Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa24794; 24 Aug 93 20:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00124 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 24 Aug 1993 17:59:45 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08910 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 24 Aug 1993 17:59:00 -0500 Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 17:59:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308242259.AA08910@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #601 TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 Aug 93 17:59:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 601 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Free 'Carte France Telecom' in Germany :-) (Juergen Ziegler via Condat) Network General Founder to Head Smart Valley Regional Incentive (H. Saal) ATM Information Wanted (Voravit Euavatanakorn) Re: Questions About Regular Old 'Snail Mail' (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Questions About Regular Old 'Snail Mail' (Lars J|rgen Poulsen) Re: CWA Blasts Mass Shutdown of Operator Centers (Andrew Finkenstadt) Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem (Rajappa Iyer) Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem (Gary Breuckman) Re: New Service: The Net ADvertiser (Doug Sewell) Re: Cellular Conversation Results in Arrest (TELECOM Moderator) Re: FCC Equal Access Order (Christian Weisgerber) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cccf@email.teaser.com (Jean-Bernard Condat) Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 08:05:31 GMT Subject: Free 'Carte France Telecom' in Germany :-) In reaction of my article , Juergen Ziegler wrote me: You wont believe it, but German customers can also get a 'Carte France Telecom' from the German DBP Telekom. How comes? The DBP Telekom (formely Post) and France Telecom started a project several years ago to offer the French 'Carte Pastel' to German 'TeleKarte' customers. BTW, the German 'TeleKarte' is the counterpart to the French 'Carte Pastel'. Since I am a 'TeleKarte' customer since September last year, I immediately applied for the French 'Carte Pastel' when I heard about this project, since I live ten miles from the German-French border in Alsace. The card arrived shortly and I have used it several times to call home from Alsace. On night in January, I called around by 2:00 (early mor- ning) several relatives in the USA from an Alsacian pay phone near the border. Why? Because the rates for such calls are wonderfully low, and if you want to call for around 45 minutes, it is definitively worth it. That are the first light signs of competition. Great! I almost forget to mention, that I got the French 'Carte Pastel' at *no extre* charge!!!! The call charges appear on my German phone bill. Unfortunatley I do not know, if French customers can also get a German 'TeleKarte'. You should ask France Telecom's card operations. ------------- [JB Condat: I have ask the general direction of France Telecom in Paris and I don't receive an answer at this time. And to obtain a German 'TeleKarte' linked with my new-received 'Carte France Telecom', I receive only a name and a fax number: Herrn Granzin, DBP Telekom Nueremberg, Fax: +49 911 15239-69!] Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France, B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Private Address: P.O. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France Phone: +33 1 40101764, Fax: +33 1 47877070 InterNet: cccf@altern.com or cccf@email.teaser.com For a free subscription to _Chaos Digest_, send a message to: linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi with a mail header or first line containing the following information: X-Mn-Admin: join CHAOS_DIGEST and you will put freely on the ChaosD mailing list. Don't hesitate! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 93 16:39:29 PDT From: harrys@vegas.NGC.COM (Harry Saal) Subject: Network General Founder to Head Smart Valley Regional Incentive NETWORK GENERAL FOUNDER TO HEAD SMART VALLEY REGIONAL INITIATIVE Harry J. Saal Named President and Chief Executive Officer of Smart Valley, Inc. MENLO PARK, CALIF. August 19, 1993 - Smart Valley, Inc. announced today the appointment of Network General founder Harry J. Saal, 49, as President and Chief Executive Officer. A founder of Network General Corporation, Dr. Saal will begin his responsibilities as Chief Executive of Smart Valley, Inc. effective September 1. Smart Valley, Inc. was created as a result of the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley effort and is a broad coalition of business, government and community leaders. Dr. Saal will continue to serve as Chairman of the Network General Board of Directors. "We're working from the grass roots level to create on electronic community in the San Francisco Bay Area that will change the way we work, live and learn," said John Young, Chairman of the Smart Valley Board of Directors. "And the best way to do it is with one of America's most successful high technology entrepreneurs. Harry's experience and reputation in the data networking industry, combined with his personal involvement with community activities, is truly unique." Dr. Saal has led Network General since 1986. Over the past seven years the company has grown to $85 million in revenue with 400 employees. In 1989, the company completed a successful IPO. As the company approaches the $100 million revenue mark, Dr. Saal named a successor CEO, Les Denend, to manage Network General's next phase of growth. "I am excited about the challenge of being in 'start-up mode' again," said Dr. Saal. "This opportunity to serve our community is the perfect balance between my philanthropic involvement and industry experience. I have no doubt that we can make our region the role model for unique and effective applications of network technology. Through the cooperation and good will of diverse sectors of our community, we will revitalize and enhance our overall competitiveness, the local economy, and quality of life." "We are truly fortunate to have an experienced individual of Dr. Saal's talent to lead JVSV's Smart Valley project," said Becky Morgan, incoming President/CEO of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network. "His leadership will go far toward linking the other Joint Venture initiatives into a powerful electronic network, and will propel the region into a 'smart 21st century'." The Company Smart Valley, Inc., will facilitate the implementation of a data superhighway in conjunction with easy-to-use information services that will benefit all sectors of the community. Smart Valley, a non-profit 501(c)(6) organization, will assist technology and service providers, application developers, and end users to implement this vision. For more information call 415/473-2728 or contact Dr. Saal on the Internet at HarryS@ngc.com. [Press Contact: Robert Berger 415. 473. 2914] ------------------------------ From: voravit@nwg.nectec.or.th (Voravit Euavatanakorn) Subject: ATM Information Wanted Date: 24 Aug 1993 15:23:06 +0700 Organization: Academic and research support host at NECTEC, Bangkok, THAILAND I'm looking for a good book on ATM, SONET and related topics. Thanks in advance for any help given. Voravit Euavatanakorn voravit@nwg.nectec.or.th fax (662) 216-4875 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 93 09:43:36 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Questions About Regular Old 'Snail Mail' In TELECOM Digest V13 #595 roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org (Roy M. Silvernail) writes: > The thread about SnailMail reminds me of an incident when I still > lived in Nome, Alaska. > My girlfriend's mother sent her a note, but forgot to put the Zip code > on the envelope. After several weeks, it had not arrived. (Her mother > even called to see what the problem might be.) > Some two months after it had been mailed, the letter finally arrived. > We got quite a kick out of the envelope, which was backstamped in > Arabic. The letter had been misrouted to Saudi Arabia. It took three > World Atlases to finally locate the city that backstamped and returned > it. My tale of woe with the USPS concerns a tax payment that had to be made before January 10, 19xx (forgot the year). I live on Long Island and the bank holding my mortgage was in Rochester, NY and the taxing authority is located about 20 miles from my home. Having received my bill in late December, I promptly forwarded it to the bank via Certified Mail. In the bill's travels it went from Lon Island to Baranquila, Columbia, to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Syracuse, NY and then to Rochester. All of this was dutifully recorded on the receipt at each stop. Luckily, the bank got the bill and made the payment in time. I complained to the USPS and filled out a complaint form which promptly went into File 13, the bit bucket, circular file, etc. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, LI, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 Senior Technical Specialist: Scientific Computer Facility ------------------------------ From: lars@login.dkuug.dk (Lars J|rgen Poulsen) Subject: Re: Questions About Regular Old 'Snail Mail' Organization: DKnet Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1993 22:43:38 GMT Peter Rukavina (caprukav@atlas.cs.upei.ca) wrote: >> (3) When I send mail to a U.S. address that is incorrect ... >> [it comes back with a sticker saying] ... >> 'ADDRESS INCORRECT: Forwarding Order Expired' and then lists a >> different address below. Jonathan Haruni writes: > Well, they probably just charge people by the month for the forwarding > service. It probably is inefficient to return the mail to you with > the forward address on it, but if they just forwarded it, their mail > forwarding business would go down the tubes; people would pay for one > month and then get it for free. I find it odd that they provide you > with the address rather than just return it to you. The recipient may > have moved a second time without telling the first post office. Since I have just moved, I have this fresh in mind. In the U.S.A., there is no charge for forwarding, but (at least in Santa Barbara, CA) the forwarding order lasts only for six months. After that time, the mail gets returned but with information about the forwarding address. Thus, the postal patron gets the opportunity to tell his/her corrrespondents about the new address, but if s/he fails to do that, they will eventually be told. However, forwarding is only possible within the US. So when you move out of the country (as I did) you have to find someone within the country to forward the mail to you. On the other hand, forwarding of telephones is less straightforward. When I moved, I wanted to reserve my number (since I expect to come back in a year). This was not offered by GTE. The best they could offer was to set up a remote call forwarding line. This was prices such that it would have been cheaper to leave the line connected with an answering machine in the crawlspace. I negotiated with my employer to leave my voicemailbox active, and I then put a referral to that on my disconnect notice. (Yes, at no charge they will intercept and refer to a new number, but for love or money they will not extend that beyond 90 days.) After I moved to Europe I discovered that while they had indeed left the voicemailbox active, they had disconnected the DID number that led to it, so the only way to the voicemail was via the company switchboard operator. I was not surprised that there were never any messages on the voice mail. I am now settling in to a work-at-home routine in Copenhagen Denmark, where local calls are about five US cents per minute (no flat rate plans available), and even then, leased lines are not cost-effective unless you have over two hours of connect time per day. Even GTE looks good in comparison. Lars Poulsen CMC Network Products on temporary duty in Copenhagen Denmark ------------------------------ From: andy@vistachrome.com (Andrew Finkenstadt) Subject: Re: CWA Blasts Mass Shutdown of Operator Centers Reply-To: andy@vistachrome.com Organization: Vista-Chrome, Inc. Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 04:49:35 GMT phil@rochgte.fidonet.org (Phillip Dampier) writes: > CWA BLASTS MASS SHUTDOWN OF AT&T OPERATOR CENTERS; > PLANS GRASSROOTS PUBLIC AWARENESS AND ACTION CAMPAIGN > (Communications Workers of America) > "There is simply no justification for such devastating shutdowns and > layoffs of thousands of workers, who have dedicated their careers to > AT&T, from a business unit that made almost one billion dollars profit > last year," said CWA Vice President James Irvine, whose office serves > some 100,000 represented AT&T workers. > "At what point is enough profit enough profit? At what point do > people begin to count as much as dollar bills?" Irvine commented. Perhaps the CWA should take that issue up with the stockholders of AT&T who obviously {like} the profit that shows up as increased stock price, dividends, equity, and the like? It certainly would be a more appropriate forum than a grassroots movement amongst the american (and international) public who can be misled easily by statements taken out of context, and out of truth, too. General Electric made more PROFIT than many of the FORTUNE 1000 had in REVENUE. Does that mean that GE Lightbulbs should be free, or that GE Jet Engines should be free to help the ailing airline community, or that the GE GEnie service should be free because it's "just" a few billion dollars? > The latest wave of shutdowns would affect as many as 4,000 jobs at > locations in 26 states. Yes, it is a shame that AT&T is taking a business pose, but I think it was nice that they were going to pay a $6,000 BONUS to people who chose, along with a lucrative relocation package to move to Phoenix Arizona including housing, spousal, and other benefits. Or was that not something they should have done? > Instead of using operators for telemarketing, AT&T maintains a pool of > more than 3,000 contract telemarketers who are poorly paid and receive > no benefits, according to union officials. Another good business decision, especially appropriate for those persons who don't want to work full-time, or need benefits. My employer does this, and finds far more flexibility than hardness in scheduling, and we have just 18 people, not the hundreds of thousands AT&T does. Speaking not for my employer but just myself Andrew Finkenstadt | andy@{homes.com,vistachrome.com,genie.geis.com} Systems Analyst | Vista-Chrome, Homes & Land Publishing Corporation | 1600 Capital Circle SW, Tallahassee Florida 32310 +1 904-575-0189 | GEnie Postmaster, Unix & Internet RoundTables Sysop ------------------------------ From: Rajappa Iyer Subject: Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem Date: 23 Aug 93 15:28:28 GMT Organization: NCR Corp., Network Products - San Diego I wrote earlier: > What are the pros and cons of using the same telephone number for both > the modem and voice? I really don't want to miss calls while I am on > the modem. Would call waiting help? Any input on this will be apprec- > iated. Ok! I'm convinced that I need a separate telephone number for modem. Unfortunately, the wiring in my building is pretty screwed up and I barely managed to get my current telephone number wired in. So my next question: is it possible to use the same physical wire for two numbers and use some sort of demultiplexor in my unit? Thanks, Rajappa Iyer (iyer@npg-sd.ScrippsRanchCA.NCR.COM - on assignment at NCR) #include ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1993 16:31:12 GMT In article dave.carpentier@OLN.COM writes: > Rajappa Iyer writes: >> What are the pros and cons of using the same telephone number for both >> the modem and voice? I really don't want to miss calls while I am on >> the modem. Would call waiting help? Any input on this will be apprec- >> iated. > One solution is to get Voice-Mail and Call Forwarding. I had this > setup for a while on my modem line. Before you go online, just forward > the calls to the voice-mailbox. The problem with this setup is the > memory work involved with constantly setting/cancelling the call > forwarding. Voice-mailboxes can sometimes be setup to call you back > (at any ph#) to inform you of a message waiting ... a nice feature IMHO. > Stay away from the Call-waiting. As Pat said, it'll knock you offline. > Some Call-waiting systems can be disabled with a special code (such as > *70 ?), but this wouldn't solve your problem, as calls would again go > unanswered. A nice touch, if you purchase voicemail from your telephone company, is that they use the 'busy/no answer' forward that is set permanently on your line, so you don't have to set and reset it. They also provide a stutter dialtone when there are messages waiting, so you do not need to call in to find out whether there are any or not. They can also answer more than one call at a time. The only thing your answering machine can do better is screen calls, something I do a lot. We get SO many wrong numbers, folks selling things, etc ... you can listen to the start of the message and pick up if you want to talk. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: doug@cc.ysu.edu (Doug Sewell) Subject: Re: New Service: The Net ADvertiser Date: 23 Aug 1993 19:03:35 GMT Organization: Youngstown State University This note has been posted to at least four bit.* newsgroups (actually the message-ID was like that of amailer, so it may have been sent to the related mailing lists and/or to a mail-news gateway). Just what we need ... another Seth/Warren/etc. NetAdvertiser (netad@uds01.unix.st.it) wrote: > Are you trying to sell your car, your home, your drums, your whole > Jimi Hendrix's bootlegs collection? Are you going to rent your flat > at Aspen for the summer time? Or maybe you are looking for a car, or > for a new job, or for friends to spend all the nights watching Peter > Greenaways's movies or playing Diplomacy. Even if you are offering > jobs and managing a commercial company you can enter the world of: Doug Sewell, Tech Support, Computer Center, Youngstown State University doug@cc.ysu.edu doug@ysub.bitnet !cc.ysu.edu!doug [Moderator's Note: Well, I was really glad to help inform people about this since for all intents and purposes it will be free to most of the users, and be an excellent place for all those Seth/Warren type messages. This should prove to be a most valuable mailing list IMHO. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 93 11:16:11 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Re: Cellular Conversation Results in Arrest A contact at Motorola Cellular recently gave me the scoop on this, as it is being related at Motorola to employees. It was a Motorola EMX2500 in Charlotte run by ALLTEL Mobile that led athorities to the arrest of the two alleged murderers of James Jordan. The information was derived from the CDR (Call Detail Records) on James Jordan's phone. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1993 15:54:30 +0200 From: naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org (Christian Weisgerber) Reply-To: naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org Subject: Re: FCC Equal Access Order In <08.15.93.1@eecs.nwu.edu>, TELECOM Moderator wrote: > Here is the copy of the Equal Access Order which was promised. First > read it and make sure *you* understand it, then show it to telecom > administrators at your school if you feel they are not in compliance. Is there an English translation available? :-> Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@ruessel.sub.org [Moderator's Note: Do you mean a German translation, or are you making mock of American bureaucrats and the way they write things in the hopes no one quite understands for sure what the law is, thus making them more likely to break it? Remember, the government depends on having a steady stream of law-breakers to be puninshed. Thousands of employees in the criminal justice system here have a vested interest in making sure crime in the USA stays quite high. Every little bit of gobbledy-good regulations (on any topic) insures there will always be something for the bureaucrats to deal with. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #601 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12233; 25 Aug 93 16:38 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32393 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 25 Aug 1993 13:20:44 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00516 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 25 Aug 1993 13:19:59 -0500 Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 13:19:59 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308251819.AA00516@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #602 TELECOM Digest Wed, 25 Aug 93 13:20:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 602 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Symposium Notice - Human Factors in Telecommuncations (John Craick) CRIS (BBS Direct) (Jim Wenzel) New Sprint Product for Students (John D. Gretzinger) Caller ID vs. SMDI Data Link (Michael D. Corbett) DTMF/MF ==> EIA Decoder (Jimmy Lin) CATV Company Announces Connection to the Internet (Les Reeves) Calling Canadian 800 Numbers From the US (E. Drew Einhorn) ISDN Costs in OBT-Land (Ken Hester) Large Scale IVR Systems (Matt Holdrege) Octothorpe: Is That the Right Name? (Fred Smith) Information Needed on Watson (Otto L. Miller) The One True Dialing Plan (Bob Goudreau) Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry (David M. Perri) Last Laugh! MCI Friends: The Bobbit Family (Bert Roseberry) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Craick, John Subject: Symposium Notice - Human Factors in Telecommuncations Date: Wed, 25 Aug 93 16:59:00 EST HFT '95 15th International Symposium on Human Factors In Telecommunications Melbourne (Australia) - March 6 - 10, 1995 PRELIMINARY NOTICE This is a preliminary notice concerning the 15th International Symposium on Human Factors in Telecommunications which will be held in Melbourne, Australia, March 6 - 10th, 1995. These symposia are held every two or three years to provide a forum for human factors experts to exchange information, views and experiences in research and application of human factors principles in telecom products, equipment and services. These experts are generally employed by telecommunications administrations, manufacturers and related research or development organizations, or they may be members of the academic community. Publication of papers and posters are the basis for open discussion of human factors issues at the symposium. The symposium will be widely publicized in appropriate publications and by electronic means, but please bring it to the attention of other interested persons who may otherwise not hear about it. PARTICIPANTS Attendance is limited to a maximum of 200 people. This is the first of these symposia to be held outside North America and Europe and attendees are expected from those areas, Australasia and the Pacific rim. PAPERS Papers will be accepted for inclusion in the symposium on the basis of 300-500 word abstracts. Proceedings will be distributed before the symposium, giving participants a chance to read them in preparation for discussion. Presentation times will be kept short to enable more discussion. A formal poster session will be included in the time table, and posters will be displayed throughout the symposium. There will be no parallel sessions. Requirements for papers, including layout guidelines and submission dates will be provided later (see Timetable, below). PROGRAM TOPICS Papers are invited which address all aspects of the definition, design and evaluation of telecommunications systems, for example: Definition of new services Assessment methods and multi-disciplinary interactions necessary to new service evaluation and definition System optimization Person-machine interactions and interfaces Design of user procedures and strategies for service implementation System quality factors, e.g. transmission performance System flexibility and user programming factors Human factors in software design Methods for system optimization Optimization of user terminal design Person-machine interactions and interfaces Terminals (voice and data) Data systems maintenance Instructions Training and performance aids Methods LANGUAGE The symposium language will be English. Interpreting services will not be provided. TIMETABLE Second Preliminary Notice December, 1993 Formal Call for Papers (first and final) June, 1994 Closing Date for Abstracts September,1994 Acceptances to Authors October, 1994 Closing Date for Papers December, 1994 Distribution of Proceedings February, 1995 Symposium in Progress March, 1995 TRAVEL AND ACCOMODATION ARRANGEMENTS We are negotiating with QANTAS, the Australian national airline, to offer you the best travel deals. A range of accomodation will be available. CONTACTS IN AUSTRALIA If additional contacts in Australia could help strengthen your case to attend the symposium, we might be able to help. Please, inform us as soon as you can if you need to locate people with specific interests, institutions or companies here, and we will do our best to assist you. ELECTRONIC AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS WITH HFT'95 A local organizing committee has been established in Melbourne and welcomes communications concerning HFT'95. Postal communications should be to the address given below. HFT'95 now has an internet e-mail address and we intend later to establish an ftp facility. Subject to certain limitations, we hope to accept abstracts, final papers and conference registrations through these electronic means. For more information, please e-mail us at the internet address shown below. Electronic communication with the organizing committee is particularly encouraged. ACTIVITIES AND TOURIST INFORMATION We are planning an activities program for people who are accompanying symposium participants. The activities will be designed to highlight the internationally acclaimed natural features of Melbourne and its surrounding areas that both adults and children would enjoy. To assist us in this planning, it would be appreciated if you could contact the local HFT'95 committee with a preliminary indication of how many people you think may accompany you to Australia, should you attend. Also, please inform us if you think you would consider extending your stay in Australia, either before or after the symposium, so tourist information can be prepared. We welcome postal, fax and e-mail correspondence on these matters. CONTACTING HFT'95 Convenor of local organizing committee : Dr. Gitte Lindgaard Postal Address : IHFT, c/o Telecom Research Laboratories, 770 Blackburn Rd., Clayton, VIC 3168, AUSTRALIA Phone : + 613 253 6723 Fax : + 613 253 6352 E-mail : ihft@trl.oz.au Permanent Steering Committee John Clegg, Norman Gleiss, Michel Nael, Leon van Noorden, Charles Rubinstein,Terry Cooper, Guglio Modena ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 02:09:00 -0500 From: jim.wenzel@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (Jim Wenzel) Subject: CRIS (BBS Direct) Reply-To: jim.wenzel@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (Jim Wenzel) Organization: The GrapeVine BBS *** N. Little Rock, AR *** (501) 753-8121 Since several people emailed me for more information concerning BBS Direct (CRIS) I will post a summary of what information I have on it. CRIS is part of Sprintnet, Sprint Corporations X.25 Network. Concentric Research Corporation (CRC) is a telecommunications and computer services company that designed, developed and operates the CRIS Information and Entertainment Network. CRIS's flexible system architecture permits users access through virtually any independent network. The system supports not only today's prevalent packet switched network but also the recently introduced frame relay and ATM telecommunications technologies. CRIS also supports ISDN and other digital WAN technologies for extremely high speed delivery of data products. In keeping with the non-commercial nature of UseNet if you have any questions regarding BBS Direct please write to Simon@cris.com or call 1-800-745-CRIS and ask to speak to James Rector. I am not connected to CRIS / Sprint / or CRC in anyway and am quoting/paraphrasing from a fax I received upon my own inquiry. Other information I gleamed from a voice conversation is that UseNet mail is coming soon with independent domains (ie.. a BBS would have their own domain name) as well development is under way to provide BBS's (dos based) the ability to provide TelNet and FTP access to their users. I was told that their shoot date is the end of the year but, they hope to have it online by October. They also plan on having Chat-Based Interlink Services (allows a local BBS to connect its "chat" users to a national link-up of other systems). All in all it looks very interesting and we will probably go ahead and become a part of this network here at this BBS. The GrapeVine / Ferret Face BBS (501) 753-8121 PGP Distribution Site, UseNet, RIME, ThrobNet, MediaNet, U'niNet, ForthNet RecoveryNet, MetroLink. Putting Communications back in Telecommunication ------------------------------ From: JOHN.D.GRETZINGER@sprint.sprint.com Date: 24 Aug 93 19:18:31-0400 Subject: New Sprint Product for Students The following press release is forwarded as general information. SPRINT OFFERS COLLEGIATE FONCARD(sm) TO STUDENTS KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug. 23, 1993 -- Sprint today introduced the Collegiate FONCARD(sm), a calling card designed for college students that gives them Moonlight Madness(sm) domestic calling rates of just 9 cents per minute between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., every day of the week. For example, on a 10-minute call from Chicago to Los Angeles between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., students save 35 percent with the Moonlight Madness rate when compared with AT&T's basic calling card rate. In addition to the Moonlight Madness rate, normal phone card surcharges apply to all calls made with the Collegiate FONCARD. Students with a Collegiate FONCARD automatically earn Sprint Priority Collegiate Rewards(sm) for every $100 in long distance calls. Sprint will give students rewards, absolutely free, just for using the Collegiate FONCARD. The Collegiate FONCARD also offers Sprint Priority Party Call(sm), a conference call capability that allows college students to call two friends, in two different places, and talk to them both at once. When the Sprint Priority Party Call is made during Moonlight Madness hours, students get the 9 cents per minute rate on both calls. "This is the first time college students have been offered a special calling card that includes late night discounts to fit their lifestyle," said Dave Schmieg, president of Sprint's Consumer Services Group. "Most college students are very careful about how they spend their money, but our low Moonlight Madness rate makes balancing their budget easier. Sprint has made it convenient and affordable for students to keep in touch without breaking the bank." College students may call Sprint at 1-800-795-5971 to sign up for the Collegiate FONCARD. The first Sprint Priority Collegiate Reward is on Sprint as soon as students make the first call. New Sprint customers who sign up also receive a complimentary Sprint Priority Party Call, good for up to 10 minutes of three-way party calling. Sprint is a diversified international telecommunications company with more than $10 billion in annual revenues and the United States' only nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network. Its divisions provide global long distance voice, data and video products and services, local telephone services to nearly 6 million subscriber lines in 19 states, and cellular operations that serve 42 metropolitan markets and more than 50 rural service areas. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Pat - I know you have the Orange Cards also, but thought this was worth passing along. John D. Gretzinger | I may work for Sprint but I don't Network Engineer | speak for anyone but myself. Sprint | +1.310.797.2126 (FAX) j.gretzinger@sprint.sprint.com | +1.310.797.1187 (voice) [Moderator's Note: Yes, I still market the Orange Calling Card as an affinity service or product for readers of TELECOM Digest and the income from Orange is used to help defray production costs of this journal. But the Digest is intended as an open forum for the discussion of all telecom services and industry events; not as an electronic storefront for my services. But the competition is tough, I can tell you that. There are all sorts of products available today which were not on the market a couple years ago for telecom consumers. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 14:54:24 -0700 From: Michael D. Corbett Subject: Caller ID vs. SMDI Data Link Hello, I work for a PC based voice processing company and am responsible for integrating our systems with various PBX's. Most are some form of proprietary data packet using a RS232 link which provides (to varying degree) calling and called party id, trunk id, forward RNA, forward busy etc. The only CO based implementation (that we use or I personally know of) is called Simplified Message Desk. We deal with the (I)nterface, and in the voice processing industry anyway, it has become known as SMDI. The CO provides a Bell 202 modem (discussed previously in this Digest) to send information pertaining to a call for a port on the voice processing system. Once the integration has collected both ringing voltage from the loop start card we use, and RS232 data, the port is told to go off-hook, and what appropriate greeting to speek. It all worked great until about a week ago. :( Now for the kicker. Caller ID has just been activated in a few CO's that we have SMDI integrations installed, and it seems we now get both the SMDI packet, and a packet with the Caller ID information. It appears that the Caller ID information has been (re)formatted to be a "valid" SMDI data packet as per Belcore TR-TSY-000283 Issue 1, July 1985. Needless to say, our system has no clue what to do with the second message and I believe the first spoken greeting a caller hears is now "invalid mailbox" Cool, huh. Is this issue addressed in the Belcore spec for Caller ID? At this point I'm still collectng data, so pointers in completely irrelevant directions would probably be appreciated. :) You may e-mail me directly at the address below. Thanks in advance, Mike Corbett Internet: mcorbett@halcyon.com Applied Voice Technology Voice: 206 820 6000 x3368 P.O. Box 97025 Fax: 206 820 4040 Kirkland WA 98083 I speak only for myself, not AVT! ------------------------------ From: jlin@fang.att.com (Jimmy Lin) Subject: DTMF/MF ==> EIA Decoder Organization: AT&T Tax Systems Development, Maitland FL Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 02:54:05 GMT DTMF (Dual Tone Multiple Frequency) <==> EIA (RS232) Decoder, and MF (Multiple Frequency) ==> EIA (RS232) Decoder. If anyone on the net knows where I can find these products, please e-mail me the product name, manufactors, and their telephone number. Thank you, e-mail: jlin@fang.att.com Jimmy Lin, Database Consultant at ATT ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 19:42:56 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: CATV Company Announces Connection to the Internet Cable company plans to connect to the Internet. Continental Cablevision Inc. announces plans to provide a direct linkup to the Internet, bypassing local phone and other special hookups. {Wall Street Journal}, "Technology," 8/24/93, p. B1 ------------------------------ From: einhorn_d@apsicc.aps.edu (E. Drew Einhorn) Subject: Calling Canadian 800 Numbers From the US Date: 24 Aug 1993 17:57 MST Organization: Albuquerque Public Schools - Career Enrichment Center A long time ago I saw a number that Canadians could call and then dial out from a US phone line to access American 800 numbers. I'm looking for the same thing in reverse a long distance number I could call and then be able to dial out from a Canadian phone line to access a Canadian 800 number. I'd try to get the regular phone number but I really don't know what city or even which province they are in. Thanks, Drew [Moderator's Note: The message you saw circulating on some newsgroups gave a number used for fraudulent access into and out of the phone system of an institution in the Pacific Northwest. It was *not* intended for use as a 'method for Canadians (or people from the UK or Brazil or anywhere else for that matter) to access 800 numbers in the USA ...'. It was used that way, among other abuses made of it. It was (is) the private DISA number into a PBX system which some phreak(s) found and started circulating en-masse. The reason you cannot find such a 'number in reverse' is because you are not supposed to make such calls. 800 numbers have specific limitations placed upon who (from what geographic location) may call them. The way you find out which is which is you dial the 800 number directly from your phone. If you get connected, your call via that number is welcome. If your call is rejected by the network, then your call via 800 is not welcome, meaning the owner of the 800 number does not wish to pay for your call. If the merchant or whoever is too dumb to advertise his POTS number as part of his message, then that's his problem. If the merchant wants international 800 service, it *is* available without a lot of dialing rigamarole going through some third sucker's unprotected DISA port fraudulently. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 25 Aug 93 15:12 GMT From: CSC.PARTNERS@AppleLink.Apple.COM (CSC, CSC Partners,APD) Subject: ISDN Costs in OBT-Land In CSC.PARTNERS@applelink.apple.com (Ken Hester), I wrote about my experiences with Ohio Bell's ISDN Direct service. Many of you have requested I post the charges for OBT and AT&T. The information below is based on my bills, documentation, and phone calls to the corresponding providers. ***OHIO BELL Monthly Charges: ISDN CKT SW VOICE B CHANNEL 3.00 ISDN CKT SW DATA ON B CHANNEL 8.00 2B1Q 1 WIRE U INTERFACE 7.10 ISDN DIRECT LINE 11.75 ACCESS CHARGE PER FCC ORDER 3.50 9-1-1 SERVICE CHARGE .12 --------- TOTAL 33.47 Measured Service per call: 8AM to 9PM, Mon - Fri, Full Rate as stated below in table 9PM to 8AM, All day Sat & Sun, and Holidays, 50% discount Miles First minuteEa. add. min. 0-10 0.04 0.01 11-22 0.045 0.015 23+ 0.05 0.02 ***AT&T I am not posting AT&T voice call rates as they are the same as a non-ISDN line. Data calls on AT&T are carried by their ACCUNET service, which are distance-sensitive measured rates. They are roughly $0.25 the first minute and $0.15 each additional minute, YMMV! :-) Miles First 30 seconds Ea. add. 6 sec. 56-124 0.1465 0.0133 125-292 0.1565 0.0153 293-430 0.1660 0.0172 431-925 0.1775 0.0195 926-1910 0.1815 0.0203 I recommend that anyone needing further detail of costs contact the appropriate provider. ISDN BRI service costs vary widely among the LECs. Some LECs still target ISDN BRI for business users only and they price their service at significantly higher rates. The best deal on ISDN BRI today can be had in the State of Tennessee. Their PUC has shown remarkable wisdom in promoting the widespread use of ISDN. Ken Hester CSC Partners, A Company of Computer Sciences Corporation Internet: CSC.PARTNERS@applelink.apple.com IMHO, all opinions expressed are mine and CSC can borrow them if they ask. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 17:20:25 -0800 (PST) From: Urban Surfer Subject: Large Scale IVR Systems We are outgrowing our IVR system. We have a DECvoice cluster which does great speech synthesis, but is limited by Q-bus technology. I've heard talk about TAPI, but that sounds like it is a good ways off. I'd like to solicit information from others who run large scale IVR systems. I'm looking for systems that handle several thousands of calls per day, and can handle call supervision. The system needs to have the smarts to talk to a back-end database over a network. I know other folks are doing this kind of stuff. How do you do it? Thanks! Matt Holdrege holdrege@phs.com MH235 ------------------------------ From: Fred Smith Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 14:37:46 EDT Subject: Octothorpe: Is That the Right Name? I seem to recall that there was some discussion about a year ago about the octothorpe here on the Digest. I've gone and opened my big mouth and unless I can come up with some factual information I'm doomed to buying dinner for my uncle. Being a big trivia buff, I asked him if he knew what the '#' symbol was called other than the pound symbol. When I told him it was called an octothorpe at one time, he wasn't buying it ... even when I tried to explain that octo = 8, 8 being the number of points etc. So now he's called my bluff and wants to see some hard evidence or else it's my treat. Does anyone know where I might be able to find a blurb about this in some old manuals or something. Anything even remotely valid will get me off the hook and I'll be enjoying dinner! Thanks in advance for any information you can. Frederick W. Smith University of MD at Baltimore Manager, Communications and Networking 100 N. Greene St. Rm. 519 fsmith@comm1.ab.umd.edu Balto, MD 21201 410-706-8337 [Moderator's Note: There was a brief discussion of the octothorpe a while back here; the main discussion was about four years ago or more when a special issue of the Digest was published 'The Octothorpe Gets Its Name'. I remember that issue well, it was full of trivia comments on 'the pound sign'. I suggest you look in the Telecom Archives. You might also check the index of subjects for volumes 9-10-11. You can grep this file, find the volume and issue numbers, then pull the file of back issues in which the word 'octothorpe' appears in the title. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 93 06:28:02 EDT From: Otto L.Miller Subject: Information Needed on Watson Good day all, I have a need to contact the vendor of the Watson product line. Several years ago there was some discussion here about its capablilities. I am interested in the base product and the development environment. I want to to video switching based on DTMF input. Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance. Otto L. Miller olm@ssds.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 23:15:49 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: The One True Dialing Plan In article johnl@iecc.com writes: > calls within the area code are dialed with seven digits, whether > they're local, intra-LATA toll, or inter-LATA toll, and inter-NPA > calls are dialed 1-NXX-NXX-NXXX. As has previously been noted, this > is the One True Dialing Plan. I beg to differ. It seems to me that more places are using the *real* One True Dialing Plan (OTDP), in which all long-distance calls (intra-NPA included) are dialed with 11 digits, and only local, intra-NPA calls can use seven-digit dialing. As I recall, the Bellcore recommendations were neutral as to which of these OTDPs had to be in effect by 1995 (when the first NNX area code, 334 in Alabama, appears). However, I've heard of more areas using the latter OTDP than the former (including here in NC, where we ditched 8-digit dialing of intra-NPA LD calls two or three years ago). Its advantage is that people who've had "1 means toll" hammered into their heads over the years won't be able to get themselves into a tizzy by dialing 7D toll calls that they thought were local calls. Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA [Moderator's Note: Uh oh ... just what we need! A schism here in the Digest over The One True Dialing Plan. I shall have to censor and excomumunicate all non-believers and heretics. PAT] ------------------------------ From: perri@wpi.WPI.EDU (David M Perri) Subject: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry Date: 25 Aug 1993 17:03:41 GMT Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute Please excuse my ignorance, but I am a second year student of electrical engineering and I am having trouble deciding whether I should go into hardware or software. I have a great interest in both so I guess my deciding factor will be whichever one pays better. I dont want to make a decision based on this, but I think it will be of some importance in the final decision. Could someone please tell me what the average salaries are of hardware and software engineers in the data communications field? Please email to perri@wpi.wpi.edu Thank you in advance, Dave ------------------------------ From: Bert Roseberry Subject: Last Laugh! MCI Friends: The Bobbit Family Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 25 Aug 93 10:53:06 -0400 Organization: DECUServe Last night on the local NBC affiliate there was a commercial for the MCI "Friends and Family" program. One family featured was the "Bobbit"s of Leesburg, VA. Wasn't "John Bobbit" of Manassas, VA the man who recently had his -- ahem -- "member" cut off by his wife and later surgically reattached ? Interesting coincidence? Bert roseberry@eisner.decus.org [Moderator's Note: Well you see Bert, it all started one day when John Bobbit suggested to his wife that they change their default one-plus carrier to AT&T. Mrs. Bobbit was furious about this and told her hus- band in no uncertain terms she would teach him to f--- around with the family phone service. MCI corporate was so inspired by the loyalty shown by Mrs. Bobbit that they decided to make it a commercial on TV in the hopes other Americans would be similarly inspired into changing their carrier to MCI. Knowing the itwits roadcasting ompany as well as I do, I'm surprised they didn't make the whole thing into a 13 week series beginning with Mrs. B's first reaction to Mr. B's perverted proposition to her. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #602 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20374; 26 Aug 93 2:06 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10272 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 25 Aug 1993 22:47:51 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05487 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 25 Aug 1993 22:47:06 -0500 Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 22:47:06 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308260347.AA05487@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #603 TELECOM Digest Wed, 25 Aug 93 22:47:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 603 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (TELECOM Moderator) AT&T Announces New Internet Connectivity (Gail M. Silver) Volume Level of Tropez 900DL? (Ed J. Gurney) Help: Telephone Rates Database (Michael G. Whitlock) Pioneer Radio Listing (Barry Mishkind) Bell Canada, POTS and Modem Charges (Fred Ennis, FIDO via Dixon Kenner) Any Good COCOTs? (In Rural Areas) (Roddy Erickson) Air Amplifiers, aka Fans (was Re: Radar and Acronyms) (John Schmidt) Computer <-> Phone Interface in Germany (Michael Clark) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 22:08:04 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Maybe some readers who work for AT&T in their long distance services and their 800 number service can explain to me why Mother is taking the stance she is with reference to customers who try to get an 800 number installed on a POTS line. Most of you know by now that among other things I do, I resell 800 numbers from a couple sources. These are actual 800 numbers, not the deal MCI offers where you have to put in a PIN, etc. I resell the AT&T Software Defined Network through a major aggregator/reseller. AT&T is refusing to hook up a customer of mine. Here are the circum- stances; maybe someone can tell me what is going on: AT&T and I have a mutual customer. The customer has had for some time an 800 'Ready Line' style number from AT&T which terminates on a certain phone in his office. He is happy with the service, but decided to shop around. He came to me for advice. I was able to reserve for him and obtain a *very desirable* 800 number; it spells out the name of his business. It took me a long time to merely get the number; it was not in service but AT&T had it 'reserved' for a customer whose name they were unable or unwilling to provide. The day the sixty day hold came off the number, someone literally jumped on it and got it for me and my customer. Now *I* have the number in reserve and am holding it for my customer, who still remains with AT&T on a different 800 number. My order went in to AT&T saying to park the new 800 number on the same phone line where his other 800 number (that he gets from AT&T) is routed. He needs it this way because the phone accepting his 800 calls is itself routed into an auto-attendant and voicemail. There is no reason in the world you cannot dump as many things as you want on same POTS line. I've seen cases of three or four different 800 numbers terminating on the same POTS. There is no technical problem whatsoever. The customer does not want to have to install (or take over) a second POTS line for this. He would have simply dropped the AT&T number and taken mine instead because of the better rates I got him and the fact that the number spells out his business name ... but he was worried if I would be able to produce or not, or give good service, etc ... so I was able to convince him to try my service by keeping both numbers for awhile and phasing out his AT&T 800 number ONLY WHEN HE WAS SURE my service was good. He cannot afford to be without 800 service; I cannot expect telecom managers to just hand over stuff to me sight unseen; and since my service involves no contracts, no minimums, etc, I suggested he take it, try it for a month or two, and if he did not like my service, cancel me! *And* snatch the 'good' number and revert it to AT&T if he chose to do so. That seemed fair and he agreed to try my service, while keeping his AT&T 800 number 'just in case' I couldn't produce and to allow for a smooth transistion if/when he decided to go with me entirely. So what does AT&T say? Since this new 800 number is actually their service being resold by me, they are *refusing* to terminate it on the same POTS line. They just flatly say it is against their policy to terminate two 800 numbers on the same POTS. I asked them if they had ever heard of the term 'multi-POTS' (which is what the termination of multiple 800's on the same line is called.) Yes, they said, we heard of it but we are not gonna do it. We *will* do it provided *we* get his account on both numbers (old existing 800 and new number also). But they won't do it with their own number and someone's else's 800. I asked specifically for their tariff authority to refuse to connect the customer in the manner in which he wishes to be connected. They admitted they have no authority to refuse the connection, but still have no intention of doing it. It's not like there was anything going on at the POTS level which would mess up or misidentify the billing on calls; now-days the carrier just picks up the 800 call and outdials it to wherever. Plus, they said they would do it *if the mutual cus- tomer was totally their customer*. Now I stand to lose the largest customer who has patronized me to date because AT&T is refusing to route his new 800 (from me, which I resell from them) to the POTS of his choice. The choices at this point seem to be: I turn the customer over to AT&T and lose my commission and ongoing residuals -- which would I suspect pay my rent in full each month; The customer takes a giant leap of faith and says 'okay Townson, I am giving you authority to tell AT&T to yank *their* 800 number out concurrent with installing the new one through your service; The customer installs another POTS line and re-programs his auto- attendant and voicemail stuff to accomodate a second 800 line working on a second POTS line at considerable trouble to himself; and anyway, trouble or not, why should he have to???? I keep pursuing this on up the corporate ladder with my next stop being an appeal to the Chairman's Office to be followed if needed with a Commission complaint. Of course I have no money or resources to carry this fight on very long unless some attorney who practices communications law and knows the ins-and-outs will do it for me. Why does AT&T conduct business in this way? We know that ever since portability started in May, the company has been in a snit about all the business they are losing, despite press releases to the contrary. Are they detirmined to kill all the small telecom businesses one way or another? If anyone from AT&T can tell me what possible legitimate reasons there could be for refusing to hook a reseller's 800 number to the same POTS where Mother has one of her own 800 numbers working, I would appreciate knowing the reason. It cannot be a technical reason since AT&T will do it for as many 800 numbers as *their exclusive customer* wants. Answers please. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: gsilver@attmail.com (Gail M. Silver) Date: 25 Aug 93 13:13:26 GMT Subject: AT&T announcment Carolyn Tommie AT&T Business Communications Services 908-221-8541 (office) 201-366-0655 (home) Carolyn.Tommie@ATT.COM (Internet) Gail Silver AT&T EasyLink Services 201-331-4132 (office) 908-218-0422 (home) Gail.Silver@ATT.COM (Internet) AT&T Announces New Internet Connectivity Options BASKING RIDGE, N.J -- AT&T today announced new options that will provide a single-vendor solution for accessing both the global Internet and enhanced messaging services. These new options will be available in the first quarter of 1994 to customers of AT&T InterSpan (R) Services, AT&T EasyLink Services and the millions of people worldwide who use the Internet. There will be new connections to the Internet from AT&T InterSpan Frame Relay Services and Information Access Services. There also will be new connections from AT&T EasyLink Services to the Internet through AT&T InterSpan Services. Customers of InterSpan Services will gain a variety of convenient, cost-effective options to access the global Internet. At the same time, InterSpan customers and all global Internet users will be able to subscribe to the full range of messaging services from AT&T EasyLink Services including electronic mail, text-to-fax delivery and telex, and will be able to communicate with subscribers of non-Internet commercial network services worldwide. AT&T InterSpan Frame Relay Service customers will have access to the Internet by simply adding a single permanent virtual circuit to their existing connections. Similarly, InterSpan Information Access Service customers will be able to access the Internet at speeds ranging from 300 - 14400 bps with a nationwide toll-free, seven-digit number (950-1ATT). "Increasingly, organizations need to reach beyond their own boundaries to access the information and computing resources they need," said Jayne Fitzgerald, product line director, InterSpan Data Communications Services. "With these new options, our customers will have the opportunity to simplify their premises equipment needs and vendor interface requirements, as well as streamline their network management issues." For customers of AT&T EasyLink Services, who already have access to the global Internet, the new connections will mean improved reliability and performance for their Internet communications. "More and more people, including AT&T customers, want to have the option to communicate on the global Internet," said Sal Noto, product management vice president, AT&T EasyLink Services. "In providing that option, we're increasing the ease with which millions of people can access each other as well as the information they want and need." The new AT&T options will include a naming service based on the Domain Name System (DNS), a widely used method for naming and translating addresses on the Internet. With this service, AT&T customers will be able to register an Internet name of their choice -- one that reflects their corporate identity, for example -- and use that name for their communication on the Internet. AT&T also will offer to assist customers with selection, registration and maintenance of their names on the Internet. All of the new AT&T Internet connectivity options will support TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol), the primary method for transferring information across various networks on the Internet. Customers of the new Internet connectivity options will be able to tap into the InterNic directory and database services. Provided by AT&T since April under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation, these services make it easier for all Internet users to find available Internet resources. AT&T InterSpan Frame Relay Service and InterSpan Information Access Service are members of a comprehensive new family of high-quality, innovative data connectivity solutions designed to make it easier to link people, locations and information. The InterSpan Services facilitate faster, more efficient distributed computing for business through customized data services flexible enough to change and grow as a company evolves. AT&T EasyLink Services serves more than 160 countries and has sales and support offices in three dozen countries. AT&T EasyLink Services offers one of the broadest arrays of electronic messaging services in the market, including electronic data interchange, gateways from LAN-based e-mail systems and telex, in addition to electronic mail, enhanced fax and information services. # # # Editors' notes: The global Internet is a system of approximately 14,000 interconnected data networks, reaching more than 100 countries and serving commercial organizations, research organizations, governments and universities. By the end of 1993, more than two million computers, terminals and other devices will be accessible on the Internet. 950 access is currently available in 90% of the U.S. market. Where 950 access is not available and as back-up, an 800 number is provided. -------------- TELECOM Moderator's Note: Sprint made their announcement of a product like this recently also. Looks like things are gonna get crowded around here; more than ever before, big changes are in store for the net as we know it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: egurney@hpvclq.vcd.hp.com (Ed J. Gurney) Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 14:14:16 -0700 Subject: Volume level of Tropez 900DL? Greetings! I just picked up a Tropez 900DL (for $196 from Incredible Universe, a super-store in Wilsonville, Oregon, for everyone's information.) I'm wondering if anyone has any information on increasing the volume of the person on the other end of the call via the Tropez 900DL. I *DO* realize that there is a digital volume control on the handset [which appears to have four discrete "levels"], but all it seems to do is increase the volume of the _sidetone_. :-( Unfortunately, I don't want to hear MY voice louder! I called VTech's tech-support line and the drone told me take it back and exchange it. Since Incredible Universe is about an hour drive each way, I'd prefer to just tweek a pot in either the base or the handset to increase the volume. :-) If there is no such pot, then I'm afraid that replacing the unit with another will sound the same, and I'll have to go AGAIN to take it back for a refund! So ... I'm wondering if anyone has any information on increasing the volume. If not, should I just return the phone and look into another brand? I've heard that AT&T's new 900MHz phone is a re-packaged Tropez. Are there other digital phones (mostly for security reasons) available at the $200 price-point? Other than the volume problem, I'm impressed with the Tropez, especially the range. Plus, when I attempted to "listen" to my calls on my scanner, all I heard was what sounded like white noise. :-) [I like that aspect of preventing casual eavesdropping on my conversations.] Any information on the above, or recommendations on other 900MHz digital phones would be most appreciated. Thanks and regards! Eddy J. Gurney N8FPW Hewlett-Packard Company, Vancouver (USA!) Division egurney@vcd.hp.com #include ------------------------------ From: mgw@moscow.cc.bellcore.com (whitlock,michael g) Subject: Help: Telephone Rates Database Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 93 19:45:19 GMT I am trying to locate vendors who can provide information on telephone rates in an electronic format (i.e., a database). So far I have found only one company that maintains much of the information I need in machine readable form: Tele-Tech Services P.O. Box 757 McAfee, NJ 07428 I am looking for tariffed rates filed with the Federal Communications Commission and/or State Public Utility Commissions. These rates must be updated regularly to ensure that outdated information is not used. The rates must be available in machine readable form (magnetic tape, floppy disks, via modem, etc.). I need toll rates filed by the Interexchange Carriers (AT&T, MCI, and SPRINT, etc.) and the Local Exchange Carriers (Pacific Bell, GTE, etc.). I am also interested in rates for switched and special access (private lines, DS1, DS3, T1, etc.). If you know of other vendors who can currently supply some or all of the above data in machine readable form, please forward the names of those companies (and a way to reach them) to me. I will gladly summarize the results and share them with this group. Thanks for your help. Michael G. Whitlock Bellcore (LCC-1E130) I only speak for Tel: (201) 740-4178 290 W. Mt. Pleasant Ave. myself, NOT mgw@cc.bellcore.com Livingston, NJ 07039-0486 my employer. ------------------------------ From: barry%coyote@noao.edu Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 00:28:00 -0700 Subject: Pioneer Radio Listing Well, Version 1 of OLDRADIO is ready to be loosed on the world. This is a listing of the Pioneer stations on the air as of November 11, 1928, with their successor frequencies and calls listed, as far as known (there are still some that died in the early 30's that we don't have deletion dates for as yet). Put together with a lot of (continuing) help from readers of BROADCAST on FidoNet, this is an interesting look at some of the early owners, and tidbits we are accumulating on the stations. 1928 was chosen for the first effort because it was the date of the great FRC channel change, after the great rush to get on the air in the early 20's (some stations lasted as little as three months), and before the depression set it. Some of the information already gathered is quite interesting. Did you know one station was sold by a Republican Club in NYC to a Ku Klux Klan publication in VA? It's now a 50 kW station in DC. Another station started as a way for a bootlegger to communicate with his ships off the west coast. Still another was under a "mobile" license and operated in at least five states before "landing". Some stations moved frequency three to five times before settling down. Many stations that shared a frequency either combined, or bought someone else out and moved. Version 1 of OLDRADIO is available as shareware ... just to cover the cost of diskette and shipping and handling. Registered users will receive the next version -- as we are even now continuing to gather more information on the stations listed - as well as information on broadcast history, call letter origins, frequently asked questions and more. I'm sure we'll be adding further information, including biographies of many of the nation's most familiar stations. OLDRADIO is set up as an infobase with instant search capability. It is available for the IBM PC type machines. It may be made available for other machines if there is enough interest and time allows (!). Send $7.50 to: Barry Mishkind 2033 S. Augusta Place Tucson, AZ 85710 You may also FREQ this file on FidoNet at 1:300/11 outside of ZMH. Comments are welcome ... Barry Mishkind barry@coyote.datalog.com Tucson, Arizona ------------------------------ Subject: Bell Canada, Pots and Modem Charges From: dixon@fourfold.ocunix.on.ca (dixon kenner) Reply-To: dixon@fourfold.ocunix.on.ca (dixon kenner) Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 22:52:57 -0400 Organization: FourFold Symmetry - Nepean, Ontario, Canada A recent message implied that Bell Canada was considering requesting permission from the CRTC to charge for phone lines for modems running at higher than 4800 baud. Below is a cross post of a message that appeared in the Region 12 FidoNet sysop newsgroup on this subject. By: Fred Ennis To: all Re: CRTC and Bell I have spoken to both Bell Canada and the CRTC. The "Bell wants to force the use of data lines" post is bullshit, pure and simple. There is no such tariff filing, or any other business pending that is remotely connected with this. I would also urge anyone who sees such a post to check it out or send a message back to the author asking for more information before passing it along to a wider audience. Fidonet and the internet are famous for being able to spread false information very quickly, and I am appalled that people will do so without stopping to think. I have spoken to Bill Allen, the head of Public Information at the CRTC, and with Bell Canada's Public Affairs people. I've written about it in my newspaper column as well. The thing apparently originated with Martin Ouelette at 167/290.21. I've asked him for more info and haven't heard a thing back from him. dixon kenner, dixon@fourfold.ocunix.on.ca FourFold Symmetry, Nepean, Ontario, Canada ------------------------------ From: Roddy Erickson Subject: Any Good COCOTs? (In Rural Areas) Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 22:35:04 -0700 We've all read the ongoing COCOT horror stories, but there must be the occasional business owner who wants decent pay-phone service. (After all, the money made from a COCOT is small compared to the lost business to a store from angry customers.) Are there actually any COCOT vendors out there who offer well-programmed machines that don't rip people off? We'd like to find one for a retreat center in Southern Oregon. A year or two ago, the Digest had a single posting about one such vendor, but they turned out not to be able to handle our rural location (Alltel is local provider). Roddy Erickson erickson@well.sf.ca.us ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 11:54:47 EDT From: JOHN SCHMIDT Subject: Air Amplifiers, aka Fans (was Re: Radar and Acronyms) Some time not too long after I started working for ABC TV (my daytime, paying employer), I was looking at a blueprint for some racks of equipment in ABC's Master Control, and several one rack unit spaces were labeled "Air Amplifier". This made me rather curious. I knew of Line Amplifiers, Program Amplifiers, Mic Preamplifiers, RF Amplifiers, Distribution Amplifiers (of many flavors), etc., But what the H%$# was an AIR AMPLIFIER???? So I went and looked. It turns out they were each a one rack unit panel, kind of like a rack shelf when pushed in the rack, with six Muffin fans bolted to them! Trade Name _Air Amplifier_ !!! This appeared to be the solution when you crammed too much equipment into a rack and the forced air cooling was no longer adequate. BTW -- Hi Bryan (bdboyle) (Bryan used to work for ABC, and I never get around to replying to his e-mail :-(.. ) 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 ------------------------------ From: mdc%aisg@concert.net (Michael Clark - Gateway Conversion Technologies ) Subject: Computer <-> Phone Interface in Germany Date: 25 Aug 1993 12:00:41 GMT Organization: Gateway Conversion Tech. Reply-To: mdc@aisg.com I will be traveling to Germany (Berlin) in September. Does anyone know the connector standard and pinout for interfacing my computer to the local telco? TIA, Michael Clark Gateway Conversion Technologies Research Triangle Park, NC mdc@aisg.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #603 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20834; 26 Aug 93 2:44 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06001 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 25 Aug 1993 23:50:02 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09950 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 25 Aug 1993 23:49:16 -0500 Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 23:49:16 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308260449.AA09950@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #604 TELECOM Digest Wed, 25 Aug 93 23:49:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 604 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Email < - > Telex (B. Pevzner) Re: Email < - > Telex (David Josephson) Re: Email < - > Telex (John D. Gretzinger) Re: Cellular Phone Catches More Crooks (Arthur Rubin) Re: What is RASCOM and S.I.T.? (Chris Ambler) Re: Free French Phone Information From Publiphone (Ray Normandeau) Re: Busy Signals, Tone Plants, etc. (Terry Kennedy) Re: Psychological Effect of "Busy" Signal (H. Shrikumar) Re: GTE Adopts New Numbering Plan (Carl Moore) Re: Looking For Cordless Headset Phone (Gary Merinstein) Re: Old Panel CO9s and Their Tones (Eric N. Florack) Re: Remotely Accessible Answer Machines May Grant Too Much Access (C Jones) Re: Access to Telco White Pages (Andy Sherman) Re: AT&T Buys McCaw (Cellular One) (Erik Ramberg) Re: UUNet 900 Seems to be a Bad Idea (Bill Bogstad) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pevzner@clockwise.att.com Date: Wed, 24 Aug 93 19:16:58 EDT Subject: Telex <-> Internet Email? Reply-To: clockwise!pevzner@clockwise.att.com TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: Both MCI Mail and ATT Mail have telex gateways and > both have Internet gateways. Trouble is, you can't send from Internet > to Telex via either one: they want someone to pay, and collection is > hard to deal with on our net. You could take a couple of accounts on > one of those services, setting one account to forward incoming mail to > !telex!number and setting the other to forward mail to !internet!name. > You would write to one address from internet, the mail would forward > to telex at your expense, and the recipient would telex to the other > account and it would in turn forward to your net account. PAT] A note of caution: Everything that arrives into your ATTMAIL->Telex account (including ATTMAIl administrativia messages, etc.) will be automatically forwarded to that "Less Developed Country," and you'll be billed for that. B. Pevzner pevzner@clockwise.att.com ------------------------------ From: davidj@rahul.net (David Josephson) Subject: Re: Email < - > Telex Organization: a2i network Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 00:00:27 GMT In Paul Robinson writes: >> I'm trying to learn if anyone offers a (two-way) gateway between >> Telex and Internet Email. > The only reasonably priced service for this is MCI Mail. AT&T Mail > (Easylink) raised its rates for a telex number from an expensive $29 > per month plus usage, to a whopping $99 per month plus usage. For many years I had a hookup with Graphnet, which charged about $15 a month for 800-number access. I had to provide a teletype or emulator with autoanswer and answerback (I used a 35 ASR teletype and it never failed). I was provided a telex number which routed directly to my ten-digit number and derived its answerback physically from my machine, no store-and-forward. This was essential at the time since I was doing a lot of work in areas that had no international phone service, let alone IDDD (1984-87 China mostly). Outgoing messages were charged at the tariffed international telex rate which was 20c to $1.50 a minute. In either case you get a realtime keyboard-to-keyboard typing link for that price, and we troubleshot many strange electronic systems problems over a telex that way. The other IRCs (International Record Carriers), ITT, WU, TRT, etc. also provided dialup service. BTW, telex by definition is almost exclusively 50 baud, not 75, 110 or any other speed. But you get a little faster transmission than you would at 50 baud ASCII because the words are five bits rather than ten or eleven. Graphnet now lists an 800 number, 800-316-8839, but a fax machine answers so who knows what they are doing today. This still doesn't answer the problem of robust telex-to-Internet linkage but it would seem to me that someone could write a process that would live on an Internet-connected machine without too much trouble that would do this. David Josephson ------------------------------ From: JOHN.D.GRETZINGER@sprint.sprint.com Date: 25 Aug 93 22:16:05-0400 Subject: Re: Email <-> Telex Paul Robinson writes in part: >> I'm trying to learn if anyone offers a (two-way) gateway between >> Telex and Internet Email. > The only reasonably priced service for this is MCI Mail. AT&T Mail > (Easylink) raised its rates for a telex number from an expensive $29 > per month plus usage, to a whopping $99 per month plus usage. Sprint offers the ability to send and receive TELEX messages as a part of it's SprintMail offering. Naturally, there is a charge for this, but it is there. If a person/company needed enhanced electronic mail capabilities, this might be worth a look. Signing up for SprintMail just to be able to occasionally send/receive TELEX is probably not cost justifiable. ** Blatant Commercial Plug follows: ** You might want to talk to your local Sprint rep and see if the service can do what you need it to do at a cost that is good for you. ** End Commercial Plug ** It's obvious that SprintMail can also get to Internet, since that's what I use to get here. John D. Gretzinger Network Engineer Sprint +1.310.797.1187 J.Gretzinger@sprint.sprint.com * I don't speak for Sprint, and they don't speak for me. * ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Catches More Crooks From: a_rubin%dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) Date: 25 Aug 93 19:24:39 GMT Reply-To: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) In don@io.org (Don Cleghorn) writes: > I just heard of another instance of a cellular phone resulting in a > criminal arrest. The mother of a good friend of mine lost her purse > and cellphone when her car was broken into in front of her house. The > police asked her _not_ to cancel her cellphone service right away, and > only a few days later they found the thieves renting a place nearby, > based on their phone calls. I don't know if they just used call > records, or if they got the cellphone company to locate the device (or > at least narrw it down?), but the technique seems to work well. Did she have to pay for the calls? :-) Arthur L. Rubin: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (work) Beckman Instruments/Brea 216-5888@mcimail.com 70707.453@compuserve.com arthur@pnet01.cts.com (personal) My opinions are my own, and do not represent those of my employer. [Moderator's Note: I doubt it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler -- Fubar) Subject: Re: What is RASCOM and S.I.T.? Organization: The Phishtank Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 23:51:06 GMT itbkl@puknet.puk.ac.za (Keith Laaks) says: > Does anybody know what the abbreviations RASCOM and S.I.T. mean? I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, as acronym reuse is a plague upon humanity :-) but SIT is also known as "booo boo boop" that you hear when you reach a telco recording. They are used to identify the type of recording you've hit to the telco equipment. Brings up an anecdote (grin). I was told this by a friend who works in a CO. Seems that they had to verify a block of numbers by hand when moving them (he was vague as to why). They called one, and got "booo boo boop ... the number you have reached has been disconnected ..." and were dismayed. The SIT tones were right on, but the number showed as current and in use. A week later, they found out that the subscriber was out of town and his answering machine had that as the outgoing message. In most cases, the recording would be a bit off, tipping the telco off as to the situation, but in this case the subscriber was an audio pro and had sampled the recording into his digital answering machine. Precise tones :-) cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.4 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Free French Phone Information From Publiphone From: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) Date: 25 Aug 93 20:52:00 GMT Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) > Yes, I am also aware of Minitel, out here in Santa Maria, California, > USA. While on a Paris BBS a while back, I downloaded an IBM emuation > of Minitel, and enables you to log onto the service via your IBM. > The Minitel Emulator is very well designed and iconified. I'm > looking, right now, for a Minitel access number in France. Can you > help me out? Minitel emulators have been on USA BBS's for several years as some USA users were using it to access a service in NYC that woudl connect them to Minitel. [Moderator's Note: The Telecom Archives has several files discussing Minitel. The archives is accessible using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. When logged in, do 'cd telecom-archives'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Terry Kennedy Subject: Re: Busy Signals, Tone Plants, etc. Organization: St. Peter's College, US Date: 25 Aug 93 05:06:31 EDT In article , Jack.Winslade@axolotl. omahug.org (Jack Winslade) writes: > By far the funkiest tones from Ma Bell came from a #101 ESS (the #101 > 'steamship anchor' as a Ma Bell person called it) that we were > 'served' from at work until the mid 1980's. 201-962 was a Community Dial Office (CDO) until the late 70's or so. It had the oddest tone generators I've ever heard. Ring was a "braaap" sound which I've also heard on some 800-series PBX's. Busy was utterly different from anything before or since -- it sort of went "bneeeowwit". I really have to wonder about the equipment involved (and the people who designed it!). Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA terry@spcvxa.spc.edu +1 201 915 9381 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 93 14:43:54 -0400 From: shri@freal.cs.umass.edu Subject: Re: Psychological Effect of "Busy" Signal Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Sys & Computer Networks Bombay India In article varney@ihlpe.att.com wrote: > While it is tempting to suppose such a coupling between ringing > current and audible ring tone, one should be aware of the problems of > such arrangements. ... A second problem is that, while coupled, > the voice frequency paths need to be separated to prevent someone from > talking over an "unanswered" line during the silent intervals. Also, > all the calling parties had to be isolated from each other to prevent > an unintended "chat line" service. There is a small "blue-box" style device that I have seen back in India which works if you have a certain type of mechanical exchange serving you. Its called a "popat" or "parrot" in the local lingo. And works using a loophole like the one mentioned above. The device connects in series with your phone, and is made from a couple of diodes and caps. If any toll call arrives and you switch it on, the box behaves such that the ringing tone is cut out, as is the ring back, but yet does not allow enough loop current to let the exchange to think that the call has been answered. So the caller does not get any toll charges on his bill, tho' you could talk. Its been found already :-) shrikumar (shri@legato.cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 93 20:49:04 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: GTE Adopts New Numbering Plan I would NOT say GTE is jumping the gun in announcing dialing changes. The archive file history.of.area.splits deals with this topic, and it includes a reference to already-announced area code 334. You fail to say what will take the place of 1 + seven digits (it could be 1 + area code + seven digits or just the seven digit number) or where you are located (i.e. what areas are affected by this notice); please fill these in so I can consider updates to said archive file. ------------------------------ From: gmerin@panix.com (Gary Merinstein) Subject: Re: Looking For Cordless Headset Phone Date: 25 Aug 1993 20:56:26 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In tijc02!djm408@uunet.UU.NET (David Marks) writes: > I am looking for a cordless headset phone. I have seen plenty of > _CORDED_ headsets that cost $25-$40 as add-ons to regular phones. > Since middle of the road cordless phones run $100-$150, a cordless > phone with a cordless headset shouldn't cost much more. I have had no > luck except for one from Radio Shack. It was a cordless phone that > costs $225 and nearly $300 with the addition of a cordless headset. > This seems a bit much. It should use similar technology of a cordless > microphone and they now can be found for reasonable prices. "Hello Direct" lists a cordless headphone in their cataloge. I don't have the number, but 800-555-1212 has it. the last time I looked, the headset was selling for approximatly $300.00. gmerin@panix.com mci: 489-6979 ci$ 74035,1232 [Moderator's Note: Hello Direct's phone number is 800-HI-HELLO. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 06:50:51 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Old Panel CO9s and Their Tones Speaking of such things as busy and ring tomes from old CO's, we used to have some interesting items around here, in Rochester Tel land. Out to our northwest we used to have Ogden Telephone, which was comprised of 716-392, 716-352, and 716-594. These were all old Xbar style switches, which had the very mechanical type tones, both in ringdown, and in busy. Time was, on thee when you could tell how many extensions one had attached to the line by the 'roughness' of the ring. The ring would get more 'raspy' as the ring load on the trunk increased. Also, if you called into any of these, you'd know, since you could hear the train moving your call. As touch-tone became available, Ogden must have felt the pressure to upgrade ... one could imagine a new box, on the front end of the switch, doling out pulses to the switch, after touch-tone dialing your number. Some of the loudest clickings and busings you've ever heard on a phone line, came from that switch. Funny thing; you never heard the pulses going to the Xbar; they must have had some kind of silencer on it. But as soon as the pulses were fed, you'd hear the train moving ... and this was regardless of your being outside calling in, or inside calling out of the switch. Even after TT was up and running on those switchs, we didn't get a standard busy signal out of it for a long time ... still the older style BAW, BAW, BAW at standard cadence. Made running a BBS a real treat. When they got the new generator up and running, with the now standard two tone busy, you'd still get some realy weird results ... about half the time, you'd get a ringdown, followed by a few clicks, folowed by the busy... as if the thing was having problems trying to figure out if it wanted to route you to the busy generator or not. Once connected, though, the lines were as clean or cleaner (by actual measurements. We had a few remote broadcasts out in that service area through the dial-up network) then the ESS they shoe-horned in their a few years ago. Perhaps the old one was more forgiving of load mis-matches, I dunno. A similar situation must have been occurring in the Southern teir, and still is, by all accounts. Touch-tone is available on the old Xbar running in 716-243 and 245, which is a part of the old Iraquois phone system., but on this one, (unlike Ogden) you can hear the pulse generator working after dialing your number. Then the train moving to whatever you need ... no, make that 'to whatever it's able'. Makes dialing long distance a real thrill ... and you need to know the unique 'features' of the old bugger since just about all populated areas are LD to it; like the call to the Fire Dept, for example, was long distance for many years. (Makes one feel really safe, ya know?) As you can imagine, in both these sitautions, trying to use direct dial access to a lot of areas, particularly using an LDC you were not directly assigned to, was a real trip on both these systems ... though to their credit, the problems have been largely fixed by this writing. Rochester Tel has bought up both of these old companies. [Moderator's Note: Generally in the past when the sheriff or the rural Fire Protection District (or whatever it was called) was a toll call to many subscribers served by it, there would be a free 'Enterprise' num- ber, or in more recent years, an 800 number. The last CO in Chicago to be converted from SXS directly to ESS was 312-561; LOngbeach-1. At a time when half our city was ESS, and the rest reasonably good crossbar stuff, LOngbeach-1 sat there doing its thing. With so much ESS, we had grown accustomed to very fast, very quiet connections, but a call to someone on 312-561 would cause a loud crashing noise in your ear -- we had all but forgotten about that old equipment -- as soon as your call left the serving ESS and got to LOngbeach. The ESS which sent the call would feed pulses to the old switch. How old was that CO? So old that earlier, when everyone in town was converted to 911 service for the police from the old POLice-5-1313 number, the inside cover of the phone book announced the change in big letters and numerals, only to add in somewhat smaller print below it, 'except subscribers whose numbers begin 561 must dial 765-1313 or call the operator and tell her where help is needed.' They could not even put 911 on it! PAT] ------------------------------ From: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones) Subject: Re: Remotely Accessible Answer Machines May Grant Too Much Access Date: 25 Aug 93 09:38:05 EDT Reply-To: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones) Organization: Kendall Square Research Corp This article reminded me of a feature of my answering machine which makes it particularly easy to crack. This machine allows one to choose the three digit code which enables all of the remotely-controlled goodies. When I recently was on vacation, I was dismayed to find that the machine wouldn't respond to the code I had programmed. After thinking for a bit, I recalled we had had a power failure in the neighborhood about a week before, and I hadn't checked the access code afterward. Thinking that it was likely to have reset to something obvious, I guessed the code on my first try. I don't recall the exact state of the machine after the power came back on (e.g., whether I had to manually turn it back on), but it certainly seems plausible to me that a dedicated phandal would be able to troll the answering machines of a neighborhood after a power failure and gain unauthorized access (though I'm unfamiliar enough with the ease of cracking the access code that this could easily be uninteresting if it turns out it's simple enough to bust in without the inconvenience of waiting for a power outage). Chris Jones clj@ksr.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 93 11:06:07 EDT From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) Subject: Re: Access to Telco White Pages In article 8@eecs.nwu.edu, jog@world.std.com (James Gleick) writes: > Do local telephone companies have any obligation to provide, or sell, > access to their database of customer white-pages listings? > That is, can their competitors (or other information service > providers) demand this? In a word, no. The courts have stripped the telcos of their copyright interest is listings of names and telephone numbers, so you can publish a directory without their permission and without paying royalties. However, the lack of a copyright does not obligate them to do your work for you. Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com ------------------------------ From: esl!SMTP!erik_ramberg@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Erik Ramberg) Subject: Re: AT&T Buys McCaw (Cellular One) Date: 25 Aug 93 17:36:11 GMT Organization: ESL Inc. In article , oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov wrote: > In Article garym@alsys.com (Gary > Morris @ignite) writes: >> In bdboyle@erenj.com (Bryan D. Boyle) >> writes: >>> So, AT&T, rather than fighting, bought McCaw Communications today for >>> $12 billion. Now, this is interesting news. >> Also in the news yesterday was an interesting item about McCaw and >> PacTel getting approval to combine their cellular systems in a joint >> venture. PacTel Mobile Services will merge with the McCaw operation >> in the Bay Area, PacTel will buy McCaw's systems in the Wichita and >> Topeka, and also merge in their 34% ownership of a Dallas cellular >> system. > I know this gets confusing, but Cellular One and PacTel Cellular ARE > the same carrier. PacTel Cellular simply sells Cellular One services > where Cellular One is a joint operation of McCaw and Pacific Telesis. > The other carrier in the SF Bay area is GTE MobilNet. Since GTE and > Pac$Bell both operate as LECs in parts of the Bay area, I'm not too > sure who is A and who is B, but GTE was there first. As I understand it PacTel was sued several years back because they were local wireline providers who owned approximatly 42% of the stock in the local non-wireline cellular provider. The judgment was that they had to reduce their holdings to zero by a certain future time (which ends about now), but I think a side deal was made so that their holding really just shifted to some other service area where they do not provide wireline service. Incidently, about 8% percent is owned by a single investor who paid some hundred or so thousands of dollars in the late eighties lottery, let the money sit for a couple of years, and recently has refused many hundreds of millions of dollars for his interest as he waits for a LARGER offer. This is an outrageous return on an investment in which one sat on the wayside. Oh well, I had to say that. > Now, is everyone confused? I am. Me too. Erik Nothing that I say can be construed as the opinion of my employer. ------------------------------ From: bogstad@blaze.cs.jhu.edu (Bill Bogstad) Subject: Re: UUNet 900 Seems to be a Bad Idea Organization: The Johns Hopkins University CS Department Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 17:35:53 GMT In article , wrote: > A 900 call is credit. If you are afraid of credit cards, copy the > number down and melt the card. You can then use the credit without the > card. ... Why single out 900 numbers? Just about any phone all you make that isn't made from a payphone using coins is "credit" in some form. As for melting his card, this won't stop someone from possibly obtaining his number through some other means and illegally making use of his credit line. It's a little harder to do that with the credit extended by "The Phone Company". If you avoid calling cards, about all they can do is to tap into your line to make their calls. > Callbacks are also problematic and the point of 900 numbers is to > avoid having registrations. Exactly. The whole idea is that some other large organization ("The Phone Company") manages your billing, deals with the credit risk, etc. Sounds wonderful for an entrepreneur who wants to set themselves up in the information business. Unfortunately, this potentially wonderful billing service (1-900) has received a very bad reputation as a result of the actions and business of its most well known clients. It's a shame that services like UUNet's anonymous sources archives which can really use this kind of billing may not be able to do so because of the restrictions that result from this bad reputation. Bill Bogstad bogstad@cs.jhu.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #604 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa22246; 26 Aug 93 4:49 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30409 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 26 Aug 1993 01:32:51 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32355 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 26 Aug 1993 01:32:03 -0500 Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 01:32:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308260632.AA32355@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #605 TELECOM Digest Thu, 26 Aug 93 01:32:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 605 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Ethan Miller) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Carl Moore) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (John Macdonald) Re: What's With 201-299? (Terry Kennedy) Re: What's With 201-299? (Jack Winslade) Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem (Gary Breuckman) Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem (Russell Sharpe) Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem (John Gilbert) Re: AT&T Truvoice Demo (Al Varney) Re: TrueVoice (tm) - The True Story (Al Varney) Hong Kong Charges For Fax Lines (Wm Randolph Franklin) What to do With the Archives (TELECOM Moderator) Administrivia: Many Messages Lost in Accident (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: elm@cs.berkeley.edu (ethan miller) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Date: 25 Aug 93 12:53:02 Reply-To: elm@cs.berkeley.edu In article goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) writes: > I beg to differ. It seems to me that more places are using the > *real* One True Dialing Plan (OTDP), in which all long-distance > calls (intra-NPA included) are dialed with 11 digits, and only > local, intra-NPA calls can use seven-digit dialing. This works fine, as long as all calls are either "local" or "non-local." In the SF Bay Area, all phone numbers are either non-local, or in one of three approximately concentric zones (1, 2, and 3). Calls to Zones 1 and 2 are free for unlimited service subscribers, and cost $.04/first + $.01/min for measured service subscribers. Calls to Zone 3 (the farthest away) cost $.10/first + $.04/min for *everyone*. Measured service customers get a $3/month credit towards local calls. Since Pac Bell considers Zone 3 calls local, they can be covered by this credit. Unlimited subscribers, however, *always* pay for them separately. Are calls to Zone 3 really local if unlimited service subscribers must pay for them? Would they require eleven digits or seven under the above dialing suggestion? ethan miller--cs grad student elm@cs.berkeley.edu #include ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 93 17:37:23 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan The history.of.area.splits file also has notes on dialing instructions in areas which have had to program for N0X/N1X prefixes. Now it is starting to get similar information for areas which have not needed N0X/N1X prefixes, but which need to change to accommodate the NNX area codes. For direct-dial long distance in your own area code, I am seeing 7D in use or coming into use in California and in the north- eastern United States. Elsewhere, I am seeing 1 + NPA + 7D instead. (I don't know about Illinois, and if 1 + 7D is still in use, the area has not made the necessary changes yet.) ------------------------------ From: jmm@Elegant.COM (John Macdonald) Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 19:33:03 -0400 Organization: Elegant Communications Inc. Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan In article TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: Uh oh ... just what we need! A schism here in the > Digest over The One True Dialing Plan. I shall have to censor and > excomumunicate all non-believers and heretics. PAT] Yes, but which OTDP group is the heretics and which is the non- believers? :-) John Macdonald jmm@Elegant.COM [Virtual Moderator's Note: Well it depends on who you ask, of course. Are you asking me? Poet Edwin Markham once addressed the topic of heretics and rebels with this little verse: "They drew a circle which shut me out / A heretic, rebel, a thing to flout / But Love and I had the wit to win / We drew a circle which took them in." You meditate on that for a few minutes as we go on to the next item in the telecom mailbox today. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Terry Kennedy Subject: Re: What's With 201-299? Organization: St. Peter's College, US Date: 26 Aug 93 00:59:56 EDT In article , dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > Why do intra-LATA calls from 201-299 still show up as OUT-OF-AREA ? > Does anybody out there know why this switch (serving Boonton and > surrounding parts of Morris County) is still not participating in this > service? If this is the switch I'm thinking of, it's a crossbar switch without stored program control. That _would_ explain it. Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA terry@spcvxa.spc.edu +1 201 915 9381 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 93 09:25:22 CST From: Jack.Winslade@axolotl.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Re: What's With 201-299? Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@axolotl.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha In a message dated 23-AUG-93, Dave Levenson writes: > Why do intra-LATA calls from 201-299 still show up as OUT-OF-AREA ? > Does anybody out there know why this switch (serving Boonton and > Surrounding parts of Morris County) is still not participating in this > service? It's probably something like we have here in Omaha. Every office in the area except one, the Manawa office serving the south end of Council Bluffs, is SS7 connected. The remaining office is supposedly an older DMS-10 which is connected to the other offices by analog MF trunks. Manawa was the last remaining SxS office in the area and was cut to the DMS in 1985 if I am correct. The SxS was one of the few 'directorized' offices and was touch-tone equipped. (For those who care, it had one of the 'fog horn' tone generators for ring and busy, but normal dial tone. I assume it had a funky dial tone as well before the conversion was made.) Since it's a smaller office and a fairly recent conversion, they don't want to convert it again until there's a major need to do so. CLID will have to wait, I guess. We get OUT OF AREA on the CLID boxes from 712-366 until this is upgraded. Note that the Omaha LATA as well as the metro Omaha dialing area crosses state lines as well as area code boundaries. 7 digit dialing is seamless in the areas whose toll-free areas include portions of the other state. As has been mentioned many times before, there is one physical office in downtown Omaha that has one NNX in Iowa (AC 712) with the others in Nebraska (AC 402). Good day. JSW DRBBS (1:285/666.0) ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem Organization: organized?? me? Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 04:12:32 GMT In article Rajappa Iyer writes: > I wrote earlier: >> What are the pros and cons of using the same telephone number for both >> the modem and voice? I really don't want to miss calls while I am on >> the modem. Would call waiting help? Any input on this will be apprec- >> iated. > Ok! I'm convinced that I need a separate telephone number for modem. > Unfortunately, the wiring in my building is pretty screwed up and I > barely managed to get my current telephone number wired in. So my next > question: is it possible to use the same physical wire for two numbers > and use some sort of demultiplexor in my unit? Telcos with a shortage of 'real' pairs use something called 'subscriber carrier' which piggybacks a second line on a copper pair. They use rackmount equipment in the office, and a stand-alone unit at your location that separates the two lines. The 'virtual' line often suffers from problems, including low battery voltage and bandwidth problems for modems. I don't recommend this, and most places don't offer it, especially for a copper shortage problem that's YOUR problem. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (russell sharpe) Subject: Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem Date: 25 Aug 1993 04:50:30 GMT Organization: Wellington City Council, Public Access Reply-To: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz > Rajappa Iyer writes: > What are the pros and cons of using the same telephone number for both > the modem and voice? I really don't want to miss calls while I am on > the modem. Would call waiting help? Any input on this will be apprec- > iated. We have a facility in New Zealand called 1 + 1 (one voice + one voice). It is usually used when Telecom has run out of cable pairs. Basically it consists of a physical POTS line with a high pass filter (>10kHz) and a carrier, a POTS line modulated up 10kHz. Two pieces of equipment, effectively CODECS (Coder/Decoder), are needed, one at the switch site, and one at the customers premises. Up to 9600 can be reliably run over the physical, but quality reduces on the carrier, the higher the speed, but speech is still very intelligible (sounds a little like low 'white noise'). For obvious reasons data over the carrier is not very reliable. Russell Sharpe: email: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Voice: +64 4 5637779 snailmail: 171 Holborn Drive Stokes Valley 6008 New Zealand ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Aug 93 10:39:02 EDT From: news@pts.mot.com From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem? Organization: Motorola Inc, LMPS Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 14:38:57 GMT I forward my voice line to my cellular phone during data calls. This way I don't miss any calls and don't have the added expense of the second telephone line. I would have the cellular portable even if wasn't using it as a second line at home. [Moderator's Note: True, but would you have the additional air time charges incurred when it gets calls forwarded to it? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 00:16:28 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: AT&T Truvoice Demo Organization: AT&T In article rudholm@aimla.com (Mark Rudholm) writes: > deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) writes: >> In article rudholm@aimla.com (Mark >> Rudholm) writes: >>> But wait a second, isn't demonstrating Truvoice over an ostensibly >>> non-truvoice line (they haven't installed it yet) like demonstrating >>> HDTV via a regular NTSC broadcast? >> No. There is no such thing as a "TrueVoice line" or a "Non-TrueVoice >> line". The enhancement is applied to the voice signal in the network. >> This enhanced signal then propagates to the listener, wherever he or >> she may be, whatever types of trunks or lines the signal is carried >> over. > As I've already explained to another AT&T employee in e-mail, I know. > My point was really that this demo is evidence that the signal > processing can be done at an endpoint of a call and doesn't neccess- > arily have to be done anywhere in between. I was also making a joke. Actually, the processing has to be done BEFORE the endpoint, assuming an analog POTS line is involved. It is true that (in concept) it could be done anywhere in the digital path of the call. But there are a lot more end-user digital encoders than there are long-distance circuits. From a system cost perspective, it makes more sense to apply this enhancement in the long-distance network. (Historically, these kinds of enhancements have always been first introduced into the long-distance network.) >>> Makes you wonder if anyone in marketing anywhere understands simple >>> logic. OK. I'm not in marketing -- tell me a better way to advertise the capability. Wait till deployment and then suggest calling through other IXCs and AT&T on alternate calls? I don't think so ... > My backround is EE, so I think I have some understanding of real-time > signal processing. By the way, I read the patent and wasn't > impressed. I think at best it is a gimmick and at worst could lessen > intelligibilty. It may be reason enough for me to switch my lines to > another carrier. If there was some big public outcry about the > quality of voices over long distance telephone, I missed it. So do you insist your cassette drives not have Dolby(tm) noise reduction, or any of those funny "bias" metal tape capabilities? Did you object to FM stations putting out "stereo", and reducing the dynamic range and SNR of mono FM? You don't listen to radio/TV that "enhances" or boosts their broadcast sound signal? No bass/ treble adjustments (or graphic "equalizer") on you radios? Do you travel to Europe to enjoy the slightly better quality of A-law vs. mu-law encoding? {Note: Every one of the above "improvements" in sound quality had those that objected that it ruined (or ruins) sound. Want to go back to TUBE amplifiers because the sound is "warmer" than those solid- state ones produce?} > ... If you make it sound like a local, static-free call, I'm happy. > I really don't need my carriers second-guessing how I want things to > sound. And, since the Bellcore (and old Bell System) rules specifically mandate that "long-distance" calls not sound like a local line-to-line call (using Via Net Loss rules), it sounds to me like you are actually ASKING AT&T to apply TrueVoice to your calls -- it's major intent is to make long-distance calls sound AS GOOD AS LOCAL calls, by compensating for the mandated locally-applied loss. > If you really want to improve the sound of calls, why not send out > envelope-compatible condenser microphones to all AT&T Long Distance > customers who are still using old, packed carbon granule microphones. > Now _that_ would be a big improvement and I don't think anybody would > argue. Shareholders, perhaps? In fact, replacing the Fisher-Price(tm) cheap telephones and crummy inside wiring would probably yield (on average) a more substantial improvement. But AT&T doesn't own the telephones or the wiring anymore -- so we're just doing what we can to improve telephony. Just give it a try this fall. I'm told that in testing, eight out of ten believe TrueVoice(tm) sounds better. I hope you're one of them. But that's your decision. > Mark D. Rudholm Philips Media Electronic Publishing Now, can I complain about the electronic publishing business, and its impact on REAL fonts and typesetting? I didn't see anyone complaining about the typography in real books, but then out comes all this stuff with Postscript and copy-cat fonts and people thinking they can set type at 300 DPI. I really don't need publishers second- guessing the fonts and media I want, and pushing those new-fangled CD-ROM, etc. It doesn't have the beauty of real METAL type, ya' know. Besides, the quality of the writing itself is just made worse when people can just type stuff in on the fly and edit it with some spell-check thingy and then the next thing you know it shows up on people's screens without an editor or typesetter to put some artistic effort into the word spacing and page breaks and widow lines. And you think changing the sound of a telephone call, typically a fleeting, temporary thing, is so bad. Publishing is much more permanent Shouldn't it be the constant in our changing world??? Somewhat in jest ... Al Varney ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 00:46:43 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: TrueVoice (tm) - The True Story Organization: AT&T In article hhallika@tuba.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > In article dcg5662@hertz.njit.edu (Dave > Grabowski) writes: >> Patent Number: EP-48953-A2 [US-5195132-A] >> "... as a result of the aforementioned signals attenuation that is >> introduced by a telephone station set, the quality of the voice signals >> that the station transmits will be greatly diminished and, therefore, >> will not represent the speaker's true voice signals." >> ^^^^^^^^^^ Cute, eh? > So, it appears they are using equalization to fix the > shortcomings in the telephone instrument. Perhaps we should fix the > instrument? I wonder why RS-470 suggests attenaution of signals below > 300 Hz. I believe the reason has more to do with wanting a cut-off above the 180 Hz (60 cycle * 3) harmonic -- 300 Hz should give reasonable protection for this, but going much lower let more through. > I also think they are interested in gettint 60 Hz and 120 Hz as far > down as possible to minimize crosstalk from power lines. ... Yup. [deleted FDM rationale.] > Now that we've gone to PCM TDM multiplexing, there appears to be > limited need for low frequency attenuation. There is still the need > to get rid of power line hum, but with well balanced lines, that > should be minimized. .... So, it appears to me, the way to > get "truer" voice would be to remove any high pass filters on CO line > cards, or at least lower the corner frequency. One does have to worry about distortion on phones that are expecting less than 300 Hz is never sent to the speaker. And the minor expense of changing out the CO line cards. Wonder what the PUCs would think is a fair rate increase to cover that cost? > If indeed the telephone instruments are doing a fair amount of > filtering, we could just get flatter response phones. I'd rather fix > a response problem where it exists instead of trying to compensate > somewhere else ... Harold, I AGREE 100%. We could make the typical call today sound better if we redesigned the instruments, the encoding/companding rules (A-law/mu-law) and didn't worry about those few remaining analog trunks. Heck, CCITT even has it all laid out, in the specs for 7KHz audio. That's right -- you can get 7KHz audio over (effectively) a 64Kbps channel. So no need to redesign anything. Just force everyone to buy a new telephone and update every end office line card or A/D trunk unit. Of course, CCITT says the line should be a DSL (ISDN line), so we speed up ISDN deployment somewhat. And it even interworks with the old mu-law system, if you use SS7 signaling. But just in the interim, could we use TrueVoice(tm) to give a small improvement while we wait for suppliers to catch up with the heavy demand for 7KHz ISDN telephones?? (ANSI T1 has a little work to do with some unresolved North American standards issues, as well.) Al Varney - just MY opinion ------------------------------ From: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (Wm Randolph Franklin) Subject: Hong Kong Charges For Fax Lines Date: 26 Aug 1993 05:47:27 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY In article on Sun, 22 Aug 1993 22:27:42 GMT, CXEO writes: > I've seen rumors cropping up on local BBSs here in Montreal, > Canada that Bell Canada is planning to pass legislation (of some sort) > requiring that any computer for fax users transmitting data at rates > faster than 4800bps lease "data"-grade lines instead of using normal > voice-quality lines. Hong Kong has apparently charged extra for phone lines used by fax machines for some time. These are completely normal phone lines. It was in the HK paper two weeks ago because some regulatory agency finally told the phone company to stop it. The argument was that since the phone company wasn't providing any extra service, then they shouldn't get any extra money. Novel concept. Wish it would catch on over here. Wm. Randolph Franklin, wrf@ecse.rpi.edu, (518) 276-6077; Fax: -6261 ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180 USA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 00:40:36 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: What to do With the Archives A couple weeks ago, I put out a note asking for user's opinions on the best way to make the Archives available to the growing number of users who do not have Internet ftp/gopher/etc type services available to them. There were numerous replies -- far too many to use here -- but the suggestions came in basically three flavors: I had suggested a collection of diskettes. Because doing 'du' on the archives results in a total of about sixty megs at present, and this grows all the time, I suggested about a set of about sixty diskettes. Many of you pointed out that 33.5 inch diskettes hold more than a meg, and that if much of the data was compressed, we could probably do it in 30 disks. Even so, that makes for an expensive product for many folks. If only reproduction costs and postage were involved, it still might be a couple dollars per disk. The suggestion of CD Rom came up in a few notes. Obviously the whole thing could go on a single CD Rom with much less effort and expense. If the CD Rom sold for $20-30, it would still be less expensive and less cumbersome that a whole bunch of diskettes. This is true, but how many of our readers have CD Rom attachments to their computers? I know I don't, as one example. So while diskettes would be more expensive and more cumbersome, at least we can be pretty assured that everyone has a disk drive on their computer, and would have no problem in inserting a diskette and reading its contents. Several readers in fact wrote to say they would not be able to use CD Roms ... :( for lack of equipment. So, who do I please on this? A third option I brought up was to run a BBS-style machine. I have an old machine here with a hundred meg hard drive on it. The archives could be loaded on there with new issues arriving all the time using my UUCP site 'telecom.chi.il.us', and people could call in to that taking what they wanted from time to time and leaving the rest. A Procom-style BBS would sit there and dispense files to callers including each current issue of the Digest as it was published. This machine would be simply a mirror of what is at lcs.mit.edu, but with dialup as the way to get in, and operating on MS-DOS instead of Unix. My *sole* problem with this -- the only thing that is keeping me from implementing it and announcing it is not knowing for sure where things are going where my telephone lines are concerned. Yes, I am still having 'that same problem'; Illinois Bell does not like deadbeats, and they tend to cut me off now and then until I run down to the central cashier with a fistful of one, five and ten dollar bills received in that day's mail. I do not want to commit to the net to run this mirror of the archives until I am reasonably certain the phones (and thus retrieval of stuff from the archives) are not in jeopardy every two or three weeks. If I do get it up and running, it might be possible to share the space with other small archives of interest if those Moderators wanted to do so. It seems to me this would be the ideal solution; make the archives available on dialup and let people help themselves. Why not have a dialup at MIT, I hear some of you say ... well there is of course; there are the terminal servers for the University on dialup lines and anyone can call in *who has a user account on any of the machines at MIT, or Boston University or other places in town they allow anonymous telnet to via the dialups. I have asked if a single phone line could be terminated directly on lcs.mit.edu with a *very limited, restricted shell* responding to callers on that line. It would dump them in the archives, give them five minutes or so before timing out, allow them to get files, and that's it. "No way, not possible, end of subject, period" was the answer I got the last time I asked about this. They do not like 'rsh' (restricted shells) at lcs.mit.edu. They feel they are too full of holes and bugs of all sort which would allow callers to run rampant, su to root and do all kinds of mischief. Friends of the Digest would probably arrange to put the modem there and pay the phone bill, but MIT says no. Nor do they wish the terminal servers busy all the time with non- MIT people calling from all over to use a buggy rsh to 'loot the archives'. So what is the solution? Probably someday I will put a mirror up over here in my little offioce when I am pretty sure IBT won't yank it down a few days later based on my 'willingness but inability' to pay the bill as quickly as they like. Until then, any improvement in archives accessibility is probably on hold. I do not have the time to work on creating diskettes for people until things improve just a little more financially, and as for CD Roms, I'm ambivilent; still thinking about it. I guess more and more people are getting those things for their systems. Thanks to everyone who wrote me to share their thoughts on the status of the Archives and plans for improvement. I am now working on the summer edition of the 'Archives Help File', including a full index of files available, etc. Maybe a special issue this weekend will come out to you with it. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 00:44:28 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Many Messages Lost in Accident I am sorry to report about a hundred messages in the queue for processing over the past two days got deleted by accident Wednesday night. What you got Wednesday overnight/Thursday morning is what was left. If you sent me a message anytime Tuesday or Wednesday and it has not appeared as of this issue, and your autoreply was dated earlier than 8/26 12:05 AM then it is lost due to the accidental deletion. If it was a reply, bear in mind we have probably seen enough on the topic anyway. If you feel it was important, or it was a new article for publication, please send it again with my apologies for the inconven- ience. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #605 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa28965; 26 Aug 93 14:48 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26568 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 26 Aug 1993 11:36:59 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13024 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 26 Aug 1993 11:36:12 -0500 Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 11:36:12 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308261636.AA13024@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #606 TELECOM Digest Thu, 26 Aug 93 11:36:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 606 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Newton Bug: Calling in/to/From Canada (Monty Solomon) OSS Vendor Data Needed (Fast Response) (Robert Rosenberg) Operator From Atlanta (was Re: Interesting 800 Number) (Joe George) Telecom Tariffs - Fast Answer Please (Peter Tkansson) Connect Credit Card Reader to IBM PC (Johnson C. Lee) Modem Transmission Over One Way Radio (Alfredo Cotroneo) Re: Orange Card Woes (Paul Robinson) Re: Octothorpe: Is That the Right Name? (Michael D. Sullivan) TruVoice? Nah ... (Eric N. Florack) Re: Volume Level of Tropez 900DL? (Dean McDermott) Re: Wait! Let me Get a Pen! (Joe George) Anybody Know of Connecticut Citizen? (Tom Olin) Re: International Date Line Change (Liron Lightwood) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 08:33:28 EDT From: Monty Solomon Subject: Newton Bug: Calling in/to/From Canada Organization: Bell Northern Research, Ottawa Looks like Apple screwed up a bit on internationalization (at least as far as the Frozen North is concerned). I've reported these to Apple but thought others might be interested. 1) Preferences bug: Canadians do not usually write dates as MM/DD/YY - most do it British style (DD/MM/YY). 2) Phone number bug: Newton is smart enough, based on your area code, to dial <1 + areacode + number> if you're calling long distance, or just if you're calling locally. This works OK in the US (I configured my Newton to pretend I was in Minneapolis and pretended to call Washington), but not in Canada (set up myself in Ottawa and pretended to call Winnipeg). Transborder dialing is also screwed up -- Canada is part of the North American numbering plan, therefore one should not have to dial <011 + 1 + area code + number> to dial here from the US. Kevin Chapman BNR Ottawa ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 09:16:26 EDT From: Robert Rosenberg Subject: OSS Vendor Data Needed (Fast Response) I'm doing some research on the convergence of telco and cable TV operations, so I'm looking for any data that would describe the OSS (operations support systems) being developed by any of the companies noted below. A product name and a few paragraphs that describe any operations, administration maintenance, or provisioning systems provided by these vendors to either telcos or cable TV operators would be ideal. And though customer billing is not strictly an OAM&P function, I'd be interested in an overview of billing products as well. EDS (especially EDS PCC) Microsoft KPMG Peat Marwick Arthur Anderson Nolan Norton Ernst & Young NEC Fujitsu Cable Data Motorola Erickson Cincinnati Bell Info Systems Much thanks, Robert Rosenberg Insight Research Corporation bob@insight-corp.com ------------------------------ From: jgeorge@whiffer.mese.com Subject: Operator From Atlanta (was Re: Interesting 800 Number Response) Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 02:39:52 EST Organization: The Waffle Whiffer, Atlanta, GA In comp.dcom.telecom, Rhorer@medics.jsc.nasa.gov writes: >> [Moderator's Note: They all used that nice lady from down in Atlanta >> for many years. Maybe some still do. PAT] > I thought they used some sort of covox technology to "clone" that nice > lady's voice so that she would sound forever young :-) Seriously, > though, don't they do that? A Southern Bell(e) employee? I thought she was from somewhere in the midwest ... Anybody know who she is? Joe George (jgeorge@whiffer.mese.com,emory!indigo!whiffer!jgeorge) Actually, I _do_ speak for The Waffle Whiffer [Moderator's Note: She is/was not an employee of telco. She is/was a resident in the area who did the work on a contract basis. PAT] ------------------------------ From: peter@mail.swip.net (Peter Tkansson) Subject: Telecom Tariffs - Fast Answer Please Organization: VolvoData Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1993 15:23:15 GMT Dear netters, You saved me before; I hope you can do it again. I need a price idea of a proposed connection between the Los Angeles area and Greensboro in North Carolina. I can use voice line in the range of 2400-19.200 baud (I guess that Netblazers or similiar can be used on voice lines?) What is the cost per minute for this distance? And is it feasable as regards to error rate line stability etc? My second alternative is X.25 from some provider. Living outside the area (sweden) i have no easy way of finding either provider or what tariff they use. Information in this area is welcome. If i have missed a third, please let me know. Reply by mail (peter@volvo.se) if possible. Thanks in advance, Peter Hkanson VolvoData Dep 2230 phone +46 31 66 74 27 "Speaking for myself 'cause noone else does'" ------------------------------ From: jclee@us.oracle.com (Johnson C. Lee) Subject: Connect Credit Card Reader to IBM PC Organization: Oracle Corporation Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 06:00:58 GMT Hi, Does anybody know if it is possible to connect a credit card reader to an IBM PC? Is there any application programming interface for it? It is very important to my current project and I will appreciate any info. Please send response to: jclee@us.oracle.com I will post a summary of the response. Thank you very much, Johnson Lee Oracle Corporation ------------------------------ From: A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it (Alfredo Cotroneo) Subject: Modem Ttransmissions Over One Way Radio Date: 26 Aug 1993 03:31:47 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway I am going to experiment with TX only data transmissions using standard modems (e.g. ZyXel/USR Robotics) over a one way radio link. I just wonder if that would be possible at all with which parameter(s) setting since there will be no modem on the other side of the line to *negotiate* the protocol with. Very basically imagine a system where a broadcast station would transmitt data for short periods of the day using e.g. V22bis or higher speed over the air, and from the other side there would be radio receivers connected to your PC modems which would decode the data. Would that be technically and cheaply possible at all, on both RX and TX side? The advantage would obviously be that no special equipment is required at least at the receiver's end. Any comment gladly appreciated, before I start my own experiments (g). If there is interest I will summarize. Please e-mail directly since I do not receive all feeds over this group. Thanks. Alfredo E. Cotroneo, Bull HN Italia, I-20010 Pregnana MI, Italy work: A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it personal: 100020.1013@compuserve.com phone: +39-2-6779 8314 / 8427 fax: +39-2-6779 8289 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 02:04:14 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Orange Card Woes From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA David Ash , writes: > In article dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave > Rand) writes: >> Calls to Canada are "not supported", according to the (very >> hard to reach) customer service people. This is not true. >> Calls to Canada are supported, at slightly less than double >> the AT&T daytime calling card rate. There is no indication >> that the call made is not at the $0.25 rate of the Orange Card >> calls to US destinations. > I would like to point out that this is not completely > accurate. I have placed Orange calls to Canada and they have > been billed at four quite different rates: > 1. free of charge Well, you can't get a lower rate than that, can you? :) > 2. at the U.S. domestic rate of 25c per minute. > 3. at about 53c per minute. > 4. at about 62c per minute. > All these calls were from the SF Bay Area to southern Ontario, so > it is a mystery what actually determines the rate. I don't think > even 62c is anywhere near double the AT&T rate for calls to Canada, > though. Picking out a number at random from a list of calls made, from Washington, DC to 519-351 was 54c for the first minute, 53c each additional minute for calls placed during daylight hours, according to the 00 operator for AT&T. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: avogadro@well.sf.ca.us (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Octothorpe: Is That the Right Name? Date: 26 Aug 93 05:03:04 GMT Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA In Fred Smith writes: > I seem to recall that there was some discussion about a year ago about > the octothorpe here on the Digest. I've gone and opened my big mouth > and unless I can come up with some factual information I'm doomed to > buying dinner for my uncle. Being a big trivia buff, I asked him if > he knew what the '#' symbol was called other than the pound symbol. > When I told him it was called an octothorpe at one time, he wasn't > buying it ... even when I tried to explain that octo = 8, 8 being the > number of points etc. So now he's called my bluff and wants to see > some hard evidence or else it's my treat. > Does anyone know where I might be able to find a blurb about this in > some old manuals or something. Anything even remotely valid will get > me off the hook and I'll be enjoying dinner! Two suggestions: Look up old issues of the Bell System Technical Journal for articles on DTMF (Touch Tone) dialing and Princess (R) phones, in the early '60s; and look up copies of "Distance Dialing Notes" or its successor, "Notes on the Network", from Bell Labs, from the '60s, '70s, or early '80s. Michael D. Sullivan <74160.1134@compuserve.com> ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 06:58:16 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: TruVoice? Nah ... > My backround is EE, so I think I have some understanding of real-time > signal processing. By the way, I read the patent and wasn't > impressed. I think at best it is a gimmick and at worst could lessen > intelligibilty. It may be reason enough for me to switch my lines to > another carrier. If there was some big public outcry about the > quality of voices over long distance telephone, I missed it. So do you insist your cassette drives not have Dolby(tm) noise reduction, or any of those funny "bias" metal tape capabilities? Did you object to FM stations putting out "stereo", and reducing the dynamic range and SNR of mono FM? You don't listen to radio/TV that "enhances" or boosts their broadcast sound signal? No bass/ treble adjustments (or graphic "equalizer") on you radios? Do you travel to Europe to enjoy the slightly better quality of A-law vs. mu-law encoding? I've spent 15 years as a broadcaster, before woking at my current position, most of that in production, so I have some idea of what real-time processing is about, as well. The fact of the matter is that the kind of modification TruVoice proposes to the audio path, would drasticly increase distortion levels, assuming that refrence audio levels remain constant. It would do this in the following ways: 1: Phase distortion. There's certainly quite a bit of it on LD lines to begin with, but a 12db/octave boost would make even more wild phase shifts ... given that phase is a function of frequency. Why intention- ally make an already bad situation all the worse? 2: By adding a low bass range that most phones were simply not designed to handle, distortion at the ear will increase, regardless of there being, or not being, distortion on the line. Think I'm kidding? Try your favorite boom box on for size. Flatten the bass response out, and then crank it up to just shy of clipping. Now, kick the bass up full. Listen to the THD go through the roof. Some improvement, eh? This is what AT&T is proposing with TruVoice. The thing here is that the majority of what we get from speech, comes in the 300-3000Hz area... the 'Intelligence' area, if you will. This area will suffer when the low end is added. 3: This ignores all of the processing equpment in between the two callers, which also may or may not be able to handle the new amounts of LF energy without compromising the 'intelligence' area of 300-3000Hz. You may well ask why, in both these situations, why LF energy is such a problem. The reason is simple: As the frequncy goes down, the longer the wavelength. The longer the wavelength, the more current is needed to deliver a set sound pressure level at the ear. Now, AT&T is talking about a 12db/octave boost. At those frqs, a rule of thumb is that the current needed to produce an added 3db of signal is 2x. Obviously, their 12db of boost requires far more of every bit of equipment, to say nothing of the power supplies driving said equipment. So, not only is the phone distorting the audio, (as in Number 2) Not only are there phase shifts going on(as in number one) but now the telco itself is going to have problems with the audio levels on it's lines. They'll have to lower the amount of audio level on the lines to compensate for the added current required for their bass boost. Assuming they do,(A large assumption) This means: 4: Higher signal to noise ratios. When you lower the overall level of signal, you by nature, move the 100% level closer to the noise floor. WIth 12db worth of boost, (assumming typical voice quality) we're dealing with around an added 6db of overall audio level, on average. (Keep in mind; every three db doubles the amount of power needed!) So, in short, we're talking about 6db of added noise floor. This, up against a floor that was already only around 40down, in some of the /better/ cases. Consider, too, that most LD noise is 'white noise', right smack dab in the middle of the intelligence area. So, any noise increase caused by raising the floor, will be multiplied by this effect. Gee, noisier lines, more distortion, less intelligable. /Real/ improvement, there, guys! Your suggestions that Mr. Rudholm is sticking in the past are amusing, if slightly insulting. Perhaps he is, and perhaps so am I. But consider: All of the other things you mention in your post, offer improvement. TruVoice offers little more than a trade-off ... bigger bass, for more distortion, and higher noise factors. Thank you very much, but I'll stick with anything BUT AT&T. (You think my employer would PAY me for this drivel?) /E ------------------------------ From: dbm@cats.njit.edu (Dean McDermott - WB2CMN) Subject: Re: Volume level of Tropez 900DL? Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 06:00:32 GMT In article egurney@hpvclq.vcd.hp.com (Ed J. Gurney) writes: > I'm wondering if anyone has any information on increasing the volume > of the person on the other end of the call via the Tropez 900DL. I > *DO* realize that there is a digital volume control on the handset > [which appears to have four discrete "levels"], but all it seems to do > is increase the volume of the _sidetone_. :-( Unfortunately, I don't > want to hear MY voice louder! > I called VTech's tech-support line and the drone told me take > it back and exchange it. Since Incredible Universe is about an hour > drive each way, I'd prefer to just tweek a pot in either the base or > the handset to increase the volume. :-) If there is no such pot, then > I'm afraid that replacing the unit with another will sound the same, > and I'll have to go AGAIN to take it back for a refund! Don't take the time to swap out for a replacement phone. I have the same problem with my Tropez. At least when I called the company they said that if I send it back to them they will increase volume. I offered to "turn the pot" but they said it required a value change and they would NOT tell me any more. So far I am just living with the problem. Dean dbm@cats.njit.edu ------------------------------ From: jgeorge@whiffer.mese.com Subject: Re: Wait! Let me Get a Pen! Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 10:31:49 EST Organization: The Waffle Whiffer, Atlanta, GA In comp.dcom.telecom, russ@bbx.basis.com writes: > Someone once posted a story about someone who moved and got a new > number. They then called the old number, got the forwarding message > and added it to their answering machine replacing the old number with > the new number in the recorded message. This gave a message on their > answering machine exactly like the message that you got. > As I recall they got a call from the local phone folks saying > something like "cut it out". Seems the phone company was getting a > lot of trouble calls from folks getting the message from the answering > machine. I think that there was some resistance to the changing of > the answering machine, but the user eventually relented when the phone > company made mention of potential line problems in the new location. My girlfriend has a voice that can match that of Miss Southern Belle closely enough where it is impossible for the casual observer to tell the difference. After adding the correct intercept tones on the OGM she stated: The number you have reached, 123-4567, is still in service. No further information is available about 123-4567. It only took a few takes to get the pauses down pat, and I had an OGM. Nobody complained, but I did get a few people that called me at work to tell me that they had received a message saying my phone number was 'still in service' but they couldn't figure out what that meant. :-) Joe George (jgeorge@whiffer.mese.com,emory!indigo!whiffer!jgeorge) Actually, I _do_ speak for The Waffle Whiffer [Moderator's Note: Actually, 'still in service' *is* a valid intercept message under certain conditions. Here is why: If what you actually dial causes you to go to intercept and the equipment is able to tell what you dialed, the recording will read the number you dialed and tell you it is not in service. But there are times when the number you actually dialed is either forgotten or for some reason is not given to the intercept equipment. In those cases, an operator will come on the line and ask what number you dialed. You tell her of course the number you *think* you dialed (even though you mis-dialed and went to intercept), and the operator bubbles in whatever you tell her. The number you told her; ie the number you wanted and the number you *thought* you dialed, is a good number. You would have gotten it had you not misdialed. Had the equipment recognized what you actually dialed, it would have read that number back and you would have noted the error in your dialing. The operator however has to take your word for 'what you (thought you) dialed', so when she puts it in and releases it for a mechanical answer from intercept, the answer which comes back is "the number you dialed, xxx-xxxx is a working number. Please try your call again." As more and more COs exchange data between themselves as part of the call set up process, there are fewer and fewer instances where a live operator must come on the line to ask what number (you think) you dialed, thus instances of 'it is in service' are relatively rare the past few years. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 09:49:18 EDT From: adiron!tro@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Olin) Subject: Anybody Know of Connecticut Citizen? I have read news reports that GTE is selling or has already sold many of its New York State local telephone services, including mine, to a company called Connecticut Citizen. I have not received any information from GTE about the transaction, and I know little about the buyer, other than that the company apparently is all-digital. (Not after they buy THESE CO's, they're not! :) If any readers know anything about Connecticut Citizen or more details about this transaction, please post or email. Tom Olin (tro@partech.com) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 22:05:53 +1000 From: Liron Lightwood Subject: Re: International Date Line Change In comp.dcom.telecom is written: > This past weekend, according to what I heard on radio, part of the > republic of the Marshall Islands switched from one side of the > International Date Line to the other. In the affected area, Friday > was followed immediately by Sunday. (You jump forward one day in going > west across that line.) I wonder what would happen if you are Jewish. The Sabbath normally starts on Friday night and ends Saturday night. Would that Sabbath be very short (a few hours) or very long (about a week)? Also, what if you are a Seventh Day Adventist and you celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday? Liron Lightwood liron@zikzak.apana.org.au Zikzak public access UNIX, Melbourne, Australia. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #606 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03507; 27 Aug 93 4:15 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25166 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 27 Aug 1993 00:57:48 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07818 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 27 Aug 1993 00:57:02 -0500 Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 00:57:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308270557.AA07818@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #607 TELECOM Digest Fri, 27 Aug 93 00:57:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 607 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Jon Edelson) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Doug Rorem) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Paul Wallich) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Dave Ptasnik) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Bob Schwartz) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Hans Lachman) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Bob Goudreau) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Hans Lachman) Re: Modem Tax in Canada? (Eric N. Florack) Re: Email: Internet to IBM Info Network? (Sander J. Rabinowitz) Re: AT&T Announces New Internet Connectivity (Theodore M.P. Lee) Re: Large Scale IVR Systems (Al Varney) Re: Radar and Acronyms (about LATA) (Mark A. Cnota) Re: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry (John J. Butz) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: winnie@phoenix.princeton.edu (Jon Edelson) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Organization: Princeton University Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 13:20:06 GMT In article telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: > The customer installs another POTS line and re-programs his auto- > attendant and voicemail stuff to accomodate a second 800 line > working on a second POTS line at considerable trouble to himself; > and anyway, trouble or not, why should he have to???? I am sidestepping your original question, because I really have no idea how the Death Star (tm) operates ... However, I wonder just how difficult this option would be. It would be the cost of installing the second POTS line, plus some device that would swap connections so as to make the two incoming lines appear as one to the call answering devices. If the customer's usage is going to be so large that the residuals will pay the rent, then the cost of this equipment should be 'noise level'. I am pretty much thinking of a simple system involving a couple of relays, I am sure that someone in the field could design something solid state. Jon [Moderator's Note: This is a poor solution. If one line on the 'device' was occupied with a call it was pushing through to the voicemail or whatever, an incoming call on the other line would just ring unanswered until the first call finished and the second one could seize the routing or control box. Won't work. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rorem@eecs.uic.edu (Doug Rorem) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 17:42:41 GMT TELECOM Moderator writes: > I asked specifically for their tariff authority to refuse to connect > the customer in the manner in which he wishes to be connected. They > admitted they have no authority to refuse the connection, but still > have no intention of doing it. It's not like there was anything going > on at the POTS level which would mess up or misidentify the billing > on calls; now-days the carrier just picks up the 800 call and outdials > it to wherever. Plus, they said they would do it *if the mutual cus- > tomer was totally their customer*. Pat, I once was up against the wall against ITT when I first tried to get 1+ and 950 long distance service from them. They refused to provide an account without my revealing my social security number to them (to do a credit check I presume). I persisted without success until I got the FCC in Washington, D.C. involoved via a common carrier complaint. This got them (ITT) to admit that they would provide service if I provided a $100 (I think) deposit on the account which would be refunded (with interest) after six months of satisfactory payments. I would suggest you try the same avenue, but unfortunately it took several months to complete. It's stories like yours and mine (when I tried to obtain a schematic drawing for an AT&T answering machine [which they refused to provide -- they said their only obligation was to provide a means to repair it at $90] that reinforce my impression that AT&T are trying to reclaim their previous arrogance. Doug Rorem [Moderator's Note: That's right, it takes months or years before any- thing will happen. Is the customer to stand around and wait? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 14:21:39 -0400 From: Paul Wallich Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers In comp.dcom.telecom you write: > Maybe some readers who work for AT&T in their long distance services > and their 800 number service can explain to me why Mother is taking > the stance she is with reference to customers who try to get an 800 > number installed on a POTS line. Not an AT&T person, but I believe the term you are looking for is "anticompetitive practices." Personally I'd suggest taking this one up to the top and asking if anyone remembers the phrase "triple damages." Good luck, paul [Moderator's Note: That doesn't phase them at all. They know all they have to do is sit it out longer than you can. They know you will event- ually go away. PAT] ------------------------------ From: davep@carson.u.washington.edu (Dave Ptasnik) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Date: 26 Aug 1993 23:09:04 GMT Organization: University of Washington TELECOM Moderator writes: > Maybe some readers who work for AT&T in their long distance services > and their 800 number service can explain to me why Mother is taking > the stance she is with reference to customers who try to get an 800 > number installed on a POTS line. To make more money. Geez. > So what does AT&T say? Since this new 800 number is actually their > service being resold by me, they are *refusing* to terminate it on > the same POTS line. They just flatly say it is against their policy > to terminate two 800 numbers on the same POTS. Try this, have the customer establish a custom ringing number on the existing POTS line. Tell AT&T that a new line has been established. Do not tell them that it is a custom ringing number. Assign the new 800 number to the new custom ringing number. Your calls will zoom in slick as a whistle. My C&W 800 number is assigned to a custom ringing number at my house. Custom ringing numbers can can be the lead number in a regular hunt group (but not a terminal hunt group). Should work OK. Hell, if the business means that much to you. Have a real phone line installed somewhere and have that line forwarded to the existing POTS number. Put your cool 800 # on the new forwarded line (make sure to get IBT to adjust the number of forwarded calls correctly). All of the above is nothing more than the personal opinion of - Dave Ptasnik davep@u.washington.edu [Moderator's Note: Well, this is worth a try. A custom ringing number only costs $4-5 per month most places. Since the Customer is in fact out there reading this message, let me suggest he do it. Call telco please on Friday, get a custom ring number for the lead number in your hunt group. Ask them to tell you the number being assigned and get it to me ASAP, okay? (This is being done under protest however, as a short term solution.) PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 16:26:07 PDT Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California Pat, I see such abuse frequently. Your aproach here may work because of your clout by way of the DIGEST so it is a clever aproach which I in=magine will work, this is a pretty public plase here isn't it and you do have many at&t subscribers (Lower case used because it is not how the company is *supposed* to be therefore not really AT&T). In any event an informal complaint with the FCC costs little more than time and postage. Actually nothing more than time and postage. Come to think of it you can log an informal complaint by phone. Problem is timing, it would take months or even longer and your client/customer would lose interest. Still it is a cheap and effective approach that you might use while terminating the 800 number on another POTS line (which you "own") and forwarding calls to the client line. Yes, the usage charge would eat profits but you did say the $ amount you stand to earn was substantial. This could allow you to eliminate the current service while awaiting either the results of a complaint or the ability to install your 800 number when the other one is removed. Now, here's my revolutionary idea. I, and perhaps many other DIGEST readers would gladly send messages to a high ranking official at AT&T informing them of this *unusual* situation and giving our opinion on the matter. This would be even easier if you helped us by posting a message suitable for forwarding; one copy to AT&T and another copy to some newspaper reporter so that the number of sympathizers would gain notice. Has such an aproach been used in the past? Best regards, Bob Schwartz bob@bci.nbn.com Bill Correctors, Inc. +1 415 488 9000 Marin County, California [Moderator's Note: That's okay, I will do the letter writing. The trouble with having a separate line and forwarding the calls is this will virtually DOUBLE the cost! I am in Chicago; the customer is on the east coast. You want me to take in 800 calls for him, push them back out to the east coast and pay the difference? At that rate, why bother to have a customer? Even if the line was installed on his premises, it would be a measured service business line with a charge for each and every call forwarded of a few cents. A penny or two per minute is all I stand to make on this customer, which will still be an important account for me, dollar wise. I am not going to pay all my commission to some other telco for a forwarding line on his behalf though. Who knows how long that would last before AT&T caved in, if ever? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 11:31:52 -0700 From: lachman@netcom.com (Hans Lachman) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Organization: Netcom In article TELECOM Moderator wrote: > AT&T is refusing to hook up a customer of mine.... > My order went in to AT&T saying to park the new 800 number on the same > phone line where his other 800 number (that he gets from AT&T) is > routed.... > The customer does not want to have to install (or take over) a second > POTS line for this ... > So what does AT&T say? Since this new 800 number is actually their > service being resold by me, they are *refusing* to terminate it on > the same POTS line ... Why not have the customer get a second POTS line, and YOU absorb the cost of that. Then park the new 800 number on the new POTS line. And, get Call Forwarding from the new POTS line to the existing POTS line. If he still objects to the second POTS line, then put the second POTS line on YOUR premises, and have all calls forwarded to his existing POTS line or existing 800 number. Later, have the mappings between 800 numbers and POTS numbers reversed, and after he's convinced he no longer needs the old 800 line as a backup, drop it. (There might be some issue about whether customers are more likely to get a busy signal via a Call Forwarded line, e.g., if two callers call at almost the same time, than when calling a non-forwarded line.) Hans Lachman lachman@netcom.com [Moderator's Note: Read the earlier messages sir! The customer is on the east coast; I am in Chicago. Now I should pay for a constant stream of calls all day to him from a forwarded line here? Even with a line on his premises I can add what? Three or four cents per minute to the cost of his calls? I should eat it? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 14:03:25 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan In article elm@cs.berkeley.edu writes: >> I beg to differ. It seems to me that more places are using the >> *real* One True Dialing Plan (OTDP), in which all long-distance >> calls (intra-NPA included) are dialed with 11 digits, and only >> local, intra-NPA calls can use seven-digit dialing. > This works fine, as long as all calls are either "local" or > "non-local." In the SF Bay Area, all phone numbers are either > non-local, or in one of three approximately concentric zones ... But this is hardly a new phenomenon -- plenty of areas that have always had 1 + 7D for intra-NPA long distance also have various gradations of "local" calls, using things like special calling areas, rate bands, message units, etc. For instance, in the Boston area, New England Telephone offers (or used to offer) a choice of plans. Under one plan, the subscriber has unlimited local calling only to nearby towns, and calls to places a little farther away (such as from Lexington to downtown Boston, say) incur message units. These calls were still dialed as local calls, since even with the additional costs they are priced far lower than intra-NPA long distance calls (say, Boston to Provincetown before the 617/508 split). > Are calls to Zone 3 really local if unlimited service subscribers > must pay for them? Would they require eleven digits or seven under > the above dialing suggestion? Seven. My point wasn't that people would get upset about 7D calls that continue to incur the same charges they always have. The point was that in places where 1+7D used to be required for intra-NPA LD, some people will squawk if it's replaced by 7D rather than by 1+10D, because they object to losing the "1 means toll" concept. I don't personally care one way or the other, but my observation has been that more places seem to be adopting the 11-digit plan than the 7-digit plan. My only personal preference on the issue is that whatever kind of 7D zone is used (local vs. NPA-wide), 11-digit dialing of those numbers should *also* be supported. Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: lachman@netcom.com (Hans Lachman) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Organization: Netcom Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 19:35:54 GMT In article elm@cs.berkeley.edu writes: > In article goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob > Goudreau) writes: >> I beg to differ. It seems to me that more places are using the >> *real* One True Dialing Plan (OTDP), in which all long-distance >> calls (intra-NPA included) are dialed with 11 digits, and only >> local, intra-NPA calls can use seven-digit dialing. > This works fine, as long as all calls are either "local" or > "non-local." In the SF Bay Area, all phone numbers are either > non-local, or in one of three approximately concentric zones (1, 2, > and 3) ... So there are three kinds of calls, according to how you get charged: (1) local (2) quasi-local quasi-long-distance (like Pac Bell's Zone 3) (3) long distance and two kinds of calls, according to area code boundaries: (1) intra-NPA (2) inter-NPA and two kinds of calls, according to LATA boundaries: (1) intra-LATA (2) inter-LATA That makes for 3*2*2 (or 12) kinds of domestic calls. Any "One True Dialing Plan" worth its salt must specify the dialing procedure in each of the 12 cases. Any takers? Regarding the So-Called *Real* One True Dialing Plan (SC*R*OTDP) mentioned above, it seems a bit silly to dial the area code for an intra-NPA call. (Likewise, wouldn't you feel silly to dial a country code when calling someone in the same country?) If the argument in favor of this silliness is "dialing the area code is a reminder that you're making a toll call", then the argument breaks down in the case of local inter-NPA calls, like between Mountain View (415) and Sunnyvale (408), California, in which case you must dial the area code, but it is not a toll call. Hans Lachman lachman@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 05:13:03 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Modem Tax in Canada? dixon@fourfold.ocunix.on.ca (dixon kenner)says, in #603: > I have spoken to both Bell Canada and the CRTC. The "Bell wants to > force the use of data lines" post is bullshit, pure and simple. There > is no such tariff filing, or any other business pending that is > remotely connected with this. I would also urge anyone who sees such > a post to check it out or send a message back to the author asking for > more information before passing it along to a wider audience. Fidonet > and the internet are famous for being able to spread false information > very quickly, and I am appalled that people will do so without > stopping to think. With all respect, to Fred, (is this the same person, who I listen to from the CBC frequently?), I'm not so sure. Check, for example, the posts of a similar nature, which were traced abck to two NPRM's put forward by the FCC, here in the states. (The second came up after the first was so soundly trounced ... and the second seems to be not a rule in effect, but at least a basis for future commission policy. I speak of 87-215; the second is 91 something.) Both these had provisions which, it seems to me, would have required the local telco's to not only sample for modem traffic, but they would be taxed, based on the amount of modem traffic they carried ... and of course that tax would be passed onto the customer. The ensuing argument quickly broke down into: Was it a modem tax or not, since the customer wouldn't see it. This situation in Canada seems fairly similar, with the twist this time that it involved not data, but FAX lines. (How anyone would tell the difference, I've not yet figured out, since anything I can think of would involve line monitoring -- a grey area at best -- and even greyer, when you consider that both fax and data 'lead' with the same tones at handshake time.) >> Martin Ouelette at 167/290.21. << Assuming you're talking about area 1, that number would indicate a 'point' which is little more than an offline mail reader, not really a BBS, so it may be a while before he even sees your note. /E ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 12:10 GMT From: Sander J. Rabinowitz <0003829147@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Email: Internet to IBM Info Network? In followup to my earlier inquiry on connectivity between the Internet and the IBM Information Network, I learned from someone who was successfully able to send mail to my mailbox at work that the addressing method is as follows: nnnnn@ibmmail.com Where nnnnn represents the five-digit code assigned to a particular user. My thanks to Mike T. Regan and Mike O'Connor for their assistance. Sander J. Rabinowitz, sjr1@mcimail.com, Franklin, Tennessee. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 09:01:34 -0600 From: tmplee@TIS.COM (Theodore M.P. Lee) Subject: Re: AT&T Announces New Internet Connectivity Does anyone have any representative pricing information? Details on exactly what kind of connection you get when you dial 950-1ATT? (straight terminal? Slip/PPP? X25? or what?) Is the internet "connectivity" competitive with other providers of dial-up access? Ted Lee 612-934-5424 tmplee@tis.com Trusted Information Systems, Inc. PO Box 1718 Minnetonka, MN 55345 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 09:06:15 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: Large Scale IVR Systems Organization: AT&T In article Urban Surfer writes: > We are outgrowing our IVR system. We have a DECvoice cluster which > does great speech synthesis, but is limited by Q-bus technology. I've > heard talk about TAPI, but that sounds like it is a good ways off. > I'd like to solicit information from others who run large scale IVR > systems. I'm looking for systems that handle several thousands of > calls per day, and can handle call supervision. The system needs to > have the smarts to talk to a back-end database over a network. > I know other folks are doing this kind of stuff. How do you do it? Well, some of them run AT&T Conversant(tm) Voice Information Systems units. These support some of the largest IVR applications in the world. American Transtech uses these to handle lots of internal call traffic. Other applications are even more sophisticated, involving data retrieval and update of large databases, as well as the ability to transfer "stuck" callers to live operators, etc. I don't know how many of these applications can be described in public; give them a call and ask. If you don't really want to buy new hardware and your application tends to be seasonal or one-shot, AT&T InfoWorx(tm) Interactive Voice Services can customize and operate the Conversant system for you, using hardware located on AT&T property. They are experts in developing such applications. AT&T Conversant Systems uses our Regional account executives for sales -- but I don't know where you (or your application) are. They list 614-860-5950 as a contact for referral to the appropriate party. (8-5 EST, Mon-Fri) My only contact for AT&T InfoWorx is Ron DeBlock in New Jersey. Ron is at 908-805-2248, and should be able to give you an appropriate contact. Al Varney - just MY opinion ------------------------------ From: mac@rci.chi.il.us (Mark A. Cnota) Subject: Re: Radar and Acronyms (about LATA) Organization: Ripco Communications Incorporated Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 01:53:38 GMT Leo Nederlof (lned@alcbel.be) wrote: > M. Otto otto@vaxb.acs.unt.edu asked about the meaning of LATA: >> LATA - Lousy A**h*les Treating you Arrogantly :-) >> [Moderator's Note: Local Area Transport something ... > While of course everyone knows that it is local access and transit > area, This thread is kind of old, but for the record it's Local Access Transport Area. ------------------------------ From: John.J.Butz@att.com Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 09:44:22 EDT Subject: Re: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry > Please excuse my ignorance, but I am a second year student of > electrical engineering and I am having trouble deciding whether I > should go into hardware or software. I have a great interest in > both so I guess my deciding factor will be whichever one pays better. > I dont want to make a decision based on this, but I think it will be > of some importance in the final decision. Could someone please tell me > what the average salaries are of hardware and software engineers in the > data communications field? Quick! If it's "high pay" instead of just "pays well" you're worried about, transfer into pre-med or pre-law as soon as possible. It's only August and the semester is just beginning. Don't worry about becoming a specialist in either field. Use your college education to become as broad and as versatile as possible. This is what employers look for. The more skills you bring to the job, the more desirable you are as a prospective employee. By all means take business classes like accounting and finance. If you don't like that idea, at the very least, take an Engineering Economy class sponsored by the Engineering school. J Butz ER700 Sys Eng jbutz@hogpa.att.com AT&T - CCS ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #607 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03716; 27 Aug 93 5:49 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09483 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 27 Aug 1993 02:17:18 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07379 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 27 Aug 1993 02:16:33 -0500 Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 02:16:33 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308270716.AA07379@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #608 TELECOM Digest Fri, 27 Aug 93 02:16:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 608 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson First Call For Papers -- IEEE Comp Security Foundations Workshop (Li Gong) NPA 710 in Use Now? (Mike King) Caller*ID With Names (Ed D. Federmeyer) AT$T Operator Shutdown (Robert G. Oenning) Bell Atlantic Case? (Bruce Klopfenstein) Suspension of Service (was: Questions About 'Snail Mail') (David Cornutt) Cellular Phone Prom Contents (Paul J. Bell) Re: Calling Canadian 800 Numbers From the US (David Rabson) Re: Calling Canadian 800 Numbers From the US (Martin Savard) Re: Status of Cellular Data (Jim Rees) Re: Newton Bug: Calling in/to/From Canada (Carl Moore) Tel Aviv Stock Market Callers Routed to Sex Line (Josh Backon) Re: Funny Newspaper Headlines (Dan Danz) Re: Funny Newspaper Headlines (Tad Cook) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Li Gong Subject: 1st Call For Papers--IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop VII Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853 Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 22:30:40 GMT CALL FOR PAPERS IEEE COMPUTER SECURITY FOUNDATIONS WORKSHOP VII June 14-16, 1994 Franconia, New Hampshire Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society The purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers in computer science to examine foundational issues in computer security. We are interested both in papers that describe new results in the theories of computer security and in papers, panels, and working group exercises that explore open questions and raise fundamental concerns about current theories of security. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: access control distributed systems security authentication formal methods for security covert channels information flow data and system integrity secure protocols database security security models We are also interested in examining the interactions and trade-offs between computer security requirements and other system requirements such as availability, dependability, and real-time, and in exploring foundational security issues in emerging areas such as ubiquitous computing, multimedia, and computer supported cooperative work. The proceedings are published by the IEEE Computer Society and will be available at the workshop. Selected papers will be invited for publication in the Journal of Computer Security. Instructions for Participants: Workshop attendance will be by invitation only and limited to thirty-five participants. Prospective participants should send five copies of a paper (limit 7500 words), proposal for panel discussion or working group exercise to Li Gong, Program Chair, at the address below. Please provide email addresses and telephone numbers (voice and fax) for all authors and clearly identify the contact author. IMPORTANT DATES: Author's submission: February 10, 1994 Notification of acceptance: March 11, 1994 Camera-ready final papers: April 11, 1994 Program Committee Simon Foley, Univ. Col., Cork, Ireland Virgil Gligor, U of Maryland, USA Simon Lam, U of Texas, Austin, USA Stewart Lee, U of Toronto, Canada John McLean, Naval Research Lab, USA Catherine Meadows, Naval Research Lab, USA Michael Merritt, AT&T Bell Labs, USA Jose Meseguer, SRI International, USA Jonathan Millen, MITRE, USA Chris Mitchell, U of London, RHNBC, UK Robert Morris, DoD, USA Ravi Sandhu, George Mason U, USA For further information contact: General Chair Program Chair Publications Chair Ravi S. Sandhu Li Gong Joshua Guttman ISSE Department SRI International The MITRE Corporation George Mason University Computer Science Lab Burlington Road Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 333 Ravenswood Avenue Bedford, MA 01730 +1 703-993-1659 Menlo Park, CA 94025 +1 617-271-2654 sandhu@sitevax.gmu.edu +1 415-859-3232 guttman@linus.mitre.org gong@csl.sri.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 21:28:29 EDT From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: NPA 710 in Use Now? While reading the classifieds in the Sept. '93 issue of {Online Access} magazine, I discovered an advert for _Advanced_System_Research_ under the "BBS INSTALLATION" heading. They're located in Reno, NV. The numbers they provided are very interesting: Voice: 702-334-3304 Modem: 710-334-3308 Of course, I immediately assumed the modem number was a misprint, especially considering the nxx-xxxx was so similar to the voice number. But the modem number was repeated in the text of the advert, so I became curious. I dialed 800-3210-ATT (office PBX blocks 10xxx :-( ) and entered 0+ the modem number. I immediately got the bong. Since I've been told that AT&T validates the NPA-NXX before returning the bong, I then tried 0+ 810+7D (which will be my brother's number after the MI split) and then 0+ 910-555-1212. Both of those numbers caused AT&T to request I enter the number again. An AT&T operator said she had no information about NPA 710, so I couldn't inquire about rates. From home, attempting to dial 0 + 710 + resulted in a local switch intercept after the NXX, as did 10288 + 0 + 710. The first intercept asked me to check the number and try again, and the second intercept told me, "We're sorry; it's not necessary to dial a carrier access code for this number." Anyone have any clues? Mike King * Software Sourcerer * Fairchild Space * +1 301.428.5384 mking@fsd.com or 73710.1430@compuserve.com * (usual disclaimers) [Moderator's Note: It must have been a misprint since using 702 to dial the modem number did get me a carrier tone. There is an 'area code' or NPA 710, but it cannot be accessed from the public phone network. It is used for something called 'Government Special Services' or 'Special Government Services' ... some rather top secret military thing I am told; we've discussed it here a few times and never gotten any definitive answers from anyone who knows much about it. There are a few readers here who know about it in detail, but their security clearance does not permit them to discuss it. If 710 was correct, I can't imagine them advertising it in a consumer mag- azine. PAT] ------------------------------ From: federmyr@rtsg.mot.com (Ed D. Federmeyer) Subject: Caller*ID With Names Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 03:34:24 GMT I've been using the "Classmate Model 10" (from MHE Systems) Caller*ID to RS-232 converter to display numbers on my IBM-PC screen for awhile. Recently, my area converted to "Caller*ID with Names" that also displays the name of the person calling, as well as thier number, so I ordered this new service. Well, it looks like the "Model 10" isn't compatible with the "Names" feature ... I get lot's of "E"'s (Errors) and some characters are obviously moved over a few spaces to the wrong fields. Does anyone know if the model 10 can be user-upgraded (or sent in for an upgrade) to a version that works with Names? (preferably BOTH services, incase I move to an area with plain Caller*ID.) Someone recently posted a number for Bell Atlantic Business Supplies (they sell the Classmate) that was (apparently) incorrect. I tried 1-800-555-1212 directory assistance, but the number they gave me is answered by a FAX machine or something. Does anyone have the voice number for Bell Atlantic Business Supplies? (Or anyone else who sells these kinds of boxes?) Thanks, Ed Federmeyer (edf@amtfocus.amt.gss.mot.com) ------------------------------ Date: 27 Aug 93 02:05:10 EDT From: Robert G. Oenning <71302.1664@CompuServe.COM> Subject: AT$T Operator Shutdown Makes an interesting comparison when you look at the reaction to the demise of the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest and the attention it has received versus the layoffs by AT$T. I see their reduction in service levels at operator services in a different light: the impact their likely inability to help customers will have on the 911 centers operated by public agencies for the single purpose of getting citizens emergency assistance. Experience has shown that when operator services from the telcos become less available people dial 911 to get the help they traditionally got by dialing 'O`. This is difficult to document, but seems to be a trend I`ve noted talking to the supervisors of 911 communication centers. ------------------------------ From: klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu (Bruce Klopfenstein) Subject: Bell Atlantic Case Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 19:58:25 GMT Does anyone have access to the judge's decision on the Bell Atlantic case this week that ruled telcos can own video programming? 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: cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (David Cornutt) Subject: Suspension of Service (was: Questions About Regular 'Snail Mail') Organization: NASA/MSFC Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 16:33:14 GMT lars@login.dkuug.dk (Lars J|rgen Poulsen) writes: > On the other hand, forwarding of telephones is less straightforward. > When I moved, I wanted to reserve my number (since I expect to come > back in a year). This was not offered by GTE. The best they could > offer was to set up a remote call forwarding line. This was prices > such that it would have been cheaper to leave the line connected with > an answering machine in the crawlspace. Do any LECs still offer suspended service? I did this for a while back when I was in college. (I had a three-week lease gap between my old and new apartments, and had to move in with my father for that interval.) This way, I was able to keep my old number and billing (important to me, since I had not had service long enough at that point to have gotten all of my deposit back). It cost a few bucks a month for the service. During the period of suspension, they routed my number to an intercept that said "The number you have reached, [my #], has been *temporarily* disconnected. The new number is, [my father's number]." I got the impression that one could maintain this indefinitely, as long as one kept paying the bill. David Cornutt, New Technology Inc., Huntsville, AL (205) 461-4517 (cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov; some insane route applies) "The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my employer, not necessarily mine, and probably not necessary." ------------------------------ From: pjb@23kgroup.com (Paul J. Bell) Subject: Cellular Phone Prom Contents Reply-To: pjb@23kgroup.com Organization: The 23K Group, Inc. Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 22:38:58 GMT Will someone please tell me the contents of the ID prom in a typical cellular phone. I am not interested in cloning them, so I don't need the exact format of the entries, just what info is included. Thanks, Paul ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 10:14:02 MDT From: dar@viking.Lanl.GOV (David Rabson) Subject: Re: Calling Canadian 800 Numbers From the US In a recent comment, the Moderated noted a telephone line that had been fraudulently used by Canadian callers to reach U.S. 800 numbers. While that undoubtedly has happened, there are also legitimate ways to dial U.S.-only 800 numbers from Canada (at some cost). While I was living in Vancouver several years ago, Cam-Net offered, in addition to regular-service rates to the U.S. about half those of B.C. Telephone, a way of reaching U.S.-only 800 numbers. David Rabson [Moderator's Note: There are various legitimate services for this. If you use one of the 'Call Home' services offered by telcos, their oper- ator will generally ring an 800 number for you. The service I resell called Telepassport also does this. You can connect from anywhere in the world with the TP switch and dial any 800 number desired in the USA. You pay for the cost of a call to the USA of course. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ag656@freenet.carleton.ca (Martin Savard) Subject: Re: Calling Canadian 800 Numbers From the US Reply-To: ag656@freenet.carleton.ca (Martin Savard) Organization: The National Capital Freenet Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 22:48:43 GMT In a previous article, einhorn_d@apsicc.aps.edu (E. Drew Einhorn) says: > I'm looking for the same thing in reverse a long distance number I > could call and then be able to dial out from a Canadian phone line to > access a Canadian 800 number. I'd try to get the regular phone number > but I really don't know what city or even which province they are in. > [Moderator's Note: The message you saw circulating on some newsgroups > gave a number used for fraudulent access into and out of the phone > system of an institution in the Pacific Northwest. It was *not* > intended for use as a 'method for Canadians (or people from the UK or > Brazil or anywhere else for that matter) to access 800 numbers in the > USA ...'. It was used that way, among other abuses made of it. It was > (is) the private DISA number into a PBX system which some phreak(s) > found and started circulating en-masse. The reason you cannot find > such a 'number in reverse' is because you are not supposed to make > such calls. 800 numbers have specific limitations placed upon who > (from what geographic location) may call them. The way you find out > which is which is you dial the 800 number directly from your phone. > If you get connected, your call via that number is welcome. If your > call is rejected by the network, then your call via 800 is not > welcome, meaning the owner of the 800 number does not wish to pay for > your call. If the merchant or whoever is too dumb to advertise his > POTS number as part of his message, then that's his problem. If the > merchant wants international 800 service, it *is* available without a > lot of dialing rigamarole going through some third sucker's unprotected > DISA port fraudulently. PAT] [Comment on the moderator's note]. It is true that some third party could be making money out of that kind of service, but it is also true that international (US+CANADA) 800 service is very expensive. If US companies don't offer 800 service to their customer in Canada (or Canadian companies don't offer it to US cutomers), it doesn't mean that these calls are 'not welcome'. There are limits to a telecommuni- cations budget. Most companies won't mind a third party offering link to their 800 number. They'll even like that. Martin Savard Ottawa, Canada ------------------------------ From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Subject: Re: Status of Cellular Data Date: 26 Aug 1993 16:30:45 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI In article , ellis@rtsg.mot.com (John T Ellis) writes: > I didn't realize that you could do v.32 or v.32bis over standard AMPS > systems. From what I hear customers and other vendors say, you can do > 300/1200 and 2400 although 2400 has a tendency to drop carrier often. > Can you tell me what cellular manufacturers have rated their cell > sites for anything higher than 1200/2400? Also, what providers are > claiming they can do "high speed" data transfer over the cellular > network? I'm not aware of any cellular equipment manufacturers who claim to support v.32bis modem traffic. I don't deal in claims, I deal in realities. I try things, and if they work, I use them. In my experience, a v.32bis modem can be made to work over cellular. The problem is that it won't work at the highest speed (14.4). So you need a modem that can do the negotiation at a lower speed and work its way up, rather than start high and work down. It also has to tolerate carrier interruptions during handoffs. Most modems can be configured for this. If the phone is standing still, I've been able to get the 7200 or 9600 fallback speeds. Once the phone starts moving, things start to fall apart. v.32bis modems seem to do better than v.32. I think that's because they take less time to re-train. Microcom's mnp10 is intended to make v.32bis work better over cellular, but we've had mixed results. In marginal conditions, with the phone moving, I've been able to get sustained average throughput of up to about 6 kbps with a standard v.32 modem over AMPS cellular, although I've also seen it drop to 400 bps. I haven't tried NAMPS. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 13:12:34 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Newton Bug: Calling in/to/From Canada So how did it attempt to call Winnipeg from Ottawa? It's still supposed to be 1 + area code + number, right? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 11:43:01 -0500 From: BACKON@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Calls Routed in Error to Sex Line I have a very funny telecom story to relate. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has a special line for investors to call up for stock prices, etc. Yesterday, for some reason, some switch got screwed up and the callers were getting connected to a phone sex service from Germany! The PTT here has NO idea how this happened! Regards, Josh ------------------------------ From: ddanz@lectroid.sw.stratus.com (Dan Danz) Subject: Re: Funny Newspaper Headlines Date: 26 Aug 1993 19:50:06 GMT Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc. Reply-To: dan@phoenix.az.stratus.com In article , glen@slate.cs.wisc.edu (Glen Ecklund) writes: > I missed the beginning of this thread, but my favorite was in the > Marriages column of a paper in Normal, Illinois. I wish I had saved > it. > Normal Girl Weds Oblong Boy > [Moderator's Note: There is a tiny little village in Illinois called > Oblong, and Normal -- a somewhat larger community -- was thus named > because the town was developed around the Illinois Normal School, > which is now a state university. PAT] Yes, and those of us who grew up near there always wondered if somewhere there was an Illinois State Abnormal University as well. This wasn't in the newspaper, but reminds me of a sign that I wish I had video-taped and submitted to the America's Funniest Home Videos sign contest: We were traveling through Kalispel, Flathead County, Montana several years ago when I spotted the following sign in front of a small bank-like building: e d r i c t FLATHEAD EMPLOYEES u n n o i I almost fell off the motorcycle from laughing so hard. Surely, they must realize ... well, maybe not. 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 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Funny Newspaper Headlines Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 15:05:58 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Bruce Sullivan writes: > Back in the late '70s, two local politicians were running against one > another for (as I recall) a State House seat. One, Norm Dicks, has > gone on to Washington DC as an esteemed CongressPerson. The other > Gentleman, who has passed into obscurity (and whose first name I > subsequently) can't recall) had the last name of Beaver. As you can > imagine, the juxtapostition of those two names in print let to some > entertaining headlines. One that I recall -- I still have a copy > somewhere -- appeared in the {Seattle Post-Intelligencer}: > "Chips Fly as Beaver and Dicks Meet." This is one of those stories that is better in the retelling, at least if you bend the facts a little. The fellows' name was Lloyd BEVER, not BEAVER, and his name was pronounced so that the E sounded like eh, not ee. Beh-vur. Doesn't sound anything like BEE-vur. tad@ssc.com (if it bounces, use 3288544@mcimail.com) Tad Cook | Packet Amateur Radio: | Home Phone: Seattle, WA | KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 206-527-4089 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #608 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07011; 30 Aug 93 17:18 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26453 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:22:12 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26742 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:21:21 -0500 Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:21:21 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308301921.AA26742@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #609 TELECOM Digest Fri, 27 Aug 93 13:21:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 609 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Accuwan Release (Karen Yates) Portable Terminal Needed (Vance Shipley) Rock-Bottom Rates to Argentina (Jorge Lach) Bonaire Operator? (rcj@nwsrs.att.com) DosFax Pro / Other Software Inquiries (Norman Hamer) Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Eric Hinson) Looking up Names/Numbers via Internet? (Eric Hinson) Thanks For Info: Fiber to the Home/Burb, Hybrid Fiber/Coax (L. Lightwood) Re: What is RASCOM and S.I.T.? (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Operator From Atlanta (was Re: Interesting 800 Number) (Brent Laminack) Re: Computer <-> Phone Interface in Germany (Kai Schlichting) Re: Octothorpe (Amer Neely) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (Dan Danz) Re: International Date Line Change (Pierre Lewis) Re: International Date Line Change (Andrew Marc Greene) [Moderator's Note: This is a remail of issue 609 due to the several complaints I received about it not showing up. If you did get it, then please ignore this duplicate to the mailing list only. PAT] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: karenyates@attmail.com (Karen Yates ) Date: 27 Aug 93 06:33:13 GMT Subject: Accuwan Release For more information, contact: Matthew Clark 908-221-3944/office 210-539-4468/home Shelly London 908-221-4355/office 201-635-0987/home AT&T Announces Turnkey Solution for LAN Interconnections SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- AT&T today announced ACCUWANsm Service, a turnkey, fully-managed solution to interconnect geographically dispersed Local Area Networks (LAN) in a Wide Area Network (WAN). AT&T made the announcement in San Francisco at the InterOp conference. With ACCUWAN, AT&T will design, provision, install, monitor, maintain and manage a customer's LAN internetwork. The service will operate at 56 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps, depending on customer bandwidth needs. ACCUWAN service simplifies both the purchase and operation of a LAN internetwork. There are three service elements: the LAN access connections, the WAN connections, and WAN management for each site. The specific components of the service include network design, customer premises equipment such as AT&T Paradyne multiplexing and DCE equipment, AT&T Network Systems LCS200 routers, AT&T ACCUNET dedicated network facilities, logical and physical network management, installation, remote monitoring, on-site maintenance, repair and software upgrades to LCS200 routers. The new service is designed for customers who wish to connect remotely located LANs without incurring the capital expense and human resource investment required to design, procure and manage a WAN and the LAN access interfaces. ACCUWAN Service complements AT&T's InterSpan Extended Connectivity Option, which provides a turnkey LAN solution for InterSpan Frame Relay customers, and adds another dimension to the portfolio of InterSpan and ACCUNET services. "The introduction of ACCUWAN delivers on our on-going commitment to provide the best array of data communications solutions. It joins the ACCUNET family of services and InterSpan data communications services such as InterSpan Frame Relay Service and InterSpan Frame Relay Extended Connectivity Option," said Bob Aquilina, Marketing Vice President, AT&T Data Communications Services. "ACCUWAN will let customers concentrate on their own businesses, while taking full advantage of the technical and networking expertise of AT&T to provide the LAN interconnectivity needed in a distributed computing environment. ACCUWAN customers will have a single point of contact through the dedicated ACCUWAN Management Center (AMC), operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The AMC will continuously monitor each customer's WAN, including the AT&T-provided routers, LAN interfaces and network facilities, and will coordinate and resolve any required maintenance and repair, including on-site repair. ACCUWAN customers will receive detailed performance reports, customized to their particular parameters. Customers will also receive periodic capacity utilization reports, including consultation and change recommendations if warranted, at no extra charge. The ACCUWAN Service boundaries are the LAN interfaces to the AT&T LCS200 multiprotocol routers on customer premises. ACCUWAN supports all major LAN types and most LAN protocols, including TCP/IP, DECNet Phase IV and V, Novell IPX and AppleTalk. ACCUWAN is currently in beta testing; the beta customer is White & Case, a New York City law firm with additional offices in Miami and Los Angeles. ACCUWAN Service will be in controlled introduction in the fourth quarter, with general availability early in 1994. ACCUWAN will be offered through the AT&T Data Communications Services sales force, and will be supported by AT&T Network Systems and ACCUNET Digital Services. ------------------------------ From: Vance Shipley Subject: Portable Terminal Needed Organization: ITN Corporation, Toronto, Ontario Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 12:13:47 GMT I'm looking for a low priced portable data terminal that will do 2400 baud or better, light weight and cheap. If you know who might manufacture such a beastie please let me know. So far I've looked at the Panasonic KX-D4930 but was not very impressed (1200 baud, heavy and expen$ive). Vance Shipley, vances@xenitec.on.ca ------------------------------ From: jorge@erex.East.Sun.COM (Jorge Lach - Sun BOS Hardware) Subject: Rock-Bottom Rates to Argentina Date: 27 Aug 1993 14:43:58 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc. - BDC Reply-To: jorge@erex.East.Sun.COM I currently make about $200 per month on long distance calls to Argentina, most of them to a few phone numbers. I've been using MCI, which when I combine the "Reach Out World" 15% discount ($3 a month fee) with the Friends & Family 20% discount on up to two international numbers (I've got two lines, hence four international numbers) give me a respectable 35% off their rates. Most of my calls are in the evening. The lowest rate to Argentina doesn't kick in until midnight, and that's too late for me, so I call between 6PM and midnight which gives me the next lowest rate. Although I don't have the info in front of me, MCI rates are $1.90 for the first minute, 89 cents for each minute after that. Combined with the discounts (and ignoring the $3 monthly fee), they come to a net of $1.24 for the 1st minute and 58 cents for each minute after. When you spend a lot of minutes on the phone, even these rate add up! Does anybody know of any other service which offers lower rates. Maybe buying some time chunks would help. One other important service would be sub-minute billing and/or same rate for first and subsequent minutes. This will cut costs for calls answered by machines and for short faxes. Yet another benefit would be a "call USA" type service from Argentina to the US at a similar low rate. Again, I'm specifically interested in calls to/from Argentina. Also, none of the above should be construed to be an advertisement for MCI. Thanks, Jorge Lach Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation Jorge.Lach@East.Sun.Com East Coast Division, Chelmsford, MA Phone: (508) 442-0214 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 11:30:57 EDT From: rcj@nwsrs.att.com Subject: Bonaire Operator Organization: AT&T I am curious about the following situation. Recently my sister and brother in-law sailed to Bonaire in the Netherland Antilles. They had their mobile phone hooked up. When they called us, the quality of the connection was really better then I would expect. Anyway, they left us their phone number (599-7-xxxxxx). Well, after they hung up, we tried the number only to be routed to what sounds like reorder tone. I'm assuming it came from their end because it was more of an international sounding reorder tone then one you would hear from a domestic standpoint. I tried the call a few times with the same results. I then called the IDDD operator and had her try it. Same results. She then tried to get ahold of the local 599-7 operator. It rang and rang without being answered. This was about midnight CST. (One note: the AT&T operator said that she has 599-7 listed as a four-digit call rather than the six that I was using??) Anyway after a few more attempts with the same results, we gave up. A day or two later I attempted the call again and received the same reorder. The AT&T operator tried to contact the local operator on the far end. It just rang and rang without being answered. This was at about 7-8 PM. I guess my question is, is there operator services on that end of the call? I should think so ... [Moderator's Note: Yes there is operator service in other countries including Netherland Antilles, but at times there might as well not be. The inward operators in some countries are dreadfully slow in answering at times. Ringing and waiting for five to ten minutes is not uncommon. Those telecoms don't always have the same attitude at prompt and reliable service which AT&T has. Some telecom admins such as France now put obnoxious recorded messages on the line. Try to reach an operator in France during a busy time, and a recording answers which plays five or six bars of music followed by a man's voice in a very crisp British accent saying, "Teleeekom Services! Please stand by, we are trying to extend your call!" ... then five or six more bars of music and the message repeats; again and again and again. The recording lasts 10-15 seconds so if you wait three minutes for an operator to answer -- not bad time in their busy period -- that is four or five times per minute for three minutes, or maybe 15 recitations of the message and the silly little tune they play while you wait. Interestingly, the same man, same message, same loony tune when trying to reach an operator in India or Egypt. I think I'd rather listen to the ringing. Imagine how tired AT&T operators must get listening to that recording urging them to 'stand by' all day long. PAT] ------------------------------ From: maven@eskimo.com (Norman Hamer) Subject: DosFax Pro / Other Software Enq Organization: Eskimo North (206) For-Ever Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 07:08:26 GMT Couple questions: 1) Under DOSFAX Pro (From the same guys who give you WinFax Pro) is there any way to import an ASCII document into a fax? Any third-party programs which will convert ASCII to the WinFax/DosFax format? 2) If there's not, can anyone reccomend a good DOS-based FAX package? I've tried DosFax (which I love, except for the problem with sending things; print capture as the only means is stupid as hell), FaxTalk Plus (buggy piece of trash), BitFax/SR (ditto). Kinda curious about Quicklink ][ fax; I know their comm program isn't bad, but it's not the greatest. What I need is: Class ][ Fax support; DOS based, gui is OK, but no damned windows; Preferrably a mode to just take faxes on command with (at minimum) no TSR for sending the things I port from ASCII/GIF/Standard other formats; Stable. Any suggestions? maven@eskimo.com (InterNet) maven@mavenry.altcit.eskimo.com (UseNet) The Maven@The Mavenry (AlterNet) DoD# 0885, '78 Honda CB750K, KotTKB ------------------------------ From: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Eric Hinson) Subject: Telephone Company Test Set Questions Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 03:20:20 -0600 (MDT) A few weeks ago, a Southern Bell repairman came out to my residence to check my line for static. While he was testing the line, I got a call from a person who was unaware that my line was being checked. The repairman handed me the test set (the bright orange ones they use), and I told the person I would call them back. When I handed him the test set back, I noticed quite a few extra buttons besides the ones for DTMF. I couldn't make out what they said on them, and was wondering if someone could send me email telling me what all these buttons do/what tones they generate. Thanks for your help. Eric L. Hinson / Internet: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu / Ham Radio: kb4rzf ------------------------------ From: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Eric Hinson) Subject: Looking up Names/Numbers via Internet? Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 03:26:42 -0600 (MDT) I recently found out about a service on CompuServe that allows you to look up a person by their phone number (as well as other methods). Is there such a service available on the Internet? If not, are there any plans that any of you are aware of to implement such a service in the near future? Thanks. Eric L. Hinson / Internet: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu / Ham Radio: kb4rzf [Moderator's Note: No, but there are competitive services around such as the one operated on a 900 number. Also, Illinois Bell operates a service only for the 312/708 area reachable by calling 312-796-9600. It is now fully automated; it reads back the name and spells them for you and everything. It is rather nice. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 17:36:22 +1000 From: Liron Lightwood Subject: Thanks For Info: Fiber to the Home/Curb, Hybrid Fiber/Coax Thanks to all the people who replied to question I posted asking about the difference between: * fiber to the home; * fiber to the curb; * hybrid fiber/coax; The definitions are: Fiber to the home: fiber all the way to the home. Fiber to the curb: fibre to an optical network unit at the curb. The signal is split several ways (up to 50) and sent to individual homes via coaxial cable or copper pairs. Hybrid fiber/coax: the concensus seems to be: as for fiber to the curb, except only using coax, not copper pairs. Thanks for all replies. Liron Lightwood Internet: r.lightwood@trl.oz.au Research Laboratories Phone: +61 3 253 6535 Telstra / Telecom Australia Fax: +61 3 253 6362 P.O. Box 249 Clayton 3168 Australia Disclaimer: My views, not my company's. ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: What is RASCOM and S.I.T.? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 22:47:16 GMT cambler@cymbal.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler -- Fubar) writes: > boo boop ... the number you have reached has been disconnected ..." and > were dismayed. The SIT tones were right on, but the number showed as > current and in use. A week later, they found out that the subscriber > was out of town and his answering machine had that as the outgoing > message. In most cases, the recording would be a bit off, tipping the > telco off as to the situation, but in this case the subscriber was an > audio pro and had sampled the recording into his digital answering > machine. Precise tones :-) Of course, an answering machine seizing the line will cause the call to supervise, whereas true CO generates messages to not supervise. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: brent@cc.gatech.edu (Brent Laminack) Subject: Re: Operator From Atlanta (was Re: Interesting 800 Number Response) Organization: Georgia Tech College of Computing Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 01:13:53 GMT jgeorge@whiffer.mese.com writes: >>> [Moderator's Note: They all used that nice lady from down in Atlanta >>> for many years. Maybe some still do. PAT] > [Moderator's Note: She is/was not an employee of telco. She is/was > a resident in the area who did the work on a contract basis. PAT] Indeed, she's a suburban housewife. Her voice can also be heard anytime you pass through Hartsfield International Airport here in Atlanta. "You are now entering the transportation mall which leads to your departure concorse and terminal ticketing. There are three ways to ..." Brent Laminack (brent@cc.gatech.edu) ------------------------------ From: acorn@info2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (Kai Schlichting) Subject: Re: Computer <-> Phone Interface in Germany Date: 27 Aug 1993 03:22:25 GMT Organization: Newsserver, Comp.Center (RUS), U of Stuttgart, FRG Michael Clark - Gateway Conversion Technologies (mdc%aisg@concert.net) wrote: > I will be traveling to Germany (Berlin) in September. Does anyone > know the connector standard and pinout for interfacing my computer to > the local telco? Adaptors from the German 'TAE' plug to RJ-11 are probably the most common item found in a dept. store that sells phones (most do). Hotels (and private,not-so-official (:-) installations) might have RJ-11, but generally hotel phones are hardwired (:-(. TAE pins 1 and 2 connect to the two central contracts on the RJ-11, if memory serves me right ... but screwing around is absolutely unnecessary, with prices for the adaptors in the 5$ range. bye, Kai ------------------------------ From: aneely@toth.uwo.ca (Amer Neely) Subject: Re: Octothorpe Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 20:22:09 GMT In TELECOM Digest 13(602) Fred Smith wrote: > I seem to recall that there was some discussion about a year ago about > the octothorpe here on the Digest. I've gone and opened my big mouth > and unless I can come up with some factual information I'm doomed to > buying dinner for my uncle. Being a big trivia buff, I asked him if > he knew what the '#' symbol was called other than the pound symbol. > When I told him it was called an octothorpe at one time, he wasn't > buying it ... even when I tried to explain that octo = 8, 8 being the > number of points etc. So now he's called my bluff and wants to see > some hard evidence or else it's my treat. > Does anyone know where I might be able to find a blurb about this in > some old manuals or something. Anything even remotely valid will get > me off the hook and I'll be enjoying dinner! I too have wondered about the name. I eventually found it in a dictionary at the local university library "Twelve thousand words", a Merriam-Webster Inc. publication LC call number PE1630.A17. From the 1986 edition, page 138 I quote: "oc-to-thorp: n -s [octo + thorp, of unknown origin; fr. the eight points on its circumference] : the symbol #" That should get you off the hook. Amer Neely, P.O. Box 1538 Stn. B, London ON, CANADA, N6A 5M3 42,15'N x 81,14'W +251m Internet: aneely@toth.uwo.ca Encryption PGP 2.2 "Amer Neely " Practice safe hex ... wear a write-protect tab! ------------------------------ From: ddanz@lectroid.sw.stratus.com (Dan Danz) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms Date: 27 Aug 1993 13:33:48 GMT Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc. Reply-To: dan@phoenix.az.stratus.com In article , cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa. gov (David Cornutt) writes: > What is the only radio station in the U.S. whose call letters are the > name of the city where the station is located? > WACO in Waco, Texas. > [Moderator's Note: Will anyone challenge Mr. Cornutt on this? Let's > get our radio station call-sign books out everyone, and begin the > search. PAT] It shouldn't be that hard, Pat. You can bet that any such combinations were pursued by potential licensees. I meant to comment on an earlier comment by Pat as well ... that WLS was the Prairie Farmer station. I thought that WLS was Worlds Largest Store (Sears) and it shared the 50,000-watt clear channel with WENR, which was the Prairie Farmer station, but I don't remember what the ENR stood for. BTW - I thought WACO stood for We Ain't Comin' Out. 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 [Moderator's Note: WENR was the former call sign for the television station on Channel 7 here about 40 years ago in the early 1950's. WLS was named for the World's Largest Store when Sears, Roebuck owned it back in the 1920-1930 era. It was also known from its beginning until 1961 as the Prairie Farmer Station because its programming and appeal was to people living on farms and in small towns across the rural mid- western United States. The station operated 24 hours per day except Monday mornings from one to five a.m. Their programming consisted of country and western music, news and market reports of specific interest to farmers (how much they are paying for hogs today at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago; how much they are paying for corn, etc). The Old Barn Dance program was among their staples plus that show which originated out of Nashville every Saturday night. They bought a lot of stuff from the ABC network such as several radio soap operas during the day and they also got stuff from the Mutual Network. Starting at six a.m. on Sunday morning and continuing for the next 18 hours or so, they brokered the time in 30-60 minute slots for religious broacasts. One preacher after another, all pre-recorded stuff for the most part except a couple of live religious services in Chicago. All the old time evangelists in the 1930-60 era were on WLS with their brokered half-hour show every Sunday. Then when they came back on the air Monday morning at five a.m. the first show was the old farmer dude talking about the crops for this year and where to get the best deal on cattle feed and tractors. In 1961, WLS dumped the whole thing for hard rock music and news every hour around the clock. They dumped all the Sunday preachers in one week by buying off the remainder of their contracts with one exception being a preacher here who would not let them buy him off. He persisted in staying on WLS for the remainder of his contract which ran another two years or so. So rock around the clock they did, with the exception of every Sunday at 10:58 AM when the announcer would stop the music and say something about "now its time for the services at People's Church, Lawrence Avenue and Sheridan Road; if you tune us out, you'll be sorry! I'm going out for breakfast myself, but meet me here again in an hour, dig?" ... and they would cut the preacher off *precisely* at noon usually with a song by the Beatles. A few years ago they started experimenting with talk radio. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 22:35:00 +0000 From: Pierre Lewis Subject: Re: International Date Line Change Liron Lightwood writes: > I wonder what would happen if you are Jewish. The Sabbath normally > starts on Friday night and ends Saturday night. Would that Sabbath > be very short (a few hours) or very long (about a week)? And what happens if you are Jewish and live above the polar circle? The Sabbath could last months ... Pierre LEWIS +1 514 765-8207 Internet: lew@bnr.ca Freylekh zol zayn! ------------------------------ From: Andrew_Marc_Greene@frankston.com Subject: Re: International Date Line Change Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 11:54 -0400 > In comp.dcom.telecom is written: >> This past weekend, according to what I heard on radio, part of the >> republic of the Marshall Islands switched from one side of the >> International Date Line to the other. In the affected area, Friday >> was followed immediately by Sunday. (You jump forward one day in going >> west across that line.) > I wonder what would happen if you are Jewish. The Sabbath normally starts > on Friday night and ends Saturday night. Would that Sabbath be very > short (a few hours) or very long (about a week)? It's actually more complicated than that. The "Jewish Date Line" is 90 degrees east of Jerusalem, and doesn't make any convenient swerves (as the International Date Line does). But there is a minority opinion which says the "Jewish Date Line" is really 180 degrees from Jerusalem, so in that quarter of the world you find some people observing the Sabbath on local Saturday, some on local Sunday, and some on *both* (just to be sure, you see). Now ask me what I did when I spent three weeks in Barrow, Alaska. ("What time is sunset?" "Oh, about August 2d." :-) Disclaimer: I'm not a halakhic authority, check with your local Rabbi for an authoritative answer. (Since "Liron Lightwood" is mailing from "Zikzak public access UNIX, Melbourne, Australia", I feel uneasy sounding too definitive! :-) Andrew Greene ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #609 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09129; 28 Aug 93 0:09 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08945 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 27 Aug 1993 20:40:05 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09022 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 27 Aug 1993 20:39:20 -0500 Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 20:39:20 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308280139.AA09022@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #610 TELECOM Digest Fri, 27 Aug 93 20:39:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 610 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Bruce D. Nelson) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Dave Ptasnik) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Randal Hayes) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Jon Kimbrough) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (David G. Lewis) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Gregory Youngblood) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Tony Harminc) Re: Bell Atlantic Case (Tara Mahon) Introduction to RASCOM (Robert Shaw) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: nelson@titan.ppd.Kodak.COM Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 10:50:51 EDT From: nelson@ppd.Kodak.COM (Bruce D. Nelson) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Organization: Eastman Kodak Company How about terminating your 800 number on a different POTS with call forwarding to the other POTS? Bruce Nelson | Phone: (716) 726-7890 Rochester Distributed Computer Services | Internet: nelson@kodak.com Eastman Kodak Company | Rochester, NY 14652-4503 [Moderator's Note: Won't work! That will increase the cost of the call by several cents per minute. PAT] ------------------------------ From: davep@carson.u.washington.edu (Dave Ptasnik) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Date: 27 Aug 1993 15:34:24 GMT Organization: University of Washington davep@carson.u.washington.edu (Dave Ptasnik) writes: > TELECOM Moderator writes: >> Maybe some readers who work for AT&T in their long distance services >> and their 800 number service can explain to me why Mother is taking >> the stance she is with reference to customers who try to get an 800 >> number installed on a POTS line. >> So what does AT&T say? Since this new 800 number is actually their >> service being resold by me, they are *refusing* to terminate it on >> the same POTS line. They just flatly say it is against their policy >> to terminate two 800 numbers on the same POTS. > Try this, have the customer establish a custom ringing number on the > existing POTS line. Tell AT&T that a new line has been established. > Do not tell them that it is a custom ringing number. Assign the new > 800 number to the new custom ringing number. > [Moderator's Note: Well, this is worth a try. A custom ringing number > only costs $4-5 per month most places. Since the Customer is in fact > out there reading this message, let me suggest he do it. Call telco > please on Friday, get a custom ring number for the lead number in > your hunt group. Ask them to tell you the number being assigned and > get it to me ASAP, okay? (This is being done under protest however, > as a short term solution.) PAT] Helpful Hint #2 If the customer does in fact have a multi line hunt group, just assign the new 800 number to the second line in the hunt group. The initial volume of calls to the new number will probably be lower than to the old number, so having access to one less line will probably not be important. I would think that this would be OK for as few as three lines in the group, but the more lines in the group, the less this will be felt. As volume increases on the new number (and presumably decreases on the old number) the arrangement can be reversed. Perhaps by that time AT&T will be blugeoned into rationality, so that you can have the calls to either 800 number ring any POTS you choose. All of the above is nothing more than the personal opinion of - Dave Ptasnik davep@u.washington.edu ------------------------------ From: HayesR@uihc-telecomm-po.htc.uiowa.edu Date: 27 Aug 93 10:59 CST Subject: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers > I asked specifically for their tariff authority to refuse to connect the > customer in the manner in which he wishes to be connected. They admitted > they have no authority to refuse the connection, but still have no intention > of doing it. Why pitter-patter around? This is the telecommunications industry. Pick up the telephone, call the FCC, get an investigative type, and then conference in the AT&T person who's giving you a hard time. Find out if the AT&T rep still has the nerve to refuse you this service while someone from the FCC is participating in the conference call. I submit you will hear a definite change of tune. You may save yourself alot of time and energy over what sounds like an arrogant bluff. (The above is my personal opinion, but I've seen it work, folks). randal-hayes@uiowa.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 11:55:47 EDT From: jkimbro@hercii.lasc.lockheed.com (Jon Kimbrough) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Our Esteemed Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: Read the earlier messages sir! The customer is on > the east coast; I am in Chicago. Now I should pay for a constant stream > of calls all day to him from a forwarded line here? Even with a line > on his premises I can add what? Three or four cents per minute to the > cost of his calls? I should eat it? PAT] Should you *have* to eat it? No. *Should* you eat it? Maybe! If it will allow you to prove to your potential customer that you can do the job, it might be worth eating a couple months of profit to get the business. It's called an investment: you put in a little money now, and get a back a lot of money later! Jon Kimbrough jkimbro@lasc.lockheed.com Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein, either stated or implied, are solely my own and do not reflect Lockheed's views in any manner. ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Organization: AT&T Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 13:52:50 GMT In article TELECOM Moderator writes: > Maybe some readers who work for AT&T in their long distance services > and their 800 number service can explain to me why Mother is taking > the stance she is with reference to customers who try to get an 800 > number installed on a POTS line. Obligatory Disclaimer: while I work in the Communications Services Group, I'm not directly involved with either 800 services or service provisioning, so don't lend an excessive weight of authority to my comments. I have a hypothesis, but it's based on speculation and some very limited experience. I've forwarded the question to someone I know who works more directly with 800 service to see if I can get a more definitive answer. > Most of you know by now that among other things I do, I resell 800 > numbers from a couple sources... I resell the AT&T > Software Defined Network through a major aggregator/reseller. > AT&T and I have a mutual customer. The customer has had for some time > an 800 'Ready Line' style number from AT&T which terminates on a > certain phone in his office... > My order went in to AT&T saying to park the new 800 number on the same > phone line where his other 800 number (that he gets from AT&T) is > routed ... > So what does AT&T say? Since this new 800 number is actually their > service being resold by me, they are *refusing* to terminate it on > the same POTS line... > I asked them if they had ever heard of the term 'multi-POTS' (which > is what the termination of multiple 800's on the same line is > called.) Yes, they said, we heard of it but we are not gonna do it. > We *will* do it provided *we* get his account on both numbers (old > existing 800 and new number also). But they won't do it with their > own number and someone's else's 800. My hypothesis is that, since the new 800 number is actually being sold from AT&T's viewpoint to an aggregator and not to Pat's customer, it appears to the AT&T systems as if it is being sold to a different customer. Because the various flavors of AT&T 800 services which terminate to POTS lines use the POTS number as the billing number in the billing databases, and all the customer records are keyed off the billing number, I would suspect that it is impossible to have two different customers with the same billing number. This would explain why AT&T is able to terminate two 800 numbers to the same POTS number if they are both AT&T-provided -- the same customer record is used for both 800 numbers. I would suspect that if you were reselling Sprint, MCI, C&W, or another carrier's 800 service, and the customer had existing 800 service through that carrier, you would encounter the same problem; conversely, I suspect that if you were reselling the 800 service of a carrier which was different from the customer's existing carrier, you would not encounter a problem. One thing that you have to keep in mind that is not intuitively obvious is that an aggregator is not "just another carrier" from the perspective of a service provider. A reseller/aggregator is, from the service provider's perspective, a customer. That's why they qualify for volume discounts and such. It also means, though, that there can be limitations to the services that can be provided. Again, I don't know for certain that this is the problem, but it has a certain logic to it. > If anyone from AT&T can tell me what possible legitimate reasons there > could be for refusing to hook a reseller's 800 number to the same POTS > where Mother has one of her own 800 numbers working, I would appreciate > knowing the reason. It cannot be a technical reason since AT&T will do > it for as many 800 numbers as *their exclusive customer* wants. As I explained above, it can be a technical reason. I don't know for certain that it *is*, but considering I could come up with one technical reason after about ten minutes of thought when I don't have anything to do with 800 services or provisioning, I suspect there are half a dozen other technical reasons that *could* explain it. Finally, Pat, I recognize that being put in a situation where you feel that you are unable to provide the desired service to your customer because of what seems to be an arbitrary and capricious decision on the part of your supplier is extremely frustrating; however, I would submit that you would be much more likely to get a satisfying answer if you don't state your concerns in language that implies that AT&T is a collection of monopolistic, predatory, customer-be-damned villians. Reserve that role for BOCs, cable companies, and GTE ;-). David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 00:56:09 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems lachman@netcom.com (Hans Lachman) writes: > [Moderator's Note: Read the earlier messages sir! The customer is on > the east coast; I am in Chicago. Now I should pay for a constant stream > of calls all day to him from a forwarded line here? Even with a line > on his premises I can add what? Three or four cents per minute to the > cost of his calls? I should eat it? PAT] Why not get the service on the East coast? If you are in Chicago set up a business line on the east coast in your name with it forwarded to the customers. Most local telcos will provide to businesses a remote call forward number that never really terminates at a location but just gets rerouted at their switch. Then have AT&T route to that new number in your name. Thus no piggy backing Chicago to east coast and back and forth. The alternative idea would be to find someone willing to let you terminate a line on their premises as a residential line and add call forwarding. Then having AT&T go to that number. Then you get into personal 800 numbers and you may not get the business advantages that the main number will give him. Greg TCS Computer Systems | AT&T Easy Reach Number | 25799B Madrone Drive (707)489-7500 | 0-700-TCS-0000 | Willits, CA 95490 Personal: zeta@tcscs.com | Information: info@tcscs.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 17:56:39 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers > Now I stand to lose the largest customer who has patronized me to > date because AT&T is refusing to route his new 800 (from me, which I > resell from them) to the POTS of his choice. The choices at this > point seem to be: > I turn the customer over to AT&T and lose my commission and ongoing > residuals -- which would I suspect pay my rent in full each month; > The customer takes a giant leap of faith and says 'okay Townson, > I am giving you authority to tell AT&T to yank *their* 800 number > out concurrent with installing the new one through your service; > The customer installs another POTS line and re-programs his auto- > attendant and voicemail stuff to accomodate a second 800 line > working on a second POTS line at considerable trouble to himself; > and anyway, trouble or not, why should he have to???? > I keep pursuing this on up the corporate ladder with my next stop > being an appeal to the Chairman's Office to be followed if needed > with a Commission complaint. Of course I have no money or resources > to carry this fight on very long unless some attorney who practices > communications law and knows the ins-and-outs will do it for me. If the customer is important enough to you, *you* could install a POTS (or RCF) line and call forward it to your customer. This would 1) impress your customer with your level of service, 2) keep that all important special 800 number, 3) be a cost you can try to recover from AT&T when you eventually sue them :-) What's the cost of a business line with forwarding for the month or two it'll take to convince your customer that your service is good? Tony Harminc ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 11:47:14 EDT From: Tara Mahon Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic Case > klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu (Bruce Klopfenstein) writes: > Does anyone have access to the judge's decision on the Bell Atlantic > case this week that ruled telcos can own video programming? The ruling by Judge T.S. Ellis of the Federal District Court Alexandria, VA in the case of Bell Atlantic and Jones Intercable made last Tuesday is available now from the Alexandria Court (a long drive from Bowling Green ...). The ruling is 57 pages long and is not yet available on the Lexis/Nexis or Westlaw* databases yet. As I am told by my father, the patent lawyer, Advance Sheets of this ruling may be available from local law libraries. Contact a local library for the exact date this information will become available (perhaps a few weeks). The law database services may have the case analysis electronically shortly. The companies involved definitely have a copy of the ruling. The essence of the ruling was that the Federal Cable Act of 1984 unconstitutionally barred phone companies from also operating Cable TV systems in the same service area. According to Judge Ellis, the cable act violated the telcos first amendment rights to free expression. Insight Research recently posted this announcement regarding the case and it may be of interest to the TELECOM Digest (comp.dcom.telecom) readers. ----------------- LIVINGSTON, NJ. August 26,1993: Tuesday's court ruling giving Bell Atlantic and the other RBOCs the green light to move full steam ahead into video programming and transport is important not because it is going to impact consumer cable TV prices tomorrow. Our research suggests its importance lies in fact that the ruling brings the new information highway just a little closer to reality. The real action in telecommunications for the years to come is on the local level. According to recent studies by Insight Research Corp., today's telecommunications landscape is about to be rocked by a series of changes on the local-loop level-changes that will transcend traditional industry boundaries and cross technologies as never before. One study, _Competition in the Local Loop: Telcos, Cable TV, & Wireless in the Emerging Telecommunications Network 1993-1998_, puts forth several possible scenarios for future competition among the RBOCs, competitive access providers, cable TV operators, and wireless services for market share in the local loop. It takes the bottom-up view that the technological and market changes on the local level are the ones that will spur developments in telecommunications throughout the decade. The other study, _Network Topologies for Future Telecommunications Services, TVs, Telephones & Change in Telecommunications Networks 1993-2000_, posits that consumer demand for new entertainment TV services is remaking the infrastructure of the TV and telephone networks. The huge revenue potential of interactive TV and games is accelerating adoption of new technology in the TV and telephone industries. Both networks will handle two-way, switched, wideband traffic well before the year 2000, according to Insight, creating an extensive level of overlapping, interconnecting, and competing capabilities. But competition will only be apparent in the local-distribution segments of both networks, Insight argues. The CAPs are already giving the RBOCs a run for their market. The resulting face-off will drive everything from technology to pricing. And this time the effects will spill beyond the traditional boundaries of the telecommunications industry into such adjacent areas as cable TV and wireless communications-especially personal communications services, a sector that is beginning to show considerable activity. Insight's research suggests that a fast-packet national information highway is vital to keeping America competitive in terms of communications and information technology. But such a network will be only as effective as local voice and data transport. Shifts in the local-loop market are no small matter-especially when they promise to change the segment's whole competitive makeup. Southwestern Bell's purchase of two cable TV systems from Hauser Communications, followed by AT&T intent to purchase McCaw, coupled by full fledged competition between cable TV and the telcos is just the start. For more information and pricing data on the two reports, please contact: Tara D. Mahon tara@insight-corp.com The Insight Research Corporation (201) 605-1400 v 354 Eisenhower Parkway (201) 605-1440 f Livingston, NJ 07039 *I have no affiliation with either Lexis/Nexis Mead Data Central or Westlaw. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 10:04:43 +0200 From: SHAW Subject: Introduction to RASCOM > Does anybody know what the abbreviations RASCOM and S.I.T. mean? Don't know about S.I.T. but RASCOM stands for Regional Africa Satellite Communications. The principal objective of the RASCOM feasibility study was to undertake a comprehensive study on the provision of optimum telecommunication and broadcasting information using all appropriate technologies including satellite-based systems, for promoting the socio-economic development of the Africa continent. The project is an integrated study of terrestrial and spaceborne systems meeting the requirements not only at the interurban and intra-african level but, more important, with emphasis on the provision of basic services to the rural areas where the majority of the African population resides. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT The implementation phase consists of a transitional stage leading to the setting up of a permanent organization responsible for the operation of the system and of an operational stage. A RASCOM organization, responsible for the implementation of the RASCOM system and its operation on a commercial basis, will be located in Africa. An interim RASCOM Office is currently preparing the establishment of the Organization. The RASCOM Interim Office which is responsible for implementing the transitional stage activities is located at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva. A 15 member Committee of Country Experts (CCE) is responsible for the supervision of the transitional stage and thus supervise the work of the RASCOM Interim Office. The Committee was created from the five subregions in proportion to the number of countries in each subregion. It has as membership the following countries: Benin, Cameroun, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Tanzania, Zaire and Zimbabwe. In order to implement an integrated network for the RASCOM Project, a number of complementary measures are required which include implementation of transmission links, local subscriber networks and switching networks. With regard to satellite aspects of the project, a regional satellite system will be implemented for Africa having a dedicated satellite as an ultimate objective but commencing by pooling transponders of those countries who currently operate domestic satellite networks on existing satellite systems such as INTELSAT and ARABSAT. The space segment requirements of countries planning to establish domestic satellite networks are also taken into account. FINANCING OF RASCOM With regards to financing, member countries contribute towards the cost of the transitional stage (about US $2 million) to the tune of not less than US $ 10,000 per country; contributions have also been made by funding institutions including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and donor countries. The Resource Mobilization Committee (RMC) of the UNTACDA II, which is chaired by the African Development Bank (ADB), has been designated to take all the necessary steps to mobilize resources for the transitional and operational stages of the project. The Feasibility Study was co-financed by the ADB following a request by the governments of Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, UNDP, the OAU, the ITU, UNESCO as well as by substantial contributions from the governments of Italy and Germany. For more info, you should contact via email: adeboye.taylor@itu.ch Bob Shaw Information Services Department International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20 Switzerland shaw@itu.ch ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #610 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12787; 28 Aug 93 16:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17935 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 28 Aug 1993 13:30:56 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17940 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 28 Aug 1993 13:30:11 -0500 Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 13:30:11 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308281830.AA17940@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #611 TELECOM Digest Sat, 28 Aug 93 13:30:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 611 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Jeff Whitcomb) Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Steven H. Lichter) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (David A. Cantor) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Carl Moore) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Bob Goudreau) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Operator From Atlanta (was Re: Interesting 800 Number) (Steve Cogorno) Re: Operator from Atlanta (was Re: Interesting 800 Number) (Les Reeves) Re: Operator From Atlanta (was Re: Interesting 800 Number) (Monte Freeman) Re: Operator From Atlanta (Identified!) (Bill Campbell) Re: Modem Tax in Canada (Tad Cook) Re: Modem Tax in Canada (John R Levine) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions Date: 27 Aug 1993 17:46:46 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Eric Hinson) writes: > A few weeks ago, a Southern Bell repairman came out to my residence to > check my line for static. While he was testing the line, I got a call > from a person who was unaware that my line was being checked. The > repairman handed me the test set (the bright orange ones they use), > and I told the person I would call them back. When I handed him the > test set back, I noticed quite a few extra buttons besides the ones > for DTMF. I couldn't make out what they said on them, and was > wondering if someone could send me email telling me what all these > buttons do/what tones they generate. Thanks for your help. The test sets vary. Some probably have buttons for generating tones A, B, C, and D (about which much has been said already in this group). My test set has a switch to take the electronics into or out of the loop (you take them out if you are at the end of a very long loop and volume is poor), a switch to select tone or pulse, a push button to turn on the polarity test LEDs, and a push button to mute the microphone (so you can hear better if there is lots of background noise). And on the side is the usual on/off switch with the capacitor for listening in. Some have an ASCII terminal built in, in which case the keys include a cursor joystick and buttons for yes and no. To get a good idea of the variety of test sets available, get a catalog from Jensen Tools: 602-968-6231. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: ah535@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeff Whitcomb) Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions Date: 28 Aug 1993 01:55:23 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) Well, the only differences I know of between a "butt set" and a standard set from the ones I have used (I also sent this email) are the options for ground start button (for starting a ground start trunk line), mute button (for tapping line unoticed), possibly t/r polarity lights (to show correct polarity of line), and handsfree/and redial. Not to glorious, but the new ones are a lot nicer than the old ones. Jeff ah535@cleveland.freenet.edu ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions Date: 27 Aug 1993 22:19:01 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) Depending on who made the set those extra buttons would be for the speaker, revering tip/ring, tone on line and a few more I can't remember right now since my set is at work and I don't use most of them. Steven H. Lichter GTECALIF COEI ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 04:36:04 -0400 (EDT) From: David A. Cantor Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan In article , Bob Goudreau wrote: > In article johnl@iecc.com writes: >> calls within the area code are dialed with seven digits, whether >> they're local, intra-LATA toll, or inter-LATA toll, and inter-NPA >> calls are dialed 1-NXX-NXX-NXXX. As has previously been noted, this >> is the One True Dialing Plan. > I beg to differ. It seems to me that more places are using the *real* > One True Dialing Plan (OTDP), in which all long-distance calls > (intra-NPA included) are dialed with 11 digits, and only local, > intra-NPA calls can use seven-digit dialing. As I recall, the > Bellcore recommendations were neutral as to which of these OTDPs had > to be in effect by 1995 (when the first NNX area code, 334 in Alabama, > appears). However, I've heard of more areas using the latter OTDP > than the former (including here in NC, where we ditched 8-digit > dialing of intra-NPA LD calls two or three years ago). Its advantage > is that people who've had "1 means toll" hammered into their heads > over the years won't be able to get themselves into a tizzy by dialing > 7D toll calls that they thought were local calls. And then, the Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: Uh oh ... just what we need! A schism here in the > Digest over The One True Dialing Plan. I shall have to censor and > excomumunicate all non-believers and heretics. PAT] I can see why there'd be valid arguments for both One True Dialing Plans, and having two Dialing Plans which both claim to be True, and hence Only (in the sense of 'one-like') is bad. Okay, Mr. Moderator, get ready to excommunicate me, if necessary. :-) I propose we eliminate the ambiguity and invent the One and Only Obviously Unambiguous Uniform Digit Dialing Plan (the OOOUUDDP): First, eliminate all 7D dialing (and also 8D dialing, of course). Now, all country code 1 calls should be dialled with an access code + ten digits. The access code would be 1+ or 0+, and we would continue to use 10xxx+ as a prefix for choosing a carrier. We could also continue using 01+ and 011+ for out-of-country calls, but, best of all, if we agree never to use the digit 1 as the first digit in an area code, we can eliminate the need for 1+ entirely, and dial all station-to-station calls as simply NXX-NXX-XXXX, whether their local or long distance. A leading 1+ would be optional, and it could be optional even if a carrier selection code is used. (Gee, we don't need the "office code" to be restricted to 2-9 anymore, either, we could make it NXX-XXX-XXXX. That might save some area code splits.) Okay, how do I go about proposing this to the proper authorities? David A. Cantor +1 603-888-8133 131 D.W. Highway, #505 One-time VMS techie, ex-DECcie Nashua, NH 03060 Foxwoods blackjack dealer ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 10:12:28 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan The 215 area in Pennsylvania instituted a toll-free number (800-734-5910?) to help customers find out if a call within it is local or not. However, I can't reach this number, which did appear in the Digest, from either 302 or 410 (Del. and Md. respectively). 215, which has a split coming (to form 610), used to have 1 + 7D for long distance within it, but got rid of that leading 1 in order to accommodate N0X/N1X prefixes (local calls from 215 to another area code had already changed from 7D to 1+NPA+7D). This does not account for the Denver and Adamstown quirk. I read someplace that Arizona switched to 1 + NPA + 7D for long distance within it because of you-know-what objections regarding 7D. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 19:13:38 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan In article lachman@netcom.com (Hans Lachman) writes: > Regarding the So-Called *Real* One True Dialing Plan (SC*R*OTDP) > mentioned above, it seems a bit silly to dial the area code for an > intra-NPA call. Why silly? Is is silly that many cellular phone require area codes for *all* calls? Was it silly that most of the US used to require a leading "1" (as in 1-NNX-XXXX) for intra-NPA long distance when seven digits would have sufficed? > If the argument in favor of this silliness is "dialing the area code > is a reminder that you're making a toll call", then the argument > breaks down in the case of local inter-NPA calls, like between > Mountain View (415) and Sunnyvale (408), California, in which case you > must dial the area code, but it is not a toll call. You have set up a straw man and (unsurprisingly) had no trouble knocking it down. Please re-read the previous articles. The argument was never that "dialing the area code is a reminder that you're making a toll call" -- it was that dialing a leading 1 was a reminder that you're making a toll call (except for 800 numbers, of course!). As stated before, I'm not one to complain about losing the "1+ means toll" concept, but lots of people *do* seem to object about losing a distinction that they've found useful in the past. In answer to your question about inter-NPA local calls, the most common method I've heard of dealing with that situation seems to be the one used in the Washington, DC and Dallas/Fort Worth areas: inter-NPA local calls are ten digits (NPA-NXX-XXXX) while inter-NPA long distance calls are eleven digits (1-NPA-NXX-XXXX). Not surprisingly, this preserves the "1+ means toll" concept. Of course, it also requires that no local exchanges use the same three digits as one of the local NPAs. I foresee eventual problems with that method once NNX area codes start popping up. For example, what will happen if a new overlay area code is needed for Washington, DC? They'll have to pick a code that isn't already used as an exchange in any part of the local calling area (which includes all of 202 in DC, parts of 310 in MD and parts of 703 in VA). No such code may be available, so the telcos might then be forced to renumber one or more local exchange in order to free a code up. Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 04:35:03 GMT In article goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) writes: > But this is hardly a new phenomenon -- plenty of areas that have > always had 1 + 7D for intra-NPA long distance also have various > gradations of "local" calls, using things like special calling areas, > rate bands, message units, etc. For instance, in the Boston area, New > England Telephone offers (or used to offer) a choice of plans. Under > one plan, the subscriber has unlimited local calling only to nearby > towns, and calls to places a little farther away (such as from > Lexington to downtown Boston, say) incur message units. These calls > were still dialed as local calls, since even with the additional costs > they are priced far lower than intra-NPA long distance calls (say, > Boston to Provincetown before the 617/508 split). NET's tariffs in Boston are a case against "1=toll"! Nowadays, the price of a Zone 2 local call (say, Lexington to Boston) is higher, at night, than the price of a direct-dialed business toll call, for a business using more than 50 hours/month (not per line, but per account). Toll is 5.5c/minute with evening discounts; local is about the same but with no discounts. The reason for 1=toll is in the history of technology: On stepper exchanges, it was easy to have dialed 1 connect straight through to a toll office, which would process the remaining digits. Common control exchanges (crossbar and electronic) are smarter, so they can route calls independent of dialed digits. Most residence subscribers think of very expensive toll and free local, but current tariffs actually overlap in odd ways. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Operator From Atlanta (was Re: Interesting 800 Number Response) Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 17:36:13 PDT > A Southern Bell(e) employee? I thought she was from somewhere in the > midwest ... Anybody know who she is? > [Moderator's Note: She is/was not an employee of telco. She is/was > a resident in the area who did the work on a contract basis. PAT] I recall seeing a 20/20 special a few years back on the "voice" of Ma Bell. She was a psychologist from Atlanta (I believe it was Atlanta.) She demonstrated the various inflections in her voice, and explained how the telco wanted particular sounds to convey different messages. It was quite interesting. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 12:21:28 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Re: Operator from Atlanta (was Re:Interesting 800 Number Response) The nice lady is indeed from Atlanta. Her name is Jane Barbee. She is not a telco employee. Bell used an outside vendor, Audichron, also in Atlanta for all professional voice announcements. It was a package deal; Bell told Audichron what the machines were to say and Audichron delivered the machine *and* the voice. The relationship between Audichron and Bell started in the early 70's and continued through divestiture. Miss Barbee's voice was used on all AIS (Automatic Intercept System) machines from the mid-70's through the early 80's. ------------------------------ From: ccoprfm@prism.gatech.edu (Monte Freeman) Subject: Re: Operator From Atlanta (was Re: Interesting 800 Number Response) Date: 27 Aug 93 21:03:10 GMT Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology The lady that I think people here are talking about is indeed still a resident of the Atlanta area. In fact, she is a member of the same amateur radio club that I am. She was nice enough to do some repeater IDs for us. We have them in digital format, stored in our repeater controller. She still sounds a lot like she did when she made the original recordings for Audichron. Sorry, I can't remember her last name and I don't have a club roster in front of me. Her first name is Barbara though ... s e's a very nice lady. One of the long time club members got her to come to a club meeting one night, but didn't tell anyone that she was coming. He introduced her by handing her the podium mic and having her read off a couple of the IDs she had recorded for us. People recognized her voice immediately! It was really quite interesting to hear her talk about the 'old days' of telephony ... Monte Freeman -- Operations Department / Information Technology Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 Internet: ccoprfm@prism.gatech.edu Bitnet: ccoprfm@gitvm1.bitnet [Moderator's Note: See the earlier note. Her name is Jane Barbie. PAT] ------------------------------ From: billc@halcyon.halcyon.com (Bill Campbell) Subject: Re: Operator From Atlanta (Identified!) Date: 27 Aug 1993 14:33:43 -0700 Organization: "A World of Information at your Fingertips" While I do not know her personally, according to the person who conducted corporate training on our corporate (my day job) Octel(tm) Aspen(tm) voice mail system, the ubiquitous voice is that of one Jane Barbie. I don't know any personal details about Jane (the person), but we refer to the system as 'Jane'. Bill Campbell Eagle's Reach Software Engineering Management Consulting ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Modem Tax in Canada Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 10:25:25 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Mark Aiken (cxeo@musica.mcgill.ca) writes: > I've seen rumors cropping up on local BBSs here in Montreal, > Canada that Bell Canada is planning to pass legislation (of some sort) > requiring that any computer for fax users transmitting data at rates > faster than 4800bps lease "data"-grade lines instead of using normal > voice-quality lines. This would mean, for example, that a user of an > ordinary, run-of-the-mill 9600bps unit would be forced to rent an > approx. $60/month line in addition to the regular approx. $15/month > voice line, just to be able to use his/her modem at its highest speed. Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com writes: > Check, for example, the posts of a similar nature, which were traced > abck to two NPRM's put forward by the FCC, here in the states. (The > second came up after the first was so soundly trounced ... and the > second seems to be not a rule in effect, but at least a basis for > future commission policy. I speak of 87-215; the second is 91 something.) > Both these had provisions which, it seems to me, would have required > the local telco's to not only sample for modem traffic, but they would > be taxed, based on the amount of modem traffic they carried ... and of > course that tax would be passed onto the customer. This sprang from the Modem Tax legend, or at least it was an attempt to put some characterization of legitimacy on it. What this was really about was the end of the temporary suspension of network access charges for data carriers. Long distance carriers pay it to the local telcos for terminating their traffic, but the FCC some years ago temporarily suspended the same charges for data carriers. When they tried to reinstate it so that big data carriers paid similar charges to what voice carriers paid, CI$ got the BBS community all riled up by calling it a "modem tax." It never involved anything like monitoring individual lines. It never proposed charging modem users a tax for their non-voice use of the line. All it was about was ending the data carriers free ride in the form of no termination charges. It could be argued that since voice carriers pay access charges for terminating traffic to the regulated LECs, that when CI$ and others get away without paying it, essentially local ratepayers foot the bill because the telephone service cost "pie" of the local regulated telco is divided differently. dixon@fourfold.ocunix.on.ca (dixon kenner) responds: > A recent message implied that Bell Canada was considering requesting > permission from the CRTC to charge for phone lines for modems running > at higher than 4800 baud. Below is a cross post of a message that > appeared in the Region 12 FidoNet sysop newsgroup on this subject. > By: Fred Ennis > To: all > Re: CRTC and Bell > I have spoken to both Bell Canada and the CRTC. The "Bell wants to > force the use of data lines" post is bullshit, pure and simple. There > is no such tariff filing, or any other business pending that is > remotely connected with this. I would also urge anyone who sees such > a post to check it out or send a message back to the author asking for > more information before passing it along to a wider audience. Fidonet > and the internet are famous for being able to spread false information > very quickly, and I am appalled that people will do so without > stopping to think. > I have spoken to Bill Allen, the head of Public Information at the > CRTC, and with Bell Canada's Public Affairs people. I've written about > it in my newspaper column as well. > The thing apparently originated with Martin Ouelette at 167/290.21. > I've asked him for more info and haven't heard a thing back from him. Sounds like the same rumor mongering we have had here in the USA off and on over the past few years. But here's a very interesting twist: A few weeks ago I got a call from an engineer at New Brunswick Telephone Co. in Canada. He was looking for a device that could install in the CO to monitor traffic on individual POTS lines, and automatically determine if the the line was being used for voice instead of fax/data. He looked high and low, but hadn't been able to find such a product. But here is the interesting part: I asked him why he needed this. He said that in New Brunswick (and maybe this is true in other parts of Canada) they have a tarrif which allows them to provide a POTS line AT A LOWER RATE FOR MODEM OR FAX SERVICE ONLY. He wanted some monitoring capability, because they were aware that people were ordering the lower priced fax/modem lines, and using them for voice. So in some areas of Canada, fax/data lines are SUBSIDIZED by other subscribers, rather than subject to a "modem tax"! Of course, now that I have posted this interesting bit of trivia, one of the crowd that loves to revive the modem tax rumor and then argue about telco rate of return and the split of charges and cross subsidies will take this information and cite it was evidence of some major conspiracy to charge modem users more in the future. tad@ssc.com (if it bounces, use 3288544@mcimail.com) Tad Cook Packet Amateur Radio: Home Phone: Seattle, WA KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA 206-527-4089 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 23:39 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Modem Tax in Canada? Organization: I.E.C.C. Can anyone seriously believe that a telco would be so stupid as to try to surcharge every line with a fax? It's hard to imagine any faster way to get every single one of their business customers mad at them and lobbying the CRTC and their legislators to increase regulation to prohibit nonsense like that. FYI, the 1991 "modem tax" was not a repeat of 1987 despite attempts by Compuserve and others to paint it that way. The question was whether telcos should be forced to offer new features to data carriers at POTS rates, or whether their exemption from paying feature group charges only applied to the existing kind of service they had. There was no attempt to make data carriers pay IXC rates as there was in 1987. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #611 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12967; 28 Aug 93 18:29 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19569 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 28 Aug 1993 15:58:04 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19577 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 28 Aug 1993 15:57:16 -0500 Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 15:57:16 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308282057.AA19577@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #612 TELECOM Digest Sat, 28 Aug 93 13:57:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 612 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Steve Dum) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Randal Hayes) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Joe Bergstein) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Suspension of Service (was: Questions About Snail Mail) (Steve Lichter) Re: Suspension of Service (was: Questions About Snail Mail) (John R Levine) Re: AT&T Easylink Annoucement (Les Reeves) Re: Volume Level of Tropez 900DL? (Mike Detlef) Re: CATV Company Announces Connection to the Internet (David H. Close) Re: Calling Canadian 800 Numbers From Outside Canada (Nigel Allen) Re: Cellular Phone Price Samples (Slonim Edwin) Re: Status of Cellular Data (Russell E. Sorber) Re: Looking up Names/Numbers via Internet? (Carl Oppedahl) Re: FCC Equal Access Order (Christian Weisgerber) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sdum@sdum.mentorg.com (Steve Dum) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 18:29:13 GMT Organization: Mentor Graphics > In article TELECOM Moderator wrote: >> AT&T is refusing to hook up a customer of mine ... > Why not have the customer get a second POTS line, and YOU absorb the > cost of that. Then park the new 800 number on the new POTS line. > And, get Call Forwarding from the new POTS line to the existing POTS > line. > [Moderator's Note: Read the earlier messages sir! The customer is on > the east coast; I am in Chicago. Now I should pay for a constant stream > of calls all day to him from a forwarded line here? Even with a line > on his premises I can add what? Three or four cents per minute to the > cost of his calls? I should eat it? PAT] Pat, It would seem that you have lost objectivity here. Are you trying to solve a telecom issue or just irratate AT&T. If the customer installs the second line, and has it forwarded to his first POTS line, the east coast/Chicago issues are not an issue. Also, if you file a complaint, and eventually win, then surely AT&T should fork up for the extra costs to bypass their idiodic behavior. But even here we are talking about $50/month worst case against your 'substantial' revenue for a large customer. Stephen Dum steve_dum@mentorg.com (503)-685-7743 Mentor Graphics Corp. 8005 S.W. Boeckman Rd. Wilsonville, Or 97070-7777 ------------------------------ From: HayesR@uihc-telecomm-po.htc.uiowa.edu Date: 28 Aug 93 11:22 CST Subject: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers If you are dealing with your local AT&T representative, why don't you try calling their Front End Customer Center at 800-328-7639. I've always had good luck with them. I relayed your dilemma to our local AT&T rep and he said AT&T puts 800 services on the same POTS number all the time (at least from what I could describe of your situation). Another possibility is to choose another carrier -- hey, we have 800 portability now; that vanity number can be used under any carrier, so if you can't resolve it with AT&T, choose another carrier. Just some suggestions, for what they're worth. randal-hayes@uiowa.edu ------------------------------ From: Joe.Bergstein@p501.f544.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Bergstein) Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 04:00:14 -0500 Subject: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers > Now I stand to lose the largest customer who has patronized me > to date because AT&T is refusing to route his new 800 (from me, > which I resell from them) to the POTS of his choice. > I keep pursuing this on up the corporate ladder with my next > stop being an appeal to the Chairman's Office to be followed if > needed with a Commission complaint. Of course I have no money or > resources to carry this fight on very long unless some attorney who > practices communications law and knows the ins-and-outs will do it for > me. Pat, What about filing an immediate complaint with the FCC, and submitting a copy to the AT&T Chairman's office? Since your problem seems to be related in some ways to 800 portability, I would think the F.C.C. would be very interested in hearing about AT&T's obstinate stance in refusing to respond to your reasonable request. Joe Bergstein ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 15:01:00 GMT deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) writes: >> I asked them if they had ever heard of the term 'multi-POTS' (which >> is what the termination of multiple 800's on the same line is >> called.) Yes, they said, we heard of it but we are not gonna do it. >> We *will* do it provided *we* get his account on both numbers (old >> existing 800 and new number also). But they won't do it with their >> own number and someone's else's 800. > My hypothesis is that, since the new 800 number is actually being sold > from AT&T's viewpoint to an aggregator and not to Pat's customer, it > appears to the AT&T systems as if it is being sold to a different > customer. Because the various flavors of AT&T 800 services which > terminate to POTS lines use the POTS number as the billing number in > the billing databases, and all the customer records are keyed off the > billing number, I would suspect that it is impossible to have two > different customers with the same billing number. Oh, please. This is AT&T we are talking about. I can accept that GTE in California cannot offer *69 (call return) because their billing software cannot substitute XXXX for the last four digits of a returned call as mandated by the CA PUC. But this is AT&T, and if their Fsoftware cannot allow them to offer a service that is (presumably) tariffed, then they must change their software or come up with some convienient hack to get around this. The question to ask ourselves here is "If Pat's customer was a private business owned by the chairman of AT&T would AT&T find a way to offer this service?" The answer is almost certainly yes. Then AT&T should offer this service to Pat's customer. I cannot believe that it is technically impossible to do. Technically inconvienient, maybe. But if it is tariffed, they have to offer it. I would recommend that you file complaints wherever you can. Sure, you don't have the time to go through the entire process and wait for the FCC to order AT&T to offer the service, but typically, once someone files a complaint, their problems immediately become much more important. I suspect that the publicity here in the Digest (most of which has not been positive toward AT&T) may also result in them suddenly figuring out how this can be set up. > One thing that you have to keep in mind that is not intuitively > obvious is that an aggregator is not "just another carrier" from the > perspective of a service provider. A reseller/aggregator is, from the > service provider's perspective, a customer. That's why they qualify > for volume discounts and such. It also means, though, that there can > be limitations to the services that can be provided. But, in the case of AT&T, those limitations are only what are spelled out in the tariffs. > As I explained above, it can be a technical reason. I don't know for > certain that it *is*, but considering I could come up with one > technical reason after about ten minutes of thought when I don't have > anything to do with 800 services or provisioning, I suspect there are > half a dozen other technical reasons that *could* explain it. Your reason is a billing reason. While that might be considered technical, it seems obvious to me that the switches can handle it. > Finally, Pat, I recognize that being put in a situation where you feel > that you are unable to provide the desired service to your customer > because of what seems to be an arbitrary and capricious decision on > the part of your supplier is extremely frustrating; however, I would > submit that you would be much more likely to get a satisfying answer > if you don't state your concerns in language that implies that AT&T is > a collection of monopolistic, predatory, customer-be-damned villians. Ever since Pat posted his original message, there has been at least two or more messages every day either from Pat or from other Digest subscribers expressing a negative view of AT&T with respect to this matter. Given the circulation of this Digest, I would submit that this kind of publicity might get Pat what he wants. (Of course, it might backfire also, but AT&T's power, as a company that is partially still regulated, is limited). PAT - as a practical matter, how does the per-minute cost of a second line compare with your profit on the 800 number. If it is about the same, you could pay for a second POTS line with calls forwarded to the clients number (the POTS line would be in the same area as your client, of course, to avoid LD charges). Even if you made no profit on this arrangement, it would enable you to show the client that your service works, and then, when your client is ready to drop the AT&T service and cutover to your service, you could eliminate the second POTS line and then begin making a profit. Of course, I agree with you 100% that you should not have to do this (it's AT&T that has the problem, not you), but as a practical business matter, this could possibly be the most profitable route for you to take. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) [Moderator's Note: Look, it was a bit of hyperbole on my part when I said this customer would 'pay the rent'. It is a large account for me, and the commissions would be very helpful, but the addition of lines for forwarding calls, etc and the costs for same and the calls forwarded would essentially eat up *everything* I would make on this, to say nothing of the three months or so I have spent in correspondence and efforts to obtain the desired number. Placement of the account with some other carrier would require payment of the other carrier's rates and I would not be able to get prices as good as Tariff 12, which is what the customer will be paying under my offer. If he wanted other carrier's rates, he would go to other carriers. He will be getting his 800 service *so inexpensively* (like 9-12 cents per minute on average) that any additions to the bill will not make it worth his while to go with me, nor I with him. PAT] ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Suspension of Service (was: Questions About 'Snail Mail') Date: 27 Aug 1993 22:16:54 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) PacBell offers it as I used it during the two week move I made. Also I believe GTECalif offers it, I asked a service rep and she said there was a suspension of service with a setup cost and monthly billing. I would guess that each company would have to file with the regulator for that tariff and would only do so if there was a need and it being cost effective so money can be made on offering it. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 23:50 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Suspension of Service (was: Questions About 'Snail Mail') Organization: I.E.C.C. > Do any LECs still offer suspended service? Most do, although not always at sensible rates. Here in N.J. you can have service suspended for up to seven months for a few bucks a month. After that, the rate goes up to what the phone would have cost had you left it on. They have a distinctive intercept: At the customer's request, 3 6 1 0 5 0 5 has been temporarily disconnected and zcalls are being taken by areacode 6 1 7, 8 6 4, 9 6 5 0. Please make a note of it. In Massachusetts, suspended service costs the same as leaving the phone on, so why bother? Just leave an answering machine with your other number. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 19:48:30 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Re: AT&T Easylink Annoucement Patrick, this has been discussed in the Digest previously but it seems to be getting worse. I receive TELECOM Digest at my AT&T Mail address rather than this one since AT&T Mail does not charge for storage or daytime access. Three dollars per month seems reasonable for a primarily receive only address, but I am beginning to wonder. After two days receiving no mail, today I received issues 601-608 of the Digest. One of these issues was dated Tuesday, making it three days old. Other readers have mentioned this problem with AT&T Mail in the past, but it seems especially ironic since one of the delayed issues featured an annoucement of their great new connections to the Internet. [Moderator's Note: Listen, you are lucky to get this thing at all I suspect. MCI Mail on the other hand still has their strange way of handling mail to a bad address: they dump the whole load for everyone and send it all back undeliverable, forcing me to do a special mailing just for MCI Mail names, of which there are several dozen. Seriously, one person quits using mcimail.com for whatever reason without telling me to delete the name from the list; MCI kills the mailbox; the next issue of the Digest goes out and MCI sees the bad address; Boom! They dump the whole mailing out undelivered, and send me back the list of names saying 'one of these is a bad address'. I then have to edit that part of the mailing list, and remail the issues to the rest of the names. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 19:15:22 EST From: detlef@se01.elk.miles.com (Mike Detlef) Subject: Re: Volume Level of Tropez 900DL? Organization: Miles, Inc. Actually, the Tropez 900DL leaves quite a lot to be desired in the ergonomics department. In about three months of use, I have compiled the following list: 1. Although the downlink audio is pretty good (volume level problem notwithstanding) the u one KHz brickwall filter. I sent mine back and they replaced the mic element. It sounds a little better but ... 2. The keys on the handset require a long downward travel to make contact. If you do not press them EXACTLY perpendicular to the unit, they tend to wobble and produce double digits. 3. The handset gets hot in the region that normally touches your upper cheek area if you attempt to talk for more that several minutes. 4. My unit intermittently refuses to respond to the CHAN (manual channel change) key. I suspect that it's a software bug since this key has a different function on the 900DL than on the older 900DX. Looking inside the unit I see a Motorola 8 bit micro with a handwritten label indicating 900DL. (nothing like robust version control!) 5. The range in my area (flat terrain, single story wood houses) with the base unit mounted to the wall about 5' from the floor is only 300'. That's a far cry from the 1/2 mile claimed on the box and only marginally better than my Sony 10 channel 49 Meg phone. When I sent the unit back originally, I asked about my less than expected range and the drone told me that "we test each unit for 1/2 mile range at the factory". When I asked if that meant that their factory was 1/2 mile long or if the measurement was based on TX output and RX sensitivity she suddenly starteone to explain how NiCads have a memory-effect and that my one week-old battery pack needed to be cycled. I asked why then if my batteries were marginal wasn't the Low Battery LED on. This just seemed to confuse her, but not enough to discourage her from continuing to recommend deep cycling the battery pack. The bottom line is that this is the cheapest ($165) 900 Mhz digital cordless phone out there. Unfortunately, you really do get what you pay for. BTW has anybody out there had any experience with CMI's $400 ESCORT 900 Mhz spread spectrum phone. Mike Detlef | detlef@se01.elk.miles.com | (219) 294-8890 N9JDB | Miles Inc. Diagnostics Division | Elkhart, Indiana 46515 ------------------------------ From: dhclose@cco.caltech.edu (David H. Close) Subject: Re: CATV Company Announces Connection to the Internet Date: 28 Aug 1993 08:01:23 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena LESREEVES@delphi.com writes: > Cable company plans to connect to the Internet. Continental > Cablevision Inc. announces plans to provide a direct linkup to the > Internet, bypassing local phone and other special hookups. {Wall > Street Journal}, "Technology," 8/24/93, p. B1 Speaking with various people today at Interop, I learned that this service is a 10 Mbps (Ethernet speed) connection for up to 300 subscribers per loop. Traffic to you is DES encrypted. The LA Times reports the cost is between $70 and $150 per month. Hints were that other such announcements should be expected soon. Dave Close dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu dave@compata.attmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 06:09:40 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Calling Canadian 800 numbers from outside Canada Organization: Echo Beach Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca If you need to get in touch with a Canadian company and the only means of contact you have for the company is an 800 number, send me e-mail and I'll try to phone the company and pass your message along. Of course, many Canadian 800 numbers are valid from the U.S., but many are not. (By the way, I think that Computing Canada, a tabloid newspaper for the Canadian computer industry, has an 800 number for their suburban Toronto offices that is good only from the U.S. and not from Canada, presumably for the convenience of U.S. advertisers.) If you have a fax number for the company, it is probably better to send your request for information or assistance by fax rather than asking me to relay a message. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: slonim@intel.com (Slonim Edwin) Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Price Samples Date: 28 Aug 1993 11:48:05 GMT Organization: Intel Israel (74) Ltd. Paul Robinson (TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM) wrote: > The following is the current status of some of the pricing for > cellular telephones. All prices quoted are based on a tie-in to take > airtime from one of the local companies. Who cares? I rarely flame but this posting contains no useful information, since the phones are cross-subsidized by the calling plans, and ... Edwin Slonim, Intel Architecture Labs, Haifa, Israel, eslonim@inside.intel.com phone (011)+972-465-5910, fax (011)+972-465-5674 voicemail (916)356-2005 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 06:32:54 CDT From: sorbrrse@sand.rtsg.mot.com (Russell E. Sorber) Subject: Re: Status of Cellular Data Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group In article Jim.Rees@umich.edu writes: > In marginal conditions, with the phone moving, I've been able to get > sustained average throughput of up to about 6 kbps with a standard > v.32 modem over AMPS cellular, although I've also seen it drop to 400 > bps. I haven't tried NAMPS. Motorola has NAMPS customers who, with modem tweaking, are transmitting at 2400bps. This is also the top rated speed for AMPS data transmission (and is the basis for my earlier statement that AMPS and NAMPS work equivalently in this regard). According to the manufacturer, anything faster than 2400 bps is pressing your luck in either the AMPS or NAMPS case. What will really drive cellular data transmission is the marketplace. Currently, according to a market survey published in the July `93 {Cellular Business Magazine}, about 5% of U.S. cellular customers sometimes do data transmission over cellular. Of those who do data tranmission, the data is said to account for about 11% of their billable minutes. The demand is said to be increasing in the future but the current numbers probably look too small for many cellular operating companies to target the data transmitting customer. The major motivation for companies in going to NAMPS or TDMA and eventually CDMA is to relieve congestion and/or increase the number of voice customers that can be billed. Russ Sorber Cellular Software Contractor - Opinions are mine, Not Motorola's! Motorola, Cellular Division Arlington Hts., IL (708) 632-4047 ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Looking up Names/Numbers via Internet? Date: 28 Aug 1993 12:48:58 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Eric Hinson) writes: > I recently found out about a service on CompuServe that allows you to > look up a person by their phone number (as well as other methods). Is > there such a service available on the Internet? If not, are there any > plans that any of you are aware of to implement such a service in the > near future? Thanks. Well, of course you could telnet to Compu$erve and get the information that way ... that's "available on the Internet", right? If you mean, is there a way to get it free, well, no. The companies that build up those databases are not about to give it away for free. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 [Moderator's Note: Carl, isn't it amazing how many people there are reading Usenet News who expect all these massive commercial databases to just be handed over to them ftp-style with no charge at all? You should see some of the inquiries I get here, asking if I know where to obtain database X or database Z via ftp. Some of these dudes don't feel they should have to pay anyone anything, so accumstomed they are to having the newsgroups just handed over freely along with quite a few databases which *are* free. Just because a company or organization has a connection to the Internet does not mean everything they own is in the public domain. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 02:42:10 +0200 From: naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org (Christian Weisgerber) Reply-To: naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org Subject: Re: FCC Equal Access Order In is written: >> Here is the copy of the Equal Access Order which was promised. First > Is there an English translation available? :-> > [Moderator's Note: Do you mean a German translation, or are you making > mock of American bureaucrats and the way they write things in the > hopes no one quite understands for sure what the law is, thus making The latter. How is anybody supposed to read through such a text and understand it? I mean, really grasp its meaning? Not that bureaucrats over here are any different. The E.C. occupies huge flocks of translaters to transfer just this kind of documents. Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@ruessel.sub.org [Moderator's Note: You have to understand that here in the USA it is critical that laws be written in such a way that no one but lawyers can hope to understand them. It is important that ordinary citizens be kept in the dark and generally in violation of some law or another. That's the way citizens here in the USA are kept under control, by assuring that they are law-breakers and mostly ignorant of how to comply with the law. I mean, you do understand why a bunch of citizens able to operate freely and without government intervention and the subsequent need for attorney assistance is a bad idea where the government is concerned, don't you? Consider the *eight thousand* people employed by the Circuit Court of Cook County, IL alone, or the nearly *two thousand* employees of Cook County Jail and the Sheriff's Office here. Do you *really* think they want to see a decrease in crime or an end to to the 'war on drugs'? Where would they work; who's trough would they feed at if suddenly everyone became law-abiding? Ditto the lawyers. You think there might be some vested interest in maintaining the status quo, and keeping otherwise simple concepts and rules very complicated? PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #612 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa13435; 28 Aug 93 22:45 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22501 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 28 Aug 1993 19:25:44 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22258 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 28 Aug 1993 19:24:57 -0500 Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 19:24:57 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308290024.AA22258@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #613 TELECOM Digest Sat, 28 Aug 93 19:24:45 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 613 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson The Telecommunications Survey (Vish Daita) Save the SSC (Super Conducting Super Collider Laboratory Staff) Risks of Cellular Phone on Heart (Seng-Poh Lee) Portable Cellular Station (Dave Leibold) TrueVoice Cumulative Distortion? (Fred R. Goldstein) PAT is Famous :-) (J. Philip Miller) What Is NetView/6000? (guide!editor@uunet.uu.net) Prodigy Testing Internet Feed (Kevin G. Fowler) Caller ID Docs - Bell Canada (Robert Schwartz) PEI Phones (Dave Leibold) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu (Vish Daita) Subject: The Telecommunications Survey Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 21:27:19 -0500 Dear Telecommunications Officer: As a telecommunications officer, you are faced with many far more job complexities than many information systems and educational profess- ionals realize. Although industrial and academic efforts are inc- reasing to provide support in helping you deal with those complex- ities, confusion still remains regarding how to meet your needs. I am conducting a survey of telecommunications officers that explores the value of task or knowledge areas thought to be essential for success in telecommunications management. The survey instructions ask you, the person in the best position to render judgement, to rate the importance of these job-related items in your role as a manager of telecommunications. Would you help in this effort by answering the survey questions? The results of the study will be reported in group form only, and individual responses will in no way be identified with specific companies or officers. Please take a few minutes to contribute to this study by completing the survey and returning it, preferably, by E-mail. Please respond by September 10, 1993. Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Vish Daita MBA Program - Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK 74078-0555 email: vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu Telecommunications Engineers'/Managers' Survey The demographic data requested below is important in profiling the respondents of the survey. Please answer the following questions by placing an "x" in the appropriate space. Company Information: 1. What is the primary business purpose of your firm? Finance (Banking, Insurance, Securities, Credit, Real Estate) : Government (Military, Federal, State, Municipal) : Service (Telecommunications, Business, Education, Medical, Legal): Manufacturing : Other: (please specify) 2. In what geographic area are you currently working? Eastern (CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT) : Southern (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV) : Mountain Plains (CO, KS, ND, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, WY) : Western (AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR, UT, WA) : Other Country: (please specify) Personal Information 1. What is your specific job title? 2. Where was the majority of your telecommunications training received? (Check one) On-the-job (including seminars, workshops, etc.): Telephone company : Military : Vocational Training : College/University : 3. Have you had any additional telecommunications training? No: Yes: If yes, please check all that apply: On-the-job (including seminars, workshops, etc.): Telephone company : Military : Vocational Training : College/University : 4. What is the highest level of education that you have completed? Doctoral degree : Master's degree : Some graduate-level education : Four-year baccalaureate degree : Associate's degree : Some college : Vocational certificate program : No college or certificate program: 5. If you earned a baccalaureate degree, what was the specialty of that degree? Business : Liberal Arts : Information Systems/Data Processing : Computer Science : Engineering : Telecommunications : Other (please specify) : 6. Please list your LAST FIVE job positions from the earliest to the most recent. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 7. Within what approximate range is your current annual salary? $19,999 or less : $20,000 - $39,999 : $40,000 - $59,999 : $60,000 - $79,000 : $80,000 - $99,999 : $100,000 or more : Request for Survey Results: Would you like a copy of the results of this questionnaire? No: Yes: Send to: Address: -------------------------------- Job-Related Tasks and Knowledge Opinionnaire Instructions: Please rate the following job-related items based on your perceptions of their importance to your present role in your organization. Rank the items based on the following scale: ___________________________________________________________________________ Not Important: 1; Of Little Importance: 2; Somewhat Important: 3; Important: 4; Very Important: 5 ___________________________________________________________________________ Rank ___________________________________________________________________________ In my current position, it is important that I be able to.... 1. Evaluate hardware/software maintenance agreements 2. Use management tools in decision making (such as modeling) 3. Establish network security measures 4. Optimize voice communications 5. Select new telecommunications products that will be the most beneficial to my organization 6. Forge good vendor relationships 7. Promote a working relationship with MIS/Data Processing 8. Recruit qualified people 9. Prepare documentation for senior management 10. Minimize the cost of data communications 11. Cost-justify communications projects 12. Manage a multivendor communications system 13. Manage personnel In my position, it is important that I understand.... 14. Tariffs 15. Traffic engineering and network design 16. Worker concerns for job security 17. PBX technology and applications 18. Protocols and interfaces 19. Financial analysis 20. Daily operations of networks 21. Network management problems and procedures 22. Telecommunications regulations, policies, and the law 23. New technology and applications 24. Strategic challenges of the job 25. Local network cabling and implementation It is also important for me to understand.... 26. Implementation of office automation technology 27. The regulation framework for ISDN 28. Open Systems Interconnection 29. Communications equipment operation 30. The status and development of fiber optics in local exchange networks 31. Concepts of measured usage 32. Company objectives and policies 33. Existing common carrier services 34. Current issues at state and federal regulatory bodies 35. Fiber optic installation 36. End-user requirements In my organization, it is important that I be able to.... 37. Make equipment procurement decisions 38. Manage voice communications 39. Motivate employees 40. Optimize data communications 41. Evaluate the physical, data-link, and network layers of communications systems protocol hierarchy 42. Budget communications projects 43. Design networks 44. Negotiate with vendors 45. Develop RFPs (Requests for Proposals) 46. Obtain support of top management 47. Evaluate equipment and network services 48. Select vendors 49. Manage data communications 50. Design and develop communications projects THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE WITH THIS SURVEY (Developed by: Roberta Irene Ackerson) -------------------- Vish Daita E-mail: vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu ------------------------------ From: ssc1@cse.uta.edu (Super Conductor Super Collider 1) Subject: Save the SSC Organization: Computer Science Engineering - Univ of Texas at Arlington Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 18:06:58 GMT The Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory was established to investigate the fundamental nature of matter and energy. It is one of the greatest scientific instruments ever to be constructed on the face of the earth. The knowledge we gain from the SSC is essential to maintaining the continued leadership position of the US in Science and Technology. In June, the House voted to cut funding for the SSC due to problems with the management of the construction. The Senate is due to consider voting in September. At a time when such projects like the Helium Fund (begun after the World War I to ensure sufficient Helium supplies in case the US was in a Blimp Air war!!) continue to be funded, cutting funds for a venture like the SSC that holds such promise for the coming century is detrimental to the future of the country. The congressional vote to cut funds for the SSC comes at a time when there is a strong challenge to the leadership role of the US in science and technology. It is not farfetched to say that Physics gave rise to Electrical Engineering and to Computer Science. Which country would have pioneered Computers Science had it not been for the Physics Nobel laureate Dr. John Bardeen? Were not major contributions to Nuclear Science made by Particle Physicists? We feel that the Senate should seize this opportunity to reset priorities for the nation that will ensure continued funding for the SSC. Let us send a strong message to the world that we are determined to remain pioneers in the quest for knowledge. What You Can Do Here is a chance for you to stand up and speak. Make your voice heard. If you are willing to support this campaign, reply to this message and we will forward to you the phone numbers of your senators, the e-mail address of the President and Vice President and you can stand up and be counted as one of those who helped make this adventure in science a success. ------------------------------ From: lee@gdc.com (Seng-Poh Lee) Subject: Risks of Cellular Phone on Heart Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 23:31:51 EDT Organization: General DataComm Ind. Inc., Middlebury, CT There's a lot of talk about handheld cellular phone causing/not causing brain tumours, etc, but no one seems to be concerned about the effect of the phone on heart tissue. A lot of newer phones are actually small enough to keep in your shirt pocket, right by your heart. Granted, the phone does not transmit all the time in the idle mode, but doesn't it check in once in a while? And what about when you receive an incomming call? At that time, the antenna is only a few inches from your heart while it is transmitting. Perhaps this should be cross-posted to sci.med as well, but what are the potential effects of RF on heart tissue? Seng-Poh Lee Internet: Work: splee@gdc.com General DataComm Ind. Inc. Alt : splee@pd.org Middlebury, CT splee@gnu.ai.mit.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 11:30:30 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Portable Cellular Station [from Bell News, Bell Quebec 23 Aug 93] Emergency Situations Bell Mobility Cellular introduces first mobile cellular station. On August 16, Bell Mobility Cellular introduced the first mobile cellular station in Canada. Built at a cost of $1.7 million, the telecommunications station, which links cellular and satellite technologies, will be used by governments, municipalities and major corporations involved in responding to emergency situations, natural disasters or major catastrophes. The mobile cellular station, which is the size of a trailer, can be transported by road, air, rail and ship and was designed to operate under extreme weather conditions. The station will be used in regions where no cellular coverage is available and in fringe areas of the cellular network. Four technicians will set up the station and its cellular and satellite transmission equipment at the disaster site. The programming will be carried out from Montreal. Once in place, the station will operate automatically. The mobile cellular station is the work of Bell Mobility Cellular's Direction des mesures d'urgence (DMU), a specialized group created in 1990 to develop, manage and deploy the emergency resources and applications of mobile communications. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: TrueVoice Cumulative Distortion? Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 05:13:50 GMT I think my reply to a previous string on this topic was lost among other articles a couple of days ago ... but anyway, I have a concern about AT&T's TrueVoice. (Or is it "TruVoice, we make your voice sound like Truman Capote"? ;-] ) Since it operates by boosting the bass in the echo canceller, which occurs on every LD call, what happens to a conference call? Take, for instance, the conference bridge that Pat and I used for our appearance on last week's Spectrum radio program. If TrueVoice were in use, then our voices would have been bass-boosted going in to the bridge, then bass-boosted again going OUT of the bridge. Likewise for a three-way call in a PBX or CO. All of that distorted bass energy might make every conference call have the swell sound quality that I heard on the bridge after the show was over. The radio station or somebody started playing "Fish Heads" by Barnes and Barnes, many dB over the top, resulting in 90% or so distortion. Eat them up, yum! Al Varney complains that our anti-distortion position is a form of luddism, as if we preferred tube amps to more modern transistors or something. In fact, tube amps sell at a premium nowadays because they have lower distortion than cheap transistor amps, but that's irrelevant. The goal of a transmission system -- hey AT&T Communications, remember what business you're in! -- should be low distortion. Not second-guessing what kind of microphone I _might_ be using. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Subject: PAT is Famous :-) Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 15:52:07 CDT I presume you saw this, but thought it neat that you are recognized as an authority on such ... phil From: newsbytes@clarinet.com Newsgroups: clari.nb.telecom Subject: US Remains Option For International Calls 08/27/93 Date: 27 Aug 93 19:52:37 GMT CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1993 AUG 27 (NB) -- Routing calls between nations through the US in order to get lower rates remains a viable option despite moves to reduce tariffs, according to Patrick Townson of Chicago. Townson wrote Steve Gold of Newsbytes to report on Telepassport, which aims to do just this. He notes that calls between the US and UK cost about 50 cents per minute, but can then proceed to other countries. Like its competitors, Telepassport uses a technique called "re-origination," in which calls are first fed to the US, then re-started in order to get US rates on both legs of the call. According to Townson, this can cut costs up to 50 percent. "For example, a five minute call from Italy to the US handled and billed by the PTT [postal telephone and telegraph] would cost $11.40," he writes. "Using Telepassport, the cost for the same call would be $6.84. "A five-minute call from Brazil to the United Kingdom costs $18.95 through the Brazilian PTT, but only $10.84 using Telepassport." He said nations are required by international treaties to respect Telepassport's right to operate and compete, although the company must compensate local PTTs' for use of their lines as part of the normal international settlement process. Townson also addressed objections by AT&T to the practice. "AT&T has raised objections when certain companies it suspected were marketing a callback system filed for FCC authorization to carry international traffic. In their objections they complained that callback systems were illegally using carriers' facilities to signal for the callback and thereby avoiding payment of the tariffed rates for usage. In fact, the tariffs are specifically set not to charge for uncompleted calls so there is no avoidance of payment. AT&T's own answering machine product, 'The Toll Saver' is designed not to answer a call if there are no messages on the machine, thus signalling such to the caller without him incurring a charge. There are several other examples of security systems, energy devices, etcetera, which use the telephone for signalling without payment." Telepassport requires its own accounts on all users, but users can call from any phone. Subscribers call Telepassport's number in New York, let the phone ring twice, then hang up and wait for a call-back, at which point the authorization numbers and security codes are input, followed by the number the user wants to reach, including its country code. The system works using computers inside a phone switch, and a variety of languages can be chosen for prompts. The system also offers voice mail, messaging forwarding, and phone home services similar to AT&T's Easy Reach 700 offering. The service can also be used by international businesses to offer toll-free lines to US customers. Rates have three components. There's an access charge, per call, an initial charge for call set-up, and a per-minute charge. The initial charge applies only when the US is used as an intermediary, with calls being routed through it to third countries. The access charge is usually remitted to a foreign PTT. For users, the biggest risk lies in the method of payment, US dollars. If the value of a local currency falls against the dollar between the time a call is made and billed, it will cost more than otherwise. Billing is by credit card, either Master Card, Visa or American Express. (Dana Blankenhorn/19930823/Press Contact: Patrick Townson; e-mail, ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu) ------------------- J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110 phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - (314) 362-3617 [362-2693(FAX)] ------------------------------ From: guide!editor@uunet.UU.NET (editor) Subject: What Is NetView/6000? Date: 27 Aug 93 09:14:02 GMT Reply-To: guide!editor@uunet.UU.NET Organization: Guidepost, Inc. Hi, What is NetView/6000? I've heard it was basically some HP snmp package that IBM licensed and added some value to. I am very interested in general as well as detailed info, so anything you know ... Thanks a lot! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 16:47:28 EDT From: TMVF52A@prodigy.com (MR KEVIN G FOWLER) Subject: Prodigy Testing Internet Feed Well, Prodigy is starting to test its Internet connection, and if you received this, it's working. Here's the letter I received asking me to join the test: FREE SOFTWARE FOR COMMUNICATORS! PRODIGY members will soon have at their fingertips a variety of ways to communicate. They'll be able to send messages and files to PRODIGY members, E-mail to members of other online services, faxes and US Postal Service letters via PRODIGY. They'll be using Mail Manager, a utility that lets them write, read and organize messages without being connected to PRODIGY. I'm inviting members like you, who enjoy communicating via the PRODIGY service, to try Mail Manager during a Limited Release test over the next few weeks. To become a tester, read the screens which follow LOOK and sign up for both Mail Manager and the Internet. Once you've signed up for Mail Manager you will be able to download the Mail Manager software and install it on your PC. Download should take about 27 minutes at 2400 bps, 8 minutes at 9600. During the Limited Release there is no fee for sign up and download of the Mail Manager software. Fees will apply for any messages you send using the offline software: PRODIGY E-mail, Internet E-mail, faxes, US Postal Service letters and files. Print information about fees on the screens that follow to keep as a reference. We recognize that adopting new ways of communicating via PRODIGY may be easy for some members and more difficult for others. If you sign up for the software and the test, we'll follow up with a questionnaire in about three weeks to see how you're doing. All we ask in return for the free software is your feedback. It's important to us. As always, our Membership Services team is ready to answer your questions and provide advice during the Limited Release. For assistance, call 1-800-PRODIGY. If you prefer to send a message to membership services, Jump: membership services and select "Using the PRODIGY service". --------------- kevinf@wendan.rain.com TMVF52A@prodigy.com ? ------------------------------ From: r.schwartz18@genie.geis.com Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 04:57:00 BST Subject: Caller ID Docs - Bell Canada I have been trying to track down Caller ID specs for the Bell Canada territory for the past year and a half. I did order the spec sheets from Bell Core, but they are not the same as in use by Bell Canada. In a recent FAQ from the Telecom Digest, I note that they quote a source for getting the "Canadian" version of the CID specs from Stentor, and it was free. This is not the case. In fact, not only is it not free, but it costs plenty!! First, here are the details for getting documents from Stentor (changed since the last FAQ that I read): In Canada call: 1-800-265-6608 (voice mail, they call you back next day). Worldwide: (613)781-6816 or FAX: (613)781-6454 or write to: Stentor Resource Centre Inc. Director - Interface Standards Research Suite 480, 160 Elgin Street Ottawa, Ontario K1G 3J4 Caller ID documents are: ID-0001 CALL MANAGEMENT SERVICE (CMS) ID-0012 ENHANCED CALL MANAGEMENT SERVICE (ECMS) The cost is $50.00(CAN). Each. Here is where I get upset. I can call Bellcore (toll free from Canada), and order Caller ID documents, which they cheerfully send to me for FREE (last time I called). But if I want to develope Caller ID software for use in the Bell Canada territory, I have to send Stentor $50.00 so that they can lick a 43 cent stamp! This is totally ridiculous and an embarrassment to the Canadian Telecommunications Industry. If anyone can help me with the specifications for Bell Canada's Caller ID, I would like to hear from you. Please e-mail me at: r.schwartz18@genie.geis.com (I've been having problems receiving the TELECOM Digest, so e-mail is the best way to reach me) Thanks, Robert Schwartz ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 15:45:40 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: PEI Phones Telephones in the smallest Canadian province, Prince Edward Island are operated by Island Tel. With approximately 130,000 people in the province, there aren't that many lines to be serviced, and many of these would be for a rural population. PEI shares NPA 902 with Nova Scotia, considering the few NXX (central office codes) needed. While being a tourist in PEI, I spotted some Island Tel reps in the Confederation Centre Mall in Charlottetown (the provincial capital and the only city) plugging recently installed CMS/CLASS features such as Call Return, Call ID, etc. With such technology, calling features are comparable to the rest of North America. An old (1930) exchange/work building can be spotted on Queen Street in downtown Charlottetown. I don't know if they have the city's central office in there, though that would be unusual considering the building has many windows. ANAC/number readback is done by dialing 711 (at least in Charlottetown). Don't dial 211; this reaches the infamous "line killer" which gives a very irregular busy signal, then once hung up on, cuts all power to the line for a minute or two. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #613 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09834; 29 Aug 93 14:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30985 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 29 Aug 1993 11:58:25 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31015 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 29 Aug 1993 11:57:38 -0500 Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 11:57:38 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308291657.AA31015@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #614 TELECOM Digest Sun, 29 Aug 93 11:57:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 614 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: What's Difference: Fiber to Home; Curb and Hybrid Fiber/Coax (M Cnota) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Al Varney) Re: Modem Transmissions Over One Way Radio (David Breneman) Re: Portable Terminal Needed (David Breneman) Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem (Paul Robinson) Re: AT&T Announces New Internet Connectivity (Gregory Youngblood) Re: Email <-> Telex (Paul Robinson) Re: Free French Phone Information From Publiphone (Frank Keeney) Re: Looking For a Book on ATM (Mark A. Cnota) Re: Operator from Atlanta (was Re:Interesting 800 Number (Marvin Hoffman) Re: CATV Company Announces Connection to the Internet (John Kennedy) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (David Breneman) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (Ethan Miller) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (Scott Fybush) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mac@rci.chi.il.us (Mark A. Cnota) Subject: Re: What's Difference: Fiber to Home; Curb and Hybrid Fiber/Coax Organization: Ripco Communications Incorporated Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 01:15:13 GMT Liron Lightwood (r.lightwood@trl.oz.au) wrote: > I've been reading about the future networks the cable TV companies and > telcos want to set up for video on demand, interactive TV, etc. I'm > getting a little confused about the various terms used for the various > kinds of networks. > Could someone please tell me the difference between: > Fiber to the home, > Fiber to the curb. > Hybrid fiber/coax network. I can expound on the telco applications of fiber. I would imagine for cable tv it isn't too much different. Fiber to the home is pretty much what it sounds like. It only gets confusing when you compare and contrast it to "fiber to the curb." Leaving the central office, the fiber will terminate first at a "remote terminal" in either an underground vault or large above-ground cabinet. These eletronics will multiplex the optical signal down to several of a more useable level. This is a more efficient use of bandwith as well as making the far-end muxes cheaper because they have a "slower" signal to deal with. In the past these types of cabinets and vaults used SLC-96 technology to give us derived copper facilities, but instead now we have fiber coming OUT also. The fiber coming out of these multiplexers can be used either of two ways. One is to terminals in pedstals or on poles, which would feed two to six houses each. This is what is called "fiber to the curb." Depending on what type of service you are providing, you either coax or copper drop wire will go from the terminal to the subscribers house. The other option is for the fiber to be passively split and go directly into each subscribers house. The latter, of course, offers much more capability for broadband services such as video on demand, interactive information services, etc. even though this can be done over short pieces of coax to a limited extent also. This also brings up another real interesting point with a lot of varying opinions. As just about everyone knows, copper telephone service has always been line powered. That is, you have never had to supply your own power in order for a regular telephone to work. Even when the power goes out, you ALWAYS have telephone service, because the central office has deisel backup and batteries to back up the deisel. Another interesting point is they also have deisel generators on semi-truck trailers in case the deisel generator at the central office fails, because the batteries aren't meant to last for a real long time. The "remote terminals" used for derived copper service have always had battery backups, and they aren't THAT widely used so there haven't been a lot of problems with lost power. Here comes fiber to the curb/home. All fiber electronics need an external power source. In fiber to the curb, Ameritech's solution is to bury telco-type 22 ga. cable in the same trench and make the optical terminals powered from the commercial power source at the remote terminal. If you want to go one step further and bring fiber to the home, the only feasible way is for the subscriber to supply the power for the multiplexing unit. Now if you lose commercial power, you have no telephone service. You can make a battery backup but that gets expensive really fast, not to mention having to test and maintain it. What is happening is a lot of people are knocking "fiber to the curb/home" because it gives up a certain reliability factor that has always been associated with telephone service. Are people willing to give up the reliability of POTS for new technology? What other solutions have been discussed by other AOC's or vendors? Mark A. Cnota / Outside Plant Engineering, Ameritech ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 16:10:15 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Organization: AT&T In article David A. Cantor writes: > I propose we eliminate the ambiguity and invent the One and Only > Obviously Unambiguous Uniform Digit Dialing Plan (the OOOUUDDP): > First, eliminate all 7D dialing (and also 8D dialing, of course). > Now, all country code 1 calls should be dialled with an access code + > ten digits. The access code would be 1+ or 0+, and we would continue > to use 10xxx+ as a prefix for choosing a carrier. We could also > continue using 01+ and 011+ for out-of-country calls, but, best of > all, if we agree never to use the digit 1 as the first digit in an > area code, we can eliminate the need for 1+ entirely, and dial all > station-to-station calls as simply NXX-NXX-XXXX, whether their local > or long distance. A leading 1+ would be optional, and it could be > optional even if a carrier selection code is used. (Gee, we don't > need the "office code" to be restricted to 2-9 anymore, either, we > could make it NXX-XXX-XXXX. That might save some area code splits.) > Okay, how do I go about proposing this to the proper authorities? You don't have to, David. The "authorities" (the current North American Numbering Plan Administrator) have already suggested the desirability of a uniform ten-digit numbering plan sometime in the future. If new NPAs are allocated as planned by the Administrator, there will be no NPA "splits" -- instead, new NPAs will overlay existing ones. Over time, your next door neighbor could have a "foreign" NPA (compared to your own lines). If many of your calls are to such NPAs, you can "save digits" by dropping the 1+ on foreign NPAs, and adding your NPA to intra-NPA calls. This also opens up the 1+ leading digit for other indications, in addition to the existing 10XXX (soon to be 101XXXX). Of course, 1+ for "toll" would block such new applications of 1+. Also, since the NANPA has asked to be replaced, the replacement may have other plans for NPAs. Al Varney ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@epsilon.eecs.nwu.edu (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Modem Transmissions Over One Way Radio Date: 28 Aug 93 20:42:16 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA Alfredo Cotroneo (A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it) wrote: > I am going to experiment with TX only data transmissions using standard > modems (e.g. ZyXel/USR Robotics) over a one way radio link. I just > wonder if that would be possible at all with which parameter(s) > setting since there will be no modem on the other side of the line to > *negotiate* the protocol with. Try one (if there's more than one) of the ham radio groups. RTTY (radio teletype) transmissions used to be a hot pursuit (right up there with slow-scan television) up until about ten years ago. The only difference would be the speed -- but if you're intent on using one of these Dern Newfangled modem protocols that *require* negotiation, you may be it trouble. David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Portable Terminal Needed Date: 28 Aug 93 21:08:51 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA Vance Shipley (vances@xenitec.on.ca) wrote: > I'm looking for a low priced portable data terminal that will do 2400 > baud or better, light weight and cheap. If you know who might > manufacture such a beastie please let me know. > So far I've looked at the Panasonic KX-D4930 but was not very > impressed (1200 baud, heavy and expen$ive). The TI Travel Mate ??220 is pretty good. Not sure about the model. It's something like LT220 or LV220. Anyway, it's a VT-220 emulating LCD terminal with a built-in 2400 buad Hayes compatible modem. These came out about three or four years ago. I used one for three years (at a former employer -- that's why I can't just look at it to get the number). When they first hit the market they were about two grand -- but during the two months we had it for a trial it had two price drops and eventually cost about $1400, so I'm sure they're less now. It also has a DB-9 serial port to connect it directly to a computer, and the battery lasts about four hours between chargings. It's about the size of a small laptop computer. Very durable and trouble-free. (TI has been making portable terminals for a long time. Their first model (before LCD screens) had a thermal printer - sort of a laptop teletype!) David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 09:26:40 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Should I Get a Separate Line For Modem From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Russell Sharpe , writes: >> Rajappa Iyer writes: >> What are the pros and cons of using the same telephone number for >> the modem and voice? I really don't want to miss calls while I am >> the modem. Would call waiting help? Any input on this will be appr >> iated. > We have a facility in New Zealand called 1 + 1 (one voice + one > voice). > It is usually used when Telecom has run out of cable pairs. > Basically it consists of a physical POTS line with a high pass > filter (>10kHz) and a carrier, a POTS line modulated up 10kHz. > Two pieces of equipment, effectively CODECS (Coder/Decoder), are > needed, one at the switch site, and one at the customers premises. In the United States, that feature (1+1) is called "Subscriber Carrier" and is considered, as Samuel Johnson mislabelled Patriotism, "The last refuge of a scoundrel." Subscriber Carrier implies either that the phone company can't or won't put more pairs in an area. If they can't because the locals don't want overhead wiring, or the customer wants a second phone line and he's on a rural service with two miles of wire out to his site, that's one thing. If it's an excuse not to add more pairs in a large city, *that* is inexcusable. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Subject: Re: AT&T Announces New Internet Connectivity From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 18:02:53 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems tmplee@TIS.COM (Theodore M.P. Lee) writes: > Does anyone have any representative pricing information? Details on > exactly what kind of connection you get when you dial 950-1ATT? > (straight terminal? Slip/PPP? X25? or what?) Is the internet > "connectivity" competitive with other providers of dial-up access? Where would a person call in AT&T to find out this information? Greg TCS Computer Systems AT&T Easy Reach Number 25799B Madrone Drive (707)489-7500 0-700-TCS-0000 Willits, CA 95490 Personal: zeta@tcscs.com Information: info@tcscs.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 22:26:50 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Email <-> Telex From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA JOHN.D.GRETZINGER@sprint.sprint.com belched out the following: > Paul Robinson writes in part: >>> I'm trying to learn if anyone offers a (two-way) gateway between >>> Telex and Internet Email. >> The only reasonably priced service for this is MCI Mail. >> AT&T Mail (Easylink) raised its rates for a telex number >> from an expensive $29 per month plus usage, to a whopping >> $99 per month plus usage. > Sprint offers the ability to send and receive TELEX messages > as a part of it's SprintMail offering. Naturally, there is a > charge for this, but it is there. I like MCI Mail. I signed up for AT&T Mail under the username of TDARCOS (naturally), since it was only $3 a month. I found the service less than impressive and dropped it later. But to get an incoming telex number from AT&T Mail required I buy an Easylink account which is $29 a month. I wanted to try Sprintmail. They don't bill individuals, they only accept credit cards, and with a minimum monthly usage (I think it was at least $25 a month) PLUS they charge you 5c/K to READ mail AS WELL AS SEND IT. And an incoming Telex number was the same thing as AT&T - an extra 30 bucks a MONTH. Compare this with the rates from both AT&T and MCI Mail: no charge to receive mail. Monthly rate is essentially $3 a month (with MCI Mail billing the whole year in advance, e.g. $35). Sending mail is about the same price on all three systems, with neither AT&T nor MCI charging to receive mail. MCI gives a free incoming telex number and AT&T charges (now $99 a month) for an incoming telex number. > If a person/company needed enhanced electronic mail capabilities, > this might be worth a look. Signing up for SprintMail just to be > able to occasionally send/receive TELEX is probably not cost > justifiable. Using Sprintmail *at all* is NOT COST JUSTIFIABLE unless a place has a long-establisbed account that cannot be moved or has a long term contract. Both AT&T and MCI Mail provide much better rates than Sprint. If someone needs to send an occational telex, if they have service on any commercial service they can use that; Compuserve has outgoing telex service, and if you can get the correspondent to put your account number in the first line of the telex, an account on Compuserve can receive via Compuserve's telex number. For anyone receiving any number of telexes a year, MCI Mail is the least expensive service there is. At $35 a year, nobody else with $25 a month charges can come close. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: frank@calcom.socal.com (Frank Keeney) Reply-To: frank@calcom.socal.com Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 10:01:28 -0800 Subject: Re: Free French Phone Information From Publiphone On Aug 14 17:36, Alan Phipps wrote: > I'm looking, right now, for a Minitel access number in France. Can > you help me out? On my last trip to France I purchased some Minitel related magazines hoping to call some of the services from the U.S. Unfortunatly you cannot call these numbers from out side of France. They are like a U.S. 900 number you can only dial them from within the country. There is a Gateway to the Minitel system in New York city called Minitel U.S.A. which allows Minitel services on one of the packet switched networks. Frank Keeney E-mail frank@calcom.socal.com 115 W. California Blvd., #411 Fidonet 1:102/645 Pasadena, CA 91105-1509 USA UUCP hatch!calcom!frank FAX +1 818 791-0578 Voice Mail +1 818-791-0578 x402 ------------------------------ From: mac@rci.chi.il.us (Mark A. Cnota) Subject: Re: Looking For a Book on ATM Organization: Ripco Communications Incorporated Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 01:19:41 GMT Ramon Alanis (ramona@teleride.on.ca) wrote: > I am looking for a good book on ATM, SONET and related topics. > Any sugestions? The book by Toni Childs that can be ordered out of the postcard insert in every copy of {Telephony} is a pretty good overview on Sonet. It's written intelligently, but doesn't require a lot of specialized knowledge. The information is well organized. The book, however, is a little expensive for its size. From memory I think it's about 80 pages, approximately 8" x 6", and runs about $35 excluding shipping. She goes straight to the point so the 80 pages are well used, and I would still consider it worth the money if you want to start learning Sonet. ------------------------------ From: HOFFMANMK@conrad.appstate.edu (Marvin Hoffman) Subject: Re: Operator from Atlanta (was Re:Interesting 800 Number Res Date: 28 Aug 1993 18:52:40 GMT Organization: APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY In LESREEVES@delphi.com writes: > Miss Barbee's voice was used on all AIS (Automatic Intercept System) > machines from the mid-70's through the early 80's. Unless it has been changed in the past year, her voice also identifies the amateur repeater on Stone Mountain outside Atlanta. So much more pleasant than the clipped male synthesize voice on most repeaters. Marv Hoffman, KD4EGV Appalachian State University Boone, NC ------------------------------ From: warlock@CSUChico.EDU (John Kennedy) Subject: Re: CATV Company Announces Connection to the Internet Date: 29 Aug 1993 02:55:55 GMT Organization: California State University, Chico In article , David H. Close wrote: > Speaking with various people today at Interop, I learned that this > service is a 10 Mbps (Ethernet speed) connection for up to 300 > subscribers per loop. Traffic to you is DES encrypted. ... I talked to people at Hybrid Networks, Inc at INTEROP about a similar (if not the same) service. They estimated that up to 200 people/cable TV channel would be a good range to figure on, with the possibility of multiple channels being in use, if the cable-company willing. Apparently it was originally designed for some government applications and they are going to make it available to the public, as well. They had a sbus card for a sun computer, and a generic ethernet interface (and maybe a token ring, I forget) for everyone else. They said they planned to make more specialized cards for other computers in the future, but for the short run they were trying to make a product that everyone could use. Right now, you have to buy equipment with DES encryption (because of it's government origins). They'll have a less expensive solution in the future that lets you leave out the encryption hardware. The trick about this solution is, of course, that cable is one-way. In Hybrid's version, they used a modem to transmit the "return" data. They're assuming, of course, that most of the traffic will be going _to_ the user's home computer, with only small amounts of data being transmitted out to the cable/internet side. IE, telnet keystrokes, ACK/NAKs for file transfers, etc. In the example at INTEROP, they were using what looked like a combinet bridge with two ISDN channels being used and they were getting up to 5Mbits/sec on FTP file transfers. I didn't have the opportunity to field strip their showroom demo to see how they had that hooked up. (: If you were on a loop with up to 300 people each trying to use a lot of bandwidth, your throughput will obviously be _much_ less. ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms Date: 28 Aug 93 20:14:37 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA > [Moderator's Note: WENR was the former call sign for the television > station on Channel 7 here about 40 years ago in the early 1950's. WLS Deletions ... > They bought a lot of stuff from the ABC network such as several radio > soap operas during the day and they also got stuff from the Mutual > Network. Starting at six a.m. on Sunday morning and continuing for the Deletions ... Are you referring to the *original* ABC Network, or the *former* NBC Red Network (the current ABC Network)? David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 [Moderator's Note: So far as I know, and this is a guess, they got stuff from what we refer to as the current ABC Network. I vaguely recall as a child they carried stuff they referred to as that network and that would have been in the middle 1950's, long after 'Red' was gone. Which network carried the 'National Barn Dance' program? I guess that was either ABC (as we know it now) or Mutual. I can't remember. PAT] ------------------------------ From: elm@cs.berkeley.edu (ethan miller) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms Date: 29 Aug 93 10:27:06 Organization: Berkeley--Shaken, not Stirred Reply-To: elm@cs.berkeley.edu In article TELECOM Moderator noted: (whether WACO is the only station whose callsign matches the city it is located in) ... > [Moderator's Note: Will anyone challenge Mr. Cornutt on this? Let's > get our radio station call-sign books out everyone, and begin the > search. PAT] WARE in Ware, MA (though Ware is hardly a large city). ethan miller--cs grad student elm@cs.berkeley.edu #include [Moderator's Note: Good thinking! Any others? PAT] ------------------------------ From: fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 23:39:39 GMT As the unofficial historian of rec.radio.broadcasting, and the official historian of *SPECTRUM* (nice show, PAT!), I feel compelled to note station WARE-1250 AM in Ware, Massachusetts, as another station whose calls spell the city of license. Also, PAT, WIND (AM) Chicago _did_ begin its broadcast career with its city of license in Gary. Check any callbook from before the mid-30s or so. WIND was for many years owned by my employer, Westinghouse Broadcasting, which has also at times owned KYW (AM) Chicago (1921-1934) and WMAQ (AM) Chicago (1988-present). Scott Fybush - fybush@world.std.com [Moderator's Note: Westinghouse had WIND back in the 1960-70 era. Do you know who owned the station before that? Regards its Gary origin, did they ever have actual studios and offices there, or just the transmitter and antennnas? Gary, IN has an interesting origin and history in itself. Originally all the land that comprises the city of Gary was owned by United States Steel back at the start of this century and the President/Chairman of US Steel in those days was Mr. William Gary. The town was entirely owned and operated as a company town for US Steel employees, much like the town in the same era called Pullman, Illinois (which is now the neighborhood of Pullman in the city of Chicago) which was entirely owned by George Pullman, magnate of the railroad sleeping car industry. In the case of Gary, US Steel served as employer and landlord to tens of thousands of men and women who were employed in the Gary Works of US Steel; lived in company-owned housing; attended company-owned schools and churches; and shopped at the company-owned store, to whom they were generally always in debt. Sometime in the 1920's, US Steel was required by the courts to get rid of the Gary Municipal Corporation; employees were permitted to buy the land and housing for some sum of money which was a multiple of their monthly rent, and a municipal government was established. During the 1930-60 era, the town flourished, as did the employer of 90 percent of the people in town. WWCA-1270 AM (Working With the Calumet Area) was the local radio station. As US Steel fell on hard times in the past twenty years, closing the South Chicago Works entirely and cutting back Gary Works to a shell of its former self, the town of Gary went with it. Mostly a very poor black community, Gary today consists of lots of boarded up storefronts (there has not been a 'downtown' in years) and abandoned houses, etc. Like Hammond, its neighbor to the east, they had put all their eggs in one basket called 'big steel'. The mills closed, and that was it. All of northwestern Indiana is in terrible economic ruins. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #614 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09959; 29 Aug 93 15:47 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32370 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 29 Aug 1993 13:20:49 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32313 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 29 Aug 1993 13:20:02 -0500 Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 13:20:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308291820.AA32313@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #615 TELECOM Digest Sun, 29 Aug 93 13:20:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 615 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Leftover Drops (Patton Turner) Re: PEI Phones (John R. Levine) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Lee Sweet) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Christopher Zguris) Re: What Is NetView/6000? (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Looking for Cordless Headset Phones (Les Reeves) Re: Telephone Company Test Sets (Dave Carpentier) Re: Wait! Let me Get a Pen (Les Reeves) Modem Detectors (was Re: Modem Tax in Canada) (Nigel Allen) Voice/Data Monitoring (Peter Tindall) Touring a Working CO? (Eric Hinson) ISDN in the USA (J.C. Steele) Telephone Recording Devices (Jonathan Weinberg) Looking For Small and Intelligent PABX (Hans Zuidam) OSPS Questions (H. Shrikumar) Telix File Transfer Question (David Jonathan Dodick) Glad to Find! (Jeff Whitcomb) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry Organization: Surf City Software/TBFW Project Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 14:48:13 GMT On 25 Aug 1993 17:03:41 GMT, perri@wpi.WPI.EDU (David M Perri) said: > Please excuse my ignorance, but I am a second year student of > electrical engineering and I am having trouble deciding whether I > should go into hardware or software. I have a great interest in both > so I guess my deciding factor will be whichever one pays better. I > dont want to make a decision based on this, but I think it will be of > some importance in the final decision. Could someone please tell me > what the average salaries are of hardware and software engineers in > the data communications field? My question is, "Does it really matter?" As the essayist in this month's issue of {Harper's} pointed out, the one thing the new global economy is *not* producing is jobs. It is always cheaper to move high-paying positions overseas, and increasingly, that's where they're going. Software? That's moving to India, Singapore, Japan, Ireland, Russia, and anywhere else people can find cheap minds (which, by the way, are getting cheaper all the time). Hardware? Try Taiwan. Now that Mr. Gates has installed his T1 link to India, where do *you* think he'll hire programmers? New sign on the door at Microsoft: "Americans need not apply." Robert L. McMillin | Surf City Software | rlm@helen.surfcty.com [Moderator's Note: Advocates of more or less unlimited immigration into the USA frequently say there is no real problem with this as far as American unemployment goes, because the 'foreigners' usually are willing to take jobs Americans don't want such as working in the fields harvesting vegtables and working in canning plants; working on the killing floor at Iowa Beef Processors, Inc. (one of McDonald's biggest vendor/suppliers), and cleaning out public restrooms in the train and bus stations, etc. But as the number of T-1's in service increase and the world grows smaller, we find ourselves in an in- creasingly competitive world-wide labor force, with the the sort of ramifications you mention. Americans are going to find their high- priced services are no longer needed in many industries. In fact, lots of companies have moved from the USA to other places. PAT] ------------------------------ From: turner@Dixie.Com Date: Sun, 29 Aug 93 09:58 EDT From: rsiatl!turner@rsiatl.UUCP Subject: Re: Leftover Drops > install POTS. Can one easily determine the difference between an > unused pair and a pair used for Centrex Data or a leased line with > only a buttset? Nope. Harris Dracon makes a headphone buttset with indicators for various frequencies (293-4680, 4.68-18.8k, 18.8-100k, 100-200k and >200k). There are also T1 detectors using a inductive sensor. None of this is going to be issued to POTS installers. Cable and I&R maybe, but not the guys causing you problems. Try using some of the red plastic clips over the 66 bridging clips. A similar cap is also available for binding posts. Maybe you could also get them to use red surge modules. I like to tag all non POTS ckts this way. Patton Turner FAA Telecommunications KB4GRZ turner@dixie.com ------------------------------ From: johnl@ursa-major.spdcc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: PEI Phones Date: Sun, 29 Aug 93 12:15:24 EDT Island Tel is controlled by MT&T, the Nova Scotia phone company, which as I recall is partly owned by Bell Canada. So it's not surprising that their offerings are similar to those elsewhere in Canada. A cynic might suggest that considering what one pays for phone service in Canada it had damned well better be good. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com ------------------------------ From: decrsc!leesweet@uunet.UU.NET (Lee Sweet) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 23:35:23 EDT I'm PAT's customer in the long (to us and maybe to Digest/c.d.t readers!) saga of trying to get AT&T to do the 'right' thing regarding these two 800 numbers and where they should terminate. I appreciate all the solutions and comments set forth, but I've decided to dedicate a DID number to the new 800 number, and (1) wait until we tell customers that the 'old' number is defunct or (2) move the old number to PAT's AT&T reseller, when we can have both lines again point to the same DID. Why? I want to have the flexibility to control where the calls go. I hate to have to call C&P (local RBOC) and wait for them to do it, when I'm used to just logging in to the PBX here and changing things! (Nothing like instant gratification...) Also, I feel this should not be PAT's problem (although I see the point of those that recommended he eat the cost!) ... it shouldn't be mine, either, but the cost saving over AT&T is drastic enough to not want to delay any further. [I doubt he makes much on even this traffic [12K min/month] at these rates; although AT&T sure does at their rates!] By the way, the old 800's DID isn't strictly a hunt group: it's a forward to voice mail, which mailbox has single digit menus customers pick from to go to the relevant ACD group. ROLM PBXs, unfortunately, will not forward twice, so I can't just forward a new DID to the old extension. That's the only reason I didn't cut all of this shorter and do that about ten days ago: I have to repeat some tricky programming I did about a year ago on the new mailbox for the new DID, and have our resident Voice Mail voice record a new greeting, etc. So, thanks for all the comments, and one thought: could the practice of having the billing keyed by the *target* instead of the *800 number* be just a holdover (bad programming choice) from the days when 800s did *not* have DID targets, but *were* the target, dedicated number themselves? (So when they were able to offer 800-> DID, someone decided to bill on target rather than 800 ...) BTW, I doubt that the target number is a customer record or the like, since most companies have 1 800 from the same vendor. (We have ten from Cable and Wireless, who, with 800 programming by the user, couldn't care less where the 800 ends up. [What does AT&T do when you ask them to move the target? Change all the billing records?!] And one more technical question re call forwarding: If I *had* purchased another outside C&P line and had it call-forwarded to the old number, would more than one call get through? I don't remember if call forwarding routing keeps the original path tied up, or if it would act like a call to the 'old' DID, which, being, in effect, a hunt group, can take as many calls as we have DID inbound trunks. Lee Sweet Internet *lists* - leesweet@datatel.com Chief Systems Consultant Internet *e-mail* - lee@datatel.com Datatel, Inc. Phone - 703-968-4661 4375 Fair Lakes Court Fairfax, VA 22033 FAX - 703-968-4625 (Opinions are my own, and only my own!) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 23:03 GMT From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Sorry if I missed something here, but why couldn't you move the existing or new 800 number to another carrier (800 portability) and have it terminate on the same line than have the other one through AT&T also go in on the same line, would AT&T know? Why won't 800 portability work in this case? If it were me -- and it could be done -- I'd move everything from AT&T (of course, I don't really like AT&T and "games" like this make me like them even less!) to a carrier more interested in getting the business than giving you the runaround! If 800 portability doesn't apply, somebody please explain why -- I don't know what POTS is. Christopher Zguris CZGURIS@MCIMail.com [Moderator's Note: Portability does apply, however pricing and costs for service is a consideration also. POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service, the name given to regular incoming/outgoing phone lines. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 11:03:25 EDT From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: What Is NetView/6000? Organization: Penn State University In article , guide!editor@uunet.UU.NET (editor) says: > What is NetView/6000? Some other sources of Net/View discussions: Excerpt from the LISTSERV lists known to LISTSERV@PSUVM on 29 Aug 1993 11:03 Search string: NETVIEW Network-wide ID Full address List title NETV-L NETV-L@MARIST IBM's NETView discussion list NVAS-L NVAS-L@CUVMC NetView Access Services session manager disc+ NV6000-L NV6000-L@DHDURZ1 NetView/6000-Betreiber Erfahrungsaustausch Pete (pmw1@psuvm.psu.edu) -- Penn State U ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 17:28:10 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Re: Looking for Cordless Headset Phones In the brand-new 1994 Radio-Shack catalog ($2.95/per copy) a cordless headset telephone is described on pg. 65. The ET-474, available Oct. 30,1993, for $140,looks similar to their corded model 151. The only real "feature" this fone has to offer is companding. Several years ago Plantronics came out with a similar cordless headset fone called the "Liteset". It carried a list price of $299, and was a big flop. The fones were really good, but the price wasn't. DAK picked them up when Plantronics discovered there was not a market for $299 cordless headset fones. I bought several from DAK for $90 and have really enjoyed them. [Moderator's Note: Radio Shack is now getting $2.95 for catalogs? :( PAT] ------------------------------ From: dave.carpentier@OLN.COM Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 22:30:21 -0400 Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Sets oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: > Some have an ASCII terminal built in, in which case the keys include a > cursor joystick and buttons for yes and no. You really can't leave us hanging on this one, Carl. What would they use the terminal for? Accessing assignment records and such? I would absolutely _love_ that ability. As a smaller TelCo we don't get fancy things like laptops, but this kind of butt-set could be a start. In any case, the new generation butt-sets are certainly much better than the old on/off/dial units. For me, the most appreciated feature is the automatic high db cutout circuit. I totally lost hearing in one ear for about four hours after using one of the old sets on a poor connection. Later, Dave ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 12:11:05 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Re: Wait! Let me Get a Pen The AIS (Automatic Intercept System), used by the Bell Companies, knows the current status of *all* numbers in it's service area. These are the main types of responses possible: "The number you have reached,NXX-XXXX, has been disconnected. No further information is available about NXX-XXXX." "The number you have reached,NXX-XXXX, has been changed, the new number is NPA-NXX-XXXX." A split reference is possible for a changed number, in which case the AIS operator asks the name of the party. This is used when two or more individual referrals are associated with one number (such as roomates). As soon as a number is assigned or reassigned, AIS gives this response: "The number, NXX-XXXX, may not yet be connected." After the new number has been in AIS for a fixed number of days, the response changes to: "The number you have reached,NXX-XXXX, is being checked for trouble." Disconnection for non-payment results in the following from AIS: "The number you have reached,NXX-XXXX, has been temporarily disconnected." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 19:51:25 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Modem Detectors (was Re: Modem Tax in Canada) Organization: The National Capital Freenet Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca Tad Cook (tad@ssc.com) wrote about the New Brunswick Telephone Company and some other Canadian telecommunications carriers needing to be able to detect modem/fax calls so that they could offer a *lower* rate to fax users. The lower rate is for long distance calls, and has an interesting history. Before Unitel Communications (formerly CNCP Telecommunications) was allowed to compete in the long distance voice market, it offered a discount long distance service for fax communications only. To make sure that the service would not be used for voice calls (apart, perhaps, from a few seconds to say "please turn your fax machine on" if the recipient's fax machine doesn't answer the phone automatically), there were fax carrier detectors that would disconnect the call after a minute or so if a fax machine hadn't answered. The service would also let you use most types of modems, although some modems (Trailblazers, possibly) weren't recognized properly by the fax carrier detectors and so got hung up on. So the service NBTel and other Canadian telephone companies need a modem detector for is a competitive response to the Unitel service. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 23:46:12 EDT From: af288@freenet.carleton.ca (Peter Tindall) Subject: Voice/Data Monitoring Reply-To: af288@freenet.carleton.ca Tad Cook (tad@ssc.com) writes: > A few weeks ago I got a call from an engineer at New Brunswick > Telephone Co. in Canada. He was looking for a device that could > install in the CO to monitor traffic on individual POTS lines, and > automatically determine if the the line was being used for voice > instead of fax/data. > He said that in New Brunswick (and maybe this is true in other parts > of Canada) they have a tarrif which allows them to provide a POTS line > AT A LOWER RATE FOR MODEM OR FAX SERVICE ONLY. > He wanted some monitoring capability, because they were aware that > people were ordering the lower priced fax/modem lines, and using them > for voice. > So in some areas of Canada, fax/data lines are SUBSIDIZED by other > subscribers, rather than subject to a "modem tax"! Bell Canada (Ontario/Quebec) already offers a service called 'Faxcom'. This gives extra discounts for long distance fax/data and also shorter billing increments (twelve seconds I think). It is setup on a line basis. They give you 60 seconds or 90 seconds after connection to end voice and initiate data transmission. Their promotional material states that if voice is detected after this point the call will drop. They must be using some equipment to facili- tate this. Regards, Peter Tindall af288@freenet.carleton.ca or ptindall@accesspt.north.net ------------------------------ From: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Eric Hinson) Subject: Touring a Working CO? Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 03:24:51 MDT I've been following the discussion on the central office tours thread on the Digest, and was wondering if someone could tell me how I could go about getting a tour of a working central office that is practically right around the corner from where I live. I was able to get a tour of a 1AESS down in South Florida a few years back, thanks to my mom's affiliation with the phone company down there, but I don't know anybody that works for the phone company here. One of the reasons why I want a tour of the 5ESS here, is because the step equipment that used to be online for the 904-824 and 904-829 office is still in the same building as the 5ESS, and even though it is not running anymore, I'd still be very interested in seeing it. Any information you can provide through email would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Eric L. Hinson / Internet: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu / Ham Radio: kb4rzf ------------------------------ From: J C Steele Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 23:44:28 GMT Subject: ISDN in the USA Organization: CONNECT Mail Feed via ibmpcug.co.uk in the UK I have a client who is interested in using ISDN for file transfer. he wishes to send data between London and New York. To reduce the file transfer time he is contemplating using ISDN but has been told at a seminar that the bit rate in the USA for the ISDN service is 56 kilo bits compared with London which is 64 kilobits for the raw basic rate channel. This contradicts all that I have understood about ISDN. Please reassure me that the standards of 64 kbps is world wide. John Steele Soroban Systems 44 Copthall Lane Systems Integration Chalfont St Peter Bucks, SL9 0DJ, UK Email: jcs@ibmpcug.co.uk Tel/Fax +44 753 883886 ------------------------------ Reply-To: jonathan@paineweber.win.net (Jonathan Weinberg) Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 10:47:52 Subject: Telephone Recording Devices From: jonathan@paineweber.win.net (Jonathan Weinberg) I am looking for information on a high quality telephone recording device. I would like a device in which the recorder and off-hook sensor unit are integrated into one device. It should have good sound quality and a decent recording time (one to two hours or better). I would also like it to sense any phone picked up on the line -- not just one that it is directly connected to. I have had *NO* luck finding any companies that produce or distribute a device like this, except for Radio Shack, and their device is sub standard at best. Any help would be appreciated. Jonathan Weinberg jonathan@paineweber.win.net ------------------------------ From: udodo!hans@relay.nluug.nl (Hans Zuidam) Subject: Looking for Small and Intelligent PABX Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 16:11:36 MET I'm looking for a small and intelligent PABX. Small means about four external lines and eight to twelve internal lines. There are enough of PABXs that have these features but the intelligence is usually not there. What I want to do is to hook one of the internal lines to a voice mail system. Then a call to an internal line could be routed to the voice mail system through a "follow me" function. The switch should then be able to tell the system which extension was dialed to select the appropriate mailbox. Which internal extension was dialed could either be through a serial line or by generating SIT signals. Another possibility would be to use some kind of inter switch signalling. A lot of switches offfer the posibility to hookup a printer. The switch will send connect reports to the printer but not in real-time; usually some ten to twenty seconds after the call has been routed. What we need is some kind of (almost) real-time control. My current experience is that most switches of this type (4/8) have these capabilities. Vendors will only sell you there special feature handsets but do not want to release specs so you could do it yourself. Constructing a robot arm punching the keys on such a handset may look nice, but is not my idea of a "smart" interface ;-) All pointers are greatfully accepted and I'll summarise what I've been able to dig up. Reply to: Hans Zuidam Hans Zuidam Tel. +31 40 481546 Kruidenhof 18 E-Mail: hans@udodo.uucp, or 5632 MD Eindhoven ...!mcsun!sun4nl!udodo!hans ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Aug 93 15:17:03 -0400 From: shri@freal.cs.umass.edu Subject: OSPS Questions Hi, I have heard mention of the OSPS system, believe from ATT, on this list. I have some amount of info on it culled from here. I'd like some pointers to any detailed docs on the system? Any ATT or BSTJ articles on it ? Any folklore or trade rag articles? Summaries of funcitonality? Size? Cost? I wonder if it will be possible to take a look see sometime someplace? Thanks in advance for all pointers. shrikumar (shri@legato.cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in) ------------------------------ From: djdk@troi.cc.rochester.edu (David Jonathan Dodick) Subject: Telix File Transfer Question Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York Date: Sun, 29 Aug 93 00:34:08 GMT I am getting the message "sz: file skipped by receiver" when I try to receive files (from an ftp transfer) to my pc using Telix. I have a pc, 1200 baud modem, parity=none, high bit stripping is off. Can someone tell me what the message means and if something needs to be configured a certain way on my Telix program that I may not have checked?? ------------------------------ From: ah535@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeff Whitcomb) Subject: Glad to Find! Date: 29 Aug 1993 01:59:16 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) Hi, I am Jeff Whitcomb and I work for Cellular One. Glad I found this SIG. I am a data and telecommunications analyst and have been looking for this place for a while now. Well, that's about it for now. Jeff [Moderator's Note: Welcome to you also, Jeff and the other readers of the Telecommunications SIG at your site. The Digest distribution is growing by leaps and bounds as numerous sites -- commercial as well as free -- begin distributing (and serving as article collection points) for the Digest with mailing lists of their own and local telecom discussion groups. Feel free to write anytime. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #615 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07010; 30 Aug 93 17:18 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25688 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:40:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27048 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:39:28 -0500 Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:39:28 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308301939.AA27048@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Telecom Surveys if You Wish to Participate This fellow has sent me questionairres he wants participation in from the readers of the Digest and comp.dcom.telecom. One of the two was run recently in the Digest, but after the fact the author wrote me to say there were errors (his own) in the preparation, and he had to start over again. I am not going to fill up the Digest itself with these, especially the second time around on one of them, so am making a special mailing to the group and a posting on comp.dcom.telecom for anyone interested in participating. There are questionairres below. Respond to either or both. DO NOT respond to the newsgroup or the Digest. Patrick Townson From: vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu (Vish Daita) Subject: Telecommunications Faculty Survey Followup-To: vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu Organization: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK-74078. Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:37:59 GMT Survey of MS Telecommunications Programs Dear Faculty member: As a telecommunications faculty member you are in the forefront of extending the knowledge of the students into the future decades. Although telecommunications engineering and management is a fairly well established discipline, confusion still remains regarding how to meet the rising needs. We are conducting a survey of telecommunications faculty members that explores administration, admissions, the required course curricula, placement features, facilities and resources, research/industry relations, and your opinions. We request you, the person in the best position to render advice, to fill out the survey in order for us to better understand the requirements of a graduate program in telecommunications management. Would you help in this effort by answering the survey? Please take a few minutes to contribute to this study by completing the survey and mailing it back to us at vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu. Please respond by September 10, 1993. Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Vish Daita MBA Program - Oklahoma State University ############################################################################## Please fill out the following survey. Please use as much space as is required. A. GENERAL 1. University: 2. Name of the faculty member (optional): 3. Address: 4. Phone: Fax: 5. E-mail address: B. ADMINISTRATION 1. Title of the Program: 2. When started: 3. Size: 4. How did the program start? 5. Delivery of the program: OnCampus/TV/Executive/Combination 6. Orientation/emphasis of the program: Technical/Business/Communications/Combination/Others 7. How is the program organized? (core subjects/electives etc.) 8. In which school is the program housed? 9. Is it a separate degree or an option to specialize in? 10. Which departments participate? C. ADMISSION 1. What are the admission requirements? 2. What is the recruitment process? 3. What are the prerequisites? Please list them: D. CURRICULUM 1. How many credit hours? 2. Typical graduation time? 3. What are the required courses? 4. What are the electives available? 5. Is a thesis necessary to graduate? 6. Is there a mandatory internship requirement? 7. Are the internships made available by the school? 8. Are there any special features in the curriculum? E. PLACEMENT 1. How is the placement process organized? 2. Who are employers of the graduates of the program? Manufacturers/vendors of the telecommunications equipment Users of the telecommunications technology Others 3. What are the career paths of the graduates of your program? 4. Which is a typical entry-level position that the graduates start their careers with? 5. What percentage of the jobs are found immediately after graduation? (How soon are the graduates of the program employed?) F. RESOURCES 1. Approximately how many Full-Time-Equivalents are allocated to the program? 2. Number of full-time faculty: 3. Number of part-time faculty: 4. What is the average teaching load? G. RESEARCH/INDUSTRY RELATIONS 1. Do the faculty have related research projects? What is the type of research - any examples? 2. Do the faculty have related university/industry projects? How responsive is the industry? How are the projects obtained? H. VIEWPOINT 1. What do you think will be the determining factors for a successful graduate program in Telecommunications Management? 2. What in your opinion are the attributes of an ideal graduate in Telecommunication Management? Vish Daita MBA Program-College of Business, OSU Stillwater, OK 74078 E-mail: vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu --- second questionairre follows --- Dear Telecommunications Officer: As a telecommunications officer, you are faced with many far more job complexities than many information systems and educational professionals realize. Although industrial and academic efforts are increasing to provide support in helping you deal with those complex- ities, confusion still remains regarding how to meet your needs. I am conducting a survey of telecommunications officers that explores the value of task or knowledge areas thought to be essential for success in telecommunications management. The survey instructions ask you, the person in the best position to render judgment, to rate the importance of these job-related items in your role as a manager of telecommunications. Would you help in this effort by answering the survey questions? The results of the study will be reported in group form only, and individual responses will in no way be identified with specific companies or officers. Please take a few minutes to contribute to this study by completing the survey and returning it, preferably, by E-mail. Please respond by September 10, 1993. Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Vish Daita MBA Program - Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK 74078-0555 email: vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu Telecommunications Engineers'/Managers' Survey The demographic data requested below is important in profiling the respondents of the survey. Please answer the following questions by placing an "x" in the appropriate space. Company Information: 1. What is the primary business purpose of your firm? Finance (Banking, Insurance, Securities, Credit, Real Estate) : Government (Military, Federal, State, Municipal) : Service (Telecommunications, Business, Education, Medical, Legal): Manufacturing : Other: (please specify) 2. In what geographic area are you currently working? Eastern (CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT) : Southern (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV) : North Central (IA, IL, IN, MI, MN, MO, OH, WI) : Mountain Plains (CO, KS, ND, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, WY) : Western (AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR, UT, WA) : Other Country: (please specify) Personal Information 1. What is your specific job title? 2. Where was the majority of your telecommunications training received? (Check one) On-the-job (including seminars, workshops, etc.): Telephone company : Military : Vocational Training : College/University : 3. Have you had any additional telecommunications training? No: Yes: If yes, please check all that apply: On-the-job (including seminars, workshops, etc.): Telephone company : Military : Vocational Training : College/University : 4. What is the highest level of education that you have completed? Doctoral degree : Master's degree : Some graduate-level education : Four-year baccalaureate degree : Associate's degree : Some college : Vocational certificate program : No college or certificate program: 5. If you earned a baccalaureate degree, what was the specialty of that degree? Business : Liberal Arts : Information Systems/Data Processing : Computer Science : Engineering : Telecommunications : Other (please specify) : 6. Please list your LAST FIVE job positions from the earliest to the most recent. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 7. Within what approximate range is your current annual salary? $19,999 or less : $20,000 - $39,999 : $40,000 - $59,999 : $60,000 - $79,000 : $80,000 - $99,999 : $100,000 or more : Request for Survey Results: Would you like a copy of the results of this questionnaire? No: Yes: Send to: Address: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Job-Related Tasks and Knowledge Opinionnaire Instructions: Please rate the following job-related items based on your perceptions of their importance to your present role in your organization. Rank the items based on the following scale: ___________________________________________________________________________ Not Important: 1; Of Little Importance: 2; Somewhat Important: 3; Important: 4; Very Important: 5 ___________________________________________________________________________ Rank ___________________________________________________________________________ In my current position, it is important that I be able to.... 1. Evaluate hardware/software maintenance agreements 2. Use management tools in decision making (such as modeling) 3. Establish network security measures 4. Optimize voice communications 5. Select new telecommunications products that will be the most beneficial to my organization 6. Forge good vendor relationships 7. Promote a working relationship with MIS/Data Processing 8. Recruit qualified people 9. Prepare documentation for senior management 10. Minimize the cost of data communications 11. Cost-justify communications projects 12. Manage a multivendor communications system 13. Manage personnel In my position, it is important that I understand.... 14. Tariffs 15. Traffic engineering and network design 16. Worker concerns for job security 17. PBX technology and applications 18. Protocols and interfaces 19. Financial analysis 20. Daily operations of networks 21. Network management problems and procedures 22. Telecommunications regulations, policies, and the law 23. New technology and applications 24. Strategic challenges of the job 25. Local network cabling and implementation It is also important for me to understand.... 26. Implementation of office automation technology 27. The regulation framework for ISDN 28. Open Systems Interconnection 29. Communications equipment operation 30. The status and development of fiber optics in local exchange networks 31. Concepts of measured usage 32. Company objectives and policies 33. Existing common carrier services 34. Current issues at state and federal regulatory bodies 35. Fiber optic installation 36. End-user requirements In my organization, it is important that I be able to.... 37. Make equipment procurement decisions 38. Manage voice communications 39. Motivate employees 40. Optimize data communications 41. Evaluate the physical, data-link, and network layers of communications systems protocol hierarchy 42. Budget communications projects 43. Design networks 44. Negotiate with vendors 45. Develop RFPs (Requests for Proposals) 46. Obtain support of top management 47. Evaluate equipment and network services 48. Select vendors 49. Manage data communications 50. Design and develop communications projects THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE WITH THIS SURVEY (Developed by: Roberta Irene Ackerson) Vish Daita MBA Program-College of Business, OSU Stillwater, OK 74078 E-mail: vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07306; 30 Aug 93 18:17 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29031 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Aug 1993 15:22:58 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27456 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Aug 1993 15:22:07 -0500 Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 15:22:07 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308302022.AA27456@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #616 TELECOM Digest Mon, 30 Aug 93 15:22:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 616 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Ameritech PCS Trial Update #6 (Andrew C. Green) Patent Granted, Includes Major Telecom Elements (G. Aharonian via B. Sohl) Review of "Using UUCP and Usenet" by Todino/Dougherty (Rob Slade) Full Disclosure Live (Mark Earle) Cellular Data Communications (Jeff Whitcomb) Panasonic KXT-2622 Fix Needed (Laurence Chiu) Advice Wanted on Climbing Gear (Dave Carpentier) Telco-Owned COCOTs? (Glenn R. Stone) No More Pesky Busy Signals, Only $0.50 Per Call (Les Reeves) AT&T 900 MHz Phone Availability (Stephen Friedl) DLC/NGDLC (Yee-Lee Shyong) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 11:10:47 CDT From: Andrew C. Green Reply-To: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Subject: Ameritech PCS Trial Update #6 Here's another Ameritech PCS Update, the latest in an erratic series of reports on the progress of a trial of digital spread-spectrum portable phones being conducted by Ameritech in the Chicago area. Yours truly is a member-of-the-general-public tester, enlisted to use the telephone as much as possible and to fill out semi-monthly surveys reporting my views. Some background info: These test phones were issued to several hundred people in the Chicago area for testing from September of last year to December of this year. The phones operate with digital transceivers installed in downtown Chicago, the Lincoln Park residential area to the north, and the northwest suburb of Arlington Heights. New Developments New units with inbound-calling capability are finally being distributed; mine is promised for this week. The original PCS (as configured for my account, anyway) was a Motorola CT2 SilverLink unit with a pager stuffed into its flip cover, giving the little phone a pregnant appearance. People calling my number would be routed to an Ameritech Voicemail box, where their voice message (or DTMF number, if they dialed one) would trigger my pager and display a return phone number, which the PCS could automatically dial. The improved, inbound-capable PCS will not have the pager, I'm told, although the Voicemail box will be retained as a backup in case my phone isn't in service when a call arrives. This will make for an even tinier (thinner) phone to casually pull out of a pocket should it become necessary to impress nearby yuppies. Already the CT2 with pager is so small that it makes the other portable phones look like absolute bricks by comparison, and if it wasn't for a glaring-aqua color band around the handset, it would be almost invisible in your hand when in use. Given the intense competition for tiny phones here in Chicago, I suspect that they don't want their product to vanish from view when in use. I notice some other phones compensate for their small size by drawing attention to themselves with obnoxiously-loud button beeps. On that same inverse scale, my PCS would sound like a foghorn :-) but, mercifully, the weak battery power prevents anything louder than discreet blips while dialing the phone. I'll report further on the new inbound-calling capability after I have a chance to try it out for a while. Latest Surveys Last month I received another large envelope from Ameritech, containing several pages of survey and two crisp dollar bills for my time. I was pleased to see that their questions concerned reception problems, since my only constant complaint with the PCS has been the weak power, leading to painfully-frequent dropouts and occasional dropped calls. Although we don't get too much feedback on the results of surveys, it's reassuring to see the right questions being asked. Service Improvements The Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights was recently added to the service area with the installation of PCS transceivers. As I live literally next door, this gave me the opportunity to use airtime at home, as opposed to the usual method of plugging a "base unit" into the home phone's land line and switching the PCS over to "Private" mode usage as a cordless extension phone. Some experimentation showed that our kitchen, facing the hospital, had a PCS signal available, but the little phone couldn't find the signal at all in our living room or points further east. During a recent rather noisy birthday party in our kitchen, I sat at one end of the kitchen table and used my PCS in Public mode to dial my home phone number. The PCS transmitted the call to the PCS transceiver at the hospital, which passed the call to a land line and the standard phone system central office, which routed the call as usual to our home telephone, ringing the wall phone in the kitchen at the other end of the table where my wife was sitting. When she answered, I asked her to pass the salt. Bells and Whistles While I have enjoyed the benefits of a voicemail box, pager, base unit for land line use and so on, it seems that all the above are regarded as "options". An acquaintance from Arlington Heights finally received his own PCS, and was a bit surprised to find that he'd received a stripped-down model with none of the above: he was given a basic, non-pregnant CT2 SilverLink (no pager) limited to only outbound public calls, no base unit/extension-phone capability, and that was that. Well. He could not have been more impressed if they had given him two coffee cans and a piece of string. He fired off a frosty letter to Ameritech indicating that this was not exactly the wave-of-the-future hi-tech gizmo trial he'd been expecting, and got a prompt reply saying that they'd see what they could do about upgrading his equipment. Defining what the "minimum package" should consist of is going to be an important concern. Everyday Use Following a one-month trip to Cincinnati, Ohio (Civic Motto: "Three N's, One T") and a forced hiatus from the PCS, I made a lot of calls to ensure that the Ameritech computers didn't decide to yank my service as inactive. This was just too much for the batteries, apparently; despite my faithful overnight recharging, they just don't seem to deliver enough oomph for the phone after a few months of service. The CT2 SilverLink phones we are using have their own unique type of battery which vaguely resembles two AA batteries in a cardboard case; if battery turnover is going to become an issue, it would seem better to re-engineer the phones to take some more commonly-available size, in my opinion. Battery exhaustion is easily the most irritating problem I've had; I have been in the midst of some important late-afternoon conversations, and the batteries would decide to expire. In a matter of seconds, the audio cuts off and you hear the gloomy "dip ... dip ... dip" Out of Range signal. What you're _supposed_ to do when you hear this signal is back up, since you're veering out of the service area. If you're like me, however, before making the call, you began by using the dial tone as a Geiger counter to determine the best spot to stand in for good reception. (Forget about wandering around during a conversation; the dropouts are too distracting.) Therefore, when the batteries fail and give you this completely fictitious "Out of Range" nonsense, you briefly stomp around in a circle on a fruitless search for a signal, which of course is there but the @$#%& phone can't hear it anymore, then you march off in search of a payphone, with comic-style smoke coming out of your ears. Not that I am bitter ... :-) but it's a trifle embarrassing to have to call your party back to explain that your hi-tech phone pooped out in the middle of the shopping mall. Dropouts versus Static One of digital communication's claimed advantages is the absence of static; in fact there is a small advertising battle being fought in Chicago at the moment over whether or not digital cellular offers better communication than analog because you don't have static. One of the local providers has been bellowing over the airwaves about how nice their digital cellular is, especially compared to the yucky old analog stuff used by certain competitors that have absolutely no respect for you, your phone or your business and are probably owned by Communists. Ameritech fired back with a somewhat defensive direct-mail campaign saying that, why, just the other day people were calling them up to remark about how nice and clean their analog service was. I feel stuck in the middle. I apologize to the more-technical people reading this if I'm comparing apples and oranges, but I can operate my analog cellular car phone side-by-side with the digital PCS, and although the PCS has a better quality sound, if it drops out, it's gone. When an analog connection deteriorates, which doesn't seem to happen too often anyway, you at least have the "option" of bellowing through the static and usually being heard at the other end. If the PCS connection gets in trouble, you are crisply cut off the air until it gets itself sorted out. This "On/Off" behavior makes one feel rather powerless. To the PCS' credit, however, I suspect that the current, all-too-frequent dropout problem will be improved before a full commercial release. It pretty much has to be. The PCS Trial is scheduled to end in December, at which time we have all been promised "free gifts". Wonder what those will be? I'll keep you all informed. Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@hermes.dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Patent Granted, Includes Major Telecom Elements Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 30 Aug 93 13:29:13 GMT The following item was posted to sveral newsgroups. I thought it might be of interest here as the patent (according to the post) covers use of many telecom items (e.g. terminals, transmission lines, etc.) 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 -----------repeated article begins here------------------------ From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) Subject: Patent Office issues too broad home-shopping-banking patent Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 16:28:27 GMT The Patent Office just issued a potentially troubling software patent. >From the August 12, 1993, issue of Washington Technology, page 4. "Online Resources & Communications received a huge boost from the USPTO, which issued a patent earlier this month for its home banking and shopping system. The patent gives the firm exclusive rights to process real-time electronic transactions of consumers using any in-home terminal to purchase goods and services, pay bills and bank through a shared debit network such as the MOST system of automated teller machines. The patent covers telephones, computers and televisions used as terminals in such networks. I don't know how broad the patent claims are, and if they can stand up in court, but this type of technology does not seem very original and worth of patent protection. Though if it holds up, they stand to make a lot of money. I don't know what the patent number is. Greg Aharonian srctran@world.std.com Source Translation & Optimization 617-489-3727 P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178 ------------------------------ Date: 30 Aug 93 9:49 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Review of "Using UUCP and Usenet" by Todino/Dougherty BKUSUUCP.RVW 930727 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 103 Morris Street, Suite A Sebastopol, CA 95472 800-998-9938 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 info@ora.com "Using UUCP and Usenet", Todino/Dougherty Another of the excellent "nutshell" books, this one targets the users of uucp and the related utilities. The level is quite technical -- but then, users of uucp are pretty much bound to be technical themselves, unless their "use" is limited to preprogrammed scripts. Chapter one is an introduction to uucp and networks (versions of uucp having been covered in the Preface). Using mail as an example, network routing and "bang paths" are explained. Chapter two deals with file transfers, and covers "permissions" and security aspects. Chapter three explains the "remote" execution of commands while five details remote login. Chapter four covers the matter of checking on the status of requests. Chapter six, "Extending the UUCP Network", extends chapter one. Chapters seven, eight and nine deal with Usenet, and the reading and posting of "news". I hesitate to criticize this section: aside from the rapid dating of the material it is both accurate and consistent with the rest of the book. However, with the rapid increase in both the size and usage of Usenet, it is perhaps time, and past time, for a separate explanation of news and news readers. The basics are all contained here, but a work aimed at the "bulletin board" level user would currently find a very large audience. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKUSUUCP.RVW 930727 Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 00:31:37 -0500 From: mearle@falcon.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Full Disclosure Live Pat, This evening (Aug 30 0001Z) (Sunday evening, 1900 CDT) I heard an interesting broadcast. WWCR, 7.435 Mhz, 0001-0100Z. "Full Disclosure Live" (Let's Talk Network) Glen ??? was the host, editor of Full Disclosure magazine. Contact information: Superior Broadcasting 400 S. Beverly Dr. Suite 214 Beverly Hills, CA 90212 (708) 838-0316 fax Subscription Information: (708) 786-3927 On air call in number: (708) 838-3378 Internet: fdlive@aol.com The co-host was Will Dwyer, president of the company running 900 Stopper. His contact number was reported as (310) 364-3444. Topics touched on were: Privacy, accidental disclosure of info via floppy (the old dos problem data is there even though files are deleted). Some telecom issues, such as calling an 800 number may reveal your number to the recipient of the call. Overall, it was interesting, but probably nothing surprising to regular Digest readers. Still, interesting that some of these issues are getting some main stream exposure. Received WWCR here on my desk top receiver with just the whip antenna btw. Receiver is a Radio Shack DX-440 aka Sangean 803a. Mark Ealre mearle@falcon.tamucc.edu ------------------------------ From: ah535@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeff Whitcomb) Subject: Cellular Data Communications Date: 30 Aug 1993 01:25:40 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) Actually, I am suprised that the amount of cellular data communications isn't greater than it is. I currently use a Compaq (ACKKK!!) 286 and a 1200 baud modem in my van for work. Granted I am not doing video, but being able to dial into one of our PBX's to do a reset or service change, or check status of one of our routers has been a definate benefit when on the road. So no matter what the speed, it has it's use. As a tech/analyst for a Cellular company the benefit for no billing is definately an advantage, but I can't believe that there are not more service oriented organizations utilizing cellular data comm, even if it means pulling off to the side of the road! Well, just my opinion. (Oh, by the way that is with a standard CO2 phone with an internal modem, so there would be no extra charge.) Jeff Whitcomb Cellular One Communications Analyst ------------------------------ From: Lchiu@holonet.net Subject: Panasonic KXT-2622 Fix Needed Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access System: 510-704-1058/modem Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:52:42 GMT I have one of the above phones. It's a speaker phone with answering machine -- nice unit. Unfortunately somebody plugged in a ac adapter with the wrong polarity which did something bad to it. Now the answering machine and speaker phone won't work (no power) although the phone is fine. I took it to Panasonic who charged me $20 to look at it and then sent it back saying PCB was cracked -- not repairable. This seems a little strange given that only incorrect polarity voltage was applied. Does anybody know of a place that would repair such a unit? It seems a waste to toss it out. Thanks. Laurence Chiu lchiu@holonet.net --- ~ KWQ/2 1.2a ~ ------------------------------ From: dave.carpentier@OLN.COM Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 12:30:22 -0400 Subject: Advice Wanted on Climbing Gear Quite a few issues ago I posted a question concerning the use of lead in outside plant construction. If I can extrapolate from some of the email I received, it seems that lead is fortunately on it's way out. I still have to work with the darn stuff, but I'm sure someone will let me know if it begins to affect my keyboarding skills. Now for the next OSP question: Current regulations in Ontario (Canada? US? other?) state that a worker must not be allowed to fall unarrested more than ten feet. I fall (no pun) into this group, and a few years ago had to re-train with new pole climbing gear. We were given two choices of equipment; the Posi-belt(tm) and the PoleShark(tm). The Posi-belt is quite similar to the conventional equipment most people have seen in the past, but includes a sharp disc (the "pizza cutter". It grabs into the back of the pole in a fall) and a small belt on the climber's side that's used to reduce the effective diameter of the belt's "loop" around the pole. Most of my fellow workers took this route, as it involved little re-training. I think it was rated as being a bit over 60% effective in a fall. It's drawback seems to be the 'pizza cutter' -- it likes to chew up buried service wires stapled to the back of the pole, and is often rendered useless when there are metal guards (ie hydro buried service) on the back of the pole. The PoleShark is quite unconventional. I can be pictured as a big "C" with flexible (sprung) tips. The tips contain 3-D style wheels with spikes, as well as handles to climb with. A belt connects the climber's D-rings to the handles. In a fall, the sprung tips will close and bite into the pole, stopping you in short order. I was the only (foolish?) soul to put my name in for this device. It involved quite a bit of re-training. It's supposed to be more than 80% effective in a fall. It's drawback is the extra "luggage" of the "C" device. Any comments from users of either of these (or other) systems? Later, Dave (dave.carpentier@oln.com) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Aug 93 21:58:32 GMT From: taliesin@netcom.com (Glenn R. Stone) Subject: Telco-Owned COCOTs? I've been noticing something really screwey of late ... in several places around Atlanta, I find a phone, it says "Southern Bell", its number is NPA-9xxx just like a Real Pay Phone, it has the coin return slot on the left side just like a Real Pay Phone, but I stick a quarter in the slot, dial the number, and it says "Thank you" in a badly digitized voice and goes dead until the call has supervised for a second or two! What happened today was even stranger ... quarter in the slot, hit the buttons, blow the number somehow, and I get a really weird-sounding busy back, the cadence being the same as a fast busy, but the tone sounding something like a UK ring signal. What's going on here? Is BellSouth using a COCOT? One more tidbit ,]... if I hit 950-xxxx, it sounds like the call to the IXC switch goes thru just like it would on a Real Pay Phone ... no cut-the-mike, no redial-the-number, just the usual set of clicks followed by the "dial tone" put out by the IXC computer on the other end of the line. Somebody want to clue me in here? It walks like a duck, it looks like a duck, but it certainly doesn't quack like a duck, and I hope I'm not going to be a silly goose if I decide to make an LD call on one of these critters. If somebody local wants to mess with one for giggles, there's a pair of'em at the K-mart on Clairmont, and another gaggle at the Waffle House on Ponce de Leon at 285. obDisclaimer: I didn't say do it for profit, or to try to take Southern Bell's profits, I said do it for giggles. That means nobody gets hurt, including you or me. Glenn R. Stone (taliesin@netcom.com) [Moderator's Note: I doubt that Southern Bell is using COCOTS. It is more likely that a COCOT operator has put his phone inside the little plastic shelter saying Southern Bell; and/or put the works from his phoone inside Southern Bell containers. Maybe he should stop doing that before Southern Bell gets mad at him :). Now and then I find COCOTS mounted in the little metal wall-mounted containers which say Illinois Bell all over them. I tell IBT when I see them. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 12:57:54 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: No More Pesky Busy Signals, Only $0.50 Per Call The Cox-so",",Southern Bell deal goes on line next week. Funny, I never had a problem getting through. The only problem with the 222 prefix was that many categories listed in the newspaper had been abandoned by the sponsor! This is the official announcement of the new "service": Readers of {The Atlanta Journal-Constitution} will be able to get substantially more business, economic and investment news by telephone starting Sept. 5 when the newspaper introduces "511", its new three-digit phone service. It replaces the seven-digit "222" service. Callers dialing 511 will be charged 50 cents per call for up to five minutes of news, stock quotes, bond prices, commodity news, currency rates or other information. Charges will appear on the caller's phone bill. Callers also will be able to obtain a portfolio of information they can hear daily by dialing 511 and entering a personal identification code. The portfolio can include information that is updat regegularly, including ten stock price quotes. Unlike the current 222 service, callers are less likely to get a busy signal. Also, the new 511 service will not have commercial advertising. ------------------------------ From: friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen Friedl) Subject: AT&T 900 MHz Phone Availability Date: Mon, 30 Aug 93 10:01:08 PDT Hi folks, It seems that the long-awaited AT&T 900MHz cordless units won't be out until Feb 1994, according to the local AT&T phone center store. They were originally scheduled to be out this spring, then pushed off until September, now off till next year. The lady wasn't sure why they were waiting, but she did say that they wanted to come out with a full line all at once. Anybody else know the full story? If this is a marketing decision, they are going to lose customers like me who Will Not Wait any longer. Stephen J Friedl | Software Consultant | Tustin, CA | +1 714 544-6561 3B2-kind-of-guy | I speak for me ONLY | KA8CMY | uunet!mtndew!friedl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Aug 93 14:37:04 From: apollo@n2sun1.ccl.itri.org.tw (Yee-Lee Shyong) Subject: DLC/NGDLC What's the difference between DLC (Digital Loop Carrier) and NGDLC (Next Generation Digital Loop Carrier)? Can anyone tell me what kind of product cound be classified in the NGDLC category? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #616 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08490; 30 Aug 93 23:47 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03661 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Aug 1993 20:42:47 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05096 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Aug 1993 20:41:56 -0500 Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 20:41:56 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199308310141.AA05096@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #617 TELECOM Digest Mon, 30 Aug 93 20:41:45 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 617 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Cellular Phone Price Samples (Seng-Poh Lee) Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Pat Turner) Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Terminal Needed for 2400 (Mark Earle) Re: Portable Terminal Needed (H. Shrikumar) Re: ISDN in the USA (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Save the SSC (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Save the SSC (John Pettitt) Kill the SSC (was Re: Save the SSC (Brad Hicks) Re: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry (Rajappa Iyer) Re: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry (Tarl Neustaedter) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 13:08:05 -0400 From: Seng-Poh Lee Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Price Samples Organization: Public Domain Inc. In article was written: > Paul Robinson (TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM) wrote: >> The following is the current status of some of the pricing for >> cellular telephones. All prices quoted are based on a tie-in to take >> airtime from one of the local companies. > Who cares? I rarely flame but this posting contains no useful > information, since the phones are cross-subsidized by the calling > plans, and ... Ok, so here are the prices of some HANDHELD phones that you can buy outright, without service. For comparison, I've also included the price with one year service from Bell Atlantic Mobile of CT; Motorola 550 Flip $ 369 ($166 with service) Nokia 101 $ 359 ($179 with service) Nokie 121 $ 379 ($199 with service) Audiovox MVX 750 $ 679 ($439 with service) Mitsubishi 4000 $ 599 ($372 with service) OKI 900 $ 499 ($284 with service) OKI 1150 $ 679 ($435 with service) All these phones, with the exception of the OKI 900 weigh in at less than ten ounces, and fits in a shirt pocket. The Audiovox weighs 6.2 ozs and gets 65 minutes talk time. Can you tell I'm in the market for a lighter/smaller handheld? :-) These prices are available via mail order from a superstore in Texas. If you buy without service, they will ship you the phone with programming instructions. You are responsible for changing your service ESN with your service provider. Seng-Poh Lee ------------------------------ From: turner@Dixie.Com Date: Mon, 30 Aug 93 13:50 EDT Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions Reply-To: turner@dixie.com In ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Eric Hinson) writes: > A few weeks ago, a Southern Bell repairman came out to my residence to > check my line for static. While he was testing the line, I got a call > from a person who was unaware that my line was being checked. The > repairman handed me the test set (the bright orange ones they use), > and I told the person I would call them back. When I handed him the > test set back, I noticed quite a few extra buttons besides the ones > for DTMF. I couldn't make out what they said on them, and was > wondering if someone could send me email telling me what all these > buttons do/what tones they generate. Thanks for your help. If the test set was a matt bright orange (or blue/gray) with very square lines, it is a Harris Dracon TS22. This is standard issue for most Bell South employees and many others in the communications field. Some craftspeople carry several buttsets, the second one may be a TS21 or one of the rotary dial models. I have seen at least one MCI Tech and one ATT tech only carry rotary sets. Anyway, on the TS22, the buttons are STO (store), RCL (recall), PSE (Pause, for PBX), LNR (Last Number Redial), plus a 12 digit DTMF pad. On the same faceplate is a switch for pulse/tone dialing which also turns the ringer off. Other switches elsewhere are for mute, on hook/ off hook, and for the amplified speaker. See, nothing secret, just a "feature" butt set. The TS22A even has a speakerphone for $200 more. Speaking of installers, one told me a while back that a young woman had come on to him and wanted his ANAC numbers in exchange for a "date". She would sell these to her friends for $5 for entertainment or finding out some other girls phone number while at her dorm or apartment. He said he declined. Believe it or not ... Patton Turner KB4GRZ FAA Telecommunications turner@dixie.com [Moderator's Note: I am not surprised that he declined. Most people who work at telcos don't take 'bribes', whatever form they come in. PAT] ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions Date: 30 Aug 1993 14:33:19 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In dave.carpentier@OLN.COM writes: > oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: >> Some have an ASCII terminal built in, in which case the keys include a >> cursor joystick and buttons for yes and no. > You really can't leave us hanging on this one, Carl. What would they > use the terminal for? Accessing assignment records and such? I would > absolutely _love_ that ability. As a smaller TelCo we don't get fancy > things like laptops, but this kind of butt-set could be a start. What I saw was a technician calling in to find out cable and pairs for particular phone numbers, to initiate central office line tests (through some automated device) and to display the results, and to log in the conclusion of a customer visit with the result codes. Oh, and to get a text report of the next service call. I expect maybe it had a 300-baud modem in it. Of course, nowadays a one-chip 2400 baud modem is cheap, too. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:35:24 -0500 From: mearle@falcon.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Re: Terminal Needed for 2400 I've had the same problem of needing a small, reliable, and relatively inexpensive terminal. My general specs are: run on AA disposable batteries (so one can keep going indefinately, w/out needing AC power nor waiting for the nicad pack to recharge), 80 x 25 screen, and limited save to disk/ram of ascii and binary files. My first machine was a Tandy Model 100. With only 40 x 8 lines, it was tricky in some situations, but _did_ work fine. My next was an HP-95LX. VT52, 100, ANSI, 40 x 16 screen which you pan a 'window' around to see the 80 x 25 screen. OK. Kermit and Xmodem. Will run Procomm Plus and Procomm 2.4, although again, the 'windowing' required can be a bit of a hassle. Zeos Pocket PC. This is my current terminal. 2 AA batteries, 80 x 25 CGA greyscale. Built in ms works has vt52 and ansi, xmodem, capture to file. Runs PCPlus, Procomm no problems. The HP95 only has a three wire interface and you must build/ obtain an adaptor to get to some serial devices. Some devices require jumpering hardware flow control, since the HP95 doesn't support that. Suggested source, EduCalc, HP95 512k $400 , 1 meg, $600, can take one pcm1 slot ram card. Zeos: Zeos direct markets. Two pcm1 type slots. $600. Short cable terminates in 'AT' standard DB-9 male. Full hardware handshaking supported. Also has a standard paralell port (Backpack tape and disk drives work with it, so it must be _really_ standard!). Built in MS works only goes to 9600 baud in the terminal product, but Procomm will drive a 14.4 modem using a 38k computer <--> modem just fine. Wife's computer, at a higher cost: $1000 Gateway 2000 Handbook. $250 for optional floppy drive. Standard 9 pin serial port, 286/12meghz class, built in 40 meg HD, dos5 included. Obviously, you can load any of your favorite term programs from another machine (they supply Interlink for this purpose, as does Zeos). 80 x 25 CGA. Does run on 6 AA w/all power saving 'off' and hard drive spinning constantly for about 4 hours. Much longer if you let it save power for you. The 6 aa holder is included. They've also come out with a 486/25 version 4 meg ram 80 meg HD for $1500 and more ram/HD for $2000 (VGA screen). Oh, the 286/12 CGA has one meg ram. To save HD spin up time, etc. you can set up the 380 or so K above 640 as a vdisk and put your terminal program there. Feel free to contact me with specific questions. One more comes to mind - the HP100, which has nine pin serial, hardware handshake, and 80 x 25. The keyboard is still too small for touch typing, but fine for making menu choices. (The Zeos & Gateways are large enough to allow touch typing at normal spees). Note: None of the above support a vendor supplied modem, but: The new Gateway 486 has a pcm2 slot (the 286/12 does not have a slot) The HP95/100 and Zeos have pcm1 slots. There are modems available (at premium cost) for both pcm1 and pcm2. Again, Educalc is a good starting point for such "unusual" products) Hope this helps. mearle@falcon.tamucc.edu Mark Earle ------------------------------ Date: Mon 30 Aug 93 15:35:56 -0400 From: shri@freal.cs.umass.edu Subject: Re: Portable Terminal Needed Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Sys & Computer Networks Bombay India In article daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com .. > The TI Travel Mate ??220 is pretty good. Not sure about the model. > It's something like LT220 or LV220. Anyway, it's a VT-220 emulating > LCD terminal with a built-in 2400 buad Hayes compatible modem. These .. > and eventually cost about $1400, so I'm sure they're less now. It > also has a DB-9 serial port to connect it directly to a computer, and > the battery lasts about four hours between chargings. It's about the A small subnotebook, perhaps one of the ones that just got obsolete, like the Sharp PC3000, and a PCMCIA modem should cost perhaps half of that or a little more. As would a HP100lx and a pcmcia card modem or a world port 2400 pocket modem. Dont know if this kind of stuff fits your requirements, (hp100lx's small size, and the obsoleteness of the PC3000 etc) tho', so here I said for what it is worth. Comp.sys.palmtops on USENET will get you more details on these. shrikumar (shri@legato.cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in) ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Date: 30 Aug 1993 14:36:52 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In J C Steele writes: > I have a client who is interested in using ISDN for file transfer. he > wishes to send data between London and New York. To reduce the file > transfer time he is contemplating using ISDN but has been told at a > seminar that the bit rate in the USA for the ISDN service is 56 kilo > bits compared with London which is 64 kilobits for the raw basic rate > channel. > This contradicts all that I have understood about ISDN. Please reassure > me that the standards of 64 kbps is world wide. I have been told that many of the telco links from one CO to the next are only 56KBPS, and that as a result many US ISDN installations carry only 56KBPS on the B channel rather than the expected 64KBPS. It's not that the telcos are denying the standard is 64KBPS, I have heard, but that they are sort of embarassed they cannot easily provide it in some service areas. I think perhaps your client has the bad luck to be in one of these 56KBPS areas. You might also want to talk to Sprintnet and BT Tymnet to see if they can do what you need via X.25 and the like. Or get on the Internet at both ends, and use telnet or FTP or whatever. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Save the SSC Organization: Surf City Software/TBFW Project Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 14:51:13 GMT On Sat, 28 Aug 1993 18:06:58 GMT, ssc1@cse.uta.edu (Super Conductor Super Collider 1) said: > The Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory was established to > investigate the fundamental nature of matter and energy. It is one of > the greatest scientific instruments ever to be constructed on the face > of the earth. The knowledge we gain from the SSC is essential to > maintaining the continued leadership position of the US in Science and > Technology. In June, the House voted to cut funding for the SSC due to > problems with the management of the construction. The Senate is due to > consider voting in September. And on. The Net is awash in such pleas asking the public to flood their Congresscritters with tearstained letters expressing outrage at the closing of the Nevada Desert Cetacean Research Center, Fort Mugwump, and multi-terabyte.archive.mil. According to the folks who pen these mournful missives, Life As We Know It will end if the Feds pull the plug. Government subsidy apparently is a constitutional right, or close to it. Echoing this call for saving every federal boondoggle is the ridiculous notion that the Net would somehow cease to exist if fine companies like O'Reilly and Associates put together a little net.magazine with paid advertising. Some people even thought that c.d.t was doomed when Pat started mentioning (horreurs!) the talk tickets he sells. It's time we started making intelligent, rational decisions about what businesses the government *should* be in, and which they should *not*. It's time that each of us learns that the money the feds takes in comes not from God or trees but from our fellow man. It's estimated that by 1997, most citizens will be recipients of federal dollars. What does that mean for us as a country? And what does that mean for the national debt? The old saw reads, "Government is an attempt by some people to live at the expense of everybody else." That so many people believe it can be done proves that the gospel of perpetual motion and the Flat Earth Society is alive and well. Robert L. McMillin | Surf City Software | rlm@helen.surfcty.com ------------------------------ From: jpettitt@well.sf.ca.us (John Pettitt) Subject: Re: Save the SSC Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 21:32:10 GMT In ssc1@cse.uta.edu (Super Conductor Super Collider 1) writes: > At a time when such projects like the Helium Fund ... Ok let me see if I get this. Because stupid things are being funded so should the SCC? Why? What is the purpose of the SCC? a) Jobs b) Well we have already dug the hole now just poor in the money? c) Pork for Texas political types? Big science has a lot of justifying to do. Between the SCC, Mars observer and others a very large amount of small science or basic education could have been funded. Or better still the money could have been left in the private sector to help the economy. Please somebody point out one direct positive result of non-war driven big science projects. Didn't think you could do it. ------------------------------ From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com Date: 30 Aug 93 15:52:39 GMT Subject: Kill the SSC (was Re: Save the SSC) In TELECOM Digest volume 13, #614, ssc1@cse.uta.edu (Super Conductor Super Collider 1) wrote: > The Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory was established to > investigate the fundamental nature of matter and energy. At a time when the United States' federal government (never mind local governments) is having to borrow millions of dollars per second just to keep the bills paid, do we really need to spend one trillion dollars in order to understand how particles behave under conditions that have not existed since the first nanosecond after the Big Bang? Even if such a project is worth one trillion dollars, it is not worth one trillion borrowed dollars. > At a time when such projects like the Helium Fund continue to be > funded ... In other words, the federal government is wasting a few million dollars in other peoples' backyards, so why can't it waste a trillion dollars in my back yard? (It did not escape my notice that the author was writing from a University of Texas at Arlington; apparently, this is someone asking us to help secure government money FOR HIMSELF.) I am writing to the President asking him to help kill the Superconducting Super-Collider until the federal budget is balanced. J. Brad Hicks Internet: mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs.attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad ------------------------------ From: Rajappa Iyer Subject: Re: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry Date: 30 Aug 93 20:19:55 GMT Organization: NCR Corp., Network Products - San Diego > [Moderator's Note: Advocates of more or less unlimited immigration > into the USA frequently say there is no real problem with this as far > as American unemployment goes, because the 'foreigners' usually are > willing to take jobs Americans don't want such as working in the > fields harvesting vegtables and working in canning plants; working on > the killing floor at Iowa Beef Processors, Inc. (one of McDonald's > biggest vendor/suppliers), and cleaning out public restrooms in the > train and bus stations, etc. But as the number of T-1's in service > increase and the world grows smaller, we find ourselves in an in- > creasingly competitive world-wide labor force, with the the sort of > ramifications you mention. Americans are going to find their high- > priced services are no longer needed in many industries. In fact, > lots of companies have moved from the USA to other places. PAT] Ummm ... not very true! Most of the work that comes the way of foreign contractors is grunge work that nobody out here wants to do. There wouldn't be more than a handful of American companies where front-line work is going on overseas as opposed to locally. I hear Ed Yourdon often being quoted that the Indian software industry is going to take over the world. Even the most optimistic estimates put the size of the Indian software industry at about $1B by the end of the century. That is about one percent of the world market. On the other hand, foreign competition *will* put pressure on American industry to either supply the same product at a better price or provide a superior product and charge a premium for it. It just means that American industry has to learn to be more competitive and does not really ring the death knell for the industry. Seems to me that the alarmist notions about immigrants taking all the jobs from Americans and good jobs going overseas simply forgets the basis on which American industry was built --- compete or die. Rajappa Iyer (iyer@npg-sd.ScrippsRanchCA.NCR.COM - on assignment at NCR) ------------------------------ From: tarl@bostech.com (Tarl Neustaedter) Subject: Re: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry Organization: Boston Technology, Wakefield, MA Date: Mon, 30 Aug 93 03:07:22 GMT In article rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes: > Now that Mr. Gates has installed his T1 link to India, where do *you* > think he'll hire programmers? New sign on the door at Microsoft: > "Americans need not apply." Hardly. Skilled jobs *will* move to wherever there are skilled minds. The U.S. currently has one of the largest concentrations of skilled minds in the world, which is why much of high-tech development is done here. In this country, non-high school graduates are a minority - in many of the the mentioned countries, individuals with twelve years of schooling are a minority (in India, <10%). Individuals with sixteen years of schooling (baccalaureate) are rare, let alone twenty years (Ph.D). [Note - Education does not equate to skill, but it is a precursor that leads to skill. Without formal schooling, individuals have to rely on O.J.T., which is very specialized and frequently non-portable.] Yes, companies will farm out parts of engineering to cheaper sites elsewhere, but so far it's fairly rare that this works. For large projects, you need good communication between all the engineers involved, and any barriers (language, time zones, culture, organizational) cause inefficiencies that eat up the savings of cheap overseas labor. I've seen detached engineering tried many times, and only one working case. The other cases I had to put up with were miserable failures. As telecommunications improve, and in particular telecommuting technology, engineering jobs will migrate away from home company headquarters to wherever engineers live. But this technology will have to improve a LOT over what we currently have. In particular, we will have to find a way to replace the ability to wander into someone's office with a question. Email frequently doesn't work because of being a half-duplex channel and not being able to convey the level of urgency (e.g., I can't write this routine until you tell me what the fourth argument is). Phone conversations frequently don't work because of the tendency to play phone tag. Perhaps real-time video where an icon pops up on the engineer's workstation with your image, and you can watch and listen in on what he's doing (equivalent to standing in his doorway) while waiting for him to get to you. But I digress ... Americans will increasingly face competition from places where the cost of living is lower. That just means that Americans will have to continue to be more skilled than the rest of the world -- when you get your B.S. or D.Sc., you won't just compete against other Americans for jobs, you will compete against everyone else in the world. On the other hand, places where cost of living is really low (e.g., third world countries) don't produce many skilled engineers due to lack educational facilities. On the positive side, this will produce competition between countries to lower cost of living. Countries with astronomical taxation rates will find themselves priced out of the global job market and with a declining tax base. Countries with low tax rates will find that their economies boom -- all at much more rapid rates than currently seen. Legislatures will see the impact of tax changes while their members are still in office. This will probably result in more economically rational behaviour. Finally, the question about going into hardware or software; I"ve seen a lot of hardware engineers change careers to go into software. There just isn't as much opportunity for hardware design any more. Parts are becoming standardized, new designs are frequently just doing the same thing at higher speeds and companies are learning how to re-use development done somewhere else rather than doing it again in-house. Software design will probably continue for the forseeable future, but you face competition from a lot more people. The entry-level costs to train software engineers are a lot smaller than to train hardware engineers. What I see as the most reliable career path is in the field of maintenance or continuing engineering -- keeping all those computers running. People find bugs and need them fixed, or the hardware deteriorates and needs to be fixed, or the environment changes (your old and trusty frobozz design assumes availability of 127x3 write-only-memory chips packaged in 37-pin DIP packages, but the manufacturer gave up on that packaging and you need to modify things to accept 129x5 41-lead surface-mount WOMs). This career requires generalists; someone who can be relied upon to fix problems in a wide area -- the wider the better your prospects for employment. My personal choice is the above combined with telephony. I figure that phone networks will be around for a long time. The radio spectrum is limited enough that physical communication links of some kind will be needed, and the demand for communications isn't going to decrease. With all the gigakilometers of wiring and teralines of software involved in the global telephone networks, there is lots of room for things to go wrong. And a need for people to fix the problems. Tarl Neustaedter tarl@bostech.com [work] Ashland, MA, USA tarl@coyoacan.dmc.com [home] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #617 ****************************** ^A^A^A^A ^A^A^A^A From telecom Wed Sep 1 00:02:37 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23356 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Wed, 1 Sep 1993 00:02:37 -0500 Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 00:02:37 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309010502.AA23356@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #618 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 1 Sep 93 00:02:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 618 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Tara D. Mahon) CFP on Human Factors and Telecom (Jane Fraser) MCI 1-800-COOL-101 (Michael D. Sullivan) 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint, Only Problems Ahead (Liron Lightwood) Anyone Have the ESCORT 900mhz Cordless Phone? (Paul E. Cantrell) Re: Telix File Transfer Question (Paul Robinson) Re: Telix File Transfer Question (Don Davis) Re: Telix File Transfer Question (Amer Neely) Re: Telix File Transfer Question (Les Reeves) Re: Telix File Transfer Question (Leslie Mikesell) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Bob Schwartz) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Oz@SwRI.edu) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (Christopher Zguris) Same Prefix on Both Sides of Area Code Boundary? (Carl Moore) Radio Shack Catalogs (Joe Bergstein) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 31 Aug 93 10:19:04 EDT From: Tara D. Mahon Subject: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! A funny thing happened to me last night ... (and I'm trying to keep a good humor about this) :-D At 4:30am our phone rang. Now, this always makes me nervous, especially since my brother is in Saudi Arabia, working for the military. A middle-of-the-night phone call can bring hectic news. I pick up and hear only a constant beeping, slow and steady: beep..............beep................beep. It is not the harsh shrill sound I associate with a modem or fax machine. Okay, just a wrong number. Relieved, I fall back asleep. Five minutes later, the phone rings again. I still don't know whether this is a family emergency or the beeping again. It is the beeping. I hang up. Exhausted, I go back to bed only to be awakened for the third time. Each time I answer I say, "Hello?" and then it takes a few seconds for the beeps to kick in. It reminded me of the automated telemarketing machines which wait for a voice before they roll their pitch. Beep..............beep..............beep. Annoyed, I shut off all the ringers, figuring if any important call does come through, my voice messaging system will pick up. Of course, it will also pick up the mysterious beeps. When I woke up at 7am, I turned all the ringers on and checked my messages. There were *nine* beeping calls. I figured it was probably over by now. But no! I received another call after my shower, and this time, I tried talking to the beeps (insanity setting in), and the beeps stopped while I spoke. I then called 611. The repairman told me to either disconnect everything (all phones, my voice messaging) and wait for an hour. This would create "resistance" and the "machine" would pass over my number and move on. The other option was to *57 and contact the Annoying Call Bureau. Well, the beeps came, and they were out of my class calling area, so no *57 trace. 611 said they would try to fix the problem, and then the beeps stopped. No more calls. My questions is: does anyone know the source of these beeps? A modem will not make a sound unless it gets a negotiation tone. A fax machine has a sharp tone and shrill. What kind of system delivers these calls? Update: since I've been writing this, my father informs me that we've gotten three more calls!! He called me at the office, beeping into the phone. :-) They are now erractically spaced, since the last one I received was 7:38am, I did not get another before I left for work (8:50am). Help! What can I do? Is disconnecting the line the only way? Like I said, my brother is overseas and we never know when he might call. Sleepless in New Jersey tara@isight-corp.com [Moderator's Note: Dear Sleepless: The mystery caller is probably a fax machine. When a fax machine *answers* the line it does make the shrill noise you describe, but when it *originates* a call it sits there more or less quietly (those beeps are possible) waiting for the responding fax machine to give out the shrill noises; then it starts the same. Probably some goofus-droid at the First National Bank of Chicago has misprogrammed one of their fax machines again; let's hope it was only a single (manually) misdialed attempt, and that they don't have your number in the autodial directory to be called every night attempting to transfer a couple million dollars from their bank to yours, as happened to that family in Germany they witlessly harassed for two weeks. . Telco is obligated to provide you with peaceful uninteruppted use of your line. See if the problem goes away by the time you read this. If not, regardless of *57 as a 'service' offered by your telco, they can catch the offender. It is not worth your trouble unless the calls persist daily/nightly without ceasing. Telco can put a trap on your line. This means they will note every call to your line, and where it came from. You respond with a list of times the offensive calls were received. They match your list of times with their list of calls. They and other telcos/carriers involved will backtrack to the source. When the source is clearly identified, telco *will not tell you who it is*. They will notify you they have identified the caller. If you agree in writing to prosecute the offender and file a police complaint, telco will release the information to the police. Telco will not get in the loop, or the middle of the whole thing. They will merely provide expert witness to prosecutors. Telco won't tell you who was calling (until after police tell you) because they would be violating the privacy rights of the caller. Good luck; let us know if the calls stop. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 12:17:17 EDT From: fraser@ccl2.eng.ohio-state.edu Subject: CFP on Human Factors and Telecom A call for papers on human factors and telecommunications. Call For Manuscripts For Special Issue on Human Factors in Telecommunications This announcement is an invitation for you to submit a full manuscript for a special issue of Human Factors covering the field of Telecommunications. The special topic will be titled: New Telecommunications Technologies - End User Perspective. Many new technologies are rapidly being introduced in the field of Telecommunications that offer exciting opportunities to increase the effectiveness of communications at a distance. These technologies such as video, wireless, automatic speech production and recognition are complex and provide a challenge to designers to implement the technology with a high degree of usability for the end-user. The special issue editors are soliciting original work that ideally is empirically based covering usability of new emerging telecommunications technologies including: wireless/cordless; personal communications; telephone display terminals and services; voice response and voice messaging systems; automatic speech production and recognition; visual communications; virtual reality, electronic messaging, and multi-media communications. We are also interested in work that attempts to quantify the productivity impact of these new telecommunications technologies. Please contact either of the special issue co-editors with any questions or ideas that you would like to discuss. Submissions should be received by November 1, 1993. The manuscripts should be sent to Lois Smith c/o HFES, Special Issue, P.O. Box 1369, Santa Monica, CA 90406-1369. The special issue co-editors are Max S. Schoeffler, 908- 949-6833, mss3@hogpa.att.com and Edmond W. Israelski, 908- 576-6394, ewi@mtsol.att.com. Authors should use the Human Factors style guide available from the HFES central office in preparing their manuscript. ------------------------------ From: avogadro@well.sf.ca.us (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: MCI 1-800-COOL-101 Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 09:13:33 GMT Now through Labor Day, MCI is sponsoring a free 800 number that will let you think "cool". Dial 1-800-COOL-101 and each key on the keypad will give you a different "cool" sound, from skis on snow to drinks on ice. No time limit or forced advertisements. Pretty cool, eh? Michael D. Sullivan <74160.1134@compuserve.com> ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 21:01:26 +1000 (EST) From: Liron Lightwood Subject: 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint; Only Problems Ahead The above number was mentioned in a previous article in this group, as a number that can only be dialed using Sprint. Well, I dialed the number from Australia, and got the "AT&T Does not accept this call ..." recording. Very interesting. Does this mean that the call was routed in the US via AT&T? Or would I have received the same recording no matter which long distance carrier was used (except Sprint of course)? Does AT&T have anything to do with the "AT&T does not accept ..." recording? If not, what would AT&T think of all this? What will happen when people start But that's not all folks! For did you know that I was charged for the call! Yes, charged! Does this mean that even callers in the US will be charged for calls to that number even though they get the "AT&T does not accept ... " recording? Liron Lightwood [Moderator's Note: It would be good to find out *who* gave you the 'AT&T does not accept' recording. Was it locally generated by Telecom Australia? Was it coming from overseas in the USA somewhere? Was it generated by the actual recipient of the call? When 286-1600 decided to deal exclusively with Sprint for delivery of their long distance traffic, Sprint programmed their switches to watch for calls directed to that number; to grab the calls and deliver them directly to the recipient, probably over T-1 circuits or other types of leased lines by-passing the local telco. I just now tried it over AT&T from here and got the message 'AT&T has routed this call incorrectly, please hang up and dial 10333-1-206-286-1600'. If other carriers attempt to reach the number, they do in fact get through to it, but it just is terminated on an answering machine at the customer's premises saying they won't deal with you unless you call back via the required carrier (or words to that effect.) Their answering machine should not claim that they are AT&T making the announcement, or that AT&T had anything to do with you winding up on a dead end answering machine. Ideally also those calls should not supervise (or be billed for), but carriers who are getting cut out of the loop like AT&T, MCI, etc are not likely to agree to that, so yes, you probably get billed when calling by an 'unauthorized carrier' as well as not getting the results you wanted. PAT] ------------------------------ From: paulc@world.std.com (Paul E Cantrell) Subject: Anyone Have the ESCORT 900mhz Cordless Phone? Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 16:58:52 GMT I've seen where ESCORT (makers of radar detectors) is selling a 900mhz cordless phone. Does anyone have one of these? This company is known for high quality gear, I'm curious whether their cordless phone is as good as their radar detectors. Paul paulc@world.std.com paul@bos.locus.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 13:40:24 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Telix File Transfer Question From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA David Jonathan Dodick , writes: > I am getting the message "sz: file skipped by receiver" when I try > to receive files (from an ftp transfer) to my pc using Telix. > I have a pc, 1200 baud modem, parity=none, high bit stripping is > off. > Can someone tell me what the message means and if something needs > to be configured a certain way on my Telix program that I may not > have checked?? Yes, there is something you forgot to check; the error message gives it all away. You forgot to make sure you are not downloading a file of the same name as something you already have. Check the directory the download is to be sent to, and see if you have a file of the same name as the file you are downloading. However, there is a chance that you did want the same file, if you were trying to recover from an aborted download (such as when a phone connection is lost in the middle of a transfer.) Zmodem does allow you to re-download a file and instead of starting over at the beginning, it will start from the failure point if the transfer was aborted; if you did intend to do that you must enable Zmodem Recovery, which is usually disabled so you don't accidentally shoot yourself in the foot. If the duplicate file name issue is not the case -- and I'm almost certain it is -- then the only other answer I can think of is you don't have enough free disk space to download the file. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: dgdhome!ddavis@meaddata.com (Don Davis) Subject: Re: Telix File Transfer Question Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 22:31:19 EDT Organization: The Dayton Home for the Chronically Strange In article , telecom@eecs.nwu.edu writes: > I am getting the message "sz: file skipped by receiver" when I try to > receive files (from an ftp transfer) to my pc using Telix. > Can someone tell me what the message means and if something needs to > be configured a certain way on my Telix program that I may not have > checked?? Sounds as if Telix considers that the file already existed on the receiving machine, so it skipped it. This can be a problem when transferring files to a DOS machine from an environment which uses long filenames. If your list of files to be sent looks like this: myfile.text.001 myfile.text.002 myfile.text.003 then when Telix tries to make DOS filenames out of them, they'll all come out as "MYFILE.TEX" due to the filename limitations of DOS (name is up to eight characters, followed by a period, followed by up to three chars of extension). The first file would be transferred, but the others would be skipped, because Telix sees a file by that name already on the disk. Your mileage may vary, depending at least upon the relative sizes and modification dates/times of the files. If this is the problem try naming the files in a way that'll make them unique on the DOS system. Best of luck! Don Davis Internet: dgdhome!ddavis@meaddata.com Tel: 513-235-0096 ------------------------------ From: aneely@toth.uwo.ca (Amer Neely) Subject: Re: Telix File Transfer Question Date: Tue, 31 Aug 93 2:00:44 GMT I use Telix (great program!) when I contact local bbs's and have had no problems using the built-in zmodem transfer for uploads or downloads. However, when I tried the same thing when accessing a Unix or VAX/VMS system, all that went out the window. I tried for about a year (off and on) to get something to work consistently but no luck. Your predicament is SO familiar I just had to laugh (sorry ). I'm not sure if the problem is with the Telix zmodem or the Unix / VMS rz / sz. Recently I tried again using DSZ for xfers, and had only partial success. So my solution is to use Kermit when accessing my Internet account, which is on a Unix box and use Telix for everything else. Make sure there isn't another file with same name in your d/l directory, that will cause a skipped file. You might have to watch carefully for this, especially if the name (on the Unix box) has mulitple extensions. In your case, I believe the *message* is from the remote software. I've found even with Kermit <==> Unix / VMS, I get optimum results by setting the send and receive packets to 512, which is the record size used (at least in VMS I think), so it pays to fool around with switches etc. So save yourself a lot of skull cramps and get a copy of Kermit -- but if you DO find a solution I would like to hear it. Amer Neely, P.O. Box 1538 Stn. B, London ON, CANADA, N6A 5M3 Internet: aneely@toth.uwo.ca Encryption PGP 2.2 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 16:17:07 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Re: Telix File Transfer Question Telix is my comm software (ver 3.21, registered), but I have never encountered any problems when snarfing the archives. DeltaComm Development, the distributor of Telix, provides full support for the product. The support currently includes non-registered users. Their tech support staff can be reached at (919) 460-4556. You can also log onto their BBS at (919) 481-9399. ------------------------------ From: les@chinet.chinet.com (Leslie Mikesell) Subject: Re: Telix File Transfer Question Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 23:00:18 GMT In article , David Jonathan Dodick wrote: > I am getting the message "sz: file skipped by receiver" when I try to > receive files (from an ftp transfer) to my pc using Telix. This means that you already have the file on your PC with the same or new timestamp. If you really want to transfer again, rename the existing copy. Les Mikesell les@chinet.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 93 10:36:24 PDT Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California Pat, this still works if you order a POTS with remote call forwarding that terminates in the CO. You control the line even if it is distant from Chicago. Then just wait the appropriate time, disconnect the other 800 number and install yours where you want it. conversely, move the old 800 number to a CO termination with RCF, install your 800 number where you want it, wait the appropriate time period, then disconnect the old 800 number and line together. *Maybe then just disconnect the line and let big telephone figure out how to terminate the 800 then. Of course, some distinctive ringing situation may be preferable. In any event you can still complain in order to clafify (and register) the situation for others. Regards, Bob Schwartz bob@bci.nbn.com Bill Correctors, Inc. +1 415 488 9000 Marin County, California ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Aug 93 06:51:09 CDT From: ROsman%ASS%SwRI05@D26VS046A.CCF.SwRI.EDU Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers I think the short answer is "because they can." As you are well aware, you'll probably get a different answer from a different rep. I'd try that route first if you can. One solution that you did not mention but probably have considered: **YOU** get a second line and the customer's location and hard-forward it to the customer's number. I had a boss that always said "Life isn't always fair." In retrospect he said it a LOT when we were dealing with AT&T ... Oz (Oz@SwRI.edu) (210) 699-1302 (home:phone/fax/msg) (210) 522-5050 (w) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Aug 93 00:40 GMT From: Christopher Zgvuris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers In TELECOM Digest V13 #615 Lee Sweet (decrsc!leesweet@uunet.UU.NET) writes: > ... could the practice of having the billing keyed by the *target* > instead of the *800 number* be just a holdover (bad programming > choice) from the days when 800s did *not* have DID targets, but *were* > the target, dedicated number themselves? (So when they were able to > offer 800-> DID, someone decided to bill on target rather than 800 > BTW, I doubt that the target number is a customer record or the like, > since most companies have 1 800 from the same vendor. (We have ten > from Cable and Wireless, who, with 800 programming by the user, > couldn't care less where the 800 ends up. [What does AT&T do when you > ask them to move the target? Change all the billing records?!] When we moved our physical location we kept our two 800 numbers (both MCI now, one used to SPRINT - thank you 800 portability!) and simply changed the POTS number they terminated on. These were totally different locations. I've had the POTS termination line changed several times and I never had any problems, the 800 numbers is/are/was keyed to the 800 number in the provider's computer, the subject of what POTS line the number when to was never an issue? What's the story here? Does AT&T have a system that keys their 800 service to the POTS line it goes to? That would be completely contrary to my experiences with MCI & SPRINT. You people with AT&T 800 please clarify this point -- does AT&T have a system different from MCI and SPRINT? Christopher Zguris CZGURIS@MCIMail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Aug 93 13:35:48 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Same Prefix on Both Sides of an Area Code Boundary? The following have come to my attention along the Ohio-Indiana border. The prefix with West or East as part of its place name has "operator routing" from across the border. 623 -- 419 area, East Monroeville; 219 area, Monroeville 632 -- 419 area, East Woodburn; 219 area, Woodburn 997 -- 513 area, Hollansburg; 317 area, East Hollansburg 966 -- 513 area, East Richmond; 317 area, Richmond But in the case of Richmond, Indiana, there are at least three other prefixes serving it. I was able to reach a 966 number with EITHER area code. I don't know what appears on pay phones in Richmond, Indiana; and I was in that area at the end of 1991 (sigh). Richmond is along I-70, so it is quite easy to reach. ------------------------------ From: Joe.Bergstein@p501.f544.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Bergstein) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 02:15:47 -0500 Subject: Radio Shack Catalogs In reply to message from LESREEVES, Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: Radio Shack is now getting $2.95 for catalogs? :( > PAT] Yup! I just stopped in to Radio Shack yesterday looking for the device which goes on a phone line, and stops an (older) answering machine when someone picks up the phone. I looked around and couldn't find them so I asked for a catalog. It wasn't in the catalog either. I started out the door with the catalog in my hand, and was stopped by the manager who told me that the catalogs now cost $2.95 which is refunded on your first purchase. BTW, any idea where I can buy the device described above? [Moderator's Note: I guess from now on we have to go in and buy one of their cheesy house-brand batteries for 50 cents in order to get the catalog. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #618 ****************************** From telecom Thu Sep 2 01:31:05 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21012 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Thu, 2 Sep 1993 01:31:05 -0500 Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 01:31:05 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309020631.AA21012@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #619 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 2 Sep 93 00:31:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 619 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Murdock Buys Delphi (Les Reeves) Strange Billing (David Cornutt) PacBell and GTE (David Gast) GTE and the Cerritos Experiment (David Gast) PTT Approved ISDN Equipment (Paul Lutt) Global Telecommunications Conference (David Sachs) AT&T VISA Card Validation (Anthony E. Siegman) Thank You! No More Beeps ... (Tara D. Mahon) Voice Converters (Johanna Mikkola) Stupid Code Tricks (Jerrold Comm) Creative Intercept Announcement (Nigel Allen) BBS Direct (CRIS) Continued (Jim Wenzel) Denver, Adamstown, PA Moving to 717 (Betty Perry) Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem (Allan R. Baker) Public ATM Network in Australia (John Gottschalk) Telephone Fraud (Goh Tiong Hwee) 57.6kb CCIT Standard? (Brian M. Huey) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1993 00:18:19 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Murdock Buys Delphi The following annoncement was posted on Delphi,Sept. 1. NEW YORK (UPI) -- News Corp. Ltd. said Wednesday it has agreed to buy Delphi Internet Services Inc., a provider of consumer services through personal computers, for an undisclosed price. "Delphi's leading technology will enhance The News Corp.'s role in the rapidly evolving worldwide interactive media marketplace," said Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer of News Corp. "It will provide a series of additional products and services, including an electronic newspaper unlike any other and an electronic version of TV Guide, which will empower consumers to deal with the ever-increasing number of channels." News Corp. said Delphi, of Cambridge, Mass., is the fastest growing of the industry's major consumer on-line services, which include Prodigy and CompuServe. It plans to make Delphi part of its news technology group. Delphi currently employs 300 on-line experts, or moderators, to help customers browse through the Internet electronic databases. "We have gained a tremendous competitive advantage in joining the News Corp. global media family," noted Daniel J. Bruns, president and CEO of Delphi. "In turn, because of our leading state-of-the-art technology, we provide a key part of the strategic interactive media marketplace for News Corp. as it expands its information network on a worldwide basis." More? News Corp., Murdoch's global media and entertainment empire, did not indicate how it would finance the deal. It achieved achieved an investment grade rating in late January on two long-term debt issues totaling $1 billion through its News America Holdings unit. ------------------------------ From: cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (David Cornutt) Subject: Strange Billing Organization: NASA/MSFC Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 21:38:31 GMT Something kind of strange turned up in my girlfriend's phone bill this month. Here's the situation: She just moved across town into a new house. Her service at the old number was terminated on July 27; service at the new number was turned on July 29. SC Bell sent her a final bill for the old number in early August; it included all charges up through the date that service was terminated at that number. Well, she just got her first bill for the new number. It included the charges for calls made that month, and the usual charges for moving the service, etc. But it also included something else. On the AT&T portion of the bill, listed under "Operator Assisted Calls", were four calls that she didn't make. Three of these were overseas (two to Saudi Arabia, one to Egypt). And, more mysteriously, all of them were third-number calls originated from other numbers. One came from a local number, one from a number in Washington, DC, and two from a number in Alexandria, VA. Now, here's where it really gets wierd. My girlfried called AT&T about this. She told me that a rep called her back and said that the calls were credit card calls made by the previous subscriber on that number and that they will be removed from the bill. (We'll see about that ...) At the time she told me this, I had my mind on something else, and didn't really think about it. But then I realized ... How could calls made on *someone else's* credit card turn up on *her* bill? Credit card calls are billed to a person, not an address! So I got the bill out. And then, I noticed the *really* bizarre aspect: These calls were made prior to July 29, BEFORE THE SERVICE WAS TURNED ON AT THAT NUMBER! So, does anyone have any ideas? What in the Sam Hill is going on here? Is this an AT&T screwup, or some bizarre form of fraud, or what? How could calls be billed to a number that wasn't in service at the time the calls were made? AT&T seems to be willing to remove the calls from the bill, so things seem to be OK at the moment. But, I'm not satisfied. If there is some sort of fraud going on here, who's to say that it won't appear again next month? (Some additional info that might or might not be relevent: By random chance, she was assigned a number with the last four digits of the form XX00. The number is close to a huge block of DID numbers owned by Boeing. The thought has occurred to me that maybe someone has been somehow scamming Boeing's telecom, and this number assignment has stumbled onto it.) Any ideas? Anything for us to be concerned about? David Cornutt, New Technology Inc., Huntsville, AL (205) 461-4517 (cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov; some insane route applies) "The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my employer, not necessarily mine, and probably not necessary." [Moderator's Note: It is likely whoever had the number before her had some charges come through that were delayed for whatever reason. Calling Cards are usually connected to a specific phone number. Maybe the Calling Card number was originally entered wrong, or there was some reason the billing got mangled. A small percentage of calls get incorrectly billed for whatever reason and are delayed in getting to the account where they belong. For whatever reason, AT&T had those particular toll tickets out of the regular stream and in adjustments. Since they were operator-assisted calls to overseas points, it is quite likely this could have occurred. At the time the calls were placed the operator might have marked the tickets wrong; the charges might have gone to MCI from the foreign telco in error; MCI had to charge them back to AT&T; Lord only knows where they had been. Even the date on the bill might be bogus; the charges could have been incurred three or four months earlier and been bounced back and forth between three or four telcos a couple times before they fell out in billing and went to adjustments or research. Telcos mess up also and send AT&T charges to MCI, MCI's to AT&T, and Sprint's to some other company. MCI might have sat on those charges in their adjustments/ suspense for two months before back-charging them to the *wrong* (not the originating) telco. Finally AT&T gets the tickets three months after the fact in their suspense account and at that point, a human being from AT&T had to look at the tickets and figure out what happened. The clerk located the !absolute! number of the subscriber responsible, manually pushed them through to the telco serving your girlfriend, and guess what? The subscriber had discontinued that number and went elsewhere. The manually adjusted tickets arrived a day after the billing cycle; now they get to sit in the local telco's vault for another 30 days or so. Meanwhile, the phone number has been out of service a couple months, and telco assigned it to your girl friend, but AT&T doesn't know this. The local telco does not challenge what comes in-house; they just bill it. If it falls out again in the cycle billing, so be it. Charge it back to AT&T again, or MCI or somewhere ... write it off, whatever. In this case the billing stuck because there was a subscriber attached to the phone number by this time: your girlfriend. The AT&T rep should not have said the charges belonged to the previous 'occupant of the residence'; she probably should have said they belong to the previous subscriber using that number. Maybe she did and your girlfriend mis- understood. If the rep promised to remove the charges, I am sure they will be gone. Of course with your luck, the credit issued by the rep will miss the cycle billing by a day meaning the charges will show up on the bill again next month as unpaid. If this happens, sit tight. Don't write your congressman, the FCC or me for that matter. Wait and see if in a couple months from now the charges have gone away to write-off heaven, along with the rest of the unidentifiable charges from six months ago and the illegible microfilm copies of stuff, etc . PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 14:38:51 -0700 From: gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) Subject: PacBell and GTE Recently my girlfriend moved to an area I thought was served by GTE. Knowing how they behave, I called up first to find out what questions they would ask. It turns out that she must be right over the dividing line because when she called they told her she was in the PacBell service area. What a blessing. Telephone service is at least 20% cheaper. Unlike GTE which was quoting almost a week to turn on service, PacBell turned it on when she wanted it, two days later. The initial connection fee is also much less expensive and is spread over three months instead of being due all at once. GTE will not allow a pseudonym to be used for a directory listing. (I was really surprised, but the PUC directed me to GTE's executive offices, and they read me the tariff.) PacBell has no problems with a pseudonym. Additionally, an unlisted line costs only half as much in PB land anyway. PB bundles cancel call waiting with call waiting. GTE does not. One can make minor modifications to the service for a $5 dollar fee. GTE charges significantly more. I think, $26, but I could be wrong on that point. PB even tried to hire her. All in all, a big improvement. Better service, less cost. David ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 14:29:44 -0700 From: gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) Subject: GTE and the Cerritos Experiment The {LA Times} had a front page article yesterday on the big GTE experiment in Cerritos. In essence, this was a so-called high technology project involving movies on demand, interactive TV, and the like. GTE obviously thought it would prove very profitable. The reality is that the project has generated far less use than GTE expected. Even though movies on demand cost something like four or five bucks instead of the 6.50 I remember them mentioning at the outset, few people use the service. People prefer to save the bucks and go to their local video store. GTE is really miffed because many telco executives thought they would put the video stores out of business, and they hate that they have not made a bigger dent in the market. Unfortunately, GTE, living in its monopoly world, still does not believe in downward sloping demand curves. (They even exist for GTE's monopoly products). In fact, a large number of people have not even signed up for cable. Sidebar: Cable executives have said that the only thing people will pay for is video on demand, but the Cerritos experiment says otherwise. Even fewer people have signed up for or used the interactive features. David ------------------------------ From: pwl@tc.fluke.COM (Paul Lutt) Subject: PTT Approved ISDN Equipment Organization: Fluke Corporation, Everett, WA Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 16:25:45 GMT We are currently looking at ways to provide a network connection from our headquarters in the US to our offices in the Netherlands. Since this link will be low volume, with intermittent use, we are considering using ISDN bridges for the connection. We have found a couple of vendors with products that could do the job, but their equipment has not been certified by the PTT in the Netherlands for connection to their ISDN phone lines. One solution would be to find some sort of PTT approved box that would be the ISDN equivalent of the old telephone data access arrangement. Such an electrical firewall would permit us to use the ISDN bridge in the Netherlands. Does anyone out there in netland know of such a box? We are also investigating other solutions, but the ISDN bridges look quite attractive. Paul Lutt Domain: pwl@tc.fluke.COM Voice: +1 206 356 5059 UUCP: uunet!fluke!pwl Snail: Fluke Corporation / P.O. Box 9090 / Everett, WA 98206-9090 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 18:24 GMT From: Telecom <0005877669@mcimail.com> Subject: Global telecommunications Conference October 13-15, 1993 Rye Town Hilton Rye Brook, NY Conference Overview Pace University has developed this conference to provide a world class forum for telecommunications users to explore implementation strategies for the development of global networks. Three conference tracks will provide over 30 sessions and user case studies in the critical areas of Technology, Regulation and Policy, and Implementation. The distinguished list of conference presenters will include: Marie-Monique Steckel President, France Telecom US Gerald Thames President, British Telecom North America Al Kurtze Senior Vice President, Sprint Peter Scott Commission of European Communities Sachio Semmoto Senior Vice President, DDI Corporation (Japan) Topics to be addressed include: * Successful Implementation Strategies * Multimedia Networking * Outsourcing vs. Insourcing * Wireless Networks * Deregulation and Privatization * Personal Info Systems * Enterprise Networking Deployment * Reform at the ITU * Technology Trends * User case study series Optional Pre-Conference Seminars * Global networking-Executive Decision Frameworks * Asynchronous Transfer Mode * The Global Telecommunications Business Environment (2 days) Who Should Attend * CIOs * Communications managers * Network analysts, planners or designers * Information technology specialists * MIS directors * Systems engineers * International marketers Information and Registration Please contact David Sachs, 1 Martine Avenue, White Plains, NY 10606. Telephone: (800) 546-3157, (914) 763-8764 Fax: (914) 763-9324 E-mail: 587-7669 @MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 9:08:44 PDT From: Anthony E. Siegman Subject: AT&T VISA Card Validation New gimmick on AT&T VISA cards (at least new to me): mandatory phone validation of new and replacement cards before they can be used. My wife and I received the annual replacements for our AT&T Univeral VISA cards the other day. WIth the cards was a memo: The new cards would not be valid until we telephoned an 800 number and verified the cards. When I called, the totally automated system ("You will be asked for certain information; if you have your new card with you please push 2 now") wanted me to enter: * The 16-digit card number * Last two digits of primary card holder's year of birth * My SSN I know the last item will push some people's buttons. Whether they also captured the number I called from I don't know -- I suppose so. [Moderator's Note: Didn't the same people put their SSN on the original application for credit? Then what is their beef now? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 09:09:45 EDT From: Tara D. Mahon Subject: Thank you! No More Beeps... Dear TELECOM Digest (comp.dcom.telecom) readers: Thanks for all the replies I received about the mysterious beeping calls. I just wanted to let everyone know they stopped at 10:55 am, after over 30 calls in seven hours (the voice messaging system counted, not I). The signal was neither modem nor fax (as I suspected). The phone company believes it may have been a line check gone awry or a broken telemarketing machine. They have also set a trap on my line for two weeks in case the calls return. Thank you for all the kind replies to my _most annoying_ message. Insanity sets in after a while. Best Wishes, Tara [Moderator's Note: I'm glad the list was able to help you Tara. Speaking of the mailing list, over a hundred new names added in the past three days! Many of them employees of MCI; several from GTE departments. Welcome new readers, one and all! PAT] ------------------------------ From: rmj@ajk.tele.fi (Johanna Mikkola) Subject: Voice Converters Date: 1 Sep 1993 12:23:27 GMT Organization: Telecom Finland Reply-To: rmj@ajk.tele.fi Hello, Does anybody know something about Wescom or Prescom voice converters? My problem is to connect four-wire E&M system to two-wire analogue line. (One voice channel) I know that this equipment is used in this kind of cases but I would need some specific information about it. If anybody knows also who is its local distributor in Scandinavia, please tell me. Regards, Johanna ------------------------------ From: gvaeth@netcom.com (Jerrold Comm/GI) Subject: Stupid Code Tricks Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 20:49:26 GMT Has anyone compiled a list of "special" codes telcos use (for callback, number id, etc.)? I am particularly interested in what is in use in the 215 area code, or if it is cut finer, in the Philadelphia metro area. Thanks. Regards, Gregory Vaeth Jerrold Communications internet: gvaeth@netcom.com General Instrument voicenet: (215) 956-6488 2200 Byberry Road faxnet: (215) 675-4059 Hatboro, PA 19040 [Moderator's Note: Now and then someone puts one of those lists together; we had one here a few months ago. Maybe someone will write you direct with the information for your area if they know it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 17:03:53 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Creative Intercept Announcement Organization: National Capital Freenet, Ottawa Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca David Grabiner, grabiner@zariski.harvard.edu, uses the following cute saying in his .signature: > "We are sorry, but the number you have dialed is imaginary." > "Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again." I am tempted to use it on my answering machine. It would scare off telemarketers quite nicely. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 16:12:00 -0500 From: jim.wenzel@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (Jim Wenzel) Subject: BBS Direct (CRIS) Continued Reply-To: jim.wenzel@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (Jim Wenzel) Organization: The GrapeVine BBS *** N. Little Rock, AR *** (501) 753-8121 An update on BBS Direct (CRIS): Well, I called to day and talked to someone different. This time around they were a little more straight-forward about what was and wasn't. I was wrong about full UseNet feed. They will not be providing it. Nor will they be providing FTP or TelNet (someone blew smoke up my a**). The chat-based Interlink Service is not up yet; it is promised soon. The only way to access BBS Direct is thru them (dial into SprintNet and type C CRIS). From there they will patch you back out to the BBS of your choice. Currently there are only a little over ten BBS's signed up. They did mention heavy advertisement but, frankly, I don't see the need for it really. This was an opportunity for someone to really do something. . IMHO it is beginning to look like a glorified BBS directory. The GrapeVine / Ferret Face BBS (501) 753-8121 PGP Distribution Site, UseNet, RIME, ThrobNet, MediaNet, U'niNet, ForthNet RecoveryNet, MetroLink. Putting Communications back in Telecommunication ------------------------------ From: rdsun5a!eep@aloft.att.com Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 17:44:43 EDT Subject: Denver, Adamstown, PA Moving to 717 Since I've seen several references to Denver and Adamstown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in this Digest, I thought there'd be some interest in this. Both these exchanges are moving from area code 215 to area code 717. According to a friend who lives there, Denver (215-267) gets a new prefix (717-336). Adamstown (484) just changes the area code. Right now, both the old and new numbers work. I'm not sure how long that will continue. There are one or two other exchanges which are also predominantly in Lancaster County and are currently in 215, but I haven't heard anything about them. The latest Reading/Berks County Bell of PA phone books have 1 page announcing the 215/610 split which will occur on Jan. 8, 1994. They don't say anything about a permissive dialing period which I think comes after that date. Betty Perry AT&T Bell Laboratories Reading, PA eep@aluxpo.att.com ------------------------------ From: arb2@engr.engr.uark.edu (Allan R. Baker) Subject: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem Organization: University of Arkansas Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 22:13:33 GMT Help. Is it possible to communicate a with TDD (or is it DDT) device with common modem software? If anyone has any helpful information please e-mail at arb2@engr.uark. edu. Thank you for your time. Allan R. Baker arb2@engr.uark.edu [Moderator's Note: No it is not possible. They are different protocols. The one uses ASCII, the other uses Baudot (of some level, I forget). PAT] ------------------------------ From: john@citr.uq.oz.au (John Gottschalk) Subject: Public ATM Network in Australia Organization: Prentice Centre, University of Queensland Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 07:15:29 GMT Hello all, For those interested in Broadband ISDN and ATM, Telstra Corp. (usually known here as Telecom Australia) have announced they will soon be offering an ATM service in the major Australian cities (this is not too difficult as we do not have very many people and cities in Australia). There will be a trial of the ATM network next year, with commercial operations soon after that if the trial is successful. The network will use the 155Mbit/sec SDH protocol and the 34Mbit/sec Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) protocol. I have heard elsewhere that the network could easily run at 650Mbit/sec but Telstra does not yet see a need for it. Regards, John Gottschalk, john@citr.uq.oz.au Project Manager, CiTR, +61 7 365 4321 (phone) Gehrmann Building, +61 7 365 4399 (fax) The University of Queensland, 4072, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, ------------------------------ From: thgoh@iss.nus.sg (Goh Tiong Hwee) Subject: Telephone Fraud Date: 1 Sep 1993 02:01:40 GMT Organization: Institute Of Systems Science, NUS. I have been keeping watch on this newsgroup for the past three weeks looking out for Fraud Detection Systems but to no avail. I have been tasked with proposing such a system for cellular phones especially illegal clone cellular phone fraud for our local service provider. So far I have only got credit card fraud detection systems by Nestor and HNC. Will appreciate if readers of this group can recommend any such system. (I have been told they exist.) Please email to me or post. Should there be sufficient interest, I will consolidate, summaries and post. Thank you for your attention. [Moderator's Note: You missed a great thread on the topic which began here two or three months ago, and dealt with the capture of ESNs by phreaks who then install the ESN in chips used in stolen phones, etc. I suggest you check the Telecom Archives for those back issues. The archives is accessible using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. PAT] ------------------------------ From: todamhyp@unlv.edu (Brian M. Huey) Subject: 57.6kb CCIT Standard? Organization: University of Nevada at Las Vegas, College of Engineering Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 23:15:29 GMT Is there a Protocol/standard for modems that operate at a RAW data connection speed of 57.6 kbaud without data compression? Brian M. Huey If you have an opinion in regards todamhyp@unlv.edu -or- to what I said, mail me. todamhyp@cs.unlv.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #619 ****************************** From telecom Thu Sep 2 12:10:00 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06780 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Thu, 2 Sep 1993 12:10:00 -0500 Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 12:10:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309021710.AA06780@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #620 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 2 Sep 93 12:10:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 620 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson International Symposium on Applied Computing (ISAC93) (Martha S. Salinas) World Wide Web Newsletter (wwwn@ukartnet.demon.co.uk) Easytouch Phone Trouble (Dave Carpentier) Foreigners Need Not Apply? (Ramaiah V. Narla) Used D4 Channel Bank Needed (Stanley Kechak) E-mail Address(es) For Congress? (David R. Zinkin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: msordia@academ01.mty.itesm.mx (Ing. Martha Sordia Salinas) Subject: International Symposium on Applied Computing (ISAC93) Date: 1 Sep 93 22:48:58 GMT Organization: ITESM, Campus Monterrey Simposium Internacional en Computacion Aplicada: Investigaciones y Aplicaciones en Ingenieria de Software, Bases de Datos y Sistemas Distribuidos International Symposium on Applied Computing: Research and Applications in Software Engineering, Data Bases and Distributed Systems ISAC '93 Oct. 13 - 15 1993 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. ITESM Campus, Monterrey, Mexico, October 13-15 1993. MONTERREY/ITESM INFO Monterrey is an industrial city located 160 miles south of the US border. ITESM is a leading private university system composed of 26 campuses in 25 cities. It has a faculty of 4000 and student body of 48000. All campuses are linked by a telecommunications network operating via satellite. The Center for Informatics Research is one of 10 applied research centers whose main goal is to develop and transfer new technologies that will help industrial competitiveness. PROGRAMA PRELIMINAR / PRELIMINARY PROGRAM ________________ Miercoles 13 de octubre, 1993 ________________ TUTORIALES/TUTORIALS Los tutoriales seran en paralelo. / Parallel sessions for tutorials. 8:00 "Design by Contract: Making Object - Oriented Programs that Work" Dr. Bertrand Meyer / Interactive Software Engineering, U.S.A. ( 8 hrs ) 8:00 "Software Reuse: From Concepts to Implementation" Dr. Ruben Prieto-Diaz / Reuse Inc., U.S.A. (8 hrs) 8:00 "Distributed Databases " Dr. Hector Garcia-Molina / Stanford University, U.S.A. (6 hrs) 8:00 "The Theory and Practice of Information Technology Transfer" Dr. James C. Brancheau / University of Colorado, U.S.A. (8 hrs) ________________ Jueves 14 de octubre, 1993 ________________ PROGRAMA DE CONFERENCIAS / INVITED SPEAKERS AND PAPERS Las ponencias seran en paralelo. Se contara con traduccion simultanea. / Parallel paper sessions. Translation service available. 8:00 - 9:00 Registro /Registration 9:00 - 9:30 Inaguracion y Bienvenida / Opening Ceremony 9:30 -10:30 "Information Finding in an Electronic Library" Dr. Hector Garcia - Molina / Stanford University, U.S.A. 10:30 - 11:00 RECESO/BREAK 11:00 - 12:00 Applying Technology: A key to success in 21st century Dr. James Brancheau / University of Colorado, U.S.A 12:00 - 13:00 " CASE: Tools for People or People for Tools ? " Dr. Anneliese Von Mayrhauser /Colorado State Univ., U.S.A. 13:00 - 14:30 COMIDA / LUNCH PONENCIAS EN PARALELO / PARALLEL PAPER SESSIONS INGENIERIA DE SOFTWARE (SOFTWARE ENGINEERING) 14:30 - 15:00 " A Statistical Method to Assess Human Factors in Computing " Jorge Gonzalez Sustaeta / Inst. de Invest. Electricas, MEXICO 15:00 - 15:30 " Levels of Consciousness for Reuse of Software in Practice: Maintainability, Balance, Standardization " Thomas Grechenig / Technical University of Vienna, AUSTRIA 15:30 - 16:00 " Building a Better Software Product through Total Quality " Danielle V. Bernstein / TRW, Inc., U.S.A. 16:00 - 16:30 RECESO/BREAK BASES DE DATOS ( DATA BASES ) 16:30 - 17:00 "Developing a Database Server for Distributed Real-Time Systems" Sang H. Son / University of Virginia, U.S.A. 17:00 - 17:30 "Modular Concurrency Control Algorithms for Object Bases" Ken Barker / University of Manitoba, CANADA ________________ Jueves 14 de octubre, 1993 ________________ SISTEMAS DISTRIBUIDOS (DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS) 14:30 -15:00 " Towards Integrated Distributed Systems Management " James W. Hong / University of Western Ontario, CANADA 15:00 -15:30 " Algorithms for Implementing Replicated Priority Queues " Brahma Dathan / University of Wyoming, U.S.A. 15:30 -16:00 " iTOS: A Distributed Operating Systems for Real Time Systems " Rajendra Rathod / Indian Telephone Industries Limited, INDIA 16:00 -16:30 RECESO/BREAK 16:30 - 17:00 "Using the Object - Oriented Framework to Construct Wide - Area Group Communication Mechanisms" Darrell D. E. Long / University of California, U.S.A. 17:00 - 17:30 "On the Performance of Voting with Ghosts" Jehan - Francois Paris / University of Houston, U.S.A. 17:30 - 18:30 Panel de Discusion de Sistemas Distribuidos / Discussion Panel in Distributed Systems ________________ Viernes 15 de octubre, 1993 ________________ PROGRAMA DE CONFERENCIAS /INVITED SPEAKERS AND PAPERS 9:00 - 10:00 " Software Development Solutions for a Parallel Database System" Dr. Walter G. Wilson / T.J. Watson Research Center, U.S.A. 10:00 - 11:00 The User as Leader during Information System Implementation Ing. Gustavo Cervantes / ABACO Grupo Financiero, MEXICO 11:00 - 11:30 RECESO/BREAK SESIONES EN PARALELO / PARALLEL PAPER SESSIONS INGENIERIA DE SOFTWARE (SOFTWARE ENGINEERING) 11:30 -12:00 " Object Oriented Encapsulation: Integrating Applications in Information Systems " Steven D. Litvintchouk / The MITRE Corporation, U.S.A. 12:00 - 12:30 " Reverse Engineering for System Transformation " Harald Gall / Vienna University of Technology, AUSTRIA 12:30 - 14:30 COMIDA /LUNCH BASES DE DATOS (DATA BASES) 11:30 - 12:00 "Failure-Resilient Transaction Execution in Multidatabase Systems" Jongtae Lim / Korea Advanced Inst. of Sc. & Tech., KOREA 12:00 - 12:30 " Simple Object - Oriented Syntax for the SQL User " James L. Johnson / Western Washington University, U.S.A. 12:30 - 14:30 COMIDA / LUNCH ________________ Viernes 15 de octubre, 1993 ________________ SESIONES EN PARALELO / PARALLEL PAPER SESSIONS INGENIERIA DE SOFTWARE (SOFTWARE ENGINEERING) 14:30 - 15:00 " An Integrated Software Maintenance Environment and the Ghinsu Toolset" Panos E. Livadas / University of Florida, U.S.A. 15:00 - 15:30 " Thirteen Years of Tedium : A New Approach to System Development and Maintenance " Bruce I. Blum / Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A. 15:30 - 16:00 RECESO/BREAK 16:00 - 16:30 " A Requirements Capturing Environment for Telephony " Douglas D. Dankel II / University of Florida, U.S.A. 16:30 - 17:00 "A Hierarchical Approach for Structuring MMS Based Applications" Luis Vega / CRIN - ENSEM, FRANCE 17:00 - 18:00 Panel de Discusion de Ingenieria de Software/ Dsicussion Panel in Software Engineering BASE DE DATOS (DATA BASES) 14:30 - 15:00 " OODBMS and Integration of the AEC Industry " Jesus Favela / Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.A. 15:00 - 15:30 "Object Modeling and Efficient Allocation and Multimedia Objects for Storage Device Architecture in Real - Time Multimedia " Kingsley C. Nwosu / IBM Data Systems Division, U.S.A. 15:30 - 16:00 RECESO/BREAK 16:00 - 17:00 Panel de Discusion de Base de Datos/ Discussion Panel in DataBases ----------------------- EVENTOS SOCIALES / SOCIAL EVENTS 18:00 Coctel de Bienvenida para Tutoriales Miercoles 13 de octubre Cocktail 18:30 Coctel de Bienvenida para Conferencias Jueves 14 de octubre Cocktail 20:00 Cena de Clausura Viernes 15 de octubre Dinner ------------------------ TARIFAS DE HOTEL / HOTEL RATES Here are the sepecial hotel rates for conference attendees: Hotel Ancira Tarifa/Rate: N$346.00 + IVA $110.00 US dlls + 10% TAX Tel/Phone: (52)(8) 345-10-60 or 345-75-75 Fax/Fax: (52)(8) 344-52-26 Observations: Downtown; about 20 min from ITESM by car Observaciones:Centro de la ciudad; a 20 min del ITESM en carro Hotel Holiday Inn Crown Plaza Tarifa/Rate: N$327.00 + IVA $109.00 US dlls. + 10% TAX Tel/Phone: (52)(8) 319-60-00 Fax/Fax: (52)(8) 344-30-07 Observations: Downtown; about 20 min from ITESM by car Observaciones: Centro de la ciudad; a 20 min del ITESM en carro Hotel Rio Tarifa/Rate: N$250.00 + IVA $89.00 US Dlls. + 10% TAX Tel/Phone: (52)(8) 344-90-40 Fax/Fax: (52)(8) 345-14-56 Observations: Downtown; about 20 min from ITESM by car Observaciones: Centro de la ciudad; a 20 min del ITESM en carro Hotel Holiday Inn Express Tarifa/Rate: N$215.00 + IVA $70.00 US dlls. + 10% TAX Tel/Phone: (52)(8) 329-60-00 Fax/Fax: (52)(8) 329-60-20 Observations: South; about 5 min from ITESM by car Observaciones: Al sur de la ciudad; a 5 min del ITESM en carro We have a help counter, to aid you arranging hotel reservations in Monterrey. If you want a hotel reservation, please send to the help counter the folowing data as soon as posible. * dates of stay * hotel name * international credit card number, expiration date and type Help Counter Mayra Padilla/Zoila Reyna phone:(8) 358-20-00 ext 5082, 5076 fax: (8) 358-20-00 ext 5081 e-mail:msordia at mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx ----------------------------- COSTO DEL EVENTO /FEES Profesionistas/Professionals Tutorial/Tutorial N$1,000 + IVA $310 USD + 10% TAX Conferencias / Conferences N$1,000 + IVA $310 USD + 10% TAX Conferencias y Tutorial N$1,700 + IVA Conferences and Tutorial $527 USD + 10% TAX Estudiantes/Students Conferencias/Conferences N$320 + IVA $100 USD + 10 TAX (dinner not included) Profesores/Professors Tutorial/Tutorial N$850 + IVA $265 USD + 10% TAX Conferencias/Conferences $850 + IVA $265 USD + 10% TAX Conferencias y Tutorial N$1,600 + IVA Conferences and Tutorial $500 USD + 10% TAX ------------------- REGISTRATION ITESM, Campus Monterrey Centro de Investigacion en Informatica Edificio CETEC 6: Nivel Torre Norte Ave. Eugenio Garza Sada #2501 Sur Monterrey N.L. Mexico ATN: Lic. Mayra Padilla/ Lic. Zoila Reyna Tel/Phone: (8) 358-20-00 ext. 5082, 5076 Fax/Fax: (8) 358-20-00 ext. 5081 e-mail: msordia@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 19:13:48 +0000 From: wwwn@ukartnet.demon.co.uk Subject: World Wide Web Newsletter The World Wide Web Newsletter brings you Desktop Global Networking. Now you can plug in to an endless world of people and information: the fastest growing global event, with room and resources for everyone. Al Gore dubbed it the "information superhighway" now everyone from the President of the United States to the grungiest cyberpunk is out there, roaming the highways. The WORLD WIDE WEB NEWSLETTER is a unique source of news, information, help, addresses and ideas from and about the new global networks. If you want to know about the cyberspace you need to read the World Wide Web Newsletter. The WORLD WIDE WEB NEWSLETTER is proud to introduce Desktop Global Networking (DGN) for all. Anyone who has an interest in communication; anyone who is thinking about utilising the power of desktop global networking; anyone who should know what is happening out there; anyone interested in the range of resources and products that make up the World Wide Web has to read The World Wide Web Newsletter. The World Wide Web is a metanetwork of interconnected computers, known variously as the Internet, the Matrix and Cyberspace. The World Wide Web Newsletter is your navigation system to the greatest free resource and communication system in the history of the world. The WORLD WIDE WEB NEWSLETTER is designed with the non-specialist in mind -- you don't need a degree in computer networking to read us. We aim to bring you clear, informative, helpful, exciting insights into the most useful communication and information system that you will ever use. This World Wide Web the Internet, the Matrix, the Cyberspace is a huge interconnected system of networked computers. It is estimated that fifteen million people a day use the system and that the system is growing at ten percent a month. The Web will change our lives. As access to it becomes widespread, so knowledge of how it works, what is in it, how to make use of it and what will happen next becomes of prime importance to more and more of us. The global network is so huge that newcomers and old hands alike find it difficult to keep tabs on the needles in this haystack. The WORLD WIDE WEB NEWSLETTER brings you the best of the global networks every other month: News; Features; UK access information; network multimedia; a-z of the Internet; Frequently Asked Questions; common problems, common solutions; Reviews - books, software, hardware, services and systems; non-Internet systems and how they connect; how individuals use the global networks. Resource and Listings sections will provide ready references to resources on the Internet, from those you use everyday to the obscure depths that you may never otherwise find. The September/October issue of The WORLD WIDE WEB NEWSLETTER: + UK Networking: how to; where to; who to and a full listing of UK Internet accesss providers. + Powermail The wonderful world of mailing lists: how to exploit the power of e-mail. + Cello - Full featured Internet software for Windows reviewed by Neville Wilford + Awesome Sites: Virtual Tourism the John S. Makulowich Column + NetNews latest news from the global networks + Off Internet Hardware and software developments outside and around the Internet + Internet a-z: Astronautics How to become an astronaut and other frequently asked questions + Plus information on software and hardware developments; resource lists; publications; Internet Multimedia and much more. If you don't read The WORLD WIDE WEB NEWSLETTER, you'll never know what you are missing -- or who's missing you. The WORLD WIDE WEB NEWSLETTER Editor: Ivan Pope ISSN 1350 - 2263 Individual issues 3 + 1 p&p 24 for 6 issues including postage in the UK and Europe. 42 (US$60) elsewhere including airmail postage Payable to Art Computers CIS: 100135,1673 ivan@ukartnet.demon.co.uk IPope@well.sf.ca.us FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT THE EDITOR IVAN POPE ON +44 81 533 0818 or IVAN@UKARTNET.DEMON.CO.UK or FAX ON THE ABOVE NUMBER Published by: Art Computers, 13 Brett Rd, London E8 1JP UK Ivan Pope Editor ivan@ukartnet.demon.co.uk The World Wide Web Newsletter +44 (0)81 533 0818 13 Brett Rd Fax: +44 (0)81 533 0818 London E8 1JP wwwn@ukartnet.demon.co.uk UK The World Wide Web Newsletter (WWWN). The WWWN is a monthly subscription newsletter that covers the new global networks. ------------------------------ From: dave.carpentier@oln.com Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 17:22:56 -0400 Subject: EasyTouch Phone Trouble We have a "Bell Phones by Northwestern Bell Phones" telephone model "EasyTouch 2 Line" unit that deceided to quit dialing in the pulse mode. The phone works fine on tone. When switched to pulse, it makes the appropriate sounds in the earpiece, but fails to break dialtone. If this is in fact a product of "Northwestern Bell" (one of the baby Bells?), I wonder if some of the phone-techies may know of a common fix. With my luck, "Northwestern Bell Phones" is just the name of a company in Korea. Please don't send messages with detailed setups involving 'scopes and the like, as I have none at my disposal. I do, however, have access to a 600v dc "breakdown" unit in need be. ;() Later, Dave Carpentier [Thunder Bay, Ont. Can.] dave.carpentier@oln.com ------------------------------ From: Ramaiah V Narla Subject: Foreigners Need Not Apply? DateThu 2 1 Sep 1993 01:05:24 EDT "HOW MANY RESUMES MUST A MAN SEND, BEFORE ..." First, we are told that the graduate program in telecommunications is a path breaker; whereas the telecom industry used to hire graduates from business management or engineering, now they have another resource -- the pools of bright ones trained especially to fit into telecom niches. We are told that this is the information age and the opportunities are limitless -- for telecom gradautes, they implied. Then came the guests speakers -- industry contacts of our professors -- who harped of new scenarios against the same information age backdrop: geographic, political, econonomic, and cultural, borders breaking down and the power of the universal corporation (no, not multi- or transnational anymore). Then comes news from all over about the "phenomenal" Changes Taking Place in economies and telecom industries around this blessed world. Privatization!! You got a plan? Here's a share for you. And then ... And then, here I am: for nine months have I tried, extensively and intensively and loss-of-wordsly, to locate myself with a company. But to no avail. Countless numbers of applications, cities and states, strategies, collaborated efforts with university councelers, consistensies, try-luck-now recklessnesses, complex webs of networks ... nine months! Response rate? TWO interviews (into 2nd meeting stage) and about 10% standard acknowledgments through s-mail. (The standard statement reads soemwhat like, "Although your credentials are very impressive, we do not have a position that suits ..."). And of course they got me on file. Meanwhile, the network is frustrated too ... [Maybe I got to make a profession out of just building these "networks," I mean!] And it wasn't uncommon for the common contact to say, "Maybe, you're asking for too much ..." What have I been asking for? I spent about $40K getting the degree. Worked the bit I have off, paid the taxes, played the cultural ambassador to my people [they haven't heard of the imminent threat to their borders], and helped my host country scholars understand the Other ... what then was I asking for? A few returns on that investment. And an internship for year before I get back into the still un-eroded borders of the country I came from. Specifically, I am permitted a year's practical training in the USA after my studies and that's all I have been asking for. In return for the kind of work (sloggery) that one will remember when one comes to my town to shop or to sell. The country I want to get back to is not as "attractive" as the CIS or east Europe. But it IS privatizing and it has one of the largest middle class populations and an eminently potential market. Any number of US telcos have bid for projects there in recent years, even on the threshold of change. Some have proposed or presently working on grand plans for business there. However, not one company had one idea as to how useful I could be, whether in their operations, to their long-term goals, or for a pecuniary benefit from hiring me: because I'd be dead cheap. Not that I am an absolute novice. I worked at my university in the USA. I took a break from a successful professional career in my country to come here particularly to extend my understanding of new technologies and services, and for an exposure to, simply put, the best and cheapest telecom services. And I believed that travel can lead to better education and salvation (sic!). Am I wrong or what? Ram Narla PLEASE MAIL ANY CORRESPONDENCE TO: narla@egr.msu.edu [Moderator's Note: Don't you really know what the problem is? It is the same problem faced by many young black people in urban areas like Chicago. All these years we've been saying stay in school, work part time at an entry-level job at McDonalds, get a diploma, take a couple of extra courses ... hey, some blacks *believed it* and did just what was suggested. Now out of school, they go out and look for jobs only to have personnel departments politely tell them there is nothing which is 'suitable', or that the job was filled. These days, dyed in the wool racists are more in the closet than the gay guys ever used to be. But they still staff the employment offices and apartment rental offices everywhere. The young teenage black kids who recently graduated from high school and are out looking for a job rarely have experienced the open and bald-faced racism their grandparents lived with; some of them have seen none at all and are led to believe it does not exist any longer. They honestly think it has to do with how well they perform their duties. There is still some 'resentment toward foreigners' here in the USA also. I strongly suspect that has something to do with it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kechak@uuhare.rabbit.net (Stanley Kechak) Subject: Used D4 Channel Bank Needed Organization: The Rabbit Network, Inc. Mt. Clemens, MI Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1993 12:53:11 GMT One of our customers is in need of a D4 channel bank. They will be receiving their 800 calls over a T1 and they want to hook the 24 channels to two racks of Telebit worldblazer modems. They don't seem to have $8-$12k in their budget for a new one and would like to avoid leasing one -- its money down the drain. Any ideas? Jon S. Havel, Technical Support Services, havel@rabbit.net The Rabbit Network, Inc. | Internetworking Services 34486 South Gratiot Ave. | Suite 200 Mt. Clemens, MI 48043 | (313) 790-0094 FAX: (313) 790-0156 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 02 Aug 1993 09:26:50 EDT From: David R Zinkin Subject: E-Mail Address(es) for Congress? A while back, someone posted the E-mail addresses for President Clinton (president@whitehouse.gov), Vice President Gore (vice-president@whitehouse.gov), and Congress; the address for Congress supposedly would tell which members of the House and Senate had their own E-mail addresses on the Internet. Unfortunately, I lost the address (I think there was only one; please correct me if I'm wrong) for Congress; could someone please re-post it or send it to me? Thanks! Dave Zinkin UB School of Medicine ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #620 ****************************** From telecom Fri Sep 3 12:09:01 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24292 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Fri, 3 Sep 1993 12:09:01 -0500 Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 12:09:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309031709.AA24292@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #621 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 3 Sep 93 12:09:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 621 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Bell Canada Local Rate Increase Denied, Expanded 911 Approved (D. Leibold) Who Are These Cincinnati Bell People, Anyway? (Alec Isaacson) This Month in {Wired} (Robert L. McMillin) Info Needed: Regulatory Status For Satellite Communications (H. Takashi) York University Residential Service (Dave Leibold) Introducing alt.snail-mail For Postal Discussions (Nigel Allen) Wescom or Prescom Voice Converters (Eero Torri) Strange Sound on my Line (jvarley@netcom.com) Looking For Inexpensive CSU (Mark Fanty) ATT-Like Video (Richard A. Galen) Review: Bulletin Board Systems for Business, Wood/Blankenhorn (Rob Slade) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 10:04:06 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Bell Canada Local Rate Increase Denied, Expanded 911 Approved [From the press release of today's CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) decision on Bell Canada's local rates and other matters.] 30-08-93 CRTC REJECTS BELL CANADA BID FOR LOCAL RATE INCREASES, ENDORSES ENHANCED 9-1-1 SERVICE THROUGHOUT ONTARIO & QUEBEC OTTAWA/HULL - The CRTC today denied Bell Canada's request for increases in the basic service rates paid by its customers in Ontario and Quebec. The company had asked for increases to allow it to earn extra revenue of $315 million during 1993 and $520 million in 1994. The CRTC also denied Bell's proposal for expanded local calling areas around Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa-Hull, which would have increased basic service prices for the majority of subscribers in those regions. However, the CRTC did approve a plan for enhanced 9-1-1 service in all communities served by Bell in both provinces. Today's decision (Telecom Decision CRTC 93-12) follows a month-long public hearing held in May and June. "The CRTC has acted to ensure that Canadian telephone subscribers are not asked to pay unjustified increases," said CRTC Chairman Keith Spicer. "The Commission took fully into account Bell's financial situation and its legitimate need to earn enough to adequately serve its customers and to generate reasonable profits for shareholders. This delicate balancing of public versus private interests, so that rates are just and reasonable, is a cornerstone of the CRTC's mandate from Parliament." Revenues, expenses and regulated rate of return In setting Bell's allowed rate of return range and rates, the CRTC examined carefully the company's projected revenues and expenses. In general, the Commission concluded that Bell had underestimated its projected earnings, while overestimating anticipated expenses and the impact of competition in the long-distance market. Highlights of the CRTC's findings include: * establishment of an allowable profit range (rate of return on common equity) of 11% - 12%, down from the range of 12.25% - 13.25% set in 1988 and lower than the range of 12.5% - 13.5% requested by Bell; * downward adjustment of forecast expenses by $19.6 million for 1993 and $141.1 million for 1994. The CRTC determined that Bell had overestimated costs, as it has in previous projections since 1988; * reassessment of anticipated revenues upward by $153 million in 1993 and $275 million in 1994. In terms of revenues, the CRTC found that Bell had underestimated market growth and overestimated potential market share losses due to long-distance competition; and, * acceptance of Bell's proposal to increase its debt/equity ratio. The CRTC approves a 55% equity level which should mitigate any increase in business risk since the last general rate decision in 1988 and the 1993 introduction of competition in the long-distance market. Quebec and Ontario-wide 9-1-1 services The CRTC agreee with Bell that the introduction of an enhanced 9-1-1 Public Emergency Reporting Service (PERS) in Ontario and Quebec is in the public interest. Enhanced 9-1-1 service means the location of an incoming call is automatically identified at the emergency monitoring station. Currently, consumers pay for existing 9-1-1 services through municipal taxes. The service will route 9-1-1 emergency calls to special offices set up by municipalities for relay to emergency agencies such as police, fire and ambulance services. While Bell had proposed charging different prices in each province, the CRTC decided that an average monthly fee of $0.32 would be more appropriate. The price will vary for some business customers depending on the type of business access service they have. This approach will make enhanced 9-1-1 service more affordable for even the smallest communities. "We welcome Bell's initiative to ensure that all of its customers, and particularly those in small and rural communities, will be able to call for help easily and quickly when they face a crisis," Mr. Spicer said. "This service saves lives and we're pleased that all of Bell's customers will have access to it. Introduction of the service throughout Ontario and Quebec is expected to be completed within five years." Bell had also filed a proposal to introduce an option to 9-1-1 service in Ontario only. This would allow municipalities, particularly small ones, to have 9-1-1 calls answered directly by Bell personnel who would then route them to the appropriate agency. The CRTC had directed the company to file an economic study for offering a similar plan in Quebec. The proposals for both provinces will then be considered by the Commission. Expanded local call plan denied Bell proposed expanding local calling areas to communities within 80 miles of each other in the areas around Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa-Hull. Survey results and comments presented to the Commission showed that there was no significant customer demand for this service. "Expanding local calling areas would have entailed a significant increase in local rates for the majority of customers in those areas," the CRTC Chairman explained. "Given that, the Commission was concerned that Bell did not plan to hold a referendum so that subscribers whose bills would be increased could have their say. We also kept in mind the fact that heavy long-distance users can take advantage of many optional discount services without causing an increase in the local rates of other subscribers." Bell Sygma and WorldLinx Telecommunications Bell had also requested CRTC approval for the transfer of certain assets and services to two of its subsidiary companies - Bell Sygma and WorldLinx Telecommunications. While the Commission supports the transactions in principle, it determined that some regulatory adjustments would have been necessary. In particular, the CRTC would require an independent, third-party assessment of the assets and services in question to ensure that they are being transferred to Bell's subsidiaries at fair market prices, so that shareholders do not benefit at the expense of subscribers. During the public hearing, Bell advised the CRTC that if the transactions were not acceptable exactly as proposed then the company would not proceed with them. Given the Commission's views on the need for some regulatory adjustments, neither transaction was taken into accound in the determination of the company's revenue requirements for 1993 and 1994. Extension of service As part of the proceeding, the CRTC examined several other related items, including Bell's construction program and certain accounting matters. After reviewing Bell's service extension plans, the Commission advised the company that it should pursue this goal more aggressively and directed the filing of annual status reports. Contact: Bill Allen, Director CRTC Public Affairs Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2 Tel: (819) 997.0313 TDD: (819) 994.0423 Fax: (819) 994.0218 ------------------ Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 02 Sep 93 22:37:13 EDT From: Alec Isaacson Subject: Who Are These Cincinnati Bell People, Anyway Hello all: I had an interesting telecom happening this evening that I'd like to share with you, and perhaps get some feedback as well. I moved recently from an area served by GTE of Ohio to an area served by Cincinnati Bell. Before I moved I contacted my long distance provider, AT&T, to find out the best way to move my long distance plan to my new number. The AT&T dude said "No problem, just give us a call with the new number and we'll move your account over." Well, the problems have begun. After I reached my new place, I called Cinci Bell and confirmed that my LD carrier was AT&T, then, tonight, I called AT&T to confirm my LD plan, and I got no joy. AT&T had no record of my new number, their computers say it is an invalid number instead. If they look under my old number, they can see that it was closed out, but that's all. To add insult to injury, the AT&T dude I spoke to tonight said that Cinci Bell is completely "independant" and they provide _no_ billing information to AT&T. I asked if that meant that for all aspects of my LD billing he couldn't help me and he said yes, that I'd have to contact Cinci Bell for all billing questions, local and long distance. (I wonder what that means regarding credit for bogus calls.) Dang it!!! One of the reasons I picked AT&T was that if I wanted to call them at 3:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve, there'd be someone there, with a cheery voice and a good attitude, now Cinci Bell seems to be denying me that service, among others, by witholding LD billing info from AT&T. (Cinci Bell's billing office closes at 7 weekdays and if their installation rep is any measure ...) Doesn't this fall under "Equal Access" or something? AT&T has to get billing information sometime, else Cinci Bell could say "Alec didn't make any LD calls last month." and pocket the cash. What's the scoop here, is Cinci Bell allowed to do this or was the AT&T agent selling me a bill of goods? Thanks, I feel better now :) Disclaimer: Above are my opinions. I don't really believe that Cinci Bell is ripping off, or would rip off, AT&T for LD money, it's just a hypothetical. Alec D. Isaacson AI4CPHYW @ miamiu.acs.muohio.edu isaacson @ rogue.acs.muohio.edu (NeXt Mail) Miami University, Oxford, OH [Moderator's Note: Cincinnati Bell is not subject to the same equal access and divestiture rules as other companies which have 'Bell' in their name because it was never part of AT&T to the extent the others were. Cincinnati Bell is pretty much free to do its own thing where long distance service is concerned. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Sep 93 22:31 PDT From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: This Month in {Wired} {Wired}, a magazine about which I can justifiably use many very positive adjectives, has in this month's issue a good article on the recent history of the Russian Net and its growth due to the terrible state of Russian telephone service. Also: an essay by Michael Crichton on the coming extinction of the mass media; an interview with George Gilder reprising the main points of his earlier {Forbes: ASAP} article, "Into the Fibersphere," namely that dark fiber will drastically lower data transmission costs and usher in a new economic era; and an actual photograph of the One True Leader Of The Net, Leader Kibo. William Gibson gets to go on a junket to Singapore, in his (less than enlightening, I'm afraid) essay, "Disneyland With The Death Penalty". Lastly, Nicholas Negroponte continues his series of thoughtful opinion pieces, this time advocating an open archetecture for television's next generation. On newsstands now: e-mail editor@wired.com for more info. Robert L. McMillin | Surf City Software | rlm@helen.surfcty.com ------------------------------ From: hoshino@tkysun.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp (HOSHINO Takashi) Subject: Info Needed: Regulatory Status For Satellite Communications Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 15:20:26 GMT I'm now reserching the regulatory status for fixed satellite communications in foreign countries. My question is that, for example, to use the satellite for international telecommunication other than Intelsat launched and operated by foreign country, if it's necessary to obtain a radio station licence of your country for that satellite or not. If is there anyone who can help, please write to me. I'll send back the questionnare. Thanks in advance, HOSHINO Takashi Tokyo, JAPAN ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Sep 93 10:05:14 EST From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Subject: York University Residential Service Students living on York University's campus will be able to obtain residential phone service from the university itself this fall. * it is still possible to obtain service from Bell Canada rather than the university; thus, there is a choice of local service provider. * cost is $12.50/month for a five digit extension line. To call these numbers, dial (416) 650.2200 then enter the extension number with tones, or wait for assistance (the opening greeting of this number states that long distance charges are not accepted to that number; thus, no collect calls can be received with this service). * A direct-dial number can be obtained for $14.85/month; * touch tone is included in the monthly rates; * long distance carrier is the reseller ACC; rates will be cheaper than Bell's; * a voice mail feature is available for an extra $4.50/month; * call waiting/forwarding/hold/conference package is available for an extra $5.50/month; It will be interesting to find out how well the service will work. (Gated via FidoNet Node 1:1/31) Dave Leibold Internet: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Sep 93 02:22:49 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Introducing alt.snail-mail for Postal Discussions Organization: The National Capital Freenet, Ottawa Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca Since we have had some interesting discussions here about postal bar codes and other aspects of postal service, and since there have been similar (but less sophisticated) discussions in misc.consumers and some Canadian newsgroups, I decided (after some discussion in alt.config) that it was time for a newsgroup specifically dealing with postal service. The newsgroup is alt.snail-mail. (Calling postal mail "snail-mail" is not intended to be derogatory; it's simply the jargon term that distinguishes postal mail from electronic mail.) Stamp collectors still have rec.collecting, of course. I realize that some sites do not receive alt.* groups. If alt.snail-mail is a successful newsgroup, perhaps there will be enough interest to justify a mainstream newsgroup (comp.dcom.snail-mail or misc.consumers.postal). Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ Subject: Wescom or Prescom Voice Converters Date: 3 Sep 1993 06:53:27 GMT Organization: Telecom Finland Reply-To: rmj@ajk.tele.fi (Johanna Mikkola) From: rmj@ajk.tele.fi (Johanna Mikkola) Hello, Does anybody know something about Wescom or Prescom voice converters? My problem is to connect two-wire E&M system to two-wire analogue line. (One voice channel) I know that this equipment is used in this kind of cases but I would need some specific information about it. If anybody knows also who is its local distributor in Scandinavia, please tell me. Regards, Johanna ------------------------------ From: jvarley@netcom.com Subject: Strange Sound on my Line Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 08:03:42 GMT A couple months ago I was sitting in my bedroom at an apartment of ours that is now rented out. I was chatting with a dear friend of mine, when all of a sudden, we both hear a high-pitched sound. It sounded much like a tuning fork, as it started high and loud but then lowered in volume. After the sond, which lasted about a second, we got a hissing like a carrier signal and we were disconnected from each other. I hung up and called back and the call was uneventful. Afterwards, I dialed 611 and had a check run on the line. I never heard the sound again. The apartment is on PacBell/AT&TR. It was a local call. jvarley@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: fanty@cse.ogi.edu (Mark Fanty) Subject: Looking For Inexpensive CSU Date: 3 Sep 93 16:53:13 GMT Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGC), Beaverton, OR Can somebody give me the number for a distributor who sells a CSU from Kendrox or Kentrox, model T-serve 2. Thanks. Mark Fanty Center for Spoken Language Understanding fanty@cse.ogi.edu Oregon Graduate Institute of Science & Technology (503) 690-1030 PO Box 91000 fax (503) 690-1334 Portland, OR 97291-1000 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Sep 93 08:21:44 CDT From: Richard A. Galen Reply-To: Richard A. Galen Subject: ATT-Like Video I am looking for some information on putting in a slow-scan home-made video conferencing operation. We do a lot of presentations using transparencies and an overhead projector. As we are trying to cut down on travel costs, I would like to use teleconferencing but, as you know, something is lost without the video portion. I don't need real time; or even near-real time. I would like to aim an industrial grade B&W camera at the overhead screen and open a phone line. One scan per second would be adequate as it would only have to look at the screen so people in remote locations (watching their AT&T picturephone?) could follow the presenter as he/she went throught the presentation. Any clues on where to look for this type of help most appreciated. rgalen@tad.eds.com Rich Galen EDS 5400 Legacy Dr. H3-3F-33 Plano, TX 75024 214-605-4561 ------------------------------ Date: 3 Sep 93 10:08 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Review: "Bulletin Board Systems for Business", Wood/Blankenhorn BKBBS4BS.RVW 930801 Wiley 605 Third Avenue New York, NY 10158-0012 USA 800-263-1590 "Bulletin Board Systems for Business", Wood/Blanenhorn, 1992, 34.95 There is no preface, and therefore no stated purpose, to this book. It would appear from both the title and the contents of the first few chapters that the intent is to promote the use or establishment of "bulletin board systems" (also known as "computer bulletin board systems", "electronic bulletin board systems" or just BBSes). The authors seem to be primarily concerned with PC based "in-house" systems, and Fidonet technology networks. Indeed, at one point they downplay the capabilities of commercial "online services" in favour of private BBSes, and the book never betrays any knowledge of the Internet, Usenet or the Waffle or SLIP (serial link Internet protocol) means of extending access to PCs. Also, PC based means MS-DOS PCs to the authors: aside from CP/M (for historical purposes) no other platform or operating system is mentioned. The authors do not make a very convincing case, at least not for what I assume is the intended audience: businesspeople. Certain specialized uses are demonstrated in "case studies", but the generic usefulness of the various BBS functions are not convincingly presented. There is somewhat of a tone of "preaching to the choir" about the initial chapters. For those who are trying to make their own case to management, however, there are some interesting and possibly helpful resources. Chapter one has a history of BBS development that any aficionado will find fascinating reading. Chapter two, "Should you run a board", as mentioned, makes a less than compelling case, but does give some possibly useful examples. Chapters three and four give simple background descriptions of BBS and computer communications technology components which may be useful in presentations. Chapter five delves more deeply into the "basics of telecommunications, with clear and concise explanations of such issues as parity, band (correctly distinguished from "bits per second") and file transfer protocols. Some of the material suffers from the PC bias: for example, the description of the Kermit protocol is unnecessarily harsh, and is unaware of the recent advances. Chapter six replays a fair amount of this material in its discussion of modem technology. Chapter seven is supposedly the "basics of modem software", but is primarily a brief listing of eleven terminal emulation programs. Chapter eight is entitled "File Manipulation" but is again a listing of software, this time file archiving and compression programs. The listings are longer in this section, given a brief history of each program and author, but more due to the inclusion of all the available "command line switches" and features of each program. (The material is somewhat dated. Given the 1992 copyright date, it is odd to see PKZIP represented by version 1.05.) There is also a short discussion of graphics file types. There is no discussion of "binary to text" conversion methods, which allow the transmission of program files over email systems. Chapter nine is another set of listings, this time of BBS software. The listings are duplicated, with a slightly differing slant, in chapter ten. Supposedly it deals with generic issues of management, but, in reality, it lists the "administrative" functions of some of the previously listed BBS programs. A list of the "top ten BBSes in North America" makes up chapter eleven. This may be of historical interest to those in the online community, but is not of great use to those building a corporate, "in-house" BBS. Chapter twelve discusses "online etiquette", a subject very dear to my heart. The list of "do's and don'ts" is useful and proper, but with little discussion preceding it, may not be compelling to the average reader. (Oddly, there is no mention here of the "smiley", or "emoticon", which can help greatly with one of the problems mentioned, that of "subtle" humour.) Chapter thirteen talks about legal matters. Perhaps the best advice from this section would be to get a copy of "Syslaw". Chapter fourteen is entitled "Viruses, hackers and other dangers". I won't say it "covers" the topic because it doesn't. The definition of a virus is flatly wrong, and the discussion is blatantly biased in favour of one John McAfee. Of five antiviral programs, one is the McAfee product and two others are commercial resellers of it. (The remaining two are Norton and Central Point, of which the shortcomings are, or should be, well known.) Two BBSes are listed, one the McAfee board and one the now-defunct NCSA/ICSA board. (Interestingly, the disk of shareware contained with the book does *not* contain the McAfee product.) Of hackers, the only useful material is some discussion of password choice. The future (limited to CPU speed, ISDN, MIDI and JPEG) is discussed in chapter fifteen. Sixteen is more helpful: a glossary of computer and communications terms, as well as common email abbreviations. FWIW ("for what it's worth") the "smiley" still doesn't make it, but ROTFL ("rolling on the floor, laughing") does. There are seven appendices. "A" is some information on offline mail readers and "Fidonet" protocol networks. "B" is a very brief discussion of the BBS situation by various regions: both "The Matrix" and Krol's "Internet Guide" contain more information on Fidonet alone than does this. "C" comments briefly on various commercial online or email services. "D" lists "selected" BBSes. (How the selection was done is a bit of a mystery.) "E" lists BBSes contacted during the preparation of the book; "F" lists the "outdial" modem parts of the U.S. "PC Pursuit" system, and "G" lists "resources". The book is packaged with a disk of software. The cover states that SMARTCOM EZ is included; according to the final chapter of the book it also contains a number of shareware programs. (These, of course, are fairly dated, but I note that PKZIP 1.10 did finally make it in.) The inclusion of these programs reminds me that the authors nowhere discuss the concept of shareware. For those with some background in BBS use the book is interesting for its anecdotal approach to history. There are a number of interesting stories, and "meet the name" pieces. For those who are seriously interested in setting up an in-house corporate BBS, there is a useful, if somewhat limited, overview of some of the concepts involved. Those completely new to the field will find helpful background information, although there are definite gaps that need to be filled from other sources. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKBBS4BS.RVW 930801 Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca User p1@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #621 ****************************** From telecom Fri Sep 3 22:15:46 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10360 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom); Fri, 3 Sep 1993 22:15:46 -0500 Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 22:15:46 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309040315.AA10360@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom Subject: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis Status: RO A special report for the readers, submitted by malcolm@apple.com. I hope you find it useful and interesting. PAT Subject: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis Date: Fri, 3 Sep 93 13:39:17 -0700 From: malcolm@apple.com I've just finished an analysis of the AT&T TrueVoice demo that has been advertised by AT&T and discussed in the TELECOM Digest. Here are the results of the analysis. First, there is a reason that the TrueVoice version sounds louder. Above 300Hz there is a pretty uniform gain of 4dB. Between 100-300 Hz there is a 14 dB gain peak (with a notch at 180 Hz to kill the third harmonic of the power line hum.) Here are the details: 0-100 Hz Not much change. 100-300Hz A broad gain bump of about 14dB 180Hz Deep 12.5dB notch (back to 1.5 dB) 300-4kHz 4dB extra gain with a .5dB ripple Method: The AT&T TrueVoice demo (1 800 932-2000) was digitized with the Telecom pod on the Macintosh Quadra 840AV (using the AT&T 3210 DSP chip). Samples were converted with 16 bits of linear resolution, sampled at 8kHz, and stored in an AIFF file. All data was collected from a single phone call using an analog phone line. The results were loaded into Matlab on a Macintosh for analysis. The TrueVoice demo starts with 30 seconds of normal speech and then automatically switches on the TrueVoice modification and replays the same speech. The beginning of each demo sample was aligned by eye, and then a cross correlation was used to refine the relative starting positions. All further analysis was done on these aligned samples of modified and unmodified speech. Note, the TrueVoice modification is turned on over a second or two. (I don't know why AT&T does this. Perhaps they didn't want the change to seem too jarring.) The cross correlation analysis was done using these first couple of seconds: this should make the correlation more accurate. The spectral analysis that followed skipped the first three seconds. A periodogram analysis was performed using a window of data of length 2048 and skipping 16 samples between windows. A Hamming window was used before FFT'ing and the power spectral density was computed. The power spectral density for all windows was summed (averaged) to arrive at a robust estimate of the power spectral density of the entire sample. A total of 170,000 data samples was used from each example. The power spectral density for each example (unmodified and modified speech) was converted to dB. The two PSDs are then subtracted to estimate the difference in spectral energy due to the TrueVoice filtering. Results: The broad filter characteristics are shown below. 0-100 Hz Not much change. 100-300Hz A broad gain of 13.7 dB, 3dB Q is 1.5 120Hz About a 1dB dip in the gain 180Hz Narrow band reject down to 1.5 dB, 3dB Q is 18 300-4kHz 4dB extra gain with a .5dB ripple Note, there is a deep notch at the 3rd harmonic of the power line frequency and a extra small dip at the second harmonic. I don't have enough information to tell if they are doing anything different at 60Hz. The filtering appears to be stationary. The demo over the phone turns the filtering on gradually, but after a second there appears to be no change in the filter's characteristics. The analysis described above was performed over several subsections of the data and there was no visible change in the filter's characteristics. Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Stuart Davidson for setting up the hardware and software to digitize the demo. Thanks also to Michele Covell (Interval Research) for help with the filter analysis. The periodogram is discussed in Larry Marple's book "Digital Spectral Analysis with Applications." Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with AT&T except as a mostly satisfied customer. This work is not an official Apple project. TrueVoice and AT&T are undoubtably trademarks of AT&T. Malcolm Slaney malcolm@apple.com =================== Matlab Periodogram Code ============================ % function y=periodogram(x,width,skip) % Compute the periodogram (an estimate of the power spectral % density) of an array. The width of each analysis defaults to % 256 points, and the default skip between windows is half the % window size. function y=periodogram(x,width,skip) if (nargin < 2) width = 256; end if (nargin < 3) skip = width/2; end nwinds = fix((length(x)-width)/skip); x = reshape(x,length(x),1); wind = hamming(width); y = zeros(width,1); for i=1:nwinds firstPoint = (i-1)*skip + 1; d = [x(firstPoint:firstPoint+width-1).*wind;zeros(width,1)]; f = fft(d); f = f(1:width); y = y + f .* conj(f); end y = y/nwinds; =============== Matlab TrueVoice Analysis Code ========================= % Analyze a recorded sample of the AT&T TrueVoice demo. % This script assumes that the entire demo is stored in % an array called tv. The start of the first and second % version of the demo are indicated by the first and second % pointers. (These will be different for anybody else's % recording of the phone call.) first=116000; second=395500+41; firstEnd = 355000; secondEnd = 610000; sampleRate = 8000; %segment = 170000; segment = 32768; offset = 30000; if (second + offset + segment > secondEnd) disp('Segment is past end of second example.'); return; end s1=tv(first+offset:first+offset+segment-1); s2=tv(second+offset:second+offset+segment-1); % Optionally compute the optimum cross correlation. % If the alignment is done right, then the maximum % value of the cross correlation should be in the % middle of the cross correlation or sample number % equal to segment size . % cor = xcorr(s1,s2); % plot(cor) % [m,i] = max(cor); % i r1 = 10*log10(periodogram(s1, 512, 128)); r2 = 10*log10(periodogram(s2, 512, 128)); f = (0:length(r1)-1)/length(r1)*sampleRate/2; =============== Spectral Analysis of TrueVoice ========================= % Spectral analysis (in dB) of the AT&T TrueVoice demo. % The results are shown below at 1.9531Hz intervals from % 0Hz to nearly 4kHz. -0.0156 -0.0156 -0.0154 -0.0138 2.8762 1.5637 1.3204 0.2571 0.6921 0.9584 0.7187 -0.7438 -1.7550 -2.0471 -2.0754 -1.9768 -1.6302 -0.7998 0.7231 0.9736 0.9899 0.9882 0.9827 0.9418 0.2723 -0.3172 -0.4245 0.0216 -0.1162 -0.1018 -0.0875 -0.0747 -0.0601 -0.0360 0.1168 0.9137 2.4710 2.5066 3.5501 2.9577 3.3023 3.0256 3.8413 4.5084 6.3061 6.4052 7.6116 7.6745 8.5071 8.4967 9.0233 9.0818 9.5900 9.7797 10.1627 10.3327 10.6086 10.7367 10.9011 10.8782 10.5145 10.0140 10.3593 11.2615 11.8157 11.9453 12.0295 12.0388 12.0603 12.1355 12.3434 12.4985 12.6426 12.7032 12.8563 12.9541 13.0520 13.0989 13.2080 13.2716 13.3565 13.3807 13.4805 13.5283 13.5936 13.6157 13.6703 13.6777 13.6661 12.1029 5.5750 2.3909 1.6613 2.2414 4.9604 11.2490 13.7420 13.7310 13.7230 13.6977 13.6595 13.5861 13.5226 13.4833 13.4672 13.4355 13.3998 13.3534 13.3033 13.2455 13.1833 13.1151 13.0436 12.9571 12.8699 12.7882 12.6880 12.5852 12.5082 12.4377 12.3462 12.2276 12.1066 11.9765 11.8630 11.7580 11.6211 11.4772 11.3559 11.2418 11.0955 10.9580 10.8388 10.6905 10.5217 10.3533 10.2052 10.0873 9.9788 9.8533 9.7000 9.5401 9.3863 9.2267 9.0551 8.8746 8.7166 8.5856 8.4393 8.2574 8.0735 7.8216 7.2432 6.4982 6.2854 6.7300 7.0660 7.0194 6.8627 6.6837 6.4944 6.3324 6.1924 6.0580 5.9400 5.8304 5.6939 5.5120 5.3422 5.2091 5.0764 4.9489 4.8327 4.7075 4.5998 4.4920 4.3769 4.2938 4.2189 4.1290 4.0337 3.9499 3.8720 3.7967 3.7345 3.6756 3.6097 3.5443 3.4910 3.4470 3.4026 3.3690 3.3538 3.3306 3.2824 3.2459 3.2375 3.2455 3.2562 3.2654 3.2769 3.2867 3.2941 3.3026 3.3110 3.3201 3.3315 3.3440 3.3697 3.4085 3.4461 3.4825 3.5228 3.5549 3.5623 3.5717 3.6202 3.6865 3.7361 3.7728 3.7982 3.8225 3.8617 3.8934 3.9120 3.9411 3.9805 4.0103 4.0313 4.0423 4.0499 4.0719 4.1125 4.1634 4.1984 4.2129 4.2306 4.2533 4.2706 4.2897 4.3161 4.3271 4.3166 4.3097 4.3212 4.3222 4.3041 4.3011 4.3121 4.3238 4.3343 4.3339 4.3267 4.3170 4.2965 4.2704 4.2473 4.2342 4.2294 4.2322 4.2381 4.2338 4.2211 4.2096 4.2020 4.1905 4.1708 4.1571 4.1513 4.1370 4.1146 4.0957 4.0799 4.0686 4.0589 4.0159 3.9430 3.9157 3.9485 3.9754 3.9758 3.9720 3.9625 3.9376 3.9162 3.9101 3.9068 3.9034 3.9000 3.8920 3.8796 3.8663 3.8585 3.8588 3.8562 3.8374 3.8205 3.8194 3.8240 3.8239 3.8113 3.8002 3.8025 3.8091 3.8143 3.8212 3.8278 3.8367 3.8441 3.8418 3.8338 3.8264 3.8311 3.8473 3.8638 3.8787 3.8898 3.8965 3.8994 3.8999 3.9121 3.9445 3.9715 3.9803 3.9848 3.9975 4.0300 4.0597 4.0501 4.0212 4.0095 4.0264 4.0668 4.1108 4.1344 4.1324 4.1079 4.0761 4.0591 4.0615 4.0805 4.1049 4.1293 4.1566 4.1745 4.1746 4.1766 4.1942 4.2163 4.2459 4.2697 4.2636 4.2516 4.2672 4.2902 4.2960 4.2897 4.2854 4.2939 4.3081 4.3115 4.3180 4.3467 4.3717 4.3674 4.3452 4.3170 4.2937 4.2886 4.2898 4.2866 4.2869 4.2744 4.2453 4.2252 4.2041 4.1907 4.1994 4.2001 4.1973 4.2036 4.2054 4.1940 4.1572 4.1137 4.1197 4.1507 4.1396 4.1036 4.0570 4.0095 3.9778 3.9774 3.9987 4.0189 4.0231 4.0033 3.9736 3.9444 3.9261 3.9289 3.9371 3.9147 3.8360 3.7424 3.7082 3.7061 3.6903 3.6718 3.6725 3.6802 3.6756 3.6680 3.6843 3.7143 3.7304 3.7240 3.7022 3.6766 3.6636 3.6838 3.7364 3.7735 3.7715 3.7745 3.8092 3.8338 3.8216 3.8117 3.8196 3.8251 3.8316 3.8483 3.8663 3.8788 3.8834 3.8788 3.8763 3.8858 3.8962 3.8959 3.8940 3.9102 3.9491 3.9801 3.9850 4.0079 4.0531 4.0789 4.0709 4.0647 4.0794 4.0913 4.0958 4.1114 4.1341 4.1524 4.1771 4.1970 4.2059 4.2127 4.2154 4.2141 4.2150 4.2213 4.2226 4.2111 4.1941 4.1933 4.2252 4.2576 4.2572 4.2150 4.1531 4.1139 4.1130 4.1501 4.1874 4.1887 4.1605 4.1311 4.1236 4.1473 4.1852 4.2052 4.2233 4.2426 4.2489 4.2538 4.2531 4.2337 4.2260 4.2384 4.2403 4.2367 4.2453 4.2668 4.2789 4.2627 4.2359 4.2013 4.1635 4.1479 4.1810 4.2237 4.2029 4.1435 4.1030 4.0890 4.0912 4.1109 4.1343 4.1405 4.1113 4.0482 3.9993 3.9791 3.9588 3.9272 3.8873 3.8515 3.8288 3.8098 3.8065 3.8195 3.8113 3.7923 3.8059 3.8273 3.8364 3.8258 3.7813 3.7552 3.7867 3.8330 3.8302 3.8012 3.7939 3.7789 3.7384 3.7168 3.7019 3.6732 3.6598 3.6861 3.7230 3.7378 3.7430 3.7643 3.7819 3.7818 3.7938 3.7803 3.7341 3.7190 3.7303 3.7457 3.7783 3.8146 3.8645 3.9324 3.9773 4.0000 4.0181 3.9884 3.9119 3.8909 3.9387 4.0071 4.0808 4.1228 4.1229 4.1029 4.0704 4.0309 4.0110 4.0390 4.0767 4.0965 4.1365 4.1915 4.2151 4.2345 4.2727 4.2879 4.2576 4.2202 4.2258 4.2612 4.2724 4.2555 4.2427 4.2471 4.2661 4.2896 4.3010 4.3005 4.2957 4.2855 4.2740 4.2666 4.2695 4.2819 4.2873 4.2675 4.2188 4.1749 4.1607 4.1578 4.1489 4.1283 4.1087 4.1226 4.1646 4.1975 4.2025 4.1791 4.1383 4.1318 4.1720 4.1981 4.1785 4.1589 4.1588 4.1699 4.1828 4.1738 4.1261 4.0842 4.0948 4.1499 4.1747 4.1536 4.1222 4.0861 4.0489 4.0195 4.0093 4.0231 4.0133 3.9700 3.9524 3.9736 4.0181 4.0664 4.1272 4.1630 4.1220 4.0943 4.0931 4.0471 3.9736 3.9507 3.9191 3.8515 3.8284 3.8700 3.9406 3.9809 3.9753 3.9601 3.9425 3.9219 3.9120 3.8903 3.8508 3.8170 3.7936 3.7934 3.8167 3.8262 3.8181 3.8137 3.7817 3.7410 3.7353 3.7615 3.8004 3.8142 3.8099 3.8200 3.8412 3.8395 3.8060 3.7680 3.7490 3.7546 3.7850 3.8190 3.8374 3.8329 3.8101 3.7999 3.8239 3.8626 3.8995 3.9293 3.9370 3.9439 3.9866 4.0243 4.0340 4.0458 4.0547 4.0425 4.0240 4.0253 4.0536 4.0953 4.1350 4.1705 4.1965 4.2225 4.2664 4.2941 4.2819 4.2690 4.2711 4.2839 4.2996 4.3138 4.3118 4.2843 4.2663 4.2734 4.2854 4.2986 4.3212 4.3424 4.3508 4.3505 4.3336 4.3145 4.3226 4.3632 4.4118 4.4020 4.3286 4.2562 4.2137 4.2224 4.2605 4.2589 4.2231 4.2219 4.2602 4.2963 4.2905 4.2564 4.2230 4.2089 4.2149 4.2181 4.2004 4.1570 4.0962 4.0639 4.0803 4.0981 4.1046 4.0952 4.0567 4.0047 3.9813 3.9860 3.9971 4.0172 4.0371 4.0283 4.0047 3.9873 3.9645 3.9413 3.9515 3.9824 4.0022 3.9996 3.9690 3.9208 3.8792 3.8483 3.8223 3.8188 3.8511 3.8860 3.8773 3.8441 3.8372 3.8458 3.8453 3.8374 3.8258 3.7941 3.7560 3.7504 3.7584 3.7720 3.8059 3.8312 3.8020 3.7679 3.7848 3.8008 3.7833 3.7682 3.7858 3.8391 3.8853 3.8705 3.8409 3.8636 3.8996 3.8944 3.8579 3.8566 3.9188 4.0062 4.0474 4.0027 3.9218 3.8811 3.9004 3.9594 4.0117 4.0281 4.0135 3.9890 3.9866 4.0231 4.0668 4.0711 4.0718 4.0907 4.1074 4.1136 4.1138 4.1124 4.1224 4.1473 4.1677 4.1812 4.1931 4.2098 4.2496 4.2805 4.2600 4.2349 4.2179 4.1955 4.1807 4.1928 4.2267 4.2628 4.2767 4.2725 4.2779 4.2896 4.3012 4.3192 4.3254 4.3072 4.2831 4.2739 4.2812 4.2903 4.2892 4.2842 4.2814 4.2716 4.2685 4.2888 4.3127 4.3113 4.2756 4.2453 4.2532 4.2708 4.2649 4.2519 4.2465 4.2432 4.2347 4.2358 4.2439 4.2367 4.2059 4.1670 4.1390 4.1169 4.0873 4.0583 4.0420 4.0230 3.9962 3.9904 3.9978 3.9931 3.9969 3.9990 3.9734 3.9391 3.9346 3.9351 3.9215 3.9048 3.8817 3.8531 3.8234 3.7945 3.7757 3.7681 3.7504 3.7561 3.8093 3.8333 3.8044 3.7842 3.7740 3.7390 3.6953 3.7004 3.7884 3.8750 3.8778 3.8252 3.7715 3.7343 3.7136 3.7297 3.7714 3.7938 3.7986 3.8132 3.8214 3.8113 3.8082 3.8193 3.8296 3.8395 3.8442 3.8188 3.8019 3.8431 3.8958 3.9200 3.9416 3.9829 4.0340 4.0593 4.0356 3.9976 3.9609 3.9166 3.8948 3.9234 3.9567 3.9652 3.9733 3.9786 3.9787 4.0049 4.0699 4.1040 4.0790 4.0643 4.0772 4.0804 4.0748 4.0894 4.1372 4.1957 4.2248 4.2129 4.1991 4.2083 4.2033 4.1846 4.1891 4.2261 4.2594 4.2756 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0.5101 0.9324 1.1062 1.1189 1.0873 1.2963 1.4214 1.6282 1.7053 1.4973 0.9790 1.0983 1.3852 1.5429 1.5234 1.5292 1.3104 1.2757 0.8869 0.5145 0.7113 1.3543 1.3890 0.9667 0.7196 1.4537 2.0366 2.1264 1.8825 1.6793 1.3166 1.3493 1.3008 1.2872 1.2882 1.6478 1.8070 2.1904 2.2762 2.0932 1.6617 1.7195 2.0066 2.6213 2.6506 2.5683 2.3499 2.5807 2.5199 2.4837 1.9532 1.7694 1.8284 2.2359 2.1669 2.0885 1.9388 2.2269 2.5849 3.0879 2.8728 3.2147 3.0896 2.6566 1.8906 1.8568 1.8620 1.9197 0.5811 0.0707 -0.1140 -0.2507 -0.3872 -0.5261 -0.3324 0.6124 0.6609 0.7726 0.7911 0.8297 0.4739 0.2283 0.2148 0.4259 0.5007 ------------------------------- From telecom Sat Sep 4 16:52:43 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22941 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Sat, 4 Sep 1993 16:52:43 -0500 Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 16:52:43 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309042152.AA22941@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #622 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Sep 93 16:52:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 622 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson The Power to Destroy (Alan Furman) 416/905 Area Code Split Update (David Leibold) Bell Atlantic Name Change (Les Reeves) "C&P Telephone" is Being Discontinued (Paul Robinson) Need HELP In Contacting The CCITT/ITU On The Internet (Ed Pimentel) A Competitor to 1-900-STOPPER (Will Martin) New Country Codes For Former Yugoslavia (Thomas Diessel) Princess Di Used Last Number Redial (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: atfurman@cup.portal.com Subject: The Power to Destroy Date: Sat, 4 Sep 93 01:54:55 PDT The following was found posted in the Usenet newsgroup comp.org.eff.talk. The next time that you hear Mitch Kapor or the Vice President smugly advocating free this and subsidized that paid for by the government, remember that it comes out of someone else's living standards -- or lifelong dream of entrepreneurship. Also notice the comment below about how "politicians on both sides of the aisle" have created the status quo. (Don't blame me. I voted Libertarian.) ===== forwarded from Usenet ===== STATE OF NEW YORK SLAPS 13 PERCENT SALES TAX ON INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY The following is a complete electronic transcript of a bulletin issued by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and was received by Friends & Lovers BBS on Saturday, August 28, 1993. (begin T&F document) New York State Department of Taxation and Finance N-93-20 (8/93) IMPORTANT NOTICE Increase in Tax Rate Applicable to Entertainment and information Services Provided by Means of Telephony or Telegraphy Effective September 1, 1993, there will be an additional state sales tax at the rate of 5% added to the existing 4% state sales tax imposed on receipts from the services of furnishing or providing an entertainment or information service which is furnished, provided or delivered by means of telephony or telegraphy or telephone or telegraph service of whatever nature (see section 1105(c)(9) of the Tax Law). The treatment of these services for sales tax purposes remains identical to the existing treatment except as to rate. Thus, the only change is that the state sales tax rate on such services has been increased from 4% to 9%. The Municipal Assistance Corporation sales taxes (section 1107 of the Tax Law), the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District sales taxes (section 1109 of the Tax Law) and local sales taxes imposed pursuant to the authority of Article 29 of the Tax Law are to be added to the aforementioned 9% state sales tax rate. Example: A person residing in New York State subscribes to an entertainment service that is provided by telephony. The entertainment service recipient receives the service on a monthly basis and is charged for the service directly on the bill for telephone service. Prior to September 1, 1993, both the telephone service and the entertainment service were subject to an 8% sales tax (4% state, 4% local). However, any entertainment service provided after September 1, 1993 will be subject to a 13% sales tax (9% state, 4% local). There is no change in the rate of tax imposed on the telephone service which remains at 8%. The affected services contracted for or paid for prior to September 1, 1993 will be subject to the additional state sales tax if they are rendered after September 1, 1993. A new line and reporting code has been added to the sales and use tax return in order to report the additional state sales tax imposed on such services. Entertainment and information services provided or delivered by means of telephony or telegraphy or telephone or telegraph service include ALL such services delivered by such means. These services are taxable, and subject to tax at the higher rate and the applicable local tax rate, whether provided through 500, 700, 800 or 900 telephone numbers, as well as those delivered by local exchange, private telephone line, cable, or channel. It should be kept in mind that the services subject to tax at the increased rate are distinct from telephone or telegraph services subject to tax under section 1105(b) of the Tax Law. Collecting, compiling or analyzing information of any kind and reporting such information to other persons by means of telephony or telegraphy or telephone or telegraph service constitutes the rendering of an information service subject to tax at the increased state tax rate as well as the applicable local sales tax, unless otherwise exempt. Information services that are currently subject to tax when furnished in written form by printed, mimeographed or multigraphed matter or duplicating written or printed matter, such as tapes, disc, electronic readouts or displays, continue to be subject to tax at the 4% state tax rate and the applicable local tax (see section 1105(c)(1) of the Tax Law). The higher sales tax rate applies to all charges for the service by the vendor to the customer which are subject to tax pursuant to section 1105(c)(9) of the Tax Law. (A fee for subscribing to a taxable entertainment or information service (taxable under section 1105(c)(9) of the Tax Law) that is billed on a monthly, annual or other basis is taxable at the new rate. Membership or other fees entitling the subscriber to receive by means of telephony, telegraphy, a certain number of free reports or services, or reduced charges on reports or services, are also taxable at the new state tax rate. No tax is due if the vendor makes no charge for the services. Tax is to be separately stated on the recipient's telephone bill, credit card charge receipt or any other bill issued for such services. The increased state tax rate does not apply to any receipts from the sale of information services that are not subject to tax under section 1105(c)(1) of the Tax Law. These include an information service which is personal or individual in nature and is not or may not be substantially incorporated into reports furnished to other persons by the person who collected, compiled or analyzed the information. Examples of such services include a personalized management report delivered orally over the telephone, or an insurance damage appraisal conveyed over the telephone. Also, purchases of information services by newspapers or radio and television broadcasters that are used in the collection and dissemination of news are exempt from sales tax. In addition, the increased state sales tax rate does not apply to charges made to organizations and entities (such as government agencies, exempt organizations, etc.) that are exempt from the general sales and use tax in accordance with section 1116(a) of the Tax Law. Documentation which substantiates exemption from the state and local sales tax for such organizations will likewise serve to exempt such organizations from the additional 5% state sales tax. When exempt entertainment services or exempt information services are being billed by a person other than the actual exempt provider of the services, the actual provider must give an exempt certification document, form ST-930, Certification of Nontaxable Services Provided Via Telephony or Telegraphy or Telephone or Telegraph Services, to the person who will be doing the billing in order that sales tax (including the increased state sales tax) will not be charged on the exempt services. This sales tax exempt certification document may not be issued unless the person issuing the document is registered to collect sales tax or is specifically exempt under section 1116(a) of the New York State Tax Law (and, if required issued a Form ST-119, Exempt Organization Certificate). When any person, affiliate or agent other than the actual provider of entertainment or information services bills the recipient of the services on behalf of the provider, that person will be deemed a vendor of the service for sales tax purposes and will be liable for all the obligations of a vendor. Such obligations include collecting, reporting, and remitting the sales tax (including the additional 5% state tax) due on entertainment and information services which are furnished, provided or delivered by means of telephony or telegraphy or telephone or telegraph services. A person deemed a vendor of these services is entitled to and possesses all the rights afforded a vendor, including the right to an exclusion or a credit or refund of tax as provided in section 1132(c) of the New York State Tax Law with respect to such services. The person providing the billing service, whetyher doing the actual billing or or having the billing done by an affiliate or agent, will be deemed to be a vendor of entertainment or information services when the charges for the services are wither listed as part of, or as a schedule to the statement of such person to its customers, or are billed separately. The term affiliate means an entity which: - directly, indirectly or constructively controls a person deemed a vendor of entertainment or information services; - is controlled by a person deemed a vendor of entertainment or information services; - is controlled by a common parent who also controls a person deemed a vendor of entertainment or information services. The designation of a person as a vendor, by virtue of such person performing the billing of charges on behalf of the actual provider of entertainment or information services, in no way limits the obligations or removes the liabilities of the actual provider of such services or any other person with respect to the sales tax imposed on these services. (end of T&F bulletin N-93-20 [8/93]) ----------------- Date: 31 Aug 93 06:01:03 EDT From: Marty Winter <76407.3521@compuserve.com> Subject: Sales tax on information services to increase OK, so what does all this gobbledegook mean? It means simply that New York State has decided to trash the information superhighway that has been touted as the solution to unemployment and the means by which New York could have rebuilt itself. New York, former home of leading edge high-technology is working overtime to relegate its citizenry to the welfare rolls. It means that BBS's which are already liable for collection of sales tax must now go back and collect an additional 5% for a total of 13%. This tax is RETROACTIVE ... any BBS which has already collected a membership fee or other charges up front for a year of service must go back and collect more money from their subscribers unless their fiscal year begins on September 1. It means that a connection to the Internet, a subscription to GEnie, Prodigy, or CompuServe just got A LOT more expensive. It means that directory assistance calls to look up a phone number will cost more. Calls for technical support or 800 or 900 services just got a lot more expensive. Relatives of mine who are still employed by IBM downstate got told by their superiors that as a potential result of this change IBM and numerous other information service providers have decided or will decide to leave New York as quickly as possible. Newspapers and other entities that would have poured millions of dollars into New York's economy have found the cost to potential users and subscribers of new information services has now moved beyond practicality. The bottom line is that New York has literally killed its own future. New York's politicians from the Governor to the majority in both aisles of the legislature have shown a degree of stupidity unparalleled since Nero was emperor in Rome in killing the golden goose that could have made New York a mecca for high tech communications. Modern communications in New York by political fiat will have to consist of semaphor flags and smoke signals while the remainder of the world outside our third-world state go digital. This particular episode proves that New York's political system is so corrupt and so incredibly inept that citizens of New York really have to give serious consideration to drastic measures against our state government including voting out every single politician in statewide office. I am particularly dismayed that this tax law was kept SO secret while being nursed through the legislative process that no one knew about it at all, including the Senate. Not a single one of my contacts was able to find out about any of this in advance. Even the notification from Tax and Finance a mere three days before its enactment was incredible and unprecedented. This latest folly will have no effect on free bulletin boards such as Friends & Lovers, but it will be murder on those services run by those who thought New York might have permitted them to eek out a living with a computer and a modem. Thirteen percent sales tax? Think about that number a little bit. The morons we elected have gone and done it. Do we really think they're done yet? Are you REALLY going to vote for the same guy again in the Assembly, the Senate, or the State house? Or are you going to make use of your digital communications while there is still a dialtone? Is Bill Clinton watching New York's government and is Bill Clinton REALLY going to sit idly by and let our bozos in Albany get away with it? Information superhighway ... ptooey! [...] The biggest threats to the use of cyberspace are NOT going to come out those committees and state organizations that deal directly with coputes, the Internet or other on-line services, but from places like the Finance committeess, etc, who see the use of the Internet and other services as a way of helping to fill the state's coffers. If we are going to educate anybody within the government, it MUST be those who seem to have the least sake in cyberspace. As Kevin so rightely pointed out, the boays in Finance and over at T&F have effectively put the Internet, CompuServe, GEnie and other commercial on-line services out of the reach of those who might benefit MOST from the use of such services. In some areas of the state the extra 5% that they just tacked onto the bill could bring the total coast closer to 20% rather than the 13% it does in ALbany. Worst part is, that the legislation that authorizes such things is often buried in the middle of bills that take weeks to read owing to their sheer size. Our information highway is going to become a dead end dirt road if things like this continue in NY. Originally posted in comp.eff.org.talk by Lance Detweiler (ld231782@longs.LANCE.ColoState.EDU). Forwarded to the Internet TELECOM Digest by Alan T. Furman (atfurman@cup.portal.com). [Moderator's Note: You'll see more and more of this in other areas of the country before long. Even the feds will get in on it. Not the old 'modem tax' bugaboo -- we've been that round before -- but a tax on 'information and entertainment supplied via the telephone'. But please note newspapers as described above are exempt. Maybe operators of BBSs need to get away from the concept of entertainment and arrange to legally define themselves as publishers of electronic journals. The reason NY is starting this tax is the same reason IL will be starting it soon I suspect. Both states have major urban wastelands which are terrible drains on their respective state treasuries (New York and Chicago). Generally when municipal and state governments get in the dire straits both New York (NY) and Chicago (IL) are in, the response of government is to become even more repressive tax-wise. For example, our tax base here has eroded terribly, as the productive, revenue producing people flee the jurisdiction holding onto their underwear or whatever they were able to salvage. Not to be dissuaded, the government simply takes the fewer people/businesses still left and clamps down even harder on them. So I suggest being a not-for-profit electronic publisher might be the way to go. They're still relatively free to do their thing. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Sep 93 16:10 EDT From: djcl@io.org (woody) Subject: 416/905 Area Code Split Update The splitting of the central Ontario Canada 416 area code is proceeding on schedule. This involves changing all current 416 points to area code 905 for those points outside Metropolitan Toronto (including the Pearson International Airport in Mississauga). The permissible dialing period officially begins 4th October 1993, however within Ontario Bell Canada has set up permissible dialing for Bell employees to test and report problems. This means that 905 should be operational within Ontario, though 416 may still be used as before. I sent two lists for the Archives, one for the Toronto exchanges/nxx remaining in the 416 area code, and another representing the nxx that will be in 905. On other notes, the Bell Canada policy on pay 976 lines is that they are set up for individual area codes. The split means those 976 operators in 416 will now have to set up another service in 905 to retain the same coverage for their number (ie. pay for two area codes instead of one). 976 numbers in another area code cannot be called. David Leibold ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 04 Sep 1993 11:53:30 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Bell Atlantic Name Change Bell Atlantic has announced that it intends to rename all of it's telephone companies. The exsisting names (New Jersey Bell, Pennsylvania Bell) will be changed to Bell Atlantic New Jersey, Bell Atlantic Pennsylvania. All the companies will be renamed Bell Atlantic, followed by the state. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 11:44:57 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: "C&P Telephone" is Being Discontinued From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA That's right folks, C&P Telephone is being discontinued. No more will I be able to complibe about the pho e service in DC from C&P Telephone of Washington, DC in MD from C&P Telephone of Maryland in VA from C&P Telephone of Virginia in WV from C&P Telephone of West Virginia in PA from Bell of Pennsylvania in DE from Diamond State Telephone Yes, they are all being discontinued. Does this mean that we will no longer have phone service? Like fun! They are being discontinued, and replaced by: Bell Atlantic of Washington Bell Atlantic of Maryland Bell Atlantic of Virginia Bell Atlantic of West Virginia Bell Atlantic of Pennsylvania Bell Atlantic of Delaware The original C&P Telephone Company goes back to the 1890s with a merger of National Capital Telephone and another company. The "Bell Atlantic" company was created because of Judge Greene. (Who also gets his phone service from C&P err now Bell Atlantic.) It's funny but a number of important people in the Washington area have *listed* telephone numbers, from the head of a major government agency to the Mayor of the District of Columbia. And Judge (now Justice) Clarence Thomas also had a listed telephone number. The change goes into effect 4th Quarter 1993. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM [Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell is also gone. As of a couple weeks ago the company was renamed "Ameritech", as is the parent company of several phone companies in this area. I think it is funny how all these independent companies manage to think of the same changes in service and corporate structure all at the same time. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Need HELP In Contacting The CCITT/ITU On The Internet From: edimg@willard.atl.ga.us (Ed pimentel) Date: Sat, 04 Sep 93 09:39:49 EDT Organization: Willard's House BBS, Atlanta, GA -- +1 (404) 664 8814 Does any anyone know how to contact the CCITT? I am not too sure what is there address or how to correctly post a message to them and get AutoMAGIC response? Below is what I "thought" was correct: Mail To: itudoc@itu.arcom.arch Subject: Need HELP HELP LIST LIST CCITT GET JPEG Is the above REMOTELY correct? Any help will be greatly appreciated. THANKS In ADVANCE! edimg@willard.atl.ga.us (Ed pimentel) gatech!kd4nc!vdbsan!willard!edimg emory!indigo!willard!edimg Willard's House BBS, Atlanta, GA -- +1 (404) 664 8814 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Sep 93 14:40:20 CDT From: Will Martin Subject: A Competitor to 1-900-STOPPER There's a full-page ad on the back cover of the new (Oct. 93) issue of American Survival Guide magazine, advertising a competitor to the longstanding 1-900-STOPPER no-trace-call service. This one has both a domestic and an international service, the domestic for $1.99 a minute (four cents over 1-900-STOPPER's rates) and the international at $3.99 per minute. The numbers are: 1-900-PREVENT (1-900-773-8368) for domestic, and 1-900-STONEWALL (1-900-786-6392 plus a couple extra digits there... :-) for international. The ad text makes a big deal about the untraceability of the calls, with no allusions to the Esteemed Moderator's earlier comments about what might happen if things are serious enough for the call records of this business to be subpoenaed ... they claim that "they" don't 'have a record of the number you call when going through their service, but I doubt if there is any way to prevent the telco from having a record. Will [Moderator's Note: If they choose not to be a common carrier, they are free to keep no records if that is their preferred method of operation. Lacking records and lacking common carrier status, they are responsible for the use of their instruments like anyone else. If a harassing or fraud call is traced back to their system, you don't get into a long discussion with them about how it must have been one of their customers and there is no way to figure it out, etc; you just file the complaint against them. You sue the proprietor(s) of PREVENT and state that they are using their phones fraudulently, unlawfully, whatever. Let them worry about it. The guy who runs STOPPER has been sued a few times; it is just part of the cost of doing business and built into his rates. Why anyone would use those services when they could dial *67 instead is a mystery to me. If they choose common carrier status, i.e. like Sprint or AT&T, then truly, they are not responsible for the actions of thier customers/clients. But on the other hand, they have easily obtainable records. As soon as you grant those guys a middle ground -- that they have the legal right to act in an irresponsible manner when they knew or should have known the way their telephone instruments were being used -- then the only loser is you. I used to hear the same rap from the guys running phreak BBSs all the time, that they kept no user records, as if that was gonna mean anything in court. If you have no records of any users, then YOU are the user! PAT] ------------------------------ From: diessel@informatik.unibw-muenchen.de (Thomas Diessel) Subject: New Country Codes For Former Yugoslavia Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 12:32:36 +0200 Hi Pat! I just found this on the teletext of German TV ARD and ZDF: Effective October 1st, 1993 there will be new telephone country codes for former Yugoslavia (now country code 38): 381 rest of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) 385 Croatia 386 Slovenia 387 Bosnia 389 Macedonia In addition the telex country code will change, too. Country code 62 will be limited to the rest of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). The new country codes will be: 597 Macedonia 598 Slovenia 599 Croatia 600 Bosnia I hope that I translated the country names correctly. Thomas Diessel Federal Armed Forces University, Munich Computer Science Department D-85577 Neubiberg, Germany ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Sep 93 1:33:40 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Princess Di Used Last Number Redial From "Diana: Her True Story" (I am using paperback edition published by Pocket Books -- New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore). Page 149 has: At Highgrove Diana routinely pushed the "last number redial button on his [Charles'?] portable telephone. Invariably she was connected to Middlewich House, the Parker-Bowles' Wiltshire home." (Brackets are mine.) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #622 ****************************** From telecom Sun Sep 5 11:49:06 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27078 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Sun, 5 Sep 1993 11:49:06 -0500 Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 11:49:06 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309051649.AA27078@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #623 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 5 Sep 93 11:49:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 623 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply? (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply? (Mark Wilkins) Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply? (Lynne Gregg) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Joe Lynn) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Bob Wier) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Steven King) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Doug Granzow) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Joel Upchurch) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Barton Bruce) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Andrew C. Green) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Gregory Youngblood) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Tim Russell) Re: ISDN in the USA (Thomas Persson) Re: ISDN in the USA (William H. Sohl) Re: ISDN in the USA (Al Varney) Re: ISDN in the USA (Bob Larribeau) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 23:48:37 GMT Ramaiah V Narla writes: > Specifically, I am permitted a year's practical training in the USA > after my studies and that's all I have been asking for. In return for > the kind of work (sloggery) that one will remember when one comes to > my town to shop or to sell. Let me see if I understand. You want to intern with a company for a year, and then, after that, leave for your home country, never to return. And no one is interested in giving you a job. And so the conclusion is that it is a racist decision. (That was certainly Pat's conclusion, and I am guessing it is your's also from the "Foreigners need not apply" in the Subject: line). There are lots of reasons why companies hire interns. IMHO, to get work done cheaply is not the only one. It gives a company a chance to hire someone temporarily, and evaluate them and see how well they fit into the company. It they like what they see, then can them try and persuade the intern to work for the company after he/she gets done with school. And the intern may be more likely to accept a job with that company since he/she has worked there (as an intern) and knows the coprorate culture and what it is like to work there. That reasoning would not apply to you. You plan to leave the company after your internship. So they could get work from you for a year or so, and then that would be it. The other benefits of hiring a intern, such as possible future employment, are not there in your case. Thus, it would be a better business decision to hire someone who planned to remain in this country and work here after the end of the internship. Perhaps you feel your skills / connections / whatever you refer to in the paragraph "... as to how useful I could be" offset the disadvantages posed by your future plans to leave the country. Perhaps it is corporate short-sightedness that is keeping them from hiring you, and they "don't know what they are missing" ... That is, then, a bad business decision, but it is neither uncommon nor racism. The reason you weren't hired might very well be racism. But you have no evidence that it is, at least not that I can see from what you posted. Getting a job these days is tough. There are lots of unemployed people of all races. > However, not one company had one idea as to how useful I could be, > whether in their operations, to their long-term goals, or for a > pecuniary benefit from hiring me: because I'd be dead cheap. Not that > I am an absolute novice. I worked at my university in the USA. I took > a break from a successful professional career in my country to come > here particularly to extend my understanding of new technologies and > services, and for an exposure to, simply put, the best and cheapest > telecom services. The "cheap" part is not as importmant as you might think. When a company decides to add a job, it is frequently willing to pay a competitive salary to get a good worker. > [Moderator's Note: Don't you really know what the problem is? It is > the same problem faced by many young black people in urban areas like > Chicago. All these years we've been saying stay in school, work part > time at an entry-level job at McDonalds, get a diploma, take a couple > of extra courses ... hey, some blacks *believed it* and did just what > was suggested. Now out of school, they go out and look for jobs only > to have personnel departments politely tell them there is nothing which > is 'suitable', or that the job was filled. Do I understand you correctly? If I was unable to find a job and wanted you to tell me why, you would ask me my race, and then, if I was white, you would say "you don't have a job because the economy is bad," but, if I said I was black, you would say "you don't have a job because of racism." There's a slow economy out there, and unemployment is high. Lots of people of all races don't have jobs. Some, but not nearly all, due to racism. > These days, dyed in the wool racists are more in the closet than the > gay guys ever used to be. But they still staff the employment offices > and apartment rental offices everywhere. I don't see that your generalizations are any better than the generalizations made by bigots to justify their actions. A person who hires a white when both a white and a black applied for the job is not necessarily a racist. There are many reasons for doing so, racism only being one. And, what do you call it when a white is more qualified for a job but a black gets it because of a minority quota. It happens. A lot. > The young teenage black kids who recently graduated from > high school and are out looking for a job rarely have experienced the > open and bald-faced racism their grandparents lived with; some of them > have seen none at all and are led to believe it does not exist any > longer. They honestly think it has to do with how well they perform > their duties. There is still some 'resentment toward foreigners' here > in the USA also. I strongly suspect that has something to do with it. PAT] Guess what Pat. It does have *a lot* to do with how they perform their duties. Sure, there are racists out there, but you can't blame them for all the problems faced by blacks or other minorities. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: Mark Wilkins Subject: Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply? Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711 Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 18:19:10 GMT Mr. Narla and Mr. Townson: I am sorry, Mr. Narla, that you have been unsuccessful at finding work, and I truly hope that it is not as a result of the racism to which Mr. Townson refers. However, what you have both ignored is that (according to the placement office at the institution from which I graduated, Harvey Mudd College,) the AVERAGE time between graduation in an engineering- related field and acquiring engineering-related employment in this country now stands at about 18 months. In other words, had you acquired a job by now, Mr. Narla, you would probably be doing better than maybe 75% of those in your position, regardless of national origin or qualifications. It's unfortunate that things are not better, but it isn't fair, I think, to blame the problem on one's nationality until one is doing worse than the norm. Mark Wilkins ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply? Date: Sat, 04 Sep 93 13:50:00 PDT Ramaiah V Narla wrote: > However, not one company had one idea as to how useful I could be, > whether in their operations, to their long-term goals, or for a > pecuniary benefit from hiring me: because I'd be dead cheap. Not that > I am an absolute novice. I worked at my university in the USA. I took > a break from a successful professional career in my country to come > here particularly to extend my understanding of new technologies and > services, and for an exposure to, simply put, the best and cheapest > telecom services. Many of us have empathy for your situation. You must know that many of the technology companies here in the U.S. are in a "lean and mean" mode or they're rapidly trying to get there (i.e. IBM layoffs in the tens of thousands, for one). Despite the good job prospects espoused by Bill and Al (great news for chicken-pluckers and burger-flippers), the U.S. is in a recession. Your competition for jobs in just about any desirable position is nothing less than intense. Here's the best advice I can possibly give to you: * lose the attitude that someone OWES you something, * it's YOUR job to give those companies ideas on how useful you could be - find out what they need and fill that need. Good luck, Lynne [Moderator's Note: Speaking of chicken-pluckers, I made the aquaintence two days ago of a guy from Pakistan who is in school here at the Univer- sity of Illinois studying engineering. There are *lots* of students from Pakistan here. He told me he needed money and took a job for about five dollars per hour working for some subsidiary company of Colonel Sanders, the fried chicken dinner carryout chain. He works on an assembly line in the processing plant -- chopping the heads off chickens eight hours a day, one after another. He said he was not happy with with his work, but it was safer, and *paid more* than his previous job which was driving a taxicab in Chicago. After getting held up twice and shot at once, he quit driving a cab and decided to go to work for the Colonel instead. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jtl@il.us.swissbank.com (Joe Lynn) Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Organization: Swiss Bank Corporation CM&T Division Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 19:35:56 GMT Our Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: I guess from now on we have to go in and buy one of > their cheesy house-brand batteries for 50 cents in order to get the > catalog. PAT] Actually, charging $2.95 for the catalog is not such a big deal: near the back of the book, there are four coupons, including one for $3.00 off any purchase of $3.00 or more. Buy one item (such as the device the original poster was looking for-- which is in the catalog for $9.99), and the catalog is paid for. By the way, those horrible red-steel-clad-cheapo batteries that they used to sell appear to be discontinued. jtl (Not affiliated with Radio Shack: I just happened to have the catalog right here on my desk.) ------------------------------ From: wier@merlin.etsu.edu (Bob Wier) Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Organization: East Texas State University Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 20:08:01 GMT > [Moderator's Note: I guess from now on we have to go in and buy one of > their cheesy house-brand batteries for 50 cents in order to get the > catalog. PAT] Nope - sorry. Its my understanding that you have to make a purchase of $3 or more :-( ======== insert usual disclaimers here ============ Bob Wier, East Texas State U., Commerce, Texas wier@merlin.etsu.edu (watch for address change) ------------------------------ From: king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist) Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Reply-To: king@rtsg.mot.com Organization: Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 20:16:08 GMT > [Moderator's Note: I guess from now on we have to go in and buy one of > their cheesy house-brand batteries for 50 cents in order to get the > catalog. PAT] Ah, not so easy, Honorable Moderator. The catalog price isn't refunded with your purchase. The catalog contains *coupons* which can be used towards your *next* purchase. Naturally you have to buy more than $3 in order to use the $3 coupon in order to make back the cost of the catalog. I frequent many different Radio Shack stores (this area is lousy with them and I remember I need odd things at odd times) and have asked at each one for a catalog, hoping to find a manager as disgusted with the new price as I am. No luck so far. "But people *like* the coupons!" Not all of us, buddy. And there's another catch. The coupon has to be used on the *next* purchase, not the current one. I was buying about $6 worth of miscellaneous parts, and the salesdroid tried to push the catalog on me. "Great. I'll take it and use the $3 coupon right now, please." He said that no, I couldn't do that. I said in that case, no, I wouldn't buy the catalog. I supposed I could have bought the catalog and not the parts, walked out and back into the store, and bought the parts with the coupon. It just seemed like more trouble than it was worth. I still don't have a copy of this year's catalog. Radio Shack makes a modest sum of money because I have their catalog to peruse. I'm not about to *pay* them for the privilege of shopping in their store, however. Steven King -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group ------------------------------ From: dig@pro-cynosure.clark.net (Doug Granzow) Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Organization: Cynosure BBS - Email and newsgroups at 410-549-2584 Date: Sat, 4 Sep 93 23:01:58 EDT > [Moderator's Note: I guess from now on we have to go in and buy one of > their cheesy house-brand batteries for 50 cents in order to get the > catalog. PAT] And for that fifty cents, you will be required to give the last four digits of your phone number, your name, and address. (So they can mail you a *free* catalog?) Doug Granzow (dig@pro-cynosure.clark.net) - Cynosure BBS 410-549-2584 (free!) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs From: upchrch!joel@uunet.UU.NET (Joel Upchurch) Date: Sat, 04 Sep 93 16:20:59 EDT Organization: Upchurch Computer Consulting, Orlando FL > [Moderator's Note: Radio Shack is now getting $2.95 for catalogs? :( > PAT] This was discussed over in misc.consumers. The catalog has a $3.00 off coupon in it. What you do is buy the catalog _first_ when you go into the store and then use the coupon for your purchase. It doesn't work if you buy the catalog and the item at the same time. Joel Upchurch @ Upchurch Computer Consulting uunet!aaahq01!upchrch!joel 718 Galsworthy Ave. Orlando, FL 32809-6429 phone (407) 859-0982 ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 5 Sep 93 02:19:08 -0400 > Yup! I just stopped in to Radio Shack yesterday looking for the > device which goes on a phone line, and stops an (older) answering > machine when someone picks up the phone. I looked around and couldn't > BTW, any idea where I can buy the device described above? Saw them in Staples with the Modular "Y"s, except this version had labels for phone and answering machine and LEDs. It was either $6.xx or $9.xx - can't remember which. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 02:30:32 CDT From: Andrew C. Green Reply-To: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Our Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: I guess from now on we have to go in and buy one of > their cheesy house-brand batteries for 50 cents in order to get the > catalog. PAT] I'm not a huge fan of Radio Shack (are they still selling Pong games? :-), but I still got my last catalog for free just by asking nicely ... it's not like I'm a big customer of theirs, either. Maybe the referen- ced manager was having a bad day. As for the batteries, you can get a basic one for free at the rate of one per month -- just ask for their "Battery of the Month Club" card, which is usually printed on the back of their business cards. Finally, regarding the alkalines, I have foggy memories of reading in someplace like Consumer Reports that their AA size batteries outperformed the major brands. Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@hermes.dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 03:27:54 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems Joe.Bergstein@p501.f544.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Bergstein) writes: > I started out the door with the catalog in my hand, and was stopped by > the manager who told me that the catalogs now cost $2.95 which is > refunded on your first purchase. > [Moderator's Note: I guess from now on we have to go in and buy one of > their cheesy house-brand batteries for 50 cents in order to get the > catalog. PAT] Nope. I just spent ten bucks in there and they wouldn't give me the catalog, they said I'd have to pay for it too. But, if they also said they still give them to the ones that come in all the time. So, if you know the manager for a store and you frequent it regularly, ask HIM/HER for the catalog. Greg ------------------------------ From: Tim Russell Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 11:03:50 GMT > [Moderator's Note: I guess from now on we have to go in and buy one of > their cheesy house-brand batteries for 50 cents in order to get the > catalog. PAT] No, you have to pay $2.95 for it. BUT! You get one coupon worth $3 off anything $3 or more, one worth $5 off anything $10 or more (or was it $15?), one worth 10% off anything marked NEW in the catalog (and that's a lot of stuff), and one worth 10% off any Tandy service plan. I would probably have to agree with anyone who says that charging for catalogs is tacky, but I can also appreciate Tandy's expense at handing out a huge catalog to the same shopper every time he/she stops in. At least they give you MORE than just the money you pay for the catalog back, unlike other companies. Those coupons can add up to a lot of money saved. Also, from discussions in alt.radio.scanner, some stores are realizing that customers are unhappy and are giving the catalogs out free with the $3 coupon ripped out. I believe that Tandy charge card customers get free catalogs with the coupon. Tim Russell Omaha, NE russell@spdcc.com ------------------------------ From: thomas@lulea.trab.se (Thomas Persson) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Organization: Telia Research AB Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 11:58:13 GMT In J C Steele writes: > transfer time he is contemplating using ISDN but has been told at a > seminar that the bit rate in the USA for the ISDN service is 56 kilo: > bits compared with London which is 64 kilobits for the raw basic rate > channel. > This contradicts all that I have understood about ISDN. Please reassure > me that the standards of 64 kbps is world wide. It is not a world wide standard. USA has made their own standard, and the rest of the world is following another standard. (The right one.) N. Thomas Persson, M.Sc Systems Engineer Telia Research AB, Aurorum 6, S-977 75 Lulea, SWEDEN Fax:+46 920 75490, Tel:+46 920 75489 ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 12:37:53 GMT In article oppedahl@panix.com(Carl Oppedahl) writes: > In J C Steele > wrote: >> I have a client who is interested in using ISDN for file transfer. he >> wishes to send data between London and New York. To reduce the file >> transfer time he is contemplating using ISDN but has been told at a >> seminar that the bit rate in the USA for the ISDN service is 56 kilo >> bits compared with London which is 64 kilobits for the raw basic rate >> channel. >> This contradicts all that I have understood about ISDN. Please reassure >> me that the standards of 64 kbps is world wide. It is, see both Carl O.s initial comments plus a further clarification immediately after that. > I have been told that many of the telco links from one CO to the next > are only 56KBPS, and that as a result many US ISDN installations carry > only 56KBPS on the B channel rather than the expected 64KBPS. It's > not that the telcos are denying the standard is 64KBPS, I have heard, > but that they are sort of embarassed they cannot easily provide it in > some service areas. Carl is essentially correct in stating that the AVAILABLE data rate for many connections is 56Kb as opposed to full 64Kb. Having said that, however, it should be noted that the actual channel connection is operating at a 64Kb rate, BUT because the least significant bit of each byte is subject to being used for CO to CO signaling (e.g. on-hook, off-hook status known as "robbed bit signaling") then only the seven of the 8 bits for each byte is available for uncorrupted data transfer (hence the available data rate is 56Kb). As more and more COs are connected using Signaling System 7 (SS7) and the use of robbed-bit in-band signaling goes away, the CO to CO trunking will become usable at the full 64Kb rate. 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: Sun, 5 Sep 93 02:46:22 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Organization: AT&T ISDN has many "standard data rates"; 64K is the building block for most of them. CCITT (ITU-TS) has specs for sub-rates using 64K as the channel rate. The V.110 spec covers 8K, 16K, 32K, 48K and 56K rate adaption. In the USA, 56K adaption is commonly used because it supports interworking with the existing non-ISDN "switched 56" data service. > I have been told that many of the telco links from one CO to the next > are only 56KBPS, and that as a result many US ISDN installations carry > only 56KBPS on the B channel rather than the expected 64KBPS. It's > not that the telcos are denying the standard is 64KBPS, I have heard, > but that they are sort of embarassed they cannot easily provide it in > some service areas. Assuming the use of "New York" is short for New York City, I don't believe inter-office links will be a problem, if you use AT&T's ACCUNET(tm) services. Others in NYC have already done this successfully, but sometimes the ISDN CO parameters have to be adjusted by TELCO to allow all the correct information to be passed to the INC. Most ISDN-capable COs don't have a problem with 64K trunking. The older analog COs and older digital transmission equipment without B8ZS support are the factors limiting the availability of inter-CO 64K data rates. > I think perhaps your client has the bad luck to be in one of these > 56KBPS areas. Perhaps. For ACCUNET services, the AT&T domestic support folks can be reached at 1-800-222-SW56 (800-222-7956). They have information about 56K and 64K access from specific COs and LATAs -- they will need the NPA-NXX of the New York ISDN line to accurately answer the question of access. They also have usage rate information for International calls, and a list of countries currently accessible at 56K/64K data rates. Other non-domestic questions are currently handled by the AT&T Switched Digital International (SDI !!) Services organization at 1-800-841-4135. SDI also handles questions regarding International Videoconferencing, Group 4 FAX, EDT, Audio Broadcasting, etc. using 64K data rates. (They also have rate information -- perhaps in more detail than the ACCUNET support group.) Al Varney - just MY opinion ------------------------------ From: Bob Larribeau Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Date: Sat, 04 Sep 93 19:37:28 -0700 Organization: Combinet The transmission system in the U.S. uses in-band signalling that effectively robs 8 kb/s from each 64 kb/s channel for data applications. ISDN in the U.S. is based on 64 kb/s B-channels but you will most likely need to rate adapt to 56 kb/s when making connections between switches. Bob Larribeau San Francisco ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #623 ****************************** From telecom Sun Sep 5 12:50:35 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04054 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Sun, 5 Sep 1993 12:50:35 -0500 Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 12:50:35 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309051750.AA04054@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #624 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 5 Sep 93 12:50:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 624 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: ISDN in the USA (Russell Sharpe) Re: ISDN in the USA (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: ISDN in the USA (Dave Schroeder) 56k/64K vs. Dial Up (Danny Burstein) ISDN For an Internet Connection? (mauritz_c@spcvxb.spc.edu) Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem (Terry M. Teague) Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem (Richard Osterberg) Re: DLC/NGDLC (Brian Zimmerman) Re: DLC/NGDLC (Steven L. Spak) Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation (David W. Tamkin) Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation (Steve Cogorno) Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation (Scott Coleman) Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation (Art Kamlet) Re: Used D4 Channel Bank Needed (Barton Bruce) Re: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis (hollarn@knight.gannon.edu) Re: TrueVoice Cumulative Distortion? (Michael G. Katzmann) Re: TrueVoice (tm) - The True Story (Terry A. Conboy) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (russell sharpe) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Date: 05 Sep 1993 00:59:34 GMT Organization: Wellington City Council, Public Access Reply-To: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz In article , J C Steele wrote: > This contradicts all that I have understood about ISDN. Please reassure > me that the standards of 64 kbps is world wide. In New Zealand The Standard is 64K, also I can ISDN Japan at 64k. Russell Sharpe: email: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Voice: +64 4 5637779 snailmail: 171 Holborn Drive Stokes Valley 6008 NZ ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 05:22:35 GMT In article J C Steele writes: > This contradicts all that I have understood about ISDN. Please reassure > me that the standards of 64 kbps is world wide. The 64 kbps standard is world wide. So are lots of standards. However, the standard most widely used in the USA for ISDN data is 56 kbps :-( . The USA has a different digital carrier (transmission) system from Europe's, and it generally only handles 56 kbps, not 64 kbps, on a data channel. So we Gringos have a well-established "Switched 56" network. ISDN data typically runs over this. Most local telephone company intra-switch ISDN calls work at 64, and some support 64 kbps inter-office. But the links from local (Bell) companies to the long distance companies are sometimes only 56k. It depends on where you are, etc. If the US customer orders a "B8ZS" (clear-channel capable) T1 from AT&T (well, TO AT&T, or MCI for that matter, which is installed by their Bell company), as a Primary Rate ISDN circuit, then they can use International Switched 64 kbps. But since the interexchange carriers (AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc.) don't belong to the North American Numbering Plan yet (long story omitted), these carriers need special agreements with the PTTs. I think the UK has this. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: das@merit.edu (Dave Schroeder) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Date: 5 Sep 1993 17:58:09 GMT Organization: The University of Michigan Medical Center It was always my understanding that >real< ISDN is >always< 64kbps. 56k service is usually referred to as "switched 56". Dave ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: 56k/64k vs Dial Up Date: 5 Sep 1993 13:07:39 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC A poster started a thread about the US 56K (sometimes) vs the intl 64K ISDN throughput. His original note discussed how his employer wanted to upgrade to the faster lines for file transfer. I just want to point out that in MANY cases the economics are simply NOT there. With V.32bis modems you get 14.4K on a dialup line. V.fast will (someday) give you 28.8K. You can get, TODAY, various proprietary modems (i.e., belogning to a specific company) which will hit up to about 20K. Compare this with the added costs of a) installing the 56/64k line with all its associated equipment, b) the cost per minute, c) limited options in switching. dannyb@panix.com ------------------------------ From: mauritz_c@spcvxb.spc.edu Subject: ISDN for an Internet Connection? Organization: SPC Community Access System Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 14:02:29 GMT Is there a FAQ for this group? I have just set up my own public access unix site and I'm interested in finding a "better" way of offering full internet connectivity than the standard 56k leased line. Has anyone here has experience using ISDN for such a purpose? If so, who did you talk to? I cannot seem to find any internet service providers that will talk to you via ISDN, though JVNCnet said they were "looking in to it." Any information would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Chris (aka ritz@ritz.mordor.com) [Moderator's Note: The Telecom FAQ is available several ways. It is automatically mailed out to each new subscriber who receives the Digest via email. Once a month more or less, it is posted in comp.dcom.telecom for the Usenet readers. It is available in the Telecom Archives, which is accessible using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. It is also available by writing telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu and asking for a copy. PAT] ------------------------------ From: terryt@clark.net (Terry M. Teague) Subject: Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem Date: 5 Sep 1993 11:07:58 GMT Organization: Clark Internet Services, Inc., Ellicott City, MD USA Allan R. Baker (arb2@engr.engr.uark.edu) wrote: > Is it possible to communicate a with TDD (or is it DDT) device with > common modem software? > [Moderator's Note: No it is not possible. They are different protocols. > The one uses ASCII, the other uses Baudot (of some level, I forget). PAT] Most of the TTY(S) are 45.5 baudot and 7-e-1 Half duplex. But, ASCII(S) are at 300 Baud, 8-N-1 , half Dup. I did try use CrossTalk 2.0 version to communicate with my ASCII TTY.. It worked. But, most deaf people have regular baudot (45.5). It requires a special modem from Futura-TDD or Full-Talk dealers where they can be purchased. Terry M. Teague (Gallaudet Univ. BX#1632) 1-301-589-3214 TTY/TDD/TT home Silver Spring, Maryland, USA 1-301-589-2464 FAX only 1-202-996-5028 Pager # (Touch Tone PH only) 1-202-366-0992 TTY/TDD/TT:work ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem From: osterber@husc8.harvard.edu (Richard Osterberg) Date: 5 Sep 93 12:58:23 GMT > Is it possible to communicate a with TDD (or is it DDT) device with > common modem software? > [Moderator's Note: No it is not possible. They are different protocols. > The one uses ASCII, the other uses Baudot (of some level, I forget). PAT] The "standard" protocol for TDD (actually, more often referred to in the community as "TTY") machines is Baudot. If you listen to it, it's a series of two tones, a high and a low. Each character is a different combination of patterns and lengths (same theory as Morse Code, I guess). If memory serves, the protocol moves at 50 baud. Standard modems are not at all compatible with this protocol. However, there are more and more TTYs these days that are equipped with what is usually called "ASCII protocol", which is standard modem protocol. It's typically 300 baud, but I've heard of some with 1200 baud. Your modem can communicate with an "ASCII TTY" with standard software, if you set it up right. (From experience, most TTYs are unforgiving in terms of the new modems that do autodetect baud, etc ... you typically need to lock the modem at 300 baud, manually turn off all the other added features to get "bare" 300 baud). Additionally, there is a piece of software, "ASCIITDD" released by Gallaudet University that is designed to use your modem to communicate with ASCII TTYs. It works rather well. Additionally, if you look hard, there *are* available modems for IBM compatibles that have Baudot built in. They're rather expensive (mall market, I guess), but do exist. I have no idea how well they work. I saw one in a recent "IBM Mail Order" (true blue IBM) catalogue ... they had two pages on "Disability peripherals." Hope this helps. Rick Osterberg osterber@husc.harvard.edu 617-527-6664 617-965-0370 ------------------------------ From: zimmerman@pulse.com (Brian Zimmerman) Subject: Re: DLC/NGDLC Date: 3 Sep 1993 10:55:11 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Time slot interchange for static and dynamic assignment of channels. Integral SONET optical feeder interface. Remote provisioning, maintenence, administration, operations, and inventory. NGDLCs are software intensive in nature, more compact as a result of higher level of integration, and provide a more feature rich functionality than the current generation of DLCs. [The above description was solicited from our Marketing Department.] Brian Zimmerman [brianz@pulse.com] Pulse Communications Inc., a division of Hubbell (not the telescope) All opinions are my own, none other ------------------------------ From: sspak@seas.gwu.edu (Steven L. Spak) Subject: Re: DLC/NGDLC Organization: George Washington University Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 15:50:17 GMT DLC usually refers to wire based subscriber carrier like SLC-96. (Mini channel banks and a few T1's back to the C.O.) NGDLC usually refers to fiber based subscriber carrier like DSC's Litespan 2000. You get more bandwidth to provide DS1's and more cool stuff to your hungrier customers. (These are still used for voice and SOME specials.) Steven Spak sspak@seas.gwu.edu Transmission Engineer Tel: (202) 392-1611 Fax: (202) 392-1261 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 11:39 CDT From: dattier@genesis.mcs.com (David W. Tamkin) Subject: Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation Reply-To: dattier@genesis.mcs.com (DWT) Organization: Contributor Account on MCSNet, Chicago, Illinois 60657 Anthony E. Siegman wrote in in comp.dcom.telecom: > New gimmick on AT&T VISA cards (at least new to me): mandatory > phone validation of new and replacement cards before they can be used. > My wife and I received the annual replacements for our AT&T > Univeral VISA cards the other day. WIth the cards was a memo: The new > cards would not be valid until we telephoned an 800 number and > verified the cards. The idea is to make sure that the cards did not go astray nor get waylaid in the mail and were delivered to the correct parties. The person receiving the card must satisfy the automated system that he or she knows enough about the rightful cardholder to be the rightful cardholder. Until verification, purchases on the card will not receive authorization codes. Citibank was testing a similar practice and the GM Card uses it as well. David W. Tamkin Box 3284 Skokie, Illinois 60076-6284 312-714-5610 dattier@genesis.mcs.com CompuServe: 73720,1570 MCI Mail: 426-1818 ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 04:47:56 PDT I think this is a normal practice as I was required to do this with my American Express. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: genghis@ilces.ag.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) Subject: Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation Date: 5 Sep 93 13:14:23 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana > [Moderator's Note: Didn't the same people put their SSN on the original > application for credit? Then what is their beef now? PAT] No doubt you'll be flooded with replies, but just in case: none of the information requested to "validate" the card is in any way secure or private. AT&T is making the (erroneous) assumption that only the cardholder will know all of this information. In reality, everything asked for will appear on the cardholder's credit report, which as we know is available to anyone with sufficient interest. So what's the point of "validating" the card? If a thief manages to intercept the envelope containing the card, he can "validate" the card almost as easily as the legitimate cardholder can. Scott Coleman, President ASRE (American Society of Reverse Engineers) tmkk@uiuc.edu [Moderator's Note: I am always flooded with mail; your letter is nothing special. This added step is one further effort being made to combat credit card fraud; the level of which is at an all-time high in the USA. You are correct that the level of sophistication found in some credit card fraud rings is enough to easily overcome this extra step but it is a satisfactory security measure in many instances. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 02:51:55 EDT From: ask@cblph.att.com Subject: Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio In article Anthony E. Siegman writes: [New gimmick on AT&T VISA cards (at least new to me): mandatory phone validation of new and replacement cards before they can be used.] I also got this notice in my VISA card renewal, and followed the procedure, and it worked. The next day I was curious, and called their 800 number and learned this: The new VISA/MC cards contain both a start and expiration date, and are not good before the start date -- other cards (AMEX, ...) also do this. The validation procedure is because many credit cards disappear out of mailboxes, or somewhere. So by not turning the cards on until some validation is done, they hope to cut down on fraudlent use of stolen cards. Apparently the ZIP code is used to determine which customers will be asked to validate the cards. These are ZIP Codes from high credit card fraud areas. Disclaimer: I'm just reporting what I learned by calling the AT&T Visa 800 number. Art Kamlet a_s_kamlet@att.com AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Re: Used D4 Channel Bank Needed Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 5 Sep 93 01:16:33 -0400 In article , kechak@uuhare.rabbit.net (Stanley Kechak) writes: > One of our customers is in need of a D4 channel bank. They will be > receiving their 800 calls over a T1 and they want to hook the 24 I assume their PBX is too simple to add a T1 card to with some station cards. Were they running, say, a Mitel SX200D, with even several Generics ago software, a T1 card, a T1 clock, and a pair of 12 port ONS (local POTS station cards) cards probably could be had for ~$3k used from dealers with a little shopping. Look in "Telecom Gear" at some of the ads from folks selling used channel banks. Plenty of them out there, but they don't advertise in "TV Guide". ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 17:22:06 -0400 From: hollarn@knight.gannon.edu Subject: Re: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis Hold the phone (that is analog phone), something smells rotten in AT&T (Denmark) with TrueVoice ... The only way TrueVoice is effective is if the weakest link in the chain is not an analog phone. Now, considering you performed your test on the weakest link in the chain, how can your analysis prove anything !! According to James Martin in "Data Communication Technology": "Analog lines are designed to carry specific ranges of frequencies. The capacity of an analog line is measured by the range of frequencies that the line is designed to carry. This is called its bandwidth. For example, a standard telephone line is designed to carry the range of frequencies required to transmit human speech. This range is approximately from 300 to 3100 Hertz. Hertz (Hz) is the term used for "cycles per second," which is the measure of frequency. "The difference between 3300 Hz and 300 Hz is 2800 Hz, or approximately 3 kilohertz (kHz), the bandwidth of a normal telephone line. (The bandwidth of a telephone channel is actually 4 kHz, but part of that bandwidth is used to provide adequate separation between the channels when multiple channels share the same transmission facility.) The bandwidth of an analog channel is always the difference between the upper and lower limits of the frequencies it is designed to carry. If a line is designed to carry the frequencies between 80,300 and 83,100 Hz, its bandwidth is still approximately 3 kHz. THE ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL TRANSMISSION "Just as there are modems to convert bit streams to and from analog signals, there are also devices called 'codecs' (coder/decoder that generally use PCM (pulse code modulation) to perform the conversion of a telephone voice signal into a digital bit stream). Most of the world's telecommunications plant is analog in operation at present, and much of it will remain so for years to come because of the billions of dollars tied up in such equipment." ------------------------------ From: slc1!vk2bea!michael@uunet.UU.NET (Michael G. Katzmann) Subject: Re: TrueVoice Cumulative Distortion? Date: 05 Sep 93 12:20:52 GMT Reply-To: slc1!vk2bea!michael@uunet.UU.NET (Michael G. Katzmann) Organization: Broadcast Sports Technology, Crofton, Maryland. In article goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec. com (Fred R. Goldstein) writes: > Al Varney complains that our anti-distortion position is a form of > luddism, as if we preferred tube amps to more modern transistors or > something. In fact, tube amps sell at a premium nowadays because they > have lower distortion than cheap transistor amps, but that's > irrelevant. The goal of a transmission system -- hey AT&T Tube amps are more expensive because the componentry is more expensive, fewer of them are made, and the modern automatic insertion equipment can't handle valves (so part of them must be made by hand). A transistor (or MOSFET) amp of similar quality is MUCH cheaper. SOME people pay a premium for tube amps because they THINK it has lower distortion. (now where did I put that Monster cable....) Michael Katzmann Broadcast Sports Technology Inc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Crofton, Maryland. U.S.A NV3Z / VK2BEA / G4NYV michael@vk2bea.UUCP ------------------------------ From: tconboy@uswnvg.com (Terry A. Conboy) Subject: Re: TrueVoice (tm) - The True Story Date: 05 Sep 93 09:26:26 GMT Organization: U S WEST NewVector Group, Inc. The issue of 60 Hz and it's harmonics is a major headache, especially in rural areas. I worked for a power company and was tasked with "inductive coordination" with the telcos. There were instances where telephone cable plant ran parallel to 13 kV feeders for miles. Whether it is overhead or underground, it is very easy to get 100 V of 60 Hz AC on the pairs. Even though the pairs in a well maintained cable are well balanced, with typically 60 dB of attenuation of common mode signals, there can be about 0.1 volt of differential 60 Hz across the telephone. With the attenuation of the 60 Hz by the phone, this usually isn't a problem. The big mess comes from the 540 Hz 9-harmonic. Murphy does a fantastic job of causing the power factor/voltage correction capacitors on the power line to resonate near this frequency. Since this is well within the desired audio response of the phone, you can imagine how pleasing this must be! One telephone engineer I worked with said the "city folks" moving to the "country" were driving him nuts ... they expected it to be as good as the service they left in the city ... the REAL country people had learned to accept the "whine" as part of the territory! The use of subscriber carrier equipment, either digital or FDM analog largely eliminates the problem. Maybe someday we can have "HIFI" phones. Terry Conboy email: tconboy@uswnvg.com U S WEST NewVector Group packet: n6ry@n7ipb.wa.usa 3350 - 161st Ave SE, MS 571 office: (206) 450-8388 Bellevue, WA 98008 fax: (206) 450-8399 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #624 ****************************** From telecom Sun Sep 5 14:08:26 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00855 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Sun, 5 Sep 1993 14:08:26 -0500 Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 14:08:26 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309051908.AA00855@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #625 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 5 Sep 93 14:08:20 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 625 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (David Josephson) Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Frederick Roeber) Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Gary Breuckman) Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Brian D. McMahon) Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Craig Ibbotson) Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Steve Forrette) Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Charlie Mingo) Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Brian Crowley) Re: PEI Phones (Charlie Mingo) AT&T TrueVoice Deployment (Les Reeves) Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry (John J. Butz) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: davidj@rahul.net (David Josephson) Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! Organization: a2i network Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 06:38:46 GMT Pat's comment is right, it is almost certainly a fax machine trying to congress with another. The only solution I found when this same thing happened to me was to call-forward that line to my fax machine, and within a few minutes it came through and I was able to call a very harried and upset secretary who was trying to reach a fax machine in another prefix. David Josephson ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! Date: 5 Sep 1993 02:42:17 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In Tara D. Mahon writes: > A funny thing happened to me last night ... (and I'm trying to keep > a good humor about this) :-D > At 4:30am our phone rang. Now, this always makes me nervous, > especially since my brother is in Saudi Arabia, working for the > military. A middle-of-the-night phone call can bring hectic news. I > pick up and hear only a constant beeping, slow and steady: [lots stuff omitted, followed by 'how can I make it stop?'] Silly rabbit. Just hook up a fax machine and see what they are sending. Probably you will be able to read it and figure out who it is. And maybe you will receive interesting information. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 [Moderator's Note: But you will note Tara said she did not think it was a fax machine. Your solution would work (a) if it was, and (b) if she had a fax machine handy. A lot of folks don't. PAT] ------------------------------ From: roeber@vxcrna.cern.ch (Frederick Roeber) Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! Reply-To: roeber@cern.ch Organization: CERN -- European Organization for Nuclear Research Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 08:35:18 GMT In article , Tara D. Mahon writes: > A funny thing happened to me last night ... [persistant fax machine] > [Moderator's Note: [complain to telco, file a complaint w/ police, etc.] Why not just borrow a fax machine, receive the incoming fax, and see if it has any cover sheet, status line, or other identifying information? Call them up, and tell them of the error. Sure it's annoying, but it's probably just a simple mistake; the last thing they need is the cops chasing after them, and the last thing the cops need is to track down the fax bandits.
Frederick
