (This has the value '10', I dont have an idea of what it is) EX (This has just the number one '1' stored) AREA (This is an alphanumeric field containing the name of my cellular area. Are cellular areas assigned names, or I can just write in this field any label? ) INT'L (This has the number I dial to get the celular operator) Emerg (This has the emergency phone #, such as 911 in the US) Oper (Another number to get the operator) I would like to know what is the meaning of each one of these acronyms and what is it used for. Also, if any of you has a Technophone (which is made in the UK, by the way) and has some hints on how to use it or program it, I would be more than glad to exchange some info with you. One last thing: if any of you have a file about cellular telephony I would like to see it. I am interested on how it works, standards, techonlogies etc. (OR an ftp place where I could get this kind of information.) Thanks in advance for your help. Regards. Felipe Barousse febb@rm105serve.sas.upenn.edu [Moderator's Note: Please respond direct to Felipe, thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #107 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa14745; 2 Feb 92 23:12 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04733 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 21:29:28 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10333 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 21:29:11 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 21:29:11 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030329.AA10333@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Intel's High Speed Modem White Paper Here is another submission of interest to readers involved in high speed modem communications. It was too long to be included in a regular issue of the Digest. PAT From: samp@pro-gallup.cts.com (System Administrator) Subject: Intel's High Speed Modem White Paper Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA Date: Sun, 02 Feb 1992 00:16:10 GMT HIGH SPEED MODEM COMMUNICATIONS A modem is essential for the well-connected PC. And the right modem can not only broaden your computer's horizons but save you time and money, too. If you're thinking of getting a modem, particularly a high speed modem, this paper explains basic terms and concepts and provides background information that can help you make an intelligent choice. o Expanding the Reach of Your Computer A modem is among the most useful items you can add to your PC or Macintosh computer. With a modem, you can log on to your office computer from across town or across the country. You can download files, send electronic mail or play electronic chess with a partner on the other side of the globe. A modem also offers a cost-effective way to link local area networks (LANs) or access remote databases. Today's high speed modems not only bring all these capabilities to the desktop, but also offer faster data transfer speeds and more accurate communications than ever before. Not surprisingly, they're the fastest growing segment of the modem marketplace. The word modem is a contraction of MOdulate and DEModulate. A modem converts-or MOmodulates-a computer's digital signals into analog signals that can travel over phone lines. On the other end of the phone connection, a receiving modem DEModulates the analog signals, converting them back to the digital form computers read. How fast is a "high speed" modem? Defining the term "fast" in the computer field is like trying to hit a moving target. When PCs were introduced in the early 1980s, a modem that could transmit data at 300 bits per second (bps) was considered fast. Not long afterward, 2,400 bps became the norm for "high speed" PC communications, and looked as if it would last indefinitely. Even a few years ago, the technology to support modem communications at 9,600 bps was expensive and difficult to implement. Worse, many vendors of 9,600 bps modems used proprietary protocols, so if you bought a high speed modem, you had no confidence it would communicate with anything except another modem from the same vendor. o How Fast is Fast? All that has changed. Today, for under $600, 9,600 bps modems have set new expectations for fast, error-free communications. Most vendors now support international standards, such as the V.32 standard for 9,600 bps modems, which ensure compatibility among different vendors products. A new modem standard, V.32bis, is once again raising the "high speed" flag to new heights-14.4 kbps (14,400 bps), or 50 percent faster than V.32. And, thanks to data compression techniques, effective throughput can be as much as four times higher-up to 38.4 kbps, for a 9,600 bps V.32 modem, and up to 57.6 kbps for a 14.4 kbps, V.32bis modem. That's 192 times faster than the 300 bps modem of the early PC era. o Time Equals Money Who needs a high speed modem? A fast modem saves you time and money, particularly if you often transfer large files -- if you're in a field such as desktop publishing, computer-aided design, accounting, graphics or computer programming, for example, or if you download files from bulletin board services and data services. A faster modem also speeds up response time during interactive sessions-accessing a computer from a computer in another location. For example, if through remote control communications software you're using another computer's word processor or graphics editor, you'll spend less time waiting for screen updates. In modem communications, time savings translate directly into money savings-in long-distance phone charges and on-line service charges. In fact, if you transfer a one-megabyte file once a week and pay long-distance line charges of $0.24 per minute, a 14.4 kbps modem can save you more than $800 over the course of a year compared to sending the same file with a 2,400 bps modem. ** TIME = MONEY: SENDING A 1MB FILE ONCE A WEEK ** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Modem Speed Transmission Transmission Transmission Pay Back in Number of and Average Time/Week Cost/Week Cost/Year Megabytes and Hours of Throughput File Transfer Usage _____________________________________________________________________________ 2,400 bps 70 min $16.80 $873.60 Mbytes Hours _____________________________________________________________________________ 9,600 bps 21.333 kbps 8 min $ 1.92 $124.50 40 5.33 _____________________________________________________________________________ 14.4 kbps 32 kbps 5.25 min $ 1.26 $ 65.52 44 3.85 _____________________________________________________________________________ At those rates, a higher speed modem pays for itself within a matter of hours. A 14.4 kbps modem priced at $699 pays for itself in less than four hours of file transfer usage. A 9,600 bps modem priced at $599 pays for itself in around five hours. o Standards for Modems Standards, such as those established by companies like Intel and IBM for the PC industry, help ensure compatibility among products from different vendors, offering users peace of mind and a more open marketplace. For modems, as for many other communication and electronics products, international standards are formulated by the International Consultative Committee for Telephone and Telegraph. This organization, sponsored by the United Nations, is known as the CCITT, after the initials of the French form of its name. Four CCITT standards are important for high speed modems: * V.32 and V.32bis specify modulation techniques and other protocols for modem communications at 9,600 bps and 14.4 kbps, respectively. (bis indicates the second version of a specification.) * V.42bis specifies data compression techniques that make it possible to transmit up to four times as much data in the same amount of time. * V.42 specifies error control techniques that help ensure accurate transmissions even over noisy phone lines. ** CCITT International Modem Standards ** _____________________________________________________________________________ Standard Introduced Specification for _____________________________________________________________________________ V.32bis Feb. 1991 14,400/12,000/9,600/7,200/4,800 bps modulation _____________________________________________________________________________ V.32 1984 9,600/4,800 bps modulations _____________________________________________________________________________ V.22bis 1981 2,400 bps modulation _____________________________________________________________________________ V.22 1978 1,200 bps modulation _____________________________________________________________________________ V.21 1964 300 bps modulation _____________________________________________________________________________ V.42bis 1989 Data compression (4:1) _____________________________________________________________________________ V.42 1989 Error control _____________________________________________________________________________ o High Speed Modulation: V.32 and V.32bis A modem's speed depends on its baud rate-the measurement of how many times per second a modem transmits and the number of bits of data sent with each baud. It's a bit like a machine gun that fires a certain number of times per minute but fires several bullets with each "shot." For example, 2,400 bps modem runs at 600 baud and sends four bits with each baud. Today's 9,600 bps and 14.4 kbps modems operate at 2,400 baud, but transmit four and six bits per baud, respectively. Unlike fax modems, which are typically half-duplex devices that take turns sending and receiving data, data modems are full duplex-two communicating modems send and receive data at the same time. At slower speeds, data modems handle full-duplex communications by sending and receiving at different signal frequencies. This approach doesn't work at 9,600 bps or higher because the bandwidth of ordinary voice phone lines simply isn't wide enough. Instead, V.32 and V.32bis modems use a sophisticated technique called echo cancellation. The modem isolates and filters out the "echo," the interference that occurs when a modem receives its own signal. That is, the modem "listens" to what it is sending as well as to what it is receiving, then subtracts out the tones it has sent. What remains are the received tones, which the modem passes on to the host PC. Two modems communicate at the fastest speed that the slower modem is capable of. So that you can communicate with the large installed base of slower modems, most high speed modems are backward compatible-they can operate at a slower speed to match the modem on the other end of the line. o Data Compression and Increased Throughput: V.42bis Data compression techniques increase a modem's effective throughput. With data compression, the sending modem "squeezes" the data by scanning it for redundancies and encoding it in a more compact form. The receiving modem restores the data to its original form. The V.42bis standard compresses data by as much as 400 percent, which means a modem can send up to four times as much information in a given time period. That results in a maximum data transmission rate of 57.6 kbps for a V.32bis modem, 38.4 kbps for a V.32 modem. Another method of data compression is a de facto standard known as Microcom Networking Protocol (MNP) Level 5. MNP 5 provides half or less of the data compression capability of V.42bis-19.2 kbps maximum throughput for a V.32 modem, and 28.8 kbps for a V.32bis modem. The throughput gained from data compression varies depending on the type of file. For example, print files, word processing files and spreadsheet files are generally highly compressible and will show a significant speedup, while .COM, .EXE and ARCed files have low compressibility and show relatively little speedup. Data compression can occur only when two communicating modems support the same compression techniques. A modem that supports both MNP 5 and V.42bis gives you the best chance of doing data compression with the modem on the other end of your communication link. o Error Correction and Accuracy: TCM and V.42 Telephone lines were designed for transmitting voices, not data, and the ordinary background noise or static on many phone lines can introduce data errors. Noise is a particular problem during high speed transmissions, because a second of noise at 9,600 bps, for example, can damage 32 times more data than at 300 bps. In addition, because phone lines are analog, signals tend to weaken and degrade over long distances. V.32 and V.32bis specify a sophisticated error correction mechanism called trellis-coded modulation (TCM). TCM adds an extra bit to the symbols transferred with each baud and uses that bit to identify errors and attempt to repair them as they come into the modem. When Trellis Coded Modulation isn't supported or is unable to repair errors, two error detection schemes are available: the Link Access Procedure for Modems (LAPM) specified in the V.42 standard, and the de facto standard of MNP Levels 2-4. With both methods, the receiving modem checks incoming data for errors and, if errors have occurred, asks the sending modem to retransmit the data until no more errors are detected. Both methods can be used with modems of any speed. LAPM is a requirement for V.42bis. In addition, some high speed modems can monitor the quality of the phone connection and adjust their speed in response to line conditions. The modem falls back (slows down) if too many errors are occurring, and falls forward (speeds up) if line quality improves. Modems that support this capability vary in how quickly they can identify changes in line quality; a modem that recognizes and can change speed quickly improves both accuracy and performance. As with transmission rates and data compression, two modems use the highest-level of error control that both support. o Intel's High Speed Modems Intel Corporation markets a broad line of internal and external modems and is one of the industry's largest suppliers of 2400 bps modem chip sets. Intel's high speed modems, the 9600EX and the 14.4EX are external modems that connect to the serial port of a personal computer such as the IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or Apple Macintosh. At a Glance: Intel's 14.4EX and 9600EX Modems ___________________________________________________________________________ Feature Benefits 14.4EX 9600EX ___________________________________________________________________________ Full V.32bis compliance 14.4 kbps communications, time and money savings, XX international compatibility ___________________________________________________________________________ Full V.32 compliance 9,600 bps communications, time and money savings, XX XX international compatibility ___________________________________________________________________________ V.42bis data compression Up to 4x increase in effec- tive throughput, compatibi- XX XX lity with industry standards ___________________________________________________________________________ V.42, MNP 1-4 and TCM Ensures accurate commu- nications, even over noisy XX XX phone lines ___________________________________________________________________________ Free Crosstalk Reduces installation and Communicator software configuration time, saves XX XX cost of communications software ___________________________________________________________________________ Automatic speed Provides maximum optimization with performance under adverse 200ms 8-12sec fallforward and fallback line conditions ___________________________________________________________________________ Quick connection feature Reduces connection time to under six seconds, saves time and money XX ___________________________________________________________________________ Automatic negotiation of Ensures connection at speed, error control and highest common feature set XX XX data compression ___________________________________________________________________________ Support for industry and Flexibility to communicate de facto modulation with greatest number of XX XX standards existing modems ___________________________________________________________________________ Automatic re-establishment Increases communications of connection if carrier reliability without user XX XX loss or power disruption intervention occurs on leased lines ___________________________________________________________________________ MNP 5 data compression Up to 2x increase in throughput, compatibility XX XX with older modems ___________________________________________________________________________ Synchronous and Allows communication asynchronous operation with PCs, terminals, XX XX host computers ___________________________________________________________________________ Hayes AT command set Broad software compatibility XX XX ___________________________________________________________________________ Easy configuration Ease of use, peace of mind and installation XX XX ___________________________________________________________________________ 3-year warranty, Convenience, low cost of free technical support ownership, peace of mind XX XX ___________________________________________________________________________ ----------- UUCP: crash!pro-gallup!samp | pro-gallup 2400/1200/300 24 hours ARPA: crash!pro-gallup!samp@nosc.mil | (505) 722-9513   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18366; 3 Feb 92 1:44 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08623 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 23:52:19 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31034 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 23:52:03 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 23:52:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030552.AA31034@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #108 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 23:52:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 108 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Ameritech Voice Mail Commands and Security Flaws (TELECOM Moderator) Re: 900 Number From Payphone (Harold Hallikainen) Re: PIC's From RBOC Payphone (Tim Gorman) Re: Decoding DTMF by Ear (Larry Rachman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 23:13:53 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Ameritech Voice Mail Commands and Security Flaws I recently had an occassion to discuss Ameritech's Voicemail service in detail with one of the folks at the help desk. The equipment used here is manufactured and maintained by Tygon Corporation, which is a subsidiary of Ameritech. The service offered to residential phone users is known as 'Message Minder". The instructions given to residential users are very skimpy, and quite a few commands are not documented at all. Apparently some of them are only of real use to business subscribers, but others are present for whoever finds some use for them. It seems there is only one machine (?) for Chicago-area subscribers, with several local dial-in numbers to retrieve messages. The dial-in numbers are scattered around the LATA so that everyone gets a local, toll-free number. The 'authorized' method for retrieving messages is to call your assigned dial-in, and on request, enter your personal ID, which is not the same as your phone number. We've found it is also possible to retrieve your messages by (a) calling any of the dial-in numbers and entering your ID, or (b) calling your own phone number -- with *70 prepended if necessary to force a busy condition -- and when voicemail answers, entering # to go into 'user override mode', followed by your ID. Still another method is to call the phone number of *any user with Ameritech voicemail on the same machine* and when voicemail answers, enter # to go into the override mode. The system apparently does not bother to match the calling phone number with the ID entered, else why would it be possible to call the number of another user then #-ID into your own account? Once into 'user override mode', either by calling your assigned dial-in number and entering your ID on request or by calling a mailbox and entering # plus ID, several commands are possible, only a few of which are documented for residential users. All commands begin with zero on the Tygon machines: 011 retrieve new messages 012 retrieve saved messages 3 to back up ten seconds in the message 33 to back up to the start of the message 4 to go forward ten seconds in the message 44 to go forward to the end of the message After the message has played out, 5 to delete it; 7 to save it. 071 make a new outgoing message 072 make a new outgoing announcement The difference here seems to be a message allows for incoming messages, while an announcement is played out to the caller, but no incoming messages are accepted. The next set of commands are not documented: 050 Enable/disable Touchscan If this is enabled, then each message retrieved using 011 or 012 will have the source of the message played first. Messages from another mailbox (more about this later) will identify the mailbox which sent the message. Messages from an incoming phone call will only be identified by the phrase 'Call Answering'. 051 Tone Response Mode 052 Expanded Voice Response Mode Either one turns off the other in the process. I am not sure what happens here but it seems there are very few voice prompts when tone response mode is on. I found it sort of confusing to use. 053 Enable/Disable Password Protection If disabled, entering 053 will cause a prompt for up to four more digits which then must be appended to the ID code when calling in. If enabled, then entering 053 will disable the password, and allow access using only the six-digit ID. 054 Enable/Disable Time Stamp Do you wish to know the time and date of incoming messages? 055 Enable/Disable Personalized Addresses This seems to only be available to business users. I am not sure how it works. 056 Group Code Maintainence Another business only feature, entering 056 puts you into a sub-level of commands which allow you to start/maintain a 'mailing list' of addresses. When sending to another mailbox (see about this later) a 'group code' can be used instead to mail to everyone in the group. Group codes seem to run from 10 through 19. To add an address, press 1. To delete an address, press 2. There are a few other commands here also, to review the list, etc. 057 Enable/Disable Message Waiting Indicator For most of us, this is simply the stutter dial tone. If for some reason you don't want it, this will turn it off. If a lamp on your phone is the indicator, this will prevent it from lighting on messages. I wonder why anyone would want this disabled? 058 Enable/Disable Auto Touch This gives a fast start on playing out new messages. Instead of the system saying "you have X new messages, press 2 if you would like to receive them", once you have logged in with your ID the system simply starts playing out new messages, if any. 059 ??? "I'm sorry, your mailbox does not allow this special function code" was the response given both to my own ID and that of a demonstration business ID code I was permitted to try. 060 Enable/Disable Queue Link This apparently is a business only code, and has to do with the linking or unlinking of various mailboxes to a front end box. At least, I think so. Maybe someone will correct me. 061 through 068 returned "mailbox does not allow this special function code." 069 Enable/Disable Touch Off. I have no idea what this is. 070, and 073 through 098 brought the 'not allowed' message. 000 through 010 brought the 'not allowed' message. 013 through 049 brought the 'not allowed' message. 099 Plays out the system time. The only command which does not begin with zero followed by two digits is the one which says 'press 2 to receive messages' from the very top menu if there are new or saved messages in the system, and as noted above it can be eliminated in favor of auto touch (058) which immediatly starts playing out messages. ---------------- I alluded to 'sending messages' a couple times above. Residential voice mail, a/k/a Message Minder is configured only to *receive* messages either from another mailbox or 'call answering'. The only time the user is permitted to send a message is when a message in your box came from another box on the system. In those cases, in addition to the choices: Press 5 to delete the message, or Press 7 to save the message a third choice will be offered: "Press 8 to respond to the message". But, the residential user cannot otherwise originate messages to other boxes, unless another box sent to him first. With business users, the situation is a little different. When a business user calls in and presents his ID (and password, if it has been enabled by 053 + four digits) his menu allows: Press 011 to recieve new messages Press 012 to receive saved messages OR -- enter the mailbox you wish to send a message to. Mailbox addresses are seven digits -- telephone numbers, in fact. The 'address' (telephone number) is valid if the telephone number is a subscriber to voicemail. For example, entering any old seven digits got me a response that the address was not valid. But when I entered my own seven digit telephone number (from the demo business account I was playing with), the system cheerfully accepted it and took my dictated message which it then dropped in my (actual) mailbox. And when I later accessed my own box, I heard the test message I had left myself earlier, and was given an opportunity to "press 8 to respond to the message." Since telephone numbers never begin with 0 or 1, the functions all begin with 0. It appears beginning an address with 1 causes the system to look at the 'group codes' discussed above as the source. A curious type of address I found was known as a 'network address'. These all seemed to begin with 200-xxxx through 219-xxxx. Any seven digit mailbox address beginning in that series was accepted and the system referred to it as a 'network address'. Does this imply that the voicemail box can correspond with others of its own kind in other places? On the business side of things, when asked to enter an address to send a message to, entering the # key brought this response: "I'm sorry, your box does not allow outgoing calls to phone numbers". From the residential side, the # was simply taken as an invalid entry. The * key always disconnected the call from the top menu; from sub-menus such as setting up your group codes or when entering addresses to send messages, the * aborts the current activity and the caller moves up one level. ** How good is their security?? ** I have to wonder ... from a few simple experiments it seems to me they did not even bother to change any of the demo ID numbers (all of which seem to be the more powerful accounts with the ability to send messages to other boxes). Maybe they did not even bother to change the default root password for all I know! Another thing is their claim that residential users may not use a DID number to call into their own box. For example, I had asked for the number I am sent to on busy/no answer forwarding in order that I might simply call-forward to that number if I did not want to recieve calls at all. No can do, said the lady at the help line ... business users get a DID number to do what you ask, residential users do not. But I said there must be some number I am forwarding to on busy/no answer. She admitted there was, but said if I were to call it direct I'd *always* receive a message saying 'due to technical difficulties voicemail is unable to take the call ... ' I found that curious, and set about looking for the DID number myself. The folks at Ameritech voicemail seem to find it convenient to have all their equipment in one easy to find place ... and a certain exchange in the 312 area code is, shall we say, chock-full of voice mail. The whole prefix is nothing but Tygon machines sitting there, telling you so-and-so is not at his desk right now, to leave a message, etc. A certain default ID worked on every one of them ... A couple numbers were located which did indeed answer with the curious message that 'voicemail is having technical difficulties ... if you wish to leave a message, please wait for the tone, then enter the seven digit number of the person you are trying to reach ..." hmmmm... "or, if you have a mailbox on this system, enter the mailbox number" ... hmmm again ... and the default worked every time. I've been vague on purpose in this message. I have no intention of teaching people how to hack Ameritech voicemail. I don't want any part of it, and it seems to me my own account is less than secure by virtue of the fact a lot of folks could try the simple tests I did and *they* might be inclined to go further. So don't bother writing me asking what exchange all the equipment is in, or for a few of the dial-in numbers, or what an ID code looks like. That's for me to know and you to get elsewhere. But I do hope Ameritech tightens up a little ... if someone like me, with an IQ somewhere above 90 can figure it out, imagine if a really dedicated hacker decided to work on it. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 18:06:52 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: 900 Number From Payphone Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > I agree with Pat. Channel 9 TV is three miles away from me. > They run "National Equirer" type news. Their big thing is "Live > Reports" -- Talking Heads ten minutes away from the studio talking about > something that happened there hours ago. > As an ex-gutter reporter, I think they are hopeless. > KCAL TV claim they are in Norwalk CA, but are on Melrose > Avenue (On the Paramount lot) in Hollywood. No one can tell me why > they perpetuate this lie -- their transmitter is on Mount Wilson I > believe, along with all the other TV transmitters. But they are owned > by Disney, so maybe Mickey runs the news department. Years and years ago, the FCC assigned channel 9 to the community of Norwalk (see FCC rule 73.606(b)). At that time, stations were required to put their main studio in their licensed community unless they got a waiver of the rules (generally called an Arizona waiver, after an early case). Now, stations may put their main studio anywhere in the licensed community or within the "city grade contour" (between 74 and 80 dB above 1 uV/meter, depending on channel). See FCC rules 73.1125 and 73.685(a). Stations are to run a station identification on the hour. The station is to consist of the call letters followed immediately by the licensed community. The licensee name, channel number or frequency may be inserted between the call letters and community, but nothing else may. See FCC 73.1201. So, KCAL's identification with Norwalk is probably just to comply with FCC rules. I seem to remember reading somewhere (probably Broadcasting magazine) that KCAL may be interested in changing their licensed community. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ Date: 02 Feb 92 21:01:11 EST From: tim gorman <71336.1270@CompuServe.COM> Subject: PIC's From RBOC Payphone John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com writes in TELECOM Digest V12 #104: > AT&T has an enormous lead on its competitors because so much of its > equipment was bought during its days of (morally wrongful) monopoly, > and was paid off before its competitors were allowed to exist. Judge > Greene felt, and I agree, that AT&T should not be allowed to use this > unfair advantage to drive its competitors out of business. STP pairs > are not unique as examples. Hey folks, let's get our history right here. SS7 was just a glint in someone's eyes at divestiture. Much of AT&T's facilities were still analog at divestiture, they too have been upgraded since divestiture. AT&T's 4ESS's, of course, were mostly in place, but with depreciation on telecom equipment being what it is, there is no way it was "paid for". It would appear to me, therefore, that much of AT&T's infrastructure today has no monopoly basis. In fact, I'm not sure that AT&T's existing investment couldn't be considered more of a hinderance than a help. Competitors didn't have existing investment (debt, stock, bond issues, etc.) to worry about in putting their networks in place. As Andy pointed out, it isn't cheap if you want to play in the game and provide a quality network. There are facility carriers and STP-network providers out there that have seen fit to provide quality networks that anyone can buy use of. They apparently were not hindered in their ability to "compete" with AT&T. Tim Gorman - SWBT *opinions are mine, any resemblance to official policy is coincidence* ------------------------------ Date: 02 Feb 92 21:05:55 EST From: Larry Rachman <74066.2004@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Decoding DTMF by Ear In a recent issue of TELECOM, Rolf Meier (meier@Software.Mitel.COM) writes: > Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by > ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? Absolutely!! Back in the days of yore (homemade 2-out-of-6 tone generators, etc ... ;-)), I knew at least two people who could do both DTMF and MF in their heads quite well. I don't know that it was of much value, except as a novelty; though it was great fun at parties. Then again, many of us have the ability to a limited extent. I can't decode the digits by ear, but when I reach for the pad without looking and wind up using 789 as the home keys instead of 456, I know something is wrong as soon as I hear the first digit. I suspect one could cultivate the skill by making 'language' tapes to play in the car while commuting. There is a fellow selling Morse Code training tapes that consist of a constant rhythm-box beat in the background with a vocal track reciting each letter of the alphabet followed by an instrumental of the letter in morse, to the rhythm of the background. I ran into this at an MIT flea market last fall ... weird!! Larry Rachman, WA2BUX 74066.2004@compuserve.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #108 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18631; 3 Feb 92 1:55 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16669 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 3 Feb 1992 00:17:30 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13142 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 3 Feb 1992 00:17:13 -0600 Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 00:17:13 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030617.AA13142@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #109 TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 Feb 92 00:17:11 CST Volume 12 : Issue 109 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Telecom and Science Fiction (Ron Dippold) Re: PIC's From RBOC Payphones (John Higdon) Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator (Stuart Lynne) Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services (John Higdon) Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? (Julian Macassey) Re: AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 (David G. Cantor) Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear (Harold Hallikainen) Is There a List of 213 and 310 Prefixes (John R. Levine) Answer Supervision on DM (Tim Gorman) Cellular and IN Service (Mitsutaka Ito) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) Subject: Re: Telecom and Science Fiction Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 03:07:06 GMT rune@pandora.nta.no (Rune Henning Johansen FBA) writes: > We're collecting information about the role of science fiction within > telecom. We're investigating how authors and film makers describe > telecom networks, both technologically and sociologically -- and how > their views may have influenced the use and development of tele- > communications. The most obvious example is Arthur C. Clarke, the inventor of the telecommunications satellite. A week after Hiroshima, he wrote an article proposing a network of such satellites at 22000 miles altitude above the equator. 22000 miles so they'd remain fixed over the same spot on the Earth. This piece was published in {Wireless World}, October, 1945. He said that he didn't think that celestial mechanics would ever be turned into anything commercially feasible (yet another example of underestimating the speed of technology), so he didn't even attempt to patent it. However, he did keep plugging the idea in his books and short stories. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 18:58 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: PIC's From RBOC Payphones John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com writes: > AT&T has an enormous lead on its competitors because so much of its > equipment was bought during its days of (morally wrongful) monopoly, > and was paid off before its competitors were allowed to exist. Judge > Greene felt, and I agree, that AT&T should not be allowed to use this > unfair advantage to drive its competitors out of business. Each and every day that goes by, this becomes a weaker and weaker argument. Yes, AT&T had an initial advantange. But time marches on, technology advances, and if AT&T just sat back on its installed base, it would be very quickly surpassed by the competition. Example: AT&T did not have a fully digital long distance network in place at divestiture. It spent untold sums putting one on line on the heels of Sprint's competition. > If AT&T were deregulated tomorrow, it would lower its prices to cost > for, say, one month -- and all its competitors would go bankrupt! This is pure nonsense. AT&T is spending vast sums upgrading its network just like everyone else. The past eight years have brought tremendous changes in the telephone industry. To sit there and claim that the head-start AT&T had at the beginning of divestiture is much of a factor today unduly lets the competition off the hook for responsibility of its own destiny. Remember, a lot of the things (such as coin service) that AT&T is solely capable of doing today are the result of the competition's lack of interest. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: sl@wimsey.bc.ca (Stuart Lynne) Subject: Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator Organization: BC News and Mail Date: Mon, 03 Feb 1992 03:40:19 GMT In article ddavis@mailbox.fwrdc.rtsg. mot.com (Devon Davis) writes: > A comany called Teltone produces a telephone line simulator (model TLS3) > for about $540. The address is: For not too much more you can get a new 8 line Panasonic PBX. It handles eight handsets and three outside lines. Very flexible, very easy to use. You can sometimes pick them up used for a song (<$250). Stuart Lynne Computer Signal Corporation, Canada !van-bc!sl 604-937-7785 604-937-7718(fax) sl@wimsey.bc.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 19:18 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services kadie@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie) writes: > In the long term, this Supreme Court decision not to hear this case is > a bad sign for electronic freedom of speech. Helms, himself, said that > he is trying to stamp out all pornography (which apparently means > anything "R-rated" or above.) Helms offered this amendment only after > an amendment that banned all adult material from telephones was > overturned by the Court. To me, at least, it is clear that the main > purpose of this law is to reduce the access adults have to > Constitutionally-protected material. I agree with your opinions. However, you should realize that porn services (as well as most others) will eventually leave 900. While the above mentioned action will hasten the departure of the "adult" programs, most everyone else as well will migrate to "direct billing" arrangements. The reason is simply that the telcos and the IECs are out-sleazing everyone in their collection and recharge policies. When these services go "direct", they will be completely out from under the telcos, the IECs, and even Jesse Helms. They will be untouchable. They will be able to account for and keep all the money they make, and will not be content-censored in any way. cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) writes: > Beautiful solution, actually. They kill 976 by local fiat, and > smother 900 under a mountain of paperwork. That leaves RBOCs as the > only providers. Don't you just love a level playing field? What the telcos do not realize in all of their collective brilliance is that by the time all of the independent providers are gleefully billing their customers directly, 900/976 will have such a foul reputation that no self-respecting person would use the telco provided services anyway. In essence, the telcos are whizzing in their Wheaties to drive out the IPs. What will be left will not be worth worrying about by the time the pros are gone. The death of 900/976 is at hand, but do not credit Mr. Helms with that state of affairs. Instead, you may attibute it to the greed and dishonesty of the telcos and IECs, as well as the creative workarounds that will be devised by the IP industry. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: julian%bongo.UUCP@nosc.mil (Julian Macassey) Subject: Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? Date: 3 Feb 92 04:34:15 GMT Reply-To: julian@bongo.info.com (Julian Macassey) Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood California U.S.A. In article mickeyf@vnet.ibm.com (Mickey Ferguson) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 102, Message 2 of 11 > Does anyone know of any acoustic couplers available for modems? The > specific problem I'm thinking of is when the business person travels > and stays at a hotel with all digital phones. The idea of unplugging > the phone and plugging the wire into the modem won't work, because the > modem expects a regular analog line, not the digital line. A the curse of cheesy "digital" phones. Not many of these in hotels, although some of the swanky ones in Beverly Hills have the Lexar. The original poster I note is from ROLM. Hoist with his own petard? I have recently posted my travelling solution, but as Mickey notes, this does little when the phones do not supply real Tip and Ring. You can often find old acoustic couplers and acousticly coupled modems at swap meets (boot sales U.K.). Never pay more than $5.00 for these, that is all they are worth. If you want a shiny new one, and one that will fit the ugly handsets on ROLM, Lexar etc, you can still get them. I recall that Rat Shack used to carry them -- no longer in their catalogue. A company called Computer Products Plus Inc, carries a "fits any handset" acoustic coupler. They claim it works with high speed modems - I doubt it. They want $150.00 for it (yes, the modem is extra). If you really want one of these here are the details: These people also carry an electronic coupling device that connects to the handset plug of digital and electronic phones. This device costs $100 and is smaller than the coupler. It is called CP+ Connection II. Telecoupler $149.95. CP+ Connection II $99.95 Computer Products Plus Inc 16351 Gothard Street Huntington Beach California 92647 Phone (800) 274.4277 Phone (714) 847.1799 FAX (714) 848.6850 I have not tested, or even held any of these devices. Julian Macassey, julian@bongo.info.com N6ARE@K6VE.#SOCAL.CA.USA.NA 742 1/2 North Hayworth Avenue Hollywood CA 90046-7142 voice (213) 653-4495 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 Reply-To: dgc@math.ucla.edu Date: Sun, 02 Feb 92 20:56:21 -0800 From: David G. Cantor In TELECOM Digest, Vol. 12, Issue 10, David Ptasnik reports that when certain 800 numbers are called, you will be told that the call will be billed to you as if it were a 900 number. A question, a comment, and another question: 1. Can I play such a recording to the pesky salestypes who call me on my home telephone number or (even more appropiately) my personal 800 number and then bill, etc.? 2. If I receive such a bill when the call was not made by me or my wife (perhaps froms calls made when a relative or "friend" is visiting), I will happily ignore it and the followups from the sleazy credit agency, until I'm validly served. 3. Perhaps a suit along these lines will help resolve who is responsible when an unregulated company charges for calls made from a telephone, assuming that the person making the calls agrees to the charges. Is it conceivable that the one who so agreed might be the responsible party? David G. Cantor Department of Mathematics University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024-1555 Internet: dgc@math.ucla.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 18:34:16 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo In a previous article, Jacob DeGlopper wrote: >> Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by >> ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? > This isn't quite the same, but it's close. My rescue squad pagers are > tripped by a standard Motorola two-tone sequence broadcast over the > fire dispatch channel. These are sequential tones, not simultaneous, > however. These tones are transmitted before the voice messages, and > after a few years, people tend to decode the tone pairs in their > heads. Even when the calls are for other stations, most of us > recognize the busier tone pairs, and those for "interesting" calls, > i.e. hazardous materials, high-angle rescue team, and helicopter > tones. This reminds me of something I heard about Sam Morse's telegraph. I don't know if it's true, but sounds reasonable. First off, apparently he did not know too much about electricity. His first electromagnet did not work because he wound it with uninsulated wire. Once that problem was worked out, his receiving mechanism used a roll of paper that was dragged under a pen driven by the electromagnet. When there was loop current, the pen would "mark" the paper. When there was no loop current, it would leave a "space". (sound familiar to datacom and Teletype people?). The telegraph operator would read the "dots and dashes" on the paper to decode the telegram. Telegraphers soon grew accustomed to the sound of the mechanism and could tell what the telegram said without looking at the tape. Once this became common practice, it sure simplified telegraph "sounders" (at least until the teleprinter came along). Finally, I was intrigued by the other posting of a telco company employee's daughter who could decode DTMF by ear. The fact that she went on to get an MA in music was a perfect ending! Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ Subject: Is There a List of 213 and 310 Prefixes Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 23:47:51 EST From: John R. Levine I'm finally recopying my dog-eared old personal personal phone list (computers are nice but they don't fit in my pocket.) A lot of the numbers are in Los Angeles and many have been moved from 213 to 310. Is there anywhere a list of which prefixes stayed in 213 and which ones are now in 310? Similar lists for other recent splits, e.g. 301/410, would also be nice. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl [Moderator's Note: Some of these splits are annoted in detail in the Telecom Archives. Use anonymous ftp to lcs.mit.edu. I know that is difficult in your case, not being on the Internet, but perhaps someone will pull those files for you. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 02 Feb 92 21:00:56 EST From: tim gorman <71336.1270@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Answer Supervision on DM vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) writes in TELECOM Digest V12 #102 about DMS100 features NTX008AB and NTX007AB which say line side answer supervision is available. I have not yet checked out BCS33 doc's, but the BCS32 and earlier doc's on these features are mangled. The document writer appeared to have tried to port these over from some Meridian PBX documentation and did not do a very good job. The feature description talks about answer supervison on line cards but when you go to the line card documentation, there is no description whatsoever about this capability. Nowhere in any of the call processing documentation is there any mention of answer supervision on the line side of the switch. We now have BCS33 doc's available so I will recheck this and if anything has changed will make another posting. In the meantime, based on past experience, I will continue to take this with a BIG grain of salt until other documentation confirming the capability is available for the DMS100. Tim Gorman - SWBT *opinions are mine, any resemblance to official policy is coincidence* ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular and IN Service Date: Mon, 03 Feb 92 14:29:02 +0900 From: ito@nttslb.ntt.jp I would like to get any information on the relations between cellular service and Intelligent Network service. I will appreciate any information (past, current, future, commercial, technological, operational) on the topic. Thank you in advance. Name: Mitsutaka Ito Country/Company: Japan/NTT Address: 1-9-1 Konan Minato-ku Tokyo 108 Japan Tel/Fax: +81-3-3740-5715/+81=3-3740-5740 E-Mail: ito@nttslb.ntt.jp ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #109 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08518; 4 Feb 92 0:30 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13258 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 3 Feb 1992 22:20:51 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24963 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 3 Feb 1992 22:20:25 -0600 Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 22:20:25 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202040420.AA24963@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #110 TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 Feb 92 22:20:21 CST Volume 12 : Issue 110 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Competition for South Africa's Telco (Business Day via Morgan Govender) When a Phone Is a Menace (L.A. Times Editorial via Randall C. Gellens) WATS Capacity Exceeded? (Bruce McCulley, RISKS via Tom Perrine) 800-Number Foulup by One Digit (Carl Moore) IP Connection via ISDN (Ernst Kloecker) US West Invests in Telecommunications in Hungary (Connexion via R. Lindh) Call Forwarding "Courtesy Ring" on Cellular Systems (John R. Covert) John is Kidding About PACBELL (Dennis G. Rears) U. Georgia Housing Switches to Sprint; Students Can't Get AT&T (G. Leavell) "Calling Card" Charges and Advertising (Edward Gehringer) On-Line CCITT Standards (Matt D. Nguyen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: govender@shannon.ee.wits.ac.za (Govender) Subject: Competition for South Africa's Telco Organization: Electrical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand Date: 3 Feb 92 06:44:29 GMT South Africa's state run telephone monopoly is at last getting competition. Unfortunately the competitive service will be limited to international calls only. A US company, International Discount Technology, is to offer a service whereby South African subscribers will dial a pre-assigned New York number and let it ring once and then hang up. They will then be rang back by IDT's computer and connected to a US dial tone enabling them to call anywhere in the world at about half the prevailing rate to make the same call from South Africa. We pay $3.57 per minute for international calls at present. Subscribers will pay $250 a month link up fees for the service making it feasible only for corporate and well-heeled users. However there is an opportunity for some entrepeneur who is willing to carry the link up fees and charge the public 60%-75% of the going rate to make international calls. Furthermore this will also give South Africans access to US 800 and 900 numbers. Reported in {Business Day} 1-Feb -1992 Morgan Govender University of Witwatersrand Johannesburg,South Africa ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 06:36 GMT From: Randall C Gellens <0005000102@mcimail.com> Subject: When a Phone Is a Menace (L.A. Times Editorial) The {L.A. Times} Orange County Edition, January 28, carried an editorial "When a Phone Is a Menace" (captioned Orange County Perspective): Pay telephones are a lifeline for families in some low-income communities. But when they are used for drug dealing, prostitution or other criminal activity they are a neighborhood menace. Santa Ana, in adopting a welcome new ordinance on pay phones, plans to take its cue from local communities as well as police when deciding whether a pay phone is a serious problem. When there are continuing neighborhood and law enforcement complaints, the city will have in place an innovative way to remove a phone that is attracting the wrong sorts of customers. During the debate on the recently adopted ordinace ... the City Council was divided on whether removal of problem phones might end up hurting those it is intended to help. Many low-income areas depend on pay phones for emergencies as well as day-to-day communication. But the proceess ... is designed to fully include the community in the decision to take out a phone. The city will first ask the telephone vendor to take actions that would impede criminals' use of a phone. These include moving a phone to inside a store, blocking incoming calls and replacing tone dialing with rotary dialing so that drug dealers can't use their pagers [how does pulse dialing impede pagers? -- RCG]. If conditions don't improve after such steps are taken, the legal process aimed at removing the phones would ensue. Police Chief Paul M. Walters said some pay phones have become "outdoor offices for drug dealers and prostitutes." They also have become gathering places for lowlifes who use the phones for other illegal activities. ... ------------------------------ From: tep@tots.Logicon.COM Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 09:21:17 PST Subject: WATS Capacity Exceeded? Reply-To: tep@tots.Logicon.COM This little tidbit from the RISKS Digest: Date: Thu, 30 Jan 92 11:51:03 -0500 From: mcculley@racy.zko.dec.com Subject: Confusing Telephone System Overload Message On Tuesday night (1/29/92), after President Bush's State of the Union address I happened to tune into the CBS television network as they were announcing a novel poll. They claimed nothing like it had ever been attempted before, and it sounded interesting so we stayed with them for awhile, and even tried to participate. The basis for the poll was an interactive telephone system set up at a site in Omaha, Nebraska, with an (800) WATS line to allow toll-free access from anywhere in the US. Early in the show CBS announcer Charles Kuralt reported that the telecommunications center was capable of handling thousands of calls per minute, "so there should be no problem". HA! Participation required a touch-tone phone, so that callers could respond via keypad entry to the canned questions posed by the automated response system. Although we live in a rural area with old mechanical switch gear, my phones all can switch between rotary and touchtone mode, so I could dial up using pulse mode and then switch to tone for the response. After watching a few minutes to see what additional explanations were given, I decided to try accessing the poll. At the time they seemed to be running at a couple of thousand calls per minute. My initial attempt to call them resulted in a very long dead interval, followed by a message saying "Your call cannot be completed as dialed, you must supply more digits in the number dialed." That seemed strange, so I tried redialing several times, more carefully, with similar results. Since the map showing calls received was showing nothing from our area of New England (New Hampshire and Maine were both showing null), I wondered if there was a problem with the WATS routing or something, that might have caused the strange error message. So I called the operator, and when I started to say I was having trouble dialing an (800) number she immediately asked if it was the one that had been given on TV. When I said it was, I was told that the lines were flooded. Apparently the volume of calls was either forcing the long-distance system into some strange failure mode in which it thought more digits were required in the number being called, or there was a mismatch between the particular error condition and the error message being used. I suspect, based on my limited knowledge of the telephone network, that there may have been some timeout or connection loss or contention or something that inadvertently truncated the routing information string, due to the huge volume of calls. Shortly afterward, with the display showing about 125,000 calls processed, Dan Rather reported on the air that AT&T was estimating there had been about 7,000,000 call attempts! Obviously their throughput was a little below the capacity requirements ... BTW, using redial, I was able to access the number on a subsequent attempt, and did get my response included in the poll. At that time they were reporting about a hundred thousand calls processed. From the ratio of call attempts reported by AT&T to calls processed it looked to me like the ratio was upwards of 70 to 1. It took me only about ten tries or so, so I guess I was lucky. The risk seems obvious, experimenting with a novel application in a live production environment requires some careful system analysis and planning to avoid unexpected errors. One thing I'm curious about, wonder what their phone bill was? bruce mcculley ---------------------- Forwarded by: Tom E. Perrine (tep) | tep@tots.Logicon.COM |Voice: +1 619 597 7221 Logicon - T&TSD | sun!suntan!tots!tep | or : +1 619 455 1330 4010 Sorrento Valley Blvd| | FAX: +1 619 552 0729 San Diego CA 92121 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 8:43:27 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: 800-Number Foulup by One Digit Word arrived this morning on KYW news-radio (I couldn't stick around for more detail) that a car dealer sent out an apology because an advertised 800 number was off by a digit, causing customers to call a 900 sex line. That is a Philadelphia station. ------------------------------ From: ernst@cs.tu-berlin.de (Ernst Kloecker) Subject: IP Connection via ISDN Organization: Techn. University of Berlin, Germany Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 13:16:06 GMT Now that ISDN services are becoming more and more available, there should be a way to establish an IP connection via ISDN, using a method similar to SLIP or PPP on serial lines. Does anybody know about such methods? Are they in any way standardized? Is it possible to use the two 64 K B-channels for o n e IP connection to achieve a transmissionrate of 128 Kbit/s altogether? Ernst Kloecker phone: ++49-30-6181635 e-mail: ernst@cs.tu-berlin.de ------------------------------ From: Robert.Lindh@eos.ericsson.se (Robert Lindh) Subject: US West Invests in Telecommunications in Hungary Reply-To: Robert.Lindh@eos.ericsson.se Organization: Ericsson Telecom AB Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 18:04:17 GMT "WESTEL, the mobile network operator, is a joint venture between HTC (51%) and US West International Holdings Inc (49%). Its service went on stream in October 1990, expecting to sign up 2500 subscribers in its first year. By September 1991, the number had exceeded 6000." Source: magazine CONNEXION, issue 23. Published by Ericsson Telecom AB, S-126 25 Stockholm, Sweden Standard disclaimer: "Only my personal opinion, of course." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 13:23:10 PST From: John R. Covert 03-Feb-1992 1620 Subject: Call Forwarding "Courtesy Ring" on Cellular Systems After putting a Motorola Micro-Tac (model F09HGD8432CG) into service recently to replace my Nokia P-30, I discovered that NYNEX Mobile provides a "courtesy ring" when you have your cellular phone number forwarded. I'm curious to find out what other systems have this feature. Note that unless you are certain that your cellular phone supports giving you an indication of this, you will be unable to tell me "No, my system doesn't support it." The courtesy ring, on the Micro-Tac, is one looooonnnnngggg ring, provided just as the call comes through the switch. The phone clearly knows the difference between a courtesy ring and a real ring, since the phone does not turn on the "call in absence" indicator as it does with a real unanswered call or a failed page. It's quite useful when you're in a fringe area where calls can't be set up reliably. You forward your calls to a landline phone, and you know that after you hear the courtesy ring, the next call on the landline phone will be for you. john [Moderator's Note: A neat thing about the CT-301 Radio Shack phone is if *71 or *72 (plus a number) is transmitted by the phone to Ameritech, then the triple-beep tone acknowlegement from Ameritech causes the CT-301 to remember that busy/no answer or immediate call forwarding is in effect, and from time to time plus whenever the phone is powered up the display will show *71 or *72 as a reminder. When you send *73 to cancel either type of forwarding, the triple beep tone acknowlegement from Ameritech turns off the *71/*72 display in the window on the phone. The *71/*72 reminder is stored even if the phone is off for a couple days ... when you power up again, the reminder is there. I like that! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 17:42:46 EST From: "Dennis G. Rears " Subject: John is Kidding About PACBELL I just got back from a trip to San Diego. Being interested in telecom I opened up the white pages. I can now start to appreciate why John is harping on PACBELL. In additional to standard hopup charges they want an additional charge of $3.00 (residential) or $5.00 (business) for touch tone installation. After I saw additional surcharges to pay for 911 service, and universal service I had to make sure I was not reading from a COCOT phone book. Local toll rates are incredible. California is a beautiful state but there telephone policies (as well as some of the regulations I saw) are an order of magnitude worse than anything I have even seen before. Dennis ------------------------------ From: glenn@rigel.econ.uga.edu (Glenn F. Leavell) Subject: U Georgia Housing Switches to Sprint; Students Can't Get AT&T Organization: University of Georgia Economics Department Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 22:35:33 GMT The housing department at the University of Georgia recently switched their primary long distance provider from AT&T to U.S. Sprint. There are many, many students here with AT&T calling cards who want to dial the 10ATT0 or 10ATT1 prefixes to choose AT&T over Sprint. The problem is, it doesn't work. The housing department has made statements that the problem lies within the local phone system; they claim that it can't distinguish a '1' from a '0' at the end of a 10xxx prefix, so they've completely blocked out the ability to dial such a prefix at all. Of course, AT&T customers can dial the AT&T 1-800 number, but AT&T does not yet provide a tone at that number; you are automatically connected to an operator. An interesting note is that many AT&T customers who don't understand all the ins and outs of long distance service in general think that the problem is with Sprint! From their point of view, things worked great when housing provided AT&T, but now it doesn't work since they've changed to Sprint. My question is: does this seem plausible? Are there indeed systems which can't distinguish a '1' from a '0' at the end of a 10xxx prefix? Glenn F. Leavell Systems Administrator glenn@rigel.econ.uga.edu 404-542-3488 University of Georgia Economics Department. 147 Brooks Hall. Athens, GA 30602 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 19:35:02 -0500 From: efg@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Edward Gehringer) Subject: "Calling card" Charges and Advertising I used to rely on ITT/Metromedia for long-distance service. For various reasons, I make a lot of personal long distance calls from my office, as well as on trips. They used to provide "calling card" service at a rate that was only slightly higher than their dial-1 service. However, after the Metromedia takeover, they began to raise these rates, starting last February. There have been three rate increases, totaling about 18%-75%, depending on the time of the call and the distance. My bill has gone up by 50%-60%. After several discussions with Metromedia supervisors, the following points remain at issue: 1. Metromedia has begun advertising a "New NO-SURCHARGE Calling Card" [emphasis theirs]. They say there is no surcharge, because there is no set fee that is added to each call. I contend that the higher rates do in fact amount to a surcharge, one that is levied minute by minute. The public expects that "no surcharge" means the customer does not pay extra. Thus, their advertising is misleading, and I will complain to the FTC unless someone on the net can convince me that I should not. 2. The rate increases bear no relationship to the cost of providing the service. Certainly, it does not cost 75% more to complete a night/weekend call than it did a year ago. There may be some additional cost associated with providing "credit-card" service, but nowhere near that much. Indeed, before "equal access," all non-AT&T calls were "credit-card" calls, made by punching in an access number. Yet the other long-distance carriers were consistently able to undersell AT&T! After the breakup, the FCC required that one service not subsidize another. However, people who use access codes are now subsidizing those who use dial-1 service. Shouldn't rates like those Metromedia has filed be rejected? I would appreciate thoughts on how to proceed. This is not a trifling matter to me, since it amounts to hundreds of dollars a year. Ed ------------------------------ From: mdn@sbctri.sbc.com (Matt D. Nguyen) Subject: On-Line CCITT Standards Organization: Southwestern Bell Technology Resources, St.Louis, MO Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 00:09:46 GMT Does anyone know of the sites and procedures to access on-line CCITT standards? Please email the info directly to mnguyen@sbctri.sbc.com. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Matt Nguyen [Moderator's Note: Didn't we discuss this recently and discover the files had been taken off line? PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #110 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12569; 4 Feb 92 2:16 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25420 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 00:05:34 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13388 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 00:05:06 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 00:05:06 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202040605.AA13388@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #111 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Feb 92 00:04:55 CST Volume 12 : Issue 111 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Peter da Silva) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (John David Galt) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Bob Izenberg) BBS = Business? (Bob Ackley) Re: AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 (John Higdon) Re: Telecom and Science Fiction (Jamie Hanrahan) Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services (John De Armond) Re: Centel For Sale (Steve Gaarder) Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? (Ed Greenberg) Re: Posting Choices: Telecom-priv or Telecom (Bob Clements) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 14:22:21 GMT Our esteemed Moderator writes: > Moderator's Note: It has to be a little more involved than that. > Suppose all the BBS people said okay, and started paying business > rates. Then what? Then, within a month or two, most of the BBSes go offline. They are, by and large, run by individuals as a hobby out of their own pockets. The difference between residential and business rates is large enough to kill any marginal BBS ... and most of them *are* marginal. Most of the ones remaining will be for-pay BBSes, which they think they can more effectively compete against. In fact it's unlikely that a Minitel service will work: look what happened to SourceLine. It's funny that Southwestern Bell quit harassing BBSes in Houston after SourceLine flopped, isn't it? Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. [Moderator's Note: Oh, I don't think 'within a month or two' anyone would go off line who hadn't planned on it in the first place, let alone 'most of the BBSes'. Somehow I think they would survive. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 12:08:59 PST The Moderator writes: > ... I think all telco is trying to do is treat BBS lines the same as > churches or any other non-profit phone line; that is, if not strictly > for personal use, then the line is for business use. Those are the two > (admittedly poorly named) choices. PAT] Those are, indeed, the two choices. But the telcos are making a wrong analogy. A BBS system that does not charge, and is used mostly for discussion among friends, is much more like a home where the owner holds a lot of parties than like a business of any kind. (The closest businesses I can think of are a bar or hotel, and charging is what makes them businesses.) How would you feel if someone who hosts, say weekly parties (and does not make problems for the neighbors) were told to shut down the parties because his home is not zoned for "commercial" use? John David Galt ------------------------------ From: bei@dogface.austin.tx.us (Bob Izenberg) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 0:56:17 CST TELECOM Moderator wrote: In reply to a message by joem@orbit.orbit.cts.com: > [Moderator's Note: It has to be a little more involved than that. > Suppose all the BBS people said okay, and started paying business > rates. Then what? The BBS' would still be out there competing with > Community Link. Not in the numbers that they're around today. Faced with the choice of paying business rates for a free system or moving on to another hobby, how many people would choose to pay more to their local telephone company? The potential loss of local systems wouldn't be the worst of it. There would be an added cost to "networked" BBSes (Fidonet, WWIVnet, et cetera) if they find themselves dialing long distance to reach their nearest neighbor. This would be of no consequence to any telco: It will gladly accept the revenue from your long distance bill until the cost outweighs the benefit and you cease operation. Our Moderator recently said that he anticipates an influx of revenue which will allow him the time to do more that he wishes to do with the Digest. If this situation were reversed and it would cost him more money to produce it ... not in his time spent, but in a check that he'd have to write to Illinois Bell each month, would we see more or less TELECOM Digest, and for how long? Bob [Moderator's Note: Maybe you have forgotten or did not know that when I assumed responsibility for the Digest from Jon Solomon in 1988, I was using facilities at Boston University (bu.edu) because that is where Jon had the mailing list set up. I worked for three months via PC Pursuit between Chicago and Boston. When PC Pursuit was down for some reason or during hours it was not operational, I used AT&T to dial direct to bu.edu. Because my phone bill and Telenet bill were quite high, I gratefully accepted the generous offer made to me by Northwestern University to establish the Digest at their site, and I have worked from here since February, 1989. Not once back in 1988-89 did it occur to me to blame IBT, AT&T, Telenet or anyone else for the costs involved. Not once did it occur to me telco owed me or this Digest anything other than a clean connection I was paying for. People spend their money as they wish. I chose to make the changes required in the way I handled the Digest to lessen my expenses; I didn't ask telco for any charity! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 05:32:44 cst From: Bob.Ackley@ivgate.omahug.org (Bob Ackley) Subject: BBS = Business? Reply-To: bob.ackley@ivgate..omahug.org With regard to the recent court proceedings on the West Coast between U.S. Pest and a BBS SYSOP, re: business rates for his BBS. U.S. Pest claims that it costs more for them to support his (and anyone else's) BBS because of the large number of incoming calls and the traffic level. One has to wonder precisely the cost of all of the extra equipment that U.S. Pest had to install to handle the additional load caused by his BBS, since it occurs to this non-expert that the local carrier's actual cost of connecting each call to him (and to any other BBS) is (a) minimal and (b) paid by the caller. msged 1.99S ZTC Bob's Soapbox , Plattsmouth Ne (1:285/2.7) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 23:44 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 David Ptasnik writes: > It is my STRONG feeling that this is an inappropriate use of 800 ANI > data (another reason to allow blocking of your phone number to 800 > numbers, but I'll leave that for the caller ID/privacy mailing list). > It means that individuals and organizations who don't allow dialing of > 900/976 can still get bills for abuse of their lines thru 800 numbers. > I think this still violates the basic principle that 800 calls are > free calls. The call IS free. It is the associated service that you are being charged for. No, I am not being flippant about this. If I pick up a telephone and dial an 800 number and order $10,000 worth of computer equipment, is that a $10,000 phone call? The difference is that in the case of the latter, I can make the call and order the merchandise in YOUR name and you will get the bill. With the service you seem to feel is inappropriate, I would have to have direct, physical access to your telephone. > Payphone owners look out. You'll start getting bills in the mail > for phone calls that won't appear on your phone bill, and which will > be essentially impossible to block. No, but the service provider can block the call. And he will if there is a probability that he will not be able to collect. The fact that the caller's number is known and verified greatly simplifies the extension of credit by non-standard means. Not long ago, participants in this very forum decried the fact that unless one had a telco, Visa, MC, or other major credit card, he was shut out of a number of convenience purchasing situations. I have been instrumental in setting up some 800 number ordering systems that are able to use credit flexibility that has heretofore never existed. One of the key elements is the verification of the simple matter of the caller being who he claims to be. If the information presented does not agree with the ANI, an operator gives him a chance to explain. But there are many cases of a transaction occurring that otherwise would not without ANI. Caller number delivery is a great boon to commerce. How many times during the year do you have to show identification to someone? How would you do this over the phone? Since businesses have a new tool to cut losses, they are more willing to provide conveniences never before possible. Removing the cloak of telephonic anonymity has its positive side. As a customer, I welcome the ability to shop by phone without all of the red tape that has been customary, even with major cards. Every new (ANI is hardly new) technology brings out anti-technology jitters in the public. It was not too long ago that computers themselves were regarded as a threat to our very way of life. I understand concern about the 'P'-word (we do not talk about that in this forum), but generally speaking the more data available in business and commerce, the better. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: jeh@cmkrnl.com Subject: Re: Telecom and Science Fiction Date: 3 Feb 92 13:51:30 PST Organization: Kernel Mode Consulting, San Diego CA In article , rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes: > rune@pandora.nta.no (Rune Henning Johansen FBA) writes: >> We're collecting information about the role of science fiction within >> telecom. [...] > The most obvious example is Arthur C. Clarke, the inventor of the > telecommunications satellite. [...] At best, Clarke may be described as "conceiver of the idea of the Earth-geosynchronous-orbit telecom satellite". In the first place, I don't think you can claim to have "invented" something unless you have actually built it and made it work. Just jotting down some ideas does not count. (Some Patent Office decisions -- I'm thinking of the one that took credit for the visible-light laser away from Schawlow (sp?), et al, at Bell Labs -- may be viewed as contradicting this notion.) In the second place, George O. Smith's "Venus Equilateral" stories, set on an interplanetary relay station orbiting the sun in one of Venus's Trojan points, predate Clarke's 1945 article by several years. Clarke wrote the introduction to the latest collection of these stories (_The Complete Venus Equilateral_, Ballantine), and in it said: "... George Smith was the probably the first writer -- certainly the first technically qualified writer -- to spell out [the use of space satellites] for space communications. It is therefore quite possible that these stories influenced me subconsciously when [...] I worked out the principles of synchronous communications satellites..." By the way, any readers who have even a mild tolerance for science fiction and a liking for tech-oriented stories will likely find that the "Venus Equilateral" stories are well worth reading. Mind you, George Smith completely failed to foresee the miniaturization revolution that would take place in electronics, so these stories are filled with vacuum tubes, and the bigger, the better: There is one priceless scene where a crew of men cracks open an air valve, then opens a hatch, walks inside a tube, and changes a spent cathode with the aid of a winch ... Nevertheless, the fun of engineering is better portrayed here than in anything else I've read, up to and including _The Soul of a New Machine_. The Ballantine paperback is still available in well-stocked bookstores. Highly recommended. Jamie Hanrahan, Kernel Mode Consulting, San Diego CA Internet: jeh@cmkrnl.com, hanrahan@eisner.decus.org, or jeh@crash.cts.com Uucp: ...{crash,eisner,uunet}!cmkrnl!jeh ------------------------------ From: jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) Subject: Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services Date: Mon, 03 Feb 92 15:46:51 GMT Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access. The Mouth of the South. john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: >> Beautiful solution, actually. They kill 976 by local fiat, and >> smother 900 under a mountain of paperwork. That leaves RBOCs as the >> only providers. Don't you just love a level playing field? > What the telcos do not realize in all of their collective brilliance > is that by the time all of the independent providers are gleefully > billing their customers directly, 900/976 will have such a foul > reputation that no self-respecting person would use the telco provided > services anyway. In essence, the telcos are whizzing in their > Wheaties to drive out the IPs. This is correct. Indeed the maddest scramble I've ever seen, even madder than in the heady days of AOS, is the scramble for direct billing. One of my clients is a 900 IP who has just finished a direct billing system and is offering this service to other IPs. I've never really understood the 900 concept in the first place. The IP gets ANI from the trunk. He has the online time from his equipment. He can match phone numbers to billing addresses using the services of any number of credit reporting services. All the phone company added was some convenience but at what a cost! Looks like technology is going to outfox the bureaucrats yet again. BTW, the hottest 900 service at the moment is astrology/horoscopes to the Spanish speaking market. Hotter even than sex lines. Even better, the customers tend to want to hear the same stuff over and over so you don't have the expense of creating new materials. One thing not yet commented on regarding this situation is what it bodes for the future. What we've seen is the BOCs killing their golden goose with pure, unadulterated greed. Greed to the point where providing direct billing services to IPs at $1.50 a call is considered a bargain. Greed to the point where no service other than sex and similiar lines can make any money. Greed in the back office in the form of having customer service default to telling customers they have to pay regardless. Do we really want this kind of greed involved in new areas like cable TV or information services? The BOCs have effectively killed consumer ISDN with greed. Anyone agree that we need to keep the BOCs OUT of the IP arena? BTW, the Supreme court lack-of-ruling may be a blessing in disguise. It may break us from the terrible habit of allowing Congress to get away with murder while relying on the SC to overturn them. Maybe we'll wake up and get mad enough to kick the bums out! John De Armond, WD4OQC Rapid Deployment System, Inc. Marietta, Ga jgd@dixie.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 08:18:22 EST From: gaarder@anarres.ithaca.ny.us Subject: Re: Centel For Sale John Rice writes: > A friend at Centel Cellular tells me that the entire company is on > the block. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's pool our resources! Steve Gaarder gaarder@anarres.ithaca.ny.us ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? Date: Mon, 03 Feb 92 19:08:21 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Radio Shack has a P/N 26-3818 that is an accoustic coupler. I haven't found one in a store yet. They go for about $50. My US Robotics Worldport 2400 baud modem is said to be able to use this at 1200 baud, which I will believe when I see. It'd be handy for getting online from a payphone with my HP-95LX. Ed Greenberg | Home: +1 408 283 0184 | edg@netcom.com P. O. Box 28618 | Work: +1 408 764 5305 | DoD#: 0357 San Jose, CA 95159 | Fax: +1 408 764 5003 | KM6CG (ex WB2GOH) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Posting Choices: Telecom-priv or Telecom Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 21:52:13 EST From: clements@BBN.COM In article TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: I think it is distributed to an alt group already. PAT] You keep saying this, Pat, but you never give the group name and no-one ever confirms it. Please stop making the claim unless you have the specifics. Bob Clements, K1BC, clements@bbn.com [Telecom-Priv Moderator's Note: Right now no. I know this sounds like vaporware but tomorrow I will putting out a new CFD for comp.soc.privacy. In three weeks a CFV. After that a new newsgroup. The list and newsgroup will be gatewayed together. Dennis] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #111 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa13953; 4 Feb 92 2:45 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26477 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 00:43:54 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11980 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 00:43:36 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 00:43:36 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202040643.AA11980@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #112 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Feb 92 00:43:37 CST Volume 12 : Issue 112 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear (Tad Cook) Re: Bell ?? Cuts Superconductor Research? (Steve Mueller) Re: Detirmining if a Call Was Answered (Dick Rickert) Re: Phone Number Parser Wanted (Carl Wright) Re: NXX to CLLI Conversion Tables Wanted (Carl Wright) Re: Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code (Roger B.A. Klorese) Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services (Stan Brown) Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing (was Point Roberts, Wa.) (Dave Leibold) Canada Direct (Dave Leibold) TouchTone Charges? (Jim Redelfs) Looking For Number Which Tells me my Phone Number (Jeff Haferman) 714/619 Using N0X/N1X? (was Background Regarding 206 Change) (Carl Moore) 540,000+ Cellular Subscribers (6.6% of Sweden's Population) (Robert Lindh) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear From: tad@ssc.wa.com (Tad Cook) Date: 3 Feb 92 06:43:00 GMT meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) writes: > Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by > ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? My friend Tim Schneebeck can do it. He is blind, and is a ham (K7QMI). He shows off this special talent on the 146.96 MHz repeater in Seattle when someone is using the autopatch. I don't know if he can do it with MF or not. I doubt that he would admit to knowing what MF sounds like. :) He has also listened to a funny sound (over the phone!) that my washing machine was making, and sent me down to Appliance Parts Wholesalers to buy a specific part to fix it! Tad Cook | Phone: 206-527-4089 | MCI Mail: 3288544 Seattle, WA | Packet: KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 3288544@mcimail.com | USENET: tad@ssc.wa.com or...sumax!ole!ssc!tad ------------------------------ From: smueller@sbctri.sbc.com (Steve Mueller) Subject: Re: Bell ?? Cuts Superconductor Research? Organization: Southwestern Bell Tech Resources Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 19:00:53 GMT In article , ruck@zeta.ee.ufl.edu (John R Ruckstuhl Jr) writes: > Sometime during the last week, I either saw on TV, or read in the {Wall > Street Journal}, a news report which indicated that somebody just made > a big cut in their superconductor research program. Now I don't > remember if it was Bell Labs or Bellcore. Who was it, please? Bellcore. They're funded by the telephone company parts of the RBOCs and it's their ratepayers who ultimately pay for Bellcore research. The PUCs keep an eye on this and like to have evidence that ratepayers are going to benefit directly if the costs of research are to be included in the rate base. Furthermore, they often feel these benefits should be made evident in the near future, if not immediately. No doubt many factors were at work in the decision to cut back on superconductor research, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that funding for this research was a hard sell at some of the PUCs. This is not meant to be a judgment of the PUC point of view. It's just to point out where their perspective differs from ours. And of course, these are my own opinions and not those of Southwestern Bell Corporation or its subsidiaries. For crying out loud, they better be ... I've worked hard enough at having them. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 15:20:47 EST From: rmrin@inuxy.att.com (R M Rickert) Subject: Re: Detirmining if a Call Was Answered Organization: AT&T Tim Gorman wrote: > I think AT&T may have had another reason than cost for not putting in > a polarity guard. If I remember correctly, original operator system > specs (TSPS vintage, say early 1970s) required being able to disable > tone dials when connected to an operator. This eventually changed to > being able to disable only tone dials on coin stations but by then the > station manufacturing specs had probably changed. I don't know what > AT&T does now on sets they manufacture themselves. The reason for no polarity guard (and no diode) was cost. Phone lines were supposed to be fixed polarity. Dick Rickert AT&T Consumer Products Laboratory ------------------------------ From: wright@irie.ais.org (Carl Wright) Subject: Re: Phone Number Parser Wanted Date: Mon, 03 Feb 92 21:06:35 EST Organization: UMCC - Ann Arbor, MI USA edward@TWG.COM (Edward C. Bennett) writes: > Does anyone know where I can get a routine that can parse a phone > number? I've got some software that dials a modem and I'd like it to > be able to analyze the number before dialing. There is at least one commercially available software product to handle dialed digits streams. It is called DIGITERP and available from my company. I won't evaluate it because I'm very biased. You are welcome to call or write for information. Afterward a dialin demo is available. Carl Wright | Lynn-Arthur Associates, Inc. Internet: wright@ais.org | 2350 Green Rd., #160 Voice: 1 313 995 5590 EST | Ann Arbor, MI 48105 ------------------------------ From: wright@irie.ais.org (Carl Wright) Subject: Re: NXX to CLLI Conversion Tables Wanted Date: Mon, 03 Feb 92 21:12:57 EST Organization: UMCC - Ann Arbor, MI USA polari!brianc@sumax.seattleu.edu writes: > I was wondering if anyone had a list of NXX to CLLI codes or CLLI to > NXX codes list for Washington State, or may a list of NPA+NXX to CLLI > or the other way around. You can get this information from the following commercial companies in electronic form: International DataBases, CCMI, Valucom, Teletech, NECA. It is equivalent to the paper AT&T Tariff #4. Carl Wright | Lynn-Arthur Associates, Inc. Internet: wright@ais.org | 2350 Green Rd., #160 Voice: 1 313 995 5590 EST | Ann Arbor, MI 48105 ------------------------------ From: rogerk@queernet.org (Roger B.A. Klorese) Subject: Re: Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code Organization: QueerNet Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 05:26:17 GMT In article syd@DSI.COM writes: > In my local Bell of PA directory, which the latest issue came this > week I was flipping through the first few pages just to see what was > there, (actually looking to see if anyone listed a TDD listing after > all the fuss the intro pages made about them) and I came across AT&T's > listing. Now, I am in a surburban Philadelphia white pages book, so I > wasn't expecting much, just the usual residential stuff, you know, LD, > conferencing, phones ... lo and behold ... one of the 800 numbers is > listed as "UNIX System V Source Code". > Gee, is the source code free for calling? :-) Naaah ... they cross-bill it as a 900 number ... $75k for the first minute ... ROGER B.A. KLORESE +1 415 ALL-ARFF rogerk@unpc.QueerNet.ORG {ames,decwrl,pyramid}!mips!unpc!rogerk ------------------------------ From: brown@NCoast.ORG (Stan Brown) Subject: Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 15:18:38 EST In last week's article, I said in part: > But by declining to review the decision, the Justices sent a pretty > clear signal that they considered the law constitutional. Two persons (so far) have written to tell me I'm wrong, and I agree with them. The Supreme Court may have declined to review the appeals court's decision for any of a number of reasons. But though the Justices didn't review _this_ decision, for all we know they could review a later one on the same issue, and find the law unconstitutional. We can't draw valid inferences from the Supreme Court's denial of any particular petition for review. Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, USA brown@ncoast.org ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 23:28:28 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing (was Point Roberts, Wa.) niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) writes: > Winsdor, Ontario is both South and East of Detroit; therefore, where > does Windsor get its routing from, Detroit or from some point in > Canada? Windsor, being Bell Canada territory, would likely keep most routing within Canadian soil. Much of the action, say to Toronto or elsewhere in Canada, would presumably go through London, Ontario, where most of area code 519 would be handled. Anything going to the States could be sent across the creek to Detroit; I think Bell Canada does have a major U.S. gateway via Windsor/ Detroit, considering that I've had some not-in-service messages for some 800 numbers terminate on a 313 switch. Incidentally, calls between Windsor and Detroit are long distance, not local. Long distance also applies across the border along the Niagara Frontier (Buffalo, Niagara Falls NY and Niagara Falls, St Catharines, Fort Erie ON). Cross-border local calling does exist at one point in northwest Ontario to a small Minnesota exchange, plus I think Fort Covington NY has a local call across the border. A number of local calling areas are set up along the New Brunswick/Maine border as well. BC Tel no longer list Point Roberts WA as a local call from Vancouver BC. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 23:23:29 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Canada Direct Teleglobe/Telecom Canada has the Canada Direct service, for calling Canadian operators from overseas points. The idea of "home direct" services such as this is to allow for billing of domestic rates for calls from overseas, in order to bypass charges of overseas carriers that are often more expensive. Having domestic operators handle the calls as opposed to operators of another language is helpful, too. Charges can be done with an ordinary calling card. Information on Canada Direct can be obtained by calling 1 800 561.8868 (within Canada at least). Access numbers at overseas locations are: Australia 0014 881 150 Austria 022 903 013 Bahamas 1 800 463 0501 Bahrain 80 01 00 Belgium 11 00 11 Bermuda 1 800 623 0383 Brazil 000 8014 Chile ** 00 ~ 0318 Colombia 980 19 0057 Denmark 80 01 00 11 Dominican Rep. 1 800 333 0111 Finland 9800 1 0011 France 19 ~ 00 16 Germany (western) 01 3000 14 Guatemala 198 Haiti 001 800 522 1055 Hong Kong * 008 1100 Hungary 00361111 India [designated telephones] Indonesia 00 801 16 Israel 177 105 2727 Italy 172 1001 Japan 0039 (~) 161 [second dial tone may be required (~)] Liechtenstein 046 05 83 30 Macao * 0800 100 Netherlands 06 ~ 0229116 New Zealand 000919 Norway 050 12111 Philippines 105 12 Portugal 05 017 1 226 Qatar [designated telephones] Singapore * 800 1000 South Korea * 009 0015 Spain 900 99 00 15 Sweden 020 799015 Switzerland 046 05 83 30 Taiwan [designated telephones] Trinidad & Tobago [designated telephones] United Kingdom 0800 89 0016 Symbols used: * also at designated telephones in places like airports, hotels, tourist areas, etc. ** calling card billed as person to person only. ~ wait for second dial tone. Note that some hotels may add surcharges. