Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08803; 4 Mar 93 19:38 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15852 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 4 Mar 1993 16:58:33 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32380 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 4 Mar 1993 16:58:01 -0600 Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 16:58:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303042258.AA32380@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #152 TELECOM Digest Thu, 4 Mar 93 16:58:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 152 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Cincinnati Bell ISDN Tariff :-( (Ralph Hyres) The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review (James Borynec) Potential for Credit Card Fraud Using Cellular Phone (Paul Barnett) Information Wanted on Caller ID (Amy Crowder) Teletype Model ASR/33 Docs Needed (Robert L. McMillin) Format of Cellular Control Channel Signal? (James Gustave) Looking For a T1 Card (Eric Miller) Is There an FAQ? (Janet M. Swisher) Annoyance (Serial) Calls (Morris Galloway Jr.) AT&T Satellite Transmissions (Jason Garner) Moving a Phone Line Within Apartments (Hon Wah Chin) Telecom Toll Data Wanted (Bill Bennett) Blocking of Phone Numbers With Caller ID (Bob Baxter) More Musings About UK "Phoneday" (Bob Goudreau) CLASS Question (Mark Rudholm) Looking For a Device to Handle Three-Way Calling (Chris Faylor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bears!rhyre@cinpmx.attmail.com Date: 4 Mar 93 18:11:51 GMT Subject: Cincinnati Bell ISDN Tariff :-( I was happy to hear that Ameritech through their Ohio BOC Ohio Bell was agressively marketing ISDN. I was hoping that Cincinnati Bell would offer a similar package. Ohio Bell's package is roughly $50/month for Basic Rate ISDN with two Circuit-Switched voice lines (I presume these offer measured service.) Cincinnati Bell, however, is not with the program. Their offering seems to be priced more like a typical 'Centrex' offering. It isn't National-ISDN-1 compliant, either. The configuration I would want (flat rate service on B-channel line, measured on another B-channel) isn't even available, owing to a general tariff restriction on mixing classes of service unless they are for 'different purposes'. I need flat rate and two lines, which is what I pay $40/month for in analog form now. This tariff requires me to pay nearly $100/month (38.25 + 25 + 25 + .24 (911 charges), + 1 3.50.). When I consider capital costs for new phones or an ISDN terminal adapter, I'm better off buying two V.32bis modems for $450 and waiting for the next generation of digital service. Ohio Bell's tariff is much better. Mitch Kapor must have talked to them :-) Here are the rates:-( Initial Monthly USOC (Install) 1. BRI Line a via Qualified Copper 70 38.25 b via Electronic Facilities 70 229 (presumably if > 18,000 feet away from CO) 2 ISDN Bearer Services a B-chan Circuit Switched 25* 25 Voice or Data (flat rate) b (measured) 25* 5 c B-chan packet switched 25* 125 data d D-chan packet switched 25* 4.50 data * This is a 'subsequent install' charge, it is included in the $70 if you request it all at the initial install. 3 Optional Features Install Charge (initial) 5 Install Charge (subsequent) 15 a Circuit-Switched 1 hunting 3 2 six-party conf. call 12 3 call pickup 2 4 additional DN 5 5 Additional Call references 5 6 Electronic Key Telephone Service 10 (is this 'Centrex'?) b Packet-Switched 1 X.25 hunting 5 2 Closed User Group Member 1 3 Additional Logical Channels 3 4 Permanent Virtual Circuit 4 I disclaim responsibility for errors, though I tried to be accurate in my typing. Contact Cincinnati Bell Telephone if you want real information. Ralph (a disappointed potential ISDN customer) ------------------------------ From: james@cs.ualberta.ca (James Borynec; AGT Researcher) Subject: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review Organization: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1993 22:19:38 -0700 I just read a startling report: "The Geodesic Network II: 1993 Report on Competition in the Telephone Industry" By P.W. Huber, M.K. Kellogg, and J. Thorne. The Geodisic Company, Washington D.C. The central thesis of this (thick) report is that the economics of fiber and the economics of radio make long distance a "natural" monopoly and that local access is now "inherently competitive". They argue this point long, hard, and (I believe) convincingly. Here are some choice quotes: "... All serious analysts, along with top FCC officials, recognize that the long distance industry is now characterized by umbrella pricing, under a canopy maintained by the FCC and AT&T. The commission spends most of its time making sure that AT&T does not lower its prices too fast. MCI and Sprint appear repeatedly before the Commission and then in Court to challenge any attempt at serious price cutting." "The gap in prices between AT&T and its competitors has steadily narrowed from 10-20 per cent in mid 1984 to about 5 percent in 1987 to still smaller margins today." "In the marketplace, long distance competition is finished." "Although the price of fiber in the loop has dropped to about $1500 per access line (about the same price as copper), radio already appears to be cheaper -- about $1000 plus the cost of subscriber equipment. With relatively modest additional investments in digital technology, the capacity of cellular systems will increase roughly ten-fold, driving the cost down to perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars per local circuit." The report is written in an easy-to-read style and should be read by anyone who has an interest in the future of telecommunications. Even if you disagree with their conclusions (for philosophical or fiscal reasons), the sheer volume of relevent industrial information makes it a valuable reference. Copies cost about $100 and are available from the publisher (The Geodisic Company) 1-800-257-0938, or (202) 723 5088. Electronic versions are also available. Jim Borynec james@cs.ualberta.ca Disclaimer: I have no connections to the Geodesic Company, and I won't profit if you buy their book. [Moderator's Note: We have known for a while now that MCI and Sprint have been repeatedly trying to keep AT&T from lowering its prices. My feeling is long distance rates would be at least a cent or two less per minute -- making them actually less expensive in many cases than their two nearest competitors -- if it were not for resistance from MCI and Sprint trying to keep the prices up. After all, their entire fortunes were built on their fraudulent advertising campaigns saying how they could save telephone users money on long distance calls, were they not? You know how that goes ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) Subject: Potential For Credit Card Fraud Using Cellular Phone Date: Thu, 04 Mar 93 06:43:50 CST I was making a purchase at a trade show, and gave them one of my bank cards. I was nearly struck speechless as I watched him pick up a handheld cellular phone and proceed to call for authorization. Fortunately, I recovered in time, and cut him off just as the call began: Me: "Are you calling for credit card authorization?" Him: "Yes." (puzzled look on his face) Me: "I do not want you to recite my card number over THAT phone." Him: (still looking clueless) Me: "You will broadcast that number to everyone within several miles that has a scanner. You might as well stand up on the table and shout it out to this crowd." Him: "I have to get authorization for this purchase." Me: "Then find a pay phone or borrow a land-line phone." Him: "There's no phone in here, and I can't leave the booth." Me: "I'll go elsewhere, thank you." I went to another vendor, and paid a slightly higher price, after agreeing that he would use a pay phone. He didn't have a cellular phone anyway, but it took him a while to find a phone he could borrow. I was surprised that the credit card companies didn't have some sort of rule against this. So I called American Express and the issuer of my MasterCard, and both customer service reps understood the problem (once I explained it), but neither was aware of any policy to the contrary. I filed a "complaint" or "comment" or whatever they called it, and maybe something will happen as a result. Paul Barnett MPP OS Development (214)-497-4846 Convex Computer Corp. Richardson, TX ------------------------------ From: Amy Crowder Subject: Information Wanted on Caller ID Date: Thu, 04 Mar 1993 21:05:56 GMT Organization: University of Illinois I am doing research on caller ID and the privacy issue. I would greatly appreciate any information about new systems, such as RS-232, that are being used. Thank you! Responses may be sent to acrowder@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu [Moderator's Note: Perhaps Amy means the presence of an RS-232 port on a display to send the information in readable form to a computer or terminal. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Mar 93 18:52:59 -0800 From: rlm@indigo2.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Teletype Model ASR/33 Docs Needed A friend of mine has a Teletype model ASR/33 and needs docs on the beast. Can anyone in net.land lend a hand? Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@indigo2.hac.com ------------------------------ From: speth@cats.ucsc.edu (James Gustave) Subject: Format of Cellular Control Channel Signal? Date: 04 Mar 1993 20:36:04 GMT Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz Could someone please explain the format of the signals used on the cellular control channel? Thanks. james speth email for pgp compatible public-key speth@cats.ucsc.edu ------------------------------ From: eric@microware.com (Eric Miller) Subject: Looking For a T1 Card Organization: Microware Systems Corp., Des Moines, Iowa Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 13:26:06 GMT Hi, I'm looking for a T1 card to plug into a PC. I have found some cards with a VME bus. I am happy with them. Unfortunately, the manufacturer does not make PC (ISA bus) versions. If you know of a manufacturer or supplier of these cards, please send me email. My address is: ericm@mcrware.com Thanks, Eric ------------------------------ From: swisher@cs.utexas.edu (Janet M. Swisher) Subject: Is There an FAQ? Date: 4 Mar 1993 15:38:24 -0600 Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin Is there an FAQ for this group? I have a couple of simple questions that would probably be answered by it, if it existed. 1) Way back when, I heard that you should never tell your local phone company that you use a modem on your phone line, as they could then charge you a much higher rate. I have the impression this is no longer true. What is the status of this? (Note: this is *not* a question about a "modem tax".) 2) I have two phone lines in my house. I want to rewire one of my outlets so that it offers plugs for both lines, not just one. How do I go about doing that? Thanks. [Moderator's Note: The Telecom FAQ is available in the Telecom Archives which can be accessed using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mmgall@hubcap.clemson.edu (Morris Galloway Jr.) Subject: Annoyance (Serial) Calls Organization: Clemson University Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 12:40:54 GMT We've been experiencing an annoying pattern of calls recently. Early in the morning (7-8am), calls are coming in to one or two of our dormitories. When answered, there is silence, then a hangup. Often, the same thing happens to each room on a floor (the numbers are consequtive). Aside from a malicious crackpot, is there any computerized dialing equipment that could produce these symptoms? I've asked the residents about fax tones, but apparently there is just silence. We have reported the problem to Southern Bell, but no solution so far. Any clues? Thanks, Morris Galloway mmgall@presby.edu 1-803-833-8217 Presbyterian College Clinton, SC 29325 [Moderator's Note: The fax or modem on the other end (if that is what it is) might remain silent until it hears one of its own kind from your end. Some are configured that way. Is there dead silence from the other end, or mostly silence with background room noise, ie a person there who is not speaking up? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 02:13:52 -0800 From: jgarner@netcom.com (Jason Garner) Subject: AT&T Satellite Transmissions Perhaps a year ago it was possible to tune one's television satellite dish to channels 21 or 22 while fixed on Telstar 301 and using a shortwave receiver in sideband mode, monitor long distance calls of AT&T. The same was true for Sprint on the same and another satellite. Other satellites for which this was possible include Spacenet 2, Westar 2 and Comstar D4. Does anyone know whether this is still possible? If so, what percentage of my calls go over the airwaves in this fashion? Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are not opinions at all. They are fact. [Moderator's Note: In an earlier message in this issue, the writer was concerned about his credit card number being read over a cell phone. As we all know, *nothing* is secure or private as you point out here. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 10:30:30 PST From: hwc@kalpana.com (Hon Wah Chin) Subject: Moving a Phone Line Within Apartments Reply-To: hwc@kalpana.com While moving from one unit in an apartment building to another, I wanted to have access to my phone line from both places. I did this from the building's side of the demarc. Now that I'm out of the old apartment I called PacBell to get the records changed to reflect the situation. After talking to the rep I get the feeling that they would have done the transfer at the CO and charged me $35. It looks as though my attempt to do the switch "make before break" didn't work. It looks as though I will have to back out my wiring changes and ask for a regular transfer of service. Any hints about how to minimize the no-service window? Hon Wah Chin ------------------------------ From: Bill.Bennett@bbs.actrix.gen.nz Subject: Telecom Toll data wanted Organization: Actrix Information Exchange Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 21:59:34 GMT I'm researching telecom toll charges worldwide for comparision with local rates here in New Zealand. Could someone please email me the following information. 1. Sample toll charges between major US and European towns. eg. New York to Boston, NY to LA, London to Manchester, London to Glasgow. London to Berlin. Etc. 2. Provide some information about discount structures -- ie, do rates fall in off peak period? By how much? 3. Are there usage discounts? For example, if you spend x dollers do you get a volume discount. I'll be posting the results of this non-scientific survey. Thanks. Bill Bennett ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Mar 93 22:34:33 -0400 From: Bob Baxter Organization: Fraternity of Fun Folks Subject: Blocking of Phone Numbers With Caller ID Hi all, I have had Caller ID for several months now, with good success. It's a wonderful way to screen out telemarketers. :-) Anyhow, I seem to remember reading someplace, whether it was a New York Telephone pamphlet, or perhaps an old Digest, that if you had Caller ID, you could block out either: a) A selected phone number(s); b) A number that is marked private would not even let my phone ring. I'm aware about the CLID info being sent between the first and second ring, but I'm almost positve I read something here last year that this could be done. If it matters, I'm calling from Long Island - (516 NPA). Thanks, Bob Baxter Internet: America Online: [Moderator's Note: Caller-ID by itself blocks nothing. You can purchase or write software to do what you want with the call. Telco does offer a service called "Call Screeing" which (independent of Caller-ID) lets you block calls from numbers specified. If those numbers call, you won't get any ring at all, in fact the call will not even leave the CO. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 16:09:25 -0500 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: More Musings About UK "Phoneday" One thing I've wondered about is how close to capacity the UK's toll-free number space (0800-XXXXXX) has become. If it is getting full, then the upcoming Phoneday, which will cause all the geographic STD codes to start with "01", offers a unique opporunity to expand the free-phone number space by an order of magnitude in a completely upward-compatible fashion. The key to this plan would be changing the free-phone STD code from 0800 to just 080, and allowing the non-STD-code part of the number to expand from six to seven digits (thus increasing the number pool from one million to ten million). All existing 0800 numbers wouldn't have to change one bit: 0800 XXXXXX would simply become 080 0XX XXXX instead. Nine million new numbers would then be available in the range of 080 100 0000 through 080 999 9999. There would be no problem with collisions with STD codes 0801 through 0809 (if any of them are even in use today), because they will change to 01801 ... 01809 as part of the Phoneday cutover. Any comments from the UK readership? Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 13:27:47 PST From: silver!rudholm@uunet.UU.NET (Mark Rudholm) Subject: CLASS Question This is something that I imagine someone at AT&T or Bellcore can address. Yesterday, March 2, I had Call Return (*69) and Busy Call Forwarding added to my line, a 1AESS (213-930). Busy Call Forwarding is basically useless because it does not work AT ALL unless Call Waiting is explicitly disabled (*70). If I am already using Call Waiting (i.e. talking to party B while party A is on hold) and another call comes in, they get a busy. If my phone is ringing or I am placing a call that hasn't supervised yet, callers will get a busy. Kinda pointless, I think, especially since I got it because of those times when Call Waiting doesn't work (phone ringing, placed call hasn't supervised yet, etc.) Does 5ESS do any better? I'm not interested in switching to DMS but I am curious if it is any different. My next problem is with Call Return (*69). It seems to work (well, if you ignore the fact that half of greater L.A. is GTE who hasn't apparently heard of SS7 yet) O.K. I have a line at my parent's home that I use as an RCF, it isn't a REAL Pacific Bell RCF but just a line with Call Forwarding on it and no sets connected to it. It is set to forward to my home (213-930). This line is also on an SS7 equipped 1AESS (213-261). Anyway, the Distinctive Ringing and Selective Call forwarding at my home work properly (as they should) on calls regardless of whether they dialed me directly or if they went through the 261 forwarding. The problem is that Call Return does not work this way. When I try to return a call that comes through the 261 line, I get the recording "We're sorry, this feature cannot be used to call the number you are calling at this time, please hang up now and try your call again in a few minutes." Thinking it odd that Selective Forwarding and Distinctive Ringing should work properly when Call Return didn't and knowing that the CLASS features shouldn't be affected by forwarding (as opposed to ANI delivery) I called Pacific Bell to ask about it. Well, surprisingly the person who took my call understood what I explained. She said that all CLASS features, including Call Return should work properly on calls forwarded through another SS7 equipped Pacific Bell switch. She agreed then that there was a failure if this was not happening. She transfered me to Repair. I put in an report with a brief description of the problem and basically told them to have someone at the CO call me so I can explain it. What I want to know is if this is just an implementation error on Pacific Bell's part or if this is how it is supposed to work. Mark D. Rudholm Philips Interactive Media of America rudholm@aimla.com 11050 Santa Monica Boulevard +1 213 930 1449 Los Angeles, CA 90025 [Moderator's Note: Regarding 'forward on busy' and call-waiting, it will not work unless the line is 'truely busy' which only occurs when you suspend call-waiting (or when you 'suspend' it permanently by having telco remove the feature from your line.) I think the problem with call return on the 261 line is the switch is trying to place an outgoing call on a line not equipped for outgoing calls. The 261 line is only set up for incoming calls. It thinks 'here is 261-xxxx placing a call to ...' and realizes that is impossible since 261 is for incoming calls only. An interesting bug, to be sure. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cgf@ednor.bbc.com (Chris Faylor) Subject: Looking For a Device to Handle Three-Way Calling Organization: Boston Business Computing, Ltd. Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 22:13:49 GMT I'm looking for a device that will initiate a conference call using the phone company's three-way calling service. I'd like the to call two numbers and connect them together, keeping the phone off-hook until one of the two parties hangs up. This action would ideally be able to be initiated remotely by calling the device and issuing commands to it. Is there anything like this out there anywhere? Chris Faylor Boston Business Computing, Ltd. cgf@ednor.bbc.com "I am not here." ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #152 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa15906; 4 Mar 93 23:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15609 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 4 Mar 1993 14:30:15 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26619 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 4 Mar 1993 14:29:34 -0600 Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 14:29:34 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303042029.AA26619@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #151 TELECOM Digest Thu, 4 Mar 93 14:29:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 151 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" (Ben Burch) Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" (Tad Cook) Re: Toll Stations in California (Don Lynn) Re: 1-800 Collect Callbacks (Justin Leavens) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Aninda Dasgupta) Re: WTC Blast (Jeffrey Jonas) NYTel and the Bombing (Dave Niebuhr) News Clips re: WTC (Daniel Burstein) Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards (Brad Hicks) Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards (Max J. Rochlin) Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards (Al Stangenberger) Re: A Little More TWX History (Harold Hallikainen) Address Correction For Moderator's Note (Frank Carey) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ben Burch Subject: Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" Organization: Motorola, Inc. Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1993 17:15:39 GMT In article TELECOM Moderator, telecom@eecs.nwu.edu writes: > The interviews are mastered onto Digital Audio Tape. A typical > 30-minute program occupies 15 Mbytes of disk space. UUNET Just what the internet needs; Hundred of folks FTPing 15 MB files on a regular basis. This is a really nifty concept, but it would be a better idea if it waited for the high bandwidth "superhighway" backbone. Ben Burch Burch_Ben@msmail.wes.mot.com ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1993 19:37:19 GMT Seems that distribution of audio over internet is going to take an awful lot of bandwidth and be real costly. Is it worth it? I keep looking at my phone bill and wish there was an easy way to just pay by the bit (sending ASCII at my relatively slow typing speed) instead of having to pay for a pair of 64 kbps circuits every time I phone someone. Also, what sort of compression is to be used in this audio distribution system? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: hpubvwa!tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" Date: Thu, 04 Mar 1993 16:23:41 GMT There is an article about internet talk "radio" on the front page of this morning's (3/4/93) {New York Times}. Tad Cook | Phone: 206-527-4089 (home) | MCI Mail: 3288544 Seattle, WA | Packet: KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 3288544@mcimail.com | Internet: tad@ssc.com or...sumax!ole!ssc!tad ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 10:50:56 PST From: DLynn.El_Segundo@xerox.com Subject: Re: Toll Stations in California In David Esan's list of all non-dialable California phones, I was surprised to see one that I have actually seen. A few others that I probably was by, but didn't notice. The only phone in Nevada Falls, California (Population Zero), is a phone for use by backpackers with emergencies. The phone was in a weatherproof box on a post a few hundred yards south on the trail from the top of Nevada Falls, which some of you may know is two or three miles, and about 2000 feet climb, out of Yosemite Valley, in the beginning of the back country wilderness of Yosemite National Park. The phone is so incongruous there that you can't miss it. I have never been interested in making a phone call when hiking there, so did not open the box to check it out. Was not clear if non-emergency use was allowed. Should I have called Domino's rather than carrying my lunch ten miles, as I did last time I was there? Probably even get it free for missing the guaranteed delivery time. There are no structures and no tents allowed in the area of this phone, so I guess we could say it is the smallest town served by the phone company. From the report of a friend who was in the area earlier this week, I can tell that the phone is inaccessible now, unless you have snowshoes, so you probably don't want to check out Nevada Falls 1 right now. I must have walked past the phone Vernal Falls 1, about a mile and 1000 feet closer to a road than Nevada Falls 1. There's a restroom and a drinking fountain there, so it's practically a metropolis by comparison. Glen Aulin 1 and Merced Lake 2 are undoubtedly at the High-Sierra Camps of the same names, also in Yosemite Park. These consist of one or two permanent buildings and a bunch of tent buildings erected every summer, to serve backpackers and equestrian campers who wish to eat and sleep in relative comfort, though at least a day's hike away from the nearest road. I will have to try to find and check out one of the numerous non-dialable phones next time I am in Idlewild, a town of cabins in the San Jacinto Mountains, in the Palm Springs vicinity. Gaviota is on a major US highway (101), not all that far from Santa Barbara, a sizable city, so I'm not sure why its fossil phone has not been replaced. Since the phone is Gaviota 43, it implies that they DID get rid of at least 42 of them. This message may seem to wander off the topic of telecom, but let me justify this by saying that it is in understanding the locations that we can see why these anachronisms, non-dialable phones, still exist. Anybody want to start a movement to declare a few of these phones as historical monuments? :-) Don Lynn ------------------------------ From: leavens@mizar.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: 1-800 Collect Callbacks Date: 3 Mar 1993 14:18:04 -0800 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA In article olsen@hing.LCS.MIT.EDU (James Olsen) writes: > Sec. 64.714 No Disconnection for Failure to Remit pay-per-call Service > Charges. > No common carrier shall disconnect, or order the disconnection of, a > telephone subscriber's basic communications service as a result of that > subscriber's failure to pay interstate pay-per-call service charges. The problem that is left is that if a slimy IP charges you for something that legitimately you should not have been charged for, and you cannot get the IP to reverse the charge, the balance stays on your account and then is reported to Equifax as a deliquent balance. Then see if you can get new phone service established in a new residence ... not likely. It still boggles my mind that the second most powerful collection agency (referring to the collective Phone Company) in the country can be used by any patch of slime to do what they wish. I think the whole concept of "putting the charge on the phone bill" for any service other than phone company charges is insane. I can't use $15 worth of stamps on a package to buy a compact disc mail order, I can't put my grocery charges on to my gas bill, and I can't pay for pool maintenance on my water bill. If IPs can use the telco billing procedures, why can't I order Chinese food for delivery and put *that* on my phone bill ... Justin Leavens Microcomputer Specialist University of Southern California ------------------------------ From: add@philabs.philips.com (Aninda Dasgupta) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Organization: Philips Laboratories, Briarcliff, New York Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1993 22:43:09 GMT I'm not sure if anybody mentioned this in the Digest, but the blast at the WTC took most TV stations out in NYC and the vicinity. On the way home from work that day, I couldn't get anything but CBS Radio, coming live from the site. When I reached home, I turned on the TV to see if they were showing any gory sights, but only CBS TV and a (Telemundo?) station from NJ were on the air. My landlady's son, who works for CBS, said that all the other TV stations had their transmitters on top of the WTC. CBS radio reported that the authorities had to actually remove some of the TV and radio antennae in order to make space for a helipad for the rescue helicopters to land on top of the WTC. [Some transmitters may have suffered from the power cutoff.] CBS TV apparently transmits from the Empire State Building. However, CBS radio also reported that one of the first persons to be rescued from the top of the WTC, by helicopter, was a pregnant CBS employee who was up on the WTC roof to repair the transmitter/antenna. CBS probably maintains transmitters on both the WTC and ESB. I couldn't tell if the cable operators were able to get feeds from the TV stations that were off the air, because I don't subscribe to CATV (I refuse to aid any monopoly) and I am also not sure if the rest of the country got to see Peter Jennings or Tom Brokaw for the evening news, but we were able to get only Dan Rather. The CBS people were very good in reporting the developments non stop that night, both on radio and on TV. I was constantly wondering when they would take a commercial break, but hats off to them, they kept their cameras glued to the WTC towers. Even their weather and traffic helicopters were kept hovering around the WTC, reporting on (and possibly aiding in directing) emergency vehicle movements to and from the site. Two days ago, while dropping off my car at a basement parking garage in a high-rise building next to Rockefeller Center in NYC, the attendant jokingly asked me if I had a bomb in my trunk. And yesterday, while driving into Canada from the I-87 border in New York, the customs official kept a straight face and asked us if we were running away from the WTC blast. Then he burst out in a guffaw. Can't blame him, it was 3 in the morning and he probably needed some lighthearted banter for entertainment at the lonely border post, with nothing but the miles of snow-covered landscape for company. But, the blast has certainly affected people, all the way from NYC to a remote border post on the NY-Canada border. Aninda DasGupta (add@philabs.philips.com) Ph:(914)945-6071 Fax:(914)945-6552 Philips Labs\n 345 Scarborough Rd\n Briarcliff Manor\n NY 10510 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 11:05:02 EST From: jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (Jeffrey Jonas) Subject: Re: WTC blast There's a new newsgroup dedicated to the World Trade Center (WTC) blast, but that's on another system so I can't find the name. It was curious that somebody posted that they first learned about the "incident" from the TELECOM Digest, so thanks for the swift turnaround. I just came to work today via the PATH train WTC station. Except for the roped off area, it looks like business as normal on the concourse. Most of the Path tracks are open as are the turnstiles, and most of the stores are open with no apparent damage. Two vacant stores are being used for the police, and for organizing people to visit their offices to retrieve stuff. After all the press coverage, I'm amazed at how much is reopened again. You'd think the place was destroyed, but a lot is really back to normal. I'm glad to have read in TELECOM Digest that Teleport was barely damaged. I guess it's more a RISKS item at how all the backup and emergency systems were knocked out at once. Just as the Hinsdale fire demonstrated how not to build a facility, the WTC bomb demonstrated that we need to protect our infrastructure from un-natural as well as natural disasters. There are many lessons that relate to telecom here, sad to say. Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Mar 93 14:04:06 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: NYTel and the Bombing New York Telephone announced in {Newsday} and other papers that they have installed many more lines in wake of the bombing of 2 World Trade Center and limited emergency office space. 1,700 new regular lines and 176 T1/T3's in addition to call-forwarding and other features to 4,083 lines. 150 technicians have been added to the immediate area to expedite whatever else needs to be done. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: dannyb@Panix.Com (Daniel Burstein) Subject: News Clips re: WTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 08:05:33 GMT While not directly related to telecom, the explosion at WTC has lots of interesting ramifications. I've put together a series of news clips from the incident. If anyone would like them, please send me email with something like: "wtc news request" in the subject line. Note that I'm not a listserv, and don't even play one on TV, so it may take a bit till I get it out to you. Also, there are roughly 100K/day, and at this point, I have three days worth online. email address: dannyb@panix.com twice the usual disclaimers apply... [Moderator's Note: Here's the latest news: The White House announced Thursday morning that the FBI has made at least one arrest in the WTC matter. Someone in is custody who was seen on a videotape taken in the garage. The FBI says a search is underway for 'others', but they won't say how many or who, nor will they identify the person they did arrest overnight Wednesday/Thursday morning. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com Date: 4 Mar 93 16:35:44 GMT Subject: Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards It isn't just old foggies (grin) like Gordon and Pat who remember punched cards; not only did the community college where I took my first computer course (in 1978) still use punched cards (on an IBM 360/30), but as late as when I graduated from college in 1982 the ACM computer programming competition was still using ANSI 66 (?) Fortran, pre-Fortran-IV, and you HAD to punch your own decks and submit them in batch via the official card readers. (How much have things changed?) I'm pretty proud of the teams I was on; Taylor was the only undergraduate school in our region to send a team, and the only school to send a team that had no keypunches for us to practice on, and we still took third place in the region two years in a row. And yes, Gordon's memory is correct; the bottom edge of the card is called the "nine edge," but I thought that the top two rows were labelled "B" and "A", not "11/10" or "X/R". Different card stock? But this all brings back to mind this little ditty that I learned in my youth: THE BALLAD OF THE UNKNOWN PROGRAMMER "No program is perfect," / They said with a shrug. / "The customer is happy, / What's one little bug?" But he was determined. / The others went home. / He dug out the flowcharts, / Deserted, alone. Chain smoking, cold coffee, / Logic, deduction. / "I've got it!" he cried, / "Just change one instruction!" Then two. Then three more. / As year followed year, / New employees would say, / "Is that guy still here?" He died at the keypunch / of hunger and thirst. / Next day, he was buried, / Face down, nine-edge first. His wife, through her tears, / Consoling her fate, / Said, "He's not really gone, / He's just 'working late.'" J. Brad Hicks Internet: mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs.attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad ------------------------------ From: max@queernet.org (Max J. Rochlin) Subject: Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1993 18:30:21 GMT Organization: QueerNet Ya know, you can still order the ANSI Standards documentation (which just went "FINAL" last year). I've misplaced my copy so I can't give you the order number. The title has the words Holerith Codes in it. max@queernet.org | Max J. Rochlin | {uunet,sgi}!unpc!max ------------------------------ From: forags@smokey.berkeley.edu (Al Stangenberger) Subject: Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards Date: 3 Mar 1993 20:11:03 GMT Organization: U.C. Forestry & Resource Mgt. Here at Berkeley, the first successor to the keypunch was a Teletype and paper tape. Editing paper tape was a pain, but bypassing the card reader and saving a half-hour walk to the computer center was worth it. (That was half-hour to submit the deck, and possibly another trip later to pick up the (hopefully correct) output. We really felt great, even at 110 baud! (circa 1967). I have the last surviving card reader at Berkeley. Get to know some interesting people through referrals -- there are still lots of decks hidden away in files. Possibly the last IBM cards punched on campus were done on a 1939-vintage IBM model 01 hand-operated keypunch when I had to make new control cards so my reader could talk to a revised operating system. The cards were alphabetic, so each column had to be multi-punched by hand. Al Stangenberger Dept. of Forestry & Resource Mgt. forags@violet.berkeley.edu 145 Mulford Hall - Univ. of Calif. uucp: ucbvax!ucbviolet!forags Berkeley, CA 94720 BITNET: FORAGS AT UCBVIOLE (510) 642-4424 FAX: (510) 643-5438 ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: A Little More TWX History Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1993 20:00:48 GMT Thanks for the interesting history of Teletypewriters! Back in high school I used a model 15 with model 14 tape "typing reperf" and "transmitter distributor" on amateur radio. A friend and I also set up a local teletype network. We ran about a mile and a half of single conductor wire through the trees of the neigborhood. We then fed this wire against ground, running a 60 mA current loop. We made a motor control circuit for each end. When I wanted to leave a message on his machine, I'd supply loop current, which would start both motors. To shut down, I'd drop my loop power supply which would cause both machines to "run open" for a while, 'til a capacitor across a current sense relay discharged, shutting down the AC to the motor. I also remember the very complicated wiring inside the model 15. There was a huge wiring harness that seemed to allow for infinite options. I finally ripped it all out and brought out six wires. Two for the keyboard, two for the "selector magnets" (series for holding magnets at 60 mA, parallel for pulling magnets at 60 mA, or series for holding magnets at 20 mA), and two for AC power to the motor. The previous article spoke of various codes used on Teletypes. I recall seeing machines that LOOKED like model 15s, but used a six level code. These were used by press wire services. The sixth bit allowed for upper and lower case. At my college newspaper, they had one of these printers and a tape punch running all the time. When the editor found an article of interest, he/she would go searching through the punched tape looking for the article. Articles were identified by a number that was punched to be readable in the holes on the tape (and garbage on the printer). This tape was then sent to mechanical Linotype machine where the article was cast in lead. They'd then pull a proof from the lead type, put it in the paste-up for the page. Then they'd photograph the page, make offset plates and print the paper. Watching that Lintotype cast the type to be used just once was pretty amazing! The previous article also mentioned the use of model 15s in radio and TV station wire service use in the 1950s. Here in SLO Town, they were used through the mid 1970s. These were eventually replaced with Extel dot matrix printers, the first dot matrix printer I ever saw. Finally, I still have a model 33 with tape punch, reader and internal Bell 103 modem sitting back in a corner here. When I got it, I was thinking of taking info out of our old CP/M PC board CAD system and generating drill tapes for the PC house. The machine is still sitting in the corner. We now don't even plot our boards. We just take a disk with the Gerber photoplot file and drill file across town to the PC house. We give them a disk and back come PC boards. Pretty neat! It's amazing to see the changes I've seen in the electronics industry ... but then, I'm getting older ... Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: Wed, 3 Mar 93 10:23:44 EST From: fec@arch2.att.com Subject: Address Correction Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories > Readers with factual information about schemes like this should > probably write Frank Carey to discuss it; he invited such email at > fec.arch2.att.com. PAT] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Won't work! Should be: f.e.carey@att.com Frank Carey at Bell Labs 908/949-8049 [Moderator's Note: Sorry about that. Frank did include the latter address in the text of his message. When I went back to reference it the next day, I grabbed the 'from' address instead. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #151 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa26220; 5 Mar 93 3:50 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06582 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 5 Mar 1993 00:46:44 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22438 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 5 Mar 1993 00:46:02 -0600 Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 00:46:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303050646.AA22438@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #153 TELECOM Digest Fri, 5 Mar 93 00:46:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 153 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Federal Agents Raid Computer Porn Ring in 40 Places / 15 States (J Schmidt) Arrest Made in WTC Bombing (ghadsal@american.edu) Australian Prime Minister on Optical Network to Homes (Tom Worthington) Caller ID in Texas (Charles Mattair) Wiring a Headset to 2500 Set (Maxime Taksar) Fighting the COCOTS (Scott D. Green) Explain This Phenomena (Sandy Kyrish) GSM Question (Steven Shulman) Voice Mail Delays (Peter Bachman) Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (Randy Gellens) Access to the Data SuperHighway (Ralph Hyre) Trying to Locate 2600 (Mark Ellis) Request For Info on D.C Loops (Guturu Venkateswar) Telecom Humor (Don Lynn) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1993 00:20:04 EST From: JOHN SCHMIDT Subject: Federal Agents Raid Computer Porn Ring in 40 Places / 15 States The following came over AP this evening: AP v2725 Computer Porn 03-04 7:02 p Customs Agents Break Up Gigantic Computer Porn Ring (Miami) -- Federal agents have staged raids in 40 locations across the US in what's being called the nation's biggest crackdown on child pornography. The investigation -- called "Operation Longarm" -- was based in Miami. US Customs officials say the raids in 15 states targeted an international computer network that allegedly transmits high-quality images through computer bulletin boards. No arrests have yet been made. But if agents verify possession, suspects can be charged with federal counts that could put them in prision for 15 to 20 years. (end) NOTE: WBAU's AP contract allows us to use AP material for broadcast or other educational use, so consider yourselves educated and don't use this posting for commercial purposes ... John H. Schmidt, P.E. Internet: schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu Technical Director, WBAU Phone--Days (212)456-4218 Adelphi University Evenings (516)877-6400 Garden City, New York 11530 Fax-------------(212)456-2424 ------------------------------ Organization: The American University - University Computing Center Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 17:31:44 EST From: GHADSAL@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Arrest Made in WTC Bombing The FBI has arrested a suspect in the bombing. Apparently the individual was apprehended when he attempted to get his rental deposit back from the rental agency. He had reported the van as stolen the day of the bombing. Links are being made to the radical Muslim group that was credited with the recent assasination of the NYC rabbi last Nov/Dec. For more info ... listen to the TV / Radio. This is just a *byte* Guy [Moderator's Note: Talk about dumb. Here, it seems to me, is a man who was obviously not clear on the concept. As of Thursday evening, there is supposedly a second person under arrest, but the government is not giving out any names or details yet. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Tom Worthington) Subject: Australian Prime Minister on Optical Network to Homes Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 01:19:44 GMT "We will establish an expert group which will include representatives from AOTC, OPTUS, industry and unions to develop a technical and commercial blueprint for extending the optical fibre network to the majority of houses, businesses and schools in Australia. Already AOTC has laid over 1 million kilometres of optical fibre cables. Australia is in the forefront of this technology. Extending the optical fibre network to the majority of businesses and residences capitalises on the significant investment we have already made. It will create a platform for the delivery of a large range of services and the development of new industries. Extending the network to our schools and other education institutions will further our efforts to raise standards. "An innovative and vibrant telecommunications industry will be of pivotal importance to the Australian economy in the decades ahead. It will provide jobs directly in the major operators of telecommunications services and in many supporting industries. "But it requires a leadership that supports Australian manufacturing. It requires AOTC to remain in public ownership. Without public ownership, services to consumers will be threatened. And without public ownership the jobs of all those in supporting manufacturing firms will be threatened. This would especially be the case if AOTC were to come under foreign control which would be the inevitable result of the Opposition's desire to sell AOTC quickly." ---------- From page 20 of "Advancing Australia, Building on Strength", Australian Labour Party Document, 1993 Federal Election, presented by Paul Keating, Prime Minister of Australia, at Bankstown on Wednesday 24 February 1993. For further details contact Phillip Tardif, Office of the Minister for Science & Technology, ph: +61 6 2777280, fax: +61 6 2734138 Posted as a community service by: Tom Worthington, Director of the Community Affairs Board, Australian Computer Society Incorporated, e-mail: tomw@adfa.oz.au. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 10:53:05 CST From: mattair@synercom.hounix.org (Charles Mattair) Subject: Caller ID in Texas Organization: Synercom Technology, Inc., Houston, TX Quoting from the {Houston (TX) Chronicle}, 4 March 1993. [] comments are mine. Copyright (c) 1993, Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Reprinted with permission. Bill to allow Caller ID clears its first hurdle Ross Ramsey Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau Austin - Legislation that would legalize Caller ID was approved by a Senate committee Wednesday, after a way was worked out to accommodate, at no charge, those who don't want their identities revealed to the people they're calling. Caller ID allows a person to see the name [unlike most states, SWBs tariff included the name. PUC said this would be interpreted as listing name] and number of the caller before picking up the phone. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. [SWB] sought to offer the service in Texas but was turned down last year when the Public Utility Commission [PUC] decided the service would violate the states wiretapping statutes [they actually decided SWB could offer CNID on a business to business basis but SWB wasn't interested]. The legislation that was approved by the Senate's State Affairs Committee ammends the wiretapping law to allow the service. But phone companies would have to offer free "per-call blocking" to customers who want to make calls without broadcasting their names and numbers. Those customer would dial in a special code before dialing the number of the person they're trying to call. Phone companies also would have to offer free "per-line blocking," which would prevent the broadcast of a person's name and number on all calls. Customers who want that second option would have to send a letter to the PUC saying they have a "compelling need" for it. Those customers would not have to prove their cases or even say what their compelling needs are. "I just want somebody to think before they sign a document and send it in," said Sen. Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo, the bill's sponsor. Another provision of the compromise prevents companies from capturing the names and numbers of people calling them and selling the lists they generate, unless they have permission from every single person on the list [yeah, right]. In addition, the bill's sponsors plan to add an ammendment that would prevent the public from learning the name of the people who have requested per-line blocking. Without that ammendment, the letters Texans send to the PUC stating a compelling need would be public documents [and subject to retrieval under the Texas Open Records Act]. Bivins' bill was originally opposed by Sen. Peggy Rosson, D-El Paso, a former utility commissioner. But after changes were made to allow free per-line blocking, Rosson signed on as a co-sponser. She remains unenthusiastic about the service, but some of her constituents want it, she said. "They think that it is going to stop the Sears siding salesmen from calling at 5 p.m. while they're eating dinner, and it's not," she said. "But if they think it's going to help, and we can make it so it's not going to hurt, then I think we should go ahead." Charles Mattair mattair@synercom.hounix.org Any opinions offered are my own and do not reflect those of my employer. ------------------------------ Subject: Wiring a Headset to 2500 Set Date: Thu, 04 Mar 93 14:45:05 PST From: Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS Heres what I have: Functional headset (Plantronics StarSet) with 1/4" phone plugs Functional WECo 2500 set Functional Plantorics "JackSet" Appropriate connection technology to hook 'em all together. What I'd like to do: Hook 'em all together, so I can use my headset. (Preferably such that I can use the headset while the handset is on hook. I can probably figure this out anyway, since the JackSet is pretty straighforward in its switching capability). Is there anyone who's familiar enough with a 2500 set to tell me where I should connect which wires from the JackSet? In fact, if there's a good text geared toward someone with only slight basic electronics knowledge on how and what the network inside one of these does, I'd much appreciate hearing about it. Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS mmt@RedBrick.COM ------------------------------ From: green@wilma.wharton.upenn.edu (Scott D. Green) Subject: Fighting the COCOTS Date: 4 Mar 93 16:04:34 GMT So what is the best strategy for dealing with COCOTS that block 10xxx, or 800 numbers (or time them out after a ridiculously short time), or won't let you reach the LEC operator? I have, at various times: - spoken with the proprietor. Result: "I don't know what you're talking about". - spoken with AT&T. Result: "There isn't much we can do. Try the 800 number. If that doesn't work, find another phone." - spoken with BellAtlantic's Private PayPhone Service (sic) Center. Result: "We can't do much. Have you filed a complaint with the PUC?" - dialed the offending phone with modem, but I couldn't break carrier tone (at a variety of baud settings). Anyone want to divulge a good hack for these bandits? My expectation was that AT&T or Bell would have an active interest in seeing to it that I could reach their services. I was surprised that there was so little concern. Anybody have a proven method for encouraging equal access compliance? scott ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 19:02 GMT From: Sandy Kyrish <0003209613@mcimail.com> Subject: Explain This Phenomena My kitchen phone's DTMF keypad is intermittently on the blink. One morning I decided to see if I could dial a number by flashing the switch-hook (trying to emulate rotary dialing). I decided to dial my other number, which begins with 886. Well, I pressed the switch-hook eight times, then waited and pressed it eight times again ... just then, I heard the ring tone, and a female voice, sounding very "residential", said "Hello?" O.K., I admit, I panicked and hung up the phone. And I did not try redial or anything. I waited for the phone bill, to see if I would be charged with any special service I'd inadvertently tripped, but none. So -- what happened and why? Sorry, no prizes given. [Moderator's Note: What happened was your 'pressing the hook eight times' was not properly synchronized, and the eight probably got taken as four 2s, or two 3s and a 2, or maybe a 3 and two 2s and a 1, or similar. You could have wound up calling 332-1133 or any number where a total of 16 pulses would be used. Pressing the hook rapidly is not a very reliable way to dial unless you are really coordinated and good at it. The taps of your finger were probably not precise. PAT] ------------------------------ From: shulman2@underdog.ee.wits.ac.za (Steven Shulman) Subject: GSM Question Organization: Wits Electrical Engineering (Undergrads). Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 12:43:38 GMT I know that this is really general, but if ANYONE has got info for me on what GSM is and how it works, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE mail me. Thanks in advance, Steve ------------------------------ From: pbachman@skidmore.EDU (peter bachman) Subject: Voice Mail Delays Organization: Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 15:06:50 GMT Has anyone ever experience voice mail dealys of over three days? I signed up for NYTEL's free offer and have been using the service for month or so. I periodically check to see if messages that I know have been left are on the voice mail mailbox. Suddenly they have been delayed, and the record is now three days! Perhaps the system crashed and they had to back it up? Of course I am used to people leaving messages in the wrong mailbox, so I usually check them all. I thought this was a real good thing until this happened. Peter Bachman usual disclaimers. [Moderator's Note: What do you mean you 'check them all'? How do you have access to the mailboxes of other users? I had something strange happen today: when calling to check my voicemail, I dialed my number and the phone rang three times in the usual way, then there was the usual click indicating the call was being transferred to voicemail, It then came a busy signal! It is very rare for all incoming DID ports into voicemail to be busy. PAT] ------------------------------ From: MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 04 MAR 93 18:39 Subject: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls I know this has been discussed before, and I thought it was a switch-settable option, but GTE only permits one call at a time to be in processes through a normal Call Forwarded ("Programmable Call Forwarding") line. This is really annoying, as I intended for people to continue using my old (GTE) number, even though I am receiving calls at my new (PacBell) number. The new number has Call Waiting, but it is no good since GTE is single-threading the calls. When I complained, I was told that business class service permits multiple calls, but residence class only permits one. Nasty! Randy Gellens randy%mpa15ab@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com A Series System Software if mail bounces, forward to Unisys Mission Viejo, CA rgellens@mcimail.com Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself [Moderator's Note: The same service from Illinois Bell allows multiple call forwarding to the extent the receiving phone can handle the calls, ie. three lines in hunt can get three forwarded calls. But the version called 'remote call forwarding' which is a permanently config- ured arrangement in the CO will only forward as many calls as you have 'paths' you are paying for. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bears!rhyre@cinpmx.attmail.com Date: 5 Mar 93 00:34:45 GMT Subject: Access to the Data SuperHighway > As the project is outlined, however, the Administration would spend > money primarily on developing advanced supercomputers and software > that would link them over a high-speed fiber optic network, and on > demonstration projects at hospitals, schools and libraries. For the > most part, the actual construction of a network that is widely > available to the public would be left to private companies. I am willing to donate my money to ensure univeral access, but I have no interest in 'investing' into prototypes and demonstrator projects at places where the general public will not be involved. My model of this is more akin to Usenet (with better user interfaces, and maybe even better content ;-). Everybody else seems to want to build to the 'telephone' model -- the circuit-switched, one-user-at-a-time or per-connection model of the other online services. Broadcast medium, like packet radio, are inherently suited to sharing information that has a wide community of interest. Television, whatever it's other faults, serves this purpose. Users already probably own personal computers, so local processing is feasible and desirable. I worked on a project TEN YEARS ago that proved this. We used an FM subcarrier to broadcast digital information throughout the Boston area. We limited the subscriber base not because of technical considerations (we could serve one million users as easily as ten), but because we had to obtain a license for our digital information sources. Users would filter out information they didn't want, and store what they wanted on their PC's local disk drive. The schools I attended were fortunate to have good ARPAnet/Internet links -- universal access should be what we're are spending public money for. We should harness the educational capabilities of these networks on a massive scale. Disclaimer: I'm REALLY speaking for myself now. Ralph Hyre (rhyre@attmail.com) Alumni: Boston Community Information System Project ('bits for the people') ------------------------------ From: mcellis@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mark Ellis) Subject: Trying to Locate 2600 Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept. Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 02:15:53 GMT Would someone let me know if the magazine 2600 is available anywhere? Is something like it available at an FTP site? Mark Ellis % MegadethPearlJamLynchMob % Happy, Happy, Happy mcellis@nyx.cs.du.edu % AliceInChainsQueensryche % Joy, Joy, Joy [Moderator's Note: You bet. The editor is a regular participant here and I suspect you will hear from him soon. PAT] ------------------------------ From: guturu@a.cs.okstate.edu (GUTURU VENKATESWAR) Subject: Request For Info on D.C. Loops Organization: Oklahoma State University, Computer Science, Stillwater Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 18:50:09 GMT I would like to know how the DC loop is maintained in the telephone line with the subscriber? The above question is based on my understanding that there is codec and T1 multiplexer between the subscriber and the cental office (CO) and more so we cannot get a physical wire connection as it would not justify the codec and T1. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 10:46:39 PST From: DLynn.El_Segundo@xerox.com Subject: Telecom Humor Single Slices, a comic strip dealing with boyfriend/girlfriend topics, had this a few days ago: First panel: he is talking on cordless phone, he says, "Hey Ralph, you should see this new cordless phone Corine bought me. She's so thoughtful ..." Second panel: she is listening to radio that is saying, "... she's so thoughtful." Caption: Thoughtful Corine bought herself a scanner. Thought this group would enjoy that. Don Lynn ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #153 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa28494; 5 Mar 93 5:03 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07896 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 5 Mar 1993 02:19:21 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28368 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 5 Mar 1993 02:18:53 -0600 Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 02:18:53 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303050818.AA28368@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: NAFTA Implications For Telecommunications in Canada Paper forwarded by to telecom by Sid Shniad, Burnaby BC : THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS WORKERS' UNION, FEBRUARY 1993 THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY IN CANADA "A TRADE DEAL SIMPLY LIMITS THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE U.S. OR OTHER SIGNATORY GOVERNMENT MAY RESPOND TO PRESSURE FROM THEIR CITIZENS." --Michael Walker, Executive Director of the Fraser Institute INTRODUCTION The North American Free Trade Agreement will have a potentially devastating effect on major sections of the Canadian economy, including the telecommunications industry. Yet neither our political leaders nor the members of the general public have been given sufficient substantive information on which to base a reasoned assessment of the agreement's contents. What is shaping up instead is yet another public relations exercise on the part of the federal government, designed to overwhelm popular opposition that is based on concerns about the agreement and the detrimental effects it is likely to have on our society. It has been our experience that the federal government's secretive, selective airing of issues related to NAFTA is entirely consistent with its handling of other policy matters, including those affecting the Canadian telephone industry. In this area, as in so many others, the federal government is taking its lead from the corporate sector, ignoring arguments raised by people who point to the disastrous effects that telephone deregulation has had south of the border. What are those effects? Since the early 1980s, as deregulation tore apart the American phone system, the US experienced an unprecedented series of local price increases, cutbacks in service, and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs as competing telephone companies narrowed their focus to satisfy large corporate customers located in major urban centres. Aware of the disastrous effects of telephone deregulation in the States, an alliance of Canadian unions, consumers, community groups, antipoverty organizations, and provincial governments has attempted to stave off similar developments in this country. Instead of taking the concerns expressed by members of this alliance to heart, however, the Conservative government has chosen to go through the pro forma motions of consultation before proceeding with its predetermined agenda. The handling of Bill C-62, the federal government's draft telecommunications legislation, illustrates what it is that we are talking about. The government chose a period in late February 1992, when the country was preoccupied by debate on the constitution and the federal budget, to table Bill C-62. If passed, this sweeping piece of legislation would effectively deregulate this country's telephone system. It would be difficult for the public to participate in a full airing of this comprehensive piece of legislation under the best of circumstances. But the fact that the government tabled it in the midst of the turmoil over these other matters forces us to conclude that the goal was to sneak the legislation through Parliament with a minimum of debate. This was not the government's first dubious venture into the field of telecommunications deregulation. Even before Bill C-62 was tabled, the Cabinet put enormous pressure on the CRTC to allow a new class of companies, known in the industry as resellers, to function without regulatory supervision. The Commission ultimately succumbed to this pressure, liberalizing the terms it applies to resellers. As a result, resellers' operations are having a devastating effect on the industry's regulated rate structure. If their operations expand even faster as a result of being deregulated, it will be a matter of time until the existing regulatory regime unravels and it becomes impossible for government to exercise meaningful control over Canada's telephone industry. Given the text of Chapter 13 in NAFTA, we conclude that this is exactly what the government intended. A HISTORY OF THE GOVERNMENT'S PROMOTION OF TELEPHONE DEREGULATION: The Canadian law governing telecommunications is the Railway Act. It requires all companies to file tariffs with the CRTC and have these tariffs approved before a new service can be offered. In the mid- 1980s, the CRTC chose to disregard this part of the law when it allowed CNCP to sell certain services without filing tariffs. The CRTC and CNCP were taken to court over this matter, on the grounds that the regulators violated the Railway Act. The court challenge was successful; CNCP was required to file tariffs and the CRTC was instructed that it could not exempt the company from this requirement. A unanimous decision of a three-judge panel of the Federal Court of Canada, written by Justice Louis Marceau, stated the issue clearly: [T]he very scheme of the Act is at stake and a reconsideration of the scheme must come from Parliament, not from this Court or the Commission's own conception of how the statute should be rewritten in light of changed circumstances. Justice Marceau's statement captures the essence of the issue. Opponents of telephone deregulation do not believe that it is in the public interest. It is our position that if the government deems it desirable for Canadian telecommunications to be deregulated, then such a change should be made through legislation that has been subjected to the scrutiny of full Parliamentary hearings and passed by the House of Commons. We were not pleased when the government brought forth Bill C-62. But the fact that it was before Parliament gave us and other opponents of telephone deregulation the opportunity to analyze its weaknesses and organize opposition to it. We have pointed out that this draft legislation was designed to enshrine telecommunications deregulation in legislation and to reduce the status of the CRTC to that of a rubber stamp for federal Cabinet decisions. While we believe that such sweeping changes to the regulatory framework governing Canadian telecommunications should be subject to the scrutiny of the Parliament, the manner in which the federal government has handled the bill has made a full debate of its merits impossible. Despite the federal government's attempts to ram the legislation through, the Parliamentary committee on communications and culture, which is reviewing Bill C-62, received such a volume of substantive criticism of the draft legislation that to date, the legislation has not been brought for second reading. The promotion of telephone deregulation in Canada has taken many forms. In Telecom Decision 1985-19, which turned thumbs down to long distance telephone competition, the CRTC ruled that the above- mentioned resellers were not "companies" under the Railway Act and that they were not, therefore, obliged to file tariffs for regulatory approval. In 1991, following on the earlier Federal Court decision in the CNCP case, application was made to the CRTC, asking it to review and vary this part of its 1985 decision. In June of last year, the CRTC issued Telecom Decision CRTC 1992-11, which reversed the earlier finding. In this latest decision, the Commission found that resellers are "companies" under the terms of the Railway Act after all. It ordered them to file tariffs. These challenges to the actions of the government and the CRTC were part of the ongoing campaign to prevent the introduction of American- style telecommunications deregulation in Canada. Given the degradation of service, the increase in the cost of service, and the massive loss of employment that has rocked the US phone industry over the past 10 years, Canadians have been anxious to avoid a repetition of that experience in this country. The federal government's promotion of telephone deregulation are clearly opposed to the popular effort to ensure that the development of our world class telecommunications industry continues to reflect the needs of Canadians in all walks of life and in every part of the country. Instead, the Conservative government has repeatedly intervened to compromise what little independence the CRTC has exhibited, in order to speed the introduction of telephone deregulation that will benefit the largest corporate users of telecommunications services. Order in Council P.C. 1988-265 illustrates the singlemindedness with which the current government has promoted the deregulation of Canada's telecommunications sector. In that order, the Governor in Council overturned a CRTC decision against the Call-Net company, in which Call-Net's operations had been found to be in violation of Commission regulations. The fact that Call-Net was operating illegally was not in dispute. In fact, the Regulatory Impact Statement written by the Department of Communications and appended to the Cabinet decision acknowledged as much, stating that "It is considered in the public interest to allow Call-Net to continue operating in contravention of existing regulatory policy." In short, despite the fact that both the CRTC and the federal Cabinet have chosen to ignore the spirit of Justice Marceau's enjoinder, the TWU continues to believe that if it is deemed desirable for the Canadian telecommunications system to be deregulated, this should occur through legislative changes deliberated and passed by Parliament. NAFTA: ENSHRINING TELEPHONE DEREGULATION IN AN INTERNATIONAL TREATY The text of NAFTA shows that while Bill C-62 was being deliberated in Parliament and while a range of matters related to telecommunications were still before the CRTC and the courts, the Conservative government's trade representatives were signing off clauses in NAFTA that will introduce de facto telecommunications deregulation in Canada regardless of what Parliament decides. Chapter 13 in the new North American Free Trade Agreement deals with telecommunications. Paragraph 2 (c) of Article 1303 in the new deal specifies that "A Party [i.e. Canada, the US, or Mexico] shall not require a person providing enhanced or value-added services [i.e. telecommunications companies] to file a tariff." This passage makes it illegal for the Canadian government to require resellers providing enhanced or value-added services to file tariffs. So if NAFTA comes into effect in its present form, any company that adds a technical bell or whistle to its services and then labels them "enhanced" or "value-added" will place itself beyond the regulatory scrutiny of the CRTC. This provision of NAFTA complements what the Cabinet was doing by issuing unilateral deregulatory decisions and promoting Bill C-62. Clearly a major purpose of agreements like the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA is to tie the hands of our courts and our elected representatives in the manner described by Michael Walker of the Fraser Institute. The purpose of provisions like those contained in Chapter 13 is to make it impossible for our elected governments to ensure that Canada's telecommunications industry continues to operate in the public interest. This section of NAFTA grants foreign companies access to or use of Canadian telecommunications networks and services on "reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions." In other words, these terms and conditions can be no less favourable than those accorded to Canadian companies. This neutral-sounding terminology establishes formal equality between the mouse and the elephant--Canada's telephone companies and American giants like AT&T. But sections of Chapter 13 go even further, limiting the terms and conditions that Canadian governments can impose on telecommunications companies in the future. While cross-subsidization between transport services will still be allowed under NAFTA, our legislators will be required to ensure that prices charged for telephone services are based on the economic costs "directly related to providing such services." Read together, these two passages mean that while our government can still require our phone companies to cross-subsidize certain services, our governments will not be able to require foreign-owned resellers to make the same kind of contribution payments that are so necessary to support universal service. Since the category of reseller includes foreign subsidiaries of giants like Cable & Wireless and AT&T, the threat posed by this clause is clear. Paragraph 6 in this Chapter goes further, preventing Canada from imposing any condition on foreign resellers' access to the use of Canadian networks unless such a condition is necessary to safeguard the technical integrity of the network or phone companies' ability to provide service to the public. In other words, Canada will not be able to restrict foreign resellers' operations or their ability to connect to our private and public networks unless we can demonstrate that such connections would pose a technical threat to Canada's phone companies or impair their ability of to provide service! Now that wide open resale of virtually all services has been permitted by the CRTC, this part of NAFTA will give foreign companies like AT&T and Cable & Wireless the right to demand the same regulatory treatment that is currently enjoyed by Canadian companies like Call-Net and Cam-Net. Consider that fact in light of the following. In June of 1992, the CRTC gave Unitel permission to compete in the sale of long distance voice service in Canada. During a telecommunications conference that was held in Toronto in the fall of 1992, Unitel president George Harvey and other industry executives were asked what they planned to do in the event that foreign companies were given access to the Canadian telecommunications market on the same terms as those that the CRTC granted Unitel. The atmosphere at the conference immediately changed from jovial to somber. "That's a very worrying scenario," Harvey admitted, explaining that foreign companies like AT&T could price phone service at levels below cost as part of a strategy designed to gain market share in Canada. "Taken to an extreme," he stated, "it's a scenario in nobody's interest." Harvey was referring to the fact that the existing American telecommunications industry has more than enough spare network capacity to handle all Canadian traffic right now. All it needs is the authority to proceed. And it appears that NAFTA will provide just such authority. In January 1993, it was announced that AT&T was going to purchase a 20% share in Unitel. This move seems to have quieted Mr. Harvey's fears. But the question remains: what will happen to other Canadian carriers when foreign telecommunications companies have the same status in Canada that Unitel has? Canada's courts have found that the Railway Act requires resellers to be regulated. Will giant foreign companies be able to circumvent regulation in Canada simply by adding "enhancements" to their basic service package? These NAFTA provisions appear to grant foreign telecommunications companies the right to compete in Canada as resellers, free from regulation and contribution payments, with no responsibility to file any tariffs and no need to cost-justify rates. In short, if NAFTA is signed, it will be open season on the Canadian telecommunications industry for powerful foreign telecommunications giants. These corporations will be free to do their thing in this country. And future Canadian governments will be prevented from applying the kind of policies which ensure that this all-important industry meets this country's communications needs. CONCLUSION There has been a great deal of news lately about the disaster that has befallen the Canadian airline industry. Recently, as the federal government was confronted by the impending collapse of Canadian Airlines, it agreed to put up $50 million in loan guarantees for cash- strapped PWA, Canadian's parent company. There are several aspects of this crisis in Canada's airline industry that are of relevance to us here. First of all, the trouble in that sector stems from the same ideologically-driven deregulation agenda that is being followed in the telephone industry. Not long ago, Canada enjoyed some of the best airline service in the world at prices that were generally affordable. This was a major accomplishment, given the size of the country and its relatively small population. Now, after the industry has been ravaged by the effects of deregulation, service has been cut back sharply, thousands of jobs have been lost, the government is being forced to bail out one of the two major survivors, and one of the conditions of the bailout is that CAI will cut back further on service and raise its prices still more. The situation is so grave that there is serious talk, at long last, of reregulating the industry. Clearly, there is something fundamentally flawed in the deregulation model. Yet the federal government continues to pursue it as if the evidence of flaws did not exist. Which brings us to the subject of telecommunications. Canada's telephone system and the services related to it are world class. NAFTA will enshrine the deregulation of Canadian telecommunications in an international trade agreement, making it impossible for our future lawmakers to draft laws and regulations that conflict with the provisions of this agreement. Before this key sector is put at risk by the application of the same deregulatory ideology that has destroyed our airline system, our legislators should do everything in their power to prevent NAFTA from being passed. A POINT-BY-POINT ANALYSIS OF NAFTA CHAPTER 13: Article 1302: Access to and Use of Public Telecommunications Transport Networks and Services: -- Paragraph 1 obliges each Party to guarantee that companies have access to and use of public networks, including private line circuits, for the conduct of their business on a "nondiscriminatory" basis. -- Paragraph 3(a) requires that the services offered by operators of public networks be priced in a manner that "reflects economic costs directly related to providing such services." -- Paragraph 3 also says that "Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prevent cross-subsidization between public telecommunications transport services." ANALYSIS: Paragraph 3 allows Canadian telephone companies to set prices for some services (e.g. long distance) higher than the cost of providing them in order to subsidize the provision of services (e.g. local) that lose money. But if American resellers want access to Canadian public networks, Canada can't charge them prices that contribute to this cross-subsidization. The end result will be that foreign companies will be able to use our network to bleed off business from Canada's phone companies, undermining their ability to cross-subsidize. -- Paragraph 4 says that companies must be allowed to use public networks for the movement of information within or across borders, including intracorporate communications, and to have access to information in data bases located in any of the three countries. ANALYSIS: Taken together, Article 1302 Paragraphs 1 and 4, and Article 1310 (Definitions) mean that American companies must be allowed access to information in Canadian data bases from south of the border. This poses a direct threat to data processing jobs in Canada, to say nothing of Canadian sovereignty. Furthermore, if American companies ship this data across the border and then change its "format, content, code, or protocol," they will be able to turn around and claim status as enhanced service providers whose operations cannot be regulated. This poses a threat to the Canadian telecommunications industry and to tens of thousands of related jobs. -- Paragraph 6 says that aside from technical considerations, no condition can be imposed on access to and use of public networks unless this is necessary to safeguard companies' ability to comply with their responsibility to make service available to the public. -- Paragraph 7(a) says that restrictions on resellers can only be made if these restrictions are necessary to protect access by the general public to telephone networks and services. ANALYSIS: No conditions can be imposed on access to or use of our networks or services unless it can be established that such access poses a technical threat to our network or that it would threaten the provision of service to the public. Outside of these narrow considerations, there can be no restriction on resale and sharing or on the interconnection of privately leased or owned circuits. In other words, under NAFTA, transnational corporations will be able to provide their own data and enhanced service needs and to offer public telecommunications services! -- Paragraph 8 says that "nondiscriminatory" access (see Article 1302, Paragraph 1) shall be "on terms and conditions no less favorable than those accorded to any other customer or user" of similar services. ANALYSIS: Paragraphs 6 and 7(a) permit Canada to restrict resellers in certain limited circumstances. But Paragraph 8 requires that such restrictions be applied to all companies equally. Since Canada has opened up its long distance voice market to domestic resellers like Call-Net, Paragraph 8 prevents us from imposing different conditions on foreign resellers, like Cable & Wireless or AT&T. Article 1303: Conditions for the Provision of Enhanced or Value-Added Services: -- Paragraph 2(b) says that none of the three countries can require a company providing enhanced or value-added services to cost-justify its rates. ANALYSIS: Article 1302, Paragraph 3(a) requires that the services offered by operators of public networks be priced in a manner that "reflects economic costs." In other words, their prices must be cost-based. But Article 1303 Paragraph 2(b) says that countries cannot require resellers to base their prices on their actual costs. So while the members of Telecom Canada must justify the price of their services by proving that they are cost-based, Cable & Wireless -- a subsidiary of the giant British Telecom -- would be free to charge whatever it wants for its services. This provision of NAFTA offers international competitors the opportunity to pursue a ruthless, price-cutting, money-losing strategy in the Canadian market. In case there is any doubt where all this could lead, just think of what has happened in our deregulated airline industry. -- Article 1303, Paragraph 2(c) says that resellers providing enhanced service cannot be required to file tariffs. ANALYSIS: Again, this part of NAFTA could be directly at odds with Canadian law. It could prevent the TWU from forcing the likes of Call-Net and Cable & Wireless to be regulated. This will give these companies a tremendous advantage over Canada's telephone companies, which are obliged to file tariffs and have them approved. END text of TWU paper   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29356; 5 Mar 93 5:27 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16420 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 5 Mar 1993 01:47:30 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03057 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 5 Mar 1993 01:47:01 -0600 Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 01:47:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303050747.AA03057@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #154 TELECOM Digest Fri, 5 Mar 93 01:47:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 154 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: China's Largest Cellular Order Ever (Terence Cross) Re: China's Largest Cellular Order Ever (Bernard Rupe) Re: Info Wanted on Database of White Pages Listings (Dale Farmer) Re: Info Wanted on Database of White Pages Listings (Paul Gatker) Re: OSPS and ANI Failures (Al Varney) Re: Call Waiting / Three-Way Calling Ring Back (John Higdon) Re: Call Waiting / Three-Way Calling Ring Back (Randy Gellens) Re: Looking for Distinctive Ring Discriminator (Dave Ptasnik) Re: The Future of Videophones (Robert L. McMillin) Re: National Data Superhighways - Access? (Dan J. Declerck) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Jack Lowry) Re: Mini PBX on PC Card? (Steve Forrette) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 08:55:45 GMT From: eeitecs@eeiuc.ericsson.se (Terence Cross) Subject: Re: China's Largest Cellular Order Ever Daniel E. Ganek wrote: > In article eeitecs@eeiuc.ericsson.se > (Terence Cross) writes: >> Ericsson has been awarded a contract worth over USD 150 million for a >> large expansion of the mobile telephone network in the Guangdong >> province, China. > Can a US cellular phone be used in China? If so, how difficult is it > to setup an account or set-up some sort of roaming aggreement? I don't think US phones will work. I think there are two issues here: there must be a billing arrangement with the foreign roamer (e.g. an on-line transaction system (VLR) between Chinese PTT and US mobile carrier or perhaps the visitor could become a Chinese PTT subscriber) and the foreign roamers phone must be compatible with the system in use. The system in Guangdong will be the sophisticated digital GSM (Global System forMobile communication). If the foreign man has a GSM phone then he is half way there. I don't think GSM is used in the US, yet. rgs, Terence Cross ------------------------------ From: rupe@rtsg.mot.com (Bernard Rupe) Subject: Re: China's Largest Cellular Order Ever Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 16:05:22 GMT Daniel E. Ganek writes: > In article eeitecs@eeiuc.ericsson.se > (Terence Cross) writes: >> Ericsson has been awarded a contract worth over USD 150 million for a >> large expansion of the mobile telephone network in the Guangdong >> province, China. > Can a US cellular phone be used in China? If so, how difficult is it > to setup an account or set-up some sort of roaming aggreement? No. China uses the TACS system while the US uses AMPS. By the way, Motorola has around 70 cellular systems going in to China this year alone, worth more than the Ericsson contact listed above. Bernie Rupe 1501 W. Shure Drive Room 1315 Motorola, Inc. Arlington Heights, IL 60004 Cellular Infrastructure Group +1 708 632 2814 rupe@rtsg.mot.com ------------------------------ From: dale@access.digex.com (Dale Farmer) Subject: Re: Info Wanted on Database of White Pages Listings Date: 4 Mar 1993 17:48:13 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA John Castaldi (castaldi@heroes.rowan.edu) wrote: > Does anyone know where I can get a database (hopefully in ASCII) of > all white pages listings. I would like to load this information on our > Vax to try to save money on 411 calls. Any info would help. There is a vendor that markets something called PhoneDisk USA (your spelling may vary) What it is is a list of all published phone numbers for the USA. There is a eastern disk, western disk, business disk, and I believe a Canada disk. It is a subscription service and you get new ones every so often. (it is a CD-ROM) If you want to try one out, outdated ones are featured in Drew Allen Kaplans wonderful catalog of neat gizmos. I believe it has name, number, address, and business catagory for the business listings. It includes a database search engine on the disk also. Dale Farmer ------------------------------ From: paul@Panix.Com (Paul Gatker) Subject: Re: Info Wanted on Database of White Pages Listings Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 04:10:22 GMT In castaldi@heroes.rowan.edu (John Castaldi) writes: > Does anyone know where I can get a database (hopefully in ASCII) of > all white pages listings. I would like to load this information on our > Vax to try to save money on 411 calls. Any info would help. > [Moderator's Note: *All* white pages listings? ... > The reason 411 and/or 555-1212 is as cheap as it is is because > everyone is sharing the costs of a lookup clerk, the hardware, etc in > common. PAT] In NYC 555-1212 is free information for out of NYC information. But 411 is not cheap! Just to find out a local number they charge $.45 per lookup whether they find a number for you or not. The solution is to make a list of every possible area you may need to get a number for and order the entire book from NYTel. I'm pretty sure they send it for no charge. Of course it would be nicer if they sent a CD-ROM! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 11:41:21 CST From: varney@ihlpl.att.com Subject: Re: OSPS and ANI Failures Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL In article floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) writes: > In article John Higdon ati.com> writes: >> On Mar 1 at 23:23, Andy Sherman writes: >>> could show up on [an OSPS] screen with an incoming call were >>> the messages ONI FAILURE and ANI FAILURE. In those cases you hand to >>> ask the customer for the number and then complete the call. But did you then ask "YOUR number, please?", which is confusing on Operator-assisted 0- calls. What is the sequence of questions when the caller says "I want to make a collect call", for example? >> So my question is this: What happens when it is my Trailblazer or fax >> automatic devices is increasing exponentially, feeble attempts to >> "rescue" a call via operator intervention would seem to be a complete >> waste of time and resources. >> I guess what I am trying to say is, "why bother?" Just let the call >> die; why take up more time? As pointed out earlier, YOUR calling habits are not typical. There are entire NXXs out there that might see one modem call per week. (OK, maybe only 200 DNs are assigned to the whole NXX, but still ...) And towns where a FAX only exists at the local service (gas) station, for public use at cheap rates. And these are the old switches that are most prone to ANI failure (assuming ANI was ever installed). You seem to assume that ANI is available everywhere. There are still (very few) CDO and independents that use LEC/AT&T Operator Services to do all the work, including identifying the calling party. This is also needed for calls from (non-GTE anyway) eight-party lines. While ANI failures (or mutilated ANI digits) might not be worth saving, there are still lots of calls from stations that don't do ANI. So the ability to do ONI is still needed. To complete a FAX or modem call over such lines (they are usually not allowed on two-party or eight-party lines, for other reasons), the modem typically provides a way for one to MANUALLY dial calls, and force a connection (via "ato" on some), while the FAX typically allows for the same MANUAL dialing and connection completion. The modem capability is also useful (thanks, Hayes) from hotel rooms where the "bong" for calling cards is very unpredictable or where only Real Operators(tm?) collect the card numbers (as for some Toronto airport coin phones). > Routing ANI failures to an operator doesn't just result in a call > completion, it also generates 1) better customer relations, and 2) > trouble tickets which should lead to corrective action. > And, in fact there are ONI only exchanges still out there. We > (the Fairbanks Toll Center) had a trouble ticket opened by an upset > customer last week because he kept getting an operator ... and in > our most pleasant manner someone (NOT me) explained that in Clear, > Alaska you get an operator every time because it is the last known > place in the world where the telephone company won't put in modern > equipment, and we expect it to always be that way ... I wouldn't bet on Clear being the ONLY place. There's around 1500 non-RBOC TELCOs in the continental USA, and most are just (rightly) trying to use cheapest equipment that does the job. Maybe that's some old SXS CDO, or a cheap PBX-like box. If the number of toll calls is a few dozen/day, why put in that ANI stuff? In article tim gorman <71336.1270@C ompuServe.COM> writes: > 1. For regular direct dialed calls there are two types of AMA > recording offices, Local Automatic Message Accounting (LAMA) and > Centralized Automatic Message Accounting (CAMA). CAMA offices, as the > name denotes, provide billing for a number of subtending offices. It > does this by having the subtending offices forward ANI as well as the > called number. Please note that this type of operation is not > compatible with SS7. Tim, I'd like more info on this SS7 "compatibility" issue. Bellcore has certainly provided for CAMA AMI interfaces in the SSP 800 service requirements and in the LEC and IXC SS7 Interconnection requirements. SSP 800 also supported ONI directly, and I thought ONI POTS calls were also covered. The Operator Services SS7 interface isn't well defined (yet), but that's not how I read your statement. If you meant that Caller-ID wouldn't work with CAMA (in spite of those that wanted it as an alternative to SS7), then I concur. > The other case where these CAMA operators are used is in providing > toll service for four-party and eight-party customers. We, in Kansas, > still have some four-party customers even out of some of our digital > offices. There are CAMA Operator Number Identification (ONI) trunks > from these four or eight party serving offices to our CAMA toll > offices. But when you replaced the CDO in my home town, you forgot to activate the "four-digit local calling" feature on the new switch (grin). And my dad's impression was that it was SWBT, not the PUC, that forced him to private line service from 8-party. Of course, since the other parties all got their overhead lines replaced with buried cable, he was (and is) the only party on the remaining pair of overhead wires. Kinda weird to see almost a mile of telephone poles with one pair of wires on them (but arms for many more), and directly below is a cable. Almost the same as the natural gas pipeline that runs down one side of the road to the farm. He doesn't own any property where the pipeline is buried, so the gas company won't give him service. But his neighbors that own land on the pipeline-side of the road can get service, even if their houses are on the opposite side of the road. (Guess profits are better on out-of-state sales ...) Al Varney - just my opinion, of course ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 11:39 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Call Waiting / Three-Way Calling Ring Back MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com writes: > In PacBell CW and 3W, hanging up on either virtual line disconnects > everybody! On my Pac*Bell service (5ESS) hanging up on either party in a CW situation results in the remaining party ringing you back. This is true on both Commstar and vanilla CW. And are you telling us that once you have a 3W in progress, you can separate the callers and hang up on EITHER one of your choice? My experience with 3W throughout history is that a flash during the 3W call disconnects the third party. Does GTE do this differently? > [Moderator's Note: I don't know about PacBell, but IBT does it just > the way you say GTE does: we can hang up on the party we were talking > to and the one left on hold is rung back to us as a reminder that we > left him on hold. PAT] That is exactly the way Pac*Bell does it as well. Always has been. I have GTD-5 service at a mountaintop location. Except for the complete sluggishness of the switch, the features work pretty much like those at my home. And of course, three-way calling on a GTD-5 is unusable. The only reason I have it is because it is part of a "smart" package. I am sure that is the only way GTE could sell 3W. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 04 MAR 93 16:40 Subject: Re: Call Waiting / Three-Way Calling Ring Back I wrote: > In PacBell CW and 3W, hanging up on either virtual line disconnects > everybody! John Higdon replied: > On my Pac*Bell service (5ESS) hanging up on either party in a CW > situation results in the remaining party ringing you back. This is tru > on both Commstar and vanilla CW. And are you telling us that once you > have a 3W in progress, you can separate the callers and hang up on > EITHER one of your choice? My experience with 3W throughout history is > that a flash during the 3W call disconnects the third party. Does GTE > do this differently? Sorry. PacBell CW does indeed work as expected. It is PacBell 3W that works differently from GTE 3W. I had gotten used to having both work the same in GTE land, and really liked being able to "transfer" a call from one phone to another by flashing for a 3W stutter dialtone, then hanging up. My phone would ring, and the caller would hear ringback. Randy Gellens randy%mpa15ab@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com A Series System Software if mail bounces, forward to Unisys Mission Viejo, CA rgellens@mcimail.com Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself ------------------------------ From: davep@carson.u.washington.edu (Dave Ptasnik) Subject: Re: Looking for Distinctive Ring Discriminator Date: 4 Mar 1993 17:39:31 GMT Organization: University of Washington greg@gallifrey.ucs.uoknor.edu (Greg Trotter) writes: > I subscribe to the distinctive ring service from my telco. Does anyone > know of a device that can identify these different rings and separate > the calls? I'd like to have a separate line for incoming calls to my > computer; the traffic doesn't warrant another line. Any help is > appreciated. I recently surveyed several manufacturers of this equipment. By far the unit that I preferred was the SR2/SR3 by Multi-Link (606) 233-0223. While it only recognizes a maximum of three ring patterns, US West offers us four, I found it exceptionally reliable, and very smart when dealing with unusual circumstances. It also sorted out the rings more quickly than competitors products, actually learning how our telco sent the patterns, and adapting to the telco. No association with the company, other than as a satisfied customer. davep@u.washington.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 17:22:16 -0800 From: rlm@indigo2.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: The Future of Videophones >> I am working on a research project concerning the future of videophones >> and videoconferencing. Is there a future at all? > I'll give you a future: ... my pretty, and your little dog, too! > Vice President Ozone Boy gets his "didn't inhale" associate and > their Junketeers on Capital Hill to pass an energy tax so stiff that > the fares on plane trips have to rise substantially. ROFL! Hey, is Ozone Boy any relation to Devo's General Boy? :-) Funny, isn't it, that Mr. Clinton just a couple days ago promised to help the aerospace companies. I don't get it: clobber the airlines with a fuel tax. The airlines pass this on in the form of higher prices to their customers, who will then fly less frequently. Fewer travelers means more airplanes parked out in the desert, and little need for new airplanes. Fewer new airplanes means big layoffs at DAC and Boeing. Did I miss something here? Coming Up Next: Gee, the airlines are having trouble again. I guess we'd better re-regulate them -- it's for their own good. Back to two kilobuck fares for the El Lay to Noo Yawk run ... > And then there's the sleaze applications which currently can be left > to the imagination. :) The 900 Area Code and 976 dial-up telephone > services are a $1 billion a year business, of which I'm sure that a > nice chunk of this is in the "X Rated" class (and I don't mean stuff > running under X-Windows!) Anyone want to guess how much this stuff is > worth with full video and sound? A CE friend of mine who works for SGI tells me that the companies spending the biggest bucks in Virtual Reality (tm) are the virtual sex outfits. It's hard to believe, but then again ... Hey, tell you what -- I want a job in Quality Assurance! Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@indigo2.hac.com After June 25 : rlm@mcgort.com or rlm@surfcty.com ------------------------------ From: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com (Dan J. Declerck) Subject: Re: National Data Superhighways - Access? Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 15:48:55 GMT In article jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (Jeffrey Jonas) writes: >> I think it is clear that the access problem will get cleared up. The >> question then becomes what do you do with all the information and get >> it into a usable form; > Why, Mr and Mrs. John Q. Public will use their wide screen digital > HDTV surround sound Sear's/IBM TV connected to Prodigy! (Remember > AT&T Sceptre, the TV terminal?) > Jeesh -- just what I needed -- a combination Sega/Nintendo/Mac/PC > compatible color high resolution surround sound stereophonic > multimedia system with CD-ROM, keyboard, mouse, joysticks and power > pad! If you look at the hardware requirements for HDTV, you'd see a computer (Multimedia) without a: Keyboard (input device) Disk Drive (semi-permanent storage device) Adding the computer part shouldn't add more than a couple hundred using today's prices. In five years, it'll probably be a wash. The hope I have, if this scenario were played out, is that television would then become an interactive media, and thus, more educational. Presently, its "talking heads". Dan DeClerck EMAIL: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com Motorola Cellular APD Phone: (708) 632-4596 ------------------------------ From: jackl@pribal.uucp (jack lowry) Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Organization: Prism Medical Systems Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1993 01:22:52 GMT Molly Geiger (geigermk@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote: > I am looking for information on radio pagers. > Would you rather use another form of communication than the pager? I live and work in the Baltimor/Washington area. I've had a sky pager and a local Baltimore/Washington pager. The worst thing about a pager is finding a phone to answer the page. I used to do rather critical support of a software product. I hated the pressure I felt to respond when the pager went off. The skypager had a few advantages over the local pagers I have had: 1. possibilty of retrieving missed pages. (upto 100 hours ago) 2. Blocking pages. (Don't bother me I'm...) 3. future pages. (page you at some time in the future) 4. The newer sky pagers can also tell you when you are out of range. All of these functions where accessed through a 800 number and you PIN. If you travel between markets (The baltimore/Washington market includes Phily and southern New Jersey with METROMEDIA) a sky page may be the best bet. > Would cellular phones be better? Having had just a pager for about five years I just recently changed jobs and now have a portion of my cellular phone access and all business related phone bills covered I have found the phone to be a great asset. I purchased a handheld phone and I also carry a beeper. Each has it's place; there are some area the beeper does not reach and the phone does, and the beeper battery is not dead as often as the phone battery is. If this is business item (you'll get remiburshed for it) get both. Then keep the phone number to youself and be free with the pager number. jack wb3ffv!pribal!jackl ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Mini PBX on PC Card? Date: 5 Mar 1993 05:13:03 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article st@bbl.be (Simon Townsend) writes: > I've searched the FAQ, the archive index and my press clippings to no > avail. > I'm looking for a PC (ISA) based card that would provide a mini PBX - > say 1/2 external and four internal lines, preferably with some added > functionality / programmability via the PC. There is a product called PCBX that does this, although they may not have a published API. It is made by a company in Orange County, CA, also called PCBX. I thin they may be in Tustin, but I don't have the specific reference in front of me. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #154 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18614; 6 Mar 93 3:45 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06402 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 6 Mar 1993 01:25:43 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27086 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 6 Mar 1993 01:25:03 -0600 Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1993 01:25:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303060725.AA27086@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #155 TELECOM Digest Sat, 6 Mar 93 01:25:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 155 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill (Foster Schucker) Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill (Ron Bean) Re: Telecom Advice For the Lovelorn (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Ohio Bell Making Your Life Easier (Stephen Friedl) Re: Toll Stations in California (Scott D. Fybush) Re: Potential For Credit Card Fraud Using Cellular Phone (Justin Leavens) Re: "Aggregator" Experience Sought (Steve Howard) Re: Access to the Data SuperHighway (Gary W. Sanders) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (J. Philip Miller) Re: OSPS and ANI Failures (Floyd Davidson) Re: Future of North American Numbering Plan (John Levine & Stefan Zingg) Re: Annoyance (Serial) Calls (Brad Houser) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill From: tredysvr!nzkites!foster@gvls1.VFL.Paramax.COM (Foster Schucker) Date: Sat, 06 Mar 93 07:01:02 NZT Organization: Kiteflyers Roost TELECOM Moderator noted: > If the Information Provider chooses to place you with a collection > agency (which is doubtful in my opinion, but it has been done), only a > feeble attempt at collection will be made. There is a bottom line to > be considered after all. Despite threats which may be made, this will > not reflect on your credit in any way. Pat, this is wrong and I'm living proof. We had insurance that covered medical type stuff, the agreements the providers had were that they would accept the insurance payments as full payment. In the process of a two year period we racked up three providers that decided to continue to bill the overage. ($16, $11 and $800). After a few months they went into collection. They now appear on my TRW credit report. I am in the process of refinancing and was told that I would not be able to close until these bills were out of collection. (This means paid, since the collection companies want the money). I was also informed that my credit history will also show these accounts as closed. but will carry the collections notation on them. All in all the provider will get some money, no matter what is the "correct" thing. Thanks!! Foster Schucker === nzkites.uucp === 215-458-8354 (voice) [Moderator's Note: You are comparing apples and oranges here. First off, a bill for $800 is a bit more worthy of collection activity than a bill for $15. You mentioned the two bills for $11 and $16, but those by themselves would be of no importance. It is the $800 item which has your potential lender concerned. Second, an information provider on a 900 line has no signature on file; no written contract of any sort. Not that written contracts are needed to make things legal -- they are not -- but the lack of anything in writing along with the tiny amount of the disputed item combine to make collection very difficult and unprofitable at best. Your medical provider(s) on the other hand have written, binding contracts with you. These may be in dispute; there may have been verbal agreements contrary to some provisions otherwise in the written agreement; there may be a dispute regards the method and amount of payment, etc ... and certainly your credit bureau report should contain a consumer statement from you giving your side of the dispute which may or may not influence the decision made by your lender. I still maintain a $15 item from a *telephone* information provider with nothing written to bind either party is of no concern to credit grantors except possibly telemarket- ers selling magazine subscriptions; bill collectors for the Columbia Record Club (talk about a depressing job -- "did you mail in your dollar ninety-eight for the fifteen records we sent you?" !) and the like. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 18:25:30 -0600 (CST) From: Ron Bean john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > Recall that I had month after month of bogus calls to the UK on my bill > not long ago. AT&T would not even consider the possiblity that I did > not dial the calls, even though I DO maintain a 100% complete computer > log of every single incoming and out going call on every one of sixteen > lines in the house. This idea of keeping your own records brings up a couple of (unrelated) questions: If you're being billed for calls that don't show up on your computerized record, could you take AT&T to small-claims court? (Who has jurisdiction on an interstate call?) If your recording device sits between the demark and your inside wiring, can it listen for tones (or pulses) on *both* sides of the line and distinguish between calls dialed from inside your building and those dialed from some other point between you and the CO? If such a device does not exist, could one be built with available components (possibly using a PeeCee)? zaphod@madnix.UUCP (Ron Bean) uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!zaphod ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 07:43:53 -0800 From: rlm@indigo2.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Telecom Advice For the Lovelorn Jeff Hibbard writes about having to compromise for the preservation of both his and his fiancee's financial solvency (not to mention sanity). Ready to move halfway between their jobsites, in Normal, Il, he made a tragic discovery: > This sounded like a fine idea until I discovered that Normal is in GTE > territory! Both Peoria and Decatur are served by Illinois Bell, and I > have never lived in an area that wasn't served by Illinois Bell. All you have to do is ask yourself, which is more important? Your fiancee? Or your telephone service? Now that you've made that decision, let's hope she'll give you the ring back ... :-) Seriously -- GTE provides (barely) adequate service for residential customers. If you run a business out of your home that has specialized telecom needs, get an office elsewhere. If you need to make a call during a riot, find a pay phone. Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@indigo2.hac.com After June 25 : rlm@mcgort.com or rlm@surfcty.com [Moderator's Note: They don't have riots in Peoria. I guess he is going to have accept the fact that phone service in Normal is abnormal. In the long ago days of exchange names, we had an exchange here called NORmal (312-667). It was thus named because of its proximity to Chicago State University (not to be confused with University of Chicago) which we used to call Chicago Normal School. Does that go back a few eons or not? :) The town of Normal also is home to a Normal School. PAT] ------------------------------ From: friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen Friedl) Subject: Re: Ohio Bell Making Your Life Easier Date: 5 Mar 93 16:45:46 GMT Organization: Software Consulting, Tustin, CA > If you conduct business from your home phone but do not solicit > business calls there (i.e. yellow pages advertising or business name > listed in directory) then there is no big deal, and very few telcos > will make an issue of it. They certainly will not listen in on the > line to determine the nature of the calls, so they have no way of > proving it either way. Actually, they can use how you answer the phone as an indicator of this. If you say "XYZ Computer Company", then they can decide you should be be a business line. That's why I answer the phone "Hello, this is Steve" on my main voice line. Stephen J Friedl | Software Consultant | Tustin, CA | +1 714 544-6561 3b2-kind-of-guy | I speak for me ONLY | KA8CMY | uunet!mtndew!friedl ------------------------------ From: fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) Subject: Re: Toll Stations in California Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1993 05:32:32 GMT I was surprised to see one toll station gone from the list: Deep Springs #1. DS 1 was a State of California highway maintenance station in the Deep Springs Valley, some 30 miles east of Bishop CA, and a few miles west of the Nevada border. The only other thing in the valley is one of my alma maters, Deep Springs College. Deep Springs College was Deep Springs Toll Station #2, served by the same wireline as DS 1 out of Bishop from the '20s until about 1985, when they cut over to a privately-owned UHF radio system. Deep Springs is now served out of Contel's Bishop switch (619-872), and the sound quality on the single phone line is generally pathetic once it's made the two UHF radio hops. I was last at Deep Springs in June 1989, and the highway maintenance depot was still at Deep Springs #1 back then. Perhaps they've closed, or perhaps they've just taken the phone out. The other toll station missing from the list is (or was) at the intersection of Nevada 266 and US 95, about 40 miles east of Deep Springs. This was Lida Junction 3, a pay phone with no dial in the parking lot of the, er, "Cottontail Ranch," a whorehouse (yes, they're legal in rural Nevada!). I think LJ 1 and 2 were inside, but I never went in to check. The Nevada Bell phone book (there's only one) had as recently as 1990 several pages of toll station listings. Scott Fybush -- fybush@world.std.com -- Deep Springs '88 ------------------------------ From: leavens@mizar.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: Potential For Credit Card Fraud Using Cellular Phone Date: 5 Mar 1993 15:53:28 -0800 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA In article barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) writes: [story deleted about how a merchant was going to verify a credit card over a cellular phone] > I was surprised that the credit card companies didn't have some sort > of rule against this. So I called American Express and the issuer of > my MasterCard, and both customer service reps understood the problem > (once I explained it), but neither was aware of any policy to the > contrary. I filed a "complaint" or "comment" or whatever they called > it, and maybe something will happen as a result. I get that same queasy feeling when I take airport shuttle vans back and forth and hear them calling the card in over their dispatch radios. And that's for a $15 fare ... ------------------------------ From: Steve Howard Subject: Re: "Aggregater" Experience Sought Date: 5 Mar 93 16:13:22 MST (Fri) > eap@ora.com (Eric Pearce) writes: >> I'm supposed to meet with a salesperson from First Federated >> Communications later this week. >> My concern is adding another party to the "soup". > A very real concern, indeed. What you lose is the ability to deal > directly with the entity providing your service. You are no longer the > customer of a long distance carrier, but that of a third party who has > no technical knowledge of or other interest in the quality of your > service. The aggregator's sole purpose is to literally get between you > and the carrier and collect money. We have done business with somebody like an aggregator but with a nice twist that gets around some of these problems ... The Broker. The Broker negotiates contracts with many of the IXCs. I think that they promise $X of business in exchange for price of $Y. (I'm not sure on this -- it is just a guess). When you sign up with the broker they set you up directly with the IXC(s). The IXC then pays a cut to the broker. This worked out well for us ... the Broker gave us a list of several possible IXCs and pricing combinations. We selected one that was close to what we were looking for. He then went to that IXC and "pushed" them for some final goodies. We ended up paying ~$.14/min 8AM-5PM for switched calls in all 50 states with no commitments. The real advantage is when you have problems with the IXC -- You can call the IXC directly or you can call the broker (this could have advantages -- I suspect that the brokers problems get resolved quickly -- the IXC knows that the broker could easily sell one of his other IXC if things don't get worked out! :-) ). We haven't had any problems with our IXC, so I haven't had push the broker on them. If anybody would like the name/number of the broker I have been working with, feel free to send e-mail or if there is enough interest, I'll ask Pat to post it. Steve Howard Breckenridge Ski Resort steveh@paradise.breck.com Disclaimer=The opinions above do not necessarily represent those of my employer ------------------------------ From: gary.w.sanders@att.com Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 14:08:40 GMT Subject: Re: Access to the Data SuperHighway Organization: AT&T In article bears!rhyre@cinpmx.attmail. com writes: > I am willing to donate my money to ensure univeral access, but I have > no interest in 'investing' into prototypes and demonstrator projects > at places where the general public will not be involved. My model of > this is more akin to Usenet (with better user interfaces, and maybe > even better content ;-). This super-highway networking is getting fun to watch on the news. Everyone is trying to make sure that it has univeral access and will be cost effective. Most articles seem to throw around $50 as the top end and 20-30 as an average cost for access. No one however has taken into account you still need to get your bits and bytes to the network. So now I have access to everything under the sun for $20 month, but its costing me per-minute to connect. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614-860-5965 ------------------------------ From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 08:14:51 -0600 (CST) jackl@pribal.uucp (jack lowry) writes: > If this is business item (you'll get remiburshed for it) get both. > Then keep the phone number to youself and be free with the pager > number. I certainly agree with this advice. The cellular phone is great for returning a page when you are wandering. A phone is not always easy to find, and even when it is, it still may be easier to just use your cellular than to try to figure out how to make a toll charge with many corporations intricate billing arrangements. In addition, the pager generally allows you to screen calls based on the calling number and prioritize whether you should interrupt your meeting to respond to the call. In most of my arrangments it would be disruptive to answer a cellular call, but receiving a page is no big deal. If you put it on vibrate, no one will even notice. I suppose that the next thing will be to have caller-id and vibrating ring for cellular, but I am unaware of those features being currently available. J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110 phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - (314) 362-3617 [362-2694(FAX)] ------------------------------ From: floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) Subject: Re: OSPS and ANI Failures Organization: University of Alaska Computer Network Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 15:06:56 GMT In article varney@ihlpl.att.com writes: > In article floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu > (Floyd Davidson) writes: >> Routing ANI failures to an operator doesn't just result in a call >> completion, it also generates 1) better customer relations, and 2) >> trouble tickets which should lead to corrective action. >> And, in fact there are ONI only exchanges still out there. We Note that here I'm saying there are multiple ONI exchanges ... >> (the Fairbanks Toll Center) had a trouble ticket opened by an upset >> customer last week because he kept getting an operator ... and in >> our most pleasant manner someone (NOT me) explained that in Clear, >> Alaska you get an operator every time because it is the last known >> place in the world where the telephone company won't put in modern >> equipment, and we expect it to always be that way ... > I wouldn't bet on Clear being the ONLY place. There's around 1500 Hi Al. Nahhh, we just told the customer that to put a little emphisis on the point of it all. > non-RBOC TELCOs in the continental USA, and most are just (rightly) > trying to use cheapest equipment that does the job. Maybe that's some > old SXS CDO, or a cheap PBX-like box. If the number of toll calls is > a few dozen/day, why put in that ANI stuff? Actually the telco in Clear (and for that matter a small telco anywhere else that doesn't upgrade to a digital switch) isn't doing it the easy way. The economics, for the telco, of installing one of the little Redcom (or even a Harris, though those are a pain ...) switches is too good to miss. They are cheap, reliable, and almost totally maintenance free. And most admin stuff can be done long distance with a modem. And in the case of Clear, which has an Air Force BMEWS radar station located in "town", the number of LD calls is substantial! floyd@ims.alaska.edu A guest on the Institute of Marine Science computer Salcha, Alaska system at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Future of North American Numbering Plan From: stefan@stefan.imp.com Date: Fri, 05 Mar 93 14:27:55 +0100 A couple of days ago, I asked: > Why can't you just add another digit to the phone number? Thanks to all who answered. While I don't accept "convention" or "required reprogramming" as a valid reason, John Levine pointed me to a fact I didn't know. I think his reply is interesting enough to be posted. ---------- In case nobody else has pointed it out, North American switching systems have evolved a different switching protocol than is used elsewhere in the world. The CCITT standard used everywhere else passes a digit at at time with per-digit handshakes. The North American standard buffers up a full ten digit number and transmits it in a block. (Before you ask, at the time this convention was invented in the early 1950s there were probably more dial phones in North America than in the entire rest of the world.) So making phone numbers longer than the current ten digits would require immense changes to every phone switch we've got. Newer switches use SS7 which could probably be changed with a software upgrade, but there is still a lot of crossbar which would require soldering in hundreds of new relays. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------- Internet: or UUCP-net: ...gator!ixgch!stefan!stefan Voicenet: +41 61 - 261 28 90 Papernet: Stefan Zingg, St.Johanns-Vorstadt 19, 4056 Basel, Switzerland ------------------------------ From: bhouser@sc9.intel.com Subject: Re: Annoyance (Serial) Calls Organization: Intel CTD Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:37:00 GMT In article , mmgall@hubcap.clemson.edu (Morris Galloway Jr.) writes: > We've been experiencing an annoying pattern of calls recently. Early > in the morning (7-8am), calls are coming in to one or two of our > dormitories. > When answered, there is silence, then a hangup. > Often, the same thing happens to each room on a floor (the numbers are > consequtive). > Aside from a malicious crackpot, is there any computerized dialing > equipment that could produce these symptoms? I've asked the residents > about fax tones, but apparently there is just silence. Ever see the movie "War Games"? It is fairly simple to write a program that has a modem dial every number in a range and logs all calls that answer as a modem. A malicious person might then try to break into that system later. Since you say it happens consecutively, that is probably what is happening. Brad Houser bhouser@sc9.intel.com +1-408-765-0494 Fax: +1-408-765-0513 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #155 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21959; 6 Mar 93 5:11 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25916 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 6 Mar 1993 02:48:25 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16362 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 6 Mar 1993 02:48:00 -0600 Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1993 02:48:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303060848.AA16362@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #156 TELECOM Digest Sat, 6 Mar 93 02:48:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 156 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Gary W. Sanders) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Roy Smith) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Carl Moore) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Scott D. Brenner) Re: WTC Blast (Darrell Broughton) Re: Things Really Went BOOM! (Mark Brader) Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Info Wanted on Database of White Pages Listings (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Telecom Advice For the Lovelorn (Dave Ptasnik) Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (rogue@ccs.northeastern.edu) Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (Randy Gellens) Re: Costs to Telco: Leased vs Dial (Vance Shipley) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: news@cbnews.att.com Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 13:57:05 GMT Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Organization: AT&T In article add@philabs.philips.com (Aninda Dasgupta) writes: > couldn't tell if the cable operators were able to get feeds from the > TV stations that were off the air, because I don't subscribe to CATV > (I refuse to aid any monopoly) and I am also not sure if the rest of > the country got to see Peter Jennings or Tom Brokaw for the evening > news, but we were able to get only Dan Rather. I was home that day and was scanning the skies and found local NYC TV station on the satellite with news and information. I caught them about 1pm shortly after the explosion and they were still on at 8pm when I checked back. Since there transmitters were off the air for over the air transmissions the station uplinked on satellite. Then they contacted the local cable companys and had them pick up the signal from satellite and resdistribute the signal to subscribers. Many CATV people may not have even known that transmitter were offline. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614-860-5965 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 10:46:23 -0500 From: roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Organization: New York University, School of Medicine In article is written: > However, CBS radio also reported that one of the first persons to be > rescued from the top of the WTC, by helicopter, was a pregnant CBS > employee who was up on the WTC roof to repair the transmitter/antenna. I know the dangers of electric fields is an open question, but if I were a pregnant woman, I don't think I would want to be working around a live high-power TV transmitter! Roy Smith Hippocrates Project, Department of Microbiology, Coles 202 NYU School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 11:44:06 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News I don't know either about the rest of the country being able to receive ABC or NBC at that time. I wouldn't be surprised if they set up alternate outlets if they were affected by the WTC. The great Nov.(?) 1965 blackout forced some news media to alternate outlets. By the way, I notice the jokes from a parking attendant and a border guard about a bomb and/or the WTC blast. Please don't joke TO such people about such matters, because the remark can be taken seriously and you can get in trouble as a result. There are signs in some airports warning of this near the checkpoints for their terminal concourses; and a few years back, a young man remarked (apparently a joke) on a plane about a bomb, and the result was that the plane made an unscheduled landing in Philadelphia and he was arrested. ------------------------------ From: sbrenner@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (scott.d.brenner) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Organization: AT&T Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 23:17:59 GMT In article add@philabs.philips.com (Aninda Dasgupta) writes: > I'm not sure if anybody mentioned this in the Digest, but the blast at > the WTC took most TV stations out in NYC and the vicinity. On the way > home from work that day, I couldn't get anything but CBS Radio, coming > live from the site. When I reached home, I turned on the TV to see if > they were showing any gory sights, but only CBS TV and a (Telemundo?) > station from NJ were on the air. My landlady's son, who works for CBS, > said that all the other TV stations had their transmitters on top of > the WTC. CBS radio reported that the authorities had to actually > remove some of the TV and radio antennae in order to make space for a > helipad for the rescue helicopters to land on top of the WTC. [Some > transmitters may have suffered from the power cutoff.] CBS TV > apparently transmits from the Empire State Building. I usually watch the NBC affiliate in NYC, WNBC -- channel 4. Although I worked late last Friday, and didn't get home until about 9 PM (listening to WCBS radio all the way!), channel 4 *was* on the air when I got home. Then, periodically over the weekend, they'd run a banner message at the bottom of the screen thanking local cable operators who picked up their feed and rebroadcast (cablecast?) it to their subscribers. The message also said that the feed would termin- ate on Monday morning. A newspaper article I read earlier this week implied that the station (and other local stations) was able to provide their signal to other stations out in Long Island, who were then able to uplink the signal to the satellite, from which the cable systems could pick up the signal. I don't care how they did it, but I was really pleased that they were able to continue broadcasting. It's amazing that they were able to get it all set up so quickly. I know it's not *really* related to telecom, but if anyone can give a more detailed (but understandable) explanation of the setup these stations used, I be interested. Scott D. Brenner AT&T Consumer Communications Services sbrenner@attmail.com Basking Ridge, New Jersey ------------------------------ From: broughton@lambda.usask.ca Subject: Re: WTC blast Date: 5 Mar 1993 22:50:56 GMT Organization: University of Saskatchewan Reply-To: broughton@lambda.usask.ca In article , jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (Jeffrey Jonas) writes: > There's a new newsgroup dedicated to the World Trade Center (WTC) > blast, but that's on another system so I can't find the name. It was It is alt.current-events.wtc-explosion. Darrell ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Things Really Went BOOM! Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Sat, 6 Mar 93 06:54:10 GMT > PATH has an 800 number for information. Of course, it's always busy > during a crisis like this. This is the TELECOM issue that steams me. TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Regards traffic jams on the 800 number, it has been suggested the > City of Chicago is considering a 900 number with no charge attached to > calling it to be used for announcements to the citizens on a > mass-calling basis. That night be a very good idea for the public > transit system also. PAT] Well, it would keep the overload down, since people whose office phones are blocked from calling 900 wouldn't be able to use it. Somehow I don't think that was what Pat had in mind. What technical advantage would a 900 number give, as opposed to an 800 or just a plain telephone number? Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com [Moderator's Note: They realized people with 900 blocks on their phone would not be able to use it, but the idea was to be able to service a huge volume of callers at the same time with emergency reports. Many 900 services are set up to take thousands of calls at the same time. I think they want to be able to send a message to television and radio stations saying (something like) "there is a serious emergency affecting residents of Chicago. Please dial 900-xxx-xxxx at no charge to hear an emergency announcement by the mayor". Of course, someone suggested why not just make the announcement on the radio/television in that case ... it was an idea they've tossed around while building our new, very modern, very high tech police communications center. PAT] ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1993 03:37:40 GMT In article , james@cs.ualberta.ca (James Borynec; AGT Researcher) writes: > I just read a startling report: "The Geodesic Network II: 1993 Report > on Competition in the Telephone Industry" By P.W. Huber, M.K. Kellogg, > and J. Thorne. The Geodisic Company, Washington D.C. > The central thesis of this (thick) report is that the economics of > fiber and the economics of radio make long distance a "natural" > monopoly and that local access is now "inherently competitive". Well here's an opposing viewpoint! Personally I think Huber is way way out in right field, little more than a stooge of "Mad Monk Mark" Fowler, Reagan's nuttiest FCC head. He has an Agenda and won't let reality get in the way. As any regular reader of the EFF newsgroup would know by now, a "natural monopoly" is a fairly clear concept which applies when the economy of scale never maxes out, so a small vendor can never be competitive with a big one. Long distance, even per Huber's quote, is almost exactly the opposite, a competitive commodity. In economics, a commodity has many vendors entering and exiting, and the price is always near "cost", and nobody makes "economic profit" (greater than required rate of return on capital invested). That's just what LD telecom is doing now, save AT&T's slipping umbrella. Local wireline is a natural monopoly because it would cost too much to string a second set of wires. Indeed I foresee CATV and telephone eventually sharing, not competiing over, optical fiber to the home. Radio, however, is subject to a different constraint: Bandwidth. Economics cannot create spectrum space, just determine how it's allocated. Radio bandwidth is orders of magnitude too low to handle wireline applications in urban areas. It's best for applications that really benefit by it: Mobile, hand-held and rural. The impact of MCI upon the industry was to bring economic reality to an over-regulated (grant of "unnatural" monopoly) industry. All the posturing was just regulatory fiction; the reality was and is that long distance subsidizes local service, and competition leads to less cross-subsidy and more economically efficient allocation of resources. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Info Wanted on Database of White Pages Listings Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1993 03:27:08 GMT In article , castaldi@heroes.rowan.edu (John Castaldi) writes: > Does anyone know where I can get a database (hopefully in ASCII) of > all white pages listings. I would like to load this information on our > Vax to try to save money on 411 calls. Any info would help. From my "Crazy Bob" flier from ERM Electronic Liquidators, Melrose MA (orders 800 776 5865, otherwise +1 617 662 9363): USA 1993 Yellow and White Pages. The complete 7-CD [ROM] set. DOS. ProPhone 1993. 90 million residential listings, 10 million business listings, available 1 Feb '93. A 7-disc set; contains 90 million names, addresses and phone numbers for every one listed in every white pages in the USA, plus zip code! Search can be narrowed by city, state, street, phone number, or zip. Contains the SUA Yellow Page listings - over 10 million businesses on one CD-ROM. Information can be searched by company name or telephone number, and narrowed down by geographic location to find a business in seconds. Includes the full address with zipcode and "SIC" code. New Spring '93. $222. The 1992 edition is also available on a 3-disk "starter set" for $77. Now all it takes is a DOS server with a CD-ROM jukebox ... I know nothing about this set than what I've seen in the flier. I'm just a customer; I bought my CD-ROM drive from them. Cheap. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: davep@carson.u.washington.edu (Dave Ptasnik) Subject: Re: Telecom Advice For the Lovelorn Date: 6 Mar 1993 08:24:35 GMT Organization: University of Washington jeff@bradley.bradley.edu (Jeff Hibbard) writes: > This sounded like a fine idea until I discovered that Normal is in GTE > territory! Both Peoria and Decatur are served by Illinois Bell, and I > have never lived in an area that wasn't served by Illinois Bell. > I only have one friend who lives in Normal, and talking to him hasn't > been encouraging. His stories of dealing with GTE repair service > (something he's had to do fairly often) bear an amazing resemblance to Having lived for 20 years in Peoria and two years in Normal, there is absolutely no question what you should do. GET THE H*** OUT OF THERE!! Downstate Illinois is a terrible mind sucking cesspool! Go anywhere but Seattle. I love it, but I don't want any more people out here. Find your own nice place. By the way, GTE owns Normal. They used every dirty trick in the book when I lived there selling telephone systems. Messing with customer service when a new (non-GTE) system went in, losing orders, etc. I can't even think about the games they played with local government bids. It's their way or no way. A long distance company I worked for had a switch in an Illinois Bell area, with FX's to Normal. GTE messed with us all the time. Plus the FX's dropped out with great regularity. Not infrequently on Friday afternoon. Even for residences, their service was a joke. Feature availability and reliability was woefully inadequate. Modem links at 1200 baud to local boards were a joke. At one time they had a BIG service center in Normal. Is it still there? I was wondering if they consolidated it out of business. It was a major employer in town, and losing it would have been quite a blow. All of the above is nothing more than the personal opinion of - Dave davep@u.washington.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 08:27:55 -0500 From: rogue@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu (Free Radical) Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls Organization: College of CS, Northeastern U > [Moderator's Note: The same service from Illinois Bell allows multiple > call forwarding to the extent the receiving phone can handle the > calls, ie. three lines in hunt can get three forwarded calls. But the > version called 'remote call forwarding' which is a permanently config- > ured arrangement in the CO will only forward as many calls as you have > 'paths' you are paying for. PAT] Wasn't there some trouble several years back with a variant of this, Busy Call Forwarding? Seems someone set up three payphones to have this feature, each set to the next, and then had all three call the next at the same time. Ate up every trunk in the area, almost. It happened in Texas I think. rogue@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu (Rogue Agent) [Moderator's Note: Are we talking about how many links there can be in the forwarding chain or how many calls can arrive at a number being forwarded ONE LINK and handled at the same time? I don't think IBT lets you keep forwarding calls around and around forever if that is what you mean. Curiously, on a couple of exchanges here, if A forwards to B and B forwards to C then a call directly dialed to B goes on to C while a call reaching B via A stops at B and rings through right there regardless of what B wants done with *his* calls. On other (maybe most) exchanges here, under those circumstances, a call to A would go right on through to C. But they seem to be clever about it; the first time a previously 'passed through' point is found in the link again, the forwarding stops and a busy signal is returned to the caller. In other words, you cannot go A > B > C > D > A > B > C > D just to have the equipment running around in circles. As soon as D is instructed to go to A, that's it. Trip's over. All electrons have to get off the bus; the bus driver is at the end of the line! :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 05 MAR 93 17:21 Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls I kept complaining about only one call being forwarded at a time, and finally they gave me to the GTE Consumer Action Group. Someone there took the information, and said I'd get a call back. A few hours later, a rep called me to say what I wanted should work, and they would open a trouble ticket. They just needed the PacBell number to which the GTE line was forwarded (as if it had anything to do with it). The next day I got a call from GTE repair, telling me the problem had been fixed. When I asked what the limit was on simultaneous forwarded calls, she said there was no limit. I said there had to be some limit for loop prevention, didn't there? but she didn't understand. I tested it, and it still failed. So I called the GTE CAG rep back, and said it was still broken, and suggested she contact someone at the CO who understood how to operate a GTD-5. Well, today I received a call from someone at the CO, who had been given a totally incorrect description of the problem. When I explained it, he punched in my GTE number, verified that the customer call forwarding queue was set to 1, and changed it to 2. He said the service office could have done the same thing. I thanked him, and before I could test it, I received a call from the GTE CAG rep, who told me that she had contacted GTD-5 analyst, and was told that what I wanted was possible, but not tariffed, so I would have to live with only one call at a time. She said I could order multiple numbers with hunting and it would work. I said that didn't make sense, and asked to speak to the CO person who had called me earlier. They said they'd have him call me. Finally, I got a chance to test it, and it works! The CO guy did what he said. So I called the GTE CAG rep back and said everything was fine, please don't do anything else. She wanted to know what the CO guy had done. I was vague, saying he had changed the CCF parameters for my line, because I was afraid she might be right about it not being tariffed and would reset it to one. She said she'd call him and find out, because she needed to update my records to indicate what was done. Anyway, for now it works and I am happy. Now, if only I could get PacBell to make their three-way calling let me hang up on a vacant side and get ring-back everything would be great. Randy Gellens randy%mpa15ab@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com| A Series System Software if mail bounces, forward to| Unisys Mission Viejo, CA rgellens@mcimail.com| Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself| [Moderator's Note: Again, are we talking about the number of calls which can be forwarded at one time from A > B or are we talking about the extent to which A can be chained linked to B then to C and D, etc? If the former, there is no problem with the number of circuits which are available. As soon as the place to which calls are being forwarded runs out of places to put them (i.e. two, three or how many lines in the hunt group) then subsequent callers to the first number will get a busy signal. If we are talking about chains that run forever, then the important thing is to stop the process when a previously visited number is found again in the chain. If this were not the case, then any call forwarding could be a potential problem because what would happen if A forwarded calls to himself, ie *72 ? Would an incoming call hit the CO and run in circles forever? No -- we know it sees a place where it has already been (original pass through A) and gives up, returning busy to the caller. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Vance Shipley Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 1:50:17 EST From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: Costs to Telco: Leased vs Dial Organization: Xenitec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, CANADA Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1993 06:50:12 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Much of the additional cost would come from the > expense of having certain common equipment in the central office > unavailable for other customer's use. With dialup, telco is gambling This is the assumption I have been making; that telco is somehow worse off if you elect to have endless calls as opposed to just jumpering copper. I am beginning to suspect that they might just prefer to keep everything on the switch. Witness the following quote from the DMS Feature Planning Guide describing ENET, Northern's current switching fabric and the heart of their central office switch: "As the switching platform for the DMS SuperNode system. ENET is a key hardware element for implementing high-capacity, bandwidth-intensive services, such as Dialable Wideband Service. The Enhanced Network (ENET) decreases expenses through network simplification and increasing revenues by enabling a range of future wideband services." Network simplification has to be important to the telco, their manpower costs are a high percentage of operating costs. Also, as another poster pointed out automated loop testing, etc. are not possible (or more costly and difficult) on special service facilities. "With BCS34, the single-cabinet ENET, with a capacity of 64,000 fully duplicated channels, will become the standard ENET configuration. However, the dual-cabinet ENET (128,000 channels) will continue to be available for offices requiring higher capacity" "As a junctorless, non-blocking switching matrix, ENET does not require complicated engineering. Unconstrained by traffic and load balancing, its provisioning is based only on peripheral link terminations. ENET provides the platform for circuit-switched, channel-switched, or nailed-up digital service." So the switch is non-blocking. So if it's not taking up common resources in the switch the telco shouldn't care how long your calls are. Now the other thing here is that if you live in area which has unmeasured local service, as I do, and one day they change to measured, odds are many of these dialup circuits will remain for a while generating more revenue. Vance Shipley, vances@xenitec.on.ca ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #156 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa00757; 8 Mar 93 1:25 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23987 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 7 Mar 1993 23:01:18 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24610 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 7 Mar 1993 23:00:45 -0600 Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1993 23:00:45 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303080500.AA24610@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #157 TELECOM Digest Sun, 7 Mar 93 23:00:45 CST Volume 13 : Issue 157 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: WTC Blast (John Schmidt) Re: Arrest Made in WTC Bombing (Graham Toal) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Brent Whitlock) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Things Really Went BOOM! (and Unrelated Topics) (Bob Frankston) Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards (Timothy E. Buchanan) Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards (Roy Smith) Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards (David A. Fiske) Re: Call Waiting / Three-Way Calling Ring Back (John Higdon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 07 Mar 1993 18:22:07 EST From: JOHN SCHMIDT Subject: Re: WTC Blast Since my daytime (paying) job is as a design engineer for ABC, I think I can comment on the effects of the WTC blast on the networks. The first area of confusion for many, particularly New Yorkers, is the difference between the network, ie ABC, and the local station, ie WABC. ABC produces and/or distributes programs, such as One Life to Live, World News Tonight, Roseanne, Nightline, etc. to its "affiliates" There are about 220 affiliates who broadcast ABC programs in the USA. Eight of these affiliates are owned by ABC (including WABC) and are often referred to as "owned and operated stations, (or "O&O's"). The rest of our affiliates are independently owned. The ABC network provides programming for part, but not all, of the day. For instance, on weekdays, there is no network programming from 9AM until, I think, 11:00 am, none from 4 until World News Tonight (either 6:30 or 7:00 pm, depending on which of the two feeds an affiliate takes) and then none until 8:00 pm. There is no programming from 11:00 until 11:30 pm. (etc.) Affiliates may broadcast most or all of the programming ABC provides, either live or delayed on tape. While ABC cannot, by law, require an affiliate to broadcast a particular program or programs, it can, and will, look to change affiliated stations (when the affiliation contract is up, in most cases) if it feels the station is not "clearing" enough network programming. The local affiliate station, whether WABC in New York, or KSWO in Lawton OK, fills the remaining time with either its own programming, such as "Eyewitness News"; or "syndicated" programs it buys from a distributor, such as "Jeopardy" or "Oprah". All three networks transmit their programs to the affiliates by satellite. ABC uplinks on C band from the roof of its Network Operations building in Manhattan. NBC is on KU band, also with an uplink in Manhattan, and CBS is on C band. The last I knew, they contracted with AT&T to uplink their programs from a site on Long Island. Their signals get to the uplink via AT&T coax and microwave video circuits. (Note, this all refers to the eastern/central time zone distribution, west coast delayed programming is handled differently.) None of this was directly affected by the WTC blast, so anyone watching an affiliate other than the New York City stations did not lose their signal. Chicago saw Peter Jennings just fine. WABC, and the other six New York City VHF TV Stations, as well as several of the UHF sations, and a few FM stations, has its transmitter facilities at the top of the World Trade Center. These facilities were moved there from the Empire State Building in the late '70s, I believe. When the bomb went off, WNBC (ch.4) and, I believe WNET (ch 13, PBS) dumped immediately, apparently due to loss of power. Reports say 5 of the 8 13KV feeders from Con Edison to the complex tripped at the time of the initial explosion. There are emergency generators, jointly owned by all the broadcasters, but these did not function. The generators are in the sub-basement near the bomb site. Some reports indicate they were flooded, others indicate the cooling water lines were severed, causing them to immediately shut down, still others say the power and control lines were run through the blast area. I haven't heard a specific answer yet. Some time later, the Fire Department asked Con Edison to open the remaining feeders, as they were concerned that the initial blast might have been electrical in nature, and they were afraid that firefighters might be injured by the live electrical systems. This forced the remaining stations off the air. When power was restored, around 11:30 pm, all except WNBC and WNET were able to resume broadcasting (transmitters operate by remote control, and, as the WABC chief engineer told me, much to his relief, it came back on when they pushed the button on the remote control.) WNBC and WNET were on the next day, so I guess they were able to switch their feeders around. Incidentally, Con Ed reported it had all 8 feeders back in service by Monday morning, so I guess none of them were in the immediate blast area. While ABC, CBS and NBC transmissions were not directly affected by the blast, all three networks have microwave ENG relay receivers and transmitters there, as well as 440 Mhz transmitters used for "IFB" communications (feeds the earpiece the talent wears, which allows them to hear what's on the air, and directions from the control room), and News Room communications two way radios. When these died, it made a mess of news department communications. (We all have other microwave relays, and the two ways are a "voting" system with multiple repeaters, but WTC is the best site, because of its height, and obviously it was right where all the action was. WCBS still maintained their old transmitter, as a backup, at Empire State, so signed on from there, capturing most of the non-cable New York audience. Most of the FM stations broadcast from Empire State, not World Trade, and were not affected. A couple of those who were have alternate, low power backup transmitters at other sites, and so were able to resume broadcasting from those sites. Contrary to someone else's post, there are no plans to move other FM stations to WTC, in fact they are installing a new FM master antenna at Empire State to replace the current one which was installed in the '60s and does not meet current FCC RF radiation standards, particularly on the 102nd floor observation area. All the New York TV stations have direct video circuits to Manhattan Cable, so the Manhattan Cable customers never lost signals. Shortly after WABC went off, the ABC Network took a copy of WABC's feed, and put it up on one of the Network satellite transponders. This non-scrambled feed was made available for other cable systems to downlink and feed to their subscribers. CBS and NBC made similar arrangements. WOR (ch 9) and WPIX (ch 11) are already on satellite as "super stations", so all they had to do was run their signals "in the clear". Also, the various stations made other arrangements with unaffected broadcasters. WNBC got WLIW, ch 21 on long island (normally a PBS station) to pick up their signal. I believe WABC was on Channel 68 (and 67, translator), normally a Home Shopping Network station, whose transmitter is at Empire State Building. WNET got WNYE, channel 25, owned by the New York City Board of Education, transmitting from Brooklyn, to take their feed. As an interesting sidelight, someone told me that B-Q cable (Brooklyn-Queens) took the satellite feed of WNBC, but never switched back. When WNBC killed the satellite feed later in the weekend, they were off BQ cable for some hours until someone pulled the patch and restored the normal receiver. Most cable systems rate right in there with GTE when it comes to service ... I hope this gives people a better idea of what went on in TV land. By the way, where was I when all this went on? I had been on vacation in Trinidad (at Carnival) and got back home at 9:30 Friday morning, after taking a "red eye" charter flight. I went to bed, and woke up about 3PM.. spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching TV and listening to the radio. John H. Schmidt, P.E. Internet: schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu Technical Director, WBAU Phone--Days (212)456-4218 Adelphi University Evenings (516)877-6400 Garden City, New York 11530 Fax-------------(212)456-2424 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Mar 93 17:16:50 GMT From: Graham Toal Subject: Re: Arrest Made in WTC Bombing > [Moderator's Note: Talk about dumb. Here, it seems to me, is a man who > was obviously not clear on the concept. As of Thursday evening, there > is supposedly a second person under arrest, but the government is not > giving out any names or details yet. PAT] Perhaps, PAT, it's just *too* stupid to be believed. What are the chances that if the FBI followed up on *everyone* who had a vehicle in that basement (some thousands I'm sure), they'd find *somebody* with a dubious past. At which point it becomes a post hoc ergo propter hoc insinuation of guilt ... Graham (remembering how many quick arrests under public pressure in Britain have led to gross miscarriages of justice). ------------------------------ From: bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1993 21:22:25 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) writes: > I don't know either about the rest of the country being able to > receive ABC or NBC at that time. I wouldn't be surprised if they set > up alternate outlets if they were affected by the WTC. The great > Nov.(?) 1965 blackout forced some news media to alternate outlets. > By the way, I notice the jokes from a parking attendant and a border > guard about a bomb and/or the WTC blast. Please don't joke TO such > people about such matters, because the remark can be taken seriously > and you can get in trouble as a result. There are signs in some > airports warning of this near the checkpoints for their terminal > concourses; and a few years back, a young man remarked (apparently a > joke) on a plane about a bomb, and the result was that the plane made > an unscheduled landing in Philadelphia and he was arrested. Indeed, joking about guns, bombs, and such at airport security checkpoints is illegal, even if you are joking to your friends and family, and not to the security people. They have a relatively small sign on the baggage X-ray machine which informs people of this. My father, someone who tends to crack jokes a lot and not having seen or read this sign when he was with me at the airport once, made a joking comment to me after the metal detector alarm went off that it must be his gun. Of course, I knew it was a joke, but the policeman who overheard him doesn't take jokes lightly there. My father was almost arrested and taken down to the station for questioning, but he was able to convince the cop that he didn't know it was illegal to mention guns, bombs, etc. in conversation at the airport and that he didn't see the sign, so the cop just took down his ID information from the driver's license and told him to not leave town real soon. Isn't it wonderful that our constitution guarantees us freedom of speech? roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: > I know the dangers of electric fields is an open question, but > if I were a pregnant woman, I don't think I would want to be working > around a live high-power TV transmitter! Neither would I. My brother, who is also an avid reader of this digest, told me that at an AM radio station for which he used to be a part time DJ, they could not use IBM PC's because the broadcast tower interfered with the keyboard preventing it from working properly. I also recall a comment about feeling the hair on the back of one's neck stick out from the electric field as one approached the tower. * * * * * * --> DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself. <-- * * * * * * Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology bwhitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Mar 93 07:28:26 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News In TELECOM Digest Volume 13 : Issue 156 sbrenner@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (scott.d.brenner) writes: > In article add@philabs.philips.com > (Aninda Dasgupta) writes: >> I usually watch the NBC affiliate in NYC, WNBC -- channel 4. Although >> I worked late last Friday, and didn't get home until about 9 PM >> (listening to WCBS radio all the way!), channel 4 *was* on the air >> when I got home. >> A newspaper article I read earlier this week implied that the station >> (and other local stations) was able to provide their signal to other >> stations out in Long Island, who were then able to uplink the signal >> to the satellite, from which the cable systems could pick up the >> signal. What happened on Long Island is that WNBC uplinked to a satellite and the local PBS station, WLIW - Channel 21, picked up the signals and retransmitted them over the air and the two cable companies (Cablevision of Long Island and TCI) sent the signals to their subscribers. In this way, all TV viewers could receive the news "as it happened." In addition to the cable companies, the radio stations kept their listeners very up to date, especially WALK - 97.5 FM. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Re: Things Really Went BOOM! (and unrelated topics) Date: Sun 7 Mar 1993 20:34 -0400 Why use a free 900 number instead of an 800 number? The reason, I presume, is that one class of 900 number supports locally provided prerecorded message that reduce network congestion. But this is simply an artifact of the translation tables. Once 800 numbers are portable, why should one have to use a different "area" code to specify a property? The place where a number implies a property is still useful in PBX'es to make blocking simple. Of course, this isn't perfect as in using "1" as a charge flag. But for 900/800 it should be mandated to work -- at least for the next five years till the network can provide property information via a protocoled interchange. Thus, in a case like the Chicago information, an 800 number with locally provided messages would seem to be the right service. As to "area" code, I guess that will stick with us just like "dialing" a touch-tone [notTM] phone. BTW, I was in a hotel last week which seemed to have smart 0-700 processing. It would allow me to place a callee pays 700 number call but not a caller pays. On the same trip I did find the redirectability of the 700 number useful for avoiding a long and problematic credit card string. 800 numbers can also be reprogrammable but the 700 number process was much simpler and more flexible including an automatic expiration feature so that I didn't have to worry about having given out a proprietary number. ------------------------------ From: buchanan@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (BUCHANAN TIMOTHY E) Subject: Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 00:41:06 GMT While stationed in San Juan, PR, and working for the FAA, I was writing simulator problems for radar controller students. It was simple batch language, but my first attempt bombed. I was told to start commands in certain columns because the computer simulated the punch card reader it replaced! My question was whether the computer also made a card flipping sound. Speaking of backward compatiblity, I understand that Herman Hollerith based the size of his card on the size of the dollar in the 1890's, in order to use stock material. So the length of the line of the terminals we type on is descended from the size of our money in the last century! Timothy ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Mar 93 11:04:24 -0500 From: roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Subject: Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards Organization: New York University, School of Medicine In article is written: > Ya know, you can still order the ANSI Standards documentation (which > just went "FINAL" last year). I've misplaced my copy so I can't give > you the order number. The title has the words Holerith Codes in it. OH MY GOD! He's right. It's still in the catalog! Everything you ever wanted to know about punch cards can be found out from: ANSI X3.11-1990 General Purpose Paper Cards for Information Processing, $20.00 ANSI X3.21-1967 Rectangular Holes in Twelve-Row Punched Cards, $13.00 ANSI X3.26-1980 (R1991) Hollerith Punched Card Code, $13.00. Actually, I suspect you can't learn *everything* you ever wanted to know; ANSI standards tend to be pretty dry reading. Probably nothing in there about the uses of chad as confetti for ticker-tape parades (not that there's any more ticker tape left anymore than there is punch chad). BTW, just in case anybody has delusions of ANSI being somebody that sets computer standards, you should be aware that the 200+ page 1993 ANSI catalog has only a very small section of it devoted to computer standards. It's chock full of things having to do with machine tools, concrete, aviation fuel, chemicals, textiles, saftey devices, building codes, hydraulic fluid, you name it. I noticed one title in there that had to do with fabrics used in book binding. ------------------------------ From: davef@shell.portal.com (David A Fiske) Subject: Re: Remembering the Old Punch Cards Organization: Portal Communications Company Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 00:46:42 GMT In article , gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) writes: > [Moderator's Note: So you remember when programmers used to write > their programs via punch cards. They'd then turn these cards in to the > computer room, the cards would be run through the computer, and as you And there was always that smell of freshly punched cards. Nothing else ever seemed to have that same odor. Dave Fiske davef@shell.portal.com Ballston Spa, NY david_a_fiske@portal.com 75415.163@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Mar 93 20:52 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Call Waiting / Three-Way Calling Ring Back On Mar 4 at 16:40, apple!TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com!MPA15AB!RANDY writes: > Sorry. PacBell CW does indeed work as expected. It is PacBell 3W that > works differently from GTE 3W. I had gotten used to having both work > the same in GTE land, and really liked being able to "transfer" a call > from one phone to another by flashing for a 3W stutter dialtone, then > hanging up. My phone would ring, and the caller would hear ringback. I have taken advantage of the Pac*Bell mode. The way to positively get rid of a caller who refused to hang up (and release my called line) was to flash, then hang up. When immediately lifting the receiver, I got dial tone, but the caller got reorder. This was how it worked on my 1ESS. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #157 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03071; 8 Mar 93 2:22 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12344 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 8 Mar 1993 00:06:38 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12346 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 8 Mar 1993 00:06:04 -0600 Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 00:06:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303080606.AA12346@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #158 TELECOM Digest Mon, 8 Mar 93 00:06:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 158 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review (Paul Robinson) Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review (Ang Peng Hwa) Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review (Dave Levenson) Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill (rduta@nyx.cs.du.edu) Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill (John Higdon) Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" (Graham Toal) Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" (Tim Russell) Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" (Albert Crosby) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1993 14:46:55 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) writes: > In article , james@cs.ualberta.ca (James > Borynec; AGT Researcher) writes: >> I just read a startling report: "The Geodesic Network II: 1993 Report >> on Competition in the Telephone Industry" By P.W. Huber, M.K. Kellogg, >> and J. Thorne. The Geodisic Company, Washington D.C. >> The central thesis of this (thick) report is that the economics of >> fiber and the economics of radio make long distance a "natural" >> monopoly and that local access is now "inherently competitive". > Well here's an opposing viewpoint! Personally I think Huber is way > out in right field ... > As any regular reader of the EFF newsgroup would know by now, a >"natural monopoly" is a fairly clear concept which applies when the > economy of scale never maxes out, so a small vendor can never be > competitive with a big one. Long distance, even per Huber's quote, is > almost exactly the opposite, a competitive commodity. > Local wireline is a natural monopoly because it would cost too > much to string a second set of wires. How about if I claim you are both incorrect. Let me look at this a moment. It's too expensive to run a second set of wires in a city where people pay a monthly charge whether or not they use them, but not too expensive for MCI and Sprint to run thousands of miles of wire or fiber from city-to-city where the only time people pay for them are when someone uses the lines? Why wasn't it "too expensive" back in the days when there were two companies competing for local phone service back in the early part of this century, and often getting two phones (one each from two different companies) was cheaper than the price for one phone from a monopoly supplier of dial tone in other cities of comparable size? The wire isn't that expensive; the equipment isn't that expensive, otherwise companies wouldn't turn around and install a PBX on top of buying phone service from the local company. What is expensive are recurring costs: maintenance, salaries, royalties and so on. When you have to pay a monthly charge for every pole your wire sits on, you start burying wire so you can stop paying rent to the electric company. When you have to pay taxes on every facility site, you reduce the number of facilities used to the absolute minimum needed. This is where GTE is having so much trouble: they are not making their lines and equipment reliable so that they require less maintenance, and thus reducing the amount of people needed to support it. No, apparently because the stuff is so bad, that making it correct would be expensive, they started consolidating offices to decrease the overhead. This doesn't work when the problem isn't the amount of overhead, it's the amount of maintenance needed. This could be the reason why American Telephone companies had much better service and equipment than foreign countries: These companies had to pay dividends to stockholders; therefore they had to make money. You make money by getting more people to use the system. You allow maximum use of the system by making it as reliable as possible. Since, in general the local telephone company owned everything connected to the phone system and you paid a monthly fee for it, it was to their advantage to keep that stuff in good working order and because you don't know the conditions in customer premises, make it as rugged as possible. In countries where the telephone company was government owned, there's no profit incentive to make stuff better, or to think up new ideas. People will get their government paychecks whether the phone system works or not, so why bother worrying about service, or why bother to care. Once they have to fight for business as the private companies, then service improves. I have a message to John Higdon: do you want to see an immediate improvement in service: find the money to run a fictional ad in the local paper indicating that a new company is looking for investors and potential customers to compete with GTE in providing local service. Come to think of it, you already have a PBX in your home, so ... :) Fact of the matter is there is no such thing as a 'natural monopoly' in telephone service. There are always alternatives to service. Radio spectrum can be used in new and different ways to increase capacity; people can make different uses of the radio spectrum involving things like lower-power and unused channel spectrum. For example, one TV channel has 6MHZ of space. This is the equivalent of perhaps 300 simultaneous 12KHZ voice channels with separations. The UHF television band in the U.S. has LOTS of empty space; and in areas where it is not being used, it can be converted to other places. Realize that the people developing equipment can always use different systems; for example, you use a microwave tower to deliver signals into each region of a six-block area. In each area you have a microwave receiver on top of a house, apartment or building, that transmits calls for its local area on the radio into a very short, three block range. The only requirment you have to have is the number of people in the local area that no more than 300 people want to simultaneously use the system. This idea is the same as cellular; you can then make the cells smaller and reduce the power of the transmitter. Or another idea. You use a microwave tower to send across blocks at a time, where on the top of the tallest house or building in the area who happens to be a subscriber, is a microwave unit that receives signals from the next block, and passes distant signals on to the distant site, local signals can be carried to a telephone wire on that block. Since you are only having to send a signal across a street or a couple of blocks, you don't need a huge amount of power. You're not boosting the signal 20 miles. (PS: Does anyone know how many voice/data channels can fit on, say a two- or three-foot microwave horn (both ways) and how much they cost?) Or, if you can rent a channel space not used by a cable company, the wiring is already there, you just use subscriber carrier and GSM scrambling techniques to carry your signals back to the phone system processor. Some cable companies have extra channel space that because of technical reasons they don't use; there is another idea. The problem is not necessarily cost of installing wire: it's the cost of overcoming inertia and figuring out how to market a new service. I speculated on this earlier as an example of what someone could do to provide competitive dial tone in the Washington DC metro area. Someone else gave a suggestion: provide larger long-distance calling areas. And one possibility is for a service number to be able to reach anywhere in Maryland or Virginia for no more than a local call. Call all the way from DC to the VA side of the State Line in North Carolina and the cost is a local call. For some people, this might be considerably cheaper, even at twice or three-times the price of a regular telephone line. (AT&T's rate from DC to Richmond is only 3c less than the rate from DC to Los Angeles.) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Mar 93 11:09:50 SST From: Ang Peng Hwa Subject: Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review Long-distance a natural monopoly and local access inherently competitive? I have not read the (thick) report but to call LD a natural monopoly seems to me to be overstated, even if it is by Peter Huber. I have made the point on the digest that the LD business seems like a "natural oligopoly." Market share concentration inthe industry has fallen after the ATT divestiture but is now on the rise again. My argument is simply that you need both business and residential diversity to make it in the LD business. And you also need geographical diversity. To describe LD as natural monopoly, you would have to explain the rise of regional LD companies. As for the economics of radio, I wonder how well that will do with the scare about ELF, EMF, etc. Would people want local access via some death beam? Put it this way: Ma'am, you have the choice of access via radio which is cheaper but has sometimes been shown to be carcinogenic and sometimes not. It is not conclusive, you understand. On the other hand, for just 50% more, we can offer you the same quality of service on fiber optic. It is 50% more you understand. I expect the local phone companies to exploit whatever scare there is already out there. ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1993 18:51:03 GMT Our Moderator notes, as a follow-on to James Borynec's article on the Geodesic Report: > [Moderator's Note: We have known for a while now that MCI and Sprint > have been repeatedly trying to keep AT&T from lowering its prices. > MCI and Sprint trying to keep the prices up. After all, their entire > fortunes were built on their fraudulent advertising campaigns saying > how they could save telephone users money on long distance calls, were > they not? You know how that goes ... PAT] So how are these fraudulent claims different from those made by Orange Communications and one of its sales agents who frequents these parts? Just kidding, Pat! Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 [Moderator's Note: In the early days of MCI, they were fond of showing unsophisticated (telecom-wise) business executives how they could 'save money' by using MCI. And sure enough, a comparison of their long distance rates ONLY versus AT&T showed the cost for the *long distance* part of the call was less. But they conveniently neglected to mention that AT&T's higher rates included (admittedly due to their connection with the local telcos at that time) as well the local part of the connection from the local CO to the long distance switch. So business pplaces signed up with MCI and saw a decrease in the long distance side of their bill but a substantial increase in their local message unit charges. The 'savings' was a wash at best and in many cases, the total monthly outlay for telecommunications (local bill from telco plus long distance bill from MCI versus a single bill from telco which included long distance charges from AT&T) was actually higher than it had been before. MCI conveniently failed to mention that if you called via their switch somewhere and the distant end was busy or did not answer on five attempts, you still wound up paying for five local message units to the local telco, which in those days was understandably not about to give a free ride to the long distance switch of AT&T's competitor. After several complaints to the FCC and getting sued, MCI finally began mentioning this 'slight additional expense' over and above their published rates. As Charles Brown, former Chairman of AT&T said at the time, " ... they have no investment in outside plant, they have no local loops or switches, they only handle (this was in the middle 1970's) the high traffic, very profitable east-coast corridor stuff ... of course their prices will be cheaper. If I could get away with the stuff they are allowed to pull off, my prices would still be less than theirs ..." Regards the Orange Card, I make no claims that it is anything other than 25 cents per minute with no surcharge. I do not claim you will spend less or more than before. It is strictly an applications thing: you decide if weekday daytime hours calls using some other calling card at a payphone or in a hotel room would cost more or less than my offering. More on the Orange Card in an issue of the Digest on Monday with some comments sent to me recenty by readers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rduta@nyx.cs.du.edu Subject: Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept. Date: Sun, 7 Mar 93 15:17:04 GMT In article nicmad!madnix!zaphod% astroatc.UUCP@cs.wisc.edu (Ron Bean) writes: > If your recording device sits between the demark and your inside > wiring, can it listen for tones (or pulses) on *both* sides of the > line and distinguish between calls dialed from inside your building > and those dialed from some other point between you and the CO? If such > a device does not exist, could one be built with available components > possibly using a PeeCee)? The only way I can see protecting your line from unwanted phone calls is to set up a system between the main phone lines, and the building phone lines that will require a access code to dial a number, or even better, it will require a code on any call whose number is longer than 8 digits, and doesn't start with 1800. Calling up the phone company and turning off 1900 calls isn't that bad of a idea (I can't see a business needing to use 1-900 number). As for interception between the main phone lines, and the telco (such as someone going in a sewer and tapping the lines, I can't see how you can protect against that, unless you can get the telco to put a lock on your line, which (I just thought of that) is a good idea, but I'm not sure the telco offers such a security system, and even then, if someone tapped the line, they can get the number. You'd have to set up a preety complex system to be 100% foolproof, which for most applications is way too expensive. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Mar 93 13:24 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Subject: Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article nicmad!madnix!zaphod% astroatc.UUCP@cs.wisc.edu (Ron Bean) writes: > If you're being billed for calls that don't show up on your > computerized record, could you take AT&T to small-claims court? (Who > has jurisdiction on an interstate call?) I think it works the other way around. I can always refuse to pay (which I did), but AT&T can if it so chooses take me to court to enforce payment. We were a long way from that, I feel. > If your recording device sits between the demark and your inside > wiring, can it listen for tones (or pulses) on *both* sides of the > line and distinguish between calls dialed from inside your building > and those dialed from some other point between you and the CO? My "recording device" is the SMDR output of the PBX. It does not listen for tones on the line but rather records the calls placed through it. Since I have sixteen lines, the PBX is the only practical method for logging the calls. For various reasons, my demark is secure. If calls are made from my residence on any phone whatsoever, the calls will appear on the SMDR record. Period. > If such a device does not exist, could one be built with available > components possibly using a PeeCee)? That is fine for one line. But what if you have multiple lines billed under the same account? My billing does not differentiate between the lines, so all lines in the billing must be monitored for fraud usage. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Mar 93 16:39:23 GMT From: Graham Toal Subject: Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" Brian Erwin wrote: > The interviews are mastered onto Digital Audio Tape. A typical > 30-minute program occupies 15 Mbytes of disk space. UUNET > Communications in Virginia serves as the initial spool area with > several gigabytes. From there, the data moves to the IIJ network in > Japan and EUnet in Europe. These three sites -- UUNET, EUnet, and IIJ > -- serve as the primary distribution points for the world. From > there, regional and national networks move the data closer to the > users. Eventually, a network manager takes the files and broadcasts > them on a local area network or stores them on a file server. I hope none of the sites that store these 15Mb files have previously chopped a.b.p.e feeds on the grounds of 'waste of resources'... A Mb per minute is ridiculous for speech. That should be brought down a *lot*. Still, even at the best rate possible - say some very crackly zero crossing scheme, fitting the data into a 14.4K modem's bandwidth - you're never going to be able to download speech by phone at much better than real time. Who's going to spend 30 minutes downloading this over their SLIP line? And without the compression, 15Mb just isn't worth the bother for anyone, who isn't already on a T1. G ------------------------------ From: trussell@cwis.unomaha.edu (Tim Russell) Subject: Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1993 20:08:40 GMT hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > Seems that distribution of audio over internet is going to > take an awful lot of bandwidth and be real costly. Is it worth it? I Well, firstly, my understanding is that the only transmissions of ITR allowed on the backbone itself will be to the regional networks. Thus the total backbone bandwidth used per episode will be at most (15M * (# of regional nets)), which is rather small compared to the amount of traffic flowing on the backbone daily. Further, these transmissions can be scheduled to occur during the wee hours when a lot of bandwidth goes wasted anyway. As for the transmissions being "real costly", I don't quite under- stand. Unless I'm very mistaken, the backbone is not paid for by the byte, it is paid for by the phone line. The only way I see this costing anything at all is if it impacts the backbone so much that additional lines need to be installed. That won't happen with this scheme. Personally, I think this sounds like a really nifty idea. I just hope that player software is available for as many machine types as possible to facilitate a large listenership and make it all worthwhile. That includes PC's with sound cards as well. Tim Russell Omaha, NE trussell@unomaha.edu PGP public key available, finger trussell@cwis.unomaha.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Mar 93 17:50:42 -0600 From: Albert Crosby Subject: Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" PAT: When I first heard of Internet Talk Radio, my second thought (seriously!) was, "I hope they make text transcripts available". (My first thought was that it was likely to be some special version of Internet Relay Chat (IRC).) I personally don't have access to truly capable sound hardware, and besides, I'd just as soon read it! And as someone else pointed out, the idea of thousands of 'listeners' ftp'ing 15+Mbytes of soundfiles regularly is going to add a lot of network load. Hopefully the implementors have arranged about 50 or 100 mirror sites around the globe ... For myself, I'll continue to hear MY "Geek of the Week" right here, you guessed it, in TELECOM Digest land. (Or are you going to start offering an audio version too?) Albert Crosby [Moderator's Note: I *may* -- just may -- start a voice BBS one of these days for telecommers ... with voicemail boxes for private mail and some bulletin boards to post messages to the group. Depends on if anyone is interested. I'll decide before long. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #158 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa01826; 9 Mar 93 3:43 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20413 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 9 Mar 1993 01:00:07 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31991 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 9 Mar 1993 00:59:19 -0600 Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 00:59:19 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303090659.AA31991@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #159 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 Mar 93 00:59:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 159 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Dutch PTT Studies Charging For Busy or No Answer (Koos van den Hout) DS3/T3 Electrical vs Optical Question (Ken Stone) Hacked Cellular Phones (RISKS via Ron Dippold) International Connectivity Data Available (Rick Broadhead) Information on "Direct-Link Sought (Daniel M. Greenberg) AT&T Easy Reach 700 Number Hints and Tips Wanted (Gregory Youngblood) Wristwatch Pagers (Chris Taylor) FCC Versus Bell Atlantic? (Yue-shun E. Ho) Southern Bell Acknowledges Modems (Jack Dominey) Telephone Express/Penny Express (Stephen Wolfson) Typical GTE (John Higdon) Gotta Love GTE -- One Better (Mike Newton) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl Date: Mon, 08 Mar 93 22:05:16 +0100 Subject: Dutch PTT Studies Charging For Busy or No Answer Friday (3-5) there was a short item on the news that the Dutch PTT (the national telecommunications provider which has a monopoly at this moment) is studying the possibility of charging for not-completed calls that get a busy tone or don't get answered. I was wondering, is this charging of not-completed calls done in any other country in the world? Technically there are very limited costs with not-completed calls. Calls to numbers that are busy don't even occupy line capacity (the exchange from which you'r calling asks the other exchange if the number is available and if it's not the local exchange handles the generation of the busy tone). By the way, a representative of the Dutch consumer organisation ('Consumentenbond') said when interviewed 'I wonder if there is a wire loose with them'. (This remark is also connected to the recent raise in the local tariffs). Grtx. KH Koos van den Hout Student Computer Science (AKA HIO) BBS Koos z'n Doos (+31-3402-36647) Inter-: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl 300..14400 MNP2-5,10,V42bis) net : kvdhout@hut.nl | Use PGP for | Fido: Sysop @ 2:500/101.11012 Schurftnet : KILL !!! | private mail! | Give us a call !! ------------------------------ Subject: DS3/T3 Electrical vs Optical Question Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1993 18:02:50 -0800 From: Ken Stone I appear to have dug into a rats nest on this one and I'm just not sure why :-). In trying to look at getting a T3 to an offsite building a while back, we noticed that tariffs for buying at the optical vs buying at the electrical interface were considerably different. Now I would expect some difference as you have to pay for the shelf that does the conversion ... but this seemed like too much of a difference for that. As it was, we ended up going microwave for delivery time reasons and the issue was never resolved. Now I have another shot at it and I want to understand. It is to my advantage to buy at the optical interface on at least one end since the existing DS3 mux equip is "microwave located" and not "demarc located". I'd also like the idea of the lower tariffs. In what little research I have done so far (talking to my DS3 mux vendor), the only thing I have come up with is that it would appear that optical DS3 is not necessarily optical DS3 ... in that it may be that PacBell REQUIRES the optical/electrical interface be done with this nifty super do-all $bucks$ mux gadget from NT which can do MUCH more than just the E/O conversion. That would explain the tariff difference. The inability to use some of the simpler gear I have heard of, having to deal with a rack full of PacBell gear onsite AT THE DEMARC, and being length limited by DS3/coax from said PacBell rack really stinks!! What I'm interested in is what's available as far as DS3 optical termination equipment (the simpler the better) and what other's experiences with buying DS3 point to point from the RBOC's are. What I would like to see is something like: PacBell DS3 fiber house fiber -> E/O -> DL3000 -> data/voice on each end of the link. Ken ------------------------------ From: rdippold@qualcomm.com (Ron "Asbestos" Dippold) Subject: Hacked Cellular Phones Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 21:49:23 GMT From comp.risks: Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 18:15:08 -0500 From: John Stoffel Subject: Cellular Phreaks & Code Dudes I picked up the premiere issue of a new magazine called "Wired" which is trying to spread the word about the Digital Revolution. And editorial blurb from the inside page is repeated here: ------------ WHY WIRED? Because the Digital Revolution is whipping though our lives like a Bengali typhoon -- while the mainstream media is still groping for the snooze button. And because the computer "press" is too busy churning out the latest PCInfoComputingCorporateWorld iteration of its ad sales formula cum parts catalog to discuss the meaning or context of SOCIAL CHANGES SO PROFOUND their only parallel is probably the discovery of fire. There are a lot of magazines about technology. "Wired" is not one of them. "Wired" is about the most powerful people on the planet today -- THE DIGITAL GENERATION. These are the people who not only foresaw how the merger of computers, telecommunications and the media is transforming life at the cusp of the millennium, they are making it happen. OUR FIRST INSTRUCTION TO OUR WRITERS: AMAZE US. Our second: We know a lot about digital technology, and we are bored with it. Tell us something we've never heard before, in a way we've never seen before. If it challenges our assumptions, so much the better. So why not now? Why "Wired"? Because in the age of information overload, THE ULTIMATE LUXURY IS MEANING AND CONTEXT. Or put another way, if you're looking for the soul of our new society in wild metamorphosis, our advice is simple. Get "Wired". -LR [jfs: Louis Rossetto] You can reach me at 415-904-0664 or lr@wired.com ================ Along with this they had an interesting article on "Cellular Phreaks and Code Dudes" by John Markoff (markoff@nyt.com), which discusses how the latest rage of Silicon Valley hackers is cellular phones. He gives an example of how two phreaks hacked into an OKI 900 cellular phone and some of the features they discovered: o how to use it as a cellular scanner. o the manufacturer's interface so you can attach the phone to a portable computer. o one of the phreaks wrote some software to track other portable phones as they move from cell to cell, this allows him to display the approximate locations of each phone since he knows the geographical locations of each cell. o having the phone watch a specific number, and when that number is used, pick up and by using a simple sound activated recorder, you've made an instant bugging device! Maybe all the spies in Common Market who were worried about having point to point encryption on cellular phones didn't think of this trick? I found this article to be worth the cost of the magazine, as it ties in directly with RISKS readers here have been talking about. Now if it is this easy to hack this phone, how hard would it be to hack into the general cellular phone service machines, those that handle the passing of phones from cell to cell? The down side was the really annoying format, which seems to be "Techno-babble-obnoxious" with arbitrary changes in typeface, orientation, etc as you flip through pages. I felt that this detracted from the overall look of the information they were trying to present, making it harder to assimilate. I'd be interested in talking to anyone else who has read this magazine too. John ------ end quote ------ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 00:18:01 EST Reply-To: Rick Broadhead From: Rick Broadhead Subject: International Connectivity Data Available Larry Landweber of the Internet Society recently released Version 7 of his ever-popular International Connectivity List. For _every_ country in the world, the document will tell you if the country has links to any of the major computer networks. The networks covered in the table are Internet, Bitnet, UUCP, and Fidonet. The list is authoritative -- all links are verified prior to inclusion in the table. It is the most definitive and comprehensive compilation of its kind, and it is a must-have for anyone who wants to know what countries are connected to each of the networks. Over 50% of the countries and dependencies listed in the table are now reachable by e-mail through at least one of the international computer networks. The International Connectivity List will be a useful reference for anyone at York who has a need to correspond internationally, and who uses e-mail in the course of his/her work. If you would like a copy of this document, please send an e-mail message to ysar1111@VM1.YorkU.CA. Rick Broadhead ysar1111@VM1.YorkU.CA ------------------------------ Subject: Information on "Direct-Link sought Date: Mon, 08 Mar 93 01:43:01 -0500 From: Daniel M. Greenberg I recently discovered a brochure on-campus for Direct-Link 800 and calling card service. The brochure indicates that the program is presented by On Campus Marketing Concepts in conjunction with Direct-Link (Houston TX) yet the mailing address is in Cherry Hill, NJ. Suspiciously, there is no contact phone number and the address is, of course, a P.O. Box. Here are the two plans they offer: 1. 25 cents a minute calling card from anywhere to anywhere in the US. (It does not mention continental US restrictions, but I'm assuming that is merely an oversight). The calling card has no service charges or minimum usage requirements. As an option, they offer a "customized" card design with school name and colors, etc. for $2. 2. They offer personal 800 service at the following rates: 23.9 cents per minute (8am-8pm) and 19.9 cents per minute (8pm-8am). There are no surcharges, no monthly charges, and no setup charges. Further, they offer a "multi-link service" which (where available) allows one to add 5 other locations anywhere in the US which can "ring in with simple extensions added to your 800 number." The application requests credit references and offers as a "bonus" chances to receive specials, discounts, gifts, giveaways, contents, and more if you choose direct credit card billing as opposed to direct billing. So ... my questions are: 1) Anyone know about these companies, and 2) how do these deals stack up for someone looking for no volume commitment or monthly fees. Thanks in advance for your help. Daniel M. Greenberg Syracuse University dgreenbe@mailbox.syr.edu School of Management, MBA Program [Moderator's Note: I am also going to be offering 1+ service and 800 service probably starting in the next few days. Watch for a message here. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: AT&T Easy Reach 700 Number Hints and Tips Wanted From: tcscs!zeta@src.honeywell.com (Gregory Youngblood) Reply-To: zeta%tcscs@src.honeywell.com Date: Mon, 08 Mar 93 22:28:15 CST Organization: TCS Consulting Services Please reply to me via e-mail, and I will summarize the response, if there is interest in the summary. I just ordered an AT&T Easy Reach 700 number today ... I should have it in a week. I went ahead and paid the 25 dollar fee and selected my own 'personalized' number as well. While I am waiting for the packet telling me how to use it and for it to be activated, I was hoping I could find out some interesting tips, tricks, or hints on how to get the most out of this number. I'd be interested in hearing any experiences, limitations, joys or annoyances, and especially if anyone has used the easy reach number in an unusual way. I know this sounds like an odd request, I am just curious as to how others were using this service so that I can make sure to get the most of it. Thanks for your time and replies in advance. Greg TCS Consulting Services P.O. Box 600008 St. Paul, MN 55106-0008 ****** PLEASE REPLY VIA E-MAIL as my news feed is temporarily down ****** zeta%tcscs@src.honeywell.com or zeta%tcscs@idss.nwa.com ..!srcsip!tcscs!zeta or ..!guppy!tcscs!zeta ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 02:00:44 -0500 (EST) From: Chris Taylor Subject: Wristwatch Pagers Does anybody out there have tales to tell of the Motorola wrist pager? I recall seeing some advertising for it, but haven't seen any for a while. Are any other manufacturers making wrist pagers? Chris Taylor cht@panix.com ------------------------------ From: yho@netcom.com (Yue-shun E. Ho) Subject: FCC Versus Bell Atlantic? Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 9:45:36 PST I read about Bell Atlantic filing a lawsuit against FCC for its ban on telephone companies owning cable tv companies. Could someone tell me about the results, if any, please? Southwestern Bell's recent purchase of two cable tv companies seem suggest that the ban is no longer in force, but I'd like to know a bit more. Thanks much in advance. yue-shun e ho +1 416 272 1322 (home) +1 416 452 4934 (work) yho@utcs.utoronto.ca or yho@netcom.com (personal) yho@bnr.ca (business) ------------------------------ From: jdominey@nesca.attmail.com Date: 8 Mar 93 16:06:28 GMT Subject: Southern Bell Acknowledges Modems This showed up on my Feb. bill from Southern Bell: "To temporarily cancel Call Waiting before making a call, dial *70 [stuff deleted]. Customers with personal computers can use the service to avoid transmission interruptions during dial-up calls. [more deleted] (This service not available in all areas.)" I find it noteworthy that this telco, at least, seems to believe a significant number of residential customers are placing modem calls. Jack Dominey AT&T Network Planning, Atlanta GA 404-810-6936 AT&T Mail: !dominey or !nesca!jdominey ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 12:24:44 -0700 From: Stephen Wolfson Subject: Telephone Express/Penny Express I've recently received an ad for Telephone Express' Penny Express deal. First ten minute phone call is a penny, and then if you use them every tenth call is the same deal. They don't want to be a 1+ carrier. They give you some stickers with their 10xxx code (10465?) and you access it only that way. Any one know anything about them, who's lines do they use? They claim to be the offshoot of a business LD provider that's older than MCI/Sprint. Are their rates any good? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 21:06 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Subject: Typical GTE Organization: Green Hills and Cows Browsing through the new San Jose/Santa Clara phone directory has reminded me of a typical ploy of GTE: maximization of toll revenue. The company sets up these little islands of toll to wring the last dime out of customers. While this is commonplace in southern California, we have a little mini-version right here in the south Bay Area. The two communities "served" by GTE are Los Gatos and Morgan Hill. Just south of San Jose is a cluster of mountain communities: Felton, Boulder Creek, and Ben Lomond. Los Gatos is adjacent to each of these communities, plus Scotts Valley (in the Santa Cruz exchange). While Pac*Bell's policy is to make any adjacent community or rate area a local call, GTE goes out of its way to justify making a similar route a toll call. Hence, while Pac*Bell's Saratoga exchange is local to all of those communities mentioned (and is farther away), Los Gatos is toll. The Morgan Hill situation is no better. Morgan Hill is a small farming town which shares a border with San Jose to the south. Under the usual Pac*Bell zoning methods, it would at least be a local call to San Jose Three (the southern rate area). But GTE, in its toll maximizing wisdom, keeps it a very expensive toll call. I could show you two places, one in the Morgan Hill exchange and one in the San Jose South exchange that are close enough to each other that you can see the smile on a person's face standing at the other location as well as hear him yell. Yet, due to GTE's pettiness, it is a twenty-five cent a minute call. There has got to be a vaccine for GTE. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 22:36:59 -0800 From: Mike Newton Subject: Gotta Love GTE -- One Better GTE .. wait 'till you see Citibank Visa... I started to write a check; wrote the 'numeric amount'; thought I made an error; 'X'-ed out the check, wrote 'VOID' on it and wrote a new one ... and sent in both. No payee, no signature, no written (longhand) amount, just the numbers and a VERY large X. Oh, and the word 'VOID'. Citibank cashed it. My bank paid it. And paid the correct one too. Then started bouncing my checks (an extra $1000 makes a big difference!) ... real embarassing. Now, if you're evil minded you can think of amazing ways of getting Citibank (or GTE, or ...) to commit fraud for you. Eg: take a check from someone, write in a number and 'VOID', send it in. You haven't signed it or ... A little creativity and you can come up with more exotic schemes where you're very unlikely to get caught. It took weeks, three visits to the bank (which I rarely do), numerous phone calls ... but the bank took back all the extra fees, etc. Grrrrr ... Mike ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #159 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02956; 9 Mar 93 4:14 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04990 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 9 Mar 1993 01:35:31 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30515 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 9 Mar 1993 01:34:42 -0600 Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 01:34:42 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303090734.AA30515@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #160 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 Mar 93 01:34:40 CST Volume 13 : Issue 160 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: NAFTA Implications For Telecommunications in Canada (John Higdon) Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" (Marc T. Kaufman) Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" (Ron Dippold) Re: Future of North American Numbering Plan (Al Varney) Re: Toll Stations in California (Ed Greenberg) Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (John Higdon) Re: Moving a Phone Line Within Apartments (Carl Oppedahl) Re: OSPS and ANI Failure (Tim Gorman) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (jgeorge@whiffer.atl.ga.us) Re: Costs to Telco: Leased vs Dial (Pat Turner) Re: A Little More TWX History (Dave Levenson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 11:35 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Subject: Re: NAFTA Implications For Telecommunications in Canada Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article <03.05.93.1@eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Moderator writes: > Paper forwarded by to telecom by Sid Shniad, Burnaby BC > : > What are those effects? Since the early 1980s, as deregulation > tore apart the American phone system, the US experienced an > unprecedented series of local price increases, cutbacks in service, > and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs as competing telephone > companies narrowed their focus to satisfy large corporate customers > located in major urban centres. The only thing true in the above paragraph is the "loss of ... jobs". They were lost in the telcos as those companies were forced to become more efficient. However, what was not mentioned was the creation of MANY more jobs in the non-telco sector. Of the many tens of people that I personally know in the telecommunications business, few are working for a telco such as Pacific Bell. None of these jobs would exist today without deregulation and divestiture. [all the usual garbage about the evils of competition and deregulation, deleted] > These challenges to the actions of the government and the CRTC were > part of the ongoing campaign to prevent the introduction of American- > style telecommunications deregulation in Canada. Given the > degradation of service, the increase in the cost of service, and the > massive loss of employment that has rocked the US phone industry over > the past 10 years, Canadians have been anxious to avoid a repetition > of that experience in this country. More outright lies. It is amazing that such nonsense can be thrust at the Canadian people with a straight face. Of course, the opposite is true. Service has improved remarkably, it is cheaper, and there are more jobs than ever before available in the telecommunications industry. But naturally this self-serving union propaganda is addressing the cushy, non-productive jobs that would be lost in Bell Canada should that entity be forced to provide real marketplace service. [The usual moaning and groaning about the affront to nationalistic concerns, deleted.] > Which brings us to the subject of telecommunications. Canada's > telephone system and the services related to it are world class. From correspondence with Canadians, I have determined that the US has benefitted greatly for deregulation and divestiture. While Canada still has step equipment and multi-party lines in rural areas, that equipment and facility arrangement has all but disappeared in this country. Bell Canada has no technical superiority with regard to the typical service provided in the US; and frequently the reverse is actually the case. I hope all who read this paper will realize that every single argument contained therein was used at the time of the US divestiture. History discredits it all. My only comment is that if Bell Canada has to start making its own way in the marketplace, there should be better provisions concerning COCOTs than here in the US. Other than that, I would put the world-class US telephone system up against any, including Canada. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: kaufman@xenon.stanford.edu (Marc T. Kaufman) Subject: Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" Reply-To: kaufman@cs.stanford.edu Organization: CS Department, Stanford University, California, USA Date: 8 Mar 93 16:09:28 GMT Graham Toal writes: > Brian Erwin wrote: >> The interviews are mastered onto Digital Audio Tape. A typical >> 30-minute program occupies 15 Mbytes of disk space. > A Mb per minute is ridiculous for speech. That should be brought down > a *lot*. Still, even at the best rate possible - say some very > crackly zero crossing scheme, fitting the data into a 14.4K modem's > bandwidth - you're never going to be able to download speech by phone > at much better than real time. The rate is 0.5MB per minute, or 64KBPS, which is just straight audio. I expect that it would be possible to easily get another factor of 2 by delta coding, 3-4 bit cvsd. If you don't mind compute cycles, and you are willing to restrict the information to speech (not music), a Linear Predictive Coding system can further reduce the required bit rate to about 2.4KBPS, which would bring a 30 minute interview down to about 4 MB. Thats only 4500 punched cards. Marc Kaufman (kaufman@CS.Stanford.EDU) ------------------------------ From: rdippold@qualcomm.com (Ron "Asbestos" Dippold) Subject: Re: Internet Radio Program, "Geek of the Week" Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 21:04:03 GMT Graham Toal writes: > A Mb per minute is ridiculous for speech. That should be brought down > a *lot*. Still, even at the best rate possible - say some very > crackly zero crossing scheme, fitting the data into a 14.4K modem's > bandwidth - you're never going to be able to download speech by phone > at much better than real time. Who's going to spend 30 minutes It's not quite that bad ... our vocoder, using a variation of CELP (QCELP), vocodes at 1000 bytes per second locked at full rate. If running at variable rate and assuming a standard voice activity factor (one-sided) of about .6 for one side that's 600 bytes per second, or one megabyte for the half hour. (If you're really worried about space and want to trade for voice quality you can lock out full rate voice entirely and force it to go at half-rate and below only). This system was designed to sound good on a cellular system, and when there's no data mangling in the transmission medium it _really_ sounds great. You should be able to do two separate voice conversations over a V.32bis modem using a CELP variation like this -- there should be enough bandwith because of the variable rate, and if there's ever a problem you can throttle back the vocoders to a random half frame now and then. Going back to the net, in the worst case you could "decompress" the vocoded speech once you'd ftped it if your software wasn't fast enough to do it in real time, then play back the decompressed version. The only problem is that QCELP and variations are designed to handle speech, so that any music will be mangled and you can't have a cool theme song (maybe someone singing acapella?) unless you store that separately. I'm not suggesting using QCELP specifically, I'm just using it as an example that it can be done -- I know there are plenty of CELP variations out there, some of which are public domain. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 10:59:43 CST From: varney@ihlpl.att.com Subject: Re: Future of North American Numbering Plan Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL In article stefan@stefan.imp.com writes: > A couple of days ago, I asked: >> Why can't you just add another digit to the phone number? [And John Levine responded:] > In case nobody else has pointed it out, North American switching > systems have evolved a different switching protocol than is used > elsewhere in the world. The CCITT standard used everywhere else > passes a digit at at time with per-digit handshakes. The North > American standard buffers up a full ten digit number and transmits it > in a block. (Before you ask, at the time this convention was invented > in the early 1950s there were probably more dial phones in North > America than in the entire rest of the world.) But this "buffering" isn't all that unusual once you get beyond a SXS view of switching. Almost all switches have to know when the caller has completed dialing, and since billing is done at the local end (except of SXS), all the digits have to be seen at the local end. SS7 will support "en bloc" and "subsequent digits" forms of calling, but a single "en bloc" IAM is much simpler and efficient. > So making phone numbers longer than the current ten digits would > require immense changes to every phone switch we've got. Newer > switches use SS7 which could probably be changed with a software > upgrade, but there is still a lot of crossbar which would require > soldering in hundreds of new relays. (Ech, solder dripping into the markers!! How about wire-wrap? And all that wiring would have to happen on one night!!) But the basic point to remember is that North America isn't running out of numbers in the ten-digit spectrum. We have plenty of numbers available. Unfortunately, the NPA middle-digit-is-0/1 rule meant we were not using 75% of the spectrum. Much easier to use up the existing spectrum (which doesn't change anyone's existing number either INSIDE the USA or in the rest of the world). And much more sensible, IMHO. So the impact (unlike adding a digit) is almost entirely on the equipment vendors and owners of that equipment, not every person that makes a call into North America. (Not to mention that such a change would be more complex because Canada and the 809 countries would likely resist adding a digit to their numbers -- this would add immense even more complexity to switches everywhere in the world.) If you think there is an uproar over the planned NPA change because of it's impact on the somewhat tiny world of telecom, step back and think about the impact of another digit on every business and telephone user in the USA (and their world-wide callers). Now there's an UPROAR! Al Varney - just my opinion, of course ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Toll Stations in California Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 17:28:21 GMT In article fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) writes: > The other toll station missing from the list is (or was) at the > intersection of Nevada 266 and US 95, about 40 miles east of Deep > Springs. This was Lida Junction 3, a pay phone with no dial in the > parking lot of the, er, "Cottontail Ranch," a whorehouse (yes, they're > legal in rural Nevada!). I think LJ 1 and 2 were inside, but I never > went in to check. According to the "Best Cathouses in Nevada" by J. R Schwartz (Copyright 1984, and there's a new book out by now, I'm sure) the Cottontail Ranch is indeed served by Lida Junction #2. This is not the only cathouse served by a toll station. Janie's Ranch, west of Montgomery Pass on US 6, just inside the California Nevada Border is served by "Montgomery Pass #4" although they are also served by direct dial out of 619-933, Benton, CA. One more telecom anomoly in this book is listed under "Billie's Day and Night." Here the listing states "No Telephone." The mind boggles. Where are their priorities? What _could_ they be thinking? :-) Now you have an excuse to check out these facilities. After all, they are telecom history in the making. :-) Edward W. Greenberg | Home: +1 408 283 0511 | edg@netcom.com 1600 Stokes St. #24 | Work: +1 408 764 5305 | DoD#: 0357 San Jose, CA 95126 | Fax: +1 408 764 5003 | KM6CG (ex WB2GOH) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 11:09 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA. tredydev.unisys.com writes: > I know this has been discussed before, and I thought it was a > switch-settable option, but GTE only permits one call at a time to be > in processes through a normal Call Forwarded ("Programmable Call > Forwarding") line. This is really annoying, as I intended for people > to continue using my old (GTE) number, even though I am receiving > calls at my new (PacBell) number. I have often wondered why people forward the old number to the new one. My mechanic did this after he moved from his old location to a new one just over the exchange boundary line. The only thing that I could see that it bought him was the postponing of the inevitable day of truth when people would finally HAVE to learn and dial the new number. Plus there was the side "benefit" of paying all those local units for the forwarded calls. So let me ask you: why don't you just have the old number referred to the new one? Are you going to leave the old one forwarded forever? As long as someone can reach you by dialing the old number, he is NEVER going to learn the new one (or even care). John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@Panix.Com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Moving a Phone Line Within Apartments Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 22:50:35 GMT In hwc@kalpana.com (Hon Wah Chin) writes: > While moving from one unit in an apartment building to another, I > wanted to have access to my phone line from both places. I did this > from the building's side of the demarc. Now that I'm out of the old > apartment I called PacBell to get the records changed to reflect the > situation. > After talking to the rep I get the feeling that they would have done > the transfer at the CO and charged me $35. It looks as though my > attempt to do the switch "make before break" didn't work. > It looks as though I will have to back out my wiring changes and ask > for a regular transfer of service. Any hints about how to minimize > the no-service window? Well, you do not indicate which state you are in. The answer varies from state to state. Some states (including NY) define the point to which they (as distinct from the landlord) provide service as the network interface jack in your individual premises. In those states, they would take a _very_ dim view of your reconnections since there is no "building's side of the demarc". Other states (e.g. Illinois and California) define it as the street-cable binding posts in the basement. In such a state it is not the telephone company's business what happens on the riser side of the basement cross-connection. It is the business of the landlord. In such a state I should think you could call them up and simply announce you want your bill sent somewhere other than where it was being sent before (e.g. the new apartment) if that is what you want. Or, if you don't mind the bill being addressed in an unchanged way (e.g. you are having it sent to a PO Box) then no further action would be required on your part. Here in NY, a change of service location that happens to be within one building has a smaller one-time charge than a change of location that changes what building you are in. The different pricing is, I assume, a throwback to the days when all changes involved physical manipulations of wires. In those old days, a within-the-building move required one technician act (in your basement) and a building- to-building move required three technician acts (one in your basement and one in the central office, as well as a technician act in the new basement in most cases). Of course, nowadays with dedicated pairs running from the central office to each apartment in each building, the intra-building moves are handled from the telco's point of view exactly like inter-building moves, namely by keystrokes entered at a keyboard. But in NY, at least, the difference in one-time charges persists. Here in NY, the tariffs let the customer have up to ten days, I think, of overlap in service between the old and new locations, at no extra cost. Hope this helps. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (intellectual property lawyer) 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112-0228 voice 212-408-2578 fax 212-765-2519 ------------------------------ Date: 08 Mar 93 18:31:24 EST From: tim gorman <71336.1270@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: OSPS and ANI Failure varney@ihlpl.att.com (Al Varney) writes in TELECOM Digest V13 #154: > Tim, I'd like more info on this SS7 "compatibility" issue. In trying to be brief, I made a statement that was misleading. The incompatibility is that SS7 trunk signaling on CAMA trunks between an ANI office and its CAMA billing office is not provided for. This does prevent the use of CLASS features on calls to and from these offices. It does not prevent the completion of calls using ANI. It does not prevent these calls from interworking with trunks and or call processes using SS7 trunk signaling or data base queries (at least as long as the switch vendor properly implements this ). > But when you replaced the CDO in my home town, you forgot to > activate the "four-digit local calling" feature on the new switch > (grin). And my dad's impression was that it was SWBT, not the PUC, < that forced him to private line service from 8-party. Of course, Since there may be a good possibility of having to go to 10D local dialing in the near feature, forgetting to activate 4D dialing may turn out to be a blessing :->. Elimination of four-party and eight-party was part of a five year telecommunications network upgrade agreement SWBT in KS made with the PUC. In turn for eliminating multiparty service, going completely stored program control/equal access, upgrading interoffice facilities, and freezing certain rates including local flat rates the PUC moved away from rate-of-return regulation to more of a price regulation format. This plan is to be complete 12-94 and will be reviewed for renewal in late 1994. Tim Gorman-SWBT *opinions are mine, any resemblance to official policy is coincidence* ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager From: jgeorge@whiffer.atl.ga.us Date: Tue, 09 Mar 93 00:31:51 EST Organization: The Waffle Whiffer, Atlanta, GA jackl@pribal.uucp (jack lowry) writes: > The skypager had a few advantages over the local pagers I have had: > 1. possibilty of retrieving missed pages. (upto 100 hours ago) > 2. Blocking pages. (Don't bother me I'm...) > 3. future pages. (page you at some time in the future) > 4. The newer sky pagers can also tell you when you are out of range. I had a SkyPager for a long time, and I was very unhappy with it. They're up to 4x as expensive as a regular pager, and the local pagers around here have all the features the SkyPager has but better local coverage. While the SkyPager may work in 100+ cities, the local pagers we now use have well over THREE TIMES the coverage area. In my travels I've found that SkyPagers rarely work even to the edges of the city, and huge sections of metro areas are without service from their weak signals. I've boiled my travels down to primarily Chicago and Atlanta and I find it cheaper to just have local pagers in both cities than a SkyPager that works marginally in either city. If you travel to more than three or four cities with regularity, then a SkyPager will probably work for you. I think that there are several other companies offering nationwide service, and some local companies (like PacTel Paging, I think) can offer service in more than one metro area on the same pager. >> Would cellular phones be better? Personally, I would think that a cellular phone would be a necessity nowadays as a supplement to a pager rather than a replacement for it. The service (especially if you're roaming) was still _way_ too expensive to be used as a paging service, but it's sure easier to return a call via cellular than to trudge around in the rain looking for a payphone, and fumbling for a calling card. ------------------------------ From: turner@Dixie.Com Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 12:14 EST Reply-To: turner@dixie.com Subject: Re: Costs to Telco: Leased vs Dial Vance Shipley writes: > Network simplification has to be important to the telco, their manpower > costs are a high percentage of operating costs. Also, as another poster > pointed out automated loop testing, etc. are not possible (or more costly > and difficult) on special service facilities. Assuming you don't mean automatic (ie ALIT) when you say automated, I will have to disagree. Special Service circuits can be tested from either the digital (ie DCS) or analog (ie SMAS) side. I would assume there are very few all analog SS circuits, unless both ends are served by the same CO. All transmission impairment measurements (SNR, noise, attenuation distortion, envelope delay, IMD, jitter, etc) can be preformed from the DACS as well as the SMAS. The biggest reason to use the SMAS is to allow centralized (ie SARTS) testing of cable pairs for problems such as ground faults and side crosses. A SMAS, or similar metailic facility access, also allows tones to be sent to both pairs of a four wire circuit. This is useful for locating bad cable pairs, or IDing pairs in critical situations. I have been told that the SMAS capability comes built in to most of the CO equipiment used for SS circuits. Every SS circuit I have been involved in troubleshooting was accessable by the SMAS if the office was so equipied (and not served with DLC.) I would imagine the problem with maintaing SS circuits would be being able to access the circuit for testing. With the nailed up connections, you don't know when, if ever, you can access the circuit for routine or automatic testing. This problem is made worse because of the critical nature of some SS circuits. Holston Mt, TN is a good example. Along about two miles of mountain top sit a NWS radar, a FAA VORTAC, three TV stations, four radio stations, several microwave repeaters and DIPs, two airphone transmitter sites, and a whole bunch of two way sites. The local United cable man will not touch a pair unless he is at either end or has a tone on the pair. Patton Turner KB4GRZ turner@dixie.com ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: A Little More TWX History Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 18:33:34 GMT In article , hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: [as part of a truly interesting article on some hobby uses of old teletypewriter equipment] > ... We now don't even plot our boards. We just take a disk with > the Gerber photoplot file and drill file across town to the PC house. > We give them a disk and back come PC boards. Pretty neat! > It's amazing to see the changes I've seen in the electronics > industry ... but then, I'm getting older ... Harold: It is, indeed, amazing. There even are places where we no longer have to take the disk across town ... our phototypesetter accepts Postscript files from us by modem. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #160 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04844; 9 Mar 93 5:12 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21581 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 9 Mar 1993 02:38:53 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26937 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 9 Mar 1993 02:38:11 -0600 Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 02:38:11 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303090838.AA26937@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #161 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 Mar 93 02:38:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 161 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (John Higdon) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Andrew Funk) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (John Boteler) Re: Things Really Went BOOM! (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Things Really Went BOOM! (Steve Forrette) Re: Blocking of Phone Numbers With Caller ID (Dave Levenson) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (Kevin Paul Herbert) Re: Explain This Phenomena (Mickey Ferguson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 16:31 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) writes: > Neither would I. My brother, who is also an avid reader of this > digest, told me that at an AM radio station for which he used to be a > part time DJ, they could not use IBM PC's because the broadcast tower > interfered with the keyboard preventing it from working properly. Rather than indicate any mysterious forces at work, the fact that the PC did not work properly simply indicates a lack of knowledge on someone's part concerning proper grounding and shielding. I know of a number of 50KW AM stations that have studios and transmitters co-located. They also have PCs that work just fine. > I also recall a comment about feeling the hair on the back of one's > neck stick out from the electric field as one approached the tower. Someone was pulling your leg. For the hair on your neck to be noticably affected would require an electrostatic field in the one-million volt department to occur at any distance at all from the source. RF voltages (even at the voltage-peak point on the tower) never even remotely approach this, even on a 50KW tower. I have worked around dozens of 50KW stations over the past twenty-five years or so and have NEVER observed my hair standing on end. What nonsense! Once again, let us nip the folklore in the bud. There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that RF energy at AM wavelengths causes ANY physiological affects. It is common practice for tower workers to climb energized AM towers (you cannot get much closer than that) and no one has come up with a single case of anything that can be attributed to such exposure. Yes, you can get an RF burn off the tower if you brush your hand past it, but that is due to the arc that is drawn, not some mysterious, unseen force. FYI, I have known a number of pregnant women who have worked around AM transmitters and have all given birth to very healthy babies. > * * * * * * --> DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself. <-- * * * * * * > Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology > bwhitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering > University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Amazing! Do you ever work in the lab? John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: kb7uv@Panix.Com (Andrew Funk) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 03:43:35 GMT In dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) writes: > In TELECOM Digest Volume 13 : Issue 156 sbrenner@cbnewsb.cb.att.com > (scott.d.brenner) writes: >> In article add@philabs.philips.com >> (Aninda Dasgupta) writes: >>> A newspaper article I read earlier this week implied that the station >>> (and other local stations) was able to provide their signal to other >>> stations out in Long Island, who were then able to uplink the signal >>> to the satellite, from which the cable systems could pick up the >>> signal. > What happened on Long Island is that WNBC uplinked to a satellite and > the local PBS station, WLIW - Channel 21, picked up the signals and > retransmitted them over the air and the two cable companies > (Cablevision of Long Island and TCI) sent the signals to their > subscribers. In this way, all TV viewers could receive the news "as > it happened." Uh, not quite ... WNBC-TV has a 2 GHz Electronic News Gathering (ENG) receiver on the WLIW tower in Plainview. their equipment is in a rack inside WLIW's building. WNBC-TV put a portable ENG transmitter on 30 Rock and pointed it to Plainview, WLIW patched into the WNBC ENG rack and got the video and audio. WCBS-TV has primary and main back-up transmiters on WTC. We're the only VHF to maintain back-up transmitters on the Empire State Building. So, when WTC wend dark we "lit-up" Empire and stayed on-the-air. Many of the cable systems receive direct studio feeds via microwave or cable (copper or fiber) rather than getting the local stations off-air. So the other stations kept their news going, but only those few viewers watching on cable systems getting these feeds could see them. I had a bit of a busy week! We were on-air from 12:40 PM to 7 PM, and then 7:30 to 8 PM, with only the half-hour break for the CBS Evening News. Except for a single five minute break I was in Microwave Control handling all the ENG feeds and live remotes. They had me in before 6 AM and until midnight for quite a few days of the following week. (Can you say overtime? It feels weird to profit from a terrorist act. Yes, I've sent major contributions to my favorite charities in memory of the victims and with some of the overtime money!) Debbie Matut, the WCBS-TV transmitter technician in question, apparently decided to stay at the transmitter during her pregnancy rather than accept a new position in video maintenance at the broadcast center because the transmitter is an almost stress-free place to work ... she is definitely reconsidering! (And I spent about 1/2 hour talking to her and her husband, suggesting that a high RF area is *not* a good place to be during pregnancy!) We'll see what she does ... Andrew Funk, KB7UV Chair, Radio Amateur Telecommunications Society (RATS) ENG Editor/Microwave Control, WCBS-TV Channel 2 News, New York Internet: kb7uv@panix.com Packet: kb7uv@kb7uv.#nli.ny.usa [Moderator's Note: Look at all the overtime the New York Police Department is paying, and the overtime the FBI guys are getting. In that Texas confrontation with Jesus Christ (at least that's who he says he is) the FBI says they believe JC has enough food, ammo and other supplies to stall them for another *year*. They say they'll be waiting for him. The television news tonight showed the FBI guys at their shift-change. One crew leaving, another crew arriving to sit it out until JC decides to surrender or have a mass-suicide like the former San Fransico Commissioner of Housing, Rev. Jim Jones. I guess they figured after he preached the sermon over the radio he would go with them quietly. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bote@access.digex.com (John Boteler) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Date: 8 Mar 199 &PC}\23 04:51:37 -0500 Organization: Express Access Public Access UNIX, Greenbelt, Maryland USA sbrenner@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (scott.d.brenner) writes: > add@philabs.philips.com (Aninda Dasgupta) writes: >> said that all the other TV stations had their transmitters on top of >> the WTC. > I don't care how they did it, but I was really pleased that they were > able to continue broadcasting. It's amazing that they were able to > get it all set up so quickly. I know it's not *really* related to > telecom, but if anyone can give a more detailed (but understandable) Au contraire, it does have a telecom twist, and that ain't a pair. All the networks have fiber links from NYC to Washington DC bureaus. Apparently those other stations you mentioned on Long Island are also connected this way. I assume that these were on hot standby and provided a quick path for the programming to get out. I also found out that IDB's (you remember them) NY Teleport sits on top of one of the WTC towers, and it was knocked off too. They nabbed one or two of their transportable sat. trucks and possibly a flyaway dish to keep critical (big $$$) customers on the birds and in touch, much like they would a sporting event such as the World Series. Although this had a major impact, for broadcasters at least it was not the kind of doomsday that might have been had these two modern technological gems been unavailable. bote@access.digex.com (John Boteler) ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Things Really Went BOOM! Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1993 21:50:23 GMT TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: They realized people with 900 blocks on their phone > would not be able to use it, but the idea was to be able to service a > huge volume of callers at the same time with emergency reports. Many > 900 services are set up to take thousands of calls at the same time. I > think they want to be able to send a message to television and radio > stations saying (something like) "there is a serious emergency affecting > residents of Chicago. Please dial 900-xxx-xxxx at no charge to hear an > emergency announcement by the mayor". Of course, someone suggested > why not just make the announcement on the radio/television in that > case ... it was an idea they've tossed around while building our new, > very modern, very high tech police communications center. PAT] The FCC is looking into updating the broadcast Emergency Broadcast System allowing for automatic program interruption by emergency operations centers. They are looking at replacing the existing 853 & 960 Hz tone signalling with some other method that would include an end of message signal to return programming to normal. I wrote an article in the January issue of {Radio World} on this. In addition, we have proposed such a system for use in San Luis Obispo County. It does seem that broadcast stations would be a more effective way of reaching the population than asking everyone to dial a 900 number. I'm sure the telco would run out of dial tone. Also, I seem to recall a previous discussion here about having a capability thru the central office of ringing every telephone in an area and dropping it into an emergency message recording on answer. It seems like this could be quite effective for localized emergencies such as chemical spills, etc. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Things Really Went BOOM! Date: 8 Mar 1993 20:42:19 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA > [Moderator's Note: They realized people with 900 blocks on their phone > would not be able to use it, but the idea was to be able to service a > huge volume of callers at the same time with emergency reports. Many > 900 services are set up to take thousands of calls at the same time. Most of the 900 service bureaus can set up such a system just as easily on an 800 number. They have a bunch of dedicated T spans to the IXC, coupled with their conferencing equipment. There's no reason why they can't implement the large "broadcast" conference using an 800 number instead of a 900 number. It's just that there's not much demand for such a service, so you don't see it that often. After all, how many people have the need to broadcast to a large number of people, and allow anyone to call into the conference on their dime? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Blocking of Phone Numbers With Caller ID Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 19:00:40 GMT In article , Bob Baxter writes: > Anyhow, I seem to remember reading someplace, whether it was a New > York Telephone pamphlet, or perhaps an old Digest, that if you had > Caller ID, you could block out either: > a) A selected phone number(s); > b) A number that is marked private would not even let my phone ring. Call-screening is available from many telephone companies, and allows you to block calls from a customer-administered list of (usually) up to eight numbers. This is available independently of Caller*ID. At least one state (Virginia) also offers a service called Anonymous Call Rejection. This service allows you to prevent incoming calls on which the caller's number is marked PRIVATE. This service is performed for you by the telephone company. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1993 21:19:58 GMT The monthly rates on pagers are sure a lot better than the airtime use on cellular phones. To discourage use of pagers in drug sales, our paging supplier limits free paging to 300 per month, which is certainly adequate for my use. I think doctors and others who can demonstrate a need for a higher limit can get it at no charge. Our tone only paging, which is simulcast all over California and parts of Nevada costs $10 per month. The pager operates at about 931 MHz. Now and then I have to travel outside the coverage are of the system. It would sure be great if the various pager companies would set up a co-op where I could tell my pager company I'm going to be somewhere for a couple weeks and they'd give me a telephone access number for that area. If the local paging companies were to do this, they could hold off some of the competition from nationwide paging companies (Skypage, etc.). I've suggested this in a letter to the editor of Mobile Radio Technology magazine, but no one (that I know of) has done it yet. To help those of us that occasionally travel, it'd be great to have "communications stores" in airports. They'd offer pagers and cellular phones for rent while you're in that city. I've seen (as I recall) car rental companies that are renting cellular phones, but have generally not seen pager rental. Somewhat related, at the National Association of Broadcasters convention (in Las Vegas), exhibitors can rent a single dial up line for about a week for $191.65 (no instrument). Portable cellular phones are available for $3.00 per day and $1.45 per minute air time. Pagers are available for $25.50 each (again, for about a one week period). We intend to utilize the paging network in one of our broadcast transmitter control systems. On an alarm, the system would dump transmitter parameters to the on call tech's pager (alphanumeric). Finally, I read a lot about data broadcasting (using FM subcarrier, TV aural subcarrier, TV vertical blanking interval, etc.). It seems that the paging companies are in an ideal position to serve the data broadcasting market. They could stuff data between pages. Since paging traffic definitely varies with time of day, there could be variable rates depending on system loading. It'd be a way to sell some of their excess capacity without having to expand the system over what is currently needed to meet their existing peak demand. Finally finally, I find UPS's use of the cellular telephone network to track package deliveries pretty interesting. Someone want to write about that? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: Mon, 8 Mar 93 13:43:04 -0800 From: Kevin Paul Herbert Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls TELECOM Moderator noted: > Curiously, on a couple of exchanges here, if A forwards to B and B > forwards to C then a call directly dialed to B goes on to C while a > call reaching B via A stops at B and rings through right there > regardless of what B wants done with *his* calls. This is the behavior of #1 ESS switches. This was fixed in 1A. This happens if you set up call forwarding to a number on the same switch. > In other words, you cannot go A > B > C > D > A > B > C > D just to > have the equipment running around in circles. I'm pretty sure that this is the basic reason that multiple forwarded calls off the switch are not allowed. Without SS7, the forwarding switches have no alternative for forwarding a call than to just grab a trunk and place the call. The switch can't route to the eventual end destination and do loop detection, so in order to prevent loops, it must just allow one forwarded call. As far as I know, if the destination of a forwarded call is on the same switch, there is no limit to the number of allowable concurrent forwarded calls. Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 14:04:23 PST From: mickeyf@clipper.zfe.siemens.de (Mickey Ferguson) Subject: Re: Explain This Phenomena > My kitchen phone's DTMF keypad is intermittently on the blink. One > morning I decided to see if I could dial a number by flashing the > switch-hook (trying to emulate rotary dialing). [stuff deleted] > [Moderator's Note: What happened was your 'pressing the hook eight > times' was not properly synchronized, and the eight probably got taken > as four 2s, or two 3s and a 2, or maybe a 3 and two 2s and a 1, or > similar. You could have wound up calling 332-1133 or any number where > a total of 16 pulses would be used. Pressing the hook rapidly is not a > very reliable way to dial unless you are really coordinated and good > at it. The taps of your finger were probably not precise. PAT] That reminds me of the good old days ;-) back in college when our pathetic telephone system only allowed us rotary phones. My roommate used MCI for his long distance, and the only way he could use it was to dial the 800 number, then tone dial the access code and phone number. Since he only had a phone and not a tone sender, what he would do was to disconnect our rotary phone, plug in his tone phone (which didn't have a switch for pulse), and then tap out the entire 9-800-xxx-xxxx number for MCI. (That's a *lot* of taps!) We both got so good at tapping out phone numbers that sometimes we'd just keep the tone phone connected, and then "tap" someone (no, it isn't the same as reaching out and touching someone! ;-) instead of dialing them. We made very few mistakes, and those where we did usually resulted in some fun! ;-) It also prevented others from coming in the room when we were out for a minute and stealing long distance use or message units. Mickey Ferguson -- Rolm, A Siemens Company -- PhoneMail Development ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #161 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05650; 9 Mar 93 5:37 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20461 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 9 Mar 1993 03:11:45 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31636 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 9 Mar 1993 03:11:07 -0600 Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 03:11:07 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303090911.AA31636@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #162 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 Mar 93 03:11:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 162 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy (Steve Forrette) Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review (Don Hackler) Re: CLASS Question (Steve Forrette) Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (rfranken@cs.umr.edu) Re: China's Largest Cellular Order Ever (Dan J. Declerck) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy Date: 8 Mar 1993 10:36:21 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article richard@dgbt.doc.ca (Richard Paiement) writes: > stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: >> I have a business associate in Canada who tells me that businesses in >> Quebec (or some part thereof) are forbidden to answer the phone in >> English. Reportedly, even a mixed French/English greeting is not >> allowed -- the person answering can't use English until the caller >> indicates that they want to speak English. And, (perhaps in the >> "Office de la Langue Francaise) there are Phone Police (tm) that call >> businesses at random in order to ensure compliance with these >> regulations. > First off, Steve, I'll excuse you for believing such crap since you > don't live in Canada. > That anobody could believe such a rumour is hysterically funny. Quebec > has never been and will never be an Orwellian society. One can walk in > any city or town in the province of Quebec and will see many bilingual > as well as English-only signs defying the language law, and nobody has > been killed yet. Since I didn't want to be guilty of spreading any false facts here in the TELECOM Digest, I just double-checked them by calling my Canadian friend and discussing this issue with him at length. For reference, he is a Canadian citizen who lives in Canada full-time, and has owned and operated a business there for many years. He has corporate customers from all over Canada, many of them in Quebec, and has had many opportunities to personally deal with and observe these language regulations in action. Here are several issues that he cited: 1. The French language regulations on the answering of telephones has caused several major companies to leave Quebec. A specific example cited was Sun Life, which catered to a predominantely English-speaking clientele. The French language regulations would have required them to put all of their English-speaking clerks who answered the phone through classes in order to teach them to speak French, even though the only people who they talked to were English-speaking. Instead of paying for this waste, they moved to another province. Another example is Cominsco. 2. All business signs must be predominantly French. Having French everywhere English is used on a sign is not enough -- it must be predominantly French. This may be accomplished by having the French part in a slightly larger font. There was a case where a business owner had restroom signs that used just the silhouette pictures to denote the men's and women's restrooms, and was fined by the Language Police because the signs were not predominantly French. 3. By default, all public school instruction is primarily in French, with English being taught as a second language. In order for a child to attend a public school with most instruction in English, one of the parents must have graduated from a primarily-English high school in Quebec. This was implemented to ensure that immigrant families who came to Canada and spoke neither French nor English would send their children to French schools. Before, when they were given a choice of French or English, most chose English, because that's the language they wanted their children to learn. But, this law also affects Canadians moving from other provinces, or Americans who live for a few years in Canada. If I, as an American, were to come to Quebec for a few years, why should my children have to go to French schools just because me or my wife didn't graduate from an English high school in Quebec? Businesses can apply for an exemption for specific employees. This was passed because American executives from companies that operated Canadian branches (such as General Motors) started refusing to come to Canada. 4. Quebec tried to change their air traffic control system so that all dispatching was done in French. English is the international language of air traffic control, and in fact they even land the planes in Paris, France by speaking English, but Quebec wanted to use French instead. Reportedly this never got implemented, though. I don't know about you, Richard, but a lot of this sounds quite Orwellian to me. And yes, Pat, there is a further telecom relevance to this post. My friend has a single 800 number that can be called from either Canada or the United States. It was issued sometime before divestiture. When he applied for it, they would not give him any number he wanted, but said that they were issuing numbers on a certain prefix, and he could have any available number on that one prefix. So, he sat down with pencil and paper, and figured out what interesting words could be spelled with the given prefix. He found a great phrase, which works really well for his business, and requested that particular number. He didn't dare tell Bell Canada what it spelled, as it surely would be given to a bigger, "more important" customer. So, he just said that he wanted this certain number. The assignment was approved by both AT&T and Bell Canada, and in fact he received a written confirmation from Bell Canada. A couple of weeks later, he got a call from a Bell Canada exec telling him that they had made a mistake, and the number wasn't available after all. Of course, what had really happened is that someone realized what the number spelled, and wanted to give it to someone else. But, he had in hand a written confirmation of the number, and AT&T was going to honor their commitment regarding the number assignment. He was able to convice them that it would be silly for Bell Canada not to give the number to his Canadian company that AT&T was willing to give, and that they should have thought about all of this before mailing a written confirmation. So, he got his desired assignment in both the United States and Canada. And no, it is not answered in French, as he's located in another province. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review From: donh@shakala.com (Don Hackler) Date: Mon, 08 Mar 93 01:39:08 PST Organization: Shakala BBS (ClanZen Radio Network) Sunnyvale, CA +1-408-734-2289 TELECOM Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: In the early days of MCI, they were fond of showing > unsophisticated (telecom-wise) business executives how they could > 'save money' by using MCI. And sure enough, a comparison of their long > distance rates ONLY versus AT&T showed the cost for the *long distance* > part of the call was less. But they conveniently neglected to mention > that AT&T's higher rates included (admittedly due to their connection > with the local telcos at that time) as well the local part of the > connection from the local CO to the long distance switch. So business > pplaces signed up with MCI and saw a decrease in the long distance > side of their bill but a substantial increase in their local message > unit charges. The 'savings' was a wash at best and in many cases, the > total monthly outlay for telecommunications (local bill from telco > plus long distance bill from MCI versus a single bill from telco which > included long distance charges from AT&T) was actually higher than it > had been before. > MCI conveniently failed to mention that if you > called via their switch somewhere and the distant end was busy or did > not answer on five attempts, you still wound up paying for five local > message units to the local telco, which in those days was understandably > not about to give a free ride to the long distance switch of AT&T's > competitor. After several complaints to the FCC and getting sued, MCI > finally began mentioning this 'slight additional expense' over and > above their published rates. As Charles Brown, former Chairman of AT&T > said at the time, " ... they have no investment in outside plant, they > have no local loops or switches, they only handle (this was in the > middle 1970's) the high traffic, very profitable east-coast corridor > stuff ... of course their prices will be cheaper. If I could get away > with the stuff they are allowed to pull off, my prices would still be > less than theirs ..." I grew up in Southwestern Bell territory, where business lines were flat rate by default, and measured service was a lower priced option for low usage business phones and the measured charge was flat rate per call, any duration. In that situation, you were really directly comparing actual long distance charges, and the competition was pretty stiff among not only the MCI/USTEL/SPRINT guys, but also WATS line resellers. We were surprised when we found people that actually used AT&T! Don Hackler - donh@shakala.com Shakala BBS (ClanZen Radio Network) Sunnyvale, CA +1-408-734-2289 [Moderator's Note: You said the secret phrase: flat rate business service. Even years ago when Chicago had flat rate residence service it was not available to businesses. Everytime they made a call it was a five cent charge. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: CLASS Question Date: 8 Mar 1993 18:32:26 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article silver!rudholm@uunet.UU.NET (Mark Rudholm) writes: > My next problem is with Call Return (*69). It seems to work (well, if > you ignore the fact that half of greater L.A. is GTE who hasn't > apparently heard of SS7 yet) O.K. I have a line at my parent's home > that I use as an RCF, it isn't a REAL Pacific Bell RCF but just a line > with Call Forwarding on it and no sets connected to it. > [Moderator's Note: I think the problem with call return on the 261 > line is the switch is trying to place an outgoing call on a line not > equipped for outgoing calls. The 261 line is only set up for incoming > calls. It thinks 'here is 261-xxxx placing a call to > ...' and realizes that is impossible since 261 is for incoming calls > only. An interesting bug, to be sure. PAT] Pat, from where do you infer that the 261 number is set up only for incoming calls? The way I read it, it is just a regular POTS line with Call Forwarding, which Mark has set once to forward to his home number, and just leaves it that way all of the time. I'm sure that it can place outgoing calls just fine, as Pacific Bell offers no such thing as an "incoming only" line, unless it is part of a Centrex group. Besides, when using Call Return, the call from his home number should go directly to the originating number of the original call, and not through the 261 switch. When forwarded calls arrive at his home through the 261 switch, the terminating switch knows both the original calling number, and the (last) forwarding number. If the caller decides to invoke Return Call, it has no need to deal with teh 261 switch at all. This reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask. It was reported here that Pacific Bell will x out the last four digits of any toll call that is placed as a result of using Call Return on a call that came in marked PRIVATE. Of course, this only applies to intra-LATA calls, right? Inter-LATA calls, even those that are intra-state, will still have the full number displayed. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com [Moderator's Note: You are correct that inference by myself should not have been made. But I still think the problem stems from the equipment trying to place a call that it thinks on the one hand 261 is originating only to discover an instant later that 261 is not in that switch. I am going to try this with my line and see what results I get. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rfranken@cs.umr.edu Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 13:25:31 CST > [Moderator's Note: Again, are we talking about the number of calls > which can be forwarded at one time from A > B or are we talking about > the extent to which A can be chained linked to B then to C and D, etc? > If the former, there is no problem with the number of circuits which > are available. As soon as the place to which calls are being forwarded > runs out of places to put them (i.e. two, three or how many lines in > the hunt group) then subsequent callers to the first number will get a > busy signal. If we are talking about chains that run forever, then > the important thing is to stop the process when a previously visited > number is found again in the chain. If this were not the case, then > any call forwarding could be a potential problem because what would > happen if A forwarded calls to himself, ie *72 from>? Would an incoming call hit the CO and run in circles forever? > No -- we know it sees a place where it has already been (original pass > through A) and gives up, returning busy to the caller. PAT] This brings up an interesting question. What would happen if such a loop were set up. For example, suppose phone A forward to phone B, which forwards to phone C, which forwards back to phone A. Assume no number of calls that can be forwarded at one time limits are in place. (i.e. assume that if X just forwards to Y, that there is no limit of how many calls can be forwarded, except that once Y runs out of trunks in the hunt group callers will get a busy signal). There are several cases, then: 1) A, B, and C are in the same switch. The switch would then probably detect the loop and return a busy signal or stop forwarding and ring one of the phones. 