Telecom

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Telecom / 1996-04-telecom-walnutcreek.iso / back.issues / 1981-86.volumes.1-5 / vol2.iss089-141 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1990-01-14 | 373.3 KB | 9,355 lines

19-Jul-82 21:35:26-PDT,5308;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 19-Jul-82 21:33:25 Date: 19 Jul 1982 2133-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #89 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 20 July 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 89 Today's Topics: French Teletext - Queries Rate Steps & Operator Talking Responses Area Code Splits & N1X, N0X Prefixes - Right On Schedule More ESS Lossage - "You Can't Get There From Here" Panel Exists In Stevens Pass, Washington? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 16 Jul 1982 1413-EDT From: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Subject: French teletext Someone mentioned recently that they were well on the way to installing a terminal in every home over there, and having just about everything [including ads for the kitchen sink] online. This country is supposed to be so technologically advanced, etc., then why don't *we* have such a system set up as of long ago?? It seems to me that the French are actually ahead of us in that respect. Does anyone know details about the connection hardware they use for this? How fast the terminals are? What kind of machines the databases are kept on?? _H* ------------------------------ Date: 16 July 1982 1157-PDT (Friday) From: lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: rate steps I know of no systems that give call costs -- only rate steps. Operators still generally must look up the actual call cost in their little flip-page "directory". Of course, you COULD generate actual call costs via an online V&H coordinates database... but as far as I know this is never done... I wouldn't be too surprised if this level of sophistication does not appear down the line a little ways, however. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jul 82 3:34:11-EDT (Sun) From: Randall Gellens <gellens.CC@UDel-Relay> Subject: operator talking response What about when you call the operator and ask for a rate or verify or other service on a non-local call, and they first punch in some thing and usually leave the line open so you can hear the machine (recordings?) say something like "route plus seven zero" or whatever? ------------------------------ Date: 16 Jul 82 16:12:13-EDT (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: right on time My summary of splits, etc., plus the new item about Chicago area 312 getting N0X and N1X, prompt the following recollection from the New York Times 1973 article about LA area's N0X and N1X: It said that NYC would probably be the next to get such prefixes, followed possibly by Chicago, and that LA area's taking such prefixes delays splitting that area by about 10 years. We're moving right on schedule! ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jul 82 3:25:45-EDT (Sun) From: Randall Gellens <gellens.CC@UDel-Relay> Subject: "you can't get there from here" I recently completed a project in the DC area and am in the process of moving back to Delaware...I called the local insurance agent to have them transfer my car policy, and the number listed in the phone book got me an intercept of the form "the number...has been changed..." Well, the new number turned out to be a rather unfortunate individual who was tired & frustrated at getting insurance calls...his number was indeed the one the recording referred to...I then called another office of the insurance company, and they told me that the original number listed in the phone book was correct. This other agent put me on hold and dialed the phone-book listed number on another line and got through. He also gave me another number that bypassed the office's main receptionist. I tried the original phone-book number again, and got the same recording. However, I could get through on the other number, bypassing the desk and going direct to the manager's office (who got my insurance straightened out and promised to look into the phone problem). We have had ESS on most, but not all, exchanges for a few years now. [These are really the hardest bugs to get the Telephone Company to fix. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: Sat Jul 17 11:59:45 1982 From: duke!decvax!harpo!lime!houca!houxi!houxb!houxc!ad7i at Berkeley Panel exsists in Stevens Pass, Washingon, a small ski resort community and railroad thru point. The office is in two fiberglass huts, usually buried by snow in the winter. The office supports about 15 lines and is connected to the outside world by 11 GHz uWave. The system is owned and operated by Gen Tel of NW. I doubt they will change it in the next 15 years. Stevens Pass, Washington, is a very pleasent place to spend a summers afternoon; even if it mean twideling with a yo-yo uWave radio. Back to the good old days. Paul Newland BTL Holmdel. [Note from the moderator: TELECOM is distributed to USENET sites via BRL-BMD. You cannot use the return path to send replies, you must send netmail to "...ucbvax!telecom". --JSol] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 22-Jul-82 12:49:36-PDT,2624;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 22-Jul-82 12:46:08 Date: 22 Jul 1982 1246-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #90 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 22 July 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 90 Today's Topics: Article Requested - France's Computerized DA Stevens Pass is X-Y Step - Not Panel Cellular Radio Transceivers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 July 1982 08:11-EDT (Tuesday) From: Sam Hsu <FHsu at BBNG> To: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Cc: TELECOM at MIT-MC I've had pointers to Telecommunications mag. and EDN, but have been unable to locate the article. If anyone sees anything, or finds the article, please post. I'll have to get back to the original guy i heard this from (who heard it from someone else, who heard it from someone else,...). ------------------------------ Date: 20 Jul 1982 1558-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Stevens Pass is X-Y Step I just spoke with Paul Newland about Stevens Pass. He was right in that it was not ESS, Crossbar, or Strowger, but wrong in believing that it is panel. It is, in fact, a SxS office, which instead of operating in the cylindrical mode of Strowger switches, operates in an X-Y plane. Except for the physical arrangement of the switches, it is the same as Strowger, and still Step by step. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Jul 1982 1612-PDT From: Ian H. Merritt <MERRITT at USC-ISIB> Subject: Stevens Pass, Wash. I placed a call to the 206-973 prefix (Stevens Pass) to try to determine the type of switching system. It doesn't sound like Panel. It sounded more like perhaps crossbar with new tone generators. Are you sure there is really a switch located in those fiberglass shacks? <>IHM<> ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 1982 12:30 EDT From: Slade.WBST at PARC-MAXC Subject: Cellular Radio Transceivers Does anyone have any information about any company building components for or complete telephone transceivers for the new cellular Radio-telephone service that has been authorized by the FCC? I have used sveral databases and have come up only with articles on who is trying, planning etc. to get the franchise from the FCC for various locations but nothing about who is or will make the transceivers. Can anyone offer any help? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 23-Jul-82 13:59:02-PDT,7817;000000000001 Mail-From: JSOL created at 23-Jul-82 13:57:42 Date: 23 Jul 1982 1357-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #91 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 23 July 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 91 Today's Topics: French DA Project Rate Quoting Systems Who's Going To Make Cellular Radios Dial-A-joke & Dial-A-Prayer Move Over ==> Dial-FREE-Sex! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 July 1982 1648-PDT (Thursday) From: lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: French DA project For the record, the French project is actually rather simplistic in terms of technology. The terminals being handed out are very cheap CRT's with simple (not full alphanumeric) keyboards. They would not be useful for fullscale "normal" computer usage, though perhaps they would be adequate for Viewdata types of queries (I don't think they have that capability right now, however. Viewdata generally assumes color monitors for full effect, and these are simple monochrome CRT's). I'm not too sure what baud rate they are using for the project. It would either be 300 or 1200/150 split (the Viewdata standard). There is already a considerable backslash to the whole project forming in France. Many persons object to having to hassle with making a phone call (apparently charged at regular metered local rates!) to reach the service. Since the plan is to discontinue the mass publishing of most phone books, people feel that they are being "railroaded" into using a technology that in many instances will be LESS convenient to use than the phone book (you have to go to the room where the terminal is located, you can't look up a number if somebody else is using the phone, you pay for the call, etc.) All in all, the public reaction to the plan has been very mixed. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 1982 2053-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Rate Quoting Systems Rate quoting voice-response computers have been around for years; I remember hearing them as early as 1968 in the Washington, D.C. area. They all work by having an on-line copy of the V&H coordinate data base, which also contains info like operators route (how to reach an operator closer to the destination) and which digits to check for collect calls to avoid coin phones. The systems provide different amounts of information based on the input format. If just an NPANXX is entered, info about which phones are coin stations and how to reach the distant operator is provided. If NPANXXNPANXX is entered, the rate step between the two points will be the reply. Credit (calling) card validation can also be done. Some of the systems also allow NPANXXNPANXX+timeofday+number ofminutes+typeofcall to be entered. The cost of the call is the response. Note that to do this, the only additional online database required is the translation of a few rate steps into cost. The big database with V&H info is required just to get the rate step. Back in the old days of cord switchboards with MF pads for the operators, these systems were reached by dialing the operator code assigned to them. When they answered it was with an MF receiver, so the operator just keyed the input. On TSPS, which does not have an MF pad under control of the operator, calls to RQS were handled by a sequence which looked like an overseas sequence, because TSPS could only do "dual- stage-outpulsing" (dialing one number, waiting for response, and then outpulsing additional digits) when handling overseas calls, which currently also work this way (your CO or TSPS dials up an overseas sender, then blasts the overseas country code and number at the sender). Newer generics in TSPS have a special program specifically for RQS. Operator training is different from place to place. In some places, operator work time is considered so important, that the extra time involved in putting one TSPS loop on hold and going to another to place the call (not to mention the slight bit of extra equipment put to work) is frowned upon, and operators are encouraged to make these kind of calls (to the computer RQS or to rate-and-route operators) with the customer on the line. In other places, the phone com- pany's secrecy madness takes over, and these kind of calls are always placed with the customer on hold. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 82 23:53:43-PST (Thu) From: Stef.uci at UDel-Relay Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #90 Via: UCI; 23 Jul 82 5:54-EDT According to an article in Business Week some months ago (reference lost), Motorola has a product for cellular radio called a DYNATAC, which, when I tried it out after I found someone who had loan of one, performed very well indeed. Stef ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 1982 2028-PDT Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL Subject: Dial-A-joke & Dial-A-Prayer move over ==> Dial-A-Sex! From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow Reply-To: Geoff at SRI-CSL a226 1343 21 Jul 82 AM-Dialing for Sex, Bjt,560 2,000 Callers An Hour For 'Free Phone Sex' By RICK HAMPSON Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Dial-a-Prayer, Dial-a-Joke and other prerecorded telephone message lines have been joined by an X-rated newcomer named ''Free Phone Sex'' whose callers range from curious youngsters to bored night-shift workers. ''We're averaging 2,000 calls an hour,'' many of them long distance, said Ira Kirschenbaum, vice president of High Society magazine. The call-in line is designed to bolster sales of the magazine, which features pictures of naked women in various sexual poses and is described by Kirschenbaum as ''strictly a girlie book.'' The prerecorded, three-minute ''message'' is an audio accompaniment to a series of photos in the monthly magazine that illustrate a prurient story line. Kirschenbaum said 1.5 million calls have been received in the two months since the magazine opened the line. ''A lot of people call again and again. The phone company is making a lot of money,'' he added. to the New YSYMPATHETIC. [I received it garbled --JSol] ''I understand how they feel,'' he said. ''Once I found my son was calling a Santa Claus line seven times a day at 50 cents a call.'' Telephone company spokesman on both sides of the border said there was nothing that could be done to prevent anyone from operating a sex line. ''We are not censors,'' said Mark Kenville, a spokesman for New York Telephone. ''Telephone conversations are none of our business, except when it's an annoyance call.'' Kenville confirmed that the ''Free Phone Sex'' line's 60 recording devices are deluged with an estimated average of 42,000 calls an hour, only 2,000 of which get through. Charles Hernandez of the Federal Communications Commission said his agency had no jurisdiction over such calls. Telephone wires, unlike the airwaves, are not public, and telephone users are not licensed, he noted. ''We get complaints, but people call these numbers of their own free will. No one forces them to listen,'' he said. Kirschenbaum said it is too early to tell if the recording will boost circulation. Regardless, he said, the magazine plans to supplement sounds and pictures with more words. ''We need some socially redeeming content,'' he explained. [The telephone number for the prerecorded sex conversation is 212-883-8877] The AP ap-ny-07-21 1644EDT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 26-Jul-82 21:13:46-PDT,2343;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 26-Jul-82 21:13:24 Date: 26 Jul 1982 2113-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #92 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 27 July 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 92 Today's Topics: Remote Access Of Phone Answering Machines NPANXX - Whazzat? VA3451P Burst Errors ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 23 Jul 1982 13:30:58-PDT From: CSVAX.pag at Berkeley Subject: Remote access of phone answering machine I recently purchased the relatively new "TAD-150" phone answering machine made by Radio Shack. This is the model which has remote access, and time stamps each message. My problem: whenever I try to call the machine remotely to get my messages, it does not respond to the code tones generated by the remote control unit. However it does respond when I call it from a phone located relatively nearby ( and on the same exhange). Any ideas? I'd also be interested in hearing from others who also have TAD-150's. --peter gross arpa: CSVAX.pag@BERKELEY uucp: ucbvax!pag ------------------------------ Date: 23 July 1982 1810-EDT (Friday) From: Mark.Sherman at CMU-10A Subject: NPANXX What does "NPANXX" mean? -Mark Sherman (Sherman@CMU-10A) [NPA = Area code, NXX = Prefix (first 3 digits after area code). I don't know the historical data. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 26 Jul 82 0:13:29-EDT (Mon) From: J C Pistritto <jcp@BRL> Subject: VA3451P errors I have a Vadic 3451P, which I use from the Baltimore Md. area to connect to a computer in Northern Virginia. I seem to be getting burst errors at the rate of one error per ~500 chars or so, with each error being 8 to 10 chars at 1200 baud, (~10msec) in duration. This happens whether I use Sprint or 'Genuine Bell' to make the connection, and my local line works fine for calls to Baltimore area computers. The modem on the other end is one of the Anderson-Jacobsen Vadic look-alikes. Does anyone have any idea as to the cause/solution of this problem? -JCP- ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 27-Jul-82 15:46:37-PDT,3864;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 27-Jul-82 15:45:54 Date: 27 Jul 1982 1545-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #93 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Wednesday, 28 July 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 93 Today's Topics: Quad Protocol Modem - 2400 Baud! Lack Of Telephones For The Poor - Could Affect Rate Increase In N. Y. Query Reply - What Does NPA/NXX Mean? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 27 Jul 1982 0446-PDT From: Geoffrey C Mulligan (AFDSC, The Pentagon) at RAND-AI Reply-To: Geoffm at Rand-Ai Subject: Quad protocol modem Now you too can have 2400 bps dial up service. Racal-Vadic has announced their new VA4400 line of modems. The new modem incorporates a 2400-bps, full duplex modem, a VA3400, a Bell 212A and a Bell 103 in one unit. The VA4401 can originate calls to, and answer calls from, all four of these modem types. It is build around the 16-bit Fairchild 9445 microprocessor, which performs the analog signal processing functions for all four modems. It automatically determines if the modem it is communicating with is 2400 bps, 1200 bps or 300 bps and operates at the highest speed. It can be connected to the VA811 autodialer and/or direct connected to phone lines. The VA4401 will sell for around $1945, in single quantities. It will also be available in a 2400 bps version only for $1745. geoff ------------------------------ Date: 27-Jul-82 12:30:28 PDT (Tuesday) From: Newman.es at PARC-MAXC Subject: No telephones for the poor From today's New York Times digest: NEW YORK - A lack of telephones among the poor was cited by the New York State attorney general, Robert Abrams, in testifying in opposition to a proposed $878 million annual rate increase sought by the New York Telephone Co.. Abrams said there were no telephones in two-thirds of poor households in New York City, 25 percent of all households in the Bronx and 41 percent of homes in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section. ------------------------------ Date: 27 July 1982 1325-PDT (Tuesday) From: lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: NPA/NXX NPA stands for Numbering Plan Area -- the official term for area codes. NXX is one of the number group designators which are precisely defined in the "Notes on Direct Distance Dialing" and other similar Bell System technical publications. To be more precise, the standard NPA definition has been: N 0/1 X where X = any number from 0 to 9 and N = any number from 2 to 9 Ultimately, when all NPA's of this form are exhausted, the form will change to: N X X ... using the same N and X definitions as above. Similarly, the longstanding definition of a central office code (prefix) has been: N N X ... but is converting over to: N X X in some areas (such as L.A. and New York, currently). [and soon in Chicago --JSol] Note that eventually we will have BOTH prefixes that "look" like area codes AND area codes that look like prefixes -- so it is obvious why "1+" dialing conventions (and dialing timeouts in some areas) are very important to provide a means for differentiating between the two types of codes. I seem to recall submitting a rather lengthy table of information to TELECOM (on this very subject) at some time in the fairly recent past which included the maximum number of codes in each category, as well as other data. Presumably this material is in the TELECOM archives for any interested parties. --Lauren-- [Thanks also to John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> for providing a similar explanation of NPANXX. --JSol] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 28-Jul-82 14:09:08-PDT,5356;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 28-Jul-82 14:08:03 Date: 28 Jul 1982 1408-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #94 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 29 July 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 94 Today's Topics: Phone Service Outage - Some Not Affected? Whats NPANXX - More Detailed Expansion Notes Survey - Portable Telephone Sought ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 27 Jul 82 21:24:55 EDT (Tue) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: phone service outage According to the local paper, phone service here was "out of order" for about 75 minutes today. I was logged on to our machine via a dial-up port during that time; I experienced no interruption of service. How is that arranged? (John Covert mentioned in a previous note that the University at least is serviced by a No. 1 ESS CO CENTREX; I assume that's what serves the town as well. I was calling a University number from a non-University phone.) I was no longer logged on when service was restored, so I don't know if the restoration process ("they then begin to load the system recovery tape, and get an arrangement of the system configuration tape") would have dropped my line. My speed-dialing codes are still correct, but I haven't changed any lately; even an old backup tape would have them right. Comments? --Steve ------------------------------ Date: 27 Jul 1982 22:25:45-PDT From: ihnss!houxn!govern at Berkeley Explanation of NPA-NXX: NPA=Numbering Plan Area, thus = area code NXX: N is a digit from 2....9 X is any digit For quite a while, the North American Numbering Plan used NPAs of the form N [01] X, and central office codes of the form NNX. This permits simple translations to distinguish between 7 and 10 digit numbers, allowing enough digits to be collected (on stored-program-control switches) or forwarded (on step-by-step). However, there are only 640 NNXs, vs. 800 NXXs, and it is often less traumatic to convert to NXX central office codes instead of splitting an area code when the NNXs run out. (This requires another mechanism for distinguishing between 7 and 10 digit calls: either timing after the 7th digit (non-standard), or requiring all 10-digit calls to use a "1" prefix ( the approved method, and future standard )). The 1+10 digits is a mild annoyance for people who aren't used to it, and there are some difficulties in areas with step-by-step, where you dial 1 for a 7-digit toll call. According to "Notes on the Network", the recommended solution for 7-digit toll calls from step-by-step switches, when NXXs are used, is 1-NPA-NXX-XXXX, where NPA is your own area code. 1-NXX-XXXX with time-out is not recommended, but it's probably done in some places. The tining mechanism is normally a 4-second wait after the 7th digit, and is only needed when you dial a code that is used as a central office code as well as an NPA. The phone company is trying to get everyone to dial 1+ for 10-digit toll calls by 1990, whether you need it or not. Area codes of the form N[01]X will run out around the year 2000 (+-5 or so), and area codes of the form NN0 will be introduced after that. Bill Stewart, BTL West Long Branch, New Jersey ------------------------------ Date: 28 Jul 1982 1115-PDT From: Jon Solomon <JSol at USC-ECLC> Subject: Portable Telephone Wanted: I am looking for a portable telephone, which must have the following features: 1 - a range of at least 2 miles (low wattage units with extenders are plausable) 2 - some form of code number. Preferably something which logs failures so I know when I am being hacked, but not necessary. 3 - touch tone preferred but not required. 4 - FCC approved for both transmissions and interconnection to Telephone Network. I want 2 of these beasts. If you know of any portable telephones which are on the market today which can be of help to me, please let me know. Let's assume I don't get any responses to this. I have an ad for a "ROVA/PRO" Cordless Extension Phone, 3 models, one with a 5 mile radius, one with a 15 mile radius, and one with a 25 mile radius. It is NOT FCC approved for use in USA (displayed in fine print on the ad itself). I called the number on the Ad, and the salesman told me that the 25 mile radius one's mobile transmits on the 49 Megahertz band (typical band for portable phones) at 25 Watts, and the base transmits on the 70 MHZ band at 30 Watts. I did not ask if the unit had an FCC registration number for telephone interconnect. He claims that the 70 MHZ band is the loser, and is why the FCC won't approve of its use. What would I have to do to make this unit legal? Is it worth spending the $800 bucks on it to get 99% of the workings of a phone, and perhaps change one set of crystals (and adjust the transmitter accordingly)? Could I have a Radio Tech. do this and get approval from the FCC? Could I get an FCC registration number if there isn't one? Should I give up and wait 2 years for Cellular? Cheers, --JSol ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 29-Jul-82 18:00:20-PDT,4348;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 29-Jul-82 17:59:53 Date: 29 Jul 1982 1759-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #95 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 30 July 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 95 Today's Topics: Dart II - Another Hart Line? Portable Telephones And Other Losing FCC Decisions Whats NPANXX - A Query About Dialing "1+" for Long Distance ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 28 Jul 1982 2027-EDT From: Charles B. Weinstock <Weinstock at CMU-20C> Subject: Dart II Does anyone out there know anything about an alternative long distance service known as Dart II. They are advertising locally that for a $15 installation fee, and a $3 monthly charge, you can save 20% or more on interstate calls to anywhere in the country. Sounds like the Hart Line scheme to me, but I suppose it could be like MCI's new deal (call anywhere in the country, and MCI will take you on their net as close as possible, and then use Bell the rest of the way). Also, I wonder why the $15 fee? Chuck ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jul 1982 0800-PDT Sender: WMARTIN at OFFICE-8 Subject: Portable telephones From: WMartin at Office-8 (Will Martin) Since the subject was mentioned, I thought I'd relay some comments about the cheap portable telephones that are flooding the market that have been aired on Glenn Hauser's "World of Radio" syndicated radio show. (This is aired on some NPR [and other] FM stations, and on shortwave on WRNO, 2330 GMT Sundays, 11855 kHz. It is a "magazine" show about all aspects of radio, emphasizing shortwave and international broadcasting.) Glenn has been discussing reports from SWL's (shortwave listeners) about hearing these portable phones; they use the chunk of spectrum from 1600 to 1900 kHz, just above the AM BCB. The main reaction is disgust at yet another source of spectrum pollution degrading the RF environment. Also it seems many users don't realize that the signals carry farther than their home environs; they disclose private matters as if it was a closed-line telephone call. There are also opportunities for phone phreak abuse of these; using the portable portion to access someone else's base and thus make long-distance calls on their bill is one obvious technique. Another is to monitor the frequencies for users of Sprint, MCI, and the like, and decode the customer code numbers from the transmitted tones. I haven't been listening for those portable phone signals, but I gusee I should try -- any other SWL's out there picked up any? It's really amazing that the frequencies chosen for this service were so poorly determined; of course, the FCC has a long history of complete ineptitude in frequency choosing; consider the ill effects of the 26-27 MHz choice of CB frequencies, encouraging harmonic TVI and selecting frequencies which would skip for long-distance communications, and then trying to administratively prohibit what is technically possible! (Dumb!) Sigh, Will Martin ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jul 1982 11:20 EDT From: Axelrod.WBST at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: Whats NPANXX - A Query About Dialing "1+" for Long Distance cc: Axelrod.wbst Several people have discussed the matter of dialing "1" + 10 digits in terms of distinguishing between 7 and 10 digit numbers. However, recently I have heard some discussions of another reason for having the Long Distance access code, related to the impending Bell split, and deregulation. The conjecture is that ATT Long Lines will no longer have a monopoly on long distance calling, and that other long distance comon carriers, (MCI, Sprint, etc) will ask for, and be granted access to local CO's. According to this conjecture, the subscriber might then have the option of dialing "1"+10 digits for ATT Long Lines, and say, "10"+10 digits for MCI, etc. (This would seem to introduce a whole new