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Jan 92 17:25:39 cst From: Jim.Redelfs@ivgate.omahug.org (Jim Redelfs) Subject: TouchTone Charges Reply-To: jim.redelfs@macnet.omahug.org Organization: Macnet Omaha John Higdon wrote: > ...in California, touch tone service is now accepted as a standard > method of subscriber signaling and does not carry any premium > charges. Now if the rest of the country would come around... It has been years (10 +/- ?) since an extra charge for TTS was allowed in Nebraska. The story, as I recall hearing, went something like this: The PUC ordered Northwestern Bell Telephone Company to provide documentation enumerating their COST for providing TouchTone service -- a $1.20/month option. The best they could come up with was 7-cents!! The rap of a gavel and stroke of a pen and, presto! Everyone gets TTS for "free"! (It would AMAZE you the number of subscribers I encounter that have their CheapieChirpers set to PULSE!!) JR Tabby 2.2 MacNet Omaha (402) 289-2899 - O.M.U.G. On-Line (1:285/14) ------------------------------ From: jlhaferman@t_ecn09.icaen.uiowa.edu (Jeff Haferman) Subject: Looking For Number Which Tells me my Phone Number Date: 3 Feb 92 15:47:44 GMT How can I determine the phone number that tells me the phone number of the number I am calling from (ANI number)? Jeff Haferman internet: jlhaferman@icaen.uiowa.edu Department of Mechanical Engineering DoD 0186 BMWMOA 44469 AMA 460140 The University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242 '76 R90S [Moderator's Note: This ancient venerable question pops up once again! I get a one or two of these weekly, and in most instances I go ahead and give the stock answer which is, "you can't detirmine it" ... at least not in a forum like this since the number differs from one central office to the next -- if it is available in your central office at all. You might try 200 plus four more digits and see what happens. That one is common, as are otherwise unused prefixes in your area code. If anyone knows the routine in Iowa City, perhaps they will write Jeff with the details. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 15:17:29 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: 714/619 Using N0X/N1X? (was Background Regarding 206 Change) Well, that means I'll have to look up phone books for southern California again. I do not have 714 and 619 listed as having N0X/N1X prefixes. I do have the 714/619 split listed as occurring back in November, 1982, apparently without N0X/N1X prefixes then. When did the change in dialing occur? I take it that 714 and 619 had 7D for local calls and NPA + 7D for long distance, with NPA + 7D giving way to 1 + NPA + 7D (as was done elsewhere in California in 213/818/310 and in 415/510). ------------------------------ From: Robert.Lindh@eos.ericsson.se (Robert Lindh) Subject: 540,000+ Cellular Subscribers (6.6% of Sweden's Population) Organization: Ericsson Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 17:55:39 GMT The statistics comes from the largest cellular operator (Televerket) and describe their number of cellular subscribers in Sweden. Roaming work automatically in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It does not matter in which country you are a subscriber, you can use the cellular in the other countries as well (both make and receive calls). In total this system (called NMT) today have 1.2 million subscribers. Standard disclaimer: "Only my personal opinion, of course." ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #112 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23907; 4 Feb 92 21:37 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08611 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 19:29:39 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04517 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 19:28:55 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 19:28:55 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202050128.AA04517@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #113 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Feb 92 19:28:48 CST Volume 12 : Issue 113 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Dutch Hackers Arrested; Now in Jail! (Rop Gonggrijp) 213/310 Split Script (Robert L. McMillin) Those Elusive Staple Guns (Bill Garfield) Connecting Accessories to Hotel Phone (Todd Inch) NPA Split Planned For 803? (David Esan) Party Not Answering Phone (Michael Rosen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rop@hacktic.nl (Rop Gonggrijp) Subject: Dutch Hackers Arrested; Now in Jail! Date: 4 Feb 92 17:11:19 GMT Organization: Hack-Tic Magazine DUTCH POLICE ARRESTS HACKERS The facts: At 10.30 Monday morning, 27 January 1992, Dutch police searched the homes of two hackers. In the city of Roermond, the parental home of the 21-year old student H.W. was searched and in Nuenen the same happened to the parental home of R.N., a Computer Science engineer, age 25. Both were arrested and taken into custody. At both sites, members of the Amsterdam Police Pilot Team for computer crime were present, alongside local police officers and representatives of the national organisation CRI (Criminal Investigations Agency). Both suspects were transported to Amsterdam. The brother of one of the suspects was told the suspects could receive no visits or mail. All of this has happened more than one week ago and the two are still in jail as we write this. The charges: A break-in supposedly occurred at the bronto.geo.vu.nl site at the VU University in Amsterdam. This UNIX system running on a SUN station (IP 130.37.64.3) has been taken off the net at least for the duration of the investigation. What happened to the actual hardware is unknown at this time. The formal charges are: forgery, racketeering and vandalism. The police justify the forgery part by claiming that files on the system have been changed. The vandalism charge is valid because the system had to be taken off the net for a period of time to investigate the extent of the damage. By pretending to be regular users or even system management the hackers committed racketeering, the police says. Both suspects, according to the Dutch police, have made a full statement. According to a police spokesman the motive was "fanatical hobbyism". Spokesperson Slort for the CRI speakes of the "kick of seeing how far you can get". Damages: According to J. Renkema, head of the geo-physics faculty at the VU, the university is considering filing a civil lawsuit against the suspects. "The system was contaminated because of their doing and had to be cleaned out. This cost months of labour and 50.000 guilders (about US$ 30,000). Registered users pay for access to the system and these hackers did not. Result: tens of thousands of guilders in damages." Renkema also speaks of a 'moral disadvantage': The university lost trust from other sites on the network. Renkema claims the university runs the risk of being expelled from some networks. Renkema also claims the hackers were discovered almost immediately after the break-in and were monitored at all times. This means all the damages had occured under the watchful eyes of the supervisors. All this time, no action was taken to kick the hackers off the system. According to Renkema all systems at the VU were protected according to guidelines as laid down by CERT and SurfNet BV (SurfNet is the company that runs most of the inter-university data-traffic in The Netherlands). What really happened? The charge of 'adapting system-software' could mean that the hackers installed back-doors to secure access to the system or to the root level, even if passwords were changed. New versions of telnet, ftp, rlogin and other programs could have been compiled to log access to the networks. What really happened is anybody's guess. One point is that even the CRI acknowledges that there were no 'bad' intentions on the part of the hackers. They were there to look around and play with the networks. About hacking in general: In the past we have warned that new laws against computer crime can only be used against hackers which are harmless. Against the real computer criminals a law is useless because they will probably remain untraceable. The CRI regularly goes on the record to say that hackers are not the top priority in computer crime investigation. It seems that hackers are an easy target when 'something has to be done'. And 'something had to be done': The pressure from especially the U.S. to do something about the 'hacking problem' was so huge that it would have been almost humiliating for the Dutch not to respond. It seems as if the arrests are mainly meant to ease the American fear of the overseas hacker-paradise. A closer look at the charges and damages: The VU has launched the idea that system security on their system was only needed because of these two hackers. All costs made in relation to system security are billed to the two people that just happened to get in. For people that like to see hacking in terms of analogies: It is like walking into a building full of students, fooling around and then getting the bill for the new alarm-system that they had to install just for you. Systems security is a normal part of the daily task of every system- adminstrator. Not just because the system has to be protected from break-ins from the outside, but also because the users themselves need to be protected from each other. The 'bronto' management has neglected some of their duties, and now they still have to secure their system. This is not damages done, it's work long overdue. If restoring back-ups costs tens of thousands of guilders, something is terribly wrong at the VU. Every system manager that uses a legal copy of the operating system has a distribution version within easy reach. 'Month of tedious labour following the hackers around in the system'. It would have been much easier and cheaper to deny the hackers access to the system directly after they had been discovered. 'Moral damages' by break-ins in other systems would have been small. The VU chose to call the police and trace the hackers. The costs of such an operation cannot be billed to the hackers. Using forgery and racketeering makes one wonder if the OvJ (the District Attorney here) can come up with a better motive than 'they did it for kicks'. If there is no monetary or material gain involved, it is questionable at best if these allegations will stand up in court. As far as the vandalism goes: there have been numrous cases of system management overreacting in a case like this. A well trained system-manager can protect a system without making it inaccesible to normal users. Again: the hackers have to pay for the apparent incompetence of system management. This does not mean that having hackers on your system can not be a pain. The Internet is a public network and if you cannot protect a system, you should not be on it. This is not just our statement, it is the written policy of many networking organizations. One more metaphore: It's like installing a new phone-switch that allows direct dial to all employees. If you get such a system, you will need to tell your employees not to be overly loose-lipped to strangers. It is not the callers fault if some people can be 'hacked'. If you tie a cord to the lock and hang it out the mail-slot, people will pull it. If these people do damages, you should prosecute them, but not for the costs of walking after them and doing your security right. Consequences of a conviction: If these suspects are convicted, the VU makes a good chance of winning the civil case. Furthermore, this case is of interest to all other hackers in Holland. Their hobby is suddenly a crime and many hackers will cease to hack. Others will go 'underground', which is not beneficial to the positive interaction between hackers and system management or the relative openness in the Dutch computer security world. Public systems: If you are not a student at some big university or work for a large corporation, there is no real way for you to get on the Internet. As long as there is no way for some people to connect to the net, there will be people that hack their way in. Whether this is good or bad is besides the point. If there is no freedom to explore, some hackers will become the criminals that government wants them to be. "Our system is perfectly secure !" (and if you prove it's not, we'll have you put in jail) Felipe Rodriquez (felipe@hacktic.nl) & Rop Gonggrijp (rop@hacktic.nl) Rop Gonggrijp (rop@hacktic.nl), editor of | fax: +31 20 6900968 Hack-Tic Magazine (only on paper, only in Dutch) | VMB: +31 20 6001480 the best magazine for staying in touch with the | snail: Postbus 22953, the Techno-Underground. Mail to info@hacktic.nl | 1100 DL Amsterdam [Moderator's Note: I printed this for the news content involving the arrests rather than the editorial content they included ... but I try to give everyone an even break around here. I wonder why the authors seem to feel access to the Internet is some sort of right instead of a *privilege*, which is what it really is. If everyone has a right to Internet access, then it follows that everyone has a right to a computer and modem with which to access the net ... so maybe the next time we hear from the folks at Hack-Tic it will be a report on how someone was arrested for stealing a computer and modem to use on the network they feel they are entitled to invade at will. After all, what good is a network without a computer on each end, right? :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 02:21:09 PST From: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: 213/310 Split Script Here's a Bourne shell script that should parse a list of phone numbers and correctly return the right area code if the old area code was/is 213. From: eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) Subject: program to update phone lists for the 213 area code split Organization: Twin Sun, Inc Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1991 20:04:53 GMT The following Unix shell program copies standard input to standard output, updating telephone numbers in the 213 area code that will be moved to the 310 area code starting November 2. Does anybody have a similar list of prefixes for the Bay Area split? This program is in the public domain and has no warranty. ---- cut here ----- #!/bin/sh # $Id: 213fix,v 1.1 1991/10/27 19:47:54 eggert Exp $ # area codes from=213 to=310 sedsed='{ s@[ ]@@g s@.*@s/\\([^0-9]\\)'$from'\\([-). ]*&[-. ]\\)/\\1'$to'\\2/g@ }' # Compute sed script from area codes and prefixes to be changed. # This 213-to-310 prefix list is taken from GTE CA 5596 (rev); # beware of earlier notices, which contain errors. sed_commands=` sed "$sedsed" <<'EOF' [26]0[1-9] 21[024-9] 220 24[67] 27[013-9] 28[0-24-9] 297 30[1256] 31[2-9] 32[02-9] 33[0-8] 348 35[245] 36[34] 3[79][0-9] 40[1-46-9] 41[024679] 4[2-579][0-9] 51[02-9] 52[1-479] 5[349][0-9] 55[36-9] 568 57[0-8] 61[568] 63[0-57-9] 6[49][0-9] 65[279] 67[0-79] 71[59] 76[1-47-9] 78[1-578] 79[1-9] 80[1-4679] 81[2-46] 8[236][0-9] 84[0-2] 85[4589] 886 898 90[2-8] 914 9[248][0-9] 967 97[038] EOF ` exec sed ' /'$from'/{ s/^/ / '"$sed_commands"' s/^ // } ' ------------------------------ Subject: Those Elusive Staple Guns From: bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com (Bill Garfield) Date: 3 Feb 92 20:49:00 GMT Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569 Reply-To: bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com (Bill Garfield) Some months back I recall a thread about how and where to obtain staple guns for fastening down inside wire (IW) or station wire. Replies from various ends of the continent all suggested the commonly available {ARROW T-25} and suggested numerous sources from where one could be obtained. The problem, of course, as anyone who has ever done telecom wiring for a living knows, is that the "T-25" is not the proper tool unless the installer is attaching CATV or 4 and 6 pr. phone wire. Regular 2-pr, "quad", or red/green/black/yellow IW fits poorly and the job takes on a sloppy appearance when attached with 1/4" i.d.staples shot from a T-25. Thus the 'ne-plus ultra' tool of choice becomes the {ARROW T-18} which uses .1875 i.d. staples that are an exact fit around standard 2-pr IW. I've never seen the T-18 in any telecom tool catalog but I do know for a fact that it, as well as any other staple gun from any of your wildest hullucinations, can be readily obtained from DAVENPORT SCALE & STAPLE Co., 916 W. 2nd, Davenport, IA 52802 (319) 326-2951. A personal visit to DS&S is, for a staple tool enthusiast, the equivilent of a ham radio junkie's first trip to Dayton. My friend, If they don't have it, it doesn't exist. ------------------------------ From: toddi@hindmost.mav.com (Todd Inch) Subject: Connecting Accessories to Hotel Phone Organization: Maverick International Inc. Date: Tue, 04 Feb 92 21:20:28 GMT Regarding connecting accessories to "phone lines" you don't own or have ready modular access to (e.g. Hotel, Payphone, Key system phone) I've had very good luck simply connecting that modular-to-aligator- clip cheater cord to the two contacts you find when you unscrew the microphone from the phone. This is instead of connecting directly to the phone line itself. IMPORTANT: It must be a carbon-type microphone. If the microphone cover twists off and the microphone element is round and drops out from spring-contacts in the handset, it probably is carbon, especially if it sounds like it's full of sand if you shake it and listen carefully (carbon granules.) If it's another type of microphone, I doubt you'll hurt anything by trying this, but [insert favorite disclaimer.] This works to connect a speakerphone (line powered, no less) to our Iwatsu Omegaphone III electronic key system (multiline phones) here at work, but most "modern" electronic key phones don't use carbon microphones. It probably won't work if your accessory pulse-dials, may not work with some line-powered equipment, and yes, you have to manually pick up/hang up the phone, but in a pinch ... ------------------------------ From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: NPA Split Planned For 803? Date: 4 Feb 92 21:50:50 GMT Organization: Moscom Corp., E. Rochester, NY I have heard a rumor that the 803 area is scheduled to split next year. Has anyone else heard that? If so, what is the new NPA? (Not that there is a whole lot of choice left). David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ From: Michael.Rosen@samba.acs.unc.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Party Not Answering Phone Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 16:51:32 GMT Several times when I have tried to call my local radio station's request line I have gotten a strange intercept recording. When calling 1-800-321-WHFS (9437), sometimes if I let the phone ring for a while (maybe a few minutes) without anyone answering, I get an operator recording saying something to the effect of, "Your party is not answering the telephone. This call will be disconnected now." I don't remember the exact recording, but it's close. Has anyone heard of something like this before? Mike [Moderator's Note: It is quite common. AT&T now breaks the connection after a few minutes if the called party has not answered and the calling party does not disconnect voluntarily. The main reason this was started was because radio talk-person Larry King ripped off AT&T for many thousands of dollars in network resources by encouraging his listeners over the air to dial his talk show call-in number 'and just let it ring until we get ready to answer; that way no one has to pay the phone company for the time they were on hold ...'. What was happening was he was letting the incoming lines ring for 30-40 minutes at a time; AT&T circuits were in use all that time on a non-revenue basis; and AT&T finally got tired of King's abuse of the network. When AT&T started their new policy, King blasted them over the air and told his listener/participants how to dial the call using Sprint. I guess he thought this would somehow punish AT&T and reward the other company. His idea to transfer all that lousy, money-losing traffic to the other carrier caused a few snickers at AT&T. ('Gee, we're sorry to lose your business, Mr. King; your thirty minute connections which generated three minutes of revenue ...') PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #113 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa26519; 4 Feb 92 22:49 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01437 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 20:31:30 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06646 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 20:30:44 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 20:30:44 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202050230.AA06646@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #114 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Feb 92 20:30:41 CST Volume 12 : Issue 114 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Phone Service to Cuba (David Lesher) New Undersea Cable for Caribbean (Andy Sherman) New England Telephone Refiles for CLASS Without Caller ID (John R. Covert) Problem With Airport Telephone and VISA Card (Brian Litzinger) Need Reviews: "Centigram" Voicemail System (Laird P. Broadfield) Ring Trip - How do They do it? (was Rotary Dialers Go Home!) (M. Harriss) Paging Format Information Wanted (Ron Williams) Minitel and US West (Peter Marshall) Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services (Bob Yazz) Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator (Macy Hallock) Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear (samp@pro-gallup.cts.com) Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear (Rolf Meier) Re: Centel for Sale (Andrew Lie) Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? (Kenneth Freeman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Lesher Subject: Phone Service to Cuba Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 19:53:16 EST Reply-To: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex AP is reporting that the USG will relax the trade embargo with Fidel enough to allow use of the new cable linking Cuba to the Florida Keys. C.D.T. readers may recall previous discussions on this subject. The condensed-book version goes like this: Cuba used to have a cable to the Keys, but it eventually failed. Since then, service [such as it is] has been provided by a tropo-scatter station located at Florida City, {near Homestead} FL. But several years ago, someone {who?} installed a new fiber link. The rub was, Cuba needed $$$ to startup and run their end. Because of the trade embargo, this amounted to stalemate. Meanwhile, Bell South reportably wanted the tropo station GONE, because it interfered with cellular service {a large profit center} in the Keys. Now the Bush administration seems to have softened its position regarding the embargo. I can speculate about three things that might account for this: a) The tropo equipment IS getting older. But it is rather hard to imagine a quality-of-service lower than what it offers now. b) BS is getting antsy and it IS an election year, after all. c) The collapse of the USSR leaves Cuba virtually alone. Change of some form is a virtually certainty; the only question is when. And it wouldn't hurt to be able to talk to either the government of Cuba or the diplomats at the U. S. Interest Section. [Talk in this context means "being able to hear and understand the other end" ;-] In any case, new facilities will bring sharply increased call volumes, and might even bring IDD to the US side. wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu ------------------------------ From: andys@ulysses.att.com (Andy Sherman) Subject: New Undersea Cable for Caribbean Date: Tue, 04 Feb 92 10:17:55 EST From a recent AT&T press release: AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Telefonica Larga Distancia of Puerto Rico and US Sprint announced today they intend to build one of the world's largest capacity undersea fiber-optic systems in the Caribbean. This $17 million "Taino-Carib" system -- named for Indians who originally inhabited the islands -- will link Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Tortola. It will be ready for service this fall. The 186-kilometer (112-mile) Taino-Carib system will extend from Isla Verde and Miramar in Puerto Rico through a branching unit to Magens Bay, St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands), and Chalwell Station, Tortola (British Virgin Islands). Specifically designed for short distances, the new AT&T Bell Laboratories-designed cable is half the diameter of existing transoceanic cables and consists of six repeaterless fiber pairs. Each of the fiber pairs will operate at 560 megabits per second, resulting in a total capacity equivalent to about 225,000 simultaneous phone calls. The Taino-Carib construction contract has been awarded to AT&T Submarine Systems Inc., a strategic business unit subsidiary of AT&T that designs, engineers and installs cable systems worldwide. Andy Sherman/AT&T Bell Laboratories/Murray Hill, NJ AUDIBLE: (908) 582-5928 READABLE: andys@ulysses.att.com or att!ulysses!andys What? Me speak for AT&T? You must be joking! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 07:28:24 PST From: John R. Covert 04-Feb-1992 1015 Subject: New England Telephone Refiles For CLASS Without Caller ID As a result of the Massachusetts DPU's order requiring free per-line blocking, New England Telephone has refiled for three of the original four "PhoneSmart" (CLASS) features in the original filing. N.E.T. proposes to offer Call Trace, Return Call, and Repeat Call, but not Caller ID or any of the other features that are part of CLASS such as Incoming Call Blocking, Selective Call Forwarding. The last two were not part of the original filing. N.E.T. had proposed a monthly fee for Call Trace as well as a charge for each use; the DPU ordered that it be provided free on all lines with only a per-use charge. Call Trace will provide the needed protection from annoyance calls without the privacy problems. john ------------------------------ From: brian@apt.bungi.com (Brian Litzinger) Subject: Problem With Airport Telephone and VISA Card Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 08:32:12 GMT I was in the Glendale/Pasadena/Burbank CA airport ready to fly home when I realized I didn't have enough money to get my car out of the parking garage at the other end of my flight. I resolved that I would call my wife and have her go to the garage and deposit $20 in the car. I figured I didn't have enough change to make the LD call, so I looked for alternatives. There were six sets of intructions for placing a call using various methods listed on the public phone I came accross. I settled on one that wasn't on the list. I ran my VISA card through the card scanner, and when it said go, I couldn't remember my wife's work number, so I hung up. A few minutes later I had reasoned out her number and, at another phone, zipped my card through again and dialed 10288 + 1 + xxxyyyzzzz, to which the phone popped and whirred and clicked and gave up. It told me to take my card out. I re-ran the card and the phone said 'please use another card.' I didn't have another card, so I tried some more. I tried other phones to no avail. All I got in response to zipping my card was an immediate 'please use another card.' I put a quarter in the phone and dialed 10288 + 1 + xxxyyyzzzz and it wanted 80 cents to route the call. By God, I actually had exactly 80 cents in my pocket! How did it know this? 8-) When I got home I ran my card through a merchant machine and it was perfectly happy to read the numbers from it. So what is the deal? When I violated the six rules of phone dialing was the entire airport network of phones immediately put on alert for my card? After the failed attempt I was really going to follow the instructions ... honest officer. 8-) brian@apt.bungi.com ------------------------------ From: lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) Subject: Need Reviews: "Centigram" Voicemail System Reply-To: lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) Date: Wed, 05 Feb 1992 00:07:06 GMT If anybody can give me feedback on Centigram's voicemail systems, I'd appreciate it. We are looking at the possibility of a new Centigram instead of upgrading our Octel, so if anyone has experience with both, that's particularly welcome. Reply directly to me, of course; if anyone wants copies of the received info, let me know. Laird P. Broadfield UUCP: {ucsd, nosc}!crash!lairdb INET: lairdb@crash.cts.com ------------------------------ From: martin@bdsgate.com (Martin Harriss) Subject: Ring Trip - How do They do it? (was Rotary Dialers Go Home!) Reply-To: bdsgate!martin@uunet.uu.net (Martin Harriss) Organization: Beechwood Data Systems Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 15:36:50 GMT In an excellent article strieterd@gtephx. UUCP (Dave Strieter) writes about the GTD-5 dial pulse and DTMF detection. In doing so, he also mentions, in passing, the ring trip function, and it is about this that I have a question. The question is, exactly how is ring trip done, without using relays? I am familiar with ring trip circuits using relays, but ringing voltage is nasty and there didn't used to be many semiconductor devices that would withstand the voltage. And, assuming you can use semiconductors to switch the ring current, how do you detect the steady DC when the phone is answered, and not be bothered by the ring current? Enquiring minds want to know! Martin Harriss uunet!bdsgate!martin ------------------------------ From: manta@eskimo.celestial.com (Ron Williams) Subject: Paging Format Information Wanted Organization: <> Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 02:56:04 GMT Could someone tell me were to get some information on pager formats. Both analog and digital please. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 12:19:08 PDT From: rocque@lorbit.UUCP (peter marshall) Subject: Minitel and US West Responding to an earlier post about Minitel, John Rice, noting their joint venture with US West in CLM(Community Link Minitel), asks in his 2/1 post, "Could this be why US West is trying to make life difficult for BBS owners?" Indeed, as others have noted in various forums, that just might have a bit to do with it. Maybe it also may have something to with the appearance that US West has also gone about its strategy somewhat smartly. For example, they have so far pretty much gotten to do their thing within a little formal complaint case, where they also get to appear to be doing battle with one little sysop. Pretty low-profile. Just an isolated mini-case, as these things go. Thus, no great uprising would be likely; nothing like COSUARD; nothing like that earlier great fracas with the FCC. And, probably, for similar reasons, not much organized, much less effective, opposition to be predicted in little 'ol Oregon, either. CPSR-Portland, for example, seems preoccupied with the Caller ID case there; and this little complaint case wouldn't seem to fit the Oregon CUB's priorities, on the other hand. Nor is the Oregon PUC staff much in view on this matter. After all, US West didn't file anything to initiate this with the PUC. A nice deal if you can get it. But if they do get it, the Oregon outcome in this low-profile affair is just for starters. No slouches, those US West boys ... Peter Marshall (rocque@lorbit.uucp) "Lightfinger" Rayek's Friendly Casino: 206/528-0948, Seattle, Washington. ------------------------------ From: yazz@locus.com (Bob Yazz) Subject: Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1992 06:55:25 GMT I fail to see why sexually stimulating children verbally should be legal if it is done over the phone, if it would be obviously illegal when done in person! Doing this to a child for money hardly ennobles the situation. Telephone technology makes it much harder for the seller of an adult product to determine whether a customer is a child or an adult. Who should have to pay the price of this burden? The consenting adult customer with his inconvenience, the seller with his lost profits or the child with his innocence? I don't really give much of a damn, as long as it's not the child. The distinction between whether adult 900 access should require written or verbal pre-authorization is trivial compared to the protection of children. Any freedom -- economic, speech or what have you -- is utterly debased if you have to pay for it with the innocence of children. Do I know personally of any children who have been "harmed" by 900 porn services? Yes! About a year ago I received a call on my residential 800 number from a woman in Alabama who described herself as "a concerned parent" who wanted to know just what kind of services I was providing and why I was providing them to children including her 14-year-old daughter! At the time, my answering machine greeting contained the 70's hit "Yes We Can Can" -- a song about Love, Peace, Brotherhood, and so on. Well, I'd never even Flown Over the great state of Alabama so I called the woman back up to see just what the fuss was about. It didn't take very long to explain what a residential 800 number was, and that I had no idea where Daughter had gotten mine from. And Mom saw nothing about my musical greeting even slightly offensive. Well, she explained, her daughter had rung up several hundred dollars worth of 900 number sex calls the month before. After Mom lowered the boom at home, Daughter apparently switched from 900 to 800 numbers. My randomly-dialed 800 number was the unlucky recipient. Mom had found a list of many 800 numbers in daughter's room, and mine had had many check-marks next to it. The 14-year old had mistaken the vocal stylings of real-life sisters Judith, Ruth, Bonnie and Anita Pointer -- women who learned to sing growing up in Church, for God's sake -- for a porn line. She had left multiple "filthy" messages on my machine, which I had shrugged off with an eyeroll Heavenward. I was pretty surprised that those messages had come from a 14-year old. I told the woman that I thought her daughter was sexually obsessed with telephones as a result of her recent 900 experiences. Mom assured me that her daughter was sexually obsessed only with teen pop-idols, "The New Kids on the Block" and I did not engage her in debate. I guess I was most surprised when I learned the woman had agreed to pay the 900 number charges! == Bob Yazz == ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 92 22:23 EST From: fmsys!macy@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu (Macy Hallock) Subject: Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator Organization: The Matrix A couple other simple telephone line simulators: Viking Electronics (in WI); Cambridge Electronics (in MA); This is a smaller company with the same name as a larger orginization somewhere else. Both are simple ringdown type devices to ring line B when line A goes off hook. Cost is about $130.00 each. Macy M Hallock Jr N8OBG 216.725.4764 macy@fmsystm.uucp macy@fmsystm.ncoast.org [No disclaimer, but I have no real idea what I'm saying or why I'm telling you] ------------------------------ From: samp@pro-gallup.cts.com (System Administrator) Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1992 12:17:14 GMT In meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) writes: > Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by > ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? When I taught in Clovis, NM, one of the sopranos in my church choir, a Marilyn Harmon, had perfect pitch and remembered phone numbers by their 'tune'. If she wanted to call me, she would play my 'song' on the touch tone keypad. She claimed to have some difficulty remembering the actual digits, and hated to use rotary dials. UUCP: crash!pro-gallup!samp | pro-gallup 2400/1200/300 24 hours ARPA: crash!pro-gallup!samp@nosc.mil | (505) 722-9513 ------------------------------ From: meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 11:08:47 -0500 Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada. Thanks to all those who replied. I was overwhelmed by email response. The consensus was that there are, indeed, many people who can decode DTMF by ear. Not surprisingly, many of these were either visually impaired or musically inclined. Rolf Meier Mitel Corporation ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 08:56:53 CST From: alie@ssd.dl.nec.com (Andrew Lie) Subject: Re: Centel For Sale I just read the January 27, 1992 issue of {Telecommunications Reports}. It was reported that Centel is indeed trying to explore strategic options, including possible sale of the company. Andrew K. Lie Any opinions expressed are mine. alie@ssd.dl.nec.com They do not represent the views of my employer, NEC America, Inc. ------------------------------ From: kfree@pnet12.rfengr.com (Kenneth Freeman) Subject: Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? Organization: People-Net [pnet12], Del Mar, CA Date: Tue, 04 Feb 92 21:56:09 GMT Here's an excellent cultural gauge: When did movie mothers stop receiving dire telegrams and start receiving dire calls, and how long did the interregnum last? INET: kfree@pnet12.rfengr.com UUCP: ucsd!serene!pnet12!kfree ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #114 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa00208; 5 Feb 92 0:29 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05014 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 21:50:39 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14430 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 4 Feb 1992 21:50:11 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 21:50:11 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202050350.AA14430@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #115 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Feb 92 21:50:08 CST Volume 12 : Issue 115 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Peter da Silva) Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as a 900 Number (Bob Yazz) Re: Exchange Boundaries [Added LATA and NPA Boundaries] (David B. Whiteman) Re: No Supervison on 900 Call (Andy Sherman) Re: PIC's From RBOC Payphones (Andy Sherman) Re: The Waves of Fax (Lars Poulsen) Re: Detirmining if a Call Was Answered (Terry Kennedy) Re: 800-Number Foulup by One Digit (William J. Carpenter) Cellular Phones and Safety (Dineh Davis) McGraw-Hill Sells BIX to Delphi's Owners 02/03/92 (Newsbytes via J.Miller) Incoming Calls Problem (Lance Sanders) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1992 03:08:50 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Oh, I don't think 'within a month or two' anyone > would go off line who hadn't planned on it in the first place, let > alone 'most of the BBSes'. Somehow I think they would survive. PAT] You could be right. But I don't think so. I think I'd quit rather than pay business rates for a hobby ... it just isn't worth the hassle. I'd keep my system up for myself and personal friends as an electronic answering machine, but it'd be strictly private. But whether you're right or I'm right isn't really the point. It's what Southwestern Bell believed, and what US West evidently believes. The timing of this change is just too pat, just as it was for SWBell. You'll see more of this sort of thing in the future, too. Just watch as the "BBS business rates" and "LOC data services" threads continue in lockstep ... Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. ------------------------------ From: yazz@locus.com (Bob Yazz) Subject: Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as a 900 Number Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1992 05:24:41 GMT martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu writes: > ... I just started randomly pressing digits when prompted. The > system announced that this was not a valid form number. Maybe I'm just lucky! My own choice of random digits proved "correct" the first time. When they asked me to enter my phone number, I gave them 800-222-0300. == Bob Yazz == ------------------------------ From: dbw@crash.cts.com (David B. Whiteman) Subject: Re: Exchange Boundaries [Added LATA and NPA Boundaries] Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1992 13:43:36 GMT In niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) writes: > What with the recent comments concerning which CO serves which > community, I think I might be able to muddy the waters a bit but yet > at the same time clarify a few things. I have decided to muddy the waters even more to describe some even more strange boundaries that I have found: Just north of where I live in Buena Park is the boundary between Orange County and Los Angeles County and which is coincidentally the border between the area codes of 310 which in that area is served by GTE and 714 which in that area is served by Pacific Bell. The border looks like a staircase: it goes north about tenth of a mile then east a tenth of a mile then north a tenth of a mile forming about four steps. Because of a new growth State Route 39, Beach Blvd, now runs on a diagonal thru these borders several times. Thus if you are walking down one side of the street you will pass thru both area codes a few times. Two of the strip malls have both GTE and Pac Bell payphones as well as being in both area codes, and different stores in the same mall have different sales tax rates. Perhaps in honor of this strange boundary arrangement, but most likely coincidentally, the Telephone Pioneers of America Silverado Council has volunteered to adopt this stretch of highway and help Caltrans with maintenance costs. I have also found one case in which an LATA and an NPA consists of two separate areas: At the northwestern corner of San Diego County is Camp Pendleton Marine Base. All military phones in the base are in the San Diego LATA and the 619 area code; however, some of the nonmilitary businesses that are leasing space from the Marines are in the Los Angeles LATA and 714 area code. Therefore one area code and LATA completely surrounds a disjointed portion of another area code and LATA. Another example of a split LATA is the Palm Springs LATA which looks like two islands within the Los Angeles LATA. The Palm Springs LATA consists of Palm Springs and some of the neighboring cities at the northern side of the Salton Sea. Several miles away is the city of Indio which entirely surrounded by the Los Angeles LATA, but is in the Palm Springs LATA. ------------------------------ From: andys@ulysses.att.com (Andy Sherman) Subject: Re: No Supervison on 900 Call Date: Tue, 04 Feb 92 10:30:13 EST [ I wrote describing an AT&T 800 / 900 based service where the network provided a voice menu and routing facility. This is noticable to the telecom aware by the fact that the call does not get answer supervision until after it is routed from the menu. ] hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) then inquired: > What is the purpose of this "interactive call routing"? Why > not just assign a different phone number for each service? Why is it better to use a bunch of extra 800 numbers? Here's an application: Vendor XYX, Co. wants to have a single 800/900 number for all customer support. That way you can pick up any of their manuals or literature and the number you find there will work. When you call that number, a voice menu will then prompt you for the product or product line for which you need support. If XYZ adds a product to their offerings, there is no need to get new 800 service. Rather they just change the menu and the routing tables, and all prior investment in publicizing the 800 or 900 number is leveraged onto the new product. Obviously, implementing this in the network is only one possible way to do it. People also do that with their voice mail systems. Consider the 800/900 service offered by AT&T (and for all I know by other IXCs) to have the same relationship to a voice mail implementation as Centrex has to a PBX. There are advantages on either side, depending upon the customers' needs. Andy Sherman/AT&T Bell Laboratories/Murray Hill, NJ AUDIBLE: (908) 582-5928 READABLE: andys@ulysses.att.com or att!ulysses!andys What? Me speak for AT&T? You must be joking! ------------------------------ From: andys@ulysses.att.com (Andy Sherman) Subject: Re: PIC's From RBOC Payphones Date: Tue, 04 Feb 92 11:17:49 EST > AT&T has an enormous lead on its competitors because so much of its > equipment was bought during its days of (morally wrongful) monopoly, > and was paid off before its competitors were allowed to exist. Judge > Greene felt, and I agree, that AT&T should not be allowed to use this > unfair advantage to drive its competitors out of business. STP pairs > are not unique as examples. This argument ignores the fact that much of the infrastructure has been built or substantially upgraded since divestiture. This was not paid for with pre-competition dollars. The AT&T long distance network underwent a complete overhaul to make it virtually all digital. This was paid for by a succession of charges to prematurely write down the undepreciated value in what was already there. Note that what was already there was not fully depreciated in the late 1980's so this is hardly stuff that was paid off with pre-competition dollars. As for the characterization of pre-divestiture AT&T as immoral, perhaps it would be instructive to consider both the external environment and the internal ethic of the Bell System before picking up all those stones to throw. According to a recent book, "The Rape of Ma Bell", the ethic of the pre-MFJ Bell System was "One Company, One Network, with Universal Service". I can't imagine how trying to make sure that everybody can have at least basic telephone service is such an immoral activity. It seems like a way to serve the public good while still making money for the millions of owners (shareholders) of the company. For a long time the FCC and the courts bought into this ethic and pronounced it good with some limitations. Examples: Bell Labs results had to be made public. Accomodation had to be made for interconnection with those areas having independent local phone companies. Rates were tightly regulated. Yes there were things wrong with the way things were, but a lot of things worked well and benefitted the average consumer. > If AT&T were deregulated tomorrow, it would lower its prices to cost > for, say, one month -- and all its competitors would go bankrupt! Last I heard, the anti-trust division of the U.S. Department of Justice (which is not the rate regulatory stuff of the FCC) was alive and well, even in a Republican administration. Such behavior would attract their attention. Andy Sherman/AT&T Bell Laboratories/Murray Hill, NJ AUDIBLE: (908) 582-5928 READABLE: andys@ulysses.att.com or att!ulysses!andys What? Me speak for AT&T? You must be joking! [Moderator's Note: Its a shame we can't have lower long distance rates because that might drive some competitor out of business, isn't it ... If AT&T can justify lower rates, then I think they should be allowed to lower them ... in fact there should be demands to that effect. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: The Waves of Fax Organization: CMC (a Rockwell Company), Santa Barbara, California, USA Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 17:35:37 GMT In article haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) writes: > 7. Modern fax. ... Is there any U.S. technology/manufacturing > or is it all Japanese? Believe it or not, in almost every fax machine imported to the USA from Japan or Singapore, is a modem chip set designed in Newport Beach, CA and manufactured in El Paso, TX. The other major players in FAX modems are European. The Data Communications Division of Rockwell International is a market leader in modems. You are just now beginning to see the impact of the next chipset: A V.32/V.32bis/V.42/V.42bis "data pump". So why don't you see Rockwell modems in the stores? Actually, you do. Rockwell will sell you chips and "piggyback boards". A customer application group will provide (for a negotiated fee) consulting up to and including complete electrical and mechanical design. And the plant in El Paso will contract to build the modems for you, too. But when they do, they will put the customer's name on the unit. It is a strict policy that the DCD group will not compete with its customers. But your order had better be big. They don't like to set up the assembly line for orders of much less than 20,000 units. While I work for a company owned by Rockwell, my only relation to them modem people has been as a customer. None of the above has been cleared with any Rockwell information or marketing outfit -- I just thought some of you might find it interesting in this time of flag-waving. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer CMC Rockwell lars@CMC.COM ------------------------------ From: "Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr" Subject: Re: Detirmining if a Call Was Answered Date: 4 Feb 92 12:56:34 GMT Organization: St. Peter's College, US In article , rmrin@inuxy.att.com (R M Rickert) writes: > The reason for no polarity guard (and no diode) was cost. Phone lines > were supposed to be fixed polarity. I think that's backwards. The old AT&T / Western Electric operation would gladly spend reasonable sums of money to improve reliability. A polarity guard as a standard feature would have added complexity for no real benefit (since lines were wired properly, for the most part) and would have made the sets unusable on longer distance loops (due to the loss in the diode net). Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA terry@spcvxa.spc.edu +1 201 915 9381 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 22:30:54 GMT From: William_J_Carpenter@att.com Subject: Re: 800-Number Foulup by One Digit Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Carl Moore wrote: > Word arrived this morning on KYW news-radio (I couldn't stick > around for more detail) that a car dealer sent out an apology > because an advertised 800 number was off by a digit, causing > customers to call a 900 sex line. That is a Philadelphia > station. The dealer is Freehold Automotive Group, Freehold NJ. The wrong number was distributed as part of a recall notification (Hyundai). About 1000 customers are being sent follow-up notices with the correct number. [Got all this from the TV news of some NY station. I paid attention because I happen to live in Freehold. Beats me if the story is true.] Bill William_J_Carpenter@ATT.COM or (908) 576-2932 attmail!bill or att!pegasus!billc AT&T Bell Labs / AT&T EasyLink Services LZ 1E-207 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 15:42:03 HST From: Dineh Davis Subject: Cellular Phones and Safety Could someone tell me if any studies have been conducted on the relationship between driver safety and the use of cellular phones in cars? I know there are several bills pending in various states to regulate the use of phones in moving vehicles. Beyond that, I'm drawing a blank. Any information will be appreciated. Dineh Davis Dept. of Communication University of Hawaii dineh@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu Fax:8089565591 ------------------------------ From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Subject: McGraw-Hill Sells BIX to Delphi's Owners 02/03/92 Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 20:17:36 CST Excerpts from a {NewsBytes} release: CAMBRIDGE, MA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 3 (NB) -- McGraw-Hill, the owner of the Byte Information eXchange (BIX) has announced it has sold the online service to General Videotex Corporation (GVC), the parent of Delphi, another online system. I guess that this means that, despite what was announced earlier, BIX will not be joining Internet mail connectivity :-( J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110 phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet (314) 362-3617 uunet!wuarchive!wubios!phil - UUCP (314)362-2693(FAX) C90562JM@WUVMD - bitnet [Moderator's Note: Well maybe ... but I am of the opinion those folks are beginning to slowly come around to the realization that universal email networking is all-important. I think they will eventually figure out that the only losers are themselves and their users. When that single truth sinks in, they'll become part of the greater network. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 17:10 CST From: starkid@ddsw1.mcs.com (Lance Sanders) Subject: Incoming Calls Problem A friend recently complained by email that I never answered the phone anymore, and moreover, why did I take the answering machine offline? While reading the transmission (in my bedroom and off-line), I heard an extremely brief blip from my phone, picked up, and took a call. Thinking the ringer was screwed-up, and I'd simply need a new phone, I switched it with the downstairs trimline to make sure, and called from upstairs (two separate lines). It rang loud and clear. I called the operator from upstairs w/ the dowstairs phone and asked for a call-back. Again, just the faintest blip of a ring. When I picked up, the connection was normal. There are no problems with outgoing calls on the upstairs line; and from the caller's end, the line rings normally. No in OR out problems on the downstairs line (I live in an apartment). With the phone set functioning properly, no physical damage to the lines, etc., and a normal incoming connection made should I pick-up (despite not hearing a ring) during a test call, how is it possible that my phone doesn't ring (except for that occassional brief blip)??? Can't my answering machine (also functioning properly) pick-up, even though the rings aren't audible? Can the _strenth_ of an incoming signal (call) be diminished so the bell doesn't ring, but no other aspect of the service is affected?? Is this a common service problem? I've never had it happen to me before. Before I call 611, I'd like to "get a clue", and maybe some answers to compare w/ the service person's explanation (or God forbid, lackthereof). Help!! Lance "How many calls have I missed??" Sanders starkid@ddsw1.MCS.COM GE Mail: L.Sanders6 Voice: (312) 667-5958 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #115 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23510; 6 Feb 92 18:46 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12444 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 6 Feb 1992 07:40:28 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23340 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 6 Feb 1992 07:40:08 -0600 Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 07:40:08 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202061340.AA23340@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #116 TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 Feb 92 07:39:58 CST Volume 12 : Issue 116 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Plain Paper Fax/Modems (Ian Spence) Bell Atlantic Shoots Themselves in the Foot (John R. Levine) BBB's 900 Number (Michael Schuster) High Speed Modems and PSTN (Bill Garfield) COCOT Information Wanted (Stan Voket) NJ Bell Wiring State for Fiber (Peter Marshall) Newsgroups We Ought to Have (Peter da Silva) Information Wanted on History of Muzak (Mathew Zank) Telecommunications Brokers and Suppliers (R. Patrick MacKinnon) Re: Paging Format Information Wanted (Jacob R. Deglopper) Re: Minitel and US West (Tim Russell) Re: Phone Service to Cuba (Tony Harminc) Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as a 900 Number (Ken Weaverling) Re: *611 and *711 Calls Are Free? (Robert J. Stratton III) CBS Live Tele-Poll (Joshua E. Muskovitz) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: spence@psych.toronto.edu (Ian Spence) Subject: Plain Paper Fax/Modems Organization: Dept. of Psychology, University of Toronto Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1992 14:13:58 GMT I am interested in purchasing a fax or fax modem that connects to a laser printer directly, thus providing plain paper faxes. The advantage is that the computer need not be on to receive faxes. I know of two products: JetFax II from JetFax, Inc. (about $1000); OmniLink/Laser from Technology Concepts (about $450). I would appreciate hearing of others and of any experiences, good or bad, with this type of equipment. I will summarize responses. Ian Spence, Department of Psychology spence@psych.utoronto.ca University of Toronto spence@psych.toronto.edu Toronto, Ontario (416) 978-7623 (Voice) Canada M5S 1A1 (416) 978-4811 (FAX) ------------------------------ Subject: Bell Atlantic Shoots Themselves in the Foot Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 13:14:26 EST From: John R. Levine {Newsbytes} reports that Bell Atlantic admits having funded an advocacy group "Small Businesses for Advertising Choice" to oppose HR 3515, a bill regulating the RBOCs' entry into info services. Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper, the sponsor, called it a "clumsy Astroturf campaign," meaning fake grass roots. Republican co-sponsor Dan Schaeffer was a target of a similar campaign by US West, in which telco employees were encouraged to call their representatives on company time to oppose the measure. The bill is HR 3515. To get a copy, call the House Documents Room at 202 225 3456 and ask for a copy. It's free (more accurately, you've already paid for it.) Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: schuster@panix.com (Michael Schuster) Subject: BBB's 900 Number Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 21:32:26 GMT Organization: PANIX - Public Access Unix Systems of NY Well, 900 numbers IMHO have reached a new low. Here in New York, the Better Business Bureau has set up a 900 number (85 cents per minute) through which you can check the record of a company you intend to do business with, or file a complaint. In the past, wasn't this free? Mike Schuster NY Public Access UNIX: schuster@panix.com | 70346.1745@CompuServe.COM The Portal (R) System: schuster@cup.portal.com | MCI Mail,GEnie: MSCHUSTER [Moderator's Note: Yes, in the past it was free. Likewise, the corporate records telephone look-up service offered by most state governments was free, as was the public library telephone reference service for lookups from the local criss-cross directory in most towns. Many phone look-up services are now using 900 numbers. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: High Speed Modems and PSTN From: bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com (Bill Garfield) Date: 4 Feb 92 19:51:00 GMT Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569 Reply-To: bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com (Bill Garfield) I am beta testing some high end V.32bis (14.4K bps) asynchronous dial up modems for a major (U.S.) manufacturer. These are of course intended to be used over PSTN circuits. In real life testing, I'm seeing some vexing problems that the manufacturer is having difficulty identifying and emulating in their lab. Specifically, whenever both ends of the call terminate in the same exchange (5ESS), the modems either refuse or experience great difficulties in training up at top speed. Ditto on across town links many C.O.'s apart, except then it's pot luck. Frequently across town calls link up flawlessly, other times they won't even attempt to synchronize at any speed. I'm not talking about presence or absence of error-correction, as both ends use V.42 (MNP/LAPM) -- it's not a noise problem. The lines aren't noisey (not to the naked ear, at least). I'm in Houston where much of the city is interconnected by fiber and several new digital C.O.'s abound. With both modems calling intra-office, inside a Mitel SX2000SG, (also a digital machine) the two modems work flawlessly with each other, never missing a beat. Between two networked Mitel SG's on copper T-1's using Mitel's version of ISDN (MSDN), we still do not see any of the symptoms. Only when venturing out on the PSTN do the problems begin to randomly show up. I'm lost as to what could be happening, and the modem manufacturer is beginning to question the credibility of our beta reports. Could some 'Telecom-Learned soul' enlighten me as to what could be going on here? Bill Garfield | Associated Technical Consultants | (713) 989-0000 ------------------------------ From: gaboon!asv@uunet.uu.net (Stan Voket) Subject: COCOT Information Wanted Organization: gaboon, New Fairfield, CT Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1992 21:32:16 GMT Though COCOT's have received "bad press" in this group, I'm in the position of wanting one to install in a small shopping plaza here in central Connecticut that my relatives own. The goal here is to provide a service for the patrons of the plaza and hopefully make a few dollars. I have virtually no knowledge of where to get info on equipment, costs etc. so I thought I'd post the question to the experts here. Any information will be greatly appreciated. Email or post replies if they are of general interest. Thanks very much, Stan Voket, asv@gaboon - OR - ...uunet!casey!gaboon!asv Voice: (203) 746-4489 - FAX 746-9761 TELEX 4996516 [Moderator's Note: Have you considered contacting your local telco and asking them to establish payphone service on a commission basis around the plaza? You'd still make money from the phones, and have a lot fewer complaints from customers. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 11:42:12 -0800 From: peterm@rwing.UUCP (Peter Marshall) Subject: NJ Bell Wiring State for Fiber According to a 1/19 NYT article, "New Jersey Bell Gets Permission to Rewire State for Fiber Optics,": Gov ... today [1/17] signed legislation that would allow New Jersey Bell to rewire the state with fiber-optic cable. The plan would create thousands of jobs and dozens of new telephone services and also would open the way for the telephone company to compete directly with the state's newspapers. Sponsors said it [the bill] deregulated the telephone company so that it could keep up with technological advances and competition. The new law will allow the State Board of Regulatory Commissioners to approve alternative regulation for companies seeking to apply new technologies, like a fiber-optics network, said the Assembly minority leader. But the executive director of the New Jersey Press Association said the organization was disappointed that the bill was signed. "The real issue," he said, "was that there are tens of thousands of people in businesses that this is going to impact on: newspapers, cable companies, television stations. No one looked at the fact of how many jobs people may lose eventually." Concluding, the NYT article indicates that: Within the next few months, New Jersey Bell is expected to ask the board to let it begin work on a network expected to be finished by 2010. The company plans to rewire the entire state. ------------------------------ From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Newsgroups We Ought to Have Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1992 03:29:47 GMT While we're talking about new telecom related newsgroups, how about one for all the MODEM TAX and BBS BUSINESS RATE discussions? My first thought was a new misc.activism group ... but I'm wondering if a misc.activism.telecom would have a wide enough interest base. How about misc.activism.consumers? Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. [Moderator's Note: It seems to me misc.consumers is already the place for consumer activists, judging from the messages I've seen there. Someone else can start these specialized groups if they want; not me, as I am already too busy. PAT] ------------------------------ From: zank@netcom.netcom.com (Mathew Zank) Subject: Information Wanted on History of Muzak Date: Wed, 05 Feb 92 05:31:42 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Does anyone know about the history of Muzak, the service that brings office music? All I know is that it is on a sub-channel of a local FM radio station. Matthew Zank * Eau Claire, Wisconsin Internet zank@netcom.com -or MZANK@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: rpmackin@student.business.uwo.ca (R. Patrick MacKinnon) Subject: Telecommunication Brokers and Suppliers Organization: University of Western Ontario Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1992 04:18:39 GMT I am looking for the names, and numbers of telecom equipment brokers and suppliers. Particularly in the telephone industry, but radiotelecom equipment may also prove useful. I am trying to compile a directory. Any help with company names and addresses would be appreciated. Thanks for the time. rpmackin@student.business.uwo.ca (R. Patrick MacKinnon) Western Business School -- London, Ontario ------------------------------ From: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob R. Deglopper) Subject: Re: Paging Format Information Wanted Reply-To: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob R. Deglopper) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 03:51:08 GMT In a previous article, manta@eskimo.celestial.com (Ron Williams) says: > Could someone tell me were to get some information on pager formats. > Both analog and digital please. Thanks. I think you might have some luck writing to companies ... Motorola, mostly. Analog pagers (tone or tone/voice) pagers use several formats to trip. These include DTMF, Motorola two-tone (two audio tones, about .5 sec long), where the pager beeps as long as the second tone sounds. A burst of five audio tones taking about one second, after which the pager beeps, and other companies versions of two-tone. Plectron comes to mind, with their early-80's Motorola pager clone, using their own tones. Voice pagers have the circuitry needed to produce audio out of a speaker, and open the squelch after the tones cease. These include things like the Minitor I and II (with a real squelch circuit for monitoring, as well), Director IV, Pageboy III, all from Motorola. These are just what I've had experience with working with the rescue squads and fire departments. _/acob DeGlopper, EMT-A, Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad -- jrd5@po.cwru.edu ------------------------------ From: trussell@isis.cs.du.edu (Tim Russell) Subject: Re: Minitel and US West Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 03:58:02 GMT rocque@lorbit.UUCP (peter marshall) writes: > Responding to an earlier post about Minitel, John Rice, noting their > joint venture with US West in CLM(Community Link Minitel), asks in his > 2/1 post, "Could this be why US West is trying to make life difficult > for BBS owners?" Hmm. Well, here in Omaha, where CommunityLink is still (I think) running, US West certainly hasn't done anything to stifle BBS competition. We have a very vibrant BBS community, as I'm sure Jack Winslade will tell you. However, I think that if USW did really want CommunityLink to prosper, the only way they could do it would be to shut down all the local BBS's, and even then Prodigy or Genie would be a better value many times over, even with the cost of buying a PC to run it figured in. When CL was first being started up, our ACM chapter spent a meeting being shown the system, and we were impressed. Then the system came out, and I saw the prices and what was being offered. In many cases, such as the Joslyn Art Museum's listings, information that could be viewed on a board outside the museum cost $.10 per minute to receive on CL. That price was pretty much the lowest of any service that offered much of anything, and as anyone can see, works out to $6/hr. US West is paying, though. Last month they closed the big office they had in a local mall and moved to a small suite in some office building. I daresay CL will be shut down soon. It's a shame, because with anything even approaching reasonable prices, I think it would have been a great thing. Tim Russell Omaha, NE trussell@isis.cs.du.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Feb 92 00:09:15 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Phone Service to Cuba David Lesher wrote: > Cuba used to have a cable to the Keys, but it eventually failed. > Since then, service [such as it is] has been provided by a > tropo-scatter station located at Florida City, {near Homestead} FL. > In any case, new facilities will bring sharply increased call volumes, > and might even bring IDD to the US side. Canada has had "IDD" to Cuba for some years, as I'm sure have other countries. How are these calls handled? There is a cable linking Canada to Bermuda, which then goes on to some Caribbean points. Does this include Cuba? Why can US carriers not use this route? Tony H. ------------------------------ From: weave@bach.udel.edu (Ken Weaverling) Subject: Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as a 900 Number Date: 5 Feb 92 05:13:25 GMT Organization: University of Delaware Will we little kiddies ever learn? First it was playing with the {USA Today} number, now it is the sweepstakes 800 number. I called it a few days ago, and entered a random 12 digit number. It told me it was an invalid number. I tried again, and the system informed me that it was sorry and I would not be billed for the call. Well, glory be, last night I got my own prize notification! I ran to my local COCOT and dialed again. This time I listened closely to the message. I am pretty sure the message has changed, since it clearly said that the phone call was free. However, it also said "you will be billed directly for the automated service, at a rate of $3.90/minute." So, how do they bill? Well, they have your address, and what might be a unique award number. When you punch in that award number, they bill to the address they have on file. Just a theory, of course. But how many of us will be getting pesky bills, and if you fake a number, will you be causing a bill to be sent to an unsuspecting person whose award number you guessed and got lucky with? Ken Weaverling weave@brahms.udel.edu ------------------------------ From: strat@access.digex.com (Robert J. Stratton III) Subject: Re: *611 and *711 Calls Are Free? Organization: Express Access, Greenbelt, Maryland USA Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 22:31:21 GMT In article drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) writes: > johng.all_proj@mot.com (John) writes: >> Some models of Motorola phones will allow you to display the system >> number. My Dynatac 6800XL mobile will do it as a normal user feature. > Does the phone have to be activated for this to work? It seems like if > someone wants to program their own phone and they need the SID, they > would have to get it without the phone being activated. My OKI 692 will do it (RCL # #) regardless of whether it's activated. If I were looking for a wireline/non-wireline carrier, I'd probably have to set it to B only, or A only before I did the RCL # #, but the display is reliable regardless of the phone's activation status. Bob Stratton | SMTP: strat@ai.mit.edu, strat@access.digex.com Express Access | PSTN: +1 301 409 2703 Greenbelt, Maryland | For info on Express Access, write "info@digex.com". ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 09:37:07 EST From: "Joshua E. Muskovitz" Subject: CBS Live Tele-Poll Someone asked, "I wonder how big their phone bill was?" The answer is simple! $0.00! They'll just charge all of the calls back as 900 calls. You *did* say the carrier was AT&T, didn't you? ;-) Josh Muskovitz ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #116 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa13922; 7 Feb 92 4:19 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19640 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 7 Feb 1992 02:06:37 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18888 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 7 Feb 1992 02:06:11 -0600 Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 02:06:11 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202070806.AA18888@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #118 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Feb 92 02:06:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 118 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson V&H Tape Statistics (David Esan) New High Speed Network Makes Debut (Jon Havel) C&P Tries to Overcharge Customers (Washington Post via Craig Neidorf) Ultimate Unified Scalable Heterogenaic System (Yechezkal Shimon Gutfreund) 900 Idea of the Future (Edward Floden) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: V&H Tape Statistics Date: 6 Feb 92 15:08:01 GMT Organization: Moscom Corp., E. Rochester, NY Once a quarter I receive the BellCore V&H tape. Using this information I can total the number of exchanges in each area code. The twenty most populous area codes are listed below. After the written text of this article I have included the count for each of the area codes, one sorted by NPA, the other sorted (in reverse) of the number of exchanges in a given NPA. The tape is dated 15 January 1992. I am not responsible for the information supplied in this tape. The list this time included many billing numbers, including a whole series with nxx's less than 200. While I included them the last time, I did not include them this time. This accounts for some small changes, for example 501 has fallen off the list, and 713 seems to have lost an exchange. I have not included the 52? series of area codes that are in use for Mexico, since they are not yet dialable from the US. (Note: Don't ask me when they will be dialable, I don't know, although I will guess sometime after 1995.) I have not included the 82? series of area codes which include many more Mexico exchanges, as well as the non-dialable locations in the NANP. The new tape included information for two new NPA's, 706, 917, although there are only two exchanges listed for 917. They are included below. The fields are: ------------ rank last quarter 213: 736 (1, 7) area code --^^^ ^^^ ^------- number of new exchanges |-------------- total number of exchanges 213: 755 (1, 10) 512: 670 (6, 0) 602: 614 (12, 5) 703: 576 (18, 10) 301: 716 (2, 13) 205: 657 (7, 5) 215: 612 (11, 2) 713: 572 (17, -1) 415: 709 (4, 23) 416: 655 (8, 5) 714: 605 (13, 7) 708: 571 (20, 17) 404: 708 (3, 6) 919: 647 (9, 6) 206: 600 (14, 3) 604: 564 (19, 4) 212: 685 (5, 7) 313: 647 (10, 9) 403: 597 (15, 1) 216: 554 (26, 15) Of the top 20 NPA's we can note: #1. 213 - Split to 310 is in progress. #2. 301 - Split to 410 is in progress. #3. 415 - Split to 510 is in progress. #4. 404 - Split to 706 will begin in May 1992. #5. 212 - due to have pressure reduced by 917 and the movement of some NXX's to 718. #6. 512 - Split to 210 will begin in November 1992. #7. 205 - no plans to split at this point. Intra-NPA calls require the dialing of the NPA. #8. 416 - due to split to 905 in 1993. Intra-NPA calls require the dialing of the NPA. #13. 714 - will split to 909 beginning November 1992. Some one asked what happened to the top 20 last quarter. Here they are: 1. 213 - Still #1. 11. 215 - Now #12. 2. 301 - Still #2. 12. 602 - Now #11. 3. 404 - Now #4. 13. 714 - Still #13. 4. 415 - Now #3. 14. 206 - Still #14. 5. 212 - Still #5. 15. 403 - Still #15. 6. 512 - Still #6. 16. 501 - Now #22. 7. 205 - Still #7. 17. 713 - Still #17. 8. 416 - Still #8. 18. 703 - Now #16. 9. 919 - Still #9. 19. 604 - Now #19. 10. 313 - Still #10. 20. 708 - Now #18. 201: 410 304: 335 406: 345 508: 376 612: 538 714: 605 816: 459 202: 260 305: 471 407: 400 509: 243 613: 291 715: 316 817: 493 203: 494 306: 444 408: 317 510: 328 614: 410 716: 384 818: 380 204: 348 307: 162 409: 288 512: 670 615: 539 717: 477 819: 310 205: 657 308: 201 410: 392 513: 462 616: 384 718: 413 901: 225 206: 600 309: 262 412: 423 514: 487 617: 387 719: 162 902: 264 207: 343 310: 417 413: 131 515: 420 618: 330 801: 343 903: 271 208: 284 312: 447 414: 481 516: 383 619: 507 802: 177 904: 503 209: 346 313: 647 415: 709 517: 322 701: 353 803: 525 906: 110 212: 685 314: 533 416: 655 518: 258 702: 303 804: 473 907: 405 213: 755 315: 256 417: 199 519: 349 703: 576 805: 286 908: 326 214: 512 316: 367 418: 363 601: 405 704: 339 806: 261 912: 334 215: 612 317: 442 419: 335 602: 614 705: 269 807: 105 913: 433 216: 554 318: 331 501: 541 603: 235 706: 276 808: 265 914: 339 217: 361 319: 332 502: 342 604: 564 707: 185 809: 514 915: 305 218: 291 401: 135 503: 546 605: 346 708: 571 812: 278 916: 436 219: 358 402: 409 504: 338 606: 267 709: 260 813: 503 917: 2 301: 716 403: 597 505: 321 607: 168 712: 275 814: 262 918: 293 302: 119 404: 708 506: 177 608: 249 713: 572 815: 300 919: 647 303: 532 405: 522 507: 272 609: 276 This is the list of NPAs sorted by number of exchanges. There are 20 entries in a column, and I have include a line break after each five lines. 213: 745 405: 553 513: 457 310: 382 419: 336 218: 291 315: 256 301: 703 216: 549 816: 450 716: 378 318: 331 613: 288 608: 251 404: 702 503: 540 306: 447 508: 371 319: 330 805: 284 509: 241 415: 686 615: 536 317: 438 818: 370 618: 328 208: 283 603: 232 212: 678 612: 527 312: 437 316: 364 304: 328 812: 279 901: 224 512: 670 314: 527 916: 431 418: 363 912: 326 712: 276 417: 199 205: 652 303: 523 913: 430 217: 359 908: 320 609: 275 308: 199 416: 650 803: 522 412: 423 219: 355 517: 319 507: 270 706: 184 919: 641 619: 504 515: 418 701: 352 715: 317 705: 269 707: 180 313: 638 809: 502 718: 411 204: 348 918: 316 903: 267 506: 176 215: 610 813: 501 907: 408 519: 347 505: 316 606: 267 802: 175 602: 609 904: 500 402: 408 605: 345 905: 311 202: 266 607: 168 714: 598 214: 494 614: 407 406: 343 819: 309 902: 265 307: 162 206: 597 817: 492 201: 403 209: 343 915: 308 806: 263 719: 160 403: 596 203: 490 601: 401 207: 342 408: 308 808: 262 401: 135 501: 576 514: 485 407: 391 914: 340 510: 306 309: 261 413: 131 713: 573 414: 477 410: 388 801: 340 702: 299 814: 260 302: 114 703: 566 717: 475 617: 385 502: 340 815: 296 709: 260 906: 109 604: 560 804: 468 616: 382 704: 336 409: 293 518: 258 807: 105 708: 554 305: 468 516: 382 504: 336 David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ From: uuhare!havel@uunet.UU.NET (Jon Havel) Subject: New High Speed Network Makes Debut Organization: The Rabbit Network Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 02:39:10 GMT * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * * February 6, 1992, MT. CLEMENS, MI - The newest entry into the computer internetworking industry announced today that its first two points of presence (POP's) will be online by June 1 of this year. THE RABBIT NETWORK, INC. announced that the first two terminal servers on its high speed network will be in Detroit and Mount Clemens, MI. Jon Havel, Technical Support Director for the company, said that one of the main problems in this area of the country is the lack of availability of cheap local phone service. "Many companies in this area have offices and shops spread around the Metropolitan Detroit area and often times, they need to exchange computer data between these various facilities", Havel said. "The problem is, that if one facility is outside the local calling area of the other, the meter is running as soon as the data connection is established. These fees can be anywhere from 5 cents a minute up to 25 to 30 cents a minute". "Its ridiculous -- Detroit, for instance, is only a few miles from Mount Clemens, yet a call from Eight Mile Road (on the northern edge of Detroit) to 15 Mile and Gratiot is considered long distance, even though its only seven miles down the road!" Havel says that the company plans on installing terminal servers in strategic areas of southeastern Michigan so as to form a "blanket" over the entire area, making phone charges for data calls as inexpensive as a fixed-rate local call. Here is how it will work: A customer with several facilities will obtain an account on each of the terminal servers in the local areas in which their facilities are located. Each facility then dials up the terminal server in their area, linking that facility's LAN (Local Area Network) into the Rabbit Network. At this point, data can be exchanged between the customer's facilities over The Rabbit Network. The company plans on working closely with a network consulting firm to assist customers in obtaining and configuring the necessary software for connection to the network. Costs for access to each terminal server will be based on a fixed monthly rate and will not depend on how much data is exchanged. The network will use hardware and software from Telebit Corporation and Cisco Systems, as well as UNIX(tm) based systems for extended features. Access to the global computer conferencing network, known as USENET will also be available to the network's customers as well as electronic mail within the network as well as access to global electronic mail on the national Internet. Each access code for a terminal server gets the customer his own dialup number, thereby eliminating any possibility of busy lines. The network backbone speeds will be upgraded as needed and will range anywhere from 56kbps (56,000 characters/second) up to T3 (3 million characters per second). Telebit T3000 modems, the newest models, will provide users with reliable dial-up access via 14.4kb (14,400 characters/second) V.32bis links. The company is also planning on connecting its network with the national Internetwork some time within the next year. This would give customers access to a global network and would greatly enhance the connectivity of any national organizations which have offices around the country. Although only two terminal servers are scheduled to make their debut in June, Mr. Havel predicts that as many as ten small to medium Michigan cities will be online by the end of the year. "Where we locate our POP's and terminal servers will be dependent on customer demand", Havel said. Customers are encouraged to contact the company and let them know what kind of service they would like to see and in what areas of the state they would like to see access points. "We aren't limiting our growth to Michigan", Havel added, saying that "We could cross the border into other states as soon as customer demands warrant it". Interested parties can contact The Rabbit Network at (313) 790-6425, or can FAX at (313) 790-6437. The Rabbit Network main office is located at 34486 S. Gratiot Ave, Suite 200, Clinton Township, Michigan 48043. "UNIX" is a registered trademark of AT&T Bell Labs. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 13:04:47 PST From: knight@pop.concord.wvnet.edu (Craig Neidorf) Subject: C&P Tries to Overcharge Customers Excerpt of the first three paragraphs only ... C&P Asks D.C. Commission To Reconsider Rate-Cut Order February 4, 1992 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by John Mintz {Washington Post} (Page C1) Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. yesterday asked the Distict Public Service Commission to reconsider its order for a rate reduction, saying the commission had made a series of computational errors and unfair decisions. The company said in its application for reconsideration that commission officials made some mathematical errors in computing certain formulas and that, intead of the 8.6 percent decrease in rates that the PSC ordered, C&P actually deserved an increase of just under one-half a percentage point. C&P, which originally had asked for a 21 percent increase in rates, said in the appeal that it has been "irreparbly harmed" by the commission's actions. If the commission rejects C&P's appeal, as is expected, the company could take its case to the D.C. Court of Appeals. But the court has rarely overturned PSC decisions. - - - - - - Seem a little strange that C&P now admits they only need a half of one percent increase in rates, but when they approached the PSC last week, they asked for a 21 percent increase? All the RBOCs are alike; fraudulent, deceptive, and full of selfish intentions. Craig Neidorf (knight@pop.concord.wvnet.edu) ------------------------------ From: sg04%ploni@gte.com (Yechezkal Shimon Gutfreund) Subject: The Ultimate Unified Scalable Heterogenaic System Date: 5 Feb 92 20:21:01 GMT Reply-To: sgutfreund@gte.com Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham MA My apologies to my friends at Bellcore, but it's Adar and I couldn't contain myself: MORRISTOWN, NJ., Feb 3 - Researchers at BellCore (Bell Communications Research) announced today a new networking and computation architecture, called INAPIZZA. One researcher here explained the name: "Well, we were sorta dissapointed in the lack of scope and vision of the other BellCore groups working in this area. The Piscataway folks first created something called IN, and now a newer ObjectOriented thing called INA. Now here at Morristown we are the advanced research group. IN and INA look to us like big engineering kludges. They are commitee driven architectures that try and be all things to all people. So we wanted to come up with one unified compact metaphor/achitecture. So one day while out to lunch we figured out where all this IN and INA was leading -> IN, INA, INAPIZZA. Why a pizza you ask? Well, why we were at lunch we noticed that pizzas are really the perfect metaphor for distributed computation and communications. Everyone likes it. It provides a common uniform architecture and platform. On top of that one can place all sorts of heterogenous applications. One big problem with hetergeous architectures is establishing a pricing structure. But, everyone who has gone to college knows how to divide the costs of a heterogenous pizza. Pizza customization occurs at all levels and time periods. The basic architecture is established at order time. But run-time enhancements (pepper, hot peppers, etc.) can even be delayed till right before binding time (with one's mouth). Scalability you need? Pizzas are one of the few engineering artifacts that have adapted to almost every new techinque. New spices, new toppings, even new architectures such as sicillian and deep-dish. It is perfectly suited for ATM applicatons. Just like ATM channels, you can slice it to give you just the ammount of bandwidth you need, and you can consume it bite-wise (cell-wise) based on demand of the application. We are currently prototying the transport mechanism which we are calling DOMINOS, and hope to present our work both at TINA '93 and the New York Food Festival." Yechezkal Shimon Gutfreund sgutfreund@gte.com GTE Laboratories, Waltham MA harvard!bunny!sgutfreund [Moderator's Note: Thanks for a very clever posting! Really, it brightened my day. The flip side of the coin for our friends at the Labs was the report in the business news section of the papers on Thursday saying approximatly 3000-3500 more non-union workers will be laid off by AT&T and associated companies during March as part of a scaling down of personnel to meet present day realities. Apparently this will not be based entirely or even mostly on seniority: One of the spokespersons for the company said there are some senior employees with large salaries on the way out; they'll be keeping many employees who earn less money. Sad news, indeed, from an organization which in another era *never* laid off anyone. Hundreds of thousands of old timers from the first half of this century spent a lifetime in the System. :( PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 17:59:52 CST From: edward@pro-ren.cts.com (Edward Floden) Subject: 900 Idea of the Future Organization: The Get-a-Life Foundation for Chronic Trekism There I sat, reading TELECOM Digest, and wondering just what new scam would be perpetrated under the guise of a 900 number service. And then I thought of it. Recently, new videophones have been introduced. AT&T has one, for about $1500 (?). So what if someone buys a few of these, and caters to the whims of the other first buyers -- who obviously have a few bucks to throw around? Can't you see it now? Videophone Sex. Remember, you heard it here first ... :) Internet: edward@pro-ren.cts.com | TechRen User Group UUCP: crash!pro-ren!edward | ProLine: edward@pro-ren [Moderator's Note: Cute ... but not first, I'm afraid. There's already a phone sex purveyor trying it with slow-scan video. I think the company is in Florida. They even supply the video display units to their customers. But it is on regular phone lines, not 900, and the billing (there's always a catch!) is via your VISA/MC. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #118 ******************************   Received: from [129.105.5.103] by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04265; 7 Feb 92 14:17 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08814 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 7 Feb 1992 01:25:18 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07967 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 7 Feb 1992 01:24:51 -0600 Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 01:24:51 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202070724.AA07967@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #117 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Feb 92 01:24:46 CST Volume 12 : Issue 117 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson New Cellular Phones Raise A National Security Debate (NYT via C. Mingo) Bell Labs Radio Astronomy A Casualty of Downsizing (Science via J.Haynes) Sprint Sold to United Tel (John R. Levine) Telecom in Puerto Rico (Jim Rees) Politics and Telephones (David Niebuhr) Emergency Phones on Coast Urged After Three Drownings (Randall C. Gellens) UNIX to DOS Communication (Art Lekoff) Tax on Information Proposed? (David Gast) 2600 Magazine (Robert S. Helfman) Looking for TDD Info (Steve M. Hoffman) Neighbor's Phone Calls Ring MY Phone! (Scott Coleman) Residential 800 Service (Michael Rosen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Charlie.Mingo@p0.f70.n109.z1.FidoNet.Org (Charlie Mingo) Date: 06 Feb 92 15:16:14 Subject: New Cellular Phones Raise A National Security Debate By John Markoff in {The New York Times}, February 6, 1992 at D1 Advocates of privacy rights are challenging the nation's most clandestine intelligence-gathering agency over how much confidentiality people will have when communicating via the next generation of cellular telephones and wireless computers. The issue has emerged at meetings this week of an obscure committee of telecommunications experts that is to decide what kinds of protections against eavesdropping should be designed into new models of cellular phones. People concerned with privacy are eager to incorporate more potent scrambling and descrambling codes in equipment to prevent the eavesdropping that is so easy and so common in the current generation of cellular phones. But privacy advocates contend that the industry committee has already decided not to adopt the maximum level of protection because of pressure from the National Security Agency, whose intelligence gathering includes listening in on phone conversations in foreign countries and intercepting data sent by computers. The privacy-rights faction contends that the security agency opposes codes that are hard to crack because the equipment might be used overseas. "The NSA is trying to weaken privacy technology," said Marc Rotenberg, Washington director of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, a public advocacy group organized by computer scientists and engineers. "At stake is nothing less than the future of our privacy in the communications world." The standards setting group is made up of cellular telephone equipment manufacturers and service providers. The National Security Agency is the Defense Department Agency in charge of electronic intelligence gathering around the world for use by many other branches of the government. Officials of the agency, who have been participating in the meetings as observers, said their only interest in the matter was insuring that the government's own secure telephones were compatible with the new cellular phones. They said that agency officials have specifically been told not to participate in the standards-setting effort, and indeed some engineers attending the meetings said they have felt no outside pressure. But other engineers involved in the standards process said the agency's presence had loomed large in earlier technical meetings during the past two years. "I would talk to people and they would say, 'The NSA wouldn't like this, or wouldn't like that,'" said one committee member, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. The Agency's Long Reach The debate is important, the privacy advocates say, not just for cellular phones but for many other emerging technologies that communicate using radio signals, which are easier to intercept than information sent over conventional telephone lines. These include wireless "personal communicators" that transmit and receive data, and portable "notebook" computers. But the dispute also illustrates that even as the cold war ebbs, the National Security Agency is still wielding influence over many United States high-technology industries. Indeed, executives from a number of high-technology companies say the agency is hampering their efforts to compete for business overseas by forcing them to make products for foreign markets that are different from products sold domestically. The agency exercises this power in evaluating some of the applications by companies to export high-technology products. In that role, critics say, the agency has opposed exports of equipment fitted with advanced encryption systems that are increasingly vital to modern business. Buyers Can Shop Elsewhere The agency's critics say it is almost impossible to contain the proliferation of encryption technologies and that customers who are deterred from buying it in the United States will simply shop abroad or steal the technology. "The notion that you can control this technology is comical," said William H. Neukom, vice president for law and corporate affairs at Microsoft Corporation, the big software publisher. Critics also say that it is ludicrous that encryption systems used in popular software programs receive the type of Government scrutiny that might be expected for weapons. "The notion that our our products should be classified as munitions, and treated that way just doesn't make sense at all," Mr. Neukom said. Privacy advocates have also challenged the committee's intention not to publish the algorithm on which the encryption technology is based. Traditionally, cryptographers have said that the best way to ensure that encryption techniques work is to publish the formulas so they can be publicly tested. The committee has said that it will not disclose the formula because it does not want to criminals an opportunity to crack the code. But publishing the formula is only a danger only if the formula is weak, said John Gilmore, a Silicon Valley software designer, and privacy advocate. If the formula is strong, disclosing it publicly and letting anyone try to crack it would simply prove it works. The code, however, is simple to break, say a number of engineers who have examined it. Several committee members said they realized that the security agency would never permit the adoption of an unbreakable privacy scheme. "The cynics in the bar would say that you're never going to get anything by the NSA that they can't crack trivially anyway," said Peter Nurse, chairman of the authentication and privacy subcommittee of the standards committee and an engineer at Hughes Network Systems. NSA Role Denied But a number of engineers who worked on the technical standard insist that the agency has had no overt role in setting it. "The standard was based on the technical deliberations of some of the best experts in North America," said John Marinho, chairman of the standards committee and an executive at AT&T. He said the committee relied on the NSA only for guidance on complying with United States regulations. He also said that the new standard would offer far more privacy protection than is available under the present cellular telephone system. Today, although it is against the law to eavesdrop on a cellular telephone conversation, many individuals modify commercial radio scanners so they can receive the frequencies on which cellular calls are transmitted. ------------------------------ From: Jim Haynes Subject: Bell Labs Radio Astronomy A Casualty of Industrial Downsizing Date: 5 Feb 92 21:34:19 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz This is from the 24 January 1992 issue of {Science} magazine. "The Nobel Prize-winning radio astronomy program at AT&T Bell Labs, renowned as the facility where scientists detected one of the first signs of the Big Bang, will soon be gone or transformed beyond recognition. This action, which began a year ago and neared completion last week with the departure of all but one of AT&Ts radio astronomers, ... (Stuff about history going back to Karl Jansky in 1928 discovering radio emissions from space, current director Robert Wilson and lab V.P. Arno Penzia won Nobel prize for their 1965 discovery of uniform background radiation. Wilson is the only one still left in radio astronomy, his colleagues having gone to academia. Penzias says radio astronomy is only being phased down because of aging equipment and less need for satellite communication research.) "But another top AT&T executive, director of communications research Robert Lucky, finds the program's fate more disturbing. Lucky says the move is a usre sign that basic industrial research is becoming much harder to justify against the corporate bottom line. For instance, he notes, AT&T must compete with MCI, which spends nothing at all on research." haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ Subject: Sprint sold to United Tel Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 13:07:16 EST From: John R. Levine UPI reports that GTE sold their remaining 19.9% of US Sprint to United Telecom for $250M in cash, and $280M due July 1, concluding a deal previously announced. United Tel will change their name to Sprint, now that Sprint is their largest line of business. GTE is concentrating on local exchange service, the quality of which, as many Digest readers will testify, is legendary. GTE is now the largest local exchange carrier in the country, bigger than any of the RBOCs. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: rees@dabo.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) Subject: Telecom in Puerto Rico Reply-To: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Organization: University of Michigan IFS Project Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 03:55:27 GMT I recently noticed that the phone system in Puerto Rico is like that of a foreign country. No equal access, and the long distance access codes are things like 137 and 138. Are they not bound by the MFJ and Bellcore rules? On a recent trip to New Mexico, however, things were just like they are here in the U.S. (That's a joke; I just read a newspaper story on how many Americans think New Mexico is a foreign country). What are things like in Guam? [Moderator's Note: The Puerto Rico Telephone Company is not bound by the MFJ or Bellcore rules. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 07:04:46 -0500 From: niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) Subject: Politics and Telephones In yesterday's {Newsday} there was a short article about the attempts to get Gov. *Cuomo* (New York) on the ballot in the New Hampshire primaries. It seems that the number they advertised up was 1-800-XXCOUMO. It turns out that the owner of the COUMO number was receiving calls destined for the non-candidate. The total so far was about $77 in charges. Just another part of the silly season. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 05:54 GMT From: Randall C Gellens <0005000102@mcimail.com> Subject: Emergency Phones on Coast Urged After Three Drownings The {L.A. Times} for February 4 carried a story on three drownings off the rocky Palos Verdes Peninsula, an area popular because of its ruggedness and solitude. Since there are only lifeguards during the busy summer months, L.A. County Sheriffs are looking at ways to improve emergency response, including installing telephones along the coast or staffing the area with volunteer ham radio operators. ------------------------------ From: art@compu.com (Art Lekoff) Subject: UNIX to DOS Communication Organization: CompuData Inc. Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 15:10:53 GMT Hello Netters, I am working on a project that involves a UNIX machine (using pcomm) uploading (manually) a word processing file (formatted and un-formatted) to a DOS machine running Smartcom Exec. Smartcom answers pcomm, but will not allow it to interact with it. Is there some sort of script file that Smartcomm expects from pcomm? The settings for each machine are the same (both 2400 baud modems, 8-N-1). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please e-mail your response to this account. I will summarize your answers if there is enough interest. Thank you! Arthur LeKoff at CompuData, Inc., Home of Brother John! 10501 Drummond Road UUNET: {dsinc,uunet}!cdin-1!art Philadelphia, PA 19154 INTERNET: art@cdin-1.COMPU.COM (215)824-3000 ext.263 C$ERVE: 72460.2024@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 16:41:39 -0800 From: gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) Subject: Tax on Information Proposed? A friend reports that Bush is proposing to tax information, apparently as a tax on modem and/or fax communications when billed and/or carried by a telecommunications firm. I don't have the details. He says he read it in the LAT, but I missed the article. Has anyone else seem something on it? David ------------------------------ From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) Subject: Information Wanted About 2600 Magazine Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 01:02:31 GMT I saw a reference to a magazine called "2600", which I assume is for phone-phreaks. Can anyone provide a subscription address. It sounds like a hoot! ------------------------------ From: steveh@rtsg.mot.com (Steve M. Hoffman) Subject: Looking For TDD Information Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 20:28:37 GMT I'm looking for details on TDD. I'm interesting in writing some software to emulate a TDD device so I can talk to a deaf friend without the use of a relay service via my computer. Steve Hoffman Software Engineer - Motorola Inc. email: steveh@isdgsm.rtsg.mot.com International Subscriber Division GSM ph: 1.708.632.2588 All opinions are my own. Big corporations have none. fax: 1.708.632.2545 ------------------------------ From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) Subject: Neighbor's Phone Calls Ring MY Phone! Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1992 21:48:31 GMT OK, here's something I've never heard of before that I'm hoping one of you telecom.experts can explain: I've lived in the same apartment for almost two years now. During my stay several of the other apartments in the building have had tenant turnover. Recently, new tenants moved into the apartment next to mine. Shortly thereafter I began to notice that one of my phones has begun to "ring" - I enclose the word in quotes because it's not a *real* ring, but rather a very soft ring. This phone has an electronic ringer, and has three settings (Off, Low, and High). The ringer on this phone is always set to OFF, and yet the phone continues to produce this soft ring. The soft ring is lower in volume than the ring would be were it in the Low position. At first I assumed that the phone installer had crossed wires somewhere when installing my neighbor's phone line, so the next time it soft-rang I picked it up. I got a dial tone, so I'm assuming it's nothing so simple as a cross connection between my line and my neighbor's. Other data points: o I have two phone lines, one voice and one data. Neither line appears to be affected with crosstalk or other interference that I have noticed. o None of the other phones in the house exhibit this soft ring behavior, although I suppose it COULD be happening and I have just not noticed it. o Inside the electrical box behind the phone is a big multi-pair cable, two pairs of which split off and go to my wall jack, while the rest simply terminate in the box and are not connected to anything. o Although the apartment next to mine has changed hands at least three times since I've lived here, this problem has never shown up before now. So what's going on here? Is my phone somehow inductively picking up the ring signal from an adjacent pair and transferring it to my phone, even though the righer switch is turned off? How do I get rid of this problem? Must I do it myself, or should I call in the phone company? ------------------------------ From: Michael.Rosen@samba.acs.unc.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Residential 800 Service Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 17:35:35 GMT Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is a residential 800 line? I just saw an ad for Sprint's "Personal 800" last night for the first time. It's a service where a student's (or any child's) parents can have an 800 number for their kid(s) to call home on. How does this work exactly? Do they ad a new line or does the 800 number ring through to their existing phone line? Would you have to switch to Sprint in order to take advantage of this? Mike [Moderator's Note: This is intended as a low volume 800 service for residential users. I have such service and it runs me about $20 per month for my two 800 numbers. Usually it is set up so the 800 number just rings on your existing line. You usually have to suscribe to the one-plus service of the carrier offering the 800 deal, but not always. I have mine through Telecom-USA but my one-plus through AT&T. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #117 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa17085; 9 Feb 92 2:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29406 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 9 Feb 1992 00:36:36 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05492 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 9 Feb 1992 00:36:10 -0600 Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 00:36:10 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202090636.AA05492@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #119 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Feb 92 00:36:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 119 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (John Higdon) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Bill Cattey) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Linc Madison) Re: New Undersea Cable for Caribbean (David E. Martin) Re: When a Phone Is a Menace (L.A. Times Editorial) (Max Rochlin) Re: When a Phone is a Menace (L.A. Times Editorial) (Bob Miller) Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? (Carl Moore) Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? (David Esan) Re: 213/310 Split Script (childeja@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu) Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak (Jim Haynes) Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) Re: Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code (Dave Levenson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 19:34 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary On Feb 4 at 0:05, TELECOM Moderator writes: > People spend their money as they wish. I chose to make the changes > required in the way I handled the Digest to lessen my expenses; I > didn't ask telco for any charity! PAT] Nor are the BBS operators. They are simply asking the telco and the PUCs to go by the existing rules. I have read the Oregon and California tariffs governing the matter most thoroughly and there is no contortion of reality that can justify regrading residential BBS lines to business service. You, US West, and anyone else may come up with hundreds of justifications why BBSes should not enjoy residential status, but the tariff will not back you up. From a legal standpoint, the move is bogus. What we have here is an agenda based on marketing necessity. Non-commercial BBSes have been around since the late seventies. Does it not seem just a bit strange that it has taken a decade and a half for this issue to hit the fan? Up to now, telcos had no interest in the matter one way or another. With the current prospect of the telcos getting into the biz, as it were, it has become a forefront matter of concern. Telcos were most willing to allow private BBSes to proliferate and build an audience that it just might take over. Based upon the doctrine of laches, it would seem that the matter is suspicious. And finally, it is known by all technical people that there is zero cost to the telcos for "additional traffic" being delivered to a residential line during off-peak hours. From a technical standpoint, or a "cost of providing service" aspect, this regrading of residential BBSes is unjustified. Now, do you still maintain that BBSes are whiners that just want something for nothing? Since I can see no legal, ethical, or technical justification for charging them more than residential rates, I must disagree with your stance on this. BTW, given that the Oregon and California tariffs regarding residence service are quite similar, why is Pac*Bell not going after the hundreds and hundreds of private BBSes here in Silicon Valley alone? John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1992 15:12:51 -0500 (EST) From: Bill Cattey Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary The situation with BBS's in Oregon fits with the Telephone Company as Monopoly theory: Clearly it is in The Phone Company's best interest to force all BBS's to either pay for business service or go out of business, so it can offer its OWN bboard service. Just because one such service, Source Line, failed does not mean that all future services will fail. Once The Phone Company decides it WANTS to be in a business, it does a LOT to stay there. (The acquisition of NCR by ATT also fits the monopoly theory as part of a process to go to extreme ends to stay in a business that is currently not working out that The Phone Company WANTS to be in.) Mind you, I'm not saying that the Monopoly theory is valid, just that certain unpleasant or extreme actions on the part of the various dismembered parts of what was once THE Phone company, can fit with such a theory. Bill Cattey ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 00:31:28 PST From: linc@tongue1.Berkeley.EDU (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Organization: University of California, Berkeley In bei@dogface.austin.tx.us (Bob Izenberg) wrote: > There would be an added cost to "networked" BBSes > (Fidonet, WWIVnet, et cetera) if they find themselves dialing long > distance to reach their nearest neighbor. This would be of no > consequence to any telco: It will gladly accept the revenue from your > long distance bill until the cost outweighs the benefit and you cease > operation. I don't follow your argument about "added cost to networked BBS's if they find themselves dialing long distance to reach their nearest neighbor." Long distance rates for standard residential service and for standard commercial service are EXACTLY IDENTICAL everywhere in the United States. The only differences are that, in many areas, business lines are not offered unmeasured LOCAL service, and business lines may not be eligible for certain residential long-distance calling plans (the kind that charge $x for the first hour of long distance each month, plus $y per minute over that). However, there are abundant long-distance plans for businesses. Linc Madison == Linc@Tongue1.Berkeley.EDU ------------------------------ From: dem%nhmpw2@ames.arc.nasa.gov (David E. Martin) Subject: Re: New Undersea Cable for Caribbean Date: 5 Feb 92 16:17:54 GMT Reply-To: dem@fnal.fnal.gov Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, USA In article andys@ulysses.att.com (Andy Sherman) writes: > From a recent AT&T press release: > Specifically designed for short distances, the new AT&T Bell > Laboratories-designed cable is half the diameter of existing > transoceanic cables and consists of six repeaterless fiber pairs. > Each of the fiber pairs will operate at 560 megabits per second, > resulting in a total capacity equivalent to about 225,000 simultaneous > phone calls. 6 * 560 Mbps / 225,000 calls = 14.9 Kbps. This is a heck of a compression rate. Is this correct? David E. Martin National HEPnet Management Phone: +1 708 840-8275 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory FAX: +1 708 840-2783 P.O. Box 500; MS 234; Batavia, IL 60510 USA E-Mail: DEM@FNAL.FNAL.Gov ------------------------------ From: gupta!max@uunet.uu.net (Max Rochlin) Subject: Re: When a Phone Is a Menace (L.A. Times Editorial) Organization: Gupta Technologies Inc Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 19:12:39 GMT In article 0005000102@mcimail.com (Randall C Gellens) writes: > These include moving a phone to inside a store, blocking incoming > calls and replacing tone dialing with rotary dialing so that drug > dealers can't use their pagers [how does pulse dialing impede pagers? Simple, to send a pager user a message you call the pager number and then enter a numeric message using a touchtone phone. Pager systems use DTMF tone and don't understand rotery clicks. Typically, one enters the phone number that you want the pager wearer to call. This can't be done from a rotary phone. Hence ... pager message blocking. (Easy work-around, go to Radio Shack and buy a DTMF portable dialer.) max@gupta.com Max J. Rochlin max@queernet.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 09:24:20 PST From: Bob Miller Subject: Re: When a Phone is a Menace (L.A. Times Editorial) > The city will first ask the telephone vendor to take actions that > would impede criminals' use of a phone. These include moving a phone > to inside a store, blocking incoming calls and replacing tone dialing > with rotary dialing so that drug dealers can't use their pagers [how > does pulse dialing impede pagers? -- RCG]. If conditions don't > improve after such steps are taken, the legal process aimed at > removing the phones would ensue. > Police Chief Paul M. Walters said some pay phones have become "outdoor > offices for drug dealers and prostitutes." They also have become > gathering places for lowlifes who use the phones for other illegal > activities. While they are at it why don't they dig up the roads and sidewalks so that the drugdealers, prostitues and other lowlife can't drive their cars or walk. We all know that drug dealers, prostitutes, and other lowlifes lack the intelligence to find alternatives. Bravo for Chief Walters, he will involve the community before he unilaterally removes the phones. There is no valid reason for needing a payphone at 2:00 AM when the stores are closed. Anyone travelling by car should have a cellular phone, and who really cares about the low-income families if they have an emergency in the middle of the night. Bob Miller / Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd. The views expressed above are not mine or Digital's. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 8:33:22 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? How high up on the list is 803 w/r to number of exchanges? I don't even have it listed as having N0X/N1X prefixes. 803 is in South Carolina, whose neighbor states have had to program for N0X/N1X prefixes: 404, Georgia, Oct 1989? (1+NPA+7D on all toll calls; optional in 912) (to become 404/706) 919, North Carolina, 2 Mar 1990 (1+NPA+7D on all toll calls; also applies to 704) 813 is found along the Florida Gulf coast. Notice that 305/407 split in Florida was done in 1988 without the use of N0X/N1X prefixes; occurring that same year, also without N0X/N1X prefixes, were 303/719 (Colorado) and 617/508 (Massachusetts). I also am NOT aware of N0X/N1X prefixes being used in 813 area. ------------------------------ From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? Date: 6 Feb 92 13:42:18 GMT Reply-To: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Organization: Moscom Corp., E. Rochester, NY In article de@moscom.com (David Esan) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 113, Message 5 of 6 > I have heard a rumor that the 803 area is scheduled to split next ^ My mind said 813, my fingers typed 803. Sorry. I meant 813, SW Florida. David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ Date: 5 Feb 92 11:32:00 EST From: childeja@UDAVXB.OCA.UDAYTON.EDU Subject: Re: 213/310 Split Script I don't mean to be picky, and I might have over looked it, but I'm quite sure 396 was left off the list of exchanges changing area codes from 213 to 310. I know for sure it's changing over 'cause my brother made a big deal about it in Santa Monica (CA) the day of the switch (even though I made everyone aware of it a few months earlier, but hey, my brother loves big productions, so I didn't say anything). ------------------------------ From: Jim Haynes Subject: Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak Date: 6 Feb 92 19:27:49 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz This doesn't exactly answer your question, but might be interesting anyway. Circa 1950 I was visiting my uncle who was a broadcast engineer in Austin, TX. One time we were at the station's studio, in a downtown bank building, and then we went a short walk to a room in the basement of some building nearby where there was a console with two or three turntables and a man sitting there playing records. My uncle explained that the man had a background music business, and the music was distributed to his subscribers over telephone private lines. I don't remember if he played only 78 RPM records or if he had some of the 16" 33-1/3 RPM "transcriptions" like the broadcast stations used. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 16:41:52 -0600 From: "Gil Kloepfer Jr." Subject: Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak Organization: Southwest Systems Development Labs, Houston, TX In his article zank@netcom.netcom.com (Mathew Zank) writes: > Does anyone know about the history of Muzak, the service that brings > office music? All I know is that it is on a sub-channel of a local > FM radio station. Well, I can't tell you a lot, but I can say that it's on what's termed the 67KHz SCA (subsidiary communications authorization) subcarrier for certain FM stations. This subcarrier sits somewhere near the FM stereo pilot signal, if I'm not mistaken (I'm not yet a ham radio enthusiast). It seems to have been around a long time this way -- I built a receiver from an article in Elementary Electronics magazine back I'm not sure HOW long ago (at least the late 70s, early 80s). Basically the device consisted of a phase locked loop demodulator circuit that was connected to a FM radio in a spot before the signal was otherwise demodulated by the radio. Probing around inside a transistor radio with the device usually brought you to a place where it would work. The output was to be connected to an audio amplifier where you could listen to whatever you got. The program material was even more interesting: I've heard all kinds of music from popular music to typical annoying elevator music ... they've had international musical programs and news on it, a program called PRN (Physician's Radio Network) complete with advertisements for drugs, all the way up to a program which read various newspapers and periodicals to blind people (or is that now "visually impared"?:). I've found it fascinating ... although I haven't really had time to explore what programs are available in Houston. The ones I just mentioned were in the Long Island area. As I recall from the article, FM stations are allowed to broadcast either two or three different programs in the SCA subcarrier area (but I'm not sure what the extents are). Most stations have one program, but I received one station which had two. Because of the bandwidth of the SCA signal, and the fact that the main program material is pretty strong, the SCA signals don't decode into nice clean signals usually. I've found it usually is ridden with static and such ... but it's kind of like sitting with a short wave radio and probing around for anything you can hear. Gil Kloepfer, Jr. gil@limbic.ssdl.com ...!ames!limbic!gil [Moderator's Note: Most long-time Digest readers know that I have been associated with the Chicago Public Library as a volunteer at various times in the past. For ten years now, I've produced programs on Chicago history which are aired three times weekly on the SCA they operate called hicagoland adio nformation ervice, or CRIS for short. CRIS operates on the sub-carrier of WBEZ, the National Public Radio outlet here, owned until recently by the Chicago Board of Education. CRIS operates 24 hours per day, seven days per week primarily to serve visually handicapped and print handicapped persons in northern Illinois. Readers working in 30 minute or one hour shifts read several newspapers and periodicals on a regular schedule. The local Chicago papers occupy much of the day, along with the {Christian Science Monitor} and the {Wall Street Journal}. Readings are verbatim as they appear in the print media. Evenings are devoted to various magazines and local community newspapers. The {New York Times} operates its own reading service and sends a feed over satellite to numerous organizations like CRIS all over the United States. We use the NYT feed a couple times for an hour or so each day. Special programs such as mine, which is called 'Traces of Chicago' are interspersed with other stuff. CRIS gives SCA receivers free to qualified listeners. We recieve no tax money (other than office/studio space in the Cultural Center -- the old central library building) and survive on private philanthropy, including generous corporate gifts from AT&T and Illinois Bell. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code Date: 5 Feb 92 18:16:28 GMT Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA In article , syd@dsinc.dsi.com (Syd Weinstein) writes: > In my local Bell of PA directory ... one of the 800 numbers is > listed as "UNIX System V Source Code". > Gee, is the source code free for calling? :-) This listing also appears in the local NJ Bell white pages in Morris County. The toll-free number listed with this name is 828-UNIX, which will get you to the people who provide source licenses to this product. The call is toll-free. The source license is not! Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #119 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20177; 9 Feb 92 3:50 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16519 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 9 Feb 1992 02:04:54 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19729 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 9 Feb 1992 02:04:34 -0600 Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 02:04:34 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202090804.AA19729@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #121 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Feb 92 02:04:25 CST Volume 12 : Issue 121 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Incoming Calls Problem (Jim Redelfs) Re: Incoming Calls Problem (Tom Gray) Re: Telecom in Puerto Rico (Mike Olson) Re: Telecom in Puerto Rico (Martin Weiss) Re: Minitel and US West (Peter Marshall) Re: Minitel and US West (Mark Martin) Re: Ring Trip - How do They do it? (was Rotary Dialers Go Home!) (Tom Gray) Re: Rotary Dialers Go Home! (Jeff Sicherman) Re: Answer Supervision on Lines (Tim Gorman) Re: Answer Supervision on DM (Alan L. Varney) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 06 Feb 92 21:13:20 CST From: Jim.Redelfs@ivgate.omahug.org (Jim Redelfs) Subject: Re: Incoming Calls Problem Reply-To: jim.redelfs%macnet@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: Macnet Omaha Lance Sanders wrote: > A friend recently complained...that I never answered the phone > anymore, and moreover, why did I take the answering machine offline? > ... I heard an extremely brief blip from my phone, picked up, and > took a call. > ...I switched [the set] with the downstairs trimline to make sure, > and...Again, just the faintest blip of a ring. When I picked up, the > connection was normal. There are no problems with outgoing calls... > and from the caller's end, the line rings normally. > ...how is it possible that my phone doesn't ring (except for that > occassional brief blip)??? Can't my answering machine (also > functioning properly) pick-up, even though the rings aren't audible? > Can the _strenth_ of an incoming signal (call) be diminished so the > bell doesn't ring, but no other aspect of the service is affected? Yes. This same problem befell my service immediately after I added FIVE, new sets (four 2500s and one 2554) to my already burgeoning collection. The most likely cause of your problem is TOO MANY ringers bridged across the line. This condition will also cause your answering machine to NOT pick-up a call since it is triggered by ringing current. The central office only has so much "poop" with which to ring your line. Generally, five "ringers" is considered the max. Of course, the distance from the C.O. is a factor, as is the "R.E.N." total for the line. Every device (telephone, answering machine, modem, security system, etc.) has an R.E.N. -- a Ringer Equivalence Number. That number can be found on the registration tag somewhere on the device. When the equipment manufacturing field was opened to competition, the F.C.C. wisely agreed with the Bell System that some form of STANDARD should be adopted. The two-bell ringer found in the old fashioned desk phone (model 500 [rotary] or 2500 [TouchTone]) was established as the standard. Those telephones have a R.E.N. of 1B or one bell. The amount of current required to "ring" other devices are rated in comparison to that standard and are tagged accordingly: .7B or 1.4B, etc. Shortly after plugging-in my five, "new" sets, I was sitting by one, reading the paper when I heard a faint groan-like sound coming from the device. I picked it up to find a caller on line, none the wiser. The cause was (to me) immediately apparent: I had SO MANY ringers on the line that the central office could not properly ring them all. The telco doesn't care if you have a "million" telephone devices attached to the line since it is likely you will not have more than one or two of them off-hook at the same time. Ringing them all is another matter. The solution for MY situation was simple: I had to physically disconnect the ringer inside enough telephones so that the rest of them would ring. The solution for you may not be so easy since it is just as likely as not that you do NOT have telephones that come apart easily or are worked on easily. With the new, electronic telephones, I am not sure if simply switching the ringer OFF will do the trick. I suspect it will not. If you do NOT have a BUNCH of telephone devices on your line, then the culprit is likely a single set that is defective and drawing WAY too much ringing current. Disconnect one phone/device at a time and have a friend ring your number after each change. Note the performance. You should be able to isolate the offending set quite easily. > Is this a common service problem? I've never had it happen to me before. No. Fortunately it is rare. The new generation of phones do not require nearly as much current to "ring" as do the old ones. I had a customer with a "Quarry Horn" (AC-powered, phone-line triggered "ringer" -- truly a loud enunciator designed to be heard above the noise of construction equipment) on the outside of her (fortunately) rural residence. It rattled the windows. One day, all phones quit ringing. I traced the problem to her latest acquisition: an imported Italian antique telephone that, by itself, PEGGED my ohm meter! It must've sucked-up 3-4 bells of ringing current. I explained that it was either the Italian "boat anchor" (VERY ugly phone) or the Quarry Horn that had to go. She had me silence the phone. To this day, neighbors for a mile around know whenever she gets a call (she never had us install a switch for the horn!). JR Tabby 2.2 MacNet Omaha (402) 289-2899 - O.M.U.G. On-Line (1:285/14) ------------------------------ From: grayt@Software.Mitel.COM (Tom Gray) Subject: Re: Incoming Calls Problem Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 15:09:20 -0500 Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada. In article starkid@ddsw1.mcs.com (Lance Sanders) writes: > A friend recently complained by email that I never answered the > phone anymore, and moreover, why did I take the answering machine > offline? While reading the transmission (in my bedroom and off-line), > I heard an extremely brief blip from my phone, picked up, and took a > call. This is called "pre-trip". The transients on the loop from the application of ringing are causing the line circuit to falsely think that the telephone is off hook. The transients are of a duration and/or magnitude to simulate DC supervision to the CO. Probably one of the telephones on the loop has a defctive ringer. However if you call 611, saying that you have a "pretrip" problem will probabaly result in understanding. ------------------------------ From: mao@postgres.Berkeley.EDU (Mike Olson) Subject: Re: Telecom in Puerto Rico Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 15:59:19 PST Jim Rees writes: > I recently noticed that the phone system in Puerto Rico is like that > of a foreign country. I have a brother stationed in Puerto Rico with the Navy. He doesn't have a phone at home, so I call him at work when I need to talk to him, and arrange for him to call me back when his duty shift ends. About two months ago, I needed to talk to him, but I had a reproduceable (and frustrating) problem: when the phone on base was answered, I could hear them, but they couldn't hear me. After screwing around with the Puerto Rico telephone service and the military, I called AT&T (my long distance carrier) to see if they could help me out. It turned out that due to a programming error, answer supervision was not being returned to the caller, so AT&T was (quite reasonably) not establishing a voice path from me to the person who answered the phone in Puerto Rico. The AT&T tech told me that it was the on-base PBX that was the culprit. The most interesting lesson here is that for at least two weeks (the duration over which I know for a fact the problem existed), the base PBX wasn't supervising when a phone was picked up. No one in Puerto Rico noticed this problem, until I had AT&T whack on them. The number I was calling was the main base number, and was used by people in San Juan, as well as folks calling from outside the city (like me). It makes you wonder how the Puerto Rico phone company's billing works, doesn't it? I'm not a phreak myself, but if I were, I think I could have an interesting Caribbean vacation. I have my standard high praise for AT&T -- it took them two days to get this fixed, even when they were dealing with the US military and a foreign carrier. When the AT&T tech figured out that I understood telecom jargon, he gave me the low-down on the problem and its resolution. Mike Olson UC Berkeley ------------------------------ From: Martin Weiss Subject: Re: Telecom in Puerto Rico Date: 7 Feb 92 14:47:09 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh Pat is right. However, they are in the process of implementing equal access anyway. My parents live there and they have had the opportunity to select their long distance carrier recently. The government has been trying to sell PRT, which is owned by them. There had been several bidders, but evidently the goverment didn't get what they were expecting, so they postponed the deal. There was also considerable pressure from the employees and unions to cancel the sale. As I recall, GTE and/or Bell South were interested. Martin Weiss Telecommunications Program, University of Pittsburgh Internet: mbw@lis.pitt.edu OR mbw@unix.cis.pitt.edu BITNET: mbw@pittvms ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 11:06:01 -0800 From: peterm@rwing.UUCP (Peter Marshall) Subject: Re: Minitel and US West Tim Russell's recent post on this topic seemed realistic and balanced, although it would help to have some backup for his assertion that US West has supposedly not attempted to "stifle" Omaha BBSs. One would hope not, of course; on the other hand, Tim's statement would seem to be of the "far-as-I-know" kind. It would also help to have some fill-in about the Nebraska tariff and rates currently charged BBSs there, keeping in mind in particular, recent posts here suggesting problems in LincolnTel-land. Peter Marshall ------------------------------ From: mmm@cetia.fr (Mark Martin) Subject: Re: France's Minitel Service Reply-To: mmm@cetia.fr Organization: CETIA, France Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 14:41:15 GMT hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > Once they gave away the terminals, who owns them? Who is > responsible for maintenance? As modem technology changes, are they > adopting the newer technologies, or staying with the old to maintain > compatibility (I seem to remember a lot of European stuff using FSK > modems with something like 1200 bps to the user and 150 bps from the > user). They weren't given away, they are on zero-cost loan and belong to France Telecom. If broken FT in principle should fix them if you take them back, but from last year the free version is becoming increasingly scarce and it >seems< to be FT policy that if you want Minitel now you will have to rent one of the newer models (for about 200$US/year!). The cheap model can/could also be bought for around 350 $US. The Minitels still use mixed 1200/75 bps. However, there are X.25 pads you can dial for access to the network at 2400/2400, though this is really for computer buffs. The Minitel network provides several different charge bands and many different services. In particular the directory search facility (the "raison d'e^tre") is free for the first three minutes, usually adequate for finding a name or business. Telephone subscribers have the option of not having a Minitel lent to them (or not paying rental if there are no free models available at the time) and instead get the local directory on paper. The yellow pages are still provided free printed to all users. Mark M Martin mmm@cetia.fr Cetia, Toulon, France inria!cetia!mmm ------------------------------ From: grayt@Software.Mitel.COM (Tom Gray) Subject: Re: Ring Trip - How do They do it? (was Rotary Dialers Go Home!) Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 15:00:05 -0500 Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada. In article bdsgate!martin@uunet.uu.net (Martin Harriss) writes: > In an excellent article strieterd@gtephx. > UUCP (Dave Strieter) writes about the GTD-5 dial pulse and DTMF > detection. In doing so, he also mentions, in passing, the ring trip > function, and it is about this that I have a question. > The question is, exactly how is ring trip done, without using relays? The simple answer is to place a capacitor in the switch hook detector circuit when ringing is applied. This produces a low pass filter which eliminates the AC from DC supervision circuit. The nasty effects of switching ringing can be eliminated by switching only at a zero current crossing. This can be accomplished by using a ringing voltage detector with time delay for the expected phase delay of the current or by using a true zero crossing semiconductor switch such as a triode. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 10:37:28 -0800 From: Jeff Sicherman Subject: Re: Rotary Dialers Go Home! Organization: Cal State Long Beach The inability or unfriendliness of ACD's to rotary phones raises a question to me with regard to ANI delivery. It would seem that is the tone/pulse calling method could be delivered to the called party by either ANI or within Caller-ID 'packets' (and let's not get sticky about the definitions at this point) then answering machines and ACD's could tailor their behavior, prompts, options, etc. to the capabilities of the calling party and eliminate some of the extra instructions for rotary callers or putting them through menus that they will never be able to use. Do CO's sense/capture this condition so that it is/could be forwarded in the ANI data ? Of course, if someone uses rotary dialing with a tone capable phone he will be misdirected by this method, but perhaps the receiving end could initially prompt for the caller to hit a tone button *if it is informed that the caller pulse dialed* to handle the cases where tone generation is available to the caller. On the other hand, maybe the ommission of this feature is all a nefarious plot by the telco's to get everyone to switch to DTMF :-) Jeff Sicherman ------------------------------ Date: 06 Feb 92 09:45:25 EST From: tim gorman <71336.1270@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Answer Supervision on Lines I have done an exhaustive search of the Northern Telcom documentation concerning the reception of answer supervision on line side terminated services. Following are the three line options I have identified: RMR - Remote Message Register/Local. Must be used on an IBN line (i.e. not available for residence lines). Used on hotel/motel lines to indicate a charge is due for a local call. Typically used to increment a call counter for use in billing customers. RMT - Remote Message Register/Toll. Must be used on an IBN line (i.e. not available for residence lines). Used on hotel/motel lines to indicate a charge is due for a non-local call, e.g. toll, operator, DDD, etc. Care must be used with this since operator calls do not provide true far end answer supervision, the answer supervision is provided by the operator system. LRA - Line Reversal on Answer (International Loads Only). On calls originating from a PBX line, the call is routed and connected as a regular call. When the far end answers and the line has the LRA line option, reversal is applied to the line. As noted, NTI provides this option only on international software loads, not domestic US software loads, at least according to my issue of their documentation. I do not know which, if any, RBOC's offer message register service in conjunction with hotel/motel service. This would appear to be the only way to get answer supervision in the US out of a DMS100 machine. I suspect this may be an expensive option, at least when compared to ordering DOD service from the trunk side of the local CO. Of course, PBX costs to interface the DOD service would have to be considered also. Tim Gorman - SWBT *opinions are mine, resemblance to official policy is purely coincidental* ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 10:05:11 CST From: varney@ihlpf.att.com (Alan L Varney) Subject: Re: Answer Supervision on DM Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article 71336.1270@CompuServe.COM (tim gorman) writes: > vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) writes in TELECOM Digest V12 #102 > about DMS100 features NTX008AB and NTX007AB which say line side answer > supervision is available. I don't want to start a "me-to" flurry, but will mention that "Calling Line-Side Supervision (CLSS)" is available on the 5ESS(rg) Switch as well. See the latest TG-5 document for information, Division 2, Section 4A. The feature provides both answer and called-party-disconnect indications. I do not know if the operation is in any way similar to NTI's, nor am I aware of any Bellcore requirements for the capability. Al Varney - the above is my opinion of the facts, and one should not blame AT&T or anyone/anything else for it. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #121 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21435; 9 Feb 92 4:21 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26230 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 9 Feb 1992 02:38:02 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06224 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 9 Feb 1992 02:37:38 -0600 Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 02:37:38 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202090837.AA06224@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #122 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Feb 92 02:37:33 CST Volume 12 : Issue 122 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak (Andrew Green) Re: Newsbytes on the Oregon BBS Rates Case (Walter Scott) Re: High Speed Modems and PSTN (David Moon) Re: Information Wanted About 2600 Magazine (Russ Latham) Re: Information Wanted Ahout 2600 Magazine (Brad Dolan) Re: Looking For TDD Information (Peter M. Weiss) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 08 Feb 1992 14:24:04 CST From: acg@HERMES.DLOGICS.COM Reply-To: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Subject: Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak zank@netcom.netcom.com (Mathew Zank) writes: > Does anyone know about the history of Muzak, the service that brings > office music? All I know is that it is on a sub-channel of a local > FM radio station. Here are two articles on the history of Muzak from "The Straight Dope" and "More of The Straight Dope", both by Cecil Adams. For those of you who haven't seen his column of the same name, the pseudonymous Mr. Adams answers questions on anything and everything in his column. I highly recommend both books; my copies are paperbacks published by Ballantine Books. A reader of "The Straight Dope" writes (in the first book): "I would like to get a little info about what's involved in making the 'music' that's sold by Muzak, which is impossible to avoid if you go into any McDonald's, elevator, etc. It's all around us, but so mysterious. I'm told that it's made in Japan, by heavily sedated Oriental musicians." -- Bob F., Los Angeles Cecil responds: "Muzak is recorded by studio musicians, so we may safely deduce that a good deal of it is produced under the influence of drugs. The corporation claims to use recording facilities 'all over the world', so we might also wish to conjecture that some of it is made in Japan. Basically, though, the people who make Muzak are the same musical free-lancers who do commercial and pop-record sessions. They crank it out at a clip of roughly 200 new tunes per year, and the company maintains a library of some 10,000." "Founded in the 1920s and now part of the Westinghouse group, the Muzak Corporation offers two basic programming services -- one for office environments and one for industrial. The music (I use the term loosely) is arranged, produced, and on rare occasions even written to company specifications -- measures deemed necessary to ensure the proper 'stimulus progression' -- and is programmed, with the aid of a computer, to counteract the vicissitudes of the typical worker's daily routine. "According to Muzak theory, the average Joe's spirits slacken around 10:30 AM, pick up in midday, and decline again around 3:00. Accordingly, Muzak gets pretty bouncy in mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and downright perky around midnight for the bleary-eyed boys on the graveyard shift. It is programmed in blocks of 15 minutes, with the peak excitement (another loosely-applied term) coming at the end of each segment. In most places -- have you ever noticed? -- it's on for 15 minutes and off for 15. I know of no scientific study proving that people can be driven stark raving mad by, say, 17 continuous minutes of Muzak, but for some reason the company thinks it's better this way." In "More of The Straight Dope", another reader adds further details: "[...] You know that in most places Muzak is on for 15 minutes and off for 15 minutes, which the company says is 'better' in some undefined way. Actually, '15 minutes on/15 minutes off' is the result of some early technical limitations." "Until recently, Muzak programming was distributed in large reels of tape to franchises around the world. Tapes were programmed with music appropriate to the time of day, but early tape players were not terribly accurate at holding constant speed over an eight-hour period (the length of the tape). Slow or fast machines would start to creep the 'dayparts' backward or forward, and after several days, lunchtime music might be heard at breakfast time." "To prevent this, the tapes were programmed in 14-minute segments, and a 25-cycle tone after the last tune made the playback machine 'park'. The next 14-minute segment started when a 15-minute clock closed a switch. A slow machine might play the segment in 14 1/2 minutes, while a fast machine might get through it in only 13 1/2 minutes. A fast machine would 'park' longer than a slow machine, but overall 8 A.M. music would be heard at 8 A.M. worldwide." "Three Muzak programs were offered: an 'office' program, an 'industrial' program, and a 'public area' program. The first and third segments of each hour's tape were uptempo; the second and fourth segments were more relaxed. Office subscribers had their feeds switched on for only the second and fourth segments, while the industrial subscribers received only the first and third segments. (The originators of this system loved clock switches.) 'Public area' subscribers received all segments." "In some larger cities a separate playback machine with all up-tempo segments fed 'industrial' subscribers during the second and fourth segments (assembly line workers are more productive with bouncy music), but in most places 15 minutes of silence was fed on your line if your program segment wasn't being played by the master tape. There were some complaints about the long periods of silence, so the advertising department 'discovered' through 'psychological tests' that music interspersed with periods of silence was more beneficial than continuous music." -- Jerry M., Hollywood, California. Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Newsbytes on the Oregon BBS Rates Case From: walter@halcyon.com (Walter Scott) Reply-To: walter@halcyon.com Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 06:11:58 PST Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service On 2-5-92, reporter Dana Blankenhorn released a copyrighted exclusive story for Wendy Wood's {Newsbytes} covering the Oregon BBS rates case. What follows is an abstract of that story. Blankenhorn writes: "US West has launched a campaign before the Oregon Public Utility Commission which would force all bulletin board systems (BBSs) in that state to pay business rates on their phone lines." The Newsbytes exclusive also asserts that US West "wants the Oregon PUC to reinterpret its tariff so as to define any phone not answered by a human voice as a business line." Blankenhorn quotes extensively from an apparent interview with SysOp Stewart Anthony Wagner while summarizing the chronology of events in the case. Some folks here might find the chronology and alleged facts to be a bit different from what has been reported in the past. According to Blankenhorn, Portland, Oregon SysOp Tony Wagner attempted to subscribe to extra phone lines so as to expand his BBS from two lines to four, as well as make arrangements for a TDD. It was at this point Wagner was informed he would have to pay business rates on all lines by US West. According to Blankenhorn, US West relented on the voice and TDD lines while maintaining that the BBS lines would have to be classified as business lines. Wagner filed what Blankenhorn calls an "appeal" at the Oregon PUC "for the BBS". Wagner is reported to have closed his BBS almost immediately because he "can't afford it" at business rates, which Blankenhorn states to be around $50 (presumably per month) on each line. Before closing his system, Wagner says he alerted regional SysOps via FidoNet to his plight. Wagner points out that some SysOps chipped in to pay for a lawyer. Blankenhorn quotes Wagner on a so-called "compromise proposal" that "they (US West) come up with a residential data line rate, as an alternate form of service." Wagner's proposal apparently included a guarantee of data quality at a rate that Wagner seems to assess at $5.00 above standard residential rates. Wagner asserts the proposal was rejected. Wagner's comments on the hearing display optimism as he offers the thought that "the hearing went quite well. The tariff says a residential line is for social or domestic purpose. They ignored the social, they talked only about domestic. The BBS is as social as you can get." In a series of quotes from Wagner on what he believes US West is doing, a grim picture is painted for more than BBS operators. For example: Wagner states "there is no question they want to apply this to all SysOps. Their position is that if it's not answered by a human voice, it's a business. A fax machine is a business, to them. So's an answering machine." Wagner spoke of what he might consider a silver lining in his cloudy future as a SysOp when he told Blankenhorn that publicity must be bad for US West. He reinforces this idea by noting "one thing that hurt them (US West) badly was that they picked on me. I'm very hard of hearing. Most of my users are disabled. A large percentage of our SysOps here are disabled. And Mr. Holmes (US West's attorney in the Wagner case) was unprepared for that." Blankenhorn talked with Judith Legg in the hearings section at the Oregon Public Utility Commission concerning the Wagner Case. He reports Legg told him "a hearing was held on the case in January, and US West has already submitted a 17-page brief supporting its position." Hearings Officer Simon Fitch was attributed as informing Newsbytes that Wagner "has until March 3 to file his own brief, after which reply briefs will be sought from both sides." Fitch is also reported to have said a decision in the case is due in late March or early April with final oversight from the Commissioners. Attempts, by Blankenhorn, to contact attorney Steven Holmes at US West were unsuccessful. Apparently, no one else in the company was available for comment. Thus, the {Newsbytes} article contained no synopsis of US West's side of the issues in the Wagner case. Blankenhorn left the door open to a future update by noting information requested from US West would be reported as soon as that information is made available to Newsbytes. So much for the abstract ... A FEW OBSERVATIONS: It seems that Blankenhorn must not have been able to obtain a copy of US West's brief before going to press. Otherwise, Blankenhorn would realize, and could have noted, that US West's comments have no impact on FAX or answering machines. BBS operation in general, and Wagner's BBS in specific, are the myopic focus of the brief. Blankenhorn also could have asked about and cleared up what appears to be a discrepancy between Wagner's apparent indication that he was running his BBS on 2 phone lines at the time he requested new lines, and the repeated references in the US West brief to Wagner's "3" BBS phone lines. Finally, I called Judith Legg myself on 2-6-92 and asked her about the actual timing of the hearing. She informed me that the hearing was indeed in December. In Blankenhorn's defense, Legg admits that she was under the mistaken impression that the hearing took place in January, and that this is probably what she told Blankenhorn. A check of the Oregon PUC's computerized schedules was necessary to clarify the actual hearing date. Walter Scott The 23:00 News and Mail Service - +1 206 292 9048 - Seattle, WA USA PEP, V.32, V.42bis +++ A Waffle Iron, Model 1.64 +++ ------------------------------ From: moon@evax.gdc.com Subject: Re: High Speed Modems and PSTN Date: 7 Feb 92 09:44:03 GMT Organization: General DataComm, Middlebury CT In article , bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com (Bill Garfield) writes: > I am beta testing some high end V.32bis (14.4K bps) asynchronous dial > up modems for a major (U.S.) manufacturer. These are of course > intended to be used over PSTN circuits. [stuff deleted] > With both modems calling intra-office, inside a Mitel SX2000SG, (also > a digital machine) the two modems work flawlessly with each other, > never missing a beat. Between two networked Mitel SG's on copper > T-1's using Mitel's version of ISDN (MSDN), we still do not see any of > the symptoms. > Only when venturing out on the PSTN do the problems begin to randomly > show up. I'm lost as to what could be happening, and the modem Well, one possibility (which has been discussed here before) is digital frame slips. These look like huge phase hits to the modem. Slips are caused by improper synchronization of digital transmission facilities or switches. They are usaully imperceptable on voice calls. About the only way to prove that they are happening is to put a TIMS (transmission impairment measuring set) on both ends of the connection and look for phase hits greater than 40 degrees. The average telco craftsperson probably won't know what you're talking about. Try to get to the telco engineers. Of course there are other possibilities: very high or low signal levels, poorly designed hybrid in the modem, etc. Do several different brands of modem have the same problem? How about FAX? If the problem is slips it should cause errors in FAXs. Good luck! David Moon Internet: moon@evax.gdc.com General Datacomm, Inc. ATTMail: !dmoon Middlebury, CT 06762 (203) 758 1811 FAX: (203) 755 0896 ------------------------------ From: rlatham@hpmail1.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com (Russ Latham) Subject: Re: Information Wanted About 2600 Magazine Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 10:09:32 CST > I saw a reference to a magazine called "2600", which I assume is for > phone-phreaks. Can anyone provide a subscription address. It sounds > like a hoot! The magazine is not directed towards 'phone-phreaks'. It is a magazine that I would say is for 'hackers'. As an example, one of the back issues has an article on how to crack passwords on a UNIX based system, via an automated program. Some of the followup letters (to the editor) about the article showed that a lot of system administrators were using it to check the security of their local system. They list an email address in their magazine as: 2600@well.sf.ca.us I sent a request for info about subscriptions, and the following is what I received: 2600 Magazine is published quarterly, 48 pages per issue. Subscriptions are $21 U.S. for a year in the U.S. and Canada, $30 overseas. Corporate subscriptions are $50 and $65 respectively. Back issues are available for $25 per year, $30 per year overseas and they go back to 1984. Our address is: 2600, PO Box 752, Middle island, NY 11953. Phone number: 516-751-2600. FAX: 516-751-2608. [Individual issues from 1988 on are $6.25 each.] russ latham rlatham@mailbox.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com motorola, inc - or - ft worth, texas !uunet!mailbox.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com!rlatham ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 21:15:57 GMT From: pine_ridge%oak.span@Sdsc.Edu Subject: Re: Information Wanted Ahout 2600 Magazine Try: 2600 Magazine P.O. Box 752 Middle Island, NY 11953 If you're in New York, you can drop by and meet with 2600 subscribers, staff, FBI agents, etc. They meet the first Friday of each month at the Citicorp Center, from 5 to 8 p.m. in the lobby near the payphones. [ I, of course, know nothing about these evil, commie hackers. I just saw this information somewhere ;-) ] Brad Dolan B.DOLAN GEnie N4VHH -------------------- Organization: Penn State University Date: Friday, 7 Feb 1992 07:15:37 EST From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: Looking For TDD Information In article , steveh@rtsg.mot.com (Steve M. Hoffman) says: > I'm looking for details on TDD. The telecom-archives contains the following file that points you to other files in that archive. Pete (pmw1@vm.psu.edu) Volume 10, Issue 102 of the Digest, dated 2/14/90 is devoted mostly to a discussion of TDD machines and services. Most of the information in this issue was provided by Curtis Reid, himself a deaf person. Also see issues 93, 96, and 98 for a few other articles on TDD's. Then, see issue 123 for a further followup, and a dissent on the quality of AT&T's service to deaf persons via 800-855-1155. P. Townson TELECOM Moderator 2-23-90 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #122 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23326; 9 Feb 92 5:09 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04506 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 9 Feb 1992 01:15:32 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07385 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 9 Feb 1992 01:15:08 -0600 Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 01:15:08 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202090715.AA07385@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #120 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Feb 92 01:15:03 CST Volume 12 : Issue 120 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: BBB's 900 Number (Steve Forrette) Re: BBB's 900 Number (William Kucharski) Re: Looking For Number Which Tells me my Phone Number (Pete Tompkins) Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? (John De Armond) Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear (Robert S. Helfman) Re: Cellular Phones and Safety (Steve Forrette) Re: TouchTone Charges (Richard Foulk) Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities (Gil Kloepfer, Jr.) Re: IP Connection via ISDN (Jim Rees) Re: Rotary Callers Go Home! (Bill Nelson) Re: France's Minitel Service (Wolf Paul) Re: COCOT Information Wanted (John R. Levine) Re: Party Not Answering Phone (Jon Krueger) Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software (ito@nttslb.ntt.jp) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 15:39:10 pst From: Steve Forrette Subject: Re: BBB's 900 Number Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article is written: > Well, 900 numbers IMHO have reached a new low. Here in New York, the > Better Business Bureau has set up a 900 number (85 cents per minute) > through which you can check the record of a company you intend to do > business with, or file a complaint. In the past, wasn't this free? > [Moderator's Note: Yes, in the past it was free. Likewise, the > corporate records telephone look-up service offered by most state > governments was free, as was the public library telephone reference > service for lookups from the local criss-cross directory in most > towns. Many phone look-up services are now using 900 numbers. PAT] Another troubling 900 number I saw the other day was one that, for only 95 cents a minute, would tell you all about USPS rates and regulations. I'm not sure if this was run by the USPS itself or by Pitney-Bowes, but there must be a lot of uninformed people out there for this to make money. After all, the USPS operates their "Postal Answer Line" automated system in most cities that has hundreds of categories of information available, all for a local call. And they even have real people at the post offices that you can call to ask questions! (Imagine that!) Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: kucharsk@Solbourne.COM (William Kucharski) Subject: Re: BBB's 900 Number Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc., Longmont, CO Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 23:53:12 GMT While reading article , I noticed that schuster@panix.com (Michael Schuster) said the following: > Well, 900 numbers IMHO have reached a new low. Here in New York, the > Better Business Bureau has set up a 900 number (85 cents per minute) > through which you can check the record of a company you intend to do > business with, or file a complaint. In the past, wasn't this free? I guess the real question I'd like answered is whether this 900 number is the ONLY way to get that information from the BBB, or whether it's just made more convenient. The BBB is a very helpful agency, and if you call most BBB offices they'll look up information for you, but it usually takes a while if the phone isn't busy. It would be really nice if the 900 number has multiple operators with actual computer terminals rather than the standard employee checking a file cabinet. William Kucharski, Solbourne Computer, Inc. | Opinions expressed above Internet: kucharsk@solbourne.com Ham: N0OKQ | are MINE alone, not those Snail Mail: 1900 Pike Road, Longmont, CO 80501 | of Solbourne Computer, Inc. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 10:18:30 PST From: tompknis@ttidca.tti.COM Subject: Re: Looking For Number Which Tells me my Phone Number As was discussed here awhile back, 10732-1-404-988-9664 repeats back the ANI. It adds an '8' to the end, at least for my phones in Southern California (310 area code). Presumably, 10732 is a special use AT&T access code, which according to one or more people in the Digest, is unbilled. My calls are recent enough that I have not seen a telephone bill to confirm that. Pete Tompkins ------------------------------ From: jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) Subject: Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? Date: Wed, 05 Feb 92 21:15:49 GMT Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access. The Mouth of the South. edg@netcom.netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) writes: > Radio Shack has a P/N 26-3818 that is an accoustic coupler. I haven't > found one in a store yet. They go for about $50. My US Robotics > Worldport 2400 baud modem is said to be able to use this at 1200 baud, > which I will believe when I see. A company called Konexx makes a series of very slick couplers that will do up to V.32 under good conditions (ie, electronic microphone in the handset.) The model 203 sells for $149 and is about the size of the receiver. It supplies loop current from a nine volt battery for those modems that need it. Though they only guarantee 2400 bps through a payphone, I have a client who regularly uses his with payphones and a v.32 modem. Phone numbers are 619 277 3300 or 619 277 3305 (FAX). John De Armond, WD4OQC Rapid Deployment System, Inc. Marietta, Ga jgd@dixie.com ------------------------------ From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 00:56:52 GMT In article meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) writes: > Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by > ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? There was a blind computer science student at UC Riverside back in the 1970's who had perfect pitch and could not only recognize the DTMF combinations, he could whistle them (one at a time, of course). ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 17:27:17 pst From: Steve Forrette Subject: Re: Cellular Phones and Safety Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article Dineh Davis writes: > Could someone tell me if any studies have been conducted on the > relationship between driver safety and the use of cellular phones in > cars? I know there are several bills pending in various states to > regulate the use of phones in moving vehicles. Beyond that, I'm > drawing a blank. Any information will be appreciated. About five years ago, the California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) did a study on just this subject. The result was that people with cellular phones on average drove about twice the number of miles per year as the average person, and were involved in about half as many accidents. I believe that this was attributed to the type of person that, generally speaking, owned a cellular phone, rather than that talking on the phone actually improving driving skill. But it convinced the legislature that if they wanted to improve highway safety, that going after cellular users was not the way to go. As far as my personal expreiences go, I find that I tend to get distracted when talking on the handset while driving. I have to make it a point to pay attention to driving. It is interesting to note that this does not happen when I use the hands-free. After all, I can talk to passengers while driving just fine. I think it is more related to being accustomed to not paying attention to what I'm looking at when holding the landline phone at home or office. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 16:52:39 HST From: richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) Subject: Re: TouchTone Charges Organization: Pegasus, Honolulu >> ...in California, touch tone service is now accepted as a standard >> method of subscriber signaling and does not carry any premium >> charges. Now if the rest of the country would come around... > It has been years (10 +/- ?) since an extra charge for TTS was allowed > in Nebraska. The story, as I recall hearing, went something like > this: > The PUC ordered Northwestern Bell Telephone Company to provide > documentation enumerating their COST for providing TouchTone service -- > a $1.20/month option. The best they could come up with was 7-cents!! If anyone else has anecdotes or information on this topic I'd appreciate hearing from you. Hawaiian Tel is still charging $1.65/month for Touch Tone service -- it would be nice to stop that sillyness. (I just called them recently about their $1.10/month charge for maintaining a "non-published listing". They gave more the story that all the non-pub entries had to be typed in once each month by warm-bodies ...) Is Touch Tone really cheaper than pulse as some have said? Richard Foulk richard@pegasus.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1992 20:52:47 -0600 From: "Gil Kloepfer Jr." Subject: Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities Organization: Southwest Systems Development Labs, Houston, TX In scott@asd.com (Scott Barman) writes: > ...how technologically behind most of the COs on Long Island are > and that NY Tel would have to do a major overhaul and replace switches > to provide some of these new services. Where are *YOU* on Long Island???? At least in many spots on L.I., at least where I used to live, we were running on DMS-100s. I know that Central Islip was on a 5ESS. I remember the day they cut-over to the DMS-100 at my parents' house in Islip. I picked up the phone and got a dial tone which sounded "different" (and there was no background hum). I remember telling my parents about the fact "we were digital now" and they seemed very unimpressed ... As I recall, you can dial the first three-digits of your phone number with 9901 on the end (ie. NNX-9901) and in most exchanges you get a recording telling you the exchange and type of equipment (for example, dialing (516) 665-9901 will say, "You have reached the Bay Shore DMS serving [blah blah blah].") This may have changed since I moved to Texas a year and a half ago. Gil Kloepfer, Jr. gil@limbic.ssdl.com ...!ames!limbic!gil ------------------------------ From: rees@dabo.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) Subject: Re: IP Connection via ISDN Reply-To: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Organization: University of Michigan IFS Project Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 03:43:50 GMT In article , ernst@cs.tu-berlin.de (Ernst Kloecker) writes: > Now that ISDN services are becoming more and more available, there > should be a way to establish an IP connection via ISDN, using a method > similar to SLIP or PPP on serial lines. There is no standard yet. Some people are advocating PPP. We're using IP over frame relay here. No one has seriously suggested SLIP. You can use as many B channels as you have access to. We generally use one or two. We can also configure the lines so that the connection gets torn down after some period of inactivity, and set up again the next time a packet gets queued up to go out. Setting up a connection is very fast, usually less than a second, but that's within the same switch (a 5ESS). There's an "IP over ISDN" mailing list for people working in this area. I don't have the address right here. ------------------------------ From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) Subject: Re: Rotary Callers Go Home! Date: 5 Feb 92 23:44:45 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon, USA peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) / 6:44 am Jan 13, 1992 / writes: >> And where will that leave my 235G three-slot rotary coin phone? I'll >> have to go shopping for a rotary-to-tone converter! > You will probably be able to buy them as surplus from the phone > company by then, if you're willing to provide the undoubtedly weird > electrical environment they expect. Probably not that weird. Most telco equipment runs on -48vdc. You would probably be able to find power supplies as surplus also. Bill ------------------------------ From: Wolf.Paul@rcvie.co.at (Wolf Paul) Subject: Re: France's Minitel Service Reply-To: Wolf.Paul@rcvie.co.at (Wolf Paul) Organization: Alcatel Austria - Elin Research Center, Vienna Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 08:28:19 GMT In article hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > Once they gave away the terminals, who owns them? Who is > responsible for maintenance? As modem technology changes, are they > adopting the newer technologies, or staying with the old to maintain > compatibility (I seem to remember a lot of European stuff using FSK > modems with something like 1200 bps to the user and 150 bps from the > user). Actually, 1200/75. Still being used for services like Minitel, Prestel (UK), and BTX, but 1200/1200 and 2400/2400 is also available most places, for those who use more advanced dedicated terminals or their PCs to access the services. 1200/75 still makes sense when you use a terminal which has no upload capability anyway. > How do private information suppliers like the telephone company > competing with them? What private information suppliers? The telecom industry in much of Europe is still monopoly-oriented, and there are few private information suppliers. The ones that exist use Minitel/Prestel/BTX, as well as X.25, as the medium through which customers can access their services. Now of course there are lots of people who dislike the monopoly situation for one reason or another, but that's a different issue. Wolf N. Paul, Computer Center wnp@rcvie.co.at A L C A T E L Alcatel-Elin Research Center +43-1-391621-122 (w) +43-1-391452 (fax) Ruthnergasse 1-7 ELIN RESEARCH A-1210 Vienna-Austria/Europe +43-1-2246913 (h) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: COCOT Information Wanted Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 6 Feb 92 16:44:55 EST (Thu) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) > Though COCOT's have received "bad press" in this group, I'm in the > position of wanting one to install in a small shopping plaza here in > central Connecticut that my relatives own. Isn't Connecticut one of the few sensible states that have outlawed COCOTs? I know I've never seen one there. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 18:44:44 -0800 From: jpk@Ingres.COM (Jon Krueger) Reply-To: jpk@Ingres.COM Organization: Ingres Division, ASK Computer Systems. Subject: Re: Party Not Answering Phone In article TELECOM Moderator notes: > [Larry King] was letting the incoming lines ring for 30-40 minutes > at a time; AT&T circuits were in use all that time on a non-revenue > basis; and AT&T finally got tired of King's abuse of the network. I admit to ignorance here, please enlighten me. What exactly that AT&T owns is tied up and unavailable to sell to someone else when the phone is ringing but no one picks it up? Jon Krueger jpk@ingres.com [Moderator's Note: What is unavailable all that time is the common equipment in the central office used for ringing and switching of calls. A certain amount of equipment is shared among subscribers for the purpose of call set up. In addition, circuits between central offices are shared by all subscribers. If one subscriber is on the line, (whether actually talking or waiting for an answer or hearing a busy signal and getting ready to disconnect) then other subscribers cannot use that circuit or equipment. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 13:28:37 +0900 From: ito@nttslb.ntt.jp rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com(Ron Dippold) writes: > Comparing CDMA software to FM software is pretty much like comparing > the control software for a USR Dual Standard modem to a 300 bps modem. > You get far better performance in exchange for more complexity. If this is true, I can say that, 1) the size of CDMA software is pretty bigger than FM software; 2) As consequence, the memory of CDMA hardware have to be bigger than that of FM; 1) and 2) concludes that the CDMA mobile phone is bigger than that of FM. This is inconvenient for users. As for FM software, base station software must manage the frequency resource, but CDMA needs not. I can conclude that FM is more complex than CDMA. Why is CDMA software more complex than FM software? ito ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #120 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29031; 10 Feb 92 2:00 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27439 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 00:05:18 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17517 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 00:05:07 -0600 Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 00:05:07 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202100605.AA17517@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #123 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Feb 92 00:04:57 CST Volume 12 : Issue 123 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Massachsetts DPU Approves ISDN (Middlesex News via Adam M. Gaffin) Michigan Gets CLASS (Ken Jongsma) 900 Phone Guide Magazine (Ken Jongsma) Czechoslovakia Joins the Internet (Richard Budd) NY Telephone Horrors (Steve Baumgarten) 411 is Now a Profit Center in Texas (Gregg E. Woodcock) Availability of SAW Correlators? (Ben Moore) CB RFI Prevents Datacomm (mission!randy@uunet.uu.net) Bell Canada Employee Newspaper (Nigel Allen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: adamg@world.std.com (Adam M. Gaffin) Subject: Massachusetts DPU Approves ISDN Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1992 20:02:41 GMT Here are some of the charges reflected in the story that follows: NETel wanted to charge $8 a month for 9600-baud access. The DPU lowered that to $6.60. There's a marginal cost of $3.30. For the high-speed line, NET wanted to charge $75 a month, which the DPU lowered to $50 (with a marginal cost of $38). The DPU reduced monthly rates for circuit-switched data from $22 to $5 (and ordered the same reduction for "alt. voice/ data"). The DPU made a couple of other minor changes in the company's proposed rates for various services, but basically agreed with NET's rate request. Unfortunately, I don't know what the DPU did with per-minute or per-packet rates, since I couldn't drive into Boston, and I hard a hard enough time getting them just to fax me the three pages of monthly base charges (DON'T talk to me about certain Massachsetts state agencies :-) ) Middlesex News, Framingham, MA. 2/8/92 By Adam Gaffin NEWS STAFF WRITER FRAMINGHAM - State officials yesterday (Friday) approved a proposal by New England Telephone to offer a high-speed data network to customers in Framingham and Marlboro. Known as an "integrated services digital network," the system offers transmission speeds of more than 5,000 characters a second and allows customers to tap into the power of phone-company central offices. The two communities will be among the first in the state to get the new service. The system has another, cheaper line built in that can transmit data at speeds of around 1,000 characters per second. This compares to the roughly 240 characters per second that can be transmitted by the modems most commonly in home use. The department ordered the company to reduce its monthly rate for the lower-speed component, the one most likely to be used by consumers, from $8 to $6.60 a month. It also ordered steep reductions in proposed rates for certain high-speed services more likely to be used by larger companies. The ruling represents a partial victory for critics who had charged the company would be making an exorbitant profit at the expense of the public and competitors. The company's original rate request was opposed by Prodigy Services Corp. of White Plains, N.Y., which runs a national consumer-oriented computer network, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation of Cambridge. Both argued that, while ISDN is a valuable technology, New England Telephone's proposed rates would have priced it out of the consumer market. The phone company argued that few consumers would likely want to connect to the service because ISDN converter boxes currently cost upwards of $700; critics said the price would drop rapidly, similar to what has happened with modems, with availability of high-speed all- digital service. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is pushing for creation of a national ISDN sytem. The company will be able to offer the service through existing phone lines. In addition to high-speed data transmission, ISDN will let companies do such things as using phone-company central-switching computers as switchboards, rather than having to buy their own. Adam Gaffin Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass. adamg@world.std.com Voice: (508) 626-3968. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: (508) 872-8461. ------------------------------ Subject: Michigan Gets CLASS Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 12:55:59 EST From: Ken Jongsma According to an AP article, parts of Michigan will soon have CallerID along with the other usual CLASS features. Michigan Bell is taking advantage of the State's new telecommunications bill which greatly limits the PUCs ability to regulate MiBell activities. Caller ID will be offered for $6.50 per month. Per call blocking only will be allowed. The MiBell PR rep was quoted as saying that although only calls originating within the LATA (and from MiBell) will be displayed initially, "... long distance companies are very interested in this." Detroit will get CLASS on March 1, followed later by Jackson and Ann Arbor. Grand Rapids will not be upgraded until some time in 1993. MiBell expects between one and seven percent of its customers to sign up for CallerID and calls that "popular." No mention of the split between business and residential subscribers. Ken Jongsma ken@wybbs.mi.org Smiths Industries jongsma@benzie.si.com Grand Rapids, Michigan 73115.1041@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Subject: 900 Phone Guide Magazine Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 18:22:29 EST From: Ken Jongsma I received an interesting "magazine" in the mail today. It's about the size of a {TV Guide}, 54 pages long. On the cover is a picture of Bart Simpson shilling his Happy Birthday line. About 90% of the content is advertising for various Information Providers ranging from Hilton Hotels "Weekend" line, to Global Releaf ($5), to the usual Astrology, Weather, Dow Jones, and other types of lines. The cover has a price of .95 per quarterly issue. The editorial content is heavily slanted towards the "try this number" article, but one story did go into the departure of Sprint from providing billing and the demise of Telesphere. Interestingly enough, there was no reference to any of the "adult" lines. Those came in a catalog from Leisure Time Industries that I also received today! Almost all of those lines were 800 types that required a credit card number. The number for Phone Guide is 818 347-9902, published by Stephan Simon in Woodland Hills, CA. Ken Jongsma ken@wybbs.mi.org Smiths Industries jongsma@benzie.si.com Grand Rapids, Michigan 73115.1041@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 09 Feb 92 14:13:57 EST From: Richard Budd Subject: Czechoslovakia Joins the Internet There will be a ceremony February 13 in Prague to inaugurate Internet service in Czechoslovakia. Steve Goldstein reported this today in the EUEARN-L discussion group. The Federal Science and Education Network has been working to bring the CSFR's university computer network, CSEARN into the Internet. When I posted last week my request for information about Prague students connecting to an American BBS, there were many questions about whether Czechoslovakia had Internet. Neither the Hudson Valley schools nor the Prague gymnasia have Internet yet, but it is certainly a future objectiv especially with this announcement. BTW, the Poughkeepsie/Prague Electronic Exchange went on-line today with two high schools in the Hudson Valley establishing a connection with one gymnasium in Prague. The Prague school had been on-line since November, 1991. Richard Budd | E-Mail: Internet-rcbudd@rhqvm19.vnet.ibm.com VM Systems Programmer | Bitnet -klub@maristb.bitnet 139 South Hamilton Street | Phone: Daytime -(914) 759-3746 Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 | Evening -(914) 454-5803 Coordinates: LAT 41d 41m 30s N LONG 73d 56m 00s W Node Location: Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Feb 92 19:39:15 EST From: sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten) Subject: NY Telephone Horrors As a resident of Brooklyn, I concur with the recent messages about the horrific state of NY Telephone's physical plant. Yet as if to add insult to injury, we are bombarded day and night with commercials about the New York Telephone Regional Calling Area, and just how wonderful it is. According to the commercials, we can call from Manhattan to Montauk and have our call serviced entirely by New York Telephone. Personally, I don't understand why NY Tel is allowed to waste our money on these pointless advertisements; after all, it's rather like Con Edison telling us that we can use any electrical appliance we like and all the electricity will be provided by Con Ed. Since we can do nothing about this situation, and have no choice in the matter, who really cares? Yet NY Tel persists in throwing our money away on expensive television and print advertising. Worse still, anyone even remotely knowledgable about telephone rates knows that just calling from Brooklyn to the middle of Long Island (perhaps 20 miles away) costs more than calling from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (and likely Nova Scotia and probably even Moonbase Alpha once we finally start colonizing the outer worlds). On occasion, NY Tel likes to remind us that they have enough fiber optic cable to stretch around the world three times, or something equally as pointless. This may well be true, but I suspect that all that cable is just lying in a heap in a warehouse somewhere, as there is certainly no fiber optic cable anywhere near *my* neighborhood. I will refrain from posting the typical NY Tel horror stories about getting additional lines, or getting existing lines serviced in a halfway intelligent fashion. About the best I can say is that when things get really rough, a quick call to the Public Service Commission always gets a speedy and obsequious response. Caller ID will be something for my children to worry about; in the meantime, I pay nearly as much for dialtone as I do for basic cable television. Now let's see how that works: Time Warner Cable strung brand new wire into my neighborhood and my apartment just a few years ago and now charges me just about the same as the telephone company does for service over wire that was laid in 1904. I don't pretend to understand the economics of the situation, except to note that Congress is currently thinking of regulating the cable industry because of its outrageous prices. This leads me to believe that the RBOCs have invested more in their lobbying efforts than the cable industry; it warms my heart to know that some of my $18 basic monthly phone bill is going to help regulate my cable company. I suspect that once someone allows Time Warner to offer dialtone, they'll have to work overtime to sign up half the disgruntled ratepayers from Manhattan to Montauk ... Steve Baumgarten sbb@panix.com ------------------------------ From: "Gregg E. Woodcock" Subject: 411 is Now a Profit Center in Texas Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 13:38:23 -0600 After many months (years?) of negotiations with the PUC about how to fix the spiraling costs of directory assistance, SouthWestern Bell has done something seemingly futile but incredibly successful! They had planned to start charging (10 cents?) from payphones to make up for the losses incurred but were turned down so they tried something else. Expect to see this appear in your area within the next month or two since this feature could probably be programmed in two or three days. The feature works like this: After reading you the number you requested, you are prompted with the following message, "If you want to have this number dialed automatically without hanging up press 1 now. You will be charged thirty cents." This is paraphrased, of course, but you get the idea. The truly amazing thing is that in the few weeks since the feature has been introduced, they are averaging a usage rate of 14,000 per day. A radio blurb I heard said they expect to earn $10 million a year!!! I dialed a number that had been changed and was not prompted to push 1 to automatically dial the new number but I expect that will change soon! This is quite a sad commentary on how lazy our socity has become (I know, maybe you don't have pen/paper handy, maybe you are blind ...) ------------------------------ From: MOOREB@ul.ie Subject: Availability of SAW Correlators? Date: 7 Feb 92 16:31:44 GMT Organization: University of Limerick, Ireland I am currently developing a Spread Spectrum Receiver for a System using Direct Sequence Modulation. Does anybody have any information regarding Surface Acoudtic Wave (SAW) Correlators and their availability. Most SAW companies dont seem willing to supply such devices. Thanking you in advance. Ben Moore University of Limerick Limerick ireland Tel :- +353-61-333644 FAX :- +353-61-330316 Email :- Mooreb@ul.ie ------------------------------ From: mission!randy@uunet.uu.net Subject: CB RFI Prevents Datacomm Date: Fri Feb 7 15:24:40 1992 Thanks for everyone who responded (personally and in Telecom) to my post regarding my friend's plight. As it turns out, the CB was powered-down and in the shop, and the CBer on a scallop boat, and yet my friend still couldn't even get 300 baud to work. He called C&P repair, and they came out and said there was nothing wrong with his inside wiring, and they'd check out the outside lines. A few days later he gets four messages on his machine from C&P repair -- two saying they found nothing wrong, and two saying they were replacing the drop wire to his house. After the drop wire was replaced, he noticed very bad crosstalk. (He figures he just couldn't hear it over the static before.) Repair then replaced the line from the pole to the street (they said there were two squirel-chewed holes), and the noise problems are better, but not gone. The other day, he came home and found his landlord had let C&P repair in to his apartment, and they had replaced a cheapo phone he had in the kitchen, and left him a bill for $60! The phone was crap, but he rarely used it and it wasn't causing any problems (repair has already determined that). He is trying to get this mess straightened out as well as the noise problems. One odd thing is that he hears the noise much worse than his callers, and if he dials in to MCI Mail (for example) he can send a message that has no junk in it, but he can't read it or the MCI prompts -- all he sees on his screen is garbage. Why would that be? Also, he says the noise is worse when he calls a local number served by the same switch. Again, thanks for all the helpful suggestions. If anyone has any additional help, my friend would really appreciate it. Randy ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 10:29:48 -0500 From: Nigel.Allen@f438.