Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa22578; 1 Feb 92 18:08 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08010 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 1 Feb 1992 16:27:57 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23530 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 1 Feb 1992 16:27:36 -0600 Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 16:27:36 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202012227.AA23530@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #101 TELECOM Digest Sat, 1 Feb 92 16:27:32 CST Volume 12 : Issue 101 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement (S. da Silva) Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement (David Niebuhr) Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement (H. Hallikainen) Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator (Bob Turner) Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator (Devon Davis) Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan (Raymond N. Shwake) Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Part 68 Help! (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Part 68 Help! (Bob Danek) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva) Subject: Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 09:22:45 GMT In article , bei@dogface.austin.tx.us (Bob Izenberg) writes: > My January phone bill from Southwestern Bell contained an explanation > of what they call the Universal Service Fund Surcharge. > Relay Texas is a statewide service that operates 24 hours a day, > seven days a week allowing telephone calls, through the use of special > operators, between people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech > impaired and those who can hear or speak. > I'm of two minds on this surcharge. Until proven otherwise, I'll > believe that's it's doing someone some good. I suspect, however, that > I'm paying for a service that I will never use. I have used Relay Texas a number of times. My sister is deaf and uses it to call me (as well as anyone else she needs to call) and is absolutely delighted by it. One of her biggest frustrations in life has been that she has never had the convenience of being able to use the phone. (This is something I really can't relate to since I'm phone-shy and I'll avoid talking on the phone at all costs). But to help you picture her dilemma better, try an experiment. Don't use the phone for an entire day. Try to get other people to make calls for you -- you'll find it isn't as a very easy thing to do at all. Thinking that you are wasting your money because you'll never use the service is a very short-sighted attitude. How it works is she'll use her TDD to call up Relay Texas and that will get her an operator. The operator will then call me and act as a go-between. I'll talk to the operator voice while s/he types to my sister. At first I found it rather awkward (and a little slow), but after a while I got to the point where I now pretty much ignore the operator and we'll find ourselves talking about personal things and even having minor arguments -- the same as if two hearing people were talking on the phone! One time I put my two year old daughter on the phone to say "Hi!" which amused all parties involved. :-) Is it worth it?? YES!! I really can't believe that you're complaining over a measly extra 34 cents. When I saw that surcharge, I was surprised that it was so small and I had to pay it three times since I have three phone lines. This service is worth that many, many times over. Stephanie da Silva Taronga Park * Houston, Texas arielle@taronga.com 568-0480 568-1032 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 08:50:52 -0500 From: niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) Subject: Re: Texas Universal Service Fund In bei@dogface.austin.tx.us (Bob Izenberg) writes: > My January phone bill from Southwestern Bell contained an explanation > of what they call the Universal Service Fund Surcharge. The text that > follows is the complete text from the bill, translated to mixed upper > and lower case. (The SWBT announcement is all in upper case.) > I'm of two minds on this surcharge. Until proven otherwise, I'll > believe that's it's doing someone some good. I suspect, however, that > I'm paying for a service that I will never use. While the amount is > so small that I'll pay it and never miss it, taking that 34 cents from > all Texas SWBT customers adds up to a fair chunk of change. The flyer > itself doesn't tell enough about the service to gauge the service's > value. I'll call the 800 number (and hope that it's not a 900 number > in disguise :-) to hear what they say. I use the New York Relay Service quite frequently when I have to communicate with my deaf computer operators at home be it either to call them in early for a special shift or to take calls from them when they're going to be absent. As for the service, we've had it for several years and the cost of the service is billed monthly in our basic charges so there's no telling what it costs other than getting a copy of the tariff. It's not a 900 number disguised as an 800 number at least in New York since my employer has 900/976/etc. blocked on outgoing calls. In addition, we have a TDD unit near our consoles and use that also when communicating with the deaf operators. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 12:17:20 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Texas Universal Service Fund Surcharge Announcement Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > I'm of two minds on this surcharge. Until proven otherwise, I'll > believe that's it's doing someone some good. I suspect, however, that > I'm paying for a service that I will never use. While the amount is > so small that I'll pay it and never miss it, taking that 34 cents from > all Texas SWBT customers adds up to a fair chunk of change. The flyer Never thought I'd use the similar service here in California, 'til I hired a deaf employee. It was nice to be able to "talk" to him on the phone. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ From: turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu (Bob Turner) Subject: Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator Organization: Univ. of Dayton, School of Engineering Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 17:46:13 GMT In article mike@bs2.mt.nec.co.jp (Mike Collinson) writes: > I am seeking a simple low-cost black box for home use for > connecting modem to modem or modem to fax machine and letting then > think they were on a real phone line. The only optional bell or > whistle would be the ability to simulate a noisy line in some way. > Before building such a thing I wonder what is on the market. Here is a post from last year regarding the same equipment you're looking for. Joseph Chan wrote: I have a standalone fax machine and a fax modem (send/receive at 9600 baud) installed on my 286 machine. There is no RS232 port on the fax machine. I have one phone line at home. Here is what I am trying to accomplish (i.e. use the fax machine as a scanner): 1. Connect the fax machine to the fax modem thru a regular telephone cable. (rest deleted ... describes how he wants to be able to send from the fax modem to the fax machine, and vice versa, without going via a regular phone line.) Paul Cook responded: This is easy to do with a CO line simulator, like the ones made by Proctor & Associates. They simulate regular central office lines, with dialtone, ringback tone, ringing voltage and everything, and can be used with any device that will work on a standard phone line. The four line unit is the model 49200, and it sells for $475. It will work with both rotary and tone dialing, and uses two digit dialing for each line. There is a new two line unit that is less expensive, the model 49250. It sells for $259.95, and uses only tone dialing. To dial the other port, just dial the # key, or any seven digit number. If the fax machines don't have to dial and don't need to hear dial tone, one could get by really cheap with a ringdown circuit. The Proctor model 46220 sells for $179, and as soon as it detects an off hook condition on one jack, it sends ringing to the other. With any of these devices one can do anything that one would do with a standard phone line. Modems can talk to modems, fax boards can use fax machines as printers, and phones can talk to other phones. Proctor & Associates is at 15050 NE 36th St, Redmond, WA 98052-5317. The phone number is 206-881-7000, and fax is 206-885-3282. All prices are FOB Redmond, WA, and Proctor accepts Visa or Master Card. Paul Cook Proctor & Associates Redmond, WA 206-881-7000 3991080@mcimail.com --------------- Bob Turner Network Manager, School of Engineering 513-229-3171 turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu Univ. of Dayton, Engineering Computing Center-KL211, Dayton OH 45469 ------------------------------ From: ddavis@mailbox.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com (Devon Davis) Subject: Re: Seeking Simple Telephone Line Simulator Organization: Fort Worth Research and Development Center, Motorola, Inc. Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 21:13:54 GMT A comany called Teltone produces a telephone line simulator (model TLS3) for about $540. The address is: Teltone Corporation 22121-20th Avenue SE Bothell, Washington 98021 U.S.A. Phone: 1-800-426-3926 or 206-487-1515 Fax: 206-487-2288 They require a 110 volt power supply. There are two RJ11 jacks on the front of the box. One jack can call the other jack by dialing a two digit preassigned phone number. The box is meant to demo or test fax machines, phones, and modems. I have worked with these boxes for over a year and consider them a very useful tool. Devon Davis The opininions expressed here are not the opinions of any resonable person. ------------------------------ From: media!ka3ovk!raysnec!shwake@uunet.uu.net (Raymond N. Shwake) Subject: Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan Date: 31 Jan 92 19:05:03 GMT Organization: A/C International In article , andys@ulysses.att.com (Andy Sherman) writes: > 5ESS TO JAPAN -- AT&T Japan has supplied a switching system for > Japanese mobile phone company Nippon Idou Tsushin, its first such > order in the Japanese market, an AT&T spokesman said. I recall AT&T's efforts in the mid 1980's to sell that first 5ESS switch. Reports indicated that those efforts stalled on the insistence by the Japanese prospect that the full source code driving the switch be provided. So, it only took seven years for them to make their first sale ... There's a story in there somewhere. uunet!media!ka3ovk!raysnec!shwake shwake@rsxtech ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 11:49:38 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > Hmm, maybe American switches will sell better than American cars over > there ... Which side is the steering wheel on? Harold ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 11:19:34 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Part 68 Help! Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > I have an aquaintance who is developing a product that will be > attached to the telephone line, and will therefore require testing and > certification under FCC Rules part 68. Like most garage operations, > they're undercapitalized, and need to defer their certification for at > least several months. > I suggested they tell their customers that it is "... designed to > comply with part 68, but not yet certified, and it may be connected to > private PBXs, or to a phone line only with the explicit permission of > the phone company." Such a claim would be truthful, and not > misleading. Of course, most people will just plug it into their RJ-11 > and be done with it. The product is a small volume, high ticket item > with a technically sophisticated user base. > There are bound to be some users who for various reasons choose to be > completely legal. 12 years ago, they could have bought an 'STP' > adaptor, which was certified on one side, and nobody cared what was > connected to the other. > I'm looking for a contemporary equivalent. What I *don't* want is > private email from people who have two STPs in their basement and > would be glad to send them to me. What I'm also not looking for is any > of the modules that can be soldered to a circuit card and provide a > line level to phone line interface. > What I am looking for is a box that will connect to a phone line, a > phone-type device, and presumably a power supply, and behave like it > isn't there. If this can be ordered directly from the manufacturer by > my friend's customer, so much the better. If not, my friend would > probably be willing to become a reseller to service his customers. It seems to me that something that provides "adequate" protection of the telephone network while appearing invisible (provides loop current, regenerates ring, etc.) would be too expensive. Since this is a "high ticket item", how about using an approved DAA from Cermetek or someone like that. You can design your own DAA and put it on the board, along with holes for an already approved DAA. Until your DAA is approved, buy the Cermetek ones and solder them to the board. When your DAA is approved, solder in your components and stop buying the Cermetek. I think that in small quantities, Cermetek wants $30 to $50 for their DAA. This cost of FCC part 68 approval has been part of what encouraged us to design our latest product around the AT bus. We can buy low cost FCC approved modems, fax modems, voice synthesizers, etc. and just plug them in. We still have to deal with part 15, but at least the testing is cut down somewhat. In an existing product, we use the Cermetek CH1770 modem module, which mounts on one of our boards. This carries the transferrable part 68 registration, just as the suggested DAA would. Something for DAA manufacturers to consider ... how about including the RJ11 connector? I'd like to see a DAA where we could just punch a square hole in the rear panel of our product along with two holes for mounting screws. An appropriate number of .025 inch square pins spaced on a 0.1 x 0.1 inch grid would stick out the bottom of the thing. We could then solder the module directly to our board or run a mass terminated ribbon cable over to our board. Also, for more info on FCC part 15 and 68 approval, see the Compliance Engineering Reference Guide from Compliance Engineering magazine, 629 Massachusetts Ave, Boxborough, MA 01719. Phone 508 264 4208. Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ From: danek@evax.gdc.com Subject: Re: Part 68 Help! Date: 31 Jan 92 09:42:49 GMT Organization: General DataComm, Middlebury CT In article , 74066.2004@CompuServe.COM (Larry Rachman) writes: > I have an aquaintance who is developing a product that will be > attached to the telephone line, and will therefore require testing and > certification under FCC Rules part 68. Like most garage operations, > they're undercapitalized, and need to defer their certification for at > least several months. > What I am looking for is a box that will connect to a phone line, a > phone-type device, and presumably a power supply, and behave like it I think what your friend is looking for is something like a "DAA" offered by Dallas Semi under the part number DS2249. This device provides an interface to the public switched network which is compliant with part 68. Bob Danek ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #101 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29348; 2 Feb 92 15:39 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14416 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 13:08:27 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14336 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 13:08:05 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 13:08:05 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202021908.AA14336@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #102 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 13:07:52 CST Volume 12 : Issue 102 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Administrivia: Getting Through to JUNET (TELECOM Moderator) Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? (Mickey Ferguson) DTMF Decoding by Ear (Rolf Meier) Answer Supervision on DMS-100 Central Offices (Vance Shipley) Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code (Syd Weinstein) Indiana Bell Rate Increase (Doctor Math) BC Tel Newsletter (Nigel Allen) Data Voice Multiplexer Question (Peter Orban) The Waves of Fax (Jim Haynes) Radio Modem (Scott Loftesness) Telecom and Science Fiction (Rune Henning Johansen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 12:35:14 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Getting Through to JUNET Would someone please help JUNET get back on track where telecom is concerned? Those folks are rejecting all the comp.dcom.telecom postings ... even the ones I send (which are the ones they should be accepting). And ... the people who have had articles in comp.dcom.telecom recently are getting back notes from JUNET saying 'you are not authorized'. Something strange is going on somewhere. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 17:21:28 PST From: mickeyf@vnet.ibm.com (Mickey Ferguson) Subject: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? Organization: Rolm Systems Does anyone know of any acoustic couplers available for modems? The specific problem I'm thinking of is when the business person travels and stays at a hotel with all digital phones. The idea of unplugging the phone and plugging the wire into the modem won't work, because the modem expects a regular analog line, not the digital line. Two questions come to mind: 1) Are there any modems available which have the old acoustic couplers (you know, the kind with the foam rubber receptacles where you place the handset in it) which work at today's speeds and improved error correction rates, etc? 2) Does anyone make an acoustic coupler-to-telephone line connector so that the traveler can work with the phone, regardless of the type (analog or digital) and also whether or not it has a hard-wired connection or an RJ-11 jack? (For you inventors out there, I would think this could be a potentially profitable venture...) Remember, I said it here first! :) ______ _________ _________ ( /\ ) | | | . . . | / \---------------| |--------------|_________| /____\ |_________| /___________\ Telephone Black Box Laptop with Modem (Acoustic Coupler) (RJ11 Connection) For the above picture, one would just place the handset into the acoustic coupler, and the black box would have no smarts in it at all, except to take the analog signal and output over a standard telephone wire to make a connection with the laptop's modem. What do people think? Does this exist? Is it feasible? This is all off the top of my head at 7 PM on a Friday, so I may be completely overworked and in desparate need of getting out of here! :) Mickey Ferguson Rolm Systems mickeyf@vnet.ibm.com ------------------------------ From: meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) Subject: DTMF Decoding by Ear Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 15:25:09 -0500 Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada. Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? Just curious. Rolf Meier Mitel Corporation ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Answer Supervision on DMS-100 Central Offices Organization: SwitchView Inc., Waterloo, Ontario Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1992 17:05:37 GMT As a follow up to the recent discussion regarding the availability of answer supervision signaling on CO lines, here is the feature description for the DMS-100 central office that applies. Feature title: Answer Supervision to PBXs for Toll Calls Part of packages: NTX008AB: PBX INTERFACE I NTX007AB: PBX INTERFACE II Feature Number: F2430 A typical network configuration has a PBX homing on a class 5 end office which in turn homes on a class 4 CAMA center. Both the PBX and the class 4 CAMA provide call detail records of toll calls, hence both require answer supervision. The class 4 CAMA center sends a steady off hook signal back to the DMS-100 class 5 end office as an ANI-request (for ANI spill). Return of answer supervision is not normally required on an incoming CAMA connection. This feature allows the class 4 CAMA and the class 5 end office to retransmit answer supervision back to the PBX. In the case where the class 5 end office has LAMA, then the DMS-100 also has the ability to provide answer supervision back to the PBX. The PBX-CO interface can be either: - Line card; - Two way DID/DOD analog trunk; - Two way DID/DOD digital trunk; or - Two way INWATS/OUTWATS digital trunk. When this feature is provided, toll diversion and message registration will not be supported. Glossary: CAMA Centralized Automatic Message Accounting LAMA Local Automatic Message Accounting ANI Automatic Number Identification DID Direct Inward Dialing DOD Direct Outward Dialing Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@ltg.uucp ..uunet!watmath!xenitec!vances ------------------------------ From: syd@dsinc.dsi.com (Syd Weinstein) Subject: Toll Free Call For UNIX System V Source Code Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 22:58:22 EST Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM In my local Bell of PA directory, which the latest issue came this week I was flipping through the first few pages just to see what was there, (actually looking to see if anyone listed a TDD listing after all the fuss the intro pages made about them) and I came across AT&T's listing. Now, I am in a surburban Philadelphia white pages book, so I wasn't expecting much, just the usual residential stuff, you know, LD, conferencing, phones ... lo and behold ... one of the 800 numbers is listed as "UNIX System V Source Code". Gee, is the source code free for calling? :-) Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator - Current 2.3PL11 Datacomp Systems, Inc. Projected 2.4 Release: Mid?? 1992 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd Voice: (215) 947-9900, FAX: (215) 938-0235 ------------------------------ From: drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) Subject: Indiana Bell Rate Increase Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 20:59:53 EST Organization: Department of Redundancy Department An article in the Digest some time ago mentioned that Michigan Bell, our neighbor to the north, was going to institute local measured calling for everybody whether they wanted it or not. Since MI Bell is owned by the same parent company (Ameritech) as Indiana Bell, I've been waiting for the same thing to happen here. An article in Friday's local paper confirmed my worst nightmare. Indiana Bell now claims that if they are not allowed to institute local measured calling for everybody, they will seek (and get?) a rate increase of 25%, which is about $5/month for the "average" residential customer. Under the measured calling plan, they intend to charge some amount for each call over the first 400 in any given month, claiming that this would only affect "about 6%" of the subscriber base. (Something tells me that this 6% is probably distributing Usenet news :-). To most people, 400 calls/month probably sounds like quite a bit; in reality, this breaks down to 13.333 calls/day. Upon hearing this, my neighbor said, "I easily make more than 13 calls a day." My feed site would likely exceed its 400 call allotment in less than a week. What is our PUC doing about it? Not much. They seem to be leaving that to the Senate, which has passed a three-year ban on local measured service. The House version of the bill bans local measured service forever. Each is waiting for the other to vote on its bill. I've decided that if local measured service goes into effect, I'm going to have all three of my lines disconnected, and I'm going to tell them why. I can get my news over NNTP at work, and probably get a better rate on calls to my mother as well. ------------------------------ From: nigel.allen@canrem.uucp (Nigel Allen) Date: 2 Feb 92 (03:59) Subject: BC Tel Newsletter Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto Reply-to: nigel.allen%canrem@lsuc.on.ca I though TELECOM Digest readers might enjoy reading this synopsis of a typical "statement stuffer" from a Canadian telephone company. Note the way sales pitches are interspersed with informative articles and public service announcements. (A suggestion: Ask friends or relatives served by different telephone companies to save newsletters that are enclosed with their utility bills. They can make interesting reading.) Some highlights from Dialogue (January 1992), a newsletter from the British Columbia Telephone Company inserted with telephone bills: Wired for the future: The Pacific Place development on the former Expo 86 site on the Vancouver waterfront will be North America's "first fully-operable fiber optics community." Pacific Place will feature 7,600 residences and three million square feet of development. Outgoing calls only: B.C. Tel is "introducing outgoing-only service throughout the province." [It isn't clear whether all pay phones would become outgoing only, or just those where "loitering and illegal activities" are a problem.] Learning from a distance: Using ISDN and multi-media workstations designed by B.C. Tel subsidiary MPR Teltech, the Open Learning Agency and the Vancouver School Board have linked four adult learning centres in Vancouver for a pilot project in distance learning. The project is funded by the Canadian [federal] Department of Communications and the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education. Two courses are planned: Western Civilization and Mathematics. Save on Fax: B.C. Tel's discounted long distance service for fax messages, FaxCom. Telephone Tips: Be sure to dial all 11 digits when you are calling a 1-800 number. Simply dialing the last seven digits, even if you are within the local calling area, will not get you through to the party you are calling. Reminder: Directory assistance charges apply for numbers listed in your local directory, even if they are long distance for you. Call Alert is suspended when you make a 0+ call. You will not hear a notification call of a second call and the calling party will hear a busy signal. Telecom Centre for Special Needs: equipment and services for people with disabilities Green Scene: If you don't need remittance envelopes included with your phone bill, ask the business office to discontinue sending them. Enquiry B.C.: a brief description of the British Columbia government information service. Questions about AIDS or HIV? Call the AIDS Vancouver Helpline at (604) 687-2437. B.C. Winter Games: B.C. Tel is a corporate sponsor of the games in Greater Vernon this year. Canada Remote Systems. Toronto, Ontario NorthAmeriNet Host ------------------------------ From: ORBAN@ciit85.ciit.nrc.ca Subject: Data Voice Multiplexer Question Date: 2 Feb 92 09:32:10 +0600 Organization: National Research Council I have picked up a data-voice multiplexer in a surplus store. It is a Siemens SA820R. According to the user guide it can be used for transparent data communication over a phone line with an other unit installed in the "central office". It uses "time compression and digital baseband modulation techniques with forward acting error correction". The DTE/Network interface is "CCITT V.24/V.28; EIA RS-232-C standard". I have hooked it up to my computer, and it works in the local analog loopback test mode. I would like to know if it can be used for communication with other regular modems, or only with another special anymal like this? My initial guess is that it would work only with another multiplexer, but I would like to hear others' opinion. Has anyone used data-voice multiplexers, has anyone seen this Siemens unit? Thanks. Peter Orban | Internet: orban@ciit85.ciit.nrc.ca National Research Council of Canada | Bitnet: orban@nrccit.nrc.ca 435 Ellice Av. Winnipeg, MB. | Phone: 204/983-0670 Canada, R3B 1Y6 | Fax: 204/983-3154 ------------------------------ From: Jim Haynes Subject: The Waves of Fax Date: 2 Feb 92 08:11:55 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz I've been wanting to prepare an article on the fax business; but I don't know enough. So I'll just outline what I've been thinking and maybe others will fill in some of the blanks. 1. One of the earliest successful fax applications was for distributing photographs to newspapers. (a) before TV, pictures were very important competitive features in selling newspapers. (b) the technology involved photographic development (for receiving) and newspapers already had the necessary darkrooms and technicians. 2. There have been periodic futuristic predictions that fax would replace newspapers. (These are in the same equivalence class as the combination automobile-airplane-helicopter in every suburban garage.) Hasn't happened yet. 3. Another application is fax for weather maps, related to aviation industry. How long has this been going on and what technologies have been used? 4. Western Union did a lot of work on fax, including the Desk-Fax machines put in customers' offices. Invented Teledeltos, a dry electrosensitive paper for recording. Desk-Fax depended on private wires between customer and WU office, and handling of message by WU personnel; hence costly. 5. In early to mid 60s we had Bell introducing switched-network modems attachable to customer-provided equipment. Principal fax recording technology at the time was electrolytic marking on wet paper. Principal equipment makers were Hogan and Alden, and Stewart-Warner was in there too. At this time there were some attempts to set up businesses handling messages by fax for the public, using the switched network for transmission. Carterfone decision allowed customer-provided modems. 6. 56kb circuits became available, and Xerox got into the high-speed fax business. Progress in microelectronics allowed consideration of encoding schemes to improve speed/bandwidth. Technology of making marks on paper moved along too; consider the T.I. hardcopy terminals using heat-sensitive paper. Personal computer industry led to a great flowering of low-cost printing methods. 7. Modern fax. I imagine progress in office-copier technology has something to do with it. Is there any U.S. technology/manufacturing or is it all Japanese? Bell System breakup has driven down cost of toll calls. Microelectronics allows elaborate bandwidth compression. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ From: sjl@glensjl.glenbrook.com (Scott Loftesness) Subject: Radio Modem Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 07:19:21 PST Organization: Glenbrook Systems, Inc. Reply-To: sjl@glenbrook.com In TELECOM Digest V12 #98, Will Wong writes: > I'm building a radio modem for telecommunication links and I need an > interface that can handle both an office line and an subscriber line. > In other words, it has to be able to operate as FXO and FXS. I'm > looking for either a chip that can handle most of the BORSCHT and more > functions or a board that can interface with the phone line (both two > and four wire). > Can anyone give me some hint? You may want to contact Cylink Corp. in Sunnyvale, CA for information on their radio modem. It sounds like something very close to what you're attempting to build. Here's their address and telephone number information: CYLINK 310 N. MARY AVE. SUNNYVALE CA 94086 (408) 735-5800 (408) 720-8294 fax Scott Loftesness Internet: sjl@glenbrook.com 515 Buena Vista Avenue Others: 3801143@mcimail.com Redwood City, CA 94061 76703.407@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: rune@pandora.nta.no (Rune Henning Johansen FBA) Subject: Telecom and Science Fiction Organization: Norwegian Telecom Research Date: 2 Feb 92 17:55:28 We're collecting information about the role of science fiction within telecom. We're investigating how authors and film makers describe telecom networks, both technologically and sociologically -- and how their views may have influenced the use and development of tele- communications. One example is the picturephone in Asimovs "Naked Sun". Any pointers to film, literature, software or whatever is appreciated. Proper credit will be given to all contributors if we find it worthwhile to write a report or paper. H&kon & Rune, Norwegian Telecom Research. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #102 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07315; 2 Feb 92 19:35 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17022 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:55:23 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06910 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:55:03 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:55:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202022355.AA06910@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #104 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 17:55:01 CST Volume 12 : Issue 104 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services (Carl M. Kadie) Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services (Roy M. Silvernail) SUMMARY: Re: Rotary Dialers Go Home! (Dave Strieter) Re: France's Minitel Service (John Rice) Re: Centel For Sale (John Rice) Re: PIC's From RBOC Payphones (John David Galt) Re: Exchange Boundaries (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: kadie@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie) Subject: Re: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 16:20:24 GMT brown@NCoast.ORG (Stan Brown) writes: > Quotes are from the newspaper article cited below. > The aim of the law is to protect minors from "indecent" messages. It > seems not to apply if the services bill customers directly, rather > than having the phone company handle the bills. 900 services that are > not sexually explicit are also not affected. > Obviously, the "purveyors of dial-a-porn" are not happy about this. > they "contend that the cumbersome process of collecting written > requests from customers may drive them out of business." In the long term, this Supreme Court decision not to hear this case is a bad sign for electronic freedom of speech. Helms, himself, said that he is trying to stamp out all pornography (which apparently means anything "R-rated" or above.) Helms offered this amendment only after an amendment that banned all adult material from telephones was overturned by the Court. To me, at least, it is clear that the main purpose of this law is to reduce the access adults have to Constitutionally-protected material. In my opinion, the mechanisms required by the law are not only not the least restrictive, they are, in fact, the most restrictive that Helms thought he could get away with. Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ Subject: Supreme Court Action Restricts 900 Porn Services From: cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 15:14:37 CST Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN brown@NCoast.ORG (Stan Brown) writes: > Quotes are from the newspaper article cited below. > A 1989 U.S.law requires that sexually explicit message services be > available only to individuals who file written requests with the > telephone company. The law says that if a phone company acts as a > billing agent for companies that offer sexually explicit messages, the > phone company must prevent access to those services from any phone > where the subscriber has not requested them in writing. A similar article appeared last week in the {Minneapolis Star-Tribune}. Eight paragraphs in, there was this local color: 'Bennie Cohen, a U S West spokesman in the Twin Cities, said U S West stopped offering the 976 service a while ago for business reasons. There was no revenue growth involved," he said.' I remember hearing that USWest had killed 976 just after the MFJ was modified. But I thought their excuse was some 'technical difficulties' smokescreen. This quote from Cohen would seem to support the popular suspicion that the RBOCs want the IP trade all to themselves. The Twin Cities had _dozens_ of those 976 sex lines. I cannot believe there was "no revenue growth involved". (No, I'm not promoting phone-sex. It's just the most visible of the 976-type IP services.) > Obviously, the "purveyors of dial-a-porn" are not happy about this. > they "contend that the cumbersome process of collecting written > requests from customers may drive them out of business." The RBOCs may like this turn of events, though. They already have a record-keeping system in place that could easily handle maintainence of subscriber requests. Beautiful solution, actually. They kill 976 by local fiat, and smother 900 under a mountain of paperwork. That leaves RBOCs as the only providers. Don't you just love a level playing field? Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu ------------------------------ From: strieterd@gtephx.UUCP (Dave Strieter) Subject: SUMMARY: Re: Rotary dialers go home! Organization: AG Communication Systems, Phoenix, Arizona Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1992 21:08:57 GMT In article I wrote: >> Several Digest readers have commented that it is cheaper for the telco >> to provide DTMF than rotary pulse dialing, but I fail to understand >> how they come to that conclusion. I can't speak for the 5ESS or >> DMS-100, but on the GTD-5 dial pulses are counted by software which >> monitors the output of an opto-coupler device connected to each line, >> whereas DTMF tones must be decoded by a more-expensive circuit which >> feeds the decoded digits to the software. How does "more expensive" = >> "costs less"? Thanks to all who replied via e-mail and postings. No thanks to the *one* person who found it necessary to flame me, but whatever turns you on! His accompanying response was interesting nonetheless. From the e-mail I received and the follow-up postings I saw, it appears that the GTD-5 (to which, you'll notice, I limited my comments) is enough different architecturally from the other digital switches to result in different conclusions to the question. Perhaps a quick GTD-5 tutorial in this area is in order: Standard line-interface circuits are packaged eight to a card (read: circuit board.) Each line interface circuit contains a device to sense loop current. This device is used for sensing on-hook/off-hook, dial pulses if any, and provide ring trip in many cases. These cards plug into a line-unit frame which connects to one of the from-1-to-64 TCUs (Time Switch and Control Units) which contain a processor and both originating and terminating time switch stages. (It's a time-space-time switching fabric.) DTMF (and MF) receivers are packaged four to a card and plug into a slot that could otherwise be occupied by a trunk-interface card (which also contains four circuits) in the trunk-unit frame which also connects to a TCU. The GTD-5 assigns a receiver to a line/trunk on origination and it remains connected until digit collection is complete. If the subscriber's line is not marked for DTMF service then the receiver is not connected. Thus, although the DTMF receivers *are* "integrated" into the switch, they are add-on costs. The telco can buy as many DTMF receiver cards as it determines it needs from the number of subscribers that have purchased DTMF service for their line(s). Every slot used for receivers is one more slot that is not available for providing trunk access. Eventually this causes the telco to have to buy more facility interface frames and TCUs to connect them to. The DTMF receiver circuit (I went and looked at one) contains a lot more than ``a couple of ICs (which is all that comprises that fabulous "more expensive circuit")'' as John Higdon put it. Perhaps the receivers could be redesigned with current-state-of-the-art components, but they would still need to be only four to a card or else the interface frames would have to be redesigned too. (Recall that GTD-5, DMS-100, and 5ESS all have their roots in 10-year-old designs.) All this adds to the hardware cost of providing DTMF service versus dial-pulse service. In David G. Lewis wrote: > If I recall correctly ... > the digit receivers on 5Es and 1As are integrated units > that collect either DTMF or DP digits. With DTMF, the address is > typically sent in less than half the time taken to send the same > address with DP. If the receiver holding time is half as long, > (approximately) half as many receivers need to be provided in the > office. Half as many receivers = less cost for the office. A local AT&T contact confirmed that your memory is intact. The 5ESS has an "originating register" (another replier's term) of sorts that collects digits, whether DP or DTMF. This argument certainly applies in that case. However, on the GTD-5 there are no originating registers or register/senders in hardware. The equivalent is the DTMF receiver itself, which is only used for DTMF; DP sensing is built into each line circuit. And while I'm on that topic ... In Bud Couch asked: > BTW, Dave, when did the -5 start using an opto-coupler for line > current detection? The original design had a rather elegant technique > (patented) that used a miniature relay coil and a Hall device to > supply battery feed and detect current flow. (Sort of like an "A" > relay. :-)) Umm ... I knew. I just wanted to see if you knew! :-) Caught me! I haven't worked on line circuits for quite some time and I knew the multi-party ringing control card used the Hall-effect sensor but I guess I slipped back into a previous system when I said that the interface on the line circuit card used an optocoupler. However, the implication to this discussion is the same. Every GTD-5 standard line circuit uses the same sensor to detect on-hook/off-hook (and also provide ring trip in many cases) as is used to detect dial pulses. There is no additional hardware required to detect dial pulses, and no hardware to be saved if there were no rotary-dial lines. Therefore, the DTMF receivers are still completely an add-on cost, hardware-wise. ----- Now, regarding the on-going costs such as CPU time and non-billable holding time, I asked the guy who's paid for figuring out such things. His reply, all IMHO, usual disclaimer, etc., etc., and without doing any extensive modeling and with some editing by me: > DTMF does take less time to scan and therefore uses less CPU time for > scanning. But DTMF requires connection to a receiver which adds to > the CPU time. The extra work to select a receiver, connect a network > path from the line to the DTMF receiver, and release the path between > the line and the DTMF receiver is roughly equal to the extra work > imposed by the longer scan time on DP. When viewed as a percentage of > the total processing time for a call, the difference is less than 1%. > Of course, in the GTD-5's distributed system, there is a > redistribution of how much work the different processors are doing. > The shorter holding time, with DTMF, on software data tables > collecting the digits would probably not be significant enough to > eliminate even one memory board. For a given TCU, the total percentage of CPU time occupied by call processing functions is limited. This includes scanning dial pulses, setting up DTMF receiver connections, etc. When this limit is exceeded subsequent originations and terminations on that TCU will be denied. But whether that all gets to be a problem depends on the telco's engineering of the site (line concentration ratio, ratio of lines to trunks in a given TCU, etc.) In Gordon Woods writes that dial pulses are a nightmare for digital loop carrier systems. I can sure believe it! However, I've never worked on one, so I don't have first-hand experience. Again, my comments are limited to the GTD-5 (and subscriber loops directly connected to it). In Colin Plumb writes: > Now, if the GTD-5 can generate dial tone and silence cheaply (pretty > easy with digital switching -- everybody's codec gets the same bits), > and polls the off-hook detector fast enough it can track dialing, and > buffers to hold half-dialed numbers aren't expensive (with memory > prices these days, I doubt it), then I guess it *is* cheaper. Well, > all I can say is, good work! Thanks! You've just described how it works! Tones (dial, MF digits, busy, re-order (120IPM busy), audible ringback, *silence*, etc.) are all pre-digitized and stored in a ROM in each terminating time switch. ("Terminating" here means the time switch which sends PCM out of the switch. It does not refer to the called party's end of the connection, although there could be a GTD-5 TTS there too.) All the switch needs to do to play a tone to lines or trunks is poke the right value into the time-switch control-memory locations for those lines and trunks so that the PCM samples are fed to those codecs. I've said my piece. Dave Strieter, AG Communication Systems, POB 52179, Phoenix AZ 85072-2179 *** These are not my employer's opinions. They're my opinions, not my advice. UUCP:..!{ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!samsung!romed!asuvax | att}!gtephx!strieterd Internet: gtephx!strieterd@asuvax.eas.asu.edu ------------------------------ From: rice@ttd.teradyne.com Subject: Re: France's Minitel Service Organization: Teradyne Inc., Telecommunications Division Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 00:24:52 GMT In article , Wolf.Paul@rcvie.co.at (Wolf Paul) writes: > The following appeared in Vienna's {Der Standard} on 92/01/19. > In its tenth year of existence the French videotext system "Minitel" > is breaking all records: six million of the small beige boxes are in > use today, five million calls are logged every day. > Even though business is going well for Telecom France as well as for > the private service providers, the French government is not satisfied > yet. They want to export the system. The first fat fish on their hook > is the American phone company, US West, which signed a contract last > October. Could this be why USW is trying to make life dificult for BBS owners ? John Rice K9IJ "Did I say that ?" I must have, but It was rice@ttd.teradyne.com MY oppinion only, no one elses...Especially (708)-940-9000 - (work) Not my Employers.... (708)-438-7011 - (home) ------------------------------ From: rice@ttd.teradyne.com Subject: Re: Centel For Sale Organization: Teradyne Inc., Telecommunications Division Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 00:30:05 GMT In article , David Brightbill writes: > There was a short item on the local (Tallahassee, Florida) news the > other night to the effect that Centel is for sale. I have no clue as > to whether they are dumping their Florida operations to raise cash or > if the entire company is on the block. A friend at Centel Cellular tells me that the entire company is on the block. John Rice K9IJ "Did I say that ?" I must have, but It was rice@ttd.teradyne.com MY oppinion only, no one elses...Especially (708)-940-9000 - (work) Not my Employers.... (708)-438-7011 - (home) ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: PIC's From RBOC Payphones Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 17:12:10 PST Andy Sherman writes: > Oh horse pucky. AT&T was busy establishing a lot of STP pairs to run > the bloody long distance network. What AT&T seems to stand accused of > here is making a substantial capital investment in its own business. > Your argument seems to be that if the OCCs are cheap that somebody > should shackle AT&T as well. It is amazing. In some quarters AT&T is > faulted for spending too little on the reliability of the network, yet > Mr. Florak thinks that building a lot of STP pairs is predatory > behavior. AT&T has an enormous lead on its competitors because so much of its equipment was bought during its days of (morally wrongful) monopoly, and was paid off before its competitors were allowed to exist. Judge Greene felt, and I agree, that AT&T should not be allowed to use this unfair advantage to drive its competitors out of business. STP pairs are not unique as examples. If AT&T were deregulated tomorrow, it would lower its prices to cost for, say, one month -- and all its competitors would go bankrupt! John David Galt ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 14:59:05 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Exchange Boundaries (Area code 516) I found 292 to be a Hempstead exchange. Was that a misprinted 282, which is Yaphank? Also, I find Selden exchanges 233 and 451. Why were they omitted? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #104 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07360; 2 Feb 92 19:37 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16698 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:15:23 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12112 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:15:06 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 17:15:06 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202022315.AA12112@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #103 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 17:15:04 CST Volume 12 : Issue 103 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: 900 Number From Payphone (Bill Huttig) Re: 900 Number From Payphone (Julian Macassey) 900 Directory Assistance? (Steve L. Rhoades) Re: Most Expensive 900 Call? (Vance Shipley) Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as 900 (tanner@ki4pv.compu.com) Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as 900 (martin@okstate.edu) Re: No Supervison on 900 Call (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Reverse Directory Information (Mark Brader) Re: Reverse Directory Information (mission!randy@uunet.uu.net) Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now (John David Galt) Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now (Colin Plumb) Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing (Tony Harminc) Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software (Ron Dippold) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: wah@zach.fit.edu (Bill Huttig) Subject: Re: 900 Number From Payphone Date: 31 Jan 92 19:21:29 GMT Organization: Florida Institute of Technology, ACS, Melbourne, FL In article 0005075968@mcimail.com (Jeff Garber) writes: > I thought you could not access a 900 number from a payphone (unless it > was a poorly programmed COCOT) ... The 7-11's around this area advertise a few 900 game numbers. When dialed from the payphone it reroutes the call to a 800 or long distance number and you then key in your Visa/Mastercard or LEC calling card number. It says the call may appear as a 700 number on your local phone bill (or a 900). ------------------------------ From: julian%bongo.UUCP@nosc.mil (Julian Macassey) Subject: Re: 900 Number From Payphone Date: 1 Feb 92 05:15:50 GMT Reply-To: julian@bongo.info.com (Julian Macassey) Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood California U.S.A. In article 0005075968@mcimail.com (Jeff Garber) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 97, Message 3 of 13 > I just saw a news story (on channel 9, KCAL, Los Angeles) about a 13 > year old girl who was killed after meeting someone she met off of a > 900 number party line. The story then showed a shot of a payphone and > said that this is where she made all the calls from to the 900 number. > I thought you could not access a 900 number from a payphone (unless it > was a poorly programmed COCOT) ... > [Moderator's Note: Well, you can't access 900/976 from Illinois Bell > payphones, that's for sure. Maybe the phone shown on the television > was a 'poorly programmed COCOT' ... then again, maybe its ratings time > for television news shows and the talking heads at channel 9 were all > in a dither looking for something scandalous. PAT] I agree with Pat. Channel 9 TV is three miles away from me. They run "National Equirer" type news. Their big thing is "Live Reports" -- Talking Heads ten minutes away from the studio talking about something that happened there hours ago. As an ex-gutter reporter, I think they are hopeless. KCAL TV claim they are in Norwalk CA, but are on Melrose Avenue (On the Paramount lot) in Hollywood. No one can tell me why they perpetuate this lie -- their transmitter is on Mount Wilson I believe, along with all the other TV transmitters. But they are owned by Disney, so maybe Mickey runs the news department. Julian Macassey, julian@bongo.info.com N6ARE@K6VE.#SOCAL.CA.USA.NA 742 1/2 North Hayworth Avenue Hollywood CA 90046-7142 voice (213) 653-4495 ------------------------------ From: slr@cco.caltech.edu (Steve L. Rhoades) Subject: 900 Directory Assistance? Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 04:40:52 GMT Whilst roaming through the 900 network the other day, I came across an interesting recording on (900) 555-1212: "Due to a network architecture change, the 900 directory assistance number has been disconnected ..." I remember back in the early days of 900 when they used to list the current "Dial-It (tm)" numbers. There were only about 5 or 6 "900" services at the time. I think they were operated by the Bell System. As "900" grew they added about 30 different services to the recording. The recording went from about 20 seconds in the early days to about four minutes long the last time I heard it. Hopefully, my recent calls to this number will be free. (But wait, calls to the "555" prefix are FREE ??! -- nah ... not this again ... :-) Internet: slr@caltech.edu | Voice-mail: (818) 794-6004 UUCP: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!tybalt!slr | USmail: Box 1000, Mt. Wilson, Ca. 91023 ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: Most Expensive 900 Call? Organization: SwitchView Inc. Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1992 01:26:50 GMT In article trebor@foretune.co.jp (Robert J Woodhead) wrote: > only pay $300 an hour if I could speak to DEAD Psychics, but ... Not even close! A friend of mine rented another friend's house in Florida. The babysitter he used while there made several calls to a 900 number that showed up as $250.00 a call. The calls were only two minutes long. Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@ltg.uucp ..uunet!watmath!xenitec!vances ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 23:59 EST From: tanner@ki4pv.compu.com Subject: Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as a 900 Number Organization: CompuData Inc., DeLand I got one of the cards, and just now decided to call the number. No charge for the call to 800/422-2313, of course, but it announces that it is a special automated service, and that "You will be billed separately by the sponsor for its use." ...!{bikini.cis.ufl.edu allegra uunet!cdin-1}!ki4pv!tanner ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Another 800 Number That Bills You as a 900 Number Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 11:30:40 -0600 From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu As of 10-45 on Friday, January 31, 800-422-2313 is still alive and separating the sheep from the wool. There is a payphone just upstairs from where I work and I just had to give it a try. I dialed the number and it answered very quickly. Since I didn't have an award form, I just started randomly pressing digits when prompted. After about 12 digits, the original voice came back on the line and introduced the reading back of the number I had entered. A truly brain-dead sounding synthetic voice read back each digit followed by the first voice prompting me to enter a 1 if correct or 2 if not. I entered a 1 and the system announced that this was not a valid form number. It asked me to enter it again. I waited for about five seconds and it prompted me once again. I entered 12 more digits picked at random with the same results as before. When I entered a 1 to indicate correctness, the voice politely said that their equipment could not verify my award number and I would just have to send in the card. It also said, "You won't be billed for this call." I knew that already. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 12:11:19 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: No Supervison on 900 Call Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > 900-884-xxxx is carried by AT&T. There is an 800 (and presumably 900) > service of AT&T that implements some interactive call routing in the > network. You dial the number, listen to an announcement, and press a > menu selection. Calls through this services don't supervise until > they are routed. Since this is implemented in the network, there is > no voice path between the caller and the 800/900 customer prior to > supervision. What is the purpose of this "interactive call routing"? Why not just assign a different phone number for each service? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 13:59:00 -0500 From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Reverse Directory Information >> ... Then I heard ring-no-answer for a whole minute. > [Moderator's Note: That is precisely the result I had a couple days > ago. I applaud them for their courteous opening message, but what > happened to the operator who was supposed to answer? PAT] Um, Pat ... HOW many readers does comp.dcom.telecom have in the US? My suggestion is that the free advertisement in comp.dcom.telecom caused the service to be overloaded with callers! [Moderator's Note: Flattery will get you everywhere! :) At this time I think comp.dcom.telecom has about 50,000 readers worldwide; I would suppose the majority of those are in the USA. I do like your idea that this little newsgroup wields some influence somewhere. I never really thought it mattered that much. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mission!randy@uunet.uu.net Subject: Re: Reverse Directory Information Date: Thu Jan 30 18:33:13 1992 In Telecom 12.56, stewart@sco.com asks for a source to turn a phone number into a name and address. In Telecom 12.72, nin15b0b@lucy. merrimack.edu supplies a 900 number. When I've found strange phone numbers on my bill, I just call the local telephone company. They call the company serving the number (if different) and ask them, then let me know. This is useful for resolving phone bills amongst roommates. ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 18:08:33 PST This happened to a friend of mine at work, who was our house datacomm wizard. He would call all the local BBSes to download software; and often he would make the calls from work (through our network modems, so there's no way to pick up a phone and hear call progress). One day, he heard about a new BBS (on another BBS) and decided to call them up. What he didn't know was that the BBS message which gave him the number had two digits transposed -- and was in fact the high-security dial-in line of a bank computer. So my friend told the modem to dial this thing up, and got back NO CARRIER. (The bank computer used a non-standard carrier frequency.) He told the modem to keep redialing, but gave up after an hour or so. He tried again the next day, and the next. One morning, my friend shows up for work, and three cops are waiting for him and they arrest him. Naturally (?), they won't say what he's supposed to have done. It was two or three days before things got straightened out. Moral: A good Trace capability is no substitute for common sense. John David Galt [Moderator's Note: Absolutely. However, to hear the banks tell it, they can do no wrong, and everyone else is always in the wrong. When the First National Bank's fax machine misdialed a family in Germany for two or three weeks running night after night, that was supposed to be overlooked as a simple error. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 10:16:26 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > I was having difficulty trying to establish a modem connection to the > UK via this carrier. If the UK modem was set to answer on the first > ring, I would hear ringing, followed by "fast busy" (re-order?) on my > end. The UK modem would answer and get dial tone. The number of > rings detected before answer would have to be increased to four before > it would work. This made the local connections fail, probably due to > timeouts before negotiating carrier. In the UK, you can't set the > timeout above 60 due to local laws (?) After playing around with all > of the settings that we could think of, I finally on a whim, decided > to try using AT&T to make the call. Sure enough, with the modem set > to answer on the first ring, the call went through first time, every > time. Similar thing happens here. Using a fax modem, I've been trying to send a five page fax to Taiwan. Using our normal LD carrier, the call at first would fail about half way thru the first page. Retries would have the call fail during fax negotiation. Running the call thru AT&T, it worked the first time. We have had no trouble running faxes thru this carrier on domestic calls, but considerable trouble on international calls. Talking with their customer service, they suggested putting pauses at various places in the dialing sequence (which makes no sense to me, since the call was being answered at the other end). The pauses did not fix the problem. They then suggested trying their 10xxx access number (we usually go in thru a 950 number). This didn't work either. They called back yesterday wanting me to try it again, but I haven't had a chance yet. I have no idea what carrier they are using to get the call to Taiwan. Any ideas as to what the problem might be? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ From: colin@array.uucp (Colin Plumb) Subject: Re: Tracing Calls, Then and Now Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1992 03:25:35 -0500 Organization: Array Systems Computing, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA All of the information available to a CO technician about a currently-connected call is quite substantial. I had an old friend call me once a few years ago (but still past the demise of universal MF signalling and 2600 Hz + KP + ... fun) from the states. Why, I asked, were we getting all this delay on the line? Oh, that's because he wasn't paying and the call was being sent via some outdated equipment is Australia (!) where the technicians were all asleep! (P.S. Did anyone see the recent issue of 2600, where they reproduced a form banning the magazine from prisons, with page number references to the construction of blue boxes and so on? The kicker was that there were five approved reasons for banning a publication -- liable to incite riot, and the like. Checked was (d) likely to cause sexual deviancy among inmates. As the editors said, 2600 has been called plenty of things, but *this* is new!) Colin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 13:26:31 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Windsor, Ontario Routing niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) wrote: > Winsdor, Ontario is both South and East of Detroit; therefore, where > does Windsor get its routing from, Detroit or from some point in > Canada? Windsor gets its routing the same way as every other Canadian city. It is in NPA 519, homes on Toronto as Sectional Centre and Montreal as Regional Centre. Of course the significance of the hierarchy of toll switches has decreased in recent years. Why would Windsor's position to the southeast of Detroit make any difference ? A lot of southern Ontario is south of a lot of the US. By the same token, does Detroit get its routing from Windsor ? Of course not. There is a heavily used telecom border crossing at Windsor/Detroit, mainly because it's geographically on the way from Toronto and east to points in the US mid-west and west. Tony H. ------------------------------ From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) Subject: Re: CDMA Impact on Cellular Software Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 22:13:35 GMT ito@nttslb.ntt.jp (Mitsutaka Ito) writes: > I would like to know CDMA technology impacts on base-station > software and mobile unit software. I will appreciate any information > on this topics. Thank you in advance. "Impacts" is a bit fuzzy. Basically, the software is far more complex, if you mean as far as that goes. FM is simple enough that you can easily program the phone on a simple microprocessor in assembly language. Speaking as one of the CDMA programmers, I think you could write a CDMA system in assembly, but I sure wouldn't want to do it. "Living hell" comes to mind. We wrote everything in C (and I'm sure we'll get some snide remarks about C being structured assembly ...) Comparing CDMA software to FM software is pretty much like comparing the control software for a USR Dual Standard modem to a 300 bps modem. You get far better performance in exchange for more complexity. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #103 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09329; 2 Feb 92 20:41 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23050 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 18:49:23 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21104 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 18:49:01 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 18:49:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030049.AA21104@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #105 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 18:49:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 105 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom (Jim Budler) Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom (Doctor Math) Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom (Ken Sprouse) Re: Posting Choices: Telecom-priv or Telecom (Peter da Silva) Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary (Joe Mann) Re: Wilmington (Del.) Directory (Carl Moore) Re: What is a Linebacker? (Jeff Hollingsworth) Re: Part 68 Help! (Patton M. Turner) Re: Background Regarding 206 Dialing Change (John David Galt) Re: Mu-law, A-law (Harold Hallikainen) Re: IRS Experiments With Filing by Phone (Brandon S. Allbery) Re: France's Minitel Service (Harold Hallikainen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jimb47@netcom.netcom.com (Jim Budler) Subject: Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 08:47:30 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) In article toddi@hindmost.mav.com (Todd Inch) writes: > I would like to see TELECOM related For Sale/Wanted articles in the > Digest, but not datacomm stuff, especially common modems. > Particularly, I'm interested in voice datacomm equipment that doesn't > seem to have a more appropriate place anywhere on Usenet. I think > most/many readers can find a more appropriate place for the datacomm > stuff, although I realize that sometimes the data/voice telecom line > can be thin. But who is to review and decide what's proper? Pat has said he is heavily loaded anyway, and he has chosen not to accept for sale articles for such review. If there is a real need for this perhaps someone will volunteer to moderate a telecom for sale mailing list. jim jimb47@netcom.com jimb@silvlis.com 72415.01200@compuserve.com [Moderator's Note: I am hoping (admittedly it is a long shot) that before long I will have a small source of income which will in effect subsidize some of my work on this Digest, thus allowing me to spend more time on it and made some badly needed changes. PAT] ------------------------------ From: drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) Subject: Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom Date: Sat, 01 Feb 92 21:31:56 EST Organization: Department of Redundancy Department toddi@hindmost.mav.com (Todd Inch) writes: > I would like to see TELECOM related For Sale/Wanted articles in the > Digest, but not datacomm stuff, especially common modems. I second this. Modems can go anywhere, but when someone's got a 1A2 key system or a bunch of old WUTCO time clocks, there's no better place than here. Who else would want such things? :-) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Stuff "For Sale" in Telecom Date: 31 Jan 92 00:06:14 EDT (Fri) From: sprouse@n3igw.pgh.pa.us (Ken Sprouse) Pat, I would like to add my two cents to a message I saw a few days ago saying the sender would like to see a continuation of telephone related items for sale in TELECOM. I would also like to see jobs offered and wanted continue. Just in case you have changed your mind about the for sale items here is something I picked up from the Radio and Electronics bulletin board on GEnie. I thought it might be of interest to this group. --- begin forwarded message --- FOR SALE: Private Payphones - these phones take credit cards and have a built in card reader. They use a regular DTMF dial pad and are a wall mount unit. Great deal for someone who wants to learn about payphones or you can use it as a regular phone in your home! Price is $80 each plus $15 shipping. E mail if interested. Thanks. Bill Rogers, 2030 E. Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas, NV. 89104 (702) 382-7348 I will be happy to send additional info to anyone interested in the payphones. --- end of forwarded message --- As of right now there is no gateway from the Internet to GEnie so if you are interested you will have to commuincate via a phone call. What a novel idea! :-) Ken Sprouse / N3IGW sprouse@n3igw.pgh.pa.us GEnie mail KSPROUSE Compu$erve 70145,426 [Moderator's Note: Only $80? I have to wonder about their quality. If anyone invests in a unit, let us know how it works out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Posting Choices: Telecom-priv or Telecom Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 05:05:15 GMT How about a new newsgroup for telecom-priv? Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. [Moderator's Note: I think it is distributed to an alt group already. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri Jan 31 10:35:56 1992 From: joem@orbit.orbit.cts.com (Joe Mann) Subject: Re: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary Let us not forget that US West is aggressively marketing it's new service "COMMUNITY LINK" in two of it's states, and has plans to 'roll it out' in others. COMMUNITY LINK is US West's version of Prodity, or Compuserve. It was locally introduced at the SuperBowl, when US West installed thousands of terminals around the Twin Cities hotels. COMMUNITY LINK is delivered via a joint venture of US West and French owned Minitel; the new partnership is named CLM for COMMUNITY LINK / Minitel. CLM owns the 'switch' that routes the calls to the various Information Service Providers or ISPs. It also sells / rents the terminals to the end users to access COMMUNITY LINK. It should come as no surprise that the largest ISP is US West's partner Minitel. Minitel provides many services that would potentially compete with the privately owned BBSs. It now seems that in addition to 976 information providers, BBS owners are on US West's 'harassment list'. US West fought 976 providers in much the same way, before the PUC's. This action only two or three years after actively promoting 976 Information Providers to 'get into the business'. The best way for US West to ensure success for COMMUNITY LINK, is for it to pre-empt any competition before it starts the service. I suspect that the BBS owners in Oregon are in for a protracted and eventully losing battle. After all it's tough to fight a 25 billion dollar company's agenda. [Moderator's Note: It has to be a little more involved than that. Suppose all the BBS people said okay, and started paying business rates. Then what? The BBS' would still be out there competing with Community Link. You think for a few dollars difference in the rate each month telco would then be satisfied, if what you are saying about the need to 'pre-empt any competition' is correct? I think all telco is trying to do is treat BBS lines the same as churches or any other non-profit phone line; that is, if not strictly for personal use, then the line is for business use. Those are the two (admittedly poorly named) choices. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 9:43:05 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Wilmington (Del.) Directory I have received a message saying: "I'm just curious, but why have all these non-traditional area codes been assigned before 909?" This apparently refers to area codes 510,410,310,210 (210 has been announced for split of 512 in Texas, but is not in use yet). In my response, I guessed that California is growing rapidly and needed to gobble up 909 relatively early ( 909 is also not in use yet). Notice that 510 is now in use elsewhere in California, in a place where 909 would not be as good a choice (510 is next door to 707). <-- Yes, I know about area 705 and the future 416/905 split. ------------------------------ From: hollings@cs.wisc.edu (Jeff Hollingsworth) Subject: Re: What is a Linebacker? Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept. Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 00:16:52 GMT > However, wouldn't you think that the apartment owners are responsible > for repairs of wiring inside your apartment? > [Moderator's Note: Not really, since if the apartment is leased, then > it really is no longer under the control of the owner, but rather, > that of the 'temporary owner'. PAT] California has a new law (went into effect Jan. 1) that makes inside wiring the responsibility of the landlord. So it you are a renter in CA with Linebacker, you now have overpriced insurance that covers something that is not your responsibility. Jeff Hollingsworth Work: (608) 262-6617 Internet: hollings@cs.wisc.edu Home: (608) 256-4839 X.400: Home: hollings@warthog.madison.wi.us ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 19:36:52 CST From: Patton M. Turner Subject: Re: Part 68 Help! I installed a phone hybrid today that had an interesting comment in the manual. During the purchase of two of these units, involving two calls to the manfuacturer's tech support number, we were never told, nor was it ever stated in their catalog, that the hybrids were not Part 68 approved. This is only mentioned once in the manual: 2.2 Send Equalization The FCC requires 18 dB of attenuation at 4Khz. This is accomplished by an eliptical low-pass filter with a 3Khz -3dB point. 2.5 Telephone Line Interface Circuit The telephone line is buffered by a transformer ... Metal Oxide Varistor blocking cap to keep DC voltages off the transformer. Although the TI-101 is not type-approved by the FCC for dirrect connection to the phone line, it is completely protected should this occur. I don't have the whole manual with me, but I read the whole thing (I got real bored), and saw no other mention of any FCC requirements. There was a mention in the appendix regarding DAA's and holding coils. This is how at least one firm handled the problem. Pat Turner pturner@eng.auburn.edu KB4GRZ @ K4RY.AL.USA ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Background Regarding 206 Dialing Change Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 09:46:45 PST cmoore@BRL.MIL (VLD/VMB) writes: > Splits done since 1980 without the use of N0X/N1X prefixes were: > 714/619 California (and I still see no N0X/N1X despite the gobbling > up of 909 so that 714 can split again!?) There are lots of N0X/N1X prefixes in both 714 and 619. Some directories don't show them, because Pac Bell lists for you only those prefixes which are (a) in your Service Area (LATA), and (b) are not cellular phones or special uses such as 950 and 976. 619 is spread across THREE Service Areas. It would be nice if the complete lists were available. John David Galt ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 10:27:11 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Mu-law, A-law Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo I haven't studied mu and A encoding, so please excuse my ignorance in this area. I wonder, though, what running a nonlinear encoded signal thru a band limited channel does to distortion. If we (for the moment) ignore the A/D and D/A, and we put a 1 KHz sine wave into a reversible nonlinear circuit (such as u-law or A-law), we will get the 1 KHz out along with various harmonics. When we run that "distorted" signal back thru the "decoder", the original signal (the 1 KHz sine) is re-formed (without distortion, ideally). If we put a low pass filter between the encoder and the decoder (like the A/D anti-alias filter), we are removing the harmonics created by the encode process. I'd imagine that these missing harmonics would create a distorted signal out of the decoder. So, it looks like the use of nonlinear encoding results in an improvement in dynamic range in trade for poorer distortion performance. True? