From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Fri Jul 19 13:55:38 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id NAA10377; Fri, 19 Jul 1996 13:55:38 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 13:55:38 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607191755.NAA10377@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #351 TELECOM Digest Fri, 19 Jul 96 13:55:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 351 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Ameritech 810 Relief News Conference (John Cropper) Phone Customers Furious Over Service (Van Heffner) ITU Slams Callback Industry (Tad Cook) San Antonio NPA Split (Tad Cook) Cable Piracy Thwarted (Tad Cook) High Tier PCS versus Low Tier PCS (How "Mini" Are PCS Sites?) (S. Jeffery) Silent Call to 911 (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: psyber@usa.pipeline.com (John Cropper) Subject: Ameritech 810 Relief News Conference Date: 19 Jul 1996 14:41:20 GMT Organization: Pipeline USA I spoke with several people at Ameritech a few weeks ago concerning the NPA 810 relief plan, which has now been finalized. Here is what I was able to find out... :) 1) The 810 portion of Oakland county, MI will go to the new NPA while the remainder of the current 810 stays in 810. 2) Permissive dialing will begin 11/13/96, with mandatory dialing effective 5/10/97. A list of assigned NXXs in the 810 portion of Oakland county reads as follows (list current to 4/15/96): City NXX ------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- Auburn Hills 512 576 Birmingham 205 258 267 419 430 433 540 549 594 642 644 645 646 647 712 850 901 988 Clarkston 620 623 625 Commerce 360 363 366 Drayton Plains 666 673 674 698 Farmington 308 309 312 442 471 473 474 476 477 478 615 699 704 848 856 870 957 Farmington Hills 406 485 488 489 553 661 788 973 991 Holly 634 Lake Orion 693 814 Milford 676 684 685 Ortonville 627 Oxford 200 628 969 Pontiac 202 209 210 214 215 216 219 253 289 302 306 332 333 334 335 337 338 339 340 365 370 373 375 377 381 382 383 391 393 394 413 452 456 457 475 481 482 495 504 506 508 509 536 587 608 662 663 665 668 681 682 683 707 717 718 738 745 753 761 769 805 808 812 830 831 832 836 841 842 857 858 861 896 898 904 912 916 918 946 971 972 975 981 994 995 996 Rochester 218 650 651 652 656 Royal Oak 397 398 399 414 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 691 South Lyon 437 486 Southfield 201 204 206 208 212 213 217 241 242 243 246 252 262 287 290 291 292 295 304 315 316 317 345 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 361 379 386 401 403 405 409 423 424 428 429 434 443 444 448 470 483 484 500 501 503 510 516 518 529 552 557 559 569 572 604 607 610 612 617 703 713 728 730 746 747 763 799 807 817 827 847 849 854 860 890 897 902 903 905 907 908 914 915 917 924 929 936 940 942 948 967 968 970 Troy 203 244 260 265 269 270 280 288 299 362 435 524 528 551 581 583 584 585 588 589 597 614 616 619 637 641 643 649 680 689 696 729 740 764 816 824 828 829 837 844 852 853 879 952 Walled Lake 624 669 926 960 West Bloomfield 259 539 595 626 702 737 851 855 932 White Lake 887 889 All of the above NXXs would move to the new NPA under the (finalized) plan announced in mid-March by Ameritech. John Cropper, President NiS / NexComm POB 277, Pennington, NJ USA 08534-0277 voice: 800-247-8675 (609-637-9434 inside NJ) psyber@usa.pipeline.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 10:42:55 -0700 From: vantek@northcoast.com (VANTEK COMMUNICATIONS) Subject: Phone Customers Furious Over Service Phone customers furious over service BY MERRILL GOOZNER Chicago Tribune TOLEDO, Ohio -- Phone deregulation was supposed to usher in a new era of competition, lower rates and better service, but growing numbers of frustrated residential customers across the country are complaining to state regulators that it's harder than ever to get a working dial tone. Typical is the story of Mary Ann Kidd, a 33-year-old Ohio mother of two, whose phone went dead on a recent Friday afternoon. Not only couldn't she get it fixed within the 24 hours promised by Ameritech, she couldn't even raise a representative on her borrowed cellular phone to take her complaint. She kept calling until 5 a.m. Saturday before finally reaching someone on the repair hot line. The company scheduled a repairman -- but not until Monday afternoon. On Monday, no one came. She called again. They said Tuesday. No one came. Wednesday, the same. ``It just seemed like no one cared,'' Kidd said. ``I got fed up. I called PUCO (the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio).'' A repairman finally made it to her house on Friday afternoon, a week after her phone went out. He replaced a defective wire that ran between the pole and her home. Baby Bell telephone companies have been inundated over the last 18 months with angry complaints from frustrated consumers. The grumbling includes long waits to repair phone outages, difficulty in obtaining new lines and, at the most basic level, the inability to get a human being on the line to take the complaint. Local phone service at some of the Baby Bells has deteriorated to the point that the usually docile public utilities commissions have started slapping them with huge fines and penalties for poor performance. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Telephone deregulation spurred by the breakup of AT&T in 1984 was going to create competition in local telephone markets. Consumers would get new firms offering either lower prices or higher quality. While the theory worked for long-distance service, competition for local service has been a bust. Only a handful of cities around the country have meaningful options for telephone consumers, and most of the new competitors are going after the more lucrative business market. More than 99 percent of residential customers nationwide still deal with a local monopoly. The recently enacted telecommunications law may not help, especially if state regulators simply allow potential competitors of the Baby Bells to piggyback on the existing network. ``The new legislation only creates the possibility of competition,'' said Brian Moyer, a Washington attorney who represents business groups on the Network Reliability Council, which monitors the performance of local telephone networks. ``It's no guarantee.'' For its part, Ameritech says most of its service problems are due to bad weather, although complaints monitored by the Federal Communications Commission have risen steadily for three years, reaching a peak during last summer's severe storms. The company says it has improved its response time to customer complaints since then. ``During the last two weeks' heavy trouble load (due to storms), we've maintained our response levels higher than the state requirements,'' said Tom Richards, president of network services for Ameritech. PUCO has slapped Ameritech's Ohio affiliate with $67,000 in fines since last summer. The 3,707 complaints it logged in the first quarter of this year were 62 percent higher than a year ago, which itself ranked as a record. In March, Wisconsin's Public Service Commission filed suit to recover damages for the 79,300 consumers who were out of service for more than 24 hours during a six-month period in 1995. Ameritech could be forced to pay $25 to $5,000 per incident. The Illinois Citizens Utility Board filed a complaint in April with the Illinois Commerce Commission, charging Ameritech's local affiliate with failing to meet standards on repairing phone outages within 24 hours in nine of 12 months last year. ``It's improved since last summer, but Ameritech still hasn't met the benchmarks,'' said executive director Martin Cohen. Ameritech isn't alone. The New York Public Service Commission stunned the utility world last January when it ordered Nynex to rebate $50 million to 5 million customers in the New York City area for poor service in 1994. Its first-quarter service report for 1996 showed things haven't gotten better. Compared with a year ago, ``the company's service quality was worse on all measures,'' the report said. When consumer complaints reached a crescendo last summer, the companies blamed either poor weather or new computer systems for the problems. But the latest round of legal briefs have identified a different culprit: employee cutbacks. ``It's not just the weather,'' said Scott Cullen, administrator of the telecommunications division of the Wisconsin PSC. ``They've reduced staffing levels significantly.'' Ameritech slashed 3,000 jobs from its network service ranks between April 1994, and January 1995, as it consolidated its telephone customer service operations and repair centers. Faced with escalating complaints, Ameritech since has restored 2,200 jobs. The company also plans to hire 1,000 temporary workers this summer, after negligible summer hires last year. ``We've got an aggressive plan in place to correct the shortfalls,'' said Richards. ``Is it where I want it to be? No. But there have been improvements.'' Nynex eliminated 11,000 jobs from its 76,000-person work force between the end of 1993 and the end of 1995. After getting slapped with the huge rebate order, the company was forced to reverse course. It plans to add 2,000 people to its field force this year and redeploy another 1,000 from in-house jobs. The Communications Workers of America, which represents most of the workers who provide direct customer service at the regional Bell operating companies, has lost 23,000 members at the seven Baby Bells since 1992, an 8 percent decline. The union blames the job cuts for the decline in service quality. ``They get rid of people to meet their financial targets, and then the consumers suffer because there is no one to do the work,'' said George Kohl, research director for the CWA. U S West faces a near revolt over the issue. Minnesota and Colorado each recently hit the firm with $4 million in fines for poor service quality. The 14 states covered by U S West formed a regional oversight committee to compare notes and push for changes. ``The 14 states agree the company's re-engineering program is to blame,'' said Philip Nyegaard, acting administrator of the Oregon PUC telecommunications division. ``They no longer have the engineering and technical people to keep up.'' State regulators have also begun casting an inquisitive eye at the investment programs of the Baby Bells. ``They're just not willing to spend enough money on infrastructure upgrading,'' Nyegaard said. Where is the money going? Without local competition, most of the Baby Bells have made far-flung investments in new businesses, from cellular networks to telephone exchanges in Eastern Europe. The Illinois CUB filing against Ameritech pointed out that the company failed to meet promises of investing $600 million a year in the local network when it got a more lucrative form of rate regulation in 1993. Its investments in non-Bell ventures surged from $388 million in 1992 to $1.4 billion last year, including ventures in New Zealand, Hungary, Poland and Norway. Van Hefner - Editor Discount Long Distance Digest On The Web: http://www.webcom.com/longdist/ ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: ITU Slams Callback Industry Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 11:27:35 PDT ITU Slams Callback Services By ELIZABETH OLSON Associated Press Writer GENEVA (AP) -- The International Telecommunications Union in June dealt a blow to the huge discount calling industry, declaring that countries have the right to outlaw such services. Discount calling, or "call back," allows callers overseas to save on phone calls by using a U.S. phone line to telephone home. This skirts the far more expensive charges of foreign government-owned phone monopolies. Call back's popularity has boomed, generating an estimated $500 million market annually. The ITU predicts the market will be worth about $1.2 billion by 1998. The ITU's governing body agreed that any country could bar the call-back service. The resolution, on behalf of the 185-member body, took effect Friday. A total of 25 countries protested against call-back services. They include: Algeria, Bahrain, Belarus, Burundi, China, Columbia, Djibouti, Egypt, Ecuador, Honduras, Kazakstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Malaysia, Morocco, Niger, Uganda, Portugal, Qatar, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam and Yemen. Most opposing countries argued that such alternative calling services strip them of a major source of revenue. "In developing countries, including many African countries, some 60 to 70 percent of total revenues from international telephone traffic come from outgoing calls," said Bernard Rouxeville, chairman of ITU's Telecommunications Standardization Bureau. The main issue, he insisted, was quality of service. Some call-back services employ constant dialing or answer suppression functions that hamper the performance of publicly owned telephone networks, the ITU resolution noted. Rouxeville said most European countries did not object to the competition posed by call-back services because they face phone industry deregulation next year. National phone monopolies, including France, already have made deep cuts in calling rates to the United States. Prohibiting call-back services can be done by enacting laws, adopting regulations or barring marketing and advertising efforts, Rouxeville said. He is employed by the French Ministry for Industry. Critics complain government phone charges are too high and call-back services provide necessary competition to keep prices reasonable. About two dozen, mostly American, call-back companies dominate the industry. They employ a twist on the oft-used method of calling home collect. The call is refused, then the family member or friend returns the call, using the cheaper, direct-dial service. Using call back, a subscriber dials his company's U.S. phone system, lets it ring once and hangs up. The call-back service's computer dials back and provides a U.S. telephone line connection to the subscriber, which bypasses the foreign phone company. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of the biggest opponents of callback for quite a long time was AT&T. Yet as was reported in the Digest this past week, AT&T has now bitten the bullet or taken the plunge and is actively soliciting for its own callback service in Europe. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: San Antonio NPA Split Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 11:42:03 PDT Public May Make Call on Area Code Plan for San Antonio, South Texas By Stefanie Scott, San Antonio Express-News Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News AUSTIN, Texas--Jun. 28--State telephone negotiators Thursday settled on three approaches for carving up the 210 area code, and South Texans may have a chance to comment on the plans soon. Residents and business owners who currently live in the 210 area code will be faced with options ranging from splitting San Antonio and the rest of South Texas into separate area codes, to introducing an overlay, which would pepper numbers with the new area code throughout the metropolitan area. Negotiators are rushing to get a relief plan in place before the end of the year since Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. is predicting that the 210 area code will run out of phone numbers in late 1997. "We've really got to move fast on this," said Carole Vogel, director of the Public Utility Commission Office of Regulatory Affairs. "We have to have the new area code in by then." A similar effort is under way for the Fort Worth-centered 817 area code, which also is expected to reach capacity next year. Vogel said she hopes the three-member PUC will vote on new plans by Nov. 30. Area code 210 is rapidly nearing exhaustion because of a proliferation of computer lines, multihome lines, cellular telephones and pagers. Area code 210 came into being in 1992 when area code 512 was split because it was running out of numbers then. Negotiators Thursday culled through five options for splitting up 210, and threw out a "doughnut" option that would put most of the people living inside Interstate 410 in one area code and people living on the city's outskirts in another. "Its not likely that that's going to be accepted locally ... something that splits the city," said Al Notzon, executive director of the Alamo Area Council of Governments. Instead, Notzon, Jose Medina, the city's assistant information services manager, and Robert Siller, a rate analyst with city public utilities, encouraged the group to draft a new plan to include as much of the city as possible in one area code. Medina said the city wants a plan that is the "least disruptive" to its citizens, and wants to put off an overlay which calls for 10-digit dialing to call across town or across the street as long as possible. "We prefer a (geographic) split," said Medina. Negotiators asked Bell to draw up a "doughnut" area code plan that has most of San Antonio as the "hole" in one area code. Contiguous counties in the metropolitan area would be in a second area code. A third area code would take in a strip of the Texas-Mexico border from the Rio Grande Valley to Edwards County. Bell officials can't say exactly where the lines would be drawn in this new plan, or how long it would serve the region's needs before the new codes would be exhausted. Area residents will decide on another option that would give a single area code to all of Bexar, and all or parts of Comal, Guadalupe, Medina, Bandera, Wilson, Gonzalez, Live Oak, Karnes, Frio and Bee counties. The rest of the current 210 would go into a separate area code. If this plan is adopted, the San Antonio area still would run out of numbers in 2001, and the South Texas/border region would run out of numbers in 2005. To prolong the life of that plan, negotiators are proposing eventually to add a third area code as an overlay in the San Antonio area. That would not happen until the metropolitan area code again neared exhaustion. Adding an overlay means the San Antonio metropolitan area probably wouldn't run out of numbers until 2008. ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: Cable Piracy Thwarted Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 11:44:45 PDT Industry Believes Undercover Probe Saved Operators More Than $100 Million By JEFFREY GOLD Associated Press Writer NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A three-year undercover FBI probe of a nationwide ring of cable pirates averted at least $100 million in lost revenue to cable operators, an industry trade group said Thursday after authorities disclosed that nine people were charged in the conspiracy. Five others have pleaded guilty in the case, which began in 1992 when the FBI launched a business in Union County to infiltrate pirate groups. The case is the largest cable piracy ring ever uncovered, U.S. Attorney Faith S. Hochberg said. "It demonstrates how technology in the wrong hands can result in a multi-million dollar crime," Hochberg said. Through plants in Florida and California, the conspirators manufactured "black boxes" -- modified devices that allow consumers to get free cable service, and sold about 100,000 of them annually to distributors at huge profits, authorities said. As a result, honest consumers paid more than necessary for cable service, Hochberg said. Among the allegations in a 92-count indictment unsealed Thursday as most of the nine suspects were arrested: --A cable industry security agent working undercover on the case received bribes totalling $100,000 and a $40,000 Porsche sports car. --A Texan who is chairman of a bank in the Cayman Islands laundered tens of thousands of dollars of those bribes. --The ring trafficked in more than 16,000 stolen legitimate cable converter boxes, of which 3,500, worth $250,000, were stolen from an evidence locker of the Los Angeles Police Department in July, 1994. --The other stolen boxes included 3,000 taken from a truck en route from California to an Arizona warehouse maintained by the Scientific- Atlanta Corp., and 10,000 stolen from cable operators in the Baltimore area. Among those pleading guilty was a Wrightstown computer expert whose company, Digitek, designed, manufactured and sold about 64,000 pirate circuit boards worth more than $800,000. A legitimate box costs about $125, but with the $12.50 circuit board, is sold by pirates to retailers for about $300, who in turn sell the box to consumers for up to $500, authorities said. Many consumers learn of the pirate boxes in magazine ads. In more than 40 related raids since March, authorities have seized $1.5 million in computer and electronic equipment, $1.4 million in cash, 50,000 modified cable boxes and descrambling boxes, as well as some boats and vehicles. The undercover business, Prime Electronics and Security Inc. of Kenilworth, posed as a distributor of legitimate cable converter boxes. When modified with illegal circuit boards, the boxes allow viewers to get premium cable shows and pay-per-view events, depriving the cable company of revenues and reducing the amount of fees that cable operators pay to municipalities. The National Cable Television Association, a trade group, estimates that piracy costs operators about $4.7 billion annually, said Jim Allen, director of the group's Office of Cable Signal Theft. While the FBI undercover probe, "Operation Cable Trap," targeted wholesalers at the top of the scheme, cable operators typically will contact consumers who are using illegally modified cable boxes, whose names are found in the business records of the pirates, Allen said. Operators once offered to let bygones be bygones and have the consumer begin paying for service, but now are taking a harder line, he said. Consumers who use "black boxes" may now be asked to make back payments and penalties, and in some cases could face charges brought by the operator, Allen said. The indictment charged: --Francis Joseph Russo, 47, of North Miami Beach, Fla., owner of Leasing Ventures Inc. in Hollywood, Fla., with operating a company that made and sold modified cable boxes. He faces 71 counts, as does his wife, Joann Russo, 40, including conspiracy, wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, theft of cable television signals and money laundering. Francis Russo paid the bribes to the security official working undercover. --Their son, Frank Russo Jr., 26, of Aventura, Fla., who worked for Leasing Ventures, faces 69 counts, including conspiracy, wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, and theft of cable television signals. --Joseph Russo (no relation), 50, of Miami, Fla., was a co-owner of Leasing Ventures and faces the same 71 counts as Francis and Joann Russo. --Joseph Olkowski, 46, of Hollywood, Fla., an employee of Leasing Ventures, faces the same 69 counts as Russo Jr. --Daniel R. Zielinski, 50, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., operator of Cable Box Services Inc., a company created by Leasing Ventures to further piracy activity, faces the same 69 counts. --William S. Prevost III, 29, of Studio City, Calif., owner and operator of Novaplex Inc. and Gage Systems Group Inc., piracy operations in Sun Valley California. He faces 22 counts, including conspiracy and distributing devices that assist in cable signal theft. --Anthony Lee Marinaccio, 42, of Princeville, Hawaii, chief financial officer of Novaplex. He faces the same 22 counts as Prevost. --John M. Mathewson, 68, of San Antonio, Texas, chairman of the Guardian Bank and Trust Ltd., Grand Cayman, British West Indies. He faces one conspiracy count and two money laundering charges. Each count carries a maximum penalty of at least five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Authorities are seeking to recover $10 million from the suspects accused of money laundering. Pleading guilty earlier this week, each to a single count of conspiracy or assisting in intercepting cable signals, were: --Jerome J. Baranosky Jr., 33, of Wrightstown, owner of Digitek. --Luis R. Cordero, 31, of Paterson, who purchased "black boxes" from Leasing Ventures and an unidentified North Carolina wholesaler and sold them in New Jersey. --William J. Pagan, 48, of Maryland, who helped transport $800,000 worth of cable boxes stolen from cable operators in the Baltimore area. No town was available. --John Trematerra, 66, of Florida, who provided financing that allowed an unidentified Florida company to get more than $350,000 worth of stolen boxes. --George Kanter, 50, of New York, who supplied cable boxes to the undercover operation knowing that they would be illegally modified. Each faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 10:07:14 GMT From: stu@best.com (Stu Jeffery) Subject: High Tier PCS versus Low Tier PCS (was How "Mini" Are PCS Sites?) In TELECOM Digest V16 #313, Jim Madsen responds to my posting: Jim comments on several points that I made and concludes that low-tier PCS is has not been embraced here in the US by PCS operators: > As noted above, high tier PCS appears to be the choice of 99.98% of > the PCS POPs won to date. I generally agree with this concluding observation, but I wish to comment on some of his other statements. He states that CT-2 has not been a success in Hong Kong (or anywhere), citing coverage problems, among other, and indicating that the service is being deactivated. I agree that CT-2 is being deactivated in Hong Kong. I understand the CT-2 problems in Hong Kong are mostly coverage and capacity. But I think the growth they experienced in Hong Kong (60,000 plus) indicates that CT-2 filled a consumer need. CT-2 is being deacativated because there are better approaches, both low and high tier. Jim goes on to concludes his comments on CT-2 with the following: > If a low-mobility, microcellular solution is not viable in a Hong > Kong, with extremely high population densities, as well as developed > infrastructure, it seems even less likely to be successful in the > United States. He may be right about the US, but his own comments regarding PHS contradict his general condemnation of low tier. He states: > In regard to PHS, it has grown to 2% penetration (certainly not > dramatic by US standards of 14%), and already the spectral > inefficiencies of PHS are showing, so that Wireless Business & Finance > reported on May 8, 1996, that Japan may adopt CDMA for its future > wireless services: First of all, achieving a 1.5 Million subscribers in 12 to 18 months is pretty phenomenal growth, especially considering it came from zero. There has been a long running technical discussion as to the choice of TDMA or CDMA for the PHS system. Several Japanese companies (OKI in particular) have been promoting CDMA as the better choice. But the issue on the table is not the technology selection, but whether a low-tier system is viable from a commercial standpoint. I think the rapid growth of PHS in Japan suggests there is a market for low-tier PCS, at least in that country. Jim goes on to say: > That leaves PACS as the sole standard bearer of low-tier PCS. > Unfortunately for PACS, the A, B, & C block PCS winners in the USA > have collectively bid over $17 billion for the equivalent of 750 > million POPs. Only GCI which won 0.2 million of the 750 million total > has indicated any likelihood of using PACS. If this 0.026% > penetration of PACS holds, then it may by a bit difficult for vendors > supporting PACS to obtain meaningful manufacturing economies of scale. I don't see how Jim's observations on the limitations of CT-2 and the capacity problems on PHS lead to the conclusions that *PACS is the sole standard bearer for Low-Tier PCS*. [BTW. I agree with Jim's observation that it takes volume to get meaningful manufacturing economies of scale, but GCI is not the only one who has announced for PACS. 21st Century Telesis with 4.4 Million Pops has announced for PACS. In addition, PACS shares a lot of common technology with PHS, so PACS will somewhat share that learning curve, especially in the subscriber unit.] But again the issue is not *which is the best low-tier technology*, but rather *do consumers want a low tier technology?*. I think the experience in Japan (and maybe Hong Kong, Holland - Green CT-2 system, and Paris -BiBop CT-2) indicates the consumer will accept the limitations of low tier (no vehicular coverage) for its benefits (long battery life and toll quality voice). The decision, of the vast majority of current PCS operators, has been to select a high tier technology. This decision is grounded in their belief that US customers want to use their mobile everywhere and especially in their car. This is certainly the experience of the cellular model. So can low-tier PCS be economically successful in the US? Is any part of the Japanese experience applicable to the US? That is a big question on which a lot of money will be bet. Wireless Local Loop is one more factor to consider when comparing high and low tier technologies. With local loop competition now legally possible in all markets, what role does wireless have in supplying that service? It is but one of several ways of connecting the home to the telephone network. [Cable TV is clearly another way.] In my opinion, 32 Kbps is required for wireless local loop. This rate is needed for full toll quality, low delay connectivity and for CPE (Customer Premise Equipment). At lower rates, existing home equipment like fax machines, modems, etc. can not be directly supported. Alternative solutions require special digital interface units in the home and modem pools in the central office. There are three more PCS licenses to be auctioned. I am sure that among the business plans being used to support bidding for these licenses, some involve building a low tier system that combines limited mobility and a wireless local loop. Will they succeed? The market place will decide. The FCC is making enough spectrum available so that all types of systems can be deployed. The consumers can decided if they like the service. Stu Jeffery Internet: stu@best.com 1072 Seena Ave. voice: 415-966-8199 Los Altos, CA. 94024 fax: 415-966-8456 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Jul 96 10:27:14 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Silent Call to 911 Jean-Francois Mezei forwarded an excerpt by edhample@sprynet.com regarding apparently-accidental call to 911 where the receiving end noticed silence. There are some PRANK calls to 911 in which the caller says nothing. New Jersey just got a new law making this illegal (FALSE alarms phoned into 911 have been illegal for some time). So whoever enforces this needs to know the first situation noted in this message? ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #351 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Mon Jul 22 11:04:10 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id LAA16017; Mon, 22 Jul 1996 11:04:10 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 11:04:10 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607221504.LAA16017@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #352 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Jul 96 11:04:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 352 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "JavaScript and Netscape Wizardry" by Shafer (Rob Slade) GTE Long Distance Arrives in CA (John Cheney) TCI Phone Service OK'd in Chicago Suburb (TELECOM Digest Editor) The Orchid Club - Not For Flower Lovers (TELECOM Digest Editor) Incoming Calls Blocked by ATT (Pat Martin) TPI Automated Callback? (Elana Beach) Sidetone/Echo on Cellular (Michael Schuster) Questions About ASDL (Paul Withington) Re: ITU Slams Callback Industry (Robert Shaw) Re: Community Networking and Universal Service (Corey Hauer) Re: Some History of Standard Oil and Bell (Ron Bean) Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. (Michael Stanford) Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. (Bill Newkirk) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 02:50:21 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "JavaScript and Netscape Wizardry" by Shafer BKJVNSWZ.RVW 960603 "JavaScript and Netscape Wizardry", Dan Shafer, 1996, 1-883577-86-1, U$34.99/C$48.99 %A Dan Shafer dan@gui.com %C 7339 East Acoma Drive, #7, Scottsdale, AZ 85260 %D 1996 %G 1-883577-86-1 %I Coriolis %O U$34.99/C$48.99 800-410-0192 +1-602-483-0192 fax: +1-602-483-0193 %P 500 %T "JavaScript and Netscape Wizardry" In 1995 there were a flock of Netscape titles. In 1996 there are a flock of Netscape 2 titles. Shafer distinguishes himself by being the bridge between them. This book assumes familiarity with Netscape, and with basic HTML (HyperText Markup Language) programming. The author uses this foundation to build towards the advanced features of Netscape, the newer crop of Netscape HTML extensions, JavaScript and Java. The programming work is a very simple and basic introduction, offering more samples than explanations. This allows the very casual (though curious) user to get started without necessarily understanding much about either the JavaScript or Java language. For a great many Webnauts with their own home pages, this is quite sufficient. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKJVNSWZ.RVW 960603 Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters roberts@decus.ca slade@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Rob_Slade@mindlink.bc.ca Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER) ------------------------------ From: John Cheney Subject: GTE Long Distance Arrives in CA Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 00:42:01 -0700 Organization: AllCom This post is for informational purposes only. (Simply making you aware of a brand new carrier in CA effective 7/17/96.) AllCom does not market or sell the services of GTE Long Distance. --------------------------------------------- GTE has finally marched into the California marketplace! Residential -- as well as business customers -- can now PIC GTE Long Distance as their primary carrier. What's the scoop, then? We asked two of our most daring "reporters" to research the various programs that were available for you and me, and ... whoops, conflicting reports came back along with several questionable points. After another sortie by yours truly to the GTE "Front Line", this is what I was informed: For Business Customers: There is no monthly fee. 18/06 billing increments. Four term plans: Month to Month, one year, two years, and three years. Four volume categories: <$25, $25-$100, $100-$200 and >$200 per month Here are the discounts: Volume M-t-M 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year <$25 5% 10% 15% 20% $25-$100 10% 15% 20% 25% $100-$200 15% 20% 25% 30% $200+ 20% 25% 30% 35% PLUS an additional 20% promotional discount for the first three months of service only. Right, so ?% off of what rate? IntERstate rate between 7:00am & 7:00pm is $0.27 per minute IntERstate rate between 7:00pm & 7:00am is $0.14 per minute CA IntRAstate rate between 7:00am & 7:00pm is $0.1335 per minute CA IntRAstate rate between 7:00pm & 7:00am is $0.0915 per minute CA Lata rate 8:00am - 5:00pm is $0.136 for the 1st Min, $0.114 ea. Addtl. CA Lata rate 5:00pm - 1100pm is $0.1088 for the 1st Min, $0.0912 ea. Addtl. CA Lata rate 11:00pm - 8:00am is $0.081 for the 1st Min, $0.0684 ea. Addtl. The above Lata rates are for calls made in the 26-30 mile band. I didn't want to complicate matters even further by posting the rest! A caveat: there's an early termination fee if you break a term plan: $100 if you're on a one year plan; $200 for a two year plan, and $300 for a three year plan. The PIC fee from your LEC will apparently be credited on the very same LEC bill the PIC fees are charged up to $5/line. For residential customers: No monthly fee; 60/60 billing increments; No term plan; Same rates as for business; Customers billing over $25 per month receive 25% discount, plus a "double discount" for six months. The Toll Free service is worked totally differently to outbound (hourly rates), but I'll refrain from boring you! Call GTE LD yourself at 1-800-643-8399 or at any of their other 800 numbers. John Cheney All Communications (AllCom) "Telecommunications Solutions That Work" http://www.allcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 08:13:37 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: TCI Phone Service OK'd in Chicago Suburb While Ameritech and AT&T squabble over how AT&T will get into the local telephone market in northern Illinois, the first real competition has gotten underway from a more unlikely source: TCI, the local cable-TV operator in many of the suburbs. TCI was granted permission last week by the Illinois Commerce Commission to begin offering local phone service in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago. Initially, service will be to 33,000 homes during the next two months. Arlington Heights is the first town in the USA that TCI is entering with phone service. Raising the stakes even more, TCI says they plan to have phone service available in other north/northwest suburbs by the end of this year. The beta testing stage is underway now in Arlington Heights and full scale advertising for customers will begin in October. During the final testing now underway, cable television and phone service will be billed separately, however TCI said a later date they may appear on one bill. Cable television companies are much more of a threat to Ameritech than the 'established' carriers like AT&T or Sprint since they have their own infrastructure already in place unlike the others, who have to negotiate with Ameritech to tap into that company's existing infra- structure and hope to resell Ameritech at a profit to themselves. TCI has established a relationship with two important vendors for thier phone service. Motorola is supplying the CableComm technology which directs the signal, and Teleport Communications Group is providing the central office facilities. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 08:57:01 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: The Orchid Club - Not For Flower Lovers So, which major search engine on the Internet recently had a major gaffe by cross-indexing an Internet group known as the 'Orchid Club' under the general category of 'horticulture' and 'flowers'? I know, but won't say anything to embarass them. Far from being anything to do with horticulture, the Orchid Club is an organization of pedophiles which operated a private -- password and initiation required to use it -- chat group on the net. In coord- inated activities a few days ago, federal authorities raided the homes of sixteen members of the club last week across the USA and placed charges against all sixteen in San Jose, CA where two members of the club reside. Individuals seeking to join the Orchid Club had to be nominated by a pedophile who was already a member and then elected by the entire membership. To make membership in the club formal or official, newcomers had to be initiated. To be initiated in the Club, nominees had to describe to the others in the group one of their sexual experiences with a child according to the charges lodged in federal court last Friday. Far more sophisticated than a typical Usenet newsgroup for pedophiles, the Orchid Club used digital cameras connected to computers in the homes of members to photograph children involved in sexual activities among themselves and with adults. These visual images were then sent in real time over the net to members of the club who viewed the event in the club's private chat room as it was happening. Members were free to download this to their own computer for repeated viewing at a later time. When a member of the club with this technology in his home had procured one or more children to participate, word went out immediatly to other club members who would then gather in their passworded chat room to watch the things going on. Additionally, club members traded among themselves homemade child pornography involving children of various ages, some as young as five years old. All the members of the club got to meet in person for a convention of sorts when they had to appear at a federal arraignment last Friday in San Jose, CA where they surrendered to the United States Marshall and had their bonds established if they wished to remain free pending their trials scheduled for a later date. Members of the club are all over the USA, including two in the Chicago area, and two in San Jose, CA. PAT ------------------------------ From: pmartin@netcom.com (Pat Martin) Subject: Incoming Calls Blocked by ATT Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 04:41:40 GMT We recently had a Tug boat in the Florida area which was equipped with a Bell South cellular telephone. The boat went out of the home area and we could not call it and got an ATT intercept recording. Further investigation revealed the the PIC was ATT and that when roaming BS forwarded the call to ATT. After talking with ATT it was determined that the LD bills had not been paid for two months and they cut off LD. All attempts to reason with them failed to allow calls to connect to this boat. Our company is pretty big and sometimes things fall through the cracks. We paid over $50K to ATT the previous month on other accounts. ATT is is not our first choice carrier, the first choice carrier got over $500K that same month. We fixed the problem by getting Bell South to change the PIC on the line to our primary carrier. We will not pay the ATT bills out of spite. The bash -- ATT has a ridiculous bureacracy which does not care about the customer. Most of the folks you deal with think they are still the only show around and that there are no other choices. The only real business they get is because of name recognition and that will not last forerever. I have a ton of horror stories about ATT -- from fighting $5 per month charges on lines we disconnected ten years ago to paying for non-existant rotary telephones. Patrick L. Martin pmartin@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What I am hearing a lot about lately are the people caught in the middle of the billing conversion between AT&T and the local Bells. We know of course that AT&T has been pulling back the bills from the local telcos and handling billing itself, or should I say mishandling billing itself. Apparently in some cases, the final month of calls billed by some of the telcos also got billed by AT&T in their first month of direct billing, etc. Maybe only two or three calls got 'overlapped' in the process, etc. So instead of investigating and correcting it, AT&T just keeps demanding payment and telling people to 'seek credit from your local telco'. Two months or so after the bill was tendered, which is barely enough time to get it ironed out, AT&T cuts off the long distance service and intercepts with a sort of rude recording on the line saying 'you are not author- ized to use the AT&T network.' Oh gosh, as if that really mattered. Then within a week or two, the affected customers get notices from the Gulf Coast Collection Agency in Houston, TX. It really does seem as if AT&T is shooting itself in the foot; going out of its way to alienate itself from the local telcos with whom it had good relations for many years after divestiture. In California where last week the PUC ruled that AT&T had improperly converted the billing process to itself, customers are finding out that they ** do not ** have to pay the bills AT&T sent them; they can demand that the entire bill be reverted back to their local telco and then paid. AT&T's response to a couple relatively large subscribers has been that even though AT&T acted illegally, the subscribers still have to pay them anyway or risk disconnection from the AT&T long distance network. PAT] ------------------------------ From: elana@netcom.com (Elana who?) Subject: TPI Automated Callback? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 10:53:13 GMT I was trying to call a friend the other day and dialed a very interesting wrong number. Instead of a familiar "hello", I got something like this: "TPI automated testline. Your voice service caller number is xxx-xxxx" (my number) Then it said: "Hang up for callback." I hung up, and stared at the caller-id box to see what would come up. After it rang, the box said the call was from "U SWC" with the number of (503) 231-5122. When I picked it up, it said something like: "TPI automated callback. Initiating callback loop." At this point, it gave me the same kind of background ambient noise as one would expect from a VERY long-distance call. I waited, but it didn't do or say anything else. I finally hung up. Some questions: What WAS that??? What is it used for? I am in US West territory and so is this number ... would it have worked the same if I had called from GTE territory, for instance? Or from another area code? Who-what is "U SWC"? And most intriguing of all, what keys could I have pressed after the "callback loop" announcement to make it do some really cool stuff (assuming there's some some really cool stuff of any sort to mess with here to START with! :) I know the telco would have test numbers of various sorts, but that's all I can guess is happening here. Thanks in advance for any info! :-) Elana (a.k.a. "Elanova" for any fellow B5 fans. ;) ------------------------------ From: schuster@panix.com (Michael Schuster) Subject: Sidetone/echo on cellular Date: 21 Jul 1996 15:59:35 -0400 I recently read an online message in which an individual complained of excessive echo in the received sidetone on his Motorola Digital Lite cellphone (i.e. the reflection of his spoken voice in the earpiece was delayed so long as to be distracting rather than reassuring). He said that his carrier replaced the phone, and he at first indicated that it was fixed ... wait a minute ... it's back. The response I read was that sidetone is entirely controlled by the cellular tower, and excessive delay cannot be caused by the cellphone. Does this sound right? Why am I asking? Because, of course, after reading that interchange I am a LOT more aware of the phenomenon, and I'm wondering if the echo I'm hearing at some cell sites is my fault of theirs. Mike Schuster schuster@panix.com | 70346.1745@CompuServe.COM schuster@shell.portal.com | schuster@mem.po.com ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 96 04:14:31 -0500 From: Paul Withington Subject: Questions About ASDL There has been much mention in telecom industry literature of ASDL and similar protocols for high speed communications over copper pairs. Some articles note that recent advances mean that a large proportion of the US population (50+%) can be served by these technologies. Could someone tell me if there is some limit to the number of these lines that can be carried on a single bundle of copper pairs? I.e., I wonder if crosstalk among digital lines eventually swamps these modems an thereby imposes a much lower limit on the number of customer that can really be served. Paul Withington paul.withington@pulson.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 12:45:19 +0200 From: shaw Subject: Re: ITU Slams Callback Industry "ITU slams Callback Industry" -- Huh?? I guess that depends on your point of view. The {Communications Week International} cover story on the same subject is "ITU rejects full ban on callback". Oh well ... Robert Shaw, ITU ------------------------------ From: hauer@deskmedia.com (Corey Hauer) Subject: Re: Community Networking and Universal Service Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 18:54:50 GMT I live in a community next to one of these federally sponsored Community Networks (http://smig.co.net). They got $500,000 from the NSF and mis-spent it on yesterday's equipment, flew a bunch of people around the country (and Europe) to talk about Community Networks and offer sub-standard internet (no support, not enough bandwidth, not enough lines) service at a cut rate $5/month below a normal commercial provider. If the government is intent on changing the economies of information technologies they ought to do better than $60/year savings per user. For $500,000 a commercial business could wire the whole of a rural state -- not just one town. If the federal government things it can help better the world with Community Networks they better get a clue. Having good intentions is not an excuse for being misguided. Free markets do and should rule the telecommunications business. If mom and pop want to start an ISP, a cable company or a phone company they should be able to do so without worry of the government pricing them out of business. Corey Hauer Desktop Media hauer@deskmedia.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 12:53:43 GMT From: Ron Bean Subject: Re: Some History of Standard Oil and Bell > By the early 1970's, all American stations were changed to > Amoco. They didn't drop the use of Standard as a name at that time. I > don't know if the red-white-blue oval shield with torch and flame logo > still carries the name "Standard" in the mid-west. (Pat?) They were all supposed to change to Amoco at some point, but I don't know exactly when. I used to work for a uniform rental company, and part of my job was to order the little embroidered company emblems that we sewed onto the customers' shirts. The torch and flame logo was available as either "Amoco" or "Standard", but at one point we were informed that the Standard logo had been discontinued some time earlier and we weren't supposed to be using them -- apparently we had been buying old stock from the emblem company's warehouse and they finally ran out. A few of the local station owners still wanted the "Standard" emblem, and we had to make up an official-looking memo to convince them that they had to change the name of "their" business. I assume they had been told by Amoco as well, but were hoping to ignore it (I always wondered which sign they had out front). Ron.Bean@Msn.FullFeed.Com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have not seen any 'Standard Oil' stations around here in years. Actually, the official corporate tree looked like this: Parent company: Standard Oil of Indiana (although headquartered here in Chicago.) Marketing: Amoco Oil Company (everywhere in USA except for five midwestern states.) Standard Oil Division of Amoco Oil Company (in five midwestern states.) It seems to me in Ohio that 'Standard Oil' referred to Standard Oil of Ohio. The same company did/does business here in the Chicago area under the name 'Sohio'. A Mobil station near my house has been 'Mobil' for about twenty years. The dealer, who has been there much longer than that said he started as 'Sinclair' then one day his marketing rep came in to visit and said, "From now on we are going to be Mobil stations in this territory ...". All the old signs came down and new ones went up, but the same people he had always dealt with continued to be around. He said this happened back about 1975 or so and at the time the sales rep told him to go ahead and take either Sinclair credit cards or Mobile credit cards, ... 'it does not matter either way, they get handled by the credit card office which does all the Standard Oil Companies ...' (which was in Chicago previously, but about that time breaking into two parts i.e. Amoco and some others to Raleigh, NC and 'Standard' setting up a new credit card back office in Des Moines, Iowa). Then a few years later the configuration changed again with Amoco putting its credit card operation in Des Moines where 'Standard Oil' was located along with *certain types* of Diner's Club cards (!) (the ones they called 'Torch Club' at that time) and other 'special billing' accounts such as the US Government GSA credit cards, Greyhound, large truck fleets, etc. Meanwhile, other stations which had been 'Sinclair' suddenly became 'Arco' as in Atlantic-Richfield Oil Commpany which is headquartered in Independence, Kansas. A reader wrote to me saying that in his town for several years, an Amoco station sat right next to a Standard station and he never had known why that was. Then one day the Standard station changed to a Socony (Standard Oil New York) station and the Sinclair station in another part of town became a Mobil station which in turn sat across the street from another Mobil station which had always been there under that name. When traveling, his out of state license plates allowed him to use any of two or three oil credit cards at any station under those names but in his home town he was only allowed to use the card specific to the station he was at. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael Stanford Subject: Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 12:42:19 GMT > So, I got a call from someone who will go unnamed, who told me, "Your > super fancy telephone system really sucks!" Why? I inquired. "Well, > Q ..." Well, there isn't a Q on the dial. What key did you press=20 > for Q? --- Long pause --- "What do you mean, press keys?" > After I stopped laughing, she'd hung up. I would agree with the caller's original assessment of the system. These days with products like Wildfire, and AT&T saying "Please say Operator now," it is not unreasonable to expect an IVR system to use speech recognition. Speaker independent recognition of 26 utterances (the alphabet) is probably doable relatively reliably. The confusing system prompt should be changed to say "using your touch tone keypad." ------------------------------ From: Bill Newkirk Subject: Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 14:24:55 -0400 Organization: Collins General Aviation Publications Monty Solomon wrote: > Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny > From: gary@mdli.com (Gary Marquart) > like many others, invites callers to dial the desired extension; "If > you don't know your party's extension, but do know their (sic) name, > spell it, last name first." Rolm phone mail? > Q ..." Well, there isn't a Q on the dial. What key did you press > for Q? --- Long pause --- "What do you mean, press keys?" > After I stopped laughing, she'd hung up. You should try it with a name like Zody, Znamer or Przewoznik. no Z on those phones either ... When the new phones were installed at the end of May, the trainer wasn't able to answer the question of where the Q and Z was either. One of the guys in another office had the answer (apparently they got different books than we did since our phone mail book doesn't answer this question); not even on the sacred decision tree diagram. On ours here, 7 is used for Q and 9 is used for Z since "that's the number where it would go ...". This ignores that all the numbers set up a pattern of three letters per number and that, at least here, there was a history of using 1 for Q and Z because we made a bit of aircraft navigation equipment that needed Q and Z on the keyboard for data entry when setting up a flight plan. 7 is Q and 9 is Z. Makes sense, but I never would have guessed it. bill n. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #352 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Mon Jul 22 13:04:13 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id NAA26767; Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:04:13 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:04:13 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607221704.NAA26767@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #353 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Jul 96 13:03:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 353 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Some History of Standard Oil and Bell (Wes Leatherock) Jeff Slaton Lashes Back at the Net (Chuck Tyrrell) Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. (Georg Oehl) Using DTMF From German Cell Phone With U.S. Callback (Georg Oehl) Re: Exchange -> Location Map Wanted; NYNEX Still Ignorant (David G. Lewis) Re: Area Code Splits - Poor Planning? (Bruce Balden) Where Can I Find Information on SS7 Protocols? (Henry Jakala) Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem (Michael Stanford) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com (Wes Leatherock) Subject: Re: Some History of Standard Oil and Bell Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 15:51:15 GMT "Mark J. Cuccia" wrote: [ ... text deleted ... ] > In 1931, Standard of New York and the Vacuum Oil Company merged. > Standard of New York had Socony service stations in the northeast, > while Vacuum Oil had their Vacuum Service stations with a winged flying > red Pegasus horse logo in the midwest. This logo was adopted by the new > merged Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, which in 1955 became Socony-Mobil > (Mobilgas service stations), and in 1966 the Socony name was dropped > altogather to simply become Mobil. Socony was formed in 1882 as a part > of the old Standard Trust; Vacuum Oil began in 1866 (probably before > just about any other oil company in existence today or which can trace > its history back to the 1800's), and became a part of the Standard > Trust in 1879. This overlooks General Petroleum Company of California and Magnolia Petroleum Company (southwestern states). There was also a company called something like White Eagle which operated in Kansas and probably some other states. All of these used the flying red horse and sold Mobilgas and Mobiloil. There are Magnolia buildings still in Dallas and Oklahoma City; the Oklahoma City one once had a service station as part of it. It has been restored as a historic building, but not the service station part. The operations of this company were always called "the Magnolia" when I was young, but it was well understood it was part of the Socony-Vacuum (Mobil) empire; it may even have said so on their road maps. > Standard Oil of New Jersey introduced the "Esso" brand name in the > early 1920's. "Esso" is a pronunciation of the letters "S.O." for > Standard Oil. Initially, the Esso name was confined only to "Jersey > Standard's" stations in their merketing territory, which included the > Jersey-held Standard of Louisiana. In the late 1930's, Jersey Standard > attempted to market using the Esso brand in parts of the midwest. > However, this was the traditional marketing territory of now separated > Indiana Standard, who jealously guarded their "exclusive" use of the > "Standard" name in their marketing territory. Indiana Standard sued > Jersey Standard over the use of Esso, and they won. Standard Oil of New > York (SOCONY) didn't want Jersey Standard using the Esso name in New > York state or in the northeast, neither. [ ... text deleted ... ] > Where Jersey Standard couldn't use the Esso brand, they used other > names in different parts of the country, such as Humble (Jersey bought > the majority of Humble Oil in Texas around 1920), Carter, Pate, > Oklahoma, and Penola. In 1959, Jersey Standard still wasn't completely > national, even using different names, but they wanted to become > national *and* reduce the number of various brands used. Also around > 1960, Jersey bought the remaining outstanding shares of Humble Oil. A > new brand name was introduced by Jersey/Humble, namely Enco, which > stood for "The Energy Company". Some Jersey officials agreed to > changing most of the various service station names to Enco, while > others wanted to retain Esso and even attempt to force its use > nationwide. The Humble Oil name was also adopted as an alternative > brand to be used nationally. In some states (Ohio and Texas), Humble > was used as the "exclusive" name of the service stations, and continued > to remain so in Ohio. Service stations in Texas continued to use the > Humble alternative name, but the actual name of the stations was > changed to Enco. And throughout the 1960's, Enco was introduced in new > states where Esso hadn't been used. "Humble," under that name, was probably the dominant brand in Texas. However, the premium (ethyl) gasoline they sold was "Esso Extra." (The regular was "Humble".) And the motor oils they sold had the same name as used by Jersey Standard. The architecture and the signage of the stations and pumps was the same as Esso stations except, of course, for the "Humble" name on the main sign and on the pumps for regular gasoline. (And their maps were the product of General Drafting Company, which apparently were distributed exclus- ively by Jersey Standard and its affiliates.) Standard of Indiana (the corporate name, I believe, was simply "Standard Oil Company;" all their materials, letterheads, etc., had "Incorporated in Indiana" just below the "Standard Oil Company" name.) In Texas they marketed as Pan-Am or Pan-American, then Amoco, but never became a real factor and finally pulled out. [ ... text deleted ... ] > ... And I think that Enco has been used in some other foreign > countries (Mexico?), but I don't know if Enco continues to be used > outside of the US today, or if it has been changed to Exxon or maybe > even Esso. In Mexico, unless it's changed quite recently, all service stations are operated by the government oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), although I believe other companies' lubricating oils are available. [ ... text deleteed ... ] > ... The separated Standard of California began to market its > products through service stations on the west coast in the 1920's and > 30's known as "SoCal", Standard" and later "Chevron". For the most > part, California Standard didn't begin to market or open up stations > in other Standard's regions. There was an incident in the 1950's > where they tried to open up SoCal stations in Texas, but Jersey > Standard and Humble objected. Standard Stations (and Chevron) were common in West Texas. They were operated by a SoCal subsidiary named Standard of Texas. Chevron, I believe, was used throughout SoCal territory for dealer-operated stations, while "Standard Stations" were company-owned and -operated. No one was using the "Standard" name for stations in East and Central Texas, or South Texas, and perhaps this was the territory which Humble disputed. [ ... text deleted ... ] > In 1969, Atlantic-Richfield purchased Sinclair Oil, founded in 1916 by > Henry F. Sinclair. I don't think that every Sinclair station became an > Arco station, as I've seen the Sinclair dinosaur logo throughout the > 1970's and 80's. The Anti-Trust Division required them to divest Sinclair marketing operations in a number of areas as a condition for approval of the merger, and these were acquired by some group. The present Sinclair is no relations to the earlier Sinclair except that its genesis was in the Sinclair stations Arco was required to divest and the trade marks that went with the Sinclair name. I don't believe the corporate name was originally "Sinclair", but it is now. There are Sinclair operations in many states, mostly to the north and west of Louisiana. I have seen them in Arkansas, and they are at least fairly common in Oklahoma. (A Sinclair dealer in Ardmore, Oklahoma, found one of the old round "Sinclair" signs somewhere and uses it as the main sign in front of his station.) Their territory extends into Colorado and Utah, and probably many other Rocky Mountain states. > The Continental Oil Company marketed in the mountain states area out > west. It was founded as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company > of California in 1877. It became a Standard Oil "affiliate" in 1884, > and was separated with the 1911 dissolution of the Trust. Conoco's logo > was a minuteman soldier. In 1929, Continental merged with Marland Oil, > which had the red triangle logo, and the new merged company used the > Conoco name and the Marland triangle logo. E. W. Marland always felt he was squeezed out of his oil company, and later became governor of Oklahoma. His mansion and estate at Ponca City are tourist attractions as well as a conference facility. And Conoco still maintains a vast operation in Ponca City, including a refinery, R&D facilities and their credit card operation. > As I mentioned earlier in this report, there had been complex > arrangements through the 1970's regarding one oil company or service > station chain honoring the credit cards issued by another service > station chain. Some of the mutual card-honoring agreements between > different former Standard companies were only in certain states, but > not others. Most every oil company issued their own credit cards in the > 1920's and even through the 1970's. They still do. I don't think there is one that doesn't except for Arco. > ... Today, "generic" non-industry-specific credit cards such as > Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc. have become more > popular than the need for multiple oil company cards. But the complex > arrangement of card-issuance and card-honoring, and non-acceptance or > cancellation of mutual arrangements is happening today, in the > *telephone* industry's calling cards, between AT&T and the various > LEC's, and the confusion when calling from a payphone or motel system > and billing to a particular card. But the back of the cards clearly indicated what stations hey were good at (including, as you noted, what states in cases where it was not universal). And service stations are marked with very clear trademarks, while pay phones have only a tiny notice and motels often none at all. The Standard companies often had credit card interchange agreements with non-Standard companies; some of them did not inter- change with any of the other Standard companies, but had extensive interchange arrangements with companies which had no Standard ties. Hardly any oil companies' cards are good any more at stations other than those of the issuing company. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com wes.leatherock@origins.bbs.uoknor.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Don't you just wish you could have lived in the 1800's and been one of the very bright guys of that time who got into the things which completely transformed America in those days: the oil industry; the steel industry, etc. And then of course along came automobiles and if the steel/oil industries had not made a fortune by then, the need to make automobiles and the need for fuel to operate them *really* was the impetus that made Big Steel and Big Oil into the giants they are now. A very old, but still very good book worth reading is 'The History of Standard Oil'. It was written by Ida Tarbell, a muckraking sort of author who wrote for the newspapers back in in the early years of this century. Ms. Tarbell wrote her history of Standard Oil back about 1910-15 or so; then a big two-volume treatise on the incredible empire of John Rockefeller. I would have loved to have known that man personally; even to have had the privilege of just walking along with him for a single day and trying to learn from him. Look for Ida Tarbell's book 'The History of Standard Oil' in a library. Some that specialize in older collections will have it. One of my favorite old photographs is a picture of John Rockefeller and William Rainey Harper (founding president of the University of Chicago) walking together down the sidewalk on 59th Street. The photo dates to about 1895. The photo shows JDR elegantly dressed with top hat and tails, the formal dress of those days, with a walking stick. And now, late twentieth century, it is computers and computer networking. I would not want to be anywhere but where I am now with my own niche in this new promise for America. Would you? Are *we* going to have a history to tell fifty years from now!!!! To conclude this thread, I think the oil company credit cards are like the general purpose cards in that the first few digits in your account number indicate *which* company issued it. For quite a long time, and maybe still, Amoco cards always started out with the first three digits 450 through 499, while 'Standard of Indiana' always started out 500 through 599. The east coast Exxon, Esso, Standard of New Jersey cards always started out with a 1, 2 or 3. The west coast company used 700-900 as the first three digits. This was so the central credit card processing offices knew which company to issue the payments to, etc. And like the telcos, the various Standard Oil entities had an annual settlement among themselves to clear the charges and credits created by their card holders. We know of course that all the major credit cards identify themselves the same way today: Visa always has a four digit number beginning with a 4 to identify their member bank while MC always has a four digit number beginning with a 5 to identify their member bank. Discover always starts out '6011' in case you had not noticed, and for many years Diners Club was always '3781' as their first four digits. I do not know what American Express is using these days as I have not had one of their cards in years, since back when I used be relatively rich. I do know thirty years ago they used the oil company scheme and had 001 through 010 as their first three digits. 000 was always reserved for 'credit cards' issued by the federal General Services Administration to federal agencies for gasoline purchases while Grey- hound Bus had 'credit cards' beginning with 012 for its use. I am speaking of the 1950-70 era now. Another three digit series was used for 'aviation fuel and services' at small airports. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ctyrre01@purch.eds.com Date: Mon, 22 Jul 96 7:08:16 EDT Subject: Jeff Slaton Lashes Back at the Net Pat, I was able to get the article from InfoWorld Electric. Chuck Tyrrell ---------------------- THE GRIPE LINE Watch out: You just might get an offer from junk e-mailers you can refuse BY ED FOSTER Publication Date: July 15, 1996 (Vol. 18, Issue 29) The rising flood of junk e-mail isn't just causing frayed tempers among those on the receiving end. It appears that the junk e-mail senders are getting testy, too. As we discussed last week, many readers feel the best way to fight junk e-mail is to reply in kind by sending e-mail back, repeatedly if necessary, to get themselves removed from address lists. Although such tactics are generally successful, the junk e-mailers are starting to take countermeasures of their own. During the past few months, several InfoWorld readers have complained to The Gripe Line about a message they received promoting a "bulk e-mail program" called Lightning Bolt 2.0 from Eunuchs Etc., in Albuquerque, N.M. Lightning Bolt is essentially a junk e-mail generator that scans and strips out addresses from the Internet and then automates the process of sending out messages to the address lists the product compiles. That such programs exist is not really a surprise, of course, and that wasn't what the readers were complaining about. One issue was the "free offer" for new e-mail addresses included in the Lightning Bolt message: "Order now and receive 150,000 `fresh' e-mail addresses to start your advertising campaign. All free e-mail addresses are: .com, .net, .org. No .gov or .edu, unless otherwise specified." Naturally, readers who got the junk e-mail promoting Lightning Bolt suspected they might be among those 150,000 addresses. "Great, I get this message about a product I have no use for, and I can look forward to a bunch more from whoever buys it," said one griper. "And it will just keep mushrooming." But what disturbed them even more was this rather threatening note at the end of the message: "Warning -- We have perfect ANI [automatic number identification]. Those who call to harass or leave bogus information will have their names, addresses, phone numbers (and e-mail address when available) posted to alt. 2600, phrack, crack and hack groups for all to have fun with. Have a nice day;) Wank!" What an interesting way to win over customers. I had to talk to these people. It turns out Eunuchs Etc. is owned by Jeff Slaton, who has already gained some notoriety in Usenet circles by calling himself the "Spam King" and selling his junk e-mail services to advertisers. Slaton was relatively unapologetic about the warning notice on his Lightning Bolt message, although he said that particular notice is no longer being used. "My attitude comes from over a year of being under siege by these terrorists, folks who were demon dialing our 800 number or sending us messages with the entire encyclopedia," Slaton said, adding that he's identified to authorities one individual who placed 2,131 calls to his 800 number in 72 hours. "We wanted people to realize that courtesy on the Internet runs both ways, and put folks on warning they can be prosecuted." Slaton claimed it was not his intention to keep people from replying and asking to have their names removed from the address list, and he said all e-mail addresses he uses are first compared against a do-not-mail list he has compiled. "If anyone responds and asks to have their address removed, they should not be sent e-mail by us again," Slaton said. "And I'm encouraging every customer of Lighting Bolt to send to me their do-not-mail list so we can make that available to everyone." Slaton and his associates said that less than one percent of junk e-mail recipients actually ask to receive no more mail, which I think is key. As long as Slaton and others like him can say they are only defending themselves against electronic terrorists and that most people are actually willing to receive these messages, then junk e-mail is likely to continue mushrooming. The way to stop it is to prove that a lot more than one percent of people are unwilling to receive junk e-mail. So, when you get one, don't send back an encyclopedia, but do send the advertiser a message demanding you be placed on the do-not-mail list. And send me a copy. Maybe we can start building our own do-not-mail list. Ed Foster's Gripe Line examines product quality, customer service, and sales practices. Send gripes to gripe@infoworld.com or call (800) 227-8365, Ext. 710. Join his New Gripes forum on InfoWorld Electric at http://www.infoworld.com. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ah, so little Jeffy has 'notified the authorities' about the rude responses he has received from netters has he? Hey Jeff, while your at it, tell the authorities how you get some of the names for your mailing list, will you? Explain to the nice authorities how looting of private mailing lists such as e-zines on the net is done. You know, how some of those obscure commands and not very well documented commands in sendmail work that allow one to exploit holes in sendmail and snoop into things that don't concern you. Despite Ed Foster's bias in favor of these scummy people who send out junk mail to help you get rich fast, restore hair to your otherwise bald head, sell worthless and fraudulent securities, cure AIDS, worthless and illegal chain letters etc., my recommendation is still when you get email of that sort from a *good* address (so much of it comes with bogus headers now days) that you return the favor with email of your own. Let the site postmaster know a bad decision was made when they opened an account for whoever it was. Make them keep running from one ISP to another looking for a place to operate where they won't get kicked off. When they give an 800 phone number for contact, call that number to inquire about their product. A second or third phone call to let them know you are not interested is also legitimate. If they give a regular phone number that you have to pay to call, then if you want to pay for a call or two that's fine, but a better way is to turn over the rock they hide under and cross reference a little of their personal life -- purely from public records at anyone's disposal -- for all of the net to share in. Remember, spam will only be on the net as long as there is a perception that the net is a cheap and profitable place to do business. When the spammers are constantly hit back with a barrage of mail and their phone bills become monstrous in size -- and Jeff's was this past month, take my word for it -- the spammers will find out this is not a good place to do business at all, and they will go away. They will not go away out of any sense of decency or ethics, but they will go away when instead of finding money in their mailbox all they find are bills from ISPs and telephone companies. As much money as possible for as little expense and work as possible is where things are at with those people. Your objective then is to turn that around 180 degrees. As much work and grief as possible for as little money as possible -- sort of like this Digest I put out! . ------------------------------ From: g_oehl@informatik.uni-kl.de (Georg Oehl) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. Organization: University of Kaiserslautern, Germany Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:07:36 GMT In article , Monty Solomon writes: > Our telephone system here goes on automatic outside normal hours and, > like many others, invites callers to dial the desired extension; "If > you don't know your party's extension, but do know their (sic) name, > spell it, last name first." > So, I got a call from someone who will go unnamed, who told me, "Your > super fancy telephone system really sucks!" Why? I inquired. "Well, > I called the other evening, but I forgot your extension. I tried > spelling your name, and nothing happened!" Really, I said. Did you > start with my last name? "Of course, just the way the system told me > to." Well, maybe you entered it too fast. "I tried three times, and > very slowly: M A R ... > Q ..." Well, there isn't a Q on the dial. What key did you press > for Q? --- Long pause --- "What do you mean, press keys?" > After I stopped laughing, she'd hung up. Well, I would have probably done the same thing. To me "spelling" doesn't mean to "dial" using the letters on the dialpad. Georg ------------------------------ From: g_oehl@informatik.uni-kl.de (Georg Oehl) Subject: Using DTMF From German Cell Phone With U.S. Callback Organization: University of Kaiserslautern, Germany Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:15:07 GMT Hi there, Is there a number in the U.S. that is able to recognize touch tones and read them back to me? The following scenario makes me look for that: I am using a callback service based in the U.S. to save on calls made (back) to Germany from a cell phone. (During peak hours savings of 67% are possible that way). Sometimes not all digits dialed seem to be recognized by the callback computer at the other end, though and I am wondering what the reason for this is. I would therefore like to call a number in the U.S. using my callback provider, type in a number of reasonable length and then some automated voice tells me the numbers dialed. Is there something like that? Georg ------------------------------ From: dlewis@hogpc.ho.att.com (David G. Lewis) Subject: Re: Exchange -> Location Map Wanted; NYNEX Still Ignorant Date: 22 Jul 1996 14:03:30 GMT Organization: AT&T In article , Michael Bailey wrote: > (Background: Bellcore, in its infinite wisdom, has assigned codes to > every single CO so that four letters would be location, four more > letters would be indicative of rls or host, and two more letters and a > number which I don't know what they mean. So the Longbranch CO would > be LGBHFLXAds0 for instance.) Actually, the Common Language(R) Location Identifier (CLLI) consists of four letters denoting town, two letters denoting state, two letters denoting building (or some other specific location), and a three-alphanumeric denoting an "entity" (I don't recall if that's the exact term used by Common Language). So LGBHFLXADS0 would be: LGBH = Long Branch FL = Florida XA = building coded XA DS0 = digital switch zero (the first digital switch placed in building XA) David G Lewis AT&T Network & Computing Services david.g.lewis@att.com or Network Services Planning deej@taz.att.com Call Processing Systems Engineering The Future: It's a long distance from long distance. ------------------------------ From: balden@wimsey.com (Bruce Balden) Subject: Re: Area Code Splits - Poor Planning? Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 14:58:00 GMT Organization: Online at Wimsey Reply-To: balden@wimsey.com kamlet@infinet.com (Art Kamlet) wrote: > In article , Tye McQueen > wrote: >> The Dallas area is in sore need of an _overlay_ or 8-digit local >> numbers. But the courts were so silly as to rule that an overlay is >> illegal since it unfairly disadvantages new-comer local service >> providers, so we will never see one. While the NANPers are so silly >> as to think that 8-digit local numbers will never be needed so why >> start working toward making them possible > The issue of overlays vs. split regions is basically political. > Eight-digit local numbers, on the other hand, requires major changes > everywhere, and Bellcore will have lots of work on their hands. > For example, suppose Dallas folks agree on eight-digit local numbers. > How will someone like me, here in Columbus, get an eight-digit local > number through my local phone company? In other jurisdictions, existing numbers are lengthened by prefixing them with a special digit, or by duplicating the lead digit. Also, by use of area code blocks, it might be possible to collapse existing splits. For instance, if LA needs less than ten area codes over all (remembering that existing splits don't necessarily mean that every one of the codes is exhausted), then using something like 23x + 7 digits for all of LA might be simpler than the current zoo of area codes. This provides 90,000,000 (including the release of previously special central office codes such as 0xx and 1xx) numbers, greatly exceeding the size of California, and if this wasn't enough they could colonize 24x However, I think North America is large enough to have a three-tier system instead of a two tier system: two digits for state/province/island; + two digits city/region code; + seven digit local number This system has the benefit of retaining seven-digit local dialing within most mid-sized centres. However, all attempts to hold off eight-digit local numbers are probably doomed. What I'm afraid of is that we will have a crazy quilt of dialing zones, four-digit NPA codes AND eight digit local numbers. ------------------------------ From: jakala@netcom.com (henry jakala) Subject: Where Can I Find Info on SS7 Protocols? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 05:08:27 GMT Are there any ftp or www sites that document the SS7 protocols? How, when and where they are used? What they do for you? Thanks; please e-mail if you would be so kind. ------------------------------ From: Michael Stanford Subject: Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 12:26:01 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is B-A not following this spec or > is Hillary mistaken on seeing both 'anonymous' and 'private' on > her box? If she is seeing both, then it would seem B-A sends one > message for some calls and the other message on other calls but > nonetheless treats either condition as 'private'. Right or wrong? PAT] If BA is not following the spec, then most Caller ID boxes would not work in BA territory. It is more likely that the box manufacturer (look on the bottom, probably Cidco or Colonial Data) has chosen to put an indication on the LCD when it fails to pick up any Caller ID. I would surmise that the box displays "Anonymous" when it does not get Caller ID information, i.e. when there is no Caller ID carrier or when the calling number field is empty or the transmitted data is corrupted in some other way. If the box does not display something like "No Caller ID available" from time to time, or stay blank on some calls this explanation would make sense. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Hillary has since written me again saying for me to drop by sometime and watch her box as it shows both 'anonymous' and 'private' depending on where the call is from. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #353 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Mon Jul 22 14:54:22 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id OAA09408; Mon, 22 Jul 1996 14:54:22 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 14:54:22 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607221854.OAA09408@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #354 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Jul 96 14:54:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 354 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FCC Preparing New Telecom Rules (Danny Burstein) NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing (Joseph Wiesenfeld) "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? (Lisa Hancock) PCIA's TDP Suite On Line (Rob Lockhart) Modem Use With a Digital Phone? (Steve Scott) Looking For Fax Symbol (Frank R. Pizer) Data Communications Recording (Edwin Kayes) Re: ISDN in MD, VA, PA, DC or NJ ... Help Needed (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Exchange -> Location Map Wanted; NYNEX Still Ignorant (Linc Madison) Re: Exchange -> Location Map Wanted; NYNEX Still Ignorant (Seymour Dupa) Re: Exchange -> Location Map Wanted; NYNEX Still Ignorant (tmitariffs@aol) Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem (grendel6@ix.netcom.com) Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem (Ray Rikansrud) Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem (Hank Karl) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 14:51:33 GMT From: danny burstein Subject: FCC Preparing New Telecom Rules (The following is from an AP news story of Sat, 20-July-1996) > Govt. Readying Phone Rules > By JEANNINE AVERSA Associated Press Writer > WASHINGTON (AP) -- As holiday-goers sprawled in lawn chairs for Fourth > of July fireworks nearby, Federal Communications Commission attorney > Lisa Gelb sat hunched over her computer, working on rules to > dramatically change how Americans get their phone service and how much > they pay for it. > Five months after Congress passed a sweeping telecommunications > overhaul bill, the hard work of drawing up the law's detailed > regulations -- and the behind-the-scenes lobbying over them -- is > heating up. The story goes on to describe that the new rules calling for competition and opening up of (most of the current) telco, long distance, and cable tv monopolies are expected to be in place August 1st. Oh, and lots of lobbyist dollars are making the rounds. A _very_ key point being fought over is the "access" and "termination" fees currently charged by (usually) the RBOCS. As Telecom Digest readers are well aware, the local telcos charge the IXCs lots of money for the first and last leg of a call, and the IXCs are trying to get this reduced or eliminated. The local competitors have a bit of an awkward situarion in this. On the one hand they may be using the RBOC to complete the call, hence they'll want the traffic fee to be as low as possible. On the other hand, when _they_ complete the call, they'll want to billback the RBOC as high a rate as possible. To quote again from the story: (A key concern is...) > -- Whether long-distance companies can avoid paying local companies > for originating and terminating calls. The billions now received from > such ``access'' charges are used to keep rates low in high-cost areas > and to provide service for low-income customers. (We've all heard this cross-subsidization story a thousand times. I'd love to see true figures on it ...) ------------------------------ From: joew@joew.us.dg.com (Joseph_Wiesenfeld@dg.com) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 11:48:00 EDT Subject: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing I recently received a notice from NYNEX indicating that they noticed that I have not been charged for Touch-Tone Service while they have been providing me with it. They indicated to contact them if I wanted to order it and they would begin charging me $0.95 per line per month for the service or they would discontinue it on my line. My major question is can they control the line so that after a connection is made, I can not switch my phone from pulse to tone so as to send tones to answering systems, etc after connection is made. Several of the phones that I have have the Pulse/Tone switch easily available. Thanks. Joseph I. Wiesenfeld Data General Corporation Voice: (508) 898-6935 Senior Network Engineer 4400 Computer Drive FaX: (508) 898-5405 Westboro, MA 01580 email: joew@joew.us.dg.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What they can do is arrange things so their central office equipment does not listen to or respond to your tones. They cannnot change what happens after the connection is made. They can prevent you from using tones to signal the central office on your connection request. You'd still be okay using tones for your voicemail, pagers, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Subject: "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 21:12:43 -0400 An article in the {Philadelphia Inquirer} stated that an additional area code will be needed in the Philadelphia area in the next several years. People are upset since the area was just split (215/610), and were told the split would create enough new numbers to last for years. [The article continued with the debate of overlay vs another split.] But the last part had a very interesting item: it explained that increased user demand (faxes, cellular, etc) is only a part of the problem. The big problem is competition, because the new companies need to reserve blocks of exchanges, and are taking far more than they'll need or ever use, thus the shortage. I think this is an excellent point. If a competitor gets a full exchange designation, will they use all identifiers in it? I doubt it very much. Everyone is jumping over each other supporting "competition" in local phone service. Yet phone service was granted monopoly status for a reason: it is too cumbersome to have multiple companies serving the same area. I believe that's still quite true. And the competition isn't true competition -- the Bell company will still provide the local loop. Some competitors will be merely resellers -- buying blocks of time/service and selling it. Of what benefit is that? I can see the Bell companies loving this. Giving "competition" lets them compete in the long distance and other markets which they're prohibited from now. And, they'll STILL selling the line space! Indeed, it's a benefit for them -- if some pain-in-the-butt customer drops out, they'll be happy -- let someone else have the aggravation. I really think the issue of "competition" has to be more carefully thought out. In CONCRETE TERMS, who are the beneficiaries and who are the losers? (Someone once posted here "some will pay more and some will pay less". That says nothing!) I suspect a hard number analysis will show a lot of profit to the new middlemen, the Bells passing costs on to customers and breaking even or even a profit. A few lucky shrewd consumers may benefit. But most consumers will end up paying MORE. Oh yes, the lawyers will make a bundle! Is that whom we really want to enrich? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Listen Lisa, if it makes the judge and all the federal regulators happy, then it makes me happy. I've heard that a couple of local telcos are already preparing lists of customers to recommend to the 'competition': real slow paying nuisance subscribers who have been on the telco 'complainer' list for years. One wit even went so far as to suggest: mv complainers best-customers in the computer files, and then hope that sometime soon the competitors will hire some hacker to break into telco's computer to look around for things of value. ... what the heck, the competitors have no outside plant investment; no hundred years of research and development investment; no central office of their own, and in a couple cases are suing to make the telco include *their listings and their logo* in the telephone directory published by the established telco of record. Why shouldn't they just rifle the telco's computer and get whatever things they want out of their also? When the Alternate Operator Service outfits started in business a few years ago mostly to service COCOTs, someone here used the term 'bottom feeders' to apply to them. I wonder why 'bottom feeders' would not be a good term to use for the pseudo-competition that is going to be coming along soon? Essentially what is happening is telco will be giving up some of its profit (by selling wholesale to competitors what they used to sell retail to subscribers) in exchange for being allowed to make a lot more profit on long distance calls. The competition is gambling they will increase their profit by converting the biggest and best business customers; telco is gambling they will lose only the worst of their malcontents i.e. the complainers and deadbeats. Since the rules don't specify any certain percentage of the customer base or any type of customer or the amount of revenue involved -- merely that there has to be 'competition' -- the telcos are hoping to trim their losses from the local base by bidding adieu to the worst while retaining the best. In general what you say is correct. The big winners in 'local competition' will be the existing telcos. Watch them get bigger and fatter and sassier than ever. Note how Bell South and Ameritech are quite eager to get the new guys started. Yes sir, step right up and get yourself co-located in the central office and could we interest you in a few good customers we have to spare? The competitors claim that an overlay plan will work to their disad- vantage since their customers will wind up with all the 'new type' area codes and numbers while the established telco gets to keep the 'regular looking' numbers. They're also afraid that if they do not take huge blocks of numbers now so they can pick through for the best of them to dangle as incentives for the telco customers they hope to convert, some of *their* competitors will get them instead. Before long, folks will wish for the good old days of the "Bell System" when the Mother Company ran everything with an iron fist. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rlockhart@aol.com (RLockhart) Subject: PCIA's TDP Suite On Line Date: 21 Jul 1996 22:10:56 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: rlockhart@aol.com (RLockhart) PCIA recently made the TDP Suite of Protocols available to all via the web. The following press release covers this and our aid in generating the web version of TDP. Rob Lockhart Member of the Technical Staff FLEXx Architecture, Protocols, and Systems Core Technology and Systems Division Messaging Systems Products Group, Motorola, Inc. Desktop I'net: epag06@email.mot.com Belttop Wireless I'net (<1K characters): rob.lockhart@radiomail.net ----------------------------------------------- Motorola Releases Paging Protocol Suite on World Wide Web Open Access to TDP Protocols Facilitates Wireless Relay of Data, Graphics and Two-Way Messages FORT WORTH, Texas - July 17, 1996 - Motorola's Messaging Systems Products Group (MSPG), in cooperation with the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA), has made the TDP (Telocator Data Paging) suite of protocols available free of charge to wireless application developers on the World Wide Web. Created under the auspices of PCIA by a team of developers from the world's leading paging product companies, the TDP protocol suite allows wireless product users to send files, pictures and two-way messages over one- and two-way paging networks. The protocol suite, in hypertext (HTML), Adobex Acrobatx and Adobe PostScriptx formats, is currently available on Motorola's World Wide Web site at: http://www.mot.com/pagers/pcia_protocols/tdp_v2p0. The address links directly to the PCIA Web site through July. After that time the TDP protocol can be accessed by visiting PCIA's Web site at: http://www.pcia.com. The TDP protocol allows wireless application and product developers to harness the increased capacity and faster speeds of advanced messaging technologies such as Motorola's FLEXx family of protocols. "Making the TDP protocol suite available free of charge to developers on the Web is consistent with the strategy we've pursued with our FLEX protocol technology," stated Rob Lockhart, member of the technical staff, FLEX Architecture, Protocols and Systems. "Open, common access to these foundation technologies is essential to driving the wireless data industry forward and creating opportunity for big companies, small companies and end users alike." "For more than a decade, PCIA has provided a forum for an assortment of industry visionaries to come together and formulate paging standards such as the TDP suite of protocols," commented Donald Vasek, Senior Issues Manager, PCIA. "Open platforms, such as those available on the Web, benefit the entire paging industry." PCIA is the leading international trade association representing the wireless communications industry. Established in 1949, it has been at the forefront in advancing regulatory policies, legislation and technological standards that have helped launch the age of PCS. PCIA represents the full range of players in wireless communications, including PCS licensees and those in paging, ESMR, SMR, mobile data, manufacturing and local and interexchange sectors of the industry. Motorola is one of the world's leading providers of wireless communications, semiconductors, and advanced electronic systems, components and services. Major equipment businesses include paging and data communications, cellular telephone, two-way radio, and personal communications, automotive, defense and space electronics, and computers. Motorola semiconductors power communications devices, computers and millions of other products. Motorola's 1995 sales were $27 billion. Further information on Motorola's Messaging Systems Products Group is available at: http://www.mot.com/pagers. FLEX protocol information is available at: http://www.mot.com/FLEX. - 30 - Motorola and FLEX are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola, Inc. Other names and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Editorial Contacts: Patrick Ward/Laura D'Aiuto Cunningham Communication 617/494-8202 patrick@ccipr.com laura@ccipr.com Kathy Van Buskirk Motorola Paging Products Group 407/739-8447 FKV001@Email.Mot.Com ------------------------------ From: sscott@hpmail2.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com (Steve Scott) Subject: Modem Use With a Digital Phone? Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 10:43:39 CDT Reply-To: sscott@mot.com In my new office, I have a Meridian N2616 digital phone (manufactured by Northern Telecom). I want to use my 28.8k modem with this phone line but, of course, the two formats are not compatible (i.e. cannot put a Y in the RJ11 jack and use both devices). Question is: I know I could pay to have a separate analog line installed for just the modem use. But, is there an adaptor which would convert the digital line to analog (and vice versa) which I could install in-line and which would allow me to use my analog modem? Thanks, Steve Scott Internet: sscott@mot.com Network Design and Development Center UUCP: uunet!motcid!sscott Cellular Systems Division X.400: fw0205@email General Systems Sector Internal: TX14/1D Motorola, Inc. Voice: (817) 245-6317 Fax: (817) 245-6580 ------------------------------ From: bidscan@mail.saix.net Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 20:49:38 -0700 Subject: Looking For Fax Symbol Pat, perhaps you and/or your readers can help ... I've already posted a similiar request to a graphics NG, and having had no reply, I figure it's time to try the communication/phone folk. I'm trying to find out what people are using on business stationary to indicate a FAX number ... something that would be a suitable companion for that little telephone symbol ... any ideas? Thanks, Frank R Pizer bidscan@mail.saix.net ------------------------------ From: edwin.kayes@ukonline.co.uk Subject: Data Communications Recording Date: 22 Jul 1996 16:43:06 GMT Organization: UK Online I am trying to find an appropriate source of information or Newsgroup on the recording of digital data/telecommunications, such as CEPT 1, 2 and 3 (E-1, 2 & 3)and T-1, 2 and 3. I'd also like to cover other comms formats, such as recording of ATM. Can anyone point me in the right direction please? Thanks, Edwin Kayes ------------------------------ From: fgoldstein@bbn.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: ISDN in MD, VA, PA, DC or NJ ... Help Needed Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 16:43:39 GMT Organization: BBN Corp. In article psyber@usa.pipeline. com (John Cropper) writes: (discussion of BA's outrageous ISDN residential rates went here) > I know of two *individuals* who were offered service here (NJ) for a > FLAT $30-$35 a month (mainly because they already had Centrex service > installed at their locations. > There is no reason that cannot be extended to ALL users in a timely > (12-24 monthes urban/suburban, 36 monthes rural) manner. Sure it would > entail a more accelerated plan to fiber certain areas, but fiber is > getting pretty common in my general area anyhow. It already can. But Centrex is not the equivalent of ISDN exchange service. With Centrex, a user gets unlimited "intercom" calling. Since Centrex emulates a PBX, internal calls are free. Even data calls on ISDN Centrex. But calls out of the centrex are charged at the regular business line rate, which in NJ is always measured/timed. Residential analog is flat rate. Some ISPs subscribe to Centrex for this reason. They give their subscribers extensions on their Centrex, restricted to internal-only dialing (since the ISP, as owner of the Centrex, gets the bill). If the ISP is served by the same central office as the subscriber, it's pretty cheap (say, $35). But if the subscriber is anywhere else, then inter-office station-off-premise charges apply. Telco has to assign three 64 kbps channels (2B+D) inside their network to support the remote user when it's ISDN, plus use ISDN mux cards (usually the Adtran BR1TE, a few hundred bucks at each end). So the price per month usually goes over $100. Still, this is the way Bell Atlantic seems to want it. The company's "mission" is straightforward, to sell Centrex. Not even to make profit; that's incidental. They are fanatically obsessed with Centrex, the world's largest provider. (Uncle Sam is the main customer.) Now if overpriced residential ISDN encourages a few users to put in Centrex, then that's good, since it diverts business away from an unwanted business (residential ISDN) and towards their holy mission (Centrex). Just putting the Centrex label on it changes it from profane to holy. Debating rates with BA is not a matter of what's profitable. Their mind is made up. Fred R. Goldstein k1io fgoldstein@bbn.com BBN Corp., Cambridge MA USA +1 617 873 3850 Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Exchange -> Location Map Wanted; NYNEX Still Ignorant Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:29:38 GMT Organization: Best Internet Communications [ various discussions about getting a map showing the geographic territory served by a given central office, and the prefixes used. ] One item that has disappointed me greatly in the last couple of years is a change in the Pacific Bell directories. There is a section that lists the areas that are within your local calling area and your "Zone 3" area if you are in each of the rate centers served by that directory. It used to be that the book would tell me that if I am in "San Francisco 1" then I am local to "East Bay 1 - 4" (but not "East Bay 5"), Sausalito, etc., and it had a little chart telling me that "East Bay 1" included the following prefixes, and so forth. The list was never broken down by central office, of course, and each rate center typically includes several C.O.'s, but it was much more convenient to remember a list of communities that were local than a list of prefixes. Now all they give me is a block that says, if you are in "S.F. 1" then the following prefixes are local, without any sorting by location. I consider it a great leap backwards, almost as much so as the switch some years ago to the neo-impressionist area code maps from the geographically accurate ones of years past. I never cease to wonder at discovering from my phone book that Delaware is wider east-west than north-south. **Permission is specifically WITHHELD for the collection of this address for any e-mail unrelated to the subject of this article.** Linc Madison * San Francisco, Calif. * Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.com ------------------------------ From: grumpy@en.com (Seymour Dupa) Subject: Re: Exchange -> Location Map Wanted; NYNEX Still Ignorant Date: 21 Jul 1996 22:36:07 GMT Organization: Exchange Network Services, Inc. Michael Bailey (michaelb@well.com) wrote: [snip] > Getting copies of exchange maps is also possible (I got one for a > customer once but it took two weeks and I wonder if I could do it > again.) but it is more likely that you will be told, "if you give me a > particular address I will tell you which CO (or exchange) it is served > by (or in)." What do you mean "exchange map"? Finding what *area* an exchange is in is relatively easy. What I call an exchange map is a different story. It would be a map that would show the area (boundries) that a given exchange (CO) serves. You would be able to see how far down a street you could move and still keep you same phone number. It is also impossible to get one in Ameritech land. I tried -- went all the way to corporate -- and failed. I have developed a proceedure to generate such a map. All you need is a mapping program with geocoding and a CD-ROM phone book. I'd be glad to post it if there is any interest. John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sure, send it along. I'll bet it would make a good addition to the Telecom Archives. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tmitariffs@aol.com (TMITARIFFS) Subject: Re: Exchange -> Location Map Wanted; NYNEX Still Ignorant Date: 22 Jul 1996 11:09:20 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Point of informtion: Bellcore's nomenclature for Common Language Location Identifier or CLLI for a central office is setup up in the following manner: digits 1-4 represent the geographic name of the location digits 5-6 represent the state. digits 7-8 represent the office (if 7 ="X", it is owned by a non Bell company) digits 9,10 and 11 represent the phyiscal switch within the Central office. If two npa-nxx's have the same first eight digits of the CLLI they are co located in the same central office and carry the same vertical and horizontal coordinates. If the last three digits are different, they may have different capabilities. It is possible however, to have completely different CLLI codes (except for 5-6, obviously) and still be colocated. Second point of information: While Bellcore information is probably more accurate, all parties should be aware that vendors do not use BellCore to price any distance- sensitive service. Wire Center V&Hs from The National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) Tariff 4 (Filed with the FCC, monthly) is what ALL Vendors use for pricing exchage services. The V&H Coordinates provided by BELLCore and NECA can be different, (and suprisingly, both can be wrong). NECA, however, is used for all pricing issues. AT&T FCC 10 provides Rate Center information and is alsop an industry standard for pricing. Steve Perkins XChange GeoMatics "Geographic Solutions for Telecom Tariff Issues" 770 452-7077 TMIChamp@sprynet.com ------------------------------ From: grendel6@ix.netcom.com Subject: Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 23:43:56 GMT Organization: Netcom I have three guesses ... and that's *all* that they are, but for $.02, they are: 1) The CID info coming from the Fairchild switch is completely blank. Since the call is local, B-A can't send "out-of-area"; the CID information doesn't say "private" (I assume) so B-A can't send "private" as an indication, and the only choice left is "anonymous"; OR 2) The CID info coming from the Fairchild contains something that B-A's switch doesn't recognize as valid [e.g. one of those new NXX codes that B-A 'forgot' to add to their switch's translate table]) and BA sends 'anonymous'; OR 3) Hillary's CID box doesn't know the difference between "anonymous" and "out of area". I don't THINK I've seen a mention here that she gets any calls with "out of area" messages ... 1) most likely caused by the Fairchild switch sending blank info; could be caused by something screwed up in B-A's configuration for the front desk's outgoing line, but that seems a longshot; 2) assuming that the CID data being generated by the Fairchild *is* valid, the problem would be B-A's fault. It might be interesting to find *another* phone with the same NXX prefix, and call someone with CID to see what shows up. 3) perhaps the front desk could be persuaded to call a friend of Hillary's with a *different* make of CID box, or perhaps she could borrow one from somebody. I know it's unlikely, but when all else fails, check the basics. If I've been following the discussions here correctly, the call to the 800 number won't help, because the 800 will show ANI, not CID info, right? Hillary can get the same result by calling telco's ANI test number from the front desk. By the way, I only know of one building that offers its residents PBX telephone service, and that's One Franklintown Boulevard in Philadelphia. Are there more? Bill [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It used to be years and years and years ago that many or most residential apartment buildings included phone service from a manual cordboard located at the front desk unless the building was large enough to have a separate room for the board with separate operators instead of front desk personnel, etc. Of course they also used to offer 'maid service' as well with the maid doing a few simple things (make the bed, etc) daily and a good complete cleaning of your apartment once or twice weekly. I speak now with Chicago mostly in mind -- although older people in other cities have reported much the same thing -- about life in those days; up until about 1970 or so. The front desk/switchboard employees were always white; the maids were always black. The housekeeper (the supervisor of the maids) usually was white, sometimes black. The front desk people as well as the building manager and building engineer always lived in the building but the maids -- well, they lived in some other part of town and rode the bus to work each morning. Sometime in the 1960's the economics of running large older apartment building highrises became such that expenses had to be cut back a great deal. The maids were the first to go (not only from the economics involved; but because black women were becoming increasingly reluctant to go to work as a maid for someone else and 'good help' was hard to find) and within a few more years the switchboards were pulled out in lieu of telling tenants to get their own phone service if they wanted it. Depending on the size of the building and how many new pairs had to be pulled into the building the conversion took a month or so. Typically in a building with a hundred apartments the switchboard had ten to fifteen incoming lines in a rotary hunt. If the building also had Western Union service (telegraph receiving and sending or clock service) then a couple more pairs coming into the building were devoted to that. In some cases large transient buildings also had direct tie-lines on the board to the long distance operator which by-passed the local central office. So going from maybe fifteen or twenty pairs coming into the building (which via the switchboard branched off to a couple hundred house pairs) to having a couple hundred pairs right off the cable coming into the building going direct to the apartments took a bit of wire pulling. Telco used to give the apartment building owners a commission on all their sent-paid and received-collect traffic, but the catch was the front desk had to keep a record of the traffic and collect for all of it as part of the tenant's monthly rent. The building management was responsible for paying telco. In those days if a tenant wanted a private phone of his own in his apartment he could get one, but time and again the front desk added on a 'switchboard service fee' to make up for the revenue they lost by not carrying the calls for that apartment any longer. But the switchboards did give wakeup service and apartment-to-apartment phone service as well as part of their offering. Not too many places do that any longer. I remember over about 35 years living in a few places which did, and once living on a block where there were three large buildings all of which offered switchboard/front desk/maid service to tenants. All three were then top-notch, very beautiful buildings. A couple even had dining rooms and ballrooms plus nice lobbies to sit in. Now all three are slums; one is a crack house which has had a few fires in recent years; the other two are marginal places for very low-income families. Times change. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ray Rikansrud Subject: Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 18:22:08 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Fri, 19 Jul 1996, Gary Breuckman wrote: {puma said a bunch of things; basically correct as usual] > On Tue, 16 Jul 1996, Patrick A. Townson wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But to repeat, Hillary gets *both* > messages depending on who is calling. B-A must be sending two > different codes, wouldn't you think? PAT] I don't know the answers to the questions raised! But, I used to get out-of-area until the LEC (GTE, but don't blame them) offered Calling Name along with Calling Number Identification. This was coincident with the FCC rules about interstate delivery which may or may not make a difference. I know our own PBX still sends out out-of-area because the only choice is either that or Private. Sending out private would be pretty arrogant so that is generally not done. When GTE changed their service offerings, some of the callers that used to come in as out-of-area showed up as not available on the same piece of CPE. This was the same on two different manufacturers of equipment. I now have four different manufacturer's equipment monitoring the calls but can't say for sure that I get different displays for the same calls (at least not those that are the defaults built into the devices). I have Bellcore documents on the standards but must not have all the right ones because I have not found the "signals" that trigger specific messages. I wonder why the Bellcore folks or one of the LEC's have not cleared up all of this confusion. It would sure be nice to see a complete explanation of what is being sent and how. Ray Rikansrud ------------------------------ From: hankkarl@ix.netcom.com (Hank Karl) Subject: Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 15:52:52 GMT Organization: Telenetworks Reply-To: hankkarl@ix.netcom.com Pat, It's been a while since I saw the specs, but as I recall you are correct, the caller-id box generates either wording "anonymous" or "private". But lets assume the caller-id box supports both number and _name_, and will display "private" for private calls. One explanation would be that the switch (or PBX, etc) only sends a name of "anonymous" and no number. Another (and I'm not sure that this is possible) is that the PBX sends "anonymous" instead of the numbers. Hank Karl ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #354 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Mon Jul 22 16:47:11 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id QAA22941; Mon, 22 Jul 1996 16:47:11 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 16:47:11 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607222047.QAA22941@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #355 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Jul 96 16:47:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 355 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Call America Sold to GDT Telecommunications, Inc. (Jeff Buckingham) Re: ATTWS/ATT LD Question (Babu Mengelepouti) Re: A Telecom Angle in the Tragic TWA Flight 800 Crash (Marc Zirnheld) Re: Pacific Bell Clock Problems (Winston Sorfleet) Re: AT&T Offers Callback to European Countries! (Jeremy Rogers) Re: Caller ID/Per Line Blocking (Linc Madison) Re: San Antonio NPA Split (Linc Madison) Major AT&T Outage in Europe? (John McHarry) Re: Phone Customers Furious Over Service (N.G. Marino) Re: Extra Charge for Trunk Line Hunting (Scot Desort) Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. (Mark Brader) Re: Last Laugh! Jeff Seems to be Miffed at the Net (Andrew C. Green) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeff Buckingham Subject: Call America Sold to GST Telecommunications, Inc. Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 15:30:00 EDT NEWS CONFERENCE: 1 PM, JULY 22, 1996 CALL AMERICA, HIGUERA ST. OFFICE, SUITE 300 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Beth Harris, Marketing Director 805-547-5634 GST TELECOMMUNICATIONS, INC. ACQUIRES CALL AMERICA (San Luis Obispo, CA) - GST Telecommunications, Inc (AMEX-GST) and Call America Business Communications Corporation today announced an agreement in principle under which Call America and its affiliates will merge into a wholly-owned subsidiary of GST. Under the terms of the agreement, GST will acquire 100% of Call America and its affiliates for a purchase price of $16 million in GST common shares valued at $14.00 per share, subject to certain matters. The transaction is contingent upon the completion of due diligence, regulatory approvals and the execution of definitive merger documents. For the month of June 1996, Call America and its affiliates recorded, consolidated and combined revenues in excess of $1.75 million. Call America President, Jeff Buckingham will be responsible for GST's Central California operations. John Warta, President and CEO of GST Telecommunications, stated "The acquisition of Call America is another step by GST to utilize its extensive network in cities throughout California and the west. GST and Call America share a similar philosophy of providing high quality telecommunication services to end users." Warta added, "In addition to it's existing long distance services, Call America offers a variety of additional services that are of particular interest to GST, including MyLine, a call forwarding service; international long distance, operator service and Centrex resale. We are also sincerely pleased to attract and welcome Jeff Buckingham, and his entire Call America team to the GST family." Jeff Buckingham said, "Call America's partnership with GST will allow us to build our competitive advantage with our customers in the information age. Call America has been looking for the right partner for several years to bring the experience and capital needed to expand into the local markets it serves. GST is a well-financed, young, aggressive company with an experienced management team. This alliance will allow the Call America organization to play an important role in a larger public company." Founded in 1983, Call America was one of the first companies certified by the California Public Utilities Commission. Leading the telecommunications industry, Call America was one of the telephone companies to combine voice mail and long distance services ten years ago. Call America was also the first company to license MyLine technology which consolidates all phone numbers -- voice mail, fax car phone, pager, work phone, and home phone -- into one number that follows the subscriber. Through its operating subsidiaries, Call America currently provides a variety of domestic and international long distance services as a facilities-based reseller. These services are provided to customers in San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, Fresno, Salinas, Ventura, and Santa Barbara, California. Operator services are provided to a number of small regional carriers as well as to hotels throughout California. GST Telecommunications, Inc., headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, currently operates networks in fourteen cities in the western United States and Hawaii, with an additional six cities under construction in the San Francisco Bay area. The company provides a broad range of integrated telecommunications products and services, through the development and operation of competitive access and other telecommunications networks. GST's strategy is to cluster several cities in each state that it enters in order to achieve synergy and maximum opportunity within each service territory. In addition, the company manufactures telecommunications switching equipment and network management and billing systems through its wholly-owned subsidiary National Applied Computer Technologies, Inc. of Orem, Utah. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 23:50:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Babu Mengelepouti Subject: Re: ATTWS/ATT LD Question > Babu Mengelepouti wrote: >> When visiting a local retailer, I stumbled upon a card bearing the >> AT&T Wireless Services logo. It reads as follows: >> This new legislation enables AT&T Wireless Services to select AT&T >> Long Distance as the preferred long distance provider. Therefore, >> cellular calls made outside your AT&T Wireless Services local cellular >> service area will be carried by AT&T." >> I am curious what this means. I believe that ATTWS offers equal >> access in the Seattle market. Does this mean that equal access, if >> previously offered, is ending? Or does it mean that ATTWS was >> previously sending intralata toll to USWest or another LEC and will >> now be sending it to AT&T? Hopefully someone at ATTWS can clear this >> up. > Clear up what? ATTWS would love it if every AT&T long distance > customer were to become an ATTWS cellular subscriber. I believe that > the majority of US consumers of long distance have chosen AT&T long > distance service because they share with ATTWS a high regard for the > quality of that product. ATTWS naturally wants to be associated with > this esteem. > Since cellular air time is anywhere from two to ten times the cost of > long distance time and since cellular air time is also charged for > incoming calls and non-long distance calls, it naturally stands to > reason that long distance charges are maybe only 20% (I'm guessing) of > the average cellular monthly invoice. According to game theory, the > largest cellular carrier has the most to lose and the smallest > cellular carrier has the most to gain, by NOT offering Equal Access. > While I'm not paid the big bucks to make these kinds of decisions, it > would seem to me that it is good business for ATTWS to continue to > offer Equal Access. Why risk cellular subscriber churn by bundling > long distance, when long distance represents so little of the cellular > company's revenue? OTOH, in emerging US PCS-1900 markets, maybe it > makes sense to jump on the bundled AT&T bandwagon. > ATTWS carries intra-LATA toll (usually) on their own facilities and > doesn't involve the LEC or the subscriber's long distance provider for > these calls. B-side cellular carriers owned by the LEC usually do, too. Jeffrey, your answer contains a lot of glowing marketing generalities, but doesn't give me any more information than I had before. Does ATTWS still offer equal access in the Puget Sound market? If no carrier is chosen does it now default to AT&T? I want to know what the statement, re-quoted above, means. If you're not sure, could you find out and let us all know? One thing that I noticed that it could mean (in the Puget Sound market at least) is influencing cellular customers' home IXC. ATTWS is offering a 50% discount on cell airtime for new subscriptions for the first three months, but if you're an AT&T LD customer at home, you'll receive a 50% discount for the first six months on your airtime bill. Incidentally I don't know if PICing AT&T on the cell is also required... :) ------------------------------ From: Marc.Zirnheld@teaser.fr (Marc Zirnheld) Subject: Re: A Telecom Angle in the Tragic TWA Flight 800 Crash Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 15:43:36 GMT Reply-To: Marc.Zirnheld@teaser.fr Pat, The number [33] (1) 48 64 98 32 is an "ordinary" number. It points to the Roissy-Charles de Gaule Airport (48 62 ... and 48 64 are for the airport's switch). Note that (800) 464-9832 doesn't exactly have the same digits (there is an 8 missing). Marc Zirnheld AdressE: Marc.Zirnheld@teaser.fr (ISO-8859-1/Latin-1) Telecopie: 33 (1) 60 19 23 80 Dazibaobab: http://www.teaser.fr/~mzirnheld/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 18:45:57 +0000 From: winston sorfleet Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Clock Problems Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd. In article , wrote: > I observe that the Pacific Bell Caller ID clock is 14 (fourteen) > seconds ahead of the correct time (determined with a shortwave radio > tuned to WWV). > Just for fun, I called 415-POPCORN and heard that their time > annunciator is about four seconds off. > Who is supposed to set these? Are they supposed to be accurate? Fourteen seconds is a pretty major discrepancy, but a few seconds is not unusual for telco. When I worked at the National Research Council (Canada) Time and Length Standards a few years ago, a gentleman from the U.S. called us up one day to let us know that our clocks were discernably "off" by a second. Every morning, he diligently called our T.O.D. number (613) 745-1576, that of the U.S. (then) National Bureau of Standards, and the USNO. Our chief scientist (who is a telecom afficionado) had to explain how the voice propagation through the various telephone networks was not instantaneous, but thanked him politely for alerting us. Likewise, "gross" delays of tens of milliseconds can creep in due to atmospheric conditions in the short-wave signal. So don't believe what you hear on the radio -- come to comp.dcom.telecom instead :-). In another telecom-related incident, a woman called up because her phone bill from Bell Canada had charged her at a worse discount than she had expected (she checked the NRC time standard just before placing a long-duration long-distance call). What had happened is that the Bell Canada CO clock was inaccurate and therefore her call had been billed as if it had started about one minute earlier than it actually had (at 10:59 instead of 11:00 pm). In those days (and perhaps still now) the CO TOD was manually entered by a technician when the switch was booted. I never found out if the woman got her refund. Incidentally, the three standards mentioned above were the "official" national standards for Canada and the U.S. respectively, and each group did keep track of each others' drift (down to the order of tens of nanoseconds I believe) via a satellite relay algorithm. If necessary, the baselines could be synchronized by travelling with a "portable" standard from one location to the other. It's not a simple operation; these clocks are so precise that compensation has to be made for the relativistic differences in the Earth's linear velocity. Winston Sorfleet, GSF Product Architecture & Configuration | sorflet@nortel.ca ------------------------------ From: Jeremy Rogers Subject: Re: AT&T Offers Callback to European Countries! Date: 22 Jul 1996 10:11:03 GMT tholome@francenet.fr (Eric Tholome) wrote: > Well, sounds like they've changed their minds ... I've just received a > letter offering me to sign up to AT&T's new callback service! > "If you frequently make international calls from your home or office, then > you should use the AT&T International Call Plan. The per minute rates are > among the lowest in Europe. With the AT&T International Call Plan, a > five-minute call from France to the U.S. costs only US$2.20. > How does the service work? For extra discounts, just dial the AT&T platform > directly, and you will be called back straightaway. > The AT&T International Call Plan is available to customers living in > Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Norway." If anyone is wondering why the UK isn't on that list it is simple. AT&T operates a normal long distance service here via an access code (1430). A five minute call off peak UK-US with AT&T costs the equivalent of about $1.50. Callback services available here would reduce that to about $1 or possibly less. Jez ------------------------------ From: Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Caller ID/Per Line Blocking Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:08:47 GMT Organization: Best Internet Communications In article , matt schor wrote: > Sorry. Calling someone's home, and not disclosing your phone number, > is not acceptable social behavior. Thank God technology has caught up > with expectations so that we can stop prank calls, threatening calls, > etc. I wouldn't answer the door if the person didn't announce who > they were. If you want to make anonymous calls, use a pay phone. It certainly is NOT unacceptable social behavior. You may consider it so, but you are not the arbiter of such things. A relative of mine works for a well-known celebrity. In the course of his employment, he sometimes has cause to be at celebrity's home, and may from time to time need to make a personal phone call. Is the person he calls entitled to know the celebrity's home phone number? Not in the least. (I should mention also that the celebrity receives innumerable lunatic phone calls on the listed work number, so the home number is a jealously guarded secret.) If my relative makes a call from the celebrity's home, you'd better bet it will be without caller ID. It is unacceptable social behavior to call someone's home for the purpose of annoying that person. Within that limitation, it is not the least bit required to give the person the capability to call you at the same number from which you happen to be calling. I particularly resent the equation of "calls without CNID" with "anonymous calls." If I call someone on the phone with my Caller ID blocked and say, "This is Linc," then it is NOT an anonymous call. It goes back to the fundamentally flawed "peephole in the front door" analogy that Caller ID enthusiasts are so fond of. If I walk up to your front door and ring the bell, you can look through the peephole and see what I look like. If you don't know me, though, you have no way of seeing through that peephole what my name is, much less my home address or phone number. Short of calling the police and giving them my description along with what crime you think I committed by being there, or hoping by chance to spot me again, you have no way to reach back at me later. Caller ID is not like giving you a peephole on your front door. It is like giving you a peephole AND compelling everyone who walks to your door to wear a sign with name and address neatly printed on it, and giving you an automatic camera to photograph the person (or at least the sign) even if you aren't home. I have two friends who have Caller ID on their home phones. I have programmed their numbers into my autodialer, prepended with *82. Anyone else, anyone I don't know, I get to decide whether to give them my number if I want them to be able to call me back. Linc Madison * San Francisco, Calif. * Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe the peephole in the front door argument is flawed, but what about the apartment building front door intercom to apartment argument which I have also heard from time to time. This is where the person stands at the outside door and repeatedly rings your bell but refuses to speak up when you ask who is calling, expecting you to simply press the door-unlatching switch instead. A good answer I saw to that presented by an anti-caller-ID person was the equivilent on the phone would be answering the phone by not asking who was calling and instead simply lifting the receiver and saying this is at ... please come on over now, I will have the door open waiting for you. Essentially, there is no real threat to your safety from simply answering the phone without knowing the caller's identity (unless it is a malicious caller or unless you believe the foolishness presented in the movie several years ago called 'Tandem Rush'). There are very real dangers possible from opening the door without at least seeing the person(s) who are waiting there. Although I must confess as often as not I open my door when the bell rings without so much as a glance in the peephole. I think many people are lulled into doing that. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: San Antonio NPA Split Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:51:30 GMT Organization: Best Internet Communications In article , Tad Cook wrote: > Negotiators asked Bell to draw up a "doughnut" area code plan that has > most of San Antonio as the "hole" in one area code. Contiguous > counties in the metropolitan area would be in a second area code. > A third area code would take in a strip of the Texas-Mexico border > from the Rio Grande Valley to Edwards County. Surely this also includes Val Verde County (Del Rio), unless the plan is to move it into 915 at the same time. > Area residents will decide on another option that would give a single > area code to all of Bexar, and all or parts of Comal, Guadalupe, > Medina, Bandera, Wilson, Gonzales, Live Oak, Karnes, Frio and Bee > counties. The rest of the current 210 would go into a separate area > code. > [ San Antonio would exhaust in 2001, then add an overlay, which would > last to 2008. ] This is utterly absurd. An overlay for San Antonio should have the two area codes covering ONLY the immediate metropolitan area, certainly NOT Beeville, Gonzales, Hondo, George West, or Kenedy, nor even Seguin and New Braunfels. NOTHING outside of Bexar County should be included in an overlay of San Antonio, period. Of course, readers familiar with the situations in Dallas and Houston know how little common sense there is to go around in the whole state of Texas when it comes to area code relief. Linc Madison * San Francisco, Calif. * Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 10:20:17 -0700 From: John McHarry Subject: Major AT&T Outage in Europe? I have heard some rumblings that AT&T had a major outage in Europe that put American (?) Airlines reservation service off the air for an extended period. Any word on this? ------------------------------ From: ngmarino@aol.com (NGMarino) Subject: Re: Phone Customers Furious Over Service Date: 21 Jul 1996 22:44:49 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: ngmarino@aol.com (NGMarino) Why is there no local competition for residential service? Because the Baby Bells have had a 100 year head start in building their network. Who can compete against that? The Telecommunications Act, if it had guts, should have adopted a plan to rid ourselves of the BB monopolies. It didn't. Telephone companies in this country were (and are) state sanctioned monopolies. You and I paid for the buildup of the telephone network as it exists today. Is it reasonable that when the industry is deregulated that a single 'competitor' gets to start the game with all the pieces? Is this really the best we can do? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But wait a minute. Would *you* want to invest your time or money and effort in building something if you knew for a fact that a hundred years from now the government was going to rip you off and give all your work and effort to your competitors? Would you ever do anything at all under those circumstances other than just rip off what you could and make do in life? See, whose fault is it exactly that the telcos have a hundred year head start? Is it their fault? Is it their fault that even seventy or eighty years ago the government did things differently than now? I have always beleived the *fair* way to handle competition with AT&T from the very beginning would have been for the court to rule that indeed, competition would be allowed, and that the court would oversee AT&T to insure that the competition was treated at 'arms length' and fairly in all ways. I would have ordered complete, unqualified inter- connection between networks. I would have perhaps set some pricing standards or similar to prevent accusations that AT&T was engaging in 'predatory' pricing to put competitors out of business. I would have taken certain important functions like directory assistance and pay telephone service and required all the competitors to meet the same standards for service. I would have insisted upon complete interchange of calling cards between the companies and all be part of a separations and settlements process. I would have protected the general public and kept the public out of the fray. And I would have told the new competitors they have a bit to do to catch up with Bell, but they were welcome to start anytime. To those critics who say it would be unfair and impossible for the competitors to be expected to develop the infrastructure Bell has developed over the decades my answer is look at the cable companies. They certainly got their communities wired up in a hurry. I have no particular love lost for TCI Cable, but by golly they are starting *real* competition here in the Chicago area. Their own wires, their own equipment, their own central office. All they want from Ameritech is interconnection and arms-length, fair assignment of telephone numbers. They are not asking Ameritech to allow co-location in the CO (that has long been a bug with me, telco getting their floor space taken away from them on account of its not fair to expect the competitors to build their own buildings, etc); they are not asking Ameritech for a damn thing. And that is the way *true and fair* competition in the telephone business should work. You invest your time, your money, your sweat, your toil and your tears for 125 years or so, then come back and play in the same league. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sdesort@gsmicro.com (Scot Desort) Subject: Re: Extra Charge for Trunk Line Hunting Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1996 03:40:21 GMT Organization: Garden State Micro, Inc., Fairfield NJ USA +1 201-244-1110 Reply-To: sdesort@gsmicro.com Jim wrote: > The phone rep tells me that lines that terminate on a key system are > called trunk lines and are charged at a higher price. > We can have hunt group service without being charged an additional > trunk line charge if the lines terminate on separate single line phone > sets. > Why can't I tell the phone company that I want the latter and > terminate the lines on anything I want? After all, it's deregulated > once inside our offices. Is there anything wrong with this reasoning? Yes, something sure seems wrong there. If your lines terminate in a standard RJ21X, or even RJ11's for that matter, the telco shouldn't care, or even need to know, what type of equipment you have on your site. The term "trunk" has always been a very ambiguous term to me. It typically infers a large collection of circuits, usually requiring an additional piece of equipment to allow standard, analog devices to connect to it. But, this "definition" varies, depending who you talk to. I would definetely call telco again and speak with an account manager or supervisor. I have 25 analog lines coming into my office. They terminate at RJ21X's. Aside from the additional charge that business lines incur over standard residential lines, I do not pay an additional "trunk" charge because my 25 lines go into my Norstar key system. Unless telco is presenting these lines to you in a special format or medium that your key system requires, it sounds like you're paying for something that you shouldn't. Scot Garden State Micro, Inc. sdesort@gsmicro.com ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 01:02:42 GMT > I tried spelling your name, and nothing happened!" Really, I said. > ... "I tried three times, and very slowly: M A R Q ..." > ... What key did you press for Q? > --- Long pause --- "What do you mean, press keys?" I chuckled at this myself, but let's be fair. Remember "If you wish to accept this collect call, say 'Yes'"? Remember the fellow who couldn't reach the operator until he pronounced "Operator" with the proper American accent? Letters of the alphabet are harder because too many of them have similar sounds, of course, but it's not absurd for the caller to have interpreted "spell" to mean what it said. Mark Brader, msb@sq.com "But I want credit for all the words SoftQuad Inc., Toronto I spelled *right*!" -- BEETLE BAILEY [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What happens though in the case of those folks who speak with accents the network does not understand is that it eventually defaults to the operator anyway. All that happens when you say 'operator' in response to the prompt "if you want an operator, say 'operator' now" is that it does not have to time out. Just stand there and say nothing; eventually the operator will come on anyway. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 15:08:08 -0500 From: Andrew C. Green Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Jeff Seems to be Miffed at the Net ctyrre01@purch.eds.com writes: > {InfoWorld} has been running a series of articles by Ed Foster on the > issue of junk e-mail (Ed does not like the use of the word spam). I believe he's correct; the original definition of spam referred to duplicate posting of the same material in different Usenet newsgroups (i.e. as opposed to crossposting _one_ copy, listing all the newsgroups in its header). Junk e-mail is a different issue, although lately the term "spam" is being applied pretty broadly. > In the July 15, 1996 edition Ed interviews legitimate businessman Jeff > Slaton who complained of being harassed by Netters calls to his 800 > number. If you can imagine. I was shocked -- simply _shocked_ -- to read of this. > The full text of the article should be available in the New > Gripes forum on InfoWorld Electric at http://www.infoworld.com. It used to be. However, {InfoWorld} now demands an account and password in exchange for reading this material, as of July 15th. I declined to supply it. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: [...] It may be possible for Jeff to > get a second mortgage on his home to pay the bill. I mean, he surely > does not think his carrier is going to write all that off, does he? If memory serves, he used to work for a telephone company. Perhaps he has rigged up an (ex-)employee discount. Sigh ... Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. 441 W. Huron Internet: acg@dlogics.com Chicago, IL 60610-3498 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Truthfully, I think he is hurting financially after the events of this past month. I cannot imagine him selling that many of his products to have any sort of money in reserve for contingencies such as this past month of phone bills. I think he has been pretty well banged up, which is not to say he won't recover and remain in business as a thorn in the side to the people of the net. But notice how you don't see much out of Jeff directly these days on the net -- just the people here and there who foolishly send him money for that software of his which they use once or twice with big dollars signs in their eyes only to have themselves be roundly condemmed in various ways by the net and soon decide to forget their hair-brained schemes. If anything, I feel sort of sorry for some of the new guys getting on line these days who are well meaning; who have no intention in the world of being offensive and who -- because they are so new -- have no real concept of how things are here. They send off a bunch of money to Jeff thinking he is going to help them become rich on the net. Maybe they are out of a job and have a family to feed or maybe they are disabled and 'selling stuff on the net' is a way they can earn honest money so trustingly they send Jeff the money and then get back the crappy software and a list of names so overworked by junk mail that the hate mail response is overwhelming. I got a piece of junk mail the other day -- at an .edu account -- so much for Jeff's claims they do not use those addresses -- and it was an address I rarely have used for years. I wrote back to the person and said, "I bet Jeff told you these were all new, fresh email addresses." ... remember, spam will go away (or mostly go away; there will always be new and naive guys getting on line who do not know better) when you make it so expensive and time consuming for the Jeff Slaton's of the net that they decide to go out and get an honest job, provided anyone will hire them. Not until. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #355 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Mon Jul 22 23:27:05 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id XAA02839; Mon, 22 Jul 1996 23:27:05 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 23:27:05 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607230327.XAA02839@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #356 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Jul 96 23:27:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 356 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? (Jeffery Brown) Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem (Jeffrey Rhodes) Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem (Michael Stanford) Re: Caller ID: prv/anon/nodata (Jeffrey Rhodes) Re: New Cellular Phone For Me (Christopher Wolf) Re: Phone Customers Furious Over Service (Steve Bagdon) Re: Email to Fax Server (Marc Schaefer) Re: TCI Phone Service Ok'd in Chicago Suburb (gbpage@aol.com) Re: TCI Phone Service OK'd in Chicago Suburb (Andrew C. Green) Re: The Orchid Club - Not For Flower Lovers (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) Remote Access on AT&T Phones (Kristine Loosley) Best T1 Hookup in Michigan? (Matthew E Kaiser) Caller ID: Names Passed Between LEC's? (Robert Holloman) Saw a Commercial For "Free Fridays" From Sprint Recently (Robert Casey) Re: A Telecom Angle in the Tragic TWA Flight 800 Crash (Robert Casey) Information Wanted on Midcom (tkondo2937@aol.com) Re: Some History of Standard Oil and Bell (Randy Kendrick) Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. (Sam Kamens) Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. (Mickey Ferguson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jbrown@tellabs.com (Jeffery Brown) Subject: Re: "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? Date: 22 Jul 1996 19:51:49 GMT Organization: Tellabs, Inc. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > ... > Before long, folks will wish for the good old days of the "Bell > System" when the Mother Company ran everything with an iron fist. PAT] I didn't start paying my own phone bill until 1986, so I don't know how things used to be under the old Bell System. But what I am concerned about is having a monopoly in local phone service. What I see as the worst example of a "regulated monopoply" are electric companies. They have ratepayers, who pay the bills, yet they are also public companies and have shareholders. The problem is, which of these two groups (ratepayers or shareholders) is most important? For example, I often see electric companies build nuclear plants, lose hundreds of millions of dollars, and then attempt to make the ratepayers foot the bill. Is this fare to the ratepayers, being forced to suffer for the electric company's mismanagement? Shouldn't the shareholders assume that risk, not the ratepayers? If the phone companies are following this model, then I would fight tooth and nail for any competition possible. If the Bell System was anything, it was "benevolent". They didn't try to screw their ratepayers. I don't think I can trust Ameritech to behave the same way. Jeffery Brown Tellabs Operations, Inc. $2B x 2K jbrown@tellabs.com Ph: (708) 512-8272 Fax: (708) 512-7098 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have paid my own phone bill since 1961 or 1962, I don't remember which. I do remember when the monthly bill in Chicago was $8.00 plus usage charges which were for me in the range of $2-3 per month, and I was on the phone a lot. Ameritech still has enough old timers around left over from pre-divestiture that I don't think you need to worry too much about that company; not for a few years anyway. And certainly, their cellular service is the finest in the country. It is very inexpensive and very, very reliable. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jeffrey.rhodes@attws.com Subject: Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem Date: Mon, 22 Jul 96 12:23:43 PDT Organization: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to : Who is this? My PC was not used to originate this message from . > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But Hillary said she gets *both* types > of response (anonymous and private) depending on who is calling. This > would seem to imply B-A is sending one code one time and the other > code other times. PAT] B-A offers Calling Name service and has LIDB look-up agreements with other LECs. Perhaps "Private" is displayed when the caller's name and number are marked restricted and "Anonymous" is displayed when the caller's number is marked restricted but the caller's LEC does not reciprocate LIDB lookup service, or vice-versa. Jeffrey Rhodes at jeffrey.rhodes@attws.com ------------------------------ From: Michael Stanford Subject: Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 12:26:01 -0400 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is B-A not following this spec or > is Hillary mistaken on seeing both 'anonymous' and 'private' on > her box? If she is seeing both, then it would seem B-A sends one > message for some calls and the other message on other calls but > nonetheless treats either condition as 'private'. Right or wrong? PAT] If BA is not following the spec, then most Caller ID boxes would not work in BA territory. It is more likely that the box manufacturer (look on the bottom, probably Cidco or Colonial Data) has chosen to put an indication on the LCD when it fails to pick up any Caller ID. I would surmise that the box displays "Anonymous" when it does not get Caller ID information, i.e. when there is no Caller ID carrier or when the calling number field is empty or the transmitted data is corrupted in some other way. If the box does not display something like "No Caller ID available" from time to time, or stay blank on some calls this explanation would make sense. ------------------------------ From: jeffrey.rhodes@attws.com Subject: Re: Caller ID: prv/anon/nodata Date: Mon, 22 Jul 96 11:55:09 PDT Organization: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. In article , writes: > Here's the explanation I've received *from one source*: > private caller id info *intentionally* blocked by the caller. > anonymous caller id not supported at the source. > no data caller id data is lost somewhere along the link. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Everywhere else where Caller-ID > is 'not supported at the source' it seems the end result on a > caller-id box is 'out of area'. PAT] There is another reason "Out Of Area" is displayed: If the received CPN is marked international and any receiving switch or the receiving display does not recognise international CPNs, then the display will be "Out Of Area". ISDN BitSurfr Pro CNI logging has this problem. Private or Anonymous implies ISUP end-to-end and the CPN is marked restricted, where restricted means "block the display". A display will use one or the other but not both. Either of these can occur even when the source does not support caller id displays, as in the case of California last spring when CPNs were being sent interstate but few in California were able to "see" caller id displays. Jeffrey Rhodes at jeffrey.rhodes@attws.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 14:24:08 CDT From: Christopher Wolf Subject: Re: New Cellular Phone For Me Pat, In TELECOM Digest, Volume 16 : Issue 332, Article "New Cellular Phone For Me", you write: > ... Cellular World replaced the phone with a much newer model from NEC >called the 'Talk Time 820' ... Do you know if they have a battery conditioner for this unit? I contacted the store I got it from, and they're a little confused on the whole matter. Also, you wrote: > NEC kept the same code to get to the innards as before: > LOCKCODE + FCN 9 + LOCKCODE + MEM 76 gets you into 'test mode' > then MEM # 01 opens test mode itself, while MEM # 02 closes > test mode and recycles power and reloads the NAM you are > currently using. *There is no three time lockout on > number changes* as is common with Motorola stuff. > > MEM # 03 through MEM # 99 do various things in test mode, > although not all the positions are used. MEM # 71-1 or 71-2 > allow programming of NAM 1 or 2. An interesting one is > MEM # 61-1 and 61-0 which toggle on and off a visual display > of the channel you are on, the signal strength and other > information. MEM # 39 zeros out everything and erases the > memory dialing places, the call timers, and defaults the > lock codes by to the factory default. Do you know where I could get a description of the various other test functions? Some of these seem interesting, but I'd had to stumble across MEM#39 accidently. WOLF [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why not call Cellular World and ask them about the battery? They are at 800-TALK-NOW. Regards the other things to be viewed in test mode, the other ones I know about are MEM #21 through MEM #26. I do not remember the exact order but in those spots you get a complete screenful of zeros as some sort of test to see if the phone is working correctly; in another you get the ESN printed on the display. In a third you get the current software version which is installed and in another you get the total cumulative talk time from both NAMs. *This cannot be erased by MEM #39 or any other method that I am aware of.* You can erase the call timer for each NAM by using FCN 2 followed by the lock code when in regular mode, but never the timer which is 'buried' in the test mode as far as I know. There are other things you can do with the phone, but NEC is very, very secret about telling anyone those things. They involve plugging in a special adapter to the bottom of the phone where the 'handsfree' adapter usually would plug in. This phone does not use the relatively simple process of shorting the battery to ground or shorting one pin to another as happens with many cellular phones if you want to get to the innards. In fact if you start shorting pins on this unit (not withstanding the fact it is a very tiny, tiny space to work in) you might well ruin the phone with very little effort. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 09:12:40 -0500 From: bagdon@rust.net (S and K Bagdon) Subject: Re: Phone Customers Furious Over Service vantek@northcoast.com (VANTEK COMMUNICATIONS) wrote: > ``It's not just the weather,'' said Scott Cullen, administrator of the > telecommunications division of the Wisconsin PSC. ``They've reduced > staffing levels significantly.'' I guess this about all just summs it up. And it isn't that there are less people at the providers office -- there are less *qualified* people. I keep looking back over the last decade, and I keep seeing deregulation of industries. The lawmakers say it will produce better, cheaper and more available service. My cable bill is higher, not lower. Has anyone seen any *great* improvement in airline service since the hub-and-spoke system took effect (I've been *to* Atlanta at least 100 times, and been *in* Atlanta twice!). My cellular customer service is marginal, at best. Now I fear my landline service. I am not saying progress is not good. Monopolies aren't that great -- if there is no competition, what's the benefit of 'improvment'? But with all of this 'improvement legislation' -- where's the improvement? Am I a Ludite? I don't think so. But where's the improvement? I still have no cable competition (and I'm not holding my breath for a cable modem, since I don't live in a 'ritzy' neighborhood). Have we learned anything from planes falling from the sky (oops, I better watch myself here, but I fly enough to say that). Where's PCS (I live in Detroit, so I don't expect it soon. Okay, we have Nextel -- big deal). Should I expect my telephone service to be down for weeks the next time I can't get dial-tone (Ameritech dropping qualified employees like stones)? Where's the damned revelution everyone has been saying was coming? As I learned from monolithic big corporation politics -- even if everything is going well, never *look* like you're standing still. Even if everything is going in the crapper, and you have no idea what to do, do *something* -- a bad decision is more defendable then no decision. Does this apply in regulated industries also -- change, even for the worse, is better then stagnation? Steve B. bagdon@rust.net (h) USFMDDKT@ibmmail.com (w) http://www.rust.net/~bagdon Katharine aNd Steve (KNS) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The reason monoplies improve their product is because it gives a good rationale for charging more for the product. If the improvement cost very litle to implement but the customers are willing to pay more, that means more money for the stockholders of the monopoly. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 20:53:45 GMT From: schaefer@vulcan.alphanet.ch (Marc SCHAEFER) Subject: Re: Email to Fax Server > Can anybody provide the list for E-mail to Fax Server? Can I ? schaefer:/d2/share/ftp/pub/archives/autofaq> find . -name "*fax*" -print ./faq/internet-services/fax-faq ./faq-by-newsgroup/comp/comp.mail.misc/internet-services/fax-faq ./faq-by-newsgroup/comp/comp.dcom.fax ./faq-by-newsgroup/comp/comp.dcom.fax/internet-services/fax-faq ./faq-by-newsgroup/alt/alt.internet.services/internet-services/fax-faq ./faq-by-newsgroup/alt/alt.online-service/internet-services/fax-faq ./faq-by-newsgroup/alt/alt.bbs.internet/internet-services/fax-faq ./faq-by-newsgroup/alt/alt.fax ./faq-by-newsgroup/alt/alt.fax/internet-services/fax-faq ./faq-by-newsgroup/northcoast/northcoast.support/internet-services/fax-faq Yes, I can. Look in one of the newsgroups cited above, or in the rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet FTP site for FAQs. By the way, we do provide a free fax service for Switzerland (well, that's a lie: you still have to pay the local PTT taxes, which are not quite cheap here) for selected non-profit organizations only. Do not contact us for any other use. We may provide such service in the future too for the Orange County in LA, this time totally for free, but with the same non-profit restrictions. Mail faxadm@alphanet.ch for information. ------------------------------ From: gbpage@aol.com Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:30:39 -0400 Reply-To: gbpage@aol.com (Gbpage) Subject: Re: TCI Phone Service OK'd in Chicago Suburb In-Reply-To: Isn't this the second real competitor? MFS, which is the largest Competitive Access Provider (CAP), already has an agreement with Ameritech for competition throughout the Ameritech region, and significant facilities in the Chicago area. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 14:43:57 -0500 From: Andrew C. Green Subject: Re: TCI Phone Service OK'd in Chicago Suburb Our Moderator writes: > TCI was granted permission last week by the Illinois Commerce Commission > to begin offering local phone service in Arlington Heights, Illinois, > a northwest suburb of Chicago. Initially, service will be to 33,000 > homes during the next two months. Arlington Heights is the first town in > the USA that TCI is entering with phone service. Speaking as both a customer of TCI (for cable TV) and a resident of Arlington Heights, my considered opinion is: "Hahahahahahahahaha." While it's not very original to say that I would accept phone service from TCI only at gunpoint, since this service is actually about to happen, it might be worth saying one more time: From my own personal experience I cannot fathom how TCI expects to maintain a phone network when it cannot reliably keep a cable TV service up and running. While this may be a topic more for RISKS Digest than Telecom Digest, I'll raise it here anyway: I am not at all convinced that TCI realizes that there are even life-and-death implications to keeping a phone network up and running; the simple bozo-quality maintenance of the cable TV service seen to date will not support it. Were the telephone company to offer cable TV, I cannot see how TCI would have any customers at all. Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. 441 W. Huron Internet: acg@dlogics.com Chicago, IL 60610-3498 ------------------------------ From: rishab@CERF.NET (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) Subject: Re: The Orchid Club - Not For Flower Lovers Date: 22 Jul 1996 13:07:20 -0700 Organization: CERFnet Dial 'n' CERF Customer TELECOM Digest Editor (ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu) wrote: > Far more sophisticated than a typical Usenet newsgroup for pedophiles, > the Orchid Club used digital cameras connected to computers in the > homes of members to photograph children involved in sexual activities > among themselves and with adults. These visual images were then sent > in real time over the net to members of the club who viewed the event > in the club's private chat room as it was happening. Members were free Really? Perhaps instead of sending them to jail we should get them to work on the IETF. How is it that while the rest of us barely manage to get audible speech across the Net in real-time, these clever paedophiles did real-time video? Rishab The Indian Techonomist - newsletter on India's information industry http://dxm.org/techonomist/ rishab@dxm.org Editor and publisher: Rishab Aiyer Ghosh Pager +91 11 9622 162187 A4/204 Ekta Vihar, 9 Indraprastha Extension, New Delhi 110092, INDIA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I really have no idea how they did it. I doubt the pictures were of very good quality for the same reasons you mention with audio: it is a bit of a challenge. Most likely the images constantly being captured by the camera were turned into something like .gif files, stored in some place and constantly being pulled by the receiving parties in some sort of ordered sequence. I doubt the quality was much better or worse than the sort of thing you see on 'picture phones' where the image jerks a lot and you get a new image on the screen every three or four seconds. I suppose you could do it that way. The camera would keep on adding more images to be viewed at the end of the line and whatever software they used to look at the pictures kept pulling them one by one in rapid order from the front end of the queue. The press release from the US Attorney's office used the phrase 'real-time' without explaining the technical process. Maybe you could have the receiving end pull the .gif files a bit faster to make the thing play out a bit more smoothly. I've heard of something similar to this before: rumor has it that in private chats on AOL and Compuserve occassionally the participants will create a .gif file 'on the fly' or sort of in a hurry and get it over to the other chatters via email to view. Its not like we have to send a roll of film from our Kodak camera over the drugstore to be developed and get it back a few days later as we had to do years ago. Anyone as old as me remembers when people who wanted to take 'that kind' of picture in the old days were always afraid to send it out for developing because Walgreens for one *always* turned over any naked pictures -- let alone sex with children -- to the police. There then sprang up a whole industry of photo developing labs which advertised in the sex magazines of the 1950-60 era saying they would develop and return discretely 'in utmost confidence' any film you sent directly to them. A controversy arose claiming that the police actually ran a couple of those photo developing labs for entrapment purposes. One such instance did occur: the Postal Inspectors ran a sting operation enticing all the 'perverts' -- as the {Chicago Tribune} referred routinely to gay people during the 1950-60's -- to send them 'frank, adult photos you would feel uncomfortable knowing your local developer had in their possession.' Some of the developers would return the finished photos to you but their employees would make extra prints of the 'better' ones for their personal collections of pornography. Then came the Poloroid Instamatic Camera and everyone was free from the tyranny of the photo development labs and the corner drugstores which served as their agents. Everyone became their own pornographer. But the poloroid camera was quite expensive at first -- several hundred dollars to purchase one -- so quite a few people continued with the old method. And there were people who used the public picture-taking booths for that sort of thing. Those were the little phonebooth like things where you went in and sat on the chair and pulled the curtain shut. Then you deposited fifteen cents or sometimes twenty-five cents in the slot and the built in camera would snap your picture, develop it and push it out a slot to you a minute or so later. Sometimes two people would go in the booth together and do Naughty Things and make pictures of it. But rumor had it the company which owned those machines not only kept a copy of each picture for itself but also marked the time and date on its copies. If you did Naughty Things in the automatic picture-taking booth the company would find out and you would be in Big Trouble. Everyone knew 'a friend of a friend' who had gotten in trouble that way but nothing other than anecdotal evidence could ever be presented. What was far more likely was that someone walking past the booth (or waiting their turn outside) would peek through the curtain or look underneath it and see what was going on and tell the police about it. Then you could expect to see your name in the {Chicago Tribune} the next day: "John Doe of
and Richard Roe of