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Nigel Allen) Subject: Bell Canada Employee Newspaper Reply-to: nigel.allen%f438.n250.z1.fidonet.org@eastern.com Reading a telephone company's staff newspaper offers some interesting perspectives on the company's internal propaganda efforts, and sometimes provides advance information before the general public gets to hear about a new telephone company initiative. (For example, Dave Leibold found out about the 416/905 area code split through a Bell Canada employee newspaper well before Bell Canada announced it officially.) Bell Canada publishes two employee newspapers, both called Bell News. The Ontario edition can be picked up at some Bell buildings in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario. (Bell's Ontario Region Public Affairs department ignored my request to be added to the mailing list for Bell News. I think Bell has serious problems with Ontario Region Public Affairs.) However, subscriptions to the Quebec edition of Bell News are available free of charge. Just write to: Bell News Bell Canada Tour Bell Canada, 2S2 700, rue de La Gauchetiere ouest Montreal, Quebec Canada H3B 4L1 telephone (514) 870-7598 fax (514) 391-1487 French-speaking readers may prefer to request the French-language Journal Bell from the same address. Nigel Allen - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Nigel.Allen@f438.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #123 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa01285; 10 Feb 92 2:52 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19942 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 01:07:26 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12836 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 01:07:15 -0600 Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 01:07:15 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202100707.AA12836@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #124 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Feb 92 01:07:05 CST Volume 12 : Issue 124 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Class Codes (John Gilbert) What the ^&$%# is Going on With Sprint!?? (Jack Winslade) Low-Cost Voice Synth Chip Needed (Douglas Scott Reuben) Query For a Friend (Jack Decker) Telecoms in Eastern Europe (Julian Macassey) Low-Bandwith Free Info Transfer? (Yanek Martinson) Information Wanted on "Smart Phone" (Alec Isaacson) Telephone Company Creates Bad Neighbor Feelings (Thomas Lapp) Tele-Scum (They're Back ...) (Steven Rezsutek) Question From a D.A. Operator (Carl Moore) Serving You Better (Stephanie da Silva) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: johng@mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Class Codes Organization: Motorola, Inc. LMPS Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1992 05:42:14 GMT Here are some old and some new commands for activation of telephone features. LASS and Custom Calling Feature Control Codes: (These appear to be standard, but may be changed locally) *57 Customer Orignated Trace (COT) Activation *60 Selective Call Rejection (SCR) Activation *61 Selective Distinctive Alerting (SDA) Activation *62 Selective Call Acceptance (SCA) Activation *63 Selective Call Forwarding (SCF) Activation *65 ICLID Activation (caller ID) *66 Automatic Recall (AR) Activation *67 Call Privacy Toggle *68 Computer Access Restriction Toggle *69 AC Activation *70 Call waiting disable *71 Ring, no-answer forward activation *72 Call forwarding immediate Activation *73 Call forwarding Deactivation *74 Speed call 8 program *80 SCR Deactivation *81 SDA Deactivation *82 SCA Deactivation *83 SCF Deactivation *85 ICLID Deactivation *86 AR Deactivation *89 AC Deactivation John Gilbert KA4JMC Secure and Advanced Conventional Sys Div Astro Systems Development Motorola Inc, Land Mobile Products Sector Schaumburg, Illinois johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 23:26:29 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: What the ^&$%# is Going on With Sprint!?? Reply-To: jsw@drbbs.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha About three years ago I established a 'second carrier' account with Sprint. The primary reason was that at the time the AT&T connections to Harrisburg were flaky at best for 9600bps connections. (Back then it sounded like they had some older analog equipment in that path.) Sprint worked fine to Hbg and since then I've used it for most of the data calls. We poll a site in Iowa City, about 250 miles to the east, every night at 2300 or so. Wednesday night I was sitting in the 'throne room' when I heard the modem dial out. (No, I cannot decode touch-tones by ear, but I can recognize strings of numbers if they are repeated many times. ;-) I knew something was wrong when I was jolted from my seat with a raucous dee-dee-dee-dee-beeeeeeeeeee-SCREEEEEEEECH-BBBUZZZZzzzzz- SCREEEEECH ... instead of the normal v.32bis train and connect. I saw that the modems were continuously retraining so I killed the session and started it again. Same thing. I quickly edited the carrier code in the dialing script to send the call through AT&T. That time the session was perfect. I kind of dismissed it as one of those things. I changed the script back to the Sprint code and called it the next night. Thursday night shortly after 2300 I walked in and found the modem in a seemingly infinite retry-and- retrain loop polling the Iowa City site. Again, I had good luck with AT&T. I figured I should report this to Sprint. This was the first time I have ever had reason to deal with Sprint's customer service. This morning I phoned the Sprint customer service line. After the mandatory MOH, I explained that I was having difficulty with the quality of calls between Omaha and Iowa City, but that I would like to speak to a technical person directly to explicitly explain the problem. At first the rep balked but I insisted, so she said that a technician would call me shortly to discuss the problem. She asked me the number the failed calls were from , a number at which I could be reached , and the number I was calling on the failed call. I explained that I could give her the area code and prefix now, but I would have to hunt down the line number and could either call back with it, give it to the technician, or they could look it up in the call records. I also explained that both sub-CO loops were fine, since I had repeated the calls with AT&T and got a perfect connection each time. I also asserted that I wanted to get the order going on this call and did not want to call back, wade through the menu, listen to MOH, etc. The rest of the call went something like this ... repeat say('I cannot enter this report without that information') until (customer_threatens_to_switch_to_AT&T); then say('Yes, sir. We'll have a technician call you shortly'); Ahhhh, Yes! The magic word to break out of the loop is 'AT&T'. :-( 1600: I realized that nobody had returned my call, so I phoned Sprint to see what was going on. (No MOH this time must be a slow Friday afternoon.) I was first told that no technician could be found to handle the problem. As the call progressed I was told that the order could not be processed because it was incomplete. When I noted the fact that the earlier rep had entered it anyway, I was again told that they were unable to locate a technician, but promised four hour response time. (0900 -> after 1600) The rep apologized for the delay, and said that a technician would be getting in touch with me shortly. 1900: Watched a session go through (via Sprint) to Falls Church, Va. It went fine, as did several calls to Falls Church via Sprint over same period I have been having difficulty with the calls to Iowa City. 2000: (Four hours after my followup call) Still no word from Sprint. The second rep had assured me that they did work at night and they would follow up on this within four hours. 2300: On a hunch, and just for the heck of it, I changed the dialing script back to put Sprint's prefix in. I figured that if the session barfed, I could simply refuse to pay for that call, as I intend to for the calls that failed over the past few days. Will wonders ever cease ?? I dunno what they did, but the problem magically disappeared between last night and tonight. I have no idea if it was prompted by my complaint, or if they noticed it from something else, or if it is >REALLY< fixed for good at all. I guess time will tell. [Moderator's Note: A few lines garbled in transmission were lost at this point ... then he continues ...] If there are some Sprint management types listening in, I hope you realize that you have some rather serious image problems in your customer service area. As you know, I am not the only one who has complained here. The technical problems I can deal with, but the robot-like responses of your front-line people and the non- responsiveness (twice) today made me seriously think about cancelling the account and turning the business over to AT&T. (They are a bit more expensive, I admit, but the one time I had to call their customer service line, they had a professional real-human rep and no ^&$%#$ MOH.) Enough ranting for now. Good day. JSW ------------------------------ Date: 8-FEB-1992 01:06:34.30 From: Douglas Scott Reuben Subject: Low-Cost Voice Synth Chip Needed I recently obtained a Digitalker DT-1050 Voice Synthesis kit, for about $30. It uses a SPC- MM54104 chip. Is there anything comparable in voice quality to this (or better) but at a lower cost? I anticipate using a good number of these (20 or so), and $30 a shot is a bit steep. If anyone has any suggestions, please mail me ... Thanks in advance! Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Feb 92 14:48:17 CST From: Jack Decker Subject: Query For a Friend A friend of mine called today, and he is looking for a source for either of the following two items: 1) Refurbished Toshiba Perception telephone equipment ... preferably he is looking for a source that can supply not only refurbished equipment, but also some technical knowledge (if you know of a source for either the equipment OR the expertise, please let me know). 2) Those anti-twist devices used on telephone handsets to keep the cord from twisting ... apparently they want to buy a quantity of these items (maybe around 200 of them, they're even talking about using them as promotional giveaways). Also ... if any of you get any magagines or newsletters that regularly contain advertisements from sellers of refurbished telephone equipment, subscription/contact information for the magazine would be appreciated. If you know of any good sources, please send mail to me. Jack Decker jack@myamiga.mixcom.com FidoNet 1:154/8 ------------------------------ From: julian%bongo.UUCP@nosc.mil (Julian Macassey) Subject: Telecoms in Eastern Europe Date: 10 Feb 92 02:57:00 GMT Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood California U.S.A. What did Comrade Joesph Stalin have to say about that tool of capitalist commerce, the telephone? "I can think of no better instrument of counter-revolution." How right he was, as recent developments in the communist world have shown. Mind you TV and radio helped as well as the FAX machine. There is a good article on "Telecommunications in Eastern Europe" in the current {Economist} magazine (Feb 8-14 issue P74). It discusses the situation in the East and discusses the Western Telecom companies that are vying for the business. Yes, besides manufacturers like AT&T and Seimens, the RBOCS are in there. Some of the payment plans are imaginative. But then when it comes to international trade, payment plans can be very imaginative. Anyhow, an informative article in the usual {Economist} style and well worth a read. Julian Macassey, julian@bongo.info.com N6ARE@K6VE.#SOCAL.CA.USA.NA 742 1/2 North Hayworth Avenue Hollywood CA 90046-7142 voice (213) 653-4495 ------------------------------ From: yanek@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (Yanek Martinson) Subject: Low-Bandwith Free Info Transfer? Date: 10 Feb 1992 00:45:40 -0500 Organization: University of Miami Department of Mathematics & Computer Science > In article TELECOM Moderator notes: >> [Larry King] was letting the incoming lines ring for 30-40 minutes ... Idea: suppose a modem calls another modem across the nation, detects RRING, waits a few seconds, and hangs up. The modem on the other end measured number of seconds or rings that the first one waited. The first modem calls back with the next piece of information. This kind of thing would work for transmitting very short messages (about one line for example) when speed is not important. Would this work? Why not? Would it be illegal? By buying phone service, am I not buying the right to ring anyone? yanek@mthvax.cs.miami.edu safe0%yanek@mthvax.cs.miami.edu [Moderator's Note: It probably would work and it definitly would be illegal to pass messages, coded or otherwise without paying for it. And no, when you buy phone service you are not buying the right to 'ring anyone'; you are buying the right to connect your instrument and wire to any other instrument and wire whose owner wishes to communicate with you. The ringing is only the means to signal a pending connection; it is not intended to be a communication in and of itself. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 09 Feb 92 21:43:25 EST From: Alec Isaacson Subject: Information Wanted on "Smart Phone" I was watching the Olympics tonight and I saw a commercial for the "Smart Phone" from AT&T and the Huntington Bank (a local bank here in southwestern Ohio). The commercial said something like "Imagine getting a day's worth of errands done in 20 minutes. The Smart Phone, coming soon from AT&T and Huntington Bank." The phone itself (the short glimpse the commercial gave us of it) has a big LCD touchscreen and a standard Merlin style handset next to it. Has anybody seen something like this before? Is it being advertised anywhere else? Any other details? If I hear any more, and if there is interest, I will post. Thanks. Alec D. Isaacson AI4CPHYW @ miamiu.acs.muohio.edu isaacson @ rogue.acs.muohio.edu (NeXt Mail) Miami University, Oxford, OH ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 18:25:45 EST From: Thomas Lapp Subject: Telephone Company Creates Bad Neighbor Feelings Excerpted from DCL DIALOG, a monthly column in the {DEC Professional}, Feb. 1992, page 94: "... I won't talk about how hard it is for a self-employed independent consultant to get a mortgage these days. (Where's Neil Bush when you need him?) I also won't bring up the fact that it cost me 50% more to have my eight phone lines installed than it did to have a moving company transfer the equivalent of ten rooms of furnishings to our new location. "I won't bore you with the details of how the telephone company managed to effectively short out all of the phones in the neighborhood for two days while doing the installation, or how they destroyed my next-door neighbor's 15-year-old rhododendron bush while putting in the new underground cable. Nothing like memorable first impressions ..." -------- Sorry, the article doesn't tell where the author lives, so we don't know which telco to blame for his mess. :-( I thought the section was interesting. tom internet mvac23!thomas@udel.edu or thomas%mvac23@udel.edu (home) ------------------------------ Subject: Tele-Scum (They're Back ...) Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 10:24:28 -0500 From: steve@endgame.gsfc.nasa.gov After thinking all this time that the plague of tele-marketing, especially the automatic kind, was over, last evening I was given a rude awakening. Upon answering a phone call around 7:00pm, I was greeted by an auto-seller which informed me that "my phone number has been selected ... to find out how you can claim , just call 976-xxxx, or you can write to: National Services, [address forgotten], Pittsburgh, PA." Now they want _me_ to _pay_ to hear their spiel. Don't these guys ever give up? Steven Rezsutek steve@asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov [Moderator's Note: They're back? I never thought they went away! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 13:10:28 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Question From a D.A. Operator Recently, I purchased a small bottle of "sparkling" bottled water. On the bottle was a firm's name followed by "Sweet Springs, WV 24980" and a telephone number on 703-344 prefix (which I recalled, correctly as it turns out, to be Roanoke, VA). I located Sweet Springs on a map, and it's right next door to VA (but Roanoke is not next door to WV.) But when I called 304 directory assistance, I could not find the firm. Then the operator said (this or very similar words): "I know this sounds strange, but do you have the number on the bottle?" I repeated the number from memory, and she echoed back "344" and then disconnected. I take it there have been other requests to DA for that firm. The best guess I can make is that the firm is in Roanoke or nearby, and that Sweet Springs, WV is only the location of the spring where the water was obtained. ------------------------------ From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva) Subject: Serving You Better Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 19:01:13 GMT This morning I called up Sears' 800 number to order a replacement credit card, only to get a recording that said all the service representatives were in a training seminar learning how to serve me even better ... Stephanie da Silva Taronga Park * Houston, Texas arielle@taronga.com 568-0480 568-1032 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #124 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02780; 10 Feb 92 3:23 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09085 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 01:37:40 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17522 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 01:37:31 -0600 Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 01:37:31 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202100737.AA17522@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #125 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Feb 92 01:37:26 CST Volume 12 : Issue 125 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak (Keith Smith) Re: Information Wanted About 2600 Magazine (bbl7597@ritvax.isc.rit.edu) Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software (Ron Dippold) Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software (Keith Smith) Re: Dutch Hackers Arrested; Now in Jail! (Mark Fulk) Re: Dutch Hackers Arrested; Now in Jail! (Ken Emery) Re: 900 Idea of the Future (chris@zeus.calpoly.edu) Re: Accoustic Couplers (David Ptasnik) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 9 Feb 92 13:33:01 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo In his article zank@netcom.netcom.com (Mathew Zank) writes: > Does anyone know about the history of Muzak, the service that brings > office music? All I know is that it is on a sub-channel of a local > FM radio station. From the Broadcasting Yearbook history of broadcasting: Subsidiary FM Service - To aid FM broadcasters, the commission in 1955 enabled them to apply for subsidiary communications authorizations for supplemental services such as background music. Sometimes called "functional music", this specialized service is offered to stores, factories and other business subscribers. Originally, subsidiary communications were permitted on a simplex basis, the station devoting part of the time on its channel to regular broadcasting and part to this specialized service. Later, rules were adopted requiring subsidiary communications to be on a multiplex basis, that is, using one or more subchannels with the main channel used for regular broadcasting. The FCC permits FM broadcasters to use their subcarriers for a broad variety of new services. Looking back in my 1980 FCC Rules, 73.293 required: Programs must be of a broadcast nature which are of interest to limited segments of the public (ie, are point to multipoint). Examples cited include background music, storecasting, detailed weather forecasting, special time signals, special programs for business, professional, educational, religious, trade, labor, agricultural or other groups engaged in any lawful activity. An SCA could also be used for "operational communications" of the station (feeding programming to other stations, giving cues to remote program production units, etc.). A subcarrier could also be used for the station's own transmitter telemetry, though this did not require an SCA (subsidiary communications authorization from the FCC), since it was not a "point to multipoint" service. The rules also made provision for transmission of visual material. I believe they had the "electronic newspaper" in mind, using fax technology of the time. The SCA application had to include full details on the visual transmission system proposed. It's unclear whether digital data transmission would be considered "visual", since it is often displayed or printed. 73.295(b) prohibited the use of subcarrier control signals to delete main channel material (such as commercials). In the early 1970's, I worked for an AM/FM combo. The FM was automated with "beautiful music". I modified the automation to provide a separate program output that consisted of all the music (which came from reel to reel with 25 Hz EOM (end of message) cues) but did not pick up the commercials (which came from tape cartridge "carousels"). We fed this music only service to a few local background music customers over phone lines. 73.319 said that subcarriers (whether SCA or operational) must use frequency modulation. The instantaneous frequency must be between 20 KHz and 75 KHz for stations not transmitting stereo. Stereo stations must keep the instantaneous frequency between 53 and 75 KHz. Subcarrier "injection" (modulation level of the main carrier by subcarriers) was limited to 30% for mono stations and 10% for stereo stations. The center frequency of the subcarrier was to be within 500 Hz of the authorized frequency (most stations used 67 KHz). Now, 73.293 permits FM stations to use subcarriers for a variety of purposes without specific FCC authorization. 73.295 permits subsidiary communications to be used for the purposes listed previously plus radio reading services, specialized foreign language programs, bilingual television audio (although the stereo TV SAP channel has probably replaced this application), and point to point services such as paging, traffic signal control, utility load management, etc. They also specifically recognize data services such as financial market data. 73.319 now allows any method of modulation of subcarriers. Previously, FM was required. Some stations are transmitting multiple audio programs using several single sideband AM subcarriers. Others are using FSK of the subcarrier for data transmission. It would appear that any modem technology (including QAM) could be used, keeping in mind the frequency and noise limitations of the channel. Stations transmitting monaural are now allowed to have the subcarrier carrier and significant sidebands between 20 KHz and 99 KHz. Stereo stations can have sidebands and subcarriers between 53 KHz and 99 KHz. The "injection" of subcarriers is still limited to 10% for stereo stations and 30% for monaural stations. However, stations transmitting subcarriers are now allowed to "overmodulate" slightly (go over 75 KHz peak deviation" depending on the number of subcarriers and their injection levels. Now, AM stations and TV stations are also authorized to run subsidiary communications. TV's generally run subcarriers on their aural carrier (which is FM). This is the basis of the SAP (secondary audio program) and PRO channels. The PRO is generally used for operational communications, including transmitter telemetry. AM stations are allowed to run multiplex transmissions (73.127). These transmissions were originally limited to subaudible transmitter telemetry (which used a voltage controlled oscillator where 20 Hz represented a reading of 0 and 30 Hz was full scale, although one system used biphase data transmission, real slow). "Subcarrier injection" was limited to 6%. Now, stations may transmit anything they want as long as they stay within the authorized spectrum (pretty much from carrier out to 10 KHz above and below carrier) and the signal is not audible on "ordinary consumer receivers". These systems have used both amplitude and phase modulation of the AM carrier. They have generally been used for utility load management, though I've heard very little of this use in the past several years. Both of the currently used AM stereo systems utilize a subaudible pilot tone, pretty much making the subaudible region unavailable for subsidiary communications. So, there's more than you ever wanted to know about SCA! Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ From: keith@ksmith.uucp (Keith Smith) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak Organization: Keith's Computer, Hope Mills, NC Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 04:33:38 GMT Strange hearing all this FM sub-carrier stuff. MUZAK sure has come a LONG way in the last five years. At my REAL JOB we get All JAZZ MUZAK til 11, Rock-and-Roll MUZAK from 11 - 3, and Adult Contemporary MUZAK from 3 to 5. All fed from a Satellite disk on the top of our building into a little descrambler box next to the PA amp. We change the programming with a phone call. Sure beats listening to a DJ talk about himself or the latest "contest" huh? aka Digital Designs uunet!ksmith!keith GEMail: K.SMITH52 ------------------------------ From: bbl7597@ritvax.isc.rit.edu Subject: Re: Information Wanted About 2600 Magazine Reply-To: bbl7597@ritvax.isc.rit.edu Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 11:33:53 GMT For subscriptions: 2600 Subscription Dept P.O. Box 752 Middle Island, NY 11953-0752 Network address is 2600@well.sf.ca.us ------------------------------ From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) Subject: Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 01:13:38 GMT ito@nttslb.ntt.jp writes: > If this is true, I can say that, > 1) the size of CDMA software is pretty bigger than FM software; > 2) As consequence, the memory of CDMA hardware have to be bigger than > that of FM; > 1) and 2) concludes that the CDMA mobile phone is bigger than that of > FM. This is inconvenient for users. 1 and 2 are correct, but the last point. That doesn't necessarily follow from 1 and 2 ... the ROM, RAM, and EEPROM come in essentially the same size packages regardless of memory. Compare, for example, standard DRAM for the PC. You can get 256K and 1M DRAM in the same package, and some boards will even let you plug in either. There is not a significant size increase as long as your memory increases by a multiple of four. What increases is the cost -- it costs a few more bucks for the larger memory. Admittedly, our first commerical phones aren't going to be the size of Motorola's Micro-TAC Lite, which is a marvel of size engineering. However, the mobile version will be the size of your standard Fujitsu, Alps, NEC, etc. mobile phone, even though it includes both CDMA and FM (AMPS) protocols, and the portable will be even smaller. > As for FM software, base station software must manage the frequency > resource, but CDMA needs not. I can conclude that FM is more complex > than CDMA. Why is CDMA software more complex than FM software? If we were only imitating FM, perhaps. But the base station software for CDMA must also manage soft handoff (seamless handoff from cell to cell) and other more complicated signalling options, such as secondary signalling information added to the primary traffic information (so you can use half the bandwidth for voice and half for modem). The base station also has to manage the CDMA channel resource, such as determining when adding another call will result in unacceptable degradation to the other channels. ------------------------------ From: keith@ksmith.uucp (Keith Smith) Subject: Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software Organization: Keith's Computer, Hope Mills, NC Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 04:12:21 GMT In article ito@nttslb.ntt.jp writes: > rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com(Ron Dippold) writes: >> Comparing CDMA software to FM software is pretty much like comparing >> the control software for a USR Dual Standard modem to a 300 bps modem. >> You get far better performance in exchange for more complexity. > If this is true, I can say that, > 1) the size of CDMA software is pretty bigger than FM software; I'll buy that. > 2) As consequence, the memory of CDMA hardware have to be bigger than > that of FM; But not that ... > 1) and 2) concludes that the CDMA mobile phone is bigger than that of > FM. This is inconvenient for users. Or that. The physical difference in size of a 16Kbit ROM and a 1Mbit ROM are quite nominal. In fact 2 1Mbit ROMs would occupy around 2 square inches by say 3/16 of an inch in standard off the shelf packaging. Custom packaging could reduce this even further to less than 1/3 that amount. Software storage size is gonna be negligible for any firmware used in electronics these days, Unless the software overhead is absoulutely HUGE. COST on the other hand ... aka Digital Designs uunet!ksmith!keith GEMail: K.SMITH52 ------------------------------ From: fulk@cs.rochester.edu (Mark Fulk) Subject: Re: Dutch Hackers Arrested; Now in Jail! Organization: Computer Science Department University of Rochester Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1992 18:51:52 GMT Sorry for all the quoted material, but I believe this is well-justified. > to give everyone an even break around here. I wonder why the authors > seem to feel access to the Internet is some sort of right instead of a ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I wonder what evidence Pat has for this feeling. I carefully scanned the whole post, and the only germane paragraph I could find follows: > ... The Internet is a public network and if you cannot protect a > system, you should not be on it. This is not just our statement, it is > the written policy of many networking organizations... [long metaphor > omitted] ... If you tie a cord to > the lock and hang it out the mail-slot, people will pull it. If these > people do damages, you should prosecute them, but not for the costs of > walking after them and doing your security right. Straw man attacks rarely, if ever, advance the cause of truth. In this case, as usual, they are being advanced on the basis of a false dichotomy: either hackers are innocent or they are liable for many things including the cost of normal system security. I can find no evidence in the original post that the author considers Internet access to be a right. In fact, the paragraph above suggests the opposite. Rather, he seems to believe that the charges and damages are grossly overstated and the suggested penalties are extreme. Quite clearly the author does not think that the perpetrators are innocent of any wrongdoing or that the damages are zero. In another part of the article, he does express the opinion that computer crime laws will be ineffective against the ``real'' criminals. Finally, if you don't want to publish opinion on the hacker issue in the digest or c.d.t., then don't publish your own opinions on the matter either. Use of the Moderator's position to favorably place one's own opinions, with or without the suppression of other positions, is clearly unfair. By the way, please note that I have carefully avoided entering my position on these issues. If you want to know, I'll tell you; if you listen carefully, I believe that you will be surprised. Mark A. Fulk Computer Science Department fulk@cs.rochester.edu University of Rochester Omit needless words -- Strunk Rochester, NY 14627 ------------------------------ From: ken@mizar.tcs.com (Ken Emery) Subject: Re: Dutch Hackers Arrested; Now in Jail! Organization: Teknekron Communications Inc. Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 19:20:01 GMT I don't know if these are the same Dutch hackers who would access computers here in the U.S. but I do know for a fact that they were malicious. A person I know had half of his account wiped out (rm -rf) after they had gotten what they wanted. The only reason his entire account was not wiped was because he was watching as they did this and was able to kill the process midway through. Bye, ken emery ------------------------------ From: chris@zeus.calpoly.edu (The Squire, Phish) Subject: Re: 900 Idea of the Future Organization: Fantasy, Incorporated: Reality None of Our Business. Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1992 23:15:14 GMT edward@pro-ren.cts.com (Edward Floden) recently informed us: > Videophone Sex. > Remember, you heard it here first ... :) > [Moderator's Note: Cute ... but not first, I'm afraid. There's already > a phone sex purveyor trying it with slow-scan video. I think the > company is in Florida. They even supply the video display units to > their customers. But it is on regular phone lines, not 900, and the > billing (there's always a catch!) is via your VISA/MC. PAT] And, Mitch Kapor said, in a recent address, that since sex is such a motivator he fully expects the first commercial videophone services to be porn-related. I knew there was a reason I liked Mitch :-) chris@zeus.calpoly.edu | Fubar Systems BBS (805) 54-FUBAR 3/12/24, MNP5, 8N1 FSBBS 2.0, FSUUCP 1.3 ------------------------------ From: David Ptasnik Subject: Re: Acoustic Couplers Date: Sun, 9 Feb 92 12:30:40 PDT mickeyf@vnet.ibm.com (Mickey Ferguson) wrote: > Does anyone know of any acoustic couplers available for modems? Interestingly enough, AT&T provides an acoustic coupler adapter for it's uniquely shaped Merlin handset. You slide the handset into the "female" side of this thing, and the "male" side looks like a standard handset that neatly fits into the acoustic coupler. Dave davep@u.washington.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #125 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03554; 10 Feb 92 3:46 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20371 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 02:04:01 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03931 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 02:03:54 -0600 Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 02:03:54 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202100803.AA03931@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #126 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Feb 92 02:03:53 CST Volume 12 : Issue 126 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Support HR3515 and S2112! (Toby Nixon) Interactive Voice-Mail on PC (Robert M. Hamer) When Did the LEC's Start to Die? (Jack Decker) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Toby Nixon Subject: Support HR3515 and S2112! Date: 7 Feb 92 18:25:04 GMT Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA [DISCLAIMER: The following is my personal position on this matter, and not necessarily that of my employer.] I am appalled at the RBOC's disinformation regarding HR3515/S2112, which propose to limit RBOC entry into information services until fair competition is possible. Every time one of the RBOC ads has played on the TV or radio, appeared in the newspaper, and now in the information they mailed to me, I can't help but stand up out of my chair and scream because of the contemptible lies. Clearly, all of the services they claim are being held back are, or could be, available TODAY. We are IN the Information Age; where have they been? It's _here_, not "just over the horizon". We don't need the RBOCs to provide these services; all the RBOCs need to do is continue to provide the transmission services, which they do today. Unfortunately, the majority of the citizens of the USA don't know that these services are already available WITHOUT RBOC HELP -- and the RBOCs are taking advantage of this lack of knowledge to try to gain popular support for their positions. What would happen if the RBOCs were to enter these markets? It is clear to me, based on their past performance in similar situations (such as voicemail) that they would leverage their monopoly on local telephone service to force competitors out of the market. They will use their guaranteed return on investment income from their monopoly on POTS to subsidize their information services (even providing co-location with central office switches is a subsidy), thereby indeed providing the "affordability" they talk about -- until the competition is driven out of the marketplace. Then the RBOCs will be free to raise the rates as high as they wish! With their monopoly on access, they could easily sabotage access to competitive services and make the RBOC services look better (just being co-located will provide better circuit quality and response times). While all of the competition would have to pay exhorbitant rates for ONA services (to obtain ANI information, billing to phone accounts, etc.), the phone company has this free. Free competition? Hardly! Many of you know that I am a Libertarian, and strongly oppose government regulation of business. The logical position for a Libertarian might appear to be to support the RBOC's fight against further regulation. But the fact is that they've enjoyed this GOVERNMENT-IMPOSED monopoly for decades; in too many ways, the RBOCs function as though they were an arm of the government. They have effectively no competition for local access. Every competitive service MUST use the RBOCs' facilities to reach their customers. This places the RBOCs in the position of being able to effectively control their competition -- meaning there would be no effective competition at all. Despite their protestations that the proposed legislation would limit "consumer choice" and "competition", the reality is that provision of such services by RBOCs, so long as they remain the sole provider of local telephone service in most of the country, would be anti-choice and anti-competitive, plain and simple. It would be ABSOLUTELY UNFAIR for the government to turn them loose to use their monopoly-guaranteed income to try to put independent information services (even BBSes) out of business, when it is the government that has permitted (required!) them to get the monopoly in the first place. It absolutely disgusts me that in their printed materials the RBOCs go so far as to foment class warfare. They talk about "the specter of 'information rich' versus 'information poor'". They say that minorities, the aged, and the disabled support their position, to raise liberal guilt and stir up class envy (but without disclosing what have certainly been massive contributions to these groups in return for their support). They further stir up class envy by making the point that Prodigy and CompuServe customers are "... highly educated professionals with above average incomes, owning homes valued above national norms ... the world's most affluent, professional, and acquisitive people", as though this were somehow evil! They attack, without stating any evidence, the alledged "reality" that the only reason this legislation is proposed is to prop up newspaper advertising revenues (the whole attitude of "evil profits" is so hypocritical coming from those for whom profits are guaranteed, and whom never mention the fact that they're not entering information services out of altruism but only because they seek to expand their own profits!). They invoke jingoistic fervor by talking about services "already being enjoyed by citizens of other countries" (but at what incredible cost?). The materials are packed with this politically-charged rhetoric, but completely lacking in facts or reasonable explanation of the basis for the positions of either side. Their letter isn't written for a politically- and technologically-aware audience, but for those who are attuned to the anti-capitalistic culture of envy and redistribution. It isn't written for those trying to make an informed decision on the issues, but is intended simply to rally the ignorant into flooding congressional offices with demands for services that most of the writers wouldn't know the first thing to do with, and which the writers don't realize are available without the RBOCs. They talk about some supposed "right" of individuals to participate in "the Information Age", regardless of, among other things, _income_. Does all of this appeal to the plight of the poor and disadvantaged mean that these services will be available regardless of ability to pay? Hardly! _We_, the taxpayers, _we_, the RBOC customers, without any choice of who provides our local phone service, will pay -- through the nose -- either in the form of cross-subsidization of "lifeline" (!) information services by those of us paying "full" residential rates or business rates, or by tax-funded government subsidies or credits going directly to the RBOCs. Does anybody really think that the RBOCs will cover the cost of providing these services to the "information poor" out of their profits? What a ridiculous idea! The fact that the RBOC position is supported by groups like the NAACP and the National Council on Aging -- representing the most politically-favored, most tax-subsidized groups in America -- make it clear that they fully intend for the cost of such services to be born by the middle class and small businesspeople of America. Once again, the productive segments of society get screwed. Once again, private businesses which have fought to build themselves WITHOUT any government-granted monopoly will be forced out, to be replaced with politically-favored and politically-controllable socialized services. Once again, America edges closer to the facist system which has been so soundly rejected elsewhere. When will we ever learn? We SHOULD all write to our congressmen and senators. We should demand that they pass HR3515 and S2112, and keep them in force unless and until the RBOCs give up their local telephone monopolies and allow truly free competition -- which means long after the monopolies are broken up, until the lingering advantages of the monopoly are dissipated. Of course, the RBOCs could spin off entirely independent companies to provide information services -- with no common management and no favored treatment in data transmission over the other independent information services -- and I would cheer. But so long as they have a chokehold on the primary _delivery vehicle_ for information services in America, their protestations for "free competition" ring incredibly hollow. Toby Nixon | Voice +1-404-840-9200 Telex 151243420 2595 Waterford Park Drive | Fax +1-404-447-0178 CIS 70271,404 Lawrenceville, Georgia 30244 | BBS +1-404-446-6336 AT&T !tnixon USA | Internet tnixon@hayes.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1992 11:34 EDT From: "Robert M. Hamer" Subject: Interactive Voice-Mail on PC Help! I've opened my big mouth once too often, and now need information to help me back myself up. I just got back from an NIH study section (you know, where you and a bunch of other folks evaluate 64 grant proposals in three days and assign priority scores for funding; 12 hour days; my brain is fried). Anyway, the _last_ proposal (not one which I had been assigned and I had not read it) went something like the following (I'm going to be very nonspecific so I don't violate the confidentiality of the study section process and only give already public information): This group wants to do the following: People being followed for a disease will telephone a computer whenever they have an episode, or in any case, once a week. The computer will call them if they haven't called once per week. In each call, the computer needs to know what meds they're on, what their responses were when they called previously, and make decisions about what questions to ask this time, and to make decisions to follow up with more questions depending on responses. Peoples' responses will be via touch tone. The dialog will go as follows, sort of: Person dials. Computer answers, Person enters a password on touchtone pad. Computer: Hello, Mr. X. How have you been feeling this week (press 1 for OK, 2 for not so good). Person presses 2. Computer: Oh, not too well, eh? Well, I notice you've had troubles with the whatevermedicine you've been taking in the past. Have you been having trouble with it this week? (Press 1 for yes, 2 for no). Person presses 1. Computer: Has the trouble been that the whatevermedicine hasn't been working, or that it has had side effects? (Press 1 for not working, 2 for side effects.) ---Etc. Addditionally, the system needs to periodically print reports for physicians. So, it is essentially a voice mail system that needs to have extensive flexibility in terms of trees (the initial question might have a bunch of possible responses, each response might have a buanch of responses, etc, for lots of levels.) The system needs to read touch tones and generate voice on the phone coming from ASCII strings on the computer. It needs to know who each caller is and possibly take that into account in entering and using the tree. It needs to be able to call out as well as answer, if the person hasn't called in time. They've already done this in a previous grant with one disease; they want a new gbrant to do it with a new disease. The old grant spent large amounts of money, probably upwards of a million dollars. The new grant wants something under a million dollars. They currently do it on a system consisting of a micro to generate the voice, decode the tones, and a VAX to make the decisions and make reports, both systems dedicated to this one application. Programming is done is C and MUMPS. They use a DECTalk voice generater, I think to generate the voice. It is horribly expensive. They want money for something like two programmers to adapt the system. It was not a grant I was assigned to; I hadn't read it, but upon hearing what the reviewers were saying a bout what it wanted, I opened my big mouth and said something like "this sounds like they want piles of money to do what a PC, a voice-mail card, and voice mail software could do for a fraction of the cost." The chairperson said "that sounds interesting, why don't you write a few comments to that effect for the pink sheets." I said I'd have to read the grant before I did that and it would take a few days. So ... do any of you folks know of hardware/software combinations out there capable of doing something like that? Somehow, hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that just sounds to expensive to me. When the original grant was funded, perhaps maybe five years ago, that might have been the best one could do. But today, it is my impression that one could do quite sophisticated things quite cheaply on a FAST (say 486-based PC). Please respond to me in addition to the list; I'm going to be traveling again the next week or two, and I'm going to put off reading the Digest until I get back, but I'll read specific responses if they come in. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Feb 92 14:48:40 CST From: Jack Decker Subject: When Did the LEC's Start to Die? Pat (the Moderator) recently speculated on when the demise of AT&T might begin. Personally, I'm more interested in the when the LEC's (local telephone companies) might begin to feel threatened. I truly wish that some bright people would begin to work on a viable system of "LEC bypass" that would give the LEC's some REAL competition. The cable TV industry is probably the most likely candidate, but seeing as how they can't even do cable right (in most areas), I wouldn't count on them. What does puzzle me is why no one has ever really jumped on the idea of using radio as an alternative to the phone system. The airwaves, after all, are free. It would be feasible using current technology to set up a computerized system where each "phone" would have enough "smarts" to make a digital, noise- and static-free connection to any other phone within radio range. The way I would contemplate this happening is that on a call attempt, the phone would first attempt a direct connection (by some "handshaking" on a "hailing channel" monitored by all phones when not in use). If the called phone could not be reached directly, the call could be passed to a nearby repeater tower, at which point it would become a charged-for call. Such repaters might be operated by long distance carriers, who could complete calls between two repeaters. You'd set your phone to default to the nearest repeater of the long distance carrier you wanted to use. If the called phone was within range, part of the "handshaking" process would transfer the voice path to a pair of mutually-agreeable frequencies, and also agree on a scrambling process for the voice signal (I happen to think that scrambling of the signal is important, despite the cellular carriers' apparent lack of concern). The advantages to such a system would be numerous. "Local" calls would be free, and no one's "resources" would be used other than that owned by the users of the phones. There would be no more stringing of cables to remote/difficult locations. There would be no more of this nonsense of being charged toll rates to call half a mile down the road because the called phone happens to be on the wrong side of a nearby exchange boundary. A "Hinsdale" type fire could not put the whole system out of commission. I'm sure there would be disadvantages, too, but nothing that couldn't be overcome. Unfortunately, the current cellular system is a good example of how NOT to do it. Suppose that you are using your cell phone to talk to a neighbor half a mile away on HIS cell phone. Your phones both have plenty enough power to communicate directly with each other, leaving the cellular operator out of the picture entirely. But, that's not how the system works. Instead, your call will go to a cell site and even if the call gets to your neighbor's phone via the same cell site, you will BOTH be charged airtime (at utterly ridiculous rates in my opinion, especially considering that such a call is never handed off to a local teleco). Something is seriously wrong with this scheme! But it is my firm belief that if a system were devised that included free phone-to-phone communication for phones within reach of each other, OR if cellular operators were to start providing "free" calls (no airtime charges) between cell phones in the same local area, OR if the system were expanded to allow MORE than TWO cell operators to compete in a given area, you'd soon see the beginning of the end of local cellular service. Actually, I think that SOMETHING like this is going to happen, but I don't want to be too specific lest phone company attornies and lobbyists get wind of it and start taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen. I'll just say that I've noticed some recent changes in attitudes in unexpected places that lead me to believe that things will be MUCH different in ten to twenty years from now. Jack Decker jack@myamiga.mixcom.com FidoNet 1:154/8 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #126 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa19787; 11 Feb 92 2:30 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27247 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 23:55:10 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09071 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 10 Feb 1992 23:54:57 -0600 Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 23:54:57 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202110554.AA09071@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #127 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Feb 92 23:54:51 CST Volume 12 : Issue 127 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson The Ultimate Loud Ringer (Ed Greenberg) Need Information on 'Integrated Voice Power 4' (Rob Sturgill) Beware of Impersonation Phraud (Dave Leibold) Civil Jury Rules Against AT&T in Patent Violation Case (Bill Berbenich) AXE Losing Trunk Links? (Paul Repacholi) FCC on 800 Charges (Larry Appleman) ATT Mail Charges (Again) (Steve M. Kile) ISDN and Education (Linda Suzanne Clark) Info Request: "Polling Modems?" (Coyt D. Watters) What Frequencies Does Touchtone Generate? (Van Bagnol) Panasonic KX-T2740 (Dave Stoddard) "Safe Fax" (Mike Riddle) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: edg@netcom.netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: The Ultimate Loud Ringer Date: Sun, 09 Feb 92 12:51:51 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) In article jim.redelfs%macnet@ivgate. omahug.org writes: > I had a customer with a "Quarry Horn" (AC-powered, phone-line > triggered "ringer" -- truly a loud enunciator designed to be heard > above the noise of construction equipment) on the outside of her > (fortunately) rural residence. It rattled the windows ... > To this day, neighbors for a mile around know whenever she > gets a call (she never had us install a switch for the horn!). This puts me in mind of a friend who had trouble sleeping too late, including through the phone calls that we would make to wake him up before scheduled activities. Way back, (so far back that the statute of limitations has run :-) my friend boosted a period bell off the wall at his school (all stand and remove your hats, the school was decommissioned this year.) It was interesting, because one bolt removed it, and it had two plug in prongs that connected it to the system. It was specced for 120VAC at 60 cycles -- house current. My friend attached this to his phone system. Not the phone line, of course, but the ring generator on his 1A2 key system. Now it was getting 90 VAC at 20 cycles, causing the clapper to move much slower, and the clear crisp sound of the bell to be heard whenever the phone rang. Now, he did NOT live in a rural neighborhood, but rather in Suburbia, USA, and I think that they knew it for blocks around when his phone rang. Of course, his mother made him remove it eventually. We called it 'The Ultimate Loud Ringer'. Ed Greenberg | Home: +1 408 283 0184 | edg@netcom.com P. O. Box 28618 | Work: +1 408 764 5305 | DoD#: 0357 San Jose, CA 95159 | Fax: +1 408 764 5003 | KM6CG (ex WB2GOH) ------------------------------ From: sturgill@mot.com (Rob Sturgill) Subject: Need Information on 'Integrated Voice Power 4' Organization: Motorola LMPS Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1992 15:16:21 GMT I recently purchased an IBM-PC compatible telecommunications board labeled 'Integrated Voice Power 4' which includes a DSP32C and several DAA's. I have several ideas for resurrecting this board to use it for either a phone interface or as a fast floating point coprocessor. Can anyone point me in the direction of literature/specs/original purpose of this device? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks! Robert M. Sturgill | Motorola Inc. sturgill@comm.mot.com | Shared Systems Division phone: (708) 576-4726 | 1301 E. Algonquin Rd. IL02-4420 fax: (708) 576-6150 | Schaumburg Illinois 60196 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 01:16:42 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Beware of Impersonation Phraud A recent news article mentions one travel hazard that is all too common in the Philippines. It seems that there are phraud artists who will tap incoming calls to hotel rooms and then proceed to imitate the voice of callers feigning emergencies for which money is to be sent. That is, an unwary traveller is phooled into thinking that the party on the other end is really their relative or friend in real trouble and then proceed to wire money that will reach only the phraud artist. Beware of phone scams, even when travelling. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Subject: Civil Jury Rules Against AT&T in Patent Violation Case Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 10:51:40 GMT From: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu (Bill Berbenich) Reply-To: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu The following dispatch is presented verbatim. By PAUL DECKELMAN UPI Business Writer NEW YORK (UPI) -- A jury ruled American Telephone & Telegraph Co. infringed upon somebody else's patent for telephone switching equipment and awarded the plaintiff $34.6 million, an attorney said Thursday. AT&T contends the suit is without merit and said it will appeal the verdict. The six-member jury at the federal district court in Midland, Texas, returned its verdict Wednesday after having heard six days of testimony in the case, brought against the telecommunications giant by Collins Licensing L.P., of Dallas. The plaintiff's lawyer, Joseph Grear, of the Chicago-based firm of Rolf Stadheim Ltd., held out the possibility that the total award could go substantially higher, due to interest accruing back to 1985. An AT&T spokesman dismissed the possibility. U.S. District Court Judge Lucius Bunton is considering the jury's recommendation. Final motions in the case are to be made Feb. 14, and the judge's ruling is expected within the month. Grear claimed AT&T's 5ESS digital central office switching device infringed upon a 1976 federal patent for a "Time Space Time (TST) Switch" awarded to the late Arthur A. Collins. Collins was the founder of Collins Radio Co., now a division of Rockwell International Inc., of El Segundo, Calif. "Arthur Collins was a pioneer in the field of digital telecommunications. The jury's verdict provides recognition of Mr. Collins' substantial research and development investment in, and important technical contributions to, the field of digital telephony," Grear said. AT&T's Network Systems division came out with the device in the early 1980s, using it for central-office telephone switching equipment used to route calls to the proper exchange and number. The suit, filed in December 1990, originally named Southwestern Bell, of Dallas, as a co-defendent. That portion of the case, however, was dismissed when the regional telephone company argued it had not violated the patent because it did not make the disputed switching equipment -- it had only bought it from AT&T. But AT&T contends that Collins' patent was not valid. Spokesman Curt Wilson said the Federal Patent Office is currently examining the patent in question in a separate proceeding at the request of both AT&T and Collins Licensing. "We think they will invalidate that patent and we won't have to pay," he said. There is no firm time frame for the anticipated Patent Office ruling. Wilson added that even if the patent is found by the government to have been valid, AT&T does not believe its equipment used Collins' discovery, and thus feels it did not infringe upon the patent. "The jury found in our favor on seven of the original eight counts of the suit," Wilson said, "and on the remaining claim, awarded them $34 million, 70 times less than the amount they had originally sought." We believe this suit is totally without merit," the spokesman asserted. "The patent is not valid -- and we expect the patent office to agree." ------------------------------ From: zrepachol@cc.curtin.edu.au Subject: AXE Losing Trunk Links? Organization: Curtin University of Technology Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 13:29:29 GMT Has any one any idea why a AXE exchange should not be able to access its trunks? Situation: call disconected from a cross-bar exchange to an AXE. Then could not call ANY number except local (same exchange, not same location. Kalamunda has two exchanges, a cross-bar (293- ) and the new AXE (257- )) IE you could call 257-1000 but not 293-2000. Calling 1100 (service faults) or 000 (emergency, 911 to US types) gave 15 seconds of silence then 'number unavailable' tone!! This is a worry as we have a volunteer Fire Brigade and the members on 257 numbers may have lost their fire phone service. Any AXE experts out there any idears? PS: Telecom Australia is giving their usual "no record of a fault ... must be your phone ... " verbage. Paul Repacholi ------------------------------ From: larry@world.std.com (Larry Appleman) Subject: FCC on 800 Charges Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 23:04:21 GMT We've heard recently about 800 numbers that are not toll-free, which raised questions about using such 800 numbers to circumvent 900 blocking, and about the possibility of confusing consumers who have come to expect that all 800 numbers are free. The FCC apparently has no qualms about the idea of pay-per-call 800 numbers. When proposing the rule requiring pay-per-call numbers to begin with a message disclosing price and allowing callers to hang up with no charge, the FCC specifically brought up the possibility of pay-per-call 800 numbers. Summarizing the rule proposal, the F.C.C. wrote that the rule was "intended to apply to interstate 900 Services. We seek comment on whether they should also apply to interstate 700, 976, 540 and other similar services, including 800 services in those instances where the call is not free to the caller." 56 FR 14049-02 (April 5, 1991). The final rule doesn't expressly mention 800 numbers; it covers "all interstate pay-per-call services." 56 FR 56160-01 (November 1, 1991). But I wonder what the F.C.C. had in mind almost a year ago when it referred to "800 services in those instances where the call is not free to the caller"? Larry Appleman P.O. Box 214, Cambridge B, Mass. 02140 ------------------------------ From: Steve_M_Kile@cup.portal.com Subject: ATT Mail Charges (Again) Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 20:23:46 PST A short time ago it appeared that the folks at ATT Mail were going to reconsider the decision to implement a monthly service charge. I had cancelled the service but then was welcomed back and led to believe that new pricing would be announced shortly. Anyone actually know what the "new" pricing really is? I was suprised to find the following item in my recent billing: Billed Activity Quantity Price Total Amount Client Account: 222-8552 (!SKILE) Network Charges Monthly Service Fee 1 $3.000 $3.00 Guess it's time to call ATT in the morning. If anyone has anything official on ATT Mail pricing I'm interested. Steve Kile steve_m_kile@cup.portal.com stevek@netcom.com steve@biomed.vware.mn.org ------------------------------ From: lclark@ecst.csuchico.edu (Linda Suzanne Clark) Subject: ISDN and Education Organization: California State University, Chico Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1992 04:27:11 GMT Are also compiling a book of currently used distance education technologies. I would be very interested in anyone's experiences, opinions, etc. I am new to this field so don't feel that anything may be too simplistic for me. Thank you so much for your help. Suzie Clark California State University, Chico ------------------------------ From: cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Coyt D Watters) Subject: Info Request: "Polling Modems?" Organization: The Ohio State University Hospitals Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 20:09:01 GMT This is an information request: Please reply to cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu For a project which is under evaluation, I need information on products which support the following situation. Looking for program/hardware for PC which will allow a user to produce a document and place it in an "outbox." Our host will dial up the user's PC and download documents/faxes into the user's "inbox," then pull the documents from the users "outbox." These documents would then be forwarded to the proper agents at our site, who would put together the responses and send them to the modem queue. When their time comes around again, the modem would connect to the user's system and download the messages, check for new (loop). The package handling the transfer should: a) be small b) run transparently to the user (i.e. background) Users PCs would be running MSDOS and/or Windows. Coyt D. Watters cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu ------------------------------ Subject: What Frequencies Does Touchtone Generate? Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 11:37:52 PST From: group1!van@uunet.UU.NET (Van Bagnol) This *must* be a FAQ (no pun intended), but I need to know the frequencies generated by touch-tone dialing. All I know is that there are a pair of frequencies for each key, each frequency corresponding to the keypad "grid" coordinates of the key pushed. E-mail (or even Faxing) preferred over posting. Many thanks in advance! Van Bagnol / Group One, Ltd. / (415) 398-7565 / fax: (415) 986-8380 van@group1.UUCP / [Moderator's Note: Yes, this is a frequent question. Along with many others, the answer to this will be found in the Telecom Archives, accessible using anonymous ftp at lcs.mit.edu (cd telecom-archives). But I'm sure at least one or two readers here will send you the file as well. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave.Stoddard@p0.f246.n260.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Stoddard) Date: 29 Jan 92 06:43:45 Subject: Panasonic KX-T2740 Hello all! A friend purchased a Panasonic KX-T2740 dual-line answering machine, which worked fine for two months. Suddenly, the left column on the keypad will not function as they are supposed to, but, for example "1" now toggles the speakerphone. They assure me that neither gravity nor liquid refreshments were involved. So I'm wondering, does this appear to be a purely 'electronics are broken' problem, or do you think it could be programmed to not work properly? Thanks! reply to dave@rochgte.fidonet.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 14:30:56 CST From: Mike.Riddle@ivgate.omahug.org (Mike Riddle) Subject: "Safe Fax" GUIDE TO SAFE FAX Q: Do I have to be married to have safe fax? A: Although married people fax quite often, there are many single people who fax complete strangers every day. Q: My parents say they never had fax when they were young and were only allowed to write memos to each other until they were 21. How old do you think someone should be before they fax? A: Faxing can be performed at any age, once you learn the correct procedure. Q: If I fax something to myself, will I go blind? A: Certainly not, as far as we can see. Q: There is a place down the street where I can go and pay for fax. Is this legal? A: Yes, many people have no other outlet for the fax drives and must pay a "professional" when their needs to fax become too great. Q: Should a cover always be used for faxing? A: Unless you are really sure of the one you're faxing, a cover should be used to ensure safe fax. Q: What happens when I incorrectly do the procedure and I fax prematurely? A: Don't panic. Many people prematurely fax when they haven't faxed in a long time. Just start over; most people won't mind if you try again. Q: I have a personal and a business fax. Can transmissions become mixed up? A: Being bi-faxual can be confusing, but as long as you use a cover with each one, you won't transmit anything you are not supposed to. Origin: The Nebraska Inns of Court (inns.omahug.org) (1:285/27) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #127 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20761; 11 Feb 92 2:53 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20037 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 11 Feb 1992 01:07:44 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12229 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 11 Feb 1992 01:07:32 -0600 Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1992 01:07:32 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202110707.AA12229@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #128 TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 Feb 92 01:07:30 CST Volume 12 : Issue 128 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Cellular Calls From Airplanes on the Ground (J. Philip Miller) Cellular Phone Question (10U6579@csdvax.csd.unsw.edu.au) Cellular Equipment - Questions From a Novice (vonwaadn@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu) Re: Cellular Phones and Safety (John Schubert) Re: Cellular Phones and Safety (Kenneth R. Crudup) Re: Party Not Answering Phone (Floyd Davidson) Help Wanted Wiring Western Union Clock (Jim Hickstein) WECO 302 Telephone (Tony Harminc) Suggestions Needed For Purchasing a Large Switch (Dave Johnston) Connecting Computers to Hotel Phones (TELECOM Moderator) Shareware Communications Programs (Cleveland Hardin) MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint (Jack Winslade) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Subject: Cellular Calls From Airplanes on the Ground Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 5:34:26 CST A small item in the {St. Louis Post Dispatch} business section 2/10 indicates that the regulations are in the process of being changed to allow cellular calls while the plane is on the ground. As previously discussed here there are serious problems when trying to call while in the air because of the increased range of transmission. J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110 phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet (314) 362-3617 uunet!wuarchive!wubios!phil - UUCP (314)362-2693(FAX) C90562JM@WUVMD - bitnet ------------------------------ From: 10U6579@csdvax.csd.unsw.EDU.AU Subject: Cellular Phone Question Date: 9 Feb 92 15:22:23 +1000 Organization: University of New South Wales I wondered if anyone can tell me if two cellular phones can have the same phone number. I would like to know how to program a cellular with the phone number. I understand that some cellular phones can be programmed through the keypad and do not need a programming interface. If you have any information on how to program a cellular phone please E-mail. Joe University of NSW, Sydney Australia. [Moderator's Note: You cannot have two or more cellular phones with the same number. Unlike wired phones, cell phones cannot have the equivilent of an 'extension phone'. This has to do with the security involved in checking the electronic serial number when calls are placed or received. PAT] ------------------------------ From: vonwaadn@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Cellular Equipment - Questions From a Novice Date: 9 Feb 92 10:22:57 CST Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services I will soon become a new cellular user, and have a question on cellular equipment. I can buy a used phone, the NEC EZ-2400-A for 1/3 the price of a new model made for Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems. The NEC sounds just OK -- when you use it the called party knows you're on a cellular phone. FYI, the NEC was manufactured in 1988. My question is which, if either, to purchase? Has technology increased to where a new phone is better than one three years old? How? Does anybody make a phone that sounds as good as one in the home? Ideally I'd like people not to know I'm on a cellular phone. Thanks. E-mail replies are appreciated. I'll post or e-mail a summary upon request. Mark vonwaadn@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu [Moderator's Note: The newer phones are lighter and the batteries seem to last longer between charges. If the phone is three or more years old, it would have been manufactured about the time the spectrum was increased to 832 channels. You'll want to make sure the phone has all of them. The older phones are limited to fewer channels. PAT] ------------------------------ From: schubert@capri.berkeley.edu (John Schubert) Subject: Re: Cellular Phones and Safety Reply-To: schubert@capri.berkeley.edu (John Schubert) Organization: U.C. Berkeley -- ERL Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 08:45:40 GMT In article Steve Forrette writes: > As far as my personal expreiences go, I find that I tend to get > distracted when talking on the handset while driving. I have to make > it a point to pay attention to driving. It is interesting to note > that this does not happen when I use the hands-free. After all, I can > talk to passengers while driving just fine. I think it is more > related to being accustomed to not paying attention to what I'm > looking at when holding the landline phone at home or office. Well now I think I finally understand why you missed all of those freeway offramps while we were talking on the phone Steve!! But as far as my personal experiences (being a listener to "someone" who is driving and talking on a cellular phone at the same time) it is the next best thing to actually being there. Of course this works out best when the hands-free feature is in use. That way any "sound", whether it is generated from within or outside of the vehicle in question, gets transmitted with quite a bit of clarity. John Schubert schubert@united.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ From: kenny@world.std.com (Kenneth R Crudup) Subject: Re: Cellular Phones and Safety Organization: Software Tool&Die, (Boston), MA Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 07:58:12 GMT Someone mentioned that they get distracted when they talk on the cellular phone, and that they have to make special efforts to drive (properly). Conversely, people hate talking to me when I'm driving -- I will "er" and "um" and even drop the phone when the car is moving, as I tend to put driving first (translation -- I'm probably cutting someone off or trying to merge, or make a light :-). One day I'm going to have to get a handsfree. Kenny Crudup, Unix Systems Consultant kenny@world.std.com 16 Plainfield St. Jamaica Plain, (Boston), MA 02130-3633 Home +1 617 524 5929 Home Fax +1 617 983 9410 ------------------------------ From: floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) Subject: Re: Party Not Answering Phone Organization: University of Alaska Institute of Marine Science Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 12:52:29 GMT In article jpk@Ingres.COM writes: > In article TELECOM Moderator notes: >> [Larry King] was letting the incoming lines ring for 30-40 minutes >> at a time; AT&T circuits were in use all that time on a non-revenue > What exactly that AT&T owns is tied up and unavailable to sell to > someone else when the phone is ringing but no one picks it up? > [Moderator's Note: What is unavailable all that time is the common > equipment in the central office used for ringing and switching of > calls. ... In addition, circuits between central offices are > shared by all subscribers. PAT] The big thing is the toll trunk. Consider a 27 minute period of ringing and three minutes of talking type call. The toll trunk is connected all the way through for the entire 30 minutes, and only three minutes is paid for. Floyd L. Davidson floyd@ims.alaska.edu Salcha, Alaska ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 13:18:58 PST From: jxh@attain.ICD.Teradyne.COM (Jim Hickstein) Subject: Help Wanted Wiring Western Union Clock After reading some months ago about the WU Time Service, and how some of these self-winding clocks were floating around, I happened upon one and immediately snapped it up. Now, I'm trying to find the articles about it in the Telecom Archives, but without success. Can someone point me to a store of this information, or at least the name and/or email address of someone who also has one of these things? I have it running on its winding battery, but its setting-pulse wiring is missing, and it has mechanical adjustments needed, I think. I'd like to see one that's running well and being set, to observe its action; even better, to find a manual for it. (Well, I can dream, can't I?) Jim Hickstein, Teradyne/Attain, San Jose CA, (408) 434-0822 FAX -0252 jxh@attain.teradyne.com ...!{decwrl!teda,apple}!attain!jxh [Moderator's Note: All the setting circuit wiring does is runs down to the armature in the center which grips the minute hand when it is within two minutes either side of the hour. When the magnet there is energized the metal piece drops over the gear and moves it either way as appropriate. Run any pair of wires down there and feed it from a nine volt battery. To adjust the clock so it runs accurately, first make absolutely certain it is hanging *perfectly level*. Then turn the set screw in the pendulum *very slowly* about a quarter revolution at most. A full revolution either way adjusts the clock by two minutes per 24 hours. Set the clock to the exact time and watch it for a day. Make further adjustments in the set screw as needed, reset the clock and watch another day, etc. Even without a setting circuit I have my two clocks accurate to about five seconds per day. About once a month or when I think of it I apply a nine volt battery to the setting wires. I had not set my clocks for about three months (forgot about it) and one of the two was about five minutes fast. The other was about five minutes slow. WUTCO used to calibrate them *hourly*. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 17:12:41 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: WECO 302 Telephone I've seen a Western Electric model 302 "candlestick" telephone in a store recently. It is nickel plated, and in apparently good condition. Would anyone be willing to suggest what this should sell for ? I like it but I don't want to pay a ripoff price if these things are not as rare as I think. Tony H. [Moderator's Note: Ask telco, and they'll tell you it isn't worth five cents! Put it on the line and you will see the transmission is very poor by modern standards. As purely an exhibit item, $100 would be fair, maybe more if it is in really good condition. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Johnston Date: 7 Feb 92 15:44:48 PST Subject: Suggestions Needed For Purchasing a Large Switch I recently sent a submission asking for input from folks who managed phone systems over 500 lines and especially those with networking. Then the next day we changed our central EMAIL system and now my old address bounces mail. I would still like to hear from the above regarding their experiences with their vendor, the general impression of the equipment, reliability, technology, etc. Sorry for the SNAFU. Dave Johnston Santa Rosa Junior College Supervisor, Campus Data/Telecom 1501 Mendocino Ave. dave@cs.santarosa.edu Santa Rosa, CA 95401 Voice +1 707 527 4853 Fax +1 707 527 4816 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1992 00:08:24 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Connecting Computers to Hotel Phones Jeff Sicherman recently sent a file to the Telecom Archives which was an article he found elsewhere suitable for the recent thread here on acoustic modems. This file discusses hooking modems and computers to phones in hotels, and similar places. If you want a copy, pick it up at the Telecom Archives using anonymous ftp to lcs.mit.edu. You must then cd telecom-archives. Look for the file 'modems.and.hotel.phones'. Thanks Jeff! PAT ------------------------------ From: hardcle@elof.iit.edu (Cleveland Hardin) Subject: Shareware Communications Programs Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 18:47:00 GMT I will be getting my first modem soon and I am looking for a good communications program. I wanted to get opinions on the best program to use. I am mainly interested in ease of use and features. I am running an IBM compatible under DOS 5.0. I would appreciate replies through e-mail since I am not a regular reader of this newsgroup. If I get a lot of replies I'll post a summary in a week or so. Thanks in advance. C.A. Hardin hardcle@elof.iit.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 20:55:19 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint Reply-To: jsw@drbbs.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha I had prepared this first part as a reply via private mail, but when a second query came in about it, I figured I may have used a nonstandard TLA, so ... >> This morning I phoned the Sprint customer service line. After the >> mandatory MOH, I explained that I was having difficulty with the ^^^ > Please decrypt this acronym. I've never heard it before! Ah, yes, Music On Hold. I've always figured it must have been the invention of some guy with the brains of a retarded houseplant! Believe me, NOTHING is going to make me less impatient as I sit there on perpetual hold as Ma Bell's meter keeps on running, let alone a stringy, anemic rendition of Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' played over a long-haul voice circuit. :-( Let's face it, gang, MOH says one thing. 'We are too busy to talk to you now and we will get to you when we are good and ready to do so.' I consider MOH to be the SECOND rudest thing a called party can do to me. The rudest is for the answering party to immediately say 'Good morning, XYZ Corporation, can you hold ...' to which my answer is always 'no I cannot.' That answer usually leaves them dumbfounded, as if they had never heard it before. I've always wondered what the reaction would be --- (We have a three-digit code on our campus phone system that puts MOH on a parked call. It's the campus radio station, mostly classical, and it is not too bad, for MOH that is.) --- if I would say to the Sprint rep, or to anyone else with a cronic MOH habit, 'hold on a minute' ... give THEM MOH and let THEM wait. ;-) On a similar subject. It was interesting to hear that Muzak cycles on and off in 15 minute intervals. I had never noticed that. (Philosophical question: If Muzak were playing in the middle of a forest, with nobody around to hear it, would it still be obnoxious ??) Sprint update: (My previous post on Sprint's failure to call back, after they told me twice they would do so within four hours.) It's now Monday at about 2040, about 80+ hours. No call. Maybe Sprint's clock has stopped. :-( I wonder if they are going for a record. Again, I ask, ANY SPRINT MANAGEMENT PEOPLE READING THIS ?? However, the trouble magically disappeared on Friday at the 2300 session and looks like it is fixed for good. The log did show one failed session on Sunday, but I didn't see it, so I cannot tell for sure if it was a cruddy connection or something else. Also, nobody from Sprint apparently reads this group, at least nobody wanted to write back to me about it. I did, however, receive a note from someone from AT&T saying that yes, they would gladly take the business. They may just get it too, not only for the Iowa City connection, but for Uunet as well, if the numbers I got in the following reply are duplicated when I make some tests of AT&T v. Sprint using PEP. > There has been discussion of just this type of Sprint connection on > "uunet.forum". > It appears that calls via AT&T get 10%-30% faster throughput on > Telebit Trailblasers. There appears to be a serious quality problem > on Sprint lines. Appended is a note to this affect. > Using Sprint ... {several deleted} size CPS (2/3-5:03:18) 140853 736 (2/3-5:07:40) 143493 564 <--- OUCH! {JSW's note} (2/3-5:11:29) 36584 988 (2/4-5:48:53) 195523 1048 (2/4-5:52:54) 199463 844 This is typical of what I get from Uunet using Sprint. > Using AT&T ... (2/5-6:00:12) 185503 1107 (2/5-6:03:17) 212443 1191 (2/5-6:06:07) 157461 978 (2/5-6:08:51) 172279 1096 (2/5-6:11:38) 201786 1262 (2/5-6:13:59) 142847 1065 (2/5-6:16:09) 150306 1248 (2/6-5:43:29) 213781 1312 This is closer to what I would like to see. I occasionally get 1200-1300 using Sprint, but this is rare. I am going to experiment between the two and I'll report back. BTW, on this same box I can get 1500+ cps in either direction using PEP on a local call. Well, that's enough ranting for tonight. Good day JSW ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #128 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa22015; 11 Feb 92 3:23 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09686 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 11 Feb 1992 01:36:26 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01455 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 11 Feb 1992 01:36:15 -0600 Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1992 01:36:15 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202110736.AA01455@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #129 TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 Feb 92 01:36:01 CST Volume 12 : Issue 129 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Incoming Calls Problem (Jim Redelfs) Re: Incoming Calls Problem (Patton M. Turner) Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? (S. Spencer Sun) Re: McGraw-Hill Sells BIX to Delphi's Owners 02/03/92 (Bob Hofkin) Re: Answer Supervision on Lines (Vance Shipley) Re: When Did the LEC's Start to Die? (Maxime Taksar) Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities (David Niebuhr) Re: Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code (Scott Dorsey) Re: New Undersea Cable for Caribbean (Tom Gray) Re: 900 Phone Guide Magazine (Robert J. Woodhead) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 06 Feb 92 21:13:20 cst From: Jim.Redelfs@ivgate.omahug.org (Jim Redelfs) Subject: Re: Incoming Calls Problem Reply-To: jim.redelfs@drbbs.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha Lance Sanders wrote: > A friend recently complained...that I never answered the phone > anymore, and moreover, why did I take the answering machine offline? > ...I heard an extremely brief blip from my phone, picked up, and > took a call. > ...I switched [the set] with the downstairs trimline to make sure, > and...Again, just the faintest blip of a ring. When I picked up, the > connection was normal. There are no problems with outgoing calls... > and from the caller's end, the line rings normally. > ...how is it possible that my phone doesn't ring (except for that > occassional brief blip)??? Can't my answering machine (also > functioning properly) pick-up, even though the rings aren't audible? > Can the _strenth_ of an incoming signal (call) be diminished so the > bell doesn't ring, but no other aspect of the service is affected? Yes. This same problem befell my service immediately after I added FIVE, new sets (four 2500s and one 2554) to my already burgeoning collection. The most likely cause of your problem is TOO MANY ringers bridged across the line. This condition will also cause your answering machine to NOT pick-up a call since it is triggered by ringing current. The Central Office only has so much "poop" with which to ring your line. Generally, five "ringers" is considered the max. Of course, the distance from the C.O. is a factor, as is the "R.E.N." total for the line. Every device (telephone, answering machine, modem, security system, etc.) has an R.E.N. - a Ringer Equivalence Number. That number can be found on the registration tag somewhere on the device. When the equipment manufacturing field was opened to competition, the F.C.C. wisely agreed with the Bell System that some form of STANDARD should be adopted. The two-bell ringer found in the old fashioned desk phone (model 500 [rotary] or 2500 [TouchTone]) was established as the standard. Those telephones have a R.E.N. of 1B or one bell. The amount of current required to "ring" other devices are rated in comparison to that standard and are tagged accordingly: .7B or 1.4B, etc. Shortly after plugging-in my five, "new" sets, I was sitting by one, reading the paper when I heard a faint groan-like sound coming from the device. I picked it up to find a caller on line, none the wiser. The cause was (to me) immediately apparent: I had SO MANY ringers on the line that the Central Office could not properly ring them all. Telco doesn't care if you have a "million" telephone devices attached to the line since it is likely you will not have more than one or two of them off-hook at the same time. Ringing them all is another matter. The solution for MY situation was simple: I had to physically disconnect the ringer inside enough telephones so that the rest of them would ring. The solution for you may not be so easy since it is just as likely as not that you do NOT have telephones that come apart easily or are worked on easily. With the new, electronic telephones, I am not sure if simply switching the ringer OFF will do the trick. I suspect it will not. If you do NOT have a BUNCH of telephone devices on your line, then the culprit is likely a single set that is defective and drawing WAY too much ringing current. Disconnect one phone/device at a time and have a friend ring your number after each change. Note the performance. You should be able to isolate the offending set quite easily. > Is this a common service problem? I've never had it happen to me before. No. Fortunately it is rare. The new generation of phones do not require nearly as much current to "ring" as do the old ones. I had a customer with a "Quarry Horn" (AC-powered, phone-line triggered "ringer" - truly a loud enunciator designed to be heard above the noise of construction equipment) on the outside of her (fortunately) rural residence. It rattled the windows. One day, all phones quit ringing. I traced the problem to her latest acquisition: an imported Italian antique telephone that, by itself, PEGGED my ohm meter! It must've sucked-up 3-4 bells of ringing current. I explained that it was either the Italian "boat anchor" (VERY ugly phone) or the Quarry Horn that had to go. She had me silence the phone. To this day, neighbors for a mile around know whenever she gets a call (she never had us install a switch for the horn!). JR Tabby 2.2 MacNet Omaha (402) 289-2899 - O.M.U.G. On-Line (1:285/14) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Feb 92 17:54:48 CST From: Patton M. Turner Subject: Re: Incoming Calls Problem Jim.Redelfs@ivgate.omahug.org (Jim Redelfs) writes: > When the equipment manufacturing field was opened to competition, the > F.C.C. wisely agreed with the Bell System that some form of STANDARD > should be adopted. The two-bell ringer found in the old fashioned > desk phone (model 500 [rotary] or 2500 [TouchTone]) was established as > the standard. Those telephones have a R.E.N. of 1B or one bell. The > amount of current required to "ring" other devices are rated in > comparison to that standard and are tagged accordingly: .7B or 1.4B, > etc. I beleve B refers to the frequency selectivity of the ringer, and doesn't stand for bell. I think A ringers respond to voltages in the 20 to 30 Hz range, while B ringers are more broadbanded. Every 2500 set I have had experience with is rated at 1.0 A. I suspect the standards for A, B, and all the other ringer classes could be found in part 68 of the FCC regs. My experience confirms what Jim said about turning off electronic ringers not reducing the load. Turning off an electromechanical ringer will not affect the load either, as all you are really doing is insuring the clapper won't strike the gong. Pat Turner pturner@eng.auburn.edu KB4GRZ @ K4RY.AL.USA ------------------------------ From: spencer@phoenix.princeton.edu (S. Spencer Sun) Subject: Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? Organization: Princeton Univ. Class of '94 Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 23:15:09 GMT In article Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) writes: > How high up on the list is 803 w/r to number of exchanges? I don't > even have it listed as having N0X/N1X prefixes. > 803 is in South Carolina, whose neighbor states have had to program > for N0X/N1X prefixes: I could be mistaken, but I do not believe there were or are any N0X or N1X prefixes in 301 (never saw one anyway, although I fully acknowledge that is far from saying that there absolutely raen't any) and we're splitting into 410/301 anyway ... ------------------------------ From: hofkin@software.org (Bob Hofkin) Subject: Re: McGraw-Hill Sells BIX to Delphi's Owners 02/03/92 Organization: Software Productivity Consortium, Herndon, Virginia Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 00:33:20 GMT I'm a moderator for BIX, so I have some insight into its operation, but certainly nothing approximating spokesmanship. Internet mail is important to the people who run BIX, but it probably was caught in the capital spending freeze imposed late last year. I've been told that GVC likes BIX and wants to revitalize it. From a current discussion among the moderators, Internet mail is far from dead. Bob Hofkin ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: Answer Supervision on Lines Organization: SwitchView Inc., Waterloo, Ontario Date: Sun, 09 Feb 1992 23:03:57 GMT About a year ago I purchased a copy of the technical interface specifications for a new service offering from US West; Answer Supervision-Line Side. Excerpts from same follow: ANSWER SUPERVISION-LINE SIDE PUB 77336 ISSUE A, JUNE 1990 2.00 Purpose 2.02 Answer Supervision-Line Side provides an electrical signal that is passed back to the originating end of a switched connection. This signal indicates that the called line has gone off-hook. This service offering has applicability for billing record start and end, announcement start and end, dialtone reorigination prevention, call progress sequence indications, and other uses. This service offering may be used by terminal equipment (PBX, pay telephone, call diverter, etc.) connected to the calling line to determine that the call has been answered. 