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 07:34:20 -0700 From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! Those beeps definitely sound like a fax machine. If they don't stop, you might want to consider finding a fax machine you can forward your calls to (if you have callforwarding) or can borrow, or a computer with a fax modem you can use ... that will let you receive the fax they are trying to send. This would probably be an easier way to determine who is calling than using calltrace or filing a complaint. I've already received 'wrong number' fax calls on my fax line, got an interesting (ok, not so interesting...) confidential bond summary from some broker ... At work we had a wrong fax number call to someone's voice line because the sender forgot to prefix the number with '9'; he wanted to send it to 9-1-410-xxx-xxxx and ended up at extension 1410. After a half hour of this we forwarded it to a fax number and got someone's income statement for a loan . Folks really should be more careful with stuff like that. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 11:35:10 -0500 (cdt) From: Brian D McMahon Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! Our Fearless Moderator writes: > let's hope it was only a single (manually) misdialed attempt, and that > they don't have your number in the autodial directory to be called Reminds me of a horror story from a DECUS LUG meeting a while ago. My memory's slightly faded on this, but apparently this one site had received a FAX machine from an overseas installation. Now, the thing was apparently set up to dial an international call via an office PBX, and through some unfortunate combination of local dialing conventions, the first three digits it autodialed were nine, one, and one. Worked fine at the old site, but when they plugged it in and tested it on a U.S. POTS line ... By the time they found the problem (after SEVERAL tests), the dispatcher at the sheriff's department was getting quite upset with them. All they saw was a 911 call from a certain building, and some strange tones on the line. They were about to send out a patrol car and bill the institution. Moral: Be very careful when testing autodialing devices. 8-) Brian McMahon Postmaster / Acad. Software Support Grinnell College Computer Services Grinnell, Iowa 50112 USA Voice: +1 515 269 4901 Fax: +1 515 269 4936 [Moderator's Note: I cannot imagine why anyone would plug in a device with autodialing on it without completely flushing out the memory. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ibbotson@rtsg.mot.com (Craig Ibbotson) Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 16:36:43 GMT In article Tara D. Mahon writes: > A funny thing happened to me last night ... (and I'm trying to keep > a good humor about this) :-D [description of many annoying phone calls deleted] > [Moderator's Note: Dear Sleepless: The mystery caller is probably a > fax machine... I had the same problem -- three beeps. I surmised it was a fax machine, but I had no way of telling the folks at the other end that I was not a fax! I tried disconnecting my phone for a couple of days, thinking they would realize there was a problem and investigate. As soon as I reconnected, the fax was back. What I eventually ended up doing was using call forwarding to forward my line to a fax machine. Sure enough, within an hour or so of doing this, the fax started spitting out, boldly proclaiming the company which had been so unrelentless in its attempts to fax to my number. I called back the name and number on the cover page, and got the secretary who was trying to fax an order for some computer equipment; when I told her I was at the number she had been trying to fax, she said "what the heck is going on over there? Do you realize I've been trying to fax to you for almost four days?!!". I assured that I was aware of each and every call, and informed her that she had the wrong number. Once I explained the situation, she was very apologetic; it had never occurred to her that the number was wrong; she assumed it was a "computer problem". If you have a fax machine at work, perhaps you can forward you calls to your work fax machine. It will definitely be annoying for any person trying to contact you, but you should catch your culprit in short order. If you don't have call forwarding, perhaps Bell will waive the service charge associated with adding a feature due to your circumstances. The feature itself shouldn't cost more than $2 or so per month. Craig Ibbotson, Motorola Inc. ...uunet!motcid!ibbotsonc Cellular Products Division / General Systems Sector ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! Date: 5 Sep 1993 11:11:40 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) > Moderator's Note: Dear Sleepless: The mystery caller is probably a > fax machine. When a fax machine *answers* the line it does make the > shrill noise you describe, but when it *originates* a call it sits > there more or less quietly (those beeps are possible) waiting for the > responding fax machine to give out the shrill noises; then it starts > the same. The Moderator is probably correct. I think the fastest and easiest way to resolve the problem if it persists is to borrow or rent a fax machine, and hook it up to your line at night. When the fax machine calls again, it will deliver the fax, and there will probably be an indication as to who the sender is. IMHO, the best thing to do is to call them or fax them *politely*, explain the situation, and ask them to correct it. After all, it is probably just someone's typing or keying error that caused your number to be entered - there's no reason to get too upset for an honest mistake. If they are reasonable, they will correct the error. If they don't, then it's time to get your message across more forcefully. You could do it the direct way by faxing them back a couple dozen times whatever they send you, or you could do it the right way, and file a complaint with the telco annoyance call bureau, this time armed with the identity of the caller and the fact that you politely asked them to stop, which they igored. I'm sure that either way will solve your problem. Especially if the call is long distance, trying to get the telco to coordinate with the long distance carrier and distant telco to trace it will take more of your time than it's worth. Just put a fax machine on the line and go from there. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: charlie.mingo@his.com (Charlie Mingo) Reply-To: charlie.mingo@his.com Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 18:48:22 Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! If you don't want the long rigeramole of launching a trace on your calls and then filing a police complaint, a much quicker solution is simply to install a fax machine on your line, and when you next receive one of those annoying phone calls, press the receive button, and accept the fax. In most cases, the cover sheet of the fax will indicate who sent it, and you can then call them back manually and tell them to cut it out. If there is no cover sheet, there may be some information in the fax itself that lets you identify the sender or the intended receiver. At the very least, accepting the fax will make the sending fax machine think it has done its duty, and it will stop pestering you (until the next time ...). Regards. [Moderator's Note: Again the assumption here seems to be that most people have a fax machine sitting around (or one they control which they can forward to) which can be put into service for the investiga- tion. I don't think that is true. There are far more telephone numbers to be dialed in error than there are fax machines and modems. We here are probably sophisticated enough to use this approach, but what about most people when they encounter it and run into a stonewalling telco like Tara did? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 07:36:42 PDT From: brian@amc.com (Brian Crowley) Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! > [Moderator's Note: Dear Sleepless: The mystery caller is probably a > fax machine. When a fax machine *answers* the line it does make the [STUFF DELETED] > Telco is obligated to provide you with peaceful uninteruppted use of > your line. See if the problem goes away by the time you read this. If > not, regardless of *57 as a 'service' offered by your telco, they can > catch the offender. It is not worth your trouble unless the calls > persist daily/nightly without ceasing. Telco can put a trap on your > line. This means they will note every call to your line, and where it > came from. You respond with a list of times the offensive calls were > received. They match your list of times with their list of calls. They > and other telcos/carriers involved will backtrack to the source. When > the source is clearly identified, telco *will not tell you who it is*. > They will notify you they have identified the caller. If you agree in > writing to prosecute the offender and file a police complaint, telco > will release the information to the police. Telco will not get in the > loop, or the middle of the whole thing. They will merely provide expert > witness to prosecutors. Telco won't tell you who was calling (until > after police tell you) because they would be violating the privacy > rights of the caller. Good luck; let us know if the calls stop. PAT] It's not always so easy, Pat. Let me relate to the Digest my experiences with the telco (in this case, GTE) and harassing calls. Several years ago, my wife and I began receiving hang-up calls, about fifteen to twenty a day. We suspected that these calls were originating from the current girlfriend of my wife's ex-husband (which is another long story I won't attempt here). We soon tired of putting up with these calls and after a couple of days called GTE Northwest to ask for help. GTE told us that there was nothing they could do without an official request from the King County police. To say that the King County police were less than cooperative was an understatement. To say that they were not interested in helping us is closer to the truth. The detective that I spoke to basically said "these calls are usually kids playing around, and once we find out who they are nobody wants to press charges". We told the detective of our suspicions as to the source of the calls, pointed out to him that the calls were happening day as well as during the night (this was during the school year when kids are supposed to be in school), and tried to assure him that we were serious about finding the harasser, and would be willing to file a complaint. The detective remained unconvinced, and I had to resort to outright *badgering*, before he agreed to contact GTE. By this time, the hang-up call volume had gone down to five or ten calls a day. As Pat described, GTE had us make a list, recording the time of each hang-up call. Every other day, we called a number at GTE, gave them our case number and the contents of our list for the previous two days. This continued for about a week, then GTE informed us that it was no longer necessary to call. The GTE representative would not tell us the results of the trap, but instead directed us to call back to the King County police. I immediately called the detective who told us: "GTE has traced the calls to an exchange in Redmond, but are unable to go any further than that". Now, I know that's a load of baloney, but no arguments from my side could get the detective off his *ss and keep GTE moving on the case. He simply was not very interested. In desperation, I changed the message on my answering machine to say: "Hi, you have reached XXX-XXXX, we cannot come to the phone right now, please leave a message. If this is the party who continues to call and hangup, you should know that GTE has a trace on our phone line and we have discovered that you are calling from an exchange in Redmond. Please keep calling and soon we have your number.". For the past week, we had been letting the answering machine pick up on all calls and I hoped whoever was calling would hang on the line long enough to hear the entire message. A day after I placed this message on the machine, the calls stopped! Now I don't know if the calls stopped because of the answering machine message, or because the harasser just got tired. As I said earlier, we suspected that the caller was my wife's ex-husband's girlfriend, so I can only hope that the message was what did the trick. Anyway, here in GTE-land, trying to find the source of phone harassment was not as easy (at least not for us) as it sounds. Brian Crowley DNS: brian@amc.com Applied Microsystems Corp. UUCP: uunet!amc-gw!brian Redmond, WA ATT: 206-882-2000 Ext. 328 [Moderator's Note: Not every telco employee you speak to or police officer is trained/willing/enthusiastic about dealing with these cases. To the credit of the Chicago Police Department, there are a couple of detectives specifically trained in phone harassment cases who work with Illinois Bell (ooops, I mean Ameritech) on stuff like this, along with toll-fraud cases. Those officers *know* how the system works, where to look, etc. Most officers are not trained to do this. Admittedly, it also helps if you are *somebody* (as opposed to a *nobody*) in getting action, although this should not have any bearing in the matter. I am reminded of quite a few years ago when obscene and threatening calls intended for Queen Elizabeth were arr- iving several times daily at Buckingham Palace where they were int- ercepted by staff members. At first it was jolly-good fun getting a laugh at the expense of the poor sick creature making the calls, but when the 'joke' was no longer funny, members of the Queen's security staff asked British Tel to intervene. After a couple days of looking into the matter, BT found that the calls were coming from across the pond here in the USA, where AT&T was serving up the garbage to them. BT asked AT&T to attend to it and a week or so of coordinated investigation revealed the calls were coming from Chicago, at the big AT&T toll switcher on Canal Street. Who were they getting the calls from? The Illinois Bell CO known as Illinois-Dearborn, for the street intersection where the office is located. A technician there snooped around awhile in response to a call from AT&T when a call was actually in progress; guess what! He tracked it back to WHitehall 4-6211, the switchboard number for the Lawson YMCA. The next day, the switchboard supervisor at Lawson was served with a search warrent to examine the switchboard's outgoing toll call records. Finding the room/extension number involved was very easy and so was the rest. Later that day, a tech from Illinois Bell installed a tap and recording device on that particular extension, with the three operators on duty watching curiously. A word to the wise was sufficient: "You 'girls' keep your traps shut. Just sit there plugging away. If I catch any of you tipping him off or even telling the other operators what you saw the technician doing you'll get fired!" Thus spake the supervisor to the operators. They had no intention of snitching and losing their jobs. Sure enough, on the next call, a telco security rep along with a Chicago Police officer and a Lawson security man let this bird get all wound up and started then went to his room and arrested him. Some traces can get more complicated than others; and having someone interested makes a big difference in how well it proceeds. PAT] ------------------------------ From: charlie.mingo@his.com (Charlie Mingo) Reply-To: charlie.mingo@his.com Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 11:06:04 Subject: Re: PEI Phones johnl@ursa-major.spdcc.com (John R. Levine) writes: > Island Tel is controlled by MT&T, the Nova Scotia phone company, > which as I recall is partly owned by Bell Canada. So it's not > surprising that their offerings are similar to those elsewhere > in Canada. Bell Canada is limited to a 10% voting interest in MT&T by a NS provincial statute, passed in 1967 precisely to prevent BC from controlling MT&T. Of course, Bell Canada and MT&T are both members of Stentor, the established long-distance carrier in Canada, so there is a certain amount of standardization. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 11:52:33 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: AT&T TrueVoice Deployment AT&T annonuced that it will begin deploying TrueVoice(tm) to it's network later this month. The first city to "get the treatment" will be Atlanta, beginning Sept. 23. ------------------------------ From: John.J.Butz@att.com Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 09:35:29 EDT Subject: Re: Comparison of Salaries in Telecom Industry rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes: > My question is, "Does it really matter?" As the essayist in this > month's issue of {Harper's} pointed out, the one thing the new global > economy is *not* producing is jobs. It is always cheaper to move > high-paying positions overseas, and increasingly, that's where they're > going. Software? That's moving to India, Singapore, Japan, Ireland, > Russia, and anywhere else people can find cheap minds (which, by the > way, are getting cheaper all the time). Hardware? Try Taiwan. > Now that Mr. Gates has installed his T1 link to India, where do *you* > think he'll hire programmers? New sign on the door at Microsoft: > "Americans need not apply." > [Moderator's Note: Advocates of more or less unlimited immigration > into the USA frequently say there is no real problem with this as far > as American unemployment goes, because the 'foreigners' usually are > willing to take jobs Americans don't want such as working in the > fields harvesting vegtables and working in canning plants; working on > the killing floor at Iowa Beef Processors, Inc. (one of McDonald's > biggest vendor/suppliers), and cleaning out public restrooms in the > train and bus stations, etc. But as the number of T-1's in service > increase and the world grows smaller, we find ourselves in an in- > creasingly competitive world-wide labor force, with the the sort of > ramifications you mention. Americans are going to find their high- > priced services are no longer needed in many industries. In fact, > lots of companies have moved from the USA to other places. PAT] Doom and gloom posting leaves me depressed and really takes away from the true spirit of TELECOM Digest. This is supposed to be an entertaining and informative forum! Come on, people used to say the same things about automation and the end of the world (or in this case "the end of work") still hasn't arrived. Let's cast this situation in a different light. Cheap minds have expectations in life as well as any American. Don't you think that at some point the lesser paid minds will want the same standard of living that their higher paid counterparts have in America or Western Europe or Japan? There is an equilibrium effect at work here. People who are not enslaved usually work with the goal of advancing themselves or their children. Also, business conditions don't always favor moving jobs overseas. There are as many Hondas made in this country today as there are in Japan. What Americans need to do, is to stay innovative, immaginative, bold, insightful, and take risks. We need to lead and define markets, not follow them. "Bully!" -- T. Roosevelt J Butz ER700 Sys Eng jbutz@hogpa.att.com AT&T - CCS ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #625 ****************************** From telecom Sun Sep 5 23:50:41 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00920 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Sun, 5 Sep 1993 23:50:41 -0500 Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 23:50:41 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309060450.AA00920@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #626 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 5 Sep 93 23:50:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 626 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Michael Covington) Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Pat Turner) Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Colin Chandler) Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Carl Moore) Re: Telix File Transfer Question (Koos van den Hout) Re: Telix File Transfer Question (Mike Riddle) Re: 900MHz Cordless Phones (Michael Covington) Re: 900MHz Cordless Phones (Jim Sisul) Re: "C&P Telephone" is Being Discontinued (Mike Riddle) Re: "C&P Telephone" is Being Discontinued (Art Kamlet) Re: "C&P Telephone" is Being Discontinued (Christopher Davis) Re: Save the SSC (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Save the SSC (Ben Burch) Re: Kill the SSC (was Re: Save the SSC) (David Appell) Re: Kill the SCC (Joe Johnston) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions Date: 6 Sep 1993 03:08:34 GMT Organization: AI Programs, University of Georgia, Athens In article turner@dixie.com writes: > Speaking of installers, one told me a while back that a young woman > had come on to him and wanted his ANAC numbers in exchange for a > "date". She would sell these to her friends for $5 for entertainment > or finding out some other girls phone number while at her dorm or > apartment. He said he declined. Believe it or not ... > [Moderator's Note: I am not surprised that he declined. Most people > who work at telcos don't take 'bribes', whatever form they come in. PAT] Do telcos ever do undercover security checks on their employees? This sounds like one. (In either sense of "undercover" ...) Michael A. Covington, Associate Research Scientist Artificial Intelligence Programs mcovingt@ai.uga.edu The University of Georgia phone 706 542-0358 Athens, Georgia 30602-7415 U.S.A. amateur radio N4TMI [Moderator's Note: Yes they do. I do not know with what frequency. PAT] ------------------------------ From: turner@Dixie.Com Date: Mon, 06 Sep 93 01:04 GMT From: rsiatl!turner@rsiatl.UUCP Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Sets Reply-To: turner@dixie.com dave.carpentier@OLN.COM writes: >> Some have an ASCII terminal built in, in which case the keys include a >> cursor joystick and buttons for yes and no. > You really can't leave us hanging on this one, Carl. What would they > use the terminal for? Accessing assignment records and such? I would > absolutely _love_ that ability. As a smaller TelCo we don't get fancy > things like laptops, but this kind of butt-set could be a start. Most of them access a ticket database. It logs time per job, and gives them the next ticket. SB still has the craftspeople write out paper tickets for legal reasons. A few of the more advance systems incorporate a POTS TIMS into the case so the install can be tested and the next ticket delievered at the same time. What data you can get from this depends on the LEC's computer people. I have only seen them used for dispatching and testing. Several suppliers were at Supercom demo'ing these terminals. Manufacturers also advertise in {Outside Plant} frequently. If you will send me a snail mail address, I'll sent you a list of suppliers, if you are interested. > In any case, the new generation butt-sets are certainly much better > than the old on/off/dial units. For me, the most appreciated feature > is the automatic high db cutout circuit. I totally lost hearing in one > ear for about four hours after using one of the old sets on a poor > connection. That's one reason the FAA does all of it's testing at -13 dB0 (13 dbm below the TLP of (usually) 0dbm). For some reason controllers get upset when somebody blasts 2713 or 1004 at 0dB into their StarSet:-). AT&T has always used this level on our circuits, and MCI is starting to come around. It drives the SARTS people and craftspeople who don't work on our stuff a lot crazy. Patton Turner KB4GRZ FAA Telecommunications turner@dixie.com ------------------------------ From: orion@crl.com (Colin Chandler) Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions Date: 6 Sep 1993 00:31:11 GMT Organization: CRL Internet Dialup Access 415-705-6060 (guest) > I expect maybe it had a 300-baud modem in it. Of course, nowadays a > one-chip 2400 baud modem is cheap, too. Is this like what you are describing? (I ordered one of these today): (All Electronics, 1-800-826-5432) AT&T #206A2 AT&T calls these things "Craft Access Terminals," and they were originally designed to perform several more functions than a standard line test handset. In addition to the touch-tone keypad, talk/monitor switch, alligator clip leads, four conductor modular jack and tool belt clip, these units have a 2.5" X 2" LCD screen and function button/joystick. Apparently the extra features were for use with a "Craft Access" computer system. But they also allow the user to program in phone numbers and adjust the volume to the handset. These rugged units can be used just like any other line test handset, and we are selling them for a bargain price. The only possible drawback to these units is that they contain batteries that require charging. Brand new, in the box. They include two ni-cad battery packs, a charger and instructions. -------------- I hope this is of some help ... I am buying one of these, so when I get it I'll post about it. (orion@crl.com) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 22:45:56 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions Regarding asking for dates: Years ago, I saw a newspaper article (Wilmington, Del.?) about a man who was working as an operator, and it said that, like the girls, he does not accept requests for dates, because he has no way of knowing what he is getting into. ------------------------------ From: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl (Koos van den Hout) Subject: Re: Telix File Transfer Question Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 23:30:00 GMT Organization: HIN / BBS Koos z'n Doos djdk@troi.cc.rochester.edu (David Jonathan Dodick) writes: > I am getting the message "sz: file skipped by receiver" when I try to > receive files (from an ftp transfer) to my pc using Telix. The most common reason for this to occur is that the directory in which the files are to be recieved does not exist. Make sure the directory given in the telix setup (Alt-O, F)ilenames and paths) does exist. I see this happen a lot as sysop. 'skipped by reciever' could also mean there is not enough diskspace available or a file with the same name and date/time already exists. Grtx. Koos van den Hout ----------------------------------------------- Sysop --\ Unemployed (!) Computer Expert. BBS Koos z'n Doos (+31-3402-36647) Inter-: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl 300..14400 MNP2-5,10,V42bis) net : koos@hacktic.nl| PGP key by finger | Fido: Sysop @ 2:500/101.11012 Schurftnet : KILL !!! | koos@hacktic.nl | Give us a call !! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 06:58:16 CST From: Mike.Riddle@axolotl.omahug.org (Mike Riddle) Subject: Re: Telix File Transfer Question Reply-To: mike.riddle%inns@axolotl.omahug.org Organization: Inns of Court, Papillion, NE > However, when I tried the [Telix] when accessing a Unix or VAX/VMS > system, all that went out the window. > Recently I tried again using DSZ for xfers, and had only partial > success. So my solution is to use Kermit when accessing my Internet > account, which is on a Unix box and use Telix for everything else. I've found that Zmodem, at least the Zmodem in Telix, is quite susceptible to timing variations. If you're sending from a Unix box, see if you can find any help or man pages for sz. The implementation on the host I used to connect with allowed some fine tuning. For me, the following worked well: sz -eo -l 1024 -w 2048 file.name I have it stored in a macro and the man pages are somewhere else, but those set up handshaking sequences, block sizes, and window sizes. That setup allowed me to quite reliably use the Telix Zmodem for receive and actually established a quite respectible throughput. inns.omahug.org +1 402 593-1192 (1:285/27) ------------------------------ From: mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) Subject: Re: 900MHz Cordless Phones Date: 6 Sep 1993 01:01:56 GMT Organization: AI Programs, University of Georgia, Athens In article jim@ppg.com (Jim Sisul) writes: > 1) What is "Spread Spectrum" technology, and how does it work? This > sounds like channel hopping to me. Does it make scanning impossible, > or just difficult? I don't know exactly how they're doing it in cordless phones, but in general, "spread spectrum" is channel hopping -- over a HUGE number of channels at a GREAT speed. In essence, it is a form of encryption. It can be so secure that unless a person is within a few feet of you, he won't even be able to tell that you are transmitting at all (your signal will be indistinguishable from random noise). The obvious way to "scan" a spread-spectrum signal -- in fact the only way -- is to know the hopping algorithm, which is typically a pseudo-random bit sequence. And there's the rub. No matter how exotic the algorithm, if there are lots of cheap cordless phones that differ only by a small parameter, people will crack them. Given exact knowledge of one, and the knowledge that others are closely similar, you can try to guess others, and sometimes succeed. Michael A. Covington, Associate Research Scientist Artificial Intelligence Programs mcovingt@ai.uga.edu The University of Georgia phone 706 542-0358 Athens, Georgia 30602-7415 U.S.A. amateur radio N4TMI ------------------------------ From: jim@ppg.com (Jim Sisul) Subject: Re: 900MHz Cordless Phones Date: 5 Sep 1993 01:32:40 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway An update: On 23 August, I posted a few questions about "secure" 900MHz cordless phones to comp.dcom.telecom/TELECOM Digest 13.599. I have received tremendously helpful responses, and have contacted the major vendors for product literature. Thanks for all your replies. I have also received a number of requests to e-mail my findings to individuals. Since there are too many of these to handle, I thought I'd let everyone know that as soon as the brouchures arrive via snail-mail, I'll post a summary/comparison chart here as a "thank you" to all who responded, and to help all those who asked for any info I got. If anyone sees my original post and has any more info, feel free to e-mail it to me so I can include it in my summary. I still have to wait for the product info from the manufacturers, so there's plenty of time. Thanks, Jim Sisul (sisul@bmskc.PPG.COM) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 05:07:06 CST From: Mike.Riddle@axolotl.omahug.org (Mike Riddle) Subject: "C&P Telephone" is Being Discontinued Reply-To: mike.riddle%inns@axolotl.omahug.org Organization: Inns of Court, Papillion, NE > [Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell is also gone. As of a couple weeks > ago the company was renamed "Ameritech", as is the parent company of > several phone companies in this area. I think it is funny how all > these independent companies manage to think of the same changes in > service and corporate structure all at the same time. PAT] It wouldn't have anything to do with recent judicial and legislative changes that drastically alter the playing field, now would it, Patrick? Or is it easier to belive in the Conspiracy Theory of Post-Disvestiture RBOC Management? <<<< insert standard disclaimer here >>>> mike.riddle@rlaw.omahug.org Riddle Law Office +1 402 331-6249 (Data/Fax) Sysop of 1:285/28@Fidonet V.32bis/V.42bis/Gp III V.17 inns.omahug.org +1 402 593-1192 (1:285/27) [Moderator's Note: I'd say it could be any number of things. Is it just me, or is this whole industry getting harder and harder to keep up with? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 16:26:22 EDT From: ask@cblph.att.com Subject: Re: "C&P Telephone" is Being Discontinued Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio In article 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM writes: > The "Bell Atlantic" company was created because of Judge Greene. Judge Green accepted a reorganziation plan which created seven RBOCs. The names were created by the RBOCs themselves. Instead of Bell Atlantic, they could have called themselves C&P Company or USEast or anything else. > [Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell is also gone. As of a couple weeks > ago the company was renamed "Ameritech", as is the parent company of > several phone companies in this area. I think it is funny how all > these independent companies manage to think of the same changes in > service and corporate structure all at the same time. PAT] PAT: Not all at the same time. USWest eliminated its telephone company names over two years ago. Pacific Telesis announced it is spinning off its telephone company operations. Art Kamlet a_s_kamlet@att.com AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus ------------------------------ From: ckd@eff.org (Christopher Davis) Subject: Re: "C&P Telephone" is Being Discontinued Date: 6 Sep 1993 01:21:55 GMT Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation Tech Central TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell is also gone. As of a couple weeks > ago the company was renamed "Ameritech", as is the parent company of > several phone companies in this area. I think it is funny how all > these independent companies manage to think of the same changes in > service and corporate structure all at the same time. PAT] Not hardly "all at the same time". US West, not known for leading the RBOCs in innovations (though at least in Washington, they don't charge for Touch-Tone any more...), changed their operating name from Pacific Northwest Bell to USWest Communications. This was several years ago ... Christopher Davis ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 07:51:39 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Save the SSC > In TELECOM Digest V13 Issue 615 jpettitt@well.sf.ca.us (John Pettitt) writes: > In ssc1@cse.uta.edu (Super Conductor > Super Collider 1) writes: >> At a time when such projects like the Helium Fund ... > Big science has a lot of justifying to do. Between the SCC, Mars > observer and others a very large amount of small science or basic > education could have been funded. Or better still the money could > have been left in the private sector to help the economy. > Please somebody point out one direct positive result of non-war driven > big science projects. Didn't think you could do it. Two come readily to mind: L-Dopamine, developed by the late Dr. George Costas at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the 1970s. L-Dopa is used to treat the unfortunate victims of Hodgkins disease. That was big science and not war related. The second was a test developed by another medical scientist, Dr. Lucian Wielopolski, that measures the lead level in the blood non-invasively. Another was the development of "hopping genes" in the 40s or 50s by Dr. Barbara McClintock, a Nobel Prize winner in Biology. This discovery is the basis of all genetic research done today, including the human genome project. A fourth was the Radon detectors now being sold across the US and possibly around the world. The developer was Dr. John Dietz of BNL. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of non-war driven big science projects that have benefitted human kind. Need I remind you of Drs. Sabin and Salk? They are the reason that there is an almost zero chance on anyone contacting Polio, the scourge of the 50s. I could go on, the list is endless. Pick a major childhood illness, chances are that someone has discovered either the cure or the prevention. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, LI, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 Senior Technical Specialist: Scientific Computer Facility BTW: BNL has lost funding because of the SSC. Am I against it? Better than 50 percent, but some spin-off money is coming here. [Moderator's Note: Thank you for that good listing in rebuttal. Many people are too young to remember anything about Polio. I had a friend as a child who had it. And who anymore remembers when Tuberculosis was a horrible scourge? The government had 'sanitariums' for people with TB (as it was called) where the victims were housed so that they could not spread it to others. That was in the 1930-50 era also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ben Burch Subject: Re: Save the SSC Organization: Motorola, Inc. (WDG) Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 15:09:11 GMT In article John Pettitt, jpettitt@ well.sf.ca.us writes: > Please somebody point out one direct positive result of non-war driven > big science projects. Didn't think you could do it. Well... * Neutron irradiation cancer therapy * Metalurgical advances due to superconducting magnet research * Nuclear Magnetic Resonance medical imaging * Advances in control theory All of the above are directly related to particle accelerator research. There are many other examples. "I don't speak for Motorola; They don't speak for me." Ben Burch Motorola Wireless Data Group Ben_Burch@msmail.wes.mot.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 15:38 GMT From: David Appell <0005946880@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Kill the SSC (was Re: Save the SSC) In TELECOM DIGEST volume 13, #617, Brad Hicks (mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs. attmail.com) wrote: > At a time when the United States' federal government (never mind local > governments) is having to borrow millions of dollars per second just > to keep the bills paid, do we really need to spend one trillion > dollars in order to understand how particles behave under conditions > that have not existed since the first nanosecond after the Big Bang? > Even if such a project is worth one trillion dollars, it is not worth > one trillion borrowed dollars. If you're going to criticize scientific efforts, at least get your facts correct: - the cost of the SSC is about 10^1 B$, not 10^3 B$. - the particles haven't existed since about 10^-15 seconds (down to 10^-34 seconds) after the Big Bang, not 10^-9 seconds. In a round-about way, you prove your point: clearly, the money would be better spent on education. David Appell dappell@mcimail.com [Moderator's Note: Har, har, har! Loved it David! Touche, and all that! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 09:38:51 -0400 From: johnston@aurme2.aur.alcatel.com (Joe Johnston) Subject: Re: Kill the SSC Organization: Alcatel Network Systems, Raleigh NC I agree with Robert L. McMillin's idea on the need to reduce subsidies. I especially think in the area of transportation there are major subsidies to automobile drivers (land, and air, especially in cities, being given over to users of private, inefficient vehicles, at the expense of walkers and bike riders), to airlines, whose federal fees pay only half the cost to the taxpayers. Subsidies are given to electric companies, whose liability in case of nuclear accident is limited to a specific dollar amount, not to speak of government and citizen expenditures to attempt to dispose of nuclear waste. These are my opinions, some plagiarized, but I think of it as research. Joe Johnston johnston@aurfs1.aur.alcatel.com [Moderator's Note: Hey, that's what Tom Lerher taught us in the song about Nicholai Ivanovich Lobochevski: Lerher said, "Plagarize! Let no one else's work evade your eyes, just plagarize, plagarize, plagarize! Only please, remember to call it research ..." I wish a happy and safe Labor Day holiday to all our USA readers. Just think about how much fun it will be to get back to work Tuesday. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #626 ****************************** From telecom Mon Sep 6 01:11:17 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08869 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Mon, 6 Sep 1993 01:11:17 -0500 Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 01:11:17 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309060611.AA08869@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #627 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 6 Sep 93 01:11:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 627 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: The Power to Destroy (Gordon Torrie) Re: The Power to Destroy (Russell Nelson) Re: The Power to Destroy (Christopher Zguris) Re: Modem Tax in Canada? (Eric N. Florack) Taxes on Online Services (was Re: The Power to Destroy) (Nigel Allen) Re: AT&T TrueVoice Deployment (Monte Freeman) Re: AT&T TrueVoice Deployment (H. Shrikumar) Re: 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint; Only Problems Ahead (John Slater) Re: 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint; Only Problems Ahead (David W. Barts) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Dave Grabowski) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Michael Covington) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Bob Wier) Re: Radio Shack Catalogs (Christopher Vaz) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (William C. DenBesten) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Carl Moore) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Paul Robinson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: The Power to Destroy From: gordon@torrie.org (Gordon Torrie) Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 00:03:01 -0400 Organization: Torrie Communications Services atfurman@cup.portal.com in Vol. 13, Issue 622 writes: > OK, so what does all this gobbledegook mean? It means simply that > New York State has decided to trash the information superhighway that > has been touted as the solution to unemployment and the means by which > New York could have rebuilt itself. You exaggerate. It means that New York State has decided to collect tolls on the information superhighway. > [Moderator's Note: You'll see more and more of this in other areas > of the country before long. Even the feds will get in on it. And in other countries too, no doubt. This is, after all, the information age and no longer the manufacturing age. So it should not be surprising that governments are starting to tax the consumption of information just as they tax the consumption of manufactured goods. Gord Torrie ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 23:23:11 EDT From: Russell Nelson Organization: Crynwr Software Subject: Re: The Power to Destroy On Sat, 4 Sep 93 01:54:55 PDT, atfurman@cup.portal.com wrote: > STATE OF NEW YORK SLAPS 13 PERCENT SALES TAX ON INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY Nope. > It means that BBS's which are already liable for collection of sales > tax must now go back and collect an additional 5% Nope. > It means that a connection to the Internet, a subscription to GEnie, > Prodigy, or CompuServe just got A LOT more expensive. It means that > directory assistance calls to look up a phone number will cost more. > Calls for technical support or 800 or 900 services just got a lot more > expensive. Nope. Nope. Nope. Read the actual text (as opposed to the "Executive" summary). I'll believe any of the above allegations when someone using a modem is ordered to pay the extra 5%. Note that I'm not defending the tax, but it doesn't help the Cause when people criticize taxes erroneously. > Effective September 1, 1993, there will be an additional state sales > tax at the rate of 5% added to the existing 4% state sales tax imposed ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > on receipts from the services of furnishing or providing an entertainment > or information service which is furnished, provided or delivered by > means of telephony or telegraphy or telephone or telegraph service of > whatever nature (see section 1105(c)(9) of the Tax Law). The treatment You'll notice that it only applies to *current* sales taxpayers. > Information services that are currently subject to tax when furnished > in written form by printed, mimeographed or multigraphed matter or > duplicating written or printed matter, such as tapes, disc, electronic > readouts or displays, continue to be subject to tax at the 4% state ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > tax rate and the applicable local tax (see section 1105(c)(1) of the > Tax Law). The higher sales tax rate applies to all charges for the > service by the vendor to the customer which are subject to tax > pursuant to section 1105(c)(9) of the Tax Law. You'll notice that it doesn't apply to written matter. > The increased state tax rate does not apply to any receipts from the > sale of information services that are not subject to tax under section > 1105(c)(1) of the Tax Law. These include an information service which > is personal or individual in nature and is not or may not be ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > substantially incorporated into reports furnished to other persons by > the person who collected, compiled or analyzed the information. You'll notice it doesn't include tech support calls, either. russ Crynwr Software Crynwr Software sells packet driver support. 11 Grant St. 315-268-1925 Voice | LPF member - ask me about Potsdam, NY 13676 315-268-9201 FAX | the harm software patents do. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 13:08 GMT From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: The Power to Destroy In TELECOM Digest V13 #622 our Moderator notes: > define themselves as publishers of electronic journals. The reason NY > is starting this tax is the same reason IL will be starting it soon I > suspect. Both states have major urban wastelands which are terrible > drains on their respective state treasuries (New York and Chicago). > Generally when municipal and state governments get in the dire straits > both New York (NY) and Chicago (IL) are in, the response of government > is to become even more repressive tax-wise. For example, our tax base I'm in New York City. I seem to remember sales (or use or whatever they call it) tax only recently being applied to my CompuServe charges. There was a note on the sign-on news message about New York users (or people with mailing addresses in NY) having to pay a tax. I thought it was incredible at the time because the news from around the country (across the world) is New York users get nailed. Not before or since have I seen that sort of message about any other state etc. anywhere! I'm in total agreement that this tax is unfair and destructive to the economy of NY, and agree with the poster of this message about the 13% tax that NY residents must vote out the current legislators. NY is interesting in that respect; these taxes (fees, and a dozen other names for the same thing) always come out as a done deal without any press, how are laws that affect the citizens kept so secret? In Washington every little clause seems to be exposed and analyzed to death. But Pat, I don't know about the situation in IL, but in New York state New York City is the financial engine last time I heard. It is a lousy city to be in from a business standpoint, but it provides a hell of a lot of revenue for the state (it's never enough of course). New York state gets into even more trouble because the New York City tacks on its own taxes in addition to the state. When you add the state and city taxes together you get these huge taxes (like a hotel occupancy taxs and parking taxes something like 19-22%). The state shoots itself in the foot and then the city comes back and lops the rest off with an axe. I don't know if this sort of tax is the wave of the future. NYC & NYS goverments are mindless entities with a sincere and deep-seated contempt for economic development. Christopher Zguris CZGURIS@MCIMAIL.COM [Moderator's Note: It is really bad news here. Politicians like Paul "simple" Simon vote for every new tax that comes along. A lot of real estate taxpayers here have simply walked off in recent years. We have many abandoned buildings where the owners walked away -- literally -- rather than fight any longer. I guess by now everyone has heard the news about our public schools: they won't be open on time for lack of money. They *may* open in a couple weeks if the state of Illinois caves in to the Teacher's Union. It is too bad they don't give frequent flyer points for guilt trips. The Chicago politicians and their fan- tastic claims would surely win them some bonus award. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 17:23:55 -0700 From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Modem Tax in Canada? Can anyone in Canada (or anywhere, for that matter) provide some source matirial on this topic? Since casually mentioning it in my conference (GT-Net's Eric's Corner, E02-551) I've had several folks netmail me, telling me they'd been hearing rumblings on this for some time, now. So, to quote Clara, where's the beef? > Can anyone seriously believe that a telco would be so stupid as to > try to surcharge every line with a fax? It's hard to imagine any > faster way to get every single one of their business customers mad at > them and lobbying the CRTC and their legislators to increase > regulation to prohibit nonsense like that. A phone company? Perhaps, perhaps not. A government? Without question. Witness 87-215, and witness what's been going on in Washington since the election. > FYI, the 1991 "modem tax" was not a repeat of 1987 despite attempts > by Compuserve and others to paint it that way. The question was > whether telcos should be forced to offer new features to data carriers > at POTS rates, or whether their exemption from paying feature group > charges only applied to the existing kind of service they had. There > was no attempt to make data carriers pay IXC rates as there was in > 1987. Pretty is as pretty does, as we say. It wasn't a features question, so much as a basic service question. The LEC's wanted to charge them at rates even over and above what business users would have paid (though their public campaigns seemed to avoid the point). In any case; The end result would have been exactly the same, particularly when viewed from the end user's persepective. In #611, tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) writes: > What this was really about was the end of the temporary suspension of > network access charges for data carriers. Long distance carriers pay > it to the local telcos for terminating their traffic, but the FCC some > years ago temporarily suspended the same charges for data carriers. > When they tried to reinstate it so that big data carriers paid similar > charges to what voice carriers paid, CI$ got the BBS community all > riled up by calling it a "modem tax." > It never involved anything like monitoring individual lines. And, how, pray tell, would they know what was being carried, without monitoring of said trunks, hmm? > Sounds like the same rumor mongering we have had here in the USA off > and on over the past few years. > But here's a very interesting twist: > A few weeks ago I got a call from an engineer at New Brunswick > Telephone Co. in Canada. He was looking for a device that could > install in the CO to monitor traffic on individual POTS lines, and > automatically determine if the the line was being used for voice > instead of fax/data. (Etc) Some rumor, then! > Of course, now that I have posted this interesting bit of trivia, > one of the crowd that loves to revive the modem tax rumor and then > argue about telco rate of return and the split of charges and cross > subsidies will take this information and cite it was evidence of some > major conspiracy to charge modem users more in the future. You bet your hookswitch! Why in beep should they be privy to what is being carried on any line they install, particularly when they would attempt to charge me differently for said line, and their costs are exactly the same? Just give me the dial-up access and let /ME/ worry about what I chose to place on that line ... provided it falls within the electrical params set by the PSC. /E ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 19:40:12 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Taxes on Online Services (was Re: The Power to Destroy) Organization: Echo Beach Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca In Canada, online information services are subject to the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) and in some provinces to provincial sales tax as well. I realize that sales taxes are regressive, but since movies and records are taxed, it isn't clear that other forms of entertainment should be tax-exempt. (Books are another matter, though. In Canada, there was considerable indignation from people who enjoyed reading books when the federal government decided to impose the GST on books. I rather like the slogan "Don't Tax Reading", but I think most online users are more interested in looking at pictures or hearing themselves talk than they are in reading what other people have to say. Taxes are good for you. They're the price we pay for civilization. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca [Moderator's Note: Yes Sir, Mister Senator! I might *partly* agree with you if there were such a thing as civilization in the USA these days. But that's the fraud being pulled on us. We pay and pay and pay and it all goes into a bottomless pit, a Florida sinkhole. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ccoprfm@prism.gatech.edu (Monte Freeman) Subject: Re: AT&T TrueVoice Deployment Date: 5 Sep 93 19:37:58 GMT Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology In article LESREEVES@delphi.com writes: > AT&T annonuced that it will begin deploying TrueVoice(tm) to it's > network later this month. The first city to "get the treatment" will > be Atlanta, beginning Sept. 23. Oh boy, as an Atlanta resident and an AT&T customer; I can hardly wait. I wonder if we will *really* be able to tell a difference ... :-| Monte Freeman -- Operations Department / Information Technology Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 Internet: ccoprfm@prism.gatech.edu Bitnet: ccoprfm@gitvm1.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 22:08:32 -0400 From: shri@freal.cs.umass.edu Subject: Re: AT&T TrueVoice Deployment Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Sys & Computer Networks Bombay India In article LESREEVES@delphi.com ... > AT&T annonuced that it will begin deploying TrueVoice(tm) to it's > network later this month. The first city to "get the treatment" will > be Atlanta, beginning Sept. 23. Hmmm ... will wait for reports from folks there. I wonder, if TruVoice is indeed a lot of filtering and notching as the other report found out, if it is all implemented as DSP out of stolen cycles in the tandem switches, or as new boards added into some line or mpx equipement somewhere ... or (kidding :-) its all analog electrics, racks and racks of Ls and Cs in a big basement ? I wish that at least some reports on this list were from people really in the know about TruVoice ... (like, its really nice when someone from the HP Corvallis team comes on the c.s.palmtops list to say ... no you cannot do this in the Appt. Book because I did not code it to do that.) BTW, this list is indeed very interesting and educating. But it always seemed to me like a lot of computer people who are shut out of the telecom world, and are doing our best at backward learning :-) Of course, I realise, in the case of TruVoice, ATT would not be very eager to reveal to all its Coke-formula. Still I wish ... [Moderator's Note: Thanks for the compliment. I hope this Digest remains interesting and educating. That's my goal for this journal. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johns@scroff.UK (John Slater) Subject: Re: 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint; Only Problems Ahead Date: 6 Sep 1993 02:40:36 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems (UK) Reply-To: johns@scroff.UK In article 4@eecs.nwu.edu, Liron Lightwood writes: > The above number was mentioned in a previous article in this group, > as a number that can only be dialed using Sprint. > [Moderator's Note: I just now tried it over AT&T from here and got > the message 'AT&T has routed this call incorrectly, please hang up and > dial 10333-1-206-286-1600'. I just tried it by direct dialing from the UK and got the same message. It beats me how they expect me to dial "10333" on an call from overseas. My understanding is that inbound international calls to the USA are distributed among LD carriers in the same proportion as outbound international calls are made, so if I tried repeatedly I would eventually get a Sprint connection and get through. (I guess I would have got the same response via Telepassport as its traffic is all carried by AT&T). John Slater ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 22:04:53 -0700 From: David W. Barts Subject: Re: 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint; Only Problems Ahead Liron Lightwood writes: > The above number was mentioned in a previous article in this group, > as a number that can only be dialed using Sprint. > Well, I dialed the number from Australia, and got the "AT&T Does not > accept this call ..." recording. Very interesting. Does this mean > But that's not all folks! For did you know that I was charged for the > call! Yes, charged! Does this mean that even callers in the US will > be charged for calls to that number even though they get the "AT&T > does not accept ... " recording? Since this number is a local call for me, I just tried placing a call to it via US West. It connected and answered; I was greeted with a login message from cyberspace.com. So there's at least *one* way to call it without routing one's call via Sprint. David Barts N5JRN UW Civil Engineering, FX-10 davidb@ce.washington.edu Seattle, WA 98195 [Moderator's Note: That's interesting. Usually the locals are cut off as well simply because they did not come in on the proper carrier. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dcg5662@hertz.njit.edu (Dave Grabowski) Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 02:59:35 GMT In article , Joe Bergstein wrote: > Yup! I just stopped in to Radio Shack yesterday looking for the > device which goes on a phone line, and stops an (older) answering > machine when someone picks up the phone. I looked around and couldn't > find them so I asked for a catalog. It wasn't in the catalog either. > I started out the door with the catalog in my hand, and was stopped by > the manager who told me that the catalogs now cost $2.95 which is > refunded on your first purchase. > BTW, any idea where I can buy the device described above? Try Marlin P. Jones & Associates at (407)/848-8236. Part # 4227-TT. Costs $5.60 plus S/H. They've got TONS of other hardware goodies, too. Surplus stuff as well. Good prices. (I am in no way affiliated with MPJA, except that I'm a satisfied customer). BTW -- About the Radio Shack catalog: There's not only a $3 coupon, but a $5 coupon too! (The $5 is good for any single item of $15 or more). The salesperson let me use the $3 coupon when I bought the catalog, except that she had to ring up two separate tickets. No biggie. There's also a 10% off coupon for any "NEW" item in the catalog, and a 10% off coupon for TSP (Tandy Service Plan). (No, I'm not affiliated with Sh*t Shack, either. I could tell you horror stories about the salesman who called the police because I was "stealing" a pack of 79 cent fuses. After I had paid for them. *sigh*) Dave dcg5662@hertz.njit.edn 70721.2222@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Date: 6 Sep 1993 03:14:11 GMT Organization: AI Programs, University of Georgia, Athens NEWS FLASH - They are giving catalogs away free to regular customers via a coupon that comes in the mail. Catalogs only cost $2.95 if you are not on the mailing list, apparently. Michael A. Covington, Associate Research Scientist Artificial Intelligence Programs mcovingt@ai.uga.edu The University of Georgia phone 706 542-0358 Athens, Georgia 30602-7415 U.S.A. amateur radio N4TMI [Moderator's Note: Now you see? There is a good reason you privacy nuts who resist giving your name and phone number for the Radio Shack receipts should start doing so without fussing so much. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: wier@merlin.etsu.edu (Bob Wier) Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Organization: East Texas State University Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 10:38:25 GMT In article , king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist) wrote: > Ah, not so easy, Honorable Moderator. The catalog price isn't refunded > with your purchase. The catalog contains *coupons* which can be used > towards your *next* purchase. Naturally you have to buy more than $3 > in order to use the $3 coupon in order to make back the cost of the > catalog. Some stores seem to be flexible on this - I went in today to buy a phone cord extension ($5) and asked how to get a catalog. They gave me one, and immediately took out the coupon in the back. Rang up the sale of the catalog plus (cord - coupon). Since the catalog was $2.95 and the coupon is worth $3, I "made" $.05 on the deal. ======== insert usual disclaimers here ============ Bob Wier, East Texas State U., Commerce, Texas wier@merlin.etsu.edu (watch for address change) ------------------------------ Organization: City University of New York Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 16:51:03 EDT From: Christopher Vaz Subject: Re: Radio Shack Catalogs Do I understand correctly that if one has an answering machine which does not auto-disconnect when the phone is picked up, that one can actually change that with the help of a device? If someone does know of any such thing, I would appreciate it if they emailed me with the information. Thanks, Chris Vaz. cvzqc@cunyvm.cuny.edu [Moderator's Note: That is correct. Maybe some readers will send you the schematics, etc which have appeared here in the past, along with leads on where to buy such devices. PAT] ------------------------------ From: denbesten@orchestra.bgsu.edu (William C. DenBesten) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Organization: Bowling Green State University Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 01:14:16 GMT Perhaps the way to get rid of the association between one and toll without bothering people would be to announce the cost of the call immediately after dialing. Eg: "This call will cost 30 cents plus 15 cents per minute. Thank you for using AT&T.". William C DenBesten is denbesten@cs.bgsu.edu or bgsuopie.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Sep 93 0:23:20 GMT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com writes: >... local [Washington, DC] calling area (which includes all of 202 in > DC, parts of 310 in MD and parts of 703 in VA). That is 301, not 310, in Maryland. In addition, some Maryland suburbs are local to parts of 410 in Maryland, and the same scheme exists for local calls across the 301/410 border as for local calls in DC area among DC/MD/VA (i.e., NPA+7D, can omit leading 1). ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1993 20:43:21 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > In article elm@cs.berkeley.edu > writes: >> In article goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com >> Goudreau) writes: >>> I beg to differ. It seems to me that more places are using the >>> *real* One True Dialing Plan (OTDP), in which all long-distance >>> calls (intra-NPA included) are dialed with 11 digits, and only >>> local, intra-NPA calls can use seven-digit dialing. >> This works fine, as long as all calls are either "local" or >> "non-local." In the SF Bay Area, all phone numbers are either >> non-local, or in one of three approximately concentric zones (1, 2 >> and 3) ... > So there are three kinds of calls, according to how you get > charged: > (1) local > (2) quasi-local quasi-long-distance (like Pac Bell's Zone 3) > (3) long distance We had this in Long Beach, California when I had service with General Telephone. Probably ten or more years ago, they eliminated the requirement to dial "1" for calls which were not local in the (then) 213 area code. This was done to allow NXX prefixes. Didn't help much, they still had to break off the San Fernando Valley into 818, and then last year Long Beach got pushed into 310. In Long Beach the dividing points were Cherry Avenue on the east, and Willow Street on the West. If you were on the east side of Cherry and south of Willow, you could call from Westminster on the South all the way to Buena Park on the North, in Orange County, California, as a local call by dialing 1 + 714 and the number. If you were West of Cherry avenue, the same call was toll. If you were north of Willow, and East of Cherry, you could call locally to 1 + 714 numbers in Buena Park, but Westminster was a toll call. Meaning that where I lived, it was a toll call from my house to Knotts Berry Farm, but not from the pay phone four blocks away across Cherry Avenue. Another thing. Residences could obtain unmeasured service where there are no charges for each local call. Businesses had to pay five cents per five minutes. Yet a pay phone could make any local call, untimed, for 20c. That seems to imply that if you make a lot of long calls, you are better off getting a pay phone if you have a commercial site. So what it came down to is that from Long Beach, if you called a number in Orange County, you dial 1 + 714 plus seven digits, whether or not the number is a toll call. (There are parts of Orange County, notably Seal Beach -- which was also served by GTE -- in the 213 area code, but that's not a critical point.) You still dialed 0 + seven digits for calls in the same area code that were placed collect or otherwise charged differently. It would have been nice if they had instituted something like what the Washington, DC area does: if the number is local to you and in your area code, you dial seven digits (or you may optionally dial the area code even though it is the same). If the number is local to you but outside your area code, you dial the area code plus seven digits. If it is long distance, even in the same area code, you dial 1 + area code + 7 digits, but even on a local call you can dial 1 + area code + seven digits and the call will still go through as an uncharged call. The one exception is 800 numbers. Hans Lachman , writes: > Regarding the So-Called *Real* One True Dialing Plan (SC*R*OTDP) > mentioned above, it seems a bit silly to dial the area code for an > intra-NPA call. (Likewise, wouldn't you feel silly to dial a > country code when calling someone in the same country?) We already do. When someone in Europe wants to call the U.S., they dial the international code (usually 00) and the country code for the United States. They dial the same way as we do. 1 + NPA + NXX + XXXX. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #627 ****************************** From telecom Mon Sep 6 02:53:48 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24446 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Mon, 6 Sep 1993 02:53:48 -0500 Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 02:53:48 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309060753.AA24446@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #628 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 6 Sep 93 02:53:45 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 628 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: CATV Company Announces Connection to the Internet (Eric Edwards) Re: PacBell and GTE (Brett K. Elliott) Re: Info Needed: Regulatory Status For Satellite Communication (M Sullivan) Re: Cellular Phone Price (Laurence Chiu) Re: Creative Intercept Announcement (Randal L. Schwartz) Re: GTE and the Cerritos Experiment (Steven H. Lichter) Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation (Rich Greenberg) Re: Risks of Cellular Phone on Heart (Michael Covington) Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem (Michael Covington) Re: Army, Sprint Test ATM Switch (Pat Arellano) Re: Looking For a Book on ATM (Ihor Kinal) Re: Email <-> Telex (Leslie Mikesell) Re: Access to Telco White Pages (trader@cellar.org) Re: MCI 1-800-COOL-101 (Glenn R. Stone) Re: ATT-Like Video (Sandy Kyrish) Re: Creative Intercept Announcement (Scott Coleman) Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply (Eric Engelmann) Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply (Klaus Dimmler) Re: Portable Cellular Station (Ken Hoehn) Re: Denver, Adamstown, PA Moving to 717 (Carl Moore) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1993 03:26:41 GMT Reply-To: wolf359!eric@cg57.cts.com Organization: Engineers in Exile From: ucsd!wolf359!Eric@uunet.UU.NET (Eric Edwards) Subject: Re: CATV Company Announces Connection to the Internet In article , John Kennedy writes: >> The trick about this solution is, of course, that cable is one-way. > In Hybrid's version, they used a modem to transmit the "return" data. > They're assuming, of course, that most of the traffic will be going > _to_ the user's home computer, with only small amounts of data being > transmitted out to the cable/internet side. IE, telnet keystrokes, > ACK/NAKs for file transfers, etc. Ugh. TCP/IP generates a conciderable amount of "back channel" traffic. That's why PEP and HST modems are lousy options for SLIP. I can't see performance being much better than ISDN. It would probably be less than ISDN if the back channel is a conventional modem. Why are they doing it this way? Cable is not intrinsicly one way. I remember experiments with "interactive" cable TV at least ten years ago. Could not some sort of collision detection/avoidance (like ethernet) or token bus (like arcnet) be employed? UUCP: cg57.cts.com!wolf359!ec Inet: eric@monad.missouri.edu ------------------------------ From: Brett K Elliott Subject: Re: PacBell and GTE Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 12:40:34 -0400 Organization: Freshman, MCS general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA > PB bundles cancel call waiting with call waiting. GTE does not. One > can make minor modifications to the service for a $5 dollar fee. GTE > charges significantly more. I think, $26, but I could be wrong on > that point. > PB even tried to hire her. > All in all, a big improvement. Better service, less cost. Thank you!! I worked for PacBell over the summer, and am now going to school back east. People would always bitch and moan about how PacBell was "an evil empire", etc, etc. PB has their act together. The networking involved in processing service orders is complex and efficient. Service Reps are kind and polite, for the most part. I guess customers must experience bad service before realizing what great service they are getting from PB. be24+@andrew.cmu.edu ------------------------------ From: avogadro@well.sf.ca.us (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Info Needed: Regulatory Status For Satellite Communications Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 06:38:28 GMT In hoshino@tkysun.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp (HOSHINO Takashi) writes: > I'm now reserching the regulatory status for fixed satellite > communications in foreign countries. > My question is that, for example, to use the satellite for > international telecommunication other than Intelsat launched and > operated by foreign country, if it's necessary to obtain a radio > station licence of your country for that satellite or not. In general, if you want to operate an earth station to communicate with a satellite, you must get a license for the earth station. In all likelihood, you will have to get a license for the earth station that specifically authorizes communications through the particular satellite. There may be exceptions in some countries if your earth station is receive-only (US, for example, in most but not all cases). If the nation is an Intelsat signatory, you may have to induce the government to seek consultation with Intelsat before it can consider a license. Michael D. Sullivan <74160.1134@compuserve.com> ------------------------------ From: Lchiu@holonet.net Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Price Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access System: 510-704-1058/modem Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 17:08:01 GMT In a message to comp.dcom.telecom splee@noel.pd.org talked about Re: Cellular Phone Price: > Ok, so here are the prices of some HANDHELD phones that you can buy > outright, without service. For comparison, I've also included the > price with one year service from Bell Atlantic Mobile of CT; > Motorola 550 Flip $ 369 ($166 with service) > Nokia 101 $ 359 ($179 with service) > Nokie 121 $ 379 ($199 with service) Hmmm I paid $340 for this phone (Nokia 121) without service. But I could not have got a break with service since in CA they cannot/will not bundle service with phones. I took a one year contract anyway. Guess I lost out thanks to CA's policies. Supplier is GTE Mobilnet of Northern CA. Laurence Chiu lchiu@holonet.net ------------------------------ From: merlyn@agora.rain.com (Randal L. Schwartz) Subject: Re: Creative Intercept Announcement Organization: Stonehenge Consulting Services; Portland, Oregon, USA Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 21:24:04 GMT In article , ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) writes: > David Grabiner, grabiner@zariski.harvard.edu, uses the following > cute saying in his .signature: > "We are sorry, but the number you have dialed is imaginary." > "Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again." > I am tempted to use it on my answering machine. It would scare off > telemarketers quite nicely. This is the *actual* intercept that some engineering university (Stanford, MIT?) used on their PBXes when you dialed an out-of-service number. I heard that long time ago, so I presume it predates this .signature usage. Randal L. Schwartz / Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 merlyn@ora.com (semi-permanent) merlyn@agora.rain.com (for newsreading only) ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: GTE and the Cerritos Experiment Date: 6 Sep 1993 02:17:35 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) The Cerritos Project is a test of different kinds of systems that work over copper, fiber and was never ment to make any money. It should also pointed out that this is being done by GTE with a cable company and for the most part GTE is only suppling Video Dial Tone and cable plus some equipment. There are other tests and online programs now going on in Northern San Diego and some other parts of the country. What comes out of this may and I say may make it to the public, as with all testing things change. I have not really been following this project very much the last year since I have other projects, I believe there are a couple of users here that are directly involved in the project and should be able to give more information. Steven H. Lichter COEI GTECalif ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760) Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 19:28:39 GMT Anthony E. Siegman wrote in in comp.dcom. telecom: > New gimmick on AT&T VISA cards (at least new to me): mandatory > phone validation of new and replacement cards before they can be used. > My wife and I received the annual replacements for our AT&T > Univeral VISA cards the other day. WIth the cards was a memo: The new > cards would not be valid until we telephoned an 800 number and > verified the cards. AT&T Visa must be testing this because I just got a replacement card from them and there was no such memo with it. I haven't tried it yet, maybe a surprise is waiting ... AT&T must be tracking card useage closely. I got a call from them that they suspected fraudulent use after two gas station charges and three meals in one day in the same restaruant, both of which were in an area well to the south of me. Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 I speak for myself only. ------------------------------ From: mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) Subject: Re: Risks of Cellular Phone on Heart Date: 5 Sep 1993 23:25:53 GMT Organization: AI Programs, University of Georgia, Athens One thing that is known is that strong RF fields can disrupt certain types of artificial pacemakers. If I had a pacemaker, I would be very wary of any kind of radio transmitter. Michael A. Covington, Associate Research Scientist Artificial Intelligence Programs mcovingt@ai.uga.edu The University of Georgia phone 706 542-0358 Athens, Georgia 30602-7415 U.S.A. amateur radio N4TMI ------------------------------ From: mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) Subject: Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem Date: 6 Sep 1993 03:18:17 GMT Organization: AI Programs, University of Georgia, Athens In article arb2@engr.engr.uark.edu (Allan R. Baker) writes: > Is it possible to communicate a with TDD (or is it DDT) device with > common modem software? > If anyone has any helpful information please e-mail at arb2@engr.uark. > edu. > [Moderator's Note: No it is not possible. They are different protocols. > The one uses ASCII, the other uses Baudot (of some level, I forget). PAT] Physically, however, the hardware inside your PC supports it. The IBM PC serial port can handle any word length from five to nine bits. I think five bits is what the older-style TDD uses. I don't know what kind of modem they use (perhaps Bell 103, in which case you're in luck). Surely somebody has written appropriate software. Michael A. Covington, Associate Research Scientist Artificial Intelligence Programs mcovingt@ai.uga.edu The University of Georgia phone 706 542-0358 Athens, Georgia 30602-7415 U.S.A. amateur radio N4TMI ------------------------------ From: Pat.Arellano@lambada.oit.unc.edu (Pat Arellano) Subjecte RE: Army, Sprint Test ATM Switch Date: 05 Sep 1993 19:48:59 GMT Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service During the testing of the ATM-based telemedical application, what type of performance parameters and measurements were used to lead to Sprint's conclusion that "the test was successful"? Were possible congestion (e.g. wartime or natural disaster) scenarios enacted? Was a centralized network management system incorporated to monitor the performance of the network and the individual ATM switches at Walter Reed, Fort Gordon, and U. Va? The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service. internet: laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 16:33:52 EDT From: ijk@trumpet.att.com Subject: Re: Looking For a Book on ATM Organization: AT&T > Ramon Alanis (ramona@teleride.on.ca) wrote: >> I am looking for a good book on ATM, SONET and related topics. >> Any sugestions? My officemate just got his hands on a book that he highly recommends: "Integrated Broadband Networks - An Introduction to ATM-Based Networks" by R. Handel & M. Huber; Addison-Wesley 1991. ISBN 0-201-54444-X. 230 pages. Standard disclaimers apply. Ihor Kinal att!cbnewsh!ijk ------------------------------ From: les@chinet.chinet.com (Leslie Mikesell) Subject: Re: Email <-> Telex Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1993 02:06:05 GMT >> The only reasonably priced service for this is MCI Mail. AT&T Mail >> (Easylink) raised its rates for a telex number from an expensive $29 >> per month plus usage, to a whopping $99 per month plus usage. Is this for Easylink or attmail and when did the change happen? Last time I checked our unix <-> attmail subscription was $6/month for two accounts and the telex number associated with the accounts didn't cost extra (but you do have to ask to have it enabled and set up a user named "telex" to receive the messages). Per-message usage is relatively high, though, but most places use fax these days anyway. Les Mikesell les@chinet.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Access to Telco White Pages From: trader@cellar.org Date: Sun, 05 Sep 93 20:15:21 EDT Organization: The Cellar electronic community and public access system andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) writes: > In article 8@eecs.nwu.edu, jog@world.std.com (James Gleick) writes: >> Do local telephone companies have any obligation to provide, or sell, >> access to their database of customer white-pages listings? >> That is, can their competitors (or other information service >> providers) demand this? > In a word, no. The courts have stripped the telcos of their copyright > interest is listings of names and telephone numbers, so you can > publish a directory without their permission and without paying > royalties. However, the lack of a copyright does not obligate them to > do your work for you. In practice, however, most telcos will sell copies of the database to anyone that cares to pay the fee. Donnelly, for example, purchases many directory databases from the local Bells (at least they used to). It's kind of silly though, because the copy is out of date before it even leaves Bell, and it takes at least six weeks to put a directory out. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 18:17:19 GMT From: taliesin@netcom.com (Glenn R. Stone) Subject: Re: MCI 1-800-COOL-101 > Now through Labor Day, MCI is sponsoring a free 800 number that will let > you think "cool". Dial 1-800-COOL-101 and each key on the keypad will > give you a different "cool" sound, from skis on snow to drinks on ice. No > time limit or forced advertisements. Pretty cool, eh? Here's a cute question: Has some wag called into this thing from an AUTOVON phone or with a beeper that has ABCD on it? One wonders if it < (a) recognizes it and does something with it, (b) recognizes it and ignores it, or (c) blows it's everlovin' little mind? :) I don't have one or I would have done it alreddie :) /!\ taliesin agechanger, priest of Eris Discordia :) :) :) :) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Sep 93 00:32:00 GMT From: Sandy Kyrish <0003209613@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: ATT-Like Video There are several "still frame" devices available that will transmit still video over phone lines, including devices from Optel Comm. in NYC and Image Data in San Antonio. Your best bet is to contact the International Teleconferencing Association at 202-833-2549 and ask them to furnish you with a list of vendors selling "slow scan" or "freeze frame" or "still frame" or whatever their terminology is for that. I am not up to speed on 1993 products, but the ones of a few years ago were quite good so I imagine things are better and cheaper now. ------------------------------ From: genghis@ilces.ag.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) Subject: Re: Creative Intercept Announcement Date: 6 Sep 93 03:23:39 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) writes: > David Grabiner, grabiner@zariski.harvard.edu, uses the following > cute saying in his .signature: > "We are sorry, but the number you have dialed is imaginary." > "Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again." > I am tempted to use it on my answering machine. It would scare off > telemarketers quite nicely. Here's a good OGM for telemarketers: "Hello, you've reached the anti-telemarketing hotline. At the sound of the tone, please enter your major credit card number, date of expiration, and issuing bank. If I decide that what you have to say is worth my time, your account will be charged nothing. If, on the other hand, I determine that your call is a waste of my time, or comes at an inconvenient time, you will be billed for the time you have wasted at the rate of $39.95 for the first minute (or portion thereof) and $9.95 for each additional minute. Thanks for calling the anti-telemarketing hotline. " Someone who was really serious could install a PC voice mail card and program it to accept the credit card number and expiration date via DTMF input, and install a second line so that the credit card could be charged in real time while the telemarketer waits. After the charge goes through and the approval code is recorded, the PC could emit a special sound and the resident could then pick up and listen to the spiel while watching the $$$ roll in. [Closed Captioning for the Humor Impaired: ;-)] Scott Coleman, President ASRE (American Society of Reverse Engineers) tmkk@uiuc.edu ------------------------------ Date: 06 Sep 1993 01:47:00 EDT From: Eric Engelmann Subject: Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply Regarding your comments on hiring minorities and foreigners, "gimme a break". I know a number of business people, and all of them are desperately trying to compete for talent in a progressively more competitive world. While they may be nervous about cultural differences and the realities of absenteesim caused by different reactions to demands for child/parental care, spouse relocation, etc., they are NOT willing to let their prejudices get in the way of keeping their business solvent and putting food on the table (kids through college, etc.). This incessant whining about lack of opportunities when people are DROWNING in them makes me sick. A current client of mine has gone so far as to require promotions first be given to females and non-US citizens in order to meet someone's idea of "fairness". Sheesh. ------------------------------ From: klaus@cscns.com (Klaus Dimmler) Subject: Re: Foreigners Need Not Apply? Organization: Community_News_Service Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 18:07:21 GMT > Here's the best advice I can possibly give to you: > * lose the attitude that someone OWES you something, > * it's YOUR job to give those companies ideas on how useful you could be - > find out what they need and fill that need. I was surprised to hear in a previous message of this thread that the average time between engineering graduation and getting an engineering-related position is 18 months. That is worse than I thought! But even in the best of times, the advice given above is excellent. The attitude comes through in an interview situation, and plays a determining role in your chances of getting a job. Klaus Dimmler klaus@cscns.com CNS, Inc 1155 Kelly Johnson Blvd, Suite 400 Colorado Springs, CO 80920 719-592-1240 ------------------------------ From: kenh@w8hd.org (Ken Hoehn) Subject: Re: Portable Cellular Station Organization: The w8hd Group Date: Sun, 06 Sep 1993 16:06:28 GMT Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) writes: > On August 16, Bell Mobility Cellular introduced the first mobile > cellular station in Canada. Built at a cost of $1.7 million, the > telecommunications station, which links cellular and satellite > technologies, will be used by governments, municipalities and major > corporations involved in responding to emergency situations, natural > disasters or major catastrophes. > The mobile cellular station is the work of Bell Mobility Cellular's > Direction des mesures d'urgence (DMU), a specialized group created in > 1990 to develop, manage and deploy the emergency resources and > applications of mobile communications. I don't understand the uniqueness of this project ... the COW ('cell on wheels') has been a standard tool in the cellular industry for several years now, allowing the temporary installation of either emergency replacement or overflow cell facilities at disaster sites, crowded special events, or the like. kenh@w8hd.org Ken Hoehn - Teletech, Inc. Compuserve: 70007,2374 N8NYO P.O.Box 924 Dearborn, MI 48121 FAX: (313) 562-8612 VOICE: (313) 562-6873 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 12:51:39 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Denver, Adamstown, PA Moving to 717 Did someone think of DENver in designating 717-336 as the new prefix for Denver, PA? 336 obviously must be available in 717. 267 prefix at Denver can't move to 717, because 717-267 is in use at Chambersburg. Other parts of Lancaster County now in the 215 area: Terre Hill (215-445), next door to Denver and/or Adamstown; it went to 7D for within-NPA long distance, and nearby 717- area points served by the same (non-Bell) phone company also did so! Christiana (near state route 41 heading southeast from Gap), served by 215-593 at Atglen, just across the Chester County line. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #628 ****************************** From telecom Mon Sep 6 14:00:02 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25235 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Mon, 6 Sep 1993 14:00:02 -0500 Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 14:00:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309061900.AA25235@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #629 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 6 Sep 93 14:00:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 629 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Radio Station Acronyms (David Breneman) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (Joe Lynn) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (Patricia A. Dunkin) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (Len E. Elam) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (barry mishkind) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Radio Station Acronyms (Roy M. Silvernail) Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers (David G. Lewis) Re: Modem Transmissions Over One Way Radio (David Hough) Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation (Mark Steiger) Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation (Patrick Lee) Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation (Paul Barnett) Re: Risks of Cellular Phone on Heart (Danny Burstein) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms Date: 06 Sep 93 00:20:34 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA David Breneman (daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com) wrote: > Are you referring to the *original* ABC Network, or the > *former* NBC Red Network (the current ABC Network)? > [Moderator's Note: So far as I know, and this is a guess, they got > stuff from what we refer to as the current ABC Network. I vaguely recall > as a child they carried stuff they referred to as that network and > that would have been in the middle 1950's, long after 'Red' was gone. > Which network carried the 'National Barn Dance' program? I guess that > was either ABC (as we know it now) or Mutual. I can't remember. PAT] Oh, then that would indeed be the current ABC network. The original ABC went out of business in the 30s. The current ABC was the NBC Red Network, which NBC was forced to sell with the advent of television since it would have given them three networks (Red, Blue and Television) and there were anti-trust scares over that. They sold it right after the war to Paramount Pictures, which was eager to get into television itself. In fact, the first TV station in LA (in, I think, 1940) was owned by RKO, and when Paramount bought out RKO they established their foothold in broadcasting. Later, when they bought Desilu they discovered there was more money to be made *making* TV shows than *airing* them and they sold ABC. David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 ------------------------------ From: jtl@il.us.swissbank.com (Joe Lynn) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms Organization: Swiss Bank Corporation CM&T Division Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 11:07:09 GMT Our Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: WENR was the former call sign for the television > station on Channel 7 here about 40 years ago in the early 1950's. WLS > was named for the World's Largest Store when Sears, Roebuck owned it > back in the 1920-1930 era. It was also known from its beginning until > 1961 as the Prairie Farmer Station because its programming and appeal > was to people living on farms and in small towns across the rural mid- > western United States. The recent book _Valley Voices_ by John Russell Ghrist is an excellent and exhaustive overview of broadcasting in Northern Illinois from the very beginning to the present. Anyone who's interested in Chicago-area radio should pick this up. (Ghrist is currently one of the voices on the Illinois Traffic Network, found at 540 and 1610 kHz). In the very early days, WENR and WLS did *indeed* share the frequency of 890 kHz. They were both independent stations, with separate owners: WLS was owned by Sears, Roebuck & Co. ("World's Largest Store"), and WENR was owned by someone else (I don't have the book with me right now). Eventually, WLS took over the time-share arrangement and became the sole broadcaster (in Chicago) on 890 kHz. "The Prairie Farmer" program was begun by either WENR or WLS, and it survived the time-share arrangement as WLS continued to broadcast it until they launched the rock'n'roll format. Chicago's TV Channel 7 was also known as WBKB-TV until the late 1960s when it was changed to WLS-TV. jtl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Sep 93 17:35 EDT From: pad@groucho.att.com (Patricia A Dunkin +1 201 386 6230) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms On the subject of radio stations whose call signs match their locations: has anyone mentioned WNYC, the AM, FM, and TV stations owned by (who else?) New York City? WNYC-AM has laid claim to being the oldest station in the country -- I think its 60th anniversary celebration came shortly before WHA's, but I wouldn't swear to it. It was also (before my time :-) where Fiorello LaGuardia read the funnies to the children of New York during a newspaper strike. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Sep 93 11:49:44 PDT From: lelam@gdwest.gd.com (Len E. Elam) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms Among the radio stations here in the Fort Worth/Dallas area is a non-profit Christian format radio station, KVTT. KVTT stands for {K}eep {V}oicing {T}he {T}ruth !!! One nationwide show that originates from KVTT is "Praise In The Night", hosted by Steve Solomon. The show is distributed via satellite to other radio stations nationwide and starts at 11:00 PM each night until 6:00 AM the next morning. The show seems to be set up in one hour segments so that the radio stations which recieve the show via satellite can broadcast any or all of the show's hours. The show has a nationwide 800 number (which I don't recall at the moment) for people to call in with prayer requests. Friday night is the show's "on-air" ministry night where Steve ministers to people who call in. KVTT is the radio station I listen to the most. Who Am I?: Len E. Elam Email: lelam@gdwest.gd.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Sep 93 00:32 MST From: barry@coyote.datalog.com (barry mishkind) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms Organization: Datalog Consulting, Tucson, AZ According to the 1939 listing, WIND, Gary, IN was operated by the Johnson-Kennedy Radio Corp. Studios were listed at "504 Broadway", phone 9191. The owners also owned WJJD. The 560 frequency was occupied by WIBO, and WPCC, both Chicago in 1931. WPCC was listed in 1928 as on 570, owned by North Shore Congregational Church, and WRM, Urbana (Owner: University of IL) shared time. I'll have to check and see if there are other links ... Barry [Moderator's Note: 504 Broadway would be the corner of 5th and Broadway in what used to be downtown Gary (when there was a downtown). WRM was replaced by WILL, still owned by the University of Illinois, but it is now on 580 I think. Maybe the change in frequency occurred at the same time that several radio stations were moved around in 1943. I know that WBBM in Chicago was 770 then it moved to 780 as part of some kind of re-organization done by the Federal Radio Commission. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Sep 93 11:54:06 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms Someone mentioned earlier what WIND-AM in Chicago stood for but I've forgotten :-(. I always thought it referred to Chicago's nickname of Windy City. Some of the one's I'm familiar with from the 50's and 60's are KFAB - (Fabulous) in Omaha WOW - (Woodmen of the World, fraternal organization) - Omaha KSCJ - Sioux City Journal KTRI - Sioux City Tribune before the papers merged KMNS - Music, News and Sports - Sioux City Out here on Long Island theres, WBAB in Babylon and WALK - Walk with WALK Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, LI, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 Senior Technical Specialist: Scientific Computer Facility ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Radio Station Acronyms From: roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1993 11:19:11 CST Organization: The Villa CyberSpace, executive headquarters In comp.dcom.telecom, daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com writes: > Are you referring to the *original* ABC Network, or the > *former* NBC Red Network (the current ABC Network)? Oh, now you went and reminded me of one of my favorite bloopers (as collected by the late Kermit Schaeffer ... wish I had some of those albums now) A network identification that begins with a second or so of silence (which is a long time on radio), followed by a door opening and an out-of-breath announcer intoning "This is either the red or the blue network of NBC!" Second favorite: "This is the American Broadcorping Castration." Does anyone know of the Kermit Schaeffer collections are still in print, or perhaps (in a fit of wishful thinking) reissued on CD? Roy M. Silvernail [] roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: AT&T's Strange Attitude on 800 Numbers Organization: AT&T Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1993 00:08:13 GMT In article brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) writes: > deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) writes: >> My hypothesis is that, since the new 800 number is actually being sold >> from AT&T's viewpoint to an aggregator and not to Pat's customer, it >> appears to the AT&T systems as if it is being sold to a different >> customer. Because the various flavors of AT&T 800 services which >> terminate to POTS lines use the POTS number as the billing number in >> the billing databases, and all the customer records are keyed off the >> billing number, I would suspect that it is impossible to have two >> different customers with the same billing number. > Oh, please. This is AT&T we are talking about. I appreciate the compliment, but ... > ... and if their Fsoftware cannot allow them to offer a service that > is (presumably) tariffed, I think the key word may be "presumably". I've done some research, and it's turned up the fact that the "primary" destination numbers for 800 STARTERLINE(SM) service, 800 CustomNet(SM) service, CustomNet Plus(SM) service, and READYLINE(SM) service must not overlap. Also, a POTS number provisioned for 800 which is part of a VTNS (Virtual Telecommunications Network Service) arrangement can not also be a destination number for 800 STARTERLINE service, and I'm inferring by extension the same applies to the other three. This was known by the service planners well in advance of the service deployment, which leads me to believe that the tariffs were written with this restriction. Since the service that Pat is reselling is almost certainly a VTNS arrangement (it could be CustomNet, but I think VTNS gets bigger discounts), this would explain the inability to "share" the POTS DN. > Ever since Pat posted his original message, there has been at least > two or more messages every day either from Pat or from other Digest > subscribers expressing a negative view of AT&T with respect to this > matter. Indeed there have; whether they are based on factual arguments or emotional arguments is an issue we could no doubt discuss at some length. I have not seen the actual tariffs in question; I suspect no one party to this discussion actually has. If anyone is able to find statements in tariffs which explicitly state that AT&T will terminate 800 service on any POTS line the customer indicates with no restrictions whatsoever, then there is undoubtedly an issue that Pat or anyone else could take to the appropriate regulatory agencies. My personal feeling, based on my knowledge of the service and my knowledge of tariff language -- which is extremely vague (actually, both tariff language and my knowledge of tariff language could fit into that category ;-)) -- I expect that anyone would be hard-pressed to find such statements. However, regardless of that, there is still the problem that the customer can't get what the customer wants. Several posts have presented alternatives; allow me to suggest another. If Pat's service offers a "programmability" feature, then the problem could be avoided by specifying as the "primary" POTS termination any other POTS number at the customer's location which is capable of accepting incoming calls. The customer could then immediately "reprogram" the 800 number with a new destination of the actual POTS number he wants the calls to terminate on. If Pat's service does not offer a programmability feature, the customer could "reterminate" his AT&T 800 service on a different POTS number and immediately "reprogram" it to the current number; this isn't as pleasing a solution, because it leaves some indeterminate amount of time when the "wrong" number is ringing, but it may be workable. Either of these solutions would solve the root problem of having two 800 numbers billed to the same POTS number. If we want to get into the issue of whether it *should* be possible to have two 800 numbers billed to the same POTS number, we can start that up as well -- but today it's *not*, so could we please stop portraying this as some massive AT&T conspiracy to monopolize the 800 market by crippling the poor helpless resellers who are only trying to make an honest living, put aside the AT&T-bashing, and concentrate on seeing what the best solution is? If we want to fight out the "who's right/who's wrong" issue, I'm as willing as the next guy -- you bring the tariffs and we'll meet at high noon down by the Regulatory Corral -- but I personally don't find that very productive. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ From: dave@llondel.demon.co.uk (David Hough) Subject: Re: Modem Transmissions Over One Way Radio Reply-To: dave@llondel.demon.co.uk Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1993 07:21:41 +0000 In article daveb%jaws@epsilon.eecs.nwu. edu (David Breneman) writes: > Alfredo Cotroneo (A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it) wrote: >> I am going to experiment with TX only data transmissions using standard >> modems (e.g. ZyXel/USR Robotics) over a one way radio link. I just >> wonder if that would be possible at all with which parameter(s) >> setting since there will be no modem on the other side of the line to >> *negotiate* the protocol with. > Try one (if there's more than one) of the ham radio groups. RTTY > (radio teletype) transmissions used to be a hot pursuit (right up > there with slow-scan television) up until about ten years ago. The > only difference would be the speed -- but if you're intent on using one > of these Dern Newfangled modem protocols that *require* negotiation, > you may be it trouble. I did reply to the original via email, but in case anyone else is interested, dedicated radio modems for 9600baud are readily available in the amateur radio world. If you know where to look and have the money/bandwidth etc you can even go as fast as 56kbaud using readily available equipment. The radio modems do not require a training sequence on setup (impractical when there may be numerous other modems/transmitters on the same channel) so would be OK for a one-way link. You can even get plug-in cards for PCs if space is at a premium. Dave dave@llondel.demon.co.uk Internet g4wrw@g4wrw.ampr.org Amprnet ------------------------------ From: Mark.Steiger@tdkt.kksys.com (Mark Steiger) Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1993 02:27:12 -0600 Subject: Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation Organization: The Dark Knight's Table BBS: Minnetonka, MN (Free!) > [Moderator's Note: I am always flooded with mail; your letter is > nothing special. This added step is one further effort being made to > combat credit card fraud; the level of which is at an all-time high in > the USA. You are correct that the level of sophistication found in > some credit card fraud rings is enough to easily overcome this extra > step but it is a satisfactory security measure in many instances. PAT] Just FYI for people on the net, I work for a mail order firm. On a Bad (good?) Credit card fraud day, we get $60,000 of fraud in that day. Our record was just short of $150,000 in one day! I wish more card companies would do something to prevent this. I'd like to see credit card readers in the home so the person would have to run it through and the reader would send the info to us. Until that day, fraud will continue to rise .... Origin: The Igloo BBS 612-574-2079 (1:282/4018.0) Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo BBS (612) 574-2079 Internet: mark@tdkt.kksys.com Fido: 1:282/4018 Simnet: 16:612/24 [Moderator's Note: You are quite correct that credit card fraud is much higher and much worse than it has ever been. As with cell phones and regular phone service, as the proprietors plug up one hole in their security, the fraud artists find still another. PAT] ------------------------------ From: patlee@panix.com (Patrick Lee) Subject: Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation Date: 6 Sep 1993 11:21:14 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC genghis@ilces.ag.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) wrote: > In reality, everything asked for will appear on the cardholder's > credit report, which as we know is available to anyone with sufficient > interest. So what's the point of "validating" the card? If a thief > manages to intercept the envelope containing the card, he can > "validate" the card almost as easily as the legitimate cardholder can. Citibank has been validating credit cards for at least the past year -- at least both of my cards required me to call their customer service before it can be used. I don't remember where I read this, but there were some talk in New York of requiring credit card companies to validate cards. A lot of the information asked are available to anyone with "sufficient interest." Sure, organized crime can certainly get any information they want -- but they aren't likely going to be interested in your credit card either. They can just as easily make fake cards themselves! No, validating cards this way does keep city teenagers from hijacking the mail truck (at gun point sometimes), breaking into those green mail relay boxes, or otherwise stealing your mail. All of these are federal offenses, but what do they care? They are not going to go to the trouble of getting your credit report though. Patrick [Moderator's Note: A few years ago, some guys dressed as postal employees showed up at the outgoing mail room at American Express ostensibly to 'pick up the mail'. They had the whole procedure down pat, and signed off for nearly a thousand new credit cards using the correct postal forms for transfer of the cards to the possession of the postal service -- the whole bit. The cards went out to Hawaii an hour later on a plane and by the next morning, $180,000 in fraud charges had been placed on those accounts. The investigators found out that there were 15 people involved in the ring of various ages; three were young guys and one was an 80-year old woman and her husband. The ring leaders knew some senior citizens vacationing in Hawaii would never be suspected of fraud. (smile) The old coots had all sorts of merchandise purchased on their (ten or so apiece) hot cards during the several hours they were allotted before the cards had to be destroyed. Two employees at the post office had supplied the uniforms and the forms required certifying the pickup of the cards from the office where they are manufactured and embossed, etc. But you are correct. The younger kids without the brains to pull off that sort of stunt merely hijack the postal van on a highway somewhere at gunpoint and grab what they can get. I sometimes lose patience -- both editorially here and in other newsgroups -- with the young and very naive readers of Usenet who seem to think when merchants, banks and credit card issuers demand all sorts of personal data before doing business that they are really a bunch of evil telemarketers, etc. Actually for the most part, nothing could be further from the truth. Fraud -- and highly sophisticated ver- sions of it at that -- are the American way these days. The merchants, banks, telcos and credit card issuers are protecting themselves. PAT] ------------------------------ From: barnett@convex.com (Paul Barnett) Subject: Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 14:05:18 GMT Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA Anthony E. Siegman wrote in in comp.dcom. telecom: > AT&T Visa must be testing this because I just got a replacement card > from them and there was no such memo with it. I haven't tried it yet, > maybe a surprise is waiting ... Look again. I received a new AT&T MasterCard a month or so ago, and didn't see any such notice either. This weekend, I called the automated customer service to check my balance, and got routed to a human operator. She asked for the validation information, and said that the notice was "in very small print". I wonder. I went back and looked at the heavy paper that the card was folded in, and couldn't find anything. If you don't do it, it apparently is no big deal. I've been using this one for over a month with no problem. However, the old one didn't actually expire for a while, and I supposed they can't tell the difference. Paul Barnett MPP OS Development (214)-497-4846 Convex Computer Corp. Richardson, TX ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Re: Risks of Cellular Phone on Heart Date: 6 Sep 1993 04:08:45 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) writes: > One thing that is known is that strong RF fields can disrupt certain > types of artificial pacemakers. If I had a pacemaker, I would be very > wary of any kind of radio transmitter. To which dannyb@panix.com, who is both a bit of a techie and is a NYS paramedic, responds: Not quite. What affects the artificial pacemaker is the MAGNETIC field. To wit: Most pacemakers are desgined to 'kick in' when the heart's own rate drops too low. Generally, a person's 'natural' heart rate will be somewhere between 60 and 100 beats per minute (goes up with exertion, down with rest, etc.) If a person's heart rate falls too low (that is, if the intrinsic control systems fail - a bit beyond the scope of this discussion) then the person will get weak, dizzy, unable to walk or run, etc. If it drops way too low (say, less than 20/minute) then we're starting to talk about, as we call it, "incompatability (with life)." So, the artificial pacemaker will sit there doing nothing except monitoring the natural rate. It's quite possible, and quite common, for the heart rate to be at a decent level for a few days, then drop down for the next fifteen minutes. In this situation teh artificial pacemaker will "fire" only during the fifteen minutes needed. So, the question is: how does a technician test the pacemaker for proper electrical function (since it's doing almost nothing when the heart is beating properly). Well, you could watch the person for the next week (which is done in some situations), but the more common technique is: Hook up a magnetic switch inside the pacemaker. when a strong enough field is present, the circuitry will flick on and do the "firing" thing. (Of course this is done under medical supervision.) So again, it's not the radio field, but rather the magnetic one. And it has to be pretty strong ... Some more recent artificial pacemakers do look for specific radio- pulsed-coded instructions, but these would not be affected by a general radio field. Cavaet: like any electronic equipment, if you have a VERY STRONG rf field, strange things can happen. but that's not likely to occur with a 5 watt cellular phone. Just don't stand near a gypsy cab ... dannyb@panix.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #629 ****************************** From telecom Mon Sep 6 14:42:38 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04510 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Mon, 6 Sep 1993 14:42:38 -0500 Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 14:42:38 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309061942.AA04510@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #630 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 6 Sep 93 14:42:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 630 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem (Richard Osterberg) Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem (Steve Cogorno) Communications With TT (TDD) Devices (Bill Halberstadt) Re: Need HELP In Contacting The CCITT/ITU On The Internet (F. Lagrana) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Carl Moore) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Gary Breuckman) Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! (Clive Feather) Re: MCI 1-800-COOL-101 (Roy M. Silvernail) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem From: osterber@husc8.harvard.edu (Richard Osterberg) Date: 6 Sep 93 13:43:58 GMT > Physically, however, the hardware inside your PC supports it. The IBM > PC serial port can handle any word length from five to nine bits. I > think five bits is what the older-style TDD uses. I don't know what > kind of modem they use (perhaps Bell 103, in which case you're in > luck). Surely somebody has written appropriate software. "Older-style" TDDs use Baudot code ... which is nothing like a modem carrier. It's closer to Morse code ... a series of alternating high and low tones. You need a specialized "modem" to talk Baudot. IBM serial hardware will only support communication with newer TDDs that "include ASCII", which is really either 300-N-8-1 or 1200-N-8-1. Rick Osterberg osterber@husc.harvard.edu 617-527-6664 617-965-0370 ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Help: Deaf Terminal Emulation Through Modem Date: Mon, 6 Sep 93 10:22:48 PDT If you need to communicate with users of TDDs and don't want to invest in a TDD or Baudot modem, you can use the California Relay Service. I don't know if this works outside of California, but there might be a similar service in other states. It is an 800 number, and costs nothing. A Relay operator will type eveything you say and read back what is typed in response. The number is 800-735-2922 for voice users and 800-735-2929 for TDD users. Long distance calls will be placed through Sprint at discounted rates. This service is available 24 hours a day, sevenw days a week. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Sep 93 08:28:36 -0400 From: halberst@esvax.dnet.dupont.com (Bill Halberstadt, CR&D) Subject: Communications With TT (TDD) Devices Pat - FYI, here's a reply I sent by email to a person who recently posted a question about communicating with TT devices, using regular modems. The "native mode" of the TT devices is, as you said, a protocol that is not compatible with "regular" modems. However, many of these devices have "standard" 300 bps capability (some have better), so there is usually a way to communicate with them. If you have a chance, give this procedure a try and see if it works with devices in your area. <> Allan, I saw your note on USENET, and despite Pat's reply, it is almost always possible to use standard modems and communications packges to communicate with the "TT" devices (formerly called "TDD" devices). We had a need for that where I work, and I worked out and documented a procedure, shown below. You'll have to extrapolate it a little for your case, but it should be the key to get you started ... This document is to help people use U. S. Robotics modems to contact "TT" services or other "TT" modems. In particular, the "Delaware Relay Service". First, some background: "TT" stands for "Text Telephones", and was formerly called "TDD" (Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf) or "TTY/TDD". Normally, TT service depends on both parties having TT equipment hooked to their phone lines. It's been around a looooong time, so its technology is quite dated. The user typically has a one-line, 20 character display, and a keyboard. The TT device also has a modem, which may communicate at the incredibly low rate of 45.5 bps, using the obsolete "Baudot" code (rather than ASCII), and "half-duplex" (the "other end" doesn't echo your typing back to you, so your device needs to take care of echoing). It has remained so for many years because of the installed base, and because equipment costs need to remain low. Recently, most manufacturers of such devices have been adding the ability to communicate using ASCII at 300 bps (still way behind what's available elsewhere). So if two TT units communicate, and they are both of the "new" type, they will use 300 bps. That also opens the door to people who have "conventional" modems and pc's or terminals. Almost all conventional modems can communicate at 300 bps, but there are a few "unusual" settings that have to be made (more on that later). Now as to "Delaware Relay Service": This is an AT&T service, actually located in Virginia, consisting of two toll free telephone numbers. Both connect to the same group of operators, but one is for data and the other for voice. The numbers and a brief description can be found in the front of the phone book. The idea of the service is to let a hearing impaired person and a "non hearing impaired" person communicate by having an "operator" do the translation from typed text to/from speech. A hearing impaired person might, for instance, use his or her TT (or other 300 bps) equipment to call the data number. He or she would then receive the typed message: "what is the number you wish to call" (this is being typed by the operator). The originator of the call types the number to be called (say a store with which he or she wishes to place an order), and the operator places the call and explains the situation to the store. Everything that the store says is typed by the operator, and everything that is typed by the originator of the call is spoken by the operator to the store. As you can imagine, the whole process can work in reverse if the non hearing impaired person wishes to call a hearing impaired person, and knows that that person has a TT unit. The originator places a call to the "voice" number of the service and asks them to call the other person's TT number. Great idea! Now; how to place a call to the Delaware Relay Service using ESVAX: <<< Portion specific to DuPont computer systems deleted here>>> Type in the phone number plus special characters as shown below: ATDT9,18002325460F0X1&N1 The first part (everything before the "F") dials the Relay service; the "F0" tells the modem to echo all characters back to you (since the relay service doesn't); the "X1" tells the modem to disregard extraneous noises as the operator manually answers the phone (otherwise our modem would print "VOICE" and hang up); and the "&N1" tells our modem to limit the connection to 300 bps (otherwise sometimes it erroneously thinks the other modem is 1200 bps and you get nothing but garbage). After about 20 seconds, you should see "CONNECT", followed by the typed request to provide the phone number you wish to call. Hitting "return" prior to the "CONNECT" message will abort the call. If all else fails, hit "Control-P" twice, and you will return to the A1 menu. Then give the command "DI" to disconnect from the modem. You can then give the command "CC" to start again, or "EM" to get to the main Electronic Mail menu. When typing to the operator, you do not need to type "Returns" or "Line Feeds", unless you need to for readability on your screen. On their screen, the lines will "wrap" to the next line after they get to the right side of the screen. If, on your terminal, the lines "go off the screen", then set your terminal for "wrap", or use a "Return" followed by a "Line Feed" (Control-J if your terminal doesn't have "Line Feed") when necessary. If you just hit "Return", you will type over the preceding line. When you finish, type "Control-P" twice to return to A1, and give the command "DI" to disconnect from the modem Some conventions used in TT typing: "ga" means "go ahead", and signals that you are through typing and expect a response. "sk" means "stop keying" or "stop keying?", and signals that you are through typing and do not necessarily expect a response. "sk sk" is given after the other party signals "sk" and you have nothing else to type either. Typical next response would be "bye", followed by a disconnect. "u" is "you" "n" is "and" and many other "shorthand" conventions which will become obvious. WHAT IF I WANT TO DO THIS FROM MY OWN MODEM (LIKE AT HOME)? To use this service from your own terminal (or pc) and modem without going through the VAX, the procedures will vary depending on what equipment you have, but basically you would first need to set your terminal (or terminal emulator) to "7 bits, Even Parity" before you dial. Then, if you are using a U. S. Robotics HST or V.32 modem, just use the dial command: ATDTphonenumberF0X1&N1 plus a carriage return. Remember not to type anything else until you see the "Connect" message on your screen (else it will abort the call). After you finish communicating with a TT modem, reset your modem to its original settings by either issuing the command ATZ, or powering the modem off; and reset your terminal or emulator to "8 bits, No Parity" so communications with the VAXes will work OK. All this has assumed that your terminal (or emulator) and modem have been properly configured to our standard recommended settings. If you're not sure this is the case, do the following once: Set your terminal or emulator to 19,200 bps, 8 bits, even parity, and to make sure that your U. S. Robotics modem is in the proper "baseline" configuration, give it the following command (you'll only have to do this once): ATTX6&A2&B1&H2&I5S15=32&W If you get "ERROR" instead of "OK", and are sure you typed it right, type it again, except with "&I1" in place of the "&I5" (some older HST's can't handle "&I5"). This command sets many things in the modem, and stores the configuration in "non-volatile memory" so that the modem will power up every time with these settings. These settings are necessary for proper communication with Du Pont sites, and are an assumed base case for the temporary "override" that occurs when you append things like "X1F0&N1" to a dial command. Rev 6/9/93 & 9/2/93 - W L Halberstadt Regards, Bill Halberstadt DuPont Company Wilmington, DE (302) 695-3825 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 10:59:55 +0200 From: LAGRANA Subject: Re: Need HELP In Contacting The CCITT/ITU On The Internet > Does any anyone know how to contact the CCITT? I am not too sure > what is there address or how to correctly post a message to them > and get AutoMAGIC response? Below is what I "thought" was > correct: > Mail To: itudoc@itu.arcom.arch > Subject: Need HELP > HELP > LIST > LIST CCITT > GET JPEG > Is the above REMOTELY correct? Any help will be greatly > appreciated. Dear Ed, Thank you for the interest you demonstrate for the ITU in general and the standardization process in particular! Such HELPs show us that the external world is waiting for our input and expecting much from us. It is both challenging and motivating! First of all, let me tell you that the AutoMAGIC (!) mailbox has a new address on Internet: it's itudoc@itu.ch. This may explain why you couldn't reach the autoanswering mailbox. As far as your set of commands is concerned, there are some errors. First the CCITT group doesn't exist any more and has been replaced by the ITU-T group (in order to mirror the new structurre of the ITU). Second, when you are loofing for a standard or any document, you cannot retrieve it just by its "name". You must use its UPI (Unique Permanent Identifier). By example, to get a Winword 2.0 version of Rec. X.402, you will not type GET X.402 but GET ITU-5210. You will first have defined the UPI number of the document you are looking for with the LIST command. In our example the command would have been LIST ITU-T\REC\X to list the X-Series Recommendations. So you understand that you cannot GET the JPEG standards by typing GET JPEG. More over, here in the TSB (Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, the former CCITT Secretariat) we don't call the JPEG standard JPEG. For us, this standard is the T.81. So you will have to go through the T-Series of Recommendations to find it. I agree that it might be difficult to know all this type of info. It's the reason why we have an helpdesk. You may ask us questions by inserting the command HUMAN in your message. The text included in the body part of your message and which follows the HUMAN statement is forwarded to an operator. Note that if your questions concern obviously the TSB (or the ITU-T), you can send them directly to our service (address tsbedh@itu.ch). Beside this, I believe you could be interested by accessing ITUDOC via our interactive interface. Below is an annex to this message providing info about this way of accessing our Document Reference Store. Last info: the JPEG standard (T.81) is still not ready for publication (the ISO and ITU-T editors are still working on it, it's a common text). You will have to wait (I think about three months) until you'll be able to get it. OK Ed, I hope this will help you navigating through ITUDOC's Store! In any case, you may contact me directly if you have other questions. Fernando Lagrana International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Bureau Editor, Catalogue of Recommmendations Coordinator, Electronic Document Handling Internet: lagrana@itu.ch Voice: + 41 22 730 58 94 Fax: + 41 22 730 58 53 X.400: SURNAME=lagrana, PRIVATE_DOMAIN=itu, ADMIN_DOMAIN=arcom, COUNTRY=ch ====================== ANNEX ITUDOC via an interactive interface An interactive interface to the International Telecommunication Union's ITUDOC system is available in the TIES (Telecom Information Exchange Services) virtual terminal (VT) interface. TIES can be accessed via: DIAL-UP: +41 22 733 7575 or X.25: #2284681 11112 or TELNET: ties.itu.ch (156.106.4.75) or chi.itu.ch (156.106.4.16) Setup should be 300 to 9600 bps, 8 data bits, no parity, V.42, V.42bis, MNP support. VT100 minimum terminal capability is required, VT200 or greater capability is preferred. Please logon as GUEST or ANONYMOUS for access to TIES public services. For access to other services, registration is necessary. Information about TIES and available services are available in the ITU Document Store in the group /TIES. The interactive interface is easy to use and menu driven: you can browse up and down the hierarchical tree of the ITU Document Store. You can view documents and mark selected documents for retrieval. You can then transfer documents to your remote site using one of the following methods: * KERMIT * INTERNET FTP (File Transer Protocol) * REFLECTION Terminal Emulation WRQ PROTOCOL * EMAIL (ASCII documents - RFC-822 (SMTP) or TIES email address required) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Sep 93 9:40:51 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Dialing our own country code is just a coincidence (I am referring to country code 1). 1, as you've seen many times, has been used as a toll indicator, and is being shifted to "area code follows" indicator, for calls within country code 1. It's now 20 years since 213 area code programmed for N0X/N1X prefixes. You are saying that at least part of 213 had 1 + 7D for long distance within 213 up to that point? (The other possibility would be 7D for long distance within 213, with NPA + 7D for long distance to other area codes.) ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 14:22:07 GMT In article denbesten@orchestra.bgsu. edu (William C. DenBesten) writes: > Perhaps the way to get rid of the association between one and toll > without bothering people would be to announce the cost of the call > immediately after dialing. Eg: "This call will cost 30 cents plus 15 > cents per minute. Thank you for using AT&T.". This sounds like an excellent thing to do, both from the standpoint that you mentioned, and the fact that the live operators have a lot of problems quoting prices ... it would make it a lot easier to compare carriers. But, it will probably never happen unless forced. Carriers likely do NOT want to remind you of the cost of a call as you place it -- it would tend to make calls shorter rather than longer if you were so informed each time. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: clive@x.co.uk (Clive Feather) Subject: Re: Annoying Call Won't Stop -- Please Help! Date: Mon, 6 Sep 93 10:46:55 BST In 13.625.9 our esteemed Moderator notes: > I am reminded of quite a few years ago when obscene and threatening > calls intended for Queen Elizabeth were arriving several times daily > at Buckingham Palace ... > A technician there snooped around awhile in response to a call > from AT&T when a call was actually in progress; guess what! He > tracked it back to WHitehall 4-6211, the switchboard number for the > Lawson YMCA. Oddly enough, back when London exchanges all had names, the number for Scotland Yard was WHItehall 1212 (note that WHI = WH-4). Clive D.W. Feather | IXI Ltd (an SCO company) clive@x.co.uk | Vision Park Phone: +44 223 236 555 | Cambridge CB4 4ZR Fax: +44 223 236 466 | United Kingdom [Moderator's Note: Originally, our 312-944 exchange was WHItehall as well prior to the conversion from 3L/4D to 2L/5D (WHitehall-4). I did not mention it yesterday, but following the arrest of this fellow, the {Chicago Tribune} reported the matter and asked in a humorous note if it would result in some 'international incident'; but it did not go that far. The Queen's representative in Chicago filed charges and the disposition was the fellow was given psychiatric care; not an uncommon requirement of people living in the Lawson YMCA in those days (smile). It turns out the fellow had been after quite a few world leaders for some time and some not-so-big local politicians as well with lewd ideas and an insistence they all be put out to pasture. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: MCI 1-800-COOL-101 From: roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 05:31:43 CST Organization: The Villa CyberSpace, executive headquarters In comp.dcom.telecom, taliesin@netcom.com writes: >> Dial 1-800-COOL-101 > Here's a cute question: Has some wag called into this thing from an > AUTOVON phone or with a beeper that has ABCD on it? One wonders if it > (a) recognizes it and does something with it, (b) recognizes it and > ignores it, or (c) blows it's everlovin' little mind? :) I'd say the answer is (a). And what it does is unceremoniously hang up. My good ol' ITT 2500 Touch-Tone desk set does ABCD, after I installed a modification. Anyone remember TEL magazine? That's where I got the mod idea. Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org [Moderator's Note: What do you usually get if anything when you present the ABCD to your CO dialtone? PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #630 ****************************** From telecom Tue Sep 7 12:37:40 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08928 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Tue, 7 Sep 1993 12:37:40 -0500 Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 12:37:40 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309071737.AA08928@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #631 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 7 Sep 93 12:37:20 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 631 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson New Sprint Service to Czech Republic (John D. Gretzinger) Australian Federal Government Study of New Media Technology (T Worthington) Just What Does Integretel Do? (Dave Read) AT&T Adapts Military Fiber Optic Cable For Mining Use (Nigel Allen) New Asia-Pacific Cable Opens for Service (Nigel Allen) Data Transmission on Cable TV? (Eric Vyncke) Durham, NC Hotel Experience (Thomas Lapp) GTE Layoffs (Joe Bergstein) Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems (Thomas Hutton) Dialogic Help Needed (Rayla Smith) Serial <-> Parallel Converters For Fiber Optics (Sanjai Bhargava) Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Tom Smith) "Number Referral" Recordings: Whose Responsibility? (Martin Lodahl) FDDI Over Copper - CDDI?s (Voravit Euavatanakorn) N0X Area Codes - Which are the Newer Ones? (Carl Moore) Need Low Cost Cellular Phone With POTS Interface (William K. Kessler) DTMF Decoder Cards (Jeff Browning) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: JOHN.D.GRETZINGER@sprint.sprint.com Date: 8 Sep 93 08:15:09 -0400 Subject: New Sprint Service to Czech Republic The following is forwarded for the information of those interested. PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS DISTRIBUTED VIA PR NEWSWIRE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA ONLY. Contacts: Janis Langley, (O) 202-828-7427; Evette Fulton, (O) 202-828-7411 SPRINT TO PROVIDE FIRST DIGITAL INTERNATIONAL LINK WITH CZECH REPUBLIC WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 2, 1993 -- Sprint today extended its all-digital network to the Czech Republic, increasing both the quality and capacity of international voice traffic between the two countries. The link connects the Sprint global fiber-optic network with a new digital gateway switch operated by SPT TELECOM s.p., the telecommunications carrier of the Czech Republic. The link will also be used for routing traffic between Sprint and the Slovak Republic. For the first time, Czechs living in the United States will be able to talk with friends and colleagues in the Czech and Slovak Republics without hearing the noise and interference of calls carried over international analog lines. The digital link also will allow high-speed data communications with the Czech Republic capable of supporting global financial, commercial and videoconferencing applications. Calls made by Sprint customers to the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic will be automatically routed over the new link. Non-Sprint customers in the United States can use the high-quality digital link by first dialing "10333 011" for a Sprint international line, followed by "42" for the Czech and Slovak country code, the city code and the local telephone number. "Every day, organizations around the world rely on digital links for such routine business transactions as electronic funds transfer, electronic mail, credit card verification and just-in-time inventory systems," said Herb Hribar, vice president and general manager of Central/Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa for Sprint International, Sprint's global telecommunications subsidiary. "In addition to providing superior voice connections, the digital link with serve as a commercial lifeline between the Czech Republic and the world marketplace." Sprint recently announced nationwide packet-switched data network sales in the Czech Republic for CPP Transgas, and in the Slovak Republic for SPP Transgas Division, providers of natural gas transit facilities between the CIS and Western Europe. Its other activities in the region include the first intercontinental digital link with Romania; nationwide packet-switched data networks for the PKP Polish state railways and for Poland's largest bank, Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci. Sprint also provides value-added services through joint ventures in Russia and Bulgaria in partnership with the telecommunications ministries of those countries. Sprint is a $10.4 billion international telecommunications company, providing voice, video and data networking solutions to the world's commercial, government and financial centers. Sprint operates fiber-optic and value-added networks that are among the world's largest, and maintains offices in six continents through its over 50 subsidiaries, joint ventures and distributor partners. ---------------- John D. Gretzinger I may work for Sprint, but they don't Network Engineer speak for me, and I don't speak for me. Sprint j.gretzinger@sprint.sprint.com +1.310.797.1187 +1.310.430.1761 (FAX) ------------------------------ From: tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Tom Worthington) Subject: Australian Federal Government Study of New Media Technology Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 08:35:49 GMT Media Release Minister for Communications David Beddall 20/93 30 August 1993 MEDIA'S "BRAVE NEW WORLD" UNDER MICROSCOPE The details of a major Federal Government study, which Will look at the "brave new world" of media technology, were announced today by the Minister for Communications, Mr. David Beddall. The new "Communications Futures" project will be conducted by the Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics, within the Federal Department of Transport and Communications. Mr Beddall was speaking at the opening of the Communications Research Forum being held at the Australian National University in Canberra. "The Government has to understand the way in which emerging technologies are shaping a new market and policy environment", he said. "This project will ensure that future public debate is informed, and that regulatory developments enhance rather than frustrate opportunities for Australia. "This project also complements the recently announced Optical Fibre Expert Group, which is focusing on identifying the types of services which are needed, and the potential for industry development. "The information, entertainment, computer and communications Industries are rushing together at great speed. This is recognised by the Government, and will be reflected in the two new projects." Ministers Office contact: David Browne phone +61 6 277 7440 --------------------- Note: I thought this may be of interest (I scanned it in from a fax, so there may be errors). It is in line with the suggestions made in the ACS's submission to the Senate Pay TV enquiry. I obtained a copy of the paper mentioned, by Mr. Chris Cheah from the Bureau of Transport and Communication Economics (ph: +61 6 274 7654, fax: +61 6 2747947). I don't know if he has an e-mail address. Tom Worthington, Director of the Community Affairs Board, Australian Computer Society Inc. 5 September 1993 ABOUT THE ACS: The Australian Computer Society is the professional association in Australia for those in the computing and information technology fields. Established in 1966, the ACS has over 14,000 members and on a per capita basis is one of the largest computer societies in the world. ACS activities are announced in the Usenet News group "aus.acs", available on the Internet. ------------------------------ From: dave@kentrox.com (Dave Read) Subject: Just What Does Integretel Do? Date: Mon, 6 Sep 93 23:42:05 PDT Howdy all, I got my September phone bill from GTE yesterday. On a separate page was a charge from Integretel, apparently for a collect call from somewhere in Texas. Nobody was in the house when the call was allegedly made (I was at work, wife had the kids at the dentist). My wife called Integretel (GTE had their 800 number on the same page as the charges, I'm sure they've had lots of complaints about Integretel), endured the usual ten-minute wait on hold, and was told by their public-interface droid that the call was from a pay phone in Texas somewhere. The droid was a bit huffy about believing that we *really* weren't at home when the call was made ("could it have been left on an answering machine?"), but after some discussion they agreed to send us a voucher for the amount of the charges, which we are supposed to give to GTE. The check's in the mail, in other words. My previous experience with Integretel was 18 months ago when one of their teleporn charges showed up on our church phone bill, from which experience I understood that Integretel was a billing clearinghouse for teleslime services. Given my latest experience, I guess my understanding was incorrect. So I'm curious to know, just what *does* Integretel do, anyway? And why are they involved in billing for collect calls from payphones anywhere? David Read Kentrox Industries P.O. Box 10704 Portland, OR 97210 800-733-5511 x263 dave@kentrox.com [Moderator's Note: Integretel is a service bureau serving a number of clients with telephone billing requirements. They do serve a large number of 'teleporn' clients who bill using the '800 collect callback' system described here a few times in the past, but they also service a number of small AOS/COCOT proprietors. If the payphone used for the call to your home was made from a COCOT, chances are likely it went through an Alternate Operator Service. Many of those services in turn use Integretel to handle their billings. They do not, to the best of my knowledge, use the database AT&T, Sprint and MCI use with reference to phone lines with 'billed number screening'. But they do have their own such database and will add any phone number to it on request. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 04:32 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: AT&T Adapts Military Fiber Optic Cable For Mining Use Organization: The National Capital Freenet, Ottawa Here is a press release from AT&T. For more information, contact Bill Jones 919-279-6511 (office) 919-852-3196 (home) AT&T ADAPTS MILITARY FIBER OPTIC CABLE FOR MINING USE GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The AT&T fiber optic cable assemblies that earned their stripes controlling Patriot missile batteries during Desert Storm are now available to meet the voice, video and data communications requirements of commercial underground mining. "We believe our Tactical Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies (TFOCAs) are extremely well suited to harsh mining environments because they are designed to keep the U.S. military's communica- tions flowing under battlefield conditions," said AT&T Marketing Manager Al Konchar. TFOCAs are ruggedized, light-weight, non-metallic and difficult to damage even if run over by trucks and other heavy equipment. And they feature weather-proof, damage resistant connectors. Extremely strong and capable of supporting their own weight, AT&T TFOCAs can be pulled into mines without fear of breakage. AT&T TFOCAs are available in standard 300-meter and one-kilometer lengths, although other lengths can be supplied. "The AT&T TFOCA is the best solution for mining operations that need a rugged, highly reliable means of transmitting voice, video and sensor signals from automated underground equipment to central monitoring and control facilities" Konchar said. For more information about AT&T's Tactical Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies, call 1-800-553-8805. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 03:46 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: New Asia-Pacific Cable Opens for Service Organization: The National Capital Freenet, Ottawa I downloaded the following AT&T press release from AT*T News On-Line (+1-908-221-8088, settings: 7-E-1, just type "go news" when you see the prompt). I don't know what other companies own part of the new cable system: probably the national telecommunications companies of the countries connected by the cable, and perhaps Teleglobe Canada, Cable and Wireless, MCI and Sprint. For more information, contact: James Barnes 201-644-7041 (office) 908-382-5254 (home) SERVICE BEGINS ON $332-MILLION ASIA-PACIFIC FIBER-OPTIC CABLE NEW YORK -- Tomorrow at 8:01 p.m. EDT, AT&T along with 42 other international carriers will activate service on a new undersea fiber-optic cable system linking Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. AT&T, largest U.S. stakeholder in the new Asia-Pacific cable (APC), said the US$332 million cable system spans 4,650 miles, and raises the number of undersea fiber-optic systems in the Pacific Rim to six. The other systems include cables linking mainland U.S. and Hawaii; Guam, the Phillipines and Taiwan; Hawaii, Guam and Japan; Canada, the U.S. and Japan; and Hawaii Japan and Korea. "This link gives us route diversity into all countries in southeast Asia and the north Pacfic Rim while providing our customers with high-quality cable-on-cable restoration in the re- gion," said Charles D. Hogan, director of facilities planning and agreements for AT&T's international services operations in the Pacific Region. APC was designed to carry 560 million bits of information per second -- equivalent to 80,000 simultaneous telephone conversations -- over one working pair of optical fiber and one spare pair. The system was built by a consortium of cable suppliers in- cluding AT&T Submarine Systems, Inc., which won a US$73 million contract to supply repeaters, terminals and 2,114 miles of fiber optic cable -- roughly equivalent to the length of The Great Wall of China. AT&T leads in the ownership of undersea communications cable systems worldwide, Hogan noted, with a US$ 1.3 billion investment in systems throughout the Pacific region alone. ------------------------------ From: Eric.Vyncke@csl.sni.be (Eric Vyncke) Subject: Data Transmission on Cable TV? Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 10:53:41 Organization: Siemens Nixdorf Information Is there any standard/product available to allow data transmission over a bi-directionnal analog cable TV network? Please email your answers to Manu Khronis, khronis@nrb.be Thanks, Eric Vyncke, Project Leader, Postmaster and IP Admin ;-) Siemens Nixdorf - Centre Software de Liege Rue des Fories, 2 B-4020 Liege, Belgium email: vyncke@csl.sni.be fax: +32.41.201.642 tel: +32.41.201.654 X.400: C=be;A=rtt;P=sni;O=siemens;nixdorf;OU1=liege;OU2=l1;OU3=d1;OU4=csl; G=Eric;S=Vyncke ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 09:28:12 EDT From: Thomas Lapp Subject: Durham, NC Hotel Experience This past holiday weekend, I stayed at a hotel near Durham, NC. I wanted to call a friend near Carborro (south of Chapel Hill), but didn't know the number. The room phone book didn't cover that area, so I had to call info for it. I began to realize that one almost needs a telecom degree in order to figure some of this stuff out! In order to avoid hotel charges, I decided to try first from the pay phone (BellSouth). As printed on the phone, I tried dialing 1-555-1212 but got a recording saying I couldn't be connected. So, insert $0.25 and try again. Same thing. But then my coin never came back. Grrr. Back to the hotel room. According to the phone, Sprint was default carrier, but it looked like you could get to others via 1-800 numbers printed there. Prefix by '8' and get long-distance. Prefix by '9' to get local. I tried 8-1-555-1212 and got recording. They said dial 1-800-950-1022 to get MCI (my calling card), so instead I tried local 9-950-1022 which worked. However, I found out my calling card number has been revoked (another story dealing with recent addition of second number to my home phone). Grrr. Well, the phone said local operator was 8-00, so I hit that. I asked for information and she said to dial 611! (I thought 611 was universal for telephone repair!!??). Dialed 8-611 and finally got information operator. Turned out I spelled the last name incorrectly and never did get the number I wanted. Grrr. In the end, I figured that I would be charged a LOT for all these calls from my room. When the bill came there WERE NO PHONE CHARGES AT ALL! Hats off to Red Roof Inn on 15-501 for at least being reasonable about telephone service for us captive guests. tom internet : mvac23!thomas@udel.edu or thomas%mvac23@udel.edu (home) Location : Newark, DE, USA [Moderator's Note: Not all hotels and motels are as good-natured or reasonable. Another message in this issue makes a complaint we often hear about hotel phone service. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joe.Bergstein@p501.f544.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Bergstein) Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1993 11:19:14 -0500 Subject: GTE Layoffs Reported in Business Section of Saturday 9/3 {Washington Post}: "GTE local telephone company said it will eliminate 2,500 jobs as part of a restructuring. Most of the staff cuts at GTE Telephone Operations, headquartered in Irving, Tex., will come from eliminating positions left vacant following the early retirement and vuluntary separation programs completed earlier this year, the company said. About 1,000 of the cuts will come from currently staffed positions." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 03:17:41 PDT From: Thomas Hutton Subject: Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems On a recent trip to San Francisco, my hotel bill from the San Francisco Regis hotel showed several long distance charges for phone numbers that the local exchange carrier (Pacific Bell) considers to be in the local (ZUM 1) calling area. The hotel is claiming these are long distance because its a different area code (510 vrs 415) but PacBell says standard local call. Who can one complain to (and have something done) about this? I've tried the CPUC but they state they have no control over hotels. Thanks, Tom Hutton SDSC [Moderator's Note: The PUC has no control over how the owner of a private phone system wishes to operate it. The FCC has some rules. You are best off writing the hotel management and complaining to them, but don't expect that to get you very far either. You are better off trying to avoid hotel phone systems as much as possible by using calling cards and payphones. One calling card which I represent is the Orange Card; it has no surcharges associated with it and rates of 25 cents per minute. You can use it from any phone which can dial an 800 number, and thus far hotels have not yet added it to their database of '800 numbers which are really long distance services we can surcharge'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 02:13:47 -0400 From: smithray@dekalb.dc.peachnet.edu (rayla smith) Subject: Dialogic Help Needed I am looking for C libs, samples, and header files for the Dialogic voicemail cards. Any suggestions? [Moderator's Note: I was in the same position as yourself. A Dialogic Card without an ounce of support for it. No idea how to interface the driver with DOS, etc. After explaining my circumstances to the people at Dialogic Corporation, they sent me a large (200 pages) technical guide to the D/4x; the User's Guide version 2.40. A lot of C routines are there and other stuff. I don't know that they are willing to give it away to everyone -- but you can ask them if they might sell you a copy. Dialogic Corp. is at 201-334-8450, Fax 201-334-1257. Speak with Bob Kelly, Sales Engineer. You can mention you were referred by me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sanjai@ctd.comsat.com (Sanjai Bhargava) Subject: Serial <-> Parallel Converters For Fiber Optics Date: 07 Sep 1993 13:02:40 GMT Organization: COMSAT Labs What ICs or hardware is available to convert parallel data to serial data for fiber optics? Assumptions and background: Fiber optics communications is essentially serial at extremely high bit rates ( > 1Gbits/sec ). So how do people interface the lower speed hardware (say a computer) to fiber-optics? MUXs, parallel to serial converters, etc. Are there any other options? E-mail preferred. I will summarize. Thanks, Sanjai Bhargava COMSAT Labs (301)-428-4502 (phone) 22300 Comsat Drive (301)-428-9287 (FAX) Clarksburg, MD 20871 e-mail: sanjai@ctd.comsat.com ------------------------------ From: tom@ulysses.att.com (Tom Smith) Subject: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 06:50:50 GMT Organization: AT&T Consumer Laboratory Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? Thanks, Tom Smith tom@ulysses.att.com ------------------------------ From: malodah@srv.pacbell.com (Martin Lodahl) Subject: "Number Referral" Recordings: Whose Responsibility? Date: 7 Sep 93 06:04:35 GMT Organization: Pacific * Bell This is going to look like a damn funny question, considering where it's coming from, but I've had no luck trying to get it solved either as a customer or internally. My home phone number is different by one digit (8xx-xxxx vs. 3xx-xxxx) from the internal directory assistance number for what must be one of the largest telephone accounts in the USA. This massive customer is in the middle of a phased series of number migrations, cutting thousands of lines at a time. When an old number is cut dead a garbled referral recording answers, and appears to give MY HOME PHONE NUMBER as the referral number. When there's a cut, we usually get thousands of calls the following Monday, and at least one a day the rest of the time. Telco says the recording belongs to the customer, and the customer says the recording belongs to telco. Of course. I have noticed through several iterations of this that when I track down marketing people responsible for an individual cut, I can get the recording fixed for that particular exchange, but what I really need is to have it fixed for _all_ exchanges, so this stops happening. Any suggestions? Martin Lodahl Systems Analyst, Capacity Planning, Pacific*Bell malodah@pacbell.com Sacramento, CA USA 916.972.4821 ------------------------------ From: voravit@nwg.nectec.or.th (Voravit Euavatanakorn) Subject: FDDI Over Copper - CDDI? Date: 7 Sep 1993 00:59:15 +0700 Organization: Academic and research support host at NECTEC, Bangkok, THAILAND I am interested in using FDDI over copper (CDDI?). I have read the FAQ but need more information. Does anybody know if the draft spec is available at an FTP site and if so where? Alternatively, would someone be so kind to mail me some basic information on CDDI, such as: - maximum number of stations - is it a dual couter-rotating ring (like FDDI) - how similar is it to FDDI (i.e. is it *exactly* the same except for the physical medium?) Mail is preferred, but I will check this group as well. Thanks in advance for your help. Voravit Euavatanakorn voravit@nwg.nectec.or.th ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 10:30:11 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: N0X Area Codes - Which Are the Newer Ones? The history.of.area.splits file asks the question about what would be a long-obsolete rule for area codes: N0X used for a state or province having only one area code N1X " " " " " " " 2 or more area codes The file then suggests that some very splits may never have been announced to the public because of direct-dial not yet existing, or they never occurred at all. So I decided to examine the N0X area codes and try listing those which might be newer (i.e. appearing in a state or province having two or more area codes). For this category, I notice that I can break out the NOX having the high last digits (except for 709,808,809,907). Try these: 209 (one of several areas in California) 308 (Nebraska, which also has 402) 309 (one of several areas in Illinois) 407 (came into use in 1988) 408 (came into use in 1960) 409 (came into use in 1983) 507 (one of three areas in Minnesota) 508 (came into use in 1988) 509 (Washington state, which also has 206) 606 (Kentucky, which also has 502) 607 (one of several areas in N.Y. state) 608 (one of three areas in Wisconsin) 609 (came into use in late 1950s?) 705 (part of Ontario) 706 (now serves part of Georgia) 707 (one of several areas in California) 708 (came into use in 1989) (709 is Newfoundland, which joined Canadian federation late; when in relation to introduction of area codes?) 804 (came into use in 1973) 805 (one of several areas in California) 806 (one of several areas in Texas) 807 (western Ontario) 808 and 809 are used by Hawaii and the Caribbean area) 903 (now serves part of Texas) 904 (came into use in 1965) 905 (soon to serve part of Ontario) 906 (came into use in early 1960s) (907 is Alaska) 908 (came into use in 1991) 909 (came into use in 1992) ------------------------------ From: inhydra!kessler@inuxs.UUCP Subject: Need Low Cost Cellular Phone With POTS Interface Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 9:03:40 EST I am looking for a low cost cellular phone with a POTS tip-ring interface. Any recommendations would be appreciated. William K. Kessler Voice: +1 317 845 6193 AT&T Bell Labs FAX: +1 317 845 3863 att!inuxs!kessler or w.k.kessler@att.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 14:53 CDT From: jdb@hobbes.sat.datapoint.com (Jeff Browning) Subject: DTMF Decoder Cards Hi, Does anybody out there know of a PC plug-in-card which accepts analog DTMF tones and decodes them for the PC? Or, alternatively, an external 'black box' which accepts DTMF tones and converts them to serial RS-232? I have some applications which need such a device, and I don't want to produce them. Black Box Corp. used to make them, but they are not on their current catalogs. Thanks, Jeff Browning jdb@sat.datapoint.