Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 17:07:34 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #401 Message-ID: <8909241707.aa17292@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Sun, 24 Sep 89 17:00:00 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 401 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson "Dial-It Service" Makes its Debut in 1932 (Larry Lippman) Re: Telephone History: For Sale? (Gabe Wiener) Re: Telephone History: For Sale? (Mike Morris) Local Calls From Area 215 to Other Areas (Carl Moore) Re: Area Code 510 Press Release From Pac*Bell (Edward Greenberg) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: "Dial-It Service" Makes its Debut in 1932 Date: 23 Sep 89 13:56:06 EDT (Sat) From: Larry Lippman When we pick up the telephone and dial a number for a recorded time-of-day announcement, we take it for granted that a computer is controlling generation of the synthesized voice which we hear. To even think for a moment that a LIVE PERSON might be creating the announcement is, of course, an absurd thought. However, once upon a time, a live operator did in fact create time-of-day announcements on a demand basis. In 1932, when more and more telephone central offices were being converted from manual to dial operation, the Bell System offered their first "automatic" time-of-day announcement service. Prior to this time a subscriber could call the operator and *ask* for the time of day, but there was no generally available feature where a subscriber could simply dial a number and get the time-of-day automatically without *asking*. Enter the Western Electric No. 1 Announcement System. Calls to an access number for this system could be completed through SxS, panel and manual central offices. An operator sat at a desk in front of a microphone, behind which was small panel equipped with a few keys, lamps, sound level meter, and a special mechanical digital clock. This small panel, which was mounted in a gen-u-wine mahogany wood box, was called the Time Turret. The mechanical digital clock displayed hours, minutes, and fractions of a minute. The minute fraction wheel was divided into eight segments, each of which was 7-1/2 seconds long. The even segments were marked "0", "1/4", "1/2", and "3/4"; the odd segments were simply painted white. The most important indicators to the operator on the Time Turret were the Call Waiting Lamp and the Announcement Lamp. When the Call Waiting Lamp illuminated, the operator prepared for an announcement by looking at the mechanical digital clock. When the Announcement Lamp illuminated, the operator knew she had *exactly* 7 seconds to make an announcement which went something like: "At the tone, the time will be eight hours, thirty-four and one-half minutes". Exactly 7-1/2 seconds after the Announcement Lamp illuminated, an automatic timer would place an 800 Hz tone on the telephone line for 1/2 second. Following the tone, the Announcement Lamp would extinguish. If a caller had stayed on the line or new calls had come in on other trunks, the Call Waiting Lamp would stay illuminated, telling the operator that she would have to prepare for another announcement in 7-1/2 seconds. In larger metropolitan areas with more than one central office, a Time Bureau would be set up with a single No. 1 Announcement System handing all calls using incoming trunks from several central offices. It does not require much imagination to realize that in larger metropolitan areas the Call Waiting Lamp would probably be illuminated on an almost continuous basis, meaning that the operator had little idle time! Can anyone imagine a more boring and fatiguing job than having to announce the time of day four times per minute for an eight hour shift? The No. 1 Announcement System was specifically designed with a one-way amplifier so that the operator could not converse with any callers. In addition, the operator had a volume level meter so that she could be certain of speaking at the desired level. There were also keys to call a supervisor and operate a central office trouble alarm. The first machine-operated announcement system was the No. 3A, and it was first introduced in 1939. However - believe it or not - the No. 1 Announcement System with a live operator was utilized in some areas until the mid-1950's. As a somewhat satirical aside, best appreciated by any present or former WECO or BOC readers, consider the following: The No. 1 Announcement System did have an Unoccupied Position Alarm feature which would sound an alarm in the central office if there was no operator headset plugged into the Time Turret and the Call Waiting lamp was illuminated. However, I am rather surprised that there was no "Operator Failure Alarm" feature. After all, how would we know if the announcement operator has failed to make an announcement as a result of falling asleep, having an acute attack of laryngitis, or suddenly going stark raving mad from the mental torture of this abyssmal job? If *I* were the WECO engineer who designed the No. 1 Announcement System, I would have most assuredly installed a VOX-circuit on the output side of the announcement amplifier. If speech were not detected during the interval while the Announcement Lamp was illuminated, a major alarm condition would have been signaled! Furthermore, I would have implemented an "Operator Synchronization Failure Alarm" if speech were still detected during the 800 Hz tone interval. And, of course, there would be peg count registers for these operator failure alarms, the results of which could be used to penalize the operator's salary. :-) <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?" ------------------------------ From: Gabe Wiener Subject: Re: Telephone History: For Sale? Reply-To: Gabe Wiener Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Date: Sat, 23 Sep 89 17:20:22 GMT In article Kent Borg writes: >My question is where might I buy an 11-hole Stowger dial phone, or a >Western Union clock? (Would be sooo much fun to synchronize it to >WWV. Both the historian and techno-nerd in me start drooling at the >thought.) How about simply the oldest dial phone which will still >talk to a modern switch, or an even older non-dial phone which will >ring and let me answer? >Must I just go look through the regular antique channels, or are there >better ways? I might have just acquired an expensive taste... Ummmm....welcome to the realm of antique telephone collecting (one of my hobbies). An 11-hold strowger phone will probably run you about $1,500 if you can find one. They're quite rare and very sought after. The only way you'll find one through regular antique channels is by pure luck, and if you do, you'll probably pay $50 for it because in all probability, the proprietor will have found it at a junk sale and not know the value of what he has. I had such luck only once...when I bought a Western Electric 506 switchboard from 1918...working, with magneto, worth well over $1,000, for a mere $75. Dial service has not changed in principle since around 1892, and thus even an 11-hole strowger unit would talk to a modern switch, though you might need to put a mini-network inside. Telegraph-key strowgers, and there are less than 1,000 of those in the world, will NOT talk to a modern switch for obvious reasons :-) You can use any rotary dial phone on a modern switch pretty easily. Telephones of the '20's, '30's, and '40's, as well as payphones from that genre (even payphones with separate transmitters and receivers) are quite readily available at good prices from Phoneco in Galesville, WI). Phoneco buys the surplus from telephone companies and sells it mail order. Mostly they'll sell old phones to telephone stores who then mark them up tremendously, but they'll be glad to sell to an individual. For a nominal fee, they will also install a network and/or ringer into any phone that doesn't have it and make it work on a modern system. They have phones of all periods, from crank-magneto through modern touchtone. But it's very doubtful you'll find anything from them that's much older than a 1907 Bell System magneto wall-set (still a truly charming phone...that's the typical crank phone you see in the movies). They also have lots of surplus telephone company equipment...switchboards, rolls of wire, test sets, etc. (I got a working bell system test set (rotary) for $25 from them. One of their main trade items, however, is the payphone. They buy truckloads of them, from all periods. Besides selling 'em to phone stores and to folks who either collect them or who just want a payphone, they also do an interesting thing. They will insert a circuit board if you want that will allow an old three-slotter to function as a COCOT, all for around $400. There are other places as well to get antique telephones, such as the House of Telephones in Texas, another mail order firm. But you should keep in mind that if you want _really_ esoteric stuff, or really early stuff, there are only two ways to get it. One is to prowl the antique shops in search of a dealer who doesn't know the value of what he has (and as I said, this happens quite often). The other is to join one of the antique telephone societies, such as the Antique Telephone Collectors Association. They have classifieds galore of people looking to buy, sell and trade. BTW, speaking of Phoneco, the operator, Ron Knappen, publishes a guidebook to old telephone equipment that is the bible for collectors. In two volumes (plus a price-guide), it has pictures and descriptions of virtually every telephone made in this country (and abroad, for that matter). It also has pages and pages of excerpts about telephone history, sich as the development of the dial, the independent telephone companies, etc. A truly indispensable book that will soon itself be worth something. The stock on the book is running out, and I don't think there is quite enough demand to warrant another printing. So if you want one, get it now. I think it's around $40. I may be rambling at this point, but I hope I've provided an answer to your question. By the way, it is unlikely that Phoneco will have an 11-hole strowger telephone! :-) Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us." ------------------------------ From: Mike Morris Subject: Re: Telephone History: For Sale? Date: 24 Sep 89 08:08:37 GMT Reply-To: Mike Morris Kent Borg writes: > >My question is where might I buy an 11-hole Stowger dial phone, or a >Western Union clock? Well, if you find a source of clocks, let me know... I want one too. As to the dial, 11-hole dials were used as late as WW2 in Colins transmitters. I'm kinda surprised that a navy radioman hasn't popped up to say so. As late as 1971 my local community college amateur radio station had a surplus Navy TDH-4 transmitter made by Collins - complete with the "Autotune" option. The "autotune" used a 11-hole dial labeled 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0-A, and the A was used to select the modulation mode. For example, to set the system to 7.255 Mhz in AM, youd dial 7-2-5-5-A-3. After about 15 seconds of "whirrrrr-clunk-whirrrrrr-clunk-ka-chunk-ka-chunk- whirrrr-clunk", etc. every stage would have been tuned. Just the thing for 90-day wonders that couldn't remember to adjust the grid circuits for a peak and adjust the plate circuits for a dip in the current meter. And don't forget to switch the meters to the stage you're adjusting! To set it to 7.055 Mhz, using morse code you'd dial 7-0-5-5-A-1. To lock it in continuous transmit on 3.999 Mhz you'd dial 3-9-9-9-A-0. The numbers were not hard to remember due to Collins adopting a standard descriptor that was already in wide use: the FCC allocation descriptions. The TDH-4 was a 2-18 Mhz transmitter, another model was 15 (or so) to 30Mhz. Autotune was available on a lot of different radios. The FCC allocation descriptions use A for amplitude modulation and F for frequency modulation. A table can be found in any edition of the Radio Amateur's Handbook, available in most libraries. Anyway, a _LOT_ of those old monsters (The TDH-4 was 6' high, 3' deep and almost 6' long - literally built like - and _for_ a battleship) have been scrapped. The dials show up every so often in surplus stores or amateur radio swap meets. I still want a WU clock. Mike Morris UUCP: Morris@Jade.JPL.NASA.gov ICBM: 34.12 N, 118.02 W #Include quote.cute.standard PSTN: 818-447-7052 #Include disclaimer.standard cat flames.all > /dev/null [Moderator's Note: You still can't purchase either of the two I own. Did you know with careful calibration of the pendulum set-screw, and by leveling the clock very carefully when it is first hung, the discrepancy can be kept to a minute per month or less, even without the clock service. Really! PT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Sep 89 12:27:32 EDT From: cmooore@brl.mil Subject: Local Calls From 215 Area to Other Areas When I wrote about such local prefixes just outside of 215, I forgot that 368 and 453 in Delaware (local call from Kemblesville, 215-255) are duplicated in 215. 368 in Delaware is the oldest Newark prefix and is duplicated at Lansdale, Pa.; and 453 (also in Newark) was duplicated back around 1985 in Perkasie, Pa. Both Lansdale and Perkasie are beyond Philadelphia if you are coming from Delaware. ------------------------------ From: Edward Greenberg Subject: Re: Area Code 510 Press Release From Pac*Bell Date: 24 Sep 89 05:29:16 GMT Reply-To: Edward Greenberg Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 997-9175} In article The moderator comments: >days by showing a telephone with the number 310-555-2368 on the dial? PT] I hate to pick nits. 311-555-2368. Ed Greenberg [Moderator's Note: Of course! 311, not 310. Sorry about that. PT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #401 *****************************   Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 18:30:57 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #402 Message-ID: <8909241830.aa19756@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Sun, 24 Sep 89 18:25:13 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 402 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' (John R. Levine) Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' (Dr. T. Andrews) Re: Speaking of Western Union (Adarsh Sethi) Re: Telephone Museum in Boston (John R. Levine) Re: Coping With Junk Calls: Like Nancy, Just Say No (Chip Rosenthal) Re: 'Enterprise' Numbers (Bob Leffler) Re: 'Enterprise' Numbers (Dr. T. Andrews) Re: Answering Device With Continuous Play and Hangup Features (Joe Stong) Re: Hello Direct Catalog (Tim Nelson) Re: Customer Support From Nynex (John R. Levine) Last Laugh! More True Stories of Telephony (Macy Hallock) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: 20 Sep 89 11:19:14 EDT (Wed) From: "John R. Levine" In article you write: >typing. A small bell, driven by a just like today ... Smallest nit of the week -- telex machines are all Baudot five-bit code, for which there's no such thing as a control key, just letter-shift and number-shift. The bell is some number-shift key. Regards, John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl [Moderator's Note: Well I believe it was the 'shift - 7' now that you mention it; and of course control-G is Ascii 7. Weren't the 'number-shift' keys essentially like control keys? How did they get line feed, carriage return, ENQ (who are you?) and answerback without control codes? My handy Ascii chart here says control-E, or ASC(5) when sent polls the other end to identify itself. What do you think? PT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' Date: Sat, 23 Sep 89 8:01:45 EDT From: "Dr. T. Andrews" Organization: CompuData, Inc. (DeLand) ) ... you mentioned that the [baudot tty] speed ) was around 60 baud. Well, it was actually something called "75-speed" ) which indicated a maximum speed of 75 WPM, transmitted in 5-level ) "baudot" encoding. Some of these 5-level devices could actually be geared for different speeds. The most common speed for the units, if you find them today, is 45.45 baud (with 1.5 stop bits!), which works out to ~6 chars/sec (commonly called 60 WPM). ) Actually, they used a "switch" character to flip-flop between ) meanings of particular bit patterns. They used two characters. There was a "shift" character (sometimes called "figs", bit pattern 0b11111) which forced the second character set. To drop back to letters, the "unshift" character (sometimes called "ltrs", bit pattern 0b11011) was sent. As a user-settable option, the machine could also be set to "unshift-on-space", which meant that if a space (0b00100) was received when the machine wsa in shift mode, it would drop back into unshift mode. The user selection of the "unshift-on-space" option is made by moving a metal bar under the vanes. I do mean "drop" - shift mode was handled by raising the carriage so that the other row on the type slugs would hit the platen. The "unshift" got a nice gravity assist, and made a nice sound. Those old model 15 and model 19 teletypes were fascinating to watch. ...!bikini.cis.ufl.edu!ki4pv!tanner ...!bpa!cdin-1!ki4pv!tanner or... {allegra attctc gatech!uflorida uunet!cdin-1}!ki4pv!tanner ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Speaking of Western Union Organization: University of Delaware Date: Thu, 21 Sep 89 12:00:53 -0400 From: Adarsh Sethi In article you write: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 387, message 4 of 7 >While we're on the subject of Western Union, here are a few questions about >WU that I've had for quite a while. > > 3. Do telegrams and mailgrams have any modern commercial application > with the advent of electronic mail, the overnight letter, fax, > etc.? I have nothing against telegrams, and it would be a pity > for such a thing to ever die out, but are they still used in major > ways today? (other than the traditional sending of a telegram to > a wedding when you're away) Telegrams are still very useful for overseas communication where telephones are not yet as ubiquitous as they are in the US. In this country though, their use seems to be very limited. By the way, does anyone have a list of other companies (other than Western Union, that is) that handle telegrams? I would appreciate names and telephone numbers. Our local yellow pages are totally blank on this account. Please email to me if it is not of sufficient interest to the Telecom Digest. Adarsh Sethi sethi@udel.edu University of Delaware ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Telephone Museum in Boston Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: 20 Sep 89 11:24:27 EDT (Wed) From: "John R. Levine" In article you write: >Rushing in to the local New England Telephone building a few months ago to >pay my (typically late) bill, I stumbled across an interesting telephone >museum. It's in the New England Telephone building on Franklin Street in >Boston -- the city where, of course, the telephone was invented. ... When you're there, don't forget to make a pilgrimage to the Actual Spot where the phone was invented. It's in the sidewalk a block away in front of the JFK Federal Building. You can recognize it by the small granite pillar with a plaque on top and, of course, a pair of pay phones. There are other telephone historical spots around Boston. On Main Street in Cambridge is a building with a sign telling us that the first long-distance call happened there, between Cambridge and Boston. I presume in that context long-distance means between different exchanges. Regards, John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl ------------------------------ From: Chip Rosenthal Subject: Re: Coping With Junk Calls: Like Nancy, Just Say No Date: 22 Sep 89 10:09:27 GMT Reply-To: chip@vector.dallas.tx.us Organization: Dallas Semiconductor tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 384, message 3 of 5 >If they ask, "Is this Mr. Cook?", I say, "No, he's dead!" Boy...I was on the other end of one of those. I was staffing the phone bank for a political campaign last fall. I was working off old contact sheets rather than cold calling. But apparently the contact sheets must have been *very* old. The person I talked to was pleasant about it, but I sure felt crummy. Chip Rosenthal / chip@vector.Dallas.TX.US / Dallas Semiconductor / 214-450-5337 Someday the whole country will be one big "Metroplex" - Zippy's friend Griffy ------------------------------ Subject: enterprise numbers Date: Fri Sep 22 10:42:56 1989 From: Bob Leffler In article , emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) writes: > What's the story on those (rare) numbers that I see listed in the > phone book as something like this: > Foonly Enterprises call Operator and ask for Enterprise 2368 *****PT's reply > Enterprise service is no longer offered, but is grandfathered to subscribers > who want to keep it for some reason instead of 800 service. PT] I beg to differ. In the metro Detroit area, the Federal Government still uses enterprise numbers. The FAA uses them so that pilots at several major aiports, but are a toll call away, to call Flight Service to open or close their flight plans. They used different enterprise numbers depending on your location. There wasn't one number for everyone in the county to call. Since I use to work for the FAA at Pontiac Tower, I used to have to pass these numbers out quite frequently. [Moderator's Note: But I think what I said was they are no longer available in new service. Organizations with 'Enterprise' numbers have had them for many years. I seriously doubt you can go and order the service today. If you already have it, you can keep it until you decide to get rid of it, or discontinue the service to which it is associated or linked. PT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 'Enterprise' Numbers Date: Sat, 23 Sep 89 8:06:56 EDT From: "Dr. T. Andrews" Organization: CompuData, Inc. (DeLand) You mention the "Enterprise" and "Zenith" numbers, but you forgot the other such numbers. A few places still have the old "WX" numbers. They, too, are free calls for the caller; dial the local (not long- distance) operator and ask for WX-1234 or whatever. ...!bikini.cis.ufl.edu!ki4pv!tanner ...!bpa!cdin-1!ki4pv!tanner or... {allegra attctc gatech!uflorida uunet!cdin-1}!ki4pv!tanner [Moderator's Note: Yes, 'WX' was another example; were there others? PT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 04:41:22 PDT From: Joe Stong Subject: Re: Answering Device With Continuous Play and Hangup Features The Computerfone(TM) from Suncoast Systems, Inc. Pennsacola FL will report ringing, sieze a line, dial, listen to touchtones, and play and record segments of sound on a phone line. You can also queue up the sound segments, and upload/download them. I think the selling price is around 00. It has a rom with some prerecorded letters and numbers (sounds) in it. It doesn't do any waveform compression like the PC Answering machine boards with the DSP's or CPU's do. Warning: even at 38,400 Baud, you can't keep up with sampling at its highest data rate (8K 4 bit (delta?) samples/sec), and the protocol seems to have no error checking. It can barely keep up at 6K with binary transfers. Unix tty drivers usually have trouble with high baud rates... I currently can't figure out how to keep the thing offhook after a successful dial, but I haven't been spending much time with it. What I really want is a box like this that works with a bidirectional parallel port, or a SCSI interface; or ethernet/tcpip/telnet so it can transfer data fast enough. Anyone got any ideas? ------------------------------ From: tim@ncrcan.toronto.ncr.com Subject: Re: Hello Direct Catalog Date: Fri, 22 Sep 89 11:24:50 EDT > TELECOM Digest Thu, 21 Sep 89 02:15:48 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 392 > Date: Thu, 21 Sep 89 1:06:31 CST > Subject: Hello Direct Catalog > The Fall, 1989 issue of the 'Hello Direct' catalog appeared in my > mailbox a few days ago. > To get a copy: 1-800-444-3556 aka 1-800-HI-HELLO > >From outside the USA, call 408-972-1990. FAX to 408-972-8155. ola y'all, I have a found out a few things about Hello Direct that any non-Americans might want to know: 1) the 800 number is an international 800. I called from Canada. 2) Hello Direct will not ship out of the USA, nor will they put you on their mailing list, but at least they will send out their catalogue. tha's all fer now, ================= tim (nelson) | uucp ...!uunet!attcan!ncrcan!tim ncr canada | internet tim@ncrcan.Toronto.NCR.COM (416) 826-9000 | 6865 Century Ave, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5N 2E2 ================= * Have a good day, and a great forever. [Moderator's Note: I was amazed to receive this note. I can't imagine why they would refuse to sell/ship to international addresses, provided of course the purchaser paid for any extra shipping charges; made his check payable in United States dollars; allowed time for clearing and shipping, etc. If what you say is true, that eliminates about twenty percent of our readership here as potential customers. I'd suggest asking Sue Britto, their Direct Marketing Coordinator for a response on this. Maybe the order-taker was in error. Or perhaps someone else from that organization will reply. Sue's number is 408-972-1990. PT] ------------------------------ From: "John R. Levine" Subject: Re: Customer Support From Nynex Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: Wed, 20 Sep 89 15:34:38 GMT In article narten@lovelace.albany. edu (Thomas Narten) writes: >The Nynex strike has been going on long enough now that many of the >services formerly handled by the strikers are being processed with >reasonable speed. ... I was talking to a friend who lives in an apartment a block from the Ware Street exchange in Cambridge. His phone doesn't work, so he called repair. A fellow finally arrived who seemed a little rusty on the details but otherwise generally competent. After some experimentation (his line is so short that the TDR has trouble getting good answers) it appeared that the problem was in a connection on a pole directly in front of the exchange where there are of course pickets all the time. The repairman said he couldn't fix it, he feared for his safety. It ain't over yet. If nobody else has reported it, the strike now looks to last indefinitely. The strikers' medical benefits were supposed to run out last week but a judge to many people's surprise ruled that since the phone company hasn't suffered a "significant curtailment of business" or some such the strikers are still covered. This will cost NYNEX and every other employer in the state a bundle, and there was a short flurry of negotiations, but nothing happened. The situation is not made any easier by the fact that the New England Tel and New York Tel workers are members of different unions who are negotiating separately in Boston and near New York. The unions apparently offered to negotiate jointly, but NYNEX declined. John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, Levine@YALE.edu Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe ------------------------------ From: fmsystm!macy@hal.uucp Subject: More True Stories of Telephony Date: Fri Sep 22 17:21:23 1989 One of the best telephone jokes I've ever heard. And like any good telephone joke, it strikes a chord in all of us from the industry. If you haven't worked with Special Services, you may not appreciate it fully... Did you hear about the Telephone Man who was drafted into the Army? Seems he did well enough until he got out on the rifle range. As the sergeant approaches, he notices the Telephone man has his M-16 on full automatic and is blazing away firing rounds at a phenomenal rate. There's a rapidly growing pile of spent cartridges on the ground next to him. The Sergeant lifts his field glasses to observe the accuracy of this over confident trainee, and sees absolutely no marks on the target. Now, Sergeants are painstakingly trained by Uncle Sam to build the confidence and ability of all boot camp soldiers, so the Sergeant sizes up the situation and acts: "Soldier, you've wasted hundreds of perfectly good rounds of ammuntion and a thousand dollars of the taxpayer's good money and you haven't hit the target once! What in the [several arcane military terms deleted] is wrong here?" Now the Telephone Man knows he must immediately analyse the situation and correct the problem. His years of technical training from Ma Bell are called into play: The Telephone Man looks down the barrel of the gun. Then he carefully inspects the chamber. (Probably looking for the KS number so he can refer to the correct BSP for this weapon, no doubt.) He then rams a cartridge home into the chambers, arms the weapon, puts his finger over the end of the barrel and pulls the trigger. Of course, this neatly blows off the tip of his finger. The Telephone Man inspects the end of his finger, and thinks for a moment... "Well, gee, Sarge, I don't rightly know what the problem is...but it must be at the other end, 'cause its leaving here just fine!" Macy Hallock fmsystm!macy@NCoast.ORG F M Systems, Inc. hal!ncoast!fmsystm!macy 150 Highland Dr. uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!fmsystm!macy Medina, OH 44256 Voice: 216-723-3000 X251 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #402 *****************************   Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 19:18:57 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #403 Message-ID: <8909241918.aa07682@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Sun, 24 Sep 89 19:15:13 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 403 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Area Code Splits and N0X/N1X Prefixes (Tom Ace) Re: Prefix '520' For Los Angeles Radio Stations (Macy Hallock) Radio Callsigns and Good Broadcasting Procedures (Randy Miller) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Sep 89 11:11:37 PDT From: Tom Ace Subject: Area Code Splits and N0X/N1X Prefixes In Telecom Digest V9 #376, Greg Monti (via John R. Covert) wrote: >My understanding of Area Code splits is that Bellcore hands out new >Area Codes when the controlling Local Operating Company for that Area >Code can prove that it is within a certain percent of running out of >numbers, *assuming that the existing number base is being used in the >most efficient possible way.* I would imagine that Bellcore strongly >suggests that prefixes with a 1 or 0 as the second digit be >implemented first, before splitting the Area Code, since this >maximizes the number base within the NPA and minimizes the number of >times the nation at large must endure NPA splits. This may very well be the way it is, but it sounds like Bad Thinking to me. In many cases, it is possible to anticipate enough future need for new telephone numbers in an area to know that allowing N0X and N1X prefixes will only delay an inevitable area code split. In New York City, only a couple of years elapsed between when they added the new prefixes (requiring 1-plus dialing for long distance) and when 212 was split into 212 and 718. Adding the prefixes did not help to minimize the number of area code splits, it only postponed a split, and at a cost. The cost I'm referring two took these forms: 1-plus dialing became mandatory for long distance calls from New York City. Before the N0X and N1X prefixes were added, New York City had dialing the way God intended it: just dial the number, with or without an area code, no 1-plus required. To make an operator-assisted local call in New York City, you must now always include an area code, even if it's your own. For example, if you're at a phone in the 212 area, and want to dial an operator-assisted local call to 802-1234, you will dial 0-212-802-1234. (Contrast this to the way it was handled in Los Angeles: the same 0-plus dialing pattern as before, no need to include the area code if it's your own, but if it's a local call to an N0X or N1X exchange, the CO will recognize this by timing out after the seventh digit of the phone number is dialed. Neither solution is elegant.) The N0X and N1X exchanges are ugly. Most telephone users hadn't ever seen them before. Telling your phone number to someone sometimes caused them to think they'd heard wrong, because they'd never seen such an animal before. When New York City's area code was split, the heart of the city (Manhattan) retained the original 212 area code. That also seemed to be the aim in other area code splits that I observed. When Colorado split into two area codes, I noted that Denver and the rest of northern Colorado retained the 303 area code, but a different reason for this was given in a newspaper article: it was said that the greater need for new numbers was in the south. This prompted me to write a letter to the Mountain Bell executive quoted in the newspaper. I've reproduced my letter and his response below. Other writers in this digest have recommended the experience of touring a central office. I add the following fun suggestion: write a personal letter to your friendly BOC CEO. Tom Ace tom@sje.mentor.com ...!mntgfx!sje!tom ================================= My letter: (303) 499-1919 710 South 42 Street Boulder, CO 80303 November 20, 1986 Solomon D. Trujillo Mountain Bell 1005 17th Street Denver, CO 80202 Dear Mr. Trujillo: I saw your name in the newspaper associated with an announcement that Colorado will be served by two area codes starting in 1988. I had noticed that when New York and Los Angeles started to run out of telephone numbers, new exchanges were created that had the form of NPAs, i.e., with 0 or 1 as the second digit. These actions only postponed the invevitable splits into 212/718 and 213/818, and left both areas with those ugly new exchanges and some awkward dialing patterns for local operator-assisted calls. I want to thank whoever was responsible for deciding not to go that route here in Colorado. I received a piece of literature enclosed with my latest phone bill, advising of the coming area code split, and explaining that the southern Colorado calling area will receive the new area code because it was in that area that the most significant growth was occurring. You and I know, though, that the northern calling area in which we live is clearly where it's at, and will retain the 303 area code because it deserves to. I do appreciate, however, the need to explain the choice tactfully, in a way that wouldn't offend those who live in the other area. Who makes these choices? Did Mountain Bell select 719 from the few remaining codes, or was the decision made by some central committee? Thanks for your time. Sincerely, Thomas Ace =================================== His response: Mountain Bell Solomon D. Trujillo Colorado VP and CEO December 4, 1986 Mr. Thomas Ace 710 South 42 Street Boulder, Colorado 80303 Dear Mr. Ace: Thank you for your letter regarding the Colorado area code split. I agree it's important to handle the transaction as smoothly as possible and with as little customer disruption as possible. I do not agree, however, on your reason for why the new area code goes to the southern area. The Colorado Springs area as our choice was really as it was stated: the area is expecting significant aerospace and other growth over the next few years. They need the phone numbers! To answer your last question, we were assigned the 719 area code by Bell Communications Resources in New Jersey. One of its central functions for the country is maintaining and assigning area codes. Thank you so much for writing. It always brightens my day to hear from a customer with positive comments. Sincerely, S. D. Trujillo ------------------------------ From: fmsystm!macy@hal.uucp Subject: re: Prefix '520' For Los Angeles Radio Stations Date: Fri Sep 22 11:51:50 1989 Reply-To: macy@fmsystm.UUCP (Macy Hallock) Organization: F M Systems Medina, Ohio USA In article Mike Morris writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 391, message 3 of 9 >klb@lzaz.att.com (K.BLATTER) writes: >>Also, most people are familiar with this service as radio stations >>often use this service -- especially stations that have large broadcast >>areas. I remember growing up and when the radio station would have >>a contest, they would list six or seven numbers that listeners could >>call into to win. While each of these numbers was from a different >>geographical area, they all terminated at the radio station. >LA has most of it's FM station on a 5,000' mountain so both the AM and >the FM has excellent coverage - LA county has 2 complete area codes >(818 and 213) and pieces of 2 more (714, 805). Many of the radio >station also cover portions of San Bernadino and Riverside counties >(area code 619). A while back (pre the 213-818 split) I noticed >that more and more stations were giving out 213-520 numbers for dial-in. >After the split, I noticed that they were giving out the same number >as "dial 213-520-xxxx or 818-520-xxxx". Ah, but there are other reasons! Yes, folks, it's another of Macy's True Stories of Telephony (TM) We often had problems with radio/TV stations running contests and giveaways in my phone co. days...a real traffic engineering nightmare. Seems the heavy peak demand caused by everyone going off hook and dialing one exchange at once would bring the local tandems to their knees. There was even a ESS in one city I know of that would give up, shut down and re-IPL on an 85% (or therabouts) load. In the days before widespread ESS and CICS this could be a real problem. The solution devised back in the late 60's was to set up a special exchange in one switch, usually the downtown one, since it was a major tandem and most of the stations had their studios downtown. The outlying CO's (Central Office) would be set up with only a couple trunks available to the downtown tandem for this special dedicated exchange. The outlying CO's would then, if possible, be modified to give a regular 60 ipm busy for all trunks busy on this trunk group, as opposed to a standard 120 ipm (fast busy) or ATB recording. (This was a real hack job in some types of offices) The idea was to prevent the heavy peak from overloading the tandems and offices without sounding odd to the customers. By creating a bottleneck by limiting trunkage, the downtown tandem switch did not get buried (it was also modified to act the same way on calls originating within the downtown switch). The tariffs filed by telcos in most states allow numbers to be reassigned to customers at the telco's discretion. The telco went to all the stations and forced a number change and dedicated contest/request lines to be used by the stations. Stations not in the downtown exchanges were offered FX services. In some areas, these exchanges were consolidated accross area codes, such as L.A. In many areas special tarriffs were put into place to offer this high traffic response service at a special premium rate, because a large calling area was being delivered at local rates. This was done because 800 service could not be configured to deal with this problem at the time. With the new ESS machines in use, similar, but improved schemes are currently in use. This is complicated by the various types of older CO switches out there and uncooperative independant (non-Bell) telcos, often becouse they are not offered CICS channels by the Bell co. or their switch is too dumb. A recent problem occurred in Akron, Ohio not too long ago that justifies this design philosphy... Seems an older local station (WQMX 94.9) got bought, changed its format from elevator music to contempary rock and needed to build its listeners. Good old American marketing enters the picture...and the station widely advertises they are going to give away $10,000 to the 100th caller at 7:30 one designated morning. The number they advertise is a regular POTS number (with three line rotary hunt group). Now their broadcast coverage area includes Akron-Cleveland-Canton Ohio. Cleveland or Canton to Akron is an inter-LATA toll call. The effect of this promotion is: 1. Akron's University ESS switch (216-836,864,867,869,860) is brought to its knees. This is the switch that serves WQMX. It is completely no-tone for almost 20 minutes. 2. Several local tandems are thoroghly messed up. Akron's downtown Blackstone exchange ESS is overloaded for the first time in its history. Operation is erratic, at best. Many of the inter-LATA carriers use Blackstone as their closest Point of Presence to University central office. Blackstone's many Centrex customers are affected as well. 3. ATT, Sprint, MCI and others are overwhelmed by Cleveland to Akron calling. Also a record. 4. Somebody wins the money, eventually. 5. Nearly thirty minutes pass before the network recovers. Ohio Bell never knew what hit them. Statements in the newspaper to that effect the next day showed WQMX did not communicate its intentions to Ohio Bell and did not subscribe the tarriffed services for this use. WQMX widely advertised the promotion and it was noticed by some Ohio Bell personnel, but they did not think much of it at the time, and no prior arrangements were made. Needless to say, such facilites have been put into place recently. WQMX has been trying other stunts to attract listeners, but not this one again. And the public has its reassuring dial tone again. WQMX's latest stunt was a girl with a cellular phone standing in front of a billboard saying: I NEED A JOB! CALL ME: XXX-XXXX over a busy Akron freeway during morning rush hour. The idea was to get the girl, really a new morning jock just hired by the station, on other stations' live morning programs and then plug WQMX. This one gave the cellular co. some extra traffic, but did no harm, other than upset a couple of the other radio stations in the area. So much for telecom as a promotion tool... telemarketing anyone? FACT: Most central offices are engineered for around 10% maximum usage. That's right. 10% of you all, businesses and residences, get on the phone at once, in one CO, and look out. (This number varies with the type of switch and its engineering, but its a good, round number) This will also be declaimed by many Telcos, but thats the way it is. Well, I'll be back with more True Stories of Telephony another day... Regards to all, Macy Hallock fmsystm!macy@NCoast.ORG F M Systems, Inc. hal!ncoast!fmsystm!macy 150 Highland Dr. uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!fmsystm!macy Medina, OH 44256 Voice: 216-723-3000 X251 Disclaimer: My advice is worth what you paid for it. Alt.disclaimer: Your milage may vary. Biz.disclaimer: My opinions are my own. What do I know? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 89 21:36:05 CDT From: Randy Miller Subject: Radio Callsigns and Good Broadcasting Procedures Mr. Townsend, I hate to be a nitpicker, but WVOA (at least last time I was home) is NOT in Red Lion, PA. You're thinking of WINB (World in Need of the Bible), which is owned by the same company (Red Lion Broadcasting) that owns WGCB. My home is less than a mile from their studios and transmitters. WINB is a shortwave broadcast station, their transmitters and studios are located in an old chicken coop! Almost everything in that station, and their sister stations (WGCB-AM,WGCB-FM and WGCB-TV 49) were build (and I talking transmitters, control boards, limiter circuitry) by one of the neighbors back home. The chief engineer at one time was another neighbor. Needless to say, when the younger members of this family-owned outlet took over, everything went to pot (so to speak). Incidentally GCB stands for God and Country Broadcasting. Last time I was home (my mother and brothers still live there), they were still up to their nefarious tricks, the most offensive being that they never kept on their assigned frequency. For example, I normally listen to WITF-FM in Harrisburg, which is the local Public Radio outlet, when I'm back there. It was not uncommon for WGCB-FM, which operates at 96.1mHz to bleed over on to WITF-FM's frequency, which is at 89.5 mHz. Repeated calls to management there, and to the FCC were NEVER to any avail. I won't go into the character of the current owners and their management, but maintainence on that station's equipment is next to non-existant (and this was told to me by the neighbor who used to be the chief engineer). Randy Miller rs.miller@pro-harvest obsolete!pro-harvest!rs.miller [Moderator's Note: I think WVOA is out of Bethel, NC. I never listen to them anymore -- haven't for years. KVOA is on the west coast. I thought WINB was 'World International Broadcasters'. But if the World Is In Need of Anything, it would be a good RF filter on some of those high powered guys who slide all over the band. Some of them do act like they think CB (and all its bad habits) stands for 'Commercial Broadcaster'. Thanks for writing. As mentioned earlier, we here at eecs were out of touch with reality from about 1:00 AM Saturday through mid-afternoon Sunday. The name server must have taken a dislike to the new 4.3 and suffered amnesia or something. The flood of Digests coming to you this evening is the weekend's traffic. If you are missing any between 396 and 403, please advise so they can be sent again. More Digests will be transmitted early Monday morning. PT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #403 *****************************   Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 0:03:57 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #404 Message-ID: <8909250003.aa19354@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Mon, 25 Sep 89 00:00:31 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 404 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Voice Companding (Chip Rosenthal) Int{er,ra}state 950 Calls (David Lesher) AT&T's Prior Use of Fake Area Code 311 (David A. Cantor) Real Time Translations (David Lesher) Actual ISDN Service in the US (Danny Wilson) Phreaks Abuse East St. Louis Phone Card (TELECOM Moderator) Cellular Phone Use in Emergencies (Ernest H. Robl) Phone Service After Hurricane Hugo (Ernest H. Robl) Why Some Firms Won't Export (Henry Mensch) Re: System 85 Source (Kenneth R. Jongsma) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Chip Rosenthal Subject: Voice Companding Date: 23 Sep 89 07:48:16 GMT Reply-To: chip@vector.dallas.tx.us Organization: Dallas Semiconductor Patrick - I posted the following message to comp.dsp. It was in response to a message entitled "converting to/from compressed form" by Rusty Wright (article ). Thought it might be applicable here, so I'm sending you a copy. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - rusty@garnet.berkeley.edu writes: >We have a Sun Sparcstation 1. The chip inside that it uses for D/A and A/D >is the AM79C30 Digital Subscriber Controller. [...] I would like to take >uncompressed digital sound samples, say generated by a [program], and feed >it to this chip. >Does anybody have any code or know where I can get my hands on some >that would convert "normal" (uncompressed) 16 bit digital audio into >the 8 bit u-law (or A-law) compressed form that the AM79C30 uses? Reference: |Digital Telephony|, John C. Bellamy, John Wiley & Sons, 1982, pp. 90-113. These compression techniques are used in digital telecommunications to try to squeeze reasonable sound quality ("toll quality") into 8-bits. u-Law (that's "mu-law", not "you-law") compression is defined by: ln( 1 + u*|x| ) F (x) = sgn(x) * ---------------- u ln( 1 + u ) where -1 <= x <= +1, and sgn(x) is the sign function. The compressed value is usually represented as an 8-bit signed magnitude number: one sign bit plus seven magnitude bits. In this scheme, the most positive number is 0111111, the most negative number is 11111111, 00000000 is a positive zero, and 1000000 is a negative zero. The u-Law expansion formula is: -1 1 |y| F (y) = sgn(y) * --- * [ ( 1 + u ) - 1 ] u u In modern telephony, a value of u=255 is used. The first digital telecommunication systems (the "D1" channel bank) used u=100, but with the introduction of the "D2" channel bank a value of u=255 was selected to simplify the conversion process. This value allows Fu(x) to be easily approximated by 15 linear segments. This feature is not so important these days since it's easy enough to build a conversion lookup table into ROM. Please see Bellamy for more information on the linear approximation technique and details on constructing ROM lookup tables. A-Law companding is also discussed there. u-Law is used primarily in the North American and Japanese telecommunications networks, while A-Law is used in Europe. Chip Rosenthal / chip@vector.Dallas.TX.US / Dallas Semiconductor / 214-450-5337 Someday the whole country will be one big "Metroplex" - Zippy's friend Griffy ------------------------------ From: David Lesher Subject: Int{er,ra}state 950 Calls Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 20:05:34 EDT American Expressphone (MCI really) offers 950 calling from anywhere in my local area, with no surcharge. But does the rate vary depending on where in the area you are? What brings this to mind is the D. C. calling area. It covers parts of two states along with the District. Now if I call Baltimore from a coin slot in VA or the District, that's interstate. But if I step across the boundary to Montgomery County, it's an intrastate call. I have questioned charges on my statement and been told that it 'takes a while' to find out where a call originated. (the calling city does NOT appear on the bill) Do 950-#### go to different Points of Presence in this case? Does C+P or MCI keep a record of what number originated the call, and charge accordingly? Flash! Murphy gets look and feel copyright on sendmail.cf {gatech!} wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (305) 255-RTFM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 17:49:45 -0700 From: "David A. Cantor 24-Sep-1989 2042" Subject: AT&T's Prior Use of Fake Area Code 311 In TELECOM Digest, Vol 9, Issue 395, in article from Linc Madison (rmadison@euler.berkeley.edu), entitled "Area Code 510 Press Release From Pac*Bell," moderator Patrick Townson writes > [Moderator's Note: [...] Does anyone remember when AT&T used to > advertise their DDD service in its early days by showing a telephone > with the number 310-555-2368 on the dial? PT] AT&T used to advertise this number as 311-555-2368, not 310. Before that, they used Area 311, KLondike 5-2368. I have a clear memory of an advertisement I saw with an old style (type 300?) telephone with the number MAin 0-2368 displayed on the dial's circular number plate. Dave C. ------------------------------ From: David Lesher Subject: Real Time Translations Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 21:21:45 EDT The discussion on old 5 level machines reminds me of a story a retired ATT repairman told me. Because there was a chance that the machine could get sent into FIGS during the carriage return, one of the wire services (AP, I think, but I may have them swapped) mandated the sequence to be on every line. The other one (UPI) did not; they used only . As a result, their old-time copy editors got VERY good at reading the resulting 23.67 3;8:7 393 , and telling you what being sent without missing a beat. Flash! Murphy gets look and feel copyright on sendmail.cf {gatech!} wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (305) 255-RTFM ------------------------------ From: Danny Wilson Subject: Actual ISDN Service in the US Date: 25 Sep 89 00:31:51 GMT Organization: IDACOM Electronics Ltd., Edmonton, Alta. I am generally aware of the state of ISDN deployment in Asia, but I am often asked how that compares with the status of ISDN in the United States. Japan, for example, has had active Basic Rate Access (BRA) service [INS NET-64] available for over a year now. And although the requests for this service were lower than orginal forecasts, NTT has begun service of its Primary Rate Access (PRA) service [INS NET-1500] and is continuing to expand the service areas of BRA. My question is what is the status of ISDN deployment in the US? Is is past the field trial stage and generally available to commercial subscribers? or much more limited in geographic availability? Also, with SS7 not yet widely implemented combined with the fragmentation produced by a multitude of non-centrally administered RBOC's, does the user community prefer to 'roll there own' network (using fractional T-1 for example) instead of waiting for ISDN? Thanks, Danny Wilson IDACOM Electronics danny@idacom.uucp Edmonton, Alberta {att, watmath, ubc-cs}!alberta!idacom!danny C A N A D A ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 21:38:13 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Phreaks Abuse East St. Louis Phone Card East St. Louis, IL, a dirt-poor minority suburb of the larger Missouri city by the same name was victimized for several months by phreaks without realizing it until the phone bills for a one year period were audited recently. According to a recent story in the Belleville, IL , the city is being billed for phone calls to dial-a-porn services and from points as far flung as Florida and Texas. The monthly phone bill for the city of East St. Louis averages $5000, and over the past year it has included calls to nearly every state as well as to '900' area adult talk lines. City Treasurer Charlotte Moore said the number of questionable calls in each month's phone bill, which is usually two inches thick, shows the 'need for better policing of phones'. No kidding! The obtained copies of the phone bill for several months under the Freedom of Information Act, and set about reviewing the places and people called. For example, from March through May of this year, hundreds of dollars in calls were made from places in Texas, Florida and elsewhere, and charged to a Calling Card number assigned to the city. In one instance, a caller in northern Florida made a 288-minute call to Miami that cost East St. Louis $39.27. The called the Miami number, and reached a man named John, who refused to give his last name, and claimed he '...had never even heard of East St. Louis...' Calls from one certain number in Houston to places all over the United States accounted for more than $1000 in charges over several months. A man who answered the phone at the Houston number refused to give his name and refused to discuss the matter, or explain how his phone might have been used for the fraudulent calls. Prior to intervention by the newspaper, the city had done nothing. Apparently they were not even aware of the abuse. On notification, the local telco cancelled all outstanding PINS, and issued new ones. Meanwhile, the city of East St. Louis continues to plead poverty. They are barely able to meet payroll for city employees, and have skipped a couple of paydays at that. The city has an extremely poor tax base, and will likely file bankruptcy in the near future. Maybe the FBI can go see the joker in Houston and 'John' in Miami and convince them to start paying their own phone bills! Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 16:45:07 EDT From: "Ernest H. Robl" Subject: Cellular Phone Use in an Emergency Since no one else has mentioned it in this forum: One of the more unusual uses of a cellular phone took place last week during the USAir crash into the water in New York. A CBS News producer -- apparently part of a crew headed south for hurricane coverage -- was a passenger aboard the aircraft and had a cellular phone with him. After the plane went off the runway, and while he was still waiting to be rescued, the producer placed a call to CBS news in downtown New York. On the second cut-in on the crash, Dan Rather provided a brief introduction as to what was known at that time. With a distant live video of the crash scene provided by a remote unit as the visual, Rather then proceeded to do a live interview with the producer aboard the crashed plane, in which the passenger described what had happened and what the current situation was. The quality of of the sound was marginal, but still understandable. One could hear lots of on-site background noise, including people shouting to each other. --Ernest ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 16:45:07 EDT From: "Ernest H. Robl" Subject: Phone Service After Hugo A report on phone service after Hurricane Hugo: Although downgraded to a tropical storm after moving inland over South Carolina, Hugo still packed enormous winds and did tremendous damage to the area in and around Charlotte, N.C., as it moved through. News reports indicate that hundreds of thousands in the area are without power and that it will probably be days before full power is restored. The bank that I use has its central computer facility in the Charlotte area. Saturday morning -- one day after the storm hit the Charlotte area -- I was unable to get the local teller machine to do transactions which required access to the main data base. However, by Saturday evening, these transactions worked without any problems. I suspect the problems were caused by lack of power to the computer site earlier in the day. I don't know whether the bank was able to get emergency power or simply re-routed processing to some alternate site, though I should be able to find out later. On the other hand, I had no problems reaching a friend living in Charlotte when I tried to phone. The connection was excellent, though she reported all power for a wide area around where she lived was out and that many trees were down. Streets were still only marginally passable a day after the storm hit. -- Ernest My opinions are my own and probably not IBM-compatible.--ehr Ernest H. Robl (ehr@ecsvax) (919) 684-6269 w; (919) 286-3845 h Systems Specialist (Tandem System Manager), Library Systems, 027 Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC 27706 U.S.A. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 20:09:57 -0400 From: Henry Mensch Subject: Why Some Firms Won't Export Reply-To: henry@garp.mit.edu Anyone who sells techno-toys wants to be careful about not being seen as an "export" firm because then they need to organize export licenses. An aquaintance (in Australia) had to get a friend of his to run down to the store to buy a Sony ICF-SW1S (a pocket shortwave radio) and have his friend ship it because stores here wouldn't ship to Australia. (This is, of course, an educated guess on my part ... ) Stupid, eh? # Henry Mensch / / E40-379 MIT, Cambridge, MA # / / [Moderator's Note: Very stupid. Not your remark! I mean the policy which calls for an 'export license' for one or two little things. This would be understandable -- even if I did not agree with it -- if a manufacturer was shipping large quantities of things overseas. But a single radio or telephone? As the late Jack Benny would say, 'Really, Mary...' PT] ------------------------------ From: Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: System 85 Source Date: Sun, 24-Sep-89 16:33:53 PDT A number of people have asked recently for a source of used or additional equipment for their phone systems. I'd suggest they give Teleconnect Publishing a call (1-800-LIBRARY) and ask for a copy of their Telecom Gear magazine. This monthly has gone from an 8 page flyer to around 100 pages of new, used and surplus gear advertisements. Of course, Hello Direct (1-800-HI-HELLO) is a good source for new stuff. I saw some S/85 related things in their last catalog. ken@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #404 *****************************   Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 0:50:41 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #405 Message-ID: <8909250050.aa27968@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Mon, 25 Sep 89 00:50:26 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 405 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number (Larry Lippman) Telegraph History....Again! (Gabe Wiener) Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking (Dave Platt) Re: The Public Telegraph Office (Dik T. Winter) Re: Technical Specifications of TTY Machines (Marc T. Kaufman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number Date: 24 Sep 89 12:58:21 EDT (Sun) From: Larry Lippman In article gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia. edu (Gabe Wiener) writes: > Does anyone know when the common telephone dialtone (i.e. 350Hz and 440Hz > played together) was adopted? The standardization of dial tone to a dual frequency of 350 Hz and 440 Hz with a transmission level of -13 dbm was first proposed by AT&T and developed into CCITT Document AP III-84. I don't know the exact date of this CCITT standard, and don't have a copy handy, but I believe it was around 1963. This standard applies only to North America, however. Many European and other countries use a single frequency, most commonly 425 Hz. In is important to understand that this dial tone is produced by LINEAR mixing of two sinusoidal tone sources of 350 Hz and 440 Hz, and is NOT one frequency modulated by the other, which was the method employed with many previous dial tone supplies. The reason for the linear mixing is to reduce harmonics which may fall into the DTMF frequency domain and interfere with the interpretation of the first DTMF digit. The previous dial tone supplies were extremely rich in harmonics. The previous North American dial tone "standard" was 600 Hz modulated by 120 Hz; I use the word "standard" loosely here since in practice there was quite a variation because there was no technical _reason_ why the tone had to be precise. In older electromechanical CO's dial tone could be produced by a variety of apparatus, including motor-driven tone alternators, motor-driven pole-changing interrupters, electromagnet-driven pole-changing interrupters (i.e.,vibrators), ferroresonant AC-line powered devices, and in later years solid-state devices of varying stability. Interestingly enough, with one exception, I have never seen nor even heard of a call progress tone generator which used vacuum tubes. Technology in this area went directly from the electromechanical to the solid-state. The one exception was the "no-such-number" tone generator, which used vacuum tubes and made its debut around 1940; it has been affectionately called the "crybaby tone". This call progress tone (for lack of a better term) began rapidly disappearing in the later 1950's with the rapid implementation of intercept recorders which replaced it. The no-such-number tone had pretty much disappeared in the Bell System by 1965. The last "holdout" I am aware of which used this tone was Rochester Telephone, in Rochester, NY, and quite to my surprise I heard this tone when I misdialed a toll call to the Rochester area about four years ago. I was so taken aback - not having heard this tone for probably 20 years - that I was almost motivated to fetch a tape recorder and record it for posterity. :-) <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?" ------------------------------ From: Gabe Wiener Subject: Telegraph History....Again! Reply-To: Gabe Wiener Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 02:54:59 GMT With all this talk of Western Union history and whatnot, I thought that these little anecdote might be appropriate. When Thomas A. Edison was a teenager in the 1860's, he used to work in a telegraph office. At one point, he was assigned to work the graveyard shift. Now in those days, a telegraph operator would have to send a six over the line (represented at the time by the morse signal ......, although the MODERN morse signal is -....). Anyway, there was very little traffic over the circuits in those days was very light in the wee hours. Now it is a well known fact that Tom Edison liked to sleep during his work. However, he was often admonished for nodding off durning his operating hours when he failed to send the six. So he rigged a six notched gear to the movement of a nearby clock, and whenever the clock would reach the hour, the gear would promptly roll over the telegraph key sending the six, and permitting Edison to get a good night's sleep. One of the first telegraph services in the world opened in England in the early 19th century. It was based on an electric telegraph, not a magnetic one. It was called the Lawyer's Telegraph Service. It connected up the various attorney's firms through a central switchboard. The calling operator would signal the switchboard via handeles, spelling out the name of the party to be called. The operator would make the appropriate connections, and the two firms could communicate. Certain movements of the handles would cause a bell to ring at the exchange, signalling the operator to take down the connection. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Sep 89 12:04:07 PDT From: Dave Platt Subject: Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA In article you write: > > I moved a couple of months back, and I've had a weird problem since then. I > get lots of wrong numbers. Some of them are the normal "Is Joe there?" and > I say no and the person goes away. But the vast majority of them have no > voice at all. I pick up the phone, hear a faint 'clickclickclick' in the > background, and nothing happens, so I hang up. On my answering machine, > I don't get any message either; just those faint sounds. I thought perhaps > it was people calling me from a computer, but then I'd hear a modem tone, > wouldn't I? ... No, you would very probably not hear a modem tone, if a modem were dialing you. With most modems in use today, the _answering_ modem is responsible for sending the first tone, after it goes off-hook. The type of answer-tone transmitted identifies the protocol(s) that the answering modem is able to use. The originating modem "hears" the answer tone, chooses a protocol, and begins transmitting its carrier. The answering modem "hears" the originator's carrier, stops sending the answer-tone, and begins transmitting its carrier. If, on the other hand, the originating modem never "hears" an answer tone, it will never "know" that the call has been answered, and will simply disconnect after 30 seconds or a minute and report a "NO CARRIER" situation to its pilot. So, a local- or long-distance call with nothing but silence on the other end could very well be from a modem. There are a couple of relatively common ways that you can end up with numerous calls of this type: 1) Somebody at a specific computer site has misprogrammed one of their outdial modems... for example, transposing a digit in the phone-number used to contact one of their "neighbor" systems. If this has occurred, most of all of the calls you receive will be from the same exchange (either all local, or all long-distance), and there's a fairly good chance that they'll stop after a few weeks. The sysadmin of the offending system will (probably) notice that a large number of calls aren't getting through, will figure out the problem, and will correct his/her dialer-file. 2) The phone numbers for computer-hobbyist "bulletin board" systems tend to be passed around between personal-computer users. Bulletin-board systems tend to come and go fairly frequently... the survival time for a BBS tends to be measured in months. If the phone number for a BBS is circulated widely, then there may be literally thousands of people who have a copy of the number. If that BBS then goes out of service (for example, if its owner/sysop moves), then the phone number will often be given out to someone who is having phone service installed. Subsequently, the new "owner" of this number will receive many, MANY phone-calls from computer hobbyists who aren't aware that the BBS is out of service. I rather suspect that you're facing the second of these situations, since you seem to be receiving calls from both local and long-distance sources. The only really effective solution of which I'm aware is to ask the phone company to give you a different phone number. They'll probably charge you for the service-change, since they can legitimately argue that the problem is not _their_ fault. Dave Platt FIDONET: Dave Platt on 1:204/444 VOICE: (415) 493-8805 UUCP: ...!{ames,sun,uunet}!coherent!dplatt DOMAIN: dplatt@coherent.com INTERNET: coherent!dplatt@ames.arpa, ...@uunet.uu.net USNAIL: Coherent Thought Inc. 3350 West Bayshore #205 Palo Alto CA 94303 [Moderator's Note: Some telcos, like Illinois Bell, will change a subscriber's number once for free, if the subscriber complains of receiving nuisance or obscene calls. The original correspondent's complaint would probably fit in this category. PT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 00:44:45 +0100 From: "Dik T. Winter" Subject: Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' > [Moderator's Note: Well I believe it was the 'shift - 7' now that you mention > it; and of course control-G is Ascii 7. No, it was shift-J. > Weren't the 'number-shift' keys > essentially like control keys? How did they get line feed, carriage return, > ENQ (who are you?) and answerback without control codes? I have here CCITT #2 which says that LF and CR are valid both shifted and unshifted and ENQ=shift-D. This gives me some remembrances. The first computer I did use had Telex typewriters as consoles. However, they where very advanced. They had a four row keyboard and would remember whether the last shift was figures or letters. So when you entered a symbol not in the current shift the apparatus whould not generate it unless you entered the correct shift first. (Yes, it was made by Siemens.) Here follows the CCITT #2 code table: Letters Figures 0 8 16 24 0 8 16 24 0 space LF E A space LF 3 - 1 T L Z W 5 ) + 2 2 CR R D J CR 4 ENQ BEL 3 O G B figures 9 undef ? figures 4 nil I S U nil 8 ' 7 5 H P Y Q undef 0 6 1 6 N C F K , : undef ( 7 M V X letters . = / letters A question is: where in this whole lot of bits figures the sprocket hole; i.e. is it 1.2.4.o.8.16 or 16.8.4.o.2.1? Next to me lies a lot of 5-level paper taper, but I cannot yet figure it. This is CCITT #2 or Baudot. There is another 5-level code: CCITT #1 which has also another name. I must have the code somewhere, but am not inclined to dig it up unless requested. There appears also to be some different Telex codes in the US. If I remember right, a 3 out of 7 code or somesuch and a 8 level code (but not ASCII). I have the codings somewhere (in the same place as CCITT #1) but do not know under what circomstances they were used. Any help is appreciated. dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland dik@cwi.nl ------------------------------ From: "Marc T. Kaufman" Subject: Re: Technical Specifications of TTY Machines Date: 25 Sep 89 00:51:38 GMT Reply-To: "Marc T. Kaufman" Organization: Stanford University, Computer Science Dept. In article Mike Morris writes: >As a side note, the standard speeds were 60, 75 and 100 words a minute, >using either a standard length stop pulse or a 1.5 length stop pulse. The mechanical stop pulse was 1.42 bits long. This has to do with the time required to mechanically unclutch and reclutch the motor to the decode wheel. > The Type 32 is the last of the mechanical 5-level machines, >(I was told it was a redesign of the 26) and it interestingly came in a 3-row >and a 4-row configuration. Was there a 4-row 32, or was it really the 33? I had all the catalogs, and never saw a 4-row 5-level machine. > The famous type 33 is the common 8-level >machine that I learned BASIC on, interestingly it's stiff keyboard is >blamed for the "tersenes" of UNIX (tm). The type 35 is the standard >8-level heavy duty machine. The 37 was an attempt at a upper/lower case >8-level machine - I've only seen 3 in my life, and one of those was in >a scrap heap - supposedly it was a maintenance nightmare. The 37 had a typebox like the 35, but twice as large (for the lower case characters). It ran at 150 bps. 15 characters per second was just slightly too fast for the mechanical parts to keep up. It also had a two color ribbon, with the color switch available via the "stunt box" (a special relay bank tripped by certain character sequences). >The 40 was >an attempt at a do-all-end-all integrated system that never made it - I >saw only a few in use, and those were used as dumb terminals. The >saving grace was the printer - it was built like a mini-IBM-1403, a >train mechanism and was almost indestructible. I saw several in use >on minicomputer systems, running day in and out with no downtime. There was one model of the type 40 printer that would allow you to rip off the top form (the one just printed) without wasting the form below. It was used extensively by travel agencies and ticket sales outlets... anywhere serialized form stock was required. Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #405 *****************************   Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 0:02:00 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #406 Message-ID: <8909260002.aa00514@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Sep 89 00:00:59 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 406 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number (Dave Troup) Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number (John Higdon) Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking (Roger Haaheim) Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking (Sharon Fisher) Re: Prefix '520' For Los Angeles Radio Stations (John Higdon) Re: Chicago Cubs Trash Illinois Bell (Scot E Wilcoxon) Re: Area Code 510 Press Release From Pac*Bell (Carl Moore) Re: Real Time Translations (Brian Kantor) Re: Prior Use of Fake Area Code 311 (Carl Moore) Re: Why Some Companies Won't Export (Brian Litzinger) Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment (Danny Wilson) Teleconnect Magazine (Gabe Wiener) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dave Troup Subject: Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number Date: 25 Sep 89 13:48:44 GMT Reply-To: Dave Troup Organization: Carroll College-Waukesha, WI Does anyone know what the recording alert tones are? You know-those dee-doo-DOO, "The number you have reached..." What are the frequencies to them. Ive NEVER been able to find out what those are. thanks in advance! "We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, knowin' that ain't allowed"__ _______ _______________ |David C. Troup / Surf Rat _______)(______ | |dtroup@carroll1.cc.edu : mail ___________________________|414-524-6809______________________________ ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number Date: 25 Sep 89 21:36:12 GMT Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article , kitty!larry@uunet.uu. net (Larry Lippman) writes: > Interestingly enough, with one exception, I have never seen > nor even heard of a call progress tone generator which used vacuum > tubes. Technology in this area went directly from the > electromechanical to the solid-state. The one exception was the > "no-such-number" tone generator, which used vacuum tubes and made its > debut around 1940; it has been affectionately called the "crybaby > tone". The dial and busy/reorder tones in a stock Stromberg XY are generated by a device which uses a single vacuum tube. Ringback comes from a vibrating reed device (and sounds like a fart). The sound made by the dial tone generator is reminiscent of the old WE SXS "honker" tone but has a more mellow timbre. Although rapidly disappearing, the California desert is peppered with exchanges using the XY. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: Roger Haaheim Subject: Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking Date: 23 Sep 89 14:31:50 GMT Organization: HP Design Tech Center - Santa Clara, CA Sounds like an autodialer listening for a "modem carrier"; when it doesn't get one, it hangs up and goes on to the next number. ------------------------------ Date: Mon Sep 25 09:33:14 1989 From: Sharon Fisher Subject: Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking Reply-To: sharon@asylum.UUCP (Sharon Fisher) Organization: The Asylum; Belmont, CA In article john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: >How do you know that they're long distance or local? Just a guess, really, but some of the calls sound real clear and some have those "seashell up to your ear" sounds that I associate with long distance calls. >Anyway, it could >be a modem calling you (like a wrong number in someone's Systems file!) >and you would hear nothing when you answered. Remember, an originating >modem needs to hear the answering modem's tone before it will speak. If >you have a modem, you might let it answer your phone for awhile and see >if something connects with it:-) Maybe next time I'm away for a weekend. I'd rather not do that during the week because I get many business calls and I'd hate to miss one. I've also gotten several postings by e-mail suggesting the same thing (plus one suggesting it might be a fax machine). Thanks... - Sharon Fischer - ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Prefix '520' For Los Angeles Radio Stations Date: 25 Sep 89 07:04:41 GMT Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article , joe@mojave.ati.com (Joe Talbot) writes: > Stations often are forced to pay foreign exchange and milage charges > just to get service, because that service MUST be on a choke system. The three stations I work with that have choke prefixes do not pay any mileage. One simply because the 575 is served out of AXminster, their local office. The other two had previously been served out of AXminster but moved about a half-mile over the line into ALpine. An appropriate tear here and an "offer" for some Pac*Bell editorializing there, and the charges magically vanished. I understand that another station in town, served out of 95 Almaden, has a bunch of 575 lines used for some promotion and they also do not pay any mileage. I'm not sure why (but there is someone on this system who *does* know--hint, hint.) Which reminds me of the stormy beginnings of the choke network in the SF Bay Area. (Oh no, here comes another story, Martha!) It was about 1966 and one of the rock 'n roll AM stations discovered contests (really give-aways). Technicians in the 95 Almaden office were noticing these instantaneous overloads of the trunks and the crossbar switching equipment. In 1966 it was ALL crossbar. It didn't take long to determine who was the culprit. Phone company people were faced with a problem. Obviously they couldn't design the network to handle that peak demand on an occasional basis, and yet they couldn't be faced with periodic shutdowns that also prevented emergency calls from being placed. One of the suggestions was to tell the radio station that they couldn't "abuse their telephone service" in that manner any longer upon pain of disconnection. The radio station couldn't see the problem. "We only have four lines for the contest. How can we possibly be causing any trouble?" Of course, they had no idea of the trouble caused when hundreds of calls were directed at one number. Trunks would become jammed with busy signals (or reorders when the busy tone trunks would fill up) and normal calls would be blocked. Looking at the problem, they decided upon creating a special exchange that would have limited trunking and not share trunks with any other prefix. That way, the special exchange could busy out without affecting any other service. Hence was born the choke network. But this is not the end of the story. In 1972, some DJ at the big 50,000 watt rocker "discovered" how the choke network worked. He was furious to find out that callers could actually be blocked from calling him. He created a major stink which spread to other radio stations and ended up with representatives from Pacific Telephone and all the area stations in a conference. The long and the short of it was that PacTel insisted that it had created the choke network as a "service" to the stations, explaining that the only alternative was "contest prohibition". They made their point, the DJ was put in his place, and as an offering of good will, the area engineers were treated to a grand tour of 95 Almaden, the downtown office. (For you locals, the DJ was Tom Campbell, who hosted "KLOK Talk", where this issue came up.) Even so, from time to time, some DJ suddenly discovers that when he dials the request lines from an office extension, it's busy (reorder) and no request lines are in use. I have a canned explantion that usually calms him/her down. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: Scot E Wilcoxon Subject: Re: Chicago Cubs Trash Illinois Bell Date: 26 Sep 89 00:43:37 GMT Reply-To: Scot E Wilcoxon Organization: Data Progress, Minneapolis, MN Minnesota had the same problems when the Twins' World Series tickets went on sale by phone two years ago. Long-delayed dial tones all over the state. Several cities dispatched radio-equipped vehicles around their areas in case of emergencies. No known damage; the only death which might have been affected by the outage was not -- someone had a stroke, probably killing them instantly, and the panicked relative ran three blocks to a fire department building without trying to phone. Scot E. Wilcoxon sewilco@DataPg.MN.ORG {amdahl|hpda}!bungia!datapg!sewilco Data Progress UNIX masts & rigging +1 612-825-2607 uunet!datapg!sewilco I'm just reversing entropy while waiting for the Big Crunch. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 10:27:56 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Area Code 510 Press Release From Pac*Bell Other messages to telecom digest asked about 909 and 917; it had just been announced that 903 would be created in 1991(?) by splitting 214 in Texas. The reasons suggested for not using 909 and 917 were: 1. 909 looks too much like 707. 2. What is to be area 510 is next door to 916. (Telecom Moderator: You forgot about 903 coming into use in Texas; it was in the splits list I sent.) ------------------------------ From: Brian Kantor Subject: Re: Real Time Translations Date: 25 Sep 89 20:40:31 GMT Reply-To: Brian Kantor Organization: The Avant-Garde of the Now, Ltd. Because the old 5-level Baudot machines were notorious for mechanical difficulties, there was an end-of-line sequence that became nearly universal. It was CR-CR-LF-LTRS-SPACE. It got to the point where I could practically type that as one fluid movement, and later I programmed it into some communications software that had to talk to the beasts. The reasoning was: Two CRs to make SURE that the carriage returned, since lots of the old machines would simply pile up letters on the right margin if it missed one - and that would mean that you'd miss a whole LINE of text. Also, if the carriage bar (the rod that the carriage slid on) had gotten dirty or the oil had gotten gummy (as it did every few months), the carriage would return very slowly which could lead to the next few characters printing backwards across the page. LF to advance the paper. It would have been more dependable to send two of these but we didn't want to waste paper. LTRS to make sure the machine was back in letters mode, and also to give the carriage just a little bit longer to get all the way to the left side of the paper. SPACE because the repair technicians didn't alway get the left travel stop adjusted properly and the first two letters on the left often piled up on top of each other, especially if the rubber bumper had swollen with age - or absorbed oil. - Brian ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 9:33:10 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Prior Use of Fake Area Code 311 I have seen the fake area code 311, but I believe I saw 904 in use for DDD instructions in the microfilmed 1960 Wilmington (Delaware) directory. 904 was not in use yet; it came in in 1965 in Florida by splitting 305. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Why Some Companies Won't Export Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 11:55:56 PDT From: Brian Litzinger One of the problems with exporting products is that you generally must meet all the regulatory requirements of the nation that you are exporting to. For example, in the U.S. we have the FCC regulations for equipment that emit RFI. There are regulation regarding flame retardance of children's pajamas and even a 17 page book of regulations related to car door armrest construction. Many other country's have even more strict regulations than the U.S. They usually have stricter RFI requirements. Sweden, I think, has rules about the strength of magnetic fields emitted by electronic devices. Some countries has very strict rules about insulation from electricity. There's even a requirement that monitors be 14" from the table top from some country. The list goes on and on, and many countries don't have much of a sense of humor when it comes to violating their requirements. <> Brian Litzinger @ APT Technology Inc., San Jose, CA <> UUCP: {apple,sun,pyramid}!daver!apt!brian brian@apt.UUCP <> VOICE: 408 370 9077 FAX: 408 370 9291 ------------------------------ From: Danny Wilson Subject: Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment Date: 25 Sep 89 19:19:52 GMT Organization: IDACOM Electronics Ltd., Edmonton, Alta. In article , fff@mplex.UUCP (Fred Fierling) writes: > Assuming this is correct, I understand that it would be possible for two > independent calls to be handled on each of the B channels. So, how would > both telephones perform call set up and tear down on the one D channel? If you have two TE's on a single S/T bus (point to multipoint operation) there are two addressing schems that come into play. At the physical level, the S/T bus has a collision handling mechanism that restricts access to the bus to only one TE at a time. The NT (or switch) assigns a TEI (Terminal Endpoint Identifier) to each terminal device on the bus. TEI's can either be manually assigned by the service technician (dip switches etc) or can be assigned dynamically by management procedure software resident on the switch. Since the switch is aware of which TE is negotiating for a call it can assign one B-Channel to each TE device. In fact, in a multi-mode terminal, several calls can be active/suspended at one time, with each call having a distinct Layer 3 call reference value. Danny Wilson IDACOM Electronics danny@idacom.uucp Edmonton, Alberta {att, watmath, ubc-cs}!alberta!idacom!danny C A N A D A ------------------------------ From: Gabe Wiener Subject: Teleconnect Magazine Reply-To: Gabe Wiener Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 11:58:17 GMT Can anyone tell me what Teleconnect Magazine is? I ordered a book from Telecom Library recently and it included a form to order the mag, but it included no description. Thanks. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us." [Moderator's Note: Teleconnect Magazine is a monthly publication devoted largely, but not exclusively to telecom sales. There are numerous short articles in each issue. It is not a technical publication like [Telephony Magazine]. It is in many respects like this Digest, a potpourri of information on equipment and services; but as noted above, with an emphasis on sales and vendors. The editor is Harry Newton, a chap who migrated here from Australia several years ago. The cost is $15 for twelve issues. Their number is 1-800-TELECOM. PT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #406 *****************************   Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 0:45:37 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #407 Message-ID: <8909260045.aa29679@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Sep 89 00:40:07 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 407 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: Some Comments On The GTE "Problem" in California (Jamie Hanrahan) Re: How Hugo Affected Telecom Service (Thomas Lapp) International Subscriber Dialing in Australia (David E. A. Wilson) Re: Central Office Answering Machine (Larry McElhiney) Re: Australian Broadcast Call Signs (Mark Williams) Re: Coping With Junk Calls: Like Nancy, Just Say No (Clayton Cramer) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: simpact.com!jeh%sdcsvax@ucsd.edu Subject: Re: Some Comments On The GTE "Problem" in California Date: 25 Sep 89 09:21:06 PDT Organization: Simpact Associates, San Diego CA In article , kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) writes: > I admit that I have had no firsthand experience with GTE in California... Then why, may I ask, are you saying anything at all on the subject? Ask anybody who's had the misfortune to live in a GTE area in SoCal. I have. (I mean I've lived there, not just asked someone else.) The telephone "service", if I may use the term lightly, was abominable. I personally experienced all of the horrors described by others here (lousy call completion rate, wildly wrong numbers, noisy-and-not-just-white-noise lines), and then some. One aspect of GTE SoCal that I haven't seen mentioned is their pay phones. I once spent a miserable two days looking for an apartment in the west/ southwest LA area (almost all covered by GTE), driving around with a car full of newspapers and a pocketful of dimes. It got so I wouldn't even bother stopping at a GTE pay phone unless there were at least two of them together, as only then was it likely that I'd find a single working phone. The defective phones were in nice areas and had no signs of exterior damage -- they just didn't work. Often they'd be sitting there emitting strange clicking and thunking noises, as if they couldn't quite digest that last coin. Others would appear to be fine until you put a dime in. About three out of four of these would deign to provide a dial tone. About three out of four of THOSE would actually give a ringback signal after you'd dialed your number... (yes, GTE was charging 20 cents, on average, for pay phone calls LONG before it was authorized by the PUC!) I know a fair number of people for whom Pacific Telephone vs. GTE was a factor in choosing a place to live -- and not the least important factor by far. Oh, and then there was the "GTE Phone Center" in Del Amo mall, which opened at 9 AM and closed promptly at 6 PM on weekdays, and was not open at all on weekends. I had to visit this place at least twice to establish phone service. I got off work at 5 PM, at (roughly) Wilshire and Crenshaw. This is a thirty-minute drive under the best of conditions (say, at 2 AM). Good luck! Apparently these people had never heard of households where both people work, nor of making their company easy to do business with. > The apparatus will indeed do the job - but in the situations which > you describe it is PEOPLE who have let the apparatus down and caused these > service problems. So what? When I say that "GTE gives lousy phone service in the LA area", I am not complaining about the equipment, the wiring, the management, or the color of their trucks. I'm complaining about the whole picture. I don't know what the underlying reason is, and for the most part, I DON'T CARE! I just want things to improve! > Now, the burning question is how could GTE allow this to happen in > California? The most reasonable answer just appeared in telecom article > by goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com, > and boils down to not having enough revenue to operate a telephone company > in a reasonable manner. > > $> The California PUC historically has given GTE (and the old PacTel) > $> very low ROI, often a couple of percentage points or more below > $> everybody else. When most states were allowing 13% and California was > $> allowing 10%, which state would YOU invest in? To make matters worse, > $> C-PUC would penalize GTE for its poor performance by lowering its ROI > $> even more. > $> > $> AT&T was too proud of its "Bell System" reputation to let PacTel go > $> down the tubes, so they dumped money into CA even with a cruddy rate > $> of return. But GTE had other fish to fry with its cash, so they gave > $> the state pretty much what it paid for. One might ask why GTE wasn't equally concerned about THEIR reputation. The GTE logo is prominent on many products sold in the commercial and consumer sectors. The Los Angeles area is not exactly devoid of customers for such products. My experiences with GTE phone service would definitely make me wary of anything else with the GTE logo. Yes, I know, different parts of the company... but if they don't care about QC in one division, why should I believe that others are any different? --- Jamie Hanrahan ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 19:52:57 edt From: Thomas Lapp Subject: Re: How Hugo Affected Telecom Service Reply-To: mvac23!thomas@udel.edu Martin B Weiss writes: > My parents live on the SW corner of Puerto Rico. They had minimal damage > due to Hugo, as they were over 100 miles from the eye. I haven't yet gotten > through to them on MCI, although, using 10288, I have been successful several > times with AT&T. I noticed the same thing in trying to call my sister in Chapel Hill, NC the night after the storm went through. I kept getting a fast-busy when using MCI, but ATT went right through. I wonder if MCI was just getting more traffic through than it could handle or whether some major trunks were down. Of course this is a sample of 2 which doesn't make it significant, but I would be curious to know how fast the major telecom carriers get back up in the affected areas. - tom internet: mvac23!thomas@udel.edu or thomas%mvac23@udel.edu uucp : {ucbvax,mcvax,psuvax1,uunet}!udel!mvac23!thomas Location: Newark, DE, USA Quote : NOTICE: System will have a scheduled disk crash at 4:45pm today. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 14:46:16 est From: "David E. A. Wilson" Subject: International Subscriber Dialing in Australia In article , munnari!stcns3.stc.oz. au!dave@uunet.uu.net (Dave Horsfall) writes: > Indeed it is - it's used in Australia, along with ISD (International > Subscriber Dialling). There are very few manual exchanges left in the > country, incidentally. AXE is slowly replacing step-by-step and Xbar. Sorry Dave, but OTC changed ISD to IDD (International Direct Dialing) a couple of years ago. They also just dropped the rates - we can now ring the USA for A$1.19 off peak [how does this compare with US to Aust costs?]. We are not charged extra for touch tone lines - if you are on an AXE exchange you can use DTMF, if not, you can't. When I purchased a house that had never had a phone I enquired about getting a DTMF line and was told that because of the demand for lines on the AXE exchange (one out of six prefixes serving my area is AXE) that the only way to get a line on it was to sign up for Easycall (rather like StarNine). Telecom Australia charged me the following: Connection Fee A$225.00 (no existing line or handset) Exchange line A$ 11.65/month Easycall Services (1st 3) A$ 4.25/month Additional Easycall services A$ .53/month each With regard to area code splitting, I came across an interesting example in the Canberra telephone directory. Formerly, Canberra, Yass & Queanbeyan in the Australian Capital Territiory (ACT) used to have an area code of 062. Now Yass has been split off from Canberra with an area code of 06 and by prefixing all numbers in that area with a 2. What this gains, I have no idea. 062, 063, 064, 065, 066, 067, 068, 069 & 060 are all in use and no normal phone #'s start with 1. In an article from Australia (which has expired here) someone asked about data corruption which started 15 minutes into his call if he left his phone in parallel with the modem. I sent him a copy of the discussion which covered this topic in Australia earlier this year. For your interest, the problem is that Telecom Australia now supply push button phones with memories as standard equipment on new lines. These phones need about 9 volts across tip & ring to keep the memory intact. Most modems I have come across have an impedance low enough to pull this voltage down to 1 or 2 volts. After 15 minutes, the phone tries to recharge its memories and corrupts the data. The solution is either to unplug the phone first, or obtain a current sharing module to ensure that the voltage at the phone does not fall to low. David Wilson (david@wolfen.cc.uow.oz.au) Down Under. ------------------------------ From: 90784000 Subject: Re: Central Office Answering Machine Date: 20 Sep 89 09:42:46 GMT Reply-To: Larry McElhiney <@uunet.uu.net:sandy47@ucsco.ucsc.edu%anucsd.oz> Organization: University of Calidialeo In article (John Higdon) writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 379, message 4 of 4 >In article cc.umich.edu (Ken Jongsma) writes: >> I don't know... Almost $100 a year for an answering machine? One that you >> may not even be able interrogate from another phone? I think they are >> way to optimistic on their sign up estimates. >It IS catching on in many places. First, there is no capital outlay. It >is one thing to go shoppdng, plunk down $100 (or more), brong the thing >home and try to figure it out and hook it up, and worry about what >happens when it breaks, and ennte another to call "the rhone company" >and tell them you want their message servi.e. I believe there is a >central number you can Is, to retrive your messages (at least there is >on the voice mail offered with my cellular phone). Late 1970's through early 1980's Plantronics Inc. in Santa Cruz, CA built and marketed a system called CentraVox--a CO based answering machine for individual subscribers. FCC ruling against recording devices in COs finally killed the product line. Last op rating system that I am aware of was part of the PNB system in the Seattle area. The service was popular among the masses, I am told. Consisted of a 19" rack mounted aluminum box with p/s and central tape driving motors. 12 individual line modules would independently push tape and a rubber roller against a rotating shaft to drive the tape. Two tapes, an announcement on a loop and about 20 minutes message tape included in an interchangable unit about the size of a cassette recorders All of the electronics other than the voice recording was digital. The system was controlled by DTMF signals from the subscriber and there was a tone sequence indicating waiting messages when the handset was taken off hook. VOX was the other feature, up to a 20-min length of message was possible, and th system sensed the end of "intelligibility" and then rewound the tape to that point to await the next call. All features for control were available from the unmodified home telephone and there was a remote included so that you could access your service by using your home number remotely and sending a BCD signal to authorize. You could change announcements, listen to and erase messages all from any telephone. Cost was very low to the consumer as well... Too bad it died just in 1984! [Moderator's Note: The above message was *severely* messed up in transit. I recieved some unintelligible gibberish in almost every line. What appears above is how I reconstructed it. I hope it is entirely what the author was saying. He tried sending it a couple times to me without success. PT] ------------------------------ From: Mark Williams Subject: Re: Australian Broadcast Call Signs Date: 24 Sep 89 08:20:17 GMT Organization: Prentice Computer Centre, Queensland Uni, Australia henry@garp.mit.edu (Henry Mensch) writes: >They are all under VK (i.e., the FM station 4GGG on Australia's gold >coast has a call sign of VK4GGG). The number indicates (mostly) >which state the station is in (1=Tasmania , 2=New South >Wales, 3=Victoria, 4=Queensland, and I don't know the rest :>) I think this is slightly incorrect. The Radio Australia short wave stations are VLM4 and VLQ9. Mark Williams ------------------------------ From: Clayton Cramer Subject: Re: Coping With Junk Calls: Like Nancy, Just Say No Date: 25 Sep 89 23:45:39 GMT Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA In article , chip@vector.dallas.tx.us (Chip Rosenthal) writes: > tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) writes: > >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 384, message 3 of 5 > >If they ask, "Is this Mr. Cook?", I say, "No, he's dead!" > > Boy...I was on the other end of one of those. I was staffing the phone > bank for a political campaign last fall. I was working off old contact > sheets rather than cold calling. But apparently the contact sheets must > have been *very* old. The person I talked to was pleasant about it, but > I sure felt crummy. > Chip Rosenthal / chip@vector.Dallas.TX.US / Dallas Semiconductor When I was hunting heads, many years, we would get together one night each month and call people who we were unable to locate at work during the day. In some cases, the resumes were very, very old. I called one such resume, over a year old, and asked for Mr. So-and-So. "I don't think that's possible." "Why?" "My husband's been dead for over a year now." "I'm so sorry to have bothered you." I was almost done calling for the evening, and that finished the evening. I wouldn't assume the contact sheets were old -- dead people vote with great regularity. Voter lists are purged in California of non-voters after general elections. Once, while walking precincts (for my own election campaign), I found that the person registered to vote had been dead four years -- long enough to have been purged, unless someone was voting in his place. Oh well -- vote early, vote often! Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer What shall it be today? Watch Three's Company? Or unify the field theory? Disclaimer? You must be kidding! No company would hold opinions like mine! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #407 *****************************   Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 1:49:46 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #408 Message-ID: <8909260149.aa01015@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Sep 89 01:47:35 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 408 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Toll Subscriber Line Service (Larry Lippman) Number Editing on Telephones (Charlie Goldensher) PCM <-> 16 Bit Audio (Jerry Durand) Character Codes (Michael A. Patton) Equal Access Pay Phones (Greg Monti via John R. Covert) Trapping 10333 by AT&T (Peter Da Silva) Caller*ID and Modems (Peter Da Silva) Re: Radio Station Names (Australia, Canada, HCJB) (Mark Brader) Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment (Bill Cerny) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Toll Subscriber Line Service Date: 24 Sep 89 23:11:08 EDT (Sun) From: Larry Lippman In article the Telecom Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: A curiosity when I was employed by the University of > Chicago Telecommunications Department (then, in 1959-61 they just called > it the 'telephone room') were the two TWX machines. > ... We plugged in on our board to tie-lines which went straight > to certain positions at telco. They knew it was UC calling, and all we had > to pass was the caller's extension number; then we could cut out and go > on to other calls. Once an hour, the aforementioned TWX would come to life > and a message would print out listing 'time and charges by extension'. We > took this and matched it with the toll tickets we started when first > putting the call through. All this machine was ever used for was to bring > us the time and charges, for billing purposes to the campus extensions. > IBT billed the campus master account; we re-billed each department. PT] This service, which must be pretty rare by now, was referred to as "Toll Subscriber Line Service". The tie lines were ground-start trunks at the PBX end (for either manual and/or dial level access), and terminated in special toll subscriber trunks at a No. 1 or No. 3 Toll Board, or in later years at a TSPS installation. Since these toll subscriber trunks served specific locations, the toll operator obviously knew where the call had originated. Prior to TSPS, the originator of the call never dialed any digits; they gave the desired number to the operator along with their room or extension number, and the call was completed by the operator in a manner no different than dialing "0". Once per hour, toll tickets from toll subscriber customers would be collected from toll board operators, the call rated, and charges transmitted to the subscriber PBX via a teletype or by having an operator call the PBX attendant. Teletypes were simply a point-to-point manual link, and were only used in higher traffic installations. The PBX subscriber paid an additional rate for this service. As TSPS became more common, toll subscriber line service permitted the originator of the call to dial the desired number into a toll trunk and register, with the TSPS operator coming on the line only to ask for room or extension number. It was not possible to eliminate the operator since there was no ANI from the PBX to indicate the room or extension identity. In the late 1970's the Bell System offered a totally automatic toll subscriber service called HOBIS (Hotel Billing Information System) which required no TSPS operator intervention. HOBIS automatically transmitted calling data to a teletype as it occurred. HOBIS did require the subscriber PBX to have ANI or SMDR capability; I don't know the exact details, however. Most of the toll subscriber line customers were hotels, with the rest being universities, hospitals and similar facilities. With the extensive use of electronic PABX's having SMDR and call-costing capability, toll subscriber lines are pretty much a thing of the past as hotels and other subscribers are quite capable of determining toll charges on their own. Also, the advent of divestiture, ALDS and AOS has totally changed the picture; since the philosophy behind HOBIS does not exactly fit in this picture, HOBIS may well be dead. <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?" [Moderator's Note: Well, that was a heavy traffic location. We had about 4000 campus extensions; three separate groups of incoming CO trunks (MIdway-3-0800, MUseum 4-6100, NOrmal 7-4700, with about 250 incoming CO trunks between them. The 'Midway board' served the main campus with about 2500 extensions spaced over nine positions; the 'Museum board' had about 1000-1200 extensions and served the Medical Center on six positions; and the 'Normal board' had a mere three positions serving maybe 500 phones at the Enrico Fermi Labs and the Computation Center. All sixteen or eighteen positions (I forget exactly) had tie-trunks to each other, of course, so that a caller in the 8000 series of extensions (Fermi) reached the 2000 series of extensions (main campus) by going off hook and asking for the desired extension. The operator who took the call would select a tie-trunk to a position on the other side of the room. When that operator came on, she did not speak: you knew she was there because you heard a 'click' in your ear, and you would repeat "2374", or whatever your caller had told you. As fast as you could say the 'two three' part of it, she already had the cord up to that strip. When you got the 'seven four' part out, she was testing for busy with the jack. If she heard a click, the line was busy and she would so quote; otherwise she shoved in the jack and was ringing it. I dare say manual service with *trained* operators was just as fast as dial service; maybe faster sometimes. By around 1962 the extensions at least could dial each other and outside local calls even though the operators still took incoming and long distance stuff. PT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 12:23:59 EDT From: Charlie Goldensher Subject: Number Editing on Telephones Organization: V.I. Corporation, Amherst, Massachusetts In article you write: >It has to be the most frustrating thing I can think of to wait five >minutes for a dial tone only to accidentally dial a wrong digit and >have to hang up and (after waiting for new dial tone!) start over. The >next most frustrating thing would be to finally get a dial tone, place >the call and be told by the other end, 'due to heavy call volume, we >are unable to complete your call at this time....please try again >later.' This brings up a question that I've had for some time. Is there a telephone set on the market with editing capability? What I'd like most is a backspace key. Especially, now, when a telephone number can contain ten or more digits, it is extremely frustrating to hit an incorrect final digit. The case sighted above would be considerably more frustrating. It seems to me that the technology should be relatively simple. To use the facility, the numbers would have to be buffered, and sent when some sort of carriage-return or enter key is hit. So there could be a switch for buffered or unbuffered input. And, a display of some sort (LED?), that displayed the digits in the buffer, would be nice. Does anything like that exist? And if so, how much does it cost? (Oh...I have only pulse-dialing where I live. I'd want that feature on the phone as well.) -- Charlie Goldensher charlie@vicorp.uu.NET [Moderator's Note: Aren't cellular phones sort of like this? You punch in the entire number, then 'send' it. I assume at any point in the input that you discovered a mistake you could cancel it and start over, not actually hitting the 'send' button until you were ready to release it. PT] ------------------------------ From: portal!cup.portal.com!JDurand@apple.com Subject: PCM <-> 16 Bit Audio Date: Mon, 25-Sep-89 11:22:33 PDT >rusty@garnet.berkeley.edu writes: >>Does anybody have any code or know where I can get my hands on some >>that would convert "normal" (uncompressed) 16 bit digital audio into >>the 8 bit u-law (or A-law) compressed form that the AM79C30 uses? >Chip Rosenthal / chip@vector.Dallas.TX.US / Dallas Semiconductor There is no need to use an equation to generate "uncompressed" data from PCM code, since there are only 256 possibilities, everyone just uses a lookup table copied from any CODEC data sheet. To convert from "uncompresssed" to PCM, you don't need to be real accurate, just scan the table for the first entry that is less than or equal to your data. Jerry Durand, Durand Interstellar, Inc., sun!cup.portal.com!jdurand ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 19:47:25 EDT Subject: Character Codes From: "Michael A. Patton" For fuller details on CCITT #2 and other codes, I refer to Appendix C of "Technical Aspects of Data Communication" by John E. McNamara (who is a reader of this group). This appendix lists 12 different 5-level codes as well as 2 6-level codes and the "standard" 7-level code. The order seems to differ from what you list (but that's probably because the bits are backwards :-). It also points out that BEL wasn't always FIGS-J, there were also codes where it was FIGS-S. I'll bet this was a barrel of laughs if you hooked up a machine with the wrong code! In addition, for those discussing transmission rates, Appendix E of that same book lists many speed/format combinations and what use they were put to. The chart in this appendix lists 12 different combinations of baud rate and stop bits for 5-level codes. -Mike Patton ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 05:06:34 -0700 From: "John R. Covert 25-Sep-1989 0807" Subject: Equal Access Pay Phones Fr: Greg Monti Dt: 23 September 1989 Re: Equal Access Pay Phones The following were tried from a Bell Atlantic (C&P of Virginia) controlled pay phone in an equal access area. The phone was marked that 0+ and 1+ calls other than those authorized to be carried by C&P, would be carried by (in capital, red letters) AT&T COMMUNICATIONS. 1 700 555-4141 "You have reached the AT&T Long Distance Network" 10 222 1 700 555-4141 "You have reached the AT&T Long Distance Network" 10 333 1 700 555-4141 "You have reached the AT&T Long Distance Network" So, all 1+ calls are routed to AT&T for coin collection (although this call, being free, requested no money). 10 XXX codes are ignored for 1+. Then, the following were tried: dialed: 0 + valid out-of-LATA 10-digit number response: "bwongg (without the 'AT&T')" dialed: my valid 14-digit Bell Atlantic/AT&T card number response: "thank you for using AT&T" and call rings through dialed: 10 222 0 + valid out-of-LATA 10-digit number response: "bwongg" (without the 'AT&T')" dialed: my valid 14-digit Bell Atlantic/AT&T card number response: "thank you for using MCI" and call rings through dialed: 10 333 0 + valid out-of-LATA 10-digit number response: "bwongg (without the 'AT&T')" dialed: my valid 14-digit Bell Atlantic/AT&T card number response: thank you for using US Sprint" and call rings through dialed: 10 488 0 + valid out-of-LATA 10-digit number response: "at the tone, please dial your card number or dial zero for the ITI Operator" (pause) "beep (like an answering machine)" dialed: my valid Bell Atlantic/AT&T card number response (after about 10 seconds): "please wait for card verification" (incredibly long pause, about 30 seconds of dead silence) "thank you for using ITI; if the party you are calling is busy or does not answer, press 1 to leave up to a one minute message" call rings through So there is true equal access, using a Bell card number, for 0+ calls out of LATA. Long distance carriers like ITT (whose 10 XXX is 488, above), who do not offer their own operator service route your calls to an AOS, which I believe ITI is, for billing. Some AOS's, like ITI, offer value-added services as well, as above. Did the difference between the way the MCI/Sprint calls were handled and the way the ITT call was handled mean that Bell Atlantic (C&P) was providing the card verification for MCI and Sprint but not for ITT? Wonder what, if anything, I will get charged for this little experiment. Greg Monti, Arlington, Virginia; workplace +1 202 822-2459 ------------------------------ From: ficc!peter@uunet.uu.net Subject: Trapping 10333 by AT&T Date: Mon Sep 25 07:42:19 1989 What with all this talk of trapping 10288, I'd like to note that the pay phones at LAX route all calls through AT&T. Is this legal? I would hardly think that Sprint (my carrier of choice) has no access to LA! To top it all off, the AT&T operator insisted I'd placed my call via AT&T, and got quite rude about it. ------------------------------ From: ficc!peter@uunet.uu.net Subject: Caller*ID and Modems Date: Mon Sep 25 10:15:15 1989 Here's a product I'd pay money for in a couple of years, a modem that prints the message "RING 7135551212" when the phone rings with caller*ID information. Not only would it save me buying an extra box for the phone, but it'd make things a lot easier for hobby BBS operators to shut out bad guys. Plus, folks like osu-cis who support anonymous-uucp would be able to track all the folks who call them... more anon-uucp sites would be showing up. I hope Hayes or someone is working on this, but just in case they're not this idea is hereby in the public domain :->. ------------------------------ From: Mark Brader Subject: Radio Station Names (Australia, Canada, HCJB) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 01:33:48 EDT > There is apparently no international requirement that radio stations > all have call letters conforming to the international (ITU) plan. If > there were such a requirement, Australian stations would have call > letters starting with AX, VH-VN, or VZ. > > For that matter, the Australian call signs mentioned above overlap all > over areas of the naming space reserved by the ITU for other countries. > For example, 2PK (indeed, *all* calls starting with a 2) "should" be in > Great Britain; 3AK ought to be in Monaco; and 3MMM belongs in China. When I visited New Zealand, I found that their radio stations also use call signs of one digit and some letters, the digit denoting which part of the country the station is in. Christchurch area stations began with 3, for example; I remember 3BZ. (Z pronounced zed, of course.) The person who pointed this out to me, however, also said that the *official* call letters of each station included a prefix which was the ITU code for New Zealand. I think that that was NZ -- some of them do have mnemonic value! -- so that 3BZ was really NZ3BZ but mostly did not mention that. So perhaps Australians do the same thing. It is not unknown for individual stations here in North America to adopt this approach; in Toronto, CKEY on 590 kHz is "KEY 590" in all its advertisements nowadays, and in Buffalo, WGR on 550 kHz is "GR 55" in theirs. There must be many other examples. (Hint: too many for it to be interesting for everyone to see the ones in YOUR hometown.) Mark Brader "'Settlor', (i) in relation to a testamentary trust, Toronto means the individual referred to in paragraph (i)." utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com -- Income Tax Act of Canada, 108(1)(h) ------------------------------ Date: Mon Sep 25 14:10:05 1989 From: bill@toto.UUCP (Bill Cerny) Subject: Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment In article , fff@mplex.UUCP (Fred Fierling) writes: > So, how would > both telephones perform call set up and tear down on the one D channel? On a basic rate interface (2B+D), the terminal equipment share the D channel. Call setup/teardown messages (Q.931) are message packets, each containing a Terminal Equipment Identifier (TEI). The TEI tells the switch which terminal on the BRI is requesting a service, and allows the switch to individually address each piece of terminal equipment. Not only is it possible to have both bearer (B) channels in use simultaneously, you can also use the D channel for data communication, all at the same time (e.g., a pc with an ISDN terminal adapter that contains an X.25 PAD). There's a clever mechanism for preventing signaling packet collisions using the echo D channel, but that's beyond the scope of your query. Bill Cerny "The cost of living just went up another $1 a fifth." bill@toto.cts.com - W. C. Fields ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #408 *****************************   Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 0:20:46 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #409 Message-ID: <8909270020.aa00770@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Sep 89 00:15:44 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 409 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Telephones in India (part I of II) (Dheeraj Sanghi) Telephones in India (part II of II) (Dheeraj Sanghi) CO Voice Mail (David W. Tamkin) Fort Ritchie, Md. (Carl Moore) A Side Effect of Charging for DA Calls (William G. Martin) Phone Cards (Tom Hofmann) Siemens Gets Rolm (Chip Rosenthal) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 23:38:05 -0400 From: Dheeraj Sanghi Subject: Telephones in India (part I of II) Shamim writes: >In India the term for long distance is indeed STD. I'm not sure about >ISD, though. I may as well take this opportunity for some >reminiscences... the phone system is, of course, a government >monopoly under the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. They handle all >phone lines, trunks, telex, microwave links, etc. ISD is International Subscriber's Dialing or the direct dialing service for international long distance. Well, parts of phone system have been taken out of P & T Dept. e.g. Videsh Sanchar Nigam (Foreign Communication Corporation) handles the international calls. Separate telephone companies have been set up for phone system in Delhi and Bombay. They are called MTNL - stands for Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. There are plans to set up MTNLs for other big cities as well. (Mahanagar is metropolitan area, Nigam is corporation.) Of course, VSN and MTNLs are government undertakings, but they have much more autonomy. There has been further liberalization. Private sector companies have now been allowed to make PABX, RABX (Rural Auto. Branch Exchange) and consumer items like telephones, answering machines etc. The customers now can hook up their own instruments. >Ah, the telephone service! Those memories... some areas in New Delhi >(where I grew up) have a waiting list of 10 years for a 'phone >connection. No DTMF dialing here, almost all the exchanges are >mechanical. (About 5 years ago a digital switch was introduced on a >trial basis - worked quite well, from what I remember.) In the summer >after almost every rainstorm thousands (I'm not exaggerating!) would >be knocked out. Now, the waiting list is more like 5 years, and the goal is to provide telephone on demand by 1995 (approx.). All the exchanges that have been installed in the last 3-4 years are digital. In fact, all exchanges that have been installed in the last year have custom calling features like call-waiting and detailed billing for your STD and ISD calls. You even get the recording from these places like "The number you have dialed is not in service" in 2 languages. (3 languages in many places outside Delhi.) There are much less problems in rainy season. They have replaced old cables by pressurized cables, which are more resistant to water-seepage, in congested areas. And yes, they have laid pipes to carry these cables, so that they don't have to dig up the road if there is a problem with the cables. The customer service is much better. The best part is that you no longer have to pay by cash or cashier's check. You can pay by personal check. You can still not mail them, but you can deposit them in almost any bank or post office. Last year the yellow pages were published for the first time in India. All this in just about 3-4 years. Three cheers for MTNL. >STD was introduced about 10 years ago, I think, and was more expensive >than the regular operator-assisted "trunk call." (To make one of those >you had to call a number and book the call at some priority, with the >cost increasing geometrically with higher priorities... it would often >be 4-6 hours for the call to go through at the affordable priorities) >The trunk call may still be cheaper than an STD call. The city codes >for STD calls are of variable length - for instance New Delhi is 11 >but smaller towns have up to 4 digits. Now, STD service has reached almost all the districts of India. The longest code is 6 digits, for a few very small towns. The smallest code is 2 digit. (Delhi - 11, Bombay - 22, Calcutta - 33, Madras - 44) The access code for STD call is 0. It used to be 9 when STD started 15 years ago, but was phased out later. (I think CCITT standards favour 0.) ISD access code is, you guessed it, 00. >Shamim Mohamed / {uunet,noao,allegra,cmcl2..