Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04904; 19 Jun 93 4:58 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12570 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 02:18:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12799 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 02:18:01 -0500 Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 02:18:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306190718.AA12799@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #401 TELECOM Digest Sat, 19 Jun 93 02:18:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 401 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: What is a 'Trunk'? (Al Varney) Re: What is a 'Trunk'? (Steve Forrette) Re: Spuyten Duyvil and Similar Areas (Bryan D. Boyle) Re: Spuyten Duyvil and Similar Areas (Lee S. Parks) Re: Spuyten Duyvil and Similar Areas (Mike King) Re: Remember the War on Pagers? Try This on For Size! (Charles Mattair) Re: Remember the War on Pagers? Try This on For Size! (Dave Hsu) Re: Need Modem Lockout Circuit (Rich Greenberg) Re: Need Modem Lockout Circuit (Jeremy Ginger) Re: Headset Equipped Cordless? (Monty Solomon) Re: Headset Equipped Cordless? (Matt White) Re: Cordless Headset That Works With ISOETEC "EZ" Phones? (Mark Terribile) Re: Cordless Headset That Works With ISOETEC "EZ" Phones? (Slonim Edwin) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Before submitting articles for publication, please read a copy of our file 'writing.to.telecom'. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 16:56:05 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: What is a 'Trunk'? Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article foxx@netcom.com (Dave Haber) writes from his foxhole on the front lines of the Trunk Holy Wars!: > Tansin A. Darcos & Company (0005066432@mcimail.com) wrote: >> The user asked the question, "What is a trunk?" >> A "trunk" is an actual, physical path and/or circuit available for the >> transmission of information in a telephone system. For example, a >> pair of telephone wire represents one "trunk". A fiber-optic cable, >> because it can multiplex many simultaneous connections, may have >> 10,000 "trunks" in it. >> ...You have "300 phone lines" inside the building, but only "40 >> trunks" coming from the outside. > I agree 100%, but tell that to my GTE rep! > Having most of my experience in the PBX end of telephony, I think of > trunks automatically as outside lines and 'lines' as inside lines. A > single line connection to a residence is a trunk also, although it's > not commonly referred to that way ... > HOWEVER, my GTE rep should be used to dealing with big business > customers, and everytime I call up to add more 'trunks' (GTE outside > lines) to my switch, we get in a BIG argument. "No, you don't want > trunks," she insists. "Those are something different. You want > ground start business lines." Having all my experience in the switching end of telephony, I think of trunks as "inter-office" circuits and lines as "user-to-central-office" circuits. But even that is colored by 1E/1A ESS(tm) Switch internals. The reality is that TRUNKS and LINES are not as clearly separated as the Telephone industry would suggest. Bellcore's {BOC Notes on the LEC Network} isn't even consistent in it's usage from page to page. For example, "Notes" states that PBXs use TRUNKS to connect to central offices, then three paragraphs later mentions "PBX lines" when discussing those same circuits. That's probably because most CO switching people recognize either term, and use the appropriate one based on context. The classic LINE definition is a two- or four-wire access interface between a switching office (the telephone network) and a customer point. The most important word here is ACCESS. TRUNKS are circuits that interconnect switching points in the telephone network. So from a PBX viewpoint, a line is the PBX-attached telephone (using anything from two analog wires to packet voice LANs) and a trunk is the circuit interconnecting the PBX to a CO. From the TELCo's perspective, it's the PBX itself making the call (i.e., ACCESSing the network), so the PBX circuit is a line and any circuit interconnecting the CO to other parts of the telephone network is a trunk. Even within the TELCo, there are circuits typically called trunks at one end and lines at another -- tie trunks, tie lines and FX lines are examples of the mixed terms used for very similar applications. Note that connections to non-customer terminals such as announcements, tones, operators, intercept equipment, test equipment and test panels are called trunks, since they are not access circuits that "leave the network". Another way of describing lines is as circuits that receive billing and trunks as circuits that are unbilled. But various kludges since the '40s have used "trunk circuits" in a billed manner, so that view is also not accurate. GTE probably insists on the "line" view because that's the tariff language. In a tariff, various types of access lines are mentioned. Some TELCos offer "trunk" connections, but only to such entities as other TELCos, IXCs, Mobile Carriers. So GTE isn't tariffed to offer you a "trunk" connection. Al Varney - opinion only ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: What is a 'Trunk'? Date: 19 Jun 1993 00:23:29 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article foxx@netcom.com (Dave Haber) writes: > HOWEVER, my GTE rep should be used to dealing with big business > customers, and everytime I call up to add more 'trunks' (GTE outside > lines) to my switch, we get in a BIG argument. "No, you don't want > trunks," she insists. "Those are something different. You want > ground start business lines." I could not pin her down, however, on > what she thought a trunk was ... I just have to remember not to use > the 'T' word when I call GTE ... The GTE rep is using her terminology correctly (at least as far as I understand the technology :-). Of course, she is referring to things from the point of view of the telco switch, which may be different from your point of view. A telco switch generally has two sides -- a "trunk" side and a "line" side. The line side is the one that subcribers connect to for POTS lines, including the "ground start business line" that you ordered. The trunk side of the switch connects to the trunk side of other telco switches, and can also connect to customers. A common "trunk" that a customer might order would be a DID trunk. Also, if you have direct T1 access to an LEC's switch, it is most likely on the trunk side of the switch. Of course, if you try to apply a similar terminology to your switch, your extensions are indeed "lines," and your connections to the telco could be considered "trunks," even though in your case they connect to "lines" from the telco. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: bdboyle@erenj.com (Bryan D. Boyle) Subject: Re: Spuyten Duyvil and Similar Areas Reply-To: bdboyle@erenj.com (Bryan D. Boyle) Organization: Exxon Research & Engineering Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 12:21:04 GMT In article , John.J.Butz@att.com writes: A whole lot 'o deletin' goin' on... > I have no idea what exchanges are used in Marble Hill. However, > Manhattan College just north in Riverdale uses 920, and the two > apartments I lived in used 796 and 549 respectively. > If you ever return to the area, the pastor of the local Presbyterian > Church sponsors a free history walk thru the Marble Hill, Spuyten > Duyvil, and Kingsbridge neighborhoods every May. Don't worry, despite > the Bronx's bad rep, these neighborhoods are the best kept secrets in > New York City. I will second that emotion in the last paragraph ... if you do visit the area, then go a little more north on the Henry Hudson Parkway to Mosholu Parkway east and visit the Bronx Zoo and Botanical Gardens (and Fordham University's campus, a lot nicer than Manhattan's...:-)) (I know this has nothing to do with telecom, but a little culture never hurt any subject discussion ...;)) Bryan D. Boyle |EMAIL: bdboyle@erenj.com #include |Hack first and ask questions later. 908 730-3338 |ER & E Co. Rt. 22 East, Annandale, NJ ------------------------------ From: lsp@Panix.Com (Lee S. Parks) Subject: Re: Spuyten Duyvil and Similar Areas Date: 18 Jun 1993 14:34:54 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC For reasons arising from accients of history the phone service in Greenwich, Connecticut is provided by New York Telephone and is included in the metro-N.Y. LATA (212, 917, 718, 516 and part of 914). There are also funny quirks that give New Jersey Bell the right to offer inter-LATA service between [portions] of Northern Jersey and the metro-N.Y. LATA. I don't really remember all of the details concerning these areas (there were a lot) which were spelled out as part of divestiture. lee (lsp@athena.mit.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 08:57:26 EDT From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: Re: Spuyten Duyvil and Similar Areas In TELECOM Digest, V13, #388, ac388@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu (Jack Decker) writes: > This is a bit late, but in a message a few days ago, Carl Moore talked > about some geographic oddities and how they receive phone service > (such as Carter Lake, Iowa). I know of a few more: > 1) Lost Peninsula, Michigan ... was part of Ohio (it's adjacent to [...] > 2) Point Roberts, Washington ... physically connected to Canada and > not to the rest of Washington State (kids used to take a bus 40 miles > through Canada to get to school in Blaine, Washington). Used to get > phone service from BC Tel, and was a local call to the metro Vancouver > area. Don't know what the status of any of this is today. > 3) Angle Inlet, Minnesota ... physically connected to Saskatchewan, [...] > I'd be kind of interested to know how phone service is currently > provided to these communities. By the way, Point Roberts is/was NOT > the only example of cross-border local calling between the U.S. and > Canada, though instances of such are relatively rare and usually > confined to very small towns. I checked with a correspondent who lives in a Vancouver suburb, and his response is: " ...their one exchange (945) is in the 206 area code, which is Washington State; and the BC Tel operator tells me that, at least from here, it is a long distance call ($0.14 / minute). However, that may be merely from my community (New Westminster); that's a very low price, lower than any of the within-BC prices, so it may well be a local call from metro Vancouver. I know there is one BC area service, MindLink, that among other things will allow you to call US 800 numbers; they run a dedicated line across to Pt. Roberts, I think. I can get details from them, if it's really of interest." [Charles Wangersky] Mike King | +1 301-428-5384 | I don't speak for my Software Sourcerer | mking@fsd.com or | employer. My employer Fairchild Space | 73710.1430@compuserve.com | doesn't speak for me. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 10:05:13 CDT From: mattair@synercom.hounix.org (Charles Mattair) Subject: Re: Remember the War on Pagers? Try This on For Size! Organization: Synercom Technology, Inc., Houston, TX In article rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) writes: >> When the officer searched the suspect, imagine his surprise at finding >> a realistic looking, ersatz pager that turns into a FUNCTIONING .22 >> caliber handgun (I guess about the size and range of a Derringer). >> The report was that it was dangerous, and available in convincing >> neon/day-glo colors to avoid detection ... > This report is utter BS. This is not utter BS. They had one of these little playtoys on the local news last week. Kinda sorta like a fold up Derringer (sp?). Single shot .22 - I would suspect .22 short. Probably wouldn't kill you but still nothing to triffle with. Charles Mattair (work) mattair@synercom.hounix.org (home) cgm@elmat.synercom.hounix.org ------------------------------ From: hsu@pix.com Subject: Re: Remember the War on Pagers? Try This on For Size! Organization: Pix -- The company with no adult supervision. Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 01:51:24 GMT In article cnorloff@tecnet1.jcte.jcs. mil writes: > I haven't seen these actual weapons, but in the photos they look > nothing like pagers. Though they are small, based on the reports of > officers concealing them in cigarette packs (using them as backup > weapons). > Probably about as accurate and useful as any firearm with about a > one-inch barrel (that is not very, unless *extremely* close), but it > raises "concealability" to new levels! The gun in question is the North American Arms .22LR revolver with their optional "Holster Grip". Its barrel length is actually 1 5/8" and the folding, locking grip actually renders this gun somewhat bulkier than with the original grip. It wasn't designed to look like a pager, and after seeing the TV reports I was struck by how much it resembles a Spyderco Clipit pocketknife when carried in the pocket. Oddly, the police seem unaware of the holster that IS designed to look like a pager, advertised in Shotgun News by a company in Waco, Texas (is it mere coincidence? Hmmm ...) Approximately the same size as the N.A.A. revolver, but marked on the front "SATLINK ***** WIDE AREA PAGING", this "pager" has a button on top which releases the front cover, revealing the inner compartment and a retaining strap. The compartment is sized to accept a variety of compact handguns, avail- able in calibers up to .32ACP. Yet another reason to favor the credit-card-sized pagers. Dave Hsu -or- Gruppenslackerfuhrer Pix Technologies Corporation ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Need Modem Lockout Circuit Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 02:10:43 GMT In article gary.w.sanders@att.com writes: > In article patfieldk@agcs.com (Kevin M. > Patfield) writes: >> [I hope this isn't a FAQ but our site doesn't have a copy] >> Can someone please help me with a circuit for preventing someone >> breaking my modem connection by picking up an extension phone? I know > I need just the reverse. I have three dedicated data pots lines and > one shared voice data. Normally the voice line has data going across You need an exclusion button on the phone. Pull up one of the handset cradle buttons, and a switch in the phone cuts off the modem which is wired downstream from the phone. See your local telephonedroid. You can also do this yourself by mounting a DPDT toggle switch near or in or on the phone. The two common lugs on the switch go to the network interface, the pair on one end of the switch connects to the phone, the pair of lugs on the other end of the switch connects to the modem. The switch is normally in the modem position. Flip the switch, wait a few seconds for the remote modem to give up, and pick the phone up. Note that both of these methods may need some re-wireing. Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside CA 619-631-5280 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 I speak for myself only. Canines: Chinook & Husky ------------------------------ From: STUDENT@uunet.uu.net (JEREMY GINGER) Subject: Re: Need Modem Lockout Circuit Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia. Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 11:18:01 GMT In article patfieldk@agcs.com (Kevin M. Patfield) writes: > Can someone please help me with a circuit for preventing someone > breaking my modem connection by picking up an extension phone? I know > I could just buy a couple from Radio Shack but where's the > intellectual challenge in that :-) I presume the way these things work > is to use an scr or something similar to only connect the extension > phones to the line when line voltage is present. Connect two Zenner Diodes (11 V) back-to-back in series with the lower priority line. If you know the polarity of the wire you can get away with one Zenner. Usual warning: Any device connected to the phone company's lines must be approved. Jeremy ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 05:08:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Headset Equipped Cordless? > I think a decent 900MHz cordless (Don't need anything other than POTS > access) with a headset feature would be just the ticket. Can anyone > steer me to a vendor / supplier? Has anyone actually used such an > instrument? HelloSet Cordless for $399 900 MHz, 32 channel, 50' Hello Direct, Inc. 5884 Eden Park Place San Jose CA 95138 800 444 3556 (800 HI HELLO) 408 972 1990 Fax 408 972 8155 Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ From: whitem@jester.usask.ca (Matt White) Subject: Re: Headset Equipped Cordless? Date: 18 Jun 1993 17:05:00 GMT Organization: University of Saskatchewan On Wed, 16 Jun 93 15:38:59 GMT, adams,john (jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore. com) wrote: > I think a decent 900MHz cordless (Don't need anything other than POTS > access) with a headset feature would be just the ticket. Can anyone > steer me to a vendor / supplier? Has anyone actually used such an > instrument? Well, I don't know if they're still being made, but back when I used to be a sales droid at Radio Shack, they came out with a cordless headset phone. Never saw one (they weren't released yet by the time I quit -- about summer of '89), but they may still be around (no guarantee on the sound quality, though ... the other models we used to have weren't too good). Matt White whitem@jester.usask.ca User Support & Training Matt.White@usask.ca Dept. of Computing Services Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA University of Saskatchewan My real computer is an Amiga... ------------------------------ From: mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us Subject: Re: Cordless Headset That Works With ISOETEC "EZ" Key System Phones? Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 03:46:15 GMT In article , helen@nomad.urich.edu (Helen C. O'Boyle) writes: > Does anyone know where I might get one? > Failing this, does anyone know how I might hook up my trusty > Plantronics Liteset to the usual key-phone jack (everyone has the same > kind of jack, "by policy"; I'm stuck with the line the way it is > configured) used for that ISOETEC phone system? ... > I would have RTFM'd, but alas, TFM's belong to Corporate MIS and I'm > in R&D, so I don't have access to them. Is there any chance as that you can claim either a handicap or a job-related stress problem that requires the headset? That might get the Big Bosses off their high-and-mighty-if-I-want-you-to-know-what's- good-for-you-I'll-tell-you platform. (This man's opinions are his own.) From mole-end Mark Terribile mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us, Somewhere in Matawan, NJ ------------------------------ From: slonim@intel.com (Slonim Edwin) Subject: Re: Cordless Headset That Works With ISOETEC "EZ" Key System Phones? Date: 18 Jun 1993 12:44:57 GMT Organization: Intel Israel (74) Ltd. Helen C. O'Boyle (helen@nomad.urich.edu) wrote: > Does anyone know where I might get one? Plantronics also make a model called the SP05, which hooks in-between the telephone and the handset. This allows it to work with digital phone sets and other unusual beasts. It has volume, sensitivity and ?impedance? settings so that it will work with almost anything. About $70. Edwin Slonim, Intel Software Products, Haifa, Israel, eslonim@inside.intel.com phone (011)+972-435-5910, fax (011)+972-435-5674 voicemail (916)356-2005 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #401 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa06456; 19 Jun 93 5:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21045 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 03:08:54 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24754 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 03:08:12 -0500 Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 03:08:12 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306190808.AA24754@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #402 TELECOM Digest Sat, 19 Jun 93 03:08:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 402 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Cordless Phone With Answering Machine Wanted (Dan J. Declerck) Re: Cordless Phone With Answering Machine Wanted (Monty Solomon) Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting (Guy Montgomery) Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting (Dave Grabowski) Re: *67 Caller-ID Question (David G. Lewis) CNID and Call Return Marriage (Mark T. Miller) Re: Blocking an Unlisted Number (Bob Frankston) Re: Opinions Wanted: Future of Healthcare Telecom (Andy Sherman) Re: Need Northern Telecom Contact on the Internet (Charles Ledogar) Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey (Jeff Wasilko) Re: Plugging Telephone Handset Directly Into Phoneline (Jim Rees) Re: More "Features" For AT&T's 1-800 Service (John Osmon) Re: Who Pays? (Les Reeves) Re: Orange Card Customer Service (Ed Greenberg) Re: Desireable Answering Machine Feature? (Kenneth R. Crudup) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com (Dan J. Declerck) Subject: Re: Cordless Phone With Answering Machine Wanted Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 17:00:06 GMT In article oppedahl@Panix.Com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: > In juyoung@kiwi.ucs.indiana.edu writes: >> In article sattler@rtsg.mot.com (Chris >> Sattler) writes: >>> I'm looking to get a cordless phone with a built in answering machine. >>> I need it to be wall-mountable. Does anyone know of anything like >>> this? Any recommendations? >> Try reading {Consumers Reports} (Nov 91, I think). Though the info >> may be a bit outdated, it helps. > In my book, I recommend _not_ getting a combined answering machine and > telephone. I feel the same way about a combined answering machine and > cordless phone. The reason is simple -- if one breaks, you have to > throw them both away. What's more, the answering machine that you > would really like will probably happen not to be packaged with the > cordless phone that you would really like. You would end up settling > for second-best on one or the other. The major problem with answering machine reliability is the moving parts of the tape mechanism (same problems exist in VCR's). AT&T now sells a fully digital answering machine, and Motorola will soon ship a version of it's cordless phone with a fully digital answering machine integrated into the base. Therefore the reliability issues you raise will disappear. Personal choice will always be an issue with products, this is why integrated software never really went anywhere (like Lotus Symphony). Sometimes it works pretty well, like speed-dialers and cellular phones, Cellular modems and laptops, Hands-free and car-phones, etc. I guess the market will tell us in about nine months, eh?? Motorola has a tendency to things pretty well, but then, I'm pretty biased. Dan DeClerck EMAIL: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com Motorola Cellular APD Phone: (708) 632-4596 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 03:46:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Cordless Phone With Answering Machine Wanted > In my book, I recommend _not_ getting a combined answering machine and > telephone. I feel the same way about a combined answering machine and > cordless phone. The reason is simple -- if one breaks, you have to > throw them both away. What's more, the answering machine that you > would really like will probably happen not to be packaged with the > cordless phone that you would really like. You would end up settling > for second-best on one or the other. Some units with combined phone and answering machine have the ability to call another number whenever a message is left. I haven't seen this feature in units that did not have an integral telephone. I frequently use this feature. I recently saw an ad for unit that is a combined phone, answering machine, fax, copier, printer, and scanner! [Moderator's Note: My fax machine is a Panasonic with all these features except for printer and scanner. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gmontgomery@sdesys1.hns.com (Guy Montgomery) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 13:28:47 GMT Organization: Hughes Network Systems Inc. In article , tchen@sdesys1.hns.com (Thomas Chen) writes: > Just out of curiosity, since telco sends the information between first > ring and second ring, how many digits can it send? What about the > thing I heard that some Caller-IDs actually display ASCII? How is that > done? Tom, All of the data, time of call and the calling number, is sent as ASCII, as are the P and O indicators, according to FSD 01-02-1051. The data transmission mechanism is very similar to a regular 1200 baud modem. This document only seems to call out calling number delivery, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that calling name delivery is also possible, and since the data is already sent in ASCII it would not seem to be a problem. The above document implies that only ten digits can be sent, but the message format has a byte count in it, so presumably more characters can be sent. Guy Montgomery Hughes Network Systems (HNS),Germantown, MD 20876 Tel: (301) 428-2981 Internet: gmontgomery@hns.com FAX: (301) 428-1868 Opinions are mine, and not necessarily HNS's [Moderator's Note: We went through this before, and I am almost certain the data is *NOT* sent as ASCII. Anyone remember my failed experiments at trying to get my modem to feed the data to my terminal? It is some other format. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dcg5662@hertz.njit.edu (Dave Grabowski) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 03:37:12 GMT In article tchen@sdesys1.hns.com (Thomas Chen) writes: > Just out of curiosity, since telco sends the information between first > ring and second ring, how many digits can it send? What about the > thing I heard that some Caller-IDs actually display ASCII? How is that > done? The Caller-ID signal is a standard Bell 202 carrier -- 1200 baud FSK. The data sent consists of six fields of information: 1. Channel seizure: 30 bytes of "01010101" to signal the CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) and synchronize. 2. Carrier: 150ms of a "mark" 3. Message Type: Signifies what type of message follows. This can be used to signify single or multiple messages, as well as message waiting features. Note that these are, as of now, not used. 4. Message length: Self-explanatory. 5. Data words: Month, Day, Hour, and Minute of message (8 bytes), followed by the calling number or "P" for private, "O" for out of area. All data is transmitted in ASCII. 6. Checksum: To make sure everything came in okay. Some boxes will display "error" if the checksum doesn't match. Theoretically, you could hack a 1200 baud modem to monitor your phone line and receive CID information. However, you'd have to make sure that it didn't supervise the line, and it would have to ignore the fact that 99.99% of the time there wouldn't be a carrier present. _Nuts_And_Volts has had an interesting series on Caller ID, if you want to get involved with hardware. Check the April and May issues. Also, about a year ago, the "Hardware Hacker" column in _Radio_Electronics_ (now called _Electronics_Now_) had a bunch of caller ID tidbits. Dave dcg5662@hertz.njit.edu 70721.2222@compuserve.com [Moderator's Note: Some time ago, I put a tap on my line; fed the modem from that tap; and had the modem in 'answer mode' at 1200 baud. I also gave the modem ATH1 to keep it off hook. All I could ever get was gibberish, apparently because I was expecting ASCII and instead the telco sent FSK. How would you hack the modem otherwise? PAT] ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: *67 Caller-ID Question Organization: AT&T Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 13:27:51 GMT In article mjung@coplex.coplex.com (Mike Jung) writes: [description of using *67 to block calling number delivery, yet still having AT&T voicemail service "know" the number that the call is coming from, deleted for the sake of brevity.] > [Moderator's Note: A common error is to mix up Caller-ID and Automatic > Number Identification (ANI)... > Your use of *67 does not hide your number from other telcos > or network services; it is only intended to tell those other telcos or > network services to not reveal your number to the called party. In the > case of voicemail supplied by telco, this is just a network service, > not an actual end user or subscriber. You *cannot ever block ANI* from > being delivered. *67 has no effect on ANI. A minor clarification: AT&T is still obligated to act under some Computer Inquiry II/III constraints. Other people in my organization are responsible for this, so I don't claim to be an expert, but one implication I am aware of is that any services provided by the regulated AT&T long distance network for AT&T Messaging Service (probably SM or TM) must be available to any other customer wishing to provide messaging services by directly connecting to the AT&T network. Therefore, the fact that AMS gets the caller's ANI, which can not be blocked by *67, is due to the fact that AT&T offers to directly connected customers an ANI delivery service, not due to the fact that the messaging service is provided by AT&T. If John Publick wanted to offer John's Voicemail Service by having a voicemail box hooked up to an AT&T ISDN PRI, he could get the same ANI information as AMS gets. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ From: miller@dg-rtp.dg.com (Mark T. Miller) Subject: CNID and Call Return Marriage Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 19:21:14 EDT I hadn't seen the combination of CNID and Call Return mentioned before I got my current GTE phone bill. According to the enclosure, the NC PUC has approved the announcement of the number being redialed in response to an Automatic Call Return. The notice reads, in part: "when the person you called uses Automatic Call Return he/she will hear, 'The number of the last incoming call was (number). To return the call press ONE. Otherwise, please hang up." If you block you CNID, the announcement says: "The last calling number was marked private and cannot be announced. To return the call ..." Mark T. Miller miller@dg-rtp.dg.com ...uunet!xyzzy!miller ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Re: Blocking an Unlisted Number Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 11:12 -0400 David Lewis asked "Then you need something very different from the service which is being offered by the telcos -- it offers the listing name, and the listing name only.". You touch one of my pet peeves. Given that numbers are cheap (OK, in 1995 they'll be cheap), why can't one standardly have home ISDN that provides personal phone numbers for each person (or logical entity) in a household. Sort of extended distinctive ringing. When placing a call one would have the option of identifying the caller either explicitly or by instrument (AKA phone) used? Of course, with PCS this might all be moot since you'll just have your own phone and number with you all the time. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 13:44:44 EDT Subject: Re: Opinions Wanted: Future of Healthcare Telecom From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) On 4 Jun 93 04:02:05 GMT, Bob.Ackley@axolotl.omahug.org (Bob Ackley) said: > AT&T has a remote system that allows a rural hospital to > have xrays read by a radiologist over a phone link (VERY few rural > hospitals have a radiologist anywhere near, let alone on the medical > staff). I looked *VERY* closely at the B&W monitor at a demo some > years ago and I could not discern any dots or scan lines, just the > xray image. The rep said that the image was 1K x 1K bytes, giving > 2^8 shades of gray. Much to my regret, AT&T is no longer in that business. The system to which you refer is the CommView system, which I worked on for several years. AT&T still manufactures hardware for its former joint venture partner, Philips Medical Systems. As far as I know, Philips is still selling them. Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com "These opinions are mine, all *MINE*. My employer can't have them." ------------------------------ From: ledogar@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Charles Ledogar) Subject: Re: Need Northern Telecom Contact on the Internet Date: 18 Jun 93 19:26:23 GMT Organization: Northern Telecom In article veilleux@gyzmo.telecom-mais. hydro.qc.ca (Wayne Veilleux) writes: > Does anyone know of a Northern Telecom contact on the Internet, email > address or ftp anonymous server I can contact that would have this > kind of information? Yes, direct your questions to Jeffrey.Smith@nt.com. Charlie Ledogar Northern Telecom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 12:36:26 PDT From: jeffw@triple-i.com (Jeff Wasilko) Subject: Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey >> [Moderator's Note: This new feature has proven to be a nuisance to >> administrators of phone systems (in hotels for example) who find >> themselves getting all these 35 cent charges from extension-users who >> made a call to 411, and got the call connected that way without the PBX >> ever knowing about it. Not only do they get the 35 cent charge on the >> PBX bill, they get the charge for the call itself, which, since it was >> not seen by the PBX will not show up in the call detail for the >> purpose of billing the individual responsible. PAT] > While I understand that this feature is really annoying for phone > system admins, I love the feature. I no longer have either find a pen > and paper or even remember the number. This is quite usefull when > calling from payphones. At my former job, I was the phone admin. When SNET was ready to start the service, I got a letter explaining the new auto-connect option (and it's implications for call accounting and least-cost-routing/ special trunks). SNET offered to block the service on all of our lines for no charge, initially. After the start-up period, they would charge $21/per line to remove the service ... Jeff (Now at Information International, jeffw@triple-i.com) [Moderator's Note: But can you really imagine anyone paying $21 per line at some future point to have such a worthless feature re-enabled on their line just so they could pay everytime they used it? I am sure for most people, once gone, that 'feature' stays gone. Centel here in the Chicago area has another pretty useless offering called 'warm line'. Take your phone off hook and *do nothing*. After a few seconds of time out, some preset number of your choice will be dialed. I guess some people find it useful, but if I wanted a private circuit ringdown, I would just order one; those start ringing immediatly when they go off hook, not 10-15 seconds into a timeout. I've never seen anyone offer this except Centel here in our area. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Subject: Re: Plugging Telephone Handset Directly Into Phoneline Date: 18 Jun 1993 22:11:41 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI In article , akodama@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii. Edu (Arthur Kodama) writes: > So I ask thee knowledgeable Telecom reader, is it possible to make the > handset transmit onto the line when directly connected to the phone > line/wall jack? If you have an old style handset with a carbon mic, then just putting the mic in series with the receiver will give you a somewhat usable phone. The sidetone will be horrible, you may have to shout, you may not draw enough current to hold the line open, there won't be any pop/click suppression or long loop compensation, or any of the other nice things that the WE network gives you, but it will actually work. But I'll agree with PAT that it's a silly thing to want to do. I haven't done it myself since I was a kid and we were served out of the NOrmandy exchange on a crossbar. ------------------------------ From: josmon@raid.dell.com (John Osmon) Subject: Re: More "Features" For AT&T's 1-800 Service Organization: Dell Computer Co Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 22:33:47 GMT davidthx@netcom.com (davidThx) writes: > bogstad@blaze.cs.jhu.edu (Bill Bogstad) writes: >> In the May 24th {Information Week} on pg. 20 there is an >> article discussing new features that AT&T is planning for its 1-800 >> network. In particular, a call recognition routing feature will allow >> network managers to automatically route calls based on their ten digit >> phone number. One of the suggested uses for this system is to >> automatically route calls from customers who are delinquent in their >> bill to your collections office. Given the result when American >> Express used ANI to answer calls with the callers name, I can just >> imagine what customer reactions to this "feature" will be. Dell has a project to incorporate this kind of service for the ACD groups here in Austin. It will also allow Platinum and Gold Account customer to go directly to "their" representative. > I'm curious as to what the result was when American Express used ANI, > and do they still? > [Moderator's Note: American Express customers got very annoyed and > very freaked out when the service reps answered the call greeting them > by name, etc. Now the reps still get ANI and a picture of the account > calling them, but they pretend like they don't, and ask the customer > for their name and number. PAT] Hmmm ... where can I get the information on this? I'm sure our telephony group would like to know this before they decide to implement it. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1993 19:30:29 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Re: Who Pays? T. Koppel in Denver has discovered what we in Atlanta called the AT&T honor system. We were the lucky benefactors of this odd coin phone behavior for about nine months. About a year ago, I discovered that indeed a quarter was not required to make a local call from any 1AESS coin phone in Atlanta. What you needed was a 10xxx code that was programmed to carry intra-lata. Dialing 10xxx + the seven-digit local number was free! What is really remarkable about this, is not so much that it worked but where the call went. Patrick's assumption that it was carried by the LEC is logical but wrong. Prepending 10xxx to the local number caused the call to be carried by AT&T! This was true for any 10xxx code, regardless of the what company the 10xxx code was actually belonged to. The reason for this seems to be that 1+ inter-lata is still sent to AT&T from most coin phones even if they are presubscribed to another carrier or you dial 10xxx. The reason has to do with coin collection on 1+ toll calls. 0+ toll from coin phones goes to the carrier shown on the phone, or to the carrier you choose with 10xxx 0+. This is the case in Atlanta and New York City. T Koppel may well want to save his quarters while he can. The coins in Atlanta quit providing the AT&T honor system about three months ago. ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Orange Card Customer Service Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 19:05:49 GMT In article David B. Horvath, CDP writes: > Pat, > My Orange Card arrived the other day (I was away for two weeks, so don't > know exactly when it arrived) and I tried it yesterday. No luck. > I called customer service, was on hold for < five minutes, and got the > representative that entered my account information in the first place! > In about 30 seconds he figured the problem out and put a correction in > motion. I had the same thing. My Orange Card wouldn't work. I called Customer Service and they diagnosed the problem over the phone. They promised me 15 minute turnaround on the fix. I didn't check it that quickly, so I don't know whether they met that goal. Users should note that LDS doesn't have 24 hour, or even weekend, customer service. The first time I called, their answering service promised me a callback that day (Saturday) but no callback was received until Monday morning. Nonetheless, I'm glad I have the thing. Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG [Moderator's Note: Customers of Orange Card are still so relatively rare (there are a few hundred of you now) that 24 hour customer service is really hard to justify. Over the next few months watch for much more elaborate customer service features. Right now, it is still just a couple people in that department. I think Orange has a dozen employees in total, but then, so did Bell back in 1877-78. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 17:08:06 EDT From: kenny@mvuts.att.com Subject: Re: Desireable Answering Machine Feature? Organization: AT&T In article ijk@trumpet.att.com writes: > Instead, if you have Caller-ID, then it might be nice to just record > the time and number. That way, you have the choice of trying the > number. I'm very frustrated by people who don't leave messages. I think the solution to this problem is a better answering machine. My unit (Pana KX-T2634) determines a hangup (or even a hesitate-hangup) and winds the tape back and decrements the messages recieved indicator. Can't agonize over what I never got. Kenneth R. Crudup, ATT BL, 1600 Osgood St, N. Andover, MA 01845-1043 MV20-3T5B, +1 508 960 3219. kenny@mvuts.att.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #402 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09356; 19 Jun 93 18:05 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08534 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 15:57:32 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16195 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 15:57:03 -0500 Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 15:57:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306192057.AA16195@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #403 TELECOM Digest Sat, 19 Jun 93 15:57:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 403 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Traffic Chokes For High Volume Subscribers (Philip Gladstone) Re: 800 Number Telnet Access (Dan Gillmor) Re: Interesting News From Ohio Bell (Al Varney) Re: Looking for a Number in Calgary, Alberta Canada (Darren G. Holloway) Re: AT&T Special Country Plan Has Problems With UK! (Steve Forrette) Re: Non Availability of 800/NXX (David Leibold) New Position: Director of Telecommunications (Dan Boehlke) MCI F&F Scam (Eric Dittman) Some Thoughts About Prepaid Calling Cards (Jeffrey Jonas) Re: Talk Tickets Now Available Electronically (Robert Eden) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: philip@mail.citicorp.com (Philip Gladstone) Subject: Re: Traffic Chokes For High Volume Subscribers Date: 19 Jun 1993 13:59:39 -0400 Organization: Citicorp Reply-To: philip@cgin.cto.citicorp.com Bill Garfield (bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com) wrote: > According to a Bell supervisor, their tariffs do not permit them to > place high traffic volume customers such as {Ticketron} in a "Choke" > exchange. Traffic chokes are only tariffed for use on radio station > contest lines. This does not seem to be the case in Boston. A quick search of phone book reveals that the (617) 931 exchange looks like a choke exchange. The following are the directory entries that list under 617 931 xxxx. Interestingly enough, Ticketmaster does list here along with some other "non radio stations". Greater Media is one of the local cable providers. I'm almost tempted to call "Soso entertainment" to see if their entertainment is better than their name would suggest!! Greater Media Inc Kiss 108 Wxks-Fm-Request & Contest Line Oldies 103 Fm Soso Entertainment Ticketmaster-Charge-By-Phone Waaf 107.3 Fm-2 Westborough Business Park We-Request Line Wbcn 104 Fm-Contest Line Wbos 92.9 Fm-Listener Line-Studios Wcdj Fm 96.9-Listener Line Wcgy Radio Whdh Radio-Contest Line Wild Radio Contest & Request Wkku 1510 Am-Listener Line Wmex-1150 Am-Request Line Wmjx 106.7 Fm-Request Line Wqtv Contest Lines Wrko General Broadcasting Wssh 99.5 F M, Studios Wvbf-Fm 105.7 Listener Line Wvjv-Tv 66, Request & Contest Line Wxks Kiss-108-Fm-108 Request And Contest Line Wxlo, Request Line Wzlx-Fm Classic Hits-Request Line Wzou-Contest-Request Line Philip Gladstone - Consultant Citicorp Global Information Network I don't speak for Citicorp. I presume that somebody else does! ------------------------------ From: dgillmor@garnet.msen.com (Dan Gillmor) Subject: Re: 800 Number Telnet Access Date: 19 Jun 1993 22:14:28 GMT Organization: Detroit Free Press Another way to get access in almost any city is through Holonet. Telnet holonet.net and login as Guest for a sample. They use PSI and (I believe) Sprintnet numbers in various cities and towns around the country. Dan Gillmor Internet: dgillmor@msen.com Detroit Free Press CompuServe: 73240,334 3001 W. Big Beaver Rd. -- Suite 602 Voice: 313-649-9770 Troy, MI 48084 Fax: 313-649-2736 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 12:31:25 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: Interesting News From Ohio Bell Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) writes: > In article jmiller@afit.af.mil (Jeff > Miller) writes: >> First was a short blurb contained in the monthly "news" insert, >> exhorting callers to let the distant phone ring "at least six times" >> when placing a call. If I were a cynical sort, I would say this is a >> hidden ploy to generate more revenue for IXC's (who all seem to say to >> hang up after five rings, else be charged for a one-minute call), or >> has the answer-supervision problem at long last been solved? > The answer-supervision problem was only a problem for some IXCs to > begin with, and it no longer exists except for those IXCs too cheap to > install equipment that can properly handle the signaling. > If *I* were a cynical type, I'd say it's a hidden ploy to increase the > LEC's revenue for IXC access, because access charges begin accruing > from the moment that the IXC returns wink (on MF trunks) or the moment > that the LEC sends the SS7 ISUP IAM to the IXC (on SS7 ISUP trunks), > regardless of whether the call is answered. True only for the originating LATA access charges. For SS7/FG-D, terminating charges begin when the IXC sends the call into the LATA. For unanswered calls over FG-A and FG-B circuits, the terminating LEC does not usually collect revenue, since those forms of IXC interconnect do not start billing until answer. Some IXCs use this form of terminating access to reduce costs, depending on tariffs. Al Varney - opinion only ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 05:49:28 MDT From: darren@instar.cuc.ab.ca (Darren G. Holloway) Subject: Re: Looking For a Number in Calgary, Alberta Canada Pat writes: > I'm sure you can get a directory at little or no charge by asking > Alberta Telephone; the provincial government runs the phone service > there. Contact them in Calgary. PAT] FYI ... Sorry, but the telephone service is now a public corporation, and losing money fast -- the government thought it could make tons of money by selling shares, but ends up propping up the company anyway. Long, agitated tiff about Tory policies and the people who just re-elected them barely avoided :) Darren G. Holloway Systems Admin / Programmer darren@instar.cuc.ab.ca INSTAR Corporation ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: AT&T Special Country Plan Has Problems With UK! Date: 19 Jun 1993 09:10:12 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article jbradsha@mentor.cc.purdue. edu (Jonathan Bradshaw) writes: > [story deleted about problem with AT&T calling plan billing] > AT&T tell me that for some reason the interaction between Indiana Bell > (my local co) and their computers is not registering that I am calling > England even tho all my bills show 'UK' for the destination. They say > there is nothing they can do about it until the technical problem has > been resolved. > [Moderator's Note: It will do you no good at all to talk to Indiana > Bell; AT&T has to pressure them and if they can't do it, no one can. > Or to paraphrase something I heard awhile back, "divestiture is here; > AT&T's relationship with the Bells is very queer; get used to it." PAT] I was having a problem that was similar: it was a problem with my AT&T Custom Calling Card, but the responsible party was US West. It was very difficult to get resolved. The Custom Calling Card is like the old Call Me cards, except they can have up to 10 valid destination numbers. So, the Custom Calling Card can be used to call only to the numbers that you pre-designate. The purpose of the card is so that you can give it out to people you really don't trust, so that they can call you and only you on your dime. The problem was that US West was not honoring the restriction for intra-LATA sequence calls. So, if you placed an intra-LATA call via US West to a number that was valid for the AT&T Custom Calling Card you used, then hit #, you could then call *any* number within the LATA, and have the charge billed to the "restricted" card. The problem was in the US West calling card authorization computer: it was only programmed to deal with the regular unrestricted cards, and the Call Me card, which is restricted to call only the number on the card. Since the Custom Calling Card doesn't have the 'call me' bit set when the approval comes back from the validation database, US West was assuming that it was unrestricted. When you used # to make sequence calls, US West did not bother to query the validation database again -- they figured that if the card was valid a moment ago, that it still must be valid, so why bother doing another database dip. They did not account for the (new) possibility of the validity of the card number depending on the called number. Anyway, when I discovered the problem, it was very difficult even trying to report it. US West said "oh, and AT&T Calling Card? Call AT&T." AT&T said that since the call was not being handled by their network, that US West had to fix it. This was indeed correct, but nobody at US West was even able to understand the problem, let alone do anything about it. After pushing the matter with AT&T, I got to talk with someone that was familiar with the issue. They told me that they were aware of the problem, and had told US West, but that US West was being slow about the fix, and that there was nothing they could do except apply more pressure to US West to fix their software. This was over a year ago. I checked three months after my initial report, and it was still broken. Jonathan's message made me remember this problem, so I tried it again just now. The problem is now fixed, but now they have an interesting cosmetic problem: When you hit #, it says "please enter another number now." If you enter one that's not on the authorization list for the restricted card, it correctly tells you that "that number is not valid." But, if the number is valid, it just says "five?" then connects your call. The intonation is as if it is asking me a question -- I guess it is not too confident that "five" is what it should be saying :-) Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 23:45:01 EDT From: David Leibold Subject: Re: Non Availability of 800/NXX Upon reading John D. Gretzinger's posting on 800 NXX's to be protected from assignment for portable 800 numbers, I noticed a new Canadian (Stentor) 800 prefix, namely 739, which I haven't heard before. All the other prefixes are accounted for in Canada, except the new Unitel 575 NXX. Availability of Unitel 800 service is yet to be announced. Now take a guess as to what 739 can spell on the North American dial, other than the word REX ... Meanwhile, Stentor (formerly Telecom Canada) has been proceeding towards 800 portability if documents from Bell Canada's 1992 Construction Program Review are any indication. From this information, it appears that Stentor will have its own database and will co-ordinate this with the U.S. 800 database. dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca dleibold1@attmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 11:40:17 CDT From: dan@nic.gac.edu (Dan Boehlke) Subject: New Position: Director of Telecommunications Greetings, Please post this to the TELECOM Digest. Thanks for your help. If anyone has any questions, they can contact the school at (507)933-8000 (the campus switch board.) Please feel free to post this on any other appropriate mailing lists or groups. If you plan on applying for this possition, apply quickly, time is short. Dan Boehlke Internet: dan@gac.edu Campus Network Manager BITNET: dan@gacvax1.bitnet Academic Computing Gustavus Adolphus College St. Peter, MN 56082 USA Phone: (507)933-7596 DIRECTOR OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS Gustavus Adolphus College invites nominations and applications for the new full-time position of Director of Telecommunications. Gustavus Adolphus College is a coeducational, private, residential, national liberal arts college of 2300 students that employs over 500 highly talented people. The College is located in historic St. Peter, one hour southwest of Minneapolis in the scenic Minnesota River Valley. The Director of Telecommunications will be responsible for providing leadership in the development and implementation of all programs, policies, and procedures related to the Telecommunications Office. Also, the Director will manage the telephone system and student resale billing system. The College seeks an individual with strong written and oral communication skills and demonstrated abilities to work effectively with a wide range of groups and individuals; good organizational sense, management skills, and demonstrated leadership ability; knowledgeable of FCC regulations which are applicable to a nonprofit institution of higher learning. The candidate must possess a college degree and have five or more years of relevant experience in the area of telecommunications, preferably a Northern Telecom system and preferably at an institution of higher learning. Also, experience in using and maintaining a database using computerized resale billing system is required. The search committee will begin its review of applications July 2, 1993, and will continue until the position is filled. Persons wishing to be considered should send a letter of application, resume, and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three references to: Director of Telecommunications Search Committee Office of the President Gustavus Adolphus College 800 W. College Avenue St. Peter, MN 56082 It is the policy and practice of Gustavus Adolphus College to provide equal educational and employment opportunities for all. We specifically encourage applications from women, members of minority groups, and persons with disabilities. ------------------------------ From: Eric Dittman Subject: MCI F&F Scam Date: 19 Jun 93 06:50:01 CDT Organization: Texas Instruments Component Test Facility My fiancee and I recently moved in together and at her insistence had the main number LD company changed to MCI (we kept my old phone number as it is very easy to remember). Since the main number was MCI, and one of my brothers and my sister have MCI (though the brother is switching back to AT&T because of the problems he's had with getting a line through MCI in WV), I called MCI to get on the F&F program. I gave the MCI rep the names and numbers of my brother and sister that have MCI, but told the rep I didn't want to list anyone else since I knew they didn't use MCI and would not want to be contacted to switch. The rep said okay and didn't push the issue. Yesterday I received the "Welcome to MCI F&F" letter that listed my brother and sister as people that have been added, and my mother as someone that has been contacted about switching to MCI to take advantage of F&F! The letter had her name and number both listed correctly, so I called MCI and complained. The rep I talked to this time said they didn't have any idea how this could have happened. I told them it looked like someone took the list of long distance calls I made since switching to MCI and added my mother from that list. The rep apologized. I told the rep I wanted my complaint sent up the line, which he said he'd do (but I don't expect that anything will be done). I then called my mother and told her that as soon as she gets a call or letter from MCI about switching to send a letter back telling MCI what happened and demanding a written apology from them. I also want to make a formal complaint to the appropriate regulatory agency. Would this be the FCC? Eric Dittman Texas Instruments - Component Test Facility dittman@skitzo.dseg.ti.com (214) 480-7313 Disclaimer: Not even my opinions. I found them by the side of the road. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 12:02:23 EDT From: jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (Jeffrey Jonas) Subject: Some Thoughts About Prepaid Calling Cards In Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 387, Message 13 of 18 king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist) wrote: > Of course, there's the downside of pre-pay cards and Talk Tickets. > Instead of cash being accepted everywhere, I'll soon have a card for > the phone, a card for the cafeteria at work (already here; the vending > machines don't take cash anymore!), a card for the subway, a card for > this, a card for that. There's only so much space in my wallet. It > wouldn't be bad if every pre-pay system could somehow agree on a > standard format and share financial information. Pardon me, but the major concern about the pre-paid cards is anonymity. If you link the cards together, there's the genuine concern that it'll be possible to: - identify the user since so much information is available; - track the user since one would see where one goes into the subway, buys candy, buys soda, etc. (this privacy issues has already been discussed, particularly with the supermarkets' discount cards). There are already several ways to pay for things: - use the native currency; - use some cash/debit card (which is unfortunately linked to your bank account); I have a card holder with three tickets in it that I use daily: the monthly train pass for New Jersey transit, my PATH quick-card, and the pass for the building. Should any one card become invalidated, the others are not affected. As anybody who ever had a credit card overdrawn can tell you, separation of accounts is very valuable. Things like theft have already been discussed in TELECOM in the thread about the pre-paid cards vs. calling card debate. Yes, I agree that it's a waste for me to have $4 in Boston "T" tokens and $3.75 on my Metro ticket which are totally unuseable unless I'm there, whereas as a consolidated ticket would not let my money go to waste. Ah, but that's the incentive for all these tickets. The "float" is quite favorable to the issuer. That's why the N.Y. Telephone "coin replacement" card gives $5.25 credit for $5, and the bridge/tunnel/ turnpike tokens are discounted when purchased in entire rolls. It's a free loan until used. Is it any wonder the subway system uses tokens? Beside simplifying the turnstiles, buying tokens is essentially a loan until used. (As an aside: turnstiles that accept magnetic cards are being installed in many stations. There's talk about issuing commutation cards with lower rates for off-peak, etc. I'll believe it when I see it). As to carrying too many cards, just ask them to make them thinner! That's only half a smiley, folks. I have a stack of bar coded check cashing cards from damn near every supermarket near me since there's no reciprocity of check cashing privileges, even with the same chain. And talk about security -- I have three Foodtown check cashing cards and even I don't know where they're valid! Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 08:24:55 CDT From: Robert Eden Subject: Re: Talk Tickets Now Available Electronically >I will charge your checking account automatically if you provide these >details in email to me: > EXACT NAME as it appears on your checking account; > EXACT ADDRESS as it appears on check or in bank records; > THE CHECK NUMBER to be used for the purchase; > THE BANK ROUTING/TRANSIT and ACCOUNT number on bottom of check; > THE NAME OF THE BANK on which the check is drawn; > THE DOLLAR AMOUNT of tickets you wish to purchase. This is <> dangerous. I have all the information necessary to charge anything (at least talk-tickets) to anyone who writes me a check. All my other electronic transfer activities required written notification (which I <> was forwarded to my bank) permitting them electronic access to my account. I would hope that all other transactions would be denied automatically by the bank. If anyone can enter a ACS transfer, we've in BIG trouble. I'm not accusing Pat of doing anything wrong or illegal, but if he could do it, what controls exist to prevent someone less trustworthy causing havoc? Robert Eden 817-897-0491 Glen Rose, TX Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station robert@cpvax.cpses.tu.com ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ politicese for a nuke plant [Moderator's Note: There are all sorts of controls in place. Your written authorization is on file on my hard drive. If your bank asks my bank for it, then my bank will ask me to forward it. If you were one of the people who called me on the phone asking for Talk Tickets, then I asked your permission -- on tape -- to tape record that part of the conversation where we discussed your checking account and your instructions. If Mrs. Jones screams that someone has looted her bank account, the audit trail comes back here and points to Mr. Eden whose tape recordeded conversation or email clearly shows Mrs. Jones' account number was given out as his own. Mr. Eden then has problems. The banks do not deal with me directly; they deal with my bank; or actually, with the subsidiary company of the bank I use which accepts 'checks by phone'. The process is almost identical to credit card processing by merchants who are 'non-swipe'; that is, never in actual possession of the card who work through mail and phone order. If the purchase was larger, then I would send the Talk Tickets by registered mail and have your signature on file to support the transaction; but for $15-20 it is not worth the extra money. By the way, I *again* depleted my entire inventory of Talk Tickets as a result of order this past week; more will be here in a few days. If you would like to try these out, order some. $15 for ten tickets of $2 each; good for calling anywhere, anytime, from any phone via an 800 number, much like the Orange Card. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #403 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11579; 19 Jun 93 18:56 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23647 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 16:45:43 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01669 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 16:45:13 -0500 Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 16:45:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306192145.AA01669@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #404 TELECOM Digest Sat, 19 Jun 93 16:45:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 404 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Call Forward-Busy (was Hunting) (A. Padgett Peterson) Dial-up IP Connectivity (Peter van Oosterom) NYNEX ISDN Hot Line (H.A. Kippenhan Jr.) International DA (John R. Levine) Advice Wanted on Voice Processing Card (Prab Goripathi) Seeking Video Signal Information (Darrel Herbst) Leach Zmodem (LINKJW@PURCCVM.bitnet) Unusual Behaviour of GTE Switch (Jack Decker) Germany: Collect Calls Are Back!! (Juergen Ziegler) Fastest Dialup Modems at 19,200 Baud? (Alfredo Cotroneo) What Dialing Plan For Illinois? (Carl Moore) Cell Phone Battery Source (Andrew Gerber) NPA 604 - Full? (laurahal@microsoft.com) AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial (Gregory M. Paris) More Strange International Rates (John R. Levine) Child Porn via Prodigy? (Carl Moore) Cross-Border Local Calling (David Leibold) Fax Driving Me Nuts (Mitch Wagner) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 08:46:59 -0400 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Call Forward-Busy (was Hunting) Bob Sherman wrote: > Try asking for busy signal forward. It along with no answer forward > are offered by Southern Bell in the 305 area, so I would suspect your > area has it also. Oh the magic of breaking the language barrier 8*) When these words were used, the rate of $9.00 installation and $1.00 per month were quoted, a far cry from the original quote for hunting of $10.46 per month. This requires specifying a specific line to forward to (my second line) since this cannot be programmed from home (that would be Call Forwarding). Just FYI, the current Southern Bell monthly rate for Orlando is $10.30 plus $3.50 access charge (interestingly this apparently is *not* for long distance but "The access line permanently connects your home or office with our local switching office.") plus $1.00 touchtone service or $14.80 plus assorted taxes for a single non-featured residential line. The service plan is $2.50/month/ line, 900 and 976 blocking are free services (all from the front of the "white pages"). Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ From: Peter.van.Oosterom@fel.tno.nl (Peter van Oosterom) Subject: Dial-up IP Connectivity Organization: TNO Physics and Electronics Laboratory Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 13:15:11 GMT I'm posting this message for a friend who doens't have news, so please react to his e-mail address: assem@guest.surfnet.nl and not to this group. Hello netters, We're a small organisation in the Netherlands that wants to set up Internet connectivity. We intend to have dial-up IP connectivity since this is probably the most attractive service for us. However, we're entirey Mac based and I'm not familiar with any products on Macs to do things like: - setting up a news server and clients (with NNTP support) - setting up a SMTP mail hub, to be connected to our Quickmail server - providing 'on-demand' set-up of external IP connectivity. We have our Macs connected on an Ethernet and we're running Netware. Our potential service provider indicates that they want to 'see' only one IP-address for manageability reasons. Who can give me some pointers / solutions and possible products? Shouls we get a UNIX workstation or can we do without it? Please react to: Rene van den Assem, assem@guest.surfnet.nl +31 79 522225 tel +31 79 522481 fax Thanks. ------------------------------ From: kippenhan@dcd00.fnal.gov (H.A. Kippenhan Jr.) Subject: NYNEX ISDN Hot Line Date: 19 Jun 93 09:52:12 -0600 Organization: Fermilab Computing Division A few weeks ago, someone posted a number for an ISDN hotline in the NYNEX service area. A project on which I'm now working would make that number very useful; alas, I didn't save it. If somone would be kind enough to repost it, it would be greatly appreciated. Alternatively, if any of the readership has specific information about the availibility of ISDN Basic Rate service for: (212) 327-xxxx I would be interested in that as well. By Basic Rate Service I mean 64 Kbps and SS7 trunking from NYNEX to AT&T. Thanks in advance for any help! Best regards, H.A. Kippenhan Jr. | Internet: Kippenhan@FNDCD.FNAL.GOV National HEPnet Management | HEPnet/NSI DECnet: FNDCD::KIPPENHAN Fermi National Accelerator Lab. | BITnet: Kippenhan@FNDCD.BITNET P.O. Box 500 MS: FCC-3E/368 | Telephone: (708) 840-8068 Batavia, Illinois 60510 | FAX: (708) 840-8463 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 11:45 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: International DA Organization: I.E.C.C. >I need to know a telephone Number in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I can't >get the number by the local telecommunications-company's service. > [Moderator's Note: Do you mean your local telco overseas service won't > connect you with area code 403 information in Canada? That seems odd. The approved CCITT procedure for international directory assistance has always been to have a bureau in each country with an enormous pile of obsolete phone books from around the world. Callers needing international DA are connected to this bureau, where an operator looks in the appropriate obsolete phone book for the city in question, tells the caller that their party isn't listed, and hangs up. (What do you expect from a committee of PTTs?) Generally, if they have a phone book for the city being inquired about, no matter how old, they will not call the foreign DA bureau just on the unlikely chance that some numbers might have changed in the 20 years since the phone book they have was printed. The North American approach, which always calls the foreign DA bureau is quite unusual. In fairness, the CCITT approach would be better if they had up to date listings, since it would avoid the language problems often encountered between US operators who only speak English and operators in Country X who only speak X-ish. There is a little book published by the CCITT of which I have a copy that I can't find at the moment which has translations of key telephony phrases in seven languages like "Attention operator, your party's call has been booked for ... hours/days from now." but that isn't much help with communicating people's names to DA operators. (Hey, does AT&T use their own Language Line service to deal with this problem?) The easiest practical solution for the original question is for some Telecom reader in Alberta to call local DA and e-mail the answer. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: gaupkg@fnma.COM (Prab Goripathi) Subject: Advice on Voice Processing Card Reply-To: gaupkg@fnma.COM Organization: Fannie Mae Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 18:10:35 GMT Hi! Folks, Can anyone suggest a good PC voice processing card. I am looking for a card that runs on a PC, low priced, reliable, has v-mail,fax-mail, DID and call dialing. I would appreciate anyone's feedback. Thanks, Prab email:gaupkg@fnma.com ------------------------------ From: Darrel Herbst Subject: Seeking Video Signal Information Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 12:09:34 GMT Organization: Lehigh University Hello, I'm trying to get more information about Video signals, and I was wondering if anyone could point me to the proper newsgroup, books, etc. Specifically, my questions have to do with NTSC vs. 70Mhz Analog Baseband. What's the difference, and why are matrix switches of these two signals different, and in what respect. If you have information as to books, and or sources, I'd greatly appreciate email at : deh1@lehigh.edu Also, does anyone know of any Video Matrix Switches that employ ATM protocol at this time? I know of several LAN switch vendors that do so, however, I'm looking to get Video signals switched via ATM. Thanks in advance. phone: 215-941-9890 FutureVision of America Corp. Darrel Herbst : Lehigh University DEH1@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu 215.758.1973 ------------------------------ Organization: Purdue University Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 11:47:25 EST From: LINKJW@PURCCVM.bitnet Subject: Leach Zmodem wCan anyone tell me where to find Leach Zmodem? Thank you, JWL ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 11:13:02 EDT From: ac388@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Unusual Behaviour of GTE Switch I'm served by GTE (Whitehall, Michigan exchange) and have noted the following unusual behaviour of the digital switch here (someone once said it's a GTD-5, but I can't confirm that). Anyway, if you do not have touch tone service, and at any time during the dialing sequence the switch "hears" a touch tone, it doesn't just ignore it ... instead, it does the equivalent of a mini-lockup. If, for example, you hit a touch tone digit and then proceeed to pulse dial a number, it waits until it figures you are finished dialing and then returns a new dial tone! As far as I can tell, the same is true if it "hears" a touch tone any time during the dialing sequence ... it stops gathering digits entirely and returns a new dial tone a couple of seconds after you stop pulse dailing. It's also worth noting that this same switch will not accept pulse dialing at 20 pulses per second, unlike most digital switches. I'm just wondering if this is simply poor design, or an actual effort to foil people who might use tone-to-pulse convertors, fast-dialing phones, or similar methods to achieve fast dialing without actually purchasing touch tone service (with its associated monthly fee). In other words, is this a case of malice or stupidity? Or, is it something that's programmable at the switch? If GTE is actually trying to foil the use of customer-provided equipment, I think our Public Service Commission would take a pretty dim view of that (judging from some things they have written in their "opinions and orders" in the past). I'm just wondering if someone who's familiar with GTE switches can enlighten me about this. I was ready to write off the inability to accept 20 pulses per second to the subscriber carrier they've use around here, but this business of turning off digit gathering entirely if so much as a few milliseconds of touch tone is heard strikes me as really odd. Jack Decker | Internet: ac388@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu Fidonet: 1:154/8 or jack.decker@f8.n154.z1.fidonet.org Note: Mail to the Fidonet address has been known to bounce. :-( ------------------------------ From: juergen@jojo.sub.org Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 09:30:10 +0200 Subject: Germany: Collect Calls Are Back!! You probably won't believe it, but the German TELEKOM will re-offer collect calls after several decades of absence! Wow! The service is great, but the rates are EXTREMELY expensive: Operator charge/per call DM 9.50 USD 5.75 Operator charge for serial calls/per call DM 7.50 USD 4.50 for all additional calls Germany Direct Operator charge/per call DM 11.00 USD 6.50 Connection charge/per minute (domestic) DM 0.69 USD 0.41 (no night/weekend/... rates!) But what makes this even more stupid: You can NOT make a collect call from public phones, since these numbers (010, 0010) are blocked! What are typical operator charges in the US or elsewhere? Juergen Ziegler......... ** Internet: juergen@jojo.sub.org. Obervogt-Haefelinstr. 48 ** W7580 Buehl (Baden)..... ** .Secondary Mail address:....... Germany.[PLZ NEU:77815]. ** uk84@ibm3090.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de ------------------------------ From: A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it (Alfredo Cotroneo) Subject: Fastest Dialup Modems at 19,200 Baud Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 12:36:39 GMT Hello there from Milano, Italy: Until a few months ago it was not possible to send/receive data over a dialup line at a speed of more than 14,400 bauds (uncompressed), and V32bis modems were the way to go. When data is binary (or ADPCM), V42bis (or worse MNP5) would not help in achieving a better transfer rate. Just recently one company introduced modems (Plus series, I will not mention the company here) with 19,200 bauds (uncompressed) speed capability. They apparently use a proprietary scheme to achieve that speed over normal dialup lines, besides all other standard protocols, including V32bis and below. What it seemed not-achievable a few months/years ago is reality now. But where are the modem/DSP companies going now? Is there a possibility to see even faster modems in the near future, do they exist already, or have they reached already the fastest achieavable speeds using all phone bandwdth? Just curious to know, since I have know people with *huge* files to transfer, and the only possible link is phone lines. No ISDN yet in rural areas overhere in Italy. Alfredo E. Cotroneo, Bull HN Italia, I-20010 Pregnana Mil. work: A.Cotroneo.@it12.bull.it personal: 100020.1013@compuserve.com phone: +39-2-6779 8492 / 8427 | fax: 8289 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 10:42:15 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: What Dialing Plan For Illinois? I have just been to Chicago and Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (seeing Pat Townson in the process), and I have not seen uniform dialing instruc- tions in those parts of Illinois. It is seven digits for direct-dial anywhere within 312 and within 708 (apparently there is no "long distance", just measured local, within 312/708?). Illinois Bell pay phones in 815 (which area I go thru between Chicago and Champaign-Urbana) were allowing 7D (no leading 1) for long distance within 815. But I needed 1 + 7D for this from Alltel pay phones I found on and near Illinois route 1 heading north toward Watseka, which is on U.S. 24. I also noticed 1 + 7D needed at Champaign-Urbana for long distance within 217. In Chicago, the hotel I was at listed: 9 (2nd dial tone) and 7D for Chicago calls; 8 (2nd dial tone) and 7D for suburbs and long distance (sic) in 312; this is apparently from before the 312/708 split, now 3 1/2 years old; I used 8 (2nd dial tone) and 1 + 708 + 7D for a call to Arlington Heights. ------------------------------ From: gerber@boulder.parcplace.com (Andrew Gerber) Subject: Cell Phone Battery Source Organization: ParcPlace Boulder Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 17:22:25 GMT I recently got a cell phone and am wondering if there are any mail order catalogs for cell phone accessories (batteries, chargers, etc) which might be cheaper than my local dealers. I have a motorola OMEGA handheld with a 7.5V nicad. Please email responses as I don't read this newsgroup. Regards, Andy Gerber gerber@boulder.parcplace.com ParcPlace Boulder (303) 440 9991 x4212 ------------------------------ From: laurahal@microsoft.com Subject: NPA 604 - Full? Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 10:32:00 PDT I got my phone bill yesterday, and it includes a chart, organized by prefix, showing how much phone bills are going to increase later this year. The chart shows that there are only a handful of NNX prefixes ( < 15) in NPA 604 not allocated. There are more gaps in the chart than this, but it doesn't include cellular prefixes, or the handful used by other phone companies (Prince Rupert and along the Alaska Highway). There have been no announcements about an area code split, and though we don't officially have NXX dialing, BCTel use NXX numbers for service (mostly 811-xxxx). I'd expect a split before NXX, since there are still many SxS COs out there in small towns. Any other telecom folks know anything about this? The fact that BCTel haven't told us B.C. people anything is not surprising; the area code map in the brand new Vancouver B.C. white pages doesn't even show the 312/708 split. .laura ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 14:02:17 -0400 From: Gregory M. Paris Subject: AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial I can't figure out the AT&T "YOU WILL" commercial in which one segment features a woman laden with grocery bags getting in her door using a voice recognition system. I can understand why someone would want this facility, but does anybody want it provided by their long distance company??? Following the same naming convention as "Call Answering," will this service be called "Door Answering"? I wonder if they'll charge a flat rate, or will it be per door opening? Will they charge more if you leave the door open ($0.30 for the first minute, etc.)? Will they try to charge you more if you run a business out of your home? If you're late on your your phone bill, will they lock you out of your house? Thanks, but I'll stick to lock and key for now. Greg ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: More Strange International Rates Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 16:58:01 EDT My new AT&T international calling guide, dated 4/93, just showed up. It gives rates to all dialable countries. Unlike previous guides, it says nothing at all about non-dialable places, though on page 3 they mention that only 200 out of 280 countries are dialable. The guide is quite up to date. If you have friends in Antarctica, you can dial the Casey Base with code 672 12, Scott Base with code 672 24. Some of the CIS countries have new country codes reusing the ex-East German 37: Lithuania 370, Latvia 371, Estonia 372, Moldova 373. For about half of the dialable countries, the per-minute rates on operator assisted calls are different from those for direct dial. Oddly, in many cases the operated assisted rate is less. For example, calling Syria at the day rate, direct dial is $2.95 for the first minute, $2.37 thereafter, while for automated calling card it's $2.95 + 1.75 calling card charge for the first minute and $2.17 thereafter, making calling card calls cheaper after nine minutes. A two-page spread in the back describes ship and plane services. The high seas operator is now at 1-800-SEA-CALL, $14.93 for three minutes, $4.98/minute thereafter. High Seas Direct service is direct dial for $3.50/minute, but you need to buy a $1500 handset and modem to attach to your SSB radio. (I presume the modem goes on the ship, but the language is ambigious.) Info and assistance is at 1-800-392-2067. Satellite service is also available for a flat $10/minute (or call via MCI or Sprint for a low, low $9.99, eat your hearts out 1-900 scum). The region codes are: 871 eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean 872 western Atlantic and Caribbean 873 Pacific 874 Indian For ships, the region code is followed by a seven digit phone number. For airplanes, the region code is followed by 5 and an eight digit aircraft number. For info, call 1-800-MARISAT for ships, 1-800-SKYWAYS for planes. What kinds of airplanes have INMARSAT satellite stations? At $10/minute, I'm not inclined to dial random numbers and see who answers. In the back of the guide is an area code map that still shows 903 for northwest Mexico as well as for Tyler TX. Whoops. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 17:37:37 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Child Porn via Prodigy? I came across a quote "The men were using the Prodigy computer service, which links computer users through telephone lines, said (the prosecutor)." 2 men are charged in Harford County, Maryland in an alleged child pornography ring. The quote was in the June 16 "Aegis" newspaper, published in Bel Air, Md. [Moderator's Note: Poor Prodigy! Repeated allegations that they snoop on people's hard drives; claims of email and newsgroup censorship; now a claim they are used for the exchange of pornography. Actually they must be getting pretty successful if they have this many complaints about them going on. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 21:39:07 EDT From: David Leibold Subject: Cross-Border Local Calling Here is a list of known examples where local calling is available across the Canada-U.S. border. Note that there may be a few more examples available. Clair, New Brunswick to Fort Kent and St Francis Maine Edmunston, New Brunswick to Madawaska, Maine McAdam, New Brunswick to Vanceboro, Maine St Leonard, New Brunswick to Van Buren, Maine St Stephen, New Brunswick to Calais, Maine St Regis, Quebec to Fort Covington, New York Rainy River, Ontario to Baudette, Minnesota Coutts, Alberta to Sweetgrass, Montana Vancouver, British Columbia once had local calling to Point Roberts, Washington, though that was mysteriously disconnected a few years back. Baudette, Minnesota is run by US West. It appears to be the only U.S. exchange with a local call into Ontario (Bell Canada territory). In Saskatchewan, the 926 NXX was protected to allow for local calling to Portal, North Dakota. Which Saskatchewan exchange, if any, has local calling to that location has not been determined yet. Finding local calling areas in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba is difficult due to the manner in which phone companies in those provinces set up their telephone listings. U.S.-Mexico border local calling likely doesn't exist. Information to the contrary would be welcome, as would other news of international local calling links. ------------------------------ From: wagner@utoday.com (Mitch Wagner) Subject: Fax Driving Me Nuts Organization: Open Systems Today Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 16:52:46 GMT I just picked up the phone after it rang and commenced swearing into it a blue streak. The reason? For the past six weeks, some idiot has been phoning me with his fax machine three or four times a day, usually around noon on business days, interrupting my thoughts and generally climbing right up to the top of my Pet Peeve Hit Parade. Following a suggestion on this group, I've been trying to hook my fax machine into my voice line so I could catch the pinbrain in the act. But, since the instructions aren't exactly intuitive, I've been having some difficulty doing it. Meanwhile, does anyone else have any suggestions on how I can find out who's been calling me -- or at least bring this annoyance to an end? The phone company, New England Telephone hasn't been much help on this. mitch w. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #404 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12851; 19 Jun 93 19:26 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23510 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 17:16:07 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06583 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 19 Jun 1993 17:15:36 -0500 Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 17:15:36 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306192215.AA06583@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #405 TELECOM Digest Sat, 19 Jun 93 17:15:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 405 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson France Telecom and IBM Launch Djinn (Jean-Bernard Condat) Ukraine (Kiev) Phone System (William Warner) Interactive TV at the Montreaux TV Symposium/Exhibition (Frederick Roeber) AT&T Traffic Problem? (Alan Boritz) Bell Operating Company Predecessors (A. Alan Toscano) Re: Southern Bell and Call Hunting (Mark Steiger) Phone Connections in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands (Thomas Hutton) Unanswered 800 Number Billings (Bob Schwartz) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jbcondat@attmail.com (Chaos Computer Club France ) Date: 19 Jun 93 13:59:59 GMT Subject: France Telecom and IBM Launch Djinn DJINN: the new French intelligent computer interface Paris, France, June 19, 1993: France Telecom and IBM France have teamed up for the first time to offer an innovative "communications" personal computer known as Djinn. The world's number four telecommunications operator and the world leader in the computer market have put their combined technical and marketing power behind Djinn, a product whose state-of-the-art technology will make PC communications as ubiquitous as desktop computers themselves. Djinn is a fax, Minitel videotex terminal, answering machine and powerful personal computer all in one. The launch of this innovation will drive development throughout the entire industry, since Djinn at last creates direct integration of personal computer and telecommunications environments. Pre-development studies suring Djinn project have underlined a number of important points: * Both professional users and consumers express spontaneous confidence in the quality of a PC-based telecoms product offered by France Telecom and IBM, two brand names with substantial "credibility capital"; * The entire target population, from small businesses and professionals to managers in larger firms, expresses demand for both open solutions (acquisition of a single telecommunications device) and packaged solutions (telecommunications device bundled with a PC). Consequently, both types of products will be marketed: * Djinn* is designed for connection to any PC equipped with Windows**. The product consists of a modem (developed by Com1) and software (developed by Integro) offering fax, Minitel videotext, answering machine and telephony functions. The retail price is FRF3,990 (excl. VAT); * The package product consists of the Djinn unit and an IBM PS/Value Point*** (386 SLC-25 MHz), sold for FRF12,000 (excl. VAT). Both solutions will be sold by IBM dealers and by IBM's direct sales network. The Djinn unit will also be marketed by France Telecom subsidiary EGT under the France Telecom Equipements brand name. _____ * Djinn is a registered trademark of France Telecom. ** Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. *** PS/Value Point is a registered trademark of International Business Machines. Djinn: A communications genie in every computer Djinn is the first PC-based solution for the Windows operating environment with a single application that integrates telephone applications: fax, answering machine and videotex terminal. The combination of these functions in a single unit ushers in a vast improvement in the daily working environment. Djinn comes in a pocket format box (95 x 60 mm) and features extremely simple software which takes full advantage of the flexibility of the Windows user interface. The solution is based on the use of an external unit -- linked to the PC via the telephone network -- and an innovative telecommunications application. The application is designed around the "telephone directory/ agenda", which manages the different features. Djinn users must be equipped with a telephone and a PC with Windows (minimum configuration 386SX/20 MHz, 4 Mb RAM, 60 Mb hard disk, VGA screen, DOS v5.0 and Windows v3.1). Djinn features: DIRECTORY-AGENDA: UNIFIED PERFORMANCE The directory-agenda is a powerful "personal organizer" which groups full information on individuals (telephone, fax numbers). The user simply clicks on the name of an individual to directly dial the number and speak with the party to discuss a document on the screen and then fax it, for example. The directory-agenda also has an automatic calling feature and enables access to services via the Teletel videotex hosts. ON-SCREEN TELEPHONE On-screen telephone use is simple and efficient. Dedicated icons enable automation of features such as appointment reminders, directory assistance or optional services like call forwarding, three-way conferencing, or call waiting. FAX TRANSMISSION HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER With the "quick fax" feature, a text editor is used to add a message to a personalized header page and send it immediately. The fax selector function enables a document to be faxed from any Windows application (word processor, spreadsheet, graphics, etc.) as easily as launching a print job, with or without a cover page. If the PC is connected to a scanner, documents not on the computer can also be scanned and faxed. Fax reception is active whenever the PC is on. The user is notified that a fax has arrived and can then check the fax reception status log. ANSWERING MACHINE FUNCTION The PC also becomes an answering machine with Djinn, since the integrated microphone allows recording of several different messages. Messages left by callers are digitized and stored on the hard disk (the computer must of course be left on to activate this feature). THE MARRIAGE OF MINITEL AND WINDOWS Djinn enables access to all Teletel videotex hosts, along, with four streamlined adaptations for easy use of the railway and airline timetable services, telephone directory assistance and Minicom services. All four services are transformed into full-fledged applications. For example, all information requests are grouped on one or two screen pages. For a train reservation on French national railways (SNCF), for example, the screen shows the destination, date and times, smoking/no-smoking seat selection, etc. database information requests are executed as background tasks, keeping the computer free to run other applications. Djinn also integrates the Teletel High Speed photo mode (4,800 baud). ONLINE USER SUPPORT A user support server provides downloading of software updates or dedicated adaptation of server applications. Djinn includes automatic "click" access to the user support server. Promotional campaign: Market launch of Djinn will be supported by an advertising campaign signed by France telecom in partnership with IBM. The theme of the campaign is: "When your PC becomes a fax, Minitel and answering machine, it's not magic, it's Djinn" [Quand votre micro devient fax, Minitel, repondeur ... ce n'est pas sorcier, c'est Djinn]. The campaign kicked off on June 10th and will be run in computer and business trades, as well as in spezialized sector trades such as medical, hotel of construction industry publications. Djinn development parteners: COM1 Founded in 1987, COM1 is specialized in the design and development of telecommunications products. The European leader in the modem market, COM1 has manufactured nearly 300,000 modems. In 1992 the company had sales of FRF90 million and sold over 100,000 modems. COM1 is centered on its powerful R&D department. Manufacturing operations are carried out in partnership with Slectron. Bordeaux-based Selectron is an affiliate of one the United States' leading specialists in high integration electronics contract work. Other manufacturing partners are Cotee (Merignac) and Sofrel (Angers). France Telecom acquired an equity stake in COM1 in 1990 via its Innovacom subsidiary. AT&T Paradyne recently signed a technical and marketing agreement with COM1 giving the company exclusive distribution rights for its PCMCIA high-speed radio transmission products (V32 and V32bis) for the EC, the former Soviet Union, Africa and the Middle East. Among the major accounts for which COM1 works are IBM France (and four of its European subsidiaries), Toshiba, Apple and Hewlett-Packard USA. INTEGRO Founded in 1981, Integro is a French company with a number of foreign affiliates (including subsidiaries in the United States and the UK). The company generates a significant percentage of its sales - - which rose from FRF10 million to FRF60 million between 1988 and 1992 -- in export markets. Integro currently has a work force of 100 persons, half of them involved in research and development. Integro software products are designed to serve two areas of needs: * Progressive evolution from centralized to distributed information processing, enabling communications between workstations with these two different types of architecture; * creation of client-server architectures to guarantee total consistency between existing IT resources and focused on department and cooperative type computing solutions. -------------- Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary >> Editor of _Chaos Digest_, the Frecnh computer security e-journal << Chaos Computer Club France, B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Private Address: P.O. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France Phone: +33 1 40101764, Fax: +33 1 47877070 InterNet: jbcondat@attmail.com or cccf@altern.com ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jun 1993 15:25:54 -0400 (EDT) From: warner@ohio.gov Subject: Ukraine (Kiev) Phone System I visited Kiev, Ukraine (of the former Soviet Union) for 10 days for a friend's wedding. Since there has been some discussion on the former Eastern Europe phone systems, I thought the digest might be interested in the telephone system. (An aside, Kiev was quite enjoyable with many beautiful cathedrals and really nice and friendly people.) I stayed in one of the less expensive 'tourist' hotels: the Hotel Peace (MIR). Each room had a phone. The phones were very poorly built (even worse than some of the 'free' phones people were giving away a few years ago.) I am a very active person, and it was very difficult to talk on the phone while standing perfectly still. If you moved, the phone would make a lot of noise from loose wiring somewhere in the phone and bad cords, mine was taped in a few places. Kiev has seven digit phone numbers. All the phones were pulse dialed. If you wanted to dial local numbers you just dialed the number. If you needed to do anything more complicated you dialed '8'. This would eventually, most of the time, connect you to another switch. You then could dial the rest of the country or internationally. The Ukraine is using country code 7 (the former Soviet Union.) The local switch was very poor. Most of the time you were either connected to the phone you dialed or to nowhere. But quite often you would be connected elsewhere. (This was somewhat fun, since my Ukranian is very weak! It was interesting that the phone was answered with a "Hello" or two.) The most interesting feature (Someone who knows phone switches might be able tell what kind of switch it was) was when the phone would ring, and you answered the phone you would hear a dial tone for a few seconds until the phone call was switched through. Kiev was full of public phones. The public phones once required Soviet Union 5 (I think it was five) kopeck coins, but now are free. For emergencies, there were 00N numbers for the militia (police style), ambulence and fire. There were a number of signs around near public phones that had the fire number in a red flame. This was one of the better signs I have seen, since it was obvious who to call in the case of a fire. (Now I am not as sure that the response to the fire would be very useful. My hotel was a relatively new building and it had two fire escapes, one at each end. My friend's wife's family's house only had one exit running down the middle of the building. There is no hydrant system in Kiev, and very low water presure. There are large trucks of water parked all around the city to provide water in case of a fire.) The Ukraine is having very bad inflation. The exchange rate in Decemeber was 300 koupons per dollar and when we were there in Late April it was 3000 koupons per dollar. Calls to the United States was about 150 koupons per minute. (Versus $1.50 to 2.25 per minute from the United States to the Ukraine.) An update, the telephone rates has gone up about 25 times in the past couple of weeks, and are similiar to our rates. Another interesting telecom feature, was that the post office operated FAX machines. You could go into the Post Office send a FAX and pick up any received FAXes had been received for you. It is much more reliable than the regular mail service especially for International mail. A few months ago the Post Office got a second FAX machine. Now maybe someone can help me out: I have been sending letters by FAX to a friend I met while I was there. I have better luck sending FAXes using ATT versus Sprint, even though a call using Sprint sounds cleaner when you are talking. Am I correct in guessing that both ATT and Sprint would use the same satellite connections to Moscow to serve the Ukraine, and the difference is some sort of 'magic' to make the calls sound better to people? Also, even though my faxes make it there, I rarely get an confirmation handshake between the FAX machines. Also, when I receive FAXes I often miss page breaks. I have been planning to research how FAXes work, but thought I would 'try the digest first!' William "Bill" Warner, III (N8HJP) (614)466-6683 (Toll Free in Ohio: State of Ohio Telecommunications 950-1OHI, wait for tone, then 6-6683) 2151 Carmack Road Columbus, OH 43221 warner@ohio.gov ------------------------------ From: roeber@vxcrna.cern.ch (Frederick Roeber) Subject: Interactive TV at the Montreaux TV Symposium/Exhibition Reply-To: roeber@cern.ch Organization: CERN -- European Organization for Nuclear Research Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 13:32:33 GMT Last Monday I went to the 18th International Television Symposium and Technical Exhibition, in Montreux, Switzerland. (Montreux and Geneva are on opposite ends of Lake Geneva.) Most of the stuff there wasn't too related to comp.dcom.telecom, but there were some things that may be interesting to cdt readers. One of the hot big subjects today is interactive TV. AT&T/Bell Labs was showing a system they're working on. The most visible part of it is a "video rental store": by using a hand-held IR mouse, one could select movies from various menus. As you decided, you could see the movie "teasers" in the corner of the screen. When you selected one, and confirmed the order, it would play the movie for you. Though the movie was being played over the net from their database system, it was being played for only you: you had complete VCR-like control. There were some other game-like services, nothing earth-shaking, just slow video games with movie-quality pictures. There was also a quiet demonstration of picture-phone capability. I asked about multi-person video games. They said this system would have the capability to do it, if anybody wrote one. They and Viacom are going to run a test of this system in Castro Valley, California. They had a press release (contact me for a copy, or for the contacts at Bell), but they weren't saying much else. Microsoft and somebody I forget were also showing an interactive TV capability. They seemed to be focusing more on the "home shopping club" audience. They had a demonstration showing a clip from HSC, and by using a mouse you could call up overlays with large buttons marked "More Information" and "Order Now." They also had a "virtual mall" where you could click your away around the stores, click on things drawn on the shelves, and click on "Order Now." Both of these systems are intended to be used on a cable-tv network, but one running a different protocol: something closer to a packet- switching network. The reverse communication channel would require that all the CATV amplifiers be replaced with switches. The Microsoft/ whoever system could also work over satellite TV, with a phone-line return channel. Microsoft's partner company is already involved (though VideoCipher) with pay-tv-via-satellite, so they might also do a video-rental system. There wasn't much else that was new. There was only one other thing that caught my attention: Thompson-CSF has come up with a way of reading magnetic tapes optically. The readout crystal is fixed and the tape moves past it; this has a lot less wear than the current spinning-head systems. The working demonstration model they showed had an optics package about the same size as the tape, though there was a second version that was much smaller. They plan to put the optics into a small single package, like a CD player head. Frederick G. M. Roeber | CERN -- European Center for Nuclear Research e-mail: roeber@cern.ch or roeber@caltech.edu | work: +41 22 767 31 80 r-mail: CERN/PPE, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland | home: +33 50 20 82 99 ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jun 93 20:05:44 EDT From: Alan Boritz <72446.461@CompuServe.COM> Subject: AT&T Traffic Problem? I happened to hit an AT&T trunk busy calling a friend at the University of Massachusetts via AT&T this afternoon. Kind of unusual, since UMass has a DS3 out of AT&T's switch in Springfield, MA, and plenty of trunks. Would anyone else be experiencing, or observing, this kind of blocking, or was this just a chance occurance? Alan Boritz 72446.461@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 19:09 PDT From: atoscano@speedway.net (A Alan Toscano) Subject: Bell Operating Company Predecessors Today while walking from my office in downtown Houston to Houston's former main Post Office, I passed by Southwestern Bell Telephone's Houston-Capitol central office building, as always. Today, however, for some reason, I glanced upward and noticed engraved into the original part of building, between a couple of the upper floors, the inscription "The Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company." (Note that "Telegraph" comes before "Telephone" and not the opposite as with American Telephone and Telegraph Company.) As I recall, Illinois Bell Telephone began its life as The Chicago Telephone Company, and kept that name for a time as part of the early Bell Telephone System. I wonder if any Digest readers in the US might know the names of the predecessors of other BOCs. A Alan Toscano -- P O Box 741982 -- Houston, TX 77274 -- 713 216-6616 atoscano@speedway.net ------------------------------ From: Mark.Steiger@tdkt.kksys.com (Mark Steiger) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 05:29:16 -0600 Subject: Re: Southern Bell and Call Hunting Organization: The Dark Knight's Table BBS: Minnetonka, MN (Free!) >I just called Southern Bell to inquire about call hunting for my two >home (residential) lines. Was told that it is available but the charg >is $5.23 per month per line involved (*not* the number of lines >rolled" - I asked about the main number rolling to the second only a n>ot the reverse). Thus for me the charge would be $10.46 per month to h>ave the single line roll-over (and I thought $7.50/month per line fo >Caller-ID was bad 8*(. Hmm ... in Minneapolis, on a residential line it's under $1 per line. Origin: The Igloo BBS 612-574-2079 (1:282/4018.0) Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo BBS (612) 574-2079 Internet: mark@tdkt.kksys.com Fido: 1:282/4018 Simnet: 16:612/24 [Moderator's Note: And here in Chicago, standard 'hunting' is totally free. No charge at all to have it on your lines. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 93 12:26:22 PDT From: Thomas Hutton Subject: Phone connections in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands Im getting ready to head to Sweden, Norway Denmark and the Netherlands with powerbook in hand and Im trying to get an idea of what type of phone setup's I might find in hotels (mainly inexpensive hotels with the exception of Novatel in Amsterdam). I do plan on bringing a modular to alligator clip cable. I've heard banana type jacks are used in the Netherlands -- Is this correct? Any other items I should be aware of? Tom Hutton SDSC ------------------------------ Subject: Unanswered 800 Number Billings From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1993 15:33:07 -0700 Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California I recently came accross a mildly unusual instance of billing for unanswered 800 number calls. A Small Colorado company was *fortunate* enough to have their 800 number displayed for five minutes on national television. The result was over 22,000 call attempts (actually began to seize up the CO) and a bill for completed AND unanswered calls. The unanswered calls totaled about $6,000. Details: The "carrier" is a reseller. A call detail with most calling line numbers was provided. A line in the provider's customer agreement said something like, " customer must maintain adequate lines and personnel ..." My sense is that the billing is improper because the practice of billing for unanswered calls was not disclosed. Does anyone have experience with this sort of situation? Bob Schwartz bob@bci.nbn.com Bill Correctors, Inc. +1 415 488 9000 Marin County, California ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #405 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18432; 20 Jun 93 20:59 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16256 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 18:35:00 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06144 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 18:34:30 -0500 Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 18:34:30 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306202334.AA06144@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #406 TELECOM Digest Sun, 20 Jun 93 18:34:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 406 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) (Andy Sherman) Spread Spectrum Microwave in Europe (Josh Backon) Modify DAA For Soundcard (Xiangyang Gao) How Many 5ESS Lines Are There? (Les Reeves) *6n Codes (Michael Schuster) Exchanges Using Zero as Second Digit (Thomas Chen) Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey (Richard Cox) Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey (Ed Greenberg) Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey (David E.A. Wilson) Centel Warm Line Service (was Re: 411 Danger) (John R. Levine) Re: Particularity of 555? (Richard H. Miller) Re: Particularity of 555? (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Particularity of 555? (Carl Moore) Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting (Mark D. Fisher) Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting (David E.A. Wilson) Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting (Wolfgang Rupprecht) Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID (Wolfgang Rupprecht) Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID (Steve Forrette) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 13:20:52 EDT Subject: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) On 6 Jun 93 22:05:40 GMT, macwhiz@roundtable.cif.rochester.edu (Rob Levandowski) said: > My brand new Practical Peripherals PM14400FXMT, which purports > compatibility with Hayes' patented command set by license Since Toby Nixon has left Hayes and probably won't set the record straight on this one, I'll step up to the plate. It is a popular misconception that what Hayes has patented is the AT command set. This is not true. What Hayes patented was their technique for using a single data stream for both the data and control channel for modems. This technique involves the use of coded data in the data stream to switch the modems into command mode. (The example coded data stream is, of course, silence for the guard time, followed 3 '+' signs in rapid succession). I don't think one can evade their patent by choosing a different coded data stream, as the patent is on the mode-switching method, not the particular triggers used in its most popular embodiment. To the best of my knowledge, the AT command set itself is not part of this patent, but, of course, it is not real useful without a mode switching technique. Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com "These opinions are mine, all *MINE*. My employer can't have them." ------------------------------ From: BACKON@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Spread Spectrum Microwave in Europe Date: 20 Jun 93 21:15:03 GMT Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem I'd appreciate getting feedback from European (especially those from England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands) readers of TELECOM Digest regarding the legality of using spread spectrum digital radio microwave. In the United States one does not need an FCC license as per FCC Rule 15.247 to operate this type of microwave link since it has a very low power density spectrum and there is no need to coordinate frequencies. Does your country allow one to operate this without a license? Josh backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL ------------------------------ From: gao@eecg.toronto.edu (Xiangyang Gao) Subject: Modify DAA For Soundcard Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 09:14:54 -0400 Dear netters, I would appreciate it if you could give me some advice. I would like to interface my sound card to the telephone line. I would like to use the microphone input of the card to take input signals from the telephone line, and the speaker output to send signals to the telephone line. I understand that I need to modify the DAA to get this. My question: Is there any product out there for this purpose? How hard is the project of modifying the DAA, any suggestions? Thanks in advance. Frank ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 15:01:25 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: How Many 5ESS Lines Are There? Saturday at approximatly 1 am one of the two 1AESS' in my serving wircenter was cut-over to a 5ESS. A huge banner was hung on the wirecenter building Friday proclaiming: "BELL SOUTH - Home of the 50 millionth 5ESS Line" Break out the champaign! ------------------------------ From: schuster@Panix.Com (Michael Schuster) Subject: *6n Codes Date: 20 Jun 1993 07:52:52 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Would someone please post a comprehensive list of the *6n special diling codes (like the ones used for automatic dial back, busy re-dial, and turning caller ID on/off)? I realize these may differ in various areas of the country, but I'm curious how many there are -- the local phone book lists =none=. Mike Schuster schuster@panix.com | 70346.1745@CompuServe.COM schuster@shell.portal.com | GEnie: MSCHUSTER [Moderator's Note: And in the process, the list should probably include the 7n and 8n codes since there are quite a few of those also. The 8n codes here in Chicago seem to be used mainly to cancel or turn off their 6n counterparts (which turn on, or activate features.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: tchen@sdesys1.hns.com (Thomas Chen) Subject: Exchanges Using Zero as Second Digit Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 14:44:29 GMT Organization: Hughes Network Systems Inc. I used to think that zero and one in the second digit indicate that the first three digits are the area code. Has that been changed or was I wrong all along. My mobile phone and pager has a second digit of zero: 9015255. Tom [Moderator's Note: You were correct in the past. Years ago, zero or one were never used as the second digit in a prefix, and zero was never used as the third digit in a prefix. Not only that, the same prefix was never used in two adjacent area codes since to do so would cause problems with local community (but inter-area code) local con- venience seven digit dialing. As the number supply began running short, all those rules were tossed out. Area codes still have zero or one as the second digit for the time being, but a leading '1' is required to indicate whether the tree digits following are an area code or a prefix. Since cellular phones and pagers came along relatively late in industry history, those services tend to be the big users of prefixes with zero and one as the second digit. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 11:07 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk In reply to jeffw@triple-i.com (Jeff Wasilko), PAT said: > Centel here in the Chicago area has another pretty useless offering > called 'warm line'. Take your phone off hook and *do nothing*. After > a few seconds of time out, some preset number of your choice will be > dialed. I guess some people find it useful, but if I wanted a private > circuit ringdown, I would just order one; those start ringing immediatly > when they go off hook, not 10-15 seconds into a timeout. I've never > seen anyone offer this except Centel here in our area. PAT] It's a very useful service. Not, of course, for you or for me but how many of us with older relatives who live alone would not welcome a facility which would allow said relatives to send out a call for help just by taking their phone off hook and NOT dialing? A Ringdown line wouldn't work because (a) over here they cost too much, and (b) it would prevent the line being used for other calls. There are rumours that this service may be offered in the United Kingdom soon, but these rumours haven't been confirmed ! Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk - PGP2.2 public key available on request [Moderator's Note: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or as the prophet said, "there is nothing new under the sun ...". During all those long ago years of straight manual service, one of the best features was the security aspect of being able to knock the phone off the hook (or quietly lift the receiver off the hook) and leave it that way so the operator could listen to the background noise in the room and act accordingly. When phones were left off the hook with no response from the subscriber, operators were trained to listen carefully and call the police, paramedics, etc as needed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 16:53:42 GMT > [Moderator's Note: ...... > Centel here in the Chicago area has another pretty useless offering > called 'warm line'. Take your phone off hook and *do nothing*. After a > few seconds of time out, some preset number of your choice will be > dialed. I guess some people find it useful, but if I wanted a private > circuit ringdown, I would just order one; those start ringing immediatly > when they go off hook, not 10-15 seconds into a timeout. I've never > seen anyone offer this except Centel here in our area. PAT] Pat, About a year ago, I submitted an article to the Digest about the Siskayou Telephone Company in extremely northern California. One of the special services that they offer is "Warm Line", defined just as you state. It seems to me that the service is useful for the infirm, who might have trouble dialing a number in an emergency. Hmmm ... I wonder if one could get Warm Line programmed to dial Operator? I also wonder if you can still order Manual Service (Number Please?) Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG ------------------------------ From: david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) Subject: Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey Date: 20 Jun 1993 14:30:07 +1000 Organization: University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Here in Australia this is one of the 'EasyCall' options provided byTelecom Australia. An interesting 'feature' of this is that you get two codes, one to set the number you wish the call to reach and a second to disable the auto-calling. Strangely, if you turn this off, you still have to dial within the 10-15 seconds or else the dial-tone changes to indicate that the call failed. David Wilson +61 42 213802 voice, +61 42 213262 fax Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 12:29 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Centel Warm Line Service (was Re: 411 Danger) Organization: I.E.C.C. > Centel here in the Chicago area has another pretty useless offering > called 'warm line'. Take your phone off hook and *do nothing*. After a > few seconds of time out, some preset number of your choice will be > dialed. I'd expect this to be useful as a sort of low-rent version of "help, I've fallen and I can't get up." So long as you can knock the handset off the phone, presumably the person on the other end is a relative or friend who will recognize the call. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: rick@crick.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Richard H. Miller) Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? Date: 20 Jun 1993 17:03:59 GMT Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx In article daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) writes: > Reinhard A Hamid (hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de) wrote: >> In nearly all TV-Films I have seen, when people are giving out their >> telephone number, it started with 555. Actually, if you look at old films the practive goes back even further than that. I remember quite a few movies in which the phone number given was KL5-xxxx (or Klondike 5-xxxx). So the use of the 555 exchange seems to have been around for a long time. (I can't remember specific movies but have memories of some of the Maltese Falcon type of detective movies as well as ad posters on public billboards as part of the background.) Richard H. Miller Email: rick@bcm.tmc.edu Asst. Dir. for Technical Support Voice: (713)798-3532 Baylor College of Medicine US Mail: One Baylor Plaza, 302H Houston, Texas 77030 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 08:38:30 -0400 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? Last night my son and I went to see the "Last American Hero", a tried and true formula movie that just happens to be hilarious (last time I broke up in a movie was during the opening credits for "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"). Drags a bit at the start and when delivering "messages" but the incredible antics and the amazing bouncing '69 Bonneville have to be seen to be believed. Nothing that hasn't been done before (the whole movie is a satire) but I have never seen it done so well or so exaggerated with many of the more bizarre antics done as throwaways in the background. At one point The Kid is trying to convince "Jack Slater" that they are in a movie and mentions that isn't it incredible that the millions of people in greater LA all have a 555 exchange ? The response: "Area Codes". Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 12:06:19 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? And what happened when people attempted those calls to 555 prefix from Germany? ------------------------------ From: fish@cc.gatech.edu (Fish) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting Reply-To: fish@cc.gatech.edu (Fish) Organization: College of Ones and Zeros, Georgia Tech Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 01:46:48 GMT In article Our esteemed moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: We went through this before, and I am almost certain > the data is *NOT* sent as ASCII. Anyone remember my failed experiments > at trying to get my modem to feed the data to my terminal? It is some > other format. PAT] As I recall the reason the experiments failed was that the modulation protocol is not the same as is used for "normal" 1200 baud modems. So the experiments didn't disprove ASCII. Also as I recall from the data sheet that came with my sample Motorola CID chip, the info is sent as ASCII. Mark D. Fisher (fish@cc.gatech.edu) PGP Public Key available by request. ------------------------------ From: david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting Date: 20 Jun 1993 14:32:31 +1000 Organization: University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. > [Moderator's Note: Some time ago, I put a tap on my line; fed the > modem from that tap; and had the modem in 'answer mode' at 1200 baud. > I also gave the modem ATH1 to keep it off hook. All I could ever get > was gibberish, apparently because I was expecting ASCII and instead > the telco sent FSK. How would you hack the modem otherwise? PAT] This was probably because you used a Bell 212 modem and not a Bell 202 modem. If you did use a 202 then I would guess perhaps it is synch rather than asynch character format. David Wilson +61 42 213802 voice, +61 42 213262 fax Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 18:11:56 GMT dcg5662@hertz.njit.edu (Dave Grabowski) writes: > The Caller-ID signal is a standard Bell 202 carrier -- 1200 baud FSK. > The data sent consists of six fields of information: > 5. Data words: Month, Day, Hour, and Minute of message (8 bytes), > followed by the calling number or "P" for private, "O" for out of area. > All data is transmitted in ASCII. > [Moderator's Note: Some time ago, I put a tap on my line; fed the > modem from that tap; and had the modem in 'answer mode' at 1200 baud. > I also gave the modem ATH1 to keep it off hook. All I could ever get > was gibberish, apparently because I was expecting ASCII and instead > the telco sent FSK. How would you hack the modem otherwise? PAT] FSK and ASCII refer to two totally different things. FSK refers to the modulation method used to get the digital data out on the analog lines. FSK = Frequency shift keying - its one of the simplest modulation methods - one frequency for a "1" and another for a "0". Youu modem was not likely expecting a 1200 buad signal. Most so-called 1200 baud modems use the bell 212A modulation standard which is 1200 bits per second, but 600 baud (and 2 bits/baud). It uses PSK (Phase shift keying) not FSK. (Even if you modem did use another 1200bps standard, that was FSK, it might not involve the same frequencies as CNID data. Also, CNID only sends 150ms of carrier. That's not enough for many modems to lock-on to). ASCII refers to the contents of the bit stream -- you can use FSK to send ascii, FSK to send other types of data, something-other-than-FSK to send ASCII, and something-other-than-FSK to send something-other- than-ASCII. If your modem is Hayes-compatible, then it requires ASCII for command mode stuff, but for data, ASCII or not makes no difference -- its just a byte stream. (And, in fact, the meat of the CNID message is in ASCII - your modem just showed gibberish because it wanted (probably) 600 baud PSK under the Bell 212A standard, and you were getting 1200 baud FSK under the CNID spec. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) (formerly rfranken@cs.umr.edu) Brett Frankenberger brettf@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: wolfgang@wsrcc.com (Wolfgang Rupprecht) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting Date: 20 Jun 1993 16:34:30 -0700 Organization: W S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Fremont CA Bell 212 != Bell 202 If you had the normal garden variety 1200 baud modem you probably had a Bell 212 modem. (Bell 202 was something that was 5/8-duplex, if you get my drift.) Is it any surprise that MaBell picked an essentially non-standard modulation for one of their products? Nah. They probably had bean counter that wanted to get rid of a warehouse full of old 202 chips for the last 20 years. They finally saw a chance to dump them ... ;-) The ASCII is encoded as FSK. They are two different layers in the protocol. Wolfgang Rupprecht wolfgang@wsrcc.com (or) decwrl!wsrcc!wolfgang IP: [140.174.88.1] 39469 Gallaudet Drive, Fremont, CA 94538-4511 ------------------------------ From: wolfgang@wsrcc.com (Wolfgang Rupprecht) Subject: Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID Date: 20 Jun 1993 17:02:38 -0700 Organization: W S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Fremont CA > [Moderator's Note: What would you rather have, the Caller-ID provide > the number of the interim party who had nothing to do with the > transaction at all? Programs and systems destroying information is always a bad idea. Its easy to arbitrarily drop one number of the other, but darn hard to get it back and figure out what the other number was when you have to. I'm surprised that CLID just send all the call info it has. The final presentation system is just ASCII. It can just as well send: orig: xxx-xxx-xxxx forw: xxx-xxx-xxxx forw: xxx-xxx-xxxx forw: xxx-xxx-xxxx That way if there is a long forward chain, one can see exactly who all the parties are that are involved. If somebody is up to no good, there is no way of quickly telling which of the multiple parties is being the prankster. Just present all the available info and let the human at the display figure it out. Wolfgang Rupprecht wolfgang@wsrcc.com (or) decwrl!wsrcc!wolfgang IP: [140.174.88.1] 39469 Gallaudet Drive, Fremont, CA 94538-4511 ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID Date: 20 Jun 1993 06:57:57 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article ac388@freenet.hsc.colorado. edu (Jack Decker) writes: > In message , dh395@cleveland.Freenet. > Edu (Steven J Tucker) wrote: >> Can someone tell me, when you forward your calls in a Caller ID >> equipped area, does the called party get the original caller number >> or the number doing the forwarding? >> [Moderator's Note: Here in Chicago, they get the original number. PAT] > Isn't there some danger in this, though? Let me give you an example > of something that could easily happen: > A is under a court order not to call or have contact with B (maybe a > messy separation/divorce, or some such thing). But A is calling C for > some legitimate reason (maybe to try and collect money owed) only C > doesn't want to talk to A. [complicated story about A going to jail because of C's fowarding deleted] > In my opinion, therefore, Caller-ID OUGHT to transmit some sort of > indication that the call was forwarded via another number, if and when > that is the case. Strictly speaking, Caller ID does not, but the CLASS infrastructure that supports it does transmit this information. If you subscribe to "bulk Caller ID" you can get all of the messy details (bulk Caller ID is what you would get if you want Caller ID for trunk-side connections like DID trunks, and cannot get regular Caller ID). Presumably, Call Trace will record all of the relavent information, since the terminating switch has it anyway. Some of the information that is available with Bulk Caller ID and presumably Call Trace includes: - Original calling number - Original called number (the number that the caller dialed) - Number of the line that forwarded the call to you (could be different from the original called number if there's more than one hop of forwarding) - Reason that the last hop forwarded the call to you (immediate forwarding, busy transfer, no-answer transfer, etc.) This is clearly enough information to prevent a false prosecution such as Jack conjectured about. (This information was taken from a Bellcore document describing Bulk Caller ID). Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #406 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa22671; 20 Jun 93 22:45 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29679 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 20:21:46 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13828 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 20:21:08 -0500 Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 20:21:08 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306210121.AA13828@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #407 TELECOM Digest Sun, 20 Jun 93 20:21:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 407 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Names Added To Caller ID (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Names Added To Caller ID (Steve Forrette) Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID (Paul Robinson) Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID (Mark Evans) Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID (Jason Garner) Re: Remember the War on Pagers? Try This on For Size! (Paul Theodoropoulos) Re: Remember the War on Pagers? Try This on For Size! (Daniel Burstein) Re: Caller-ID via Modem (Leonard Erickson) Re: Caller-ID via Modem (Gary Breuckman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Names Added To Caller ID Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 17:58:22 GMT Jerry Leichter writes: > The issue in Caller ID is not anonymity; it's privacy. Let's take an No. It's strictly anonymity. > example: Our esteemed Moderator. Do you know his home address or > telephone number? I'll bet not; in fact, he has in the past pointed > out that he is careful not to have a phone listed in his name, and to > conduct business through a post office box. He has in fact challenged > people to determine this information about him. I wish I had the time. I'm quite sure I could find it out without too much trouble. (This is a valid pricacy issue; however, it has nothing to do with CNID). > Our Moderator presumably uses his personal telephone to create and > post copies of this Digest to subscribers. Were he to CALL > subscribers directly, he would have to reveal his home telephone > number though Caller-ID. If we have the right to determine his > telephone number in this case, shouldn't we also have it when he > happens to use a modem and a terminal to reach us indirectly? No. He does not, directly, or indirectly, call me. He does e-mail me, and I do feel that I have the right to know his e-mail address because of this. (Actually, I read this in Usenet, so the only E-Mail I get from Pat is his automated response to my postings, but the point is, he doesn't call anyont directly or indirectly - he just leaves them e-mail). No one screams about how e-mail is a great invasion of privacy, but everytime you e-mail me, I get your e-mail address. (Yes, I know you could probably forge an e-mail wouldout much thought process. Same here, but the point is, in general, E-Mail passes the source address. There are ways around it, just as there are ways around CNID). Once again, it's simple. If you walk up to my door, I have the right to know what you look like. You do not have the right to anonymity, and no one screams about how peepholes are a great invasion of privacy. When you e-mail me, I have the right to know your email address. I get this automatically, and you do not have the right to anonymimty. Again, no one screams about the great privacy invasion of E-Mail. Same for telephone calls. If you call me, I have the right to know your telephone address (i.e. your telephone number). Its an issue of anonymity, not privacy. I fail to see why so many people make this out to be a privacy issue. I also realize that many will note, regarding the e-mail example above, the relative ease with which e-mail can be forged by the SMTP literate. The fact that the system has holes doesn't make it any less relevant. CNID has plenty of holes also. > Clearly not. The "anonymity" our Moderator is maintaining is really > his right to keep his private life private. It is really none of our > business where he lives. None of us should be calling him at home to > complain about missing issues of the Digest. Nope, and he shouldn't be calling me at home to ask what I thought of the last issue. He doesn't. He e-mails the digest to me, and I can e-mail him whenever I want to. > The analogous right applies to others. When a disturbed person calls > his psychiatrist's or social worker's number, he gets an answering > service. The message will be relayed, and the professional will > return the call -- quite likely from home. The home number will NOT be > given out, for good reason: The professional has a right to his own > life. Only emergency calls should get through. But, with Caller ID, > as soon as the professional calls back from home, his number is > revealed. One example of a problem with CNID does not prove CNID is bad and should be eliminated. The professional can dial *67 if he is so concerned with his anonimity. [ Part about poster's sister getting non-pub number to stop harrasing caller ] See, your sister had this problem, and it didn't have anything to do with CNID. But you still use it as an example of why CNID should be eliminated. [ Part about software engineer's home number being revealed deleted ] > The outcome of these scenarios is clear. Any doctor who gets > harrassed after his home phone number is revealed will simply refuse > to make calls after hours, to the degree he can. The customer with > the software problem will just have to wait, because someone else at > some point abused a trust. The world won't end, but it will be a less > pleasant place. But that's what you get when you sacrifice privacy. I do not claim CNID is perfect. You have identified some bad aspects of it. Keep in mind; however, that stalkings and the like have been around much longer than CNID, and banning CNID will not solve, or even make a dent in, the problem. (And all these problems can be solved by dialing *67 -- there are VERY FEW areas where CNID is avail and per-call block is not). Two other technical notes about CNID messages that appeared in the Digest recently: (1) I believe most telco voice-mail systems to NOT operate on the basis of CNID information. If my phone forwards to voice mail, CNID will only provide the number of the person calling me -- the voice mail processor would not know whose outgoing message to play or whose box to place the incoming message in. It may be based on SS7 information, but I believe it is communicated to the voice mail processor using neither CNID nor ANI, but a separate protocol, that also inlcludes information about how forwarded the call to the voice mail box. (2) Regarding the handling of forwarded calls with respect to CNID, I believe if you have ISDN (yes, I know, most don't), the ISDN messages include information such as whether or not the call was forwarded (and maybe who forwarded it). Also, note that having your number in my CNID box doesn't prove you called it -- it just proves that someone sent your number down a phone line in a CNID packet ... its not too hard to forge (although it would require some equipment). Brett (brettf@netcom.com) (formerly rfranken@cs.umr.edu) Brett Frankenberger brettf@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Names Added To Caller ID Date: 20 Jun 1993 07:10:57 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In the case of Pat sending out Digests with his modem, he is not invading my privacy, peace of mind, or anything else. I have to voluntarily dial in and retrieve my copies of the Digest. When someone calls me at home, however, they are causing me an involuntary invasion of my privacy and/or peace of mind. Were Pat to use his modem to call me directly, I would expect to get his Caller ID information. > The analogous right applies to others. When a disturbed person calls > his psychiatrist's or social worker's number, he gets an answering > service. The message will be relayed, and the professional will > return the call -- quite likely from home. The home number will NOT be > given out, for good reason: The professional has a right to his own > life. Only emergency calls should get through. But, with Caller ID, > as soon as the professional calls back from home, his number is > revealed. This is of course what blocking, either per-line or per-call, is for. In what I would consider a proper implementation of Caller ID, the free availability of per-call and per-line blocking solves all of the problems: the people who want to have some privacy and peace of mind for incoming calls can get it with Caller ID, and the people who have a real or perceived need to keep their numbers private can do so as well with their free blocking. This way, everyone can decided what privacy means to them. Isn't privacy a "private" thing, something each person should get to decide for themselves, instead of having their PUC decide it for them? Some people will sign up for per-line blocking because they never want their number revealed. Some people will not, but use per-call blocking when a special need arises. Most people won't order Caller ID, so they keep things the way they are now (but still get to benefit from the overall reduction in crank and harassing calls). Some will order Caller ID; of those, some will use it to prioritize calls, and still answer calls from blocked numbers. Some will choose to not answer calls from blocked numbers. Everybody gets to choose what amount of privacy they want, for both outgoing *and* incoming calls. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 15:34:07 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Jack Decker writes: > In message , dh395@cleveland.Freenet. > Edu (Steven J Tucker) wrote: >> Can someone tell me, when you forward your calls in a Caller ID >> equipped area, does the called party get the original caller number >> or the number doing the forwarding? > .... and Pat replied ..... >> [Moderator's Note: Here in Chicago, they get the original >> number. PAT] > Isn't there some danger in this, though? Let me give you an > example of something that could easily happen: > A is under a court order not to call or have contact with B (maybe > a messy separation/divorce, or some such thing). But A is calling > C for some legitimate reason (maybe to try and collect money owed) > only C doesn't want to talk to A. Since A always calls C at around > the same time, and since C knows about the court order, C decides > to cause some mischief by forwarding his line to B. A calls C, get > connected to B, and upon hearing B's voice, hangs up immediately! > BUT ... B has Caller ID and can "prove" to the court that A called > her, so A gets thrown in the slammer. C is happy, B is happy, and > A's still wondering how the heck he got connected to B! More likely it's C who might end up in the slammer. I suspect that if C intentionally forwarded A's calls to B, and knowing there was a court order, he might be guilty of encouraging the violation of the order. In any case, how would B "prove" A called? The Caller-ID box is not a written record and is a digital representation; the information can be faked and the box alone is not evidence. What would be needed is the tape of calls showing who called from the telephone company. And that tape should (I would think) show a call forward, in case C has message units, so that he is charged. Also, a call forward, if I'm not mistaken, is charged to the caller so there should show a termination at C and a transfer (charged to C) at point A. Unless B conspired with C to do this, B hasn't done anything wrong. If C knew about it, and did it for the express purpose of causing B trouble, there may be legal penalties. But if B's lawyer is stupid enough to allow a Caller-ID box alone, to be used as evidence against his client without the telephone company tape, B needs to get another lawyer and to sue his current one for malpractice and negligence! And as Pat notes, this is a little far fetched. One phone call by mistake is doubtful grounds to invoke contempt proceedings; the speed-dialer in a phone is misprogrammed; the phone company loses an upgrade of software and reloads the old software with old speed-dial numbers, etc. Also, there is the issue of what is used in civil cases as "Mitigation of Damages" which means the injured party is supposed to reduce, when possible, damages resulting out of an incident, e.g. if someone strikes the side mirror on your car, you are entitled to replacement of the mirror and reattachment; you are not entitled to get the whole car repainted. How the issue of Mitigation of Damages comes up is raised by this question: If the Caller-ID box indicated who it was, why did the victim answer the phone? Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans) Subject: Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID Organization: Aston University Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 13:42:33 GMT TELECOM Moderator noted in response to Jack Decker: > [Moderator's Note: You devoted all these paragraphs to a justification > of why simply passing the phone number of the absolute caller to the > absolute receiver of the call 'might' be a bad idea ... if the very How about simply putting some additional information in the Caller-ID packet sent out to say that it is a forwarded call? Maybe so that it contains both the dialing number and a forward indicator (maybe X forward indicators where X is the number of times the call has been forwarded.) > unusual scenario you describe should happen to take place. What would > you rather have, the Caller-ID provide the number of the interim party > who had nothing to do with the transaction at all? Those are the two > choices you have. I wish people would quit thinking up all these bizzare > and unlikely reasons why Caller-ID is such a bad thing. Remember when As for his claim that that the Caller-ID would be proof that A had actually called B, simply taking the records for A's line, would show otherwise. This information is likely to be in the billing data. I somehow don't believe that a phone company cannot produce this, especially if asked to as part of evidence for a court case. With a little co-operation between all appropriate telephone companies it is quite simple to find out exactly what is going on and who is responsible. > the big thing was how all the women's shelters would never be able to > have outgoing calls again because of all the angry husbands who would Obviously they have never heard of outgoing only and unlisted lines. Anyway what telco provides a "reverse assistance facility" mapping numbers to addresses to the general public. To emergency services, yes, but they have special procedures to verify that someone is a real police officer or paramedic. Mark Evans evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk +(44) 21 429 9199 (Home) evansmp@cs.aston.ac.uk +(44) 21 359 6531 x4039 (Office) [Moderator's Note: Well there are plenty of 'reverse listing' or criss- cross style directories available. Anyone can use them, although often times a number will be skipped over if it is non-pub or one of the back lines in a PBX group, etc. But the two objections heard for so long in the early days of Caller-ID ('womens shelter' and 'business will compile lists of callers and annoy me with telemarketing calls') were just red herrings; none of the dire predictions came true. A third objection ('attorney/psychiatrist cannot call from home because client might get phone number') has required some effort by users to overcome; I'm losing a lot of sleep because of it. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 02:04:32 -0700 From: jgarner@netcom.com (Jason Garner) Subject: Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID However unlikely Jack Decker's scenario may be (A calls B which forwards to C then A gets arrested while B and C celebrate) this would be worthy of note as it pertains to a legal proccedings for malicious or obscene calls. For example, the next time I see fit to place an obscene or malicious phone call I can rest assured knowing that if I get caught I can call an expert witness who will attest to the fact that the aforementioned scenario is POSSIBLE. Then I will have my attorney claim that I was not calling the party pressing charges but someone else. Thus, one of the major justifications for caller I.D. (legal proof of a call in a criminal proceding) now becomes a tool for the criminal defendant. ------------------------------ From: pt@crl.com (paul theodoropoulos) Subject: Re: Remember the War on Pagers? Try This on For Size! Date: 20 Jun 1993 09:27:18 -0700 mattair@synercom.hounix.org (Charles Mattair) writes: > In article rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob > Boudrie) writes: >>> When the officer searched the suspect, imagine his surprise at finding >>> a realistic looking, ersatz pager that turns into a FUNCTIONING .22 >>> caliber handgun (I guess about the size and range of a Derringer). >>> The report was that it was dangerous, and available in convincing >>> neon/day-glo colors to avoid detection ... >> This report is utter BS. > This is not utter BS. They had one of these little playtoys on the > local news last week. Kinda sorta like a fold up Derringer (sp?). > Single shot .22 - I would suspect .22 short. Well, this is belaboring the point, but again - it *is* BS, on the following criteria: 1) the gun in no way resembles a pager - i've seen the photos of this gun in the newspaper. there *are* derringer _cases_ that resemble pagers. but the gun in question is not such. this is the typical case of a reporter who is totally ignorant about firearms listening to gossip and not doing any actual investigation. 2) these guns have been around a long time. they are not new. any firearms identification program for cops will include mention of same. as such, these news reports about this "new" hazard to cops/the public are misleading - and in my opinion - just designed to stir up public anti-gun parti pris. which is certainly nothing new either. 3) in light of 1) and 2), the connection to comp.dcom.telecom is vanishing at best, since they don't even look like pagers, and they aren't something new. in that regard, the report truly is "BS". > Probably wouldn't kill you but still nothing to triffle with. Try again. A .22 rimfire can kill you just as dead as a more powerful round. Don't kid yourself. paul theodoropoulos pt@crl.com diogenes@well.sf.ca.us ------------------------------ From: dannyb@Panix.Com (Daniel Burstein) Subject: Re: Remember the War on Pagers? Try This on For Size! Date: 20 Jun 1993 08:34:34 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC The recent (mainline) news stories about guns hidden in pager cases are referring to an -old- story. As a paramedic in NYC I would see many of the various police bulletins going to the precincts. The hidden gun/pager warning was distributed oh, about three years ago. Now what I'm really waiting for is a pair of sensible shoes of the type used to dramatic effect by Lotta Lenya ... dannyb@panix.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 14:52:59 PDT From: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Erickson) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call Waiting Our Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: We went through this before, and I am almost certain > the data is *NOT* sent as ASCII. Anyone remember my failed experiments > at trying to get my modem to feed the data to my terminal? It is some > other format. PAT] You forgot that the signal is sent using Bell 202. Your modem does Bell 212A (unless it's an old Apple-Cat 202). Bell 202 uses FSK (frequency shift keying) modulation. That is, one tone for mark, another for space. Bell 212A uses phase shift modulation. They are as incompatible as AM and FM radio. So the data *is* ASCII. It's just the *modulation* that your modem can't handle. uucp: uunet!m2xenix!puddle!51!Leonard.Erickson Internet: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 08:12:41 -0700 From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting In article dcg5662@hertz.njit.edu (Dave Grabowski) writes: > The Caller-ID signal is a standard Bell 202 carrier -- 1200 baud FSK. > The data sent consists of six fields of information: > Theoretically, you could hack a 1200 baud modem to monitor your > phone line and receive CID information. However, you'd have to make > sure that it didn't supervise the line, and it would have to ignore > the fact that 99.99% of the time there wouldn't be a carrier present. > [Moderator's Note: Some time ago, I put a tap on my line; fed the > modem from that tap; and had the modem in 'answer mode' at 1200 baud. > I also gave the modem ATH1 to keep it off hook. All I could ever get > was gibberish, apparently because I was expecting ASCII and instead > the telco sent FSK. How would you hack the modem otherwise? PAT] Sorry, you have the wrong type of modem. The caller id is sent as an FSK (frequency-shift-keying) signal, and requires a bell 202 modem that understands that modulation scheme. The modem you were likely using was a 212 modem, that uses DPSK (dibit phase shift keying) and is also full-duplex. Also, you need to connect the modem to the line in a way that does not take the line off-hook, some sort of capacitive coupling or a high-impedance amplified connection. Both of these modems use ASCII for the character scheme (actually, it's the equipment connected to the modem that does this, but the point is that the character encoding used is independent of the modulation scheme (FSK/DPSK)). ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #407 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23807; 20 Jun 93 23:09 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19635 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 20:55:35 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16304 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 20:55:01 -0500 Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 20:55:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306210155.AA16304@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #408 TELECOM Digest Sun, 20 Jun 93 20:55:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 408 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Cross-Border Local Calling (Frederick Roeber) Re: Cross-Border Local Calling (Garrett Wollman) Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards (Paul Robinson) Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards (Norman Yarvin) Re: AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial (Henrik Rasmussen) Re: AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial (Bob Haddleton) Re: Telephone Question (Brian T. Vita) Re: Telephone Question (Mike King) Re: Particularity of 555? (Mark Brader) Re: Particularity of 555? (B.J. Guillot) Re: Headset Equipped Cordless? (Randal L. Schwartz) Re: 16550AFN Chip (Jack Winslade) Re: Some Thoughts About Prepaid Calling Cards (Gerry George) Re: Need Modem Lockout Circuit (Robert Berger) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: roeber@vxcrna.cern.ch (Frederick Roeber) Subject: Re: Cross-Border Local Calling Reply-To: roeber@cern.ch Organization: CERN -- European Organization for Nuclear Research Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 13:53:57 GMT In article , David Leibold writes: > U.S.-Mexico border local calling likely doesn't exist. Information to > the contrary would be welcome, as would other news of international > local calling links. People in the Geneva area can call the neighboring bits of France as a local call, with a pseudo Swiss "area code." It's not symmetric, though: if I were to call from my home (in France) to a regular Geneva or CERN number, I'd get nailed with some horrible international rates. (The last I checked, it was cheaper to use AT&T's USA Direct international setup (bouncing it to the states and back) to make the 10 or 15 km call to a building I can see from my back porch!) Frederick G. M. Roeber | CERN -- European Center for Nuclear Research e-mail: roeber@cern.ch or roeber@caltech.edu | work: +41 22 767 31 80 r-mail: CERN/PPE, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland | home: +33 50 20 82 99 ------------------------------ From: Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Cross-Border Local Calling Organization: University of Vermont, EMBA Computer Facility Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 22:17:32 GMT In article David Leibold writes: > St Regis, Quebec to Fort Covington, New York This would of course be the St. Regis Indian Reservation. The Mohawks who live there don't recognize the US-Canada border, so it's not surprising that they have a special arrangement. (This reservation has been in the news lately, since the New York government lost a court case over NY's tax on sales of tobacco products to the Mohawks for the purpose of resale to New Yorkers.) It surprises me that Derby Line, Vermont, is not one of the localities listed here. Derby Line is a town which is split in two by the the US-Canada border (it is occasionally featured on television because of this). The story behind this town and others like it is a geographical oddity. When the boundary between Vermont and Canada was fixed after the War of 1812, the treaty had it at precisely 45 degrees north latitude. However, because of a surveying error, the border was actually constructed some half a mile further north, thus splitting several communities. When somebody actually noticed this years later, rather than disrupt the towns which had grown up around the misplaced border, it was decided to simply re-define the border to match its physical location. (If you drive north towards Montreal from Burlington, as you pass through the town of Highgate Springs in Interstate 89, you will see a sign marking the 45th parallel immediately before the customs house. Once you pass through, you will then wonder why the Quebec government couldn't have extended Autoroute 35 all the way to the border ...) According to my phone book, Derby Line is 802 873; unfortunately, I don't have the phone book for that part of the state handy so I can't check the dialing instructions for anything interesting. Garrett A. Wollman wollman@emba.uvm.edu uvm-gen!wollman UVM disagrees. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 17:29:33 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Khee Chan , writes: > Err ... I think you have missed out something here. > During my last visit to the local Ralph's, I paid by credit card. > True, I was not prompted to enter my PIN after I had run my card > through the card reader. In the Washington, DC area, the last financial institution to go onto the MOST teller machine network was BCCI of Washington err I mean First American Bank. At that point MOST had 100% penetration of all banks, credit unions and savings and loans in the Washington DC area and surrounding counties, and probably all of Maryland and MOST :) of Virginia. With First Union and Nationsbank buying banks in this area, the MOST network is extended all the way from New York City to Georgia and possibly as far west as Tennessee or Ohio. The reason stores in this area now take credit cards is that the state of Maryland (and possibly the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia) no longer issue food stamp coupons. Instead, they issue a debit card tied into the MOST ATM network (the money ATM, not the phone ATM :)) that all stores that take food stamps or credit cards are a part. This works as a debit card so the user punches in their PIN. This probably saves on fraud since the person charging something must have both the PIN code AND the debit card. Since they have the reader on hand to take food stamp cards (and, I suppose, ATM cards, too) it is trivial to accept credit cards at the same time. Since this is a merchandise purchase on a credit card. it uses the signature; if it is a debit purchase on a food stamp or ATM card, it uses the PIN number. The machines at Safeway use a special reader in front of the customer; it has a four selection panel at the top, the usual 12-key pad in the touch-tone form at the bottom, and a two-line LCD display. When you first start your transaction, it asks if you are using a debit or credit card, then YOU are asked to swipe the card either way through the reader. (This, I suppose, makes fraud easier since you never show the clerk the card, but stealing a weeks' worth of groceries is probably not as serious a matter as stealing cash.) It will call in and verify the transaction, and as a security measure, it will verify on the display the amount you are to be charged and ask you to confirm (or deny) this amount. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: yarvin-norman@CS.YALE.EDU (Norman Yarvin) Subject: Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards Date: 20 Jun 1993 15:13:59 -0400 Organization: Yale Computer Science Department Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) writes: > Most grocery stores in central Ohio accept credit cards without PIN's. > However one recently say they now require a PIN. This is a big pain > and bothers me ... first why do I need to enter a PIN? No one at the > store can tell me except its policy. No one seems concerned about the > security of the transaction. I for one don't know my PIN nor do I care > to. On cards that would permit it I specifically ask not to have a > PIN. > I also noticed on some of my cards that use of a PIN mean its a cash > transaction instead of a purchase. This can mean a higher interest > rate and/or surchare. If your paying off your card monthly this may > not be a problem, but what about the millons who don't? A cash transaction usually means interest is calculated from the day you withdraw the money. Check your credit card policy; this is the case with mine, and I'd be surprised if anybody did it differently. But when you make a cash transaction, you get the full amount of money you asked for. Whereas when you make a purchase, the store only gets something like 98% of the money you "paid". That 2% (the figure varies between credit cards) pays for the interest during the 30 day grace period as well as the costs of doing business of the credit card company. So, the reason stores would require a PIN is so that they get the full amount of money; in the process they hit you with about a month's worth of high interest charges. If your credit card has say 15% APR interest, these interest charges will be on the order of 1.1%; this is less than 2% so the combination of (you+store) is paying less to the credit card company than it would if you made a normal credit card purchase. We wouldn't need any of this funny business if stores were allowed to charge more for credit card purchases. It'd be easy for a computerized store to charge exactly 2% more, and thus exactly recoup its costs. But Congress in its all-seeing wisdom has passed a law against that practice. Norman Yarvin yarvin@cs.yale.edu ------------------------------ From: Henrik.Rasmussen@lambada.oit.unc.edu (Henrik Rasmussen) Subject: Re: AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial Date: 20 Jun 1993 16:55:24 GMT Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service I believe the previous comments on this were tounge in cheek. I find these ads very startegic for AT&T. They are, I believe trying to reassociate their name with leading edge technology. This is probably smart since in recent years they have been more associated with price wars. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service. internet: laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80 ------------------------------ From: bobh@nwsca.att.com Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 18:21 CDT Subject: Re: AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial The "Door Answering Service" will not be provided by the AT&T long distance , but rather by products and services from one or more of the various AT&T businesses. Remember -- AT&T is not solely Long Distance, but also has many, many other product lines and services. I don't think anyone could keep track of them all. The point of the You Will commercials is to show people the technolog- ical marvels that people have been talking about for years, and associate them with AT&T as a technology company, not just a Long Distance company. Of course, these are my opinions, not AT&Ts. Bob Haddleton bobh@nwsca.att.com ------------------------------ Date: 20 Jun 93 09:23:33 EDT From: Brian T. Vita <70702.2233@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Telephone Question > I have two jacks in my apartment on which it works fine; I also have one > jack on which the touch tone tones won't break dial tone. The old (original) Bell TouchTone (TM) phones were polarity sensitive. Reverse the tip and ring leads (red & green) and your problem should go away. In some installations we used to deliberately reverse the leads to restrict the dialing from a particular station. I think that they used to use a diode to prevent rotary phones from outdialing. An interesting aside ... One of the old theatres that I used to work in had the projection booth phone restricted from dialing out. Since I would occassionally like to call out to order pizza, etc. I bridged a reed switch across the diode. When I wanted to call out, I retrieved the magnet stuck to the bottom of my bench, held it up to the outside of the phone (just outside of the portion of the case where the switch was located) and made my call. Whenever management would try the phone the magnet would be back on the bottom of my bench and the phone clearly did not dial out ... never got caught either! Brian T. Vita CSS, Inc. CI$70702,2233 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 12:29:55 EDT From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: Re: Telephone Question In {Telecom Digest}, V13, #397, martinc@cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin) asks: > I have an old Bell phone -- the good old kind, the ones that don't > feel like they're made of papier-mache. I have two jacks in my > apartment on which it works fine; I also have one jack on which the > touch tone tones won't break dial tone. It also won't break dial tone > plugged through my new 14.4K modem. Try reversing the polarity of the wires on the jack that doesn't work. Most of the older Bell phones don't have polarity guard. Mine doesn't. Mike King | +1 301-428-5384 | I don't speak for my Software Sourcerer | mking@fsd.com or | employer. My employer Fairchild Space | 73710.1430@compuserve.com | doesn't speak for me. ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 20:31:08 GMT As has been said, the point of 555-numbers is that they look like ordinary numbers to the naive viewer, but really aren't. Which reminds me of a passage from Michael Chrichton's novel "The Andromeda Strain" which, as far as I can reconstruct it from memory, is along the following lines. A character has just received the coded phone message that he never expected to really happen, saying that an emergency had occurred and the secret Project Wildcan is to be activated ... | He pulled out of his wallet a business card. The only writing | on it was: | | Wildfire | Ext. 87 | | He wondered what would happen if he dialed the binary of 87. | He took a piece of paper and wrote out: | | 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 | 1 + 2 + 4 + 16 + 64 = 87 | | 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 | | 1-110-1010. A perfectly reasonable phone number. When I read this, I immediately deduced that wherever the novel was supposed to be set, it wasn't the present-day USA. Wrong! Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ From: st1r8@elroy.uh.edu (B.J. Guillot) Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? Date: 20 Jun 1993 19:06 CDT Organization: University of Houston In article , rick@crick.ssctr.bcm. tmc.edu (Richard H. Miller) writes: > Actually, if you look at old films the practive goes back even further > than that. I remember quite a few movies in which the phone number > given was KL5-xxxx (or Klondike 5-xxxx). So the use of the 555 > exchange seems to have been around for a long time. I believe I've heard the Klondike used on the Simpsons or something before, but I believe that "I Love Lucy" usually used Circle-x-xxxx, etc. Regards, B.J. Guillot ... Houston, Texas USA ------------------------------ From: merlyn@agora.rain.com (Randal L. Schwartz) Subject: Re: Headset Equipped Cordless? Organization: Stonehenge Consulting Services; Portland, Oregon, USA Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 19:22:41 GMT In article , whitem@jester.usask.ca (Matt White) writes: > Well, I don't know if they're still being made, but back when I used > to be a sales droid at Radio Shack, they came out with a cordless > headset phone. Never saw one (they weren't released yet by the time I > quit -- about summer of '89), but they may still be around (no > guarantee on the sound quality, though ... the other models we used to > have weren't too good). I purchased the Duophone TAD-265 Cordless Telephone/Answering Machine from Rat Shack about six months ago. While I needed another answer machine like I needed a hole in my head, the nice thing about this system was a headset for the cordless part of the phone. The optional headset plugs into the very lightweight portable unit. The signal is very clear, so it must be the 900MHz flavor (a six-inch rubber antenna). I often find myself having a two-hour conversation while wandering around my house hands-free, so the battery life is pretty nice as well. The answermachine, besides being remote-programmable, will out-call to a selectable number or pager. Alas, the outcall number is *not* remotely programmable, so I'm stuck selecting one number before I leave, and have left it as my pager number. Outgoing message is in RAM, with a tape backup, and the incoming message taking has all the usual features. I think I paid $179 for it, with another $15 or so for the headset. Just another happy phone-call maker, Randal L. Schwartz / Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 merlyn@ora.com (semi-permanent) merlyn@agora.rain.com (for newsreading only) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 23:07:04 CST From: Jack.Winslade@axolotl.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Re: 16550AFN Chip Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@axolotl.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha In a message dated 31-MAY-93, Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr. writes: > Again, almost all of this is due to sloppy programming and poor > hardware design on the PC. Consider that machines like the PDP-11/03 > could support multiple DLV11-J cards (4 *unbuffered* 1602 UARTs) quite > happily - and the PDP-11/03 was slower than the original PC. For that > matter, when I was doing hardware design, I had a 4Mhz Z-80 system > running six terminals at 19200 baud on a card with eight unbuffered > 8251's. And, in addition to running the serial code, that system had > six copies of WordStar running! Believe it or not, I have a working PDP-11/23 in the cellar with a DLV11-J card and yes, it accepts data at 9600 fine. Sure wish I could program the baud rate by a method other than wire-wrap. ;-( Another old machine that I regularly use is a ca. 1980 Heath H-8 which I use as a serial data analyzer. It's an old, slow, 2 mHz Z80 (upgraded from 8080) and a four-port 8250 serial card. Yes, the old, slow, ca. 1980 8250 chips. With a special cable, two of the ports will capture a bidirectional 19200bps data stream without missing a single character. When I got the serial data analyzer idea, I first tried it on a PeeCee clone and then on a 286 with a dual 16450 card. Both failed miserably, even when using two interrupt-driven receive buffers. It would regularly miss characters at 9600. It's amazing that the old H-8 (which MeSs-DOS fans consider to be beneath their dignity) runs circles around the Peecee systems. The H-8 is certainly not an exotic hardware design. (Many of the CP/M fans consider the H-8 to be one of the slowest of the popular systems.) It's just a sane implementation of off-the-shelf hardware which proves to be more effective in this situation. Good day. JSW Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.14 r.1 (1:285/666.0) ------------------------------ From: ggeorge@bu.edu (Gerry George) Subject: Re: Some Thoughts About Prepaid Calling Cards Date: 20 Jun 93 23:49:01 GMT Jeffrey Jonas (jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET) wrote: > Beside simplifying the turnstiles, buying tokens is essentially a loan > until used. (As an aside: turnstiles that accept magnetic cards are > being installed in many stations. There's talk about issuing > commutation cards with lower rates for off-peak, etc. I'll believe it > when I see it). Last time I was in NYC, when I got off the Bus at the Port Authority station I took the subway to my sister's. I noticed that the subway had card readers installed. My first impulse was to see whether my MBTA (Boston)'s 'T' pass would work, but I didn't think the subway folks would take too kindly to attempts to "hack" their system :). I didn't for the duration of my weekend, although it bugged me something fierce. Gerry George School of Management, Boston Univ. Internet: ggeorge@acs.bu.edu HomeNet: ggeorge@jacquot.ci.net Compu$erve: 72607.2560@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: rwb@alexander.VI.RI.CMU.EDU (Robert Berger) Subject: Re: Need Modem Lockout Circuit Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 01:28:51 GMT In article STUDENT@uunet.uu.net (JEREMY GINGER) writes: > Connect two Zenner Diodes (11 V) back-to-back in series with the lower > priority line. If you know the polarity of the wire you can get away > with one Zenner. I don't see how this can work. When you try to use the low priority device, won't the drop in line voltage then turn of the Zener? It seems to me that this circuit would oscillate between on-hook and off-hook. I believe you need some sort of latching device; the Radio Shack version uses an SCR. I have also seen a circuit that uses a four layer trigger diode (Diac) in series with each device. This gives priority to the first device to go off-hook. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #408 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa28751; 21 Jun 93 0:59 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11585 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 22:31:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31829 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 22:31:07 -0500 Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 22:31:07 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306210331.AA31829@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #409 TELECOM Digest Sun, 20 Jun 93 22:31:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 409 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Southern Bell and Call Hunting (407/904 Area) (Paul Robinson) Re: How to Tell if We're Really Saving Using Any Hour Program? (J Upchurch) Re: Cellular Publications (Henrik Rasmussen) Re: Fax Driving Me Nuts (Mitch Wagner) Re: Two Cellular Phones, One Number (Henrik Rasmussen) Re: Who Pays? (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Unanswered 800 Number Billings (Steven H. Lichter) Re: Request Info on Telecom Power Switch (David McKellar) Re: Lightning Strikes Evanston CO! All Service Knocked Out (Richard Nash) Re: CDMA Information Wanted (Sirbjit Birdi) Re: Nationwide CD-ROM Telco Lists Question (Bob Frankston) Withholding News (was: Remember the War on Pagers?) (Mark Brader) Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG (Mark Steiger) Re: More on Spuyten Dyvel - Misleading COs (Daniel Burstein) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 17:02:19 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Southern Bell and Call Hunting (407/904 Area) From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Steve Forrette , writes: > In article padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc. > com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: >> I just called Southern Bell to inquire about call hunting >> for (residential) lines... is $5.23 per month per line... >> for me the charge would be $10.46 per month to have the >> single line roll-over >> Sounds like whoever was getting it free was really in a >> friendly area. Sounds like an area that is charging the equivalent of another phone line for the equivalent of having a clerk do a one minute job of entering a list of phone numbers along with the "do not hunt further" bit on the last one, is living in a hostile area, which assumes that someone is getting hunting on a residential line in order to not have to purchase business lines. 50c to $2 is probably a reasonable surcharge for this type of service, assuming it needs to be surcharged at all. Does the phone company ever wonder why large customers move from Centrex to their own PBX with DID service? It is arrogance like this that is going to encourage cooperative telephone service. A group of a four thousand people in a ten-block neighborhood lease a PBX and have the phone company install perhaps 600 trunks. They pay the PBX provider perhaps $5 a month each for the lease, and they purchase maybe 200 incoming DID and 400 outgoing trunks, and they take an entire prefix. They split up the installation cost over all 4,000 people over a three-month period, and each user can enable or disable all the features he wants at very little cost. They hook up the AT&T, MCI and Sprint POPs right there; these companies avoid having to pay the local phone company for access; for all other long distance companies, the user is connected to the local telco. So the local rate for each of them might go from $25 a month down to $14. All of the usual features are available, e.g. speed calling, three-way, etc., no extra charge. The phone company, instead of getting 4000 residential lines at an average charge of $17, plus the $3 a month "federal subscriber charge" or $80,000 a month now sees 610 trunks at $30 plus 10,000 phone numbers at $1 each plus perhaps another $800 in local call charges, or $20,000 a month. Further, the PBX supplier can order the lines as T-1s with 24 trunks per circuit and can deliver in band ANI in place of Caller ID without having to pay $6 per line. So, the users are charged $5 for lease of the PBX, $5 for the net charges from the phone company, plus $4 per line to cover the cost of having a repair crew on hand, and they get the following advantages: - Free calls inside their prefix; - Free access to the surcharged features: 3-way, speed calling, call waiting, call forwarding, call park, call transfer (ability to take a call, transfer it to another number and hang up; you are now able to place another call while they stay on the line (if it's a toll call, you end up paying the charge). - All of the blocking capability available with a PBX which is anything you can imagine: no 900, no 976, no long distance, USA only; no 10xxx, all outgoing requires a passcode, etc, while *still* being able to use their calling card; private calling card with rates equivalent to dialing from home, e.g. no surcharge, by simply dialing into the PBX and placing their call from it; these things can be programmed into the software, but the phone companies don't see making revenue on them; - Trunk usage sensitivity pricing: If I have a single phone, I can pay for use of one line. If I use call waiting or call forwarding, I can pay for use of two trunks; if I use transfer a lot, I can pay for as many trunks as I am using, according to usage. Perhaps I only use call waiting for one hour a month. I can be charged less than someone who has both circuits queued up for hours on end. - Charge Limits: I can say that I expect to perhaps use $100 a month in phone calls. Using a factor of 25c per minute in Long Distance, and $2 a minute for overseas, the phone can lock off when the limit is reached. I could set my bill low, say $20; if someone tries something funny, my risk is set to what I can afford. Note that I can still use my phone to make local calls or use my calling card which are separate. I can set my long distance limit at zero and nobody can dial out to make long distance calls. Incoming collect are still billed by the long distance company to the particular phone, so there's no problem. - More reliable service. If I want, I can have the local phone company put in the cheapest residential line, and have the cooperative put in additional lines. Now I have phone service from separate companies and thus I have redundancy (especially if one comes in from one side of the street and one comes in from the other.) The failure of phone companies to implement the new technology that is out there for callers, and to tariff and provide these services, means that other organizations will be encouraged to move in and provide what the phone company cannot. Back to the issue of hunting. The clerk from C&P Telephone of Maryland informed me that if I wanted my residential phone lines to hunt, there was no charge unless I asked for the hunt when I was not having something else done to the phone, then it's $16.00 to file the order, e.g. all they will charge me is for the order to install hunting if it has to be placed separately; if the hunting order is placed at the same time as something else, then there is no charge for the order. > Now here's my hunting question: What is the official name for the > flavor of hunting that distributes calls evenly between all lines, > instead of the regular behavior of starting with the first number, > and giving the call to the first one that's free? ACD - Automatic (or Automated) Call Distribution. Stupido Airlines sets up a 50-clerk reservation system, and its incompetent telecom person, instead of ordering an ACD system, orders hunt group for the 50 lines. As a result, pity the operator at console #1 who works continuously all day long, and operator #50 who does nothing but polish her nails for 56 minutes an hour! Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM [Moderator's Note: Just as this issue was being readied for release, another reply from Brian Vita arrived adding further to the last point made in this message: > Try UCD - Uniform Call Distribution or ACD Automatic Call Distribution > The alphabet soup between the Bells varies greatly. :-) > Brian T. Vita CSS, Inc. CI$70702,2233 Except that ACD usually refers to an automatic call distributor, a piece of equipment on the subscriber's premises which takes all incoming lines (which presumably have already been manipulated in some way or another by telco) and distributes them evenly to agents. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: How to Tell if We're Really Saving Using Any Hour Program?? From: upchrch!joel@peora.sdc.ccur.com (Joel Upchurch) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 18:50:50 EDT Organization: Upchurch Computer Consulting, Orlando FL mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) writes: > How can I be sure our calls are being applied accurately to AT&T's Any > House program? I use Call Manager for my long distance phone calls > and was told they would apply as well. I don't know if I can tell > whether or not the Call Manager calls are being applied or not. If > they are fit into the first hour of calls, are they omitted from the > listing of calls made under the Call Manager code? Your bill must be broken out differently from mine. My bill shows all the long distance calls at the regular price, but only the in-state ones show up on the subtotals. Then it does a separate calculation for the calls at the Any Hour Saver rates. I find that AHS saves me quite a bit, but I use about five or six hours of long distance a month. (If your mail bounces use the address below.) Joel Upchurch/Upchurch Computer Consulting/718 Galsworthy/Orlando, FL 32809 joel@peora.ccur.com {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd,ucf-cs}!peora!joel (407) 859-0982 ------------------------------ From: Henrik.Rasmussen@lambada.oit.unc.edu (Henrik Rasmussen) Subject: Re: Cellular Publications Date: 20 Jun 1993 16:17:50 GMT Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service Another good publication that is more current is: Mobile Product News P.O. Box 5360 Pittsfield, MA 01203-9788 This is one of those "free to qualifying subscriber" type of publications. Rik Rasmussen Audiovox Corp. Raleigh, NC The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service. internet: laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80 ------------------------------ From: wagner@utoday.com (Mitch Wagner) Subject: Re: Fax Driving Me Nuts Organization: Open Systems Today Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 16:12:36 GMT wagner@utoday.com (Mitch Wagner) writes: > I just picked up the phone after it rang and commenced swearing into > it a blue streak. The reason? For the past six weeks, some idiot has > been phoning me with his fax machine three or four times a day, > usually around noon on business days.... I think I've managed to wire up my fax machine so it will successfully intercept fax calls while letting voice calls go through (with a little help from my part). However, since I did this the bozo hasn't called back, so I haven't been able to figure out who it is. I think now maybe I'll go out and plan a picnic to make sure it rains on that day ... mitch w. ------------------------------ From: Henrik.Rasmussen@lambada.oit.unc.edu (Henrik Rasmussen) Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones, One Number Date: 20 Jun 1993 16:49:22 GMT Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service I have customers who have had their phones cloned. They are very happy with the results. The carrier should also be happy because these folk are using more airtime since they are more reachable. Rik Rasmussen Audiovox Corp. Raleigh, NC The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service. internet: laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 15:50:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: Who Pays? Organization: Penn State University In the area 814-237-xxxx (et al.), until they consolidated switches onto the DMS-100, LEC-provided coin calls to the two local cellular providers was free (no coin, or coin returned). (No, I'm not making this up.) Pete ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Unanswered 800 Number Billings Date: 20 Jun 1993 22:35:43 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) I have an AT&T Readyline for my BBS that I use from L/D and for a couple of friends and each month I get a listing of a calls to that number and where they came from including the calling number. I get bunches of 20 second and less calls which for the most part are wrong numbers. I can call AT&T and get them removed as well as the charges if they do add up to a chargable amount which in my case is just a few cents. But at first I had all kinds of them from New York and New Jersey which I was told were people hacking for DID numbers they could use to call out. I had the option to block the area codes, but after that month they stopped when it was found out that there was no other lines to use. If someone is charged for uncompleted calls that should not be since mine are listed but AT&T has told me there is no charge for those but are listed for businesses that need that information to increase their incoming lines. Steven Lichter GTECalif COEI [Moderator's Note: I am really not sure what you mean in your final sentence above. What does 'a charge for incompleted calls' have to do with 'businesses that need the information to increase their incoming lines' ???? PAT] ------------------------------ From: djm@dmntor.uucp (David McKellar) Subject: Re: Request Info on Telecom Power Switch Organization: Digital Media Networks Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 15:50:12 -0600 In article david@infopro.com writes: > I was hoping someone here could help me. I'm looking for a power > switch that I can control via DTMF tones ... I saw an ad that read in part "Remote Booting for your BBS! $69 plus $4 S/H per unit". The company was Deltronix Enterpises at +1 714 380 8969 ext 2. No endorsement here ... I just saw the ad on the same day as I read David's question. D a v e M c K e l l a r d j m @ d m n t o r . U U C P ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 08:10:05 -0600 Reply-To: rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca Subject: Re: Lightning Strikes Evanston CO! All Service Knocked Out In comp.dcom.telecom, article , TELECOM Moderator wrote: Most details deleted... > .... and when it became obvious they were never going to get the > CO back on line until they could get people to hang up their phones, > the police began driving around the streets announcing this fact on > the loudspeaker of the car: 'Please hang up your phones so that Bell > can finish its work'. > The local Evanston radio station also covered the outage for its > duration and made this request, as did the Chicago stations. By 9:30 > PM the CO was back on line but the congestion was terrible; most calls > from outside the CO would not complete on the first attempt until > about an hour later. Quite the opposite of how Hinsdale was handled! > Congratulations to the IBT people there who moved quickly this time! Nice article, but I (as a telecom junkie), want to know what kind of switch was hit? If it was a DMS100, did they try placing the lines in a precut condition to disable the lines from off hook requests? Also, I would guess that the extent of the damage was very minimal as it only took two hours to re-boot the switch. From the description of the calls that remained up after the strike, it suggests that only the front end mainly, got zapped, as the lines peripherals, cross connected through the network continued to function. Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca Amateur Radio: ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca [192.75.200.15] [Moderator's Note: Details from Bell were very scarce. They had very little to say except 'abnormal termination of service due to lightning strike; employees repaired damage and rebooted switch; service was restored in less than two hours after the incident ...' ------------------------------ From: Sirbjit Birdi Subject: Re: CDMA Information Wanted Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 10:31:18 GMT Ron "Asbestos" Dippold (rdippold@qualcomm.com) wrote: > WILLIAM.D.BAUSERMAN@gte.sprint.com writes: >> Does anyone know a good source for info on CDMA (Code Division >> Multiple Access). I would prefer something technical, but at this >> point I settle for anything. > To get the CAI (Common Air Interface) for CDMA as submitted to TR45.5 > of the TIA, you can ftp to ftp.qualcomm.com and cd pub/cdma - > everything is gzipped postscript format (the gzip package is in the > directory if you don't have it). > I'm not sure what the TIA has published for public consumption, if > anything. Another place to try is the anonymous FTP site at tandem.com under the /wireless directory!! Look at some of the digest's there, they might contain some useful info. ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Re: Nationwide CD-ROM Telco Lists Question Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 23:32 -0400 ProPhone does have a batch mechanism -- you can export arbitrary chunks of data (slowly, however). ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Withholding News (was: Remember the War on Pagers?) Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 14:10:14 GMT The Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: I don't happen to believe the media has any right > to withhold news on the basis that they think they know what is best > for us. If they know something, they should report it. PAT] Pat, I think your present worries are addling your brain. Freedom of the press includes the right to not report something, with or without a reason! Now if you'd said that it was *improper* for news media to take that action for that sort of reason ... then I'd merely disagree with you, as a matter of opinion. Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com [Moderator's Note: The reason I disagree with you is because of the special conditions we allow the press. In many jurisdictions, the sale of newspapers is free from tax; the placement of newspaper sales boxes on sidewalks is relatively unrestricted compared to other businesses selling their goods on the public way. We give the press access to certain places the general public cannot go; to scenes of disasters, press conferences with government officials, etc. We do these things because we in the USA place a high value on 'freedom of the press'. It is difficult to win a libel/defamation of character suit against a news- paper for the same reason; we want the papers to be free to print things. The trade off? The papers need to act in a responsible way also; and to me this does not include withholding news on account of some people may not like the report they read or withholding news in an attempt to manipulate public opinion, etc. Perhaps though you are correct and the term should have been 'it is improper, etc ..' PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mark.Steiger@tdkt.kksys.com (Mark Steiger) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 03:51:28 -0600 Subject: Modem Waiting for the BON Organization: The Dark Knight's Table BBS: Minnetonka, MN (Free!) echterna@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Sven Damiano) wrote: > Talking about the BONG, does anyone have the exact frequencies and > durations of that tone? I guess it would be fun to play with that! :) My modem recognizes the BONG. You put a "$" in the dialing string and it waits for the BONG. It's a Practical Pheriperals pm14400fxsa modem. Origin: The Igloo BBS 612-574-2079 (1:282/4018.0) Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo BBS (612) 574-2079 Internet: mark@tdkt.kksys.com Fido: 1:282/4018 Simnet: 16:612/24 ------------------------------ From: dannyb@Panix.Com (Daniel Burstein) Subject: Re: More on Spuyten Dyvel - Misleading COs Date: 20 Jun 1993 08:30:30 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC NYC is composed of five boroughs, and about five years ago three of them were moved form area code 212 to a new one, 718. A bit annoying, but since the boroughs are distinct zones, it wasn't -too- confusing. HOWEVER, they recently took one more of the boroughs into "718" (also took all cellulars and pagers into a brand new area code, 917). The Bronx is now in 718 land. All fine and good, but ... There's a portion of what most people think is the Bronx, but which is legally part of Manhattan. There is a river ("Harlem River") separating Manhattan from the Bronx. Or so it seems. But there's MORE! The original course of the river in some areas was about a half mile north of where it is now. In more or less 1900, part of it was rerouted southward into the "Harlem Ship Canal" and the old path was landfilled in. The roughly square mile of land in between the old and new riverbeds -looks- like it's part of the Bronx, but is really part of Manhattan. (i.e., it's on the "Bronx" side of the river, and it's physically contiguous to the rest of the Bronx, and you have to take a bridge to get to the rest of Manhattan.) THis gets us to telco problems. The area ("Marble Hill") is covered by the "562" exchange, based out of a CO located in the (main) Bronx. The exchange also covers a lot fo the "real" Bronx. NYtel has switched the entire exchange into 718, thus moving Manhattan folk into the Bronx. Those who understand the deal aren't happy. Protests have been filed with the PSC and similar groups, and the locals are hoping to keep 562 permissively dual-coded, so that either 212 or 718 will reach it. BTW, this is fortunately a region where there is no problem with "911" or other issues. It's just vanity ... dannyb@panix.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #409 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02723; 21 Jun 93 2:26 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26901 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 23:59:08 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05780 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 20 Jun 1993 23:58:39 -0500 Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 23:58:39 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306210458.AA05780@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #410 TELECOM Digest Sun, 20 Jun 93 23:58:40 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 410 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Germany: Collect Calls Are Back!! (Paul Robinson) Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey (Paul Robinson) Re: Leech Zmodem (Paul Robinson) Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting (Les Reeves) Re: Particularity of 555? (Tony Harminc) Anonymity (was: Re: Names Added To Caller ID) (Michael Covington) Solution to 411 Danger in NYNEX Land (Barton F. Bruce) Re: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) (J. Philip Miller) Future of ISDN (Colin Mcintosh) SW-56 Simulator (Peter Bachman) Old-Time Party Lines (Curtis Bohl) Purchase Suggestions: FAX Machine (Matthew Harttree) Costing Home Fiber Installation: Looking For Advice (Peter J. Scott) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 23:28:55 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Germany: Collect Calls Are Back!! From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Juergen Ziegler , writes: > German TELEKOM will re-offer collect calls after several decades > of absence! Wow! The service is great, but the rates are EXTREMELY > expensive: > Operator charge/per call USD 5.75 > Connection charge/per minute (domestic) USD 0.41 > (no night/weekend/... rates!) > What are typical operator charges in the US or elsewhere? For calls within the U.S., they are usually about 22c/minute (USD 0.22) for calls within a state, and up to 25c/minute for a call from Washington, DC to Los Angeles, about 2500 miles. At night, the rate is about 10c per call. This is AT&T's rate; Sprint or MCI will usually beat it by 1c per minute or so. For a call via AT&T, not including any special discounts, this is the rate I got from the AT&T operator: The Collect rate for a call from the U.S. to Germany is as follows: For the first minute $4.99 Additional minutes 0.86 This is probably the rate during the afternoon because here are the dial direct rates from the US: Weekends from 8am - 3pm $0.37 first minute, each additional 0.35 All other times of 7am-1pm 1.77 / 1.09 each addl min All other times of 1pm-6pm 1.42 / 0.82 each addl 6pm-7am all days 1.15 / 0.65 each addl Which means that a call to Germany on Saturday or Sunday running two minutes at 2:59 to 3:01 will cost 37c for the first minute at 2:59 to 3:00, then 1.09 for the second minute (since it's in the new time period). A call of two minutes from 7:59 to 8:01 also on a weekend day will cost $1.77 for the first minute of 7:59 to 8:00, and 35c for the second minute. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 22:48:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA >> [Moderator's Note: This new feature has proven to be a >> nuisance to administrators of phone systems (in hotels for >> example) who find themselves getting all these 35 cent charges >> from extension-users who made a call to 411, and got the call >> connected that way without the PBX ever knowing about it. > SNET offered to block the service on all of our lines for no > charge, initially. After the start-up period, they would > charge $21/per line to remove the service ... > [Moderator's Note: But can you really imagine anyone paying > $21 per line at some future point to have such a worthless > feature re-enabled on their line just so they could pay > everytime they used it? I am sure for most people, once gone, > that 'feature' stays gone. Patrick, I think if you reread his quote, what I think he said is that it is free to remove the service now, and later it will cost $21 per line to remove the service later if you don't have the *removal* done during the amnesty period. They will probably charge either way after the free period. > Centel here in the Chicago area has another pretty useless > offering called 'warm line'. Take your phone off hook and *do > nothing*. After a few seconds of time out, some preset number > of your choice will be dialed. I guess some people find it > useful, but if I wanted a private circuit ringdown, I would > just order one; those start ringing immediatly when they go > off hook, not 10-15 seconds into a timeout. This assumes you want a dedicated hot line. I can think of a half-dozen things this could be used for. Remember Mrs. Fletcher? ("I've fallen and I can't get up?") The computer dials out on the phone line. Well, the system simply picks up the phone and waits. It doesn't have to identify itself because Caller-ID can be used to show who it is. Yet you can still use the phone for calls. Or I can set up an inexpensive form of alarm system by having it go off line once every ten minutes and since the dialing is done by the central office, a burglar doesn't know what number to call in to prevent detection; if the line isn't siezed every few minutes, the alarm company can go out and investigate. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 23:09:55 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Leech Zmodem From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA LINKJW@PURCCVM.bitnet asks, > Can anyone tell me where to find Leach Zmodem? My question in part is, "Why do you want it?" For the benefit of our readers who have never done file transfers over the phone, Zmodem is a means of doing just that, and it has a nice feature lacking from other protocols (except Kermit, which has much higher overhead) is the ability in the event of a line hit, to back up and restart from the error point. On some BBS systems, if you download a file, you are charged by time or bytes against your allocation for the file you have successfully obtained. How they are able to tell is that Zmodem sends a success completion code when the file is transmitted okay. Leech Zmodem is a "feature" someone developed to take advantage of the restart capability to defeat being "charged" for getting a file; it is the download equivalent of calling yourself collect and thus getting a message across without paying for it. While Leech Zmodem is probably not "illegal" it's certainly rude. Leech Zmodem -- after it does successfully get the whole file -- refuses to acknowledge receipt of the last block of the file by continuously sending NAKs. Eventually the other side times out and assumes the file was not received, thus the recipient is not charged for the file. Ever since about 1990 or so, all versions of Zmodem that Forsberg has released (DSZ) have "leach Zmodem defeat code" which simply says if you have 99% the file received, failure to acknowledge will not be accepted as failure to receive, e.g. you will still be charged for the file. My guess is that Leech Zmodem used the original Zmodem sources (which are public domain) to change the end of file behavior to accept the file but NAK its receipt. If you want to test the behavior, you would need to find some underground or pirate BBS, or write it yourself; I doubt that legitimate ones would handle this sort of thing. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 22:27:17 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting I doubt that the hardware involved in sending the Caller-ID FSK data at 1200 baud interleaved with jingle juice uses any "old 202 chips .. the last 20 years" suggested by wolfgang@wsrcc.com. Not that there isn't a warehouse full of 201,202,208,212, etc. I continue to be amazed that my Caller-ID information arrives 95+ percent of the time intact! Now they want to send this data in bursts while you are off-hook to some sort of pre-ISDN display phone. Is this progress? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 23:14:05 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? st1r8@elroy.uh.edu (B.J. Guillot) wrote: > I believe I've heard the Klondike used on the Simpsons or something > before, but I believe that "I Love Lucy" usually used Circle-x-xxxx, > etc. Wasn't it MUrray Hill 9-9099? Numbers ending in 99 in SxS offices in many areas reached a quiet termination. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: mcovingt@aisun4.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) Subject: Anonymity (was Re: Names Added To Caller ID) Organization: AI Programs, University of Georgia, Athens Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 01:38:33 GMT Telephone companies should not be forced to conceal the origin of the messages that they deliver. And that's what the anti-caller-ID people want. It's a bizarre request. It would make a lot more sense to require message delivery companies to _reveal_ the origin of the messages. Sometimes "privacy" gets carried too far. Accidents of technology and rapid population growth have sometimes given people an unprecedented opportunity for anonymity. Soon enough they begin to think of this anonymity as every citizen's right -- which it isn't. The only reason anyone even *thought* of objecting to caller ID is that, for some decades, we had telephone systems that *had* to conceal the origin of the messages, because it would have been unduly expensive to do otherwise. Michael A. Covington, Associate Research Scientist Artificial Intelligence Programs mcovingt@ai.uga.edu The University of Georgia phone 706 542-0358 Athens, Georgia 30602-7415 U.S.A. amateur radio N4TMI [Moderator's Note: Remember also that until the telphone system was automated on a wide-spread basis -- until dialing was the common way to place calls -- who called whom was no secret. Sometimes from the sheer volume of traffic handled, operators could not remember further back than the last two or three calls they connected, but in slower exchanges in small towns, etc the operators always knew what was what and who called whom, etc. If you came running into your house hearing the phone ringing and got there after the party had hung up, a simple request to the operator 'who was calling me?' produced the answer and a connection to the (original) caller if desired. One side-effect of the conversion to dial was that when a caller got more than just a little distance from his starting place in the frames, who he was got obscured. As the switch-train moved along through the frames toward its destination -- or even out of the office to some other office -- the caller's identity got lost in the matrix! This was not a feature AT&T devised to market 'privacy', it was just the way the technology of the times worked. There was no longer any convenient way for the operator or anyone else to tell who called whom. AT&T was never happy with the fact that with the advent of dial, the operators had to take the customer at his word when they asked his number for billing purposes. When Caller-ID was in the discussion stage a decade ago, lots of the objections we hear now were brought up. Even back then, someone had the 'womens shelter' argument as a reason the service should not be provided. A top executive of AT&T pointed out that "... we are not in the business of selling privacy ... we sell communications services. We have never intended to hide the identity of the caller from the called party ... it was a flaw in the technology that caused us to not have that information conveniently at hand for many years -- not because we chose to take sides with the called party or the caller. It would seem people have forgotten that information was always available before; and in their forgetfulness, the technology of our recent past that we are now replacing has become, in their minds, the default ... the telephone is nothing more than an extension of the human voice; it permits the voice to be carried further and heard at greater distances than without the use of the instrument. We are a common carrier; not a regulator of the speech one person chooses to make to others. Just as you speak with your unaided voice and bear responsibility for your speech, so do you bear the same responsibility when using the telephone to assist in speaking. We do not take sides ..." . A good point, no? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 18:08:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Barton F. Bruce Subject: Solution to 411 Danger in NYNEX Land Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. NYNEX also offers the "OCC" (Operator Call Completion) service for 411 calls, but now offers **FREE** blocking to remove it from your lines. Perhaps the same USOC code that removes it here in MA will work in other states such as NJ were recent posting indicate it is a problem. When you dial 411 here in MA, you get whacked for 35 cents, but if you let them dial the number for you, you get to pay ANOTHER 35 cents, plus of course the call itself. For those sites that must catch SMDR output and bill to hotel guests or departments or whatever, there is NO indication available that tells which calls used this 'service', and NO indication of the actual number called. This is totally unacceptable in many situations. When the Boston area hotels got caught buy this, they scheduled a meeting with telco and the NYNEX Telesector Resources product manager from White Plains flew in and was accompanied by her one man Boston based staff member. She seemed genuinely surprised that everyone was angry and noted ALL the other telcos across the country where there supposedly have been NO complaints. What slipped out in that and a subsequent meeting was that in addition to Hotels being upset, some VERY LARGE Boston Centrex users were unhappy and the service would be shutoff totally in some Boston area exchanges until a permanent solution was available. As an interim solution for the Hotels, at least, those using trunks with DHL screening (0+ calls cannot be sent paid, but MUST be collect or third party or CC billed) to comply with the 10xxx access requirements could route all in-lata 411 type calls to those trunks, and NO additional charges would be possible to the trunk. That worked well. DHL is 97 cents per line or trunk, and is 'special assembly' for trunks. It is ANI "7" but they further subdivide it by the type of user you are. The code the operator sees differs for prisons and hotels and other categories, and the behavior of the screening seems to differ, too. This is NOT a good solution for many users. The 'final' solution is now here and has a USOC code of DKBXA. It is **FREE** to get installed and **FREE** monthly. The local service reps in MA have just been trained, and you should have no problem ordering it. Have DKBXA installed on any and all home and work lines and you won't have to listen to their 35 cent offer again. The NYNEX product manager for this had done the usual marketing surveys at great expense. I suggested she post here to c.d.t and she would get BETTER answers and some candid user feedback really FAST and totally FREE. She seemed genuinely interested, so just maybe we will see her pop up here, as she has many other 'products' she wants to offer in NYNEX land. ------------------------------ From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Subject: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) (fwd) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 22:14:40 -0500 (CDT) > On 6 Jun 93 22:05:40 GMT, macwhiz@roundtable.cif.rochester.edu (Rob > Levandowski) said: >> My brand new Practical Peripherals PM14400FXMT, which purports >> compatibility with Hayes' patented command set by license > Since Toby Nixon has left Hayes and probably won't set the record > straight on this one, I'll step up to the plate. Not to disagree with anything that Rob says, but it should also be stated that Practical Peripherals is owned by Hayes. J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110 phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - (314) 362-3617 [362-2693(FAX)] ------------------------------ From: mcintosh_c@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Subject: Future of ISDN Date: 20 Jun 93 08:37:51 NZST Organization: Wellington City Council, Public Access. I'm interested to know what people think is the future for ISDN? Is this the "best since sliced bread", or are there other services around or coming out soon that will make it fade into the dimmed light of history? Colin McIntosh Advanced Solutions Ltd Wellington, New Zealand. Disclaimer: What I say may not be what I think. ------------------------------ From: pbachman@skidmore.EDU (peter bachman) Subject: SW-56 Simulator Organization: Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 19:52:23 GMT Anyone out there aware of a switched 56 simulator to connect up a videoconferencing system for a demo. Would having a CSU-DSU do the trick? I need some actual hands on answers. Thanks, pbachman@skidmore.edu ------------------------------ From: EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu Subject: Old-Time Party Lines Organization: University of Missouri Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 14:46:56 CDT Does anyone know if there are still such things as ten-party lines still in service? I came from a small town in Missouri and our family had a ten-party line until about ten years ago. I went on a tour of the CO once, and as it was explained to me, the phones on a ten-party line used an extra ground wire to the instrument. Five of the phones rang on different frequencies on one side of the line and five on the other. The switch was a Stromberg-Carlson installed in 1960. At the exchange, they decided which phone rang by attaching the connection to a block with the correct frequency for the number. Also, another small exchange next to us had a unique system, where the switch rang all the phones on the party line, but with a different combination of rings (1 short-2 long, etc.). I learned about this from a high school teacher who was awakened many times in the middle of the night. In the exchange where my grandmother lives, all phones on the same party line started with the same six digits. The last digit was the number of the phone on the line. This meant when you moved within the exchange, you had to get a new number. I think that this was eliminated a few years ago when they got another mechanical switch. Curtis Bohl extmo4h@mizzou1.missouri.edu [Moderator's Note: You are talking about a *long* time ago! PAT] ------------------------------ From: HARTTREE@vax1.elon.edu (Matthew Harttree) Subject: Purchase Suggestions Wanted: FAX Machine Date: 20 Jun 1993 19:51:38 GMT Organization: ELON COLLEGE ACADEMIC COMPUTING VAX1 I am interested in purchasing a fax macine for use in my residence. I have been using the fax/modem in my laptop but I really need a dedicated fax that can handle light to moderate usage. I am looking for something in the under $600.00 price range and was wondering if any of you could suggest a reliable fax machine or ones that I should steer clear of. My main interest is the quality of output and if possible paper that doesnt curl or need to be photocopied after being faxed. I would like to be able to send photographs and the like with some chance that the other party would recognize the images. I have used fax machines for a while but I am really ignorant of the technology and the companies that make them. (Maybe you work for one??) Any suggestions from the net would be helpful. Thanks in advance. Please reply by e-mail. Matthew Harttree I speak only for my self. HARTTREE@VAX1.ELON.EDU HARTTREE@phantom.com (Non-Elon stuff) Admin of ECOPS +919-570-8120 #JCA/ECSD, Inc.'s hiredGun# ------------------------------ From: pjs@euclid.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Peter J. Scott) Subject: Costing Home Fiber Installation: Looking For Advice Date: 20 Jun 1993 21:14:12 GMT Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA/Caltech Reply-To: pjs@euclid.Jpl.Nasa.Gov I'm looking for advice on how to find out what sort of prices are charged for getting a private fiber-optic link to one's home for Internet access. I've heard that it's possible; what I need to know now is how much it costs. Obviously it'll depend on many factors; let's say that I'm moving to a house one to five miles outside the nearest (small) town in Northern California, for the sake of immediate argument, not that there won't be many other issues to nail down. Whom should I contact for more information? [Anticipating a flood of "Please tell me what you find out" messages -- no need; I'll summarize to the same place you saw this, assuming I hear something useful.] Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech (pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov) [Moderator's Note: It won't come inexpensively, and unless your expected volume of news and mail is going to be really huge, you will probably wind up with a UUCP-style arrangement, calling on the phone as desired to poll, etc. Private, dedicated circuits of any kind -- fiber optic or regular lead wires -- are seldom justified econmically unless you can keep the line loaded, or in use virtually 24 hours per day. You will also need to pay whoever provisions your Internet connection, in addition to telco or whoever strings the circuit for you. Of course, if you plan to get a full newsfeed -- or even most of the 'talk' groups and busier news groups -- that might be the case considering how news is these days. Usenet droids are quite prolific you know, especially when when it comes to their imagined grievances on a variety of topics! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #410 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07730; 21 Jun 93 4:24 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21633 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 21 Jun 1993 02:08:33 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13209 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 21 Jun 1993 02:08:01 -0500 Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 02:08:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306210708.AA13209@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #411 TELECOM Digest Mon, 21 Jun 93 02:08:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 411 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson SW Bell (Texas) Telephone Solicitation Information (Len E. Elam) Data Port in SLC-96 (Yee-Lee Shyong) V42.bis Problem (kp11697@swtnyssa.bitnet) (310) 455-0971 --> The TV and Movie Madness Machine! (Lauren Weinstein) Interesting Use of ANI (Al Stangenberger) "Buyable" Specific Phone Numbers (Paul Robinson) Re: Unanswered 800 Number Billings (Ed Greenberg) Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID (Charlie Mingo) Re: Particularity of 555? (David Leibold) Re: MCI F&F Scam (Michael Rosen) 900 Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland (Richard Budd) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (David S. Channin) Re: 6n Codes (Actually, Vertical Services Codes) (David Leibold) New Address For Talk Tickets; Other Commercial Stuff (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 15:54:58 CDT From: lelam%kuwait@Sun.COM (Len E. Elam - x32970) Subject: SW Bell (Texas) Telephone Solicitation Information The following was included in the latest telephone bill, recieved 6-17-93, which also included a $1.40 charge for a three minute, evening, calling card call from a pay phone in Irving, TX to White Settlement (Fort Worth), TX. If I had to make alot of calls like this (thank goodness I don't), I would be looking for a cheaper way to call, such as the Orange Card or Talk Tickets. Conventions: Normal text, [Bold Text], {Large Text}, {{Very Large Text}}, , * has been substituted for . ---------------- {{[Telephone Solicitation]}} Texas law provides certain protections for a person who receives a telephone solicitation at a residence. [A telephone solicitor must:] * identify himself or herself by name; * identify the business on whose behalf he or she is calling; * identify the purpose of the call; * identify the telephone number at which the person, company, or organization making the call may be reached. A telephone solicitor may not call a residence before 9 a.m. or after 9 p.m. on a weekday or Saturday or before noon or after 9 p.m. on Sunday. If a telephone solicitor uses an automatic dialing/announcing device, the machine must disconnect from your line within 30 seconds after termination of the call. [Exceptions:] The requirements above do not apply to telephone solicitations made at your request, or solicitations made in connection with an existing debt or contract, or calls from a telephone solicitor with whom you have a prior or existing business relationship. If you use a credit card to purchase a good or service from a telephone solicitor other than a public charity (an organization exempt from federal income tax under the Internal Revenue Code
501 (c)(3)), the seller must: * offer a full refund for the return of undamaged and unused goods within seven days after you receive the goods or service (the seller must process the refund within 30 days after you return the mer- chandise or cancel your order for undelivered goods or services); or * provide you with a written contract fully describing the goods or services being offered, the total price charged, the name, address, and business phone of the seller, and any terms and conditions affecting the sale. [Complaints.] The Texas Attorney General investigates com- plaints relating to a violation of this law, which is found at the Business and Commerce Code Chapter 37. If you have a complaint about a telephone solicitor whom you believe has violated this law, contact: Consumer Protection Division, Office of the Attorney General of Texas, P.O. Box 12548, Austin, Texas 78711, (512)463-2070. Another law, found at Texas Civil Statutes Article 1446c,
119 and
120, requires a telephone solicitor to make every effort not to call a consumer who asks not to be called again. Complaints relating to a violation of this law are investigated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. If you have a complaint about repeated solicitation from a telephone solicitor you have asked not to call you again, contact: Public Information Office, Public Utility Commission of Texas, 7800 Shoal Creek Blvd., Suite 400N, Austin, Texas 78757, (512)458-0256 or, (512)458-0221 teletypewriter for the deaf. { [Southwestern] Bell Telephone of Texas} -------------------------- Who Am I?: Len E. Elam Email: lelam%gdfwc3@central.sun.com Disclaimer: I speak only for myself. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 01:55 From: apollo@n2sun1.ccl.itri.org.tw (Yee-Lee Shyong) Subject: Data Port in SLC-96 According to the manual of SLC-96, the interface of data port circuit pack four-wire (Rx pair & Tx pair) is different with general data communication interface (DTE or DCE)? Can anyone give me any advise about this standard? Thanks ! Apollo Shyong ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 20:09 CDT From: KP11697@SWTNYSSA.BITNET Subject: V42.bis Problem I have a problem with a Tandy 2400 baud modem I have purchased that has RPI based V42.bis capability. I do not exactly know what that is, but I assume it is an interface for V42.bis through software interface. Anyway, I am unhappy with the software that was included (MTEZ) and I would like to use TELIX or something like it. Is there a way to interface the V42,bis capabilities through a FOSSIL driver or something similar so that I can use software of my choice? Thanks, Ken ------------------------------ Subject: (310) 455-0971 --> The TV & Movie Madness Machine! Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 20:43:14 PDT From: Lauren Weinstein Greetings. In honor of the bygone days of telephone entertainment, I'm pleased to announce that Custom Viewer's TV & Movie Madness Machine is now available, 24 hours/day, on +1 (310) 455-0971. This of course is an ordinary phone number, so only regular phone charges (if any) apply. Callers will receive a randomly selected item relating to television and cinema, including nostalgia, trivia, games, viewing suggestions, and more. Right now, the nostalgia element strongly predominates. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that most of the materials on there now are things that you haven't heard anywhere for at least 20 years -- if not longer -- or ever! You'll fire up some old neurons and relive memories you thought had faded away decades ago. Will you go running for your old polyester leisure suit or bell-bottoms? I certainly hope not. Have fun. --Lauren-- [Moderator's Note: Thanks Lauren, for this great new service without a premium charge for using it. Everyone try it ... you'll love it! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 20:51:36 PDT From: forags@nature.berkeley.edu (Al Stangenberger) Subject: Interesting Use of ANI A local newspaper is conducting a public-opinion survey by asking readers to call 1-800-xxx-xxxx if their answer to a question is "yes", and to call 1-800-xxx-yyyy if their answer is "no." The number of calls to each number will constitute the results of the poll. The article notes that the system will automatically eliminate multiple calls from the same number. They must be getting ANI data for their WATS lines and filtering out the duplicates. I don't remember seeing this done before, although it is a simple concept. Al Stangenberger Dept. of Forestry & Resource Mgt. forags@nature.berkeley.edu 145 Mulford Hall - Univ. of Calif. uucp: ucbvax!ucbnature!forags Berkeley, CA 94720 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 00:31:43 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: "Buyable" Specific Phone numbers From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Here in Washington, DC and surrounding areas, C&P Telephone company will allow you, for an extra charge, to ask for a specific number if it's in your area and not in use. The charge comes in two flavors, a fee every month or a one-time fee which is equivalent to ten months recurring fee. Someone who saw the discussion over charged and uncharged Hunt Groups mentioned this feature and I thought I'd ask about it. So, can I hear from people whose places do or do not allow someone to pick their phone number, and if they do, what phone company is it and what do they charge, if anything? Please E-Mail me and I'll summarize. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Unanswered 800 Number Billings Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 00:19:53 GMT > [Moderator's Note: I am really not sure what you mean in your final > sentence above. What does 'a charge for incompleted calls' have to do > with 'businesses that need the information to increase their incoming > lines' ???? PAT] I'm a bit confused by the poster's message too, but consider that the call abandonment rate and the all-trunks-busy count are important tools for the ACD manager in controlling the operation, in the areas of lines, ACD capacity and personnel. Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG [Moderator's Note: In a private note to me, Steve Lichter explained what he meant, and it was basically what you are saying ... that the number of busy signals tells a business it needs to get more lines installed; telco charges for providing this data on busies, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: charlie.mingo@his.com (Charlie Mingo) Reply-To: charlie.mingo@his.com Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 01:30:32 Subject: Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID Paul Robinson writes: > More likely it's C who might end up in the slammer. I suspect > that if C intentionally forwarded A's calls to B, and knowing > there was a court order [prohibiting A from calling B], he [C] might > be guilty of encouraging the violation of the order. A restraining order only restrains the subject of the order. There would be a severe due process problem in trying to prosecute someone for violating an order, which s/he was never the subject of. > In any case, how would B "prove" A called? The Caller-ID box is not > a written record and is a digital representation; the information can > be faked and the box alone is not evidence. It doesn't have to be on paper to be a "record" (after all, data tapes are frequently admitted). Many/most caller-ID boxes keep a record of last X number of calls. Any records (including "data compilations") maintained "in the ordinary course of business" may be admitted under Federal Rule of Evidence 803(6), and similar state rules. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? From: woody Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 23:47:11 -0400 Considering that 958 and 959 are reserved NXXes in North American Numbering Plan for special purposes, it's a wonder that movies don't use these as artificial exchanges. One catch is that 958 is an actual service exchange in the Caribbean (NPA 809) and strangely enough in Winnipeg, Manitoba (NPA 204). Now wonder what kind of fun could be had if movies showed off 976, or area code 900 numbers, or even stuff like 212-940? On second though, those examples are a bit too mean to play on an unsuspecting general public :-0 David Leibold aka dleibold1@attmail.com dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca and now on Internex (caution: internex.io.org may not be fully functional; mail to that domain at your own risk) ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Re: MCI F&F Scam Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 05:06:39 GMT My father received a call from MCI recently offering him some deal (something like up to $4000 in free calls I think -- I'm foggy on the exact details) for his office phone lines. They said that they were given his name by someone named Francis Kissinger who he supposedly calls frequently. He's never heard of this person. He smelled a scam and told them where they could put their deal (well, he didn't really do that but it sounds good) ... Mike [Moderator's Note: Four thousand dollars in free calls? Gosh, if they will put that in writing, even I will sign up with MCI. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 20:17:09 EDT From: Richard Budd Subject: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland Organization: CSAV UTIA The United States has exported another product into the former Soviet bloc: '900' services. Glancing through popular magazines in Prague and Wroclaw, Poland, I have seen advertisements for 'International Party Line', sex line, and horoscope services. Horoscopes have become very popular here. Even the respected newspapers in Prague have daily horoscopes. All the services originate in North America because the first three numbers given in the advertisement are 001. Those are the numbers you dial in Poland and the Czech Republic to get an international line and country code 1 (US, Canada, Bermuda, Caribbean). The services in Poland gave the area code as 612 (Minneapolis). The number in the advertisement appeared as 001 612 XXX XXXX. However, today I noticed a 'Party Line' service which gave the telephone number as 001 610 XXX XXXX. Looking at the Telecom Archives, that is an area code to be formed by splitting area code 215 in Pennsylvania. Has that area code already been created and this is another interna- tional service run out of Pennsylvania? I'll keep watching for these numbers. The advertisements appear most often in the television magazines here. The latest one here has an in-depth story on the actress Sigourney Weaverova. Richard Budd | USA klub@maristb.bitnet | CR budd@cspgas11.bitnet | 139 S. Hamilton St. | Kolackova 8 | Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 | 18200 Praha 8 [Moderator's Note: Actually, the '610' it refers to is the old home for that code. It was used for years in Canada by the TWX machine network (when x10 codes were all assigned to the Western Union Company for use, and other-10 codes were for divisions of the USA where TWX machines were concerned.) A few years ago, WUTCO quit using those codes and Bellcore took them back for general reassignment in voice telephony with the exception of 610 which had to be held out from use as an area code as long as the Canadian TWX network continued using it. The 610 code was unreachable from international points (since they have their own network conventions for calling Telex machines) and mostly unreachable from North American phones (with the exception of TWX machines here), so that seemed to make it a nice choice for use by the services you mention. I do not know what is going on now with it as far as potential conflicts with Pennsylvania is concerned, or for that matter how it will conflict with Canadian <===> USA calls either between voice telephones or TWXs. Any readers out there know what is going on where Canadian TWX use of 610 is concerned? Are they going to have some prefixes set aside while Pennsylvania gets the rest of the prefixes (and the Europeans get a few for fone-fun), or has TWX in Canada been moved off of 610? And what about Europeans trying to call legitimate 610 numbers in Pennsylvania? Answers please! PAT] ------------------------------ From: dsc@xray.hmc.psu.edu (David S. Channin) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines Date: 21 Jun 1993 05:43:55 GMT Organization: Dept. of Radiology, Hershey Medical Center, Hershey PA Reply-To: dsc@xray.hmc.psu.edu I just moved to the edge of Hershey, PA and called the local phone office (United of PA) to get connected. The woman actually asked if I wanted a party line! I wasn;t sure that I heard correctly so I asked her what she meant. Just what I thought she meant. I chose a private line obviously ($11.xx per month versus $9.xx for party line). Then she asked me if I would be using "touch tone technology". I was afraid to tell her that I have a T3000 modem using PPP to connect to the Internet! God, I thought I had moved to mars or something! Wait till I ask about OC3 ATM!!! dsc ------------------------------ Subject: Re: *6n Codes (Actually, Vertical Services Codes) From: woody Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 02:14:00 -0400 Reply-to: dleibold1@attmail.com The *xx codes used in North America are referred to as Vertical Services Codes (at least mentioned in the Bellcore document on the future of the North American Numbering Plan). Cellular services often use *xx codes for use in promotional services such as free access to radio stations or highway assistance lines. Digest readers can pitch in to complete the following list of common codes. When submitting a code (e-mailed to dleibold1@attmail.com) please note the area in which the code is active (in case it's a code that is set up within particular regions or services) and a brief description of what it does. I'll collect anything else that comes in and post a revised list accordingly. Don't send in any specific cellular promotional codes, but any codes for special cellular services like roam or forward will be considered. Service tone pulse/rotary |-------------------------------------------- Call Trace *57 1157 Call Screen *60 1160 Call Return (outgoing) *66 1166 Number Display Blocking *67 1167 - valid for one call at a time Call Return (incoming) *69 1169 Call Waiting disable *70 1170 - valid for one call at a time Call Forwarding: start *72 1172 Call Forwarding: cancel *73 1173 Speed Calling *74 1174 Call Return (cancel out) *86 1186 - cancels further return attempts Call Return (cancel in) *89 1189 - cancels further return attempts David Leibold dleibold1@attmail.com dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca (internex.io.org not guaranteed to work just yet) ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: New Address For Talk Tickets, Other Commercial Stuff Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 00:50:00 CDT In order to keep the Internet address for the Digest (and my personal Internet addresses used mostly for administrative matters involving the Digest) from becoming clogged with commercial stuff, friends of the Digest have been most helpful in recent weeks by providing a 386 to be used for mail, and a network connection of my own. Although TELECOM Digest in recent weeks became registered with the State of Illinois and the County of Cook, Illinois as a licensed not-for-profit educational organization (well, 'Patrick Townson Associates, DBA Telecom Digest' if you want to get technical about it), thus removing objections to the use of an Internet (or actually an .edu domain) connection, it still made better sense to move the functions not directly related to the Digest to a site of their own for the sake of effeciency and to avoid the appearance of impropriety where the sale and/or resale telecom services was concerned. It was different when there was only an occasional inquiry about the Orange Card or 800 services; now there are several inquiries daily. A few things on the agenda in the weeks to come include a new service for our *international readers* ... you'll be able to make your calls with *dial tone from the US* ... that is, you will call a local number in your country, let it ring once and hang up. I'll call you back and give you *dial tone from here in the states, at the rates we pay for connections* ... I call it Telepassport, and it is being finalized now. My associates at US Fibercom are helping pull it all together. Watch for news in the Digest as soon as it is ready to go. In addition, those readers who have purchased telecom services from the Digest or given gifts to help with Digest production costs will be invited to participate in a private mailing list for Friends of TELECOM Digest. This will be an occassional mailing keeping you up to date on things pertaining to the day-by-day routine here. This list will be administered at my new non-Internet site. A long time down the road yet is Internal Revenue 503-c-3 status, enabling the Digest to have tax-exempt status. That part is *tough*, and right now, given financial circumstances, frankly isn't worth the bother. So -- for purchase of Talk Tickets electronically, requests for information or customer service with the Orange Card, 800 numbers, voicemail or other products and services offered by the Digest, please note this new mailing address: telecom@telecom.chi.il.us My personal address on that site: ptownson@telecom.chi.il.us DO NOT send articles or administrivia for the Digest there. Continue to use telecom@eecs.nwu for Digest submissions, etc. And my sincere thanks go to the fine people who have arranged for me to have a site of my own and the 386 to handle mail/news there. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #411 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09082; 21 Jun 93 19:30 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22961 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 21 Jun 1993 16:55:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24865 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 21 Jun 1993 16:54:59 -0500 Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 16:54:59 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306212154.AA24865@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #413 TELECOM Digest Mon, 21 Jun 93 16:55:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 413 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Mark Eklof) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Lars Poulsen) Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland (Haakon Styri) Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland (Georg Schwarz) Re: Future of ISDN (Bob Larribeau) Re: *6n Codes (Actually, Vertical Services Codes) (Bob Frankston) Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting (Bob Frankston) Re: Exchanges Using Zero as Second Digit (David G. Lewis) Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? (Michael Rosen) Re: How to Tell if We're Really Saving Using Any Hour Program?? (M. Rosen) Re: MCI F&F Scam (Bruce Carter) Re: Costing Home Fiber Installation: Looking For Advice (Lars Poulsen) With Phone on Hook, How is Caller-ID Transmitted? (Thomas Chen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 10:19:46 EDT Reply-To: me@stile.stonemarche.org Organization: Stonemarche Network Covp From: me@stile.stonemarche.org (Mark Eklof) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines In comp.dcom.telecom, article , someone wrote: > I just moved to the edge of Hershey, PA and called the local phone > office (United of PA) to get connected. The woman actually asked if I > wanted a party line! I wasn;t sure that I heard correctly so I asked > her what she meant. Just what I thought she meant. I chose a private > line obviously ($11.xx per month versus $9.xx for party line). At least you had a choice! I just checked the phone book here, and was suprised that two and four party lines are now marked as being limited to "existing customers while remaining at their present location." When I moved to Milford, NH in 1985, the area was expanding faster than NETel could keep up. When I called for 'phone service, I was told I'd be on a four-party line. I asked if there was any way of getting a private line, and was told no. I declined, and for the three months or so that it took NETel to catch up, used a public 'phone at the store down the street. Mark D. Eklof Brookline, New Hampshire, USA me@stile.stonemarche.org ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 17:01:58 GMT In article EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri. edu writes: > Also, another small exchange next to us had a unique system, where the > switch rang all the phones on the party line, but with a different > combination of rings (1 short-2 long, etc.). I learned about this > from a high school teacher who was awakened many times in the middle > of the night. > [Moderator's Note: You are talking about a *long* time ago! PAT] As far as I know, all current switch software supports this. Only difference is they now mostly sell both sides of the party line to the same subscriber and call it "selective ringing, IdentaCall, SmartRing" or some such cute name. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 [Moderator's Note: In other words, I am my own party-line neighbor. As a kid, my good friend Dennis and his family were on a party line. When he and I would chat, the conversation would turn, well ... it would get to be the way kids talk to each other. Once we were talking on the phone and there was a click ... not two clicks, mind you (one for going off hook and a couple seconds later going back on hook) .. just one. I told Dennis to be quiet, someone was listening to us. His ans- wer? "Oh, that's just old Mrs. Jones; she has been our party-line neighbor for years. If that old witch doesn't know what's going on around here by now she never will ...". And he continued what we had been talking about. Sure enough, five or ten minutes later, another click when she had heard enough and decided to leave the line. To make sure they did not miss a single word of the conversation, some party-line snoops would set their phone in or on top of a galvanized washtub or bucket. Even though only one phone rang (of all the parties on the line) when a call came in, the bell mechanisms on the other phones on the party-line tended to 'click' as the current passed through the line. That galvanized metal would amplify the 'click' sound the phone made when another party on the line got a call; right away the old biddies up and down the block would run in to the phone, lift the receiver and listen silently to their neighbors. Some were even smart enough to unscrew the mouthpiece so they could be completely silent. Now I am my own party-line neighbor! :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: styri@nta.no (YuNoHoo) Subject: Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland Reply-To: styri@nta.no Organization: Norwegian Telecom Research Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 17:02:18 GMT Richard Budd writes> > The United States has exported another product into the former Soviet > bloc: '900' services. Glancing through popular magazines in Prague > and Wroclaw, Poland, I have seen advertisements for 'International > Party Line', sex line, and horoscope services. [...] > All the services originate in North America because the first three > numbers given in the advertisement are 001. Those are the numbers you > dial in Poland and the Czech Republic to get an international line and > country code 1 (US, Canada, Bermuda, Caribbean). First, I really don't think they (Americans) should claim to be the originator of this kind of '900' service. This stuff is well known in Europe, and it's a method for generating traffic _into_ a country. This would usually only benefit the network operators, but it's likely that arrangements have been made between network operators and "good" customers (those generating a lot of traffic into the network) to split the profit. A brief look in my local newspaper reveals numbers going to Hong Kong, Surinam, and Australia. A single ad may have numbers to more than one country, and offer the "service" in several languages. Now, the interesting thing -- knowing the state of the economy in the East European countries I wouldn't have been surprised to see services in this countries advertised in the US and Canada. But the other way round seems to be a bit weird. Can someone enlighten me? Haakon Styri *** std. disclaimer applies *** ------------------------------ From: georg@lise.physik.tu-berlin.de (Georg Schwarz) Subject: Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland Date: 21 Jun 1993 14:33:17 GMT Organization: TUBerlin/ZRZ In Richard Budd writes: > The United States has exported another product into the former Soviet > bloc: '900' services. Glancing through popular magazines in Prague > and Wroclaw, Poland, I have seen advertisements for 'International > Party Line', sex line, and horoscope services. That's not only true for the former Soviet bloc countries; those numbers are advertised here in Germany, too. Technically speaking, they are not '900' services, though, because there is no extra charge to the normal overseas call charges. These numbers are located in Hong Kong, the Dutch Antilles etc. +1 610 is somewhere in the Carribean, I suspect? I've heard that long distance carriers in those countries encourage setting up such numbers and advertising them abroad in order to lure overseas calls from countries with high telephone rates (like Germany!). They get half of the money (don't they?). [Moderator's Note: I am not sure if they get half; they do get some nice percentage of the take. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bob Larribeau Subject: Re: Future of ISDN Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 07:10:18 -0700 > I'm interested to know what people think is the future for ISDN? Is > this the "best since sliced bread", or are there other services around > or coming out soon that will make it fade into the dimmed light of > history? I have worked on ISDN CPE for almost eight years now; therefore I am a proponent. There are several points I would make: 1. ISDN is technically better than analog services for data - faster transfer rate (64 kb/s vs. 28.8 kb/s for modems), faster call set up 1-2 secs. vs 30 secs for modems), much higher reliablility (go all day without a hit). 2. ISDN is technically better than analog service for voice - control multiple calls over a single line, many other supplementary services, better voice quality. 3. ISDN provide a rich interface for computer control of calls. You go from Off/On Hook plus 12 tones to a packet based interface with explicit status and control. 4. In the U.S. ISDN is priced competitively with analog services. The issues are deployment, i.e., can you get it where you want it, and marketing. Deployment will improve greatly this year. Educating the market will take more time, but it is happening. 5. There is no competition on the horizon for a competitor to ISDN to deliver low speed switched voice and data service using a digital interface. 6. BISDN is a long way away as a switched service. The standards for broadly deploying BISDN as a switched service apparently will not be completed for another couple of years. Even in a BISDN network I expect to see the ISDN interface survive, particularly for voice applications. Even for data it will be a very long time before ATM interfaces are provided to every home or small business. 