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #631 ****************************** From telecom Wed Sep 8 10:44:04 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10875 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Wed, 8 Sep 1993 10:44:04 -0500 Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 10:44:04 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309081544.AA10875@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #632 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 8 Sep 93 10:44:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 632 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Notes on True Voice Demo (Eric N. Florack) Spread Spectrum Background and History (Dan Osborn) Allen Wants Local Competition (AT&T Press Release via Andrew B. Myers) MCI From Italy to Canada - Worked! (Alfredo Cotroneo) Tap Off a 1A2 Set? (Ken Reinert) U.S. Coast Guard Ends Radiotelegraph Distress System (Dave Leibold) High Voice Mailbox Fees (w.hefner@genie.geis.com) Acoustic Coupling of DTMF (David Josephson) AT&T Internet Connection (Gregory Youngblood) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Al Varney) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (John R. Levine) Re: DTMF Decoder Cards (lomker@delphi.com) Re: DTMF Decoder Cards (Gary Breuckman) Information Wanted on DS-0 Interface (Anant Ghotkar) Reverse Number Trace Needed in Australia (David Taylor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 04:59:02 -0700 From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Notes on True Voice Demo While my own testing on TruVoice was not nearly as complex or complete as what malcolm@apple.com released here the other day, my own testing tends to confirm the findings as posted ... so far as they go. Thanks to the folks there who compiled that report. However, I have a few notes of my own to add: > The filtering appears to be stationary. The demo over the phone turns > the filtering on gradually, but after a second there appears to be no > change in the filter's characteristics. The analysis described above > was performed over several subsections of the data and there was no > visible change in the filter's characteristics. Agreed. This tends to imply that there is no spectral limiting on the line itself, an old broadcaster's trick. > 0-100 Hz Not much change. > 100-300Hz A broad gain of 13.7 dB, 3dB Q is 1.5 > 120Hz About a 1dB dip in the gain > 180Hz Narrow band reject down to 1.5 dB, 3dB Q is 18 > 300-4kHz 4dB extra gain with a .5dB ripple This curve tends to suggest they gave some thought to the mid-bass mud I suggested would cause problems ... but by my own ear, not nearly enough to eliminate the added HD. To my ear, (I spent several years in a broadcast studio, and am a professional DJ in my other job, today) the 'before' part of the demo seemed to be a LOT narrower than average speech on normal LD lines. I suggest that AT&T has fudged the 'before' settings to the narrow side to make their 'change' more dramatic. Personally, I'd be interested in seeing the diff between a normal LD conversation on AT&T and the other carriers, as compared to the demo. I'm willing to bet the 'narrow' part of their demo is a lot narrower than real phone calls ... even without TRUEVOICE. I also note that the demo recording was very obviiously made in a recording studio, with low distortion mikes ... and some split- spectral level-limiting/processing was on the original recordings used for the intro (Tom 'it;s all part of the I-plan' Heartthrob), and the demo itself. The processing sounded an awful lot like an old ORBAN OPTIMOD proc stack I used to use at an AM station I worked for. The signal waveform looked as if the original (if not the online signal) had also been subjected to a 'smart clipper'. The waveforms had been rounded off somewhat after the fact, perhaps by the LD connection itself, but showed unmistakable signs of having been 'soft-clipped' prior to being fed to the phone line ... which again would suggest a Bob Orban type processor. I have to question how that the system will sound without all the sweetening/peak-crushing added in. I would further suggest that the 'louder' sound was not EQ alone ... it was being processed. Therefore, how that demo translates to real life is questionable at best. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Sep 93 10:05:35 EST From: dosborn@Internet.cnmw.com Subject: Spread Spectrum Background and History Pat - I've been following the discussions of 900MHz (Spread Spectrum) phones for about the past month. I'd like to contribute some information and history about Spread Spectrum (SS) communications There are two major families of Spread Spectrum (SS) communications: direct sequence and frequency hopping. Both methods "spread" the transmitted energy over a wide band, to provide greater security and "jamming" resistance. For direct sequence SS the signal itself is "multiplied" by a noise-like (pseudo-random) signal to give it a wide, low level spectrum. For frequency hopping SS, the carrier frequency is rapidly changed in a pseudo-random manner. While at any one moment, the signal stills looks "narrow band", over time it is spread over a wide band. In essence, for direct sequence SS, the signal is modulated with pseudo-noise; for frequency hopping SS, the carrier is modulated with pseudo-noise. Direct Sequence SS is a newer (50's) technology than Frequency Hopping (40's). However, FH has a much more colorful past. In mid 1941 an application for a Frequency Hopping patent was filed by Hedy K. Markey and George Antheil. Antheil was a well known symphony composer. Hedy Markey is known to us today has the screen actress Hedy Lamarr! In Austria, she was married to munitions-magnate Friedrich A. Mandl. There, she had witness the problems her husband and factory managers had with getting their "unguided" torpedoes to hit evasive targets. She left Austria and her husband in 1938, to come to America under a sever year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Once in America, she sought out Antheil, and the two of them developed a radio-control scheme in which the transmitted carrier frequency would jump around in a random-like manner. A torpedo carrying a properly synchronized receiver could thereby be secretly guided to its target. Their system used slotted paper rolls like those used in player pianos to control the frequency hopping. This relied upon past Antheil's musical experience. In the 1920's, he had been able to precisely synchronize multiple player pianos for a ballet. In their patent they point out that 88 frequencies could easily be accommodated -- same number as keys on a piano. More information on the history of spread spectrum communications is available in the IEEE book "Spread-Spectrum Communications" from which I stole most of the above information. I believe the current interest in spread spectrum is fueled by both security and range issues. The FCC has allowed higher transmission power levels in the 900 MHz band if the signal is SS. More power translates into greater range, which along with security is one of the greatest limitations of the current 46/49 MHz cordless telephones. The Cobra/Escort phones use direct sequence SS, while the AT&T phone is reported to use a frequency hopping SS method. Dan Osborn * dosborn@cinmw.internet.com * (513) 247-4623 * FAX: (513) 489-0819 Cincinnati Microwave Inc. * One Microwave Plaza * Cincinnati, OH 45249-9502 ------------------------------ From: abmyers@attmail.com (Andrew B Myers) Date: 8 Sep 93 12:09:56 GMT Subject: Allen Wants Local Competition AT&T CHAIRMAN SAYS COMPETITION IN LOCAL PHONE SERVICE WOULD BENEFIT AMERICAN PUBLIC WASHINGTON -- AT&T Board Chairman Robert E. Allen, testifying on legislation to update national communications policies, today told the Senate the time has come to see if the benefits of competition can be introduced in the local telephone business. Allen, appearing at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, endorsed a proposal (S.1086) that he said would "provide the freedom and incentives" for new companies to enter the local telephone market. Competition in the long distance market has meant wider choices, more innovation, higher quality and lower prices for consumers, he said. But he added the local telephone market still lacks competition and choice. "Virtually every person in this country must answer 'no' to the following questions," said Allen. "Do you have a choice of companies for local telephone service? Can you switch to another company to get better service or better prices?" He contrasted this with the long distance market, where 16 million consumers switched long distance carriers in 1992; where nine or more companies offer service in 45 states, 81 companies offer service in four states -- and customers in every state can choose among several companies. Allen corrected some misperceptions about cellular calling and the proposed merger of AT&T and McCaw Cellular Communications. He said 99 percent of all cellular calls go through the local telephone company facilities and only a tiny fraction -- mostly calls between cars within a cell -- avoid the bottleneck. "In short, without the telephone company," he said, "there's virtually no cellular service. So, people who claim that the AT&T/McCaw merger would cut out the phone companies don't know what they're talking about. It's not true today. And it won't be true for the foreseeable future." AT&T, he said, has no designs on getting back into the local telephone market. "But the local telephone companies want to get into long distance, even though they are still monopolies and control access to the customer." "When real competition breaks the (Bell company) bottleneck, concerns about monopoly abuse should end, and the (Bell companies) should be free to enter the long distance market," Allen said. # # # CONTACTS: Herb Linnen, 202-457-3933 (Linnen@ATTMAIL.COM) Jim McGann, 202-457-3942 (James.McGann@ATT.COM) ------------------------------ From: A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it (Alfredo Cotroneo) Subject: MCI From Italy to Canada - Worked! Date: 8 Sep 1993 08:46:01 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Something strange happened the other night when I tried calling a number in Canada from Italy with my MCI card (you know how you call toll free the US and the operator connect your call manually. BTW MCI does not charge more for person to person, while AT&T does. So you always save money calling person to person, especially when you are put on hold, or get an answering machine.) Italy is still one of the few countries in the world where phones are a State Monopoly, so MCIATTT/Sprint are not allowed to switch my calls to any other destination than the USA. Well, since the International Access code to Canada and USA is the same (+1), I did not really knew from the area code that the number I wanted to speak to was in Canada, neither the MCI operators apparently. I got in fact thru three different MCI operators (I heard them cliking heavily on their keyboard) who did not manage to connect my call, apparently blocked by their computer, until a supervisor came on line and completed my person-to-person paid call from Italy to Canada via USA! This is the first time I am successful, even though I did not know in advance that the number was in Canada, but I had the suspicion when they took so long to connect. Anybody had similiar experiences, or know if that could be done easily in the future? I am curious to see how much the call will be charged (same rates as to USA?) With best regards from Milano, Italy. P.S. Pse email directly, since I do not get all feeds. Alfredo E. Cotroneo, Bull HN Italia, I-20010 Pregnana MI, Italy work: A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it personal: 100020.1013@compuserve.com phone: +39-2-6779 8314 / 8427 | fax: +39-2-6779 8289 ------------------------------ From: reinert@cs.odu.edu (Ken Reinert) Subject: Tap Off a 1A2 Set? Date: 8 Sep 1993 03:55:04 GMT Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va I'm looking for a device that will allow a device (say, a fax machine) to tap into one of the lines of a 1A2 set. I have one on hand; it plugs in between the line and the phone at the 50-pin connector, and it has an RJ-11 jack *along with a cord connected to a rotary switch*, the switch having five positions: off-1-2-3-4. The basic thing is similar to the "Line-1 tap" that Rat Shack sells, but this one allows (obviously) the selection of which line to tap from. I don't have the source for the existing do-hickey :( Perhaps one of you folks out here in net.land could find something in a catalog (like Hello Direct or what-not, since I can't find my copy. Snap snarl growl grumble grumble.) Replies by e-mail, please; I'll (probably) post a summary). To all those who replied to my earlier request (way-back-when) about the 1A2 pulse-dial intercom, thanks; sorry I never got to summarize the replies for that, but the past two months have been an absolute botch. (By the way, the conversion has been put on hold. It's for my wife's office; she's part of the military machine, and the powers that be have decided to do a base-wide phone survey to see who needs what ... so now we'll probably be moving on before anything gets done about it. Oh well.) I ought to dig out the saved files and summarize, huh? Hmmm, maybe I should. Thanks, Ken ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 19:29:03 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: U.S. Coast Guard Ends Radiotelegraph Distress System From an {Associated Press} report, the U.S. Coast Guard's radio telegraph distress system became obsolete in the wake of satellite phone and radio-teletype ship operations. Thus, the 500 kHz distress frequency was recently abandoned with the Morse Code message "Now closing down continuous watch. Fair winds and following seas with 73s [regards] from all of us." Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ From: w.hefner@genie.geis.com Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 14:07:00 BST Subject: High Voice Mailbox Fees I live in Northern California (Eureka to be exact) and just had my Centrex system hooked-up yesterday. I was curious about possibly getting voice-mailbox service from Pacific Bell and was quoted a price of $ 19.95 a month. This seems to be considerably higher than what I have heard other telcos charge. As a matter of fact I seem to remember having read a note in the Digest from a subscriber in southern Calififornia that was only being charged $9.95 for the same service. I don't think that he specifically stated that he was connected to Pacific Bell, or that he was a business customer, but I'd sure like to know if I'm being charged a higher subscription rate for the same service (from the same company) just because I live in a different part of the state! Would it be legal for the local carrier to do this? Since ONLY the local carrier can provide this service (automaticly fowarding more than one call to a voice-mailbox service at the same time when your phone is busy) shouldn't the price for this service be regulated somehow? Also I'm allowed up to 40 messages for $19.95 a month. Any more than that and my price jumps to $40.00 a month. This sure seems like =ALOT= more than people in other parts of the country are being charged. By the way, I was told by my Centrex rep that the entire voice-mailbox system had to be totally overhauled recently because some phone phreakers had figured out how to change people's outgoing messages and delete their incoming messages. Now you have to call a totally separate phone number (different than the number that the service is connected to) to retrieve your messages. She said that this has annoyed many subscribers because now they have to remember TWO seperate phone numbers, plus their four to eight digit security code. I wonder if having to have two seperate phone numbers (for each subscriber) to get voice mailbox service is what I'm paying so much extra money for? ------------------------------ From: davidj@rahul.net (David Josephson) Subject: Acoustic Coupling of DTMF Organization: a2i network Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 02:24:11 GMT Greetings, It may seem misguided, but I'm involved with a project that requires acoustic coupling of touch-tones to an ordinary telephone handset, much like the Casio address book watches. Is there a spec for level, twist, etc. for acoustically coupled tones? Can someone here provide a pointer for the electrical spec for level and twist? Thanks, David Josephson ------------------------------ Subject: AT&T Internet Connection From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Wed, 08 Sep 93 05:02:52 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems The following is the response I got to a request for information from AT&T regarding their Internet services reached by dialing 950 1288 or 950 1ATT. I wish it was available NOW. Does anyone know how to reach GMIS Marketing in AT&T? How about trying to sign on as testers to get service now? Thanks, Greg Thank you for your message and your interest in the recent announcement from AT&T regarding Internet connectivity. We have been overwhelmed with inquiries and are unable to answer every one individually at this time. The services that have been announced will be available during 1Q94. In the interim, we will be providing more information that will soon be available via email inquiry. Please look to COM.PRIV and the InterNIC to see when more information is available. AT&T --------- The Complete Solution BBS | Allfiles List: | Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-9058 (24hrs, v.32) | ~/tcsbbs.lst | Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site | zeta@tcscs.com | Cellular Telephoney Groups ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 00:50:34 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Organization: AT&T In article 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM writes: >> In article elm@cs.berkeley.edu >> writes: >>> In article goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com >>> Goudreau) writes: >>>> I beg to differ. It seems to me that more places are using the >>>> *real* One True Dialing Plan (OTDP), in which all long-distance >>>> calls (intra-NPA included) are dialed with 11 digits, and only >>>> local, intra-NPA calls can use seven-digit dialing. .... >> So there are three kinds of calls, according to how you get >> charged: >> (1) local >> (2) quasi-local quasi-long-distance (like Pac Bell's Zone 3) >> (3) long distance > We had this in Long Beach, California when I had service with General > Telephone. Probably ten or more years ago, they eliminated the > requirement to dial "1" for calls which were not local in the (then) > 213 area code. This was done to allow NXX prefixes. > It would have been nice if they had instituted something like what the > Washington, DC area does: if the number is local to you and in your > area code, you dial seven digits (or you may optionally dial the area > code even though it is the same). If the number is local to you but > outside your area code, you dial the area code plus seven digits. If > it is long distance, even in the same area code, you dial 1 + area > code + 7 digits, but even on a local call you can dial 1 + area code + > seven digits and the call will still go through as an uncharged call. This only works in DC because C&P and other TELCOs work very hard to insure there are no (or minimal) overlaps in CO office code assignments. I'm sure it is a monster they are sorry they let out of the box, just to make the DC area seem more like a single-NPA area. But it only works if you have a single point in a multi-NPA area to focus upon. And it makes offering multiple levels of un-timed area hard to deploy -- if you elect to save line charges by reducing your free-calling area, does your dialing plan change? Even DC will have a hard time continuing the practice as fewer and fewer NXXs are locked out of the adjacent NPAs near DC. I have seen Pacific Bell's notice (via Bellcore, IL-93/07-040) that, effective Oct. 11, 1993, the following dialing procedures will become PERMISSIVE -- and becore MANDATORY STATEWIDE (including GTE and most other LECs) effective Oct. 10, 1994. This will make procedures for NPAs 209, 408, 619, 707, 805 and 916 similar to the current procedures for NPAs 213, 310, 415, 510, 714, 818 and 909. {The new state-wide dialing plan for California} Home NPA "local" and "toll" calls are 7-digit; NXX-XXXX. Foreigh NPA calls must be dialed with prefix "1" and 10-digits; 1+NPA+NXX-XXXX. Operator assisted calls, etc. will use prefix "0" and 10-digits; 0+NPA+NXX-XXXX. Home NPA "local" and "toll" calls can also be dialed with prefix "1" and 10-digits; 1+NPA+NXX-XXXX will work everywhere!!!! The latter procedure will be available in all California NPAs. Al Varney - my opinion only ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 23:36:48 -0400 From: johnl@ursa-major.spdcc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Reply-To: johnl@iecc.com > "This call will cost 30 cents plus 15 cents per minute. Thank you > for using AT&T.". Maybe. With the billing plan I have: "This call will cost about 12.5 cents per minute. If the total volume of calls on your eight lines at five locations this month is up to $25, the actual rate will be 12.5 cents/min. If the total volume is up to $50, the rate will be 5% less. If the total volume is between $50 and $100, it will be 10% less. If this is the most commonly called number from your account, and a bunch of other conditions apply, a different, lower "most" rate will apply. etc. etc." (This is for my home phone, by the way.) Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com ------------------------------ From: lomker@news.delphi.com (LOMKER@DELPHI.COM) Subject: Re: DTMF Decoder Cards Date: 8 Sep 1993 06:20:15 -0400 Organization: General Videotex Corporation jdb@hobbes.sat.datapoint.com (Jeff Browning) writes: > Does anybody out there know of a PC plug-in-card which accepts analog > DTMF tones and decodes them for the PC? A friend of mine has a box called a Smart-1. It send ASCII via the serial port. I understand that Sprint used them to dial their access code prior to Equal Access. I've seen them advertised for $50, but I don't have contact information on hand. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 05:58:21 -0700 From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: DTMF Decoder Cards In article is written: > Does anybody out there know of a PC plug-in-card which accepts analog > DTMF tones and decodes them for the PC? > Or, alternatively, an external 'black box' which accepts DTMF tones > and converts them to serial RS-232? > I have some applications which need such a device, and I don't want to > produce them. Black Box Corp. used to make them, but they are not on > their current catalogs. Some modems will decode touchtone -- the only one I currently own that I can verify does that is the USR dual standard, but there are probably others. The dual standard is a bit expensive if you only want to decode touchtone and aren't interested in the data features. Some modems also include caller-id functionality, the two I've used that do that are the Supra and the Practical Peripherals mini-tower. Now, if you could find one that did both ... The USR modem does take the line off-hook while it listens for touchtones. If you're trying to monitor outgoing calls, this might be a problem, you might need a circuit to couple the modem to the line without loading it. If you're answering the line and taking digits, this is likely just fine. Some of the voice cards can also do what you want. The problem is that the software usually supplied with many of these cards (Complete PC and the National TY-IN board, specifically) does not allow YOU to capture the touchtone -- the board accepts it and will do menu things, but doesn't pass it on. You might be able to get a "developer's kit" that would let you write software to do that. The WATSON board is another example that I've talked with people about but have no experience with. I understand it is more programmable in terms of the software supplied -- the Complete and TY-IN boards come with voice-mail type software that's all menu driven with no programming "hooks" to play with. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: ghotkara@abraxas.com (Anant Ghotkar) Subject: Information Wanted on DS-0 Interface Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 10:10:23 EDT I am desperately looking for information on the DS-0 interface. Any information or pointers to the info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Anant Ghotkar ------------------------------ From: David Taylor Subject: Reverse Number Trace Needed in Australia Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 13:23:14 +0800 Could someone out there please do a reverse call trace for me. (In the Australia region). The number is +61-9-246-3491. I would like a name, and possibly an address. If you can't do this trace, could you please try to put me in contact with someone in Oz who can. Thank you for your time. David Taylor ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #632 ****************************** From telecom Wed Sep 8 12:02:04 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04753 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Wed, 8 Sep 1993 12:02:04 -0500 Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 12:02:04 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309081702.AA04753@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #633 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 8 Sep 93 12:02:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 633 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Open Telephony Systems Forum in UK, September 27 (David Hough) Name Display on Caller-ID (Russell Morden) Looking for Ma Bell's Early Charges (Glenn Woroch) Book Review: "Introduction to Data Communications" by Gelber (Rob Slade) Trying to Make Sense of it All :-) (Madeline Gonzalez) Ohio University Job Opening (Jane Fraser) X.500 Front End (Volker Rast) My Experiences as a New Cellular Phone Owner (Timothy L. Kay) Call Diverters: Where Can I Get One? (Richard Eppert) Survey Assistance Needed (Vish Daita) Simple Two Line Phone Wanted (Dave A. Bonney) Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? (Mike Pollock) Recommendation Wanted For National Packet Network (Steve Lamont) Information Wanted on CT2 (McKenzie & Associates/Bonnie Phelps) Last Laugh! New Service From Pac-Bell (Clive Feather) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dave@llondel.demon.co.uk (David Hough) Subject: Open Telephony Systems Forum in UK, September 27 Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 12:05:27 +0000 [Moderator's Note: Passed along FYI. Write to them, not Mr. Hough. PAT] OPEN TELEPHONY SYSTEMS A Forum at Novell UK, Bracknell on the 27th September 1993 What is it? Until now only proprietary interfaces have been available from PABX and computer system manufacturers for Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications (CSTA). This has constrained CSTA to few large installations in specialist areas as independent software vendors have not been prepared to develop applications for a closed proprietary market. The AT&T/Novell Application Programmers Interface (API) provides a stable open interface and a large installed base to which independent software vendors can develop and sell CSTA software. Telecommunications manufacturers will implement PABX drivers to the AT&T/Novell specifications such that applications developed to the published API will operate on any PABX that conforms to the same driver specification. The telecommunications market will at last be open to third-party software developers. Who should attend? - Independent Software Vendors - Novell VARs and Authorised Re-sellers - IT & Telecommunications Consultants - IT & Telecommunications Managers - Telecommunications Dealers and Distributors For a full agenda and further information contact Stewart Parkinson or Jackie Sheppard at Interconnect Ltd on +44 865 883177 or fax on +44 865 883199. -------------- Dave G4WRW @ GB7WRW.#41.GBR.EU AX25 dave@llondel.demon.co.uk Internet g4wrw@g4wrw.ampr.org Amprnet ------------------------------ Subject: Name Display on Caller-ID From: russell.morden@canrem.com (Russell Morden) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 10:02:00 -0400 Organization: CRS Online (Toronto, Ontario) Bell Canada customers could soon benefit from a new optional feature that would give them greater control over their incoming calls and could help to further discourage annoying, harrassing or obscene phone calls. The feature, filed August 6, 1993 with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), will allow customers with special display screens on their telephones to see the name as well as the telephone number of people calling them. There is a 75-cent charge for this service. The name displayed would be the main listing that appears in the telephone directory. The main listed names of customers subscribing to non-published number service also would be displayed. However, the system will only support a maximum of 15 characters per name. Business names that are longer than 15 characters would be shortened and/or abbreviated, e.g. The Toronto-Dominion Bank would become Tor Dom Bank. ------------------------------ From: gworoch0@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: Looking for Ma Bell's Early Charges Date: 8 Sep 1993 10:03:40 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley I am looking for information on what Ma Bell charged when she was truly a monopoly, i.e., during the patent period 1876-1893. It was called The American Bell Telephone Company at that time. Any government or company documents that report charges for basic local service would be appreciated. I have some figures for 1885 and later, but not for the early years. Thanks, Glenn Woroch Dept. of Economics Univ. of California-Berkelely gworoch0@garnet.berkeley.edu [Moderator's Note: The rates then were disproportionatly higher than now (or even in the early 1900's, assuming the value of the dollar now and then, etc) but some of this can be attributed to the start up expense of the new technology rather than taking advantage of a mono- poly situation as such. It is a lot like the hand held calculators we use now which cost $3.98 at Walmart. In 1965 those same units cost about $200!! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 8 Sep 93 13:39 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Introduction to Data Communications" by Gelber BKINTDCM.RVW 930803 CBM Books 101 Witmer Road PO Box 446 Horsham, PA 19044 215-957-4265 Fax: 215-957-1050 76702.1565@compuserve.com books@propress.com "Introduction to Data Communications", Gelber, 1991, U$39 For no very good reason, I was looking forward to reading this book. Four chapters into it, I was beginning to wonder if any purpose would be served by reviewing it. Having finished it, I recommend the bulk of the work as a comprehensive and lucid introduction to the subject, though primarily practical only if you are dealing with IBM mainframes and networks. The intelligent reader, even with no background, should come away with a clear grasp of the concepts involved. Gelber admits, in the preface, that most of the examples he is using are drawn from the IBM (mainframe, one assumes) world. Initially, this bias is clearly evident, even though he states that he is trying to write a text, or just a book suitable for "anyone who desires a comprehensive, basic introduction to data communications". From the very first chapter, the philosophy, mindset and even diagrams of IBM are evident in the work. The introductory chapter will likely scare most away from the work. The progression is disjointed and abrupt, and the illustrations make no sense unless you already know the topic. (The one "basic" illustration purports to show a relation between analog and digital signals: in fact, it simply shows, as usual, that no art department can generate a sine wave.) Chapter two, supposedly explaining network planning, again assumes that "network capacity" requirements are known, without any thought to explain how these might be determined. Questions such as CPU size requirements and the need for "RJE" might have been lifted wholesale from an IBM sales manual. There are "review questions" at the end of every chapter. Many are merely silly ("Data communications had its beginnings when Samuel Morse did what?"), while others seem to misinterpret basic concepts of the field. (The question, "What is the predominant transmission method used today for data communications?" is answered with "Analog transmission". In fact, since we haven't yet managed to harness quantum mechanics for computing, no truly "digital" communications device exists since the *world* is analog.) Chapters three and four purport to cover "Communications Software" and "Application Development". Again, very few concepts are detailed here, and those which are deal with strictly IBM terminology. (Question 3.5: "What does the term "conversational mode processing describe?" Book answer: "The process of establishing and maintaining a communications session until the user terminates the connection." Can you say "interactive processing"? Can you say "real time"? I knew you could.) Part three, however, almost seems to be another book. Chapter five deals clearly with bandwidth, duplex and synchronous carriers, and the types of (data transmission only) services are lucidly described in chapter six. Chapter seven discusses modulation of signals and coding, and although the sine waves are no better, the explanations are great. (I notice that Gelber, in common with all other data communications instructors, "chickens out" when the topic turns to "Trellis Coded Modulation".) Part four, with chapters covering hardware links (the "physical layer", mostly cabling), other data communications hardware (multiplexers, bridges and the like), modems and hardware and interfaces (mostly plugs) carries on in the same high standard. While the ordering and organization of the material could be improved, the descriptions and tutelary content are first rate. Part five, covering regulation and standards, network configurations, network architectures and protocols is, again, excellent, as is part six, dealing with LANs, their repair and management. The book ends with a brief look at the future. This seems to be almost required of technical works today, but Gelber keeps it mercifully short and generic. The first two parts (and four chapters) definitely need to be replaced with a more realistic introduction. While the remaining material in the book is useful, clear, accurate and of a high standard, it could also use some planning and reorganization, so that the reader knows that there is a design at work. As it is, I would recommend that you buy this book, rip out the first four chapters, and staple in your own study guide to the remaining material. It is well worth the effort. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKINTDCM.RVW 930803 Permission is granted to copy when retransmitted by TELECOM Digest and affiliated mailing lists, newsgroups, etc. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca User p1@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ From: madeline@well.sf.ca.us (Madeline Gonzalez) Subject: Trying to Make Sense of it All :-) Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 13:46:57 GMT I'm trying to get a better understanding of what these emerging telecom standards are *about*: which type of network they're aimed at, which organization is sponsoring their definition/implementation, what the perceived benefits are of each, ... and *how they all fit together*! Can anyone help me with the ones I've listed below, or point me towards the right person or organization?? Below is an initial list ... maybe we could make this a "working document", for the benefit of all of us! Please add any clarifying details to hte following, and feel free to augment this list of emerging standards, or suggest a better way to conceptually organize them: Emerging Networking Concepts Standards: - ISDN (narrowband Integrated Services Digital Network) - B-ISDN (Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network) - ATM (Asynchronous Trasfer Mode) - AIN (Advanced Intelligent Network) - UPS (Universal Personal Service) Emerging Physical Technology Standards: Trunk networks: - SONET (Synchronous Optical Network): 24-channel world - SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy): 30-channel world Local loop: - FITL, FTTC (Fiber in the Loop, Fiber to the Curb) -FR (Frame Relay) ? Emerging Network Management Standards: - OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Model: provide object-oriented way of modeling telecom equipment and management processes - TMN (Telecommunications Management Network): ? Perhaps a whole separate posting could deal with the topic of "type of network"! It'd be nice to come up with a way to conceptually view modern networks and how they fit together ... how to categorize them; i.e., based on protocol? Type of switching (packet, circuit, ..)? long-distance trunks vs local loop? public/private nature? based on what's being carried (voice, data, etc.)? or the media used to carry it (metallic wire, fiber, air..)? Just got Quarterman's "The Matrix" which does a really good job on the worldwide *computer* networks.. can anyone recommend a book or other literature that deals with *all* nets? (I'm currently in a very small town in rural Colorado with no timely access to a technical library ... but *can* mail-order, thank God :-) ) Thanks! Madeline madeline@well.sf.ca.us ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1993 15:17:32 EDT From: fraser@ccl2.eng.ohio-state.edu Subject: Ohio University Job Opening The J. Warren McClure School of Communication Systems Management at Ohio University is seeking applicants for one, and possibly two, tenure-track assistant/associate professor positions (rank dependent upon qualifications). This nationally recognized undergraduate program focuses on the design and management of voice, data, and image telecommunications networks. The program, in existence since 1981, was one of the first of its kind in the nation, and prides itself on quality education and professional involvement for faculty and students. A master's degree program is being planned. Candidates for the first position should be prepared to teach, and pursue research in, common carrier regulation and policy; the ability to teach voice/data telecommunication technology and/or management would also be a plus. Candidates for the second position should be able to teach, and pursue research in, new technologies, data communications, or voice systems. We seek candidates with a PhD in a pertinent area (public policy, telecommunications, regulatory economics, engineering, management, computer science); or with a Master's degree or other appropriate terminal degree plus significant industry experience. Minimum salary for a nine-month position is $36,000/$42,000; summer teaching is possible. Ohio University provides a wide range of benefits, including family educational benefits. Desired starting date is March 1, 1994, or September 1, 1994, depending upon availability of candidates. To assure consideration, applications should be submitted on or before December 1, 1993. The process will remain open until a candidate is selected. Send letters of application, vitae, and have three letters of reference sent to: Phyllis Bernt, Director, J. Warren McClure School of Communication Systems Management, Room 197, 9 South College Street, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701. Ohio University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. ------------------------------ From: vrast@worldbank.org (Volker Rast) Subject: X.500 Front End Reply-To: vrast@worldbank.org Organization: The World Bank Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 11:40:00 GMT We have X.500 servers running on Unix and Dec and are looking for a front-end, i.e., User Agent, running on Unix, Windows, DOS or MAC. Any information or help would be appreciated. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 15:09:26 -0700 From: Timothy L. Kay Subject: My Experiences as a New Cellular Phone Owner Cellular phones are getting less expensive all the time ... I am moving back to Los Angeles. I started searching for an apartment and ran into the typical Catch 22. I call a number listed on the "For Rent" sign only to get an answering machine. Of course, I had no home phone, so I couldn't leave a number for them to return my call. I happened to be in a discount store and saw an offer almost too good to be true: a cellular phone (the original Motorola MC-750) for $75. Also, if I sign up at the time of purchase, select L.A. Cellular, and select the standard plan, they would give me an instant $25 rebate. So the cellular phone cost me only $50 (plus tax). The standard plan costs $50 to sign on, $45 per month, $.45/minute peak (7am-7pm), and $.27/minute off peak. The phone allowed me to find a nice apartment in half the time, so I consider the total cost paid for, even if I discontinue service and throw away the phone. But I got hooked! I really enjoyed the convenience of having a cellular phone. I made some calls to see if I could get some kind of service at a reduced rate. The first step was to have L.A. Cellular switch me from the standard plan to the night-owl plan which is $25/month, $.90/minute peak, and $.20/minute off peak. They normally charge $15 to switch, but, as I was a new customer, they were willing to change me for free. Although, I had to select the standard plan to qualify for the $25 rebate, no mention was made of that when they offered to switch me. Furthermore, I had bought the phone at the end of the month, so the charged me pro rata for the rest of the months ($4.50), and were willing to change my rate effective the beginning of the next month. I never had to pay for a single month at the standard plan rate. Such a deal. Then I talked to PacTel Cellular in San Diego. They have a plan which costs $20/month, and $.74 peak $.19 off peak/minute. However, if I make the calls from/to L.A., the L.A. roaming rate of $.60 applies at all times. This seems like the best arrangement, so I might make the change. This plan is perfect for people who have a cellular phone only for emergencies. There is a $40 connect charge in San Diego. Now that I have the phone, I need to get some accessories, such as spare batteries and a rapid charger. Can anybody recommend a good mail order shop? Tim Kay ------------------------------ Subject: Call Diverters: Where Can I Get One? From: reppert@indiana.edu (Richard Eppert) Date: 8 Sep 93 10:48:12 -0500 Organization: Indiana University Does anyone know where I can get a call diverter? I want a device that answers an incoming line and then will divert to a another line. Thanks, Richard Eppert (reppert@indiana.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 17:10:16 -0500 From: vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu (Vish Daita) Subject: Survey Assistance Needed Oklahoma State University is in the process of developing a new graduate course in Telecommunications Management. We need to conduct an extensive survey of the industry and university experts to determine what the course should offer to new students. It would be of immense help to all of us here if we can obtain opinions on this subject. If anyone is interested in filling out a survey questionnaire I can mail them a hard-copy. My email address is vish@orcs.bus.okstate.edu. Thanking you, Sincerely, Vish Daita MBA Program - Oklahoma State University ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 00:41 PDT From: dab@speedway.net Subject: Simple Two Line Phone Wanted I'm looking for a basic two line telephone, with 'simple' features: What I want: Desk telephone with two lines. (or even three lines?) 'Line in Use' / 'Ringing Line' indication. (an LED) Electronic Hold with Hold Indication. (a blinking LED) Automatic Hold Release for when the call is picked up elsewhere. Solid Construction. Simple to use. (To be used by temporary staff and visitors to school) Optional / Would like to have: (although not required) 'TAP' button capability. (Sometimes labeled 'FLASH' or 'ACCESS' etc.) Timed Disconnect. (Usual in conjunction with the TAP capability.) Last Number Redial. Do *NOT* need or want: Multi Buttoned Speed Dial capability. <- Speaker Phone capabilities. <- ALL NO-NO's Batteries that have to be changed. <- Does such a beast exist? All I've found locally are 'consumerist' phones with speed dial buttons to confuse the poor user. Manufacturer and Model Number would be appreciated. I need three to six or so. A summary of the replies I've received to date: - - - - - From: Carl Oppedahl Sorry, the ones I have that meet your requirements also have the speed dialer and the speaker phone. But anyway, Panasonic has a number of multiline phones and you ought to be able to find one you like in their product line. [ Many styles, but all that I've found have speed-dial buttons... DAB ] - - - - - From: Eliot Moore Closest beastie I can think of is last year's Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone, the two-line wall phone model. You may have to look to find 'em, but it had two lines, flash, hold, and little else. [ As I said, I've been looking... and looking... and looking... DAB ] ... Beware the Panasonic phones. Quality is slipping - lousy buttons, cheap plastic construction, poor audio, etc. [ So noted. DAB ] - - - - - From: Moe Knight / Kai Schlichting Radio Shack makes a phone fitting your MINIMUM description. Sells for about $40 and has two line buttons, a hold button, a last number redial. Sends tone or pulse dialing. LED for call on hold or line ringing (solid light or flashing, respectively). Requires no batteries ... runs off the line voltage. [ Rat-Shack usually fails the 'Solid Construction' test. And anyway, it seems to be a discontinued model. :-( DAB ] - - - - - Any further leads would be greatly appreciated. Please - Model numbers if you have them. Regards, Dave Bonney Internet: or MCI Mail: 422-4552 ------------------------------ From: Mike.Pollock@p19.f228.n2613.z1.fidonet.org (Mike Pollock) Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1993 16:45:04 -0500 Subject: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? Mike McClintock, on his weekly network radio show, was wondering how operators came up with their stereotypical way of pronouncing the numeral 9 as "neye-in." I thought about it for a moment and concluded that, of all the digits an operator might need to pronounce (i.e. zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine) all have distinct vowel sounds except five and nine. On a scratchy old telephone line, five and nine could be confused, so operators added a syllable to "neye-in" to distinguish the two. Thus an exchange of 555 and 595 wouldn't be confused by the caller. Does this have any basis in fact, or is there a better reason? Thanks! Mike ------------------------------ From: smlamont@hebron.connected.com (Steve Lamont) Subject: Recommendation Wanted For National Packet Network Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 10:44:41 -0700 Organization: Connected INC -- Internet Services I use a commercial Internet service in Seattle, but it costs a lot to dial in when I travel. Can anyone recommend a national packet network that will help me save money? Does it require any special interface with my own Internet service (a real drawback)? What does it cost? How can I contact them? Thanks for the help. Steven Lamont smlamont@hebron.connected.com ------------------------------ From: bphelps@cscns.com (McKenzie & Associates/Bonnie Phelps) Subject: Information Wanted on CT2 Organization: Community_News_Service Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 12:49:32 GMT Does anyone have any information about CT2 (voice-paging) from Motorola, or does anyone know of any specific archived data somewhere out there in cyberspace? Any assistance will be appreciated. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: clive@x.co.uk (Clive Feather) Subject: Last Laugh! New PacBell Offering Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 14:14:54 BST Pat, this appeared on uk.telecom this morning, apparently reposted from rec.humor.funny: Are you bothered by crank callers? Harrased by phone salesmen? Do people who won't leave messages on your answering machine really annoy you? Pacific Bell is proud to annouce the newest member of its call services family: call revenge. For just $5 per month you can dial a special code that will send a 1000V charge to the last phone number that called you. A special 10,000V charge is available for an additional per-use charge. Pacific Bell Because good enough isn't (profitable enough) Clive D.W. Feather IXI Ltd (an SCO company) clive@x.co.uk Vision Park Phone: +44 223 236 555 Cambridge CB4 4ZR Fax: +44 223 236 466 United Kingdom ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #633 ****************************** From telecom Wed Sep 8 13:07:51 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09342 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Wed, 8 Sep 1993 13:07:51 -0500 Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 13:07:51 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309081807.AA09342@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #634 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 8 Sep 93 13:07:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 634 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems (Dave O'Shea) Re: Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems (David Leibold) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Bob Gettys) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Eric Thompson) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Koos de Heer) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Durham, NC Hotel Experience (Alan Boritz) Re: Durham, NC Hotel Experience (Carl Moore) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Tony Harminc) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Andy Sherman) Re: 57.6kb CCIT Standard? (Toby Nixon) Re: DTMF Decoder Cards (Mark Earle) Re: FDDI Over Copper - CDDI? (Lars J|rgen Poulsen) Re: Notes on True Voice Demo (David G. Lewis) Re: Credit Card Validation (Lee Sweet) Re: Just What Does Integretel Do? (H. Shrikumar) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems Date: 8 Sep 1993 10:44:38 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In Thomas Hutton writes: > On a recent trip to San Francisco, my hotel bill from the San > Francisco Regis hotel showed several long distance charges for phone > numbers that the local exchange carrier (Pacific Bell) considers to be > in the local (ZUM 1) calling area. The hotel is claiming these are > long distance because its a different area code (510 vrs 415) but > PacBell says standard local call. Who can one complain to (and have > something done) about this? I've tried the CPUC but they state they > have no control over hotels. > [Moderator's Note: The PUC has no control over how the owner of a > private phone system wishes to operate it. The FCC has some rules. You > are best off writing the hotel management and complaining to them, but > don't expect that to get you very far either. You are better off trying > to avoid hotel phone systems as much as possible by using calling cards > and payphones. [plug for moderator's calling card deleted]] The Moderator is right that most PUCs have chosen to deregulate hotel rates completely. (It's not that they "have no control" but that they have chosen not to exert the control, at least for intrastate calls.) The way to fix this problem is to check into the situation before making your hotel reservation. I promise you that if even 2% of the people calling hotel reservations offices started asking how much the hotel charges for its calls, the hotel management would hear about and would realize that hotel guests are in fact quite irritated at the ripoffs. But if you and everyone else book rooms and don't bother to ask about phone rates beforehand, you are reinforcing the management view that guests really don't care about it. This group has had many threads about hotel chains that do or do not gouge guests at the phone -- it would be an easy matter to guide yourself accordingly. Another anti-gouge tip -- if you do use your calling card from your room, use the # key to go from one call to the next, rather than the room hookswitch -- that way the gouge will be spread out over several calls rather than once per call. Yet another anti-gouge tip -- set up 800 numbers for your frequently called numbers -- home, office, friends, whatever. The cost-per-month for this should be free or very close to it if you shop around. (I seem to recall the moderator offers a cheap 800 number.) In lots of hotels nowadays they do not gouge you if you call an 800 number that they cannot recognize as a long-distance calling card access number. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: dave_oshea@wiltel.com (Dave O'Shea) Subject: Re: Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 17:27:07 EST Thomas Hutton writes: > On a recent trip to San Francisco, my hotel bill from the San > Francisco Regis hotel showed several long distance charges for phone > numbers that the local exchange carrier (Pacific Bell) considers to be > in the local (ZUM 1) calling area. The hotel is claiming these are > long distance because its a different area code (510 vrs 415) but > PacBell says standard local call. Who can one complain to (and have > something done) about this? I've tried the CPUC but they state they > have no control over hotels. I am in the habit of calling hotels which I plan to stay at in advance, and asking if they charge for 800 or local calls. If the answer is "yes", I usually look for another hotel. The worst experience was at the Four Seasons hotel in San Francisco: $13.50 for a 20-minute local (2 blocks away, still in downtown SF) call. They got the $13.50, but they lost $14,000+ in room-nights the next year by not having one of the nation's largest insurance companies list them as a "preferred" hotel. If you do get stuck, complain loudly and in as public a way as possible, preferably making an hotel-manager-embarassing scene at the check-in desk. I don't mind paying for convenience, but a 29,000% markup on a phone call is ridiculous. Dave O'Shea dos@wdns.wiltel.com Sr. Network Support Engineer 201.236.3730 WilTel Data Network Services ------------------------------ From: djcl@io.org (woody) Subject: Re: Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems Date: 7 Sep 1993 21:36:54 GMT Organization: Internex Online - Toronto, Canada (416) 363-3783 In article Thomas Hutton writes: > On a recent trip to San Francisco, my hotel bill from the San > Francisco Regis hotel showed several long distance charges for phone > numbers that the local exchange carrier (Pacific Bell) considers to be > in the local (ZUM 1) calling area. The hotel is claiming these are > long distance because its a different area code (510 vrs 415) but > PacBell says standard local call. Who can one complain to (and have > something done) about this? I've tried the CPUC but they state they > have no control over hotels. Perhaps Pac*Bell could actually help out here, by clarifying to the hotel what's local and what's long distance. Running your problem by a convention/visitor's bureau for San Francisco, or their BBB or hotel association might be other steps to take. If the hotel is part of a chain, perhaps cc: of letters to the tourist bureau, BBB, PacBell, etc. to the chain head office would be another step. David Leibold ------------------------------ From: gettys@regent.enet.dec.com (Bob Gettys) Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 02:01:47 GMT In article , tom@ulysses.att.com (Tom Smith) writes: > Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will > place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? See the new Radio Shack catalog. Bob ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 19:43:49 -0700 From: thompson@netcom.com (Eric Thompson) Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? tom@ulysses.att.com writes: > Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will > place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? My Panasonic KX-T2740 two-line phone/answering machine does this (and a lot lot of other stuff). I've had it for years, it's great. It's also about $200, last I checked ... but I know four other people who bought one because they used mine ... go figure. Eric ------------------------------ From: cvitoa!koos@uunet.UU.NET (Koos de Heer) Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 12:34:18 GMT Organization: Centrum Voor Informatieverwerking, Utrecht, The Netherlands In tom@ulysses.att.com (Tom Smith) writes: > Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will > place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? Much cheaper solution: mention the number of your pager on the OGM of your answering machine. Saves you: 1. the cost of buying a new answering machine _and_ 2. the costs of the calls to your pager. Good luck, Koos ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? Date: 7 Sep 1993 15:46:46 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC The Hello Direct catalog (1-800-HI-HELLO) carries such a machine. I seem to recall it is about $250. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Durham, NC Hotel Experience From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Tue, 07 Sep 93 22:46:48 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 Thomas Lapp writes: > In the end, I figured that I would be charged a LOT for all these > calls from my room. When the bill came there WERE NO PHONE CHARGES AT > ALL! Hats off to Red Roof Inn on 15-501 for at least being reasonable > about telephone service for us captive guests. That's one of the things I noticed right away, after staying at Red Roof Inn's in different cities. All long distance calls are sent-paid, or collect, so you handle your own long distance billing yourself. I think it's amazing that the Hilton's and the Mariot's have to nickle and dime you to death AND charge relatively high room rates, while the Red Roof Inn's and the Motel-6's can charge reasonable rates and not pick their customer's wallets, so to speak. It shows an interesting perspective on the respective owners' profit motives. uunet!drharry!aboritz or apple!camphq!drharry!(aboritz) Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 10:29:23 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Durham, NC Hotel Experience What did the pay phone (BellSouth) say for long distance calls within the area code (919)? Remember that 919 had to program for N0X/N1X prefixes (with the 919/910 split not far ahead), so that you'd use 1+919+7D for long distance within 919 and 0+919+7D for collect etc. within 919. Perhaps the 1-555-1212 you saw was out of date. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Sep 93 12:38:18 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan varney@ihlpe.att.com wrote: >> It would have been nice if they had instituted something like what the >> Washington, DC area does: if the number is local to you and in your >> area code, you dial seven digits (or you may optionally dial the area >> code even though it is the same). If the number is local to you but >> outside your area code, you dial the area code plus seven digits. If >> it is long distance, even in the same area code, you dial 1 + area >> code + 7 digits, but even on a local call you can dial 1 + area code + >> seven digits and the call will still go through as an uncharged call. > This only works in DC because C&P and other TELCOs work very hard > to insure there are no (or minimal) overlaps in CO office code > assignments. I'm sure it is a monster they are sorry they let out of > the box, just to make the DC area seem more like a single-NPA area. > But it only works if you have a single point in a multi-NPA area to > focus upon. And it makes offering multiple levels of un-timed area > hard to deploy -- if you elect to save line charges by reducing your > free-calling area, does your dialing plan change? Even DC will have a > hard time continuing the practice as fewer and fewer NXXs are locked > out of the adjacent NPAs near DC. I don't follow. With the dialing plan listed above (the same one that's going into use with the 416/905 split in the Toronto area), the only codes that have to be locked out are the nearby NPAs as CO codes. How many can that be in the forseeable future? Five? Ten even with overlays? It doesn't seem like a severe penalty. Protection of CO codes across NPA borders is needed only if seven-digit dialing across those borders is provided. I don't think anyone is suggesting that that should continue in the long term. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 13:00:05 EDT From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan In article 6@eecs.nwu.edu, puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) writes: > In article denbesten@orchestra.bgsu. > edu (William C. DenBesten) writes: >> Perhaps the way to get rid of the association between one and toll >> without bothering people would be to announce the cost of the call >> immediately after dialing. Eg: "This call will cost 30 cents plus 15 >> cents per minute. Thank you for using AT&T.". > This sounds like an excellent thing to do, both from the standpoint > that you mentioned, and the fact that the live operators have a lot of > problems quoting prices ... it would make it a lot easier to compare > carriers. But, it will probably never happen unless forced. Carriers > likely do NOT want to remind you of the cost of a call as you place it > -- it would tend to make calls shorter rather than longer if you were > so informed each time. This might not be as easy as you think. Even if you assume that quoting list price for the call is easy (see below about that assumption), the enormous number of different discount plans would require a real-time billing record lookup and rate computation as part of call setup. This would likely be a costly feature to develop, and increased cost means increased price. Would this feature add enough value that ratepayers would be willing to pay for it? Even quoting list price might be pretty hard. The long distance networks do not compute prices on the fly. They measure the bare essentials (calling number, called number, billing number, and minutes) and leave it to billing systems downstream to rate the price of the call. While it may seem like a nice feature, I question whether very many people would be willing to pay higher across-the-board long distance rates to get it, especially since adding the real-time billing record lookup and price computation would have a dileterious affect on call setup time. You'd pay more for slower service. This is progress? DISCLAIMER: I own stock in a long distance carrier. I assume and prefer that its management would not use my money to provide this service for free. Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com ------------------------------ From: tnixon@microsoft.com (Toby Nixon) Subject: Re: 57.6kb CCIT Standard? Date: 08 Sep 93 14:02:48 GMT Organization: Microsoft Corporation, Redmond WA, USA In article todamhyp@unlv.edu wrote: > Is there a Protocol/standard for modems that operate at a RAW data > connection speed of 57.6 kbaud without data compression? Not on a single phone line. V.36 and V.37 do support speeds that fast (and faster), but they are "group band" modems which combine the bandwidth of several telephony channels to achieve those rates. Once you get up to those speeds, these days it is much more cost-effective to just go to digital transmission. Toby ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 12:15:11 CDT From: mearle@cbi.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Re: DTMF Decoder Cards You might look in the back of the amateur radio magazines (QST, 73, Ham Radio). I recall seeing such products available; or as an external box with a serial port interface. 73 and Ham Radio are usually available at any mall book store. QST is not always carried. You might also check the library in your area. Also of interest might be an amateur radio equipment dealer; they would have a good selection of periodicals. I'm not able to access my personal library now or I'd cite some ads for you :-) mwe ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 23:52:57 +0200 From: lars@login.dkuug.dk (Lars J|rgen Poulsen) Subject: Re: FDDI Over Copper - CDDI? In comp.dcom.telecom was written: > I am interested in using FDDI over copper (CDDI?). I have read the FAQ > but need more information. Does anybody know if the draft spec is > available at an FTP site and if so where? I believe there are two competing formats, but I also think the leader is one developed by Crescendo who have licensed it to several other vendors (including Rockwell/CMC Network Products). > Alternatively, would someone be so kind to mail me some basic > information on CDDI, such as: -- maximum number of stations -- is it a > dual couter-rotating ring (like FDDI) -- how similar is it to FDDI > (i.e. is it *exactly* the same except for the physical medium?) CDDI -- at least in the Crescendo version -- *is* FDDI on copper, but it is single-attach, not dual ring. Copper wiring connects your workstation to a concentrator, which sits on the dual fiber ring. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 64 32 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: Notes on True Voice Demo Organization: AT&T Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 17:04:10 GMT In article Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@ xerox.com writes: > While my own testing on TruVoice was not nearly as complex or complete ObNit: TruVoice (without the "e") is a registered trademark of Centigram Communications. TrueVoice (with the "e") is a service mark of AT&T. > To my ear, (I spent several years in a broadcast studio, and am a > professional DJ in my other job, today) the 'before' part of the demo > seemed to be a LOT narrower than average speech on normal LD lines. I > suggest that AT&T has fudged the 'before' settings to the narrow side > to make their 'change' more dramatic. I suggest that you're mistaken; the "unenhanced" portion of the TrueVoice demo is standard recorded speech in a Conversant (TM) Voice Information System. I don't believe -- although I could be mistaken -- that the CVIS does any processing of the sort you're describing. > Personally, I'd be interested in seeing the diff between a normal LD > conversation on AT&T and the other carriers, as compared to the demo. > I'm willing to bet the 'narrow' part of their demo is a lot narrower > than real phone calls ... even without TRUEVOICE. Should be easy enough to compare carriers -- make a demo tape and place calls over various carriers, then do the same kind of comparison. I don't know about comparing it to TrueVoice, though -- at least not until TrueVoice is deployed in the network. Installation is beginning in Atlanta on September 23 -- if someone in Atlanta has the setup that was used to do the comparison posted, they will be able to run comparisons of AT&T calls with TrueVoice to calls on other IXCs. > I also note that the demo recording was very obviiously made in a > recording studio, with low distortion mikes ... Actually, the demo recording was made in a lab in Holmdel with (I believe) a 7506 ISDN handset. > Therefore, how that demo translates to real life is questionable at > best. Well, I look forward to a "back-to-back" comparison with other IXCs when TrueVoice is installed. Should be interesting. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ From: decrsc!leesweet@uunet.UU.NET (Lee Sweet) Subject: Re: Credit Card Validation Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 18:38:06 EDT One more example: I asked for a replacement MasterCard from MBNA (Maryland Bank, NA), and the folder that came with it said that I had to call to get it activated. Well, this one was a real (live) person, who asked me what I think is the best question yet. After all the telephone, address, etc., she wanted to know my last payment. Since it was just a week or so ago then, it wouldn't have been anywhere else except in their hands and in my checkbook (and maybe at my bank). [Good thing I was sitting at my PC with Quicken ready to come up and tell me what I *did* pay them!] Questions that are easily answered elsewhere are a waste of time and false security. Lee Sweet Internet *lists* - leesweet@datatel.com Chief Systems Consultant Internet *e-mail* - lee@datatel.com Datatel, Inc. Phone - 703-968-4661 4375 Fair Lakes Court FAX - 703-968-4625 Fairfax, VA 22033 (Opinions are my own, and only my own!) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 22:52:36 -0400 From: shri@freal.cs.umass.edu Subject: Re: Just What Does Integretel Do? Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Sys & Computer Networks Bombay India In article dave@kentrox.com wrote: > was a charge from Integretel, apparently for a collect call from > [Moderator's Note: Integretel is a service bureau serving a number of ... > use Integretel to handle their billings. They do not, to the best of > my knowledge, use the database AT&T, Sprint and MCI use with reference > to phone lines with 'billed number screening'. But they do have their > own such database and will add any phone number to it on request. PAT] PAT ... do you mean to say that (sacrificing brevity for prespicuosity): "Integretel does not use the same database as provided by the LEC to AT&T, Sprint and MCI, so even if I told my LEC to apply billed number screening to block all collect calls just so that I can block people like Integretel (at the cost of blocking some of my friends as well ;-() I would have achieved nothing." ??? !!! I was out of town all of spring and summer, and thats what I did, especially since my phone was accesible to a few who had a key to the apartment, and it was quite possible for someone to call a 800 Collect Scammer. Cannot I tell some one person, preferably my LEC who alloted me the number (enabling the scam), and is billing me for them (perpetuating the scam) that "I am going to be out of town for several months and am leaving a machine on my line, and I'd like to set up so that there cannot be anything more than the monthly charge at all" .. "please". shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in ) [Moderator's Note: No, you cannot tell some one person, and yes the use of the billed number screening database is voluntary. It makes good sense and avoids a lot of billing hassles later on, which is why the Big Three (and a few others) choose to participate. Integretel is content maintaining its own similar database, and they will add you to it upon request. Once added, you not only will not get collect calls from an AOS-operated COCOT, but you will be blocked from getting the 'services' rendered by any of Integretel's clients who use collect calls as their method of payment. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #634 ****************************** From telecom Thu Sep 9 12:56:32 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19842 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Thu, 9 Sep 1993 12:56:32 -0500 Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 12:56:32 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309091756.AA19842@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #635 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 9 Sep 93 12:56:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 635 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson 900 Mhz Cordless Frequencies (Les Reeves) Canadian Document Database (Tyson Macaulay) U.C. Berkeley Short Courses on High-Speed Communications (Harvey Stern) Book Review: "Portable Communications" by Banks (Rob Slade) French Secret Services Experiences Wanted (Jean-Bernard Condat) AT&T Vanity Calling Cards (Wall Street Journal via Les Reeves) DTMF Voting System (templar@phantom.com) CFV: comp.dcom.telecom.tech (Andrew Solovay) Death of the Net Predicted! (was AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis) (C. Simpson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1993 08:23:27 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: 900 Mhz Cordless Frequencies The FCC has granted equipment authorizations to three new 900 MHz cordless phones: AT&T #9120: 902-905 & 925-928 MHz Otron Corp. #CP-1000: 902.1-903.9 & 926.1-927.9 MHz Samsung #SP-R912: 903 & 927 MHz ******************************* Panasonic 900MHZ Cordless Freqencies: CH BASE HANDSET CH BASE HANDSET -- ------- ------- -- ------- ------- 01 902.100 926.100 31 903.000 927.000 02 902.130 926.130 32 903.030 927.030 03 902.160 926.160 33 903.060 927.060 04 902.190 926.190 34 903.090 927.090 05 902.220 926.220 35 903.120 927.120 06 902.250 926.250 36 903.150 927.150 07 902.280 926.280 37 903.180 927.180 08 902.310 926.310 38 903.210 927.210 09 902.340 926.340 39 903.240 927.240 10 902.370 926.370 40 903.270 927.270 11 902.400 926.400 41 903.300 927.300 12 902.430 926.430 42 903.330 927.330 13 902.460 926.460 43 903.360 927.360 14 902.490 926.490 44 903.390 927.390 15 902.520 926.520 45 903.420 927.420 16 902.550 926.550 46 903.450 927.450 17 902.580 926.580 47 903.480 927.480 18 902.610 926.610 48 903.510 927.510 19 902.640 926.640 49 903.540 927.540 20 902.670 926.670 50 903.570 927.570 21 902.700 926.700 51 903.600 927.600 22 902.730 926.730 52 903.630 927.630 23 902.760 926.760 53 903.660 927.660 24 902.790 926.790 54 903.690 927.690 25 902.820 926.820 55 903.720 927.720 26 902.850 926.850 56 903.750 927.750 27 902.880 926.880 57 903.780 927.780 28 902.910 926.910 58 903.810 927.810 29 902.940 926.940 59 903.840 927.840 30 902.970 926.970 -- ------- ------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 11:52:16 EDT From: Tyson=Macaulay%DTP%DGCP=HQ=ADMSR@dgbt.banyan.doc.ca Subject: Canadian Document Database The Department of Industry and Science, Government of Canada, is pleased to announce the launch of an on-line document database. This pilot project currently makes nine telecommunications-related documents available in both official languages, English and French. **** ftp access All documents are available in ASCII format, uncompressed via anonymous ftp from: debra.dgbt.doc.ca pub/doc/ for the most recent index of files retrieve "00readme" *** Listserv access These files are also available via Listerserv for people with e- mail access only. The address is: listserv@debra.dgbt.doc.ca To retrieve the most recent index of documents available send the following command alone in the body of the message: get isc 00readme ****** Titles available: A Guide for the radiotelephone operator 1986, English 56 p / French 58 p Decoding the Law on Decoding 1991, English 13 p / French 13 p Convergence, Competition and Cooperation 1992, English 287 p / French 311 p Telecommunications in Canada: An overview of the Carriage Industry 1992, Eng 36 p / French 38 p Telecommunications: New Legislation for Canada 1992, Eng 25 p / French 28 p New Media New Choices 1992, English 43 p / French 47 p Telecommunications Privacy Principles 1992, English 8 p / French 8 p A Spectrum Policy Framework for Canada 1992, English 29 p / French 30 p Digital Radio: the sound of the future 1993, Eng 29 p / French 31 p ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: U.C. Berkeley Short Courses on High-Speed Communications Date: 9 Sep 1993 12:10:48 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces 5 Short Courses on Communications Technology SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (October 21-22, 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 [z9zISDN 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. PERSONAL (WIRELESS) COMMUNICATION NETWORKS: Cellular Systems, Wireless Data Networks, and Broadband Wireless Access This comprehensive course focuses on principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, equipment, implementation, public policy, and evolving trends in wireless networks. Topics include: modulation, coding, and signal processing; first generation systems; second generation systems; broadband networks; third generation systems; and applications and technology trends. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. MULTIRESOLUTION SIGNAL DECOMPOSITION: Transforms, Subbands, and Wavelets (October 6-8, 1993) This course provides in-depth, integrated, and updated coverage of signal decomposition techniques. These signal processing tools will be crucial for next generation broadband wireless communications applications. For example, subbands are potential vehicles for the next generation of video encoding and compression for HDTV, while wavelets have emerged as candidates for feature and signal extraction for ultra-wide bank short-pulse radar signals. The common paths and linkages of transforms, subbands, and wavelets are described and their performance is compared. Lecturers: Richard A. Haddad, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Brooklyn Polytechnic University; and Ali Akansu, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology. They co-authored Multiresoulution Signal Decomposition: Transforms, Subbands, and Wavelets. Academic Press, 1992. HIGH SPEED COMMUNICATION OVER WIRE-PAIR CHANNELS October 26-29, 1993 Much work is underway throughout the world on extremely high bit-rate transmission over short lengths of normal building wiring. This four-day short course is an intensive examination of hi-speed data communication over wire-pair channels. Topics include: Transmission properties of uniform lines, impedance, composite lines, interferences, theoretical capacity of wire-pair channels, baseband PAM fundamentals, equalization, timing recovery techniques, modulation, coding, cyclostationary interference, full duplex transmission on single pair, and system design: ATM at 155Mb/s over 100m inside wiring. Lecturers: Burton R. Saltzberg, Ph.D., supervisor Data Theory group, AT&T Bell Laboratories. He has been issued 22 patents, is an IEEE Fellow, and received the IEEE Communications Society's Armstrong Achievement Award in 1991. Jean-Jacques Werner, Ph.D., Communications Research Department, AT&T Bell Labs. He is the IEEE Transactions on Communications editor for data communications and a Fellow of IEEE. NEW HIGH SPEED COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (October 18-20, 1993) This course provides a comprehensive survey of the new high-speed communication networks covering: FDDI, 100Mbps Ethernet, SMDS, Frame Relay, Broadband ISDN (public-ATM and Local-ATM), bridging and routing, and network interface. My T. Le joined the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department of The University of California, Berkeley in 1990. She has been a co-leader of the BayBridge Project. Nick McKeown graduated from the University of Leeds, England in 1986. He then joined Hewlett- Packard Labs. He is currently at the University of California, Berkeley working towards his Ph.D. He is co-leader of the BayBridge project. 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 email: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: 9 Sep 93 01:39 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: "Portable Communications" by Banks BKPRTCOM.RVW 930804 Prentice Hall, Inc./Brady 113 Sylvan Avenue Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 (515) 284-6751 FAX (515) 284-2607 11711 N. College Ave. Carmel, IN 46032-9903 15 Columbus Circle New York, NY 10023 800-428-5331 Portable communications, Banks, 1992, 0-13-524364-5, U$19.95 There is not an awful lot in this book which addresses the "portable" side of computer communications. Nor is there much of a "survival guide" for the travelling executive; not unless you travel with an electrician. The material contained herein is a general treatment of the hardware that you will need to connect to commercial online information services. (There are three things the discerning reader will discover about Michael Banks in this book. He is a science fiction author. He is a hardware freak. He probably owns stock in Radio Shack.) (By the way, don't go looking for science fiction *books* by him. A quick "online" search with the nearest six library districts with modem access failed to turn up anything.) Less than half of chapter one, "Defining the Field", is devoted to definitions of aspects of "telecomputing". "Laptop Basics of Telecomputing", in chapter two, is a fairly generic discussion of what you might look for in an MS-DOS computer. Little of the material relates specifically to laptops. Chapter three gives some information on modems and standards, and, more briefly, faxes and cellular telephones. Chapter four talks about communications software. Most of the programs listed are dedicated "front end" software for commercial online services rather than generalized terminal emulation software. Very little examination of features is conducted. "Portable Communications Support Software" lists some archiving and compression software (no "binary to text" programs for transmission of program files via email are mentioned), and then talks about general utilities. Again, very little of the material relates to portability. Part two is entitled "Making the Connection"; chapter five via modem, chapter six via "null" modems and cable interfacing. In fact, both chapters deal primarily with cabling. (A warning to those tempted to follow Michael's advice to try to "hard wire" into hotel phones: I'd suggest a piece of equipment he neglected. A Polaroid camera, so that you can get everything back together again the same way you took it apart.) The sections dealing with specific modem commands might be suspect: please confirm them with your own modem manual. Part three, "Applications", has chapters which attempt to deal with faxes, commercial online services, "tips" (miscellaneous) and "What's Ahead". Appendices list hardware and software companies. (Oh. And books. One is another book of Michael's, the other is a book about Compuserve.) For the newcomer to computer communications, the book does cover a variety of important topics. Much, however, is left without coverage. BBSes are mentioned, but primarily as a "test bed" for getting used to new hardware and software. No mention is made of Fidonet or Netmail. No mention is made of the Internet or Usenet at all. Mail readers and "wandering" UUCP make these latter systems quite useful in portable communications. Much in the book could be corrected. (I didn't know DOS 4 *had* any advantages; I thought even DOS 1 recognized file areas bigger than 32K.) Given the date of 1992, it is odd that Bahks missed the "skip" from 2400 bps to 14,400, mostly missing 9600 bps. It is also odd that he discusses MNP4 (error correction) but not MNP5 (data compression) which has become more popular as a modem feature. I am also surprised at his contention that archiving software saves files from corruption. Certainly corruption will be detected when de- archiving occurs, but correction is usually impossible. The book could certainly use some reorganization. It could also use renaming. For someone interested in using a commercial online service, and who might also want to travel, this work contains useful information. It also contains a lot of extraneous details. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKPRTCOM.RVW 930804 Permission granted to distribute with uneditted copies of the Telecom Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676 ------------------------------ From: cccf@altern.com (cccf) Subject: French Secret Services Experiences Wanted Organization: Altern B , Corp. Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 14:33:31 GMT Bonjour, For a great article on the computer security services of the European secret services, I look for more information related to the actions of the French services. If you have had some (bad?) experiences with the French PJ [police judi- ciaire], the DGSE [direction Generale des Services Externes], the well- knowned DST [Direction de la Securite du Territoire], or the military secret services ... don't hesitate to e-mail me your story, ok? Sincerely yours, Jean-Bernard Condat B.P. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France E-mail: cccf@altern.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1993 01:24:30 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: AT&T Vanity Calling Cards Vanity numbers are no longer limited to automobile license plates. AT&T has introduced new calling cards that allow users to customize their number. The carrier said The Personal Choice Calling Card, available free to business and residential customers, is designed to be easier and more convenient to use. "Calling card users can choose the letters or numbers that make the most sense to them -- their birthdays, their phone numbers or even their names." Customers are allowed to select seven to nine numbers or letters. An additional four-digit personal identification number ensures security. (Wall Street Journal, Business Briefs, 9/2/93) ------------------------------ From: templar@mindvox.phantom.com (Templar) Subject: DTMF Voting System Organization: [Phantom Access] / the MindVox system Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 13:01:13 GMT Hi ... problem: I am trying to set up a national telephone voting system to coincide with a network broadcast. In contrast to existing systems/vendors, I need all callers to be on for about 30 minutes and the votes to be tabulated in real-time and delivered to the network. I've been told that existing systems can only handle about 7500 callers and that reprogramming larger switches is impossible due to the limited number of DTMF decoders on the switches themselves. I am looking for any alternatives. I'd like to accomidate somewhere between 250,000 and 1,000,000 callers. The delay from the time a caller hits the keypad until it reaches me has to be about a second or less. Does anyone have any idea how to do this? All of the existing vendors for call-in systems say no, but I have the funding if I can get a way. All answers would be appreciated. Thanks ... templar@phantom.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 17:04:00 -0400 From: solovay@netcom.com (Andrew Solovay) Subject: CFV: comp.dcom.telecom.tech Reply-To: votes@geoworks.com Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers 1st CALL FOR VOTES (of 2) Unmoderated group comp.dcom.telecom.tech Newsgroups line: comp.dcom.telecom.tech Technical matters relating to telecommunications. Votes must be recieved by 23:59:59 GMT, 29 Sep 1993. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. For voting questions only, contact . For questions about the proposed group, contact the group's proposer, . CHARTER This group would cover all general technology aspects of the telecommunications industry in an unmoderated format. This includes communications mediums (physical transport, wiring, antennas), control systems (switches, routing, ATM), wireless systems (AMPS, NAMPS, PCN, PCS, CDMA, TDMA, GSM), and more (such as the history and management of the above, and new advances). It is expected that discussions which focus on implementation aspects of subjects which are covered by existing groups would be discussed in those groups - for instance, discussion about Class 3 Fax design specifics would go to comp.dcom.modems. RATIONALE Currently, the Telecom Digest is gated to Usenet via comp.dcom.telecom. Readers of this group and alt.dcom.telecom have expressed a strong interest in a main hierarchy group for informal technical telecommunications discussion to supplement the existing groups. It is believed that the existence of such a group will encourage discussions on the subject that are usefully different from what is currently available, and that there are enough interested Usenet readers. STANDARD VOTING INFO You should send MAIL (posts to a group are invalid) to votes@geoworks.com (just replying by MAIL to this message should work, *if* your newsreader honors the "Reply-To" line in the article header). Votes sent to other addresses will be discarded. Your mail message should contain one and only one of the following statements: I vote YES on comp.dcom.telecom.tech I vote NO on comp.dcom.telecom.tech I vote ABSTAIN on comp.dcom.telecom.tech You may add a comment, but anything other than a definite statement involving the group name and "yes", "no", "for", or "against" on a single line may be rejected by the automatic vote counting program. If you later change your mind you may send in another vote, which will automatically supercede all previous votes. "ABSTAIN" votes serve to cancel previous votes. Standard Guidelines for voting apply - one vote per person (not per account). 100 more YES votes than NO votes and 2/3 of all votes being YES are the requirements for group creation. "ABSTAIN" votes are not counted in the above calculation; their only role is to cancel previous votes. Every vote will be acknowledged by EMail. The CFV will be repeated once; the 2d CFV will contain a "bounce-ack", i.e. a list of people whose ACK messages bounced when I sent them. Andrew Solovay ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 01:35:05 PDT From: crs@pioneer.com (Cris Simpson) Subject: Death of the Net Predicted! (Was: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis) Organization: Pioneer New Media Technologies, Inc. > Subject: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis > From: malcolm@apple.com > I've just finished an analysis of the AT&T TrueVoice demo that has > been advertised by AT&T and discussed in the TELECOM Digest. Here are > the results of the analysis. > [Exhaustive analysis follows] I think that the collection and dissemination of actual data, such as Malcolm has done, will surely lead to the End of the Net As We Know It. Such postings should be stopped immediately, as they take up the bandwidth better used for the usual assortment of conjecture, FOAF stories, and flame wars that are the real reasons we read News. I hope our esteemed Moderator will take it upon himself to fight this scourge that threatens to raise the SNR of comp.dcom.telecom even higher! cris simpson cris@pioneer.com :-> [Moderator's Note: Thank you, Cris! The article to which you refer is precisely the kind of article which might not reach the mailing list if c.d.t.t. becomes the 'telecom newsgroup' on Usenet. A special mailing going out immediatly following this issue discusses the proposed new group and the ramifications of its creation on the mailing list participants. Please read it, then vote. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #635 ****************************** From telecom Fri Sep 10 01:45:32 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05814 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom); Fri, 10 Sep 1993 01:45:32 -0500 Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 01:45:32 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309100645.AA05814@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom Subject: comp.dcom.telecom.tech - The Importance of Voting NO Status: RO [Moderator's Note: I strongly suggest our mailing list and non-Internet readers read this message very closely, and act on it by casting your vote. As persons affected by this action on Usenet, and persons who were solicited by the vote-taker, you are entitled to vote and should do so. This message was released at 1:40 AM CDT 9-10-93 to both the news.groups and comp.dcom.telecom newsgroups. PAT] Readers of TELECOM Digest V13 #635 and news.groups saw this message: From: solovay@netcom.com (Andrew Solovay) Subject: CFV: comp.dcom.telecom.tech Reply-To: votes@geoworks.com Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers > 1st CALL FOR VOTES (of 2) > Unmoderated group comp.dcom.telecom.tech > Newsgroups line: > comp.dcom.telecom.tech Technical matters relating to telecommunications. > Votes must be recieved by 23:59:59 GMT, 29 Sep 1993. --------------------- This message is a call for votes intended to establish an * unmoderated * -- thus * unavailable to the various mailing lists * and news feeds serviced by TELECOM Digest -- version of the Usenet comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup to be called comp.dcom.telecom.tech. ^^^^ Although there are certainly good points to be made for unmoderated newsgroups of all types on the net -- and the big-hearted operators of the net these days and the numerous sysadmins who carry the news feed at their sites have always been gracious about installing new groups as they came along -- this is one case where I think a new group is a * bad idea *. Here is why: unlike many newsgroups with various divisions to them, the existing Usenet group comp.dcom.telecom and the electronic journal known as TELECOM Digest have been closely woven together over the years. The Digest has come to be known as the place where all telecom related questions, comments and articles are to be sent if they are intended to reach a very wide audience of telecom professionals and management level people in the industry. While a large part of the Digest participation (the journal is almost entirely written by its readers) comes from Usenet, Usenet and the Internet are just one part of the overall distribution. In the past few years, the Digest mailing list (or lists actually, as there are several components to it) has grown by leaps and bounds as various individual subscribers have signed on, along with numerous other forums and telecom interest groups. For example, the Digest is now distributed to Compuserve, where it is part of the Telecom Forum; to GEnie where it is used the same way; to the Board of Education of the City of New York where it is available as one of several on-line publications; to SprintNet for their PC Pursuit customers as a BBS library feature on the Net Exchange; to many sites connected through FIDO who take it as their telecom echo group (the equivilent of a newsgroup on Usenet), and quite a few independent BBSs. Several dozen copies of each issue go to MCI, and likewise AT&T. The connection is a two-way thing: All these places post messages to the newsgroup as well. The creation of comp.dcom.telecom.tech will cause a great deal of confusion among readers/posters on Usenet who want (and assume) that their message is going out to the Digest readers as a whole. Of course, it won't be. There will be innumerable amounts of cross- posting as participants try to insure their message gets to the widest possible audience; which it does now if they send but a single non-cross-posted message either to comp.dcom.telecom or to the email address telecom@eecs.nwu.edu. The end result will be that Usenet telecom readers will have to see many messages *twice* (once in tech and once in the established forum) or else the mailing list people won't see the message at all. From the other direction, the 2000+ names on the mailing list -- which does not include the above mentioned internetworked sites such as GEnie, Compuserve, Net Exchange, FIDO and others -- will send messages to the Digest which may or may not be seen by Usenetters unless the Usenet reader subscribes to both forums ... again causing them to see some messages twice, perhaps some not at all, etc. Overall, it will be messy, and certainly not make my job as Moderator, Editor and Facilitator of the whole process any easier. Another major consideration must be the Telecom Archives, accessible using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. The Archives has a twelve year accumulation of back issues of the Digest, along with lots of other telecom-related files of interest. So far as I know, no arrangements have been made to see to it that anything from the proposed 'tech' group will be archived for posterity. A lot of excellent material posted in 'tech' will not ever make it to the master archives ... at least not automatically, as happens now with the Digest and comp.dcom.telecom. Again, a point of confusion and needless duplication for the average reader/participant in net news and extra work for anyone maintaining the Archives. Proponents of the new group have said they believe message turn-around time will be faster; that is the time from when a message is written until the time it has gotten around the Internet. This is true; it is a fact that a moderator will slow the process down somewhat, even by a day or two days at times, but the trade off is usually better quality and easier reading of the material which * does * go out in exchange for the time added to the process. For example, as moderator of comp.dcom.telecom as well as the Digest, I try to standardize the messages before releasing them so they all come out looking about the same. Lots of extraneous headers are removed, excessive quoted text is yanked, a rudimentary attempt at spell-checking is done, and all the messages on hand on a given topic are batched to go at one time. This means that readers will generally see several messages on the same thread all at the same time, allowing them to skip forward in large numbers (of messages) past what they don't want to see, etc. Ditto, if they are interested in the topic, a cluster of messages all released at once on the topic makes it far easier to follow the thread IMHO. Well, that's the trade off. Decent editing and moderation to prevent endless flames and duplications takes time. It won't permit messages to appear world-wide in seconds. Most readers though seem to feel the trade off is a good one, where signal/noise ratio is concerned among other things. If my experience with moderating telecom is any gauge, an umoderated group at this point in time would be overwhelmed with garbage articles and unrelated messages. I know ... I toss out close to a hundred articles *per day* with repetitive comments asking for stuff that is in the Telecom FAQ, the archives, or threads which were concluded a week or two earlier which the message writer has not gotten around to reading. Over all, a new ummoderated group will have a very poor signal/noise ratio, a tremendous amount of repetitive stuff as newcomers begin to read it, endless flaming about Caller-ID and privacy issues, and all kinds of stuff a moderator is expected to weed out. My biggest concern though is not so much the extra unneccessary bandwidth the group will take as it is the lack of the really good stuff that will find its way to the true experts in telecom -- our mailing list readers who either cannot receive or choose for some reason not to receive net news. Many threads will start in the established (or new) group only to have some responders cross post replies (but not the original message) to the other group in error, etc. The net does not need it, it will make my job as moderator a lot harder than necessary, and the mailing list and internetworked sites who have come to expect a single consolidated telecom news feed will be left high and dry. I strongly recommend a vote of NO to the proposed creation of the comp.dcom.telecom.tech newsgroup, and suspect a large number, if not the majority of the Digest mailing list subscribers feel the same way. It is important, regardless of if you agree with my conclusions or not about the wisdom of an unmoderated telecom newsgroup operating in parallel with the existing moderated forum, that you vote your opinion. YES votes will count toward the creation of the group, and NO votes will indicate your desire to see the existing telecom newsgroup and internetworked distribution scheme remain intact for the good of the * entire * readership. Your vote may be expressed by sending email to votes@geoworks.com and in a single line of text making the statement: I vote YES on the creation of comp.dcom.telecom.tech (or) I vote NO on the creation of comp.dcom.telecom.tech I believe your NO votes are very important to the continued well- being of the existing telecom newsgroup and thank you in advance for your consideration. Please do not abstain from voting! Vote today! Although you are under no obligation to do so -- and you * must * vote only via email to the above address, I'll appreciate a cc: to let me know your decision, although individual replies as always will be difficult or impossible. Patrick Townson ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu TELECOM Digest/comp.dcom.telecom Moderator (since October, 1988 and netnews participant for a few years prior to that.) From telecom Fri Sep 10 03:56:07 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22166 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom@eecs.nwu.edu); Fri, 10 Sep 1993 03:56:07 -0500 Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 03:56:07 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309100856.AA22166@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #636 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 10 Sep 93 03:55:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 636 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Review of Procomm Plus (MS-DOS) (Rob Slade) MVIP and Cards Supporting it (Alan Kemp) Followups on 10BASE-T and RJ45 Wiring (Gary Breuckman) The Voice of Southwestern Bell (Jim Haynes) How to Get Valid Prefix Lists? (Antigone Press) Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? (Jamie Tatum) Telling a PBX What To Do via a Modem? (Philip Colmer) Swipe Cards on Pay Telephones (Klaus Dimmler) What You Find Upon Looking Closer (David Cornutt) Austin Cooley (sp) Dies (Carl Moore) One Way to Deal with Cellular Phone Fraud (Goh Tiong Hwee) NOTE: Don't forget to vote TODAY in the comp.dcom.telecom.tech matter. Your YES or NO vote should go to votes@geoworks.com with a one-line sentence indicating your wishes in the matter. If you did not recieve the special mailing early Friday morning, ask for your copy. PAT] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 9 Sep 93 16:44 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Review of Procomm Plus (MS-DOS) PCPROCOM.RVW 930731 Comparison Review Company and product: DataStorm Technologies, Inc. 3212 Lemone Blvd. PO Box 1471 Columbia, MO 65205 314-443-3282 fax: 314-875-0595 support: 314-875-0530 BBS: 314-875-0503 @compuserve.com PROCOMM PLUS 2.01 Summary: generally useful terminal emulation and file transfer, host mode offers basic BBS functionality. Cost U$129 (Windows version U$179) Rating (1-4, 1 = poor, 4 = very good) "Friendliness" Installation 2 Ease of use 3 Help systems 2 Compatibility 3 Company Stability 3 Support 2 Documentation 2 Hardware required 4 Performance 3 Availability 3 Local Support 1 General Description: Procomm has had a major "presence" in the "bulletin board" community since the mid '80s when it was a shareware product. It provides a broad range of terminal emulations and file transfer protocols. (Users with a strong need for "true" VT emulations may find some difficulties.) The program is well known for its "host mode" which provides a basic set of "bulletin board" functions built into the program. Comparison of features and specifications User Friendliness Installation Procomm Plus is shipped on two 720K diskettes, with a card for ordering 5 1/4" size. (I am happy to report that the 720K disks are shipped "non-writeable".) A "Quick Start Guide" is included with the documentation. (It is becoming my experience that a lot of things are being included with software packages. Procomm Plus contains the diskette envelope, two manuals, one booklet, the extra diskette order card, the registration card, an ad for Procomm Plus for Windows, an ad for Compuserve and the Procomm "Forum" on it, and a sheet of decals. Yes, decals.) The Quick Start Guide emphasizes the use of the PCINSTAL program, which is purported to make installation much easier. You still have to specify whether you are using a modem or direct connection, the COM port, the serial number of your package, your monitor type, and whether this is your first use of Procomm Plus or an upgrade. PCINSTAL is said to try and determine the port and the monitor type itself. The "prescience" of PCINSTAL is somewhat contradicted by the "User Manual": it recommends, for example, finding the modem "dip" switches or software commands for CD and DTR control and entering them manually. The PCINSTAL program has an a/b switch that is recommended for use with monochrome systems. The installation program, however, is smart enough to check (with the user's help) for monitor type. (It is not, however, smart enough to automatically use the "default" choice at some points in the process. Oh, well.) The program has an extensive list of modems, and uses it to set up the initial modem setup string. However, in spite of the extensive options available with my modem, the "initialization" command merely resets the modem. About the only "intelligence" involved was determining what speed my modem would support (and this, obviously, was not tested, since my serial port won't effectively operate at that speed) and the fact that I use "pulse" dialling (again, that was something *I* told the system). In addition, I suspect that the only way to tell the program not to use the "default" communication speed, is to run the installation program again. Ease of use The interface should be reasonably easy to figure out, although it is by no means universally "intuitive". Menus and prompts can sometimes be misleading in terms of the "end of option/command" expected by the system. Procomm's approach to ease of use will be appreciated by "power" users: all commands are accessible by a single keystroke. Commands may also be invoked via menus, but the Procomm philosophy is obviously towards minimization of keystrokes. This extends to the "macro" or "scripting" capability of the program: most programming can be assigned to single key invocation as well. Procomm's dialing directory allows the usual range of options for connecting to host systems: the port assignment, phone number, parity, data bits, and even a connecting "script" for automated login. However, I find it odd that Procomm, in company, it must be admitted, with many others, does not provide, or even allow for, different modem "setup" or "initialization" strings. This failure is the more intriguing given the ability to use differing ports. I have only one modem, but, between seven normally-called systems, no less than three different setup strings. I must use macros or scripts on most communications programs, rather than the dialling directories. Given the proliferation of V.3Z and V.4Z modems, and the wide variety of modem standards one encounters with BBSes and online systems, I would think that variable setup strings would almost be mandatory. Again, given the ability to select different ports for different calls, it is interesting that there is no indication of an ability to manage simultaneous or concurrent sessions. Serial communications, even at the high speeds of modern modems, is not taxing for even original PC and XT level machines. Modern processors should be able to handle many concurrent sessions with ease. Help systems Alt-Z is the consistent "help" key for onscreen assistance. However, it is sometimes bewildering to try to find the particular bit of help you need. As with too many other programs, you almost need to know the answer already in order to find the help. For example, I tried to use the "dialing code" function in order to set up proper modem initialization strings. This did not appear to work as the help screens indicated. (To be honest, this function is very confused in the documentation as well.) Compatibility VT terminal emulation capability is acceptable for most applications. Key assignments may present some problems in certain situations. File transfer capability is good. In situations with "difficult" data transfer channels, such as Datapac and other "public data networks", the program may not determine the optimal condiguration. In such cases the user will need advanced expertise in configuring the system. Company Stability Procomm has been a highly favoured program going back to the days when it was distributed as shareware. Datastorm is now well established as a provider of terminal emulation software company. Company Support Registration of the program entitles the user to "free" telephone support. Datastorm also runs a "forum" on Compuserve. Unfortunately, they do not list their user "address", so Internet users are unable to take advantage of this. Documentation The package is shipped with two manuals, the "User Manual" and the "Aspect Language Refence Manual", as well as a "Quick Start Guide" booklet. The documentation is well laid out and generally clear. Chapter one deals with additional details for installation. Chapter two is an excellent "walk through" the making of an entry in the dialing directory, and placing a call. (Be warned: the example used places a call to the Datastorm BBS in Columbia, MO.) The documentation concerning the script language could use improvement. A few example scripts are listed in the manuals, and the commands are listed (with syntax and some comments) in the reference manual. However, a subset listing, with the minimal commands necessary to, for example, automate a login script or assist in file transfer, would greatly aid new users who may be intimidated by the language reference manual. System Requirements The requirements are minimal, a minimum of 192K memory, one floppy drive and MS-DOS version 2.0 or later. The printed documentation does not mention it, but the READ.ME file recommends a minimum of 295K, still a relatively small amount. Performance One of the traditional selling points of Procomm is "Host Mode". This provides a "quick and dirty" BBS, with the basic upload, download, email and chat capabilities. Other terminal programs allow this kind of activity through the ability to "program" extensive macros and scripts; with Procomm it comes built-in and ready to go. Coincidentally, while preparing this review, a poster to comp.security.misc raised the point of security of the Procomm host mode. Security provisions are not extensive. There are only two levels of access, normal and privileged. "Normal" access is limited to the basic BBS activities. "Privileged" access, however, can "shell out" and send commands to DOS. This, as the manual bluntly points out, allows privileged users the ability to do anything, even reformat your hard drive. The documentation warns users of previous Procomm versions that the scripting language has been greatly extended. Indeed, the "Aspect" language is enormous. At 250 pages, the language reference manual is little more than a listing of the commands. This is definitely not for the fainthearted. A novice user wanting merely to automate a repetitive logon procedure would have no chance with the reference manual. Aspect seems to owe a lot to Pascal. It also appears to have been written with assembly programming in mind. Memory can be directly accessed, and, while the CPU registers themselves don't appear to be accessible, pretty much only register operation can be performed. Unlike many other macro or script languages, Aspect can be compiled. Scripts may be left uncompiled, and then interpreted/compiled "on the fly", but the manual warns against this due to possible memory problems: the ASPCOMP program must be loaded and run to deal with uncompiled scripts. Initially, this didn't bother me. I noted the savings in time and disk space promised. However, upon further consideration, I feel that this may present a problem. Even with the limited number of systems with which I deal, I find myself modifying scripts at least once a month (and often going through several versions when I do). Given the wide use of portables, with limited space, as communications machines, this may be of concern. Local Support None provided. Support Requirements Communications is difficult to set up. A novice user will likely need a great deal of assistance, and even an intermediate user may require some assistance. However, any user already familiar with terminal emulation up to the level of preparing modem command strings will likely have no problems. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 PCPROCOM.RVW 930731 Distribution permitted with uneditted copies of the Telecom Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676 ------------------------------ From: A.Kemp@fulcrum.co.uk (Alan Kemp) (Alan Kemp) Subject: MVIP and Cards Supporting it Organization: Fulcrum Communications Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 10:05:57 GMT Can anyone provide me with information concerning MVIP and cards that support it? I am especially interested in names of manufacturers. MVIP stands for Multi-Vendor Interface Prototcol and is related to PC based telephone switches. Thanks in advance, Alan Kemp (hawkeye) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 06:27:52 -0700 From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Followups on 10BASE-T and RJ45 Wiring > From hpa@ahab.eecs.nwu.edu Wed Sep 8 06:31:59 1993 > Return-Path: > Message-Id: <9309081331.AA04039@ahab.eecs.nwu.edu> > Subject: Re: Wiring phone and 10Base-T Jacks > Thanks for your help. However: > a) How do you define transmit and receive? Since 10Base-T uses > non-crossed cables, there is one pair that is hub->workstation and > another workstation->hub. That is confusing. Further, some DEC repeaters (and maybe others) require cables that have 1&2, 3&6 crossed in the wiring. The SMC manual I have (so this would be from the workstation end) has: 1 TX+ 2 TX- 3 RX+ 6 RX- You CAN connect two 10-base-T stations together without a hub, by using a cable with the pairs crossed. > b) Which of the two pins have which polarity? See above. > c) How do you define pin numbers (from which direction)? If you look at the jack from the outside, ------------ | 12345678 | | | | xx | -----xx----- or, from the cable, hold it with the wire towards you, the clip on the bottom, and the pins are on the top facing away from you, numbered left to right 1--> 8. You have to be careful with RJ45 jacks, some have the screws or terminals arranged in order, 1 through 8, but some have them arranged in PAIR order for convenience of the telco folks, usually marked with colored dots (blue, orange, green, brown) where the blue pair is 4 and 5, orange is 3 and 6, green is 1 and 2, and brown is 7 and 8 (usually!). puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 20:24:37 -0700 Subject: The Voice of Southwestern Bell This story was lifted from the Hope (AR) {Star}, but it datelined Conway (AR) Associated Press by Bob Buchanan 30 Aug 1993: "The name Susan Bayer may be new to you, but her voice almost certainly isn't. Mrs. Bayer is the voice of Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. 'If you'd like to make a call, please ...' or 'We're sorry. You must first dial a one or a zero.' That's Mrs. Bayer. Her voice has been heard on recorded messages since 1986 in all five states that SW Bell serves -- Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Now semi-retired, Mrs. Bayer has moved from St. Louis, where SW Bell is headquartered [but moving to San Antonio, isn't it?], to the Florida Keys. She still has a contract with the company, and makes 30 to 50 new voice recordings a year. 'We're sorry. The number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please check the directory for assistance. Thank you,' is the recording most tied to her, Mrs. Bayer said recently in a telephone interview from her Florida home. The many new services offered by SW Bell -- call waiting, call forwarding, call tracing -- bring her new scripts, which she records in a studio in her home. New federal requirements for 900 calls are expected to bring more requests her way. A fee change will do the same. Since moving to the Keys in 1989 she submits several tapes of the same recording, varying her timing and inflections. An engineer in St. Louis then selects the one to present to the company. 'Diction is extremely important,' Mrs. Bayer said. 'People of all age groups and nationalities must understand you, even those who speak little English.' She continued, 'You must be calm. You can't tell the disposition of the persons listening. Many people still will jam down the telephone receiver.' When whole systems or access codes change, Mrs. Bayer may have to redo 100 to 150 voice recordings at one time. Then she'll fly to St. Louis to make the changes at the recording studio. Often it takes her a day or a day and a half to record the changes, Mrs. Bayer said. 'Texas has the most changes,' she said. What's the most difficult voice recording? It's one for which the script has too many words and won't fit in the allotted ten seconds. Mrs. Bayer, who recently turned 50, got into communications by chance. A Chicago television executive while in his St. Louis hotel room saw her on the Gil Newsome television show and wanted to meet her. The result was that WBBM-TV contracted with Susan Heinkel, then age 13, to host Susan's Show. The family moved in 1956 to Chicago where Susan, the first child host on a Chicago television program, starred on the afternoon show until 1962. The family then moved back to St. Louis, where she graduated from high school, college and met her husband, Ed. Even in Florida, when people learn of her background, they'll say, 'I didn't know you were real. I thought you were a computer,' Mrs. Bayer said. 'Sometimes I surprise myself,' she said. 'I'll be using a pay phone in Texas or Arkansas and I do something wrong. It's strange to hear me telling me what to do.'" ------------------------------ From: mross@netcom.com (Antigone Press) Subject: How to Get Valid Prefix Lists? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 06:16:49 GMT I run an Internet e-mail to fax gateway and have a list of local prefixes I am willing to service. The list (from the phone book) I copied seems to be out of date (I have already gotten one complaint about a prefix which should have been accessible but instead generated an error). Pacific Bell (local phone company) has no idea if they have the info online (there is a ftp.pacbell.com but I can't find anything phone-related there!) Does anyone have any idea how to -- politely -- ask a phone company to send me notification each time a new prefix is added? This happens pretty frequently in the Bay Area. Does anyone know anyone at Pacific Bell who might help out here? I need complete lists of prefixes and the exchange names in the 415 and 510 area codes. Any other ideas? For info on the fax gateway, mail to tpc-FAQ@town.hall.org. Thanks, Michael Ross mross@antigone.com (preferred) Antigone Press mross@netcom.com San Francisco CA FAX +1.415.431.3650 ------------------------------ From: tatum@hotsun.nersc.gov (Jamie Tatum) Subject: Truevoice - Modem Tests anyone? Date: 9 Sep 1993 20:58:23 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Since TrueVoice hasn't been released yet, have any of you Bell Labs people tested Truevoice with modems? Particularly with high speed, or 16.8 if you can get your hands on it. If it does cause problems (as I suspect it will) will there be a method of disabling it on a per call basis? I know that this should be of interest to all users of the Internet, especially UUCP because UUCP is a modem network (mostly comprised of 14.4's) and a lot of it is LD. Thanks, Jamie ------------------------------ From: pcolmer@acorn.co.uk (Philip Colmer) Subject: Telling a PBX What To Do via a Modem Date: 9 Sep 93 08:34:27 GMT Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England I've just received an overview of a product called VMXmail and one of its features, speed dialing, intrigues me. The principle is that from your computer you can get the VMXmail system to tell the iSDX to ring a number and connect the call to your phone. The documentation explains that VMXmail communicates with the GPT iSDX using DTMF tones on voice port lines. Therefore, could I use a modem to achieve the same results? I suspect that I could tell the ISDX what to do but not recognise anything it sends back. Since writing this originally for uk.telecom (and not getting much in the way of a response), I've had some thoughts about how I might manage this. The basic principle would be for the modem to call the user's extension first, then do a recall to the PBX to get another line, dial the required telephone number then hang up, which should cause the two calls to be tied together. This seems to work if I follow this procedure using a handset, but I don't know whether or not I can get a modem to do this. Anyone else got any ideas? ------------------------------ From: klaus@cscns.com (Klaus Dimmler) Subject: Swipe Cards on Pay Telephones Organization: Community_News_Service Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 03:41:23 GMT Is it possible to issue magnetic strip cards that can be used to automatically dial a number on swipe card feeds of public access phones in airports. Does anyone know how to get detailed specifications on this topic? Klaus Dimmler klaus@cscns.com CNS, Inc 1155 Kelly Johnson Blvd, Suite 400 Colorado Springs, CO 80920 719-592-1240 ------------------------------ From: cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (David Cornutt) Subject: What You Find Upon Looking Closer Organization: NASA/MSFC Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 18:02:00 GMT I got a card from South Central Bell in the mail last month, touting their new voice mail offering. Only $3.95 a month! Wow, I thought, that's the cheapest commercial voicemail offer I've heard of yet. Then I looked at the card a little more closely, and I found: true enough, the voice mail is only $3.95 a month. Of course, it doesn't work unless you get Call Forward/No Answer. Ah, well, that's another $1.95 a month. And, to really have an advantage over an answering machine, you also need to get Call Forward/Busy, at still another $1.95 a month. Now you're spending closer to $8 per month, but you can get messages. Can you find out if you've got any? You have to call the voicemail sytstem to check. Oh, did you expect to get stutter dial tone? Oh, sorry, we forgot to point out that that's $.50/month extra. I think I'll keep my answering machine for a while. David Cornutt, New Technology Inc., Huntsville, AL (205) 461-4517 (cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov; some insane route applies) "The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my employer, not necessarily mine, and probably not necessary." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 11:43:22 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Austin Cooley (sp) Dies I have heard on the radio this (Sept. 9) morning that Austin Cooley, of some note in telecommunications (notably fax), has died at age 93. ------------------------------ From: thgoh@iss.nus.sg (Goh Tiong Hwee) Subject: One Way to Deal with Cellular Phone Fraud Date: 10 Sep 1993 07:19:54 GMT Organization: Institute Of Systems Science, NUS. The following was reported in our sole local newspaper "The Straits Times" on Fri, 3 Sep 93. Two men pleaded guilty to using cloned handphone and were convicted and sentenced to eight months in jail and fined SIN$4,000 each. [About US$2,400]. The sentencing judge compared this to the drug trafficking problem and said that a deterrent sentence was in order. Total cost of calls made? SIN$13.70. Appeal pending. [Moderator's Note: Although the punishment imposed seems very harsh by American standards where almost anything goes these days with the ex- ception of Christmas or Hanukkah displays in public places (considered very serious offenses; it used to be nudity in public was offensive, now it is any sort of vaguely religious display which draws ire), the two criminals in your country should be glad they were not convicted of phone phraud and phreaking in Iran. The Iranian government sees nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned beheading now and then to be certain people understand how they do business. News reports about two weeks ago said eight people in one day had their heads cut off for sundry criminal acts. One of the accused was alleged to have 'used a scheme to avoid payment of fees to the telecom administration ...' Let that be a lesson to the fungus among us. Phreaks, you meditate on the example given to the Iranian cracker. See you all later! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #636 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02722; 10 Sep 93 20:28 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14529 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 10 Sep 1993 17:57:36 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24873 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 10 Sep 1993 17:57:11 -0500 Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 17:57:11 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309102257.AA24873@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #637 TELECOM Digest Fri, 10 Sep 93 17:57:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 637 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "E-Mail" by Caswell (Rob Slade) Hello Direct Wireless Headset: Comments (Lee Sweet) ProComm + (A. Padgett Peterson) MCI Fibrer Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM (Michael Silano) Cellular Roaming Validation (Paul Barnett) Setting Options on Motorola BRAVO / BRAVO Plus Pager (Pat Barron) Need Low Cost Cellular Phone With POTS Interface (Gregory Youngblood) Searching For Low Cost Solution to LD (Gregory Youngblood) Dial Out with Modem on System 25? (UPSS000) Duck Ringer: Quack, Quack, Quack (Mike Ho) Caller ID Blocking Test Number (Steve Forrette) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Sep 93 15:38 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "E-Mail" by Caswell BKEMAIL.RVW 930811 Gage 164 Commander Blvd. Agincourt, ON M1S 3C7 or Carswell/Thomson Professional Publishing One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Road Scarborough, ON M1T 3V4 416-609-3800 800-387-5164 fax: 416-298-5094 "E-mail", Caswell,0-7715-5108-8, C$39.95 Certain subtle indications, besides the copyright date of 1988, state that "E-Mail" is a bit behind the times. One is the title; email is almost universally now written without the hyphen. Another is the inclusion of voice mail and facsimile along with text transmission. Yet another is the discussion of Telex and "communicating word processors." It is too bad that the book has not been updated. "E-Mail" is aimed at a much neglected audience: the business executive who may not be very interested in the technology, per se, but only what it can do for the business. The work speaks the language of business, and presents electronic communication in terms of business advantages and functions. Too many of the books on technology aimed at business fail to understand that just because the author is enthused does not automatically mean the audience is interested. There is a definite "corporate" bias in the book which tends to limit some of the discussions. Internet, in the guise of ARPANET, rates only a brief mention; Fidonet, and, indeed, the whole BBS community, is dismissed very tersely. The major thrust is toward proprietary, commercial systems, and, therefore, uses tend to be only "internal" communication channels. "E-Mail" is very well planned. The layout covers the territory in a comprehensive fashion: it is only the details that are missing. An updated version would do well to stick to the same outline, and to flesh out the dated sections with new material. The introductory chapter, "The Challenge", states the general benefits well. This is followed up, in chapter two, with "Benefits and Justifications", well presented, in business terms, with charts and examples. Chapter three, a "Technology Overview", presents a historical look at the development of various communications technologies. Chapters four through eight begin to look at specifics of the technologies, and this is where age begins to show. While the material covering communications links ("Roadways"), the older "messaging" systems, computer messaging systems, computer based communications services, and the systems costs were well researched and presented, five years has changed much of the picture. "Communicating Word Processors" and TWX, while still operating, are of very minor importance now. Chapter nine, on "Computer Conferencing", seems to be somewhat misplaced. The systems primarily emphasized in the rest of the book have little provision for conferencing systems. Nowadays, this chapter would have a very important place in the work, as a resource for business research and contacts. "PCs and E-Mail" and "Voice Mail" appear to be oddities of the topic, presented for completeness' sake and the curious mind. Chapters twelve and thirteen cover "Corporate Mail Networks" and "Planning and Implementing E-Mail". Again, this plays to the emphasis of the book, and is well presented. Chapter twelve could use some newer material on the current situation and less emphasis on X.400. (The author also has a very strong bias against line editors for the composition of messages: given his experience with Envoy 100 this is understandable.) The final chapter needs almost no upgrading: it deals with issues that are more political than technical. The one area which is missing is that of "online etiquette", dealing with the training of new users, and the avoidance of "messaging misunderstandings" and "flames". For those who are already involved in email, this work has little to say. For those companies looking into the possibility for the first time, there is some valuable background and perspectives here. Note, please, that the specifics are limited and now dated. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKEMAIL.RVW 930811 Distribution permitted with this uneditted Telecom Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676 ------------------------------ From: decrsc!leesweet@uunet.UU.NET (Lee Sweet) Subject: Hello Direct Wireless Headset: Comments Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 11:58:30 EDT A while back, I promised I'd post a note about Hello Direct's wireless headset. Well, I finally got the thing, and here're a few comments after about ten days of use. First, the package physically is not bad. A large-ish over-the-ear headset speaker fits over one ear, while the antenna is part of the 'top' of that ear's slide machinery that adjusts the size of the headband. [This make sense?] The other side (other end of the headband) contains the Ni-Cad battery, which rides (on me) about two inches above the other ear at maximum extension of the band. Note that the speaker is similar to H-D's wired on-the-ear: about 2" in diameter, foam cover. Weight is surprisingly low, and I think it feels better that a wired Hello Direct headset (which I've used for about a year). Probable cause: the weight is spread out more, since the headband is a double type and not the more usual single band associated with wired 'sets. Base: The headset sits in a rectangular base about the size of the base of a 2500 TouchTone set when you want to charge the battery. Two LED indicators indicate that the contacts are correct for charging both the onboard battery and an (optional) second battery. (For those that spend a lot of interrupted time on the phone, the second battery can be swapped for the in-use one with only a few clicks audible to the listener [if you are on-line ... you won't even be disconnected, since the base (AC adapter-powered) and your phone control the actual interface].) You can also get a (reported) six-hour battery to use/replace the default two-hour one. (Optional two-hour ones are available, of course, to use for a second battery. Why not get a six-hour one? A bit more cost, and about a ounce more weight. The whole headset unit weighs seven ounces with the normal battery. Cost of the six-hour battery is $59, optional extra two-hour battery is $29. H-D recommends putting the caller on hold while changing batteries, BTW. Other good base feature: it beeps very audibly (but not too loud ...) and lights the LED, when you put the headset in its cradle for charging, thus avoiding the problem of not getting 'hooked up' right for re-charging when you put it in the base after a long call. Also, when the headset is in the base, the phone handset is automatically activated: no manual headset/handset switch. Good if you have other people using your phone on occasion. Controls: Volume control on the headset behind the speaker. About the same volume range as wired headsets, due to OSHA limitations, I believe. The microphone boom controls both power and mike mute: When wearing it (power off), the boom is vertical (upwards). When you want to answer, pick up the phone/hit the line button, and lower the boom past horizontal. The headset beeps to let you know it's on. If you then raise the boom to a bit above 90 degrees, to 45 degrees or so, it beeps again, signifying that the mike is muted. (Re-lowering it to 90 degrees or so produces another beep signifying hot mike.) Note: The first unit I received didn't have the mute function! H-D said that some early models were missing this, and overnighted me a new headset-unit, which operated as stated above. If you get one, be sure it does mute. H-D says all do now, but anyway ... Quality: People have told me, no kidding, that the sound quality/tone/quietness/distortion is *better* than on a Hello Direct wired headset. I, at most, expected equivalent quality. Interesting! The unit uses 900 MHz circuitry, and uses one of 32 channels. The channel is not changed until you pressed a concealed [documented!] switch to switch to another channel. I surmise the reason for the no-auto-switch feature is the possiblilty of up to 32 of these being used in close (or close enough) proximity to one another. So, no frequency/channel-agile switching here! Distance: I've used it successfully up to about 100' (I believe H-D says 50 or so is recommended) and that was transmitting *through* a computer room with ten various minicomputers all up and transmitting who-knows-what RF interference. All that happens as you get near the end of the usable range is that the signal (both ways) gets a little noisy: more like muddy than actual static or crackle/pop. If you get to the end of the usuable range, it is supposed to start beeping to tell you it can't talk to the base unit. Again, the caller on the line isn't dropped, just held there in limbo until you get closer. I couldn't get mine to do this due to limited distance! Even when it gets muddy, it's still very usable. Comments: Although pricey ($395 !!), I feel it's worth it: I spend a lot of time (usually one or two hours three to five times a week) on hold for various PC and other support people. This gives me the freedom to really get other things done in my office, and even walk down the hall a ways and still be live on hold! The only problem is that it's even harder than ever for people to tell when I'm really on the phone (harder than when I used a wired headset). I hope these comments are useful to those interested in a wireless headset, and H-D always allows returns, anyway, if you wanted to try it out. If I've omitted any details you'd like comments on, e-mail me, and I'll re-post to Telecom. The Hello Direct phone number is 1-800-HI-HELLO. (As usual, no connection with Hello Direct, except a 99% satisfied customer. [The 1%? Price...]) Lee Sweet Internet *lists* - leesweet@datatel.com Chief Systems Consultant Internet *e-mail* - lee@datatel.com Datatel, Inc. Phone - 703-968-4661 4375 Fair Lakes Court FAX - 703-968-4625 Fairfax, VA 22033 (Opinions are my own, and only my own!) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 11:48:28 -0400 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Further Comments on ProComm + Just a bit of addendum to Rob's fine review. I ahve been using ProComm + v 2.01 for better than a year now and have yet to find anything it could not do. The VT100/220/320 emulation as shipped has two main problems IMHO 1) The GOLD key is not properly emulated, and 2) REGIS graphics are not included. I *suspect* that the first is partly an effort to accomodate those few still around with the old 88 key keyboards. The FreeWare program "GOLD" (available at many sites and now included with the new "Kermit" release plus about fifteen minutes reassigning the keypad (alt-F8) took care of that. The other VT annoyance is the inability for PCP to be able to switch between numeric and applications keypad returns so I have to use the number keys at the top since the application keypad returns are more useful for me (how this note is being written from a PC but using VAXMail. (DataStorm did fix this last in PCP for Windows). Rob memtions the massive ASPECT script language and I agree that it is very powerful and somewhat intimidating. Hovever, when I wrote the ASPECT script to utilize the Caller-ID (FreeWare, Pat has a copy) functions of my Supra modem (plug), the first pass took just an afternoon despite having never seen ASPECT before. It is not difficult to learn. The only real gripe I have is that the new ProComm for Windows made many changes (and deletions 8*( to the ASPECT language and it would take a significant effort to update script files to that version. I have found the HOST capability very valuable when I want to let someone download certain files from my system and not at all hard to set up. You just must rememnber to comment out the default examples. In short, I am very happy with PCP and even bought a copy to replace Kermit. Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ From: msilano@access.digex.net (Michael Silano) Subject: MCI Fibrer Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM Date: 10 Sep 1993 16:33:14 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA Well as of about 11:30 this morning, no long-distance calls were being completed to the midwest or western United States through MCI. Seems that they had a fiber cut (the customer service rep didn't know where) and that MCI was experiencing disruption over much of their network. What ever happened to network redundancy and/or rapid rerouting? Mike ------------------------------ From: barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) Subject: Cellular Roaming Validation Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 13:16:52 CDT In preparation for an upcoming trip to Mpls-St. Paul, I dug out the roamer access number of US West (the 'B' carrier) from a private compilation of cellular roaming information. I wanted to give the number (in advance) to a few of the people I expected to meet. To make sure I had the correct information, I called the roamer access number, waited for the second dial tone, and punched in my ten-digit mobile number. I immediately received a "fast-busy", instead of the expected message: "The person you are calling has either turned their mobile phone off, or has traveled out of the service area". After an unsuccessful conversation with a completely unenlightened customer service representative, I found the number for their roaming information hotline, and called that instead. The rep that answered explained the "fast-busy" was normal behavior, at least until my phone arrives in their service area. Apparently, when I turn on the phone, it eventually responds to an broadcast interrogation of some sort, even if I don't initiate or receive a call. The switch then initiates a roaming pre-validation transaction. Until then, the caller will receive a "fast-busy" signal. Personally, I would prefer a more descriptive error message! Some systems call you and welcome you to their service area. US West has chosen to not actually 'ring' your phone. However, I thought it was interesting that all the validation activity was occurring simply because the phone was turned on. Paul Barnett MPP OS Development (214)-497-4846 Convex Computer Corp. Richardson, TX ------------------------------ From: Pat_Barron@transarc.com Subject: Setting Options on Motorola BRAVO / BRAVO Plus Pager Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 17:31:02 -0400 Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Well, since my last inquiry got such useful responses, I'll try asking this question too: Can anyone tell me about the "programming" mode on the Motorola BRAVO and BRAVO Plus pagers? This is entered by powering up the pager with both the page acknowledge and the lock (on the BRAVO) or the menu (on BRAVO Plus) buttons pressed. On the BRAVO, the letters "SPL" are displayed, and it seems to let you step through various options by pressing different combinations of buttons. On the BRAVO Plus, it's similar, but the message "SPL P 40" is displayed. Any clues greatly appreciated. Pat ------------------------------ Subject: Need Low Cost Cellular Phone With POTS Interface From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 11:13:23 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems inhydra!kessler@inuxs.UUCP writes: > I am looking for a low cost cellular phone with a POTS tip-ring > interface. Any recommendations would be appreciated. I don't know how much you consider low cost and what area you are in, but the Audiovox 2001 (??) has an RJ-11 jack built in the base of it. We were selling those here for $149. And, since CA can't bundle phones with service that's a pretty good price. Greg The Complete Solution BBS | Allfiles List: | Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-9058 (24hrs, v.32) | ~/tcsbbs.lst | Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site | zeta@tcscs.com | Cellular Telephoney Groups ------------------------------ Subject: Searching For Low Cost Solution to LD From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 15:17:37 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems I recently moved to Willits, CA which is served by Pacific Bell. So far no complaints, they've been far nicer to work with. The problem is Willits. I have an extremely local calling area of ONE nxx (459). There are no local calls for me that give access to a news/email feed so I'm forced to call out of state (to Minnesota). What I'd like to do is find a cheap alternative to using AT&T's Anyhour Saver on my LD. 11 cents per minute evenings, nights and weekends is good, but I'd like to get cheaper. I can go Reach Out America and get that to ten cents/minute, but it raises my day charges to 25/minute from 22/minute and I make a few day calls as well. I would like to know if anyone knows of a way to save some money for my email/news feed calls by using another ld carrier and what rates they have. Thanks for any and all advice. Greg Youngblood The Complete Solution BBS | Allfiles List: | Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-9058 (24hrs, v.32) | ~/tcsbbs.lst | Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site | zeta@tcscs.com | Cellular Telephoney Groups ------------------------------ From: UPSS@NMUMUS.bitnet (UPSS000) Subject: Dial Out With Modem on System 25? Date: 10 Sep 1993 13:26:45 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Hello, I will be demonstrating my organization's computer system at a small town hotel-type place in a week and a half. The folks there don't know what type of phone system they have, only that's it from AT&T. AT&T told me that it's a System 25, for technical support, I need to have the hotel-types call AT&T. They don't know what to ask. I'm not sure I do :*}. I expect problems trying to dial out from this phone system with a modem. Someone from the site says that all they need to do is dial a four-digit access code, and thereafter that particular line will function as a direct line, and my modem should have no problem. Does this sound right? Will the access code function like a semi-permanent toggle, or would I need to use it as a dialing prefix each time? If so, should I bring a line splitter, so that the prefix can be dialed from the phone (since presumably the modem wouldn't work until the code was dialed)? My modem seems to have an RJ45 connector for the "line in", and the supplied cable has an RJ11 jack on the other end. If anyone's familiar with System 25, can you tell me what kind of jack/cable or line splitter I'll need? I am told that there is a "bare" splice available near the phone jack -- would something with lug connectors be the best bet? Thanks in advance for any and all help. Please respond (or at least copy me) at the address below, as my access to news is about as funky as the above question. Scott Salzman Project Coordinator (906) 227-1109 Upper Peninsula Region of Library Cooperation (906) 227-1333 fax Marquette, MI, USA ------------------------------ From: mho@ficus.CS.UCLA.EDU (Mike Ho (Guest)) Subject: Duck Ringer: Quack, Quack, Quack Date: 10 Sep 93 18:40:31 GMT My friend has a duck phone with a ringer that makes it go "waak, waak, waak" when it rings. I'd love to find this ringer and stick it inside my phone at work -- or heck, bring the whole phone in -- but my friend won't part with his and won't let me dissect it. He says he got it years upon years ago at a Sharper Image store. They no longer know anything about it. Does anyone know where I can find such a ringing device, or any other novelty ringers? Answers by e-mail are preferred, to keep needless quacking off the telecom group. Mike Ho [Moderator's Note: That's okay, we have a lot of quacks around here. You know what they say: If it waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be (select one): 1) the Moderator on his way to the feeding trough across the street from his office. 2) the Moderator busily pecking out a Note. 3) a Usenet participant on his way to the polling place to do his duty to the net. 4) A real live duck! PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Caller ID Blocking Test Number Date: 10 Sep 1993 18:45:23 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) It has often been mentioned here that since *67 is used for both blocking and unblocking your number for Caller ID purposes, that you need to know the current state of line blocking in order to know if *67 will block or unblock. At least for the Seattle area, US West has provided a blocking test number at 206-625-9539. When you call it, it will tell you if your number was blocked. Note that if you call from 'out of area,' it says that the call was not blocked. It seems that US West has had the best implementation of Caller ID that I've heard of so far, with respect to making sure that all interested parties have the information they need. Some of the things that they've done that many other telco's haven't done include: - Doing separate mailing to non-published subscribers telling them that if they do nothing, that their number will be delivered to Caller ID subscribers, and providing a card to fill out and return to sign up for line blocking. - Specifically noting that line and per-call blocking do not affect calls to 800 or 900 numbers. - Providing a test number to check the line blocking status. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #637 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07565; 10 Sep 93 22:51 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02354 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 10 Sep 1993 20:28:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27461 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 10 Sep 1993 20:27:53 -0500 Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 20:27:53 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309110127.AA27461@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #638 TELECOM Digest Fri, 10 Sep 93 20:27:45 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 638 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson How to Connect Two Phone Lines (Conference Call)? (Emilio Navarro) Can You Dial Area Code 810 From Your Switch Yet? (John Palmer) Product Review - FaxPak (Fax->Printer) (Jamie Hanrahan) Increasing Price for French Telegrams (Jean-Bernard Condat) For Sale: Industrial Tape Deck (Kevin Demers) Two Old - Brand New! - WE510 Phones Purchased (Mark Rudholm) Need Information on SDL (Wan-teh Chang) Hotel Charges and Surcharges (Dave Niebuhr) Need Phone Numbers/Locations of Cellular Companies (Ram Mouli) Old Phone Number (Don Lynn) 900 Number in a Box (Les Reeves) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: enavarro@nyx.cs.du.edu (Emilio Navarro) Subject: How to Connect Two Phone Lines (Conference Call)? Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 23:28:44 GMT Hello everyone, Lately I have been trying to finish a home application I started a while ago, however, I ran into a problem and I hope someone here could help me solve it. The application is similar to a voice mail system that I want to use at home, but it will have access to two different phone lines. The caller in line one (myself) will hear a voice message requesting an access code (DTMF signal). If the access code is valid then the caller will be able to perform several functions such as dial another number using the second line (useful for long-distance calls so I won't have to use my calling card), leave a voice mail message, etc. If I select to dial another phone number using the second line, my software will obtain such a number via DTMF signals. Then, the computer will put the second line off-hook and dial the number via a DTMF encoder. The DTMF transceiver I selected has the capability of Call Progress so the system will know when the call has been answered. So here is my problem, if the call is answered within certain time the system will have to connect the two lines together (conference call), otherwise it will put the second line on-hook. What I need is a way to connect the two lines together after the phone has been answered and I do not know how! I need a method that will allow the computer to connect the two lines together and to disconnect them as soon as one of the lines hangs up. Could anyone help me with this? I am including a block diagram of my system so you can have an idea of how it looks. Any suggestion will be welcomed. Thank you in advance!!! (IC1) = CH1817 _________________ Phone Line 1 O----------------| TIP | O----------------| RING ~RI |-----------> Audio in O----o-----------| XMIT OFFHK |-----------< Audio out O----|-------o---| RCV | | | +---------------+ | | (IC2) = M-8888 | | _________________ | +---|---| IN+ D4 |---------< > | | | | D3 |---------< > | | +---| IN- D2 |---------< > | | | D1 |---------< > | +-------| VREF ~WR |-----------< | | ~RD |-----------< +-----------| TONE ~CS |-----------< | RS0 |-----------< | ~IRQ/CP |-----------> +---------------+ (IC1) _________________ Phone Line 2 O----------------| TIP | O----------------| RING RI |-----------> Audio in O----o-----------| XMIT OFFHK |-----------< Audio out O----|-------o---| RCV | | | +---------------+ | | (IC2) | | _________________ | +---|---| IN+ D4 |---------< > | | | | D3 |---------< > | | +---| IN- D2 |---------< > | | | D1 |---------< > | +-------| VREF R/~W |-----------< | | o2 |-----------< +-----------| TONE ~CS |-----------< | RS0 |-----------< | ~IRQ/CP |-----------> +---------------+ IC1 = Cermetek CH1817 Telephone Interface Module (DAA). IC2 = Teltone M-8888 DTMF Transceiver for Intel Interface. Emilio A. Navarro Software Engineer DataTrax Systems Corp. 650 South Taylor Avenue Louisville, CO 80027 - USA ------------------------------ From: jp@Tygra.Michigan.COM (John Palmer) Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 12:23:33 EDT Subject: Can You Dial Area Code 810 From Your Switch Yet? Organization: CAT-TALK Conferencing System Just out of curiosity, I tried dialing a phone number yesterday with area code 810 instead of 313 and the call went through! 810 isn't supposed to be active till 1 December. Has the telco pre-programmed their switches??? Can anyone else use 810 instead of 313 (anyone else outside of Michigan). FYI: 810 will be the new area code for all people who now are in the 313 area and who are north of Eight Mile Rd. (the northern boundary of Detroit). 810 is scheduled to go online on December 1, 1993 with permissive calling till August 1, 1994. E-MAIL: jp@michigan.com CAT-TALK IS BACK as a FREE SYSTEM!! 313-790-8308 300-14400 V.32/V.32BIS/TurboPEP Anon-UUCP: System: tygra, Login: nuucp, no pw Get file "/cat/pub/filelist" for a list of files. ------------------------------ From: Jamie Hanrahan Subject: Product Review - FaxPak (Fax->Printer) Date: 10 Sep 93 15:57:05 PDT Organization: Kernel Mode Systems, San Diego, CA In article <1993Sep2.144317.487@eisner.decus.org>, killeen@eisner. decus.org writes: > I have just purchased a really neat $250 box. It is called FaxPak > from Teledisk Systems, Inc. (415) 332-1122. Basically is allows you > connect a phone line, a serial, and/or a parallel line to various > printers. It will arbitrate between all three sources - meaning if > your printer is printing when a FAX comes in it will store the FAX (up > to about 40 pages) and print it after your print job is done. Or it > send Xoff/DTR low down the serial line while the something is printing > through the parallel line. Someone else (on decuserve) wrote: > I hope it has some security on the dial-in setup -) It does -- a user-settable five-digit code. I'd be happier if it had a plain old switch to disable dial-in changes, but five digits aren't bad. I just bought one of these based on Jeff's rec and I'm very impressed with this little box. I also am very impressed with the company's tech support. In my setup the unit kept picking up garbage characters from the parallel input when the PC connected to that input was turned off. Turns out they know about this, it's due to the wide variety in electrical characteristics of PC parallel ports (why does this not surprise me?) -- the Fax-Pak pulls the data strobe line up just so hard, if it pulls it up *too* hard some parallel ports won't be able to pull it down, and this means they can't quite pull it up hard enough to force it to idle with all varieties of parallel ports when the port is shut down. The factory fix is an ECO that puts a Schmitt trigger (adds hysteresis) in that signal path, and they will turn the unit around in a day if it needs this. I found that adding a print buffer between the PC and the Fax-Pak parallel port made the problem go away (different pullups, different thresholds). But the wonder is that the tech support person I was talking to not only knew of this problem, he knew ALL about the tech details of what caused it, and even knew what a Schmitt trigger is, why a Schmitt trigger would solve the problem, and the 74xx series numbers of the Schmitt trigger buffer chips! He was about ready to tell me what traces to cut to hack this in myself, if I'd wanted to do that. Another nice feature: You don't need to leave the printer on all the time. If it's off when a fax comes in, the Fax-Pak will hold 40 pages worth of incoming faxes and blink an LED to tell you to turn the printer on. The unit cooperates fine with an answering machine, as long as the ans. machine is downstream of the Fax-Pak. You program the Fax-Pak to pick up a couple of rings after the answering machine does, which really means that it doesn't pick up incoming calls at all, as long as the answering machine does. But once the call is answered (by the machine or by a person) it monitors the line, and if it hears the tones from a calling FAX, it'll seize the call and go to work. All phones in the house do NOT have to be downstream, but it works better that way. If you pick up a ringing phone that's downstream of the Fax-Pak, and realize "oh, it's a fax call" and hang up, the Fax-Pak will take the call. If you do that with an upstream phone the Fax-Pak never see it. (Once again, kudos to Teledisk's tech support person, who explained the above and who clearly knew what he was talking about.) The Fax-Pak does NOT work like some poorly conceived voice/fax phone switches: It does not answer all calls and then provide ring to the downstream phones for non-fax calls. I've rarely seen a box that does such a complex job and gets so many of the fine nuances of the job right. It works just the way I want it to. All in all this is a heck of a deal. The cheapest two PCs/1 printer auto switch box I've found is $50, and it doesn't support parallel AND serial inputs; you have to get up to well over $100 for auto printer switching plus serial/parallel conversion. The cheapest phone/fax switch I've found is $60, and a decent one seems to be about $100. The Fax-Pak is like buying the fax switch and the printer switch and then getting the fax receive capability thrown in, for just $50 or $100 or so. Oh, and once you have dealt with laser-printed faxes, you will never want to go back to those awful thermal paper machines ... The one "down side" so far is that I haven't yet gotten it to cooperate with a Telebit PEP modem on incoming calls. The manual doesn't mention anything special about modems, just mentions in ONE place that a modem can be plugged into the "downstream" port. I find it a little odd that the company never considered modems, in this day and age. The tech support person said that the unit does work with modems, but was unfamiliar with Telebit products. If you need receive fax capability, and you have a good printer, and unless you absolutely need fax/modem sharing, grab one of these before the company realizes how underpriced they are. Does anybody have a used fax machine to sell -- one with an unrepairable printer but a working sender? :-) Jamie Hanrahan, Kernel Mode Systems, San Diego CA drivers, internals, networks, applications, and training for VMS and Windows NT uucp 'g' protocol guru and release coordinator, VMSnet (DECUS uucp) W.G., and Chair, Programming and Internals Working Group, U.S. DECUS VMS Systems SIG Internet: jeh@cmkrnl.com (JH645) Uucp: uunet!cmkrnl!jeh CIS: 74140,2055 ------------------------------ From: cccf@email.teaser.com (Jean-Bernard Condat) Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 16:29:06 GMT Subject: Increasing Price for French Telegrams Since September 1st, a new tarification apply to national and inter- national French telegrams. In France, the customer can give the telegram text by telex or Minitel. The tariff pass to 33 FF for a minimum of perception of 25 words (free address), against 28 FF before. For the telegrams that need the use of a France Telecom operator (tele- grams posted in a post office or by phone), the price pass to 50 FF for a minimum of perception of 25 words (free address), against 33 FF (before. All the fraction of ten more words are inchanged in term of price. Out of France, the customer that that use telex or Minitel will paid a minimum of 76 FF (60 FF before). The fraction of five more words will be invoice to 27 FF for all countries, without any distinction. Since 1988, no incresing price will be note on this French telegram tariffs. The new French prices will be near the same as all the other European. The philosophy to send a telegram have being changed: 85% of the traffic is due to companies, and 15% by individuals for a sentimental reason (95% of this last case only devoted for bad/good private news to parents and family). With 4.9 millions of telegrams in 1992, the number of telegrams send decreased from the 8.4 millions in 1989. This fact is due to the type of distribution. During 1989, it will be possible to phone your telegram and to have a France Telecom operator that take a bicycle or a car to go to your correspondant address giving it your telegram. Now, the telegram service is centralized in all great towns. Your receive a call from a poor girl that give you.. all the words, character pro character, of the telegram. If you don't be at home/business, the identification of your telegram will be automatically given to a computer that call your phone number all 20 minutes between 7:00 am and 6:30 pm. If you have this computer system, a pre-recorded voice message give you the opportunity to dial the 05301111 (free phone number) with the reference of your telegram: for example ZOU5255 :-) The solution is to phone for having the text. A printed paper copy will be send by regular post to the address given by the person that send you the message. The normal access for the telegram service by Minitel is 3656, by phone 3655 and by 3610 for the Carte France Telecom holder. By telex, simply use the 250214 F with a special formatting option. Note that sending a telegram from a public phone using 3655 is not possible ... because France Telecom cannot bill you! Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France, B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Private Address: P.O. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France Phone: +33 1 40101764, Fax: +33 1 47877070 InterNet: cccf@altern.com or cccf@email.teaser.com ***For a free subscription to _Chaos Digest_, send a message to: linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi with a mail header or first line containing the following information: X-Mn-Admin: join CHAOS_DIGEST and you will put freely on the ChaosD mailing list. Don't hesitate! ** [Moderator's Note: It is probably a moot point, but here in the USA when Western Union was heavily into the telegram business, you could send telegrams from pay phones. But instead of calling xxx-4321 (W.U.'s phone number in almost every city) you called the operator and asked for Western Union. The operator would tip off the WU clerk that the call was from a pay station and after you finished talking to the WU clerk, s/he would tell you to flash for the operator to come back on the line. The WU clerk would then tell the operator to collect $1.25 or whatever the prcost of your telegram was. You paid for it in the phone box just like a phone call, or you could have third-number billing to your home or office phone, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kgd@summa4.MV.COM (Kevin Demers) Subject: For Sale: Industrial Tape Deck Organization: Summa Four Inc. Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 21:23:55 GMT For Sale: One H.P. 3964A Instrumentation Tape Recorder. 1/4" tape, 7" reel. Four tracks capable, NOTE two tracks are not populated with the required circuit boards. Two tracks and the MIC input are functional. Six speeds 15, 7.5, 3.75, 1 7/8, 15/16, 15/32 inches per second. T.H.D <1.2% @ 15 to 1 7/8 ips. Frequency Response at 7.5 ips is 50 - 32,000 Hz. Unit includes two reels with tape and one take-up reel. List price was $5,300 will sell for $150. Includes shipping in continental US. (weight approximately 65 lbs.) You can prepay or pay COD charges ($4). COD payment is cash only. E-Mail replies & questions to kgd@summa4.mv.com Kevin Demers | The opinions expressed 25 Sundial Ave | above are my own and Manchester, NH 03103| not those of my employer kgd@summa4.mv.com | ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 15:53:58 PDT From: rudholm@aimla.com (Mark Rudholm) Subject: Two Old - Brand New! - WE510 Phones Purchased The other day my mother asked me to come over to connect a phone she bought at an antique store. From the sound of it, I figured it was a WE500. She said she paid $15 and it was _new_. I was skeptical. Turns out she was right. It is a black Western Electric 510, new and in the original box! The 510 is the same as a 500 but has a switch to the lower-left of the dial to select one of two lines and signal a remote buzzer. The date codes on the components and the base are all 2-67. All the codes match, receiver, transmitter, network, base, dial, bell, and box. The box is the original "Western Electric - Manufacturing and Supply unit of the Bell System" with the blue and red octagons on it and the bold lettering "TELEPHONE SET." The phone's base cord is even still tied with the cotton string on it. There are no signQCt hs that I could find on it that mine weren't the first hands ever to touch it! The box also contained a wiring diagram, a schematic (including the network) and instructions for setting the bell volume. Even better, mom got two of them. One for ME! I connected one of them in her office (yes, of course it worked, did you even have to ask!) and took the other one home. Does anyone have any idea if this phone might have any value to a collector? Any ideas on what it might be worth? If it has no collector value, I'll install and use it but if it is worth something to someone in it's preserved state, I'll leave it in the box. Mark D. Rudholm Philips Interactive Media rudholm@aimla.com 11050 Santa Monica Blvd. +1 213 930 1449 Los Angeles, CA 90025-7511 [Moderator's Note: That's the kind of phones I have at home, only mine are green. Did you notice the plunger on the left side of the switch- hook also lifts up above its normal height, causing the line not going to the mouthpeice to be mechanically shorted out when it is to be on 'hold'? The bell can only be connected to one line or the other, and you need a six wire modular cord if you want to use the temporary push down/release feature of the turn button for signalling purposes. One installation I've seen has a single phone line, an intercom line, and the push button buzzer for intercom purposes. You did not mention it, but the little clear-plastic turn button at the upper left side of the dial for line selection also illuminates nicely. Put a little neon flasher inside the case wired to the line you are not on, with the bell fed from the line you are on. Then you can be talking on the phone and see the neon flasher through the clear plastic knob as it notifies you a call is ringing on the other line. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wtc@messier.eecs.berkeley.edu (Wan-teh Chang) Subject: Need Information on SDL Date: 10 Sep 1993 18:49:01 GMT Organization: U.C. Berkeley -- ERL Hi all, I'd like to learn about SDL, and would appreciate it if someone could give me some references (books or overview, tutorial papers) on SDL. I'd also like information on the available software tools. If you would tell me your experiences with SDL and give opinions, comments, that would be best. Thanks in advance. Wan-Teh Chang wtc@eecs.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 15:42:09 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Hotel Charges and Surcharges I was at a hotel in Omaha (the Blackstone) in 1962 when I was flying from there to New York City, and when I went to check out the next morning, they tried to stick me with a call from my room to Minneapolis. I explained to them that I didn't know anyone who lived there and that they had better remove their charge or else I was going to file a complaint with my employer, the US Air Force. It and the other services use the hotel as an overnight stop for inductees and pays them big bucks. The charges were removed shortly thereafter. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 [Moderator's Note: Do you think it was deliberate? Thirty-one years ago they would have been using the old-fashioned cord boards with three or four operators on duty at one time. Mistakes were common with poorly trained operators. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 15:58:45 EDT From: Ram Mouli Subject: Need Phone Numbers/Locations of Cellular Companies Hello Pat: I need the telephone numbers for the following cellular companies as part of a study. I tried various sources but could get only a few. I appreciate your help. The companies are: CNET COMsearch LCC (Don't know the expansion) and Joint venture of AT & T and Ericsson. Thanks, Ram Mouli ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 17:38:50 -0700 From: DLynn.El_Segundo@xerox.com Subject: Old Phone Number I was recently at my mother's house doing some minor repairs, using my late father's tools, and came across an old looking ice pick with an advertisement cast into the handle. "ONTARIO ICE COMPANY, PH ONTARIO 257" it said. This is from the days when a prefix was something you told the operator rather than something you dialed. My father lived near Ontario, California during almost all of the 1920's and 30's, so the ice pick could have been from anywhere in that time frame. After returning home, I went to the library and checked their Ontario phone book. The company is still in business, apparently surviving the replacement of iceboxes by refrigerators. I was hoping its number would be minimally changed, like 66x-0257, but it wasn't; it's 984-4111 now. None of the ON (66) exchanges were assigned to the city of Ontario anyway. Don Lynn [Moderator's Note: A company with the same phone number for sixty or seventy years allowing for dialing changes is a rarity these days. A few places in Chicago have kept the same number that long. The Conrad Hilton Hotel as been WABash (922)-4400 since the 1920's when it was the Stevens Hotel. Marshall Field's has had STAte (782)-1000 since the beginning of phone service just about. Only recently they became 781- 1000. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 10:51:26 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: 900 Number in a Box I saw an ad today for a CD-ROM called "Phone Sex". It is described as containing over 600 megabytes of phone-sex dirty talk in the .wav format. The people who named this little jem screwed up. They are only asking about $30.00 for "Phone Sex", but they could easily get $99 if it was called "900 Number in a Box"! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #638 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19554; 11 Sep 93 19:35 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29845 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 11 Sep 1993 17:00:54 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03049 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 11 Sep 1993 17:00:27 -0500 Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 17:00:27 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309112200.AA03049@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #639 TELECOM Digest Sat, 11 Sep 93 17:00:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 639 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Calling Number Display Blocking For All? (Dave Leibold) Bell Canada Pay-Per-Use Call Return Proposed (Dave Leibold) Teledisquette, For PC Communications Through ISDN (Jean-Bernard Condat) Cellular Roaming Validation (Gregory Youngblood) Terminal Servers Supporting RAS and TACACS? (Bob Izenberg) Calculators in Their Early Days (Cliff Sharp) Speakerphone Chips Needed (Robin Singla) Turning Off an Extension Phone (Robin Singla) Congressional Record on Line Wanted (Tim White) Hotel Modem Experiences (Adams Douglas) Bellcore Now Toll-Free From Canada (Dave Leibold) How To Search the Archives For Past Articles (Nick Phelan) So - This - is How They Get the Reverse Directories (comp.priv via Dan B) EST Designation on Orange Card Bill (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 02:30:44 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Calling Number Display Blocking For All [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 30 Aug 1993] Universal per-call blocking proposed As part of our filing of Name Display, we have also has asked the CRTC to approve a plan to offer universal per-call blocking. The service would be an evolution of the per-call blocking now in effect in that it would make such blocking automatically available -- at no charge -- for most customers. Today, customers have to call their local business office to request that call blocking be put on their line. In addition, call blocking options will be extended to include name as well as number. Customers would no longer have to contact the business office to have that service made available on their lines. By dialing *67 on a Touch-Tone [tm] phone or 1167 on a rotary-dial set at the start of a call, they would be able to stop both name and number from appearing on the telephone display screen of a customer subscribing to Call Display. Bell would continue to offer free per-line blocking to certified shelters for victims of domestic violence and in those areas served by switches not capable of supporting per-call blocking (until per call blocking can be made available). Customers may also continue to block calls through the operator. A charge of $0.75 applies. In communities where the name display feature would be available, customers would receive information with their bill statements one month prior to the introduction. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 02:30:32 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Bell Canada Pay-Per-Use Call Return Proposed [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 30 Aug 1993] Features to get pay-per-use option Bell has filed tariffs with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to offer two calling features on a pay-per-use basis to residence and individual-line business customers -- Last Call Return and Busy Call Return. Both capabilities are available to Bell customers today. What the company is proposing is simply a different way of pricing these features. Last Call Return will announce the telephone number of the most recent call received. The number can then be dialed and a busy line will be monitored for up to 30 minutes. Customers would access Last Call Return by dialing *69 on a Touch-Tone keypad, or dialing 1169 on a rotary-dial set. Busy Call Return will redial the number of the last call dialled (last outgoing call) and also monitor a busy line for up to 30 minutes. Customers would access Busy Call Returb by dialing *66 on a Touch-Tone phone or 1166 on a rotary-dial set. Offering these features on a pay-per-use basis will provide a new way to experience the benefits of these features, including greater convenience and control while paying only for the features used. Customers would be able to use the pay-per-use features from any individual residence or single-line business telephone, in areas where it would be offered, and for local or long distance calls within or between areas where the services would be offered. If approved, the charge for use of either feature would be 50 cents per use. The charge would be applied as soon as the customer dials the * (star) and appropriate code. That charge would also be applied regardless of the outcome of the call. Customers who have a monthly subscription to Call Return will not be affected by the introduction of pay-per-use. Pending CRTC approval, Last Call Return and Busy Call Return would be offered first as a market trial in Belleville, Ontario and Sherbrooke, Quebec, starting November 1, 1993. They would be available in Ottawa-Hull and Quebec City on November 29, 1993. Introduction in other communities served by Bell in Ontario and Quebec where Call Management Services are available would take place on a phased basis during the first quarter, 1994. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG [Moderator's Note: A curious bug in the Busy Call Return is if you dial your own number (getting a busy signal of course), then asking the system to work on it for you until it gets through. Naturally after a couple seconds it finds your line no longer busy (because you have hung up), so it calls you (to make sure you are still there and want to make the call) before it attempts to call you (to put through the call you are trying to make to yourself.) Your phone rings, there is a short silent pause and the equipment responds that, 'the number you are trying to call *did* become available, but it has since become busy again ...' and that will go on as long as you wish to play the game for up to thirty minutes or so, with you hanging up, it finding the line is free, calling you first to get you on the line and calling you second to put through the call, and reporting that 'the line has become busy again ...' When you get tired of it, use *89 to cancel further attempts. The equipment probably thinks the number is assigned to the local bus/rail depot for passenger information. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: cccf@email.teaser.com (Jean-Bernard Condat) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 11:02:13 GMT Subject: Teledisquette, for PC communications through ISDN Teledisquette and ISDN deliver a new dimension to personal computer communications. An emerging standard for file transfert, Teledisquette ensures the interoperability of all types of personal computers, regardless of the type of communication software used or operating system. With Teledisquette, file transfer becomes as easy as sending a fax. Personal Computers that Communicate Beyond the day-to-day business needs of telephones and fax machines, the expanding base of personal computers has created a growing need for transferring files on daily basis. Teledisquette and ISDN allow you to spend less time preparing and transmitting information, instead of waqting time sending floppies by foot or mail. Teledisquette allows you to send files easily and immediately over ISDN. More efficiency for diverse business needs The diversity of information system configurations among businesses and professionals no longer has to be a major file transfer problem. Teledisquette guarantees communications in mixed information system environments and among different types of products that conform to the Teledisquette standard. With Teledisquette and ISDN, any business frees itself from physical and geographic constraints, whatever your file transfer needs. Teledisquette applications include: CAD file transfer among engineers and architects, distribution of pricing and inventory information among sales branches of large and small businesses, delivery of educational materials through- out an organization, financial updates of accounting information, client billing from contractors. ISDN: A critical Asset ISDN is an effective communications tool for file transfer. Because ISDN is a completely digital transmission technique operating at 64 kbit/s, with Teledisquette, files are transferred rapidly and without error. Because ISDN is now available in most industrial countries, Teledisquette enables personal computers throughout the world to communicate with each other. By enhancing telephone services, and by transferring text, images, and sound, ISDN offers businesses a large application base. Furthermore, the high speed and low costs of file transfer with ISDN assures the economic advantages of Teledisquette. From Mac to PC The Teledisquette standard has been defined in collaboration with communication software developers throughout Europe. The standard is compatible with all major operating systems, including DOS, Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh OS, OS/2, and Unix. This permits widespread distribution and acceptance of low cost software and hardware conforming to the Teledisquette standard. Teledisquette reinforces the benefits of ISDN and optimizes the investment in information systems by adding a standardized method of file transfer. By connecting personal computers to the outside world, ISDN and Teledisquette enhance the performance of your workstation and permit you to reach a new dimension in business communications. Basic Functions of Teledisquette o Control of file access from remote file servers and workstations; o Directory listings of authorized access files on remote machines; o Rapid file transfer rate at 64 kbit/s; o Remote file name changes and deletion. Teledisquette Products Currently on the Market in France o ISDN communications boards and software for PCs operating under DOS, OS/2, Microsoft Windows, Mac/OS, Unix; o File transfer workstations; o File servers based on Teledisquette, with four and greater access channels and operating under Unix or OS/2. Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France, B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Private Address: P.O. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France Phone: +33 1 40101764, Fax: +33 1 47877070 InterNet: cccf@altern.com or cccf@email.teaser.com ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular Roaming Validation From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 06:32:44 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) writes: > Some systems call you and welcome you to their service area. US West > has chosen to not actually 'ring' your phone. However, I thought it > was interesting that all the validation activity was occurring simply > because the phone was turned on. Some systems, but not all, have this ability. It is mostly on your higher end switches that have the ability to do that. My memory is foggy from less than two hours sleep, but I'll try to muddle through this anyway. Every so often cell sites send out a signal to find out what phones are in the system. The theory is the system will know what phones are in service and be able to route calls faster (at least this is my understanding). Some switches have the ability to take the information from these polls, pre-validate roamers who enter the area (instead of on your first call), and to call the mobile to welcome it to the service area and/or assign you a temporary number and forward your home number to you in your new location (so people would get you by dialing your home system number and no mucking about with nasty roaming ports). If memory serves some of the earlier areas that had these features enabled were in Florida I believe. Either that or those were the systems that offered multiple phones with a single number (but no simultaneous calls). Greg The Complete Solution BBS | Allfiles List: | Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-9058 (24hrs, v.32) | ~/tcsbbs.lst | Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site | zeta@tcscs.com | Cellular Telephoney Groups ------------------------------ From: bei@dogface.austin.tx.us (Bob Izenberg) Subject: Terminal Servers Supporting RAS and TACACS? Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 12:39:06 CDT Has anyone used / heard of a modem server that supports RAS and TACACS authentication? If you've had personal experience with such a beast, what was your opinion of its performance, configurability, ease of use, et cetera? Bob HOME: bei@dogface.austin.tx.us WORK: bobi@vswr.sps.mot.com ------------------------------ Subject: Calculators in Their Early Days Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 7:44:53 CDT From: Cliff Sharp In article 23056 of comp.dcom.telecom (Subject: Looking for Ma Bell's Early Charges) TELECOM Moderator noted: [Moderator's Note: The rates then were disproportionatly higher than now (or even in the early 1900's, assuming the value of the dollar now and then, etc) but some of this can be attributed to the start up expense of the new technology rather than taking advantage of a mono- poly situation as such. It is a lot like the hand held calculators we use now which cost $3.98 at Walmart. In 1965 those same units cost about $200!! PAT] Somewhere between 1969-1971 I saw my first electronic desk calculator (handhelds were unheard of!) when I started a new job. It was a Sony, about the size of a 32-memory "featurephone" of today, and cost $2000. I remember my amazement that it would divide, and immediately sat at it and computed sqrt(2). The boss, who authorized its purchase, said it was the only unit he knew of in existence. Cliff Sharp clifto@indep1.chi.il.us OR clifto@indep1.uucp WA9PDM Use whichever one works [Moderator's Note: sqrt(2) was always fun followed by the square of the answer given to watch it report back 1.99999998 or similar instead of the 2 you started with. No more playing around with division by zero however! The 'new' electronic machines reported an overflow con- dition instantly and stalled until you reset them. Now the old Victor Comptometer machines and the electrically operated Burroughs arith- metic machines were fun ... give them a division by zero, and the gears inside would keep chugging away forever looking for resolution until the motor burned out if you did not hit the reset switch on the side to kill the job or unplug them from the wall, but even that did not reset things as the gears inside were stuck where they were when the power was gone. You had to use the tiny reset button on the bottom of the adding machine to shove all the gears into neutral and back to their normal resting place. With the earlier Burroughs mechanical arith- cmetic machines (punch one button in each column, it locked in place until you pulled the long handle forward (or spun the crank on the side of the older ones), you could attempt divison by zero -- it saw no problem with it -- but you sat there and cranked forever until you got tired of it. I got a little Texas Instruments TI-51 programmable around 1975 or so; I guess it was seven or eight hundred dollars then. How much memory did it have? I think 256 bytes or something. PAT] It could resolve sqrt(2) to 16 digits. Wow! :) You know what the final test was in those days for quality control purposes before the machines left the factory? 12345678 times 9 = 11,111,111 and a second test, 98765432 times 9 = 88,888,888. If it got those two correct (a test carried over from the days of the mechanical units), it passed. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 13:25:43 CDT From: U19250@uicvm.uic.edu Subject: Speakerphone Chips Needed Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago, ADN Computer Center I need to build 4-500 speakerphones (no handsets) with three memory phone number locations. Is there a set of chips, or a relatively easy circuit that will allow me to do this? Any help will be appreciated. Robin (U19250@uicvm.uic.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 13:19:08 CDT From: U19250@uicvm.uic.edu Subject: Turnning Off an Extension Phone Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago, ADN Computer Center A little while back, someone posted something about how to turn off an extension phone when another phone was in use. This circuit used two diodes, and one resistor. I would appreciate it if someone could forward the values and circuit configuration. Thank you, Robin Singla (U19250@uicvm.uic.edu) ------------------------------ From: ao936@yfn.ysu.edu (Tim White) Subject: Congressional Record On Line Wanted Date: 11 Sep 1993 00:49:34 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net I am looking for a way to view/download/search the Congressional Record. I am particularly interested in Telephony regulation and deregulation matters as they are being discussed in Congress. ------------------------------ From: adamsd@crash.cts.com (Adams Douglas) Subject: Hotel Modem Experiences Organization: CTS Network Services (crash, ctsnet), El Cajon, CA Date: 11 Sep 93 04:24:56 GMT With the useful information here about hotel telecom experiences in general, I'd like to solicit chat about using modems in various hotel chains. My own stories follow: I spent three months consulting in Minneapolis this spring. I needed 24-hour access to the Unix host I was supervising. I was put up in the Crown Sterling Suites (_excellent_ service all around) downtown. They are business-traveler oriented, but when I tried to plug in to the phones I got no results. I talk to the front desk and was told they would have modem compatible phone sent up for me. Here's what's interesting. Their phones _look_ like two-line phones, yet they have RJ-11 jacks. I think a decoding system in the phone interprets call-waiting and conference-call tones and this filtering interferes with the modem. The new phone I was given had an extra modem jack in the rear which worked when I plugged in through there (yet not when I plugged into the wall), but a call on the "second" line _would_ interrupt the modem signal on line "one". No complaint, just technical curiosity. Flip side: I spent Labor Day weekend at the Loews Santa Monica Beach hotel. Their two-line phones _have_ a modem jack on the back clearly labeled as such. Yet, when I called _local_ online connections in L.A. (BT Tymnet), I got trash connections with no successful connect despite the audible modem carrier. On the floorboard, there was a separate RJ-11 connector labeled "alternate". When I plugged into that, I got perfect modem connections _and_ the "line two" button on the desk phone lit up. What's going on here? (BTW, both of the above charged me very reasonably for the calls) Adams Douglas adamsd@crash.cts.com San Diego, CA ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 02:30:22 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Bellcore Now Toll-Free From Canada The 1 800 521.CORE number for ordering from Bellcore is now reachable from Canadian points. Their documents, catalogue, etc. can thus be ordered toll-free in both U.S. and Canada. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 23:40:21 EDT From: INPHELAN@delphi.com Subject: How To Search the Archives For Past Articles I read your file on "Welcome to Comp.Dcom...". Perhaps I am not even in the right place. I am trying to do a research paper on Wireless Local Loop/Wireless Local Access. Since most of the RBOCs and GTE have done trials I assumed there would be some information about this in your libraries. From a rough "dir" through telecom-archives I turned up nothing. Browsing into your "1993.volume...." etc. directories indicate nothing but the file names are hardly indicative. Is there a master index somewhere? Is there a command like "grep" which will let me check the files for key words? The letters are in excess of a megabyte and at a scorching 2400 baud it could be a while getting each to my PC! Sorry to appear ignorant. Thanks for the help. nick phelan [Moderator's Note: Yes, there is something you can do, but at 2400 baud even it will take awhile. Get the two *compressed* files in the archives (anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu) entitled: -r--r----- 1 telecom guest 568541 Apr 9 11:45 index-vol9-10-11.subj.Z -r--r----- 1 telecom guest 220055 Aug 25 22:56 index-volume.12.subj.Z At the end of this year, the second file will be updated with volume 13. Warning: Set the type to 'I' as these are like binary files and will never uncompress correctly (or at all, once they just kept mushroom- ing on me) if you try to convey them back to your site as text files. Note these are huge files. The sizes shown above are the compressed versions (note the .Z on the end). Should you uncompress them at your site be sure you have room for them. Should you wish to print them out, the first file alone is thirty thousand lines in length. Once uncompressed, grep 'Intro' for a help file built into the index itself, or cat the first fifty lines or so. All subject header lines for the period in question were grepped out of the individual issues of the Digest with output piped into those files. Then they were sorted in alphabetical order, with the Re: on the front, where it appears, disregarded for sorting purposes. You say: 'grep arg1 arg2' where the first argument is the word or desired phrase or author's name (put it in quotes so grep will understand!) and the second argu- ment is the name of the uncompressed file. The output looks like this: 12/101-150 Subject Title Here (author's name here) 09/450-500 Another Subject Here (and author's name here) The numbers on the front say to look in volume 12, the package of fifty issues labeled 'vol12.iss101-150'. You can grep by any word or phrase you wish, by author's name, by all the titles in X/Y - Z volume and issue numbers. I encourage a liberal use of grep, not looking at up/low case, using digits like '8' as well as 'eight'. If you are too tight, you won't get satisfactory hits. If you are too loose, you will get flooded. Don't even bother looking for phrases like 'AT&T', 'telco', or other words used in every issue. I am sorry this is sort of cumbersome, but I am not a very good programmer, and I did this all myself in spare time. I will get to volumes prior to 9 when I can get my own act together here otherwise and have some time to spend on cleaning up and improving the archives. Let me know how it works if you try it. I hope it helps you find stuff you want and I am sorry resources do not permit me to make it better right now. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: So - This - is How They Get the Reverse Directories Date: 11 Sep 1993 05:35:32 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Passed along FYI: From comp.society.privacy Thu Sep 9 05:30:29 1993 Date: Tue, 7 Sep 93 11:19:04 PDT From: Kelly Bert Manning Subject: Re: Caller ID and 911 Reply-To: ua602@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Organization: Computer Privacy Digest In a previous article, wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) says: > Others said: ># > How Does Line Blocking Work With Emergency Calls? ># > If you have Line Blocking and an emergency service provider ># > has Caller ID, the provider will NOT receive your number > Typical Bell misdirection..... > Notice the modifier "If" in the sentence. 911 does not use CLID. Never > has. I suppose if you started up "Joe's Fire Dept. and Storm Door > Company" you might get it CLID. But what good will the number do you? > Do you go flying out onto the street in your ladder truck, while > looking up the number/address in your Haynes Directory ;-? Some communities may just be using basic Caller Id as a low cost form of 911 service. Here in BC 911 is something which individual communities negotiate the details of with BC Tel. A recent news broadcast from Vancouver mentioned that there had been a series of problems in responding to 911 calls on one particular day because the computer that supplies the address of the callers to the 911 operators had failed. The details vary from community to community, with some paying for more sophisticated operations and some refusing to pay BC Tel for any 911 service. It doesn't seem to be a standard Caller ID setup, so I doubt that the standard blocking method would apply here. BC Tel also recently reminded subscribers of their right to list just their number, as a free alternative to an unlisted number. This was included with an announcement that they are now providing a locator service. Anyone who wants an address which is listed can obtain it by calling BC Tel and paying a fee. This applies even if the number has not been published yet. They will provide exactly the information that would be published in the next phone book. Canadian phone directories were reported to be one of the primary data sources for Tetragon's "Homebase", which came out about 3 years before anyone heard of Lotus Corp's plan for a similar US CD-ROM database of home addresses and other personal information. The publishers said that they sent directories to the Phillipines to be key entered. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 11:41:00 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: EST Designation on Orange Card Bill On my latest Orange Card bill, I have a few calls from a very short trip I took south (just starting down the Delmarva, so called because it has Delaware, eastern shore Maryland, and two counties in Virginia). Heading down Maryland route 213 from Elkton, I made calls from (area 410): 885 Chesapeake City, 275 Cecilton, 648 Galena. All of them showed up on the bill as EST (Easton if I had to come up with a city name, or Eastern Shore?). I headed back east toward Delaware (could not find a phone on 755 Warwick, still in Md.). Back in Delaware, I made a call from 302-378 Middletown, and it appeared on the bill as MAK, which I've already seen in other calls made from Delaware. I'll have to check out the Elkton exchange itself. I don't know from memory where the LATA boundary is. [Moderator's Note: You don't know from memory where the LATA boundary is? You don't know? What kind of sloppy reporter are you anyway? I want *facts* in this Digest, not fiction! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #639 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07656; 12 Sep 93 4:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03954 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 01:42:58 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28882 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 01:42:32 -0500 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 01:42:32 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309120642.AA28882@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #640 TELECOM Digest Sun, 12 Sep 93 01:42:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 640 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: High Voice Mailbox Fees (Carl Oppedahl) Re: High Voice Mailbox Fees (Steve Cogorno) Re: High Voice Mailbox Fees (Steve Forrette) Re: My Experiences as a New Cellular Phone Owner (Mark Rudholm) Re: My Experiences as a New Cellular Phone Owner (Frank Keeney) Re: My Experiences as a New Cellular Phone Owner (Laurence Chiu) Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? (Richard Jennings) Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? (David G. Lewis) Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? (Tom Roberts) Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Notes on True Voice Demo (Eric N. Florack) Re: Notes on True Voice Demo (Al Varney) Re: Notes on True Voice Demo (Steve Forrette) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: High Voice Mailbox Fees Date: 11 Sep 1993 13:31:14 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In w.hefner@genie.geis.com writes: > I live in Northern California (Eureka to be exact) and just had my > Centrex system hooked-up yesterday. I was curious about possibly > getting voice-mailbox service from Pacific Bell and was quoted a price > of $ 19.95 a month. This seems to be considerably higher than what I > have heard other telcos charge. As a matter of fact I seem to remember > having read a note in the Digest from a subscriber in southern > Calififornia that was only being charged $9.95 for the same service. > I don't think that he specifically stated that he was connected to > Pacific Bell, or that he was a business customer, but I'd sure like to > know if I'm being charged a higher subscription rate for the same > service (from the same company) just because I live in a different > part of the state! Would it be legal for the local carrier to do this? > Since ONLY the local carrier can provide this service (automaticly > fowarding more than one call to a voice-mailbox service at the same > time when your phone is busy) shouldn't the price for this service be > regulated somehow? I expect that in many states the regulator sees voice mailboxing as a revenue source, not a service to be regulated. Just like speed calling, call waiting, and all those other things that cost next to nothing to provide but generate revenue. In such states the regulator demands that the revenue source be priced higher than cost, with the revenue used to subsidize basic local telephone service. > Also I'm allowed up to 40 messages for $19.95 a month. Any more > than that and my price jumps to $40.00 a month. This sure seems like > =ALOT= more than people in other parts of the country are being > charged. Well, even though the cost-per-bit of RAM has dropped by a factor of two each year for over a decade, perhaps telco bought lots of expensive RAM way back when and is now trying to recover its cost? > By the way, I was told by my Centrex rep that the entire voice-mailbox > system had to be totally overhauled recently because some phone > phreakers had figured out how to change people's outgoing messages and > delete their incoming messages. Now you have to call a totally > separate phone number (different than the number that the service is > connected to) to retrieve your messages. She said that this has > annoyed many subscribers because now they have to remember TWO > seperate phone numbers, plus their four to eight digit security code. > I wonder if having to have two seperate phone numbers (for each > subscriber) to get voice mailbox service is what I'm paying so much > extra money for? No, that adds little or nothing to the cost to provide the service. Why not get a second phone number that rings over from the first number, and use a Radio Shack 43-383 ($22) to enable one answering machine to answer both lines. This sounds like it would cost less than the voice-mailbox system. Besides, don't you get charged for a local call (1) each time someone leaves you a voice message and (2) each time you call in to get your messages? That adds up, too. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: High Voice Mailbox Fees Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 19:42:20 PDT > I live in Northern California (Eureka to be exact) and just had my > Centrex system hooked-up yesterday. I was curious about possibly > getting voice-mailbox service from Pacific Bell and was quoted a price > of $ 19.95 a month. This seems to be considerably higher than what I > have heard other telcos charge. As a matter of fact I seem to remember > having read a note in the Digest from a subscriber in southern > Calififornia that was only being charged $9.95 for the same service. I am in San Jose, and this is what we pay. For RESIDENTIAL service, it is $4.95. > Since ONLY the local carrier can provide this service (automaticly > fowarding more than one call to a voice-mailbox service at the same > time when your phone is busy) shouldn't the price for this service be > regulated somehow? Not true. You can choose any voicemail carrier you want. All you need for the voice mail to pick up when the line is busy is Busy Call Forwarding (3.50 per month, plus toll if applicable). > Also I'm allowed up to 40 messages for $19.95 a month. Any more > than that and my price jumps to $40.00 a month. This sure seems like > =ALOT= more than people in other parts of the country are being > charged. What they meant to say was 40 messages in your box at one time. If you delete prior messages, incoming messages are no problem. Pac Bell limits the storage area per mailbox to 40 messages. This should be plenty for daily use. > delete their incoming messages. Now you have to call a totally > separate phone number (different than the number that the service is > connected to) to retrieve your messages. She said that this has > annoyed many subscribers because now they have to remember TWO > seperate phone numbers, plus their four to eight digit security code. > I wonder if having to have two seperate phone numbers (for each > subscriber) to get voice mailbox service is what I'm paying so much > extra money for? I think this is standard practice for Pac Bell. For both my business and residential service, they assign a second phone number. THis number is the actual voice mail box. They have no way of putting the voicemail onto your line directly. They use Busy Call Forwarding, Delayed Call Forwarding, and Call Forwarding (you have to pay extra for this, but it makes a great Do Not Disturb feature!) to route your calls from your line to the voice mailbox number. This is why you cannot use Busy/Delayed Call Forwarding if you have voicemail. You can dial your regular phone number (if you have the busy option), and voicemail will pick up. When the message plays, you can dial 01 + password + # and you're set. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: High Voice Mailbox Fees Date: 11 Sep 1993 18:56:05 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In w.hefner@genie.geis.com writes: > I live in Northern California (Eureka to be exact) and just had my > Centrex system hooked-up yesterday. I was curious about possibly > getting voice-mailbox service from Pacific Bell and was quoted a price > of $ 19.95 a month. This seems to be considerably higher than what I > have heard other telcos charge. As a matter of fact I seem to remember > having read a note in the Digest from a subscriber in southern > Calififornia that was only being charged $9.95 for the same service. Pacific Bell has more than one voicemail offering. The 'Message Center' is the low cost offering, and it starts at only $4.95 for residential customers. It is available only in the Bay Area and in LA, I believe, and is offered by Pacific Bell. Other areas can use the older voicemail service, which I think is provided by Pac Tel, the same people that do the paging services. Both services are 'unregulated' services. It is unfortunate for you that the Message Center is not available in your area, but some major markets, such as Sacramento, don't have the Message Center either and must pay the higher rate for the other voicemail service. > Since ONLY the local carrier can provide this service (automaticly > fowarding more than one call to a voice-mailbox service at the same > time when your phone is busy) shouldn't the price for this service be > regulated somehow? This is not true. Since both the Message Center and the Pac Tel voicemail services are non-regulated, any service that they use from the regulated side must be available to anyone. The features that you need to request are "Busy Call Forwarding" and "No-Answer Transfer." These will both take multiple calls at a time, and send them to the destination you predesignate. This could be a voicemail box from another service bureau, your own voicemail, or anything else. If you are on a 1AESS, then you need Busy Call Forward Extended if the destination number is outside your switch (No-Answer Transfer Extended is not tariffed, so you can't no-answer transfer outside of your switch if you're on a Pacific Bell 1A. But, the standard no-answer transfer can leave the switch if it's on a 5ESS or a DMS-100. This issue is really confusing, and it took me several reps to get the whole story when I needed to get this set up recently). Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 15:33:18 PDT From: rudholm@aimla.com (Mark Rudholm) Subject: Re: My Experiences as a New Cellular Phone Owner In V13, I633, Message 8 of Telecom Digest, Timothy L. Kay writes: > Then I talked to PacTel Cellular in San Diego. They have a plan which > costs $20/month, and $.74 peak $.19 off peak/minute. However, if I > make the calls from/to L.A., the L.A. roaming rate of $.60 applies at > all times. This seems like the best arrangement, so I might make the > change. This plan is perfect for people who have a cellular phone > only for emergencies. There is a $40 connect charge in San Diego. Getting service in a nearby market can be a practical option. You'll find that since PacTel San Diego and PacTel Los Angeles are IS-41 interconnected, the systems behave almost as one. You can set-up and deactivate your call forwarding instructions from either system regardless of which is your home. There are inter-system hand-offs for calls in progress (in fact, you can have a continuous call from San Luis Obispo to the Mexican border.) Also, if someone calls the roamer access port to reach a roamer and the phone is unavailable, the call will get forwarded to voicemail or to wherever the intended recipient has forwarded their calls. This particular feature is a bit risky since the callee gets to pay LD charges for delivery of the call. The only drawbacks to having service elsewhere are that you don't have a local number for your cellphone anymore and you have to pay LD charges if you want to receive calls that didn't go through the roamer port. You can always give callers instructions on how to use the roamer port but that can be complicated for some callers. The two cheapest plans look like this: San Diego Los Angeles --------- ----------- Startup $40.00 $50.00 Monthly 20.00 25.00 Peak minutes .74 .90 Off-peak .19 .20 L.A. customers pay the same for airtime in S.D. as they would if they were in their home market. S.D. customers pay 60 cents per minute for airtime in L.A. at all times. A good friend of mine lives in Del Mar (San Diego area) but works here in L.A. on many weekends. He currently has SD service but is planning on transferring it to LA because much of his usage has been here. And the cost for his weekend use when in S.D. will only increase by 1 cent per minute. Mark D. Rudholm Philips Interactive Media rudholm@aimla.com 11050 Santa Monica Boulevard +1 213 930 1449 Los Angeles, CA 90025-7511 ------------------------------ From: frank@calcom.socal.com (Frank Keeney) Reply-To: frank@calcom.socal.com Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 08:43:28 -0800 Subject: Re: My Experiences as a New Cellular Phone Owner On Sep 07 16:09, Timothy L. Kay wrote: > Now that I have the phone, I need to get some accessories, > such as spare batteries and a rapid charger. Can anybody > recommend a good mail order shop? JT&T Manufacturing has a good selection of rapid chargers and other cellular phone accessories. I bought a unit that will first discharge the battery then recharge it. This takes care of the nicad "memory" problem. JT&T Manufacturing (818) 758-8700 Sorry, I could not find their 800 number. Frank Keeney | E-mail frank@calcom.socal.com 115 W. California Blvd., #411 | Fidonet 1:102/645 Pasadena, CA 91105-1509 USA | UUCP hatch!calcom!frank | FAX +1 818 791-0578 | Voice Mail +1 818-791-0578 x402 ------------------------------ From: LCHIU@HOLONET.NET Subject: Re: My Experiences as a New Cellular Phone Owner Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access System: 510-704-1058/modem Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 02:41:21 GMT In a article in comp.dcom.telecom, Timkay@crl.com had the following to say: [some experience with cellular providers deleted here] > Now that I have the phone, I need to get some accessories, such as > spare batteries and a rapid charger. Can anybody recommend a good > mail order shop? You might try Cellular World 1-800-TALK-NOW or No1 Battery Specialists 1-800-ASK-BTRY. Disclaimer: I have bought from neither but I did get a catalogue from Cellular World and spoke to No 1 Battery Specialists about replacement batteries for my Nokia. They weren't the cheapest. Laurence Chiu lchiu@holonet.net ------------------------------ From: Jennings_Richard/pinewood_lab_hpopd@hpopd.pwd.hp.com Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 13:02:35 +0100 Subject: Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? Organization: Hewlett-Packard PWD-CCSY, UK On 9 Sep 1993 20:58:23 -0500, Jamie Tatum wrote: > Since TrueVoice hasn't been released yet, have any of you Bell Labs > people tested Truevoice with modems? It was previously stated in the Digest/group that, since the signal modification is performed in the echo canceller and that the echo canceller already defeats some of its magic when it detects a modem/fax call, then these calls will continue un-modified, as today. But then, what do I know? I live in England. Richard Jennings, Software Specialist. CCSY/PWD Messaging Centre, home of HP's advanced messaging solutions. Hewlett-Packard Voice: (+44)/(0)344 763738 A=GOLD 400 Nine Mile Ride Fax: (+44)/(0)344 763526 OU=HP1600 O=hp Wokingham RG11 3LL e-mail: richi@hpopd.pwd.hp.com G=Richard P=hp England or: richi@hpopd.pwd.hp.co.uk S=Jennings C=GB This article represents only the opinions of its author. It is not a statement by Hewlett-Packard Co. The text is supplied without warranty of any kind. ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? Organization: AT&T Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 13:07:41 GMT In article tatum@hotsun.nersc.gov (Jamie Tatum) writes: > Since TrueVoice hasn't been released yet, have any of you Bell Labs > people tested Truevoice with modems? Particularly with high speed, or > 16.8 if you can get your hands on it. If it does cause problems (as I > suspect it will) will there be a method of disabling it on a per call > basis? As has been discussed here in the past (as well as in {CommWeek}, July 26, 1993) the tone generated by a modem that indicates to the network to disable echo cancellation will also disable the TrueVoice(SM) enhancement. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 09:17:14 CDT From: tjrob@iexist.att.com Subject: Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? Organization: AT&T Every detailed write-up I have seen about TrueVoice(Sm) says that the same tone which disables network echo cancelers/suppressors will also disable TrueVoice. As all modems are designed to disable the echo cancelers (otherwise full-duplex would be impossible), TrueVoice should not affect the performance of modems. Note that I have not tested this, however. Tom Roberts tjrob@iexist.att.com AT&T Bell Laboratories ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 22:05:48 GMT tatum@hotsun.nersc.gov (Jamie Tatum) writes: > Since TrueVoice hasn't been released yet, have any of you Bell Labs > people tested Truevoice with modems? Particularly with high speed, or > 16.8 if you can get your hands on it. If it does cause problems (as I > suspect it will) will there be a method of disabling it on a per call > basis? I know that this should be of interest to all users of the > Internet, especially UUCP because UUCP is a modem network (mostly > comprised of 14.4's) and a lot of it is LD. As previously posted, TrueVoice will remove itself if it detects modem tones. The same modem detection mechanism that is used to remove echo cancellers will remove the TrueVoice processor. As correctly assumed, TrueVoice would wreck havoc with high speed modem connections (just as echo cancellation does), but it will be removed from the circuit. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 06:07:54 -0700 From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Notes on True Voice Demo In #634, deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) writes: > I suggest that you're mistaken; the "unenhanced" portion of the > TrueVoice demo is standard recorded speech in a Conversant (TM) Voice > Information System. I don't believe -- although I could be mistaken -- > that the CVIS does any processing of the sort you're describing. While the CVIS, by itself, does not, the way the demo is put together tends to back my assertion. Consider: How could you 'fade' from one 'sample' to the other, without /both/ the before and after sides being run through a processor? I say again, the 'before' side sounded an awful lot 'narrower' than most LD connections I've been on of late. > Actually, the demo recording was made in a lab in Holmdel with (I > believe) a 7506 ISDN handset. While this has been noted to me in a few private netmail notes, I maintain that this unit generates a better audio quality than the majority of the sets to be found connecting with the telco. > Well, I look forward to a "back-to-back" comparison with other IXCs > when TrueVoice is installed. Should be interesting. Indeed. /E ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 18:03:45 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: Notes on True Voice Demo Organization: AT&T In article Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@ xerox.com writes: > malcolm@apple.com commented: >> .... The analysis described above >> was performed over several subsections of the data and there was no >> visible change in the filter's characteristics. > Agreed. This tends to imply that there is no spectral limiting on the > line itself, an old broadcaster's trick. I don't know how much of broadcasting applies to telephony, but I'll take your word for it. Doesn't this just imply that the signal never reached the line's power limit -- and thus volume in both cases was not limited by the PCM encoding? > Personally, I'd be interested in seeing the diff between a normal LD > conversation on AT&T and the other carriers, as compared to the demo. > I'm willing to bet the 'narrow' part of their demo is a lot narrower > than real phone calls ... even without TRUEVOICE. Given that few calls (or callers) ever use the entire POWER spectrum of a PCM signal, I would bet that the TRUEVOICE demo is pretty representative of normal telephone conversations. Studies in the early 1960's show only a small fraction of callers have their speech volume truncated by PCM encoding or other toll filters (to limit cross-talk on carrier systems). People seem to adjust their volume to the listener (somewhat) and to use different volumes for different types of calls. Callers to more distant locations tend to speak louder, even if circuit loss is the same as for short distances (but noise may be a subtle factor).j > I also note that the demo recording was very obviiously made in a > recording studio, with low distortion mikes ... and some split- > spectral level-limiting/processing was on the original recordings > used for the intro (Tom 'it;s all part of the I-plan' Heartthrob), and > the demo itself. If so, they lied to Bell Labs observers, and spent a lot of money bringing Tom to the Holmdel Labs location. According to the 8/2/93 Bell Labs News, the recording was done by having Tom make a call over the AT&T network to a digitizing box (AT&T Conversant(tm) system) using a "regular consumer telephone set" and a "regular telephone circuit". They wanted "to ensure that the sound was exactly what one would hear during a normal telephone call". > The processing sounded an awful lot like an old ORBAN OPTIMOD proc > stack I used to use at an AM station I worked for. The signal waveform > looked as if the original (if not the online signal) had also been > subjected to a 'smart clipper'. ... > .... I have to question how that the system will sound without > all the sweetening/peak-crushing added in. > Therefore, how that demo translates to real life is questionable at best. I'm sure we'll all hear all sorts of stories as it's deployed ... I am somewhat confused by the "clipping" references. In normal calls, the companded PCM signal rarely hits the peak voltage value. Nothing below that value is clipped. This isn't a broadcast signal where maximum power is desired. Al Varney - just my opinion ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Notes on True Voice Demo Date: 11 Sep 1993 21:29:59 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) writes: > I don't know about comparing it to TrueVoice, though -- > at least not until TrueVoice is deployed in the network. Installation > is beginning in Atlanta on September 23 -- if someone in Atlanta has > the setup that was used to do the comparison posted, they will be able > to run comparisons of AT&T calls with TrueVoice to calls on other > IXCs. Does this mean that starting September 23, calls *originating* or calls *terminating* in Atlanta will have the TrueVoice treatment? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #640 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa24043; 12 Sep 93 12:52 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31132 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 10:31:09 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01456 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 10:30:43 -0500 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 10:30:43 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309121530.AA01456@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #641 TELECOM Digest Sun, 12 Sep 93 10:30:20 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 641 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM (Mike King) Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM (Macy Hallock) Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM (Lee Sweet) Re: MVIP and Cards Supporting it (Brian Hess) Re: MVIP and Cards Supporting it (Steve Forrette) Re: DTMF Decoder Cards (jgy@hrojr.att.com) Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? (Dave Levenson) Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? (Robert M. Topolski) Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? (Lynne Gregg) Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? (Archie Cobbs) Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? (Steve Forrette) Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? (Cliff Sharp) Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? (Bill Nickless) Re: Tap Off a 1A2 Set? (Mike King) Re: Modem Tax in Canada? (Tad Cook) Re: The Power to Destroy (Robert L. McMillin) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 02:16:31 EDT From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM In TELECOM Digest V13 #637, msilano@access.digex.net (Michael Silano) wrote of an MCI fiber cut affecting calls to the midwest and west. He then asked: > What ever happened to network redundancy and/or rapid rerouting? Oh, now it's called 10xxx and you have to do it yourself! Mike King * Software Sourcerer * Fairchild Space * +1 301.428.5384 mking@fsd.com or 73710.1430@compuserve.com * (usual disclaimers) ------------------------------ From: redpoll!fmsystm!fmsys!macy@uhura.neoucom.EDU Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 11:56 EDT Subject: Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM Reply-To: macy@telemax.com Organization: F M Systems/Telemax Medina, Ohio USA In article msilano@access.digex.net (Michael Silano) writes: > Well as of about 11:30 this morning, no long-distance calls were being > completed to the midwest or western United States through MCI. Seems > that they had a fiber cut (the customer service rep didn't know where) > and that MCI was experiencing disruption over much of their network. A primary fiber trunk was cut between Akron and Cleveland, OH by a road crew installing signposts. MCI has a major network switching node just south of Cleveland in North Royalton. This fiber was its primary east coast connection. > What ever happened to network redundancy and/or rapid rerouting? Third party and unsubstantiated information: 1. MCI no longer uses its old microwave routes for backup as they used to. They were deemed to costly to maintain. 2. Some traffic was diverted to their alternate southern route (this may be a Wiltel route they share.) 3. Much traffic was switched to alternate carriers via MCI interconnections at nodes in the east, but on a delayed basis. It appears these are activated by hand rather than by network control computers. This is the second major MCI national outage from road crew fiber "backhoe fade" in this area in two years. My contacts told me they had learned their lesson last time ... and MCI has a reputation for learning from their mistakes (as opposed to just being cheap). Macy Hallock N8OBG Voice:+1.216.723.3030 Fax:+1.216.723.3223 macy@telemax.com Telemax Inc. and F M Systems Inc. 152 Highland Drive Medina, Ohio 44256 USA ------------------------------ From: decrsc!leesweet@uunet.UU.NET (Lee Sweet) Subject: Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 19:38:26 EDT I agree with the earlier poster: What is the scoop on alleged (;-) network redundancy, and routing around breaks in lines? I thought the whole recent point of various network carriers statement [excepting AT&T software glitches, which are system-wide, I assume!] was that 'we' (consumer) would not see problems unless they were multiple and/or VERY severe. By the way, is there any easy way to tell who uses what network plant? All that's been said is that MCI was hit, but I use Cable & Wireless for 90% of operations, and they had long distance problems Friday, which they blamed on the MCI cut. So, who *does* have a proprietary network of their own? Only AT&T? The big three [AT&T, MCI, Sprint]? I was shocked [shocked!] to find C&W blaming their problems on MCI, when I thought C&W had their own net (maybe not so redundant, but not using other's fiber!). Also, a few 800s that I called on Friday did not do anything. Period. I could here the (what I thought was) the target DID being dialed, but I never got a ring. I assume this was an MCI 800 (!). Again, shouldn't (at least) the big three have redundant routing for less-than -catastrophic outages? How about some comment from the AT&T/MCI/Sprint people? (And, please, let's skip the 'well, OUR network ...' I assume that all are more or less similar in level of service, no?) Lee Sweet Internet *lists* - leesweet@datatel.com Chief Systems Consultant Internet *e-mail* - lee@datatel.com Datatel, Inc. Phone - 703-968-4661 4375 Fair Lakes Court FAX - 703-968-4625 Fairfax, VA 22033 (Opinions are my own, and only my own!) ------------------------------ From: bnh@active.com (Brian Hess) Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 20:14:57 -0400 Subject: Re: MVIP and Cards Supporting it In comp.dcom.telecom article you wrote: > Can anyone provide me with information concerning MVIP and cards that > support it? I am especially interested in names of manufacturers. From the "MVIP Industry Update (3/93)" published by Natural Microsystems: quote: MVIP Licensees with board-level MVIP products include: Voice: Bicom Consulting, Linkon, Natural Microsystems Corp, Pika Technologies, Inc., Rhetores, & VOX S.A. Fax: Brooktrout Technology, GammaLink, & OAZ Communications Speech Recognition: Scott Instruments & Voice Processing Corporation PBX Integration: Voice Technology Corp. Network Connections: Aculab Ltd., Datakinetics Ltd., Dianatel Corp., Mitel Corp., & Promptus Communications. Other: Amtelco, Inc., Reltek, Inc., & SDL Communications MVIP is currently distributed by license. Licenses are available from three sources worldwide: Natural Microsystems Corporation, NTT International, and Mitel Corporation. If you have any questions concerning licensing, please contact R. Brough Turner, NMS's MVIP Evangelist, at 508-650-1312. :unquote (I don't work for 'em -- just visited their booth at Telecom Developers '93...) Brian Hess Active Ingredients, Inc. bnh@active.com ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: MVIP and Cards Supporting it Date: 11 Sep 1993 20:31:58 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In A.Kemp@fulcrum.co.uk (Alan Kemp) writes: > Can anyone provide me with information concerning MVIP and cards that > support it? I am especially interested in names of manufacturers. > MVIP stands for Multi-Vendor Interface Prototcol and is related to PC > based telephone switches. MVIP was developed by Natural MicroSystems of Natick, MA (800-533-6120, +1 508 650 1300). They make a full line of MVIP-compliant voice processing cards, and analog and digital line interfaces (loop start, DID, T1, E1, etc). Other vendors which have licensed the MVIP spec make a variety of other cards, such as fax cards. You can do anything from simple voicemail to a small toll switch, depending on what cards you use and the software you develop. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 11:41:39 EDT From: jgy@hrojr.att.com Subject: Re: DTMF Decoder Cards Organization: AT&T In article jdb@hobbes.sat.datapoint. com (Jeff Browning) writes: > Hi, > Does anybody out there know of a PC plug-in-card which accepts analog > DTMF tones and decodes them for the PC? > Or, alternatively, an external 'black box' which accepts DTMF tones > and converts them to serial RS-232? > I have some applications which need such a device, and I don't want to > produce them. Black Box Corp. used to make them, but they are not on > their current catalogs. A company called MoTron Electronics has a a Touch-Tone Decoder Display model TM-16 for $169. For RS-232 output (+ software) you have to buy the TM-16-PLUS (no price mentioned). orders: 800-338-9058, info: 503-687-2118, fax 503-687-2492 I just saw the ad in {Monitoring Times}, not associated, etc ... ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 05:27:31 GMT In article , Mike.Pollock@p19.f228. n2613.z1.fidonet.org (Mike Pollock) writes: > ... On a scratchy old telephone line, five and nine > could be confused, so operators added a syllable to "neye-in" to This was a `Bell System Practice' from the earliest days, and yes, it was done to make an audible difference between five and nine in the presence of transmission impairments. Air/ground radio (VHF AM) suffers from similar impairments, and this is why air traffic controllers and professional pilots pronounce the numeral 9 as `niner'. (United 228: cleared to land runway two- niner.) 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: topolski@kaiwan.com (Robert M. Topolski) Subject: Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? Organization: Amateur radio KJ6YT Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 17:27:46 GMT Mike Pollock (Mike.Pollock@p19.f228.n2613.z1.fidonet.org) wrote: > Mike McClintock, on his weekly network radio show, was wondering how > operators came up with their stereotypical way of pronouncing the > numeral 9 as "neye-in." > I thought about it for a moment and concluded that, of all the digits > an operator might need to pronounce (i.e. zero, one, two, three, four, > five, six, seven, eight and nine) all have distinct vowel sounds > except five and nine. On a scratchy old telephone line, five and nine > could be confused, so operators added a syllable to "neye-in" to > distinguish the two. Thus an exchange of 555 and 595 wouldn't be > confused by the caller. > Does this have any basis in fact, or is there a better reason? It also comes from radio operations, which pronounces it "neye-in" or "niner" so it is not confused with five. Another bad pair is fifty and sixty, which sound incredibly close over the phone/radio, so it is said as five-zero or six-zero (or one or two or whatever). Robert M. Topolski ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 12:20:00 PDT Mike.Pollock@p19.f228.n2613.z1.fidonet.org (Mike Pollock) wrote: > Does this have any basis in fact, or is there a better reason? Probably. As a private pilot, I was taught "niner" and "fife" in radio communications. Makes it pretty clear. Lynne ------------------------------ From: archie@cory.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Archie Cobbs) Subject: Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? Date: 11 Sep 93 20:34:39 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Mike.Pollock@p19.f228.n2613.z1.fidonet.org (Mike Pollock) writes: > I thought about it for a moment and concluded that, of all the digits > an operator might need to pronounce (i.e. zero, one, two, three, four, > five, six, seven, eight and nine) all have distinct vowel sounds > except five and nine. On a scratchy old telephone line, five and nine > could be confused, so operators added a syllable to "neye-in" to > distinguish the two. Thus an exchange of 555 and 595 wouldn't be > confused by the caller. I don't know about the phone system, but I suspect this is the reason. On the aviation airwaves, where getting the right info is potentially critical, you're supposed to say "niner" instead of just "nine". You're also supposed to say "thee" for three and "fife" for five. Moreover, the whole alphabet is pronounced this way: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc. Archie ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? Date: 11 Sep 1993 19:10:01 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) The military solves this problem by pronouncing 9 as "Niner." Also, 1 is pronounced as "won" instead of "one," and 3 is "tree." Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com [Moderator's Note: Now how could you possibly pronounce 'won' different- ly than 'one'? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 8:01:54 CDT From: Cliff Sharp I'm pretty sure that's also the reason radio operators use "niner" instead of "nine". To prove it to yourself, have someone stand across the room with an AM radio tuned between stations and turned up LOUD, and say fives and nines in a normal voice; try to copy them down. Then have them use either "neye-in" or "niner" instead of "nine" and try again. That's why I find it amusing to tune into CB and hear them using "fiver". Probably sounds real techy and "real-radio-operatorish" to them. :-) Cliff Sharp clifto@indep1.chi.il.us OR clifto@indep1.uucp WA9PDM Use whichever one works ------------------------------ From: Bill Nickless Subject: Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 22:45:46 CDT Mike Pollock concludes that the reason an operator pronounces the digit 9 as "neye-in" is due to the potential for confusion between the spoken numbers five and nine over a noisy channel. Aircraft pilots are trained to speak the number nine as "niner" (rhymes with miner) for that very reason. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 13:36:44 EDT From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: Re: Tap Off a 1A2 Set? In TELECOM Digest, V13 #632, reinert@cs.odu.edu (Ken Reinert) wrote: > I'm looking for a device that will allow a device (say, a fax machine) > to tap into one of the lines of a 1A2 set. I have one on hand; it > plugs in between the line and the phone at the 50-pin connector, and > it has an RJ-11 jack *along with a cord connected to a rotary switch*, > the switch having five positions: off-1-2-3-4. The basic thing is > similar to the "Line-1 tap" that Rat Shack sells, but this one allows > (obviously) the selection of which line to tap from. I don't have the > source for the existing do-hickey :( In last year's (free) RatShack catalog, there was a device similar to the line-1 tap, except it allowed the device to be plugged into any of lines one through four. Since I don't have my catalog here at work, I don't have the part number or price, but it is in there. If it's not in this year's catalog (I haven't bothered to hurry to buy one yet), then I'd check several stores. Odds are someone would still have some on hand -- 1A2 systems seem to be declining in popularity. Mike King * Software Sourcerer * Fairchild Space * +1 301.428.5384 mking@fsd.com or 73710.1430@compuserve.com * (usual disclaimers) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Modem Tax in Canada Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 17:09:55 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com writes: In #611, tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) writes: >> What this was really about was the end of the temporary suspension of >> network access charges for data carriers. Long distance carriers pay >> it to the local telcos for terminating their traffic, but the FCC some >> years ago temporarily suspended the same charges for data carriers. >> When they tried to reinstate it so that big data carriers paid similar >> charges to what voice carriers paid, CI$ got the BBS community all >> riled up by calling it a "modem tax." >> It never involved anything like monitoring individual lines. > And, how, pray tell, would they know what was being carried, without > monitoring of said trunks, hmm? Huh? When the FCC ordered the temporary suspension of terminating charges for data carriers, they never monitored YOUR line to see if you were sending voice or data. >> But here's a very interesting twist: >> A few weeks ago I got a call from an engineer at New Brunswick >> Telephone Co. in Canada. He was looking for a device that could >> install in the CO to monitor traffic on individual POTS lines, and >> automatically determine if the the line was being used for voice >> instead of fax/data. (Etc) > Some rumor, then! Here we go again. The Modem Tax rumormongers have demonstrated over the past few years that they will grab for ANY scrap of information that can be woven into their bizarre conspiracy theories. In this case, NB Tel charges less for fax lines. Since Eric is outraged that they are charging "differently for said line, and their costs are exactly the same", he really wants Canada to end their low cost deal for fax lines! Maybe he should complain that residential line charges should be as high as business line charges, since they are charging "differently for said line, and their costs are exactly the same." tad@ssc.com (if it bounces, use 3288544@mcimail.com)| [put "attn Box #215" Tad Cook | Packet Amateur Radio: | Home Phone: | on fax or cover pg!] Seattle, WA | KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 206-527-4089 | FAX: 206-525-1791 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 23:38 PDT From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: The Power to Destroy On Sat, 4 Sep 93 01:54:55 PDT, atfurman@cup.portal.com said: > The following was found posted in the Usenet newsgroup comp.org.eff.talk. > The next time that you hear Mitch Kapor or the Vice President smugly > advocating free this and subsidized that paid for by the government, > remember that it comes out of someone else's living standards -- or > lifelong dream of entrepreneurship. Golly, I've only heard Mitch Kapor talk about using *private* capital to finance the Greater Net. In fact, I recall that he's pretty consistently said that he does *not* support the notion of the Feds running -- and policing -- the Net. Of course, the meat of the matter is: > STATE OF NEW YORK SLAPS 13 PERCENT SALES TAX ON INFORMATION > SUPERHIGHWAY Yes, we could all see this coming. Let's not get all in a huff, then. Governments have gotten greedy for one simple reason: the continuing belief, against all evidence, that the state really can do everything, regardless of resources (usually, the last concern). What this debate over taxes boils down to is just how much government we really need and can afford. We have not had a serious discussion of this in many years; the issues have been occluded by people with agendas on both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat. There are Republicans, for instance, who would rather we not consider American strategic interests when formulating foreign policy, since limiting the discussion to those terms would immediately stop the absurd talk of military intervention in the ex-Yugoslavian states -- and in Africa. What's more, this could provide a compelling reason to slash military estimates even further, something many Democrats would also find unpalatable. As to the Democrats, their sins, particularly those from urban districts, are well documented: more programs, more plunder, never crying for results; if results there be, they are frequently loathe to accept that there are some things that government simply cannot do well. So the question is this: can we afford to keep a government that buys off this group and that, all the while ignoring the people paying for such largesse, most of whom simply want to be left alone? I say we cannot. Because the costs of government dramatically increased in the 1980's, Congress borrowed rather than risking the political earthquake that would have surely resulted had they pressed for higher taxes. This disguised for a time the agendas of those behind the spending, and hid the pain of paying for them as well, thus subverting democratic process. History shows that unchecked civil borrowing leads to unrestrained civil catastrophe. And the sad truth is that too many Americans have asked Congress to create this disaster. They expect their representa- tives to give them something for nothing -- an impossibility as great as perpetual motion. No wonder the average Congressman has such contempt for his constituents -- and vice versa. If the "information superhighway" becomes infested with highwaymen, we have only ourselves to blame. Robert L. McMillin | Surf City Software | rlm@helen.surfcty.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #641 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa26091; 12 Sep 93 13:53 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17083 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 11:26:49 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20166 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 11:26:19 -0500 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 11:26:19 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309121626.AA20166@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #642 TELECOM Digest Sun, 12 Sep 93 11:26:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 642 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: DTMF Voting System (Paul Robinson) DTMF Pocket Dialers (Brian Balthazor via Monty Solomon) Re: DTMF Decoder (system@decode.uucp) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Joel Upchurch) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Laurence Chiu) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Jack Mcgee) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Ray Normandeau) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Monty Solomon) Re: "Number Referral" Recordings: Whose Responsibility? (Paul Robinson) Re: New Asia-Pacific Cable Opens for Service (George E. Cabanas) Re: Recommendation Wanted For National Packet Network (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Creative Intercept Announcement (Kevin Kadow) Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation (Craig R. Watkins) Re: Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems (jvarley@netcom.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 18:48:03 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: DTMF Voting System From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA templar@mindvox.phantom.com, Writes (text edited for brevity) > trying to set up national telephone voting coincide with network > broadcast; callers on for about 30 minutes; votes tabulated in > real-time and delivered to network; existing systems only handle > about 7500 callers; looking to accomodate between 250,000 and > 1,000,000 callers; delay from the time a caller hits the keypad > until it reaches me has to be about a second or less. Does anyone > have a way to do this? I can think of several depending on how you want to set this up, and who pays for the call. Since you are doing a large number of incoming calls, sending them all to one particular point is not going to work; what you need to do is route them to several points and split up the load so that instead of trying to have one site handle 1,000,000 telephone calls, perhaps 200 sites handle 5,000 calls each. But it is going to be very expensive. For each individual caller, you need one trunk from a telephone company. In the past I have written at length about what a trunk is; it mean a physical connection, e.g. like the phone line coming into your house, which either runs to the local telephone company's switch or into a Point of Presence for a Long Distance Company. Trunks, like phone lines, cost the holder money -- perhaps $20 a month plus installation which could be from $30 to $100 each. If you buy a bulk line like a T1 or a T3 you might get it for somewhat less than the individual lines. Since you need two-way communication, you need full trunks; a broadcast path won't do. And you still have to pay for installation. With a short-term usage you might be able to work something out, but you still have to have something installed. And that's expensive. 1. If you are setting up a single national telephone number in some choke prefix in only one city (let's use Los Angeles 213-520-XXXX), that's one thing. I don't know there's much you can do unless you have the top three carriers change routing for that number to something else, and just have the calls that come into that particular number handle the calls that come from the non-major carriers and local callers. You still have a problem unless you can get the trunk lines. One possibility is to have a special prefix in one city created for this application and give out one number for it. Local calls from that area and calls from non-major interexchange companies are transferred to it. Calls from major long distance companies to that particular number and exchange do not go to that number, but go to a specific facility closer to the caller. I do not know if this capability is available from the telephone companies to route a specific exchange and area code somewhere other than where all other codes for that area code go. Perhaps special routing can be used. If it can't, then you can scratch this idea. There may not be enough trunks to allow 1 million simultaneous callers into one specific number in one area code. (If the number is in Los Angeles, Chicago or New York, maybe.) 2. Something similar to the above would be to have each TV station give out a local number, and thus the load could be split up according to area. This might also be advantageous in that many people would be calling a free local number instead of calling a long-distance number. 3. If you are using a 1-800 number, that would be another story, if the callers are hanging on for 1/2 hour, the costs would be at least $3 each using the highest massive volume rate. The 1-800 number method would also allow calls to be routed to different carriers in different areas or each LATA could be routed to a different call processing center. Also, that might tie up the 1-800 network; I don't know how many paths there are available in each LATA; there might not be enough. 4. A 1-900 number would probably be out, due to the fact that callers would be thinking 95c/minute = $25 a call, and many of them won't. (Unless it is some kind of contest.) And it might cost that much if you have to have 1,000,000 call paths. 5. If you can lease service for this from local voice-mail companies willing to rent you some trunk space in each major area, that might work, but it might cost as much as buying lines in the first place. 6. If you can rent time on setups specifically for this type of processing in many areas, that might work. 7. Each area could group the information it is getting and pass it on to a regional area, that can group it and pass it on nationally. It depends on how "quickly" you need the information from the time of voting. If a short delay is ok, then each 5-10 seconds or whatever figure, each local site will transmit its vote count to the regional one, and each region, every few seconds, will send in its regional tallies to the national site, so as to reduce the load on the tie lines between local areas; this also allows each local area to be connected to a regional area rather than cause the same bottleneck by sending everything to a single national site. For example, each 20 sites may call into a regional center, and 10 regional centers can call into the national center. This means that each of the regional centers has 21 lines; 10 from the local sites, one out to headquarters, while Headquarters only has to handle the 10 incoming regional tie lines. Or, in real time each local site can transmit its responses up to the regional center, and each regional center can package all the messages it is getting each second into one message, and transmit it to the national center. The delay would be on the order of a couple of seconds between the vote comes in and it reaches the main office. ------------------ Let's just figure that you could be looking to spend in excess of five, maybe ten million dollars to do this just to do it once; if it was needed more than once, then creating a means to do it would mean the next time might be substantially cheaper. If you actually *are* able to get financing on it, let me know; I'd love to come work on something like this; I doubt seriously anyone's ever done anything like it before and probably won't see it in other circumstances. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 01:54:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DTMF Pocket Dialers FYI. From comp.sys.pen From: brianb@key.amdahl.com (Brian Balthazor) Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen Subject: Re: Newton deficiencies Date: 10 Sep 1993 21:10:04 GMT Organization: Amdahl Advanced Systems Reply-To: brianb@key.amdahl.com mikel@apple.com writes: > A friend of mine says that he sometimes has problems with his Newton > dialing. He tells me that aout 4 times out of 5 it works fine, but > once in a while he finds a phone with which it won't work. I get > the impression that the problem has to do with particular phones. > Some of them just don't seem to accept the Newton-generated tones. Two years ago I took a sabattical and travelled the entire perimeter of the country starting in San Diego, onward to New Orleans, Orlando, Key West, up the coast to Boston, NYC, and over to Chicago, Montana, Seattle, and lastly back to San Diego. A total of 24,000 miles logged. Prior to this trip I purchase a Sony auto dialer hand held device which emitted DTMF tones and loaded with my numbers. I found the dialer to be operational at best in 50% of the areas I travelled to. Generally speaking the more remote the location the less of a chance the dialer would work. There was never any problems in any of the major metropolitan areas. Mind you my ATM Star network card would also not work in Star tellers in the panhandle of Florida, but worked fine in Boston ... Guess what I'm saying is dialers ARE highly dependent on the phone system. Brian Balthazor (510) 623-5046 brianb@key.amdahl.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: DTMF Decoder From: System Operator Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 10:24:13 EDT Organization: American Cryptogram Association Paging through the August issue of _Nuts and Volts_, I find a few offers for DTMF Decoders (my comments are in parentheses): CircuitWerkes Telephone (904) 331-5999, FAX (904) 331-6999 Decodes all 16 standard DTMF tones. Momentary or interlocked-latching. Optocoupled Darlington outputs. Kit $49.95, Assembled $79.95 (No experience with this one.) ================ International MicroPower Corp 65 Palm Drive Camarillo, CA 93010 Orders 1-800-992-3511 Inquiries 1-805-482-2870 Digit Decoder. Shirt pocket sized; battery operated; built-in microphone; DTMF and rotary-dial phones; Stores 2,000 digits, non-volatile. Options include: Time Stamp, Caller I.D. and RS-232 serial port. Base unit $179 (They also offer a Caller I.D. Computer Interface box separately, which I use here. Works okay -- occasional garbage, which may be attributable to the local loop, not the CLID hardware.) ================== MoTron Electronics 310 Garfield Street, Suite 4 Eugene, OR 97402 Orders (800) 338-9058 Info (503) 687-2118 FAX (503) 687-2492 16 digit LCD display with 80 character scrollable memory; Portable 9 volt battery or external power operation; High speed (25 dps), decodes fast auto-dialers; Metal enclosure with built-in monitor speaker, only 2.75" x 6.1" x 1.2"; TM-16 Plus includes RS-232 output and Software for automatic date/time/number logging using your computer (DOS 3.0 or higher); Audio cable and 9 volt battery included; 1 year warranty on parts and labor TM-16 $169 TM-16 Plus $239 S/H $5 USA/Canada, Visa/Mastercard/American Express accepted (A friend of mine uses the TM-16 and likes it very much. I also believe they've been around the longest, as far as DTMF Decoders go.) Other than as noted in my comments, I have no connection with any of the companies above. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at uunet!anagld!decode!dan. Dan system@decode.UUCP (System Operator) Cryptography, Security, Privacy +1 410 730 6734 Data/FAX ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? From: upchrch!joel@uunet.UU.NET (Joel Upchurch) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 22:17:15 EDT Organization: Upchurch Computer Consulting, Orlando FL tom@ulysses.att.com (Tom Smith) writes: > Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will > place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? Some high end Panasonic answering machines have a feature called Call Transfer that will do what you want. At least the manual says it will. You set up the transfer on your answering machine and after the caller hangs up the answering machine calls the number you program and plays the message. You get a tone-only beep and can call your answering machine and get it to replay the message. I wonder what would happen if someone entered the number on the touch tone pad when the answering machine beeped? Would this cause the number to show up on your beeper? You could let people beep you without actually giving them your beeper number. I'd like to have this feature myself, but I can't see spending over 100 bucks for a new answering machine, when my current one works fine. Strangely enough, the only place locally I've seen this Panasonic model is at Wal-Mart. Joel Upchurch @ Upchurch Computer Consulting uunet!aaahq01!upchrch!joel 718 Galsworthy Ave. Orlando, FL 32809-6429 phone (407) 859-0982 ------------------------------ From: LCHIU@HOLONET.NET Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access System: 510-704-1058/modem Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 02:40:57 GMT In an article to comp.dcom.telecom, Thompson@netcom.com said: > tom@ulysses.att.com writes: >> Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will >> place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? > My Panasonic KX-T2740 two-line phone/answering machine does this (and > a lot lot of other stuff). I've had it for years, it's great. It's > also about $200, last I checked ... but I know four other people who > bought one because they used mine ... go figure. My answering machine will call any pre-selected number when a message comes in. It's a Panasonic. When you answer the phone you hear your outgoing message. You punch in your code during this message and then can retrieve the message. However I wasn't sure how it could talk to a pager unless it was a pager than beeped when called rather than expect a data stream to appear on its display. Laurence Chiu lchiu@holonet.net ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? From: jack.mcgee@ehbbs.com (Jack Mcgee) Date: 12 Sep 93 09:53:00 GMT Organization: Ed Hopper's BBS - Berkeley Lake (Atlanta), GA - 404-446-9462 Reply-To: jack.mcgee@ehbbs.com (Jack Mcgee) > Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will > place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? Another solution would be one of several programs for the IBM PC w/modem. Ed Hopper's BBS - Home of uuPCB - Usenet for PC Board Node 1 - USR HST - 404-446-9462 Node 2 - V.32bis - 404-446-9465 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? From: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) Date: 12 Sep 93 11:23:00 GMT Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) The Panasonic KX-T2710 will do that. I have it. Disadvantage: It will only call your pager once for each message. That mean that if you are in the subway when you get paged, you will not get your page. Unlike my other Panasonic TAD's it does not give verbal prompts. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 03:14:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? Panasonic KX-T2460, KX-T2470, or KX-T2740. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 10:12:11 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: "Number Referral" Recordings: Whose Responsibility? From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > My home phone number is different by one digit (8xx-xxxx vs. > 3xx-xxxx) from the internal directory assistance number for what > must be one of the largest telephone accounts in the USA. > Telco says the recording belongs to the customer, and the > customer says the recording belongs to telco. Of course. It's called, "Passing the Buck" and some places think if they do it enough they can get out of things. > I have noticed through several iterations of this that when I > track down marketing people responsible for an individual cut, > I can get the recording fixed for that particular exchange, > but what I really need is to have it fixed for _all_ > exchanges, so this stops happening. Any suggestions? Sue them. Write a notice addressed to the highest person in both companies -- the CEO, the President, the Chairman, the Chancellor, the Governor General, whatever that company calls the highest executive. Inform her or him of the precise situation -- that their phone number is one off from your home number, that you are getting thousands of calls at home, disturbing your sleep and making a nuisance. You can state that you do not want to sue, but you have no alternative; neither will fix the problem and both are claiming it belongs to the other. State in the letter -- and mail it with return receipt requested -- that you will give them exactly three days from delivery of the letter to them to cease and desist from further interference in the quiet enjoyment of your home, or you will sue them both on whatever grounds are available, possibly including conspiracy. You can also state that one of them is probably innocent; that party needs to pressure the one that isn't to stop, otherwise they are both going to get sued, and when you do, you will probably ask for large damages, and possible institute a class action against them. Emphasize that all you want is your peace and quiet and ability to use your phone back, that if you get it you have no reason or desire to sue, and that their intransigence -- especially the one who is wrong -- has forced you to the wall. Then, if that fails, find a nice hungry shyster who will sue for a commission only -- do not pay him anything. You've got one advantage; if the head of the company won't do anything, it's hopeless and you _will_ have to sue. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM [Moderator's Note: But bear in mind the fact that the phone number is one digit off in and of itself is not grounds to sue the company *as long as their recording pronounces the number in a legible, easy to understand way*. Under those circumstances, it is not the company's fault -- or telco's -- that people misdial. Maybe he could force the company to make the recordings cleaner and easier to understand. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gec@panix.com (George E. Cabanas) Subject: Re: New Asia-Pacific Cable Opens for Service Date: 11 Sep 1993 20:00:09 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) writes: > APC was designed to carry 560 million bits of information per > second -- equivalent to 80,000 simultaneous telephone conversations -- > over one working pair of optical fiber and one spare pair. I think the number of circuits should be 10,000 at 56Kbps or 8,750 at 64Kbps. But either way, 80,000 circuits appears to be too much. George E. Cabanas "The secret of life is honesty and fair gec@panix.com dealing; if you can fake that, you've got it made." - Groucho Marx ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Recommendation Wanted For National Packet Network Date: 11 Sep 1993 14:40:11 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In smlamont@hebron.connected.com (Steve Lamont) writes: > I use a commercial Internet service in Seattle, but it costs a lot to > dial in when I travel. Can anyone recommend a national packet network > that will help me save money? Does it require any special interface > with my own Internet service (a real drawback)? What does it cost? > How can I contact them? Why not use PC Pursuit? It has lots of local access numbers and, for a fee, lets you dial into particular cities. Hopefully someone will have a phone number for you to call. I don't have it. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 [Moderator's Note: Carl, he can connect with his local Sprintnet indial and at the @ prompt enter C PURSUIT to reach their BBS with full signup details, etc. Or maybe call 1-800-TELENET. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Kevin Kadow Subject: Re: Creative Intercept Announcement Organization: Technology News, IIT, Chicago, IL Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 21:12:00 GMT In article ae446@freenet.carleton.ca writes: > David Grabiner, grabiner@zariski.harvard.edu, uses the following > cute saying in his .signature: >> "We are sorry, but the number you have dialed is imaginary." >> "Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again." > I am tempted to use it on my answering machine. It would scare off > telemarketers quite nicely. One message that has been VERY effective in cutting down on the number of annoying messages is: This is a private number. I do NOT give donations. No solicitors. If this is a legitimate call, please leave your name and number at the tone. Or how about: You have reached [INSERT NAME HERE]. The minimum charge for this call is five cents per minute. Please leave your message at the tone. I have captured (11,000Hz) a good part of the set of standard intercept messages on my computer (using a SoundBlaster card and some tricks to get the audio in from the phone) with reasonable clarity, but it's not really "exactly identical" to the real thing. Is there a ftp site with audio files of the intercept messages? Is there someplace I could put my set up? I currently have them all in "raw" audio data so merging them together is as simply as conCATenating them all. technews@iitmax.iit.edu kadokev@harpo.iit.edu My Employer Disagrees. ------------------------------ From: Craig R. Watkins Subject: Re: AT&T VISA Card Validation Date: 12 Sep 93 08:11:20 EST Organization: HRB Systems, Inc. In article , barnett@convex.com (Paul Barnett) writes: > Look again. I received a new AT&T MasterCard a month or so ago, and > didn't see any such notice either. This weekend, I called the > automated customer service to check my balance, and got routed to a > human operator. Also with VISA. I happened to be using my "new" AT&T VISA while checking into a hotel and I got to stand at the desk for quite some time while the clerk talked to AT&T and requested additional identification and information. First thing in my room I called AT&T and asked "What gives?" They claimed that the enclosed letter said I had to call and activate the new card. I told AT&T that I didn't see that notice, but I had called anyway asking them why they sent me a new card when my old one still had a year left on it (they explained that they had changed the wording of instructions on the back of it). I asked if they still had their "Service Guarantee" and they said yes, but that they didn't really feel that they did anything wrong. I explained making me wait for 15 minutes in a hotel lobby in the middle of the night because they wanted to change the wording on my credit card and not activate it or tell me to activate it was not my idea of service. They ended up crediting me $10 per their service guarantee. I like that; it gives me the idea that someone might actually look into why it was that they had to pay $10 and fix the problem. Craig R. Watkins crw@icf.hrb.com HRB Systems, Inc. +1 814 238-4311 ------------------------------ From: jvarley@netcom.com (Breakin' the table) Subject: Re: Who Can One Complain to About Hotel Phone Systems Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 23:02:07 GMT In article dave_oshea@wiltel.com (Dave O'Shea) writes: > I am in the habit of calling hotels which I plan to stay at in > advance, and asking if they charge for 800 or local calls. If the > answer is "yes", I usually look for another hotel. The worst > experience was at the Four Seasons hotel in San Francisco: $13.50 for > a 20-minute local (2 blocks away, still in downtown SF) call. They got > the $13.50, but they lost $14,000+ in room-nights the next year by not > having one of the nation's largest insurance companies list them as a > "preferred" hotel. > If you do get stuck, complain loudly and in as public a way as > possible, preferably making an hotel-manager-embarassing scene at the > check-in desk. I don't mind paying for convenience, but a 29,000% > markup on a phone call is ridiculous. Talk about bad telephone service ... I was in Hawaii (Honolulu) a couple weeks ago, and I would frequently call my SO here in San Diego, and bill it to a third number (My home in SD). When I would do this from a payphone, the GTE operator would, as expected, call my home phone where my roommate would answer and give the OK. However, when I would dial my SO's number (or anyone's) the hotel operator did NOT call to check the billing. I could have billed my calls to ANYONEs number. This didn't bother me much *grin*, but I wouldn't like to be the guy who would be charged for someone elses calls. Maybe telco fraud isn't a big problem in Hawaii ...? I have spoken. And it is so. jvarley@netcom.com Tomes on IRC [Moderator's Note: Telco fraud, like fraud in general, is a huge problem in Hawaii. Two considerations: as long as the hotel had your authority to charge your credit card (I assume), they probably felt they had recourse to you in the event the third number billing was refused. Therefore the operator may have been satisfied with the arrangements. Other times when interim arrangements are satisfactory, i.e. they can charge your credit card if necessary, in order not to delay the call it is permitted to proceed and the operator does the third party verification after the fact or during your call as a courtesy so you are not delayed in getting through. Some independent telcos do this also: put the third party call through without any challenge, then verify ona separate line as the call is in progress. Most are accepted, the customer is not 'insulted or questioned', and for those few that are refused, the operator kills the call immediatly with telco out the cost of one minute or so. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #642 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa29458; 12 Sep 93 15:33 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09400 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 12:45:37 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16026 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 12:45:10 -0500 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 12:45:10 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309121745.AA16026@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #643 TELECOM Digest Sun, 12 Sep 93 12:45:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 643 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: MCI From Italy to Canada - Worked! (John R. Levine) Re: Looking for Ma Bell's Early Charges (David Leibold) Re: Canadian Document Database (Tyson Macaulay) Re: MCI 1-800-COOL-101 (David Wolff) Re: MCI 1-800-COOL-101 (Stephen Friedl) Re: Durham, NC Hotel Experience (Mike King) Re: Information Wanted on DS-0 Interface (John Gilbert) Re: Call Diverters: Where Can I Get One? (Steven J. Tucker) Re: "Portable Communications" by Banks (Ben Burch) Re: 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint; Only Problems Ahead (David Dodell) Re: 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint; Only Problems Ahead (Jack Dominey) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (David Cornutt) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Olaf Seibert) Re: ISDN in the USA (Dave Evans) Re: Setting Options on Motorola BRAVO / BRAVO Plus Pager (Jacob DeGlopper) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 10:45 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: MCI From Italy to Canada - Worked! Organization: I.E.C.C. MCI, Sprint, and AT&T have all recently instituted third country calling on their direct services. Thge price is very high, roughly the sum of what it costs to call from the first country to the US added to the cost from the US to the third country. Usually it's a lousy deal, but I can imagine that in countries with very high toll rates (Spain comes to mind, over $3/minute to the USA) it could be less expensive than calling direct. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl [Moderator's Note: The re-origination services such as Telepassport are by far a much better deal however. PAT] ------------------------------ From: djcl@io.org (woody) Subject: Re: Looking for Ma Bell's Early Charges Date: 12 Sep 1993 03:01:08 GMT Organization: Internex Online - Toronto, Canada (416) 363-3783 In article gworoch0@garnet.berkeley.edu writes: > I am looking for information on what Ma Bell charged when she was > truly a monopoly, i.e., during the patent period 1876-1893. It was > called The American Bell Telephone Company at that time. Perhaps there may be historical archives or special libraries with documents from that era. The first Toronto "phone book" was actually a short list of phone stations comprising one page, but the rates for calling were listed. These charges were based on time spent on the call. A copy of this list was on display at the Canadian National Exhibition this year (unfortunately, I don't have that info handy, other than the rates were amounts like 25 cents/call, etc). ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 03:20:29 EDT From: Tyson=Macaulay%DTP%DGCP=HQ=ADMSR@dgbt.banyan.doc.ca Subject: Re: Canadian Document Database - Correction In the posting I send to Telecom Digest on Sept 8, the anonymous ftp route contained a mistake. It read: debra.dgbt.doc.ca pub/doc/ It should have read: debra.dgbt.doc.ca pub/isc/ ^^^ My apologies. "doc" stood for the old initials of my department (former Department of Communications) - "isc" stands for the new initials. Apparently this reference slipped through - big slip. :-( Tyson Macaulay DTP/DGCP/I&SC Industry and Science Canada 7th Floor, Journal Tower North 300 Slater Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C8 (613) 991 4903 e-mail: tyson@debra.dgbt.doc.ca tyson.macaulay@crc.doc.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 04:20:11 EDT From: dwolff@teapot.cv.com (David Wolff) Subject: Re: MCI 1-800-COOL-101 ((original attribution gone to Bit Heaven)) writes: > Now through Labor Day, MCI is sponsoring a free 800 number that will let > you think "cool". Dial 1-800-COOL-101 and each key on the keypad will > give you a different "cool" sound, from skis on snow to drinks on ice. No > time limit or forced advertisements. Pretty cool, eh? I tried this (on Sept. 10) and it was cute ... but why is MCI doing this? As a public service? Thanks, David Wolff dwolff@s35.cv.com (yes, changed again!), dwolff@cozy.cv.com Disclaimer: Reflecting Computervision policy is a non-goal of this posting. ------------------------------ From: friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen Friedl) Subject: Re: MCI 1-800-COOL-101 Date: 12 Sep 93 15:28:12 GMT Organization: Software Consulting, Tustin, CA > Now through Labor Day, MCI is sponsoring a free 800 number that will let > you think "cool". Dial 1-800-COOL-101 and each key on the keypad will > give you a different "cool" sound, from skis on snow to drinks on ice. No > time limit or forced advertisements. Pretty cool, eh? Could this be an attempt to gather prospects for their LD service? To find out, I called their cool number from a phone that normally only is outgoing (the only incoming calls are wrong numbers or telemarketers): we shall see. Nice service though. Stephen J Friedl | Software Consultant | Tustin, CA | +1 714 544-6561 3B2-kind-of-guy | I speak for me ONLY | KA8CMY | uunet!mtndew!friedl ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 12:33:50 EDT From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: Re: Durham, NC Hotel Experience In TELECOM Digest V13 #634, drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) wrote: > I think it's amazing that the Hilton's and the Mariot's have to nickle > and dime you to death AND charge relatively high room rates, while the > Red Roof Inn's and the Motel-6's can charge reasonable rates and not > pick their customer's wallets, so to speak. It shows an interesting > perspective on the respective owners' profit motives. In an article last month in the travel section of {The Washington Post}, it was reported that Hilton has requested its properties drop surcharges for calling card calls and 800 number calls. Most have. Marriott is "studying the issue." Other chains are in various stages of changing their guidelines. I believe as more and more business travellers are no longer allowed to expense their trips but are getting reimbursed on a per-diem basis, they are learning to protest nickel and dime charging. Now the money is coming out of their pockets, instead of the company's coffers. Mike King * Software Sourcerer * Fairchild Space * +1 301.428.5384 mking@fsd.com or 73710.1430@compuserve.com * (usual disclaimers) ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on DS-0 Interface Organization: Motorola Inc, LMPS Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 09:15:39 GMT In article , ghotkara@abraxas.com (Anant Ghotkar) wrote: > I am desperately looking for information on the DS-0 interface. Any > information or pointers to the info would be greatly appreciated. You might try Bellcore technical reference TR-TSY-000458 "Digital Signal Zero 'A' (DS-0A 64 kb/s) systems interconnection." The document warns "This document is intend to define a Bellcore Client Company internal interconnection and is not intended to define a service interconnection to BCC networks for end users and/or access interconnection for interexchange carriers, other exchange carriers, or enhanced service providers. This spec describes a DS-0 as used for a digital crossconnect within a CO but not as a service offering. (The text of the document is only five pages long.) Bellcore documents can be obtained from: Bellcore Customer Service 60 New England Ave. -Rm. 1B252 Piscataway, NJ 08854-4196 800-521-CORE 201-699-5800 (international calls) johng@ecs.comm.mot.com Motorola, Inc. Land Mobile Produts Sector ------------------------------ From: dh395@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven J Tucker) Subject: Re: Call Diverters: Where Can I Get One? Date: 12 Sep 1993 09:32:08 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Reply-To: dh395@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven J Tucker) In a previous article, reppert@indiana.edu (Richard Eppert) says: > Does anyone know where I can get a call diverter? I want a device that > answers an incoming line and then will divert to a another line. You can usually buy them at phone centers (like in the mall) or even now at some of the larger department stores. If all else fails contact a telephone answering service, they often have HUNDREDS of these units left over from the bygone days when there was no call forwarding :) BUT - Make SURE you get a modem that CORRECTLY terminates the call when the second line is disconnected. If it fails to hang up the first line when the second line disconnects, this will result the the first line being given free access to your dialtone! EEK! :) This was often used in days bygone for phreaks to get free phone service, but most modern forwarders have taken care of this problem. Steven Tucker = dh395@cleveland.freenet.edu = xanth@freenet.fsu.edu >> Buy/Sell/Trade ALL Classic VideoGame/Computer Systems Including << >> Atari 2600/5200/7800/400/800/Xl/Xe - Colecovision - Intellivision - Bally << >> SMS - GameGear - TG16 - Vetrex - Vic20 - C64 - Ti99/4a - O2 - Sinclair << ------------------------------ From: Ben Burch Subject: Re: "Portable Communications" by Banks Organization: Motorola, Inc. (WDG) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 09:59:38 GMT In article Rob Slade, roberts@decus.arc. ab.ca writes: > I am also surprised at his contention that archiving software saves > files from corruption. Well ... if any given block on the disk has an even chance of becoming corrupt, then a shorter file (compressed) has a smaller chance of being corrupted than a larger file (expanded). This misses entirely the point that corrupted uncompressed files can often be patched or repaired, but corrupted archives are more often totally unusable. "I don't speak for Motorola; They don't speak for me." -Ben Burch | Motorola Wireless Data Group: Ben_Burch@msmail.wes.mot.com | Good PDAs go EVERYWHERE. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint; Only Problems Ahead From: david@stat.com (David Dodell) Reply-To: david@stat.com (David Dodell) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 00:00:36 MST Organization: Stat Gateway Service, WB7TPY Liron Lightwood writes: > The above number was mentioned in a previous article in this group, > as a number that can only be dialed using Sprint. > Well, I dialed the number from Australia, and got the "AT&T Does not > accept this call ..." recording. Very interesting. Does this mean > that the call was routed in the US via AT&T? Or would I have received > the same recording no matter which long distance carrier was used > (except Sprint of course)? I just tried calling the number on Westel who is my long distance carrier. Went right through, got modem tone ... wonder why mine made it through while everyone else is reporting this blockage? David Internet: david@stat.com FAX: +1 (602) 451-6135 Bitnet: ATW1H@ASUACAD FidoNet=> 1:114/15 Amateur Packet ax25: wb7tpy@wb7tpy.az.usa.na [Moderator's Note: Because Westel is really reselling Sprint ! Ask them sometime what is their 10xxx code. Betcha they say 10333. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jdominey@nesca.attmail.com (jdominey) Date: 12 Sep 93 11:46:30 GMT Subject: Re: 1-206-286-1600 Only via Sprint As an AT&T employee, I was really annoyed by the "AT&T has routed this call incorrectly" message, mainly because I think it's a lie. The only question in my mind is whether the message comes from Sprint or the customer. I reported it to AT&T Security -- we'll see where it goes from there. If a customer wants to deal directly with a long distance company, that's one thing. There are customers that you can only reach via AT&T, like the Speedway system where I have an account. But it sounds as if someone wants the callers to believe it's AT&T's *fault* that you can only reach 206-286-1600 via Sprint. That's dirty pool. Nothing above is meant to convey AT&T Policy. Jack Dominey AT&T Network Planning, Atlanta GA (404) 810-6936 dominey@attmail.com ------------------------------ From: cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (David Cornutt) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Organization: NASA/MSFC Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 10:50:03 GMT andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) writes: [quoting someone else's quote] >>> Perhaps the way to get rid of the association between one and toll >>> without bothering people would be to announce the cost of the call >>> immediately after dialing. Eg: "This call will cost 30 cents plus 15 >>> cents per minute. Thank you for using AT&T.". > This might not be as easy as you think. Even if you assume that > quoting list price for the call is easy (see below about that > assumption), the enormous number of different discount plans would > require a real-time billing record lookup and rate computation as part > of call setup. How difficult would it be to just emit a one- or two-second tone prior to start of ringing if the call is toll? After all, the system *does* at least know if it's toll or not ... else, it wouldn't be able to intercept you if you dialed it wrong. David Cornutt, New Technology Inc., Huntsville, AL (205) 461-4517 (cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov; some insane route applies) "The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my employer, not necessarily mine, and probably not necessary." [Moderator's Note: Rather than just a tone on the one hand or a message trying to quote a specific price on the other, what about a message very short inserted in there saying, "This is not local to your exchange, there will be an additional charge for the call." PAT] ------------------------------ From: rhialto@mbfys.kun.nl (Olaf Seibert) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Organization: Increasing my phone bill Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 03:59:49 GMT In denbesten@orchestra.bgsu.edu (William C. DenBesten) writes: > Perhaps the way to get rid of the association between one and toll > without bothering people would be to announce the cost of the call > immediately after dialing. Eg: "This call will cost 30 cents plus 15 > cents per minute. Thank you for using AT&T.". This is exactly what happens in the Netherlands when you call one of the 06 "service" (read sex) numbers. I have been following this discussion, and, as a poor "foreigner", now my head hurts ... In lachman@netcom.com (Hans Lachman) writes: [paraphrased] > local, long distance ... > area code, NPA ... > LATA ... > Toll, CO, FX line ... Help! Apparently these properties are in theory orthogonal, but I fail to see how a "local" call could have a different area code, and what exactly a LATA is, is completely beyond me ... In other articles, posters use phone number patterns like NXX and NNX as if that's as easy as pie ... could someone explain those terms please? (I didn't see a FAQ posting, I'm afraid.) > (Likewise, wouldn't you feel silly to dial a country code when calling someone in the same country?) But you already do ... given the fact that USA/Canada has been so greedy to annex the only single-digit country code: 1. In order to bring this whole ordeal into some perspective, I'll give you a look at the situation here in the Netherlands (which is similar to a lot of other countries). The terminology probably does not translate well into the North American situation so I'll invent some of my own. My phone number is 080-561030. That is made up of the city code (080), and a subscriber number (the rest). All city codes start with a 0, and none of the subscriber numbers do. So if you start dialing, the parsing done by the exchange is simple: if it starts with a 0, a city code follows, and it starts parsing the (variable length) city code. If no city code is given, the default is the one you're calling from. As I said, city codes are variable length. The ones in use are either five or three digits, and there are some reserved for special use (09: international access code, 06: expensive or free "service" numbers). A city code selects a city, town, or whatever, including some surrounding area if necessary. After dialing the city code, you get a second dial tone (but the Dutch PTT telecom will abolish that in the next year, for reasons that I don't know; but I would rather keep it) Also, not all subscriber numbers are the same length. It is even possible that there are different lengths in use in the same city. The length can then be determined from the first digit. In fact, in Amsterdam the situation has been for years that there were six and seven-digit subscriber numbers. However, PTT telecom is striving to make all phone numbers the same length, either 0xx-yyyyyyy (3+7) or 0xxxx-yyyyy (5+5). This seems completely nonsensical to me, btw, since everyone is used to different length numbers, and they clearly have the technology to parse them. There are never problems with running out of numbers: if they do, they just prefix all existing subscriber numbers with an extra digit. Usually, this new digit has been kept free for the purpose so that during the changeover period both the old and the new numbers can be recognised. (The old numbers get a recording instructing the caller to use the new number.) Also, the city codes aren't running out; in fact there are more free city codes all the time, as they are replacing old and limited exchanges with modern ones. For example, my parents' subscriber number used to have only three digits, but then their city code was terminated and they were moved to an adjectent city code, with a two-digit prefix to their original number. A sad end to classic times ... Like the 0 is an escape from local calls to inter-local calls, in many PBXs it is used to escape from dialing an internal number to an external line. Also, next year the international access code will become 00, making a prefixed 0 more and more into a "meta" selector. I suppose they will keep 000 free for inter-planetary access. The numbering scheme is essentially the same in Germany. In England there are less similarities (you can optionally use shorter "city codes" that they call "exchange numbers" (or something similar) for nearby places, and they vary depending on where you call from; this seems a relic from manual switching times as far as I can see) (and there is more than one service provider). In France, you have Paris, and the rest of the country, and calling from Paris to "outside Paris" is essentially as hard as an international call. (In fact, I once got a call from Paris by someone who misdialed and ended up in the Netherlands instead.) I wonder when they run out of numbers, since both areas have fixed-length eight-digit phone numbers. Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert rhialto@mbfys.kun.nl [Moderator's Note: You need to get copies of the glossaries we have available in the Telecom Archives. Use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu and 'cd telecom-archives'. Then 'mget glossary*'. There are several of them. That's a good start on the terms we use here. Regards the digit '1' it is the country code for the USA and Canada, but coincidentally it is also the access code for long distance. PAT] ------------------------------ From: keyman@Eng.Sun.COM (Dave Evans) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Date: 12 Sep 1993 10:08:42 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, CA thomas@lulea.trab.se (Thomas Persson) writes: > In J C Steele > writes: >> transfer time he is contemplating using ISDN but has been told at a >> seminar that the bit rate in the USA for the ISDN service is 56 kilo: >> bits compared with London which is 64 kilobits for the raw basic rate >> channel. >> This contradicts all that I have understood about ISDN. Please reassure >> me that the standards of 64 kbps is world wide. > It is not a world wide standard. USA has made their own standard, and > the rest of the world is following another standard. (The right one.) This is not accurate. (BTW: We in the US get just as upset about US bashing as you do about someone bashing your country. Lets all try to exchange information without getting tooooooo personal about it.) The Basic Rate Interface, as specified in CCITT I.430, _IS_ a world wide standard. However, the US has not had to deal with 64 kbs data before. Thus it is taking us a bit of time to get to the point where the entire 64kbs is available. What has been used in the US in the past is a service called switched 56. As the name implys, this is a 56kps service. Therefore, in many cases the _usable_ bandwidth of an ISDN connection in the US is 56kps. In these cases, the ISDN equipment still sees 64kps worth of data, but ignores one bit out of every eight bits. * All standard disclaimers apply * Dave Evans Sun Microsystems keyman@doorway.eng.sun.com W(415)336-1728 2550 Garcia Ave. MTV10-229, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 00:38 EDT From: jacob@mayhem.cwru.edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Subject: Re: Setting Options on Motorola BRAVO / BRAVO Plus Pager Pat Barron writes: > Can anyone tell me about the "programming" mode on the Motorola BRAVO > and BRAVO Plus pagers? This is entered by powering up the pager with > both the page acknowledge and the lock (on the BRAVO) or the menu (on To the best of my knowledge, this is more of a self-test mode than a programming mode. It will _display_ your capcode and various pager options, as well as testing the buttons, light, and vibrator, but will not allow you to change anything. The BRAVO Plus is programmed externally via a PC serial port connected through an interface to the three small contacts visible in the battery compartment; I'm not sure about the BRAVO. Jacob DeGlopper, EMT-A Case Western Reserve University jacob@mayhem.cwru.edu Wheaton (MD) Volunteer Rescue Squad deglop@snowhite.cwru.edu Opinions my own... ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #643 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02229; 12 Sep 93 16:54 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17412 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 14:28:44 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02389 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 14:28:18 -0500 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 14:28:18 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309121928.AA02389@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #644 TELECOM Digest Sun, 12 Sep 93 14:28:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 644 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Need Low Cost Cellular Phone With POTS Interface (Macy Hallock) Re: How to Connect Two Phone Lines (Conference Call)? (Timothy L. Kay) Connecting Two Phone Lines Using Analog Switches? (Emilio Navarro) Re: Book Review: "Introduction to Data Communications" (Paul Robinson) Re: What You Find Upon Looking Closer (Paul Robinson) Re: What You Find Upon Looking Closer (Bryan J. Abshier) Re: Hotel Charges and Surcharges (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions (Pat Turner) Re: Old Phone Number (Gabe M. Wiener) Re: Congressional Record On Line Wanted (Barton Bruce) Re: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis (hollarn@knight.gannon.edu) Re: Can You Dial Area Code 810 From Your Switch Yet? (Paul Robinson) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (John Payson) Re: Looking For Ma Bell's Early Charges (John Eichler) Re: EST Designation on Orange Card Bill (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: redpoll!fmsystm!fmsys!macy@uhura.neoucom.EDU Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 12:08 EDT Subject: Re: Need Low Cost Cellular Phone With POTS Interface Reply-To: macy@telemax.com Organization: F M Systems/Telemax Medina, Ohio USA In article zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) writes: > inhydra!kessler@inuxs.UUCP writes: >> I am looking for a low cost cellular phone with a POTS tip-ring >> interface. Any recommendations would be appreciated. > I don't know how much you consider low cost and what area you are in, > but the Audiovox 2001 (??) has an RJ-11 jack built in the base of it. Be careful, it may not be all you think it might be: Many cellphones with tip/ring interfaces for modems and fax do not offer a full POTS interface with dialing and ring available. Most offer only a two wire audio connection that requires manual dialing of the phone and manual supervision via "send" and "end". In practice this operates much like the manual modems before we all got used to Hayes AT type operation ... Most salespeople do not know the difference, you have to test the feature yourself to be sure. While I do not know the Audiovox 2001 features, I'd hazard a guess that its a manaual interface. Frequent readers of the telecom lists will recall the Tellular patent issues that surrond POTS line interfaces for cellphones. I suspect royalty issues are at the root of this. There is a line of adapters from Celljack that will adapt many phones. They have both "manual" and "dialing" units available. Tellular also makes these. Both work well. I'm also told that Motorola and Oki have fully dialable POTS interfaces available as an option. Personally, I have an old AB1X POTS line adapter for AMPS type cellphones I still use and love. Its just getting hard to find nice new AMPS control cable compliant cellphones these days, I still use my old Fujitsu cellphone with it ... (this was the unit that Tellular sued over and won, I bought it before the suit was brought. Wish I'd bought ten more ...) Macy Hallock N8OBG Voice:+1.216.723.3030 Fax:+1.216.723.3223 macy@telemax.com Telemax Inc. and F M Systems Inc. 152 Highland Drive Medina, Ohio 44256 USA ------------------------------ From: timkay@netcom.com (Timothy L. Kay) Subject: Re: How to Connect Two Phone Lines (Conference Call)? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 16:45:45 GMT enavarro@nyx.cs.du.edu (Emilio Navarro) writes: > If I select to dial another phone number using the second line, my > [...] computer will put the second line off-hook and dial the number > via a DTMF encoder. [...] So here is my problem, if the call is > answered within certain time the system will have to connect the > two lines together [...] and I do not know how! I implemented a similar system a few years ago using a voice mail card in a PC. The system was programmed to act as an answering machine. However, if I keyed a magic DTMF signal, then the phone would automatically dial my selection from several stored numbers. (I'd like to have been able to provide the number via DTMF, but I couldn't configure the software to do so.) I implemented the feature using a single phone line and call transfer. When the PC received my instructions, it flashed the switch hook, called the new number, then went on hook. The PBX I was using connected the inbound and outbound calls just fine, while freeing my office line free to receive new calls! There were two major problems. First, the transfer took quite awhile to come back to me, so I would get to the callee after they had said "hello ... hello?" for about five seconds. Second, the volume level of the connection through the PBX was low. Nevertheless, the technique saved me a few bucks. I can think of at least two reasons why such a "repeater" would save money. First, it allows the outbound call to be billed to the "repeater"s line, thereby avoiding calling card numbers and taking advantage of any rate plans, etc. Second, the scheme increases the effective local calling area by up to a factor of two. When I lived in Half Moon Bay, I needed to call the Netcom POP in Palo Alto, which was a toll call. I seriously considered reimplementing my scheme at a friends residence in Redwood City. (Fortu- nately, I found out about CRL, which has a POP in San Mateo, a local call.) Which leads me to an idea. In California, a residence can call toll-free to neighboring central offices within 12 miles of your own CO. By strat- egically placing residential lines at just under 12 mile increments, and setting each line to call forward to the next one, a person could call toll-free an arbitrarily long distance. Do you suppose you could "call-forward chain" all the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles (400 miles)? What would the signal quality be like? Tim ------------------------------ From: enavarro@nyx.cs.du.edu (Emilio Navarro) Subject: Connecting Two Phone Lines Using Analog Switches? Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 15:34:08 GMT Hello everyone, Guess what. It's me again! Someone suggested that I should use a Analog switch to connect and disconnect the two phone lines. I have drawn a diagram with the two switches (I did not include the DTMF Transceivers due to space). Using a TTL signal (from the PC Parallel port) I could close or open the swicth to connect or disconnect the two phone lines. So, my question is the following: What Analog switch do you think will be the most suitable for this application? Thank you in advance for your suggestions and thank you to all of you who answered to my first posting. (IC1) = CH1817 _________________ Phone Line 1 O----------------| TIP | O----------------| RING ~RI |-----------> Audio in O----o-----------| XMIT OFFHK |-----------< Audio out O----|--------o--| RCV | | | +---------------+ Analog Out | | +-----+ | TTL | |-----|------------------------------< Parallel Port | | | +-----+ | Analog In Analog In | +-----+ | | |---------------------------< Parallel Port | | | TTL | +-----+ | | Analog Out | | _________________ Phone Line 2 O----|--------|--| TIP | O----|--------|--| RING ~RI |-----------> Audio in O----|--------o--| XMIT OFFHK |-----------< Audio out O----o-----------| RCV | +---------------+ IC1 = Cermetek CH1817 Telephone Interface Module (DAA). Emilio A. Navarro Software Engineer DataTrax Systems Corp. enavarro@nyx.cs.du.edu 650 South Taylor Avenue Louisville, CO 80027 - USA ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 10:39:33 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Book Review: "Introduction to Data Communications" by Gelber From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > Part three, however, almost seems to be another book. Chapter > five deals clearly with bandwidth, duplex and synchronous > carriers, and the types of (data transmission only) services > are lucidly described in chapter six. Chapter seven discusses > modulation of signals and coding, and although the sine waves > are no better, the explanations are great. (I notice that > Gelber, in common with all other data communications > instructors, "chickens out" when the topic turns to "Trellis > Coded Modulation".) Is it a complicated or intricate subject? What do you think causes them to all "chicken out". Is there something about the subject that is unsavory or that some groups don't agree on? (For example, some people don't agree that dialing 1 before a toll call is a good idea, they'd prefer to use ten digits for all calls anywhere in the U.S., as cellular phones do, (except for intra-area-code numbers which are seven digits.) Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 10:00:25 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: What You Find Upon Looking Closer From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA David Cornutt , writes: > I got a card from South Central Bell in the mail last month, > touting their new voice mail offering. Only $3.95 a month! > Wow, I thought, that's the cheapest commercial voicemail offer > I've heard of yet. What you have to look for is whether they assign you a separate phone number or not. That's how you can tell whether it's "real" voicemail or something they are pretending it is, but has to be tied to your phone. I'll explain that in a moment. > Then I looked at the card a little more closely, and I found: > true enough, the voice mail is only $3.95 a month. Of course, > it doesn't work unless you get Call Forward/No Answer. Ah, > well, that's another $1.95 a month. And, to really have an > advantage over an answering machine, you also need to get Call > Forward/Busy, at still another $1.95 a month. Is it that it is keyed according to the number that calls in or do they assign each voicemail subscriber his own phone number? At this price, if they do, I could have pat set up a 1-800 number and pay SCB the $4 a month, and for a net cost of maybe $12 a month (figuring the 800 number will use about $5 of calls) I could set up a voice-mail number that has nothing to do with my address here in the DC area.) If the service is only accessible based on being transferred from a particular line, then I suspect they are doing the equivalent of "bait and switch". My personal preference for voice mail is to use it *in place* of a regular phone number. For $50 or less (or maybe $10, used) you can purchase cheap answering machines. I don't see voicemail as being a benefit as an add on to a phone number, unless the voicemail number can be called directly, irregardless of whether you even *have* your own phone number. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: babshier@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Bryan J Abshier) Subject: Re: What You Find Upon Looking Closer Date: 12 Sep 1993 07:02:42 GMT Organization: The Ohio State University In article cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (David Cornutt) writes: > Then I looked at the card a little more closely, and I found: true > enough, the voice mail is only $3.95 a month. Of course, it doesn't > work unless you get Call Forward/No Answer. Ah, well, that's another > $1.95 a month. And, to really have an advantage over an answering > machine, you also need to get Call Forward/Busy, at still another > $1.95 a month. Oh my ... our telco dosen't have any of these hidden charges, It's just a flat $14.95 a month! Bryan J. Abshier -- Abshier@osu.edu -- bg739@cleveland.freenet.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 08:25:36 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Hotel Charges and Surcharges In TELECOM Digest V13 #638 I wrote: [Text about phone charges incurred at a hotel deleted. (dwn)] > [Moderator's Note: Do you think it was deliberate? Thirty-one years > ago they would have been using the old-fashioned cord boards with > three or four operators on duty at one time. Mistakes were common > with poorly trained operators. PAT] Yes, I did. The manager asked me to wait a few minutes and told me that the charges were mistakenly put on my bill even though the call originated from ANOTHER hotel that was in a totally different exchange (I don't remember how Omaha was set up then, but it definitely different according to the phone book). Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: turner@Dixie.Com Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 10:31 EDT From: rsiatl!turner@rsiatl.UUCP Subject: Re: Telephone Company Test Set Questions > AT&T calls these things "Craft Access Terminals," and they were > originally designed to perform several more functions than a standard > line test handset. In addition to the touch-tone keypad, talk/monitor > switch, alligator clip leads, four conductor modular jack and tool > belt clip, these units have a 2.5" X 2" LCD screen and function > button/joystick. Apparently the extra features were for use with a > "Craft Access" computer system. But they also allow the user to Usually I have heard the term "craft access" in relation to transmission equipment. As an example the SLC 5 is equipped with a craft access port for provisioning circuits. Instead of flipping DIP switches as in a D4 or SLC 96, you just hook up a portable terminal to adjust levels, DDS provisioning, time slots, etc. I bet installers would love to be able to dialup databases with one of these. Around Atlanta craftspeople may wait 30 min or more holding for FACS to get a new cable pair. Patton Turner KB4GRZ FAA Telecommunications turner@dixie.com ------------------------------ From: gmw1@konichiwa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) Subject: Re: Old Phone Number Date: 12 Sep 1993 05:11:08 GMT Organization: Columbia University In article , wrote: > [Moderator's Note: A company with the same phone number for sixty or > seventy years allowing for dialing changes is a rarity these days. A > few places in Chicago have kept the same number that long. The Conrad > Hilton Hotel as been WABash (922)-4400 since the 1920's when it was > the Stevens Hotel. Marshall Field's has had STAte (782)-1000 since the > beginning of phone service just about. Only recently they became 781- > 1000. PAT] I believe the record for this sort of thing is held in SNET-land by one of the newspapers in New Haven that went up on the first telephone exchange in 1878, as number 3. Of course, their number got prepended over the years, where it is now XXX-X003, I believe. I'll try to find the details. Gabe Wiener -- gmw1@columbia.edu -- N2GPZ -- PGP on request ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Re: Congressional Record On Line Wanted Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 12 Sep 93 02:01:18 -0400 Organization: DECUServe In article , ao936@yfn.ysu.edu (Tim White) writes: > I am looking for a way to view/download/search the Congressional > Record. I am particularly interested in Telephony regulation and > deregulation matters as they are being discussed in Congress. It is a $commercial$ service. If your campus has a campus wide contract it could well be free to you. You can use your gopher to get to their server, or can telnet in and use their gopher client or can even have selected categories autoemailed to you. This is NOT the official info point, but is what I know off the top of my head will work: send email to staff@internet.com and ask how to do it. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 02:08:47 -0400 From: hollarn@knight.gannon.edu Subject: Re: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis We can buy that there is an improvement using AT&T TrueVoice DSP. However, when you look at what AT&T is really selling the public, it is no match for true digital <-> digital communication. Basically, all they are selling is an increase in volume on the circuit and attempting to cut out the interference. This is not true rocket science ... You could even go further with this analysis by looking at the codecs at the local loop. The voice quality on a circuit is only as good as the codec that does the initial conversion from analog <--> digital. Glossary: Rate of Change: Analog - same ol', same ol' quality of sound.. 1996 Digital - Truevoice 2000 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 20:28:39 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Can You Dial Area Code 810 From Your Switch Yet? From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > Just out of curiosity, I tried dialing a phone number yesterday > with area code 810 instead of 313 and the call went through! Here from Maryland area code 301, dialing times out after dialing 1-810-7908 or dialing 10288-1-810-7908. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: payson@dr-hibbert.cs.wisc.edu ( Payson) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept. Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 02:16:42 GMT In article andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) writes: >> In article denbesten@orchestra.bgsu. >> edu (William C. DenBesten) writes: >>> Perhaps the way to get rid of the association between one and toll >>> without bothering people would be to announce the cost of the call >>> immediately after dialing. Eg: "This call will cost 30 cents plus 15 >>> cents per minute. Thank you for using AT&T.". > While it may seem like a nice feature, I question whether very many > people would be willing to pay higher across-the-board long distance > rates to get it, especially since adding the real-time billing record > lookup and price computation would have a dileterious affect on call > setup time. You'd pay more for slower service. This is progress? Well, for LD I generally have a pretty good idea what to expect anyway. I am, however, rather steamed about a nice little fast one Centel pulled on me [anything I can do about it?] I subscribed for the "Call-Pak unlimited" which the operator said covered all calls within 312 as well as all calls within 708 except a few really distant exchanges. I asked for specifics, but was told that they did not have a list available -- if I gave them a specific exchange they could tell me if it was included, but otherwise not. BTW, even this information is only availale during somewhat extended business hours [something like 8-6 weekdays, 8-12 Sat. or somesuch]. Requests for written information were unsuccessful. A while later, enjoying the thrill of not having to worry whether each and every number I call will shaft me for $0.05/min, [which most do outside of a VERY small region for those without Call-Pak unlimitted] I stumbled across a very nice BBS in Mundelein, Ill. [I live in Northbrook]. My next month's bill: Line charge w/ call-pak unlimitted : $41.32 [w/o call-pak is $11.14] Message Unit Pkg 391.0 units used UNLIMITTED unit allowance .0 billable units .00 1751.0 Outer Metropolitan Message Units 88.43 Is it just me or did I get royally shafted here? Is there anything I can do about it? payson@cs.wisc.edu John Payson ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1993 09:11:00 -0500 From: john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) Subject: Re: Looking For Ma Bell's Early Charges Reply-To: john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) Organization: The GrapeVine BBS *** N. Little Rock, AR *** (501) 753-8121 > [Moderator's Note: The rates then were disproportionatly higher than > ... > poly situation as such. It is a lot like the hand held calculators we > use now which cost $3.98 at Walmart. In 1965 those same units cost > about $200!! PAT] Pat, you must be young! In 1965 the IC wasn't even invented yet (at least in a very usable form). The first handheld units came out in the early 1970's. I remember buying a TI unit about (I think) 1973 or 1974 for over $350. It only did the basic four operations. Almost nothing was available for much less money than that. Email: john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us The GrapeVine / Ferret Face BBS (501) 753-8121 PGP Distribution Site, UseNet, RIME, ThrobNet, MediaNet, U'niNet, ForthNet RecoveryNet, MetroLink. Putting Communications back in Telecommunication [Moderator's Note: Well actually, I will be 51 in another twelve days or so. You are probably correct on the date of the early units. I thought it was the middle to late sixties. I remember a place downtown with several display cases full of TI units, all with price tags beginning at $300-400 and ranging up to a couple thousand dollars for very elaborate units with little thermal paper printers attached and paper on a roll. When I got my TI-programmable unit sometime in the middle seventies it set me back several hundred dollars. When the credit card office first started using terminals for input of data rather than eighty-column punch cards around 1971 or so, an IBM video display terminal cost $5000. My first personal computer was purchased in 1977. It was an Ohio Scientific (usually known as OSI) C-1-P. It had all of 4K of RAM and cost over a thousand dollars by mail order. You could buy a chip which expanded it to 8K and gave it lower case capability for another $200. Modems were still rather rare, but I bought a 110/300 unit in 1979 to use to call the one BBS in the world in those days, run by Randy Suess and Ward Christianson right here in Chicago, a local phone call for me. I paid almost a thousand dollars for the Hayes Micromodem ][ which was on a card you put in a slot in the Apple ][ + (Bell and Howell 'black Apple' series) I had also recently purchased. I used the same Hayes Micromodem ][ and Apple ][+ computer to run my own BBS starting around 1981. When someone published a mod showing how the modem could have a certain trace cut and a diode moved increasing its speed to 450 baud (while sacrificing the 110) we were in ecstasy! Wow, that was fast! Smart people added a little toggle switch though so they could drop back to 110 for some of the new BBSs starting almost daily in those days which could not go any faster. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 18:50:27 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: EST Designation on Orange Card Bill OK, to check the LATA boundary, I got my hands on a Northeastern Maryland phone book, and see the Elkton exchange listed in the Baltimore LATA, but not the Chesapeake City exchange, which is the next exchange to the south as you start down the Maryland eastern shore. I made an Orange Card call from 410-398 at Elkton, and I guess it would appear as from BAL on the next bill. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #644 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa06402; 12 Sep 93 19:01 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01460 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 16:31:01 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00743 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 16:30:35 -0500 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 16:30:35 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309122130.AA00743@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #645 TELECOM Digest Sun, 12 Sep 93 16:30:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 645 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Obituary: A. G. Cooley, 93, Fax Pioneer Dies (NY Times via Gary Edwards) Boy, is AT&T Gonna Love This! (Privatising Internet List via Paul Robinson) Where is SONET FAQ (Robert D. Clay) Modem as Digital Phone? (Steve Work) Looking For Simplex Code Fragments (M.L. Edwards) Telex <> Internet Gateway (David Josephson) Newsfeed Wanted From Above (Robert Klotz) Time Magazine Now Online (Philip Elmer-DeWitt) Programming Information Wanted For Fujitsu PCX Cell Phone (Dariusz Dabek) Need Cellular Price Information (Patrick Chung-Pui Ko) Three Letter Abbreviations For Aiports (Lee Sweet) Re: One True Dialing Plan (Paul Robinson) An 800 Number That Tells You the Calling Number (Elizabeth Chen) Re: Caller ID Blocking Test Number (Paul Robinson) Re: How To Search the Archives For Past Articles (Peter M. Weiss) Won vs. One (Paul R. Coen) Caller ID and Voice Messaging (Mark Steiger) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Obituary: A. G. Cooley, 93, Fax Pioneer Dies From: uttsbbs!gary.edwards@uunet.UU.NET (Gary Edwards) Date: 12 Sep 93 08:13:00 GMT Organization: The Transfer Station BBS, Danville, CA - 510-837-4610/837-5591 Reply-To: uttsbbs!gary.edwards@uunet.UU.NET (Gary Edwards) Following from {New York Times}, Sunday, Sept. 12, 1993: (SEQUIM, WASH.) Austin G. Cooley, a telecommunications pioneer who helped develop the facsimile machine, died Tuesday at his home in Sequim, Wash., at the age of 93. The cause of death was a stroke, said his wife, Helene. As a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1920s, Mr. Cooley designed and engineered transmitters that translated a photographic negative into electrical signals that could then be transmitted by radio or telephone, and later by satellite. Mr. Cooley held more than 75 patents on methods and equipment for the transmission of weather maps, medical X-rays and facsimile material as well as pictures. The origin of the modern-day facsimile machine dates from Mr. Cooley's experiments in the 1930s with the transmission of news pictures over ordinary telephone lines. Gary Edwards uttsbbs!gary.edwards@PacBell.COM The Transfer Station BBS (510) 837-4610 & 837-5591 (V.32bis both lines) Danville, California, USA. 1.5 GIG Files & FREE public Internet Access ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 09:42:04 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Boy, is AT&T Gonna Love This! From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA From the Privatising the Internet List; question: has anyone ever heard of +FCLASS=8? I know +FCLASS=1 or 2 for Fax modems, but 8? Date: Thu Sep 09, 1993 11:00 pm EST From: Russell Nelson To: com-priv@psi.com Subject: A change of subject -- tpc.int I'm wondering if people have thought about tpc.int. *Really* thought about it. There's one little clue I picked up from Arlington Hewes's comment that "you need ... - a computer on the IP-connected Internet". Why insist that you need to be IP-connected? A UUCP site is much more likely to have a modem, indeed a FAX modem. Well, look at the new +FCLASS=8 standard for voice-digitizing modems. It's *nearly* a total computer-phone interface (only nearly because the voice-digi is half-duplex). Voice, data, fax -- what else *can* you carry over a phone line? The Internet already does the data (in spades -- 68 hundred gigabits/month according to ISOC), tpc.int already does FAX, so what's left? Voice. Tpc.int is going to do voice bypass, both long-distance and local. When you want to call someone, you issue a voice-call-request. If you people you want to talk to are on the Internet, you'll get connected to them. If not, and a service provider exists, they make the local call and patch you through. All we need are full-duplex voice-digitizing modems. The technology can't be all that difficult -- digital PBXes already do it. One world, one people, one network. :) russ What canst *thou* say? Crynwr Software Crynwr Software sells packet driver support. 11 Grant St. 315-268-1925 Voice | LPF member - ask me about Potsdam, NY 13676 315-268-9201 FAX | the harm software patents do. ------------------------------ From: rclay@cyber.net (Robert D. Clay) Subject: Where is SONET FAQ Date: 12 Sep 1993 13:51:08 GMT Organization: The Cyberspace Station Please post a response or send email to rclay@cyber.net. Thanks, Bob Clay ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 11:20:13 EDT From: Steve Work Reply-To: Steve Work Subject: Modem as Digital Phone? I'm looking for product information. I have a high end pc (66 MHz 486) with a sound board and a 9600 baud modem. Is there software that will let me use the sound board and modem as a digital phone? I'm interested in any product along these line, but very interested in having something that uses encryption also, say the public/private key encryption that is so talked about these days. Note that I didn't include the type of sound board. I have two now and am willing to buy a different one it needed. Please post but also email me direct. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: mledwar@afterlife.ncsc.mil (M.L. Edwards) Subject: Looking For Simplex Code Fragments Organization: The Great Beyond Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 03:30:14 GMT I am developing a simplex broadcast application and would like to locate any C language fragments or textual references that might prove helpful I need to provide for the following: a. reception of framed data (i.e., bounded by SYN chars); b. error detection (i.e., CRC-16); c. forward error correction (possibly). These routines would: a. pack up the data in a frame with appropriate sync/control info, and on the receiving side, search for sync and unpack the data and control; b. compute a CRC and validate a frame given a (broadcasted) CRC; c. compute a forward error correction code, and given the same, correct a possibly corrupted frame. If you know of something that fits a few of these descriptions, please send me a note with a archive name (host: /pathname/filename if possible). ------------------------------ From: davidj@rahul.net (David Josephson) Subject: TELEX <> Internet Gateway Organization: a2i network Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 06:52:06 GMT There was some discussion a few weeks back on how to establish a gateway between the international telex network and the Internet. MCI, one of the surviving telex service providers, has recently established an "autoforward" service that makes this practical, for $35 a year and 50 cents a message, for the incoming direction. They will also autoforward to a fax line, another e-mail system that they know about, etc. for other charges. For outgoing telex messages, you still must dial in to MCI Mail and send that way, for something between 70 cents and $3 a telex minute depending on the destination. David Josephson ------------------------------ Subject: Newsfeed Wanted From Above From: krobt@mom.nova.com (Robert Klotz) Reply-To: krobt@mom.nova.com (Robert Klotz) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 01:40:59 CST Organization: Nova Research Inst., Norman, OK, USA Hi, Could someone please guide me to a source for satellite downlink news feeds in North America. robert krobt@mom.(nova.com|uucp) voice: 405/321-7812 data/FAX: 405/321-1751 VOX: 405/640-4683 ------------------------------ From: ped@panix.com (Philip Elmer-DeWitt) Subject: Time Magazine Online Date: 12 Sep 1993 09:29:51 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Starting today (Sunday) at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, the world's oldest and biggest newsmagazine will plug into the world's newest and fastest-growing medium when {Time Magazine} begins publishing on America Online. Text of this week's issue will be posted Sunday afternoon, a day before the magazine is available on the newsstand. In addition, there will be bulletin boards where {Time} readers can mix it up with {Time} editors. For more information, message me at ped@well.com or philiped@aol.com. ------------------------------ From: Dariusz Dabek Subject: Programming Information Wanted For Fujitsu PCX Cell Phone Organization: University of Toronto Computing & Communications Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 16:53:44 -0400 Hello, I am looking for programing information for the Fujitsu PCX cell phone. In particular I would like to change the 'standard' greetings message for the pager mode. Anyone out there has any hints? Dariusz dabek@utcc.utoronto.ca ------------------------------ From: patko@uclink.berkeley.edu (Patrick Chung-Pui Ko) Subject: Need Cellular Price Information Date: 12 Sep 1993 20:57:14 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Hi, I had an offer from a cellular dealer but there is one thing I can't understand. They say the package is pay-for-use which means you pay for your calls but no monthly fee. Well, he confirmed that if you don't make calls you don't pay. WHAT IF YOU RECEIVE CALLS? Is it free? patko@uclink.berkeley.edu [Moderator's Note: Typically, cellular phone users pay for air time in either direction, placing or receiving calls. In a few cases, the (land line) customer placing the call pays for the airtime if he is calling a cellular phone, but not usually. I'd count on paying both ways if I were you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: decrsc!leesweet@uunet.UU.NET (Lee Sweet) Subject: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 19:17:35 EDT Are the abbreviations related to the FAA/Airline (who controls?) three-letter IDs for airports? Or possibly whatever coding system the overnight mailers use for locations: FedEx and UPS (and even some magazines such as {Newsweek}) use codes that *seem* to follow a pattern: Anything, for instance, near Dulles Airport in Fairfax (okay, Loudon County!), Virginia) seems to have a six-letter ID that starts with BCB. Is this some nationwide location database for mailers (the physical kind, not the Unix kind!!)? I thought it was only the overnighters until I saw it on a magazine label that I receive at home (which happens to be about 70 miles from IAD, as Dulles is known to the FAA and Frequent Fliers! (In case you wonder why I think it's related to the airport at all, packages that come through the FedEx office in Chantilly, VA < 10 miles from IAD) also have a code starting with BCB ...)) Lee Sweet Internet *lists* - leesweet@datatel.com Chief Systems Consultant Internet *e-mail* - lee@datatel.com Datatel, Inc. Phone - 703-968-4661 4375 Fair Lakes Court FAX - 703-968-4625 Fairfax, VA 22033 (Opinions are my own, and only my own!) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 11:53:36 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: One True Dialing Plan From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Al , writes: > In article 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM > (Paul Robinson) Writes: >> It would have been nice if they had instituted something like what >> Washington, DC area does: if the number is local to you and in you >> area code, you dial seven digits (or you may optionally dial the >> area code even though it is the same). If the number is local to >> you but outside your area code, you dial the area code plus seven >> digits. If it is long distance, even in the same area code, you >> dial 1 + area code + 7 digits, but even on a local call you can >> dial 1 + area code + seven digits and the call will still go >> through as an uncharged call. > This only works in DC because C&P and other TELCOs work very > hard to insure there are no (or minimal) overlaps in CO office code > assignments. Not true. (1). 936 is assigned in 301, 202 and 703 for Weather (936+xxxx goes to Weather) as 844xxxx is assigned to time. Before they split the area codes, 950 numbers in the Washington area were assigned to the switch out of Alexandria, VA. 950 now is assigned to all three area codes. (2). The choke prefix (whichever one Ticketmaster uses in DC) is assigned to all three area codes and all of them terminate at the same place. This is not required, however. (3) There is a 301-504 and a 202-504 exchange, both local to one another, the 301 number terminates in Maryland, the 202 number terminates in DC, and the numbers go to separate places. There probably are other exchanges. > I'm sure it is a monster they are sorry they let out of the box, > just to make the DC area seem more like a single-NPA area. All that is necessary is not to use the identical ones of "nearby" codes. There is no 301, 202 or 703 exchange in any of these area codes. There is no 301-410-xxxx (410 is Baltimore), 703-804 (Richmond), nor a 301-302 (Delaware), nor 703-304 (W. Virginia). If there are overlay codes, you avoid using one for the immediate area code near or at yours. For example, let's say a private dial tone company decides to reinstate a single area code for the metro area around Washington, DC, and gets area code 220. This would mean that 220 should not be used in 202, 703, 301, 410, 302, 304 or 804. Or in 220 itself. And none of those in 220. Not that difficult. > But it only works if you have a single point in a multi-NPA > area to focus upon. And it makes offering multiple levels of > un-timed area hard to deploy -- if you elect to save line charges > by reducing your free-calling area, does your dialing plan change? > Even DC will have a hard time continuing the practice as fewer and > fewer NXXs are locked out of the adjacent NPAs near DC. Not true. In this area, there are several flavors of service. In all of the following examples, if one pays for local calls, one may call anywhere in the Washington Metro Area, which extends from Dulles Airport, VA, to Arlington, Va, to DC, to Rockville, MD to Upper Marlboro, MD. Call it an area 20 miles square. Residential Maryland customers and commercial users in all three jurisdictions can get measured untimed service, in which the rate is 10c per call with no time limit. In Maryland they can also get measured timed service at 3c for the first minute and 1.5c each additional minute. Residential Maryland Customers have the option of buying $6.50 worth of time or 65 local calls, for $3.50 more than the metered rate; for $10 more than the metered rate, they can purchase unlimited local calling. In Washington, DC, there are additional flavors for residences; you can get the untimed, metered service, or you can get unlimited calling in Washington, DC only, for slightly more (in which case calls outside DC are 10c each) or you can get metro area (all calls are free). Virginia has residential unlimited Metro Area Calling. Some people who live on the fringe of the metro area can pay a surcharge of $5 a month and get the ability to dial into the metro area either for free or for 10c a call untimed, otherwise they pay intra-lata toll rates. But in *all* cases, whether you pay nothing, 10c, or per minute for a call, in the Washington area, all calls are dialed the same. NXX-XXXX for local, NPA-NXX-XXXX for local numbers outside the area or for local numbers, and 1+NPA+NXX+XXXX for non-local OR local numbers. If I want a call to go through *unconditionally* and I don't know if it's local, local in another area code, or long distance, I can *always* dial it as 1 + NPA + NXX-XXXX. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: bibi@leland.Stanford.EDU (Elizabeth Chen) Subject: An 800 Number That Tells You the Calling Number Organization: Stanford University, California Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 05:58:28 GMT I saw a posting about an 800 number that tells your phone number when you call it. I lost it. Can someone out there send the 800 number to me directly? Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 20:13:57 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Caller ID Blocking Test Number From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Steve Forrette , writes: > It has often been mentioned here that since *67 is used for > both blocking and unblocking your number for Caller ID > purposes, that you need to know the current state of line > blocking in order to know if *67 will block or unblock. > At least for the Seattle area, US West has provided a blocking > test number at 206-625-9539. When you call it, it will tell > you if your number was blocked. Note that if you call from > 'out of area,' it says that the call was not blocked. I can't be certain if MCI (A default carrier on that line) uses SS7, so from my number in Maryland, I dialed 10288-1-206-625-9539 without dialing *67 first. The phone in Seattle did not answer after six rings. I called twice, and it does not answer. We have Caller ID here and I tested it with someone in the area; he gets the phone number I'm calling from if I don't dial *67 first. This number doesn't answer when called long distance. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 11:59:13 EDT From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: How To Search the Archives For Past Articles Organization: Penn State University In article , INPHELAN@delphi.com says: > I am trying to do a research paper on Wireless Local Loop/Wireless > Local Access. Since most of the RBOCs and GTE have done trials I > assumed there would be some information about this in your libraries. Forget searching the "telecom archives" per se, and get yourself into Gopherspace and use Veronica to do a search. If you search for /telecom*/, you will find over 5000 'hits' including MOSTLY TELECOM Digest material. You could just as easily search for /wireless*/. Pete (pmw1@psuvm.psu.edu) -- Penn State U [Moderator's Note: Pete, could you write up something short to tell people a little more about Gopherspace; how it works and how to get access to it? A lot of readers are not familiar with that service. I know very little about it myself. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 14:06:46 EDT From: Paul R. Coen Subject: Won vs. One Organization: Drew University Academic Technology [Moderator's Note: In response to my note asking how there could be a difference in the pronounciation of 'one' and 'won', Mr. Coen has submitted this reply. PAT] It seems like a diacriticial difference. In "won," many speakers tend to stress and lengthen the "w" and extend the "n" slightly. "One" tends to be more abrubt. A longer sound would make it easier to understand through lousy reception. Stressing the "w" would also help to distinguish it from the word "none." If you actually make a point of telling people to pronounce it "won" instead of "one," they'll really exaggerate the difference, too. Try getting someone to pronouce a certain word as they normally would while letting them know that you're paying attention to how they say it. You really can't -- if they're thinking about it, they don't pronounce it naturally. There are probably accents where there is more of a difference between the sounds than in mine -- I basically have that neutral accent that you hear on broadcast news. It wouldn't surprise me to find an accent in the United States where the difference was more significant. ------------------------------ From: Mark.Steiger@tdkt.kksys.com (Mark Steiger) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 12:55:10 -0600 Subject: Caller ID and Voice Messaging Organization: The Dark Knight's Table BBS: Minnetonka, MN (Free!) Hello all! I'm kinda curious about something. I have voice messaging from US West. We're getting caller ID here in December. Are the phone numbers of callers recorded on the message at all? I'd like to be able to tell who left what message. Thanks, Origin: The Igloo BBS 612-574-2079 (1:282/4018.0) Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo BBS (612) 574-2079 Internet: mark@tdkt.kksys.com Fido: 1:282/4018 Simnet: 16:612/24 [Moderator's Note: The numbers have not been stamped on the voicemail anywhere I have heard about. It is not done here in Chicago. There is an option here you can turn on which tells you where voicemail came from but the best it can do is handle intra-system mail between mail- boxes. On stuff forwarded by your phone line, the origin says 'from phone call' or something like that. Since voicemail is a separate subsidiary of the parent Ameritech, it may be they are not supposed to pass the data along, or not pass it along without making the same fea- ture available to competing voicemail systems ... who knows. One good work-around exists though: your Caller-ID display box will hold several entries. *Do not* erase them until after you have cleared the voicemail system of messages. All messages will say the date and time they came in. As you listen to the legitimate messages, the obscene crank calls and the people who just hang up without saying anything, note the time voicemail says the message (or lack of one) was received, and step your way through the Caller ID display memory at the same time, matching the times given on one with the times given on the other. The clock used for our Caller ID is a minute or so different than the clock on voicemail, but they are close enough. The other day an Insane Idiot called me, left nothing but a good hearty belch om my voicemail and disconnected. Voicemail marked it at 3:47 AM and Caller ID marked it at 3:46 AM. That was close enough for me; all the evidence I needed. :) I waited until the next morning at 5:00 AM and called him back -- using *67 first of course -- gave him a loud, long, protracted belch in return, then hung up. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #645 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14070; 12 Sep 93 22:47 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31759 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 19:28:36 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13624 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 12 Sep 1993 19:28:10 -0500 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 19:28:10 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309130028.AA13624@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #646 TELECOM Digest Sun, 12 Sep 93 19:28:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 646 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson International Call Re-Origination Services (Consum. Serv. via P Robinson) Re: Trying to Make Sense of it All :-) (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Save the SSC (Bill Pearson) Re: Modem Tax in Canada (Carl Oppedahl) "Has Become Busy ..." (Paul Robinson) Re: Recommendation Wanted For National Packet Network (Lang Zerner) Re: Caller ID Blocking Test Number (S. Rathinam) Have you voted yet in the Usenet election going on regards the creation of comp.dcom.telecom.tech? Various messages which currently appear in comp.dcom.telecom might be routed to that group instead if it is created, and would not subsequently appear in the Digest. Because your reading of telecom messages from Usenet might be affected, you are entitled to vote YES or NO in the election. To create the unmoderated group comp.dcom.telecom.tech not affiliated with this Digest you would vote YES. If you instead wish to have the moderated group comp.dcom.telecom (what you are reading now) be the sole Usenet telecom newsgroup, you would vote NO. Votes must be sent by *email only* to the address 'votes@geoworld.com' with a single line of text: "I vote YES (NO) on the creation of comp.dcom.telecom.tech". Your vote is important and will be counted. Vote Today! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 10:29:14 EDT From: Paul Robinson Subject: International Call Re-Origination Services Looks like you're not the only one involved in this sort of thing, Pat: Thought you might be interested in what others are doing: Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 15:29:06 -0700 From: consumer.services@internet.com To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: CONSUMER.SERVICES digest 1 COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL, INC. Substancially reduce cost of calls from almost ALL Countries to U.S. and other destinations ... CSInt'l is a revolutionary way to place INTERNATIONAL LONG DISTANCE PHONE CALLS AT SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCED RATES (30 to 60%)!! By routing all your international calls through the United States, we place the LOWER RATES and COVERAGE of the U.S. phone system right in your hand. And since all your calls are handled by our state-of-the-art computer, all of its special features and advanced abilities are also at your disposal. With CSInt'l you can call FROM any of the 235 countries in the world TO any of those same countries -- virtually the entire world. You can start using CSI today WITHOUT CHANGING YOUR PHONE EQUIPMENT OR SERVICE HOOK-UP IN ANY WAY. All you do to use the CSInt'l computer is simply call it. There are no calling cards to get lost or stolen, no billing account digits to enter, no PIN (Personal Identification Numbers) to enter, NOTHING. In fact, you can place an international call with as few as four digits! All calls are completely automatic -- no operator assistance is required. You are billed in six second increments instead of whole minutes. BENEFITS Simple to Use. No Risk. Speed Dialing. No Equipment Modifications Needed. Keep the Line for as Many Calls as you Need. Faster, Fully Automatic Dialing. Eliminate Hotel Surcharges. 6-second Billing Increments. Crystal Clear High Quality Digital Transmission. 48 Hour Activation. And of course -- LOWER RATES. HOW IT WORKS We assign you a special unlisted U.S. phone number that you will call and then hang up. Since you hang up (and we don't answer) there is no charge for the call; however, our computer knows you called and WILL CALL YOU BACK. At this point you simply answer the phone and dial the number you wish to call. That's all there is to it. The CSI phone program does NOT have multiple levels of menus or or long instructions to listen to. All of its functions are accessed from a single familiar place. Nothing could be easier to use in making long distance calls. When you finish talking you can either hang up like you normally do, OR you can press the star key twice (**). The ** hangs up the other end of the call, but keeps you connected to the CSInt'l computer so that you can place another call. You can use the ** as many times as you like. In fact, we deduct another 5% off the per minute rate for all calls you make using this feature. The ** feature is also handy for hanging up on answering machines or voice computers that you don't want to pay to talk to. TOUCH TONE You DO NOT have to live in a touch-tone dialing country to use CSInt'l. Howerver, your phone must be able to produce touch- tones in order for you to use CSInt'l. Most phones have a tone/pulse switch that you simply flip to the tone position when you answer the dialback call. The sooner you get started the sooner you'll begin saving ... Our pricing is the most thorough in the industry. We break the world up into as many areas as possible to bring the best possible rates. WE HAVE A PRICE THAT YOU WILL KNOW IN ADVANCE FOR EVERY POSSIBLE COUNTRY TO COUNTRY CALL. Instead of sending you 600 pages of pricing though, we have all of those prices in an IBM-PC compatible program that you can use to look up any call price in seconds! This program compares all countries prices with all other possible combinations of calling destinations. BILLING Our billing is just like what you are used to. You use the service and we send you a bill. The only thing we ask is that you place a $250.00 (USD) REFUNDABLE SECURITY DEPOSIT on account with us. We charge a $27.50 (USD) monthly service fee ONLY IF YOUR BILL IS less than $100.00 (USD). This is simply to encourage you to use the service. We accept all standard forms of payments, including all major credit cards. ! GET STARTED ! To cut your phone bill in half, start using CSInt'l-DIALBACK today by simply filling out the SERVICE INITIATION FORM below and INTERNET or FAX it back to us if you choose credit card billing; otherwise, mail it to the address enclosed. So easy to begin. Communications Systems International, Inc. 121 E. Pikes Peak Avenue, Suite 226A Colorado Springs, CO 80903 USA Phone: 011-1-719-471-3332 Fax: 1-719-471-2893 or 1-719-564-0541 And if you're interested in joining our international marketing efforts ... the residual income has staggering possibilities, as you can undoubtedly see. How does .08/min on your efforts sound? How about .04/min on those who join "under" you? How about .02/min on those directly beneath them? And, .01/min on everyone one level under, .01/min all the way to the 5th level? When you're dealing with such a global need, the residual income possibilities here are truly exciting! We at Communication Systems International would love to encourage you to request more information of this revolutionary opportunity. But, as we stand ready to fill that request, our primary motivation of this message is to stimulate you into taking action now. Please fill out the signup form and return it to us immediately, as the sooner you do, the sooner you can begin calling at our significantly reduced rates. Michael D. Beatty 719-634-0378 Mavihoja@cscns.com International Marketing, Long Distance & Communications Specialist Extraordinaire ---------------- [Moderator's Note: Thanks for passing that along. If readers are not familiar with 'CONSUMER SERVICES Digest', they may wish to send a note to the address given above and be added to the list, at least for the time needed to look it over. The above is from Issue #1. Well, this Digest had a beginning once upon a time also. I wish them well. Mainly though, I want to point out some critical differences between CSI's program and Telepassport: no security deposit required if you wish to pay by credit card or electronic funds transfer; no $100 per month minimum with a $27.50 penalty. TP requires $25 per month in minimum usage, that is it. No advance payments, etc. That stuff is a rip off, as is the Multi-Level-Marketing approach they use. I don't want any of that stuff where Telepassport is concerned. All re-origination services, including TP use the basic approach shown above on calls: you call a DID number; the switch recognizes you and calls you back with USA dial tone at USA rates and with USA technology. If anyone has not seen the file on Telepassport with its rates and method of operation, they can write 'ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu' and ask for a copy, or pull it from the archives (ftp lcs.mit.edu) where it is filed as 'telepassport'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Trying to Make Sense of it All :-) Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 05:29:08 GMT In article madeline@well.sf.ca.us (Madeline Gonzalez) writes: > I'm trying to get a better understanding of what these emerging > telecom standards are *about*: which type of network they're aimed at, > which organization is sponsoring their definition/implementation, what > the perceived benefits are of each, ... and *how they all fit > together*! Can anyone help me with the ones I've listed below, or > point me towards the right person or organization??... What an amazingly comprehensive set of questions! Maybe I should use this Madeline's note as the start of a syllabus for a course I've thought about introducing at Northeastern. Not to mention a book I've been putting off finishing. But with the baby due any moment now I have doubts I'll have the time soon. > Perhaps a whole separate posting could deal with the topic of "type of > network"! It'd be nice to come up with a way to conceptually view > modern networks and how they fit together ... how to categorize them; > i.e., based on protocol? Type of switching (packet, circuit, ..)? > long-distance trunks vs local loop? public/private nature? based on > what's being carried (voice, data, etc.)? or the media used to carry > it (metallic wire, fiber, air..)? Just got Quarterman's "The Matrix" > which does a really good job on the worldwide *computer* networks.. > can anyone recommend a book or other literature that deals with *all* > nets? (I'm currently in a very small town in rural Colorado with no > timely access to a technical library ... but *can* mail-order, thank > God :-) ) I have created a taxonomy of "networks" that I find very useful. It creates six categories of networks, as viewed by end users. Each has its own vocabulary, terms of reference, and experts. And nobody understands them all; their partisans tend not to even understand what the others are about, let alone respect them. In historical order, with names that are based on an example, not definition, they are: I. Telephony. Circuit-switched narrowband. Includes ISDN up to PRI, switched 56, etc. II. Terminal-to-host. Includes X.25, SNA. Connection-oriented packet, master-slave application semantics. III. Message-switched. Includes BBSs ("kiddiecomms"), X.400, uucp. The network is defined at the applications layer. Not real time. IV. Internet. Peer-to-peer packet switching. Usually connectionless. Network is based on routers which don't see applications. Includes TCP/IP, DECnet, (some of) OSI. V. PC/Server. So-called "PC LANs"; dumb client PCs with network defined by smart server. Often runs over Internet protocols, but network is defined at the applications layer. Includes Netware, etc. VI. Switched-topology network (STN). High-speed low-layer switching. No need for routers since switches do it. Newest family, and is one (promising) way to use ATM, but is not limited to ATM per se (you could do it with Ethernet switches, fast circuit, etc.). For starters, the word "LAN" has different meanings depending on who you ask! Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: Bill Pearson Subject: Re: Save the SSC Organization: University of Virginia Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 14:37:32 GMT In article , Dave Niebuhr wrote: >> Please somebody point out one direct positive result of non-war driven >> big science projects. Didn't think you could do it. > Two come readily to mind: L-Dopamine, developed by the late Dr. George > Costas at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the 1970s. L-Dopa is used > to treat the unfortunate victims of Hodgkins disease. That was big > science and not war related. This definition of BIG Science seems to suggest that anything done at a National Laboratory is BIG Science. This certainly not the way the term is traditionally used. BIG Science (as exemplified by the SSC -- I hesitate to say Space Station because there is practically no scientific justification) usually refers to a project with a highly focussed goal and a very large budget. Although I am not familiar with the work, Dr. Costas was almost certainly not given a budget substantially larger than other "small science" researchers at universities and other medical research institutes. Thus, the discovery of L-Dopa would be considered an example of small science, not big science. > Another was the development of "hopping genes" in the 40s or 50s by > Dr. Barbara McClintock, a Nobel Prize winner in Biology. This > discovery is the basis of all genetic research done today, including > the human genome project. I am much more familiar with Dr. McClintock's work. Here is a researcher who almost always worked alone. Small science, not big science. > A fourth was the Radon detectors now being sold across the US and > possibly around the world. The developer was Dr. John Dietz of BNL. > There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of non-war driven big > science projects that have benefitted human kind. This statement would be true if the word "big" were removed from the sentence. It is not clear that there have been "thousands" of big science projects; the question remains, how does the scientific benefit of these projects compare to more traditional research-group- based small science. > Need I remind you of Drs. Sabin and Salk? They are the reason that > there is an almost zero chance on anyone contacting Polio, the scourge > of the 50s. Again, Sabin and Salk (despite the great support of the March of Dimes) had relatively small research groups. Nothing that would compare with the Manhattan project, the SSC, the Space Station, or the Human Genome Project. However, recent collaborations of in human genetics (Huntington's disease) might be genuine examples of "big science", although it could just as easily be called a large collaboration between many small research groups. > I could go on, the list is endless. Pick a major childhood illness, > chances are that someone has discovered either the cure or the prevention. The question was about BIG science, not science. The successes of BIG science in civilian research are difficult to name. > [Moderator's Note: Thank you for that good listing in rebuttal. Many > people are too young to remember anything about Polio. I had a friend > as a child who had it. And who anymore remembers when Tuberculosis was > a horrible scourge? The government had 'sanitariums' for people with TB > (as it was called) where the victims were housed so that they could > not spread it to others. That was in the 1930-50 era also. PAT] Tuberculosis was brought under control (for 50 years at least) by the development of modern antibiotics. Big or small science? Fleming and penicillin was a combination of both. The discovery was a classic example of small science, but the mass purification during WWII was similar to the Manhattan project. Clearly there are times when a scientific discovery can be applied more rapidly by massive engineering projects. It is unlikely that penicillin would have been developed as rapidly if it had not been needed to treat casualties in WWII. I think that the "rebuttal" missed the mark. There are lots examples of scientific successes, but relatively few examples of the success of large (personel and budget) goal-directed projects. There are a few perhaps, but they are difficult to find. Most big-science projects are in physics; medical research (until very recently) has almost always been small science. Bill Pearson ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Modem Tax in Canada Date: 12 Sep 1993 15:49:47 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) writes: > Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com writes: > Here we go again. The Modem Tax rumormongers have demonstrated over > the past few years that they will grab for ANY scrap of information > that can be woven into their bizarre conspiracy theories. It is not all rumors. The State of New York recently enacted a new tax on any information providing by telephone or telegraph. It is 5% above and beyond the sales tax already imposed. And that is on gross receipts, not profits, so a business with a 4% profit margin now simply goes out of business. Or moves to New Jersey. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 15:07:42 EDT Reply-To: "Tansin A. Darcos & Company" <0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM> Subject: "Has Become Busy..." From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: A curious bug in the Busy Call Return is if you > dial your own number.. after a couple seconds it finds your line > no longer busy (because you have hung up), so it calls you (to > make sure you are still there and want to make the call) ... > Your phone rings, there is a short silent pause and the equipment > responds that, 'the number you are trying to call *did* become > available, but it has since become busy again ...' and > that will go on as long as you wish to play the game for up to > thirty minutes or so, with you hanging up, it finding the line > is free, calling you first to get you on the line and calling > you second to put through the call, and reporting that 'the > line has become busy again ...' No, Virtual Pat, the system here is smarter than yours. I decided to waste 75c and see what would happen here. Yes, the 'dial yourself and it rings you back' trick *does* work, but after it calls you, the announcement is "We're sorry, but we are unable to complete your request as the number has become busy again" and it *cancels* the request on its own volition. Nice try, though. But, the announcement would be funny to someone who has no idea why a computer called them to report that their request had been uncompleted ... Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 15:17:31 -0400 (EDT) From: langz@asylum.sf.ca.us (Lang Zerner) Subject: Re: Recommendation Wanted For National Packet Network In smlamont@hebron.connected.com (Steve Lamont) writes: > I use a commercial Internet service in Seattle, but it costs a lot to > dial in when I travel. Can anyone recommend a national packet network > that will help me save money? Does it require any special interface > with my own Internet service (a real drawback)? What does it cost? > How can I contact them? Somebody has already recommended PC Pursuit for dialup connections. You might also want to check out PSI's World-Dial service. I'm not affiliated with PSI, even as a customer, so you'll have to evaluate World-Dial for yourself, but it seems like one solution to your problem. World-Dial is a national dialup network designed specifically for mobile Internet users. You can dial up to the local World-Dial point of presence (usually located in a telephone company facility for reliability), then use telnet or rlogin to connect to any site on the global IP Internet. Charges are based on connection speed, ranging from $2.75 to 6.50/hour during prime time (8am-8pm Eastern, M-F), $1.25 to $4.00/hour non-prime. You can get a more detailed description of the service and charges by sending mail to world-dial-info@psi.com. For a list of local dialups (points of presence, or POPs), send mail to pop-info@psi.com. Both addresses automatically respond with a message containing the information you want. Again, I don't have anything to do with PSI, but it sounds like World-Dial might be right for you if your site is on the IP Internet. Be seeing you, Lang ------------------------------ From: sys_srr@genb.cca.cr.rockwell.com Subject: Re: Caller ID Blocking Test Number Reply-To: sys_srr@genb.cca.cr.rockwell.com Organization: Rockwell International Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 23:07:51 GMT In article , stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > At least for the Seattle area, US West has provided a blocking test > number at 206-625-9539. When you call it, it will tell you if your > number was blocked. Note that if you call from 'out of area,' it > says that the call was not blocked. I used to live in Phoenix, AZ until a short time long ago. US West gave two options (right before they provided Caller ID service) to order blocking. (1) By sending in the attached card OR (2) By calling an 800 number. I called the 800 number and answered the computer voice -- asks for your phone number for which you request line blocking and reads it back -- I am not sure if there is an ANI comparison to verify if you are calling from the number you punched in. It then says something to the effect that you requested line blocking and it may not be available for two weeks or so and to use *67 until then. Just to make sure, I did it again after a week. About four or five weeks after the service was provided, I called a friend and she said my number was showing up (and I saw it when I visited with them later). Then I called US West and 'told' them (to put it mildly) that I wanted blocking immediately (my number was unlisted as well). They provided it in three days after that. I was also informed there was no blocking test number (after I asked a specific question). And to another specific question, I was told *67 is NOT a toggle, but an OFF of caller ID. About three or four weeks after that, there was a note from the Arizona Corporate Commision asking for comments on US West's providing of Caller ID and line blocking services ... I replied to it a couple of days ago suggesting exactly the same services mentioned (to provide a blocking test number etc.) Consider yourself lucky in Seattle :) [well, now, don't say "if only it rains less"]. S.Rathinam sys_srr%harper@hobbes.cca.cr.rockwell.com" Opinions, if any expressed are mine only and may not represent those of any other party. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #646 ******************************   To: telecom-recent@LCS.MIT.EDU Subject: test Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 18:10:43 EDT From: root@LCS Sender: root@LCS Message-ID: <9309141810.aa05046@MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU> test chrisb   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11798; 14 Sep 93 8:17 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14895 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 14 Sep 1993 05:44:19 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07353 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 14 Sep 1993 05:43:51 -0500 Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 05:43:51 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309141043.AA07353@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #647 TELECOM Digest Tue, 14 Sep 93 05:43:45 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 647 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson New Reports on Telecom/Computer Networks (Tara Mahon via Monty Solomon) New Report on PBX vs. ATM Technology (Tara Mahon via Monty Solomon) Trans-California DIY FX Line (Paul Robinson) Consumer Wins Big in LD Carrier Wars (Debbie Choo) MCI Announces Advantage 800 Service (David Appell) Video Phones Needed (Neil E. Berger) Information Needed on Belgium Phone/Fax/Modem/Connections (Malcolm Goodier) 1-800-COLLECT No Longer Least Expensive? (Tom Lowe) New Area Code Splits (Jim Wohlford) Hallmark and Sprint -- Greeting/Calling Cards (Will Martin) What is the Capacity of Internet? (Hu Min) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 17:35:07 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New Reports on Telecom/Computer Networks FYI. From comp.newprod From: "Tara D. Mahon" Subject: New Reports on Telecom/Computer Networks Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 03:05:55 CDT LIVINGSTON, NJ. September 9, 1993: The recent court ruling giving Bell Atlantic and the other RBOCs the green light to move full steam ahead into video programming will bring the new information highway and its attendant mass market for multimedia computing just a little closer to reality. For multimedia computing applications, wireless data personal communicators, and other aspects of computing's next wave to become mass market phenomena, major changes must take place in local telecommunications capability. According to recent studies by Insight Research Corp., today's telecommunications landscape is about to be rocked by a series of changes-changes that will transcend traditional industry boundaries and cross technologies as never before. Insight's research suggests that the fast-packet ATM-based national information highway will be only as effective as local voice and data transport. One study, _Competition in the Local Loop: Telcos, Cable TV, & Wireless in the Emerging Telecommunications Network 1993-1998_, puts forth several possible scenarios for future competition among the RBOCs, competitive access providers, cable TV operators, and wireless services for market share of voice, data, and video. It takes the bottom-up view that the technological and market changes on the local level are the ones that will spur developments in telecommunications throughout the decade. The other study, _Network Topologies for Future Telecommunications Services, TVs, Telephones & Change in Telecommunications Networks 1993-2000_, posits that consumer demand for new entertainment TV services is remaking the infrastructure of the TV and telephone networks. The huge revenue potential of interactive TV and games is accelerating adoption of new technology in the TV and telephone industries. Both networks will handle two-way, switched, wideband traffic well before the year 2000, according to Insight, creating an extensive level of overlapping, interconnecting, and competing capabilities. But competition will only be apparent in the local-distribution segments of both networks, Insight argues. For more information and pricing data on the two reports, please contact: Tara D. Mahon tara@insight-corp.com The Insight Research Corporation (201) 605-1400 voice 354 Eisenhower Parkway (201) 605-1440 fax Livingston, NJ 07039 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 17:34:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New Report on PBX vs. ATM Technology FYI. From comp.newprod From: "Tara D. Mahon" Subject: New Report on PBX vs. ATM Technology Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 02:35:44 CDT ATM Tidal Wave Could Put PBX Vendors Under Water LIVINGSTON, NJ. September 6, 1993: If the PBX manufacturers that supply big companies with their phone systems don't begin revamping their sales strategies to cope with the competitive threat posed by Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology they may soon be under water, according to a new market research report from Insight Research Corporation. Insight predicts PBX vendors have an eighteen month window; if they can not provide value-added services in that time their customs will start defecting to ATM platform vendors. According to the report, PBX & Centrex: the Over 100-line Market, ATM is a multiplexing and switching technology, and a good bet to create new phone systems that mix voice, data, and video. ATM's multimedia capabilities will spur customers to buy new products, but ATM technology leverage could be applied first by data communication vendors, putting PBX vendors at a significant competitive disadvantage. Three years of negative profits and an absence of exciting new products have left the PBX industry vulnerable, the report notes. Market leader AT&T announced a series of price increases that have brought manufactures temporary relief, but the report says the industry is still in trouble. The next eighteen months will be critical. The root cause of the PBX industry's trouble is that vendors have been unable to smoothly migrate their customers from one product generation to the next. In the next eighteen months Insight expects to see the LAN-personal computer crowd begin offering low-cost ATM products that move voice along with the data, making it difficult for customers to remain loyal to their switch vendors. According to the Insight report, the $3.5 billion PBX market will not feel any substantial impact from ATM technology before late 1994. At this point, Insight posits two scenarios: one suggests that PBX vendors will successfully counter the lower-cost ATM alternatives by adding value to their products, while the other scenario paints the picture of an industry in decline. The Industry in Decline Scenario: PBX Lines Shipped to Locations Over 100 Lines 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 100-400 Lines 1,583 1,534 1,424 1,267 1,074 400-1000 Lines 1,008 975 905 805 681 1000+ Lines 1,146 1,098 1,010 887 742 PBX & Centrex: The Over 100 Line Markets, is now available from the Insight Research Corporation. For pricing information and a full table of contents, please contact: Tara D. Mahon tara@insight-corp.com Insight Research Corporation (201) 605-1400 v 354 Eisenhower Parkway (201) 605-1440 f Livingston, NJ 07039 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 11:49:00 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Trans-California DIY FX Line From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA "Timothy L. Kay" , writes in "Re: How to Connect Two Phone Lines (Conference Call)?" about setting up a Wats Extender to increase the size of a non-toll area. He then writes about setting up a "Trans-California Do It Yourself Foreign Exchange Line" (as I am terming it): > Which leads me to an idea. In California, a residence can call > toll-free to neighboring central offices within 12 miles of your > own CO. By strat- egically placing residential lines at just under > 12 mile increments, and setting each line to call forward to the > next one, a person could call toll-free an arbitrarily long > distance. Do you suppose you could "call-forward chain" all the > way from San Francisco to Los Angeles (400 miles)? What would the > signal quality be like? Might not be too bad, since the signal would stay in each office, and the forwarding is done at the switch, rather than say through a Wats Extender device at the Subcriber Site. Or it might be terrible. It depends on how many GTE switches it would have to cross. :) (This is the obligatory "bash GTE" message which is required anytime someone posts about local service in California.) It might be worth trying if we can get readers in the Golden State who have Call Forwarding to try this as an experiment. Or people in the rest of the country; could a call be placed locally from the West Coast to the East Coast? Those interested in trying either experiment are encouraged to write me about it. But there are two problems with your idea. 1. There are large stretches of Desert in the middle of the state, and there are mountainous areas between Los Angeles and San Francisco. You might just discover that there are gaps: places where there is no local service (because nobody lives in that area) or where two local service areas are so distant that they do not touch. Someone suggested trying this to me once for taking local buses. It appears that because of connections, one could take local buses from Los Angeles to the Mexican Border, getting on, paying the $1 or so, getting a transfer and changing companies at each point. It would work and it would probably cost about $4 in fares and transfer charges to go each way, because there are points where two local bus companies run their lines to the extreme point of their county. 2. The other problem is, even if there are local areas overlapping all the way from Los Angeles to San Francisco, each service is going to cost from $8 to $30 depending on what service is available and how much local calls cost. Again, with the overlap in service, it's possible to defeat local intra-lata charges anywhere in Southern California by putting a series of call-forwarded lines in station, but you have to use them enough to make the cost worth covering. Let's say, for the 400 miles, there are needed about 15 relays. Each relay requires a phone line in and one out, although it's all done in the switch. That's roughly $30 per relay, per month, for a total of $450 a month. If phone calls within California are as expenive as one across the country, e.g. 25c per minute, you would have to use the service a total of 1800 minutes a month, or an average of two hours a day, weekdays to cover this cost. If you do have this kind of usage, it would probably be cheaper to have both sides purchaase an internet connection and exchange data that way. But for that kind of money, unless you want a voice-class capability, it'd be cheaper to use several accounts on PC Purusit. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: debbchoo@hawaii.edu (Debbie Choo) Subject: Consumer Wins Big in LD Carrier Wars Organization: University of Hawaii Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 09:59:59 GMT Isn't the competition between the LD carriers wonderful? Because of the heated competition, I've gotten $75 cash, $25 off my phone bills, 2500 free American Airline free miles, and a free 9600 bps v.32 v.42bis Fax modem. I was an AT&T LD subscriber, until I decided to switch to MCI in order to get 2500 free frequent flyer bonus miles on my American Airlines frequent flyer account (plus five free miles for every $1 that I spent with MCI, but I didn't stay with MCI that long :). Then I heard an offer on the radio I couldn't refuse: a free 9600 bps fax modem if I switched to Sprint. So I did. After I was switched to Sprint, MCI sent me a $75 check. By cash- ing that check, I was switched back to MCI. Then on my next bill AT&T inserted a blurb saying that by switching back to them, I could have a $25 credit to my account. Since I was a happy sub- scriber of AT&T in the first place, I switched back to them. So I came full circle, ending up where I started with AT&T, but with $75 in cash, a free fax modem, 2500 free bonus miles, and a $25 discount from AT&T that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten. Anyone else have similar stories? I'd love to hear'em. [Moderator's Note: Tell us about the Sprint free 9600 baud modem offer. That is the one which interests me. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 16:13 GMT From: David Appell <0005946880@mcimail.com> Subject: MCI Announces Advantage 800 Service WASHINGTON, D.C., August 30, 1993 - Businesses with operations in Canada and the U.S. will soon have the flexibility of being able to answer toll-free, 800 calls from their customers at any of their locations in either country, regardless of whether the calls originate in Canada or the U.S. The new integrated Advantage 800 service, announced today by MCI and the Stentor owner companies, marks a significant improvement over current call routing capabilities. Advantage 800 service will become commercially available by year-end. With the introduction of 800 number portability in Canada in January 1994, businesses and their customers will be able to use a single 800 number for Canada and the U.S. (Portability has been available in the U.S. since May 1.) The combination of Advantage 800 service with the benefits of a single 800 number will provide businesses with a powerful marketing tool. "The new MCI/Stentor Advantage 800 service is the first toll-free cross-border service that combines the sophisticated features and routing capabilities of two leading telecommunications firms," said Wes Scott, president and chief executive officer of Stentor Resource Centre Inc. "It will offer businesses operating on both sides of the border improved call handling, greater network management capabilities and operational cost efficiencies by enabling them to manage their 800 service in Canada and the U.S. as a single market." "Toll-free service has become an essential business tool and a convenience most consumers couldn't imagine being without," added Eugene Eidenberg, MCI executive vice president of corporate strategy and global business initiatives. "Toll-free calling is used for everything from home shopping and customer service to reservations and customer hotlines. The new MCI/Stentor Advantage 800 service effectively erases the Canada-U.S. border and opens up a whole new world of opportunity for international companies to offer their customers improved services." Prior to making Advantage 800 service generally available to business customers, MCI and Stentor will conduct trials with a select set of customers operating in both countries. Both MCI and Stentor are committed to ensuring excellent coordination of customer sales and service. As with all MCI/Stentor services, all service orders, provisioning requirements, customer installation and customer service can be provided through a single point of contact. Customers will be billed at current MCI/Stentor rates, depending on where the call terminates. Future Advantage 800 service enhancements will include advanced voice processing capabilities, MCI's Enhanced Voice Services -- a family of intelligent network-based 800 capabilities -- as well as cross-border network usage reporting capabilities. Advantage 800 service is the direct result of the alliance between MCI and Stentor, announced in September 1992. The service is the third in a series announced by the two companies this year. The earlier announcements were Advantage Vnet -- a virtual private network service now commercially available -- and Hyperstream frame relay, a broadband packet data service planned for delivery later this year. MCI Communications Corporation, headquartered in Washington, D.C., offers a full range of domestic and global telecommunications services. With 1992 revenue of more than $10 billion, the company is the second largest U.S. long distance provider, with more than 65 offices in 55 countries and locations. Stentor, an alliance of Canada's nine major telephone companies, provides customers with uniform, leading-edge products and service excellence across Canada and internationally. The nine partners are: B.C. Tel, AFT Limited, SaskTel, Manitoba Telephone Systems, Bell Canada, NB Tel, Maritime Telephone & Telegraph, Island Tel and Newfoundland Telephone. In the U.S., more information about Advantage 800 can be obtained by calling 1-800-866-6784, or by calling Pam Small, MCI Communications Corporation, 1-800-289-0073 or 202-887-3000, or Joanne Stanley/ Beverley Smith, Stentor Communications, 613-781-3301/3332. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 02:06:46 CDT From: Neil E. Berger Subject: Video Phones Needed I have need of two such phones, since both my parents are > 85 and live over 800 miles away, and I am unable to see them as often as I or they would like. I have looked at ATT and heard about (but not seen) the MCI one and wonder if either of them are a good deal. The ATT are now $1000 each and the MCI are $750 each. Obviously I need two. Big bucks. Do people think the price will drop soon? (The ATT price has already dropped by about 1/3.) Do you think these phones will hold any value three to five years from now? Has anyone ever seen any of them used for less? Are there any less expensive (and perhaps not as good) phone type alternatives? I was quite impressed with the "feel" of the ATT phone, and am starting to believe that it was a good deal at any price. I guess ATT used that feeling of mine to set a nice high price. Which is the better video phone? (They are incompatable with each other.) What thoughts do people have on all this? I will be happy to summarize responses if people are interested. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 10:02:06 +0100 From: Malcolm G Goodier Subject: Information Needed on Belgium Phone/Fax/Modem Connections Hi there! I'm looking for some help that I couldn't really get from uk.telecom, and as I cannot cannot find an equivalent group for Belgium I hope I can try here. I am about to leave the UK (Leicester, England) to live in Brussels Belgium. I will be writing my PhD thesis and need to communicate back to UK by fax, tele phone and modem. Currently I have a combined telephone answering machine and a very old manually switched 300 baud modem. Both are BABT approved for use on the UK public phone system run by BT (British T Telecom), and as such have a standard BT plug to connect to the socket. I wish to buy a new internal fax/modem card for my PC, at least 2400 modem and group 3 fax, probably 14400 modem if I can afford it. I would like answers to the following questions please, and any other advice would be greatly appreciated. 1. Who runs the Belgium public telephone system? 2. What sort of plug/socket connections are used in Belgium? 3. Would my telephone/answering machine work in Belgium? 4. Would a fax/modem card bought in UK work in Belgium? 5. Any recommendations for a suitable fax/modem card that is cheap? Thank you to anyone who can help me at all. Replies by email would probably be best please. Malcolm Goodier Senior Researcher De Montfort University Leicester, UK (I leave here in October but will keep my email address for a while) mgg@dmu.ac.uk [JANET: mgg@uk.ac.dmu] [InterNet: mgg@dmu.ac.uk] [Tel: +44 (0)533 57 7582] [Fax: +44 (0)533 57 7583] ------------------------------ From: tomlowe@netcom.com (Tom Lowe) Subject: 1-800-COLLECT No Longer Least Expensive? Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1993 18:06:21 PDT Has anyone else noticed that MCI has changed the wording on their ads from: "America's LEAST EXPENSIVE way to call collect" to "America's INEXPENSIVE way to call collect" Does this mean there is now a cheaper way? Tom Lowe tomlowe@netcom.com [Moderator's Note: Yes, there is. The Orange Card people have started a similar service. 1-800-TALK-425. Their surcharge is about 70-80 cents (I am not involved with the program), and the rates are 25 cents per minute. By dialing the above number, you get an operator who will place the call on a collect basis. I believe the surcharge is less than any other similiar service. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jwohlfor@mason1.gmu.edu (Jim Wohlford) Subject: Area Code Split Information Needed Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 09:57:47 EDT I am trying to put together a project plan for modifying billing system software to accomodate new NPA splits. Does anyone know the expiration date of the permissive dialing period for new area codes 905, 910, 810, and/or 610 (which are formerly part of 416, 919, 313 and 215, respectively). Any info would be useful/appreciated. If you send private email to me I will summarize findings and post. Thanks, Jim Wohlford Compuserve 70214,636 jwohlfor@gmu.edu George Mason University M.A. Telecommunications Program ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 9:07:58 CDT From: Will Martin on 7000 Subject: Hallmark and Sprint -- Greeting/Calling Cards I heard this weekend on the VOA's "Communications World" program on shortwave: Hallmark has teamed with Sprint to offer a new line of what they call "Greeting/Calling" Cards. These are a Hallmark greeting card containing a Sprint calling card good for 10 minutes of LD usage "anywhere in the US". (I don't know if this includes AK and HI, or places like Puerto Rico ...) These will cost $6, and be test-marketed in November 93 in five US markets: Chicago, Atlanta, Kansas City, LA, and NYC. Initial offer appears to be 10 different cards in the "Christmas" category, to be followed by ten different Valentine's Day cards. Expansion to other types of cards will depend on the test-market results. No details were given about the security on these -- if the calling card part is readable inside the card when the prospective purchaser picks up the card to look at it, they could easily just copy the numbers and use up the calling-card value without buying the card. Also, if so many calling cards will be issued, one would think that it would be easy to come up with a method to determine valid numbers after looking at a few of these cards. No one mentioned anything about "mag-stripe" or related technology, and few phones are set up to read such data sources anyway (plus people would be expected to use these from home phones even though this would be an uneconomic usage...) so I would expect they are just printed cards with a serial number that identifies the ten minutes of use. If they are enclosed in sealed packets attached to the cards, this makes an easily-concealed shopliftable item; thieves could tear out the calling cards and palm them, wouldn't have to steal the whole greeting card ... and what about disposal of unsold cards? They're now a much-more valuable item than last-year's cards were before. No mention either of what happens when the ten minutes runs out. Does the call get cut off, or does it automatically begin charging the calling phone as if it was a Sprint 10XXX type call (and then at what rates?) if that phone is chargeable [not a payphone], or does an operator come on line and offer options, or what? Pat, what happens to an Orange-Card call when the paid-for value runs out? An abrupt cut-off? Any chance to continue the call in any way? Are the callers warned with an announcement or something? Will [Moderator's Note: Orange Calling Cards offer open account credit. You use them and pay for them at the end of the month. There are some sort of pre-set credit limits in a few cases. I believe what you are referring to are the pre-paid Talk Tickets and similar programs such as the one offered by Western Union. On those, you get a one-minute warning and are then cut off. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 01:45:39 EDT From: hu@geophy.physics.utoronto.ca Subject: What is the Capacity of Internet? The title says it all. I am wondering what is the capacity of Internet, i.e., how many nodes can be connected to Internet. Thanks, HU MIN [Moderator's Note: I don't think there is such a thing. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #647 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13564; 14 Sep 93 9:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00182 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 14 Sep 1993 06:30:02 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00384 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 14 Sep 1993 06:29:34 -0500 Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 06:29:34 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309141129.AA00384@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #648 TELECOM Digest Tue, 14 Sep 93 06:29:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 648 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Cutbacks at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (Randall Gellens) MA Modem Taxes on CI$ (Monty Solomon) Packet Access -- 5ESS(R) Switch (Monty Solomon) Re: Modem Tax in Canada (Tad Cook) Re: Modem Tax in Canada (Eric N. Florack) Re: Time Magazine Online (Bo Orloff) Re: Notes on True Voice Demo (Eric N. Florack) Re: Notes on True Voice Demo (David G. Lewis) Re: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis (Al Varney) Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? (Andy Sherman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 13 SEP 93 18:06 Subject: Cutbacks at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Japanese companies are cutting jobs as Japan's economy slides toward a recession, AP reported on 9/6/93. Among the companies announcing job reductions are Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. Toshiba plans to reduce its 75,000-employee work force by 5,000 jobs while Fujitsu plans to cut 6,000 positions. Many of the companies are reducing their work forces by reducing the number of new hires, cutting part-time workers, transferring employees to subsidiaries with lower salaries and benefits, and promoting early retirement plans. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone announced an early retirement program designed to cut its work force by 10,000 employees over the next 18 months (AP, 8/31/93). The company already has reduced hiring by 50 percent. Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com |A Series System Software Unisys Corporation [Please forward bounce messages |Mission Viejo, CA to: rgellens@mcimail.com]| |Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself| ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 03:00:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: MA Modem Taxes on CI$ FYI. From comp.dcom.modems Subject: MA Modem Taxes on CI$ From: phil.leonard@channel1.com (Phil Leonard) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 22:51:00 -0500 Organization: Channel 1(R) * 617-864-0100 Info * 617-354-7077 Modem Well, people. It's official. CI$ is charging all Massachusetts people for their On-Line time. Here's a portion of my bill: Date Description Node Logon Min Amount 28-Aug SALES TAX 1.36 29-Aug MEMBERSHIP FEE 8.95 28-Aug BASIC SERVICES 08BTS 0:43 2 .00 TOTAL FOR SESSION .00 Anybody believe this is a HOAX now? I tell you, something has to be done soon or this will get way out of hand. Everybody wants a piece of the action. My CI$ hourly rate just jumped from $16 per hour to $16.80 thanks to this WONDERFUL State. Let's see, 5% Mass telecom charge, 2.5% Federal telecom charge and now a 5% Mass modem fee. That's a whopping 12.5% tax. Not to mention I've been taxed 40% of my income before I start. And I'll bet they aren't done yet. This is really getting out of hand fast. No warnings, no laws, just tax 'em! Tax 'em! Ahw, why not JUST Tax 'em! And here I thought the whole idea of creating of this country, the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, was to get away from TAXATION. Our government is succeeding to take control. I hope something can be done soon. Our speech is getting awfully expensive! Phil Leonard phil.leonard@channel1.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 03:14:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Packet Access -- 5ESS(R) Switch FYI. From comp.dcom.isdn From: jeana@cbnewse.cb.att.com (jean) Subject: Packet Access -- 5ESS(R) Switch Organization: AT&T Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 14:06:55 GMT Just for the record: There are three methods of provisioning packet data on the 5ESS Switch (from the 5E6 Software release and on). As an end-user you are limited to what your Swltch Owner (usually your telephone company) has decided to offer (tariff) in your service area. They are: D-Channel Packet: Very effect use of system (Switch) resources. Easy to engineer and translate. Should be priced at a very reasonable rate. D-Channel Packet (like D-Channel Q.931) is a dedicated, duplicated, nailed-up connection. On-Demand B: This is a B channel with a software translation of "DMD" assigned to it. That allows additional translations to permit the customer to do Circuit Switched applications (voice or data) as well as packet data "on demand." The D Channel Q.931 is used by the CPE to inform the Switch what the usage will be when the call is placed. The Switch then check to see if resources are available (they're different for circuit switched calls vs packet switched calls). If resources are available (and, depending on engineering and line assignment they might not be), the Switch responds to the CPE. B Channel packet will use more Switch resources than D and, thusly, this should cost more tha D-Channel packet. ODB is a single time slot assigned at the time of the call. Permanent Packet B: This is a B channel assigned to "X25". (And there is no "." in the translations). This is a dedicated, duplicated, nailed-up eight-bit time slot that carries X.25 packet only. Once assigned, it will not support any circuit switched applications. It uses a *lot* of system resources -- but if you need guaranteed 64Kbs bandwidth guaranteed without "contending" for system access, this is what you want. If you do, expect to pay more for it than the other two. Note: The term "nailed up" in the above context refers only to access to the Switch resrouces (the Protocol Handlers -- they are not called Packet Handlers in the 5ESS Switch). Where you go from there depends on other variables. att!hrcce!jean ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Modem Tax in Canada Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 9:52:17 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) In tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) writes: >> Here we go again. The Modem Tax rumormongers have demonstrated over >> the past few years that they will grab for ANY scrap of information >> that can be woven into their bizarre conspiracy theories. oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: > It is not all rumors. The State of New York recently enacted a new > tax on any information providing by telephone or telegraph. It is 5% > above and beyond the sales tax already imposed. And that is on gross > receipts, not profits, so a business with a 4% profit margin now > simply goes out of business. > Or moves to New Jersey. How can a tax on telephone or telegraph be characterized as a "modem tax"? Seems like one could characterize ANY tax or fees associated with telephone service as a "modem tax," if the semantics are applied this loosely. tad@ssc.com (if it bounces, use 3288544@mcimail.com)| [put "attn Box #215" Tad Cook | Packet Amateur Radio: | Home Phone: | on fax or cover pg!] Seattle, WA | KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 206-527-4089 | FAX: 206-525-1791 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 06:04:35 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Modem Tax in Canada In #641, Tad Cook writes: >> And, how, pray tell, would they know what was being carried, without >> monitoring of said trunks, hmm? > Huh? When the FCC ordered the temporary suspension of terminating > charges for data carriers, they never monitored YOUR line to see if > you were sending voice or data. No, just the privately held lines of the service providers ... and thereby, MY phone calls through that provider. Should we be moving this chat to RISKS? The risks of allowing such a thing seem to me quite obvious. > this case, NB Tel charges less for fax lines. Since Eric is > outraged that they are charging "differently for said line, and their > costs are exactly the same", he really wants Canada to end their low > cost deal for fax lines! > Maybe he should complain that residential line charges should be as > high as business line charges, since they are charging "differently > for said line, and their costs are exactly the same." You seem to have missed the private reply I've sent out to several, yourself included, who have made similar suggestions. (Perhaps my postmaster bounced yours ... it happens) In any case: I'll reply here to save time: Bunk. Look, we're dealing with what is essentially a controlled commodity. If they are able to make a cut-rate service out of one phone call type ... data... while charging the bigger bucks for voice service ... or, as you point out, even bigger bucks for business voice service ... when in fact the telco requirements for each connection is /exactly/ the same, suggests that the latter two groups are paying far too much for their phone service. So, that is the first problem I have with such things. (There are those who have pointed to PCP, as such a service, and I suggest that this is a different case altogether, since their circuts cannot handle voice, but only packeted data. The lines and rates under discussion here have voice ability ... telco just doesn't want you to use the line as such ... but pay the higher prices for voice ... for the same bloody connection!) Second, they by the nature of the system, have to monitor the line for content to ensure their 'system' (their gravy train, in short) isn't being thwarted. Given the constant bellow re: privacy of communications, it seems to me odd that so many should be approving of this tactic. R, /E ------------------------------ From: boo@netcom.com (Bo Orloff) Subject: Re: Time Magazine Online Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 08:19:06 GMT Philip Elmer-DeWitt (ped@panix.com) wrote: > Starting today (Sunday) at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, the world's oldest and > biggest newsmagazine will plug into the world's newest and > fastest-growing medium when {Time Magazine} begins publishing on America > Online. Text of this week's issue will be posted Sunday afternoon, a > day before the magazine is available on the newsstand. In addition, > there will be bulletin boards where {Time} readers can mix it up with > {Time} editors. > For more information, message me at ped@well.com or philiped@aol.com. I am curious as to the source for your assertion that TIME is the world's oldest and biggest newsmagazine. I rather doubt that it's either (though it is owned by one of the world's oldest and biggest media/entertainment conglomerates). Bo Orloff (boo@netcom.com) [Moderator's Note: {Time Magazine} started in either 1921 or 1922, much earlier than either {Newsweek} or {US News and World Report}, the other two biggies in the newsmagazine business. That would make it the oldest (at least of the three big ones). Regards 'which is bigger', are we talking about size and content of each issue or parent company char- acteristics. I believe Time-Warner with all their book and magazine subsidiaries is larger than the Washington Post Company, owner of {News- week}. The original statement is probably correct. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 06:06:38 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Notes on True Voice Demo In #640, Al Varney tells me: > I don't know how much of broadcasting applies to telephony, but > I'll take your word for it. I had thought the relationship an obvious one, but perhaps I over-estamated how obvious a relationship it is. It's like this, Al; both radio, particularly AM radio, and the telephone folks, are dealing with the object of getting max voice quality (or, at least a perception thereof) through a highly limited bandwith and S/N ratio medium. > Doesn't this just imply that the signal never reached the line's > power limit -- and thus volume in both cases was not limited by the > PCM encoding? No. Limiting, in this case, is with respect to Limiting Amplifiers. While I suspect that the levels were not, in fact, limited by the PCM, I suggested that they may have been so limited (Multi-band) as a part of the recording process ... thus given an inaccurate (at best) representation of TrueVoice. Given that the relationship is less than obvious, as you suggest, perhaps I should give a short lesson on what multi-band limiting is. Imagine, if you will, an audio EQ. Now, imagine an automatic gain control system having been installed on each of the 16 bandpass knobs on the EQ. This is sometimes called 'spectral limiting' ... perhaps the name is a bit of a misnomer, since instead of limiting the spectrum, it tends to make the available spectrum sound somewhat wider than it is. (Gee, another connection to radio ... isn't making the bandwidth sound wider than it is what TrueVoice seeks to accomplish?) > I am somewhat confused by the "clipping" references. In normal > calls, the companded PCM signal rarely hits the peak voltage value. > Nothing below that value is clipped. This isn't a broadcast signal > where maximum power is desired. Actually, so am I. But, there it was, at the top of nearly every waveform above a given threshold ... a chop, followed by a rounding off ... as if the wave was being re-constructed after clipping. That the peak of the waveform was actually above that of the point of the clip, by several db suggests that the overall power was nowhere near the limits of the line, but was being affected /prior to insertion into the line/. Put another way, it /looks/ from here like it was pre-proccesed. Intentional or not, I don't have any idea. But it strikes me as not possible that they'd not have seen and accounted for this problem, assuming it was unintentional. One person who watched the whole thing, suggested that the odd waveforms we saw might have been part of the PCM process, and a screw-up of some kind. It's possible, but ... Of course, it's also possible that my equipment screwed up, as well, I dunno. Still, I'm just reporting what I saw. Regards, /E (You think my employer would PAY me for this?) ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: Notes on True Voice Demo Organization: AT&T Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 14:54:55 GMT In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > Does this mean that starting September 23, calls *originating* or > calls *terminating* in Atlanta will have the TrueVoice treatment? Yes. Permit me to explain. (Note to my friends in Basking Ridge -- this was explained in FOCUS ("For and about the employees of AT&T"), which is non-proprietary information, and the information about deployment beginning in Atlanta on 9/23 was in the {Atlanta Constitution} ...) Calls originating in Atlanta carried by AT&T will have the TrueVoice(SM) enhancement applied to the talkpath received by the calling party. Calls terminating in Atlanta carried by AT&T will have the TrueVoice enhancement applied to the talkpath received by the called party. In other words, if you're in Atlanta and homed on an AT&T office where the TrueVoice enhancement technology is deployed, you'll hear the enhanced sound on any call carried on AT&T, whether you place or receive the call. The other party on the call will not hear the enhanced sound unless they are also in an area where the Truevoice enhancement technology is deployed. TrueVoice enhancement deployment will be underway throughout 1993 and 1994; I believe we've announced we expect it to be fully deployed by year-end 1994. ObDisclaimer: I don't work on TrueVoice, I just know what I've seen in the press. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 01:17:03 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: AT&T TrueVoice DSP Analysis Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article hollarn@knight.gannon.edu writes: > We can buy that there is an improvement using AT&T TrueVoice DSP. > However, when you look at what AT&T is really selling the public, it > is no match for true digital <-> digital communication. Basically, > all they are selling is an increase in volume on the circuit and > attempting to cut out the interference. This is not true rocket > science ... Maybe not, but have YOU ever tried to improve the quality of sound on long distance calls without changing any customer or LEC network equipment? Once you and your IXC competition are using the same PCM interface to the LECs, and digital switches and digital transmission equipment, it is not easy to improve sound quality from INSIDE the IXC network. Actually, AT&T is also selling digital<->digital communication. ACCUNET(tm) Switched 56/1.5/32/45 are end-to-end digital. Our ISDN equipment provides end-to-end digital data calls. Demand isn't exactly taking the country by storm ... so maybe you want digital- to-digital transmission, but most callers just want good-sounding calls. > You could even go further with this analysis by looking at the > codecs at the local loop. The voice quality on a circuit is only as > good as the codec that does the initial conversion from analog <--> > digital. Actually, the quality is also affected by slip rates, A/B bit robbing, number of switches/DCS/multiplexors transited (each adds a little delay), and echo handling. But I agree in principle -- I've already mentioned (elsewhere) that CCITT has a spec/flowchart/procedure for implementing 7 kHz audio using existing transmission facilities. You just have to buy all new telephones (everywhere) or interwork it with the existing networks by using ISDN's bearer capability to identify the desired audio range to the called telephone. Here is a DRAMATIC improvement in the quality of voice telephone sound -- but I don't think people will jump for joy at this development (unless it's free!). I've also mentioned before (maybe elsewhere) that the Truevoice(tm) enhancement of voice adds about 4 dB to the signal in order to make the volume about the same as that of a local call. The "local-is-louder" current practice is a distant hold-over of the Via Net Loss toll trunk rules from the 1950/s, and are still with us in the 1990's in the Bellcore Transmission Fixed Loss rules. In essence, the plan applies an added 6 dB LOSS on all incoming IXC trunk connections, and all intraLATA connections of >200 miles. Calls <200 miles receive 3 dB of added LOSS. Line-to-line calls receive 0 dB of added LOSS. So in essence, AT&T's Truevoice service increases the volume a little inside the network to compensate for the LOSS added by the LEC end office (or end office plus tandem). Why this LOSS is there in the first place, and why it can't be wholesale removed, is the subject of an in-process article. Those who can't wait can check out the Bell System Technical Journal from September 1953, "Transmission Design of Intertoll Telephone Trunks", by H. R. Huntley. This is the first reference I've found to "via net loss" in trunk engineering. The need for such loss is made clearer in the November 1963 BSTJ article by Emling and Mitchell, "The Effects of Time Delay and Echoes on Telephone Conversations". Al Varney - just my opinion ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 09:38:03 EDT From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) Subject: Re: Truevoice - Modem Tests Anyone? In article 6@eecs.nwu.edu, tatum@hotsun.nersc.gov (Jamie Tatum) writes: > Since TrueVoice hasn't been released yet, have any of you Bell Labs > people tested Truevoice with modems? Particularly with high speed, or > 16.8 if you can get your hands on it. If it does cause problems (as I > suspect it will) will there be a method of disabling it on a per call > basis? I know that this should be of interest to all users of the > Internet, especially UUCP because UUCP is a modem network (mostly > comprised of 14.4's) and a lot of it is LD. The TrueVoice patent was posted to the digest recently. In it, it was either stated or strongly implied that TrueVoice was implemented in the same DSPs that do echo cancellation. AT&T has always dropped echo cancellation out of any circuit in response to the standard "disable echo cancellation" tone emitted by modems. There is no reason to believe that TrueVoice will behave any differently. Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #648 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15748; 14 Sep 93 10:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03533 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 14 Sep 1993 07:15:27 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27298 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 14 Sep 1993 07:14:58 -0500 Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 07:14:58 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309141214.AA27298@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #649 TELECOM Digest Tue, 14 Sep 93 07:40:45 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 649 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: The One True Dialing Plan (David W. Tamkin) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Al Varney) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Paul Robinson) Re: The One True Dialing Plan (Andrew Marc Greene) Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM (Russell Sharpe) Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM (David G. Lewis) PSTN Switch DTMF Address Validators? (Neil Smith) Bellcore Offers Documentation (Mike King) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 03:30 CDT From: dattier@genesis.mcs.com (David W. Tamkin) Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Reply-To: dattier@genesis.mcs.com (DWT) Organization: Contributor Account on MCSNet, Chicago, Illinois 60657 John Payson wrote in in comp.dcom.telecom: > I subscribed for the "Call-Pak unlimited" which the operator said > covered all calls within 312 as well as all calls within 708 except a > few really distant exchanges. I asked for specifics, but was told > that they did not have a list available -- if I gave them a specific > exchange they could tell me if it was included, but otherwise not. > BTW, even this information is only availale during somewhat extended > business hours [something like 8-6 weekdays, 8-12 Sat. or somesuch]. > Requests for written information were unsuccessful. HUH? There is a detailed map in the front of Centel's local directory for Des Plaines and Park Ridge ("Des Plaines" includes the unincorpor- ated area with Northbrook addresses where John must live and "Park Ridge" includes the portion of Chicago where I used to have Centel service). Didn't you look at front of the directory *anyway* as any true telecom buff would upon getting service in (perhaps even upon visiting) an area? Did you refuse to accept one from them because you were sure you already knew all the numbers you cared to know? It makes it very clear that Mundelein is Outer Met and not covered by Call-Pak Unlimited, which, I understand, ended May 13, 1993, anyway. I knew that when I moved to Centel's satrapy in September, 1987 (for reasons that have nothing to do with telephony, I returned to Illinois Bell land in February, 1992.) > A while later, enjoying the thrill of not having to worry whether each > and every number I call will shaft me for $0.05/min, [which most do > outside of a VERY small region for those without Call-Pak unlimitted] > I stumbled across a very nice BBS in Mundelein, Ill. [I live in > Northbrook]. You should have RTFD. I did, and I didn't open a full account on MCSNet until it moved from Mundelein to Wheeling (it moved again and is in Chicago now). In fact, when IBT started billing calls by CO district instead by zone, they got sloppy about exchange boundaries within CO district boundaries and started assigning numbers to new service on prefixes intended for other exchanges in a CO district, so I made sure that the prefix of MCSNet's number in Wheeling was intended for Wheeling: the Wheeling CO serves both the Wheeling exchange (Inner Met) and the Half Day exchange (Outer Met). You could have called Centel to ask about that prefix as soon as the office opened instead of continuing to call the system. (Did you run up all that usage in a single night or on one Saturday's afternoon and evening and the following Sunday?) That certainly would have nipped the problem in the bud. Heck -- you may have continued calling it after that bill was cut and have another doozy on the way next cycle for the calls you made before the first surprise bill came in the mail. I gather from your description that you knew it was in Mundelein but didn't realize Mundelein was Outer Met. So calling to find out where that prefix was located wouldn't have helped; when I lived in their area, Centel contracted with Illinois Bell for operator services, so dialing 0 would have connected you to an Illinois Bell operator who had no information about Centel (except to know that you were their customer). For example, if you misdialed and then asked the operator to arrange credit, (s)he'd say it was taken care of and then the charge would go uncorrected unless you contacted Centel after the bill came; they hadn't gotten that straightened out when I moved away. An Illinois Bell operator could have told you that that prefix served Mundelein but (1) you knew that and (2) the operator couldn't tell you whether Mundelein was Inner Met or Outer Met for Centel customers. > Is it just me or did I get royally shafted here? Is there anything I > can do about it? It's just you. It's true that they didn't have a current list of prefixes compiled but they did provide a map, right there in the directory. I doubt that you have a leg to stand on, John. Sorry. Ask my brother's family how little I called them after they moved from Northbrook to Barrington, which is Outer Met. Read the directory. I won't say that it is your friend, however. It is not your friend, because it tells you the truth no matter how much you would rather hear something else. David W. Tamkin Box 3284 Skokie, Illinois 60076-6284 312-714-5610 dattier@genesis.mcs.com CompuServe: 73720,1570 MCI Mail: 426-1818 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 00:00:21 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Organization: AT&T In article 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM writes: > Al , writes: >> In article 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM >> (Paul Robinson) Writes: >>> It would have been nice if they had instituted something like what >>> Washington, DC area does: if the number is local to you and in you >>> area code, you dial seven digits (or you may optionally dial the >>> area code even though it is the same). If the number is local to >>> you but outside your area code, you dial the area code plus seven >>> digits. If it is long distance, even in the same area code, you ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >>> dial 1 + area code + 7 digits, but even on a local call you can ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >> This only works in DC because C&P and other TELCOs work very >> hard to insure there are no (or minimal) overlaps in CO office code >> assignments. > Not true. Paul, you are correct - I was wrong ... I read (or assumed) from the DC reference that you were talking about inter-NPA seven-digit dialing, which was (and I thought still) available in DC. Sorry for the error. >> .... And it makes offering multiple levels of >> un-timed area hard to deploy -- if you elect to save line charges >> by reducing your free-calling area, does your dialing plan change? > .... In this area, there are several flavors of service. In all > of the following examples, if one pays for local calls, one may call > anywhere in the Washington Metro Area, which extends from Dulles > Airport, VA, to Arlington, Va, to DC, to Rockville, MD to Upper > Marlboro, MD. Call it an area 20 miles square. > ...In Maryland they can also get measured timed service at 3c for the > first minute and 1.5c each additional minute. [ other cases deleted ] > But in *all* cases, whether you pay nothing, 10c, or per minute for a > call, in the Washington area, all calls are dialed the same. NXX-XXXX > for local, NPA-NXX-XXXX for local numbers outside the area or for > local numbers, and 1+NPA+NXX+XXXX for non-local OR local numbers. OK, I'm confused again. If I pay per-minute rates for a call, how can it be a "local" call. What makes a number "local", when it costs money in the same way as intra-NPA "long distance" calls. This was the point (above) about multiple free-calling-area plans. If I purchase a calling plan that makes all intra-NPA calls "free", how do I (personally) distinguish between "local" and "long distance" calls? And if I call from a COCOT that charges $.25/minute anywhere in the NPA, do I dial all calls with "1+" because they all cost the same? If I have a "no free call area plan, do I consider all numbers to be "long distance"? I just seems the "1+"="toll" idea makes the assumption that almost all telephones in a given wire center will have exactly the same free calling area (and those numbers are considered "local"). Al Varney ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 10:40:23 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Olaf Seibert , writes: > I have been following this discussion, and, as a poor "foreigner", > now my head hurts ... > In lachman@netcom.com > (Hans Lachman) writes: > [paraphrased] >> local, long distance ... >> area code, NPA ... >> LATA ... >> Toll, CO, FX line ... > Help! Apparently these properties are in theory orthogonal, > but I fail to see how a "local" call could have a different > area code, and what exactly a LATA is, is completely beyond me > In other articles, posters use phone number patterns like NXX > and NNX as if that's as easy as pie ... could someone explain > those terms please? (I didn't see a FAQ posting, I'm afraid.) When the U.S. Government forced American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) to spin off the local telephone companies that it owned, it did so by splitting them off into seven companies. AT&T was known as "Ma Bell", so the companies split off from it were known as "The Baby Bells". Well, each Baby Bell had certain areas where people made short-distance calls, and they wanted to protect the revenue coming from those calls, so the right to carry calls in those areas was generally left to the Local Baby Bell. These areas divided the service areas where the local companies could operate, and calls that crossed a service area had to use a long-distance company. The service areas are called LATAs for "Local Access and Transport Area". The long distance companies are called IntereXchange Companies, or IXCs. Since about 1965, the United States has had ten digit telephone numbers, in which the country was broken up into "Area Codes". With the exception of the 700, 800 and 900 area codes, an area code does not cross a state line. Within each area code, the subscriber is assigned a specific seven digit number. The full ten-digit number is unique; (except for 700 numbers) no two different subscribers will have the same 10 digit number, nor will two different subscribers in the same area code have the same 7-digit number. Within an area code, the number is divided up into the prefix or exchange number, and the suffix. The Prefix is the first three digits of the seven-digit number. This usually identifies a specific place in that area code, e.g. a particular telephone building handling that area, the building being called an "exchange". Originally, Area Codes and Prefixes were segregated by the second digit. Area codes are called NPAs for "Numbering Plan Area." Area codes were distinguished by being a number from 200 through 919, in which the second digit is always 1 or 0. Prefixes were distinguished by being a number from 220 to 999, in which the second digit is always 2 through 9. Thus the prefix could be referred to as NNX, where N is 2 through 9, and X is 0 throught 9. When some states got crowded, they added new area codes; however, as areas got even more crowded, and the number of area codes became scarse (and it takes a while to get people to know that they should change to a new area code), someone got the bright idea to allow the prefixes in an area code to have anything for the second digit. This allows you to add about 15% more numbers to an area without having to add an area code. These prefixes, since they can have any digit in positions 2 and 3, but still have to have 2-9 as the first digit, are referred to as "NXX". > In order to bring this whole ordeal into some perspective, I'll > give you a look at the situation here in the Netherlands... > My phone number is 080-561030. That is made up of the city code > (080), and a subscriber number (the rest). All city codes start > with a 0, and none of the subscriber numbers do. So if you start > dialing, the parsing done by the exchange is simple: if it starts > with a 0, a city code follows, and it starts parsing the (variable > length) city code. If no city code is given, the default is the one > you're calling from. Well, it's similar in the U.S. If you dial with a 1, you are dialing another city code, same as in your country. The difference is that the "city" codes are assigned to much larger geographical divisions, called "states". Since a state can have more than one code, the codes are called "Area" codes rather than "City" codes or "state" codes. Also, one city can have more than one. New York and Los Angeles have three each, while Southern California has five and is adding a sixth. After the three-digit Area code, is the three-digit prefix that defines where in that area code the subcriber is located, followed by the four digit number that uniquely identifies that subscriber in that prefix. > As I said, city codes are variable length.... > After dialing the city code, you get a second dial tone ... > Also, not all subscriber numbers are the same length. As I understand it, Europe had older equipment and simply added more digits in some areas; the U.S. tended to stabilize on a system of standard numbering. See below. > However, PTT telecom is striving to make all phone numbers the same > length, either 0xx-yyyyyyy (3+7) or 0xxxx-yyyyy (5+5). This seems > completely nonsensical to me, btw, since everyone is used to > different length numbers, and they clearly have the technology to > parse them. Didn't Europe used to use different length measuring systems? And someone got the idea that a measuring system where every unit is 10 multiples would be easier to use than one where, for example, a foot is 12 inch-units, a yard is three foot-units, a mile is 1760 yard-units, and so on. In the European system, a meter is 100 centimeters, a kilometer is 1000 meters. But Die-Hard English Uniot users don't like the Metric System. If the phone system can be set up so that every phone number is the same size, it causes less problems and is easier to use. You don't have to compute how long the phone number is, you *know*. Software to calculate locations and rate charges can be standardized and even done by non-telecom people. Modem programs can use standardized dialing directory sizes and can figure out where it is expensive to call and where it is free, which probably can't be done in your country without large routing tables. > There are never problems with running out of numbers: if they do, > they just prefix all existing subscriber numbers with an extra > digit. Again, I suspect the purpose is to make things _easier_. A consistent, standard numbering plan is easier to use than one that you have to guess how many numbers the call is. When someone in my office is calling an overseas number in Tokyo, Paris or London, I can tell *instantly* if they have given me too many or not enough numbers. Paris is 331+ eight digits. Tokyo is 8133+ seven Digits, London is 71 or 81 plus seven digits. And it has been noted that people in Britain are interested in getting standard phone numbers the way London does. > Also, the city codes aren't running out...In England there are less > similarities...In France, you have Paris, and the rest of the country... > I wonder when they run out of numbers, since both areas have > fixed-length eight-digit phone numbers. As I understand it, I think Paris is only using 1+3, 1+4 and 1+5 plus seven digits. They will probably, if they ever get so large that this doesn't work, is to change the numbering system again, so that some places are in additional zones and perhaps move the whole country to nine-digit national, eight-digit local numbers. Dial 1 + the zone code + eight-digit local number. This would mean some parts of Paris might be split into another zone, or something. They could divide the country into six or eight or nine areas, give each area a single zone digit, and make all local calls in that area eight digits long. If you are in an area, and the number you are calling is in the same area, dial eight digits, otherwise dial 1, the one-digit zone, and the eight-digit local number. As with Metric vrs English Measurement, those who are used to the old system find the new one hard to understand. Those who get used to the new one can't figure out why people hate the new one. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: Andrew_Marc_Greene@frankston.com Subject: Re: The One True Dialing Plan Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 14:03 -0400 I like the idea of identifying the carrier on toll calls, especially intra-LATA ones. It only takes a second or two for the carrier to give a distinctive "bong" (or a marketroid "We're the one for you, New England. Thank you for using New England Telephone." :-) How many times have people on this list asked "How can I find out who's carrying this interstate intra-LATA call?" only to be told "Dial 0 several times; the most common answer is probably right." On the other hand, PAT's probably getting tired of this thread. :-) Andrew ------------------------------ From: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (russell sharpe) Subject: Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM Date: 13 Sep 1993 11:01:20 GMT Organization: Wellington City Council, Public Access Reply-To: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz So, who *does* have a proprietary network of their own? Only AT&T? The big three [AT&T, MCI, Sprint]? I was shocked [shocked!] to find C&W blaming their problems on MCI, when I thought C&W had their own net (maybe not so redundant, but not using other's fiber!). I can only speak fron New Zealand's point of view, but I understand when competitors loose their FOTS (Fibre Optic Transmission System), they "overflow" onto the Main provides routes, at a cost. This of course causes congestion, on the alternate route. Fair trading means that interconnect calls cannot always be restricted, unless the stability of the network is a stake. Russell Sharpe: email: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Voice: +64 4 5637779 snailmail: 171 Holborn Drive Stokes Valley 6008 New Zealand ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM Organization: AT&T Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 15:11:42 GMT In article decrsc!leesweet@uunet.UU.NET (Lee Sweet) writes: > I agree with the earlier poster: What is the scoop on alleged (;-) > network redundancy, and routing around breaks in lines? I can't speak for the competition, but AT&T has deployed FASTAR(TM) technology which will automatically reroute DS3s around failures (such as cable outages) within minutes. I don't remember the numbers; it's not immediate -- calls will be dropped -- but the facilities will typically be restored in something like ten minutes. > By the way, is there any easy way to tell who uses what network plant? > All that's been said is that MCI was hit, but I use Cable & Wireless > for 90% of operations, and they had long distance problems Friday, > which they blamed on the MCI cut. So, who *does* have a proprietary > network of their own? Only AT&T? The big three [AT&T, MCI, Sprint]? > I was shocked [shocked!] to find C&W blaming their problems on MCI, > when I thought C&W had their own net (maybe not so redundant, but not > using other's fiber!). All the IXCs typically lease some capacity from other carriers (other IXCs, LECs, CAPs, etc.). I expect that AT&T leases the least and owns the most, that MCI and Sprint typically lease a greater portion of capacity from AT&T, each other, and other IXCs, and C&W, WilTel, and so on down the line will typically lease more and own less as you work your way down to the pure resellers who own no transmission capacity and lease it all. I have no data to back up this assertion, though. > Also, a few 800s that I called on Friday did not do anything. Period. > I could here the (what I thought was) the target DID being dialed, but > I never got a ring. I assume this was an MCI 800 (!). Again, > shouldn't (at least) the big three have redundant routing for > less-than -catastrophic outages? > How about some comment from the AT&T/MCI/Sprint people? (And, please, > let's skip the 'well, OUR network ...' I assume that all are more or > less similar in level of service, no?) Well, no. AT&T has run ads based on Bell Labs service characterization studies which assert that MCI and Sprint are from four to eight times more likely to suffer a customer-affecting service outage, and will lose something on the order of ten times as many calls as will AT&T (I believe the numbers were something like an inbound call center receiving 100,000 calls a year can be expected to have 30 calls blocked on AT&T 800 service, compared to 360 calls blocked on MCI or Sprint 800 service). Now, you can claim that the difference between a P.0036 COS and a P.0003 COS isn't worth arguing about -- which is exactly what MCI's ads claimed - but if every call matters to the customer, it is worth arguing about for the customer. You can also challenge the validity of the study since it was done by AT&T; however, what I've read, the methodology appeared fair. 800 service was purchased from AT&T, MCI, and Sprint; large numbers of calls were placed to those numbers at various times; and the call completion rate was calculated. None of the carriers involved knew that it was a study as opposed to regular 800 service. Make of it what you will. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ From: Neil Smith (WPG) Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 09:01:56 PDT Subject: PSTN Switch DTMF Address Validators? I am looking for software which can validate whether or not a sequence of dialed digits correctly cause a PSTN to effect a voice connection given a simulated source and destination. I'm not interested in tones or electrical circuit characteristics, just the address detection and switching logic. Something which can emulate foreign telcos would be more useful since I can cover North American switches myself. Does anyone know how this is done in the real world (aside from actually using live switches)? Pointers to software, hardware, alternative techniques, or validation services would be helpful. Thanks, neil ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 12:51:17 EDT From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: Bellcore Offers Documentation I received a mailer from Bellcore last Friday. The newest edition of {Telecommunications Transmission Engineering} (The Redbook) is now offered for sale, in three volumes. Vol. 1 is "Principles," Vol. 2 is "Facilities," and Vol. 3 is "Networks and Services." "'Principles' explains the basic principles involved in the transmission of signals over intraLATA communications facilities. (BTW, they decode LATA to mean "local access and transport area" :-))." "'Facilities' describes the main systems, media, circuits, terminal units, and equipment that have been designed and used by the Bell Operating Companies and exchange and interexchange carriers to provide an extensive array of communications services." "'Networks and Services' presents the latest networking concepts, the newest special services, and the various components of the network (loops, trunks, and switches), that assist the Bell Operating Companies and exchange and interexchange carriers in providing high-quality, low-cost communications services." Each individual volume is $195, or all three can be ordered as a set for $399. You can call 800-521-CORE or 908-699-5800 for more information. Mike King * Software Sourcerer * Fairchild Space * +1 301.428.5384 mking@fsd.com or 73710.1430@compuserve.com * (usual disclaimers) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #649 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa24578; 15 Sep 93 5:06 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31520 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 15 Sep 1993 02:10:48 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06413 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 15 Sep 1993 02:10:19 -0500 Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 02:10:19 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309150710.AA06413@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #650 TELECOM Digest Wed, 15 Sep 93 02:10:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 650 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Telecommunications and Mational Labs (Dave Wiltzius) Another Outage for MCI (Les Reeves) What's a Good Phone System For a Small Business? (Tony DeSimone) Dog Days for Telephone Networks (Les Reeves) Air Fax (Randy Gellens) Dial In on One Line, Dial Out on Another? (Joel M. Hoffman) "Number, Please" Again? (Randy Gellens) America Bashing at its Worst (Paul Robinson) More News Bits (Randy Gellens) Area 400? (was Re: International Toll-Free Standard Code) (Carl Moore) CNID and 911 (Joshua Muskovitz) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Russell Sharpe) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Clarence Dold) Re: Video Phones Needed (Andy Mell) Re: Video Phones Needed (Steve Cogorno) Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? (H. Shrikumar) Re: Duck Ringer: Quack, Quack, Quack (Craig S. Williamson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: wiltzius@anduin.ocf.llnl.gov (Dave Wiltzius) Subject: Telecommunications and National Labs Date: 15 Sep 1993 04:10:36 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore Nat'l Lab. It seems evident (which may be an understatement) that the telecommunications industry is on the verge of providing access to vast amounts of information. Emerging technolgies (and political changes) will enable the telecommunications infrastructure to deliver voice, video and data to every household and office. Likely entertainment services will probably lead this era. I suspect that this era could come to fruition sooner if the market for such service applications could be accelerated. I would like to propose that the national labs (specifically LLNL), could assist in enabling these technologies by working with the prototype infrastructure (likely ATM B-ISDN), help develop service applications and finally use these service applications in our daily work routine. LLNL could then be a showcase demonstration of the future of telecommunications. The telecommunication industry would get a jump-start since the service applications (mutually designed and developed with industrial partners) would be demonstratable and beyond a prototype, and the infrastructure would similarly be shaken-out in a real-world environment. LLNL would get access to these services early and would be able to investigate this technology for more advanced uses, including the NII. Some of the services for which applications could be developed (not all of interest to LLNL as a business): o continuing education o virtual meetings/teleconferencing o shopping (for businesses: ordering materials from vendors) o entertainment (movie selection and delivery) o home health care o financial services o energy management and smart-house type services At this time, I would appreciate any feedback, opinions and suggestions. Since 1989, the LLNL phone service has been using ISDN, and the Lab has a lot of fibre in place. Please also keep in mind that LLNL can get in matching-fund agreements where the industrial partner(s) are allowed to commercially exploit the final product. Responses via email (or phone!) would be appreciated. Dave Wiltzius Lawrence Livermore Nat'l Lab wiltzius@llnl.gov ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 18:06:09 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Another Outage for MCI MCI suffered a seven-hour outage Sept. 13 in Everett, Ohio affecting "millions" of residential and business customers. The company said a highway crew cut a major communications cable at about 8:45 a.m. and MCI engineers worked to repair the cable until 4:00 p.m. Traffic was rerouted around the cut, but that system jammed due to a large volume of callers dialing repeatedly to make a connection. MCI claims the cable was clearly marked and the highway crew made no attempt to contact the carrier before digging. ------------------------------ From: Tony DeSimone Date: Mon, 13 Sep 93 22:25:25 GMT Subject: What's a Good Phone System For a Small Business? Reply-To: Tony DeSimone Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories I have a friend (really!) who's looking for a key phone system for a half-dozen phone sets. He wants part of this to be a sophisticated voicemail system, with mailboxes for the whole staff selected via menu, and including call-back for faxing stuff "hit 9 and enter a fax number to receive a price list ..." (I'll talk to him later about the pitfalls in that kind of service. What is the country code for Fiji, anyway?) The phone sets have to have a silent ringer, as the system is going into a recording studio. My friend is under the mistaken impression that, because I work for AT&T, I might know something about this. If anyone has some suggestions or experience with that kind of system could you send mail to me? Thanks, Tony DeSimone Room 3m321 Performance Analysis Department 101 Crawfords Corner Road AT&T Bell Laboratories Holmdel, NJ 07733-3030 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 19:25:24 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Dog Days for Telephone Networks From August 23 to September 3 the nation's telephone network experienced five outages, according to the Network Reliability Steering Committee. On August 31, there were three outages, the most extensive affected 39,600 customers in Encinitas, California for just under ten hours. The other outages were the result of a blown fuse in Jersey City, New Jersey (Bell Atlantic) and a cable cut in Bangor, Maine (Nynex). On August 23 Southwestern Bell's Oklahoma City central tandem office failed due to a "software corruption in switch"; 50,000 customers lost service for three hours. A duplex interior bus failed in Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania, on August 25, affecting an unknown number of customers for 50 minutes. ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 13 SEP 93 17:21 Subject: Air Fax Business travelers flying on American Airlines will be able to send and receive faxes and communicate with office-based computers, reported AP on 9/2. The airline announced it will change its telephones from analog to digital technology on its 650 planes. "What we are attempting is to meet the customer's needs by presenting the office-in- the-sky concept," said Kathy Libonati, American Airlines' managing director of product design. USAir, Alaska, Northwest and Southwest airlines already have made similar commitments for their own fleets. USAir was the first to begin changing to digital telephones for its 412-jet fleet. USAir also is installing video screens for each seat to show connecting flight information, weather, news and some live television broadcasts. Randall Gellens . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . .randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unisys Corporation. . . . . . . .|. . [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA. . . . . . . . | . . . . .to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal;. .facts are suspect; . I speak only for myself ------------------------------ From: joel@wam.umd.edu (Joel M. Hoffman) Subject: Dial In on One Line, Dial Out on Another? Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 14:51:04 GMT Organization: Excelsior Computer Services I just ordered Identi-ring (distinctive ringing), and I plan on using one number for voice and the other for data. So now I need a device to route incoming calls either to the phone or to the modem, depending on the ringing pattern. I assume that's easy to find. But I also have two lines. My identi-ring is on the second (my first line rolls over to the second, and C&P said they couldn't put identi-ring on such a line). BUT, I want to dial out on the first. So, I want incoming data calls, which come in on the second line with a special ring, to get to the modem, incomgin voice calls on both lines to go to my two-line phone, but I want the modem to dial out on line one. Any ideas? Thanks! Joel (joel@wam.umd.edu) ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 15 SEP 93 00:03 Subject: "Number, Please" Again? Ameritech is testing a telephone service that would allow users to make calls by speaking commands into a phone, such as "call doctor" or "call Mom at work" (Reported by AP, 9/7/93). Each member of a household could enter up to 70 names and phone numbers into a directory based at a switching center. Meanwhile, AT&T is making voice-recognition capabilities available for businesses that use interactive calling systems, which require callers to press a key in order to route their calls to access specific people or services. By using voice-recognition, the phone system would respond to a spoken command. Randall Gellens . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . .randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unisys Corporation. . . . . . . .|. . [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA. . . . . . . . | . . . . .to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal;. .facts are suspect; . I speak only for myself ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1993 21:40:04 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: America Bashing at its Worst From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Olaf Seibert , writes: >> (Likewise, wouldn't you feel silly to dial a country code when >> calling someone in the same country?) > But you already do ... given the fact that USA/Canada has been so > greedy to annex the only single-digit country code: 1. Now just one minute here! That is only cruel and unfair, it's wrong. I am not sure how far back the international dialing plan goes, but my guess is that the U.S. then, probably had more telephones than all of Europe and Asia combined. In any case, the code "1" also includes the 10+ countries and possessions of the U.S. and Great Britain in the West Indies under international code 1809. The U.S. probably has 1/3 of the worlds telephones now, I don't know how many there were back then, but it was probably just as large a gap. And for your information, the U.S. (U.S. and Canada) isn't the ONLY country to get a one-digit international code. What was the code for the Soviet Union? One digit: 7. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 14 SEP 93 18:19 Subject: More News Bits Here are a few more items from an internal news roundup: HOMELESS PEOPLE in Baltimore, Maryland, will have access to voice mail to help them communicate with prospective employers and landlords (AP, 9/9/93). Bell Atlantic Mobile is offering the service through a Salvation Army shelter. The company already operates a similar service in Connecticut and plans to expand the program to New Jersey, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. THE PUN IS THE LOWEST FORM OF HUMOR ... You know you've got a network virus when your node gets all stuffed up (Computerworld, 9/6/93). TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK ... A new book, called "S.T.A.R.", by Gary Reibsamen asserts that human destiny is controlled by a computer placed deep within the Earth eons ago by an advanced civilization. The computer uses data from human activities for a child's game called "The Game of Life." Computerworld (9/6/93) did not specify whether the book is marketed as fact or fiction. Randall Gellens . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . .randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unisys Corporation. . . . . . . .|. . [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA. . . . . . . . | . . . . .to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal;. .facts are suspect; . I speak only for myself ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 11:26:07 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Area 400? (was Re: International Toll-Free Standard Code) dan@sics.se (Dan Sahlin) wrote in July: > In Hungary I noticed in an ad that you could dial 00 1 400 4908989 > to get your horoscope. As the ad was in Hungarian, I guess the number > did not lead to North America, and, as far as I know, there is no > country code 400 in North America. It seems Hungarian telecom is > trapping these "impossible" numbers and use them locally for their > "900" service. (In Sweden "900" numbers start with 071 ...) I noticed no followup remarks on this, and I just now came across this use of "400". Yes, there is no area code 400 in country code 1; but 400 was cited as one of the last-resort N00 codes available as area codes should any more N0X/N1X area codes be needed before 1995. Some previous messages have referred to fake area code 610 for such "900-style" services, and people have been wondering what will happen with 610 coming into use as a geographic area code in Pennsylvania. I remember reading (in the digest) of something of this sort at Hightstown, New Jersey, in area 609, and was that 609-490? I now tried 609-490-8989, heard some clicks, but otherwise silence. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 20:42:52 EDT From: Joshua E. Muskovitz Subject: CNID and 911 Well, here in Sunny Kingston, NY, (served by New York Tel / NYNEX,) 911 *DOES* in fact use CNID to determine location. This was clearly pointed out to me when I insisted on line blocking. NYTs solution to the problem is to provide stickers for our phones which say "*69-911" or something to that effect. (You know, though, they never got around to sending me the stickers ... Hmm.) Despite my explaining to the NYT rep that (a) CNID for 911 is stupid, and (b) *69 as a toggle is stupid, she didn't seem to think that either was a problem. Oh well. I bet she doesn't read RISKS *or* TELECOM. :-) josh muskovitz ------------------------------ From: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (russell sharpe) Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? Date: 15 Sep 1993 01:13:55 GMT Organization: Wellington City Council, Public Access Reply-To: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz > tom@ulysses.att.com writes: >> Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will >> place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? In New Zealand, we have a service called message manager, which can Either Page a standard tone pager, or ring a designated Cell Phone (or a landline) and play the message. I'm sure that in the states there is some sort of "Smart Phone" service similar, although I don't have any idea how costly I may be there. (In NZ it is approx NZ$20 per month). Russell Sharpe: email: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Voice: +64 4 5637779 snailmail: 171 Holborn Drive Stokes Valley 6008 New Zealand ------------------------------ From: dold@unislc.slc.unisys.com (Clarence Dold) Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? Organization: Unisys Corporation SLC Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 17:03:22 GMT Joel Upchurch (upchrch!joel@uunet.UU.NET) wrote: > tom@ulysses.att.com (Tom Smith) writes: >> Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will >> place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? > Some high end Panasonic answering machines have a feature called Call > Transfer that will do what you want. At least the manual says it will. NO! STOP!! ARGH!! Well, I guess it wasn't really that bad when I tried it. The intent of Message transfer is to forward a message. If you forward to a voice phone, you hear your own outgoing message, and you press your "secret code" to retrieve the message. When I set it to dial my pager, I wasn't at home. Then I tested it! It would continually redial the pager number, so that I couldn't dial in to stop it. My phone was busy! When transferring to another voice number, it retries at some sensible rate, but apparently my pager connection sounded like a busy, so it retried immediately. Again, and again, and again ... Mine is a Panasonic Easa-Phone KXT-2422. Clarence A Dold - dold@tsmiti.sj.Unisys.COM ... pyramid!ctnews!tsmiti!dold ------------------------------ From: torq@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Andy Mell) Subject: Re: Video Phones Needed Date: 14 Sep 1993 19:02:51 GMT Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab Neil E. Berger wrote: > Are there any less expensive (and perhaps not as good) phone type > alternatives? > Which is the better video phone? (They are incompatable with each other.) British Telecom do a Relate 3000 VideoPhone, it is 350 British pounds, and uses the M-VTS standard (Marconi Video Telephone Standard) So if you look into whether either of the two American phones support M-VTS, then its probable this will be the final standard. > What thoughts do people have on all this? I think Video phones are quite an important technology for me as a deaf person unfortunately the frame refresh rate is not high enough yet for lipreading, however sign language can be understood if its not too fast. Regards, Andy ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Video Phones Needed Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 12:53:35 PDT > I have need of two such phones, since both my parents are > 85 and > live over 800 miles away, and I am unable to see them as often as I or > they would like.)====6,h I have looked at ATT and heard about (but not seen) > the MCI one and wonder if either of them are a good deal. The ATT are > now $1000 each and the MCI are $750 each. Obviously I need two. Big > bucks. You might want to contact AT&T about an installment plan. They sent me a mailing that said they were willing to give me a videophone with payments spread over 24 months (on approved credit, of course :-) . > Which is the better video phone? (They are incompatable with each other.) I have never seen the MCI phone, but the AT&T phone quality is great! If they really are incompatible (that is really stupid!), I would be inclined to buty the AT&T phone as I have been told that they were produced compliant to some open standard so that they would be compatible with other brands. (This is what the rep told me. She might have just wanted me to buy the phone, but the compatibility seems logical.) Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 19:02:22 -0400 From: shri@freal.cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar) Subject: Re: Number Neye-in? Number Neye-in? Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India In article archie@cory.EECS.Berkeley. EDU. wrote: > On the aviation airwaves, [...] > you're supposed to say "niner" [...] > Moreover, the whole alphabet is pronounced this way: Alpha, Bravo, > Charlie, etc. Also Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com said (in a prev article) > The military solves this problem by pronouncing 9 as "Niner." Also, 1 > is pronounced as "won" instead of "one," and 3 is "tree." I believe there used to be an old American standard for pronouncing letters ... this one had first names for each letter. Some of them have continued to persist in the International version. (C Charlie and J Juliet are good examples. G used to be George in the American system,in the International it is G Golf.) It used to be listed in the ARRL handbooks. If I am not mistaken, the international version is an ISO std ? Someone know for sure ... and have the number ? There _is_ also a version for numbers ... that goes something like this UNO One, BISO Two, etc ... (foggy memory), NADA Zero. I remember these from my ham radio days ... someof which is now a bit foggy. I remember the alphabet version well, and it helps me a lot when I spell out my name over the phone to airline and travel agent type people. I find that most travel related people are quite familiar with (or at least adapt to) such spellouts very fast. That is, after the short double take, 'cause they dont expect a "customer" to use this method, and that surprises them a little. Incidentally, I find that most telephone operator types, incl ATT and Sprint Cust Reps, get baffled beyond help by this spell-out method. I have to grapple with such calls by spelling my name in English (usual) pronounciation (Ech Aye Arr Ayii Ech Aye Arr Aye ... etc), and have to do it at least twice correcting mistakes they make :-( > [Moderator's Note: Now how could you possibly pronounce 'won' different- > ly than 'one'? PAT] "Lost game won." :-) shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in ) ------------------------------ From: Craig S. Williamson Subject: Re: Duck Ringer: Quack, Quack, Quack Date: 11 Sep 93 20:51:43 GMT Reply-To: "Craig S. Williamson" Organization: NCR E&M Columbia, SC In article mho@ficus.CS.UCLA.EDU (Mike Ho (Guest)) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 637, Message 10 of 11 >My friend has a duck phone with a ringer that makes it go "waak, waak, >waak" when it rings. > I'd love to find this ringer and stick it inside my phone at work -- > or heck, bring the whole phone in -- but my friend won't part with his > and won't let me dissect it. > Does anyone know where I can find such a ringing device, or any other > novelty ringers? Answers by e-mail are preferred, to keep needless > quacking off the telecom group. Well I do know where to get such a phone and thought that others in this group might be interested also. Phoneco, Inc. has two duck phones that quack. One is a one piece and the other is a two piece. The one piece, Quacky 3, is $35, and the 2 piece, Quacky II, is $39. Their phone number is: 608-582-4124. They have a catalog, which is where I'm getting this info, that has specialty phones like this plus other old style phones. I hope this is what you are after. Craig Williamson Craig.Williamson@ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM craig@toontown.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM (home) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #650 ******************************