2.03 Previously, this signal was available on trunks, not lines. At present the Disconnect Timer returns the line to an idle or normal state upon termination of the call by the called party. This timer provides the only indication to the originating end that the called party has terminated the call. This disconnect timer has a lengthy time-out interval. This interval may be too long when used with equipment that may depend on short intervals. 3.01 Signaling A. This service provides the capability to deliver "off-hook" signals from the terminating central office to a line interface at the originating central office. This signal is a polarity reversal of the tip and ring conductors (tip-ring reversal) of the metallic facility between the calling customer and the serving central office. This signal (2 to 3 sec.), indicates that the called station has answered the incoming call. The same situation occurs when the called party disconnects prior to the calling party disconnecting. At present, this feature is only available in the DMS family of digital switches, ie., (DMS10, DMS 100). B. Answer indication is a reversal of -48 Volts and Ground at the interface between the Tip and Ring conductors of a 2-wire pair. At the time of answer, Tip and Ring are interchanged by the switching machine, so that the tip is now more negative than the ring. This reversal persists at least until the called line goes on hook, and possibly until the calling line goes on hook. All of the other electrical characteristics on a line equipped for answer supervision are identical to those of a normal line. In article tim gorman <71336.1270@ CompuServe.COM> writes: > LRA - Line Reversal on Answer (International Loads Only). On calls > originating from a PBX line, the call is routed and connected as a > regular call. When the far end answers and the line has the LRA line > option, reversal is applied to the line. > As noted, NTI provides this option only on international software > loads, not domestic US software loads, at least according to my issue > of their documentation. I suspect that US West are simply using this "International" feature. It reminds me of Northern's so called "Japan Only" features for the Meridian SL-1 PBX. Normally in the SL-1 call detail recording has an accuracy of two seconds, that is that all call durations are given in multiples of two seconds. There is a feature that is called "Half Second CDR Accuracy: for Japan" (or something like that). I have often turned this on, and it works fine. Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@ltg.uucp ..uunet!watmath!xenitec!vances ------------------------------ From: mmt@latour.Berkeley.EDU (Maxime Taksar) Subject: Re: When Did the LEC's Start to Die? Date: 10 Feb 1992 09:55:22 GMT Reply-To: mmt@Berkeley.EDU (Maxime Taksar) In article , Jack Decker writes: > What does puzzle me is why no one has ever really jumped on the idea > of using radio as an alternative to the phone system. The airwaves, > after all, are free. It would be feasible using current technology to Bzzt, but thank you for playing. The airwaves are 'free' in the sense that they don't cost anything to maintain. However, they're far from 'free' in the sense that they're extremely crowded. Also, from the extremely small experience I have as a new amateur radio person, I can tell you that much of your scheme is not in touch with reality. I'd suggest you find about more about radio and its workings before feeling threatened by the phone company. :-) Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS mmt@Berkeley.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 06:18:05 -0500 From: niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) Subject: Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities In gil@limbic.ssdl.com (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) writes: > In scott@asd.com (Scott Barman) > writes: >> ...how technologically behind most of the COs on Long Island are >> and that NY Tel would have to do a major overhaul and replace switches >> to provide some of these new services. > As I recall, you can dial the first three-digits of your phone number > with 9901 on the end (ie. NNX-9901) and in most exchanges you get a > recording telling you the exchange and type of equipment (for example, > dialing (516) 665-9901 will say, "You have reached the Bay Shore DMS > serving [blah blah blah].") This may have changed since I moved to > Texas a year and a half ago. Actually, NNX-9901 can be called from any exchange, not necessarily your home exchange. I just tried this with the 281, 727 and 924 exchanges. Trying the 282 exchange (same CO as 924) gave a lot of different tones but no message. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov ( Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code Organization: NASA Langley Research Center Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 14:05:03 GMT In article dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > In article , syd@dsinc.dsi.com (Syd > Weinstein) writes: >> In my local Bell of PA directory ... one of the 800 numbers is >> listed as "UNIX System V Source Code". >> Gee, is the source code free for calling? :-) > This listing also appears in the local NJ Bell white pages in Morris > County. The toll-free number listed with this name is 828-UNIX, which > will get you to the people who provide source licenses to this > product. The call is toll-free. The source license is not! About three years ago, I was in a hospital in Atlanta, and since I had not planned to be there, I did not have anything with me to do. So I spent some time thumbing through the phone book, and came across an identical entry. When I called it, the folks at the other end were from AT&T, but had never heard of Unix before. scott ------------------------------ From: grayt@Software.Mitel.COM (Tom Gray) Subject: Re: New Undersea Cable for Caribbean Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1992 08:47:25 -0500 Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada. In article dem@fnal.fnal.gov writes: > In article andys@ulysses.att.com (Andy > Sherman) writes: >> From a recent AT&T press release: > 6 * 560 Mbps / 225,000 calls = 14.9 Kbps. This is a heck of a > compression rate. Is this correct? It is an easily achievable compression ratio. Standard PCM - 64kbps ADPCM transcoded - 32 kbps Now do DSI - a fancy name for silence suppression - that is detect and transmit only the active speaker - a speaker will be active about 40% of the time DSI compressed - 32Kbps*.4 = 12.8 kbps The remainder of the 14.9 is probably used for signalling and packet overhead. ------------------------------ From: trebor@foretune.co.jp (Robert J Woodhead) Subject: Re: 900 Phone Guide Magazine Organization: Foretune Co., Ltd. Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1992 05:51:23 GMT wybbs!ken@sharkey.cc.umich.edu (Ken Jongsma) writes: > The cover has a price of .95 per quarterly issue. Are you sure it wasn't 95 cents for each minute you spent reading the magazine? I'd check your next phone bill if I were you ... ;^) Robert J. Woodhead, Biar Games / AnimEigo, Incs. trebor@foretune.co.jp ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #129 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa24284; 11 Feb 92 4:20 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11119 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 11 Feb 1992 02:28:47 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19624 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 11 Feb 1992 02:28:27 -0600 Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1992 02:28:27 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202110828.AA19624@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #130 TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 Feb 92 02:28:21 CST Volume 12 : Issue 130 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: What the ^&$%# is Going on With Sprint!?? (John A. Weeks III) Re: What the ^&$%# is Going on With Sprint!?? (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Looking For TDD Information (Dick Barth) Re: Looking For TDD Information (Toby Nixon) Re: Looking For TDD Information (George Hickok) Re: States with Relay Services (Dell H. Ellison) Re: New England Telephone Refiles For CLASS Without Caller ID (Adam Gaffin) Re: Plain Paper Fax/Modems (David Y. Chang) Re: V&H Tape Statistics (John W. Shaver) Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak (Mathew Zank) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: plains!umn-cs!newave!john@uunet.uu.net (John A. Weeks III) Subject: Re: What the ^&$%# is Going on With Sprint!?? Date: 11 Feb 92 03:23:23 GMT Reply-To: plains!umn-cs!newave!john@uunet.uu.net (John A. Weeks III) Organization: NeWave Communications Ltd, Lake Wobegon, MN In article jsw@drbbs.omahug.org writes: > 2300: On a hunch, and just for the heck of it, I changed the dialing > script back to put Sprint's prefix in. [...] Will wonders ever cease > ?? I dunno what they did, but the problem magically disappeared > between last night and tonight. I have had this happen a number of times with Sprint. I sometimes have trouble getting V.32 calls to go through, but they work fine when I dial 10222 or 10288 before dialing the number. Sprint tells me there is nothing wrong, then things magically start working after a few hours. I had a similar thing happen on occasion with some of our Sprint leased lines. The line will be dead, and Sprint will tell me that it is OK. It will have magically fixed itself after Sprint tells me that there is nothing wrong. John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 john@newave.mn.org NeWave Communications, Ltd. ...uunet!umn-cs!kksys!tcnet!newave!john Note: mail to Minnesota is currently broken. Use bang path if mn.org bounces. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 14:24:31 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: What the ^&$%# is Going on With Sprint!?? Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > [Moderator's Note: A few lines garbled in transmission were lost at > this point ... then he continues ...] Hmmm ... was Sprint used for the modem connection? [Moderator's Note: Well, that I don't know. I do know that stuff sent to me from jsw will have garbage in the middle of it as often as not. Sometimes it is easy to pick out without losing any text, while some messages have a line (or two or three) of text messed up. I think it must have to do with it coming here from Fido, but yet that does not make a lot of sense either, since other people get through okay. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rbarth@ka3ovk (Dick Barth) Subject: Re: Looking For TDD Information Reply-To: rbarth@ka3ovk.UUCP (Dick Barth) Organization: Internal Revenue Service, Washington, DC Date: Sat, 08 Feb 92 20:48:04 GMT In article steveh@rtsg.mot.com (Steve M. Hoffman) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 117, Message 10 of 12 > I'm looking for details on TDD. I'm interesting in writing some > software to emulate a TDD device so I can talk to a deaf friend > without the use of a relay service via my computer. First, there are some newer (and more expensive) TDDs that provide ASCII capability at 110 or 300 baud in addition to normal TDD mode. I assume your friend doesn't have one of these. You might want to check. TDD uses the Baudot code, not ASCII. In particular it uses the variant of Baudot that my elderly ITT Handbook refers to as the "military version"; this version is also used in amateur radio circles, so if you don't have the ITT Handbook, check the ARRL Handbook. TDD modems use FSK, like the Bell-103. The tone pair is entirely different, so TDDs are not compatible with standard ASCII modems. The tone pair is 1400 Hz Mark and 1800 Space, the same pair used in both directions. As is obvious, each TDD has to shut its tones off when it's not busy sending something. TDD modems can be bought commercially from several sources. For a list of those I know about, download "compare.tty" from file area two of the HEX BBS. Phone numbers below. You can build a TDD modem fairly easily using chips like the EXAR 2206 and 2211; we're talking simple, low-rate FSK here. You can also modify an older -103 type to use the TDD tone pair. Sample code for ASCII/Baudot conversion is also available (in C) from the HEX. Also available: public domain software (by John Spalding) which allows the IBM-PC and PCjr, and the Color Computer, to talk to TDDs without a modem. This code uses the computer's cassette port to emulate a modem. Similiar code could probably be ginned up for other machines that have cassette ports. Full documentation, source and PC executable are in "tdd56.zip", also file area two. Good luck. Yell if any questions. Richard Barth, W3HWN **** HEX, the Handicapped Educational Exchange BBS (301) 593-7033 (TDD and 300 baud) | Domain: rbarth%ka3ovk.uucp@uunet.uu.net (301) 593-7357 (300-2400 ASCII) | UUCP: uunet!media!ka3ovk!rbarth ------------------------------ From: Toby Nixon Subject: Re: Looking For TDD Information Date: 10 Feb 92 15:49:05 GMT Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA In article , steveh@rtsg.mot.com (Steve M. Hoffman) writes: > I'm looking for details on TDD. I'm interesting in writing some > software to emulate a TDD device so I can talk to a deaf friend > without the use of a relay service via my computer. Steve, it takes more than software to make a computer modem talk to a TDD. TDDs use a special half-duplex FSK modulation scheme. Both devices on a line use the same frequencies (I believe it is 1400 Hz mark and 1800Hz space, or vice-versa) at 45.45 baud; the carrier is turned on only long enough to send each character when you press a key. The data is coded in baudot (5 bits per character, like a telex machine). Normal data modem use Bell 103 modulation at 0-300 bps, which is a continuous carrier with different frequencies used by the originating and answering device, full-duplex, and most such modems support only 10-bit characters. There are some TDDs in use today which are switchable between the traditional TDD modulation/format and "ASCII" -- which means ASCII character set and Bell 103 modulation. There are also some modems available which support both Bell 103 and TDD modulation, but they're pretty expensive for what you get. Here are the names and contact information for three companies that provide such modems: Ultratec P.O. Box 4040 Madison, WI 53711 608-273-0707 PHONE-TTY Incorporated 202 Lexington Ave Hackensack, New Jersey 07601 201-489-7889 Voice 201-489-7890 PTTY 201-489-7891 FAX Krown Research, Inc. 10371 W. Jefferson Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 213/839-0181 (213) 641-4306 Voice/TDD in California (800) 344-3277 Voice/TDD Toll Free Outside California Note that CCITT Study Group XVII is currently studying the addition of an appendix to Recommendation V.22bis which would specify "automode" and interworking procedures for combined TDD/V.22bis modems. TDD has never been standardized before, which is one reason so few modem companies (and no major ones) supply TDD capability in their products. But when this CCITT standard is done, TDD capability should become much more widely available in data modems. Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer | Voice +1-404-840-9200 Telex 151243420 Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. | Fax +1-404-447-0178 CIS 70271,404 P.O. Box 105203 | BBS +1-404-446-6336 AT&T !tnixon Atlanta, Georgia 30348 | UUCP uunet!hayes!tnixon Fido 1:114/15 USA | Internet tnixon@hayes.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 20:27:59 PST From: hickok@hickok.fps.com (George Hickok ext 2621) Subject: Re: Looking For TDD Information Regarding the specs for TDD: I got interested in this several years ago, and went so far as to build a prototype interface. The basics that I started from are as follows: TDD runs at 45.45 baud, using 1 start bit, 5 data bits, and 1.5 stop bits. The code is a 5 level TTY (Badot?) code. The modem frequencies are: 1400. Hz mark and 1800. Hz space, with transmission tolerance of +- 1 percent, and receiver tolerance of +- 4 percent on the mark, and +-5 percent on the space. A rather vague note suggests a maximum transmission level of -4 dbm. The tone turns on with the start bit, and holds for 180. to 250. mSec after the stop bit, and then stops sending (unless another key is struck). This allows both ends to send using the same tones. It was suggested that these specs were chosen to insure that any equipment which was converted for use in this service would not be usable for any other service. It is also possible that it was done to make the modem simple and low in cost to implemement. I suppose lots of old TTY equipment got a new lease on life by being converted to this use. Hope this helps ... (Usual Disclaimers Apply) Email: hickok@fps.com Voicemail: (503) 641-3151 x2621 ------------------------------ From: ellisond@rtsg.mot.com (Dell H. Ellison) Subject: Re: States with Relay Services Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 20:01:48 GMT "Joshua E. Muskovitz" writes: > keep in mind is that, until recently, what most of us would consider > a public utility was denied to those who could not hear and/or speak. Who says that they're a public utility? Of course, the phone companies would like us to call phone service a public utility ... Dell H. Ellison ...!uunet!mcdchg!motcid!ellisond Motorola, Inc. ------------------------------ From: adamg@world.std.com (Adam M Gaffin) Subject: Re: New England Telephone Refiles For CLASS Without Caller ID Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1992 03:31:32 GMT My thanks to John Covert for the original posting, without which I never would have known to ask about this! Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass., 2/8/92 By Adam Gaffin NEWS STAFF WRITER New England Telephone has dropped plans to offer a controversial "caller ID" service, saying the state made it too difficult to market by making it too easy to evade. The state Department of Public Utilities approved the proposed service last October. With a caller-ID device, a person could see the originating numbers of incoming phone calls. But the department also required the company to offer a free "per-line" blocking that would automatically prevent a caller's number from ever showing up on the devices. The department ruling went beyond caller-ID decisions by other states, which have generally required only "per-call" blocking, in which a caller has to hit a three-button code for every call if she wants to keep from appearing on one of the devices, rather than having all of her calls blocked. New England Telephone officials decided the state decision would cost them too many customers to make the service financially worthwhile, company spokeswoman Roberta Clement said yesterday. This is because people who might be interested in caller ID would assume that so many people would ask for the automatic blocking that it would not make sense to sign up for the service -- since they would not be able to identify so many incoming calls anyway -- Clement said. With free "per-line" blocking, "the perception is that every call will be blocked," Clement said. The phone company had won state approval to charge $4.95 a month for caller-ID. In addition, a user would have had to buy a display device to plug into their phone jack for between $35 and $80. DPU officials could not be reached for comment. Caller-ID is made possible by new digital switching hardware and programming. In Massachusetts, as in other states where it has been proposed, there was considerable debate over privacy issues. Some argued people had a right to see who was calling them -- especially if they were the target of harassing phone calls -- while others argued people had a right to keep their numbers private from mass marketers and others who might collect such numbers into databases or for other purposes. Law enforcement officials had looked forward to caller-ID as a way to track incoming phone calls until New England Telephone starts up a statewide "enhanced 911" system that will automatically identify and route emergency calls from across the state. That system is still several years away, officials say. The phone company still intends to market a ``call trace'' service which could be used to identify harassing phone calls, Clement said. With this service, a customer receiving such calls could trigger a system for comparing their originating numbers. If they matched, the phone company would pass the information onto law enforcement -- the customer would not be given the information. The company would charge $3.95 per occurrence for this service, under a proposal to the state. Adam Gaffin Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass. adamg@world.std.com Voice: (508) 626-3968. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: (508) 872-8461. ------------------------------ From: davidyc@unix386.Convergent.COM (David Y Chang) Subject: Re: Plain Paper Fax/Modems Date: 6 Feb 92 18:47:35 GMT Organization: Unisys/Convergent, San Jose, CA > I am interested in purchasing a fax or fax modem that connects to > a laser printer directly, thus providing plain paper faxes. The > advantage is that the computer need not be on to receive faxes. > I know of two products: > JetFax II from JetFax, Inc. (about $1000) > OmniLink/Laser from Technology Concepts (about $450) > I would appreciate hearing of others and of any experiences, good > or bad, with this type of equipment. I will summarize responses. The ETFax-7 ScannerFax should be one of your choice for the requirements you mentioned above and much more. It can be a stand-alone fax machine or copy machine by itself and it can also serve as a PC-fax, scanner or printer when used with an IBM PC compatible which is supported by some software including postscript, OCR, networking, automatic document retrieval system and broadcast utility from what I understand so far. The print out can be either on its fax paper or plain paper via a laserjet II or compatibles. The company carries ETFax-7 I know of is Compex Int'l Corp. Phone (617) 354-5045. David Y Chang - Unisys Corp., San Jose, CA davidyc@convergent.com ------------------------------ Date: 07 Feb 92 10:13:14 MST From: Mr John W Shaver Subject: Re: V&H Tape Statistics About the note by David Esan, I looked at the info on NPAs. In the numerical sort by NPA 602 is credited with 614 exchanges. In the sort by number of exchanges, 602 has 609. Which is correct? BTW 602 is the state of Arizona. We probably have a number of remote exchanges which are geographically designated, but have less than 5 pages of directory for each exchange. The Cochise County and vicinity, which includes a couple of nearby New Mexico exchanges lists 30 separate communities and 19 or so exchanges. John W. Shaver 602 538 7622 // DSN 879 7622 // FTS 658 7622 FAX 538 0656 // DSN 879 0656_// FTS 658 0656 ------------------------------ From: zank@netcom.netcom.com (Mathew Zank) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak Date: Tue, 11 Feb 92 02:27:18 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Does anyone know where I can buy a used SCA FM Radio?, If anyone has one laying around I be more then happy to take it off your hands! Matthew Zank * Eau Claire, Wisconsin Internet zank@netcom.com -or MZANK@mcimail.com [Moderator's Note: According to an FCC reg, SCA is for 'qualified listeners' only. That is, you have to either subscribe to the music service (and thus, get the receiver from them) or be visually handicapped and get it from the reading service, etc. You're supposed to be part of the group the transmission is intended for, not just a random listener ... supposedly. I obey all FCC regs, don't you? Doesn't everyone? :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #130 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11957; 16 Feb 92 12:47 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14681 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 10:55:58 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05338 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 10:55:50 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 10:55:50 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202161655.AA05338@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #131 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 10:55:48 CST Volume 12 : Issue 131 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson US Demands Access to LD Markets (Nigel Allen) HELP Wanted With AT+T 7405D Telset (John A. Pham) Bellcore Multimedia Software? (Ted Shapin) ADA Compliance Requirements (Hugh D. Meier) Looking For EIA IS-54 Standard Source (Rudolf Schnorr Von Carolsfeld) Line Test Device Needed For CID (Douglas Scott Reuben) RFD: comp.society.privacy (Dennis G. Rears) Operating Cost of Cellular Phones (Lothar Dahlmeyer) Need Information on FCC's "Video Dial Tone" Ruling (Sandy Kyrish) Dialing Instructions in Denver, Pa. (Carl Moore) How Are Exchanges Assigned? (Roy Smith) Finding a Company Name Behind an 800 Number (Otso Ylonen) Maryland DOES Have N0X/N1X (was NPA Split Planned For 803?) (Carl Moore) Hybrid Help Needed (gt5072a@prism.gatech.edu) Is 716-971 a Restricted Exchange? (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: nigel.allen@canrem.uucp (Nigel Allen) Date: 16 Feb 92 03:08 Subject: U.S. Demands Access to LD Markets Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Reply-to: nigel.allen%canrem@uunet.ca * from {The Globe and Mail}, Toronto, February 7, 1992 U.S. demands access to all long-distance markets: Canadians consider GATT move universally unacceptable by Drew Fagan, Parliamentary Bureau OTTAWA -- The United States is demanding that Canada and other industrialized countries open their long-distance telephone markets to unrestricted foreign competition. The proposals have been made as part of multilateral trade negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. But [Canadian] federal officials and representatives of Canada's telephone companies said yesterday [February 6] that they are confident the U.S. demands will not become part of any final deal to update trade rules involving the 108 countries in the GATT. Under the U.S. proposal, which was raised in the House of Commons by New Democratic Party MP Lyle MacWilliam yesterday, there would be minimal restrictions on foreign investment in domestic or international long-distance telephone services. Foreign companies would be able to build their own facilities in Canada and buy domestic companies. They would also be guaranteed regulations to ensure they are being treated fairly. "This would completely unravel Canada's regulated telecommunications market structure. It would mean massive foreign intervention," Mr. MacWilliam said in an interview. "It would mean unfettered competition. The nature of our industry would virtually change overnight." In the House of Commons, International Trade Minister Michael Wilson said Canadian officials were studying the proposal, and emphasized that it will be just one issue among many that will be take into account in trying to forge a GATT deal by the spring. Under [Canadian] federal regulations, domestic telephone companies are now restricted to a maximum of 20 per cent foreign ownership. British Columbia Telephone Company of Burnaby is exempt from that provision, however. It is controlled [about 51%] by GTE Corp. of Stamford, Conn. Bell Canada, the largest of the phone companies, is controlled by Montreal-based BCE Inc., which has minimal foreign ownership. [Quebec-Telephone of Rimouski is also controlled by GTE Corp., but falls under provincial jurisdiction.] While domestic telephone company officials are confident the U.S. bargaining stance will not be accepted in Geneva, they are worried that the United States could also press for the same provisions during negotiations aimed at creating a North American free-trade zone involving Canada, the United States and Mexico. At those talks, telephone companies fear, the United States would have more bargaining strength because it would not be up against the might of the European Community and Japan. Canada Remote Systems. Toronto, Ontario NorthAmeriNet Host ------------------------------ From: John_A_Pham@cup.portal.com Subject: Help Wanted With AT+T 7405D Telset Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 15:51:42 PST Does anyone has a schematic for AT+T 7405D telset? I seem to have destroyed my only 7405D telephone in this place. I know "the source" to sell a 7405 but don't think my boss will give me another $400 or so for an obsolete 7405. John ------------------------------ From: tshapin@beckman.com (Ted Shapin) Subject: Bellcore Multimedia Software? Date: 15 Feb 92 16:03:58 PDT Organization: Beckman Instruments, Fullerton, CA From {Information Week}, Feb 10, 1992, p.8 "Bellcore ... is giving Internet users a new software package that allows them to send multimedia E-mail messages. Bellcore is distributing the software in hopes that is will spur use of the public phone network." Anyone have more info on what this is or who to contact? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 15:35:40 EST From: "Hugh D. Meier" Subject: ADA Compliance Requirements I am looking for information on compliance to the ADA. After some research, the results have been less than specific. If anyone has found any definitive information on compliance, I would appreciate the info. Example: Pay phones in public places need TDD devices installed? Brail lettering needed on emergency type phones?, etc. etc. I am most interested in College/University environments, and private sector businesses. Please reply by E-mail, and I will send a summary to the list after a week or so. Thanks. Hugh Meier HUGH@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU ------------------------------ From: rudolf@sol.UVic.CA (Rudolf Schnorr Von Carolsfeld) Subject: Looking for EIA IS-54 Standard Source (Digital Cellular) Reply-To: rudolf@sol.UVic.CA (Rudolf Schnorr Von Carolsfeld) Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 21:56:34 GMT Can anyone tell me where to get a copy of this standard? Thanks in advance, rudolf@sirius.uvic.ca Rudolf Schnorr von Carolsfeld Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering P.O. Box 3055 Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3P6 Telephone: +1 604 721 6043 Facsimile: +1 604 721 6052 ------------------------------ Date: 15-FEB-1992 16:55:10.00 From: Douglas Scott Reuben Subject: Line Test Device Needed For CID Are there any products available (at a reasonable cost) that simulate a telephone line with Caller*ID? I know there are regular line voltage/ring/etc. simulators, but I'm looking for one that does Caller*ID as well. (CID is not yet available here, but I'd like to test a few things out via such a device.) Thanks in advance!, Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 17:54:14 EST From: drears@pica.army.mil (Dennis G Rears ) Subject: RFD: comp.society.privacy Organization: U.S. Army ARDEC, Dover NJ This is a updated Call for Discussion for the creation of a new newsgroup with the name: comp.society.privacy The original CFD went out several months ago. Most of the comments were favourable, the only disagreement was whether it should be named comp.privacy or comp.society.privacy. Because of the sentiments that were stated, I am proposing the name to be comp.society.privacy. One question that was raised is what the relationship between CSP and alt.privacy. There is no relationship between the two groups. ---------------------Original CFD----------------------------- This newsgroup will be moderated and be gatewayed to an Internet Mailing List. I propose myself as the Moderator of this newsgroup. I am currently moderator of the telecom-priv (telecom-priv@pica.army.mil) Internet mailing list. The telecom-priv mailing list will be folded into this newsgroup. The discussion will center around the effect of technology upon privacy. All to often technology is way ahead of the law and society as it presents us with new devices and applications. Technology can enhance and detract from privacy. For example cryptologic methods can enhance privacy but sophisicated microphones can detract from it. Topics include but are not restricted to: o Telecommunications - Caller-Id, ANI, monitoring of phones calls (cellear/cordless), tracking people's locations through use of o Cryptology - enhances citizens rights to safeguard their information. o Data Bases - Big Brother is here but it is not just the Govt, It is also Corporate America. The advent of mailing lists has now reach an extremely high level. Consider the Social Security Number. o High Tech Surveillance Devices - ranging for sophisicated (SP) bugs, viewing devices, and audio devices. o The boon in video cameras and private citizens taping events; e.g. Rodney King episode. Video as well as Photographic information can be forged. o The effect of technology on privacy in the legal arena (e.g. admissibilty in court of items produced by new and old technology). o Misc - National Identifier Numbers, Bar coding currency, electronic toll devices mounted on Autos, etc. This group is not intended for the overall issue of privacy, (e.g. should a rape victim have their name published). Currently privacy issues are discussed in many newsgroups but only how the privacy issue affects that one topic. There is a need for a single newsgroup. The Internet mailing list telecom-priv (telecom-priv@pica. army.mil) was created a year ago to discuss Caller-Id after the that topic was bounced from comp.dcom.telecom. Telecom-priv was expanded to include all issues of privacy dealing with telecom equipment. I am proposing that this group be moderated to keep a high signal to noise ratio. Moderation of a newgroup means different thing to different people. The moderation that I propose will filter out all administrative requests, test messages, non-tech/privacy items, and excessive flames. Nothing is censored. Dennis G. Rears MILNET: drears@pica.army.mil UUCP: ...!uunet!fsac1.pica.army.mil!drears INTERNET: drears@pilot.njin.net USPS: Box 210, Wharton, NJ 07885 Phone(home): 201.927.8757 [Moderator's Note: Discussion of this topic should take place in either Telecom-Priv or news.groups. It is presented here only to alert you to the pending discussion, not as a forum for the discussion. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 16:18:30 MST From: ldahlmey@zia.AOC.NRAO.EDU (Lothar Dahlmeyer) Subject: Operating Cost of Cellular Phones Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro NM Howdy, Folks! Could and would some kind soul out there please educate me about the monthly OPERATING costs for cellular telephones? What are the basic fees for activation and use? What are the charges per call or time unit? How much is YOUR average monthly bill? Which carrier do you recommend and why? I would like to hear from someone with recent first hand experience with cellular telephones. I know there are 1-800 numbers to call, but I'm trying to eliminate the sales propaganda. Thanx, Pardners! ldahlmey@zia.aoc.nrao.edu 146.88.1.4 Lothar Dahlmeyer (505) 835-7000 National Radio Astronomy Observatory Socorro, New Mexico, 87801 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 14:28 GMT From: Sandy Kyrish <0003209613@mcimail.com> Subject: Need Information on FCC's "Video Dial Tone" Ruling Is the text yet available on last fall's FCC announcement on "video dial tone", which may or may not allow telcos to provide video programming? Text or analysis of same would be much appreciated. Thanks. Sandy Kyrish 320-9613@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 11:02:33 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Dialing Instructions in Denver, Pa. I have recently passed thru Denver, Pa. and found a cause for concern regarding at least the pay telephones. Denver is served by 215-267, but I am still seeing the old instructions displayed for long-distance and 0+ calls (i.e., 1+number or 0+number within 215). And I even tried 898-xxxx and 1-898-xxxx (I know 898 is in Philadelphia), and found that the first was rejected with an error message and the second got the automated request for money. But elsewhere in 215 outside of Bell of Pa. territory (such as at Birdsboro) I have seen the new instructions. The telco for Denver is Denver & Ephrata Telephone & Telegraph Co. in Ephrata, which is in 717 and not affected by the changes in area 215. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 12:04:32 EST From: Roy Smith Subject: How Are Exchanges Assigned? I just got back from a vacation in Key West, Florida. I happend to notice that virtually every phone number in the book was either in the 292, 294, or 296 exchange. I noticed extremely few numbers in the 293 exchange. It struck me as odd that they would use the even-numbered exchanges and jump over the ones in-between (293 and 295). Come to think of it, where I grew up, every phone number was either 664 or 666. Is there some reason for not just assigning exchanges sequentially as new CO's open up? ------------------------------ From: oylonen@tne09.tele.nokia.fi Subject: How Can I Locate the Company Name Behind an 800 Number? Organization: Nokia Telecommunications. Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 06:40:09 GMT Question 1: I wonder if somebody could tell me how to get US/Canadian company names behind their 800 numbers. I called the number service of the Finnish Telecom and got the answer they are able to tell only te- lephone numbers based on company name and location -- not vice-versa. Is there a service I could make enquiries to or would it be even possible to get a list of all 800 numbers? Question 2: What's the difference between an 1-800 and an 800 number? Otso Ylonen Phone office +358-81-551 4131, home +358-81-340904 Mail Liisantie 1 H 30, SF-90560 Oulu, Finland Internet oylonen@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi X400 C=fi A=elisa P=nokia O=nokia telecom S=ylonen G=otso [Moderator's Note: There is no difference between 1-800 and 800. The digit '1' is a required part of the dialing in some (most?) places in the USA. People express the number either way, with or without the '1'. There is no cross-reference listing to 800 numbers which I am aware of. But if you see an advertisement with an 800 number, there is always a company name in the ad, is there not? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 10:08:28 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Maryland DOES Have N0X/N1X (was NPA Split Planned For 803?) To spencer@phoenix.princeton.edu: I notice you have a signon at Princeton in New Jersey; where in Maryland are you from? Yes, there are N0X/N1X prefixes in Maryland! They first arrived in late 1987/early 1988 because of the shortage in the Washington DC area, and from then on all long distance in 301/202/703 has been 1+NPA+7D, even within 301 or within 703. In November 1990, this digest received word of the 301/410 split (to start 1 Nov. 1991); such word arrived only about a week after I had gone to a Md. library, looked up various Md. call guides, and noticed N0X/N1X popping up in other parts of the state (away from DC). I am located in Harford County, which currently has 515 and 612 among its prefixes. You can find help in the archive file history.of.area.splits; it also notes usage of N0X/N1X prefixes. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 12:32:40 -0500 From: gt5072a@prism.gatech.edu (Rich) Subject: Hybrid Help Needed I am working on a little phone project and I need some advice. Can anyone point me to some references on designing hybrids? I already have a bridge, transistor, and bypass cap to get my audio from the phone line. I would like to do this with op amps; I understand better results can be obtained using this method. Also, it needs to be low power, since the thing will be powered from the phone line. Thanks in advance ... Ed ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 17:38:58 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Is 716-971 a Restricted Exchange? I had an old note about 716-971 not being reachable from outside of Rochester Telephone area. I just got fast busy in trying to reach it; that is apparently different treatment from dialing a non-existent prefix. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #131 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa17177; 16 Feb 92 14:59 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06516 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 12:54:51 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17982 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 12:54:43 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 12:54:43 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202161854.AA17982@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #132 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 12:54:34 CST Volume 12 : Issue 132 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Not the Best Week of My Life (TELECOM Moderator) Hawaii International Airport and Credit Card Payphones (John Cheuck) MCI Prefered and Modems (David Brightbill) MCI Friends & Family: Note For Overseas MCI Cardholder (Juergen Ziegler) Telecom Mailing Lists Wanted (Garth Gullekson) Looking for Modular Connectors (Jim Puls) Recent Telecom Articles in The Economist (Mike Riddle) Jobs, FTP and Other Trivia (Bryan Montgomery) Information Wanted on 800 Service in Canada (TAMIL@QUCDN.QueensU.CA) Injecting Audio Into a Phone Line (Roy Smith) Computerized Sales Calls: Weren't They Just Banned? (David L. Wilson) Legal History of Privacy for the Telephone and the Telegraph (Lew Oleinick) FCC Allows Cellular Phones in Airplanes (olsen@eos.ll.mit.edu) Spanish to English Telecom Dictionary Wanted (Alan Burnstine) Person to Person Collect Holding Time (Stephen Tihor) Help Needed With LANS Hardware Problem (Bob Clegg) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 11:25:09 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Not the Best Week of My Life The past week has been sort of rough for me, in more ways than one. I tried to do some re-wiring here on Tuesday which caused all sorts of problems and kept me off line for a couple days while I was repairing the problems that I caused. I was trying to hook up a second modem with an A/B switch; move out a terminal which was not being used and re-arrange the printer in the process. Everything -- and I mean everything -- went sour. Add to that the fact that my bosses insisted on about ten hours extra of overtime work this past week to catch up on a lot of paperwork in the office, so I was arriving home two or three hours later than usual three days in a row. Then on Thursday, an old friend took very ill. Nicholas is a cat which has lived with me for fifteen years. He was almost five years old when his former caretaker passed away in 1977. For about a month now, Nicholas was growing very feeble and thin. He was refusing to eat or groom himself, and as often as not was missing or not using his litter pan. Thursday he vomited a couple times and spent the day laying in the corner. I put him in the animal hospital without a lot of optimism for his recovery, and Saturday afternoon after a lot of anquish and indecision decided to do what I knew in my heart was best. The doctor ended his life at 19+ years of age, and I came back home feeling pretty bummed out. His housemate is a cat named Tarzan who came to live with me as a five week old kitten at Thanksgiving, 1977. The two were together all these years and Tarzan has been searching everywhere for Nicholas. But then, I woke up a couple times last night also with the same feelings when I realized he was not under the covers of my bed with me. I hope I did the right thing, but it was a hard decision. With the rush of things going on around here all week and the fact that night after night I was very tired, I just was not able to do anything for the Digest. Maybe the week ahead will be a better one. PAT ------------------------------ From: john@bug.co.jp (John Cheuck) Subject: Hawaii International Airport and Credit Card Payphones Date: 16 Feb 92 04:06:28 GMT Organization: BUG Inc., Sapporo, Japan I am currently living in Japan and recently went for my first visit to the paradise island of Oahu in Hawaii. Since I was in between business trips to the States and Asia, I needed to make a few phone calls while I was at the International Airport. There was not one telephone (later confirmed with Airport administration) that accepted a standard M/C, Visa or Amex credit card!! Now, there were quite a few payphones that had instructions in English and Japanese that said that credit cards were accepted, but these turned out to be only those obtained through MCI or AT&T. Hmmm ... I guess that I'll have to get a US backed calling card (another problem) or credit card (redundant) in the future. Perhaps, this sort of inconvenience is the price one has to pay to be in paradise ... Regards, John. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 16:27:19 -0500 From: David Brightbill Subject: MCI Prefered and Modems MCI has a billing option for their 1+ customers called "MCI Prefered." With this plan, after you enter the number, there is a pause and a new tone. At the new tone, you enter a three-digit billing code. Then when you get your bill, it is broken out by billing codes. Very helpful if you have to bill back to customers. The problem comes when you want to use a modem with the service. If I enter the entire number and the billing code in one string, it usually dosen't work because the code tone hasn't happened yet. If I put a bunch of pauses in the dial string it works sometimes and sometimes it dosen't. It depends on how long it takes to set the call up. There dosen't seem to be a very long window in which to enter the code. If you wait too long, MCI drops the call. If you do it too soon, the information dosen't get passed. Anyone have a clue as to how to make it work with MCI or if another provider offeres a more modem friendly coded billing option? Thanks, Dave Brightbill [Moderator's Note: Does your modem have a feature called 'wait for second tone' (possibly by using @ in the dialing string)? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 14:46 From: Juergen Ziegler Subject: MCI Friends & Family: Note For Overseas MCI Cardholder The MCI F&F discount plan is also available to overseas MCI cardholders. With this feature you get a 20% discount on all numbers that are on your list and have MCI as their PIC (primiary interexchage carrier). This is very interesting due to the high rates for calls from elsewhere to the US. So the absolute saving is quite high. But it gets even better. So you can set one international number (e.g. your own number) on your list. So when you are visiting the US and call that number, then you will receive that 20% discount as well. Not bad! To put your number on your list, just call the MCI customer service. Juergen [Moderator's Note: It has often been said that each of us is our own best friend! :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 15 Feb 92 13:48:00 EST From: Garth (G.C.) Gullekson Subject: Telecom Mailing Lists Wanted I'm in the process of assembling a mailing list for telecommunications software developers. If anyone is aware of good sources of lists that can be rented/purchased, or alternative methods of building up such a list, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks. Garth Gullekson | TELOS: Object-Oriented CASE for Real-Time Systems crw67a@bnr.ca | Bell-Northern Research Ph: (613) 763-4732 | P.O. Box 3511 Station C Fax: (613) 763-7298 | Ottawa Ontario, CANADA K1Y 4H7 ------------------------------ From: jimpuls@ddsw1.mcs.com (Jim Puls) Subject: Looking for Modular Connectors Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 9:22:21 CST I'm looking for a source of modular connectors, four contacts, but narrow, such as is often used on telephone handsets. Can anyone out there help me? I'd also be interested in what the things are properly called. Please e-mail any responses to jimpuls@ddsw1.mcs.com. Thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 07:30:52 CST From: Mike.Riddle@ivgate.omahug.org (Mike Riddle) Subject: Recent Telecom Articles in The Economist The current issue of {The Economist} "newspaper" (really weekly newsmagazine to us U.S. types) contains two excellent summaries of telecom upgrades in Eastern Europe. At p. 18, "Eastern Europe on the Line: Governments in the former communist block are underrating their bargaining power with western telecoms firms," and At p. 74, in a section headlined "Telecommunications in Eastern Europe," the article "Finding their voice: Western telecoms companies are fighting for contacts to modernise Eastern Europe's telephone networks. The potential rewards are vast. So are the risks." {The Economist}, February 8th - 14th 1992. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 12:13:54 GMT From: eb4/91/92 Subject: Jobs, FTP and Other Trivia Pat, I hpoe this doesn't cause you the same amount of trouble that the `for sale' posts did (personally I was quite happy to see what interesting items were available). But I will be graduating in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Portsmouth Polytechnic this July. I would like to try and find a job in the N.E. area of the US (NY,Ct) to join my fiancee. I am looking for a job to last 9-12 months as there is a scheme allowing work visas for this period of time, but I need a definte job offer before being issued a visa. Alternatively, if any one would care to offer a permanent job I would also be very interested to hear from them. As it currently stands we intend to marry next spring and then go on to do a Masters next fall (in Computer Engineering). Any advice would be most gratefull received. Is the ftp by mail service still available for the telecom archives? If so could you please supply the details again. Alternatively has anyone got details of the Princeton/Dec ftp service? Bryan [Moderator's Note: Good luck on your job search. Maybe someone here will have ideas or assistance for you. The 'FTP by Mail' service is still available. Write to doug@letni.lonestar.org (Doug Davis) for details. Or perhaps I will post his help file here if he will send me a new, updated version. The one I have goes back to last May. There are various other email/ftp servers around also, and I hope someone will write with an updated list of these sometime soon. PAT] ------------------------------ From: TAMIL@QUCDN.QueensU.CA Organization: Queen's University at Kingston Date: Saturday, 15 Feb 1992 22:18:04 EST Subject: Information Wanted on 800 Service in Canada Today I called BELL CANADA to get some pricing info on 800 service. There is a $200 set up charge, plus billing is done in hours (not in minutes) at the rate of 175 bucks for the first five hours (minimum) and 27 bucks for each additional. I need an 800 service which I think I will use only 45 minutes per month. Is there any low cost third party service in Canada? I am looking for an 800 service to be used by my Canadian and US customers. Rick tamil@qucdn.queensu.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 12:57:30 EST From: Roy Smith Subject: Injecting Audio Into a Phone Line What do I have to do to insert an audio signal into a phone line? I've got a cassette tape that I want to play (actually, it's a very funny message that somebody once left me on my answering machine that I want to play back and leave as a message on their machine as a gag). Is there some simple circuit that will let me do this? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 15:02:30 EST From: dww@homxc.att.com (David L Wilson) Subject: Computerized Sales Calls: Weren't They Just Banned? Organization: AT&T I just got a computerized phone sales call about cruises to the Bahamas, or something like that: I was too annoyed to pay attention. I was under the impression that all such calls were recently made illegal under an Act of Congress; is this true, or was I dreaming? If these calls have, at long last, really been banned, what can I do to file a complaint? I would assume that I can complain to the FCC; does anyone know the address or phone number of a complaints bureau? The outfit that called me was called Costa Cruises, their phone number is (800) 466-6400, and they are located in New York. I called them a few times to let them know what I think of unsolicited autodialed sales calls; I got a different operator each time, with lots of voices in the background, so it sounds like a real boiler-room operation. Does anyone have any information on this recent law? And has anyone else heard of Costa Cruises, or received their "invitation to win?" Did you call them back just to harass them? ------------------------------ From: oleinick@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Lew Oleinick) Subject: Legal History of Privacy for the Telephone and the Telegraph Date: 15 Feb 92 21:49:35 GMT Reply-To: oleinick@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Lew Oleinick) Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX I'm doing research on the legal history of privacy issues for the telephone and the telegraph for a project in graduate school. If anyone knows of a good reference text for this topic I would be forever grateful for the name of such a book. Also, if anyone knows of anyone else doing research on this topic I'd like to collaborate with them. Thanks, Lew. [Moderator's Note: I suggest you may wish to also pose your question to the Moderator and readers of Telecom-Priv (telecom-priv@pica.army.mil) and see if they can be of help. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: FCC Allows Cellular Phones in Airplanes Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 17:06:20 -0500 From: olsen@eos.ll.mit.edu Last year, some of you may recall seeing a discussion here about the legality of cellular phone use in aircraft. The legal situation was murky then, but it has at last been clarified. In new regulations effective March 9, 1992, the FCC has ruled that: - Cellular phone use while airborne is illegal. This was the case already, but the regulations now make it explicit, and allow cellular phone companies to cut off service to violators. - Cellular phone use on the ground is legal, as far as the FCC is concerned. Of course, FAA regulations still apply; for private flights this isn't a big deal, for airline flights the FAA is apparently making guidelines on when to allow cellular phone use. Details are in the Federal Register, vol. 57, p. 830. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 13:48 GMT From: Alan Burnstine <0003749269@mcimail.com> Subject: Spanish to English Telecom Dictionary Wanted Can anyone recommend either a Spanish language telecom dictionary or better still, a Spanish to English telecom dictionary. I supervise a group of telecom network troubleshooters and although a couple of my employees are bilingual and can work with our Spanish language customers, they both got their telecom training in English. They are having trouble translating the very specialized language of telecommunications. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Alan Burnstine MCI Telecommunications MCI Mail:374-9269 CIS:70511,3562 "Standard Disclaimers Apply" ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1992 12:57 EST From: Stephen Tihor Subject: Person to Person Collect Holding Time I recently had occasion to call an annoying user at another institution within a different area code in our LATA that was having local mail problems and called us about it (for no good reason). I was working from home so I called Person-To-Person and Collect. Her private DID line was out of service so I called the general number. While the receptionist was trying to get the person at the far end, the NYTel Operator tried to drop the call. She said that she is only allowed to wait 60 seconds before a call is accepted or rejected. Since I would have simply called right back the same way to the same effect as holding on the line I engaged the operator in converstation about this policy which is not listed in the information section of my current phone directory. That managed to keep the operator on line until my party reached the phone and accepted charges. It is a pity that this fine and expensive service ($5 net plus at least the normal 15 cents/minute) is being diminished. The long hold to get someone to the phone breaks even at about 33 minutes based on the cost of a direct dialed call to that number. The operator's salary sitting there waiting no doubt cuts that down quite a bit. I wonder how much though ... at $30 per hour gross burdened cost (including benefits and RofR) one should be able to afford at least ... 50 cents per minute + 15 cents for the call ... 65 cents per minute net out of 3.50 for just the person to per part of the fee (assuming 1.50 is the true cost of collect calling) ... hmm ....eight or nine minutes wait time. [Moderator's Note: I don't think the high surcharge on collect and/or person-to-person calls is intended to pay for the operator's time. I think it is intended to discourage the use of these features, which telcos would generally like to abolish, or so I've heard. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Help Needed With LANS Hardware Problem From: Bob Clegg Date: Tue, 11 Feb 92 13:20:36 +1300 Organization: The Sideways Machine, Lower Hutt, New Zealand Our terminals induce noise into our LAN when they are turned on. I would like to make contact with anybody who is involved "at the coal face" with LAN installations. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #132 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa19166; 16 Feb 92 15:52 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16113 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 14:06:12 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10869 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 14:06:03 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 14:06:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202162006.AA10869@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #133 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 14:05:41 CST Volume 12 : Issue 133 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson What is This Box Under The Pay Phone? (Roy M. Silvernail) Your Participation Requested in Speech Survey (Ed Holliman) Telecommuting Survey Wants Participants (Adriana T. Bernardino) Bell Fax Trial Ends (Nigel Allen) Motorola Handheld Portable Cellular Antenna (Bill Berbenich) Cellular Phone Programming (Jon Cereghino) Log Periodic Array Antennas Info Wanted (jguerrer@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx) Pay Phone Charges For 800 Calls (Michael Fumich) Help! Excessive Sidetone on a Meritor (Tie) (R. Patrick MacKinnon) A Cool Place To Get Phones (Doctor Math) How to Distinguish Different Rings? (Alan TC Penn) Need "Distinctive Ringing" Device Switcher (Paul Robichaux) Looking For KSU a Bit Bigger Than a Panasonic (Daniel M. Rosenberg) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: What is This Box Under The Pay Phone? From: cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Fri, 14 Feb 92 21:51:18 CST Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN I noticed something kind of unusual this morning. There is a bank of pay phones on the lower level of the IDS Center here in Minneapolis. All the phones appear to be U S West. They are set up three abreast on either side of an 'island', and have the typical small desk-top. Underneath the desk-top, where one might expect to find a directory, there is a brushed stainless-steel panel affair, about 14 inches wide and perhaps five inches high. It is featureless, except for a red LED near the top right corner. This LED flashes in concert with the audio on the phone! It caught my attention, and I watched after I hung up. The LED appeared to react to activity during call teardown, as well. Just what is inside that panel? My first reaction is "this box is monitoring my call." I then thought perhaps it could even be _recording_ the calls placed on this phone. If it listens to teardown, it must certainly listen to setup, as well. (I didn't have time to make a second call and test this theory.) So it could be recording the number I dialed, in addition to the conversation. Egad, somebody now knows I called Dial-A-Ride! :-) I wish I had had more time to explore, and I'll certainly take a more critical look on my next trip downtown. Meanwhile, does this sound familiar to any Digest readers? And if it _is_ recording traffic on the pay station, how does this relate to wiretap laws? There is no prominent warning to the effect that calls are recorded, and no 15-second beep is heard on the phone. Or is it just there to frighten potential drug dealers? Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu ------------------------------ From: holliman@lingua.csc.ti.com (Ed Holliman) Subject: Your Participation Requested in Speech Survey Date: 15 Feb 92 21:48:58 GMT Organization: TI Computer Science Center, Dallas WANTED: VOLUNTEERS TO "DONATE SPEECH" OVER THE PHONE FOR A TEXAS INSTRUMENTS SPEECH RESEARCH DATA BASE COMPENSATION: $5.00 PER CONVERSATION IF YOU: - can be available for an occasional phone conversation - are a **male** native speaker of American English ** between 20 and 60 years of age ** - have access to a touch-tone phone - can converse on selected topics for about 5 minutes YOU CAN BE PART OF THE TI SWITCHBOARD PROJECT. Calls are made on an 800 number, and a computer chooses a topic and a partner. TI records the conversations and pays each participant $5.00 for each call. Number of calls varies; average is 10. FOR MORE DETAILS, PLEASE CALL 1-800-759-7602 FROM A TOUCH-TONE PHONE; CHOOSE OPTION '3', AND LEAVE A MESSAGE WITH YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS OR SEND E-MAIL TO: swboard@csc.ti.com ------------------------------ From: Adriana T Bernardino Subject: Telecommuting Survey Needs Participants Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1992 15:30:37 GMT I am working in the Center for Transportation Studies at MIT on a research on telecommuting and I would like to contact individuals that: (i) are self-employed or employees, currently working at home full- or part-time; and/or (ii) supervise employees who work at home full- or part-time; who would be willing to answer a survey and provide some information on their experience with this working arrangement. Anyone interested in participating please reply directly to: bernarda@athena.mit.edu providing an e-mail address and specifying to which of the above group he/she belongs. Thank you for your cooperation. Adriana Bernardino, 77 Mass Ave R1-075, Cambridge, MA 02139 ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1992 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Bell Canada Public Fax Trial Ends Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto Bell Canada has decided it can't make money in the public fax business, so it will be pulling the plug on the 50 pay-per-use fax machines it has installed in and near Montreal and Toronto. I suspect that the service was badly overpriced, but I don't remember exactly how much Bell was charging. Here is the official word from Bell Canada, as it appeared in {Bell News} (Quebec edition), February 10, 1992. End of the public fax trial: The public fax trial which has been taking place since September 1990, has ended with the decision not to immediately proceed with the launching of a commercial service. Approximately fifty public fax machines were installed at various locations in Montreal and Toronto (airports, hotels, train and bus stations, etc.). This service allows travellers to receive faxes from, or send them to, anywhere in the world. Users are able to pay for the service via Visa or MasterCard [but apparently not a telco calling card]. The trial has been stopped because data gathered since September 1990, confirms that with the economic situation as grave as it is, it is not feasible to launch a commercial service at the moment. On top of this, it would have meant a considerable investment in new equipment. In less than 18 months, fax technology has evolved in leaps and bounds. Keeping these factors in mind, the company has judged it an inappropriate period for this type of investment. Certain fax machines will remain in operation until September of this year. Canada Remote Systems. Toronto, Ontario NorthAmeriNet Host ------------------------------ Subject: Motorola Handheld Portable Cellular Antenna Date: Fri, 14 Feb 92 14:39:31 GMT From: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu (Bill Berbenich) Reply-To: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu I am looking for a retail and/or mail order source for one of those little stubby antennas which will fit a Motorola Ultra Classic/8000/Pulsar hand-held portable cellular phone. The antenna that came with mine is the "standard" antenna and is roughly 14cm long. Since I will be using the phone well within range of a cell site, the stubby should serve my needs well without being as cumbersome as the standard antenna. For all of you bargain fanatics, I was able to buy the phone (actually a Pulsar 12314A) for $99 at a local electronics/furniture retailer. The usual catch, a mandatory cellular service "sign-up" period, was part of the deal, but only for six months service. The closest price I had ever seen before for this model was $199 with a one-year sign-up. The carrier is BellSouth Mobility, Atlanta's "B" carrier. The phone is new, in the box, and from the inspection date on the box it appears to have just rolled off the assembly line last week. BellSouth's rate for state employees is either $18 or $20/month (I forget precisely which at the moment), plus airtime at 35/22 cents peak/off-peak respectively. The "A" carrier, PacTel Cellular, has comparable rates. Quite a deal, as I see it. Anyone seen better for this particular phone? Good, don't tell me! :-) Atlanta area buyers should still be able to get the phone at any Roberd's location. I don't know when the sale is scheduled to end, though. Bill Berbenich, School of EE, DSP Lab | Telephone: +1-404-894-3134 Georgia Tech, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 | uucp: ...!{backbones}!gatech!eedsp!bill | Group 3 fax: +1-404-894-8363 Internet: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu | or: +1-404-853-9171 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 08:35:09 PST From: cereghin@netcom.com (Jon Cereghino) Subject: Cellular Phone Programming Many people have inquired about cellular telephone programming here. I ran across a short article in Baseline News on C-Message Weighting BBS that tells about an expensive book with some programming information. Here's the piece reproduced with permission: CELLULAR TELEPHONE INFORMATION Bishop and Associates offers a line of cellular telephone products that might interest you. A book titled PRODUCT OPERATION HANDBOOK gives owners manual information for over 200 cellular telephone models in a loose leaf format, ($149). PROGRAM HANDBOOK gives programming information for over 200 telephone models and includes information like system ID numbers and a manufacturer's electronic serial number (ESN) list, ($149). SIMPLIFIED CELLULAR by Dennis Bishop describes cellular system operation and is available for $29. There are a number of other books, cards, and sweatshirts offered on business and cellular topics. Bishop and Associates, Incorporated, P.O. Box 2027, Bothell, Washington 98041, (800)-829-0572. I don't have a commercial interest in B&A and am just passing this along because there seems to be an interest. I figure some clever TELECOM Digest reader will probably have a 900-number up next week with cellular phone programming information for $19/minute ... Jon Cereghino cereghin@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: jguerrer@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx Subject: Log Periodic Array Antennas Info Wanted Date: 15 Feb 92 00:22:56 GMT Reply-To: jguerrer@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx I'd appreciate any help. I'm looking for mathematical analysis of pattern radiation of logaritmic periodic array antennas. I've seen only graphic pattern radiation, but I need demonstrate it mathematically. It's better if I can get also the dimension of elements. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 05:02 GMT From: North Coast Communications <0005082894@mcimail.com> Subject: Pay Phone Charges For 800 Calls I was recently traveling along I-80 through Iowa & noticed that the COCOTs there charge 35 CENTS!!! for a call to an 800 number. This was true of several phones on the Illinois side as well. (I have not run across this situation before.) When I called "211" to reach the COCOT owner he rudely told me that the charge not only covered the "wear and tear" on the phone, but that the phone company CHARGED HIM for every 800 call! The temptation to wrap a chain around my rear bumper with the other end connected to the offensive instrument was very strong. My question is, is this legal? (charging for 800 at a pay phone, not the chain idea |:*) and to whom may I formally complain? Thanks! Michael Fumich mfumich@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: rpmackin@student.business.uwo.ca (R. Patrick MacKinnon) Subject: Help! Excessive Sidetone on a Meritor (Tie) Organization: University of Western Ontario Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1992 04:13:01 GMT I know there is a fix for this, but I can't find the literature. I have a MOD KEY16 KSU with MERITORs hanging off the stn ports. The Rx is fine, Tx also fine, but the sidetone is quite hot. There is a one or two component swap to cure it, but I cannot find it anywhere. Could someone please help with some info? Thanks for the time ... rpmackin@student.business.uwo.ca (R. Patrick MacKinnon) Western Business School -- London, Ontario ------------------------------ From: drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) Subject: A Cool Place To Get Phones Date: Tue, 11 Feb 92 19:45:13 EST Organization: Department of Redundancy Department I asked a telco lineman where it would be possible to get some "old-style" Genuine Bell phones and was referred to a place called Telephone Sales & Service. Finally got the chance to go there recently and it was quite an experience. This place deals mostly in refurbished WE 500 and 2500 sets; they also had ITT sets and Trimline phones, all at reasonable prices. They also have some large glass cases filled with a veritable history of telecom -- candlestick sets, "explosion-proof" phones, antique desk sets and "buried cable" signs, pay phones, etc. They also sell/install 1A2 key systems, and had a real cord board (which I doubt is for sale). So, for those of you who have been wondering about a good source of genuine WE phones (besides scouring flea markets), this place is: Telephone Sales & Service 812 W Edison Road Mishawaka IN 46545 (219) 255-1461 (For those of you in the area, it's across the street from Heritage Cablevision's main offices, next door to the Community-Wide Credit Union.) ------------------------------ From: T. C. Peng Subject: How to Distinguish Different Rings? Date: Wed, 12 Feb 92 16:40:22 PST Hi Pat, I think you can answer my ring signals question. I notice there are several different type of telephone rings, for instance custom ring, priority ring, internal call ring, outside call ring, etc. What I want to know is how different are those signals? Could a generic telephone set distinguish these different ring signals ? Or there must have a special device within the telephone to detect these different ring signals? If a special device is required, what device is available on the market? Thanks for your reply. Alan TC Penn email address : tc@liszt.cdc.hp.com [Moderator's Note: Actually some of those are just different names for the same ringing cadences under different applications. The phone just makes the sounds the central office gives it. Basically there are about three or four cadences commonly used: A single long ring; two short rings; two long rings with a shorter than usual pause between them; and a short ring - short pause - long ring. The auto-callback feature here uses a short-long-short ring also. See the next message for more information. PAT] ------------------------------ From: robichau@freedom.msfc.nasa.gov (Paul Robichaux) Subject: Need "Distinctive Ringing" Device Switcher Reply-To: acatt!fairgate!paul@uunet.uu.net Organization: New Technology, Inc. Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1992 22:47:25 GMT Here in Huntsville, South Central Bell offers "distinctive ringing," whereby the CO gives you additional numbers which, when dialed, ring your phone in a distinctive pattern. Since I have one line, which is currently used for uucp, fax, and voice, I'd like a switch which will ring attached devices based on the ringing pattern. Are there any such beasts on the market? Regards, Paul Robichaux, apprentice rocket scientist. robichau@freedom.msfc.nasa.gov | Disclaimer: NTI pays for my skills. | My opinions are mine, not theirs or NASA's. [Moderator's Note: There are many such devices available. See the catalog from 'Hello Direct' (800-HI-HELLO) as one such example. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dmr@roadkill.Stanford.EDU (Daniel M. Rosenberg) Subject: Looking For a KSU a Bit Bigger Than a Panasonic Organization: The Very Large Software Company of America Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1992 21:31:54 GMT I have asked (at least once) in this forum about recommendations for a small KSU/PBX to be used in a radio station. We would really, really like something like the Panasonic 1232, but it's just a bit too small for our needs; 32 distinct extensions doesn't leave us enough room for expansion. We really like the way it hybridizes proprietary and POTS service on the same line, the overall feature-richness, and the cost. Can't we get these any bigger? Other folks have suggested one of the small Northern PBX's, like a Meridian, but those are a *lot* more expensive, and otherwise don't seem to stack up to the Panasonics. Help! (NeXT)Mail: dmr@roadkill.Stanford.EDU dmr%roadkill@stanford.BITNET Stanford Metapage Project {apple, ucbvax}!labrea!roadkill!dmr ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #133 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21368; 16 Feb 92 16:55 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12933 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 15:04:37 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20141 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 15:04:29 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 15:04:29 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202162104.AA20141@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #134 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 15:04:28 CST Volume 12 : Issue 134 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint (Steven A. Rubin) Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint (Harold Hallikainen) Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint (Steve Thornton) Re: AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 (Gordon Burditt) Re: Low-Bandwidth Free Info Transfer? (Tony Harminc) Re: Foiling Drug Dealers Use of Payphones (Richard Nash) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sar1952@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Steven A Rubin) Subject: Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint Organization: HAC - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1992 20:42:28 GMT In article jsw@drbbs.omahug.org writes: >> There has been discussion of just this type of Sprint connection on >> "uunet.forum". >> It appears that calls via AT&T get 10%-30% faster throughput on >> Telebit Trailblasers. There appears to be a serious quality problem >> on Sprint lines. I think the main reason for Sprint's line quality problem is a direct result of the line noise created by all those pins Sprint keeps dropping to let you know how clear their circuit is. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 16:40:03 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > Ah, yes, Music On Hold. I've always figured it must have been the > invention of some guy with the brains of a retarded houseplant! I also hate to pay long distance rates to listen to some radio station on the other coast while on hold. We have previously discussed locally generated busy signals (as opposed to ringback, which is generated at the far end). How about some long distance carrier offerring locally generated music on hold? When someone puts me on hold (if the distant CO knows they did, which they would with call waiting), drop the voice circuit (and stop charging me!). When the person gets back to my call, the voice circuit would be reestablished (realizing these things take time). I guess the closest thing we have now is voice mail on busy. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 09:56:30 EST From: Steve Thornton Subject: Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint In TELECOM Digest 12 : 128, Jack Winslade said: > I consider MOH to be the SECOND rudest thing a called party can do to > me. The rudest is for the answering party to immediately say 'Good > morning, XYZ Corporation, can you hold ...' to which my answer is > always 'no I cannot.' That answer usually leaves them dumbfounded, as > if they had never heard it before. I take you've never had to answer the phone in a place of business before. If you have, you might have been faced with three lines ringing at once. The secretary who is putting you on hold so fast may not have a choice. The next time you feel like making a snappy remark (heard a thousand times, I assure you) to a secretary, you might reconsider who is the one being rude. The only thing dumbfounding the secretary on the other end is the fact that there can be so many egotists in the world all calling at once. A little consideration goes a long way. BTW, I totally agree with you about MOH. Shouldn't it be BMOH, though, for Bad Music On Hold? ------------------------------ From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 Organization: Gordon Burditt Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 10:58:57 GMT > The call IS free. It is the associated service that you are being > charged for. No, I am not being flippant about this. If I pick up a > telephone and dial an 800 number and order $10,000 worth of computer > equipment, is that a $10,000 phone call? The difference is that in the > case of the latter, I can make the call and order the merchandise in > YOUR name and you will get the bill. With the service you seem to feel > is inappropriate, I would have to have direct, physical access to your > telephone. Another difference is that in the no-ANI case, you will not get stuck with "you are responsible for the use of your line, so you have to pay whether you ordered it or not". With 900 numbers, you do. Do you claim that if someone gets physical access to my line, I'm stuck for the bill for services (ANI and not billed through telco)? I will be stuck with the bill for the *CALL*, but it's hard to run up $10,000 bills in a short time for just calls, not services, especially since most people don't know anyone in Iraq or with an INMARSAT phone. >> Payphone owners look out. You'll start getting bills in the mail >> for phone calls that won't appear on your phone bill, and which will >> be essentially impossible to block. > No, but the service provider can block the call. And he will if there Does this mean that payphone owners and employers now have to block 800 calls to avoid getting bills for unauthorized services? Or that they have to call up thousands of "service providers" (more being added every week) and ask them to block calls for their lines? > is a probability that he will not be able to collect. The fact that > the caller's number is known and verified greatly simplifies the > extension of credit by non-standard means. Not long ago, participants > in this very forum decried the fact that unless one had a telco, Visa, > MC, or other major credit card, he was shut out of a number of > convenience purchasing situations. So how does this help the person who does not have HIS OWN phone? Assuming he's not going to lie about who he is, can he have the bill sent to him, not his {parents, wife, husband, employer, payphone owner}? Or is this flexibility accomplished by simply sticking the wrong person with the bill? > I have been instrumental in setting up some 800 number ordering > systems that are able to use credit flexibility that has heretofore > never existed. One of the key elements is the verification of the > simple matter of the caller being who he claims to be. If the If you use the ANI information for verification only, (and later tracking down of deadbeats) and sufficient billing information comes from the caller himself, then I don't have much problem with this, although there ought to be more education to the general public that ANI information is given out when you call 800/900 numbers. ANI information should not take the place of standard security measures. If I call up about my credit card account or ATM card, don't assume that you know which account I'm talking about from the ANI (surprise! my wife and college-age kid have accounts, too), and ask for the PIN number or mother's maiden name or whatever anyway. And don't assume the number I'm calling from is my new home phone, update your database, and accuse me of giving a bogus phone number when you can't reach me at my parents' house or an airport payphone. Yes, most of this comes under "stupid use of ANI", which doesn't make ANI bad by itself. However, this is actual stupid use of ANI, as reported in the Digest, not theoretical stupid use of ANI. If you use the ANI information to bill the wrong person (caller != line owner in many cases), or as a fallback to bill the wrong person if the right person refuses to pay, I certainly do object to it. I anticipate also that ANI information will impede my ability to order things by telephone. Suppose I have a 9-to-5 job. Many order lines are open only 9-to-5, so I will never be able to order from my own phone. I probably can't call the 800 number from my work phone because my employer has 800 blocking due to employee abuse of "services". So I call from a payphone or my work phone (which is probably behind a big PBX). I give my order. I give them a credit card number. Since they can now check ANI, they do. The ANI doesn't match. I give them my work and home phone numbers. I explain the situation. If I'm calling from my work phone, I offer to let them call me back to check. If I'm calling from a pay phone, they can't call back because payphones don't take incoming calls - only drug dealers take incoming calls on payphones. All of these procedures probably require the approval of someone who isn't around at the moment, or the ordertakers don't know how to deal with the situation. > information presented does not agree with the ANI, an operator gives > him a chance to explain. But there are many cases of a transaction > occurring that otherwise would not without ANI. Is this done at the cost of billing the wrong person? On another subject, how do you match ANI information (a phone number) with a name and address, or do you? And WHICH name (billing vs. listing) and which address (billing vs. listing)? If billing information, where do you get it? Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 13:59:03 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Low-Bandwidth Free Info Transfer? yanek@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (Yanek Martinson) wrote: > Idea: suppose a modem calls another modem across the nation, detects > RRING, waits a few seconds, and hangs up. The modem on the other end > measured number of seconds or rings that the first one waited. The > first modem calls back with the next piece of information. > This kind of thing would work for transmitting very short messages > (about one line for example) when speed is not important. > Would this work? Why not? Would it be illegal? By buying phone > service, am I not buying the right to ring anyone? > [Moderator's Note: It probably would work and it definitly would be > illegal to pass messages, coded or otherwise without paying for it. > And no, when you buy phone service you are not buying the right to > 'ring anyone'; you are buying the right to connect your instrument and > wire to any other instrument and wire whose owner wishes to communicate > with you. The ringing is only the means to signal a pending connection; > it is not intended to be a communication in and of itself. PAT] Well I'm not so sure it would be illegal. Seems to me there is a continuum of information passing without billing, and it isn't clear when it crosses the line into illegality. Let's try a few examples: If I call someone, and let the phone ring for two minutes without answer, the information that no one is home (or that no one want to answer) has been transmitted to me. At the same time, the information that someone called has been sent to the called party. If the called party has Caller*ID, then much more information has been transfered. Surely no one argues that this is illegal? Much the same applies to getting a busy signal. One step further: Most answering machines these days, including those sold by AT&T, have a "toll saver" feature. The number of rings the machine takes to answer depends on whether an incoming call has been logged previously. If you call your own machine and it hasn't answered within (typically) two rings, you know you have no messages and can hang up without paying a toll charge. This is very clearly an information transfer without paying (and is advertised as such - it's not some phone phreaks' trick). Yet phone carriers don't seem to complain about it. Next: You call collect to someone (your answering service, say) who refuses to accept the charges. This indicates that you have no new messages. You have now avoided paying a toll charge, as above. Is this different from the "toll saver" feature on a machine ? Onward: You call collect as above, but this time your call itself is (by arrangement) used to mean that you have arrived safely at your destination. The called party accepts the call only if there is new information about your trip, otherwise the charges are refused. And: You call collect as before, but the name you give is actually from a list which encodes a message to the called party. Finally: You call person-to-person to a fictitious name, which is encoded as above. The called party says that that person is in a meeting with Mr. Jones and will be free at 3:15. This is, of course, also encoded information. Thus a two way information passing has occured with no charges. OK -- where is the line ? Pretty much everyone agrees that the last two are illegal, and the first two are not. Does the line lie between the machine "toll saver" and the human one ? A very strange idea, if so. Is it based on intent to pay ? In the "toll saver" case, it might be argued that if there *are* new messages, the machine will answer and the caller will pay. But this is just as true of the next two cases. It could even be true of the final case - e.g. if the called party has new information to pass on, the call would be accepted and paid for. Not so simple I think ... Tony Harminc [Moderator's Note: Signals between yourself and telco or between telco and the called party in the process of setting up the call are legal, and by extension a communication between you and the operator or the operator and the called party. Certain types of information will be gleaned from this (the party is not home, is talking to someone else, etc), however it is illegal to deliberatly structure the delivery of these signals in such a way that a communication is passed between subscribers without being paid for. 'Toll-Saver' on answering machines is of questionable legality. If you say your name is Tony and that is in fact your name, all is well. If your name is really Bob and you say 'Tony' to convey a message then there was fraud. Whether or not the called party answers the phone, if he receives Caller-ID then he is paying for the transmission of that information. PAT] ------------------------------ From: trickie!rickie@uunet.uu.net (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: Foiling Drug Dealers Use of Payphones Date: 15 Feb 92 21:52:56 GMT In article helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) writes: > In article andrew@jester.USask.ca > writes: >> In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada, the people's telephone company, >> SaskTel, has somehow configured all the payphones in town (at least >> all the ones that I tried) so they will not accept calls! >> I asked my contacts within the phone company why this was done. I was >> told that it was in response to mall owners requests to prevent the >> kids that hang out in malls from receiving calls and tying up the >> phones. I doubt this explanation since you also cannot dial payphones >> located in booths on street corners located away from malls. >> I suspect it is actually a method to prevent drug dealers and buyers >> from using payphones to arrange drug deals. > This is commonly done here in Los Angeles. Many pay phones are marked > with a notice "Outgoing Calls Only". It is usually done specifically > when small-time street dealers start using the phones to receive > orders. It has been done on request of the owners of the property > where the phone is located; sometimes the police have made the request > themselves. Sometimes, the phone company will make only one of the > phones in a cluster of three or four be usable for incoming calls. > That way, everyone else can still make their regular outgoing calls > while the dealer will have to use just one phone. In Alberta, Canada, most payphones that I know of, are outgoing only. Reason given, is that billing to a third party number, (the payphone number) was and still is a fraudulent practice. With Billed Number Services databases, it should be possible to screen out these types of attempts and allow the reversal of this long time position in locations that would be better served by permitting incoming calls. Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca unregistered leaf site; trickie!rickie Amatuer Radio Packet: VE6BON @ VE6MC.AB.CAN.NA VE6BON.ampr.org [44.135.147.206] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #134 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa24491; 16 Feb 92 18:27 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00041 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 16:41:23 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21022 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 16:41:15 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 16:41:15 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202162241.AA21022@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #135 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 16:41:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 135 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Daniel Herrick) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Robert Thurlow) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Randy Bush) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Joe Mann) Kansas City Sysops and Southwestern Bell (Newsbytes via crash!pro-gallup) Re: Info Services? Keep Them Banned! (David Gast) Re: Info Services? Keep Them Banned! (Eric Florack) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "90958, HERRICK, DANIEL" Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Date: 16 Feb 92 11:34:18 EST > [Moderator's Note: Maybe you have forgotten or did not know that when > I assumed responsibility for the Digest from Jon Solomon in 1988, I > was using facilities at Boston University (bu.edu) because that is > where Jon had the mailing list set up. I worked for three months via > PC Pursuit between Chicago and Boston. When PC Pursuit was down for > some reason or during hours it was not operational, I used AT&T to > dial direct to bu.edu. Because my phone bill and Telenet bill were > quite high, I gratefully accepted the generous offer made to me by > Northwestern University to establish the Digest at their site, and I > have worked from here since February, 1989. > Not once back in 1988-89 did it occur to me to blame IBT, AT&T, > Telenet or anyone else for the costs involved. Not once did it occur > to me telco owed me or this Digest anything other than a clean > connection I was paying for. People spend their money as they wish. I > chose to make the changes required in the way I handled the Digest to > lessen my expenses; I didn't ask telco for any charity! PAT] You would have screamed bloody murder if they had said you had to pay daytime tolls no matter when you called. That analogy is closer. dan dlh@NCoast.org dlh Performance Marketing POBox 1419 Mentor Ohio 44061 [Moderator's Note: There is no difference in interstate toll rates between business and residence phones. A call to Boston costs X cents during the day and some fraction of X cents for calls at night. Whether or not your phone is business or residence does not matter. And coincidentally, when I operated my own BBS during 1983-85 and the BBS for the Chicago Public Library in 1982-83 they were on business lines. PAT] ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Date: 15 Feb 92 18:38:04 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA In article , linc@tongue1.Berkeley.EDU (Linc Madison) writes ... > I don't follow your argument about "added cost to networked BBS's if > they find themselves dialing long distance to reach their nearest > neighbor." Long distance rates for standard residential service and > for standard commercial service are EXACTLY IDENTICAL everywhere in > the United States. Speak for your own RBOC, Linc! Here in Massachusetts, New England Telephone has DIFFERENT MTS (toll) schedules for residence and business (within the LATA). If the call is direct dialed from a residence phone, there is a mileage component up to 22 miles+. If it's operator/card, then there's a mileage component, same schedule, but with additional rate bands for longer distances. If it's dialed from a business phone, then it's "postal", with a rate of about 12.5c/minute for all intra-LATA toll, up to the first $100/month or so (if I recall). Then it's a nickel cheaper per minute. And they abolished the intra-LATA WATS tariff, since this is almost the same thing. Residence gets lots of concessions here. Bay State East Service is under 6c/ minute, except weekday mornings (not busy hour, but mornings). That's on top of about a $25-30 monthly rate for it, including a fairly wide (by MA stds) flat-rate local package. So it's actually cheaper to use the business line in the morning, and the residence line in the afternoon. (This in addition to the many local rate options for residences.) They do keep things confusing here! Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: thurlow@convex.com (Robert Thurlow) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Organization: CONVEX Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx., USA Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1992 21:14:31 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Oh, I don't think 'within a month or two' anyone > would go off line who hadn't planned on it in the first place, let > alone 'most of the BBSes'. Somehow I think they would survive. PAT] I have to strenuously disagree with you here, Pat. I operate a BBS for an amputee support group here in Dallas. So far, it has been run out of my own pocket, with the support group a little too pinched to help out, but the plan is that they will ultimately cover the basic costs. The BBS runs on an ancient PC-XT clone with just enough resources for the job, and the only reason it is there is that the hardware was literally free. The BBS has more real, useful information about and for amputees than any single service I have ever found. I cannot afford to pay business rates out of my own pocket, so the day I received irrevocable notice that I had to pay business rates would be the day I unplugged the BBS. I think that would be a very sad day. I frankly do not believe I could get any reliable help with the funding from sources I know about; I have not received such help in the ten months of operation. I don't buy the stuff about charitable organizations being charged business rates, either, because that is an acceptance of the status quo I don't agree with. I would like to see small organizations like ours, measured by either net assets or monthly budget, get lower phone rates than a business as well. The phone bill for the group phone is one of the major drains on our resources right now, and only results in perhaps a dozen calls per month in each direction. Full business rates are certainly not justified on the basis of traffic. Comparatively, the newsletter we publish is a much better investment; we get several memberships per year that amount to just subscriptions. I think a lot of good is done by non-profit organizations, and I'd like to see favorable rates for phone service comparable to what we can already get for postage with bulk mail. If you're going to attack favorable rates as unfair subsidies, why are residential phone rates lower than cost in any event? Why should anybody get subsidized when non-profit groups are not? Rob Thurlow, thurlow@convex.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 12:25 PST From: randy@psg.com (Randy Bush) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary > Nor are the BBS operators. They are simply asking the telco and the > PUCs to go by the existing rules. I have read the Oregon and > California tariffs governing the matter most thoroughly and there is > no contortion of reality that can justify regrading residential BBS > lines to business service. You, US West, and anyone else may come up > with hundreds of justifications why BBSes should not enjoy residential > status, but the tariff will not back you up. From a legal standpoint, > the move is bogus. It is amusing to still see all these non-Oregonians who are unfamiliar with the actual details of the case and filing ranting on about the filing. But I expected better of you, John. The filing is not US West vs. BBSs. It is Wagner vs. US West. Wagner filed, not US West. Wagner filed after US West said they smelled business not residential use, which was after Morgel became verbally abusive to an innocent telephone installer who was just trying to find more coppoer on the street. The well-known fact (possibly not in the more hysterical fringes outside of Portland) is that Wagner received and continues to receive income from the lines in question. US West has been and continues to be quite reasonable and willing to discuss and negotiate. Once Wagner's case is decided, likely against him as even local BBS operators will be testifying in US West's favor, we can all get back to actually trying to sort out levels of use and service in a world where society is still trying to catch up with technology. The distortion, red herrings, and hysteria do not help one iota. They only damage the position of BBS operators. But I guess the bored and uninformed need something to occupy them. randy@psg.com ...!uunet!m2xenix!randy [Moderator's Note: As a matter of fact, I received a lengthy file from a reader updating us on Wagner, and I will put it in the next issue of the Digest. Everyone should find it quite enlightening. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 16 Feb 92 00:23:24 CST (Sun) From: joem@orbit.orbit.cts.com (Joe Mann) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Let us not forget that US West is aggressively marketing it's new service "COMMUNITY LINK" in two of it's states, and has plans to 'roll it out' in others. COMMUNITY LINK is US West's version of Prodity, or Compuserve. It was locally introduced at the SuperBowl, when US West installed thousands of terminals around the Twin Cities hotels. COMMUNITY LINK is delivered via a joint venture of US West and French owned Minitel. The new partnership is named CLM for COMMUNITY LINK / Minitel. CLM owns the 'switch' that routes the calls to the various Information Service Providers or ISPs. It also sells / rents the terminals to the end users to access COMMUNITY LINK. It should come as no surprise that the largest ISP is US West's partner Minitel. Minitel provides many services that would potentially compete with the privately owned BBSs. It now seems that in addition to 976 information providers, BBS owners are on US West's 'harassment list'. US West fought 976 providers in much the same way, before the PUC's. This action only 2-3 years after actively promoting 976 Information Providers to 'get into the businesss'. The best way for US West to ensure success for COMMUNITY LINK, is for it to pre-empt any competition before it starts the service. I suspect that the BBS owners in Oregon are in for a protracted and eventully loosing battle. After all it's tough to fight a 25 billion dollar company's agenda. ------------------------------ Date: Sun Feb 16 04:17:29 1992 From: samp@pro-gallup.cts.com (System Administrator) Subject: Kansas City Sysops and Southwestern Bell Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 12:17:26 GMT The following article was in America Online's February 14 Newsbytes: Agreement Nears For Phone Company And Kansas BBS Sysops The report from Kansas City is that Southwestern Bell phone company is nearing an agreement with local operators of computer bulletin board systems in a dispute over the company's charging BBSes business rates. The pact seems to center on language in a new tariff plan. {Communications Daily} newsletter this week quoted attorney Robin Martinez, representing the sysops, as saying the proposed agreement calls for BBSes to be exempt from business rates if they meet certain conditions. One of the conditions is that the boards must be located in residences. Exempted BBSes also must not charge for access, must not advertise and must have fewer than five phone lines. Martinez says the last stumbling block in the agreement is coming up with a workable definition for "BBS" for the tariff language. Stay tuned. UUCP: crash!pro-gallup!samp | pro-gallup 300 - 14,400 bps ARPA: crash!pro-gallup!samp@nosc.mil | All MNP Levels (505)722-9513 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 03:28:40 -0800 From: gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) Subject: Re: Info Services? Keep Them Banned! Eric_Florack.Wbst311@xerox.com wrote in Digest V12 #79: > One major difference: While in many cases they may be a monoploy in > the market, they are not so because of some governmental regulation. > *Whereas the local telco is*. Therefore, any comparison between them > and the newspapers as far as info systems falls to the ground at that > point. While I do not think the local telcos should be allowed in the info business, the above should be corrected. The local telcos have their monopoly; the cable companies also usually have a monopoly, and frequently there is a monopoly in the newspaper business as well. This monopoly can exist because of the Failing Newspaper Act (and subsequent legislation) which essentially allows newspapers to engage in activities which would be illegal in other businesses. Such activities include collusion, and price fixing. The result is frequently only one major paper in a metropolitan area and the inability of NEW papers to get going. LA, for example, has only one major English language paper and it owns something like 50% of the Spanish language paper. There are other papers, of course -- the WSJ, the NYT, the Santa Monica something, the LA Daily News (which I think is only distributed in certain areas and is not significant competition), the LA Weekly, the Reader (similar to the one in Chicago), etc. Thus, there is government regulation protecting the newspapers as well. David ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1992 13:51:03 PST From: Eric_Florack.Wbst311@xerox.com Subject: Re: Info Services? Keep Them Banned! Hi, David: Thanks for taking the time to write me. > While I do not think the local telcos should be allowed in the info > business, the above should be corrected. The local telcos have > their monopoly; the cable companies also usually have a monopoly. The effects are very different in these two instances, except in those areas (Rochester is among the first) in which the local cable company runs a local commercial channel, that runs in direct competition with the local broadcast channels. This is a situation I'll get into later. For the majority of cable monopolies, there can be said to be little effect on the 'served' as a whole, since there are other types of reception to be had ... free broadcasting, and in some areas 'wireless cable' systems. THis, then cannot be said to be a full monopoly. If you argue that there should be competition allowed by city governments in cable locals, I would tend to agree; such implimentation of market pressures certainly would serve to lower prices, better service, and provide more jobs. However, since there are other sources of TV, as I point out above, I have a harder time being quite as vocal about a cable monopoly. It's bad, we agree, but let's work on the worst example of what the monopoly does. I /will/ say that. where there are effects on the 'served', they tend to be more profound than they are in the cose of a telephone monopoly. For example: Some of the effects on the served, it can be argued, are political ... given that the coverage of news events and commentary on them, can be controlled by those who own the systems ... and since a large part of cable systems in this country are owned by Ted and Jane, guess which way the politics will lean. But your argument, when extended to local cable companies also being programming providers, is valid, in comparison with local phone monopolies, if only in that the traditional broadcasters are now being held hostage by local cable ops who deem them not programming to be carried, but competitors ... as the BBS ops are being held hostage to the local telcos who deem THEM to be not customers to be served as Kingsbury would dictate, but competitors. In both cases, it is not in the carrier company's best interests to serve well at a fair price. (Boy, run-on sentence, hmm?) I get the idea we agree, that in both situations, these local company's role should be limited to making sure the existing signals are CARRIED, and not creating their own. > This monopoly can exist because of the Failing Newspaper Act (and > subsequent legislation) which essentially allows newspapers to engage > in activities which would be illegal in other businesses. I would suggest that while your comparison is valid, there's a slightly different reason for this than you might expect. Consider the editorial policies of the papers that were allowed to operate in such manner. Gannett, for example, in our local area owns two papers: THe Times Union, and the Democrat and Chronicle ... known by readers at the times Unrinal and the Chronic Democrat ... the latter of which oughta tell you about the editorial (and news coverage) policies of Gannett ... I suspect there's more than a few that were allowed to exist by a Liberal/Democrat controlled CONgress simply because of their vocal (and sometimes, under-cover) support of Liberal/Democratic policy. It's odd that such papers, by the way, have been strangely silent on this issue. My best regards. E ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #135 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa26482; 16 Feb 92 19:13 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24559 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 17:28:04 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29686 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 17:27:55 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 17:27:55 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202162327.AA29686@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #136 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 17:27:32 CST Volume 12 : Issue 136 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson More On The Wagner Case At The Oregon PUC (Walter Scott) What the RBOC's Send Out to Inquirers on HR3515/S2112 (Toby Nixon) Re: Massachusetts DPU Approves ISDN (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator (Gordon D. Woods) Re: 411 is Now a Profit Center in Texas (Larry Rachman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 09:53:44 PDT From: lorbit!walter_s@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Walter Scott) Subject: More On The Wagner Case At The Oregon PUC ... With Tony Wagner of Portland, Oregon and First Choice Communications BBS. I learned that Wagner's BBS is still online. This is contrary to my understanding of the 2/5/92 {Newsbytes} story by Dana Blankenhorn. Wagner's BBS is available at: 503-297-0278 503-297-0279 503-297-0343 [RESTRICTED ACCESS] Wagner mentions his dispute with US West in bulletin #1 on his system. Here is full text of that bulletin. ================= TEXT BEGINS ================ Well The U.S. West phone company has decided that ALL Phone lines that have modems on them Should be classed As Business Lines.. I have run a FREE Bulletin Board System for years out of my own pocket with out ever asking users to help pay the Cost of running the system.. This will have to change if U.S. West has their way so please leave me mail as to how you feel about this better yet Call the Phone Company and tell them how you feel ... If this happens I will do something like a Pay system that will cost around $1.00-3.00 Per hour depending on what parts of the BBS you want to use The Advantage to you will be unlimited Time on NO Time Limits If it get to busy I will add more lines Wildcat can handle 250 Lines :-) I may then even add a bunch of Doors with Games Etc. ================= TEXT ENDS ================= Wagner's legal expenses were not dealt with in the manner implied by {Newsbytes} on 2/5/92. Although an investigation of Wagner's "Pacific Nortwest Phone's" conference (the location on Wagner's system of the FidoNet PNWBELL echo) would indicate that the subject of others chipping in to pay for legal services was broached, Wagner informed me that no group of SysOps or users ever paid for, or attempted to pay Richard Samuels (Wagner's original attorney). Richard Samuels withdrew from Wagner's complaint filing at the Oregon Public Utility Commission shortly before a December 10 hearing date. Wagner represented himself at that hearing. The "Pacific Nortwest Phone's" conference on First Choice Communications additionally reveals an important item of interest. It is apparent that US West and SouthWestern Bell are sharing information about disputes with BBS operators in their respective operating jurisdictions. Such is illustrated in the following message pulled from the "Pacific Nortwest Phone's" conference on First Choice Communications. ============= TEXT BEGINS ============ From : SCOTT LENT Number : 223 of 241 To : ALL Date : 01/10/92 11:56am Subject : a note Reference : NONE Read : [N/A] Private : NO Conf : 505 - Pacific Nortwest Phone's That may or may not be of interest to those of you serviced by US West: A group of sysops in Missouri met with representatives from Southwestern Bell on 01/07/92 in St. Louis for the second in a series of negotiations. At the meeting, William Bailey, District Manager-Rate Administration, divulged that he had been in contact with "someone from US West," and that their conversation included discussion of their respective telephone tariffs. Specifically, he made reference to your (Oregon's) tariff wording that refers to "domestic use." This information is two-fold. First, you now know that your RBOC people are in contact with others about tariff wording. Secondly, your RBOC people are aware that other RBOCs are negotiating with their consumers over regulations that affect the modeming community. Scott DB B1056/004017 * Origin: GKCSA-the ultimate bal...er...Bell buster (1:280/310) ================ TEXT ENDS =================== Wagner has retained attorney Kevin Miles [uncertain of spelling] to represent him in his complaint case at the Oregon Public Utility Commission. Miles has until March 3, 1992 to file a brief. A round of reply briefs from the opposing parties in the complaint is also possible. Walter Scott "Lightfinger" Rayek's Friendly Casino: 206/528-0948, Seattle, Washington. ------------------------------ From: Toby Nixon Subject: What the RBOC's Send Out to Inquirers on HR3515/S2112 Date: 16 Feb 92 17:15:52 GMT Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA I called the number published in the newspaper ads for more information on the BOC's fight against legislation restricting their offerings of information services. This week (I'm not sure which day, because I was out in California when it arrived), I received some materials in the mail. I have transcribed them here verbatim. My commentary will appear in a following article. DISCLAIMER: I am sending this information simply so that you will know what is being said, NOT, repeat NOT, because I support what is said. Likewise, this posting is NOT to be construed as an indication of any position on these issues on the part of my employer. Any typographical errors are mine and are not in the original. -- Toby *** [Envelope] The return address is listed as "P.O. Box 33605, Washington DC 20033-0605", but there is no company name. The return address is on a LABEL stuck over another address (tacky!). This original address is 1625 K St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20006.] [Page 1] [Letterhead: "America's Future / Too Important To Leave On Hold"] January 30, 1992 Mr. Toby Nixon P.O. Box 105203 Atlanta GA 30348 Dear Mr. Nixon: Thank you very much for taking the time to call and ask for additional information about the future of information services in the United States. The current public policy debate about these services centers on issues of concern to us all -- consumer choice, competition, and affordability. Regional Bell company entry into information services could provide tangible, concrete benefits to residential and small business customers. Consumers could have more choices and easier, more affordable access to information services -- eliminating the specter of "information rich" versus "information poor" that currently defines the information services industry in this country. Information services like community education programs, home health monitoring services, community events calendars, individually customized travel, sports, and stock market information, remarkable new features like electronic Yellow Pages, and dramatic improvements in home shopping options can now be in the future of all American consumers, whether they line in a Manhattan apartment or a Nebraska farmhouse. The Regional Bell companies believe that every American has a right to participate in the Information Age, regardless of location, age, income, or physical ability. Many public-interest organization also believe that, and have supported lifting the information services restriction. They include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National School Boards Association, the National Council on Aging, the National Association of the Deaf and the World Institute on Disability. We need your help to make sure that the door to the Information Age remains open to all. If you agree, please write your Congressional Representatives and Senators. Their names and addresses are: Hon. Ben Jones Hon. Sam Nunn Hon. Wyche Fowler U.S. House of Rep. U.S. Senate U.S. Senate Washington DC 20515 Washington DC 20510 Washington DC 20510 Thank you for your help. Sincerely, s/Stokes Liles Stokes Liles [Page 2] Dawning of a New Age In America today, we stand on the threshold of a communications revolution. A new generation of services that would make access to a wide variety of information as easy as dialing your phone is just over the horizon. For example, your children could receive, complete, and turn in homework assignments electronically, even if they can't go to school. Your parents could "visit" the doctor without ever having to leave their house -- the doctor could take pulse rates, monitor vital signs, and talk directly to them. *You* could use these services to do your banking, make your shopping list, and turn on your house lights on your way home. These services focus on increasing the information readily available to you on a day-to-day basis, and are generally known as "information services." Their ultimate purpose is to improve your life by increasing your control over the multitude of tasks and decisions you face every day. The few commercial information services available today are generally tailored to the needs -- and the pocketbooks -- of businesses and an affluent few. In fact, Prodigy, one popular service, characterizes its subscribers as "...highly educated professionals with above average incomes, owning homes valued above national norms." CompuServe, another computer-based information service, describes itself as "the source for more than 750,000 of the world's most affluent, professional and acquisitive people." We at the regional Bell companies believe that all Americans, regardless of age, income, physical ability or location should have access to the benefits these services can bring. The unique public access network offered by your phone company can help make this a reality. A new age -- the Information Age -- is dawning. But we need your help to make sure that America doesn't get pushed back into the dark, and that all Americans have access to affordable information services. America's future is too important to leave on hold. [Page 3] REASONS TO OPPOSE H.R. 3515 AND S. 2112 CONGRESS SHOULD NOT UPSET COURT DECISIONS ALLOWING THE BELL COMPANIES TO PROVIDE INFORMATION SERVICES * On October 7th, 1991, the U.S. Court of Appeals lifted a judicial barrier preventing the regional Bell telephone companies from offering information services like electronic Yellow Pages, home health monitoring, home shopping, home banking, or home education services. * The American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA) has backed legislation in both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate that would effectively overturn the court decisions and prevent the Bell companies from provising many information services. The House bill is referred to as H.R. 3515, and the Senate bill as S. 2112. * Through this legislation, newspaper publishers are attempting to win in Congress what they have lost in court decisions. In reality, the ANPA is trying to close the door on technological innovations that might reduce newspaper advertising revenues. * These bills would *delay the availability* of affordable information services to the majority of American consumers. By restricting the Bell companies' ability to enter new markets -- especially those in their local areas -- H.R. 3515/S. 2112 would deny American consumers new services that are already being enjoyed by citizens of other countries. * Groups such as the NAACP, the National Council on Aging, American Council for the Blind, National Council of Silver Haired Legislators, and the National School Boards Association support Bell company entry into the information services marketplace. * Passing H.R. 3515/S. 2112 would *hurt* America and American consumers -- by stifling competition, by restricting the creation of new jobs, and by denying the majority of U.S. citizens access to affordable new technologies. * Congress can and should act to make the United State more competitive, not less. Oppose H.R. 3515/S. 2112 -- they are *not in the best interests of American consumers*. [Page 4] LETTER WRITING TIPS * If you agree that the door to the Information Age should remain open to all Americans, please include these points in your letters to your Congressional representatives: 1) OPPOSE H.R. 3515/S. 2112 -- THEY ARE NOT IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF AMERICAN CONSUMERS! 2) ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVE/SENATOR TO VOTE AGAINST THESE BILLS. * Your letter should be addressed to: The Honorable (Senator's Name) U.S. Senate Washington DC 20510 The Honorable (Representative's Name) U.S. House of Representatives Washington DC 20515 * Make sure to put *your address* on the letter, and don't forget to sign it. * Use your own language, and personalize the issue. * Stick to *this* issue, and be brief. * State the *facts*. * *Neatness* counts; type your letter if possible. *** Posted, but not agreed with, by: Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer | Voice +1-404-840-9200 Telex 151243420 Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. | Fax +1-404-447-0178 CIS 70271,404 P.O. Box 105203 | BBS +1-404-446-6336 AT&T !tnixon Atlanta, Georgia 30348 | UUCP uunet!hayes!tnixon Fido 1:114/15 USA | Internet tnixon@hayes.com ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Massachusetts DPU Approves ISDN Date: 15 Feb 92 23:18:15 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA In article , adamg@world.std.com (Adam M. Gaffin) writes ... > The DPU made a couple of other minor changes in the company's proposed > rates for various services, but basically agreed with NET's rate > request. Unfortunately, I don't know what the DPU did with per-minute > or per-packet rates, since I couldn't drive into Boston, and I hard a > hard enough time getting them just to fax me the three pages of > monthly base charges (DON'T talk to me about certain Massachsetts > state agencies :-) ) I had a friend in Boston ... here are the rates. Circuit-switched data (intraoffice only): For the first 30 minutes total usage per month: $.10 first min/.08 add'l min For additional usage: ("bulk discount") .06 first min/.03 add'l min These rates are temporary pending cost studies. I didn't see any different rates for packet than proposed, which was $.70 to $.60/kilosegment, plus $.02 or .01/call, depending on time of day. The kilosegment rate has bulk discounts. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 09:37:15 EST From: gdw@gummo.att.com (Gordon D Woods) Subject: Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories In article , ddavis@mailbox.fwrdc.rtsg. mot.com (Devon Davis) wrote: > A comany called Teltone produces a telephone line simulator (model TLS3) > for about $540. The address is: > They require a 110 volt power supply. There are two RJ11 jacks on the > front of the box. One jack can call the other jack by dialing a two > digit preassigned phone number. The box is meant to demo or test fax > machines, phones, and modems. I have worked with these boxes for over > a year and consider them a very useful tool. The box has a subtle flaw if you're doing more than connecting some faxes, etc.: It only provides -24 volt battery. Otherwise it's a dynamite machine. ------------------------------ Date: 15 Feb 92 22:02:12 EST From: Larry Rachman <74066.2004@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: 411 is Now a Profit Center in Texas In his recent contribution, Gregg E. Woodcock writes: > The feature works like this: After reading you the number you > requested, you are prompted with the following message, "If you want > to have this number dialed automatically without hanging up press 1 [omitted] > This is quite a sad commentary on how lazy our socity has become (I > know, maybe you don't have pen/paper handy, maybe you are blind ...) ...or maybe you're on a cellular phone, on the expressway. If they offered the service here, I'd probably use it when I was in the car. Actually, if it saved me a minute of air time, it would *save* me money! On Long Island, with the 'low usage' plan, peak air time is $0.97 per minute :-( ! Larry Rachman, WA2BUX 74066.2004@compuserve.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #136 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa28070; 16 Feb 92 19:56 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18337 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 18:13:02 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00240 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 18:12:53 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 18:12:53 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202170012.AA00240@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #137 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 18:12:49 CST Volume 12 : Issue 137 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak (Jim Gottlieb) Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak (Floyd Vest) Re: Bellcore Multimedia Software? (Wallace Colyer) Re: Bellcore Multimedia Software? (Syd Weinstein) Re: Incoming Calls Problem (Paul Cook) Re: Help Wanted Wiring Western Union Clock (Laird P. Broadfield) Re: Help Wanted Wiring Western Union Clock (Harold Hallikainen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jimmy@tokyo07.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak Date: 16 Feb 92 10:55:49 GMT Reply-To: jimmy@denwa.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) Organization: Info Connections, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan keith@ksmith.uucp (Keith Smith) writes: > we get All JAZZ MUZAK til 11, Rock-and-Roll MUZAK from 11 - 3, and > Adult Contemporary MUZAK from 3 to 5. All fed from a Satellite disk > on the top of our building into a little descrambler box next to the > PA amp. We change the programming with a phone call. Sounds totally ancient compared with what we have here in Japan. The "cable radio" service we subscribe to for 6000 yen a month ($US47 -- about the same as Muzak charges) provides 440 channels of digital audio over a coax that they blended into the building TV antenna cable. The 440 channels (204 of which are doubled up to provide 102 stereo programs) offer every kind of music and non-music programming imaginable, including one channel that plays nothing but "Happy Birthday" 24 hours a day, three channels that play South Korean music, one channel each for North Korean music, harp-based background music, country, Mexican, Bluegrass, Beatles, Presley, Soul, Fusion, and on and on and on. Keeping the telecom angle, there's even one channel that is connected to a phone line (+81 3 3461 3399) so that you can broadcast whatever you want to whomever else might be listening to channel J40 at the time. Hmm, it's cold outside. Maybe it's time to turn on one of the "Tropical Music" channels ... ------------------------------ From: Floyd Vest Subject: Re: Information Wanted on History of Muzak Date: 16 Feb 92 08:55:42 CDT [5 Feb 92 05:31:42 GMT] zank@netcom.netcom.com (Mathew Zank) wrote: > Does anyone know about the history of Muzak, the service that brings From _Uncle John's Fourth Bathroom Reader_: General George Squier was head of the U.S. Signal Corps in WWI. During the war he discovered a way to transmit music over electrical lines. When the war was over, he showed his discovery to a Cleveland, OH utility. The company liked his invention, and in 1922 helped Squier set up the Wired Radio Company. o Their plan: Provide an alternative to radio by broadcasting music to households through their power lines (for a fee). o Squier changed his company's name to "Muzak" in 1934. Why? He liked Kodak's name, and wanted something that sounded similar. Squier overlooked one thing when he started his bisiness: households receiving radio broadcasts free of charge would not see any reason to pay a monthly fee for Muzak's wire broadcasts. This made it tough to attract customers. However, events during WWII helped keep the company in business: o To combat assembly line fatigue, the British government began broadcasting the BBC in defense factories. o When production at these plants increased as much as 6%, the U.S. government hired Muzak to pipe sounds into U.S. plants. Their productivity rose 11%. o Studies showed that even cows and chickens increased productivity when "functional" music played in the background. o Seeing this, the company switched its focus to increasing productivity for business customers. Today it broadcats via satellite to 180 different Muzak "stations: around the country -- and into the ears of more than 100 million "listeners" worldwide. Floyd Vest Manager, Administrative Systems--Auburn University, Alabama USA Voice: +1 205 844 4512 BBS: +1 205 745 3989 FIDO: 1:3613/3 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 15:39:48 -0500 (EST) From: Wallace Colyer Subject: Re: Bellcore Multimedia Software? The following is the announcement from Bellcore of Metamail. Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1992 14:50:37 -0500 (EST) From: Nathaniel Borenstein Subject: Metamail: Multimedia Mail for the Masses On behalf of Bellcore, I am happy to announce the availability of the "metamail" software to the email community. This package, which is available free of charge for unlimited use by anyone for any purpose, is offered in the hope of making multimedia mail more widespread. OVERVIEW The basic idea of "multimedia" electronic mail is to extend email as we now know it to include many other types of data beyond plain English text. In particular, there is no reason, in principle, why email should not include text in any of the world's languages and character sets, nor why email should not include pictures, sounds, animations, active spreadsheets, or any other kind of data that can be stored on a computer. In recent years, various research systems and even some commercial products have extended email to include some or all of these capabilities. Until recently, however, none of them worked together, and all of them required whole communities of users to abandon their old tools en masse in favor of the new tools of a single software vendor. Recent developments have the promise of changing all of that. There is a new proposed standard for the format of multimedia mail, which would make software from different vendors able to work together smoothly with multimedia mail, as they do now with plain text mail. The software being announced here implements that proposed standard, but takes it a step further by incorporating it into the existing tools with which people read mail today, allowing multimedia mail to be adopted in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary fashion. DETAILS Metamail is a package that can be used to convert virtually ANY mail-reading program on UNIX into a multimedia mail-reading program. It is an extermely generic implementation of MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), the proposed standard for multimedia mail formats on the Internet. The implementation is extremely flexible and extensible, using a "mailcap" file mechanism for adding support for new data formats when sent through the mail. At a heterogeneous site where many mail readers are in use, the mailcap mechanism can be used to extend them all to support new types of multimedia mail by a single addition to a mailcap file. The core of the package is a mechanism that allows the easy configuration of mail readers to call external "viewers" for different types of mail. However, beyond this core mechanism, the distribution includes viewers for a number of mail types defined by the MIME standard, so that it is useful immediately and without any special site-specific customization or extension. Types with built-in support in the metamail distribution include: 1. Plain US ASCII (i.e., English) text, of course. 2. Plain text in the ISO-8859-8 (Hebrew/English) character set. 3. Richtext (multifont formatted text, termcap-oriented viewer) 4. Image formats (using the xloadimage program under X11) 5. Audio (initial "viewer" for SPARCstations) 6. Multipart mail, combining several other types 7. Multipart/alternative mail, offering data in multiple formats. 8. Encapsulated messages 9. Partial & external messages (for large data objects) 10. Arbitrary (untyped) binary data Other media types and character sets may be easily supported with the mailcap mechanism, using the provided types as examples/templates. The metamail software also provides rudimentary support for the use of non-ASCII characters in certain mail headers, as described by a companion document to the proposed MIME standard. The metamail distribution comes complete with a small patch for each of over a dozen popular mail reading programs, including Berkeley mail, mh, Elm, Xmh, Xmail, Mailtool, Emacs Rmail, Emacs VM, Andrew, and others. Crafting a patch for additional mail readers is relatively straightforward. In order to build the metamail software, a single "make" command followed by a relatively short compilation will suffice. Patching your mail reader is somewhat harder, but can usually be accomplished in less than an hour if you have the sources at hand. The experience of beta testers is that the metamail package can easily be used to get multimedia mail working with your existing mail readers in less than half a day. AVAILABILITY To retrieve the file, use anonymous ftp to the machine thumper.bellcore.com (Internet address 128.96.41.1). Type "cd pub/nsb". In that directory, you will find: 1. mm.tar.Z -- this is a compressed tar file containing the entire metamail distribution. Uncompress it, untar it, and read the top-level "README" file for further instructions. Strictly speaking, this is the only thing you really need to retrieve. 2. A subdirectory called "samples". Except for the README file, each file in this directory is a sample MIME-format message, which can be used to test your metamail installation. 3. BodyFormats.{ps,txt,ex} -- a copy (in PostScript/text/Andrew format) of the latest draft of the MIME proposed standard. This document is also available as an Internet Draft. 4. Configuration.{ps,txt,ex} -- a copy (in PostScript/text/Andrew format) of the latest draft of the Internet informational RFC describing the mailcap file format. This document is also available as an Internet Draft. A new mailing list has been set up for disucssion of the metamail software and related issues. The mailing list is INFO-MM@thumper.bellcore.com. Requests to join the list should be directed to INFO-MM-REQUEST@thumper.bellcore.com. Please feel free to recirculate this announcement as widely as possible. Nathaniel S. Borenstein Member of Technical Staff, Bellcore ------------------------------ From: syd@dsi.com (Syd Weinstein) Subject: Re: Bellcore Multimedia Software? Reply-To: syd@dsi.com Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc. Huntingdon Valley, PA Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 21:34:22 GMT tshapin@beckman.com (Ted Shapin) writes: > From {Information Week}, Feb 10, 1992, p.8 > "Bellcore ... is giving Internet users a new software package that > allows them to send multimedia E-mail messages. Bellcore is > distributing the software in hopes that is will spur use of the public > phone network." > Anyone have more info on what this is or who to contact? This is MIME, the Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions ... and if they think it will spur use of the public phone network, then what they released it with the name Internet in it I don't know. Its a draft RFC on a proposed attachment interface for sound, binary files, video, etc. It is simple, uses external process viewers, and includes patches for common mail user agents to take advantage of it. Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator - Current 2.3PL11 Datacomp Systems, Inc. Projected 2.4 Release: Mid?? 1992 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd Voice: (215) 947-9900, FAX: (215) 938-0235 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 21:59 GMT From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Incoming Calls Problem Lance Sanders wrote: > A friend recently complained...that I never answered the phone > anymore, and moreover, why did I take the answering machine offline? > I heard an extremely brief blip from my phone, picked up, and > took a call. Jim Redelfs responded: > The most likely cause of your problem is TOO MANY ringers bridged > across the line. This condition will also cause your answering > machine to NOT pick-up a call since it is triggered by ringing > current. > The central office only has so much "poop" with which to ring your > line. Generally, five "ringers" is considered the max. Of course, > the distance from the C.O. is a factor, as is the "R.E.N." total How true! If you have many devices on your line, it is prudent to add up the total RENs from all of them, and make sure that it doesn't go much above five. It was mentioned by some folks who responded to Lance's dilema that many electronic phones have RENs less than 1.0. But I have found that some electronic phones have even heavier loads than a standard 2500 set. Some are as high as 1.7. Some of my customers have told me that they have successfully used our 46222 OPX/Long Loop Adaptor to boost the ringer capacity on a line. This device is intended to boost DC voltage and ringing for extending a PBX or key system extension off premises, but since it repeats everything it sees at standard CO DC and ringing voltage, it works well in this application. The 46222 has standard RJ11 jacks for the input and output. Just plug it into 117 VAC and hook the telco line to the input, and the lines to the telephones and other devices to the output. Since it puts very little load on the line itself, you can actually split your phones between the input and the output for driving a maximum load. The output has the same 5 REN capacity and 48 VDC line voltage as the telco provides, but you have the advantage of repeating everything so that electrically it looks like you are next door to the CO. If the phones are evenly split between the input and output of the 46222, you can probably drive at least 10 standard REN. These are stocked by North Supply and GTE Supply, or available from Proctor. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5317 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) Subject: Re: Help Wanted Wiring Western Union Clock Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1992 01:30:05 GMT In jxh@attain.ICD.Teradyne.COM (Jim Hickstein) writes: > After reading some months ago about the WU Time Service, and how some > of these self-winding clocks were floating around, I happened upon one > and immediately snapped it up. [Pat explains how to adjust the accuracy with the adjustment screw ...] I thought the most brilliant suggestion was whoever wrote in and said he had cannibalized one of the digital watches that had an "on-the-hour" beep, and connected the beep out circuit to the accurizing armature on the clock. Perhaps he'll see this and send you the details. (No, I'm sure WU didn't call it an "accurizing armature", but it's the best I could come up with on the spur of the moment.) Laird P. Broadfield UUCP: {ucsd, nosc}!crash!lairdb INET: lairdb@crash.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Feb 92 16:30:31 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Help Wanted Wiring Western Union Clock Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > I had not set my clocks for about three months (forgot about > it) and one of the two was about five minutes fast. The other was > about five minutes slow. WUTCO used to calibrate them *hourly*. PAT] This reminds me of a theory presented by Ric Turner, a programmer who used to work for me. If you average the time according to all the clocks in the time zone (including the ones that are broken), will you get the exact time? With Pat's small sample, it seems to work! Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI [Moderator's Note: No, you will merely get an 'average' of the time shown on all the clocks. That 'average' may or may not by coincidence happen to be the correct time, but it probably won't be considering that only one precise situation of the hands on the clock can be correct at any given moment and there are numerous ways the hands can be situated which would be wrong. I have written digital clock programs for my Apple II+ computer in BASIC which after sufficient tweaking were accurate within a couple seconds per 24 hours. Oh ... just remembered: Ameritech's voicemail clock here has been off by about five minutes for several weeks. Very annoying! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #137 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29829; 16 Feb 92 20:44 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02127 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 19:01:32 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06146 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 19:01:25 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 19:01:25 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202170101.AA06146@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #139 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 19:01:19 CST Volume 12 : Issue 138 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: When Did the LEC's Start to Die? (Harold Hallikainen) Re: When Did the LEC's Start to Die? (Jack Decker) Rabbit Network Press Release Confuses Bits and Characters (Nelson Bolyard) Re: What the ^&$%# is Going on With Sprint!?? (Dennis Blyth) Re: Answer Supervision on Lines (Alan L. Varney) Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? (Jacob DeGlopper) Re: Party Not Answering Phone (Will Martin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 16:15:36 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: When Did the LEC's Start to Die? Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > Personally, I'm more interested in the when the LEC's (local > telephone companies) might begin to feel threatened. I truly wish > that some bright people would begin to work on a viable system of "LEC > bypass" that would give the LEC's some REAL competition. The cable TV > industry is probably the most likely candidate, but seeing as how they > can't even do cable right (in most areas), I wouldn't count on them. It seems to me that the bus topology of CATV systems is so substantially different from the switched mesh topology of the phone network that it's unlikely for CATV companies to take over a substantial portion of the local phone traffic. Their cable has lots of bandwidth, but, currently, there is no switching, so everyone's phone call would end up everywhere. With the switched network, your phone call goes only where it's needed. It's a sort of "space multiplexing" where each conversation circuit is in a different location in the cable as opposed to the CATV frequency division multiplexing, where all circuits would be in the same physical location, but utilizing different frequencies on the cable. Let's see ... if we have a thousand pair cable and allocate 3 KHz in each direction to each pair, we get about 6 MHz of capacity on the cable (figuring 3 KHz one way and 3 KHz the other way is 6 KHz). Of course a single CATV cable has a whole lot more capacity, but that one cable goes all over town. With the telco cable, each area of town has its own cable heading to the CO. So, although the CATV cable has more capacity, the switching of the telephone network allows it to handle more traffic. CATV companies are installing fiber as their trunk cables, then demodulating out to RF on coax to go into homes. Even in these systems, I'm not aware of any switching going on. It would, of course, be a different story if either the CATV company or the phone company ran a fiber from the home back to a switch somewhere. Here, it seems we get into a balancing act between the cost of circuit- kilometres and the cost of switches (up front costs and recurring costs). Putting in more swithces reduces the number of required circuit-kilometers (It's not as far to the CO). > What does puzzle me is why no one has ever really jumped on the idea > of using radio as an alternative to the phone system. The airwaves, > after all, are free. It would be feasible using current technology to > set up a computerized system where each "phone" would have enough > "smarts" to make a digital, noise- and static-free connection to any > other phone within radio range. The way I would contemplate this > happening is that on a call attempt, the phone would first attempt a > direct connection (by some "handshaking" on a "hailing channel" > monitored by all phones when not in use). If the called phone could > not be reached directly, the call could be passed to a nearby repeater > tower, at which point it would become a charged-for call. Such > repaters might be operated by long distance carriers, who could > complete calls between two repeaters. You'd set your phone to default > to the nearest repeater of the long distance carrier you wanted to > use. This sounds a little like the Personal Communications Network now proposed (as I recall). It's a sort of cross between cellular and cordless phones. As another writer has pointed out, the electromagnetic spectrum is very crowded. Cellular gets around that by reusing frequencies. As traffic increases, more smaller cells are added. Voice circuits are run to each of the cell sites. As we get more and more sites, we end up with one cell site per house and a wire going to that cell site. We call that a "cordless phone." CATV companies are looking at getting into PCN, as are local telcos. Again, the CATV is going to have to add some switching to their system, or else they'd run out of capacity real quick. The use of an RF to RF link for local calls is interesting. I don't think we have enough spectrum available to make cell sites large enough for you to call anyone very far away. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 15:59:15 CST From: Jack Decker Subject: Re: When Did the LEC's Start to Die? In message , I wrote: > But it is my firm belief that if a system were devised that included > free phone-to-phone communication for phones within reach of each > other, OR if cellular operators were to start providing "free" calls > (no airtime charges) between cell phones in the same local area, OR if > the system were expanded to allow MORE than TWO cell operators to > compete in a given area, you'd soon see the beginning of the end of > local cellular service. Actually, what I meant to say was, you'd see the end of exorbitantly high charges for local cellular service ... not that it would be the end of cellular service altogether! I happen to think that a cellular system could still be profitable even if "local" calling between cell phones were offered at no additional airtime charge. The cell operator would still make money on calls to and from "landline" phones, and calls to distant areas. At the same time, free cell phone to cell phone calling would bring more subscribers online, and they'd still get the monthly service fee from each subscriber. And, unlike the wireline phone companies, the cellular companies have virtually no expense when a new subscriber comes online (other than the cost of setting up a billing account) because there are no wires to be run. I do understand that overloading the capacity of a cellular system might be a real possibility in congested areas with the cellular systems of today, but I would hope that the next generation of cellular systems would anticipate the day when everyone is using cellular, and wireline telephone systems are as antiquated as telegraph service is today. Of course, that day will NEVER come as long as cellular service is priced out of reach of the average person. Jack Decker jack@myamiga.mixcom.com FidoNet 1:154/8 ------------------------------ From: nelson@bolyard.wpd.sgi.com Subject: Rabbit Network Press Release Confuses Bits and Characters Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1992 23:01:13 GMT In article uuhare!havel@uunet.UU.NET Jon Havel, Technical Support Director for THE RABBIT NETWORK, INC. announced the new local modem service for the metro-Detroit area that is intended to be cheaper than "local" phone calls, due to Detroit's small local calling areas. He wrote: > The network backbone speeds will be upgraded as needed and will > range anywhere from 56kbps (56,000 characters/second) up to T3 (3 > million characters per second). Telebit T3000 modems, the newest > models, will provide users with reliable dial-up access via 14.4kb > (14,400 characters/second) V.32bis links. The quoted text seems to say 56kbps (bits/second) means 56,000 characters per second. Maybe he meant those famous binary characters, 0 and 1. One wonders if his customers use those characters, or if they use 8-bit characters like the rest of us. Also, according to my sources, T3 (a.k.a. DS-3) is 44.736 Mbps, not 3 Mbps as implied above. If this is representative of the technical support expertise at RABBIT, it would seem they're not off to a good start. Nelson Bolyard nelson@sgi.COM {decwrl,sun}!sgi!whizzer!nelson Disclaimer: Views expressed herein do not represent the views of my employer. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 09:44:23 -0500 From: Dennis Blyth Subject: Re: What the ^&$%# is Going on With Sprint!?? Organization: Europe Group Dayton [previous references to Sprint fixing and/or not fixing problems] At a previous employer (a well known computer systems VAR) the habit was to hire service people who were 'good with people' and not necessarily 'good in fixing equipment / software' because we recognized it was more important to FIX THE CUSTOMER and not (just) fix their hardware and/or software problem!! We had very high customer satisfaction ratings (in fact, we took an award) overall, but, when it came to the item 'fixed right the first time' we had low scores. It had something to do with our training (and/or lack thereof) provided to our service representatives. BTW, these observations do NOT apply to NCR! Dennis Blyth, Marketing Research, NCR Europe Group Dennis.Blyth@daytonOH.NCR.COM Phone: 1-513-445-6580 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 09:06:19 CST From: varney@ihlpf.att.com (Alan L Varney) Subject: Re: Answer Supervision on Lines Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) writes: > A. This service provides the capability to deliver "off-hook" signals > from the terminating central office to a line interface at the > originating central office. This signal is a polarity reversal of the > tip and ring conductors (tip-ring reversal) of the metallic facility > between the calling customer and the serving central office. This > signal (2 to 3 sec.), indicates that the called station has answered ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Note 1A. > the incoming call. The same situation occurs when the called party ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Note 2A. > disconnects prior to the calling party disconnecting. At present, > this feature is only available in the DMS family of digital switches, > ie., (DMS10, DMS 100). > B. Answer indication is a reversal of -48 Volts and Ground at the > interface between the Tip and Ring conductors of a 2-wire pair. At > the time of answer, Tip and Ring are interchanged by the switching > machine, so that the tip is now more negative than the ring. This > reversal persists at least until the called line goes on hook, and ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Note 1B. > possibly until the calling line goes on hook. All of the other > electrical characteristics on a line equipped for answer supervision > are identical to those of a normal line. Just another reason to NOT design CPE from the "technical interface" documents. Notes 1A and 2A imply a few seconds of T/R reversal, while Note 1B implies it lasts until the called line goes on hook (or longer)! I don't speak for NTI's DMS products (but I do talk about them :-)), so I wouldn't want to guess which paragraph is correct. But I do know the 5ESS(rg. tm) Switch feature I previously described, "Calling Line Side Supervision", operates per paragraph B. The second reversal (on called party on-hook) should be at the time the originating switch has determined the called party can no longer re-connect by going back off-hook (10-12 seconds of disconnect timing). Al Varney - AT&T Network Systems -- The above is not necessarily the opinion of AT&T. ------------------------------ From: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Subject: Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? Reply-To: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 17:57:18 GMT In a previous article, spencer@phoenix.princeton.edu (S. Spencer Sun) says: > I could be mistaken, but I do not believe there were or are any N0X or > N1X prefixes in 301 (never saw one anyway, although I fully > acknowledge that is far from saying that there absolutely raen't any) > and we're splitting into 410/301 anyway ... I know of at least one offhand -- 301 217 xxxx is the Montgomery County Government Centrex system. I don't have the phone books up here, but if one exists, it seems more likely that there are more. _/acob DeGlopper, EMT-A, Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad -- jrd5@po.cwru.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 14:00:14 CST From: Will Martin Subject: Re: Party Not Answering Phone > [Moderator's Note: It is quite common. AT&T now breaks the connection > after a few minutes if the called party has not answered and the > calling party does not disconnect voluntarily. The main reason this > was started was because radio talk-person Larry King ripped off AT&T > for many thousands of dollars in network resources by encouraging his > listeners over the air to dial his talk show call-in number 'and just > let it ring until we get ready to answer; that way no one has to pay > the phone company for the time they were on hold ...'. What was > happening was he was letting the incoming lines ring for 30-40 minutes > at a time; AT&T circuits were in use all that time on a non-revenue > basis; and AT&T finally got tired of King's abuse of the network. When > AT&T started their new policy, King blasted them over the air and told > his listener/participants how to dial the call using Sprint. I guess > he thought this would somehow punish AT&T and reward the other > company. His idea to transfer all that lousy, money-losing traffic to > the other carrier caused a few snickers at AT&T. ('Gee, we're sorry to > lose your business, Mr. King; your thirty minute connections which > generated three minutes of revenue ...') PAT] Hmmm ... I never listen to radio call-in shows, so this is not my area of expertise ... but I've seen and heard enough references to Larry King to believe that his is a NIGHT-TIME call-in show. So the AT&T resources to which you refer, Pat, were ones sitting idle at night in any case. The tying-up of them by callers listening to many minutes of ring indicator (an interesting way to psychologically modify and manipulate the caller before they reach Mr. King, wouldn't you say? By the time they get through, they're so zoned-out by the droning repetition of the ring signal that they are mesmerized and easily manipulated! :-) would not have cost AT&T anything, except maybe a few cents worth of electricity. I'd like to see some trustworthy statistics on the subject -- I'm beginning to believe that the long-distance carriers (and probably the local telcos, too) make up their costs, and get a fair profit, based solely on business usage during prime-shift working hours. Any income they derive from residential and off-peak usage is actually pure gravy -- they could make money even if they gave residential users unlimited off-peak calling at some trivial amount, like $5 per month. I wonder if there is any independent audit of a representative sample of these firms to show if that contention is true or not? Regards, Will wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil [Moderator's Note: Well, your computer is otherwise sitting idle while you are asleep; how about if I start using it without paying you for the resources? After all, the only thing it is costing you is a little bit of electricity. It really does not matter how much it costs AT&T or how much or little it is otherwise used. As the tariffs now read they are entitled to get paid. Your idea of changing the whole method of billing for off-peak service is an interesting one, however. But until that time comes, if it ever does, AT&T has the right to expect a reasonable amount of overhead in setting up/taking down calls and payment for the time in the middle. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #138 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02562; 16 Feb 92 21:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26566 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 19:59:59 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19049 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 19:59:47 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 19:59:47 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202170159.AA19049@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #140 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 19:59:43 CST Volume 12 : Issue 140 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: High Speed Modems and PSTN (Colin Plumb) Re: Rotary Dialers Go Home! (Richard Nash) Re: What Frequencies Does Touchtone Generate? (Dave Leibold) Re: ATT Mail Charges (Again) (Dave Leibold) Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? (Dave Leibold) Re: Connecting Computers to Hotel Phones (Rupert Mohr) Re: COCOT Information Wanted (Richard McCombs) Re: Low-Bandwith Free Info Transfer? (Vance Shipley) Re: Cellular Calls From Airplanes on the Ground (Mark Purcell) Re: ADA Compliance Requirements (David Lesher) Re: BBB's 900 Number (John Schubert) Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities (David Niebuhr) Re: Need Information on 'Integrated Voice Power 4' (Bob Nelson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: colin@array.uucp (Colin Plumb) Subject: Re: High Speed Modems and PSTN Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 04:21:48 -0500 Organization: Array Systems Computing, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA In article moon@evax.gdc.com writes: > Well, one possibility (which has been discussed here before) is > digital frame slips. These look like huge phase hits to the modem. > About the only way to prove that they are happening is to put a TIMS > (transmission impairment measuring set) on both ends of the connection > and look for phase hits greater than 40 degrees. Actually, there's an easier way: connect at 2400 bps (no error correction) and see if { (or is it }; I forget - one of the curly braces) characters appear at regular intervals. The worst line I was ever on had them about every two seconds. For some reason, slips show up as this characteristic character under V.22bis (2400 bps) modulation. Agreed, they are a pain in the ass. Colin ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 22:00:22 CST From: rickie@trickie.UUCP (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: Rotary Dialers Go Home! > The inability or unfriendliness of ACD's to rotary phones raises a > question to me with regard to ANI delivery. > It would seem that is the tone/pulse calling method could be > delivered to the called party by either ANI or within Caller-ID > 'packets' (and let's not get sticky about the definitions at this > point) then answering machines and ACD's could tailor their behavior, > prompts, options, etc. to the capabilities of the calling party and > eliminate some of the extra instructions for rotary callers or putting > them through menus that they will never be able to use. > Do CO's sense/capture this condition so that it is/could be > forwarded in the ANI data ? > Of course, if someone uses rotary dialing with a tone capable phone > he will be misdirected by this method, but perhaps the receiving end > could initially prompt for the caller to hit a tone button *if it is > informed that the caller pulse dialed* to handle the cases where tone > generation is available to the caller. > On the other hand, maybe the ommission of this feature is all a > nefarious plot by the telco's to get everyone to switch to DTMF :-) Yes this is possible but is quite possibly not provided. The method employs a special 'KP2' pulse sent instead of the normal 'KP' pulse in the ANI spill. Since most subs use DTMF and the telco wants to encourage complete migration to this single format, they are loath of any expense to assist DP (dial pulse) phone users. The exception handling described to identify DP customers who have DTMF pads, benefits only those customers, and becomes a hinderance to DP customers who only have DP. Such instructional announcements provide additional confusion as to how the call should be handled. As the prime objective is to provide the most direct and efficient service to the DP customer, by putting an announcement on the line would defeat the intent of automatically connecting the DP sub to an operator, and would delay serving them anyways. So if you are a DP customer with DTMF capabilities, you are better served by letting you switch to DTMF when utilizing some service. Give the non-DTMF-capable DP customer the timeout as the usual treatment and eventually everyone will own one of them there fancy fandangled new gadgets. :-) Rick Nash ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 01:32:03 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Re: What Frequencies Does Touchtone Generate? group1!van@uunet.UU.NET (Van Bagnol) wrote: > This *must* be a FAQ (no pun intended), but I need to know the > frequencies generated by touch-tone dialing. Indeed, it is included in the FAQ list with it's very own question and answer. Touch tones and stuff like that are in the Technical section of the list. > [Moderator's Note: Yes, this is a frequent question. Along with many > others, the answer to this will be found in the Telecom Archives, or wherever the Digest FAQ is sold :-) Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG [Moderator's Note: How would you like to go door to door selling the Digest in your community? I hereby give you the franchise rights in your town. Sell it for whatever you can get, and send me half! :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 01:48:01 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Re: ATT Mail Charges (Again) I should point out that AT&T in Canada has also moved to a monthly fee rather than an annual fee, along the lines of over CAD$3/month rather than the approximately CAD$40/yr for Canadian AT&T Mail service. This is just the base subscription fee, and does not represent the proposed monthly minimum charge that caused controversy some time ago. The monthly minimum of CAD$29 as proposed for Canadian customers is being waived indefinitely, it seems (in the U.S., a similar charge seems to have been waived earlier). I'm not sure if this applies to just the present customer base or to any AT&T Mail customer. In the meantime, it seems the reaction to the price move in the U.S. has finally made it up north, so things look better for now. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 01:42:15 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Re: NPA Split Planned For 803? spencer@phoenix.princeton.edu (S. Spencer Sun) wrote: > I could be mistaken, but I do not believe there were or are any N0X or > N1X prefixes in 301 (never saw one anyway, although I fully > acknowledge that is far from saying that there absolutely raen't any) > and we're splitting into 410/301 anyway ... Actually, 301 did have a number of N0/1X prefixes, along with the other area codes involved in the Washington Metro area. Growth in Washington's local area required cutover to N0X and N1X, and ultimately changes in local dialing to require area code + number when crossing an area code boundary. When I was checking out what prefixes would split to 410, many N0X and N1X were found; the info on prefixes involved in the 301/410 split might still be kicking around in the TELECOM Digest Archives. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Feb 92 11:42:38 +0100 From: rmohr@infoac.rmi.de (Rupert Mohr) Subject: Re: Connecting Computers to Hotel Phones In comp.dcom.telecom was written: > Jeff Sicherman recently sent a file to the Telecom Archives which was > an article he found elsewhere suitable for the recent thread here on > acoustic modems. This file discusses hooking modems and computers to > phones in hotels, and similar places. > If you want a copy, pick it up at the Telecom Archives using anonymous > ftp to lcs.mit.edu. You must then cd telecom-archives. Look for the > file 'modems.and.hotel.phones'. I have been told many big hotels in major cities in Germany now provide the standard ISDN wall jacks. Journalists using Toshiba laptops with ISDN card can use this fast mode to send their stuff to their agencies. Rupert addresses: uucp rmohr@infoac.rmi.de IP: 192.33.254.1 cis 72446,415 Fax 49 241 47997-77 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: COCOT Information Wanted From: rick@ricksys.lonestar.org (Richard McCombs) Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 22:35:44 CST Organization: The Red Headed League; Lawton, OK johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) writes: >> Though COCOT's have received "bad press" in this group, I'm in the >> position of wanting one to install in a small shopping plaza here in >> central Connecticut that my relatives own. > Isn't Connecticut one of the few sensible states that have outlawed > COCOTs? I know I've never seen one there. The last that I heard COCOTs are also illegal in Oklahoma, however if a Southwestern Bell Coin Phone is on your property you can have an AOS as the default 0+ carrier for interlata calls. Internet: rick@ricksys.lonestar.org ARPA: rick%ricksys.lonestar.org@utacfd.uta.edu UUCP: ...!ricksys!rick Fidonet: Richard McCombs on Fidonet 1:385/6 ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: Low-Bandwith Free Info Transfer? Organization: SwitchView Inc., Waterloo, Ontario Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1992 21:23:47 GMT In article our esteemed Moderator injects: > And no, when you buy phone service you are not buying the right to > 'ring anyone'; you are buying the right to connect your instrument and > wire to any other instrument and wire whose owner wishes to communicate > with you. The ringing is only the means to signal a pending connection; > it is not intended to be a communication in and of itself. PAT] I believe that the only way we will see the telco's and carriers offer advanced transaction processing cababilities, inherent in IN, is if we move towards a usage based pricing. If I call California and get no answer why shouldn't I be billed? I tied up circuits (note: even in an ISDN where all the dialing, alerting, etc. is handled out of band, a B-channel is still reserved) and received information from the far end; no one is there. This of course would be met with much resistance :). Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@ltg.uucp ..uunet!watmath!xenitec!vances ------------------------------ From: msp@kralizec.zeta.org.au (Mark Purcell) Subject: Re: Cellular Calls From Airplanes on the Ground Date: 15 Feb 92 23:54:32 GMT Organization: Kralizec Dialup Unix Sydney: +61-2-837-1183 V.32 phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) writes: > A small item in the {St. Louis Post Dispatch} business section 2/10 > indicates that the regulations are in the process of being changed to > allow cellular calls while the plane is on the ground. As previously > discussed here there are serious problems when trying to call while in > the air because of the increased range of transmission. But that isn't the major concern with the use of cellular phones. In Australia it is illegal to use a phone within a plane due to the effects the transmission has on the aircraft navigation systems. As there are some very sensitive instruments used for navigation, and if they get thrown out by internal tranmission then all sorts of complications will result. As a sideline I was onboard a C-130 yesterday and requested permission to use a cellular phone before we had flashed up. The bottom line was I would have to leave the plane before I could transmit. Mark ------------------------------ From: David Lesher Subject: Re: ADA Compliance Requirements Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 14:31:38 EST Reply-To: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex > I am looking for information on compliance to the ADA. After some > research, the results have been less than specific. If anyone has > found any definitive information on compliance, I would appreciate the > info. Example: Pay phones in public places need TDD devices > installed? I was walking by a coin slot at a Metro station in MD yesterday when I saw a box -- about 8.5" * 11" by 1.5" thick. It was metal and had a substantial lock, considering the box itself was thin aluminum. I was able to sneak a peak in the gap in the cover, and lo and behold -- a TTY! Since then I've seen a second one -- this time in a department store, I think. wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu ------------------------------ From: schubert@capri.berkeley.edu (John Schubert) Subject: Re: BBB's 900 Number Reply-To: schubert@capri.berkeley.edu (John Schubert) Organization: U.C. Berkeley -- ERL Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 08:34:08 GMT In article Steve Forrette writes: >> [Moderator's Note: Yes, in the past it was free. Likewise, the >> corporate records telephone look-up service offered by most state >> governments was free, as was the public library telephone reference >> service for lookups from the local criss-cross directory in most >> towns. Many phone look-up services are now using 900 numbers. PAT] > Another troubling 900 number I saw the other day was one that, for > only 95 cents a minute, would tell you all about USPS rates and > regulations. I'm not sure if this was run by the USPS itself or by > Pitney-Bowes, but there must be a lot of uninformed people out there > for this to make money. After all, the USPS operates their "Postal > Answer Line" automated system in most cities that has hundreds of > categories of information available, all for a local call. And they > even have real people at the post offices that you can call to ask > questions! (Imagine that!) Gosh, next thing you know Pitney Bowes is going to have a 900 number for service problems. I can just see it now, after going through a whole bunch of "fixes" (each corresponding to a different number) there will be that last possible fix to try (like number 12) where we get to pay $10 dollars for the priviledge of hearing a recorded voice say, "if all else fails try dropping the unit from a height of 6" onto a hard surface, preferably concrete." John Schubert schubert@united.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Feb 92 08:37:33 -0500 From: niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) Subject: Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities In gil@limbic.ssdl.com (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) writes: > In scott@asd.com (Scott Barman) writes: >> ...how technologically behind most of the COs on Long Island are >> and that NY Tel would have to do a major overhaul and replace switches >> to provide some of these new services. > Where are *YOU* on Long Island???? At least in many spots on L.I., at > least where I used to live, we were running on DMS-100s. I know that > Central Islip was on a 5ESS. I remember the day they cut-over to the > DMS-100 at my parents' house in Islip. I picked up the phone and got > a dial tone which sounded "different" (and there was no background > hum). I remember telling my parents about the fact "we were digital > now" and they seemed very unimpressed ... I've tried several of the 9901 numbers and received various responses ranging from "this is the ... 5ESS(tm) serving the exchanges of ..., ..., ...," to "this is the ... DSO serving the ..., ..., ..., exchanges" to "this is the ... DMS serving the ..., ..., ..., exchanges". I even received "not in service" and "cannot be dialed" messages for valid exchanges. Are these responses due to the type of switch in use at a particular location? On a side note, I called NYTel concerning why an exchange being billed at a higher rate for a toll call than should be. When I told the representative that calls to that exchange should be cheaper and mentioned that I knew the switch verification number, she asked where I received this information. My response was "I have my sources". Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 [Moderator's Note: You should have offered to sell her a subscription to TELECOM Digest. You could then split the commission with me. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 11:19:44 CST From: Bob Nelson Subject: Re: Need Information on 'Integrated Voice Power 4' Organization: Interphase Corp., Dallas Just a work of caution, the AT&A32C dsp(in lower case for a reason) SUCKS, I had to use one two years ago and the hardware and instruction set doesn't deserve the title of DSP!!!!! You would do better to use the MOT56000 or the AD21xxx. Just my .02 worth. Bob PS: DO LOOPS STOP INTERRUPTS!!!!!!! This makes ffts hard to write for realtime work! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #140 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04386; 16 Feb 92 22:27 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17161 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 20:46:22 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17318 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 20:45:54 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 20:45:54 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202170245.AA17318@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #139 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 19:29:40 CST Volume 12 : Issue 139 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: MCI Friends & Family: Note For Overseas MCI Cardholder (Steven Miale) Re: Phone Service to Cuba (Tony Harminc) Re: Tele-Scum (They're Back ...) (Ed Wells) Re: Low-Bandwith Free Info Transfer? (Jeff E. Nelson) Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing (was Point Roberts, Wa.) (Norman Soley) Re: Cellular Phone Programming (Nathan Friedman) Re: Pay Phone Charges for 800 Calls (Tad Cook) Re: Line Test Device Needed for CID (Tad Cook) Sprint Versus AT&T, at UUNET (Peter da Silva) 1 + 7D Still in Use at Denver, Pa. (Carl Moore) GOSIP: Government Open Systems Information Profile (Michael A. Frank) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: spm2d@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU (Steven P. Miale) Subject: Re: MCI Friends & Family: Note For Overseas MCI Cardholder Organization: University of Virginia Computer Science Department Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 20:03:34 GMT In article , UK84@DKAUNI2.BITNET (Juergen Ziegler) writes: > The MCI F&F discount plan is also available to overseas MCI > cardholders. With this feature you get a 20% discount on all numbers > that are on your list and have MCI as their PIC (primiary interexchage > carrier). (He noted this could be interesting if you added your own number to the list of friends.) Even better are the telemarketing calls you get if someone puts you on their list! The conversation goes like this: "Sir, I'm from MCI and..." "No, I don't want it." "But let me explain what..." "I said NO!." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 18:28:54 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Phone Service to Cuba Several people sent me replies on this topic. The general point made is that the USA has a trade embargo with Cuba, so any scheme that involves transfering money there is illegal. Without commenting on the inanities of the US law, I wonder what would happen if someone were to set up a business in Canada, with (say) a 900 number that could be called from the US. This would then accept (DTMF) a number in Cuba to be called, and place the call via regular 011+ dialing. Would the US government view anyone in the US who dealt with such a service as traitors (or whatever)? Presumably it could be argued that money was flowing from the caller to the 900 service provider, then to the company in Canada, thence to Teleglobe (Canadian monopoly overseas carrier), and finally Teleglobe would do settlements with the Cuban telephone system. I checked on direct dial rates to Cuba from here. In prime time (7-11) its C$1.92 for the first minute and 1.28 for subsequent minutes. Off peak rates are 1.35 and .90 respectively. Not exactly cheap, but not out of line with other Caribbean points. How does this compare with the AT&T rates via the tropospheric scatter link mentioned previously? I also tried dialing some random numbers in Havana, just to see what the speed and quality of connection were like. Some strange results. Since I didn't know any Havana numbers, I guessed that they would probably be six digits (reasonable sized city, but technologically backwards). All the following prefixed with 011 53 7: Number Time until -> Result 44 55 66 45 sec very loud 120 IPM busy (old xbar sound) 55 66 77 5 sec msg from Teleglobe switch (cannot complete your call as dialed) Evidently the switch (DMS300?) "knows" that this is not a valid Havana prefix. 33 44 55 20 sec bizarre! background noise, then silence followed by a ringing (PTP) tone but with 60 IPM cadence. From Teleglobe I think. 22 33 44 50 sec loud ringing (xbar sound) Answer! Sounded like "oo ah yu" Unfortunately I speak no Spanish, and the person answering spoke no English or French (not unreasonably). Can someone translate "oo ah yu" ? (No -- it wasn't "who are you" :-) ) The connection was quite loud and clear, though there was a half-duplex quality to it. Possibly TASI or one of its mutations was in the circuit. If anyone who speaks Spanish would like to try a three-way call this way, I'm willing to spend the couple of bucks it costs (once or twice -- not every day!). You would have to pay for the call to me here - I have telco 3-way calling. Presumably this would satisfy even the most scrupulous defender of the US embargo, since it would be my $1.00 or so that might eventually make it to Cuba, and not any US money :-) Tony H. [Moderator's Note: Speaking of Cuba, a friend of mine listens to Radio Havana on his shortwave radio. They give an email address he has been trying to reach for quite awhile without success. Maybe a netter can offer some advice: cdp!web!ceniai!radiohc web!ceniai!radiohc@bitnet. He says his mail has been bouncing back and/or falling in a hole at some unknown place. Send comments to gst@chinet.chi.il.us. Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Edward E. Wells Jr. Subject: Re: Tele-Scum (They're Back ...) Date: 16 Feb 92 09:10:16 GMT Organization: Wells Computer Systems Corp., Levittown, Pa. 19058 steve@endgame.gsfc.nasa.gov writes: > After thinking all this time that the plague of tele-marketing, > especially the automatic kind, was over, last evening I was given a > rude awakening. Upon answering a phone call around 7:00pm, I was > greeted by an auto-seller which informed me that "my phone number has > been selected ... to find out how you can claim , > just call 976-xxxx, or you can write to: National Services, [address > forgotten], Pittsburgh, PA." > Now they want _me_ to _pay_ to hear their spiel. Don't these guys ever > give up? I told the phone company that I wanted these calls stopped and that my home phone is not to be used as a trash can for someone else's business. With that, I found it quite difficult to get the names and addresses of these people that call and ask that you solicit their 1-900 numbers. With this, the phone company agreed that the only way to get them would be to call them, then cancel the charges and wait for them to contact me directly. This continued for two years until the phone company said that I wouldn't be able to do this any more (after dozens of cancelled calls). What's really funny is that I haven't had even one call asking me to call someone's 1-900 number. It's been at least six months! Maybe someone finally got the point. Edward E. Wells Jr., N3IAS, President Voice: (215)-943-6061 Wells Computer Systems Corp., Box 343, Levittown, Pa. 19058 {dsinc,francis,hotps,houxl,lgnp1,mdi386,pebco}!wells!edw ------------------------------ From: jnelson@gauche.zko.dec.com (Jeff E. Nelson) Subject: Re: Low-Bandwith Free Info Transfer? Reply-To: jnelson@gauche.zko.dec.com (Jeff E. Nelson) Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1992 23:59:59 GMT In article , yanek@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (Yanek Martinson) describes a method for two modems to communicate without ever answering the phone (by counting RRINGs), and wonders if this kind of communication (a) works and (b) is legal. The Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: It probably would work and it definitly would be > illegal to pass messages, coded or otherwise without paying for it. > And no, when you buy phone service you are not buying the right to > 'ring anyone'; you are buying the right to connect your instrument and > wire to any other instrument and wire whose owner wishes to communicate > with you. The ringing is only the means to signal a pending connection; > it is not intended to be a communication in and of itself. PAT] Regardless of the legality, such communication methods are already incorporated into devices that are in use today: the "toll-saver" feature of answering machines. Granted this communication is not as sustained as the kind Martinson wonders about, but it is communication nontheless, and seems to be illegal according to the Moderator. I wonder if we should start worrying about a long-distance carrier winning a lawsuit which makes all of these devices illegal. Jeff E. Nelson | jnelson@gauche.zko.dec.com | Digital Equipment Corporation Affilation given for identification purposes only ------------------------------ From: soley@trooa.enet.dec.com (Norman Soley) Subject: Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing (was Point Roberts, Wa.) Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: 11 FEB 92 19:52:34 In article , Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1. FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) writes: > niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) writes: >> Winsdor, Ontario is both South and East of Detroit; therefore, where >> does Windsor get its routing from, Detroit or from some point in >> Canada? > Windsor, being Bell Canada territory, would likely keep most routing > within Canadian soil. Much of the action, say to Toronto or elsewhere > in Canada, would presumably go through London, Ontario, where most of > area code 519 would be handled. Anything going to the States could be > sent across the creek to Detroit; I think Bell Canada does have a > major U.S. gateway via Windsor/ Detroit, considering that I've had > some not-in-service messages for some 800 numbers terminate on a 313 > switch. What you are forgetting is that switched traffic between Canada and the US (and everywhere else for that matter) gets touched by Teleglobe (in theory), the one and only IRC from Canada (while their monopoly lasts, which isn't for much longer). I'm not sure of how this works in practice but presumably Teleglobe has toll offices at several connection points with AT&T and possibly some other US IRCs. Bell Canada may operate these on Teleglobe's behalf though. I know that Bell Canada does have connections to AT&T for leased services at Buffalo/Fort Erie, Detroit/Windsor and Port Huron/Sarnia because I managed services that ran through them (in a past life). There are probably such arrangements at most border points. Of course you know that when someone says "in theory" they mean "not really". Norman Soley, Specialist, Professional Software Services, ITC District Digital Equipment of Canada soley@trooa.enet.dec.com Opinions expressed are mine alone and do not reflect those of Digital Equipment Corporation or my cat Marge. ------------------------------ From: nathanf@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Programming Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 16:40:25 PST I came across a listing that had intstructions to program 30+ brands of cellular phones. It apears to be very complete and not copyrighted, so I can make photocopies for whoever wants them. The only problem might be that it is over 50 pages, but I think my local printing shop can solve that. E-mail me if you are interested. Nathan Friedman nathanf@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Pay Phone Charges for 800 Calls From: tad@ssc.wa.com (Tad Cook) Date: 16 Feb 92 22:46:37 GMT Michael Fumich writes: > I was recently traveling along I-80 through Iowa & noticed that > the COCOTs there charge 35 CENTS!!! for a call to an 800 number. This > was true of several phones on the Illinois side as well. (stuff deleted) > My question is, is this legal? (charging for 800 at a pay > phone, not the chain idea |:*) and to whom may I formally complain? This question came up a couple of years ago in a conversation I had with someone at the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission. At least in the state of Washington it is legal for payphones to charge for 800 calls, although I have never seen one that does. Check with your state PUC. Tad Cook | Phone: 206-527-4089 | MCI Mail: 3288544 Seattle, WA | Packet: KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 3288544@mcimail.com | USENET: tad@ssc.wa.com or...sumax!ole!ssc!tad ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Line Test Device Needed for CID From: tad@ssc.wa.com (Tad Cook) Date: 16 Feb 92 22:45:32 GMT Douglas Scott Reuben writes: > Are there any products available (at a reasonable cost) that simulate > a telephone line with Caller*ID? > I know there are regular line voltage/ring/etc. simulators, but I'm > looking for one that does Caller*ID as well. Proctor & Associates has been mentioned in the past as a source of line simulators. I am not certain, but I believe that they have a new version of their telephone demonstrator called the Centrex Demo that will do Caller ID as well as simulating various Centrex features. You can reach Proctor & Associates at 206-881-7000, or via internet at 3991080@mcimail.com. Their fax number is 206-885-3282. Tad Cook | Phone: 206-527-4089 | MCI Mail: 3288544 Seattle, WA | Packet: KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 3288544@mcimail.com | USENET: tad@ssc.wa.com or...sumax!ole!ssc!tad ------------------------------ From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Sprint Versus AT&T, at UUNET Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 14:21:48 GMT Since UUNET uses Sprint for their 800 numbers, I'm surprised that you saw ANY difference between Sprint and AT&T. The Sprint versus PEP echo-cancellation problem is one of the reasons FICC is using UUPSI now. I would be interested in knowing if that problem has been fixed. I have no relationship with Sprint other than being a happy customer of their voice long-distance service. Both Sprint and AT&T are my long-distance carriers, because each has something they do better than the other. Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 12:07:17 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: 1 + 7D Still in Use at Denver, Pa. I have received a phone call from the Denvewr & Ephrata telephone company. They serve parts of two area codes (215 and 717), and in the interest of uniformity in their service area, they have NOT changed the dialing instructions for the part in 215. I asked about calls to (not yet existing?) prefixes of N0X/N1X form in 215, and hear that the Denver (215-267) equipment is smart enough to handle time-outs; for example, 1-303-xxxx vs. 1-303-xxx-xxxx. If I am not mistaken, this company also serves Adamstown, Pa., 215-484; who serves 215-445 at Terre Hill? Their entire service area is to change instructions at the same time when it's necessary to prepare for the NXX area codes. This would be 1994 or 1995. ------------------------------ From: sr71@cbnewse.cb.att.com (michael.a.frank) Subject: GOSIP: Government Open Systems Information Profile Date: 7 Feb 92 15:52:05 GMT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories I'm presently taking a course on ISDN, and our instructer wants us to get information on on the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP). I thought the folks reading the the TELECOM Digest might be of help to me. I'm looking for general information on GOSIP,as well as the defining specifics and how ISDN requirements have been included. One last final thing, Great Britain has a form of GOSIP, and any information concerning its differences with GOSIP would be most helpful. Thanks in advance. Mike Frank # AT&T Bell Laboratories # Naperville, IL # ihlpb!tank # 708-979-5040 [Moderator's Note: Sorry, I don't allow GOSSIP here in this Digest. I only want substantiated facts printed, such as my own notes. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #139 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07747; 16 Feb 92 23:59 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16912 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 21:39:26 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12366 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 16 Feb 1992 21:39:15 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 21:39:15 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202170339.AA12366@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #141 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Feb 92 21:39:12 CST Volume 12 : Issue 141 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Revised Listing of Class Codes; Other Recent Notes (Jeff Jonas) New California Privacy and Computer Crime Legislation (Jim Warren) Fax Forwarding Services, Anyone? (Jiro Nakamura) Re: On Having a Level Playing Field (Michael Gersten) Call Waiting Detector (Brian Rice) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Feb 92 13:02:52 -0500 From: krfiny!listen@uunet.uu.net Subject: Revised Listing of Class Codes; Other Recent Notes Here's my update to John Gilbert's list (posted/distributed as Volume 12, Issue 124, Message 1 of 11). My main "value added" is adding the non-technical terms next to the technical terms, and sources for the information. The following list was compiled from comp.dcom.telecom postings and the Bell Atlantic "IQ services" information line at (800) 365-5810. CLASS and Custom Calling Feature Control Codes: (These appear to be standard, but may be changed locally) *57 Customer Orignated Trace (COT) Activation "call trace" The number of the last call you received is logged at the CO. You get an acknowledging recording. Then hang up. Write down the date and time. You don't get the number - you must contact the business office or police. Costs $1.50 - $3 depending on your area. *60 Selective Call Rejection (SCR) Activation (start "call block" list management) *61 Selective Distinctive Alerting (SDA) Activation (start "priority call" list management) *62 Selective Call Acceptance (SCA) Activation *63 Selective Call Forwarding (SCF) Activation (start "select forwarding list" management) *65 ICLID Activation (caller ID) (turn on caller ID delivery to me, the subscriber) *66 Automatic Recall (AR) Activation (activate "repeat call" - retry last number for 30 minutes) *67 Call Privacy Toggle (block caller ID delivery for next call only) *68 Computer Access Restriction Toggle *69 AC Activation "return call" (call last person who called you) *70 Call waiting disable "tone block" (prevent call waiting tone, useful for data calls) *70 // dial tone // the number you're dialing *71 Ring, no-answer forward activation *72 Call forwarding immediate Activation (72# on some systems) *73 Call forwarding Deactivation (73# on some systems) *74 Speed call 8 program (74# on some systems) *80 SCR Deactivation "call block" *81 SDA Deactivation "priority call" *82 SCA Deactivation *83 SCF Deactivation "select forwarding" *85 ICLID Deactivation (turn off caller ID delivery to me, the subscriber) *86 AR Deactivation "repeat call" *89 AC Deactivation "return call" n# speed dial (n=2 to 9) nn# speed dial (nn=20-49) 72# activate call forwarding 73# deactivate call forwarding 74# set speed dialing (8 numbers) 75# set speed dialing (30 numbers) Rotary/pulse phones: use 11 for the * (ex: *57 => 1157) (is there a pulse code for #? I doubt it becuase it's not a prefix) You do not need to subscribe to call trace to use it. Some areas allow return call and repeat call on a per use basis. The cost is higher per use than with a subscription, but you pay nothing for months where you don't use it. *65 and *85 are used when you subscribe to Caller-ID if you want to reduce the number of calls logged because there's a surcharge after 400 calls per month. New York Telephone has a recorded message system describing their services. Here's what I gathered from (800) EASY-NYT (327-9698) (this mostly jives with information from the Bell Atlantic IQ services information line at (800) 365-5810) Menu choice: 45 -> A person relays voice/TDD at no additional charge. This is WITHIN New York State only. What about calls in/out of New York State? The operator said the originator should call information for the relay service. This is a service of AT&T, and is currently not allowed to call across states. (800) 421-1220 voice (800) 662-1220 TDD The AT&T newsline (908) 221-6397 (221-NEWS) for Friday June 8, 1991 mentioned that the (Chicago) Illinois relay center opened June 10. It is the fourth, others being in New York, Alabama and California. [and Sprint's in Texas as mentioned in TELECOM Feb 1992] 46 -> restrict outgoing calls to pay services exchanges 540, 550, 970, 970 area codes 700, 900 This service is free of charge. 14 -> "Ring Mate" allows you to add one or two additional numbers, each with a unique ring pattern (and call waiting beep). AT&T has language translation centers. I believe these are the numbers: (408) 648-5871 AT&T Language Line (outside the USA) (800) 628-8486 AT&T Language Line (USA only) (800) 752-6096 AT&T Language Line information You can get translators (English/Japanese, ...) as needed, but the cost is rather high. I'm not sure if reservations/appointments are necessary. It would be interesting to see the setup and costs for a conference call from the US to Japan, using the translation center and a TDD relay for the deaf (particularly if the deaf were non-english). Or better yet -- a video conference from the US to Russia with translators. CCITT rules: How to write a number: +1 212 555 1212 international (spaces, NO dashes) (212) 555 1212 within the country (parentheses around the optional city code) Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@synsys.uucp ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 22:49:07 PST From: autodesk!megalon!jwarren@fernwood.mpk.ca.us (Jim Warren) Subject: New California Privacy and Computer Crime Legislation This is the first part of a three-part electronic document concerning legislation that has been introduced to address issues of computer crime and privacy of personal data. Contrary to the opening paragraph of this first part, this does *not* include the much-larger text of the bill and background/commentary. Although this concerns California legislation, there is ample reason to believe that many other states -- and perhaps eventually the federal government -- will use this legislation as a model for their own work. If you would like those two [much larger] parts, please request them from jwarren@autodesk.com and I will be happy to email them. jim ======================================== This includes the full text of legislation that was introduced Feb. 10th in the California State Senate by a senior member of that body, the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Bill Lockyer of Southern Alameda County. This copy of the bill plus staff background comments is being uploaded within days of its availability in Senate offices. MAJOR TOPICS Sec.1: "Privacy Act of 1992", Senate Bill 1447 (Lockyer, Privacy) Sec.2: Driver's licenses: Use of human-readable and magstripe information Sec.3: Privacy: Rights of employees and prospective employees Sec.4: Computer crime laws: Modifications Sec.5: Automatic vehicle identification [AVI] systems: Control of uses CONTENTS OF THIS MESSAGE [words/chars] Introductory comments and details of notation conventions [757/5190] Reformatted verbatim text of the Feb. 10th bill [3227/21285] Background notes prepared by Sen. Lockyer's assistant [2465/15546] If printed, this would take approximately 12 pages. REPORTEDLY A LEGISLATIVE "FIRST" This effort in "electronic democracy" may be the first time that state legislation has been distributed online, for access by the general public, at the same time it becomes available to legislators and their staff. A senior member of the Senate computer system's technical staff reportedly said they have never-before down-loaded a machine-readable copy of initial legislation onto a personal computer for redistribution on public computer networks. Furthermore, Sen. Lockyer's Legislative Assistant responsible for the bill said he knows of no prior instance where legislative staff have gone online on public nets to seek citizen input and discussion about new legislation. SOURCES OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS & INFORMATION Mr. Ben Firschein is the Legislative Assistant to Sen. Lockyer who is handling this bill: Office of Senator Bill Lockyer Room 2032, State Capitol Sacramento CA 95814 Mr. Firschein/916-445-6671, main number/916-445-5957, email/** Formatted, binary, machine-readable versions of this text will be available on the WELL, the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link. The WELL is a public teleconferencing system located in Sausalito, California, accessible via the Internet; voice/415-332-4335, 2400-baud data/7-E-1/415-332-6106. For read-only access instructions, SEND A REQUEST TO: jwarren@well.sf.ca.us. ** -- Mr. Firschein will be online on the WELL within a week or so. You may request his email address, also, from jwarren@well.sf.ca.us. There will be four read-only files: A. The original file that was down-loaded from the Senate's legislative computer system in WordPerfect format on a PC-compatible diskette. B. The above file, converted to a Word-5.0 Macintosh format, with pagination approximating the printed copies of the bill available from the legislative offices. C. Background information, explanations and mention of some alternatives, prepared by Mr. Firschein, in original WordPerfect format for PC-compatibles. D. That backgrounder file, converted to Word-5.0 Macintosh format. REPRESENTING LEGISLATION-IN-PROGRESS: A NOTATION PROBLEM In the California Senate, printed legislation-in-progress uses the following conventions: When stating new legislation, *plain-text* states PROPOSED law. When *amending* current law, *plain-text* states the CURRENT law, and *strike-thru text* indicates current law to be deleted while *underscored* or *italicized* text represents wording to be added to those current statutes. Deletions and additions represented by strike-thru and underlining or italics *amend* current law. But, the basic ASCII character-set -- and a great many older terminals and computer printers -- have no strike-thru, italics or underlining. So, here is how that unavailable notation is represented in this document: [[ annotation ]] -- explanatory comments by "uploader" Jim Warren all capitals -- originally bold-face text; no legislative meaning Unless stated as amending current law: plain-text -- text of new legislation, proposed to be new law When stated as amending current law: plain-text -- text of current law to remain unchanged << strikethru >> -- text in current law, proposed for deletion {{ underscore }} -- text proposed to be added to current law. THE BEGINNING ... The introduction of this legislation in the Senate is the beginning of a lengthy process or review and revision by amendment, prior to its possible passage into law. Please send your comments and suggestions about the legislation -- and about the Senate staff's active cooperation in making it publicly available, online -- to Mr. Firschein and Sen. Lockyer. Jim Warren, 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075, fax/415-851-2814, email/jwarren@well.sf.ca.us -or- jwarren@autodesk.com [ for identification purposes, only: contributing editor, MicroTimes; Chair, First Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy (March, 1991); and member, Board of Directors, Autodesk, Inc.; blah blah blah ] [Moderator's Note: This message is also appearing in Telecom-Priv, and followup discussion should be held there. (telecom-priv@pica.army.mil) We are trying to push all privacy discussions to that forum. Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura) Subject: Fax Forwarding Services, Anyone? Organization: Shaman Consulting Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 22:20:42 GMT An associate and myself are publishing a newsletter called NeXTwatch for the NeXT computer (real snazzy, I must say :-). The problem is, we want to have a fax subscription available, but the only problem is: We can get around 11c to 13c per minute from our LD company, but using G3 fine-mode faxing at 9600bps, it takes us 16.2 minutes to fax our ten page newsletter. Even at the cheapest rate: $0.11 * 16.2 minutes == $1.78 $1.78 per issue per person is too much, considering that postage and printing only amounts to less than 80 cents, roughly. We don't want to have our fax subscriber price be almost double or triple our US mail price. In addition, we aren't thrilled with the prospect of our fax machine being tied up for ten hours, for only 30 subscribers. Any suggestions? We had thought that AT&T had offered a fax forwarding service where we could send them one copy and a list of the phone numbers and they would fax the document to the list. But I phoned up AT&T and the representative knew nothing about this service. Is there a special business office within AT&T that offers this? Or am I hallucinating about whether they have it? If anyone has ANY suggestions about how we can drive the cost per copy of our newsletter down to around (or less than) $1, please please e-mail me at or post to this group (I read it avidly). Thank you very much. Jiro Nakamura Technical Editor, NeXTwatch jiro@shaman.com The Shaman Group +1 607 277-1440 Voice/Fax/Data ------------------------------ From: michael@stb.info.com (Michael Gersten) Subject: On Having a Level Playing Field Organization: STB BBS, La, Ca, 310 397 3137 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 01:28:20 GMT There is an alternative to competition at the LEC level. However, it requires our watchdog PUC and FCC to put a little teeth into what they do. Simply put, require that, in exchange for the monopoly, they must provide certain features. Example: minimum grade quality for voice lines Example: They must make availible a "how much does this cost" for a telephone number via the ISDN data channel (no charge for this, other than the packet cost). Similarly, they would need to regulate (really enforce this) what a COCOT can and cannot do with DMTF pads. What would we get from this? Well, imagine a phone able to say "Please dial your number." Then "Choose a carrier. 1 Sprint xxx plus yyy/minute 2 Att xxx plus yyy/minute etc." All of these prices would, of course, be 10-15 cents per minute higher so that the COCOT would be able to make some money. Now, what about the "I'll use the COCOT to call another company and use them to do the real call" stuff? Well, ... OK, so its not perfect. But you won't get any better by going to competition at the local exchange level. (Hmm ... here's a (bad) idea. Since the LD companies already surcharge your calling card calls, maybe half of that surcharge would go to the COCOT the call was placed from?) Michael Gersten michael@stb.info.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 19:44:34 -0500 From: rice@dg-rtp.dg.com (Brian Rice) Subject: Call Waiting Detector Reply-To: rice@dg-rtp.dg.com (Brian Rice) Like many congenital computer nerds, I use my one home phone line a lot with my modem, thus making me incommunicado to other human beings. Unlike many congenital computer nerds, I don't like this situation. B-) It seems to me to be a fairly obvious idea to have a device which would sit between your modem and your household wiring and, in the event of the arrival of a call-waiting signal, suspend the modem connection and give a signal ... at this point a human being could pick up a voice extension, click the switchhook, and talk. Is such a product on the market? I've seen ads for devices which promise to mediate access among phone, modem, and fax calls, but none of them mentions a facility like the above. Brian Rice rice@dg-rtp.dg.com +1 919 248-6328 DG/UX Software Quality Assurance Data General Corp., Research Triangle Park, N.C. [Moderator's Note: The problem is not in being able to isolate your modem while taking a call ... it is in how do you tell the other end that it should sit there and wait even though the carrier (to its perspective) has been lost? The problem with call-waiting as a substitute to two actual pairs of wires is that *someone or something* has to wait on hold. You can't have two conversations as one time as you can with two actual lines. And the problem with modems is they won't tolerate that arrangement. Call-waiting and modems are simply not compatible. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #141 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa16640; 17 Feb 92 3:09 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22228 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 17 Feb 1992 00:29:15 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10413 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 17 Feb 1992 00:29:05 -0600 Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 00:29:05 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202170629.AA10413@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #142 TELECOM Digest Mon, 17 Feb 92 00:29:03 CST Volume 12 : Issue 142 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson More on Telcos and BBSs (Communications Daily via Peter Marshall) HR 3515: Threat or Menace? (John R. Levine) Re: Info Services? Keep Them Banned! (Doctor Math) Re: Kansas City Sysops and Southwestern Bell (John Higdon) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (John Higdon) Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint (Brandon S. Allbery) Re: Phone Service to Cuba (David Lesher) Re: Looking for Modular Connectors (Patton M. Turner) Re: Rabbit Network Press Release Confuses Bits and Characters (Ron Dippold) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 13:07:30 PDT From: rocque@lorbit.UUCP (peter marshall) Subject: More on Telcos and BBSs The 2/4 issue of {Communications Daily} reports that "US West is taking a hard line," in the Oregon case discussed here recently. The trade journal, citing US West's brief in this case, notes that the company says that it is "compelled under its tariff" to apply business rates to such BBSs because, according to US West, residential rates can only hold for what the company's brief calls a "domestic setting." According to the article, US West stated that the OR BBS that is the immediate subject of the case is "out of any rational definition of domestic use ..." Also noted in this item is the company's posture on the Portland sysop's stance "that he doesn't profit from his BBS," with US West claiming that "United Way and other organizations are charged business rates but don't profit from services they offer." Taking a parallel look at current developments on the telco-BBS front in Missouri, CD's 2/11 issue also indicated that "... (BBS) operators in Kansas City and Southwestern Bell are near agreement on new tariff language that would settle dispute on charging BBS's business rates." According to this item, BBSs would be "exempt" from such classification only under several conditions, including utilization of four lines or less; yet remaining to be worked out in negotiation was a "workable definition for BBS." US West and Taco Bell were earlier said to have been in touch on questions of tariff language, while the latter company was later said to have denied this assertion. Peter Marshall (rocque@lorbit.uucp) "Lightfinger" Rayek's Friendly Casino: 206/528-0948, Seattle, Washington. ------------------------------ Subject: HR 3515: Threat or Menace? Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 22:39:18 EST From: John R. Levine With all the disinformation that telcos are spreading about HR3515, I wonder how many people really know what it says. Here is a summary of a copy I got a week or two ago. Anyone can get a complete copy, by calling the House Document Room at +1 202 225 3456 and asking for one. It's free (or more correctly, you've already paid for it.) I haven't seen the senate version yet but I gather it's similar. "Quotes" are verbatim from the bill. The privacy clause four paragraphs down is intriguing, it could be read to prevent CLID and customer ANI, or to prevent recipients thereof for using it other than for routing calls or verifying phone bills. I believe its intent is to forbid using the subscriber database as a prospect list for internal use or sale to others. Personally, now that I see what this bill really involves, I'm in favor of it 100%, and find that the telcos' reaction says really ominous things about their attitudes and intentions. HR 3515, the Telecommunications act of 1991 [or maybe now 1992.] Title I - Infrastructure Development -- Joint Federal-State board will impose and enforce network quality standards. -- LECs must interconnect on a nondiscriminatory basis. Interconnects must colocate where feasible, otherwise LEC must provide virtual colocation at the same price. Detailed rules to be made, not binding on rural carriers (those with under 50K lines.) -- FCC to revise ONA findings to require unbundled ONA features, made available in a uniform and timely way. Must not discriminate between affiliates and non-affiliates when they offer tariffed and non-tariffed features. -- "Personally identifiable customer information obtained or collected by a local exchange carrier in the course of providing telephone exchange service shall be used only in connection with the provision of such service, and shall not be made available to any affiliate of such carrier or any other person except -- (1) as required by law; or (2) upon the affirmative request by the customer to which such information relates." -- LEC shall file tariffs for interconnect and access services, FCC shall ensure charges reasonable and features not bundled. -- Prices must be cost based except that explicit price components to subsidize POTS still permitted. -- Resale of phone service permitted without restriction. -- Various planning and study requirements by FCC. -- FCC must license new technologies within two years of determination that they're in the public interest. Title II -- RBOC rules The rest of these apply only to divested RBOCs: -- They may provide information services (which I abbreviate IS.) -- Electronic publishing (which the rest of us refer to as "content" and I abbreviate as EP) may not be offered by an RBOC in any state within which the RBOC operates until 50% of subs have access to competing EP service, 10% subscribe, and RBOC has demonstrated to the Justice Dept. that its position as LEC won't impede competition or increase phone costs. -- FCC may offer waivers for EP services where no competition exists for the service. -- IS must be offered by separate subsidiary, with outside directors, arms length transactions with LEC, separately operated, mostly separate ads, at least 10% outside ownership, no transmission facilities. -- Lots of rules to prevent cross subsidies, rules given for allocating costs, basically LEC doesn't pay for anything they wouldn't have paid for in the absence of IS. -- No IS in any state until all barriers to competitive entry imposed by that state's laws or regs are removed. -- Gateway services (i.e. no content, just switching and protocol conversion) if offered must be offered to all under the same terms. -- Any LEC subscriber may file a complaint or a civil action if he believes that a cross-subsidy or other infraction. -- All parts of MFJ still apply other than those modified by this act. No anti-trust immunity granted by this act. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) Subject: Re: Info Services? Keep Them Banned! Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 22:17:12 EST gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) writes: > This monopoly can exist because of the Failing Newspaper Act (and > subsequent legislation) which essentially allows newspapers to engage > in activities which would be illegal in other businesses. Such > activities include collusion, and price fixing. > Thus, there is government regulation protecting the newspapers as well. Sure is. Around here, there's only one local paper. For reasons as yet unknown to me, I cannot order this paper Sunday only because I live in the county in which it is printed. I can have Saturday + Sunday, seven days, or six days (no Sunday). If I lived outside the county, I could order Sunday only in addition to any of the other configurations. Besides walking over to the local paper machine every Sunday or ordering the {Chicago Tribune} (as I plan to do soon), what can I do about this? The price difference between Saturday + Sunday and seven day is about $3 per month, the intent of which seems to be the promotion of seven day service. This is a paper which provided less information than either the Net or week-old coastal papers (I get the {San Francisco Examiner} by mail). This thread is getting off-base. Sorry. Just had to rant a little. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Kansas City Sysops and Southwestern Bell Date: 16 Feb 92 20:54:52 PST (Sun) From: john@mojave.ati.com (John Higdon) samp@pro-gallup.cts.com (System Administrator) writes: > The following article was in America Online's February 14 Newsbytes: > One of the conditions is that the boards must be located in residences. > Exempted BBSes also must not charge for access, must not advertise and > must have fewer than five phone lines. I can certainly agree that residential service must be provided only in residences, that "residential" BBSes should not charge, and I might also be persuaded that they should not advertise to qualify for non-business service. BUT -- someone please explain what the number of service drops has to do with residential/business classes of service! How does exceeding some magic number of lines suddenly regrade residence telephone service and make it business service? Theory: the telco, who ultimately wants to go into the BBS biz itself, feels in its little corporate heart that if the free BBS is "small" enough, then it will not be a threat to its overpriced, future commercial offering. With all of my Pac*Bell bashing (and diety knows that company deserves every word of it), I have to admit that this "three lines or less" idiocy that SWB has apparently gotten away with has never been tried by Pac*Bell. Indeed, Pac*Bell has a thirty-line RESIDENTIAL mini-Centrex tariffed (and it has been around for years). Am I to assume that such service is NOT available in SWB territory? I am beginning to believe that there are worse telcos than Pac*Bell out there. John Higdon (hiding out in the desert) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Date: 16 Feb 92 18:08:45 PST (Sun) From: john@mojave.ati.com (John Higdon) randy@psg.com (Randy Bush) writes: > It is amusing to still see all these non-Oregonians who are unfamiliar > with the actual details of the case and filing ranting on about the > filing. But I expected better of you, John. I claim no familiarity with the Wagner vs. US West case. My comments were made in general regarding the usually bogus labelings of "business" that many people (especially uninformed business office reps) try to attach to unconventional residential uses of the telephone. I have even had to fight this battle on a small scale myself, but the tariffs came to the rescue. Notations were entered into my records and the issue has never come up again. John Higdon (hiding out in the desert) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 19:39:19 -0500 From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) Subject: Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.org (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) Organization: North Coast Public Access *NIX, Cleveland, OH As quoted from by NETWRK@HARVARDA. HARVARD.EDU (Steve Thornton): > In TELECOM Digest 12 : 128, Jack Winslade said: >> I consider MOH to be the SECOND rudest thing a called party can do to >> me. The rudest is for the answering party to immediately say 'Good >> morning, XYZ Corporation, can you hold ...' to which my answer is > I take you've never had to answer the phone in a place of business > before. If you have, you might have been faced with three lines > ringing at once. The secretary who is putting you on hold so fast may > not have a choice. The next time you feel like making a snappy remark Only too true. One of our clients keeps their computers in a secretary's office; I get graphic proof of how overloaded with calls a secretary can be at any given time time (and this is with two secretaries both answering calls!). I used to feel the same way about "XYZ Inc., can you hold?"; now I know better. > BTW, I totally agree with you about MOH. Shouldn't it be BMOH, though, > for Bad Music On Hold? Depends on how you feel about paying LD charges to hear it. On the other hand, I don't look to LD companies providing a local hold option (as suggested by someone else): the LD companies are making a profit on that time you spend listening to MOH, after all. Would they make as much from a flat rate charge to the company you're calling for local MOH to callers? That's assuming that they don't price the flat rate so high no company would be willing to pay for it, of course. And that the company is willing to pay for (part of) your call, even granting that caller-local MOH on a standard incoming line would probably be cheaper to them than an incoming 800 line. But I can take even *bad* music on hold over some things. I once called a computer company's support number and got to hear a Dianetics ad on hold (courtesy of a radio station being played as "M"OH). My response was essentially "Can I throw up now?" :-( Brandon S. Allbery, KF8NH [44.70.4.88] allbery@NCoast.ORG Senior Programmer, Telotech, Inc. (if I may call myself that...) [Moderator's Note: The problem with delayed answering of phone calls in business places is largely the fault of the person in charge of the staff assigned to answering. If they need another person on the phones full time, then they should hire someone and not force such a backlog to occur. But predicting the proper staffing levels in large phone centers is an inexact science at best. It can't always be helped. PAT] ------------------------------ From: David Lesher Subject: Re: Phone Service to Cuba Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 23:55:01 EST Reply-To: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex {Relay calls via Canada?} Someone in Miami just tried this about a year ago. Once word got around to the exile community, he got busted rather quickly. > I also tried dialing some random numbers in Havana, just to see what > the speed and quality of connection were like. Some strange results. Folks, any results involving the terms "telephone" and "Cuba" are best described as strange. Those interested can look up my posting a few years ago where I talked about loaning the telco repairman my butt set -- he didn't have one! The chance of even an assigned number working when you call is so low that you might form a state lottery pool on it. wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 22:55:52 CST From: Patton M. Turner Subject: Re: Looking for Modular Connectors Jim Puls writes: > I'm looking for a source of modular connectors, four contacts, but > narrow, such as is often used on telephone handsets. Can anyone out > there help me? I'd also be interested in what the things are properly > called. Please e-mail any responses to jimpuls@ddsw1.mcs.com. I've seen them called RJ-22 plugs, but I have doubts about this. It certainly isn't a USOC code unless it is for an E&M trunk :-). Anyway, the tools are available in several grades. The cheapest use a plastic frame, and are about worthless. Rat Shack might sell them, I don't know, I wouldn't be caught dead with one. I think Newark Electronics still sells the medium grade tool (steel frame, imported) for about $20 (cat 43-005). If you're interested in the top of the line tools check with Jensen, Specialised Products Company, Techni-Tool, or the like. They all carry crimp tools from AMP and the like. Jensen sells the AMP tool with the correct die for $135. Jensen Tools 7815 S. 46th St. Phoenix, AZ 85044-5399 (602) 968-6231 For Newark Electronics check the yellow pages of your nearest major city. Pat Turner pturner@eng.auburn.edu KB4GRZ @ K4RY.AL.USA ------------------------------ From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) Subject: Re: Rabbit Network Press Release Confuses Bits and Characters Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 05:17:19 GMT nelson@bolyard.wpd.sgi.com writes: > The quoted text seems to say 56kbps (bits/second) means 56,000 > characters per second. Maybe he meant those famous binary characters, > 0 and 1. > If this is representative of the technical support expertise at > RABBIT, it would seem they're not off to a good start. There has been quite a bit of speculation on other Usenet subs regarding the identity of the Rabbit Network, especially its connection to tygra (from the same area), which has similar problems. Its representative on the net has been similarly fascinated with rabbits, even to the point of posting pornographic Tiny Toon stories. If this is the case, I'd say this was doomed before it began. No line available at 300 baud. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #142 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa10668; 18 Feb 92 3:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29735 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 01:12:29 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02717 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 01:12:21 -0600 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 01:12:21 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202180712.AA02717@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #143 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 Feb 92 01:12:12 CST Volume 12 : Issue 143 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Biographical Sketch: Gilbert S. Vernam (WU Tech Review via Jim Haynes) Non-blockable Caller ID Approved in Indiana (Michael Harpe) And The Billing Goes On! (John Higdon) Telex From Internet?? (Chip Elliott) Cellular LD Carriers (system%tel-cen.UUCP@nosc.mil) Multiple Lines on Same Number? (Simon Taylor) Looking for EIA IS-54 Standard Source (Digital Cellular) (Robert McMillin) 1-800-HAIR (David Niebuhr) ISDN Prices (John Schultz) Ringer For the Hard of Hearing (Chaim Frenkel) Re: Rotary Dialers Go Home! (Bryan J. Abshier) Re: Low-Bandwith Free Info Transfer? (John Higdon) Re: When Did The LEC's Start to Die? (Doctor Math) Correction: SW Bell Article Attribution (crash!pro-gallup!samp) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 22:28:28 -0800 Subject: Biographical Sketch: Gilbert S. Vernam Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz This is from the bio accompanying an article in the {Western Union Technical Review}, April, 1958. "Gilbert S. Vernam, Assistant to the Systems and Equipment Engineer, graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1914 with a B.S. degree. After 15 years with the AT&T Engineering Department, he transferred to the International Communications Labs, and in 1932 to Postal Telegraph which later merged with Western Union. While with AT&T he invented a method of using printer equipment do encipher and decipher messages automatically that is widely used by our armed forces, and took part in the early development of the TWX system. For Postal he developed an automatic concentrator, and supervised the development of the semiautomatic "torn-tape" relay system and its installation in a number of switching centers for Postal and for the Signal Corps and Navy; he also prepared a technical manual describing the system for the Signal Corps. More recently [1957-58 ed note] he has worked on the development of push-button switching systems Plans 51 and 54 for leased wire patrons and Plan 55-A for the Air Force. Mr. Vernam holds about 60 patents relating to telegraph systems. He is a Professional Engineer, a member of Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi and AFCEA, and a Life Member of AIEE." haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet [Moderator's Note: Just keep it up, Jim! I may have to require that you type in all those old issues of {WU Tech Review}! :) Thanks for another excellent article. PAT] ------------------------------ From: meharp01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Michael Harpe) Subject: Non-blockable Caller ID Approved in Indiana Organization: University of Louisville Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 14:15:24 GMT The Indiana Legislature has approved non-blockable Caller ID service for Indiana Bell. This is the major hurdle that needed to be cleared for Indiana Bell to begin offering this service. I don't have the full text of the article from the {Courier-Journal} Indiana Edition with me, however, I can summarize. The bill was passed after intense debate in the legislature. They got it through by bundling it in with a prohibition on measured service. Indiana Bell had strongly opposed blockable CID since they felt it diminished the value of the service tremendously. No timetable was given for when the service would actually be available. I know in my area (Jeffersonville, IN, area code 812) it won't be any time soon, I don't think. It's my understanding that we have a very old switch that will need major upgrades. Perhaps someone more in the know can fill in details. I didn't see anything about this so I thought I would pass it on. Mike Harpe PSTN: 502-588-7428 83 Business School FAX: 502-588-7008 University of Louisville Louisville, KY 40292 ------------------------------ Subject: And The Billing Goes On! Date: 16 Feb 92 21:38:54 PST (Sun) From: john@mojave.ati.com (John Higdon) Regular readers may recall that last year I had ordered a T1 from Sprint for my office. After Sprint had given me the most incompetent royal run-around concerning credit, we cancelled the order. Eventually, Sprint's brain-dead NY office got its act together and decided that my firm was not such a bad risk after all and approved the order. By that time, we had made other arrangements and were not interested. This is where the story picks up and continues as they say. Even though a circuit was never installed, the idea of billing us for it seemed too much to resist. Hence, since some time last year, we have been receiving regular, large bills from Sprint for NOTHING. At first, I laughed them off and simply called the main, so-called "Customer Service" number and explained the situation. Each time I was told that it would be "taken care of" (and that they "appreciated [my] business"). And each month thereafter, a new bill would show up with the back charges on it as well. More calls to "Customer Service" with the result as mentioned above. At one point, I turned the matter over to our major accounts rep at Sprint. I got profuse apologies and assurances that it would be handled forthwith. But it was not. Why am I whining about this now? Because I just recently found out that this little "misunderstanding" with Sprint has tarnished an otherwise spotless D&B that my company has enjoyed. We now have a "slow pay" on our report, courtesy of Sprint. It is not enough that I have to be inconvenienced to the max by this excuse for a long distance carrier, but now I have a major amount of "credit repair" ahead to negate the result of this blatant manifestation of Sprint's incompetency. And all of this in light of the fact that I have personally sent a lot of business in Sprint's direction in my role as telecommunications consultant. Sprint may have the finest network in the world (which is doubtful), but words cannot express my contempt for its method of doing business. Anyone want some more reasons why we still use AT&T? John Higdon (hiding out in the desert) [Moderator's Note: I'll see if I can find the name and number of the attorney for Sprint I called to scream and yell at when Sprint misapplied our check for $10,000 and tried to extort another payment in the same amount from us since they were afraid to go high enough in their organization to get authorization to write off that much due to their clerical error. Call and tell him you are fixing to sue his client and ask if his office will intervene to get them off whatever collision course they are on this time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Chip.Elliott@dartmouth.edu (Chip Elliott) Subject: Telex From Internet?? Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 22:08:24 GMT I need to send telexes from an Internet node, via email. Naturally I will be glad to pay for this service. Does anyone know how I can do it? Please reply via email, as I never browse this group! Many thanks indeed. chip.elliott@dartmouth.edu [Moderator's Note: I don't think any site is set up to act as a gateway for this. You can get telex service from MCI Mail and/or ATT Mail if you want to subscribe to those services. Don't, however, try to send it from Internet addressed to 'attmail.comp!telex!. I think they closed up that loophole long ago after getting stuck with some telex charges from netters with the temerity to try it. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular LD Carriers From: system%tel-cen.UUCP@nosc.mil (System Operator) Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 18:05:57 PST Organization: Telecommunications Central, San Diego CA I recently got a piece of mail from US West Cellular saying that I have to choose a long distance company for my cellular phone. They even included the 10xxx numbers. Anyways, I'm wondering what the best company (in terms of rates) is between the following: 333 US SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS 223 CABLE & WIRELESS COMM. 511 EXECULINE OF SACRAMENTO, INC. 700 EXPRESS TEL 569 WEST COAST TELECOMMUNICATIONS 288 AT&T COMMUNICATIONS 222 MCI TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION Thank You, system@tel-cen.UUCP (System Operator) Telecommunications Central San Diego, CA. ------------------------------ From: simon@visionware.co.uk (Simon Taylor) Subject: Multiple Lines on Same Number? Organization: VisionWare Ltd., Leeds, UK Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 08:13:40 GMT A colleague has recently moved to California from the UK, he currently has two phone lines installed on separate numbers one for voice, one for fax, but would now like to install a second line on the voice number ie. Have two lines, both with the SAME number. He has called the local telephone company (I will find out which one it is if this is relevant) and they do not understand his request! They seem quite happy to provide an extension socket but cannot understand the concept of having two lines on the same number. He asked them how large companies who have say 50 lines manage it do they have 50 different phone numbers? Anyway I think the problem we have is one of terminology in the UK we could want is required a "trunk group" ... what should we be asking for in the US? Thanks, Simon Taylor Support Manager EMAIL : simon@visionware.co.uk VisionWare Ltd BANGNET : ...!uunet!mcsun!uknet!vision!simon 57 Cardigan Lane PHONE : +44 532 788858 Ext. 237 Leeds FAX : +44 532 304676 LS4 2LE SUPPORT England HOTLINE : +44 532 743234 [Moderator's Note: Some businesses do have fifty actual numbers assigned to fifty actual lines. What you want to ask for is X lines, all in rotary hunt from the main number. Period. Then be quiet and don't overtax their intelligence. That's all you have to say. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 02:06:35 PST From: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Looking for EIA IS-54 Standard Source (Digital Cellular) > Can anyone tell me where to get a copy of this standard? Although you've probably been inundated with responses, here's one source you can try: Global Engineering Documents in Irvine, CA. (714) 261-1455. Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 18:00:25 -0500 From: niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) Subject: 1-800-HAIR As one of the "fillers" on tonights 5 pm news (WNBC-TV, New York City) the female anchor (Sue Simmons) mentioned her changed hair style. As the "talking heads" started their quipping, two numbers were shown on the screen: 1-800-HAIR-YES 1-800-HAIR-NAY and it was implied at that time that a vote was being taken on whether the viewer liked it or not. One of the people on the set asked if there was a charge and the answer was, of course, no. In fact, they went to great pains to say that the numbers were ficticious. So what happens when the telecast is given to the teaser for the 6 ppm news? The co-anchor votes via, you guessed it: 1-800-HAIR. I hope NYTel gets its just deserts with this, they deserve it. (The TV station, too). Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 [Moderator's Note: What did NY Tel have to do with this foolishness? Did NY Tel encourage people to call and vote? Don't blame them! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 13:53:48 CST From: John Schultz Subject: ISDN Prices In a recent discussion on a local BBS, we stared talking about ISDN, specifically price and availability. Even though I read the Digest frequently, I couldn't remember an average price that posters have mentioned. What I'm interested in is both the installation and monthly costs that ISDN users see. Feel free to e-mail me or post the answers to the Digest. I'll summarize if there is enough interest. Thanks. John Schultz (caffeine abuser) c491153@umcvmb.bitnet c491153@umcvmb.missouri.edu ------------------------------ From: chaim@cimco.com (Chaim Frenkel) Subject: Ringer For the Hard of Hearing Organization: CDC Investment Management Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 04:40:46 GMT I am looking for help in hooking up a louder ringer for a relative that is hard of hearing. Could anyone tell me how to do this. The relative lives in Israel, if that would make any difference in the technique. Chaim Frenkel chaim@cimco.com 212-891-6114 ------------------------------ From: babshier@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Bryan J Abshier) Subject: Re: Rotary Dialers Go Home! Organization: The Ohio State University Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 05:42:13 GMT In article rickie@trickie.UUCP (Richard Nash) writes: >> On the other hand, maybe the ommission of this feature is all a >> nefarious plot by the telco's to get everyone to switch to DTMF :-) > Yes this is possible but is quite possibly not provided. The method > employs a special 'KP2' pulse sent instead of the normal 'KP' pulse in > the ANI spill. Since most subs use DTMF and the telco wants to > encourage complete migration to this single format, they are loath of > any expense to assist DP (dial pulse) phone users. This is very interesting. My local phone company has refused to switch my line to DTMF. Whenever I inquire as to wether they can turn on my DTMF service, they ask for a $250.00 instalation fee. Now, you might think that this is because we're still on a primative switch, but we also have call waiting and have been offered a variety of other services. All of our telephones are able to use DTMF and I have to switch back to DTMF whenever I dial an information service or private exchange. This has really encouraged me to switch to their DTMF service :-) Bryan J. Abshier | Abshier@osu.edu | bg739@cleveland.freenet.edu ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Low-Bandwith Free Info Transfer? Date: 16 Feb 92 21:18:53 PST (Sun) From: john@mojave.ati.com (John Higdon) jnelson@gauche.zko.dec.com (Jeff E. Nelson) writes: > I wonder if we should start worrying about a long-distance carrier > winning a lawsuit which makes all of these devices illegal. I think not. First, trying to enforce such a law would be an exercise in futility. Second, it is petty stuff such as this that gives many (including myself) the constant impression that business has nothing better to do than nickel and dime its customers to death. Just what we need: "ring-no-answer" and "busy" charges! How about "all circuits busy" and "equipment failure" charges as well? After all, you received information that the carrier is under-equipped and/or poorly maintained, did you not? Enough already! John Higdon (hiding out in the desert) ------------------------------ From: drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 00:30:47 EST Subject: Re: When Did The LEC's Start to Die? hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > The use of an RF to RF link for local calls is interesting. I > don't think we have enough spectrum available to make cell sites large > enough for you to call anyone very far away. How many calls are within your neighborhood? A phone call ties up eight circuits in a typical 1AESS (I'm not sure exactly what is meant by this; I was told this during a tour of the facilities). That same amount of facility usage will connect me across town or across the street, but tying up that much facility to call across the street seems wasteful. I've often wished for some alternate method in this case. Perhaps the "repeater" sites could have a backbone for distances greater than one hop ... a landline call with RF at both ends... which ends up being just like cordless phones, albeit on a larger scale. It's also almost exactly how cell phones work. Maybe everyone should have cell service instead of wire! I know I would if it weren't artificially expensive. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 18:21:58 MST From: samp@pro-gallup.cts.com (System Administrator) Subject: Correction: SW Bell Article Attribution The source for the article forwarded was incorrectly attributed to America Online's 14 Feb 92 {Newsbytes}. The correct source is America Online's 14 Feb 92 {Networker's Journal}. UUCP: crash!pro-gallup!samp pro-gallup 300 - 14,400 bps ARPA: crash!pro-gallup!samp@nosc.mil All MNP Levels (505)722-9513 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #143 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12590; 18 Feb 92 3:59 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01046 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 02:11:14 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28164 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 02:11:03 -0600 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 02:11:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202180811.AA28164@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #144 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 Feb 92 02:11:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 144 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? (Laird P. Broadfield) MOH - Is it a Violation of ASCAP & BMI? (Michael Faurot) Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint (Jim Redelfs) Re: Party Not Answering Phone (Hoyt A. Stearns Jr.) Re: Party Not Answering Phone (Robert M. Hamer) Re: Party Not Answering Phone (Peter da Silva) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Peter da Silva) Re: Kansas City Sysops and Southwestern Bell (Peter da Silva) Re: ADA Compliance Requirements (Mike Gordon) Re: FCC Allows Cellular Phones in Airplanes (Mike Gordon) Re: More on Telcos and BBSs (Reginald Hirsch) Re: Log Periodic Array Antennas Info Wanted (Rolf Meier) Re: Rabbit Network Press Release Confuses Bits and Characters (Ron Dippold) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) Subject: MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 22:36:54 GMT In allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) writes: > But I can take even *bad* music on hold over some things. I once > called a computer company's support number and got to hear a Dianetics > ad on hold (courtesy of a radio station being played as "M"OH). My > response was essentially "Can I throw up now?" :-( Only vaguely on subject, but interesting as an intellectual-property question, is this a violation of anything? I assume that Muzak has handled all of the rights issues on what they are feeding, but if I play a radio station in my place of business, or as MOH, what's the situation? Should I be paying the radio station? ASCAP? What if I have a little more taste, and get a CD-changer for my MOH; do I pay the record companies? ASCAP again? I would think this was at least vaguely "public performance". Laird P. Broadfield UUCP: {ucsd, nosc}!crash!lairdb INET: lairdb@crash.cts.com ------------------------------ From: mfaurot@bogart.uucp (Michael Faurot) Subject: MOH - Is it a Violation of ASCAP & BMI? Organization: ism:c:m/xo Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 18:33:16 GMT In article allbery@ncoast.org (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) writes: > But I can take even *bad* music on hold over some things. I once > called a computer company's support number and got to hear a Dianetics > ad on hold (courtesy of a radio station being played as "M"OH). My > response was essentially "Can I throw up now?" :-( I don't know how true this might be or even if this is a valid consideration. I once knew a guy that was a studio engineer and heavily involved in the music business (recording, promoting, etc.). He once mentioned to me that he thought the idea of MOH was a violation of the royalty fees and what-not that have to be paid to organizations like ASCAP and BMI. I think radio stations have to pay some sort of fees to these organizations, but I'm not certain. At any rate, could it be possible that by "re-broadcasting" this music it's violating the royalty contracts of the various artists? Michael Faurot | Domain: mfaurot@bogart.UUCP ------- ------ | UUCP: ...uunet!media!ka3ovk!irscscm!bogart!mfaurot Fax: 202-927-3999 Tel: 202-927-2896 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 23:39:02 CST From: Jim.Redelfs@ivgate.omahug.org (Jim Redelfs) Subject: Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint Reply-To: jim.redelfs%macnet@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: Macnet Omaha In a reply to Jack Winslade, Steve Thornton wrote: >> I consider MOH to be the SECOND rudest thing a called party can do to >> me. The rudest is for the answering party to immediately say 'Good >> morning, XYZ Corporation, can you hold ...' to which my answer is >> always 'no I cannot.' That answer usually leaves them dumbfounded, as >> if they had never heard it before. > I take you've never had to answer the phone in a place of business > before. If you have, you might have been faced with three lines > ringing at once. The secretary who is putting you on hold so fast may > not have a choice. The next time you feel like making a snappy remark > (heard a thousand times, I assure you) to a secretary, you might > reconsider who is the one being rude. The only thing dumbfounding the > secretary on the other end is the fact that there can be so many > egotists in the world all calling at once. A little consideration > goes a long way. I HAVE manned (personed?) a busy Call Director before: the console to which all the after-hours calls to (my) TelCo's executives were forwarded. Having started my telco career as a toll cordboard operator (first male Service Assistant in Omaha's Toll Unit I), I was trained to announce the fact that the call I was placing was LONG DISTANCE -- all other considerations and announcements/questions being secondary. I have NO problem being asked (I don't even hold out for POLITELY) if I can hold, but if the called party doesn't even wait for my RESPONSE, I get bent out of shape! If I can NOT hold, I will calmly state that fact -- if they give me a chance. Frequently, they are able to forward the call with little delay WITHOUT placing me on hold after all. But, you're right. A little courtesy goes a long way. If I'm warm, dry, comfortable and calling locally, I can ALWAYS hold. If I'm calling Cable Assignments from atop a 30-ft pole in February (Nebraska), generally I have no CHOICE but to "HOLD" -- but that I'd rather not! Operators/Receptionists: Take the time to LISTEN to the caller's response when asking them to hold after JUST answering the call. Callers: Bend a little. If "the meter" isn't running, and you're NOT standing in the rain remember: Life is too short. A little MusicOnHold is actually GOOD for you! ... it helps you appreciate RAP "music"!! :) JR Tabby 2.2 MacNet Omaha 402-289-2899 Better than ever! (1:285/14) [Moderator's Note: But what about the cases where you are not even asked one way or the other ... just put on hold with a recording which answers and announces that being on hold is your fate at that time? PAT] ------------------------------ From: hoyt@isus.org (Hoyt A. Stearns jr.) Subject: Re: Party Not Answering Phone Organization: International Society of Unified Science Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 18:02:08 GMT In article wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL (Will Martin) writes: >> [Moderator's Note: It is quite common. AT&T now breaks the connection >> after a few minutes if the called party has not answered and the Wouldn't it make sense for the equipment (perhaps with SS7) to free up equipment on a busy until a signal from the answering end re-seizes it? Or better, why isn't call-back-busy implemented? Hoyt A. Stearns jr.| hoyt@isus.org 4131 E. Cannon Dr. | Phoenix, AZ. 85028 | voice _______USA_________|_602_996_1717__ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 17:33 EDT From: "Robert M. Hamer" Subject: Re: Party Not Answering Phone Our esteemed Moderator has repeatedly said variations on: > calling party does not disconnect voluntarily. The main reason this > was started was because radio talk-person Larry King ripped off AT&T > for many thousands of dollars in network resources by encouraging his > listeners over the air to dial his talk show call-in number 'and just > let it ring until we get ready to answer; that way no one has to pay > the phone company for the time they were on hold ...'. What was Way back when I was a kid, say the early 1960s, there were several talk shows in various stations in New York City. That was the practice then. They had one telephone number whether you called locally or long distance, and the practice was to let it ring until the host answered, and then the caller was on the air. 1. I am not aware than anyone thought he or she was ripping off the telephone company. Prices were structured common practice was that call setup, including unlimited ringing, was not charged. 2. It is my impression that the above practice was the way most radio talk shows worked then. 3. I hold no brief for Larry King, but singling him out for what was common practice seems a bit unfair. 4. It would be possible to hypothesize that in those days, when one company had a monopoly on all long distance calls (and the same company on most local service), and profits were guaranteed by the FCC and various state utility commissions, that the company didn't care worth a fig about whether some caller let the phone ring for an hour. Further, it might be possible to hypothesize that the company figured that these toll calls were calls that would not have been made, thus generating revenues on otherwise idle (off-peak) equipment. 5. It would also be possible to hypothesize that this same company, now subject to competition, and no longer with profits guaranteed, saw an opportunity to turn previously uncharged ringing time into a profit center. 6. That company thus changed the rules in mid-stream. They are entitled to do just that, but to blame a talk show host, whether or not he happens to be an idiot, for operating under the rules as they existed at the time seems a bit much. ------------------------------ From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Party Not Answering Phone Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 02:16:56 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Well, your computer is otherwise sitting idle while > you are asleep; how about if I start using it without paying you for > the resources? Go ahead. My numbers are (713) 568-0480 and (713) 568-1032. Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. [Moderator's Note: Peter asked me to leave the numbers in the message, which I have done. But the analogy is not fair! He specifically invites calls, and no doubt responds to calls with software which is difficult or impossible to break out of via the modem; thus the operating system and remainder of the computer is safe from intrusion, meaning the computer is only in a limited way 'usable'. That is not quite the same thing as my response to Will. PAT] ------------------------------ From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 02:03:54 GMT In article randy@psg.com (Randy Bush) writes: > The well-known fact (possibly not in the more hysterical fringes > outside of Portland) is that Wagner received and continues to receive > income from the lines in question. That definitely passes the "Duck Test" for a business. If US West is behaving more reasonably then SWBell I'm glad to hear it, but let's see what happens after this one's decided. Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. ------------------------------ From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Kansas City Sysops and Southwestern Bell Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 02:55:04 GMT In article samp@pro-gallup.cts.com (System Administrator) writes: > One of the conditions is that the boards must be located in > residences. Fair enough. > Exempted BBSes also must not charge for access, Fair enough. > must not advertise and This is probably reasonable, depending on what they mean by "advertise". > must have fewer than five phone lines. There they go again. If they want to charge business rates for anyone with more than X phone lines (since they have to put in extra pedestals) that's fine. But making it "BBSes with more than X lines" is simply bogus. It's unreasonable to treat modem users any differently to any other class of subscriber. Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 00:51:17 CST From: "Mike Gordon N9LOI 99681084@uwwvax.uww.edu" Subject: Re: ADA Compliance Requirements David Lesher (wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu) wrote: > I was walking by a coin slot at a Metro station in MD yesterday when I > saw a box -- about 8.5" * 11" by 1.5" thick. It was metal and had a > substantial lock, considering the box itself was thin aluminum. I was > able to sneak a peak in the gap in the cover, and lo and behold -- a > TTY! What good does a TDD do inside a locked box, especially if the box isn't marked as containing a TDD? Is the local phone company going to give hearing impaired users the key (assuming they all use the same key), or to the business/school/etc. that the phone is located at. Seems to me like the places that put a lock on the electric door openers used on doors for people with disabilities. They don't want them to be 'worn out' by non-disabled individuals who just don't want to pull the door open. The TDD, like the door opener, is for ACCESSABILITY, and the lock destroys that accessability. Mike Gordon N9LOI 99681084@uwwvax.uww.edu Disabled Student Services University of Wisconsin - Whitewater ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 01:08:02 CST From: "Mike Gordon N9LOI 99681084@uwwvax.uww.edu" Subject: Re: FCC Allows Cellular Phones in Airplanes olsen@eos.ll.mit.edu wrote: > Cellular phone use on the ground is legal, as far as the FCC is > concerned. Of course, FAA regulations still apply; for private > flights this isn't a big deal, for airline flights the FAA is > apparently making guidelines on when to allow cellular phone use. Maybe now they can replace the now-obsolete 'no smoking' lights with 'no phones' lights. It could be a little retro-fit type thing. :) Now Seriously, I thought that cell phones transmit a little 'yes, I'm still alive' message to the cell site every once in a while. Would the phone user have to take the battery pack off to ensure that this transmission does not take place? I know that it's unlikely that this short transmission could screw up the avionics equipment, but rules are rules. Mike Gordon N9LOI 99681084@uwwvax.uww.edu [Moderator's Note: The battery pack would not have to be removed; the phone would merely have to be turned off. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: More on Telcos and BBSs From: reginald.hirsch@yob.sccsi.com (Reginald Hirsch) Date: 17 Feb 92 16:44:00 GMT Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569 Reply-To: reginald.hirsch@yob.sccsi.com (Reginald Hirsch) It's amazing but not surprisinng how similiar the arguments in other jurisdictions are so similiar as the ones used in Texas. [Moderator's Note: Oh, not really. Even though the Bells are all now separate, they still are very cozy and close. Look at how CLASS features such as Caller-ID was proposed and implemented in the various states. The Bells all still stay in close contact with each other. PAT] ------------------------------ From: meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) Subject: Re: Log Periodic Array Antennas Info Wanted Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1992 11:53:48 -0500 Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada. In article jguerrer@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx writes: > I'd appreciate any help. I'm looking for mathematical analysis of > pattern radiation of logaritmic periodic array antennas. I've seen > mathematically. It's better if I can get also the dimension of > elements. You could try any textbook on electromagnetics, but right now on my desk I have the following: "Electromagnetics"; Kraus and Carver; McGraw-Hill; section 14-17 of my copy (second edition, 1973) "The AARL Antenna Book"; The American Radio Relay League; chapter 10 of the 16th edition (1991) The latter has many sample designs. Rolf Meier Mitel Corporation ------------------------------ From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) Subject: Re: Rabbit Network Press Release Confuses Bits and Characters Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 03:41:16 GMT rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes: > There has been quite a bit of speculation on other Usenet subs > regarding the identity of the Rabbit Network, especially its > connection to tygra (from the same area), which has similar problems. > Its representative on the net has been similarly fascinated with Confirmed. They share the same fax number. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #144 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa13993; 18 Feb 92 4:26 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06304 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 02:28:34 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07077 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 02:27:56 -0600 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 02:27:56 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202180827.AA07077@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Symposium Announcement The following is a special mailing to the list forwarded to me today with a request that it be distributed to the readers of the Digest. PAT THE FOURTH NORTH CAROLINA SYMPOSIUM ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ADVANCED COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY MARCH 25-27, 1992 The McKimmon Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 60 Talks Demonstrations & Poster Sessions from Universities & Companies Tutorials March 25, 1992. Symposium March 26-27, 1992 SESSIONS ON: I. LEARNING (Learning, Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms, Case-Based Reasoning, Learning by Example) II. ADVANCED COMPUTING (Fuzzy Logic, RISC/ASIC, Parallel Processing, Intelligent Databases, Knowledge-Based Systems, Object-Oriented Programming Systems) III. COMPUTER HUMAN INTERFACE (CHI) (Computer-Human Interaction, Graphical User Interface, Virtual Reality, Natural Language, Multi-Media, Scientific Visualization, Client Server Model) WITH APPLICATIONS TO: Manufacturing, Health Science, Telecommunications, Engineering, Information Systems SPONSORS: N.C. State University, Office of Continuing Education and Professional Development, Industrial Extension Service, IEEE Computer Society of Eastern North Carolina, Triangle Area Neural Network Society Symposium Chair: John Sutton The North Carolina Symposium on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Computing Technology (ACT) is designed for professionals, researchers and students to increase their knowledge of current artificial intelligence applications in a wide variety of fields. The symposium will provide a forum for discussions with both local, area and nationally known individuals employing artificial intelligence techniques in actual applications. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TUTORIALS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1992 1:30-2:00PM Registration -- McKimmon Center 2:00-5:00PM "Knowlege Engineering for Expert Systems" Cornelia Yoder, IBM, Poughkeepsie, NY 2:00-5:00PM "Real-Time Neurocomputing: An Introduction" Robert J. Jannarone, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONCURRENT SESSIONS: THURSDAY, MARCH 26 -- FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1992 THURSDAY, MARCH 26 7:30-8:30AM - Registration - McKimmon Center ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SESSION I -- LEARNING Session Chair: Jonathan A. Marshall, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC Session Co-Chairs: Al Bethke, Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC Atul Bhatt, Becton Dickinson Research Center, RTP, NC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY MORNING, March 26, 1992, 8:30 AM SESSION I: LEARNING "Real-Time Neurocomputing for Hardware Performance Monitoring." Christopher M. Lindstrom and Robert J. Jannarone, NCR and University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC "An Introduction to Artificial Neural Networks Using Analog VLSI." John J. Paulos, Electrical and Computer Engineering, NCSU, Raleigh "Hardware Fuzzy Inference Acceleration System." Hiroyuki Watanabe, Computer Science, UNC-Chapel Hill "A Real-Time Algorithm for On-Line Parameter and Model Surveillance." Aspi D. Engineer and Robert J. Jannarone, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC "A Neurocomputing Kernel Algorithm for Real-Time, Continuous Cognitive Processing." Yalin Hu and Robert J. Jannarone, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC "Neural Network Control of a SCARA Type Robot Manipulator." Santosh Ananthraman and Devendra Garg, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC "Evolutionary Ecology and Computational Models of Animal Behavior." Leslie A. Real, Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY LUNCH, March 26, 1992, 12:00 PM KEYNOTE LUNCHEON TALK: "Usage of Genetic Algorithms to Build Explanation Facilities for Neural Nets." Russell Eberhart, Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC POSTER SESSION PREVIEW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY AFTERNOON, March 26, 1992, 1:30 PM SESSION I: LEARNING "Psychological and Physiological Considerations for a Model of Brain Function in Declarative Memory." Howard Eichenbaum, Psychology, UNC-Chapel Hill "Pitch Plasticity in the Mature Auditory System." Robert Peters, Speech and Hearing Sciences, UNC-Chapel Hill "A Relatively Simple, Invertebrate Visual Pathway Specialized to Detect the Dimming of Light." Ann Stuart, UNC Medical School, Chapel Hill "Statistical Foundations of Multiscale Medial Vision." James M. Coggins, Computer Science, UNC-Chapel Hill "Unsupervised Learning of Constraints in Neural Networks for Simultaneous Visual Processing of Multiple Objects." Jonathan A. Marshall, Computer Science, UNC-Chapel Hill "Vector Mean Field Annealing and Its Application to MRI." Wesley E. Snyder, Radiology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY EVENING, March 27, 1992, 5:00 PM -- 7:00 PM RECEPTION AND DEMONSTRATION/POSTER SESSION During lunches and the reception, companies and universities will present posters and demonstrations of current successful Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Technology projects. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY MORNING, March 27, 1992, 8:30 AM SESSION I: LEARNING "Finding Chaos in Noisy Systems with Neural Nets." Stephen Ellner, A. Ronald Gallant, and Douglas Nychka, Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh "Stability Criteria for Non-Linear Noisy Neural Network Model of Somatosensory Cortex." Boris Gutkin, Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh "A Neural Network Approach to a Multistage Graph Optimization Problem." Stan Thomas, Mathematics and Computer Science, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC "Back-Specialization in a Classifier System." Philippe Collard, Universite de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Valbonne, France "Analysis of Neural Nets: Some Tools from Statistical Physics." Marjorie Klenin, Physics, NCSU, Raleigh "Efficient Simulated Annealing." Griff Bilbro, Electrical and Computer Engineering, NCSU, Raleigh "Comparison of Impurity Measures in Decision Tree Induction." Dennis Bahler, Computer Science, NCSU, Raleigh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY LUNCH, 12:00 NOON-1:30 PM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY AFTERNOON, March 27, 1992, 1:30 PM SESSION I: LEARNING "Data Structures + Genetic Operators = Evolution Programs." Zbigniew Michalewicz, Computer Science, UNC-Charlotte "A Comparison of Genetic Algorithms and Very Fast Simulated Reannealing on Function Optimization Tasks." Bruce Rosen and Lester Ingber, Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, and Science Transfer Corporation, McLean, VA "Concept Formation: Representation vs. Performance." Mirsad Hadzikadic, Computer Science, UNC-Charlotte "Spatial Representation and Sensor-Based Reasoning in the Presence of Uncertainties." Jing Xiao, Computer Science, UNC-Charlotte "Methodology of Designing Artificial Neural Networks for Fault Detection." Mo-yuen Chow, Electrical and Computer Engineering, NCSU, Raleigh "A Comparison of CMAC and Back Propagation Neural Networks for Real-Time Control of Nonlinear Systems." John D. Charlton, Biomedical Engineering, UNC-Chapel Hill ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SESSION II -- ADVANCED COMPUTING Session Chair: John Sutton, NCSU, Raleigh, NC Session Co-Chairs: Fred Atwater, GTE Laboratories, RTP, NC Jim Felder, IBM Corporation, RTP, NC Dennis Bahler, NCSU, Raleigh, NC Bill Lahti, Knowledge Systems Corporation, Cary, NC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY MORNING, March 26, 1992, 8:30 AM SESSION II: ADVANCED COMPUTING "Emerging Software Technologies - Expert Systems, Neural Networks, Multimedia, Genetic Algorithms, Virtual Reality" Cornelia Yoder, IBM Corporation, Poughkeepsie, NY (Joint session with Computer Human Interface -- session III) 10:30 AM "Intelligent Databases - CoBase: Cooperative Distributed Databases" Wesley Chu, UCLA, Los Angeles, Ca. "Intelligent Databases - ObjectWise Intelligent Database Prototype" Alexandru Bejan, IBM Corporation, Kingston, NY "Learning How to Index Documents" Allen Ginsberg, AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY LUNCH, March 26, 1992, 12:00 PM KEYNOTE LUNCHEON TALK: "Usage of Genetic Algorithms to Build Explanation Facilities for Neural Nets." Russell Eberhart, Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC POSTER SESSION PREVIEW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY AFTERNOON, March 26, 1:30 PM SESSION II: ADVANCED COMPUTING "Intelligent Hypertext - RelType: Relaxed Typing for Intelligent Hypermedia Representations" Dilip Barman, Brown University, IBM Corporation, Poughkeepsie, NY "Generalized Logic Programming" Gopalan Nadathur, Duke University, Durham, NC "KITSS - A Functional Software Testing System Using a Hybrid Domain Model" Uwe Nonnemann, AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ "The NCSC Mass Storage Project: The Challenge of Information Intelligence in a High Performance Environment" Nate Hillery and Michael Neascu, North Carolina Supercomputing Center, RTP, NC "Parallel Processing - High Performance Highly Portable Parallel Skyline Solver" Fabio Lozupone, IBM Rome Scientific Center, Rome, Italy "Parallel Processing - New Architecture of Scalable Shared Memory" Greg Byrd, North Carolina Supercomputing Center, RTP, NC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY EVENING, March 27, 1992, 5:00 PM -- 7:00 PM RECEPTION AND DEMONSTRATION/POSTER SESSION During lunches and the reception, companies and universities will present posters and demonstrations of current successful Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Technology projects. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY MORNING, March 27, 8:30 AM SESSION II: ADVANCED COMPUTING "Efficient Sorting of Large Arrays on the MasPar MP-1" Jan F. Prins, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC "SPOTLIGHT: A Data Explanation System" Tej Anand, Nielsen Advanced Information Technology Center, Bannockburn, IL "Intelligent Configuration Assistant System for Hospital Information Management" Shri Goyal, GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA "Query Processing in Distributed Information Systems" Zbignew Ras, University of North Carolina - Charlotte, NC "Design Evaluation and Cost Estimation Expert System for Printed Circuit Boards" Sriram Subramaniam, American Airlines Decision Technologies Inc., Dallas, TX ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY LUNCH, 12:00 NOON-1:30 PM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY AFTERNOON, March 27, 1:30 PM SESSION II: ADVANCED COMPUTING "Object- Oriented Tools for Image Pattern Recognition" James M. Coggins, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC "Building Reusable Software with Object-Oriented Programming" Bill Lahti, Knowledge Systems Corporation, Cary, NC "A Generalized Constraint Processor for Constructing Concurrent Engineering Designs" Dennis Bahler, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC "Distributing Knowledge Based System Building Capabilities Within Becton Dickinson" Mary Overby, Becton Dickinson Research Center, RTP, NC "Simplified Knowledge Acquisition Through Templates" John Lusth, Becton Dickinson Research Center, RTP, NC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SESSION III -- COMPUTER HUMAN INTERFACE (CHI) Session Chair: Steve Hayden, BNR Inc., RTP, NC Session Co-Chair: Robert Bell, Northern Telecom, RTP, NC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY MORNING, March 26, 8:30 AM SESSION III: COMPUTER HUMAN INTERFACE "Emerging Software Technologies - Expert Systems, Neural Networks, Multimedia, Genetic Algorithms, Virtual Reality" Cornelia Yoder, IBM Corporation, Poughkeepsie, NY (Joint session with Advanced Computing -- session II) 10:30 AM "Virtual-Worlds Research at UNC Chapel Hill" Mark R. Mine, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC "Controlling Dynamic Interactions in Virtual Environments" Rick Kazman, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY LUNCH, March 26, 1992, 12:00 PM KEYNOTE LUNCHEON TALK: "Usage of Genetic Algorithms to Build Explanation Facilities for Neural Nets." Russell Eberhart, Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC POSTER SESSION PREVIEW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY AFTERNOON, March 26, 1:30 PM SESSION III: COMPUTER HUMAN INTERFACE "Virtual Reality: Promises and Problems" David A. Smith, Virtus Corp., Cary, NC "Methods in Collaborative Visualization" Ray Idaszak, North Carolina Supercomputing Center, RTP, NC "Issues Associated with Visualizing Environmental Data" Theresa Rhyne, Unisys Corp./U.S. EPA, RTP, NC; Co-authors Mark Bolstad, Lynne Petterson, & Penny Rheingans "Design and Experimental Evaluation of Radiology Workstations" David Beard, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY EVENING, March 27, 1992, 5:00 PM -- 7:00 PM RECEPTION AND DEMONSTRATION/POSTER SESSION During lunches and the reception, companies and universities will present posters and demonstrations of current successful Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Technology projects. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY MORNING, March 27, 8:30 AM SESSION III: COMPUTER HUMAN INTERFACE "'AskJef': An Interface Design Advisor" Robert L. Simpson, NCR, Atlanta, GA "We Have Met The User, and They Are Us" Tim Dudley, Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada "Using Computer-Generated Protocols to Study Writers' Strategies" Marcy Lansman, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC "Tools and Techniques for Tracking and Analyzing User Behaviors" Dana Smith, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC "Using Mainframes as Data Servers for UNIX Workstations" Kenneth Bowler, Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY LUNCH, 12:00 NOON-1:30 PM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY AFTERNOON, March 27, 1:30 PM SESSION III: COMPUTER HUMAN INTERFACE "System Support for Synchronous Collaboration" Kevin Jeffay, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC "Constructing Graphical User Interfaces" Steve Thiedke, Intelligent Visual Computing, Morrisville, NC "A Voice Natural Language Interface For Equipment Repair Systems" Alan Bierman, Duke University, Durham, NC "Recent Advances in Speech Technology" Robert Rodman, NCSU, Raleigh, NC "Automatic Language Identification" Rick Klevans, Insurance Systems Group/NCSU, Raleigh, NC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOTEL ACCOMODATIONS The Brownestone Hotel, 1707 Hillsborough St., Raleigh - (919) 828-0811 The Velvet Cloak Inn, 1505 Hillsborough St., Raleigh - (919) 828-0333 The Radisson Plaza Hotel, 420 Fayetteville St. Mall - (919) 834-9900 Please make your own reservation directly with one of the above or any other facility of your choice. When making your reservation state that you are attending a program at McKimmon Center. All of the hotels listed are close the main NCSU campus. None are within walking distance of McKimmon Center. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SYMPOSIUM FEES Payment Received On or Before March 2 Payment After March 2 $210 Per Person $230 Per Person $195 IEEE/TANNS/INNS/Members $215 IEEE/TANNS/INNS/Members $ 25 Students $ 25 Students Student registration does not include meals; students have the option of purchasing meals at an additional cost. A 10% discount is extended to companies having three or more persons attend. Be sure to write a check for the correct adjusted amount. TUTORIAL FEES: $30 Per Person (With Symposium Registration) $75 Per Person (If you are attending the Tutorial Only) The registration fee for the symposium includes attendance, two luncheons, refreshment breaks and materials. The student fee does not include meals. Lodging is not included in the registration fee. Foreign registration fees must be paid by an official bank check or money order payable in U.S.A. dollars. The symposium and tutorial will be limited in size for maximum effectiveness, and registrations will be accepted in the order they are received. Registration should be made no later than two weeks before the symposium date. The registration fee cannot be refunded when cancellation is made after the week before the symposium date, or when a registrant fails to appear. It is therefore the registrant's responsibility to notify the Office of Continuing Education and Professional Development one week in advance in the event of a cancellation. Substitutions may be made at any time. When calling, ask for Belinda Niedwick, Program Assistant, phone (919) 515-2261. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4TH N.C. SYMPOSIUM ON AI & ACT REGISTRATION FORM TUTORIAL WORKSHOPS, March 25, 1992 -- BEAI92 Please check the tutorial you plan to attend: ___ Knowledge Engineering ___ Neurocomputing Tutorial Fees: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . __________$30 (With Symposium Registration) Tutorial Fees: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . __________$75 (Attending the Tutorial Only) SYMPOSIUM, March 26-27, 1992 Registration Fees (Payment must be received by March 2 to receive discount): IEEE/TANNS/INNS/Members . . . . . . . . . . . . __________$195 Early Bird (Registered by March 2) __________$215 (Registered after March 2) Non-member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .__________$210 Early Bird (Registered by March 2) __________$230 (Registered after March 2) Student Fee (Does not include meals). . . . . . __________$25 TOTAL FEES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ __________ TO REGISTER: Complete this form and send it to the address shown below. Please check your method of payment in the spaces provided at the bottom. One registrant per form. Make photocopies for additional forms. Make check payable to NCSU. Name_________________________________________________________________ Title _______________________________________________________________ Company _____________________________________________________________ Mailing Address _____________________________________________________ City, State, Zip ____________________________________________________ Telephone: Day ________________________ Evening_____________________ ( ) Payment enclosed ( ) Visa ( ) MC Card# ____________________________________ Exp. Date ________________ Signature ___________________________________________________________ Return Forms and Payment To: North Carolina State University, Office of Continuing Education and Professional Development, Box 7401, Raleigh, NC 27695-7401, Attn: Connie Bacon/Belinda Niedwick, (919) 515-2261 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- For additional information contact: Prof. John Sutton, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Box 7911, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7911. Tel (919) 515-5065, Fax (919) 515-7382, E-mail sutton@eos.ncsu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27975; 18 Feb 92 23:54 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06101 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 21:48:27 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32150 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 21:48:10 -0600 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 21:48:10 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202190348.AA32150@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #145 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 Feb 92 21:47:55 CST Volume 12 : Issue 145 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? (Tad Cook) Re: MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? (Nickolas Landsberg) Re: MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? (Jerry Leichter) Re: MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? (Kath Mullholand) Re: MOH - Is it a Violation of ASCAP & BMI? (John Higdon) Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint (Barry Mishkind) Alternatives to MOH (Chris Arndt) Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator (Paul Cook) Re: MCI Prefered and Modems (Daniel Herrick) Re: MCI Prefered and Modems (Alan Burnstine) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? From: tad@ssc.wa.com (Tad Cook) Date: 18 Feb 92 19:26:21 GMT Concerning playing a radio station as Music On Hold, lairdb@crash. cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) writes: > Only vaguely on subject, but interesting as an intellectual-property > question, is this a violation of anything? I assume that Muzak has > handled all of the rights issues on what they are feeding, but if I > play a radio station in my place of business, or as MOH, what's the > situation? Should I be paying the radio station? ASCAP? What if I > have a little more taste, and get a CD-changer for my MOH; do I pay > the record companies? ASCAP again? I would think this was at least > vaguely "public performance". I hear that ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) has been cracking down on this. There were some news items in {Teleconnect Magazine} in the past couple of years about small businesses getting hit with claims by ASCAP lawyers. They call up, get put on hold, determine that you are playing a local radio station, and send you a bill. The artists are due royalties for performance, and ASCAP handles the money. Same thing can happen if you have a CD changer on shuffle play rotating between five of your favorite Windham Hill CDs. A local vegetarian restaurant where I dine frequently, the Sunlight Cafe, was visited recently by an ASCAP rep. Seems that the cafe has a sound system where they allow employees to play cassettes of their favorite artists, some of whom are very obscure bands appearing only on small independent record labels. ASCAP says that they must keep a log of all "performances", then turn the logs over to ASCAP, who will cheerfully prepare an invoice. The alternative is to call one of the "foreground music" companies, rent their service, and they have contracts with ASCAP that covers all the royalties. Radio stations pay performance fees to ASCAP, but if you present the radio station programming to the public either via your background music system or music-on-hold, you have to pay for another performance. Tad Cook | Phone: 206-527-4089 | MCI Mail: 3288544 Seattle, WA | Packet: KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 3288544@mcimail.com | USENET: tad@ssc.wa.com or...sumax!ole!ssc!tad ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 13:34:33 EST From: npl@mozart.att.com (Nickolas Landsberg) Subject: Re: MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? Organization: AT&T Regarding this MOH thread, my local tire dealer (Goodyear) has stopped piping in MOH from local radio stations because he was losing customers to the competition (Firestone), who happened to have an advertising blitz on that month. The moral seems to be that you better be very careful just what you play to your customer's when they're on hold! :) Nick Landsberg ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 07:42:47 EDT From: Jerry Leichter Subject: Re: MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? Technically, play a commercial radio station for MOH is almost certainly a violation of the station's copyright on its material. There is (or at least once was, though I doubt it's ever changed) actually a special regulation defining "fair use" in a closely related circumstance: It used to be very common for stores, especially stores selling radios, to fill the store with music from some local station. Often, they blared it out speakers to the street, too. This practice is still followed in some neighborhoods, but it's become quite rare -- a fact I had really never noted until thinking about this question. Anyhow, the radio stations complained that their stuff was being used without their permission. Eventually, a compromise was reached: A store may have a radio, which can be heard by customers, tuned to a station without owing the station anything PROVIDED that the radio has no extension speaker. While I specifically remember the business about the extension speaker, I suspect the law also said "one radio per store" or "per floor" to avoid the obvious way of getting around the limitation. MOH inherently provides "extension speakers", so would not fall under this exception. That's theory. In today's competitive radio market, I'd guess that few if any radio stations would object to being used for MOH. It makes them more visible, and they'd know that their chances of collecting any royalties would be essentially nil -- the MOH people have too many easy alternatives. As to playing CD's or tapes: This is done by many restaurants and music stores. I don't know what the law would say here (I'll check with a lawyer I know who specializes in the area), but I suspect that, again, technically this qualifies as a public performance and royalties are owed to the artists. However, the expense of collecting probably outweighs the potential gain. BTW, everyone's seen the ASCAP and BMI notices on records, but how many people know just what they mean? Theoretically, a radio station (or similar business) owes royalties for each and every cut of music they play. Keeping track of this in full detail, calculating the amounts, then figuring out who has to be paid how much, would be impossible. Instead, ASCAP and BMI provide blanket licenses for use of copyright material registered with them. They record samples of on-air play from stations who subscribe with them, then figure out what covered material is being played. (Yes, there are people who spend their days listening to tapes, marking down what is being played. They apparently become VERY good at what they do -- they can figure out what is being played based on a couple of seconds of music, then skip on to the next cut. There was an article in the {New York Times} a couple of years back describing the process and people -- I believe both ASCAP and BMI are still located in Manhattan.) ASCAP and BMI then extrapolate from the samples, bill the stations, and distribute the royalties. One of those neat little "behind the scenes" systems without which something we are exposed to every day -- music on radio -- could not work. Jerry ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 9:22:57 -0500 (EST) From: K_MULLHOLAND@UNHH.UNH.EDU (Kath Mullholand) Subject: Re: MOH From Radio: Is it Lawful? Laird Broadfield writes: > Only vaguely on subject, but interesting as an intellectual-property > question, is this a violation of anything? I assume that Muzak has > handled all of the rights issues on what they are feeding, but if I > play a radio station in my place of business, or as MOH, what's the > situation? Should I be paying the radio station? ASCAP? What if I > have a little more taste, and get a CD-changer for my MOH; do I pay > the record companies? ASCAP again? I would think this was at least > vaguely "public performance". As a matter of fact, it is, and ASCAP, among others, is vigorous about filing suit. They have collected from small restaurants with piped in radio music, and from small companies with radio MOH. If a company is using radio, CD, records, or other unlicensed recordings for MOH or over a speaker system on a regular basis, I'd wager it's only a matter of time before they'd hear about it. Interesting to note, however, that New England Telephone uses radio MOH. Perhaps ASCAP only goes after the little guy. This information came primarily from MUZAK. kath ------------------------------ Subject: Re: MOH - Is it a Violation of ASCAP & BMI? Date: 18 Feb 92 10:36:56 PST (Tue) From: john@mojave.ati.com (John Higdon) mfaurot@bogart.uucp (Michael Faurot) writes: > I think radio stations have to pay some sort of fees to these > organizations, but I'm not certain. Radio stations pay these people through the nose! The fees are based on gross (not net) station revenues. > At any rate, could it be possible that by "re-broadcasting" this music > it's violating the royalty contracts of the various artists? BMI, for one, thinks so. I personally know of a radio station that got stuck paying BMI extra money for putting ITS OWN PROGRAM on hold for its business office. BMI actively looks for big businesses, calls them and determines the radio station being used, and then attempts to extort major sums. Did I say attempt? BMI has been successful in every case it has gone after. The workaround is to subscribe to a music service (such as Muzak) as a source for MOH. The "licensing fees" are built in to the cost of the service. BMI justifies all of this by claiming that "the poor artists and composers need to be paid for their work." Of course if you look at the distributions (after BMI withholds its "administrative costs" [kaff-kaff]), the lion's share goes to those who already rake in millions from record sales, performances, etc. BMI and ASCAP are considered by broadcasters to be the biggest legal extrortion rackets in the world. Being soaked by these people is the thanks the stations get for helping artists promote their wares. SESAC is another, lesser-known, money collector. One seasoned broadcaster was visited by a representative from this group who demanded his pound of flesh. "We do not play any SESAC recordings so I am not paying!", was the reply. The "rep" went to the record library and after about fifteen minutes managed to produce a SESAC-represented disk. "What about this?", he inquired. Whereupon the station owner took the record and immediately broke it in two over his knee. "What about it? Would you care to find another?" That station never did pay any money to SESAC. John Higdon (hiding out in the desert) ------------------------------ From: barry@coyote.datalog.com (Barry Mishkind) Subject: Re: MOH, Bad Manners, Poor Throughput, and Sprint Organization: Datalog Consulting, Tucson, AZ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 19:06:29 GMT allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) writes: >>> me. The rudest is for the answering party to immediately say 'Good >>> morning, XYZ Corporation, can you hold ...' to which my answer is >> I take you've never had to answer the phone in a place of business >> before. If you have, you might have been faced with three lines >> ringing at once. The secretary who is putting you on hold so fast may >> not have a choice. The next time you feel like making a snappy remark > [Moderator's Note: The problem with delayed answering of phone calls > in business places is largely the fault of the person in charge of the > staff assigned to answering. If they need another person on the phones > full time, then they should hire someone and not force such a backlog I think the problem is with the airy "Can you hold?" which is then followed INSTANTLY by a "click." Even on a long distance call, I'm more likely to respond evenly to "XYZ Corp., I'll be back within (10/30) seconds to help you" and then the operator DOES return as advertised. One corporation, a major publisher of many different computer magazines once kept me on hold for over five minutes before I hung up. Worse, are those tech support numbers using 900 service that do much the same. Regards, Barry ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 08:18:17 -0800 From: carndt@nike.calpoly.edu (Chris Arndt) Subject: Alternatives to MOH One of the local civil engineering companies has a NOAA weather radio jacked into their phone system's MOH port. It sure beats listening to music you can't stand, or (worse yet) those maddening self serving commercials for the company you are on hold with. (Sometimes I think places that have those commercials have a policy that ALL calls are placed on hold so the caller gets a dose of the commercial.) Anyone have experience with other novel uses for the MOH jack? Maybe I could make $$ selling "Jokes On Hold" tapes! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 19:43 GMT From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator ddavis@mailbox.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com (Devon Davis) wrote: > A comany called Teltone produces a telephone line simulator (model TLS3) > for about $540. The address is: > They require a 110 volt power supply. There are two RJ11 jacks on the > front of the box. One jack can call the other jack by dialing a two > digit preassigned phone number. The box is meant to demo or test fax > machines, phones, and modems. I have worked with these boxes for over > a year and consider them a very useful tool. gdw@gummo.att.com (Gordon D Woods) writes: > The box has a subtle flaw if you're doing more than connecting some > faxes, etc.: It only provides -24 volt battery. All of the line simulators from Proctor and Associates use standard 48 volt battery feed. In addition, dialtone, ringback tone, busy tone and ringing voltage conform exactly to Bellcore's LSSGR (Local Switching System Generic Requirements). The four line unit (model 49200) sells for $475. The two line one is $259.95, and is strappable for 110VAC 60Hz/220VAC 50Hz. There is a new model 49300 coming out that will simulate Centrex. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5317 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: "90958, HERRICK, DANIEL" Subject: Re: MCI Prefered and Modems Date: 17 Feb 92 17:26:40 EST In article , djb@mailer.cc.fsu.edu (David Brightbill) writes: > MCI has a billing option for their 1+ customers called "MCI Prefered." > With this plan, after you enter the number, there is a pause and a new > tone. At the new tone, you enter a three-digit billing code. Then > when you get your bill, it is broken out by billing codes. Very > helpful if you have to bill back to customers. The problem comes when > you want to use a modem with the service. If I enter the entire > number and the billing code in one string, it usually dosen't work > because the code tone hasn't happened yet. If I put a bunch of pauses > [Moderator's Note: Does your modem have a feature called 'wait for > second tone' (possibly by using @ in the dialing string)? PAT] Some time ago, Toby Nixon of Hayes said that feature was accessed in Hayes modems by putting w in the dialing string. w works in my Zoom modems. dan dlh@NCoast.org dlh Performance Marketing POBox 1419 Mentor Ohio 44061 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 14:36 GMT From: Alan Burnstine <0003749269@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: MCI Prefered and Modems In Digest #132, David Brightbill asks (regarding MCI account codes): > Anyone have a clue as to how to make it work with MCI or if another > provider offeres a more modem friendly coded billing option? I use MCI account codes with my modem with no trouble. What you need to do is enter a W between the dialed number and the account code. The W is the Hayes symbol to wait for second dial tone. This will only work if your modem is set to X4 either as the default or in your initialization. x1 - x3 will not recognize the second tone. Our esteemed Moderator made the following suggestion: > [Moderator's Note: Does your modem have a feature called 'wait for > second tone' (possibly by using @ in the dialing string)? PAT] This is good for placing calling card calls with modems but will not work with account codes. The @ symbol is the command to wait for five seconds of silence. You can also simply program pauses between the dialed number and the account code, but the pause length varies depending on your local telco and MCI's network congestion. I find that five seconds is about right. Alan Burnstine MCI Telecommunications "Standard Disclaimers Apply" ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #145 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29907; 19 Feb 92 0:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12923 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 22:48:47 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17089 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 22:48:30 -0600 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 22:48:30 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202190448.AA17089@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #146 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 Feb 92 22:48:25 CST Volume 12 : Issue 146 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Nynex Roaming Charges and Changes in New England (David E. Sheafer) Re: Cellular Calls From Airplanes on the Ground (Phydeaux) Cantel Discontinues the 0+ Dialing Feature (John R. Covert) Information Wanted on Cellular Service in NYC Area (Tak To) Re: FCC Allows Cellular Phones in Airplanes (John R. Covert) Cellular NPA/NXX Tables (Robert Ricketts) Re: Fax Forwarding Services, Anyone? (Jay Ashworth) Re: Fax Forwarding Services, Anyone? (Andy Sherman) Re: Fax Forwarding Services, Anyone? (Cliff Barney) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David E. Sheafer Reply-To: nin15b0b@merrimack.edu Subject: Nynex Roaming Charges & Changes in New England Date: 18 Feb 92 22:24:25 GMT Organization: Merrimack College, No. Andover, MA In my cellular bill this month (Nynex Mobile - New England) there was a note that effective immediately Nynex customers no longer have to pay a daily fee when roaming on the SNET network in Western MA and CT, and that the roaming charge for Nynex Mobile - New England Customers has been cut 25% to .75/minute when roaming on the SNET network. On my bill this month I had three charges of .50/each for activating Follow-Me-Roaming on the Star Cellular Network in New Hampshire. When I called and questioned these charges, the charges were removed, but I was told that when activating FMR on the Star Cellular Network there will be a charge from now on. However, I was told I won't receive a charge for activating FMR anywhere else, other than Star Cellular. David E. Sheafer internet: nin15b0b@merrimack.edu or uucp: samsung!hubdub!nin15b0b GEnie: D.SHEAFER Cleveland Freenet: ap345 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 14:54:05 PST From: reb@ingres.com (Phydeaux) Subject: Re: Cellular Calls From Airplanes on the Ground Mark Purcell writes: > In Australia it is illegal to use a phone within a plane due to the > effects the transmission has on the aircraft navigation systems. I've used my cellphone countless times while sitting in an airplane on the ground. No airline employee has ever told me that I could not do this. As I understand it (yes, I know, highly scientific evidence) the reason why use is prohibited in airplanes is because of the effect on the cellular system if you hit many many cells at the same time, *not* because it does anything to the instruments. Does anybody have an idea as to what really happens if one were to use a cellphone at altitude? What happens when you call from the top of say, the Sears Tower? reb -- *-=#= Phydeaux =#=-* reb@ingres.com or reb%ingres.com@lll-winken.llnl.GOV ICBM: 41.55N 87.40W h:828 South May Street Chicago, IL 60607 312-733-3090 w:reb Ingres 10255 West Higgins Road Suite 500 Rosemont, IL 60018 708-803-9500 [Moderator's Note: I *have* used my cell phone from the observatory at Sears Tower. The local expressway/traffic monitors for Chicago have their office in the Sears observatory. They sit in a large room with plate glass windows so that the public may peer in and see the various hookups they have to radio stations using their services, etc. A sign on the window says 'dial *123 from your cellular phone' ... so I did. Right in front of me (behind the window) a woman saw a flashing light, reached over to press it and picked up her handset. I told her I was standing right outside the window looking at her. She turned aorund and we chatted for a minute about local traffic conditions. I saw no harm to the cellular system here as a result of my call ... but what do I know? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 19:41:14 PST From: John R. Covert 18-Feb-1992 2221 Subject: Cantel Discontinues the 0+ Dialing Feature I just received the following bill insert: 0+ Dialing As of February 21, 1992, Operator Assisted calls will no longer be available on the Cantel network. You will not be able to dial "0" to access a landline operator for the following types of calls: credit card, calling card, person to person or third party billing. In future, to make a call from your Cantel phone, simply dial direct according to the rules outlined below: Local Calling Dial the seven digit number Long Distance in Canada Dial 1 + Area Code (if different from your own) and the United States + Seven digit number International Long Distance Dial 011 + ... (you know what it says) Please note: there will be a short delay when making your first international long distance call. While 0+ dialing is being discontinued, you can still have any of your cellular questions answered 24 hours a day by a Cantel Customer Service Representative, simply by dialing "0" from your Cantel phone (it's a free call). ---- Cantel may be locking you into them as an LD carrier to protect their own LD rates, which are quite a bit higher (typically 15% or more) than Bell Canada's rates. For example, .43 per minute Ottawa-Montreal instead of .37. It was most ironic to receive this today, after I've spent some time fuming about the increasingly frequent requirement among U.S. carriers that roamers and now often even local customers have to make international calls and sometimes even domestic calls with a calling card "to prevent fraud." Would you broadcast your calling card over the radio? john ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 15:47:42 EST From: "Tak To" Subject: Information Wanted on Cellular Service in NYC Area Hello, I am thinking of getting a [hand held] cellular phone in the NYC area. I would appreciate any information or hints as to which carrier/service plan I should choose, as well as what kind of equipment I should buy. Here are my basic requirements: I live in NYC and work mostly at home. I anticipate that I'll use my phone mostly when I am stuck in traffic. I would probably keep my cellular number to a few close friends and relatives, but leave a message on my answering machine to tell people to call my cellular phone in case of emergency. I travel to Boston for several days every month or so. When I am in Boston it would be harder to reach me, hence I would probably need my cellular phone even more. (I would be visiting various clients.) When I am in Boston most of the calls would be coming from people in Boston. Here are some questions: - NYNEX or Metro One, which company should I go with? - FMR roaming: is it true that I have to turn it on *every day*? What is the availability in CT and RI? Are there any alternatives to FMR roaming for getting calls while I am on the road? - Would I be better off getting another number in the Boston area? - I think that a hand held would fit my need more than a car- or trans- portable. (I would basically carry it *everywhere*.) I am thinking of buying one of the following: OKI 900, Fujitsu Pocket Commander, Mitsybushi 3000 or the Motorola Micro-TAC. Anyone has any experience using one of these? Any recommendation of very compact phones? - What is the connection quality using just a hand-held phone when driving along the highways between Boston and NYC? Do I need an adaptor to boost to 3 watts? - Any recommendations of mobile mounting kits? Are 'hands free operation' kits useful? Thanks in advance. Tak (tto@aspentec.com) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 12:50:57 PST From: John R. Covert 18-Feb-1992 1515 Subject: Re: FCC Allows Cellular Phones in Airplanes The Moderator likes us to keep subject lines intact, but I think the above subject is somewhat misleading, based on the following information from the Federal Register: Vol. 57, No. 6 56 FR 830 Thursday, January 9, 1992 AGENCY: FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION ... SUMMARY: The Commission adopted rules prohibiting the use of cellular telephones in airborne aircraft. However, the FCC will allow the on- ground use and installation of cellular telephones in aircraft subject to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. ... The adopted rules clarify andconcisely state the prohibition of airborne use of cellular telephones in aircraft and that the use of cellular telephones while the aircraft is on the ground is subject to FAA guidelines. ... Summary of Report and Order On September 2, 1988, the Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 3 FCC Rcd 5265 (1988), 53 FR 35851 (September 15, 1988) seeking comments on proposed rules to prohibit the airborne use of cellular telephones in aircraft and to allow the use of cellular enhancers on a routine basis. In response to the Notice, the commenting parties distinguished between the airborne use of cellular telephones and the use of cellular telephones while the aircraft is on the ground. The parties overwhelmingly agree that the airborne use of cellular telephones would likely cause interference to cellular operations. The Report and Order therefore adopts rules to prohibit such use. With respect to the use of cellular telephones in aircraft while the aircraft is on the ground, the record generally supports a finding the there are public interest benefits to allowing such use. Permitting the on-ground use of cellular telephones in aircraft would, for example, allow commercial airline passengers who are faced with substantial ground delays after boarding their flights to use their portable telephones for business and personal reasons. As to concerns that the on-ground use of cellular telephones in aircraft may interfere with aircraft operations, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recently indicated that it is developing operational guidelines to restrict cellular telephones to use at the gate and during extended waits on the ground when specifically authorized by the captain of the aircraft. The Report and Order defers to the FAA to establish regulations for the use of cellular telephones while the aircraft is on the ground. The majority of commenters also state that we should permit cellular telephones to be installed in private aircraft provided that these telephones are used only while the aircraft is on the ground. In view of the lack of evidence showing that the mere installation of cellular telephones in aircraft would cause interference and the legitimate reasons to allow such installation, the Report and Order adopts rules allowing such installation. Where cellular telephones are installed in aircraft, the Report and Order requires that a notice be posted adjacent to the telephone stating that the use of cellular telephones while the aircraft is airborne is prohibited by Federal Communications Commission rules and the violation of this rule could result in suspension of service and/or a fine. The posted notice will also state that the use of cellular telephones while the aircraft is on the ground is subject to FAA regulations. In addition, our rules will require that all cellular telephones must be turned off once the aircraft is airborne. Rule Changes Part 22 of title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows: PART 22-PUBLIC MOBILE SERVICE Section 22.911 is amended by adding paragraph (a)(1) to read as follows: Sec. 22.911 Permissible communications. (a) (1) Cellular telephones shall not be operated in airplanes, balloons or any other aircraft capable of airborne operation while airborne. Once the aircraft is airborne, all cellular telephones on board such vehicles must be turned off. The term airborne means the aircraft is not touching the ground. Cellular telephones may be installed in aircraft. A cellular telephone which is installed in an aircraft must contain a posted notice which reads: "The use of cellular telephones while this aircraft is airborne is prohibited by FCC rules, and the violation of this rule could result in suspension of service and/or a fine. The use of cellular telephones while this aircraft is on the ground is subject to FAA regulations." (2) Reserved Section 22.912 is amended by adding new paragraph (c) to read as follows: Sec. 22.912 Responsibility for operational control and maintenance of mobile stations. (c) A cellular carrier may either refuse or terminate service to a subscriber, in accordance with any applicable local requirements for timely notification, for using a cellular telephone in an airborne aircraft in violation of Sec. 22.911(a)(1). ------------------------------ Date: 18 Feb 92 09:23:07 EST From: Robert Ricketts <73670.1164@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Cellular NPA/NXX Tables I'm looking for an NPA/NXX database that includes cellular NXXs *and* indicates them as such. I've received NPA/NXX (V&H and otherwise) tables from several vendors and even though they all include cellular NXXs, none of them flag those NXXs as such. Any help on where to obtain cellular NPA/NXX pairs would be much appreciated. V&H data is optional - I'm mainly interested in the NPA/NXX and wire center name. An indicator showing which system (A/B) would also be useful but not required. I only receive the moderated TELECOM Digest feed so I'll only see replies if published. Or please e-mail at CI$ 73670,1164. Thanks in advance ... Robert Ricketts / PC Consultant / v-mail (713)826-2629 / Houston e-mail CIS 73670,1164 ------------------------------ From: Jay.Ashworth@psycho.fidonet.org (Jay Ashworth) Subject: Re: Fax Forwarding Services, Anyone? Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 20:21:58 EDT Organization: Psycho: The Usenet<->Fidonet Gateway of St. Pete Florida Jiro, I must inquire ... is this newsletter free? Every newsletter I've ever seen cost so much that the difference between .80 and 1.78 would be trivial ... Oh, BTW, what's your production flow look like? :-) Cheers, Internet: Jay.Ashworth@psycho.fidonet.org UUCP: ...!uunet!ndcc!tct!psycho!Jay.Ashworth ------------------------------ From: andys@ulysses.att.com (Andy Sherman) Subject: Re: Fax Forwarding Services, Anyone? Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 23:11:37 EST [ Description of poor economics of fax subscription delivery for newsletter ] > Any suggestions? We had thought that AT&T had offered a fax > forwarding service where we could send them one copy and a list of the > phone numbers and they would fax the document to the list. But I > phoned up AT&T and the representative knew nothing about this service. > Is there a special business office within AT&T that offers this? Or am > I hallucinating about whether they have it? > If anyone has ANY suggestions about how we can drive the cost per copy > of our newsletter down to around (or less than) $1, please please > e-mail me at or post to this group (I read it > avidly). Thank you very much. I *think* (big disclaimer) that what your are describing is AT&T Easylink's Enhanced FAX service. I'm at home now and don't have a company directory, so I can't much help you with a number. My suggestion is to call the customer service 800 number for AT&T Mail (which is another Easylink service) and see if they can direct you. The application you describe could also be done through AT&T Mail's fax gateway, but I don't know what the costs are. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 20:02:11 PST From: Cliff Barney Subject: Re: Fax Forwarding Services, Anyone? Sorry, there is no way you can send one fax to many people. If you think about it for a minute, one fax has to equal one call. AT&T does in fact offer a service in which you can upload one fax and send it to a list of people; however you will pay for each transmission. I questiuon whether you need to send your fax fine mode, however; with proper attention to choice of font you can do perfectly well with standard mode. One further comment -- if you can send a ten-page newsletter for $1.78 you are doing better than most commercial services can achieve. You must be sending a lot of white space. Suggestion: reformat your newsletter and get it down to a page or two. Further suggestion: don't use fax. It is inherently high cost. I have had some experience weith this, since I designed a daily fax paper which is currently being sent to some 600 people daily. Our costs for a two-three page paper are half of what you think you can achieve for ten pages; frankly I doubt that you will be able to get anything like the rates you are expecting. Our newsletter sells for several hundred dollars a year, which is why we can afford to fax it. All the best. Cliff Barney Io Publishing San Mateo, Calif/. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #146 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02074; 19 Feb 92 1:47 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24656 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 23:46:24 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20052 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 18 Feb 1992 23:46:03 -0600 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 23:46:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202190546.AA20052@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #147 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 Feb 92 23:46:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 147 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing (was Point Roberts, Wa.) (Eric M. Carroll) Re: How Are Exchanges Assigned? (Dave Leibold) Re: Kansas City Sysops and Southwestern Bell (Doctor Math) Re: Party Not Answering Phone (David G. Lewis) Re: Tele-Scan (They're back...) (Edward Gehringer) Re: HR 3515: Threat or Menace? (Andy Sherman) Re: 1-800-HAIR (Bob Izenberg) Re: Revised Listing of Class Codes; Other Recent Notes (Carl Moore) Re: Pay Phone Charges for 800 Calls (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: eric@utcs.utoronto.ca (Eric M. Carroll) Subject: Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing (was Point Roberts, Wa.) Organization: UTCS, Network Development Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 10:08:09 -0500 > What you are forgetting is that switched traffic between Canada and > the US (and everywhere else for that matter) gets touched by Teleglobe > (in theory), the one and only IRC from Canada (while their monopoly > lasts, which isn't for much longer). > Of course you know that when someone says "in theory" they mean "not > really". In a recent presentation I attended from Teleglobe on the plans for international ISDN, this question came up, especially with regards to SS7 deployment within Bell Canada and the US BOCs & IXCs. The Teleglobe person indicated that Bell Canada ran its own connections with the US due to its participation in the NANP. Many of these peer to peer connections were said to exist between the US and Canada. No indication of Teleglobe participation was evident at the technical level. Billing details between the two are not known to me. Certainly from the perspective of leased lines, Teleglobe does not get involved in Canada/US connections. Eric Carroll University of Toronto Computing Services Network Development ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 17:47:34 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Re: How Are Exchanges Assigned? Roy Smith wrote: > I just got back from a vacation in Key West, Florida. I > happend to notice that virtually every phone number in the book was > either in the 292, 294, or 296 exchange. I noticed extremely few > numbers in the 293 exchange. It struck me as odd that they would use > the even-numbered exchanges and jump over the ones in-between (293 and > 295). Come to think of it, where I grew up, every phone number was > either 664 or 666. Is there some reason for not just assigning > exchanges sequentially as new CO's open up? 292, 294 and 296 are the only prefixes I can find for Key West. In multiple-exchange situations, using every other prefix might be done to reduce the effects of dialing errors (ie. if 294 should be dialed as 293 or 295 by accident). In Stratford, Ontario, the prefixes 271 and 273 were in use (519 area), until a recent 272 prefix was added to that city. In Calgary, Alberta, the vast majority of numbers there begin with 2xx; this was a nice rule to follow up to a point (Edmonton, incidentally, has mostly 4xx numbers). Yet the telco (AGT) for some strange reason decided to assign a few of the 22x prefixes to other places in Alberta. Calgary has now run out of the 220-299 prefix series, so other numbers are now appearing, many of them in the form 5xx. Halifax-Dartmouth, Nova Scotia has most prefixes beginning with 4xx, though some prefixes are now breaking that rule despite plenty of 4xx prefixes left. Buffalo, NY, has generally relied on 8xx prefixes. In general, it's up to each phone company to decide how the numbers will go. In some cities, the assigment of prefixes is all over the place. In many cases, older step-by-step technologies will have likely determined how exchanges would be assigned. For instance, it was expensive to put in equipment to process extra number combinations; "digit absorbing" was used instead. For instance, an exchange with 523-xxxx numbers could be set up on a step-by-step so that only the last four digits need be used to complete a call to another 523-xxxx number. Thus, the digits 5, 2 and 3 would be "absorbed" or ignored by the phone company equipment for dialing purposes; only when the next digit comes along does the call start to get routed (and that first digit cannot be a 5, 2 or 3 ... in fact, in one exchange in my experience, you can dial absorbed digits for hours and still complete the call once the last four digits start to get dialed). Thus, it would not be possible to use other prefixes such as 532 or 252 or 333 for a local call from such an exchange; furthermore, care would have to be taken to avoid a conflict with local calling (say 523-4xxx local numbers were in effect; you could not put a 234-xxxx exchange in service without overhauling the service on 523-xxxx since 234 would be interpreted as 523-4 ...) There are a host of historical and technical considerations which have a play in exchange assignment, along with whatever the phone company felt like assigning. I'll leave it at that for now, before too many Digest issues get filled. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f524.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ From: drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) Subject: Re: Kansas City Sysops and Southwestern Bell Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 00:14:13 EST john@mojave.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > With all of my Pac*Bell bashing (and diety knows that company deserves > every word of it), I have to admit that this "three lines or less" > idiocy that SWB has apparently gotten away with has never been tried > by Pac*Bell. Indeed, Pac*Bell has a thirty-line RESIDENTIAL > mini-Centrex tariffed (and it has been around for years). Am I to > assume that such service is NOT available in SWB territory? I am > beginning to believe that there are worse telcos than Pac*Bell out > there. I know of at least two people in Pac*Bell territory with large numbers of lines that they get at residential rates. Not a problem. Around here (Ameritech -- Illinois/Indiana/Michigan/Ohio/Wisconsin) they start to ask questions if you order more than two (I have three) and may require an "inspection" to ensure that you aren't running a business. Centrex? Not tariffed for residential. Period. No mixing measured and unmeasured service, either. ISDN? Sure, just order at least 500 lines. Personal ISDN? What's that? Caller ID? Forward on busy? Distinctive ringing? No can do. I'm served by a 1AESS, and they have a 5ESS in the building with it, waiting for something to happen. Perhaps they will cut over and give me the services I want. It could be worse -- Call Waiting isn't even available in some areas. A mixed blessing, to be sure. [Moderator's Note: Well, I do not know which Ameritech company has your business, but IBT has all those things you mentioned above, including residential centrex which they sell as 'Starline Service'. I have Caller-ID and several other CLASS features on my line including distinctive ringing and forward on busy/no answer to voicemail. PAT] ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: Party Not Answering Phone Organization: AT&T Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 20:54:23 GMT In article hoyt@isus.org (Hoyt A. Stearns jr.) writes: > In article The Moderator writes: >> [Moderator's Note: It is quite common. AT&T now breaks the connection >> after a few minutes if the called party has not answered and the > Wouldn't it make sense for the equipment (perhaps with SS7) to free up > equipment on a busy until a signal from the answering end re-seizes > it? We're talking about Ring No Answer (RNA), not busy. With SS7, the busy tone is played at the office as "close" to the originating caller as possible -- if the call is signaled SS7 all the way, the busy tone is played at the originating EO and the trunks between the originating and terminating EOs are cleared. If interworking with non-SS7 is encountered, the busy tone may be generated closer to the terminating EO and carried back inband. With RNA, however, the circuit must be cut-through in the reverse direction during ringing. This is so that when the call is answered, the reverse voicepath is immediately available. If the reverse voicepath weren't cut through before answer, when the called party did answer, it would take some discrete amount of time to cut through the voicepath, and the calling party could lose the first several seconds of speech of the called party. This also enables interworking with non-SS7 signaled trunks and offices, so that call progress tones can be passed back in band. > Or better, why isn't call-back-busy implemented? Because this is a RNA, not a busy. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!houxa!deej ISDN Evolution Planning ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 19:13:09 -0500 From: efg@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Edward Gehringer) Subject: Re: Tele-Scan (They're back...) To get rid of junk calls ... -- --- --- -- ---- ----- You can join an organization called Private Citizen, Inc., P. O. Box 233, Naperville, IL 60566, (708) 393-1555. It costs $20 to join. They send a directory "twice a year to every firm that we believe to be involved in the Junk Call Industry [sic] (including firms that sell private information about you to telemarketers). The commuication basically says that you demand a $100 fee for each junk call you get. Their brochure quotes the {Wall Street Journal} (among others), as saying, "Their [Private Citizen's] strategy is michievous, ruthless, and surprisingly effective." I can't vouch for that yet; I just got the information two weeks ago and haven't joined yet. Ed Gehringer, Dept. ECE & CSC, North Carolina State Univ. efg@csl.ncsu.edu [Moderator's Note: We've had articles about Bulmash and his group here in the Digest in the past. He seems to have an effective technique. PAT] ------------------------------ From: andys@ulysses.att.com (Andy Sherman) Subject: Re: HR 3515: Threat or Menace? Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 09:54:39 EST In John R. Levine writes: [ about HR 3525 ] > The privacy clause four paragraphs down is intriguing, it could be > read to prevent CLID and customer ANI, or to prevent recipients > thereof for using it other than for routing calls or verifying phone > bills. I believe its intent is to forbid using the subscriber > database as a prospect list for internal use or sale to others. The referenced paragraph is: > -- "Personally identifiable customer information obtained or > collected by a local exchange carrier in the course of providing > telephone exchange service shall be used only in connection with the > provision of such service, and shall not be made available to any > affiliate of such carrier or any other person except -- (1) as > required by law; or (2) upon the affirmative request by the customer > to which such information relates." It might be hard to make the case that this clause will forbid ANI delivery to IXC's. First off, ANI *must* be delivered to the IXC or the call can't get rated and billed. Secondly, does a telephone number delivered by itself constitute "personally identifiable customer information?" The anti-CNID and anti-ANI forces have argued in this forum that it is not, thus diminishing the value of the service. Which is it? A bit of reductio ad adsurdum: if the phone number was personally identifiable customer information, this paragraph could be read as outlawing long distance service. After all, is the delivery of a caller's billing number to an IXC for purposes of completing an interexchange call an activity necessary to provision of local exchange service? It depends upon whether or not you consider interexchange access to be part of the definition of local service. I doubt that ANI or CLID is what the drafters of this bill had in mind. I agree with John that the real target of this paragraph is a dissemination of information that is substantially more comprehensive than a naked phone number. One can get a clear idea of what this is about from similar restrictions that already bind interexchange carriers. Personally identifiable customer information includes things like bill detail or calling patterns, coupled with name, address, and/or other demographic data. Readers of this Digest should be well aware of the restrictions placed upon interexchange carriers in the use of this information and what happens when those restrictions are violated. Does the name Randy Borow ring any bells? Note also that such restrictions may bar the sale of marketing data to outsiders, or even to internal subsidiaries like information services, but they do not bar use of customer data for legitimate marketing activity related to local exchange service (LECs) or interexchange service (IXCs). If you doubt that statement, just consider AT&T's marketing technique of the bill message "an analysis of your calling patterns indicates that you could save money by signing up for the XXX calling plan." None of the restriction on use of customer data (and they are strict) makes this illegal, nor should they. Customers would not be well served if a business was forbidden to undertake the analysis required to price and package its products and services in such a way as to retain its current customers or recruit new ones. Customers would not be well served if a business was forbidden to use customer information to generate information for sales and marketing activity related to that business. Nothing in the proposed legislation would prevent the LECs from similarly using customer information for the marketing and sales of local exchange service, which is quite arguably necessary to the provision of the service. Personally, I have mixed feelings about restrictions on the sale of information. It does not really deal the privacy issue vis a vis the sale of lists to zero in on a single industry without examining the entire issue. I suppose that you could argue that until there is 1competition for local dial tone that customers who object to the sale of marketing information by the LECs do not enjoy the option of taking their business elsewhere. This argument would not apply, however, to the IXCs, where there is vigorous competition. Yet restrictions remain on IXCs (probably by force of tradition) that don't apply to, say, the catalog or credit card industries, which buy and sell lists with ease. An interesting side question. With all the moaning about the sale of lists, has there arisen a credit card or catalog company that doesn't to sell its lists and uses that as a selling point? Andy Sherman/AT&T Bell Laboratories/Murray Hill, NJ AUDIBLE: (908) 582-5928 READABLE: andys@ulysses.att.com or att!ulysses!andys What? Me speak for AT&T? You must be joking! [Moderator's Note to Newcomers: Randy Borow was an AT&T employee and regular participant here about a year ago. He relayed some private informaiton about an AT&T customer in this forum. He was fired the next day. Poor Randy ... I have heard nothing from him lately ... has anyone else? Is his union grievance still in process? PAT] ------------------------------ From: bei@dogface.austin.tx.us (Bob Izenberg) Subject: Re: 1-800-HAIR Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 2:34:57 CST In TELECOM Digest V12 #143, David Niebuhr wrote: > As one of the "fillers" on tonights 5 pm news (WNBC-TV, New York City) > the female anchor (Sue Simmons) mentioned her changed hair style. Was it good taste or merely technologically simpler times that kept WNBC from using an 800 number (the acronym is left to the reader's imagination) to ask us whether Sue Simmons should have the breast reduction surgery that she was contemplating a few years ago? Local television news is just a hair away from being an Irwin Allen movie most of the time anyway, but this is near to the final absurdity. How about an 800 number to let us choose their clothes for the next day? "Press 1 if you'd like Sue to wear blue tomorrow." "Press 5 if you'd like Jim to get a mohawk." Et cetera. As Albert Brooks' TV reporter in "Broadcast News" opines, "Yes. never forget that *we're* the real story ..." Bob DOMAIN-WISE: bei@dogface.austin.tx.us BANG-WISE: ...cs.utexas.edu!dogface!bei ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 17:34:22 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re Revised Listing of Class Codes; Other Recent Notes You list 970 twice in a row; should one of these be a 976? (I am also thinking of 971 in Rochester, NY.) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 17:18:42 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Pay Phone Charges for 800 Calls What about emergency calls from these phones which charge for the calls to 800-? Remember that emergency calls now usually do not require money deposit from a dial-tone-first pay phone. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #147 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04074; 19 Feb 92 2:22 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31293 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 19 Feb 1992 00:34:10 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27801 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 19 Feb 1992 00:33:56 -0600 Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1992 00:33:56 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202190633.AA27801@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #148 TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Feb 92 00:33:55 CST Volume 12 : Issue 148 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: When Did the LEC's Start to Die? (Phil Karn) Re: What is This Box Under The Pay Phone? (Nigel Allen) Re: Phone Service to Cuba (Tony Harminc) WECo Modular Connector Naming (Jay Ashworth) Whatever Happened to Zenith's Phonevision? (Jim Haynes) Hookup Charges - Are They Ripping us Off? (Jonathan Bradshaw) Popular Communications Magazine in Braille (Douglas W. Martin) PHONES Conference on RelayNet (Nigel Allen) Unable to Hang up on Robot Tele-Marketeer (Seng-Poh Lee) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 17:45:26 -0800 From: karn@UCSD.EDU (Phil Karn) Subject: Re: When Did the LEC's Start to Die? I've done a lot of thinking on exactly this point, but with regard to data rather than voice. The telcos do a pretty good job with local voice, and it would be hard to compete with them on either price or quality. As Lauren Weinstein has said, "Your average cable TV company makes General Telephone look good!" The real problem is data. Having worked for Bell Labs and Bellcore for over a decade, I can say that the local telcos still simply haven't got a clue about data. Either they don't understand the needs of data users, or they refuse to give them what they want because it's so different from what they've been selling for over 100 years. The most successful telco data service is raw point-to-point digital transmission. Even though it's usually outrageously overpriced, it's successful for two reasons. First, the telcos have little, if any, competition. Second, the service is so simple that the telcos have little opportunity to screw it up. They just have to move the bits from point A to point B as reliably as possible. Nothing more, nothing less. Other service providers, who *do* understand data, can use the telco's digital leased lines to build the kind of packet-switched networks that their users really want. The Internet's backbone and regional networks are the best example, but there are also many private and corporate packet-switched networks. But when the telcos themselves get involved in data switching, you get brain-damaged circuit-switched services like ISDN. Tell them you want packet switching, and they'll give you X.25. And even these clumsy services have gone basically nowhere, mainly because of the threat they pose to the telco's own leased-line business. Why should they make ISDN universally available at, say, $10 or $20/month and destroy their own lucrative 56kb DDS markets? It just won't happen as long as local data transmission remains a de-facto telco monopoly. ISDN has been "almost here" for over a decade now. If it ever does "arrive", it will be long after the dialup modem manufacturers finally hit the Shannon limit of an analog phone line. Nobody will care. I agree that radio is perhaps the best way to challenge the telcos in the near term. This is especially true with data because data networks permit a much wider range of architectures. A voice network is severely constrained by limits on end-to-end delay of at most a few hundred milliseconds. This precludes many interesting possibilities, such as multi-station relaying. But other metrics, such as throughput and cost, are usually much more important than delay in a data network. You could easily conceive of a metropolitan area packet radio network in which each station not only generates and sinks its own traffic, but also relays the transmissions of its neighbors. When communicating across town, your packets would be relayed through intermediate stations instead of being sent directly to the destination. Although this increases delay, this approach minimizes transmitter powers and consequently the interference to stations at other locations in the network that are trying to send their traffic at the same time. The result is a much greater overall network capacity than a network that relies on direct point-to-point communications between user terminals and relatively distant, central "hubs", as in traditional cellular telephony. As the station density in a given area increases, the average distance between neighbors decreases and so does the average power of a transmission. This effectively increases the carrying capacity of the network to help accomodate the additional users. The network could also be augmented by a few well-placed point-to- point transmission links (microwave or fiber) spanning relatively large distances within the network. This would offload some of the traffic that would otherwise flow across the radio network and again increase its carrying capacity. Because these links would be shared by all the users of the network, the per-user cost would be small even if overpriced telco facilities were used. Even better, the system is highly decentralized, making it more robust against the failure of critical nodes and much more difficult for one powerful entity (like a telco) to exercise control. Nodes providing services primarily for the benefit of others (such as the cross-network "wormholes" and gateways to long-haul networks) might carry only the traffic of users who agree to pay for their use. These services wouldn't be monopolies -- if someone charged too much, anyone else would be free to provide a competing service at a lower price. But I would hope that most of the network would operate as USENET does now, with each node providing free relay services in exchange for being able to use the rest of the network to carry its own traffic. This is a radical concept, but I think it is entirely realizable. Much of the basic technology has already been pioneered primarily by the DARPA SURAN (SURvivable RAdio Network) project, although SURAN has yet to prove that the equipment can be made at commercially viable (as opposed to militarily viable) prices. Getting the necessary radio spectrum is another challenge. PCS at 1.8 GHz is one possibility, but even now Part 15 of the FCC rules allow unlicensed one watt spread spectrum transmitters on certain UHF frequency bands. Equipment is already available to operate under these rules, but in my opinion it is all either junk or overpriced. The market is still wide open to anyone who can build a truly high performance, low cost Part 15 spread spectrum transceiver. I confess to some doubts in advocating radio bypass of the telephone companies, as radio spectrum is a very precious resource. It is usually preferable to use copper or fiber for fixed applications, reserving radio spectrum for mobile communications. But a local packet radio service such as the one I have described will have served its purpose even if, God forbid, it is eventually overtaken by a well-designed wire or fiber packet switching service provided by the telcos. At least it will have finally woken up the telcos to the urgent need for low cost, high performance local packet switched data services. But then again, one might as well have tried to get Western Union into the telephone business. Phil ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 00:39:40 -0500 From: Nigel.Allen@f438.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Nigel Allen) Subject: Re: What is This Box Under The Pay Phone? cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) writes: > There is a bank of pay phones on the lower level of the IDS Center > here in Minneapolis. All the phones appear to be U S West. > Underneath the desk-top, where one might expect to find a directory, > there is a brushed stainless-steel panel affair, about 14 inches wide > and perhaps five inches high. It is featureless, except for a red LED > near the top right corner. This LED flashes in concert with the audio > on the phone! Perhaps what's hidden in the panel is a TDD or ASCII keyboard. The panel would open when it detects a modem carrier. This would be extremely useful (in the case of a TDD) for the hearing-impaired and for obsessive modemers like myself if it's an ASCII keyboard attached to a 2400 bps modem. I have seen a combination TDD/pay phone at the Vancouver airport. The panel hiding the keyboard only opened once the TDD you were calling sent back carrier. Nigel Allen - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Nigel.Allen@f438.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 11:35:31 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Phone Service to Cuba > {Relay calls via Canada?} > Someone in Miami just tried this about a year ago. Once word got > around to the exile community, he got busted rather quickly. Sure -- but my point is that obviously a Canadian company can't be busted in Canada under a US law. Who would they bust? The US callers of the service? Surely in the good old, freedom loving, USA it can't be illegal to make a phone call? In fact Canada (like most other western countries) has laws in place specifically designed to counter US boycotts of third countries. From time to time this has included the USSR, Vietnam, Cuba, Albania, and others. In the 1960s, IBM Canada struck a deal to sell Selectric typewriters to Cuba. The US government told IBM US to tell IBM Canada not to. The Canadian government told IBM Canada to ignore the US law, because this is Canada, and foreign law does not apply in Canada. The typewriters were shipped. Much the same thing happened in the late 1980s in Britain: this time it was oil pipeline components destined for the USSR. Companies with US parents were blocked by British law from complying with the US embargo. NB: Please no flames about being a communist or any of that nonsense. I have no more liking for Castro than for any other dictator. Doesn't seem like any reason to prohibit phone calls to Cubans who may have equally uncomplimentary views of their own government. Tony H. ------------------------------ From: Jay.Ashworth@psycho.fidonet.org (Jay Ashworth) Subject: WECo Modular Connector Naming Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 20:35:34 EDT Organization: Psycho: The Usenet<->Fidonet Gateway of St. Pete Florida Well, a Graybar Telecom catalog I have here, admittedly not an authoritative source, lists that as an RJ-14. Four position, four conductor. 6p4c is an RJ-11, 6p6c, an RJ-12, and 8p8c, an RJ-45. RJ-21X is that big 25pair Amphenol bugger they use as a demark when you order 15 lines (for your BBS ...) Cheers, Internet: Jay.Ashworth@psycho.fidonet.org UUCP: ...!uunet!ndcc!tct!psycho!Jay.Ashworth ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) Subject: Whatever Happened to Zenith's Phonevision? Date: 18 Feb 92 07:40:02 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz (Funny how things pop into your head when you are driving a long way alone.) Back when there wasn't any cable TV to speak of, there were various pay-TV schemes being proposed. One that Zenith promoted for a long time was called "Phonevision". I don't really remember how it was supposed to work -- something like the TV stations transmits a scrambled signal over the air, and if you want to see the program you phone someplace and it sends the decryption key over your phone line to the TV set. This being long before Carterfone it would have required the active cooperation of the phone company, in addition to all the other obstacles to acceptance that kept it from ever flying. Anyone care to fill us in on how it really worked? haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ From: jbradsha@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jonathan Bradshaw) Subject: Hookup Charges - Are They Ripping us Off? Date: 18 Feb 92 16:34:06 GMT Organization: Purdue University Computing Center I am personally interested in knowing whether the phone company is ripping consumers off for these so-called "hookup charges". In today's world of computerized switching I fail to see how a company like GTE can charge you $57 for what I consider is basically punching some numbers into a computer. If I move into an apartment that has had phone service before, what POSSIBLE extra work that is worth $57 are they doing? No cables to run, no wires to connect, just activation of the circuit which is probably completely computerized. Even better, it's the same charge whether I am adding a new line or simply transferring my current phone. In the later case, they aren't even ADDING me to the database, just changing the physical location address within the database. Am I missing something here? It all seems like another phone company scam. Right along with the "deposit" fee new phone customers are charged. Jonathan Bradshaw | Whovian | jbradsha@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Primary) * PURDUE UNIVERSITY * | Trekker | pbradsha@darwin.cc.nd.edu | Prodigy XMSN02B U93 WNDU-FM South Bend |Red Dwarf| Forsythe Computers | Blakes 7 ------------------------------ From: martin@cod.nosc.mil (Douglas W. Martin) Subject: Popular Communications Magazine in Braille Date: 18 Feb 92 18:03:11 GMT Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego I found this note in newsgroup misc.handicapped, and thought it might be of interest to other newsgroups. I saved the article without the header or by-line, so, I ask the author to forgive me for not giving him credit. Doug Martin martin@nosc.mil Subject: New Braille Magazine From NLS Starting with the April issue, NLS will be producing {Popular Communications} as a new braille magazine. This magazine covers subjects such as short-wave listening, scanners, CB, ham radio, cellular telephones, and other communications topics. If you are getting QST from NLS already, and are known to be a braille reader, you will automatically be on the mailing list. If you do not meet those criteria, but are interested in getting this magazine free, contact your cooperating braille/talking book library. This notice will appear in the Jan-Feb issue of {Braille Book Review}. ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1992 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: PHONES Conference on RelayNet Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto People with access to RelayNet BBSes may be interested in the PHONES conference. (RelayNet is a network of BBSes running PCBoard software. Some are amateur, some are commercial. A PCBoard conference is the same as a Usenet newsgroup or a FidoNet echo.) Here are the numbers of a few boards that carry the conference. There are a lot of RelayNet boards, and you may be able to find one near you by checking in a list of local BBSes, which you may be able to obtain from a local computer newspaper, computer store or university computer center. Hispanic Bell Mgmt Assoc, Chicago 312-727-4868 Bell Microcomputer Club, Chicago 312-727-5043 The Icebox, New York 718-793-8548 The Mystical Connection, Colorado 303-245-3376 Of course, FidoNet has its MDF and FCC echoes, which I regularly participate in. Canada Remote Systems. Toronto, Ontario NorthAmeriNet Host ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 21:00:16 EST From: Seng-Poh Lee Subject: Unable to hang up on robot tele-marketeer I just had the strangest experience. There I was on my modem reading news, when I received a call waiting tone. I hung up and the phone dutifully rang. There was this robot salesman telling me to "hang up now if I was satisfied with my standard of living". So I hung up :-). I then tried to resume my modem connection (I have error correction, so I can call back and pick up where I left off). But all I got from the modem was 'NO DIALTONE'. So I picked up the phone, and the robot salesman was STILL THERE! I hung up again, waited five seconds and picked up again. Still there. It took more than 45 seconds before I could get dial tone again. Could anyone clue me in on what happened? I'm on an 5ESS, so I SHOULD be able to hang up on the calling party. Was this a freak? Its the first time it's ever happened and I'm curious as to what happened. Seng-Poh Lee [Moderator's Note: You *can* hang up on the calling party usually, but it still takes longer than five seconds to do it. Had you waited maybe 20 seconds or so instead of five, you'd have probably shook the nuisance. And of course, each time you went back off hook, you restarted whatever timer is there keeping track of those things. With the older central offices, you go a minute or more sometimes, but not with the newer stuff. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #148 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07277; 19 Feb 92 3:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05405 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 19 Feb 1992 01:51:12 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07775 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 19 Feb 1992 01:51:03 -0600 Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1992 01:51:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202190751.AA07775@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #149 TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Feb 92 01:51:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 149 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Me and My Crazy Ideas (TELECOM Moderator) Caller ID Information Wanted (Eddie Anthony) Caller ID on College Campus; Legal Question (Arun Baheti) Pac*Bell Claims They Can't Help Me With Annoyance Calls (Eric W. Douglas) TE&M Article on Local Exchange Carriers (David Moon) TOOLS'92 - Call for Papers (Jane Hillston) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1992 01:16:41 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Me and My Crazy Ideas The other day I got the idea I would like to have the Caller-ID data display on my terminal and/or printer instead of the display box I purchased for that purpose about a month ago. I have CID on both lines, but one display unit covers both lines since a Radio Shack Two Line Controller sits in-between the display unit and the incoming phone line. To get the CID data, I figured I would have to be off hook listening for it while convincing the central office I really wasn't off hook so it would be sent. The answer to that part of the problem was to install a 'tap' on my line which would be there listening all the time. The 'tap' consisted of nothing more than routing one side of the incoming pair for line two (my data line) through a 0.1 mfd capacitor. This cut off the DC. When a call came into the modem line, by listening on the little earpeice I built, I could hear a ringback tone (as though I were the caller) and between the first and second rings, sure enough, there was a little burst of data sent along. So far, so good. Now how to capture or read that data ... we know from the Telecom Archives file 'caller.id.specs' that the data is sent at 1200 baud in ASCII. So I plugged a modem into the tapped line, and set it for 1200 baud. Now here is where I ran into trouble, and never did get satisfactory results. Maybe a reader can help: I issued the ATH1 command to the modem. It had to be off hook, since being on a tapped line, there never would be any ringing signal to take it off hook otherwise. I issued the ATC command to the modem (a US Robotics HST) to shut down the transmitter and have it sit there quietly just listening. I turned the speaker on the modem up so that when I listened with nothing on the line, all I heard was silence; a very slight amount of cross talk from somewhere, and nothing else. At this point the modem was off hook with the tapped line feeding it. When I dialed the second line, immediatly the modem speaker gave forth a sort of 'click' and I heard ring back tone just as the person calling the number would hear it. After the first ring, sure enough in quite loud, plain tones came the Caller-ID data. But *absolutely nothing* came through to the terminal screen! I tried a different approach: ATA to force the modem off hook followed by dialing into the second line before the ATA could time out from lack of originate carrier. The first incoming ring was heard through the modem speaker (which I guess basically served as an amplifier for the tapped line), and the very instant the Caller-ID data started flowing in the speaker cut off and the terminal screen displayed the message CONNECT 1200. Within a second or two, I got a line of gibberish on the screen and the message CARRIER LOST. I also tried ATCA, to turn off the transmitter and force the modem off hook at the same time. I got nothing on the screen. Finally by fooling around with the word length, parity and stop bits for a while, I got it perfected to the point that I always got some sort of gibberish inbetween the CONNECT 1200 message and the NO CARRIER message which always followed within a second or two. But the terminal got really screwed up, since all sorts of ASCII in the range of 0 through 31 was being sent. Screen clears, turn on graphics mode, all kinds of junk. Very well, I have another trick up my sleeve: I put the terminal in what is called 'monitor mode' .. that is, where it merely prints out what it gets but does not actually act on it ... now I got the actual gibberish on my screen in the form of weird graphics characters. I also have a mode where I can print out the hex values of each character rather than the ASCII representation, and this mode -- the printing out in plain hex the value of each bit sent to me -- showed me all the things being sent ... and they made no sense at all. We know from 'caller.id.specs' that Caller-ID data is sent as a string of ASCII in the range of 30-39 hex or 48-57 decimal. But what I got made no sense at all. Has anyone experimented successfully with getting Caller-ID data displayed on their terminal? If so, please tell me what I am doing wrong. Am I not getting the parity or stop bits correct? Is the modem at fault somehow, scrambling up or misunderstanding what is coming in? Answers please! This is really mystifying me. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: aa588@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Eddie Anthony) Subject: Caller ID Information Wanted Reply-To: aa588@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Eddie Anthony) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Wed, 19 Feb 92 00:59:29 GMT What exactly has to be "in place" for Caller ID to work? I see a box advertised in the Tenex catalogue for $50 that shows who's calling you but with the disclaimer that it might not work in all areas. Now, here in Cleveland, I believe that the police departments have it on their phones to trace the cranks and the suicide calls and such, but can the necessary circuitry be in place for JUST the police departments or would it have to be implemented for a whole system? I'd really like one of those boxes.....:) Eddie Anthony...aa588@cleveland.freenet.edu [Moderator's Note: As your local telco if they offer CLASS features, and in particular Caller-ID on your exchange. If so, then the display box you saw advertised will work. Otherwise not. What has to be 'in place' is you have to subscribe to the service and have the data sent to you on each call. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 16:54 CDT From: Arun Baheti Subject: Caller ID on College Campus; Legal Question My school has recently aquired a telephone switch which will finally give the entire campus up-to-date features, and along with everything else comes CID (the screens for which only specific on campus sites will have). This has raised some questions regarding privacy. I'm curious about to what extent private entities will need to follow state regulations regarding CID blocking. Local company is US West and state is Minnesota. I'd appreciate any pointers to the archives or a specific information. Thanks. arun baheti abaheti@macalstr.edu arun_baheti.elsegundo@xerox.com [Moderator's Note: I think you will find that since the phone system is privately owned and you are not a subscriber -- but merely a user -- the various laws which would otherwise prevail if it were the telco itself doing this won't be applicable. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 22:40:36 PST From: ericd@caticsuf.CSUFresno.EDU (Eric W. Douglas) Subject: Pac*Bell Claims They Can't Help Me With Annoyance Calls Last weekend I had a few oddities on my private phone line. I get home Friday night, and my answering machine indicates a call has been recorded. When I playback, I get a cycling beep, which continues for an infinite amount of time (I had my machine set to VOX instead of 1min) Anyways, I knew it was some kind of data equipment, but not exactly what. (It didn't sound like a [standard] modem or fax machine) At any rate, I wrote the call off, and didn't think about it again. The next morning, about 8 am, I'm awaken by the phone (same number) I answer the call; again, the same beep. Now I figure that someone has configured their data equipment incorrectly, and it is repeatedly trying to batch to my number. After the second call, I managed to get ahold of a droid at Pac*Bell, who told me that "they can't trace calls, and the there is no way at all to rectify the problem." When I told her that I was a Computer Scientist, and dealt extensively with computers and new of their [PB's] ability to trace calls, she responded with "we don't have any advanced computers like that here ... " Needless to say, after speaking with her supervisor (who again told me they couldn't trace the call) the calls have stopped. (For now...) My questions: 1) Pac*Bell can trace these calls right? I've been keeping up with Telecoms articles on the advancements of call tracing ... so why would this person lie to me? (Or why would they refuse to rectify the problem from their end?) 2) What kind of data equipment makes a 1.5 sec (5k-8kHz) beep, then pauses for an equal amount of time, then repeats? (The supervisor said something of FCC approval of "junk faxes") Just curious, Eric W. Douglas Technojock +1 209 897 5785 I'net: ericd@caticsuf.csufresno.edu ericd@csufres.csufresno.edu AppleLink: STUDIO.D Compuserve: 76170,1472 AOL: EWDOUGLAS ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 16:53:17 EST From: moon@evax.gdc.com Subject: TE&M Article on Local Exchange Carriers The Jan 15, 1992 issue of {Telephone Engineer and Manager} (TE&M) has an interesting article on the Local Exchange Carriers which includes forecasts of growth, capital expenditures, etc. It covers both the RBOCs and Independents. The following data was extracted from the article: COMPANY TOTAL ACCESS PERCENT LINES SERVED LINES SERVED BY DIGITAL OFFICES 1991 (thousands) 1991 GTE 18,700 80% BellSouth 18,000 57 Bell Atlantic 17,800 56 Ameritech 16,647 45 NYNEX 15,500 61 PacBell 14,400 37 US West 12,700 40 Southwestern Bell 12,411 32 United Telecom 4,100 89 SNET 1,924 47 Centel 1,596 99 Alltel 1,217 80 Puerto Rico Tel 912 92 Cincinnati Bell 810 59 Rochester Tel 474 98 Pacific Telecom 357 99 Century Tel 315 75 Telephone & Data Sys. 302 92 Lincoln Tel 233 90 Commonwealth Tel 197 91 Anchorage Tel 133 100 Citizens Utilities 129 100 Puerto Rico Comm. 123 100 Roseville Tel 83 100 Illinois Consolidated 79 75 The seven RBOCs average about 47% of lines served by digital offices. The independents average about 86% of lines served by digital offices. Check out the article for more.... David Moon Internet: moon@evax.gdc.com General Datacomm, Inc. ATTMail: !dmoon Middlebury, CT 06762 (203) 758 1811 FAX: (203) 755 0896 ------------------------------ From: Jane Hillston Subject: TOOLS'92 - Call for Papers Date: 18 Feb 92 17:13:48 GMT Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT CALL FOR PAPERS 6TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MODELLING TECHINIQUES AND TOOLS FOR COMPUTER PERFORMANCE EVALUATION September 16-18th, 1992 Scandic Crown Hotel Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Conference Chair: Rob Pooley, (rjp@dcs.ed.ac.uk) Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh. Program Committee: Ian Akyildiz, Georgia Tech, USA Heinz Beilner, University of Dortmund, Germany Maria Calzarossa, University of Pavia, Italy Giovanni Chiola, University of Torino, Italy Blaine Gaither, Amdahl Inc, USA Gunther Haring, University of Vienna, Austria Peter Harrison, Imperial College, London, UK Peter Hughes, Bell Northern Research (Europe), UK Peter King, Heriot-Watt University, UK Anthony Krzesinski, University of Stellenbosch, RSA Raymond Marie, IRISA, France Ramon Puijganer, University of Balearics, Spain Martin Reiser, IBM Zurich, USA Herb Schwetman, MCC Inc, USA Guiseppe Serazzi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Connie Smith, L & S Computer Technology, USA David Thomas, BT Ltd, UK Kishor Trivedi, Duke University, USA Organisation: Local Arrangements: Jane Hillston, (jeh@dcs.ed.ac.uk) Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland. Sponsorship & Exhibitions: Peter King, (pjbk@dcs.hw.ac.uk) Dept. of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt Univ., Scotland. Tutorials: Nico van Dijk, (fax: +31 20 525 4217) Dept. of Econometrics, Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The sixth International Conference on Modelling Techniques and Tools for Computer Performance Evaluation is to be held in Edinburgh, UK. This is the major European forum for the presentation of research and applications of performance analysis tools and techniques. The themes of the conference will be: - Tools to support the performance evaluation process; - New techniques of potential use in performance tools; - Case studies using performance evaluation for real systems. Performance evaluation includes measurement, modelling and experimentation in order to predict the likely behaviour of computer systems and networks in terms of throughput, response time etc. It is sometimes extended to include matters of reliability and "performability". Unlike other major conferences in the performance area, the Techniques and Tools series concentrates on technology aimed at general classes of problems, rather than theoretical results. We are keen to mount demonstrations of tools which show new capabilities. A locally produced copy of the proceedings will be available at the conference. A book of papers from the conference will also be produced and published by Springer-Verlag. This will be available at discount rates for all conference participants. Papers are invited on all aspects of the development and the use of tools and techniques for computer performance evaluation. Papers must be written in English, should include an abstract and should not exceed 15 pages. Submitted papers (or any portion thereof) should not have been previously published. Electronic or fax submissions will not be accepted. Submit five copies to: Rob Pooley (Program Chair), Department of Computer Science, Edinburgh University, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK. rjp@dcs.ed.ac.uk fax:+44 31 667 7209 Proposals for demonstrations should also be submitted to the Program Chair. Before the conference there will be a programme of tutorials on aspects of performance modelling. This programme provisionally includes: Uses of Product Forms Nico van Dijk Tools and Reliability Kishor Trivedi Numerical Approaches Edmundo de Sousa e Silva MVA and Computational Ian Akyildiz Techniques Further suggestions and proposals for tutorials should be sent to the tutorial coordinator, Nico van Dijk. IMPORTANT DATES: Proposals for tutorials due: 1st March 1992. Paper submissions due: 1st May 1992. Demonstration proposals due: 1st May 1992. Notification of acceptance by: 13th July 1992. Camera ready copy required by: 21st August 1992. The conference will be held in the Scandic Crown Hotel, in the middle of Edinburgh's historic Old Town, on the Royal Mile. There will be a civic reception in the City Chambers on Tuesday 15th September. The conference will be held in the Banqueting Hall of the Royal College of Physicians. For further information or registration please contact: Mrs Edith Field UNIVED Technologies Ltd. University of Edinburgh, 16, Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LN SCOTLAND. efield@castle.ed.ac.uk fax: +44 31 220 1494 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #149 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12495; 20 Feb 92 2:52 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05740 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 20 Feb 1992 01:00:31 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11074 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 20 Feb 1992 01:00:15 -0600 Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1992 01:00:15 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202200700.AA11074@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #150 TELECOM Digest Thu, 20 Feb 92 01:00:11 CST Volume 12 : Issue 150 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Me and My Craxy Ideas (TELECOM Moderator) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Craig R. Watkins) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Bob Clements) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Stephen Tell) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Toby Nixon) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (John Higdon) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (John A. Limpert) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Jon Gauthier) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Brandon S. Allbery) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Jacob DeGlopper) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Doug Faunt) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Samuel W. Ho) Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas (Eliot Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: TELECOM Moderator (telecom@eecs.nwu.edu) Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1992 23:30:21 CST The power of this net! Ideas and responses move very quickly. I received nearly a hundred replies in 24 hours to my comments yesterday on trying to get the terminal to display Caller-ID information. This issue has a baker's dozen of those replies, selected at random. The consensus seems to be it takes a different modem than is customarily found in regular use. Read on. PAT ------------------------------ From: "Craig R. Watkins" Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Date: 19 Feb 92 08:38:18 EST Organization: HRB Systems, Inc. In article , telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: > The other day I got the idea I would like to have the Caller-ID data > display on my terminal and/or printer instead of the display box I > purchased for that purpose about a month ago. > So I plugged a modem into the tapped line, and set it for 1200 baud. What type of modem? I assume a Bell 212 type? Those are PSK. CID is FSK. You probably need a Bell 202 or V.23 modem. Or, as was posted previously, Bell Atlantic sells an RS232 CID box for $50 (quite the bargain, I would say). Other sources have also been posted. Craig R. Watkins crw@icf.hrb.com HRB Systems, Inc. +1 814 238-4311 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA Date: Wed, 19 Feb 92 10:31:04 EST From: clements@BBN.COM I'm sure you'll get a zillion responses, but: [Moderator's Note: How about a hundred the first day? PAT] > So far, so good. Now how to capture or read that data ... we know from > the Telecom Archives file 'caller.id.specs' that the data is sent at > 1200 baud in ASCII. So I plugged a modem into the tapped line, and set > it for 1200 baud. Not all "1200 baud" modems are the same. Your "1200 baud" modem is actually a 600 baud modem using phase shift to carry 1200 bits per second. The Caller-ID tones are actually 1200 baud, on a simple AFSK tone as used by the early HALF-DUPLEX 1200 BPS modems. You need a different modem, such as the Motorola caller-ID chip or a ham-radio packet TNC modem or a Bell 202 modem. Probably the easiest off-the-shelf solution is to get one of those boxes that have an RS-232 output which have been mentioned in the Digest in the past. You can't do it with an ordinary Hayes-style modem. Bob Clements, K1BC, clements@bbn.com (in Caller-ID-less NYNEX territory) ------------------------------ From: tell@cs.unc.edu (Stephen Tell) Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Date: 19 Feb 92 15:40:00 GMT Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill In article telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: > To get the CID data .... > ... install a 'tap' on my line which would be there listening all the > time. The 'tap' consisted of nothing more than routing one side of the > incoming pair for line two (my data line) through a 0.1 mfd capacitor. > So far, so good. Now how to capture or read that data ... we know from > the Telecom Archives file 'caller.id.specs' that the data is sent at > 1200 baud in ASCII. So I plugged a modem into the tapped line, and set > it for 1200 baud. Correct, but although the data is sent at 1200 baud, it does not use Bell 212 (PSK?) encoding. Instead it uses the older Bell 202 half-duplex FSK encoding. I'm not sure, but I think the mark and space frequencies are somthing like 1200 Hz and 2200 Hz. Find a modem that handles that antique encoding and this should work just fine. They used to be rather common at hamfests and such. Once you get a modem that understands the encoding, you'll get recognizable ASCII on your terminal. Since such a modem can "mod" as well as "dem" the Bell 202, you would probably then be more than half way to constructing a "caller-ID simulator." Just detect the first ring and squirt out the data right after it. A CNID reciever tester could probably be built from a phone-line simulator, the old modem, and a tiny bit of software on the PC. Steve Tell tell@cs.unc.edu H: +1 919 968 1792 #5L Estes Park apts UNC Chapel Hill Computer Science W: +1 919 962 1845 Carrboro NC 27510 ------------------------------ From: Toby Nixon Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Date: 19 Feb 92 13:24:28 GMT Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA In article , telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: > So far, so good. Now how to capture or read that data ... we know from > the Telecom Archives file 'caller.id.specs' that the data is sent at > 1200 baud in ASCII. So I plugged a modem into the tapped line, and set > it for 1200 baud. It's not Bell 212 or V.22, which are the modulation schemes normally used for full-duplex data transmission in PC-type modems. Caller ID uses Bell 202, which is a half-duplex modulation scheme. A Bell 212 modem cannot receive Bell 202 modulation. You'll need to get a 202 modem if you're going to do this -- but I don't know anybody who makes them anymore! Maybe you can get a used one through one of your Bell contacts, but if you have to pay for it you might as well just buy one of the commercial Caller-ID computer interface boxes. Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer | Voice +1-404-840-9200 Telex 151243420 Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. | Fax +1-404-447-0178 CIS 70271,404 P.O. Box 105203 | BBS +1-404-446-6336 AT&T !tnixon Atlanta, Georgia 30348 | UUCP uunet!hayes!tnixon Fido 1:114/15 USA | Internet tnixon@hayes.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Date: 19 Feb 92 10:28:56 PST (Wed) From: john@mojave.ati.com (John Higdon) The reason that you had no luck trying to get CNID data with your 212-type modem is that the data is not 212! It is, as you surmised, 1200 bps, but it is more similar to 202 data. This would require a special modem, not readily available at your local Comp USA. John Higdon (hiding out in the desert) ------------------------------ From: gronk!johnl@uunet.uu.net (John A. Limpert) Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Organization: BFEC/GSFC Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1992 15:43:52 GMT I believe Caller ID uses simple FSK like the Bell 202 modem. This is not going to be compatible with a Bell 212A PSK modem. Has anyone tried connecting a Bell 202 modem? John A. Limpert johnl@gronk.UUCP uunet!n3dmc!gronk!johnl Code 530.2 Goddard Space Flight Center ------------------------------ From: exujlg@exu.ericsson.se (Jon Gauthier) Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Organization: Ericsson Network Systems, Inc. Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1992 01:01:42 GMT In article telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: > So far, so good. Now how to capture or read that data ... we know from > the Telecom Archives file 'caller.id.specs' that the data is sent at > 1200 baud in ASCII. So I plugged a modem into the tapped line, and set > it for 1200 baud. > Has anyone experimented successfully with getting Caller-ID data > displayed on their terminal? If so, please tell me what I am doing > wrong. Am I not getting the parity or stop bits correct? Is the modem > at fault somehow, scrambling up or misunderstanding what is coming in? I'm not sure about the Caller ID specifications, but are you sure that the data is modulated according to Bell 212A specs for 1200 baud? If not, a 212A/V.22 modem can't decode it. Anyone have any other ideas? Jon L. Gauthier 214-997-0157 Ericsson Network Systems, Inc exujlg@exu.ericsson.se P.O. Box 833875 MIS Systems Programmer Richardson, TX 75083-3875 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 92 19:34:51 -0500 From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.org (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) Organization: North Coast Public Access *NIX, Cleveland, OH As quoted from by telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator): > the tapped line), and the very instant the Caller-ID data started > flowing in the speaker cut off and the terminal screen displayed the > message CONNECT 1200. Within a second or two, I got a line of > gibberish on the screen and the message CARRIER LOST. > Finally by fooling around with the word length, parity and stop bits > for a while, I got it perfected to the point that I always got some > sort of gibberish inbetween the CONNECT 1200 message and the NO > CARRIER message which always followed within a second or two. But the > terminal got really screwed up, since all sorts of ASCII in the range > of 0 through 31 was being sent. Screen clears, turn on graphics mode, > all kinds of junk. I don't have the specs in front of me and ncoast doesn't have FTP, so I can't check (mail server, anyone?), but ... is there any chance that it's a synchronous packet that's being sent? In that case, the data would be rammed together without start and stop bits (instead the packet itself has start and stop bit sequences). (Sorry to bore you if you already know what's going on with synchronous protocols, which you probably do ...) If you can convince the modem to do HDLC, you might be able to get something out of it. Some modems do have a "synchronous" mode, the question is whether you can convince them to print out the entire data packet and not insist on receiving whatever particular kind of packet ID and/or address it expects. Brandon S. Allbery, KF8NH [44.70.4.88] allbery@NCoast.ORG Senior Programmer, Telotech, Inc. (if I may call myself that...) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1992 19:56:01 -0600 From: "Gil Kloepfer Jr." Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Organization: Southwest Systems Development Labs, Houston, TX [Caution ... theories follow ... I don't know this for sure as they don't have Caller-ID here yet (sigh)] In article TELECOM Moderator writes: > So far, so good. Now how to capture or read that data ... we know from > the Telecom Archives file 'caller.id.specs' that the data is sent at > 1200 baud in ASCII. So I plugged a modem into the tapped line, and set > it for 1200 baud. I think the problem is that the modems we use for regular data communications have a set-up period between the time a carrier is received and the time data actually can be sent. I suspect that there isn't enough settling time for the modem to actually get in sync with the caller-ID signal. The other problem is that the way that you have the modem coupled to the phone line may not provide the proper signal level for the chips in the modem to properly demodulate the signal. Although it hears what it thinks is a valid carrier, it may not be one that's intelligent. I'm pretty sure that the way the Motorola Caller-ID chip works is that it synchronizes itself to the first ring signal it gets ... after that, it listens for a 1200 baud carrier and somehow syncs itself faster than a regular 1200 baud modem would. To give you an idea how sensitive some of this stuff is ... I had a really cheap phone downstairs, and the ringer capacitors (or something) acted as enough of a filter to completely garble all V.32 (9600 baud) communication on that line until I unplugged the phone. This is the best I can explain with my limited understanding. My training is software, but I know enough about hardware to be a little more useful than dangerous! ;-) Hope this helps! Let us all know what you come up with! Gil Kloepfer, Jr. gil@limbic.ssdl.com ...!ames!limbic!gil Southwest Systems Development Labs (Div of ICUS) Houston, Texas ------------------------------ From: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Reply-To: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Thu, 20 Feb 92 03:12:29 GMT In a previous article, telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) says: > The other day I got the idea I would like to have the Caller-ID data > display on my terminal and/or printer instead of the display box I > 1200 baud in ASCII. So I plugged a modem into the tapped line, and set > it for 1200 baud. > > Now here is where I ran into trouble, and never did get satisfactory > results. Maybe a reader can help: > Has anyone experimented successfully with getting Caller-ID data > displayed on their terminal? If so, please tell me what I am doing > wrong. Am I not getting the parity or stop bits correct? Is the modem > at fault somehow, scrambling up or misunderstanding what is coming in? As I understand it, Caller-ID is not sent using the standard 1200 baud tone pairs, and therin lies your problem. I know of one BBS back in the DC area which has a Caller-ID verification system in place; I believe they're using a Caller-ID modem of some sort and their own software, which they are intersted in distributing. The board is the Arlington Software Exchange, 1 703 542 7143. You should be able to hit it through PC Pursuit without a problem. _/acob DeGlopper, EMT-A, Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad -- jrd5@po.cwru.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 92 09:16:57 -0800 From: Doug Faunt N6TQS 415-688-8269 Subject: Me and My Crazy Ideas Your modem is 212 standard, and caller ID is 202 standard, as I recall. They are very different protocols. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 92 13:37:54 CST From: ho@csrd.uiuc.edu (Samuel W. Ho) Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas This may be a bit obvious, but does your modem support Bell 202? A lot of modern modems don't support it. Of course, if you are using an Apple-Cat, never mind. Sam Ho [Moderator's Note: I used to have an Apple Cat ten years ago or so for my Apple computer. I finally gave it to one of the youngsters in the neighborhood who was thrilled to get *any kind* of modem for his computer. Maybe I should have kept it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 92 19:35:31 PST From: elmo@netcom.com (Eliot Moore) Subject: Re: Me and My Crazy Ideas Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Suggest you save your sanity: buy a Caller-ID-to-RS232 kit. $45.50 from IMC, 1-800-992-3511. [Moderator's Note: My sanity has been gone for many years, but thanks for the suggestion. This sounds like the best idea of all. And thanks to the several others who wrote suggesting places where mental health services might be found in my community for free or at low cost. :) It was a fun project for a few hours on a winter's night. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #150 ******************************