}!arizona!sham / sham@arizona.edu >[Moderator's Note: 'STD' means Subscriber Trunk Dialing, for those who did >not know this abbreviation. It is a common enough phrase in some countries >which essentially means 'long distance' as we think of it here in the United >States. I might add to the above report, calling DA in India is quite a >chore at times also. I've been on 15 minutes to get a single number. PT] Well, DA is being computerized in the 3 largest cities in India, Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. I hope that the project is over within this year. The smaller cities would be computerized soon after. In an accompanying article, I am writing about various tariffs in India. -dheeraj Dheeraj Sanghi (h):301-345-6024 (o):301-454-1516 Internet: dheeraj@cs.umd.edu UUCP: uunet!mimsy!dheeraj Marriage is the sole cause of divorce. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 23:39:47 -0400 From: Dheeraj Sanghi Subject: Telephones in India (part II of II) Various Tariffs in India ------------------------ There are 4 rates for operator assisted calls. 1. Concessional half the ordinary. 2. Ordinary 3. Urgent twice the ordinary 4. Lightening 8 times the ordinary Concessional calls are really the ordinary calls that start between 10pm and 5 am (and all day Sunday, 26th Jan, 15th Aug, 2nd Oct). All operator assisted calls are measured in the units of 3 minutes. Within each rate, one has an option of person-to-person call, but if the person is not present at the other end (but somebody did pick up the phone), some small charge is made. This is to discourage use of coded messages as name of person. The most convenient way of calling is the "Fixed-Time" call. You can book a fixed time call in at least 2 hours in advance. The operator will call you at that time, and will try to connect you with the other number. You pay the "Urgent" rate, but somehow the call always goes through, while the other urgent calls (which are supposed to go through as soon as there is no lightening call) may have to wait. There is slight penalty though. You can cancel a booking until the call goes through, but not with fixed-time calls. You are charged for a minimum of 3 minutes. There is no collect calling or third-party charge. The ordinary tariffs are: (rather were, for they are 2 year old, and were revised upwards last year.) Distance (in KM) Tariff for 3 minutes. (In Rs.) up to 20 1 21-50 2 51-100 4 101-200 8 201-500 12 501-1000 20 1001 and above 24 (1 Rupee is 6 cents) I don't know the rates for operator-assisted international calls. For direct dialed calls (STD and ISD), the tariff is determined by the "pulse rate." For every "pulse", you are charged equivalent of one local call, which was 50 paise (3 cents). For STD, the pulse rate is halved during night time. (I am not too sure about this.) But there is no discount for ISD calls in the night. For STD calls the pulse frequency varies from 30 seconds (upto 20KM) to approx. 2.5 second (1001 KM and above). I don't have the detailed rates. For ISD, the things are much simpler. There are only three pulse rates. 2 sec. for Nepal, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh and Maldives. 1.2 sec. for the rest of Asia, Africa, Australia, most of Europe. 1 sec. North and South America, and some countries in Europe. e.g. A one minute call to USA would cost 60 * .50 = 30 rupees (1.80$) Almost all the countries can be dialed direct, including USSR. On a quick glance, the countries that I found missing are: China, Burma, Vietnam, Combodia, North Korea, South Africa. (This list is 1 year old, and since then we might have established direct-dialing with China.) There are other tariffs. There is a 100 Rs. testing fee for private equipment. There is a 200 Rs. yearly charge for each facility on the phone (like memory dialing, push-button dialing, STD barring). There is 300 Rs. yearly charge for phones with auto-dialer facility. There is a one-time charge of Rs. 1000 for installation. There is no unlimited service for local calls. How can it be. The STD calls and ISD calls are also counted as number of local calls. The telephone "rental" is 200 Rs. for two months (The billing is bi-monthly) and you get 300 free local call. (I am not very sure about the local calling rate.) Additional local calls are 50 paise each. Calling cards (more like debit card) were introduced last year in areas served by the two MTNLs. You can buy a card for various denominations. You can use them in special phones that will accept them. These phones are located mostly near places like Airport, Railway Stations, Hospitals, and places of tourist attraction. The cost of the call is deducted and the remainder is written back on the card. By the way, there are three kinds of public telephone booths. One, from where you can only make local calls. They will only accept 2 fifty paise coins, and not 1 one rupee coin or other change. Second type is from where you can only make STD and ISD calls. These will accept only those 1 rupee coins that were made after 1980. (But that is no problem, since usually a group of these types will be manned by one guy, whose only job is to give you the correct 1-rupee coins for your bills, or older 1-rupee coins.) The third type are the ones that accept card, and are found only in Delhi and Bombay. There is no surcharge for using the public phones to make long distance calls, but local call is costlier. It is 1.00 Rupee. -dheeraj Dheeraj Sanghi (h):301-345-6024 (o):301-454-1516 Internet: dheeraj@cs.umd.edu UUCP: uunet!mimsy!dheeraj Marriage is the sole cause of divorce. ------------------------------ Subject: CO voice mail Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 1:10:33 CDT From: "David W. Tamkin" Organization: Jolnet Public Access Unix: it's good to be home Larry McElhiney wrote in digest volume 9, issue 390: | Late 1970's through early 1980's Plantronics Inc. in Santa Cruz, CA built | and marketed a system called CentraVox--a CO based answering machine for | individual subscribers. FCC ruling against recording devices in COs | finally killed the product line. Really? Recently both Illinois Bell and Centel have offered CO-based voice mail in metropolitan Chicago: IBT to customers of the Summit CO and Centel to anyone willing to phone into the Park Ridge CO. IBT's service includes stutter dial tone when you pick your phone up (to indicate messages waiting in the voice mailbox), and Centel's has toll saver to the extreme: no ringback whatever (immediate transmission of the mailbox holder's greeting) if there are waiting messages; clearly both must be CO-based. Other Ameritech subsidiaries are test-marketing the same voice mail as that in Summit, Illinois, in one CO near Milwaukee and one near Indianapolis. Centel is offering voice mail in three other Illinois cities: Pekin, Galesburg, and Dixon. Was the FCC ruling reversed? Did it expire? David Tamkin dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us {attctc,netsys,ddsw1}!jolnet!dattier P. O. Box 813 Rosemont, Illinois 60018-0813 (312) 693-0591 (708) 518-6769 BIX: dattier GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 Jolnet is a public access system, where every user expresses personal opinions. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 9:15:19 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Fort Ritchie, Md. The 878 prefix serving Fort Ritchie, Md. seems to be reachable in three area codes: 301 in Md., 202 in DC area, and 717 in Pa. 878 shows up in Baltimore directory as "Fort Ritchie (Baltimore City service)" and in DC area directories as "Silver Spring". I assume area code 202 goes away for this exchange next year. As for 717, I had seen 878 listed as Blue Ridge Summit (717-794 prefix), and was wondering where 878 was used until I visited the area earlier this year and realized I was right next door to Fort Ritchie when I was there. (A pay phone near the gate to Fort Ritchie is on 301-241 in Highfield, Md.) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 13:38:00 MDT From: "William G. Martin" Subject: A Side Effect of Charging for DA Calls The following is from the "Regional News" column of CITY AND STATE (a tabloid-size newspaper of local government news), p. 23, Sep 25 1989 issue: FINGERS DO THE WALKING Commissioners of Lancaster County, Nebraska, have cut directory assistance, which costs 40 cents per call, from the county jail's telephone system. Their unanimous action was prompted by a bill for $4,600 for directory assistance calls made by inmates in 1988. Telephone directories will be made available for the inmates at the facility, according to Kathy Campbell, county board chairman. ***End of item*** Regards, Will ------------------------------ From: Tom Hofmann Subject: Phone Cards Date: 26 Sep 89 11:19:20 GMT Organization: WRZ, CIBA-GEIGY Ltd, Basel, Switzerland As I see there are two different types of phone cards around the world. One type is handled like a credit card of the telephone company: for using it you make an operator assisted call and tell the operator your card number, or you type the card number directly into the phone (e.g. USA). For the other type you pay a certain amount and this amount is coded on the card itself. For usage you push the card into a special slot of a public phone, and the coded amount is decreased while making a call. An "empty" card can be thrown away (e.g. Switzerland). What I would like to know: Isn't there a country (or LDC in the US) where phone calls can be paid be regular, internationally accepted credit cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express, etc.)? Phone calls would get much easier while travelling abroad. Or is there a reason, why telephone companies do not accept them? Tom Hofmann wtho@cgch.UUCP ------------------------------ From: Chip Rosenthal Subject: Siemens Gets Rolm Message-Id: <754@vector.Dallas.TX.US> Date: 26 Sep 89 19:33:43 GMT Reply-To: chip@vector.dallas.tx.us Organization: Dallas Semiconductor From EDN News Edition (Sept 21): Most of IBM's Rolm goes to Siemens AG Armonk, NY - Just one week after IBM Corp unveiled new private branch exchanges (PBXs) that better communicate with products from Siemens AG, the companies say they've completed their agreement by which Siemens takes control of most of IBM's Rolm telecom subsidiary. Phone IBM at (914) 765-1900. Chip Rosenthal / chip@vector.Dallas.TX.US / Dallas Semiconductor / 214-450-5337 Someday the whole country will be one big "Metroplex" - Zippy's friend Griffy ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #409 *****************************   Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 1:18:54 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #410 Message-ID: <8909270118.aa06620@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Sep 89 01:15:44 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 410 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Phone Design For Humans (Andy Meijers) Sleazy Touch-Tone Marketing Tactics (David W. Tamkin) New Zealand Broadcast Call Signs (T. Mark James) They're Doing It Again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) (Edward Greenberg) Phone Rates, U.S. to Australia (John R. Covert) ITI (10488) 0+ (John R. Covert) First Long Distance Call (cblpe!jhf@att.att.com) Telenet/PCP Waives Enrollment Fee for User Groups (David Purks) Re: 10-Cent Payphones (Richard Childers) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Andy Meijers Subject: Phone Design For Humans Date: 26 Sep 89 00:21:06 GMT Organization: Defense Logistics Service Center, Battle Creek MI A minor plea to those who design 'modern' telephone sets, esp. for offices. 1. Make them HEAVIER, and put a nonskid base on them. As I write this, I have just pulled my ATT-issue (came with System 8.5) sculpture off the desk for the umpteenth time. Guess I'll end up taping it to the desk, like many do around here. 2. Shape the handsets to FIT THE HUMAN HEAD! Real people do not talk daintily holding the handset in their fingertips. They jam it on one shoulder so they write. This worthless thing promptly shoots out of sight if you try. 3. Don't position the cord connectors so the handset cord tangles unto itself 2 inches from the base. (see # 1, above). Put the line cord where the it won't cause the phone to trip over it whenever you move it six inches. 4. Put a button for each function! (ie, hold, transfer etc). Phones should not require constant referral to the manual to operate; they should be self-evident. While you're at it, make the buttons REAL, with a click. A pox on squishy membrane switches and finger-nail-tip size buttons a quarter inch apart. 5. Make cords that don't lose their coil in a month, or that act like a DNA molecule and coil back on themselves, with a non-porous surface that doesn't get filthy immediately . (That also applies to the whole phone. Make it cleanable!) 6. Make a ringer/bell that can be tracked by ear. In an office full of chirping crickets, all with the speakers buried, it is often hard to tell which one is ringing. I could go on for another page, but you get the idea. Fancy sculptures may sell well in the catalog or showroom, but are often miserable for the users. (This translates to Lo$t productivity.) Buyers: Get a thirty-day 'test-drive' clause. Designers: (including ATT, WECO, etc): Go back and look at the 500 and 2500 series desk sets again. There is a reason they lasted so long, and were so widely imitated. They WORKED!!! Specific disclaimer: I do NOT speak for my agency. ( In fact, they do not know I'm on here right now.) Andy Meijers DRMS-LZA Phone:(616)961-7253 Defense Reutilization & Marketing Service FTS:552-7253 AV:932-7253 Battle Creek, MI 49017-3092 Internet:ameijers%dlscg1.uucp@dsac.dla.mil UUCP: {uunet!gould!dsacg1,osu-cis!dsacg1,eecae!dsacng1}!dlscg1!ameijers ------------------------------ Subject: Sleazy Touch-Tone Marketing Tactics Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 1:25:17 CDT From: "David W. Tamkin" Organization: Jolnet Public Access Unix: it's good to be home |From: 90784000 |Subject: Re: Central Office Answering Machine |Chet Wood wrote in Digest volume 9, issue 390: | I had had non-touch-tone service in my home for years-- I was able to | use touch-tones to dial with no problem, and was rather proud that I | was avoiding the $1 + per month ripoff. About a year or two ago, the | business office called my wife on some pretext to "review" our phone | service, asked her the same question, and pressured her into ordering | the extra service. Not only Pac*Bell but also Illinois Bell. My father has aphasia from a stroke. He has great difficulty making himself understood. IBT marketing once phoned when he was home alone because I had taken my mother grocery shopping. When I brought her (and their groceries) back to their house, my father told us quite clearly that IBT had called, trying to get them to pay for tone service, and that he'd said no. Nonetheless, on their next bill two charges for tone service (they have two lines) appeared, backdated to the date of the marketing call and including the coming month. The marketer had figured that dealing with someone who had difficulty speaking gave him or her the right to claim a fake sale. I called the Illinois Bell business office for them and complained. I told them that my parents are perfectly willing to dial by pulse and that they can switch their telephones over to tone after reaching the other end when they call something that requires audio response. The representative tried to convince me that oh no, they can't do that without paying for tone dialing! If you don't pay for tone dialing, your telephones cannot generate tones! I demanded to speak to her supervisor and started over, asking for the bill to be adjusted (it was, but how many people would have paid without looking the bill over?) and for her to straighten out the representative about audio response. First marketing had recorded a fake order and then the representative had either lied or proved too stupid to do her own job. | They probably are raking in several million dollars a year on that scam. Pac*Bell and Illinois Bell both. David Tamkin dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us {attctc,netsys,ddsw1}!jolnet!dattier P. O. Box 813 Rosemont, Illinois 60018-0813 (312) 693-0591 (708) 518-6769 BIX: dattier GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 Jolnet is a public access system, where every user expresses personal opinions. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 21:31:36 +0100 From: mark@motown.altair.fr Subject: New Zealand Broadcast Call Signs Reply-To: mark@bdblues.altair.fr Henry Mensch writes: >New Zealand >broadcast stations use a similar convention: the "ZL" becomes silent, >and the number indicates location (1=North Island, 2=South Island). Actually, it goes like this: ZL1xx = northern North Island, essentially Auckland ZL2xx = southern North Island, essentially Wellington ZL3xx = northern South Island, essentially Christchurch ZL4xx = southern South Island, essentially Dunedin It is true that the stations *never* announce the "ZL". One reason for this is a sentimental attachment of many New Zealanders for Mother England, whose stations' call signs really do start with numbers. Thus the Auckland station ZL1YA sounds British and serious when it calls itself "1YA". Newer FM and rock stations, of course, since they appeal to a younger audience who couldn't care less about Mother England, are discarding the number as well: ZL1ZM-FM, for example, just calls itself "ZM-FM", and the Auckland University campus station, ZL1BFM (I think), never identifies itself as anything other than "Bifim". ### T. Mark James #### opinions, errors etc are my own ### ### mark@bdblues.altair.fr #### ### +33 (1) 39 63 53 93 #### "The universe is a four-dimensional ################################ Moebius strip." -- R. D. Ladd ------------------------------ From: Edward Greenberg Subject: They're doing it again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) Date: 26 Sep 89 20:59:13 GMT Reply-To: Edward Greenberg Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 997-9175} In Today's San Francisco Chronicle (reprinted without permission:) "The A's announced plans for sale of tickets for any American League Championship Series at the Coliseum. "The sale, which begins at noon Thursday, will be by phone only through the BASS/Ticketmaster system. Approximately 2000 ALC strips ... will be available. " Phone numbers are in the 408-988, 415-762, 707-762, 916-932, 209-226, 209-466, and 1-800-225 prefixes. All numbers suffix with 2277 which is (surprise!) BASS. Does anybody know if these are "Choke" exchanges? If not, I think phone service in northern CA is going to be history on Thursday at noon. :-) Ed Greenberg uunet!apple!netcom!edg [Moderator's Note: Meanwhile, the Illinois Bell outage last Friday night continues to stir controversy here. The figures are in now, and it appears there were -- yes, million! -- call attempts to Ticketron between Friday, 6 PM and Sunday midnight. Between 25,000 - 30,000 actually got through to purchase tickets. Some pizza delivery manager, in his ignorance, is talking about a class action lawsuit against Bell due to the business he lost because pizza orders could not get through to his establishment. Well, I was off line on the modem here for almost an hour! I disconnected from a BBS at 6:02 PM, and could not raise dial tone without the modem timing out for several hours. To get into the Northwestern Annex box Friday night, I clicked on my speakerphone, listened in the background to the clicks, pops and cross-talk (it was wild Friday night!) and worked at my desk. Once dial tone came crashing through, I quickly jumped on the modem, dialed manually, cut off the speaker and hoped to goodness that I would ring through, which I did. It was a gas! PT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 11:01:33 -0700 From: "John R. Covert 26-Sep-1989 1349" Subject: Phone Rates, U.S. to Australia >we can now ring the USA for A$1.19 off peak [how does this compare with US >to Aust costs?]. With the Australian dollar currently selling for A$1.26 to US$1, your rate is equivalent to 94 cents per minute. AT&T's economy rate is high ($2.16) for the first minute, and then .81 per minute after that. Thus a call of 13 minutes or less is cheaper if originated at the Australian end. Using Sprint, at $1.84/.78 the crossover occurs after six minutes. AT&T hasn't lowered rates to the Pacific for a long time; I think a lowering of at least the initial minute is long overdue. Add 3% tax to our rates (and in a few states, additional local tax). Full info on AT&T and Sprint's rates: 3A-2P Econ $2.16 .81 1.84 .78 8P-3A Disc $2.66 1.03 2.52 .96 2P-8P Std $3.32 1.35 3.25 1.28 Back to the U.S., on an AT&T calling card: 8.87 for the first 3, 1.35 after that, with no discount based on time period. /john ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 11:20:42 -0700 From: "John R. Covert 26-Sep-1989 1416" Subject: ITI (10488) 0+ Greg Monti writes: >dialed: 10 488 0 + valid out-of-LATA 10-digit number >response: "at the tone, please dial your card number or dial zero for the > ITI Operator" (pause) "beep (like an answering machine)" >dialed: my valid Bell Atlantic/AT&T card number >response (after about 10 seconds): "please wait for card verification" > (incredibly long pause, about 30 seconds of dead silence) "thank you for > using ITI; if the party you are calling is busy or does not answer, press 1 > to leave up to a one minute message" call rings through > >... Long distance carriers like ITT (whose 10 XXX is 488, above), >who do not offer their own operator service route your calls >to an AOS, which I believe ITI is, for billing. Some AOS's, like ITI, >offer value-added services as well, as above. Hmm. Fully automatic handling by ITI is new; it used to go to an operator for entry. I just made a call this way (and I know it will be more expensive than via AT&T, but hey, gotta support my habit). My experiment will be a little cheaper than Greg's, because I keyed in my AMEX card number (no pin). ITI charges slightly lower rates for using bank and T&E cards than for using a telephone calling card. I terminated the card number with a "#" and the call went through pretty fast. Since they are supporting various different cards, they have to have a variable length digit collection system. /john ------------------------------ From: cblpe!jhf@att.att.com Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 15:45 EDT Subject: First Long Distance Call "John R. Levine" says: > There are other telephone historical spots around Boston. On Main Street in > Cambridge is a building with a sign telling us that the first long-distance > call happened there, between Cambridge and Boston. I presume in that > context long-distance means between different exchanges. Hmm. I visited the Bell Homestead (where Alexander's father lived) in Brantford, Ontario. According to one of the displays, the first long distance call was made between Brantford and Paris (Ontario). One of my old Bell Canada phonebooks made the same claim. Jeff Frontz Work: +1 614 860 2797 AT&T-Bell Labs (CB 1C-356) Cornet: 353-2797 att!jeff.frontz jeff.frontz@att.com Home: +1 614 794 3986 ------------------------------ From: David Purks Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 9:48:17 EDT Subject: Telenet/PCP Waives Enrollment Fee for User Groups This is an official release from Telenet's PC Pursuit Product Management...questions or comments can be directed to the address in the announcement, the email address uunet!telenet!dkpurks, or on our product support BBS (The Net Exchange). ==================================== User Groups Promotion Do you know someone who is a prospective customer for the PC Pursuit service? Between now and December 31st we will be offering a special promotion for new customers who are members of a computer user group or society. We will waive the regular $30 sign-up fee. It is very easy for new users to qualify. The President or Coordinator of the User Group must send a letter (preferably on user group stationary), stating the purpose of the group, number of new prospective Pursuit customers, group address and telephone number to: Product Manager, PC Pursuit Mail Stop HQ24P Telenet Communications Corporation 12490 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, Va. 22096 We will send appropriate sign up forms to be distributed and returned. After credit card verification and order acceptance, the sign-up fee will be waived and users will receive their user Id and password along with Pursuit documentation through the mail within 10 working days or less. If you belong to a user group or know members of other user groups please feel free to pass this information along. David Purks PC Pursuit Technical Coordinator Telenet Communications Corporation ..!uunet!telenet!dkpurks [Moderator's Note: I do believe PC Pursuit has to be one of the best deals in data communications today. Prices as low as 83 cents per hour (when you have the $50 for 60 hours per month package) really can't be beat. I've been a subscriber to PCP since the first week it began operation, back in 1984. Even the $1 per hour ($30 for 30 hours per month) is a steal. And of course I am not prejudiced or anything merely because TELECOM Digest is available to users of the Net Exchange. Even without our little journal of telephony being available to read at no charge there, PCP and the Net Exchange would be a bargain. PT] ------------------------------ From: Richard Childers Subject: Re: 10-Cent Pay Phones Date: 26 Sep 89 19:45:53 GMT Reply-To: Richard Childers Organization: Metaprogrammers International uvm-gen!jay@banzai.pcc.com (Jay Schuster) writes: >mholtz@sactoh0.uucp (Mark A. Holtz) writes: >>I am kinda wondering. . . . is there still some areas in this country >>that still have payphones for a dime? >Vermont payphones cost a dime. They raised it to twenty cents a >couple of years ago and there was an incredible outcry, so it went >back down to a dime. When I was in Atlanta for a USENIX a few years ago, I noticed that the phones there seemed to cost a quarter ... But everything else there seems pretty reasonably priced, so it's not on account of the local economy ... >Jay Schuster uunet!uvm-gen!banzai!jay, attmail!banzai!jay >The People's Computer Company `Revolutionary Programming' Richard * "Domains constitute a futile attempt to defeat anarchy and otherwise * * retard progress." (Steve Bellovin, Peter Honeyman, pathalias(l)) * * * * ..{amdahl|decwrl|octopus|pyramid|ucbvax}!avsd.UUCP!childers * ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #410 *****************************   Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 2:00:57 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #411 Message-ID: <8909270200.aa05163@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Sep 89 02:00:09 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 411 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' (Mike Morris) Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment (Chris Schmandt) Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment (Fred Goldstein) Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking (Roger Haaheim) Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking (Leonard P. Levine) Re: Number Editing on Telephones (Lang Zerner) Re: Telegraph History....Again! (Marc T. Kaufman) Re: Splits of NNX? (third attempt to mail in) (David Tamkin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mike Morris Subject: Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' Date: 25 Sep 89 08:58:58 GMT Reply-To: Mike Morris johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) writes: >In article you write: >>typing. A small bell, driven by a just like today ... >Smallest nit of the week -- telex machines are all Baudot five-bit code, >for which there's no such thing as a control key, just letter-shift and >number-shift. The bell is some number-shift key. >[Moderator's Note: Well I believe it was the 'shift - 7' now that you mention >it; and of course control-G is Ascii 7. Weren't the 'number-shift' keys >essentially like control keys? How did they get line feed, carriage return, >ENQ (who are you?) and answerback without control codes? My handy Ascii >chart here says control-E, or ASC(5) when sent polls the other end to This isn't ascii! 7-bit ascii has 128 combinations, we have 5 bits with 32 combinations. Like they say in Oregon: "Things are different here!" >identify itself. What do you think? PT] Here's the map of the baudot / 3-row / pick your name.. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 The upper case is the same in all character sets Q W E R T Y U I O P for this row of the keyboard. - $ ! & ' ( ) A S D F G H J K L " / : ; ? , . FIGS Z X C V B N M LTRS LF (blank) (space bar) There is actually four different US character sets, plus the international set. There is the "Military", the "Weather", the "TWX" and the "Telex" set. LTRS Int'l Mil TWX TELEX WX A - - - - up arrow S ' Bell Bell ' Bell D currency $ $ WRU upper right arrow F DV* ! 1/4 $ right arrow G DV* & & & lower right arrow H DV* STOP DV* # down arrow J Bell ' , Bell lower left arrow K ( ( 1/2 ( left arrow L ) ) 3/4 ) upper left arrow Z + " " " + X / / / / / C : : WRU : circle V = ; 3/8 ; circle with a vertical bar inside B ? ? 5/8 ? circle with a + inside N , , DV* , circle (my chart dupes shift-C) M . . . . . DV* means "Domestic Variation" My first machine was purchased from Southern Pacific, and had the "TWX" character set - commonly knowin in ham circles as the "stock market" set. Fortunately the Model 15 and 19 printers had a type basket with soldered-on type pallets, and I was able to purchase replacement pallets (for 30 cents apiece!) and solder them on. Changing the shift-J bell to a "S-Bell" required disassembling the machine and replaciing the decoding arm. Interestingly, breaking off a tab allowed printing a bell character (like the " were translated into strings like fortrans ".LT." and ".GT." - he had implemented .NE. for <>, etc. I was amazed that it could be done, and flabbergasted that he did it in a 8k system (note that 8k was the total RAM - which held the system, the I/O lookup and the BASIC interpreter!). I wish I had saved a copy of the I/O driver listing. Mike Morris UUCP: Morris@Jade.JPL.NASA.gov ICBM: 34.12 N, 118.02 W #Include quote.cute.standard PSTN: 818-447-7052 #Include disclaimer.standard cat flames.all > /dev/null ------------------------------ From: Chris Schmandt Subject: Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment Date: 26 Sep 89 03:07:30 GMT Reply-To: Chris Schmandt Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA In article fff@mplex.UUCP (Fred Fierling) writes: >... I understand that it would be possible for two >independent calls to be handled on each of the B channels. So, how would >both telephones perform call set up and tear down on the one D channel? Not an issue. No different from setting up a voice call on the B1 channel and a data call on the B2 channel with today's sets. (my experience being limited to the AT&T 7506 set). During a "call", the D channel is in no way "dedicated" or tied to it. Q.931 provides bit fields to support connections to several entities simultaneously. In fact, while handling the above scenario I suspect you could also sustain an X.25 data link over the D channel, be reporting gas meter usage, etc. all at once. chris ------------------------------ From: goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com Subject: Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment Date: 25 Sep 89 21:55:28 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Littleton MA USA In article , fff@mplex.UUCP (Fred Fierling) writes... >>From what I've read I understand that the U interface would be provided >via an single pair coming from the CO to the subscriber's premises and >terminate on an NT1 box which would provide the S/T interface to all >digital telephones on the premises. >Assuming this is correct, I understand that it would be possible for two >independent calls to be handled on each of the B channels. So, how would >both telephones perform call set up and tear down on the one D channel? The D channel has a contention-resolution protocol associated with it. Each terminal has a unique address (TEI) so the network knows which one is which; there's a procedure for auto-assigning TEIs, or they can be manually set. The TEI is part of the LAPD protocol, essentially a variant on LAPB with multiplexing. Fred ------------------------------ From: rog@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Roger Haaheim) Subject: Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking Date: 23 Sep 89 14:31:50 GMT Organization: HP Design Tech Center - Santa Clara, CA Sounds like an autodialer listening for a "modem carrier"; when it doesn't get one, it hangs up and goes on to the next number. ------------------------------ From: Leonard P Levine Subject: Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking Date: 26 Sep 89 17:54:46 GMT Reply-To: len@csd4.csd.uwm.edu From article , by sharon@asylum.sf. ca.us (Sharon Fisher): >>Anyway, it could >>be a modem calling you (like a wrong number in someone's Systems file!) >>and you would hear nothing when you answered. Remember, an originating >>modem needs to hear the answering modem's tone before it will speak. If >>you have a modem, you might let it answer your phone for awhile and see >>if something connects with it:-) I know that you can whistle a modem up. Try responding to this no voice caller with a swept frequency whistle. Often modems will "hook up" and then disconnect when you do it. A click, a bleep and a hangup will result. + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | Leonard P. Levine e-mail len@evax.cs.uwm.edu | | Professor, Computer Science Office (414) 229-5170 | | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Home (414) 962-4719 | | Milwaukee, WI 53201 U.S.A. FAX (414) 229-6958 | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + ------------------------------ From: Lang Zerner Subject: Re: Number Editing on Telephones Date: 26 Sep 89 18:13:51 GMT Reply-To: langz@asylum.UUCP (Lang Zerner) Organization: The Great Escape, Inc In article vicorp!charlie@uunet.uu. net (Charlie Goldensher) writes: >In article you write: >>It has to be the most frustrating thing I can think of to wait five >>minutes for a dial tone only to accidentally dial a wrong digit and >>have to hang up and (after waiting for new dial tone!) start over. >This brings up a question that I've had for some time. Is there a >telephone set on the market with editing capability? Well, you could get a cheap terminal and modem, as long as the modem had a "dial but don't originate data connection" command. Hayes-compatible modems let you do this by adding a semicolon to the regular dial command (e.g. "ATDT5551212;"). This method may seem like overkill if you don't already use a terminal and modem, but it makes a lot of sense for someone like me who has the equipment on his desk anyway, often sitting idle. The Everex Evercom24E modem which I use even has a built-in speakerphone, so I don't need any additional telephone equipment for that line. Be seeing you... Lang Zerner langz@asylum.sf.ca.us UUCP:bionet!asylum!langz ARPA:langz@athena.mit.edu "...and every morning we had to go and LICK the road clean with our TONGUES!" ------------------------------ From: "Marc T. Kaufman" Subject: Re: Telegraph History....Again! Date: 25 Sep 89 15:30:37 GMT Reply-To: "Marc T. Kaufman" Organization: Stanford University, Computer Science Dept. In article Gabe Wiener writes: >When Thomas A. Edison was a teenager in the 1860's, he used to work in >a telegraph office. At one point, he was assigned to work the >graveyard shift. Now in those days, a telegraph operator would have >to send a six over the line (represented at the time by the morse >signal ......, although the MODERN morse signal is -....). That's because the telegraph code was American Morse, which cannot send dashes. Everything was dots, and the timing between them. Telegraphs had sounders, not buzzers. Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu) [Moderator's Note: In about two weeks, I am going to run a story about the Western Union operator who was on duty in Chicago on the Sunday night of the Great Fire, in 1871. He was interviewed by the [Chicago Tribune] thirty years later, in 1901. PT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 89 11:12 CDT From: David Tamkin Subject: Re: Splits of NNX? Organization: Jolnet Public Access Unix From Carl Moore, in volume 9, issue 389: | I am also NOT aware of N0X/N1X prefixes in use in the following | splits after 1980: | 305/407 in Florida | 303/719 in Colorado [The absence of N0X/N1X in the 617/508 split had been noted before.] | The only splits from 1965 thru 1981 are: | 305/904 in Florida in 1965 (305 was split again last year to form 407) | 703/804 in Virginia in 1973 (N0X/N1X has since come to DC area, with | some of those prefixes coming to Va. suburbs, in 703) And 713/409 in Texas in perhaps the mid-'70's, and 714/619 in California around 1979 or 1980. | [Moderator's Note: The 703/804 split was the first, nearly twenty five years | ago, if memory serves me. Then the 305/904 split. Then none for many years, | until the one in New York. Is my timing correct? PT] I think the very first split was 404/912 in Georgia. Probably the only splits where N0X/N1X prefixes *were* used first have been 213/818, 212/718, 312/708, and 201/908 (unless one considers the change from seven-digit to eleven-digit interstate dialing in metropolitan DC a "split"). NNX adherence seems to be the rule rather than the exception: I believe 214/903 and 415/510 will be splitting without use of N0X/N1X. David Tamkin dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us {attctc,netsys,ddsw1}!jolnet!dattier P. O. Box 813 Rosemont, Illinois 60018-0813 (312) 693-0591 (708) 518-6769 BIX: dattier GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 Jolnet is a public access system, where every user expresses personal opinions. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #411 *****************************   Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 20:20:49 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #412 Message-ID: <8909272020.aa05306@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Sep 89 20:20:18 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 412 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Special Information Tones (Larry Lippman) Digital Channel Banks (Bernard Mckeever) Tone Plant & Stromberg-Carlson (Larry Lippman) 10XXX From Pay Phones (Was: Trapping 10333 by AT&T) (John R. Levine) Telegrams in the 1980s (Craig Jackson) Wanted: Technical Info on Rolm CBX 8000 System (Timothy Coddington) Information Wanted About GEOnet (Henning Schulzrinne) MCI Card "Test Drive" (Mark Robert Smith) Help: Internet -> GEnie (Katsu Suzuki) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Special Information Tones Date: 26 Sep 89 23:29:11 EDT (Tue) From: Larry Lippman In article carroll1!dtroup@uunet.uu. net (Dave Troup) writes: > Does anyone know what the recording alert tones are? You know-those > dee-doo-DOO, "The number you have reached..." What are the frequencies > to them. Ive NEVER been able to find out what those are. These tones are called SIT (Special Information Tones). Their purpose is to permit an automatic Call Disposition Analyzer (CDA) to differentiate between a human voice and a recorded announcement, and to categorize the type of recorded announcement. A Call Disposition Analyzer is an automatic device, today totally computer-controlled, which automatically dials test calls over certain test subscriber lines, tandem trunks and intertoll trunks for the purpose of evaluating the connectivity and grade of service of all or a portion of the DDD network. A CDA may access a local subscriber line and outpulse using DP or DTMF, or in the case of tandem or intertoll trunks outpulse using MF. A CDA may be programmed to dial a milliwatt test line (102-type from tandem or intertoll) or a transmission/noise measurement ATMS responder test line (105-type from tandem or intertoll). The results of test calls are logged and categorized. The SIT tones facilitate categorizing a call failure which results in a recording. I don't know the SIT frequencies, either, except that they are not far from 600 Hz. The two CDA's which I have seen (Northeast Electronics and WECO) did not in fact have any frequency discrimination circuitry; they merely looked for three sequential tones occurring in less than 3 seconds using a bandpass filter centered around 600 Hz. Actually, I believe that AT&T had some more grandiose plans for the SIT tones which in fact were not implemented. Last I knew - which is actually some years ago - the same department at AT&T which assigned the verbal tandem and intertoll announcement failure codes for recordings said stay tuned for SIT assignments. I stayed tuned for a while, but never heard anything. :-) <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 08:54:45 EDT From: Bernard Mckeever Subject: Digital Channel Banks Reply-To: bmk@cbnews.ATT.COM (bernard.mckeever,54236,mv,3b045,508 960 6289) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Here's a subject I haven't seen here before. I'll start it off and hope that [insert your name here] has the time to provide us with another of his informative articles. BTW, The traffic on this group is picking up and I notice that MANY of the readers have extensive knowledge of the "early days". Keep up the good work! Please feel free to correct any mistakes in the following. ========================================== The first commercially available digital channel bank for use by the telephone company was introduced in the early 60's and went by the name of the D1 channel bank, also known, at that time, as T1 carrier. Some time latter T1 carrier would be used to describe only the interoffice facility used for transport, and D1 would refer to the D1-A bank. The system used Pulse Code Modulation [PCM] and channels shared the facility by means of Time Division Multiplexing [TDM]. Each channel bank could provide 24 time slots [channels] and the the channel units and related common equipment were called a digroup. The banks function was to convert voice frequency and channel signaling information into a string of 1's and 0's and take this same string at the far end and turn it back into its' original form. As someone mentioned D1-A [D1-B] used A-law encoding a 100 step linear encoding scheme to "digitize the voice signal. Signals were first sampled and converted to a Pulse Amplitude Modulated [PAM] signal and passed to the COder/DECoder [CODEC] for conversion to 7 bit digital codes, an additional signaling bit was added to each byte to form an 8 bit byte. Each channel was sampled 8,000 times per second and at the end of 24 bytes, a framing bit was added. This gave us a multiplexed line rate of 1.544,000 bits per second. Also as mentioned D2 used u-255 [Mu-255] a non linear encoding scheme that used 8 bit voice encoding in 5 of 6 frames and 7 bit encoding every 6th frame. In every 6th frame a signaling bit was added to each byte. The frames were now aligned into a 12 frame Super Frame [SF], during frame 6 signaling information was sent on the "A highway" and in frame 12 on the "B highway". This required the frame bit to "share" information so the terminal and the signaling equipment knew when thing were in sync. D2 banks did not last long but were the 1st Toll grade digital terminals. Next in the series was D3 terminal banks. About 1/2 the size of a D1 bank D3 used the same line coding [SF] as D2 and provided additional Special Service Applications. Each system mentioned used the same line rate [1.544.000 b/s] but were not end to end compatible. Each used a different channel counting sequence. In theory you could connect D2 and D3 but why bother, most of the systems by that time were either D1-B or D3. D1-B was not compatible with D2 or D3 because of the different encoding schemes. Next came D1-D a major retrofit to D1-B that used the same encoding and framing scheme as D3. This allowed the VERY large base of older D banks to be upgraded to Toll grade service and to provide additional special service applications. One of the first uses of D1-D to D3 caused some embarrassment to the testers who turned up the system. They said everything is OK and the Circuit Provisioning Center [CPC] started to assign service. The 1st circuit turned up without a problem but they could not tone out channel 2 for the second circuit. After hours of head scratching someone [me] remembered that D1 banks count channels 1, 13, 2, 14,....12, 24, and that D3 counted 1, 2, 3,....23, 24. when the system was accepted they only toned out channels 1 and 24, quite a common practice. They forgot to install the adapter at the D3 end of the span because at that time they did not know a D1 would be at the other end. After D3 came D4 [what else] a 2 digroup system [48 channels] that could operate at several line rates DS-1 DS-1C DS2 and provided twice as much service in the same amount of space as a D3 bank. Today, by far, D4 banks are the dominant system in North America. D4 also is the basis for SLC-96 carrier systems. Many other digital terminals still exist in the network and a new generation of them are starting to take over where remote operating centers are in place. ------------------------------ Subject: Tone Plant & Stromberg-Carlson Date: 26 Sep 89 23:33:02 EDT (Tue) From: Larry Lippman In article john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > The dial and busy/reorder tones in a stock Stromberg XY are generated > by a device which uses a single vacuum tube. Ringback comes from a > vibrating reed device (and sounds like a fart). The sound made by the > dial tone generator is reminiscent of the old WE SXS "honker" tone but > has a more mellow timbre. Anything is possible with Stromberg-Carlson, I suppose. I have not seen any S-C tone generators which used vacuum tubes, however. All of the S-C F40 and F80 XY PABX's used ferroresonant tone and ringing generators, which I believe were made by Warren. In the case of S-C XY CO's that I have seen, while the office interrupter panel was always S-C, the tone plant was usually Warren and solid-state (Warren had solid-state tone plant in the 1950's). I have also seen Lorain solid-state tone plant in XY CO's, along with some older Holzer-Cabot ringing-tone machines. No vacuum tubes, though. Now, in my humble opinion, if there is an apparatus manufacturer worthy of bashing, it is Stromberg-Carlson. XY worked well until the first careless switchman or screwed-up selector or connector banged into the wire bank multiple. No matter how one tried, one could NEVER get a banged wire multiple straight enough so that it again worked reliably. As far as I am concerned, XY ran on a wing and a prayer, and was pure junk. S-C was notorious for test apparatus that was built into cheap flakeboard cases, painted a mottled maroon. Even when S-C came out with their electronic Cross-Reed systems (which were awful), the test sets were STILL built in a junky case which flaked wood and paint just by looking at it. It's hard to get a feeling of quality when your $ 1,000,000 ESS switch comes with test sets which look like painted orange crates. > Although rapidly disappearing, the California desert is peppered with > exchanges using the XY. It's a good place for 'em. I'm certain that XY apparatus, suitably placed in the desert, will retard soil erosion. See, *I* can bash, too. :-) <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?" ------------------------------ From: "John R. Levine" Subject: 10XXX From Pay Phones (Was: Trapping 10333 by AT&T) Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 02:16:51 GMT In article ficc!peter@uunet.uu.net writes: >I would hardly think that Sprint (my carrier of choice) has no access to LA! When I was at LAX last week, I had no trouble sticking my FON card into one of the PacTel card reader phones and making a Sprint call. (Which is more than you can do here in Boston, the card reader phones at Logan don't know about MCI or Sprint cards.) It is true that although MCI and Sprint are set up to take calls from pay phones, a lot of the COs don't seem to handle 10XXX from pay phones very well. But I have two questions: 1 - If I dial 10333+0+number from a pay phone, I get a familiar-sounding bong and can dial in a calling card number. From a non-pay phone on the same prefix, I get a live operator. This seems to be the case for both MCI and Sprint? Why? 2 - When calling as above from a payphone, I can use my New England Tel card number, which is the same as my AT&T number, of course, but I can't use my FON card number. Why don't they accept their own cards? Again, the same situation holds with MCI. John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, Levine@YALE.edu Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe ------------------------------ From: Craig Jackson Subject: Telegrams in the 1980's Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 9:39:34 EDT Somebody asked what 'telegrams' were used for today. I don't believe that true telegrams exist in the U.S. anymore, meaning written communications handled on both ends by Western Union, but 'telegrams' still have a special place in U.S. legal usage. Twice, I have sold houses when I was out of town when I accepted the offer. In each case, the real-estate agent instructed me to send a telegram indicating acceptance. In both cases, I actually called the telegram in to the 800 number; in the most recent case, the telegram was actually delivered by mail, WU no longer having any messengers in this area (Boston). I've never checked this usage with a lawyer; it could be that the real-estate agents were just using old practices. But some of them hadn't been in the business long enough to be familiar with real telegrams. Craig Jackson dricejb@drilex.dri.mgh.com {bbn,ll-xn,axiom,redsox,atexnet,ka3ovk}!drilex!{dricej,dricejb} ------------------------------ From: Timothy Coddington Subject: Wanted: Technical Info on Rolm CBX 8000 System Date: 27 Sep 89 16:33:58 GMT Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University (Software Engineering Institute), Pgh, PA I'm looking for a source for information on the Rolm CBX 8000 system. If anyone knows where I can get schematics or a detailed maintenance manual I would greatly appreciate it. Also, I would like to hear from anyone knows the inside of this beast. Thanks Tim Coddington email tac@sei.cmu.edu 412-268-7712/244-8557 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 17:53 EST From: Henning Schulzrinne Subject: Information Wanted About GEOnet I would appreciate any information about GEOnet, a commercial mail and data network, especially concerning gateways to Internet. Thanks in advance. Henning Schulzrinne (HGSCHULZ@CS.UMASS.EDU) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Massachusetts at Amherst Amherst, MA 01003 - USA phone: (413) 545-3179 (EST) FAX: (413) 545-0724 ------------------------------ From: Mark Robert Smith Subject: MCI Card "Test Drive" Date: 27 Sep 89 00:00:00 MCI has a Test Drive number as well. It works more or less like ATT's. You call 1-800-950-TEST, and follow the steps. You don't need to use a valid card number - I used a bad one and it continued anyway. Mark Smith, KNJ2LH All Rights Reserved RPO 1604 You may redistribute this article only if those who P.O. Box 5063 receive it may do so freely. New Brunswick, NJ 08903-5063 msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu ------------------------------ From: Katsu Suzuki Date: 27 Sep 89 18:54:39 GMT Subject: Help! Internet -> GEnie Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor Could someone help me? My friend want me to send some message via e-mail, and he has account on GEnie. I have account on Internet. I don't want to join GEnie.(It is too costly for me!) Does someone knows how to send e-mail to GEnie from internet? Please e-mail me at ksuzuki@dip.eecs.umich.edu Thanks in advance. _____ _____ | \ / | |_ \ / _| | \/ | Katsu Suzuki | |\ /| | Department of Aerospace Engineering | | \ / | | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor _| |_ \/ _| |_ | | | | ksuzuki@caen.engin.umich.edu |______| |______| ksuzuki@dip.eecs.umich.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #412 *****************************   Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 21:13:13 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #413 Message-ID: <8909272113.aa08436@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Sep 89 21:10:18 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 413 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: Reminiscing: Mass Calling Prefixes (213) 520, etc. (vern@zebra.uucp) Re: Reminiscing: Mass Calling Prefixes (213) 520, etc. (Joe Talbot) Re: They're Doing It Again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) (Edward Greenberg) Re: Radio Station Names (Australia, Canada, HCJB) (Michael Katzmann) Re: Telegraph History....Again! (Gabe Wiener) Re: Cut Down Your Long Distance Bills From 10% to 35% (Edward Greenberg) Re: Phone Design For Humans (Gabe Wiener) Re: Number Editing on Telephones (Edward S. Sachs) Re: Splits of NNX (Carl Moore) [Moderator's Note: BULLETIN! As this issue was set for transmission, a message arrived from John Higdon saying the A's and the Giants are going into the playoffs. San Fransisco is, at this hour, experiencing the same problems Chicago had several days ago, with everyone on the phone at one time. There however, tipped off to the possibility by the fiasco in Chicago last week, the telco is working to keep things moving. A message will be in the next Digest from Mr. Higdon discussing it. PT] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 02:22:37 MDT From: vern@zebra.uucp Subject: Re: Reminiscing: Mass Calling Prefixes (213) 520, etc. In article , jsol@bu-it.bu.edu writes: > Ah yes, I have stories about the mass calling prefixes (or numbers) in > Connecticut (there weren't any) and elsewhere. In the mid-fifties when television was in it's infancy, one of local stations teamed with a super market chain to produce an audience participation version of Bingo. The playing slips were passed out at the super market during the week. Then on Saturday evening at 6 or 7 pm the station had a 'LIVE' show during which the numbers were picked with the usual column of air blowing numbered ping-pong balls from the bin. Innocently, the TV station advertised it's own telephone number. "Gee, with a ten line PBX, we can handle the calls." No way! When the game progressed to the point that boards were nearly complete, the calls started to come in and all the telephones in downtown Denver quit working. On Monday, the Engineering staff was put to work to find a way that this wouldn't happen again. The TV station and the super-market had spent a lot of money promoting the game so they were 'extremely' reluctant to postpone future shows just because of an inconvenience to the Phone Company. Obviously the solution required additional equipment but where could they find the equivalent of another Central Office in less than than a week? Then someone eyed the companies own PBX. It was the equivalent of a central office and virtually unused at that time of the week. During normal working hours some twenty operators were employed answering incoming calls. All the requests for service, personal calls to employees as well as the many business calls were handled through the one rotary number ( TAbor 5-4171 ). But on Saturday night, only two ladies were enough to handle the low volume of traffic. Even then, they brought in knitting to keep themselves busy. Since the Central Office equipment and the PBX were in the same building, it was a reasonable task to tie-in the PBX to the general network. They then assigned an unused prefix to generate a pseudo-exchange. Calls coming into this pseudo-exchange were to be routed to the PBX and paesed out to the TV station on a special line. When the next Saturday night rolled around, the TV station announced a different number in the pseudo-exchange for each game. Actually, it didn't matter what number they used used, everything went to them anyhow but it added drama to the show. They didn't announce the number until half way through each game so the people at home could become anxious as their boards began to fill in. Everything worked well at the phone company except for one minor detail. They forgot about the switchboard. When all these calls came in on the PBX, the switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree. The poor operators were sure that the city had suffered a major calamity and they nearly had heart attacks. The next week, the switchboard was blocked out except for the couple of lines reserved for company use. This tale was related to me at the time by my father. He was in the Dial Traffic Engineering group at Mountain States Tel. & Tel., now U. S. West Communications etc. etc. etc. ( Why they ever adopted such an obnoxiously long name, snows me! ) It was his job to get something working in one week's time. Vernon C. Hoxie {ncar,nbires,boulder,isis}!scicom!zebra!vern 3975 W. 29th Ave. voice: 303-477-1780 Denver, Colo., 80212 TB+ uucp: 303-455-2670 ------------------------------ From: Joe Talbot Subject: Re: Reminiscing: Mass Calling Prefixes (213) 520, etc. Date: 27 Sep 89 10:59:09 GMT Organization: ATI, High desert research center, Victorville, Ca In article , jsol@bu-it.bu.edu writes: > I am fairly sure that 520 had a step tandem of sorts, because you > always got the familiar rapid busy signal if you overloaded the tandem > switch. Bop bop bop bop bop bop............. At the very least it was > a step front end to the final machine making it impossible to be > quick-on-the-fingers. 213 520 was one of the strangest things I've ever encountered. Calling the same number several times, you would sometimes receive ESS precise busy signal or ring, sometimes SXS "honker" busy or ring. Certain numbers always gave you SXS ring/busy etc. It always dial pulsed into the switch (whatever it was!). That all finally went away maybe 6 or 7 years ago. Does anybody know the story on 213 520 ? joe@mojave I finally changed my dumb signature. People were always telling me what a great signature I had. ------------------------------ From: Edward Greenberg Subject: Re: They're Doing It Again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) Date: 27 Sep 89 23:17:15 GMT Reply-To: Edward Greenberg Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 997-9175} In article I write: >"The A's announced plans for sale of tickets for any American League >Championship Series at the Coliseum. >"The sale, which begins at noon Thursday, will be by phone only through >the BASS/Ticketmaster system. Approximately 2000 ALC strips ... will be >available. " Yesterdays news indicates that Pacific Bell is taking specific steps to avoid a fiasco like the one in Illinois. They state that each CO will send excess calls to recordings, so that the network doesn't come to it's knees. The news sounds like Pacific Bell is doing something new to protect against overload, not that the facility has always been in place. Of course, this was a PR person talking to the news, and perhaps he was simplifying. He also made the point that Bass receives calls from four different CO's in four different area codes, rather than one central CO being on the receiving end. Well, it's an hour and a half away from H-Hour, (the Giants are doing the same thing tonight) so we'll see, I guess. Me -- I'm off to the ballgame. -edg Ed Greenberg uunet!apple!netcom!edg ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 12:42:38 -0400 From: Michael Katzmann Subject: Re: Radio Station Names (Australia, Canada, HCJB) Reply-To: Michael Katzmann Organization: Rusty's BSD machine at home In article Rich Wales writes: >In article >munnari!ucsvc.unimelb.edu.au!U5434122@uunet.uu.net describes radio >station names in Australia: > > Radio station call signs are of the form N-cc for AM and > N-ccc-FM for FM eg in Sydney (NSW) there are 2BL, 2WS, > 2ABC-FM, 2JJJ-FM, 2-DAY-FM etc and in Melbourne (Vic) there > are 3LO, 3AK, 3MMM-FM (triple M) 3-FOX-FM (the Fox) etc. > > >There is apparently no international requirement that radio stations >all have call letters conforming to the international (ITU) plan. If >there were such a requirement, Australian stations would have call >letters starting with AX, VH-VN, or VZ. > The origin of this system is I think, related to the British system of broadcasting station callsigns. One of the first British Broadcasting Company stations (as it was then) was 2LO. This translated to the antipodes as the Melbourne station 3LO. The system was just perpetuated. Since (generally speaking) the MW stations from Australia (and of course the VHF stations) would not cause interference to any other countries (with the exception of NZ, PNG and Indonesia), the need to be under the international call sign system is less than for European and other countries. Incidentally some broadcasing stations (educational and similar) do follow ITU callsigns. One example is the University of New South Wales radio and tv stations that had callsigns of VL2UV and VITU respectively. email to UUCP: uunet!mimsy!