7. I also believe that the Cable TV industry will use their digital networks for entertainment applications and not seriously go after the telcos voice and data markets on a general basis. Hope this helps. Bob Larribeau San Francisco ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Re: *6n Codes (Actually, Vertical Services Codes) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 10:19 -0400 Number Display Blocking *67 1167 As understand it, the correct name for "*67" is "Number Display Lottery" which is as likely to unblock as to block. The odds of a given number being already blocked are, perhaps, small but that is compensated by the concern about CLID among communities of such owners so that it is much more likely they'd use *67 and defeat blocking. ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Call-Waiting Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 10:27 -0400 A reminder that the modulation of CLID has been discussed in TD in the past. It is not Bell 212 since there is no need for such an expensive and complicated modulation scheme. One only needs to send a half duplex datastream of a short run of copper which means that a simple FSK would suffice. I don't have CLID so I can't check it out here, but there are a number of 202 protocols that would suffice. ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: Exchanges Using Zero as Second Digit Organization: AT&T Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 14:29:51 GMT In article the Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: ...Years ago, zero or one were never used as the > second digit in a prefix, and zero was never used as the third digit > in a prefix... Pedantry mode: The "correct" term (according to BOC Notes on the LEC Networks) for the "NXX" digits in a world zone 1 number of the format "NPA-NXX-XXXX" is "Central office code", not "prefix". A "prefix" is a 0, 1, 00, 010, or 011 code (I think that's all of them) dialed before an E.164 number which is not part of the number itself. A 9 or 8 dialed for access to an "outside line" from a PBX or Centrex group is also called a "prefix". Just doing my part to minimize confusion ... David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation [Moderator's Note: Just doing your part to add to the confusion around here! :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 15:39:58 GMT Is there somewhere in particular, besides AT&T's business number, that I should call to sign up for this? I tried calling 800-222-0300 the night I read the post here on TELECOM Digest. At first the operator seemed to comprehend what I was talking about but then she started going off about discounts of 25% to the one area code I dial the most. This did not sound like the "loyalty program" described in the post to TD. Thanks, Mike ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Re: How to Tell if We're Really Saving Using Any Hour Program?? Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 15:57:47 GMT upchrch!joel@peora.sdc.ccur.com (Joel Upchurch) writes: > Your bill must be broken out differently from mine. My bill shows all > the long distance calls at the regular price, but only the in-state > ones show up on the subtotals. Then it does a separate calculation for > the calls at the Any Hour Saver rates. I find that AHS saves me quite > a bit, but I use about five or six hours of long distance a month. I don't believe my bill shows a separate calculation for AHS calls. I'll have to check the last bill and examine it closely. It seems I've been overpaying my parents though. I've learned that the listing of Call Manager calls is at full price and the discount is only calculated in with the total amount on the first page. Since I use a Call Manager code to separate my phone calls from my parents' I'm using the CM subtotal to determine how much I owe. I'll have to call and ask if this can be changed somehow. Mike ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 10:53:49 -0600 From: bcarter@claven.idbsu.edu Subject: Re: MCI F&F Scam Greetings Pat, readers: > My father received a call from MCI recently offering him some deal > (something like up to $4000 in free calls I think -- I'm foggy on the > exact details) for his office phone lines. They said that they were > given his name by someone named Francis Kissinger who he supposedly > calls frequently. He's never heard of this person. He smelled a scam > and told them where they could put their deal (well, he didn't really > do that but it sounds good) ... > [Moderator's Note: Four thousand dollars in free calls? Gosh, if they > will put that in writing, even I will sign up with MCI. :) PAT] I got one of these, or at least something very similar, the other day too. It's not as good a deal as it looks at first glance. For one thing, it's actually "up to" $4000.00. The deal is actually that you get two months worth of long distance, up to $2000.00 per month, free. Guess what the catch is? That's right, it's an average over several months. So, you have to spend around $2000.00 per month on the other months as well to get the top end of the free time. Oh, but there is another catch. The averages are figured on (if I remember this correctly) the third month (to hook you) and the 18th month (to make sure they've got you long enough to make it profitable). So, when you look at the whole picture, it ends up being less than a 6% discount. Bruce Carter, CBI Product Development bcarter@claven.idbsu.edu Simplot/Micron Instructional Technology Center amccarte@idbsu (Bitnet) Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725 (208)385-1851@phone ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Costing Home Fiber Installation: Looking For Advice Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 17:53:11 GMT In article Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/ Caltech (pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov) writes: > let's say that I'm moving to a house one to five miles outside the > nearest (small) town in Northern California, for the sake of immediate > argument, not that there won't be many other issues to nail down. > Whom should I contact for more information? You should contact an INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER also called a mid-level network operator or "regional network". There are about 50 of these; most are only active in a particular geographical area, and many serve only "Research and Education". Among the beter known providers of commercial connections are: Alternet (UUNET Technologies) PSI (Performance Systems International, I think) CERFnet > [Moderator's Note: It won't come inexpensively, and unless your expected > volume of news and mail is going to be really huge, you will probably > wind up with a UUCP-style arrangement, calling on the phone as desired > to poll, etc. Private, dedicated circuits of any kind -- fiber optic > or regular lead wires -- are seldom justified economically unless you > can keep the line loaded, or in use virtually 24 hours per day. You > will also need to pay whoever provisions your Internet connection, in > addition to telco or whoever strings the circuit for you. ... PAT] For most mileage bands, the leased circuit is less expensive if you need more than four to eight hours of connect time per day. UUCP "batch mode" is okay for USENET, but to get to "the good stuff" you need a real internet connection. Fortunately, these are becoming affordable in the US now. The biggest cost driver is carriage from your house to the network provider's nearest router. If you are five males from a small town, odds are that the network provider's point of presence is not within a local call. (They tend to co-locate with either a large research park or the LATA point-of-presence of a long-distance carrier.) I am looking at this for my new location in Copenhagen, Denmark. For that location, a metro call (measured service) is $0.07 per minute, and for dial-in, the network operator charges another $0.07/minute. A leased line pays its monthly rental in 93 minutes per day. Unfortunately, the one-time installation charge for the leased line and for the network operator run to almost $5000 between them. This is for a two-wire circuit capable of handling the 9600/14400 bps modems that are now the standard. If you are fairly close to a POP (point of presence) the carriage may be less than $100/month for a four-wire circuit that can run 56 Kbps. The going rate for the Internet Service through that pipe is about $1000/month. This is not totally out of reach for engineering consult- ants working out of their home. If you are within a local call of someone who has an internet connection and is willing to share with you, you can get a couple of IP addresses from their network number, and run a dial-up IP connection over 14400 bps modems. With enough savvy, you can install free software on a unix workstation on each end of the link. Or you can buy a turnkey dial-up router to install at each end for $1995 each, which attaches to the ethernet at each end and dials up the link when there's traffic. This puts the cost well within the budget of many "part-time work-at-home" engineers. And the prices are coming down fast. Going up the speed range, the price goes up fast. From 14400 bps to 56 kbps is not a big step: Each of them is worth "one phone connection". The next faster is typically a T1 (1544 kbps) line, worth 24 phone connections, and usually priced at about ten times the 56 kbps. The point at which they run a fiber is probably a T3 (43 million bits per second) which is 28 T1's or 672 telephone connections' worth. I haven't priced it recently, but it isn't cheap. Disclaimer: I am not an unbiased observer; I work in Rockwell's NetHopper development team. The NetHopper is a dial-on-demand IP router ... which happens to cost $1995 including one 14400 bps modem. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 ------------------------------ From: tchen@sdesys1.hns.com (Thomas Chen) Subject: With Phone on Hook, How is Caller-ID Transmitted? Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 15:08:17 GMT Organization: Hughes Network Systems Inc. My understanding is that between first ring and second ring, the CO sends out the digits (or alpha) in 1200 baud signal to indicate the caller id. My question is that if the phone is not yet offhook, there is no complete circuit loop, how can any signal be sent? (That's why ringing is done in AC)??? Tom ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #413 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09235; 21 Jun 93 19:36 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15499 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 21 Jun 1993 16:30:40 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16123 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 21 Jun 1993 16:30:00 -0500 Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 16:30:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306212130.AA16123@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #412 TELECOM Digest Mon, 21 Jun 93 16:30:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 412 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Caller-ID and Privacy (A. Padgett Peterson) Dead Cordless Phone Dials 911? (John Holman) What Switch is in Use in My Area? (Michael Rosen) International City Codes (Karl Braun) Want Network Modeling Software (Z. Zhao) Re: Particularity of 555? (Mark Evans) Re: Particularity of 555? (Douglas White) Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards (Steve Forrette) Re: NYNEX ISDN Hot Line (Ken Germann) Re: Dial-up IP Connectivity (Lars Poulsen) Re: Fastest Dialup Modems at 19,200 Baud (Lars Poulsen) Re: Need Modem Lockout Circuit (Brett Frankenberger) Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland (David Leibold) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 08:54:37 -0400 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Caller-ID and Privacy Lately I have been seeing quite a few postings that debate people's "rights" such as privacy. To me these have a fundamental flaw in that they assume "rights" that do not exist. When someone walks up to my door, unless it is a sworn office of the law I am under no compulsion to open the door. How I make that decision is purely up to me. If I wish to invest in a peephole or television camera, that is also up to me. Caller-ID is much the same and concerns my decision whether to answer the phone. A person coming up to my door has the right to wear a black hood over their head. I have the right not to answer. Neither of us has the right to force the other's decision. A postmark on a letter tells much about where it came from and a registered letter must be signed for. The only right we have is to decide where to mail the letter from and whether to sign the receipt, we cannot tell the post office to use a different postmark or to deliver the letter without a receipt. Caller-ID is a fact just as ANI is a fact. The information exists. What seems to be occupying people is whether it *should* exist which is not a choice. Just realized that this opens an avenue for a new telco service -- Remote Caller-ID. What this means is that for a physician, he can have a telephone at home that will report his office number as the Caller-ID. The criteria would be simple: permission of the owner of the second number. Might require a second line at home but billed to the office. TANSTAAFL, Padgett ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 00:00:00 GMT From: holmanj@uwwvax.uww.edu (John Holman) Organization: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Subject: Dead Cordless Dials 911? I thought that I had a pretty good handle on cordless telephone features until last Friday night. As I was watching some late night TV last Friday a police officer came to my door to enquire about the house next door. He said he was responding to a 911 call that appeared to have come from the house next door but no one was home. I told him the people were on vacation. He responded that he thought a cordless telephone in which the batteries were dying had automatically dialed 911! I have never heard of this feature before. Has anyone else? It would seem like a bad feature for the 911 dispatchers to deal with to me. When they return I will check the model of their telephone. [Moderator's Note: We've discussed this here before. I forget what the group consensus was regards the technical problem here. Anyone? PAT] ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: What Switch is in Use in My Area? Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 16:05:53 GMT I live in Baltimore (Pikesville, to be exact, for those who are familiar with the area) and we have such services as call return, call trace, etc. The only difference that I can tell between my service and a friend's in Fairfax, VA is our call waiting. My call waiting is still the same old style where the line is disconnected briefly and I hear a loud beep on my end only (more like BOOP). However, my friend's call waiting in Fairfax, VA is simply a beep that does not interrupt the line like mine does. If you were on the phone with me and I got call waiting you would hear the line disconnect briefly as if I had hung up. The other system I believe you might hear a brief pause if the other person was speaking at the moment call waiting signalled. Also, does anyone know what system Washington, DC is using now? Mike ------------------------------ From: braun@Novell.COM (Karl Braun) Subject: International City Codes Organization: Novell Inc., San Jose, Califonia Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 15:36:27 GMT I'm looking for any kind of standard for encoding city names. We're looking to do this on an International scale, but something that only specifies US cities would be just as well. We started out using standard airport codes, but that can get pretty cryptic (YYZ, I think, for Toronto?). I'm aware of the Postal Service suggested abbreviations for city names and common street names, but am looking for something that might limit the names to three to five characters (would, of course, only encompass major cities). Thanks, kral 408/647-6112 Network Scapegoat in Training NOVELL/DSG ------------------------------ From: zhao@nmsu.edu (Z. Zhao) Subject: Want Network Modeling Software Date: 21 Jun 93 08:49:54 Organization: Computing Research Lab Hello, Netters, I am trying to find a software package for network modeling, which is capable of simulating computer LAN, WAN as well as large communication networks, and supplying data analysis tools. Do you have some informa- tion about such software packages? Regards, ZiZi ------------------------------ From: evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans) Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? Organization: Aston University Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 09:30:28 GMT Mark Brader (msb@sq.com) wrote: > 1-110-1010. A perfectly reasonable phone number. > When I read this, I immediately deduced that wherever the novel was > supposed to be set, it wasn't the present-day USA. It is actually set in something like 1960's USA. No idea if it relates to any numbering plan in force then. Unlikely. Mark Evans evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk +(44) 21 429 9199 (Home) evansmp@cs.aston.ac.uk +(44) 21 359 6531 x4039 (Office) [Moderator's Note: If anything, it would have been far less likely in the USA in the 1960's. Bell would never have had prefixes like that in those days. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dwhite@dsys.ncsl.nist.gov (Douglas White) Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? Organization: NIST Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 16:21:47 GMT And remember... if you don't use 555 in movies, etc. the calls from the people who need to get a life may come back to haunt you! Gary Trudeau put the White House switchboard number in one Doonesbury strip, and if I remember right, by the middle of the day the strip ran, the White House had arranged for the telcos to route calls to that number back to G.T.'s publisher. :-) Beware of powerful people with a sense of humor ... ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards Date: 21 Jun 1993 06:44:25 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article yarvin-norman@CS.YALE.EDU (Norman Yarvin) writes: > So, the reason stores would require a PIN is so that they get the full > amount of money; in the process they hit you with about a month's > worth of high interest charges. > We wouldn't need any of this funny business if stores were allowed to > charge more for credit card purchases. It'd be easy for a computerized > store to charge exactly 2% more, and thus exactly recoup its costs. > But Congress in its all-seeing wisdom has passed a law against that > practice. I don't think there is any law against this -- it is the policy of the credit card companies (if I'm wrong on this point, please correct me!). In addition to being a cardholder, I'm also a MasterCard/Visa merchant, so I've had some experience in this area. Many of the rules that govern these transactions are part of the "merchant agreement," which is the contract between the merchant and their bank which spells out a lot of these rules. The reason that the MasterCard/Visa member banks don't want the merchants to charge extra for credit transactions is that they want to encourage as many credit card transactions as possible. They don't want the cardholder to think "Gee, do I really want to pay 2% extra when I can get it cheaper by using cash?" What they want the cardholder to think is "Using my credit card doesn't cost anything extra, and it is more convenient than cash." Another restriction that is built into most (all?) merchant agreements is that the merchant cannot set a minimum transaction amount for credit card purchases. Many smaller merchants routinely violate this requirement (which they voluntarily agreed to when the signed their merchant agreements). Again, the MasterCard/Visa member banks want the customer to not have any hassles when using their cards - they should be as convenient as cash. As Pat mentioned in an earlier message, it is not necessarily more expensive for the grocery store to pay the discount rate for the credit card transactions. To start with, it is likely that they pay closer to a 1% discount rate because of their volume and the special deals that the banks have been making with grocery stores in particular. Second, it is not free to accept cash, believe it or not. Cash needs to be counted, kept in a safe, guarded from employee theft, taken to the bank by armored car, carries a robbery risk, etc. Also, rolled coin must be obtained from the bank in order to provide change, and banks usually charge business customers for non-trivial amounts of rolled coin. The 1-2% discount rate is sounding cheaper all the time, isn't it? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: keng@skypoint.com (Ken Germann) Subject: Re: NYNEX ISDN Hot Line Organization: Sky Point Communications, Inc. Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 06:38:09 GMT In article kippenhan@dcd00.fnal.gov (H.A. Kippenhan Jr.) writes: > A few weeks ago, someone posted a number for an ISDN hotline in the > NYNEX service area. A project on which I'm now working would make > that number very useful; alas, I didn't save it. > If somone would be kind enough to repost it, it would be greatly > appreciated. > Alternatively, if any of the readership has specific information about > the availibility of ISDN Basic Rate service for: (212) 327-xxxx I > would be interested in that as well. By Basic Rate Service I mean 64 > Kbps and SS7 trunking from NYNEX to AT&T. Digiboard supports the ISDN connections through the IMAC and PC/IMAC product lines. There/our sales department can be reached at 612-943-9020 or e-mail to sales@dbsales.digibd.com. The IMAC will do either 128k per second or 256k per second on an ISDN line. Ken Germann Sky Point Communications, Inc. keng@skypoint.com Owner/Administrator. (612)459-7554 Voice A RIP based Unix OIS. (coming soon) (612)458-3959 Data 2400/14.4 More Info: info@skypoint.com ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Dial-up IP Connectivity Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 06:46:42 GMT In article Peter.van.Oosterom@fel. tno.nl (Peter van Oosterom) writes: > I'm posting this message for a friend who doens't have news, so please > react to his e-mail address: assem@guest.surfnet.nl and not to this > group. Actually, this may be of general interest. I recently looked into getting IP connectivity for a small office in Copenhagen Denmark, and boy, is it expensive right now. ($10,000.- for a 9600 bps leased line for one year.) As a result, I am now thinking very hard about how to do what I need to do. > We're a small organisation in the Netherlands that wants to set up > Internet connectivity. We intend to have dial-up IP connectivity since > this is probably the most attractive service for us. However, we're > entirely Mac based and I'm not familiar with any products on Macs to do > things like: > - setting up a news server and clients (with NNTP support) > - setting up a SMTP mail hub, to be connected to our Quickmail server > - providing 'on-demand' set-up of external IP connectivity. > We have our Macs connected on an Ethernet and we're running Netware. > Our potential service provider indicates that they want to 'see' only > one IP-address for manageability reasons. > Who can give me some pointers / solutions and possible products? > Should we get a UNIX workstation or can we do without it? For your Internet service provider, there are several different elements that drive costs. One very large component is routing table maintenance. For a variety of reasons, it is MUCH simpler to deal with ONE IP host at the end of the wire than with a whole network. A single host on the subscriber wire can have an IP address from the provider's network number; a customer owned network number must be made known to the whole world. It so happens, that in the corporate world, it is often desiable to make sure that only a single network gateway is reachable from the outside world (makes information security much easier) so this is a good match. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite of what would be ideal for you. If you are limited to one IP address, then a Unix machine (an old Sun-3 or an A/UX or a NeXT) is much the easiest to maintain. On the local side of that, you can use either TELNET/TCP/IP over the LAN or dial-up for off-site members. These people would have to log in to the unix gateway before they could reach the outside world. I.e. the user's machine is pretty much just a terminal to the network server machine. > - setting up a news server and clients (with NNTP support) > - setting up a SMTP mail hub, to be connected to our Quickmail server > - providing 'on-demand' set-up of external IP connectivity. To run all of these tasks on the same machine requires a true multiuser operating system. Most cheap examples of this will be UNIX based. You will need at least 500 MB of hard disk space to do these things well. If you run your mail service on UNIX, you would be MUCH happier to toss Quickmail and run Eudora on the Macs. The quickmail SMTP gateway has some quirks and lacks scripts to handle efficient maintenance of the Quickmail equivalent of alias files. I don't quite know why you are running Netware in a pure Mac environ- ment. TOPS seems a lot more appropriate, and even the free CAP Apple- talk File Server for Unix seems to me to be better integrated. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Fastest Dialup Modems at 19,200 Baud Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 07:09:59 GMT In article A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it (Alfredo Cotroneo) writes: > Until a few months ago it was not possible to send/receive data over a > dialup line at a speed of more than 14,400 bauds (uncompressed), and > V32bis modems were the way to go. When data is binary (or ADPCM), > V42bis (or worse MNP5) would not help in achieving a better transfer > rate. > But where are the modem/DSP companies going now? Is there a > possibility to see even faster modems in the near future, do they > exist already, or have they reached already the fastest achieavable > speeds using all phone bandwdth? It is generally believed that the fastest that can be achieved with good analog local loops and 64kbps digital long distance circuits is about 28800 bits per second. Several modem vendors have implemented such modems using a variety of entensions to the same kind of signal processing used in V.32bis (the current 14400 bps standard.) A CCITT committee is trying to write a standard for 28800 bps modems. When they finish arguing about whose patents to base the published standard on, the new spec (nicknamed V.fast) will be published. Both AT&T Paradyne and Motorola UDS have started shipped modems with 28800 capability. These are currently very expensive, but should drop to about $500 within about 18 months. After that, it will have to be ISDN. As for the suggestion that ISDN may never come to rural Italia: Those rural lines might not be capable of running over 9600 bps either. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Need Modem Lockout Circuit Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 13:10:39 GMT rwb@alexander.VI.RI.CMU.EDU (Robert Berger) writes: > In article STUDENT@uunet.uu.net (JEREMY > GINGER) writes: >> Connect two Zenner Diodes (11 V) back-to-back in series with the lower >> priority line. If you know the polarity of the wire you can get away >> with one Zenner. > I don't see how this can work. When you try to use the low priority > device, won't the drop in line voltage then turn of the Zener? It > seems to me that this circuit would oscillate between on-hook and > off-hook. > I believe you need some sort of latching device; the Radio Shack > version uses an SCR. > I have also seen a circuit that uses a four layer trigger diode (Diac) > in series with each device. This gives priority to the first device to > go off-hook. No. In fact, I an using such a device even as we speak. View the Zener diode as a constant 11V (Actually 11.7 Volt if you have one backward and one forweard in series) drop. Then, without the Zener, you have 48V from the CO, approx 2K ohm in the loop, and, we'll say, 600 ohm in the phone. The result is 48V / 2600 ohm = 18.5 ma current in the loop, and 18.5 * .6 = 11.1V across the telephone. With the Zener in the line, if you go off hook, you have (48 - 11.7) / 2600 equals 14.0 ma in the loop, and 14.0 * .6 = 8.4 V across the telephone. In practice, a 600 ohm resistor is not a perfect model for the phone, but it's close enough to demonstrate that the Zerner diode will not completely cut-out whatever is on the far end of it. It will, of course, dissipate some power, and the signal getting to the 'low priority' phone will not be as loud and clear, but it will be close. Of course, when the high-priority line goes off hook, the line voltage ahead of the Zener drops below 11.7, so nothing gets through the Zener. But when the high-priority device is not in the circuit (on-hook), the low-pri device does just fine. It just sees a bit lower voltage when it goes off hook. From its point of view, the loop now just has a higher impedance than it did before. (formerly rfranken@cs.umr.edu) Brett Frankenberger brettf@netcom.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic & Poland From: woody Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 09:22:05 -0400 The Moderator wonders what is happening to NPA 610 now that it will be used to split the Philadelphia 215 area code. Some hints from various documents suggest that Canadian telcos will want to keep an NPA for datalink/ISDN purposes (a successor to TWX services). Now, an inquiry at Bellcore earlier this year resulted in the finding that NPA 600 was no longer available. This sounds circumstantial, but it appears that 610 was moved (or is being moved) to 600. Of course, this might still mess up the oversease chat line folks when they discover that 610 will be an actual area code soon. David Leibold dleibold1@attmail.com dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca djcl@internex.io.org (new link; use at own risk) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #412 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21664; 22 Jun 93 3:53 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20802 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 22 Jun 1993 01:11:41 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24908 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 22 Jun 1993 01:11:08 -0500 Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 01:11:08 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306220611.AA24908@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #414 TELECOM Digest Tue, 22 Jun 93 01:11:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 414 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Dead Cordless Dials 911? (James P Gonzales) Re: Dead Cordless Dials 911? (Steve Forrette) Re: Caller-ID and Privacy (Steve Forrette) Re: Caller-ID and Privacy (news@deneva.sdd.trw.com) Re: Caller-ID Mistakes (Jerry Stubbs) Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID (guy@intgp1.att.com) Re: Cross-Border Local Calling (Paul S. Sawyer) Re: Particularity of 555? (John Stafford) Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey (Charles Mattair) Re: AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial (Steven King) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Curtis Bohl) Re: Bell Operating Company Predecessors (R. Kevin Oberman) Re: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) (R. Kevin Oberman) Re: Germany: Collect Calls Are Back!! (guy@intgp1.att.com) Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards (Mike King) Re: Two Cellular Phones, One Number (John Schmidt) Re: Telecom Trip Report: Deaver, WY (Carl Moore) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Before submitting articles for publication, please read a copy of our file 'writing.to.telecom'. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jpg@hoover.csu.bgu.edu (James P Gonzales) Subject: Re: Dead Cordless Dials 911? Date: 21 Jun 93 23:25:08 GMT Organization: Educational Computing Network holmanj@uwwvax.uww.edu (John Holman) writes: [stuff deleted] > told him the people were on vacation. He responded that he thought a > cordless telephone in which the batteries were dying had automatically > dialed 911! I have never heard of this feature before. Has anyone [stuff deleted] > [Moderator's Note: We've discussed this here before. I forget what the > group consensus was regards the technical problem here. Anyone? PAT] I wasn't around to follow that thread, but the same thing has happened to me as well; it seems that the phone's battery goes weak, and it starts to dial random memory set phone numbers. I assume that your neighbor had 911 as one of the presets and the same thing happened to them. Of course, maybe my experience was of an entirely different nature, but that is what I have concluded about my own phone. In addition, when the battery runs out the phone likes to change my presets, for instance a memory with ph number 123-4567 might change to 122-4567, where one digit was changed. Kinda annoying, so keep those phones charged. James P Gonzales [jpg@hoover.csu.bgu.edu] ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Dead Cordless Dials 911? Date: 21 Jun 1993 23:48:15 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article holmanj@uwwvax.uww.edu (John Holman) writes: > As I was watching some late night TV last Friday a police officer > came to my door to enquire about the house next door. He said he was > responding to a 911 call that appeared to have come from the house > next door but no one was home. I told him the people were on > vacation. He responded that he thought a cordless telephone in which > the batteries were dying had automatically dialed 911! I remember seeing a news story about this phenomenon on one of the local news stations in the SF Bay Area -- it must have been 1986 or so. Of course, the technical details in the story were non-existant. They just stated that some models will call 911 when the battery dies. Perhaps it's that people have 911 programmed into one of the speed dial numbers, and the phone has the bad habit of calling a speed dial number as it dies. Who knows? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Privacy Date: 21 Jun 1993 23:45:16 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: > Just realized that this opens an avenue for a new telco service -- > Remote Caller-ID. What this means is that for a physician, he can have > a telephone at home that will report his office number as the > Caller-ID. The criteria would be simple: permission of the owner of > the second number. Might require a second line at home but billed to > the office. It was reported in the Digest a couple of months ago that just this service was being offered in Canada (was it by Bell Canada in Ontario?). So, the software to do this is already in the switches (at least for the DMS-100). Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com [Moderator's Note: There is also the 900 service where the guy patches your call out to wherever you want to call with no ID given. He is an attorney in California, but I forget the 900 number you call to use his service (if you think it is worthwhile). He claims he is not res- ponsible for mischievious or illegal uses made of his line (he gets a lot of people who like to play games on the phone with victims they call), but he has been sued a couple times and always has to pay off. I guess he figures he still comes out ahead, with 900 rates being as outlandish as they are most of the time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: news@deneva.sdd.trw.com Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Privacy Organization: TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 01:03:11 GMT I've seen this analogy used twice as an argument for one's inalienable right to obtain a caller's number. When someone walks up to your door, you do not get information which allows you to visit their home. Inverting the above analogy, caller ID should deliver exactly that: some form of unique ID which enables one to make an authentication/ authorization decision. It should *not* return information allowing "reverse access". Greg ------------------------------ From: stubbs@hawk.cs.ukans.edu (Jerry Stubbs) Subject: Re: Caller-ID Mistakes Organization: University of Kansas Computer Science Dept Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 17:45:21 GMT My caller-ID box stores up to 30 numbers, and some of them seem close to people I would expect to call. I have also returned supposed calls that the callers denied any knowledge of. One was from Radio Shack about an item, and he left a recording, but no number. The number on the ID box didn't get me back to Radio Shack. I therefore suspect the error check is not very accurate. I think it is supposed to have parity, but I've never seen the 'error' indicator flashing yet. [Moderator's Note: Caller-ID boxes can have errors due to transmission problems, but it is far more likely the people lie. They don't like to admit they got a wrong number then discourteously hung up without apologizing, for example. But if you get the same number two or three times on the display and call back, only to have them insist they did not call you and 'there must be a mistake', you can draw your own conclusions. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 17:05:17 EDT From: guy@intgp1.att.com Subject: Re: Call Forwarding and Caller-ID Organization: AT&T > Can someone tell me, when you forward your calls in a Caller ID > equipped area, does the called party get the original caller number > or the number doing the forwarding? I tried this last year and the results were inconsistent. I have call forwarding at home (708)-554-xxxx and Caller ID at work (708)-979-xxxx. My answering machine at home broke, so I forwarded my calls to my work number. Most forwarded calls were IDed as my home phone number. But calls from the same exchange (Other 554-xxxx lines), were IDed with the real originators number. I'm not sure which behavior is "correct". (Side note: ANI provided to an 800 number owner should provide the number of the forwarding phone, since the forwarding phone would be billed for the call if it were chargeable and ANI is normally used to forward the billing number.) ------------------------------ From: paul@senex.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) Subject: Re: Cross-Border Local Calling Date: 21 Jun 1993 18:14:27 GMT Organization: UNH Telecommunications and Network Services In article Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU (Garrett Wollman) writes: > According to my phone book, Derby Line is 802 873; unfortunately, I > don't have the phone book for that part of the state handy so I can't > check the dialing instructions for anything interesting. I did have it handy, and it lists the exchange 876 (Rock Island, PQ, AC 819) as local to the 873 exchange. Maybe served by the same CO? Paul S. Sawyer - University of New Hampshire CIS - Paul_Sawyer@unh.edu Telecommunications and Network Services VOX: +1 603 862 3262 50 College Road FAX: +1 603 862 2030 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 ------------------------------ From: News Admin Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 18:44:43 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard Mark Brader (msb@sq.com) wrote: > As has been said, the point of 555-numbers is that they look like > ordinary numbers to the naive viewer, but really aren't. Which > reminds me of a passage from Michael Chrichton's novel "The Andromeda > Strain" which, as far as I can reconstruct it from memory, is along > the following lines. A character has just received the coded phone > message that he never expected to really happen, saying that an > emergency had occurred and the secret Project Wildcan is to be > activated ... Project Wildfire. The extension was 222 (aka 1-101-1110). John "why do I remember these things" Stafford ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 11:40:37 CDT From: mattair@synercom.hounix.org (Charles Mattair) Subject: Re: 411 Danger in New Jersey Organization: Synercom Technology, Inc., Houston, TX In article jeffw@triple-i.com (Jeff Wasilko) writes: > At my former job, I was the phone admin. When SNET was ready to start > the service, I got a letter explaining the new auto-connect option > (and it's implications for call accounting and least-cost-routing/ > special trunks). > SNET offered to block the service on all of our lines for no charge, > initially. After the start-up period, they would charge $21/per line > to remove the service ... > [Moderator's Note: But can you really imagine anyone paying $21 per > line at some future point to have such a worthless feature re-enabled > on their line just so they could pay everytime they used it? I am > sure for most people, once gone, that 'feature' stays gone. This thread peeked my interest enough to call SWB about blocking. The service rep initially claimed there was no way to block 411 completion. After some cajoling and after I pointed out it was blocked from SWB and COCOT payphones and hotels, among other places, she agreed to check into it. An hour later, she calls back. Turns out SWB will block FOR FREE -- no installation charge, no monthly fee, no nothing. You still get the message but the call will not complete unless you select some way to pay for it. What this means (other than it won't bill to the originating number), I won't know until Wednesday when the block goes in (takes three working days to put it in :-( ). I tried to get a service/order code but she claimed there wasn't one other than a long sentence which translated to DA call completion blocking. This didn't appear to be an introductory/limited time feature, just something SWB doesn't advertise because it would cost them revenue. Your mileage may vary. Charles Mattair (until 16 July - work) mattair@synercom.hounix.org ------------------------------ From: king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist) Subject: Re: AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial Reply-To: king@rtsg.mot.com Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 20:49:14 GMT bobh@nwsca.att.com publicly declared: > The point of the You Will commercials is to show people the technolog- > ical marvels that people have been talking about for years, and > associate them with AT&T as a technology company, not just a Long > Distance company. Last week I saw a cute "You Will" ad. This was a joint ad by AT&T and either Paramount or the local TV station which shows Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The ad wasn't on TV; I saw it as a small stand-up poster on the concession stand at the movie theatre. Anyway, it had a picture of the Deep Space Nine space station. Text went something like, Have you ever explored the outer reaches of the galaxy? You will. Now *THAT'S* advanced technology! :-) Steven King, Motorola Cellular (king@rtsg.mot.com) ------------------------------ From: EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu (Missouri 4-H Youth Development Programs) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines Organization: University of Missouri Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 19:40:21 CDT In article EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri. edu writes: > Also, another small exchange next to us had a unique system, where the > switch rang all the phones on the party line, but with a different > combination of rings (1 short-2 long, etc.). I learned about this > from a high school teacher who was awakened many times in the middle > of the night. > [Moderator's Note: You are talking about a *long* time ago! PAT] I know this CO only went digital within the past five years. On the subject of party lines, it was interesting by dialing the right combination of codes, you could get one or two different party's phones ringing at the same time, and neither of them call each other. Also, for long distance calls, you dialed an extra digit following the "1", to indicate what party you were on the line (i.e. bill your calls to someone else). Never did it myself since it would be easy to track down to three or four people on your party line. Curtis Bohl extmo4h@mizzou1.missouri.edu ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: Bell Operating Company Predecessors Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 07:20:03 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory In article atoscano@speedway.net (A Alan Toscano) writes: > As I recall, Illinois Bell Telephone began its life as The Chicago > Telephone Company, and kept that name for a time as part of the early > Bell Telephone System. I wonder if any Digest readers in the US might > know the names of the predecessors of other BOCs. Mountain Bell (now USWest) was originally Mountain States Telephone. Guess that by the time telephones made it to the Rockies they had decided that telegraphs were not too important any more. (Or maybe they dropped the word before my time.) R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: koberman@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 07:34:24 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory In article andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) writes: > On 6 Jun 93 22:05:40 GMT, macwhiz@roundtable.cif.rochester.edu (Rob > Levandowski) said: > Since Toby Nixon has left Hayes and probably won't set the record > straight on this one, I'll step up to the plate. It is a popular > misconception that what Hayes has patented is the AT command set. > This is not true. What Hayes patented was their technique for using a > single data stream for both the data and control channel for modems. > This technique involves the use of coded data in the data stream to > switch the modems into command mode. (The example coded data stream > is, of course, silence for the guard time, followed 3 '+' signs in > rapid succession). I don't think one can evade their patent by > choosing a different coded data stream, as the patent is on the > mode-switching method, not the particular triggers used in its most > popular embodiment. I have a copy of the patent somewhere, but I do remember that the specific claim of patentability is the use of a time delimited "escape" sequence to transition from data to command mode. That means the is what is patented. Also note that the guard time is on both sides of the pattern. There may have been other claims of patentability, but this was the main one and did not have anything to do with AT commands. The patent does not state what the "guard time" will be, but that it should be a minimum time with no maximum and that it be significantly longer than any gap in a data stream. Nor does the patent specify that the pattern should be the same character repeated three times. I still find it amazing that this patent was upheld, but I'm not a lawyer and courts often amaze me. R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: koberman@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 17:30:27 EDT From: guy@intgp1.att.com Subject: Re: Germany: Collect Calls Are Back!! Organization: AT&T >> What are typical operator charges in the US or elsewhere? > For calls within the U.S., they are usually about 22c/minute (USD > 0.22) for calls within a state, and up to 25c/minute for a call from > Washington, DC to Los Angeles, about 2500 miles. At night, the rate > is about 10c per call. This is AT&T's rate; Sprint or MCI will > usually beat it by 1c per minute or so. You left out the surcharge for Operator Services. Any time you place an operator assisted call and talk to a live operator (not automatic credit card) the first three minutes of your call are billed at a higher rate that varies with the type of call, I think the first three minutes of a collect call run about $2.50 - $2.75 (I dont have a rate scale to check), additional minutes are billed at the same rate as direct dial. (This is also based on AT&Ts rate scale, but so are everybody else's rates ;-) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 17:49:31 EDT From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards In TELECOM Digest V13 #408, yarvin-norman@CS.YALE.EDU (Norman Yarvin) writes: > A cash transaction usually means interest is calculated from the day > you withdraw the money. Check your credit card policy; this is the > case with mine, and I'd be surprised if anybody did it differently. Both my AT&T Universal Card (VISA) and my Discover Card charge a transaction fee, but if the amount advanced is paid in full during the next billing cycle AND there is no previous unpaid balance, then no interest is charged. Of course, the transaction fee can get hefty, depending on the amount advanced. Mike King | +1 301-428-5384 | I don't speak for my Software Sourcerer | mking@fsd.com or | employer. My employer Fairchild Space | 73710.1430@compuserve.com | doesn't speak for me. ------------------------------ From: jws@hpfcla.fc.hp.com (John Schmidt) Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones, One Number Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 22:03:20 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard Fort Collins Site According to a recent issue of {Mobile Office} magazine, the FCC has stated that this practice (cloning ESN's) violates FCC regulations. Moblie Office says that they will no longer accept advertisements for this service. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 18:18:01 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Telecom Trip Report: Deaver, WY That is Deaver/Frannie, not Deaver/Franney (307-664 Frannie, and also 406-764 North Frannie, MT). Deaver zip code 82421, post office in Big Horn County. Frannie zip code 82423, post office in Polk County. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #414 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa22084; 22 Jun 93 4:11 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02199 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 22 Jun 1993 02:01:39 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09539 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 22 Jun 1993 02:01:03 -0500 Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 02:01:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306220701.AA09539@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #415 TELECOM Digest Tue, 22 Jun 93 02:01:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 415 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? (Steve Forrette) Re: Traffic Chokes for High Volume Subscribers (system@garlic.sbs.com) Re: Bell Operating Company Predecessors (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Cordless Headset (Lynne Gregg) Telephone Areacode/Prefix to City Database [FOUND] (Steve Davidson) Cellular Equal Access Ballot (Jeff Garber) Needed: Old Audiovox Handset (Douglas Scott Reuben) Interactive Voice Response Systems (Roy M. Silvernail) Telecom Faculty Position Open (Greg Brewster) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Andy Rabagliati) CDPD Articles Wanted (Hindra Irawan) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Before submitting articles for publication, please read a copy of our file 'writing.to.telecom'. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? Date: 22 Jun 1993 01:37:04 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) writes: > Is there somewhere in particular, besides AT&T's business number, that > I should call to sign up for this? I tried calling 800-222-0300 the > night I read the post here on TELECOM Digest. At first the operator > seemed to comprehend what I was talking about but then she started > going off about discounts of 25% to the one area code I dial the most. > This did not sound like the "loyalty program" described in the post to > TD. I called the 800-222-0300 number and asked about the Loyalty Program, and the rep knew exactly what I was talking about. I already have the Simple Savings program that you describe above (25% off calls to one predesignated area code, and 15% off the rest), and the Loyalty Program is in addition to this or any other calling plan. They will compute the average of my next six months' AT&T bills, and send me AT&T gift certificates for that amount. Among other things, I can then send these certificates in with my local phone bill as payment for my local and/or long distance charges. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: system@garlic.sbs.com Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 01:39:24 EDT Subject: Re: Traffic Chokes for High Volume Subscribers Bill Garfield (bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com) wrote: >> According to a Bell supervisor, their tariffs do not permit them to >> place high traffic volume customers such as {Ticketron} in a "Choke" >> exchange. Traffic chokes are only tariffed for use on radio station >> contest lines. > This does not seem to be the case in Boston. A quick search of phone > book reveals that the (617) 931 exchange looks like a choke exchange. > The following are the directory entries that list under 617 931 xxxx. > Interestingly enough, Ticketmaster does list here along with some > other "non radio stations". Greater Media is one of the local cable > providers. I'm almost tempted to call "Soso entertainment" to see if > their entertainment is better than their name would suggest!! Here in RI, most all the radio stations that matter get assigned to (401) 224-xxxx, for example: WPRO-FM 224-1234 WPRO-AM 224-1776 WWKX-FM 224-1063 WHJY-FM 224-1994 WSNE-FM 224-1933 etc, but some radio stations such as WBRU and WALE are on regular exchanges with WBRU at 272-9555 and WALE at 621-WALE. Weird. > Ticketmaster-Charge-By-Phone Here in RI, Ticketron/Ticketmaster is through an 800 number. > Wcdj Fm 96.9-Listener Line > Wmjx 106.7 Fm-Request Line I was really upset when they changed the format at WCDJ from Contemporaty Jazz to that junk they play on WMJX. :( Tony ------------------------------ From: goldstein@isdnip.lkg.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Bell Operating Company Predecessors Reply-To: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 04:52:25 GMT In article atoscano@speedway.net (A Alan Toscano) writes: > I wonder if any Digest readers in the US might know the names of the > predecessors of other BOCs. Lessee ... from memory so I might be wrong, New Jersey Bell used to be the Delaware and Atlantic Telephone company, long long ago. (Bell Atlantic alludes to this, though I thought "Chesapeake and Atlantic" would have been a better merged name, but it leaves out PennsyBell.) The first directory ever published (1879 or so) was from the District Telephone Co. of New Haven, no doubt predecessor of Southern New England Telephone (never quite a Bell but close). Of course the "indepenents" had some neat names too, but that might be an eternal topic. The old Red Jacket Telephone Company of Shortsville, NY? Fred R. Goldstein k1io Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Cordless Headset Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 13:10:00 PDT Jack Adams asked about cordless headsets -- Suggestion: try Hello Direct. They have an '800' number for U.S. access. Check 800-555-1212 for the correct number. Lynne Gregg [Moderator's Note: Actually, their number is 800-HI-HELLO. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevedav@netcom.com (Steve Davidson) Subject: Telephone Areacode/Prefix to City Batabase [FOUND] Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 18:34:26 GMT A database containing a mapping of telephone prefixes (area code and exchange) to city and other information can be purchased from: PC Consultant 713-826-2629 (voice mail only) 73670.1164@compuserve.com The DOS program called 'NPA' costs $25 (I think). The flat ASCII database costs $200. The database is produced via an export feature of the basic software. (Its the export feature that costs an additional $200). "Export" produces over 50,000 records in the following format: State NXX (prefix) | NPA (area code) | Latitude | | City | | Longitude | | | | | | Primary Zip (best guess) | | | | | | | County Estimated County Population | | | | | | | | | CA310Pacific Palisades 45434.04118.5290272Los Angeles 8295000 CA310Pacific Palisades 45934.04118.5290402Los Angeles 8295000 CA310Pacific Palisades 57334.04118.5290272Los Angeles 8295000 CA415Pacifica 35537.61122.4894044San Mateo 613000 CA415Pacifica 35937.61122.4894044San Mateo 613000 CA415Pacifica 73837.61122.4894044San Mateo 613000 CA415Pacifica 99337.61122.4894044San Mateo 613000 CA619Pacific Beach 27032.80117.2192117San Diego 2201000 CA619Pacific Beach 27232.80117.2192117San Diego 2201000 CA619Pacific Beach 27332.80117.2192117San Diego 2201000 CA619Pacific Beach 27432.80117.2192117San Diego 2201000 [...] --------======= * =======-------- Steven Davidson steved@cfcl.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 05:08 GMT From: Jeff Garber <0005075968@mcimail.com> Subject: Cellular Equal Access Ballot Today I received my Equal Access Ballot from L.A. Cellular. It came with a Question and Answer pamphlet, and there are a couple of things I found interesting. Just like with the LECs, if you do not choose a carrier, one is chosen for you at "random" on a percentage basis. That is if 30% of the subscribers choose carrier A, then 30% of the lines where no carrier was chosen will be assigned to carrier A. As someone pointed out to me, this assignment may be arbitrary, but it is not random as the chance of assignment to any carrier is not equal to that of the others. I always thought that this was an unfair (to the carriers) way of handling this. After all, why should more of the lines of those who "don't care" be assigned to the carrier who got more of the lines of those that sent in the ballot? I think it should be truly random. The pamphlet also says, "To avoid any unintentional bias, we are unable to disclose the name of our current carrier(s)." That is all fine and good, until one looks at the ballot itself. I have never had an occasion to place an interlata call on my cellular phone, but I assumed the carrier was AT&T. Just to see how I get billed, I made an interlata call this evening (I tried 415 and 408 POPCORN, because I read here that that is the number for time in Northern CA, but my call could not be completed as dialed. I began to think that I had NO long distance carrier on my cell phone, but I finally decided to call 415-555-1212 and it went through). Now even though L.A. Cellular is not allowed to say who the carrier is (I think this is dumb anyway), apparently the company itself is free to inform you about it. The ballot has each carrier's name and slogan AS PROVIDED BY THE CARRIER (evidently) along with the IXC code and an oval to bubble in () if that carrier is your choice. Here's what it says (condensed): IXC CODE COMPANY NAME -------- ------------ 222 () MCI TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP. 1-800-950-5555 000 () TOLL RESTRICT $.80 PER MONTH CHARGE 554 () CELLTOLL CORP. THE CELLULAR LONG DISTANCE COMPANY 1-800-231-9622 314 () ** CHECK HERE TO KEEP YOUR CURRENT SERVICE CELLULAR LONG DISTANCE 1-800-253-3353 333 () SPRINT LONG DISTANCE SERVICE. GET THE MOST (SM) WITH SPRINT! 1-800-PIN-DROP 288 () AT&T CELLULAR LONG DISTANCE SERVICE. THE RIGHT CHOICE 1-800-892-3850 EXT. 5331 444 () ALLNET COMMUNICATION SERVICES, INC. ALLNET 'DIAL 1' SERVICE 1-800-783-2020 Well, so much for not telling us who the current carrier is! I called carrier 314 and verified that their name really is "Cellular Long Distance". Jeff Garber ------------------------------ Date: 21-JUN-1993 14:19:54 From: Douglas Scott Reuben Subject: Needed: Old Audiovox Handset After five faithful years of service, my Audiovox CMT-400 handset stopped working. It seems that a small chip (with only two leads) with the number 3580 (and then it says underneath "TG" and "A") fell off, and when I tried to solder it back on, the heat must have ruined it, although I can't say for sure. The handset receives calls just fine, but it no longer displays any info on the LCD screen, nor can I dial anything. I called Audiovox in Happauge, LI, NY, and they said they no longer have parts or deal with the CMT-400 series. Most other cellular parts stores which I have called say the same thing, and some never even carried the 400 series. So ... I'd like to get the phone working again, and if anyone has a CMT-400 series phone which they are not using, I'd like to buy it off of them, or actually, just the handset. The handset model (part) number is "CH-75", and any CMT-400 series handset should work fine. Alternately, if anyone knows where I can get the 3580 chip, that would be great too. I've looked in a number of chip guides, and they all have no listing for the 3580 chip. (It goes 3579 and then right on to 3581, skipping 3580 in all cases.) Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet ------------------------------ Subject: Interactive Voice Response Systems From: roy@cybrspc.mn.org (Roy M. Silvernail) Reply-To: roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 13:25:54 CDT Organization: The Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN Personally, I'm not a big fan of Voice Mail Jail, but I've been asked to recommend an Interactive Voice Response system. The application will tie into a database lookup (much like a bank might give you access to your account data) and needs similar accuracy performance. E-mail appreciated, and I'll summarize the results. Thanks in advance! roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org -- Roy M. Silvernail ------------------------------ From: Greg Brewster Subject: Telecom Faculty Position Open Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 15:48:36 CDT DEPAUL UNIVERSITY of CHICAGO, ILLINOIS has a full time position open starting in September, 1993 for a faculty member in the Computer Science department specializing in telecommunications. This faculty member will be teaching courses in the DePaul Masters in Telecommunications Systems degree program including topics in management and planning of telecommunications systems, analog and digital switching, signaling and transmission systems, wide-area carrier voice and data services, and other voice and data communications topics. This individual will also be providing support, expertise and teaching to the Telecommunications Program in the Institute for Professional Development, a non-degree professional education program at DePaul University. Qualified applicants will have either a Ph.D. degree in a related field and some professional experience or a Masters degree in a technical field and extensive professional experience in the telecommunications area. Salary is negotiable. Benefits include TIAA and standard health insurance. U.S. citizenship is not required. Applicants should send a description of their qualifications and professional history to greg@brewster.cs.depaul.edu or to the address below. DePaul University is an equal opportunity employer. Gregory Brewster Institute for Telecommunications Research and Education DePaul University 243 S. Wabash, Room 450 Chicago, IL 60604 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines Organization: W.Z.I. Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 00:23:23 -0600 From: Andy Rabagliati In article dsc@xray.hmc.psu.edu writes: > She asked me if I would be using "touch tone technology". I was afraid > to tell her that I have a T3000 modem using PPP to connect to the > Internet! I lived in rural Pennsylvania, and phone service was provided courtesy of Commonwealth Telephone. CT charged extra for Tone Dial, and so, on principle, I declined. Can you say ATDP .. ? I had two lines, voice and modem. A few months later they called, and asked "If I had a telephone with buttons, or a round dial?". So I told them what I thought of the $ extra for tone, and they left me alone. Cheers, Andy ------------------------------ From: irawan@netcom.com (Hindra Irawan) Subject: CDPD Articles Wanted Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 06:39:39 GMT Can anybody direct me to online articles/documents on Cellular Data Packet? I need this information for a graduate level term paper. Thanks in advance! PS: Please reply by email ... Hindra Irawan hin@aol.com irawan@netcom.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #415 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa10298; 22 Jun 93 22:09 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27627 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 22 Jun 1993 19:49:52 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16017 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 22 Jun 1993 19:49:18 -0500 Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 19:49:18 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306230049.AA16017@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #416 TELECOM Digest Tue, 22 Jun 93 19:49:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 416 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson COMPCO and SUNBELT Telemanagement Software (Paul S. Sawyer) DID Trunks and Circular Reasoning (Seth B. Rothenberg) CompuServe Connection Failures (Tony Panero) AT&T and its Many Calling Plans (Michael Rosen) Step-by-Step Offices (William Hammond) I Guess There Really /is/ No Difference (Garrett Wollman) Interesting Uses To Justify Dialup Internet Connection (David McKellar) Caller ID and Non-Phone Number Display (Darrell Broughton) Re: What Switch is in Use in My Area? (Steven L. Spak) Re: What Switch is in Use in My Area? (mark@panix.com) Alpha Pager Interface (James Ian McGowan) Fast 19,200 Baud Modems (Alfredo Cotroneo) Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? (Monty Solomon) Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? (Steve Moulton) Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? (Steve Wegert) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Steven King) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Rich Greenberg) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Gary Segal) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Paul S. Sawyer Subject: COMPCO and SUNBELT Telemanagement Software Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 10:51:20 -0400 (EDT) Organization: UNH Telecommunications and Network Services I would appreciate any direct experience that anyone out there has with using the current Sunbelt TMS or Compco MySoft products for telecommunications billing and management. Please E-mail, as this would be of less than general interest. Thank you. Paul S. Sawyer - University of New Hampshire CIS - Paul_Sawyer@unh.edu Telecommunications and Network Services VOX: +1 603 862 3262 50 College Road FAX: +1 603 862 2030 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 ------------------------------ From: rothen+@pitt.edu (Seth B Rothenberg) Subject: DID Trunks and Circular Reasoning Date: 22 Jun 93 15:49:39 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh I have been investigating the possibility of starting a voicemail service. I got information on voicemail hardware and on add-on hardware to support DID service. I called Bell of PA to ask whether I can start out with two-way trunks and then have the same numbers moved to DID trunks when business picks up? The Bell of PA rep told me that they can't answer that question. They said that a regular phone number is not necessarily usable as a DID number, and they could not tell me whether I would get numbers that could be used as DID numbers, and they could not reserve a block of numbers for me. I told the rep that I know that small businesses go from keyswitch to PBX systems all the time, and they don't change their phone numbers. They basically refused to tell me anything until I place an order. I did not bother asking if that's cash-up-front. They said if you want business planning advice, hire a telephone consultant. Can anyone suggest a better approach? (One suggestion I got was to go for broke, and try to get the start-up capital to buy the hardware and phone service, then advertise and try to get customers. I'd prefer to avoid this hassle. That's no longer a 'small business' in my book.) It crossed my mind to get extreme and rent a room in a neighborhood that is not served by Bell of PA, but by GTE or some other service :-) Thanks, Seth ------------------------------ From: tonyp@clipper.zfe.siemens.de (Tony Panero) Subject: CompuServe connection failures Date: 22 Jun 1993 12:57:42 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway I have been exchanging notes with CompuServe's customer representa- tives concerning my inability to get into CompuServe on weekends; since they have been spectacularly unhelpful, I wonder if the problem is on their end, known to them, and something they'd rather not admit. It may be that "unhelpful" is a competence problem (mine? theirs?) rather than an evasion problem. The Problem: When I attempt to login in the evenings Monday - Friday, I nearly always succeed. When I attempt to login late at night or anytime on the weekend, I nearly always fail. The problem occurs after the modem connection is made; the character sent from the terminal end that should elicit a "hostname" prompt is ignored; the network end times out and hangs up after about 15 seconds as if it were not receiving the character I send. Occasional busy signals from the network aren't a problem; the terminal emulators I use retry until they succeed. What I've Done: I have determined that line noise is not likely -- downloads of 1 megabyte files at 2400 bpi occur at the rate one would calculate, so excessive retries are apparently not occurring. I have used two different terminal emulators plus the CompuServe GUI terminal emulator (Mac CIM) and have used three different access numbers in three area codes (415, 510, and 408) from two different computers, modems, and locations, with similar results. For the past two weeks I have made a point of not tinkering with the modem settings so that I can be sure that the only variable is time of week. The past six weekends have been nearly a total failure. On the Monday of Memorial Day, however, I connected with no problem. Speculation: I assume that the local modems connect to a local front end computer from which CompuServe access is provided. One guess is that CompuServe is selling excess network capacity during off hours and their full price customers are getting bumped. Advice and Comments Requested: Anyone have any information or any ideas on what could cause this problem? Can you suggest tests I could perform to isolate the problem? Am I alone with this problem? I'd rather not drop the service only to find out this is my fault. I asked CompuServe Customer service about the possibility of setting up a loopback test, but they did not respond. I'll post a summary of the responses and let you know if I learn the cause. [Personal replies to panerot@scrvm2.ibmmail.com; the from address in this note sometimes fails.] Tony Panero ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: AT&T and its Many Calling Plans Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 21:49:58 GMT I wish deciding between a call savings plan wouldn't be so difficult ... At first, the Any Hour Savings Plan sounded like a good one. Then a friend informed me that there was an evening savings plan where you pay something like $7.50 for the first hour of calls after 5pm and then calls afterwards are discounted. I asked about this and was told by the AT&T operator that the Simple Savings Plan would be best for us. This one would give us a 25% savings to one specific area code and 15% to all others granted total LD calls are above $30. He said our average savings over four months under AHS was $18.90 but he calculates would be $23.29 under SSP. Do any other long distance companies possibly offer better savings which would make it worth a switch? Also, do any of them offer anything like AT&T's Call Manager -- allowing a subtotalling of the bill by user-specified codes (for easier splitting up of bills)? Thanks, Mike ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 18:14:50 EDT From: William Hammond Subject: Step-by-Step Offices Are there anymore step-by-step offices in the US? My mother said that the last SxS switch in Maine was retired not too long ago. How sad. Thanks! Bill Hammond KA1SSR Voice: +1 (617) 935-5565 Ext. 2216 Analog Devices Semiconductor Voice mail: +1 (617) 937-2841 804 Woburn Street FAX: +1 (617) 937-2000 Wilmington, MA 01887 Internet: hammond@adstest.analog.com [Moderator's Note: Why do you consider it sad? If you were served by one for any length of time you'd not feel that way! I had a number out of the Chicago-Wabash CO back in the 1970's when it was SxS. They did not call that office 'the Wabash Cannonball' for nothing ... the setup of calls was very noisy; the connections were nasty. We didn't know any better ... then in 1975 they cut Wabash over to ESS, call-waiting, the whole bit. I would not go back to those switches for anything. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Garrett.Wollman@UVM.EDU (Garrett Wollman) Subject: I Guess There Really /is/ No Difference ... Organization: University of Vermont, EMBA Computer Facility Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 18:38:22 GMT Recently I was considering how much time I spend on the phone talking to my parents, and wondering if I could save some money by intelligent choice of provider. So, I called the LD operators for the Big Three and tried to find out what I was paying now ... When I called AT&T (my current PIC), an operator answered after the first ring and was able (but don't seem particularly happy about it) to tell me that for calls from 802 864 (Burlington, VT) to 702 829 (Reno, NV), I paid 0.25/0.15/0.13 cents per minute, with no first-minute differential, for each of the time periods. I then called MCI (10222-0). The operator answered after one ring, but then was unable to provide me with rate information, and transferred me to a "customer service representative" (answered on the third ring) who told me that MCI's rates were 0.25/0.15/0.13, except that the first minute charge during peak rates was only 0.24. Finally, I called Sprint (10333-0). The operator answered after one ring, and seemed genuinely pleased to provide rate information to me. As it turned out, Sprint's rates are exactly the same as AT&T's. So I guess there really isn't a real difference, at least as far as the standard rate schedules go. It seems that the Big Three have decided that it's easier to compete on the add-ons and special savings plans, than on regular rates for ordinary customers. Garrett A. Wollman wollman@emba.uvm.edu uvm-gen!wollman UVM disagrees. [Moderator's Note: For small to medium amounts of residence or business usage, there is no difference in rates to speak of. And frankly as the competition for big business accounts increase, there is very little difference there either. The more you spend on long distance, the more you should compare and study the prices, but until you get to a few hundred dollars per month, the differences are really very slight. At some point, the pennies and half-pennies per minute begin to make a noticeable difference. PAT] ------------------------------ From: djm@dmntor.uucp (David McKellar) Subject: Interesting Uses To Justify Dialup Internet Connection Organization: Digital Media Networks Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 16:37:29 -0600 I am trying to cost-justify getting a dialup Internet connection (via SLIP or PPP). There are much cheaper dialup services that just offer ftp/telnet/gopher. The beauty of a "real" connection is that the uses are pretty much limitless. I have been trying to think of some things that you can only do with SLIP or PPP. Here are some ideas: - Client/server in general; - NFS mount somebody's filesystem in another city; - Get a remote fortune cookie; - Have your work interupted by a talk request; - Games. What else haven't I thought of? To avoid duplication maybe it's best for replies to be mailed to me and I'll summarize. Thanks. D a v e M c K e l l a r d j m @ d m n t o r . U U C P ------------------------------ From: broughton@lambda.usask.ca Subject: Caller ID and Non-Phone Number Display Date: 22 Jun 1993 19:19:15 GMT Organization: University of Saskatchewan Reply-To: broughton@lambda.usask.ca In Saskatchewan, Canada, you cannot have all your outgoing calls have the caller ID blocked as if you used *67 each time. However, the phone company (SaskTel) will provide you with an alternate number that will display each time you make a call in place of your actual phone number. This number is such that it does not translate to anyone's actual phone number. I don't know what the cost is. Has this approach been used elsewhere rather than allowing blanket blocking? Darrell ------------------------------ From: sspak@seas.gwu.edu (Steven L. Spak) Subject: Re: What Switch is in Use in My Area? Organization: George Washington University Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 12:39:42 GMT You're probably working out of the Pikesville 1AESS. This workhorse is scheduled for replacement with a DMS in October. Since each switch vendor's implementation of a feature is slightly different in "flavor", you may notice a change after the cutover. Your Fairfax pal may have a DMS or a 5ESS. As for what "system" Washington, D.C. has, it all depends on who makes the switch in your serving C.O. Small world, I used to live in Pikesville too. :-) NOTE: The statements given are mine and not my employer's Steven Spak sspak@seas.gwu.edu Transmission Engineer C&P Telephone Company - Washington, D.C. Tel:(202)392-1611 Fax:(202)392-1261 ------------------------------ From: mark@Panix.Com (Phiber Optik) Subject: Re: What Switch is in Use in My Area? Date: 22 Jun 1993 17:55:17 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Your switch is most likely a 1A ESS. Your friend's is most likely a DMS-100 or 5ESS. Ask him to *70 his call waiting (if he can). If he simply gets a stutter-to-steady dialtone, he's a 5ESS. If he gets two beeps and a dialtone back, he's a DMS-100. This is a common way to tell the difference, there are others. I'm not sure what DC uses (I'm sure there's more than one office). I'm not from C&P land. ------------------------------ From: ian@netcom.com (James Ian McGowan) Subject: Alpha Pager Interface Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 21:45:52 GMT Does any one know of an IBM-PC program that will send plain text files to an alpha pager? Alternatively, where can I get a description of the IXO protocol so that I can write such a program myself? Any information would be much appreciated. ian@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it (Alfredo Cotroneo) Subject: Fast 19,200 Baud Modems Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 07:28:46 GMT Thanks to those who sent replies to my previous messages mentioning the V.fast protocol under development. I am actually using ZyXel U1496 Plus modems at 19,200 baud over dialup lines. ZyXel 19,200 baud protocol is said to be an extension (proprietary) of V32bis. The results after just a few days of testing between Milano, Italy, and a remote location in the country (far from the exchange) approximatly 40 km from the town are very good. More than 90% of the times connection can be made at the highest speed, with no falling back. When connection cannot be made at full speed, usually I am able to make at least 16,800 baud. If I re-dial immediately I usually get the top speed. I tried one connection to the ZyXel BBS in California, and speed over a transatlantic link was 16,800 baud! That was just ONE call, however. In checking the information files on various ftp sites, I have read that ZyXel is following carefully the standardization of V.fast up at 28,800 bauds. They have no committment to port V.fast on the current series of modems, but their free and public domain upgrade policy since now leave me with very good hopes. The point, however are: 1/ When will V.fast presumably be available as a standard and as an implementation? 2/ Is there already some proprietary protocol capable of achieving 28,800 baud implemented on a real modem (commercial product)? I have been using USR dual standard (V32bis) modems for the last two years, and ZyXel seems to be a much better solution, with even better results in terms of successful connections, and less errors. Furthermore: since one of the two sites is just under the antenna of a 30kW Shortwave transmitter (in operation), immunity from RF is another very big issue. According to my experience Zyxel is FAR more better than USR in this respect. For those who want to know: I was surprised to discover that ZyXel modems are not made in the US, but in Taiwan. Thanks again for your input. Please e-mail directly since I do not receive all telecom feeds. Alfredo E. Cotroneo, Bull HN Italia, I-20010 Pregnana Mil. work: A.Cotroneo.@it12.bull.it personal: 100020.1013@compuserve.com phone: +39-2-6779 8492 / 8427 | fax: 8289 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 02:44:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? > Is there somewhere in particular, besides AT&T's business number, that > I should call to sign up for this? I tried calling 800-222-0300 the > night I read the post here on TELECOM Digest. At first the operator > seemed to comprehend what I was talking about but then she started > going off about discounts of 25% to the one area code I dial the most. > This did not sound like the "loyalty program" described in the post to > TD. You should ask to sign up for FreeTime or FreeMonth. The appropriate one depends on the amount of money you spend with AT&T each month. # Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 # monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ From: moulton@cs.utk.edu (Steve Moulton) Subject: Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? Date: 22 Jun 1993 14:51:55 GMT Organization: University of Tennessee, Knoxville - CS Department In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: >In article mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu >(Michael Rosen) writes: >> I tried calling 800-222-0300 the night I read the post here on >> TELECOM Digest. At first the operator seemed to comprehend what I was >> asking about but then she started going off about discounts of 25% to >> one area code I dial the most. This did not sound like the >> loyalty program" described in the post of TD. >I called the 800-222-0300 number and asked about the Loyalty Program, >and the rep knew exactly what I was talking about. Same here, however, since I did not meet the minimum average monthly long distance billing at home (something like $30) neither the simple savings plan (25/15% discount) or the loyalty program (check for average monthly billing over six months) applied. As usual with AT&T, the sales person seemed to know exactly what was going on. Steve Moulton (moulton@cs.utk.edu) (615) 974-8298 ------------------------------ From: Steve Wegert Subject: AT&T Loyalty Program Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 17:05:40 -0600 (CDT) I too just called the normal 800.222.0300 number and was quickly helped by the person that answered. She wasn't immediately familiar with the name 'Loyalty Program', but after describing the plan, she replied "Oh! You mean the free month thing!" A few things came out in the conversation: 1) It _may not_ be available in all states. It just became available in Missouri three months ago. 2) It can't be used in conjunction with AT&T Free Time Rewards program. It's one or the other. In my case, the rep looked at my calling pattern and suggested that I'd be better off with the Free Month. 3) There is a direct 800 number for the program. Call 800.438.7100 Steve@wuarchive.wustl.edu ------------------------------ From: king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines Reply-To: king@rtsg.mot.com Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 15:16:22 GMT Our esteemed Moderator writes... > Now I am my own party-line neighbor! :) PAT] So, do you hear any good gossip when you listen in on yourself? :-) Steven King, Motorola Cellular (king@rtsg.mot.com) [Moderator's Note: I don't listen to myself! A lot of people could tell you that. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 15:45:59 GMT In article Andy Rabagliati writes: > I lived in rural Pennsylvania, and phone service was provided courtesy > of Commonwealth Telephone. CT charged extra for Tone Dial, and so, on > principle, I declined. Can you say ATDP .. ? When I moved into my present house (1985), at that time Pac Bell was also charging extra for TT, and like andy, I also declined, having plenty of black rotary dial old WE indestructable phones. Then I got a modem. Being used to ATDT... at work, I typed it followed by the number. When I heard the beeps, I realized that it wasn't going to work, but the phone at the other end was already ringing and the modem picking up ... A little experimentation showed that TT worked just fine. Time passed. I had some tone phones now. Then I got a letter from Pa. Bell. Somewhat paraphrased: "We have detected TTs on your line. We investigated and found that you have TT service through our error. Because its our error, we won't charge you for the past use, but either start paying or we will remove the feature." So I called and told them to remove the service. All my TT equipment also had pulse, and I refused on principal to pay extra for TT. They said fine, and that's the last I ever heard from them. Of course, I never had to switch anything to pulse dialing. Since then, they no longer charge extra so its all moot now. All the WE dial phones are gone. (They sell for around $5 at flea markets.) Now, most of my phones are old WE TT phones. (Which can be bought for around $10 at the same flea markets, and often for a dollar or two at yard sales.) Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside CA 619-631-5280 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 I speak for myself only. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 13:25:14 CDT From: segal@ranger.rtsg.mot.com (Gary Segal) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines dsc@xray.hmc.psu.edu (David S. Channin) writes: >God, I thought I had moved to Mars or something! Wait till I ask >about OC3 ATM!!! Nope ... Mars is about 40 miles north of Pittsburgh. Nowhere near Hershey. :-) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #416 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa06488; 24 Jun 93 4:58 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19546 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 24 Jun 1993 02:24:45 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03183 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 24 Jun 1993 02:24:03 -0500 Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 02:24:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306240724.AA03183@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #417 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Jun 93 02:24:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 417 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson All IXCs Must File Tariffs; What it Means (Paul Robinson) New House and Telephone Connection (Thomas Hinders) Range Enhancement for Tropez 900DX (Mike Detlef) Telecom Eireann Introduces DASH Card (Robin Brookes) Caller ID and Overseas Calls (Georg Schwarz) Anonymity, Privacy, and the Technological Imperative (Jerry Leichter) Summary: SKY-PAGE and Cellular Integration (Jody Kravitz) NiCd Batteries and Discharge Cycles (Kenneth R. Crudup) Buying a Cellular Phone (Justin Leavens) PBX Information Wanted (Tommi Chen) Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! (Toby Nixon) Are You a Prodigy Deadbeat? (Paul Barnett) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: Paul Robinson Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 23:32:14 EDT Subject: All IXCs Must File Tariffs; What it Means From the {Washington Post} Business Section, Page D1, 22 June 1993: "MCI lost its appeal to the [US] Supreme Court of a lower court ruling that found the FCC had improperly dismissed a complaint by AT&T, which argued that all long-distance telephone companies should file their rates with the Commission. The justices let stand the lower court ruling without comment." ---------- Now what does this mean? 1. In general, every long distance company (also called an Interexchange Company or IXC) has to file tariff schedules unless exempted by law. 2. An IXC offering long distance service without a tariff (and not exempted) could be in a position to be unable to collect for calls made. 3. Whether this affects aggregators or companies that handle services for others (such as the infamous Integretel, and whether their correspondents have to also file, is another issue.) The question comes up because, for example, where I live, the local telephone company (C&P Telephone) has tariffs on file permitting disconnection of telephone service for nonpayment of IXC charges billed through C&P Telephone. Now, if the IXC did not have tariffs filed with the FCC, it raises a new question about whether the local phone company could legally issue a disconnect for IXC charges which are not tariffed. For example, if the local phone company provides call waiting, but never filed a tariff for it, they may not charge for the service, and any bills issued for it are invalid. Now, since long distance companies (except AT&T) are not considered 'monopoly' providers or carry 'protected status' (the way the local company does) the general rules which forbid being able to collect for non-tariffed services may or may not apply to them. Does anyone have an idea on this? This may be a serious problem for some Interexchange Company that has some large bills from customers. "Well, we just discovered that you never filed tariffs for your service, and our legal department says that you can't collect against us by suing in court and the local phone company can't disconnect us on these grounds, we're not going to pay you. Too bad." (If you think some companies won't do this if they could, I think you need to take a long look at the world.) Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM "These (uniformed) opinions are mine alone; no one else is (stupid enough to be) responsible for them." [Moderator's Note: Bear in mind that although you could assume that stance with an IXC, the IXC would be under no obligation in the future to give you service until you voluntarily paid the old bill. Where this could pose a problem is if the IXC came out with a really good product (or pricing on old products) and you needed it. They can also still legally report you to a credit bureau regards your refusal to pay. Reports to credit bureaus and legal action to collect (a suit) are two different matters. So you could be known to the IXC's which share common information on customer payment histories, etc as a deadbeat even though (one of them) had been legally unable to collect the bill. Others then say pay in advance! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jun 1993 08:46:08 EDT From: Hinders, Thomas Subject: New House and Telephone Connection I'm moving into a new house, the telephone jacks (one per room) have their cable pulled to a common point in the basement. My question ... what is the "best" way to connect these jacks to the Telephone access box? Should I, for example pull a single cable from the access box to the basemet to some sort of wiring/punch down block? The Telephone Co "box" (I'm sure there is a more technical name for it) is a gray plastic box on the outside of the house. Reply directly and I'll summarize for all. Thanks in advance. Tom Hinders/Soft-Switch +1 215 640 7487 (v/vm) +1 215 640 7511 (f) Internet: thinder@SSW.COM X.400: C=US A=Telemail P=Softswitch S=Hinders G=Thomas ------------------------------ From: detlef@se01.elk.miles.com (Mike Detlef) Subject: Range Enhancement for Tropez 900DX Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 08:25:06 -0500 (EST) Several weeks ago a thread appeared regarding 900 MHz cordless phones. Somebody mentioned attaching an external 900 Mhz ham radio antenna to the base unit on the Tropez 900 DX as a means to improve the range. Having just purchased the DL version (no speakerphone in base unit - all else the same) I'm wondering if anyone has actually tried this and if so, what was the impact? ------------------------------ From: robin.brookes@dubbs.ie Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 09:36:15 Subject: Telecom Eireann Introduces DASH Card I thought Digesters would be interested in a leaflet I came across in the headquarters of Telecom Eireann yesterday. It displays on it a card looking for all the world like a standard prepay 'phone card for the countrywide TE 'phonecard system ... but it's called a DASH card and the European circle of stars logo and map of Europe gives the first clue that something broader is here. The blurb reads thus:- "Once you have credit on your DASH card you can use it for the follow services:- *To travel on Dublin Bus routes 39 & 39X Cityspeed; *To pay your way across the Westlink [Motorway Toll Bridge in Dublin]; *To cover the cost of parking in Marlborough Street Car Park; *To make public telephone calls from selected Carphones. ...... *You will be one of the first 2,000 people in Ireland to use this "smart card" ...... DASH is part of the Gaudi Project, which is designed to examine different aspects of urban management. Dublin is one of six European cities participating in the experiment." Details elsewhere on the leaflet reveals Barcelona, Bologna, Marseille, Rome & Trondheim. I'm endeavouring to obtain one ... perhaps Digesters in these other cities would care to respond and let us know how things are developing there. Rev. Robin K.Brookes E-MAIL 74 Gracepark Road Fidonet: Robin Brookes 2:263/151 Dublin 9 Ireland Internet: robin.brookes@dubbs.ie TEL + 353 1 372505 or rbrookes@dublin.cerf.fred.org FAX + 353 1 677 3552 ------------------------------ From: georg@lise.physik.tu-berlin.de (Georg Schwarz) Subject: Caller ID and Overseas Calls Date: 23 Jun 1993 14:05:05 GMT Organization: TUBerlin/ZRZ Is the calling party's telephone number displayed on US/Canadian caller ID displays when the call originates from overseas (outside the +1 hemisphere)? In case this feature is (not yet) implemented is it already technically possible? Is the necessary information (calling party's numer, country code etc.) being transfered "across the border"? Is there an international standard on the format of this data? What about the legal situation? [Moderator's Note: For my new service 'Telepassport' I will be getting the numbers of overseas callers, but it is not yet very common. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 15:39:50 EDT From: Jerry Leichter Subject: Anonymity, Privacy, and the Technological Imperative Our Moderator quotes with apparent approval: > A top executive of AT&T pointed out that "... we are not in the > business of selling privacy ... we sell communications services. ... > it was a flaw in the technology [that we didn't have Caller ID]. It > would seem people have forgotten that information was always available > before ... the telephone is nothing more than an extension of the > human voice ... just as you speak with your unaided voice and bear > responsibility for your speech, so do you bear the same responsibility > when using the telephone to assist in speaking ... It's an accident of the technology that the microphone on a telephone is cut off when the handset is on-hook. It's also a modern accident of technology that the voice path isn't cut through until the call supervises. Perhaps the Telcos should change the specs for phones so that the microphone remains live at all times. For the appropriate charge, you can listen in to the open microphone. This could have many uses: Monitoring of your home while you are away, for example. (Just what IS the baby sitter doing?) Or checking ahead of time to make sure you aren't interrupting anything important before ringing through. You think that invades the privacy of your home? That's not the telephone company's responsibility: They don't sell privacy. They "extend your voice". If I come to your door, I can hear what's going on inside your house; why shouldn't I have the same ability when I dial your phone? Don't you sometimes listen at the door a bit before deciding if it's OK to knock? Don't I deserve the same ability when calling you? After all, you can always put your phone in a sound-proof box. Or remember to dial the "disable remote listening" code -- forced on a reluctant Telco by the local PUC -- after each call. (BTW, if you think this is completely fanciful, note that many newer workstations have built-in microphones and digitizers. In at least some models -- Sun's come to mind -- there is no "off" switch; control of the mike is entirely up to the software.) As usual, the debates on Caller ID rapidly decay into absolutist positions. The limited amount of space available only makes it worse: It's impossible to fully define one's position, so of course the absolutists pick for you the definitions *they* prefer to attack. I know of no one who has claimed that Caller ID should NEVER be allowed. *I* certainly make no such claim. What Caller ID opponents object to is the inability of the caller to control it. The telephone companies did not originally wish to provide ANY means of blocking Caller ID. I believe that the implementation in New Jersey remains that way. Now, Caller ID proponents hold out blocking as an argument FOR Caller ID. However, the Telco's have made it as inconvenient as they can get away with. Per call blocking puts the onus on the caller to perform a mechanical action every time. In some cases, that mechanical action is quite inconvenient: On my exchange, you MUST wait for the second dial tone after typing *67; you cannot dial ahead. On one of my lines, I use a computer to dial most calls; it inserts the *67 for me. On the other, it's such a pain that I rarely remember to do it. Here in Connecticut, you can have free per-call blocking. You can have per-line blocking for $1/month -- IF you first file a notarized statement that Caller ID represents a "threat" to you. I find it impossible to imagine a philosophical justification for charging for a service that is (a) a variation of what you provide for free; (b) costs you nothing either way; (c) you only provide to people who have sworn that they are in exigent circumstances. By the way, the Caller ID zeolots immediately responded with a call for "block blocking". Curiously, I've heard NO arguments AGAINST that from those of us who dislike Caller ID *as the Telco's have tried to impose it*. You are free to ask for my identication before talking to me; I am free to decline to provide it. I tried to draw a distinction between anonymity and privacy. The zealots ignored the distinction. To me, privacy is the right to keep certain things secret WHEN I DON'T USE THEM TO ABUSE THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS. Anonymity is the ability to remain hidden even while abusing those rights. I know of no objections raised to Call Trace or other techniques that can be brought into play when the issue is abuse, whether harrassing telephone calls, fraud, or whatever. The post office has never required me to put a return address on my envelopes, but will work to trace the sender in cases of mail fraud. The return address on Internet mail is determined entirely by the system administrator of the machine sending the mail. If I don't like my system administrator's policy, I can go elsewhere; I have no alternative to the telephone company. If I abuse my mail privileges, there are techniques available to trace my mail. These generally require the cooperation of multiple system administrators, and are not available on a routine basis to people who are just curious about who is behind a given E-mail address. Even if I come to your door, no law says I have to give you my true name (there is no third party to check), or any name at all. Salesmen give their company's name, not their personal name. Because of various abuses, they may not maintain their ANONYMITY in many cases: They MUST give you the proper name of the company they work for and a way to contact it. But they are under no obligation to give up their PRIVACY by showing you their driver's license so that you can be sure of their personal name. Jerry [Moderator's Note: It is not an 'accident of technology' that a telephone mouthpiece is shut off when the phone is on hook. There has never been a time that telco left the mouthpiece always on line only to lose the ability to do so due to how the system operates. There was a time however when information as to the calling party was conveniently avail- able, only to have that information unavailable for many years. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 08:26:31 PDT From: kravitz@foxtail.com (Jody Kravitz) Subject: Summary: SKY-PAGE and Cellular Integration Many thanks to everyone who posted suggestions or wrote directly to me. My original request involved seeking a way to integrate the use of my SKY Pager with my cellular voicemail. The SKY Page system, like many paging systems in use today does not use a bank of DID numbers, but rather requires a PIN to be entered after dialing an access number. I couldn't figure out how to get my cellar system to out-dial the required sequence. The solution I ended up with is the simple one I wanted, but was not "obvious" due to mis-information given to me by two customer service reps from my own cellular provider and two customer service reps from SKYTEL's customer service. Several people pointed out that writing code for a voicemail system to do the required two-step outdial is not that difficult. At least one person pointed out that Cellular One in their area had a voicemail system could out-dail to the SKYTEL (SKY Page) paging system. A phone call to LA Cellular produced a rather long list of paging systems their voicemail system knew how to out-dail to. Several of these systems are systems which use an access number and a pager PIN, in the same way that my SKY Pager does. A little nudging to the LA Cellular rep produced the name of the vendor of their voicemail system: Octel. Knowing that such systems existed, I called SKYTEL again. It turns out that they have several access numbers which are _INTENDED_ for machine access. One substitutes three beeps for the usual voice announcment and accepts DTMF input. Another actually answers with a modem (1200 baud, I believe). Armed with these numbers, I went to the U.S. West office in person and attempted to placed a service order. The sales rep had never heard of what I wanted but made a call to the switch, confimed that "it could be done", and took the order. It is obvious that the switch people knew what to do because they instructed the service rep to obtain the PIN only. They did not want any of the access number I had collected. Peculiarly, their computer order-entry system requires that they enter the "pager frequency and CAP code". This annoyed me since they shouldn't be able to broadcast on the frequency assigned to another vendor except by out-dialing to their switch. It took them 24 hours (and opening a "trouble ticket") to get it working, but it is working reliably now. The system is "nice" enough to out-dail my cellular number after the SKY Page pin, so the page is not an ambiguous "Tone Only" page. Their voicemail system vendor: Octel. The Octel system must be told manually, at the switch, that my account is to be out-dialed to the SKY Page system. The audio menus which I access via "administrative options" that would normally allow me to change the out-dial number list my pager's PIN, not the SKY Page access number. I have not experimented yet to see if I can enter a differrent SKY Page PIN. I'm posting this follow-up in the hopes that others who want to link voicemail with non-DID paging systems are not discouraged by mis- informed customer service people. There _ARE_ commercial systems that already know how to do this. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 12:01:21 EDT From: kenny@mvuts.att.com Subject: NiCd Batteries and Discharge Cycles Organization: AT&T I've got a portable cellular (Uniden CP5500), and I've got the rapid-charger for it (charges a dead 6V .6Ah pack in < one hour). This charger also has a "discharge" button that will first completely discharge the battery in two hours or less, depending on initial charge, then recharge it. This feature, of course, is to prevent the "memory effect" from occuring. It also trickle-charges the battery after the green "full" light comes on. Since I tend to not drain the battery completely, I tend to discharge/recharge it if I know I won't need the phone for three hours, to avoid the memory effect. Yesterday, I remembered that NiCd's only have a limited number of charge/ discharge cycles. I'm wondering if I'm using my battery up before the end of it's expected service life. Is this really a problem? Or, should I simply replace the phone in the normal recharger slot? If I do that on a minimal charge, will repeated rapid-charges bring on the memory effect? I like having the battery completely full, as I don't know when I'll need to be on it a long time, so not placing it on the charger after only an hour or two of standby doesn't seem optimal. Kenneth R. Crudup, ATT BL, 1600 Osgood St, N. Andover, MA 01845-1043 MV20-3T5B, +1 508 960 3219. kenny@mvuts.att.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 09:17:20 PDT From: leavens@bmf.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Buying a Cellular Phone I noticed this weekend that many stores were selling the Motorola MC750 cellular phone for under $100 ($99 at Circuit City, $79 at Hollytron, and $69 at L.A. Tronics). I made some visits to the stores and noticed a couple of things: 1. Circuit City does not extend its "Low Price Guarantee" to cellular phones due to "regulatory conditions". 2. When I showed my Hollytron ad to the Circuit City salesman, he said that the price listed was only available if you signed up for the LA Cellular "Standard" use package, and that if I took that package, he would sell me the phone at the $79 price too. 3. L.A. Tronics said that the phone was really $179, but that LA Cellular was offering a $110 rebate on it, regardless of which carrier you picked. Oddly enough, he immediately put a PacTel Cellular application in front of me (even odder since they were located adjacent to a LA Cellular office). 4. Both PacTel and LA Cellular seem identical in service price. Are there any preferences out there? Anyone know the skinny on this deal? I got so confused and fed up with the bull from these salesdroids that I decided to just forget the whole thing. They all seemed much more interested in signing me up for service than selling me a phone. I know it's illegal in CA to require activation at the time of purchase, and I believe it's also illegal to offer different prices depending on activation. And what's up with this rebate? Justin Leavens : Microcomputer Specialist : University of Southern California leavens@bmf.usc.edu My opinion is that my opinions are my opinions ------------------------------ From: ccetc@nusunix3.nus.sg (Tommi Chen) Subject: PBX Information Wanted Date: 23 Jun 1993 06:46:56 GMT Organization: National University of Singapore Where can I find information about PBX, their features and comparison between vendor like AT&T, Alcatel, Erricson, etc.? Thank you, ccetc@nusunix.nus.sg NUS ------------------------------ From: tnixon@microsoft.com (Toby Nixon) Subject: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! Date: 23 Jun 93 00:26:37 GMT Organization: Microsoft Corporation, Redmond WA, USA Has anyone else noticed in the new radio commercial "introducing" 1-800-COLLECT, that the operator answers the phone with this line: "1-800-COLLECT. What number would you like to call collect, sir?" No pause, no listening to the caller first, just call them sir. How do THEY know its a "sir" calling? Give me a break. You'd think in this day and age they'd be a bit more sensitive to this kind of thing. What's DOUBLY surprising is that they've been playing this ad for several weeks now here in Seattle, and nobody from MCI has heard it, noticed the problem, and caused it to be replaced! Toby ------------------------------ From: barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) Subject: Are you a Prodigy Deadbeat? Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 11:11:16 CDT Steve Blow, a {Dallas Morning News} columnist, laments that he got his first call from a bill collector this week. He bought a personal computer, and subscribed to Prodigy for about a year. However, the kids weren't using it, so he ignored the membership renewal notices. A few weeks ago, he got a bill marked "Past Due", with a snippy letter that informed him that he owed $42.09, and his account was about to be turned over to a collection agency. He wrote back, saying that he had purposely allowed his membership to lapse, and he resented the threat of being turned over to a collection agency. The Great Lakes Collection Bureau promptly responded by phone and by mail, complete with a convoluted explanation of why he owed the money. The collection agency suggested he contact a particular person at Prodigy. Steve called, only to find that (a) no one had ever heard of her, and (b) the referenced account number was obviously bogus. However, they finally confirmed that he was "in a voluntary disconnect status with no balance due", and would call off the collection agency. Finally, he wanted to determine why all this happened. Steve Hein, a Prodigy spokesman, explained that they automatically renewed memberships. However, there have so many complaints, that they have decided to discontinue it. Steve's final comment: "Maybe they know a lot about computers. But when it comes to business, they're no prodigy." Paul Barnett MPP OS Development (214)-497-4846 Convex Computer Corp. Richardson, TX ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #417 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07183; 24 Jun 93 5:50 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30684 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 24 Jun 1993 03:36:56 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04291 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 24 Jun 1993 03:36:07 -0500 Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 03:36:07 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306240836.AA04291@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #419 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Jun 93 03:36:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 419 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Seth B. Rothenberg) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Alan Boritz) Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? (Steven H. Lichter) Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? (Michael Rosen) Re: AT&T and its Many Calling Plans (Steve Forrette) Re: Phone Connections in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands (ole!linqdev) Re: Names Added To Caller ID (John Macdonald) Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland (Juha Veijalainen) Re: Two Cellular Phones, One Number (John Gilbert) Re: DID Trunks and Circular Reasoning (Mike King) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Before submitting articles for publication, please read a copy of our file 'writing.to.telecom'. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rothen+@pitt.edu (Seth B Rothenberg) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines Date: 23 Jun 93 12:12:12 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh In article richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) writes: > A little experimentation showed that TT worked just fine. Time > passed. I had some tone phones now. Then I got a letter from Pa. > Bell. Somewhat paraphrased: "We have detected TTs on your line. We > investigated and found that you have TT service through our error. > Because its our error, we won't charge you for the past use, but > either start paying or we will remove the feature." > So I called and told them to remove the service. All my TT equipment > also had pulse, and I refused on principal to pay extra for TT. They > said fine, and that's the last I ever heard from them. Of course, I > never had to switch anything to pulse dialing. When I lived in New York, we had touch-tone phones on lines with no touch tone service. Then one day, it stopped working. Here in Pgh, it has not worked for me since I got my first phone service from Bell. Incidentally, we have Centrex at work and rotary phones don't work. Do you think it's worth complaining to PRESIDENT@whitehouse.gov (?) that the FCC regs are stupid and hinder development of the nation's phone network? They should stop charging for TT and start charging for pulse ... Seth ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jun 93 06:40:53 EDT From: Alan Boritz <72446.461@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) writes: > A little experimentation showed that TT worked just fine. Time > passed. I had some tone phones now. Then I got a letter from Pa. > Bell. Somewhat paraphrased: "We have detected TTs on your line. We > investigated and found that you have TT service through our error. > Because its our error, we won't charge you for the past use, but > either start paying or we will remove the feature." Rochester Telephone had a much more rude procedure, which fit their nasty reputation and bad attitude (in the early 80's). They had their switches set to make extremely loud obnoxious noises in your ear if you tried to dial tone on a pulse co line. Alan Boritz 72446.461@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? Date: 23 Jun 1993 03:52:13 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) If you call the number that is listed on your telephone bill for contacting AT&T they should have the information. The number I have is 1-800-222-0300. Steven H. Lichter COEI GTECalif ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 05:33:41 GMT I did call yesterday and finally got an operator who understood what I was talking about and signed me up for the program. Regarding the Simple Savings Plan ... he suggested this to me in the same call. He observed that most of our calls are going to area code 703. If I were to get the SSP, those calls would be discounted 25% as you stated and all others would be discounted 15%, granted total LD calls totalled $30 or more. The thing is that I believe the fact that area code 703 showed up as a frequently dialed area code is a fluke merely because I've called my friend in Virginia predominantly more times than I have called friends in DC or other areas. And since my sister and I make most of the LD calls in this house, when we move out this plan won't do our parents much good. I would think maybe the Evening Plus program would serve us better. That is $7.50 for the first hour of calls after 5pm and .10/minute after that hour. We don't, or at least try not to, make too many calls during the day (long distance, of course). So, that's 12.5 cents per minute and then .10/minute. So, compared to regular dialed rates that may come to almost a 25% savings, no? Mike ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: AT&T and its Many Calling Plans Date: 23 Jun 1993 01:48:22 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) writes: > Also, do any of them offer anything like AT&T's Call Manager -- > allowing a subtotalling of the bill by user-specified codes (for > easier splitting up of bills)? Sprint offers a similar featured, called Account Codes or something like that. You can have either validated or unvalidated account codes. When I used Sprint, I had the unvalidated option. For $5/month/line, they will cause a prompt for an accounting code of two to five digits (I had to prespecify the length at order time) for every 1+ call I made. Any code of the right length would work, so this option is not designed for security purposes. The validated option will cause only certain codes to be valid, much like a calling card PIN, and is designed to be used in cases where security is desired. Note that with Sprint's offering, a code is always required, and is automatically prompted for for all 1+ calls. This is good for situations such as multiple roommates, since it is not possible to forget to enter a code. The bad part is that if you only need to categorize calls occasionally, you now have an extra step for every call you make. Also, Sprint's Account Codes are available for cellular phones that have Sprint as their default carrier. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Phone Connections in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 8:10:09 PDT From: ole!linqdev!oleh@nwnexus.wa.com The most important factor when calling from overseas: Call your long distance company( -ies) and get their local toll-free numbers in the countries you are visiting for you to be able to use a US company with lower US prices for international long distance. I know for sure that at least AT&T, MCI, and Sprint has local numbers most places. Some aspects on 'connecting' with non-local equipment: Touch tone is universally accepted (I have brought severral phones from the US to Norway and Norwegian phones to the US.) If you try to use pulse signalling, be aware that the dial is different in Oslo and Sweden (i.e. one click is 0, two clicks is 1 etc.) Most switchboards use 0 to get operator and 9 to get an external line. Connecting any equipment to the telephone system requires PTT approval. (Just for the record.) I have never seen a phone in these three countries that is permanently connected (i.e. without a jack, english style). Even if the wall jacks is not of an RJ11 type, the phone cord might be connected to the phone with this type of a plug. The easiest way to connect might be to bring a RJ11 y-piece and at least one spare phone cord, so that you may be able to connect both the original phone and your modem at the same time (for experimenting). With all the trying and failing I have done, I have never ruined any equipment (telco's or mine). How to connect to the your modem to the 'hole in the wall'? - Best suggestion: bring two scredrivers (one phillips and one flat) and be prepared to remove the remove the jack cover. If you do not want to perform surgery to stay in touch, this is what I know about the three scandinavian countries: Norway: The traditional wall jack is a has three prongs: \ / where the the two on the top are the ring and | tip. You might be able to plug banana jacks into c these two holes. If it is unclear whick ones are o the top ones, they are the ones that are closer r together. d To make things a bit more interesting, you might find a US-style RJ11 (or similar) jack in the wall, in which case you can use a regular US phone cord. You might also find that the phone cord is connected to a plug with a RJ11 (or similar) where the plug is connected to the jack in the wall. Here you can connect your US phone cord the the abovementioned plug. If you look on the phone-side of the phone cord (if you have a touch tone phone) and find a RJ11 - beware: if the conditions in the above paragraph does not apply, the phone cord is wired differently than the US standard. The ring and tip is connector one and three rather than two and three (US standard) on a four connector cord. Denmark: I have no experience other than having seen and used a regular hotel phone in Copenhagen. Their wall jacks looks similar to the Norwegian, only you will not be able to use banana jacks. (The prongs are flat like US AC jacks, not round like European AC jacks or banana jacks). Sweden: The wall jacks used to have four prongs, I do not know for sure if they still do. Finally, my source of knowledge: 1) I used to live in Norway until three years ago, and I just came back from a vacation there 2) A curious mind... Have a nice trip, and don't forget to bring a warm sweater! Email me on oleh@linqdev.com if you want more travelling hints. Ole C. Everthing IMHO. It is not IHO. ------------------------------ From: jmm@Elegant.COM (John Macdonald) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 23:52:01 -0400 Organization: Elegant Communications Inc. Subject: Re: Names Added To Caller ID In article : > Jerry Leichter writes: >> The issue in Caller ID is not anonymity; it's privacy. Let's take an > No. It's strictly anonymity. It's a breath mint. No it's a candy mint. The whole problem stems from only allowing one or the other. What *should* be provided by the telephone system is the flexibility for people to be able to choose the freedoms and restrictions they wish for themselves and the people they talk to. They should be able to choose whether they provide ID on their outgoing calls -- providing a "default" choice (possibly multiple default choices based upon type of number called [business/private] and special lists) as well as per-call over-rides. (And, of course, the over-ride to provide ID should be different from the over-ride to suppress it to allow specifying what it should be if it is unclear what the default would be - the use of *67 to invert the possibly unknown state is not very good user interface design.) In addition, they should be able to choose whether they require ID on incoming calls. (Again there are lots of variations -- types of calls are "ID suppressed", "ID not available", "ID provided" -- the source of the call can be business/private -- what to do on an unaccepted call could be "reject", "forward to alternate number", "forward to voicemail"). Ignoring all of the special cases, this permits four types of calls to be placed. The caller provides ID or not; the callee accepts non-ID calls or not. If the caller does not provide ID and the calle requires it, then the call will not go through. This is not a disaster. The caller just decides whether the importance of making that call is greater than the desire for anonymity. Requiring all callers to provide ID by telephone system edict affects people who desire anonymity. They cannot make anonymous calls even if the recipient *might* have been willing to accept them. Personally, I would probably choose to suppress ID as the default. If it were possible, I would suppress ID on calls to commercial numbers, while providing it on calls to private numbers. I would accept calls whether ID were provided or not. If I was getting calls that I considered harassing, then I would use Call Screen to block just those calls. I have no great desire to have the default result of calling a business phone be to get on their lists. (Mailing lists and junk mail have been bad enough over the last couple of decades -- junk phone number lists promise to be much worse, in my opinion.) I *would* be quite happy to over-ride the suppression of ID if some business was providing a service based on ID that game *me* some special value. Such a customer oriented approach would include the telephone equivalent of the checkbox to indicate whether you are willing to permit them to market your phone number, in the same way that many companies now provide a method for you to indicate whether you are willing for them to market your address as part of their mailing list. However, this insistance that I have to provide it to any business that I make any sort of telephone call to strongly suggests that there will be lots of telephone list marketers coming out in the near future. (I know that not everyone is forced to provide ID. Here in Bell Canada area, you have the choice of paying 0.85 *per call* to suppress caller ID, which I consider extortion.) John Macdonald jmm@Elegant.COM ------------------------------ From: Date: 23 JUN 93 07:02 Subject: Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland Haakon Styri wrote: > originator of this kind of '900' service. This stuff is well known in > Europe, and it's a method for generating traffic _into_ a country. > This would usually only benefit the network operators, but it's likely > that arrangements have been made between network operators and "good" > customers (those generating a lot of traffic into the network) to > split the profit. > Now, the interesting thing -- knowing the state of the economy in the > East European countries I wouldn't have been surprised to see services > in this countries advertised in the US and Canada. But the other way > round seems to be a bit weird. Can someone enlighten me? It might be the same thing that happens in Finland. A service provider makes a deal with, lets say an Australian phone company. The service provider advertises its phone number in Finnish newspapers (Calls are of course directed to Australia, but many callers do not understand that). Profit is split between the service provider and the Australian phone company. So far so good. But who is doing the actual billing? Local phone companies and/or Finnish Telecom bill their customers. Some customers have accumulated many thousands of dollars in phone bills -- quite often from these expensive 'service' numbers abroad and in Finland. Finnish Telecom has paid the Australians, the Australians have paid the Finnish service provider, but _the person who actually called has not paid anything_! Quite often people racking up huge phone bills leave their phone bills unpaid. In the end only local phone companies and/or Finnish Telecom in Finland suffer. This is why this sort of operation is going to be banned -- how, I don't know. (BTW, this example is straight from a news article published not so long ago. There are of course other foreign phone companies involved, not just the Australian company). Juha Veijalainen 4ge system analyst, tel. +358 0 4528 426 Unisys Finland Internet: JVE%FNAHA@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com ------------------------------ From: johng@comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones, One Number Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 04:26:12 GMT In article jws@hpfcla.fc.hp.com (John Schmidt) writes: > According to a recent issue of {Mobile Office} magazine, the FCC has > stated that this practice (cloning ESN's) violates FCC regulations. > {Mobile Office} says that they will no longer accept advertisements for > this service. Did {Mobile Office} say which rule in particular this violated? It does violate section 2.3.2 of EIA/TIA-IS-88 (which replaced EIA-553), but last I heard EIA standards were not enforced by the FCC. Does the FCC incorporate IS-88 by reference in a section of their rules? IS-88 section 2.3.2 Says: The serial number is a 32-bit binary number that uniquely identifies a mobile station to any cellular system. It must be factory-set and not readily alterable in the field. The circuitry that provides the serial number must be isolated form fraudulent contact and tampering. Attempts to change the serial number circuitry should render the mobile station inoperative ... The intent of the EIA standard is clear, but I question if there is a specific FCC rule that addresses this issue. John Gilbert KA4JMC johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 14:56:02 EDT From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: Re: DID Trunks and Circular Reasoning In TELECOM Digest, V13, #416, rothen+@pitt.edu (Seth B Rothenberg) writes: > I have been investigating the possibility of starting a voicemail > service. I got information on voicemail hardware and on add-on > hardware to support DID service. I called Bell of PA to ask whether I > can start out with two-way trunks and then have the same numbers moved > to DID trunks when business picks up? > The Bell of PA rep told me that they can't answer that question. They > said that a regular phone number is not necessarily usable as a DID > number, and they could not tell me whether I would get numbers that > could be used as DID numbers, and they could not reserve a block of > numbers for me. > I told the rep that I know that small businesses go from keyswitch to > PBX systems all the time, and they don't change their phone numbers. > They basically refused to tell me anything until I place an order. I > did not bother asking if that's cash-up-front. They said if you want > business planning advice, hire a telephone consultant. > Can anyone suggest a better approach? (One suggestion I got was to go > for broke, and try to get the start-up capital to buy the hardware and > phone service, then advertise and try to get customers. I'd prefer to > avoid this hassle. That's no longer a 'small business' in my book.) > It crossed my mind to get extreme and rent a room in a neighborhood > that is not served by Bell of PA, but by GTE or some other service :-) If you called the regular business office, I'm not surprised that you got such a response. The clerks answering those phones can take your order for key trunks and such, but special services, such as DID, are beyond their comprehension. If you're not ready to place an order for something they understand, they don't want to talk to you. Find the number for Bell of PA's marketing department, and give them a call. They *want* your business, and will be happy to discuss your various options and may be willing to consult with you, too. They should know what numbers can be converted to DID and where DID is available. (Technically, what you want to do IS possible.) Caveat: some of the marketeers are better than others. Mike King | +1 301-428-5384 | I don't speak for my Software Sourcerer | mking@fsd.com or | employer. My employer Fairchild Space | 73710.1430@compuserve.com | doesn't speak for me. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #419 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09737; 24 Jun 93 7:44 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03668 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 24 Jun 1993 03:09:51 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26183 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 24 Jun 1993 03:09:11 -0500 Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 03:09:11 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306240809.AA26183@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #418 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Jun 93 03:09:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 418 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Traffic Chokes for High Volume Subscribers (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Step-by-Step Offices (Terry Kennedy) Re: Step-by-Step Offices (Steven H. Lichter) Re: Step-by-Step Offices (Ed Greenberg) Re: Caller-ID and Privacy (Justin Leavens) Re: Caller-ID and Privacy (Conrad Kimball) Re: Caller-ID and Privacy (Darrell Broughton) Re: Dead Cordless Dials 911? (John Nagle) Re: Dead Cordless Dials 911? (Timothy Hu) Re: Leech Zmodem (Paul Houle) Re: Leach Zmodem (Koos van den Hout) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 09:05:03 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Traffic Chokes for High Volume Subscribers Several people have mentioned exchanges grouped for mass calling such as for radio station call-in use. On Long Island, 516-955 (Deer Park) is used for most of the stations such as WALK AM/FM whose number is 955-9750 with the 9750 being translated to 97.5 Mhz and used for requests. If, on the other hand, the station goes to the listener participation format, then there is a direct line - 475-WALK. Another one is WBLI, who, I think, uses their call sign as the number. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, LI, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 Senior Technical Specialist: Scientific Computer Facility ------------------------------ From: Terry Kennedy Subject: Re: Step-by-Step Offices Date: 24 Jun 93 00:04:56 EDT Organization: St. Peter's College, US In article , Telecom Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: Why do you consider it sad? If you were served by > one for any length of time you'd not feel that way! I had a number out > of the Chicago-Wabash CO back in the 1970's when it was SxS. They did > not call that office 'the Wabash Cannonball' for nothing ... the setup > of calls was very noisy; the connections were nasty. We didn't know > any better ... then in 1975 they cut Wabash over to ESS, call-waiting, > the whole bit. I would not go back to those switches for anything. PAT] Are you sure the "Cannonball" wasn't panel? SxS and Panel are two very different beasts, each with their own unique "features". Panel is known for its background noise and the utter lack of synchronization of audible with _anything_ (such as calling a busy number and getting ring back, and having it change to busy in the middle of the second ring), while SxS is quieter (except for a sound like cats being tortured if the mute contacts fail). SxS had some great "pheatures", like letting you call anywhere (into the TWX exchanges, into "inward", into supposedly-undialable prefixes such as the ones used for incoming WATS, etc.) Since there was no way to back out of a bad routing decision, no translations, etc. in a SxS (aside from some experiments with electronic control), all sorts of things were possible. Of course, my goals as a 15-year-old and Bell's idea of a useful feature set were, ummm, "disparate". Because SxS couldn't adapt easily to changes, they were killed off long before the equipment would have died from old age. The usual reason was the need to add a prefix in the adjoining local calling area, or to expand into another 1000's group on the SxS. Both of these were enough to justify moving to some form of ESS or remote switching, from the telco's point of view. Of course, it was interesting to observe the cutover. Many years worth of accum- ulated troubles which were dismissed as "customer error" would come pouring out once the new switch was in place. A common example was an interoffice trunk at the low-usage end of the group. Such a failure could be reported over and over for years as "call didn't complete; worked Ok on re-dial", but the minute the ESS grabbed the trunk it would report a trouble and mark the trunk as out of service (and transparently re-route the subscriber's call). And then, people want "features" these days - TT dial, last number redial, call waiting, etc. which weren't economically practical on the older switch- es. The final nail in the coffin was the Bell breakup and "Equal Access", which just wasn't going to happen on mechanical switches. Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA terry@spcvxa.spc.edu +1 201 915 9381 ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Step-by-Step Offices Date: 23 Jun 1993 03:55:55 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) I'm sure there are still SXS offices. I have heard that in a few areas of the old Contel area there are a few left. California is one of them and when the California merger goes through we are set to upgrade them. This should prove interesting since most of use have not worked on one in ten years. I guess you never forget but who knows. Steven H. Lichter GTECalif COEI ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Step-by-Step Offices Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 05:49:46 GMT In article William Hammond writes: > Are there anymore step-by-step offices in the US? My mother said that > the last SxS switch in Maine was retired not too long ago. How sad. I'm sure that there are still step offices, and that indeed somebody will write in and identify some of them for us. Meantime, your post reminds me that Maybell, Colorado lost it's step service sometime between last August (1992) and this last May (1993). Maybell is located on US-40, between Salt Lake City, UT, and Denver, CO. Specifically, it's 57 miles east of the Utah-Colorado state line, in Moffat County. The Placename Server at University of Michigan does not list a population figure for it, but I can tell you it's small. Last summer, I passed by there on my cross country motorcycle trip, and noted the telephone service. It was provided by US-West, and was definitely step. Here were some highlights: - US West standard armored pay phones - rotary dials - Special dialing instructions that told the customer that the phone was pre-pay, and that a dime was required to get a dial tone. Local calls were also ten cents. - Five digit local dialing permitted. - Sounds: Dial tone that rose in pitch as a mechanical tone generator spun up to speed. Busy signal that was high pitched and harsh. Ring signal that I believe was the actual sound of the 20 cycle AC used to ring the distant end. The click of the switchtrain as each digit was dialed. - No equal access This spring, I passed the same way again, and stopped at the same roadside general store, hoping to call a US-West buddy of mine and remind him of this bastion of antiquity. No luck! Touchtone pay phones, normal call progression tones, dial-tone first, and 25 cent local calls. :-( Another CO falls. Pat's comment about the Wabash Cannonball is necessarily correct, for Wabash, and I'm sure that the good citizens of Maybell will be happy with custom calling, caller-id, equal access, touchtone and the like, but for those of us who want to reach out and touch the old days, we won't find them again, along US-40 in Colorado. It may be progress, but that day, I was sad. Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 09:17:05 PDT From: leavens@bmf.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: Caller ID Privacy > [Moderator's Note: There is also the 900 service where the guy patches > your call out to wherever you want to call with no ID given. He is an > attorney in California, but I forget the 900 number you call to use > his service (if you think it is worthwhile). He claims he is not res- > ponsible for mischievious or illegal uses made of his line (he gets a > lot of people who like to play games on the phone with victims they > call), but he has been sued a couple times and always has to pay off. > I guess he figures he still comes out ahead, with 900 rates being as > outlandish as they are most of the time. PAT] I don't understand why he'd have to pay out? It seems like he's offering the same service that the phone company does, only on a per-call basis. I mean, you could probably just find a LD provider that doesn't pass SS7 info and do the same thing for free. What am I missing? Justin Leavens : Microcomputer Specialist : University of Southern California leavens@bmf.usc.edu My opinion is that my opinions are my opinions [Moderator's Note: What you are missing is that unlike telco, he does not want to be a common carrier (and thus be required to keep records of his traffic.) Common carriers are never responsible for anything their customers do, simply because it is assumed they could not have known about the customer's activities. But this guy says he keeps no records of any incoming/outgoing calls. Either you are a common carrier or you are a subscriber. If you are a subscriber, you are responsible for the uses made of your instruments. If you are a common carrier you are not responsible, but on the other hand when 'the authorities' ask you who did do something, you can backtrack on an audit trail. This guy wants it both ways. Victims of prank calls, etc have had telco trace calls which went back to him; he says he is not responsible; the victim asks who *is* responsible; he says he doesn't know; the victim says therefore you are responsible, and sues. It would be very nice if all one had to do when accused of a criminal act or a fraud was to throw one's hands in the air and say, "well I just don't know who did this"; but the answer to that is baloney! Your lines were used, therefore it is your problem. That's the way the tariff reads. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cek@sdc.boeing.com (Conrad Kimball) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Privacy Date: 23 Jun 93 18:07:09 GMT Organization: Boeing Computer Services, Seattle, WA In article , padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: >> Lately I have been seeing quite a few postings that debate people's >> "rights" such as privacy. To me these have a fundamental flaw in that >> they assume "rights" that do not exist. In the much-debated Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court found that there _was_ an implied right to privacy in the U.S. Constiution. I don't have the exact wording, but it was to the effect that without privacy most of the other enumerated rights are largely meaningless. >> When someone walks up to my door, unless it is a sworn office of the >> law I am under no compulsion to open the door. How I make that >> decision is purely up to me. If I wish to invest in a peephole or >> television camera, that is also up to me. >> Caller-ID is much the same and concerns my decision whether to answer >> the phone. A person coming up to my door has the right to wear a black >> hood over their head. I have the right not to answer. Neither of us >> has the right to force the other's decision. Agreed. That's why per-line blocking is necessary, so as to not force my decision. And if the telco offers so-called "block blocking", that's fine with me, too -- we can negotiate the terms under which we will communicate. >> A postmark on a letter tells much about where it came from and a >> registered letter must be signed for. The only right we have is to >> decide where to mail the letter from and whether to sign the receipt, >> we cannot tell the post office to use a different postmark or to >> deliver the letter without a receipt. A postmark tells you _vastly_ less than caller-ID does, so much less that the comparison verges on being ludicrous. For one thing, you can't use a postmark to index into a reverse directory to get the sender's name, address, and from that their SSN, and from that practically anything you want to know (which is another problem in and of itself). >> Caller-ID is a fact just as ANI is a fact. The information exists. >> What seems to be occupying people is whether it *should* exist which >> is not a choice. No, the issue is not whether the information _should_ exist, but whether there should be controls on the use of the information. Some of the Scandanavian societies are much more advanced in their privacy thinking, with legislated limits on how collected personal information (which to my mind includes my telephone number) can be used. It really does boil down to control -- I want maximal control over information about me. Conrad Kimball | Client Server Tech Services, Boeing Computer Services cek@sdc.cs.boeing.com | P.O. Box 24346, MS 7A-35 (206) 865-6410 | Seattle, WA 98124-0346 ------------------------------ From: broughton@lambda.usask.ca Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Privacy Date: 23 Jun 1993 19:14:33 GMT Organization: University of Saskatchewan Reply-To: broughton@lambda.usask.ca In article , news@deneva.sdd.trw.com writes: >> I've seen this analogy used twice as an argument for one's inalienable >> right to obtain a caller's number. When someone walks up to your >> door, you do not get information which allows you to visit their home. >> Inverting the above analogy, caller ID should deliver exactly that: >> some form of unique ID which enables one to make an authentication/ >> authorization decision. It should *not* return information allowing >> "reverse access". A perfect argument for name only Caller-ID! Darrell [Moderator's Note: As always when the topic is the ethics of Caller-ID, most of us here soon get tired of reading the thread. In the past few days I hope everything on both sides of the issue has once again been aired, because we need to kill the thread and go on to other things. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: Dead Cordless Dials 911? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 18:06:26 GMT > told him the people were on vacation. He responded that he thought a > cordless telephone in which the batteries were dying had automatically > dialed 911! I have never heard of this feature before. Has anyone > [Moderator's Note: We've discussed this here before. I forget what the > group consensus was regards the technical problem here. Anyone? PAT] I looked into this at one time (it briefly became a "hacker related issue" in the Neidorf case) and never got any really hard data on the subject. There are press reports, but I never saw a make of phone identified, other than vague references to non-FCC approved cheap wired (non-cordless) phones. I could see this happening if someone built a phone using a chip with a pin for a 911 button (this appeared as a feature on some phones in the mid-1980s) but didn't attach the pin to anything. If you leave a CMOS input, with its near-infinite input impedance, unconnected, it floats around, sometimes high, sometimes low, depending on the ambient electrical field and humidity. So something like that might trigger randomly. That's conjecture, though, and I don't see how that could get the instrument to go off-hook. John Nagle ------------------------------ From: timhu@ico.isc.com (Timothy Hu) Subject: Re: Dead Cordless Dials 911? Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Boulder CO Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 20:41:34 GMT In article jpg@hoover.csu.bgu.edu (James P Gonzales) writes: > holmanj@uwwvax.uww.edu (John Holman) writes: >> told him the people were on vacation. He responded that he thought a >> cordless telephone in which the batteries were dying had automatically >> dialed 911! I have never heard of this feature before. Has anyone >> [Moderator's Note: We've discussed this here before. I forget what the >> group consensus was regards the technical problem here. Anyone? PAT] > I wasn't around to follow that thread, but the same thing has happened > to me as well; it seems that the phone's battery goes weak, and it > starts to dial random memory set phone numbers. I assume that your etc.etc.etc. A similar thing happened to me at a company I used to help run. We had an AT&T Merlin phone system that had a marginal power supply. The phone system would freak out throughout the day, some days it would work just fine. When it went on the fritz, the extensions would randomly ring and sometimes it would ring continuously ... not a "ring ... ring ... ring ..." but like this: "rrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnnggggg". One great big long ring with no silence. Well, I had been working late one nite when the phones were not acting up. My boss (who owned the company) knew that I'd be working late. I was the only one in the building when he left around 9pm. I went home around 1am (!). It turns out that the phones freaked out around 2 am. My boss gets a phone call (at home) from the police at about that time. The cops told him that someone in the building was trying to call 911 and must be incapacitated in some way because no one said anything on the phone to the 911 operators. Well, they kept getting 911 calls from this place, so they figured that someone must be severely injured on the inside who kept dialing for help. My boss shows up expecting to find me laying on the floor or something and found the phones were freaking out and by chance was dialing 911. We did not have 911 in any speed dialing feature. Turns out that the power supply's voltage dropped enough that the phone system kept going in and out of reset, thus picking up and dropping the lines to the CO. We called AT&T and explained the situation and they said that the chances of that happening was something like five million to one but was nonetheless possible. This was when we found out that the phone system's power supply was faulty and replaced it. The problem went away. Cheers, Timothy Hu timhu@bou.shl.com | The intelligence (or lack of) expressed Interactive Systems Corporation | above does not necessarily reflect Resource Solutions International | that of anyone else. ------------------------------ From: Paul.Houle@leotech.MV.COM (Paul Houle) Reply-To: houle@leotech.MV.COM Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 17:21:00 Subject: Re: Leach Zmodem > My guess is that Leech Zmodem used the original Zmodem sources > (which are public domain) to change the end of file behavior to accept > the PR file but NAK its receipt. If you want to test the behavior, > you would PR need to find some underground or pirate BBS, or write it > yourself; I PR doubt that legitimate ones would handle this sort of > thing. I am aware of a file that loads as a TSR that is supposed to alter the function of DSZ so to make it Leech; and supposedly there is a hacked version of DSZ that did the same ... but this was way back around '89 or so. Since DSZ contains propreitary code (although reverse enginnering confirmed my guesses about what Chuck's performance enhancements were) no source code is availible for it, so I suspect either it was hacked at the binary level or diassembled and reassembled. Anyway, since public domain code for many version of zmodem are availible, it probably would be very easy to write such a thing, although it would be of limited use. Tell the would-be leecher that he should try finding creative files to upload, like archives of obscure mailing lists, .GIF files of himself, core dumps, and the like. If he doesn't like wasting transfer time, he should get bimodem ;-) Origin: NETIS (603) 432-2517/432-0922 (HST/V32) (1:132/189) ------------------------------ From: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl (Koos van den Hout) Subject: Re: Leach Zmodem Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1993 01:27:00 GMT Organization: HIN / BBS Koos z'n Doos LINKJW@PURCCVM.bitnet writes: > Can anyone tell me where to find Leach Zmodem? For starters: I hope you DON'T find it. An explanation to the rest of the TELECOM Digest: Leach Zmodem is a special Zmodem implementation which will always abort a file transfer on the last block recieved. So as soon as the file has been transferred completely, the sending host will be notified that the transfer is to be aborted. Most host packages (BBS'es) see this as 'transfer has not found place' and will therefore not record the file transfer. One BBS package I know of (Maximus v2.01wb) has a 'fraud detection' routine build in that will detect aborts on last block and still log the transfer as succesfull, and log the fact that probably Leach Zmodem was used. Grtx. Koos van den Hout ----------------------------------------------- Sysop Student Computer Science (AKA HIO) BBS Koos z'n Doos (+31-3402-36647) Inter-: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl 300..14400 MNP2-5,10,V42bis) net : koos@hut.nl | PGP key by finger | Fido: Sysop @ 2:500/101.11012 Schurftnet : KILL !!! | koos@hacktic.nl | Give us a call !! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #418 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa01395; 25 Jun 93 3:35 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30111 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 25 Jun 1993 01:06:04 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18036 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 25 Jun 1993 01:05:28 -0500 Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1993 01:05:28 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306250605.AA18036@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #420 TELECOM Digest Fri, 25 Jun 93 01:05:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 420 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Vertical Services Codes List (Updated) (David Leibold) Dial Out Service (Paul Robinson) Block-Blocking in NETelco (Bob Clements) Bellcore User System Language (Neil S. Kenig) Touch-One Long Distance Service (The "Hard" sell) (Lenny Tropiano) Is AT&T No Longer Asking For Caller Name on a Collect Call? (Michael Rosen) Caribbean Chat Line Roundup (John R. Levine) ISDN Services in LA LATA 5? (Chris Ambler) How Much Code in Switch Software? (Tom Streeter) International Toll-Free Standard Code? (David Leibold) Mouthpiece Disconnected as Accident of Technology (Jerry Leichter) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Vertical Services Codes List (Updated) From: woody Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 23:18:58 -0400 Reply-to: dleibold1@attmail.com The following *xx codes are used in North America for special telephone features which may be known by such names as CLASS or CMS (Call Management System). The codes themselves are referred to as Vertical Services Codes (at least mentioned in the Bellcore document on the future of the North American Numbering Plan). Cellular services often use *xx codes for use in promotional services such as free access to radio stations or highway assistance lines (such as *1010 for CFRB Radio Toronto, AM 1010). Codes for such services in other nations are not included here, but may be added to future lists or collected separately. Another matter not answered here is that of whether there are such things as Europe-wide or other multi-national codes standards. Digest readers are welcome to mention any changes or additions to this list. E-Mail to dleibold1@attmail.com or wherever else David Leibold happens to be on the Internet at any given time. Don't send in any specific cellular promotional codes, but any codes for special cellular services like roam or forward which seem to be in widespread use will be considered. Service Tone Pulse/rotary Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assistance/Police *12 n/a [1] Cancel forwarding *30 n/a [C1] Automatic Forwarding *31 n/a [C1] Notify *32 n/a [C1] [2] Intercom Ring 1 (..) *51 1151 [3] Intercom Ring 2 (.._) *52 1152 [3] Intercom Ring 3 (._.) *53 1153 [3] Extension Hold *54 1154 [3] Call Trace *57 1157 Selective Call Rejection *60 1160 (or Call Screen) Selective Distinct Alert *61 1161 Selective Call Acceptance *62 1162 Selective Call Forwarding *63 1163 ICLID Activation *65 1165 Call Return (outgoing) *66 1166 Number Display Blocking *67 1167 [4] Computer Access Restriction *68 1168 Call Return (incoming) *69 1169 Call Waiting disable *70 1170 [4] No Answer Call Transfer *71 1171 Usage Sensitive 3 way call *71 1171 Call Forwarding: start *72 or 72# 1172 Call Forwarding: cancel *73 or 73# 1173 Speed Calling (8 numbers) *74 or 74# 1174 Speed Calling (30 numbers) *75 or 75# 1175 Anonymous Call Rejection *77 1177 [5] Call Screen Disable *80 1160 (or Call Screen) [M: *50] Selective Distinct Disable *81 1161 [M: *51] Select. Acceptance Disable *82 1162 Select. Forwarding Disable *83 1163 [M: *53] ICLID Disable *85 1165 Call Return (cancel out) *86 1186 [6] [M: *56] Anon. Call Reject (cancel) *87 1187 [5] Call Return (cancel in) *89 1189 [6] [M: *59] Notes: [C1] - Means code used for Cellular One service [1] - for cellular in Pittsburgh, PA A/C 412 in some areas [2] - indicates that you are not local and maybe how to reach you [3] - found in Pac Bell territory; Intercom ring causes a distinctive ring to be generated on the current line; Hold keeps a call connected until another extension is picked up [4] - applied once before each call [5] - A.C.R. blocks calls from those who blocked Caller ID (used in C&P territory, for instance) [6] - cancels further return attempts [M: *xx] - alternate code used for MLVP (multi-line variety package) by Bellcore. It goes by different names in different RBOCs. In Bellsouth it is called Prestige. It is an arrangement of ESSEX like features for single or small multiple line groups. The reason for different codes for some features in MLVP is that call-pickup is *8 in MLVP so all *8x codes are reaasigned *5x Other Notes: The lack of *2x, *3x and *4x as standard codes suggests that this is due to compatibility with the 11xx equivalent. 112 was once used as long distance access. 113 and 114 may still be used in a few areas for directory assistance and repair respectively. Thanks to contributors: David A. Cantor (cantor@mv.MV.COM) Bob Frankston (Bob_Frankston@frankston.com) John Gilbert (johng@ecs.comm.mot.com) - posted a similar list last year Mike King (mking@fsd.com) Leslie R Reeves (lesreeves (@attmail.com?)) - had Bellcore-supported codes Steven Schwartz (schwartz@nynexst.com) Bruce Taylor (blt+@cmu.edu) Some additional information came from Bell Canada and Pacific Bell. ---------------- David Leibold dleibold1@attmail.com dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca (internex.io.org not guaranteed for full operation just yet) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 13:48:07 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Dial Out Service From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > [Moderator's Note: What you are missing is that unlike telco, he > does not want to be a common carrier (and thus be required to > keep records of his traffic.) That brings up an interesting point; while I don't go into reading all of the volumes of tariff schedules filed when I go looking for the tariff schedules, and I don't always know all of the regulations I'm trying to remember hearing anything about where someone couldn't start a common carrier without having a tariff provision to keep records on customer activity. In theory, that guy with the 900 dial-out service could file a two-page tariff schedule and become a common carrier and thus evade liability. Generally, telephone companies keep records of calls for accounting and billing purposes, e.g. since some people have metered service, it is necessary to keep logs of calls made, and since it's less trouble to collect information on everyone than to create metering bits, this is one of the reasons for metering because the company has to create bills. But since this guy is having the service supplier do the billing for him, and otherwise does not set additional charges for service, I'm not sure where there is a provision for requiring a common carrier to keep usage logs. Now there is a set of FCC regulations requiring certain common carriers to use certain accounting procedures, but they don't apply to common carriers with very few customers. Since this particular 'common carrier' only has one customer (the supplier who sends bills for connections), in theory that wouldn't apply either, I suspect. This does create an interesting question. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM [Moderator's Note: But he cannot avoid record-keeping if for no other reason than he has to pay tax on his income; the money paid to him by his customers, the users of his service. Whoever provides his 900 lines gives him that information. So okay, Mr. Common Carrier, who called you last Tuesday at 1:59 AM? What does the print out which came with your check from the 900 provider say? They put the inbound call on your line 'x' and you process the outbound call on your line 'y'. He has to pay the bill for his outgoing calls to telco. Where does the telco bill say you called last Tuesday at 1:59 AM via your line 'y'? I think if he attempted to obtain common carrier status *merely as a way to circumvent responsibility*, and refused to keep records for the same reason, the court would see through this thinly veiled BS. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 14:09:00 EDT From: Bob Clements Subject: Block-Blocking in NETelco A while ago I posted a note on New England Tel's starting to implement CLASS features in the Boston metro area. I made a comment that the list of features seemed kind of small, e.g., no call-block lists and no block-blocking. I've figured out why there's no block-blocking yet. It seems they are implementing CLASS on a suburb-by-suburb basis. For calls within the metro area that do have CLASS features, you get the number or a "blocked" indication. (Except for PBXes which show up as "out of area". I dunno about cell phones.) For calls to a CLASS-equipped CO from a non-CLASS-equipped CO, _ALL_ calls show as "blocked" rather than out-of-area. My guess is that these exchanges are SS7 connected, even if no CLASS software is loaded, and therefore the software won't show them as "out of area". Since they don't want to get people mad by showing their numbers before their offices allow them to block with *67, they are showing entire exchanges as "blocked". So naturally you can't use block-blocking, since 3/4 of the phones in Boston would be blocked and could not be unblocked even if the caller wanted to do so. Similarly, you can't use the fact that a call shows "blocked" to just ignore the call. Maybe it'll make sense in a year or so when they get every CO converted. And maybe they'll offer the rest of the features then, though I wouldn't bet on it. [I decided not to post in detail on the various glitches as they got the system started. Strange things like the clock being 12 hours off on reported times, *67 giving three different results depending on what service you had, even though it was supposed to be free for everyone, etc ... it's mostly better now.] Bob Clements, K1BC, clements@bbn.com ------------------------------ From: nkenig@linarite.telesciences.com (Neil S Kenig) Subject: Bellcore User System Language Organization: TeleSciences CO Systems, Inc. Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 19:04:19 GMT Does anyone know of a lex/yacc grammar or other publicly available implementation of a parser for Bellcore's User System Language (USL) part of their Operations Technology Generic Requirements (OTGR): User System Interface as specified in their TR-TSY-000825? Thanks. Neil Kenig | TeleSciences CO Systems | 351 New Albany Road nkenig@telesciences.com | Moorestown, NJ 08057 | (609)866-1000 ext. 228 ------------------------------ Subject: Touch-One Long Distance Service (The "Hard" Sell) Organization: ICUS Software Systems, Austin, Texas Date: 24 Jun 93 11:28:59 CDT (Thu) From: lenny@icus.ICUS.COM (Lenny Tropiano) Last night while watching TV, I received a phone call from someone who introduced themselves as an affiliate of SWBT and their long distance carriers. He went on to explain a new service that SWBT (Southwestern Bell Telephone) was carrying called Touch-One. He made it sound like another feature I could add to my phone line. He went on to explain that after analyzing my telephone long distance charges (w/AT&T, in fact I've been a customer of AT&T ever since I've had telephone service) I would benefit from this new service. He said that Touch-One monitors the cost "per minute" of long distance for both intra-state and inter-state and will give you the lowest possible cost per minute (based on AT&T, MCI, and Sprint's rates) at that current time. I told him that I've been a customer with AT&T and that I've been happy with the service and don't want to change it now. He said, 'you realize that AT&T isn't the cheapest every hour of the day, [and he went to reiterate the above cost-per-minute deal] ...' I told him I had two services, "Any Hour Savings Plan" and "Reach Out Texas" that AT&T offered to keep my telephone costs down. He said without spending $10.70 a month, you'll automatically get the lowest rates. He said just confirm you'd be interested in the service, and you'll get the literature detailing it in seven to ten days. I said, "I'd rather see what this entails before I sign up, do I have to change long distance carriers? Drop services from AT&T? [still confused at that time on what this really is?!]" Rambling on, he said that you'd automatically be dropped from the AT&T services, nothing would have to be done on your part. You can stay on this service one day, one week, one month, etc ... and see how you like it without any cost to you? In fact, he said, within a week or so AT&T will probably call you back offering you $50-75 to come back to them. [Now the lightbulb clicked on!] No thanks, I said. He replied, well let me FAX you some information on the service, no obligation to you. I told him my fax number, and till this time this morning I still haven't gotten anything. I called SWBT and they said they are a billing agent for Touch-One long distance company. Happy with AT&T, I'm staying there. Lenny Tropiano ICUS Software Systems lenny@icus.ICUS.COM ...!{cs.utexas.edu,ames,pacbell}!icus!lenny ------------- 6905-B Argonne Forest Cove, Austin, TX 78759 -------------- ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Is AT&T no Longer Asking For Caller Name on a Collect Call? Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 04:58:37 GMT I was recently listening to my favorite radio show, The Don & Mike Show (currently syndicated on WJFK 106.7 FM in DC, 1300 AM in Baltimore, 1520 AM in Buffalo, NY and 1010 AM in Tampa Bay, FL -- soon to be in Chicago), and heard Don receive a collect call from his son. The call went like this: "AT&T with a collect call from, state your name please." And then his son stated his name. Have they eliminated the practice of asking for the caller's name straight off and relaying it to the called party? Mike [Moderator's Note: There have been no changes. All that happened was the operator screwed up -- forgot to ask it at first -- and had to get it after the fact. It happens. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Caribbean Chat Line Roundup Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 13:35:16 EDT I fished one of those magazines that features pictures of undressed women out of the trash the other day and found that they now have a "safe sex" advertisement section with little display (and I do mean display) ads for phone sex services. Most of the numbers are 800 or 900, and a few US are POTS numbers. Most of the non-800 numbers say you need a credit card, but some of them say no credit card needed, so presumably they do a real or fake collect callback. There are also more Caribbean numbers than before. Here are a few, along with the countries where they putatively terminate: Guyana: 011 592 279 900 (Says it works from Canada, too.) Suriname: 011 597 423-042, -034, -038, -022, -240, -030, -014, -007. (Various names, of which the only printable one is "sex wanted.") It says to dial 10222 first. I though MCI was out of the phone sex biz. Hmmn. Netherlands Antilles: 011 599 2888 ("International Party Line".) All normal N.A. phone numbers start with 3, 5, 7, or 9. As has been noted before, these are probably all physically located in the relatively developed Netherlands Antilles, since Guyana and Suriname are physically nearby and are both extremely impoverished and have terrible phone systems. Also, a lot of the ads for 800 numbers say you can bill your call to MC/V or Connectcard. What's a Connectcard? Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl [Moderator's Note: Two answers for you: MCI is 'out of the phone sex biz' to the extent they will not bill for 900 calls to sex or chat lines. They'll provide the carriage -- give you all the 900 lines you want and the calling number -- you pay MCI for the carriage and bill the callers on your own. I guess you would send the tape to a service bureau for rebilling via local telco or whatever, but MCI won't do it for you any longer. For next: 'Connect Card' is a syndicate of phone-sex operators who issue their own (very) limited-purpose credit card to accomodate customers of any member of the syndicate. I think there are a dozen or so phone-sex services, both gay and straight who accept the Connect Card. Many of those may in fact be owned by the same company. The costs of maintaining a business office, extending credit, colletion, equipment maintainence, phone bill reconciliation, etc are pro-rated among the members of the syndicate. Connect Card even charges interest on unpaid balances each month. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler -- Phish) Subject: ISDN Services in LA Lata 5? Organization: The Phishtank Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 19:43:32 GMT A relative of mine just got the trial ISDN system that Pac*Bell is testing in the LA (California) area. He asked me to ask you all if anyone knows of any direct-dial ISDN digital services (BBSs, info services, etc) in LATA 5? Email please, I'll summarize if there's interest (and if there's anything out there :-)) Thanks in advance! cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.32 ------------------------------ From: streeter@cs.unca.edu (Tom Streeter) Subject: How Much Code in Switch Software? Date: 24 Jun 1993 19:57:38 GMT Organization: University of North Carolina at Asheville There's a thread going on in alt.technology.misc that refuses to die, and I was hoping someone here might have the information that will be able to kill it. At least as much as any fact can stop a thread, anyway. It's really a silly question of no real import, so in typical UseNet fashion it becomes the Most Important Question Ever that must be answered before any other discussions can take place. Sort of like telemarketer discussions, only more inane. So, with no further ado: Roughly how many lines of code does the software that controls digital switches like the 5ESS (to name but one) use? I know there are probably a number of variables to consider, but I'm looking for ballpark here. More than a million? More than two million? For those of you with time on your hands, here's the story as I've followed it: Somebody saw 'Jurrasic Park' and made a comment about the the scene where someone is considering looking for a bug in the code of the program controlling the park. I believe one character mentions four million lines of code, but I could be wrong. Anyway, the person who brought this up said that he thought this was a lot of code and expressed the opinion that no one could write that much. A few responses ping-ponged around, then somebody mentioned that phone switches might have this much code. This drew a response saying that there was no way this could be true, which drew a response that was the epistemological equivalent of "oh yeah?", which drew a "yeah, so you're a f*cking idiot," which ... well, you get the idea. So would someone who knows be kind enough to e-mail me an estimate with something to explain how it is you know it? My plan is to repost a file of my responses to alt.technology.misc, so please let me know if you would rather your response not be included verbatim. Thanks in advance, and be nice to PAT -- e-mail me instead of replying back to the Digest. Tom Streeter | streeter@cs.unca.edu Dept. of Mass Communication | 704-251-6227 University of North Carolina at Asheville | Opinions expressed here are Asheville, NC 28804 | mine alone. ------------------------------ Subject: International toll-free standard code? From: woody Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 23:25:15 -0400 I read a reference once to Mercury being assigned the STD code 0500 for its toll-free service in the UK (competing with BTs 0800 code). However, there was concern that this violated "international standards". What international standards apply to domestic toll-free services, and where is this established (if not an unspoken or informal standard) that 800 should be used for domestic service? (Note that many countries use something other than an "800" at this time, though some are changing to that.) David Leibold dleibold1@attmail.com dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca etc etc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 10:13:10 EDT From: Jerry Leichter Subject: Mouthpiece Disconnected as Accident of Technology That the mouthpiece is disconnected IS an accident of technology. If ringing current reached a carbon mike, it would damage it; same for traditional earpieces, in fact. As a result it was important to keep these items off the line when ring current might be present. (They would also disturb the impedance-based mechanism for sensing when the phone goes off-hook.) The combination of the design of the system and the available technology made it necessary to include complex multi-contact switches in telephones to make sure that the appropriate connections were made and broken at the right times. No such constraints exist today. Certainly, an ISDN phone could easily be set up to forward voice from the mouthpiece no matter what the "switchhook" state is -- that's probably just a bit in the software. Building this into traditional analogue phones would be harder, but no big deal -- though why anyone should bother, except for bugging, I don't know. The fact that the technological accident of that leaves the mouthpiece dead hasn't changed over the years is neither here nor there; it was no more a conscious decision than the original "caller ID" by operator, replaced by NO "caller ID" from a switch. Jerry ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #420 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04682; 25 Jun 93 7:00 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12299 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 25 Jun 1993 03:32:49 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13028 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 25 Jun 1993 03:32:02 -0500 Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1993 03:32:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306250832.AA13028@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #421 TELECOM Digest Fri, 25 Jun 93 03:32:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 421 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! (David W. Tamkin) Re: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! (Lynne Gregg) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (David Breneman) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (Bradley J. Bittorf) Re: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) (Jim Rees) Re: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Are You a Prodigy Deadbeat? (Jack Pines) Re: Are You a Prodigy Deadbeat? (Bryan D. Boyle) Re: Future of ISDN (Gary W. Sanders) Re: Future of ISDN (Mark Fraser) Re: Caller-ID and Privacy (Don Wegeng) Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland (Haakon Styri) Re: *6n Codes (Actually, Vertical Services Codes) (David A. Cantor) Re: NYNEX ISDN Hot Line (William H. Sohl) Re: Costing Home Fiber Installation: Looking For Advice (Peter J. Scott) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 11:50 CDT From: dattier@genesis.mcs.com (David W. Tamkin) Subject: Re: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! Organization: Contributor Account at MCS, Chicago, Illinois 60657 Toby Nixon wrote in in comp.dcom. telecom: > Has anyone else noticed in the new radio commercial "introducing" > 1-800-COLLECT, that the operator answers the phone with this line: > "1-800-COLLECT. What number would you like to call collect, sir?" > No pause, no listening to the caller first, just call them sir. How > do THEY know its a "sir" calling? Maybe MCI assumes that women have too much intelligence and self- respect to be taken in by its advertising? David W. Tamkin Box 59297 Northtown Station, Illinois 60659-0297 dattier@genesis.mcs.com CompuServe: 73720,1570 MCI Mail: 426-1818 ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 14:26:00 PDT Hear, hear! I'm not exactly what you'd call a feminist, but it does get a bit tiresome when you're frequently addressed as "MR. Lynne Gregg" in most of your junk mail (even the occasional non-junk). Now, I'm not exactly a soprano either, but what's worse is when you DO get the operator, telemarketer, etc. on the line and they STILL call you "Sir" (when you're clearly NOT). One of my better ones (wasn't too humorous at the time) was trying to check in at a hotel at midnight where my guaranteed res. was no where to be found and hotel over-booked. The manager finally found me as MR. GREGG LYNNE. Oh well, I'm sure no offense was intended in any of these cases. Toby, you probably have your own share of amusing anecdotes. Regards, Lynne BTW, I didn't think that 1-800-COLLECT was an MCI company... ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines Date: 24 Jun 93 19:41:55 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu wrote: > Does anyone know if there are still such things as ten-party lines > still in service? I came from a small town in Missouri and our family > had a ten-party line until about ten years ago. I went on a tour of > the CO once, and as it was explained to me, the phones on a ten-party > line used an extra ground wire to the instrument. Five of the phones > rang on different frequencies on one side of the line and five on the > other. The switch was a Stromberg-Carlson installed in 1960. At the > exchange, they decided which phone rang by attaching the connection to > a block with the correct frequency for the number. > Also, another small exchange next to us had a unique system, where the > switch rang all the phones on the party line, but with a different > combination of rings (1 short-2 long, etc.). I learned about this > from a high school teacher who was awakened many times in the middle > of the night. When I was growing up (1960's) my parents were on a 16-party line, also with Stromberg Carlson equipment (Island Empire Telephone Company). All the houses were wired with two wires, not three. It was a combination of multiple bell frequencies and multiple ringing patterns. It was kind of convenient, because my grandparents next door had the same bell frequency as my parents. We were two short rings and they were one long one. That way we could pick up each others' phones when somebody wasn't home. My parents finally got a private line in the late '70s, after some guy moved into the neighborhood who would take his phone off the hook at night -- you'd pick it up and just hear snoring. The phone company agreed to waive the $1 per mile surcharge (from the central office) because of our numerous complaints about unavailable service, and just charge my parents the straight monthly private line fee. We finally got electonic switching equipment about five years ago. Until that time, it was all step switches and no touch tone. Telco insiders called 206-858 the "dinosaur exchange". David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 ------------------------------ From: bjb@odin.icd.ab.com (Bradley J. Bittorf) Subject: Re: Old-Time Party Lines Organization: Allen-Bradley Company, Inc. Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 17:13:29 GMT All this talk about party lines reminds me of a local legend where I grew up, in rural northern Wisconsin in GTE country (Langlade county). Rumor had it that when Bart Starr (Super Bowl I & II Most Valuable Player for the Green Bay Packers) built his summer home on a lake near us, even he had to accept a party line. There was a several-year wait for private lines -- I think my parents got one after about five years. Maybe Bart got his after one or two ;-) Bradley J. Bittorf Allen-Bradley Co. (216) 646-4629 bjb@odin.ab.com.UUCP or bjb!odin!uunet ------------------------------ From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Subject: Re: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) Date: 24 Jun 1993 22:51:19 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI In article , andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) writes: > To the best of my knowledge, the AT command set itself is not part of > this patent, but, of course, it is not real useful without a mode > switching technique. True, but there are ways to switch modes without infringing the patent. The rs232 spec is full of signals that can often be used for this purpose (dtr, break, etc). Amusingly enough, some manufacturers get around the patent by dispensing with the delay before the "+++." (If your line just went dead while you were reading this paragraph, you have such a modem.) It seems to me that if the ppp folks really wanted to produce a useful spec, they would have included the ability to escape '+' in their async map. ------------------------------ From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) Date: Fri, 25 Jun 93 07:34:24 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory > I have a copy of the patent somewhere, but I do remember that the > specific claim of patentability is the use of a time delimited > "escape" sequence to transition from data to command mode. That means > the is what is patented. Also note > that the guard time is on both sides of the pattern. There may have Also not a lawyer but if true this would indicate that the sequence without the second guard time would *not* be covered by the patent and IMHO would probably be sufficient to avoid false triggering. Interesting. Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ From: pjp@netcom.com (jack pines) Subject: Re: Are You a Prodigy Deadbeat? Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 17:04:09 GMT I am a Prodigy Deadbeat. I originally had a 24 month subscription that cost about $8 a month. When I had five months left on the subscription they sent me an electronic notice which amounted to a near 100% price increase and said that if I did not voluntarily give up my remaining five months at $8 they would automatically renew and start billing me the new rate. I replied that that I was not interested in continuing the subscription and in no way were they authorized to extend it for me. Several weeks before my subscription would lapse, I removed the Prodigy software from all computers that I have access to. About ten days after the subscription lapsed, I got a bill for the first month at the new rate. I immediately returned it saying that they had not been authorized to extend the subscription. A month later I got a notice that my subscription had been cancelled but that it was after the renewal and therefore I owed them $1.93! Every month since then I have gotten a bill for $1.93 which goes promptly into the circular file. It will be interesting to see if a collection agency will be hungry enough to come after me. Maybe I should move. ------------------------------ From: bdboyle@erenj.com (Bryan D. Boyle) Subject: Re: Are You a Prodigy Deadbeat? Reply-To: bdboyle@erenj.com (Bryan D. Boyle) Organization: Exxon Research & Engineering Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 13:50:03 GMT In article , barnett@zeppelin.convex. com (Paul Barnett) writes: Stuff deleted re: Prodigy dinging someone automatically when subscription voluntarily lapsed ... > Finally, he wanted to determine why all this happened. Steve Hein, a > Prodigy spokesman, explained that they automatically renewed > memberships. However, there have so many complaints, that they have > decided to discontinue it. > Steve's final comment: "Maybe they know a lot about computers. But > when it comes to business, they're no prodigy." Apropos the last comment: This is IBM and Sears, right? Know about computers? Know about business? IBM and SEARS? Bryan D. Boyle <>< EMAIL: bdboyle@erenj.com #include Hack first and ask questions later. 908 730-3338 ER & E Co. Rt. 22 East, Annandale, NJ ------------------------------ From: gary.w.sanders@att.com Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 12:32:30 GMT Subject: Re: Future of ISDN Organization: AT&T In article Bob Larribeau writes: > 4. In the U.S. ISDN is priced competitively with analog services. The > issues are deployment, i.e., can you get it where you want it, and > marketing. Deployment will improve greatly this year. Educating the > market will take more time, but it is happening. It depends on where your looking at it from ... ISDN is priced competitively ONLY if you look at the pricing on a business line rate standpoint. ISDN (at least in our area) has no chance in the residential market with its current price structure. In addition to the high terminal equipment cost, you also are forced into a minute line rate. With almost no deployment of ISDN (locally) the only use the line has is for voice. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614-860-5965 ------------------------------ From: mfraser@vanbc.wimsey.com (Mark Fraser) Subject: Re: Future of ISDN Date: 24 Jun 1993 19:12:06 -0700 Organization: Wimsey While we're talking ISDN -- what is the status of the D-channel capability in USA, Canada, Japan and Europe? I have been led to believe that Canadian deployment will limit the useful ness of D-channel because "it threatens the security of the network" and therefore will not be made available to anyone other than the (monopoly) common carrier. This brings up a point of potential efficiency for Paging service providers, Cellular, PCS, competitive LD carriers and a host of other application providers who could really offer some whizbang services with D-channel access over and above the crippleware exposed to date. Comments? Mark Fraser ------------------------------ From: wegeng.henr801c@xerox.com (Don Wegeng) Subject: Re: Caller-ID and Privacy Reply-To: wegeng.henr801c@xerox.com Organization: Xerox Corp., Henrietta, NY Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 15:37:04 GMT If Pat will permit one more (brief) message on this topic, I'd like to point out that your local phone company does not offer CNID out of the goodness of it's heart, or because it's the morally right thing to do. CNID is just another way for the phone company to make money, pure and simple. The AT&T executive may be correct when he/she talks about "accidents of technology", but let us not forget that this accident was "repaired" only so that the phone companies could make more money. If CNID was required to be a free service, it wouldn't exist. Don Wegeng wegeng.henr801c@xerox.com [Moderator's Note: And if I can be permitted one more brief Moderator's Note, you are both right and wrong about the reason for 'repairing' the accident. More precisely, AT&T did not develop ESS so they could offer 'custom calling features' like Call Waiting, etc. They developed ESS because the level of fraud in general had grown so ridiculously high. Throughout its history, telco banked on customers not knowing that well (if at all) 'how the system worked'. Trouble is, by the 1960 era, *everyone* knew how it worked, or at least everyone with a bent to fraud. The late 1960's were the years of much discontent and hatred in the USA. Dissidents and protestors of every conceivable cause, al- though Viet Nam was the main reason for the almost constant disruptions we experienced. AT&T was a *big* target; it functioned like a public toilet for every radical group in America back then. By the late 1960's *everyone* knew how the calling card formula was calculated each year. Every year early in January, all the phreaks would sit down and compare their *legitimate* calling cards after first promising not to abuse each other. With several legitimate calling cards on display, the group would study them. Within five minutes, a little logic and a process of elimination showed what key letter went with which digit, etc. *Everyone* knew the operator had no idea what their number was when they placed a long distance call; ergo, they told the operator any number they felt like. An executive of Illinois Bell was questioned by the Illinois Commerce Commission in 1969 regards a rate increase the company wanted. The Commission asked, "How much money did you lose to fraud last year?" The IBT guy said *seven million dollars*. IBT alone. The year 1968 alone. Since everyone knew how easy it was to defraud AT&T in those days of stepper switch and crossbar offices, the only way out of the morass was to build the whole system over again from scratch in a different way completely. That's what they did. Revenue from custom calling features is like icing on the cake, but custom calling and the more recent CLASS features were not what AT&T had in mind when ESS was developed. The purpose of ESS was to help Mother regain control of the public telephone network; a network she losing control of rapidly and in a disasterous way. PAT] ------------------------------ From: styri@nta.no (Haakon Styri) Subject: Re: '900' Numbers in Czech Republic and Poland Reply-To: styri@nta.no Organization: Norwegian Telecom Research Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 12:22:51 GMT georg@lise.physik.tu-berlin.de (Georg Schwarz) writes: > [...] +1 610 is somewhere in the Carribean, I suspect? Funny thing, but I wasn't able to find the North American 610 area code in my tables ... Anyone know for sure? If it's not in use, does the local network operator run a scam, routing these calls to a local service. (Unlikely, but still possible. The numbers we're talking about are usually just connected to an answering machine anyway. Who would notice?) Or, did someone get this wrong from the very beginning, and we aren't really talking about country code 1 at all? > I've heard that long distance carriers in those countries > encourage setting up such numbers and advertising them abroad in order > to lure overseas calls from countries with high telephone rates (like > Germany!). They get half of the money (don't they?). To make a point: What the the orginator of the call is charged by his local network operator may not have relevance to the amount of money charged by the network operator (long distance carrier) at the receiving end. (Some countries may even have regulations, or just an accepted price system, to the effect that some types of calls will subsidize other types of calls.) Thus, it doesn't make sense to talk about "splitting the profit" at a fixed rate. But I guess the "service" providers do get paid at some rate according to the traffic they generate at non-peak hours. Anyway, this kind of traffic does usually make some money for the local network operator (telephone company, whatever -- please bear over with my non-merkin vocabulary). However, the risk is entirely on the local network operator. The customer may be broke, not able to pay an enourmous phone bill. There may be complaints about suspected grey-/gold-/whatever-boxing. Haakon Styri *** std. disclaimer applies *** [Moderator's Note: The only fraud against 900 numbers I've ever seen (other than making the call and later claiming you did not, or you were not happy with it or the call was made by a minor, etc) involves finding out what actual POTS number the 900 number translates into and then calling the POTS number direct, bypassing the billing machinery in the process. For small-time 900 information providers, getting the traffic brought in on T-1 direct from the IXC may not be affordable or cost effective. They rely on their 900 provider accepting the call at the local Point of Presence, then outdialing it to a regular number. A few years ago when some 900 operators had their hooks into the carrier's Point of Presence in the Opera Building downtown, someone noted a whole slew of them were on the 312-601 exchange. In a phreak pamphlet published about 1987 under the title 'Why Should You Have to Pay For A Good Time?' a couple dozen or so IP's were listed with their 900 number, the cost (you were avoiding), and the POTS translation number. Of course I doubt they paid for the call to the POTS number either; they probably hacked that as well ... one that I remember is in Our Nation's (Drug and Crime) Capitol, Washington DC. The Naval Observatory Talking Clock can be reached at 900-410-TIME or via POTS at 202-653-1800. I am reminded of the story about the prostitute who goes into a bank to get change for a hundred-dollar bill; the teller examines the money and tells the prostitute it is counterfeit; the prostitute screams 'my god, I've been raped!' ... can you imagine some of those IPs screaming when they finished 30, 45 or 60 minute sessions with those phreaks only to later find out the 900 provider had no record of the call because they never saw it? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 10:20:20 -0400 (EDT) From: David A. Cantor Subject: Re: *6n Codes (Actually, Vertical Services Codes) Re Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 411, Message 13 of 14: > Call Forwarding: start *72 1172 > Call Forwarding: cancel *73 1173 > Speed Calling *74 1174 Here in Nashua, New Hampshire (in New England Telephone land), these codes are dialled as 72#, 73#, and 74# (thought the equivalent 117n codes also work). Also, 74# is used for Speed Calling-8, but 75# is used for Speed Calling-30. I recall using the same codes (nn# variety) when I lived in Lowell, Mass. David A. Cantor +1 603-888-8133 131 D.W. Highway, #505 Nashua, NH 03060 ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Re: NYNEX ISDN Hot Line Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 16:00:52 GMT In article keng@skypoint.com (Ken Germann) writes: > Digiboard supports the ISDN connections through the IMAC and PC/IMAC > product lines. There/our sales department can be reached at > 612-943-9020 or e-mail to sales@dbsales.digibd.com. > The IMAC will do either 128k per second or 256k per second on an ISDN line. > Ken Germann Sky Point Communications, Inc. I'll presume that passing of 256k on an ISDN line implies using a Primary access line (23B+D) or at least two basic access lines (2B+D) because the ability to run 256K requires at least 4 B channels (64k each). If my presumption is wrong, could you please explain what is being done? Thanks, Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!cc!whs70 201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@cc.bellcore.com ------------------------------ From: pjs@euclid.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Peter J. Scott) Subject: Re: Costing Home Fiber Installation: Looking For Advice Date: 24 Jun 1993 17:02:12 GMT Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA/Caltech Reply-To: pjs@euclid.Jpl.Nasa.Gov In article , lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) writes: > In article Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/ > Caltech (pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov) writes: >> let's say that I'm moving to a house one to five miles outside the >> nearest (small) town in Northern California, for the sake of immediate >> argument, not that there won't be many other issues to nail down. >> Whom should I contact for more information? > You should contact an INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER also called a > mid-level network operator or "regional network". There are about 50 > of these; most are only active in a particular geographical area, and > many serve only "Research and Education". >> [Moderator's Note: It won't come inexpensively, and unless your expected >> volume of news and mail is going to be really huge, you will probably >> wind up with a UUCP-style arrangement, calling on the phone as desired >> to poll, etc. Private, dedicated circuits of any kind -- fiber optic >> or regular lead wires -- are seldom justified economically unless you >> can keep the line loaded, or in use virtually 24 hours per day. You >> will also need to pay whoever provisions your Internet connection, in >> addition to telco or whoever strings the circuit for you. ... PAT] I should have mentioned that I have in mind being able to work at home ... which would require a high-speed connection capable of carrying X (so at least 56kb) and preferably audio/video (in which case, fiber). This is not (just) for private news and mail. Yeah, the cost could be out of sight, but I'd still like to know what it is. Most of it would be tax-deductible. Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech (pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #421 ******************************   Received: from [129.105.5.103] by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02989; 27 Jun 93 15:23 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24765 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 27 Jun 1993 00:53:32 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28586 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 27 Jun 1993 00:53:03 -0500 Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1993 00:53:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306270553.AA28586@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #428 TELECOM Digest Sun, 27 Jun 93 00:53:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 428 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Competition News Tidbits (Bell Canada News via David Leibold) Bell Canada Seeks 800 Portability Throughout North America (David Leibold) FTP Address for CuD? (Christopher Zguris) Refunds For Certain 900 Calls (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Alpha Pager Interface (Steven Warner) Re: Cell/Pager Integration (Lynne Gregg) How to Tell What Phone Number is When I Can't Dial? (Dave Grabowski) Re: Step-by-Step Offices (Terry Kennedy) Canadian Video on Demand Tests (David Leibold) Re: NiCd Batteries and Discharge Cycles (Alan Boritz) Re: NiCd Batteries and Discharge Cycles (A. Padgett Peterson) Area Code and Prefix Each Off by One Digit (Carl G. Moore, Jr) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Competition News Tidbits From: woody Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 21:49:44 -0400 [from Bell News, Bell Canada (Ontario) 28 June 1993. The following is thus a compilation of Bell Canada's, and some items may be older than others.] News from the competitive front: Deregulation is only option. Industry consultant Frank McInerney thinks complete deregulation is the only policy option for the rapidly converging cable and telecommunications industries. "Your customers will decide to deregulate you with an axe, as has happened with IBM", McInerney told cable and telephone company representatives at a recent telecommunications conference sponsored by {The Financial Post}. AGT competition hearing continues. The CRTC hearing on the requests by Unitel and Cam-net to interconnect with AGT is still proceeding. Both companies want to offer long distance services in Alberta, but AGT was not part of the 1992 hearings on the long distance issue and is not subject to the terms of Decision 92-12 [CRTC decision opening long distance competition to most telcos]. Final comments from all parties in the AGT proceeding began June 25. AT&T leads international pack. AT&T is the world's largest carrier of international traffic, according to a recent report by Lehman Bros., a U.S. consulting firm. Based on 1991 statistics for minutes of use, the report put AT&T way out in front of the pack with 6.56 billion minutes of international calls. Germany's Deutsche Telekom was a distant second with 3.56 billion minutes, followed by France Telecom, British Telecom, Cable and Wireless, and MCI. Stentor was listed in eighth place with 1.42 billion minutes, which represents calls from Canada to the U.S. Overseas calls from Canada are carried by Teleglobe which was not included in the list. AT&T launches WorldSource. AT&T recently announced the development of a new global network system called WorldSource. By developing customized seamless services to suit the needs of the world's big multi-national corporations, WorldSource will provide competition for the new international joint-venture company recently announced by British Telecom and MCI. AT&T increases long distance rates. AT&T has announced that it intends to raise some prices and lower others on certain direct-dialed long distance calls made during the evening. The new rates, which amount to an additional five cents per month on the average consumer's long distance bill, will provide AT&T with a net increase of $46.5 million (U.S.) in annual revenue. US West buys into Time Warner. US West, one of the regional Bell operating companies, has agreed to buy 25 per cent of Time Warner Entertainment for $2.5 billion (US). Time Warner is the second largest U.S. cable operator and owns the rights to thousands of Hollywood movies. The two companies plan to join forces to deliver information and entertainment services directly to the home. Visa and Sprint team up. Visa and Sprint have teamed up to offer U.S. Visa customers a new service that makes it easier for them to use their Visa cards to make long distance calls. Customers simply dial 10 VSA to access the service, then input their home telephone number and a four-digit Visa code. Customers of the new service benefit from long distance savings plus convenient dialing and billing. ------------------------------ Subject: Bell Canada Seeks 800 Portability Throughout North America From: woody Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 21:55:11 -0400 [from Bell News, Bell Canada (Ontario) 28 June 1993; content is Bell's] Bell favors North American 800 number portability. Bell announced that it intends to push for full North American 800 number portability. Bell and its Stentor partner companies plan to implement this service on January 16, 1994. Portability has been available in the U.S. since May 1, 1993 but a number of technical and administrative issues will need to be addressed before full portability is available in Canada. Portability will enable 800 Service[tm] customers to have a greater choice of 800 numbers. Business customers will be able to take their 800 numbers with them if they decide to change carriers. This will provide customers with greater convenience and will enable them to take full advantage of the "equity" they have built up in their 800 numbers with their customers. Businesses with locations in both Canada and the U.S. will no longer need more than one 800 number. North American portability means that rather than haveing two separate databases of 800 numbers (one for Canadian businesses and the other for U.S.),all 800 numbers are pooled together into a single North American database available to businesses located throughout Canada and the U.S. Portability allows businesses to keep their current 800 numbers if they change carriers. Advantages for business customers. More and more, Canadian businesses are relying on 800 Service as a valuable, reliable business tool that allows their customers to contact them easily without incurring any long distance charges. Many businesses invest heavily in terms of time, money and effort to gain a presence in the marketplace and make their 800 numbers known to their customers. With portability, they won't have to risk losing the "equity" they've built up and the investment they've made since they will be able to retain the same number if they change carriers. Customers with operations on both sides of the border will be able to use the same 800 number. Presently, Canadian businesses are limited to a relatively small choice of 800 numbers. With portability there will be more 800 numbers available to businesses as they can choose from a larger, North American pool of numbers. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Jun 93 01:42 GMT From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: FTP Address for CuD? In past issues of the Digest the CuD Archives were mentioned but their FTP address _was not_. Can someone provide the address? Thanks! Christopher Zguris 0004854540@MCIMail.com [Moderator's Note: Surely ... try anonymous ftp eff.org. Two respon- sible people at the EFF both wrote to the Digest today to state that Computer Underground Digest would be remaining there. There are other sites as well; Jim Thomas, a co-moderator of CuD may well see this and write to you with more specifics. PAT] ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@Panix.Com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Refunds For Certain 900 Calls Date: 26 Jun 1993 16:49:18 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC A legal notice in the {New York Times} today talks of a program to get refunds for those who dialed three particular 900 numbers. The numbers are 900-446-3386, 900-726-2526, and 900-726-9988. The numbers were apparently provided by MCI to a company called Cesrap Judging Organization and B L Bracken Judging Organization. The program is being administered by the NY State Department of Law, Bureau of Consumer Frauds. 120 Broadway, 3rd fl, NY NY 10271, attention 900 unit. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (intellectual property lawyer) 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112-0228 voice 212-408-2578 fax 212-765-2519 ------------------------------ From: sgw@boy.com (Steven Warner) Subject: Re: Alpha Pager Interface Organization: RTFM / beachSystems, Sunnyvale, CA, USA Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 19:19:09 GMT In article ian@netcom.com (James Ian McGowan) writes: > Does any one know of an IBM-PC program that will send plain text files > to an alpha pager? I have offered one that runs in WINDOWS called swIXO. Currently we are holding sending any more out because of difficulty with a few paging systems. Once we iron out this problem we will make it available again. Swixo is shareware, $20 registration fee requested if you like it. There are other programs that run in DOS, which retail for 50-$100. Steven Warner (34W 36L) sgw@boy.com ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Cell/Pager Integration Date: Sat, 26 Jun 93 14:34:00 PDT Jody, after reading your lengthy account of setting up outcall notify, I HAD to put my two cents in ... Holy, moly! I can't believe the trouble that you went though. Don't know your location (presume LA), but I have to tell you how SIMPLE it is to set up outcall notification within the McCaw/LIN system. This includes LA Cellular. Glad to hear your using voicemail on your cellular. I don't know how anyone can cost-effectively use cellular without it. Anyway, I use cellular the same way you were attempting to: 1) Let cell call roll to voicemail to screen the call or when cellphone is powered off (or in the car, etc.). 2) On receipt of voicemail, system (correct, it's Octel) outcalls to your Skypage (or others) to alert you. 3) You check voicemail, return call as convenient. My best advice to cellular customers is that you visit your local Cellular One office for package that includes cellular AND paging service. They're VERY complimentary and using them together will help you use your cellular service cost effectively (my cellphone is used for home AND business purposes and I screen calls in the evening so I don't have to talk to telemarketers). If you are presently a Cellular One or LA Cell customer and already have your cell and pager service, just dial *611 at any time and ask Customer Care to set up 'outcall to my pager'. IT'S JUST THAT SIMPLE. I favor Skypage, since it covers the entire continent and alerts you of calls while you're traveling. Also, you can distribute your pager number to associates who may need to reach you in emergency. We also have outcall notify on our corporate PBX/voicemail system and I've set up my voicemail with the option for callers to mark messages urgent (again, I get outcall to my Skypage with my corporate DID displayed on the pager). I favor the separate pager/cellphone approach because it's always handy to be able to carry one without the other, depending on situation. On the weekend, you can always hand off the pager to a spouse or child so you can keep in touch if necessary. Regards, Lynne ------------------------------ From: dcg5662@hertz.njit.edu (Dave Grabowski (KxiK)) Subject: How to Tell What Phone Number is When I Can't Dial? Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1993 04:45:58 GMT Something strange happened a few weeks ago. But I'm sure SOMEBODY out there can figure this out ... I live in a fraternity house. Outside next to our front door, we've got a little yellow box with a telephone handset in it. Pick it up and you hear ringing, after which you are warmly greeted by a cheery campus police person. This is a very good thing to have (not that it's all that hard to dial the cops from any of the dozen or so phone lines in the house), and I've used it on a couple occasions. A couple weeks ago, I was watching TV when I heard a phone ringing. Was it the TV on the phone? Nooooo. It was the darn thing outside. It's got a bell in it. I ran outside to answer it, but I didn't get it in time. So, my question: How can I find out what the phone number is for this thing? NJ Bell is no help. And it's impossible to dial "958" on this phone, because a) there's no keypad, and more importantly, b) you never get a dialtone. Apparently, the switch is programmed to merely dial this one phone number. Hooking up a phone to the line will instantly get you the campus cops (I wonder if they're sick of me yet). Another question: Any idea how much my school pays for this thing? There are about ten of them around. The school touts it as one of the "wonderful" things they do for us, and frankly, I can think of dozens of better ways for them to spend their money (Keg party, anyone?). Dave Kappa Xi Kappa - Over & Above Since 1964 dcg5662@hertz.njit.edu In Beautiful Newark, NJ (car theft capital USA) 70721.2222@compuserve.com [Moderator's Note: Dave, there is no phone number for it. Most likely it is a ringdown private circuit. When either end goes off hook, the other end starts ringing automatically. I doubt that it is programmed to 'dial a number automatically when it goes off hook', although that could be the case. More likely, it is just an arrangement in the CO which (when the loop closes on either end) toggles something in the CO and starts ringing on the opposite end. If it actually dialed a number you would at least occassionally hear a bit of dialtone at the very beginning as the dialer kicked in, or you would hear the tones, etc. On the police end, these ten or so call boxes scattered around the campus probably converge on a phone similar to a 12 or 20 button (lines) call director instrument. The illuminated button for each line tells the dispatcher which of the call boxes went off hook so he knows where to send assistance. If it was ringing, most likely someone took it off hook then hung up, or left the dispatcher thinking help might be needed there; he was probably ringing back to speak with whoever had called from there a few seconds earlier. Most PL's (private lines as they are usually called) are charged by the mile or half-mile between ends of the circuit. Thirty or forty dollars per month per line is a good guess. More than likely the dispatcher's unit is arranged so he can tap a button on the console and bring the Newark Police in on the call almost instantly if needed. Find something else to play with and quit harassing the police. Some day you may need that phone, when you do, let us know if it was worth a keg of beer or not. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Terry Kennedy Subject: Re: Step-by-Step Offices Organization: St. Peter's College, US Date: 26 Jun 93 23:41:46 EDT In article , system@garlic.sbs.com writes: > By Panel do you mean a Crossbar switch? I'll agree that X-bars were > noisy and hideous for connecting calls. No, panel was another style of switch altogether. It was used in areas with high population density (big cities) while crossbar deployed more in in smaller cities (or which has more widely spaced CO's) and in the suburbs. #1 crossbar, which supported about the same number of subscriber lines as panel (one to five prefixes) was mainly used to add capacity in cities as panel neared the end of manufacturing life. In 1976, there were still 55 panel switches in service, serving some 850,000 subscriber lines. Crossbar was virtually silent (on calls, not in the switchroom 8-) compared to panel. > [Moderator's Note: A curious thing about Wabash was that if the called > line was busy you *always* got one, two or three rings first before it > changed to a busy signal. And if the called party answered before the > start of the second ring, the caller rarely heard a ring on his end at > all! PAT] Definitely sounds like panel to me. Further, "A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System - Switching Technology (1925-1975)" says: "Panel systems were installed primarily in the larger cities, such as Boston, Chicago, New York City, ...", so I tend to believe that Pat's CO was panel. In article , stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > Well, Pacific Bell managed to provide Equal Access on #5 crossbars, if > you can believe that. They had some company fab up an electronic > adjunt that connected to the xbar and implemented default carriers, > 10XXX dialing, and so on. I had service on such a switch on 415-848 > before was cut over to an electronic switch a couple of years ago. This sort of stuff was being experimented with by various groups. One project even added electronic control to SxS equipment. At least crossbar was easier to modify. In fact, the #4 crossbar (toll tandem) was modified for complete electronic control, producing the 4A/ETS toll switch. This is probably the most successful of these attempts. Most never went to production because they would not be cost-effective, compared with simply replacing the older switch with a 1ESS or newer model. Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA terry@spcvxa.spc.edu +1 201 915 9381 [Moderator's Note: Another curious thing about Wasbash was that the payphone operators could not *return* money deposited on calls that did not answer or the line was busy. On local calls like this, hanging up caused the money to return as usual, but on long distance, if the operator could not get through she would say "Hold for the return of your money," ... there would be a click as she connected to another operator who answered "Franklin Coin" (Franklin is a CO downtown) and your operator would then say something like "Return on trunk 5076". There would be a god-awful buzz in your earpiece, and your coins would fall down into the return slot. Now and again the operator would make a mistake and trip the collection table the wrong way; your operator would immediately chastise Franklin, "Operator, I told you to RETURN, not to COLLECT!" Not to worry ... "Will you be trying the call again in a few minutes sir?" (yes) "Then just tell the operator you have fifty-five cents credit coming from operator 479." (or whoever). PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Canadian Video on Demand Tests From: woody Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 21:57:58 -0400 The Bell News for this week also reports that there will be a Video On Demand (VOD) trial involving Bell/Stentor, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa starting in January 1994. Course materials on video can be called up via specially-equipped PC's connected to Bell lines employing ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber loop) technol- ogy. The hope is to expand the trial to another phase involving other institutions after that. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Jun 93 08:47:00 EDT From: Alan Boritz <72446.461@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: NiCd Batteries and Discharge Cycles Paul Robinson writes: >> This feature, of course, is to prevent the "memory effect" from >> occuring. It also trickle-charges the battery after the green "full" >> light comes on. > Now this is an issue that has been written up both ways; some people > say the "memory effect" is an Urban Legend, and that it only happens > under laboratory conditions, and some people say it does happen in the > real world. Does anyone know of this *really* happening? The "memory effect" is very real and measurable phenomenon. I use an Alexander "Tri-Analyzer" to condition two-way radio batteries that exhibit the effect, though the analyzer can be configured to work with just about any NiCad battery. The analyzer does three deep discharge/charge cycles and displays the battery capacity in mAh (milliampere-hours). A battery exhibiting the memory effect will show a relatively lower reading at the beginning of a run, compared to the reading at the end of a run. Sometimes two or more runs are needed to bring it back close to what it should be (factory spec). All NiCad batteries will eventually lose their mAh capacity as they age, and develop an internal short (which can sometimes be cleared with a short duration pulse, but more about that in another article ;). However, a battery exhibiting the memory effect will most likely fail earlier than a similar battery that has had normal discharge and charge cycles. The "urban legend" comes from people who simply don't know, or don't have reason to care (no one buys battery analyzers for cordless phones and flashlights). However people who earn their living with this equipment know the real story, and probably chuckle when they consider that they're part of the "legend." ;) Alan Boritz 72446.461@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Jun 93 11:07:11 -0400 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: NiCd Batteries and Discharge Cycles Paul Robinson wrote: > Now this is an issue that has been written up both ways; some people > say the "memory effect" is an Urban Legend, and that it only happens > under laboratory conditions, and some people say it does happen in the > real world. Does anyone know of this *really* happening? Problem is, how do you separate the "memory effect" from normal aging ? On my laptop which is now about two years old, no amount of charging will turn the "battery warning" light off yet it seems to run for about the same time as when new. This would seem to be "aging". If instead, the battery light did not come on until moments before shut-down this would seem to be a memory effect. Similarly, one would expect "memory effect" to show up as an increased or sudden decline rate from the maximum while aging would show up as a failure to reach the peak with essentially the same decline rate from that point. I know this is not an answer to the question, but rather an attempt to quantify it for discussion. Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 23:26:45 -0400 From: Carl G Moore Jr Subject: Area Code and Prefix Each Off by One Digit Try this: Dana, Indiana (317) 665 West Dana, Illinois (217) 666 Confusion? reply-to cmoore@brl.mil ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #428 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03491; 27 Jun 93 15:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08593 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 26 Jun 1993 23:26:42 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01909 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 26 Jun 1993 23:26:10 -0500 Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 23:26:10 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306270426.AA01909@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #427 TELECOM Digest Sat, 26 Jun 93 23:26:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 427 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Mouthpiece Disconnected as Accident of Technology (Ron Oberman) Re: Mouthpiece Disconnected as Accident of Technology (Paul Wallich) Re: Headset Equipped Cordless? (Trevor Deosaran) Re: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) (Steven H. Lichter) Re: DTMF Driven Answering Machines (Monty Solomon) Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards (Monty Solomon) Re: Are You a Prodigy Deadbeat? (Gideon Yuval) Re: Voice Mail Problem - No or Delayed Notification (Dale Chayes) Re: Particularity of 555? (Ehud Gavron) Re: Caution! Possible Prank Message Printed! (John Nagle) Re: Caution! Possible Prank Message Printed! (Ed Greenberg) Re: Caller ID and Overseas Calls (Georg Schwarz) Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? (Laurence Chiu) Re: Spread Spectrum Microwave in Europe (David Hough) Re: "Buyable" Specific Phone Numbers (Brian T. Vita) Re: PBX Information Wanted (Bonnie J Johnson) Re: AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial (Eric P. Scott) Re: Blocking an Unlisted Number (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! (Rev. Michael P. Deignan) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: Mouthpiece Disconnected as Accident of Technology Date: Sun, 27 Jun 93 00:49:16 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory In Article Jerry Leichter writes: > No such constraints exist today. Certainly, an ISDN phone could > easily be set up to forward voice from the mouthpiece no matter what > the "switchhook" state is -- that's probably just a bit in the > software. Building this into traditional analogue phones would be > harder, but no big deal -- though why anyone should bother, except for > bugging, I don't know. In fact, my office has a specially modified AT&T ISDN 7506. It is in an area where classified discussions take place, do the phone is modified so that the switch-hook actually disconnects the microphone and the "speaker phone" is physically disconnected. Also, because government type acceptance is real pain, it is the most featureless ISDN phone imaginable running V1.7 firmware. Since it is unlikely AT&T will go through the hassle of getting type acceptance for newer units any time soon, I'm stuck with a brain-dead phone. :-( But at least I know that no one at the switch can turn on the mic and listen in to what is said in my office. Not sure which I prefer, but remember that with many ISDN phones the mic CAN be turned on by software commands without ringing the phone. (Not that I have any evidence such software is available the the switch generics.) R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: koberman@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 ------------------------------ From: pw@Panix.Com (Paul Wallich) Subject: Re: Mouthpiece Disconnected as Accident of Technology Date: 26 Jun 1993 16:58:58 -0400 Organization: Trivializers R Us In Jerry Leichter writes: > That the mouthpiece is disconnected IS an accident of technology. > No such constraints exist today. Certainly, an ISDN phone could > easily be set up to forward voice from the mouthpiece no matter what > the "switchhook" state is -- that's probably just a bit in the > software. In point of fact, in ISDN speakerphones the microphone is controlled from the switch (usually a PBX). You push the button to activate the speaker, this tells the switch, which in turn tells the microphone to turn on. Something about centralized architectures, I guess, but almost perfect for bugging. People I've asked about this explain that this is not a security risk because the little light on the speakerphone would also go on, and so people would know that their mike was live. Uh-huh. paul ------------------------------ From: deo@shell.portal.com (Trevor Deosaran) Subject: Re: Headset Equipped Cordless? Organization: Portal Communications Company Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 08:06:11 GMT This is reference to another "nifty " device I am looking for. I would like a device which can talk to my cordless phone but allow me to plug in my portable computer's modem (using standard jack); a sort of cordless extension cord. I heard about the crap which runs thru the power lines, but I would prefer if this was a small box with batteries and a jack (and possibly a channel selector). Thanks, deo ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Hayes Patent (was Re: Modem Waiting for the BONG) Date: 26 Jun 1993 00:03:17 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) It is my understanding that Practicial Perphials is owned by Hayes. The two that I have had a very much like the Hayes modems in looks as well as the way they run. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 22:20:51 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: DTMF Driven Answering Machines > Right you are, and still the security of this thing makes me giggle: > A mere DTMF speed-dial program dials the complete string: > (0212223242526272829208182838485868788898; 50 ms mark, 50 ms interval) > in 3.950, say four seconds. Since the code is to be entered during the > OGM, most of them are yours within one call. Current models permit the code to be entered at any time during or after the OGM. This provides a much larger window. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 22:18:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Grocery Stores Accepting Credit Cards >> I don't think there is any law against this -- it is the policy of the >> credit card companies > In California, it is a law. This kind of special-interest legislation > really makes me mad. If a merchant has higher costs on a credit card > transaction, he should be allowed to charge more. But the banks > pushed through this law in order to not discourage card use. > Merchants get around it by offering a "cash discount" instead of a > credit card surcharge. The fine print on ads often reads "All prices > reflect cash discount". In Massachusetts, merchants can offer a discount for payment via cash or check, but the advertised and/or marked price must be the non-discounted price. Merchants are prohibited from imposing a surcharge for credit card purchases. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ From: gideony@microsoft.com (Gideon Yuval) Subject: Re: Are you a Prodigy Deadbeat? Date: 27 Jun 93 03:44:08 GMT Organization: Microsoft Corporation In article barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) writes: > Steve's final comment: "Maybe they know a lot about computers. But > when it comes to business, they're no prodigy." CompuServe plays the same game. Gideon Yuval, gideony@microsoft.com, 206-882-8080 (fax:-936-7329;TWX:160520) ------------------------------ From: dale@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu (Dale Chayes) Subject: Re: Voice Mail Problem - No or Delayed Notification Reply-To: dale@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu Organization: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 15:31:23 GMT I noticed recently that our AT&T Audix system is tagging messages with times in the future (in the three to eight minute range.) This was supposed to have been reported to AT&T, but I haven't got any response yet (which may not be AT&T's fault.) At least once, it has recorded both sides of a conversation that did not involve my extension, and then deposited the whole thing in my voice message queue. I reported this as well: in fact, I forwarded the message to our admin. He promised to report this to AT&T as well. Also, no feedback yet. There have been rumors, but none substantiated in my opinion, that Audix has lost voice messages. Find a copy of "The Design of Everday Things", (sorry, the author's name escapes me at the moment) for an iluminating discussion about users opinions of phone systems! Have fun, Dale Chayes Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University Internet: dale@ldeo.columbia.edu Voice: (914) 365-8434 Fax: (914) 359-6940 ------------------------------ From: gavron@spades.aces.com (Ehud Gavron) Subject: Re: Particularity of 555? Date: 26 Jun 1993 18:52 MST Organization: ACES Research Inc. Reply-To: gavron@ACES.COM In article , msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) writes ... [from the Andromeda Strain]: > He pulled out of his wallet a business card. The only writing > on it was: > Wildfire > Ext. 87 > He wondered what would happen if he dialed the binary of 87. > He took a piece of paper and wrote out: > 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 > 1 + 2 + 4 + 16 + 64 = 87 > 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 > 1-110-1010. A perfectly reasonable phone number. Not at all. Normally bit patters are written right to left: 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 ========================================================== 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 > When I read this, I immediately deduced that wherever the novel was > supposed to be set, it wasn't the present-day USA. The original number 1-110-1010 wouldn't have worked because when the Andromeda Strain was written, 1 was not a valid digit for the second digit of an exchange. The right-to-left ordered number is 01010111 which parses into 010 - 1 - 0111 which means "operator assisted international call, country code 1 (usa), number 0111" which is clearly invalid. You could erroneously parse it as 0-101-0111 but you'll find that there are no exchanges or area codes which start with 10 or 11 to avoid the conflict with direct and operator assisted international dialing. Ehud Gavron (EG76) gavron@aces.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Jun 93 15:00:06 -0700 From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: Caution! Possible Prank Message Printed! There is no "San Jose Harald" or "Herald". There is only a San Jose Mercury News. John Nagle Menlo Park, CA ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Jun 93 17:45:06 -0700 From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Caution! Possible Prank Message Printed! Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) San Jose's newspaper is called the Mercury News. There is no mainstream paper called the San Jose Herald, unless perhaps it's in Costa Rica :-) Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG ------------------------------ From: georg@marie.physik.tu-berlin.de (Georg Schwarz) Subject: Re: Caller ID and Overseas Calls Date: 26 Jun 1993 16:45:44 GMT Organization: TUBerlin/ZRZ In georg@lise.physik.tu-berlin.de (Georg Schwarz) writes: > Is the calling party's telephone number displayed on US/Canadian > caller ID displays when the call originates from overseas (outside the > +1 hemisphere)? In case this feature is (not yet) implemented is it > already technically possible? Is the necessary information (calling > party's numer, country code etc.) being transfered "across the > border"? Is there an international standard on the format of this > data? What about the legal situation? > [Moderator's Note: For my new service 'Telepassport' I will be getting > the numbers of overseas callers, but it is not yet very common. PAT] Could you perhaps specify from which countries you are actually getting the overseas callers' numbers, and whether it is the full number or for example only the country code. [Moderator's Note: Well, in order to call the party back and give them USA dialtone, their entire number would have to be known. A lot of good it would do to only know what country they were in! There will also be a 'call forwarding' option attached to this; similar to AT&T's Easy Reach 700 plan. This will permit world travelers to have their calls keep up with them. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: AT&T Loyalty Program? From: uttsbbs!laurence.chiu@PacBell.COM (Laurence Chiu) Date: 26 Jun 93 23:36:00 GMT Organization: The Transfer Station BBS, Danville, CA - 510-837-4610/837-5591 Reply-To: uttsbbs!laurence.chiu@PacBell.COM (Laurence Chiu) Steve Moulton had the following to say about the AT&T Loyalty Program: > In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve > Forrette) writes: >> In article mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu >> (Michael Rosen) writes: >>> I tried calling 800-222-0300 the night I read the post here on >>> TELECOM Digest. At first the operator seemed to comprehend what I wa >>> asking about but then she started going off about discounts of 25% to >>> one area code I dial the most. This did not sound like the >>> loyalty program" described in the post of TD. >> I called the 800-222-0300 number and asked about the Loyalty Program, >> and the rep knew exactly what I was talking about. > Same here, however, since I did not meet the minimum average monthly > long distance billing at home (something like $30) neither the simple > savings plan (25/15% discount) or the loyalty program (check for average > monthly billing over six months) applied. As usual with AT&T, the sales >person seemed to know exactly what was going on. Seeing all these posts about AT&T's domestic calling plans reminds me of Sprint's advertisement featuring Candice Bergen where she jokingly shows a very complex flowchart/state diagram and describes it as your LD calling plan -- the point being with Sprint you don't have to worry about it -- they take care of it for you (do they?) I am just glad I make so few domestic LD calls that the carrier is irrelevant. Navigating international LD plans is a little easier although this month with MCI offering double discounts to F&F members on Saturdays and AT&T apparently matching it via Special Country savings on certain hours in the weekend, life has become a little more complex. Laurence Chiu lchiu@holonet.net <=== preferred e-mail address The Transfer Station BBS (510) 837-4610 & 837-5591 (V.32bis both lines) Danville, California, USA. 1.5 GIG Files & FREE public Internet Access ------------------------------ From: dave@llondel.demon.co.uk (David Hough) Subject: Re: Spread Spectrum Microwave in Europe Reply-To: dave@llondel.demon.co.uk Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 18:29:32 +0000 In article BACKON@vms.huji.ac.il writes: > I'd appreciate getting feedback from European (especially those from > England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands) readers of TELECOM > Digest regarding the legality of using spread spectrum digital radio > microwave. In the United States one does not need an FCC license as > per FCC Rule 15.247 to operate this type of microwave link since it > has a very low power density spectrum and there is no need to > coordinate frequencies. Does your country allow one to operate this > without a license? The UK (and possibly the whole of Europe) is allowing wireless LANs to use a band somewhere around 2.4GHz. As far as I know, this will be available without a licence using the type-approved equipment. Sounds ideal for eavesdroppers and industrial espionage ... it might be low power but it will propagate far enough for someone with the right kit to pick it up from the street outside! Dave G4WRW @ GB7WRW.#41.GBR.EU AX25 dave@llondel.demon.co.uk Internet g4wrw@g4wrw.ampr.org Amprnet ------------------------------ Date: 26 Jun 93 23:53:20 EDT From: Brian T. Vita <70702.2233@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: "Buyable" Specific Phone Numbers > C&P Telephone company will allow you, for an extra charge, to ask for a > specific number if it's in your area and not in use. When I have sent service orders for customers through to NET for service (new or additional) they have let me request up to three possible "choices" for vanity numbers with the order. If one of the three choices is available they let me have it at no charge, if not I get the arbitrary choice. Brian Vita CSS, Inc. CI$70702,2233 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Jun 93 15:36:58 EDT From: Bonnie J Johnson Subject: Re: PBX Information Wanted In response to Tommi Chen's request: All the major PBX and CO manufacturers and vendors have done comparisons of their own to the other vendors equipment. In most cases just a simple phone call asking for any comparisons they may done will generate such a document. But beware-there will also be a storm of vendors at your door and possible some disparity on comparisons when they find you are looking. bj ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Jun 93 18:14:53 PDT From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) Subject: Re: AT&T "YOU WILL" Commercial Organization: San Francisco State University Reply-To: eps@cs.SFSU.EDU Greg, try this version: "U.S. Government. We have a warrant." >click!< (Of course, future building codes will probably mandate a secret back door, just for them.) -=EPS=- ------------------------------ From: goldstein@isdnip.lkg.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Blocking an Unlisted Number Reply-To: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 17:29:22 GMT In article Bob_Frankston@frankston.com writes: > You touch one of my pet peeves. Given that numbers are cheap (OK, in > 1995 they'll be cheap), why can't one standardly have home ISDN that > provides personal phone numbers for each person (or logical entity) in > a household. Sort of extended distinctive ringing. When placing a > call one would have the option of identifying the caller either > explicitly or by instrument (AKA phone) used? Under the Massachusetts tariff for Residential (and business) ISDN, additional telephone numbers are $1/month apiece. So you can buy numbers for the family. However, most ISDN equipment expects the numbers to identify the equipment, not a person. I don't know of anything that takes ISDN called line ID and uses it for, say, distinctive ringing. But I suppose it's a SMOP, right? Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: kd1hz@anomaly.sbs.com (Rev. Michael P. Deignan) Subject: Re: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! Organization: Small Business Systems, Incorporated, Smithfield, RI 02917 Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 23:51:42 GMT adiron!tro@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Olin) writes: > Actually, the operator *knew* the caller was a man, thanks to the new > CGID service. CGID stands for Calling Gender ID. How does this service work with Pat, the androgynous person in Saturday Nite Live skits? Or is she/he/it a hermaphrodite? MD [Moderator's Note: For a minute there, I thought you were going to ask how does it work with Pat, the Virtual Moderator ... a service like CGID would be a great feature on Compuserve in the CB Simulator Hot Chats. Have you any idea how many times per night someone using a gender-neutral handle like 'Pat' gets the message "/page are you m or f? age?" Usually I respond that I am an artificial intelligence program and that my gender can be changed in software or from a dip switch setting which will be the default each time I am rebooted. I tell them to type the command '/sex' when talking to me to toggle the gender. And you know what? One dunce *actually believed me*. When he tried it 'but couldn't get it to work right' I suggested he call CIS customer service and ask them to 'enable his account to use the gender-bender feature in CB'. *His* phone call must have left them shaking their virtual heads in wonder and amazement ... just when they thought they had heard it all from their customers ... :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #427 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03543; 27 Jun 93 15:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14619 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 26 Jun 1993 17:50:56 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30781 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 26 Jun 1993 17:50:22 -0500 Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 17:50:22 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199306262250.AA30781@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #426 TELECOM Digest Sat, 26 Jun 93 17:50:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 426 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Future of ISDN (Nick Bryant) Re: Future of ISDN (Ron Trask) Re: How Much Code in Switch Software? (Rafe Colburn) Re: How Much Code in Switch Software? (Bob Haddleton) Re: Internet -> ATT Mail Delays (David H. Close) Re: Internet -> ATT Mail Delays (Daniel K. Cheng) Re: Buying a Cellular Phone (Laurence Chiu) Re: Buying a Cellular Phone (Jim Rees) Re: Buying a Cellular Phone (Lynne Gregg) Re: Old-Time Party Lines (John Macdonald) Re: Step-by-Step Offices (system@garlic.sbs.com) Re: Step-by-Step Offices (Steve Forrette) Re: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! (Jon Edelson) Re: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! (Tom Olin) Re: Sir? SIR?? How Rude and Presumptuous of MCI! (Jeff Jonas) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bryant@mpr.ca (Nick Bryant) Subject: Re: Future of ISDN Organization: MPR Teltech Ltd., Burnaby, B.C., Canada Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 14:04:46 GMT In article mfraser@vanbc.wimsey.com (Mark Fraser) writes: > While we're talking ISDN -- what is the status of the D-channel > capability in USA, Canada, Japan and Europe? I have been led to > believe that Canadian deployment will limit the useful ness of > D-channel because "it threatens the security of the network" and > therefore will not be made available to anyone other than the > (monopoly) common carrier. This brings up a point of potential > efficiency for Paging service providers, Cellular, PCS, competitive LD > carriers and a host of other application providers who could really > offer some whizbang services with D-channel access over and above the > crippleware exposed to date. Comments? It is my understanding that the present limitation on D Channel packet service offerings in Canada has more to do with the regulatory issues and the limitations of the DMS-100 switches which are used almost exclusively for ISDN in Canada. In order to comply with competitive rules, the telcos must allow users of the X.25 system (over D channel) the ability to choose the X.25 carrier of their choice. There is apparently no easy way to do this at the present time (in a DMS-100 CO); the switch takes the packets off the D channel through a packet handler, which is hard-wired (or at least not easily switched) to the packet network. I have no doubt that Northern is trying to do something about it, but as with all things, it takes time and money. It will come, however; the telcos are desperately looking for ways to generate revenues from the many dollars they have spent rolling out ISDN service to date. * Nick Bryant, Member of Technical Staff | Opinions expressed are those of * MPR Teltech Ltd. Burnaby, B.C. Canada | the sender, and do not reflect * bryant@mprgate.mpr.ca 604-293-5319 | MPR Teltech policy or agreement. ------------------------------ From: rtrask@lookout.it.uswc.uswest.com (Ron Trask) Subject: Re: Future of ISDN Organization: U S WEST Information Technologies Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 14:31:43 GMT I forwarded a post that I pulled off of this news group to a friend who worked on ISDN at US West in the early days before they had successfully run any trials on ISDN. She was a major player in helping to bring ISDN capabilities to US West. I thought I would share her comments back to me with the rest of you. I found them enlightening. Ron ------------- Thanks for sharing the inquiry about ISDN. I feel that the author makes some good points, but he also seems to be wearing rose colored glasses. There are some real CPE issues around ISDN. Today, if you buy a terminal or a PC Adapter Card, you have to know what type of telephone switch will provide your service because the interfaces are still not standardized. In addition, if you should move, you may have to replace the interface card if you move into an exchange served by another type of switch. (AT&T switch vs Northern Telcom switch.) Unfortunately, U S WEST's earlier tariffs for CENTREX service involved a specific charge on NARs (Network Access Registers). Now, IDN needs multiple NARs for each line. As a result, we have been unable to develop a price that is reasonable for small business and residence customers. |We're seeing renewed interest in ISDN lately. If we can overcome our tariff and CPE interface issues there may be some hope for ISDN. Another factor is the evolution of alternative access technologies. As we begin to offer voice services through our Cable ventures, we will have a much cheaper solution than ISDN and information services (cataloges, banks, etc) to sweeten up the service offering. I hate to be the pessimist, but I think that the RBOC's and Bellcore put a death nail in the coffin of ISDN over the years. They continued to try to specify the interfaces through generic requirements and standards proposals. In the meantime, AT&T focused on providing ISDN and other data services through their PBX's and Toll Switches and Northern Telecom developed design problems with their ISDN product line. From my ISDN experience, I learned that market demand frequently creates defacto standards and that have a short window of opportunity. The ISDN window is still open, but the days are numbered. ------------------------------ From: HDEVAREC@admin.uh.edu (Rafe Colburn) Subject: Re: How Much Code in Switch Software? Date: 26 Jun 1993 15:20:44 GMT Organization: University of Houston In article , streeter@cs.unca.edu (Tom Streeter) wrote: > There's a thread going on in alt.technology.misc that refuses to die, > and I was hoping someone here might have the information that will be > able to kill it. At least as much as any fact can stop a thread, > anyway. > So, with no further ado: Roughly how many lines of code does the > software that controls digital switches like the 5ESS (to name but > one) use? I know there are probably a number of variables to > consider, but I'm looking for ballpark here. More than a million? > More than two million? > Thanks in advance, and be nice to PAT -- e-mail me instead of replying > back to the Digest. Actually, I would be interested in seeing how much code there is in a switch as well ... I'm sure (I think) that other people are as well, so if you would either post a) a synopsis of the responses here, or b) if someone in the know would post about it, I'd appreciate it. Or you can mail me too. Maybe our Moderator knows the answer anyway. Rafe Colburn University of Houston HDEVAREC@Admin.UH.edu ------------------------------ From: bobh@nwsca.att.com Date: Sat, 26 Jun 93 11:21 CDT Subject: Re: How Much Code in Switch Software? Speaking entirely for myself and not AT&T or 5ESS, the last estimate I heard for 5ESS was in the neighborhood of five to six million lines of code. Note that I say "code", meaning a mixture of C, assembly, and several other languages that eventually compile out to C and assembly. Since my job is software support for 5ESS, and I am in this code every day, I have absolutely no problem believing these figures. I think the Space Shuttle is supposed to have even more code -- this doesn't surprise me either since it is triplicated, not just duplicated. Bob Haddleton AT&T Network System bobh@nwsca.att.com ------------------------------ From: dhclose@cco.caltech.edu (David H. Close) Subject: Re: Internet -> ATT Mail Delays Date: 26 Jun 1993 05:08:29 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena appell@csn.org (David Appell) writes about delays receiving mail via attmail. I can attest to similar experiences, with several messages delayed more than two days! Complaints to attmail!atthelp have usually been followed (by about a week) with an assertion that their Internet gateway had been down, w