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 11:49:08 -0500 From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) Subject: Re: IRS Experiments With Filing by Phone Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.org (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) Organization: North Coast Public Access *NIX, Cleveland, OH As quoted from by king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist): > 0005000102@mcimail.com (Randall C Gellens) scribes: >> In Wednesday's {Los Angeles Times} (Business Section) is a story about >> an IRS experiment which permits taxpayers to file by phone, dialing a >> number and keying in the figures (such as W-2 income amounts) which >> they would normally fill out on a form. > Gee, I'm surprised that this service isn't restricted to "authorized > preparers" the way the IRS's file-by-computer service is. I assure you it's not. The IRS sent me a for 1040-TEL along with the standard 1040EZ. From the inside front cover: "File by Phone using the 1040-TEL and TeleFile! "You Can File by Phone if: "- You have use of a touch-tone telephone. "- You meet the requirements found on page 6 for filing Form 1040EZ. "- Your name and address are correct on the IRS label that came with this booklet. Your refund will be mailed to this address. "All You Have To Do Is: "1. FILL IN Form 1040-TEL "- Check the answers to questions A and B. "- Fill in the dollar amounts for lines C and D using your W-2 form(s). If you have more than one W-2, enter the totals for each line. "- If you have taxable interest, fill in the total dollar amount on line E from your 1099-INT form(s) or other statements. "IMPORTANT: You must drop all cents when you enter dollar amounts. For example, $65.75 becomes $65. If you do not want to drop cents, do not use Form 1040-TEL. Instead, file Form 1040EZ. "2. CALL 1-800-829-5166 24 HOURS A DAY! (No Charge) "- Before you call, be sure ot have your filled-in Form 1040-TEL, the IRS mailing label, and a pen or pencil. "- The TeleFile computer will ask you to enter each item from your filled-in 1040-TEL using your touch-tone phone. TeleFile will read back each entry so you can correct any mistakes. "- For your security, TeleFile will ask for the two letters that appear before your social security number on your mailing label. "- Answer the Yes/No questions on lines A and B using 1 for Yes and 2 for No. "- Press the # key (called the pound key) after entering the dollar amounts on lines C, D, and E. "- TeleFile will tell you the amount of your refund or what you owe. Write that amount on Form 1040-TEL. TeleFile will also tell you your Adjusted Gross Income --- which you will need to complete your State of Ohio income tax return. "IMPORTANT: You must stay on the line until TeleFile tells you your return has been accepted. If you hang up befdore this, your return and refund will NOT be processed. "3. SIGN and MAIL Form 1040-TEL." My next report on this is likely to be to RISKS, not to Telecom: I plan to use this service, just to see how much of a security risk it is. Certainly their "security" described above doesn't seem very secure ... Brandon S. Allbery, KF8NH [44.70.4.88] allbery@NCoast.ORG Senior Programmer, Telotech, Inc. (if I may call myself that...) [Moderator's Note: Hey, if someone wants to sign my return and pay my tax for me, I won't complain. And if the refund (if any) is mailed to the address on the form then how could that be tampered with? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 11:44:39 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: France's Minitel Service Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo I seem to remember that when Minitel was first announced, the cost was justified by the savings of not having to print phone books for every subscriber every year. How does the actual cost of Minitel compare with printing phone books? Once they gave away the terminals, who owns them? Who is responsible for maintenance? As modem technology changes, are they adopting the newer technologies, or staying with the old to maintain compatibility (I seem to remember a lot of European stuff using FSK modems with something like 1200 bps to the user and 150 bps from the user). How do private information suppliers like the telephone company competing with them? Is there an online telephone directory here in the US (that I can call with my modem)? Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI [Moderator's Note: Compuserve has an online directory. (GO PHONES). Some telcos such as Illinois Bell sell directory assistance in bulk via terminal and modem. Ours is called 'Directory Express' and it runs a couple hundred dollars per month for a couple *hours* of time on line. The main customers of this are credit/collection services. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #105 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11938; 2 Feb 92 21:41 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08992 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 19:50:16 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18727 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 19:49:59 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 19:49:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030149.AA18727@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #106 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 19:49:41 CST Volume 12 : Issue 106 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear (Jacob R. Deglopper) Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear (Patton M. Turner) Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities (owsl_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu) Re: Indiana Bell Rate Increase (John Higdon) Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Czech Connection to American BBS (Richard Budd) Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? (Jim Haynes) Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? (John R. Levine) Re: 800 OCN List (Linc Madison) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob R. Deglopper) Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear Reply-To: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob R. Deglopper) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 21:44:31 GMT In a previous article, meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) says: > Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by > ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? This isn't quite the same, but it's close. My rescue squad pagers are tripped by a standard Motorola two-tone sequence broadcast over the fire dispatch channel. These are sequential tones, not simultaneous, however. These tones are transmitted before the voice messages, and after a few years, people tend to decode the tone pairs in their heads. Even when the calls are for other stations, most of us recognize the busier tone pairs, and those for "interesting" calls, i.e. hazardous materials, high-angle rescue team, and helicopter tones. _/acob DeGlopper, EMT-A, Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad -- jrd5@po.cwru.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 18:12:04 CST From: Patton M. Turner Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding by Ear > Has anyone out there developed the skill of decoding dtmf tones by > ear? Ever hear of anyone who has? How about MF? I've seen one person do it. She was the daughter of a CPE installer, and could decode DTMF since she was in grade school. Apparently the idea of using touch tones to dial a phone number intrigued her, and she would play with the phone for hours on end. The tones were usually about as long as the average person dialing. In all fairness I should mention that she now has a MA in music, and is an accomplished violinist. I really upset her one day with my HT DTMF pad, as she had never heard the A-D DTMF digits before. Pat Turner pturner@eng.auburn.edu KB4GRZ @ K4RY.AL.USA ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 11:07:11 PST From: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: 5ESS (R) Sold in Japan > I recall AT&T's efforts in the mid 1980's to sell that first 5ESS > switch. Reports indicated that those efforts stalled on the > insistence by the Japanese prospect that the full source code driving > the switch be provided. So, it only took seven years for them to make > their first sale ... There's a story in there somewhere. Yeah ... so the question is, did AT&T knuckle under to unreasonable Japanese demands for technology in exchange for false promises of market access, as did American television manufacturers in the sixties, or did they hold their ground? Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com ------------------------------ From: owsl_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Owsla editor) Subject: Re: Question on NY Tel's Capabilities Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 19:47:14 GMT In niebuhr@bnlux1.bnl.gov (david niebuhr) writes: > In scott@asd.com (Scott Barman) writes: >> I was interested in looking into some option for my home phone. Items >> like Caller-ID, Last Call Redial... >> ...how technologically behind most of the COs on Long Island are >> and that NY Tel would have to do a major overhaul and replace switches >> to provide some of these new services. > As a resident of Long Island I can attest that NYTel is so screwed up > it is less than pathetic. The equipment is a disaster area and the > wires are just now being replaced, slowly. > For an advanced telco, try Rochester Tel & Tel. Forget NYTel. CLASS > service is probably years away due to the stupid Public (read Utility) > Service Commission, a messed up governor and the legislature. I too can attest to the "screwed up" service that NY Telephone offers on Long Island. My old phone number was in the 718 area code, i.e. a New York City number, yet, my entire central office was totally crossbar. I was always amazed when I would call up a friend in some remote locale and here the gentle "eet-eet" of the ESS busy signal instead of the hard "AAAAAHHHHHT-AAAAAHHHHHT" of the XB one. And something I always think when people who know nothing about telephony are screaming that the goddamned liberals/libertarians in NYC should let CLID through: I always slap my head knowing that it was just recently that Manhattan, center of the earth, phased out its last crossbar switch, and probably the real reason NY Tel didn't put up CLID (and exorbinant charges for it, of course) faster than a jackrabbit is they are still working on becoming digital. As you can see by my message header, I have wisely moved to a place that has already been attested to as having good service, though good luck to anyone who wants to CLID me through our messed up ROLM system ... you can't win, really ... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 14:43 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Indiana Bell Rate Increase drmath@viking.rn.com (Doctor Math) writes: > Indiana Bell now claims that if they are not allowed to institute > local measured calling for everybody, they will seek (and get?) a rate > increase of 25%, which is about $5/month for the "average" residential > customer. This is classic telco double-speak. On the one hand they claim that measured service is harmless and innocuous but then they threaten very annoying rate increases as an alternative. What Indiana Bell seems to be saying is that a switch to measured service will increase revenues by 25%. This would seem to indicate that the 6% of the subscriber base referred to would bear a tremendous amount of the additional burden. Once again, let us remember that the major cost in providing local service is the upkeep of the installed plant. This upkeep cost is the same regardless of the traffic. If the aforementioned "6%" were to suddenly stop using the telephone altogether, Indiana Bell's costs would not diminish. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 12:33:58 -0800 From: hhallika@nike.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Are Acoustic Couplers Still Around? Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo > Does anyone know of any acoustic couplers available for modems? The > specific problem I'm thinking of is when the business person travels > and stays at a hotel with all digital phones. The idea of unplugging > the phone and plugging the wire into the modem won't work, because the > modem expects a regular analog line, not the digital line. I seem to remember just such an acoustic coupler for lap top modems. It was manufactured by Product R&D (I think), a manufacturer of modems for lap tops. I tried calling them, but no one is there today (Sunday). You might want to give them a try Monday. They are: Product R&D 1194 Pacific Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 phone +1 805 546 9713 Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ From: "Richard Budd" Subject: Re: Czech Connection to American BBS Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 17:06:18 EST In TELECOM Digest V12 #100 RCBUDD@RHQVM19.VNET.IBM.COM wrote: > I have been setting up an electronic link on BITNET between a > gymnasium in Prague, Czechoslovakia and a high school outside of > Poughkeepsie, NY. A fellow IBMer asked me to define clearly a European gymnasium warning me that Americans could confuse it with sports arenas and physical education In Europe, a gymnasium (pronounced gim-NAH-zyoom) is the equivalent of four years of American high school education plus the first two years of undergraduate school. Students who attend the gymnasium are preparing for further education in the University. On the other hand, a European high school is analogous to the American vocational-technical school in which students learn a trade. The Gymnazium Libenska in Prague includes a computer science curriculum for students who seek a career in programming or telecommunications. > The American high school has a BBS on FIDONET that a retired teacher > administers for students. We wonder if it is possible for the > students in Prague to access the BBS by dialing through the Marist > address. It would be prohibitively expensive for the Prague gymnasium > to dial the BBS directly, but there would be no charge to the > gymnasium if their students can access the BBS through a message to > the Marist address, since a telephone call between Poughkeepsie and > Marlboro, NY,where the BBS and high school are located, is local. To make it easier to explain what is going on, below is a chart of the communication system we are setting up between Poughkeepsie and Prague. (My apologies for not including it with the original posting.) USA CSFR Poughkeepsie Prague A _ _ c _________|M|<-Node Node->|C|_________ c | |A| BITNET/EARN |S| CZECH | o | MARIST |R|<============================|P|ACADEMYOF| u | COLLEGE |I|============================>|G|SCIENCES | n |_________|S| |A|_________| |t |__GJB1___|T| |S|_GYMNAZ__|<-' | |<-Phone Phone->| | | | Lines Lines | | | | | | |_| |_|<-Modem _ Modem->|_| |_| _|_ _|_ |W| _|_ _|_ | P | | M | |I| | L | | P | | O | | A | BBS->_____|L| | I | | R | | K | | R | | |D| | B | | O | | E | | L |-----|ACORN|C|====/ \ | E | | S | | P | | B | |_____|A| |_| <-| | N | | E | | S | | O | |T| | | | | K | | I | | R | |!