{arinc,fe203}!vk2bea!michael _ _ _ _ Amateur | VK2BEA (Australia) ' ) ) ) / // Radio | G4NYV (United Kingdom) / / / o _. /_ __. _ // Stations| NV3Z (United States) / ' (_<_(__/ /_(_/|_ Subject: Re: Telegraph History....Again! Reply-To: Gabe Wiener Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 14:41:48 GMT In article "Marc T. Kaufman" writes: >That's because the telegraph code was American Morse, which cannot send >dashes. Everything was dots, and the timing between them. Telegraphs had >sounders, not buzzers. Sorry, that isn't quite correct. Yes, the code was the American Morse Code, but American Morse _does_ indeed have dashes. Many of the characters are identical to the International Morse Code used today. As soon as I find my American Morse chart, I'll post a side-by-side chart of American vs. International Morse. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us." ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Cut down your long distance phone bills from 10% to 35% Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 997-9175} Date: 26 Sep 89 16:02:48 PDT (Tue) From: Edward Greenberg I wonder what this fellow is selling. In article <824@male.EBay.Sun.COM> from ca.general, it is written: > For long distance phone calls, the charge from the most expensive > one to the least expensive ones are : AT&T, MCI, Sprint. > The rate I am going to introduce to you is 10% lower than Sprint. > >The advantage: > >1. Highest quality phone network provided by Sprint/MCI. >2. Lowest rate. (10% lower than sprint for the whole day, no day > rate, evening rate, night rate) >3. No cost to you, except if you are AT&T and will be moved to > Sprint's service, PAC BELL will charge 5 dollars one time fee > for the move. If you are on Sprint or MCI now, there is no > charge from Pac Bell. > >How to register: > >1. Fill out a application form (easy form), sign it and send back to me. >What is the difference on service: > >1. No difference at all. > >2. No extra number to dial. > >3. 800 number for customer service. > >4. travel card available. > >Give me call if you have more question. > >Sign up today, you have nothing to lose ! >And tell your friends about it. >Thanks ! > >Victor Jieh >408-276-4192 (O) >408-253-1639 (H) >1025 Miller Ave. >San Jose, CA 95129 [Moderator's Note: Well, I have to wonder myself what he is selling. It might be Sprint WATS, thus it is a little cheaper than regular Sprint, but I dunno. I wonder if he is brokering for Sprint. The clues he gives are (1) no day/evening/night differential and (2) no changeover fee if already on Sprint. He may have a user group or club which purchases Sprint in bulk (such as WATS) and re-sells it. How about someone in 408 checking him out and posting a report. PT] ------------------------------ From: Gabe Wiener Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Reply-To: Gabe Wiener Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 21:37:29 GMT In article dsacg1!dlscg1!drms3002@ cis.ohio-state.edu (Andy Meijers) writes: >Designers: (including ATT, WECO, etc): Go back and look at the 500 and >2500 series desk sets again. There is a reason they lasted so long, >and were so widely imitated. They WORKED!!! Speaking of the 2500, is it still with us? Does AT&T (or ITT, or GTE, or Stromberg Carlson (comdial) or whoever) still manufacture a _real_ 2500 set? I remember when a friend went to buy a 2500 set a few years ago, what he came back with was truly horrible. Worse, it was made by AT&T. It had -- - A square handset - Buttons that generated short tone bursts - A wimpy electronic ringer. A ringer should be MECHANICAL and it should be LOUD! -An el-cheapo keypad that had little travel, and had the cutesy yuppie ringer volume and other such stuff right on the front panel. -No weight. You could breathe and the thing might fly away. Is this the evolution (or shall I say devolution) of the venerable 2500 set? I'd better hang on to the one I have. It may well be worth something one day. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 08:26:14 CDT From: Edward S Sachs Subject: Re: Number Editing on Telephones Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories In article , vicorp!charlie@uunet.uu. net (Charlie Goldensher) writes: > This brings up a question that I've had for some time. Is there a > telephone set on the market with editing capability? One alternative is to program the number you wish to call into one of the "memories" of your telephone before you start your call in attempts. (Now everyone has a telephone with an n number memory, where n is somewhere between 3 and 100, don't they?) I've discovered that, on my AT&T 1600 telephone, the "redial" button can be programmed without dialing a call, just by using the same method as to program any of the other memory buttons. The digital display of the number dialed on the phone helps a lot, too! Ed Sachs AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville, IL att!ihlpb!essachs, e.s.sachs@att.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 11:31:34 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Splits of NNX? (This is primarily in answer to David Tamkin's comments). 714/619 in California was in 1982 713/409 in Texas was in 1983 (my list appearing in telecom had these) When was 404/912 done? I had never heard of that one before. Does anyone in Bellcore know about the splits occurring before 305/904 in 1965? No, 214 area DOES have N0X/N1X prefixes, although these may be limited to Dallas area rather than popping up in distant places like Tyler and Texarkana. Also, 415 did prepare for N0X/N1X (I have not yet come across any such prefixes, however). Earlier mail to telecom said that the inter-areacode local calls in DC area will be TEN (not eleven) digits, where the leading 1+ is left off. Toll calls require the leading 1+. I called this an areacode split because area code 202 is being reduced to DC proper (to allow for previously-forbidden prefix duplication), and will no longer be available for suburban points. -Carl Moore ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #413 *****************************   Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 22:27:31 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #414 Message-ID: <8909272227.aa06878@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Sep 89 22:25:00 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 414 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson A's and Giants: Squeezing Pac*Bell (John Higdon) Cordless Phone Questions (Pete Lyall) Locatable Ringers (Kenneth R. Jongsma) New Techniques For Busy Verification? (Miguel Cruz) Criticism of Call Forwarding (Miguel Cruz) Information Wanted on Trade Journals (Mark Henry) Re: Phone Cards (Gabe Wiener) Re: Charging Calls to Credit Cards (David W. Tamkin) Re: Phone Cards (John R. Levine) More Amusing Phone Trivia (Gabe Wiener) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Higdon Subject: A's and Giants: Squeezing Pac*Bell Date: 28 Sep 89 01:53:29 GMT Organization: Green Hills and Cows With the A's and Giants headed for the playoffs, the Bay Area is going through what Chicago just experienced. Everyone is picking up the phone to call BASS Ticketron to get those few miserable tickets. I have observed that it takes at least one minute to pull dial tone on my lone crossbar line, while the ESS seems to be completely unaffected. On the local news, they had a reporter remoted live from the Pac*Bell San Ramon traffic control central showing the "heroic" efforts of Pac*Bell to keep Northern California traffic moving. He claimed that Pac*Bell frequently works with companies like BASS who have occasional high volumes. I must say the "control center" as seen on TV looked awfully impressive. Supposedly they were rerouting calls with particular attention to those COs that had BASS offices served out of them. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: Pete Lyall Subject: Cordless Phone Questions Date: 27 Sep 89 21:31:42 GMT Organization: Contel FSD, Westlake Village, CA Hello! I am a cordless phone neophyte with a question or two that I hope the group(s) can help me with. We gave my daughter our old kitchen phone last week (her first apartment), and went off in search of a cordless phone. We ended up at Sears because of a sales flyer. Experience has taught me never to buy the cheapest of anything (at least not in the techno-toys department), so I steered clear of the $52 special, and bought the $80 AT&T 4200. I took it home and found that while I could still hear, there was a bit of audible static & distortion when I went around a wall or two, and also when I went outside. I talked with a friend who was blissfully happy with his AT&T 5320, so I went back to Sears and took the 4200 back. They didn't have a 5320.. only a 5310 @ $175 or so. I compared features on the box with the 5200 (next model down that they carried) and it appeared on the surface that the 5310 was just a feature-fat version of the 5200. Since the latter was $134, I opted for it. Well - we still get some buzzing and static, sometimes even in close proximity to the base unit. Now what I'm wondering is: o - Is this just the nature of cordless phones, and should I just get used to it? o - Is the 5310 really worth the extra $40 or so ? o - Is there another make that I should check into? o - Is 'compression' a valued feature or a marketing gimmick? o - What are other folks' experiences and what are they using? Thanks for any and all help. Please mail replies vice posting them if possible.. Thanks! Pete Lyall Contel Corporation Compuserve: 76703,4230 OS9_Net: (805) 375-1401 (24hr 300/1200/2400) Internet: pete@wlbr.imsd.contel.com UUCP: {hacgate,jplgodo,voder}!wlbr!pete ------------------------------ From: Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup.portal.com Subject: Locatable Ringers Date: Wed, 27-Sep-89 06:55:23 PDT In a recent issue of the digest, someone mentioned that they wanted a phone that you could locate by the sound of it's ring. If you don't work in an office where this is a problem, you can't imagine how annoying it is. My office is in a large room with about 30 other offices. We all have Steelcase moveable wall type offices with the fabric finish. We also all have the traditional AT&T 2500 telephones on our desks. Unfortunately, they are the new electronic ringer style. With the traditional bell, it is possible to be in any one else's office and tell if your phone is ringing based on the volume and direction of the bell. With these new ringers, it is impossible to tell where the "warble" is coming from, even though you are only one office away. There seems to be no way the ear can attribute direction to the "warble". Hence, every time a phone rings, everyone runs to their office to see if it is for them. Several of us got tired of this and wired up a neon flasher. It's quite easy to make: You get a standard neon bulb (NE-2?) and a 10K resistor. Solder the resistor in line (not across) with the neon bulb. Remove the eraser from a Jet Eraser (or use a pen casing) and mount the bulb in the casing. Run the wiring to your phone tip and ring lines. When the phone rings, the neon light flashes. It does not interfere with the operation of the phone. Note that this only works with traditional phone systems. It probably will not work with the new electronic systems. Now when the phone rings, we look and see who's phone is flashing. Not a perfect solution, but better than before.... ken@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 05:41:02 EDT From: Miguel_Cruz@ub.cc.umich.edu Subject: New Techniques for Busy Verification? I called the Michigan Bell operator the other day to have a busy number verified... I dialed 0+764-1817, after the bong, I dialed 0. An operator came on. "This number's been busy -- " -click- less than two seconds later, "Sir, there's talking on the line," came back from the operator. What happened to Verify operators? Time was, you got to listen to the operator call another operator, you could chat while the second operator was off for 30 seconds or so doing who knows what. This whole transaction, from dialing to hanging up, took less than 30 seconds. Miguel_Cruz@ub.cc.umich.edu ------------------------------ From: Miguel_Cruz@ub.cc.umich.edu Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 05:41:02 EDT Subject: Criticism of Call Forwarding Two things about call forwarding: A) Why on earth does it do that thing where the first time you try forwarding, it actually places the call to the number, and if it's busy or no answer, you have to do the whole forwarding sequence again? Is there a single person on the planet for whom that's helpful or convenient? B) How difficult would it be to modify the system so that when one placed a call to a forwarded number, they would first hear a short tone signifying that the call was being bumped? Unlike A), that would actually be informative and helpful. Miguel_Cruz@ub.cc.umich.edu [Moderator's Note: Regards (A), if you actually reach the party to whom you are forwarding, you are assured of dialing correctly. If you get a busy or no answer, it might be because you dialed a wrong number. By doing it a second time, telco is assured that your instructions match your intentions. Without this repeat-dialing verification, you might accidentally have forwarded to the wrong place. Regards (B), many people do not want you to know they are not at home/office, etc. They'd prefer that you assume they are wherever you dialed them at. And for residences, do you want to let a burglar know you are not home, due a 'forwarding tone' which tells him there is no one there to receive a call (or unauthorized visit)? At present, if you listen *closely* when dialing a centrex number with call forwarding on no answer, after the third ring you will hear a slightly out of synch ring the fourth time. PT] ------------------------------ Date: 27 SEP 89 17:30:47 CST From: Mark Henry Subject: Information Wanted on Trade Journals Dear Telecom World, I have enjoyed Telecom Digest very much since I found it on our LISTSERVER. It has provided me with much about telecommunications that I had not been able to obtain from other sources...But I only have access to the mailing while at work and not much time is spent in the office. The point of this conversation is that I'm looking for a good trade journal or magazine that I can read at home. I hope someone out there can provide me with some info in this area (names, addresses, phone #'s, etc.). PLEASE SEND INFO TO: MHENRY@SFAUSTIN.BITNET All info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mark Henry - Telecom Tech II Stephen F. Austin State University (409)568-2200 ------------------------------ From: Gabe Wiener Subject: Re: Phone Cards Reply-To: Gabe Wiener Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 14:37:36 GMT In article cgch!wtho@mcsun.eu.net (Tom Hofmann) writes: >What I would like to know: Isn't there a country (or LDC in the US) >where phone calls can be paid be regular, internationally accepted >credit cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express, etc.)? Phone calls >would get much easier while travelling abroad. Or is there a reason, >why telephone companies do not accept them? I often see such phones in airports. You pick up the receiver, dial your number, and then slide your credit card through the slot (Visa, MC, AmEx). You then push a button on the phone indicating the long distance carrier you want, and your call rings through. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us." ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Charging Calls to Credit Cards Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 11:28:43 CDT Reply-To: dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us From: "David W. Tamkin" In TELECOM Digest, Volume 9, Issue 409, Tom Hofmann asked: | What I would like to know: Isn't there a country (or LDC in the US) | where phone calls can be paid be regular, internationally accepted | credit cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express, etc.)? Phone calls | would get much easier while travelling abroad. Or is there a reason, | why telephone companies do not accept them? There certainly is such a country: the USA. At O'Hare Airport, for example, there are payphones whose magnetic stripe readers will accept a calling card issued by a long-distance carrier, an Illinois Bell card (the local telco in the part of O'Hare where the passenger terminals are located), or MasterCard, VISA, American Express, and either Carte Blanche or Diner's Club (I can't recall which). If you dial inter-LATA with an Illinois Bell card or a credit card or a T&E card, you have to push a button to select a carrier: there are buttons for AT&T, MCI, US Sprint, and ITT. David Tamkin P.O Box 813 Rosemont, Illinois 60018-0813 | BIX: dattier dwtamkin@chinet.chi.il.us (312)693-0591 (708)518-6769 | GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN Everyone on Chinet has his or her own opinion about this.| CIS: 73720,1570 ------------------------------ From: "John R. Levine" Subject: Re: Phone Cards Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 16:40:46 GMT In article cgch!wtho@mcsun.eu.net (Tom Hofmann) writes: >What I would like to know: Isn't there a country (or LDC in the US) >where phone calls can be paid be regular, internationally accepted >credit cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express, etc.)? ... Here in the US, some pay phones, particularly those in airports, do in fact take regular credit cards. They have a slot through which you run the card so it can read the number magnetically, then you dial the number, then if the call is out of the local region, you push a button corresponding to the LD carrier you want to use, with typical choices being MCI, Sprint, and ITT. AT&T has their own distinctive looking card caller phones that used to take only AT&T's own card but now are also starting to take Amex and bank cards. In all these cases, the phone transmits the credit card number in a torrent of DTMF tones, so I suppose that if you knew the protocol you could type in the card number yourself. Entering a bank card number at the time when you would enter your phone card number doesn't work. I also once saw a COCOT at a car rental place in Denver that let you type in a bank card number yourself, and claimed that the charge for doing so was cheaper than that for a telco calling card. I can believe that; telcos are reputed to charge 75 cents apiece for billing OCC calls but I know that a bank charges more like 35 cents for an electronically submitted Master Card or Visa charge. The Airfones found on too many airplanes these days only take regular credit cards, not phone cards, but at $2.50/minute and terrible voice quality they're only for the desperate. John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, Levine@YALE.edu Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe ------------------------------ From: Gabe Wiener Subject: More Amusing Phone Trivia Reply-To: Gabe Wiener Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 23:19:12 GMT For your information....and amusement: - When the first public telephone exchanges opened, the operators stood during their shifts. It wasn't until years later that someone thought to provide them with chairs. - It was customary for a long while to answer the telephone with the word "Ahoy!" or with the phrase "Are you there?". The person who started the trend of answering the phone with the word "Hello" was Thomas Edison. - Speaking of Edison, the phone Edison designed for Western Union had a small magneto that wasn't used to signal the exchange. Rather, it was used to provide talk power, and thus it had to be wound continually while the phone was in operation. - The first telephones for private conversation in a public place were released by the GPO in England in the late 19th century. To use one, you would place the receiver up to your ear, and press your face into an oblong inner-tube that contained the transmitter. They didn't last long, however, as they were considered unsanitary and quite ridiculous. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us." ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #414 *****************************   Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 19:21:42 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #415 Message-ID: <8909281921.aa29864@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Thu, 28 Sep 89 19:15:55 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 415 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: Phone Design For Humans (Mike Morris) Re: Phone Design For Humans (Julian Macassey) Re: Phone Design For Humans (David Albert) Re: Phone Design For Humans (Bennett Todd) Re: Number Editing on Telephones (Doug Davis) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mike Morris Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Date: 28 Sep 89 06:26:19 GMT Reply-To: Mike Morris (Andy Meijers) writes: > >A minor plea to those who design 'modern' telephone sets, esp. for >offices. >1. Make them HEAVIER, and put a nonskid base on them. As I write this, >I have just pulled my ATT-issue (came with System 8.5) sculpture off >the desk for the umpteenth time. Guess I'll end up taping it to the >desk, like many do around here. I took an old steam iron plate, contact cemented a rubber pad to it and then cemented the plate to the phone. Ugly, but it works. When people comment about it, I say "Only way I could make the new phone as usable as the old one". >2. Shape the handsets to FIT THE HUMAN HEAD! Real people do not talk >daintily holding the handset in their fingertips. They jam it on one >shoulder so they write. This worthless thing promptly shoots out of >sight if you try. A friend acquired a spare handset and gutted it, and moved the guts into a old style handset. Modular cords, etc... There's also a pad sold by some phone stores that works real good... It mounts with a peel-and-stick adhesive... >3. Don't position the cord connectors so the handset cord tangles unto >itself 2 inches from the base. (see # 1, above). Put the line cord There's a gadget sold in some phone stores, and in the Hello Direct catalog that fixes that - it's a swivel device. >where the it won't cause the phone to trip over it whenever you move >it six inches. Huh? >4. Put a button for each function! (ie, hold, transfer etc). Phones >should not require constant referral to the manual to operate; they >should be self-evident. While you're at it, make the buttons REAL, >with a click. A pox on squishy membrane switches and finger-nail-tip >size buttons a quarter inch apart. Hello the designers - are you listening? I don't mind a [SHIFT] key, if the shifted functions are the lesser used ones, as long as I can say which are the lesser used! i.e. Give us a user definable keyboard, with an overlay that can be labeled with a pencil/pen and slides into the phone behind a clear overlay. >5. Make cords that don't lose their coil in a month, or that act like >a DNA molecule and coil back on themselves, with a non-porous surface >that doesn't get filthy immediately . (That also applies to the whole >phone. Make it cleanable!) Yes Yes Yes >6. Make a ringer/bell that can be tracked by ear. In an office full of >chirping crickets, all with the speakers buried, it is often hard to >tell which one is ringing. Here's one place where I wish the rest of the world had copied Rolm - their phones had 4 different ring sounds, user selectable. On the old 500 phones you could swap gongs around (the normal phone had one high and one low, by swapping gongs in two of 3 phones you could have one normal, one high, one low). Some EKS phones can have a capacitor changed. But a selectable ring tone would take only a few bytes in a microprocessor based phone, why can't we have such an obvious thing? >I could go on for another page, but you get the idea. Fancy sculptures >may sell well in the catalog or showroom, but are often miserable for >the users. (This translates to Lo$t productivity.) It's obvious - the designers have secretaries! >Buyers: Get a thirty-day 'test-drive' clause. > >Designers: (including ATT, WECO, etc): Go back and look at the 500 and >2500 series desk sets again. There is a reason they lasted so long, >and were so widely imitated. They WORKED!!! An old saying comes to mind: Intelligence is not company policy. Mike Morris UUCP: Morris@Jade.JPL.NASA.gov ICBM: 34.12 N, 118.02 W #Include quote.cute.standard PSTN: 818-447-7052 #Include disclaimer.standard cat flames.all > /dev/null ------------------------------ From: julian macassey Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Date: 28 Sep 89 17:12:25 GMT Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood CA U.S.A. In article , gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia. edu (Gabe Wiener) writes: > In article dsacg1!dlscg1!drms3002@ > cis.ohio-state.edu (Andy Meijers) writes: > > >Designers: (including ATT, WECO, etc): Go back and look at the 500 and > >2500 series desk sets again. There is a reason they lasted so long, > >and were so widely imitated. They WORKED!!! > > Speaking of the 2500, is it still with us? Does AT&T (or ITT, or GTE, > or Stromberg Carlson (comdial) or whoever) still manufacture a _real_ > 2500 set? I remember when a friend went to buy a 2500 set a few Yes, the following companies still make real 500 and 2500 sets: ITT, Comdial (Stromberg Carlson), Northern Telecom?. Also North Supply (A phone equipment distributor) imports a made in Korea clone called the Premier. The Premier is not as robust as the others. It is cheaper, now you know why. The 500 set is a standard desk rotary, a 2500 is a standard desk Touch-Tone. The variations of these, wallphone etc have slightly different numbers such as 2600. A standard 500 or 2500 has interchangeable parts: The ringer from one will fit in the other. The handsets are interchangeable. The base from one will fit the cover of the other. Yes, you can have old AT&T guts tarted up with a new comdial plastic case and an ITT handset. All parts are available from suppliers such as North, so any of these phones can be repaired or reconditioned. In the telco trade, this is called R&R (repair and restoration). AT&T phone stores used to offer thier old 2500 sets as refurbed at a good price. This is a deal. As you can fix any of these phones, you can buy battered ones and repair and clean them up. You can also convert old non modular to modular. These sets are really tough, they have to pass tests involving repeated drops into concrete and voltage surges of 1,000V @ 1,000A. Automatic Electric (GTE) make versions of these sets that work fine, but are not interchangeable with the others. Another phone equipment supplier that can supply 2500 set parts is Graybar. No doubt about it. A 500 or 2500 will last forever. I just R&Red one for a friend that had a manufacturing date of 1954. Still in daily use, I made it modular and polished the plastic. If there is any interest, I can explain how to repair and tart up these phones. The phones I use are all 2500 sets. I have a garage of phones from around the world. Nothing matches the 2500. I have to admit though that the old style handset used in the UK was the most comfortable for cradling. It is longer and wider than the G2 (the standard handset on 500/2500). The UK operators headset was also more comfortable than the WECO black monsters but not as indestructable. Yours Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo ucla-an!denwa!bongo!julian n6are@k6iyk (Packet Radio) n6are.ampr.org [44.16.0.81] voice (213) 653-4495 ------------------------------ From: David Albert Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Date: 28 Sep 89 18:35:38 GMT Reply-To: David Albert Organization: Aiken Computation Lab Harvard, Cambridge, MA In article Gabe Wiener writes: >Speaking of the 2500, is it still with us? Does AT&T (or ITT, or GTE, >or Stromberg Carlson (comdial) or whoever) still manufacture a _real_ >2500 set? I don't know sets by their numbers, but if the 2500 is the standard, pre-buy-your-own-phone desk set with a roughly rectangular base, then the answer is that they are no longer manufactured, but that "refurbished" models are still available. In 1983 (or so), when Illinois Bell allowed you to purchase the phone you had been leasing from them at a discount, I did so. About 6 months ago the touchtones on my phone stopped working (no, it had nothing to do with line polarity -- that's the first thing I checked -- and it happened a few days after I dropped it on the floor, so maybe it was my fault) and I decided to get a new one. I was finally able to purchase a "refurbished" touchtone set exactly like my old one, for $49.95, direct from AT&T, but they told me that none of their new desk-model touchtone phones had mechanical ringers. (For the same price, AT&T said they'd fix my old phone, but that hardly seemed like a reasonable option). Also available for $49.95, they said, was an in-line modular mechanical bell attachment that would work with any phone, so for those who want the features of new phones and the sound of old ones, that might be worth considering. I decided to go with the complete phone. David Albert | "What are you trying to do, UUCP: ...!harvard!albert | change the world?" INTERNET: albert@harvard.harvard.edu | "No, just our little corner of it." [Moderator's Note: But you know what I *really* miss are the 2515 sets. Those were the 2500 'two line turn button' sets, with the plastic knob in the corner for selection of line one or two. The turn button also could be depressed, and the corresponding blue/white pair of wires (mine has three pairs, at least) used to sound an intercom buzzer elsewhere. Furthermore, I got a little neon bulb at Radio Shack and wired it in there so it would illuminate the little button when the phone rang. All that AT&T will do for you now is replace them one on one for *lease* customers only. Its a shame to see these great old sets no longer being built. PT] ------------------------------ From: bet@orion.mc.duke.edu (Bennett Todd) Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Date: 28 Sep 89 15:10:02 GMT Reply-To: bet@orion.mc.duke.edu (Bennett Todd) Organization: Diagnostic Physics, Radiology, DUMC In-reply-to: dsacg1!dlscg1!drms3002@cis.ohio-state.edu (Andy Meijers) If our experience is any indicator, there is little hope for improvement in telephone instrument design. What happened here is that AT&T representatives wooed senior administrators; when time came to replace our old key system, which worked wonderfully but was at the limits of its capacity and couldn't be expanded, there was no technical evaluation of phone systems. We ended up getting some AT&T gee-whiz system with LEDs and whatnot. The telephones have to get wall power to work, insofar as they work at all, which is mostly not. This is lovely when you want to call to report that the power is out. The human engineering is pathetic. The system is constantly enjoying "software glitches" which prevent phones from ringing when they are called, or spontaneously trigger some kind of forwarding without illuminating the forwarding indicator. I don't have any reason to believe that AT&T weasles couldn't grease in to enough other organizations the same way to make for a profitable business. I'm pretty sure I understand the precise reasons for the design changes; the new phones offer the following benefits: 1. They charge disproportionately much for them. 2. They are more fragile than the older ones -- which means that they will have to be replaced sooner. 3. The poor fools who actually have to *use* the damned things loathe them, so when the weasles come along and sell management on a whole new replacement system in two or three years, there won't be anything like the complaints that rang through the office when the old key system with the old massive phones was taken out. Equipment lifetimes of several decades aren't so good for repeat sales. However, this isn't all to our loss. I used to think that having a telephone was really important. I have been cured of this belief. Between GTE and AT&T, I don't particularly worry about being hard to reach by phone at work, and impossible at home. -Bennett bet@orion.mc.duke.edu [Moderator's Note: But Bennett, if it weren't for your phone -- or someone's phone -- how would you receive this Digest each day? Even though you are not enamored of voice telephony, apparently the use of the Devil's Instrument for data transmission passes muster with you, eh? PT] ------------------------------ From: Doug Davis Subject: Re: Number Editing on Telephones Date: 26 Sep 89 20:50:37 GMT Reply-To: doug@letni.lawnet.com Organization: Logic Process Dallas, Texas. >[Moderator's Note: Aren't cellular phones sort of like this? You punch >in the entire number, then 'send' it. I assume at any point in the input >that you discovered a mistake you could cancel it and start over, not >actually hitting the 'send' button until you were ready to release it. PT] You are right. Cellular phones let you enter the number then press the $pend key. They then broadcast the NAM and phone id stuff on a broadcast freq, after which the selected cell site passes back the freq pair to use. Now, the phone number (if there is one) goes out. All the cel-phones I have worked with have a button ususally labled "clr" that allows you to "backspace" one charicter by just touching it once, or the whole number by holding it down. Unfortunately some of them, like my Motorola 8000x, have about a quarter second delay after you press the button before they go into the clear_the_whole_number mode. This is almost too fast and it takes some getting used to, when you want to backspace just once. Triva note: DTMF isn't used to send the phone number, even though most cel-phones echo DTMF sounds while you press the buttons. After a connection is established, usually the phone will then revert to sending DTMF out as audio. As far as regular phones, my (I can't believe I'm admitting this) GTE Xt-100e phone terminal, (vt100 terminal and a telephone built in) lets you backspace and edit the number before pushing the outgoing line button. I also have some off brand two line phone purchased a couple of years ago that has a <- key which lets you backup a digit. It too only sends the entire number after you select an outgoing line. It's problem is that it only holds 15 digits and dactivates the touch tone pad after the line select has gone out... Quite a pain on long numbers, I usually have to program a combination of speed dials into it (which don't deactivate unless they are used) to reach anybody except direct dial on my primary LD carrier. Anyway those keys are rarely used, generally when I make a mistake in dialing it was on of the first digits of the number and I end up starting over anyway.. Doug Davis/1030 Pleasant Valley Lane/Arlington/Texas/76015/817-467-3740 {sys1.tandy.com, motown!sys1, uiucuxc!sys1 lawnet, attctc, texbell} letni!doug "comp.unix.aix is an oxymoron" ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #415 *****************************   Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 20:12:21 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #416 Message-ID: <8909282012.aa02245@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Thu, 28 Sep 89 20:10:04 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 416 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: Networks Considered Harmful - For Electronic Mail (Jim Morris) Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' (Dr. T. Andrews) Re: They're Doing It Again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) (Jim Budler) Re: They're Doing It Again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) (Clayton Cramer) Re: Prefix '520' For Los Angeles Radio Stations (Jim Gottlieb) Re: Prefix '520' For Los Angeles Radio Stations (Sysop@pinn.uucp) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 12:20:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Morris Subject: Re: Networks Considered Harmful - For Electronic Mail I think John's message was very important -- a sort of wake-up call for the computer community. > Excerpts from internet.telecom: 18-Aug-89 Networks Considered Harmful.. > John McCarthy@sail.stanf (9146) > However, unless email is freed from dependence on the networks, I predict it > will be supplanted by telefax for most uses in spite of its many advantages > over telefax. I believe email will be supplanted by FAX -- period. We will eventually end up with a hybrid, but it will be achieved by the FAX business assimilating all the knowledge we have about email. > These advantages include the fact that information is > transmitted more cheaply as character streams than as images. > Group IV compression brings the image vs. ASCII ratio down to about 5. > Multiple addressees are readily accommodated. FAX store and forward services like MCI will provide this. > Moreover, messages transmitted as character streams can be readily > filed, searched, edited and used by computer programs. OCR can work for the searching part. 99% character recognition rates are common. There are already products available that scan, recognize, and index documents for you. The key idea is that the image is saved too, so there is no danger of the 1% missed characters causing problems other than missed retrieval. As for editing, very often one wants only to annotate another document. This can be done on the image. If one really wants to edit a document, OCR plus some hand massaging may suffice. > The reason why telefax will supplant email unless email is separated > from special networks is that telefax works by using the existing > telephone network directly. Yes!!! > Fax has another advantage that needs to be matched and can be > overmatched. Since fax transmits images, fully formatted documents can > be transmitted. However, this loses the ability to edit the document. > This can be beaten by email, provided there arises a widely used standard > for representing documents that preserves editability. This is a very big proviso. There is great chaos in this area right now. The standard proposed by CCITT, called Office Document Architecture (ODA), is getting very little support in the US where the DoD seems to be promoting SGML and the commercial document editor vendors are promoting their own proprietary standards. MicroSoft's Rich Text Format (RTF) seems most promising since it is used by more than one document processor. Another hope is that a single vendor, e.g. DEC with it's ODA-related DDIF and DECWrite (=Framemaker), will become the market leader and establish a de facto standard, as Lotus did for spread sheets. A much more likely development is that PostScript becomes the exchange standard. It is there. All document processors will produce it. It looks a little nicer than FAX, and there is at least a fighting chance that one can translate it back into a particular document processor's internal format. Another advantage of FAX you failed to emphasize is simply that it deals with pictures effortlessly. Even if you and I have precisely the same computing equipment and are on the ArpaNet, the fastest way for me to get a picture to you is FAX. This is true even if the picture is hand drawn -- drawing it on paper is faster than any drawing editor I've ever used. > Fortunately, there is free enterprise. Therefore, the most likely way > of getting direct electronic mail is for some company to offer a piece of > hardware as an electronic mail terminal including the facilities for > connecting to the current variety of local area networks (LANs). The most > likely way for this to be accomplished is for the makers of fax machines > to offer ASCII service as well. An AppleFAX modem will already do this for Apple PICT files. I would like to see Adobe do the same for PostScript files. > This will obviate the growing practice of some users of fax > of printing out their messages in an OCR font, transmitting them by fax, > whereupon the receiver scans them with an OCR scanner to get them back > into computer form. Why should this practice be obviated? Why not work at making OCR more effective? In a race between clever computer hackers trying to make OCR better and institutional politicians trying to straighten out the standards who do you think will win? Which would you rather be? Jim.Morris@andrew.cmu.edu 412 268-2574 FAX: 412 681-2066 [An Andrew ToolKit view (a raster image) was included here, but could not be displayed.] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 19:35:25 CDT Subject: Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 7:15:08 EDT From: "Dr. T. Andrews" Organization: CompuData, Inc. (DeLand) ) [Moderator's Note: Well I believe it was the 'shift - 7' now that ) you mention it; There is no "shift-7" in baudot code. The figure '7' is on the "shifted" character set (same character code as the letter 'U', 0b00111). The had the same code as the letter 'J' (0b01011). ) Weren't the 'number-shift' keys essentially like control keys? Presuming that you mean the "shift" (FIGS) and "unshift" ("LTRS") keys, no, they weren't like control keys. They differed in two important ways. First, they sent character codes. Secondly, they had no printing effect themselves, but caused later characters to be printed from a possibly different charset. ) How did they get line feed, carriage return, There are baudot codes for CR and LF. These, interestingly enough, are effective in both shifted and unshifted modes. ) ENQ (who are you?) You typed "WHO DAT?" and stopped typing. ) and answerback without control codes? The other guy typed "IT'S ME." in response. He might have had a tape reader in which case he could have this text prepared for your editfication; it would save him typing it again. ) My handy Ascii chart here says control-E, or ASC(5) It should be noted that ASCII is not a 5-level code. When discussing the 5-level devices, refer not to your ASCII chart but to a BAUDOT chart instead. ) What do you think? PT] I think that you haven't worked on many 5-level devices, to be honest. These slow devices (noisy, too) are pretty much unrelated to any modern computing needs. I only ever heard of one general-purpose computer system which purported to support the things, and never actually saw it done. Please see the [Radio Amateur's Handbook] for information on the BAUDOT code. You might also consult a maint manual for a model 15/model 19 teleprinter. The original wiring on these devices is somewhat baroque. Considering that very little of it is actually needed (a common maint trick is to remove the old wiring, add the 10 or so wires needed in the whole device, and try to figure out what to do with the many, many feet of old wire. It has been thought that perhaps the added wiring was for the military - whether to confuse the enemy, or just to raise the price, has not been determined. The characters in the FIGS set, by the way, were somewhat variable depending on the particular unit in hand. On some, you could get motor stop instead of one of the printing characters (I think that you might have been able to configure which you got). On others, you might not have the prime ('). Other units had weather symbols instead of some of the figures. ...!bikini.cis.ufl.edu!ki4pv!tanner ...!bpa!cdin-1!ki4pv!tanner or... {allegra attctc gatech!uflorida uunet!cdin-1}!ki4pv!tanner ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 00:00:58 PDT From: Jim Budler Subject: Re: They're Doing It Again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) Organization: EDA Systems, Inc. claris!netcom!edg@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Edward Greenberg) writes: } "The A's announced plans for sale of tickets for any American League } Championship Series at the Coliseum. } Phone numbers are in the 408-988, 415-762, 707-762, 916-932, 209-226, } 209-466, and 1-800-225 prefixes. All numbers suffix with 2277 which } is (surprise!) BASS. } Does anybody know if these are "Choke" exchanges? If not, I think } phone service in northern CA is going to be history on Thursday at } noon. :-) I don't recognize many of these but 408-988 is in Santa Clara (city), CA. I doubt if it's a choke. Thing I recall being in that exchange: The Northern Telecom Manufacturing plant. (I worked there) The Tymnet computer dial in lines for the Bay Area. Jim Budler address = uucp: ...!{decwrl,uunet}!eda!jim domain: jim@eda.com compuserve: 72415,1200 voice = +1 408 986-9585 fax = +1 408 748-1032 ------------------------------ From: Clayton Cramer Subject: Re: They're Doing It Again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) Date: 28 Sep 89 17:08:02 GMT Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA In article , claris!netcom!edg@ames. arc.nasa.gov (Edward Greenberg) writes: # "The A's announced plans for sale of tickets for any American League # Championship Series at the Coliseum. # "The sale, which begins at noon Thursday, will be by phone only through # the BASS/Ticketmaster system. Approximately 2000 ALC strips ... will be # available. " # Phone numbers are ......... is (surprise!) BASS. # Does anybody know if these are "Choke" exchanges? If not, I think # phone service in northern CA is going to be history on Thursday at # noon. :-) Sure enough. I got home yesterday, and my wife complained that none of the phones worked. Dial tone was taking from a few seconds to minutes in the 707 795 exchange. Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer What shall it be today? Watch Three's Company? Or unify the field theory? Disclaimer? You must be kidding! No company would hold opinions like mine! ------------------------------ From: Jim Gottlieb Subject: Re: Prefix '520' For Los Angeles Radio Stations Date: 28 Sep 89 09:29:22 GMT Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb Organization: Info Connections/VMJ, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan In article joe@mojave.ati.com (Joe Talbot) writes: >It's really too bad that 520 in Anaheim didn't get used. The 520 prefix >was already in service in LA years before 520 even got assigned. 520 in >Anaheim has a whole bunch of big centrex/DID customers on it, no hope >of any change. A friend of mine who works for a phone company (I refuse to call GTE "THE" phone company) told me several years back that the people in the L.A. division of Pac*Bell tried real hard to get the 714 people to agree to use 520 for their mass calling prefix. But they already had their 977 and didn't want to change it. That was stupid short-sightedness in my opinion, as that would have made life easier for many, including DJs, who would have been able to say, "In the 213, 818, or 714, dial 520-KQLZ" instead of the now-required awkward practice of having to give out two different numbers. On the matter of mass calling to ticket numbers, I know for a fact that Ticketron's numbers in the LA area, while being standard POTS lines, are programmed to choke in each switch, and probably in the tandems as well. This makes a lot more sense than the bill Congress passed requiring that auto-dialers not be capable of redialing a number more than 16 times (after they had just castigated the Japanese for similar stupid telecommunications rules). Jim Gottlieb (remote from Tokyo) _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ or or Fax: 011-81-3-239-7453 Voice Mail: 011-81-3-944-6221 ID#82-42-424 ------------------------------ From: sysop@pinn.uucp Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 21:03:37 EDT Subject: Re: Prefix '520' For Los Angeles Radio Stations I read several messages about radio station's toll free phone lines and I have some comments to add to the discussion. I have lived here in South Florida for about 7 years now and have been involved in broadcasting since I moved here. I used to be chief engineer of a TV station down here and at the time we had some audience participation shows on the air. This same discussion holds true for radio stations in the area. This area has always been known for its telephone contesting. That is, people are told to be the thus and such caller and they win something. This had caused exchange overload in a very highly concentrated area. Normally the phone company would have said too bad, but since there are several military establishments that feed off some of these key COs, something had to be done. I don't know if this has been done in other parts of the country, but ALL radio stations and TV stations that do any kind of phone contesting have special lines installed here. All lines are part of the 550 exchange from South Miami through to West Palm Beach. These are called "choke exchanges." As far as the caller in concerned, there is only one number to call, beginning with 550. In each exchange area, this 550 number is translated into a local exchange number and then FXed back to the station. If memory serves, we actually had 4 different sets of FX lines. They were Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Deerfield and Palm Beach. We paid plenty for them! What was interesting was these lines were specially translated at each CO point, but were ordinary FX lines for outgoing purposes. I had them wired up to our PABX so that I could make calls to any of these areas. The reason they are called "choke exchanges" is that to prevent CO lockup, only two calls from each exchange are allowed to go inter CO. The rest of the calls get a local exchange reorder. Hence, the exchange chokes off the calls before they can cause network overload. In theory, its a good idea, but in practice there are problems. Since only two calls from each exchange are allowed into the inter exchange network, if there are two stations carrying on a contest at the same time, everyone trying to get into one stations contest may block all calls from getting into the other stations contest. I hope you found this interesting. Andy {your favorite gateway}!codas!novavax!pinn!sysop [Moderator's Note: Welcome to the Digest, Andy, and I hope you will become a regular contributor. PT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #416 *****************************   Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 22:49:35 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #417 Message-ID: <8909282249.aa12163@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Thu, 28 Sep 89 22:40:54 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 417 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Touch-Tone Marketing (Jerry Durand) Re: Sleazy Touch-Tone Marketing Tactics (John Higdon) Re: "Dial-It Service" Makes its Debut in 1932 (Jim Gottlieb) Re: Caller ID in Maryland (Alex Beylin) Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding (Will Martin) Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment (David Lewis) Re: What's He Selling? (Kenneth R. Jongsma) Re: Locatable Ringers (John R. Levine) Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past (Loren Cahlander) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: portal!cup.portal.com!JDurand@apple.com Subject: Touch-Tone Marketing Date: Thu, 28-Sep-89 10:07:58 PDT Another problem with the people marketing DTMF service is they tell you you have to pay for this service for "push-button phones". Of course most people don't know that most push-button phones are capable of pulse dialing and may not even have a DTMF generator! So you wind up paying for a service that you can't even use. It seems the phone companies should be required to call it DTMF service or tone service, not push-button service. Jerry Durand ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Sleazy Touch-Tone Marketing Tactics Date: 28 Sep 89 10:07:39 GMT Organization: Green Hills and Cows Years ago, one of my clients had a Stromberg E120 connected to a #5 crossbar exchange. Somehow the trunks went in without touchtone specified and as a result the customer was not paying for it, but in this particular office tone service could not be denied (apparently there were no originating registers not tone receiver equipped). Their bookkeeper called me one day to complain that suddenly the basic rate had gone up and wanted me to look into it. I was told by Pacific Telephone that one of their "agents" had gone through the building looking for businesses that were using touchtone and not paying for it and had spotted the TT phones in my client's suite. I told them that since those phones were connected to a PBX that it was possible that the customer's switch could be doing tone-to-pulse conversion and that simply tacking charges onto the bill based upon visual inspection was very sleazy. In fact, I told them such was the case (I lied) and demanded that the charges be removed immediately. They asked for assurance that absolutely no tones were being sent over the lines. I refused and told them to simply "remove the touch tone service". They warned me that if they did and the customer was indeed using tones to dial calls, then their calls would no longer go through. I acknowledged that and again asked to have the service removed. It finally came down to the fact they couldn't "remove" the service. At this point I told them that my client wasn't going to pay for something "extra" that PacTel was forced to provide for everyone anyway. My final position was that if they were providing a "cost extra" service and we didn't pay for it, then take it away. But we weren't going to pay. Apparently, the tariffs were written in such a way to allow me to get away with this tactic. I had PacTel over a barrel and they knew it. Then a supervisor said that when they cut over to new equipment, they *would* be able to deny touchtone and that my client would be screwed. I countered that we would pay for it *then*. As it turned out, years later when they cut crossbar offices to electronic, they would send out notices that in essence indicated that if you had touchtone equipment and were not subscribing to the service that you would have to start subscribing and paying or have your calls not go through. It is interesting to note that this particular exchange is still crossbar to this day but unfortunately my client moved into an ESS office and now has to pay for touchtone. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! [Moderator's Note: I am reminded of when the 312-856 exchange went from crossbar to ESS. In 1969, the only customer on 856 was the Amoco Oil Credit Card Office here, when the prefix was opened for them with their new centrex service, serving about 2000 lines. All the phones were touchtone. Over one weekend in 1974, that office was converted to ESS. Monday morning, about half the phones in the place could not dial out. Unlike merely a change in polarity, where the buttons do not sound their tones, this time the tones sounded alright, they just wouldn't cut the dial tone! With some feverish effort, everything was properly working by Tuesday morning. And the funny thing was, Amoco *was* paying for touchtone on all the lines, but the CO records were wrong! PT] ------------------------------ From: Jim Gottlieb Subject: Re: "Dial-It Service" Makes its Debut in 1932 Date: 28 Sep 89 09:35:49 GMT Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb Organization: Info Connections, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan In article kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) writes: > However, once upon a time, a live operator did in fact create >time-of-day announcements on a demand basis. In fact, I heard a manual time number as late as about 1972. It was in Durango, Colorado, but it wasn't as complicated as Larry Lippman described. When I dialed the number listed for time-of-day, I was shocked when I heard a woman answer the phone and say "The time is 7:32." I said, "Thank You." She said "Your Welcome." and that was that. I tried it several more times during my visit and found that the level of politeness naturally varied according to current load. At busy times, all one heard was " (Supervision) 6:18 (Disconnect) " When I returned to Durango a few years later, I received a mechanical version. Now it _is_ possible that what I heard was just a temporary condition while their time machine was "in the shop." Jim Gottlieb (remote from Tokyo) _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ or or Fax: 011-81-3-239-7453 Voice Mail: 011-81-3-944-6221 ID#82-42-424 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Caller ID in Maryland Reply-To: Alex Beylin Organization: Chrysler Financial Corp., Troy, MI Date: 28 Sep 89 10:37:36 EDT (Thu) From: Alex Beylin In article kenj%wybbs.UUCP@sharkey. cc.umich.edu (Ken Jongsma) writes: >No editorializing! From this weeks Communicaions Week: Bell Atlantic has >filed for Caller ID in Maryland. It along with all the other CLASS services >will be available around Baltimore next month. Washington suburbs get it in >November with the rest of the state to follow as SS7 is implemented. Does anyone know if Michigan Bell is planning to file for Caller ID? If not, is there a way to speed that up, like writing to someone to indicate interest? Also, from a technical standpoint, what is involved in providing the service? Are any updates required to the CO equipment? Thanks in advance, Alex Beylin, Unix Systems Admin. | +1 313 948-3386 alexb%cfctech.uucp@mailgw.cc.umich.edu | Chrysler Financial Corp. ...!