set of ambiguities, wouldn't it?) Does anyone have any information, or educated opinions on this subject? Art Axelrod Xerox Webster Research Center ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 2-Aug-82 17:45:09-PDT,6095;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 2-Aug-82 17:43:20 Date: 2 Aug 1982 1743-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #96 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 3 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 96 Today's Topics: The Consent Decree - Customer Preference Among Carriers Reduced-Rate Long Distance Services - Anything Intrastate Dialing 1+ For Long Distance - Was Going To Happen Anyway NPA Trivia - N0X, N1X Had Different Meanings Boundaries - Prefix And County Boundaries Sometime Overlap What Will Area Codes Look Like When We Run Out Of N0X, N1X? 10+ And 950 Prefix ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 30 July 1982 09:49-EDT From: "Marvin A. Sirbu, Jr." <SIRBU at MIT-MC> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #95 Several people have discussed the matter of dialing "1" + 10 digits in terms of distinguishing between 7 and 10 digit numbers. However, recently I have heard some discussions of another reason for having the Long Distance access code, related to the impending Bell split, and deregulation. The conjecture is that ATT Long Lines will no longer have a monopoly on long distance calling, and that other long distance comon carriers, (MCI, Sprint, etc) will ask for, and be granted access to local CO's. According to this conjecture, the subscriber might then have the option of dialing "1"+10 digits for ATT Long Lines, and say, "10"+10 digits for MCI, etc. (This would seem to introduce a whole new set of ambiguities, wouldn't it?) The Consent Decree does indeed forsee that MCI, SPC and the like will be given some kind of abbreviated access codes similar to the 1+ which now gets you to AT&T Long Lines. Indeed there is already an independent telephone company somewhere in Nebraska that is offering its customers access to MCI by dialing 6+ 10 digits. The Consent Decree also forsees that users will be able to designate a "preferred" long distance carrier to their local telco. Then whether they dial 1+ their calls will be routed to the preferred carrier. The technical problems in providing such acess remain to be resolved. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jul 1982 1038-PDT Sender: WMARTIN at OFFICE-8 Subject: Reduced-rate long distance services From: WMartin at Office-8 (Will Martin) The vast majority of LD calls on my bill are intRAstate, within Missouri, from my wife to a relatively close small town where her relatives live. When they moved from Illinois to Missouri, our LD bills shot up, due to the organized persecution of all intrastate LD callers. Are there any of the reduced rate services that will help me at all on this? I had gleaned the impression that they are all oriented toward savings on interstate calls between major metropolitan areas. Will any help on intrastate calls to small towns? Thanks, Will Martin ------------------------------ Date: 30 July 1982 1253-PDT (Friday) From: lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Re: Whats NPANXX - A Query About Dialing "1+" for Long Distance Depending on what's left after the various courts, congress, and the FCC get finished, there is a good chance that the "alternate" carriers will get some sort of direct access. However, the access method chosen can be expected *not* to introduce new ambiguities -- that would be kinda pointless wouldn't it? The plans for 1+ dialing go *way* back. Even my original copy of "Notes on the Network" gives timetables on 1+ implementation -- all phones in the U.S. were to be converted to 1+ for DDD calling before 1990 regardless of other factors. Recent events are only speeding up that preplanned process. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 31 Jul 1982 08:30:43-EDT From: dee at CCA-UNIX (Donald Eastlake) Subject: minor NPA note Originally, NPAs of the form N0X were for states or provinces that had one NPA and those of the form N1X were used in states and provinces with more than one NPA. Donald Eastlake (dee@CCA-UNIX) ------------------------------ Date: 28 Jul 82 15:16:17-EDT (Wed) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> Subject: boundaries Phone prefixes, in general, are not limited by county lines. This caused a problem in recent years at the border between New Castle and Kent counties in Delaware, when the 911 emergency number was being set up, because about 15% of the people on Smyrna exchange (302-653) are in New Castle county (the rest are in Kent). News item mentioned such crossing of county lines happening many times in Pennsylvania (comment prompted by Smyrna case above). (The Susquehanna River does serve as county line AND phone-prefix boundary between Harford & Cecil counties, Maryland.) Speaking of boundaries, how are things handled at the time-zone boundaries? (I recall seeing something about time zones in notes concerning V&H tape.) ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jul 82 8:33:58-EDT (Thu) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> To: ihnss!houxn!govern at Ucb-C70 Subject: run out of areacodes? Could you show some samples of area codes that would be used when the present ones run out? [I believe he said they would look like prefixes, e.g. 234, 777, etc. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jul 82 7:46:07-EDT (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: 10+ ? Dialing 10 from my phone (302-731, not an ESS exchange) takes me to local operator, without timeout. (302-731 does have 0+ dialing, so that dialing just 0 must wait for timeout.) "10+" was mentioned in digest V2 #95. Earlier, someone mentioned 950 prefix, unassigned in all area codes, in connection with MCI, etc. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 4-Aug-82 18:46:43-PDT,3609;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 4-Aug-82 18:45:51 Date: 4 Aug 1982 1845-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #97 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 5 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 97 Today's Topics: Reduced-Rate Intrastate Long Distance Services Comment On Minor NPA Note - Any More? Technical Assistance Query - Vadic 3451 & Bell 212A Modems N0X, N1X ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 3 Aug 1982 11:38 EDT From: Axelrod.WBST at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #96 - Reduced-rate long distance services To: WMARTIN at OFFICE-8 Have you checked with your local telco? Rochester (NY) Telephone Company offers a service called "Dial-A-Visit", which, for a moderate monthly charge (~$5.00?), gives 50% discount on all calls to anywhere within New York State. Not restricted to RTC calling area. Could be that other operating companies have similiar services. As to Sprint and MCI, you need to check whether the areas of interest are covered. True that they concentrate on large metro areas, but maybe, maybe not. You can call and find out. Art Axelrod ------------------------------ Date: 3 Aug 1982 1710-EDT From: S. W. Galley <SWG at MIT-XX> Subject: minor NPA note cc: dee at CCA-UNIX Are or were there any other regularities in NPA assignment, besides the distinction between N0X and N1X? It's always looked to me as if the numbers were chosen completely at random. ------------------------------ Date: 4 August 1982 03:28 edt From: Schauble.Multics at MIT-MULTICS Subject: Request for info I need assistance with two problems: First, I have a Vadic 3451 moden with the Vadic accessory telephone. Does anyone know what I have to do to this combination to prevent it from answering? Is there a technical manual available for the telephone? Second, the Bell system 212A data set uses a 25pin connector to connect the controlling telephone to the data set. I need the pin config for this connector. Any asistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Paul ------------------------------ Date: 3 Aug 1982 14:55:40-EDT From: dee at Cca-Unix (Donald Eastlake) To: cmoore at BRL Subject: Re: N0X, N1X Quite an old idea. Perhaps of the same or earlier vinatage as the idea of having a national switching center in Kansas with finals to it from all the regional centers. ------------------------------ Date: 3 Aug 82 11:48:01-EDT (Tue) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: dee at Cca-Unix Subject: N0X, N1X N0X area code in states (provinces) with only one area and N1X " " " " " " more than one area? How old an idea was that? Going into 1965, I think we already had 607 in New York state; 305 in Florida; 209,408,707,805 in California; 308,402 in Nebraska; 507 in Minnesota; 608 in Wisconsin; 504 in Louisiana; 404 in Georgia; 704 in North Carolina; 201,609 in New Jersey; 806 in Texas; 405 in Oklahoma; 309 in Illi- nois; 502,606 in Kentucky; 906 in Michigan; 206,509 in Washington state; 705,807 in Ontario; 901 in Tennessee. (New areas added since start of 1965: 904 in Florida in 1965, and 804 in Virginia in 1973.) However, I notice that all N1X area codes are in states and provinces with more than 1 area code. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 5-Aug-82 19:51:07-PDT,6590;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 5-Aug-82 19:49:37 Date: 5 Aug 1982 1949-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #98 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 6 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 98 Today's Topics: Query - How To Keep Modems From Frying Telco Line Polarity Standards Quick Methods To Avoid Timeouts When Dialing OPERATOR Telephone Events In History Area Code Trivia - The Pulse Factor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 4 Aug 1982 2209-EDT From: Charles B. Weinstock <Weinstock at CMU-20C> Subject: Fried Modem A few weeks ago we had a severe thunderstorm in Pittsburgh. The building I live in was hit by lightning. My Vadic 3451 was unplugged at the time, though it was connected to the phone line, and the terminal was connected to the modem. The next time I went to use my terminal I discovered that the modem didn't work. It smelled like components were frying. So, I replaced the modem and discovered that the line input driver in my terminal was also fried. Since the phone wasn't damaged (apparently) Bell claims that their protection circuits worked just fine. This raises two issues: 1. Is it possible that Bell is wrong, and there is something wrong with their equipment. 2. Failing that, is there anything I can get to isolate the phone line and the modem? Chuck ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 1982 19:57:41-PDT From: eagle!karn at Berkeley Subject: telco line polarity standards I'm confused. I have acquired an AC powered 212 modem that is, believe it or not, sensitive to the polarity of the phone line (the DEC DF03). I discovered this after wasting an hour getting it working on my home phone lines - the modem's tip and ring had to be reversed in order for it to sense carrier. My Bell touch tone phone (the polarity sensitive kind) works just fine on both lines. I would like to make sure that my two phone lines are wired with the "proper" polarity. My first line is + on green, - on red. The second line is + on black, - on yellow. It looks like somebody blew it on the modular plug standard as far as polarity preservation goes. If you look at a standard phone cord with a modular plug on each end, the flat sides of the connectors are on the same side of the cord. This means that the order of pins in the modular jack on the wall is reversed with respect to those in the telephone set. This means you can't take two phone cords and make one long extension cord by plugging them together in the middle with a Y-plug; a touch tone dial won't work. Does anybody know why this was done, except to keep amateur touch tone phone installers totally confused? Something has to be switched to make this modem work, and I'll rewire all the jacks and phones in my house if I have to in order to get it right. Phil ------------------------------ Date: 5 Aug 1982 0521-EDT From: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Subject: Getting the Operator Quick It is probably fairly well-known that on most crossbar systems [at least the old #5 I had] dialing 00 would land you in the TSPS swamp with no timeout. If you try this in an ESS office, it thinks the second 0 is part of a number, and waits for further input. If you dial 10 at an ESS, you get TSPS with no timeout. Okay, what kind of sequence could begin with 0 that would require operator assistance???? _H* ------------------------------ Date: 5 Aug 1982 0839-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Numbering Plan A couple of excerpts: When the distance dialing plan was first envisioned in the 1940s, a numbering plan was designed whereby any telephone within the area encompassed by the "North American Numbering Plan" would be identified by a unique 10-digit address... --Notes on Distance Dialing, AT&T, 1975 August 21-22 -- First No. 4 toll crossbar switching system in the world cut into service at Philadelphia, Pa. The first concrete move toward toll dialing. --Events in Telephone History, AT&T, 1974 The choice of Area Codes took two factors in operator work time into account. The use of the zero in the middle immediately told operators that the entire state had one area code. This, as we know, is now no longer true. Neither is the second factor, since equipment changes have made it unnecessary. A study was done of calling patterns, that is, "most-dialed-destinations." From this study, the "dial-pull-factor" was minimized, subject to the constraint of the zero/one in the middle. Thus NYC, the most commonly dialed destination, got 212, which is the fastest code for an operator to dial with a rotary dial. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 1982 2218-PDT From: Richard Furuta <Furuta at WASHINGTON> Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #97 I recall hearing, at some distant time in the past, that the original area codes were assigned based on the amount of traffic generated by the area (New York came in first at 212, Los Angeles next at 213, etc.). Subsequent assignments of area codes, however, didn't preserve this ordering. I'm not at all sure how accurate this information is. --Rick ------------------------------ Date: 5 Aug 1982 14:26:42-EDT From: dee at CCA-UNIX (Donald Eastlake) To: swg at mit-xx Subject: NPA pattersn The other obviousl pattern is that NPAs which require fewer dial pulses and are thus quicker for a rotary dial are assigned to the big urban areas: 212 NYC, 213 LA, 312 Chicago, etc. (Washington DC is 202 but then I guess DC counts as a "state" with one area code.) [Trivia point: As has been previously pointed out in this digest, Washington DC is a special case, since most of the prefixes (if not all of them) in area code 202 are mapped to prefixes in other Area codes. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 5 Aug 82 09:04:39 EDT (Thu) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: NPA note To: swg at Mit-Xx I've been told that the original numbers were designed to minimize pulse counts for the areas with the most phones. Thus, New York City has 212 - the minimum possible count of 5. Chicago is 312, L.A. is 213, Detroit is 313, etc. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 6-Aug-82 15:44:20-PDT,7553;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 6-Aug-82 15:43:52 Date: 6 Aug 1982 1543-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #99 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Saturday, 7 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 99 Today's Topics: Lauren Gets Top Billing Poached Modems And Modular Plug Polarity The Mapping Of Area Code 202 Query: Origin Of The Term "Repeater" - Myth or Fact? 800 NPA & Some Very Random Boston Area Prefixes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 6 August 1982 0056-PDT (Friday) From: lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: poached modems and modular plug polarity To: TELECOM at ECLB Greetings. Regarding the fried Vadic modem... Telco line protectors (which are actually just fuses, of course) are designed to prevent "excessive" voltages from reaching the subscriber side of the line drop. Their only real purpose is to prevent loss of life, and *not* necessarily to protect delicate equipment. In most cases, voltages which are more than sufficient to fry semiconductor circuitry would *not* be considered to be "excessive" from a protector standpoint. Also, the average telephone set is rather robust by most standards and can survive considerably greater surges than more delicate equipment. Of course, the newer "electronic" phones often are very vulnerable to surge damage. One other point: it is entirely possible that the damage was caused by induced currents in the wiring of your building from the lightning strike. In such a case, the protectors wouldn't even be involved, since they only have an effect on surges coming down or going up the drop itself. In any case telco is not legally responsible for any damage to subscriber- owned equipment in such a situation, since negligence is not an issue. There are some firms who manufacture "transient protectors" that might be able to help in such situations. They tend to be regularly advertised in many computer periodicals. Versions exist to provide A.C., RS-232, and phone line protection. Such devices usually rely on varistors, gas-discharge tubes, and thermal circuit breakers for "three-mode" protection against most types of surges. --- Regarding the "modular plug blues"... Under normal conditions, the TIP side of the phone line is GREEN and is POSITIVE with respect to the RING (RED) side of the line. When a modular plug carries two lines, the *convention* is for the second line to have TIP on the YELLOW wire, and RING on the BLACK. Indeed, the pin orientation of modular plugs do reverse at many connect points, which certainly makes it rather difficult to deal with polarity sensitive equipment in any uniform sort of fashion. The usual solution to polarity problems is simply the judicious reversing of TIP/RING where necessary on equipment or modular cords themselves. There isn't much else that can really be done, except for the installation of bridge rectifiers in the actual equipment (which would probably have had bridges already if it had been properly designed!) --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 6 Aug 1982 0814-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: 202 mapping Let's get this right, once and for all. Area Code 202 is Washington, D.C., 703 is Northern/Eastern Virginia, and 301 is Maryland. Those codes WITHIN the District (plus the OXford CENTREX, which is officially located within the District, even though most of the phones in it are in Virginia at the Pentagon, Fort Myer, the Navy Annex, and Cameron Station) are in area code 202 ONLY. Those codes in 703 and 301 which are in the "Washington Metro Dialing Area," i.e. which are local to D.C. AND each other, can also be reached from anywhere on the network with 202 as well as their correct area code. The rate and route data base has all the correct info for each NXX, so the call is billed the same regardless of which area code is dialled. Codes in 703 or 301 which are only local to the District and not to the ENTIRE Metro area can be dialed only with the correct area code. There is one anomaly. If you are in Maryland or Virginia and are using an INTERstate outwats, you may be able to reach those INTRAstate points in the D.C. suburbs on YOUR own side of the Potomac by dialing 202. This will work only if the exchange providing WATS service does not 6-digit translate the 202 area. Exchanges will normally only 6-digit translate an NPA when the exchange itself has two different routes it would use to that area. Normally six-digit translation of distant NPAs is only done at the toll switch, which can't tell an outwats call from any other. Knowingly making an INTRAstate call on an INTERstate outwats is probably toll fraud. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Aug 1982 17:52 EDT From: Axelrod.WBST at PARC-MAXC Subject: Query: Origin of the Term "Repeater" - Myth or Fact? I just heard an interesting explanation of how the term "Repeater" came to be used for a telephone line amplifier. I'll pass it along for the amusement of all, and I'm wondering if any of the telephony historians out there can confirm or refute it. In the early days of telephony, there was not enough signal strength out of a handset to make long distance calls. If a subscriber needed to have a conversation with someone distant, the operators would patch connections through as many CO's as was necessary. An operator stayed with the call at each CO. Then, since the original signal couldn't complete the entire circuit, the operators themselves would relay the conversation by repeating each statement and response, back and forth, throughout the duration of the call. Well, after a while, some bright chap invented an electronic amplifier (vacuum tube, I assume) that would allow the signal to make long circuits without excessive attenuation. The human "repeaters" were replaced by Electronic Repeaters. It's a cute story. Does anyone know if it's true? Art Axelrod ------------------------------ Date: 5 Aug 82 11:23:00-EDT (Thu) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: "800" prefix I have read in this digest about upcoming changes (?) to the way "800" prefixes are assigned, and (also figured from other sources) about prefixes of the form NN2 only being used for INTRAstate "800". I have now come across an ad (phone number verified by calling 800-555- 1212 and asking for the number to use from area 302) which has 800-782 prefix for calls from outside Nevada. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Aug 82 10:23:43-EDT (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: Boston area prefixes On page 8 of call guide in 1982 Boston white pages, there is a list, by exchange, of business office phone numbers. The exchanges include several of the "area code" (N0X and N1X) type, and I am confused. This is in 617 area. [Hmm, I saw those in the 1982 Boston area white pages too. The number's don't work yet, as well as I can tell. The exchanges are: 801, 802, 803, 804, 806, 807, 810, 811 (!), and 814. I too am confused (which isn't surprising). --JSol] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 9-Aug-82 18:50:03-PDT,13834;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 9-Aug-82 18:48:51 Date: 9 Aug 1982 1848-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #100 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 10 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 100 Today's Topics: GTE Moves Into Cellular Radio; GTE And The Consent Decree Repeaters - Operators Repeating? 800 Prefix's - Line Versus Number 80X Prefixes In Boston More Funny Prefixes - Coinless Public Phones Assingment Of Area Codes - Huffman Coding Query - Would British Line Protectors Work Here? Lightening Strikes - Non-Bell Equipment Fries French Directories - CRT Vs. Paper ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 9 Aug 1982 15:46:17-EST From: Chris Kent <cak at Purdue> Reply-to: cak at Purdue Subject: GTE moves into Cellular radio; GTE and the consent decree My phone bill arrived today -- with it always comes a little four page newsletter from GTE called "Lines". On the back page was an article that I thought would be of interest to Telecom readers. Cellular mobile radio -- an innovative technology ("Lines", August 1982, V 15 n 8 -- used without permission) GTE recently announced plans to offer a futuristic wire-free communications service that will provide improved mobile telephones for automobiles as well as portable wireless phones. The new servive will be available for use in the home, office and on the stree in a number of metropolitan areas across the United States [somehow I feel that Lafayette, IN won't qualify -- cak]. The innovative technology, know as "cellular" mobile radio telephone service, was approved for public use by the Federal Communications Commision (FCC) in February. GTE filed applications in June for FCC Cellular Licenses in the following areas: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Portland OR, Tampa, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose CA, and Seattle. How GTE's Cellular Service Will Work An area to be served by the new system will be divided into many small geographical "cells", each with a radius of about eight miles. Within each cell will be low-power radio transmitter-receiver units that willcarry the calls over and antenna system for as many as 72 channels. A sophisticated compute-controlled call-switching system will be centrally located in the area to control the transmitter-receiver in each cell and perform the switching task. As a customer drives from one cell to another, the central system will monitor the individual's movement and transfer the call to the transmitter-receiver in the cell being entered without interrupting the conversation. Since the calls will be carried on low-power radio signals, the same channels can be use simultaneously by different customers in nearby cells with virtually no chance of interference. Future growth needs will be met by sub-dividing the cells until thousands of channels can be provided within the serving area. Existing mobile telephone service, in use for a number of years, offers similar convenience but also suffers from some disadvantages. It employs a single powerful radio transmitter which serves a large area and offers only a limited number of channels, making it difficult -- and frequently impossible -- for customers to place a call. --30-- The same issue of lines contains a box about the modified consent decree entitled "Telecommunications in the '80s -- a look at the issues". I won't repeat it here, because it's mainly old hat, but the last paragraph is as follows: "GTE contends the bill ["the non-partisan Wirth-Broyhill version of the Telecommunications Act of 1982 (HR 5158)"] provides for a pro-competitive industry, considers the interests of ratepayers, and has safeguards built in which will assure the continued health and financial viability of telephone companies in the United States. Consequently, we encouraged our employees, shareholders, and customers to seek Congressional support of the bill." Share and enjoy, chris ------------------------------ Date: 6 Aug 1982 1942-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Repeaters Sorry, the story about the term repeater coming from operators repeating what is said sounds like bunk. My dictionary lists one definition of repeater as "an arrangement for receiving signals from one telegraph line and retransmitting corresponding signals into another line." Seems like repeaters were around before telephones. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says that telephone receivers in use in 1904 operated on a mechanical principle but vacuum tube repeaters were used on the New York to San Francisco line in 1915. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Aug 1982 1948-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: 800 prefixes With the new 800 service the phone company has geen offering for about three months now, the 800 NUMBER no longer has to be directly asso- ciated with the 800 LINE. It is now possible to have one 800 NUMBER for the whole country, although it is still required to have the LINES arranged as in the past. Previously the NXXs had something to do with the location, now they no longer do. In fact, calling the same 800 number in different parts of the country or at different times of day may cause you to reach totally different 800 lines. The charges for 800 lines have not changed; you pay extra for the enhanced 800 routing service. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Aug 1982 1949-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Funny prefixes in Boston Those 80X prefixes are for special accounts like 800 numbers, outward wats, and miscellaneous (i.e. no telephone associated) accounts. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Aug 1982 1723-PDT From: ROODE at SRI-NIC (David Roode) Subject: more funny exchanges Location: EJ296 Phone: (415) 859-2774 I have noticed that some of these new credit card call phone which cannot RECEIVE any calls at all, have a funny exchange when you decode it from the number which appears on the phone. Perhaps it is this sort of phone which the Boston phone book refers to in listing business offices. Since everyone is discussing area codes, what about the fact that TWX area codes appear to have addressing compatible with the rest of the North American numbering plan? The TWX area codes all end in 10, which are legitimate area codes by the other constraints one can detect, but which have not been assigned as regular phone area codes. ------------------------------ Date: 7 August 1982 15:49-EDT From: "Marvin A. Sirbu, Jr." <SIRBU at MIT-MC> Subject: Assingment of area codes Area codes are assigned by a kind of Huffman coding for rotary telephones. On a rotary telephone, low numbers take less time to dial than higher numbers. For example, the shortest area code to dial is 212 -- which is assigned to the most frequently called area (New York). 