were arrested by police yesterday in the commission of a lewd act in the automatic photo machine booth in ". Sex-oriented movies have always been around. One theatre in downtown Chicago (in the days when there were *fourteen* movie theatres in the downtown area alone) specialized in it. The Monroe Theatre was located on the corner of Monroe and Dearborn Streets, where the Xerox Building is now. It was torn down about 1965. But for fifty years before, the Monroe specialized in what were then called 'art films', or sex movies. All day and all night they ran heterosexual porn. Admission was fifty cents in the daytime and seventy-five cents at night and on weekends. They sold stale popcorn for ten cents a box. They were open 22 hours per day, closing only from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM so the janitor could clean the place up. A look around the auditorium saw men sitting discretely at least a few seats away from each other, but now and then two men sitting together. The Monroe Theatre paid the police to stay open all those years but occassionally the police would come in for a raid anyway. I remember once when I was about 18, and on my lunch hour from wherever I worked. I went over to the Monroe -- lots of guys working in offices downtown did on their lunch hour -- to see the picture and/or the action in the audience (!). All of a sudden the movie stops and all the lights go on. The police got up on the stage and announced that several men were being arrested and everyone else would be arrested also unless they left immediatly. Like cockroaches scattering when a light comes on, everyone runs out into the street and their separate ways. About twenty minutes later the police left and the theatre started running the movie again with new patrons filing in acting as though nothing had happened. The {Chicago Tribune} the next morning dutifully reported the raid along with the names and addresses of each person arrested in it. Whenever the local politicians got on the police and pressured them to 'do something' about the Monroe Theatre the police would have to have a raid, but to keep everyone happy they would go in at seven in the morning when the place opened and arrest the *one* or *two* patrons who were there at that ungodly hour and then leave, not to return for a couple months. The next time I was in the place, the management had gone through the entire auditorium and removed *every other* seat. No two seats were next to each other any longer. It got to the point the police were in there every week or two (I think the management decided to quit making payoffs) and the theatre finally closed down. That would have been about 1961-62, and the building was vacant a few years before Xerox bought the property. So now we have computerized sex movies and pictures. What else is old? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:34:27 -0500 From: Kristine Loosley Subject: Remote Access on AT&T Phones I connected to my Internet account from an AT&T 2000 phone in the Las Vegas airport last week using my laptop and my PCMCIA modem (USR 28.8). I consistently could get nothing but a 2400 baud connection on that phone or on the "laptop compatible" phone next to it. My question is this: Has anyone ever used the AT&T 2000 phone (it is the one with the built-in keyboard and side data port) like this with similar or better results, and if so, how did you get a faster connection? A related question is whether any of these phones (I see them all over the country) work with the attached keyboard for access to shell accounts or anything else. Thanks! Kristine Loosley Director of online strategy Concentric Network Corporation kris@concentric.net ------------------------------ From: Matthew E Kaiser Subject: Best T1 Hookup in Michigan? Date: 22 Jul 1996 20:10:30 GMT Organization: Voyager Information Networks, Inc. Hello, I may be mistaken by asking this here, but can anyone tell me who has the best T1 rates in Michigan. My local government agency is examining the possiblity a T1 line from the Internet in general to our data center. A setup like you'd find in a major university or something akin to that. Thank you in advance for your thoughts. Matthew Kaiser Data Processing Friend of the Court 17th Judical Circuit 616-336-2656 616-336-2770 (fax) mkaiser@vixa.voyager.com ------------------------------ From: Robert Holloman Subject: Caller ID: Names Passed Between LEC's? Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 19:53:55 -0400 Organization: Concentric Internet Services On Monday I began receiving the name information on calls made from BellSouth territory to my home in the Sprint/Carolina Telephone area (Clayton, NC, near Raleigh). The furthermost call so far has been from Charlotte, which is in another area code and LATA. Calls from GTE-land still only display the number, and I've not received any calls from any other LEC yet. Is it correct that the name is retrieved through a database lookup by my CO switch instead of being passed along the signaling route the way the calling number is done? Anyone else noticed CID w/name working between other LEC's? ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Saw a Commercial For "Free Fridays" From Sprint Recently Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 21:10:56 GMT Happened to notice a Sprint commercial promoting "Free Fridays" for businesses. On a cable channel (think it was CNN, forgot). Thursday evening on July 18th. I would have thought Sprint would have quit promoting this promotion. Didn't catch any new details, just stumbled across it. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh good heavens no! That's been one of their most lucrative bait and switch promotions ever. Sign 'em up, let them have a couple Fridays free then tell them you are going to change them to a different plan. Threaten to charge them back for the Friday calls claiming it was all a misunderstanding by their rep for whom no they have no responsibility. When the customer calls to complain or seek clarification, dodge his phone calls. I mean, would you quit promoting that if you were in their place? PAT] ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Re: A Telecom Angle in the Tragic TWA Flight 800 Crash Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 21:06:08 GMT Re: tracing that fax phone call to that newspaper office. Are there any public fax machine "pay phones" around in UK, like ones I've seen in the San Jose CA airport a few years ago? Bring enough quarters (the UK equivalent of), wear gloves to avoid fingerprints (plenty of other user's prints to confuse things anyway), and send the fax. And don't forget to take the orginal home with you, and burn it. ------------------------------ From: tkondo2937@aol.com (TKondo2937) Subject: Information Wanted on Midcom Date: 22 Jul 1996 18:46:10 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: tkondo2937@aol.com (TKondo2937) Hi, everyone, I want to get as much information as possible about Midcom Communication's services, products, business strategies, and marketing niches, etc. For persons who have already read or responded to similar request before, I am sorry for the repeated request. Last time, I couldn't check replies to my message before they were squeezed out of the cyber space. Thank you again. ------------------------------ From: Kendrick, Randy/Mkt-Den Subject: Re: Some History of Standard Oil and Bell Date: Mon, 22 Jul 96 15:36:00 PDT Pat, I very much enjoyed Mark Cuccia's Standard history. He asked if Amoco still used the Standard name on their logo shield. Indeed they do! Some stations I have seen in Kansas and Oklahoma have the Amoco brand on the building and a Standard sign out front, often with an Amoco sign as well. Also, he is right about Sinclair still being alive. There are Sinclair stations here in Colorado and in Oklahoma. Randy Kendrick ICG Telecom Group Englewood, CO ------------------------------ From: Sam Kamens Subject: Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. Date: 22 Jul 1996 11:58:00 -0400 Organization: Telecommunications Premium Services, Inc. Michael Stanford writes: >> So, I got a call from someone who will go unnamed, who told me, "Your >> super fancy telephone system really sucks!" Why? I inquired. "Well, > >> Q ..." Well, there isn't a Q on the dial. What key did you press=20 >> for Q? --- Long pause --- "What do you mean, press keys?" >> After I stopped laughing, she'd hung up. > I would agree with the caller's original assessment of the system. > These days with products like Wildfire, and AT&T saying "Please say > Operator now," it is not unreasonable to expect an IVR system to use > speech recognition. Speaker independent recognition of 26 utterances > (the alphabet) is probably doable relatively reliably. Actually, recognizing the letters of the alphabet reliably is one of the more difficult aspects of automatic speech recognition. Imagine trying to tell the difference between the following sets of letters: b, c, d, e, g, p f, s etc. Not easy, huh? There are speech recognition vendors out there that do this (Voice Processing Corp is one that I've worked with), but they do it based on a database of potential names so that they can use the name database as a check on what they think they recognized. In the situation described here, something like that would probably work, but it ain't easy! > The confusing system prompt should be changed to say "using your touch > tone keypad." This is certainly true. IVR apps need to have very carefully designed prompts. Samuel N. Kamens TPS Call Sciences E-mail: snk@tpsinc.com The Twin Towers at Metro Park Voice/Fax: (908) 632-3817 379 Thornall Street Suite 1100, West Tower Edison, NJ 08837 ------------------------------ From: Mickey Ferguson Subject: Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 13:16:26 -0700 Organization: Stac, Inc. Michael Stanford wrote: > The confusing system prompt should be changed to say "using your touch > tone keypad." Technically, it would probably have to say something like "using the tone number pad on your telephone." The term "touch tone" is trademarked by AT&T, I believe. Of course, some technomoron isn't going to figure out that a phone which has a number pad but emits pulses won't work, and will be confused, angry, etc ... [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And by the time the weenies have quit laughing at him, he will have already hung up ... right? PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #356 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Tue Jul 23 11:27:03 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id LAA15492; Tue, 23 Jul 1996 11:27:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 11:27:03 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607231527.LAA15492@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #357 TELECOM Digest Tue, 23 Jul 96 11:27:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 357 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Caller ID in California (Maddi Hausmann Sojourner) Re: TPI Automated Callback? (Jim Hopkins) Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing (John R. Covert) Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing (Henry Baker) NPA Maps (was Re: Exchange Location Map) (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: ATTWS/ATT LD Question (Lynne Gregg) Re: Last Laugh! Jeff Seems to be Miffed at the Net (Atri Indiresan) Another Source of Errant 911 Calls (Robert Casey) Credit Card Numbering Schemes (John R. Levine) Telrad Phone System (Jacob Carroll) Pacific Bell Line Identification (Kirk Beesley) Canadian Communications Policy (Monty Solomon) Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. (Mickey Ferguson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Maddi Hausmann Sojourner Subject: Caller ID in California Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 17:54:59 -0700 Organization: General Magic, Inc. I was one of the folks who couldn't wait for Caller ID. Well, now we have it and I'm underwhelmed. The following types of calls come up "Out of Area" on our equipment: - Pay phone - Cellular phone - Multiline sites (Centrex, PBX, etc.) We wanted this service so we could ignore those pesky telemarketers who always call during dinner time. Well, how do they operate? From banks of phones, of course. OUT OF AREA, every time. But, maybe it's someone calling from their place of work. Or from a pay station. An old friend is in town, calling from his hotel. There is no way to tell the difference! I remember reading something in this group about ANI information that indicated what kind of phone was making the call. It supposedly gave the indications residential, commerical, hotel, prison, pay phone, etc. I would LOVE having that information, even if Pac Bell doesn't want to implement the actual telephone numbers. What would be ideal would be for the last four digits to be dropped, so I know I'm getting a call from, say, Sunnyvale (408-735-????) rather than East Cowhide, Nebraska (good chance its someone trying to sell me insurance). Pac Bell, of course, not only doesn't understand this is a problem, but doesn't have service people who know enough to understand why this implementation makes their service almost useless. Another Caller ID note: several people have complained they can't call us because they set up per-line blocking and don't know how to unblock their CNID info. Our phone rejects anonymous calls. I wonder why they went through the trouble of requesting per-line (the default was per-call) blocking and not understand how to turn it off. Maddi Hausmann Sojourner madhaus@genmagic.com General Magic, Inc. in beautiful Sunnyvale, CA 94088 USA If you like this address you will also like madhaus@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: hopkins@dfw.dfw.net (Jim Hopkins) Subject: Re: TPI Automated Callback? Date: 23 Jul 1996 01:42:23 GMT Organization: DFW Internet Services - DFWNet: 800-2-DFWNet Elana who? (elana@netcom.com) wrote: > I was trying to call a friend the other day and dialed a very > interesting wrong number. > Instead of a familiar "hello", I got something like this: > "TPI automated testline. Your voice service caller number is xxx-xxxx" (my > number) Then it said: "Hang up for callback." This is just a guess but I think it was an ISDN test line, and if you had called it from an ISDN line with a TPI 55 ISDN test set attached you could send and receive a bit error rate test pattern on one or both of the bearer channels. You _can_ call it from out of area. Maintain, Hopkins ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 96 22:17:31 EDT From: John R. Covert Subject: Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing joew@joew.us.dg.com (Joseph_Wiesenfeld@dg.com) asked a question about tone dialing: > My major question is can they control the line so that after a > connection is made, I can not switch my phone from pulse to tone so as > to send tones to answering systems, etc after connection is made. And Pat correctly answered: > They cannnot change what happens after the connection is made. > They can prevent you from using tones to signal the central office > on your connection request. You'd still be okay using tones for your > voicemail, pagers, etc. However, what may be behind this seemingly odd question is the extreme likelihood that the NYNEX Service Rep that Joe Wiesenfeld talked to insisted that it would be impossible for him to use Touch Tone at all without paying the $0.98/month charge. Two years ago, I had a line installed for my Community Theatre group (The Sudbury Savoyards, which donates all proceeds to the relief of world hunger, http://www.ultra.net/~savoyard), which was to simply terminate on a network interface on the wall of our sponsor and never do anything but go to voicemail. (Some states have lineless voicemail tariffed, but not Massachusetts, and none of the non-NYNEX voicemail providers were as cheap as NYNEX, even including the line.) I insisted at the time of order that I did not need or want Touch-Tone, but the Business Office was almost certain this was necessary. I prevailed, and when the line was first installed, there was no Touch-Tone service (I verified this). The installer and I misconnected, and I never spoke to him directly, but I did the obligatory initial setup of the voicemail from the network interface with a Panasonic phone which easily switches from pulse to tone. Apparently either the installer or someone down the line noticed that there was no Touch-Tone, and when the first bill arrived, there was a Touch-Tone charge. I drove back over to our sponsor, plugged in the phone, and verified that the line did indeed now have Touch-Tone service. I called the Business Office and insisted that I had not ordered Touch-Tone and that I did not want it, and that I wanted a complete refund of the Touch-Tone charges. Again we went through the argument about whether it was necessary or not, and I pointed out that we don't even use the line at all! The Service Representative agreed to remove the service and the charges, but warned me that she was certain that voicemail would stop working, and that we would then be charged some exhorbitant fee to reconnect it. Two days later I drove back over to the network interface and verified that Touch-Tone had been removed; it was, and of course, everything with the voicemail service was fine. But Joe's question has reminded me to have the treasurer check the next itemized bill (I think they're itemized about once every six months) to be sure NYNEX hasn't slipped it back on. That's $11.76 per year less that we can donate to world hunger if they have slipped it back onto the bill. /john ------------------------------ From: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry Baker) Subject: Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 23:15:17 GMT In article , joew@joew.us.dg.com (Joseph_Wiesenfeld@dg.com) wrote: > I recently received a notice from NYNEX indicating that they noticed > that I have not been charged for Touch-Tone Service while they have > been providing me with it. They indicated to contact them if I wanted > to order it and they would begin charging me $0.95 per line per month > for the service or they would discontinue it on my line. According to NYNEX Manhattan White Pages, page 26: "Touch-tone Service: $.50 per month. ... Without Touch-tone service, your push-button phone still acts as slowly as a rotary dialer ..." Perhaps NYNEX simply inserts a ten-second delay, but the touch-tones still work? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 17:18:04 -0700 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: NPA Maps (was Re: Exchange Location Map) In TELECOM Digest, Linc Madison wrote: > consider it a great leap backwards, almost as much so as the switch > some years ago to the neo-impressionist area code maps from the > geographically accurate ones of years past. I never cease to wonder > at discovering from my phone book that Delaware is wider east-west > than north-south. Linc, thanks for pointing this out about the "goofy" area code maps, which have also bugged me for some 15+ years! But even the more precise NPA maps aren't always as "perfect" as what they really *should* be. The boundary between 905 (or the 416 NPA, pre-905) and 705 NPA's in Ontario wasn't correct even on the more accurate maps that used to be printed (and still are by Bellcore). NPA 705 dips *much* closer to Lake Ontario than what even the better maps would indicate. In one of the mailings I received from the CSCN (Canadian Steering Committee on Numbering) a few months ago, there was a map of 416/905 in some of the options for additional relief of 416 (and possibly 905). This was the most accurate map of NPA boundaries in that region that I've ever seen! This boundary between 416 (now 905) and 705 in Ontario dipped closer to Lake Ontario even back in 1975. While the Bell System's 1975 US/Canada NPA maps didn't show the correct boundary location, the 1975 edition of the "Telephone Area Code Directory" did indicate certain towns in Ontario as being in NPA 705, and these towns were *quite* close to Lake Ontario -- much closer than what the maps show. The maps would seem to indicate those regions as being in 416, when they were really in 705. The "Telephone Area Code Directory" (TACD) is a *much* more comprehensive listing of all (customer dialable) cities, towns, etc. in North America and their associated NPA codes than what one would find in the front of a local telephone directory. It is sorted alphabetically by state or province (or Caribbean island) and then the (customer dialable) cities, towns and villages in that jurisdiction are listed alphabetically with their area code. AT&T Long-Lines published the TACD through 1983. I received the 1975 edition from my local Bell telco *for free* at that time. Since divestiture, Bellcore TRA (Traffic Routing Administration) publishes the TACD, for a price, which continues to increase with each new edition. Of course, there are more frequent editions with all of the new NPA codes which keep coming into use. The TACD is available annually on paper; and monthly on fiche, datatape or diskette. Details are available from Bellcore TRA, http://www.bellcore.com/NANP/tracat.html or phone +1-908-699-6700. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ From: lynne.gregg@attws.com Subject: Re: ATTWS/ATT LD Question Date: Mon, 22 Jul 96 15:26:26 PDT Organization: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. In article , writes: > This new legislation enables AT&T Wireless Services to select AT&T > Long Distance as the preferred long distance provider. Therefore, > cellular calls made outside your AT&T Wireless Services local cellular > service area will be carried by AT&T." > I am curious what this means. I believe that ATTWS offers equal > access in the Seattle market. Does this mean that equal access, if > previously offered, is ending? Or does it mean that ATTWS was > previously sending intralata toll to USWest or another LEC and will > now be sending it to AT&T? Hopefully someone at ATTWS can clear this > up. You may still have your choice of long distance carrier (Equal Access). If you do NOT select a carrier for long distance, AT&T Wireless will do so for you. In the past, AT&T Wireless made a random selection on your behalf or simply denied LD calls until you made the selection yourself. However, recent legislation allows AT&T Wireless to assign your long distance service to AT&T unless you specifically choose another option. These options should be clearly presented to you when you sign up for cellular service (LD service providers vary by market). > Also, ATTWS is reportedly consolidating its operations, which were > previously spread out in the Kirkland/Bothell (WA) area, to Redmond > (home of Micro$loth). Any word on when this consolidation will be > complete? Over the course of the next two to three years, our operations (now spread throughout Kirkland and Bellevue, Washington) will be relocated to a campus setting in Redmond Town Center (development at the end of 520). Regards, Lynne ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Jeff Seems to be Miffed at the Net Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 23:34:30 -0400 From: Atri Indiresan Andrew C. Green commented: >> The full text of the article should be available in the New >> Gripes forum on InfoWorld Electric at http://www.infoworld.com. > It used to be. However, {InfoWorld} now demands an account > and password in exchange for reading this material, as of > July 15th. I declined to supply it. I tried account "guest" and password "guest" -- no problems getting onto the site. Atri ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Another Source of Errant 911 Calls Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 23:36:07 GMT Today at lunch my co-workers were discussing phone errors, particularly errant calls to 911. One guy has a phone number of the form x911xxx. And had a caller miss the first x and dialed 911xxx and got connected to 911 emergency line. Another co-worker said he was debugging some modem designs some years ago, and the test numbers had the same form as above, x911xxx. One bug was that the modem would fail to dial the first x and get the 911 emergency line. The 911 operators were not pleased ... the modem company finally had their test numbers changed to something more harmless. I don't know how often the above error happens (first I heard of it), but I thought the phone company might want to avoid assigning the above form of phone number. But soon you start running out of assignable numbers if you keep this sort of thing up ... [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your point is a very good one. There is a limit to how far things can be taken to protect people from the dumb things others do on the phone. In Chicago, several subscribers on the VIRginia (312-847) exchange have reported to telco their annoyance with the large number of people in Chicago attempting to call the northern suburbs on its new area code of 847 who forget (or did not know they had to) dial '1' as the first digit. Particularly annoyed are people with phone numbers 847-32xx, 847-67xx, and 847-86xx since the area 847 exchanges 328 and 329 serve Evanston and Skokie; 673,674,675,676 and 677 serve Skokie and 864 serves Evanston. Of not such a problem is 847-965x (which is on the 847 side Morton Grove, Illinois 965-xxxx) since 965x on the Chicago side is most likely a payphone somewhere. Starting at the end of this year 312-847 will become 773-847 but the same problem will not happen to people with 312-773 numbers since 773 is also moving to 773. Their complaint will probably be that no one understands why '773 has to be dialed twice' as in 773-773-xxxx. The particularly hard-hit subscribers of 312-847-67xx who seem to be bombarded with dumbness all day and all night asked telco what to do and Ameritech's response was they should 'respond courteously to the caller telling them to dial again', using a '1' before the number. But after a few wrong number calls each day, courtesy begins to wear thin. Ameritech is presently holding off on any more new assignments in the 312-847 prefix. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 96 19:43 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Credit Card Numbering Schemes Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg, N.Y. > We know of course that all the major credit cards identify themselves > the same way today: Visa always has a four digit number beginning with > a 4 to identify their member bank while MC always has a four digit > number beginning with a 5 to identify their member bank. Discover > always starts out '6011' in case you had not noticed, and for many > years Diners Club was always '3781' as their first four digits. I do > not know what American Express is using these days ... Turns out there's an ANSI standard, X4.13, for credit cards which includes the numbering scheme, characterized by the first digit or two: 1 UATP (Air Travel Plan) 2 Individual airline cards 3 Travel and Entertainment (Amex is 37, Diners and CB are 38 and 36) 4 Banks (Visa) 5 Banks (Mastercard) 6 Retail merchandising 7 Petroleum 8 Reserved (telco?) 9 National non-gov't card issuers 0 Government Within a category the next few digits indicate which issuer a card belongs to. In many cases, particularly store and gas cards, the full card number appears on the mag stripe, with only the issuer-specific digits embossed on the card. For example, LEC calling cards are actually 660000 followed by the ten digit phone number followed by four other digits (not the PIN.) Sprint cards start with 660033, MCI with 660032. AT&T cards seem to start with 8555. A few card numbers bely the cards' origins. Discover cards start with 6 because they were originally issued by Sears. EnRoute cards start with 2 because they were originally Air Canada's in-house card. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 640 Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869 johnl@iecc.com "Space aliens are stealing American jobs." - Stanford econ prof ------------------------------ From: Jacob Carroll Subject: Telrad Phone System Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 19:04:15 -0700 Organization: I-Link Inc We are in the process of purchasing a new phone system and have a competitive bid on the Telrad system. We are also looking at an Intertel Axxess system. I would appreciate anyone's advice on either of these phone systems. Thanks! Jacob Carroll Benchmark Equity Group ------------------------------ From: Kirk Beesley Subject: Pacific Bell Line Identification Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 17:33:18 -0700 Organization: Best Internet Communications Pacific Bell has phone numbers that, when called, will identify what number is being used. Every switching station has a different number. Since I work on the phone systems in a restaurant chain the numbers would be quite helpful. Due to limited resources Pacific Bell is closed lipped. I have been able to find out a few by talking with alarm installers. I wish to find more. Thanks for your time, kirk beesley the fish market ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 23:12:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Canadian Communications Policy Reply-To: monty@roscom.COM Forwarded to the Digest FYI: Begin forwarded message: Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 09:50:26 -0700 (PDT) From: Phil Agre Subject: Canadian Communications Policy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, send an empty message to rre-help@weber.ucsd.edu =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 01:09:52 -0400 (EDT) From: "Shawn W. Yerxa" [...] (Please distribute where appropriate) Your are invited to join a new academic focused mailing list for those interested or working in Canadian Communications Policy. CAN-COM Can-com is intended to facilitate the distribution of relevant and timely scholarly material. See below for a more specific description of the focus and operation of the list. Should you wish to subscribe to can-com: send a message to: majordomo@lglobal.com stating (in the body of the message): subscribe can-com You will receive more detailed instructions upon subscribing. Should you require more information or assistance please contact the list owner: Shawn Yerxa: swyerxa@ccs.carleton.ca -------------------------------------- CANADIAN COMMUNICATIONS POLICY MAILING LIST (can-com) This list has been established to provide a forum for scholarly discussion and distribution of information regarding Canadian communications policy. This list is made possible by the donation of facilities by Jesse Hirsh of Local GlobalAccess Inc. (jesse@lglobal.com), a Toronto based Internet service provider, and the volunteer time of myself, Shawn Yerxa (swyerxa@ccs.carleton.ca), as list owner (operator). Impetus: Work on communications policy is interdisciplinary and international. Academic journals necessarily have a slow road to press. After considerable involvement with communications policy, both as a student and activist, I have found the lack of a timely and central forum for exchanging relevant information an obstacle. With the establishment of this list I hope to help overcome that obstacle for myself and others interested in communications policy. Objectives and scope: The objective of can-com is to facilitate the creation and exchange of information and thought about communications policy in Canada. The specific content of the can-com list will remain fluid. Such fluidity will hopefully allow the participants to take the list where it needs to be to serve their interests. As an initial guideline, I suggest that appropriate content would be comprised of, but not limited, to: book reviews; notices (book publications, book and journal contents, conference announcements, government documents); monitoring of policy and regulatory forums and events; requests for help; and, discussion. The scope of can-com is broad. I earlier solicited what I believe to be sage advice from several scholars. They suggested that the mandate for the list not expand to the point where it becomes to general or unworkable. In response I have chosen to keep a broad definition of communication policy and limit the subject matter geographically, to Canada. However, while limited to Canada, I hope that the list will draw participants from around the world. Beyond the obvious relevance of work in other countries, communications policy is increasingly an international concern. As such we have much to share with each other. Communications policy is broadly interpreted and includes: telecommunications, broadcasting, access to information, privacy, cultural policy, inter-governmental affairs, public administration, and related aspects of social policy, employment, science and technology, and research and development. Study of these areas crosses every discipline, particularly: political economy, public administration, political science, sociology, international relations, law, economics, engineering. Constraints: The only constraints placed on the list are: limited subscription and charity. I have required that subscription to the list be subject to approval and access to the list restricted. I will, however, occasionally post the list for participants. In other words, everyone on the list will know who is subscribed but that information will not be publicly available. This feature, it is hoped, will allow a more open discussion, facilitate introductions, and a degree of confidence. Beyond this, the list is open for free and critical discussion. I will not hesitate, however, to remove from the list subscribers who use discriminatory, harassing, or mean spirited language. Criticism presupposes charity. Archives: I hope that the list, over time, will generate a substantial amount of reference material (bibliographies, suggested readings, reviews, etc.). The contents of the list will be archived. The location of and information for accessing the archives will be made available to list members once it has been established. Problems: If problems arise or you are in need of assistance please contact the list operator: Shawn Yerxa (swyerxa@ccs.carleton.ca). Thank you. swy. ------------------------------ From: Mickey Ferguson Subject: Re: Last Laugh! This is a True Story. Really. Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 15:26:34 -0700 Organization: Stac, Inc. Mark Brader wrote: >> I tried spelling your name, and nothing happened!" Really, I said. >> ... "I tried three times, and very slowly: M A R Q ..." >> ... What key did you press for Q? >> --- Long pause --- "What do you mean, press keys?" > I chuckled at this myself, but let's be fair. Remember "If you wish > to accept this collect call, say 'Yes'"? Remember the fellow who > couldn't reach the operator until he pronounced "Operator" with the > proper American accent? > Letters of the alphabet are harder because too many of them have > similar sounds, of course, but it's not absurd for the caller to have > interpreted "spell" to mean what it said. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What happens though in the case of > those folks who speak with accents the network does not understand is > that it eventually defaults to the operator anyway. All that happens > when you say 'operator' in response to the prompt "if you want an > operator, say 'operator' now" is that it does not have to time out. > Just stand there and say nothing; eventually the operator will come > on anyway. PAT] But the problem is much worse than that. Let's look at the standard American English way to pronounce the letter 'E'. It sounds like the word "bee" without the "b" at the beginning. But a German who speaks Enlish may very well slip up and pronounce the letter as it is pronounced in his language, sounding like "bay" without the "b". This is a very common problem, since saying a WORD in English forces the non-English speaking person to produce the English word, but saying the LETTER is more likely for him to relax and slip back into reflex mode, and thus you have a definite error. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And once the weenies quit laughing, has the caller already disconnected? PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #357 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Tue Jul 23 14:56:42 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id OAA09506; Tue, 23 Jul 1996 14:56:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 14:56:42 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607231856.OAA09506@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #358 TELECOM Digest Tue, 23 Jul 96 14:55:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 358 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? (Ed Kleinhample) Re: Phone Customers Furious Over Service (David Hough) Re: A Telecom Angle in the Tragic TWA Flight 800 Crash (Martin Baines) Re: Best T1 Hookup in Michigan? (Keith W. Brown) Re: Caller ID: Names Passed Between LEC's? (Jeffrey Rhodes) Post-Doctoral Position (Mehmet Orgun) MCI One Number Kinda Sucks (Frank Keeney) Re: Sidetone/echo on Cellular (Ed Kleinhample) Re: Last Laugh! Jeff Seems to be Miffed at the Net (Robert McMillin) Re: The Orchid Club - Not For Flower Lovers (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: The Orchid Club - Not For Flower Lovers (Peter Bell) CU-SeeMe (was Re: The Orchid Club) (jailbait@apocalypse.org) New Internet Site (Paul Humphries) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: edhample@sprynet.com Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 08:12:57 -0700 Subject: Re: "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? jbrown@tellabs.com writes: > What I see as the worst example of a "regulated monopoply" are > electric companies. They have ratepayers, who pay the bills, yet > they are also public companies and have shareholders. The problem is, > which of these two groups (ratepayers or shareholders) is most > important? A couple of items from my list of "pet peeves": 1. Why is that every time the F.C.C. or some other alphabet soup agency passes legislation to make something less expensive, the price of that particular product or service goes UP - but of course, it went down for someone. Several years ago, the F.C.C. changed its legislation of the cable TV industry intending to reduce fees for the average cable subscriber. I was utterly amazed when my three months of bill inserts prepared me for a "reduction" of rates, but warned me that a "small number" of subscribers would see a "small" increase in their monthly bill. Finally the day arrived - a monthly bill from my cable provider containing my decrease in fees - it "decreased" from $30 to $45. 2. I don't often rag on the local telco - when one considers the thousands of miles of wire and millions of electrical connections that are subject to breakage, corrosion, etc, it is truly amazing that I can pick up a telephone here in the humidity and corrosion capital of the world and consistantly get a dial tone (much less expect my modem to consistantly connect at 24Kbps or greater). BUT - some of their charges are a little difficult to justify. At least they no longer show a specific charge for touch-tone service here in Tampa. 3. The author of the original message speaks of Electric Companies. Florida Power and Light (affectionately known to it's customers as Florida Flicker and Flash) is a good example of a utility that if exposed to competition, would be bankrupt in a month. They are responsible for the construction of two of the nation's worst nuclear power plants - Crystal River, which has not operated continuously for more than 6 months in it's 20 year life, and Port St. Lucie, which has an equally poor record. It's an omminous sign that a small community a couple of miles from the Crystal River plant is named "Red Level". Three years ago, on Christmas Eve, customers across central Florida experienced a brown-out that lasted in some cases up to 48 hours - FPL and other utilities stated that the outage was caused severe cold weather and the increased electrical demand. Let's get real folks - severe cold in this part of Florida means between 20 and 32 degrees for a few hours, and in truth this is not that uncommon in December or January in central Florida. In this particular case, most of the electrical utilities in the state had plants off-line for maintenance/ repairs/cutbacks/etc, and had failed to make arrangements to carry the increased load. The utilities also gave the excuse of additional load due to excess use of electric lights - Does it seem that unusual to see additional use of electrical lighting (particulary strings of many small lights) in use around the holiday season? I am of the opinion that we will never see significant decreases in the prices for local telephone service (long distance is a notible exception), simply because of the cost of maintaining an existing infrastructure or constructing a new one. It is possible that we will see a wider range of services for a *modest* (I dread that word) price increase, but a siginificant decrease in rates will likely never happen. I am also of the opinion that the present telephone infrastructure would not exist had it not been for the protected monopoly telco (BELL). Simple economics shows that residential telephone service is simply not profitable, whereas the densely packed nature of business centers allows service to be privided to a large number of subscribers (who typically are willing to pay for high priced services) with a more compact physical plant. The ONLY reason that we have nearly universal access to telephone service in outlying residential areas is that the government required this level of service in order to allow the monopoly to continue. Due to the economics of the telephone network, It is unlikely that we will see much in the way of local loop competition in residential areas in the near future. Urban business centers, on the other hand, will see a wide array of options unfold in the coming months as numerous companies scramble for a piece of this lucrative market. Cable Television providers are an exception - they're infrastructures concentrate on residential areas (most businesses are not that interested in HBO), and many cable utilities are scrambling to upgrade their networks to provide bidirectional voice and data as well as an expanded array of video services. Pat correctly points out that the Cable industry will need to commit itself to a greater level of customer support and reliability than at present. Four to five-day response to a service call just won't fly - people will be eager to get back to two to three day response from telco. Forgive my rambling ... Ed Kleinhample consultant - Land O' Lakes, FL. ------------------------------ From: David Hough Subject: Re: Phone Customers Furious Over Service Date: Tue, 23 Jul 96 08:33:01 GMT In article the Moderator writes: [...] > I have always beleived the *fair* way to handle competition with AT&T > from the very beginning would have been for the court to rule that > indeed, competition would be allowed, and that the court would oversee > AT&T to insure that the competition was treated at 'arms length' and > fairly in all ways. [snip] Pat, you have described the basic process by which the UK market has been opened up to competition. British Telecom have had restrictions imposed on them as to what they can charge to prevent them from stifling start-up competition. Arrangements have also been made to allow other companies to access the BT local loop at sensible rates. So far it seems to have worked fairly well, with the added benefit that BT, having got itself more competitive, is now well-placed to do well in the rest of Europe as they start opening up their telecoms markets for competition. Dave djh@sectel.com Tel +44 1285 655 766 Fax +44 1285 655 595 ------------------------------ From: Martin Baines Subject: Re: A Telecom Angle in the Tragic TWA Flight 800 Crash Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 10:12:02 +0100 Organization: Silicon Graphics Robert Casey wrote: > Re: tracing that fax phone call to that newspaper office. Are there > any public fax machine "pay phones" around in UK, like ones I've seen > in the San Jose CA airport a few years ago? Bring enough quarters > (the UK equivalent of), wear gloves to avoid fingerprints (plenty of > other user's prints to confuse things anyway), and send the fax. And > don't forget to take the orginal home with you, and burn it. There are lot's of public fax machines around: in railway stations, airports, libraries, motorway service areas, hotels etc. These can also be found all over Europe, so a really "smart" terrorist would use one from another country just for that added protection. Martin Baines - Business Development Manager Silicon Graphics, 1530 Arlington Business Park, Theale, Reading, UK, RG74SB email: martinb@reading.sgi.com phone: +44 118 925 7842 fax: +44 118 925 7606 vmail: +1 800 326 1020 (in USA), 0800 896020 (in UK), mailbox: 57940 URL: http://reality.sgi.com/martinb_reading/ Surf's Up at Silicon Graphics: http://www.sgi.com/International/UK/ ------------------------------ From: Keith W. Brown Subject: Re: Best T1 Hookup in Michigan? Date: 23 Jul 1996 14:50:57 GMT Organization: AllCom International Matthew E Kaiser wrote in article : > I may be mistaken by asking this here, but can anyone tell me who has > the best T1 rates in Michigan. My local government agency is examining > the possiblity a T1 line from the Internet in general to our data > center. A setup like you'd find in a major university or something > akin to that. Matthew, I have a top five provider that is offering a $.0595 intrastate dedicated rate within MI. Interstate rate will be $.085 to $.075 depending on volume and term. Hope this helps! Keith W. Brown kwbrown@allcom.com ------------------------------ From: Jeffrey Rhodes Subject: Re: Caller ID: Names Passed Between LEC's? Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 08:48:53 -0700 Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Robert Holloman wrote: > On Monday I began receiving the name information on calls made from > BellSouth territory to my home in the Sprint/Carolina Telephone area > (Clayton, NC, near Raleigh). The furthermost call so far has been > from Charlotte, which is in another area code and LATA. Calls from > GTE-land still only display the number, and I've not received any > calls from any other LEC yet. > Is it correct that the name is retrieved through a database lookup by > my CO switch instead of being passed along the signaling route the way > the calling number is done? > Anyone else noticed CID w/name working between other LEC's? There was a WSJ article last winter about four LECs agreeing to share database lookup for Calling Name. Bellcore has defined a CLASS feature for this (NWT ... 118). Without a doubt, the LECs are using terminating AIN triggers at the terminating switch to do this. Notice that the service is called Caller ID which means Name and Number as opposed to Calling Line ID (CLID) or Calling Number ID (CNI). The FCC does not allow Name Only Caller ID, so restricted calls display "Private" or "Anonymous". While it is possible to lookup the Calling Name at the source switch, or some switch along the way to the terminating switch, and then pass the Calling Name in the ISUP Generic Name parameter, I doubt anyone's ISUP supports this. A Global Title Translation of an unrestricted calling number caused by an AIN call processing trigger is used to locate the Name (read LIDB) database. Also, when ISUP is not used end-to-end, an encoding of the last MF trunk group is placed in the CPN. This too can be translated so that the caller id displays says "Southern Florida" or something nonspecific without a corresponding number. The US has missed one of the fine points of calling number delivery that Germany's ISDN has perfected. I have found that most US displays do not "see" international calling numbers delivered. When I call a German ISDN line, the German display is +12065551212, where the + is a symbol for a country's international access dialing code (011 in the US, 00 in Germany and 19 in France). When I call someone in the US the display is 2065551212. The intra-US call delivers an ISUP National Calling Party Number (CPN) parameter. The intercontinental call starts with an ISUP National CPN, which is converted to an ISUP International CPN with a 1 country code prefix by the US international gateway switch. The German ISDN display recognises the International CPN and prefixes + to the calling number. Thus, the Call Display button on the German ISDN terminal can easily return the call. Calling number delivery is a big help to both callers and callees. I suspect that the percentage of people who are paranoid about displaying their number is similar to the percentage of people who refused to talk to answering machines fifteen years ago. Today, most callers realize the benefit of Voice Mail, hopefully it won't take that long for callers to realize the benefit of showing something other than "Private" or "Anonymous". Jeffrey Rhodes at jeffrey.rhodes@attws.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 17:40:58 +1000 From: Mehmet ORGUN Subject: Employment Opportunity: Post-Doctoral Position Reply-To: Mehmet ORGUN Macquarie University School of Mathematics, Physics, Computing and Electronics Research Fellow in Computing ref. 17650 The appointee will conduct research on temporal databases. The objectives of the research include the study of temporal extensions of the relational model and algebra and query languages, and to implement a prototype temporal database system. A range of other related research tasks may also be undertaken. Applicants must have or be near completion of a PhD in a related area and have a strong background in one or more areas of database models, query languages, formal techniques, temporal logic, logic programming and deductive databases. The position is available for six months with the possiblity of further appointment subject to availability of funding and satisfactory performance. Enquiries and further information: Dr. Mehmet Orgun on (02)850-9750, facsimile (02) 850-9551 or email: Mehmet.Orgun@mq.edu.au Salary range: Level A $30,130 tp $40,889 per annum Applications including curriculum vitae, visa status, and the names and addresses of three referees should be forwarded to the Recruitment Manager, Personnel Office, Macquarie University, NSW 2109 by 31 July 1996. Applications will not be ackowledged unless specifically requested. Women are particularly encouraged to apply. Equal Employment Opportunity and No Smoking in the Workplace are University Policies. [appeared in: The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday, 22 June 1996 The Australian Wednesday, 26 June 1996 ] Mehmet A Orgun Tel: +61 (0)2 850 9570 Department of Computing Fax: +61 (0)2 850 9551 Macquarie University E-mail: mehmet@mpce.mq.edu.au Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia URL: http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/~mehmet ------------------------------ From: frank@calcom.com (Frank Keeney) Subject: MCI One Number Kinda Sucks Date: Tue, 23 Jul 96 04:12:27 GMT Organization: Calcom Communications I've been a happy AT&T 500 number user for a few months. So I wanted to try the MCI "One Number" to allow "Toll Free" calls. Well unless the caller already knows how to use the service it's kinda weird. "One Number" allows you to program three of your phone numbers for it to try. Well the "One Number" forces the user to press # for two seconds to move on to the next number, while the AT&T 500 number will do it at preset number of rings. The "One Number" service is not well suited for most applications since it is easy for the caller to forget that you need to press # for two seconds. ------------------------------ From: edhample@sprynet.com Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 06:11:29 -0700 Subject: Re: Sidetone/echo on Cellular schuster@panix.com writes: > I recently read an online message in which an individual complained of > excessive echo in the received sidetone on his Motorola Digital Lite > cellphone (i.e. the reflection of his spoken voice in the earpiece was > delayed so long as to be distracting rather than reassuring). I have noted similar problems in the Tampa, FL area on both my wife's Erickson analog phone and my Nokia digital (Both served by AT&T). This past weekend, I noticed a severe echo while receiving a call on my Nokia digital -- I immediately called my wife on her cell phone, and she complained of the echo as well. At the time, she was nearly 30 miles from my location -- this would make me believe that the echo is a system-level problem, rather than a specific cell. In every case (that I have noticed), the echo problem has occured on a weekend -- usually Saturday late afternoon into evening -- could this be a coincidence -- or could AT&T be taking some equipment offline for maintenance -- or could this be caused by heavier than average useage on a weekend? Ed Kleinhample Consultant - Land O' Lakes, FL. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 01:06:21 -0700 From: rlm@netcom.com (Robert McMillin) Reply-To: rlm@helen.surfcty.com Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Jeff Seems to be Miffed at the Net On 22 Jul 1996 13:08:08 PDT, PAT noted that Jeff Slayton must surely be hurting after last month's events. I certainly agree, but it doesn't seem to hurt his spamming efforts any. The latest incarnation of his e-mail megaspammer is now called EMAIL PRO 3.0. Since this is the second of his guano attacks to appear in my inbox lately, I'm thinking the best cure for his manic incontinence is to simply to bozofilter interramp.com. I seem to get more spam than most folks I know, since I have two long-dead mailing lists that were based from my home site. As a result, I'm getting quite proficient at filtering e-mail with procmail. Friends, as a sign of solidarity, start a cron job today to send Jeffy your uuencoded wtmp file about, oh, once every five minutes or so. That oughta do it. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I cannot allow this Digest to be used to advocate harassment of Jeffy, and it seems to me what you are doing is asking people to harass him. The other thing is, if you do this, and you do not have a correct, working email address for him then you are going to get back a piece of bounced mail every five minutes to fill up your spool also. It is very unusual these days to find any spammer/junk mailer -- at least those who went to the Jeff Slaton School to Get Rich Quick, Restore Hair to Your Bald Head, Cure AIDS, and Pass This Note Along For Good Luck -- who gives a truthful address in what they sent out. In fact, I think most of them have given up on email responses entirely. So you could wind up just harassing the site which the spammer happened to *claim* he was from. If you know for an absolute fact of an email address which is *correct* and you have something you feel the person should know about, then by all means correspond with that person. It seems far better to me however to sit patiently and watch the mail for **other contact methods**. I think we should assume that the email address given is bogus (you are certainly free to invest your time and effort to try and detirmine otherwise but I think time and again you will run into a dead end) and make contact in other ways. Remember, a spammer needs to get responses in order to make his effort a profitable one. None of them are out there just to try and get in the {Guinness Book of World Records} as the person who managed to dump the most trash on any given day. They put out the spam to sell their worthless and frequently bogus products and services. Therefore there will nearly always be: 1) an 800/888 phone number; 2) a regular phone number; 3) a street address; or 4) a PO Box/remail drop address. If (1) then by all means call to inquire about the service or product. If you need to call three or four times to listen to the long-winded recorded message before you finally decide to call a fifth time to say you are not interested, so be it. They put the number out in public to encourage you to make inquiry ... so inquire, and be sure to let others know so they can inquire also. Remember, all you do is make reasonable inquiries and transact business; there is no way to justify 2131 calls within 72 hours to anyone's 800 number as happened to Jeff last month by one netter alone. If (2) above, I am not sure you want to bother calling at your expense unless you are in the community where the phone is so it will be a local call, but be sure and report to others what you found out. There are ways to x-ref the number and turn over the rocks under which the vermin hide from sight. If (3 or 4) above, there are ways to x-ref the address and we can ask our contacts in the named community to do Visitation and get back to the net with a report as happened with Hector Davila. **NEVER** get into non-public databases or files to learn about these people. That is against the law. Just use the **public** records available, which most people are aghast to find out are public. Such things as driver's records, criminal conviction records, etc. Make frequent use of cross-reference directories via phone number and street address. Social security numbers are in public databases. **NEVER** harass a spammer or junk mailer. Just make certain that everyone on the net knows everything there is to know about the person which is **public** information. As Oscar Wilde once said, "It is not injustice that stings ... its justice." When those people make themselves a presence on the net, well by golly let's all get aquainted. To quote William Burroughs in his 1950's novel 'Naked Lunch', "Did you ever notice how hard it is to tell lies when you are standing there naked, completely exposed? ... a naked lunch, where everyone sees exactly what is on the end of everyone else's fork ..." Send email if you wish; they all have the same procmail filters running that you have, Robert, if indeed they have a valid email address at all. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: The Orchid Club - Not For Flower Lovers Date: 22 Jul 1996 18:49:42 -0400 Organization: Panix Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: [...] > Far more sophisticated than a typical Usenet newsgroup for pedophiles, [...] Beg pardon? Would you care to name a "typical Usenet newsgroup for pedophiles"? How about enough of them that there could, in fact, be a "typical" example thereof? Please name actual newsgroups with significant non-spam content. Newsgroup names with nothing behind them don't count, and I would consider the proposition that binaries newsgroups where neither poster nor reader are likely to know the age of the models are "Usenet newsgroups for pedophiles" dubious as well. Remember, pedophilia means _little kids_; the age of consent in many parts of the U.S. is 16. Yellow journalism, I'd say -- in the extreme. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@panix.COM "Gee, if your knee jerks any harder you're going to kick yourself in the head." -- Barry Sherman [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well you got me there! There are very few unmoderated newsgroups these days not getting spammed all the time. I would differ with you on the alt.sex.whatever newsgroups. If the suffix includes phrases like 'little.boys' or 'pre-teen.girls' -- and several of them do -- then I am going to assume people with a desire to see such material go there to look for it and that the people who post to those groups either beleive the image displayed is what they claim (by nature of where they posted it) to be, or they are hoping to convince viewers of that. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 08:56:29 -0400 From: Peter Bell Subject: Re: The Orchid Club - Not For Flower Lovers Organization: Yale University In article TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Far from being anything to do with horticulture, the Orchid Club is > an organization of pedophiles which operated a private -- password > and initiation required to use it -- chat group on the net. In other words, they were in compliance with the CDA as far as being sure that no one not already known to them to be an adult could receive their material. And their content was already illegal in any form, without the need for the CDA. Another huge blow for democracy struck by unneeded Federal legislation. > Far more sophisticated than a typical Usenet newsgroup for pedophiles, Typical? How many are there? > the Orchid Club used digital cameras connected to computers in the > homes of members to photograph children involved in sexual activities > among themselves and with adults. These visual images were then sent > in real time over the net to members of the club who viewed the event > in the club's private chat room as it was happening. Members were free > to download this to their own computer for repeated viewing at a later > time. There were questions about how they were doing this. My guess would be with the Connectix QuickCam, CUSeeMe and a password-protected CUSeeMe reflector. If you log into Internet Relay Chat sometime, which is what I've read they were using (not a "chat room;" this one appears to be an actual Internet-based, as opposed to AOL "the family-oriented ISP" based pedophile group), and look for channels which include the string "cuseeme," you'll find that lots of people are using the Quickcam for, ah, clothing-optional videoconferencing already. > when they had to appear at a federal arraignment last Friday On charges relating to the fact that their activities were illegal last week, last decade, and last century in most places. > Members of the club are all over the USA, including two in the Chicago > area, and two in San Jose, CA. At least two of these people, and I use the term generously to a fault, are in Europe. The {New York Times} covered this story in its print edition; I was surprised that the story never made it into the online edition. Peter bell@minerva.cis.yale.edu TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: To answer your question, 'how many are there', I do not know the exact number. Maybe a half-dozen of the alt.sex.(various) groups end in suffixes which indicate they would be of interest to pedophiles. They seem to come and go; they show up in the .newsrc one day and then are not there a few days later. By 'typical' I meant that most newsgroups are either text or still-photo. I do not think there are any 'newsgroups' which are live and report the action while it is happening. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 13:25:40 -0400 From: Jailbait Subject: CU-SeeMe (was Re: The Orchid Club) Reply-to: jailbait@apocalypse.org In case no one's mentioned it yet, the program in use was probably CU-SeeMe, originally from Cornell (CU) and now commercially from White Pine Software, I think. The images are small, but of reasonable (not wonderful, by any strech of the imagination) resolution, and the standard input device is the Connectix Quik-Cam, about $100 for Macs and PCs. It's (more or less) real time, and can either be used one-on-one or with a 'reflector' to allow for multiple users. And it's been used for sex since it came out - see alt.sex.cu-seeme (maybe it's cuseeme), IRC channel #cuseemesex and at least one episode of HBOs show "Real Sex" ... or maybe it's their newer show on CyberSex ... I've forgotten the title. My first submission to TELECOM Digest, and look at the content. Oy. JB [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It may be your last one also, unless you come up with a better user name in the future when you write me. Oy to you too. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Paul Humphries Subject: New Internet Site Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 17:08:36 +0100 Organization: Bogazici Universitesi Hi, As a keen telecoms and internet enthusiast, excited about the flattening and globalising potential of all that is ahead, I thought the following looked very relevant, current and interesting. Check it out and let me know what you think: http://iir.co.uk/tel-inet/ ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #358 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Tue Jul 23 19:41:32 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id QAA23731; Tue, 23 Jul 1996 16:46:43 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 16:46:43 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607232046.QAA23731@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Bcc: Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #359 TELECOM Digest Tue, 23 Jul 96 16:46:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 359 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson UCLA Short Course on "Spread Spectrum Wireless" (Bill Goodin) Book Review: "Designing for the Web" by Niederst (Rob Slade) Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: Teddy Roosevelt's Thoughts on Telecommunications (Lisa Hancock) Information Wanted on German Callback Services (Jim Cantrell) Re: Remote Access on AT&T Phones (John R. Levine) Re: Credit Card Numbering Schemes (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: Looking For Fax Symbol (Peter M. Weiss) Last Laugh! Origin and Use of the Word 'Spam' (Mark Brader) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: BGoodin@UNEX.UCLA.EDU (Goodin, Bill) Organization: UCLA Extension - contact Postmaster@unex.ucla.edu for problems. Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 12:27:03 -0700 Subject: UCLA Short Course on "Spread Spectrum Wi On October 21-23, 1996, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Spread Spectrum Wireless and IS-95 CDMA Digital Cellular Communications", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Babak Daneshrad, PhD, Assistant Professor, UCLA Electrical Engineering Department, and Zoran Kostic, PhD, MTS, Wireless Communications Systems Research Department, AT&T Bell Laboratories. Spread spectrum data communication has seen a revival in recent years. Two of the main driving forces behind its current interest have been the opening of the ISM bands by the FCC in the mid-1980s and the standardization of the IS-95 (CDMA) U.S. digital cellular standard. Currently available wireless LAN products operating in the ISM bands are based on either direct sequence or frequency-hopped spread spectrum technology (WaveLAN, RangeLAN, etc.). Spread spectrum systems are also being used in the implementation of wireless local loops (AirTouch) as well as for digital cellular communications where field trials and limited service are already being offered in various sites in the U.S. and Asia. With recent announcements by PrimeCo (PCS consortium, Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, etc.) regarding its intent to use a CDMA-based system for its future PCS network, it is expected that spread spectrum communication will become more prominent and that the technology is here to stay. Intended for individuals involved in CDMA product design and system deployment, this course provides a foundation for the design of direct-sequence spread spectrum systems (DSSS) for wireless communications. A wide range of issues are covered, ranging from system (cellular) engineering to hardware design and partitioning. The course is motivated by the IS-95 (CDMA) U.S. digital cellular standard -- one of the more complex DSSS systems in existence today. As such, all parts of the standard relating to the physical layer as well as the MAC layer protocols are covered. The course also provides a thorough treatment of the wireless channel and mechanisms involved in radio wave propagation. The course begins with an overview of the cellular industry and the differentiating factors between the various cellular standards, followed by an introduction to the mechanisms of code division multiple access (CDMA), its limitations, and the concepts in the IS-95 standard to overcome them. Physical layer issues are discussed, such as the importance of timing synchronization among users, as well as the CRC, coding, and interleaving schemes used in the IS-95. Key issues in the implementation of a typical IS-95 transceiver are also examined. The course fee is $1295, which includes all course materials. These materials are for participants only, and are not for sale. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucal.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 14:10:59 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Designing for the Web" by Niederst BKDSG4W3.RVW 960601 "Designing for the Web", Jennifer Niederst, 1996, 1-56592-165-8, U$24.95/C$35.95 %A Jennifer Niederst %C 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472 %D 1996 %G 1-56592-165-8 %I O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. %O U$24.95/C$35.95 800-998-9938 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com %P 180 %T "Designing for the Web" This book very definitely is for the graphic designer and is not for the techie. It is not intended, despite some of the implication of the title, to teach designing, but rather to give experienced designers some background on the vagaries of the Web. Chapters three, four and eleven provide the basics of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) for page creation. Chapter twelve mentions the more advanced functions such as forms, tables and frames. The introduction is very simple, and provides only the most fundamental tags. Chapter three is quite casual, and at times difficult to follow, flipping between HTML source, the browser (Netscape for the Mac) image, and other programs. Fortunately, chapter eleven makes up for any confusion with a more structured presentation of the foundational material again. Of design advice there is little, mostly in chapters two and five. Niederst does repeat the vitally important point that not all browsers are the same. There is the advice to note the standard functions and to keep download times in mind at all times, but there is still a feeling of frustration with the limitations of the Web, as if it is a failure on the part of the users that all do not have Netscape 3.0 and ISDN connections. The content in chapters six to nine, on graphics files, is really the high point of the book. This is very valuable material, with an excellent four page spread in chapter eight illustrating (literally) the effect of bit depth on file size and image quality with differing types of graphics. An effective designer must keep the limitations of the medium in mind, as well as being familiar with the technology. While Niederst's book is a basic introduction, ultimately an impressive page producer will need the kind, and level, of information provided in Musciano and Kennedy's "HTML: The Definitive Guide" (cf. BKHTMLDG.RVW). copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKDSG4W3.RVW 960601. Distribution permited in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong - J. Diefenbaker Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 14:25:34 -0700 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing Here in Louisiana, the monthly charge for touchtone (DTMF) went down to just nine cents per month a few years back. When I first got a telephone in my name, some six years ago, South Central Bell was charging much more for DTMF, but I don't remember what it was. I originally specified *NO* touch tone on my line, as all of my telephones are old WECO/NECO rotary dial phones from the 1920's through the mid-60's. For times when I wish to use DTMF to "end-to-end" signal to the bank, voicemail, Auto-Call-Distributor devices ("press-1 for this, press-2 for that"), etc. I use a Radio Shack battery powered DTMF acoustic generator. I have never had a problem using one for "end-to-end" signalling, regardless of what telco said about the *line* features. Even using IXC's with 950- or 800/888- numbers for travel/card/account billing, I can pulse (rotary) dial out their seven or ten digit access numbers, and then DTMF directly to the carrier. Even Bell's intra-LATA and AT&T's 0+ (TSPS/OSPS/TOPS) calling card and operator/billing features ("press 11 for collect, 12 for third party, 13 for person", etc) "listen" for DTMF regardless of whether DTMF is 'ordered' on that line. I did upgrade to DTMF on my line when it was reduced to nine-cents a month, as I also ordered telco switch-based Speed-Dialing-8 *and* Speed-Dialing-30. Since there is a time-out needed for using speed-dialing codes, 'N' and 'NX' (where NX is 20 through 49), I prefer to use DTMF, as I can 'cancel' the time-out as N-# or NX-#, which can't be done with pulse dialing. What good is Speed-Dialing, if you have to *WAIT* three to five seconds to time-out! Prior to upgrading to DTMF, when I had "traditional" Call-Forwarding, I had to *WAIT* and time-out for the second dialtone or 'confirm' tones when I would dial 72 or 73. With DTMF, I could cancel time-out with 72-# and 73-#. Not all switches here yet allow the _real_ Bellcore recommendation of *-72 (11-72) and *-73 (11-73). While a DTMF phone will allow you to "end-to-end" signal to your "called party" even if you don't have touchtone 'ordered' on that line, there are some situations where there could be problems, even today: Many Step-by-Step switches which did offer DTMF service had 'converters' at the line-end. It would take the DTMF decimal numeric digits and convert them to dialpulses to drive the switch's selectors. Most telco operator/card systems send a touchtone "#" signal right before the "bong" tone, as this will temporarily "disable" the DTMF-to-dialpulse converter so as to not dialpulse out when you were "end-to-end" signalling. You might want to use a "#" after dialing a number *before* ANY "end-to-end" signalling with DTMF, if you are served by a "stepper" switch. Some older touchtone phones require the proper *polarity* in the line for the DTMF keypad to work. Back in the days when you were supposed to lease everything from telco, and telco did *all* inside wiring maintenance, the installer was supposed to check all of this when you began service or upgraded to tone from pulse. If you tap a touchtone button on an older WECO or NECO 2500 type phone and hear nothing, try reversing the tip and ring wires (red and green) on the line cord or plug. Many later touchtone phones have 'rectifiers' built in to the keypad's circuits which allow the phone's line-cord polarity to be either way and still produce touchtone signals. And I would guess that newer network interface boxes on the pole or on the outside of the house include polarity rectifiers. It is also quite possible that the central office or LIDB can indicate that a line doesn't have touchtone 'ordered', and send that info with the ANI or CID to an operator calling card system, thus not allowing you to go to a "bong" tone but rather to a live operator. Only the local monopoly telco (and possibly AT&T) would have ever actually used this, and this was even considered when automated calling card service was introduced in the early 1980's. And although I have never actually seen it used in practice, don't underestimate anything "Maw" might do in the future! As for telco service-reps, I have spoken with some who try to *scare* you into paying more for DTMF service, so they can get their "bonus points" for selling more features! Some of them told me that if you didn't pay for touchtone, and the computer or a repair man heard touchtones on your line (such as in "end-to-end" signalling to your "called party", NOT using DTMF to control the intial central office's dialtone), they could "cut off your service", or "make you pay" for touchtone service, as you were "probably using additional telco electrical power to generate the tones, and were supposed to pay for it". Well, any of those tactics would *violate* my First Amendment rights for me to *communicate privately* with *my called party*! And what if I'm using a battery powered acoustic device from Radio Shack -- I'm NOT using *ANY* additional power from telco's lines! Some of "Maw's" service-reps have never ceased to amaze me with their narrow and convoluted vision of telecom! MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ From: hancock4@cpcn.com (Lisa) Subject: Re: Teddy Roosevelt's Thoughts on Telecommunications Date: 23 Jul 1996 02:39:14 GMT Organization: Philadelphia City Paper's City Net Franklin Roosevelt realized the power of radio. During one of his campaigns, he gave a major speech at a large stadium. The PA systems of those days were weak and the crowd had trouble hearing what he had to say. However, he and his aides made sure the radio hookups were in good condition, since the radio audience was so much larger and by that time, important. Roosevelt exploited radio aggressively. During the Nixon-Kennedy debates, it is said _radio_ listeners favored Nixon, while TV viewers favored Kennedy. It is well known Kennedy _appeared_ much better than Nixon on television. Ironically, Nixon used television for his "Checkers" speech which got him out of hot water earlier. During recent campaigns, candidate did make speeches and statements available on the Internet. However, IMHO, this technology is still too immature to make a difference at this point in time (I believe the Internet (as far as the general public at large) is about the same as radio in the early 1920s -- more of something for hobbyists and experimenters, and in need of more advances. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 10:08:09 -0700 From: Jim Cantrell Subject: Information Wanted on German Callback Services I will appreciate any recommendations that TD readers may provide about callback service providers in Germany. Also soliciting advice about laptop modems while traveling on the continent. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 96 13:44 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Remote Access on AT&T Phones Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg, N.Y. > My question is this: Has anyone ever used the AT&T 2000 phone (it is > the one with the built-in keyboard and side data port) like this with > similar or better results, and if so, how did you get a faster connection? I use the ones in Newark all the time and have no trouble getting a 14.4K connection. I have an 800 number for my modem, which makes the dialing very simple. > A related question is whether any of these phones (I see > them all over the country) work with the attached keyboard for access > to shell accounts or anything else. They were all disabled shortly after they were installed due to some regulatory problem. With the new telecom act, I don't understand why they're all not turned on now. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 640 Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869 johnl@iecc.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 12:58:10 -0700 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Credit Card Numbering Schemes johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) wrote: > Turns out there's an ANSI standard, X4.13, for credit cards which includes > the numbering scheme, characterized by the first digit or two: > 1 UATP (Air Travel Plan) > 2 Individual airline cards > 3 Travel and Entertainment (Amex is 37, Diners and CB are 38 and 36) > 4 Banks (Visa) > 5 Banks (Mastercard) > 6 Retail merchandising > 7 Petroleum > 8 Reserved (telco?) > 9 National non-gov't card issuers > 0 Government > Within a category the next few digits indicate which issuer a card belongs > to. In many cases, particularly store and gas cards, the full card number > appears on the mag stripe, with only the issuer-specific digits embossed > on the card. For example, LEC calling cards are actually 660000 followed > by the ten digit phone number followed by four other digits (not the PIN.) > Sprint cards start with 660033, MCI with 660032. AT&T cards seem to start > with 8555. As John mentioned, the 66xxxx codes for LEC cards does appear in the mag-strip. And it seems that AT&T's cards *do* have 8555 in the mag-stripes. But the embossed (or printed) front of the card with the ten-digit telephone (or RAO/CIID-based) number (with or without PIN) sometimes displays an "international" number. For telco cards, these always seem to of an ITU/ISO/ANSI format: 89+ Country Code+ "IIN"+ telephone/account number+ (PIN or security code which may or may not be displayed on front). The "IIN" is an ITU assigned ssuer dentifier umber, similar to the Bellcore assigned North American three-digit CIID ard ssuer entifier. The ITU assigned "IIN" can be two or three digits long. For North American carriers, telcos, card issuers, the IIN is three digits. A company can actually have more than one ITU assigned IIN codes. Most of the larger North American entities have two. AT&T uses one IIN for "true-choice" cards (less than fourteen digits, picked by the customer where there are no numbering conflicts), and another IIN for its fourteen-digit RAO/CIID "standard" card numbers. The country code is sometimes indicated with a space between the "89" and the country code, but in North America, the international number on cards usually has no space. It is printed as "891". The leading "89" is an ISO or ANSI code reserved as "cards for telecommunications purposes", and is part of the '8' indicated in the 'master' list provided by John Levine. In *theory*, these numbering schemes and standards are *supposed* to weed out any numbering ambiguity and make *unique and distinct*, every possible credit card number, calling card number, account number, etc. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you can use a telco calling card to buy something at the department store. It *could* be, *if* the proper business arrangements (mutual card honoring contracts) are negotiated for settlements, etc. between the telco and the department store. However, the 'bank' style credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, etc) presently being issued by long distance carriers and LEC's seem to be "dual" cards -- i.e. they have *both* a 'bank' type card number *and* a telco card number. By the way, the mag-stripe on the back of cards actually contain *several* tracks. This could be what allows such telco-issued bank-card/telecom-cards. However, there are always new technologies in "carding" such as "smart" cards which contain not only mag-strips and counterfeit- discouraging holograms, but also the "smart" chips. I don't have all of the ISO/ANSI documents on such to give more details on this nor further details on the numbering schemes/standards. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ Organization: Penn State University Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 15:03:09 EDT From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: Looking For Fax Symbol I did a GOPHER search at gopher.itu.ch for the term /symbols/: Search menu titles in ITU Gopher [E.121] Recommendation E.121 (02/95) - Pictograms, symbols and icon [F.910] Recommandation F.910 - Procedures for designing, evaluating Though I could NOT access those docs, maybe the std. number will assist you in your research? -- co-owner: INFOSYS, TQM-L, CPARK-L, ERAPPA-L, JANITORS, LDBASE-L, et -L URL:mailto:Pete-Weiss@psu.edu "Never confuse the messenger with the message" ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Last Laugh! Origin and Use of the Word 'Spam' Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 18:38:19 GMT >> {InfoWorld} has been running a series of articles by Ed Foster on the >> issue of junk e-mail (Ed does not like the use of the word spam). > I believe he's correct; the original definition of spam referred to > duplicate posting of the same material in different Usenet newsgroups > (i.e. as opposed to crossposting _one_ copy, listing all the > newsgroups in its header). Junk e-mail is a different issue, although > lately the term "spam" is being applied pretty broadly. Actually, the *original* use of "spam", not counting the meat product itself -- well, let the Jargon File show the sense progression. This quote is from version 3.3.3, the latest so far released, dated March 1996; note that email spam is not mentioned, though of course it may appear in a future version. :spam: vt.,vi.,n. [from "Monty Python's Flying Circus"] 1. To crash a program by overrunning a fixed-size buffer with excessively large input data. See also {buffer overflow}, {overrun screw}, {smash the stack}. 2. To cause a newsgroup to be flooded with irrelevant or inappropriate messages. You can spam a newsgroup with as little as one well- (or ill-) planned message (e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on soc.women). This is often done with {cross-post}ing (e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam both groups). 3. To send many identical or nearly-identical messages separately to a large number of Usenet newsgroups. This is one sure way to infuriate nearly everyone on the Net. The second and third definitions have become much more prevalent as the Internet has opened up to non-techies, and to many Usenetters #3 is now (1995) primary. In this sense the term has apparantly begun to go mainstream, though without its original sense or folkloric freight -- there is apparently a widespread belief among {luser}s that "spamming" is what happens when you dump cans of Spam into a revolving fan. The reference to "Monty Python's Flying Circus" perhaps needs explanation for younger readers who have never had the opportunity to see the show. The term specifically refers to the episode originally broadcast on December 15, 1970, about a restaurant where the items on the menu were: Egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam; egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam; spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam; lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce garnished with a truffle pate, brandy and a fried egg on top and spam. After Terry Jones as the waitress recites this, the customer, played by Graham Chapman, asks if they've got "anything without spam in it", and the response is: Well, there's spam, egg, sausage and spam. That's not got *much* spam in it. (Which contradicts the menu just recited, if you were listening carefully, but who was?) And it goes on from there, including a song. You can find the whole sketch in the books "Monty Python's Flying Circus: Just the Words" (Methuen, 1989, Volume 1 ISBN 0-413-62554-0, Volume 2 ISBN 0-413-62550-8; I think there has been a one-volume version since). It's in show 25, in volume 2. I won't include any more of it here for copyright reasons. Speaking of legalities, I should note that Spam is a trademark, and ought to be capitalized when you're talking about the food product. Either this is different in Britain or, more likely, the Monty Python people didn't care about capitalization because the lines were going to be spoken, and the book publisher then failed to notice the point. Mark Brader, msb@sq.com "I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pedantic and SoftQuad Inc., Toronto that's just as good." -- D Gary Grady ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #359 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Wed Jul 24 15:56:06 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id PAA07906; Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:56:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:56:06 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607241956.PAA07906@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #360 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Jul 96 15:56:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 360 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson CPSR Conference, Oct. 19-20, DC (Monty Solomon) BellSouth Introduces Imaging Solutions (Mike King) Pacific Bell Plans To Extend Statewide High-Tech Education Program (M King) Internet Call Manager: New Innovative Service From ISPs (Bill McMullin) 500 Number Versus Ordinary Number (Clive D.W. Feather) Trunk Lines and Caller ID (Jean-Francois Mezei) Seeking Book: This Company of Men (R. Cole) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 06:52:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: CPSR Conference, Oct. 19-20, DC Reply-To: monty@roscom.COM Forwarded to the Digest FYI: Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 23:17:25 -0700 From: Susan Evoy Subject: CPSR Conference, Oct. 19-20, DC COMMUNICATIONS UNLEASHED What's at Stake? Who Benefits? How to Get Involved! Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Conference and Annual Meeting October 19-20, Georgetown University, Washington, DC The Telecommunications Act of 1996 precipitated a dramatic change in the way we look at, think about, use, and provide communications and information. As old boundaries disappear, public interest and consumer interests take on new meanings. What will the sleek infobahns of the new era offer consumers, including rural and remote area residents and the urban underserved? What will the changes mean for the rights of consumers to express themselves and access information freely, and to conduct transactions reasonably, without fear of big brother or big business invading their privacy, or worse? What are the new roles for regulators? How will they interact with each other and where will jurisdictional lines be drawn? And how do we, as citizen activists, work to guarantee our rights and pursue the public interest in the new legislative, regulatory, and commercial landscape? This conference brings together experts in policy and activism to explore the current state of policy development. They will help you to translate this knowledge into effective advocacy and action in order to protect the interests of the underserved from an onslaught of revolutionary changes that deregulation and unfettered competition will bring. The speakers will explain the real-world implications of the changes in telecommunications laws, along with the regulatory activity that implements these laws and how to influence these processes. Activists at many levels will share success stories and tactics that work, and will build our collective knowledge and experience into networks of activists that can support each other into the future. Please plan to attend this information-rich weekend of October 19-20, at the epicenter of the earthquake that is shaking up the telecommunications landscape, Washington, DC. Further details will be distributed in the next month and will be posted on our Web site at http://www.cpsr.org/home.html CONFERENCE PROGRAM FOR SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19 KEYNOTE SPEAKER - RALPH NADER (invited) Green Party Presidential nominee and legendary consumer advocate THE COMMUNICATIONS TSUNAMI In the new blurry world of corporate mergers and mega-packaging of services, where is the consumer and public interest stake and who will represent it? Panelists will examine the post-telecom act world with a view toward interpreting the impact and effects of universal service, the opening of local exchanges to competition, the provision of fair pricing rules, and stewardship of the dazzling array of newly emerging broadband services. TOOLKITS FOR ACTIVISTS This panel will assess the kinds of tools, methods, and techniques available to activists and practitioners at state, local, and community levels. How can activists get a wedge in among the telecom and media giants? For community nets, what works, what doesn't, and why? How can public interest concerns be leveraged at the micro-level? How can citizens learn to grasp and work with the new market and regulatory realities at national, state, and local levels? THE INTERNET: COMMERCIALIZATION, GLOBALIZATION, AND GOVERNANCE The accelerating commercialization and globalization of the Internet raises new and divisive problems of governance and control. What might these trends mean for the Internet in the years to come? Can we create cooperative institutions for Internet management that are globally inclusive and effective? Will governments adopt policies that promote or stifle innovative new services like Internet telephony? What new pricing schemes will be developed, and what will be the impact on access to information and services? INFORMATION RIGHTS New information technologies and policy responses to them raise many issues related to information rights on the Internet. Panelists will discuss new threats to privacy enabled by the collection of personal information on the web, and ways to combat them; freedom of speech online, including the Communications Decency Act as well as state and international issues; and the consequences of new measures to protect copyright, including currently pending legislation and technical proposals from industry. COMPUTERS AND ELECTIONS: RISKS, RELIABILITY AND REFORM There are widespread and legitimate concerns about the accuracy, integrity and security of computer-generated vote totals. Panelists will discuss the technical, social and political origins of these concerns within the context of today's election system. They will also make recommendations for changes in the areas of technology, election law, accountability and oversight. CONFERENCE PROGRAM FOR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS SESSION ONE Competition and the Internet Consumer Civic Networking: By-passing the Big Boys Media Tactics and Outreach SESSION TWO Internet Legal Issues Broadcasting and Mass Media Fundraising for the Public Interest CPSR 1996 ANNUAL MEETING --------------------- Susan Evoy * Deputy Director http://www.cpsr.org/home.html Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility P.O. Box 717 * Palo Alto * CA * 94302 Phone: (415) 322-3778 * Fax: (415) 322-4748 * Email: evoy@cpsr.org ------------------------------ From: Mike King Subject: BellSouth Introduces Imaging Solutions Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 17:41:49 PDT Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 08:12:13 -0400 (EDT) From: BellSouth Subject: BELLSOUTH INTRODUCES IMAGING SOLUTIONS BELLSOUTH INTRODUCES IMAGING SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE PRODUCTION IN PREPRESS INDUSTRY ATLANTA - BellSouth is introducing two new services for the prepress industry -- FileXchangeSM service and RemoteRevuSM service -- which will increase productivity and reduce costs by enabling all involved parties to exchange graphical files and collaborate on line during the creative and production cycles of a project. FileXchange and RemoteRevu services make use of BellSouth's Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and Frame Relay services for exchange of large text and graphics files. Primary target markets for these new services are service providers such as creative designers, graphics arts professionals, advertising and public relations agencies, commercial printers and color separators publishers of newspapers, magazines and books, catalog and mail order houses and corporations and retail operations with in house graphics departments. "Since these design, prepress and printing processes are very deadline intensive," explains Neil Hediger, vice president - marketing for BellSouth Business Systems, "customers need a way to expedite their methods of product development, approval and delivery. In advertising, a one day delay or an inaccuracy in the production cycle can cause a million dollar revenue loss." FileXchange service allows users of Macintosh computers to electronically transfer large text, graphic and image files quickly and easily between remote locations via ISDN or Frame Relay. ISDN is a service which can support digital connections on an as needed basis. Frame Relay is a wide area service that approaches the high performance of leased lines but at a lower cost and with greater flexibility. By linking remote sites to a single production system, FileXchange service delivers each job automatically -- either immediately or at a predetermined time -- eliminating time consuming paperwork and costly couriers. Even large graphic files -- up to 500 megabytes -- can be transferred in minutes. RemoteRevu service enables interactive conferencing between remote locations, so that customers with Macintosh computers can review, annotate and approve documents on line and in real time. For instance, an advertising agency designer, the client and printer can simultaneously review work in progress electronically. Feedback can be immediate and changes can be made in minutes, not hours or days. Traditionally, prepress customers have relied on couriers or overnight delivery of everything from rough layouts to final prepress proofs. With those traditional delivery systems, last minute client revisions can add days to an already tight production schedule. "A major benefit of these solutions is increased customer satisfaction," according to Hediger. "Largely, this results from bringing customers directly into all phases of the production because of the ability to easily incorporate clients' last minute changes, and because service availability can be extended around the clock, from anywhere." BellSouth's new FileXchange service and RemoteRevu service also: * Streamline the review and approval cycles by obtaining immediate feedback from clients; * Reduce costs and time loss associated with delivering comps by courier or overnight delivery services; * Ease incorporation of last minute changes to projects in progress; * Improve communications between creative designers, clients and commercial printers; and, * Increase productivity by extending the work day. Previously, on line exchange of electronic files primarily has been dial up performed using ordinary modems. Modem transfer of graphics files has been far less efficient than transfer of text files. Large files with complicated graphics could take hours to send through traditional modem transfer. Since FileXchange and RemoteRevu services utilize ISDN and Frame Relay, they are faster than traditional modems and are more cost effective than couriers, Hediger says. "The customer will have more time to concentrate on what's really important -- their work." 'Turnkey' Solutions for Customers BellSouth is the customer's "single source" for putting together the imaging solutions package. However, BellSouth is partnering with three respected technology vendors to deliver the tailored solutions. Working in concert with Universal Data Consultants, Inc. (UDC) of Norcross, Ga., Luminous Corporation of Seattle, Wa. (a recent spin off company of the former prepress division of Adobe Systems, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.), and Group Logic, Inc. of Arlington, Va., BellSouth offers packages in turnkey fashion. This includes network service, hardware and software, complete installation support, on site training, 90 days free help desk and optional ongoing help desk, and maintenance. Universal Data Consultants will provide system staging and configuration services, on site installation services and customer support services for BellSouth Imaging Solutions customers. UDC will provide complete sales order management from the point of order acceptance by a BellSouth account representative to completion of product installation at the prepress customers' site by a UDC service engineer. As part of the program, UDC has established a test facility with a typical prepress customer setup and on line communications environment to stay ahead of software upgrades or hardware changes. FileXchange and RemoteRevu services also make use of software products from Luminous Corporation and Group Logic. With a telecom software product called AdobeR Virtual NetworkTM distributed worldwide exclusively by Luminous, the process of moving electronic files between graphic arts prepress suppliers and their clients can be automated and simplified. Luminous Corporation develops and delivers software and systems worldwide to prepress, print production, printing and graphics arts industries to facilitate the commercial printing industry's shift to digital print production. Group Logic's Imagexpo remote viewing and annotation software is a leading application used by prepress firms and their clients over ISDN and other digital telecommunications services. Group Logic's Imagexpo allows for sequential review and mark up of soft proofs of pages and images -- much like circulating a hard copy proof or for the interactive sharing of soft proofs between two remote Mac screens while the two parties conference on the phone. Both parties can make annotations on the document that are instantly visible on the remote person's screen. It also provides for quick and easy transfer of large files between remote computers. Both FileXchange and RemoteRevu services support all leading graphic arts applications and formats, including QuarkXpress, Adobe PhotoshopR, Adobe IllustratorR, Macromedia Freehand, TIFF, EPS, and Scitex CT. However, Group Logic's Imagexpo and the Adobe Virtual Network are currently for Macintosh computers only, workstation to workstation connectivity using AppleTalk protocol. Development is under way to make these solutions PC compatible. BellSouth provides telecommunications services in nine Southeastern states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. With its headquarters in Atlanta, BellSouth serves more than 21 million local telephone lines and provides local exchange and intraLATA long distance service over one of the most modern telecommunications networks in the world. For Information Contact: David A. Storey (205) 977-5001 --------------------- Mike King * Oakland, CA, USA * mk@wco.com ------------------------------ From: Mike King Subject: Pacific Bell Plans To Extend Statewide High-Tech Education Program Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 17:45:01 PDT Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 09:40:37 -0700 From: sqlgate@list.pactel.com Subject: Pacific Bell Plans To Extend Statewide High-Tech Education Program FOR MORE INFORMATION: Rebecca Weill (415) 542-4640 Pacific Bell Plans To Extend Statewide High-Tech Education Program SAN FRANCISCO -- Pacific Bell has filed with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to extend the application deadline for its $100 million Education First program. If approved by the CPUC, schools and libraries would have until Dec. 31, 1997, to apply for free connections to cyberspace. More than 9,000 public and private K-12 schools, libraries and community colleges are eligible for Education First , which provides installation and one year of free service of high-speed telecommunications lines that enable access to the Internet and videoconferencing. The program also includes technology workshops for teachers, assistance with applications development and discounts on hardware and software. Currently, schools and libraries have until Dec. 31, 1996, to apply for the program. So far, more than 2,500 institutions have applied, close to one-third of the 9,000 eligible schools and libraries. "Our goal is to help provide every school and library in California with a digital on-ramp to the information superhighway," said Rick Normington, vice president, Pacific Bell education group. "Education First is designed to help schools that are least able to help themselves. If we quit at the end of this year, thousands of children would be denied equal access to the world of electronic learning." Pacific Bell originally filed with the CPUC to begin the Education First program in April 1994, but did not receive the go-ahead until December of that year. The company began marketing the program in January 1995, midway through most schools' budget cycles, which prevented some schools from immediately applying to the program. The challenges of a slow start aside, Pacific Bell has helped wire more than ten times the amount of schools than were wired a year ago. To apply for Education First, schools should call 1-800-901-2210. Pacific Bell is a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis Group, a diversified communications corporation based in San Francisco. ------------------ Mike King * Oakland, CA, USA * mk@wco.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 21:51:40 -0300 From: Bill McMullin Reply-To: bill@interactive.ca Organization: Info-InterActive Inc. Subject: Internet Call Manager: New Innovative Service From ISPs I think this is of interest to your readers. There are millions of Internet users who tie up their phone lines for hours. Now they can stay connected and see who is calling with this innovative service. No hardware or software to buy. INTERNET PROVIDERS TO DELIVER NEW LOCAL PHONE SERVICE INNOVATIVE NEW CALL CONTROL FEATURES MEET THE NEEDS OF INTERNET USERS JULY 24th, 1996: HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA - Info InterActive (IIA) today announced Internet Call Manager (ICM), a new telephone service which allows people to stay connected to the Internet without worrying about missing calls. Internet Call Manager is a call waiting type phone service which allows Internet users to know who is calling by delivering caller-ID information to their computer screen while they are online. In addition to displaying the caller-ID information, the service allows the user to control the incoming telephone call and decide if they want to take the call, send it to voice mail, or forward the call to another number with the simple click of a mouse. In addition to providing caller identification and call control features, it also eliminates the need for a second phone line. Internet Call Manager is delivered using IIA's patent pending call management technology and software which provides real-time intelligent bridging between the public phone network and the Internet. Subscribers to the service will pay a small monthly fee which includes caller-ID delivery while on the Internet. Subscribers to the service do not need to buy any equipment or software. Current call waiting service as delivered by local telephone companies does not work while connected to the Internet. Internet Call Manager will increase the convenience, productivity and comfort level for millions of Internet users who tie up their phone lines for extended periods of time each day. Prior to today's announcement, the only alternatives were to either miss calls or install a costly second phone line. "Internet users have been asking for a call waiting feature which works while connected to the Internet and we are pleased to offer this convenient and much needed service", says Bill McMullin, President and Chief Operating Officer of IIA. The vast majority of households have a single phone line and those which use the Internet have been looking for a simple low cost solution which eliminates the frustration of missing important calls. Jim Carroll, co-author of the national bestseller, The Canadian Internet Handbook, said, "IIA is a good example of the type of small but aggressive and innovative company we are seeing emerge in the Canadian Internet marketplace. And a product like Internet Call Manager is exactly the type of thing that can make a mark on the world stage -- it's innovative, it's unique, and it's imaginative -- it has all the things that an Internet product needs today to be noticed within the global Internet community." The service will be available in major markets across North America through licensing arrangements with Internet service providers and telcos. Licensees will not be required to purchase or manage any equipment, software, or phone lines as this will be handled by IIA. "Internet Call Manager represents a unique opportunity for users, ISPs, and phone companies alike. The service increases online convenience for users, increases revenue for ISPs and improves toll completion for telcos. The introduction of the service is good news for everyone", says McMullin. Explosive growth of Internet access is expected to continue both by subscribers using PCs and the so called 'Internet appliances' which are expected to be in widespread use over the next couple of years. Many householders will be disappointed when they learn their phone line will be tied up making them unreachable for extended periods of time while browsing the Internet, whether it be on their PC or TV. Internet Call Manager means consumers don't have to worry about missing important calls when surfing the Internet. ICM is the first in a series of services which will increase phone line productivity for Internet users. "We haven't even scratched the surface on the possibilities for this technology", says McMullin. According to recent reports, over 50 million North American households subscribe to telco-provided call waiting service which does not work while connected to the Internet. Internet service providers and phone companies interested in learning more about the service can get more information by visiting IIA's web site at http://www.interactive.ca. Info InterActive Inc. is a publicly traded company on the Alberta Stock Exchange under the symbol IIA. The company specializes in the development and management of a variety of network based enhanced services utilizing telephony, Internet, and wireless data technologies. For information regarding licensing and technical issues contact Bill McMullin at bill@interactive.ca or 1-800-270-1014. For investor relations contact Pamela Paige at Stockfield Corp, at pampaige@stockfield.com or 403-264-4111. The Alberta Stock Exchange has neither approved or disapproved of the information contained herein. ------------------------------ Subject: 500 Number Versus Ordinary Number Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 09:55:38 BST From: "Clive D.W. Feather" I am investigating setting up a facility in New York city (+1 212 area) that people can call into from all over the USA and Canada. I want the callers to pay as little as possible to call me, *but* I am not willing to pay a per-call charge (as would apply to an 800 number). Is +1 500 useful for me here? What do calls typically cost to such numbers? How does this compare to ordinary long-distance calls? Is there another alternative I should look at? I'm aware that this probably doesn't have a simple answer, but even some guidelines would be better than nothing. Clive D.W. Feather | Associate Director | Managing Director Tel: +44 181 371 1138 | Demon Internet Ltd. | CityScape Internet Services Ltd. Fax: +44 181 371 1150 | | [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of two things happen when a person dials a 500 number. If they do it as one plus, then the call gets sent along to the subscriber at the various numbers in his directory of places to try and reach him. If the terminating end is domestic -- that is, in the USA -- I believe the charge is 25 cents per minute. If the terminating end is international, then the charge is whatever it would be for an international call, however the calling party is warned that an international call at international rates is about to commence. If the person dials as zero plus to a 500 number, then the call is intercepted by a robot which asks the caller to enter a PIN which you as the subscriber have given them or to make billing arrangements to an AT&T calling card or other credit card (Visa, etc). If they enter a correct PIN then the call proceeds on its way, again at the 25 cent per minute domestic rate or the international rate in effect with you paying the bill. If they do not enter a pin then they pay for it via some billing arrangement, unlike one plus, where the call is billed to the phone used, just like an direct dial call. In either event, either the callers pay by the minute or you as the subscriber and call recipient pay by the minute. You could think of 500 as not much more than a glorified 800 number with the added options of various PIN assignments for billing (to you, of course) purposes or the ability to flip it around and make the caller pay. It is more of a 'locator service' with a 'toll free' option built in than anything else. The owner of the 500 number can make outgoing calls as well by using his own 'master PIN' when dialing zero plus into his 500 number. Now that is how AT&T handles it. Other carriers may vary a little. Remember also that 500 is still blocked on many PBX systems making it hard to reach at times, and the one plus caller does not know if he is going to pay 25 cents or if he is going to pay international rates until the network picks up his call, locates you and begins putting the call through. Pay telephones in the USA do not allow one plus dialing of 500 calls for the simple reason there is no method to collect, not knowing for sure what the rate will be. So pay phone callers always have to dial those as zero plus and then use a PIN if you gave them one. You might be able to get an FX line from someplace in the USA which terminated in Great Britain and either point a 500 number at it here (so the callers always paid 25 cents per minute), and you paid nothing per minute but a sizeable amount per month if you were very certain you could keep that FX line loaded for many hours each day to justify the cost per call. But unless you can be assured of at least 400-500 hours per month of traffic, I cannot imagine getting any sort of FX line (or flat rate with no charge per call) that would be less than the best of the per minute rates which you do not want to pay. An FX that is not in use at least 75-80 percent of the time either is a loser or at best a break-even proposition. I imagine anyone selling you flat rate would probably stack things the same way. Another possibility is to point a 500 number (or 800, whichever you decided upon) to something which triggered a ringdown line or circuit to you. A ringdown or 'tie-line' between the USA and the UK does not come cheap either, but I could see where you might bring it in a little cheaper than an FX and probably at about the same as the per-minute rate from one of the more competitive carriers. After you pencil it out, you might decide you can do as well with an international 800 number from the USA. Direct dial rates both here and internationally have come down to the point that rarely do the more esoteric arrangements of years past -- FX, ringdown, call extender hardware, etc -- turn out to save any money. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jean-Francois Mezei Subject: Trunk Lines and Caller ID Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 00:37:02 +0000 Organization: Vaxination Informatique Reply-To: jfmezei@videotron.ca I often get calls from large organizations in New York City (212) (am in Montreal 514) and often, I either get a unknown caller ID or, in some cases, I get an actual *local* telephone number with no name associated with it. Calling that local number results in "there is no service at the number you have dialed ..." message. QUESTION: Is the quality of the CALLER-ID completeness going to improve in areas already served by that service, or will caller ID always remain useless for calls originated from large corporations with trunk lines etc? While I can understand that a telephone number cannot reliably supplied (as in the case of a trunk line), I would hope that the customer/company name would be supplied. ------------------------------ From: roycole@acy1.digex.net (R. Cole) Subject: Seeking a Book: This Company of Men Date: 24 Jul 1996 15:01:02 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications USA: 800-969-9090 Has anyone ever heard of this book? it is suppose to be a parody on Ma Bell. Thanks. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V16 #360 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Wed Jul 24 18:25:13 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id SAA24705; Wed, 24 Jul 1996 18:25:13 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 18:25:13 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607242225.SAA24705@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #361 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Jul 96 18:25:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 361 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Excel Communications Second Quarter (Ken Leonard) LCI/ACN Long Distance MLM - Should I Warn a Friend Away? (Thomas Betz) Touch Tones in Movies? (M.S. Russell) Applied Language Technologies OEM Agreement With InterVoice (Alisa Moyer) OutCall: SpeachMaster and PhoneTree - But Who Else? (Frank Merrow) Re: Sidetone/echo on Cellular (Tom Scheer) Re: Sidetone/echo on cellular (Ed Gastle) Re: Attorney General on Encryption, Copyrights (Heflin Hogan) Re: Attorney General on Encryption, Copyrights (Fred Atkinson) Re: "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? (Art Luebbe) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ken Leonard Subject: Excel Communications Second Quarter Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 11:37:05 -0800 Organization: Excel Communications Reply-To: ken@kaiwan009.kaiwan.com This is for all you Excel bashers/doubters. And be very aware that Excel is traded on the NYSE. DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 23, 1996--EXCEL Communications, Inc. (NYSE: ECI) today reported record second quarter results. HIGHLIGHTS: o EXCEL reported record revenue for the second quarter of $345.4 million, an increase of 254 percent over the second quarter of 1995. o Net income increased to $38.4 million, a 386 percent increase over the second quarter of 1995. o Earnings per share were $.36, an increase of 350 percent over the second quarter of 1995.EXCEL added 700,000 new subscribers during the second quarter bringing its total subscriber base to just over 3.8 million, further solidifying its position as a major residential long distance provider. o Long distance minutes of usage increased to 1.6 billion, a 303 percent increase over the second quarter of 1995. "We are very excited to report these record results and will continue with our commitment of providing long-term return for our shareholders. The continued growth in our subscriber base further demonstrates that we have developed a marketing plan that is very effective in reaching the mass consumer market. We are continuing to gain market share in a competitive industry and solidify our positioning as a long-term player in the communications industry," said Kenny A. Troutt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "During the second quarter we continued on track with the implementation of our key business strategies. We entered into agreements with two new carriers, restructured our existing carrier agreement, finalized our business plan to offer paging services and announced the appointment of a Managing Director of Direct Broadcast Satellite." Troutt added. Communications services revenues increased 304 percent to $271.9 million for the second quarter of 1996 from $67.3 million for the second quarter of 1995. This increase was driven by rising long distance call volume resulting from significant growth in the subscriber base. Marketing services revenues increased 141 percent to $73.4 million for the second quarter of 1996 from $30.4 million for the second quarter of 1995. This increase was due primarily to growth in applications from new Independent Representatives to 220,710 for the second quarter of 1996 from 98,450 for the second quarter of 1995. Operating income increased 322 percent to $56.6 million for the second quarter of 1996 from $13.4 million for the second quarter of 1995. Operating margins improved as a result of a decrease in the cost per minute of communications services. Net income increased 386 percent to $38.4 million for the second quarter of 1996 from $7.9 million for the second quarter of 1995. Net income per share increased to $ .36 for the second quarter of 1996 from $.08 for the second quarter of 1995. In June, EXCEL introduced Simply One, which allows subscribers to make interstate calls in the United States for just 9" per minute, without complicated pricing based on mileage or state. This rate is available for all calls made between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. Monday through Friday and all day long on weekends and holidays. Interstate calls made during the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. will cost 25 cents per minute. EXCEL Communications, Inc., believes that it is the fourth largest residential long distance company in the United States. The Company offers its subscribers a variety of long distance telecommunications services and products under the EXCEL branded name, which include residential service, commercial service, 800 service, international service, and calling cards. EXCEL focuses on maintaining and providing all services and communications that involve the subscriber. The Company's goal is to become a provider of a wide range of communications products, and the Company anticipates offering nationwide paging services to its subscribers later this year. The Company's services are marketed nationwide exclusively through a network of independent representatives. EXCEL COMMUNICATIONS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (In thousands, except per share data) (unaudited) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, ------------------ ----------------- 1996 1995 1996 1995 Revenues: Communications services $271,926 $ 67,302 $477,200 $118,317 Marketing services 73,439 30,417 148,955 48,141 Total revenues 345,365 97,719 626,155 166,458 Operating expenses: Communication 151,421 40,087 264,935 69,453 Marketing services 93,819 29,789 170,759 1,054 General and admin 43,483 14,453 80,424 23,763 Total oper expense 288,723 84,329 516,118 144,270 Operating income 56,642 13,390 110,037 22,188 Interest expense (79) (207) (131) (395) Income (losses) from joint venture 3,124 (647) 4,165 (992) Other income 1,559 106 2,062 161 Income pre income tax 61,246 12,642 116,133 20,962 Provision for income tax 22,826 4,767 43,727 7,903 Net income $ 38,420 $ 7,875 $ 72,406 $ 13,059 Net income per share $ 0.36 $ 0.08 $ 0.70 $ 0.14 Weighted avg shares outstng 106,562 96,720 103,423 96,480 CONTACT: Excel Communications Media: Sheila Durante, 214/863-8400, or Mary Bell, investor relations manager, 214/863-8730 ------------------------------ From: Thomas Betz Subject: LCI/ACN Long Distance MLM -- Should I Warn a Friend Away? Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:59:27 -0400 I'm one of those folks who, when presented with a Multi-Level Marketing plan, runs the other way. A friend of mine who doesn't have that tendency is being approached to get involved with LCI/ACN's telecom MLM, and he's asked me to help him research it. At least he's going in with his eyes open. I haven't been able to find any web resources about it except for those people touting it themselves. Is this MLM any worse than Amway? I know it's big; but is LCI a respectable company? How big a pyramid would my friend be supporting if he were to get involved? I'd appreciate any info or pointers to info. ---- Tom Betz --------- ------ (914) 375-1510 -- tbetz@pobox.com | We have tried ignorance for a very long | tbetz@panix.com ------------------+ time, and it's time we tried education. +----------------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 11:40:57 EDT From: M.S. Russell Subject: Touch Tones in Movies? Hi there, I wondered if some of the wizards on this forum could answer this :) The other night I put a tape into my VCR (it was _Nixon_ by Oliver Stone) and at the beginning of the tape there was probably a 1-2 interval where I heard a faint, rapid string of what sounded like DTMF tones. This was before the movie or previews had actually started, in that "grey" area ... I also heard it at the beginning of the second tape (it's a two tape rental). I also recall hearing this before a few years back before regular programs on TV. Can't be sure if it was regular antenna reception or my cable company, so I don't know if that's a factor. I don't watch much TV anymore so I haven't heard it while viewing lately. What the heck is it? My guess is some sort of station identifier (before the programs) or some sort of media identifier (analagous to an ISBN number for a book at the library). I'm interested as to its purpose/history. Thanks! --MSR ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 09:19:51 -0400 From: Alisa Moyer Subject: Applied Language Technologies OEM Agreement with InterVoice APPLIED LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES OEM AGREEMENT WITH INTERVOICE InterVoice systems to incorporate ALTech's speech recognition software Cambridge, Mass. - Applied Language Technologies, Inc., (ALTech), announced today an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) agreement with InterVoice, Inc., a leading supplier of interactive voice response systems. Under this agreement, InterVoice will integrate ALTech's speech recognition software into its OneVoiceD2 software agent platform, thereby enabling system-wide voice recognition resources across its broad range of interactive information solutions. ALTech's speech recognition software will provide a new level of functionality to call and business process automation solutions running o= n the OneVoice platform. By integrating ALTech's speech recognition technology, InterVoice will enhance its customers' abilities to improve service levels, reduce operational costs and rapidly deploy new revenue generating services. End-users will benefit from a richer, easier-to-use interface that enables them to utilize natural speech to input data and issue commands. "We are excited about adding ALTech's innovative speech recognition technology to our proven, multi-application OneVoice platform," said Michael W. Barker, InterVoice's president and chief operating officer. "This new marriage of technologies further enriches our platform feature set and offers our customers an unmatched foundation from which to launch new enhanced service applications benefiting from voice recognition." "We are very pleased to have been chosen by InterVoice to provide speech recognition for its OneVoice platform," said William J. O'Farrell, president and chief executive officer of Applied Language Technologies. "InterVoice's decision to incorporate our software provides further market validation of our leading-edge technology. With our speech recognition software, InterVoice can streamline data input, and command procedures in its call and business process automation applications. We see a number of opportunities in telecommunications, financial services, and other industry sectors to speech-enable applications ranging from voice dialing to home banking." InterVoice, Inc. (NASDAQ:INTV) is a leading global supplier of call and business process automation solutions, with the number of installed systems totaling more than 7,200 in 46 countries. InterVoice systems are used in inbound and outbound call centers across virtually all industry sectors to increase revenues and customer service levels, with lower associated costs. With capacity ranging from six to thousands of ports, InterVoice systems integrate with virtually any telephone and IS environment, and are available in both customer premise equipment (CPE) and telco-compliant configurations. InterVoice, an ISO 9001 certified company, is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA and has representative offices in Canada, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Company information and product demonstrations are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.intervoice.com. Applied Language Technologies is a leader in the development and implementation of advanced speech recognition and voice processing technologies for the telephony market. Based on technology licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Computer Science, ALTech develops and markets speech understanding software which provides large vocabulary, speaker-independent, phonetic speech recognition. ALTech's speech software contains a comprehensive set of features for automating telephone-based and net-based transactions and services. ALTech is a privately held corporation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. More information on ALTech is available at http://www.altech.com. Contacts: Alisa Moyer Marketing Manager Applied Language Technologies, Inc. 617-225-0012 moyer@altech.com Cathy Kingeter Marketing Communications InterVoice, Inc. 214-454-8934 ckingete@intervoice.com InterVoice Public Relations Glenn Able 214-480-9458 sbok@airmail Marketing Manager Applied Language Technologies 215 First Street Cambridge, MA 02142 P: 617.225.0012 F: 617.225.0322 ------------------------------ From: fmerrow@qualcomm.com (Frank Merrow) Subject: OutCall: SpeachMaster and PhoneTree - But Who Else? Date: 24 Jul 1996 11:59:54 -0700 Organization: QUALCOMM, Incorporated; San Diego, CA, USA My wife and I are continually making calls about events and updates for my son's cub scout pack and our church. I started looking for some way of automating the calling of a group of people. So far I have found only two companies: 1. PhoneTree - seems simple, but their test of the phones I gave them only had a 75% sucess rate. 2. SpeachMaster - pre-sales support seems almost indifference so I wonder what post sales will be like. The product seems to have many more interesting features for only a little more than phonetree. On the otherhand, even VERY VERY SIMPLE database features seem to be "extras" that cost more! Makes me wonder how much it will cost to actually get a working system up and running. Are there any other competitors to these guys out there? Frank ------------------------------ From: tscheer@cts.com (Tom Scheer) Subject: Re: Sidetone/echo on Cellular Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 00:12:24 GMT Organization: CTS Network Services In article , edhample@sprynet.com wrote: > schuster@panix.com writes: >> I recently read an online message in which an individual complained of >> excessive echo in the received sidetone on his Motorola Digital Lite >> cellphone (i.e. the reflection of his spoken voice in the earpiece was >> delayed so long as to be distracting rather than reassuring). > I have noted similar problems in the Tampa, FL area on both my wife's > Erickson analog phone and my Nokia digital (Both served by AT&T). This > past weekend, I noticed a severe echo while receiving a call on my > Nokia digital -- I immediately called my wife on her cell phone, and > she complained of the echo as well. At the time, she was nearly 30 > miles from my location -- this would make me believe that the echo is a > system-level problem, rather than a specific cell. > In every case (that I have noticed), the echo problem has occured on a > weekend -- usually Saturday late afternoon into evening -- could this be > a coincidence -- or could AT&T be taking some equipment offline for > maintenance -- or could this be caused by heavier than average useage > on a weekend? I've used various brands of cell phones on four or five different cellular systems, and sometimes I get that echo in my earpiece. The person on the other end doesn't hear it, and it only happens for one call, so it's not a permanent problem with the phone or cell system. For this to happen it would seem that the cell phones must vary their sidetone characteristics according to conditions. Is that true? Tom Scheer tscheer@cts.com ------------------------------ From: Ed Gastle Subject: Re: Sidetone/echo on Cellular Date: Mon, 24 Jul 1996 22:48:19 -0400 Organization: Kingston Online Services Reply-To: egastle@limestone.kosone.com Michael Schuster wrote: > The response I read was that sidetone is entirely controlled by the > cellular tower, and excessive delay cannot be caused by the cellphone. > Does this sound right? Partly, your cellphone cannot control the delayed echo you hear. However the equipment that controls it normally resides in the MTSO, not the cell site. Digital TDMA (D-AMPS) introduces some delay in the air interface. That is to say that your conversation is not happening real time. (If you want to mess yourself up, call someone from your digital from a place you can see them but not hear them. Their lip movement won't match what you hear.) Although the delay is not as long as with satellites, the same principles apply. Echo cancellers store a digital replica of your voice and superimpose it 180 degrees out of phase onto the returning echo. As far as I know, this happens on the other side of the switch just before the interconnect into the PSTN. The switch should be set up to route digital calls through echo cancellers. If this is not happening either the MSTO does not have enough echo cancellers to meet demand, the routing is not set up properly, or an echo canceller is bad. ------------------------------ From: mhh001c@pdnis.paradyne.com (Heflin Hogan) Subject: Re: Attorney General on Encryption, Copyrights Date: 24 Jul 1996 18:03:47 GMT Organization: AT&T Paradyne Pah! I was going to post a point by point rebuttal of Ms. Reno's speech, but someone else will probably do that. Suffice it to say that Clinton has lost my vote. And to think I was afraid of a belated Big Brother under a Republican adminstration! Regards, Heflin [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, one thing about the Republicans is you always know right where you stand with them. They don't hide their intentions, as repugnant as many people find them to be. It is the Democrats you have to watch out for; they'll say one thing to one audience and something else to another audience, then when they get elected they turn out to be no different in their own oppressive way. So Clinton has lost your vote has he? Does that mean you are going to vote for Dole? ... it would seem the Republicans have gotten what I would call buyer's remorse where Dole is concerned. A lot of the delegates to the convention are in a bind because they are committed to Dole even though they would like to be free to nominate someone else. I honestly think the 1996 election campaign has got to be one of the nastiest mud-slinging campaigns since possibly 1876 when opponents of Democratic Senator Samuel Tilden in his losing campaign against Republican Rutherford Hayes referred to Tilden as a 'sinister, syphlitic charlatan' in the press. When the affair between his wife Elizabeth and Henry Ward Beecher came to light instead of blaming her as an adulteress or Beecher for seducing her the opposition went on further to question Tilden's 'manhood' saying that obviously he not only would make a very poor (and thieving, corrupt) president but that he was unable to satisfy Elizabeth in her 'needs as a woman', so she had to seek the things 'every woman needs' from Reverend Beecher, who as all readers of the newspapers in those days knew was an 'athiest'. Someone writing here in TELECOM Digest yesterday said *I* do yellow journalism. Hah! They should have read the {Chicago Tribune} and the {New York Herald Tribune} in the 1870-80's to see good examples of yellow journalism. Incidentally, in the 1876 election, Tilden won the popular vote by a small margin of 250 thousand votes but *lost* the one that counts -- the electoral vote by *one* vote, 185 to 184 in favor of Hayes. When Thomas Jefferson was running for president the first and second times in 1792 and 1796 (he finally won the third time in 1800) the supporters of George Washington (1792) and John Adams (1796) made slanderous attacks against him which all the newspapers were happy to report in lurid detail including the one which still makes the rounds today, two hundred years later that Jefferson kept a number of his female slaves living in his own quarters with him to be used for sexual service. Both Washington and Adams insisted that if Jefferson was elected the 'first thing he will do is outlaw any form of Christianity; then he will encourage all white men to learn about the pleasures he has found with a Negro sharing his bed chamber ...' Now at the end of the twentieth century the mud continues to be slung: consider these two comments in the press recently ... "Bob Dole is a tool of the Tobacco Industry and if a few more children get addicted to cigarettes on his way to the White House he could care less." And of our very beloved resident president now in power who hopes to have another four years of public 'service' this gem which appeared in the {Chicago Tribune} not long ago ... "President Clinton wants to regulate so many things. Its a good thing hypocrisy is not regulated ..."; this along with speculation that Hillary keeps him on a very short leash and that he has trouble 'keeping his mouth shut and his pants zipped up'. So in November, vote for either one you want, as if I could care. PAT] ------------------------------ From: fatkinson@mail.wdn.com (Fred Atkinson) Subject: Re: Attorney General on Encryption, Copyrights Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 19:14:20 GMT Organization: Posted via CAIS Internet I must say I was quite distressed by Janet Reno's pro key escrow position. I must say it is quite naive. Do they really think that terrorists and criminals are going to give them valid decryption keys? If they do, what is to keep them from generating other ones and letting the originals that are escrowed go unused? Criminals and terrorists are not that stupid. In my view, the only ones who will be penalized by this will be the average citizen who will no longer be sure of their privacy because anyone who has access to keys in escrow (and don't tell me it won't happen without a court order, I wasn't born yesterday) will be able to intercept and decrypt their messages. Perhaps the recent incident at the White House regarding confidential information about political adversaries will reassure you on that issue. If the White House can't be trusted with confidential information, then who can? Reno is echoing the Clinton administration's position regarding key escrow. If she is naive enough to believe this will accomplish anything, she surely shouldn't be in her present position of responsibility. Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ From: fgoldstein@bbn.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 11:58:29 EST Organization: BBN Corp. In article Lisa writes: > But the last part had a very interesting item: it explained that > increased user demand (faxes, cellular, etc) is only a part of the > problem. The big problem is competition, because the new companies > need to reserve blocks of exchanges, and are taking far more than > they'll need or ever use, thus the shortage. > I think this is an excellent point. If a competitor gets a full > exchange designation, will they use all identifiers in it? I doubt it > very much. Bellcore's web site posts a "free" file of new NPA/NXX activity. It doesn't tell what rate center (exchange area) a code is assigned to, but it does list the carrier. In LATAs where competition was authorized before the Telecom Act, new code activity is very, very high. Most is to create codes for new carriers. (In LATAs where competition wasn't authorized in the past, the flood is probably just on the horizon; these take a while to get processed.) The problem comes from the way the NANP is currently set up. Every NXX has a rate center associated with it, used for billing, AND is assigned to a carrier, because there is no 800-style "number portability" yet. So if Joe's Telephones wants to compete with Bigfat Bell in the Greater Overshoe market, Joe's will need separate NXXs for Overshoe, East Overshoe, North Overshoe, Overshoe Falls, and Galosh Heights, since Bell has established those as separate rate centers. Never mind that they might only have ten numbers in each; they need a whole NXX. This has already come up for discussion in California, where splits are rampant. MCI proposed allowing one NXX to serve multiple rate centers, divided on the "D digit" (one after the prefix). So NPA-NXX-1000 will be in one city, NXX-2000 in another. This conserves prefix codes, but breaks all sorts of billing software, toll restriction tables, etc. Imagine the COCOTs. AT&T has proposed allowing one NXX to serve multiple carriers, divided on the D digit. So NPA-NXX-1000 might be AT&T, -2000 might be MCI, etc. This only requires D-digit translation in the Incumbent LEC tandem switches, and in the CLEC switches themselves. I guess you can figure out which plan I favor! (I filed comments to this effect with the Mass. DPU wrt the pending 617 overlay/split decision.) There are a decent handful of "old NPA" codes still available. I proposed reserving these for CLEC use, divided among CLECs on the D digit. This way there is no "competitive" disadvantage to an overlay. I also proposed moving all new "bulk" numbers into the overlay, leaving listed numbers and resi subscribers (even new ones) in the old NPA. This is technically not service discrimination (not permitted by FCC), since anyone will be allowed to *pay* extra for old-NPA numbers, but the bulk of number wasters (fax servers, pagers, cellular, etc.) don't really care which one they're in. Fred R. Goldstein k1io fgoldstein@bbn.com BBN Corp., Cambridge MA USA +1 617 873 3850 Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: LUEBBE_J@POPMAIL.FIRN.EDU Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 12:03:05 PDT Subject: Re: "Competition" Responsible For Area Code Splits? In article edhample@sprynet.com wrote: [...] > 3. The author of the original message speaks of Electric > Companies. Florida Power and Light (affectionately known to it's > customers as Florida Flicker and Flash) is a good example of a utility > that if exposed to competition, would be bankrupt in a month. They are > responsible for the construction of two of the nation's worst nuclear > power plants - Crystal River, which has not operated continuously for > more than 6 months in it's 20 year life, and Port St. Lucie, which has > an equally poor record. It's an omminous sign that a small community a > couple of miles from the Crystal River plant is named "Red Level". I find it hard to believe that Ed Kleinhample is truly a consultant of some kind. The above is loaded with untrue statements. Florida Power and Light is based in Miami and serves the East coast, and SW coasts of Florida. The also operate the Port St. Lucie power plant. FLORIDA POWER COMPANY based in St. Petersburg serves areas north and east of the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. They operate the power plants located at Crystal River. The plants are indeed located near a community named "Red Level". Mr. Kleinhample does not cite any source for his statements about the operation of either plant site. His assertions are simply not true. He should do research into the facts before he makes such slanderous comments. He continues ... > Three years ago, on Christmas Eve, customers across central Florida > experienced a brown-out that lasted in some cases up to 48 hours - FPL > and other utilities stated that the outage was caused severe cold > weather and the increased electrical demand. Let's get real folks - > severe cold in this part of Florida means between 20 and 32 degrees > for a few hours, and in truth this is not that uncommon in December or > January in central Florida. In this particular case, most of the > electrical utilities in the state had plants off-line for maintenance/ > repairs/cutbacks/etc, and had failed to make arrangements to carry the > increased load. The utilities also gave the excuse of additional load > due to excess use of electric lights - Does it seem that unusual to > see additional use of electrical lighting (particulary strings of many > small lights) in use around the holiday season? That particular event happened at a time when the ENTIRE southeast United States was experiencing a long period of record lows. The entire area shares generating resources to be able to cover localized problems. Since the entire area was hit with extreme temperatures, there was no excess electricity to share. Most homes, offices, and factories are heated eletrically. All of these utilities constantly have various generating resources down for maintenance at scheduled periods meant to happen during SLACK periods. None of them would purposefully schedule major resources to be down during the end of December. I did work for Florida Power Company about 15 years ago. Since then I have been a DP consultant/contractor to mainly telecommunication firms in the state. I also do not own stock in any of the electric utilities. Oh btw, some of the work I've done did involve Area Code Splits. Large companies do make many large mistakes, but this particular complaint was so full of untruths and misleading information, I had to write ... Art Luebbe, consultant Crystal River, FL about 80 miles nw of Tampa and Land O' Lakes FL. Name: Luebbe E-mail: luebbe_j@popmail.firn.edu ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #361 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Wed Jul 24 20:02:04 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id UAA04544; Wed, 24 Jul 1996 20:02:04 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 20:02:04 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607250002.UAA04544@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #362 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Jul 96 20:02:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 362 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Update: Ocoee Olympic Venue Bans Cellular Phones (Stanley Cline) Re: Caller ID: prv/anon/nodata (Thomas P. Brisco) Re: Caller ID/Per Line Blocking (Baron L. Chandler) Re: Looking For Fax Symbol (Holger Reusch) Re: Looking For Fax Symbol (John Shriver) Re: TCI Phone Service OK'd in Chicago Suburb (John Higdon) Caller ID Question (Dave Keeny) Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing (Joshua Hosseinof) Re: Modem Use With a Digital Phone? (Thomas R. Springer) Public Pay-Fax Machines (George Strowger) Re: Where Can I Find Info on SS7 Protocols? (John Shriver) Re: Some History of Standard Oil and Bell (R. Van Valkenburgh) Re: Caller ID in California (Michael Stanford) Re: Teddy Roosevelt's Thoughts on Telecommunications (Stephen Satchell) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 18:20:21 EDT From: Stanley Cline Subject: Update: Ocoee Olympic Venue Bans Cellular Phones As most of you readers are aware, I have been very concerned about the lack of cellular service at the Olympic canoe/kayak slalom event in Ocoee, TN. (There is NO B-side coverage at all, for one thing.) Well, it turns out all my work (hours on the phone with US Hell --, er, Cellular, BellSouth, ACOG, etc.; posts to c.d.t, a.c-p-t and the Olympic related newsgroups; warnings on my web site, etc.) was all for naught: The operator of the venue (Tennessee Ocoee Development Agency [TODA]) has decided to simply BAN cellphones during the competitions (at least for "spectators" anyway.) Their reasons: 1) They would interfere with security equipment on nearby frequencies, 2) the poor coverage (remember, there is no B-side coverage whatsoever), and 3) (apparently) there are not enough channels to handle "spectator" calls in addition to "official" traffic. (Chattanooga CellOne -- the lone cellular carrier -- does not offer TDMA service, unlike BellSouth in Atlanta. BellSouth is not licensed in Ocoee and US Cellular refused to install cell sites, even temporary.) The basic ACOG policy is that in *most* venues (and certainly all the ones in the "Olympic Ring" in downtown Atlanta), cellular phones are fine, as long as they are not used for "broadcasting" (i.e. play-per-play details, etc.) But in this case, TODA overrode ACOG ... I believe the lack of channels (caused by a single carrier's single cell site covering the venue area) is the real reason; I don't think anyone wants to admit that it is GTE Mobilnet and particularly United States Cellular who screwed up -- I don't believe the "security" excuse one damn bit. What's worse: This policy is nowhere to be found at the ACOG "official" Web site (www.atlanta.olympic.org) -- it was given on the *TODA* web site (www.toda.dst.tn.us). I called ACOG; the BellSouth employee / ACOG volunteer who answered the phone said they hadn't a clue as to this policy being made -- they referred me to the Ocoee Whitewater Center who confirmed what the TODA web site said. (My web site has contained a warning for several weeks directed at B-side roamers that simply says there is no service and just who is responsible [USCC]. I will be updating this as soon as I can.) In conclusion: *** IF YOU ARE GOING TO OCOEE, LEAVE YOUR CELLULAR PHONE AT *** HOME (or in your car.) IT WON'T WORK IF YOU ARE A B-SIDE *** ROAMER ANYWAY, AND IT MAY BE CONFISCATED. *** THE END. (I am holding nasty comments about USCC for later.) Stanley Cline, Chattanooga, TN ** Roamer1 on IRC scline@usit.net ** http://www.usit.net/public/scline/ ------------------------------ From: Thomas P. Brisco Subject: Re: Caller ID: prv/anon/nodata Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 16:18:50 -0400 Organization: IEEE From what I've seen: Private: Person has a non-pub number Anonymous: Caller ID has been blocked Out of Area: Originating area doesn't support CallerID Tp. ------------------------------ From: thebaron@mindspring.com (Baron L. Chandler) Subject: Re: Caller ID/Per Line Blocking Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 23:23:04 -0500 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises In article , Telecom@Eureka.vip. best.com (Linc Madison) wrote: > In article , matt schor > wrote: >> Sorry. Calling someone's home, and not disclosing your phone number, >> is not acceptable social behavior. Thank God technology has caught up >> with expectations so that we can stop prank calls, threatening calls, >> etc. I wouldn't answer the door if the person didn't announce who >> they were. If you want to make anonymous calls, use a pay phone. > It certainly is NOT unacceptable social behavior. You may consider it > so, but you are not the arbiter of such things. It's not unacceptable social behavior, I would agree. It is not about social behavior at all. In fact, I respect the privacy of a caller and I block my number whenever I feel it is necessary. However, this is the way I look at it. I pay $7.50 for Calling Number Delivery with Name service and Anonymous Call Rejection. I do/will NOT, under any circumstances (emergency or not) accept any calls made to my number which are designated as "PRIVATE". In fact, I used to answer the phone with "I'm sorry, but we do not accept calls from a blocked number. Please unblock your number and call back" myself, talking over the other person on the end and hanging up on them. The simple reason for this is, well, simple... I pay $7.50/mo for the service. If EVERYONE *67'ed before calling my number, then for each PRIVATE call I receive I get less for my money -- and the CNID service is devalued until CNID has no value what-so-ever anymore. The nice thing that SouthCentral Bell offers is Anonymous Call Rejection. This little service, as great as it is, will auto-reject any and all calls designated as "PRIVATE" via CNID. So -- you get a recording stating "Your call has been properly delivered, but the party you have called does not accept calls whose numbers have been blocked. Please unblock your number, and call again" and I don't get bothered by you you, you blockers, you! :-) This is the best, most worthwhile service in the world and I wouldn't give it up for anything! And I don't shed a tear about missing that great offer or contest winning, either! Of course, most solicitations come in from a channelized or some other service which has no CNID information attached to it and comes in as "OUT-OF-AREA". And, one little thing about responsibility ... I have a telephone in my home for MY benefit, not someone else's. I pay for it, it's for ME, not for a calling party. I decide whether or not it is acceptable for private calls. I've made my decision. If you want to talk to me you'd better put your sign on your chest or forget it. > I particularly resent the equation of "calls without CNID" with > "anonymous calls." If I call someone on the phone with my Caller ID > blocked and say, "This is Linc," then it is NOT an anonymous call. It's anonymous BEFORE you answer the telephone, not necessarily after. Many people prefer to screen their calls and only answer calls they want to ... that's their right -- it's their phone and number. I tell you what I resent are people who call me and expect me to drop everything I am doing and get offended when I don't answer the phone for THEM. Now THAT annoys me! Baron L. Chandler ------------------------------ From: H.Reusch@ieee.org (Holger Reusch) Subject: Re: Looking For Fax Symbol Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 21:25:20 GMT Organization: Holger Reusch's Home in Vienna, Austria bidscan@mail.saix.net wrote: > I'm trying to find out what people are using on business stationary to > indicate a FAX number ... something that would be a suitable companion > for that little telephone symbol ... any ideas? Under Windows, I have been using the "earmarked paper" icon from the Windings font (that's code point '2'). Holger Reusch Vienna, Austria <--------------|--- No kangaroos here, sorry! Home: H.Reusch@ieee.org | Work: Holger_Reusch@at.ibm.com | ICBM: 48.13N 16.20E ------------------------------ From: John Shriver Subject: Re: Looking For Fax Symbol Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 17:53:28 -0700 Organization: Shiva Corporation Peter M. Weiss wrote: > I did a GOPHER search at gopher.itu.ch for the term /symbols/: > Search menu titles in ITU Gopher > [E.121] Recommendation E.121 (02/95) - Pictograms, symbols and icon > [F.910] Recommandation F.910 - Procedures for designing, evaluating There's no FAX symbol in the 1988 (Blue Book) version of E.121. They give symbols for SOS, Fire, Police, Ambulance, Information (i), and various sorts of call indications. At any rate, "FAX" is pretty darned common. ------------------------------ Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 16:32:04 -0700 From: John Higdon Subject: Re: TCI Phone Service OK'd in Chicago Suburb Andrew C. Green writes: > Were the telephone company to offer cable TV, I cannot see how TCI > would have any customers at all. I may get a good look at this first-hand. At this moment, there is a coaxial cable on the side of my house that was installed a few months ago by Pacific Bell. While the intention is to put telephone service and cable TV service through that hose, in my case it will only be video. I understand from some folks in the test area (also here in San Jose) that the Pac*Bell video service is quite impressive. The quality is very high and the customer service runs rings around the competition, which is TCI. Pacific Bell was recently granted a franchise by the city to begin commercial delivery of cable TV service. I am (for once) in an area to be serviced for the rollout of the product. As a TCI customer (minimal, basic service), and as a DSS user, I will have a perfect opportunity to examine and compare Pacific Bell's attempt at becoming a cable company. Now, when TCI begins offering telephone service here ... John Higdon | P.O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | +1 500 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 | http://www.ati.com/ati/ | ------------------------------ From: Dave Keeny Subject: Caller ID Question Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 14:26:50 +0500 Organization: Telecommunications Techinques Corporation I live in Frederick, MD, and often call, and receive calls from, a number in Gaithersburg -- long distance, same area code. When I receive calls from this number, their CID information shows up on my unit, but when I call them, my CID information does *not* show up on their unit. It shows up as either "out of area" or "no CID" (I'm not sure which, offhand), but does not show up as "blocked". We never requested that our CID info be blocked and I believe the default is non-blocked. Does anyone have an explanation or theory for this? Thanks, Dave ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 17:48:21 -0400 From: Joshua Hosseinof Subject: Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing Organization: Yeshiva University Your phone will still make touch tones but they will not break the dial tone. In order to dial any number you will have to generate pulse pips either by setting the phone to pulse or being very adept at clicking the switchhook very quickly. Therefore, once you have connected to a voice-mail system or whatever you can still send the touch tones. ------------------------------ From: vikingelec@aol.com (VIKINGELEC) Subject: Re: Modem Use With a Digital Phone? Date: 23 Jul 1996 17:49:15 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) In article , sscott@hpmail2.fwrdc. rtsg.mot.com (Steve Scott) writes: > In my new office, I have a Meridian N2616 digital phone (manufactured > by Northern Telecom). I want to use my 28.8k modem with this phone > line but, of course, the two formats are not compatible (i.e. cannot > put a Y in the RJ11 jack and use both devices). > Question is: I know I could pay to have a separate analog line > installed for just the modem use. But, is there an adaptor which > would convert the digital line to analog (and vice versa) which I > could install in-line and which would allow me to use my analog modem Konnex makes such an adaptor. I believe they are available through Hello Direct 1-(800) Hi-Hello. They also have a Web based catalog! "True Wisdom is Knowing Whom to Ask!" Try Viking's New 24 Hour Fax Back System...(715)386-4345 Thomas R. Springer | Sales... (715)386-8861 -or- (612)436-7204 Analyst | E-mail: Sales@VikingElectronics.com Viking Electronics, Inc. | America Online: VikingElec@aol.com 1531 Industrial St. | Technical Support... (715)386-8666 P.O. Box 448 | E-mail: Tech@VikingElectronics.com Hudson, WI 54016 | Fax... (715)386-4344 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 21:00:07 GMT From: strowger@dustbin.demon.co.uk (George) Reply-To: strowger@dustbin.demon.co.uk Subject: Public Pay-Fax Machines wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) wrote: > Re: tracing that fax phone call to that newspaper office. Are there > any public fax machine "pay phones" around in UK, like ones I've seen > in the San Jose CA airport a few years ago? Bring enough quarters > (the UK equivalent of), wear gloves to avoid fingerprints (plenty of > other user's prints to confuse things anyway), and send the fax. And > don't forget to take the orginal home with you, and burn it. Uk equivalent of quarters for the phone is 10p pieces. There /are/ some pay-fax machines around - BT installed one in the railway station here in York a couple of months ago. It's white, screwed to the wall, and doesn't take coins...you have to use a credit card to use it! BT Chargecard probably works as well ... I can't remember. It allows you to send or receive faxes -- I can't remember the cost of receiving, but sending was I think 50p + BT's normal payphone rates. I'm afraid I've little more information that that about it. I didn't try it out, since I wasn't curious enough to spend the 50p minimum charge on testing it, and it wouldn't even let me make a voice call to an 0800 (free) number, or use any of my calling cards. The latest "1001 facts - pocket guide to BT [march 96]" says there are just three of the things in the whole UK (!) on trial at various locations. I suspect there are more by now. There are 1000 "Dataport payphones" according to the book; if you've got a faxmodem handy you can use one of those to send a fax. I've never met one of the things -) Of course, BT is no longer the only provider of payphones here (I spotted AT&T ones in London ...) , and other companies may provide pay-fax machines. George | [Fidonet 2:442/621.1] | "Problems on quite a worrying +44-976-241-861| Mail for PGP key | number of levels" - Dr Chasm. New toy! Email my mobile phone - strowger@pobox.co.uk ------------------------------ From: John Shriver Subject: Re: Where Can I Find Info on SS7 Protocols? Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 18:06:19 -0700 Organization: Shiva Corporation henry jakala wrote: > Are there any ftp or www sites that document the SS7 protocols? > How, when and where they are used? What they do for you? SS7 documentation for free? Nowhere that I know of. Payware standards, as are most telecommunications standards. Phone companies can afford to buy them. Anyone spending the millions of dollars it takes to implement SS7 can afford to buy them. From the ITU-T, SS7 is documented in the Q.700 series. About 1000 pages of dense inpenetrable prose. Cheapest source in the US is the UN bookstore. There are other sources, more convenient, but pricier! For the USA standards interpretation of SS7, see ANSI T1.110 through T1.118. Full set should run about $500. For the USA telco implementation interpretation of SS7, look in the online catalog for Bellcore at http://www.bellcore.com. What does SS7 buy you as a telephone subscriber? Well, nothing directly, it is ONLY spoken between switches within the telephone system. It is not a subscriber protocol. However, what it does provide you as a subscriber is the foundation needed for Digital Subscriber Signalling System 1 (DSS1), which is the signalling protocols used by ISDN (BRI and PRI). It also provides the underpinning needed for ANI for plain (analog) phone service, and things like that. Before SS7, the calling number just wasnt passed. SS7 was proceeeded by SS1 through SS6, which were not used domestically in the US. (They were used internationally.) AT&T's first common- channel signalling system was their proprietary CCIS. ------------------------------ From: vanvalk@auburn.campus.MCI.net (R. Van Valkenburgh) Subject: Re: Some History of Standard Oil and Bell Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 22:19:16 GMT Reply-To: vanvalk@auburn.campus.MCI.net TELECOM Digest Editor noted: > A very old, but still very good book worth reading is 'The History > of Standard Oil'. It was written by Ida Tarbell, a muckraking sort > of author who wrote for the newspapers back in in the early years > of this century. Ms. Tarbell wrote her history of Standard Oil > back about 1910-15 or so; then a big two-volume treatise on the > incredible empire of John Rockefeller. I would have loved to have > known that man personally; even to have had the privilege of just > walking along with him for a single day and trying to learn from him. > Look for Ida Tarbell's book 'The History of Standard Oil' in a > library. Some that specialize in older collections will have it. One > of my favorite old photographs is a picture of John Rockefeller and > William Rainey Harper (founding president of the University of Chicago) > walking together down the sidewalk on 59th Street. The photo dates > to about 1895. The photo shows JDR elegantly dressed with top hat > and tails, the formal dress of those days, with a walking stick. I, too, wish I could have known the man. A couple of years ago, my grandmother (now deceased) explained to me and my then fiance (now my wife) about these hobnail glasses she had. (I remember seeing them in a china cabinet for years. I had always thought they were so ugly.) It turns out that they had been a Christmas gift from J. D. Rockefeller to her father (my great-grandfather). My great grandfather, of Cleveland, was J.D.'s blacksmith at the time. It's hard for me to imagine a time when Cleveland had blacksmiths. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is hard to imagine, because of our difficulty in visualizing a time when there were no automobiles and getting somewhere quickly meant riding a horse and making it go as fast as you could. The oldest bus maintainence facility and garage operated by the Chicago Transit Authority dates back about a hundred years. Motorized vehicles are stored/serviced there now but a century ago it was a stable; a barn where the horses were fed and sheltered when they were not pulling a street car around. Another photograph of JDR was taken on the day when apparently there had been a fire in the Standard Oil office in Chicago. He is standing on the sidewalk on Michigan Avenue downtown with a group of men who from their uniforms appear to be firefighters. In the picture we see him and the men, and next to them a wagon with a big tank used to hold water. On the side of the tank are the words "Chicago Fire Department" and a team of horses is hitched up to the wagon. The caption states, "Mr. Rockefeller thanks and praises the men who put out the fire in the company's offices yesterday." (From the {Chicago Daily News} of uncertain date.) The tanks were always kept full of water and spare teams of horses were always available so that when a fire was reported a team of horses was hitched to the front of the water tank; the firemen would climb on board and the horses would go racing down the street pulling the water tank. A bell with a clapper was mounted on the top of the whole thing and as the horses raced down the street pulling the tank of water with the firemen riding on top they would bang on the bell with the clapper stick to warn people to get out of the way and let them past. If you were a teenager growing up in Chicago in those days one of the best jobs you could have was working for the Chicago Fire Depart- ment in their stables feeding and watering the horses and keeping the stables clean. Horses tend to ... well you know ... do 'it' when- ever and wherever they feel like doing it. If it was a particularly busy day for the firemen and they had been going from one fire direct to another fire then the horses would be very tired so the stable boys would take a fresh team of horses from the barn out to the site of the (current) fire. They would 'swap out' the horses with the team that had been pulling the water tank around and lead the horses that had been working all day back to the stable for food and rest. In the photo, JDR is seen giving cigars to the firemen. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael Stanford Subject: Re: Caller ID in California Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 17:42:45 -0400 > The following types of calls come up "Out of Area" on our equipment: > - Pay phone > - Cellular phone > - Multiline sites (Centrex, PBX, etc.) The FCC mandate is that all calls from equipment capable of transmitting this information (central offices equipped with Signalling System 7), and calls carried by all long distance carriers capable of transporting it (virtually all of them) must now bear Caller ID unless the caller blocks it. "Out of Area" means that some equipment somewhere is not capable of carrying the Caller ID, either because the equipment is too old, or because the software has not yet been updated. Supposedly. > I remember reading something in this group about ANI information that > indicated what kind of phone was making the call. It supposedly gave > the indications residential, commercial, hotel, prison, pay phone, etc. I also am curious about why Caller ID is a "weaker" service than ANI. There is room in the data burst for this information. It is possible for the ANI number associated with a call to be different than the caller ID number, though I seem to remember that this Digest had some correspondence a while back about a long distance carrier (Wiltel?) that populated the Caller ID field with a copy of the ANI information if no Caller ID was present. > I would LOVE having that information, even if Pac Bell doesn't want to > implement the actual telephone numbers. What would be ideal would be > for the last four digits to be dropped, so I know I'm getting a call > from, say, Sunnyvale (408-735-????) rather than East Cowhide, Nebraska > (good chance its someone trying to sell me insurance). This is a great idea. Unfortunately it will probably never be implemented, first because of the massive cost of changing all the implementations of the spec, and second because one of the big objections that people have to Caller ID is that battered wives will inadvertently give away their locations to their abusive husbands. In some cases a husband could find his wife much more easily if he knew which town she was in. > Another Caller ID note: several people have complained they can't > call us because they set up per-line blocking and don't know how to > unblock their CNID info. Our phone rejects anonymous calls. I wonder > why they went through the trouble of requesting per-line (the default > was per-call) blocking and not understand how to turn it off. Everyone should use Anonymous Call Rejection. The more widely used it is, the more useful Caller ID will be to everybody, since it will tend to reduce the number of people blocking their identities. Anonymous Call Rejection may be an even more useful service than Caller ID for home lines. You are less likely to have an unpleasant experience with stranger who does not choose to conceal their identity than one who does. Anonymous Call Rejection is normally a free service, but I am not sure if you can request it if you don't subscribe to Caller ID. On the other hand, I doubt any business would use ACR. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 15:53:01 -0700 From: satchell@accutek.com (Stephen Satchell) Subject: Re: Teddy Roosevelt's Thoughts on Telecommunications Organization: Satchell Evaluations In article , hancock4@cpcn.com (Lisa) wrote: > During recent campaigns, candidate did make speeches and statements > available on the Internet. However, IMHO, this technology is still > too immature to make a difference at this point in time (I believe the > Internet (as far as the general public at large) is about the same as > radio in the early 1920s -- more of something for hobbyists and > experimenters, and in need of more advances. Where I think the Internet differs significantly from radio of the early '20s is that journalists have been wired for years (remember that AP, UPI, and other wire services have been news sources of choice for a long time) and are used to getting stuff "out of the wall." In addition, even mainstream journalists are now paying attention to the content of the Internet to greater or lesser degrees because today's reporters and low-level editors were exposed to the medium while in college and J-school. That doesn't mean that journalists hang on every word in alt.* groups. Indeed, I suspect that the majority of 'em avoid the alt.* groups because of a readily apparent lack of dicipline in them -- to put it kindly. Even the j-newsgroups are shunned by journalists, preferring to join closed mailing lists instead. Prediction: The Internet will be the bane of a second Clinton administration, not unlike Lexus/Nexus has been a problem in his first administration. Too many servers are soaking up his words, ready to spit them back at the drop of a search query, with the result that Clinton will once again be dogged by his own words. Even liberal journalists can't be brown-nosing all the time ... Stephen Satchell, Satchell Evaluations http://www.accutek.com/~satchell ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #362 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Wed Jul 24 21:05:02 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id VAA11334; Wed, 24 Jul 1996 21:05:02 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 21:05:02 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607250105.VAA11334@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #363 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Jul 96 21:05:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 363 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: ATTWS/ATT LD Question (Jeffrey Rhodes) Re: Extra Charge for Trunk Line Hunting (N.G. Marino) Re: Caller ID in California (Donald Erickson) Re: FCC Preparing New Telecom Rules (Ronda Hauben) Question on Common Market Policy of Privitizing Telecoms? (Ronda Hauben) Re: Telrad Phone System (Al Niven) Re: Telrad Phone System (Dee Cash) Re: Pacific Bell Line Identification (Craig Vincent) Re: Caller ID: Names Passed Between LEC's? (Derek J. Tarcza) Using US Modems in Mainland China (Allen Daniel) Re: Remote Access on AT&T Phones (Edwin G. Green) Re: Customers Furious Over Phone Service (Charles Cryderman) Re: Another Source of Errant 911 Calls (Russell Blau) Information Wanted on NACT Switches (Al Niven) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeffrey Rhodes Subject: Re: ATTWS/ATT LD Question Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 20:47:11 -0700 Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Babu Mengelepouti wrote: > Does ATTWS still offer equal access in the Puget Sound market? Yes, but only to long distance carriers that have shared in the costs for the Equal Access implementation required by the Consent Decree of 1994. ATTWS is short for AT&T Wireless Services, formerly McCaw Cellular. McCaw Cellular was responsible for implementing the Cellular One national brand for A-side cellular operators and was first to offer national Automatic Call Delivery (ACD) via the NACN (North American Cellular Network). If the ACD call is unanswered by the roamer, or the roamer is "busy" with a call, then a call to the A-side roamer is redirected to the roamer's home Voice Mail service. The last time I checked, B-side carriers required roamers to dial a feature access code to choose between call delivery via ACD or call delivery to home Voice Mail, but would not try to do both. B-side carriers probably are not obligated to be so restrictive, but I wonder how many have bothered to fix this. > If no carrier is chosen does it now default to AT&T? It always has. Not every ATTWS switch supports every long distance carrier. If a roamer comes to an ATTWS switch and IS-41 registration delivers an unsupported PIC or no PIC, then the default long distance carrier is AT&T. > One thing that I noticed that it could mean (in the Puget Sound market > at least) is influencing cellular customers' home IXC. ATTWS is > offering a 50% discount on cell airtime for new subscriptions for the > first three months, but if you're an AT&T LD customer at home, you'll > receive a 50% discount for the first six months on your airtime bill. Then it makes sense for a new ATTWS customer to choose AT&T PIC. What are you getting at? I've already made the case for ATTWS to continue to offer Open Access, even though there is no obligation to offer Equal Access since the 1996 Telecom Act overrides the 1994 Consent Decree. Incidentally, I think LECs are still obligated to offer Equal Access, which has nothing to do with the original 1984 Consent Decree, but since LECs make four cents a minute access charges for long distance calls carried by long distance PIC carriers, the LECs would be fools to give up Equal Access. > Incidentally I don't know if PICing AT&T on the cell is also required... :) I assume you mean this to be humorous or ironic, but I have no idea what "PICing AT&T on the cell" is supposed to imply. Jeffrey Rhodes at jeffrey.rhodes@attws.com ------------------------------ From: ngmarino@aol.com (NGMarino) Subject: Re: Extra Charge for Trunk Line Hunting Date: 24 Jul 1996 09:51:03 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: ngmarino@aol.com (NGMarino) I was just recently made aware that my company's multi-line hunt group in Orlando, Fla. was set up as a 'PBX' trunk instead of normal business lines. The cost difference is an $10 extra per line per month! The engineering difference? Well, the rep said that my lines were 'specially engineered' for a PBX. I don't have a PBX. I use the lines for a voice-mail system. But assuming I did, wouldn't the phone company want to know WHICH PBX I was using in order to perform their 'special engineering'? The rep then explained that a PBX trunk group was designed to handle more calls than normal business lines. Huh? There are two wires per circuit either way. I'd like to know in what sense this trunk can handle more calls. Anyway, I'd like to get some money back from the telco, Sprint United Telephone. I doubt that it will be easy. This local fiefdom obviously conviced the local PUC that they should be allowed to gouge businesses by devising yet another excuse for charging money but providing no extra service. I have telephone lines in each of the major local phone markets. I can tell you that ALL of the locals are horribly run businesses that have, by virtue of their status as state-sanctioned monopolies, have slowed progress in telecommunications. I wished the recent telephone legislation had completely dissolved the locals. Sure, it would have been a mess, but the current situation is a mess too. Ask anyone who has to deal with these companies every day. ------------------------------ From: erickson@csnsys.com (Donald Erickson) Subject: Re: Caller ID in California Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 16:24:34 GMT Organization: ComStock Net, Rialto, Calif. USA (909)877-6407 In article , Maddi Hausmann Sojourner wrote: > I was one of the folks who couldn't wait for Caller ID. > Well, now we have it and I'm underwhelmed. > The following types of calls come up "Out of Area" on our equipment: > - Pay phone > - Cellular phone > - Multiline sites (Centrex, PBX, etc.) The programming on my CIDCO 64-number box purchased at K-Kmart for $30 is different from many of those discussed in comp.d.t. in that "out of area" doesn't exist. When a call originates from telemarketers, a few non-PacBell payphones, and such numbers, it shows "NOT AVAILABLE". My experience during the first 16 days that CID has been available in Pacific Bell areas is that the majority of payphones do display. A call from 818-049-xxxx (the number was shown) was verified by an operator supervisor as coming from an outward-WATS phone line, in this case a personal call made by someone from from his place of employment. Call Screening (*60 in PacBell areas) seems unable to handle the same "NOT AVAILABLE" numbers but works with "ANONYMOUS CALL" numbers. One experience I've been unable to explain is the appearance of four dashes (----) in the middle of the display where the number would usually appear. At first I thought a weak battery but calls thereafter have worked fine. 611 Repair could give me no clues. Out of a thousand or so calls, it happened just one time. I, too, am underwhelmed by the limitations of use because of the Calif. PUC's paranoid publicity campaign but it isn't quite as bad as I feared and I've been able to stop using an answering machine and avoid telemarketers by not answering any call without an identifiable number. Eventually my friends will learn how to reach me even if it means calling from a payphone. erickson@csnsys.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: On my box, the four (I get six) dashes occur when someone dials my number and hangs up before even allowing to ring on their end. Maybe I get a half-ring, but the central office sends no data at all since the call is being taken down already by the time one short ring spurt reaches me. It will also happen if I take a small power supply (of appropriae voltage and current) to simulate a 'ring' and send it to the box. Those dashes will appear and the 'call received' lamp will flash but the dashes seem to mean the box has nothing else to say about what it recieved. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rh120@merhaba.cc.columbia.edu (Ronda Hauben) Subject: Re: FCC Preparing New Telecom Rules Date: 24 Jul 1996 20:25:43 GMT Organization: Columbia University The new telecom laws and rules are being rewritten and there is virtually no public participation in the process provided for. danny burstein (dannyb@panix.com) wrote: > WASHINGTON (AP) -- As holiday-goers sprawled in lawn chairs for Fourth > of July fireworks nearby, Federal Communications Commission attorney > Lisa Gelb sat hunched over her computer, working on rules to > dramatically change how Americans get their phone service and how much > they pay for it. It seems we are going to be paying lots more as the home users -- the folks for whom the universal service policy was created for -- are left out of the process of the rule making. Also, the Telecom law seems to have left us out, instead providing for libraries and schools and big corporate users to get discounts, and who is to pay for those discounts. First the law was totally rewritten with no input allowed by the majority of phone users, and now the FCC is continuing the process writing rules with no input process for the home user who was previously covered under universal service provisions. > Five months after Congress passed a sweeping telecommunications > overhaul bill, the hard work of drawing up the law's detailed > regulations -- and the behind-the-scenes lobbying over them -- is > heating up. Passed the bill without any public input into the process. > The story goes on to describe that the new rules calling for > competition and opening up of (most of the current) telco, long > distance, and cable tv monopolies are expected to be in place August > 1st. Competition among the large telecoms means that the home users will be at the mercy of the large corporate entities. It doesn't mean lower rates but rather higher profits and a less viable telecommunications infrastructure. > Oh, and lots of lobbyist dollars are making the rounds. As they have been through this whole process, showing that they understand they will benefit and the home user will lose. > A _very_ key point being fought over is the "access" and "termination" > fees currently charged by (usually) the RBOCS. As Telecom Digest > readers are well aware, the local telcos charge the IXCs lots of money > for the first and last leg of a call, and the IXCs are trying to get > this reduced or eliminated. Maybe this is a key point for them, but universal service is the key point for the home user and when I recently heard the Chief of Staff of the FCC speak at the INET '96 conference in Montreal, he said that the FCC doesn't deal with universal service, (despite the fact that the rulemaking on this issue is now being done and the home user is totally left out of the process.) > The local competitors have a bit of an awkward situarion in this. On > the one hand they may be using the RBOC to complete the call, hence > they'll want the traffic fee to be as low as possible. On the other > hand, when _they_ complete the call, they'll want to billback the RBOC > as high a rate as possible. But in either case doesn't the homeuser lose? > To quote again from the story: > (A key concern is...) > -- Whether long-distance companies can avoid paying local companies > for originating and terminating calls. The billions now received from > such ``access'' charges are used to keep rates low in high-cost areas > and to provide service for low-income customers. > (We've all heard this cross-subsidization story a thousand times. I'd > love to see true figures on it ...) But isn't this so called new "competition" just a way to end the principle of universal service -- which noted that the whole telephone network benefitted from having everyone have access to it, hence subsidzing those in harder to reach or less profitable areas. This principle has been thrown out by the current telecommunications law and it seems the FCC as well, without any public debate or discussion on the issue. Yet this is the principle that is crucial to a viable telephone and telecommunications infrastructure. Ronda rh120@columbia.edu ronda@panix.com Netizens:On the History and Impact of Usenet and Internet http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ See chapter 11: The NTIA Conference on the Future of the Net: Creating a Prototype for Democratic Decision Making ------------------------------ From: rh120@merhaba.cc.columbia.edu (Ronda Hauben) Subject: Question on Common Market Policy of Privitizing Telecoms? Date: 24 Jul 1996 20:40:03 GMT Organization: Columbia University When I was at INET '96 last month I learned that the Common Market has a policy of requiring the Telecoms of each member country to be privitized. I was surprised that the decision on this issue hadn't been left up to each country. Was there discussion and debate over this issue in the member nations? Recently there was an article about what was lost in the U.S. with regard to the privatization of AT&T by losing Bell Labs as a large and important research lab. The article, I think, was in {Technology and Invention}. (I'll try to provide the reference if anyone is interested.) Decisions regarding major restructuring of telecommunications infrastruc- tures of countries should be subject to discussion and debate of those who will be the victims of their costs. However, it seems they are being carried out without the necessary attention to the principles on which they were founded on. How then can such sudden and abrupt change of principles but have harmful consequences to the societies in question. Ronda ronda@panix.com rh120@columbia.edu Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and Internet http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ See especially Chapter 9: On the Early History and Impact of Unix: Tools to Build the Tools for a New Millenium ------------------------------ From: Al Niven Subject: Re: Telrad Phone System Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 14:36:03 -0400 Organization: Earthlink Network, Inc. Jacob Carroll wrote: > We are in the process of purchasing a new phone system and have a > competitive bid on the Telrad system. We are also looking at an > Intertel Axxess system. I would appreciate anyone's advice on either > of these phone systems. Where are you located? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: cybrsoft@mindspring.com (NETWORK & INTERNET SOLUTIONS) Subject: Re: Telrad Phone System Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:16:19 GMT Organization: PROS & CYBERSOFT 615-831-9973 x 1 Reply-To: cybrsoft@mindspring.com Jacob Carroll wrote: > We are in the process of purchasing a new phone system and have a > competitive bid on the Telrad system. We are also looking at an > Intertel Axxess system. I would appreciate anyone's advice on either > of these phone systems. Telrad's are quite relaible, but are hard to program. They are made in Isreal with high quality standards. They are also feature packed. We have used these with good results so far. If you any questions email me, Dee July 29th see www.cybersoftsystems.com Dee Cash 615-831-9973 x 1 Computer & Network 615-742-4815 Internet solutions & programming ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 19:05:52 -0700 From: craig Organization: C&M Telecom Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Line Identification Almost all PacBell areas now use a universal Line ID number: 211-2345 For reference, GTE also has a universal Line ID number: 114 Craig Vincent C&M Telecom P.O. Box 11570 Glendale, CA 91226 (800) 315-4500 (800) 941-7822 fax ------------------------------ From: dtarcza@ix.netcom.com Subject: Re: Caller ID: Names Passed Between LEC's? Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 22:06:23 -0700 Organization: Netcom For those who subscribe to Bell Atlantic's Caller ID Deluxe, Bell Atlantic has made agreements with both Ameritech and US-West to share name information. Formerly, if you were a BA customer, you could only see name from only BA territory (W.Va-N.NJ). I've also caught wind of that they are in the process of getting SWBell and GTE online as well. Derek J. Tarcza ------------------------------ From: Allen Daniel Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 08:29:06 +0000 Subject: Using US Modems in China My company has designed a modem to operate with the U.S. phone system and we need to know if it will be compatible with the phone system of Mainland China. I would appreciate it if someone could tell me if modems designed for operation in the U.S. will operate normally in China and if the lines in China are fairly clean, or if they are too noisy for a low speed (4800 bps or less) digital link. The digital link will be over long distance lines back to the U.S. Thanks in advance for your help. ------------------------------ From: egg@inuxs.inh.lucent.com Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 07:59:10 EST Subject: Re: Remote Access on AT&T Phones John Levine commented: >> My question is this: Has anyone ever used the AT&T 2000 phone (it is >> the one with the built-in keyboard and side data port) like this with >> similar or better results, and if so, how did you get a faster connection? > I use the ones in Newark all the time and have no trouble getting a > 14.4K connection. I have an 800 number for my modem, which makes the > dialing very simple. >> A related question is whether any of these phones (I see >> them all over the country) work with the attached keyboard for access >> to shell accounts or anything else. > They were all disabled shortly after they were installed due to some > regulatory problem. With the new telecom act, I don't understand why > they're all not turned on now. All the Public Phone 2000s are disabled from providing VT100 service for the same reason that they were before. The FCC will always have us turn them on for use EXCLUSIVELY for AT&T Mail or AT&T service. However, they could not be used for other services. This is a requirement that we cannot enforce and have absolutely no desire to enforce. Hopefully, things will be changing soon. Edwin G. Green egg@inuxs.att.com AT&T 317-570-3045 6612 E 75th Street Indianapolis, IN 46250-2856 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'd think one way you might *enforce* the use of the device on AT&T only would be with a couple of (I think) simple modifications to the instruments. A default message on the screen would say 'To use the phone normally, just dial the number desired as usual. To use the terminal for connection to AT&T Mail only, dial 'xxx' (some number on the keypad).' If that sequence was dialed, the touch tone pad on the phone would go dead and the phone would immediatly dial the number for AT&T Mail automatically with the expected prompts for password, etc. appearing on the screen. Until the person logged out or after some preset time out, the touch tone pad and phone receiver would be dead. As soon as the user disconnected on the terminal it would go dead and the phone would come back into service. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 10:14:31 EST From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: Customers Furious Over Phone Service In < ngmarino@aol.com (NGMarino) wrote: > Why is there no local competition for residential service? > Because the Baby Bells have had a 100 year head start in building > their network. Who can compete against that? The Telecommunications > Act, if it had guts, should have adopted a plan to rid ourselves of > the BB monopolies. It didn't. > Telephone companies in this country were (and are) state sanctioned > monopolies. You and I paid for the buildup of the telephone network > as it exists today. Is it reasonable that when the industry is > deregulated >that a single 'competitor' gets to start the game with > all the pieces? Is this really the best we can do? (Pat snipped, but not forgotten) Seeing as the BB's have been at it for 100 years and did not try to improve things until competition came in, maybe the government should have given the local infrastructure to the local governments. This way if any other company wanted to connect to your home or business they could without have to work with the existing BB to do so. We all have paid for the networks the BBs have over 100 years (and don't tell me we've not). If competition had not come in computer users would not be using 14.4 Kbytes modems let alone anything faster. The old bell system put the moneys they received in their pockets and not upgrade their networks. Chip Cryderman ccryderman@frontiercorp.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 13:01:17 -0500 From: Russell Blau Subject: Re: Another Source of Errant 911 Calls Pat, you wrote: > In Chicago, several subscribers on the VIRginia (312-847) exchange > have reported to telco their annoyance with the large number of > people in Chicago attempting to call the northern suburbs on its > new area code of 847 who forget (or did not know they had to) dial > '1' as the first digit. > Starting at the end of this year 312-847 will become 773-847 but the > same problem will not happen to people with 312-773 numbers since > 773 is also moving to 773. Their complaint will probably be that no > one understands why '773 has to be dialed twice' as in 773-773-xxxx. Until very recently, there was an ironclad rule dating back to the introduction of "interchangeable" exchange codes (those of the form N0/1X) that no exchange could be opened that had the same numeric designation as its "home" area code or any adjacent area code, to avoid just this sort of confusion. Of course, it is very difficult to protect against these situations in a split, especially when the area code getting split is extremely full (so nearly all available exchange numbers are in use). However, I believe that Mark Cuccia has previously reported that NANPA (Bellcore's Numbering Plan Administration) has reserved a whole slew of the new area codes for future splits, with each reserved area code slotted for the relief of a specific existing code. I would speculate that someone at Bellcore spent a lot of time looking for exchange codes that are not in use in particular area codes and their neighbors and came up with these reservations in an effort to minimize violations of the rule against using home and adjacent area codes as exchange codes. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I remember when there were lots of 'ironclad' rules such as the one that prefixes were never duplicated in *adjoining states*. In other words, if Indiana had AC-234 then neither Illinois or Ohio or Michigan had (their own) AC-234. That was so there could be 'community dialing' of seven digits across state line and area code boundaries where applicable. For example, for many years residents of Hammond, IN on 219-931, 932, and 933 could call Calumet City, IL on 312-862 and 864, as well as Lansing, IL (474) by just dialing the seven digit number. People in Antioch, IL on 312-395 were able to call people in North Antioch, WI on 414-396 the same way and vice-versa. Ditto with Beloit, WI and South Beloit, IL. No more luxuries like that I am afraid. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Al Niven Subject: Information Wanted on NACT Switches Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 13:27:03 -0400 Organization: Earthlink Network, Inc. Anybody with any experience with these switches? Thanks. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #363 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Thu Jul 25 13:00:23 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id NAA12404; Thu, 25 Jul 1996 13:00:23 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 13:00:23 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607251700.NAA12404@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #364 TELECOM Digest Thu, 25 Jul 96 13:00:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 364 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NPA 867 (=TOP of the World) for Yukon/NWT in Canada (Mark J. Cuccia) 00 Gets Wrong Operator?? (Joseph Gutstein) Year 2000 Computer Conference (Greg Monti) Article on Bell Labs in Invention & Technology (Summer 1996) (Ronda Hauben) BellSouth and Mediaone Strike Interconnection Pact (Mike King) Employment Opportunity: Research Engineer (B. Ravichandran) SDH and Sonet Distances (Iain MacCall) Interesting AT&T Pricing (Carlen Hoppe) How Secure Are 'Digital' Cordless Phones? (William Pfeiffer) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 10:00:48 -0700 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: NPA 867 (=TOP of the World) for Yukon/NWT in Canada Yesterday, Wednesday 24 July 1996, Northwestel announced the new code for YT/NWT, which will be 867 (= "TOP" of the World). Permissive dialing begins in October 1997, with mandatory dialing in April, 1998. Presently, the former CNTelephone area of the Yukon and western/southern NWT is served by Alberta's 403 area code, while the former Bell Canada area of eastern/Arctic NWT is served by one of Quebec's area codes, 819. Yukon is served by Alberta's 403 area code. There is one single central office prefix code conflict in this area. 403-979 has been Inuvik NWT, while 819-979 has been Iqualuit NWT. Iqualuit (which will be the new eastern Nunavut Territory capital) will keep 979 as its prefix, but Inuvik (in the western part of the NWT, which will have a new territorial name yet to be announced, near the Arctic Ocean and near the border with YT) will change its 403-979 to ???. 403-979 & 867-??? will both go to Inuvik (NWT) during permissive (what about 403-???) 819-979 & 867-979 will both go to Iqualuit (NWT) during permissive The 979 conflict is to still to be determined locally. I understand that the new 867-??? prefix for Inuvik will be chosen such that it isn't one presently in 403 or 819. The new prefix for Inuvik *might* just be available via 403 during permissive, but we'll just have to find out later on. Most of the new Caribbean NPA's splitting from 809 are assigning new central office NXX prefixes such that *even during permissive dialing*, they are *NOT* (temporarily) available via 809. But Bellcore NANPA still manages the 809 area code's central office assignments, probably until everything but the Dominican Republic splits off into their own new NPA codes. Each new NPA code in the Caribbean will have its central office codes assigned by the local telco or local government regulatory agency. I would assume that the Dominican Republic (GTE's CODETEL) will assign the 809-NXX codes after everything else has split off and ended permissive dialing. But none of Canada's NPA-NXX codes are directly handled by Bellcore as such. So, it might be that "867-???" for Inuvik might also be temporarily permissively dialable as "403-???". The split of Yukon and the western/southern NWT into 867, from (Alberta's) 403 code will "free up" many NXX prefixes for use later on in 403 *IN* Alberta, but from CSCN (Canadian Steering Committee on Numbering) mailings I have received, 403 will *still* need some relief (most likely a split) in the next few years. There is supposed to be a relief planning meeting by the various affected Canadian carriers and telcos in a few months. What remains to be seen is if the larger city, Calgary AB keeps 403, or if the next larger city *and* provincial capital, Edmonton AB keeps 403 forcing Calgary and the southern part of the province to change into the new NPA code. Northwestel's webpages (http://www.yukonweb.wis.net/business/nwtel/new.html) *DO* have an announcement, as of Thursday morning. The webpage doesn't give the 'exact' date of permissive and mandatory however, only the months of October 1997 and April 1998. The 'test' number isn't indicated neither, and probably hasn't yet been determined. Bellcore NANPA's webpages (http://www.bellcore.com/NANP) doesn't yet have anything at all on this new NPA code. NWTel's webpage does indicate a toll-free number, 888-777-1867 for information about the new NPA code. I have also heard that it is 800-777-1867. I tried both numbers (from here, in the US), and 800-777-1867 goes to an "MCI-like" dialtone, while 888-777-1867 goes to the recording, "your call cannot be completed as dialed". NWTel also serves several locations in northern British Columbia. These exchanges have been in BC's 604 area code, and will be changing to BC's new second area code, 250, which begins permissive dialing in October 1996. They will *NOT* be changing into this new Northwestel YT/NWT 867 area code. Note that 867 comes from the "General Purpose" list of NPA codes, similar to the new Caribbean NPA codes, rather than the "Geographical Relief" codes. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ From: Joseph Gutstein Subject: 00 Gets Wrong Operator? Organization: Cybernex Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 16:56:06 GMT When I dial 00 I always (not just once in a while) get Telecom USA (which is a subsidiary of MCI) as my long distance operator despite the fact that Bell Atalantic has my PIC as 222 (MCI), the 700 number used to identify one's long distance service says MCI, amd MCI says it shows billings from my calls on its records. Does anyone know why Telecom USA always turns up when I dial 00? The really strange part -- my brother and I live in the same high rise building and both changed to MCI on the same day. When I dial 00 on either of my lines I always get Telecom USA and he always gets MCI. I've called MCI numerous times and gotten various answers the latest of which has to do with Telecom USA being part of MCI which is fine with me but I'm told that the Telecom operators only handle the MCI's overflow. If that is the case why do I always get Telecom USA operators and my brother never does? Thanks, Joe [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are you and your brother on the same or different prefixes? It may be that some prefixes are routed to the one and some to the other. Try calling from other telephones on the same prefix as yourself (and your brothe) and see if the results are the same. From here I just now dialed 10222-0 (which is the same difference as your '00' I guess) and I got a robot prompt which identified as MCI telling me to enter the number I wanted to call 'or, press zero again now for an MCI operator' ... PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 22:27:24 -0400 From: cc004056@interramp.com (Greg Monti) Subject: Year 2000 Computer Conference A week or two ago I was reading a story in {The Wall Stret Journal} about how some companies (including telephone companies) with substantial legacy computer systems had appointed a person with a title like "Year 2000 Transition Director." Their job: to make sure computer systems, databases, schedulers and other automated processes don't get hung up by the fact that a year that may be stored as "00" is one year later than "99". Like billing a phone call which crosses the millenium boundary as being 100 years long. I showed the article to an MIS guy who chuckled and produced, from his junk mail pile, the next logical step: a twelve-page color brochure advertising "DCI's Year 2000 Issues and Answers Conference." I have no association with DCI, and don't want to make this into an ad, but I figured some would find it useful. The conference will be held October 2-4 in Orlando and December 10-12 in Chicago. For more information, call +1 508 470 3880 or visit http://www.dciexpo.com/ or e-mail confreg@dciexpo.com Sessions include: "Year 2000 Tools, Methodologies and Solutions," "Surviving the Year 2000: Awareness, Denial, Panic and Triage," "ROI-2000: Getting Return on Your Year 2000 Investment," and "COBOL in the 21st Century." There are also seminars and briefings before and after the main conference, so you could spend as many as five days (about US$1,300) or as litle as two days (about $800). These prices do not include hotel or airfare. Greg Monti Jersey City, New Jersey, USA gmonti@interramp.com ------------------------------ From: rh120@vanakam.cc.columbia.edu (Ronda Hauben) Subject: Article on Bell Labs in Invention & Technology (summer 1996) Date: 25 Jul 1996 04:09:11 GMT Organization: Columbia University The article "What Made Bell Labs Great" by T. A. Heppenheimer in the Summer 1996 "American Heritage of Invention & Technology" is a helpful discussion of the significant achievement represented by Bell Labs and what has been lost with the break up of AT&T with regard to the Labs. Heppenheimer documents the value of being able to provide resources for forefronts research work -- leading to significant inventions. And he documents the intellectual atmosphere encouraging such inventions by seminars, journal clubs and study groups, etc. He notes how the commitment of Bell Labs to basic research was built on the long term view that AT&T would continue as a regulated monopoly. Summarizing some of what has been lost by the loss of commitment to basic research for a research lab like Bell Labs, Heppenheimer, quoting Charles Shank, who had headed an electronics lab, wrote, "Fundamental new advances come over time, and if you're going to invent something like the transistor or the laser it requires an organization with size, not a start-up company. The single most important thing to a thriving basic research lab is stability in terms of long-term commitment of resources. That's what creates a scientific culture, and it was the key to the success of Bell Labs." He then notes that though you "can't build up a scientific culture quickly ... you can sure tear it apart in a hurry." (p. 56) I recommend the article and wonder why there haven't been more like it looking at the enormous achievements of Bell Labs and analyzing the impact that the breakup of AT&T would have on the continuing ability to support such an important research and scientific resource. Ronda rh120@columbia.edu ronda@panix.com Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ See chapter 9: On the Early History and Impact of Unix Tools to Build the Tools for a New Millenium ------------------------------ From: Mike King Subject: BellSouth and Media One Strike Interconnection Pact Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 17:31:33 PDT Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 12:13:07 -0400 (EDT) From: BellSouth BELLSOUTH & MEDIAONE STRIKE INTERCONNECTION PACT Agreement Will Dramatically Expand Competition in Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)--July 23, 1996--Building on the momentum and spirit of competition presented by the Olympics, BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) announced today it has signed an agreement with MediaOne, a subsidiary of U S West, that will allow that company to begin offering local phone service through its own network to customers in Atlanta soon. This significant agreement, the first between two regional holding companies, sets the stage for Olympian type competition in the metro area after the 1996 Games conclude that will give consumers an expanded range of choice for their telephone and cable services. "This agreement with MediaOne, the largest cable operator in Atlanta, is very significant to us and one we are excited about," noted Carl Swearingen, President for BellSouth's Georgia Operations. "We liken this agreement to the Olympic competitors now in Atlanta in that we have reached a mutual agreement with MediaOne that will benefit our customers, and better our industry, through the spirit of true competition." "We're happy that we could reach an agreement," said Bruce K. Posey, MediaOne's Vice President of Public Policy and External Affairs. "This agreement will permit MediaOne to take a significant step toward the provision of competitive local exchange services." The agreement covers MediaOne's operations in the Atlanta area and sets the conditions under which BellSouth and MediaOne will interconnect their networks, including: non-discriminatory rates, terms and conditions for local interconnection; interim number portability; and the resale of BellSouth's services and network capabilities. The issue of unbundling of network elements is being addressed by the Georgia Public Service Commission and terms will be included at a later date. "This agreement meets requirements detailed in the national legislation and, when implemented by MediaOne, moves us closer to being able to become a one-stop shop for all of our customers' communications needs including local and long distance services," said Swearingen. "We look forward to offering these services to our customers in Atlanta and throughout Georgia very soon." Swearingen noted that the agreement will spur competition from a company who has committed to the development of its own telephone network, the true intent of the national legislation. "MediaOne has publicly committed to make a substantial investment to develop their own telecommunications infrastructure in Atlanta and this agreement will let them put this technology to work," stated Swearingen. "More than the competition from the resale of BellSouth's services, the development of these additional telecommunications facilities will have positive economic benefits for all of Atlanta and Georgia, continuing our state's place as a national leader in the development of advanced telecommunications technologies," said Swearingen. BellSouth also indicated it signed a resale agreement in Georgia with TriComm, Inc. With these agreements, BellSouth has now signed 14 agreements with regional and national competitors including: Time Warner, Intermedia, Teleport Communications Group, Hart Communications, The Telephone Company of Central Florida, Southeast Telephone Company, American MetroComm, Payphone Consultants, Georgia Comm South and the Florida Cable Association. The company is also expected to sign additional agreements with competitors in the near future. MediaOne is part of the U S West Media Group (NYSE: UMG), which is involved in domestic and international cable and telephony, wireless communications, and directory and information services. For 1995, U S West Media Group reported proportionate revenues of $5.1 billion. Media Group is one of two major groups that make up U S West, a company of the connections business, helping customers share information, entertainment and communications in local markets worldwide. BellSouth is a $17.9 billion communications services company. It provides telecommunications, wireless communications, directory advertising and publishing and other information services to more than 25 million customers in 17 countries worldwide. Its telephone operations provide service over one of the most modern telecommunications networks in the world for approximately 21 million telephone lines in a nine-state region that includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. For Information Contact: Lynn Bress - BellSouth Telecommunications (770)391-2484 Joe Chandler - BellSouth Telecommunications (404)529-6235 Mike King * Oakland, CA, USA * mk@wco.com ------------------------------ From: B. Ravichandran Subject: Employment Opportunity: Research Engineer Date: 25 Jul 1996 15:02:10 GMT Organization: Wilder Internet Gateway, Boston, MA SCIENTIFIC SYSTEMS is a small growing company of engineers and scientists in the suburban Boston area. We are active in applied research and development of emerging technologies in the areas of advanced guidance controls systems, system identification, image and signal processing, and pattern recognition. SCIENTIFIC SYSTEMS has clients in government, industrial and commercial sectors, and collaborates with recognized academic/research institutions and large businesses to develop and apply new solution methods to current and future technology needs. Please direct all correspondence, questions, etc. to Ms. Patricia Kelly, Human Resources Coordinator Scientific Systems Company 500 West Cummings Park, Suite 3000 Woburn, MA 01801 Tel: (617) 933-5355 Fax: (617) 938-4752 Email: info@ssci.com Level: PhD in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science Duties: Applied Research, Development and Implementation of Communication Network Applications. The successful applicant will contribute to one or more projects in the area of Communication Networks (Network Management, Call Admission Control, Routing, Traffic Shaping, Scheduling, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)). Req'd Experience: * Communications, Networks, Controls, Learning * Statistical Modeling and Inference * ATM Desirable: * Working knowledge of any of the following topics: Modern Control Theory, Artificial Intelligence, Reinforcement Learning, Neural Networks * Strong algorithm and software development skills (Matlab, C, C++, etc.) * Experience with Opnet * Excellent written and oral communication skills ( technical proposals for contracts, progress reports, and presentations.) Job Code: SSC-9625 B. Ravichandran PhD Scientific Systems Company, Inc. ravi@ssci.com 500 West Cummings Park, Suite 3000 t:617.933.5355 Woburn, MA 01801 f:617.938.4752 ------------------------------ From: 100604.615@compuserve.com (Iain MacCall) Subject: SDH and Sonet Distances Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 02:32:19 GMT Organization: CompuServe Incorporated What is the maximum distance between two STM-4 (OC12) and two STM-16 (OC48) devices on an SDH (or Sonet) trunk network? Our fibre is modern Telco quality single-mode fibre (9/125). Is anyone deploying STM-64 (OC196) kit anywhere? What manufacturers make it? What is the maximum distance between two of these devices? Iain ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 18:32:27 -0700 From: Carlen Hoppe Subject: Interesting AT&T Pricing I was looking around the AT&T web site the other day and noticed something interesting that seemed to relate to local telco competition. It seems that AT&T wants its T1 users to help them bypass the local loop when recieving calls from AT&T. By dedicating four of your T1 channels to incoming AT&T calls you can save a fair amount of $$. AT&T will even pay you if you recieve lots of their calls to do it via one of their T1 lines instead of the local loop. You can find info on it at this address: http://www.att.com/business/global/t1/access.html I am not sure if this is something new, but I was quite intrigued by it. Carlen Hoppe choppe@oboe.calpoly.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We have talked about it before here, but I do not recall we ever had a specific contact at AT&T to write to if we wanted to do it. What brought the subject up here in the Digest was people asking how the people who operate phone sex lines were able to do so 'for free'; that is, without charging the caller. There are actually phone services of that sort where on simply dials a regular number. No 900 billing is involved, and no 800 billing to a credit card is involved. The people who run those are fond of advertising them saying, 'our service is FREE! all you pay is toll ...' So the question came up here, if that is the case how do those people running 'free' conference bridges for sex talk and such make a living for themselves? The answer is as you state above. We knew it but never could earlier find anyone at AT&T to admit to it. If you generate sufficient traffic on your T-1 (what sex line does not?) and are willing to bypass the local central office saving AT&T or the other carriers quite a bit of money, they'll gladly share that money with you. Highly successful conference bridge operators on phone sex services can very easily make a living on the five cents here and ten cents there they receive as kickbacks from the carriers. How do you do bypass? The carrier you are working with requires that all incoming calls be routed through it. When it sees a call to the number for your service, it grabs that call and reroutes it to its own circuits and into your T-1 skipping entirely past the local telco. A good question might be how do you force people to use the carrier you want them to use, ie. the one with the T-1 to you who is paying you for that traffic? You do have actual telephones on your premises with the numbers assigned to them which you are advertising. But you answer those lines with a recorded message saying "to reach this service you *must* hang up and dial (carrier code) plus 1 plus the number. If the susbcriber is defaulted to the same carrier as you are using, fine. Their call is trapped by the carrier and sent to you via the T-1. If the subscriber uses some other carrier the call will proceed 'normally' through the network to your premises where you answer with the above recording telling them they won't get through unless they use the carrier you have selected. Naturally you do not want those calls on the conference bridge because they are using up resources you are not getting paid for. Its nice to see AT&T is now discussing this openly with subscribers since they have been doing it where sex phone services have been concerned for a few years now. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rrb@clm.aiss.uiuc.edu (AIRWAVES MEDIA) Subject: How Secure Are 'Digital' Cordless Phones? Date: 25 Jul 1996 07:32:16 GMT Organization: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign I am wondering how secure the coding is in these 900Mhz cordless phones. Tuning them in on a scanner produces nothing but the hash of the digital carrier, but I wonder how hard it is to actually 'hear' the conversation? Can people modfy the actual phones to do this? Can a modem be used? I would love to hear some technical data on these phones. What kind of encoding they use, bit rate, etc. Can't be too complex, there isn't much inside the base to do the decoding. If this has already been discussed, or is a FAQ, please feel encouraged to point me at the information. I will summarize any email response I get. I am also interested in obtaining a schematic for an AT&T 9100 cordless. Thanks, William Pfeiffer Moderator: rec.radio.broadcasting/AIRWAVES RADIO JOURNAL wdp@airwaves.com * wdp@wwa.com * airwaves@woodtech.com Web: http://radio.aiss.uiuc.edu/~rrb/ [TELCOM Digest Editor's Note: Bill Pfeiffer has been a long time (about twenty years) personal friend of mine. He is the person who put together the basic structure and design of the telecom web page which many of you have seen and commented on. I owe him a great deal of thanks for getting me started on the web. You might like to check out his corner of the web also if you have never done so. Bill and I 'share' many of the same readers to his journals and mine. Feel free to respond to his question above in email if you wish. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #364 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Thu Jul 25 15:17:02 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id PAA26340; Thu, 25 Jul 1996 15:17:02 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 15:17:02 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607251917.PAA26340@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #365 TELECOM Digest Thu, 25 Jul 96 13:17:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 365 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Caller ID in California (Lynne Gregg) Re: Trunk Lines and Caller ID (Lynne Gregg) Re: Trunk Lines and Caller ID (Terry Kennedy) Re: Caller ID/Per Line Blocking (Seymour Dupa) Re: Caller ID: prv/anon/nodata (Bob Niland) Re: Caller ID Question (S. Michelson) Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem (John David Galt) Re: Extra Charge for Trunk Line Hunting (Steve Hayes) Re: Touch Tones in Movies? (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: Touch Tones in Movies? (James E. Bellaire) Re: AT&T Offers Callback to European Countries! (Eric Tholome) Re: Sidetone/echo on Cellular (Jonathan Cohen) Callback Providers in Germany (Alan McCord) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Caller ID in California Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 16:20:00 PDT Maddi Hausmann Sojourner wrote: > We wanted this service so we could ignore those pesky telemarketers > who always call during dinner time. Well, how do they operate? From > banks of phones, of course. OUT OF AREA, every time. But, maybe it's > someone calling from their place of work. Or from a pay station. An > old friend is in town, calling from his hotel. There is no way to > tell the difference! > I remember reading something in this group about ANI information that > indicated what kind of phone was making the call. It supposedly gave > the indications residential, commerical, hotel, prison, pay phone, etc. No, ANI does not indicate the TYPE of phone making the call. ANI is the CHARGE number, or number which may be originating the call (ANI may not always indicate originating number since it can be overridden on operator-assisted calls). ANI will not give you an indication of where the call is coming from (i.e., hotel). There are some holes with Caller ID. It also doesn't tell you WHO is making the call, only the originating number (or if name is carried, it's the name that appears on the service invoice). Regards, Lynne ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Trunk Lines and Caller ID Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 15:35:00 PDT Jean-Francois Mezei wrote: > I often get calls from large organizations in New York City (212) (am in > Montreal 514) and often, I either get a unknown caller ID or, in some > cases, I get an actual *local* telephone number with no name associated > with it. Calling that local number results in "there is no service at > the number you have dialed ..." message. > Is the quality of the CALLER-ID completeness going to improve in areas > already served by that service, or will caller ID always remain useless > for calls originated from large corporations with trunk lines etc? It's all in how the PBX is configured. Obviously, if you're getting a trunk number, the ISUP connectivity is there and a number is able to be passed. The PBX should be configured to send either station number (direct dial number) or main company phone number (or a combination of, depending on user preference or company policy). If you receive these calls on a regular basis, ask your business associate to tell his telecom manager to configure the PBX to send an actual number. Regards, Lynne ------------------------------ From: terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.) Subject: Re: Trunk Lines and Caller ID Organization: St. Peter's College, US Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 21:34:32 GMT In article , Jean-Francois Mezei writes: > I often get calls from large organizations in New York City (212) (am in > Montreal 514) and often, I either get a unknown caller ID or, in some > cases, I get an actual *local* telephone number with no name associated > with it. Calling that local number results in "there is no service at > the number you have dialed ..." message. > Is the quality of the CALLER-ID completeness going to improve in areas > already served by that service, or will caller ID always remain useless > for calls originated from large corporations with trunk lines etc? You may be surprised to discover that large portions of New York City are *not* currently caller-ID capable. Almost none of the 1AESS switches are equipped with SS7 links. I've been told informally that this is "because all of those switches are scheduled to be replaced in the 1980's". The person telling me this told it to me with a straight face, too ... That explains the "out of area" indications you're getting. As far as the other numbers you're seeing displayed, that's par for the course with large companies that have their private (possibly virtual) phone networks. Caller ID is working as designed - it's giving you the calling number identifier for the call. If you want something like the billing telephone number, you'll have to become a carrier to get the data 8-) Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.spc.edu St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA +1 201 915 9381 (voice) +1 201 435-3662 (FAX) ------------------------------ From: grumpy@en.com (Seymour Dupa) Subject: Re: Caller ID/Per Line Blocking Date: 25 Jul 1996 13:12:41 GMT Organization: Exchange Network Services, Inc. Baron L. Chandler (thebaron@mindspring.com) wrote: > answer the phone with "I'm sorry, but we do not accept calls from a > blocked number. Please unblock your number and call back". I would add, "Call your telephone company for assistance". Then push the 'mute' button and listen for their response. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now that's not fair! Either you accept that sort of call or you do not accept that sort of call. You don't get a one way audio feed to sit there and chortle at . :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: rjn@csn.net (Bob Niland) Subject: Re: Caller ID: prv/anon/nodata Date: 25 Jul 1996 13:26:55 GMT Organization: Colorado SuperNet Reply-To: rjn@csn.net Thomas P. Brisco (brisco@ieee.org) wrote: > Private: Person has a non-pub number > Anonymous: Caller ID has been blocked > Out of Area: Originating area doesn't support CallerID We have three Cidco and one Westlink CID boxes. Blocked calls *always* show as "ANONYMOUS" on the Cidcos (which never display "PRIVATE" for any reason) and blocked calls always show as "PRIVATE" on the Westlink (which never displays "ANONYMOUS" for any reason). Do people actually see displays of both "ANONYMOUS" and "PRIVATE" on the same display? Regards, 1001-A East Harmony Road Bob Niland Suite 503 Internet: rjn@csn.net Fort Collins Unless otherwise specifically stated, Colorado 80525 USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: According to Hillary, she does. PAT] ------------------------------ From: smm1@hogpf.ho.att.com (-S.MICHELSON) Subject: Re: Caller ID Question Date: 25 Jul 1996 14:43:29 GMT Organization: AT&T In article , Dave Keeny wrote: > I live in Frederick, MD, and often call, and receive calls from, a > number in Gaithersburg -- long distance, same area code. When I > receive calls from this number, their CID information shows up on my > unit, but when I call them, my CID information does *not* show up on > their unit. It shows up as either "out of area" or "no CID" (I'm not > sure which, offhand), but does not show up as "blocked". We never > requested that our CID info be blocked and I believe the default is > non-blocked. Does anyone have an explanation or theory for this? A couple of questions to help troubleshoot the problem are in order: 1) Which carrier is used in the Gaithersburg to Frederick call? This could possibly be Bell Atlantic - C&P, or it might be another carrier. 2) Which carrier is used in the Frederick to Gaithersburg call? ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Anonymous Call Blocking Problem Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 11:00:30 PDT Here in Pacific Bell land, CID finally appears to be available -- but I still am not allowed to put out-of-LATA numbers on my Call Block or Priority Ringing lists, whether I enter the number manually or hit #01# to get the number of the last incoming call. It seems to me that PB is violating at least the spirit of the Federal rules by imposing this pointless restriction. Could someone from PB please comment on why this is being done, and if/when we can expect it to stop? John David Galt ------------------------------ Date: 25 Jul 96 06:23:30 EDT From: Steve Hayes <100112.606@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Extra Charge for Trunk Line Hunting In Telecom Digest 363, ngmarino@aol.com (NGMarino) writes: > I was just recently made aware that my company's multi-line hunt group > in Orlando, Fla. was set up as a 'PBX' trunk instead of normal > business lines. The cost difference is an $10 extra per line per > month! > The engineering difference? Well, the rep said that my lines were > 'specially engineered' for a PBX. I don't have a PBX. I use the lines > for a voice-mail system. But assuming I did, wouldn't the phone > company want to know WHICH PBX I was using in order to perform their > 'special engineering'? > The rep then explained that a PBX trunk group was designed to handle > more calls than normal business lines. Huh? There are two wires per > circuit either way. I'd like to know in what sense this trunk can > handle more calls. In most switches (COs and PBXs) that I've encountered, there is some sort of line concentration used to reduce the cost of the switch. This involves grouping lines together and connecting them through a switch matrix to a smaller number of ports into the switch itself. This works on the basis that only a certain proportion of the lines are likely to be in use at any one time. For example, on one large 70's vintage PBX I worked on, lines (extensions) were set up to share groups of 16 codecs. You could have 16, 32, 48 or 64 lines concentrated down to the 16 codecs. If you set up 48 lines in the group and more than 16 tried to place calls at the same time, some would not get dial tone. When the PBX was installed, lines serving busy departments such as sales might be set up with a low concentration ratio such as 2:1 (32 lines for 16 codecs) while less busy departments (or hotel rooms) might be served with 4:1 concentration. If you were ordering lines (properly called "trunks") for a PBX, you might order (say) 48 trunks on the basis that you expected as many as 48 calls active at once. If these were concentrated in the C.O. to share 16 codecs, you would be most unhappy for obvious reasons. Telco will make sure that these lines are set up without concentration or perhaps spread among a number of low concentration line groups. This (plus the heavier expected usage per line in areas with flat-rate tariffs) is the justification for charging PBX trunks at a different rate. In effect, the PBX has already concentrated the traffic from its large number of extensions onto the smaller number of trunks. Nowadays, codecs and switching circuits are relatively much less expensive and switches are usually designed with one codec per line, so there is probably less excuse for charging extra for PBX trunks. However, once it is in the tariff, it's there to stay. Steve Hayes, 100112.606@compuserve.com Swansea, UK ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 18:27:24 -0700 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Touch Tones in Movies? In TELECOM Digest v.16 #261, M.S. Russell wrote: > The other night I put a tape into my VCR (it was _Nixon_ by Oliver > Stone) and at the beginning of the tape there was probably a 1-2 > interval where I heard a faint, rapid string of what sounded like DTMF > tones. This was before the movie or previews had actually started, in > that "grey" area ... > I also heard it at the beginning of the second tape (it's a two tape > rental). > I also recall hearing this before a few years back before regular > programs on TV. Can't be sure if it was regular antenna reception or > my cable company, so I don't know if that's a factor. I don't watch > much TV anymore so I haven't heard it while viewing lately. > What the heck is it? My guess is some sort of station identifier > (before the programs) or some sort of media identifier (analagous to > an ISBN number for a book at the library). > I'm interested as to its purpose/history. I can't speak for its purpose on a rental or purchase videotape, other than some form of identification as mentioned above. But in the 1980's, most national cable program services used a rapid string of touchtone (DTMF) at certain intervals, for identification, but also for automated control of the local cable company's system. There are certain spots during the hour when the local cable company can break away from the national satellite distributed programmer and insert local commercials. Some national radio networks such as APRadio, UPI Radio, Talk Radio Network, etc. and many regional or statewide radio networks also use a touchtone or two at certain intervals for controlling automated radio station affiliates. They can be used for the local station to "drop out" of the network feed to run local commercials, or starting and stopping a "cart" tape machine at the local affiliate to record a particular network program segment or national network commercial. CBS Radio, ABC Radio, Mutual/NBC/Westwood/etc. don't really use touchtones for automation and control, but rather individual systems of tones for control. CBS Radio's system is a set of squeaky "bleep" tones, ABC Radio's tones sound like a faint "squeek" which I've read is brief FSK tones, while Westwood-One's NBC Radio uses tones which sound like a "gurgle" or "blee-dee-deep" and Westwood's Mutual Network uses a distinct system of "BEE-doop" tones. What might have sounded like touchtones in the audio of national network *television* programs in the 1950's through the 1970's wasn't really touchtones at all. Prior to satellite distribution of CBS-TV, NBC-TV, ABC-TV, NET/PBS, and even the early 1950's DuMont Television Network, as well as the "ad-hoc" Hughes Television Network (for the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon to combat Muscular Distrophy), facilities of the *telephone* company was used to transmit the programs from city-to-city, from coast-to-coast. This also applies to the national radio networks prior to satellite distribution. There was frequently a certain amount of "crosstalk" between regular dialed trunk connections of a telephone call bleeding over into the radio network leased channels or the leased audio channels for the TV networks. The "touchtones" frequently heard in the background was crosstalk from switched "MFKP" (Multifrequency Keypulse) tones used to switch, route and connect dialed long distance telephone calls. Even some TV programs themselves actually used a string of MFKP in the 1960's to indicate a (long-distance) telephone call being placed. There is an episode of "Bewitched", where Endorra picks up a telephone, waves her hand (instead of dialing or tapping out a number), and you then hear a string of MFKP (not DTMF) and then the called party's phone starts ringing! MFKP tones actually date back to the 1940's when Bell Labs and AT&T Long Lines developed methods for automation of long distance switching. The particular frequencies aren't the same as touchtone, but fall more-or-less in the same frequency range. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 19:04 EST From: James E. Bellaire Organization: Twin Kings Subject: Re: Touch Tones in Movies? M.S. Russell wrote: > The other night I put a tape into my VCR (it was _Nixon_ by Oliver > Stone) and at the beginning of the tape there was probably a 1-2 > interval where I heard a faint, rapid string of what sounded like DTMF > tones. This was before the movie or previews had actually started, in > that "grey" area ... > I also heard it at the beginning of the second tape (it's a two tape > rental). > I also recall hearing this before a few years back before regular > programs on TV. Can't be sure if it was regular antenna reception or > my cable company, so I don't know if that's a factor. I don't watch > much TV anymore so I haven't heard it while viewing lately. > What the heck is it? My guess is some sort of station identifier > (before the programs) or some sort of media identifier (analagous to > an ISBN number for a book at the library). > I'm interested as to its purpose/history. Touch tones were used to signal the beginning of breaks in cable shows a few years back. A couple of minutes every hour are made available to the local cable company for cross-channel promotion of their other feature channels or for local advertisers. Now the signalling is done out of band, but back then they put tones on the audio. They generally used 826* as a marker. This would come at 10 seconds before the break (to allow for timing) and the exact end. On a VCR tape it could be left over from the copying process. Tones are at the beginning and end of every copy on a multi copy reel at the plant where they do the mass production. The cutting machines that make these ino smaller cassettes use the tones to know when to cut. Audio cassettes will sometimes have a high pitch tone at the start. This is the same type of marking. James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com WebPage now available http://www.holli.com/~bellaire ------------------------------ From: tholome@francenet.fr (Eric Tholome) Subject: Re: AT&T Offers Callback to European Countries! Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 22:05:52 +0200 In article , Jeremy Rogers wrote: >> The AT&T International Call Plan is available to customers living in >> Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Norway." > If anyone is wondering why the UK isn't on that list it is simple. > AT&T operates a normal long distance service here via an access code (1430). Well, I don't think it is *that* simple. AT&T has also been operating a normal long distance (read international) service in France via an access code (190011) for many years, as does Sprint (190087) and probably others. Eric Tholome | displayed with | private account 23, avenue du Centre | 100% recycled | tholome@francenet.fr 78180 Montigny le Bretonneux |___ pixels! ___| phone: +33 1 30 48 06 47 France \________/ fax: same number, call first! (if calling, remember that France is 6 to 11 hours ahead of the U.S.A.!) ------------------------------ From: jcohen@dial.pipex.com (Jonathan Cohen) Subject: Re: Sidetone/echo on Cellular Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 23:31:40 +0100 Organization: EFX Communications Ltd, Call 0701-0701 339. schuster@panix.com (Michael Schuster) wrote: > The response I read was that sidetone is entirely controlled by the > cellular tower, and excessive delay cannot be caused by the cellphone. When digital (GSM) networks first launched in the UK (three or four years ago) almost all the networks suffered from echo. However over the last few years it has become un-noticeable due, I believe, to the networks upgrading their echo suppressors. However echo to the non-mobile party in a call can still be caused by the mobile subscriber having their handset volume set high causing the mobile's microphone to pickup the received audio. :-/ Jonathan Cohen, jcohen@dial.pipex.com or jcohen@pobox.