{sharkey|mailrus}!cfctech!alexb | MIS, Distributed Systems ATT Mail ID: attmail!abeylin | Southfield, MI 48034 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 10:18:46 CDT From: Will Martin on 7000 Subject: Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding Here's another criticism: If I don't have call forwarding, is there any way for me to turn OFF the call forwarding that someone else has directed to my number? As the recipient of such forwarded calls, I should have the right to reject the "honor" of receiving them. Is there a way to prevent my number from ever being specified as the recipient of call-forwarded calls? (Something like the UNIX "mesg n" command but in the telco universe... :-) And, as a side question: I seem to recall this being asked during the "Caller*ID" debate, but don't recall it being answered. Maybe somebody out there with Caller*ID can now tell us: If a call is call-forwarded to a phone with "Caller*ID", is the number displayed that of the forwarding phone or the originating one? If the number displayed is that of the originating phone, is there any heirarchy of displays -- that is, if the originating phone is out of the area and the number isn't available, but the number of the forwarding phone IS available, will the forwarding-phone's number be displayed in that case? Regards, Will ------------------------------ From: David Lewis Subject: Re: ISDN Subscriber Equipment Date: 28 Sep 89 16:22:34 GMT Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ In article , fff@mplex.UUCP (Fred Fierling) writes: > >From what I've read I understand that the U interface would be provided > via an single pair coming from the CO to the subscriber's premises and > terminate on an NT1 box which would provide the S/T interface to all > digital telephones on the premises. > Assuming this is correct, I understand that it would be possible for two > independent calls to be handled on each of the B channels. So, how would > both telephones perform call set up and tear down on the one D channel? First, the D-channel is a packet channel, so each message sent down the D-channel from the CPE to the switch is independent. The basic call control protocol for ISDN is Q.931. One required information element of each Q.931 message is the call reference value; this enables the machines on each side of the interface to agree on what call they're acting on. So when the CPE sends, for example, a Disconnect message, one information element is a call reference -- essentially, saying Disconnect Call #1. In addition, there is an optional information element in Setup and Connect Q.931 messages, called the Channel Identification information element. This enables the CPE to specify a specific channel, either at that user-network interface or at another user-network interface. In other words, CPE can send a message to the switch saying "setup a call on this UNI, B-channel 1." Or, "setup a call on UNI X, B-channel 2." It's not clear that all the wrinkles have been worked out of the latter case, tho... David G Lewis ...!bellcore!nvuxr!deej "If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower." ------------------------------ From: Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: What's He Selling? Date: Thu, 28-Sep-89 11:19:23 PDT Regarding the person who was "selling" Sprint service with no evening rate, just day and night rates: Sprint offers a plan called Sprint Plus where if you agree to at least $8/month of usage, they charge night rates instead of evening rates. MCI had/has a deal with Amway where your "friendly" Amway agent gets you to sign up with MCI and gets a cut of your calls. I suspect Sprint has similar marketing plans. Perhaps this is something similar. ken@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ From: "John R. Levine" Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 22:29:38 GMT In article Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup. portal.com writes: >In a recent issue of the digest, someone mentioned that they wanted a >phone that you could locate by the sound of its ring. .... We also >all have the traditional AT&T 2500 telephones on our desks. Unfortunately, >they are the new electronic ringer style [and all sound the same.] ROLM phones have for years had the option to set the ringing sound to any of eight different warbles ranging from high and squeaky to fairly deep. This feature is specifically intended for the situation where there are several phones within hearing distance of each other. I find that it works quite nicely, at least until some joker sneaks into your office and changes your ring. I am astonished that considering all of the ergonomic work that AT&T at least used to do on their phones, they haven't provided this simple feature. John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, Levine@YALE.edu Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe ------------------------------ From: loren@amcom.UUCP (loren cahlander) Subject: Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number Date: 27 Sep 89 14:36:12 GMT Reply-To: loren@amcom.mn.org (Loren Cahlander) Organization: Amcom Software, Inc. In article Dave Troup writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 406, message 1 of 12 > Does anyone know what the recording alert tones are? You know-those > dee-doo-DOO, "The number you have reached..." What are the frequencies > to them. Ive NEVER been able to find out what those are. > thanks in advance! From the documentation that I have, there are four different sequences of tones: First Tone Second Tone Third Tone Tone Tone freq length freq length freq length Name Description (Hz) (10 ms) (Hz) (10 ms) (Hz) (10 ms) ====================================================================== NC No Circuit 985.2 38.0 1428.5 38.0 1776.7 38.0 Found IC Operator 913.8 27.4 1370.6 27.4 1776.7 38.0 Intercept VC Vacant Circuit 985.2 38.0 1370.6 27.4 1776.7 38.0 RO ReOrder 913.8 27.4 1428.5 38.0 1776.7 38.0 Loren D. Cahlander AMCOM Software, Inc. 5555 West 78th St Suite Q UUCP: uunet!rosevax!nis!amcom!loren Minneapolis, MN 55435 (612) 829-7445 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #417 *****************************   Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 23:55:55 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #418 Message-ID: <8909282355.aa19303@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Thu, 28 Sep 89 23:50:04 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 418 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Silly Repair (John Higdon) Greasing Skids at NYTel (David W. Tamkin) Help on AT&T System 75 Configuration (Doug Faunt) Credit Card Good For One Number Only (Robert M. Hamer) Inbound Pulse-Dial Detection (Jerry Durand) SW56, ISDN Comm Cards for Macintoshes (Gary Faulkner) New Zealand Sketches: A Story Worth Repeating (Mark Brader) Intellidial and Intercom (Alain Arnaud) Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody There (Mark Brader) Re: Special Information Tones (Macy Hallock) Re: 10-Cent Payphones (Bob Frankston) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Higdon Subject: Silly Repair Date: 29 Sep 89 02:40:52 GMT Organization: Green Hills and Cows I have just been introduced to the ultimate in telco silliness--the automatic repair service attendant. This is something I understand Pac*Bell has been perpetrating for some time, I have previously been fortunate enough to avoid it. Dial 611. "Welcome to Pacific Bell's automated repair service." First they determine if you have a touch tone phone by asking for a "1". Then you are told that if you want a live person, you press "0". If you take the automatic bait, you first enter the number that is experiencing the difficulty. After that you are given a menu of maladies such as no dial tone, noise or static, etc. If your trouble doesn't fit any category, you will have to press the "0" for a person. After selecting your trouble, you give a number where you can be reached during the day. Then you get a summary made up of assembled phrases complete with a promised due date. This whole procedure takes somewhat longer than an ordinary person and seems to be geared to an eight-year-old mentality. Lest you think that I am against progress, here are some points to consider: This could be a good cost-cutting measure by reducing personnel, however I doubt that the remaining attendants will be any better trained than before, so it could just be an extra step in the repair-reporting process. The major manpower is used in the followup, not in taking the original complaint. I question whether this system can save them much. As for me and my house, I'm through calling 611. Future repair requests will be made directly to 811-8081, the priority repair number. When you call that number, you get a real person who knows exactly what's what. The trouble is handed to a tech who gets back to you in 30 minutes with a report and you get a direct call back number for inquiries that is answered by the person actually effecting the repairs. This is the number that I have used for my big customers and it suddenly occured to me that I was wasting my time ever fooling around with 611! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Subject: Greasing Skids at NYTel Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 12:32:51 CDT From: "David W. Tamkin" A friend of mine is moving to Manhattan on Wednesday, October 4. Her apartment is already wired for phone service; eventually she will need a second line, but that is not urgent (and might require additional wiring). She needs to get her first line operating as quickly as possible. The important thing is to get people to take her order for service, assign a telephone number, and flick a switch in the CO to bring the line to life. When she was last in New York a couple weeks ago, NYTel told her that because of the strike the processing would take six weeks! Her line of work is such that she needs to be able to receive emergency calls. Do any of the readers know any means (or even anybody) that can speed things up at NYTel, at least for getting her first line turned on? In case the answer is CO-specific, the location is at 87th and Columbus. Please respond in email. David Tamkin dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us {attctc,netsys,ddsw1}!jolnet!dattier P. O. Box 813 Rosemont, Illinois 60018-0813 (312) 693-0591 (708) 518-6769 BIX: dattier GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 Jolnet is a public access system, where every user expresses personal opinions. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 19:55:04 -0700 From: Doug Faunt N6TQS 415-688-8269 Subject: Help on AT&T System 75 Configuration I am the acting administrator of a AT&T System 75 XE, running R1V3. I have a configuration question that the local AT&T people don't seem to have a good answer for, or won't tell me. I want to have a 7406D multibutton phone have two numbers appear. I want to be able to use them both as full featured call appearances. Having one of the numbers be a Terminating Extension Group, almost works, but calls can't be placed on that appearance. Thanx, ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 08:44 EDT From: "ROBERT M. HAMER" Subject: Credit Card Good For One Number Only I think that aspects of this issue have been discussed on the digest before, and if they have, if the moderator would point me to the appropriate issues, I will FTP them (unless the question is of sufficient general interest that it might bear discussion). My daughter just left for college (hooray). When she left, my wife gave her our Sprint Fon Card number so that she could call us (probably a dumb move, or at least not well thought out). We got our first post-daughter-departure Sprint bill yesterday. In addition to two or three calls to us, there were calls to friends and relatives all over the country. To state the specifications first, without contaminating possible solutions with my own thoughts, I would like her to be able to call us at our expense, but I have no particular desire to pay for any other long distance calls she chooses to make. I think I have read discussions in this digest about (a) a relatively cheap residential 800 number, and/or calling/fon/credit cards that are valid only to call one number. Anyone have any suggestions? [Moderator's Note: The AT&T Calling Card with a restricted PIN is known as the "Call Me" Card. It is free for the asking, and the PIN is limited to calling only the number to which it is assigned; in this case, that would be your home phone. They issue a plastic card with this PIN, but it is pointless to hand it out. You would simply tell your daughter that henceforth to call *you, and you only* she would dial zero, plus the area code and your number. When she hears the tone, dial only the four digits of the (new, and restricted) PIN, followed by the # sign to speed the call on its way. Attempts to call other numbers with that PIN will fail. Of course, you'll need to tell Sprint to cancel your existing full service PIN and issue a new number which you don't give your daughter, otherwise she may continue using the old one anyway. Anyone who has knowledge of the restricted PIN can use it in the same way, to call your number only. If calls are placed through some AOS outfit, there is no guarentee of course that the restriction on the PIN would be honored, but you will find that out soon enough and can refuse payment if necessary. PT] ------------------------------ From: portal!cup.portal.com!JDurand@apple.com Subject: Inbound Pulse-Dial Detection Date: Thu, 28-Sep-89 12:35:41 PDT I have been getting quite a few requests to add inbound pulse-dial (click) detection to the voice mail boards I design. Since this is fairly easy to do (we have two DSP's on the board, one dedicated to call progress), we will be adding this to some future software release. The question is, we have not been able to find any phone lines that allow the calling party to pulse dial any number higher than 2 or 3 without dropping the line. Is this just local to our area (GTE, Pac*Bell), or is this a widespread problem. I know there is a company selling boards that just detect the inbound pulses, so there must be some place it works. Please note: I am not talking about loop current detect, just the sound of the clicks transmitted through the network from the calling party. Jerry Durand, Durand Interstellar, Inc., sun!cup.portal.com!jdurand [Moderator's Note: Interestingly enough, United Airlines was doing this on the Chicago dialup to their Unitel network several years ago. If you dialed a certain number, you got dialtone from United's internal system, and could dial everywhere United flies and then some; or use the WATS lines, etc. This particular WATS-extender, as they are called, not only worked on tone signals as you would expect, but also accepted rotary dialing from the caller. Don't ask me how! But the deeper you got in the maze -- they used 'progressive dialing' as it was called in those days -- only tones would work. But a simple call in with a single hop, such as onto the WATS line and out again worked fine with rotary dial. Beats me. PT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Faulkner Subject: SW56, ISDN Comm Cards For Macintoshes Date: 28 Sep 89 22:32:56 GMT Reply-To: Gary Faulkner Organization: NCSA - University of Illinois at Urbana,Champaign We are looking for any and all information on 56KB and/or ISDN communication adapter cards for Macintoshes (both SE's and II's). I would appreciate ANY information which anyone might have on such beasts. You can either email it to me at garfy@ncsa.uiuc.edu, or reach me via bellnet at (217) 333-8847. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Gary Faulkner National Center for Supercomputing Applications - University of Illinois Internet: garyf@mehlville.ncsa.uiuc.edu Disclaimer: I've only stated my opinion, not anyone elses. ------------------------------ From: Mark Brader Subject: New Zealand Sketches: A Story Worth Repeating Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 02:34:53 EDT I asked a friend from New Zealand, and he confirms that the term STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing) is used there. And he further notes that "area codes" are called "STD codes" whether the subscriber is actually placing the call or not. He also notes that I was wrong to remember radio station 3BZ in Christchurch; it's actually 3ZB. (Formally, ZL3ZB, it seems.) He said that digits 1-4 are used for different parts of the country, but there was once a station 5ZB, which broadcast from a railway car! And *I* note that when I was there in 1983, on one occasion I found myself placing a call from a hand-cranked phone, and on another occasion there occurred the following conversation between my friend and an operator. (I've posted this to Telecom before but perhaps it's worth repeating.) "I'd like to make a transferred-charge call to Milford Sound. Please charge it to Spencerville 269." "Spencerville 269, and you're calling Milford Sound 6." "How did you know??!" "It's the only telephone in Milford Sound." "!" "Except for the box outside the post office, and I didn't think you'd be calling that." It should be noted that he could have direct-dialed, um pardon me, placed an STD call, if he had not wanted to transfer the charge. By the way, local calls from a payphone were then 6 cents... the only coin slots on the phones being 2 and 10 cents. Fun country. The backward dial numbering has already been noted. Mark Brader "Any company large enough to have a research lab SoftQuad Inc., Toronto is large enough not to listen to it." utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com -- Alan Kay ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 10:02:23 EDT From: Alain Arnaud Subject: Intellidial and Intercom Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories I live in a multi-story (six) townhouse. I have two phone lines, one of them connected to a fax machine. We receive all of our voice calls on one line. I would like to be able to add an intercom feature. Lets say, the phone rings, I am in the room on the sixth level, my wife is in a room on the second level, I would like to be able to put the call on hold, dial the phone in that room to tell her to pickup. I thought that Intellidial would allow me to do this, but after talking to a New England Telephone representative, who was very helpful and courteous I found out that the intercom feature of Intellidial allows only to call bewtween the two lines. BTW, I like very much the other features, the NET rep offered to turn on the service next week for a two week trial period, after which if I choose to keep it, they will charge me $21/line. All of our phones are trimline type, so what would be the best way to add the intercom feature. Alan Arnaud (arnaud@angate.att.com) Standard disclaimer, just consulting at ATT. [Moderator's Note: Same problem here, in a way. I have two lines, using one exclusively for voice and the other for mostly modem and some voice. You can have 'half an intercom' by using the line with the FAX to dial the intercom code to the other line, assuming you have a phone instrument on the line as well as a FAX machine. If I want my brother or his wife, I use the modem line to dial the code for the other line. When Dan or Tina want me, they call if the modem is not on the line (I don't use auto answer); otherwise they walk from wherever to my room and talk to me! PT] ------------------------------ From: Mark Brader Subject: Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody There Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 18:41:48 EDT I sometimes experience a different form of "Wrong Number With Nobody Talking". The phone will ring and I will pick it up on about the third ring, only to get immediate dial tone. Nobody who places genuine calls to my house gives up that fast, so it's not someone abandoning the call just as I pick up the tone. There's no period of silence at the other end, so it's not a modem/FAX call. Not even a short period of silence, as one would expect with "a burglar calling to see if anyone is home". Could this be some sort of phenomonen originating at the switch? I'm in area code 416, prefix 488; Bell Canada evidently has a relatively modern switch there, as things like Call Waiting and Three-Way Calling are available. When I call another number within 488, the ringback usually comes instantly as I let go of the 7th pushbutton. But I don't know what model it actually is. By the way, *do* burglars phone houses to see if anyone is home? Mark Brader, Toronto "It's been proven. Places stay clean until somebody utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com drops the first piece of litter." -- TTC poster ------------------------------ From: fmsystm!macy@hal.uucp Subject: Re: Special Information Tones Date: Thu Sep 28 10:05:41 1989 Reply-To: macy@fmsystm.UUCP (Macy Hallock) Organization: F M Systems Medina, Ohio USA In article kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 412, message 1 of 9 >In article carroll1!dtroup@uunet.uu. >net (Dave Troup) writes: >> Does anyone know what the recording alert tones are? You know-those >> dee-doo-DOO, "The number you have reached..." What are the frequencies >> to them. Ive NEVER been able to find out what those are. > These tones are called SIT (Special Information Tones). Their >purpose is to permit an automatic Call Disposition Analyzer (CDA) to >differentiate between a human voice and a recorded announcement, and >to categorize the type of recorded announcement. SIT Tone information follows: Special Infomation Tones (SIT) are a series of three tones at the beginning of intercepted call. These tones are used by call processing equipment to automatically identify the type of intercept the call has reached. SIT Tone type and usages Period Frequency Designation SSL LLL IC - Intercept - Vacant No. or AIS or etc. LLL LLL NC - No Circuit (Inter-LATA carrier) LSL HLL VC - Vacant Code SLL HLL RO - Reorder Announcement (Inter-LATA Carrier) LSS LHL #1 - Add'l Reserved Code SLL LHL RO - Reorder Announcement SSL HHL #2 - Add'l Reserved Code LLL LLL NC - No Circuit, Emergency or Trunk Blockage Where: Period-Duration: S=Short 274 msec L=Long 380 msec Frequency: L=Low 913.8 hz 1370.6 hz 1776.7 hz H=High 985.2 hz 1428.5 hz This information taken from a central office recorder/announcer installation manual ca. 1983. I believe SIT's are specified by Bellcore and/orr CCITT. I have heard SIT's used on international calls to several countries. Macy Hallock fmsystm!macy@NCoast.ORG F M Systems, Inc. hal!ncoast!fmsystm!macy 150 Highland Dr. uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!fmsystm!macy Medina, OH 44256 Voice: 216-723-3000 X251 Disclaimer: My advice is worth what you paid for it. Alt.disclaimer: Your milage may vary. Biz.disclaimer: My opinions are my own. What do I know? ------------------------------ From: Bob Frankston (BFrankston) Subject: Re: 10-Cent Pay Phones Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 23:07:40 EDT I'm surprised I didn't see any response on this from the Boston area where all pay phones are 10 cents. When I travel, I still view the 25 cent pay phones as novelties. Bob Frankston ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #418 *****************************   Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 23:31:17 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #419 Message-ID: <8909292331.aa12042@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Fri, 29 Sep 89 23:30:00 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 419 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson International Calling Request? (Frank T. Winstead) The "Junk Fax" Bill in California (Mark A. Holtz) Baudot Computer (Leonard P. Levine) AT&T Blows Billing On Call To Shoup Salmon River Store (John R. Covert) Tickets and No Dial Tone (Bernard Mckeever) Intellidial on Two Lines (Jon Solomon) Re: New Techniques for Busy Verification? (Edward Greenberg) Re: Splits of NNX? (John R. Levine) Re: Area Code Splits (was: Splits of NNX?) (Jay Maynard) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 01:33:32 EDT From: "Frank T. Winstead" Subject: International Calling Request? Hello, I'm looking for documentation on making long distance calls from the US to other countries. Specificly I would like to know the number of digits in telephone numbers for different countries. I have access to various documents which list Country and City Codes. What I need to know is how many digits should follow these codes. I have seen from numbers that work that this is not always the same for all countries. The main campus library has a fair collection of International/UN/US government documents. So even a pointer to some CCITT paper or such would be helpful. I'm requesting this because part of my job is to send FAXes for people who are sometimes confused about international telephoning. Thanks, Frank Winstead [Moderator's Note: The number of digits following varies from country to country, and frequently, even within a country. That is why AT&T encourages the use of the '#' button as a terminator, or carriage return following the final digit on international calls. It tells our system here to go ahead and process what it has been given without waiting for more. Perhaps if you have specific countries in mind, Mr. Covert will respond to you in email. He is our 'resident expert' on international calls here in the Digest readership. By the way, the '#' button also speeds along calls in any instance in which the network would otherwise have to wait for a time out. For example, when dialing the number associated with a Calling Card, one need only enter the four digit PIN; yet the switch does not know that is what you are doing, and will wait patiently for the other ten digits of the card for a few seconds unless you terminate with # to speed the processing. 'Zero pound' hastens the operator in Chicago, I might add. PT] ------------------------------ From: "Mark A. Holtz" Subject: The "Junk Fax" Bill in California Date: 29 Sep 89 03:30:50 GMT Organization: Sacramento Public Access, Ca. USA Quite recently, a bill was passed through both houses of the California legislature which prohibits unsolicited "junk fax" from being sent. The basis: Regular junk mail costs nothing more than the time to toss it into file 13, which you pay for the ink and paper for junk fax. However, the governor of California has stated that he would not sign said bill. He is bound to change his mind. Several radio stations have gotten a hold of the Governor's fax number. And, they have given it out, telling people to keep the fax machine busy with junk fax. And, sure enough, it has been busy. If you were the governor of California, would you sign the "Junk Fax" bill now? Mark Arthur Holtz <-> America OnLine: Mark Holtz 7943 Sungarden Drive <-> GEnie: M.HOLTZ Citrus Heights, CA 95610-3133 <-> UUCP: {ames att}!pacbell!sactoh0!mholtz Home Phone: (916) 722-8522 <-> -or- uunet!mmsac!sactoh0!mholtz [Moderator's Note: I don't know if I would or not. What I might do instead would be send a courteous note back to all the numbers which had junk-faxed me telling them if they continued that sort of harassment they would get sued. And I would tell the radio station management that using my position as governor, I would communicate with the FCC and file a formal complaint against them for encouraging telephonic harassment over the airwaves. PT] ------------------------------ From: Leonard P Levine Subject: Baudot Computer Date: 29 Sep 89 19:35:00 GMT Reply-To: len@csd4.csd.uwm.edu My first computer access was to a Honeywell 400 computer via a baudot (5 bit) connection. This was in about 1963-5 and was done on a computer owned by Honeywell and destined for use an a switcher to replace the room full of clerks who took papertape output from one of some 20 punches and manually fed them to some other reader in the same room. The system was used for a private telegraph system operated by Honey- well. It did not work for some reason, so the machine was left nearly idle. (this was during the day of the IBM 1401 computer.) One of my associates at the Honewell Research Center, a Mr. Keith Betz, programmed this fairly old computer to use the the baudot lines as on-line terminal connectors to give 12 simultaneous tasks on 12 isolated terminals. Entering a line such as A = B + C required 4 case changes as the spcial symbols and numbers were in a different case than the letters. We loved it at the time. 75 baud, papertape, yellow paper and all. The alternative was to submit card decks to a computer across town with 8 (eight) day turnaround. Jobs sumbitted on Monday came back the next Tuesday, just too late to correct and resubmit. Work was accepted on Monday only. + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | Leonard P. Levine e-mail len@evax.cs.uwm.edu | | Professor, Computer Science Office (414) 229-5170 | | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Home (414) 962-4719 | | Milwaukee, WI 53201 U.S.A. FAX (414) 229-6958 | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 14:23:31 -0700 From: "John R. Covert 28-Sep-1989 2142" Subject: AT&T Blows Billing on Call To Shoup Salmon River Store You may remember my call to the Shoup Salmon River store. This was part of my article back on 8 August: >More interesting is the system in Shoup, Idaho. Call 208 555-1212 >and ask for the Shoup Salmon River store -- you'll be told to call >Shoup 24F3. It is what's called a "Farmer's Line," and it's sort of a >single magneto drop with several stations. The people out there >maintain the line themselves. It's single wire ground return. The >people on the line call each other with coded ringing (and being >allowed to make local calls is one of the things that makes a farmer's >line different from a toll station). They get incoming calls with >coded ringing from the operator at a cord board. They contact the >cord board to get out with a loooooong ring. The board handling >calls is an AT&T board. Well, the bill arrived, and AT&T blew it badly. I have the following entry on my bill for the period August 20-September 19: No. Date Time Place Area-Number * Min:Sec Amount 1 Aug 7 1000PM EGYPT 208057121 R 5 8.27 When I saw this, I knew no one had called Egypt from my phone, and I called AT&T to have the call taken off the bill. The AT&T rep insisted that the "R" meant that the call had been direct dialled from my phone (not actually true; if I had been unable to dial for some reason it would have still been charged at the "R" rate). I insisted that the call had not been placed from my phone and that there must be some sort of error. I pointed out that I thought that it was strange that the call was outside the billing period and that it was at exactly 1000PM, indicating that there may have been some sort of manual ticketing involved. AT&T agreed to take the call off the bill. Then, tonight, I mentioned the spurious call to Egypt to someone I know who has half the toll-completing codes (or maybe all of them) memorized from the old days when they were easily hackable. He immediately said, "Well, if it wasn't Egypt, it would have been Salmon, Idaho." The light went on! I remembered the call to the Shoup Store. Wanting to correct the problem and to prevent an AT&T security investigation of the supposed call to Egypt, I called AT&T again to explain what had actually happened and to offer to pay for the five minute call to Idaho. The service rep I talked to really couldn't understand what I was talking about and told me that if AT&T had agreed to take the Egypt call off the bill, that was that, and I could have the call to Idaho for free. Clearly either TSPS blew the automated ticketing or the operator marked the manual ticket incorrectly. /john ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 09:49:37 EDT From: Bernard Mckeever Subject: Tickets and No Dial Tone Reply-To: bmk@cbnews.ATT.COM (bernard.mckeever,54236,mv,3b045,508 960 6289) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Sounds like IBT and PAC BELL have lots to look out for in the next few weeks. When the Cubs get in the World Series this could happen again. A quick note to our moderator that I will share with others. Patrick, you mentioned that during heavy traffic when dial tone is delayed that you stay off hook and use your speaker phone to detect dial tone. As I recall in an article published in the local operating company internal newspaper [pre-divestiture], all ESS machines were being re-programmed with a new algorithm for heavy traffic. They will now process the last offered call first. The reasons that were stated at the time were: 1. The call had a better chance of compleating because the caller was unlikely to abandon the call when dial tone appears in the normal time frame. 2. Many more callers would be unaware of the problem because most people do not make multiple calls. 3. Retries would be fewer because calls with a low probability of completion would wait the longest for dial tone. Anyway this is about as close as I can recall from memory. Can somebody from IH shed some light on this. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 05:38:08 EDT From: jsol@bu-it.bu.edu Subject: Intelledial on Two Lines I have two lines here too, one for data, and one for voice (I've ordered a third line but it's held up because of the strike). What I'd recommend is to put intelledial on your two lines (it's 9.00/mo/line) and use the "call hold" feature to do the transferring on one line. What I mean is this: You get a call on your voice line you answer it, it's for your wife. you say "hold on a minute", flash the switchook, then dial *9, and then hang up. The phone will ring. Your wife answers the fone after 4 or so rings realizing you won't be getting it....... You don't really need intercom for that. One thing you might want to try is using your fax line as a second line for intercom purposes and outside calls only. If your fax line is busy for a few short minutes while you ring the other line, it shouldn't be a problem. That is if you want an intercom. If the above situation is okay with you (dialing *9, etc), then you don't need any more lines. --jsol p.s. Intellidial is great! [Moderator's Note: It sure is! Here we call it Starline, but it is the same difference. I don't think I would ever go back to having a PBX. PT] ------------------------------ From: Edward Greenberg Subject: Re: New Techniques for Busy Verification? Date: 29 Sep 89 03:28:32 GMT Reply-To: Edward Greenberg Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 997-9175} On Long Island, New York, the verification operator went away in about 1980. In the early 70's, one verified by calling the operator and asking for "verification on 555-2368." The operator would call the number and, if s/he got a busy, call the verification operator for you and ask for "verification on 555-2368." The verification operator would answer "busy talking" or "out of service, I'll report it." We soon learned that we could reach the verification operator by dialing the affected prefix and 9901 (or, "official 1"). Then WE could tell the verification operator to do her thing. In about 1973 or '74, we could no longer reach a verification operator on official-1, but rather, 234-9901 would bring one up capable of verifying anywhere in 516. In about 1980, as I said above, the operators started verifying (and doing emergency cut-in's) themselves. -edg P.S. Does anybody else remember using verification as an early form of call waiting? Ed Greenberg uunet!apple!netcom!edg [Moderator's Note: Yes, we used to ask for verification which would cause a click on the other person's line, as a way of letting them know someone wanted them. Abuse of it is why they now charge for verifying if the line does in fact test busy and not out of order. When we then got through, the other party would always ask, "was that you trying to get me?", and I would always reply, "did the operator cut in and tell you to can the sh-- and give someone else a chance to get through on the line?" :) PT] ------------------------------ From: "John R. Levine" Subject: Re: Splits of NNX? Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 02:16:55 GMT In article dattier@jolnet.orpk. il.us (David Tamkin) writes: >I think the very first split was 404/912 in Georgia. If you want to go all the way back, the 0th split was probably 201/609. The earliest NPA maps apparently had all of New Jersey in 201, but they split it before many people even had DDD. One thing I've always wondered about was why 201 is a single LATA, while 609, which has about half as many phones and prefixes, it split into two. I suppose it's because 609 has a strip of nearly uninhabited Pine Barrens down the middle which makes it easy to split, but it's a pain. The eastern 609 LATA is a tiny strip running about 65 miles down the coast with the only town of any size being Atlantic City. I happen to have a beach house near there and almost every call I make is an inter-lata toll call. At least they all go toward my Sprint Plus volume discount. This situation also makes for some interesting dialing. From my parents' house in Princeton NJ in the western 609 LATA, when you dial a regular seven digit number it might be: * a free local intra-lata call * a free local inter-lata call, since local calls into adjacent prefixes in 201 can still be dialed without the area code * an intra-lata toll call * an inter-lata toll call It makes it hard to tell how much to expect to pay. Local calls across the NPA boundary can be dialed without the area code all along the line in New Jersey, and since there are still several NNX prefixes that are assigned neither in 201 nor 609, this seems unlikely to change. 609 does not have NXX prefixes but 201 does, and in at least one case an NXX prefix in Toms River (201) is dialable from Barnegat (609) without an area code; I guess they had to put in a special case timeout. John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, Levine@YALE.edu Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe ------------------------------ From: Jay "you ignorant splut!" Maynard Subject: Re: Area Code Splits (was: Splits of NNX?) Date: 29 Sep 89 09:48:18 GMT Reply-To: Jay "you ignorant splut!" Maynard Organization: Confederate Microsystems, League City, TX In article cmoore@brl.mil writes: >214/903 Texas, fall 1990 Does this include moving the Fort Worth area of 817 into 214? For the longest time, duplicate NXXs weren't assigned to both Dallas and Fort Worth, even if they wouldn't have had local calling scope to each other. I had always heard that that was because they intended to make Dallas and Fort Worth into one area code one day. (I'm watching this one from afar; we in Houston got our split a while back.) Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can jay@splut.conmicro.com (eieio)| adequately be explained by stupidity. {attctc,bellcore}!texbell!splut!jay +---------------------------------------- America works less when you say..."Union Yes!" ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #419 *****************************   Date: Sat, 30 Sep 89 0:17:54 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #420 Message-ID: <8909300017.aa19609@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Sat, 30 Sep 89 00:15:26 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 420 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: Phone Design For Humans (Edward Greenberg) Re: Phone Design For Humans (Peter Desnoyers) Re: Phone Cards (Jim Gottlieb) Re: Phone Cards (Jeffrey Silber) Re: Locatable Ringers (Chris Schmandt) Re: Locatable Ringers (Tad Cook) Re: Locatable Ringers (Ihor J. Kinal) Re: Cordless Phone Questions (Tad Cook) Re: Urgent: Hurricane Wreaks Havoc (Mark Robert Smith) Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding (S. M. Krieger) Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past (Tad Cook) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Edward Greenberg Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Date: 29 Sep 89 22:40:13 GMT Reply-To: Edward Greenberg Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 997-9175} >[Moderator's Note: But you know what I *really* miss are the 2515 >sets. Those were the 2500 'two line turn button' sets, with the plastic >knob in the corner for selection of line one or two. The turn button also Indeed. Two line twists were a joy, and some even had a manual hold built into the exclusion plunger. One of my favorite phones is a 2500 set with a headset jack in the back. What I wouldn't give for a few more of those. In the interests of reminiscence, here are some of the funky phones I've got in stock: A clear base and handset 2500 set. A friend bought a bunch of these cases and uses them to R & R 2500 sets as novelty items. Everything is clear. The handset, base, faceplate and, of course, the cover over the number card. One of these days I'm going to laser print my phone number onto a transparency so that can be clear too. A marblized green and white Stromberg Carlson trimline. This one was picked up in a phone wholesaler on closeout. The story was that a line of these had been designed for a Hawaiian hotel that got into financial trouble during construction. It went well with a green bathroom that I no longer have. My wife won't let it see the light of day any more though. A beige, five line touchtone card dialer. I gotta find a place to put this one in the house... It's just too nice to keep in a box. Unfortunately, there ain't anyplace in the current residence that needs a phone. This one is programmed by punching out holes in cards. You have to punch two holes per number. One for the row and one for the column. Inside, it's mechanical and electrical madness. I wonder if (where) I could still get cards. An "ITT/Kellogg" 576 set. This is one with three lines and three manual holds. It has ROUND buttons, and has to have hookswitch key restoration on the hold buttons, in order not to busy out the lines forever. It also has neon ring indicators on the line buttons, and provisions to wire a supply to provide lights for on-hold indications. This phone has a Numeric dial, rather than a "metropolitan" one. That means it has ten LARGE digits (in standard rotary dial digit font) instead of ten smaller digits with letter codes next to them. What other pieces of history do we have out there? Ed Greenberg uunet!apple!netcom!edg [Moderator's Note: I've got a 'French-style' phone: the round, fat base with the felt covering the bottom, the sort of skinny neck and the four fingers -- two extended upright on either side - which form the cradle. It has a rather large, heavy receiver, and *straight, brown cloth cord* from the receiver to the base, and from the base to where it was tied on by its spade lugs to the side-ringer on the wall. Rotary dial, of course, with a 'Z' on the Operator hole. Inside the unit on the bottom plate is the notation 'manufactured by Western Electric Hawthorne Works, 3-15-1927'. Bell phones of that era did not have bells in them. The bell was always in a box mounted on the wall; what we would today term a side-ringer, as is used for the second line on a two line phone. It still works, but the transmission quality is poor. PT] ------------------------------ From: Peter Desnoyers Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Date: 29 Sep 89 14:09:37 GMT Organization: Apple Computer, Inc. In article gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu (Gabe Wiener) writes: > Speaking of the 2500, is it still with us? Does AT&T (or ITT, or GTE, > or Stromberg Carlson (comdial) or whoever) still manufacture a _real_ > 2500 set? [complains about sleazy (new) AT&T set] I have an AT&T phone in front of me that we bought a few months ago for our lab. It has CS2500DMGH and a date code printed on the bottom, so I guess it's a 2500 set :-) Anyway, it's made in Singapore, it's cheap and sleazy, and the keypad stops generating tones if the voltage drops below 5.4 volts. It feels too lightweight for a telephone, although if you open it up you find there are two heavy metal bars riveted to the bottom that seem to have no purpose but to add weight. On the plus side, it has memory, redial, and mute. Peter Desnoyers Apple ATG (408) 974-4469 ------------------------------ From: Jim Gottlieb Subject: Re: Phone Cards Date: 29 Sep 89 09:25:06 GMT Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb Organization: Info Connections, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan In article cgch!wtho@mcsun.eu.net (Tom Hofmann) writes: >As I see there are two different types of phone cards around the world. >For the other type you pay a certain amount and this amount is >coded on the card itself. For usage you push the card into a special >slot of a public phone, and the coded amount is decreased while making >a call. An "empty" card can be thrown away (e.g. Switzerland). While these stored-value cards are definitely convenient and one avoids calling card surcharges, they always seemed to me to be too susceptible to fraud. After all, the sole record of your balance is sitting on the card in your pocket. Well, today's Japan Times reports the case of someone who was charged with buying cards with 50 10-yen (about 7 U.S. cents) units on them and reprogramming them with several thousand units and then selling them. Surprisingly, the case was dropped because the court determined that this person had not broken any laws! They said that since he had not planned to use the cards himself, he had not cheated the phone company out of any money. And since he dutifully informed the people he sold the cards to that they had been modified, he was not guilty of any securities law violation. I suspect that the Diet will need to quickly come up with a law to make this illegal, or a massive industry will sprout, with no fear of prosecution. The article did not mention anything about the eventual end-users of the cards or whether they would be prosecuted. Jim Gottlieb Info Connections, Tokyo, Japan _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ or or Fax: (011)+81-3-239-7453 Voice Mail: (011)+81-3-944-6221 ID#82-42-424 ------------------------------ From: Jeffrey Silber Subject: Re: Phone Cards Date: 27 Sep 89 13:23:30 GMT Reply-To: Jeffrey Silber Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY In article cgch!wtho@mcsun.eu.net (Tom Hofmann) writes: >What I would like to know: Isn't there a country (or LDC in the US) >where phone calls can be paid be regular, internationally accepted >credit cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express, etc.)? Phone calls >would get much easier while travelling abroad. Or is there a reason, >why telephone companies do not accept them? I was able to place an international call from Heathrow airport using my Visa card ... the phone had a magnetic strip reader which read my card and permitted me to direct dial. The charge appeared on my bill next month from British Telecom. "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money." --Sen. Everett Dirksen Jeffrey A. Silber/silber@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu Business Manager/Cornell Center for Theory & Simulation in Science & Engineering ------------------------------ From: Chris Schmandt Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Date: 29 Sep 89 22:10:56 GMT Reply-To: Chris Schmandt Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA In article johnl@esegue.segue. boston.ma.us writes: >I am astonished that considering all of the ergonomic work that AT&T at >least used to do on their phones, they haven't provided this simple feature. (referring to distinctive rings). Our AT&T 7506 sets (running basic rate ISDN off a 5ESS) offer 8 distinctive rings. Although you have to listen fairly hard to hear the differences when you're down the hall, it is a feature growing in popularity here. chris ------------------------------ From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Date: 30 Sep 89 00:58:58 GMT Organization: very little For distinguishing ringers in an open office, try coded ringers like the ones from Proctor & Associates of Redmond, WA. Their phone number is 206-881-7000. Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP ------------------------------ From: Ihor J Kinal Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Date: 29 Sep 89 15:12:00 GMT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories In article , Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup. portal.com writes: > Several of us got tired of this and wired up a neon flasher. It's > quite easy to make: You get a standard neon bulb (NE-2?) and a 10K ... > When the phone rings, the neon light flashes. It does not > interfere with the operation of the phone. Note that this only works > with traditional phone systems. It probably will not work with the new > electronic systems. If you don't want to build your own, you can pick one up from your local Radio Shack. Cost is about $9.00. It works with my phone, which is attached to an ATT System 85. Ringer equivalent is 0.4 B. Ihor Kinal cbnewsh!ijk ------------------------------ From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Questions Date: 30 Sep 89 00:56:33 GMT Organization: very little There are lots of things that can cause interference to cordless phones. We have a Leading Edge computer at work that sounds like a thousand vacuum cleaners in my Plantronics Liteset. Light dimmers also radiate RFI and can interfere with cordless phones. Try reorienting the antenna, or moving the base unit. The further away you get from the base the worse the signal will be. (This is in response to Pete Lyal's questions about his new cordless phone.) Also, remember that your phone calls on a cordless phone are not private, or are less private than wireline communications. Anyone in your neighborhood with a VHF scanner radio can tune to the 46-49 MHz area and listen to your calls. Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Sep 89 13:50:49 EDT From: Mark Robert Smith Subject: Re: Urgent: Hurricane Wreaks Havoc It may be late, but American Express is supposed to be helping out. The number I got off of TV is 1-800-453-9000. I hope this helps. Mark Smith, KNJ2LH All Rights Reserved RPO 1604 You may redistribute this article only if those who P.O. Box 5063 receive it may do so freely. New Brunswick, NJ 08903-5063 msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu ------------------------------ From: stank@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (Stan Krieger) Subject: Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding Date: 29 Sep 89 15:06:32 GMT Organization: Summit NJ > B) How difficult would it be to modify the system so that when one > placed a call to a forwarded number, they would first hear a short > tone signifying that the call was being bumped? Unlike A), that would > actually be informative and helpful. > [Moderator's Note: > Regards (B), many people do not want > you to know they are not at home/office, etc. The problem with call-forwarding is that SOMEONE should know the call has been call-forwarded; otherwise the conversation can be very awkward. I agree with the moderator that letting the caller know that the call has been forwarded will defeat one of the selling points of that feature, but if the receipients aren't aware that the call they're getting is forwarded, they may accidentally give away that information through their fumbling. If the receipients got a coded ring, then they would be forewarned (e.g., if the person who set up call forwarding was in their home, that person could answer the phone; if your relative or friend forwarded to you while you were on vacation, you would know when you answered where you were supposed to pretend you're at). In an office, this would be even more useful. Before desktop terminals became the standard, and terminal rooms were the norm, people who would be working at terminals for several hours would often call-forward to the terminal room. When they forgot to remove call-forwarding, the person who picked up the phone in the terminal room would often just say that so&so wasn't there, or that this wasn't that person's phone (the latter would also happen if calls were left forwarded to someone else's desk, because you knew you would be in their office for a long time). At least with a coded ring, there would be no puzzlement to receipients as to why callers apparently got a wrong number. Stan Krieger Summit, NJ ...!att!attunix!smk ------------------------------ From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number Date: 30 Sep 89 00:22:44 GMT Organization: very little Regarding precise dialtone, it's true...the older dialtone was rich in harmonics, and interferes with a tone receiver trying to detect the first DTMF digit. I used to work for a company that made tone-to-pulse converters, and one of the requirements was that they be installed in offices with precise 350+440Hz dialtone, rather than the electromechanical motor driven monsters that were commong in offices without DTMF. Customers calling in with problems were usually asked about precise dialtone, and the wags around the office (Teltone) used to joke about the customers who said: "Hell yes it's precise dialtone! I checked it with a stobe light just last week!" Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP KT7H @ N7HFZ MCI Mail: 3288544 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #420 *****************************   Date: Sun, 1 Oct 89 0:56:07 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #421 Message-ID: <8910010056.aa03106@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Sun, 1 Oct 89 00:55:09 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 421 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson FIDO Address/Other Administrivia (TELECOM Moderator) C&P Class, With a Thought (David Lesher) NYTel Still On Strike and Vandalism (Roy Smith) Another Cool Thing About GTE (Tom Ace) ANI Updates Wanted (Heartmate@cup.portal.com) Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding (Tom Ace) Re: Telegraph History....Again! (Dave Fiske) Re: Locatable Ringers (Thomas J. Roberts) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 1 Oct 89 0:24:54 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: FIDO Address/Other Administrivia Mr. William Fenner has provided the Digest with a Fidonet address. This can be used to send mail here. It forwards direct, and eliminates the former hassle of two step addressing for Fido people. Telecom Digest 129/87 from any Fido node via netmail will terminate at 'hogbbs.fido.com' and be forwarded right out to me here in Evanston. My thanks to Mr. Fenner for making this alias available on his system. Speaking of addresses, here is a complete list of addresses which can be used to write TELECOM Digest. If one does not work for you for some reason, then another one might. telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (preferred address, for submissions) telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu (preferred address for list changes, etc) telecom@cs.bu.edu (a backup address if eecs lets you down) telecom@hogbbs.fido.com (another backup address) telecom@nuacca.bitnet (for Bitnet correspondents) Telecom Digest 129/87 (for use from Fido sites) (telecom 129/87 also works) ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu (for personal mail to me) 155296378 (ans:ptown) (Telex; slower, but eventually forwards here) For next: Every letter sent to the above addresses (except ptownson and telex) generates an autoreply message from here. This lets you know your mail/Digest submission was received, and when it got here. Sometimes autoreply fails, for various reasons, but usually because some site along the way messes up the 'from:' line on your message, and the autoreply itself bounces back to me. Just because you don't get one, don't assume I did not get your mail unless a few days pass and you still have heard nothing -- not even a 'real' reply from me. Finally, the mail: As much as I would love to, I have absoutely no control over the delivery of Digests. Delivery on the Internet is pretty predictable, but off the net to Usenet, Bitnet, Compuserve, etc is anyone's guess regards time of delivery, etc. Please note that each issue of the Digest leaves here in numerical order, spaced at least 40-60 minutes apart. If you get them by the boatload -- a dozen one day and none the next -- there is nothing I can do about it, sorry. If you are missing a copy, let me know, because I can always send replacements. Have a happy October, and a nice fall season! Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: David Lesher Subject: C&P Class, With a Thought Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 21:28:09 EDT Reply-To: David Lesher According to the Post (2 Sept, D11) C&P is hoping to get: CallerID $6.50/8.50 (res/bus) Trace $1.00 per use Block $4.00/4.50 (.LE. 6 #'s) Sel. Fwd $4.00/4.50 Return $4.00/4.50 Repeat $2.00/2.50 Priority $3.00/3.50 and Telephone companies argue that classifying a number as unpublished means only that it will not appear in a directory or be given out by operators People who want to safeguard their numbers can do so by not calling. Which brings out the reason for my submission. It is no secret that the District region has a number of government agencies that, shall we say, maintain low profiles. These folks don't ALL work out of the buildings we see on the news. Some buildings are just not labeled (hint-if the fence is 12 ft high, and there is a guard with an Uzi in the little hut, they are NOT selling office supplies) while others have NO overt connection to their actual agencies. Now while nothing classified is discussed on the (so-called) black phone, how happy are these folks going to be on the ID question? Will they be able to get ID blocked? If not, then c+p will make even MORE $$$ on OPX trunks back to the HQ buildings or a neutral site to disguise the actual calling numbers. It should be interesting. Flash! Murphy gets look and feel copyright on sendmail.cf {gatech!} wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (305) 255-RTFM ------------------------------ From: Roy Smith Subject: NYTel Still On Strike and Vandalism Date: 30 Sep 89 01:33:07 GMT Organization: Public Health Research Institute, NYC, NY Just in case you forgot that NYTel is still on strike and that vandalism is still going on, I heard on the radio a couple of days ago of another incident involving some underground cables being cut on Long Island, depriving about 4000 customers of phone service. NYTel has raised their reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of vandals to $100,000. Then again, maybe it had nothing to do with the strike -- Metro North (Amtrack commuter service into Grand Central Terminal) reports continuing problems with people stealing the copper cables used for their low-voltage signal lines (there is a big black market in stolen copper, be it stolen cables or copper plumbing stripped from abandoned buildings). Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu "The connector is the network" ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 16:15:07 PDT From: "Tom Ace @ PCB x2021" Subject: Another Cool Thing About GTE GTE used to install modular jacks wired so that the polarity would be the opposite of what was standard in Bell areas. (I noticed this in several instances, all residential service jacks in California in the early 1980s. I have no idea what they're doing nowadays.) A friend once moved from a Bell area to a GTE area and figured that his '70s-vintage WE touch-tone phone had gotten damaged in the move, because it wouldn't make tones any more. (I saw that he was dialing by making pulses with his finger on the switchhook.) I told him what the story was and swapped tip and ring in the jack for him. Tom Ace tom@sje.mentor.com ...!mntgfx!sje!tom ------------------------------ From: Heartmate@cup.portal.com Subject: ANI Updates Wanted Date: Sat, 30-Sep-89 08:45:15 PDT Hi, Patrick -- Hope you can help me. I understand there was an on-going debate on the comp.dcom.telecom. newsgroup about ANI and Invasion of Privacy. It appears to have been dropped from the system I use (Portal) -- anyway I can get access to the information/debate? Alternatively, if you could point me to somebody who might be able to share some general information with me I'd appreciate it. What I am specifically interested in is the following -- I've heard that at least two class action lawsuits have been filed against AT&T in NJ and Florida -- this is not direct information so it may be a little confused -- what I want to know is: is this true? What's the status? Anything else that relates to the topic. Also what other states are on the bandwagon? Noticed a post re. Maryland on the newsgroup today. Hope to hear from you soon. [Moderator's Note: Not *that* topic again, please! Perhaps a couple of the readers who were the most prolific on the subject here will kindly write correspondent with their views. Although if anyone knows anything about the 'class action suits' he alludes to, that news would be welcome. But I suspect the suits would be against local telcos rather than AT&T would they not? PT] ------------------------------ From: "Tom Ace @ PCB x2021" Subject: Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding Date: 30 Sep 89 00:00:00 GMT In TELECOM Digest V9 #414, Miguel Cruz asked: >A) Why on earth does it do that thing where the first time you try >forwarding, it actually places the call to the number, and if it's >busy or no answer, you have to do the whole forwarding sequence again? >Is there a single person on the planet for whom that's helpful or >convenient? Our moderator replied: >[Moderator's Note: Regards (A), if you actually reach the party to whom >you are forwarding, you are assured of dialing correctly. If you get a >busy or no answer, it might be because you dialed a wrong number. By doing >it a second time, telco is assured that your instructions match your >intentions. Without this repeat-dialing verification, you might accidentally >have forwarded to the wrong place. Huh. I always thought it was a slimebag method to get more revenue. To set up call-forwarding, you need to make (and, if applicable, pay for) a call, like it or not. (Well, an alternative is to place two calls, hanging up before either is answered, not exactly to the delight of whomever you're forwarding the calls to.) Patrick's remarks are valid (I appreciate that it would be a drag to be the recipient of erroneously forwarded calls), but we endure several inconveniences the way things are. There are times when you'd like to be able to set up call-forwarding without ringing the recipient's phone (3 A.M., for example). Tom Ace tom@sje.mentor.com ...!mntgfx!sje!tom P.S. I once wanted to forward my phone to a 976 service as a joke, but the switch wouldn't let me. It did, however, let me forward to an identical 976 service in an adjacent area code (at a greater cost to me for each call forwarded, of course). ------------------------------ From: Dave Fiske Subject: Re: Telegraph History....Again! Date: 29 Sep 89 21:19:47 GMT Organization: BRS Info Technologies, Latham NY In article , gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia. edu (Gabe Wiener) writes: > With all this talk of Western Union history and whatnot, I thought that > these little anecdote might be appropriate. > When Thomas A. Edison was a teenager in the 1860's, he used to work in > a telegraph office. At one point, he was assigned to work the > graveyard shift. Now in those days, a telegraph operator would have > to send a six over the line (represented at the time by the morse > signal ......, although the MODERN morse signal is -....). Anyway, > there was very little traffic over the circuits in those days was very > light in the wee hours. Now it is a well known fact that Tom Edison > liked to sleep during his work. However, he was often admonished for > nodding off durning his operating hours when he failed to send the > six. So he rigged a six notched gear to the movement of a nearby > clock, and whenever the clock would reach the hour, the gear would > promptly roll over the telegraph key sending the six, and permitting > Edison to get a good night's sleep. Here's another anecdote about a famous person's work at a telegraph office. As a boy, Andrew Carnegie worked delivering telegrams. Apparently, in the early days, they did not believe that people could learn to read the telegraph by ear. They had a stylus attached to the "clicker", which drew lines on a strip of paper which was moved along the instrument. As the paper moved along, an incoming dot lifted the stylus up to make sort of a short rectangle on the paper; a dash made a long rectangle. A man would go over the strip of paper afterward, and "read" the message, type it out, and give it to a boy to be delivered. Carnegie mentions in his autobiography, that, from hanging around in the office, hearing the incoming clicks, and reading the messages before delivering them, he gradually learned to decode the messages in his head. Apparently this gave him an advantage, in that he knew the message even before the official "interpreter". I guess he could call out the message as it came in, and the other guy could just type it out, without having to look at the strip. Anyway, eventually they figured out that people could learn to read the clicks by ear. "ANGRY WOMEN BEAT UP SHOE SALESMAN Dave Fiske (davef@brspyr1.BRS.COM) WHO POSED AS GYNECOLOGIST" Home: David_A_Fiske@cup.portal.com Headline from Weekly World News CIS: 75415,163 GEnie: davef ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Sep 89 14:21:36 CDT From: Thomas J Roberts Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories From article , by johnl@esegue. segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine): > In article Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup. > portal.com writes: >>In a recent issue of the digest, someone mentioned that they wanted a >>phone that you could locate by the sound of its ring. .... > I am astonished that considering all of the ergonomic work that AT&T at > least used to do on their phones, they haven't provided this simple feature. The phone on my desk (AT&T 7507 ISDN phone) has 8 different ring sequences, selectable by the user. While the pitch of the ringer is not changable, it has 3 tones, and 8 sequences of hi-med-low to choose from. It also has a liquid-crystal display that displays the incoming call number (when possible), and about a million buttons programmable for features (conference, transfer, call-forward, auto call-back, priority call, leave word calling, program speed call, etc.) and/or speed calling numbers. Tom Roberts AT&T Bell Laboratories att!ihnet!tjr ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #421 *****************************   Date: Mon, 2 Oct 89 0:45:54 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #422 Message-ID: <8910020045.aa28969@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Mon, 2 Oct 89 00:45:26 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 422 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: Locatable Ringers (Doug Davis) Re: Locatable Ringers (Larry Campbell) Re: Information Wanted About GEOnet (Rupert Mohr) Re: California Junk Fax Bill (David W. Tamkin) Re: They're Doing It Again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) (John Wheeler) Re: Sleazy Touch-Tone Marketing Tactics (John Wheeler) Re: Area Code Splits (was: Splits of NNX?) (Carl Moore) Re: Caller ID in Maryland (Tad Cook) Re: Phone Cards (Tad Cook) Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding (Michael Scott Baldwin) Area Codes and Reachability (Peter Clitherow) Correction to Fido Gateway Message (David Dodell) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Doug Davis Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Date: 28 Sep 89 16:59:02 GMT Reply-To: doug@letni.lawnet.com Organization: Logic Process Dallas, Texas. In article Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup. portal.com writes: >Several of us got tired of this and wired up a neon flasher. It's >quite easy to make: You get a standard neon bulb (NE-2?) and a 10K >resistor. Solder the resistor in line (not across) with the neon bulb. >Remove the eraser from a Jet Eraser (or use a pen casing) and mount >the bulb in the casing. Run the wiring to your phone tip and ring >lines. When the phone rings, the neon light flashes. It does not >interfere with the operation of the phone. Note that this only works >with traditional phone systems. It probably will not work with the new >electronic systems. >Now when the phone rings, we look and see who's phone is flashing. Not >a perfect solution, but better than before.... Good idea, but not exactly FCC spec ;-) I have a commercial product from Radio Shack called the "Phone Flasher" it's basically the same thing as what you described only it's a real live consumer product. Cost was 7.95 a year or so ago. I have also seen these little critters in Target so I suspect that they are pretty widespread. There are several variants of them as well one that has a Xenon lamp in it, instead of Neon, another with a "tunable pitch" noise-maker in it, and lastly one that provides you a 120VAC outlet that comes on when the phone rings and goes off a few seconds after it stops. I guess if the Neon or the Xenon version wasn't enough light you could always connect that one to your Bat-Signal(tm). Oh yeah, I have one of those in my garage connected to a 12vdc transformer attached to a car horn, never miss a call when making lots of racket out there anymore ;-) If its of interest I can dig up and post RS catalog numbers for all of them. Doug Davis/1030 Pleasant Valley Lane/Arlington/Texas/76015/817-467-3740 {sys1.tandy.com, motown!sys1, uiucuxc!sys1 lawnet, attctc, texbell} letni!doug "Everything in this article is a Jolt Cola hallucination and in no way exhibits any signs of being remotely connection to any reality." ------------------------------ From: campbell@redsox.bsw.com (Larry Campbell) Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Date: 30 Sep 89 03:48:50 GMT Reply-To: campbell@redsox.UUCP (Larry Campbell) Organization: The Boston Software Works, Inc. We have AT&T Merlin phones and they support selection of one of eight different ring tones. The Merlin system is quite nice and featureful, but I'd love to chuck it (and will next time we need to expand) because it's completely proprietary and nonstandard -- you can't even plug a modem into the damn thing. Can anyone tell me why we shouldn't switch to Centrex? Larry Campbell The Boston Software Works, Inc. campbell@bsw.com 120 Fulton Street wjh12!redsox!campbell Boston, MA 02146 ------------------------------ From: Operator Subject: Re: Information Wanted About GEOnet Date: 1 Oct 89 12:09:29 GMT Organization: RMI Net Aachen * W. Germany HGSCHULZ@cs.umass.edu (Henning Schulzrinne) writes: >I would appreciate any information about GEOnet, a commercial mail >and data network, especially concerning gateways to Internet. >Thanks in advance. Try user@host.das.net where host is one of GEONET's hostnames like GEO1, GEO2, GEO3,... DM1, DM2, ... MBK1, ... etc. Regards, Rupert ***************************************************************** ___ ____ ___ _ _ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _ _ /__/ / / / / /\ / /__ / /__//__// /__//__ /\ / / \ / / __/_ / / /__ / / // //__ / //__ / / ***************************************************************** * addresses: uucp rmohr@infoac.rmi.de rmohr@unido.bitnet * * cis 72446,415 Fax 49 241 32822 * ***************************************************************** ------------------------------ Subject: Re: California Junk Fax Bill Date: Sun, 1 Oct 89 11:16:55 CDT From: "David W. Tamkin" Mark A. Holtz wrote in volume 9, issue 419: | Quite recently, a bill was passed through both houses of the | California legislature which prohibits unsolicited "junk fax" from | being sent. The basis: Regular junk mail costs nothing more than | the time to toss it into file 13, while you pay for the ink and | paper for junk fax. | | However, the governor of California has stated that he would not | sign said bill. | | He is bound to change his mind. | | Several radio stations have gotten a hold of the Governor's fax | number. And, they have given it out, telling people to keep the fax | machine busy with junk fax. And, sure enough, it has been busy. | | If you were the governor of California, would you sign the "Junk | Fax" bill now? There is a story, or perhaps an urban legend, that when a bill to outlaw junk faxing reached the desk of the governor of Connecticut, a junk-faxing advertiser found out the number of the governor's fax machine and spread it around the industry, telling fellow advertisers to bombard the state house with letters against signing the bill. The governor was so infuriated at their tying up the fax machine and preventing its use for official state business that the bill was signed immediately. David Tamkin P.O Box 813 Rosemont, Illinois 60018-0813 | BIX: dattier dwtamkin@chinet.chi.il.us (312)693-0591 (708)518-6769 | GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN Everyone on Chinet has his or her own opinion about this.| CIS: 73720,1570 ------------------------------ From: John Wheeler Subject: Re: They're Doing It Again (was Chicago Cubs Trash Bell) Date: 1 Oct 89 19:56:19 GMT Reply-To: John Wheeler Organization: Turner Entertainment Networks Library; Atlanta If anyone is making a list, the "choke" exchange serving Atlanta is 404-741. Turner John Wheeler E N T E R T A I N M E N T ...!gatech!nanovx!techwood!johnw Networks Techwood Library * home of Superstation TBS * TNT * TBS Sports ------------------------------ From: John Wheeler Subject: Re: Sleazy Touch-Tone Marketing Tactics Date: 1 Oct 89 19:49:17 GMT Reply-To: John Wheeler Organization: Turner Entertainment Networks Library; Atlanta Patrick: I know you're a long-time advocate of AT&T Reach Out America, but I'd like to find out what this deal is: I placed my order for ROA about 2 weeks before my residence move - after my number had been assigned, but before it was connected. I was given all the rate info, etc. at the time. I got my first bill from AT&T, and not only was there no ROA plan, there was that neat little "you could have saved money with ROA" message. I called AT&T, and they said "oh...well when you place your order before you actually have service connected, it sometimes [direct quote] drags along and just never gets put on...we'll adjust your bill". Come on...am I not just an item in a table on a database with an ROA flag set to TRUE? Shouldn't they have the billing bugs worked out by now? Turner John Wheeler E N T E R T A I N M E N T ...!gatech!nanovx!techwood!johnw Networks Techwood Library * home of Superstation TBS * TNT * TBS Sports [Moderator's Note: Generally, AT&T is very much at the mercy of the local telco as to when things like ROA get turned on; when calling card PINS are cancelled/started, etc. Some telcos just won't do work on a line not actually in service. I've heard of situations with Illinois Bell where people have moved very close by -- even from one apartment to another in the same building, but for whatever reason IBT had to change the pairs in the CO even though the people kept the same number. Sure enough, as soon as the new service (with the same old phone number) went on, ROA was *not* on the line. Who took it off? Why, Illinois Bell, of course. Whatever the local telcos do in their computer is the way things stand with AT&T, at least as long as the telcos continue to do AT&T billing for them. PT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Oct 89 17:30:26 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Area Code Splits (was: Splits of NNX?) I assume that 817 is NOT affected by the 214/903 split. I had never before heard of Dallas and Fort Worth possibly becoming one area code. I think there are some EMS (extended metro service) prefixes with 7 digit calling to both cities. ------------------------------ From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: Caller ID in Maryland Date: 1 Oct 89 21:24:29 GMT Organization: very little Regarding the question about what is required at the CO for CLASS services, I asked a rep at US West in Seattle recently about this. They said that the 5ESS is already equipped for it, but that they will be buying new software from AT&T. Some of the other offices will probably require retrofit to make them compatible. One problem in this area is making sure that the US West and GTE offices in the area all talk to each other and send ANI. Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP MCI Mail: 3288544 ------------------------------ From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: Phone Cards Date: 1 Oct 89 21:08:40 GMT Organization: very little Regarding the question about LD carriers taking regular bank plastic, I think I read recently that MCI will soon start accepting bank credit cards for toll calls. This is without having to use the card reader phones in airports. You will dial the MCI operator and give your Visa number. Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP MCI Mail: 3288544 ------------------------------ From: mike@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (michael.scott.baldwin) Subject: Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding Date: 2 Oct 89 01:05:17 GMT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories In article , asa@stl-07sima.army.mil (Will Martin on 7000) writes: > And, as a side question: I seem to recall this being asked during the > "Caller*ID" debate, but don't recall it being answered. Maybe somebody > out there with Caller*ID can now tell us: If a call is call-forwarded to > a phone with "Caller*ID", is the number displayed that of the forwarding > phone or the originating one? The originating one. > If the number displayed is that of the originating phone, is there any > heirarchy of displays -- that is, if the originating phone is out of the > area and the number isn't available, but the number of the forwarding > phone IS available, will the forwarding-phone's number be displayed in > that case? No. You always get the originating phone. Thus, if the originator is out of area, but the forwarder is in area, caller*id shows "out of area". More Caller*ID tidbits: It is possible for the little Caller*ID unit to not even notice that a call came in if you pick up the phone very shortly after the first ring. This is because the Caller*ID info gets transmitted between rings, and it is possible to pick up before any info gets sent. This is pretty annoying. Also, not all exchanges in the same town will be in area. We have seven phone lines in my house on five different exchanges, all in the same town. (It's a long story, but it sure is fun having a 25-pair block in the basement installed by NJ Bell). Calls from two of the exchanges show up as "out of area", even though they are from the next room. Bleah! michael.scott.baldwin@att.com (bell laboratories) ------------------------------ From: pc@bellcore.bellcore.com Subject: Area Codes and Reachability Date: 1 Oct 89 20:00:41 GMT Reply-To: pc@ctt.ctt.bellcore.com Organization: Bellcore - Wierd Ideas Factory Noticed a few anomalies in that wonderful publication, the Telephone Area Code Directory, TR-EOP-000093 from Bellcore, the latest edition that I have being the July, 1988 one. For instance, every point in Alaska except one is in the 907 area code (as one might expect). Hyder, AK is *only* reachable via 604 (BC). Why should this be? Probably, if I found that place on a map, it would be adjacent to the BC border, and presumably, close to a Canadian switch of some description. However, why can't the routing tables reflect this reality and allow us to use 907? Coudn't there be a "logical foreign exchange" within a host area code? Or would that be too much work for such a small community? This is also true of: Zones 6-8 in Wheeling, VW (Ohio area code). Some miles on the Alaska highway, BC (AB area code). Quite a few places in SK (AB area code). Further strangeness: For Nevada and Yukon Terr, every point is listed out explicitly with the area code, rather than the summary "All Points, area code...". Implication being that there were points in NV that had a UT/CA/AZ/OR area code, but are now genuine 702 area code, but that Bellcore has forgotten to update the directory appropriately? Peter Clitherow [Moderator's Note: I think the reasoning for listing out all dialable cities in Nevada and Yukon Territory is that if anything, those two areas are less likely to be dialable than most other states or provinces. For example, in Nevada, there are still a large number of toll stations -- places which cannot be dialed and must be called through the operator. Now, there are a few places like this in almost every state or province, but in general we can dial direct wherever we want. In Nevada and Yukon, in general we *cannot* dial a large number of small localities. I think in editing the Area Code Directory, for lack of space to list every single last point, the rule of thumb was if almost everywhere is dialable, and there is one area code only, then note 'all points, area such and such'. If quite a few places are not dialable, then list a selection of those that are, even if it is only one area. PT] ------------------------------ From: David Dodell Subject: Correction to Fido Gateway Message Date: Sun 1 Oct 89 00:00:00 >Telecom Digest 129/87 from any Fido node via netmail will terminate at >'hogbbs.fido.com' and be forwarded right out to me here in Evanston. >My thanks to Mr. Fenner for making this alias available on his system. There is no such thing as hogbbs.fido.com, the correct internet address is hogbbs.fidonet.org David ------------------------------------------------------------------------- uucp: {decvax, ncar} !noao!asuvax!stjhmc!ddodell uucp: {gatech, ames, rutgers} !ncar!noao!asuvax!stjhmc!ddodell Bitnet: ATW1H @ ASUACAD FidoNet=> 1:114/15 Internet: ddodell@stjhmc.fidonet.org [Moderator's Note: You are correct, and I stand corrected. It is , not com. Sorry. That's what I get for watching television while putting out issues of the Digest at the same time. :) PT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #422 *****************************   Date: Mon, 2 Oct 89 23:32:58 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #423 Message-ID: <8910022332.aa22154@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Mon, 2 Oct 89 23:30:41 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 423 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Some Comments About Busy Line Verification & TSPS (Larry Lippman) Charging Telephone Solicitors (was Re: Annoying phone calls) (David Albert) 411 Ringing (John Wheeler) Packing Switching on the D Channel (Giridhar Coorg) Line Capture Device - RJ31X (Bo Newman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Some Comments About Busy Line Verification & TSPS Date: 2 Oct 89 22:10:21 EDT (Mon) From: Larry Lippman In article Miguel_Cruz@ub.cc.umich. edu writes: > "This number's been busy -- " -click- less than two seconds later, > "Sir, there's talking on the line," came back from the operator. > What happened to Verify operators? Time was, you got to listen to > the operator call another operator, you could chat while the second > operator was off for 30 seconds or so doing who knows what. This > whole transaction, from dialing to hanging up, took less than 30 seconds. TSPS was designed with the intention that any or all positions so designated may have direct access to verification trunks. The No. 1 TSPS console has an illuminated non-locking "verification" key which has two possible lamp indications, steady and 120 IPM flash. The exact function of this verification key is software-defined by the TSPS operating program running on the Stored Program Control (SPC) No. 1, the TSPS processor. Therefore, the operator you reach when dialing "0" may well have the capability to perform busy line verification without requiring the services of any other operator. However, depending upon the particular central office having the number to be verified and the local TSPS serving area, a request for busy line verification may still require the services of another operator. Traditionally, most CO's have two busy line verification trunks to service the entire office. In a local DSA serving area, these verification trunks would typically be terminated on a No. 1 or No. 3 Toll Board (cord type) so that at least two positions have access to the trunks; generally, there was no verification multiple to all positions. In large cities, there was usually enough verification traffic to justify at least one operator for this purpose. In smaller DSA serving areas, operators having verification trunk access would perform other duties while not serving verification requests. In SxS CO's, the verification trunks would appear as incoming trunks which connected to a verification distributor. The verification distributor would perform the same function as a first and second selector to decode the thousands and hundreds digits of a four digit number. The verification distributor selected a connector group where the tens and units digits were dialed into a verification connector. A verification connector would provide a metallic connection to the tip & ring of the selected subscriber line; there was no ringing or busy-test function provided in a verification connector itself. A verification connector was in most cases identical to a test connector, as accessed by a local test desk in a repair service bureau. In some SxS CO's the verification and test distributor circuits were combined, while in other CO's there was a separate verification distributor and a separate test distributor. There were several variations in the method of accessing a verification trunk from the No. 1 or No. 3 Toll Board. In some cases there were TWO jacks for each verification trunk - one for dialing and one for speech - which required the use of two cords by the operator. In other cases only one jack was required for both dialing and speech. In either event, in the case of a SxS CO only the last four digits of the subscriber number would be dialed into the verification jack. In the case of a crossbar CO, the last four or five digits would be dialed, depending upon the size of the CO. Since verification trunks were also used to actually break into a connection for emergency situations, in the case of a No. 1 or No. 3 Toll Board there was usually no one-way bridging amplifier; the verification trunk circuit, if equipped with a repeater, was designed for normal two-way communication. Therefore, an operator who accessed a verification trunk had the capability of talking to the connected subscriber line merely by operating the "talk" key at the cord position. Furthermore, if a subscriber terminated a call while their number was accessed via a verification connector, the operator could usually ring their telephone by operating the cord position "ring forward" key (actually, the toll board ringing was repeated using a "test trunk ringing circuit" at the terminating CO). In a crossbar CO, verification trunks would terminate as an incoming trunk, with an incoming register being connected through an incoming register link frame to accept the proper number of digits. Upon completion of dialing into the incoming register, a completing marker equipped to handle "special features" (usually completing marker No. 0 or No 1) would connect the incoming trunk through an office test frame to a "no test" vertical in the subscriber line link frame, thereby making a metallic connection to tip & ring of the subscriber line. A situation similar to the above exists in an analog ESS office, such as No. 1 ESS, No. 2 ESS and No. 3 ESS, in that a metallic connection is made between the incoming verification trunk and the subscriber line. While no doubt similar to the above, I don't know exactly how verification is handled in a digital ESS office, such as the 5 ESS or Northern Telecom DMS-series, since there is no longer a metallic path between lines and trunks; digital ESS CO's appeared LONG after "my time in the field". :-) In a TSPS installation having direct verification capability from any position, the verification trunks as described above would now be terminated as an "operator service trunk" on the Trunk Link Network (TLN) side of the TSPS switch. Therefore, any TSPS console on the Position Link Network (PLN) side of the TSPS switch can access any verification trunk so described. As far as I know, in the original TSPS there was no means for access to verification trunks other than through a TSPS console on the PLN side of the same TSPS switch where the verification trunks were terminated. Both technical reasons and security concerns imposed this limitation. However, times have changed and resulted in a great effort toward "centralization of operator services. Therefore, it may now be possible for a centralized facility to access verification trunks in several TSPS serving areas. Whether such centralized verification access is accomplished using the TSPS RTA facility or by other means, I don't know. In general, implementing busy line verification was a low-priority function during TSPS installation; consequently, verification trunks - along with other special service functions - were often kept on a few cord-type toll board positions long after cutover to TSPS. So the point is, depending upon the local TSPS serving area, verification may or may not yet be available for direct use by the TSPS operator one reaches by dialing "0". It was not uncommon for say, outlying SxS CDO's to have their verification trunks remain on a manual toll board stuck somewhere in a corner of a TSPS facility to save the cost of providing TSPS-compatible verification trunks to these SxS CDO's - which were scheduled for upgrade to ESS, anyhow. An interesting development for busy line verification was introduced several years ago in the Bell System. WECO designed a special verification bridging amplifier which intentionally distorted speech using a simple frequency inversion technique. Therefore, during a "normal" verification request, the TSPS operator could discern the difference between speech and non-speech sounds without actually eavesdropping on a conversation. I am not certain exactly how these special amplifiers were implemented, but I believe that ANY TSPS position could verify but not eavesdrop or break in to the conversation, and only certain supervisory TSPS positions could bypass the special amplifier and break into the conversation. So, getting back to the original question, chances are the same operator you reached by dialing "0" performed the verification, all in a matter of seconds. It is also important to understand that the functions of TSPS are TOTALLY PROGRAMMABLE. The TSPS console is nothing more than lights, keys, digital displays and a 4-wire talk circuit with local sidetone; ALL of its operational characteristics are determined by software in the associated TSPS processor: the SPC No. 1, which uses either the 1-type or 3-type processor. Therefore, the manner in which busy line verification is handled has changed in the past, and no doubt may change in the future. One final point: while the local test desk facilities in a repair service bureau may also be used to "verify" a subscriber line, there is usually a rather clear distinction between this function and "operator" busy line verification. An operator who verifies a line is only trained and equipped to detect the presence or absence of speech on a line, and there is usually no presumption that absence of speech on a line so verified is an indication of trouble. By far, the most common cause of a busy line where speech is absent is a Receiver Off Hook (ROH) condition; therefore, a verification operator will usually NOT refer a line to repair service, since to do so will burden a repair service bureau with a number of false trouble reports. Also, there is a type of apparatus associated with a repair service bureau known as a Line Status Verifier (LSV). The LSV should not be confused with apparatus or facilities intended for "busy line verification". The LSV is a cordless test position for use by repair clerks in handling trouble reports. The LSV provides very simply tests for line open, foreign EMF, etc. and displays obvious faults as a code number on a digital display. The LSV is NOT intended for busy line verification purposes, and is NOT found at any DSA/TSPS facility. <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?" ------------------------------ From: David Albert Subject: Charging Telephone Solicitors (was Re: Annoying phone calls) Date: 1 Oct 89 13:31:34 GMT Reply-To: David Albert Organization: Aiken Computation Lab Harvard, Cambridge, MA In article <1627@l.cc.purdue.edu> cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes: >But the real problem is solicitation.... > >The only solution that has any chance of working is to make solicitors >pay you for soliciting you. A $5 or $10 payment up front for making a >solicitation call to your number would do a good job of eliminating the >problem. Suppose I got a 900-number as my personal home phone, and charged $5 for each call. Of course, I could keep track of personal and other solicited calls and send everyone who deserved one a refund at the end of the month. Questions (to whomever knows): (1) Can 900-numbers be called from anywhere in the country at the same rate? (2) How much does it cost to maintain a 900 number (monthly charges, etc.)? (3) Does the owner of a 900 number get a detailed listing of all the calls received? (4) How much of the $5/call would I get to keep? (5) Are there any other problems with this scenario, except for the obvious paperwork problem I'd have sending everyone their refunds? David Albert | "What are you trying to do, UUCP: ...!harvard!albert | change the world?" INTERNET: albert@harvard.harvard.edu | "No, just our little corner of it." ------------------------------ From: John Wheeler Subject: 411 ringing Date: 1 Oct 89 20:12:55 GMT Reply-To: John Wheeler Organization: Turner Entertainment Networks Library; Atlanta Having grown up in a non-BOC area, the only time I heard that distinctive scratchy BOC-411 ring was on a long-distance 555-1212 DA call. Why is it that now that I live in a BOC area it STILL sounds that way...incredibly scratchy noise, followed by a loud "tock" into a ring tone, a double "t-tock" back to the scratchiness, etc. Only 411 rings this way. Turner John Wheeler E N T E R T A I N M E N T ...!gatech!nanovx!techwood!johnw Networks Techwood Library * home of Superstation TBS * TNT * TBS Sports ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Oct 89 16:23:45 EDT From: Giridhar Coorg Subject: Packing Switching on the D Channel System 12, a product of SEL,an acquisition of Alcatel of France has the capability of handling low speed packet switching capabilities on the D channel in addition to signalling. Can anyone give me the broad guidelines as to how this is being done. ====== Giridhar ===== ------------------------------ From: Bo Newman Subject: Line Capture Device - RJ31X Date: 2 Oct 89 19:12:12 GMT Organization: McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems, McLean, VA I am trying to help a friend install an auto dialier on his home security system and I need some information on "line capture units". I understand that the one you can get from the "phone" company is called an RJ31X. My questions are: 1) Where is it installed? (a) In series between the point where the phone line enters the house and all other phones? (b) on the local loop but not at the house? or (c) elsewhere. 2) What alternatives exist? 3) How does it work? 4) Are there any restriction on the distance between the RJ31X and the "Controling Device"? An addition question related to this instalattion, is anyone aware of the need for special permits to operate an alarm auto dialer in Maryland 301-551-xxxx. Please Respond via E-Mail ... If there are enough responses, I'll post a summary. =================================================================== :Bo Newman newman@inco.uu.net uunet!inco!newman : :McDonnell Douglas Electronics Systems Company (MDESC-WDC) : :McLean Virginia : :Voice Mail USA (202) 898-5564 : :ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY : =================================================================== ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #423 *****************************   Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 0:25:48 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #424 Message-ID: <8910030025.aa18359@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Tue, 3 Oct 89 00:20:07 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 424 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: Phone Design For Humans (Dave Fiske) Re: Phone Design For Humans (John Owens) Re: Locatable Ringers (Thomas E Lowe) Re: Locatable Ringers (Dave Levenson) Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding (Roy Smith) Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding (Dave Levenson) Re: Splits of NNX? (Carl Moore) Re: Splits of NNX? (Paul Fuqua) Re: Number Editing on Telephones (Vance Shipley) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dave Fiske Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Date: 2 Oct 89 17:00:32 GMT Organization: BRS Info Technologies, Latham NY In article , morris@jade.jpl.nasa. gov (Mike Morris) writes: > (Andy Meijers) writes: > > >6. Make a ringer/bell that can be tracked by ear. In an office full of > >chirping crickets, all with the speakers buried, it is often hard to > >tell which one is ringing. > > Here's one place where I wish the rest of the world had copied Rolm - > their phones had 4 different ring sounds, user selectable. On the old We used to have this problem at home. My father had a home office, with a separate line installed, and they could never tell whether it was the home or the office phone that was ringing. I managed to solve this problem for them, totally by accident. I was rummaging through a bin of reduced-price clearance items in a Montgomery Ward store once, and found this little device which stifled your phone's normal ring, and instead played one of up to 8 user-selectable tunes. I can't remember all the tunes, but I know it included La Cucaracha, Yellow Rose of Texas, and Jingle Bells. Only a bar or two of the selected song would play. My mother used to change the tune every month or so when she got tired of the current one. Also, the dog used to get pretty excited whenever the phone rang. The unit ran on a 9-volt battery, which usually lasted a year or so. The best part was that it only cost me like $7.88 or so, since it was on clearance. "ANGRY WOMEN BEAT UP SHOE SALESMAN Dave Fiske (davef@brspyr1.BRS.COM) WHO POSED AS GYNECOLOGIST" Home: David_A_Fiske@cup.portal.com Headline from Weekly World News CIS: 75415,163 GEnie: davef ------------------------------ Organization: SMART HOUSE Limited Partnership Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Date: 2 Oct 89 18:22:36 EDT (Mon) From: John Owens On Sep 27, 9:37pm, Gabe Wiener wrote: > I remember when a friend went to buy a 2500 set a few > years ago, what he came back with was truly horrible. Worse, it was > made by AT&T. > Is this the evolution (or shall I say devolution) of the venerable 2500 > set? I'd better hang on to the one I have. It may well be worth something > one day. Just after these "improved" AT&T phones went on the market (1985), I was still able to find an unused Western Electric-labelled electromechanical white Trimline desk phone in among the new AT&T phones without too much trouble. In 1987, I wanted a matching (unused) wall phone, and only found one after considerable scrounging through stocks of low-volume AT&T resellers - I found one at a K-mart. In both cases, there was little packaging difference, and the prices were the same. I doubt if I could find any unused electromechanical Western Electric phones now (although someone pointed out in an earlier message that ITT and others are still making them). Interestingly, when I was looking for the phone in 1987, a salesperson told me that I should get the electronic model, since they offered a 3-year warranty on the new ones and only a 1-year warranty on the "old" (but unused) phones. I had my doubts that the new phones would make it through the warranty period, while I suspected that the old ones could outlive me.... There's a big difference between making a phone that you plan to maintain forever at your own expense and making a phone for retail sale! Even the AT&T Phone Center Stores won't lease the new phones, only refurbished old ones (but they refuse to sell them). John Owens john@jetson.UPMA.MD.US uunet!jetson!john +1 301 249 6000 john%jetson.uucp@uunet.uu.net ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Oct 89 08:18:11 EDT From: Thomas E Lowe Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Reply-To: tel@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (thomas.e.lowe,ho,) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories In article johnl@esegue.segue. boston.ma.us writes: >ROLM phones have for years had the option to set the ringing sound to >any of eight different warbles ranging from high and squeaky to fairly >deep. >I am astonished that considering all of the ergonomic work that AT&T at >least used to do on their phones, they haven't provided this simple feature. They have in the System 85 (maybe 75 and 25 also) digital voice terminals. One can select one of 8 different styles of rings. 2 are single pitch, 2 have two pitches one after the other, 2 have three, and 2 have four. It works quite well until your neighbor changes his to match yours. Tom Lowe tel@hound.ATT.COM or att!hound!tel 201-949-0428 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 2E-637A Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733 (R) UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T (keep them lawyers happy!!) ------------------------------ From: Dave Levenson Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Date: 3 Oct 89 03:20:59 GMT Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA In article , johnl@esegue.segue. boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) writes: ... > ROLM phones have for years had the option to set the ringing sound to > any of eight different warbles ranging from high and squeaky to fairly > deep. This feature is specifically intended for the situation where there > are several phones within hearing distance of each other. I find that it > works quite nicely, at least until some joker sneaks into your office and > changes your ring. > I am astonished that considering all of the ergonomic work that AT&T at > least used to do on their phones, they haven't provided this simple feature. AT&T offers this feature on Merlin(tm) multi-button sets, allowing the user to program multiple cadence and frequency sequences. Anything from a simple RING to an elaborate DOOOOWEEEPDEDEDAH can be programmed from the keyboard. On mechanical ringers (in 500 or 2500 equipment) two rings can be made by swapping the left gong in one tel set with the right gong in the other. I'm not sure about other AT&T product families. Dave Levenson Voice: (201) 647 0900 Westmark, Inc. Internet: dave@westmark.uu.net Warren, NJ, USA UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave [Moderator's Note: The way we fixed this problem in our office (we use all 2500 sets, several years old) was to open the case on each phone, get inside and adjust the clappers so they produced different results every third or fourth phone. The phones sit maybe 10-15 feet apart from each other. One of three or four will just go 'click-click-click', another makes a very feeble ring, still another has a good hearty ring, etc. How far away the ringing sound comes from is the first clue; the second are the distinctions mentioned above for phones within a small area. We have call pickup using *4 plus extension, however 'universal pickup' using *433 is more widely used. It does help to know whose phone you are answering, though! PT] ------------------------------ From: Roy Smith Subject: Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding Date: 1 Oct 89 15:19:43 GMT Reply-To: Roy Smith Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY) With all this talk about non-ergonomic rings, I thought I would bring up another mis-feature. Our ATT System-25 at work doesn't have call forwarding, it has what we've come to refer to as call following. To trnasfer your calls to another phone, you have to go to that phone (known in the S25 manual as a "voice terminal") and do some magic there. To cancel the feature, you have to also do some magic at the remote phone. It works, but it's the reverse of the way people have been trained to think. I can't figure out why ATT decided to do it this way. Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu "The connector is the network" ------------------------------ From: Dave Levenson Subject: Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding Date: 3 Oct 89 03:14:09 GMT Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA In article , asa@stl-07sima.army.mil (Will Martin on 7000) writes: ... > And, as a side question: I seem to recall this being asked during the > "Caller*ID" debate, but don't recall it being answered. Maybe somebody > out there with Caller*ID can now tell us: If a call is call-forwarded to > a phone with "Caller*ID", is the number displayed that of the forwarding > phone or the originating one? > If the number displayed is that of the originating phone, is there any > heirarchy of displays -- that is, if the originating phone is out of the > area and the number isn't available, but the number of the forwarding > phone IS available, will the forwarding-phone's number be displayed in > that case? I don't know if this is true everywhere, but in New Jersey, the Caller*Id-equipped recipient of a forwarded call gets the caller's number, not the forwarder's number. If the caller is "Out of Area" then that is displayed; even if the forwarder is not. I tried to take advantage of this a few weeks ago. Our modems kept getting calls from somone/something that would disconnect after listening to our answer tone for several seconds. These calls always arrived two at a time, followed by two more about 30 minutes later. I waited until the first of a series of two arrived, and then forwarded the modem line to our Caller*Id-equipped voice line. But alas, when the second call arrived, the display showed "Out of Area" (even though the forwarding was intra-office) so I still couldn't identify the caller. But it didn't sound like a person or an open mic when I answered the voice line. Dave Levenson Voice: (201) 647 0900 Westmark, Inc. Internet: dave@westmark.uu.net Warren, NJ, USA UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Oct 89 9:16:46 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Splits of NNX? Mail to johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us failed (invalid host name), but this message is of general interest: Earlier messages to telecom said that 7 digit local calls from 201 area across NPA boundary were being changed to 11 digits to help with prefix shortage while awaiting 201/908 split. I heard nothing about local calls from 609 area across NPA boundary, however. The use of 1 before area code was applied to 609 as well as to 201; a message to me said "statewide uniformity" as to why this was done, before I noticed 2 N0X/N1X prefixes in Toms River, just a 7 digit local call from Barnegat (609 area); in other words, no special timeout on such local call. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Sep 89 18:21:46 CDT From: Paul Fuqua Subject: Re: Splits of NNX? Date: Monday, September 25, 1989 11:12am (CDT) From: David Tamkin Subject: Re: Splits of NNX? Probably the only splits where N0X/N1X prefixes *were* used first have been 213/818, 212/718, 312/708, and 201/908 (unless one considers the change from seven-digit to eleven-digit interstate dialing in metropolitan DC a "split"). NNX adherence seems to be the rule rather than the exception: I believe 214/903 and 415/510 will be splitting without use of N0X/N1X. N0X/N1X has been in use in 214 for something around a year now; my sister used to have numbers in 214-506 and 214-702 (Irving). It's probably easier here than in some other places, since we've had eleven-digit long-distance as long as I can remember. The one noticeable change related to the approaching split is that calling Metro numbers (local to both Dallas (214) and Fort Worth (817)) now requires ten digits from the "other" area code -- Metro prefixes won't be duplicated in both anymore. Paul Fuqua pf@csc.ti.com {smu,texsun,cs.utexas.edu,rice}!ti-csl!pf Texas Instruments Computer Science Center PO Box 655474 MS 238, Dallas, Texas 75265 ------------------------------ Date: Mon Oct 2 17:57:26 1989 From: Vance Shipley Subject: Re: Number Editing on Telephones Reply-To: vances@xenitec.UUCP (Vance Shipley) Organization: Linton Technology - SwitchView In article vicorp!charlie@uunet.uu. net (Charlie Goldensher) writes: >This brings up a question that I've had for some time. Is there a >telephone set on the market with editing capability? What I'd like >most is a backspace key. Especially, now, when a telephone number can >contain ten or more digits, it is extremely frustrating to hit an >incorrect final digit. The case sighted above would be considerably >more frustrating. On a Northern Telecom SL-1 PBX using M2317 type sets you have this feature. If you start to dial a number without having lifted the handset or pressing a line key it is displayed on the LCD and may be backspaced over and corrected during dialling. The number is actually dialled only when you lift the handset or depress a line key. You may also press 'LAST#' or 'SAVED#' and display the stored number, backspacing still works! Vance Shipley uucp: ..!{uunet!}watmath!xenitec!vances Linton Technology - SwitchView INTERNET: vances@egvideo.uucp 180 Columbia Street West (soon) vances@xenitec.uucp Waterloo, Ontario CANADA tel: (519)746-4460 N2L 3L3 fax: (519)746-6884 # if it ain't got an interface it ain't much use! # ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #424 *****************************   Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 1:59:49 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #425 Message-ID: <8910030159.aa04768@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Tue, 3 Oct 89 01:55:15 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 425 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Telephone Cable "Rustling" in the Wild West :-) (Larry Lippman) Usenet Gateway Acting Funny (TELECOM Moderator) Master List of Internet Users Available (Patrick A. Townson) Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number (John Owens) Re: C&P Class, With a Thought (Marc T. Kaufman) Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' (Andy Behrens) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Telephone Cable "Rustling" in the Wild West :-) Date: 2 Oct 89 23:59:29 EDT (Mon) From: Larry Lippman In article roy%phri@uunet.uu.net (Roy Smith) writes: > Then again, maybe it had nothing to do with the strike -- > Metro North (Amtrack commuter service into Grand Central Terminal) > reports continuing problems with people stealing the copper cables > used for their low-voltage signal lines (there is a big black market > in stolen copper, be it stolen cables or copper plumbing stripped from > abandoned buildings). During the 1970's there was a particular problem with thefts of telephone cable in the southwestern U.S., especially Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The target was aerial lead-sheathed toll cable in remote areas of these states. AT&T Long Lines was a particular victim. The modus operandi was for the perpetrators, under cover of darkness, to first cut the suspension strands and remove the lashing wire from a mile or so of cable, allowing the cable to drop to the ground. This portion of the act, being the most time-consuming, did not break electrical continuity and therefore set off any carrier loss-of-pilot alarms. The next step was to cut one end, and then begin cutting the cable into lengths to be loaded into a truck. With several perpetrators, a mile of cable could be cut up and loaded onto a truck LONG BEFORE anyone could localize the fault and dispatch a repair crew. I can just imagine the expression on the faces of a Long Lines crew when they find a mile or so of cable has simply *vanished*! The profit from this enterprise was tempting. A typical lead sheath toll cable, like a type S-54 27-pr 19 AWG, yields about 1/2 pound of copper and 2 pounds of lead per lineal foot. Using late 1970's prices, a 5,000 ft section of cable would yield around 2,500 pounds of copper and 10,000 pounds of lead, with a total metal scrap price of at least $ 3,500.00. Not bad for an evening's work with little risk of apprehension. The combination of some arrests, burying of cable, and declining lead and copper prices caused this activity to diminish, although the problem does reappear from time to time. <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 0:13:01 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Usenet Gateway Acting Funny It has come to my attention from a few people that the Usenet gateway to 'comp.dcom.telecom' has been acting funny for a few days; or to be more precise, nothing has been moving through there since around September 28. It may not be the gateway, but some machine in the middle somewhere. I've sent a note to Chip Rosenthal asking for advice on this. Ordinarily the gateway sends an automatic receipt to me as notification when an issue of the Digest is processed. I received no notices over the weekend, and today a few people said the group was pretty barren of new stuff since last Friday. I assume we will get reconnected eventually, and the poor Usenet people will get 60-100 messages all at once! Then of course, I will get swamped with incoming mail (from them) in the queue later this week. Such is life! Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 1:42:20 CDT From: "Patrick A. Townson" Subject: Master List of Internet Users Available A master list of ten thousand plus names and network addresses is now available, in alphabetical order. Most Internet people are listed, as are a number of people from non-Internet locations. The list is not considered complete, nor is the methodology involved in the collection perfect. But, it is a good start, and a valuable list to have in your reference files. To obtain your copy -- telnet 128.146.1.5 4666| tail +4| compress > userlist.z Then, add a single line which includes your name and network address, or just send garbage if you prefer. Allow about a minute for the full transmission! It is a file and will be about 227,000 bytes compressed. So be sure you have space available to receive it. It'll easily take 250-300 blocks, and when you review it uncompressed, its closer to 500,000 bytes. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Organization: SMART HOUSE Limited Partnership Subject: Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number Date: 2 Oct 89 18:02:32 EDT (Mon) From: John Owens On Sep 24, 12:58pm, Larry Lippman wrote: > Technology in this area went directly from the electromechanical to > the solid-state. The one exception was the "no-such-number" tone > generator, which used vacuum tubes and made its debut around 1940; > it has been affectionately called the "crybaby tone". [....] > > The last "holdout" I am aware of which used this tone was Rochester > Telephone, in Rochester, NY, and quite to my surprise I heard this > tone when I misdialed a toll call to the Rochester area about four > years ago. [....] Actually, this tone (continuous rising for 1 second, continuous falling for 1 second, etc.) is still in use by C&P Telephone on the 301-867 exchange (West River, MD), for misdialed outgoing calls (e.g., dialing a 7-digit number for an exchange not in the local calling area). Calls to a non-working 867-xxxx, however, get routed to an AIC and get an intercept recording! I haven't tried dialing a 1+ call to a non-existent area code; I guess that would tell me if the local switch knows area codes or passes the 1+ call to a smarter tandem. This switch is being replaced by "the most modern electronic switching facility in Maryland" this Fall; can anyone tell from the use of the not-a-number tone what kind of switch I'm on? It's definitely not a stepper: touch-tone calls complete in milliseconds. No "custom calling features" are available; neither is Centrex, or Equal Access. Per-call and timed local billing is available. My guess is a #5 crossbar; reasonable? John Owens john@jetson.UPMA.MD.US uunet!jetson!john +1 301 249 6000 john%jetson.uucp@uunet.uu.net ------------------------------ From: "Marc T. Kaufman" Subject: Re: C&P Class, With a Thought Date: 3 Oct 89 01:59:22 GMT Reply-To: "Marc T. Kaufman" Organization: Stanford University, Computer Science Dept. In article David Lesher writes: - Telephone companies argue that classifying a - number as unpublished means only that it will not - appear in a directory or be given out by operators - People who want to safeguard their numbers can do so - by not calling. >Which brings out the reason for my submission. It is no secret >that the District region has a number of government agencies >that, shall we say, maintain low profiles. >Now while nothing classified is discussed on the (so-called) >black phone, how happy are these folks going to be on the ID >question? Boy, does that bring back memories! A LONG time ago I got a phone call, out of the blue, from someone who seemingly wanted to recruit me for a job. They gave me a number to call back, but wouldn't tell me who they were. I called the operator, played innocent, and asked her to tell me who the number belonged to. She called back several minutes later and said: "This is very strange. Its a new line, but there is no reverse listing, and the card (for the number) has been removed from the file. I called the number and asked them who they were... and they got very angry!" (quotation approximated) I didn't take the job. Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu) ------------------------------ From: Andy Behrens Subject: Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office' Date: 3 Oct 89 04:54:24 GMT Reply-To: andyb@coat.com Organization: Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Dik T. Winter writes: > Here follows the CCITT #2 code table: > > Letters Figures > 0 8 16 24 > +-------------------------------------------------------- > 0 | space LF E A ... > 1 | T L Z W ... > 2 | CR R D J ... > 3 | O G B figures ... > 4 | nil I S U ... > 5 | H P Y Q ... > 6 | N C F K ... > 7 | M V X letters ... At first there seems to be no pattern to the way the letters are assigned, but if you arrange them according to the number of bits that are set in each character, it becomes clear. The most common letters of the English alphabet (ETAIONSHRDL....) and the word separators (space, return, line feed) have the codes with the fewest number of marking bits. Question 1. Does anyone know why this is so? My theory: If the teletype machines are driven with a current-loop interface, this arrangement of codes minimizes the power that needs to be transmitted. Question 2. Why was "Z" grouped with the most common letters? ============ ============ ============ ============ ============ ============ no bits 1 bit 2 bits 3 bits 4 bits 5 bits ============ ============ ============ ============ ============ ============ 00000 blank 10000 E 11000 A 01110 C 11110 K 11111 ltrs 01000 lf 01100 I 10110 F 11101 Q 00100 space 00110 N 01101 P 11011 figs 00010 ret 00011 O 11010 J 10111 X 00001 T 10100 S 10101 Y 01111 V 01010 R 01011 G 00101 H 11100 U 10010 D 11001 W 01001 L 10011 B 10001 Z 00111 M ============ ============ ============ ============ ============ ============ Live justly, love gently, walk humbly. Andy Behrens andyb@coat.com uucp: {harvard,rutgers,decvax}!dartvax!coat!andyb RFD 1, Box 116, East Thetford, Vt. 05043 (802) 649-1258 Burlington Coat, PO Box 729, Lebanon, N.H. 03766 (603) 448-5000 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #425 *****************************   Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 0:05:47 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #426 Message-ID: <8910040005.aa21952@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Wed, 4 Oct 89 00:00:44 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 426 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Master List of Internet Users Available (Robert E. Seastrom) Re: Master List of Internet Users Available (TELECOM Moderator) More on Hugo in Puerto Rico (Martin B Weiss) Phones That Last Forever (Gabe Wiener) Pac Bell Strike Update? (Robert M. Hamer) MacGyver on Last Night (10/2) (C. E. Reid) NPA Splits Before 1965 (Greg Monti via John R. Covert) 5-level TTY code (was Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office') (Bob Clements) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 13:40:13 EDT From: "Robert E. Seastrom" Subject: Master List of Internet Users Available > To obtain your copy -- > > telnet 128.146.1.5 4666| tail +4| compress > userlist.z ... > Allow about a minute for the full transmission! It is a file... This is antisocial behavior of the worst kind! Blowing UNCOMPRESSED data across the network only to compress it on your end and then have to uncompress it again to read it will do two things: 1) It will eat a bit of CPU time on your machine. If you're on a single user workstation, then you aren't taking anyone else's cycles and that's fine. But if you are on a general-use timesharing system (like your organization's main VAX or something like that), you're bogging down system response for other users. 2) YOU ARE SENDING A LARGE AMOUNT OF UNCOMPRESSED DATA OVER A PUBLIC NETWORK. This will have detrimental effects on others who are using the network for telnets and FTPs. The explosive growth of the Internet over the past several years has made it well neigh impossible for the people who run NSFnet and the regionals to keep up with demand for network bandwidth. Don't make matters worse by capriciously moving large amounts of data over the Internet without compressing it first. There is no inherent benefit to sending a large file by telnet over sending it via FTP. I urge whoever is making this list available to the public to COMPRESS it, make it available for FTP, and have a mailbox set up so that people can send their information if they want to be included. I urge readers of TELECOM to NOT retrieve this file until it can be retrieved in a matter that is more considerate of others. ---R.E. Seastrom ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 23:36:49 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Re: Master List of Internet Users Available In the message just before this, I am roundly castigated for my anti-social behavior and for causing the untimely demise of the net. What a laugh. Frankly, Mr. Seastrom, you don't know what you are talking about. Here follows the *original* message from the directory compilers, AS IT APPEARED IN NEWS.ADMIN -- that old hangout of all the anti-social types here. Please note how the managers of the list at Ohio State University -- a fine, respected site on the net -- request that it be delivered. Please note also that in Unix lessons for the elementary beginning student, the letter 'Z' on the end of a file name indicates a compressed file. Please note also that contrary to the misguided information from the previous correspondent, the file *does come compressed*. Regardless, it is huge, even in compressed form. Now, here is the 'anti-social' message which started it all -- Article 3933 of news.admin: Path: accuvax.nwu.edu!tank!ncar!