| | | | | | |_E_| |_O_| Telephone |___| |___| Electronic Mail Accounts GYMNAZ@CSPGAS11 VM/CMS GJB1@MARISTB VM/MUSIC The question is whether it is possible for the Czech students to communicate with the bulletin board service through the BITNET link rather than directly by telephone (which would be expensive under Czechoslovak rates) Replies would be most appreciated. Sorry not to have been clear the first time. Richard Budd Internet: rcbudd@rhqvm19.vnet.ibm.com VM Systems Programmer Bitnet: klub@maristb.bitnet IBM - Sterling Forest Phone: (914) 759-3746 ------------------------------ From: Jim Haynes Subject: Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? Date: 2 Feb 92 07:45:12 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz I'm tempted to say 1880, when I hear W.U. was offered all the Bell patents for $1 million and turned it down, saying telephones are worthless. They were right, of course, as anyone knows who has been involved in a game of telephone tag. I'll have to look up what's in the business press and see if any of the business pundits have written on this subject. The cost of labor has been increasing for a long time, and WUs business has always been pretty labor intensive. The telephone business has been a lot more successful in reducing the labor content of the business, e.g. customer toll dialing and consolidating operator services. The continually dropping costs for ordinary customer-dialed long distance service have kept heavy pressure on other services based on private wire systems. Legal changes (e.g. the Carterfone decision) have made the switched network available for a lot of uses that formerly required private wire systems. Right after World War II the Bell System started putting in a lot of transcontinental bandwidth. The bandwidth needs of television networks paid for a lot of the freight. WUs efforts were much more modest, so their bandwidth was always more costly than Bell's. Perhaps WU should have done what MCI did later in competing with Bell in microwave services, and in fighting the legal battles necessary to get the local phone companies to connect their customers. WU put a lot of efforts into fax; perhaps they did too much too soon. There have been several waves of fax, and only the most recent has been a howling success. WU was in the satellite business for a while. I wonder if they made or lost money at it. One of their last big projects that I'm aware of was Autodin for the military. I wonder if that was a money maker or a money loser -- you can lose a lot of money very fast where computers and software are involved. I wonder if WU realized what was happening when packet switching came in; should they have competed with Telenet, Tymnet, and other value-added carriers? There was also a time when WU was dabbling in the computer services business, which put them into competition with the likes of General Electric. Will we be asking in a few years, "When did IBM start to die?"? haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet [Moderator's Note: Or the unthinkable -- "when did AT&T start to die?". And it will eventually. After all, who in 1930 would have thought that Western Union, The Bell System and privately owned railroad passenger trains wouldn't be around forever? Two of those three have all but vanished ... will Digest readers in 2030 post articles 'remembering AT&T'? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: When Did Western Union Start to Die? Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 2 Feb 92 16:13:22 EST (Sun) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) Pat asks: > Exactly when, if it can be pinned down to a certain time, did > Western Union start to die? Was it the introduction of fax and easy to > send email which cut into the heart of WU's business? Was it the > growth of services like Federal Express? Really, I think it was the advent of direct distance dialing. As soon as phone calls became fully automated, it became practically inevitable that the price of phone service would drop through the floor. So many people had a telephone that WUTCO's ability to deliver messages in person to a non-subscriber became irrelevant. Also, Most people can talk faster than they can type, and there are a lot more phones than there are telex machines, so for a similar price most people would rather make the phone call, talk to the recipient in person, and know that they got the message. So quite a few years ago telex and telegrams stopped being very useful for domestic communication. It was still useful for international communication, since it worked well across time zones between people who didn't speak the same language. Group 3 fax was the nail in the coffin, because cheap fax machines have all the same advantages and piggyback on the increasingly cheap phone network. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 20:11:01 PST From: linc@tongue1.Berkeley.EDU (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: 800 OCN List Organization: University of California, Berkeley I noticed several interesting trivia bits in the 800 listing. (1) 1-800-ATT-xxxx is owned by MCI. (2) 1-800-MCI-xxxx is owned by AT&T. (3) 1-800-SPR-xxxx is also owned by MCI. (4) 1-800-ITT-xxxx is owned by AT&T. (5) 1-800-WUT-xxxx is also owned by MCI. (6) 1-800-USS-xxxx is actually owned by U.S. Sprint! (7) 1-800-GTE-xxxx is owned by GTE/Florida. (8) every single prefix of the form N02 or N12 that is in use is owned by Radio Common Carrier Paging, which has no prefixes that do NOT fit this pattern. In particular, 1-800-RCCP-xxx is owned by AT&T. Linc Madison == Linc@Tongue1.Berkeley.EDU ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #106 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa13717; 2 Feb 92 22:35 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30258 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 20:47:16 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24753 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 20:46:56 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 20:46:56 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030246.AA24753@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #107 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Feb 92 20:46:54 CST Volume 12 : Issue 107 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson MCI Billing via CD-ROM (Ken Dykes) AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 (David Ptasnik) US West and Minitel (Peter da Silva) One Fax Machine On Two Phone Lines? (John A. Weeks III) A New Switch (Dave Johnston) LEC Non-Subscriber Calling Cards (Nigel Allen) Bell ?? Cuts Superconductor Research? (John R. Ruckstuhl, Jr) New Cellular Phone User Seeks Advice (Dan Schein) Questions About Technophone PC 205 (Felipe Barousse) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Feb 92 12:51:32 EST From: kgdykes@Thinkage.On.CA (Ken Dykes) Subject: MCI Billing via CD-ROM The following messages were found alt.cd-rom. Since it has not migrated in a natural fashion to comp.dcom.telecom, I thought I'd pass them on. There are other messages in the thread, this is just a sample. ken From: bergstro@src.honeywell.com (Pete Bergstrom) Subject: re: mci to put bills on CD Date: 30 Jan 92 19:50:03 GMT Organization: Honeywell Systems & Research Center Edward Vielmetti writes: > Communications Week (6 Jan 1992) p.17 reports that MCI will put > bills for its biggest customers (who currently generate on the > order of 100,000 pages/mo) on CD-ROM. "MCI is using CD technology > developed by Eastman Kodak Co, Rochester NY. [using] Kodak's > Photo ID Imaging Workstation". > A few questions - > This has to be a one-off sort of system, since there's no way you'd > go through the hassle needed to make many $2 duplicates of an > ordinary CD-ROM. But media for the ordinary one-write systems is > expensive enough (what, $75? $100?) that I wouldn't think it would be all > that economical to do. How much does 100,000 pages cost to buy, print, and deliver? Suppose next that this can be simply produced as just another mainframe report right onto a disk. Maybe by investing a few thousand dollars (<$10,000) in an excellent access system they give their clients real accounting control. I know that at the company I used to work for, the LD bill for just one city was about 1,000 pages long. Nobody in their right mind liked to go through it, but it had to be done quarterly. Pete From: MHELMS@UNMCVM.BITNET ("Mary E. Helms --UNMCVM", MHELMS) Subject: re: mci to put bills on CD Date: 31 Jan 92 14:20:06 GMT Reply-To: "Mary E. Helms --UNMCVM(MHELMS)" Organization: FUNET-NGW I figure that it would cost at least $.01 per page to print, so when you figure out time and shipping, you are talking over $100,000 to bill!! Why would cd-rom be cost effective? Although pressimng a cd-rom disk would certainly cost more that creating tapes, you could fit the entire bill on one cd-rom, but you'd have to use more than one tape. CD-roms would create ease of access for clients. Mary Helms University of Nebraska Medical Center mhelms@unmcvm.bitnet or mhelms@unmcvm.unmc.edu From: kdarling@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) Subject: Re: mci to put bills on CD Date: 1 Feb 92 07:35:49 GMT Organization: North Carolina State University emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti) writes: > Yes, I know that paper is expensive to print out and to ship, but > that technology is pretty well entrenched and not easy to make > obsolete just with a little effort. Aside from the central > facilities costs of producing one-off cd-roms, there's the whole > matter of ensuring that customer sites are prepared to > read the disks and make some use from them. A computer and a CDROM drive. It's highly likely that sites receiving thousands of pages of phone bill a month already own such equipment. If not, the cost is nothing compared to the ability gained to track phone usage. Of course, the downside might be: no more sneaking in long distance calls to relatives and girlfriends :) best - kevin From: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti) Subject: Re: mci to put bills on CD Organization: MSEN, Inc. -- Ann Arbor, MI In article "Mary E. Helms -- UNMCVM(MHELMS)" writes: > I figure that it would cost at least $.01 per page to print, so when > you figure out time and shipping, you are talking over $100,000 to > bill!! Why would cd-rom be cost effective? Yes, I know that paper is expensive to print out and to ship, but that technology is pretty well entrenched and not easy to make obsolete just with a little effort. Aside from the central facilities costs of producing one-off cd-roms, there's the whole matter of ensuring that customer sites are prepared to read the disks and make some use from them. Assume that's going to cost a new $1000 machine plus a $300 reader plus another $200-$700 in software to analyze things, to produce 250 of these disks and send them out might require $0.5M in capital investment. Sure, it pays off pretty quickly if all of the costs are properly allocated, but it's still a sizable piece of money someone has to sink into infrastructure. What is interesting about the process as some correspondents described it to me is that the Kodak equipment uses (will use?) write-once CD-ROM technology that's substantially cheaper than the existing stuff, with blanks in the $20-30 range rather than the $75-100. Naturally, your prices may vary, and since you'd typically be buying a service rather than just blank disks the end user cost may be quite a bit different. You can make a lot more mistakes at $25/pop and still come out ahead in the end ... ------------------------------ From: David Ptasnik Subject: AT&T No Longer Billing For Bogus 800 Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 23:13:36 PDT It was recently reported that you could call an 800 number that would bill your phone number like a 900 number, if you stayed on the phone and pressed a few keys. The 800 number was an AT&T number. When AT&T was questioned, they admitted that this was a service they were offering to their 800 customers. Many people felt that this was an improper thing for AT&T to be doing, and a few of them complained. As of today, when you call the number you are no longer told that the call will be billed to your phone number (that's the good news). Instead you are told that you will be getting a bill in the mail (you can guess what that is). This implies to me that the company is getting ANI data including the name and address of the party responsible for the phone line (not the same as the person making the call), and now billing for themselves. Presumably they will turn people who don't pay over to collection agencies. It is my STRONG feeling that this is an inappropriate use of 800 ANI data (another reason to allow blocking of your phone number to 800 numbers, but I'll leave that for the caller ID/privacy mailing list). It means that individuals and organizations who don't allow dialing of 900/976 can still get bills for abuse of their lines thru 800 numbers. I think this still violates the basic principle that 800 calls are free calls. This one ought to get a few courtrooms buzzing, particularly as it appears to be a telesleaze bogus contest/prize company that is pulling this scam. Payphone owners look out. You'll start getting bills in the mail for phone calls that won't appear on your phone bill, and which will be essentially impossible to block. Dave davep@u.washington.edu ------------------------------ Subject: US West and Minitel Date: 2 Feb 92 10:49:46 CST (Sun) From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Here's an interesting pair of messages recently posted to TELECOM: First: > Subject: Oregon PUC Hearing Summary > 16. There is no truth in the idea that US West is trying to put BBS's > "out of business" or that they are in competition with any proposed > services they may offer. US West is interested in not allowing > residential BBS's to be subsidized when their use is non-residential. Second: > Subject: France's Minitel Service > Even though business is going well for Telecom France as well as for > the private service providers, the French government is not satisfied > yet. They want to export the system. The first fat fish on their hook > is the American phone company, US West, which signed a contract last > October. This is perfectly consistent with past LOC activity, for example Southwestern Bell's attempt at killing multiline BBSes in Houston by charging business rates shortly before starting their SourceLine service. The thing that's really sad about this is that the quality of the services they provided were pitiful in comparison with even the low-budget free BBSes running on TRS-80s, and SourceLine died in short order. Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS. +1 713 568 0480|1032 2400/n/8/1. ------------------------------ From: john@newave.mn.org (John A. Weeks III) Subject: One Fax Machine On Two Phone Lines? Date: 2 Feb 92 19:41:46 GMT Organization: NeWave Communications Ltd, Lake Wobegon, MN I have a FAX machine that needs to both send and receive FAXes. I currently have it on a regular phone line -- which works OK. I also have a have a bank of outbound-only long distance telephone lines that are much cheaper to use than a regular phone line. Is there some kind of box available that can switch one FAX machine between two phone lines? It would be OK to have it switch to the long distance line for all outbound calls, it would be better to have it switch only when the outbound phone number starts with a 1. -john- ------------------------------ Date: 31 Jan 92 09:34 +0000 From: Dave_JOHNSTON%01%SRJC@ODIE.SANTAROSA.EDU Subject: A New Switch We at Santa Rosa Junior College are in the throngs of a RFP for a new switch to service ourselves as well as the K-12 school district in our area. We'll have over 1300 stations at 22 locations throughout our realm. We're on a VERY tight schedule for the process and I'm trying to do whatever I can to speed the process along. Here's where you can help. I'd like to hear from Telecom'ers that have installations that are over 600 stations and/or make use of Voice Networking via tie lines, T-1 or PRI. We're expecting responses from all of the major vendors and some of the not-so-major vendors including: AT&T Northern Telecom Fujitsu NEC Intecom Rolm Mitel Toshiba Ericsson Pac Bell(Centrex) I'd appreciate any comments you can make about how the product has worked for you, how the support has been, how reliable it is and whatever other comments you think would be helpful. PLEASE respond to me directly rather than to the list as I'm sure PAT has better things to do that wade through yet more responses. If there is sufficient response and interest I will compile the information and make it available through FTP. Thanks for your help. David Johnston Santa Rosa Junior College Supervisor, Campus Data/Telecommunications 1501 Mendocio Ave. davjohn@caticsuf.csufresno.edu Santa Rosa, CA 95401 Voice 707 527 4853 Fax 707 527 4816 ------------------------------ From: nigel.allen@canrem.uucp (Nigel Allen) Date: 1 Feb 92 (10:31) Subject: LEC Non-Subscriber Calling Cards Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto Other people have mentioned the "non-subscriber" calling cards issued by long-distance carriers to people (such as university students) without exchange carrier telephone service in their own names. In some areas, people without telephone service can get local exchange carrier calling cards as well. In Bell Canada territory, a "deferred applicant" calling card can only be issued with the approval of a second-level Bell manager, and many residential service reps are unfamiliar with the issuing procedure (or even with the fact that such calling cards exist). The British Columbia Telephone Company (B.C. Tel) will issue non-subscriber calling cards as a matter of routine. The service reps ask questions (much like those on a bank credit card application) from an electronic script. You have to provide an address in British Columbia, but this can be the address of a friend or relative. I don't know whether Bell companies in the U.S. or non-Bell local exchange carriers issue non-subscriber calling cards, but I suspect that policies vary significantly between carriers. Canada Remote Systems. Toronto, Ontario NorthAmeriNet Host ------------------------------ From: ruck@zeta.ee.ufl.edu (John R Ruckstuhl Jr) Subject: Bell ?? Cuts Superconductor Research? Organization: EE Dept at UF Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 12:58:19 GMT Sometime during the last week, I either saw on TV, or read in the {Wall Street Journal}, a news report which indicated that somebody just made a big cut in their superconductor research program. Now I don't remember if it was Bell Labs or Bellcore. Who was it, please? Thank you, John R Ruckstuhl, Jr ruck@alpha.ee.ufl.edu Dept of Electrical Engineering ruck@cis.ufl.edu, uflorida!ruck University of Florida ruck%sphere@cis.ufl.edu, sphere!ruck ------------------------------ From: heimat!rehab1!rehab2!dans@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (Dan Schein) Subject: New Cellular Phone User Seeks Advice Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 14:59:45 EST I am new to the world of cellular phones (OK, so I waited for the price to drop ;-). Like all my toys I have the desire to know more. Can anyone send me details on exactly how the communications work. Things like how they pass ID's and what type of ID's are used. How another system knows who I am when in 'roam' mode. How I tell what system I am roaming in (on?). What all the various portions of a NAM are. Details on the MID part works. Basically everything you can tell me will be appreciated. Reading Rehabilitation Hospital Dan Schein - Information Systems RD 1 Box 250 Reading, PA 19607 dans@rehab2.UUCP -or- ....{uunet,rutgers}!cbmvax!rehab1!rehab2!dans [Moderator's Note: Please respond direct to Dan, thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Feb 92 18:35:28 -0500 From: febb@rm105serve.sas.upenn.edu Subject: Questions About Technophone PC 205 Hi all: I just got a new celular (portable) phone. Curiously, I assume I should not have the procedure to program new NAM's (Number Assignment Module ??) into my phone. The case is that I DO have such procedure because of a mistake of the dealer; he had to tell it to me. The phone is a Technophone PC 205. What I want to ask to you folks who know about cellular technology, is what each of the following terms is and what is it used for ? NAM (Num. Assignment Module ?) AMPS_A (or AMPS_B) (It asks which one is the default) SID (System ID ?) MIN2 (This has the country code and city code) MTS ( Same as the above) MIN1 (This parameter's value is the actual cellular phone number) Number (That parameter has the actual cellular number) ACCOLC (This has the value '10', I dont have an idea of what it is) EX (This has just the number one '1' stored) AREA (This is an alphanumeric field containing the name of my cellular area. Are cellular areas assigned names, or I can just write in this field any label? ) INT'L (This has the number I dial to get the celular operator) Emerg (This has the emergency phone #, such as 911 in the US) Oper (Another number to get the operator) I would like to know what is the meaning of each one of these acronyms and what is it used for. Also, if any of you has a Technophone (which is made in the UK, by the way) and has some hints on how to use it or program it, I would be more than glad to exchange some info with you. One last thing: if any of you have a file about cellular telephony I would like to see it. I am interested on how it works, standards, techonlogies etc. (OR an ftp place where I could get this kind of information.) Thanks in advance for your help. Regards. Felipe Barousse febb@rm105serve.sas.upenn.edu [Moderator's Note: Please respond direct to Felipe, thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #107 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa14745; 2 Feb 92 23:12 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04733 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 21:29:28 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10333 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 2 Feb 1992 21:29:11 -0600 Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 21:29:11 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199202030329.AA10333@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Intel's High Speed Modem White Paper Here is another submission of interest to readers involved in high speed modem communications. It was too long to be included in a regular issue of the Digest. PAT From: samp@pro-gallup.cts.com (System Administrator) Subject: Intel's High Speed Modem White Paper Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA Date: Sun, 02 Feb 1992 00:16:10 GMT HIGH SPEED MODEM COMMUNICATIONS A modem is essential for the well-connected PC. And the right modem can not only broaden your computer's horizons but save you time and money, too. If you're thinking of getting a modem, particularly a high speed modem, this paper explains basic terms and concepts and provides background information that can help you make an intelligent choice. o Expanding the Reach of Your Computer A modem is among the most useful items you can add to your PC or Macintosh computer. With a modem, you can log on to your office computer from across town or across the country. You can download files, send electronic mail or play electronic chess with a partner on the other side of the globe. A modem also offers a cost-effective way to link local area networks (LANs) or access remote databases. Today's high speed modems not only bring all these capabilities to the desktop, but also offer faster data transfer speeds and more accurate communications than ever before. Not surprisingly, they're the fastest growing segment of the modem marketplace. The word modem is a contraction of MOdulate and DEModulate. A modem converts-or MOmodulates-a computer's digital signals into analog signals that can travel over phone lines. On the other end of the phone connection, a receiving modem DEModulates the analog signals, converting them back to the digital form computers read. How fast is a "high speed" modem? Defining the term "fast" in the computer field is like trying to hit a moving target. When PCs were introduced in the early 1980s, a modem that could transmit data at 300 bits per second (bps) was considered fast. Not long afterward, 2,400 bps became the norm for "high speed" PC communications, and looked as if it would last indefinitely. Even a few years ago, the technology to support modem communications at 9,600 bps was expensive and difficult to implement. Worse, many vendors of 9,600 bps modems used proprietary protocols, so if you bought a high speed modem, you had no confidence it would communicate with anything except another modem from the same vendor. o How Fast is Fast? All that has changed. Today, for under $600, 9,600 bps modems have set new expectations for fast, error-free communications. Most vendors now support international standards, such as the V.32 standard for 9,600 bps modems, which ensure compatibility among different vendors products. A new modem standard, V.32bis, is once again raising the "high speed" flag to new heights-14.4 kbps (14,400 bps), or 50 percent faster than V.32. And, thanks to data compression techniques, effective throughput can be as much as four times higher-up to 38.4 kbps, for a 9,600 bps V.32 modem, and up to 57.6 kbps for a 14.4 kbps, V.32bis modem. That's 192 times faster than the 300 bps modem of the early PC era. o Time Equals Money Who needs a high speed modem? A fast modem saves you time and money, particularly if you often transfer large files -- if you're in a field such as desktop publishing, computer-aided design, accounting, graphics or computer programming, for example, or if you download files from bulletin board services and data services. A faster modem also speeds up response time during interactive sessions-accessing a computer from a computer in another location. For example, if through remote control communications software you're using another computer's word processor or graphics editor, you'll spend less time waiting for screen updates. In modem communications, time savings translate directly into money savings-in long-distance phone charges and on-line service charges. In fact, if you transfer a one-megabyte file once a week and pay long-distance line charges of $0.24 per minute, a 14.4 kbps modem can save you more than $800 over the course of a year compared to sending the same file with a 2,400 bps modem. ** TIME = MONEY: SENDING A 1MB FILE ONCE A WEEK ** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Modem Speed Transmission Transmission Transmission Pay Back in Number of and Average Time/Week Cost/Week Cost/Year Megabytes and Hours of Throughput File Transfer Usage _____________________________________________________________________________ 2,400 bps 70 min $16.80 $873.60 Mbytes Hours _____________________________________________________________________________ 9,600 bps 21.333 kbps 8 min $ 1.92 $124.50 40 5.33 _____________________________________________________________________________ 14.4 kbps 32 kbps 5.25 min $ 1.26 $ 65.52 44 3.85 _____________________________________________________________________________ At those rates, a higher speed modem pays for itself within a matter of hours. A 14.4 kbps modem priced at $699 pays for itself in less than four hours of file transfer usage. A 9,600 bps modem priced at $599 pays for itself in around five hours. o Standards for Modems Standards, such as those established by companies like Intel and IBM for the PC industry, help ensure compatibility among products from different vendors, offering users peace of mind and a more open marketplace. For modems, as for many other communication and electronics products, international standards are formulated by the International Consultative Committee for Telephone and Telegraph. This organization, sponsored by the United Nations, is known as the CCITT, after the initials of the French form of its name. Four CCITT standards are important for high speed modems: * V.32 and V.32bis specify modulation techniques and other protocols for modem communications at 9,600 bps and 14.4 kbps, respectively. (bis indicates the second version of a specification.) * V.42bis specifies data compression techniques that make it possible to transmit up to four times as much data in the same amount of time. * V.42 specifies error control techniques that help ensure accurate transmissions even over noisy phone lines. ** CCITT International Modem Standards ** _____________________________________________________________________________ Standard Introduced Specification for _____________________________________________________________________________ V.32bis Feb. 1991 14,400/12,000/9,600/7,200/4,800 bps modulation _____________________________________________________________________________ V.32 1984 9,600/4,800 bps modulations _____________________________________________________________________________ V.22bis 1981 2,400 bps modulation _____________________________________________________________________________ V.22 1978 1,200 bps modulation _____________________________________________________________________________ V.21 1964 300 bps modulation _____________________________________________________________________________ V.42bis 1989 Data compression (4:1) _____________________________________________________________________________ V.42 1989 Error control _____________________________________________________________________________ o High Speed Modulation: V.32 and V.32bis A modem's speed depends on its baud rate-the measurement of how many times per second a modem transmits and the number of bits of data sent with each baud. It's a bit like a machine gun that fires a certain number of times per minute but fires several bullets with each "shot." For example, 2,400 bps modem runs at 600 baud and sends four bits with each baud. Today's 9,600 bps and 14.4 kbps modems operate at 2,400 baud, but transmit four and six bits per baud, respectively. Unlike fax modems, which are typically half-duplex devices that take turns sending and receiving data, data modems are full duplex-two communicating modems send and receive data at the same time. At slower speeds, data modems handle full-duplex communications by sending and receiving at different signal frequencies. This approach doesn't work at 9,600 bps or higher because the bandwidth of ordinary voice phone lines simply isn't wide enough. Instead, V.32 and V.32bis modems use a sophisticated technique called echo cancellation. The modem isolates and filters out the "echo," the int