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 01:32:28 +0200 From: Alan McCord Subject: Callback Providers in Germany A reader asked in comp.dcom.telecom: > I will appreciate any recommendations that TD readers may provide > about callback service providers in Germany. Check out http://www.tet.pt/callback We are not "in" Germany as such, but we are relatively close by. In any case you can pay in US$ using your US credit card, und wir Deutsch sprechen koenen. (more or less). > Also soliciting advice about laptop modems while traveling on the > continent. I am using a PCMCIA New Media 14.4 right now in an IBM Thinkpad 755c and it works fine on tone and pulse dialing. With Tapioca and Metzdialler software it does automated callbacks for fax and voice. When I'm moving around I use a Nokia PCMCIA card attached to a Nokia GSM 2110. Again automated callback works fine with that too. You won't get better service on the continent than from us! (Even if we do say so ourselves). Have you checked out the Road Warrior Site for their connectivity kit? Regards, Alan McCord Q u a n t u m R e s e a r c h L i m i t e d R. Galileu Correia 8-7A 2800 Almada PORTUGAL PHONE: +351-(1)-276-5190 PHONE (AFTER HOURS): +351-(1)-2756639 FAX: +351-(1)-2751002 MAIL: mccord@mail.telepac.pt CALLBACK WEB: http://www.tet.pt/callback ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #365 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Thu Jul 25 17:37:45 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id RAA09927; Thu, 25 Jul 1996 17:37:45 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 17:37:45 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607252137.RAA09927@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #366 TELECOM Digest Thu, 25 Jul 96 17:37:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 366 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Areacode Reorganization in Liege, Belgium (Jan Ceuleers) New from Cantel! (Chris Farrar) Interesting Things in the French Dialing Plan (Eric Tholome) DTH Dishes "Pizza Sized Dishes" (Chris Farrar) Strange Payphone Programming! (Chris Farrar) Cable and Wireless Residential Service? (EK Kern) Texas PUC Plans Public Meetings (John Cropper) Re: Modem Use With a Digital Phone? (Michael Schuster) Re: TCI Phone Service OK'd in Chicago Suburb (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing (Richard W. Museums) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jan Ceuleers Date: Thu, 25 Jul 96 15:17:29 +0200 Subject: Areacode Reorganization in Liege, Belgium On 14 September 1996, the 041 area code (+32-41) will be split into two new area codes (+32-42 and +32-43). This area code covers the city of Liege and its surroundings. The above statement is perhaps a bit of a simplification on my part, because what will actually happen is that the +32-41 area code will cease to exist and be replaced by +32-4. A digit will be prepended to existing telephone numbers (either a 2 or a 3), so that the Liege area will find itself converted to a local area with 7-digit local dialing. A similar move has already been made in the Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent areas, creating area codes +32-2, +32-3 and +32-9, respectively. Whether a 2 or a 3 is prepended to a particular local number is determined by whether the CO is located on the left bank or the right bank of the river Meuse. I'm including a table that lists the old and new number ranges. (A): first two digits of current local number (B): location of CO (C): first three digits of new number +-----+-----------------+-----++-----+-----------------+-----+ | (A) | (B) | (C) || (A) | (B) | (C) | +-----+-----------------+-----++-----+-----------------+-----+ | 20 | Center | 220 || 55 | Fleron | 355 | | 21 | Center | 221 || 57 | Villers-l'Eveque| 257 | | 22 | Center | 222 || 58 | Fleron | 358 | | 23 | Center | 223 || 59 | Verlaine | 259 | | 24 | Ste. Marguerite | 224 || 60 | Louveigne | 360 | | 25 | Ste. Marguerite | 225 || 61 | Chenee | 361 | | 26 | Ste. Marguerite | 226 || 62 | Jupille | 362 | | 27 | St. Leonard | 227 || 63 | Ans | 263 | | 28 | St. Leonard | 228 || 64 | Herstal | 264 | | 29 | Guillemins | 229 || 65 | Chenee | 365 | | 30 | Pairay | 330 || 66 | Chenee | 366 | | 31 | Jemeppe | 231 || 67 | Chenee | 367 | | 32 | Center | 232 || 68 | Beaufays | 368 | | 33 | Jemeppe | 233 || 69 | Comblain | 369 | | 34 | Jemeppe | 234 || 70 | Jupille | 370 | | 35 | Jemeppe | 235 || 71 | Rotheux | 371 | | 36 | Pairay | 336 || 72 | Rotheux | 372 | | 37 | Pairay | 337 || 73 | Engis | 273 | | 38 | Pairay | 338 || 74 | Vise | 374 | | 39 | Ans | 239 || 75 | Engis | 275 | | 40 | Herstal | 240 || 76 | Warsage | 376 | | 41 | Longdoz | 341 || 77 | Micheroux | 377 | | 42 | Longdoz | 342 || 78 | Liers | 278 | | 43 | Longdoz | 343 || 79 | Vise | 379 | | 44 | Longdoz | 344 || 80 | Esneux | 380 | | 45 | Jupille | 345 || 81 | Fourons | 381 | | 46 | Ans | 246 || 82 | Sprimont | 382 | | 47 | Ans | 247 || 83 | Anthisnes | 383 | | 48 | Herstal | 248 || 84 | Aywaille | 384 | | 49 | Longdoz | 349 || 85 | Pairay | 385 | | 50 | Fexhe | 250 || 86 | Bassenge | 286 | | 51 | Trooz | 351 || 87 | Blegny | 387 | | 52 | Guillemins | 252 || 88 | Tilff | 388 | | 53 | Guillemins | 253 || 89 | Liers | 289 | | 54 | Guillemins | 254 || | | | +-----+-----------------+-----++-----+-----------------+-----+ DISCLAIMER: any typos are mine; I copied the above information from an insert in my phone bill. Jan Ceuleers Jan.Ceuleers@f857.n292.z2.fidonet.org AKA ceuleerj@btmaa.bel.alcatel.be ------------------------------ From: Chris.Farrar@x246-20.gryn.org (Chris Farrar) Date: 24 Jul 96 16:45:24 -0500 Subject: New From Cantel! The following is from the summer edition of "PASS IT ON" the little glossy pamphlet that Cantel, the Canadian A side cellular carrier, sends in your cellular bill at semi-regular intervals. All prices are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted, subtract 30% to get the ballpark US equivalent. ======================= Did You Remember to Pack the Phone? Get ready for Canada's first international cellular phone service! Beginning this July, Cantel Worldwide lets you make and receive calls in 40 countries, using a Worldwide phone and your own Cantel Cellulare phone number. Forget the uncertainty of hotel surcharges, finding a public phone, or dealing with unfamiliar languages: for $7.95 per month, a one time activation fee of $49.95, plus the rental or purchase of a Worldwide phone, you become as accessible in Rome as you are in your office at home. You pay US$2.49 per minute for outgoing calls (no matter where you are or where you're calling to), and incoming calls are charged at hte same basic rate plus long distance. Calls are billed directly to your Cantel account, and the amount is converted to Canadian funds at the current exchange rates. If you need to stay in touch -- even when you're thousands of miles away -- Cantel Worldwide is there for you. Beginning July 1, call our toll-free line at 1-888-975-3933 for more information. ================= I haven't called yet, but I imagine that it would involve getting a GSM phone. Chris -- | Fidonet: Chris Farrar 1:246/20@fidonet.org | Internet: Chris.Farrar@x246-20.gryn.org ------------------------------ From: tholome@francenet.fr (Eric Tholome) Subject: Interesting Things in the French Dialing Plan Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 20:57:30 +0200 In France, 11 is the number of the Minitel electronic directory; 15, 17 and 18 are used for emergency. In October, the French dialing plan changes and the number for the Minitel electronic directory will become 3611 while the emergency number will become 112 as per European standards. In trying to migrate smoothly from one to the other, here is what happens: 3611 being available in the current dialling plan, it has already been introduced, so that people can get used to it before 11 disappears. But obviously, 112 cannot be introduced before October because when you start dialing it these days, you reach the Minitel directory after dialing 11. Well not quite ... I had the surprise to discover (by chance) that if you dialed the 2 after the two ones before the Minitel directory had answered your call, you were then routed to another number, which I assume was the emergency centre (I didn't wait for them to answer -- didn't want to bother them). In other words, both 11 and 112 are available today! This is the first time I see such a thing happen in the fixed network in France (I'm used to it on GSM networks, but it's easy there: the number dialed is sent en-bloc to the switch). This doesn't seem to work from all exchanges. The place I discovered it was around Grenoble. Eric Tholome | displayed with | private account 23, avenue du Centre | 100% recycled | tholome@francenet.fr 78180 Montigny le Bretonneux |___ pixels! ___| phone: +33 1 30 48 06 47 France \________/ fax: same number, call first! (if calling, remember that France is 6 to 11 hours ahead of the U.S.A.!) ------------------------------ From: Chris.Farrar@x246-20.gryn.org (Chris Farrar) Date: 24 Jul 96 17:10:04 -0500 Subject: DTH Dishes "Pizza Sized Dishes" Recently there was a story in the papers on how DirecTV decoders/ descrambelers have been hacked and it is now possible to get a circuit board with the hacked chip, allowing the viewing of all DirecTV channels without paying the subscription fees. DirecTV is owned by General Motors Corporation. GM has had the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) out looking for the pirates that have cracked the encryption routine for the small digital satelite dishes, who GM and DirecTV claim are being deprived of income. However, the case raises some interesting questions. DirecTV (and its competitors) are US satelite systems and as yet has not been authorized for sale in Canada, and there are no distributors in Canada, so who is being deprived of revenue? Dishes are generally bought from TV stores that truck them in from the US, or directly from US stores and taken back across the border in the owner's car. Possession of the dish isn't illegal, however the companies haven't been licensed for the Canadian market. To subscribe, a US mailing address is needed, generally resulting in Canadians renting PO boxes at places like Mail Box Ect. as you can identify the box as "apt" or "suite", or using friends or relatives address as theirs. While the dishes are legal (greymarket), the police are taking the view that the modified card that contains the decryption codes are illegal (blackmarket). Cracked cards are currently selling for $800 to $1,000 ($560 to $700 US). Current estimates say there are up to 20,000 cracked cards in use in Canada today. It is estimated that there are 150,000 DirecTV dishes in use in Canada today. An unnamed RCMP officer has commented "We've got kids on the street with guns, peddling hard drugs, and these cops are chasing after people for watching TV?" Chris Fidonet: Chris Farrar 1:246/20@fidonet.org Internet: Chris.Farrar@x246-20.gryn.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The cop's analogy is flawed. Yes, there are people selling drugs, carrying guns with violent intent and doing other bad things. There are also people engaged in the *theft of merchandise and services*, which is how the above crime could be categorized. It is not quite a matter of 'people watching TV' ... since everyone watches television but most are not categorized as criminals in any sense of the word. Furthermore, the commission of one crime (in this case selling a service which you are not licensed to sell) does not give carte blanche to others to commit crimes as well. Criminals can also be victims, and vice-versa. If I go out and get some money I should not lawfully have, i.e. rob someone, you cannot successfully defend yourself when you rob me by claiming I would not have had the money to srart with had I not robbed someone else first. How I get my money or material possessions is my business. I am accountable under the law for my ill-gotten gains as you are for yours. Thieves steal from other thieves all the time. Note I am not saying -- and I refuse to say -- is what should or should not be against the law. The acts you described are against the law because your society has defined them as such. They won't be against the law any longer when your society changes its rules, if it ever does. Where exactly should the line be drawn with these invisible things passing through our houses without our permission called radio waves? If you allow one bunch to keep their transmissions secret under law, why not another bunch, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Chris.Farrar@x246-20.gryn.org (Chris Farrar) Date: 24 Jul 96 19:43:54 -0500 Subject: Strange Payphone Programming! Up here in Ontario (Canada), all pay phones are owned by Bell Canada. I just ran into a Millenium pay phone that Bell has definitely blotched the programming on. The Millenium has the built in mag-stripe reader & smart card reader. When attempting to call to our company's voicemail system as the pager had just been triggered, I intended to recover the cost from my employer, so I swiped my card and dialed the number (971-XXXX). After the phone dialed out the number, it went to an intercept stating you had to dial 1 plus the area code. This is unique, as usually you simply swipe the card and then dial the 7 digits for the local number of your choice. Depositing a quarter and then dialing the call as 7 digits had it go through normally. Intrigued, I tried other numbers using my Calling Card. Dialing my home number (256-XXXX) got intercepted as "The number you have dialed is not a long distance call. Do not dial one before the number." This is strange as the LED display on the phone only showed that I had keyed in 7 digits, the first being a 2. Calling my cellular number (259-XXXX) resulted in the same intercept. Trying the voicemail again, resulted in the dial 1 first as it was a LD call (which it isn't). To get my call through to my home line, it had to be dialed 519-256-XXXX. Is anyone in Bell territory able to shed some light on why local calls from Millenium pay phones billed to Calling Cards cause the phone to behave radically differently than is you are using coins, and why nothing on the face of the phone privides the information on the different dialing techniques needed. Chris Fidonet: Chris Farrar 1:246/20@fidonet.org Internet: Chris.Farrar@x246-20.gryn.org ------------------------------ From: EK Kern Organization: The Soulfood Group Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 14:34:36 +0500 Subject: Cable and Wireless Residential Service? Hi everyone. I've been curious for some time about the availability of Cable and Wireless as a residential intra-lata long distance carrier, and I've been pestering them about it quite a bit. According to their main office (1-800-486-8686) they DO offer residential service, and they referred me to a regional sales office in Philadelphia (the most local office to me, area code 610). The Philadelphia office (1-800-229-7113) tells me there is no current residential offering. I'm really curious to find out what offerings they might have, if any, for residential service, as many local businesses I'm familiar with have been just raving about their rates and service domestically and internationally. Any details/information are appreciated :> ek. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 01:22:23 GMT Subject: Texas PUC Plans Public Meetings From: psyber@usa.pipeline.com (John Cropper) PUC Update--July 18, 1996 A weekly meeting schedule and activity briefs service of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. News Releases PUC Schedules Area Code Public Forums in the 817 Calling Area Austin, TX-- The Texas Public Utility Commission has scheduled three public forums from August 13-15, 1996, to gather public input and provide consumer education on the implementation of a new area code in the 817 calling area. The 817 area code is projected to run out of numbers in late 1997. The following public hearings will focus on relief for the 817 calling area: Waco: Tuesday, Aug. 13, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Bosque Theater in the Waco Convention Center, 100 Washington Ave. Fort Worth: Wednesday, Aug. 14, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Fort Worth City Council Chambers, 1000 Throckmorton St. Wichita Falls: Thursday, Aug. 15, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Municipal Auditorium Building, Room 500, 1300 7th St. Ample parking will be available at all locations. Staff from the Texas PUC have met with industry representatives, consumer advocates, and local government representatives to develop three proposals that will be presented to the public. Weighing public sentiment and other factors, PUC staff will recommend one of the proposals to commissioners this fall. According to Carole Vogel, head of regulatory affairs, "Any one of the three proposals will extend the numbers for the current 817 calling area significantly. Any of them will work for the area." The Commission will present the following three proposals at the public forums. Two area codes: The 817 area code is split with the Fort Worth Metropolitan Exchange, the extended metropolitan service exchanges, and the Acton, Cresson, and Godley exchanges included in a single area code. The outstate area would receive a separate area code. The metropolitan area code would exhaust in 2001 and the outstate area code would exhaust in 2005. Three area codes initially, then a fourth area code: The 817 area code is split with the Fort Worth metropolitan exchange, the extended metropolitan services exchanges, and the Acton, Godley and Cresson exchanges in a single area code as in Plan 1. The outstate area would be split with the remainder divided equally between the northern and the southern areas, each receiving a new area code. A fourth area code would be implemented as an overlay for the metropolitan area when permanent number portability becomes available. The metropolitan area would exhaust in 2003, but would be extended to 2010 with an overlay. The Wichita Falls outstate area would exhaust in 2009, and the Waco outstate area in 2014. Three area codes: The 817 area code is split with the Forth Worth Metropolitan exchange (without the Acton, Godley, and Cresson exchanges) included in a single area code. The outstate area would be split with the remainder divided equally between the northern and southern areas, each receiving a new area code. The metropolitan area would exhaust in 2005, the Wichita Falls area would exhaust in 2007, and the Waco outstate area would exhaust in 2014. PUC staff will also be conducting public forums in Brownsville, Laredo, Uvalde, Kerrville, and San Antonio in the 210 calling area the week of Aug. 12. The 210 area code is projected to run out of numbers in late 1997. Local calling scopes will not change with the implementation of the new area codes. Currently, Texas has nine area codes, but Dallas will implement its new 972 code as a geographic split in September and Houston, the 281 code as a geographic split in November, bringing the number to 11 area codes by the end of 1996. With the addition of just one more area code in 817 and one in the 210 area, Texas will have 13 area codes. PUC Schedules Area Code Public Forums in the 210 Calling Area Austin, TX-- The Texas Public Utility Commission has scheduled five public forums during the week of August 12 to gather public input and provide information on the implementation of a new area code in the 210 calling area. The 210 area code is projected to run out of numbers in late 1997. The following public hearings will focus on area code relief for the 210 calling area: Brownsville: Monday, Aug. 12, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Brownsville Historical Museum, 641 E. Madison St. Laredo: Tuesday, Aug. 13, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., Laredo Civic Center, 2400 San Bernardo Ave. Uvalde: Wednesday, Aug. 14, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Willie De Leon Civic Center, 300 E. Main Kerrville: Thursday, Aug. 15, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon., Kerrville Railroad Commission Training Center, 125 Lehman Drive San Antonio: Thursday, Aug. 15, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., Downtown Central Library, 600 Soledad St. Ample parking will be available at all locations. Staff from the Texas PUC have met with industry representatives, consumer advocates, and local government representatives to develop three proposals to be presented to the public. Weighing public sentiment and other factors, PUC staff will recommend one of the proposals to commissioners this fall. According to Carole Vogel, head of regulatory affairs, "Any one of the three proposals will extend the numbers for the current 210 calling area significantly. Any of them will work for the area." The Commission will present the following three proposals at the public forums. Two area codes: The 210 area code is split so that the San Antonio Metropolitan Exchange, the extended metropolitan exchanges, and the exchanges located to the east of San Antonio are included in a single area code. The outlying area which would include Kerrville, Uvalde, Laredo and all the border communities would be in the second area code. The metropolitan area code would exhaust in 2001 and the outstate code in 2005. Two area codes initially, then a third area code: The 210 area code is split as above. An additional area code would be implemented as an overlay in the metropolitan area when permanent number portability becomes available. The metropolitan area code would exhaust in 2008 with the addition of an overlay by the year 2001. Three area codes: The 210 area code is split into a "doughnut" shape with most of San Antonio in the "hole" with one area code. The northern outlying metropolitan area would be assigned a second area code, and a third area code would be assigned to the south, bordered by the north boundary of Webb County and including all the territory to the Texas-Mexico border. This will include Laredo, Brownsville and other border cities. Metropolitan area code would exhaust in 2004; north outstate area in 2011, and south outstate area in 2009. -------------- PUC staff will also be conducting public forums in Waco, Fort Worth, and Wichita Falls in the 817 calling area the week of Aug. 12. The 817 calling area is projected to run out of numbers in late 1997. Local calling scopes will not change with the implementation of the new area codes. Currently Texas has nine area codes, but Dallas will implement its new 972 code as a geographic split in September and Houston, the 281 code as a geographic split in November, bringing the number to 11 area codes by the end of 1996. With the addition of just one more area code in 210 and one in the 817 area, Texas will have 13 area codes. John Cropper * NiS / NexComm PO Box 277 Pennington, NJ USA 08534-0277 Inside NJ : 609.637.9434 Outside NJ: 800.247.8675 email = psyber@usa.pipeline.com ------------------------------ From: schuster@panix.com (Michael Schuster) Subject: Re: Modem Use With a Digital Phone? Date: 24 Jul 1996 20:50:28 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In article , VIKINGELEC wrote: > In article , sscott@hpmail2.fwrdc. > rtsg.mot.com (Steve Scott) writes: >> In my new office, I have a Meridian N2616 digital phone (manufactured >> by Northern Telecom). I want to use my 28.8k modem with this phone >> line but, of course, the two formats are not compatible (i.e. cannot >> put a Y in the RJ11 jack and use both devices). >> Question is: I know I could pay to have a separate analog line >> installed for just the modem use. But, is there an adaptor which >> would convert the digital line to analog (and vice versa) which I >> could install in-line and which would allow me to use my analog modem > Konnex makes such an adaptor. I believe they are available through > Hello Direct 1-(800) Hi-Hello. They also have a Web based catalog! Unlimited Systems (who, last time I checked, were the "maker" behind the Konnex brand name) is the pioneer in this product niche. But in various catalogs lately I've seen a big proliferation of competing devices, all of similar size price, claiming to do the same thing. Has anyone done a comparative review of this type of product, and is there a winner among them? Mike Schuster schuster@panix.com | 70346.1745@CompuServe.COM schuster@shell.portal.com | schuster@mem.po.com ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: TCI Phone Service OK'd in Chicago Suburb Date: 24 Jul 1996 18:43:44 -0400 Organization: Panix Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > While Ameritech and AT&T squabble over how AT&T will get into the local > telephone market in northern Illinois, the first real competition has > gotten underway from a more unlikely source: TCI, the local cable-TV > operator in many of the suburbs. [...] > TCI has established a relationship with two important vendors for thier > phone service. Motorola is supplying the CableComm technology which > directs the signal, and Teleport Communications Group is providing the > central office facilities. This news isn't so surprising as you might think -- look at who owns TCG. It seems reasonable to me to think of TCG as a pilot project where the cable companies got to learn how to run a modern, digital telco without confronting the daunting outside wire plant issues involved with providing widespread home telephone service, even for companies with thousands of miles of cable TV plant already installed. Now that they know they've got the switching down, the individual cable companies who collectively own most of TCG will sell the residential phone service, with TCG providing the switching facilities. No real surprise. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@panix.COM ------------------------------ From: museums@aol.com (MUSEUMS) Subject: Re: NYNEX Charge for Tone Dialing Date: 24 Jul 1996 21:05:27 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: museums@aol.com I did an upgrade to DTMF on my line when it was reduced to nine-cents a month, and I also ordered telco switch-based Speed-Dialing-8 *and* Speed-Dialing-30. Since there is a time-out needed for using speed-dialing codes, 'N' and 'NX' (where NX is 20 through 49), I prefer to use DTMF, as I can 'cancel' the time-out as N-# or NX-#, which can't be done with pulse dialing. What good is Speed-Dialing, if you have to *WAIT* three to five seconds to time-out! You can have both features, not one or the other??? Richard W. Museums Sarfity Distributors, AT&T Wireless Master Distributor, NY, NJ, and CT. DBA Cellular Communications Connection [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The instructions tell you append the '#' symbold for that very reason, to avoid time-out. You can try and see, but I think you can also do 11N and 11NX from a rotary dial phone and avoid the time out. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #366 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Fri Jul 26 12:35:28 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id MAA24334; Fri, 26 Jul 1996 12:35:28 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 12:35:28 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607261635.MAA24334@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #367 TELECOM Digest Fri, 26 Jul 96 12:35:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 367 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "PC Networking Handbook" by Tittel (Rob Slade) NewsFirst Extra - Internet and the PSTN (Tara D. Mahon) ANI (was Re: Caller ID in California) (Mark J. Cuccia) Pacific Bell Grants DRC Rights To Market "Sleuth" Fraud-Control (Mike King) Pacific Bell Mobile Services Activates Network Operations Center (M. King) "976-like" Services From a COCOT (Mark J. Cuccia) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 01:27:12 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "PC Networking Handbook" by Tittel BKPCNTHB.RVW 960531 "PC Networking Handbook", Ed Tittel, 1996, 0-12-691398-6 %A Ed Tittel etittel@zilker.net 76376.606@compuserve.com %C 1300 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167 %D 1996 %G 0-12-691398-6 %I Academic Press Professional %O 619-699-6362 619-699-6735 fax: 619-699-6380 app@acad.com %P 857 %T "PC Networking Handbook" A handbook generally provides practical information. It's the kind of stuff that isn't rocket science, but is the reference material you can't be bothered keeping in your head all the time. Common procedures that you don't use every day, specifications that you might need quickly: the kind of stuff you want to flip to, remind yourself about, and put back on the shelf until next time. About the only material of that kind in this book is the (admittedly excellent) list of vendor contacts. What we have here instead is an overview of concepts and terms that might be related to a network. Cabling, medium access methods, network protocols, advanced networking technologies, networking equipment, computer peripherals, and network management concepts are all touched on. Touching is about all you can do in the forty-four very brief chapters, but it does cover the terminology. The book is a little thick for a glossary, but it can provide a fairly broad introduction to the topic of networking in general. This could create a foundation for further study directed towards the planning of a network where works such as Ramteke (cf. BKNTWRKS.RVW), McNamara (cf. BKTCHDCM.RVW), and Tanenbaum (cf. BKCMPNWK.RVW) give too much technical detail. However, I can't help thinking that "How Local Area Networks Work" (cf. BKHLANWK.RVW) covers the same ground in only one third the pages. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKPCNTHB.RVW 960531. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for rslade@vcn.bc.ca Research into rslade@vanisl.decus.ca User slade@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jul 96 10:44:38 +0000 From: Tara D. Mahon Subject: NewsFirst Extra - Internet and the PSTN < < < N E W S F I R S T <> E X T R A > > > Part of the NewsFirst Telecom Service < From THE INSIGHT RESEARCH CORPORATION > Telecom Market Research, Analysis, and Consulting ========================================================================= Vol. 4 Issue E5 Internet and the PSTN July 25, 1996 ========================================================================= >>>NEWSFIRST EXTRA Bellcore Sings Casey Jones, Is Anyone Listening? The astounding growth of Internet traffic has put the RBOCs on the horns of a dilemma. If demand for Internet access keeps building at current rates, it's going to crash the public switched telephone network and the local carriers will take the heat. On the other hand, packet-switched data services represented by the Net are the high-growth, high-margined opportunity; packet is where the money is. A recent study prepared by Bellcore, at the behest of Nortel, suggests that current plant engineering, OSSes, and tariffed pricing structures make it impossible for the PSTN to sustain acceptable levels of availability and reliability in the face of projected Internet growth. For the RBOCs the problem boils down to this: do we embrace the high-growth Internet segment and watch as the voice network degrades, or do we try to dampen Internet demand until a fix can be developed? US West and PacBell have already voted for the former course, raising ISDN prices in separate moves earlier this year. The Bellcore study suggests several options for carriers to consider, but for now there does not seem to be a neat solution to the problem. The problems created by packet traffic on the circuit-switched PSTN is well documented in the Bellcore study entitled "Impacts of Internet Traffic on LEC Networks and Switching Systems," (A. Atai & J. Gordon, Bellcore, 1996). To request a copy of the study contact Mr. Bill Blatt at Nortel. You can reach him via phone at (201) 292-5715 or via the Internet at william.blatt@nt.com. The PSTN was designed as a VOICE NETWORK with call holding times on the average of three minutes. For the past 80 years everything in the PSTN -- including forecasting, planning, engineering, and operational systems -- has been based upon the rule of three: three minutes per call, 3,000 Hz per channel, and three ccs of load on the line. The point hammered home by the Bellcore study is that the Internet has given those 80-year old traditional traffic models the dirt shirt. Those models are DEAD. Buried. According to the Bellcore study, Internet calls have a mean holding time of 20 minutes, and some percentage have the probability of lasting 12 hours, 24 hours, or longer. The net of the Internet call holding patterns on traditional traffic engineering assumptions is to increase the load per line by 3 times. When the increased loads hits the central office, the fallout is increasing congestion in every part of the network. At the terminating switch closest to the Internet ISP, Bellcore says 10 times the expected load per line has been observed. (Most of us recognize this as those failed attempts to jump onto the Net, having seemingly reached our ISP's gateway.) Even more profound may be the effects of the increased loading on the subscriber's side, where trunking and access switch performance are also going to be substantially degraded. When Bellcore modeled a scenario in which four percent of lines were blocked by long Internet holding times, they predicted a 60-fold increase could occur in the blocking experienced at the switch by anyone trying to make the traditional voice call. The 60-fold increase would mean that availability is going to go from 0.05 percent of calls blocked to something in the neighborhood of three percent. Nothing catastrophic, unless it's your kid trying to call 911 while some neighborhood wirehead connected for three hours happens to be pulling down yet another picture of Demi Moore. Ready to play those odds? We don't think so. And neither does the LEC, but throwing additional line gear into the network to reduce congestion is going to be costly. Bellcore said $35 million per year per RBOC region -- and that is supposed to be very conservative. When we look for a fix there aren't any good ones. Says the Bellcore study, "Any long term solution to these problems involves a staged migration from the present mode of operation towards some packet network solution." In the meantime, they are suggesting two ways LECs can begin grappling with the problem. Looking at fixes on the trunk and terminating switch side, Bellcore suggests several alternatives. One possibility might be to try and convince the ISPs to give up on the multi-line hunt groups they are now using on the local switch and move them to better performance/ lower cost solutions that use higher speed interfaces. But since customer retention is not an issue in the burgeoning Internet market, ISPs will probably be content with a poorer grade of service if fixing their gateway access problem costs them anything at all. Dialed number triggers and segregated routing to move the Internet call off the local switch and onto a segregated packet network is another load-lightening option, but here, too, there will likely be a price to pay in terms of adding IN processors to move the designated traffic onto the packet network. On the access side things become even more problematic, since every high-usage Internet line would have to be re-engineered and upgraded or separate processors paid for and installed. DLC upgrades, ISDN packet-mode peripherals, pre-switch adjuncts and ADSL could all ameliorate the problem on the PSTN, but someone is going to have to pay for it. The big issues always seem to all boil down to money. The PUCs probably won't provide any rate increases to test any of the fixes proposed by Bellcore until local voters suffer a few catastrophic outages. And any type of direct or indirect user fee, levied on the ISP level or on a second data line, will be fought tooth and claw by the users. Suppliers like Nortel have the DLC upgrades, ISDN packet-mode peripherals, pre-switch adjuncts, ADSL and IN solutions to sell, but in the current political climate no one is ready to give the public the bad news. < < < N E W S F I R S T <> T E L E C O M > > > Copyright 1996, The Insight Research Corporation 354 Eisenhower Parkway Livingston, New Jersey 07039-1023 USA (201) 605-1400 voice (201) 605-1440 fax reports@insight-corp.com *Electronic Distribution Granted, Provided This Notice Remains Intact*| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 15:47:05 -0700 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: ANI (was Re: Caller ID in California) Lynne Gregg write: > Maddi Hausmann Sojourner wrote: >> I remember reading something in this group about ANI information that >> indicated what kind of phone was making the call. It supposedly gave >> the indications residential, commerical, hotel, prison, pay phone, etc. > No, ANI does not indicate the TYPE of phone making the call. ANI is > the CHARGE number, or number which may be originating the call (ANI > may not always indicate originating number since it can be overridden > on operator-assisted calls). ANI will not give you an indication of > where the call is coming from (i.e., hotel). The ANI referred to is probably just the telephone number (or billing number) itself. But ... there is *also* "ANI Information Digit(s)" (ANI-I or ANI-II) which can also be transmitted along with the ANI. The Bell System developed the ANI-I/II years back. They were single digits which indicated "class of service" of the calling line, i.e. the *type* of phone line placing the call, unless it is routed via an Operator which doesn't forward out the information of the original calling line. At the time of divestiture and equal access (mid-1980's), the new FG-D (Feature Group 'D') standards expanded ANI-I to ANI-II, a *two* digit code. The expansion was needed due to newer classes of service of the calling line or type of call, and further subdivision of classes. Bellcore maintains the list of ANI-II digit pairs. The ICCF/INC (and possibly ANSI) conferences are always developing standards for further ANI-II digits, and even a possible expansion to *three* digit codes, as there are always newer "classes" or subdivisions of existing classes. The list of ANI-II digits is published in the "general" section of Bellcore-TRA's LERG (Local Exchange Routing Guide), and there are various Bellcore specs and documents on ANI and its associated "Information Digits" as to when/how/why they are used. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ From: Mike King Subject: Pacific Bell Grants DRC Rights To Market Fraud-Control System Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 14:15:29 PDT Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 08:02:05 -0700 From: sqlgate@list.pactel.com Subject: Pacific Bell Grants DRC Rights To Market, Support And Enhance Its "Sleuth" Fraud-Control System FOR MORE INFORMATION: Craig Watts (415) 394-3708 Pacific Bell Grants DRC Rights To Market, Support And Enhance Its "Sleuth" Fraud-Control System SAN FRANCISCO -- Pacific Bell has granted exclusive rights to Andover, Massachusetts-based Dynamics Research Corp. (NASDAQ: DRCO) to market, support and enhance its Sleuth system which is reported to substantially reduce a leading type of telephone fraud. Sleuth recognizes fraud-profile calls charged to such "alternate billing services" as calling cards. The system can alert telecommunication security personnel to the possible fraud, who then can quickly cancel the misused calling card. "This agreement allows Dynamics Research Corp. to provide around-the-clock system support for Sleuth users, who include all but one (NYNEX) of the seven regional Bell operating companies," said Richard D. Noponen, director of Pacific Bell Operator Services Systems Technology. According to Noponen, his company's new long-distance unit, Pacific Bell Communications, will be a DRC customer when it begins operations early next year. DRC also gets exclusive rights to market Sleuth worldwide and to enhance the system as opportunity and needs arise. Neither Pacific Bell nor DRC would disclose terms of the agreement. DRC has identified the telecommunications industry as a target market for its technical and customer-support expertise, said President and CEO Albert Rand. "We're confident that with Pacific Bell's industry knowledge, insights from a growing Sleuth users group, and our years of experience in systems engineering, we will provide competitive, functionally rich, fraud-detection products." Noponen said that while he can't quantify total industry losses to fraud, Sleuth has been reported by some customers to reduce calling card fraud by more than 80 percent. "One of our customers said their fraud losses dropped from about $10 million a year to less than $2 million," he said. "A second customer reported immediate savings of $700,000 a month." Noponen said Pacific Bell sought the agreement with DRC to free up company resources for projects more closely aligned with its core activities. The exclusive nature of the agreement assures a focused evolution of Sleuth to meet the needs of Pacific Bell and the telecommunications industry. Sleuth, a complex program with more than one million lines of programming code, was developed and first used by Pacific Bell in 1993. Noponen said he expects the next major enhancement will be to have Sleuth monitor direct-dialed calling patterns for fraudulent activity. "Other new fraud detection systems that Pacific Bell and DRC may develop could be folded into Sleuth," he said. Another enhancement could be to link Sleuth to billing systems in order to stop fraud from ever appearing on customer bills. Pacific Bell is looking to DRC to help find and implement new ways to fight fraud. "The fraudsters come up with new wrinkles all the time," Noponen said. "We think that with DRC, we will be able to keep up with them better than we can on our own." Pacific Bell is a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis Group (NYSE:PAC), a diversified telecommunications company based in San Francisco. -------------------- Mike King * Oakland, CA, USA * mk@wco.com ------------------------------ From: Mike King Subject: Pacific Bell Mobile Services Activates Network Operations Center Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 14:15:56 PDT Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 08:34:05 -0700 From: sqlgate@list.pactel.com Subject: Pacific Bell Mobile Services Activates Network Operations Center, Technology Lab for New Wireless Service FOR MORE INFORMATION: Linda Bonniksen (213) 975-5061 Pacific Bell Mobile Services Activates Network Operations Center, Technology Lab for New Wireless Service High-Quality Alternative to Cellular Available Next Year PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Pacific Bell Mobile Services has activated a state-of-the-art network operations center and technology laboratory as part of its plan to offer Personal Communications Services (PCS), a new digital wireless technology that offers a more reliable and secure alternative to cellular. The two-story, 30,000-square-foot facility in Pleasanton, Calif., consolidates comprehensive network surveillance and management systems, technical support, emergency response services, and software and product equipment testing under one roof. In appearance, the network operations center resembles a NASA-like command post. Computerized work stations sit below large computer screens spanning a 30-foot wall. The screens display numerous versions of electronic maps documenting the network's health across a broad geography or a few city blocks. The center will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "This is where quality control starts," said Lyndon R. Daniels, Pacific Bell Mobile Services president and chief executive officer. "The lab and network operations center exist for the sole purpose of ensuring consistently high-quality PCS service for every customer on every call." Network Operations Center Collects Real-Time Data The network operations center has advanced computerized systems designed to collect real-time data that will help ensure maximum network capacity, excellent performance of call hand-offs from antenna to antenna, and superior sound quality. If service problems are detected, the systems can suggest and implement immediate solutions. Unlike its cellular competitors, Pacific Bell Mobile Services can make many network adjustments without dispatching technicians. Through software commands, the network operations center can change an antenna's radio frequency or reconfigure the pattern of call hand-offs, for example. Technology Lab to Test New Products At the Pacific Bell Mobile Services technology lab, new products and services will be tested before they are integrated into the PCS network and offered to customers. The lab's facilities include a mobile telephone switching office, base station transceiver and antenna. Together, they replicate a smaller version of the network Pacific Bell Mobile Services is presently building across California and Nevada. The lab is now testing: * new generations of network software; * add-on products such as short-text messaging and circuit-switched data transmission; * "over-the-air" customer service features, including PCS service activation and the programming of individual subscribers' speed dialing lists; * a billing system capable of differentiating voice calls from data transmissions involving e-mail, faxes and wireless Internet access; and, * Wildfire, an advanced service that allows an electronic assistant to speak to subscribers through their PCS handsets. Unlike cellular, PCS technology is 100 percent digital. Being digital, PCS offers superior sound quality and reliability, as well as built-in complex encryption for maximum protection from eavesdropping and "cloning," a form of cellular theft that costs consumers $650 million a year. Pacific Bell Mobile Services will offer PCS in California and Nevada in early 1997, following a debut at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, Aug. 12-15. The company plans to broadly distribute PCS phones through drug stores, consumer electronics stores and warehouse retailers. Company Background: In March 1995, Pacific Bell Mobile Services won two federal licenses to provide PCS in California and Nevada with bids totaling approximately $695 million. The company followed up its successful bid by signing a five-year, $300-million agreement with Ericsson for its PCS-1900 network system. PCS-1900 network equipment is based on the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology, which is already used by 15 million PCS users in 92 countries. In 1995, Pacific Bell Mobile Services also signed a memorandum of understanding with GSM providers around the world. It will let customers roam the globe with PCS. Pacific Bell Mobile Services is the wireless communications subsidiary of Pacific Bell. Pacific Telesis Group, the parent company of Pacific Bell and Pacific Bell Mobile Services, is a diversified telecommunications company headquartered in San Francisco. ----------------------- Mike King * Oakland, CA, USA * mk@wco.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 18:42:47 -0700 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: "976-like" Services From a COCOT I had never seen this before. About a week or two ago, one of the many COCOT vendor/owner companies here in New Orleans started posting a *BIG* notice on the enclosures of their COCOT payphones with "Astrology/Horoscope" numbers. There are twelve different codes from "*-80" (Aries) through "*-89" (Capricorn) and "*-91" (Aquarius) and "*-92" (Pisces) indicated on the instruction notice, "All calls 25-cents". There are, of course, pre-programmed telephone numbers associated with each "*" code. I don't know whether these are actual local 976 numbers, 900 numbers, POTS numbers, 800/888 numbers, or whatever. When I went off-hook and received the COCOT's own internal "faux" dialtone, I entered one of the zodiac "*-XX" codes. The synthesized voice said "Please deposit 25-cents". It didn't indicate a time-limit for the quarter, but that doesn't mean that there isn't one. I am *NOT* depositing 25-cents into a COCOT for a number that I'm unfamiliar with, just to determine the "POTS" or "POTS-like" translation from a COCOT's speed-dialing code. I don't even like dropping money into ANY private payphone, anyhow. I don't know what recorse an end-user has if the phone takes the money and fails to connect to the astrology line, other than calling up the "211" or "611" number for the COCOT owner/vendor to complain. By the way, COCOTs with "211", "611" or other N11 codes for the "customer service" (?!) or "repair service" (?!) of the owner/vendor is *NOT* a telco code. Just like the above mentioned "*-XX" astrology- line codes, these COCOT "N11" codes are pre-programmed COCOT speed- dial codes. I wonder if these COCOTs send out a telco *-67 over the line before outpulsing (touchtoning) the called number? Does the FCC require end-user per-call "blocked" Caller-ID UNBLOCKING? Since the "generic" unblocking code is *-82 (11-82) on *real* telco lines, the COCOT's "*-82" for Taurus would have to be changed if the vendor/owner was really going to comply with any (possible) FCC requirements. Incidently, this particular vendor of COCOTs doesn't allow toll-free 888 numbers, toll-free 800-555-xxxx, nor do they even properly accept 0+504+seven-digits for Home NPA operator assisted calls through their A-O-Slime. The phone's internal voice says "DO NOT DIAL the area code for this number". Any calls 0+ (via their A-O-Slime) to ten-digit numbers in the new-style NNX area codes will cause the phone to outpulse touchtone the access number of their A-O-Slime, after the end-user enters 0+seven-digits. The same thing happens when I enter 10-XXX+0+ as far as what it considers a seven or ten digit call. It doesn't allow the new 101-XXXX+ codes, neither. But it does send out *exactly* what I entered when I use a 10-XXX+0(+). If I want to use *MY* carrier of choice, I can use that carrier's 950- or 800- access number, such as 800-CALL-ATT. But unfortunately, I cannot reach my LEC (BellSouth) Operator on a single-0, nor even 0+ the now obsolete seven-digits (intra-LATA) number. It's really a shame, IMO, that COCOT's and A-O-Slime with their inferior equipment and service, but higher costs to whoever the "billed" party might be have "taken over" during the past ten years. At least there are still some Telco payphones still around, but not like it was years ago. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #367 ****************************** From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Mon Jul 29 12:54:26 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id MAA05222; Mon, 29 Jul 1996 12:54:26 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 12:54:26 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199607291654.MAA05222@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #368 TELECOM Digest Mon, 29 Jul 96 12:54:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 368 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson 9-1-1 and Olympic Blast (Tad Cook) Atlanta Bombing and "Enhanced 911" (Paul Robinson) Ten-Digit Dialing (Tad Cook) Cable-TV Modems Standards? (Jean-Francois Mezei) VON Conference - The Talking Net - Sept. 10-11 in NYC (Monty Solomon) Conference Announcement (1997 IEEE ICPWC) (Vijay Bhargava) Pacific Bell/Cox Communications Sign Interconnect Agreement (Mike King) Anniversary of First Singing Telegram (David Whiteman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tad Cook Subject: 9-1-1 and Olympic Blast Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 10:52:38 PDT Telephone Warning Came After Agents Had Spotted Pipe Bomb By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- A calm caller believed to be a white male telephoned 911 with a warning just 18 minutes before a pipe bomb blasted an Olympic concert in Atlanta, but an alert state officer had already spotted the knapsack holding the bomb and had begun evacuating people. The 911 call came at 1:07 a.m., too late to play a role in that evacuation, federal officials said Saturday. They credited a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent with saving lives by acting quickly after he spotted the untended knapsack just before 1 a.m. At 1:25 a.m., the three pipes and wires that agents had seen in the knapsack several minutes earlier blew up, spewing nails and screws up to 100 yards away in Olympic Centennial Park as agents were still trying to clear concert-goers from the area. Six state troopers and one Georgia Bureau of Investigation officer, helping with that evacuation, were among the more than 100 wounded by the blast. One person was killed. The call came from "a white male with an indistinguishable accent," the FBI's Woody Johnson said, acknowledging that the voice sounded American. A Justice Department official said the caller spoke "in a calm voice." The caller said only that a bomb would go off in Centennial Park within 30 minutes but gave no name and did not claim responsibility on behalf of any group, Johnson told an Atlanta news conference. The call quickly became a key source of evidence for investigators. Others focused on recovering parts of what Johnson called "an antipersonnel fragmentation device -- a homemade bomb." Using 911's caller identification feature that displays a caller's telephone number, agents traced the warning to a pay telephone near a hotel about two blocks from the explosion, a Justice Department official said. FBI agents gathered fingerprints from the telephone and interviewed people nearby seeking someone who might have seen the caller. A tape recording of the call was put through voice-print analysis. Johnson told an Atlanta news conference agents were checking to see where the 911 warning was sent and would evaluate whether it was handled properly and quickly enough, but he made clear authorities were already onto the problem in the park before the call. According to Johnson: The GBI agent saw the untended knapsack near a tower in the park and asked people nearby if they owned it. When they did not claim it, he summoned an FBI agent and a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who were assigned nearby in the park as a bomb diagnostic unit. They looked into the knapsack, saw the wires and pipe and immediately began to clear the crowd. "Within two or three minutes later, the device went off," Johnson said. One Treasury agent expressed confidence the bombing could be solved. "We've got a phone call. And a pipe bomb is very inefficient; it always leaves a lot of evidence behind," said this Treasury agent, requesting anonymity. "We've investigated thousands of these; we know what to do." Because of the American-sounding voice on the call and the simple design and low power of the device, investigators were concentrating initial attention on domestic suspects, possibly an individual working alone or perhaps a paramilitary group, officials said. These investigators noted that Middle Eastern terrorists had specialized in much higher-powered truck bombs like the one that blew up at New York's World Trade Center and that organized right-wing U.S. private militias had focused their ire and attacks on the government, its buildings and employees rather than random public crowds. Johnson said the bombing was followed in the early morning hours by a number of calls and reports of suspicious packages. Bomb disposal teams were sent to 35 sites but no other bombs were found, he said. "All unattended or abandoned parcels in Atlanta are considered suspicious," Justice spokeswoman Carole Florman said. "They are all checked out thoroughly." From the beginning of the Olympic games up to Saturday's blast, "about 120 abandoned or suspicious parcels have been picked up and not one of them has contained explosives," Florman said. ------------------------------ From: tdarcos@clark.net (Paul Robinson) Subject: Atlanta Bombing and "Enhanced 911" Date: 29 Jul 1996 10:43:37 GMT Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company/TDR, Inc., Silver Spring MD USA Reply-To: Paul Robinson For those unaware of it, someone blew up a home-made anti-personnel bomb ("pipe bomb") around 1 am Saturday, in an unsecured public area near the Olympics, killing 2 and injuring over 100. Fragments went as far as 100 yards from the explosive point. CNN reported that just before the bomb exploded someone called 911 to report it. I believe the term was erroneous, but the reporter said that Atlanta has "Enhanced 911" which returns the telephone number of the caller. It is my understanding that 911 normally returns the caller's tele- phone number and "Enhanced 911" refers to an additional service that returns additional information such as address, how often that par- ticular number has called and special information about that place which can be added by dispatchers. If I am not correct on this point, would someone please post a note here in the Digest. Thank you. Paul Robinson General Manager Tansin A. Darcos & Company/TDR, Inc. --- Among Other things, we sell and service ideas. Call 1-800-TDARCOS from anywhere in North America if you are interested in buying an idea to solve one of your problems. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I may be mistaken on this but I think 'enhanced' or `E-911` as it is sometimes called is the version which returns *any information at all* to the police. Very old versions of 911 had 911 serving mainly as a 'speed dial' or 'memory dial' way to reach the police with the 911 being translated into some existing seven digit local number. Then there was a version of 911 where the calls terminated in special equipment but there was still nothing displayed to indicate who was calling. The 'enhanced' version brought all those improvements. At least I think so. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: Ten-Digit Dialing Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 20:08:28 PDT Phone Numbers to Lengthen in Pittsburgh By Steve Creedy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Jul. 29--If you're dreading the day next year when you'll have to dial 10 digits to make even local phone calls, it might help to know that you probably won't be alone for long. The experts that assign area codes in the United States believe that as the demand for new phone lines continues to soar, 10-digit dialing is lurking around the corner for everyone. And they are betting that the "overlay" system that will assign a different area code to new numbers in the Western Pennsylvania's 412 dialing district next year is the start of a national trend. "Since we invented (overlay) you might expect we would like it, but I think overlays eventually are going to be way of the future," said Ron Conners, the director of the North American Numbering Plan group at Bellcore. Conners' group is responsible for central number administration for the United States, Canada, Bermuda, and 15 Caribbean nations. Bellcore, the tele