2) A, B, and C are in the same city, but off different switches (that are SS7 connected). Would the loop be detected? Does SS7 signalling tell the switch the entire path the call has taken? (i.e. when the switch for C got around to returning the call to A, would it know that the call has already passed through A? The CNID field would be of no use since that would have the number of whoever started the loop by dialing A (say, D, for example), and the ANI field would be of no use, since that could contain B. So, are there additional fields that would tell the switch that the call had passed through A?) 3) A, B, and C are in, say, Texas, California, and New Uork, off switches that have no SS7 connection to the IXC (if we are using sprint or MCI, that would be no problem, and even AT&T has lots of places without SS7 connections to the LEC). It would seem that the OLY information the IXC would then get would be ANI, which would be of no use in detecting that there is a loop. Do the IXC switches count calls in real time, and notice that there is a very large number of calls being made from A to B, for example, and then block A from calling B. Note that A having lots of calls to B is a normal occurance. Say a large company in LA has 100 lines, and several people are calling this companys office, which has the number B (assuming that don't have DID). Then the IXC woudl think A was making lots of calls to B (since all the lines from A's office would have the same billing number, which is what ANI sends). It would seem, that in the abcense of SS7 connections reporting the entire forward path of a call, there would be NO WAY to detect such a loop positively. (i.e. do we have a loop here? or is A just a big company that has lots of people simultaneously dialing B for some reason?); and that to prevent this, the telco would have to use some method of detecting activity that appears to be a loop, and stopping it. I am not trying to be naive here ... I am assuming that I am not the first person to think of this, and that the telcos have a way of preventing this from occurring. I guess my real question is how do they detect this? By counting calls and noticing that there is a large number of attempts from the same number to the same number is rapid succession? Do all local telcos limit the number of simultaneous forwards at once? (Although it would seem dangerous for an IXC to bet the stability of its network on every local telco remembering to set that parameter). BTW, note that this loop would be free to the people involved, since there would never be supervision from the call being finally answered. Brett (rfranken@cs.umr.edu) [Moderator's Note: Others have commented that because of the problem you describe, forwarding done out of the CO is limited to one call. But this does not seem right to me; I am certain a few years ago when we were partially ESS here and partially X-Bar that I tried forwarding my ESS line to the office where the X-Bar was and succeeded in getting more than one call forwarded. I could be mistaken; can't remember. You'd think even if they did not have a complete 'aduit trail' to use in detecting loops, they could at least compare one call coming through to another and see that the origins were different. PAT] ------------------------------ From: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com (Dan J. Declerck) Subject: Re: China's Largest Cellular Order Ever Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 14:53:01 GMT In article eeitecs@eeiuc.ericsson.se (Terence Cross) writes: > Daniel E. Ganek wrote: >> In article eeitecs@eeiuc.ericsson.se >> (Terence Cross) writes: >>> Ericsson has been awarded a contract worth over USD 150 million for a >>> large expansion of the mobile telephone network in the Guangdong >>> province, China. >> Can a US cellular phone be used in China? If so, how difficult is it >> to setup an account or set-up some sort of roaming aggreement? > I don't think US phones will work. I think there are two issues here: > there must be a billing arrangement with the foreign roamer (e.g. an > on-line transaction system (VLR) between Chinese PTT and US mobile > carrier or perhaps the visitor could become a Chinese PTT subscriber) > and the foreign roamers phone must be compatible with the system in > use. > The system in Guangdong will be the sophisticated digital GSM (Global > System forMobile communication). If the foreign man has a GSM phone > then he is half way there. I don't think GSM is used in the US, yet. The FCC has no intention of using GSM in the States. The US presently has AMPS (most popular) NAMPS, AMPS-DC, and eventually DS-CDMA. The Frequencies used in GSM are being used by cordless, and trunked radio. Also, the cost factor of GSM is still pretty high, while spectral efficiency is only about 50% better than AMPS. Dan DeClerck EMAIL: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com Motorola Cellular APD Phone: (708) 632-4596 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #162 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa17421; 10 Mar 93 12:25 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31262 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 10 Mar 1993 09:27:34 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06689 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 10 Mar 1993 09:27:02 -0600 Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 09:27:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303101527.AA06689@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #163 TELECOM Digest Wed, 10 Mar 93 09:27:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 163 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (Al Varney) Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (Kevin Paul Herbert) Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (Steve Forrette) Re: DS3/T3 Electrical vs Optical Question (Dave Gellerman) Re: DS3/T3 Electrical vs Optical Question (David G. Lewis) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 15:21:19 CST From: varney@ihlpl.att.com Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL In article rfranken@cs.umr.edu writes: > This brings up an interesting question. What would happen if such a > loop were set up. For example, suppose phone A forward to phone B, > which forwards to phone C, which forwards back to phone A. Assume no > number of calls that can be forwarded at one time limits are in place. > (i.e. assume that if X just forwards to Y, that there is no limit of > how many calls can be forwarded, except that once Y runs out of trunks > in the hunt group callers will get a busy signal). Brett, I hope you realize you are not the first person to think of this question. Every ESS(tm) switch in a college town probably had this tried at least once before 1970. > There are several cases, then: > 1) A, B, and C are in the same switch. The switch would then probably > detect the loop and return a busy signal or stop forwarding and ring > one of the phones. Bellcore suggests switches should detect the loop and block after some number of forwardings, say five times. The same DN should not appear in two legs of the forwarding. (This is for CFV -- customer-changeable call forwarding). For RCF -- Remote Call Forwarding -- they suggest a customer-specified number of simultaneous forwardings be permitted. They also hint that the default should be one, except for cases where the customer has a multi-line hunt group at the forwarded-to DN. CF loop detection doesn't result in ringing any telephone. > 2) A, B, and C are in the same city, but off different switches (that > are SS7 connected). Would the loop be detected? Does SS7 signalling > tell the switch the entire path the call has taken? (i.e. when the > switch for C got around to returning the call to A, would it know that > the call has already passed through A? The CNID field would be of no > use since that would have the number of whoever started the loop by > dialing A (say, D, for example), and the ANI field would be of no use, > since that could contain B. So, are there additional fields that > would tell the switch that the call had passed through A?) Per Bellcore, ANI isn't passed in SS7 unless the call is inter-LATA. As you suggest, it's not useful in detecting the loop anyway. However, Bellcore's TR-972 (and ANSI T1) discusses the parameters in SS7 that are created/modified by forwarding. Of note: a) the Calling Party Number (CPN, your CNID) parameter is not changed when forwarding occurs in the switch, b) the Called Party Number (CDPN) parameter is changed to the forward- to number, c) if not present, parameters Redirection Information and Redirecting Number are added to the call; RI indicates how many forwardings have occurred so far and why this one occurred, RN contains the old CDPN, d) if those parameters were already present, the forwarding count in RI is incremented by the number of forwardings that occured in this switch, the RN updated with the last number that forwarded within the switch, and the RI gets the reason for the last forwarding. If not present, a parameter called Original Called Number (OCN) is added and receives the previous value of RN. If already present, OCN is not modified. At any time, if the number of forwardings indicated by the total of intra-switch and RI-indicated forwarding exceeds that allowed for the DN currently forwarding (or a switch default, usually 10), the call is routed to some tone. All of this not only helps the looping-forwarding problem, but also permits Voice Mail and Answering Service systems to receive the first and/or last forwarding number, thus identifying the "mailbox", even if the client is located in another switch. It also allows the systems to know "why" the forwarding occurred, so "her line is busy" vs. "no-one is answering" information can be given to the caller. > 3) A, B, and C are in, say, Texas, California, and New Uork, off > switches that have no SS7 connection to the IXC (if we are using > Sprint or MCI, that would be no problem, and even AT&T has lots of > places without SS7 connections to the LEC). It would seem that the > OLY information the IXC would then get would be ANI, which would be of > no use in detecting that there is a loop. > Do the IXC switches count calls in real time, and notice that there is > a very large number of calls being made from A to B, for example, and > then block A from calling B. I don't speak for any IXC (despite the Organization name), so I can't comment on what they might do. > It would seem, that in the abcense of SS7 connections reporting the > entire forward path of a call, there would be NO WAY to detect such a > loop positively. As I've indicated, one doesn't need the path -- just a count. > I am not trying to be naive here ... I am assuming that I am not the > first person to think of this, and that the telcos have a way of > preventing this from occurring. I guess my real question is how do > they detect this? By counting calls ... TELCos do not have cycles to burn in this manner. > ... Do all local telcos limit the number of > simultaneous forwards at once? (Although it would seem dangerous for > an IXC to bet the stability of its network on every local telco > remembering to set that parameter). BTW, note that this loop would be > free to the people involved, since there would never be supervision > from the call being finally answered. The last statement is a clue. The default (no parameters to forget to set) in many switches is to allow only one forwarding from a given number, UNTIL THE CALL IS ANSWERED. This is why such things as call- forwarding for un-answered calls (to Voice Mail, etc.) doesn't absolutely guarantee that every call will be forwarded. If a forwarding occurs, say because of call-forward-busy-line while another call is ringing, but the Voice Mail system hasn't answered when the first call attempts to forward, the call will not complete. If the switch supports assignment of other than '1' for simultaneous unanswered forwarded calls from a given DN, then the probability of such happening can be reduced. Such a tariff, if offered, is usually more costly because of the added switch resources needed. Remote Call Forwarding is sometimes offered with a limit > one even in switches that can't support CFV/CFDA/CFBL for more than one unanswered call. Al Varney - just my opinion, of course ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 14:03:40 -0800 From: Kevin Paul Herbert Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls TELECOM Moderator notes: > But this does not seem right to me; I am certain a few years ago when > we were partially ESS here and partially X-Bar that I tried forwarding > my ESS line to the office where the X-Bar was and succeeded in getting > more than one call forwarded. I could be mistaken; can't remember. Perhaps you were calling your ESS line from another line on the same switch. There is no forwarding limit in this case, just like if the terminating number is on the same switch. Kevin [Moderator's Note: Yes, as a matter of fact, I was. Thanks for pointing this out. I had forgotten this experience until this thread of discussion reminded me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls Date: 9 Mar 1993 22:21:20 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article rfranken@cs.umr.edu writes: > [Moderator's Note: Others have commented that because of the problem > you describe, forwarding done out of the CO is limited to one call. > But this does not seem right to me; I am certain a few years ago when > we were partially ESS here and partially X-Bar that I tried forwarding > my ESS line to the office where the X-Bar was and succeeded in getting > more than one call forwarded. I could be mistaken; can't remember. > You'd think even if they did not have a complete 'aduit trail' to use > in detecting loops, they could at least compare one call coming > through to another and see that the origins were different. PAT] This 'one call' limit is not always the case. It is set by the telco, and can have different values for each class of service, even in the same switch. I had to deal with this not four months ago with US West. I had a number that was going to be used for an advertising campaign, and was going to be forwarded to an answering service's DID number (they don't allow the DID to be published directly, so that they can reuse the number right away if the customer cancels the answering service's service). At first, I was going to set up a Remote Call Forwarding number. The cost was $18 per month plus message units. But, it allows only one simultaneous call. You can buy extra simultaneous capacity for an additional $18 per month each. I asked about regular call forwarding on a POTS line. They had to put me on hold, and check what the value was for my specific switch, which is a 5ESS. I was told that standard call fowarding allows up to 20 simultaneous calls, if it is a business line. So, I ordered up a business line in my apartment, with call forwarding. This costs about $36 per month for unmeasured service, which is a much better deal. And it cost US West a lot more to provision, since they had to send someout out to install it. As far as how they can allow a relatively large amount of simultaneous forwarded calls without creating the possibility of a forwarding loop eating up a large amount of trunks, here one way it could be done: limit the number of unsupervised forwarded calls. So, in my example above, with me being allowed 20 simulaneous forwarded calls, once my switch got one call, and forwarded it on to the next destination, it could return "busy" to additional calls until the first call supervised. Then, it could allow the next call through. This would prevent looping, but still allow 20 simultaneous calls. In order to reduce the chances of callers getting a false busy, they could put a slightly larger limit on the unsupervised calls; say, 20 calls maximum, but only five at a time in the unsupervised state. This way, a looped setup would only consume five loops of trunks before the caller hit a busy. And, the chances of more than five legitimate callers calling at the same time is not too much to worry about, I don't think. Of course, both of these numbers would ideally be individually configurable, based on the expected traffic patterns for each number. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com [Moderator's Note: I have a voicemail number available to me which can be given out direct as the need arises, to use for promotions, etc. On it I have noticed any number of calls can hit it at one time. Of course, that is a little different: the voicemail system has a large number of DID trunks. When anyone calls, the voicemail system looks at the DID number and decides what to do with the call. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gelerman@access.digex.com (Dave Gellerman) Subject: Re: DS3/T3 Electrical vs Optical Question Date: 9 Mar 1993 16:47:20 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA In article Ken Stone writes: > I appear to have dug into a rats nest on this one and I'm just not > sure why :-). It is my understanding that the ONLY way to get DS3 is either via digital microwave or fiber, as there really isn't a standard way of moving DS3 long distances on copper. If this is true, then for a landline distribution there will always be a fiber interface. I'm also not aware of a standard way of representing a DS3 signal optically. This is in fact why SONET is getting so much attention -- prior to it, virtually all fiber system used a proprietary (at least vendor specific) representation of the DS3 signal. I think this means you need the $bucks$ unit to convert (that is demultiplex) the DS3 from the fiber. David R. Gellerman (301) 590-3414 Hekimian Laboratories, Inc. gelerman@digex.com 15200 Omega Drive Rockville MD 20850 USA ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: DS3/T3 Electrical vs Optical Question Organization: AT&T Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 14:31:37 GMT In article Ken Stone writes: > In trying to look at getting a T3 to an offsite building a while > back, we noticed that tariffs for buying at the optical vs buying at > the electrical interface were considerably different ... It is to my > advantage to buy at the optical interface on at least one end since > the existing DS3 mux equip is "microwave located" and not "demarc > located". I'd also like the idea of the lower tariffs. In what > little research I have done so far (talking to my DS3 mux vendor), the > only thing I have come up with is that it would appear that optical > DS3 is not necessarily optical DS3 ... in that it may be that PacBell > REQUIRES the optical/electrical interface be done with this nifty > super do-all $bucks$ mux gadget from NT which can do MUCH more than > just the E/O conversion. That would explain the tariff difference. Typically, when telcos offer an optical interface for high capacity private line service (DS3 or higher), what they're offering is an optical demark between their E/O equipment and your E/O equipment, NOT an optical pipe through the network. This is why they specify the equipment you need -- it has to be compatible with the equipment sitting in their CO. (Note that I'm talking about before SONET phase 2, at which time equipment from multiple vendors conforming to the SONET specifications will be able to interconnect optically. At least theoretically.) The motivation behind this is that telcos see themselves in the business of selling telecommunications services, not fiber-optic plant. If you're selling a DS3 service, you have to be able to manipulate, or at the very least monitor, the signal to provide fault detection and isolation, performance monitoring, and so on. This requires a telco fiber optic terminal somewhere in the circuit. Additionally, if the telco provides an end-to-end fiber pipe (referred to as "dark fiber"), they have no knowledge of what you're putting on it. You could ostensibly be purchasing it for a DS3, and instead hang an OC-48 FOT on each end, getting 48 times the capacity you've paid the telco for. Telcos, needless to say, don't like this. > The inability to use some of the simpler gear I have heard of, having > to deal with a rack full of PacBell gear onsite AT THE DEMARC, and > being length limited by DS3/coax from said PacBell rack really stinks!! Actually, I'm surprised that the length limitation is really a problem, unless by "microwave located" you mean up a tower or something. I recall from my days at Teleport that the only buildings in which we had any kind of a length issue with DS3 risers were the World Trade Center and the Empire State Building. Anywhere else, the distance was well within the typical DS3 buildout. If there is a length limitation, it can be ameliorated by the use of a DS3 repeater somewhere between the PacBell demark and your mux; they're made by the usual crossconnect/repeater type vendors (ADC, Telect, I'm sure we (AT&T) make one, but I don't know if it's widely offered). Alternately, you find a company willing to provide you dark fiber. Alternately, you find a company willing to locate equipment in closer proximity to your mux. > What I'm interested in is what's available as far as DS3 optical > termination equipment (the simpler the better) and what other's > experiences with buying DS3 point to point from the RBOC's are. AT&T's DDM-1000 can provide a 90 Mb/s optical signal which is composed of two DS3s (DDM = Dual DS3 Multiplexer); the electrical signal can be either DS3 inputs or low speed inputs (DS1, DS1C, DS2) which the DDM muxes up to DS3. Telco Systems offers a system (the name of which escapes me - the FOX-3, perhaps?) which is a pure O/E DS3 - electrical DS3 in one side, optical DS3 out the other side. They also offer a system called the 828A which takes low speed inputs, muxes them up to DS3, and converts to optical. (Note that this information is at least a year and a half old; I haven't worked with transmission equipment in that long.) Disclaimer: I don't know any of this from working at AT&T, so they can't complain. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #163 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20476; 10 Mar 93 13:46 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30275 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 10 Mar 1993 10:46:58 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19962 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 10 Mar 1993 10:46:31 -0600 Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 10:46:31 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303101646.AA19962@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #164 TELECOM Digest Wed, 10 Mar 93 10:46:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 164 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson More Musings About UK "Phoneyday" (Richard Cox) How do I Order a Leased Voice-Grade Line? (Lars Poulsen) Summary: Mini-PBX in ISA PC (Simon Townsend) 30-Channel PCM (Kees Hol) The New Phone Books Are Here! (John Higdon) TeleAdapt Surveying Hotel Comms (Jon Knight) Telecom Donation Wanted (John Pettitt) Caller ID Available in 405 Area Code May 3 (Stan Hall) To Tap or Not to Tap (malcolm@apple.com) Information Needed on ATM's (Clayton E. Kuetemeyer) Looking For Used Dialogic Boards (John V. Jaskolski) Device Wanted to Prevent Line "Bleed" Between Multiple Lines? (M. Rosen) US Post Office Not Caught Up With Common Technology? (Michael Rosen) How to Measure BER of V.29 9.6k/s? (Ching-Chang Liao) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 22:25 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: More Musings About UK "Phoneyday" Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) asks: >> There would be no problem with collisions with STD codes 0801 through >> 0809 (if any of them are even in use today), because they will change to >> 01801 ... 01809 as part of the Phoneday cutover. >> Any comments from the UK readership? Certainly. If the change was made as you suggest there would be problems. Firstly you cannot reuse the old codes for about two years after the changeover: there would be too many misdials. Secondly, not all codes are having a "1" inserted anyway. That's one of the reasons why we refer to the change as "PhoneYday", not "Phoneday". And one of the codes in the 080X range (0802 -- used for GSM Cellular), will not be one of those getting changed on Phoneyday. The UK does have 0500 for Mercury toll free calls (though this is definitely non-preferred as it does not conform to international recommendations -- and in any event does not support the concept of 800 number portability. Ultimately I expect 0800 will be changed to seven digit numbers just like the good ol' USA. One thing we are going to have to handle is the demand for a common European toll-free numbering space. Present idealists would put this on 00-800 (using International Country Code 800) but I guess too many payphones and business switchboards would block 00 calls anyway. (00 is what most of the world, apart from World Zone 1, will use as their international access code after 1995) I'd prefer to put the toll free numbers on 1-800, just like Ireland and one other country whose name for the moment escapes me ... Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Not diallable on 511 in mainland USA ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: How do I Order a Leased Voice-Grade Line? Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 05:01:26 GMT I have been asked to provide ordering specifications for a third party to lease a full-time voice grade circuit here in GTE-CA territory. The line is to be used to connect two V.32bis modems about six miles apart (served out of different central offices). The modems are designed for operation on the public switched telephone network (i.e. they expect a two-wire circuit with battery, dial tone and ring signal present). The application seems straightforward to me, but I have encountered an amazing difficulty in getting appropriate information for this request. (1) The ordinary customer service representatives do not seem to know much about modems or leased lines. (2) In general, there is suspicion when I ask about what is available, particularly when I explain that "It is not for my own use, but for somene from a different company". ("Then THEY should call themselves." "But they asked ME to find out for them.") (3) The customer service reps refer me to the data services people, who basically want to sell me either a four-wire circuit (3002 type) or 56 kbps DDS service. If the two points were in the same CO, I would be inclined to ask for a 3002 with metallic continuity and install a ringdown box, but I'm afraid to do that between two CO's. It seems to me that this is similar to an off-premise extension for a PBX; is that what I should order? If I get a two-wire "private circuit" will it have battery, dial tone and ring? Telecom readers, please help me. I will collect information and send a summary back to PAT for publication. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 10:39:50 +0100 From: st@bbl.be (Simon Townsend) Subject: Summary: Mini-PBX in ISA PC Not too many replies, but they may be useful. I enclose them all: ----------------------- From: bears!rhyre@cinpmx.attmail.com I'm not sure where to get them, but AT&T makes a voice power card, that has Unix driver suport. It can handle four phone lines. - Ralph ----------------------- From dave@westmark.com Check out Dialogic Corp, Parsippany, NJ. They offer ISA-buss compatible boards providing trunk interfaces, station interfaces, DTMF receivers, voice recording and playback, and a matrix switch for interconnecting the whole lot. They also terminate T-1 links, DID trunks, and provide a multi-line fax board. No, you won't quite build a PBX in a single slot, but with a few of their modules, you could build a very sophisticated PBX with automated attendant, voice mail, and as many other features as you card to write code for. You may contact me for additional info; Westmark is a Dialogic value-added-reseller. ----------------------- From: Steve Forrette There is a product called PCBX that does this, although they may not have a published API. It is made by a company in Orange County, CA, also called PCBX. I thin they may be in Tustin, but I don't have the specific reference in front of me. ----------------------- Thats all folks! If there's interest, I'll post how I get on with the project later in the year. Simon, st@bbl.be ------------------------------ Date: 10 Mar 1993 08:56:29 +0000 (GMT) From: C.Hol@research.ptt.nl Subject: 30-Channel PCM Organization: PTT Research, The Netherlands The European 30-channel PCM has signalling information in the 16th slot. What kind of information is in this slot? Does it tell which slots are empty (i.e. no call)? If you can help, please e-mail me. Kees Hol hol@research.ptt.nl ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 03:51 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: The New Phone Books Are Here! The new Pacific Bell telephone directories for San Jose/Santa Clara have two interesting format variations in the White Pages. The first splits the directory into two approximately equal-size sections: Business Listings and Residence Listings. If you are looking up a business, you search the first section. If you are looking up an individual, you check out the second section. This has already caused me a minor inconvenience in that someone whom I was looking up had business service. I have a hard time seeing the advantages to the separation of "business" and "residence" listings in the white pages (unless it is for telemarketers). The second change is the way residence listings are presented. Instead of the traditional approach, each surname is listed with the customers of that name in the column underneath, but indented. Something like this: HIGDON Fred....... George A....... John...... etc. It actually makes the directory easier to read, particularly if you are looking up someone with a common last name. The most common name in the San Jose directory is Nguyen, which goes on for four five-column pages (Smith is less than two). John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 [Moderator's Note: We've had the 'surname once, first name indented' style in many of our suburban directories for a few years now, along with the businesses listed separately. Listing the businesses in a separate section is a clever way for telco to force people who operate businesses from home on residential lines to obtain business listings -- and as a result, a business phone. In a consolidated list, someone trying to find 'John Higdon and Associates' would not find it but they would find John Higdon and assume it to be one and the same, which of course is what you want, i.e. you have residence service and get to conduct business on that line. But under the new system, if I am looking for a BUSINESS in San Jose called 'John Higdon and Assoc- iates' I will find nothing. It does not occur to me to check in the residence listings, because after all, I am trying to reach a business, or at least that's what I was told you were running. :) This is a very clever ploy by telco and a perfectly legal, perfectly logical way of organizing their directory ... but it has resulted in many a small time, one person operating-from-home business man being forced to pay for business service ('but why would you want to be listed in the business section, sir? are you running a business? well in that case you need a business phone line ...') PAT] ------------------------------ From: J.P.Knight@lut.ac.uk (Jon Knight) Subject: TeleAdapt Surveying Hotel Comms Reply-To: J.P.Knight@lut.ac.uk (Jon Knight) Organization: Dept of Comp. Studies, Loughborough University of Tech., UK. Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 10:12:31 GMT I just spotted an article on page 4 of the UK edition of {PC Week} magazine that reports that an international data connectivity firm called TeleAdapt is launching a survey of hotel chains worldwide in order to assess the standard of communication facilities they make available. TeleAdapt apparently are suppliers of phone adaptors which allow you to use your modem on foreign phone sockets. The eventual outcome of the survey will be a free guide issued to TeleAdapt's customers which details what facilities hotels provide on a city-by-city basis. According to the article the guide will include: "[...] details of freephone access to alternative carriers, second lines, direct inward to dialing to the room, surcharges, and crucially the particular telephone/plug connection type." TeleAdapt are also seeking information from hotel users. Anyone with information to contribute can ring 081 429 0479 (that's a UK number so remember to prepend +44 and drop the leading 0 if ringing from abroad). They're mainly looking for information on the main European and American business cities, but welcome any experiences with hotel comms anywhere. The article also mentions that the US hotel chains are the most ``modem-aware'' and that the Germans are the worst. The Marriott and Sheraton chains have corporate strategies which encourage the provision of good comms for modem users in their hotels. Note that I have no connection with {PC Week} (other than as a reader) or TeleAdapt. I just thought that as hotel comms was a pretty frequent item in c.d.t that you might find this interesting. Jon Knight, Research Student in High Performance Networking and Distributed Systems in the Department of _Computer_Studies_ at Loughborough University. ------------------------------ From: John Pettitt Subject: Telecom Donation Wanted Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 22:58:54 PST Las Madres is a network of neighborhood playgroups for mothers and their children. It is a not for profit organization covering the greater San Jose area. My wife is a board member and I have been asked to help update their telephone information line. This line takes calls from mothers and provides information on which playgroup to contact based on age of child (by year of birth) and area. Currently this is done with an answering machine with a ten minute message. This is proving unsatifactory due to the unreliable nature of the machine and the difficulty in sitting through ten minutes of phone numbers. I would like to get them on an automated system -- this is where you can help. If you have spare capacity on a system (needs one DID number and a two level tree with about 30 messages) or you can donate an old 286 PC with or without a voice card that I can program then I would like to hear from you. This is a tax deductable donation. I am also looking at getting them an 800 number to hide the underlying telephone number. The best quote I have had so far is from MCI ($20/month, .19 day .14 eve and .11 cent min nights and weekends, California only). If you know of a better solution to hide the POTS number please let me know. N.B. 700 numbers are out because they are deemed too complicated. Thanks in advance. John Pettitt ------------------------------ Subject: Caller ID Available in 405 Area Code May 3 From: kilgore@wuntvor.pillar.com (Stan Hall) Date: Tue, 09 Mar 93 16:35:43 CST Organization: The Eternal Apprentice BBS, Norman, OK In my latest SWB bill there was a notice saying that they plan on offering Caller ID in most of the 405 calling areas beginning May 3. It seems that they will be offering per call blocking at no charge. The local SWB rep told me they were offering Caller ID units made by Sidco (or something close to that). Is anyone familiar with units made by this company? Anyone have any suggestions for cheap Caller ID units (no frills)? I also remember someone mentioning a unit that hooks up to the serial port of a computer in the (under $50 range). kilgore@wuntvor.pillar.com (Stan Hall) The Eternal Apprentice BBS, Norman, OK -- +1 405 447 3772 ------------------------------ Subject: To Tap or Not to Tap Date: Tue, 09 Mar 93 21:06:29 PST From: malcolm@apple.com This month's issue (March 1993) of {Communications of the ACM} has a pretty extensive set of articles talking about the issues posed by the recent FBI proposal to make it easier for them to wiretap new forms of communications. From the editorial pointers... With advances in telephone technology rendering traditional wiretapping procedures obsolete, the Justice Department has recently proposed legislation that would assure law enforcement agencies receive the technical assistance they need -- from U.S. phone companies. In "To Tap or Not to Tap," Dorthy Denning and a select group of commentators debate the issues posed by this digital telephony legislation. Denning presents the case for the government and the necessity of updating existing wiretapping laws to reflect new technology. She points out that there is no evidence the FBI ever abused this law in the past, and explains industry's role in the process. Her report is followed by a series of commentaries from noted representatives of industry, law, and government who argue issues of privacy, competitiveness and potential pitfalls and concerns. I thought the best parts were a discussion of what this might mean for encryption software. Check it out. This promises to be a debate that will make Caller ID look like a cake walk. Cheers, Malcolm ------------------------------ From: Clayton E. Kuetemeyer Subject: Information Needed on ATM's Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 12:45:32 GMT Organization: University of Illinois I am doing research on automated teller machines, and looking for current information on products or effects on customer service. Specifically, news about imaging systems, debit and credit card uses, networking capabilities with systems such as Cirrus and Plus, and the like would be useful. Any information would be greatly appreciated. ------------------------------ From: jasko@park.bu.edu (John V. Jaskolski) Subject: Looking for used Dialogic boards Date: 10 Mar 93 11:34:10 GMT Reply-To: jasko@park.bu.edu Organization: Boston University Dept. of Cognitive and Neural Systems I am looking for CHEAP USED (old) Dialogic boards. Specifically, I am interested in Dialogic's D121 Voice Boards (12-line voice processing board) older versions are fine; Dialogic's LSI120 Loop Start Interface (used to interface D121's with analog installations). At least two of each. Also of interest is the MSI baseboard and any other used boards. Anyone who has any of these USED and wants to get rid of them (or if you know of anyone who might have them) please let me know. I might be able to use D41's and other boards as well. Thank you very much, John V. Jaskolski ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Device Wanted to Prevent Line "Bleed" Between Multiple Lines? Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 06:01:01 GMT We have two phone lines in our house. When two people are on either line both can hear the other person on the other line. It is not loud enough for either called party to hear but loud enough for either person on this end to hear. It seems to fade from low to high occassionally. I wonder if this might also affect my modem connections. Is there anything available to attach to the phone line somewhere to prevent such line bleed? Thanks, Michael Rosen Tau Epsilon Phi - George Washington University mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu Michael.Rosen@bbs.oit.unc.edu or @lambada.oit.unc.edu ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 06:03:36 GMT With all the high tech scanning and sorting machinery the Post Office utilizies, this surprises me: I called the Maryland zip code information line and told the person on the other end that I had five addresses I wished to find the ZIP+4 for. I asked if it would be easier for him if I faxed the list to him and called him back later. I was told, with a chuckle, that they don't have a fax machine. You would think maybe the US Post Office would have something as simple and common as a fax machine ... Michael Rosen Tau Epsilon Phi - George Washington University mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu Michael.Rosen@bbs.oit.unc.edu or @lambada.oit.unc.edu ------------------------------ From: Ching-Chang Liao Subject: How to Measure BER of V.29 9.6k/s? Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 3:12:01 CST I am a student who is working on CCITT V.29 9.6k/s modem. I know how to generate V.29 9.6k/s voiceband data by computer program, but I am lack of the knowledge to calculate the BER of V.29 9.6k/s. If you know where I can find the materials of demodulating V.29 9.6k/s voiceband data or the equations to calculate the BER of V.29 9.6k/s, please notify me by mailing e-mail to my e-mail address listed below. My project is to find a way to improve the CCITT 32k/s ADPCM performance on 9.6k/s voiceband data. Therefore, I have to know how to calculate BER and the demodulation method of V.29 modem. Your replay will be appreciated. NAME: CHING-CHANG LIAO E-MAIL: liao@ee.umr.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #164 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21674; 10 Mar 93 14:25 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24887 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 10 Mar 1993 11:20:22 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26018 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 10 Mar 1993 11:19:36 -0600 Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 11:19:36 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303101719.AA26018@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #165 TELECOM Digest Wed, 10 Mar 93 11:19:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 165 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy (Stewart Clamen) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Will Martin) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Harold Hallikainen) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (David Lesher) Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill (Justin Leavens) Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill (Gordon Burditt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: clamen+@CS.CMU.EDU (Stewart Clamen) Subject: Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy Reply-To: clamen+@CS.CMU.EDU Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 18:15:36 GMT In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In article richard@dgbt.doc.ca (Richard > Paiement) writes: >> stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: >> I have a business associate in Canada who tells me that businesses in >> Quebec (or some part thereof) are forbidden to answer the phone in >> English. Reportedly, even a mixed French/English greeting is not >> allowed -- the person answering can't use English until the caller >> indicates that they want to speak English. And, (perhaps in the >> "Office de la Langue Francaise) there are Phone Police (tm) that call >> businesses at random in order to ensure compliance with these >> regulations. > First off, Steve, I'll excuse you for believing such crap since you > don't live in Canada. > That anobody could believe such a rumour is hysterically funny. Quebec > has never been and will never be an Orwellian society. One can walk in > any city or town in the province of Quebec and will see many bilingual > as well as English-only signs defying the language law, and nobody has > been killed yet. Since I didn't want to be guilty of spreading any false facts here in the TELECOM Digest, I just double-checked them by calling my Canadian friend and discussing this issue with him at length. For reference, he is a Canadian citizen who lives in Canada full-time, and has owned and operated a business there for many years. He has corporate customers from all over Canada, many of them in Quebec, and has had many opportunities to personally deal with and observe these language regulations in action. Here are several issues that he cited: Although the discussion of Quebec language politics is inappropriate on this forum, I feel the need to correct the inaccuracies in Mr. Forrette's post. I am an Anglophone (ie. English speaking) Quebecer currently studying in the US. 1. The French language regulations on the answering of telephones has caused several major companies to leave Quebec. A specific example cited was Sun Life, which catered to a predominantely English-speaking clientele. The French language regulations would have required them to put all of their English-speaking clerks who answered the phone through classes in order to teach them to speak French, even though the only people who they talked to were English-speaking. Instead of paying for this waste, they moved to another province. Another example is Cominsco. (If the telephone people only spoke English, is it any wonder that their customers were only English-speaking?) The move of the Sun Life Head Office from Montreal to Toronto might very well have been due to the newly installed regulations requiring the use of French in the workplace. However, it was only the Head Office (and its staff) that was moved. The customer service clerks remained in the downtown Montreal skyscraper that bears its name. I have never heard anything related to telephony that caused this move. 2. All business signs must be predominantly French. Having French everywhere English is used on a sign is not enough -- it must be predominantly French. This may be accomplished by having the French part in a slightly larger font. There was a case where a business owner had restroom signs that used just the silhouette pictures to denote the men's and women's restrooms, and was fined by the Language Police because the signs were not predominantly French. Actually, all outdoor commercial signage must be in FRENCH ONLY. Indoor signs are subject to the "predominantly French" regulations you describe above (although the restroom pictogram story makes no sense). This rule has been in force for the past four years, and constitutional requirements stipulate that it must be reaffirmed or rescinded this year. 3. By default, all public school instruction is primarily in French, with English being taught as a second language. In order for a child to attend a public school with most instruction in English, one of the parents must have graduated from a primarily-English high school in Quebec. This was implemented to ensure that immigrant families who came to Canada and spoke neither French nor English would send their children to French schools. Before, when they were given a choice of French or English, most chose English, because that's the language they wanted their children to learn. But, this law also affects Canadians moving from other provinces, or Americans who live for a few years in Canada. If I, as an American, were to come to Quebec for a few years, why should my children have to go to French schools just because me or my wife didn't graduate from an English high school in Quebec? Businesses can apply for an exemption for specific employees. This was passed because American executives from companies that operated Canadian branches (such as General Motors) started refusing to come to Canada. Actually, anyone who has had their (or some of their children's) primary education IN CANADA (and landed in Canada prior to mid-1977) can send their kids to English public schools in Quebec. Anglophones immigrants from other countries would not be allowed to send their kids to Quebec English public schools. (There are a number of English private schools to choose from, of course.) People temporarily residing in Quebec (eg. corporate transfers) can send their kids to English public schools for up to three years, I believe. 4. Quebec tried to change their air traffic control system so that all dispatching was done in French. English is the international language of air traffic control, and in fact they even land the planes in Paris, France by speaking English, but Quebec wanted to use French instead. Reportedly this never got implemented, though. I believe they did do it. The Quebec air traffic controllers and the French speaking pilots wanted to be able to communicate in French, and I believe they have been granted that right. What makes it all the more ironic is that the International Civil Air Organization is headquartered in Montreal. > I don't know about you, Richard, but a lot of this sounds quite > Orwellian to me. Orwellian? perhaps. Quebecois? absolutely. Stewart M. Clamen Internet: clamen@cs.cmu.edu School of Computer Science UUCP: uunet!"clamen@cs.cmu.edu" Carnegie Mellon University Phone: +1 412 268 2145 5000 Forbes Avenue Fax: +1 412 681 5739 Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891, USA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 8:28:59 CST From: Will Martin Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Just to provide some info which I hadn't seen on the usual media coverage: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation science program, "Quirks & Quarks", which I heard on Radio Canada International shortwave on Sunday, 7 March, carried a long interview with a person [whose name I forget, sorry] described as a building-demolition expert and international-terrorism consultant about the WTC bombing. Two very interesting aspects: This person had given an interview back in 1985, which had been published in a magazine article that year, in which he had been asked to state from a structural (as opposed to strategic or tactical) viewpoint what targets would be the most likely for a terrorist group to attack. His first choice was the Statue of Liberty, because of all the symbolic aspects and the way it epitomizes the American image. The second choice was the World Trade Center complex. I guess the terrorists must have read the article ... The other fact, and one that I find rather surprising, was that he stated that the bomb did so much damage that, if either the exact same bomb had been detonated at a slightly different location, or if the bomb at its actual location had been made with slightly more effective explosive, the effect could well have actually brought down one of the WTC towers. We're used to thinking that modern steel-frame buildings can be damaged (and probably made unusable) but not that they can be so easily caused to actually fall down. The way he described it, the margins of safety are adequate, given the building's structural integrity, to handle the usual loads -- the contents of the bulding, including the movement of people, the elevators moving up and down, wind loads from the outside, etc. But once that structural integrity is breached sufficiently, the building will begin to tilt, and that takes it out of the design envelope, and no more than a few degrees of tilt is enough to overcome all the structural safeguards, and the building will then basically disintegrate, falling right down due to gravity. Stuff I've previously read about building demolition has stressed the small amount of explosives that are actually used by professionals; the placement of those and the choice of the exact correct explosive, with the right brisance, to sever the structural supports in a controlled pattern, is what makes those spectacular pictures we've all seen of buildings basically collapsing in on themselves with a relatively small and unspectacular explosion-effect seen at the beginning. All that is needed is to take out the right legs, and let gravity do the work. In the WTC case, it seems that either the bombers were not intending to do this, or were not skilled enough to do it, or there was some error or mishap. There have repeatedly been comments about the possibility of the explosion being detonated at an unintended time, perhaps by the van hitting a speedbump or the like -- one can certainly speculate about the timing of the blast, since it seemed to occur at a rather odd moment during lunchtime, not when the building was as full as possible, nor when it was as empty as possible at night. Also, some of the early reports emphasized the blast location in relation to an area used by the Secret Service for VIP vehicles -- perhaps the actual intent was to trigger the explosion at some future time when some important personage would have been in the area? That is, of course, guesswork. In any case, though, it may be said that we were lucky -- things could easily have been much worse. Regards, Will ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1993 19:29:43 GMT In article john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > Once again, let us nip the folklore in the bud. There is absolutely NO > EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that RF energy at AM wavelengths causes ANY > physiological affects. It is common practice for tower workers to > climb energized AM towers (you cannot get much closer than that) and > no one has come up with a single case of anything that can be > attributed to such exposure. Yes, you can get an RF burn off the tower > if you brush your hand past it, but that is due to the arc that is > drawn, not some mysterious, unseen force. There is a lot of research going on in the RF exposure area. For AM stations, the latest I've seen is a report from Richard Tell Associates prepared for the FCC in October 1991. Based on the current ANSI guidelines, one should not climb a hot AM tower due to the radiated field. Richard Tell went back to the Specific Absorbtion Rate basis for the ANSI field limits and calculated what currents would be permitted thru the wrists of a tower climber and still stay below the SAR (using I squared R calculations for the wrists). Based on these calculations and wrist current measurements while climbing various towers, the report establishes suggested power limits for climbing hot towers based on frequency. In general, the suggested power is less than 1 KW. Note that the current limits the FCC uses use E and H field limits and not conducted body current. A new standard is proposed that does include conducted body current. Limits for VHF and UHF (such as FM and TV) fields are also listed in the ANSI standard. These are generally checked using measurements or the prediction measurements in the FCC bulletin OST 65. I've spoken with various agencies on radiation safety. A representative of OSHA in Salt Lake City agreed that there is very limited evidence of harm done to workers by RF (especially at AM frequencies), but he says that MAY be due to very limited data. There is no centralized "cause of death" database that also tracks the occupational and other environmental considerations of a person's lifetime. He pointed out that it took at least 30 years to discover the harmful effects of asbestos. He also said OSHA will enforce radiation standards for worker safety whether the new standards are adopted by the FCC or not. If a case ends up in court, it would probably be best if the station were using the best "scientific" study available. Unfortunately, establishing "scientific" can be difficult. There have been a lot of radiation scares based on flimsy evidence, if any evidence at all. Still, we need to look beyond our self interest (I work in radio) and indeed look for the truth, even if it means we have to change what we are doing. So ... summarizing, yes, I've climbed hot AM towers, and I haven't died, but I plan to. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: David Lesher Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 0:28:10 EST Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex The Chief Moo said: > I have worked around dozens of 50KW stations over the past twenty- > five years or so and have NEVER observed my hair standing on end. > What nonsense! Hmmmm: 1) John does not carry a mirror while tower climbing. 2) His eyes are burned out by all that RF. Even if it DID stand on end..... 3) If the eyes are not fried, what about the other end of the optic nerves? 4) Does he have any left to lay flat, much less stand on end? [Sorry, John - can't resist ...] wb8foz ------------------------------ From: leavens@mizar.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill Date: 10 Mar 1993 01:05:57 -0800 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA TELECOM Moderator noted: > I still maintain a $15 item from a *telephone* information provider > with nothing written to bind either party is of no concern to credit > grantors except possibly telemarketers selling magazine subscriptions; > bill collectors for the Columbia Record Club (talk about a depressing > job -- "did you mail in your dollar ninety-eight for the fifteen > records we sent you?" !) and the like. PAT] Ah, but it's a BIG deal to another telephone provider. In my instance, the charge ($50) was being billed by AT&T. Thus, the outstanding charge was not from some nobody IP, it was an outstanding balance owed to AT&T, and that's exactly the way it appeared on my Equifax report. And that $50 was plenty enough to make GTE refuse to install a line until it was cleared up, and then demand a large deposit on the account. Nothing like trying to move into a new apartment and trying to deal with AT&T, GTE, and Pacific Bell at the same time. And then what really burned me was that I found out that after all my battling with AT&T over this matter (many weeks after receiving a letter from the IP stating that they had gone out of business and there was no money to make refunds) was that AT&T has stopped all payments to that IP. So AT&T was apparently trying to recoup whatever losses it could with the customer money. Justin Leavens Microcomputer Specialist University of Souther California ------------------------------ From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Help Becky With Her 900 Bill Organization: Gordon Burditt Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 14:35:46 GMT > As for interception between the main phone lines, and the telco (such > as someone going in a sewer and tapping the lines, I can't see how you > can protect against that, unless you can get the telco to put a lock > on your line, which (I just thought of that) is a good idea, but I'm > not sure the telco offers such a security system, and even then, if > someone tapped the line, they can get the number. You'd have to set > up a preety complex system to be 100% foolproof, which for most > applications is way too expensive. It would seem possible, especially given a PBX, to detect when a CO line goes off-hook and it's NOT the inside line taking it off-hook. (Modifying existing PBX circuits might be the easiest way, if you have schematics, don't have to worry about warranties, and have a line to experiment with). Mutual-excluder circuits from Radio Shack and line-in-use lights do parts of this. You have to do something about incoming calls not generating false alarms. If you detect outside use of your line (someone at the demarc, on a phone pole, elsewhere in your apartment building, in a manhole, or at the CO), you can jam dialing. Send out all touch-tone tones simultaneously, and generate continuous pulse dialing (as though there were a digit for "ten thousand" on your dial). This should mess up any attempts to dial a specific number, and the conversation if they manage to complete a call. Have it time out after a few minutes unless it seems someone is still trying. You'd better have a way to shut this off if the phone company needs to work on your lines, and have a way for it to just set off an alarm without jamming for a while. CO line testing might set it off. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #165 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa22598; 10 Mar 93 14:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03447 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 10 Mar 1993 12:11:41 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26673 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 10 Mar 1993 12:11:19 -0600 Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 12:11:19 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303101811.AA26673@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Voice BBS, 1+ Dialing, Other Stuff The responses thus far to the Orange Calling Card have been gratifying. I've mailed out several hundred brochures and applications, and they are starting to be returned to the main office in Minneapolis. Still more brochures and applications are in the mail now. A portion of the revenue from this 25 cent per minute (billed in six second increments) and no surcharge calling card are returned to TELECOM Digest. Now some other companies have contacted me and asked if I would be willing to operate on the same terms for 1+ dialing and 800 numbers. I don't have agreements in place as of today with these companies, so I can only speak in general terms, but would appreciate some feedback to see if the support would be present. Please respond only to ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu with short answers. Please do not quote extensively from this message unless you must. If 1+ service from Sprint and/or AT&T were available -- meaning you did not have to change your long distance carrier, but merely agreed to be billed through a reselling service, with the reduced rates and other features available, would you agree to do it if the commissions came to TELECOM Digest? i.e. rates of 14-15 cents per minute on direct dial calls? i.e. the use of the AT&T Software Defined Network? If 800 service was available with no start up or monthly charge, and rates of 32 cents per minute which decreased to about 20 cents per minute based on volume, would you subscribe if the commissions came to TELECOM Digest? When '800 portability' arrives (now definitly sched- uled for May 1), would you be willing to consider this if you were able to keep the same 800 number you have now? The 800 numbers I will be offering are real; not bogus 'add a four digit pin' numbers like MCI. --- Note: The above rates on 1+ are *examples* only. They are giving me a bunch of plans to resell based on volume. Given the volume, rates would go down to 8 cents per minute with thousands of dollars of usage per month. Ditto the 800 service, where rates go down to about 10 cents per minute when you use enough of it. If there was a 'voice BBS' type service available strictly for use by telecom people, where open messages could be left and responded to by anyone calling, and private voicemail boxes were available as well to readers of TELECOM Digest / comp.dcom.telecom, would you be likely to use such a system? It would be priced 'at cost' with rates of: $20 per year for voicemail box and open bulletin board for employed persons; $10 per year for the same features for students and unemployed persons; FREE to international users due to their increased toll charges in calling. A call to Chicago on a regular POTS number would be required. (No 900/976 type numbers). Please let me know if these services would be of interest to you or used by you if they were available. *** I am not yet in a position to send literature or take requests to sign up, but hope to be soon. *** Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Moderator   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa25327; 11 Mar 93 4:31 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12210 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 01:50:01 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11688 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 01:49:31 -0600 Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 01:49:31 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303110749.AA11688@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #166 TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 Mar 93 01:49:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 166 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson No One Calls My ATT EasyReach Number! (Douglas Scott Reuben) Payphone Records in WTC Case (Jeff Wasilko) Distinctive Ring Discriminator With Caller ID (Greg Trotter) Facsimile CNG Tone (Richard W. Desaulniers) Inverse Paging Service? (Garrett Wollman) X.25 Over IP (Telematics and NCR Tower) (Ken Zmyslo) Come Here, Mr. Watson (John R. Levine) Information on USA Telephone System Wanted (4I Gymnazium Students Praha 9) 800 and 900 in Canada (murphy%switchboard@cam.org) Pricing For MAN Access (Hank Nussbacher) Needed: T1 Channel Equipment Recommendation (aar_osman@gsbvxb.uchicago.edu) Dialer Format Wanted (Joseph J. Snyder) Need Information on Fiber Optic Television (Martin Egan) RFC on SLIP (Robert L. McMillin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 11-MAR-1993 00:13:06.53 From: Douglas Scott Reuben Subject: No One Calls My ATT EasyReach Number! I got a call today from a friend of mine who was trying to reach me via my 700 number. After verifying that he was dialing correctly, I concluded that there must be some error at the payphone or the switch he was on, and drove there later to investigate (I was in the area anyhow.) As it turns out, it was a NYTel coin phone, in the 516-931/Hicksville exchange. So I tried out 10288+0+700 etc., and it didn't work. (Got a local error message.) I called AT&T EasyReach Customer Service, and spoke to a rep named Lynn. I explained to her the nature of the problem, and asked her to take a trouble report on it. She said that she would, but that it could be that NYTel is blocking "700 and 900 numbers from that payphone due to fraud". I asked her just how can can someone make fraudulent calls with 700 numbers from payphones (and I stressed it was not a private payphone but a Bell System station), and she went on very sure of herself "Oh, well SWBell for example blocks out 700 calls from their payphones all the time, because they don't want people placing 700 calls and not paying for them." At this point, I decided not to waste my time with her anymore, and told her to have someone call me back within two days as to what was being done to resolve the matter. She didn't sound too happy about that, and said "You know, we gave you an 800 number so in cases like this people can still reach you..!", to which I replied "Well, so I should tell people: 'Call 0-700-555-1234, make sure you dial 0, and if that doesn't work, dial 10288 first, and if that doesn't work, then dial 1-800-824-5621, wait for the prompt, dial 1, wait for the tone, then dial 700-555-1234, and then your calling card number' - if I had to say THAT to people when they want my number then no one will call me!" This isn't the first instance where a given prefix (or even a coin station line) is mis-programmed so that it denies EasyReach access. The fact that the AT&T Rep (Lynn) didnt seem to think that it was too unusual, and that she casually told me to burden my callers by making them dial an extra 800 number in order to reach the 700 platform indicates (to me at least) that some people at AT&T EasyReach don't care too much that it is quite difficult and inconvenient for many callers to reach me, and don't seem to care that this greatly diminishes the utility of the service. If any AT&T people are reading this, I'd suggest you make greater efforts to train your people to be responsive to customers who whish to get a specific (usully LEC related) problem corrected - AT&T EasyReach is either misprogrammed or blocked from *many* areas (although SWBell doesn't seem to be one of them!). Just a few weeks ago I noticed that payphones along I-78 in Allentown wouldn't accept 0-700 AT&T calls, and callers needed to use the 800 access to get through. The same was true last summer of the 516-621 exchange, and the 203-728 exchange. Obviously AT&T can not check every single Bell (or LEC) payphone in the country, but the considerable number of areas that I have noted where 700 access isn't available indicates to me that there are more than a few areas where my callers will have problems reaching me. I am a bit disturbed by this, and Lynn did nothing to alleviate my concerns. Additionally, now that AT&T has announced EasyReach for business customers, they have GOT to make more of an effort to improve access to the service. Presently, callers from Rochester Tel service areas can not dial 0-700, and must use the 800 to access the EasyReach platform, and pay the calling card surcharge (even if from a non-coin phone). I doubt many cost-conscious businesses, once they realize that they can place the same call directly for about a tenth as much (for the first minute), will choose to utilize the service. AT&T has said that the reason callers can't access EasyReach directly is because Rochester Tel doesn't have the newest software generic for their 5ESS switches - well, maybe (and I know this is a crazy idea ;) ) - just maybe, AT&T could GIVE Roch Tel the relavent code so that peope with 700 numbers don't have to encumber friends and relatives in Rochester with additional codes in order to be reachable? Nah ...too simple, right? :( Or how about the way that EasyReach supervises when you get to the platform, and does not wait until the called party answers? Many people are reluctant to call me from their cellular phones because this means that they will pay airtime even if I am not available, or my phone is busy. Now that EasyReach is a "business" service as well, I think more and more "business" users will be annoyed by this deficiency. Overall, I DO like the service, and find it useful. But in my experience, I find that there are MANY areas where 700 access is denied, or where payphones don't offer 700 access, etc. I've noted Bell (not GTE or Contel or whatever) payphones in Rhode Island, Mass, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, DC, Va, MD, Pennsylania and New York which for some reason or other have 700 access blocked. Although I may never get a call from any of these exchanges or payphones, I'd like to know that I *could*, and not make my callers go through such a rediculous procedure as using the 800 access that many may abandon the attempt and just not call at all. It is bad enough that many are reluctant to call me on the 700 (most don't like the fact that they have to wait for the "AT&T EasyReach" voice prompt, or enter extra keys ("#1")), but to make them use an 800 number to access the service on a seemingly regular basis goes too far. As discussed on the Digest when EasyReach just started, the "0-700" system is awkward for most callers, and it requires that they and/or I take the time to understand/ explain the service to them. 1+700 would have been preferable, with a 0-700 for Calling Card access and programming access. However, since AT&T for whatever reason chose to implement the system via the more awkward 0-700 access method, the LEAST that they can do is make sure that it is acessible from everywhere. I refuse to burden my callers with extra charges and procedures to reach me, and feel that they will choose not to call if the EasyReach service is too cumbersome. Already many have asked for a backup number (POTS number) to reach me at because either they can't dial 0-700 from their PBX, or they don't want to use the 800 and pay the Calling Card surcharge, or because they don't want to pay airtime if I do not answer, or becuase they are calling from a rotary phone and don't want to wait 45 seconds for the service to time out. Not to mention that it generally costs them MORE to reach me , that *no* AT&T calling plans include EasyReach, that you can't sequence call using the "#" key from a previous call to EasyReach, that friends and relatives of mine in Canada (and outside the US in general) can't call, and that I can't use the "#" key to force calls to the number I am calling from. Frankly, if *I* were told to call a friend with EasyReach, I'd just ask for the "master pin", check to see where calls were being forwarded to, and then use Sprint to place the call directly! :) So it behooves AT&T, that when a customer such as myself who is willing to put up with all these inconveniences, and who has friends who are patient and understanding enough to put up with the burdensome procedures mandated for EasyReach access, that when I do call to report a problem in accessing the system that I get something in response which is a bit more than mindless platitudes about how SW Bell blocks access from their payphones, or how callers can "simply" use the 800 number to access the service. Simply? Give me a break! AT&T: Get your act together on EasyReach - make it easier to use, and allow me to be reached from everywhere. The novelty and even the utlity of the service quickly wears off if even one person (not to mention almost everyone) complains about using "the 700 number" to call me. There are alternatives (like Cable and Wireless's Programmable 800 service), and I suspect that in the future there will be more. If you expect to retain me as a customer, I would expect you to address the issues raised in this post and make EasyReach as convenient and simple as dialing any other telephone number. Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet ------------------------------ From: Jeff@digtype.airage.com (Jeff Wasilko) Subject: Payphone Records in WTC Case Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 23:18:37 EST Organization: Univ of Fnord; Roslyn's Cafe Div. Reply-To: jeff@digtype.airage.com I just heard on the news that the latest suspect in the WTC bombing case was linked to the main previous suspect via payphone call logs. It seems that the first suspect used the payphone in the storage building lobby where the explosives were supposedly stored to call Nidal Ayyad (a chemical engineer at Allied-Signal) at Nidal's office a number of times. It's very interesting to see the use of call detail that is availble from public payphones. Remember that the Long Island kidnapping case also involved police using payphone call records ... Jeff Jeff's Oasis at Home. Jeff can also be reached at work at: jwasilko@airage.com ------------------------------ Subject: Distinctive Ring Discriminator with Caller ID From: greg@gallifrey.ucs.uoknor.edu (Greg Trotter) Date: 10 Mar 93 15:52:10 -0600 Organization: Gallifrey - Home of the Timelords I posted a message a week or so ago asking for info on distinctive ring discriminators. I got a lot of good information, but wonder if anyone has been able to use a Caller ID device *after* the DRD has split the line. A lot of people recommended the splitter by Hello Direct; their tech people say that Caller ID can't be detected after the DRD has routed the call. Has anyone successfully done this? Putting the Caller ID box inline before the DRD is not an option; nor do I have a spare pair of wires to route a "pure" telco line for the Caller ID box on. Any help is appreciated! Greg Trotter Norman, Oklahoma Internet: greg@gallifrey.ucs.uoknor.edu Fidonet: 1:147/63 Treknet: 87:6012/8009 | I don't even represent me. [Moderator's Note: Is it taking their box longer than one ring to decide how to route the call? Caller-ID comes between the first and second ring; you'd think if the routing device responded on the first ring the path would be clear when the Caller-ID came past a half second or so later. I use a device which works the opposite way I got from Radio Shack (two separate lines go into the box, the line which rings seizes control and gives its output to a single-line Caller-ID phone. Either line can be selected from the box for outgoing calls but the incoming ring signal from either line trips the box in that direction for incoming calls.) It always manages to wake up in time and do its thing so the single line phone can display the Caller-ID coming from either direction. Always? Well maybe it misses one call out of a hundred or so. Speaking of Caller-ID, it now works with Call Waiting here in Chicago. Not immediatly ... but keep the waiting call on hold; finish the first one and *hang up*, allowing the CO to give you a couple 'reminder rings' to let you know a call was left on hold ... between the first and second of *those* (reminder rings) the ID gets displayed. This, despite the fact it may have 'rang' a few times to the calling party before you answered and put them on hold. So even if you have to flash and (like me) merely say 'please hold' and flash back to the first party again, before actually talking to the new caller, we can get his ID if we hang up and let the CO pass it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 11:11:08 From: desaulni@mprgate.mpr.ca (Richard W. Desaulniers) Subject: Facsimile CNG Tone As I understand it a calling facsimile can send a series of CNG tone (0.5 sec 1100Hz) that can be detected by a receiving unit when it answers an incoming call. The purpose of the tone is allow incoming facsimile calls to be automatically switched over to a facsimile unit. I don't think this feature (i.e. being able to send CNG tones) is mandatory, but should one expect all facsimile units manufactured today to have that feature? What about the older facsimile units, do they have this feature? Are there a lot of these older units out there? Replies via e-mail would be appreciated. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 14:53:57 -0500 From: Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU Subject: Inverse Paging Service? Most TCD readers will remember the recent discussions of how to get a computer to talk to a paging service switch, to send a message to a paging subscriber. I'm wondering if anybody has created the logical inverse of such a service. In particular, when people ask me for my phone number, I usually give out two (one at home, one at work), with the caveat that I am rarely ever available at either number. However, during the times when I am not available by a phone, I am almost always still reachable by electronic mail. I'd really like a service whereby I can give people a "pager" number, which they could call up and punch in a return phone number like usual, which would then get translated into an E-mail message sent to me. Does such a service exist? (Note that suggestions to buy equipment to "roll my own" are not useful; to do so is really not worth the hassle for me.) Garrett A. Wollman wollman@emba.uvm.edu uvm-gen!wollman UVM disagrees. [Moderator's Note: What you are asking is available as an alphanumeric pager. People using these get little one line messages, etc from the caller. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ken Zmyslo Subject: X.25 Over IP (Telematics and NCR Tower) Date: 10 Mar 93 14:44:50 GMT Organization: NCR Corporation - Dayton, OH USA This is a general query regarding X25, TCP/IP, UNIX machines (NCR Towers) and Telematics 2600s (NCR 5480s). Currently, I have a Tower 32/700 communicating via async to a NCR 5480 (Telematics) box. The 5480 provides the X.25 PAD function for communications. I had Host PAD and X.25 running on the Tower 32/700 but it was taking CPU time to 0% free, (free CPU time is now acceptable). It is my understanding that there is third party software for the 5480 (it does have the ELA and tpx software installed). I wanted to take the X.25 calls (coming in to the 5480) and send them over IP to my Tower 32/700. Has anyone been able to do this or had experience with this configuration? If you can help with this situation, I'd appreciate it. Possibly I can help solve a different problem that you've been having. Thanks, please send your reply to: Kenneth J. Zmyslo VoicePlus 622-1779 WIN Management Services (513) 445-1779 Ken.Zmyslo@wtcp.DaytonOH.NCR.COM ...!uunet!ncrcom!wtcp!kzmyslo ------------------------------ Subject: Come Here, Mr. Watson Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 10:15:08 EST From: John R. Levine Tomorrow [or by the time you print this, probably today], March 10, is the 117th anniversary of the first phone call from A. Graham Bell to Thomas A. Watson. It took place in Scollay Square, Boston, at a site now marked by a modest granite marker and a pair of pay phones. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 15:19:34 EDT From: Class 4I Gymnazium Praha 9 Subject: Information on USA Telephone System Wanted Organization: CSAV UTIA [Moderator's Note: May I call on any Digest readers who wish to do so to please answer this letter of inquiry I received. I am hoping there will be several responses. If they have storage space for Archives files or a way to receive the Digest via their school, I'll gladly add them to the mailing list. Do NOT send them the FAQ file; I mailed that out to them myself; nor do they need this issue of the Digest which has also been especially mailed to the school. Thanks to everyone who replies! :) PAT] -------------- Dear Mr. Townson, We are students from high school in Prague. We would like to get some information about telephone system in America. We want to talk to our telephone company in Czech Republic. We are looking for more telephones, improved service; because we believe American telephone service is better than here. How can it be better? Please write us detailed information about American telephone system. Write us soon because this information is important to us. Write us directly at our school computer address since we do not receive your journal. Vladimir Vojik Andrea Kurova Petra Zateckova Lucie Fleischmannova Maria Mejsnarova Sasha Jungwirth Linda Kosarova Eva Pavlikova Paul Schlitter Students of Class 4I, Gymnazium Praha 9 ------------------------------ Subject: 800 and 900 Service in Canada From: murphy%switchboard@CAM.ORG (murphy) Date: Wed, 10 Mar 93 23:48:58 EST Organization: Switchboard BBS - +1 514 334 7883 I only had a very small question that's been bugging me for a while now: Is there ANY way to call 800 and 900 numbers located in the U.S. from Canada? Just wondering. [Moderator's Note: 900 numbers, no. 800 numbers, maybe, depending on if the owner of the 800 number wants to receive international calls and has had the line configured to do so. PAT] ------------------------------ Organization: Bar-Ilan University Computing Center, Israel Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 11:25:03 IST From: Hank Nussbacher Subject: Pricing For MAN Access I am looking for places that already have MAN pricing in place. For example, what is the monthly charge for 10Mb/sec access? Does your PTT charge per gigabyte of traffic? What is the price for 34Mb/sec access? Any and all information would be of help. Thanks, Hank Nussbacher Israel ------------------------------ From: aar_osman@gsbvxb.uchicago.edu Subject: Needed: T1 Channel Equipment Recommendations Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 15:36:03 GMT I am going to be installing a T1 local loop at our site and need recommendation/caveats on equip: T1 channel bank, CSU/DSU, the whole works! Can someone help? I am not able to check this board as often as I would like to so replies send directly to me will be appreciated. Will be happy to summarize responses for the group. Osman ------------------------------ From: jsnyder@rock.concert.net (Joseph J Snyder -- Graphic Data Inc) Subject: Dialer Format Wanted Organization: CONCERT-CONNECT -- Public Access UNIX Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 15:39:12 GMT I am looking for the data transmission format used by security system dialers to talk to a central station. I believe that it is some kind of a pulse stream at very low (20 pulses/sec) rate, set up many years ago when phone lines were noisier and less reliable (?) than today. Also, does any one know of any dialers that use Touch-Tone as the data format (instead of pulses or modem)? Thanks in advance. Joe ------------------------------ From: Martin Egan Subject: Need Information on Fiber Optic Television Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 14:57:56 GMT Organization: University of Illinois I am doing research on the competition between the telcos and cable companies over the cable television market. If you have any general information, or if you have specific information on who may have the competitive edge, please post it. Thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 00:41:56 -0800 From: rlm@indigo2.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: RFC on SLIP I want to hear from people in net.land who've used SLIP (especially if you've used it with Linux, assuming such a thing is currently possible). Specifically, I want to know how it stacks up as a file transfer protocol versus UUCP 'g', XMODEM, YMODEM, ZMODEM, etc. If I get enough interest, I will post a summary to this group. Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@indigo2.hac.com After June 25 : rlm@mcgort.com or rlm@surfcty.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #166 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27430; 11 Mar 93 5:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16989 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 02:58:35 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10407 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 02:58:02 -0600 Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 02:58:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303110858.AA10407@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #167 TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 Mar 93 02:58:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 167 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson An Alarming Circuit ID Technique! (Dave Levenson) Conference: Integrating Voice, Video and Data (Matt Lucas) Wanted: Novatel PTR825 Programming Information (Mike Brand) 18kf Limit Measurement (Ken Hester) Local Phone Companies as Collection Agencies (Marc Kozam) Voice '93 BoF (Bill Cerny) Hearing-Impaired Teletype Connectivity (John Kerns) Listening in via Call Waiting? (Wolfgang Rupprecht) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: An Alarming Circuit ID Technique! Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 04:27:54 GMT NJ Bell recently spent two weeks installing two private lines between my business and residence locations. The endpoints are actually about six miles apart, and are both served by the same central office. So what took them so long? Well, it got a little bit complicated ... the office is served by short copper loops from the nearby central office. The house is served by a SLC-96 system that uses fiber between the central office and the remote terminal, and then a few blocks of copper. The NJ Bell technician connected the copper loops to the network interface at my office. Then he connected the copper between the SLC remote terminal and the house. Another NJ Bell employee connected the copper loops from the office to the appropriate part of the SLC central office terminal to complete the job. The lines are called OSNA lines (in USOC-speak). They connect from station ports on the PBX at my office to a telephone set (actually, one of them connects to a modem) at my house. The SLC system provides a little bit of gain, and repeats loop supervision toward the PBX, and AC ringing toward the house. I picked up a phone in my house, and I heard dial tone from the PBX at the office. I dialed 9 and I heard central office dial tone. I called a friend. He said 'hello'. I said 'hi, John'. He said 'hello?' several more times, apparently unable to hear me. I raised my voice and spoke his name. He finally reacted. He could barely hear me when I shouted at him. I could hear him just fine. I dragged out my box of telecom tools. I placed a 1004 Hz tone at 0 dBm on the line at the house, and measured the level at the office. I swapped ends. From the office to the house, the via-net-loss was about 4.8 dB. From the house to the office, the VNL was almost 8 dB. No wonder John couldn't hear me. The end-to-end loss from my house to the office, through the PBX, and then out to the NJ Bell central office was about 18 dB. I called NJ Bell. Then sent the technician back. He said that he could replace the line cards in the SLC with the older type that allowed him to adjust the gain independently in each direction. He also brought some test gear with him, and confirmed my loss measurements. (The tariff says that OSNA lines will present a loss of 4.0 dB in each direction.) The older SLC cards require a double-width slot. Using them meant moving two other subscribers' circuit packs to different slots, to free up pairs of adjacent backplane slots to accomodate the older card. When he was done (it was late at night) he had the loss down to 4.0 dB in each direction. But he had cranked the gain up so high that the circuit was right on the verge of oscillation. Voices were loud enough, but the sound was so badly distorted that people didn't recognize my voice. The echo was terrible. The modem didn't even detect carrier, let along pass data. I reported trouble again. NJ Bell sent the technician back again, and he brought some of his friends. With a man at my house, another at my office, and a third in the hut that contained the remote terminal of the SLC system, they reduced the gain to the original design, and then sought to add gain at the central office, where the SLC was joined to copper. They got to this point at about 7:00pm, and the central office is unattended at that hour. A central office technician who doesn't normally work this area was dispatched. At about 8:00pm he got to the central office, and told the technician that someone had removed all of the identification from the SLC terminals at the office, and that he could not identify the system that served the OSNA lines. A conference call was set up (courtesy of my PBX) between the technician at the remote SLC location, the technician at my house, the technician at my office, and the technician at the central office. After trying unsuccessfully for some time to locate the central office end of the SLC, they came up with a plan ... The man at the remote SLC location pulled the master control card out of the SLC equipment bay serving the OSNA lines. (The conference call was disrupted by this process. Approximately 96 of my neighbors were probably cut off if they were on the phone at the time.) The man at the central office got some alarms and lots of red lights, but he learned what SLC system we were trying to use! Well, now the lines work as tariffed. I have voice and data service between my house and my office. And except for the readers of this article, nobody will ever know ... Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 [Moderator's Note: Ah, but I have lots of good NJB people reading this Digest and they may recognize themselves or a co-worker! :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 02:19:29 -0500 From: matt lucas Subject: Conference: Integrating Voice, Video and Data A TeleStrategies Conference: INTEGRATING VOICE, VIDEO AND DATA Opportunities in Multimedia for Computer and Communications Companies April 29-30, 1993 Washington, DC APRIL 29, 1993 8:30 - 9:00 Registration 9:00 - 10:15 MARKET ASSESSMENT AND OVERVIEW Market size, market drivers and opportunities for revenues today and in the future will be covered. The discussion will also include: applications and services business users are demanding; business alliances being formed and applications being created; how vendors and users should position themselves for multimedia services; case studies of where integrated voice, video and data communications have succeeded and/or failed and why; integration strategies; structured data issues; standards and compatibility; and the significance of adjacent technologies associated with multimedia (groupware, objects, languages). Natasha Kroll, Vice President & Service Director Advanced Applications Development Strategies, META Group Steve Reynolds, Director, Interactive Media Services Link Resources 10:15 - 10:45 Coffee Break 10:45 - 12:30 COMPUTER INDUSTRY EFFORTS IN MULTIMEDIA Computer industry representatives will discuss their current efforts to bring integrated voice, video and data applications to the market. The role of network design, Pentium chips, new software programs, CD-ROM, groupware, networked multimedia and compresssion, ATM/SONET and other technologies will be assessed. The relationship between the computer and telecommunications industries and how it will influence the development of multimedia communications will also be covered. Compatibility issues and standards bodies will be discussed. What standards are most likely to be adopted in order to bring multimedia applications to the market more quickly? Standards such as H.261, H.243, DVI, MTP and the role of JPEG and MPEG will be assessed. Douglas Ehrenreich, Marketing Manager, Telcommunications Industry Sun Microsystems Daniel Harple, Jr., President, InSoft, Inc. Ken Severson, Section Manager, Multimedia Technology Laboratory, Hewlett-Packard Company Representative, IBM Corporation 12:30 - 1:45 Hosted Lunch 1:45 - 3:30 TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS' PERSPECTIVES The speakers will discuss their activities in support of multimedia communications. Compression technologies, video conferencing, the role of fiber optics, and the use of SMDS, frame relay and ATM/SONET for multimedia communications will be discussed. What are the network capabilities for multimedia now? What's the process to turn multimedia applications into service offerings? In a multimedia environment, how will landline services be coordinated with wireless services? What are the benefits of industry alliances? What types of multimedia services are users requesting? When do the carriers expect acceptable revenue streams from multimedia offerings? What services are operational now and likely to be seen in the future? Dennis Jennings, Director of Broadband Market Analysis Bellcore John Strickland, Director, Broadband Technology U S WEST Advanced Communications Services Richard Neugass, Product Manager, Video Conferencing MCI Telecommunications, Inc. Steve Tabaska, Director, Systems & Hardware Development Wiltel John McMenamin, Associate Director, Enterprise Services, Architecture & Design, New York Telephone 3:30 - 4:00 Coffee Break 4:00 - 5:15 LANs AND MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATIONS WANs. They will also highlight the drivers behind store-and-forward and live video and other multimedia applications. Additional subject matter includes: economic breakpoints of desktop video and other applications; stored video applications such as training and video databases; and how important standards and compatibility issues are. More importantly, they will discuss how the successful implementation of multimedia communications can improve response time and cut costs and discuss the applications they expect from the computer and communications companies. Sam Shuler, Communications Strategy Manager Texas Instruments Speaker to be Announced For complete information and registration call TeleStrategies at 703-734-7050. ------------------------------ Subject: Wanted: Novatel PTR825 Programming Information From: mike@cronos.mcs.com (Mike Brand) Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 00:15:15 CST Organization: The Keeper of Time BBS +1 708 389 1369 I have a Novatel PTR825 Portable Cellular Phone and I am looking for the programming information. I would appreciate any infomation I could get. Please send directly to me, and I will summarize if enough people are interested. Thanks, Mike Brand - mike@cronos.mcs.com The Keeper of Time BBS 1 708 389 1369 ------------------------------ From: khester@cinpmx.attmail.com Date: 11 Mar 93 06:25:43 GMT Subject: 18kf Limit Measurement In article goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) writes: > In article , exugsr@exu.ericsson.se > (Govindan Raghavan, XT-DL) writes: > The ANSI Standard BRI (2B1Q code) goes 18,000 feet. > Repeaters do exist. However, they cost something over a thousand > dollars apiece right now, so the telephone comapnies aren't exactly > beating down a path to the vendors' doors. Thus if you don't live > within 18 kf of an ISDN line termination (CO or neighborhood mux, > like a SLC-96, which handles ISDN), you're probably "SOL". > PRI (T1) only goes 6000 feet, so they're used to repeaters. Besides, > it's factored into the price. Does this 18,000 ft measurement start at the CO or the neighborhood mux (SLC-96, etc.)? If the neighborhood mux is within the 18kf limit, are you considered within the limit? The reason I ask is I can see situations where the telco could interpret the tariff to their advantage even if you are technically within the limit. The tariffs are usually vague about things like this and telcos usually will do what they think they can get away with and b.s. the customer with jargon when challenged. In article gary.w.sanders@att.com (Gary W. Sanders) writes: > Ohio Bell's ISDN request was approved on Jan 20 by the PUCO (Ohio). > In it they have a two tier pricing schedule, under 18kft and over > 18kft. If you're over 18Kft they bring in a T1 to your location and > split out to the ISDN interface onsite. > I am still waiting to find out what the pricing is really going to > be. Will Ohio Bell offer reasonable priced ISDN service and sell a lot > of price it out of site and sell a few? March 9 is the offical roll > out date. My home is served by Ohio Bell (but I work in Cincinnati Bell-land) and I am waiting to hear if they are going to gig me for a distance charge for my residential BRI. Judging from my conversations with Ohio Bell, I am the first residential customer (guinea pig) of their new ISDN Direct Service. The official rollout *IS* March 9th. Here is an incomplete list of per line charges (I left out the 60 Month rates): PIPE: MO-MO 12MO 36MO Direct Line-Res 12.00 11.75 11.50 Direct Line-NonRes 12.00 11.75 11.50 CO Termination-Custom 7.10 7.10 7.10 CO Termination- NI-1 7.10 7.10 7.10 Distance Charge >18KF 26.00 26.10 26.10 EUCL - Single Pipe 3.50 3.50 3.50 EUCL - Multi Pipe 4.15 4.15 4.15 BEARER SERVICES: CSV, per B channel 3.00 2.60 2.60 Addt'l Call Appear ea. 2.00 2.00 2.00 Secondary DN 2.00 2.00 2.00 CSD, per B channel 8.00 7.80 7.60 Alt. CSV/CSD, per B 9.00 8.80 8.60 PSD, per B channel 85.00 80.00 75.00 PSD, D channel 6.50 6.30 6.10 NON-RECURRING CHARGES: PIPE: CO Termination - Custom 50.00 CO Termination - NI-1 50.00 Svc. Establishment Charge-Res. 50.00 Svc. Establishment Charge-Bus. 49.35 BEARER SERVICES: CSV, per B channel 15.00 Addt'l Call Appear ea. 6.00 Secondary DN 6.00 CSD, per B channel 15.00 Alt. CSV/CSD, per B 15.00 PSD, per B channel 100.00 PSD, D channel 15.50 I am sure there are some minor errors in the above list, all I have is a blurred fax. I do not speak for Ohio Bell or Ameritech, only for myself. Ken Hester, Telcom Consultant Internet: khester@cinpmx.attmail.com Computer Sciences Corporation Voice: +1 513 768 4440 Cincinnati, OH Fax: +1 513 768 4446 ------------------------------ From: mlksoft!kozam@cs.UMD.EDU Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 00:24:42 EST Subject: Local Phone Companies as Collection Agencies Local phone companies are now in the collection agency business. When you use AT&T or dial a 1-900 number, the charges (and errors) pop up on your local phone bill. Have a billing dispute? Your local company may (albeit ilegally) threaten to discontinue your service. In C&P territory, the bottom of every bill states that "This portion of your bill is provided as a service to AT&T. There is no connection between C&P and AT&T." If there is NO connection between C&P and AT&T, then what grounds do they have to discontinue your service as long as the local portion is paid in full? Sounds like a connection to me. At one point, a local phone company supervisor explained that C&P telephone BUYS AT&T's accounts receivable. This means that AT&T has been paid directly by C&P. Since AT&T has the cash, they have no incentive to resolve billing disputes. C&P telephone has an incentive to press for payment, and they have the stick (e.g. cancel your phone service) to coerce payment. And yes, I know the legal rights with regard to bills in dispute. But I also know the reality that resolving billing disputes is going to be a double problem -- you must first keep your local phone company from disconnecting your service, while at the same time getting the information provider or long-distance company to correct their error. It seems that being a collection agency is an inappropriate activity for a public utility. Otherwise, perhaps there could be interesting arrangements between, say, a gasoline station and the electric company. Car repair bill in dispute? Get your lights turned off. The incident that spawned this posting is long over. It involved six identical bills for a long distance phone call. Six billing lines for the same time and phone number. Random check showed duplicate and triplicate entries going back at least six months. C&P says call AT&T. AT&T says OK, we'll credit you for the five duplicates. I say "but there are LOTS of these errors going back at least months -- it's your problem, you audit my account, find them, fix them." AT&T replies, "OK, we'll look into it." I estimate the overcharges and deduct that from my C&P bill. Seems that the problem really isn't in AT&T's software -- it is in C&P's billing software. AT&T keeps closing the claim, never performs the audit, I reopen, start cycle again. C&P says "pay or else". I finally wound up paying since the amount wasn't worth another second of my time or energy. A few other people scrutinized their past bills and also saw the overcharges, so it wasn't just me. The error involved the way C&P telephone handled AT&T Reach Out America charges. Calls that spanned 10PM (e.g. evening and ROA multirate) resulted in duplicates. This occurred between June 1992 and March 1993. C&P and AT&T were aware of the billing problem but never made any effort to identify and reimburse customers who had been billed in error. And this is a company that is entrusted with a public monopoly! Marc Kozam UUCP: {media,mimsy}!mlksoft!kozam Internet: mlksoft!kozam@cs.umd.edu ------------------------------ From: bill@toto.info.com Subject: Voice '93 BoF Organization: Sun, Surf 'n Sushi, San Diego, CA Date: 11 Mar 93 06:58:12 GMT Voice '93 is coming to San Diego March 30 - April 1. I've received a lot of e-mail already, so here's the public announcement: There will be a Voice '93 Bof held at Dick's Last Resort in San Diego after the exhibition hall closes on Tuesday March 30th. We'll be easy to find, just look for the table with the ash Comdial 2500 set in the middle. Dick's is across Harbor Blvd. from the San Diego Convention Center. Enter from the 300 block of either 3rd or 4th Streets, in the heart of the historic Gaslamp Quarter. Contrary to rumor, John Higdon wil not be present signing autographs and mooing unmoderated remarks on GTE. ;-) Bill Cerny 10288-0-700-FON-BILL ------------------------------ From: jon@sd.cadence.com (John Kerns) Subject: Hearing-Impaired Teletype Connectivity Organization: Cadence Design Systems, San Diego Center Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 18:24:42 GMT If anyone has information on connecting a teletype (TTD) for the hearing- impaired to a PC through a modem over phone lines, it would be much appreciated. Since I'm posting this on behalf of someone else, I don't have all the particulars, such as whether data needs to be transmitted one-way or both ways. Thanks for the help. John W. Kerns Cadence Design Systems jon@autosys.com San Diego R&D {uunet|ncr-sd}!asihub!jon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 22:53:04 -0800 From: Wolfgang Rupprecht Subject: Listening in via Call Waiting? Organization: Wolfgang S. Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Fremont CA This is something I found on rec.humor. Does this work? wolfgang Another Tap So, you have an enemy who talks behind your back, eh? Or, maybe you just would like to "listen" in on your friend's conversations? Well, if you have two phone lines and call waiting on one of them, you are in luck. (Only one problem: your friend must also have call waiting!) Procedure: [1] Call up your friend with the phone you want to listen with. When he answers call waiting (he's already on the phone, and you are the 2nd caller), then you either sit there or say: sorry, I have the wrong number. [2] Next, you wait until he goes back to the other line (puts you on hold). [3] Then, pick up your other line and call -> YOUR <- call waiting. [4] Answer call waiting. [5] Then go back to him. (Answer, and then click back. Click -> 2 <- times, answer, and go back..) [6] Hang up your second line. [7] You are now on the line! [8] Listen and be Q U I E T ! He can hear you! Techniques I use to prevent noise or confusion: If you have call forwarding, turn it on and forward calls somewhere before you start listening. If a call comes through on your call waiting circuit, the people talking (your buddie and his pal) will not hear anything, but after you answer call waiting and come back, they will hear the other call hang up (two clicks). If you don't have call forwarding, I suggest you get it if you are going to make a habit of this, because it will become a major pain in the ass. When your call waiting rings, you are removed from the "listening" conversation and placed back on his hold circuit. In order to get back on, you must answer the phone and wait for your party (when you answer the phone, tell the guy you are in a hurry and you have to go or you'll call him back later or something) to hang up. When he or she hangs up, you will be back on the conversation. Then, one of your pals will say: What was that? (because of the clicks) ... so, try to use call forwarding if you can. Remember: Have fun, and don't abuse it. I am not sure about it, because I just discovered it. It is illegal (what isn't these days?) because it is "invading privacy". I don't know if the phone company just did not realize there was a flaw in it, or that it was planned for line testing. I am not sure. Have fun! [Moderator's Note: Two observations: If you put your 'listening phone' on call forwarding before you start this little gag, *how* do you get through to that phone from your second line in order to activate the call waiting on it which is so integral to your scheme? Maybe you meant one should use *70 once the second call is up so as to prevent any interupption. While this may *possibly* work between two calls on the same malfunctioning switch (I've never seen or heard of such a thing before), it certainly would not work when the caller and callee were in different offices; I don't think it works that way at all. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #167 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa17878; 11 Mar 93 14:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09066 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 11:43:32 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29229 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 11:43:07 -0600 Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 11:43:07 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303111743.AA29229@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #168 TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 Mar 93 11:43:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 168 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Archives and the World-Wide Web (Frederick Roeber) Rural Network Setup (Steven Shulman) CT2 Digital Mobile Phones in Brisbane (Tom Worthington) IS-41 Roaming Question (John McHarry) AT&T Billing Practices --> Followup (Christopher Wolf) What is Telecom Gold? (Ted Koppel) Call Forward Don't Answer/Busy Line and Call Waiting (Mark Baker) Number Replacement (Vance Shipley) Public Service Usage for 900 Numbers (Joe Wiesenfeld) ATM and SS7 (Martin B. Weiss) Australia Privacy Document (Dave Leibold) Bell Canada Further Restricts Payphone Card Calling (Dave Leibold) Another Quiet Evening at Home (John Higdon) Bomb Scare (1970s) Forgot Area Code (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: roeber@vxcrna.cern.ch Subject: Telecom Archives and the World-Wide Web Reply-To: roeber@cern.ch Organization: CERN -- European Organization for Nuclear Research Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 11:40:05 GMT I'd like to mention to everybody that the Telecom Archives are available on the World-Wide Web, a global hypertext network. From the standard "Information by Subject" page, go to "Computing" and then "telecom archive." Currently, the archive structure seen is merely the directory structure. However, if people submit documents in html (hypertext markup language), the document structure will be visible. This might be useful for a country code/city code list, for example, or for files that contain references to other information, either in the archive or elsewhere on the net. If you are not familiar with the WWW, but would like to explore, I would recommend the "xmosaic" X-windows web browser available by anon ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu under Web/xmosaic. If you use the web much at all you'll probably want to set up your own home page, but to start, try the CERN home page (under the "Documents" menubar item). Its "other subjects" entry is the "information by subject" mentioned above. If you have image viewing software (like xv), you might be interested in "Information by Subject" --> "Literature & Art" --> "Renaissance Culture / Vatican exhibit." This set of text files and jpeg images is an "electronic exhibition" from the Library of Congress. Xmosaic will happily plug into other viewing software, and this makes walking through the exhibition very easy. Frederick G. M. Roeber | CERN -- European Center for Nuclear Research e-mail: roeber@cern.ch or roeber@caltech.edu | work: +41 22 767 31 80 r-mail: CERN/PPE, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland | home: +33 50 20 82 99 [Moderator's Note: My thanks to Mr. Roeber for bringing this to our attention. The Archives (available using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu) includes all the back issues (12 years worth!) of TELECOM Digest and it is gradually becoming more and more accessible and easier to use thanks to the various programs like Web, Gopher and others now avail- able. And of course, our dialup sites have helped a lot also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: shulman@underdog.ee.wits.ac.za (Steven Shulman) Subject: Rural Network Setup Organization: Wits Electrical Engineering (Undergrads). Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 10:16:50 GMT I'm required to evaluate the feasibility of setting up a rural network using cellular telephony as an honours project. The rural location is not financially over-endowed and I was wondering if anyone had design ideas on how to minimise the cost (and if so what the cost could be) of setting up a rural network like this using GSM and cellular telephony. Please mail me or reply to the NET with any ideas. Thanks, Steve ------------------------------ From: tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Tom Worthington) Subject: CT2 Digital Mobile Phones in Brisbane Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 15:17:55 GMT Telecom Australia News Release MEDIA INFORMATION Tuesday 2 March 1993 TALKABOUT - WORLD'S BEST ANNOUNCED FOR BRISBANE Telecom Talkabout, one of the world's most advanced personal communication services, will make it's Australian debut in Brisbane later this month, announced Telecom Australia today (Tuesday 2 March). Mr Albert Sommer, National Manager for Talkabout Services Dyranda Hortle or Chadd McLisky Telecom Australia Tel: 07 3691055 Tel: 03 2521500 * Talkabout is a registered trademark of Telecom Australia ATTACHMENT A: HOW TALKABOUT WORKS: TALKABOUT is a personal communications service which works with battery-powered, compact and lightweight high-quality personal telephones. To operate it in and around the office and home, a small private base station is connected to the existing telephone installation on the premises and typically would be placed discreetly on a desk or table. Users are freed from their work station or the fixed telephone at home, able to move around as they continue their conversations. For public calls, there is a network of about 600 highly-visible base stations found throughout the Brisbane metropolitan area. Host businesses include major shopping centres, restaurants, hotels, railway stations, fast food outlets, supermarkets, service stations and post offices. They are also located on main shopping streets and major roads. The personal telephones can bc used up to a range of 100 metes away from the base station on which particular calls are registered. The three pencil-torch-sized batteries which power the personal telephones provide up to 10 hours of continuous communications, rechargeable battery packs are also available . Experience overseas suggests the average duration of calls on this type of service is about two minutes. Telecom Australia, with it's network partner, GEC Plessey Telecommunictions (GPI), enhanced overseas technology to develop a world first with Talkabout's ability to enable the user to make and receive calls when out and about. It achieved this by working closely with the service's major equipment manufacturers. Telecom's industry partners are GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT), a world leder in public and business communication systems; and the giant US specialist supplier of radio equipment, systems, components and services, Motorola. Talkabout is a personal communications service that meets owing consumer demand for portable and flexible services that can be affordably used in all the places that people want to use the phones most often. That is the office, the home, and out and about at places of entertainment and work. Talkabout compliments Telecom's existing cellular mobile services which provides for high out and about mobility needs which justifies the associated costs. ATrACHMENT B: TALKABOUT PACKAGES AND PRICES: TELECOM Australia will make Talkabout available in a range of packages, with options to suit businesses and individuals, such as managers and supervisors, sales and service representatives, the self-employed and others working from their homes, for example, and domestic users. The personal telephone costs $499 while options include a private base station, battery re-charger, voice-mail facility for taking messages and communications to and from the user. Talkabout's basic package of the personal telephone is especially suited to people who are consistently out and about. They can respond to a message immediately wherever they see a Talkabout sign. Talkabout Priority teams the personal telephone with a pager for $699, while Talkabout Plus, at $999, includes the personal telephone, a private base stations and a battery re-charger. A special introductory offer, available until June 30 1993, includes free connection to the Telecom Talkabout network, as well as 60 minutes of regional peak hour calls free in the first month of use. Around the office and home, the personal telephones are an extension of existing telephone installations rather than an additional service, so calls through private base stations cost the same as those made on a conventional telephone and are included on the usual Telecom account number for that telephone. A $10 monthly subscription is paid for the use of the public network. Regional calls made while out and about cost 29 cents a minute and all out and about calls are recorded on a separate account. On this network, 50 minutes of regional peak-hour calls everY month will cost less than $15. The subscription fee varies according to the communications needs of the user. Talkabout Access, for example, enables the user to receiYe calls or messages when they are out and about. When the personal telephone is registered on a base station, calls to the user's personal number will be directed to them. At other times this option automatically stores messages to which access can be gained whenever it suits the user. Access costs $8 a month. *Telecom Talkabout, Talkabout Access, Talkabout Priority, Talkabout Plus are registered trademarks of Telecom Australia ------------- Posted as a community service by Tom Worthington, Director of the Community Affairs Board, Australian Computer Society Incorporated. ------------------------------ From: mcharry@freedom.cwc.com (McHarry) Subject: IS-41 Roaming Question Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 8:52:05 EST Reply-To: mcharry@freedom.cwc.com The IS-41 recommendation is emerging as a major way cellular radiotelephone systems interconnect to handle roamers. This allows user profiles to be sent from the home system to the visited system over an SS7 network. I have a small question: Is the subscriber's primary interexchange carrier (PIC) information sent to the visited system, and does it honor that selection? Related to that, does anyone know which cellular systems lack Equal Access? I believe any system in which an RBOC holds an interest must implement Equal Access, but that leaves many others, including (I think) McCaw systems that have the option of making other arrangements. John McHarry (mcharry@freedom.otra.com) ------------------------------ From: cmwolf@mtu.edu (CHRISTOPHER WOLF) Subject: AT&T Billing Practices --> Followup Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 09:58:41 -0500 (EST) This is a follow-up to a post I made several weeks ago about AT&T's Acus service, and billing problems with the system. Seems that after I made the post here, it someone got back to the AT&T Public Relations Department, and they spent my entire vacation trying to reach me to make sure all my questions had been satisfactorily answered. Seems that while the bill may say that I will be charged more than 10%, the computer will actually only charge 10% when it actually adds it on. In other words, it works out "in the end". Queries as to why the printed warning amount is incorrect were completely misunderstood ("...But sir, it does add the right amount!" "Why does it print the wrong amount, then?" "...But sir, it does add the right amount!" "But, why doesn't it print the right amount?" "..But sir..." etc etc ). So i gave up. Which is probably what they wanted. AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, they asked me several times during the conversation if I would publish a "correction" to my previous post. I assume I am supposed to correct the fact that it will all work out "in the end", as they have not fixed one of the original problems I complained about, namely, the computer printing wrong amounts on the warning. Oh! The power of E-Mail. Christopher Wolf (cmwolf@mtu.edu) ------------------------------ From: tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu (Ted Koppel) Subject: What is Telecom Gold? Organization: CARL Systems Inc, Denver, Colo. Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 15:28:17 GMT I have in front of me a business card from a gentleman in Great Britain. It has all of the normal stuff: Name Title, Department Address City Telephone # Telex # Fax # and then a line that says: Telecom Gold followed by an alphanumeric string in the format: NN:aaannn (where a=alpha and n=numeric) What is it? Ted Koppel -- ted@carl.org or tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu ------------------------------ From: mcb@ihlpl.att.com Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 09:53 CST Subject: Call Forward Don't Answer/Busy Line and Call Waiting There have been a couple of mentions lately about the interactions (or lack thereof) between the Call Forward Don't Answer (CFDA) and Call Forward Busy Line (CFBL) features and the Call Waiting (CWT) feature. I thought I'd try to clear things up. Keep in mind this discussion applies to 1A ESS(tm) and 5ESS(r) Switching Systems. I can't speak for other vendors. Actually, I'm not sure I can speak for AT&T either, but here goes ... Until just recently (within the last year or so), if you had the CFDA and/or CFBL features and CWT on the same line, CFDA would only forward if you did not answer and were not being call waited. In other words, if you did not answer a second call which call waited you, the second call would not forward. CFBL would not do anything as CWT had precedence. Within the last year, some but not all RBOCs have purchased a feature called Call Forward after Call Wait. With this capability active in your central office the features now interact differently. If you do not answer a second call which call waited you, the second call will be forwarded to your CFDA number. If you are already being call waited by a second call or can not be call waited (e.g. your phone is ringing), new calls will be forwarded to your CFBL number. This is much more useful for forwarding to a voice mail service. I hope this helps. Mark Baker - AT&T Network Systems ------------------------------ From: Vance Shipley Subject: Number Replacement Organization: Xenitec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, CANADA Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 08:22:07 GMT I spoke to someone at Bell Canada today about "Number Replacement". This is apparently a new service they can apply to your line which will allow outgoing CLID from your lines to show a more appropriate number. For example I have two lines with equiavalency at home; 555-1234 hunts to 555-1235. I would have Number Replacement on the second line set to 555-1234. Thus when someone used automatic call back, etc on a call placed from my second line they would ring in on my first and consequently take advantage of the fact that I have two lines. Good News: No monthly charge. Bad News: An $18.75 service charge applies. :( Vance Shipley, vances@xenitec.on.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu 11 Mar 1993 13:15:33 -0500 From: jwiesenf@dg-webo.webo.dg.com (Joe Wiesenfeld) Subject: Public Service Usage for 900 Numbers In a recent reply, the Moderator noted: > the City of Chicago is considering a 900 number with no charge > attached to calling it to be used for announcements to the citizens on > a mass-calling basis. That night be a very good idea for the public > transit system also. PAT] I would propose that the use of 900 numbers for this type of public service is a poor choice. Those of us who block 900 service would not be able to access the public service messages. Perhaps a new category of phone service should be created. ------------------------------ From: mbw+@pitt.edu (Martin B Weiss) Subject: ATM and SS7 Date: 11 Mar 93 13:27:36 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh Many of the IXC's and LEC's are making significant investments in SS7 to provide new services and improved call setup time, etc. As I understand it, ATM defines a Virtual Circuit setup procedure as well. How are SS7 and ATM services supposed to interact? If the SS7 network has to be scrapped, how will IN services be offered? Martin Weiss Telecommunications Program, University of Pittsburgh Internet: mbw@pitt.edu BITNET: mbw@pittvms ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 01:46:36 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Australia Privacy Document I received a document regarding telecom privacy issues in Australia, namely the one mentioned by Arthur Marsh a while ago in the Digest. At present, it is available through the Fidonet under the file name AUSTPRIV.ARJ which Fido nodes can file request here at 1:250/730. Size of package is 94.5k. The same contents are also available in the LHA compression by requesting AUSTPRIV.LZH instead of .ARJ when making the file request. The size came out larger at approximately 110k, however. Thanx to Arthur Marsh for sending this file my way. I don't know when I'll be able to submit it for the TELECOM Archives, but this is a start. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 22:15:26 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Bell Canada Further Restricts Payphone Card Calling [from Bell News (Bell Canada, Bell Ontario division) 22 Feb 93] Payphone fraud prompts more restrictions on overseas calling. A continuing problem with payphone fraud to some overseas countries, has prompted Bell to restrict calling card, credit card, or cash calls from Millennium payphones in Bell Canada territory to China, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. The restriction became effective the weekend of February 13, and applies to all Canadian, American and international calling cards. Also affected are Visa, Mastercard, American Express and enRoute credit cards. Investigators continue to indicate that Bell is losing money from calling card and recently credit card fraud. Current figures show that a significant and growing amount of the payphone fraud in Ontario and Quebec to China, Pakistan and Bangladesh was with the use of stolen or counterfeit credit cards. Over the past year, Bell has introduced a number of measures to deal with the growing payphone fraud problem, including restricting the use of calling cards from payphones to overseas destinations, and blocking calling card calls from payphones or cellular phones to all 809-area (Caribbean) countries. Those customers, including consulates, who are frequent callers to these three countries, are being notified by letter explaining the situation and offering dialing options. [end of article; content is that of Bell News] Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 03:07 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Subject: Another Quiet Evening at Home Organization: Green Hills and Cows Once again, the lack of Caller-ID has enabled me to spend a quiet, productive evening at home. Since I could not screen out the one call I was avoiding (from a client for whom I had no answer yet), I just answered no calls. I have, in essence, two numbers for talking: a published, public line and a more private line for good clients, friends, and associates. The first line is always answered by a machine; the second is never answered except by me. One evening last week, I just turned the bell off. Selective call block (which features a recording that says, in essence, "the party you are calling does not want to talk to you...",) is not horribly subtle. Screening with a machine on a line that is not intended to be machine-answered does not do the trick. No, folks, Caller-ID would have returned the use of my phone to me this evening as nothing else would have. Oh, well, the work needed to be done anyway and I did not waste my time talking on the phone. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 10:32:27 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Bomb Scare (1970s) Forgot Area Code In the 1970s (middle to late?) there was a case I saw in a newspaper (Wilmington, Del.) where an attempted bomb-scare call to a building in New York City was received at a Cedar Grove, NJ service station. Its attendant replied "You've reached a service station in New Jersey. What am I supposed to do?" and the line went dead. Police theorized that the caller was in New Jersey and forgot to dial the NYC area code. (Notice the use of "forgot to dial"; I am warning you NOT to say "should have dialed", because out of context it could be inter- preted to mean that the call should have been placed!) I think a good guess for the phone prefix for the intended and actual reception of the call is 239. At that time, there would be no N0X/N1X prefixes (except in 213 in California), and no area codes 908,718,917. Whether the call was direct-dial, cash from a pay phone, or 0+ (and assuming the call did indeed start in 201), you would only have to insert area code 212 to distinguish between a call within 201 and a call to NYC. [Moderator's Note: Ah yes, bomb threats and the early seventies Vietnam era. It got to the point we were getting 'em once a month at the credit card billing office in those days. The callers always claimed to be Weathermen or some other radical group. The background Muzak would stop and a voice on the speaker in each office would say "It is necessary for all employees to leave the building at this time. Please leave immediatly and wait outside until instructed to return." All the chickens which had been roosting at their desk-nests would flutter and cackle and carry-on as they flooded down the stairwells and out onto Canal Street along with their fellow nesters from the Social Security Administration's back-office on the 11th floor, for whom I think the bomb threats were intended most of the time. A half-dozen of us (our lives were not as valuable, perhaps?) would always be called and told to report to the phone room and work the switchboard for the duration. Kids in school call in bomb threats on warm spring days; so do office workers, believe me. A couple of ours were inside jobs. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #168 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20547; 11 Mar 93 15:35 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01723 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 12:35:28 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24994 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 12:35:01 -0600 Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 12:35:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303111835.AA24994@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #169 TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 Mar 93 11:35:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 169 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson "457 Channels and Nothin' on..." (Paul Robinson) Coventry Teletext Transfer Open Format (W. J. G. Overington) CLID vs ANI in California (Laurence Chiu) Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing (Craig Moynihan) Internet Access From Home (Chris Norley) DigitalLink DL551VX <-> Canoga 2240 (Mark Scannapieco) Need Card For Speech-Out and DTMF-In, Preferably For PC (Laird Broadfield) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 10:36:01 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: "457 Channels and Nothin' on..." Back during November on the cartoon show "Tiny Toons" they did a parody of television in general, and Cable TV in particular, with an episode about a cable system which had 400 channels. When I was watching it, I was laughing about such a silly thing because it was so obviously ridiculous. They may have the last laugh after all. There is a new system for Cable-TV coming out which will offer over 500 channels. It looks like Bruce Springsteen underestimated capacity in the song whose name is misquoted above. More details later as soon as I can find out some information about it. But someone had better tell the local stations and the TV networks to get their act together and make better programs or they are going to be destroyed by this type of development. Correction: they will not 'be destroyed'; they will have committed mass suicide. Broadcast television is dying from its lack of quality in writing, script development and idea content. And its anathema to taking risks and making hard choices over carrying material some fringe group might not like or be opposed to. A lot of material appearing on Cable Television is boring or uninteresting; it has been that way because of the large capacity of most systems that can carry 40 channels or more, that you can't get a large part of the audience when they can choose from 39 competitors. Cable networks know they have to work with a fractional audience; that's why a large number are using older material from shows which were cancelled or have been off for a while; these shows often had some good writing and ideas, and because they've already had a broadcast run, are available much cheaper than equivalent material (if it was even available.) A subset of 'Gresham's Law' (Bad money drives good money out of circulation) has come into effect in the broadcast industry: Bad (and cheap) television drives good (and expensive) television off the air. One need only look at the kind of garbage that makes the top 10 broadcast shows to know that there is a famine of ideas in network television. "Hill Street Blues", at the height of its effort, was costing a million dollars an episode to make. For that kind of money, no cable network could come close to afford to make a show like that. And the level of audience needed to support that kind of cost can only be done by a Broadcast network. Broadcast television has the money and the audience to put on shows that require a larger audience to be profitable to do so. But what has been happening has been the constant 'eating the seed corn' in which shows are being pushed out into broadcast where they have to be instant, massive hits or are cancelled within *weeks*. Some of the best television programs on took two or more *years* to build an audience: Hill Street Blues, 60 Minutes, Family Ties, Cosby, Cheers, and others. You can't build up a clientele who wants to come in for good material when you keep changing the menu. Also, I hear complaints about good shows being 'poisoned' because the good content of some shows were damaged by 'too many cooks spoling the broth.' (The usual comment around my house I hear is 'They destroyed that show, I want my "old Torkelsons" back'). A clear and obvious example of where quality will destroy lack of quality, can be compared in the recent syndication of the new "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and the cancelled CBS show "Space Rangers". I only watched two episodes of each, and while I thought that both shows were valid expressions of science fiction, comparing the two shows production values and quality of content was like looking at the difference between AT&T Long distance and the Brazillian Telephone Company, which is probably the only system worthy of the moniker, "Worse than GTE." So what has happened: since there's no guarantee a TV show will be allowed enough time to build an audience, there is no risk taking because the stakes are too high and the chance of failure is virtually certain. So what do we end up with: documentaries, talk shows and amateur video -- all of which cost next to nothing to make, take almost no brains to write scripts for, and provide no significant content. (Those who think "U.S. Best Snuff Video" represents a good use of television should think twice.) Next is the issue of cost. In the past, a company would make a TV show pilot for a small amount of money; if the pilot was successful, the network would pay some, but not all, of the cost of the production of the series, and the company making the show would gamble on it staying on long enough for them to be able to put it in syndication and make money off of it from that. But no more; the constant demand for 'instant success' means that no one is going to seriously be willing to absorb the cost of production on a wghow that they know will have almost no chance of succeeding; the networks will end up having to fully fund, plus profit, the cost of these shows from the beginning. Otherwise the shows they will be able to obtain will be reduced even further, as only large companies with huge, deep pockets will be able to afford to make new programs. This may even cause a scandal if it comes out that some Japanese companies end up financing some of these show ventures, as almost started over the issue of a group of Japanese investors who wanted to purchase the remainder of the Seattle baseball team. Another problem is the continual attempts to do something or put on a show that you have been unable to do. Nobody can be all things to all people. The National Broadcasting Company has tried at least 23 times to make a news analysis program like "20/20" or "60 Minutes" that would be successful, and has failed miserably in every case. It may just not be possible in that culture to do this. Jack Welch should try and save General Electric some money: order NBC to not attempt any more news analysis programs. Which brings up another issue, that because of their despiration to do something that they've been unable to accomplish, has lead them to commit very serious breaches of ethics, let alone honesty and integrity. (This would be on the order of Pat Townson, the Moderator, telling how people used to have problems with AT&T's billing until they switched to the Orange Card, then we discover the commentary was all faked. [Note that this is an example; I believe Mr. Townson has a higher level of ethical conduct than some of the people working for NBC]). The people who run these systems should be thinking long term. Sure, you can make money running cheap videos, talk shows or any of the other things that local and network stations are doing. But so can their competitors in Cable, and since a cable channel carried nationally or regionally on multiple systems could potentially have a wider audience than any single broadcast station, local stations that fall into this are risking their market share to someone else who can provide the same thing, and perhaps do better. (If there are 12 restaurants on one block all offering the identical thing, and one which is offering something different, the one which is different has the potential to steal customers who are bored of everyone else. But if they run a filthy counter and slovenly help, people will go back to the other places.) UPS washes its trucks every day, in order to show a professional appearance. They do deliver packages on time, which is the main issue: but the 'spotless trucks' and 'spotless drivers' inform people -- who may not yet be customers -- of how efficient their operation is. Broadcast television has the capacity to make more money than cable networks because of its larger available audience, and its ability to reach people who cannot afford or will not purchase Cable TV, which means it can sometimes target people which are unreachable by other means. Note that more people get their knowledge of the world's situation from the evening news than from anything else, including magazines, newspapers, cable or radio. This makes broadcast, and network television, one of the last major mass communications methods which is able to reach a significant segment of the public. The telephone industry shows us the whole thing in a nutshell: since the competitors to AT&T cannot compete on quality, the *only* thing they can compete on is price. With broadcast television dropping quality, they have nothing to make people watch them in place of virtually identical material on cable or on other broadcast stations. (Someone want to tell me if there's a dime's bit of difference between Oprah, Donohue, S.J.Raffael, Jenny Jones, Whoopi, and the next group down from there?) My mother complained because a cable network is cancelling "the good movies" they used to run in the afternoon in favor of a talk show. Broadcast networks can compete on quality and the money they have to spend to keep it, or they can fight for market share against cable networks that can make the same cheap shows as they run. When they work on making shows based on cost alone, broadcast will lose over cable because anything they can make cheap, cable can do the same. If you look at the wretched state of broadcast television, I think you will discover that it was the 'flight to quick profit' and away from quality, that has damaged their market share and in the long run will damage their profitability. Until they return to quality and providing a much more expensive and well-done product than Cable companies can afford to make, they will keep losing market share. Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: esx038@cck.coventry.ac.uk (W. J. G. Overington) Subject: Coventry Teletext Transfer Open Format Organization: Coventry University Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 11:31:54 GMT Coventry Teletext Transfer Open Format for expressing the information content of teletext pages with conventional computing equipment. Issue 1.0 4th March 1993 W. J. G. Overington Management Division, School of Engineering, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB United Kingdom. Telephone: +44 203 838655 (within UK Telephone: 0203 838655) Fax: +44 203 838949 (within UK Fax: 0203 838949) e-mail: esx038@cck.coventry.ac.uk Teletext pages are broadcast in the vertical blanking interval of some television channels. Teletext pages appear on a television screen in a selection of colours, with various graphic mosaics and so on. In the engineering management of a teletext system, both of a working service and within research and development, the need arises to be able to express the information content of a teletext page using conventional computing equipment. The Coventry Teletext Transfer Open Format is designed to be usable in a number of circumstances. Files of information can be processed by specially written software to give teletext format displays using, for example, a vga display on a PC. Only printable characters are used, so that pages can also be viewed and edited using ordinary text manipulating software which has not been designed for teletext format usage. The display will not, in such cases, be a teletext display, but a knowledgeable person will be able to understand what is intended in a straightforward manner. It can be used easily in hand written notes, may be expressed in documents typed on ordinary typewriters and can be faxed. In everyday speech, please refer to pages expressed using this format as being in "Coventry format". You may like to give computer files containing information in Coventry format the suffix .ctt (from the initial letters of the three words Coventry Teletext Transfer). This is not obligatory but will often help file organization in a system with many such pages, as the ready to broadcast file can have the same name but with a different suffix. The Coventry Teletext Transfer Open Format consists of the central core, the simple method and the general method. The Central Core: Each line of text that appears upon a teletext page is expressed in Coventry format by two lines of text, namely the text line and the command line. The text line is always above the command line and the two lines are regarded as one line unit. In analysing the meaning of the character to be placed at any one character position of a teletext page one considers the two corresponding characters in the Coventry format representation of the page, namely one character from the command line and one character from the text line. If the command line character is any one of . ; : | then the page character is taken to be simply the text line character as a level one teletext character. The four characters . ; : | are regarded as equivalent to comments. The use of four such comment characters is so that | may be used every five or ten character positions as desired or that ; and : may be used every alternate fifth position. Some typewriters do not have the | symbol. Here is an example. The snow is falling. ....;....:....;....:....;....:....;....: The Simple Method: Using the simple method one can express any level one teletext page. Simply place the appropriate character in the appropriate place in the command line and a space in the text line. For example, Strawberries, lemons and aubergines. R...;....:....Y....:.G..;M...:....;....: The commands listed below are defined. Please note that, as appropriate to a system intended for international usage, there is both an English and a French influence in the choice of the command characters. For example, J reflects the French word jaune and U and D the French words un and deux. R Red alphanumerics r Red mosaics G Green alphanumerics g Green mosaics V Green alphanumerics v Green mosaics J Yellow alphanumerics j Yellow mosaics Y Yellow alphanumerics y Yellow mosaics B Blue alphanumerics b Blue mosaics M Magenta alphanumerics m Magenta mosaics P Magenta alphanumerics p Magenta mosaics C Cyan alphanumerics c Cyan mosaics T Cyan alphanumerics t Cyan mosaics A White alphanumerics * a White mosaics W White alphanumerics * w White mosaics F Flash ? Conceal display S Steady * O Contiguous mosaics * K End Box E Separated mosaics I Start Box Q Escape U Normal height * Z Black background * D Double height N New background H Hold graphics L Release graphics * X Character 7/15 The commands marked * are the defaults at the start of the row of the teletext page. The General Method: The general method, which can be stated as a method, but which is still under development, and for which representations may be made, is that the command character is a digit character and that the text character is then also used in the procedure of deciding what character is intended on the teletext page. A figure 1 character in the command line together with the same letter in the text line as would appear in the command line for the simple method has the same meaning as with the simple method. For example, RStrawberries,YlemonsGandMaubergines. 1...;....:....1....:.1..;1...:....;....: has the same effect as Strawberries, lemons and aubergines. R...;....:....Y....:.G..;M...:....;....: Clearly, for simple level one pages, the simple method is much clearer to read when the Coventry format page is viewed by a person, whether on a screen or a printed page. However, the general method will allow the expression of more complicated cases. Where two character sets are used on the teletext page, the Coventry format equivalent could also have figures as commands beneath characters intended to be displayed as text characters. This will give an explicit indication of which character set is to be used at the character position itself. Consideration is also being given to using characters such as % & and so on as command characters so that the contents of rows 25 to 31 of a teletext page may be expressed in a .ctt file unambiguously. ------------------------------ From: LCHIU@HOLONET.NET Subject: CLID vs ANI in California Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access BBS: 510-704-1058/modem Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 03:47:25 GMT I recently read an article in the {San Francisco Chronicle} which did not appear to correct to me. I wonder if more Telecom literate readers might comment. The writer was reporting on the surprise of a caller who has an unlisted number when he called a 800 number and the service provider, addressed him by name, presumably based on his calling number and a lookup database. The writer went on to say after some investigation, that although California has no CLID yet, 800 service providers can get the calling number because 1) they are paying for the call and need it for demographic purposes 2) although CLID is not available in CA, there is nothing to stop the number from being sent out of state. From there the 800 serivce provider could use a reverse lookup database to locate the name of the caller. This was an invasion of privacy and a direct contradiction to the idea of have an unlisted number. This seems wrong to me. Recent postings here have indicated that even if the appropriate SS7 signalling is in place from CA to another state, and the callee has CLID enabled, they do not see a number but some message to the effect that the number is not available. I am guessing that in the above scenario, the 800 service provider received the number via ANI and the caller was a repeat customer who had to give his phone number on a previous occasion to make a credit card order or such. Thus there was a record in the database of the 800 service provider. Comments? Laurence Chiu lchiu@holonet.net [Moderator's Note: As you note, ANI is *not* Caller-ID although the end results are the same. The California requirements do not pertain to ANI -- only to Caller-ID. Out of state calls would not be part of this requirement in any event. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nalco@balr.com (Craig Moynihan) Subject: Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing Organization: Balr Corporation Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 05:11:33 GMT Can anyone explain to me why the following scenario can occur: A phone can use an analog phone line to orignate and receive phone calls. A modem is hooked up to this same phone line. This modem is set answer on the third ring (S0=3). Another modem calls this modem. The AA light flashes on and off, but the modem does not answer. Occasionally, the modem will answer after a hundred rings or so. Does this behavior indicate that the modem is sensative to ring voltage and this ring voltage is too low? Should the polarity of the two wire phone connection have any impact on the modem answering? Can anyone provide some general answers on why a phone would work on this line, but a modem typically won't. Thanks in advance. Craig A. Moynihan Naperville,IL nalco@balr ..!balr.com!nalco ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 07:50:39 EST From: E102030@PWAGPDB.pwfl.com Subject: Internet Access From Home I am interested in getting internet access capabilities from my home computer. How do I do that? I have a Mac IIvx. What hardware/software will I need and who do I call to allow access and get the internet access phone number? Thanks in advance for any information. Chris Norley Internet: norleyc@pwfl.com [Moderator's Note: There is no single point of contact for access or single 'internet access phone number'. For example, if the administrator of pwfl.com okayed it, you could call into that system from home with a terminal program for your Mac and a modem. There are numerous public access services which connect with the internet. Some which come to mind are the Freenet sites, Portal Communications in San Jose, CA, and Chinet in Chicago run by Randy Suess. All you need at home is a modem and a terminal (program). Lots of places sell or give away (depending on circumstances) access. Check out the 'nixpub' file if it is still being published. PAT] ------------------------------ From: scann@merlin.tc.cornell.edu (Scannapieco) Subject: DigitalLink DL551VX <-> Canoga 2240 Reply-To: scann@merlin.tc.cornell.edu (Scannapieco) Organization: Cornell National Computer Facility Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 21:37:44 GMT Folks, I'm attempting to connect a DL with a T1 feed to a Canoga fiber modem via a V.35. I realize a standard v.35 cable won't cut it but my "null modem" isn't either. Here are the pin assignments I'm using: pins CSU LINE DRIVER P-R TDa RDa T-S TDb RDb R-P RDa TDa S-T RDb TDb V-U RCa XTCa X-W RCb XTCb U-V XTCa RCa W-X XTCb RCb C-D RTS CTS D-C CTS RTS E-H DSR DTR H-E DTR DSR Has anyone had any experience or success in doing this ? Any and all insight would be appreciated. Please respond to me directly. Suggestions for a more appropriate group would also be welcomed. Thanks, Mark Scannapieco scann@tc.cornell.edu ------------------------------ From: lairdb@crash.cts.com Subject: Need Card For Speech-Out and DTMF-In, Preferably For PC Date: 11 Mar 93 20:14:03 GMT I need to find a card that will receive calls, accept DTMF digits, and play speech back, with a decent API. My preferred target is PCs, but I'll look at anything right now. The ability to support multiple lines, whether through several cards or through several ports per card, is a big plus. The name Dialogic comes to mind, but that's all I know, so contact info would be appreciated, as would other vendors, feedback, etc. I'm just starting this project, so I'm looking for anything at this point. Thanks! Laird P. Broadfield lairdb@crash.cts.com ...{ucsd, nosc}!crash!lairdb ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #169 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa17537; 12 Mar 93 2:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24593 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 23:35:42 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14179 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 11 Mar 1993 23:35:06 -0600 Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 23:35:06 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303120535.AA14179@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #170 TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 Mar 93 23:35:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 170 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Brent Whitlock) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Andrew Funk) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (John Higdon) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Dave Niebuhr) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Tommy O'Lin) Re: NAFTA Implications For Telecommunications in Canada (Meg Arnold) Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (Jim DePorter) Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls (John R. Levine) Re: 800 and 900 Service in Canada (David G. Lewis) Re: 800 and 900 Service in Canada (Steve Forrette) Re: 800 and 900 Service in Canada (Brad Kollmyer) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? (Ed Oliveri) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? (John Higdon) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? (Jeffrey Jonas) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 19:50:24 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > In article bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent > Whitlock) writes: >> Neither would I. My brother, who is also an avid reader of this >> digest, told me that at an AM radio station for which he used to be a >> part time DJ, they could not use IBM PC's because the broadcast tower >> interfered with the keyboard preventing it from working properly. > Rather than indicate any mysterious forces at work, the fact that the > PC did not work properly simply indicates a lack of knowledge on > someone's part concerning proper grounding and shielding. I know of a > number of 50KW AM stations that have studios and transmitters > co-located. They also have PCs that work just fine. The key to the IBM PC's not working was their keyboards. So, the problem is, as you said, shielding. The capacitive mechanisms of the keyboard would not work in the environment at the radio station. Keyboards which use a different technology than IBM's would work. * * * * * * --> DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself. <-- * * * * * * Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology bwhitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ From: kb7uv@Panix.Com (Andrew Funk) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 01:53:53 GMT I spoke with Debbie Matut (the pregnant WCBS-TV technician) today and mentioned this discussion. First of all, she says "Hi!" to everyone. Apparently the FCC measures the RF field strength at the WTC at least once each year. Debbie had the same measurements done at her home. The levels at the WCBS-TV transmitter site are extremely low! There is considerable shielding installed there to protect workers, as well as shielding protecting the tourists at the other tower's observation deck. I've found a worthwhile charity which I'll be supporting with some of my overtime pay -- the NY Firefighters Burn Center. It's part of the NYU/Cornell Medical Center, and treats victims of serious burns (not just firefighters). I'm waiting to receive their literature ... if anyone wants info let me know. Andrew Funk, KB7UV Chair, Radio Amateur Telecommunications Society (RATS) ENG Editor/Microwave Control, WCBS-TV Channel 2 News, New York Internet: kb7uv@panix.com Packet: kb7uv@kb7uv.#nli.ny.usa ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 18:45 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News David Lesher writes: > The Chief Moo said: >> I have worked around dozens of 50KW stations over the past twenty- >> five years or so and have NEVER observed my hair standing on end. >> What nonsense! > 4) Does he have any left to lay flat, much less stand on end? As a matter of fact, while all of the color has left, most of the hair is still there. Quote from my barber: "Jeez, your hair is thick!" So in the tradition of my father and those who went before him, I have a full head of white hair. Believe me, if any hair was going to be standing on end at any of my transmitter sites, I would be the first to notice. And I can prove it: my mug shot was in the 3/7 of the {San Jose Mercury}. The picture was taken the week before. Neeeeah! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 [Moderator's Note: Don't let John fool you. His picture in the papers, like that of Ann Slanders and her twin sister Scabby Van Buren was taken thirty years ago. :) I've heard rumors that he is bald-headed, his hair having fallen out after working around that radiation all these years. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 07:23:39 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News The news yesterday made mention of the type of bomb used in the WTC disaster. It seems that there were at least four different types of acids, that when combined, would be able to create a blast the size of the one that exploded there. It was assembled in a 10x10 foot room away from the WTC and then taken there in parts and stored in the parking garage until it was fully assembled and placed in the van that was involved. Now a movie company wants to make a film about it and is going to offer money to the people who were affected by the disaster. Unfortunately, the students who were there won't get any of this but the movie company said that it will make sizeable donations to the schools. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 08:48:57 EST From: adiron!tro@uunet.UU.NET (Tommy O'Lin) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Reply-To: tro@partech.com > [Moderator's Note: .... In that Texas confrontation with Jesus Christ (at > least that's who he says he is) .... He claims to be Jesus Christ and says he's waiting for further instructions from God. Can't we find somebody who claims to be God and have them tell "JC" to surrender peacefully? Tom Olin tro@partech.com uunet!adiron!tro (315) 738-0600 Ext 638 PAR Technology Corporation * 220 Seneca Turnpike * New Hartford NY 13413-1191 [Moderator's Note: I gave him direct orders last week to surrender. PAT] ------------------------------ From: meg_arnold@qm.sri.com (Meg Arnold) Subject: Re: NAFTA Implications For Telecommunications in Canada Date: 11 Mar 93 20:24:49 GMT Organization: SRI International In article , john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) wrote: >> Which brings us to the subject of telecommunications. Canada's >> telephone system and the services related to it are world class. > From correspondence with Canadians, I have determined that the US has > benefitted greatly for deregulation and divestiture. While Canada > still has step equipment and multi-party lines in rural areas, that > equipment and facility arrangement has all but disappeared in this > country. Bell Canada has no technical superiority with regard to the > typical service provided in the US; and frequently the reverse is > actually the case. From living in Canada and working in telecommunications (for a corporate user) in Canada, I can say that Canadian telecom is not considered truly "world class" by many (knowledgeable) people. My personal residential LD rates were substantially higher than they would have been for same distance/same length phone calls in the US (Toronto-California for 20 minutes at 9 p.m. was once four times as much as Buffalo-California for 20 minutes at 9 p.m., including AT&T's calling card surcharge). Business rates were astronomical. For a dedicated T1 running from Toronto to NYC, the Toronto-Buffalo link was -twice- as expensive as the Buffalo-NYC link, even though it was -half- as long. Not to mention that such services as Virtual Private Networks, taken as a given in the U.S., have only recently been tariffed forintroduction in Canada. At my employer, we were implementing LANs in satellite offices across the country, but ran into a brick wall of cost when it came to automated software distribution to those LANs from the operating center. Even running distributions in the middle of the night was prohibitive. Not to mention that telcos were often unwilling to comply with our requests for redundant routing for contingency planning purposes, and, in one instance, a route we had set up as redundant had been disconnected at the CO, which we unfortunately discovered exactly when we needed to put it to use. I'm not saying that recalcitrant telcos do not exist under competition, but at least you don't have to use them! Needless to say, the movement toward competition in Canada is strongly supported throughout the business community -- and among knowledgable consumers. During the recent competition hearings, the consumers advocacy groups opposed competition -only- if it raised local rates. Under the recently-issued decision, a mechanism for keeping local rates low has been set forth, quieting those fears of consumer groups. However, the TWU's position did not really _surprise_ me... Meg Arnold, Business Intelligence Center, SRI International 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025. phone: (415) 859-3764 internet: meg_arnold@qm.sri.com ------------------------------ From: jimd@SSD.intel.com (Jim DePorter) Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls Organization: Supercomputer System Division, Intel Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 23:41:43 GMT rfranken@cs.umr.edu writes: > This brings up an interesting question. What would happen if such a > loop were set up. For example, suppose phone A forward to phone B, > which forwards to phone C, which forwards back to phone A. Assume no > number of calls that can be forwarded at one time limits are in place. > (i.e. assume that if X just forwards to Y, that there is no limit of > how many calls can be forwarded, except that once Y runs out of trunks > in the hunt group callers will get a busy signal). With the call forwarding that I have the number you are forwarding to has to answer; if there's no answer or a busy there'll be no forwarding. If C tries to call A, C is already off hook and the call will not be completed (a busy). Sounds easy to me. Is there different forms of call forwarding where you don't have to answer? There have been times that I've wanted to call forward to a cabin/house/etc for the weekend, but since I'm not there I can't answer the phone to complete the forward. jimd [Moderator's Note: I thought all call forwarding routines allowed for the conditions you describe by entering the number *twice*. Dial it, and if BY or DA, dial it again to confirm. IBT has always had it that way. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Number of Simultaneous Forwarded Calls Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 11 Mar 93 01:36:31 EST (Thu) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) > If we are talking about chains that run forever, then > the important thing is to stop the process when a previously visited > number is found again in the chain. ... It is my impression that the standard technique used to prevent call-forwarding loops is to allow only one unsupervised call per forwarding number at a time. Once a call either supervises or is abandoned, then more calls can be forwarded unless the switch is programmed (as it usually is) to arbitrarily restrict the number of forwarded calls per forwarding number. Trying to detect forwarding loops by recognizing the incoming number seems unlikely to work in the absence of 100% perfect SS7 signalling, since without that there's no reliable way to tell that two incoming calls are in fact the same call looped around. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: 800 and 900 Service in Canada Organization: AT&T Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 14:38:47 GMT In article murphy%switchboard@CAM.ORG (murphy) writes: > I only had a very small question that's been bugging me for a while > now: Is there ANY way to call 800 and 900 numbers located in the U.S. > from Canada? > [Moderator's Note: 900 numbers, no. 800 numbers, maybe, depending on > if the owner of the 800 number wants to receive international calls > and has had the line configured to do so. PAT] If it's an AT&T 800 service, there are additional service offerings which allow inbound international 800 calls from Canada and the Caribbean. I'm not sure of the exact tariff -- whether they have to be purchased in addition to domestic 800, or can be purchased separately. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: 800 and 900 Service in Canada Date: 11 Mar 1993 14:45:58 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article murphy%switchboard@CAM.ORG (murphy) writes: > I only had a very small question that's been bugging me for a while > now: Is there ANY way to call 800 and 900 numbers located in the U.S. > from Canada? > [Moderator's Note: 900 numbers, no. 800 numbers, maybe, depending on > if the owner of the 800 number wants to receive international calls > and has had the line configured to do so. PAT] AT&T ReadyLine numbers (the ones that route to a POTS line for $20 per month) have Canadian calling enabled by default. I think most AT&T plans now have Canada turn on, unless the subscriber specifically requests that it be disabled. My experience with other carriers is that they charge extra for Canadian access. This brings up an interesting issue: What happens with calls to Canada with respect to 800 portability? Will the local telcos in Canada be connected to "the big database" and do ten-digit lookups themselves? Or will this be done at the gateway point into the US? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: bradk@nic.cerf.net (Brad Kollmyer) Subject: Re: 800 and 900 Service in Canada Date: 11 Mar 1993 09:33:22 GMT Organization: CERFnet Dial n' CERF Customer Group In article murphy%switchboard@CAM.ORG (murphy) writes: > now: Is there ANY way to call 800 and 900 numbers located in the U.S. > from Canada? You can if you use a long distance service that offers this option in Canada. When I lived in Vancouver I used CamNet to dial US only 800 numbers. They would charge me for the call though. Brad ------------------------------ From: eo@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (Ed Oliveri) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Organization: AT&T Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 18:36:59 GMT In article mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) writes: > You would think maybe the US Post Office would have something as > simple and common as a fax machine ... I don't see a smiley, but you must be joking. You expect the USPS to employ the very same technology that will eventually help put them out of business? On the same note, I wonder how long it took Western Union to start using telephones? Ed Oliveri, eo@cbnewsb.att.com [Moderator's Note: WUTCO and AT&T fought back and forth about patents and one thing or another until early in this century. Then for about seventy years they were best of buddies. WUTCO in fact was the original 'charge it to your phone bill' service: For seven decades at least (maybe still today?) we could send telegrams by phoning the local telegraph agent (invariably at the phone number xxx-4321) and charging it to our phone bill. From pay stations, the instruction card said instead of calling 4321 to 'tell the operator to connect you with Western Union' ... the idea being when you had finished dictating the telegram, the agent would flash for the operator to come back on the line and tell the operator to have you deposit the proper amount of money in the phone. Telegrams could also be sent 'collect', but unlike phone calls, WUTCO let you read the message first, *then* decide if you wanted to accept it and pay for it. If not, it went back to the sender for payment. The two giants fought and squabbled over TWX and Telex in the 1960's; WUTCO took over TWX but continued to operate it out of the Bell central offices. The Post Office has made some concessions to modern technology. They have an agreement with MCI Mail and ATT Mail (as well as Western Union's 'Mailgram' program) to accept email on printers, stuff it in envelopes and mail it at the post office nearest the delivery address. The Post Office is involved in faxes, as another article in this issue will note, but it is poorly advertised. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 00:51 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) writes: > You would think maybe the US Post Office would have something as > simple and common as a fax machine ... Expecting the US Post Office to have a fax machine would be the equivalent of expecting the village smithy to have a tire changing machine. The fax machine will probably be largely responsible for the ultimate demise of snail mail. After all, why spend $.29 when you can spend less, get instant delivery (or even delivery at all), and get conveniently billed for the transactions? If you need to send physical documents, then use one of the DEPENDABLE services, rather than taking the crap shoot with good ol' USPS. No, I am not surprised that the post office lacks a fax. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 10:44:52 EST From: jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (Jeffrey Jonas) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology > I called the Maryland zip code information line and told the person on > the other end that I had five addresses I wished to find the ZIP+4 > for. I asked if it would be easier for him if I faxed the list to him > and called him back later. I was told, with a chuckle, that they > don't have a fax machine. You would think maybe the US Post Office > would have something as simple and common as a fax machine ... Perhaps one of the best kept secrets of the U.S. Postal Service is that they have a public fax service called INTELPOST. Not all post offices have it. You can fax documents to another fax machine, or have it mailed after being faxed across the country or even to other participating countries. I agree that it's archaic that not all post offices have FAX machines for internal use, but the Post Office is an archaic organization. It's probably cheaper for them to add their internal correspondences to the regular truck/plane deliveries instead of paying a phone bill. Please don't take this as an invitation for Post Office bashing. Many good and intelligent people are employed by the Post Office, some of whom are friends. The PO has real challenges such as dealing with unions and the caliber of the typical worker. They do a good job most of the time, just like the phone company :-) [Moderator's Note: The trouble is, their labor disputes take very vicious turns: consider Royal Oak, Michigan and Edmund, Oklahoma as two examples. Crazy person gets angry at supervisor, comes in with gun and shoots everyone. We've had a few 'post office massacres' in recent years and there are lots of angry and demoralized people working for the US Postal Service. Its a sad state of affairs. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #170 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21033; 12 Mar 93 4:00 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03034 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 01:25:57 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28374 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 01:25:16 -0600 Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 01:25:16 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303120725.AA28374@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #171 TELECOM Digest Fri, 12 Mar 93 01:25:15 CST Volume 13 : Issue 171 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Centel and Sprint Merger Complete (TELECOM Moderator) Telecom in Brazil, BAD? (Cris Pedregal-Martin) FBI Provides Update on Telemarketing Fraud (Nigel Allen) U.C. Berkeley Short Courses on Broadband Communications (Harvey Stern) DS0 Test Equipment Advice Wanted (Norman Gillaspie) Seek History on Computerized Message Switching (Jim Haynes) Simple Project Ideas For K-2? (Sue Miller) Disabling *70 (Francis J. Park) Call Waiting Disabling (Rob Henry) Non Phone Things on Phone Bills (Jeffrey Jonas) AT&T Free Time Rewards (Randall K. Smith) 900-Number FCC Rules in Telecom Archives (James Olsen) Thanks to Those Who Replied (Eric Miller) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 00:30:41 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Centel and Sprint Merger Complete The merger between Centel and Sprint which has been going on for a while now was completed earlier this week. There is no more Centel as such. Some parts of Centel were absored into Sprint and are now known as Sprint ... other parts, such as the cellular operations will henceforth be known as Sprint Cellular Services. So now, the two local telcos here in Chicago are Illinois Bell and Sprint (Centel has a very small wedge on the far northwest side of the city known as the Chicago-Newcastle CO plus the suburbs of Des Plaines and Hillary's home town of Park Ridge, IL.) Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: pedregal@unreal.cs.umass.edu (Cris Pedregal-Martin) Subject: Telecom in Brazil, BAD? Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 15:52:53 EST Reply-To: pedregal@cs.umass.edu Greetings. I couldn't help but smile on reading Mr. Robinson's (TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM) remarks on cable TV; he made several interesting points. But more on a telecom side, I have a comment and a question. The comment, on his saying: > [...] the difference between AT&T Long distance and the Brazillian > Telephone Company, which is probably the only system worthy of the > moniker, "Worse than GTE." [...] I haven't been to Brazil recently, but I used to go there fairly often. There used to be a two-tiered system (similar to the US in Ma Bell's time): Telebras/Embratel, handling LD and communications abroad, and regional companies, at the state level, like TeleRJ (RJ=Rio de Janeiro), TeleSP (SP=Sao Paulo), etc. In the wealthier part of the country (the Southeast, i.e., RJ, SP, etc.), the system worked very well; I can't tell about the rest of the country as I haven't been there. IMHO, the service was on par with that of Western European countries such as France, Germany, and the UK; it was clearly better than Spain's or Italy's. This is when I last looked, four or five years ago. The technology might not have been dazzling (e.g., pulse instead of tone), but it worked (high call completion rates, good intercepts, very few wrong numbers). And, also, rates were very cheap (compared with other state-owned, third-world rates such as neighboring Argentina's. Problems associated with wider-ranging (political, economical) issues, of course, existed: sometimes bad customer service (labor conflict), use of tokens instead of coins (inflation). And there were some pearls too, like automated collect calls (even within a city); I think one dialled 9+number and two synchronized recordings would come on, opening a short window to say one's name (or whatever); hanging up meaning non-acceptance of charges. There were also calling cards (charge, like in the US); all these things at least since the late 70s. I had a couple of chances to meet with some of the members of the technical staff of the research lab of Telebras (in Campinas, SP). These were people with PhDs from top notch schools in the US and Western Europe (mostly France and the UK). In the mid-80s they were well on their way to achieving vertical integration in the production of VLSI (they were negotiating installation of a plant, but with technology transfer). Since I was even less telecom- literate than I am now, I couldn't say how much of the telecom technology in use was being produced locally, but it was clear that these people were not your usual turn-key systems buyers. There's other related things, like Brazil's forays into communication satellites and the like; my recollections are way too vague on that. My "comment" (more bordering on an essay, sorry) is not very current, but I just felt I had to challenge a stereotype ... Now, the question: I am sure there are readers of c.d.t. qualified to tell us more on the current telecom situation in Brazil. Any takers? I am sure it will be an interesting topic! Regards, com saudades do Brasil, Cristobal Pedregal Martin pedregal@cs.umass.edu Computer Science Department UMass / Amherst, MA 01003 ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: FBI Provides Update on Telemarketing Fraud Organization: Echo Beach Here is a press release from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. I do not work for the FBI; I just find interesting press releases on other systems and post them on relevant newsgroups. FBI Provides Update on Telemarketing Fraud To: National and Business Desks Contact: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Press Office, 202-324-3691 WASHINGTON, March 10 -- FBI Director William S. Sessions, said today that 210 persons have been arrested in 16 states in connection with "Operation Disconnect," a nationwide crackdown on telemarketing fraud. FBI Agents have conducted 63 searches and have seized over $4 million in bank accounts, weapons, computers, cars, boats, Rolex watches, jet skis and other items. "The best method of combatting telemarketing fraud is an educated consumer who recognizes it as fraud before falling victim to it," Sessions said. To help consumers the FBI offers the following tips to avoid becoming a victim of telemarketing fraud: 1) Be skeptical of offers that sound too good to be true; they usually are. 2) Resist high pressure sales tactics. Don't allow yourself to be hurried into a decision. 3) Do not give your credit card number or checking account informa- tion to anyone over the telephone unless you know with whom you are dealing. 4) Don't make any purchase or investment you don't fully understand. Don't spend or invest more than you can afford. 5) Companies should be willing to provide their name, address, phone number and references. If not, be skeptical. Verify this information before making a purchase. 6) If you are skeptical about a company, check with the Better Business Bureau, your State Attorney General's office, or the local consumer protection agency before you make a purchase. 7) Report incidents of telemarketing fraud to your local Better Business Bureau, your state, or local law enforcement authority or your nearest FBI field office. You may also contact the National Fraud Information Center at 1-800-876-7060 for information concerning telephone frauds. --------- Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario 416-629-7000/629-7044 ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: U.C. Berkeley Short Courses on Broadband Communications Date: 12 Mar 1993 01:47:16 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces Two Short Courses on Communications Technology SONET/ATM-Based Broadband Networks: Systems, Architectures and Designs (May 17-18, 1993) It is widely accepted that future broadband networks will be based on the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards and the ATM (Asynchronous transfer Mode) technique. This course is an in-depth examination of the fundamental concepts and the implementation issues for development of future high-speed networks. Topics include: Broadband ISDN Transfer Protocol, high speed computer/network interface (HiPPI), ATM switch architectures, ATM network congestion/flow control, VLSI designs in SONET/ATM networks. Lecturer: H. Jonathan Chao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brooklyn Polytechnic University Gigabit/sec Data and Communications Networks (May 19-20, 1993) This short course provides a general understanding of the key protocols and networking elements needed to design and implement gigabit local area and wide area networks, including the protocols and implementations for HiPPI, SONET, ATM, and FCS. Lecturer: William E. Stephens, Ph.D., Director, High Speed Switching and Storage Technology Research, Bellcore Applied Research For more information (complete course descriptions, outlines, instructor bios, etc.) contact: Harvey Stern U.C. Berkeley Extension/Southbay 800 El Camino Real Ste. 150 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel: (415) 323-8141 Fax: (415) 323-1438 ------------------------------ From: norman@NETSYS.COM (Norman Gillaspie) Subject: DS0 Test Equipment Advice Wanted Organization: Netsys Inc. Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 02:34:19 GMT I am looking for a good general purpose piece of test equipment for checking DS0 rate channel bank cards,DDS lines etc. I would like to have a piece of equipment that most carriers such as WillTel,Pac-Bell etc would use and be familiar with. Any recommendations? Regards, Norman Gillaspie ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 12:12:29 -0800 Subject: Seek History on Computerized Message Switching Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz I'm thinking of writing a piece about the transition from punched paper tape and relays to computer-based switching of messages. I'm dimly aware of some machines designed for the purpose: G.E.s Datanet 30, and IBMs 7740. Believe Collins Radio was in on it too. Anyway I'd like to hear from people who have something to say on the subject, even if it's just knowing when a particular old-technology system was replaced by a new one. ------------------------------ From: sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller) Subject: Simple Project Ideas for K-2? Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 21:39:00 GMT I've been given an assignment to come up with a 1/2 hour "seminar" for K-2 (5 - 8 yrs) age kids on how telephones work for a science fair. Is there anyone out there who has done this sort of thing and who wouldn't mind sharing some ideas with me? I do know how telephones work but I would like to come up with an interesting demo or hands-on thing that the children could do. Other than cups and string. Any ideas or experiences gratefully received! Thanks in advance. Sue Miller sue@netcom.com smiller@raynet.com ------------------------------ From: killer@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Francis J Park) Subject: Disabling *70 Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 08:04:27 GST Organization: Homewood Academic Computing, Johns Hopkins U, Baltimore, Md I am dealing with a highly annoying roommate who is fond of turning on *70 to disable call waiting when he calls out voice. Is there any way to call the C&P business office, or perhaps TSPS Engineering, to disable the feature, specific to my line? The few times I'm using a modem I can live without using the *70 feature. I also want to be able to kill 1170, the rotary dial equivalent (which also works for DTMF) which does likewise. Please help. Francis Park, Johns Hopkins Univ '94, Dept/History killer@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu The Baltimore Chainsaw Massacre BBS:410-467-2617, WWIVLink @14060 [Moderator's Note: All I can suggest is that you get on an exchange which does not have the *70 feature, if there are any in your community. I know there are people in a couple northern suburbs of Chicago with older ESS generics who would love to be able to use *70 if only it were available to them. I take it you pay the phone bill and control how the instrument is used ... why not just tell him to quit it? PAT] ------------------------------ From: ah157@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Rob Henry) Subject: Call Waiting Disable? Date: 12 Mar 1993 12:11:04 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Reply-To: ah157@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Rob Henry) Could someone please mail me the code to turn off call waiting for one phpne call on a pulse dial phone? Thanks alot, Rob [Moderator's Note: *If* the feature is available in your CO, then the code from a rotary dial phone is either 1170 (hear tone spurts and continue dialing) or just '70' (wait for timeout, hear tone spurts and continue dialing.) If dialing 1170 or 70 does not work and you get either a reorder tone or 'call cannot be completed as dialed' then your CO is not equipped for this. If it works, good for you. As soon as you replace the receiver, the line will return to its normal status. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 11:04:33 EST From: jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (Jeffrey Jonas) Subject: Non Phone Things on Phone Bills > The problem that is left is that if a slimy IP charges you for > something that legitimately you should not have been charged for, and > you cannot get the IP to reverse the charge, the balance stays on your > account and then is reported to Equifax as a deliquent balance. Then > see if you can get new phone service established in a new > residence ... not likely. That's a frightening thought, but denial of ANY credit or accounts can be based on incorrect or fraudulent information be it credit cards or store accounts. Phone accounts are not unique in this risk, which is why people are getting quite aware and concerned about the credit reporting agencies. In the business world, Standard and Poors and Moody's rate companies and rate their creditworthiness. A company's ability to borrow money and issue debit/bonds depends on these ratings. I suppose they try to work on solid fact only, but the slightest problem with their credit rating causes very unpleasant repercussions. I guess that's why most stockholder's reports have a disclaimer that pending legal action against the company is not expected to negatively impact their rating or earnings -- just like a bad bill, they're trying to shrug off the negative effects of bill collectors. > It still boggles my mind that the second most powerful collection > agency (referring to the collective Phone Company) in the country can > be used by any patch of slime to do what they wish. I think the whole > concept of "putting the charge on the phone bill" for any service > other than phone company charges is insane. I can't use $15 worth of > stamps on a package to buy a compact disc mail order, I can't put my > grocery charges on to my gas bill, and I can't pay for pool > maintenance on my water bill. If IPs can use the telco billing > procedures, why can't I order Chinese food for delivery and put *that* > on my phone bill ... While I want to agree with you, there's a contradiction. Before divestiture, the phone bill was only for phone service: rental/leasing of the equipment and the service provided and used. Everything was originated and operated by the phone company. They originated all the information. Post divestiture, the idea of 'phone services' has expanded into 'information services'. You can call several different places for directory information. Certainly you can agree that calling somebody to look something up for you is a service that requires payment above and beyond the cost of the call. You can pay for the service by a separate billing arrangement, such as a credit card. Ah, but if "THE" phone company can bill you directly for directory assistance and any other must bill you separately, that's an unfair home ground advantage, so the billing was opened and made available for all. I agree that many places are abusing the definition of what constitutes phone service. Renting a phone is reasonable. But ordering the paper pads for phone messages, pens and pencils? Perhaps there's an analogy between the phone system and the postal service. Both are "common carriers" that deliver packages but not the content. Paying postage on a letter gets it delivered, but says nothing about ownership of the contents. The Post Office can act as a billing agent by allowing me to send the parcel COD (Cash On Delivery) where you must pay for the contents of the box BEFORE opening the box and examining the contents. If I send you a box, you're not expected to pay for it unless it's solicited. But here's where the analogy breaks down: by placing the call, you're soliciting the information. Is a puzzlement! Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com [Moderator's Note: As mentioned yesterday, long before there was any 900 or 976 service, there were 'charge to your phone bill' services, although not as many, and certainly none that were naughty. Western Union allowed telegram charges to be placed on the phone bill as did a company called Postal Telegraph. If at a pay station, the telco operator was flashed to come in on the line and collect the amount specified by the telegraph agent. Another long time system called FTD, or Florists Telegraph Delivery delivered flowers anywhere in the USA via wire to a local florist (in the town of delivery); these charges could be put on a business or residence phone bill for many years. This was not something that came up at divestiture except for the growing number of such services, the automated 900 billing versus the manual billing where the agent told the telco operator how much to collect or write the ticket for, etc, and the nature of the services provided. All that changed was the use of 900/976 in lieu of a manual billing ticket in the same way that 800 replaced 'Enterprise' and 'Zenith' numbers by automating the process of automatic reverse charge or 'collect' calling. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rsmith@wisp4.physics.wisc.edu (Randall K. Smith) Subject: AT&T Free Time Rewards Organization: Space Physics, UW - Madison Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 19:30:44 GMT The Free Time promotion sounded too good to pass up, so I called and tried to sign up for it. But, unfortunately, it's a "targeted" promotion and if you're not one of the targeted few, it's no go. (According to the person I spoke to, your account will be flagged if you were selected, and if the account isn't flagged, you can't sign up.) Oh well ... worth a try, I guess! Randy Smith rsmith@wisp4.physics.wisc.edu ------------------------------ Subject: 900-Number FCC Rules in Telecom Archives Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 09:55:15 -0500 From: James Olsen For inclusion in the Archives, I have submitted the full text of the FCC's 'Interstate 900 Telecommunications Services' rulemaking order, as published in the Federal Register on November 1, 1991 (56 FR 56160). ------------------------------ From: eric@microware.com (Eric Miller) Subject: Thanks to All Those Who Replied Organization: Microware Systems Corp., Des Moines, Iowa Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 14:29:35 GMT Thanks to those of you who sent me information on T1 cards for the ISA bus. I unfortunately didn't give enough info on my application, but was able to find what I needed anyway. I needed a full 1.536 Mbit/second signal as this is a Video on Demand application. This precluded several of the suggestions for cards which were essentially voice only solutions. I finally found a card from a company called Niwot Networks in Boulder. It seems to be exactly what I was looking for. Anyway, thanks again. Eric Miller ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #171 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa22421; 12 Mar 93 4:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16788 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 02:01:46 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14235 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 02:01:11 -0600 Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 02:01:11 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303120801.AA14235@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #172 TELECOM Digest Fri, 12 Mar 93 02:00:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 172 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing (Bob Longo) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (John Higdon) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (Jim Haynes) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (John M. Sullivan) Re: Telephone Express/Penny Express (Klaus Dimmler) Re: Telephone Express/Penny Express (Telephone Express Customer Support) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Guy Hadsal) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Steve Forrette) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Mark Williams) Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review (James Borynec) Re: Payphone Records in WTC Case (Steve Forrette) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 22:24:54 GMT From: news@zeus.calpoly.edu From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 22:24:40 GMT In article nalco@balr.com (Craig Moynihan) writes: > Can anyone explain to me why the following scenario can occur: > A phone can use an analog phone line to orignate and receive phone > calls. A modem is hooked up to this same phone line. This modem is set > answer on the third ring (S0=3). Another modem calls this modem. The > AA light flashes on and off, but the modem does not answer. > Occasionally, the modem will answer after a hundred rings or so. One problem I've noticed with most modems is that they are easily confused if they are receiving data on the RS232 port (or thru the computer bus) while the line is ringing. We often want to be able to call a system that has a modem and terminals connected to a single serial port. If there is data being sent to the terminals (and the modem, which is then in the command mode) when the line rings, the modem will often answer for a very short time, then go back on hook. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: Bob Longo Subject: Re: Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing Date: 11 Mar 93 19:55:31 PST Organization: Santa Fe Pacific Pipelines In article , nalco@balr.com (Craig Moynihan) writes: > Occasionally, the modem will answer after a hundred rings or so. > Does this behavior indicate that the modem is sensative to ring > voltage and this ring voltage is too low? Should the polarity of the > two wire phone connection have any impact on the modem answering? I would guess that your computer (or whatever the modem is connected to) is not raising the proper signals (i.e. DTR) for the modem to answer. Bob Longo (longo@sfpp.com) Santa Fe Pacific Pipelines Los Angeles, CA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 18:34 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! > [Moderator's Note: We've had the 'surname once, first name indented' > style in many of our suburban directories for a few years now, along > with the businesses listed separately. Yes, after I naively posted my message, I was informed by more knowledgable collegues that this "split white pages; surname once" is a very common midwest format. It is sort of the thing you find in Kansas, Nebraska -- all the fly-over states. Apparently it is also in Chicago. And now, unfortunately, it is here. I have already expressed my displeasure with Pacific Bell. > In a consolidated list, someone trying to find 'John Higdon and > Associates' would not find it but they would find John Higdon and > assume it to be one and the same, which of course is what you want, > i.e. you have residence service and get to conduct business on that > line. Except for the fact that in my case, the name of my business is not related in any way to my own name. And it is definitely listed in the business section; after all, I have more business service (at my business location) than residence service at my residence. I mention this to emphasize that I have no investment whatsoever concerning how my residence lines are listed. In fact, the one simple listing is there for the convenience of people who which to contact me on a PERSONAL basis and may have no other way of getting my number. Otherwise, it would not be listed at all. It has no effect on my business. > But under the new system, if I am looking for a BUSINESS in San Jose > called 'John Higdon and Associates' I will find nothing. It does not > occur to me to check in the residence listings, because after all, I > am trying to reach a business, or at least that's what I was told you > were running. But this has a reverse problem. Shortly after receiving the new directory, I tried looking up a person whom I knew to be listed. It was not in the book. So I called (at $.25) directory assistance who gave me the number. Why was it not in the book? It seems that for some reason or another, he has BUSINESS service. Sure enough, there in the damn business section was his listing -- a simple name and address. > This is a very clever ploy by telco and a perfectly legal, perfectly > logical way of organizing their directory It may be legal, but it is certainly not logical. Telephone service is telephone service. The artificial categories of "business" and "residence" form a quasi-political hack designed to subsidize one service with another (or in more modern times to screw one category of customer more than another). I strongly resent having midwestern nonsense contaminating what has worked just fine in California for countless decades. > ... but it has resulted in many a small time, one person > operating-from-home business man being forced to pay for business > service ('but why would you want to be listed in the business section, > sir? are you running a business? well in that case you need a business > phone line ...') PAT] Oh, really! I am sure that all of those BBS operators in SWBT territory who are being given the shaft with the threat of business service will be heartbroken that their modem lines are not in the "business" section of the directory! What I suspect has happened here is that the new directory contractor is midwest-based and just assumed that Californians would put up with the same silly-style directories that are issued to the "great heartland". Phooey! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 11:10:55 -0800 Subject: Re: The New Phone Books are Here On this side of The Hill, Pac Bell has been running ads in the local paper for several days -- picture of a new phone book in a plastic bag -- text to the effect that it's NOT that time yet; new phone books aren't due out until October; if you get a new phone book now it's not the genuine article, so don't throw away your old one. I guess this means somebody is distributing phony phone books. ------------------------------ From: sullivan@geom.umn.edu (John M. Sullivan) Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! Organization: Geometry Center, Univ. of Minnesota Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 18:49:34 GMT Minneapolis White Pages from US West have had separate business listings for two years now (first in the front of the book, now in the back). Apart from questions of why this is beneficial for the phone company, I find it very convenient. Especially when looking for a business it's nice not to have to wade through the rest of the listings. (Our's is only about 20-25% business listings.) On another note, the newspaper said a couple of weeks ago that US West is planning to introduce Caller ID here, maybe by the end of the year. John Sullivan@geom.umn.edu ------------------------------ From: klaus@teal.csn.org (Klaus Dimmler) Subject: Re: Telephone Express/Penny Express Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc. Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 19:58:05 GMT Telephone Express is my long distance service. In addition to long distance they provide Internet access services. There address is tec@cscns.com. Perhaps they can answer this question directly. ------------------------------ From: tec@cscns.com (Telephone Express Customer Support) Subject: Re: Telephone Express/Penny Express Organization: Community_News_Service Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 21:08:27 GMT We're Telephone Express, and you're right. Your first ten minute call is only one cent, and after ten more calls, your next call is only one cent -- within the contiguous 48 states. The program allows you to try us without having to switch long distance carriers. It is currently offered in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. We also offer a full line of long distance products for business and residential customers on a subscribed basis. You probably have not heard of us because we're new to the Arizona market. If you have any more questions, you can send e-mail to tec@cscns.com or call 1-800-748-1748. Telephone Express also offers Internet services. For more information on this call 1-800-748-1200. ------------------------------ Organization: The American University - University Computing Center Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 09:02:09 EST From: GHADSAL@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager I am suprised your paging/cellular vendor hasn't been bombarbing you with pager/cellular business "applications". My favorite is the "alpha" pager where you recieve actual text messages, or the new "wireless" Apple Newton's and HP Palmtop text/file messages. Really *neat* stuff coming down the wireless "pike". Guy ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Date: 12 Mar 1993 04:16:59 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > The monthly rates on pagers are sure a lot better than the > airtime use on cellular phones. I recently got a pager, and was surprised at how cheap the service has gotten. I have service from PacTel Paging, and for $21 a month, I get coverage throughout WA, OR, CA, and AZ. This is for a display pager. Local coverage only is $9 a month. > Now and then I have to travel outside the coverage are of the > system. It would sure be great if the various pager companies would > set up a co-op where I could tell my pager company I'm going to be > somewhere for a couple weeks and they'd give me a telephone access > number for that area. Unfortunately, this is not feasable, as far as I can tell. Before I moved to PacTel, I was with Telepage Northwest for a couple of months. I asked them about coverage in California, and their solution was to go to a SkyPager at $60 per month plus a per-page charge with no allowance. What I thought I could do is find a paging company in California that operated on the same frequency as Telepage Northwest, and sign up for service with them, independantly of my service here. Even if this were possible, the total bills would have been more than what I'm paying now, and I would not have had as much coverage. In any event, at least in the calling around that I did, most paging companies have the frequency they use reserved nationwide. So, if that particular company does not service a particular area, and in the absense of any sharing arrangement, their frequency is just not in use there. PacTel works well for me because they have a presence through- out the West. > To help those of us that occasionally travel, it'd be great to > have "communications stores" in airports. They'd offer pagers and > cellular phones for rent while you're in that city. I've seen (as I > recall) car rental companies that are renting cellular phones, but > have generally not seen pager rental. What I think would be a good idea is for the paging companies that are affiliated with SkyPage to rent SkyPagers on a short-term basis as a service to their customers. So, when you're in-town, you use your regular local pager, and when you're out of the area, you pick up a SkyPager for a nominal daily fee. They could even automatically forward any pages from your regular number to the SkyPager. > We intend to utilize the paging network in one of our broadcast > transmitter control systems. On an alarm, the system would dump > transmitter parameters to the on call tech's pager (alphanumeric). What about using paging to get data TO remote equipment? Are there any devices that are pagers with an RS-232 port, instead of a display? This way, you could send (short) commands to remote locations, without requiring a phone line be present. Also, why is there a delay in the delivery of pages? I can understand when the system may get busy during the day, and pages are stacked up in the queue, but even in the middle of the night, it can take upwards of a minute for a page to be delivered. Sometimes, they come almost instantly, then just a moment later, take almost a minute. There's no way that the queue was empty, then suddenly built up to a big backlog, all of a sudden in the middle of the night. Why are pages not just sent out immediately? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: 12 Mar 1993 05:44:56 +0000 (GMT) From: williams@riogrande.cs.tcu.edu (Mark Williams) Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Organization: Texas Christian University In article jgeorge@whiffer.atl.ga.us writes: > jackl@pribal.uucp (jack lowry) writes: >> will probably work for you. I think that there are several other >> companies offering nationwide service, and some local companies (like >> PacTel Paging, I think) can offer service in more than one metro area >> on the same pager. > Personally, I would think that a cellular phone would be a necessity > nowadays as a supplement to a pager rather than a replacement for it. I have PacTel service in Texas. It's $12.95 a month for a Motorola Bravo Plus (some more-than-reasonable quantity of stored messages timestamped) with coverage all over the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. It's an additional $5.00 per month to pick up all the major urban areas of Texas (Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Midland/Odessa, Beaumont, Abilene, El Paso, etc.) and many interstate highway areas connecting them. That's reasonable in my book. Also, for $1.50 a month, per, I have a local phone number in each city (I only have Houston) and they were even able to assign a local number that matched my main one (817-xxx-4028 in Fort Worth and 713-xxx-4028 in Houston). You just have to make sure that people enter their NPA or you don't know where to call them back. Mark Williams williams@riogrande.cs.tcu.edu ------------------------------ From: james@cs.ualberta.ca (James Borynec; AGT Researcher) Subject: Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review Organization: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 00:33:16 -0700 goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) writes: > competitive with a big one. Long distance, even per Huber's quote, is > almost exactly the opposite, a competitive commodity. In economics, a > commodity has many vendors entering and exiting, and the price is > always near "cost", and nobody makes "economic profit" (greater than > required rate of return on capital invested). That's just what LD > telecom is doing now, save AT&T's slipping umbrella. I believe that the argument goes like this: fiber has almost unlimited bandwidth. Once the outside plant has been paid for, the costs are associated with maintaining the line. This means that the person who most "fills up" the fiber pipe gets the lowest average cost. Therefore, they can charge the lowest prices. AT&T has the most traffic and they have an advantage in their access to the LEC (about a 15% cost advantage held back by the FCC). Therefore, in a 'free' market AT&T could put MCI and Sprint out of business. I have a question, if long distance were REALLY competitive, wouldn't we see AT&T, Sprint, and MCI competing on PRICE? Their prices have gotten a lot closer to each other in the last few years! j.b james@cs.ualberta.ca ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Payphone Records in WTC Case Date: 12 Mar 1993 04:32:03 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article jeff@digtype.airage.com writes: > I just heard on the news that the latest suspect in the WTC bombing > case was linked to the main previous suspect via payphone call logs. > It seems that the first suspect used the payphone in the storage > building lobby where the explosives were supposedly stored to call > Nidal Ayyad (a chemical engineer at Allied-Signal) at Nidal's office a > number of times. These people don't seem too bright. Repeatedly using the same payphone in a place that could be linked to them if they were to become suspect doesn't sound like a good idea. Also, they've got some nerve to go back and want the deposit back on the truck they blew up. > It's very interesting to see the use of call detail that is available > from public payphones. Remember that the Long Island kidnapping case > also involved police using payphone call records ... There was a case a couple of years back in Berkeley, CA that was big news in the Bay Area. She just disappeared one night. Everybody thought she had been kidnapped, but she turned out in Utah or somewhere around there a few weeks later -- it turns out that she just took off on her own accord without telling anyone, and ran off with some bus driver. Anyway, on the night she disappeared, she had called home (in Walnut Creek) from a payphone in Berkeley. They located the payphone, and used its location as a starting point to try to find witnesses. As for the phone company keeping detailed records of even coin-paid calls, I'm sure these are necessary at least for audits, if no other reason. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #172 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa24690; 12 Mar 93 5:27 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04528 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 02:50:37 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17789 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 02:50:01 -0600 Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 02:50:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303120850.AA17789@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #173 TELECOM Digest Fri, 12 Mar 93 02:50:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 173 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: No One Calls My ATT EasyReach Number! (John J. Butz) Re: No One Calls My ATT EasyReach Number! (John Higdon) Re: OSPS and ANI Failures (Ihor Kinal) Re: OSPS and ANI failures (Matt Healy) Re: Inverse Paging Service? (Barry Margolin) Re: Inverse Paging Service? (Guy Hadsal) Re: Hearing-Impaired Teletype Connectivity (Paul Cook) Re: Dutch PTT Studies Charging For Busy or No Answer (Carl Moore) Re: Dutch PTT Studies Charging For Busy or No Answer (Steve Forrette) Re: NAFTA Implications For Telecommunications in Canada (Derek Andrew) Re: NAFTA Implications for Telecommunications in Canada (Richard Cox) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John.J.Butz@att.com Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 14:18:30 EST Subject: Re: No One Calls My ATT EasyReach Number! Douglas Scott Reuben writes: [text omitted] I've been waiting for this one ... Did you know that when microwave ovens were first sold, no one would buy them? Consumers back then knew that microwaves were mostly used to reheat precooked foods in large institutional and industrial type applications, like airlines, cafeterias and hospitals. We all know that food cooked in a nuker just doesn't taste the same as if it were cooked in a conventional oven. Add on top, the associations one may have with airline, hospital and cafeteria cuisine and you had a recipe for success, Right? **NOT!** So some slick marketers figured they had better come up with some new ideas to reposition their product and make it sell. Today, just about everyone owns one. (Except for me, and when you come right down to it, how many folks use it merely to cook pop-corn, quickly reheat left-overs or see what happens when you put metal inside it anyway?) The EasyReach 700 service is in on the steep part of the learning curve. Yes, people associate 700 and 900. Yes, there are lines that block AT&T. Yes to Rochester Tel, yes to 10288, yes, yes, yes, yes ... The service isn't "God-like" perfect, but Rome wasn't built in day either. We have been live in the AT&T network for less than a year. Our first feature release gives forward and reverse billing options, vanity numbers, nationwide, remote call forwarding ability with limited call screening, a call home capability and full rep support. We just recently put out our second feature release, with new features planned and being implemented. The problems you describe are being addressed. I'm not a spokesperson, but I think if you have a little patience and are willing to grow with us and the EasyReach service, you will be a "delighted" customer. This service promises to be very exciting. > Overall, I DO like the service, and find it useful. Thanks for the feedback, I have forwarded your posting to our product managers. Our competition does not have a similar service. J Butz ER700 Sys Eng jbutz@hogpa.att.com AT&T - BL ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 10:37 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: No One Calls My ATT EasyReach Number! Douglas Scott Reuben writes: > Simply? Give me a break! AT&T: Get your act together on EasyReach - > make it easier to use, and allow me to be reached from everywhere. The > novelty and even the utlity of the service quickly wears off if even > one person (not to mention almost everyone) complains about using "the > 700 number" to call me. Methinks you bitch at AT&T too much. If you will recall, there was this little matter of divestiture. AT&T no longer runs all those local telephone companies; their non-compliance with standards is out of AT&T's control. Just as AT&T cannot force COCOTs to place and route calls properly, it cannot be responsible for the LEC mishandling of calls. Your complaint is with each of the local companies who are not completing your 700 calls. > There are alternatives (like Cable and Wireless's Programmable 800 > service), and I suspect that in the future there will be more. If you > expect to retain me as a customer, I would expect you to address the > issues raised in this post and make EasyReach as convenient and simple > as dialing any other telephone number. What it sounds like is that you really want the programmable 800 service in the first place. Perhaps you should more carefully assess your requirements and properly select a product before you lambaste the provider for not meeting your misdirected expectations. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 13:33:40 EST From: ijk@violin.att.com Subject: Re: OSPS and ANI Failures Organization: AT&T In article , john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > Now, given that the number of calls generated on the network by > automatic devices is increasing exponentially, feeble attempts to > "rescue" a call via operator intervention would seem to be a complete > waste of time and resources. > I guess what I am trying to say is, "why bother?" Just let the call > die; why take up more time? I don't know for sure, but I believe the LECs will charge the LD company an access charge even in such cases. Consequently, it does make financial sense to attempt to complete the call. No, I don't know the financial details -- I just write db software. [And other standard disclaimers apply] Ihor Kinal att!trumpet!ijk ------------------------------ From: matt@wardsgi.med.yale.edu (Matt Healy) Subject: Re: OSPS and ANI Failures Organization: Yale U. - Genetics Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 14:15:56 GMT I know of at least one situation where the operator _always_ had to ask for the number. In my college dorm, circa 1982, there was a _bell_ in each room. However, the _phones_ were in the hall. The number on the dial was missing the last two digits; each room had a unique number that would only ring its bell on incoming calls. To call home (COLLECT ONLY), you had to tell the operator your phone number because that phone had six different numbers for various rooms. My senior year they finally upgraded the system: 1. replaced the University switchboard, which had been installed during World War Two; 2. Put in new phones, replacing the noisy old black wall phones in the hall with nice white phones in the rooms; 3. Started allowing credit card billing at direct-dial rates. (By this time several phreaky phriends had figured out how to wire room phones to the bells in the rooms!) Matt Healy matt@wardsgi.med.yale.edu ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 18:15:49 EST Subject: Re: Inverse Paging Service? Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA In article is written: > In particular, when people ask me for my phone number, I usually give > out two (one at home, one at work), with the caveat that I am rarely > ever available at either number. However, during the times when I am > not available by a phone, I am almost always still reachable by > electronic mail. I'd really like a service whereby I can give people > a "pager" number, which they could call up and punch in a return phone > number like usual, which would then get translated into an E-mail > message sent to me. Does such a service exist? (Note that > suggestions to buy equipment to "roll my own" are not useful; to do so > is really not worth the hassle for me.) > [Moderator's Note: What you are asking is available as an alphanumeric > pager. People using these get little one line messages, etc from the > caller. PAT] I don't think alphanumeric paging is what he wants, since it only broadcasts to pagers. He didn't say he had a pager, he said he was reachable by electronic mail when he's not reachable by phone. He wants a touchtone service that converts the keyed message into an electronic mail message. Barry Margolin System Manager, Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar [Moderator's Note: Well, he *did* say he wanted to have a 'pager' number, and as a practical matter, how much text can a person key in using the phone pad? Probably two or three words without too much trouble. That is why it seemed tome his best 'email' under the desired circumstances would be via the display on an alphanumeric pager. PAT] ------------------------------ Organization: The American University - University Computing Center Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 09:53:33 EST From: GHADSAL@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: Inverse Paging Service? In article , Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU says: > I'd really like a service whereby I can give people > a "pager" number, which they could call up and punch in a return phone > number like usual, which would then get translated into an E-mail > message sent to me. Does such a service exist? (Note that Yes. Its a technology that again is considered by the industry to be "out of date" and thus is not about to be offered. Early years of "alphanumeric" paging used the telephone (tone) as the *input* device. ie: 2-1 = A, 2-2 = B, etc They quickly discovered that it was not likley that a user would take the time necessary to spell/punch out the message; it was strapped (except in Arizona for some reason). The next step was to try another input device/technology. Things like Voice-Input and Electronic Input were explored and tested. The Voice- Input is still yet to be perfected enough for end-users on a broad range. The Electronic Input took off fast and has dominated the "input technology". The are a *range* of supporting electronic input devices; IXO, Teltype, Modex, Motorola's Alphamate, and software dedicated to paging like PcPage, SAMpage, PC-IXO, HP-page, and many others. None of the hardware devices were designed to dump to email, however some of the later software package did do it. SAMpage (hehe ... of Arizona again) wrote a sotware package (LAN based) for "messaging centers" or Answering Services that was 1economically proced and simple to use ... it sell for about $700 a node. The dedicated Answering Service hardware designers realizing that their market was being threatend jump on the development bandwagon and did their own upgrade modules to the exsisting hardware (and software) of their systems ... StarTel and a few others ... at about $5,000- $15,000 each. Now, to *answer* your question specifically; YES, *but* you still need and input (human using an electronic or an electronic alone) to do it. ghadsal@auvm.american.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 19:41 GMT From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Hearing-Impaired Teletype Connectivity jon@sd.cadence.com (John Kerns) writes: > If anyone has information on connecting a teletype (TTD) for the > hearing-impaired to a PC through a modem over phone lines, it would > be much appreciated. Since I'm posting this on behalf of someone > else, I don't have all the particulars, such as whether data needs to > be transmitted one-way or both ways. Thanks for the help. There are a couple of ways to do this. If you are using one of the newer TDDs, they should have a 300 bps ASCII mode, which will be compatible with the lowest speed on your modem. I have used CHAT mode in Telix to talk to TDDs this way, but the TDD *MUST* have the 300 bps ASCII mode. Otherwise, TDDs use 45.5 baud BAUDOT code, which conventional computer modems do not do. I understand that there is some MSDOS shareware that aids communications between PCs with conventional modems and ASCII compatible TDDs. (Note that the TDD must be ASCII compatible ... this program does NOT magically make your modem compatible with BAUDOT). Here is some information on this program, which I lifted off of the SilenTalk echo on Fidonet: "The Technology Assessment Program (TAP) at Gallaudet University offers a freeware program for use with standard modem that lets you communicate with ASCII TDD devices. You can download ASCII-TDD11.ZIP (16347k) from TAP's BBS at 202-544-3623 or receive the program on- disk by sending $3 for postage and handling to Technology Assessment Program, 800 Florida Ave. N.E., MSSD-200, WASHINGTON, DC 20002." If the TDD does not have ASCII, then you must communicate in 45.5 baud Baudot code. To do this, you must use a modem that can do Baudot. Here are some sources for TDD compatible modems, again lifted from SilenTalk, from a message posted there recently by Mark Rejhon: Ultratec InteleDModem: Ultratec ($329) 6442 Normandy Lane [Recommended] Madison, WI 53719 (608) 273D0707 (Voice/TDD) Notes: Has pulse/touchDtone dialing, builtDin speaker, busy signal detector (Futura-TDD will redial busy numbers), and is near 100% Hayes compatiable. Works best with Futura-TDD. ------- Krown Research Smart Modem: Krown Research, Inc. ($349) 10371 West Jefferson Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 (800) 833D4968 (Voice/TDD) (213) 839D0181 (Voice/TDD) Notes: Has Pulse/Touchtone dialing. ------- Phone-TTY CM-4: Phone-TTY, Inc. ($349) 202 Lexington Ave. Hackensack, NJ 07601 (201) 489D7889 (Voice) (201) 489D7890 (TDD) Notes: Fastest initializing modem. Fast pulse dialing. Best TDD compatiablity Not Hayes compatiable. -------- I also heard about another modem and software that automatically switches over to 45.5 Baud BAUDOT from normal ASCII mode on an incoming call. This information was provided by Mauro Magnani, also on SilenTalk: "Fulltalk is a software working with a modem called MIC300i. Included with Fulltalk there is FlipTalk, TSR version of FullTalk yhat takes about 40K of RAM and can be popped up over text based applications to provide TDD communications on the fly .... Outstanding features: . answering machine with remote access: pre-record/edit outgoing msgs. . auto detection for TDD or ASCII: and auto set-up . auto redial . infrared interface: great for flashing lights . bulletin board . electronic mail . incoming call flashing . Memo & message editor . scrolling five pages of conversation (18 lines per page) *** MIC300i Internal Modem is NOT Hayes Compatible *** *** Coexist with any 1200/2400/9600/Faxmodem *** Price: 349 $ (modem + software) Address: MICROFLIP, INC. 11211 Petsworth Lane GLENN DALE, MD 20769 TDD: 301 588 0965 VOICE: 301 262 6020 Hope this helps! Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 10:35:14 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Dutch PTT Studies Charging For Busy or No Answer koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl writes: > I was wondering, is this charging of not-completed calls done in any > other country in the world? There have been previous blurbs here about hotel room phones charging after a stated number of ringing signals even if the call is not answered. Also, there were notes in the Digest about the (previous) practice of radio-talk-show host Larry King telling people just to let the line keep on ringing. (That resulted in at least AT&T limiting the number of rings and disconnecting the call if it was still unanswered.) ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Dutch PTT Studies Charging For Busy or No Answer Date: 11 Mar 1993 21:20:44 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl writes: > I was wondering, is this charging of not-completed calls done in any > other country in the world? I think that there was a message here a year or so ago stating that this is indeed the case in Sweden and/or Norway. In fact, you get local message charges from the time you lift the receiver. The poster stated that just lifting the receiver, getting a dialtone, then hanging up with no dialing, would cause 1 message unit to be charged. Also, both cellular carriers in Los Angeles charge a half-minute of airtime for any uncompleted calls, including those that never leave their switch because of a bad called number or any other reason. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: andrew@herald.usask.ca (Derek Andrew) Subject: Re: NAFTA Implications For Telecommunications in Canada Date: 12 Mar 1993 07:51:50 GMT Organization: University of Saskatchewan Reply-To: andrew@herald.usask.ca From article , by john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon): > From correspondence with Canadians, I have determined that the US has > benefitted greatly for deregulation and divestiture. While Canada > still has step equipment and multi-party lines in rural areas, that > equipment and facility arrangement has all but disappeared in this > country. Bell Canada has no technical superiority with regard to the > typical service provided in the US; and frequently the reverse is > actually the case. I just wanted to point out that Bell Canada only services some of the Eastern provinces of Canada. It probably compares to GTE! Fibre was installed in Saskatchewan at a faster rate than any other North American phone company. We got no stinkin step by steps left and I am not aware of any multi-party lines left. Derek Andrew, Manager of Computer Network & Technical Services University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Saskatchewan, Canada, S7N 0W0 Andrew@Sask.USask.CA, +1-306-966-4808, 52 11 23N 106 48 48W Our prayers are with all who stood in Andrew's path. - President Bush. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 23:51 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: NAFTA Implications for Telecommunications in Canada Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk PAT included the paper forwarded by to telecom by Sid Shniad, Burnaby BC : called "The North American Free Trade Agreement and its Implications For the Telecommunications Industry in Canada" In that paper was the assertion that: > Cable and Wireless -- a subsidiary of the giant British Telecom -- > would be free to charge whatever it wants for its services. In case anyone is in any doubt, Cable and Wireless is not a subsidiary of British Telecom. In fact Cable and Wireless owns Mercury Commun- ications, BT's only competitor for long-haul traffic in the UK at the moment ! Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Not diallable on 511 in mainland USA ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #173 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa25747; 12 Mar 93 5:51 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07809 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 03:26:50 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00367 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 03:26:16 -0600 Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 03:26:16 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303120926.AA00367@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #174 TELECOM Digest Fri, 12 Mar 93 03:26:15 CST Volume 13 : Issue 174 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Coventry Telesoftware Teletext Open Shell &c (W. J. G. Overington) Wired (was Hacked Cellular Phones) (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Bell Canada Applies to Hike Local Rates (Mark Brader) Cellular System A and B Info Wanted (Carl Livecchia) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: esx038@cck.coventry.ac.uk (W. J. G. Overington) Subject: Coventry Telesoftware Teletext Open Shell &c Organization: Coventry University Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 11:35:20 GMT Telesoftware defined; a representation to the European Broadcasting Union and an overview of Coventry Telesoftware Teletext Open Shell and 1456 object code. Issue 1.0 8th March 1993 W. J. G. Overington Management Division, School of Engineering, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB United Kingdom. Telephone: +44 203 838655 (within UK Telephone: 0203 838655) Fax: +44 203 838949 (within UK Fax: 0203 838949) e-mail: esx038@cck.coventry.ac.uk The word telesoftware is defined as follows. TelesoftwareL The concept of producing a remote access computer system by means of the unidirectional cyclic broadcasting of software and its selective use by an unlimited number of independent terminals each having its own processing element and each characterized by a reception only telecommunications facility. Concept invented and word coined by W. J. G. Overington in 1974. Telesoftware is interactive with no return information link whatsoever to the central broadcasting computer. The symbol of telesoftware is the rete of an astrolabe in cyan upon a red field. * * * I make the suggestion that the European Broadcasting Union add to its teletext specification a feature that I suggest be called The EBU Shell. The EBU Shell. Where information upon a notionally displayable teletext page is intended for processing by a local computing system, be it a computer as such or a microprocessor system that is part of an intelligent television system, the local computing system should look for, and be able to act upon, keywords that begin with three characters 5/10, that is ZZZ in the ordinary character set. The following keywords are specified in the EBU shell: ZZZFILE: The keyword ZZZFILE is always followed by a space and then the name of a computer file. It provides a convenient common way of designating any file to which the incoming information should be sent. Its use is optional, as incoming software may be being dynamically obeyed rather than stored in a file. ZZZSYSTEME: The keyword ZZZSYSTEME is always followed by a space and then an Independent Infrastructure Name. After that, the information is in the format of the named independent infrastructure. The local computing system may well only act on a subset of the possible independent infrastructures, but should be capable of recognizing all EBU shell keywords. A process of consultation should aim at a fairly small collection of EBU shell keywords as a common collection of keywords recognizable by all such local computing systems. I suggest that the following could be added: Any person, who may, but need not, be representing an organization, may deposit with the European Broadcasting Union an Independent Infrastructure Name together with such other information as appears reasonable to act as a short overview and provide details of how to obtain further information. The European Broadcasting Union will maintain a collection of such deposited information and may, from time to time, publish it in such form as it sees fit. For example, such a list would contain the following: ZZZSYSTEME 1456: 1456 object code. A portable object code intended for compilation and translation to the local code of the local computing system, designed specifically for telesoftware. An open system available for general use. ZZZSYSTEME COVENTRY: Coventry Telesoftware Teletext Open Shell. The short name is Coventry shell. A forth-like language with powerful high level constructs and specialist libraries. Capable of having 1456 object code routines embedded within it. All keywords begin with a triple letter sequence (but not ZZZ to avoid conflict with the EBU shell). An open system available for general use. These are two systems designed by the present author and are, in fact, open systems for general use. This is because I feel that my own role is to work on open systems and publish papers. It would be entirely possible that some entries for independent infrastructures would contain sentences such as "A proprietary system, details of which are not published" or "A proprietary system, details of which are only available to customers of this company" and so on. I suggest, however, that the inclusion of such statements in an EBU list of independent infrastructures would be helpful for identification purposes and engineering management. * * * The Coventry shell contains powerful structuring commands such as zzzdefine which can specify new keywords containing zzzif zzzthen zzzelse zzzelseif zzzendif and so on within their definitions. There is strong typing of variables, with words such as III+ and III* available for adding and multiplying integers respectively; together with words such as CCC+ and CCC* for manipulating complex numbers. Various keyword triple letter keys are used in different ways. For example, some, such as III and CCC are used for manipulation of typed variables; keywords beginning with fff are freely defineable for use as database field names, such as fffquantity, fffprice and so on; keywords beginning with ppp constitute the Turquoise Lattice library to control programmed learning presentations, with words such as pppDisplayText (which needs a file name following it) and pppGetOneCharacter and so on. * * * Here is a short introduction to writing software in 1456 object code. An interesting feature of 1456 object code is that the actual codes broadcast are the normal way of writing 1456 object code. That is, although there is an assembler equivalent, it is not regarded as the main way of writing 1456 object code, as 1456 object code is designed for ease of being directly written. Consider the following assembler style language program. It is not for any particular processor, but, if you have used assemblers, you will probably recognize the general flavour of a label field, which may be left empty, an operation code field and a parameter field, which may or may not have anything in it, depending upon the particular operation code. START LOAD #3 ADD #2 STORE ALPHA HALT ALPHA DATA 0 For the avoidance of doubt, this program loads the immediate data of value 3 into a register called 1456A, adds the immediate data of value 2, stores the result in the data storage unit at the label ALPHA and then halts. Consider now rewriting the program so that there is not a separate label field, but that instead there is a pseudo-operation called LABEL, that generates no code, but merely informs us where the label is located. LABEL START LOAD #3 ADD #2 STORE ALPHA HALT LABEL ALPHA DATA 0 Consider now using numbers instead of names for labels. The program can now be written as below. LABEL 1 LOAD #3 ADD #2 STORE 2 HALT LABEL 2 DATA 0 In most, possibly all, microprocessor assembly languages that I have studied, the operation codes for LOAD IMMEDIATE and LOAD FROM MEMORY are different, but which of these operation codes is used in assembling any given use of a LOAD instruction is determined by examining the parameter field, not the LOAD instruction itself. For example, LOAD #$40 and LOAD $40 respectively, and not, say, LOAD# $40 and LOADM $40 In 1456 object code, each operation code is either one letter, or two characters, the first of which is ! (in speech "super"). There are 100 operation codes available, namely, A .. N, P .. Z, a .. k, m .. z, !A .. !N, !P .. !Z, !a .. !k, !m .. !z The letters uppercase O and lowercase l are omitted in order to avoid confusion between uppercase O and the figure 0 and between lowercase l and figure 1. The LOAD IMMEDIATE is w in 1456 object code and the LOAD FROM MEMORY is W with the argument being a label number, in octal. In 1456 object code there is also what I call software punctuation. These are items that in an assembler language would be called pseudo-operation codes. This software punctuation consists of label identification, generation of data spaces and so on. So we may convert our example to something approaching 1456 object code, though as we shall see, there are a few extra steps yet. : 1 w 3 p 2 S 2 H : 2 / 0 In order to avoid, when assembling the above, having to look beyond the length of the last digit in the parameter, because one does not know that it is the last digit of the parameter until one has already looked beyond it, the order of the operation code and its parameter, if any, are reversed. This means that a parameter, which must be a number, in octal, is ended by the operation code that uses that parameter. We thus have the following. 1 : 3 w 2 p 2 S H 2 : 0 / We also convert all numbers to being in octal format, though, as the numbers in this example are all of value less than 8, there is not any observable difference in doing that here. A space character and a return character have no significance in the code thus produced, so it is perfectly acceptable to place it in free format on as few or as many lines as is desired. We need to add an = sign, to signify that that is the end of the program, and we could then have, 1:3w2p2SH2:0/= but that is somewhat confusing to a human, so it is conventional to separate each operation by a space character, though it is usual to omit the space after a : symbol, so as to reinforce the fact that the : is but a label and is not assembled to give output code of itself. 1:3w 2p 2S H 2:0/ = In the above example, note that the figure 2 appears three times. In the first usage it is immediate data, because p uses it as immediate data; in the second usage it is the use of a label address, because S uses it as a label address; in the third usage it is the definition of label 2, because : is used to define a label. Comments can be included in 1456 object code between a * character and a ; character. The 1456 object code system supports separate compilation of modules in a program. This is performed by using a + character to signify the end of the module. Compilation of a 1456 object code program is by two pass assembly. When a module is separately compiled, both passes of that module are performed before the first pass of the next module is started. This means that any label address may be used locally within two or more different modules without conflict. Only label addresses that need to be referenced from outside the module need be chosen to avoid conflict. A practice that is used is that label addresses in the range 1 to 77 octal may be freely used as local labels within a module and that higher numbers are allocated to external entry points to modules. Labels in the range 100 to 177 octal are for your own module library. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 00:41:10 -0800 From: rlm@indigo2.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Wired (was Hacked Cellular Phones) Ron Dippold writes: > I picked up the premiere issue of a new magazine called "Wired" which > is trying to spread the word about the Digital Revolution. And > editorial blurb from the inside page is repeated here: [ stuff deleted ] I subscribed to Wired based on the first issue. Repeat after me: It's much better than "Cats"... I want to read it again and again ... (apologies to Lorne Michaels) Seriously, I've written the editor (), and have discussed it with other people on the net. I at first agreed with one correspondant that {Wired} is a fashion magazine, sort of a digital {Cosmopolitan} for those who can't hack {Communications of the ACM}. I think my feelings have mellowed somewhat since then. Comparing {Wired} with {Mondo 2000} is like night and day; {M2K} really DOES have fashion articles. The sad thing is that {Time} took {M2K} seriously in their recent cover story on cyberpunk, something I took them to task for (amazing! they printed my letter...). > Along with this they had an interesting article on "Cellular Phreaks > and Code Dudes" by John Markoff (markoff@nyt.com), which discusses how > the latest rage of Silicon Valley hackers is cellular phones. He > gives an example of how two phreaks hacked into an OKI 900 cellular > phone and some of the features they discovered: [more stuff elided] What one correspondant found irritating with this was the author's claim that people who hack cellphones using the maintenance codes use "consumer appliances ... augmented in ways their designers never conceived." Fact is, those codes were put there on purpose. > The down side was the really annoying format, which seems to be > "Techno-babble-obnoxious" with arbitrary changes in typeface, > orientation, etc as you flip through pages. Yep. {Wired} definitely has the feel of a magazine trying hard to present itself as Art, and at the same time slip in some cool-sounding buzzwords. But at least they're (mostly) clear: {M2K} confuses incoherence with style. So why did I subscribe? The essayists are first-rate (the story on cellphone hacking notwithstanding). Lewis J. Perelman's essay on the reason for the deterioration of public schools and suggestions for possible cures was outstanding, as was Nicholas Negropointe's column on what's wrong with HDTV. Bruce Sterling looked into the Future of War -- SIMNET and all that. Lastly, {Wired} published an essay I thought masterfully rebutted the entire concept of that magazine, saying that Digital Art, because of its newness, makes people feel they're doing great things -- BUT this greatness is ephemeral and directly tied to the medium. You should be able to find {Wired} at B. Dalton booksellers near you. Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@indigo2.hac.com After June 25 : rlm@mcgort.com or rlm@surfcty.com ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Bell Canada Applies to Hike Local Rates Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 09:54:15 GMT In issue 13.72 (February 8), Nigel Allen (nigel.allen@canrem.com) posted under the above Subject line a fairly long article about a package of rate changes proposed by Bell Canada. One part of the package is called the Community Calling Plan (CCP), which would affect customers in the areas centered on Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. Nigel wrote that the CCP: > ... effective September 1 [November 1 for Montreal] ... > would eliminate toll charges between many suburban exchanges > that are local to the same major city ... but long distance > from each other. But local phone rates would rise sharply > [in addition to the other increase also requested] ... I responded in issue 13.82 (February 11) to query that point: > Why is that? The policy here has been that local phone rates are > based on how many telephones *you* can call locally [note to those > in less civilized :-) areas: this means free]. I think that a > large local calling area makes sense in the neighborhood of a > big city, so it's probably a good idea for different Toronto > suburbs to become local to each other. But why should my rates > in Toronto go up because people in nearby cities are getting > this service? And in my latest phone bill, I have the answer. There is an insert, which unfolds to about 14x22 inches, covered with fine print in English on one side and French on the other. It provides full details of the proposed rates, and of Bell's second-choice plan if the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission does not approve the CCP. And it includes maps of the CCP areas, and they are *larger* than the current local calling areas. So that answers my point quoted above. Curiously, this detail is buried -- the maps do not show the extent of the current local calling areas, only the new CCP areas. Comparing them against the list of exchanges in the current (April 1992) phone book, I find that the following 22 places, now long-distance, would become local to Toronto under the plan: Burlington, Milton, Campbellville, Georgetown, Acton#, Erin#, Hillsburgh#, Caledon#, Victoria, Caledon East, Tottenham, Beeton, Bradford, Newmarket, Queensville, Mt. Albert, Uxbridge, Port Perry, Brooklin, Whitby, Oshawa, Bowmanville. These places form an almost contiguous belt -- the Caledon East and Tottenham exchanges don't quite touch each other, so in that direction a small part of the boundary wouldn't move. The four places marked # are in area code 519, so this means that local-but-outside-of-area-code dialing would come to Toronto, not in October when area code 905 splits off 416, but in September. The plan is that after the split such calls would be dialed as ten digits (since Bell Canada uses the "1 = toll" principle); logically, then, calls from Toronto to Acton, Erin, Hillsburgh, and Caledon would also be dialed as 10 digits, i.e. 519-xxx-xxxx. Since the insert is only about rates, it doesn't cover this point. The present Toronto local calling area is roughly bounded by a quadrilateral whose vertices are at Oakville, Palgrave, Claremont, and Ajax-Pickering; thus it extends about 20-30 miles from downtown Toronto in most (landward) directions. The outermost "bumps" in the proposed new boundary are Burlington, Hillsburgh, Port Perry, and Bowmanville, which extend as far as 40 miles from downtown -- and since they would be local to each other, it would be possible to make a local call of some 80 miles. I have given the details for Toronto because I have in my phone book the information about its present local calling area. The insert also shows the boundaries of the CCP areas for the other two cities, but I don't know how much of an *increase* in calling area this implies for those cities. For Ottawa, the CCP area would extend about 30 miles from that city's downtown, including such places as Plantagenet, Chester- ville, Merrickville, Carleton Place, and Arnprior in Ontario; and Quyon, Low, and Papineauville in Quebec. For Montreal, the CCP would again extend about 40 miles from that city's downtown, thus encompassing a larger area than Toronto's CCP since Montreal is not on a lake. Its boundary would follow the US border from Clarenceville to Hemmingford, then jog north to the St. Lawrence at Beauharnois, then west to roughly the Ontario border, then northeast to St-Andre Est and Rawdon, southeast to L'Epiphanie- L'Assomption and Lanoriae, and finally south to Beloiel and back to Clarenceville. The insert points out that within each CCP area, the central city's customers would have the lowest rate, then the suburbs a slightly higher rate, and suburbs near the outside of the area that can also call locally to points outside of it would have a slightly higher rate yet. I understand the latter dif- ference but not the former. The insert says it is "because customers outside the core would have relatively more exchanges added to their current local calling area than those in the core", and I don't see why that should affect anything. Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 11:11:22 EST From: clivec@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil Subject: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted I have read many messages on this bulletin board in which people mention Cellular System A and System B settings on their phones. Can anyone explain to me, in plain English, the difference between system A and system B? Thanks in advance, Carl Livecchia clivec@pica.army.mil [Moderator's Note: Some say A = Awfully expensive and B = Bad customer service. :) Really, the B carriers are owned by the local 'wireline' telephone company in the area. For example, in Chicago, Ameritech Mobile is the B carrier; they also operate Illinois Bell, our telco. The A carriers are the 'non-wireline' carriers. They will frequently be telephone companies also, but in some other part of the country. The A carriers often times use the generic name 'Cellular One'. Here in Chicago, Cellular One (the A carrier) is owned by Southwestern Bell, a telephone company in another part of the USA. On the other hand, the same Southwestern Bell is the B carrier operating in the St. Louis, Missouri area. So if a telco goes to the territory of some other telco to operate cellular, they do it as an A carrier. The telco which 'belongs there' (or has historically always been the telco in that community) is the B carrier. Is all that clear? :) In addition, the A carriers stick among themselves with things like roaming agreements; the B carriers do the same. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #174 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02656; 12 Mar 93 19:30 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04823 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 16:54:30 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31883 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 12 Mar 1993 16:54:02 -0600 Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 16:54:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303122254.AA31883@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Now Open For Business! 1+, 800, Calling Cards I now have agreements in place with various telecommunications carriers to offer 'affinity' long distance calling packages to readers of TELECOM Digest, comp.dcom.telecom and the other telecom news groups where the Digest is circulated. All commissions and residuals from your use of these services are returned to TELECOM Digest to offset the costs involved in editing and publishing this e-journal, which has grown to the point that several hours daily are required to read, sort, edit and publish the volume of mail which arrives here. ** There is no connection of any sort between these services and the editorial content of TELECOM Digest. You are free to use these services or not as you wish with no regard to what is published in the Digest. I am not going to kiss your posterior to encourage you to use these things, nor are you required to kiss my posterior. Enough said? ** Dial One Plus: ============== Primarily for small (under three hundred dollars per month) users of long distance, but anyone can subscribe: All plans include: 1) 100% fiber optic network; 2) Detailed billing in six-second increments; 3) Free travel card (NOT the Orange Card; see below); 4) No monthly minimums, start up or installation fees. Plan 1: Interstate rates 18.9 cents per minute (7 am to 7 pm) 14.5 cents per minute (7 pm to 7 am and weekends) Intrastate rates average 22 cents per minute. Ask about your state. There is a $5 per month service charge. Daytime rates go down to 18 cents per minute over $200 per month. Daytime rates go down to 17.5 cents per minute over $800 per month. Plan 2: Interstate rates are 16.9 cents per minute at all hours, all days. Intrastate rates average 22 cents per minute. Ask about your state. No additional discounts are given. Account codes are available: Non-verified account codes are FREE. Verified account codes (calls won't complete without using them) are $15 per month in total. A great way to reduce fraud and misuse. There is a $5 per month service charge. ($20 in total if you want verified account codes required when dialing calls.) Plan 3: Interstate rates are 14.9 cents per minute at all hours, all days. Intrastate rates average 22 cents per minute. Ask about your state. No additional discounts are given. As above in plan 2, account codes are available, verified or non verified, as you require. There is a $14.90 per month service charge ($34.90 if you want verified account codes required when dialing calls.) Plans 1 or 2 make the best sense for small users, and whether you want a straight rate at all hours or a higher day rate and smaller night rate will depend on your calling patterns. Plan 3 is a better deal if your long distance bill tends to run over a hundred dollars per month. Since calls are carried via Sprint, if you are currently a customer of Sprint you need not change your 1+ default carrier. The three plans above simply require a 'paperwork change' through my office. ---------------------- AT&T Software Defined Network: For somewhat larger users, with long distance billings of at least $300-400 per month or higher, the AT&T Software Defined Network is available, and again, existing customers of AT&T would not need to change their default, or 1+ carrier. Plan includes: 30 second initial billing period; 6 second additional billing increments; Authorization codes: mandatory to complete calls, or voluntary, your choice. All calls are billed by authorization code if you use them. Your own network definitions: Block NPA's, NPA-xxx's, NPA-xxx-xxxx's as you wish. Block from only certain outgoing lines or all lines. Block only at certain times of day, or days of week, For example, block international calls on weekends but not during the week. Or, require account codes at night and on weekends, but not during the business day. There is *no additional charge* for any/all of the above features: Rates are distance-sensitive: From 17.71 cents per minute up to 23.62 cents per minute days. From 12.67 cents per minute up to 16.91 cents per minute evenings. From 9.49 cents per minute up to 13.28 cents per minute nights. Most points in area 809 are 24 cents per minute days, 20 cents nights. A discount of 8 percent is given on traffic of up to $2000 per month. A discount of 20 percent is given on traffic over $2000 per month. Minimum traffic per month to use this plan is $300 per month. There are no discounts on traffic less than $300 per month. ----------------- 800 Number Service: =================== You can have one of my 800 numbers, - or - you can keep your existing 800 number once '800 portability' starts, now scheduled for May 1, 1993. These are actual 800 numbers, not the bogus 'add a four digit pin' style offered by one carrier. Both plans: Include a single 800 number for inter-/intra-state incoming calls. Use existing lines. No installations or changes required. Have billing in six second increments. Can be configured to include international service if desired at additional cost per minute of traffic, of course. 100 percent fiber optic network. Include detailed billing of the phone numbers calling you. (ANI). Have no monthly minimums, start up or installation fees. Plan 1: If monthly billing is less than $25, 32.9 cents per minute and a $5 monthly service fee. If monthly billing is $25-50, rates are 22.9 cents per minute. If monthly billing is $50-100, rates are 18.9 cents per minute. If monthly billing is more than $100, rates are 16.9 cents per minute. If your usage is less than $25 per month, an 800 number cannot be recommended, but is available (see above) at the highest rate per minute and with a $5 service fee for keeping the account 'in the system'. Plan 2: Rate is 17.9 cents per minute, all hours, all days on interstate. Intrastate rates average 22 cents per minute. Ask about your state. A monthly $15 service charge applies. Whether you choose plan 1 or plan 2 would depend on your volume of calls, bearing in mind with plan 1 although the rates are higher to begin with, they are less expensive than plan 2 if you use more than $100 per month. In addition, plan 1 does not diferentiate between calls interstate or intrastate. Therefore, my personal recommendation is that plan 1 is a better deal. But it is your choice. -------------- Orange Calling Card: As earlier described here, this is a no-surcharge calling card which allows calling anywhere in the USA at the flat rate of 25 cents per minute. You dial an 800 number, then the card number and the number you wish to call, followed by a PIN. The best use for this card is when you make a lot of daytime, short duration calls from payphones or hotels where you would otherwise pay a surcharge. There is a one time $10 fee to sign up. You are billed for your usage monthly. This is also a good deal if you live in dormitory housing using a common PBX phone system, make personal calls from a company PBX, etc. ------------------- These services were chosen as a way for readers to help support the increased costs of publishing TELECOM Digest without having to do anything they wouldn't be doing otherwise: using the phone each day. A residual, typically 5-10 percent of the billings on your phone usage will be paid to TELECOM Digest if you subscribe to these programs. If you don't subscribe, I'll survive! :) But your help will mean a lot and enable me to quit worrying about how I am going to feed the cats, our three-year old child and the rest of my nuclear family ... and let me spend more time getting the Digest out to you each day. For information or to sign up for any of the above, send email to: ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu or fax: 312-743-0002 Be sure to include a snail-mail address where brochures and applications should be sent. Remember, if you wish to use the one plus service and you are already on Sprint, you won't need to change carriers. If you wish to use the larger volume AT&T SDN and you are already on AT&T, you won't need to change carriers. Your 800 number is independent of your one plus carrier, as is the Orange Calling Card. Thanks for your continued support of TELECOM Digest. Here's hoping I at least get my phone bill paid each month by your generosity and support. Patick Townson TELECOM Moderator   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa16700; 14 Mar 93 17:36 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06340 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 14 Mar 1993 15:07:24 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31029 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 14 Mar 1993 15:06:59 -0600 Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 15:06:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303142106.AA31029@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #175 TELECOM Digest Sun, 14 Mar 93 15:07:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 175 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (Dave Levenson) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (Monty Solomon) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (Dave Niebuhr) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (Tom Coradeschi) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (Paul Robichaux) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (John Higdon) Re: What is Telecom Gold? (Richard Cox) Re: What is Telecom Gold? (Nigel Allen) Re: No One Calls Me on AT&T EasyReach! (Douglas Scott Reuben) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Dave Levenson) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Richard Cox) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 06:49:56 GMT In article , john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > Yes, after I naively posted my message, I was informed by more > knowledgable collegues that this "split white pages; surname once" is > a very common midwest format. It is sort of the thing you find in > Kansas, Nebraska -- all the fly-over states. Apparently it is also in > Chicago. And now, unfortunately, it is here. I have already expressed > my displeasure with Pacific Bell. Washington, DC, and its suburbs, now have white pages organized in this way. I think it increases the density of the white pages listings, and so may save a few trees. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! Reply-To: Monty Solomon Organization: Proponent Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 11:45:17 GMT In article john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > The new Pacific Bell telephone directories for San Jose/Santa Clara > have two interesting format variations in the White Pages. The first > splits the directory into two approximately equal-size sections: The new Nynex phone books in Massacusetts also have the new format. > The second change is the way residence listings are presented. Instead > of the traditional approach, each surname is listed with the customers > of that name in the column underneath, but indented. Something like > this: > HIGDON > Fred....... > George A....... > John...... In our new book, the listings have a bizarre alphabetization: SOLOMON Alan....... Ann....... ... Marilyn....... Michael....... SOLOMON-MITTLEMAN J & Robt....... SOLOMON Robt....... Sherwin....... ... Their algorithm has problems with hyphenated last names. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 07:25:57 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! In TELECOM Digest Volume 13 : Issue 172 john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > Yes, after I naively posted my message, I was informed by more > knowledgable collegues that this "split white pages; surname once" is > a very common midwest format. It is sort of the thing you find in > Kansas, Nebraska -- all the fly-over states. Apparently it is also in > Chicago. And now, unfortunately, it is here. I have already expressed > my displeasure with Pacific Bell. NYTel has had a split white pages for about two years in at least the Nassau County portion of area code 516. Suffolk went this way last year. The first part is general information (excerpts from the tarrifs, the second is community services, then the residence listings ordered by surname in bold, given name indented and in plain lettering, followed by the business listings ending with the "blue pages" for governments. The yellow pages are in a separate book. I have to disagree with John since I like the new format. If I don't know the name of a business, I'll use the yellow pages in the appropriate category; on the other hand, if I know the business name but not the number I'll use the business listings. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 9:08:29 EST From: Tom Coradeschi Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here Organization: Electric Armts Div, US Army ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) writes: > On this side of The Hill, Pac Bell has been running ads in the local > paper for several days -- picture of a new phone book in a plastic bag > -- text to the effect that it's NOT that time yet; new phone books > aren't due out until October; if you get a new phone book now it's not > the genuine article, so don't throw away your old one. I guess this > means somebody is distributing phony phone books. Not "phony" books, per se. In many areas of the country, there are "primary" and "secondary" directories for a given area (my terminology, cuz I cain't remember what they're really called). The primary book is typically that of the RBOC (in my case NJBell). The secondary is "someone else" (in my case United Telephone). The coverage, particularly in terms of Yellow Pages adverts, can be quite different -- remember that Yellow Pages isn't free, and cost is proportional to the size/type of ad placed. PacBell likely wants as many folks as possible to keep & use their directories, so they can justify the prices they charge for YP advertising. tom coradeschi <+> tcora@pica.army.mil ------------------------------ From: robichau@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (Paul Robichaux) Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! Reply-To: robichau@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov Organization: New Technology, Inc. Date: Sun 14 Mar 1993 14:43:15 GMT In john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes about the "new and somewhat improved" PacBell directories. Here in BellSouth (= {South Central Bell | Southern Bell}) land, the directories featured both the split business/residence listings and the last-name/first-name listing format for several years. I like the split business/residence listings; it makes it quite a bit easier to do a binary search through the book when I'm looking for a particular listing. The BellSouth directories also have a separate middle section (the "blue pages") which include city, county, state, and federal government listings -- very handy! Paul Robichaux, KD4JZG Mission Software Development Div. New Technology, Inc. ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 13:55:53 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory > What I suspect has happened here is that the new directory contractor > is midwest-based and just assumed that Californians would put up with > the same silly-style directories that are issued to the "great > heartland". Sorry, John, but it's really not that way, although I sympathize! This format of phone books is spreading all over the RBOCs. US West adopted it about a decade ago and it has been very popular. I don't like it, but I'm told that customer satisfaction with the format is high. My sister thinks I'm crazy in not liking it! (Of course, she is also opposed to CLID and is totally unable to understand why anyone would tolerate such a thing.) I believe the format was first used in the Chicago area by an "alternative" phone book publisher and met with great success. Since the Yellow Pages business is highly competitive, IBT was not too crazy about people throwing out their "real" phone books and keeping the others. So IBT switched. This is all hearsay, since I have never spent more than a week at a time in the Chicago area. Pat may know a lot more than I do about it. I do know that Mountain Bell (now US West) switched formats in Colorado (with much ballyhoo) about two years after another directory publisher (Donnelly?) started distributing there. My sister kept both books, but only used the other one. So I can't really blame PacBell for this one. It looks like the consumer has spoken. R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: koberman@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 Disclaimer: Don't take this too seriously. I just like to improve my typing and probably don't really know anything useful about anything. [Moderator's Note: Sprint (nee Centel) did it in their local directory quite a few years ago. Illinois Bell started doing it in the regional directories a few years ago; now they do it in some of the local books for the suburbs as well, but the Chicago book is still 'traditional'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 11:24 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: What is Telecom Gold? Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu (Ted Koppel) asks: > Telecom Gold followed by an alphanumeric string in the format: > NN:aaannn (where a=alpha and n=numeric) > What is it? Telecom Gold is a slow, very ancient, email service run by BT in the UK. It has very limited connectivity over here ... there are one-way gateways which are reported to be difficult to access. There is believed to be connectivity with DIALCOM in the USA. The NN is the "system" number, and the aaannn (which can be aaannnn) is the mailbox id. I used to be 84:POW9999 but not now -- there are better and more cost effective ways of communicating! Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Not diallable on 511 in mainland USA ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 09:13:00 -0500 From: ndallen@r-node.hub.org (Nigel Allen) Subject: Re: What is Telecom Gold? Organization: R-node Public Access Unix - 1 416 249 5366 Ted Koppel (tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu) writes in article : > I have in front of me a business card from a gentleman in Great > Britain. It has all of the normal stuff: > and then a line that says: > Telecom Gold followed by an alphanumeric string in the format: > NN:aaannn (where a=alpha and n=numeric) Telecom Gold is an e-mail service operated in the United Kingdom by British Telecom, which now prefers to be known simply as BT. It is interconnected with similar e-mail systems in other countries. The corresponding service in Canada, for example, is Dialcom, offered by Unitel Communications Inc. Perhaps BT North America (I don't have its phone number, but ask 800 service directory assistance at 800-555-1212) could give you more information on Dialcom and Telecom Gold. I don't think Telecom Gold is interconected with the Internet, but I could be wrong. It may be possible to send a message to a Telecom Gold mailbox from AT&T Mail or MCI Mail, but you would have to contact those e-mail companies to find out how. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ndallen@r-node.hub.org [Moderator's Note: Oh my gosh! Is Dialcom still around? I looked into that service back in 1983-84 or thereabouts; I was not impressed. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 14-MAR-1993 07:11:27.53 From: Douglas Scott Reuben Subject: Re: No One Calls Me on AT&T EasyReach! On Thu, 11 Mar 93 10:37 PST, john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: [stuff about how I called AT&T ER700 Cust Svc. to have them correct what I perceive to be a switch programming error denying ER700 access via 10288 from a NYTel coin phone] > Your complaint is with each of the local companies who are not > completing your 700 calls. Of course it is, but they either don't care, or don't care to listen to you. It will take me a week to get an LEC to fix it myself (if they decide to even pay attention). AT&T in the past has been very willing to deal with the LECs to provide ER700 access w/o the 800-824-5621 access number, and my complaint was with Lynn who more or less had the attitude that "Well, just have your caller use the 800 number ... what's the big deal?". I got a call back from an ER700 Specialist, and he said it will be fixed right away. They did the same thing for SNET and NETel. So they DO deal with the LEC, and quite effectively at that. I commend the AT&T ER700 people in this regard, and didn't mean to indicate otherwise. Its just that to GET to a Specialist requires talking to mindless customer service reps, which I think discourages people from reporting these difficulties in the first place. > Perhaps you should more carefully assess your requirements and > properly select a product before you lambaste the provider for not > meeting your misdirected expectations. Oh, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted and the C&W programmable 800 did not fit the bill. I wanted a way for people to reach me at whatever number I happen to be at, without my having to incur extra toll charges. So unlike LEC-offered remotely-programmable Call Forwarding (which is nevertheless an attractive offering), I wanted a service where the caller paid a modest toll charge to reach me and *no* (toll) charge on my part, one that forwarded quickly, and one that could be programmed remotely and for free. C&W meets all the above except #1, which was the main reason I got AT&T ER700. All in all, I think ER700 fits the bill quite nicely. I think you misperceive my complaint: The service and the concept behind it are (is?) great; it is the implementation of ER700 that is flaky and awkward. I don't think callers should have to be inconvenienced to call me, as I realize that they have other things to do besides always having to remember a myriad of codes and conditions for accessing ER700 just to get in touch with me. AT&T needs to make access to ME (not necessarily the ER700 Platform) easier and more universal, so I can feel secure that when I give out my 700 number I'll be able to receive calls from that person. Right now, I apparently can't say that. BTW, I note John's and another response to my initial posting, BUT, I never saw my post! That is, I got some replies to my posting (thanks!), saw some followups, but didn't see the post that I had sent it. Its not here at Wesleyan, nor at NYU, nor at holonet.net. I've noticed this before, but thought it was just some distribution problem. Is this common, or an error? Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet [Moderator's Note: I don't know why your original posting did not make it back to your site. You are not the first person to mention this happening (never seeing the original, but getting the followups, etc) and all I can say is someday I hope to figure it out. Right now I am in survival mode pending the successful start up of my telecom resale programs in the hopes I can quit worrying about money and start worry- ing more about the Digest. If things go well, in the next couple months readers will hopefully see some improved software, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 06:58:04 GMT In article , stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > Also, why is there a delay in the delivery of pages? I can understand > when the system may get busy during the day, and pages are stacked up > in the queue, but even in the middle of the night, it can take upwards > of a minute for a page to be delivered. Sometimes, they come almost > instantly, then just a moment later, take almost a minute. There's no > way that the queue was empty, then suddenly built up to a big backlog, > all of a sudden in the middle of the night. Why are pages not just > sent out immediately? My understanding is that in some areas, the same radio channels are shared by several paging companies. Each company gets a shot at the channel during its allocated time slot (every few minutes). Also, each channel is served by multiple transmitter sites. To prevent interference to pagers located within range of more than one, they all transmit at slightly different times. The effect of both of these designs is that there is a quantizing of the delivery time. If you happened to queue your message immediately after your local tower's time-slot, it probably had to wait for the next one. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 [Moderator's Note: Long ago, klutzy answering service operators could get the queue all jammed up also. At Rogers Answering Service, each position had a little red 'beehive lamp' which when illuminated told them the frequency was available to them. The operators would sit there with their finger on a key that put them on a tie-line to the transmitter; that 'on the air' light came on and it was like a contest to see who could hit their button first and start speaking. The old voice pagers of twenty years ago were very airtime intensive. On the one I used, if you left the squelch open to listen, the operators would never shut up. They were on there (from several answering services) just seconds behind each other. Sometimes they would walk all over each other by accident in their rush to run their boards and handle pages, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 22:25 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) asks: > Why is there a delay in the delivery of pages? Why are pages not > just sent out immediately? Perhaps your paging system controller is driving a number of base stations and talks to each in turn. This reduces the risk of pagers halfway between bases receiving a corrupted message due to both bases transmitting at once. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Not diallable on 511 in mainland USA [Moderator's Note: I am reminded of when I used to have a voice pager back about 1970-72. It was a big bulky thing given to me by Rogers Telephone Answering Service. Callers dialed a seven digit number, then an 'extension number' to specifically trigger my unit. They'd then speak a ten second message into their phone. To my chagrin after I had used the pager a couple months I found out that Rogers was sharing the frequency with two long-time mobile radio users who also had licenses for that frequency. They had agreed to keep their communications 'short', but none the less when they got on, the air was theirs until they got off. These mobile customers were patched through *their* answering service somehow. Of idle curiosity one day, I had the squelch open on my unit listening to other pages, and here comes this guy keying up from his car: "Service, would you gimme " ... okay she says, and dials it. Must have been a very busy service, since as soon as she dialed it, she split to go on with other calls. She never supervised him, and for that matter dialed a non working number since the air was filled with '... check the number and dial again or ask the operator for assistance ...' for about twenty minutes after the mobile user had abandoned it before 'Service' woke up and pulled the cord or whatever. Well! Within ten seconds of that call coming down, the two or three other answering services with voice pagers on the frequency came rolling through with backed-up pages waiting in the queue. Operators from the different answering services all out there coming through right after each other along with the automated (left in the system directly by callers) pages. For ten or fifteen minutes it was one voice page after another as the logjam got undone. Some had no doubt waited more than 30 minutes. What fun! I am sure those old systems left the answering service operators frustrated as well. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #175 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27288; 14 Mar 93 22:45 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25499 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 14 Mar 1993 20:12:32 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17494 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 14 Mar 1993 20:11:59 -0600 Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 20:11:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303150211.AA17494@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #176 TELECOM Digest Sun, 14 Mar 93 20:12:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 176 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: An Alarming Circuit ID Technique! (Dave Levenson) Re: An Alarming Circuit ID Technique! (gdw@gummo.att.com) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology? (H. Hallikainen) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? (Lars Poulsen) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? (Dave Levenson) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? (Marvin Sirbu) Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted (Brad S. Hicks) Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted (Harold Hallikainen) Re: AT&T Free Time Rewards (samp@pro-gallup.cts.com) Re: Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing (Dan Danz) Re: Internet Access From Home (Carl Oppedahl) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: An Alarming Circuit ID Technique! Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 05:56:45 GMT In article , dave@westmark.com (that's me) writes: > NJ Bell recently spent two weeks installing two private lines between > my business and residence locations. The endpoints are actually about > six miles apart, and are both served by the same central office. > Well, now the lines work as tariffed. I have voice and data service > between my house and my office. And except for the readers of this > article, nobody will ever know ... > [Moderator's Note: Ah, but I have lots of good NJB people reading this > Digest and they may recognize themselves or a co-worker! :) PAT] Yes, but they are included in the phrase 'readers of this article', aren't they Pat? Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 [Moderator's Note: The actual people who did the work may not be readers here, but their supervisors or managers may be, and the word will filter down. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 09:27:06 EST From: gdw@gummo.att.com Subject: Re: An Alarming Circuit ID Technique! Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories From article , by dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson): > I called NJ Bell. Then sent the technician back. He said that he > could replace the line cards in the SLC with the older type that > allowed him to adjust the gain independently in each direction. He > also brought some test gear with him, and confirmed my loss > measurements. (The tariff says that OSNA lines will present a loss of > 4.0 dB in each direction.) From your description it sounds like NJ Bell tried to use a dual SPOTS (Super POTS) (TM of AT&T) channel unit to provide the service. This application for this card is not recommended but, since it frequently works, the telcos often try it. The correct channel unit is the single FXO (at the CO end) and FXS (station end) pair of units which have gain adjustment and appears to be what they used to fix it. It is not an older card; it's just more expensive and requires a craftsperson to manualy set the gain. The SPOTS units just slap right in. > The older SLC cards require a double-width slot. Using them meant > moving two other subscribers' circuit packs to different slots, to > free up pairs of adjacent backplane slots to accomodate the older > card. The FXS/FXO are the same width as SPOTS but the SPOTS serves > two customers. The man at the remote SLC location pulled the master > control card out of the SLC equipment bay serving the OSNA lines. > (The conference call was disrupted by this process. Approximately 96 > of my neighbors were Since I`m not aware of a "master control card" on > a SLC96, I assume he pulled out a power supply card to take the entire > system out. However, I bet he really just pulled an LIU (Line > Interface Unit) to take out a single T1 line (24 customers) since this > takes fewer customers out of service and provides the same > identification. Did you ever find out what was actually wrong? I mean the SPOTS should definitely NOT had 18 db of loss in one direction and, in fact, the FXS/FXO pair can`t provide that much gain. ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 18:37:35 GMT Although fax and email have been around for several years now, the volume of letter mail at the usps is still increasing, I think. I got a tour of the usps sorting station in Goleta a couple years ago. They are using some very fancy technology to sort letter mail. Most letter mail is now machine sorted at various locations around the country. Incoming mail that is not barcoded (I think large mail users get a little discount for barcoding their mail) is sent to a barcoding station. Mail with typed addresses have the address read by an OCR machine, which then sprays the zip code bar code onto the envelope. Even if the writer did not use the nine digit zip, the system looks up the nine digit zip for that address and codes the envelope with it. For hand-written addresses, a person reads the address, keys it in, then the machine codes the envelope. I'm not sure of what the operator has to key in. I'd expect it to be something like number, street, city, state, zip so the envelope does get coded with a full nine digit zip. At the destination sorting station (Goleta for us), the mail is sorted into route order based on the 9 digit zip. All this for 29 cents. As far as I know, ups and fed ex are still hand sorting everything. Both services are barcoding packages, but the barcodes are with a package serial number to allow tracking. They are not coding with a zip code to allow sorting. So, realizing it's popular to bash the usps, I was quite impressed with what they're doing. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 03:19:13 GMT Our Esteemed Moderator said: > The Post Office has made some concessions to modern technology. They > have an agreement with MCI Mail and ATT Mail (as well as Western > Union's 'Mailgram' program) to accept email on printers, stuff it in > envelopes and mail it at the post office nearest the delivery address. > The Post Office is involved in faxes, as another article in this issue > will note, but it is poorly advertised. PAT] In the early eighties, the post office tried to get into electronic mail in a big way with the E-COM program. Unfortunately, the enabling regulations bore the marks of lobbying by the value-added network providers, who feared that a modernized post office might take their business away, and the resulting beast was a resounding fiasco. The original idea was a sound one: Large amounts of mail come from mass mailers, and it ought to be a good idea to avoid sorting envelopes, by receiving the material on magnetic tape from multiple mailers, merge the records and sort them by carrier route before printing. About 32 large post offices around the country were equipped with E-COM processing centers designed by RCA in the old Victrola factory in Camden NJ, and including some really interesting paper handling devices made by specialty companies in faraway places (I remember an automatic advertizing insert selector/folder/stuffer made in Italy). The people that they were really targeting were the utility companies and insurance companies. Mailings could be submitted on magnetic tape or online via remote job entry (IBM2780-like, async or X.25). You could submit any number of entries in a single mailing, but you had to pay for at least 200. The problem that killed them was that they were not allowed to transfer data electronically between the 30+ processing centers. The customer had to split the batch into pieces for each of the centers, or dump it all into the mailstream at a single center and lose the processing advantages of the electronic injection. Other significant problems included: Utility commissions mandated bill inserts for all sorts of regulatory garbage. This meant customized print setups at the post office. Again, this nullified the inherent processing advantages of the system. The electronic submission formats were designed by someone with a textbook in hand and no real-life experience. As a result, the IBM-2780 like submission format was not useable by any of the many word processing systems with 2780-like communication options. It also was not compatible with real IBM2780 RJE terminals, and in fact happened to require a feature that could not be provided by stock IBM communication controllers used by the very large companies they were courting. Finally, this was implemented a couple of years before high-resolution page printers (commonly known as laser printers) became available. These would have allowed printing of envelope stuffer brochures and return envelopes on the fly. I think the system went online in 1982, and when the legally mandated five year period was over, the systems were dismantled and sold for scrap. I worked for the company that supplied the communications interfaces to the system, and we did quite a bit of benchmarking to prove that we could handle the large loads of data transfers that were envisaged. We were very proud when the system when online, and I still think this could have been great. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 05:28:42 GMT In article , mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) writes: > You would think maybe the US Post Office would have something as > simple and common as a fax machine ... What amazes me is that the US Post Office can get away with charging $0.29 for a one-ounce letter. A one- to two-page fax costs less than that between almost any two places in the US, and gets there faster. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 [Moderator's Note: Except of course, there are times when original documents are required, such as checks in payment, signatures on other documents, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 16:42:48 -0500 (EST) From: Marvin Sirbu Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? If the U.S. Postal Service began offering fax service there would be an incredible hew and cry from companies like Mailboxes Etc. and others that a Fedral Government agency that does not have to pay taxes was competing unfairly with a private sector business. About a dozen years ago the Post Office proposed an innovative service with the airlines: they would install ticket printers in Post Offices around the country and provide next day delivery of airline tickets ordered directly from the airlines. Travel agencies, which account for about half of all ticket sales for the airlines saw this as a direct attack on one of their major comaprative advantages: local delivery. They threatened to stop writing tickets on any airline that signed up for the USPS service. Needless to say the service was stillborn. The USPS is incredibly sophisticated at things which don't bring about an outcry from competitors -- like using neural network technology to build OCR decoders that can process 30,000 addresses per hour and spray bar codes on an envelope to simplify further sorting. But let them try and expand the services offered from their post offices and hear the howls from retailers who would be hurt competitively. Marvin Sirbu ------------------------------ From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com Date: 14 Mar 93 21:25:13 GMT Subject: Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted > I have read many messages on this bulletin board ... Apropos of nothing, except the way Carl started his message: I love the "blind men and the elephant" wording that I see here all the time. I get this via email; to me, it is and will always be Telecom Digest. But I see messages here from UseNetters who would never think to call it anything other than comp.dcom.telecom; it's transparent to them that this starts out as a mailing list. And the FidoNetters who are getting it gatewayed via EchoMail either see it as "this echo" or if they're new enough, just as "this BBS." But anyway, something Pat said in response struck me as odd; is this really true? And if so, how counter-intuitive! > ... the B carriers are owned by the local 'wireline' telephone > company in the area. ... Here in Chicago, Cellular One (the A carrier) > is owned by Southwestern Bell, a telephone company in another part of > the USA. On the other hand, the same Southwestern Bell is the B > carrier operating in the St. Louis, Missouri area. ... Is all that > clear? OK, I'm not very familiar with cellular, but so far I think I'm still with you. But the thing that struck me as weird, given this, is that: > the A carriers stick among themselves with things like roaming > agreements; the B carriers do the same. Now wait a minute. Suppose I run down to Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems (as I've been thinking about doing) and pick myself up a cellular phone; since I live in SWBT territory, I'd be on a B carrier. Now suppose that I ask for roaming and take my SWBT "B" phone up to Chicago. Are you telling me that SWBT would rather I use Ameritech's "B" service, sharing the revenue, than refer me to their own Chicago "A" service? Why in Eris' name would they do that? For that matter, if I got a Cybertel (St. Louis' "A carrier") mobile phone, why would they rather I use SWBT's "A carrier" service while I was in Chicago, given that in my home market SWBT and Cybertel are direct competitors? J. Brad Hicks Internet: mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs.attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad [Moderator's Note: A cellular company gets very little from you as a customer when you roam *elsewhere* -- the distant cellular company gets most of it. All your home company gets is a few cents for the billing aggravations. When you are in Chicago, so little is at stake to them financially they probably don't care if a subsidiary of their direct competitor gets the money or some third party (in this context) like Ameritech gets it. That being the case, what is the tie which binds? I think back in 1983 or so when cellular started, divestiture dictated that in order to have 'competition' in the cellular industry (yuk!) there had to be two carriers in each place: yes, the local telco, ever eager, could be in the cellular business if they wished, but to offset potential monopolies there had to be a 'non-local-telco' in the business also, so consumers would have a choice and not get ripped off (too badly, yuk!) by the sole provider, the greedy old local telco, which up until 1983 generally meant the Mother Company. So they said, come one, come all, let's everyone be in the cellular business and give some rough competition to Mother's Daughters ... it will be gpod for the consumers, you know ... trouble is, there were not that many applicants other than telcos, and some small rural areas still have only one carrier from lack of anyone else wanting the local market. So they cheated (or revised their definitions a little) and said telcos from other towns could come in to fill the 'alternate to telco' choice, but they could not be telcos as such. That is why SWBT cannot come to Illinois and do business in cellular as SWBT. They use the name 'Cellular One' instead. Ameritech Mobile operates as the B carrier in the central states where they are the local telco (Ohio, Indiana. Michigan, Illinois) and as the A carrier in other places where they have gotten into the market. A couple of Ameritech's 'A' locations do business as guess what? Why, Cellular One, of course, the catch-all generic name for a large collection of cellular companies unrelated in any way (in theory) except their stated duty to provide competition to the local telco. Ameritech cannot go to Texas, for example, and operate as 'Illinois Bell Cellular', but they can operate there under some other name. So the tie that binds the B carriers and the A carriers is "us" versus "them" in the spirit of divestiture. Given time outside the watchful eye of the court, I suspect all sorts of cozy alliances outside the A/B scheme would develop among the cellular providers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 20:44:55 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Really, the B carriers are owned by the local > 'wireline' telephone company in the area. For example, in Chicago, > Ameritech Mobile is the B carrier; they also operate Illinois Bell, > our telco. The A carriers are the 'non-wireline' carriers. They will > frequently be telephone companies also, but in some other part of the > country. The A carriers often times use the generic name 'Cellular > One'. Here in Chicago, Cellular One (the A carrier) is owned by > Southwestern Bell, a telephone company in another part of the USA. On > the other hand, the same Southwestern Bell is the B carrier operating > in the St. Louis, Missouri area. So if a telco goes to the territory > of some other telco to operate cellular, they do it as an A carrier. > The telco which 'belongs there' (or has historically always been the > telco in that community) is the B carrier. Is all that clear? :) In > addition, the A carriers stick among themselves with things like > roaming agreements; the B carriers do the same. PAT] So, is GTE MobilNet here in San Luis Obispo an A carrier or a B carrier? We are served by Pacific Bell, but the GTE Mobilnet system is based in Santa Barbara, where GTE is the local telco. The border between GTE and PacBell is at the county line, about 30 miles south of here. As I understand the system, GTE does all their cellular switching in Santa Barbara and just has cell sites up here, connected to SB by T-1 lines. So, a call across the room goes to SB and back. So, is GTE Mobilnet a B carrier here, or do they switch from B to A when they cross the Santa Maria River? Harold [Moderator's Note: Good question. I don't know anything about that part of the country. Where you have two major telcos serving one metro area like Los Angeles (Bell and GTE) and they both are in the cellular business as well, then I guess some arbitrary decision was made in the past. PAT] ------------------------------ From: samp@pro-gallup.cts.com Subject: Re: AT&T Free Time Rewards Organization: ProLine [pro-gallup] Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 07:58:52 MST In rsmith@wisp4.physics.wisc.edu (Randall K. Smith) writes: > The Free Time promotion sounded too good to pass up, so I called and > tried to sign up for it. But, unfortunately, it's a "targeted" > promotion and if you're not one of the targeted few, it's no go. For my Reach Out America service, AT&T offered me one month free if I continue to average $25 in charges per month for the next six months. Since I do average considerably more than $25 a month in AT&T charges, and the free month will be based on the average of six months of calls, I couldn't refuse the offer. :) ------------------------------ From: dan@quiensabe.az.stratus.com (Dan Danz) Subject: Re: Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing Date: 14 Mar 1993 00:09:45 GMT Organization: Stratus Computer Inc, Marlboro MA Reply-To: dan@phoenix.az.stratus.com Harold Hallikainen writes: > In article nalco@balr.com (Craig > Moynihan) writes: >> A phone can use an analog phone line to orignate and receive phone >> calls. A modem is hooked up to this same phone line. This modem is set >> answer on the third ring (S0=3). Another modem calls this modem. The >> AA light flashes on and off, but the modem does not answer. >> Occasionally, the modem will answer after a hundred rings or so. > One problem I've noticed with most modems is that they are > easily confused if they are receiving data on the RS232 port (or thru > the computer bus) while the line is ringing. We often want to be able > to call a system that has a modem and terminals connected to a single > serial port. If there is data being sent to the terminals (and the > modem, which is then in the command mode) when the line rings, the > modem will often answer for a very short time, then go back on hook. I had a problem like this with a Racal-Vadic VA 212 modem at a customer site once. It seems that the PBX that handled the incoming call to the modem had discriminating ringing enabled. This is a feature that rings two short tones for outside calls and one long ring for internal calls. The two short rings were not recognized as ringing by the PROM code in the modem. While the modem manufacturer provided an upgrade, we also were able to get around the problem by turning off discriminating ringing in his PBX. L. W. "Dan" Danz (WA5SKM) VOS Mail: Dan_Danz@vos.stratus.com Sr Consulting Software SE NeXT Mail: dan@az.stratus.com Customer Assistance Center Voice Mail/Pager: (602) 852-3107 Telecommunications Division Customer Service: (800) 828-8513 Stratus Computer, Inc. 4455 E. Camelback #115-A, Phoenix AZ 85018 ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@Panix.Com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Internet Access From Home Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 20:58:57 GMT In E102030@PWAGPDB.pwfl.com writes: > I am interested in getting internet access capabilities from my home > computer. How do I do that? I have a Mac IIvx. What hardware/software > will I need and who do I call to allow access and get the internet > access phone number? There is a newsgroup which you might not know about, called alt.internet.access.wanted. It is perfect for your query. (I realize you may not have access to that group, in which case that would be why you did not post to it.) Anyway, if you can I suggest you post to that group. If you are not able to post to that group directly, you may wish to consider using one of the services that lets you post via email. For example, you could post to: alt.internet.access.wanted.usenet@decwrl.dec.com and state in your posting that you would like to get responses via email. Best of luck. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (intellectual property lawyer) 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112-0228 voice 212-408-2578 fax 212-765-2519 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #176 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05631; 15 Mar 93 2:11 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08607 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 14 Mar 1993 23:41:45 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17961 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 14 Mar 1993 23:41:06 -0600 Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 23:41:06 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303150541.AA17961@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #177 TELECOM Digest Sun, 14 Mar 93 23:40:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 177 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Anthony J. Stieber) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Samuelson S. Rehman) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Joe George) Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News (Dave Levenson) Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted (Robert Berger) Re: Facsimile CNG Tone (Dave Levenson) Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy (Dave Leibold) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J Stieber) Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Date: 14 Mar 1993 22:26:07 GMT Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > What about using paging to get data TO remote equipment? Are there > any devices that are pagers with an RS-232 port, instead of a display? > This way, you could send (short) commands to remote locations, without > requiring a phone line be present. Yes, Motorola sells one called the NewsStream. SkyTel sells the same unit under the SkyStream name. Hewlett-Packard sells their Mobile Data Link cradle into which a NewStream slides into one side and an HP-95LX MS-DOS palmtop computer slides into on the other side. The NewsStream will also work without the cradle on MS-DOS and Macintosh laptop computers. Here's some contact information for these and other companies: Last Revision 1993.03.14 Packet and cellular radio modems and network providers, email gateways. The latest version of this file is available via anonymous ftp on the Internet as: csd4.csd.uwm.edu:/pub/Laptop/data.radio This information is in no particular order. I am but a customer of some of these companies. This information is not guaranteed, and may be outright wrong. Use at your own risk. Please send additions or corrections. Mobitex packet radio network and Mobidem packet radio modem: Ericsson GE Mobile Communications Inc., a division of Telefon AB LM Ericsson Wireless Computing 15 E. Midland Ave. Paramus, NJ 201-265-6600 201-265-9115 fax 800-223-6336 Packet radio network provider: RAM Mobile Data 10 Woodbridge Ctr. Drive, Suite 950 Woodbridge, NJ 07095 800-736-9666 airmail@ram.com Ardis packet radio network and packet radio modems: Iridium Satellite Digital Radio System Motorola 800-247-2346 EMBARC data pager (Electronic Mail Broadcast to A Roaming Computer): Motorola 800-EMBARC-4 800-362-2724 National paging and SkyStram: SkyTel 800-456-3333 x764 Satellite radio system: Ellipsat Carincross Holdings Pty Sydney, Australia Internet, UUCP, CI$, ATT, etc mail gateway for pagers and packet radio networks: Anterior Technology PO Box 1206 Menlo Park CA 94026-1206 415-328-5615 415-322-1753 fax info@fernwood.mpk.ca.us support@fernwood.mpk.ca.us Cellular phone data modem, fax, etc, interfaces: Axsys, Axcell Spectrum Cellular Corporation 2611 Ceder Springs Road Dallas, TX 75201 214-999-6000 214-880-0151 Axsys, Axcell dealer: Applied Engineering 3210 Beltline Road Dallas TX 75234 800-554-macs x401 214-241-6060 214-484-1365 fax Wireless 9600bps modem, UHF RF, 50-200 yards: $540, UK pounds 301 New Era Microsystems Ltd 24 Cargate Ave Aldershot, Hamshire GU11 3EW UK 44-252-345426 44-252-317699 fax Usenet to satellite uplink system: 415-424-0380 pagesat@pagesat.com GPS reciever, GPSpac: Palmtree Products, Inc. 145 Washington Street Norwell, MA 02061 617-871-7050 617-871-6018 fax Integrated cellular phone/modem: Vital Communications 1983 Marcus Ave., Suite 111 Lake Success, NY 11042 800-42-VITAL 516-437-4400 Satellite radio: Qualcomm Satellite radio: Inmarsat Mobile Telesystems AirLink wireless digital modems, 64kpbs to fractional T1: Cylink Corporation 310 North Mary Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 800-533-3958 408-735-5800 408-720-8294 fax <-:(= Anthony Stieber anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu uwm!uwmcsd4!anthony ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 19:40:10 GMT In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > gotten. I have service from PacTel Paging, and for $21 a month, I get > coverage throughout WA, OR, CA, and AZ. This is for a display pager. > Local coverage only is $9 a month. Our paging is from MetroMedia and runs $10/month for tone only for all of CA, parts of NV and AZ. > What about using paging to get data TO remote equipment? Are there > any devices that are pagers with an RS-232 port, instead of a display? > This way, you could send (short) commands to remote locations, without > requiring a phone line be present. I got some info from Motorola on just such receivers, as I recall (it's buried here somewhere ...). Such receivers could be used in the "data broadcasting" idea I mentioned before. In our applications, we need two way communications with the remote sites, so paging does not seem feasible for that part of the system. We have suggested people get a "rack mount cellular phone" and plug our system into that when no phone service is available at the site. There are also the radio link POTS "line extenders" that can be used to get POTS at a remote site by radio. > Also, why is there a delay in the delivery of pages? I can understand > when the system may get busy during the day, and pages are stacked up > in the queue, but even in the middle of the night, it can take upwards > of a minute for a page to be delivered. Sometimes, they come almost > instantly, then just a moment later, take almost a minute. There's no > way that the queue was empty, then suddenly built up to a big backlog, > all of a sudden in the middle of the night. Why are pages not just > sent out immediately? I would think the only reason for any delay would be a backed up queue somewhere in the system. Since my pages are broadcast throughout the state, there could be a lot of traffic somewhere else that is causing the backlog. I wonder if this is truly a "simulcast" system where all sites transmit the pages simultaneously, or do they maintain local queues and distribute pages to each site in some manner similar to usenet news. Is there just one queue for this system? Or is there one for each site. I don't know if the paging frquency I'm on also handles voice pages, but, if so, I'm sure that would really slow things down. What are the rates on voice pagers now? I'd expect them to be the most expensive, based on air time requirments. Are voice pages put on the air live, or are they stored and aired in sequence, allowing several incoming phone calls simultaneously leaving voice page messages. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ Reply-To: sam@ssr.nca.com From: sam@ssr.nca.com (Samuelson S. Rehman) Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 14:18:33 -0800 Subject: Re: Tell me About Your Pager >> transmitter control systems. On an alarm, the system would dump >> transmitter parameters to the on call tech's pager (alphanumeric). > What about using paging to get data TO remote equipment? Are there > any devices that are pagers with an RS-232 port, instead of a display? > This way, you could send (short) commands to remote locations, without > requiring a phone line be present. We have developed a technology for transmiting encapsulated data in a paging frequency, called Newspager (has been operating in four countries for about three yours now), which has a serial port connected to it. You can read and write to the built-in database system from your PC. In fact, one of our licensee (HPL Hong Kong) has been using Newspagers to driver and supply information to PCs for about a year now. The version manufactured by Motorola is called Inflo, which has a serial that supports up to 9600 bps, and another version by Uniden which supports 4800 bps serial I/O. (You can call Motolora or send email to info@nca.com for details). > Also, why is there a delay in the delivery of pages? I can understand > when the system may get busy during the day, and pages are stacked up > in the queue, but even in the middle of the night, it can take upwards > of a minute for a page to be delivered. Sometimes, they come almost > instantly, then just a moment later, take almost a minute. There's no > way that the queue was empty, then suddenly built up to a big backlog, > all of a sudden in the middle of the night. Why are pages not just > sent out immediately? Well, there are mainly two reasons for that. First you have to understand, to save battery, pager addresses are assigned to one of the seven fixed frames withing a POCSAG batch. Therefore, if you want data to be sent immediately, you will have to generate a new batch for each page you sent, which will obviously waste a lot of airtime. Therefore, like in most comm. protocol, the "encoder" will wait for a certain amount of time, hoping that the next packets can fit in the free slots and generate a completely filled batch. So, it back to that "Speed against Size" problem again. Secondly, most paging terminals have to manage zones. It has to pick, resort and decide which packets should go to which queue, which in fact could be done by any 486 machine with a good piece of software ... but ... if you have seen some of the most popular paging systems, you'll realize that they are mostly hardware based and are not very intelligent machines. The US paging companies are notorious about their slow response time and transmission reliability. Look at some other countries and you'll be surprised how efficient and reliable a POCSAG frequency could be. Best Regards... Samuelson S. Rehman {Systems Programmer - RnD.NCA, Director of NIS Systems} Newspager Corp. of America voice:(415)873-4422 | fax:(415)873-4424 | email:sam@nca.com,sam@netcom.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News From: jgeorge@whiffer.atl.ga.us (Joe George) Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 17:51:08 EST Organization: The Waffle Whiffer, Atlanta, GA In comp.dcom.telecom, bwhitlock@uiuc.edu writes: > The key to the IBM PC's not working was their keyboards. So, the > problem is, as you said, shielding. The capacitive mechanisms of the > keyboard would not work in the environment at the radio station. > Keyboards which use a different technology than IBM's would work. This is common not just with IBM PC's but with many different kinds of IBM terminals. They all seem to use similar technology in the keyboard s. I had a problem with a customer last week where a rather large space heater managed to grunge keyboard response on about 30 IBM 3196 (AS/400 type) terminals. Joe ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: NY World Trade Center - Some Telecom News Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 19:34:25 GMT In article , john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > Believe me, if any hair was going to be standing on end at any of my > transmitter sites, I would be the first to notice. And I can prove it: > my mug shot was in the 3/7 of the {San Jose Mercury}. The picture was > taken the week before. > [Moderator's Note: Don't let John fool you. His picture in the papers, > like that of Ann Slanders and her twin sister Scabby Van Buren was > taken thirty years ago. :) I've heard rumors that he is bald-headed, > his hair having fallen out after working around that radiation all > these years. :) PAT] No, Pat, John's right. I saw him in the flesh when I was out in San Jose late in 1992, and he really has a full head of white hair (unless it all fell out in the last three months!). Oh yes, and it wasn't standing on end the night I had dinner with him and a friend in Los Gatos. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 [Moderator's Note: Well then, maybe all that radiation caused him to grow more hair. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: rwb@alexander.VI.RI.CMU.EDU (Robert Berger) Subject: Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 02:48:18 GMT In article TELECOM Moderator notes: > the B carriers are owned by the local 'wireline' telephone company > in the area. In some rural areas the B carrier is also an independent company. My guess is the wireline companies don't consider such areas worth pursuing themselves and allow an independent to take the area ... [Moderator's Note: Well you have to remember a history lesson here. AT&T often used to accuse MCI of 'skimming the cream', but seventy years ago, the Mother Company was the biggest cream skimmer around. The majority of *rural* America did not yet have phone service in the 1920's. The lack of telephones and other basic utility services in rural areas was such a scandal that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started the Rural Electrification Agency to provide federal loans to build and maintain Telephone Cooperative Societies in the hinterlands. The local farmers started the telephone co-op, strung the wires to the nearest point of contact with (preferably, if possible, out of principle) GTE or (as a last recourse if necessary) AT&T ... that's how much people disliked 'The Bell' even back then. Then they would hire the wife of one of them to run the switchboard, usually out of her home, with the Farmer's Daughter watching after the board when mom and dad went out, etc. AT&T claimed it was much too expensive to provide service to those areas; they were happy to let the government front the money even if the farmers were a sassy independent bunch who would string the wire another five miles if they had to to reach a central office they 'approved of' (i.e. a GTE operating company). AT&T knew the profits from the long distance traffic -- their baliwick -- would get back to them anyway. Then comes the 1950's and the farmers finally got their REA mortgages paid off. For the first time in a quarter-century the telephone cooperatives started making profits with no debt service monkeys on their back. Bingo, all of a sudden AT&T decides to start buying them up, 'in order to modernize the system'. The equipment was getting old and cranky, the farmer's wives were getting tired of working and with the daughters gone, good help was hard to find. Rather than go in debt all over again to replace the old switchboards, the farmers sold out to their long time nemesis, "The Bell", as they called it for whatever song and dance AT&T was willing to give them as payment. AT&T bought out dozens of those telephone cooperative societies once the blood, sweat and tears were out of the way, and overnight they just became part of the Bell System company in the region where they were located. Finally the federal government got sore and told AT&T they were not allowed to aquire any more opera- ing companies for any reason at all unless the operating company was in bad financial straits and in imminent danger of ceasing operations in which case AT&T *had* to take it! Watch rural cellular for a few years and see how the industry giants come in to take over once the little independents get the mortgage paid off. Same difference. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Facsimile CNG Tone Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 05:44:45 GMTn In article , desaulni@mprgate.mpr.ca (Richard W. Desaulniers) writes: [ regarding CNG tones from originating fax machines ] > I don't think this feature (i.e. being able to send CNG tones) is > mandatory, but should one expect all facsimile units manufactured > today to have that feature? What about the older facsimile units, do > they have this feature? Are there a lot of these older units out > there? Even on brand new units, the transmission of the CNG tone is under the control of the user. Most facsimile machines include a telephone handset, and can be used as an ordinary voice telephone. A user may pick up the handset, seize an outgoing line, dial a number, and converse. During the call, the user may place a document in the scanner, press a button usually labeled , and switch from voice to fax mode. When the user is manually dialing, the machine has no way to know whether the user intends to eventually enter fax mode, or to keep on talking. Therefore, most machines don't send CNG tones when they are being dialed with the handset off-hook in manual calling mode. If the user chooses to insert a document, enter a number, and then press , causing the machine to dial and attempt a fax conversation in automatic mode, then CNG tones are sent after dialing. Some users like automatic mode (most useful for unattended sending). Others like to dial and hear the call-progress tones, and only switch to fax mode when they hear the far end fax answer tone. Most fax machine users don't even realize that they are deciding whether or not to send CNG tones in this process. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 00:26:08 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy Quebec language debates aside, the Toronto Bell Canada white pages has English and French introductory sections. Nothing wrong with that, except that there are about nine other languages that are more common than French in Toronto, but less common than English (according to some recent Statistics Canada numbers as charted in {The Toronto Star}). Italian, Greek and Chinese are some of those prevalent Toronto languages. One Toronto TV station (Channel 47) even specialises in programmes in many languages. Perhaps an idea should be borrowed from the white page introductory sections of many other countries (Australia is one such country, I believe): a brief description of the phone service (emergency numbers, how to dial, etc) is translated into many languages. dleibold1@attmail.com and..... Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #177 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07212; 15 Mar 93 2:59 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30026 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 15 Mar 1993 00:44:08 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07996 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 15 Mar 1993 00:43:30 -0600 Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 00:43:30 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303150643.AA07996@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #178 TELECOM Digest Mon, 15 Mar 93 00:43:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 178 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted (John Higdon) Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted (Hal Stitt) Re: How do I Order a Leased Voice-Grade Line? (Dave Levenson) Re: Summary: Mini-PBX in ISA PC (Dave Levenson) Re: The Future of Videophones (Martin Briscoe) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? (John Higdon) No 900 in Louisiana? (J. Philip Miller) Sprint Counter-Offers (was AT&T Switch Bribe...) (Paul W. Schleck) FAQ Notes (Dave Leibold) Software For Data Download via High-Speed Lines (Nita Avalani) Information Wanted in CTS Datacomm Modems (William Petrisko) Caller ID For GTE in NC (Matthew Waugh) 800 Number Woes (Dave Rand) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 21:21 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > So, is GTE MobilNet here in San Luis Obispo an A carrier or a B > carrier? We are served by Pacific Bell, but the GTE Mobilnet system > is based in Santa Barbara, where GTE is the local telco. GTE Mobilnet is the B (wireline) carrier in each of its California service areas. Whether it is indeed the LEC in any of those places is irrelavent. It has more to do with timeliness of filed applications and other matters. As long as GTE does actually supply local dial tone ANYWHERE in a cellular service area, it can qualify for a B cellular license. GTE Mobilnet is the Bay Area's B carrier and yet supplies a very tiny number of exchanges with GTE wired dial tone. California roaming arrangements are strange. In San Francisco, the B carrier is GTE and the A carrier is Cellular One (partially owned by PacTel). If you travel to Sacramento while talking on GTE, your call will be handed off to PacTel Cellular (B carrier in Sacramento) with whom you will be roaming. If you travel south from Santa Barbara, your GTE Mobilnet call will hand off to PacTel Cellular in Los Angeles, your roaming provider there. Yes, the competing companies actually hand off calls in progress to each other if the caller travels across the boundaries. (Billing is handled as if the caller made the entire call within the area where the call originated.) John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: halstitt@netcom.com (Hal Stitt) Subject: Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 05:37:18 GMT hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: >> [Moderator's Note: Really, the B carriers are owned by the local >> 'wireline' telephone company in the area. For example, in Chicago, >> Ameritech Mobile is the B carrier; they also operate Illinois Bell, >> our telco. The A carriers are the 'non-wireline' carriers. They will >> frequently be telephone companies also, but in some other part of the >> country. The A carriers often times use the generic name 'Cellular >> One'. Here in Chicago, Cellular One (the A carrier) is owned by >> Southwestern Bell, a telephone company in another part of the USA. On >> the other hand, the same Southwestern Bell is the B carrier operating >> in the St. Louis, Missouri area. So if a telco goes to the territory >> of some other telco to operate cellular, they do it as an A carrier. >> The telco which 'belongs there' (or has historically always been the >> telco in that community) is the B carrier. Is all that clear? :) In >> addition, the A carriers stick among themselves with things like >> roaming agreements; the B carriers do the same. PAT] > So, is GTE MobilNet here in San Luis Obispo an A carrier or a > B carrier? We are served by Pacific Bell, but the GTE Mobilnet system > is based in Santa Barbara, where GTE is the local telco. The border > between GTE and PacBell is at the county line, about 30 miles south of > here. As I understand the system, GTE does all their cellular > switching in Santa Barbara and just has cell sites up here, connected > to SB by T-1 lines. So, a call across the room goes to SB and back. > So, is GTE Mobilnet a B carrier here, or do they switch from B to A > when they cross the Santa Maria River? > [Moderator's Note: Good question. I don't know anything about that > part of the country. Where you have two major telcos serving one metro > area like Los Angeles (Bell and GTE) and they both are in the cellular > business as well, then I guess some arbitrary decision was made in the > past. PAT] The B carriers are generally the wireline carriers, but not always. If the wireline carrier didn't build up a system within a specified time, I believe within two years of being licensed, the area was available to others via a lottery. In your case, Rt. 101 has a lot to do with the outcome. GTE, the wireline carrier in Santa Barbara wound up with an extension as the B carrier up 101 to north of San Ardo. According to The Cellular Telephone Directory, you don't have an A carrier in SLO. McCaw/Cellular One has the A license in Santa Barbara, but their coverage only goes north to Santa Maria. Building systems along major highways got a high priority early on when most cellular phones were mounted in cars. It's still a priority in your area. The density of cellular phone users probably falls off sharply within a few miles east and west of 101. Hal Stitt halstitt@netcom.com (619) 583-8240 ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: How do I Order a Leased Voice-Grade Line? Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 05:14:08 GMT In article , lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) writes: > I have been asked to provide ordering specifications for a third party > to lease a full-time voice grade circuit here in GTE-CA territory. > The line is to be used to connect two V.32bis modems about six miles > apart (served out of different central offices). The modems are > designed for operation on the public switched telephone network (i.e. > they expect a two-wire circuit with battery, dial tone and ring signal > present). > It seems to me that this is similar to an off-premise extension for a > PBX; is that what I should order? If I get a two-wire "private > circuit" will it have battery, dial tone and ring? Not quite. The OSNA line (used for PBX off-premise stations) has dis-similar ends. The PBX end is a current sink (looks to the PBX like a station) while the station end is a current source (looks to the station like the PBX line circuit). The telco probably does offer a ringdown line (a service designed to support two telephone sets -- go off-hook on either end and the other end receives ringing). That will support a couple of switched-service modems if the originating modem can be programmed to go off-hook without dialing or expecting dial tone. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Summary: Mini-PBX in ISA PC Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 05:16:37 GMT In article , st@bbl.be (Simon Townsend) writes: > Not too many replies, but they may be useful. I enclose them all: > From: bears!rhyre@cinpmx.attmail.com > I'm not sure where to get them, but AT&T makes a voice power card, > that has Unix driver suport. It can handle four phone lines. The AT&T 4-channel Voice Power card has four telephone line interfaces. It has no telephone station interfaces, and no capability to make/break connections between its four ports. Yes, it can answer four trunks, but no, it is not a PBX. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: martin.briscoe@almac.co.uk (Martin Briscoe) Subject: Re: The Future of Videophones Date: 14 Mar 93 11:26:00 GMT Reply-To: martin.briscoe@almac.co.uk (Martin Briscoe) Organization: Almac BBS Ltd. +44 (0)324 665371 > I am working on a research project concerning the future of > videophones and videoconferencing. Is there a future at all? ICCTIS (the UK organisation that regulates Premium Rate "chat-lines") announced last week that they will not allow the use of premium rate chat-line services ("adult" type) on videophones -- so thats a big potential market lost! Martin * 1st 1.10b #405 * Martin Briscoe Fort William - Highland Region - Scotland ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 21:08 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? On Mar 14 at 20:11, TELECOM Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: Except of course, there are times when original > documents are required, such as checks in payment, signatures on other > documents, etc. PAT] My unfortunate experience with the Post Office is that if you REALLY need to get a document from one location to another, you should use another service. NEVER EVER send an original, valuable document through the US mail -- certified, registered or otherwise. I have had irreplacable documents lost and the extra money spent registering or certifying was literally wasted. The USPS has no way of tracking anything within its system (unlike Federal Express which can). All of the fabulous technology notwithstanding, the USPS provides miserable, not even barely-adequate service. Add to that the miserable attitude on the part of counter personel and you have an institution whose demise will draw no tears from me. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Subject: No 900 in Louisiana? Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 07:14:15 -0600 (CST) Having just seen an ad for NBC's weather line (1-900-WILLARD) it stated it was not valid in Louisiana. Have they passed a law that makes all 900 service illegal or only those that give their proceeds to charity? J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110 phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - (314) 362-3617 [362-2694(FAX)] ------------------------------ Subject: Sprint Counter-Offers (was AT&T Switch Bribe ...) Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 12:47:40 CST From: Paul W Schleck KD3FU You may recall my short note on this forum a while ago about AT&T offering me $75 to switch from US Sprint and my surprise that a long-distance company would fork over that much hard cash when it's not clear that would get that much in gross receipts (let alone profit) from me in a year. I'd like the thank the general feedback I got from other readers. Some pointed out that it was based on the assumption that once I changed I wouldn't want to change back for a while (is the public realy that passive?). Others recommended that I keep my secondary account with Sprint and use the appropriate access codes whenever I wanted to use Sprint instead (I pretty much surmised that from reading the Digest over the years, but the replies reminded me to call Sprint and confirm it, including retention of my FON card). The switch has already taken place (based on calling 1-700-555-2424), but no check yet. Now Sprint has upped the ante by making a counter-offer. They'll switch me back for free at the end of 30 days (the minimum service committment for the AT&T switch), and give me 75 minutes of long-distance the first month (probably a minute per $1 deal). They assure me I can still pocket the AT&T check. What the heck? Now, if anyone calls me to task for this calling-plan ping-pong, I'll just simply say, "Hey, I'm not the one playing games, you are. If you want to offer me all kinds of marketing hype and switching bribes that profit from the telecom-illiterate, that's your choice. I'm an intelligent consumer who views long-distance as a product, and through the use of tools like 10XXX codes and calling cards (including my soon-to-arrive Orange Card), makes ongoing and intelligent choices about what's best for me." Jon Higdon is right when he says this isn't going to shake out the market and make any one company the clear winner. These tricks and incentives will only cause the consumer to "expect" them and further muddy the waters about costs and profits. Paul W. Schleck pschleck@unomaha.edu [Moderator's Note: Bear in mind that if anyone chooses to use the long distance 1+ plans I am selling, I won't send any rebate checks out; but I will gratefully try to continue sending a quality telecom news- group feed out each day. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 00:28:43 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: FAQ Notes Thanks to those who offered tips, fixes and ideas following the FAQ list that was released many weeks ago. I'm aware of the news.answers group for posting of such list, and I did make an attempt to post the Telecom FAQ there. Unfortunately, it was rejected on some technicalities, so another attempt to post there will have to wait until I can study through the 110 Commandments for that group and get the whole works right. Carl Moore did nab some spelling and other errors; I'm now aware that Ireland switched over to 00+ for overseas dialing. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG [Moderator's Note: We all owe Dave and Carl Moore our thanks for first starting the telecom FAQ and keeping it up to date. A copy automatically goes to each new subscriber to the mailing list and it can also be found in the Telecom Archives using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. PAT] ------------------------------ From: na@princeton.edu (Nita Avalani) Subject: Software For Data Download via High-Speed Lines Organization: Princeton University Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 20:05:01 GMT Is there any software out there which will allow to download data between remote mainframes and sun/unix servers at the line speed or close to the line speed? The data throughput for Xcom6.2 (LU6.2) was at about 24kb/sec, and about 2-5kb/sec for IND$FILE (LU2). What do people use for T1/T3 lines? Are there any user-friendly, reliable software (with 3270 emulators and GUI) capable of downloading daily from remote mainframes (via T1/T3 lines) at around 1mb/sec - 100mb/sec (or more)? Nita ------------------------------ From: petrisko@evax2.engr.arizona.edu (William Petrisko) Subject: Information Wanted in CTS Datacomm Modems Date: 14 Mar 1993 22:28:17 GMT Organization: University of Arizona, College of Engineering and Mines, Tucson Reply-To: petrisko@evax2.engr.arizona.edu I picked up a couple of CTS Datacomm model 9629 leased line modems. I'm curious if anyone has a manual or knows anything about them (what are the two db25's ... sync or async, etc ...) Any info would be appreciated. bill petrisko current address: petrisko@evax2.engr.arizona.edu aka n7lwo soon to be: bill@indirect.com ------------------------------ From: waugh@rtpnet05.rtp.dg.com (Matthew Waugh) Subject: Caller ID For GTE in NC Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 01:31:31 GMT Organization: Data General Corporation, RTP, NC. GTE in NC included a little insert on Calling Number Identification with my phone bill this month. I thought a fairly good explanation of CID, and promising it for us soon. By default we will get Per-Call Blocking on *67 (1167 for pulse dialers). You can get Per-Line Blocking (by which they mean by default your line will not be identified) if you ask, at no charge. When you have Per-Line Blocking, you use, you guessed it, *67 to allow your number to be passed. They request that you return their card to sign-up for Per-Line Blocking by April 23rd, if that tells us anything about their schedule. They also included information on their SmartCall package, that provides all those goodies like Call Return. They note: "Limitation: These services now work on most calls, but only from within your local calling area, and between the NNXs listed on the map." The map lists the 2 GTE service areas in Durham and Monroe. From this, I surmise, perhaps incorrectly, that GTE and Southern Bell aren't talking SS7 yet, and so Caller ID may well have these limitations for a while when it is rolled out. Matthew Waugh waugh@dg-rtp.dg.com RTP Network Services Data General Corp. RTP, NC. (919)-248-6034 ------------------------------ From: dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand) Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 15:57:28 PST Subject: 800 Number Woes For those wanting to make changes to their 800 numbers, with 800 number portability just around the corner, here is a tale of woe. A few months ago, I ordered a personal 800 number. Pacific Bell in Northern California has an excellant plan, with nation-wide and international (Canada) access available for only $5 per month. The only problem is that Sprint is the carrier for the IXC portion. Sigh. Well, I ordered the service. It was turned on the day promised, but only the local area worked. Sprint will only reload their switches at Midnight, so it was the next day before calls outside the area were available. International calls were not available until several days (and many telephone calls) later. Getting billing information from Sprint was almost impossible, and (when I finally got it), wrong. I was quoted the rate of "$0.36 to 0.60 per minute" for daytime calls from Canada ... but I digress. With the service from Sprint getting more and more erratic, and with AT&T offering its Win-Back promotion (install free, and one free month of calls), I decided to switch to AT&T. Pacific Bell agreed to refer my old 800 number to the new one, and Sprint indicated that they would do the same, both at no charge. AT&T was up, with international access, before 9am of the morning the service was due to be turned on. The old Pacbell/Sprint number was scheduled to be shut off the next day (a Friday). On Friday evening, Pacbell had a refer message on, but with the wrong 800 number listed as the referal. That was fixed early Saturday morning. Sprint, however, claimed that it was impossible to do the referal service free, but that they would be able to do it in 3-5 days, for "only" $125 extra, per month. What? After a long talk, and extracting the SA number from Pac Bell (the number that actually issues the referral message), Sprint agreed to translate to the same SA number that Pacific Bell was using. That was on Saturday. By Sunday, international calls were still not working, but calls outside of California (within the US) were. Calls inside of California, but outside of Pacific Bell's territory still aren't working, and Sprint is claiming Pacific Bell is to blame. Pacific Bell (and me!) are claiming Sprint is to blame. Sigh!! The moral of the story: If you have an 800 number, and want to change carriers, wait until portability (May 1). Or have lots of time to waste with service reps at your long distance provider. Dave Rand {pyramid|mips|bct|vsi1}!daver!dlr Internet: dlr@daver.bungi.com [Moderator's Note: I am hoping that 800 portability will be the occassion for many Digest readers with 800 numbers to allow that traffic to be handled through my program, at rates ranging from 17 to 23 cents per minute depending on volume. There is no monthly fee, and this, plus the Orange Card is a way Digest readers can help with the expense of this publication in a painless way. I can now supply 800 numbers at the above rates, but will gladly accept your existing 800 number in my program if you prefer. If my prices are too high, please don't sacrifice anything on my behalf, but if the rates are better than or about the same as you pay now, please consider me. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #178 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12940; 15 Mar 93 5:31 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30852 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 15 Mar 1993 03:04:36 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16792 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 15 Mar 1993 03:04:03 -0600 Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 03:04:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303150904.AA16792@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #179 TELECOM Digest Mon, 15 Mar 93 03:04:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 179 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson The Digest and Commercial Messages (TELECOM Moderator) "Stand Back, Buenos Aires..." (Paul Robinson) How Do I Get Rid of Line Noise? (Richard Sherman) Cellular Phone Price List (3/12) (Paul Robinson) Public Phone 2000 (Doug Krause) CFB & DID/OPX to Answering Service? (Jeff Wasilko) Re: Ohio Bell Making Your Life Easier (Henry Mensch) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (David Lemson) Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted (David Lemson) Re: Disabling *70 (Tad Cook) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 02:27:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: The Digest and Commercial Messages There have been some sincere questions raised by several people in the past couple of weeks since I announced my new venture here, selling telecom services of various kinds. The questions generally dealt with the ethics involved in trying to maintain an impartial stance as a Moderator while selling telecom-related products and services. The people who asked these things did so in good faith, and the same kind of response is warranted. When I assumed responsibility for TELECOM Digest in 1988 (yes, it will soon be five years of me here), the volume of messages and range of topics was much smaller than it is now. The mailing list was about one-tenth the number of names it is now. In addition, there had been a hiatus where the Digest was not being distributed to Usenet. When I took the reigns, the 'Usenet connection' via comp.dcom.telecom was reinstated, and over the past four years numerous other networks have begun accepting the telecom feed for their email subscribers, sometimes by having them on the mailing matrix here, other times through what we term an 'exploder address'; that is, a single copy of the Digest goes out from here to a network address where it is then redistributed. In total, there are approximatly 50,000 people who see the Digest each day and read some or all of it. These additional readers have caused a major increase in the number of submissions received each day. In 1988 enough material was received to issue a Digest every two days or so. (Do any of the oldtime readers remember the first time I put out a second issue in one day due to the amount of mail recieved? I do ...) Well, I guess I am a victim of my own success; now there are always in excess of a hundred messages arriving daily to be reviewed, and not often, but sometimes there are closer to two hundred articles. If there is a major news story in the papers, I'll usually get five or more copies of it from readers; I select one or two for publication. My point is, where five years ago the Digest took perhaps an hour of time every day or so to publish, now, even with greatly expanded automation, autoreplies and numerous filtering programs run against the incoming mail, the Digest needs a minimum of three or four hours daily, and even then you see perhaps a third to half of what comes in. I had to reach a decision what to do, and my decision back in late January was to leave my fulltime employment of some years with the attornies and concentrate as much as possible on making the changes needed to bring the Digest up to its full potential: to install new software, to give the archives the time needed to organize the files and remove outdated stuff, etc. Of course, I still have to eat, pay rent, feed the cats, make my car payment each month and whatnot ... and therein lies the rub ... what I make from the Digest plus a couple dollars would get me a snack at the 7/11 on the corner. I thought a painless way for readers to help with the task of keeping the Digest up and running as a (I believe) very quality newsletter on the 'net' would be through the resaale of phone service; something we all here are intimatly familiar with and use daily. A close friend suggested 'why not have a fund raising drive from time to time, ala public radio/television', but that seemed to me to be a bit crass, and honestly, I *hate* those fund raising periods on Channel 11. Plus, I don't honestly feel the service I perform here is all that good -- not as good as I would like to demand of myself -- to make such an approach. I'd feel very guilty doing that, particularly in bandwidth entrusted to me for telecom topics. But when you sell things, presumably you have a loyalty to what you are selling -- either that or you are a total charlatan perhaps, and this presented the ethical question of 'whose side are you on as Moderator?' ... most of you know I try to print as wide a variety of opinion as I can here, given the limitations placed on me as a human being who needs to sleep and work to survive, and if anything, I am sometimes guilty of printing too much on a given topic just to insure that no one feels they or their viewpoint were ignored. Some of you have written to complain 'for goodness sakes, please close topic X' after seeing several days of REplies ... There will be no changes in Digest editorial/publication policy as a result of my new business venture. No one should feel that unless they use the Orange Card, my 800 numbers or my 1+ service that they will suddenly become outcasts in this forum. Nor do I intend to hinder discussions about 1+ carriers, etc. *I don't really care who you buy these services from, as long as you will at least consider my offerings with the understanding that your support of them means a small portion of the revenue is returned to the Digest in the form of residuals from the carriers I represent.* This in turn means instead of working for someone else 8-10 hours per day, coming home and working on the Digest for a few hours in a dead-tired, half-awake trance I'll be able to spend more time *doing it right* -- and I shall be the first judge of my work here; I see many things I need to do to make the Digest what it ought to be and what I want it to be. I tried to pick products (the Orange Card) and services (800 numbers and a 1+ service) I thought were good deals and not rip-offs. I do want to hear complaints -- and god forbid, praise! -- if you use them and enocunter problems or pleasures. The Orange Card is not exempt from needing 'bugs cleared up', although it is working pretty well. The first of you to order it should be getting cards in the mail during the week ahead ... cards one day, and PINS in separate mailing a day or two before or after. Or you may get a form asking for more information if there was something omitted on the form you mailed in. By the way, we now have arrangements in place for you to charge your Orange card calls to Visa/MC if desired, along with the $10 start up fee. If you want this option, contact their office. I hope my products will either be a good deal for you or at least be no more expensive than what you are paying now ... and that if all things are otherwise equal (if not to your advantage), you'll toss your business my way. *If you get treated poorly by any company I represent, please tell me.* Write to the Digest about it. :) ... So, it was either put the Digest to rest for awhile and go out to find a 'real job' with real money or do what I really want to do, which if you haven't guessed by now is devote more time to the Digest and develop my own business in the process. There is only so much I can do with $227 per week in unemployment compensation. :) If you want to accuse me of being a money changer in the Temple, I must plead guilty, but I hope it will never reflect in what we say and do here in TELECOM Digest. Don't expect to see an advetisement here every day for my products ... but they may get a casual mention every week or two ... especially if it is the day the rent comes due. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 23:31:44 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Robinson Subject: "Stand Back, Buenos Aires..." (It was either that title or "Don't cry for me Argentina" what can I say.) In a recent TEELECOM Digest a user asked about my offhand comment about the "Brazilian Telephone system, one that deserves the moniker 'worse than GTE." The user wondered as he thought Brazil did much better service, and perhaps thought I was mistaken. I should simply have said "various South American countries" rather than name any one. I was mistaken. The country I was thinking of *was* Argentina. I have heard that in Buenos Aires it is common to hire people to sit around all day and try to get a dial tone to make a call. My apologies to the Brazilian Telephone company for confusing it with Argentina. But what can they expect from us Gringos? :) Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: cd248@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Richard Sherman) Subject: How Do I Get Rid of Line Noise? Date: 15 Mar 1993 05:28:50 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Reply-To: cd248@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Richard Sherman) I have my modem plugged into a Phonejak system from Phonex. This system routes your phone signal through your house's electrical system. You plug the transmitter into a wall outlet and plug a line from your phone outlet into the transmitter. Then you plug the receiver into any other outlet in your house and you have a phone jack. The problem is I get quite a bit of line noise in the electrical system from other things in the house (dishwashers, ovens, etc.). I was wondering if something like a phone line noise or surge supressor could be put between the phone line and the modem to eliminate this? I've already tried plugging in an electrical surge supressor into the electrical outlet and plugging the receiver into that. It takes out the phone signal though. Has anyone had any experience with this sort of setup? Do they make phone line noise supressors at all, aside from the ones included in a regular surge supressor? Any help would be appreciated. R. Stacy Sherman cd248@cleveland.freenet.edu or GEnie: R.SHERMAN2 stacy@uhhacb.uhh.hawaii.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 05:26:58 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Robinson Subject: Cellular Phone Price List (3/12) This is a list of prices for Cellular Telephones in areas as seen by me or reported to me, for the week ending 3/12/93. Reports of prices in other areas of the U.S. or the world is solicited to TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM. This list was delayed due to severe weather on the East Coast. Washington, DC: No. of Adv. Brand Model NAMs Price A/R? Comments Fujitsu Stylus Dual 399.95 Yes Flip Phone Motorola DPC550 Dual 279.95 Yes Flip Phone Motorola 8000M Dual 99.95 Yes 'Block' portable Motorola TVS200 Dual 18.88 Yes Bag Transportable Uniden CP5500 Dual 199.95 Yes Shirt Pocket model -No Name- N/A N/A 89.95 Yes Hand Held A 'Yes' in the column 'A/R?' indicates that activation with the store's preferred cellular carrier and a service contract with that carrier is required to get this price ("Activation Required"). Where 'Yes' is indicated, the price will be higher without activation. Activation of the telephone with a cellular carrier will probably carry additional charges and these prices will not include taxes or local assessments. N/A in a column means the information was not available from the source indicated. A 'bag' phone is one where the handset is attached to the transciever unit which is often larger, and the transciever unit is also usually covered with a soft material, reminiscent of a handbag. A 'block' portable is a handheld which looks like it was carved out of a block of wood. 'Flip' phone is one that is "flipped open" and the bottom part that opens covered the dial pad and is the mouthpiece. Prices listed in this issue are based on published advertisements. Prices may be subject to negotiation or special arrangements. ------------------------------ From: dkrause@hydra.acs.uci.edu (Doug Krause) Subject: Public Phone 2000 Organization: University of California, Irvine Date: 15 Mar 93 03:08:28 GMT Greetings. I'm on a Public Phone 2000 right now. I'm in Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport, Terminal 3-E, near gate 36. I can't use the built-in keyboard on the phone, but I have my laptop plugged into the data port. It seems to be working fairly well, but I'm at 1200 baud since the 2400 connection was just junk. Probably something I did wrong. I can hardly wait to see the bill. :-) Douglas Krause djkrause@uci.edu University of California, Irvine [Moderator's Note: Thanks very much for taking the time and going to the expense to send us a message from that phone. I hope your trip was pleasant and not to someplace where the airport is shut down. By the way can anyone give us any weather related telecom updates from the eastern states? Are they even getting through at all? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jeff@digtype.airage.com (Jeff Wasilko) Subject: CFB & DID/OPX to Answering Service Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 22:13:53 EST Organization: Air Age Publishing, Wilton CT USA Reply-To: jeff@digtype.airage.com We want to add a second fax at our office to keep up with traffic, and we'd like to put it behind our PBX (rather than installing an additional line for it). Can we use the CO's call-forward-busy on the first fax line to provide roll-over to a DID number for the second fax? Also, we want callers who reach our auto-attendant after hours to be able to reach our answering service if they wish to place an order. Our auto-attendant only supports transfers to an internal extention (to cut the risk for toll-fraud). My best guess is that a few OPX circuits in an hunt group between our site and the answering service would be best. Are there any other circuit options I should keep in mind that might be better suited/cheaper than OPXs (which are $250 to install and $40/mo)? Should most answering services be able to terminate an OPX on their switchboard (most services I deal with expect you to forward to a DID number on their system)? Thanks, Jeff Jeff's Oasis at Home. Jeff can also be reached at work at: jwasilko@airage.com ------------------------------ From: henry@ads.com (Henry Mensch) Date: Sun, 14 Mar 93 22:05:50 -0800 Subject: Re: Ohio Bell Making Your Life Easier Reply-To: henry@ads.com mtndew!friedl@uunet.UU.NET (Stephen Friedl) wrote: >> "These home office specialists can answer questions about >> installing a business line in your home or setting up a computer modem >> or fax machine." > Aha, now we see it. Not only do these trained specialists try to get > people to sign up for business rates, but this insert starts *every* > customer thinking that you need a business line for these above > things. Well, when Pacific Bell started to send similar sorts of notices, I was similarly suspicious ... I learned that (at least for Pacific Bell) they were not especially interested in pushing business- tariffed services on me; they were interested in selling ordinary home-tariffed services which would make doing occasional business at home easier. # henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc. / ------------------------------ From: lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson) Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Reply-To: lemson@uiuc.edu Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 06:23:51 GMT stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > What about using paging to get data TO remote equipment? Are there > any devices that are pagers with an RS-232 port, instead of a display? > This way, you could send (short) commands to remote locations, without > requiring a phone line be present. That's a damn good idea. If no one is doing it, someone should be. > Also, why is there a delay in the delivery of pages? I can understand It all depends on the software that your paging service uses. Our campus service usually waits about 20-30 seconds before it sends out the page (even with no queue waiting). I think that even up to a minute is no big deal. Chances are that there isn't enough of an emergency that another minute will matter. (Well, I suppose in a hospital that may not be true but speaking as a computer support person, it's hard to relate to that :-) David Lemson (217) 244-1205 University of Illinois NeXT Campus Consultant / CCSO NeXT Lab System Admin Internet : lemson@uiuc.edu UUCP :...!uiucuxc!uiucux1!lemson NeXTMail & MIME accepted BITNET : LEMSON@UIUCVMD ------------------------------ From: lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson) Subject: Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted Reply-To: lemson@uiuc.edu Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 06:35:17 GMT TELECOM Moderator noted: > telephone company in the area. For example, in Chicago, Ameritech > Mobile is the B carrier; they also operate Illinois Bell, our telco. > The A carriers often times use the generic name 'Cellular One'. Here > in Chicago, Cellular One (the A carrier) is owned by Southwestern > Bell, a telephone company in another part of the USA. On the other > hand, the same Southwestern Bell is the B carrier operating in the St. > Louis, Missouri area. So if a telco goes to the territory of some By sheer coincidence, the non-wireline carrier in St. Louis is called CyberTel and, unless I am mistaken, is owned by Ameritech. :-) Of course, the wireline carrier in STL is called Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems. (Funny to see the same ads from Cellular One in Champaign/Urbana and CyberTel in St. Louis such as for the 'family pack' around Christmas, etc.) In case some people are confused by this, 'Cellular One' and 'CyberTel' are just trade names that various companies pay to use in certain markets. David Lemson (217) 244-1205 University of Illinois NeXT Campus Consultant / CCSO NeXT Lab System Admin Internet : lemson@uiuc.edu UUCP :...!uiucuxc!uiucux1!lemson NeXTMail & MIME accepted BITNET : LEMSON@UIUCVMD ------------------------------ From: hpubvwa!tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: Disabling *70 Organization: very little Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 06:29:09 GMT In article killer@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Francis J Park) writes: > I am dealing with a highly annoying roommate who is fond of turning on > *70 to disable call waiting when he calls out voice. > Is there any way to call the C&P business office, or perhaps TSPS > Engineering, to disable the feature, specific to my line? Gee, I would LOVE to have a roommate who uses this feature! Far better than ones who don't disable Call-Waiting, and then just ignore the beep. Tad Cook | Phone: 206-527-4089 (home) | MCI Mail: 3288544 Seattle, WA | Packet: KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 3288544@mcimail.com | Internet: tad@ssc.com or...sumax!ole!ssc!tad ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #179 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29590; 16 Mar 93 2:22 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31599 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:50:09 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18581 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:49:32 -0600 Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:49:32 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303160549.AA18581@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #180 TELECOM Digest Mon, 15 Mar 93 23:49:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 180 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Will Martin) Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network (Dave Leibold) Bell South Cordless Phone (Ray Normandeau) SDH, Concatenation of 2 Mbit/s Signals? (Kees Hol) Email to Telecom Gold (was What is Telecom Gold?) (Drew Radtke) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? (Fred Roeber) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? (Jon Mellott) Re: 18kf Limit Measurement (William H. Sohl) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (Charles Mattair) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 8:05:15 CST From: Will Martin Subject: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 This past weekend's storm news included at least one Telecom-related item: At a computer center in New Jersey somewhere, the weight of snow on the roof was great enough to collapse it, thus putting the facility out of service. This was operated by EDS and was some sort of central networking point for Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) on at least one inter-bank network, not just in the East, but nationwide. Many ATMs, including some here in St. Louis, MO, were down because of this. So this leads into several questions, which I hope people closer to the incident can comment upon: 1: Are any of the details in the lead paragraph wrong? If so, please post corrections. Enhancements and more detail are welcome. 2: Local TV news items on this said that people could use "Bankmate" networked ATMs instead. However, I just checked the ATM here in this building at the credit union, and it was displaying an "out of service" message, though it has both Cirrus and Bankmate logos on it. Of course, this one machine may be down for some totally unrelated reason. So just what named networks did this outage affect? 3: It certainly seems odd that a site in NJ would be central to the entire nation's ATM functions. One would guess that some huge percentage of all ATM transactions would be performed by local people accessing their funds from local banks. Why would these transactions be routed onto a national net? Aren't there local distributed-processing nets which only access the national net when it is really necessary, or are my transactions from an ATM in downtown St. Louis, against an account in a bank in South St. Louis, routed halfway across the country and back again? 4: One would expect this processing center had what they felt was sufficient redundancy and backup safeguards. But were at least some of the redundant elemants co-located at the same building where the incident occured? Or is the delay in restoring service due to the need to reroute or recable connections, and access is limited due to the weather at the site? Any other comments about the "lessons learned"? And a side comment -- anybody else out there getting irritated by the sloppy re-use and multiple use of acronyms? "ATM" has meant "Automatic Teller Machine" for decades now, yet in recent years I've been running across other computer-related uses of the exact same acronym. "Asynchronous Transfer Mode" is the worst, because it makes the phrase "ATM Network" ambiguous and mean at least two different things. The use of the same acronym by distinctly separate industries would not be as bad -- for it to mean "All-Terrain Motorbike" or "Amino-Toluo-Methanol" (to make up some possibilities out of my imagination) could be easily distinguished by context, when the use of "ATM" for multiple meanings within the computer culture is not ... Regards, Will If header address doesn't work, try: wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-04sima.army.mil ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 13:29:16 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network [from Bell News, Bell Canada/Bell Ontario division, 8th March 1993; content is that of Bell News, numbered footnotes are my comments] World's first fully-digital network is just months away. TORONTO - Picture the scene. In the wee small hours of a Saturday morning, more people than usual are at the Eglinton Avenue switching centre. Row upon row of metal frames hold miles of cable and wire. Next to them are hundreds of equipment bays filled with electronic switching equipment (#1 ESS) that has served north Toronto's telecommunications needs for 23 years. In just eight minutes, the technicians and managers cut the connections to those bay, connecting in their place 30 DMS-100 digital switch cabinets. The rest of the night is spent testing circuits to ensure all lines are fully operational. This DMS-100 equipment is faster, more efficient. In fact, it's the power behind some of the world's most sophisticated telecommunications. Over the next four months, the scene will be replayed a half-dozen times as Network Services counts down to its goal. The final such SEM (switching equipment modernization) will happen on June 26. It will give the greater Toronto Area (soon to be the restructured 416 area code) the world's first fully-digital telecommunications network. [1] For Bell, it will mean greater revenue potential and efficiency gains. Every customer in the area will be able to order any of Bell's network-based service offerings: Custom Calling Features, Call Management Service, Telemessaging ... the works. Business and Consumer Sales campaigns will be simplified, geared to a homogeneous technology base. The easier maintenance of DMS will mean some employees will be freed up for jobs more directly involved in customer sales and service. The digital network will make it easier for Bell to introduce new services like the proposed Community Calling Plan [2] or to handle network changes like the upcoming 416/905 area code split. [3] SEMs such as the one at the Eglinton Avenue switching centre take about four months lead time. "As recently as four years ago, this 35,000 line cutover would have taken two years to complete," says Bill Hollett, operations manager - Network Maintenance. "But, with mechanization of some stages, with faster delivery and installation of the DMS by Northern Telecom, and through our own willingness to take a few risks plus great interdepartmental teamwork, we've cut that time to just months." With just a few more of those months to go, Bell Ontario continues its countdown to the day it will have the world's first all-digital telecommunications network, a model for the world. [end of article] ------------- Footnotes: [1] - The SEM throughout Bell Canada territory is scheduled to be completed in 1994; this completion date probably refers to Metro Toronto, or at least the Greater Toronto area. [2] - This is the proposal to expand Toronto local calling areas, combined with various local rate increase applications. [3] - Area code split starts 4th October 1993 - a good incentive to upgrade switching equipment. Thus endeth John Higdon's visions of step-by-steps and even x-bars strewn throughout the Great White North (see thread on NAFTA effects on Canadian telecommuncations industry). Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Subject: Bell South Cordless Phone From: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) Date: 15 Mar 93 21:43:00 GMT Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) I just got a Damark catalog with a cover of: DAMARK Customer Returns Issue! In it are several cordless phones. On the back cover is: Model #7703 Bell South Products 10 channel for $59.99. Of great interest to me is its: "two-way page/intercom for conversation between handset and base" AND "automatic security code scanning to prevent signal cross from other sources." I now have a cordless I bought in 1981 (it uses c. 1.7mhz & 49.89mhz) which has the intercom feature. This freq combination no longer made. I live in an apartment building and the intercom is nice when my wife or I want to talk to the other while one is at a neighbor. As far as the "automatic security code" I know that it will not stop people from listening in. I myself get such great pleasure from listening to others talk about the intimate details of their lives on my scanner, that I would not want to deprive others so inclined from listening in. BUT will Bell South "automatic security code" system prevent others from using my lines to originate calls? For you irresistibly nosey folks, here are the cordless phone freqs as I have them programmed in my scanner. CORD IN is from hand held to the base. CORD OUT is from base to hand held. } 49.6700 | 49.8450 | 49.8600 | 49.7700 | 49.8750 CORD IN } CHAN #1 | CHAN #2 | CHAN #3 | CHAN #4 | CHAN #5 } 46.6100 | 46.6300 | 46.6700 | 46.7100 | 46.7300 CORDOUT } CHAN #1 | CHAN #2 | CHAN #3 | CHAN #4 | CHAN #5 | 49.8300 | 49.8900 | 49.9300 | 49.9900 | 49.9700 { | CHAN #6 | CHAN #7 | CHAN #8 | CHAN #9 |CHAN #10 { CORD IN | 46.7700 | 46.8300 | 46.8700 | 46.9300 | 46.9700 { | CHAN #6 | CHAN #7 | CHAN #8 | CHAN #9 |CHAN #10 { CORDOUT Please send experience regarding Model #7703 Bell South Products 10 channel cordless phone to: 73770.121@compuserve.com and post here as I am sure others would be interested. Thank you, Ray Normandeau ------------------------------ Date: 15 Mar 1993 09:37:59 +0000 (GMT) From: C.Hol@research.ptt.nl Subject: SDH, Concatenation of 2 Mbit/s signals? Organization: PTT Research, The Netherlands Hi, In the CCITT Recommendations G.709 explanation is given on concatenation of TU-2's. In an article I read that there are also proposals for concatenating 2 Mbit/s (TU-12's) signals. Is there more info on this topic, if so, please e-mail me. Regards, Kees Hol Hol@research.ptt.nl ------------------------------ From: A.L.Radtke@bradford.ac.uk (Drew Radtke) Subject: Email to Telecom Gold (was What is Telecom Gold?) Organization: University of Bradford, UK Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 20:06:10 GMT ndallen@r-node.hub.org (Nigel Allen) writes: > Ted Koppel (tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu) writes in article 168.6@eecs.nwu.edu>: >> I have in front of me a business card from a gentleman in Great >> Britain. It has all of the normal stuff: >> and then a line that says: >> Telecom Gold followed by an alphanumeric string in the format: >> NN:aaannn (where a=alpha and n=numeric) I don't like Telecom Gold. However you can mail to it. Below is a message I sent to a UK group user who wanted to know how to use it. I'll try and trim down the critical stuff ... see the summary at the end if you can't be bothered to read all of this. Campus 2000 is just an education bit of Telecom Gold, by the way. Newsgroups: uk.net From: A.L.Radtke@bradford.ac.uk (Drew Radtke) Subject: Re: Help needed!!! Keywords: Campus2000, e-mail Organization: University of Bradford, UK Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 13:00:35 GMT andy@acorn.co.uk (Andy Ingle) writes: > mcsdc1gjs@dct.ac.uk writes: >> Does anyone out there know anything about Campus2000? >> I'm trying to send e-mail to someone I know, but they >> can only receive through this Campus2000, whatever it >> is. I have their mailbox number, but can anyone tell >> me *how* to send to them via Campus2000.....? > It can't be done. Campus2000 has no connection to JANET or UKnet > though this may change later in the year. First of all can I say if you ever meet anyone who uses Campus 2000 give them a slap in the face (metaphorically) and get them to redirect themselves to a Internet-connected service (like Spuddy or even Compuserve) and tell them to stop wasting their cash on this appalling service. BT ought to be ashamed of themselves. This is unless it's improved by infinity % in the last two months since I looked at it. However, you can mail to it from Janet/Internet. It's messy, ridiculous and unreliable and the Campus 2000 people will not be able to mail back but. A colleague wanted to be able to mail to his C2000 mailbox and this is how I did it: > Subject: Report > Date: Sun, 17 May 92 19:08:06 BST > I forgot to tell you I've managed to figure out how to mail from janet > to Campus 2000. Due to the crappyness of Campus 2000 you have to get > permission of someone to be able to mail back; I've not figued out how > to do this yet. It's practically impossible to do actually; to get to > your space, xxxyyy, you have to email from bradford to the address > 10001.xxxyyy%gateway-to-gold.interspan.gb@mhs-relay.ac.uk which is so > cumbersome you may as well just fax whoever you are trying to contact. > But it does work; I've tried it. So, just convert whoever's C2000 mailbox account in the way I did above and you'll be laughing. And they'll be crying because they use Campus 2000. What this relay does is set up a temporary mailbox on C2000 which it looks like they'll be able to reply to. However, they will not be able to as Campus 2000 does not by default give people the correct priveleges. When your Internet mail gets through I'd recommend your C2000 person moaning to BT people over the phone to try and get the permissions set up. Trouble is (unlike the rather knowledgeable BT Research people), the Campus 2000, Campus Gold and Telecom Gold people don't seem to know anything. One of them didn't even know what Kermit was, in spite of it being installed in the Campus Gold system which they were running! Great. BT ought to scrap all it's Commercial Email systems and offer full Internet email and news right now. Phew! --------------- So, if your friends email address is NN:aaannn the address you should use is 100NN.aaannn%gateway-to-gold.interspan.gb@mhs-relay.ac.uk. Ugh! Drew Radtke Fax: +44 274 385295 * Voice: +44 274 383180 ------------------------------ From: roeber@vxl3ec.cern.ch Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Reply-To: roeber@cern.ch Organization: CERN -- European Organization for Nuclear Research Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 18:34:40 GMT In article , dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > What amazes me is that the US Post Office can get away with charging > $0.29 for a one-ounce letter. A one- to two-page fax costs less than > that between almost any two places in the US, and gets there faster. > [Moderator's Note: Except of course, there are times when original > documents are required, such as checks in payment, signatures on other > documents, etc. PAT] My father is a commercial real estate broker in the States. He and the companies with which he works all send their contracts and other documents by FAX, with the understanding that the originals will soon be r-mailed. When the originals are received, they are filed as needed, but the real work begins when the FAX is received. They are eagerly awaiting a digital signature system, both to avoid the r-mail burden and to tighten up that several-day window. Frederick G. M. Roeber | CERN -- European Center for Nuclear Research e-mail: roeber@cern.ch or roeber@caltech.edu | work: +41 22 767 31 80 r-mail: CERN/PPE, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland | home: +33 50 20 82 99 ------------------------------ From: jon@theta.ee.ufl.edu (Jon Mellott) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Date: 15 Mar 1993 19:31:21 GMT Organization: EE Dept at UF In article , dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > In article , mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu > (Michael Rosen) writes: >> What amazes me is that the US Post Office can get away with charging >> $0.29 for a one-ounce letter. A one- to two-page fax costs less than >> that between almost any two places in the US, and gets there faster. What amazes me is how naive some people are. That USPS can charge $0.29 for a one ounce letter is amazing. Almost anywhere else in the world the cost is at least twice what we pay here. Now, figure in the additional overhead that the massive volume costs, increased delivery costs due to the size of this country, ... Now, add on the fact that the USPS is not (any longer) subsidized by the taxpayer. I'm impressed that the whole thing doesn't collapse. Jon Mellott High Speed Digital Architecture Laboratory University of Florida (jon@alpha.ee.ufl.edu) ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Re: 18kf Limit Measurement Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 16:14:19 GMT In article khester@cinpmx.attmail.com writes: > In article goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com > (Fred R. Goldstein) writes: >> In article , exugsr@exu.ericsson.se >> (Govindan Raghavan, XT-DL) writes: >> The ANSI Standard BRI (2B1Q code) goes 18,000 feet. > Does this 18,000 ft measurement start at the CO or the neighborhood > mux (SLC-96, etc.)? The 18,000 feet is the maximum distance for the two wire loop portion of the circuit, therefore, the 18,000 feet is a maximum from the Remote SLC-96 Mux to the subscriber's Network Terminating equipment (NT-1). Having said that, it should be noted that providing ISDN over SLC arrangements is very expensive because a separate DS-0 channel is needed for each B channel and the D channel. Therefore, it takes three DS-0 channels to provide ISDB basic rate service over a SLC. Another consideration of that cost is that when ISDN is provide in that manner, the channels are dedicated to the ISDN customer 100% of the time as opposed to SLC systems that provide a "shared" use of the channels on the basis that there's never a situation where 100% of the POTS (Plain old telephone service) subscribers would be using their phones at the same exact time. > If the neighborhood mux is within the 18kf limit, are you considered > within the limit? Short answer is YES, but see above. > The reason I ask is I can see situations where the telco could > interpret the tariff to their advantage even if you are technically > within the limit. The tariffs are usually vague about things like > this and telcos usually will do what they think they can get away with > and b.s. the customer with jargon when challenged. In the information above, I've only described the technical situation. Tariff considerations as well as the costs of providing service using SLC etc, may result in different availability on a company by company basis. Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!cc!whs70 201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@cc.bellcore.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 09:48:51 CST From: mattair@synercom.hounix.org (Charles Mattair) Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! Organization: Synercom Technology, Inc., Houston, TX In article dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > Washington, DC, and its suburbs, now have white pages organized in > this way. I think it increases the density of the white pages > listings, and so may save a few trees. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Houston does it too. Actually, it just barely balances out against the wasted paper due to the oversized business listings they are now selling. I can deal with the surname once but the visual clutter in the business pages is a real pain. Fourteen point type, the listing an inch tall, in red for cripes sake -- what are the Yellow Pages for? Charles Mattair (work) mattair@synercom.hounix.org (home) cgm@elmat.synercom.hounix.org ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #180 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04864; 16 Mar 93 4:55 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23903 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 16 Mar 1993 02:19:24 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17628 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 16 Mar 1993 02:18:30 -0600 Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 02:18:30 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303160818.AA17628@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #181 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 Mar 93 02:18:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 181 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson New Deadline For ISAC: Intl. Symp. on Applied Computing (Jose Acereto) Troubles With WWIV and USR Modem -- Please Assist! (Tim Clinkenpeel) California SS7 Announcement in Newsbytes (root@sanger.chem.nd.edu) Telecom in East Tennessee During Blizzard (Steve Moulton) Common Carrier Research (Arinc, TAT) (Charles Gross) Steve Jackson Wins Court Case! (Steve Jackson via Rich Greenberg) Did the Blizzard Affect AT&T? (Garrett Wollman) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Garrett Wollman) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (John R. Grout) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology (David H. Close) Re: Disabling *70 (Steve Forrette) Housemates and Telephones (was Disabling *70) (Nigel Allen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jicaza@academ01.mty.itesm.mx (Jose Ignacio Icaza Acereto) Subject: New Deadline For ISAC: Intl. Symp. on Applied Computing Date: 16 Mar 93 00:44:43 GMT Organization: ITESM, Campus Monterrey CALL FOR PAPERS International Symposium on Applied Computing: Research and Applications in Software Engineering, Databases and Distributed Systems October 13-15, 1993 ITESM, Campus Monterrey - Monterrey, Mexico (* Please note: 1. Deadline moved to April 30 2. This event (ISAC) is different from SAC (Symposium on Applied Computing) oreganized yearly by ACM's SIGAPP 3. A printred copy of the old call for papers appears in IEEE Computer, Nov. 1992, pp. 21 *) This Symposium is being organized by the Informatics Research Center and it is sponsored by the ITESM (Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey) in conjunction with Texas A & M University. Objective The goal of this event is to promote the use of new computing technologies through: * The presentation of original research with an applied focus. * The exchange of experiences in technology transfer and use (both successful and unsuccessful). * The presentation of new ideas and technology that could impact industry in the near future. Scope The program committee is issuing a call for papers in the following principal areas: software engineering, databases and distributed systems. Some of the topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Software Engineering * Methodologies for Software Engineering * Total Quality Management in Software Engineering * Object-Oriented Techniques Applied to Information Systems * Software Factory Implementation Issues * Management and Control of: Software Projects, Risk and Configuration. * Software Engineering Development Environments * User Interfaces Databases * Object-Oriented Database Systems * Data and Object Modeling for Information Systems * Data, Object and Repository Administration * Heterogeneus Distributed Database Interoperability Distributed Systems * Complex Network Management * High Speed Network Management * Network Security * Distributed Systems Modeling and Design * Local Area Networks as Distributed Systems * Distributed Application Design * Real-Time Distributed Systems Design and Development * Client/Server Architecture Implementation Issues Tutorial In addition to papers, proposals for full- or half-day tutorials are welcome. Proposals should include: tutorial title, outline, brief description of topics to be covered, intended audience, assumed attendee background, and resume of the speaker. Submission of Papers & Proposals The paper should identify the area to which it belongs, and also include an abstract. It should have a cover page containing the following information: title, authors names, affiliation, and the e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of a contact author. Use a serif font, size 10, single spaced with a maximum of 10 pages. No papers nor tutorial proposals sent by electronic means will be accepted. Please submit 5 copies of a paper or tutorial proposal, written in English, to the Program Chair or the Tutorial Chair. Location The International Symposium on Applied Computing (ISAC) will be held in Monterrey, Mexico from October 13-15, 1993. Important Dates April 30, 1993: Deadline for submission of papers and tutorial proposals. July 8, 1993: Notification of acceptance or rejection to authors. August 5, 1993: Deadline for submission of camera-ready papers Program Chair Jose I. Icaza e-mail: jicaza@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx Tutorial Chair J.Raul Perez-Cazares e-mail: rperez@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Centro de Investigacion en Informatica, CETEC 6o. Nivel Torre Norte Av. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501, Monterrey, N.L. Mexico C.P. 64849 Tel. (83) 58-2000 ext.5082,5076 Fax (83) 58-1400 ext. 5081 Tel. (83) 58-2000 ext. 5082, 5076 Fax (83) 58-2000 ext. 5081 ------------------------------ From: tpehrson@javelin.sim.es.com (tim clinkenpeel) Subject: Troubles With WWIV and USR Modem -- Please Assist! Reply-To: tpehrson@javelin.sim.es.com Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 02:21:29 GMT I'm having real woes with getting my USR Courier HST Dual Standard v.32 to work with WWIV BBS (latest version). I'm hoping that someone out there has the same hardware and has already solved this problem. I am unable to do all of the following under one configuration (I've tried factory, custom and WWIV): o call out and get a good connect to 2400 and below modems; o have 2400 and below callers make good connects to WWIV (sans garbage); o have high speed modems make good connects to WWIV ("). Quoted below are two setups: the custom one suggest to me by a supposedly knowledgable person (unavailable for further comment) and the setup WWIV 'recommends' via auto modem detect. Note: WWIV recognizes my modem as 'USRC2'. One thing I find particularly troubling is the presence of &B2 in the setup, which is not a legitimate parameter. Any insights greatly appreciated. --begin quoted-- (----"custom"----) B0 C1 E0 F1 M0 Q0 V0 X7 &A2 &B1 &C1 &D2 &G0 &H1 &I0 &J0 &K2 &L0 &M4 &N0 &P0 &R2 &S0 &X1 &Y3 (how relevant are the status registers? i'll quote them if need be) (----wwiv; quoted directly from modems.mdm file, should be self-explanatory) FILE: "USRC2" NAME: "USR Courier (No V.42 - &A2 mode)" CONF: "ATZ{~~~~~~~AT{~~AT&W{" SETU: "ATC1E0F1H0M0Q0V1X6&A2&B2&C1&D2S38=1{~~AT&H1&I0&K1&N0&R2&S0S0=0S2=1{" INIT: "ATB0H0M0{" ANSR: "ATA{" PICK: "ATH1{" HANG: "ATH0{" DIAL: "ATB1DT" SEPR: "/" DEFL: MS=38400 CS=38400 EC=N DC=N AS=N FC=Y RESL: "OK" "Normal" NORM RESL: "RING" "Ring" RING RESL: "NO CARRIER" "No Carrier" DIS RESL: "ERROR" "Error" ERR RESL: "NO DIAL TONE" "No Dial Tone" NDT RESL: "BUSY" "Busy" DIS RESL: "NO ANSWER" "No Answer" DIS RESL: "RINGING" "Ringing" RINGING RESL: "VOICE" "Voice" DIS RESL: "CONNECT" "300" MS=300 CS=300 CON RESL: "CONNECT 1200" "1200" MS=1200 CS=1200 CON RESL: "CONNECT 2400" "2400" MS=2400 CS=2400 CON RESL: "CONNECT 4800" "4800" MS=4800 CS=4800 CON RESL: "CONNECT 9600" "9600" MS=9600 CS=9600 CON RESL: "ARQ" EC=Y CS=38400 RESL: "HST" "14400/HST" AS=Y MS=14400 RESL: "V32" '/V.32' AS=N RESL: "NONE" EC=N RESL: "SYNC" ---end quoted------ Again, thank you to anyone who is willing to take the time to help me sort out this mess. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out how to do it myself. tim clinkenpeel: aberrant analytical skeptical agnostic idealist. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 11:12:01 -0500 From: Hierophant Subject: California SS7 Announcement in Newsbytes An article appeared in the 12 March Newsbytes (clari.nb.telecom) announcing the arrival of some CLASS end-user services in California. It briefly outlines the functionality of Call { Trace | Return | Screen }, Select Call Forwarding, Repeat Dialing, and Priority Ringing. The article points out that the SS7 technology would have allowed PacBell to offer the "controversial Caller ID services", but "While the company cannot offer Caller ID in California because of regulations set by the California Public Utilities Commission, it is allowing California residents to make use of the SS7 technology ..." This is in contrast to the discussion here in the Digest, in which it is indicated that PacBell wasn't prohibited from offering Caller ID, it merely decided that the requirements placed on this service by the PUC would keep Bell from making the outrageous profit it desired, and they decided not to offer it for that reason. However, PacBell now has "reliable" sources which claim that "the Bad Old PUC won't let you have Caller ID". Once again, I have yet to see ANY RBOC own up to its motives. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 12:55:49 EST From: Steve Moulton Subject: Telecom in East Tennessee During Blizzard > By the way can anyone give us any weather related telecom updates > from the eastern states? Are they even getting through at all? PAT] In Knoxville, telephone and water were about the only services that could be depended on. Power failed at 5:30 am Saturday morning, and there were periods when it took up to a couple of minutes to get dial tone, but telephone service was dependable until about 8 pm Saturday. At that time, battery went away, but would return for a few minutes each time the electricity flickered on (which it did several times from 10 pm to 2 am). Presumably, since I am something like eight miles from the CO (615-69x, 615-53x) there was a battery in a vault somewhere that ran down). ATT long distance service had all circuits busy whenever I tried Saturday (one or two rings, then an ATT intercept message); finally I had the inspiration to try another carrier (10333 - US Sprint) and got through for the one LD call I had to make. Call completion was immediate and clear. Sunday, I spent most of the day logged in and connected to Florida State, so WRT telecom things seem to be in pretty good shape. Hundred of homes in the Knoxville are still without power (Monday noon), after our 15 inches of snow (I measured 18 inches in an area not susceptible to drifts; had four foot drifts on our deck) and nine degree temperature at 8 am this morning. I just talked to a four wheel drive owner who has only catnapped in the past 48 hours; as of last night city government and the Red Cross were still calling for four wheel drive owners to help with medical emergencies. We are digging our way out. My back hasn't ached like this since I left Cincinnati years ago. Steve Moulton Grad Student Ayres 111 (615) 974-8298 moulton@cs.utk.edu University of Tennessee Department of Computer Science [Moderator's Note: We've seen nothing like that here in Chicago for 25 years. We gpt a 27 inch snow storm January 30 - February 1, 1967. I was at UC at the time and had worked all night in the phone room, no busier than usual even though the snow was piling up outside all night. Trouble is, 7 AM comes around, and not one single person from the day shift showed up! There was only one operator all night, but usually 10-12 operators on the day shift. I thought I was going to go crazy by 8 AM when all the campus offices had (in theory) opened up. Very few people showed up for work in those offices either. The day supervisor made it in about that time and flipped out when she saw me and something like a hundred lights on the switchboards all blinking for attention. She went right on the 'Telepage' (a paging system with loudspeakers in offices all over campus, hallways, cafeterias, etc broken down by 'zones' for where you wanted to voice page someone) and using the switch position marked 'All Call' she announced "if there are students or employees who know how to run a switchboard, please report to the phone room at once. Help is desparately needed in the phone room, 5801 Ellis, 6th floor." And I think she sat there and repeated that announcement over and over a dozen times in the next fifteen minutes or so, stressing " ... do NOT attempt to call the switchboard, just COME to the phone room ...". Volunteer operators came straggling in over the next several minutes, and by that point some of the full time regulars had started making it in also. For the evening shift starting about 4 PM, she had found out who would make it in and who would not, and had things organized. PAT] ------------------------------ From: A. Charles Gross Subject: Common Carrier Research (Arinc, TAT) Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 20:35:04 GMT I am doing research on limited spectrum sharing/common carrier arangements and how they are structured and regulated. Specifically, I am seeking information on how the 1) transatlantic cables are regulated and 2) how ARINC shares its spectrum among a variety of users. Any information or comments would be greatly appricated. Thanks, Adam acg@eff.org I speak for myself ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Reply-To: richgr@netcom.com Subject: Steve Jackson Wins Court Case! Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 22:00:00 CST [Moderator's Note: News of interest about Steve Jackson, passed along to the Digest by Rich Greenberg. Thanks, Rich! PAT] Newsgroups: austin.eff From: Steve Jackson Subject: We have a verdict. Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1993 21:24:46 GMT We won. Pete Kennedy, our attorney at George, Donaldson & Ford, called me with the news about 3:30 today. Apparently the decision came in late Friday while Pete was at the CFP. The judge ruled for us on both the PPA and ECPA, though he says that taking the computer out the door was not an "interception." (I have not read the decision yet, so no quotes here.) He awarded damages of $1,000 per plaintiff under the ECPA. Under the PPA, he awarded SJ Games $42,259 for lost profits in 1990, and out of pocket costs of $8,781. Our attorneys are also entitled to submit a request for their costs. No word on appeal yet. Look for a more complete and coherent account after we all read the decision. Please copy this announcement to all electronic and other media. Thanks for your support through all this! ------- End of forwarded message ------- * Christopher Davis * * * [CKD1] * MIME * RIPEM * 226 Transfer complete. 17512509 bytes received in 5.2e+02 seconds (33 Kbytes/s) ------------------------------ From: Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Did the Blizzard Affect AT&T? Organization: University of Vermont, EMBA Computer Facility Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 17:50:21 GMT Over the past week, I have been calling my parents in Reno, NV (702 829), to tell them the results at the World Figure Skating Championships which took place in Prague. (This is necessary because they live to far south to deserve same-day coverage in the eyes of our all-knowing network TV programmers.) Now my PIC is AT&T, since nobody has given me enough on an incentive to change. Starting Friday evening, before the blizzard had even gotten as far north as New Jersey, the sound quality on my AT&T calls began to deteriorate dramatically (this is from 802 864), and stayed noticeably degraded at least until Sunday. During this period, I used Sprint for my calls, and noticed no degradation. Does anybody have ideas on why this should be? (TELECOM Digest readers may remember some months ago I reported on the battle of the Montreal radio stations taking place on our local NBC affiliate. They have now taken this to new heights of oddness: sandwiched in between the advertisements for CHOM and "Mix 96", during popular syndicated programs like "Wheel of Fortune", they are now running ads for CBC *Television*. (Big surprise to me ... not that I nmormally *watch* "Wheel", you understand.)) Garrett A. Wollman wollman@emba.uvm.edu uvm-gen!wollman UVM disagrees. ------------------------------ From: Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught Up With Modern Technology Organization: University of Vermont, EMBA Computer Facility Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 17:50:21 GMT In article hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > At the destination sorting station (Goleta for us), > the mail is sorted into route order based on the 9 digit zip. All > this for 29 cents. When I was in Finland a while back, they used electronic sorting as well. However (and here's the catch), for a meager FIM 1,80 (about 50 cents or so), first-class letters which arrived at the post office before 5PM on any postal day would be delivered the next day. Even with all the automation, the USPS still wants $8.95 for this. ------------------------------ From: grout@sp90.csrd.uiuc.edu (John R. Grout) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Reply-To: j-grout@uiuc.edu Organization: UIUC Center for Supercomputing Research and Development Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 21:29:04 GMT hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > Even if the writer did not use the nine digit zip, the system looks > up the nine digit zip for that address and codes the envelope with it. > For hand-written addresses, a person reads the address, keys it in, > then the machine codes the envelope. I'm not sure of what the > operator has to key in. I'd expect it to be something like number, > street, city, state, zip so the envelope does get coded with a full > nine digit zip. At the destination sorting station (Goleta for us), > the mail is sorted into route order based on the nine digit zip. All > this for 29 cents. It is city, state, street number, street and apartment number (often forgotten) ... there are various automated ways to get nine-digit zip information, including a CD-ROM version of the nine-digit zip code manuals. Two years ago, before I moved here, I found out my new nine-digit zip code at a museum exhibit which used this CD-ROM, and so I put it trustingly on my change of address notices. To my surprise, _most_ of the businesses and magazines that use nine-digit zip codes copied my apartment number (from the separate field for it on the notice) into my address while managing to both ignore the _correct_ nine-digit zip I gave them _and_ to automagically generate an _incorrect_ nine-digit zip which did _not_ use my apartment number. John R. Grout j-grout@uiuc.edu University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Center for Supercomputing Research and Development ------------------------------ From: dhclose@cco.caltech.edu (David H. Close) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Date: 16 Mar 1993 05:11:09 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Marvin Sirbu writes: > If the U.S. Postal Service began offering fax service there would be > an incredible hew and cry from companies like Mailboxes Etc. and > others that a Fedral Government agency that does not have to pay taxes > was competing unfairly with a private sector business. Maybe its time to propose a divestiture for the USPS? You know, break them into multiple competing organizations like Ma. Then the above would not be a valid complaint. (Yeah, I've heard the objections. Perhaps the change in terminology would help: divestiture instead of privatization.) This seems to me the kind of proposal only a Democrat in the Presidency could get away with ... Dave Close, dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu, BS'66 Ec ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Disabling *70 Date: 15 Mar 1993 21:56:34 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article hpubvwa!tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) writes: > In article killer@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu > (Francis J Park) writes: >> I am dealing with a highly annoying roommate who is fond of turning on >> *70 to disable call waiting when he calls out voice. > Gee, I would LOVE to have a roommate who uses this feature! Far > better than ones who don't disable Call-Waiting, and then just ignore > the beep. You mean there are still people out there that share phone lines? :-) Seriously, I can't imagine not having my own service. When I had roommates, I've always gotten my own line installed. In addition to modem traffic, one big issue with me is being able to get messages in a reliable manner. I understand that some telco voicemail offerings address this issue by providing the caller with a menu selection as to which person at the called number they would like to leave a message for. This way, each person sharing the line can have their own voicemail box. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Housemates and Telephones (was Disabling *70) Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto In article killer@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Francis J Park) writes: > I am dealing with a highly annoying roommate who is fond of turning on > *70 to disable call waiting when he calls out voice. There is a great deal to be said for roommates getting their own phone lines. When I moved into a shared house ten years ago, I made a point of getting my own phone line (with one phone in my bedroom and an extension in the kitchen). This turned out to be particularly useful later on when the housemate in whose name the house phone line was in had problems paying his phone bill. (And when I started getting harassing phone calls on my line, they upset me but they didn't affect my housemates -- and I was able to put an end to the harassing calls by having my phone number changed.) I lived at the house at 16 Major Street in Toronto for four years, and I liked my housemates, but I'm glad that I had my own phone line there. I know one couple with four phone lines: one for her, one for him, one for the computer, and one for the community group they help run. So my advice to killer@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Francis J Park) and his "highly annoying roommate" is to seriously consider getting another phone line. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada nigel.allen@canrem.com Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario 416-629-7000/629-7044 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #181 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05691; 16 Mar 93 5:32 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11354 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 16 Mar 1993 03:01:38 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32250 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 16 Mar 1993 03:01:04 -0600 Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 03:01:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303160901.AA32250@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #182 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 Mar 93 03:01:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 182 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: How Do I Get Rid of Line Noise? (Bill Blum) Blizzard Causes AT&T Network Congestion (Richard Pauls) Re: No 900 in Louisiana? (Paul Robinson) Re: Ohio Bell Making Your Life Easier (Steve Forrette) Re: Telecom in Brazil, BAD? (Jarom Hagen) Re: Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing (Dick Rawson) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (Robert L. Ullmann) Re: "457 Channels and Nothin' on..." (Robert L. Ullmann) Info on Data Superhighway (or Whatever) (William Eldridge) Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy (gehringe@eos.ncsu.edu) My Case Against CLID - Rebuttal to John Higdon (Gordon Zaft) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 12:32:01 EDT From: Bill Blum Subject: Re: How Do I Get Rid of Line Noise? Richard Sherman asks: > The problem is I get quite a bit of line noise in the electrical > system from other things in the house (dishwashers, ovens, etc.). I > was wondering if something like a phone line noise or surge supressor > could be put between the phone line and the modem to eliminate this? > Any help would be appreciated. I hope the following helps ... snarfed from a local BBS, this filter does work (even tho it's rather dated) ... Pat ... text is long, don't know if this is worth archiving or not. ---------------- Noise Filter Instructions ---------------- Modem Noise Killer (alpha version) With this circuit diagram, some basic tools including a soldering iron, and four or five components from Radio Shack, you should be able to cut the noise/garbage that appears on your computer's screen. I started this project out of frustration at using a US Robotics 2400 baud modem and getting a fair amount of junk when connecting at that speed. Knowing that capacitors make good noise filters, I threw this together. This is very easy to build, however conditions may be different due to modem type, amount of line noise, old or new switching equipment (Bell's equipment), and on and on. So it may not work as well for you in every case. If it does work, or if you've managed to tweek it to your computer/modem setup I' d like to hear from you. I'd also appreciate any of you electronic wizards out there wanting to offer any improvements. Let's make this work for everyone! Please read this entire message and see if you understand it before you begin. OK, what you' ll need from Radio Shack: 1 #279-374 Modular line cord if you don't already have one. You won't need one if your phone has a modular plug in its base. $4.95 1 #279-420 Modular surface mount jack (4 or 6 conductor) $4.49 1 #271-1720 Potentiometer. This is a 5k audio taper variable resistor. $1.09 1 #272-1055 Capacitor. Any non-polarized 1.0 to 1.5 uf cap should do. Paper, Mylar, or metal film caps should be used, although #272-996 may work as well. (272-996 is a non-polarized electrolytic cap) $.79 1 100 ohm resistor - quarter or half watt. $.19 1 #279-357 Y-type or duplex modular connector. Don't buy this until you've read the section on connecting the Noise Killer below. (A, B,or C) $4.95 First off, open the modular block. You normally just pry them open with a screwdriver. Inside you'll find up to six wires. Very carefully cut out all but the green and red wires. The ones you'll be removing should be black, yellow, white, and blue. These wires won't be needed and may be in the way. So cut them as close to where they enter the plug as possible. The other end of these wires have a spade lug connector that is screwed into the plastic. Unscrew and remove that end of the wires as well. Now, you should have two wires left. Green and red. Solder one end of the capacitor to the green wire. Solder the other end of the capacitor to the center lug of the potentiometer (there are three lugs on this critter). Solder one end of the resistor to the red wire. You may want to shorten the leads of the resistor first. Solder the other end of the resistor to either one of the remaining outside lugs of the potentiometer. Doesn't matter which. Now to wrap it up, make a hole in the lid of the mod block to stick the shaft of the potentiometer through. Don't make this hole dead center as the other parts may not fit into the body of the mod block if you do. See how things will fit in order to find where the hole will go. Well, now that you've got it built you'll need to test it. First twist the shaft on the potentiometer until it stops. You won't know which way to turn it until later. It doesn't matter which way now. You also need to determine where to plug the Noise Killer onto the telephone line. It can be done by one of several ways: A. If your modem has two modular plugs in back, connect the Noise Killer into one of them using a line cord. (a line cord is a straight cord that connects a phone to the wall outlet. Usually silver in color) B. If your phone is modular, you can unplug the cord from the back of it after you're on-line and plug the cord into the Noise Killer. C. You may have to buy a Y-type modular adaptor. Plug the adaptor into a wall outlet, plug the modem into one side and the Noise Killer into the other. Call a BBS that has known noise problems. After you've connected and garbage begins to appear, plug the Noise Killer into the phone line as described above. If you have turned the shaft on the potentiometer the wrong way you'll find out now. You may get a lot of garbage or even disconnected. If this happens, turn the shaft the other way until it stops and try again. If you don't notice much difference when you plug the Noise Killer in, that may be a good sign. Type in a few commands and look for garbage characters on the screen. If there still is, turn the shaft slowly until most of it is gone. If nothing seems to happen at all, turn the shaft slowly from one side to the other. You should get plenty of garbage or disconnected at some point. If you don't, reread this message to make sure you've connected it right. ***END OF ORIGNAL FILE*** ADDITION TO ORIGNAL FILE - 2/29/88 - Mike McCauley - CIS 71505,1173 First, a personal recomendation. _THIS WORKS!!!_ I have been plagued with noise at 2400 for some time. A few pointers: 1) The pot need not be either 5K or audio taper. I used a 10K 15 turn trim pot. Suggest you use what is handy. 2) I used 2MFD's of capacitance (two 1MFD's in parallel) Two R.S. p/n 272-1055 work fine. Remember that about 90 Volts will appear across red & green at ring, so the caps should be rated at 100VDC+. 3) I ended up with a final series resistance value (100 ohm + pot) of 2.75K. I speculate that one could probably use 2MFD and a fixed 2.7K resistor and do the job 90% of the time. The adjustment of the pot is not very critical. Changes of +/- 1K made little difference in the performance of the circuit. ------------------------------ From: Richard Pauls Subject: Blizzard Causes AT&T Network Congestion Organization: MIT Lincoln Lab Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 13:46:26 -0500 > [Moderator's Note: Thanks very much for taking the time and going to > the expense to send us a message from that phone. I hope your trip was > pleasant and not to someplace where the airport is shut down. By the > way can anyone give us any weather related telecom updates from the > eastern states? Are they even getting through at all? PAT] Well on Saturday I tried for about 15 minutes to place a call from MA (508) to PA (215) using AT&T but I kept getting the "we're sorry all circuits are busy" recording. I hung up and redialed using the MCI prefix and got a ring, but then I hung up (just wanted to see if it really worked). I tried AT&T several more times -- same message. Then I dialed the AT&T operator and told her I couldn't get through (I was wondering if she would give me a prefix code for another carrier if she couldn't connect me now). She tried twice and on the second attempt my call was connected via AT&T. Does she have some kind of controlled access to different long distance circuits that allowed her to avoid the "all circuits bussy" message that I kept getting? Will I have to pay for an operator assisted call this way? Thanks, Rich [Moderator's Note: Usually it is the operator's discretion in cases like this, but generally no you won't. You'll get direct dial rates since you explained the problem to the operator. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 13:40:49 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: No 900 in Louisiana? phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) asks: > Having just seen an ad for NBC's weather line (1-900-WILLARD) it > stated it was not valid in Louisiana. Have they passed a law that > makes all 900 service illegal or only those that give their proceeds > to charity? 1. The service is run OUT OF Louisiana and the service is not tariffed for intrastate use. 2. There would be taxes imposed upon the service provider (not likely, but possible). 3. Louisiana does not allow value-added telephone call services, or has banned them, or there is a collectability problem. Louisiana has had a long history of problems with relations with other states because of its history of French Civil Law as opposed to the British Common Law which the other 49 states use. It's only been about a couple of years that the Louisana Legislature has approved the Uniform Commercial Code, which until it did made contracts hard to execute. If you're in Louisana, ask the local telephone company. Telephone services over 900 area code calls from outside that state are interstate in nature; if the state is hindering their operation, it is acting unconstitutionally. Probably nobody wants the trouble and expense of bothering with a court trial to force collection, so they just refuse to accept calls from there (or they plan to sue but until the telephone companies there will provide billing via a court decision authorizing it, they won't carry calls.) Or it could be that telcos there won't provide billing, the information provider must bill directly (which is too much trouble.) Did you try asking NBC? Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Ohio Bell Making Your Life Easier Date: 15 Mar 1993 21:50:43 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article henry@ads.com writes: > mtndew!friedl@uunet.UU.NET (Stephen Friedl) wrote: >> "These home office specialists can answer questions about >> installing a business line in your home or setting up a computer modem >> or fax machine." > Well, when Pacific Bell started to send similar sorts of notices, I > was similarly suspicious ... I learned that (at least for Pacific > Bell) they were not especially interested in pushing business- > tariffed services on me; they were interested in selling ordinary > home-tariffed services which would make doing occasional business at > home easier. I can put in a good word for the Pacific Bell office that handles the 'home office' orders. They never tried to push business class-of-service on me. I had had really poor luck with the regular residential office with any order more complicated than a single line with standard custom calling features. Any time I had a requirement for multiple lines, especially in combination with unusual custom calling features (no answer transfer, hunting, etc.), the order would never be set up properly the first time. The 'home office' people seemed to have an extra amount of training in all of these things, and were able to actually understand the order correctly the first time. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: jhagen@npri6.npri.com (Jarom Hagen) Subject: Re: Telecom in Brazil, BAD? Date: 15 Mar 93 18:00:23 GMT Organization: NPRI, Alexandria VA pedregal@unreal.cs.umass.edu (Cris Pedregal-Martin) writes: > The technology might not have been dazzling (e.g., pulse instead of > tone), but it worked (high call completion rates, good intercepts, > very few wrong numbers). And, also, rates were very cheap (compared > with other state-owned, third-world rates such as neighboring > Argentina's. Problems associated with wider-ranging (political, > economical) issues, of course, existed: sometimes bad customer service > (labor conflict), use of tokens instead of coins (inflation). And > there were some pearls too, like automated collect calls (even within > a city); I think one dialled 9+number and two synchronized recordings > would come on, opening a short window to say one's name (or whatever); > hanging up meaning non-acceptance of charges. There were also calling > cards (charge, like in the US); all these things at least since the > late 70s. It has been a few years since I was in Brazil. I remember a couple of things that weren't mentioned. One is the "Big-Ear" payphones that were not high quality in that sometimes shouting was needed to communicate and the second is that, at least in the northeast, you have to *buy* your telephone *line*. So, not only do you pay for the service, you have to buy the line (and number) that gets connected to your house. This tends to discourage telephones in homes. There also seems to be a problem in capacity in the northeast as people selling telephone numbers charged a lot for them. I also remember the cost of calling the U.S. from Brazil to be much higher that calling Brazil from the U.S. > My "comment" (more bordering on an essay, sorry) is not very current, > but I just felt I had to challenge a stereotype ... Yes, I don't know if service is worse than GTE, I never had to call the local phone company while I lived there. > com saudades do Brasil, Eu tambem. Jarom *Not paid for and/or endorsed by NPRI. 602 Cameron St, Alexandria VA 22314 (UUCP: ...uunet!uupsi!npri6!jhagen) (Internet: jhagen@npri.com) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 15:19:48 PST From: drawson@Tymnet.COM (Dick Rawson) Subject: Re: Modem Doesn't Answer But Line is Ringing Now that you mention distinctive ringing, I remember a similar problem with our fax machine. When we moved from Centrex service to a PBX, we started getting a "distinctive ring" for all calls from outside. Outside calls rang as short-long, while extension calls rang normally. The fax wouldn't answer until the PBX was made to give normal rings. Dick ------------------------------ From: ariel@world.std.com (Robert L Ullmann) Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! Organization: The World in Boston Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 01:54:46 GMT An observation I made while looking at the 93 NYNEX white pages (which I hadn't had any reason to crack open until reading this): people with combined business/residence listings, under the business name with a secondary entry starting with /res/, appear in both the residence and business parts of the directory. BTW, I like this directory format. Robert Ullmann Ariel@World.STD.COM +1 508 879 6994 x226 ------------------------------ From: ariel@world.std.com (Robert L Ullmann) Subject: Re: "457 Channels and Nothin' on..." Organization: The World in Boston Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 02:15:12 GMT Paul Robinson writes a very interesting article on cable TV and the future of video distribution. (BTW: I subscribe to a system with 89 active channels, out of a possible 104.) I and others in the data network protocol business are working very hard on building an internet technology that will allow any user to watch any "station" (video source) whenever desired. Ready for maybe 50,000 channels? Of course, just like best-selling books, some will be *very* popular. And few will carry advertising. (Yay!) The flip side is even more interesting: with a *very* small investment, anyone can be a video source ... Robert Ullmann Ariel@World.STD.COM +1 508 879 6994 x226 ------------------------------ From: bill@COGNET.UCLA.EDU (William Eldridge) Subject: Info on Data Superhighway (or Whatever) Organization: UCLA Cognitive Science Research Program Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 03:48:19 GMT I'm trying to research various pertinent questions and alternatives to the proposed data superhighway, and was hoping someone could refer me to or send me either interesting viewpoints on this or general overviews. Thanks, Bill Eldridge bill@cognet.ucla.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 23:44:35 -0500 From: gehringe@eos.ncsu.edu Subject: Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy In article Dave Liebold writes: > Perhaps an idea should be borrowed from the white page introductory > sections of many other countries (Australia is one such country, I > believe): a brief description of the phone service (emergency numbers, > how to dial, etc) is translated into many languages. I don't remember the phone books, but from when I was there last year, I recall that some public phones in Melbourne have instructions in English, Italian, Greek, and possibly Vietnamese; further north on the Gold Coast, it's English and Japanese (for tourists of the predominant nationality, no doubt). ------------------------------ From: suned1!zaft@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Gordon C Zaft) Subject: My Case Against CLID - A Rebuttal to John Higdon Date: 16 Mar 93 06:02:59 GMT Organization: NSWSES, Port Hueneme, CA I finally figured out the response to John Higdon's persistent claims that Caller-ID should be enabled by default. It's this -- Do you walk around with a nametag? Probably not. Similarly, if I walk up to your door and knock, it would be reasonable of you to ask who I am. I might give you my name, or I might not. In either case you might or might not wish to speak to me. You may have a policy saying "I don't open the door to anyway who won't identify themselves", and that's fine. The point being, just as I don't broadcast my identity when I go around town, I shouldn't have to broadcast my identity when I call, either. On the other hand, you should be able to ask my identity by means of a block, or a anonymous-call-rejection. In which case I can either identify myself, or not talk to you. It seems quite clear to me that the default should be no identification unless it's explicitly done (just like you looking through your peephole and making me hold up my ID so you can see it before opening the door). Gordon Zaft zaft@suned1.nswses.navy.mil PHD NWSC, Code 4Y33 suned1!zaft@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov Port Hueneme, CA 93043-5007 Phone: (805) 982-0684 FAX: 982-8768 [Moderator's Note: This message was published specifically to provide a rebuttal to recent messages by John Higdon. However, to avoid the sort of email floods these things cause me and the slow, agonizing death from boredom it causes many readers, perhaps continued dis- cussion between interested parties can be moved to the privacy forum. Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #182 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07744; 16 Mar 93 19:32 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01577 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 16 Mar 1993 16:47:07 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17007 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 16 Mar 1993 16:46:31 -0600 Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 16:46:31 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303162246.AA17007@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #183 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 Mar 93 16:46:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 183 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Will Martin) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Dale Farmer) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Andrew M. Boardman) Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted (Greg Abbott) Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network (John Higdon) Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network (Bohdan Tashchuk) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Jeff Kenton) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Dale Farmer) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Mark Steiger) Re: Public Phone 2000 (Doug Krause) Re: 18kf Limit Measurement (Craig Myers) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 09:59:36 +0000 Organization: Imperial College, London, UK. Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 Will Martin wrote: > And a side comment -- anybody else out there getting irritated by the > sloppy re-use and multiple use of acronyms? "ATM" has meant "Automatic > Teller Machine" for decades now, yet in recent years I've been running > across other computer-related uses of the exact same acronym. > "Asynchronous Transfer Mode" is the worst, because it makes the phrase > "ATM Network" ambiguous and mean at least two different things. Indeed, one does get irritated by the sloppy re-use of acronyms. However as far as ATM goes, I think that it is only in USA (and countries linked to the USA) that ATM is used as "Automatic Teller Machine". In UK, the use of "Cash machine", or "Cashpoint" is much more common. Furthermore, the ATM acronym for "Asynchronous Transfer Mode" has been agreed-on by the CCITT; it is hence a standard. Has ATM for "Automatic Teller Machine" ever been standardised by any official body ? :-) Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond, Digital Comms. Section, Elec. Eng. Department Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BT, UK Internet/Bitnet: - Janet: ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 7:38:53 CST From: Will Martin Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 I can add a couple points to my original posting, after seeing news reports on the evening of 15 March: 1) It appears that, at least here, credit union ATM networks are still down and will be for at least another day. Bank ATM networks may be working; I was able to use a bank ATM for remotely accessing my account during the day yesterday, though our building credit union ATM was down all day. 2) The backup site for the New Jersey EDS computer center was in the World Trade Center!!!!! I wonder how many other financial and East coast sites are operating right now without backups due to the WTC closing!?! Also, I'm sure WTC companies are now using other sites as their backups, which leaves much less capacity for backup operations for anybody. The ripple effect is spreading ... Regards, Will ------------------------------ From: dale@access.digex.com (Dale Farmer) Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 Date: 16 Mar 1993 10:07:58 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA Will Martin (wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL) wrote: > This past weekend's storm news included at least one Telecom-related > item: At a computer center in New Jersey somewhere, the weight of snow > on the roof was great enough to collapse it, thus putting the facility > out of service. This was operated by EDS and was some sort of central > networking point for Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) on at least one > inter-bank network, not just in the East, but nationwide. Many ATMs, > including some here in St. Louis, MO, were down because of this. The same service center services the money machines here at the Department of Labor Credit Union in DC. The notice pasted to the machine also noted that they did have a backup site. Unfortunatly it was located in the World Trade Center ... Talk about having a really bad month ... Dale Farmer ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 10:48:11 EST From: andrew m. boardman Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 > 4: One would expect this processing center had what they felt was > sufficient redundancy and backup safeguards. But were at least some of > the redundant elemants co-located at the same building where the > incident occured? Some area ATMs hereabouts are posted with a notice summarizing Will Martin's post. Additionally, they do, indeed, say that there was a backup facility -- in the World Trade Center ... andrew m. boardman amb@cs.columbia.edu [Moderator's Note: Thanks to Will, Dale, Andy and the nine other readers who sent articles pointing out the back up site location. PAT] ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@Panix.Com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 18:47:13 GMT In clivec@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil writes: > I have read many messages on this bulletin board in which people > mention Cellular System A and System B settings on their phones. Can > anyone explain to me, in plain English, the difference between system > A and system B? > [Moderator's Note: [stuff omitted]] Another difference that obtains here in New York, and I expect in most other places too, is that the B carriers (due to the MFJ restrictions imposed after the Bell breakup) are obligated to let you pick which long-distance carrier you use, while the A's are not. This has practical consequences. Suppose I want to use Sprint long distance, either because I find it to have clearer line quality or because I can get it consolidated-billed with my other Sprint calls. Then I cannot use the A carrier, as they are in bed with AT&T. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (intellectual property lawyer) 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112-0228 voice 212-408-2578 fax 212-765-2519 [Moderator's Note: Here in Chicago, 'our' Cellular One allows a choice of any of the big three carriers. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 12:48:55 CST From: Greg Abbott Reply-To: gabbott@uiuc.edu Subject: Re: Cellular System A and B Info Wanted lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson) wrote: > By sheer coincidence, the non-wireline carrier in St. Louis is called > CyberTel and, unless I am mistaken, is owned by Ameritech. :-) Of > course, the wireline carrier in STL is called Southwestern Bell Mobile > Systems. > (Funny to see the same ads from Cellular One in Champaign/Urbana and > CyberTel in St. Louis such as for the 'family pack' around Christmas, > etc.) In case some people are confused by this, 'Cellular One' and > 'CyberTel' are just trade names that various companies pay to use in > certain markets. Just as a point of clarification; 'CyberTel' was a private company providing paging services throughout IL and MO. Cybertel provided cellular service in the St. Louis Market. Last year, Ameritech purchased CyberTel because they wanted to get into the cellular business in St. Louis. The only way they could do it was to buy CyberTel's cellular *and* paging markets. Ameritech has carried the 'CyberTel' name and it is now listed as an Ameritech company. Most of the CyberTel offices in the central Illinois area have been consilidated with the Ameritech Mobile offices. GREG ABBOTT E-MAIL: GABBOTT@UIUC.EDU 9-1-1 COORDINATOR COMPUSERVE MAIL: 76046,3107 METCAD VOICE: 217/333-4348 FAX: 217/384-7003 1905 E. MAIN ST. PAGER: 800/222-6651 URBANA, IL 61801 PIN # 9541 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 01:17 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) quotes great puffery from: > [Bell News, Bell Canada/Bell Ontario division, 8th March 1993; > content is that of Bell News, numbered footnotes are my comments] > World's first fully-digital network is just months away. Then snorts: > Thus endeth John Higdon's visions of step-by-steps and even x-bars > strewn throughout the Great White North (see thread on NAFTA effects > on Canadian telecommuncations industry). So just what is the population of Greater Toronto? I should hope that a city of that size and stature could boast an "all digital" network. I see nothing in your press release that indicates all the Xbar and SXS is being removed from the rural areas of Canada, which if you will re-read my comments is what I was talking about. Modern communications in major cities is no big deal. So with that in mind let me point out: The high desert area of California (about as rural as you can get) is ALREADY "all-digital" -- and has been for some time. The divestiture nay-sayers claim that "cream skimming" will prevent rural customers from enjoying "big time" telephone service. Nonsense! The 5ESS and DMS switches in and around Barstow, Victorville, Hesperia, Adelanto, yes and even Kramer Junction were all installed SINCE that "dark day" in 1984. Frankly, I never thought for an instant that there has been a single SXS or even a Xbar switch anywhere near Toronto for many years. Never would I suggest that Canadian telecommunication (or anything else there) is inferior in any way. But there is a faction in Canada (just as there was in the US nearly a decade ago) that is predicting doom, gloom, and the collapse of the telephone system if Bell Canada is relieved of its monopolistic hold. But from things that I have read from the anti-competition zealots, there is a considerable amount of liberty-taking with the truth. The US telephone system has not collapsed, nor is it in any way inferior to any system anywhere. I have been carrying on e-mail correspondence with a Canadian who has been genuinely concerned with the impending competition. He was surprised to learn that local telephone service did NOT cost an arm and a leg in the US. The fact that the party line had all but disappeared was news to him. That I can call anywhere in the country by dialing only ten digits and that the call is completed instantly was contrary to the impression he had been given by some of the propaganda up there. He had visions of dialing twenty digits (or even having to place calls manually giving VISA card numbers, etc.) and waiting long periods of time to get through the "long distance nightmare". Of course Bell Canada is going to demonstrate how "modern" it is. And it will imply that it would be detrimental to tamper in any way with its current gravy train. But we can now see the "all digital" light at the end of the tunnel for the entire state of California -- something that is a result of competition and divestiture, not in spite of it. I dare say that had it not been for market forces, California would still sport mechanical offices even to this day. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 [Moderator's Note: Whether or not 'local service in the USA now costs an arm and a leg' is a very subjective decision. I know my phone bill has skyrocketed since ten years ago, far out of line with what inflation would have taken it to. I know I am paying $5-6 per line/month for 'network access' because the carriers to join the industry in recent years refused to go along with the traditional separations and settlements process which served AT&T and the local telcos very well for many years. I am paying 60-70 cents for each directory assistance call because the carriers to join the industry in recent years refused to either establish their own directory assistance bureaus or share the common costs involved in the maintainence of the 555-1212 services used for years by AT&T and GTE customers. The newcomers told their customers to use xxx-555-1212 to get the information free from AT&T, then dial via the alternate carrier to place the call. International directory assistance is now $3 per *number* looked up for the same reason. I pay more for operator assistance surcharges because the carriers to join the industry in recent years saw no reason to pay the expense of maintaining actual operator services; for all intents and purposes, when you dial 10 plus zero, they might as well put a recording on the line saying to dial 10288-0 for assistance. I am paying $1 per line/month for a '911 surcharge' that I have no use for; and while this can hardly be blamed on the new carriers in the industry, it just adds frosting to the whole thing. It is not because of divestiture that the USA phone network has held together as well as it has, it is *despite* the architecture of our divestiture. If you have plenty of money and telephone costs are only a small part of your budget, these costs may be only a small annoyance. To some of us, they are financial killers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: zeke@fasttech.com (Bohdan Tashchuk) Subject: Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network Organization: Fast Technology --- Beaverton, OR Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 19:18:58 GMT > The final such SEM (switching equipment modernization) will happen on > June 26. It will give the greater Toronto Area (soon to be the > restructured 416 area code) the world's first fully-digital > telecommunications network. [1] Does this mean that every subscriber is going to be given an ISDN telephone? Will they also be given ISDN peripheral cards to replace their modems? Or are the millions of "fully-analog" telephones in Toronto not actually a part of a "telecommunications network"? I guess that Marketing Slime feel that words mean only what they want them to mean, nothing more, nothing less. Hmmm. Where have I heard that before? Bohdan ------------------------------ From: jkenton@world.std.com (Jeff Kenton) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Organization: Kenton Systems Corporation, Weston MA Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 13:29:34 GMT grout@sp90.csrd.uiuc.edu (John R. Grout) writes: > It is city, state, street number, street and apartment number (often > forgotten) ... there are various automated ways to get nine-digit zip > information, including a CD-ROM version of the nine-digit zip code > manuals. Unfortunately, some of these automated wonders are broken. There is at least one of these pieces of software which takes my home address and changes the zip code to that of a neighboring town, and then changes the town name to match. It turns out to be a valid address. Once a year several companies, in the name of zip code purity, run through their mailing lists and "fix" their records relating to me. This has caused the loss of one magazine subscription (Forbes -- it took them five months to straighten it out) and several credit cards whose companies got incensed that I wasn't paying bills even though they admitted they were addressed to the wrong town. Jeff Kenton (617) 894-4508 jkenton@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: dale@access.digex.com (Dale Farmer) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Date: 16 Mar 1993 10:03:16 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA The USPS uses a system -- the name escapes me at the moment -- that takes all incoming flats (flats are exactly that, envelopes and cards that are no larger that 9x12 inches and do not exceed a given thickness. The actual specs are much more detailed.) and runs them thru a reader. The reeader has several stages. First it checks for the presence of the zip code bar code (in the lower right area of the envelope) and a prepaid bar code (just to the left of the postage imprint) and for the presence of the correct postage. If it has a zip+4 code and correct postage already it is diverted direct to sorting. Then it goes thru an OCR reader that scans the address for name, street, apt/box#, city, state and printed zip. It runs a compare to see if the printed zip matches the rest of the info, looks up and adds the +4 if needed and prints the bar code on the envelope and sends it to sorting. If the printed zip does not match the printed address it performs a lookup on the printed address. It then prints the bar code on the envelope. go directly to sorting. If it cannot resolve the correct zip+4 it then goes to an operator for semi-manual operation. The operator gets a picture on the monitor of the graphic image the OCR scanner saw. He/She can then type in corrected info based on that or send it to another station where the operator is looking at the actual envelope and deals with it accordingly. The USPS is also in the midst of installing upgrades to these machines, that will greatly speed processing by putting the scan lines in the OCR portion closer together. (causing the OCR to have a better shot at detecting verticals such as H,L,I, etc ...) recognizing a much larger number of typefaces, and being able to recognize hand printed addresses with a much higher success rate. The USPS gives a variety of price breaks for mass mailers. The exact prices change every few months, so I am not current on them. but they are for: presorting by state; presorting by zipcode; using an OCRable typeface with full zip+4; preprinting the zip+4 barcode. These also apply for other than first class also, but that gets much more complex. You also have to be sending a fairly large number of pieces to qualify for discounts. (c. 500-1000 or more per deposit into the system.) These are as I recollect from about 12/91 when I put together a proposal for my employer. I have not kept track of the issues, and my memory is an unreliable transport mechanism. Dale Farmer ------------------------------ From: MARK.STEIGER@tdkt.kksys.com (MARK STEIGER) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 18:34:48 -0600 Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Organization: The Dark Knight's Table BBS: Minnetonka, MN (Free!) > As far as I know, UPS and Fed Ex are still hand sorting everything. > Both services are barcoding packages, but the barcodes are with a > package serial number to allow tracking. They are not coding with a > zip code to allow sorting. Actually, what Fed Ex and UPS do is keep records like package serial numbers going to zip code xxxxx. Zip code is a trademark of the Post Office. I'm not sure on this, but couldn't they get in trouble for bar coding it on the package? Anyway, they electronically sort all of the packages based on what zip code belongs to that serial number. It's pretty cool to see in action. Fed Ex gave us a tour at work since we ship so much. Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo BBS (612) 574-0037 Internet: mark@tdkt.kksys.com Fido: 1:282/4018 Simnet: 16:612/24 [Moderator's Note: Did you know that 'Zip Code' started as an abbreviation which finally became a word-phrase in its own right? Just like 'Care' (as in Care Packages) is what we call it now, (it began as The Committee on American Relief in Europe in the 1945-50 era), and 'Naytoe' (NATO) is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization even though we never say it that way any longer, 'Zip Code' has a formal name also. The Postal Service, back in the days when it was the 'US Post Office' devised the one mprovement

lan Codes as a way to speed mail delivery. The Zone Improvement Plan got shortened to 'ZIP' as time went on ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: dkrause@miami.acs.uci.edu (Doug Krause) Subject: Re: Public Phone 2000 Organization: University of California, Irvine Date: 16 Mar 93 09:29:01 GMT In article TELECOM Moderator responded to dkrause@hydra.acs.uci.edu (Doug Krause): > [Moderator's Note: Thanks very much for taking the time and going to > the expense to send us a message from that phone. I hope your trip was > pleasant and not to someplace where the airport is shut down. By the > way can anyone give us any weather related telecom updates from the > eastern states? Are they even getting through at all? PAT] No problem, and it was fun anyway. DFW did not get much of the storm. The temperature dropped from about 80 to the 30s from Wednesday to Saturday, but that was about it. It also rained a lot in Houston, but when doesn't it? Douglas Krause djkrause@uci.edu University of California, Irvine ------------------------------ From: craig@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu (Craig Myers) Subject: Re: 18kf Limit Measurement Organization: JHU/Applied Physics Laboratory Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 17:18:59 GMT whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) writes: >> Does this 18,000 ft measurement start at the CO or the neighborhood >> mux (SLC-96, etc.)? > The 18,000 feet is the maximum distance for the two wire loop portion > of the circuit, therefore, the 18,000 feet is a maximum from the > Remote SLC-96 Mux to the subscriber's Network Terminating equipment According to a map provided by our local telco, C&P, the limit for ISDN from a SLC-96 is about 5000 feet. The cost of the BRITE card is an extra $20.00 per month with a three year termination liability of $565 to cover the cost of the card. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #183 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa28429; 17 Mar 93 5:30 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14687 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 17 Mar 1993 02:57:31 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08893 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 17 Mar 1993 02:57:04 -0600 Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 02:57:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303170857.AA08893@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #184 TELECOM Digest Wed, 17 Mar 93 02:57:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 184 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson What Makes Communications So Exciting Using Computers? (Michael Hauben) Phase Noise Causing Garbage at 9600 bps (Steve Chafe) 1.2 Watt Handheld Cellphone (Phydeaux) X-10 Phone Interface TR551 (Fred Ennis) AT&T Acquisitions (was Cellular System A and B Info Wanted) (F. Goldstein) Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries (Ted Koppel) 10-ATT-0 and COCOTs (Doug Krause) Motorola's Iridium Project Information Needed (Brian Strasshiem) Mobile Computing Day at Rutgers (David Goodman -and- Tomasz Imielinski) ATM Information/White Paper/Newsgroup Wanted (Eric Berggren) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hauben@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Michael Hauben) Subject: What Makes Communications So Exciting Using Computers? Organization: Columbia University Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 08:05:20 GMT Communication and computers. What does it mean, what could it mean? To many it has meant a technological frontier that is exciting. The advances in communication via computers have been evident over the last ten, twenty years or so. Because of the technology there is a need for more thought of the connection to beyond the technical. The technical has been fairly well covered compared to exploring the non-technical implications. I need to figure out how to think about communications in a more abstract way or in a broader way. The link between the actual hardware/software combination and the ensuing results needs to be more concentrated on. I would like to spend time doing some of this thinking and studying. I am interested (for example) in *what* has been the attraction of the growth of the readership and reach of Usenet News. (In addition to the Internet, and other various computer networks.) I find it really hard to describe what I am asking right now -- but there is a spark that has made Usenet the explosive grassroots effort that it has been. People have *WANTED* to communicate somehow using it and this is the only way it has grown and developed. I am interested in trying to figure out what the charm or spark is that has developed the various different computer communications mediums -- email, news, irc, etc. So far, there is one person that has some very interesting ideas about the role of computers in communication. This is Ithiel de Sola Pool. He seems to have some thoughts about what I am thinking of, and the role computers play with that. However he doesn't particularly followup on it. Below are some interesting quotes from his book "Technologies Without Boundaries". They seem to provide a link between the technical and what I am thinking about. I would appreciate any leads on similar works. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, comments, possible resources, or general thoughts about my questions or train of thought, please either followup to this message or email to me. Thank you, Michael Hauben The quotes: Pool 32 - "There was a time when electronic communication and computation were thought of as quite separate and distinct activities. Today they are intertwined to the point where no meainingful borderline between then can be drawn. Both a computer and a digital telecommunication system can be described as devices that switch bits of information around under the control of a stored program. Each has a memory in which signals are stored. Each accepts input signals from terminals and also sends output signals to other terminals." 33 - "...But by the 1970s many computer systems had become widespread networks of dispersed processors and memories... A particularly significant kind of data trasmission system is one called a packet network(italics). The name comes from the fact..." 56 - "We have described this fourth of the great technological trends of our times not so much as an increase in computer usage (which of course it also is) but as an increase in the interactive capability of the communications system. Logical reaction becomes part of its capability. The machines react with intelligence, and so give their users some of the interaction that was previously available only in conversation. What has made it possible for a physical network of equiptment to interact with its human user is the marriage of telecommunication with computer logic. This coupling is acheived in part by attaching what could also be stand-alone computers to the network and in part by incorperating digital logic into the telecommunications system itself." 57 - " A second factor in the marriage of telecommunications with computation is the use of 'distribution logic.' In the 1960s it was not clear the way of the future lay in this direction....[Idea of big computers] What followed ... 58 - "The predicition that the growth of minis would reduce communication was incorrect because it looked on computers as calculating machines. It focused too exclusivly on the internal economics of computation, on how much a particular set of calculations cost, adding together both computing bills and communications bills to do it. *It did not take account of what people would be using their computers for and the total costs involved in those activities.* *Specificly, it did not consider that a large part of what people use their computers for is communication.* For example, when the ARPANET (A R P A N) was developed, the expectation was that people would use it to take advanatge of especially good software that might be running on a computer elsewhere; people were expected to use it to do computations that they could not do at home. (7) There is little use of that kind because once users learn their own programs and machines, they rarely find it worthwhile to take the time to become familiar with another set that has its own special idiosycracies. But the ARPANET has been used a great deal. *It has been used for communication.* *It has created a community of scholars who work together and exchange experiences and information.*" 59 - "INERACTIVE AND INDIVIDUALIZED COMMUNICATION" "*In one way or another, the programmed logic that can be built into modern electronic communication is reducing in part the passive uniformity of masscommunication.* Just as computer-controlled assembly lines can vary the product in a way that would be prohibitivly expensive otherwise, so too computer-controlled media production can bring into the realm of economic feasibility kinds of communication that take some account of the individuals to whom they are addressed." 89 - "'...It would constitute the material beginning of a real World Brain.' (27) Wells foresaw that the encyclopedia might be a network; in 1936 he could not see how, and could not be sure. Fifty years later we can be. The first few ganglia of Wells' world brain already exist. Information retrieval has become a big business. The industry is also called electronic publishing, which probably describes it better, for it is the dissemination of information in electronic form..." Conclusions from page 260-262 that I have not typed in yet. Michael Hauben CC '95 |Write ME for the Fall'92 Amateur Computerist hauben@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu | Special Supplement on Usenet News called am893@cleveland.freenet.edu | "The Wonderful World of Usenet News" ------------------------------ From: itstevec@hamlet.ucdavis.edu (Steve Chafe) Subject: Phase Noise Causing Garbage at 9600 bps Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 17:29:08 GMT Hello, Has anyone tried to find the cause of bursts of four or five garbage characters that appear randomly (ever few minutes to every few hours) on a 9600 bps data call that does not have error correction in effect? We are seeing similar characters each time the noise happens -- often a question mark ? or a hat ^ . The fact that the same characters come up often suggests that it is not from random electromagnetic noise. It may be phase noise from the central office switching equipment. If anyone has experience troubleshooting this type of noise, I would love to hear your opinions! Also -- does anyone know if there exist minimum requirements for phase hits on a switched voice telephone call? Thanks, Steve Chafe Communications Resources itstevec@hamlet.ucdavis.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 10:22:00 PST From: reb@ingres.com (Phydeaux) Subject: 1.2 Watt Handheld Cellphone I've seen advertisements for a 1.2 watt Blaupunkt handheld cellphone. I thought the limit was .6watts. What's going on here? reb ------------------------------ Subject: X-10 Phone Interface TR551 From: fred@page6.pinetree.org (Fred Ennis) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 20:11:41 -0500 Organization: Page 6, Ottawa, Ontario +1 613-729-9451 I have the X-10 telephone interface, and I need to modify it. I have a 1A2 key system at home, and I want to take my intercom line which has battery on it for a talk path, and use the DTMF tones to trigger the interface, allowing me to control X-10 modules from any of the keysets simply by depressing the intercom line and dialing the activating digits. The TR551 as it comes "out of the box" answers the phone, waits for a minute or two, and then hangs up. I need to know if someone has been able to modify the TR551 to always monitor the phone line, and respond if there is a DTMF signal that needs to be processed. Failing that, does anyone know of a reasonably priced DTMF decoder that will happily sit on a line with battery, and wait for the tones, and then send them out decoded to 1 thru 0 (as opposed to outputs that go high for each of the two tones). I will gratefully accept email from kind comp.dcom.telecom readers on this one. Cheers! Fred Ennis, fred@page6.pinetree.org ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: AT&T Acquisitions (was Cellular System A and B Info Wanted) Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 03:47:54 GMT In article TELECOM Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: Well you have to remember a history lesson here. > AT&T often used to accuse MCI of 'skimming the cream', but seventy > years ago, the Mother Company was the biggest cream skimmer around.... (much text omitted) > Then comes the 1950's and the farmers finally got their > REA mortgages paid off. For the first time in a quarter-century the > telephone cooperatives started making profits with no debt service > monkeys on their back. Bingo, all of a sudden AT&T decides to start > buying them up, 'in order to modernize the system'. Nice story, Pat. But I'm not so sure of its preciseness. Back in 1912, AT&T entered into the "Kingsbury" agreement, in which they were granted the right to monopoly local service in exchange for which a) independents had access to AT&T toll, and b) they could acquire no more territory. Prior to 1912, AT&T had skimmed the cream, but that left several thousand independents, and of course the REA helped grow more in the '30s. So due to Kingsbury, when the farmers sold out, they couldn't sell out to Mother. They sold out to GTE, they sold out to Contel, they sold out to TDS, they sold out to United (now Sprint), they sold out to their neighbors, but AT&T was not allowed to buy them. Indeed the first new "Bell" territory in over seven decades was the section of El Paso County, Colorado just east of Colorado Springs that US West bought in 1984. US West was no longer bound by its predecessor's limitations (but had more of its own!), and NASA was contemplating a big complex in eastern El Paso. Since then, Bells have done a bit more acquisition, but GTE has done the most. Or at least that's the way I remember it. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu (Ted Koppel) Subject: Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries Organization: CARL Systems Inc, Denver, Colo. Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 04:02:15 GMT I am hoping that the creature that I desire exists in the archives, in machine readable form, but I'll be thrilled to accept pointers in the direction of printed sources for the information I require. For one of our applications in which we make a large number overseas long distance calls, it will be useful to be able to identify all the country codes (this part is easy) and to the extent possible the city/area/region codes within each country code. I don't care about prefixes within a city, just the fact that within France (for instance) the city code for Lyon is 7 and the city code for Nice is 93. Does such a creaature exist? Would AT&T, or Sprint, or someone else have collected this (even if it were a marketing tool, the information is what's important!)? Thanks, Ted Koppel -- ted@carl.org or tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu [Moderator's Note: You bet we have it! Check out the Telecom Archives using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu (login anonymous, use name@site as your password, then 'cd telecom-archives' and 'cd country.codes'. You will find the results of much effort by Dave Leibold and Carl Moore in exactly the form you desire. Hundreds of countries, thousands of cities in the country lists. Then from the main archives directory, you should also go to the sub-directory of Canadian area codes and prefixes, also detailed by the same gentlemen. Finally, from the main archives direc- tory, get a copy of 'areacode.guide', the 'npa.809' files and whatever else you see with reference tables, etc. Then send a note to Dave and Carl thanking them for their hard and continuing work on this. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dkrause@miami.acs.uci.edu (Doug Krause) Subject: 10-ATT-0 and COCOTs Organization: University of California, Irvine Date: 16 Mar 93 09:32:39 GMT I found a pay phone in Texas that would not accept 10-ATT-0 to get me on the AT&T network. Isn't that illegal? If so, where should I report this? Douglas Krause djkrause@uci.edu University of California, Irvine [Moderator's Note: Yes it is illegal to block 10xxx codes from any phones in a 'transient environment', meaning hotels, university dorms, pay phones and a few other cases. It is not illegal to block 10xxx in non-transient environments like employer PBX's. Where should you report it? You can try muttering to yourself, that might be the best bottom line. You can report it to the FCC, and you can report it to Mother; she in particular wants to hear about it, but I've reported a few and nothing ever seems to change. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Brian Strasshiem Subject: Motorola's Iridium Project Information Wanted Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 21:33:50 GMT Organization: University of Illinois Hello there, I am desperately seeking information regarding Motorola's Iridium Project. I have mostly been scourging through magazines and electronic bulletins regarding this subject. I would really appreciate detailed information or suggestions on where I may find information. Also of interest are potential competitors to Iridium, frequency allocations, collaboration with PCN's, and security issues surrounding satellite transmissions. Many thanks in advance. Brian Strassheim ------------------------------ From: badri@rags.rutgers.edu (Br Badrinath) Subject: Mobile Computing Day at Rutgers Date: 16 Mar 93 23:30:07 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. MOBILE COMPUTING DAY 9:30 - 4:00, April 12, 1993, CoRE Building, Busch Campus, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey WINLAB and the Computer Science Department at Rutgers invite you to attend Mobile Computing Day, the first event in a series of informal gatherings of researchers. Mobile computing research attracts people with a variety of backgrounds including computer science, telecomm- unications, and microelectronics. On April 12, we will learn about work in progress and hear a variety of expert opinions on future directions. Attendance will be limited and there will be a nominal $50 registration fee to cover lunch and other expenses. The theme on April 12 will be: What is Mobile Computing? Is it a New Field? Here is the tentative agenda. Titles of talks will be announced soon: 9:30 Opening Remarks and Introductions (say a few words about your background and current work) 10:15 D.Goodman (Rutgers WINLAB) 10:45 Coffee Break 11:00 R. Woolf (Bellcore) 11:45 Lunch 1:00 T.Imielinski (Rutgers WINLAB) 1:45 D. Duchamp (Columbia) 2:30 Panel "Is Mobile Computing a New Research Area?" 4:00 Adjourn To register for Mobile Computing Day (or to be notified of future events) please contact: E-mail: Tomasz Imielinski imielins@cs.rutgers.edu Fax: WINLAB 908-932-3693 Mail: Melissa Gelfman, WINLAB, Box 909, Piscataway, NJ, 08855-0909. Phone: WINLAB 908-932-0283 If you send us $50 now (payable to WINLAB), things will go smoother on April 12. Looking forward to seeing you on Mobile Computing Day. David Goodman -and- Tomasz Imielinski ------------------------------ From: eric@ursula.ee.pdx.edu (Eric Berggren) Subject: ATM Information/White Paper/Newsgroup Wanted Date: 17 Mar 1993 02:29:20 GMT I am seeking the definative guide to ATM networking. "What is it precisely and how it works" type information. Pointers to the relavent groups/guides welcome. Thanks, Eric Berggren Computer Action Team eric@ee.pdx.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #184 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa26474; 17 Mar 93 19:43 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29030 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 17 Mar 1993 16:58:37 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18772 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 17 Mar 1993 16:58:01 -0600 Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 16:58:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303172258.AA18772@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #185 TELECOM Digest Wed, 17 Mar 93 16:58:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 185 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson LCI International: A New Long Distance Choice (Brent Whitlock) Consolidating Cellular Sprint Account With Other Phones (Brent Whitlock) My LD Carrier Changed Again! (Timothy E. Buchanan) Modems Get Hung; Testing Advice Wanted (Doug Barr) George Gilder Strikes Again (Robert L. McMillin) Odd Crossed Connection Story (Michael J. Saletnik) MCI 800 Problem (RISKS via Monty Solomon) Need Auto-Dialer (Wayne Jones) IXO (TAP) With Motorola ADVISOR Pager (Andy Rubin) Need Phone Fraud Help (Doug Smith) Book Review: Toll Fraud and Telabuse (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: LCI International: A New Long Distance Choice Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 17:31:25 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Recently, LCI International has been advertising in the Champaign-Urbana, Illinois area for long distance service. Their main marketing point is that they have easy to understand pricing plans. They advertise that their "Simple, Fair, and Inexpensive" residential plan (their only residential plan) costs $0.17 per minute 6 am to 6 pm, and $0.12 per minute 6 pm to 6 am. They are based in the Columbus, Ohio area and have been marketing in Rockford and Peoria, Illinois recently. According to an article in the Tuesday, March 9 edition of {The Champaign-Urbana News Gazette}, their goal is 2% of the long distance market. (AT&T has 60.3%, MCI has 17%, and Sprint has 10%, according to the same source.) Does anyone know more details on whether or not they have good connections, how long does it take to complete a call through them, if their customer service is any good, what they use to carry their telephone traffic (do they just resell AT&T connections?), or any other information to compare them with the big three carriers? For those interested, the number listed in the article for more information on their residential service was 1-800-860-1217. * * * * * * --> DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself. <-- * * * * * * Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology bwhitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ From: bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: Consolidating Cellular Sprint Account With Other Phones Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 17:23:09 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana oppedahl@Panix.Com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: > Another difference that obtains here in New York, and I expect in most > other places too, is that the B carriers (due to the MFJ restrictions > imposed after the Bell breakup) are obligated to let you pick which > long-distance carrier you use, while the A's are not. > This has practical consequences. Suppose I want to use Sprint long > distance, either because I find it to have clearer line quality or > because I can get it consolidated-billed with my other Sprint calls. > Then I cannot use the A carrier, as they are in bed with AT&T. Concerning the hypothetical reference to having Sprint long distance on a mobile phone consolidated-billed with other Sprint calls, I am afraid that this cannot be done. I tried to have my Sprint LD for my cellular phone consolidated on the same account as the Sprint LD for my home phone (and my calling cards,) but the Sprint Customer Service Rep. said they could not do that. :-( I hope they change that soon. * * * * * * --> DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself. <-- * * * * * * Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology bwhitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ From: buchanan@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (BUCHANAN TIMOTHY E) Subject: My LD Carrier Changed Again! Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 15:54:44 GMT About 15 months ago I moved back to Colorado from Puerto Rico, where I had worked on contract for three years. I chose ATT as my carrier. Soon after, I received a notice from Sprint, with whom I had a FONE-card, saying my card had been cancelled but I could call to receive a new one. I did and regret it. A few weeks later I got a card from ATT, saying my dialing plan was being cancelled, as I had _changed_ carriers and had no use for it. I did not authorize any such change. It took some time to get things back where I wanted them, and I returned the card to Sprint with a note saying that I wanted nothing further to do with their company. This was about a year ago. Last week, from out of the blue I got another letter from Sprint, thanking me, etc, and enclosing new card! Sprint claims that they did not request the change, but that US West sent them a "tape update" which they processed. US West says that it is Sprint who sends them the tape. Who is right here? US West now says they will put me on "Supreme Protect", which will prevent a LD provider from changing my carrier w/o my authorization. I thought I had that anyway, but I guess not. Maybe we should _all_ call our local RB and ask for the "Supreme Protect"? Timothy ------------------------------ From: barr@tramp.Colorado.EDU (BARR DOUG) Subject: Modems Get Hung; Testing Advice Wanted Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 16:31:17 GMT We have some dial in modems that "hang". They require power cycling to reset them. I am interested in testing our setup and see if I can find the problem (they are NEC modems). Is there any book on modem and telephone line testing? Any good test equipment? Could it be the analog phone lines and/or the way the users are disconnecting? Could it be anything other than the modems? [Moderator's Note: If you are using the traditional three plusses +++ as your modem attention getter, the problem may be that most of your users are using the same thing. When the user issues the three plusses, they go to your computer which echoes them back to the user, but they are seen by your modem as well. As they are passed through back to the user, your modem acts on them also and sits there patiently, waiting for someone on *your end* to give it ATO or whatever. The user uses the three plusses to get his modem's attention and give an ATH or ATZ, disconnecting him while leaving your modem in limbo, refusing to answer further incoming calls. Your users complain 'the modem is not answering', you find it apparently 'hung', and recycle power. You might try giving it ATZ instead to see if it simply disconnects and resets at that point ... it could have been waiting all afternoon for you to arrive! Try setting your attention sequence to something unusual such as three tildes ~ or three carots ^, etc. ASCII CHR$(127) is my choice for my modem. Even if the user does not disconnect but merely 'three-plusses' to check something out, he won't get control of *your modem* back with his ATO ... your modem won't be listening to him at that point. Just a suggestion; I've seen this many times. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 08:53:12 -0800 From: rlm@indigo2.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: George Gilder Strikes Again Ok, TELECOMer's, run off to your favorite newsstand and get a copy of {Forbes}. The cover story in {Forbes: ASAP} is an article about telephony and wireless communication by George Gilder. You'll like it, I promise. Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@indigo2.hac.com After April 2 : rlm@mcgort.com or rlm@surfcty.com ------------------------------ From: msaletni@jade.tufts.edu (Michael J. Saletnik) Subject: Odd Crossed Connection Story Organization: Tufts University - Medford, MA Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 14:14:12 GMT This situation happened to me a few weeks ago, and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me just what happened. I was at home when my phone rang. I was standing near it and immediately picked it up. I heard my friend talking, but not to me. It sounded as if he had dialed the phone, then turned his head to talk to the people in his house. So I said hello. I shouted hello. He didn't hear me. After a moment I realized that I was hearing just *his* side of a conversation with his mother. After a few moments, I hung up and called him. He has call waiting, so he picked up and I told him that he'd rung my phone and so on. He didn't believe me, but I repeated part of his conversation, and he was shocked. Apparently, he had been about to call me when his mother called him. I don't know the exact sequence of his dialing my number and his phone ringing and my phone ringing, unfortunately, but I was hoping someone could explain just what the heck happened that tapped me into half of his conversation. This is with New England Telephone in the Greater Boston area; he has call waiting, I do not. Thanks, Michael J. Saletnik, Tufts University E'91 G'93 michael@binkley.ext.tufts.edu msaletni@pearl.tufts.edu TA & Manager of Computer Resources, Dept. of Civil Engineering ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 15:12:22 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: MCI 800 Problem Excerpt from RISKS DIGEST 14.40 Date: 10 Mar 93 13:28:00 EST From: "MARCHANT-SHAPIRO, ANDREW" Subject: MCI 800 problem Some time ago, my parents (who live in another state) decided that, if they were going to hear their grandchildrens' voices, they needed to get a personal 800 number from MCI. The personal 800 scheme works like this: each household is assigned a unique 800 number (I'm told), and an access code (4 digits). As a precaution against abuse, when you dial the 800 number you get a message telling you to enter your code. Only callers who enter the correct code get connected, so no massive dialing scheme advertising holiday resorts (etc) can exploit the users' willingness to pay for incoming calls. I promptly programmed my parents' number and the code on adjacent buttons of my phone and left it at that. I would just hit the first button, wait for the announcement (voice-mail style) and hit the second button. This worked, until a little over a month ago. At that point, after I hit the second button I was asked to wait, and an operator came on the line and asked for my code. The first time this happened, I refused to give the code (since I had forgotten it (!)). A moment later, it apparently showed on the operator's console, and I was put through. I thought this was an aberration, but at no time after the first event was I able to get directly through, without talking to an operator. I thought their equipment might not be able to handle the high speed dialer, so I relearned the code and punched it in myself. Still no go. I tried from my office. Same thing. Finally, last week, I managed to get the operator to switch me to a technical representative. This individual and I discussed what was happening, and the rep told me that he knew of another case where much the same thing had happened. I then asked if they had changed or upgraded their system software lately. Long pause. "Why yes, we did, just about a month ago." I suggested they check things out, and was promised a report. Well, a couple of days later the system WORKED! And it has not failed again since. I have not received a report (nor a consulting fee from MCI), but I suspect that MCI's upgrade of their personal 800 system included some, uh, 'features' of which they weren't aware. They may have gone back to the old software, or they may have just fixed MY problem. I don't know which. But I am certain that the origin of the problem had to do with a programming error in MCI's hardware/software, and this raises the issue of other errors that might be out there. Should MCI employ beta testers? That would be my suggestion. They could pay people like me to make trial calls at, say, 3:00 AM CST, just to make sure the system worked as advertised. Hey, in a world where most people can't program an MS-DOS .BAT file, you need to check! Andrew Marchant-Shapiro, Sociology and Political Science Depts., Union College Schenectady NY 12308 518-370-6225 marchana@gar.union.edu marchana@union.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 14:41:49 MST From: jones@sunspot.noao.edu (Wayne Jones) Subject: Need Auto-Dialer I am looking for an auto-dialer with >10 number list, answer detection before playback and programmable number of repeats. Prefer digital message storage. Where would I find something like this? Any info appreciated. Wayne Jones National Solar Observatory jones@sunspot.noao.edu Sunspot, NM 88349 ------------------------------ From: arubin@Apple.COM (Android Rubin) Subject: IXO (TAP) With Motorola ADVISOR Pager Date: 16 Mar 93 22:10:25 GMT Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA I'm looking for the control-character spec for the motorola Advisor pager. I would like to know what special characters must be sent to enable silent pages, and to have pages from an information service show up in the proper bin. (ie, second display line). If anyone has the details, or knows where I can get them, could you please drop me an e-mail? Thanks. Andy arubin@apple.com ------------------------------ From: dougs@david.wheaton.edu (Doug Smith - SGA) Subject: Need Phone Fraud Help Organization: Wheaton College Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 15:02:08 GMT My company was a recent target of PBX fraud. Someone figured out how to exploit a bug to allow dial out after calling in on our 800 number. I patched the hole but we are left with about $4000 in phone bills. I realize that most of the calls came from payphones in New York. However, between our 800 number bill detail and our call accounting logs we might have the original hacker's call detail. The problem is I can't get any assistance from the phone company (AT&T). I have talked with their security division but the majority of people I talk to don't have a clue what is going on. They try to categorize it with harrassment calls from individuals who have no technical knowledge. Has anyone been through this that might have suggestions on where to go next? I'd like to find out if any of the numbers in our log are not pay phones so I know if there is anything to pursue. I haven't found anyone at AT&T willing to look up the numbers and tell me what they are. Thanks in advance for your help. Doug Smith dougs@sga.uucp or ...wheaton.wheaton.edu!sga!dougs [Moderator's Note: Something I received recently touches on this very topic. See the final message in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Book Review: Toll Fraud and Telabuse Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 12:00:00 CST Recently I was introduced through the mail to John J. Haugh, a very knowledgeable person where toll fraud is concerned. With three associates, Robert E. Burney, Gregory L. Dean and Lawrence H. Tisch, Mr. Haugh last year published a monumental work, "Toll Fraud and Telabuse", a two-volume publication covering toll fraud in great detail and how to spot it and/or prevent it. The book discusses not only the technical aspects of toll fraud, but the legal aspects as well such as who is responsible, and the type of stance victims might take with their carrier to resolve the problem. The 'telabuse' side of the report discusses the huge amount of unauthorized long distance calling done by employees authorized to use their employer's phone for business purposes and how employers can deal with it and the unauthor- ized use of other employer resources such as fax machines, etc. Over 400 pages of precise technical details on how hackerphreaks penetrate your PBX, voicemail, DISA and other remote access lines to rip you off ... detailed discussions of cellular fraud, fraud against COCOT operators, telephone fraud by prisoners in correctional centers, and credit card fraud. Volume 2 includes several case histories, the contacts to make in law enforcement agencies investigating toll fraud, a complete list of federal and state statutes dealing with toll fraud, and much more. Haugh's book received rave reviews from several telecom industry publications, and I don't mind adding my own voice to the many praising his work. Haugh also talks about the 'politics' of toll fraud; why companies are reluctant to make changes required to prevent it and how telephone companies cover up the problem when it occurred as a result of a telco employee's dishonesty. The book is frank, and the authors do not mince words when they discuss telco policies regards toll fraud. The price is $270, and while that is not inexpensive, all you need is one good raid by some phreaks accompanied with a phone bill that arrives via UPS in a box one month to pay the cost. It is soft cover, 8.5" x 11". Mr. Haugh's firm, Telecommunications Advisors, Inc. also publishes a bi-monthly journal entitled "Telecommunications and Network Security Review" which continues the discussion started in the book published last year. The subscription price is $170 per year. Haugh, his firm and his associates seem like good people to get to know. No doubt they can assist with toll fraud investigations and prosecutions, and their printed material is among the best 'self help' material I have seen. Telecommunications Advisors, Inc. One S.W. Columbia Street #500 Portland, OR 97258 Phone: 503-227-7878 or 800-435-7878 Fax: 503-227-4144 Include a VISA/MC/AMEX number if you wish to charge your purchase. If you want more detailed information, ask for the brochure and a sample copy of the first issue of their Review. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #185 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa14656; 18 Mar 93 5:23 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17258 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 18 Mar 1993 02:37:36 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29962 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 18 Mar 1993 02:37:01 -0600 Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 02:37:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303180837.AA29962@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #186 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 Mar 93 02:37:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 186 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson New Information on 2600 Case (Dave Banisar) Network Culture (Daniel Drucker) Fraud Prevention Seminar (Hector O. Myerston) Bell Canada Payphone Charges (J.Harrison) Yet Another White House Address (Paul Robinson) 1-800-TADPOLE Wanted! Help Find 'Touch America' (Jim Thompson) Data and Voice on Same Fibre (Tim Guay) TDDs and Modem Standards (Ken Thompson) Industrial Strength Caller-ID Boxes (Brian Hall) People, Not Profits (Alan T. Furman) Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Scott D. Fybush) National Geographic Note on Hurricane Andrew (Carl Moore) CHILL Information Wanted (Harald Vogt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Organization: CPSR Civil Liberties and Computing Project From: Dave Banisar Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 20:59:03 EST Subject: New Info on 2600 Case One month after being sued under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Secret Service has officially acknowledged that it possesses "information relating to the breakup of a meeting of individuals at the Pentagon City Mall in Arlington, Virginia." The admission, contained in a letter to Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), confirms widespread suspicions that the agency played a role in the detention and search of individuals affiliated with "2600" Magazine at the suburban Washington mall on November 6, 1992. CPSR filed suit against the Secret Service on February 4 after the agency failed to respond to the organization's FOIA request within the statutory time limit. In its recent response, the Secret Service released copies of three news clippings concerning the Pentagon City incident but withheld other information "because the documents in the requested file contain information compiled for law enforcement purposes." While the agency asserts that it possesses no "documentation created by the Secret Service chronicling, reporting, or describing the breakup of the meeting," it does admit to possessing "information provided to the Secret Service by a confidential source which is information relating to the breakup of [the] meeting." Federal agencies classify other law enforcement agencies and corporate entities, as well as individuals, as "confidential sources." The propriety of the Secret Service's decision to withhold the material will be determined in CPSR's pending federal lawsuit. A copy of the agency's letter is reprinted below. David L. Sobel dsobel@washofc.cpsr.org Legal Counsel (202) 544-9240 (voice) CPSR Washington Office (202) 547-5481 (fax) ************************************************ DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE MAR 5 1993 920508 David L. Sobel Legal Counsel Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility 666 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E. Suite 303 Washington, D.C. 20003 Dear Mr. Sobel: This is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for access to "copies of all records related to the breakup of a meeting of individuals affiliated with "2600 Magazine" at the Pentagon City Mall in Arlington, Virginia on November 6, 1992." Enclosed, please find copies of materials which are responsive to your request and are being released to you in their entirety. Other information has been withheld because the documents in the requested file contain information compiled for law enforcement purposes. Pursuant to Title 5, United States Code, Section 552(b)(7)(A); (C); and (D), the information has been exempted since disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings; could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy to other persons; and could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source and/or information furnished by a confidential source. The citations of the above exemptions are not to be construed as the only exemptions that are available under the Freedom of Information Act. In regard to this matter it is, however, noted that your FOIA request is somewhat vague and very broadly written. Please be advised, that the information being withheld consists of information provided to the Secret Service by a confidential source which is information relating to the breakup of a meeting of individuals at the Pentagon City Mall in Arlington, Virginia, and, therefore, appears to be responsive to your request as it was written. If, however, the information you are seeking is information concerning the Secret Service's involvement in the breakup of this meeting, such as any type of documentation created by the Secret service chronicling, reporting, or describing the breakup of the meeting, please be advised that no such information exists. If you disagree with our determination, you have the right of administrative appeal within 35 days by writing to Freedom of Information Appeal, Deputy Director, U. S. Secret Service, 1800 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20223. If you choose to file an administrative appeal, please explain the basis of your appeal. Sincerely, /Sig/ Melvin E. Laska ATSAIC Freedom of Information & Privacy Acts Officer Enclosure ------------------------------ From: xyzzy@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Daniel Drucker) Subject: Network Culture Date: 17 Mar 1993 20:09:17 -0500 Organization: dis If anyone has anything to contribute to the following, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm a high school student who's trying to educate people about the network's culture. The following is being posted in various places, muds, newsgroups. I am creating a professional video about the Network's culture, highlighting, among other things, Usenet. I'd like to make alt.folklore.computers a part of it, considering how we are really a group about network/computer culture. If you would like to appear in it, send a VHS tape of yourself, talking about why you enjoy the network; be specific, talk about your involvement. It would be appreciated if you could first have someone videotape you talking, sitting still, and THEN videotape you, say, in front of the computer for a few minutes. We will put the audio on top of the best video. Tip: remember to start the tape rolling at least five seconds before you start talking. Send your videotape, labeled with name, address, email to: Schreiber High School TV STUDIO -- Daniel Drucker. 101 Campus Drive Port Washington, NY 11050. Include return postage, and we will place the final production on your tape and send it to you. The production will be aired on Channel 25 on Long Island. The production will be edited in the Schreiber Studio, a $200,000 studio including 4 SVHS, 3 3/4 in, and one videodisk recorder, full SEG system, and the NewTEK video Toaster running on an Amiga 4000. The production will be mastered on 3/4 inch tape and duped on standard or super VHS. If you don't have access to a video camera, send an audio tape and photograph or three. We will use ANYTHING and (almost) EVERYTHING we get. Thanks, Daniel Drucker N2SXX xyzzy@gnu.ai.mit.edu und2dzd@vaxc.hofstra.edu ------------------------------ From: myerston@sri.com (Hector O Myerston) Subject: Fraud Prevention Seminar Date: 17 Mar 93 21:19:31 GMT Organization: SRI International Golden Gate University, in association with the San Francisco Bay Area of the Tele-Communications Association (TCA), is sponsoring a one day seminar on TOLL FRAUD. (They are against it! :-)) Date/Time: March 31 9:00AM to 4:00PM Location: Golden Gate University, Southbay Campus 5050 El Camino Los Altos, CA Cost: $100 ($75 for TCA members) Information/Registration: (415) 961-3000 or (408) 749-1699 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 18:58:55 +0000 From: J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl.co.uk Subject: Bell Canada Payphone Charges I'm mad with Bell Canada. I wanted to use a payphone one night recently to make a call from Smith's Falls, Ontario, to Utica, NY (a distance of about 300 miles at the most). I'm mad because: - You can't direct dial the number! (I dialed the right number but the operator pops up out of nowhere and starts handling the call). I didn't realise who she was at first (thought I had reached a wrong number), and she treated me like complete dirt. It's a while since I used a North American payphone and I forgot this happens, but I was amazed it still does. How much intelligence does a phone need anyway just to take your money? - It's cash or nothing. If you're not a US or Canadian resident you're unlikely to have an acceptable phone company credit card. OK it's not that unreasonable that Bell would/could not charge my British Telecom card, but what else is a tourist supposed to do? No pre-paid cards available in newsstands like in many countries, and there aren't too many of the Visa-accepting payphones that I saw later in larger cities. - Cost. The operator wanted $2.35 (Canadian) per minute. I was thinking of maybe a 10-minute call, and the largest piece of money that would go in this Bell Canada ugly tin box was 25 cents. So I would have needed a bucketful of quarters, plus it is really expensive -- I could call NY cheaper from London! From a UK (Mercury) payphone the cheapest rate is #1.17 (roughly $1.95) per minute, and _that_ is for 3600 miles of call. I guess I'm telling readers nothing they don't already know. I just wanted to let off steam and Bell Canada if you're reading this I think you could take a good look at fixing your phone system. Joe Harrison Phone: +44-344-480013 | ICL Ltd. Bracknell S=Harrison/I=J/O=icl/P=icl/A=gold 400/C=GB | Berkshire RG12 1BD J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl.co.uk | United Kingdom [Moderator's Note: I'm sorry to hear about your experience. While some (maybe most?) pay phones in the United States do connect with a robot to collect cash if you dial 1+ or get billing information if you dial 0+, some places still require an operator to come on the line for either purpose. Maybe that is the case in Canada. It is too bad you got one who was rude, but that is not all that uncommon either it seems. I think the operator should have accepted your British Telecom calling card; this is an acceptable card in the USA at least, although perhaps to use it the call has to go back to the UK; I am not sure of the technicalities. By definition, pay phone calls cannot be 'direct dialed' at the lower rates since an operator's intervention -- even a robot operator -- is required to prompt for payment or billing infor- mation. Calls between the USA and Canada are expensive. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 12:17:50 -0500 (EST) From: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Yet Another White House Address MCI Mail announced yet another E-Mail address for messages to be sent to the White House. It stated in the note that messages sent to the address would be sent as paper mail to the White House via the USPS, rather than as E-Mail. The implication, since the usual charge for individual messages is 50c for the first 500 characters, that this could conceivably be something that the White House is paying for, since MCI Mail permits "autoforward- ing" of a message sent to a mailbox to be sent to a fax number, another E-Mail address or a Paper Mail address. If MCI is doing this to encourage MCI Mail subscribers to send messages, then messages from users on Internet will almost certainly either bounce or not be sent. I encourage people on Internet to try sending a message to the address supplied by MCI Mail for messages to the White House to see what happens. I guess that's all I need to say. OH YES! You need the E-Mail address, don't you? :) 0005895485@MCIMAIL.COM Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM [Moderator's Note: If payment is required from the sender, then indeed the mail will bounce back. Remember how in the early days of the gate- ways between the Internet and the commercial email services people on Internet were writing to !telex!number@attmail.com and !fax!number@ mcimail.com and the messages were going through? The services finally wised up to that and closed those loopholes. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 11:20:35 CST From: jim@tadpole.com (Jim Thompson) Subject: 1-800-TADPOLE Wanted! Help Locate 'Touch America' As you can see from the headers, I work for Tadpole Technology, Inc. Tadpole would really like to have '800 TADPOLE', (800 823 7653). Perusing the Telecom Archives, the 823 NXX is 'owned' (?) by a company called 'Touch America'. Has anyone heard of them? Any contact information for 'Touch America'? Also with 800 portability just around the corner, what will the situation be after May 1? Will I be able to call my favorite 800 vendor and say, "I'd like to have 800 823 7653." (If it is unassigned, of course.), or will I still need to call Touch America, and then 'move' the 800 service? Jim [Moderator's Note: Good question. I'd assume that with portability, the carrier which 'originally' owned the number (of course, originally everything was owned by Mother, but I mean post-divestiture) would have to be told the number was no longer available in their inventory (of unassigned numbers) so they would not sell it later on to one of their customers. Does anyone know the routine for portability yet; how one carrier will go about obtaining a number from another carrier on behalf of their customer? If you find out, let me know! I'm trying to sell the darn things! :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: guay@sfu.ca (Tim Guay) Subject: Data and Voice on the Same Fibre Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 00:09:40 GMT Hi, What options are available for running data and voice over the same fibre optic backbone? Is it worth doing, or is it best to pull two seperate fibre optic backbones? Thanks... Tim Guay, CMNS/REM SFU ------------------------------ From: Ken Thompson Subject: TDDs and Modem Standards Date: 17 Mar 93 17:43:52 GMT Organization: NCR Corporation Wichita, KS Are TDD's compatable with any modem standard? Ken Thompson N0ITL NCR Corp. Peripheral Products Division Disk Array Development 3718 N. Rock Road Wichita KS 67226 (316)636-8783 Ken.Thompson@wichitaks.ncr.com ------------------------------ From: Brian.Hall@f-454.fidonet.org (Brian Hall) Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 18:01:46 -0600 Subject: Industrial Strength Caller-ID Boxes I'm looking for some "industrial strength" caller-ID (which will hopefully be available in Texas soon) boxes ... what I'd really like would be one box that can monitor several lines (at least three, maybe six) and preferably dump the output to a printer (once a day, maybe?). I'd need to record at least the last 100 calls (name, number, time and date), preferably 200. Worst case, I'd settle for a single box that can save the last 100 names/numbers/times/dates, but I'd prefer a paper copy. I don't really want to dedicate a PC to each line to do this. Is there anything like this on the market? Thanks, Brian Origin: MacEndeavour (713) 640-1298 Houston, TX NRA Life Member (1:106/6268) ------------------------------ From: atfurman@cup.portal.com Subject: People, Not Profits Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 21:28:36 PST According to a posting on misc.news.southasia, the following item appeared in the March 16 edition of the Deccan Herald (Bangalore, India): WAITING PERIOD FOR PHONES TO BE CUT NEW DELHI - The Govt plans to bring down the waiting period for telephones in metropolitan cities from about 15 years to two years during the eighth plan period (1992-97), the Lok Sabha was informed today. Alan T. Furman atfurman@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ From: fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) Subject: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 05:28:03 GMT That's just what one Massachusetts legislator wants to legislate. According to a radio report on WBZ Boston on 17 March [disclaimer: Yes, I work there; no, it wasn't my report; yes, I wish it had been], one Beacon Hill lawmaker says he's gotten fed up with drivers who miss the light turning green ... or weave all over the road ... because they have the phone to their ear! So he's proposing a bill that would make people pull over to use the cellphone. I suspect this one will get eaten alive by the cell companies' lobby- ists. Scott Fybush -- fybush@world.std.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 10:22:33 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: National Geographic Note on Hurricane Andrew (Sorry, I don't have much to say about last weekend's blizzard; I am aware of phone calls to my parents from scattered brothers and sisters.) This past weekend, I did see a National Geographic magazine article (latest issue?) about Hurricane Andrew. It pointed out that officials have to re-think reliance on radio and telephone, because of towers being knocked down and phone lines being jammed. ------------------------------ From: harald@cs.ruu.nl (Harald Vogt) Subject: CHILL Information Wanted Organization: Utrecht University, Dept. of Computer Science Hello, I am looking for information about the programming language CHILL. CHILL is used for programming phone switches. I am interested in the following items: o a formal specification of the language CHILL (is there a grammar for CHILL?), o tools available for manipulating CHILL, o programming environments for CHILL, o pointers to articles about CHILL, and o hints to get more info about CHILL. Any help is appreciated, Harald Vogt E-mail: harald@cs.ruu.nl ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #186 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27182; 19 Mar 93 2:00 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04747 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 18 Mar 1993 23:29:36 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19431 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 18 Mar 1993 23:28:30 -0600 Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 23:28:30 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303190528.AA19431@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #188 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 Mar 93 23:28:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 187 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Getting Information To And From the White House (Mark Boolootian) Call Waiting Options (Jack Decker) Cellular Battery Packs (Joe Harrison) Bell South Cordless Phone (Mark Steiger) Help With Choosing Cellular Phone (Yilmaz Cengeloglu) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: booloo@framsparc.ocf.llnl.gov (Mark Boolootian) Subject: Getting Information To And From the White House Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 08:08:53 -0800 (PST) GETTING INFORMATION TO AND FROM THE WHITE HOUSE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Updated March 12, 1993 A. HOW TO SIGN UP FOR ELECTRONIC RELEASES FROM THE WHITE HOUSE: The White House Communications office is distributing press releases over an experimental system developed during the campaign. You can sign up to receive press releases on this experimental system by using the automated computer server. You will be carried forward onto the system that replaces it. However, it would be appreciated if you used this service sparingly at this time. The present system was not designed to handle high levels of message traffic. In due course, a more powerful system will be available. You can also find copies of the press releases in certain on-line bulletin board groups devoted to discussions of either national politics in general or President Clinton in particular. 1. On USENET/NETNEWS, electronic publications are found on a variety of groups: Direct Distribution alt.politics.clinton alt.politics.org.misc alt.politics.reform alt.politics.usa.misc alt.news-media alt.activism talk.politics.misc Indirect Distribution misc.activism.progressive cmu.soc.politics assocs.clinton-gore-92 2. On CompuServe: GO WHITEHOUSE 3. On America Online: keyword WHITEHOUSE or THE WHITEHOUSE or CLINTON 4. On The WELL: type whitehouse 5. On MCI: type VIEW WHITE HOUSE If you don't have access to the these accounts or if you would prefer to receive the releases via e-mail, then the next section details how to sign up for this service. The server is not set up to answer e-mail letters, comments or requests for specific information. To reach this server, send e-mail: to: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org subject: Help The server works by reading the subject line of the incoming message and taking whatever action that line calls for. If you want to sign up to automatically receive press releases, then your subject line would begin with the word RECEIVE. You can then specify what kind of information you are interested in receiving. The categories of information are: ECONOMIC POLICY Get releases related to the economy such as budget news, technology policy review, etc. FOREIGN POLICY Get releases related to foreign policy such as statements on Bosnian airdrop, Haitian refugee status, etc. SOCIAL POLICY Get releases related to social issues like National Service (Student Loan) program, abortion, welfare reform, etc. SPEECHES All speeches made by the President and important speeches made by other Administration officials. NEWS Transcripts of press conferences released by the White House Communications office, as well as the President's remarks in photo ops and other Q&A sessions. ALL All of the above So, if you wanted to sign up to get releases related to the economy your e-mail message would look like this: To: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org Subject: RECEIVE ECONOMY When you send a signup message to the clinton-info server, it sends you back a status message letting you know what distribution streams you are signed up for. If you ever want to check on what groups you are signed up for send the following message: To: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org Subject: STATUS You can stop receiving e-mail releases by sending a REMOVE message to the clinton-info server. The word REMOVE would be followed by whatever distribution stream you wanted to drop. If you wanted to stop receiving message about the ECONOMY then your mail would look like this: To: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org Subject: REMOVE ECONOMY You could substitute SOCIAL, FOREIGN, SPEECHES, NEWS or ALL for ECONOMY in the above message and you would be dropped from that distribution list. If you send the subject line REMOVE ALL, then you will be taken off the e-mail distribution system all together and will not receive further releases of any kind. You can also ask for help from the automated server. Send an e-mail query as follows: To: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org Subject: HELP The server will respond by sending you a detailed form that will guide you through the process of signing up for the various distribution streams. B. ARE THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS RELEASES BEING ARCHIVED? Yes. Various sites are archiving the press releases. What follows is an incomplete list of some of the sites containing the documents that have been released to date. This FAQ will be updated to reflect new sites as they become known. SITE DIRECTORY 1. SUNSITE.UNC.EDU /HOME3/WAIS/WHITE-HOUSE-PAPERS 2. FTP.CCO.CALTECH.EDU /PUB/BJMCCALL 3. FTP MARISTB.MARIST.EDU 4. CPSR.ORG /CPSR/CLINTON 5. FedWorld BBS 703-321-8020 8-N-1 Notes: The following are notes on how to log in and get information from the above sites. 1. Office FOR Information Technology at University of North Carolina Maintains the full collection of White House electronic release available for search with WAIS. (:source :version 3 :database-name "/home3/wais/White-House-Papers" :ip- address "152.2.22.81" :ip-name "sunsite.unc.edu" :tcp-port 210 :cost 0.00 :cost-unit :free :maintainer "pjones@sunsite.unc.edu" :description "Server created with WAIS release 8 b5 on Feb 27 15:16:16 1993 by pjones@sunsite.unc.edu These are the White House Press Briefings and other postings dealing with William Jefferson Clinton and Abert Gore as well as members of the President's Cabinet and the first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chelsea, Socks and others in Washington DC. Dee Dee Meyers and George Stephanopoulos. Other good words: United States of America, Bill Al Tipper Democrats USA US These files are also available via anonymous ftp from sunsite.unc.edu The files of type filename used in the index were: /home3/ftp/pub/academic/political-science/whitehouse- papers/1993 ") Folks without WAIS clients or gophers that act as WAIS clients may telnet to sunsite.unc.edu and login as swais to access this information via WAIS. 2. No special instructions. 3. The CLINTON@MARIST log files which contain all the official administration releases distributed through the MIT servers are available via anonymous FTP. These logs contain in addition to the official releases, the posts that comprise the ongoing discussion conducted by the list subscribers. To obtain the logs: FTP MARISTB.MARIST.EDU - the logs are in the CLINTON directory and are named CLINTON LOG9208 thru CLINTON LOGyymm where yymm stands for the current year and month. Problems should be directed to my attention: URLS@MARISTC.BITNET or URLS@VM.MARIST.EDU. Posted by Lee Sakkas - owner, CLINTON@MARIST 4. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is providing all Clinton documents on technology and privacy at the CPSR Internet Library, available via FTP/WAIS/Gopher at cpsr.org /cpsr/clinton (and in other folders as relevant). For email access, send a message with the word "help" at the 1st line of text to listserv@cpsr.org. 5. The White House Forum (GO WHITEHOUSE) on CompuServe is devoted to discussion of the Clinton administration's policies and activities. The forum's library consists of news releases and twice daily media briefings from the White House Office of Media Affairs. CompuServe members can exchange information and opinions with each other in the 17 sections in the forum's message area. The message board spans a broad range of topics, including international and United Nations activities, defense, health care, the economy and the deficit, housing and urban development, the environment, and education and national service. 6. On America Online the posts are sent to the White House Forum, located in the News & Finance department of the service and accessible via keywords "white house" and "clinton." The White House Forum on America Online contains the press releases from the White House, divided into the categories "Press Briefings," "Meetings & Speeches," "Foreign Policy," "The Economy," "Technology," "Health Care," and "Appointments." The area features a message board so you can discuss the releases with other AOL members, and a searchable database for easy retrieval of releases in the topic that interests you. 7. MCI Mail users can access daily information on the administration's programs provided by the White House through MCI Mail bulletin boards. The available boards are: WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC, WHITE HOUSE FOREIGN, WHITE HOUSE SOCIAL, WHITE HOUSE SPEECHES and WHITE HOUSE NEWS. A listing of these boards can also be obtained by simply typing VIEW WHITE HOUSE at the COMMAND prompt. C. SENDING E-MAIL TO THE WHITE HOUSE The White House e-mail system is under construction. This is a new project and suffers from all of the problems common to a startup operation. The Communications office is currently working on defining what this system will do, as well as trying to come up with equipment and staffing to make sure that it works. E-mail messages are currently being printed out and responses are being sent out via US Mail. Nobody wants this new venture to work more than the staff that has devoted so many hours to getting it up and running. But much time and effort will be required before the system is truly interactive. In the mean time, they will need a little patience from the electronic community. If you send a message to the White House, please include a US Post office address for replies. You can send e-mail to the following accounts: Compuserve: 75300,3115 GO: WHITE HOUSE finds White House forum America OnLine: clinton pz KEYWORD: WHITEHOUSE finds White House area MCI TO: WHITE HOUSE VIEW WHITE HOUSE views bulletin boards Internet: clinton-hq@Campaign92.Org 75300.3115@compuserve.com clintonpz@aol.com Please send corrections, deletion and additions to this faq to: Updates@Clinton92.Org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 01:05:02 EST From: ac388@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Call Waiting Options It seems that folks either love or hate the Call Waiting feature. One problem is that in some areas, Call Waiting is "bundled" in a package of Custom Calling features, and if you refuse to have Call Waiting on your line you wind up paying a much higher rate for other custom calling features that you DO want. The big problem with Call Waiting is that it's obtrusive ... in simple terms, it interrupts your calls even when you don't want it to. Fix that problem, and you make Call Waiting a desirable feature for many more customers. In my opinion, Call Waiting in its present form is too "dumb". It ought to be enhanced a bit, in order to give customers some options as to how Call Waiting is implemented. With that in mind, here's options I'd like to see in the next generation of Call Waiting: 1) Standard Call Waiting - essentially the same as what we have now, but with THREE different options activated by three different codes: a) Cancel Call Waiting -- one call (what *70 or 1170 does now) b) Cancel Call Waiting Absolute - turns off CW completely for all calls (incoming and outgoing) for an indefinite period. c) Call Waiting on - reverses effects of a) or b), or e) or h) below. 2) Optional features - These features would most likely be preset at the telephone company's switch (especially those where times must be set), though I suppose they could be made customer-selectable: d) Call Waiting Automatic Restore - if CW has been turned off using b) above or e) below, turn it back on at a (customer selected) preset time (one or more times in a 24 hour period). Avoids the situation where you turn CW off and never remember to turn it back on. e) Call Waiting Automatic Disable - turn CW off (in effect do an automatic Cancel Call Waiting Absolute) at a specific customer-specified time. Can be reversed by use of c) or d). f) Call Waiting disables line hunting - When call waiting is enabled on the first line of a hunt group, hunting is disabled. Good for a company with multiple lines that has only the main line extended to a night answer location. (Note that customer switchable line hunting might be a worthwhile feature in its own right). g) Call waiting screened - When a caller dials a busy number that has this feature activated, they will be presented with a telco recording that says something like: "You have dialed a number that is busy. If you wish to activate Call Waiting and interrupt the call in progress, please dial 1 now, or wait ten seconds. If you do not wish to interrupt the call in progress, please hang up now." In effect, this lets the caller know that he'll be interrupting an in-progress call, and gives him the option to hang up and call back later. h) Call Waiting Long Call - With this option, Call Waiting would be turned OFF for a customer-specified number of minutes at the start of each new (incoming or outgoing) call, unless the "Call Waiting On" code were dialed just prior to placing the call (or after receiving a call if you can flash to a second dialtone). Once the time limit is up, call waiting would be automatically activated. Thus, normal length calls would not be interrupted, but calls could get through if the line has been tied up for an extended period. I suspect this would be a popular option both for people in business and for people who have teenagers using their phone! i) Call Waiting Priority - for use with the distinctive ringing feature. When calls come in on one of the secondary distinctive ringing numbers (customer specifies which one), they will ALWAYS activate Call Waiting if the line is in use, regardless of whether CW has been turned off by the user. In addition, if the waiting call is not answered in the normal manner within thirty seconds, the call in progress will be disconnected, and as soon as the line releases, the new call will be put through (using the appropriate distinctive ring, of course). This can be used in conjunction with feature g) if desired, to give the caller the option to disconnect without activating the Priority Call Waiting. The idea here is to allow emergency calls to get through, even on a line that might be "shared" with a modem, fax machine, or some other equipment that may not be "smart" enough to respond to the Call Waiting beep (or, for that matter, on a line that is sometimes used by people who tend to ignore the Call Waiting beep). This feature would be useful for ANYONE who is on call for emergencies! Okay, you switch feature designers, there's my list. Feel free to use what you like and leave the rest, though I think all these features would be truly useful to a certain segment of customers, and my licensing fees for these ideas are really cheap! :-) :-) Jack Decker | Internet: ac388@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu Fidonet: 1:154/8 or jack.decker@f8.n154.z1.fidonet.org Note: Mail to the Fidonet address has been known to bounce. :-( ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 08:25:23 +0000 From: J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl.co.uk Subject: Cellular Battery Packs The battery packs for my NEC P3 handportable cellular seem to last for about one year then suddenly fade away. This is a fairly well- known problem with Nickel-Cadmium rechargeable batteries and I always thought that there wasn't much you could do about it. Last year I threw them away and bought new ones on the recommendation of my dealer. Now they've started to fail again. My dealer wants me to spend some more money with her but I'm less keen to do it this time. The dealer eventually admitted to having what she calls a "recycler" which is apparently some device that rapid-charges the battery pack then somehow rapid-discharges it. However she says (guess what) this only gives a short-term improvement and I should buy new. Does anyone know if it is worth trying to recover an old NiCad and if so how to? Can I do it myself with my trickle-charger and a 6v load of some kind? Joe Harrison Phone: +44-344-480013 | ICL Ltd. Bracknell S=Harrison/I=J/O=icl/P=icl/A=gold 400/C=GB | Berkshire RG12 1BD J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl.co.uk | United Kingdom ------------------------------ From: MARK.STEIGER@tdkt.kksys.com (MARK STEIGER) Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 11:24:08 -0600 Subject: Bell South Cordless Phone Organization: The Dark Knight's Table BBS: Minnetonka, MN (Free!) > I just got a Damark catalog with a cover of: > DAMARK > Customer > Returns > Issue! Keep buying that stuff. Keep my check coming... :) > Model #7703 Bell South Products 10 channel for $59.99. > As far as the "automatic security code" I know that it will not stop > people from listening in. I myself get such great pleasure from > listening to others talk about the intimate details of their lives on > my scanner, that I would not want to deprive others so inclined from > listening in. BUT will Bell South "automatic security code" system > prevent others from using my lines to originate calls? That is what the security code does. If someone with the same phone on the same frequency makes a call, it won't go out through your phone line, unless they have the same sec code (odds of that are low..). I, myself, went to the 900 Mhz model. Digitally encoded voice and out of reach of most peoples scanners.. Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo BBS (612) 574-0037 Internet: mark@tdkt.kksys.com Fido: 1:282/4018 Simnet: 16:612/24 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 11:39:35 -0500 From: cengelog@cambridge.dab.ge.com (Yilmaz Cengeloglu) Subject: Help Needed Choosing Cellular Phone Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 16:39:15 GMT Organization: GE Simulation & Control Systems Hi, I am about to buy a cellular phone. The main reason is to make calls when I am driving between two cities. I have seen several kinds ( bag, flip, handheld, etc.) Since I would like to use it when I am on the road. Which one would be more suitable and powerful. Thanks in advance. cengelog@cambridge.dab.ge.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #187 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27532; 19 Mar 93 2:07 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12836 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 18 Mar 1993 23:33:28 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24034 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 18 Mar 1993 23:32:35 -0600 Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 23:32:35 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303190532.AA24034@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #188 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 Mar 93 23:32:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 188 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Alec Isaacson) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Laurence Chiu) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Richard Nash) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Richard Budd) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Bob Goudreau) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (John Schmidt) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Elana Beach) Storm Effect on 9-1-1 Service (Tad Cook) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Bob Morley) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Paul Barnett) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Brad Hicks) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Mar 1993 19:01:50 EST From: Alec Isaacson Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 In a recent TELECOM Digest, Will Martin said: > This past weekend's storm news included at least one Telecom-related > item: At a computer center in New Jersey somewhere, the weight of snow > on the roof was great enough to collapse it, thus putting the facility > out of service. This was operated by EDS and was some sort of central > networking point for Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) on at least one > inter-bank network, not just in the East, but nationwide. Many ATMs, > including some here in St. Louis, MO, were down because of this. Well, I do know that not every bank runs it's "own" ATM system. In fact, it seems as though there are only a few service providers for ATM networks. For example, there is a company based here in Cincinnati called Midwest Payment Systems which, if I'm not mistaken, provides computer time, clearinghouse services, and infrastructure for the Plus and Money Station network machines. MPS runs ATM systems as far away as the "Money Exchange" network, which belongs to First American Bank of Washington D.C. (or at least did when my father worked for 1st American in the 80s). MPS is either a unit or subsidiary of the same company that runs 5/3 Bank of Cincinnati. > 2: Local TV news items on this said that people could use "Bankmate" > networked ATMs instead. However, I just checked the ATM here in this > building at the credit union, and it was displaying an "out of > service" message, though it has both Cirrus and Bankmate logos on it. > Of course, this one machine may be down for some totally unrelated > reason. So just what named networks did this outage affect? As far as saw and heard, there were no problems here in Cinci. Of course, in the east it looks as though people couldn't get out, let alone get money. > 3: It certainly seems odd that a site in NJ would be central to the > entire nation's ATM functions. One would guess that some huge > percentage of all ATM transactions would be performed by local people > accessing their funds from local banks. Why would these transactions > be routed onto a national net? Aren't there local distributed-processing > nets which only access the national net when it is really necessary, > or are my transactions from an ATM in downtown St. Louis, against an > account in a bank in South St. Louis, routed halfway across the > country and back again? I would think that the infrastructure investment would only be feasable for a few large banks, while the vast majority of customers would expect ATM service as a constitutional right :) from even the smallest bank. Thus the need for some sort of service provider (like MPS above) because small banks (with small bank computers) can't keep up with all the traffic _and_ their own other housekeeping needs. Got comments, let me know. BTW: I don't have any affiliation with Midwest Payment Systems except for the fact that their machines do give me money on occasion. And, I defintely have NO affilliation with 1st American Bank, a former unit of the BCCI (yes, _that_ BCCI :). Alec D. Isaacson AI4CPHYW @ miamiu.acs.muohio.edu isaacson @ rogue.acs.muohio.edu (NeXt Mail) Miami University, Oxford, OH ------------------------------ From: LCHIU@HOLONET.NET Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access BBS: 510-704-1058/modem Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 04:16:17 GMT In a article to comp.dcom.telecom, Wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil had the following to say about Telecom and the Blizzard: > This past weekend's storm news included at least one Telecom-related > item: At a computer center in New Jersey somewhere, the weight of snow > on the roof was great enough to collapse it, thus putting the facility > out of service. This was operated by EDS and was some sort of central > networking point for Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) on at least one > inter-bank network, not just in the East, but nationwide. Many ATMs, > including some here in St. Louis, MO, were down because of this. I can only report my own experience. I bank with a credit union in the SF Bay Area. They have two or three of their own ATM's and then are accessible via the PLUS network. Over the last weekend I could not get any money from any ATM machine (contact your branch, you have exceeded your withdrawals for the period, etc.) On Monday I called the CU. It turned out that because of the abovementioned problem (well they said a building had collapsed on the East Coast somewhere, disrupting a data centre's operations) the network had been down. The backup was in the WTC and was also down! Very annoying. Laurence Chiu lchiu@holonet.net ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 12:23:36 -0700 From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 Will Martin He said a bunch of stuff but this statement really stuck out: > And a side comment -- anybody else out there getting irritated by the > sloppy re-use and multiple use of acronyms? "ATM" has meant "Automatic > Teller Machine" for decades now, yet in recent years I've been running > across other computer-related uses of the exact same acronym. > "Asynchronous Transfer Mode" is the worst, because it makes the phrase > "ATM Network" ambiguous and mean at least two different things. The > use of the same acronym by distinctly separate industries would not be > as bad -- for it to mean "All-Terrain Motorbike" or "Amino-Toluo-Methanol" > (to make up some possibilities out of my imagination) could be easily > distinguished by context, when the use of "ATM" for multiple meanings > within the computer culture is not ... Yes, multi use of three lettered acronymns have lead to all sorts of inital confusion by those who have understood the three letters to mean something totally different and unrelated. So what? Everybody understands AIDS to mean a medical symptom/syndrome yet this three letter acronymn was used for a diagnostic suite for Data General up into the mid 1980's. So if you weren't Data General conversant, you never heard this buzz word, and immediately associated AIDS to the medical association. To react responsibly, DG changed their diagnostiocs to be ADES. Thus bypassing the conotation and any negative attachements. My advice is to get used to multi uses of three letter acronymns when it is most convenient to baffle the unsuspecting public :) :) :) :) :) Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie%trickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca Amateur Radio Packet: ve6bon%ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca@gw-1.ampr.ab.ca VE6BON @ VE6MC.AB.CAN.NA ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca [192.75.200.15] [Moderator's Note: Well you know there was the AIDS Insurance Company over in Nebraska somewhere for many years. It may still be there; I have heard nothing about them in a long time. They had all kinds of misunderstandings with people who contacted them for the first time. They were in the automobile liability insurance business, and (at least) used to receive many calls daily from people seeking coverage against the medical condition using the same acronym. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 18:31:34 EDT From: Richard Budd Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 Organization: CSAV UTIA The trend in the informations systems industry is for one or two mega- centers to serve the entire system. Operating an IS for the nation out of a center in a single location saves money because such a setup would require less support staff and hardware. In addition, communications lines used to coordinate multiple service centers can be either ripped out or dedicated to customer service. In the language of ISSC, IBM's attempt to enter the information systems support industry (or, as some wags say, attempt to make the money it would have made if they had hung on to Ross Perot), having a single large information center for all services is customer-driven. My guess is the back-up center would be in the vicinity of the main site. Again, it's less expensive because you can run the backup location with a skeleton staff and deploy most of your main center's personnel there quickly in the event of an emergency with minimum transportation expense because of the backup location's proximity. Neither a redundant support staff at the backup nor air transportation to the backup site is required. And besides, you don't have to worry about the Soviets anymore :-) Will then provided an update in TELECOM Digest V13 #183: > The backup site for the New Jersey EDS computer center was in the > World Trade Center!!!!! I wonder how many other financial and East > coast sites are operating right now without backups due to the WTC > closing!?! Also, I'm sure WTC companies are now using other sites as > their backups, which leaves much less capacity for backup operations > for anybody. The ripple effect is spreading ... What would be the probability of disasters occuring for different reasons at both the main and backup facilites in such a short period of time? Richard Budd | USA klub@maristb.bitnet | CR budd@cspgas11.bitnet | 139 S. Hamilton St. | Kolackova 8 | Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 | 18200 Praha 8 [Moderator's Note: You'd have thought people would have learned about this penny-wise and pound-foolishness after the 'Illinois Bell Experience'. (A major center of Illinois Bell activity caught fire and burned down in May, 1988, disrupting much of northern Illinois' telephone service for a month. See TELECOM Digest, May 10 thru May 20, 1988 issues.). Even Amoco/Diners Club learned not to put all their processing and back-office functions in one place following numerous bomb threats (unfilfilled) and labor disputes, etc during the early 1970's. They split the office in two parts. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 11:11:20 -0500 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 In article Will Martin writes: > 2: Local TV news items on this said that people could use "Bankmate" > networked ATMs instead. However, I just checked the ATM here in this > building at the credit union, and it was displaying an "out of > service" message, though it has both Cirrus and Bankmate logos on it. > Of course, this one machine may be down for some totally unrelated > reason. So just what named networks did this outage affect? There is another plausible explanation for why your ATM was out of service: it ran out of cash as people rushed to do a lot of pre-storm panic buying. My wife and I had a similar experience Saturday: we went to do our usual weekly grocery shopping, only to discover that the first three (!) ATMs we visited were all closed. It didn't look like a network problem though, since we finally found an open one and got our cash. Only the first machine we tried belonged to our bank; the others were all members of "Honor" (a regional ATM network to which almost all banks in NC and several other states belong) as well as one or the other of "Cirrus" and "Plus" (the international ATM networks run by Mastercard and Visa, respectively, which now have an interoperating agreement). Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA [Moderators' Note: None of the young'uns here would remember when there were NO 'cash machines' and banks were open 9 AM to 2 PM Monday through Friday only, but it is true ... as late as the early 1970's, such devices were unheard of. You went to the bank to cash a check and you got there during the morning or early afternoon hours. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 12:32:29 EST From: JOHN SCHMIDT Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 When I tried to call my mother (413-256) from home (516-483) Saturday about 10am, twice I got an intercept "The number you have called has been disconnected or is out of service" The third try (within a minute or so), the call went through. It would be nice if they could use the correct intercepts. I wonder if this is a strategy to keep their completion statistics up, as a "out of service" try is presumably not a completable call, so doesn't reduce their percentage of calls completed, where a "all circuits busy" reduces their batting average. BTW, this was AT&T. Here on Long Island, there was about ten inches of snow Saturday AM, then three inches of sleet or snow early Saturday PM, then a lot of wind driven rain later Saturday afternoon, which compressed the snow and sleet into about four inches of slush Saturday evening. Those who didn't shovel/plow it before it froze Saturday night had to chop it away with a pick axe on sunday or whenever! It started to melt today. The biggest problem here was the wind, which caused a lot of downed power lines, and washed the tides inland on the barrier beaches and did a lot of damage to the shoreline. This storm didn't do as much as the ones this fall, though. In western Mass., my mother says she doesn't ever recall seeing as much snow piled up where it is plowed; they are running out of space to plow it, and that's in snow country. John H. Schmidt, P.E. |Internet: schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu Technical Director, WBAU |Phone--Days (212)456-4218 Adelphi University | Evenings (516)877-6400 Garden City, New York 11530 |Fax-------------(212)456-2424 [Moderator's Note: After our 1967 blizzard, snow was piled *everywhere* in huge piles which took a month or better to finally melt down. They dumped a great deal of it in Lake Michigan, but two or three times as much just sat in big piles at street corners and in vacant lots. PAT] ------------------------------ From: elana@agora.rain.com (Elana Beach) Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 Organization: Open Communications Forum Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 06:42:31 GMT > [Moderator's Note: We've seen nothing like that here in Chicago for 25 > years. We gpt a 27 inch snow storm January 30 - February 1, 1967. I (blizzard nightmare deleted) Hmmmm ... I was a six year old kid living near Oak Lawn then, and I thought that blizzard was FUN!!! =8) Of course, I had all these stick-in-the-mud grownups around me who never could see my point, but that's life in the kid lane for ya. Just something to make our Moderator smile ... Elana [Moderator's Note: Well I have to say that secretly, I *loved* that 1967 blizzard also. After working all night Thursday, to have to hang around half of Friday morning in the office was not fun, but the rest of that first weekend was neat. As a child, I used to get very angry if people shoveled off their sidewalks after a heavy snow ... now I get very angry if they don't! The first day of the storm here, every grocery store had mobs of people in it and almost barren shelves. In those days, I had the home phone number 'PATRICK' (actually it was RAVenswood (8) 7425). A X-bar exchange, we had one to three minute waits for dial tone all that weekend. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hpubvwa!%ssc.com Subject: Storm Effect on 9-1-1 Service Organization: very little Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 19:16:33 GMT I have read a bit about effects on telephone service in general, and interstate service in particular, from the recent storm on the east coast, but what about 9-1-1 service? Any comments on disruption to 9-1-1 service from the big storm? Tad Cook | Phone: 206-527-4089 (home) | MCI Mail: 3288544 Seattle, WA | Packet: KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 3288544@mcimail.com | Internet: tad@ssc.com or...sumax!ole!ssc!tad [Moderator's Sad Note: In the '67 blizzard here, police, fire and paramedics were virtually paralyzed. A large (20 apartment) building burned to the ground that Friday night while firemen two blocks away tried to get their equipment through the snow, dig out the hydrants and find ways to secure their footing as they strung their hoses nearly a block through the drifts to get to the inferno. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bobm@unipalm.co.uk (Bob Morley) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Unipalm Ltd., 216 Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge CB4 4WA, UK Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 14:08:45 GMT In article , fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) writes: > one Beacon Hill lawmaker says he's gotten fed up with drivers who miss > the light turning green ... or weave all over the road ... because > they have the phone to their ear! So he's proposing a bill that would > make people pull over to use the cellphone. Its already law in the UK. Bob Morley PIPEX (Public IP EXchange) PIPEX Sales 216 Cambridge Science Park Tel: +44 223 424616 Milton Road Fax: +44 223 426868 Cambridge, CB4 4WA Email: bobm@pipex.net England ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 10:53:40 -0600 From: barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Some percentage of the population apparently can't walk and chew gum at the same time, or drive and talk on the phone at the same time. So what else is new? If you think somone is driving hazardously, take down their license number and report them to the police. Meanwhile, the rest of us don't have any problem. Get off my case! (For the humor-impaired, I'm not flaming Scott. However, I would like to give that paternalistic legistator an ear-full). Paul Barnett MPP OS Development (214)-497-4846 Convex Computer Corp. Richardson, TX ------------------------------ From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com Date: 18 Mar 93 16:27:20 GMT Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? I'm not from Massachusetts, but count me in as in favor of this proposal; I've nearly been run off the road by too d--ned many people who couldn't spare any attention to their lane usage because all of their attention was focused on their cellular phone conversation. I suspect that this proposal will fail, because the lobbyists will ask one question that even I can't answer: why is it that talking on the phone consumes more attention than talking to someone in the passenger seat(s)? I don't know why it is, but it seems to be true. Is this some kind of psychological thing? Are people talking on the phone spending extra mental effort on imagining the facial expressions of the people they're talking to, or what? (And of course, if it ever becomes a national issue, the Californicators will scream bloody murder. If it's true that average commute times in the LA basin are over an hour each way, then a ban on car phone conver- sation in a moving vehicle would shut that town down.) J. Brad Hicks Internet: mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs.attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #188 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa01156; 19 Mar 93 3:53 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01856 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 19 Mar 1993 01:15:46 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15717 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 19 Mar 1993 01:14:56 -0600 Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 01:14:56 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303190714.AA15717@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #189 TELECOM Digest Fri, 19 Mar 93 01:14:45 CST Volume 13 : Issue 189 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Dave Levenson) Re: US Post Office Not Caught Up With Modern Technology (Ang Peng Hwa) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Richard Nash) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Marc Unangst) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Bill Campbell) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Bob Frankston) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (H. Hallikainen) Re: US Post Office Not Caught Up With Modern Technology (Andy Oakland) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Joseph Malloy) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Jon P. Knight) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Woody M. Collins) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Rich Greenberg) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 02:01:06 GMT In article , hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > So, realizing it's popular to bash the usps, I was quite impressed > with what they're doing. I, too, am impressed with some of the technology at the Postal Service. BUT ... There was a time when neither snow nor hail ... would stop the mail. Today (as much of the Northeast continues to dig out from under an unusually heavy snowfall) the local post office informed us that they were unable to deliver our mail, and that we could call for it at the post office, after the truck returned, at 4:00 pm. The reason for this? The township plowed the street, and didn't plough it full-width. The mail carrier couldn't get his truck close enough to our roadside rural mailbox to reach it without leaning out of his window. This happened to about half the residents of our town. Maybe I'm being overly critical, but this seems a bit severe. Everybody else within hundreds of miles was inconvenienced by the recent weather, many of us a whole lot more than having to lean out a window to reach a mailbox. Sometimes, I think the postal service employees need to be gently reminded who it is that pays their salaries. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Mar 93 14:48:13 SST From: Ang Peng Hwa Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught Up With Modern Technology? Jon Mellot wrote: > What amazes me is how naive some people are. That USPS can charge > $0.29 for a one ounce letter is amazing. Almost anywhere else in the > world the cost is at least twice what we pay here. There are only *two* profitable postal agencies in the world. They are in Hong Kong and Singapore. Both are small and densely populated cities. It probably would not be fair to compare local postage rates (US 12 cents) with that in the US. But how about aerograms? An aerogram to anywhere in the world is S 35 cents or US 22 cents. In other words, it is cheaper for someone in the US to send me an email, transfer it onto an aerogram and then mail it to the US, than to mail it in the US direct. Don't ask me how this thing works but when I was applying for grad school in 1986, I sent a package by courier to Florida (halfway round the world) for US$10. Then I got billed for a package from California (1/3) round the world for US$25. I boil it down to labour costs. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 21:51:42 -0700 From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology? John Higdon writes: > My unfortunate experience with the Post Office is that if you REALLY > need to get a document from one location to another, you should use > another service. NEVER EVER send an original, valuable document > through the US mail -- certified, registered or otherwise. I have had > irreplacable documents lost and the extra money spent registering or > certifying was literally wasted. The USPS has no way of tracking > anything within its system (unlike Federal Express which can). > All of the fabulous technology notwithstanding, the USPS provides > miserable, not even barely-adequate service. Add to that the miserable > attitude on the part of counter personel and you have an institution > whose demise will draw no tears from me. Is the US Postal System really *that* bad? I trust then that John Higdon would never ever use the US postal service? From what I can gather, the choice to use the postal system is entirely up to you, the user. Does the USPS have a monopoly on mail delivery? One would expect that there are no arcane laws as we have in Canada that prohibit the hand delivery of utility bills by a contracted courier? Our gas company used to just have their bill dropped in the mail-box, but for several years now, has to pay 43 cents postage plus the envelope. Somehow I doubt that Fedex or UPI would or could handle the volumes of mail that the USPS does at the amazingly low price of less than 30 cents, complete with instant tracking of every envelope through its entire voyage. And do I really care if it takes longer to mail across town than clean across the continent? Or that historically we all know that postal clerks will treat you as rudely as possible? Yes indeed, USPS may have a multitude of blemishes, but who wouldn't after more than (200 years?) as a service provider? Until Star-Trek beaming becomes a reality, the necessary physical delivery of items for the lowly John Q. Public, will probably be performed by our public servants the post office. Remember though, you don't have to use them if you don't want to. There definitely is a freedom of choice, but just that your alternative options require more out of the pocket book. From my perspective up in Canada, when I want to have something shipped from the other side of the 49th parallel (US), I would prefer the mail service over ever relying upon Federal Express or any other ####qKinter-national courier to deliver it without a lot of Customs Canada/brokerage hassles. I have found that this view is shared by others also. Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca [Moderator's Note: In fact, the US Postal Service does have a legal monopoly on the delivery of First Class Mail. Also, the mailbox in front of your house *belongs* to the Postal Service for their exclusive use from the day you mounted the box in your yard, on your front porch or wherever. From that point on, even you are not permitted under the law to leave a note for your neighbor in that box unless the proper postage has been affixed and then cancelled or some other postal indicia appears on the front of the envelope. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Date: 18 Mar 1993 23:22:31 -0500 Organization: The Programmers' Pit Stop, Ann Arbor MI In article MARK.STEIGER@tdkt.kksys.com (MARK STEIGER) writes: > I'm not sure on this, but couldn't they get in trouble for bar coding > it on the package? I doubt it. UPS uses USPS ZIP codes to determine for which rate zone a package is destined. I'd be more willing to bet that it just isn't very efficient to sort based on ZIP code when your delivery scheme doesn't use ZIP codes. UPS/FedEx would be more likely to barcode based on destination office or something similar, I would think. Marc Unangst, N8VRH mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us ------------------------------ From: bill@Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology? Organization: Celestial Software, Mercer Island, WA Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 16:46:13 GMT In jon@theta.ee.ufl.edu (Jon Mellott) writes: > What amazes me is how naive some people are. That USPS can charge > $0.29 for a one ounce letter is amazing. Almost anywhere else in the Actually the Postal (dis)Service hasn't raised the price of postage in years! Postage is still $0.03, the rest is for storage. Bill INTERNET: bill@Celestial.COM Bill Campbell; Celestial Software UUCP: ...!thebes!camco!bill 6641 East Mercer Way uunet!camco!bill Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591 ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology? Date: Thu 18 Mar 1993 11:29 -0400 One minor correction, page printers were available since the mid-70's and were common at IBM mainframe shops. The fact that ECom didn't use them was symptomatic of their technology problems. ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 22:08:41 GMT In article MARK.STEIGER@tdkt.kksys.com (MARK STEIGER) writes: > Actually, what Fed Ex and UPS do is keep records like package serial > numbers going to zip code xxxxx. Zip code is a trademark of the Post > Office. I'm not sure on this, but couldn't they get in trouble for > bar coding it on the package? Anyway, they electronically sort all of > the packages based on what zip code belongs to that serial number. > It's pretty cool to see in action. Fed Ex gave us a tour at work > since we ship so much. Sorting based on a package serial number seems like it would be tremendously complex. Someone has to key all those ZIP codes into the system along with scanning the package serial number, then each sorting station has to reference that database. As I recall (subject to error), both UPS and Fed Ex do all their air freight packaging in one city (each has their own national air freight sorting center). By doing this, they can offer overnight service, but it can be costly (I can mail a first class letter to Santa Barbara for $0.29, UPS of Fed Ex letter would be about $10.00, both would arrive about the same time). Seems to me that UPS and Fed Ex should start putting Zip Codes on packages in machine readable form, allowing machine sorting without having to look up the code based on serial number. They could keep the serial number bar code for package tracking. I suggested to our UPS rep that they give shippers sheets of labels where each label has a single digit in machine readable form (either large OCR or bar code). We would then stick a bunch of stickers on the package to represent the ZIP code. As an alternative, software could print the ZIP bar code on the shipping label. Of course, this is a bit off telecom, but it does seem to be related to packet switching networks. In a packet switched network, we include a packet serial number to aid in tracking (did we lose a packet, or did it show up twice, or received out of order), but we also include the destination address. Each router looks at that address and figures out where to send the packet next. The router does not look at the packet serial number and request routing from some central database. One of our products includes a routing table at each site. There is an entry for each site in the system. Whenever a packet is received, we note which port that came in on in the routing table. When we have a packet to send, we refer to the routing table and send the packet out that port. If the destination site is not in the table, we send the packet out all ports except the one we received it on. We could probably set up a system like the USPS where we would not need a routing table for every possible destination but could base routing on each digit of the address, starting with the most significant. If the most significant digit were 0..3, I might send it out port 1, 4..8 might send it out port 2. If the MSD is 9 (the same as the MSD of my address), I'd start looking at successive digits to determine which port to send the packet out, unless the entire address matched, in which case I'd keep it. So, those of us in telecom really do have something in common with the USPS? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: sao@athena.mit.edu (Andy Oakland) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught Up With Modern Technology Date: 18 Mar 1993 23:00:56 GMT Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology In article Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU (Garrett Wollman) writes: > When I was in Finland a while back, they used electronic sorting as > well. However (and here's the catch), for a meager FIM 1,80 (about 50 > cents or so), first-class letters which arrived at the post office > before 5PM on any postal day would be delivered the next day. > Even with all the automation, the USPS still wants $8.95 for this. You seem to be overlooking a simple matter of scale: Finland has a population of about five million, and an area of 130,000 square miles. The United States has a population of 250 million and an area of 3,500,000 square miles. (Thanks to my trusty almanac.) With fifty times the population and twenty-five times the area to service, it's not reasonable to expect the US postal service to work as quickly and cheaply as Finland's. Multiply that Finnish $0.50 for overnight delivery by 25 to reflect the extra work necessary in the US and you get $12.50 ... seems like our $8.95 is pretty reasonable! Andy Oakland sao@athena.mit.edu ------------------------------ From: Jospeh Malloy Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Organization: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 21:21:51 GMT In article John Higdon writes: > My unfortunate experience with the Post Office is that if you REALLY > need to get a document from one location to another, you should use > another service. NEVER EVER send an original, valuable document > through the US mail -- certified, registered or otherwise. I have had > irreplacable documents lost and the extra money spent registering or > certifying was literally wasted. The USPS has no way of tracking > anything within its system (unlike Federal Express which can). I hear this from time to time and have to wonder why I've been so lucky. In all my years (and there are many of them!) of using the postal service, I've never once lost anything that I know of, and I've sent important documents via USPS often enough to have had that sort of thing happen, were it frequent. USPS can be quite slow, to be sure, and I'm not saying that I don't use alternate carriers (mostly for speedy delivery), but on the whole, I really cannot complain about what that $.29 buys me. Now, my telephone service, on the other hand ... Joseph T. Malloy, guerilla Germaniste | WB2RBA | jmalloy@hamilton.edu Associate Professor of German | Hamilton College | Clinton, New York [Moderator's Note: Maybe it is the big city post offices which are more troubled in their operations. I know the post office where my box is located (Chicago 60690) is a 24 hour per day operation (go in anytime to send mail or get mail from boxes, etc.) I've had my post office box for 22 years (in fact, the old post office was on that spot when I took out my box; it was torn down and the new post office opened in 1975. During the interim they used a make-shift storefront down the street for boxholders to get mail.) They've had decent help there over the years, and they've had some that were rotten to the core. It seems there is always someone working there (out of a couple hundred employees at any given time) that finds out if you are getting money in the mail (as in cash) then beats you to it. The Missionary Fathers (that's the bunch with the name and address labels, pens and other gifts which come free from the orphan children on the Indian Reservation that you don't have to pay for but feel guilty keeping if you don't) were getting $2000-5000 *cash* daily in their box at 60690 and a couple postal employees were ripping off great amounts of it. They finally got caught when the Postal Inspectors 'seeded the mail' with marked money then spied on the clerks as they were helping themselves then going back for a second helping. Our readers in Canada may recall the post office clerk in Toronto who ripped off Oral Roberts for close to $100,000 in cash over a three or four year period sent to the Canadian box of the uh, esteemed USA evangelist. The US Postal Service has a lot of troubled, angry people working for it. Don't forget Royal Oak, Michigan and Edmund, Oklahoma: angry clerk comes to work, brings a gun and shoots everyone in the place. I use the USPS -- don't we all? -- but have mixed feelings about how much longer it will survive between the competition and its own internal strife. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jon@hill.lut.ac.uk (Jon P. Knight) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Dept of Comp. Studies, Loughborough University of Tech., UK. Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 22:34:39 GMT In article fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) writes: > one Beacon Hill lawmaker says he's gotten fed up with drivers who miss > the light turning green ... or weave all over the road ... because > they have the phone to their ear! So he's proposing a bill that would > make people pull over to use the cellphone. This is already law in the UK, and a jolly good job too. Too many accidents were occuring with fools concentrating on their latest marketing deal on the cell phone whilst driving down the motorway. When it first became law, I remember a few people were caught using cellphones whilst driving live on national radio; they'd called in to a phone in! The radio presenter would usually tell them to pull over and carry on or, if they were on the motorway, to try another time and thenn ring off. From what I remember (I neither have a cellphone, a car or a desire for either), the law does permit you to use a communications device whilst driving if it leaves both hands free, but I could be wrong about that bit. No doubt someone else will set the record straight. Jon Knight, Research Student in High Performance Networking and Distributed Systems in the Department of _Computer_Studies_ at Loughborough University. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 17:40:05 MST From: Woody M. Collins Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? > That's just what one Massachusetts legislator wants to legislate. > According to a radio report on WBZ Boston on 17 March [disclaimer: > Yes, I work there; no, it wasn't my report; yes, I wish it had been], > one Beacon Hill lawmaker says he's gotten fed up with drivers who miss > the light turning green ... or weave all over the road ... because > they have the phone to their ear! So he's proposing a bill that would > make people pull over to use the cellphone. > I suspect this one will get eaten alive by the cell companies' lobby- > ists. I have to agree with the MA legislator. The cellular phone makers and the cell companies, both warn users of the danger of driving and using a cellular car phone. To solve the problem, most good phones comes handsfree speakerphone option (mike and/or speaker). With a handsfree phone, it is very little different than tuning your radio. I have heard that some top of the line phones are voice activated. Bottom line, I think the phone makers will go for it, forcing the sales on more expensive models; the cellular companies will be neutral. Another solution, requiring a co-pilot to handle non-driving duties. The same as attack planes and helicopters. :-) Or maybe they will require steering wheel knob, used in the old days (prior to power steering) when the driver could only use one hand. Woody ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 06:46:12 GMT In article mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/ OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com wrote: > (And of course, if it ever becomes a national issue, the Californicators > will scream bloody murder. If it's true that average commute times in > the LA basin are over an hour each way, then a ban on car phone conver- > sation in a moving vehicle would shut that town down.) The commute time is so long because you spend a lot of the time stopped in traffic jams or creeping along at 10-15 mph. Seems reasonably safe to use the phone then. Rich Greenberg Work: rmg50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com 310-417-8999 N6LRT Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 Previous play (obselete): richg@hatch.socal.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #189 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03127; 19 Mar 93 4:52 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30587 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 19 Mar 1993 02:24:57 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22149 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 19 Mar 1993 02:24:08 -0600 Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 02:24:08 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303190824.AA22149@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #189 TELECOM Digest Fri, 19 Mar 93 01:14:45 CST Volume 13 : Issue 189 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Dave Levenson) Re: US Post Office Not Caught Up With Modern Technology (Ang Peng Hwa) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Richard Nash) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Marc Unangst) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Bill Campbell) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Bob Frankston) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (H. Hallikainen) Re: US Post Office Not Caught Up With Modern Technology (Andy Oakland) Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology (Joseph Malloy) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Jon P. Knight) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Woody M. Collins) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Rich Greenberg) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 02:01:06 GMT In article , hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > So, realizing it's popular to bash the usps, I was quite impressed > with what they're doing. I, too, am impressed with some of the technology at the Postal Service. BUT ... There was a time when neither snow nor hail ... would stop the mail. Today (as much of the Northeast continues to dig out from under an unusually heavy snowfall) the local post office informed us that they were unable to deliver our mail, and that we could call for it at the post office, after the truck returned, at 4:00 pm. The reason for this? The township plowed the street, and didn't plough it full-width. The mail carrier couldn't get his truck close enough to our roadside rural mailbox to reach it without leaning out of his window. This happened to about half the residents of our town. Maybe I'm being overly critical, but this seems a bit severe. Everybody else within hundreds of miles was inconvenienced by the recent weather, many of us a whole lot more than having to lean out a window to reach a mailbox. Sometimes, I think the postal service employees need to be gently reminded who it is that pays their salaries. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Mar 93 14:48:13 SST From: Ang Peng Hwa Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught Up With Modern Technology? Jon Mellot wrote: > What amazes me is how naive some people are. That USPS can charge > $0.29 for a one ounce letter is amazing. Almost anywhere else in the > world the cost is at least twice what we pay here. There are only *two* profitable postal agencies in the world. They are in Hong Kong and Singapore. Both are small and densely populated cities. It probably would not be fair to compare local postage rates (US 12 cents) with that in the US. But how about aerograms? An aerogram to anywhere in the world is S 35 cents or US 22 cents. In other words, it is cheaper for someone in the US to send me an email, transfer it onto an aerogram and then mail it to the US, than to mail it in the US direct. Don't ask me how this thing works but when I was applying for grad school in 1986, I sent a package by courier to Florida (halfway round the world) for US$10. Then I got billed for a package from California (1/3) round the world for US$25. I boil it down to labour costs. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 21:51:42 -0700 From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology? John Higdon writes: > My unfortunate experience with the Post Office is that if you REALLY > need to get a document from one location to another, you should use > another service. NEVER EVER send an original, valuable document > through the US mail -- certified, registered or otherwise. I have had > irreplacable documents lost and the extra money spent registering or > certifying was literally wasted. The USPS has no way of tracking > anything within its system (unlike Federal Express which can). > All of the fabulous technology notwithstanding, the USPS provides > miserable, not even barely-adequate service. Add to that the miserable > attitude on the part of counter personel and you have an institution > whose demise will draw no tears from me. Is the US Postal System really *that* bad? I trust then that John Higdon would never ever use the US postal service? From what I can gather, the choice to use the postal system is entirely up to you, the user. Does the USPS have a monopoly on mail delivery? One would expect that there are no arcane laws as we have in Canada that prohibit the hand delivery of utility bills by a contracted courier? Our gas company used to just have their bill dropped in the mail-box, but for several years now, has to pay 43 cents postage plus the envelope. Somehow I doubt that Fedex or UPI would or could handle the volumes of mail that the USPS does at the amazingly low price of less than 30 cents, complete with instant tracking of every envelope through its entire voyage. And do I really care if it takes longer to mail across town than clean across the continent? Or that historically we all know that postal clerks will treat you as rudely as possible? Yes indeed, USPS may have a multitude of blemishes, but who wouldn't after more than (200 years?) as a service provider? Until Star-Trek beaming becomes a reality, the necessary physical delivery of items for the lowly John Q. Public, will probably be performed by our public servants the post office. Remember though, you don't have to use them if you don't want to. There definitely is a freedom of choice, but just that your alternative options require more out of the pocket book. From my perspective up in Canada, when I want to have something shipped from the other side of the 49th parallel (US), I would prefer the mail service over ever relying upon Federal Express or any other ####qKinter-national courier to deliver it without a lot of Customs Canada/brokerage hassles. I have found that this view is shared by others also. Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca [Moderator's Note: In fact, the US Postal Service does have a legal monopoly on the delivery of First Class Mail. Also, the mailbox in front of your house *belongs* to the Postal Service for their exclusive use from the day you mounted the box in your yard, on your front porch or wherever. From that point on, even you are not permitted under the law to leave a note for your neighbor in that box unless the proper postage has been affixed and then cancelled or some other postal indicia appears on the front of the envelope. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Date: 18 Mar 1993 23:22:31 -0500 Organization: The Programmers' Pit Stop, Ann Arbor MI In article MARK.STEIGER@tdkt.kksys.com (MARK STEIGER) writes: > I'm not sure on this, but couldn't they get in trouble for bar coding > it on the package? I doubt it. UPS uses USPS ZIP codes to determine for which rate zone a package is destined. I'd be more willing to bet that it just isn't very efficient to sort based on ZIP code when your delivery scheme doesn't use ZIP codes. UPS/FedEx would be more likely to barcode based on destination office or something similar, I would think. Marc Unangst, N8VRH mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us ------------------------------ From: bill@Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology? Organization: Celestial Software, Mercer Island, WA Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 16:46:13 GMT In jon@theta.ee.ufl.edu (Jon Mellott) writes: > What amazes me is how naive some people are. That USPS can charge > $0.29 for a one ounce letter is amazing. Almost anywhere else in the Actually the Postal (dis)Service hasn't raised the price of postage in years! Postage is still $0.03, the rest is for storage. Bill INTERNET: bill@Celestial.COM Bill Campbell; Celestial Software UUCP: ...!thebes!camco!bill 6641 East Mercer Way uunet!camco!bill Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591 ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology? Date: Thu 18 Mar 1993 11:29 -0400 One minor correction, page printers were available since the mid-70's and were common at IBM mainframe shops. The fact that ECom didn't use them was symptomatic of their technology problems. ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Modern Technology Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 22:08:41 GMT In article MARK.STEIGER@tdkt.kksys.com (MARK STEIGER) writes: > Actually, what Fed Ex and UPS do is keep records like package serial > numbers going to zip code xxxxx. Zip code is a trademark of the Post > Office. I'm not sure on this, but couldn't they get in trouble for > bar coding it on the package? Anyway, they electronically sort all of > the packages based on what zip code belongs to that serial number. > It's pretty cool to see in action. Fed Ex gave us a tour at work > since we ship so much. Sorting based on a package serial number seems like it would be tremendously complex. Someone has to key all those ZIP codes into the system along with scanning the package serial number, then each sorting station has to reference that database. As I recall (subject to error), both UPS and Fed Ex do all their air freight packaging in one city (each has their own national air freight sorting center). By doing this, they can offer overnight service, but it can be costly (I can mail a first class letter to Santa Barbara for $0.29, UPS of Fed Ex letter would be about $10.00, both would arrive about the same time). Seems to me that UPS and Fed Ex should start putting Zip Codes on packages in machine readable form, allowing machine sorting without having to look up the code based on serial number. They could keep the serial number bar code for package tracking. I suggested to our UPS rep that they give shippers sheets of labels where each label has a single digit in machine readable form (either large OCR or bar code). We would then stick a bunch of stickers on the package to represent the ZIP code. As an alternative, software could print the ZIP bar code on the shipping label. Of course, this is a bit off telecom, but it does seem to be related to packet switching networks. In a packet switched network, we include a packet serial number to aid in tracking (did we lose a packet, or did it show up twice, or received out of order), but we also include the destination address. Each router looks at that address and figures out where to send the packet next. The router does not look at the packet serial number and request routing from some central database. One of our products includes a routing table at each site. There is an entry for each site in the system. Whenever a packet is received, we note which port that came in on in the routing table. When we have a packet to send, we refer to the routing table and send the packet out that port. If the destination site is not in the table, we send the packet out all ports except the one we received it on. We could probably set up a system like the USPS where we would not need a routing table for every possible destination but could base routing on each digit of the address, starting with the most significant. If the most significant digit were 0..3, I might send it out port 1, 4..8 might send it out port 2. If the MSD is 9 (the same as the MSD of my address), I'd start looking at successive digits to determine which port to send the packet out, unless the entire address matched, in which case I'd keep it. So, those of us in telecom really do have something in common with the USPS? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: sao@athena.mit.edu (Andy Oakland) Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught Up With Modern Technology Date: 18 Mar 1993 23:00:56 GMT Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology In article Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU (Garrett Wollman) writes: > When I was in Finland a while back, they used electronic sorting as > well. However (and here's the catch), for a meager FIM 1,80 (about 50 > cents or so), first-class letters which arrived at the post office > before 5PM on any postal day would be delivered the next day. > Even with all the automation, the USPS still wants $8.95 for this. You seem to be overlooking a simple matter of scale: Finland has a population of about five million, and an area of 130,000 square miles. The United States has a population of 250 million and an area of 3,500,000 square miles. (Thanks to my trusty almanac.) With fifty times the population and twenty-five times the area to service, it's not reasonable to expect the US postal service to work as quickly and cheaply as Finland's. Multiply that Finnish $0.50 for overnight delivery by 25 to reflect the extra work necessary in the US and you get $12.50 ... seems like our $8.95 is pretty reasonable! Andy Oakland sao@athena.mit.edu ------------------------------ From: Jospeh Malloy Subject: Re: US Post Office Not Caught up With Common Technology? Organization: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 21:21:51 GMT In article John Higdon writes: > My unfortunate experience with the Post Office is that if you REALLY > need to get a document from one location to another, you should use > another service. NEVER EVER send an original, valuable document > through the US mail -- certified, registered or otherwise. I have had > irreplacable documents lost and the extra money spent registering or > certifying was literally wasted. The USPS has no way of tracking > anything within its system (unlike Federal Express which can). I hear this from time to time and have to wonder why I've been so lucky. In all my years (and there are many of them!) of using the postal service, I've never once lost anything that I know of, and I've sent important documents via USPS often enough to have had that sort of thing happen, were it frequent. USPS can be quite slow, to be sure, and I'm not saying that I don't use alternate carriers (mostly for speedy delivery), but on the whole, I really cannot complain about what that $.29 buys me. Now, my telephone service, on the other hand ... Joseph T. Malloy, guerilla Germaniste | WB2RBA | jmalloy@hamilton.edu Associate Professor of German | Hamilton College | Clinton, New York [Moderator's Note: Maybe it is the big city post offices which are more troubled in their operations. I know the post office where my box is located (Chicago 60690) is a 24 hour per day operation (go in anytime to send mail or get mail from boxes, etc.) I've had my post office box for 22 years (in fact, the old post office was on that spot when I took out my box; it was torn down and the new post office opened in 1975. During the interim they used a make-shift storefront down the street for boxholders to get mail.) They've had decent help there over the years, and they've had some that were rotten to the core. It seems there is always someone working there (out of a couple hundred employees at any given time) that finds out if you are getting money in the mail (as in cash) then beats you to it. The Missionary Fathers (that's the bunch with the name and address labels, pens and other gifts which come free from the orphan children on the Indian Reservation that you don't have to pay for but feel guilty keeping if you don't) were getting $2000-5000 *cash* daily in their box at 60690 and a couple postal employees were ripping off great amounts of it. They finally got caught when the Postal Inspectors 'seeded the mail' with marked money then spied on the clerks as they were helping themselves then going back for a second helping. Our readers in Canada may recall the post office clerk in Toronto who ripped off Oral Roberts for close to $100,000 in cash over a three or four year period sent to the Canadian box of the uh, esteemed USA evangelist. The US Postal Service has a lot of troubled, angry people working for it. Don't forget Royal Oak, Michigan and Edmund, Oklahoma: angry clerk comes to work, brings a gun and shoots everyone in the place. I use the USPS -- don't we all? -- but have mixed feelings about how much longer it will survive between the competition and its own internal strife. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jon@hill.lut.ac.uk (Jon P. Knight) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Dept of Comp. Studies, Loughborough University of Tech., UK. Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 22:34:39 GMT In article fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) writes: > one Beacon Hill lawmaker says he's gotten fed up with drivers who miss > the light turning green ... or weave all over the road ... because > they have the phone to their ear! So he's proposing a bill that would > make people pull over to use the cellphone. This is already law in the UK, and a jolly good job too. Too many accidents were occuring with fools concentrating on their latest marketing deal on the cell phone whilst driving down the motorway. When it first became law, I remember a few people were caught using cellphones whilst driving live on national radio; they'd called in to a phone in! The radio presenter would usually tell them to pull over and carry on or, if they were on the motorway, to try another time and thenn ring off. From what I remember (I neither have a cellphone, a car or a desire for either), the law does permit you to use a communications device whilst driving if it leaves both hands free, but I could be wrong about that bit. No doubt someone else will set the record straight. Jon Knight, Research Student in High Performance Networking and Distributed Systems in the Department of _Computer_Studies_ at Loughborough University. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 17:40:05 MST From: Woody M. Collins Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? > That's just what one Massachusetts legislator wants to legislate. > According to a radio report on WBZ Boston on 17 March [disclaimer: > Yes, I work there; no, it wasn't my report; yes, I wish it had been], > one Beacon Hill lawmaker says he's gotten fed up with drivers who miss > the light turning green ... or weave all over the road ... because > they have the phone to their ear! So he's proposing a bill that would > make people pull over to use the cellphone. > I suspect this one will get eaten alive by the cell companies' lobby- > ists. I have to agree with the MA legislator. The cellular phone makers and the cell companies, both warn users of the danger of driving and using a cellular car phone. To solve the problem, most good phones comes handsfree speakerphone option (mike and/or speaker). With a handsfree phone, it is very little different than tuning your radio. I have heard that some top of the line phones are voice activated. Bottom line, I think the phone makers will go for it, forcing the sales on more expensive models; the cellular companies will be neutral. Another solution, requiring a co-pilot to handle non-driving duties. The same as attack planes and helicopters. :-) Or maybe they will require steering wheel knob, used in the old days (prior to power steering) when the driver could only use one hand. Woody ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 06:46:12 GMT In article mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/ OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com wrote: > (And of course, if it ever becomes a national issue, the Californicators > will scream bloody murder. If it's true that average commute times in > the LA basin are over an hour each way, then a ban on car phone conver- > sation in a moving vehicle would shut that town down.) The commute time is so long because you spend a lot of the time stopped in traffic jams or creeping along at 10-15 mph. Seems reasonably safe to use the phone then. Rich Greenberg Work: rmg50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com 310-417-8999 N6LRT Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 Previous play (obselete): richg@hatch.socal.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #189 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03246; 19 Mar 93 4:54 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23848 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 19 Mar 1993 02:22:23 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25022 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 19 Mar 1993 02:21:32 -0600 Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 02:21:32 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303190821.AA25022@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #190 TELECOM Digest Fri, 19 Mar 93 02:21:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 190 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network (John Higdon) Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network (Richard Pauls) Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network (Tony Harminc) Re: Bell Canada Payphone Charges (Graham Allan) Re: Bell Canada Payphone Charges (Tony Harminc) Re: Bell Canada Payphone Charges (Amy Wong) Re: Bell Canada Payphone Charges (Mark Brader) Re: Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries (Olivier Crepin-Leblond) Re: Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries (Tom Gilheany) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Paul Coen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 18:57 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network On Mar 16 at 16:46, TELECOM Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: Whether or not 'local service in the USA now costs > an arm and a leg' is a very subjective decision. I know my phone bill > has skyrocketed since ten years ago, far out of line with what > inflation would have taken it to. Well, let's see. When I got excommunicated from the family phone back in 1959 and had to get my own or do with out, it was $5.05 per month (plus tax and license bringing it to about $6.00 per month). A similarly rated residence line (including all taxes and surcharges) is today just about $15.00 -- a three hundred percent increase. I am not a financial historian, but I do believe that inflation is well beyond 300% since 1959 is it not? > I am paying 60-70 cents for each directory assistance call Good. I very rarely use directory assistance, so I am very happy to see that you are paying for a service that you use rather than have us all chip in for it whether we need it or not. I have also noticed that my long distance rates are a tiny fraction of what they were in decades past, not even accounting for the worthlessness of today's dollar. I would assume that you make a lot of long distance calls if you make such heavy use of DA. The lower price you pay for those calls more than makes up for the tiny service charge that you well deserve to be paying. > I am paying $1 per line/month for a '911 surcharge' that I have no > use for; and while this can hardly be blamed on the new carriers in > the industry, it just adds frosting to the whole thing. 911 charges on bills were commonplace before divestiture. It is a red herring to bring it up in this discussion, since those charges are locally and politically influenced and have nothing to do with divestiture. > It is not because of divestiture that the USA phone network has held > together as well as it has, it is *despite* the architecture of our > divestiture. A number of Pac*Bell executives disagree with you. If the Bell System still existed we would have been surpassed technologically years ago by other countries. California would still be saddled with mechanical switches and would not have the industry-leading customer service that is now in place. I thank the divestiture gods daily for keeping alive the promise of modern communications. Under the Bell System, Pacific Telephone was a poor stepchild, offering the most bare of barebones service. Now it is one of the most technically advanced of the RBOCs (what the PUC allows it to actually deliver is another matter, natur- ally). The Bell System? Phooey! Give me post-divestiture telephony ANY day of the week. > If you have plenty of money and telephone costs are only a small part > of your budget, these costs may be only a small annoyance. To some of > us, they are financial killers. PAT] Yes, since divestiture telephone costs are only a small part of my budget. In days gone by, the telephone cost significantly more -- particularly those long distance calls. The telephone works much better than it ever did. But then, that is just frosting on the cake. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 [Moderator's Note: For some reason, you failed to comment upon my earlier remarks about the 'network access fee' now being charged, which adds several dollars per month to the phone bill. Also, why can't the OCCs share the cost of 555-1212 with AT&T in order to keep the cost to the end user less, even it if is true those of us who use it should pay for it? It costs *more* than 60 cents ... that is just the part AT&T is passing on. Let Sprint and MCI pay some of it so the cost for users could go down to maybe 25 cents. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Richard Pauls Subject: Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network Organization: MIT Lincoln Lab Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 12:55:35 -0500 In article John Higdon writes: > ... But we can now see the "all digital" light at the end of the > tunnel for the entire state of California -- something that is a > result of competition and divestiture, not in spite of it. I dare say > that had it not been for market forces, California would still sport > mechanical offices even to this day. This is interesting. Just how much of this country is "all digital" these days? And what exactly does this mean? I mean the lines into the houses and the phones themselves are still analog. When I moved to Massachusetts (508)/(617) I noticed the phone lines were significantly more noisy than those where I used to live in Pennsylvania (215). I remember hearing several years ago in PA that a lot of the analog circuitry was being replaced with digital circuitry. Is it possible that this has not yet happened in MA and this is the reason for the greater noise here? Also, there's something wrong with the way people drive up here! ;-) Rich ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 22:38:12 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Bell Canada Completing All-Digital Network Reply-To: Tony Harminc john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) wrote: > Frankly, I never thought for an instant that there has been a single > SXS or even a Xbar switch anywhere near Toronto for many years. Never > would I suggest that Canadian telecommunication (or anything else > there) is inferior in any way. But there is a faction in Canada (just > as there was in the US nearly a decade ago) that is predicting doom, > gloom, and the collapse of the telephone system if Bell Canada is > relieved of its monopolistic hold. Ha! The last crossbar in Metro Toronto was removed only last November. To this day there is still a 5XB in Stouffville, just north of the Metro boundary and within the local calling area on 416 640. Try 640-1184 (a test number) if crossbar sounds are music to your ears ... Bell Canada has managed by a masterful PR effort over the years to convince Canadians that their telephone service is the best on earth. While basic local and LD service is generally very good, and installation is quick and reasonably priced, I have seen nothing to indicate that service in the US is worse in any way. And when it comes to choice of facilities, whether business or residential, the US wins hands down. Just a few examples that come to mind: Toronto got overseas dialing in 1978. Many US cities had it long before then. We got automatic calling card service only a couple of years ago -- most of the US had it years before. I got used to those first AT&T card phones in the US years before the first such units appeared near here. And so on ... > I have been carrying on e-mail correspondence > with a Canadian who has been genuinely concerned with the impending > competition. He was surprised to learn that local telephone service > did NOT cost an arm and a leg in the US. The fact that the party line > had all but disappeared was news to him. That I can call anywhere in > the country by dialing only ten digits and that the call is completed > instantly was contrary to the impression he had been given by some of > the propaganda up there. He had visions of dialing twenty digits (or > even having to place calls manually giving VISA card numbers, etc.) > and waiting long periods of time to get through the "long distance > nightmare". The Telecomunications Workers Union has been carrying on a scare campaign about this for several years now. And certainly Canadians visiting the US do get ripped off by COCOTs and such. But that is only one tiny aspect of the telecom situation south of the border. And the obvious downside to our excellent telephone service the way it is run today is the price. Arghhh! Well -- competition is coming in a big way, so we shall see ... but more and more I think we need a divestiture and local competition too. Tony H. ------------------------------ From: ALLAN@MNHEP8.HEP.UMN.EDU (Graham Allan) Subject: Re: Bell Canada Payphone Charges Organization: University of Minnesota - High Energy Physics Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 18:01:17 GMT In J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl.co.uk writes: > I'm mad with Bell Canada. I wanted to use a payphone one night > recently to make a call from Smith's Falls, Ontario, to Utica, NY (a > distance of about 300 miles at the most). > [Moderator's Note: I'm sorry to hear about your experience. While some > (maybe most?) pay phones in the United States do connect with a robot > to collect cash if you dial 1+ or get billing information if you dial > 0+, some places still require an operator to come on the line for > either purpose. Maybe that is the case in Canada. It is too bad you > got one who was rude, but that is not all that uncommon either it > seems. I think the operator should have accepted your British Telecom > calling card; this is an acceptable card in the USA at least, although > perhaps to use it the call has to go back to the UK; I am not sure of > the technicalities. By definition, pay phone calls cannot be 'direct > dialed' at the lower rates since an operator's intervention -- even a > robot operator -- is required to prompt for payment or billing infor- > mation. Calls between the USA and Canada are expensive. PAT] The British Telecom card can only be used to call the UK from abroad; you can't use it as a normal calling card when outside the UK. When I last used it for this (about three years ago) there were only a few operators who knew how to process it, too, although these days there is an 800 number to talk directly to a BT operator. Maybe a more convenient system may be possible with the ties between Cable and Wireless (who own Mercury in the UK) and (I think) Sprint. A card which could genuinely be used both in the UK and US would be useful. However, Mercury certainly still have to get their calling card act together in the UK, so it is probably some way off, if it ever happens! Graham ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 23:23:36 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Bell Canada Payphone Charges Reply-To: tony@vm1.mcgill.ca J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl.co.uk wrote: > I'm mad with Bell Canada. I wanted to use a payphone one night > recently to make a call from Smith's Falls, Ontario, to Utica, NY (a > distance of about 300 miles at the most). > I'm mad because: > - You can't direct dial the number! (I dialed the right number but > the operator pops up out of nowhere and starts handling the call). I > didn't realise who she was at first (thought I had reached a wrong > number), and she treated me like complete dirt. It's a while since I > used a North American payphone and I forgot this happens, but I was > amazed it still does. How much intelligence does a phone need anyway > just to take your money? It's an old complaint (and a valid one), but the immediate problem is probably that the phone in question had a rotary dial. There is no provision for automatic handling of payphone calls from dial phones. > - It's cash or nothing. If you're not a US or Canadian resident > you're unlikely to have an acceptable phone company credit card. OK > it's not that unreasonable that Bell would/could not charge my British > Telecom card, but what else is a tourist supposed to do? No pre-paid > cards available in newsstands like in many countries, and there aren't > too many of the Visa-accepting payphones that I saw later in larger > cities. I agree completely. Neither Canada nor the USA has developed stored value card phones to any serious extent. > - Cost. The operator wanted $2.35 (Canadian) per minute. I was > thinking of maybe a 10-minute call, and the largest piece of money > that would go in this Bell Canada ugly tin box was 25 cents. So I > would have needed a bucketful of quarters, plus it is really expensive > -- I could call NY cheaper from London! From a UK (Mercury) payphone > the cheapest rate is #1.17 (roughly $1.95) per minute, and _that_ is > for 3600 miles of call. I can't believe that such a call could cost $2.35/minute. Almost certainly you were quoted a rate for the first minute that included a transaction charge ($1.75 last time I looked) for the privilege of dealing with the operator. Yes -- I know you didn't *want* to deal with an operator in the first place ... the rates listed from last year's phone book from Toronto to New York City (which should be comparable to Smith's Falls to Upstate New York State) are $.50 during prime time, and $.20 off peak. Higher than US rates certainly, but not criminal. And probably lower than UK rates for a similar distance. As for "ugly tin box" -- the Northern Telecom Centurion phone won various design awards ... and newer (Millenium) NT phones take $1 (Loonie) coins. > [Moderator's Note: I think the operator should have accepted your > British Telecom calling card; this is an acceptable card in the USA at > least, although perhaps to use it the call has to go back to the UK; I > am not sure of the technicalities. Nope. And Canadian and US cards are not accepted in the UK for calls other than those back to the card holder's country either. Canadian and US cards are about the only ones that work in each other's countries. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: AYYWONG@ELECTRICAL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca (Amy Wong) Subject: Re: Bell Canada Payphone Charges Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 23:32:50 GMT It seems like Bell Canada is changing all their payphones. (Maybe someone working at Bell can comment on this) Here on campus at the university of Waterloo, (Waterloo is not a big city, population is about 75,000) all payphones are changed to the type which accepts major credit cards and calling cards. Amy Wong ayywong@electrical.watstar.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Bell Canada Payphone Charges Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Fri, 19 Mar 93 01:37:19 GMT > I'm mad with Bell Canada. ... And in part justifiably so. However... > - Cost. The operator wanted $2.35 (Canadian) per minute. I was > thinking of maybe a 10-minute call, That was not the cost per minute. That was the cost for the FIRST minute, and about $2 of it was the startup surcharge because the call was (necessarily, since it was a payphone) operator-assisted. If you'd asked about the price for additional minutes, you'd have found that it was something you'd call reasonable. Of course, the operator might well have volunteered that information, but perhaps Bell assumes that they have to deal with people who can't hold two prices in their head simultaneously. Or maybe it was just the particular rude one that you encountered. (The exception, in my experience.) > and the largest piece of money that would go in this Bell Canada > ugly tin box was 25 cents. So I would have needed a bucketful of > quarters ... And they don't even have the excuse that US phone companies do, namely that the quarter is the largest coin in common circulation. Here we've had $1 coins in general use since 1987. However, Bell has finally attended to this in the new type of payphones ("Millennium" phones). This doesn't help if there isn't one of those where you are, but I've seen enough payphones replaced by Millenniums [Millennia? :-)] in Toronto in the last year or so that I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Bell plans to replace all the older phones. (Anyone know for sure?) As these phones have already been described here in the past, and are not remarkable by world standards, I'll say no more about them here. Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ From: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 20:05:24 +0000 Organization: Imperial College, London, UK. Subject: Re: Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu (Ted Koppel) wrote: > I don't care about prefixes within a city, just the fact that within > France (for instance) the city code for Lyon is 7 and the city code > for Nice is 93. This is incorrect. For nearly ten years, France has had no local codes, except for Paris which has a code "1". All the rest of France has full telephone numbers of the type . (not including the country code which is +33). ab = 93 used to be the code for the "Alpes Maritimes" area in the past, but now other codes are used in the area as well, such as 92, or 91. This is due to shortage of numbers in some areas while others have plenty of them available. Even if you are calling your next door neighbour, you have to plug-in all eight digits. I am sometimes amazed at the litterature given in telephone directories in countries around the world. So often is the information in the international section out of date. On a similar note, I use Mercury telecommunications to call relatives back in Cannes (South of France -- yes, it's a 93 number) long distance from London (my current place of abode). My last itemised billing displayed the country I was calling as being "Monaco". I think that some smart bum in Mercury equated the fact that "+33 93" was common to all numbers in the Principality of Monaco (Monaco, although having a special no-tax status etc. is on the French telecom network -- long story :-) ) and re-programmed the billing computers accordingly. Eagerly waiting for my next itemized bill ... Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond, Digital Comms. Section, Elec. Eng. Department Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BT, UK Internet/Bitnet: - Janet: ------------------------------ From: tgilhean@netcom.com (Tom Gilheany) Subject: Re: Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 00:55:28 GMT TELECOM Moderated noted in response to Ted Koppel: > [Moderator's Note: You bet we have it! Check out the Telecom Archives > using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu (login anonymous, use name@site as > your password, then 'cd telecom-archives' and 'cd country.codes'. I tried telneting from two different sites with no luck. (Logged in anonymous and kept getting "invalid password"). Can someone verify that anonymous login is still operational at this site? Thanks in advance. Tom@ATMEL.COM [Moderator's Note: I tried it just now (1:45 AM Friday) and it worked fine. The place you telnetted from would probably not make a difference. If anything, anonymous ftp may have been shut down temporarily due to some other situation. Netiquette dictates whenever possible doing your anonymous ftp calls after normal business hours. It could be, like sites where I normally drop off comp.dcom.telecom via their nntp socket that sometimes the load is so high they respond 'cant talk to you now' and close the window, in which case I put them on the end of the list and go back a few minutes later to try again. If lcs.mit.edu refuses your anonymous ftp request, I suggest trying later, or try to get in with gopher or web ... both of those work now. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 18 Mar 1993 09:37:46 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Coen Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? > one Beacon Hill lawmaker says he's gotten fed up with drivers who miss > the light turning green ... or weave all over the road ... because > they have the phone to their ear! So he's proposing a bill that would > make people pull over to use the cellphone. Great idea! I've seen the same thing happen. To be blunt, you shouldn't be able to operate anything that isn't part of the car with one or more of your hands. If you have a tire blow out on the highway while holding a cellphone in one hand, you may have a real problem. People should have to maintain two hands on the wheel. The speakerphone units aren't as bad, but they really shouldn't allow the driver to dial out while the car is moving. A guy got himself killed in Rhode Island a number of years ago. He was apparantly having a heated conversation on a cellphone, and pulled out into the breakdown lane/shoulder (this was on I-95 southbound, around Warwick, I think -- if anyone cares) -- he was either going to pull over, or pass someone on the right. Nobody's sure. Because he was paying attention to the 'phone, he ended up slamming the car into the back of a tractor-trailer truck that was stopped in the breakdown lane. > I suspect this one will get eaten alive by the cell companies' lobby- > ists. Probably. It's a good idea, though. Someone probably needs to do a study or two on cellphone-related accidents, and some experiments on how much using a cellphone distracts people. Paul Coen -- pcoen@drew.drew.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #190 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05644; 19 Mar 93 6:02 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17362 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 19 Mar 1993 03:18:58 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27614 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 19 Mar 1993 03:18:04 -0600 Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 03:18:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303190918.AA27614@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #191 TELECOM Digest Fri, 19 Mar 93 03:18:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 191 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: TDDs and Modem Standards (Curtis E. Reid) Re: TDDs and Modem Standards (Ron Dippold) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Ron Dippold) Re: CHILL Information Wanted (Ketil Albertsen) Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! (Leonard P. Levine) Re: 1-800-TADPOLE Wanted! Help Locate 'Touch America' (dag@ossi.com) Re: How Do I Get Rid of Line Noise? (Robert L. McMillin) Re: California SS7 Announcement in Newsbytes (Bob Longo) Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy (Stephen Wood) Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review (Andy Sherman) Re: Tell Me About Your Pager (Steven Warner) Re: ATM Information/White Paper/Newsgroup Wanted (Ketil Albertsen) Re: 10-ATT-0 and COCOTs (Edward D. Schulz) Re: Bellsouth Cordless Phone (Joe George) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Mar 1993 18:54:28 -0500 (EST) From: Curtis E. Reid Subject: Re: TDDs and Modem Standards In a message received on 18 Mar 1993, 18:45 Ken Thompson wrote to TELECOM Digest V13 #186 > Are TDD's compatable with any modem standard? No. You can obtain TDD specifications and other goodies via anonymous ftp to lcs.mit.edu. TDD uses BAUDOT code (5-bit) while modem understand ASCII code (8-bit). Thus, they are inherently incompatible. However, there are dual ASCII/BAUDOT modems out on the market. As well as some PC software that translate ASCII into BAUDOT. Curtis E. Reid CER2520@ritvax.isc.rit.edu Rochester Institute of Technology/NTID REID@DECUS.org (DECUS) P.O. Box 9887 716.475.6089 TDD/TT 475.6895 Voice Rochester, NY 14623-0887 U.S.A. 716.475.6500 Fax (Business Use Only) ------------------------------ From: rdippold@qualcomm.com (Ron "Asbestos" Dippold) Subject: Re: TDDs and Modem Standards Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 07:13:00 GMT Ken Thompson writes: > Are TDD's compatable with any modem standard? Modem standards and TDD standards are generally incompatible ... not only in text encoding (Baudot vs. ASCII) but speed (few modems can go as slow as 45 baud) and signalling format. Depending on what you need there may be good news, however. There are several modems on the market which have support for TDD built in. Just make sure it explicitly says it does. And many of the newer TDDs have a ASCII/Baudot option switch, although that's not the only hurdle. I haven't looked at TDDs in the last year or two, so more may be offering standard modem protocols as well, since they're so cheap. I know my old Novation Apple-Cat II (possibly the best modem ever made in terms of technology at the time) would let you talk to TDDs. ------------------------------ From: rdippold@qualcomm.com (Ron "Asbestos" Dippold) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 07:26:57 GMT fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) writes: > I suspect this one will get eaten alive by the cell companies' lobby- > ists. Not to mention by all the influential types who use car phones. Well, this should make the road safe for all those putting on makeup, shaving, eating and reading as they drive. ------------------------------ From: ketil@edb.tih.no (Ketil Albertsen,TIH) Subject: Re: CHILL Information Wanted Organization: T I H / T I S I P Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 11:32:14 GMT (I could have mailed, rather than posted this. But I relly like the CHILL language myself, and I think a lot of other people would like it too if they knew about it. So here is my halfpenny of CHILL marketing.) In article , harald@cs.ruu.nl (Harald Vogt) writes: > I am looking for information about the programming language CHILL. > CHILL is used for programming phone switches. > I am interested in the following items: > o a formal specification of the language CHILL > (is there a grammar for CHILL?), Yes, CHILL is one of the better defined languages. You'll find the formal spec and a lot of not-so-formal info in CCITT recommendation Z.200. It looks like Z.200 hasn't been updated in 1992 (is this correct?), so it is *not* available from teledoc@itu.arcom.ch - you'll have to buy the bluebook hardcopy. If you are not that familiar with formal specs, you should start out with the "CHILL User Manual" -- as far as I can see, that is something written by AT&T and Philips Telecommunications. The preface of my copy states the following mail address: C.H. Smedema AT&T and Philips Telecommunications (Belgium) 80, Rue des Deux Gares B1070 Brussels Belgium tel. +32 2 5137600 Note: My copy is dated April 1984; names may have changed (although I would think the office still exists). > o tools available for manipulating CHILL, > o programming environments for CHILL, In our college courses, we are using the CHIPSY (CHILL Programming SYstem) from: KVATRO A/S Pirsenteret N-7005 Trondheim Norway Tel: + 47 7 52 00 90 (Note: The phone number will change this summer, due to a restruct- uring of the number plan!) I know they will be present at the Hannover fair the last week of March (24th to 31th), stand A54-C55 in Hall 2 according to the invitation they sent me. So if you can get there, or know someone who is going to go, you'll have a chance to evaluate it. There are several others, too -- notably Philips and AT&T, and I am quite sure they will be at the Hangover fair, too. > o pointers to articles about CHILL, and That CHILL User Manual is a 'special issue of the CHILL bulletin'. I don't know if this bulletin still exists, but at the above quoted addresses they will probably be able to help you. > o hints to get more info about CHILL. If we can initate more CHILL activity, we should have a newsgroup (I am 99% sure that there is none -- at least none are available to me). For those that don't know CHILL at all: It is a general, algorithmic language that just happens to be defined by CCITT; it could very well be used as a replacement for c, modula etc. (but with significant extensions), It just isn't marketed very much outside the telecomm environments. Ketil Albertsen, College lecturer Trondheim College of Engeneering (TIH), Dept. of Comp.Sci N-7004 TRONDHEIM Norway. ------------------------------ From: levine@convex.csd.uwm.edu (Leonard P Levine) Subject: Re: The New Phone Books Are Here! Date: 18 Mar 1993 20:53:52 GMT Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Reply-To: levine@convex.csd.uwm.edu In article , by Monty Solomon : > In our new book, the listings have a bizarre alphabetization: > SOLOMON Alan....... > Ann....... > ... > Marilyn....... > Michael....... > SOLOMON-MITTLEMAN J & Robt....... > SOLOMON Robt....... > Sherwin....... > ... > Their algorithm has problems with hyphenated last names. Also with spaced last names: LEVINE Al Betty Leonard LE VINE Leonard LEVINE Nathan Samuel Leonard P. Levine e-mail levine@cs.uwm.edu Professor, Computer Science Office (414) 229-5170 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Home (414) 962-4719 Milwaukee, WI 53201 U.S.A. FAX (414) 229-6958 [Moderator's Note: How many readers are familiar with the way in which exact names (of different people) are handled? IBT says if the name is exactly the same, i.e. John G. Smith and John G. Smith (but they are different parties) then the sort continues by the street name, with someone on i.e. Main Street being listed ahead of someone on Maple Street. If both parties live on the same street, then the sort continues by number on the street, with the person at the lower numbered address i.e. 1234 Main Street listed ahead of 1432 Main Street. If both parties have the same name and live at the same address (which I assume is rather rare) then the sort continues by telephone number, with the 'lower number' first and the 'higher number' next, i.e. 222-2222 would be listed ahead of 333-3333. A person doing business in Chicago on Adams Street as 'A' is listed ahead of a person doing business on Dearborn Street as 'A'. Illinois Bell says apostrophes (O'Connor), ampersands (Johnson & Johnson) and hyphens (Hillary Rodham-Clinton) are ignored, as are periods (W.L.S.) unless their presence or absence is critical in distinquishing one entry from another, i.e. if there were a (fn)Hillary (mn) Rodham (ln) Clinton and a (fn) Hillary (ln) Rodham-Clinton then the name absent these marks would appear ahead of the name with those marks. It appears they follow ASCII ordering with a space (hex 20) coming ahead of a hyphen (hex 2D). Spaces are taken into consideration however; the name La Fayette would appear before LaFayette. I guess that still follows ASCII ordering, since the space comes ahead of any letters. I suspect some of the more obscure entries are strictly data-entry operator optional or did telco ask Mr. LaFayette if he had a space in the middle of his name or not? :) PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 1-800-TADPOLE Wanted! Help Locate 'Touch America' Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 13:16:29 PST From: dag@ossi.com jim@tadpole.com (Jim Thompson) writes: > As you can see from the headers, I work for Tadpole Technology, Inc. > Tadpole would really like to have '800 TADPOLE', (800 823 7653). > Perusing the Telecom Archives, the 823 NXX is 'owned' (?) by a company > called 'Touch America'. Has anyone heard of them? Any contact > information for 'Touch America'? > Also with 800 portability just around the corner, what will the > situation be after May 1? Will I be able to call my favorite 800 > vendor and say, "I'd like to have 800 823 7653." (If it is unassigned, > of course.), or will I still need to call Touch America, and then > 'move' the 800 service? Well, I just called the number and got a recording saying that the call couldn't go through; the old "We're sorry, the number you have reached ..." deal. That means that the chances are no-one is using it. Of-course, if you don't act quick one of the less ethical telecom readers (most of us are great guys and gals of-course) could snap up the number and try to sell it back to you for $500. As to how you get numbers after May 1, I have no idea, but would also be interested in finding out, I hope that it's something simple, like call your favourite carrier and tell 'em which number you'd like and then they give it to you. Cheers, dag ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 06:58:17 -0800 From: rlm@indigo2.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: How Do I Get Rid of Line Noise? Bill Blum gives a rather lengthy description of how to make a noise killer for a 2400 bps modem. Every time I see this subject come up on the Digest, I feel obliged to mention the excellent $17.95 (about two years ago) Z100A RF filter you can get at your local AT&T phone store. Works great, lasts a long time. I used to be right next door to twin 50 kW AM transmission towers for KNX newsradio in Torrance. The interference I got was unbelievable. Being in GTE-land didn't help, either. I dropped in the RF filter, and voila! No curly brackets anymore. Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@indigo2.hac.com After April 2 : rlm@mcgort.com or rlm@surfcty.com ------------------------------ From: Bob Longo Subject: Re: California SS7 Announcement in Newsbytes Date: 18 Mar 93 12:03:00 PST Organization: Santa Fe Pacific Pipelines In article , Hierophant writes: > An article appeared in the 12 March Newsbytes (clari.nb.telecom) > announcing the arrival of some CLASS end-user services in California. > It briefly outlines the functionality of Call { Trace | Return | > Screen }, Select Call Forwarding, Repeat Dialing, and Priority > Ringing. The article points out that the SS7 technology would have > allowed PacBell to offer the "controversial Caller ID services", but > "While the company cannot offer Caller ID in California because > of regulations set by the California Public Utilities > Commission, it is allowing California residents to make use of > the SS7 technology ..." [stuff deleted] I believe Pacific Bell has left out a few key words out of this statement. It should read: "While the company cannot offer Caller ID in California because of regulations set by the California Public Utilities Commission [would reduce potential profits], it is allowing California ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ residents to make use of the SS7 technology ..." You are correct. The CPUC has NOT prohibited Pacific Bell or GTE or anyone else from offering Caller ID. They have, however, imposed reasonable restrictions based upon input provided at public hearings to protect the privacy of telephone subscribers. The phone companies are refusing to offer the Caller ID service because they feel they might not reap the massive profits with the CPUC restrictions that they might otherwise. If you care about Caller ID, call or write Pacific Bell and complain. I did, and as your quoted statement might indicate, they tried to blame it on the CPUC. They tried to get me to call the CPUC and complain! They are trying to make it appear that they are the innocent victims of the CPUC saying "NO", which simply isn't true. Bob Longo (longo@sfpp.com) Santa Fe Pacific Pipelines Los Angeles, CA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 15:02:32 PST From: Stephen Wood Subject: Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Frankly I don't believe there is prohibition of use of English when a business answers the telephone in Quebec. The places I call all have an automated voice response first in French, then in English, telling me to dial the local, if I know it and have a touch tone, otherwise to stay on the line for a real person. I think the French/English response is quite standard. [Moderator's Note: Directory Assistance seems to answer in French and then switch to English if that is how I respond (which it is). PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 23:42:13 EST Subject: Re: The Geodesic Report II - A Small Review From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) On 12 Mar 93 07:33:16 GMT, james@cs.ualberta.ca (James Borynec; AGT Researcher) said: > I have a question, if long distance were REALLY competitive, wouldn't > we see AT&T, Sprint, and MCI competing on PRICE? Their prices have > gotten a lot closer to each other in the last few years! The prices are so close because price competition has already brought everybody's most discounted prices down to the lowest economically viable prices. This has, at times, pinched some of the carriers pretty badly. I remember a couple of years ago, one of the big three showed "price leadership" by *raising* prices in a particular market segment where everybody's margins were known to be really thin. Rather than trumpet the price increase, the rest of the industry quietly matched the price increase and breathed a big sigh of relief. Note that this was not collusive price fixing behavior, but rather three (or more) separate business decisions that continuing a price war was going to have no winners. Price competition has been in place for a long enough time that the market has pretty much equilibrated, which is why you see such similarity. Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com "These opinions are mine, all *MINE*. My employer can't have them." ------------------------------ From: Steven Warner Subject: Re: Tell Me About Your Pager Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 21:36:07 PST stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > What about using paging to get data TO remote equipment? Are there > any devices that are pagers with an RS-232 port, instead of a display? > This way, you could send (short) commands to remote locations, without > requiring a phone line be present. A Motorola ADVISOR pager can do this now. Get that pager, and standard ALPHA paging service. Order from Motorola, the device called a PRINT-PAL. (I have the stock # for it someplace) it is about $99. The device is designed to dump all messages stored in the pager to a printer. The pager sits in the PRINT-PAL. On the side is an RS-232 port that will output data at a variety of standard baud rates. This setup ALSO has the advantage that as pages are received, they are simultaneously sent out the serial port, which would give you the feature of Remote data command entry. You can use a computer and any terminal program to send pages to these pagers, or use a variety of some expensive and some not expensive software packages that make it easy to send pages from PCs. (Including one I have given away for free at one time). The PRINT-PAL can also be used to program MANY undocumented features into ADVISOR pagers. A topic for another time. > Also, why is there a delay in the delivery of pages? I can understand In the SF bay area, the paging services are heavily loaded. Alpha service also causes larger loads. If you have a scanning receiver, tune to a paging channel. During peak use periods, you will hear LOTS of data before the transmitters go idle. When I used PacTel years ago (called IRT then) delays of five minutes were not unusual for me. Steven Warner (34W 36L) sgw@boy.com ------------------------------ From: ketil@edb.tih.no (Ketil Albertsen,TIH) Subject: Re: ATM Information/White Paper/Newsgroup Wanted Organization: T I H / T I S I P Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 14:08:16 GMT In article , eric@ursula.ee.pdx.edu (Eric Berggren) writes: > I am seeking the definative guide to ATM networking. "What is it > precisely and how it works" type information. Pointers to the relavent > groups/guides welcome. This is one of the currently most popular Frequently Asked Questions - problem is that the question appears in one newsgroup after the other, so it doesn't belong in one single FAQ list. However: The answer is comp.dcom.cell-relay - for the group, that is. Discussions in that group is at a fairly high level, not exactly a "starter's forum". Follow it for a while, pick up those ftp-able papers people refer to there (there is hardly a week without someone pointing out one paper or another that can be ftp-ed). If you are a true beginner in ATM, maybe you should pick up one of the books covering it, eg. W. Stallings: ISDN and Broadband ISDN (Macmillan) or M. de Prycker: Asynchronous Transfer Mode solutions for broadband ISDN (Ellis Horwood). There sure are others as well; these are the two I have learnt from. Expect less maturity of the written material than what you would see when reading about eg. RS232! Although some ATM standards were agreed upon more than two years ago, there are still a lot of undecided points. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 08:31 EST From: eds@mt747.att.com (Edward D Schulz +1 908 615 6043) Subject: Re: 10-ATT-0 and COCOTs > I found a pay phone in Texas that would not accept 10-ATT-0 to get me > on the AT&T network. Isn't that illegal? If so, where should I > report this? Doug, AT&T wants to know. Please call 1-800-742-6260 to report the pay phone that blocks 10-288-0. Thanks. Ed Schulz, AT&T CellNet Systems Holmdel Corporate Plaza, 2137 Hwy 35, Holmdel, NJ 07733 +1 908 615 6043 voice +1 908 615 6147 fax Ed_Schulz@att.com eds@mt747.att.com attmail!edschulz ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Bellsouth Cordless Phone From: Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 06:34:31 EST Organization: The Waffle Whiffer, Atlanta, GA ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) writes: > "automatic security code scanning to prevent signal cross from other > sources." I don't have that particular phone, but I do own a Panasonic 3730 with the same "security code" feature. What happens when I take the handset off hook is that an identifying code of some sort is transmitted from the handset to the base to identify the call as valid, before I even get dialtone. Every time I place the handset back in the cradle to charge a new code is generated and loaded into the phone. I guess, if someone has the same type handset and the same code, they could theoretically use my base unit until I put the remote back on to charge. I think it's a pretty good feature. Also, this particular phone does some sort of alteration to the transmitted signal where it's very hard to hear clearly on a radio scanner. Not impossible, but it's not a signal you can listen to for very long. Joe George (jgeorge@whiffer.atl.ga.us, gatech!mathcs.emory.edu!whiffer!jgeorge) #include disclaimer.h #include quote.h ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #191 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa19793; 21 Mar 93 4:45 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20433 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 21 Mar 1993 02:06:55 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29815 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 21 Mar 1993 02:06:00 -0600 Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 02:06:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303210806.AA29815@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #192 TELECOM Digest Sun, 21 Mar 93 02:06:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 192 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Caller ID to be Made Available State-Wide in New York (Dave Niebuhr) Telephones Not Powered by the PSTN? (Magnus Hedberg) Telephone Plugs, International (Peter H. Stott) Good Cheap DAA Module? (Scott Coleman) Fraud, Abuse, and Politics (Joe Konstan) Washington Times Blows It (Phillip Dampier) A Life That Spanned the Communications Revolution (Adam Ashby) Need History of Telecom Issues (Chris Heim) Fiber Optic Television (Martin Egan) ISDN (Re: Phone Line Bandwidth) (Peter da Silva) Cable Pair Tracking (Gary Breuckman) Telephone Wire Outdoors (Seth B. Rothenberg) Phone Sex Reaches Out to Girl Scout Callers (Sharon Crichton) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Mar 93 07:32:51 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Caller ID to be Made Available State-Wide in New York New York Telephone announced in their latest bill that Caller ID will be going state-wide by the end of the year. The milestones are: Bronx and Manhattan (currently undergoing an area code realignment) will get it in April, 1993. July will see its introduction in Westchester County, Binghamton, Syracuse and Buffalo. Albany is last with Caller ID being made available in August. The Rochester Telephone part of Area Code 716 which includes is in the Buffalo LATA has had Caller ID for some time if I remember correctly. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: magnus@lulea.trab.se (Magnus Hedberg) Subject: Telephones Not Powered by the PSTN? Date: 20 Mar 93 08:29:44 GMT Organization: Telia Research AB, Aurorum 6, 951 75 Lulea, Sweden Normally telephones in public networks (PSTN) are supplied by electricity from the telecom network. We believe that it should be possible to power the telephone from the electric mains in the house instead of from the telecom network. The goal is to avoid using "hogh voltage" on the telecom network. Does anyone know if this idea already has been rejected or performed somewhere in the world. Regards, Magnus Hedberg ------------------------------ From: pstott@pearl.tufts.edu Subject: Telephone Plugs, International Organization: Tufts University - Medford, MA Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 19:44:38 GMT It would be very useful for travelers to know the names of the different telephone plugs they need in different countries in order to connect up with various networks. Does such a list exist? If not, could readers familiar with other types of plugs send me the name and any relevant details, and I will summarize here. For starters, Country Plug Designation Remarks US RJ11 Canada RJ11 UK IPC jack plug (?) Commercial RJ11-IPC connectors are reverse-wired for North American phones. Peter H. Stott Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy Urban & Environmental Policy Tel. (617) 627-3694 Tufts University Fax. (617) 627-3377 97 Talbot Avenue e-mail: pstott@pearl.tufts.edu Medford, MA 02155 pstott@igc.apc.org ------------------------------ From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) Subject: Good Cheap DAA Module? Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 14:36:12 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana I'm looking for a DAA (a module which I can use to interface a project to the telephone line). I'd like to build an interactive voice response system using a SoundBlaster card (along with its speech systhesis drivers) as well as a DTMF decoder circuit. I have an old article in Byte magazine in which Steve Ciarcia builds something similar (he called his a TIMS) in which he used a Cermetek (?) DAA to interface his project to the phone line safely and legally. The article is several years old, so surely there must be a newer (and better and cheaper) DAA module available on the market today. Any recommendations? ------------------------------ From: Joe Konstan Date: Sat, 20 Mar 93 11:20:27 CST Subject: Fraud, Abuse, and Politics Two cases of phone fraud in recent days: Wednesday's {Minneapolis Star Tribune} reports that the Minnesota House (and the account of the House Majority Leader) in 1991 were taken for some $50,000 in phone fraud. Apparently, they had a system where representatives could call in through an 800 number and dial out after giving their five-digit secret code. These codes were often known to staff and family, but in this case the code got nationwide usage. The House (and MCI) decided it would be too expensive to investigate the thousands of phone calls (since it was clear that they were made by many different people) and the House paid up and wrote it off (but has avoided publicity until now and never released the phone logs). They switched to a reimbursement-based system using personal phone cards and total cost has gone way down (despite the per-call surcharges -- maybe Pat should make a presentation to the legislature for the unmentioned, no surcharge card?). Incidentally, the state Senate still has 800-dialin with one shared code for all senators. They claim no problems (and they do change the code occasionally) despite the lack of accountability. The next day, UPI has a story on U.S. Speaker of the House Tom Foley having a calling card issued to his office (no indication whether it is personal) being charged at least $1200 last December for unauthorized 900-calls to dial-a-porn services. This one interests me in particular because: a) how did they know the 900-numbers were porn rather than sports or stock tips (were they followed up by "authorized" calls to check?) ? vt)Ld:_fRk,<6 T7#Z}4~Y(y??ixeA1w=+b) I didn't think any calling cards still allowed calls to premium services. This report came from the {Washington Times} -- I don't know how much credence to put in the technical details. Now back to passing an economic stimulus package -- maybe we'll designate a couple of hundred million for phone fraud? v?S]zMeHP6iN?QH(b.GW Joe Konstan konstan@cs.umn.edu ------------------------------ From: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org (Phillip Dampier) Reply-To: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 12:47:47 -0500 Subject: Washington Times Blows It The "Moonie paper" in Washington, {The Washington Times}, in an attempt to sting the Democrats with sex related charges, fouled up in trying to portray Foley's calling card as being used to call 900 numbers. When one considers the right wing bias of the paper, it's no surprise that they tried it, but next time they should use a comp.dcom.telecom member for a source. We know better: WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker Thomas S. Foley said Thursday his office telephone credit card number had been stolen and unauthorized calls made, but he denied a report they were made to dial-a-porn services. {The Washington Times}, quoting unidentified sources, said Thursday that at least some of the unauthorized calls were made to 900-dial-a- porn numbers and charged to telephones issued to the speaker's office, including a cellular car phone. Foley, in response to reporters' queries, confirmed that his office was notified in December that a telephone credit card issued to his office had shown unusual activity and was being cancelled and replaced. But Foley said no "900" calls were involved, and that no congressional telephones or credit cards can access those services. "They are blocked automatically," he said. "There were no 900 calls charged to my office," he said, and the office was not billed for the other fraudulent calls that were made. --------------------- AP reported that the calling card in question was issued by MCI. By the way, on a related note, Friends & Family customers can now add the Capitol Switchboard to their calling circle if they'd like -- they are MCI customers. The Capitol number is (202) 224-3121. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 12:54:00 +0000 From: Adam (A.) Ashby Subject: A Life That Spanned the Communications Revolution From {The Daily Telegraph} March 18th 1993. "The oldest person in Britain died in her sleep yesterday, aged 115. Mrs. Charlotte Hughes, born on the day Alexander Bell founded his first telephone company - Aug 1st, 1877 - was also the second oldest person in the world." ------------------------------ From: heimchristop@bvc.edu Subject: Need History of Telecom Issues Date: 20 Mar 93 15:12:45 CST Organization: Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, IA I have a few questions I need to answer for my professor and would appreciate some input if you like. We have been discussing the history of telecommunications, starting with the telegraph and now focusing on HDTV. If you have any insight to provide, your help will not be copied, but simply used as a reference to help me compile some quality in-depth answers. Who will pay? Who will profit? Who will have access? How will conflicts be resolved? Who will provide what services and under what conditions? What are the transnational implications of technologies that recognize no boundaries? Identify our key, historical communications goals in the US and using those as a yardstick, discuss how the above questions have been answered in the early telegraph,telephone, and broadcast industries. Chris Heim heimchristop@bvc.edu ------------------------------ From: Martin Egan Subject: Fiber Optic Television Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 21:16:00 GMT Organization: University of Illinois I am doing research on the competition between telephone companies and cable companies over the cable TV market using fiber optic cables. My focus is on who is ahead in this race and the possible outcomes of this competition. If you have any information related to this topic, please post it. Thank You! ------------------------------ From: peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva) Subject: ISDN (Re: Phone Line Bandwidth) Organization: Ferranti International Controls Corporation Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 17:41:59 GMT [from comp.arch] In article lindsay+@cs.cmu.edu (Donald Lindsay) writes: > The old ISDN dream was that the customer could supply 64 kpbs data > streams, direct to the exchanges. If ISDN was available, people would do this. But it's not, so they don't. If I could buy ISDN for my house at a residential class rate, I'd do it, and enough other people would do it that it'd be commercially feasible to sell ISDN services. But I can't. In some countries you can get ISDN at commercial prices, but without retail customers there's no incentive for businesses to get into it. It's not too late. ISDN would become your digital dialtone, and it'd also be one of your options for long distance data service. The problem with ISDN isn't technical, it's political. Peter da Silva Ferranti International Controls Corporation 12808 West Airport Blvd. Sugar Land, TX 77478 USA +1 713 274 5180 ------------------------------ From: 1012breuckma@vmsf.csd.mu.edu Subject: Cable Pair Tracking Date: 20 Mar 1993 14:34:23 GMT Organization: Marquette University - Computer Services Reply-To: 1012breuckma@vmsf.csd.mu.edu Our Physical Environment folks have a need for a program or database to do cable management. I know that there are both complete systems and programs out there, and would appreciate any recommendations from current users of any such systems. The situation involves multiple, user owned cables between campus buildings as well as riser cables within buildings. There is a need to keep track of "circuits" with the cable and pair numbers, end-to-end, as well as by "cable" to identify which pairs are in use, free, or bad. It would also be nice if the program would understand the whole topology and be able to automatically assign free pairs to a new circuit, given the desired endpoints. The types of circuits involved, probably not too relevent, include T1 multiplexor links, emergency hotline telephones, fire and intrusion alarms, cardkey control equipment, etc. Thank you for any references, either by mail or to the telecom newsgroup! Gary Breuckman Technical Services Manager 1012breuckma@vms.csd.mu.edu 414-288-3771 ------------------------------ From: rothen+@pitt.edu (Seth B Rothenberg) Subject: Telephone Wire Outdoors Date: 20 Mar 93 15:23:48 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh I am in the process of buying a house two doors down from my in-laws and thought it would be useful to be able to answer their phone from my house and vice-versa. I could easily string a four-pair wire between the houses, possibly without even touching the house in between (I need to check if the deed allows me to cross the backyard). My question is whether this is safe? I understand that the phone company is supposed to use lightening arrestors at the building entrance. Do I need to? Naturally, the phone wire is not the highest point anywhere. Does anyone know of a simple intercom that will run the 100 feet between the houses? Thanks, Seth [Moderator's Note: Since it is only a hundred feet, why not consider burying the wire? Stuff it through sections of conduit and bury the conduit about three feet underground. That is more vandal proof than overhead wire which beckons to passers-by, 'cut me, cut me'. The other thing you could do is get them a cordless phone with a reasonable range on it. Have the base installed permanently at their place and you keep the handset at your place with its own permanent charger or battery eliminator if you can find one that works. Still a third method, of which this Moderator cannot give his blessings but of which he informs you for educational reasons only is to steal a couple of idle pairs from the telco if you can find them. How do you find them? In the big city, multiple-family dwellings usually have a box in the basement where not only the phone lines for the residents therein are demarked, but so are multiples from the pairs of all the other dwelling places within a city block or two. If a phreak were to install an extension phone from his neighbor's abode to his own, he'd go to the neighbor's phone and put a sounder on line. He'd then go to the box in *his* basement and listen for his sounder. Hearing it, he'd jump that pair to an unused house pair on his side and bring it upstairs. If he did not hear his sounder on any of the pairs in his basement then he'd look for a pair in the neighbor's basement that did NOT have dial tone on it, and put the sounder on that pair. He would come back to his basement once again and start listening on the pairs for that sounder. Finding it (quite likely), he'd jump that pair to an unused house pair and bring it up to his place. Then he would go back to the neighbor's basement and jump the neighbor's house pair to the newly found unused pair in the cable. When he got back home, he'd expect to hear the neighbor's dial tone on the newly connected house pair at his end. Ah, but I hear you saying, "What if telco outside plant decides to use that cable pair for someone else in the neighborhood; the guy climbs the pole (or goes to a basement down the street or wherever) with his work order in hand only to hear dial tone on that pair? What if a guy in the CO does the work on that end and hears dial tone on that pair before he has *his* dial tone on it? Won't there be hell to pay?" No, because telco's outside plant records are so bungled up and confused that the CO guy and the installer will assume there's a mistake in the records somewhere -- they'll just look for another pair for their customer and change the records accordingly. It won't occur to them to ask the Business Office or their own records clerk in the CO who is on the mystery pair; or they'll assume the last guy out there forgot to open a multiple somewhere, and rather than look for it the installer will get the clerk in the CO to give him another pair instead. Happens all the time that way. Of course, it is illegal to relieve telco of cable pairs without telling them and offering to pay for it, but it happens in the big city in old run down ghetto areas where a shortage of pairs in the cable forces everyone's pair to wind up multipled in everyone else's basement multi-line demark. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sharonc@meaddata.com (Sharon Crichton) Subject: Phone Sex Reaches Out to Girl Scout Callers Date: 20 Mar 1993 14:16:09 GMT Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH Reply-To: sharonc@meaddata.com First heard this on the news this week. This came through on the UPI wire and I thought readers would find it amusing. Sharon HEADLINE: Phone sex reaches out to Girl Scout callers Some callers who want to use an 800 number to reach the Girl Scout's local office instead get to hear a seductive telephone sex service message. The Girl Scouts' 800 number, which it used since 1984, was dropped last year. But the listing remains in telephone books distributed last month by Ameritech Publishing. An unidentified sex line snapped up the number, which spells out 800-BAD-GIRL. A voice greets callers with a "Hi lover. Call us love right now ... for the wildest sex party ever." Callers are then told to call another 800 number and instructed to leave their phone numbers for a return collect call. "We're not pleased at all," said Jane Crites, executive director of the Applesee Ridge Girl Scout Council. "The message you get is surely not reflective of the Girl Scout program." AT&T told Girl Scout officials said they would try to persuade the sex-line operator to agree to place a block on the line on the number in northwest Ohio. Callers from northwestern Ohio now get a recording stating that the number was out of service in the 419 area code. Ana Gabriel, an AT&T spokeswoman who would not reveal the identity of the sex-line operator, said the company could not force the telephone sex line to make the change. She said AT&T has a policy of waiting six months before re-assigning telephone numbers. ---------- Sharon Crichton Mead Data Central sharonc@meaddata.com P.O. Box 933 uunet!meaddata!sharonc Dayton, OH 45401 FAX: (513) 865-1655 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #192 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa14296; 22 Mar 93 18:55 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13092 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 21 Mar 1993 03:49:09 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29108 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 21 Mar 1993 03:48:09 -0600 Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 03:48:09 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303210948.AA29108@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #193 TELECOM Digest Sun, 21 Mar 93 03:48:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 193 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson More on Steve Jackson Games Case Victory (EFFector via Rich Greenberg) Periodic Reminder of Dial Up Access to Archives (Mark Earle) Baby Bells Block Information Service Says TRI (Nigel Allen) Local Telco Requires Landlord's Contact (an17833@anon.penet.fi) NT "Unity" Phone Manual Needed (Jack Powers) Re: 10-ATT-0 and COCOTs (Harold Hallikainen) AmeriVox vs. Orange Card (Howard Gayle) AT&T Counters The Orange Card (John R. Levine) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Mar 93 14:52:37 -0800 From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Reply-To: richgr@netcom.com Subject: More on Steve Jakcson Games case victory. Extracted from: EFFector Online Volume 5 No. 4 3/19/1993 editors@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 STEVE JACKSON GAMES WINS LAWSUIT AGAINST U.S. SECRET SERVICE A games publisher has won a lawsuit against the U.S. Secret Service and the federal government in a ground-breaking case involving computer publications and electronic mail privacy. In a decision announced in Austin, Texas, on March 12, Judge Sam Sparks of the federal district court for the Western District of Texas announced that the case of Steve Jackson Games et al. versus the U.S. Secret Service and the United States Government has been decided for the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs, which include Steve Jackson, the company he founded, and three users of the company's bulletin board system (BBS), sued the government on claims that their statutory rights to electronic mail privacy had been violated when the BBS and other computers, disks and printouts were seized by the Secret Service as part of a computer crime investigation. These rights are protected under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which extended most of the protections of the federal Wiretap Act ("Title III") to electronic mail. Jackson and his company also claimed violations of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law designed to limit searches of publishers in order to protect their First Amendment rights. Mitch Kapor, founder and chairman of the board for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the public interest/civil liberties organization that has underwritten and supported the case since it was filed in 1991, said he is pleased with the decision. "This decision vindicates our position that users of computer bulletin board systems are engaging in Constitutionally protected speech," Kapor said. "This decision shows that perseverance pays off," he added. "We've been at this for almost three years now, and we still don't know if it's over -- the Justice Department might appeal it." Nevertheless, Kapor said he is optimistic about the case's ultimate outcome. Judge Sparks awarded more than $50,000 in damages to Steve Jackson Games, citing lost profits and violations of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980. In addition, the judge awarded each plaintiff $1,000 under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act for the Secret Service seizure of their stored electronic mail. The judge also stated that plaintiffs would be reimbursed for their attorneys's fees. The judge did not find that Secret Service agents had "intercepted" the electronic communications that were captured when agents seized the Illuminati BBS in an early morning raid in the spring of 1990 as part of a computer crime investigation. The judge did find, however, that the ECPA had been violated by the agents's seizure of stored electronic communications on the system. The case was tried in Austin, Texas, by the Austin-based media law firm George, Donaldson & Ford, with case assistance provided by the Boston, Massachusetts, law firm of Silverglate & Good. Pete Kennedy, the lawyer from George, Donaldson & Ford who litigated the case, calls the decision "a solid first step toward recognizing that computer communications should be as well-protected as telephone communications." Kennedy also said he believes the case has particular significance for those who use computers to prepare and distribute publications. "There is a strong indication from the judge's decision that the medium of publication is irrelevant," he said, adding that "electronic publishers have the same protections against law enforcement intrusions as traditional publishers like newspapers and magazines. All publishers that use computers should be heartened by this decision. It indicates that the works-in-progress of all types of publications are protected under the Privacy Protection Act. "The case also demonstrates that there are limits on the kinds of defenses law enforcement agents can use, Kennedy said, noting that "the judge made it very clear that it is no excuse that the seizure of draft material for publication held on a computer was incidental or accidental." Mike Godwin, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has worked on the case since 1990, said he is pleased with the scope of the decision. "This case is a major step forward in protecting the rights of those who use computers to send private mail to each other or who use computers to create and disseminate publications." Rich Greenberg Work: rmg50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com 310-417-8999 N6LRT Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 What? Me speak for Amdahl? Surely you jest.... ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 21:33:19 -0600 From: mearle@falcon.ccsu.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Periodic Reminder of Dial Up Access to Archives Pat, just a once-in-a-while reminder, I've excerpted the files request and telecom related list from my bbs. January 17, 1993: Most of the files are back on line. This system is available for file request 23 hours/day (all except Z1 mail hour). Ye Mailroom (512) 855-7248 Corpus Christi TX P.O. Box 3456 Corpus Christi, TX 78463-3456 Note: files gives you the raw directory lists, and the files list with descriptions. This should let you find the exact file name you want. Files listed below should be available, but sometimes snafus happen! The following magic file names work: files -- This files list fccscan -- Gets you fccscan.zip, the proposal that would limit sale of "cellular capable" radio receivers Same file is requestable as fccscan.zip or fccscan.txt fnews -- most recent Fido News, text (non compressed) You are allowed 55 files/request. Mark Earle, 1:160/50.0 ----- Files Listing ----- REQUEST LST All files available on this system PKUNZIP EXE pkunzip 1.01 exe only PKXA35A EXE pkxarc 3.5 PKZ101 EXE pkunzip/zip/docs v1.01 used for all zips here CIDCHIP ZIP Caller ID chip EFF314 ZIP EFF 3.14 (Electronic Freedom Foundation) FLOOD358 ZIP Problems during flooding HR1674 ZIP House Bill HR3515 ZIP House Bill INETGATE ZIP Internet to Fidonet Gateway info MAILGUID ZIP Mail from/to various networks SINGASEN ZIP Singapore censors WHATSUP ZIP where to get what's up sat track software ----- Files Listing ----- ADAACT.ZIP American Disability Act, telecom related BANNED.ZIP List of banned text, newsgroups, etc. BOOKREV1.ZIP Book Review of Early Telegraphers CALLERID.ZIP Caller ID review - by area, hardware, etc. CONSTI.ZIP Constitutional notes CRACKDWN.ZIP Review of crackdown - new book CUD451.ZIP Computer Underground Digest 4 51 CUD451.ZIP through cud462 online Use r cud45*.* CUD501.ZIP through cud520.ZIP D13IG01.ZIP Issues 01-156 are offline; leave logoff D13IG01.ZIP comment to the sysop if you need 'em D13IG157.ZIP Vol 13 156 through Vol 13 192 online DFP1V5.ZIP Digital Freedom Press 1 5 EFF289.ZIP Electronic Freedom Foundation news day 289 EFF314.ZIP Clinton's Plan for infrastructure EFF314.ZIP Electronic Freedom Foundation news day 314 EFF315A.ZIP EFF news day 315 EFFC405.ZIP Effector 4 05 major changes at EFF announced EFFOP.ZIP EFF Open Platform proposal GOPHER.ZIP Cable backhoe fades? How about gophers? GOPHER.ZIP Informative article on cable protection IRIDIUM.ZIP As of Jan 29, new $$ for this project NEIDORF.ZIP Craig's side of story, as Steve Jackson NEIDORF.ZIP games goes to trial in Austin this week NEWAC210.ZIP Info on ac 210 split from 512 (TX) NYSNOW.ZIP Snow storm effects on telecom RISK1439.ZIP Risks of Computing newsletter RISK1439.ZIP Use r risk*.* to see current issues RISK1439.ZIP avail. Through 14-41 online now RFLINK.ZIP Reference rf lan solutions SPRNTOUT.ZIP Sprint outage day 289 (October 14/15 1992) TELLLOSE.ZIP Telecom losers and winners USLSUIT.ZIP Unix System Labs suit re: BSD/AT&T WJCALGOR.ZIP Text of Clinton and Gore remarks at SVGraphics [Moderator's Note: Mark Earle is a nice man for having made the Telecom Archives and selected issues of TELECOM Digest available via dial-up for the folks without ftp access. His phone number once again is: Ye Mailroom (512) 855-7248 Corpus Christi TX PAT] ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Baby Bells Block Information Service Says Tax Reduction Institute Organization: Echo Beach Here is a press release from the Tax Reduction Institute. I have no affiliation with TRI, and I am not clear whether TRI is a for-profit company or not. In general, I don't think that telephone companies should bill for information providers. ---------------- Baby Bells Block Information Service Says Tax Reduction Institute To: Business Desk Contact: Mary Mack of the Tax Reduction Institute, 800-874-1040 ROCKVILLE, Md., March 19 -- Three major Local Exchange Carriers (LEC) revealed Thursday that they will no longer bill for information providers. U.S. West, PacWest and Southwestern Bell have turned their back on this multi-million dollar industry, according to the Tax Reduction Institute (TRI). By doing so the Baby Bells effectively block legitimate information services to their customers, the institute said. Washington, D.C.-based organizations such as TRI will no longer be able to provide 24-hour fax back on demand services to millions of Americans. When informed of the decision the Tax Reduction Institute was just hours from launching a major new product for busy taxpayers. TRI was scheduled to start providing tax forms and tax reducing information to the public via fax back convenience. Mark Mack, director of MIS for this tax research and education organization said, "This action by the Baby Bells makes it more difficult for people to receive much needed information in a timely fashion." The service is geared to those who need information fast. "For instance," asked Mack, "it's late at night, the library is closed, the post office is out of forms or too far away. Where can you get the forms you need? Now the Baby Bells are stopping you from receiving the forms you need when you need them." Tax Reduction Institute, established in 1979, produces one-day tax reduction workshops across the country and can be reached at 1-800-TRI-1040. ------------ Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario 416-629-7000/629-7044 [Moderator's Note: Of course, the Information Providers can always use other telcos who *will* handle the billing, ie Integretel. Although the telcos named may be unwilling to originate the billing themselves, they will still handle it when it is passed to them by other carriers, same as in the past. The IP's can also use credit cards can't they? PAT] ------------------------------ From: an17833@anon.penet.fi Subject: Local Telco Requires Landlord's Contact Reply-To: an17833@anon.penet.fi Organization: Anonymous contact service Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 00:03:31 GMT Are local telephone companies allowed to require landlord's contact at subscription time? A few days ago I called New England Telephone to have the telephone connected in Cambridge. The first think the operator asked was the Social Security number; I said it wasn't related to the matter and she gave up. After providing name and address (the employer's data were not related, but I gave them anyway), she demanded the landlord's phone. Asked for the reason, the operator said they have to check the name is on the lease, otherwise it cannot be done. After further pressure, she admitted there would be no problem if it's ok with the landlord, but his phone number must be provided. (The landlord, by the way, does not live in the apartment.) We reached an impasse. I don't have much experience on this subject, but in the two previous times (Princeton, NJ and Arlington, MA) this demand never emerged. Here no one wants to cheat or steal anything. I just don't see the reason for these restrictions (real or fictitious). I'm willing to pay a security deposit if that is the trouble-point. I'm grateful for any help (and please forgive me for the anonymity). Replies can be posted or e-mailed. Many thanks. [Moderator's Note: Why do you feel you have to speak anonymously here? This is not alt.phone.sex.weirdness. Usually I just toss anonymous messages out -- unless they say something really juicy I can develop on my own :) -- without using them in the Digest, but I thought I would make an exception for you. Telco is NOT required to provide service to you until/unless you have demonstrated an ability and willingness to pay for it. Telco's services come to you as an extension of credit. As such, credit grantors may set any standards they like relating to an extension of credit provided the factors they use are not discriminatory under applicable federal or local laws, i.e, one standard for white people, another for blacks, etc. Telco is entitled to be assured of payment. They are entitled to find out who is in control of the premises where the phone is to be located. It is not uncommon for someone to move out stiffing telco, leaving the new tenant in the apartment to take the heat. Sometimes the deadbeat did not move out at all ... they just claim they did and ask for service under a new name. Telco is entitled to pull a credit bureau file on you if they wish to do so, and the Social Security number is the accepted identifier for this purpose. So yes, your SSN was 'relevant'. Your employment data was also 'relevant' since it demonstrates your ability to pay for the service if not necessarily your willingness to do so. Your landlord's name is 'relevant' since s/he will confirm or deny that you (and the others there 'who do not want to cheat or steal anything') are the same bunch that lived there last month or last year and left telco holding the bag, if that happened. If you do not like questions when applying for telephone credit, then use the pay station. It doesn't ask any questions. Next time you write, please sign your name. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jackp@NETSYS.COM (Jack Powers) Subject: NT "Unity" Phone Manual Needed Organization: Netsys Inc. Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 05:41:56 GMT A nonprofit organization I work with was recently given several Northern Telecom multibutton phones with no documentation. We are looking for a user's manual or other information on how to use them. The front panel has the name "Unity" stamped in it, and the bottom bears the following sticker: NT 4L15AC-35 RLS-D15 07/89 They work fine as two-line phones with hold on the cable supplied, but I'm sure they are good for more (four lines?) than that. There are two modular connectors on the bottom, one of which contains the plug for the supplied two-line cord and wall-plug power supply. There are two rows of DIP switches on the bottom, one of which has four and the other has three (larger) levers. If you have any info to share on this model, it would be most welcome. Jack Powers phone/FAX 408/779-7472 ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: 10-ATT-0 and COCOTs Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 07:08:39 GMT In article eds@mt747.att.com (Edward D Schulz +1 908 615 6043) writes: >> I found a pay phone in Texas that would not accept 10-ATT-0 to get me >> on the AT&T network. Isn't that illegal? If so, where should I >> report this? > AT&T wants to know. Please call 1-800-742-6260 to report the pay phone > that blocks 10-288-0. Thanks. Last week I was on my way to dinner (Taco Bell!) when my pager went off. There was a COCOT in front of Taco Bell, but it kept saying the 950 number to get to my long distance company was "not a valid number". I finally got an operator (a Pacific Bell operator) to connect me with my LD service, but then the keypad on the phone was dead. So, can the COCOT keep me from using my LD service if I access it with 950? Thanks! Harold [Moderator's Note: Interesting you mention it. Saturday night I had just finished my Number 2 Value Meal and was checking out the COCOT in that particular McDonalds. No 10xxx access. Touch tone pad goes dead after about eleven digits. Zero plussing produces something called the Link Long Distance Network whose operator claims she has no way to splash me over to AT&T. The number on the phone to call for complaints (dial 211) resulted in the phone giving me some back-talk: "that is not a valid number." When I got back to my office, I called Sheffield Communications, Westchester, IL (the proprietor of the phone) and left a piece of my mind on his voicemail. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Mar 93 07:29:51 PST From: howard@hal.com (Howard Gayle) Subject: AmeriVox vs. Orange Card Reply-To: howard@hal.com Here's a comparison of AmeriVox with the Orange Calling Card. Both allow calling card calls with no surcharge. AmeriVox Orange Notes rate to US except California .249 .25 1 rate to California .189 .25 rate to Canada .399 - 2 discounts start after $500 - billing increment 1 minute 6 seconds answer supervision no ? 3 application fee - $10 minimum prepayment $20 - minimum reorder amount $20 - 4 customer service open 5-24 Pacific ? 5 1) Rates are in dollars per minute. Orange allows calls to the entire U.S.; AmeriVox does not allow calls to Alaska. 2) AmeriVox plans service to Japan, England, Germany, and Mexico sometime in 1993. 3) The AmeriVox customer service person I spoke with said billing starts after six rings. 4) AmeriVox customers can reorder using VISA or MasterCard by calling customer service. $20 automatic reorders from credit cards can also be set up; they happen whenever the account balance reaches $10. They also accept reorders by check or money order. 5) The instructions I got with the AmeriVox card say "If you need assistance in California, please call 1-800-xxx-xxxx, wait for the dial tone and hit `0.'" This doesn't work. The correct customer service number is below. The choice between these cards depends on how much you expect to use it, where you call, your time preference for money, how much you value your privacy, whether you expect these companies to survive, your security concerns, and other factors. Because Orange Communications is extending credit, their application includes questions like social security number, credit card number, and phone number. AmeriVox justs wants a check or money order for $20. You could probably buy an AmeriVox card anonymously, like an AT&T Teleticket. The AmeriVox California rate is actually lower than the daytime Pacific Bell intra-LATA rate for many calls. AmeriVox cards are sold through a multi-level marketing scheme. I have no financial interest in either AmeriVox or Orange. I bought a $20 AmeriVox card from: Ivo G. Kucera Director of Finance World Telecom Group, Inc. 2015 Landings Drive Mountain View, CA 94043 415 694 4977 Fax 415 694 7886 The address for AmeriVox is: 624 South Grand Ave., Suite 801 Los Angeles, CA 90017 800 827 6299 (customer service) The address for Orange Communications, Inc. is Box 345 Spring Park, MN 55384 612 471 0223 Fax 612 471 9546 [Moderator's Note: Orange Card does supervise calls and they plan to expand to Canada and other international points (when called from the USA) within several months. You can charge all calls to your VISA/MC now if desired. Customer service is available 24 hours. Of course since residuals from the Orange Card are used to support this Digest, I obviously prefer to see contact with them made through my office, with my brochure and my indicia on said brochure if its all the same to you. :) The two cards are competitive; not everyone wants to pay in advance; not everyone wants open account credit. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: AT&T Counters the Orange Card Date: Sat, 20 Mar 93 12:57:12 EST From: John R. Levine Well, sort of. AT&T sent me a flyer for their new TeleTravel service. You sign up, they give you an account number. Then you call an 800 access number, enter your account number, and make your calls. There is a $10/yr annual fee, waived if your bill for the first two months is at least $40. What they offer: Domestic calls 32 cents/min, 30 second minimum, 6 second increments International calls comparable rates, not detailed in the flyer Three-way calling no surcharge beyond paying for the two calls Speed calling up to 10 user-programmable numbers, no extra charge Sequential calling no extra charge (wow!) Sports or weather info 95 cents/minute Flight info 75 cents/minute Directory assistance 75 cents/minute Outgoing voice messages $1.75/msg domestic, more international Voice mail (optional) $15/month plus 39 cents/minute Language Line (foreign language interpreters) $2.75/minute You can assign charge codes per call which are itemized on the invoice. If you mostly want to make phone calls, it's considerably more expensive than the Orange Card, though less than calling cards for short calls. (And with any luck, the 800 number will remain unknown to rip-off hotel PBXes for a while.) The other services are all already available separately but I suppose it's nice to provide and bill them together. To sign up, call 800-544-2222, x64. For rate info call 800-545-8210 or 904-636-2737 collect from outside North America. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us or {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl [Moderators's Note: It seems AT&T is making up for the no-surcharge by having higher per-minute rates. The extra features are nice if you are going to use them, but the Orange Card appeal I think is to people who want to make lots of short calls from payphones during daytime business hours. I've said before, there are many plans out there with only a few differences between them and a bottom line which comes out almost equal unless you are a very large user where every penny counts. If it really matters, use the telecom services best suited for your applica- tion. If 'all things are equal' or almost so, then support the Orange Card and 1+ dialing plan I offer since the residuals offset my expenses in publishing TELECOM Digest; a painless and transparent way for readers to help. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #193 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20643; 22 Mar 93 21:41 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19363 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 19:27:33 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13422 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 19:27:00 -0600 Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 19:27:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303230127.AA13422@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #194 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Mar 93 19:27:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 194 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Administrivia: System Crash Over Weekend (TELECOM Moderator) Difference Between ISDN PRI and INS1500? (Douglas A. Chan) ATM Network Downed by Storm (NY Times via John Schmidt) Old Telephone Numbers (John Higdon) Cellphone Roaming Problems "... Denied Due to Fraud." (Phydeaux) Liechtenstein to Have Internet Connectivity (Rick Broadhead) EDI Help Please (Dave Phelps) More Fun From the Massachusetts Legislature (Scott D. Fybush) Answering Machines (Lou Kates) COCOT Doesn't Know Local Number Prefix (Jonathan Bradshaw) OKI 1150 Problems (Monty Solomon) Voice Coding (was Internet Radio Program) (Arthur Marsh) SLC-120 -> SLC-240 (Yee-Lee Shyong) UK Telecom History: Why Hull? (Aled Morris) At AlGoreTel, We Hear You (was People, Not Profits) (Robert L. McMillin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 18:01:48 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: System Crash Over Weekend The delta.eecs.nwu.edu machine crashed early Sunday morning due to a failure in part of the hardware. The system was down from early Sunday morning until late afternoon Monday. Incoming mail simply stacked up at sites all over waiting until things came back on line. The combin- ation of not issuing any Digests during the day/evening Sunday along with the big backlog of mail arriving now means many of the REply messages flooding in will be delayed in getting out or may have to be scrapped if I can't catch up. Your understanding is appreciated. Patrick Townson TELECOM Moderator ------------------------------ From: apollo@world.std.com (Douglas A Chan) Subject: Difference Between ISDN PRI and INS1500? Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 23:54:06 GMT I'm going to be testing some ISDN PRI equipment soon but they'll be eventually installed in Japan. The equivalent ISDN PRI service there is NTT's INS1500 service. What are the basic differences between INS1500 and ISDN PRI under an AT&T or Northern Telecom switch? Can I assume that equipment which functions correctly under either AT&T/Northern Telecom will work with NTT's INS1500 service? (Yes, the equipment does have JATE approval but I'm not sure if that means anything in terms of overall interoperability ...) Doug apollo@world.std.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 04:13:16 EST From: JOHN SCHMIDT Subject: ATM Network Downed by Storm - NYTimes Article Front-page headline in today's {NY Times} (not to be confused with the DC paper of the same name ;-) ) "Teller Machines Are a Casualty Of the Blizzard" (Datelined Dallas, Mar 19) To summarize the lengthy article -- "After a week of dealing with the nation's largest disruption of automated teller machines, bankers are still struggling to find alternative service for the one million card holders affected. The collapse of the roof of a computer center in Clifton, N.J., under heavy snow, also brought down 5,000 A.T.M.'s nationwide, causing particularly serious problems in California and Illinois. Backup site was in North Bergen, N.J. but center was already filled with other computer operators who had been displaced from the World Trade Center by last month's bombing. Discussion of how much disruption will cost (big bucks) and who will pay ... Description of some of emergency steps taken, and potential for fraud because of incomplete database information ... Site was run by EDS, a Dallas based subsidiary of General Motors, and served 12 ATM networks, four owned by EDS, and eight owned by others ... Backup contract was with Comdisco, who also backed up many WTC businesses. EDS found an alternative site in Rochelle Park, NJ, and has been working non-stop to move equipment. Entire system is yet to be up and running. It could have been up in a day if it had been able to use Comdisco. 6% of the nations 87,000 ATM's were affected. Better backups needed. It's estimated that there are 125 to 175 ATM networks in the US, about 600 million transactions per month. Average machine handles 6800 transactions per month. This is the first disruption of this magnitude. (Further discussion of consequences and costs, and steps taken by banks affected ). 1800 ATM's down in California, 90% of ATMs in rural Illinois down. (Picture of remains of building being torn down). ============================== All in all an interesting article with a better than average discussion of a technical subject. John H. Schmidt, P.E. |Internet: schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu Technical Director, WBAU |Phone--Days (212)456-4218 Adelphi University | Evenings (516)877-6400 Garden City, New York 11530 |Fax-------------(212)456-2424 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 02:02 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Old Telephone Numbers The transmitter building for Radio KEEN (San Jose) is about to be demolished. In preparation for this, I was going through it making sure that nothing of value remained within. There were files containing correspondence dating back to the beginnings of the station in the 1940s. One thing that caught my eye was a letter from "George P. Adair, Radio Engineering Consultants" at 1833 M Street, N. W., Washington 6, DC. On the letterhead were telephone numbers: EXecutive 1230 and EXecutive 5851. We are talking Washington, DC here -- the nation's capitol. When did that city get real, seven-digit numbers (or at least EXchange + 5 digits)? I know that during that time, my family had a "voice recognition" telephone wherein you picked up the telephone and actually spoke the number and the call was placed. The date on the letter was June 15, 1948. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 [Moderator's Note: The phone number at the White House for about sixty years was Executive 1414. It was EXecutive-3-1414 during the 1950's and 1960's. It became 456-1414 when the White House phone system was upgraded during the middle 1960's and the White House was put on its own prefix. When Theodore Roosevelt was president, his twelve year old son Teddy would attend the switchboard when the operator went out for her lunch or tea break. I think Washington, DC had manual service until sometime after the Second World War, the same as Chicago. It was probably already 'EXEcutive' or 'EXecutive-3' by the time the letter you refer to was written; the guy was probably using up his old letterhead. It was commonly understood in those days that the conversion from manual to dial simply meant dialing the first three letters of the old exchange name plus the existing four digit suffix with zeros prepended to the suffix if necessary to 'fill out' the suffix to four places; i.e. previously asking for "[Exchange] 24" now meant dialing '[EXChange]-0024'. So people were in no rush to buy new letterhead and business cards. A more recent example was the conversion to all-number calling back in the early 1960's; letterheads, business cards and the telephone books themselves had a mix of both styles for several years. IBT started ANC in 1961 I think; all new subscribers (or those who changed numbers) from then forward were in the book as 7D; the ones who had service prior to that (or had not changed numbers) stayed in the book as 2L-5D until they were gone. I think I saw a few in the book the old way until around 1980. Ditto letterheads, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 11:51:49 PST From: reb@ingres.com (Phydeaux) Subject: Cellphone Roaming Problems "...Denied Due to Fraud." Hi! For most of last year I was living in Chicago during the week and New Jersey on weekends. I had two NAMs programmed in my cellphone and so I had home service in both areas. Back in December I finally moved back to New Jersey (Nynex Mobile) full time, so I cancelled my service (Cellular One) in Chicago. Well, everything was fine for a while. I travel quite often, and never have any problems using my phone. I travel to San Francisco quite often, and use my phone as a roamer when I'm there. Last Friday, while in the San Francisco area, I tried to place a call and received a message from GTE Mobilnet that I needed to contact their customer service desk. That's when the fun began. This call attempt was my second of the trip. The first one, earlier that day, had gone through without any problem. GTE's service representative told me my call was not put through and their computer showed the reason as "Denied due to fraud." When I complained that this was not an attempt at a fraudulent call, they forwarded me to a technician who looked into the matter further. Apparantly, Cell One in Chicago had put my ESN onto a list of stolen phones. So, GTE switched me off to the customer service people in Chicago ... but they gave me Ameritech in Chicago by mistake. The Ameritech people listened to my story and handed me off to Cellular One. The Cell One representative could not figure out what was going on and handed me off to her supervisor. They made me tell them the whole story (fourth or fifth time now!) and then agreed to update the fraudulent ESN database so I could make calls. Apparently the update is accomplished within about 15 minutes! All this from my dialing *611 from my car in the parking lot of a winery somewhere in the Napa Valley! 35 minutes later I was very happy to hear *611 is a free call! The Cell One person told me, that I'd cancelled my service with Cell One on 12/23 and that on 12/24 an attempt at a call was made using the phone. Well, on 12/24 When I was changing planes at O'Hare I reprogrammed my telephone so the second NAM no longer worked. Before I did this my phone thought I still had home service in Chicago when I was there. The Cell One switch detected my telephone (I may have pressed 'send', I don't know) and logged my telephone's ESN as a fraudulent user. Now I understand why the Cellphone companies say they are losing so much money due to fraudulent use. They have no clue what is going on. >From the time they 'marked' my phone as being 'stolen' I used it in about five different cities as a roamer. In San Francisco, I was on my *third* trip before they 'caught' me and refused to let me use my phone. I was in Chicago the week before, and had used my phone with Ameritech with no problem. I must say that this is the first time I've experienced *competence* from any of the above-mentioned cellular carriers. Maybe my calls were directed somewhere other than just the normal customer service drones. In any event, I was transferred four or five times and nobody managed to hang up on me (Imagine trying to reconnect with the right person!) and they actually got my phone back up and running in about 15 minutes! -- *-=#= Phydeaux =#=-* reb@ingres.com or reb%ingres.com@lll-winken.llnl.GOV h:861 Washington Avenue Westwood NJ 07675 201-376-5766 ICBM: 40.71N 73.73W w: reb Ingres Park 80 West Plaza I Saddle Brook, NJ 07662 201-587-1400 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 13:35:21 EST Reply-To: Rick Broadhead From: Rick Broadhead Subject: Liechtenstein to Have Internet Connectivity Breaking News.... Another country will be establishing a connection to the Internet in the coming weeks. The Principality of Liechtenstein, a tiny landlocked nation in central Europe, will be connecting its only technical school (Liechtensteinische Ingenieurschule) to the Internet via a high-speed leased line to the Swiss Academic and Research Network (SWITCH). Liechtenstein is one of the last independent nations in Europe to connect to the Internet. Rick Broadhead Faculty of Administrative Studies ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 17:05 GMT From: NWZ96H@cheltenham-he.ac.uk Subject: EDI Help Please... Hello all, I wonder if anyone could help me on the subject of EDI. My name is David Phelps and I am studying for a degree in England and I am covering the subject of EDI for a project. There are a number of questions that I would like to ask, both on the technical side (standards, services provided, X400 etc) and the benefits of EDI. If anyone has any experience at all with EDI, I would greatly appreciate it if I could mail you a few questions. Thanks in advance, Dave Phelps (nwz96h@chelt.ac.uk) ------------------------------ From: fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) Subject: More Fun From the Massachusetts Legislature Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 22:16:46 GMT Another report from Boston's WBZ radio from this past week: A Massachusetts legislator has filed a bill regulating "voice mail" (sic!) systems in the state. Under his bill, any company with more than 30 employees that uses a "voice mail" system (we all know he means automated attendant ... :-) must have a live operator available. Aside from the confused terminology, this bill seems a bit pointless. Can anyone think of companies with more than 30 employees that DON'T have a human attendant available during business hours? I can't. Disclaimer: I work for WBZ ... but again, this wasn't my story. Scott Fybush -- fybush@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: louk@research.teleride.on.ca (Lou Kates) Subject: Answering Machines Organization: Teleride Sage Ltd., (Waterloo) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 11:46:42 -0500 Could anyone recommend an answering machine? Are there any answering machines out yet that support Caller ID? Lou Kates, louk@research.teleride.on.ca ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Bradshaw Subject: COCOT Doesn't Know Local Number Prefix Organization: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 20:14:01 GMT I was out last week in South Bend, Indiana and needed to call into WNDU. There are two new prefixes in South Bend for Notre Dame (and WNDU). Replacing the old 239 and 282 are now 631 and 634. Unfortunatly, the COCOT had not been updated and told me after the first two digits it was not a valid number. I called repair and informed them of the problem. Thankfully WNDU had left a few 239 numbers forwarding to 631 so I could complete my call anyway. However: 1. Is there anyway around this problem? (Apart from finding another phone) I gave up and used an old 239 forwarding number but since it was a local call, I couldn't use AT&T etc. and wasn't willing to pay more than 25 cents. I think the answer is NO but ... 2. How do these phone know the local prefixes? Is it a central database, or one per phone and how do they get updated? 3. Do they have any legal responsiblity to allow all local prefixes to work? Thanks. Jonathan Bradshaw | jonathan@nova.decio.nd.edu | PGP Key Available On Request Packet: n9oxe@n0ary.#nocal.ca.usa.na | Prodigy: XMSN02B | (Os/2)(DOS)(Linux) WNDU-AM/FM/TV South Bend, IN | Disclaimer "My opinions are not my employers" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 14:43:03 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: OKI 1150 Problems I recently purchased a new OKI 1150 cellular phone and have observed some problems with it. I was wondering if anyone here has also experienced any of these problems. The LCD display appears to have incorrect polarization and cannot be read if I am wearing polarized sunglasses. I have to rotate the phone 90 degrees to read the display. I don't have a problem viewing any other LCD device including an older OKI phone. The one minute alert timer only works for the first minute. It doesn't beep at all after first beep at 45 seconds. When the phone is installed in the deluxe car kit, the first keypress to dial a number doesn't beep whereas the rest of the keypresses do beep. The speaker volume control in the deluxe car kit doesn't override the earpiece volume setting. Please send any comments about the OKI 1150 to me and I will summarize for the group if there is any interest. Thanks, Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ Date: 22 Mar 1993 22:48:06 +1000 From: Arthur@cswamp.apana.org.au (Arthur Marsh) Subject: Voice Coding [was Internet Radio Program] Reply-To: Arthur@cswamp.apana.org.au Organization: Camelot Swamp bulletin board, Hawthorndene Sth Australia On Mon 08 Mar at 16:09 Marc T. Kaufman wrote: > The rate is 0.5MB per minute, or 64KBPS, which is just straight > audio. I expect that it would be possible to easily get another factor > of 2 by delta coding, 3-4 bit cvsd. If you don't mind compute cycles, > and you are willing to restrict the information to speech (not music), > a Linear Predictive Coding system can further reduce the required bit > rate to about 2.4KBPS, which would bring a 30 minute interview down to > about 4 MB. To my disappointment (as a modem user on international lines with no current cost-effective alternative), I've found out that AOTC uses 32 kbps ADPCM encoding on international voice circuits (CCITT G.763) during periods of peak demand, as opposed to normal 64 kbps PCM. New to me today was the availability of CCITT Recommendation G.728 (Sep 1992), coding of speech at 16 kbit/s using low-delay code excited linear prediction. Arthur * Origin: Camelot Swamp MJCNA, Hawthorndene, Sth Australia (8:7000/8) |Camelot Swamp bbs, data: +61-8-370-2133 reply to user@cswamp.apana.org.au| ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 16:49:12 CST From: apollo@n2sun1.ccl.itri.org.tw (Yee-Lee Shyong) Subject: SLC-120 -> SLC-240 I heard somebody said that the new version of SLC-120, SLC-240, already available. And, they share the same channel bank and cabinet, just expand the two-line/card into a four-line/vard. Can anybody out there tell me details? Thanks! Yee Lee Shyong ------------------------------ From: aledm@ncd.com (Aled Morris) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 11:38:27 -0800 Subject: UK Telecom History: Why Hull? Regarding UK telecom history, can anyone explain _why_ Hull has traditionally had their own telephone company? How did it come about? Who carries calls from Hull to the rest of the UK? What about inter- national calls? I'm sure there must be some interesting story here. Aled aledm@ncd.com Network Computing Devices Inc. (415)694 4543 350 North Bernardo Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 06:39:53 -0800 From: rlm@indigo2.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: At AlGoreTel, We Hear You (was: People, Not Profits) Alan T. Furman writes that according to a news release from the (Bangalore, India) {Deccan Herald}, the Indian government plans to reduce "the waiting period for for [new?] telephones from about 15 years to two years." Al Gore, are you listening? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #194 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23802; 22 Mar 93 22:59 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20682 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 20:21:37 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21145 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 20:21:06 -0600 Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 20:21:06 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303230221.AA21145@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #195 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Mar 93 20:21:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 195 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Discussion of Electronic Correspondence with Clinton Admin (Diana Mostowfi) Wanted: Telecom Industry Information/Projections (Stephen Balbach) Cellular Conference Announcements Wanted (Leskinen Tom) Signs of Desperation? (Jon Sreekanth) Answering Machine Features (Les Bartel) Automatic Gain Control on Voice Calls? (Mike Whitaker) Looking For Tellabs Phone Number (John V. Jaskolski) CNID in St. Louis, MO (rfranken@cs.umr.edu) Faculty Position (Social Science) at BGSU (Bruce Klopfenstein) Reverse Engineering Tools, Information Wanted (Harald Vogt) Multiple T1s to HSSI Mux (Anthony J. Lisotta) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Diana Mostowfi Subject: Discussion of Electronic Correspondence With Clinton Admin Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 02:12:53 GMT Organization: University of Illinois I am working on a research project regarding the discussion of Electronic Correspondence with the Clinton Administration. I thought it would be beneficial to implement both a Governmental On-Line Informational Bulletin Board and a Public Response Board. Please read the following information on these two topics and respond accordingly keeping in mind aspects of cost of implementation, feasability, standardization, and accessability. Please e-mail me your comments, opinions, and any suggestions this proposal may have elicited. Thank you! ---------- The forefathers of this great nation intended the United States government to be one of the people, for the people, and by the people. However, this idealistic notion has rarely been seen as a reality. One goal of the Clinton administration is to bring the government off its pedestal and make it see eye to eye with the people. Our plan of a Governmental On-Line Information Bulletin Board takes gallant strides towards reaching this goal. The Governmental On-Line Informational Bulletin Board would provide a totally candid means of revealing what is behind governmental curtains. On this customized software program, users simply choose from several folders (much like Nuntius) that contain itemized information ranging from campaign news, voting records, financial contributions from political action committees, and committee assignments for incumbents. For example, if someone questioned whether Sen. Kennedy was opposed to the banning of gays in the military, he/she would access the folder under "Congressional Voting Records." Or, if you were planning to lobby for the control on handguns and wanted to know what committee to direct your efforts towards, you would access the folder called "Committee Assignments." Not only does this plan confront the problem of trying to make the government more accessible to the people, but we hope that the governmental information board will ultimately cut down on the overload of messages through the COMPUSERVE account that Jock Gill (director of electronic publishing and public access by e-mail for the Clinton Administration) mentioned. This informational bulletin board is in some means a "first line of defense" in that it will answer questions before they are even asked. The Public Response Board is going to be similar to the current Nuntius bulletin board in use today. Instead of a variety of topics, the Public Response Board will contain specific topics of the government. Provided for the public, there will be folders such as employment figures, the budget, the deficit, etc., with which the public will be able to open and post suggestions. A new feature added on to this system is G.A.I.S. (Government Access Information System). This system will be comparable to the current W.A.I.S. system. If the public is interested in a specific topic, before they post a message, all they need to do is type in a key phrase. Any information pertaining the phrase will come up on the screen. Also, if the person is not satisfied, the G.A.I.S. system will tell them where to look in Governmental On-Line Information Bulletin Board. Furthermore , if what the person wants to know is not available, he/she can post an article on a new thread on the Public Response Board. Once a new thread is posted, an immediate response from the White House is issued. All the response will say is, "Thank you for your suggestion and please view the Governmental On-Line Information Bulletin Board in the near future." The new thread is immediately transmitted to the White House's bulletin board. With all of the options available for the public, this will, with out a doubt, help lower the thousands of messages the White House receives each day. ------------------------------ From: stephen@access.digex.com (stephen balbach) Subject: Wanted: Telecom Industry Information/Projections Date: 19 Mar 1993 03:25:37 -0500 Organization: Taylor Balbach Software, Columbia, MD USA I am preparing a business proposal and need a good factual source on the telecommunications industry, specifically telecom services like Compuserve and Genie. I am looking for growth rates (projected and real), size in dollars and heads and anything that can help persuade that the indusrty is real, alive and growing. Please point me to sources or actual data, thanks, Stephen ------------------------------ From: tom@cs.tut.fi (Leskinen Tom) Subject: Cellular Conference Announcements Wanted Organization: Tampere University of Technology Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 11:40:40 GMT Where can I find calls for papers/announcements concerning cellular mobile radio conferences or other telecommunication conferences? Please, mail me some announcements or pointers to them if you have any. Thanks in advance! Tom Leskinen | HC309 | Tampere University of Technology tom@cs.tut.fi | 931-161889 | Signal Processing laboratory [Moderator's Note: Well, occasionally we have such announcements here when people send them in. You might check the archives over the past two or three months for announcements of several planned for coming months. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 08:51:31 -0500 From: jon_sree@world.std.com (Jon Sreekanth) Subject: Signs of Desperation? I subscribe to {Telephony Magazine}, and my sub is up for renewal, and though I've been meaning to do it, I haven't gotten around to it yet. I got this brightly colored envelope with what seemed like a survey: "Every week, Telephony brings you the latests news in the telecom industry. To continue to deliver this exclusive coverage, current knowledge about our readers is required. Please take a few moments to fill in ALL the questions below, sign and date this form, and note any address corrections. Remember, this is to update our subscriber records. It is not a request for money. Thank you for your time." The very first question it asks is : 1. Please continue my subscription to Telephony Yes No Signature required_________________________________ Hmmmm. Jon Sreekanth Assabet Valley Microsystems, Inc. | Fax and PC products 5 Walden St #3, Cambridge, MA 02140 | (617) 876-8019 jon_sree@world.std.com | [Moderator's Note: {Telephony} is a very old -- fifty years? -- publication. It was the original magazine about the industry, and the only magazine for many years. I always thought it was rather dry and technical compared to the newer publications in recent years. I'm sure the competition has hurt the circulation badly at {Telephony} over the past decade. There was a time when that magazine would not allow *just anyone* to subscribe: they demanded proof you were employed by the Bell System or one of the independent telcos. They published a few articles of mine several years ago on my constant theme with variations: complaints about divestiture. Editorially at that time (early 1980's) they did not like it either. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ljbartel@naomi.b23b.ingr.com (Les Bartel) Subject: Answering Machine Features Reply-To: ljbartel@naomi.b23b.ingr.com Organization: Intergraph Corporation Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 16:46:01 GMT I am surprised that the subject of answering machines doesn't come up more often on this group. I really expected to find a FAQ on them in the archives ... but since I didn't, here goes: I am in the market for an answering machine, and would like the opinions of those in the telecom group on what constitutes a reasonable answering machine. I am interested in a low-cost solution, but a general discussion of features and good/bad/mediocre brands is welcome. Les Bartel Intergraph Corporation Electronics Division ljbartel@ingr.com or ljbartel@naomi.b23b.ingr.com (205) 730-8537 ------------------------------ Date: 22 Mar 1993 04:53:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Whitaker Subject: Automatic Gain Control on Voice Calls? I was calling (from Cambridge, UK) a friend in the Twin Cities [(612) 551 XXXX] the other evening about 10.30 GMT. It was quite a noisy line, and I could quite distinctly, as could she, hear the background hiss level *rise* when neither of us was talking. Purely out of curiosity -- is there some kind of automatic gain control or signal compression (which is what this sounded like) normally put on phone lines? I can't recall ever having heard this effect before ... [one of my hobbies is sound recording and I'm used to listening for such things]. Mike Whitaker +44-223 | mikew@ug.eds.com (preferred) Shape Data/EDS 316673 | mwhitaker@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ From: jasko@park.bu.edu (John V. Jaskolski) Subject: Looking For Tellabs Phone Number Organization: jvj Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 19:44:07 GMT Does anyone know Tellabs telephone number? Thank you very much, mm ------------------------------ From: rfranken@cs.umr.edu Subject: CNID in St. Louis, MO Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 13:40:30 CST According to Friday's {St. Louis Post-Dispatch}, Southwestern Bell will begin offering CNID (Caller ID) in parts of Missouri later this year. Joplin, MO is supposed to be first, beginning in June, and St. Louis will get it in July. CLASS Features (other than CNID) have been available in the St. Louis area for quite a while now. Per Call Blocking will be available, by default, to everyone, for free. Per Line blocking will be available ONLY to police and domestic violence agencies (presumable for free). No one else can get per line blocking (even if your number is unlisted). The cost will be $6.50 for residential customers, and $8.50 for businesses. The PSC voted 3-2 that the service "did not violate the public interest", inspite of the objections of some interest groups. Of course, the article had the obligatory comments from battered women advocates, etc, who said the safety of women was being jeopardized, in spite of the fact that all they have to do is remember to dial *67. (Not too hard ... considering that they already have to remember not to speak the phone number should they get an answering machine) ... I'm curious about the prices ... is $6.50 for CNID service about average? Above average? Below? ... (E-Mail replies only, please ... I'll summarize if there is interest) ... Brett (rfranken@cs.umr.edu) ------------------------------ From: klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu (Bruce Klopfenstein) Subject: Faculty Position (Social Science) at BGSU Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 20:30:13 GMT BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS NEW POSITION: Assistant Professor of Telecommunications (Possible Upgrade to Tenure-Track Line) RESPONSIBILITIES: Teach undergraduate and graduate courses and conduct research in telecommunications (emphasis in telephony preferred). Desired areas of specialization include one or more of the following: telecommunications systems, economics, policy, and/or technologies; computer mediated communications; impacts of emerging interactive telecommunications systems. Duties include serving on masters and doctoral dissertation committees and advising undergraduates. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with colleagues in the School of Mass Communication, the Department of Interpersonal Communication, and WBGU-TV among others. An earned doctorate and demonstrated commitment to scholarly productivity and teaching excellence is required. Evidence of successful research funding desired. SALARY: Competitive. SCHOOL OF MASS The Department of Telecommunications is one COMMUNICATION: of two departments in the School of Mass Communication; the other unit is the Department of Journalism. The School, which has 17 fulltime faculty members, offers three undergraduate degrees (the Bachelor of Arts, the Bachelor of Arts in Communication, and the Bachelor of Science in Journalism), a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy. Currently there are 320 undergraduate majors in the TCOM department and about 50 graduate students in the school. The department also collaborates with WBGU-TV and its Northwest Ohio Educational Technology Foundation. UNIVERSITY: Bowling Green State University is a state- assisted university with an enrollment of approximately 18,000 students including more than 2000 graduate students. It is located in a pleasant college town located 20 minutes south of Toledo, Ohio, and about one hour south of Ann Arbor/Detroit. The university's new electronic classroom building will be available as a site for teaching and research activities in interactive telecommunications upon completion in February 1994. The University has adopted as one of its major goals the enhancement of graduate education and continues to dedicate an increasing percentage of its resources to this cause. STARTING DATE: August 15, 1993 APPLICATION DATE: Review of applications will begin immediately. Full consideration will be given to all candidates who apply by 15 April 1993. APPLICATION Send letter of application, curriculum vitae, PROCEDURE: complete official transcripts of all college and university level work, and three letters of reference to: Dr. Bruce C. Klopfenstein, Chair Department of Telecommunications 322 West Hall Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403 Bowling Green State University is an AA/EOE Employer Bruce C. Klopfenstein | klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu Department of Telecommunications | klopfenstein@bgsuopie.bitnet Bowling Green State University | (419) 372-2138; 372-2224 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0235 | fax (419) 372-8600 ------------------------------ From: Harald Vogt Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 17:20:19 +0100 (MET) Subject: Reverse Engineering Tools, Information Wanted Organization: Utrecht University, Dept. of Computer Science Hello, I am looking for reverse engineering tools, especially reverse engineering tools used for maintaining and writing the thousands of lines of code written for phone switches. I am particular interested in a reverse engineering tool for the language CHILL. Reverse engineering (design recovery) recreates design abstractions from a combination of code, existing design documentation (if available), personal experience, and general knowledge about problem and application domains. In short, design recovery must reproduce all of the information required for a person to fully understand what a program does, how it does it, why it does it, and so forth. Any information on this subject is welcome. Harald Vogt E-mail: harald@cs.ruu.nl ------------------------------ From: lisotta@nas.nasa.gov (Anthony J. Lisotta) Subject: Multiple T1s to HSSI Mux Organization: Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Program / NASA Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 16:37:54 GMT Hello, I am looking for a product that will accept multiple T1s and multiplex them into a T3, or some fraction thereof, with a High Speed Serial Interface (HSSI). Multiple T1s -------------|\ -------------| \ -------------| \ HSSI (T1 - T3) . | --------------------> . | / . | / -------------|/ As of today, I am aware of products by T3 Plus, and Adaptive, however these products are geared more towards SONET, and therefore rather expensive. I am trying to find such a device because our internal circuit provider has an IDNX backbone, and they claim NET has not released their HSSI yet, so all they can provide us is multiple T1s, instead of a fractional T3 (HSSI). If anyone knows of a company(s) that make such a device, I would appreciate the help. If you could send the information to me, I will post a summary to the net. Thanks in advance. Anthony (Tony) Lisotta Internet: lisotta@nas.nasa.gov Network Development Engineer Phone: 415-604-4634 NASA/CSC Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation NASA Ames Research Center Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are not those of NASA or CSC, but strictly of my own accord. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #195 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa26276; 22 Mar 93 23:55 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21517 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 21:21:01 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23237 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 21:20:30 -0600 Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 21:20:30 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303230320.AA23237@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #196 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Mar 93 21:20:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 196 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson ISDN PRI Simulators or Test Facilities? (Douglas A. Chan) CRC Error Checking (Bob Thayer) Blocked COCOTs: Apology and Correction (Edward D. Schulz) Baby Bells Block Information Service Says Tax Reduction Institute (N Allen) Update: Billing For Information Providers (Nigel Allen) Big Upgrade For US Law Enforcement Telecom Network (Nigel Allen) Looking For Information on SHOMATEC (George Thurman) Mobile Cellular Systems: TDMA and GSM (Peter Chan) Zoom Modems? (Tony Clark) Making Your Life Easier (Arthur Marsh) Apple and Siemens Sign Strategic Cooperation (Thomas Diessel) New Proposed AUSTEL Requirments (Anthony Rumble) ISDN Phones - Power Supply Requirements? (Magnus Hedberg) EBU - European Broadcast Union Address Wanted (Joerg Meyer) Multiplexing Help Needed (Joel Disini) Need Help Setting up a Videoconference (Ed Finerty) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: apollo@world.std.com (Douglas A Chan) Subject: ISDN PRI Simulators or Test Facilities? Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1993 00:16:03 GMT What kind of ISDN test equipment is around? Ideally, I'd have a real ISDN PRI circuit to play with but New England Tel won't have any ISDN service for another year or two here. Are there any places which will rent ISDN PRI simulators? What kind of simulators and test equipment are available? Or even better, where is the nearest ISDN test facility? (preferably in the New England area ...) thanks, Doug apollo@world.std.com ------------------------------ Organization: Penn State University Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 19:33:06 EST From: RJT111@PSUVM.PSU.EDU Subject: CRC Error Checking A friend and I are doing a reseach project on CRC error checking. If anyone has any information on the subject, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Bob Thayer (RJT111@psuvm.psu.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 12:14 EST From: eds@mt747.att.com (Edward D Schulz +1 908 615 6043) Subject: Blocked COCOTs: Apology and Correction Last week I posted obsolete information about calling AT&T to report pay phones that block 10-288-0. Apparently the number was turned off without telling AT&T employees -- at least *I* didn't get the word. The updated information follows. My apologies for wasting your time and net bandwidth. [From the internal FindATT database] Topic: Report Public Phones Blocked to AT&T Access Code (10+ATT+0) Question: Employee Inquiries Entity: American Transtech Business Unit: American Transtech Organiztion: Public Phone Assistance PPA Name: Nancy Coan PPA Project Manager 8000 Baymeadows Way Executive Building 5 Floor 2 - 15b Jacksonville, FL 32256 Email addr: !attmail!attati!ncoan [Disconnected number deleted] This 800 number will be turned down during February/March. The promotion requesting that employees call this number to report a blocked phone has formally ended. Should an employee call who wishes to report a blocked phone, they should be directed to an AT&T Operator who can enter this information in MIMS. If an employee is having difficulty placing a long distance call away from home, they should be instructed to try AT&T's access code, 10+288+0. If the access code is blocked, they can call AT&T's 800 number, 1-800-321-0ATT, to reach the AT&T Network. Ed Schulz, AT&T Holmdel Corporate Plaza, 2137 Hwy 35, Holmdel, NJ 07733 +1 908 615 6043 voice +1 908 615 6147 fax Ed_Schulz@att.com eds@mt747.att.com attmail!edschulz ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Baby Bells Block Information Service Says Tax Reduction Institute Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto Here is a press release from the Tax Reduction Institute. I have no affiliation with TRI, and I am not clear whether TRI is a for-profit company or not. In general, I don't think that telephone companies should bill for information providers. Baby Bells Block Information Service Says Tax Reduction Institute Contact: Mary Mack of the Tax Reduction Institute, 800-874-1040 ROCKVILLE, Md., March 19 -- Three major Local Exchange Carriers (LEC) revealed Thursday that they will no longer bill for information providers. U.S. West, PacWest and Southwestern Bell have turned their back on this multi-million dollar industry, according to the Tax Reduction Institute (TRI). By doing so the Baby Bells effectively block legitimate information services to their customers, the institute said. Washington, D.C.-based organizations such as TRI will no longer be able to provide 24-hour fax back on demand services to millions of Americans. When informed of the decision the Tax Reduction Institute was just hours from launching a major new product for busy taxpayers. TRI was scheduled to start providing tax forms and tax reducing information to the public via fax back convenience. Mark Mack, director of MIS for this tax research and education organization said, "This action by the Baby Bells makes it more difficult for people to receive much needed information in a timely fashion." The service is geared to those who need information fast. "For instance," asked Mack, "it's late at night, the library is closed, the post office is out of forms or too far away. Where can you get the forms you need? Now the Baby Bells are stopping you from receiving the forms you need when you need them." Tax Reduction Institute, established in 1979, produces one-day tax reduction workshops across the country and can be reached at 1-800-TRI-1040. Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario 416-629-7000/629-7044 [Moderator's Note: This message arrived with a flood of others on Friday and before it could be used, the system crashed. Then today's mail brought the next message from Nigel, an update to the original press release. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Update: Billing for Information Providers Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto Here is a press release from the Tax Reduction Institute. Baby Bells Appear to Reverse Decision Refusing Service To Information Providers, Says Tax Reduction Institute Contact: Tim Gardner, 800-456-8291, or Bob Branting, 206-776-7262, both of the Tax Reduction Institute BETHESDA, Md., March 20 -- It appears as though two, if not all three, Baby Bells who pulled the plug on Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) billing on Thursday reversed their decision on Friday. Tax Reduction Institute of Washington, D.C., voiced its concern earlier about the arbitrary suspension because it would destroy legitimate information providers. TRI was delighted to learn that U.S. West and Pacific Bell have reconnected with their business to business services. "This is great news," said Mary Mack, director of MIS. "It appears as though the interruption of LEC billing for business to business was just a temporary disconnect due to a small group of unethical advertisers. Tax Reduction Institute supports the Baby Bells' investigation of such practices." Bob Branting, national marketing director for TRI, announced that the tax research and education organization will proceed with plans to provide tax forms and other information through fax on demand technology. Tax Reduction Institute, established in 1979, produces tax reduction materials and information for small businesses nationwide and can be reached at 800-TRI-1040. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada nigel.allen@canrem.com Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario 416-629-7000/629-7044 ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1993 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Big Upgrade For U.S. Law Enforcement Telecom Network Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto Here is a press release from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I don't work for the FBI. I found the press release on another system and thought that readers of this newsgroup would want to see it. FBI Announces Multi-Million Dollar Contract in Effort to Modernize National Crime Information Center Contact: FBI Press Office, 202-324-3691 WASHINGTON, March 19 -- In a much anticipated step toward modernizing its National Crime Information Center (NCIC), the FBI today awarded a multi-million dollar contract to the Harris Corp. Six companies competed for the project, known as "NCIC 2000," with the Harris Corp. submitting the winning bid of $46,962,336. FBI Director William S. Sessions proudly noted that, "NCIC 2000 will serve the public well and bring law enforcement's national telecommuni- cations system into the 21st century." Since its inception in 1967, NCIC has become the largest law enforcement telecommunications network in the world. More than 72,000 criminal justice agencies throughout the United States, including police departments, courts, probation agencies, and correctional departments, complete over 1.3 million NCIC transactions each day. Agencies enter, retrieve, and exchange a wide variety of information to identify and locate fugitives, missing persons, violent felons, stolen vehicles and other stolen property. The contract award is the result of a six year development effort by the FBI in consultation with the NCIC Advisory Policy Board and the MITRE Corp. In addition to improving the capabilities of existing files, NCIC 2000 will introduce significant new advances such as transmission of images directly to and from patrol cars on the street. A fingerprint of a suspect can be transmitted to NCIC where it can be compared against those of wanted and missing persons. This capability provides a major enhancement in the positive identification of individuals. Photographic images will also be available on this system. Other improvements include on-line entry and retrieval of uniform crime reporting data, and access to other law enforcement data bases for information such as parole and probation records. With these new capabilities, modern programming, and prototype workstations, NCIC 2000 will improve the ability of the criminal justice community to combat crime. These improvements and others developed as part of this new contract are consistent with the president's initiative to build our infrastructure and to provide national data highways. Completion of the installation phase of the contract is expected to occur by March, 1995, with the testing phase to be completed by December, 1995. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada nigel.allen@canrem.com Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario 416-629-7000/629-7044 ------------------------------ From: gst@gagme.chi.il.us (George Thurman) Subject: Looking For Information on SHOMATEC Organization: Gagme Public Access UNIX, Chicago, Illinois. Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 15:25:38 GMT I am trying to contact a company that manufactures telephone equipment called SHOMATEC. They have no listing with 800 information. Does anyone out there in comp.dcom.telecom-land have any information on this company? Thanks, GEORGE S. THURMAN gst@gagme.chi.il.us (312) 509-6308 ------------------------------ From: pthc@ee.mu.OZ.AU (Peter Chan) Subject: Mobile Cellular Systems: TDMA and GSM Organization: Dept of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Univ. of Melbourne Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 04:03:27 GMT Hello Netters, I am looking for information regarding standards of TDMA or/and the European GSM system, and the recommendations on TDMA/GSM system. Can anyone out there give me a pointer to where I can find a good refenece on those matters? Please reply through e-mail to pthc@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au Your help is much appreciated. Regards, Peter Chan ------------------------------ From: tonyc@compnews.co.uk (Tony Clark) Subject: Information Wanted on Zoom Modems Date: 22 Mar 1993 01:11:55 GMT Organization: Computer Newspaper Services, Howden, UK. Zoom 14400 Baud Modem (I think) -- Has anyone heard of this make of modem and which company manufactures it? From what I see here its a 14400 Baud modem with Fax compatibility. Anyone know anything about this modem ? tonyc@compnews.co.uk chiefy@ibmpcug.co.uk Macintosh Information Systems Computer Newspaper Services Ltd. Howden, Nth Humberside. UK My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Mar 1993 02:01:52 +1000 From: Arthur@cswamp.apana.org.au (Arthur Marsh) Subject: Making Your Life Easier Reply-To: Arthur@cswamp.apana.org.au Organization: Camelot Swamp bulletin board, Hawthorndene Sth Australia In a similar vein to previous posts, I was told that Telecom Australia's Business Services consultants receive bonuses for helping business customers get the most cost effective solution for their needs. All well and good. Being a residential customer however, I had to write to the Manager, Technical Regulation, AOTC (who reports to the CEO) to ask for help in finding the most cost-effective solution for *my* needs, having exhausted Telecom's "Network Plus" toll-free information service. Do any telephone companies offer business-like service to their high volume (over A$400 per month in my case) residential customers with legitimate needs for consultancy services? Arthur [Telecom Australia, the only local carrier and major national carrier in Australia and OTC, Australia's major international carrier are part of AOTC] Origin: Camelot Swamp MJCNA, Hawthorndene, Sth Australia (8:7000/8) Camelot Swamp bbs, data: +61-8-370-2133 reply to user@cswamp.apana.org.au ------------------------------ From: diessel@informatik.unibw-muenchen.de (Thomas Diessel) Subject: Apple and Siemens Sign Strategic Cooperation Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 09:35:09 +0100 (MET) Apple and Siemens AG, Munich, Germany signed a strategic cooperation on new communication products. Apple's PDA and Siemens' private switching technology will be used in a new product called 'Notephone'. This will be an improved Newton which will be connected to the telephone network via a base station. The Newton will act as as phone directory and be able to dial and send faxes. Siemens plans to introduce this product this year. First applications will be shown at the CeBIT computer show in Hannover, Germany starting March 24th. This information comes from several German newspapers. Thomas Diessel Federal Armed Forces University, Munich - Computer Science Department Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39 - W-8014 Neubiberg, Germany ------------------------------ From: arumble@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Anthony Rumble) Subject: New Proposed AUSTEL Requirements Organization: Sydney University Computing Service, Sydney, NSW, Australia Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 05:58:30 GMT I just recieved a copy of a 'Draft Advice to Industry' for compliance requirments for modems that basically stated that not only does a modem's hardware and firmware have to be AUSTEL approved, but also the SOFTWARE!! bundled with the modem has to be approved WITH IT!! This is certainly going to make life difficult for anyone wanting to sell modems in Australia. Not only that, but you can break your Austel compliance by just running some software that sets up the modem to perform against the regulations. (Eg ATS0=1) or dialing faster than the Regulation permits etc etc. A suggestion: Anyone running a BBS or Online Data Service in Australia MAKE SURE YOUR modem does NOT answer in less than 2 RINGS. (ATS0=2) It is possible, and highly likely that AUSTEL may again go on a BBS raid (Like with the HST raid) and go around fining BBS operators for breaking Austel regulations. Personally making software have to be compliant stinks. It is hard enough for people to get modems approved NOW, let alone with this kind of garbage to hinder you. Anthony Rumble aka SmilieZ [Moderator's Note: What possible complaint could they have with a computer answering the phone in fewer than two rings? They're saying 'please tie up the CO for another ring or two ... hold on to our equipment for another five or six seconds if you can ...' ?? What kind of sense does that make? I'd think they'd like to see everyone answer on the first ring. I suppose ATS0=3 is a better idea, just to make sure it does not trip after the first ring *heard by the caller* since you say the modem police may be on a rampage. Senseless! PAT] ------------------------------ From: magnus@lulea.trab.se (Magnus Hedberg) Subject: ISDN Phones - Power Supply Requirements? Date: 22 Mar 93 08:50:16 GMT Organization: Telia Research AB, Aurorum 6, 951 75 Lulea, Sweden In Europe ISDN phones are powerd by the telecomnetwork. According to our information this is not the case in the USA. Are ISDN phones/terminals in the USA or elsewhere powered by external electric mains? Magnus Hedberg ------------------------------ From: j_meyer@informatik.uni-kl.de (Joerg Meyer) Subject: EBU - European Broadcast Union Address Wanted Reply-To: j_meyer@informatik.uni-kl.de (Joerg Meyer) Organization: University of Kaiserslautern (Germany) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 10:13:06 GMT Anyone who can mail me the address and / or fax number of the European Broadcast Union (EBU) in SWITZERLAND? I asked the International Phone Information, but they couldn't find it. Probably it can be found at a different name? Any information on this is appreciated! Please send e-mail to: j_meyer@informatik.uni-kl.de Joerg Meyer E-Mail: j_meyer@informatik.uni-kl.de University of Kaiserslautern, Germany ------------------------------ Date: 22 Mar 93 10:21 GMT From: D1749@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Disini SW, Emmanuel Disini,CST) Subject: Multiplexing Help Needed hello netters! I need a device that'll allow me to take two RS-232 cables (just eight signals -- tx,rx,gnd, rts,cts,dcd,dsr,dtr) and multiplex these onto one RS-232 cable (I also need a similar device on the other end for demultiplexing). If this seems like a strange request, it's because I have a leased line (64kbps) between two sites and we use Republic Telecom RLX-8 multiplexers. We get eight lines coming from the RLX-8; some are voice, some are for fax, and some are for data. The RLX-8 will take eight pins of the data line and relay these signals to another RLX-8 at the other end of the leased line. So what I would in effect like to do is have two computers on both ends share one data line. Another option would be to use an A-B switch that is software selectable (via another serial port)? Does anyone have any ideas? Your help is very much appreciated. Kindly cc: your responses to d1749@applelink.apple.com. Thanks, joel disini manila ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 09:53 EDT From: Ed Finerty Subject: Need Help Setting up a Videoconference We are looking for help in setting up a videoconference. Need two-way video between our site (a soon to be opened teleclassroom at the School of Public Health in Chapel Hill, NC) and whatevr site we can find which is within reasonable driving distance of North Eastham, Massachusetts. This is a special event which will take place in October but needs to be planned soon. Satellite or terrestrial transmission (or both) is OK as long as we can access it. We'll have our own dish for downlink, and share with several other campus teleconferencing facilities a microwave link to the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina. If this link is available at the time (we're looking into that part) MCNC could connect us to an uplink or to a telephone common carrier. No idea yet how we would manage the Mass. end of this, though. Can anyone help? ED Finerty School of Public Health CB7400 Rosenau University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400 (919) 966-3524 Finerty@Zeus.SPH.UNC.EDU ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #196 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29705; 23 Mar 93 1:09 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21459 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 22:46:35 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25135 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 22:46:02 -0600 Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 22:46:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303230446.AA25135@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #197 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Mar 93 22:46:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 197 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson MCI Friends-and-Family: Is it Any Good? (Richard Pauls) LCI International: A New Long Distance Choice (Phillip Dampier) GTE Beats Out OBT (Steve Brack) Orange Card Followup (Carl Moore) Second Line Installation (Bob Snyder) Using the Telecom Archives (rfranken@cs.umr.edu) Routing in Networks and the Post Office (Garrett Wollman) Numbering Plans and Standards (Chonoles Michael Jesse) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard Pauls Subject: MCI Friends-and-Family: Is it Any Good? Organization: MIT Lincoln Lab Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 11:51:15 -0500 I would like to know what people think about MCI's Friends and Family program. I always thought it was a bunch of bull (mostly because I don't trust much that comes my way by pushy phone salesmen with deals that sound too good to be true and end up their speech with "well shall I sign you up then Mr. Pauls?" I have always used AT&T as my LD carrier, and I have been glad to see that AT&T gets a good deal of respect on this newsgroup. So I would like to know the following: Is MCI really less expensive than AT&T? If so, by how much? Aside from price, which is better and how? (i.e., operators, clarity ...) What is the F&F plan and does it really save me 20% as the MCI salesman told me last night? I have heard something about keeping AT&T as my primary carrier while still taking advantage of MCI F&F. Is this truly possible? Is it a good idea? I really appreciate hearing your opinions on this matter. Response by email or followup is great. If this is a FAQ, please direct me to information on this subject. Your input is valuable in extracting the truth out of the salesman hype, and I promise to spread the truth to ten of my closest friends and family! Thanks, Rich [Moderator's Note: The truth is, long distance rates are all very close. There are small differences, and each carrier has some 'gimmick' the others are lacking. You can have MCI/F&F as a secondary carrier while keeping AT&T if that is your wish. As you may know, not long ago I reached an agreement to sell 'affinity 1+' long distance with a company that resells all the major carriers. Mine runs between 14-17 cents per minute depending on the package. With mine, monthly residuals are returned to TELECOM Digest to help offset my costs in moderating the news group. Over the weekend, I mailed out information packages to everyone who had requested one, along with details on the 800 service I offer. People should have the packages Tuesday or Wednes- day. So if you feel there is no substantial difference in carriers price/service wise, then passing your business to me will make a *big difference* where I'm concerned. A few other comparisons between carriers are made in the next article in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ From: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org (Phillip Dampier) Reply-To: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 10:31:26 -0500 Subject: LCI International: A New Long Distance Choice > From: bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) > They advertise that their "Simple, Fair, and Inexpensive" > residential plan (their only residential plan) costs $0.17 per minute > 6 am to 6 pm, and $0.12 per minute 6 pm to 6 am. The day rate isn't too bad, but the night rate is horrible. I spoke with their customer service department and learned that to enjoy these rates, you must be an LCI Dial-1 customer. MCI has a plan called Easyrate State with costs $4.50 a month and has two flat rates -- 22c a minute daytime, 10c a minute after 5pm and all day Saturday and Sunday. You can tie this in with their Friends & Family plan and pay around 18c a minute daytime, 8c per minute at night, intra or interstate. There is a version for out of state calls which has a lower monthly service charge. Therefore, if you are doing only daytime calling, LCI may make good sense for you. If you are only doing nighttime calling, this is a very bad plan. I recently prepared a review of the major long distance carriers and their rates for Fidonet's Fidonews. A reprint follows: Reaching Out for Long Distance Savings: Looking at Long Distance Plans in the USA by Phillip M. Dampier 1:2613/228 One almost needs a degree to play pundit in the highly competitive long distance telephone marketplace these days. As the battle continues between AT&T, Sprint, MCI, and dozens of smaller competitors, consumers stand to gain significant savings on their long distance bills, if they select the right plan for their needs. Many Fidonet nodes spend upwards of hundreds of dollars each month on long distance calling, many of whom are unaware of possible savings they could enjoy if they signed up for the right long distance plan. Here are some plans worthy of consideration for Fidonet nodes and their callers. AT&T 1-800-222-0300 Reach Out America Reach Out Half Hour Simple Savings AT&T's old standby, Reach Out America (ROA), helped to pioneer deep discounting in the residential long distance marketplace. The plan, first introduced in the 1980's has seen steady declines in price as residential long distance usage continues to increase. AT&T has several variations on the current ROA program. *** PLEASE NOTE, THE PRICING INFORMATION AND THE HOURS WHEN THE PLAN IS AVAILABLE IS CURRENTLY AWAITING APPROVAL FROM THE FCC. PLEASE CONTACT AT&T FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION BEFORE PLACING CALLS UNDER THE NEW HOURS. *** The plans discussed below are for out-of-state calls, also known as "interstate" calls. ROA Basic - This plan costs $7.50 for the first hour of calls placed between 7pm-7:59am Monday to Friday, all day Saturday, and Sunday until 5pm. You can call anywhere in the United States for the same rate. You will be billed for the entire first hour without regard to whether or not you used the entire 60 minute allotment. If you exceed 60 minutes, each additional minute costs ten cents ($6.00 an hour). ROA Evening - This plan costs $7.80 and includes all of the benefits of the preceeding plan, but it also provides you with a 20% discount off all calls placed during the evening hours when the ROA plan is not in effect (5:00-7:00pm weekdays, Sunday evening 5pm-10pm). ROA Day - This plan is priced at $8.70 and includes a 25% discount for calls placed during the evening rate period (as defined above) in addition to giving you a 10% discount off all calls placed during the day (8am-5pm). AT&T is currently negotiating with the FCC regarding these changes, and some revisions may be made in the next week or so. If you find you don't place at least an hour in long distance calls each month, AT&T offers an additional variation on Reach Out America: ROA Half Hour - This plan gives you a half hour of long distance calling at the times stated above for $4.00. Each additional minute costs 12 cents. If you place over $30.00 in out-of-state calls per month, you should consider AT&T's new Simple Savings program, which gives you a 25% discount off calls placed to the interstate area code of your choice based on AT&T's standard rates. All other calls receive a 15% discount. This plan may be especially suited to those calls placed to locations in your region that don't qualify for plans like Friends & Family, described below. Ask AT&T to give you the current rates for your calls and figure your discounts. Finally, AT&T offers a Reach Out plan for many individual states for calls placed between points within a state (intrastate calls). MCI 1-800-444-3333 Primetime Friends & Family MCI has become AT&T's most troublesome competitor for good reason -- they offer very competitive residential long distance plans which can save people a great deal of money, if evaluated properly. MCI offers two plans which are often tied together to realize maximum savings. Primetime: This is MCI's answer to Reach Out America. It is currently undergoing revision and I expect to see even lower rates in response to AT&T's tinkering with its own ROA program. Primetime includes an hour of long distance for calls both in and outside of your state for $9.95 for the first hour. Each additional minute costs ten cents ($6.00 an hour). If you are calling only locations outside of your state, MCI offers an interstate version of Primetime for $8.45. Friends & Family: Most people couple the Primetime program with Friends & Family, MCI's attempt to gain new "dial-1/primary carrier" customers. With Friends & Family, you switch your primary long distance carrier to MCI (they will pay to switch you if you ask them). Then, you specify up to 20 domestic numbers that also have MCI as their primary carrier, and any time you call them, you receive a 20% discount off those calls, bringing the cost down to as low as eight cents per minute. MCI also will allow you to choose two international numbers to receive a 20% discount. Many select numbers in Canada. MCI also offers a myriad of residential and commercial class volume-based discount plans. Contact MCI for information on plans applicable in your state. Sprint 1-800-877-4000 The Most Sprint Select In State Sprint Select Out-of-State Sprint + Candice Bergen has done for Sprint what Bill Cosby has done for Jell-O. Recognition means a lot in long distance, especially for third place Sprint, which has been struggling to find a competitive niche between MCI and AT&T. Sprint's programs have generally closely followed whatever AT&T does, and although their discount programs aren't as radical as MCI, in several situations, Sprint may save you the most money. Speaking of "the most," that happens to be the name of Sprint's heavily promoted discount calling plan for residential customers. The Most is based on Sprint's standard dialing rates, which means it is distance sensitive. Call cross-country, for example, and you'll pay a great deal more than calling the state next door. The Most is also geared to convince customers to become Dial-1 customers of Sprint. It provides for a 20% discount off all calls placed to customers who also have Sprint as their primary carrier. There is no limit, as is provided for in MCI's plan, and Sprint computes the discount automatically if the number is signed up with Sprint. It means you don't have to give the long distance company the names and numbers of all your friends. In addition, The Most gives you a 20% discount off all calls placed to the number you called most frequently (time wise) during the previous month. This is of special interest to those calling commercial locations or mail servers that are unable or unwilling to change their long distance carrier. Should you call a Sprint customer the most during that month, you receive 36% off those calls. Sprint also offers a plan along the lines of ROA. They call it Sprint Select, and it's provided in two versions -- one for in-state calls and one for out-of-state calls. The rates vary from state to state for the in-state calling plan, but for New York (as an example), calls placed between 5pm - 7:59am, all day Saturday and Sunday until 5pm cost $7.45 for the first hour, $6.55 each additional hour. Sprint's out of state plan is priced at $7.70 the first hour, $6.00 each additional hour (10 cents a minute). Finally, for high volume users, Sprint has a plan called Sprint + which offers volume discounts. The discounts are retroactive to dollar one, which means as you pass each "plateau," increasing discounts apply to the entire balance. You need to spend at least $20.00 a month to take advantage of this plan. If your calls total less than $100.00 in a month, you receive 10% off all daytime calls and 20% off all evening and night/weekend calls. If your calls total between $100-200, you receive a 10% daytime discount and a 25% evening and night/weekend discount. If your calls are over $200.00, you receive a 10% daytime discount and a 30% discount off evening and night/weekend calls. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- All of these plans may come across as confusing when you try to pick the one that best meets your needs. Here are some strengths and weaknesses of each company, to help you out a little more: AT&T Strengths Weaknesses Fastest call connection time. Most pricey long distance. AT&T generally bills their Reach Out America hours are long distance programs on your the most limited of the local telephone bill, meaning three competitors. only one bill is required. Variable plans mean lower volume Reach Out America does not users can pay as little as $7.50 include calls placed to points for that first hour of long within your state. You need distance, which is less than MCI to sign up for a state ROA plan charges for Primetime. in most cases. MCI Strengths Weaknesses Lowest price long distance Slower call set up time. for calls to other MCI customers with Primetime & Some problems with billing of Friends & Family (8 cents a ringing/no answer and busy minute). signals can occur on occasion. Plan has long hours. You have to give MCI the names and numbers of those people in MCI is most responsive to rate your Friends & Family calling cutting whenever AT&T cuts their circle. If they aren't on MCI, rates. they will be telemarketed unless you ask MCI not to bother MCI offers some discounts for them. international numbers and runs promotions for free calls more Limited to 20 domestic numbers frequently than other long in your calling circle. distance companies. Sprint Strengths Weaknesses Unlimited 20% discounts Relatively few Americans use when calling other Sprint Sprint as their primary carrier. customers when using The Most. Sprint rates are not as low as Retroactive discounts on the they could be. Sprint's marketing Sprint + program may help save arm told the author "We never money for high volume callers. promised to be the cheapest." They aren't. They often charge Sprint's The Most may cost just a tiny fraction less than AT&T. under 10c a minute for calls placed to nearby numbers that Sprint has been plagued with cannot switch long distance billing problems in the past, carriers to take advantage of although billing procedures have MCI's lower rates. reportedly improved. Sprint's in-state calling plan Sprint is slower to respond to is the lowest priced for lower industry price declines. Don't volume in-state callers, although sign any long term contracts. only by a nickel. Armed with this information and your current long distance bill, it shouldn't be too difficult to choose a long distance carrier that will work well for your long distance needs while saving you money. ----------------- [Moderator's Note: Thanks for sending along this very detailed summary of long distance plans. Since I printed details of the plans I offer here about a week ago, it is fair to include these other descriptions as well. Anyone who did not see that summary is requested to write me at 'ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu' (NOT the Digest address, please!) and request a copy of the file 'products'. I'll email it right out, and if you are interested in this 'affinity 1+' program, send me back your name and mailing address so I can mail the full information package to you. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 14:55:24 -0500 (EST) From: sbrack@jupiter.cse.UTOLEDO.edu (Steve Brack) Subject: GTE Beats Out OBT NReply-To: sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu In my area, the city of Toledo is served by Ohio Bell, but the western suburbs are served by GTE. Recently, GTE has begun running TV commercials for CLASS-type services, like priority ringing (based on who is calling you), call rejection, etc. The only missing offering is Caller-ID. In this case, GTE has beat out Ohio Bell to a great extent by offering these services before Ohio Bell did. Does Ohio Bell have more restrictions on offering services like this than GTE does, or was it simply a matter of GTE satisfying the regulators before Ohio Bell did? Steven S. Brack sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu Toledo, OH 43613-1605 STU0061@UOFT01.BITNET MY OWN OPINIONS sbrack@nyx.cs.du.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 13:33:21 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Orange Card Followup I have received Orange Card Calling Card Service Agreement. Quote: "When we receive the completed and signed service agreement and your credit has been approved, we will send your Orange Card which will be active and ready to use." This is from Orange Communications Inc., 4144 Shoreline Drive, P.O.Box 345, Spring Park, MN 55384, tel 612- 471-9546, fax 612-471-8756 (I believe 612-471 is a Wayzata prefix, in the Twin-Cities area). But it is in a letter postmarked Harrisburg, PA, and the return envelope has Accent Marketing, Inc. in the upper left corner and is addressed to Orange Communications, P.O.Box 216, Lemoyne, PA 17043 (mail from there would indeed be postmarked at Harrisburg). I do have to estimate monthly usage, and I think (in my case) that I'd recover the initial cost by having cheap calls available back to the answering service which handles my incoming calls. It is on a Newark, Del. number, and becomes long distance as soon as I reach the Maryland state line. [Moderator's Note: The 'estimated monthly usage' is intended to provide some additional security to the card. If you (for example) estimate monthly usage at fifty dollars, they will set a flag at say, eighty dollars, and usage over that point will be brought to the attention of someone there. I screwed up by not telling people in the initial brochure to include that item ... quite a few of the forms Carl mentioned have gone back, and PINS are being mailed this week. Over the weekend, I responded from here with still more brochures to people just now inquiring. The Orange Calling Card is a no-surcharge, 25 cent per minute calling card as part of the affinity long distance services I offer telecom readers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: snyderra@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu (Bob Snyder) Subject: Second Line Installation Date: 22 Mar 93 18:40:43 GMT Organization: Drexel University, Office Of Computing Services How much should it cost to have a second line installed? I'm going to be moving in a little bit less than a month, and I want to have a second line put in for data communications at the new apartment. New Jersey Bell wants $45 for the visit, plus $16 for each 15 minutes of work done, with weekend rates "significantly higher." The operator I spoke with suggested finding another contractor to install the line. How much would an alternate contractor cost? How do you find one? I've been thinking about trying it myself, but I'm not sure how difficult it would be, nor exactly where the demarc point would be ... Bob ------------------------------ From: rfranken@cs.umr.edu Subject: Using the Telecom Archives Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 13:25:32 CST TELECOM Moderater noted in response to Ted Koppel: >> [Moderator's Note: You bet we have it! Check out the Telecom Archives >> using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu (login anonymous, use name@site as >> your password, then 'cd telecom-archives' and 'cd country.codes'. > I tried telneting from two different sites with no luck. (Logged in > anonymous and kept getting "invalid password"). > Can someone verify that anonymous login is still operational at this > site? Thanks in advance. > Tom@ATMEL.COM You telnetted? You must ftp to the site to access the archives. It is not availbale for Telnet (or remote login) access -- Just ftp access for getting files. Brett (rfranken@cs.umr.edu) [Moderator's Note: Someone else (I forget who, the message is lost in the mess here over the weekend, sorry) brought this up and said I should have corrected the 'telnet' reference. Well, I say, watch how I worm out of this one! Actually, ftp is a software program which uses telnet to get the desired files. So you can 'telnet lcs.mit.edu ftp' if you wish, and that will connect you with the ftp socket at that (or any other) site. I can't recommend this unless you are at a site which does not allow ftp but does allow telnet ... it will usually work. As an exercise for the imaginative, if giving the argument 'ftp' to the telnet command fails -- because your sysadmin is smarter than you are -- then try telnet with the argument being the socket number traditionally used by Internet sites for ftp purposes. You'll find that number if you check out a file on your site documenting socket assignments. I won't tell you the commands to use once it connects -- that, like using telnet to connect direct with the mail socket to send anonymous mail is best learned by the perpetrators themselves. But you might try 'help' once ot connects. Anyway, check out the Telecom Archives soon. Lots of good files there for everyone! ftp lcs.mit.edu login anonymous. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Routing in Networks and the Post Office Organization: University of Vermont, EMBA Computer Facility Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 21:47:41 GMT 1In article hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > We could probably set up a system like the USPS where we would not > need a routing table for every possible destination but could base > routing on each digit of the address, starting with the most > significant. This is the essence of Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) and "supernetting". Currently, Internet routing operates by tracking "network numbers", which can be easily isolated given the "address class" of every address. This works fine for a few thousand destinations, but with 10,000 networks it's beginning to place a strain on the system. What CIDR does is associate each network with a mask, so that (to continue the postal analogy), while I need to know that 054 is Burlington, 056 is Monpelier, and 050 is White River, someone in California only needs to know that 05 is Vermont, and someone in Europe only needs to know that I am somewhere in the US. This is what is technically known as "aggregation", and is believed to be critical to the future of the Internet. Garrett A. Wollman wollman@emba.uvm.edu uvm-gen!wollman UVM disagrees. ------------------------------ From: chonoles@sde.mdso.vf.ge.com (Chonoles Michael Jesse) Subject: Numbering Plans and Standards Organization: GE M&DSO - VF Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 00:08:54 GMT I'm interested in any information on the numbering plans of other countries. Any suggestion on how to get them? Does anyone have one to send me? I'm also interested in numbering standards. I believe the CCITT has one? Does anyone know what it is and/or have access to it? I already know about the World Zone 1 numbering plan, but could use information about numbering within an NPA. For example, why can't all the numbers in an exchange be used? What numbers are reserved? Also, does anyone know how many telephone numbers are used in the US at this time? In the world? I'm doing some research for my masters's degree. We have a telecomm- unications department, but a terrible library. Thanks, Michael Jesse Chonoles chonoles@acc.vf.ge.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #197 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa01496; 23 Mar 93 1:47 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25847 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 23:25:39 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26020 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 22 Mar 1993 23:25:09 -0600 Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 23:25:09 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303230525.AA26020@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #198 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Mar 93 23:25:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 198 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Cellular Carriers vs. IXC's (Steve Forrette) Experiences in Telecommuting (Bill Gough) Need Fiber or Copper TDM/Line-Driver(s) for V.35/X.21 (Michael Santangelo) Telephone Headsets (Charlie Rosenberg) 152 & 156 MHz Pagers Needed (Simoun S. Ung) Re: 18kf Limit Measurement (David G. Lewis) DA Charges (mcharry@freedom.cwc.com) Re: What Makes Computer Communications So Exciting? (Sandy Kyrish) Re: Consolidating Cellular Sprint Account With Other Phones (S. Forrette) Re: MCI 800 Problem (Ehud Gavron) Re: Modems Get Hung; Testing Advice Wanted (Ken Levitt) Strange Disconnections -- What Can I Do? (Ron Newman) Re: Phase Noise Causing Garbage at 9600 bps (Graham Toal) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 02:18:12 -0800 From: Steve Forrette Subject: Cellular Carriers vs. IXC's A few weeks ago, someone voiced dismay that LA Cellular was blocking access to subscribers on the California Super Access Roaming Network via the roam port. That is to say, for example, that a San Francisco cellular subscriber cannot be reached in Los Angeles by dialing into the LA switch's roam port, but can be reached by dialing the San Francisco subscriber's home cellular number. But a roamer from an area such that calls won't automatically find them in LA *can* be reached via the roam port. This can be undesirable since someone that's in LA who wants to call the SF subscriber who is roaming in LA, and knows this, can't use the roam port to save the toll, and must call to SF. In speaking to someone in the know at Cellular One up here in Seattle, this practice of roam port "blocking" is going to become much more prevalent. Apparently, the IXC's noses are out of joint because of the roam port. They argue that if a caller in Los Angeles wants to call a cellular phone that is assigned a San Francisco number (a SF-LA call is inter-LATA), that an IXC deserves to get the toll revenue for the call, even if the SF cellular phone is temporarily in LA and the caller knows it. After all, they are calling a San Francisco number. The IXC's are complaining to the FCC about this, so some cellular carriers are starting to block access to roamers that can be reached automatically at their home numbers. This seems like a total crock to me, and that the IXC's are just being greedy, or looking for ways to stir up trouble. In my opinion, they are trying to force what could be a local call to be a toll call, just so that they can get the revenue. It is very silly on a technical level to route an intra-LA call through San Francisco just so more revenue can be generated by the call. There is a second issue regarding cellular carriers that the IXC's are complaining about. In many markets, neighboring cellular systems will have leased facilities between themselves to carry voice traffic. For example, Cellular One of Seattle and Portand are two different systems (both McCaw owned) and have a bunch of leased long distance trunks between the two switches. If I'm in Seattle, and call someone in Portland (an inter-LATA call), and I call from my cellular phone, the call gets routed over Cellular One's leased facilities down to Portland, where it leaves the cellular switch as a local call (or just terminates within the switch if I'm calling a Portland cellular subscriber). In this case, I really am calling inter-LATA, but no IXC gets any (marginal) revenue for the call. Cellular One will happily bill me the standard AT&T direct-dialed rate for the call, though. The IXC's don't like this very much aparently, and are complaining. I would argue that the IXC *is* getting revenue, since they are getting paid for the leased facilities. But, I suppose they could argue that Cellular One is a cellular carrier, and not an IXC, and thus should not be reselling inter-LATA switched service to the general public. Does anyone else have sightings of similar cellular-IXC squabbles to report? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: wgough@kean.ucs.mun.ca Subject: Experiences in Telecommuting Organization: Memorial University. St.John's Nfld, Canada Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 12:25:18 GMT I am looking for information on distance technology, specifically on telecommuting, distributed workplaces, and distance education. Even more specifically than that, I am looking at how people use distance technology at work. So, if anyone can tell me how telecommuting fits into their lives, please let me know. As well, if anyone in charge of telecommuting could describe their experiences in implementing it (good and bad), it would be appreciated. If you could relate the problems you have had (from the views of either management or staff), so much the better. Please e-mail me your responses. I know this is a pretty broad set of questions; if there is any amibiguity, let me know, and I'll try to clarify them. Bill Gough (wgough@kean.ucs.mun.ca) Faculty of Business Administration Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, NF Canada ------------------------------ From: mike@starburst.umd.edu (Michael F. Santangelo) Subject: Need Fiber or Copper TDM/Line-Driver(s) For V.35/X.21 Date: 22 Mar 93 21:15:37 GMT Organization: University of Maryland, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory I am wondering if anyone knows how I might go about getting a device that takes one or several V.35 interfaces (actual cable connector is X.21, V.35 signaling) and multiplexes it/them into standard Fiber Optic Fiber (ST connectors, 62.5/125 multimode) to another such device located about 1000 feet away. We have a new building going in and it will have Fiber Optic cable to the spec I just mentioned going to it. It is possible that we will also have some telephone grade copper as well going there. We need to interface some V.35 channels on a T1 MUX in one building to some equipment in the new building. We would need two channels at 336KB/sec (6 56KB/sec DS0's) each. Either I need two such line drivers (sync V.35 externally clocked to Fiber) on each end (one for each channel) or a single TDM that could handle both without going to some kind of full blown T1 MUX to Fiber business or anything. Michael F. Santangelo + Internet: mike@cbl.umd.edu [work] Dept. Head-Computer & Network Systems + mike@kavishar.umd.edu [home] UMCEES / CBL (Solomons Island) + BITNET: MIKE@UMUC [fwd to mike@cbl] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 20:10:52 PST From: Charlie Rosenberg Subject: Telephone Headsets I just saw an ad in the Black Box catalog for a HelloSet brand telephone headset. Looks like a nice unit. If anyone has had any experience with this product or others, that would be appreciated. I have one that works fine with Bell phones but won't work with my Panasonic telephone, so compatibility is the most important factor to me. I would also be interesting in finding out about a vendor with lower prices on these things than Black Box. Charlie Rosenberg (617) 524-6273 8 Everett St. Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 ------------------------------ From: s3ung@sms.business.uwo.ca (Simoun S. Ung) Subject: 152 & 156 MHz Pagers Needed Organization: University of Western Ontario Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 17:02:00 GMT I am looking for 152Mhz and 156 MHz pagers. I have been told that only China uses these frequencies. Does anybody know where I can purchase a large quantity of either numeric or Chinese character units? For the right price, I have a standing order of 10,000 units. Any assistance or information will be greatly appreciated. Please email me directly or contact me at the following numbers: (519) 227-0011 direct line, (519) 227-1185 messages, or (519) 227-1728 facsimile. Many thanks. Best regards, Simoun Ung s3ung@sms.business.uwo.ca Western Business School -- London, Ontario ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: 18kf Limit Measurement Organization: AT&T Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 14:31:59 GMT In article craig@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu (Craig Myers) writes: > whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) writes: >>> Does this 18,000 ft measurement start at the CO or the neighborhood >>> mux (SLC-96, etc.)? >> The 18,000 feet is the maximum distance for the two wire loop portion >> of the circuit, therefore, the 18,000 feet is a maximum from the >> Remote SLC-96 Mux to the subscriber's Network Terminating equipment > According to a map provided by our local telco, C&P, the limit for > ISDN from a SLC-96 is about 5000 feet. If memory serves (it's been about two years since I've dealt with this stuff), there are several versions of BRITE card. The SLC-96 BRITE card will support either a T interface (4-wire) or U interface (2-wire), but the U is the AT&T-proprietary "AMI" U, not the ANSI-standard 2B1Q U. The SLC-5 BRITE card supports only a T interface, but the BRITE-II card supports an ANSI-standard 2B1Q U interface. The SLC-96 and SLC-5 are not plug-compatible (the cards on the SLC-5 are half the width of the SLC-96 cards, which is how you get 192 lines into the same rack space as a SLC-96). The T interface has a length limitation of approximately 5000 ft, while the 18kft limitation is for the U interface; in particular, for the ANSI U interface. The AMI U interface has a variety of cited length limits, depending on wire gauge, although they're all between about 17.5 and 22.5 kft. So I would guess that C&P (a) uses SLC-96s or equivalent for their DLCs, and not SLC-5s; (b) doesn't support the use of the AMI U interface (which makes sense if they're doing "National ISDN"). Therefore, the only BRI you can get from a SLC is a T interface. Don't have to buy an NT1, though ... Disclaimer - I never worked on this stuff at AT&T, so what I know is information available to any motivated customer with a competent account rep. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ From: mcharry@freedom.cwc.com (McHarry) Subject: DA Charges Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 9:22:47 EST PAT in another thread blamed long distance competition for the institution of DA charges. My memory is somewhat different -- in the mid to late 70s the local exchange carriers (notably Illinois Bell) were carrying on a campaign to charge for directory assistance. I recall being bombarded with ads puling about the "alarming" number of DA calls made by some subscribers. Illinois finally ruled that they could charge for DA for numbers that were actually in the printed directory. Illinois Bell declined to implement that and kept up their campaign. They finally cut some sort of deal where they were allowed to charge for DA in return for going to dial tone first pay phones that could allow no-coin access to the operator and 911. They changed those suckers out in a flash! About the same time, they slipped the publishing date of the Champaign/ Urbana directory to just after the start of the second semester at the University of Illinois, guaranteeing the minimum number of correct student telephone numbers. (It used to come out early in the fall, just late enough catch all the new student numbers.) No PAT, it wasn't competition that did it; it was monopoly greed. [Moderator's Note: Please do not confuse local directory assistance with the 555-1212 bureaus used for long distance directory. Long after (many of) the local telcos were charging for information, AT&T was still giving it away free through [area]-555-1212. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 18:20 GMT From: Sandy Kyrish <0003209613@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: What Makes Computer Communications So Exciting? The reason Ithiel Pool did not follow up on his computer ideas is because he died nearly ten years ago. Several Pool works appeared after his death. Also recommend reading his "Technologies of Freedom" for additional insight to your questions. Don't underestimate some mundane but real attractions to computer based communications. 1. When your message is written, you do not have to perform the physical acts of printing and posting it. 2. When you hit the "Send" key, there is an instinctive pleasure in knowing you have near-instant delivery. 3. Again without significant physical exertion, computer nets provide an effective means for bringing people with similar interests together easily. Conferences do the same thing, but they are single-source events you have to go to. I know it's not very theoretical, but the wonderful thing about computer nets is that they take advantage of technology to provide easy and instant communications to a range of people. If you are pursuing this as a research project, look in the Dissertation Abstracts CD-ROM for dissertations published between 1980-1985 and find one done by David Myers from the University of Texas, an early study of BBS users. Not exactly sure of the publication date, sorry. Maybe even 1986. Sandy Kyrish 320-9613@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Consolidating Cellular Sprint Account With Other Phones Date: 22 Mar 1993 02:36:25 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) writes: > Concerning the hypothetical reference to having Sprint long distance > on a mobile phone consolidated-billed with other Sprint calls, I am > afraid that this cannot be done. I tried to have my Sprint LD for my > cellular phone consolidated on the same account as the Sprint LD for > my home phone (and my calling cards,) but the Sprint Customer Service > Rep. said they could not do that. :-( I hope they change that soon. This capability really does exist. I had just this setup when I had service with Cellular One of San Francisco. I had my cellular number added to the account that already had my four home lines on it, and it worked just fine. Since I ran up a substantial long distance bill at home, I got the benefit of the combined volume discount for my cellular long distance calls. In fact, I had an accounting code set up for my Sprint account. For $5 per month, they put a prompt for an accounting code for every 1+ call made, and the calls are categorized on the bill according to the codes entered at the time of the call. This worked for calls from my cellular phone as well, so any 1+ long distance call from my cellular would generate an extra prompt for me to enter the accounting code. This indicates that Sprint's switch gets real-time ANI from the cellular switch, and not just a billing tape at the end of the month. So, perhaps the rep you spoke with was misinformed, or perhaps your cellular system is set up differently. What I would do is call back and say you want to add another number, and not tell them that it's cellular, and see what happens. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: gavron@spades.aces.com (Ehud Gavron) Subject: Re: MCI 800 Problem Date: 23 Mar 93 04:25:00 GMT Reply-To: gavron@ACES.COM Organization: ACES Research Inc. In article , monty@proponent.com (Monty Solomon) writes... > Should MCI employ beta testers? That would be my suggestion. They > could pay people like me to make trial calls at, say, 3:00 AM CST, > just to make sure the system worked as advertised. Eh? Why should they do that when people like YOU are more than happy to PAY THEM for the opportunity to beta-test their software, and 24 hours a day, seven days a week at that. It's called third-rate long distance service ... get used to it ;-) Ehud Gavron (EG76) gavron@aces.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 07:30:29 EST From: levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org (Ken Levitt) Subject: Re: Modems Get Hung; Testing Advice Wanted In TELECOM Digest V13 : Issue 185 Doug Barr writes: > We have some dial in modems that "hang". They require power cycling to > reset them. If they are 14,400bps v.32bis modems with a Rockwell chipset, this is a common known bug in the Rockwell ROM program. Most companies have updated their ROM programs by now to fix this problem. Contact the manufacturer to see if new ROM chips are available. If they don't have an update, send them back as defective. Ken Levitt - On FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390 UUCP: zorro9!levitt INTERNET: levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org or levitt%zorro9.uucp@talcott.harvard.edu ------------------------------ From: rnewman@bbn.com (Ron Newman) Subject: Strange Disconnections -- What Can I Do? Date: 22 Mar 1993 18:14:14 GMT Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) I am having a strange problem with my telephone service. When I call my friend Helene, my call often gets suddenly disconnected in the middle of our conversation. This doesn't happen when I call anyone else. It doesn't happen when anyone else calls her. It doesn't happen when Helene calls *me*. Sometimes it happens over and over again, which is very frustrating to both of us. Neither of us has any idea what is wrong. We don't think the problem is in our telephone sets, since it doesn't happen when we're talking to other people. Has anyone else had a problem like this? Any suggestions on how to report this usefully to New England Telephone? The call is local, from (617) 628 to (617) 367. Ron Newman rnewman@bbn.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 23:02:13 GMT From: Graham Toal Subject: Re: Phase Noise Causing Garbage at 9600 bps itstevec@hamlet.ucdavis.edu (Steve Chafe) wrote: > Has anyone tried to find the cause of bursts of four or five garbage > characters that appear randomly (ever few minutes to every few hours) > on a 9600 bps data call that does not have error correction in effect? Synchronization problems between digital clocks of neighbouring digital exchanges. We discussed it a few years ago. One of the biggest problems with this fault is convincing your phone company that it exists. G ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #198 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03125; 23 Mar 93 2:24 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09295 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 23 Mar 1993 00:02:03 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26571 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 23 Mar 1993 00:01:31 -0600 Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1993 00:01:31 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303230601.AA26571@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #199 TELECOM Digest Tue, 23 Mar 93 00:01:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 199 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (John Higdon) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Gary W. Sanders) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Richard Budd) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Louis A. Mamakos) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Dale Farmer) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Richard Pauls) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Richard Cox) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Dan J. Declerck) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Graham Toal) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Dave Levenson) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Steve Kaiser) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Matt Healy) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Bill Campbell) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Steven King) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Barry Mishkind) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (John S. Maddaus) Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? (Greg Andrews) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 01:11 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com writes: > (And of course, if it ever becomes a national issue, the Californicators > will scream bloody murder. If it's true that average commute times in > the LA basin are over an hour each way, then a ban on car phone conver- > sation in a moving vehicle would shut that town down.) This particular Californicator will scream bloody murder because he is getting bloody tired of laws passed by those thinking that every problem, irriatation, annoyance, or act of rudeness can be fixed by passing yet another law. Don't we have enough laws on the books? There are already laws in most states that prohibit driving erratically or recklessly. There are laws that prohibit activities of any sort that interfere with the ability to control the car. If California ever passes any such law (not beyond the realm of possibility -- remember we have that stupid helmet law), I will insist that laws be passed that prohibit the following while driving a car: * Adjusting or applying makeup; * Reading a map; * Reading a newspaper or book; * Disciplining kids in the back seat; * Carrying on a conversation requiring gesticulation. Any of the above are at least as dangerous as talking on the phone. Every day on the road brings at least several incidents of an inattentive driver blithely moving into my lane or cutting me off. Not one of these lousey drivers has been talking on a cellular phone at the time. People drive well or they do not. The use of a cellular phone has precious little to do with that. It just needs to be remembered that driving is a foreground task, not something that is done while doing something else. It is not fair to punish everyone because a few people forget this. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: gary.w.sanders@att.com Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 13:59:17 GMT Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: AT&T In article Woody M. Collins writes: > I have to agree with the MA legislator. The cellular phone makers and > the cell companies, both warn users of the danger of driving and using > a cellular car phone. To solve the problem, most good phones comes > handsfree speakerphone option (mike and/or speaker). With a handsfree > phone, it is very little different than tuning your radio. I have > heard that some top of the line phones are voice activated. Bottom > line, I think the phone makers will go for it, forcing the sales on > more expensive models; the cellular companies will be neutral. Its not the using a cellular phone and driving that's a problem. Its the salesman trying to cut a deal on the phone, reaching for his briefcase or now adays his computer. I was just about run off the road by a guy in a big powerlunch car who was trying to drive, use the car phone and his computer at the same time. I was in my truck and could see into his car. There were two phones (voice/data?),laptop, printer and what looked like a small copier (fax machine?). When he was talking on the phone its was OK, he was in his lane, but when he went to use the computer he would weave to the right, then to the right when he would look at the printouts. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614-860-5965 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 15:42:47 EDT From: Richard Budd Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: CSAV UTIA You can talk to a passenger while keeping both hands on the wheel and looking straight ahead. Unless your cellular unit has a speakerphone, you need at least one hand on the telephone. The driver would also have to hold the receiver up to his/her/its face and keep it there. That takes some concentration. Of course, talking to a passenger requires some concentration that would have been dedicated to keeping the car on the road too. > (And of course, if it ever becomes a national issue, the Californicators > will scream bloody murder. If it's true that average commute times in > the LA basin are over an hour each way, then a ban on car phone conver- > sation in a moving vehicle would shut that town down.) Of course most of that commute time is spent in traffic jams where the car is either not or barely moving. The problem you would find there is the driver would be so busy talking on the telephone that he/she/it fails to move along, prompting a honk on the horn from the driver behind the car or a cutoff from someone from an adjacent lane. The law could prohibit using a car phone and while driving faster than 15 MPH. That would be fun to enforce. One has to imagine what the speed limit signs would look like after the legislature passed a few laws of this type. Am I glad not to be in L.A. An aside from the town I am in: Cellular car phones have become quite popular in Prague and even more so in Hungary. The quality of land-based lines are so poor and it is still a four year wait for a telephone in the house. However, I can go down to the Cellular Phone Shop in Wenceslaus Square (it's not right on the square, but in the neighborhood), pick up a cellular phone today, and have it activated the day after tomorrow. Seeing someone in a parked car talking into a cellular telephone is a common sight in Prague and Budapest. Family scene in Prague (translation by me): Son: Hey, Dad. Can I have the keys to the car? Father: Sorry, son. Your sister is on the phone. Richard Budd | USA klub@maristb.bitnet | CR budd@cspgas11.bitnet | 139 S. Hamilton St. | Kolackova 8 | Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 | 18200 Praha 8 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 10:43:14 -0500 From: louie@sayshell.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: The University of Maryland, College Park So if this proposed law is going to prohibit use of cellular telephones in moving vehicles, how about old MTS rigs? Amateur Radio? CB? How about the police officer, who may be traveling at high rates of speed in pursuit; should he be "distracted" by using his radio while he's moving? How is use of one two-way radio in a moving vehicle any different than another? Of course, even if this proposed law comes to pass and even prohibits the use of hands-free speakerphones in cars, how would you enforce it? I think a prior poster's comment about walking and chewing gum really is applicable here. Louis Mamakos ------------------------------ From: dale@access.digex.com (Dale Farmer) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Date: 22 Mar 1993 11:43:00 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA This sound an awful lot like the hoopla that happened here in the US in the seventies when the "CB craze" hit. (Citizens Band radio) Laws were passed in many states similar to what is being asked for here. The laws were generally overturned on various grounds, mainly having to do with the fact that a driver is already fully responsible for his/her actions, and the actions of the vehicle under their control. Therefore this would be a form of double jepordy. (Which is uncons- titutional). Myself, I have been known to drive at high rates of speed, hold conversations on two different radio systems, talk on the intercom, and control the lights and siren ... at the same time. And I have never wrecked an ambulance. So don't prohibit me from doing something that I have already proved I can do safely. Dale Farmer ------------------------------ From: Richard Pauls Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: MIT Lincoln Lab Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 12:46:20 -0500 I agree. Use of a hand held cellphone while driving a car should be discouraged. It is clearly dangerous. I hope the law is passed. Can't these units be used in a hands-free mode (i.e. speakerphone)? This seems much safer while driving. If the sound quality is a problem maybe we could sell a light headset with a mic, or attach a mic to the visor, but then it wouldn't look impressive when you drive by would it;-) Rich ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 20:18 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk jon@hill.lut.ac.uk (Jon P. Knight) said: >> This is already law in the UK, and a jolly good job too. It isn't actually *law* as such. It's in the Highway Code, a government publication, but the charge the police would bring, is "driving without due care and attention" and it is up to the court to decide if you were or not. Mind you, I fully agree with the point that it *should* be illegal! >> the law does permit you to use a communications device whilst driving if >> it leaves both hands free, but I could be wrong about that bit. Yes, the British Highway Code DOES exclude fully hands free use -- but I've often found that handsfree use requires even greater concentration, and so probably is even more dangerous! Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Not diallable on 511 in mainland USA ------------------------------ From: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com (Dan J. Declerck) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 21:09:02 GMT In article barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) writes: > Some percentage of the population apparently can't walk and chew gum > at the same time, or drive and talk on the phone at the same time. So > what else is new? If you think somone is driving hazardously, take > down their license number and report them to the police. This entire point could be moot, if only people used "hands free mode" in most car-installed mobiles. The handset is the issue, not the conversation. Dan DeClerck EMAIL: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com Motorola Cellular APD Phone: (708) 632-4596 ------------------------------ From: Graham Toal Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Reply-To: Graham Toal Organization: Cuddlehogs Anonymous Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 14:09:18 GMT We already have such a law in Britain, but you'd never know it by walking along the street watching drivers. Such a law is unenforcable just as a 'thou shalt not' injunction. The only way to make it work is to insist that all new carphones fitted have an interlock to the speedometer so that the phones are disconnected while the car is in motion. (Such interlocks are easy to build -- London taxis already have them connected to the passenger doors). Graham ------------------------------ Organization: Penn State University Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 10:08:20 EST From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Maybe the FCC will require a hunter-orange sticker on the handset: "use of this apparatus above 15 MPH (19 KPH) will be injurious to your health and those around you" Pete ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 23:16:00 GMT I don't think such legislation will change much of anything in Los Angeles. My own experience, when visiting that city, is that for most of the time I spent on the `freeways', the vehicle's status was anything but `in motion'. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 02:08:47 GMT Are the existing laws against weaving all over the road not sufficient? It seems that it is the licensee's (driver's license) responsibility to do whatever is necessary to insure the car does not weave all over the road. The actual cause of the weaving should be immaterial. Here in California, I recall a law limiting the number of unrelated persons that could live in one house. I think it was a law in Santa Barbara. They wanted to limit noisy students. The California Supreme Court shot the law down. In my opinion, it matters not if the residents are related or not. If they are concerned about noise, put a legal limit on noise. If they are concerned about population density (typically for health reasons), put a limit on population density. If they are concerned about weaving cars, make it illegal for cars to weave instead of making it illegal to talk on the phone ... Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.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: skaiser@eskimo.com (Steve Kaiser) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: -> ESKIMO NORTH (206) For-Ever <- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 23:20:47 GMT rdippold@qualcomm.com (Ron "Asbestos" Dippold) writes: > fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) writes: >> I suspect this one will get eaten alive by the cell companies' lobby- >> ists. > Not to mention by all the influential types who use car phones. Well, > this should make the road safe for all those putting on makeup, > shaving, eating and reading as they drive. It is ironic to me that this report comes from Boston. Before I made my first trip to Boston, I was concerned about the safety of driving there, having heard many rumors. A friend from Boston advised me, "just drive like everyone else: drink your coffee, read the newspaper, and don't make eye contact." It worked. Steve Kaiser Kaiser Data skaiser@eskimo.com 13533 Northshire Rd NW (206) 361-1515 Seattle, WA 98177-4033 ------------------------------ From: matt@wardsgi.med.yale.edu (Matt Healy) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Yale U. - Genetics Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 15:32:17 GMT My insurance agent says he's seen quite a few accidents involving cellular phones. He now suggests that, if you are involved in an accident you look for a cellular phone in the other car. If one is present, ask if they were using it. If they deny using it, and it looks like the accident might end up in court, ask if they would be willing to repeat that denial under oath ... Matt Healy matt@wardsgi.med.yale.edu ------------------------------ From: bill@Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Celestial Software, Mercer Island, WA Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 16:27:41 GMT I assume that all other drivers on the road are asleep, drunk, and will do the stupidest thing I can think of -- Plus 1. This has allowed me to avoid their stupidity in most cases (it doesn't do any good when I'm sitting at a traffic light and get tail-ended :-). > what else is new? If you think somone is driving hazardously, take > down their license number and report them to the police. The police are generally too busy collecting easy revenue by giving people tickets for driving 66 on a road designed for 70+ traffic. They can't be bothered with other things. > Meanwhile, the rest of us don't have any problem. Get off my case! Talking on a cellular phone WITHOUT HANDS-FREE can impair one's driving abilities. In fact any conversation in the car may well divert attention from driving, as can kids bouncing on the seat, fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror ... I use a cellular phone in the car every day, but primarily to answer incoming calls where all I have to do is to punch one key. I don't take messages or write down phone numbers, and try not to dial outgoing calls unless the number is one that's already stored in the phone where I don't have to look to put in the number. If people need to leave a message, I give them another phone number they can call for voice-mail. In fact I give people my cellular number as my primary business number, and put the cell-phone on call-forwarding to other number (which has the voice-mail, and is a custom-ringing number on my home phone) when I'm not in the car or on client sites. This doesn't cost much since US-West Cellular doesn't charge for calls that are forwarded on land lines. It might be expensive in other areas (Bell Atlantic charged air time for forwarded calls when I had an account with them in 1987-1988, and charged $0.10 to dial a number that was busy). INTERNET: bill@Celestial.COM Bill Campbell; Celestial Software UUCP: ...!thebes!camco!bill 6641 East Mercer Way uunet!camco!bill Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591 ------------------------------ From: king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Reply-To: king@rtsg.mot.com Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 22:11:40 GMT Let me add myself to the minority here who don't want to see this legislation happen. Cellphones may be a visible source of reckless driving, but if we're going to outlaw their use (by the driver of a moving vehicle) we should be fair and outlaw eating and applying makeup at the wheel. I'd say it's a darned sight worse to be behind a guy juggling a Big Mac, large Coke, and a manual transmission than it is to be behind someone on a cellphone. Personally I'm in favor of nailing the people who drive recklessly for reckless driving, and let the rest of the population live and let live. If you can handle a cellphone and drive at the same time, go for it. If you can't, expect to get hit with a reckless driving charge. Ditto for those who eat, apply makeup, or whatever. (Heck, here in the Chicago environs people don't even need the excuse of a cellphone to drive like idiots. It just comes naturally to most of them.) Yeah, I know, take a look at my Organization: line and you'll see I've got something of a vested interest here. Believe it or not, the fact that I make my living off these silly things isn't a factor in my argument. Needless to say, I speak for myself and not the company. Steven King, Motorola Cellular (king@rtsg.mot.com) ------------------------------ From: barry@coyote.datalog.com (barry mishkind) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Datalog Consulting, Tucson, AZ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 21:59:54 GMT The prudent solution might be to interlock the phone handset against the ignition or the transmission. Or, mandate only speakerphone useage (which will allow the conducting of business - maybe not the best solution), or ... encourage people to live closer to work!!! Yes, I *know* traveling salesmen, etc. can't always do so. But ... is it always necessary for Americans to rush everything? Barry Mishkind coyote.datalog.com Tucson, Arizona ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 11:17:13 EST From: jsm@angate.att.com Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: AT&T Don't flame me for submitting second-hand unconfirmed info, but I'm told by a Corporate Security Officer for a major Texas Fortune 10 company that there are already laws on the books in Texas and Ohio prohibiting mobile phone calls while in motion. They have had to warn their executives on this, most of whom have now opted for the hands-free alternative. In this person's case, it resulted only in a warning from a State Trooper. Can anyone confirm the (non)existence of these laws? John S. Maddaus AT&T Bell Laboratories Product Manager - Secure Cellular Communications jsm@angate.att.com ------------------------------ From: gerg@netcom.com (Greg Andrews) Subject: Re: Don't Use Your Cellphone in Your Car!?!?!? Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1993 03:56:32 GMT mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com writes: > I suspect that this proposal will fail, because the lobbyists will ask > one question that even I can't answer: why is it that talking on the > phone consumes more attention than talking to someone in the passenger > seat(s)? I don't know why it is, but it seems to be true. Is this > some kind of psychological thing? Are people talking on the phone > spending extra mental effort on imagining the facial expressions of > the people they're talking to, or what? To put it in techno-communications terms, bandwidth. Telephony is a modern miracle, but it's still not the same as being there, no matter how many pins Sprint throws on the floor. ;-) For one thing, the friendly passenger will automatically speak louder as that hot-rod rumbles past you. Someone talking over the phone won't, and you'll strain to understand them until you ask them to speak louder. The suppressed high and low frequencies on consonants (s, sh, t, th, f, b, p) reduce the amount of information reaching the brain. The brain must apply more processing power than normal to extract the information. These factors make us concentrate harder on the conversation than we would if the other person were in the car with us. In most people, more attention paid to the conversation means less paid to driving. Greg gerg@netcom.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #199 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07005; 23 Mar 93 3:58 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17302 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 23 Mar 1993 01:32:50 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29198 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 23 Mar 1993 01:32:20 -0600 Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1993 01:32:20 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199303230732.AA29198@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #200 TELECOM Digest Tue, 23 Mar 93 01:32:20 CST Volume 13 : Issue 200 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Cellular Battery Packs (Wilson Mohr) Re: Cellular Battery Packs (Kevin A. Mitchell) Re: Cellular Battery Packs (Dale Farmer) Re: Cellular Battery Packs (Steve Forrette) Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy (Lionel Moser) Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy (Arthur Marsh) Re: France (was Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries) (Carl Moore) Re: France (was Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries) (MJ Crepin) Re: NAFTA Implications For Telecommunications in Canada (Terry Cooper) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Don Wegeng) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Will Martin) Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 (Blake Tritico) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mohr@orange.rtsg.mot.com (Wilson Mohr) Date: 22 Mar 93 17:33:36 GMT Subject: Re: Cellular Battery Packs J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl.co.uk writes: > Does anyone know if it is worth trying to recover an old NiCad and if > so how to? Can I do it myself with my trickle-charger and a 6v load of > some kind? Well, for what it's worth, (read: std disclaimers) this is what I have done to resurrect dead protable batteries. The basic problem is that the metalic materials in each cell eventually polarize in a line and effectively short out a cell or two due the charge/discharge cycles. One needs to "fuse" this short and the cell will return to near normal operation. "fuse" = blow the fuse (short). My batteries are 7.5v nominal (5 cells). I hook up a battery (observing polarity) to my car battery charger. It is one of those handy-dandy Sears 2A-10A-50A specials. I set it to the 10A position and *then* I plug in the charger for *not more than 15 secs.*. (If you try this yourself, do it in an area where you do not care of the battery explodes) Yes, there is a *real* chance of the battery exploding! I take appropriate precautions. I figure since the battery is worthless as it is nothing ventured nothing gained. Initially my experience shows a draw of about 5A on the charger's meter. About 5-15 secs. later the meter drops to near zero amps. I *immediately* unplug the charger. I then take the battery to my normal portable battery charger for the phone and give it 10-12 hrs. note the normal charger is about a 500mA(?) trickle charger. I have done it several times to the same battery and it seems to last about a year between abuses. I cannot stress enough that this is *very* dangerous and damage can result. I will not recommend you do this. This is just my (silly) approach. ------------------------------ From: kam@dlogics.com (Kevin A. Mitchell) Subject: Re: Cellular Battery Packs Organization: Datalogics, Inc. Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 18:31:40 GMT J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl.co.uk writes: > The battery packs for my NEC P3 handportable cellular seem to last for > about one year then suddenly fade away. The so-called "memory effect" does not occur in modern NiCad cells, except under strictly controlled laboratory conditions. There are two reasons that your cells may be worn out: o You've charged and discharged them enough. NiCad cells are good for 500-1000 charge/discharge cycles depending on the cell type. o They've been deep discharged or overcharged. The former can cause damage if one of the cells in the battery has been driven to reverse polarity, and the latter can happen if left on trickle too long. The cells lose electrolyte by venting hydrogen or oxygen gas. Normally these gases are recycled within the cell, but if the pressures increase, they come out the vent (the little hole in the + end of consumer cells). Don't waste money on a rejuvenator. Just buy a new battery. Kevin A. Mitchell (312) 266-4485 Datalogics, Inc Internet: kam@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!kam Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: dale@access.digex.com (Dale Farmer) Subject: Re: Cellular Battery Packs Date: 22 Mar 1993 12:10:02 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl.co.uk wrote: > The battery packs for my NEC P3 handportable cellular seem to last for (sacrificed to the gods of bandwidth) > more money with her but I'm less keen to do it this time. The dealer > eventually admitted to having what she calls a "recycler" which is > apparently some device that rapid-charges the battery pack then > somehow rapid-discharges it. However she says (guess what) this only The "memory effect" of Ni-Cad battery packs are a unfourtunatly well known problem. What happens is that a fully charged new pack has for example, 1.0 Amp/hours power. (technical details ommitted) you use it and discharge it down to 0.6 a/h, plonk it into the charger overnight and repeat for weeks/months. after a period of time the memory effect develops. (Don't ask me how, it is beyond my knowledge) It may be first noticed that one day you use it a lot and it just seems to go dead when you exceed your normal daily usage. What happens is that the remainder of the charge that normally does not get used, just seems to go away. As the battery ages, this gets worse, and eventually eats into your normal daily use. That is when most people notice it. The solution is preventive maintainance to your batteries. (not takeing them apart and greasing them :-) Look at your battery charger. Does it have a setting labeled "deep cycle, full discharge, test cycle" or something like that? If it does, you're in luck, use that setting on each battery about once a week. You can go up to a month but it is easier to lose track that way. If you don't then it needs a little more effort on your part. Turn on the widget and run the battery almost flat. If it has an automatic power saver feature this may take a while. Once it has discharged completely, plonk it into the charger and run it up to full. If you are adventurous and electronically inclined you could make a device to discharge it thru a resister. Don't ask me for instructions. Hope this is helpful. Dale Farmer ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Cellular Battery Packs Date: 22 Mar 1993 00:14:42 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article J.Harrison@bra0401.wins.icl. co.uk writes: > Does anyone know if it is worth trying to recover an old NiCad and if > so how to? Can I do it myself with my trickle-charger and a 6v load of > some kind? Although I've never tried it myself, I have a friend who swears by this technique: Hook up the NiCad momentarily to a 12-volt car battery, using *reverse* polarity. This can be accomplished with jumper cables. He says that this will breathe new life into tired NiCads. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 11:59:00 +0000 From: Lionel (L.H.) Moser Subject: Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy I'm torn, as always, between proclaiming that it's sad to see c.d.t go down the drain of Quebec language discussion, as many a good newsgroup has gone before, while at the same time dreaming that I might get in the last word. Mr. Moderator, please exercise restraint, because there are a lot of Quebecers, ex-Quebecers, and non-Quebec-Canadians who have strong, and oft-times not-quite-objective opinions on Quebec language laws. I hate the bad PR we get from half-truths. Things are not as bad here as the more negative postings would have you believe. Things are worse than the most optimistic would claim. It's an imperfect world and almost every other society looks unjust from some angle -- indeed more so than my own. Since Quebec is predominantly French speaking, it seems pretty unremarkable that the phone company answers in French. It also seems unremarkable that all of the personnel who answer their phones are bilingual and respond in English when so-addressed (Pat's experience). Now, as far as telephony goes, I have a question. I have said for years that in the States people pay more for local calls than we do since divestiture, but now I'm not so sure. I'm holding my phone bill for this month. I have no Bell Canada equipment, and pay for a basic line (dial pulse), no special features. The bill is C$12.60 (=$US 10.33) before taxes (federal & provincial). I have unlimited free local calls in a metro calling area of about three million people. I get one or two DA calls per month free for numbers *in* the phone book. Now, how does this compare for what people pay in the states? Are you paying 50%, 100% or 200% more than us? Or does anyone in the States pay less than us for basic telephone service? Has this topic been hacked to death here before (and if so, please moderate me out of here, Mr. T.)? Lionel Moser Recherches Bell-Northern (BNR) Montreal *** The opinions expressed are personal and do no reflect those *** of my employer. [Moderator's Note: You're right. It really has gone as far as I can take it here. We'll have one last message and close the thread. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 22 Mar 1993 01:40:34 +1000 From: Arthur@cswamp.apana.org.au (Arthur Marsh) Subject: Re: Quebec Yellow Pages Controversy Reply-To: Arthur@cswamp.apana.org.au Organization: Camelot Swamp bulletin board, Hawthorndene Sth Australia On Sun 14 Mar at 00:26 Dave Leibold wrote: > Perhaps an idea should be borrowed from the white page introductory > sections of many other countries (Australia is one such country, I > believe): a brief description of the phone service (emergency numbers, > how to dial, etc) is translated into many languages. The current Adelaide White Pages contains a page on how to gain access to free interpreter services, 24 hours/day in Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, English, Filipino, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Macedonian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. Arthur Origin: Camelot Swamp MJCNA, Hawthorndene, Sth Australia (8:7000/8) Camelot Swamp bbs, data: +61-8-370-2133 reply to user@cswamp.apana.org.au ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 17:16:01 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: France (was Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries) I don't have time to write much right now, but I do appreciate seeing this note about France, which as a result is now easier to relate to North America in terms of area codes or lack of them. I am retaining a short list of previously-existing codes for France; would France now be doing things like: Using "overlay" codes? (notice area code 917 in New York) ... Relieving a crowded area by using numbers from a neighboring, less-crowded area? (for example, Delaware is very small, and next-door Maryland had to split recently). ------------------------------ From: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 23:18:41 +0000 Organization: Imperial College, London, UK. Subject: Re: France (was Country Codes and Area Codes Within Countries) Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) wrote: > I don't have time to write much right now, but I do appreciate seeing > this note about France, which as a result is now easier to relate to > North America in terms of area codes or lack of them. I am retaining > a short list of previously-existing codes for France; would France now > be doing things like: > using "overlay" codes? (notice area code 917 in New York) I don't know what you mean by overlay codes. Codes in France used to be associated with French "Departements". Nice, Cannes, Antibes, and dozens of smaller towns (and hundreds of villages) are all in the "departement" (<- local area) called "Alpes Maritimes". Monaco is an independent Principality which is an enclave in that area of France. What used to be area codes in the past are now fully part of everyone's phone number. Even when you are in the same area, you have to dial *all* numbers. > relieving a crowded area by using numbers from a neighboring, less-crowded > area? (for example, Delaware is very small, and next-door Maryland had > to split recently) Yes, that's exactly what they can do now. "Alpes Maritimes" is a very crowded area, because of its geographical position along the Mediterranean Sea. Since the last few years, new numbers allocated can now either start with 93 or 92. 92 used to be the area code for "Alpes-de-Haute-Provence", a very mountainous area, since it's already part of the Alps, and hence quite scarcely populated. By abolishing area codes, France Telecom has managed to use numbers which used to be theoretically allocated to scarcely populated areas, into areas where there was a shortage of numbers. Paris being the Capital, and hence being very densely populated, has got an additional prefix of (1), thus having much room for expansion. Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond, Digital Comms. Section, Elec. Eng. Department Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BT, UK Internet/Bitnet: - Janet: ------------------------------ From: Terry (T.A.) Cooper Subject: Re: NAFTA Implications For Telecommunications in Canada Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 00:00:00 GMT andrew@herald.usask.ca (Derek Andrew) wrote: >> From correspondence with Canadians, I have determined that the US has >> benefitted greatly for deregulation and divestiture. While Canada >> still has step equipment and multi-party lines in rural areas, that >> equipment and facility arrangement has all but disappeared in this >> country. Bell Canada has no technical superiority with regard to the >> typical service provided in the US; and frequently the reverse is >> actually the case. > I just wanted to point out that Bell Canada only services some of the > Eastern provinces of Canada. It probably compares to GTE! > Fibre was installed in Saskatchewan at a faster rate than any other > North American phone company. We got no stinkin step by steps left > and I am not aware of any multi-party lines left. From what I have read on this news group about GTE, I would not compare Bell Canada to them. From what I have read and have experienced in other countries there is no better phone system than that which we have here. Yes it's more expensive that in the US but we can rely on our phones to work ALL the time. To clarify the above statement, Bell Canada covers central Canada (Ontario and Quebec). These two provinces contain 2/3 of the population of the country so Bell is the largest of the regional phone service providers. There are still some steppers and other Analogue systems in Canada, but these are typically used by the smaller independant Telcos. Bell has some analogue systems left in service but they won't be there for long. Most of the remote villages that I know of are served by at least DMS-10s or remotes off of a DMS-100. Several of the provincial telcos have fully digitised their networks, Bell plans to hit this point next year. Terry Cooper Northern Telecom "Opinions expressed are personal and" Ottawa, Ontario "are not those of Northern Telecom " ------------------------------ From: wegeng.henr801c@xerox.com (Don Wegeng) Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 Reply-To: wegeng.henr801c@xerox.com Organization: Xerox Corp., Henrietta, NY Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 15:39:05 GMT I was vacationing in Naples, Florida during the big storm. Naples missed the worst of it, though the waves were pretty big and the condo that I was staying at lost electricity for about 20 hours. Trying to get through to United Airlines to reconfirm my flight home for Monday, March 15 was interesting, however. As you might guess, most calls to their 800-241-6522 reservations number didn't go though (sometimes I got reorder, sometimes I got an "all circuits busy" message). Every so often, though, I would get through to their menu-based system, which would instruct me to "press 1 to get flight info, press 2... ,etc), and upon making a selection I'd again get reorder or an "all circuits busy" message. Anyone know what was happening here? Was United's menu system dialing another number based on my selection? If so, why not use dedicated lines? Don Wegeng wegeng.henr801c@xerox.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 10:21:25 CST From: Will Martin Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 Just a quick follow-up: The credit-union-supporting Automatic Teller Machine network(s) that were brought down by the storm appear to still be down. The in-building ATM for our credit union here in St. Louis has had one of those printed notices mentioned by other Telecom'ers stuck to it, and its display has shown "out of service", all last week and remains so today. Ironically, the week changing has made the printed notice become meaningful again -- it says that they hoped to have service up by Tuesday or early Wednesday, a claim made meaningless by the latter part of last week, but which now could be said to be true again! :-) Will ------------------------------ From: BTRITICO@antares.lgc.com (Blake Tritico) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 11:32 Subject: Re: Telecom and the Blizzard of '93 I was in Austin, TX this past weekend and Liberty Bank, a local S&L, which displays Cirrus, Pulse, and Bankmate logos, was still out of service with a sign referencing the great storm as of 17:00 03/21/93. Additionally, there were several branches of Nations Bank, in Houston, TX that were down as late as Friday, the 19th. Blake Tritico Telecommunications Analyst Internet: btritico@lgc.com Voice 713-560-1225 Fax 713-560-1410 USnail: Landmark Graphics, Inc. 15150 Memorial Drive Houston, TX 77079-4304 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #200 ******************************