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!nisca.ircc. ohio-state.edu!hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu!bernstei From: bernstei@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Dan Bernstein) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,news.admin Subject: Pilot Project: User List Available Over Internet Message-ID: <278@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> Date: 2 Oct 89 20:24:53 GMT Sender: news@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu Followup-To: comp.mail.misc Distribution: usa Lines: 48 Xref: accuvax.nwu.edu comp.mail.misc:1198 news.admin:3933 As a pilot project, we are making available to the Internet a list of user names and electronic addresses. Please note that this project is not an official project of The Ohio State University. The list is compiled from public information only, by automatic methods. Do not mail requests to be added to the list; at this time we consider ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Internet security too low for an explicit add method. As of October 1, the list contains approximately ten thousand Internet names and addresses; it contains a few hundred non-Internet names and addresses, because our software isn't perfect. It uses about 450K of disk space, half that when compressed. We expect the list to double in size by December 1. We are investigating methods of expanding the list, verifying its accuracy, and removing outdated entries; for now, it is an unformatted, unreliable list with no guarantees of accuracy, suitable for manual searches. If this project proves useful and we are able to continue it, it should serve as a partial solution to the white pages problem while long-term solutions are designed. You need BSD UNIX telnet or its equivalent to obtain a copy of the list; hpuxa does not provide anonymous ftp access. Type ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ telnet 128.146.1.5 4666 | tail +4 | compress > userlist.Z followed by a line of anything, terminated by a line feed (not carriage return). After a few minutes, depending on your network speed, telnet will finish and the compressed list will be in userlist.Z. If you ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ interrupt telnet during this type (e.g., by typing ^]) the list will be mangled. Also, BSD telnet does not work in the background. [TELECOM Moderator's 'anti-social' note: Did YOU read the above paragraph carefully? Maybe RGS will go back and read it again! PT] The ``line of anything'' will be recorded here at hpuxa, along with your Internet address, for administration and to determine the popularity of the user list. You can leave no information at all, your username@host.domain and name if you want, or random garbage. This provides a convenient comment mechanism; precede your input by *** to ensure that human operators notice it. If this mechanism is abused, we will disable it. If you don't have tail or compress, just redirect the telnet output into a file. If you don't have telnet, UNIX, or an Internet connection, you cannot obtain the list from us at this time. Mail any lengthy comments to this address. If you complain about the ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ operation of the list, make sure to suggest something better. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ---Dan Bernstein, brnstnd@acf10.nyu.edu, bernstei@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu ===================================================== Mr. Bernstein, we thank you for your efforts on the list. And to our correspondent here who made such a stink, please direct your comments to Dan Bernstein -- let him know what a terrible thing he is promoting please. Maybe a copy to the University would be a good idea also. In the above reprint of the original message in news.admin, the emphasis marks - (^^^^^^^^ marks) are mine, and not part of the original. Your anti-social moderator, Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Martin B Weiss Subject: More on Hugo in Puerto Rico Date: 3 Oct 89 13:55:09 GMT Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Services Telephony had an article about the effects of Hugo on telephone service in Puerto Rico. Evidently, as of late last week, 93% of the island's residents had telephone (the remaining 7% being primarily in the eastern portion of the island that took a direct hit). As I mentioned in my previous post on this issue, I was able to get through via AT&T, but not MCI. AT&T does, indeed, provide the bulk of the transmission service to Puerto Rico (although exact figures weren't given). I recall reading, by the way, that PRTC is going to convert to equal access next year sometime. AT&T normally has 6500 circuits to PR, 4000 via satellite, and the remaining via microwave to St. Thomas and then via cable to the US. The 2500 ckts to St. Thomas are still out due to the widespread destruction there, but the satellite links were back in operation as soon as the winds were mild enough to permit the antennas to be set up again (by 10:30pm Sunday, according to the article). Martin Weiss Telecommunications Program, University of Pittsburgh Internet: mbw@idis.lis.pitt.edu OR mbw@unix.cis.pitt.edu BITNET: mbw@pittvms ------------------------------ From: Gabe Wiener Subject: Phones That Last Forever Reply-To: Gabe Wiener Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 17:15:02 GMT I was just thinking about the 2500 set I had in my house when I was growing up in the 1970's. Over about 8 years that we had it, the thing got tossed around, was dropped more times than I care to mention, and it never developed one problem. Were you to take an AT&T 2500 set manufactured today, I doubt it would survive even one fall to a hard floor. Interesting, isn't it, how even AT&T builds phones differently when they know that they won't be maintaining them forevermore. Frequently, you can go into some back-roads store and see a 500 set that's been working fine since the '50's. I dare say that in 30 years it will STILL be working fine after all the phones manufactured today are long gone. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us." -Western Union memo, 1877 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 14:40 EDT From: "ROBERT M. HAMER" Subject: Pac Bell Strike Update? Does anyone have any information about the current state of affairs involving the Pac Bell part of the strike, and the prognosis for the future? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 09:37 EDT From: "C. E. Reid" Subject: MacGyver on Last Night (10/2) Last night's (10/2/89) episode of MacGyver showed a short segment of a "bad guy" tapping into the telephone line at the "switching office" to the Phoenix Foundation. I thought it was a neat hi-tech thing! :) I wondered if others have seen it and whether it is really how they tapped it or not. Curtis Reid CER2520@RITVAX.Bitnet CER2520%RITVAX.Bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Internet) CER2520@vaxd.isc.rit.edu (NYSernet) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 08:46:50 -0700 From: "John R. Covert 03-Oct-1989 1147" Subject: NPA Splits Before 1965 (from G. Monti) From: Greg Monti Date: 26 September 1989 Re: Area Code Splits Before 1965 Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) writes: > Here is what > I have regarding splits (I don't know what if anything was done before > July 1965): > 305/904 Florida, July 1965 > 703/804 Virginia, June 1973 > 714/619 California, November 1982 > 713/409 Texas, March 1983 > 213/818 California, January 1984 > 212/718 New York, September 1984 > 303/719 Colorado, 5 Mar. 1988 > 305/407 Florida, 16 Apr. 1988 > 617/508 Massachusetts, 16 July 1988 > 312/708 Illinois, November 1989 > 202 District of Columbia & vicinity, 1 Oct. 1990 > (202 area code is being withdrawn from Md. and Va. suburbs) Actually, the 'split' here is 1 Jan 1990. The end of permissive dialing is 1 Oct 1990. > 214/903 Texas, fall 1990 > 201/908 New Jersey, 1991 > 415/510 California, 7 October 1991 (full cutover 27 January 1992) Some additional splits must have occurred prior to 1965. I thought that, when Area Codes were 'invented' in 1946 (not 'implemented,' just 'invented'), the system was as follows: - States small enough to require only one area code got a zero as the center digit, with the other digits depending on population density or urbanization (higher numbers to more rural states). The most urban, New Jersey, got the lowest number of this series, 201. DC got 202. - States big enough to require more than one area code at the outset got all codes with a 1 as the center digit. The outer digits were assigned in the same general way as described above. New York got 212, the second and third most populous cities got 213 and 312, other big cities got 214, 412, 215, etc. If this is indeed true, then ANY state which currently has more than one area code AND has at least one area code with a 0 as the center digit, must, by definition have been split at some time. Perhaps the split happened only 'on paper' before DDD was widely available. Perhaps it just occurred a long time ago. Here's a list of the affected states which obviously had only one code (with a zero in it, still serving the major city) at one time: Florida 305 (813, 904 and 407 all added later) Louisiana 504 (318 added later) Nebraska 402 (308 added) Washington 206 (509) Oklahoma 405 (918) Kentucky 502 (606) Tennessee 901 (615) Georgia 404 (912) New Jersey 201 (609) North Carolina 704 (919) Virginia 703 (804) Here's a list of states which probably always had more than one code (all of them with a 1 in the middle), which have added codes with zeros in them since: California (added 209, 408, 805, 707) Illinois (added 309) Texas (added 806, 409, soon 903) Minnesota (added 507) Massacusestts (added 508) New York (added 607) Some of these states have also added codes with 1's in them in addition to the zero codes mentioned above. For example, New York has added 718. That doesn't cloud the picture. Additional ammunition: telephone directories in New Jersey have listings in them of every prefix in the state, grouped by area code. (Wish every state did this.) In each list, a mark referring you to a footnote appears next to any central office code which is duplicated in both 201 and 609 areas. Why? Allow me to speculate: Because at one time New Jersey must have had only one area code with no prefix duplications. 609 was added early on with the knowledge that the state would outgrow 201 before DDD was widely implemented. Even though the state now had two area codes, there were still no prefix duplications and it was likely that 7-digit dialing applied statewide. (To my knowledge, New Jersey *never* had 1 + 7 digit dialing for intra-NPA toll calls.) Eventually, as the concept of area codes caught on, New Jerseyites were required to dial 10 digits to reach people in the 'other' area of their state. (This does not apply universally in NJ, however. There is some code conservation with 7 digit calls across the border allowed.) Is there anything wrong with this reasoning or the history about the zero and one codes that makes this wrong? Does anyone remember the above states splitting when they were knee-high to a grasshopper? Greg Monti, Arlington, Virginia; work +1 202 822-2459 ------------------------------ Subject: 5-level TTY code (was Re: The 'Public Telegraph Office') Date: Tue, 03 Oct 89 14:41:56 -0400 From: clements@bbn.com andyb@coat.com writes: >[In the code used on 5-level TTY machines] The most common letters >of the English alphabet (ETAIONSHRDL....) and the word separators >(space, return, line feed) have the codes with the fewest number of >marking bits. > >Does anyone know why this is so? To minimize the wear on the pins in the paper tape punches. (I know, I've refurbished a number of those punches in my day.) Bob Clements, K1BC, clements@bbn.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #426 *****************************   Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 0:51:37 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #427 Message-ID: <8910040051.aa29031@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Wed, 4 Oct 89 00:50:25 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 427 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson WRGB and Telephones, 1936 style (Kelly K. Hoffman) False 911 Calls (Jim English) Long Distance Indicator (Dave Horsfall) ISDN Basic Rate Service (Lance Ellinghouse) Theft of Copper Wire (David Kuder) Re: Telephone Designs for Humans (Steve Kass) Re: Number Editing on Telephones/TTY Memoirs (denber.wbst@xerox.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Kelly K. Hoffman" Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 14:15:32 EDT Subject: WRGB and Telephones, 1936 style Recently, someone suggested that the TV station WRGB (Schenectady, NY) was named after "Roy G. Biv." This is incorrect. (The station predates color TV, by the way: it was founded on January 13, 1928.) The station's call letters were derived from one of the founding executives, Walter R.G. Baker. I realize this has nothing to do with telecom issues, so I'm including the following, excerpted from _The_Poestscript_, the newsletter of the Poestenkill, NY Historical Society, September 1989. (Copied with permission of the editor. Typos are almost certainly mine.) For the curious, Poestenkill is a small town just outside of Troy. Telephones -- 1936 Style More than 50 years ago, the idea of a telephone strike in Poestenkill would have been out of the question. Not that there weren't telephones here, but they were run on a cooperative basis by the telephone customers. I believe there were two lines -- the "one-eight-F" and the "one-seven-F." A small book of meeting minutes covering the period April 22, 1936, to April 4, 1938, seems to indicate that there were about 11 families on the 18F line... Those present at that April 22 meeting voted to purchase "#12 gage [sic] wire, glasses and what ever needed... Motion made & Sec. that each member be assessed $10.00 to pay for new wire and material. Motion made ... to leave the officers as they are till line is completed." The outstanding assessment of one member of the group reached $18.91! On March 9, 1938, they voted that if payment was not made by March 31, 1938, that member's service would be discontinued and "an action for collection will be taken by 18F Telephone Company." On April 5, 1938, they accepted a $10 payment from the delinquent and granted him further time. They maintained their own lines. At the April 8, 1937, meeting, a "motion made by Vernon Hoffman that every man on line be on hand on Monday morning next April 12 or hire a man to take his place." Trouble with noise on the line prompted a July 2, 1937, vote to appoint a committee of two to find a telephone mechanic "to service our line at the best price" with the committee to report at the next meeting. Each member was to pay for service on his own phone from the pole to the house. On July 12, 1937, they voted to hire Mr. Listen [!] to put the line in shape. To place a call off the line, one long crank got you the operator. To call on the line to reach 18F31, for example, three longs and one short would be used. [One member] told us at a meeting some time ago that his family was one of the few in his area to have a phone, and they used to leave the downstairs door unlocked at night so the neighbors could get in to use it. It was probably the late 40's when the AShley exchange came to town, and not too many years after that the operator disappeared from our life as we got dial service. Kelly K. Hoffman Computing Services, CS-1, University at Albany "hatrack" 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222 kellyk@leah.albany.edu kellyk@albnyvms.bitnet [Moderator's Note: Thanks for a delightful story! PT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 20:03:10 PDT From: Jim English Subject: False 911 Calls Reply-To: Jim English Organization: McDonnell Douglas Field Service Co, San Jose CA An interesting thing happened yesterday at work. Two cop cars pull up to the Data Center, and said that they received quite a few 911 emergency calls that were traced to our address. Well it turns out that the phone number making the calls is our 2400 baud Public Network access number. One of the cops queried, "How do I write a summons to a computer?". It made me think, if thats as far as the 911 people can trace a call, and say our Network Control cannot trace it back to whoever originated it, how would 911 put a cap on computer pranksters? Jim English MD-IPC | JENGLISH@F74.TYMNET.COM or jenglish@tardis.tymnet.com (214)637-7406 Dallas | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!tardis!jenglish ------------------------------ From: Dave Horsfall Subject: Long Distance Indicator (was Re: Wrong Numbers With Nobody Talking) Date: 3 Oct 89 06:55:29 GMT Reply-To: Dave Horsfall Organization: Alcatel STC Australia, North Sydney, AUSTRALIA In article , sharon@asylum.UUCP (Sharon Fisher) writes: | | In article john@zygot.ati.com | (John Higdon) writes: | >How do you know that they're long distance or local? | | Just a guess, really, but some of the calls sound real clear and some | have those "seashell up to your ear" sounds that I associate with long | distance calls. What? You mean that you don't get a sort of blip-blip-blip on long-distance calls in USA? I somehow assumed that was universal... As an aside, you can always tell when someone's just received a long distance call in Australia (I know - it's a long distance - sorry). RING RING! "Hel..." (hurried) "Hello?" (Carefully and distinctly) Dave Horsfall (VK2KFU), Alcatel STC Australia, dave@stcns3.stc.oz dave%stcns3.stc.oz.AU@uunet.UU.NET, ...munnari!stcns3.stc.oz.AU!dave [Moderator's Note: I must say, Dave, I have noticed that calls from here to Australia and New Zealand -- the latter particularly -- are extremely clear lately. I'm on the phone once or twice a week to Auckland with a client of our office and the call always goes through immediatly -- in a matter of seconds -- and is perfectly audible; almost like a call to somewhere here in Chicago. I carelessly dialed the call today, leaving off the '9' city code, and got a woman there who thought it rather incredible I was calling from the United States -- a wrong number, yet! South Pacific connections seem vastly improved. PT] ------------------------------ From: lance@lancelot (Lancelot of Caid) Subject: ISDN Basic Rate Service Date: 4 Oct 89 03:55:21 GMT Organization: Lancelot BBS (818) 894-6549 I am in GTE land out in So. Ca. (San Fernando Valley to be specific). Does anyone know when/if ISDN BRS will be available to me? The people at GTE have no idea what ISDN is (at least the people I have talked to don't). How about Pac*Bell in my area? If necessary I will try to convert to Pac*Bell (even if that means I have to move...) Thanks for all the info, Lance Ellinghouse (A.K.A Lancelot of Caid) "Life is a game of Chess, some are Kings, some Queens, some pawns, and some just get taken." - Lancelot ucla-an!hermix!lancelot!lance; hermix!lancelot!lance@anes.UCLA.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 17:43 PDT From: David Kuder Subject: Theft of Copper Wire Reply-To: david@indetech.com (David Kuder) Organization: Independence Technologies, Inc. Fremont, CA Roy Smith (roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu) mentioned that vandals were stealing copper cables from Metro North (Amtrak). This is the only instance of this happening. In a more telephone related instance, copper wires providing telephone service to remote parts of California have been stolen. The following excerpts come from a reprinting of a Los Angeles Times article that appeared around Sept. 23. International jewel thieves they are not. But pesky bands of burglars have caused a heap of trouble for a string of remote desert towns this summer, stealing miles of the copper telephone wires that link the outposts with the rest of the world. Lured by the high price of copper, thieves have stolen about 55 miles of multi-strand bare wire in San Bernardino Co. and another 80 miles in Riverside Co. The unusual burglaries there have left homes and businesses in the towns of Ludlow, Amboy, Cadiz and Danby without phone service periodically since early August with some residents cut off for as long as a month. Residents of Amboy had to drive 50 miles to Twentynine Palms to make telephone calls. Becuase of the troubles, Pacbell has decide to link the areas phones to a microwave system. Until the install is completed in November, the affected towns will be on an emergency radio system. David A. Kuder david@indetech.com 415 438-2003 {sun,sharkey,pacbell}!indetech!david ------------------------------ From: SKASS@drew.bitnet (No gas will be sold to anyone in a glass container.) Subject: Re: Phone Design Date: 30 Sep 89 22:35:33 GMT Re: Phone Design I first made the switch from mechanical ringer to electronic warble about 5 years ago when I moved to Canada. The warble comes out of a cheap speaker, and it's impossible to tell what direction it's coming from. As a result, whenever a warble phone rang on the TV, I jumped from my chair. I never completely got over that. On the bright side, the Harmony (tm) and Signature (tm) phones I had from Northern Telecom were some of the best of the new generation phones I've seen. A `shoulderable' receiver, a nice handle for carrying the phone around while you talk, and up to date styling were all welcome. They were rugged too, though I almost did one in with a glass of vermouth into the keypad. A good rinsing of the insides fixed it. Those two models weren't for sale, or I'd have one here. I haven't found anything else that I thought looked as nice and worked as well. Fortunately I found an old 2500 recently, and don't miss the NT phones so much any more. And does anyone besides me have fond memories of the Panel Phone (tm) ? My parents still have the two we had installed about 20 years ago, and they work fine. They were installed into the wall, requiring a hole about 8 x 10 inches, and have a non-tangling cord about 4 feet long which retracts into a hole in the panel. They've never failed, despite the thousands of times my father said I was pulling too hard on the cord. They'll never go modular, I'm afraid, and if they do fail, we'll have to call the plasterer, but they made a lot of sense. We even have one of those two-line knobs on one of them, though it's not hooked up to both lines any more. An installer who came by the house a couple of years ago had never seen them before. Steve Kass * Department of Math and Comp Sci * Drew U * Madison NJ 07940 (201)-408-3614, (201)-514-1187, (201)-408-5923, skass@drew.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: 3 Oct 89 10:42 EDT From: denber.wbst@xerox.com Subject: Re: Number Editing on Telephones/TTY Memoirs Here at work I wrote a little program that lets me use my modem to dial the phone. I have a menu item called "Dial!". When I click it I get a prompt "Number please". I can then type in the number or use any of the system's line editing features. For example, I can shift-select the number out of another window instead of having to type it at all. If I click on Dial! with the middle button, I get a menu of the last 10 numbers I called, if I want to redial one. One nice feature is that the program automatically translates letters into numbers. I hate dialing numbers like "GO-AMIGO" on the phone, but it's real easy to type this on a computer keyboard. The program also knows how to add the leading "9" for local calls, and "8" for long distance. This all works well since my computer is running all day anyway - might as well let it do the phone too. While we're at it, I might as well throw in my teletype reminiscences, since everyone else has. In 1967 I belonged to the Weather Club in our high school. We had two teletypes with direct lines to the local Weather Bureau (this was before it was the National Weather Service). One line was called "Circuit A", which sent data from the northeast U.S., and the other was "Circuit C" which was national (I think circuit B was the south-east). I don't know the model numbers, but they were old even then. They were the kind that had the type in a rectangular box. The machine would move the box vertically and horizontally to position the proper slug under the print hammer. It was indeed, as someone else mentioned, fascinating to watch. Anyway, our machines were receive-only; they had just two buttons in front. One was labeled "LOC LF" (local line-feed) - I forget what the other was. My job was to get there at 7 AM to plot the national weather map coming in on circuit C. Each station sent its data in a single line of text (all numeric). There were several hundred stations reporting. After a few months of this I got good enough that I could plot faster than the tty could send. Being an impatient sort, I discovered that if you hit LOCLF *exactly* at the end of a line, you could eject enough paper while the carriage was returning so that you could tear off a little strip with just that one line before the next line started printing. People would get mad at me because by the end of the transmission, the report, which usually filled half a dozen pages, looked like it had been through a paper shredder. Sometimes the fuse that controlled the carriage would blow. This was apparently separate from the print hammer. If this happened at night, you'd come in the next day to find the entire report banged into a single character position. All that was left of it was a ragged hole in the paper. Sometimes people would forget to power up the motor on the take-up reel when they left in the afternoon. Then we'd come in the next morning to find mountains of yellow paper piled all over the room. Occasionally, the machine would drop a character. Since the reports were all numeric in fixed-length fields, a missing character would lead to some interesting weather reports. You could always tell a novice had been plotting the map when you found a station in Canada reporting 90 degrees in mid-January, or showers of ice needles in Miami. I suppose that's all gone today. Nowadays, the maps are plotted by computer and faxed to local Weather Service offices. But I'm sure this can't compare to the thrill of racing circuit C, man versus machine, in the pre-dawn darkness of another era. - Michel ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #427 *****************************   Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 1:40:00 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #428 Message-ID: <8910040140.aa22235@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Wed, 4 Oct 89 01:35:11 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 428 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Price Competition in Japan on International Calls (David Gast) Re: Locatable Ringers (Kent Borg) Re: Australian Broadcast Call Signs (Dave Horsfall) Re: Prefix '520' for Los Angeles Radio Stations (Dave Clements) Re: California Junk Fax Bill (John Higdon) Re: ANI Updates Wanted (Thomas E. Lowe) Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding (Dave Levenson) Re: Another Cool Thing About GTE (Tad Cook) Re: Telephones in India (part II of II) (H.Shrikumar) Re: Telephone Designs for Humans (Louis J. Judice) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 22:25:24 -0700 From: David Gast Subject: Price Competition in Japan on International Calls On October 1, 1989, KDD (Kokusai Denshin Denwa-- International Telegraph Telephone), the only organization that had been able to carry international telephone and telegraph communication since the end of WWII lost its monopoly. Two new firms entered the market: International Telecom Japan, Inc. and International Digital Communications. KDD had revenue of $1.95 billion last year, but the new competitors are undercutting its prices by more than 23%. The president of KDD is quoted as saying "We've never faced any competition before, ... it is quite a shock." The new rates will make calls from Japan up to 20% cheaper than calls from the U.S. using the dominant U.S. carrier, according to the NYT. (At least one LDC, however, however, offers significantly cheaper calls than the prominent U.S. carrier). The new arrangement also shows major differences from U.S. practice. In the first place, the new companies are not startups. International Telecom's shareholders include Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Mitsui, Marubeni, the Bank of Tokyo, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), Tokyo Electric (the Commonwealth Edison of Tokyo). International Digital's shareholders include C. Itoh (a trading company, but also the maker of computer terminals, the trading company involved in the Toshiba scandal of a few years ago, etc), Toyota, Cable and Wireless of Britain and PacBell. C&W had been previously been involved in a major dispute with respect to the extent that it could participate. Pacific Telesis's participation lends credence to John Higdon's contention expressed in a previous article that PacBell is attempting to become the old Bell System. This arrangement should also raise eyebrows among those who believe that foreign investment in Japan is impossible. How many Japanese companies do you know that own American telecommunication industries? (Of course, this this arrangement may change). The equity contribution by these major players indicates that the new companies are not likely to fold soon. The second difference is that Japan decided to avoid the expensive advertising campaigns prevalent in the U.S. The new startups will not have to spend millions advertising on T.V. to get consumers to sign up as "dial 1 carriers." Every phone in Japan (although contrary to published reports, I suspect that certain coin phones are excluded) is automatically connected to the new phone companies. Consumers only have to prefix their international calls with a unique three digit code to get the international telephone company of their choice. KDD used to require prior agreements to make direct dial calls, but presumably the new phone companies do not. Note: Because KDD was separate entity from NTT, Japanese consumers always had to dial a three digit code to get KDD. Even with monopoly status, rates for KDD's international phone calls have declined drastically in recent years. 10 years ago a 3 minute prime time call cost $15.00. Now KDD's prime rate is $6.35. (It is unclear from published reports whether the reductions take into account the dramatic fall in the dollar vis a vis the yen. If it does not, the rate reduction from a Japanese perspective has been more substantial). The new companies will charge $3.00 to $4.85 for a three minute call, substantially less than AT&T on calls from the U.S. to Japan or for U.S.A. Direct calls from Japan. AT&T charges $3.78 to $6.02 for direct dial calls from the U.S. to the Japan. From a technical standpoint the new companies are expected to offer superior quality as these calls are more likely to go through fiber optic cables across the Pacific instead of satellites. On the other hand the new carriers will only be going to popular destinations like the U.S. David Gast gast@cs.ucla.edu {uunet,ucbvax,rutgers}!{ucla-cs,cs.ucla.edu}!gast ------------------------------ From: Kent Borg Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Date: 2 Oct 89 23:01:18 GMT Reply-To: Kent Borg Organization: Camex, Inc., Boston, Mass USA In article Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup. portal.com writes: >With the traditional bell, it is possible to be in any one else's >office and tell if your phone is ringing based on the volume and >direction of the bell. With these new ringers, it is impossible to >tell where the "warble" is coming from, even though you are only one >office away. There seems to be no way the ear can attribute direction >to the "warble". Hence, every time a phone rings, everyone runs to >their office to see if it is for them. I remember the old Bell Telephone exhibit in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago had en explanation of the how they chose the ring of the phone. All I remember was that is it could be heard by most everybody because it had a rich set of harmonics. They showed a scope trace of the machanical bell, a jumble of lines, and the trace of a sin wave, which was just a clean up-down pattern (couldn't see the curves at their horz timing). I don't remember whether they mentioned is was easy to find in a crowded office. Too bad all new phones seem to have gone backwards in this aspect. Kent Borg "Then again I could be foolish kent@lloyd.uucp not to quit while I'm ahead..." or -from Evita (sung by Juan Peron) ...!husc6!lloyd!kent ------------------------------ From: Dave Horsfall Subject: Re: Australian Broadcast Call Signs Date: 3 Oct 89 07:04:23 GMT Reply-To: Dave Horsfall Organization: Alcatel STC Australia, North Sydney, AUSTRALIA In article , henry@garp.mit.edu (Henry Mensch) writes: | | They are all under VK (i.e., the FM station 4GGG on Australia's gold | coast has a call sign of VK4GGG). The number indicates (mostly) | which state the station is in (1=Tasmania , 2=New South | Wales, 3=Victoria, 4=Queensland, and I don't know the rest :>) Sorry, Henry - but VK4GGG would be an Amateur callsign. Australia has been allocated VH-VN, with AX as well (and possibly others). And Tasmania is "7", not "1". That is reserved for Our Nation's Capital, and various little islands around the place. Tasmania, although an island, isn't one of them :-) I'll take a guess that the prefix is VL though - resulting in VL4GGG. Then again, I could be wrong. How did this get started in Telecom Digest anyway? Dave Horsfall (VK2KFU), Alcatel STC Australia, dave@stcns3.stc.oz dave%stcns3.stc.oz.AU@uunet.UU.NET, ...munnari!stcns3.stc.oz.AU!dave [Moderator's Note: How did all this get started in the Digest? I guess it is due to my anti-social and iconoclastic attitude. I've caused the imminent death of the net on several occassions, you know. And I am proud of it, I might add. :) PT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Prefix '520' for Los Angeles Radio Stations Date: Tue, 03 Oct 89 12:04:14 -0400 From: clements@bbn.com >If anyone is making a list, the "choke" exchange serving Atlanta is >404-741. And in Boston, it's 617-931-1xxx. Note: Only ONE thousand's group. That's few enough that smart exchanges actually might have a map of those 1000 numbers. Then they could allow a couple of calls to different numbers within the group at the same time, afor a little more inter-station fairness. Not likely, I guess. Bob Clements, K1BC, clements@bbn.com ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: California Junk Fax Bill Date: 3 Oct 89 17:55:18 GMT Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article , dwtamkin@chinet.chi.il. us (David W. Tamkin) writes: > Mark A. Holtz wrote in volume 9, issue 419: > | However, the governor of California has stated that he would not > | sign said bill. > | > | He is bound to change his mind. > | > | Several radio stations have gotten a hold of the Governor's fax > | number. And, they have given it out, telling people to keep the fax > | machine busy with junk fax. And, sure enough, it has been busy. If this isn't stacking the deck, I don't know what is. For about a month there was a thread running in alt.fax with people invited to share their junk fax stories. In all that time, nothing more serious than a couple of solicitations a month came to light. Indeed, no one could relate to anything near the "problem" that has been reported in the press and has obviouly paniced some state legislators into passing silly and needless legislation. I wrote to KGO in San Francisco, one of the stations passing out the governor's fax number, and told them that inviting the public to jam his fax machine was an inappropriate use of the public airwaves. If the governor vetoed the bill, then obviously up to this point he has not had any trouble with junk fax. This appears to be one of those comp.horror.stories without any real basis. I know of many fax machines in the area and a survey of all their owners reveals *NO* problem with junk fax. Sorry, this is a cause that won't fly. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: Thomas E Lowe Subject: Re: ANI Updates Wanted Date: 3 Oct 89 16:18:27 GMT Reply-To: tel@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (thomas.e.lowe,ho,) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories >I've heard that at least two class action lawsuits have been filed >against AT&T in NJ and Florida >[Moderator's Note: >But I suspect the suits would be against local telcos rather than AT&T >would they not? PT] Not necessarily. AT&T does provide ANI information to many large telemarketing firms. Many of the 800 numbers you call to order merchandise from have this service. Most of it, if not all, is provided using MegaCom service and/or ISDN services. I would think this would make AT&T as venerable to a suit as the telcos. I personally know of no suits against AT&T or local telcos. Tom Lowe tel@hound.ATT.COM or att!hound!tel 201-949-0428 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 2E-637A Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733 (R) UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T (keep them lawyers happy!!) [Moderator's Note: But unlike the telcos, AT&T provides the information for billing purposes. The telcos provide it out of customer curiosity for the information. If the litigants want to sue AT&T, at least where the provision of telephone numbers for billing is concerned, what would be their complaint? That the person who pays for a phone call has no right to know what calls they are paying for? If I pay for your phone calls, it is an invasion of *your* privacy to tell *me* the details of the connections established? PT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Levenson Subject: Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding Date: 4 Oct 89 00:08:33 GMT Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA In article , roy%phri@uunet.uu.net (Roy Smith) writes: > With all this talk about non-ergonomic rings, I thought I would > bring up another mis-feature. Our ATT System-25 at work doesn't have call > forwarding, it has what we've come to refer to as call following... ... > I can't figure out why ATT decided to do it this way. System-25 does it that way because Horizon(tm) did it that way. That, in fact, explains most of the System-25 feature set. No, I don't know exactly why Horizon did it that way, but it may be related to their "floating phone number" feature. You can have phone numbers in your Horizon or System 25 which do not correspond to real telephone sets (or voice terminals, for that matter!). If you are a fast-mover around your office, you may be without a physical set, but you can have a floating extension (called a PDC or personal dial code, in System-25 speak). You can then "log in" your floating PDC at the nearest real telephone set, and receive your calls there, until you log out or log in at some other voice terminal. Call-following is just a special case of logging in a PDC (but in this case, not a floating PDC) on a voice terminal. [I keep my floating PDC logged into the phone on the boat!] Dave Levenson Voice: (201) 647 0900 Westmark, Inc. Internet: dave@westmark.uu.net Warren, NJ, USA UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave ------------------------------ From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: Another Cool Thing About GTE Date: 4 Oct 89 01:02:20 GMT Organization: very little Regarding Tom Ace's piece on GTE lines being wired backwards, it is not that they are always reversed, it's just that they don't care...because the AE phones have polarity guards. This is one of the tests built into the Proctor test systems for GTE. As part of the dial test, it checks with reversed and normal polarity. That way the installer never has to worry about whether the jack is wired reversed or not. It also means that on older offices with reverse answer supervision that the phone could still do end-to-end DTMF signalling. Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP ------------------------------ From: "H.Shrikumar{shri@ncst.in}" Subject: Re: Telephones in India (part II of II) Date: 4 Oct 89 03:06:22 GMT Reply-To: "H.Shrikumar{shri@ncst.in}" Organization: Nat'l Centre for S/w Tech. Bombay. In article dheeraj@cs.umd.edu (Dheeraj Sanghi) writes: [ much deleted .... ] >For direct dialed calls (STD and ISD), the tariff is determined by the >"pulse rate." For every "pulse", you are charged equivalent of one >local call, which was 50 paise (3 cents). For STD, the pulse rate is >halved during night time. (I am not too sure about this.) But there is >no discount for ISD calls in the night. For STD calls the pulse The DOT has introduced a quarter rate period for STD, between 10 PM and 4 AM. And the lines at that time are much better too. For ex. the packet errot rate (for UUCP traffic) seems to fall drastically for calls during this period. True, ISD calls are the same throughout the day. >can only make local calls. They will only accept 2 fifty paise coins, >and not 1 one rupee coin or other change. Second type is from where you >can only make STD and ISD calls. These will accept only those 1 rupee >coins that were made after 1980. (But that is no problem, since usually And then there are a good number of Operator assited Phone booths where a (usually) handicapped operator dials a number and accepts the money. Change is no problem with such booths too. shrikumar ( shri@ccs1.cs.umass.edu, shri@ncst.in ) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 07:00:18 -0700 From: "Louis J. Judice 03-Oct-1989 0957" Subject: Re: Telephone Designs for Humans This discussion reminds me: Is there any source out there for buying a genuine new or used AT&T (WE) Speakerphone Model 200? These are the three piece units (Phone, mike and speaker) with a zillion wires and cables protruding outwards. I've had these units in my office, along with newer AT&T (System 75/85 compatible sets), and I don't think anything has ever rivaled their quality or durability. Fortunately I have one in my office now, but I'd like to get one for my home office. Any sources for the GENUINE ARTICLE? Lou ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #428 *****************************   Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 0:54:05 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #429 Message-ID: <8910050054.aa05262@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Thu, 5 Oct 89 00:50:46 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 429 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Flood Causes Delay in International Calls (Jeff Wasilko) Swedish Cordless Phones (Will Martin) Generation of Unique Tones to Parallel Extensions (Giridhar Coorg) Parsing Dialed Digits (Phil Crable) Wrong Numbers and Call Progress Messages (David C. Troup) Re: California Junk Fax Bill (John R. Levine) Re: California Junk Fax Bill (Tad Cook) Re: California Junk Fax Bill (Scott D. Green) Re: Billing, was Sleazy Touch-Tone Marketing Tactics (John R. Levine) Re: NPA Splits Before 1965 (Robert Hamer) Re: NPA Splits Before 1965 (Mark Robert Smith) Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding (Thomas E. Lowe) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Flood Causes Delay in International Calls Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 19:41:30 PDT From: Jeff Wasilko Did you know that on Monday morning all international calls that were routed out of South Carolina could not not be completed? AT&T claimed that they had some problems with flooding in those areas. We could not place any calls to our London office until about 1:00 our time. One thing that surprised me is that AT&T could not reroute the calls to another center of operations. Do you know any more details about what happened? Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 13:05:36 CDT From: Will Martin Subject: Swedish Cordless Phones The following item is extracted from Sweden Calling DXers, the electronic edition of which is distributed on the ham-radio newsgroup & mailing list: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2062--Sept. 26, 1989 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: .... CORDLESS TELEPHONES--A new generation of cordless telephones is appearing in Europe, which are being called "the poor man's mobile telephone". At the same time, the current cordless phones in Sweden cost more than cellular telephones in many other countries. Cordless telephones have become popular all over the Western World and the Far East. The exception is Sweden, where cordless telephones remain too expensive for ordinary households. In fact, Swedish cordless telephones cost more than the mobile or cellular telephones used in automobiles in other countries. This is because Sweden uses a unique frequency band for its cordless phones. The kind found in the rest of the world use frequencies around 49 MHz. This band is, however, still used by television in Sweden. Two transmitters for Swedish Channel 1 use frequencies close to 49 MHz. Rather than move those two transmitters, Swedish Telecom has decided that cordless phones in this country shuld use the exotic frequencies of 914 and 959 MHz. Because of this, the legal cordless phones sold in Sweden cost as much as 10 times what similar units cost abroad. Consequently, many Swedes buy cordless phones in other countries and try to smuggle them past Customs. So far this year Swedish Customs has confiscated 1500 to 2000 cordless telephones. That's roughly twice as many as during all of last year. Now Britain has begun testing the next generation of cordless phones, called CT-2. This operates at 864 MHz, using special digital signals. When you use CT-2, you carry the handset in your pocket, and around town there are relay stations called phonepoints, instead of traditional phone booths. The idea is that you can call out from anywhere within range of a phonepoint, although you can't receive calls. That's why the system is being called the poor man's mobile telephone. The pilot service has only 100 users and 30 phonepoints, all in London. The service is expected to cover all of London by the end of this month, and 1000 phonepoints are to be installed during the first year. When Britain is fully wired, there will be 16,000 phonepoints. The British decision is controversial, because European standards have yet to be decided. Britain hopes to sell its CT-2 system to the rest of Euyrope, so that the same pocket telephone can be used anywhere in the continent. It now looks as thought the French have accepted the British system, for their "Pointel" public cordless network. Happily for Swedes, Swedish Telecom has indicated it will adhere to the forthcoming international standard for CT-2. (George Wood) ... ***End of extract*** ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 09:05:08 EDT From: Giridhar Coorg Subject: Generation of Unique Tones to Parallel Extensions In an open office environment where there are parallel extensions (one extension having say four parallels), is it possible for the EPABX to generate different frequencies corresponding to the particular person at one of the parallels being called? The user would have a unique extension analogous to DID. This facility can be used only to group not so busy extensions with a through study being made earlier. Advantages are lower capital costs (almost 25% of present investment) but not compromising the advantages of an EPABX and the telephone in general. ===== GIRIDHAR ===== ------------------------------ From: VAX WIZZ Subject: Parsing Dialed Digits Date: 4 Oct 89 11:50:35 EDT Organization: PBS:Public Broadcasting Service, Alexandria, VA Hi out there in telephone land... I'm hoping one of you telephone experts can help me with this problem. I am dealing with a string of numbers returned by a PBX with Call Data Reporting. What I need to do is divide the string into three separate numbers: area_code, exchange and extension. I can parse the digits fine for calls to the US, Canada, and Mexico. The problem comes with international calls. I know to look for the country code after the 011 international access code. (The access code is 011 in New York, right?) How can I tell whether to take the next two or the next three digits as the country code ? Any suggestions are welcome... ============================================================================== Phil Crable PPPPPPP BBBBBBB SSSSSS Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) P P B B S S Computer Services Dept. P P B B S 1320 Braddock Place PPPPPPP BBBBBBB SSSSSS Alexandria, VA 22314 P B B S P B B S S (703) 739-5052 P BBBBBBB SSSSSS ...!uunet!vrdxhq!pbs!pcrable ============================================================================== Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see... ------------------------------ From: "David C. Troup - Skunk Works : 2600hz" Subject: Wrong Numbers and Call Progress Messages Date: 4 Oct 89 23:06:59 GMT Organization: Carroll College Dept of Artificial Intelligence When a call cannot be completed, or there are no available lines or the line has been disconnected (or whatever), how are the recordings and appropriate switching done? Or for instance, if I changed my phone number, and Bell had a "The number you have reached has been disconnected." message, and I have them change it to "...the new number is ..." - What happens here? Thanks in advance, and Thank-You to all who answered my question on the recording alert tones! "We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, knowin' that ain't allowed" _________ _______________ |David C. Troup / Surf Rat _______)(______ | |dtroup@carroll1.cc.edu : mail ______________________________|414-524-6809______________________________ ------------------------------ Subject: Re: California Junk Fax Bill Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: 3 Oct 89 09:51:14 EDT (Tue) From: "John R. Levine" The story about junk fax and the Connecticut governor is true, and was widely reported in the press when it happened. Keep those junk faxes going to your elected representatives, folks. Regards, John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl ------------------------------ From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: California Junk Fax Bill Date: 5 Oct 89 00:32:41 GMT Organization: very little I have been wondering about junk fax....I see a lot of articles written about it, but I am wondering if it is this year's "computer virus" scare story in the media? After talking to a number of fax users, I am convinced that this may be an "urban legend". The articles all tell how the junk faxer can control your machine, and make it so you can't send important information. One article quoted a guy who claimed that he stood there helpless while the machine churned out junk fax, when he needed to send an important document. Somehow it never occured to him or the writed xxxx writer of the article to just unplug the RJ11 for a few seconds or hit the STOP button so that he could send his fax. The only junk fax we have received in the past few years was from that Mr. Fax outfit selling fax paper. They send one ad once in a great while, and one time after getting maybe two a year from them, we took advantage of their offer to have us taken off their list. We receive lots of transmissions from our customers, but no more junk fax. I asked about this on the alt.fax group, and still could find no one who really had a first person horror stories. All I could get was a lot of complaining about "they are using MY paper". Anyone here have any FIRST PERSON verifiable accounts (not friend of a friend urban legend stuff) of junk fax horror stories? Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP MCI Mail: 3288544 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 15:44 EDT From: "Scott D. Green" Subject: Re: California Junk Fax Bill Conn. Governor O'Neill did, in fact, sign the junk fax bill, and it went into effect October 1. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Billing, was Sleazy Touch-Tone Marketing Tactics Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: 3 Oct 89 22:29:49 EDT (Tue) From: "John R. Levine" In article you write: >[Moderator's Note: Generally, AT&T is very much at the mercy of the >local telco as to when things like ROA get turned on; ... I don't get it. Do the BOCs actually compute the bills for AT&T as well as print, mail, and collect them? It was my impression that the LD companies keep their own billing info based on the ANI info provided at the time of the call, and then either send their own bills or tell the local telco what to print on the appropriate page. Or is AT&T different? Regards, John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl [Moderator's Note: AT&T and the Bell telcos were interwoven for so many years, there are still some things about AT&T's relationship with the telcos which don't apply to the other OCC's. I don't know for sure if the telcos actually do the *computations* for AT&T or not; I do know that, for example, although AT&T advertises a five percent daytime discount for fifty cents per month to ROA customers, when I have tried to have it put on my ROA account the message I get from AT&T service reps is I can't have it because "... Illinois Bell is not set up for it right now...." Likewise, AT&T insisted to me that they were not the ones to toll-restrict 415-976 from Chicago customers; ".... Illinois Bell made the decision..."; and when I made an inquiry about MCI's new five bucks an hour plan on Saturdays, their rep was eager to take my order but cautioned that "... Illinois Bell usually takes five working days to process our orders...." The local telcos seem to be the ones to do much of the programming/record keeping. PT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 16:35 EDT From: "ROBERT M. HAMER" Subject: Re: NPA Splits Before 1965 Greg Monti via John R. Covert writes: >... (To my >knowledge, New Jersey *never* had 1 + 7 digit dialing for intra-NPA toll Speaking as an ex-New Jerseyite, New Jersey until fairly recently did not require 1+ before LD phone calls at all. Now it seems to. ------------------------------ From: Mark Robert Smith Subject: Re: NPA Splits Before 1965 Date: 5 Oct 89 02:09:41 GMT Organization: Rutgers - The Police State of New Jersey I remember visiting the house of an older person a number of years back, in NJ. They still had the announcement of the 201/609 split taped next to the phone (with VERY yellow scotch tape). I seem to remember that it was before 1965, probably before 1960, but I can't for the life of me remember the exact date. Mark Smith, KNJ2LH All Rights Reserved RPO 1604 You may redistribute this article only if those who P.O. Box 5063 receive it may do so freely. New Brunswick, NJ 08903-5063 msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu ------------------------------ From: Thomas E Lowe Subject: Re: Criticism of Call Forwarding Date: 4 Oct 89 12:29:46 GMT Reply-To: tel@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (thomas.e.lowe,ho,) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories In article Roy Smith writes: >Our ATT System-25 at work doesn't have call >forwarding, it has what we've come to refer to as call following. To >transfer your calls to another phone, you have to go to that phone (known >in the S25 manual as a "voice terminal") and do some magic there. Boy, would I love to have this feature here at work (CENTREX) and home. I don't know how many times I ended up in someone's office or home without expecting to be there and wished my calls were forwarded to me. Also, if it is going to take a substantial amount of time to get there, I would rather my machine take calls till I get where I'm going. I can also go office to office and forward my calls as I move. Of course, I still would want the ability to do both Call Forward from my office/home phone in addition to Call Follow from any phone. Tom Lowe tel@hound.ATT.COM or att!hound!tel 201-949-0428 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 2E-637A Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733 (R) UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T (keep them lawyers happy!!) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #429 *****************************   Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 1:41:48 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #430 Message-ID: <8910050141.aa06424@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Thu, 5 Oct 89 01:40:25 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 430 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Possible California PUC Changes - LA Times Story (nomdenet@venera.isi.edu) [Moderator's Note: This issue of the Digest is devoted to a single item: a recent article in the Los Angeles Times. Unfortunatly, the sender did not include his own name -- I have no idea who sent it other than the net address given. I thought it was worth printing in full. PT] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Possible California PUC Changes -- L.A. Times Story Date: Wed, 04 Oct 89 16:16:46 PDT From: nomdenet@venera.isi.edu The story below is from the Los Angeles Times of October 1, 1989, in the Business Section (part IV), p. 1. Reprinted without permission. Rewriting the Book on Phone Rates by Bruce Keppel Times Staff Writer (San Francisco) Charlotte Ford's cubbyhole of an office hardly looks like a place where history is being written. But it is there, nonetheless, that the 36-year-old administrative law judge distilled, from thousands of pages of sometimes gnarly testimony, what may be the most far-reaching regulatory proposal every made by the California Public Utilities Commission. What Ford has wrought on behalf of her bosses -- the five utilities commissioners appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian -- is a 361-page blueprint to overhaul regulation of the state's two biggest local phone companies, Pacific Bell and GTE California. One virtually certain result of this proposal, expected to be approved Oct. 12 after some final tinkering by the commissioners, will be lower basic phone rates next year. Another will be freedom for the companies to shoot for higher profits and to enjoy unprecedented, if limited, latitude in setting prices for optional telephone services. The long-term payoff, if the system works as Ford conceived it, will be a streamlined regulatory process that liberates the phone companies to pursue technological advances that benefit the economy and hold down prices for phone customers. And although many consumer advocates are doubtful that those goals will be realized, the PUC's push in telecommunications is expected to foreshow a fundamental change in the way that the agency deals with energy utilities, freight haulers and the other businesses that it regulates. "There has to be streamlined processing," said Commissioner John B. Ohanian. "I envision the commission getting away from the 'micromanagement' of these companies. Instead, let's modernize the way we regulate and synchronize it with the pace of change in the business world." At the top of the PUC's agenda is phone regulation. A number of other states have similarly re-examined traditional phone regulation but, with the possible exception of Vermont, California is proposing the most comprehensive overhaul. Simplified Process With the new plan, gone will be the close surveillance of management decisions made by Pacific Bell and GTE California -- a prospect that delights both companies. Traditional rate-making procedures now require the PUC to determine utility costs, a process that requires poring over corporate books and second-guessing management decisions to arrive at the amount of annual revenue that the company will need to break even. The commission then adds to that sum a maximum profit for the companies to shoot for but not exceed and finally sets phone rates accordingly. The Ford plan would authorize the PUC to continue setting prices for basic telephone service, although it would simplify the way that is done. It also would: - Cap prices for such optional "enhanced services" as call forwarding and let the companies lower charges if they wish, perhaps to increase sales volume. - Deregulate prices for the present handful of competitive services, such as yellow pages advertising and, perhaps, maintenance of phone wires in businesses and homes. - Replace commission-imposed penalties for unnecessary investments and excessive costs with financial incentives to reward efficiency. To make this more flexible pricing system work with a minimum of state intrusion, Ford created the most elaborate system so far of "checks and balances" designed to protect shareholders and customers alike. Yet, in California as in the other states tinkering with regulatory reform, only the telecommunications investors and the companies involved seem to support the changes. Many customers -- including giant long-distance carriers such as American Telephone & Telegraph and MCI, which depend on local phone companies to complete their calls -- worry that loosened regulation will mean service headaches. Ironically, AT&T recently was granted greater pricing flexibility in its long-distance operations by both state and federal regulators. For the first year under the new regulatory setup, the PUC will lower phone rates because both Pacific Bell and GTE California have exceeded their currently authorized profit ceilings. Productivity Factor After that, and on Jan. 1 of every year from now on, the companies' anticipated revenue figure will be adjusted for inflation, minus an assumed reduction in operating costs due to belt tightening and labor-saving technology. Ford proposed what it {sic} calls a 4% "productivity factor." Thus, if inflation boosted costs generally by 5%, only a 1% increase would be passed on to telephone customers. "This productivity target will challenge [the phone companies] to be at least 4% more efficient in their operations than is the economy as a whole," she maintained. A key question that the five commissioners must decide Oct. 12 is whether Ford's 4% productivity factor is reasonable. The companies argue that 4% is too ambitions, while the consumer lobby known as TURN (for Toward Utility Rate Normalization) says it should be more like 7%. Moreover, TURN considers Ford's proposal to be "overwhelmingly skewed in the utilities' favor," said executive director Audrie Krause, a former Fresno Bee newspaper reporter who assumed her TURN job last summer. Under traditional regulation, Krause pointed out, the PUC limited company profits, or rate of return, and required any excess earnings to be refunded. The maximum profit margin for Pacific Bell currently is 11.34% and 11.13% for GTE California. Because a basic principle of Ford's plan is to strengthen the profit motive, she set a target rate of return, based on her estimate of current market conditions, of 11.75% for 1990. But she would let the companies keep all earnings up to 12.75% to motivate them to perform well, then would allow them to keep half of any additional earnings up to a maximum of 16.75% TURN considers each of these benchmarks, especially the 16.75% maximum return, to be far too generous, and it also urged that if the commission allows any profit sharing, consumers should get 60% of the earnings involved, not 50% as Ford suggested. In contrast to TURN's strong opposition, PUC President G. Mitchell Wilk, who has worked closely with Ford as the commissioner responsible for the case, hailed Ford's framework as "a win-win situation" for customers and investors. "It needs to be improved in some areas, filling in some gaps and doing more balancing," Wilk said, but he defended the 4% productivity factor as "a real stretch" for Pacific Bell and GTE California. He termed TURN's opposition shortsighted, saying the 1984 breakup of the Bell System and rapid technological changes have made reform inevitable and probably overdue. "Divestiture changed the regulatory framework for this industry," Wilk said. "We can't put our head in the sand and pretend we're dealing with Ma Bell. Carl Danner, Wilk's telecommunications adviser, said Ford's framework creates necessary new incentives to reward efficiency and get telephone employees "thinking the way we want them to think" instead of trying to "put one over" on regulators by padding costs to boost revenue. "Our economy runs on these incentives," said Danner, who holds a doctorate in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. "To the degree that the phone companies are losing their monopoly status, their world should begin to look more like that [of the the competitive economy]. It's becoming untenable to do the other form of regulation." Terry L. Moore, who heads a PUC division representing utility customers, agreed with TURN, however, that some of Ford's profit targets are too generous and that the productivity factor is too low. Still, Moore added that she is "in general comfortable with the framework" that Ford devised. "The key is getting [rates] right at the start." William R. Ahern, a former RAND Corp. analyst who now is PUC director of strategic planning, said Ford's framework also makes it far more difficult for the phone companies to unfairly subsidize their competitive ventures with profits from the basic phone business. If successful on that score, Ford's plan would resolve a lot of complaints already made by would-be competitors in such areas as voice-mail services, privately owned pay phones and telephone wiring repairs. Commissioner Frederick R. Duda called the impending commission decision "clearly historical" and one not to be confused with deregulation. "This is not deregulation and it's not traditional regulation," he said. "It's a compromise. And the question is whether it will work and for how long. "Marketplace reality has caught up with the system," Duda said. Duda -- along with commissioners Ohanian, Wilk, Stanley W. Hulett and Patricia M. Eckert -- has reservations on a number of details, but all five seemed, in separate interviews last month, to be generally pleased with the comprehensive plan. For Ford, the telephone case represents by far the most complex that she has handled. The Mississippi native, who holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a master's degree in electrical engineering, said her aim was to devise a framework that would work adequately even when some of the forecases for the telephone business are off the mark. "We can be fooled by forecasts," Ford said recently as she sat in her tiny office surrounded by volumes of hearing testimony and a stack of comments on her framework. She said she tried to create "checks and balances" within the framework to contain excessive earnings -- or losses if the bottom falls out of the market -- within reasonable limits. That approach is also demonstrated, she said, by the way in which implementation will give customers the first benefit in the form of an immediate rate cut, in inflation-adjusted dollars, while shareholders will get theirs later in the form of higher profits if their company performs well. In any case, she added, the commission will reassess the new system in 1992. Investment analysts generally warm to any attempt to allow market forces to work within a regulated environment -- and especially to shift from cost-based regulation to pricing regulation because of the potential for higher earnings. Even so, Robert B. Morris III of Goldman, Sachs & Co. foresees some potential problems for both telephone customers and the companies themselves. "It's a break from historical regulation," Morris acknowledged, "but to me it doesn't appear that the commission has handed them they keys to the kingdom." Moreover, he added, there may be a drawback for consumers. By dividing telephone offerings between tightly regulated basic telephone service and flexibly priced enhanced telecommunications services, Morris said, the new regulatory framework may interfere with the smooth flow of new technology throughout California. In other words, Morris said, some markets outside major metropolitan areas might not get certain advanced services unless regulators require them to. "Only markets that can pay for them will get the services," Morris predicted. To Ford, criticism and controversy come with the territory. "No one's going to entirely like what you do," she said. "And if someone does," she added, "it makes you wonder if you've done the job." Sidebar: Incentive-Based Rate Plan Takes Phased Approach --------------------------------------------------------- The California Public Utilities Commission is expected this month to adopt an incentive-based system for regulating Pacific Bell and GTE California. As proposed, effective Jan. 1, the system would: - Cut phone rates next year and then peg them in future years to a cost- adjusted formula. This formula would limit price increases to the rate of overall inflation minus 4% for assumed efficiencies due to cost cutting and labor-saving technology. Thus, in a year in which the cost of living increased 5%, telephone prices should rise no more than 1%. If inflation rose less than 4%, phone prices would actually be cut. - Reorganize regulation so that the PUC still would set rates for basic phone service, which on the local level remains a monopoly. Prices for most optional calling features would be capped, but the companies would be allowed to lower charges, within limits, if they wished to encourage usage. Prices would be deregulated for such services as yellow pages advertising where competitive alternatives already exist. - Authorize the PUC, as part of its rate-setting procedure, to establish a target rate of return for the phone companies, the companies could keep all profits for another percentage point, but earnings in excess of 12.75% would be split evenly between customers and the company. Earnings exceeding a 16.75% return would be refunded. For phone customers, the refund would come as credits in future bills. In a final phase of the regulatory revision to be completed next year, the proposal calls for the commission to revise all telephone rates to reflect the new system. This "rate design" phase would eliminate the bewildering array of credits and surcharges applied to customers' bills. At that time, the proposal recommends that the PUC scrap a 20-year-old $1.20 monthly fee for "Touch tone" service and also expand the local service area in which unlimited calls can be made at no extra charge from 8 miles to 12 miles. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #430 *****************************   Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 20:42:00 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest Special: Eat Crow! Message-ID: <8910052042.aa03178@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Thu, 5 Oct 89 20:35:25 CDT Special: Eat Crow! Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Moderator Takes His Medicine Like a Man Child!! (Patrick A. Townson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 20:18:28 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: The Roar of the Crowd Well..... The messages excerpted below speak for themselves, I guess. There were some additional messages marked 'not for publication', and they are not included, but correspondents should be assured all have been read and considered. Regards the list which started this thread, if anyone wants it who cannot aquire it through the suggested instructions, they should write to me at 'ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu' -- NOT to the telecom address. I will send a compressed copy unless you specify you have no way to uncompress it on your end. If you prefer 'uuencode' and 'uudecode' instead, please specify that method. So here is the consensus -- ==================== From: jsol@bu-it.bu.edu I second the motion. What R. E. Seastrom doesn't realize is that the command "telnet foo 21" will do the same thing as "ftp foo". The connection that is used in a FTP command is not compressed nor is it load-reduced in any frame of mind. I want my FTP jobs to get done FAST, I don't want to background them just because some twit wants to play nethack on a machine across the country. This is more legitimate than playing games. Now, if the program could be offered compressed and uncompressed that would be useful. The host table is currently compresed, however the host port on the NIC.DDN.MIL machine that you can use (by telnet nic.ddn.mil ) to receive the host table is the same way and it is definitely official business. Saying that the Internet growth has to be slowed is a good idea, but you pointed your gun at the wrong issue. jsol ==================== From: Will Martin Well, anti-social or not, I've tried the given command from BOTH a Sys V system (Unisys) and a BSD system (VAX) and all I get as a response is: "telnet: connect: Connection timed out" However, I must say that it DOES seem rather strange that the original message quoted by the moderator says this: >If you don't have tail or compress, just redirect the telnet output >into a file. That indicates the file is coming in uncompressed mode. What is the purpose of them telling the requesters to feed it into compress and end up with a compressed file, anyway? To use it you would have to then uncompress it. That appears to be what Mr. Seastrom was pointing out. Am I missing something here? Regards, Will Martin ==================== From: Paul Fuqua The file does not travel compressed, it is compressed because you pipe it through compress on your end. Go telnet to 128.146.1.5, port 4666, without the piping stuff, and see what shows up on your screen. Since hpuxa does not provide anonymous FTP, I can see why they'd choose this somewhat weird method of distribution, but maybe they'd be better off talking to the CIS department -- osu-cis/tut.cis.ohio-state.edu provides both anonymous FTP and anonymous UUCP. Paul Fuqua pf@csc.ti.com {smu,texsun,cs.utexas.edu,rice}!ti-csl!pf Texas Instruments Computer Science Center PO Box 655474 MS 238, Dallas, Texas 75265 ==================== From: Doug Faunt N6TQS 415-688-8269 Err, Mr. Seastrom overreacted, but he's correct. Using the script given, the compression takes place at your machine, and the file is transmitted uncompressed. I suspect that Dan Bernstein has not got official approval of what he's doing, which is why the strange method of file transfer, and therefore an address at ohio-state, or nyu gives him no standing from that. Compressing the file before the transfer, and using anonymous FTP is the standard way of doing this type of file distribution. A server, for both mail and telnet requests, is another alternative. You over-reacted also, and as moderator, it's part of your job to cool flames, not fan them. respectfully, doug faunt ==================== From: Frank Prindle Patrick, One small correction - the list is transmitted via telnet (TCP/IP protocol) and is not transmitted as (and cannot be transmitted as) a compressed file, because telnet protocol supports only text transmissions. The suffix .Z does indicate a compressed file (not .z, but .Z), but the Unix command line given does the compression at the receiving end (for what purpose, I'm not sure, since it is not too much fun to search the file that way). Also, any claim that this is a nearly complete list of internet users is highly exaggerated. It appears to be a compendium of registered members of a small subset of Arpanet mailing lists, certainly not all, and extremely far from a complete list of users; NADC.arpa alone has over 1000 users capable of sending and receiving internet mail, and at least 100 active in one or more mailing lists; the subject list includes precisely 3 (curiously, I am one). Several substantially larger and more organized lists exist: one, a commercial venture called National E-Mail Registry includes all commercial E-Mail systems in addition to Arpanet/Milnet/UUCP/Bitnet/etc..... Another is the "whois" database maintained at SRI-NIC.arpa. Both of these allow voluntary free registration; the fact that they rely on individual manual registration means that they still each cover only a minor subset of the total population they are trying to list, but do list such things as address, phone number, etc. I realize that you were just relaying a bit of seemingly useful information, and ended up caught in the middle of a controversy. It would have raised a lot less eyebrows if it just appeared as a compressed file on some SIMTEL20 FTP database, and probably conserved a lot of net resources too. You might just pass this back to it's creator. ==================== From: Pat Stephenson Patrick, First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the way in which you run telecom digest. I read it on Usenet; comp.dcom.telecom is one of the best groups around. Keep up the good work! However, I believe that you made a misstep today. Mr Seastrom pointed out two facts about Bernstein's methods of data transfer, and drew the conclusion that Bernsteins method was *not a good thing*. I do *not* agree with Mr Seastroms conclusion. His facts are, however, correct. Seastrom's two points were: 1) The data is *TRANSFERRED OVER THE NETWORK* UNCOMPRESSED. 2) The data is COMPRESSED *WHEN IT ARRIVES AT A RECEIVING SITE* (thus, overall, the compression is done many, many times instead of once) Lets's look at Bernstein et al's command line: > telnet 128.146.1.5 4666 | tail +4 | compress > userlist.Z 1) the *only* data transfer command is "telnet". 2) the "tail" command will buffer the data as it arrives. 2) the "compress" command will compress the output of the tail command. Note that both "tail" and "compress" will run on the *local machine only*. Thus Seastrom's points of fact are correct - data is transferred uncompressed, and compression takes place at every receiver. (In fact, one could get an uncompressed version of the data by saying: telnet 128.146.1.5 4666 | tail +4 > userlist ) Again, I don't think these two points justify Seastrom's flame. But, as points of fact, they are true. Patrick, I have the greatest regard for the way in which you run the digest. I think it is appropriate for you to keep up your high standards by admitting when you are wrong, and apologizing to Mr Seastrom. Pat Stephenson. ==================== From: David Albert In article telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: >What a laugh. Frankly, Mr. Seastrom, you don't know what you are talking >about. I'm afraid the laugh is on you, at least as far as the compression argument is concerned. >Please note also that contrary to the misguided information from the >previous correspondent, the file *does come compressed*. No it doesn't. Reread the following instruction line, which have now posted twice and emphasized once: > telnet 128.146.1.5 4666 | tail +4 | compress > userlist.Z What this line does is, first, to transmit over the net the entire, uncompressed file, and only *afterwards* to pipe it through "compress" at the *recipient's* end, creating, to be sure, a file ending in ".Z". >Mail any lengthy comments to this address. If you complain about the ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >operation of the list, make sure to suggest something better. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Which is exactly what the previous poster did: he suggested that the site decide offer anonymous ftp access, and that it compress the file at its end. His language may have been somewhat strong, but it was not without at least some justification. Please reread what you posted. David Albert | "What are you trying to do, UUCP: ...!harvard!albert | change the world?" INTERNET: albert@harvard.harvard.edu | "No, just our little corner of it." ==================== From: Andy Behrens In article our Moderator writes: (stuff deleted) Robert Seastrom is correct. Patrick Townson is wrong. The file *is* transmitted uncompressed. If you follow the instructions supplied by Ohio State telnet 128.146.1.5 4666 | tail +4 | compress > userlist.Z You will transmit the uncompressed file (all 450K of it) to your own machine, where it will be compressed and saved under the name userlist.Z. Compress is run at the receiving end to conserve disk space; it has no effect on the way that the file is transmitted. (There are apparently technical reasons why the ohio-state.edu machine is unable to transmit compressed files in this case, but that's not relevant here). Snide remarks about "lessons for the elementary beginning student", and "maybe RGS will go back and read it again" have little place in this Digest, particularly when the statements being derogated are correct. If anyone else posted remarks like this to the Digest, I would hope that the moderator would rebuke them. As it is, I think Patrick owes Robert Seastrom an apology. ==================== From: Bill Fenner In article you write: |X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 426, message 2 of 8 (stuff deleted) Sorry, Patrick, RGS was right. The list is not compressed as it is sent. If you look at that pipeline, | tail +4 removes the telnet header, and | compress compresses the file locally. To make sure, I tried to telnet 128.146.1.5 4666 without any pipeline afterwards; it was pure text. |If you don't have tail or compress, just redirect the telnet output |into a file. Implying that it doesn't come compressed. If you don't have compress, you can't uncompress a compressed file. Bill Bitnet: wcf@psuhcx.bitnet Bill Fenner | aaaaaaaaa Internet: wcf@hcx.psu.edu | r UUCP: {gatech,rutgers}!psuvax1!psuhcx!wcf | g Fido: Sysop at 1:129/87 (814/238 9633) \hogbbs!wcf | h ==================== From: "John R. Levine" In article you write: (stuff deleted) You know, it never hurts to be polite even when you're sure you're right, because sometimes you're not. This command line sucks the uncompressed file over the net, throws away the first four lines which are presumably headers, compresses it locally, and stores it in a file. You can't send compressed data through telnet because it's not a transparent connection. Blatting 900K of uncompressed data over the chronically overloaded Internet is pretty antisocial; it's not hard to find someone willing to make a compressed version available via FTP. Or better, they could come up with a server that will string search for a name and just return a short answer, like the NIC has. Regards, John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl ==================== From: kenr@bbn.com In article you write an unfortunate retort to a complaint about a transfer of a large uncompressed file. The instructions are > telnet 128.146.1.5 4666 | tail +4 | compress > userlist.Z >followed by a line of anything, terminated by a line feed (not carriage >return). After a few minutes, depending on your network speed, telnet >will finish and the compressed list will be in userlist.Z. If you So far so good. If you're going to be a unix pedant you should try to get it right. The file doesn't "come compressed," and that's exactly why it has to be piped through "compress," on the receiving host after transmission. It ends up compressed because of that command (hence the .Z), but the compression occurs on the local system, and it's pretty clear from the instructions that the data gets sent along uncompressed. >What a laugh. Frankly, Mr. Seastrom, you don't know what you are talking >about. Sigh. Indeed? Mr. Bernstein, would you consider revising the operation of special port 4666 to allow for a compressed transmission? KENR@BBN.COM =============================== Thanks very much to one and all who wrote; even those who requested that they not be published. Sorry, Mr. Seastrom. Issue 431 is in the hopper now. Watch for a couple Digests between now and Friday morning. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest Special: Eat Crow! *****************************   Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 21:44:15 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #431 Message-ID: <8910052144.aa27067@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Thu, 5 Oct 89 21:40:13 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 431 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Re: Telephone Cable "Rustling" in the Wild West :-) (Duke McMullan) Re: Telephone Cable "Rustling" in the Wild West :-) (Clayton Cramer) Re: Locatable Ringers (H. Shrikumar) Re: Phone Design for Humans (Ihor J. Kinal) Re: AT&T Blows Billing on Call To Shoup Salmon River Store (Judith Beall) Re: Long Distance Indicator (John Higdon) Re: Line Capture Device - RJ31X (John R. Levine) Re: NYTel Still On Strike and Vandalism (John Pimentel) Re: ANI Updates Wanted (Marvin Sirbu) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Duke McMullan n5gax Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 08:00:11 MDT Subject: Re: Telephone Cable "Rustling" in the Wild West :-) Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM In article kitty!larry@uunet.uu. net writes: > During the 1970's there was a particular problem with thefts of >telephone cable in the southwestern U.S., especially Arizona, New Mexico >and Texas. The target was aerial lead-sheathed toll cable in remote >areas of these states. AT&T Long Lines was a particular victim. There is a town called Las Vegas, located in northeastern New Mexico. A few years back, when the price of copper was rising exponentially, one of the phone people was driving out to do some routine maintainence on some lines south of town. From up on a hill, he saw four turkeys (human variety) in a pickup truck taking down the copper lines on part of the local distribution net for that rural area. He "phoned home" on the radio, and the Sheriff was dispatched. They caught three of the four without difficulty, but the fourth had disappeared. After a few minutes they found him hiding under the truck. I never heard what happened to those guys, but maybe I don't need to know. Phone home, d "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." -- Mack the Knife Duke McMullan n5gax nss13429r phon505-255-4642 ee5391aa@hydra.unm.edu ------------------------------ From: Clayton Cramer Subject: Re: Telephone Cable "Rustling" in the Wild West :-) Date: 4 Oct 89 16:47:49 GMT Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA In article , kitty!larry@uunet.uu. net (Larry Lippman) writes: > The modus operandi was for the perpetrators, under cover of > darkness, to first cut the suspension strands and remove the lashing wire > from a mile or so of cable, allowing the cable to drop to the ground. > This portion of the act, being the most time-consuming, did not break > electrical continuity and therefore set off any carrier loss-of-pilot > alarms. The next step was to cut one end, and then begin cutting the > cable into lengths to be loaded into a truck. With several perpetrators, > a mile of cable could be cut up and loaded onto a truck LONG BEFORE anyone > could localize the fault and dispatch a repair crew. A similar problem, though with different motivations, bedeviled the U.S. Army's telegraph lines in the same area in the 1870s and 1880s, and led to the Army's experiments with heliographs. Hostile Indians in the remote parts of the West would cut the Army's telegraph lines. At first, they would just cut the lines and let them fall, but a down line was immediately obvious, and quickly repaired. After a while, the Indians would cut the line, and use strips of rawhide to hold the wire in place. At first glance, it wasn't obvious whether the Indians had cut the wire, or whether a broken wire had been spliced by the Army. Hence, the heliograph. Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer "The tree of liberty must be watered periodically with the blood of tyrants and patriots alike. It is its natural manure." -- Thomas Jefferson Disclaimer? You must be kidding! No company would hold opinions like mine! ------------------------------ From: "H.Shrikumar{shri@ncst.in}" Subject: Re: Locatable Ringers Date: 4 Oct 89 21:14:27 GMT Reply-To: "H.Shrikumar{shri@ncst.in}" Organization: Nat'l Centre for S/w Tech. Bombay, now at Umass, Amherst >In article Kenneth_R_Jongsma@ cup.portal.com writes: >In a recent issue of the digest, someone mentioned that they wanted a >phone that you could locate by the sound of its ring. .... We also >all have the traditional AT&T 2500 telephones on our desks. Unfortunately, >they are the new electronic ringer style [and all sound the same.] Most ringers today give rather steady tones, which is what makes location rather difficult. (By steady I mean not-much-swept-freqeuncy ). Birds and animals in the wild use such noises to signal "DANGER, SCRAM" So they are heard but they themselves cant be located easily. Now what do the birds do when they want to say "I AM HERE !" .... they emit a sweep of frequencies, or many chirps at different and steadily varying pitch and loudness. That helps location. Ergo - the solution to this problem in ergonomics ! ( Comments Anyone ? ) shrikumar ( shri@ccs1.cs.umass.edu, shri@ncst.in ) Disclaimer: I know where I got this idea, ... in the wild ! ------------------------------ From: Ihor J Kinal Subject: Re: Phone Design For Humans Date: 4 Oct 89 19:38:27 GMT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories In article , davef@brspyr1.brs.com (Dave Fiske) writes: > We used to have this problem at home. My father had a home office, > with a separate line installed, and they could never tell whether it > was the home or the office phone that was ringing. > I managed to solve this problem for them, totally by accident. I was > rummaging through a bin of reduced-price clearance items in a > Montgomery Ward store once, and found this little device which stifled > your phone's normal ring, and instead played one of up to 8 > user-selectable tunes. An unnecessarily hi-tech solution. My family had the same problem [my father is a Family Doctor - the office phone rang almost constantly]. The SIMPLE solution was to REMOVE the BELLs from the office phones. They still made a whirr sound, instead of a noisy ring. Much better, and easily identifiable [plus easier to ignore at 3AM for the rest of the family]. Note that this was technically illegal, since the phone was telco property, but I presume that statute of limitations has expired. I also do the same for my bedroom phones - easier to ignore when I don't want to answer the phone. Unfotunately, my last phone expired and the replacement has an electronic ringer, which I can only turn to lo [still a bit annoying] or off [too quiet]. Ihor Kinal P.S. The other amusing thing was that for many years, the office and home were NOT located in the same residence. But my father still had the office phone in both places. I have no idea how much extra it cost, but it was possible. Some of the extensions needed to have their ringers disabled, since the load was too high. ------------------------------ From: Judith Beall Subject: Re: AT&T Blows Billing on Call To Shoup Salmon River Store Date: 5 Oct 89 07:59:07 GMT Reply-To: Judith Beall Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA In article covert@covert.enet.dec. com (John R. Covert 28-Sep-1989 2142) writes: >Well, the bill arrived, and AT&T blew it badly. >I have the following entry on my bill for the period August 20-September 19: >No. Date Time Place Area-Number * Min:Sec Amount > 1 Aug 7 1000PM EGYPT 208057121 R 5 8.27 >When I saw this, I knew no one had called Egypt from my phone, and I >called AT&T to have the call taken off the bill. The AT&T rep >insisted that the "R" meant that the call had been direct dialled from >my phone (not actually true; if I had been unable to dial for some >reason it would have still been charged at the "R" rate). I insisted >that the call had not been placed from my phone and that there must be >some sort of error. I pointed out that I thought that it was strange >that the call was outside the billing period and that it was at >exactly 1000PM, indicating that there may have been some sort of >manual ticketing involved. AT&T agreed to take the call off the bill. [some stuff deleted] >Wanting to correct the problem and to prevent an AT&T security >investigation of the supposed call to Egypt, I called AT&T again to >explain what had actually happened and to offer to pay for the five >minute call to Idaho. The service rep I talked to really couldn't >understand what I was talking about and told me that if AT&T had >agreed to take the Egypt call off the bill, that was that, and I could >have the call to Idaho for free. I recently moved to a new apartment and had my phone lines installed, and after the first month I finally got the bill. On it was a call billed through AT&T reading something like this: ================================== ITM Date Time Min * Place and Number Called Charge 1 Aug16 20 ST IRAQ IQ 9641751130 40.83 ================================== In fact, this is exactly how it appears on the phone bill. Not only do I not know anyone in Iraq, but our phone service was not installed until August 23, and not even requested until Aug 22... > What does AT&T do about such things? Do I send this part of the bill in and say "what's the deal?" I thought maybe it was the person who had service before us , but would it get reassigned that quickly? <213-737-xxxx> How does this happen? I am a novice at this but am fascinated by the discussion, and really am curious how something like this works. And what happens when I report it? What does AT&T do from there? Being really curious, Judy ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Long Distance Indicator Date: 5 Oct 89 16:45:11 GMT Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article , munnari!stcns3.stc.ozau! dave@uunet.uu.net (Dave Horsfall) writes: > What? You mean that you don't get a sort of blip-blip-blip on > long-distance calls in USA? I somehow assumed that was universal... I wonder how many of the readers out there are really aware of the fact that the itemized billing that we have in the US and Canada is somewhat unusual in the world telephonic community. The usual system of billing calls elsewhere is with "metering pulses". Each pulse is worth so much money. On a local call, the pulses go by very slowly and on an international call the pulses come rapid-fire. As my sister in Japan once told me, the phone company just takes their money out of your bank account every month. There is no call detail and hence no billing disputes! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: "John R. Levine" Subject: Re: Line Capture Device - RJ31X Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 02:39:51 GMT An RJ-31 is a specially wired connector placed in series with the phone line near where it enters the house, in front of all the other phones. You plug an 8-position miniature phone plug into it. Four wires are used: pins 5 and 4 are tip and ring from the phone company, and pins 8 and 1 are tip and ring to the rest of the phones. The equipment you plug in, most often a burglar alarm, normally bridges 1 to 4 and 5 to 8, so the rest of the phones act normally. When it wants to make a call it can butt in, force a hangup, and do whatever it wants. There are little shorting bars in the RJ31 socket that bridge 1 to 4 and 5 to 8, so if you unplug the equipment the rest of your phones work. The best place for the RJ31 is inside the alarm control box where a burglar can't unplug it easily, but they usually seem to be installed near where the phone line enters the house. Regards, John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, Levine@YALE.edu Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe ------------------------------ From: John Pimentel Subject: Re: NYTel Still On Strike and Vandalism Date: 5 Oct 89 21:32 Reply-To: John Pimentel Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA In article roy%phri@uunet.uu.net (Roy Smith) writes: > Just in case you forgot that NYTel is still on strike and that >vandalism is still going on, I heard on the radio a couple of days ago [...] > Then again, maybe it had nothing to do with the strike -- >Metro North (Amtrack commuter service into Grand Central Terminal) >reports continuing problems with people stealing the copper cables Are you kidding? I an easier time believing that the boys on the line are getting a "little" upset that they haven't won yet. After all, if everyone in every company went on strike, because "we" didn't want to pay our share of medical expenses, after agreeing to that very thing the last time "we" went on strike, nothing would ever get done in this country. As for the IBEW/CWA strike, well what will happen, is probably the same thing that happened the last time, they will come back accepting less than what they had when they went out. :-) And as for the vandalism, as I said they are probably getting a "little" upset and wish to invoke "public opinion". Don't worry be happy :-) Take care and have a good day. John. These are my soul opinions. If it's too hot in the kitchen, open a window. As for the rest, standard disclaimer applies. UUCP: frog!jp ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 13:09:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Marvin Sirbu Subject: Re: ANI Updates Wanted > [Moderator's Note: But unlike the telcos, AT&T provides the information > for billing purposes. AT&T provides caller identification over a Primary Rate Interface D channel in real time as an ISDN service. (Although it does not exactly conform to Q.931) This is not the same as providing the information on tape once a month for billing purposes. The service is specifically designed for telemarketing firms to be used to look up customer records. It is CLI, not ANI. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #431 *****************************   Date: Fri, 6 Oct 89 22:38:19 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #432 Message-ID: <8910062238.aa21804@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Fri, 6 Oct 89 22:35:03 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 432 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson Phone Gimmicks Put Common Sense on Hold (TELECOM Moderator) Request for Long Distance Company Equal-Access Codes (Beezer) Oh No! Calling Line ID in PA (John Boteler) C&P CLASS, With Class! (John Boteler) SxS Payphones (Sam Ho) Refunds As Future Credits (Will Martin) Re: Another Cool Thing About GTE (Macy Hallock) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 2:21:16 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Phone Gimmicks Put Common Sense on Hold The following item appeared in Richard Roeper's column in the , Wednesday, October 4, 1989. I thought you might enjoy it. Phone Gimmicks Put Common Sense on Hold ======================================= By Richard Roeper "Hi kids, this is Jose Canseco of the Oakland A's. If you want to know the true story about how fast I was driving when I got that ticket and why I had a handgun in my car, call the Jose Canseco Hotline. Just dial 1-900-xxx-xxxx...." -- Television commercial Maybe I'm preternaturally presumptuous, but something tells me that when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, he did not do it so youngsters could one day pay $1 a minute to hear a baseball player's rationalizations for driving his Jaguar 125 m.p.h. and keeping a loaded handgun in the car. Nevertheless, the toll call industry is big business, with projected revenues of $1.5 billion for 1989. There are more than 1000 of these 900 numbers, including -- + The US Naval Observatory Master Clock "Eastern Time, 9 hours, 13 minutes, 45 seconds. Universal Time, 13 hours, 13 minutes, 50 seconds." + New Kids on the Block Hotline "Hi, this is Donnie of the New Kids, and it's really cool to be able to talk to you again...." + Laugh Line "Did you hear about the ghost who could never lie to his wife? She could see right through him!" + True Romantic Confessions "My name is Corinne, and I'm a waitress in Reno. For a long time, I had this thing for my sister's boyfriend, and last week when she was out of town...." Among my favorites are the Paula Abdul Hotline, Women's Private Fantasies, Penn State Football Update, NBC Soapline and Telephone Pals. The first 900 number was established in 1980, but the concept did not really take off until about 1986. That's also about the time when the telephone took control of our lives. Until a few years ago, the phone was still a rather basic communications device. You dialed a number; if someone answered you were in business. If no one answered, it meant no one was home. If you got a busy signal, it meant someone was already on the phone, so you hung up and called back later. Now there are more phone features and options than you would find in a new car. If you are expecting a call at home, but you have to go out, you can forward your calls to another number. If you wish to take calls while you are on the phone, there is call waiting. If you want to talk to two parties at once, there's three way calling. If you want to place calls from your car or your boat or your backyard or an airplane, there are car phones and boat phones and cordless phones and airplane phones. If you wear a beeper, you can be reached anywhere. If you wear the Timely Beeper, which is a fake, self-activated beeping device, you can pretend to receive an important call then cut out early on a nightmare date or a disasterous business meeting. As if all that was not enough, Illinois Bell is introducing several new services to the Chicago area. Repeat dialing allows you to dial the same number over and over again for a 30 minute period. This would be a fun feature for the 'Fatal Attraction' types who want to call ex-lovers AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!!! Call screening lets customers block calls from designated numbers. This is an especially useful device if your ex-boyfriend is the kind of guy who goes out on Friday night, pops down a dozen beers, comes home at 3 AM, looks through the old photo album while listening to 'your song' and says to himself, "I've got a brilliant idea -- I'll call her now and ramble incoherently, and she'll want me back for sure!" Automatic callback instructs your phone to call back the last incoming call, whether it was answered or not. Say you're at home and you receive an unsolicited sales call from some guy at 9 PM; wouldn't it be fun to call the salesguy back and engage in some recreational harassment of your own? In addition to all these complications, on November 11, the suburbs will switch to the new 708 area code. So for example, if you live in Cicero and you want to call your buddy down the street at 63rd and Pulaski, you'll have to dial 1-312 before his regular number. Phone clutter knows no bounds. Toll-free numbers and toll-call numbers and Dial 9 for an outside line and voice mail and designer phones and credit card calls and designated ringing and Information, what city please? and TickeMaster phone jams and call identification. Oh, for the days of basic black rotary dial phones and HUdson 3-2700! There's only one person I know who still has the traditional dial telephone -- my mother. I wanted to tell her how proud I am that she has never given in to any of this phone gadgetry, so I gave her a call. And was instructed to leave my message after the beep. ==================== [Moderator's Note: For non-Chicagoans, 'HUdson 3-2700' was part of a jingle which played night and day, it seems, on television and the radio for a home improvement service. After telling about their services in the late movie commercial slots, a man's voice would sing, 'Hudson Three, Two Seven Hundred'. PT] ------------------------------ From: Beezer Subject: Request For Long Distance Company Equal-Access Codes... Organization: Bitsko's Bar & Grill, Public Access, Salt Lake City, UT Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 23:37:34 GMT Hello, A few years ago, I saw a posting to the UseNet list- ing all the 10xxx Long Distance Company Access Codes to ALL the companies in the US. It was something in the order of 8 pages - but unfortunately, my hardcopy was accidentially trashed. If someone could pull up their lucky copy and post it, that would not only be great for me - but all. Just think, if you make a short call each time on a different company, you could find the cheapest one with- in a few... oh, never mind :). Cordially, beezer@i-core.uucp uunet!iconsys!caeco!i-core!beezer [Moderator's Note: We get requests for this frequently. The most updated copy of the list I know about is in the Telecom Archives file at cs.bu.edu. It can be obtained using ftp from there. From correspondent's address, I assume he can't use ftp. Maybe someone will send him a copy. PT] ------------------------------ Subject: Oh No! Calling Line ID in PA. Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 1:57:05 EDT From: John Boteler Here we go again... A judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that Calling LINE I.D. (not Calling Face ID or Calling Person ID) is a violation of that state's wiretap statute, which defines a wiretap as a "device which captures the incoming electronic or other impulses which identify the originating number of an instrument or device from which a wire or electronic communication was transmitted." The judge ordered that per-call blocking services be mandated, rather than relying on the billing inserts describing the service and its potential dangers to customers. Technically, it has already been told on this circuit that per-call blocking is available, so the question now is why Bell Atlantic feels compelled to resist it. In any event, this is the outcome of what may lead to other challenges to the offering of this service, noteworthy when the Maryland and Virginia regions of Bell Atlantic are about to have their respective switches turned on. Bote Old & Improved path!: uunet!comsea!csense!bote New & Improved path!: {zardoz|uunet!tgate|cos!}ka3ovk!media!cyclops!csense!bote ------------------------------ Subject: C&P CLASS, With Class! Date: Wed, 4 Oct 89 20:23:56 EDT From: John Boteler In reference to the ongoing discussion about certain government agencies desiring anonymity in the age of Calling Line ID, it occurs to me that Uncle Sam has more than a little pull with the local operating company and that those lines requiring anonymity would be granted it, no problem. Further, as though this hasn't been hacked to death and back, the ability to restrict display of a Calling Line ID is in the ISDN specification; whether or not each BOC will implement it is another question. Bote Old & Improved path!: uunet!comsea!csense!bote New & Improved path!: {zardoz|uunet!tgate|cos!}ka3ovk!media!cyclops!csense!bote ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 11:44:07 PDT From: Sam Ho Subject: SxS payphones I was at a conference near Monticello, Illinois (20 miles west of Champaign and about 150 miles south of [Telecom Headquarters]). The pay phone there (Allerton House) was of the post-pay variety. I assume it was on a SxS switch, since when I tone-dialed 0-NPA-NNX-XXXX I got an extended length of silence, with faint clicking as it pulsed out the digits, followed by clunk! Bong! A T and T. (As a side note, it apparently still uses the cry-baby style of not-a-number signal, too.) The oddity is that there was a typed sticker noting that to use other long distance carriers, dial the 6-digit access code or 0+10 digits, and advise the operator of the handling. I've never heard of 6-digit access codes, and trying to dial 102220 got me a reorder before I finished. Dialing 950-1022 gets a reorder, too. Besides, I've never heard of Equal Access on a SxS switch. My best guess (I didn't try it out) is that since I think post-pay phones work by cutting the outbound audio until either the totalizer signals payment or a zero is dialed, maybe the zero bounces the call out to a tandem, so that 0-10xxx reaches other carriers. Or maybe it's just dial 0-NPA-NNX-XXX, wait for the operator, and say "Use MCI, please." Any thoughts? Incidentally, I think this is not an IBT area, since the phone was an AE device. Champaign itself is IBT, though. Sam Ho samho@larry.cs.washington.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Oct 89 14:37:21 CDT From: Will Martin Subject: Refunds as Future Credits This line was in the California PUC article: >For phone customers, the refund would come as credits in future bills. This same tactic has been used locally (St. Louis, MO -- SW Bell territory) to credit previous overcharges. I find it annoying and offensive. It deliberately discriminates against people whose telephone service terminates or changes frequently due to moves. For example, there was one such credit about two years or so ago, that was spread out over a period of many months (or maybe a year), with one quarter of the credit applied and then one or two months went by with no credit, and then the next installment of the credit was applied. We lost a portion of this credit because this period extended past the time when we terminated the phone service at my mother's house after she died. She had had this phone service at that address for 35 years or so, and certainly was entitled to the entire amount of credit. But her account only got a portion of the credit she was due. PUC's and the equivalent should require that this credit be issued in a lump sum, not spread out over some long period. Actually, since the telco required the bills be paid in cash, the return of overcharges should be a refund check, not just a credit. The telco wouldn't accept a credit for goods or services from you in lieu of cash as payment of a phone bill, would it? Yet it expects to pay *you* back that way! If it REALLY would be a hardship for the telco to pay back cash (their upper management would have to eat lower-grade caviar in the executive dining room for a couple weeks... :-), then it should be issued as a transferable credit voucher, in one single total payment. Thus it could be used as payment for the recipient's phone bill, or, if they no longer had phone service, could be given to someone else (or sold) who could use it on *their* phone bill. In any case, the credit should be issued to everybody who paid the overcharge, even if they moved out of the area or terminated their phone service in the meantime. Will Martin ------------------------------ From: fmsystm!macy@hal.uucp Date: Thu Oct 5 10:18:52 1989 Subject: Re: Another Cool Thing About GTE Organization: F M Systems Medina, Ohio USA In article you write: >GTE used to install modular jacks wired so that the polarity would be >the opposite of what was standard in Bell areas. I used to work for GTE Ohio (something I seldom admit in public). They have never paid much attention to line polarity. All the 80 sets they used to rent/sell had polarity guards. They did not teach polarity in their training classes, except for PBX's and data circuits (which are normally done by a special class of installer, anyway) We have to instruct GTE to straighten out the polarity on their interface jacks to the phone systems we install. And we have to call them back regularly to fix lines they've flopped in routine repairs. We never, ever have this problem with Ohio Bell. Macy Hallock fmsystm!macy@NCoast.ORG F M Systems, Inc. hal!ncoast!fmsystm!macy 150 Highland Dr. uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!fmsystm!macy Medina, OH 44256 Voice: 216-723-3000 X251 Disclaimer: My advice is worth what you paid for it. Alt.disclaimer: Your milage may vary. Biz.disclaimer: My opinions are my own. What do I know? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V9 #432 *****************************   Date: Fri, 6 Oct 89 23:38:08 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #433 Message-ID: <8910062338.ab17543@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Fri, 6 Oct 89 23:30:15 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 433 Today's Topics: Moderator: Patrick Townson New Acquisition for Rochester Telephone (C. E. Reid) Re: NPA Splits Before 1965 (Stan M. Krieger) Re: NPA Splits Before 1965 (Vernon C. Hoxie) Re: California Junk Fax Bill (John Higdon) Re: AT&T Blows Billing on Call (David W. Tamkin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Oct 89 15:45 EDT From: "C. E. Reid" Subject: New Acquisition for Rochester Telephone [Reprinted without permission from Democrat and Chronicle, a Gannett Rochester Newspapers, Rochester, New York, Wednesday, October 4, 1989, page 10D] ROCHESTER TEL BUYING 4TH PHONE COMPANY IN WISCONSIN Local firm planning to speed up acquisitions By Phil Ebersole, Democrat and Chronicle Rochester Telephone Corp. executives, announcing their 11th telephone company acquisition so far this year, told financial analysts yesterday they expect the pace of acquisitions to accelerate. Their latest acquisitions, St. Croix Telephone Co., serving 5,300 access lines in northwest Wisconsin, will be Rochester Tel's fourth acquisitions in Wisconsin, its 13th in the Midwest and its 22nd overall. John K. Purcell, a Rochester Tel vice president in charge of acquisitions, hinted that Rochester Tel soon may make its first acquisition west of the Mississippi River. Minnesota, for example, would be a happy hunting ground from Rochester Tel's point of view. Companies with fewer than 15,000 access lines, the kind of small company Rochester Tel likes to buy, can increase rates up to 10 percent a year, within certain financial limits, without review by Minnesota regulators. Purcell said he visits 95 to 100 telephone companies a year. In all, there are 483 independent telephone companies in the United States serving more than 1,000 access lines. Fred R. Pestorius, vice president of finance, said Rochester Tel plans to speed up its pace of acquisitions. Other parts of its strategy are to use technology to add new services and to expand unregulated businesses, such as the RCI Corp. long distance service, to achieve economies of scale. Small rural companies generally enjoy faster revenue and profit growth than Rochester Tel's core six-county service area around Rochester. Alan C. Hasselwander, president and chief executive officer, said that's because New York regulators require Rochester Tel to subsidize small rural telephone companies elsewhere in the state, mainly through the way long-distance revenue is shared. By his calculations, those subsidies are equal to $2 a month for every access line. Small rural companies, on the other hand, receive subsidies, said David Mitchell, executive vice president of Rochester Tel's Telephone Group. The logical conclusion, which he didn't draw explicitly, is that it makes sense for Rochester Tel to get on the receiving end. Rochester Tel also has a goal of having one-third of its access lines outside New York state so as not to be dependent on one state's regulators. Currently, about 15 percent of its access lines are outside the state. Other companies -- notably Century Telephone Enterprises of Monroe, La., and Telephone & Data Systems Inc. of Chicago -- also are buying small telephone companies. Mitchel said Rochester Tel won't outbid its rivals by paying more than a company seems to be worth. But Purcell said it has an advantage in its record of allowing its subsidiaries to continue to maintain their own separate identities. He also said Rochester Tel doesn't rule out buying larger companies, but so far none has been offered for sale. The St. Croix acquisition will include New Richmond Cable, a cable television company with about 1,200 customers. It will be Rochester Tel's second rural cable television company, along with one in Indiana. "In our judgment, cable TV is a natural adjunct of the telephone business, offering great growth potential," Mitchell said. Federal law bars telephone companies from the cable TV business in all but the smallest rural communities. Hasselwander said there's a good chance the law will be changed and he'd like to enter the cable business in a few years, after completion of Rochester Tel's fiber optics network, which could carry many channels of TV signals. On Monday, Rochester Tel warned that profits for the second half of 1989 will be less than in 1988. The stock price, which had gone up from $26.625 a share (adjusted for 2-for-1 split) to $44.875 on Friday, fell $2.50 a share on the news. Yesterday it closed at $43.375, up $1. ------------------------------ From: S M Krieger Subject: Re: NPA Splits Before 1965 Date: 5 Oct 89 14:09:10 GMT Organization: Summit NJ > Here's a list of the affected states which obviously had only one code (with > a zero in it, still serving the major city) at one time: > New Jersey 201 (609) > Additional ammunition: telephone directories in New Jersey have listings in > them of every prefix in the state, grouped by area code. (Wish every state > did this.) In each list, a mark referring you to a footnote appears next to > any central office code which is duplicated in both 201 and 609 areas. Why? > Allow me to speculate: Because at one time New Jersey must have had only one > area code with no prefix duplications. 609 was added early on with the > knowledge that the state would outgrow 201 before DDD was widely implemented. > Even though the state now had two area codes, there were still no prefix > duplications and it was likely that 7-digit dialing applied statewide. (To my > knowledge, New Jersey *never* had 1 + 7 digit dialing for intra-NPA toll > calls.) Eventually, as the concept of area codes caught on, New Jerseyites > were required to dial 10 digits to reach people in the 'other' area of their > state. (This does not apply universally in NJ, however. There is some > code conservation with 7 digit calls across the border allowed.) Here is what I remember, from memory, about 201 and 609. Direct Distance Dialing came to Atlantic City in 1961. Prior to DDD, there were five central offices serving Atlantic City (ATlantic City 2,3,4,5, and 6) and one serving Brigantine (COlonial 6). All calls within these areas were made by dialing just the 5 digit number. LD calls were placed by the operator. (Two things- obviously at the time, there could be no duplication of numbers between the AT 6 and CO 6 exchanges; also at the time, the area served by AT 2 and AT 3; specifically, that portion of Atlantic City south of where U.S. 40 ends, as well as the cities of Ventnor, Margate, and Longport, was still developing; the only AT 3 numbers assigned were those of the form AT3-1nnn). When DDD came in 1961, and 7 digit dialing implemented, the AT 2 and 3 exchanges became 822 and 823, the AT 4, 5, and 6 exchanges became 344, 345, and 348, and the CO 6 exchange became 266. Now, several other things- 1. Although the area code instructions showed a national map, included the 201/609 split, we were told that no area code was required for any call within NJ; I guess this meant that 609 was being opened for future expansion. I think it was around 1963 that NJ Bell told us we would need to use the 201 area code for northern NJ. (And confirming the speculation in the original article, the stories about the pending 201/908 split mentioned that originally 201 was the area code for the entire state.) 2. I guess the SXS office was retained for local calls, so any toll call out of Atlantic City required us to dial a 1 before the number. Thus all calls to another area code had to be preceeded by a "1", and all calls within 609 not to Atlantic City, Brigantine, Pleasantville, Somers Point, or Ocean City had to be preceeded by a "1" (and then the 7 digits). This 1+ requirement for all toll calls was deleted a number of years later; I don't know exactly when because my family moved out of the Atlantic City area in 1964. 3. I don't know if the billing system was in place at the time DDD came, because whenever we made a toll call, an operator would first come on and ask what number we were calling from. I think this lasted about a year. I also remember as southern NJ was being cut over to DDD, there was a mention that dialing instructions for calls from certain border areas to Philadelphia had changed. I think from places like Camden, to call Philadelphia, all one had to do was dial 11 and then the Philadelphia 7 digit number. When DDD, they had to dial 1 (215) (or maybe just (215)) like the rest of us. The listing of central office and locality in NJ phone books is pretty old. I don't know though why they flag duplicate central office codes; it's not like we don't need an area code if the code is unique to 201 or 609. Stan Krieger Summit, NJ ...!att!attunix!smk ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Oct 89 07:52:29 MDT From: vern@zebra.uucp Subject: Re: NPA Splits Before 1965 In article , covert@covert.enet.dec. com (Greg Monti) writes: > I thought that, when Area Codes were 'invented' in 1946 (not 'implemented,' > just 'invented'), the system was as follows: > - States small enough to require only one area code got a zero as the center > digit, with the other digits depending on population density or urbanization > (higher numbers to more rural states). The most urban, New Jersey, got the > lowest number of this series, 201. DC got 202. > - States big enough to require more than one area code at the outset got all > codes with a 1 as the center digit. The outer digits were assigned in the > same general way as described above. New York got 212, the second and third > most populous cities got 213 and 312, other big cities got 214, 412, 215, > etc. My father was Dial Traffic Engineer here in Denver when DDD was first announced. He explained that areas codes were assigned on the basis of incoming long distance traffic to the area. The areas having the most traffic at the time were New York City ( 212 ) and Los Angeles ( 213 ) even though they were a continent apart. These numbers were selected because they were the easiest to dial on a rotary dial. I'm not sure where the break point was in deciding whether a center digit of zero was easier to dial than one with larger end digits and a one in the center. Obviously 202 was easier that 919. Maybe just add up the digits and you get a list with N1N and N0N's scrambled in the mid region? Vernon C. Hoxie {ncar,nbires,boulder,isis}!scicom!zebra!vern 3975 W. 29th Ave. voice: 303-477-1780 Denver, Colo., 80212 TB+ uucp: 303-455-2670 ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: California Junk Fax Bill Date: 6 Oct 89 03:25:52 GMT Organization: Green Hills and Cows In article , johnl@esegue.segue. boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) writes: > The story about junk fax