213 and 312 were assigned to the next most frequently called areas (LA and Chicago, respectively). Area code 809 is Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; 907 is Alaska. ------------------------------ From: REX::MINOW 30-JUL-1982 19:59 Reply-to: "REX::MINOW C/O" <Schriesheim.Mitton at DEC-MARLBORO> Subj: Bryant Pond update. My collegue, Ed Bruckert, has a hunting camp a few miles outside of Bryant Pond, Maine, which, as readers of telecom should know, has the last remaining hand-crank ring down phone system in the United States. The system was recently sold and the new owners are planning to replace it with a "modern" dial system. The residents are petitioning the Maine Public Utilities to preserve their system. To raise money for legal costs they are selling T shirts. The shirts have a hand crank phone on them with the words Don't Yank The Crank. If you wish one of these T shirts you can order by sending a check for ten dollars made out to the Don't Yank the Crank Committee, P.O. Box 67, Bryant Pond, Maine, 04219. The shirts are available in small, medium, large and ex-large. Anyone who can pick up the shirts from Ed Bruckert at Dec Maynard can save three dollars as he will pick them up when in Maine. You can contact him at PRINCE::BRUCKERT. [I'll forward some ARPAnet messages to him --DJM, (DEC redistribution) via <Schriesheim.Mitton at DEC-Marlboro>] Ed passed on a few intersting tidbits: If the system is replaced, someone could probably pick up the old central office machinery at little or no cost. Unfortunately, this does not include the telephones themselves. There is an interesting problem with the phones: the original company claims that (1) they owned the equipment and didn't sell the telephones when they sold the company. (2) the new company claims they own everything and (3) the townspeople have no intention of turning in the old phones. On the antique market, the phones are worth about $500,000. In grammar school, my textbooks claimed that there are so many phone calls today that, if it wern't for the dial telephone, everbody in the United states would be a telephone operator. If Bryant Pond goes, that prediction will finally come true. Of course, in ten years or so, speech recognition will be good enough that we can start yanking the dial. I can see it now: "last central office without touch-tone" "last office with keyboard" "last office without smell-o-phone" Martin Minow decvax!minow @ Berkeley REX::MINOW ------------------------------ Date: 9 Aug 1982 10:15 PDT From: Hirst.ES at PARC-MAXC Subject: poached modems Hello, Would line protectors of the type the British Post Office (now called British Telecom) use be of any use. These are called barrier boxes which contain in-line fuses with zener diodes connected across each line & placed between equipment and modem (RS232). However, I'm not so sure that this type of device could be used on the "telephone company side" of the line. Talking of isolation, I hear that the German PTT authorities require 2500v rms isolation between mains input and low voltage secondary circuits, (as opposed to British Telecom who specify 2200v peak) for mains powered data terminal equipment connected to the phone system. Are there any special requirements in the USA? Ken ------------------------------ Date: 9 Aug 1982 15:28:20-EST From: Chris Kent <cak at Purdue> Reply-to: cak at Purdue Subject: Fried modems Our house was also recently struck by lightning -- that is, the utility pole that feeds our phone line was. I didn't have a modem plugged in anywhere, but our answering machine came on and refused to go off. It turned out to be damaged enough that we had to replace it. At the same time, the phone appeared to be dead -- but five minutes later, the fire department trucks pulled up outside our house. Turns out the lightning had fried our alarm system (I could smell it once I got the cover off) and tripped the automatic dialer. The alarm board was also replaced, mainly because the service types only do board swap and send defectives back for rework. The phone company said their protection circuitry worked just fine, and that's what we get for hooking up non-Bell equipment (not in so many words). Indeed, our phones worked fine, and the Bell line-seizure equipment in the dialer worked fine. Nothing else did. chris ------------------------------ From: "Paul Dickson at Pixel c/o" <Schriesheim.Mitton at DEC-Marlboro> Subject: French directories Posted-date: 28-Jul-1982 It is an experiment. They claim the savings on not using paper will pay for the terminals. With high volume manufacturing (several million) they expect the cost to be only a few hundred francs. The terminal is essentially a Videotex terminal, running split 1200/150 baud. The ones I have seen are usually 9-inch screens, with a cheap calculator-style keyboard (like a TRS-80 color computer). The computers are Honeywell series-6 minis. Honeywell-CII-Bull is a French company. The service has only been installed in a few towns so far. The French Telephone User's Group (now there is an interesting idea!) is opposed to the whole scheme. The French PTT wants to do it anyway. Notice that to get the number, you have to make a phone call. You pay for that. Then you have to select the city, then type in the FULL NAME, CORRECTLY. The software is not too hot. The savings is in paper, not operators. Since when do operators give out phone numbers? Not much use for operators in Europe anyway, as they just dont have things like collect calls, conference calls, etc. They are adding those services as they convert to electronic exchanges. PTT's are notoriously optimistic about technical things. The French and the British claim to have the most advanced phone technology in the world, and maybe they do, IN ONE CENTRAL OFFICE. Most of those countries use old step-by-step, and you are lucky to get a dial tone sometimes. We with our old-fashioned crossbar and ESS have been enjoying such service luxuries for a LONG time. Yes the Britsh have System-X, an all digital exchange, but IT ISN'T INSTALLED YET. Conversion from Step will be a very long process. A lot of national pride is tied up in these undertakings, so take the claims of PTT's with a grain of salt. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 10-Aug-82 17:12:32-PDT,2778;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 10-Aug-82 17:11:20 Date: 10 Aug 1982 1711-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #101 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Wednesday, 11 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 101 Today's Topics: Modem Chips Information Query Area Codes Automated Directory Assistance ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Aug 1982 03:37:23-PDT From: pur-ee!malcolm at Berkeley Subject: Modem Chips Does anybody have anybody have information about Modem Chips? I have a spec sheet for a Bell 103 chip from TI, and have seen the Intel 2910 signal processing chip used as a 300 baud modem, but I haven't seen anything about 1200 baud chips . I heard that AMD was going to announce a 1200 baud chip but I couldn't get any information from anybody I could find at AMD. I also have been told that Racal-Vadic uses an IC to do their 1200 baud modems but I haven't seen anything definite. Malcolm Slaney Purdue EE Dept. ------------------------------ Date: 10 August 1982 10:47-EDT From: Jeffrey R. Del Papa <DP at MIT-ML> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #100 If area code are selected for low dialing length, how come the eastern half of mass has area code 617, and the western half (which is mostly rural) has code 413? Jeff ------------------------------ Date: 10-Aug-82 10:21-PDT From: JWAGNER at OFFICE Subject: automated directory assitance Identifier: TYM-JPW4-12SCU Length: 1 page(s)[estimate] Posted: 10-Aug-82 10:18-PDT Indiana Bell has taken a first step toward automating directory assistance information calls. An operator who works for the company said the move to automated directory assistance is aimed at saving operators' time and phone company money. So far, it has been successful. She said that during a one-month test of the system, automated directory assistance will be available only at night. When you call Indiana Bell and ask for directory assistance, a "live" operator first answers and asks for the city you want to call, and then for an individual's name. Then a recorded voice -- the same nice lady who reads the time -- reads the number in a halting, pre-recorded manner. She then repeats the number and says to stay on the line if you want to talk to the live operator again. I'm not sure how widely available the service is, or at what times -- try calling directory assistance for Indianapolis (or vicinity) sometime at night. -- Jim Wagner/jwagner@office ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 11-Aug-82 22:26:50-PDT,3140;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 11-Aug-82 22:26:02 Date: 11 Aug 1982 2226-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #102 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 12 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 102 Today's Topics: ESS Service Outages - No Calls Affected - Sometimes DF03 Is Not Polarity Sensitive? - Wrong! Calling Cards - Paying For A Service You No Longer Use ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 11 Aug 1982 1022-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> cc: smb.unc at UDEL-RELAY Subject: No. 1 ESS service outage A little while ago Steve Bellovin reported that there had been a 75 minute service outage in the exchange in Chapel Hill, but the data call he had in progress during that time was not interrupted. The explanation for this is that No. 1 ESS has a "phased" recovery process which it uses to recover from malfunctions. What general purpose computer operating systems usually refer to as "warm," "cool," and "cold" starts are called "Phases" in a No. 1 ESS. The lower the number, the less drastic the recovery process. For example, in the lowest numbered phases, a call being dialled might go to reorder, but no other effect would be noticed. In higher numbered phases, no dial-tone would be returned, but all existing calls would be unaffected. In the highest numbered phases, all calls are dropped. No 1 ESS loses call forwarding during higher numbered phases, No 1A (which has rotating memory) usually doesn't. ------------------------------ Date: 11 Aug 1982 1031-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: DF03 is not polarity sensitive After looking at the DF03 prints and talking with the design engineer (and noting that the device was designed so that it would not be polarity sensitive), I tried my DF03 with polarity set both ways and found no problem. Something else must have been going on. ------------------------------ Date: 11-Aug-82 9:34:40 PDT (Wednesday) From: Suk at PARC-MAXC Subject: Paying for "Operator Assistance"? cc: Suk.PA We recently (tried to) make some "Calling Card" calls from a pay phone in Durango, Colorado. The "operator" was obviously a computer, which used only a limited vocabulary on us. After keying in 25 digits (0 + (area code) + (phone number) + (14-digit calling card number)), the "operator" answered "THANK you". After trying two different numbers two times each, and receiving busy signals each time (100 key depressions), I could anticipate the exact moment the "operator" would cut in, and could mimic "her" voice exactly. Had we been successful in completing any of these calls, would we have been charged for an "operator assisted" call? (Thank heaven for pushbutton phones! We could still be there dialing.) Stan Suk [Sigh, yes, you get less service but still pay the same amount. --JSol] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 12-Aug-82 17:00:35-PDT,3108;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 12-Aug-82 16:57:30 Date: 12 Aug 1982 1657-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #103 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 13 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 103 Today's Topics: Direct Dial Credit Card Calls - Usage And Charging ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 12 Aug 1982 1252-PDT Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #102 From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow Reply-To: Geoff at SRI-CSL I'm glad to see (in reference to Stan Suk's message on the computer generated "THANK you" voice recording when Credit Card calls are made), that I'm not the only one who has the exact moment down when the operator would cut in and mimics her voice aloud! ------------------------------ Date: 12 Aug 1982 1619-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: suk at PARC-MAXC Subject: Credit card calls As has been discussed in this digest before, there is a new rate in effect for all interstate credit card calls and for intrastate credit card calls which is somewhat lower than the operator assisted rate (the rate you would pay for collect or bill-to-third-number). You pay the same rate whether you enter the card or the operator does because you don't have control over whether the system is available where you are (just like you get the direct dial rate from/to Bryant Pond, even though an operator has to make the call). AT&T wanted to make the credit card surcharge 50 cents. After the FCC received objections from MCI and other competitors that the 50 cent rate was too low, the FCC ordered AT&T to charge $1.05 (it's a bit less for real short interstate calls). The FCC felt that the system was not in widespread enough use to justify the lower rate, but they have told me that they will monitor implementation and order a reduction when appropriate. ------------------------------ Date: 12 August 1982 1543-PDT (Thursday) From: lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Calling Card Charges Actually, the long range plan is for customer-dialed calling card calls to eventually be charged at a lower rate than operator-assisted calls. My understanding is that these tariff revisions will not take place until the automated system is more generally available to a greater percentage of the calling public. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 12 Aug 1982 1442-PDT From: Lynn Gold <G.FIGMO at SU-SCORE> Subject: Calling cards and direct dialing Sender: ADMIN.MRC at SU-SCORE Address: 725 Mariposa Ave. #103; Mountain View, CA 94041 Phone: (415) 968-1052 Is it now possible to use direct dialing with a calling card from anywhere in the US? I have two cards, and if this were so, I'd find it (of course) very helpful to be able to avoid a few mindless operators who mess up my number. --Lynn ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 16-Aug-82 20:59:50-PDT,6647;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 16-Aug-82 20:59:25 Date: 16 Aug 1982 2059-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #104 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 17 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 104 Today's Topics: ACTS - "Operators" In Credit Card Calls Calling Cards And Direct Dialing Directories And Phone System Comparison - French Vs. USA The Message Unit Blues, And Notes On Operator Assistance Any Touch Tone (tm) Or Equivalent Cordless Phones Out There? Telephone Trivia - "Repeaters" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 12 Aug 1982 17:50:17-PDT From: D.jlapsley at Berkeley To: c70:telecom@USC-ECLB Subject: "Operators" in Credit Card Calls I know in our area, central east-bay, we have a service known as ACTS (Automated Coin Toll Service). This service has a computer voice for collecting coins. I don't know about credit card calls, but I know that with coin calls, flashing the switchook will alert the operator. Or so Bell says, as I have never tried this. In any case, you might try to make your call and then flash the switchook and demand good old fashioned human assistance. Phil [The TELECOM archives have a document describing ACTS and ABC, which was submitted by Ian <Merritt at USC-ISIB>, and is available from USC-ECLB in BUG:<JSOL.TELECOM>ACTS.TXT for public FTP using the login name ANONYMOUS and password GUEST. If you cannot retrieve this file then send mail to TELECOM-REQUEST and we will mail it back to you in return mail. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 13 Aug 82 8:45:59-EDT (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> To: Lynn Gold <G.FIGMO@Su-Score> Subject: Re: Calling cards and direct dialing From what I have read in other sources, I don't think credit-card direct- dial is available EVERYWHERE in U.S. (I made a couple of credit-card calls just yesterday from a phone which had no 0+ dialing.) I THINK (am not sure) that the new lower-than-operator-assisted rate is being made avail- able to all areas, including those not yet equipped for such direct-dial. (Similar to my getting direct-dial international rates although my phone cannot handle IDDD, and to everyone's getting direct-dial rates to Bryant Pond, Maine.) ------------------------------ Date: 12 August 1982 21:33 edt From: "Ruptash@PCO-Multics" at MIT-MULTICS Subject: Re: French Directories Sender: Ruptash.TSDC at PCO-MULTICS I'm sorry I missed the initiation of this discussion, but from what I can piece together, the French PTT has constructed a network of Honeywell Mini-6's (DPS/6s) to distribute directory information. Is this network (if it really is one) using the new Honeywell DSA software? That's our OSI-compatible distributed system architecture. It's a joint Cii-HB/Honeywell effort. Or is it a "distributed database" - hand-carried disk packs with new directory listings every blue moon... Or maybe downline loaded directory files? -- Brian ------------------------------ Date: 13-Aug-82 16:20:46-EDT (Fri) From: cbosgd!ima!johnl at Berkeley Original-From: John R. Levine, The INTERACTIVE Electric Calculator Co., Cambridge MA. Subject: The Message Unit Blues, and notes on Operator Assistance First, I have a problem that I hope some bright person here can solve. In my office in Cambridge MA, I have a phone line computer uses for dialing out. I call Telenet (a crock where my computer calls the local PAD and logs into a remote Telenet host), and I call MCI to make long distance calls for uucp. The problem is that TPC claims that the only service I can get is message service and the message units are killing me. Both Telenet and MCI are a local call, but that's one message unit (11 cents) every 5 minutes and it adds up, in the vicinity of $75/mo just for message units. When I was working out of my house, the phone was at the residence rate where local calls are free, but at the office no such luck. Dedicated lines to Telenet or MCI seem to be too expensive. Any other ideas? Also, somebody claimed that operator assisted calls are not widely available in Europe. They are, for international calls at least, but not in a very useful way. For example, to make a collect, person, or credit card call from France, you dial 19 to get an international dial tone, 33 for operator help, and then the country code of the country you want to call. An operator answers, you tell him the number and the other details. He says "OK, 115 minutes delay" and hangs up. Then you wait. With luck, two hours later they'll call you back with your party on the line, but it might be one hour or three. If you get fed up in the interim, you can usually call again and tell them to forget it, but not always. You can't use from a pay phone because they can't call you back, so you have to go to the post office during the day when there's an attendant. Direct dialed pay calls to the U.S. require that you stuff a 1 franc coin into the phone every 1.8 seconds (no kidding!) With service like that, no wonder they expect you to type the name exactly right for automated directory assist. Meanwhile in the USA, now that they expect you to dial 25 digits for a self-service Calling Card call they've made the surcharge for it only 50 cents, e.g. 2 cents/digit. A bargain. Bah. John Levine, (ARPA) Levine@YALE, (uucp) decvax!cca!ima!johnl ------------------------------ Date: 14 Aug 1982 12:38:14-EDT From: cfh at CCA-UNIX (Christopher Herot) Subject: cordless phones Does there exist a cordless phone which transmits real DTMF? All the ones I've seen are of the "universal" variety which translate button pushes into pulses. Several salespeople insisted that they don't come any other way, but I'm not about to give up so quickly. Also, do they all use the same FM band? Do any of them have any way of discriminating between you and your neighbor? (even garage door openers do that!) ------------------------------ Date: 15 Aug 1982 09:06:21-EDT From: dee at CCA-UNIX (Donald Eastlake) Subject: "repeaters" I suspect that the first use of the term "repeaters" was in the telegraph age when there were relay kludges to repeat the DC telegraph pulses when the lines would otherwise get to be too long. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 17-Aug-82 19:04:12-PDT,4531;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 17-Aug-82 19:03:42 Date: 17 Aug 1982 1903-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #105 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Wednesday, 18 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 105 Today's Topics: DTMF Cordless Phones Pay Phones In France French Directory Experiment State Of The Art - ACTS vs. Pay Phones With No Dial ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 August 1982 04:15-EDT From: Eliot R. Moore <ELMO at MIT-MC> Subject: cordless phones To: cfh at CCA-UNIX Our 1978 Royce Freedom Phone, before the nicads died, appeared to transmit real DTMF. Hard to tell though because we're located in GTE step with touch-tone conversion hardware on the line. /Elmo ------------------------------ Date: 17 Aug 1982 0759-PDT From: STERNLIGHT <STERNLIGHT at USC-ECL> Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #104 cc: STERNLIGHT at USC-ECL "Stuffing a 1 franc coin in a French pay phone every 1.8 seconds" is not the best way to call the U.S. The phones take larger coins, and use them up first, so if you are smart you will put a lot of coins in in advance, and the pay phones will very nicely make change. One of the handiest automatic pay phones for calling the U.S. is on the Rue de la Paix across the street from the Cafe de la Paix and about a block or two toward the Madeleine. I use it often. --david-- ------------------------------ Date: 17 Aug 1982 13:17:59-EDT From: cfh at CCA-UNIX (Christopher Herot) Subject: French Directory Experiment I saw the French telephone directory system last September when I visited CNET, the French counterpart of Bell Labs. At that time, they were entering the second stage of an experiment in providing automated directory assistance. In the first stage, they tested the prototype system on 70 subjects they hired (for $25) for half a day through a local employment agency. They claimed that 90% of the people were successful at using the system after reading two pages of instruction and being given 15 minutes of "free play". One problem they identified was with looking up a number where there was not an exact match on the name or the town. It sounds like that has not yet been corrected. The second stage of the experiment was supposed to start in May of this year and would involve equipping 250,000 subscribers in one "department" with a cheap terminal which they would use for directory assistance. They figure the terminal costs about $200 today, with a projected cost of $100 in quantities of 2,000,000. The terminal is equipped with a built-in CCIT standard modem which receives at 1200 baud but transmits at a much lower speed. The screen is about 40 characters wide by some small number of lines. I asked them if they were worried that all of the people using these terminals (especially when they supported videotex, etc.) would swamp the network. The response was that the network was underutilized at present and that if everyone started using it, the increased revenues would pay for enlarging the network. I asked if people would complain about having to pay for the service. Their response was that people already pay for it (twice in fact - once for the message units and once for the directory service) and don't seem to notice. In Europe, people don't get itemized phone bills but rather are charged for the number of "units" of local and long distance calls they use. If a subscriber wants to keep track of his charges, he has to rent a counter to go on his phone. ------------------------------ Date: 17 Aug 1982 10:23 PDT From: Lynn.ES at PARC-MAXC cc: Lynn.es "I don't think credit-card direct- dial is available EVERYWHERE in U.S." Heck direct dial is not available everywhere. I saw a pay phone last Saturday (that I have used before) that has no dial. Lift the receiver and an operator comes on line. If you deposit your coins before the called party answers (and is checked by the operator to be the right number, I might add), you lose your coins, since the operator has no way of releasing them on these old phones. They will mail your dimes back though. I was kind of disappointed that it didn't have a hand crank. /Don Lynn ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 18-Aug-82 21:28:21-PDT,4649;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 18-Aug-82 21:27:54 Date: 18 Aug 1982 2127-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #106 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 19 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 106 Today's Topics: Hand-Crank And Dial-Less Phones Dialing Calling Card Calls More On Auto-Bill Calling ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 Aug 1982 2014-PDT From: Zellich at OFFICE-3 (Rich Zellich) Subject: Hand-crank and dial-less phones About 5 years ago, I pulled off the main highway across the Mojave desert between LA and Needles to phone in a trouble report for another motorist, and had to crank the phone to get the operator's attention. After the call was completed, I had to crank again to alert her, after which she asked the phone number of the pay phone. I looked all over, until finally the gas station attendant came over and pointed the plainly-posted phone number out to me. I hadn't realized what it was, because their phone number was "7"! It's nice to see such anachronisms still in use...I occasionally wonder if they still have the same system in use. -Rich ------------------------------ Date: 18 Aug 1982 1103-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Dialing calling card calls Someone recently suggested flashing at Auto-Bill-Calling to get an operator (that works, but so does pressing the "0" button, which is why my credit card, which used to start with "0", now starts with "6"). But why not use it? You can dial in your number faster than you can give it to an operator. Also, as has been pointed out before, AT&T wanted to charge a really low rate for calling card calls, but their competitors pointed out to the FCC that only a small percentage of the calls would be handled automatically, and thus the credit card rate should be closer to the operator assisted rate. The FCC will monitor the data on what percen- tage of credit card calls are actually self dialed and will authorize AT&T to charge the lower rate they would prefer when the data shows that actual operator assisted calls aren't subsidizing credit card calls. The only thing you do by demanding operator assistance is force everyone to pay a higher rate longer. A calling card call is a calling card call is a calling card call. The rate is the same whether you dial the card yourself or give it to an operator. Although some operators may claim that you have to pay a higher rate if they dial it, they are full of baloney. Except on pay phones (where you get a recording telling you what to do) all that happens is the special tone comes on. Unless you've gotten the bill insert and read it, you won't know what to do. The following are example credit card surcharges: Interstate calls: 0-10 miles 0.60 11-22 miles 0.80 22-up miles 1.05 (remember AT&T wanted to charge 0.50) Intrastate calls: Massachusetts 0.45 New Hampshire 0.30 New York 0.40 Georgia 0.30 Virginia no new rate, op asst rates still apply Connecticutt varies by distance, e.g. 0.41 or 0.47 New Jersey no new rate, op asst rates still apply Pennsylvania varies by distance, e.g. 0.91 or 1.03 Ohio no new rate, op asst rates still apply Texas 0.35 California 0.40 Minnesota 0.25 above day rate, but first minute always charged at day rate And remember, a rate changes somewhere every day. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Aug 1982 1126-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: More on Auto-Bill Calling I just noticed that it wasn't working on my home phone. The business office claims it should, and told me to call repair service. Oh boy... repair service doesn't know how to fix anything other than frayed cords. Obviously the reason it doesn't work is that the data base shows that I have rotary service. I suppose it is equally likely that the data base could show that I have Touch-Tone service if I didn't. Or what about the customer who has Touch-Tone service, but has a candlestick phone in one room of the house. Credit card calls should not (and do not) cost more from a phone obtained from the phone company. Rumor has it (and I mean rumor) that they are looking at a way to recognize and count the SOUNDS of the dial pulse clicks coming in over the line. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 25-Aug-82 13:35:45-PDT,6339;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 25-Aug-82 13:23:30 Date: 25 Aug 1982 1323-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #107 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 26 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 107 Today's Topics: Counting Dial-Pulses Directory Assistance Charges In Washington, D.C. ZED - Cusomer Dialed Vs. Operator Dialed - Cost Differences Operator Codes - Montague, NJ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 19 Aug 1982 0938-PDT From: Ian H. Merritt <MERRITT at USC-ISIB> Subject: Counting dial-pulses If the same telephone company who is administering local service wants to have the TSPS handle credit-card entry, why not add some special mode to ESS (don't ask about mechanical switches, though) to pre-parse the pulses and pass them on to TSPS as MF signals. Or better yet, use the CCIS connections to communicate the mode and signal data. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Aug 1982 0915-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Directory Assistance Charges in Washington, D.C. C&P has just obtained approval from the D.C. Corporation Commission to charge 41 cents per DA call, with no allowance. This is inside the District only. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Aug 82 08:48:40 EDT (Thu) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #106 -- Dialing credit-card calls Cc: John R Covert <RSX-DEV@Dec-Marlboro> In North Carolina intrastate credit-card calls *are* cheaper if you dial the number. --Steve ------------------------------ Date: 21 Aug 1982 0132-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: smb.unc at UDEL-RELAY Subject: Cheaper in NC if you dial the calling card? I'll believe that only if you can send me a direct quote from the tariff. Operators usually don't know what they are talking about. I also cannot believe that the PUC would let customers who are either forced to have rotary service or who have purchased rotary design line sets suffer with a higher rate. I just got off the phone with the supervisor I reached by dialing "0" on my Charlotte line. She explained that if I dial 0+the number, I will get the calling card rate (which in N.C. for intrastate calls is 0.30 on top of the DDD rate) regardless of whether I dial the calling card or give it to the operator. But if I make the operator dial the TELEPHONE number in an area with TSPS, then I would have to pay the operator assisted rate. As I said, operators don't know what they are talking about. I had to talk to the supervisor because the operator I got told me that there was a special calling card rate ONLY for out-of-state calls. Even in North Carolina, a calling card call is a calling card call is a calling card call. At least as long as you dial the telephone number yourself when 0+ service is in your area. As soon as ABC is turned on in the exchange in Charlotte I have access to, I'll place two calls, just to be sure. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Aug 82 19:21:43 EDT (Sat) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: Re: Cheaper in NC if you dial the calling card? To: John R Covert <RSX-DEV@Dec-Marlboro> I'll check again, but my source of information was the leaflets the phone company sent out to announce the service. ------------------------------ Date: 23 Aug 82 8:21:26-EDT (Mon) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: operator codes I read a list of 50 prefixes in the 201 area (northern NJ) and see that most of them show operator codes of "201&". However, I see an 8-character operator code for 201-293 (Montague, which is not in Bell system) and it starts "914&"; does this mean it's right next to NY state line? I could not find Montague on road maps of NJ or NY or in zipcode directory, and I have previously written in this digest about such situation elsewhere. A topic I have NOT dealt with is that of prefixes which use a place name from across a state line (example is 301-996 Stewartstown, a Md. prefix using name of a Pa. town); I wonder if such is the case with Montague above. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Aug 82 10:20:18-EDT (Tue) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore.BRL-VLD@BRL> cc: cmoore.Brl-Vld at BRL Subject: Montague, NJ I have located Montague, NJ. It's on Delaware River across from Milford, Pa., and about 7 miles downstream from where NY, NJ, and Pa. meet. I am guessing that the area served by Montague (201-293) exchange is adjacent to NY state. (Beyond the scope of Telecom: finding what the nearby zipcodes are.) ------------------------------ Date: 25 Aug 1982 1307-PDT From: Jon Solomon <JSol at USC-ECLC> Subject: Other oddities related to Montague, NJ. I am speculating about this, but perhaps the independent company which serves Montague, NJ has arrangements with NY Telephone to access the Long Distance network, and that most calls (perhaps NJ intrastate calls are the exception) go through the 914 NPA Operators? I know that Fishers Island, NY uses Southern New England Telephone in Connecticut for its long distance simply because the island is closer to CT (Area code 203) than Long Island, NY (area code 516). Fishers Island residence numbers are listed in the New London, CT Telephone book, and Fishers Island residents get a private phone book listing only their exchange. When you dial "0" in Fishers Island you could get an operator anywhere in Connecticut (which is wierd!). Fishers Island is not served by NY Telephone, *or* Southern New England Telephone, but has arrangements with SNET to handle long distance calls. On the other hand, if you live in Greenwich, CT, you are served by NY Telephone, and when you get an Operator it is from Westchester Co. (Area Code 914.) Greenwich customers have their numbers listed in both the Westchester Co. phone book and in the one SNET produces for Greenwich and surrounding areas. --JSol ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 26-Aug-82 16:11:19-PDT,3512;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 26-Aug-82 16:09:59 Date: 26 Aug 1982 1609-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #108 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 27 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 108 Today's Topics: 1200-Baud Modems - Quality (Or Lack Of) Phone Connections Montague, NJ - Phone Net Strangeness Ring Signal Query - Debugging Answering Machines ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 25 Aug 1982 1703-PDT From: Jim Celoni S.J. <CSL.JLH.Celoni at SU-SCORE> Subject: 1200-baud modems I've looked at the relevant Telecom archives, done some homework of my own, and am getting ready to buy a (direct-connect) 1200-baud (and Bell 103) modem with autodialer. The modems at the computer end understand Bell 212A and Vadic 3400 protocols, so one of either flavor will do. I've used a Ven-Tel 212-PLUS for several months and am pretty happy with it, but I'm also considering the Hayes Smartmodem 1200 (212), Racal-Vadic VA 3451 PA (triple), and a Racal-Vadic (not the new quad) that may be appearing soon (if you know anything about it let me know). I'd go for the 3451 but am used to the Ven-Tel's fast (DTMF) dialing. I live 20 miles from the computers and have a standard residence line (and almost enough usage to make FX cheaper than the 3 ORTS units I have). With the 212+, about every third connection is unusable (}i~rxD, more noise than text), but I'm trying out a friend's R-V VA 3413 (3400 only, no dialer, acoustic-coupled) and it's clean. (Using the 212+ to dial up a computer off the same CO gives crisp and clean results, and PT&T repair service says lines from my phone and to the far computers are good.) MY QUESTION (finally): is the 3400 protocol less sensitive to line noise (that much), does the 212+ need tuning, or what? Might I really have a substandard line, and if so how do I convince Ma? How good are *your* 1200-baud long-distance (e.g. DDD .08+#min*.13) connections of either flavor? I'll welcome any help, 3400/212 comparisons, more recent remarks on the products, etc. and will summarize for Telecom what's of general interest (unless you prefer otherwise). Thanks. --Jim Unrelatedly, placing operator-assisted calls to some same-area-code NNXs by "0"+7D (phone book's instructions) always gives reorder tone. I'm in 408-984, and last summer our CO was upgraded to #1? ESS (custom calling, IDDD, different recordings--hundreds of phones were flaky for a week during cut). Is the book wrong, or is this a bug/feature? ------------------------------ Date: 25 Aug 82 4:37 EDT (Wed) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: Montague, NJ Yah, there is something funny going on around there. Folks who live in Milford (served by GT&E) get the Port Jefferson, NY phone book, which lists all of the communities in the tri-state area. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 1982 09:24 PDT From: Swenson at PARC-MAXC Subject: Request for information: cc: Swenson at PARC-MAXC What are the electrical parameters of the typical ring signal? (I have a telephone answering machine that has trouble counting [timing] ring signals, and I want to take it off line & figure out what it's doing) Thanks Bob Swenson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 27-Aug-82 17:06:00-PDT,9516;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 27-Aug-82 17:03:29 Date: 27 Aug 1982 1703-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #109 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Saturday, 28 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 109 Today's Topics: 1200 Baud Modem Protocols - Bell 212A Vs. Vadic 3400 LA Telephone: Bell Or GTE? / No Tones With ITT NPANXX Assignments Crossing State Boundaries? Specifications - Ring Signals TRON Recording - 900 NPA Bugs Query - Where To Report Them? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 27 Aug 1982 0104-PDT From: Ian H. Merritt <MERRITT at USC-ISIB> Subject: Re: 1200-baud modems (TELECOM Digest V2 #108, 26 Aug 1982) To: CSL.JLH.Celoni at SU-SCORE It has been my experience that 3400 format is substantially cleaner on marginal telephone connections than 212A. In one instance, I could rarely if ever get a connection with 212A which wouldn't periodically send something like: xxxxx{~xxxxxx~~~```x``~{~`x``x`x`x``x`x~ often filling several lines of the screen. Under similar conditions, the 3400 format would \sometimes/ get a data hit, but even when it did, it was usually more like: yyy or even shorter. The incidence of data hits seems to be (in my casual observation) substantially reduced by the use of 3400 format. Racal-Vadic probably has some literature documenting more exact comparisons and perhaps explaning why. Even though it doesn't auto-dial, I would \STRONGLY/ recommend the Vadic. Even if it means having to use an external dialer. One other thing is that the 212A implementation on Vadics is supposed to be superior to most others, but I am not sure just how, and whether it makes any difference. <>IHM<> PS: This message was sent via a VA3451 in 212A mode, with a GDC modem on the computer end. I have not taken any data hits during the message, even though the call is traversing probably 12 miles of circuit and crossing a Bell-System/GTE boundary. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 1982 1703-PDT From: Gene Autrey-Hunley <Autrey-Hunley at SRI-KL> Subject: Experience with 1200 Baud Modems Work address: Suite 6801, 200 E. Randlolph Dr., Chicago, IL 60615 Home address: 1123 E. 53 St., Chicago, IL 60615 Telephone: (312)565-2222 work, (312)752-3432 home I have used three different brands of 1200 Baud modems in the Chicago area. I use them for both Tymnet access and dial-in to local computers. The three brands are Vadic VA3451 (triple protocol), UDS 212 LP (Bell 212 equivalent only), and Penril DCD 1200/300 (212 and 103). None of them has an autodialer. I've had the most experience with the Vadic. I find automatic selection of protocol handy. Based on good experience, I use the Vadic 3400 protocol when it is available. Second choice is 212, with 103 (300 Baud) last. Subjectively I find that the Vadic protocol seems to be more robust than 212. The UDS is inexpensive and simple to operate--only one switch, and it is designed to connect conveniently to your phone. Both the Vadic and Penril required Y-splitters and special switches on the phone cable so that I can hang up the phone after making the connection. I, too, would like to have an autodialer; so I will be interested in your decision. --Gene ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 82 19:22:50-EDT (Thu) From: Randall Gellens <gellens.CC@UDel-Relay> To: TELECOM at Usc-Eclb Subject: LA telephone: Bell or GTE? / No Tones with ITT Via: UDel-CC; 26 Aug 82 19:40-EDT When I was last in the LA area, it seemed that some phone books were from a GTE-affiliated company, while others were from a Bell-affiliate. Every pay phone I saw was Bell, however. (Although on some, which seemed to be touch-tone, when I dialed the local access of my alternative carrier, the push-buttons were dead -- no tone at all. When I dialed the pay phone next to me and answered, the push-buttons worked correctly -- generated tones. (I was mostly in Laguna, Hollywood, West Hollywood, and Beverly Hills.) [Some phones in LA are GTE, some are Bell, the Bell ones tend to not let you dial into competition carrier systems, GTE doesn't seem to mind, since you usually end up paying them local message unit charges to reach the dialins. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 27 Aug 1982 0021-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: Stewartstown NPA-NXX assignments are very unlikely to cross a state line, even if the physical exchange serves both sides of the line. This is the case with 717-993, Stewartstown, Pennsylvania and 301-996, which is some small number of telephones in Maryland, just over the border from Stewartstown. In order for calls to these telephones to be billed at the proper rate, a 301 NPA has to be assigned. In fact there are separate Vertical and Horizontal coordinates given. The number 717 993-2963 is the Stewartstown, Pa borough office. It can be reached by dialing 301 996-2963, but to gain a lower rate by doing so would, of course, be fraud. Not all cases where an exchange crosses allow you to reach numbers by using the wrong NXX; that will depend on the equipment in each case. Don't assume that just because the operator's route for some location is X that all toll traffic for that location is handled through X. Most of Northern Virginia has 202+ as its operator's route, but, of course, there is an Arlington, Virginia 4A (maybe 4E by now). On the other hand, there is an explicit operator's route for the towns near Triangle, Virginia, but that little phone company doesn't do its own toll. All the operators route indicates is where the INWARD operator for a particular location is, or often, in the case of TSPS inward, where the TSPS base unit is for inward operators, who could be miles away, or even in different states, and not necessarily the same place each time a call completes. Over the past few years, inward has become further separated from local operators. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 82 22:16:38 EDT (Thu) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: Ring signals Cc: Swenson at Parc-Maxc Via: UNC; 27 Aug 82 0:28-EDT From "Electrical Characteristics of Bell System Network Facilities at the Interface with Voiceband Ancillary and Data Equipment" (catchy title, huh?), PUB 47001: Ringing voltages applied at the central office are normally 86 +/-2 volts rms, 20 +/-3 Hz with a dc voltage added to enable the tripping and detection of answer. The ac and dc voltages are usually applied to the ring conductor with ground on the tip conductor. For some switching systems, the ac voltage can vary from 65 to 130 volts rms, while the dc component can vary from 36 to 75 volts negative with respect to ground. Ringing signals are repetitive bursts, typically of 2 seconds duration out of each 6 second interval. In some applications bursts may be as short as 0.8 seconds. A partial burst of ringing may occur initially. During the silent interval, central office battery is applied to the line. .... terminal equipment whould have a minimum impedance of 8000/REN (Ringer Equivalence Number) ohms at 20 Hz for voltages from 40 to 50 volts rms and a nominal ringer capacitance of 0.45 uF. Certain signals may appear at the interface which could be falsely interpreted as alerting signals. Appropriate precautions should be taken in the design of terminal equipment ringing detectors (ringers excluded) so that they do not respond to the following signals: momentary bursts of ringing less than 125 milliseconds in duration, or 40 volts rms, 60 or 180 Hz longitudinal voltages appearing on tip or ring with respect to ground. ------------------------------ Date: 27 Aug 1982 0520-EDT From: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Subject: TRON recording?? I recently tried dialing that 800 number TRON promo that was mentioned a while back in some digest [I think it was SFL]. I was obviously way out of date for it, since it was supposed to be up only for a couple of weeks. Anyhow, I got a sort of standard error recording, except that the tape machine at the other end was having real problems. It would slow down every so often and get totally unintelligible, like what you hear from your cassette deck just before it eats your favorite rare live-from-the-radio tape. I called repair, just for the fun of it, and told them that somewhere out there there was a tape drive teetering on the brink of meltdown. I had to explain three times before the lady understood what I was driving at. Then she told me that she had no idea who was in charge of that number. I asked wasn't someone or some department generally in charge of WATS stuff, and she said that if anyone was in charge of that number that her computer would have told her. She said that it showed ''unknown''. Then she asked for my number and got somewhat upset when I told her that it wasn't important, this was a more generalized problem. Any repair bureau wizards out there that can explain what was *really going on?? _H* ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 30-Aug-82 19:05:51-PDT,12324;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 30-Aug-82 19:05:24 Date: 30 Aug 1982 1905-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #110 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 31 August 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 110 Today's Topics: Last Panel Office Going... Going... Gone! LA Telephones & Polarity Guards - Technical Vs. Political Standards For Ring Signals 1200 Baud Modem Protocols Followup - Montague, NJ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29-Aug-82 20:40:59-PDT (Sun) From: mhtsa!houxb!hosbc!lmg To: houxb!mhtsa!ucbvax!boken at RUTGERS Re: Panel Office BELL TO SILENCE NATION'S LAST SWITCH RACK by Ted Sherman For nearly 60 years, the tall circuit racks at the telephone building on Avon Avenue in Newark have been loudly clicking nonstop to connect customers in what was once called the Bigelow exchange area. The electro-mechanical panel office, which represented a technological breakthrough in 1923 by allowing customers to dial local calls without the assistance of an operator, has long been obsolete but continued to route calls for 15,000 persons. It is the last such office in the Bell System and on September 11 it will be replaced with an electronic switching system that can handle more calls, has no moving parts and makes no noise. Charles O. Luff Jr., the chief switchman at the office, has spent 30 of his 41 years at the telephone company among the clattering panel racks. "I've always called it the great old beast," he said of the giant switching machine which takes up two stories and incorporates miles of neatly bundled wires brown with age. * * * The office switches all incoming and outgoing calls for the exchange through thousands of sliding mechanical contacts that travel up and down long brass rods within aisle after aisle of mechanical racks like shelves of books at a library. Before the introduction of the panel office, callers had to give the telephone number they were trying to reach to an operator who then would complete the call. The panel dial system eliminated all that and was expanded to many of the state's major cities before the development of better switching equipment. At one point it was the workhorse of the Bell System, although the mechanical parts needed constant maintenance and care. - 2 - Luff said in the days before air conditioning, the electrical contacts in the racks were especially sensitive to humidity in the summer. To dry out the equipment, officials were forced to turn up the heat, frequently pushing the temperature above 100 degrees. "We had to bring in tubs of ice and fans to cool down the operators," Luff said, recalling that Bell had a strict dress code in the 1940s that required operators to wear long skirts and starched white blouses. Luff said the Avon Avenue panel office had been retained by New Jersey Bell because the area was experiencing a negative growth rate and the mechanical switching racks continued to work. However, the office will be closed on Sept. 11 and its operations will be taken over by electronic switching units at 95 Washington Street. The transfer will make it necessary for 3,800 customers to get new telephone numbers, but the rest of the people switched through the Avon Avenue office will not notice the change. "It's like the last of the old steam engines," Luff said of the panel office. "The machine can handle the job, but the cost of maintenance is so high." When all of its circuits were used in the 1940s, it took 18 persons to look after the switching racks. As its use was phased out, Luff said, 12 technicians were needed to maintain the facility, which has to be staffed 24 hours a day. The new electronic switching systems do not have to be staffed. Luff said an electronic switching system can diagnose its internal problems, fix what is wrong or tell someone what the problem is in a blink of an eye. The technology changes I've seen in the past 40 years are just incredible," he said. Luff said the panel office would be retired in place, noting: "The machine is going first and I'm going very shortly after." ------------------------------ Date: 27 August 1982 2333-PDT (Friday) From: lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: L.A. phones As Jon mentioned, Los Angeles is served by both Pacific Telephone (Bell) and General Telephone. In the "early" days, Pacific snapped up the populous areas and General took the "undesirable" areas where "nobody" lived. These "undesirable" areas didn't stay that way too long however: Bel Air, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, San Fernando, and the like became extremely popular as the years wore on. This sudden influx of population caught poor ol' little GTE by surprise, and is the primary reason why GTE's service in L.A. has been very poor (though they are very rapidly phasing in EAX equipment and phasing out their ancient SXS offices). General just did not have the resources to handle so many people so quickly. There were a couple of tiny telcos as well -- out in the valley there was a company that provided both the water services and the telephone service... they were popularly known as "drip and tinkle". They were eventually bought up by GTE. I have to disagree with Jon's assessment of the payphone story here in L.A., however. To fully understand the situation, you really need to have been around here quite a while (I've lived in L.A. my entire life, in both GTE and Pacific service areas). The important point about using the touchtone pad of a payphone after a connection has been completed revolves around the way the line polarity is handled. For many, many years, the old SXS equipment GTE has used in L.A. never could be relied upon to present a "unified" polarity to the subscriber set. That is, each time you picked up the phone, the line might have a different polarity (tip and ring reversed). GTE dealt with these sorts of problems by putting bridge rectifiers (known in the industry as "polarity guards") in all touchtone (excuse me, I mean "touch calling" [GTE terminology]) phones. This would assure that they would operate properly regardless of polarity. Both regular subcriber sets and paystations were treated in this manner. On the other hand, most Western Electric equipment (until fairly recently, apparently) never included polarity guards, though they were available as an option for special situations. Bell System SXS and #5 XBar offices in L.A. were much less prone to strange polarity changes, and could generally be relied upon to behave in the same fashion for all calls. I guess they also figured that their craftspeople were capable of figuring out the proper polarity when they installed the phones ... I've never been sure whether most GTE people had any idea exactly what polarity even meant. All of this worked just fine until people started wanting to enter touchtone signals from paystations AFTER calls were completed. The GTE (Automatic Electric) phones worked -- they had the polarity guards for the reasons discussed above. But the Western Electric paystations did not, and the polarity on the line was reversing when the call answered as part of the phone control mechanism. So... touchtone worked from GTE paystations, but not from Pacific Telephone stations. As it turns out, more and more Pacific paystations are apparently being upgraded with polarity guards, since I have successfully used many such phones for "post-completion" touchtone signaling. No doubt there are still many phones which have not yet been upgraded, however. Anyway, that's more than you EVER wanted to know about payphones in Los Angeles. The important point is that there is not (and has not) been some kind of "political" decision behind the tone problems -- it has been strictly a technical issue all along. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 29-Aug-82 22:56:06-PDT (Sun) From: eagle!karn Subject: ringing Standard ringing in the Bell System is 88V RMS, 20 Hz, with a duty cycle of 2 seconds on and 4 seconds off. PBXs have a different duty cycle, typically 1 second on, 3 seconds off, but this can vary. Some have interrupted double or even triple rings, e.g., the Bell Dimension (TM) PBX when receiving an outside or high priority call. Phil Karn Bell Labs Murray Hill, NJ ------------------------------ Date: 28 August 1982 06:05-EDT From: Eliot R. Moore <ELMO at MIT-MC> Subject: Re: 1200-baud modems (TELECOM Digest V2 #108, 26 Aug 1982) cc: ELMO at MIT-MC, CSL.JLH.Celoni at SU-SCORE, MERRITT at USC-ISIB Actually, Vadic has been offering an auto-dial option for the 3450 series for at least 3 months. As I understand it, you can order a 345X-PA for $75 more than a 345X-P, or you can send your current 345X into the factory along with $75, and theyl'll update your software. I'm not sure if this can be done on Vadics without a built-in voice-data switch. One more thing: it is pulse-only, so it won't work with sprint, mci, itt, fancy "Horizon" PBX's, and a number of other tone-only systems. Eliot Elmo @ Mit-MC ------------------------------ Date: 27 August 1982 22:17-EDT From: Frank J. Wancho <FJW at MIT-MC> Subject: Various 1200 baud protocols There's yet another: UDS 12.12, which I regularly use over some 60(!) land miles for the past six years. It has a much more favorable noise characteristic than any of the others I have tried, particularly, the VADIC 3400 series. With the 3400's I get the similar annoying noise characteristics as I do with the standard 103s - i.e., DELs when I least expect them. Not ever seeing a DEL at 1200 is my idea of favorable no matter what other noise characters may appear. I have not used a 212A and cannot comment on it. --Frank ------------------------------ Date: 27 August 1982 23:11-EDT From: Keith F. Lynch <KFL at MIT-MC> Subject: 1200 baud protocols Vadic 3400 protocol uses 2250 hz for originate and 1150 hz for answer. Bell 212 protocol uses 1200 hz for originate and 2400 hz for answer. Since the Bell 212 answer carrier is twice the frequency of the originate carrier, it is very susceptible to harmonic distortion. Also: both 1200 and 2400 hz are harmonics of the usual powerline frequency, 60 hz. That is the main reason (only reason?) why Vadic 3400 is the better protocol. Two questions: 1) Does anyone know of any redeeming features Bell 212 protocol has, compared to Vadic 3400? 2) I hear the terms Bell 212, Bell 212A, and Bell 213 used interchangably. Is there any difference? ...Keith ------------------------------ Date: 30 Aug 82 8:12:48-EDT (Mon) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> To: smb.unc at Udel-Relay cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: followups If you are referring to tri-state area (NY, NJ, Pa.), wouldn't you mean Port Jervis instead of Port Jefferson, NY? (Latter is on Long Island.) Too new (?) for zipcode directories I used: Montague, NJ 07827 is CPO of Branchville, NJ 07826. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 31-Aug-82 17:04:37-PDT,10425;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 31-Aug-82 17:02:03 Date: 31 Aug 1982 1702-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #111 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Wednesday, 1 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 111 Today's Topics: Pacific Telephone Requests Rate Increase Battery Reversal On Bell System Payphones 1200 Baud Modems - Pulse Vs. Tone Autodialer V. & H. Tape Information - Carter Lake, Iowa ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tuesday, 31 Aug 1982 10:21-PDT From: nomdenet at RAND-UNIX Subject: Pacific Telephone Requests Rate Increase From The Los Angeles Times for Tuesday, August 31, 1982 Vol. 101, no. 271, p. 1. Copyright (C) 1982, Los Angeles Times Phone Firm Seeks Major Rate Increase Basic telephone rates for most California households would more than double and the price of using a public telephone would rise to 25 cents under a record $864.5-million rate increase request announced Monday by Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. Saying it has been "whipsawed" by competition, recession and inflation, the telephone company said it wants the basic monthly residential rate increased to $15 statewide, up from $7 a month in Los Angeles and San Francisco and $6.70 a month in the rest of its service area. If approved by the state Public Utilities Commission, the rate increase would hike the average bill of a typical telephone user to $48.77 per month from the current $39.55, the telephone company said. The basic rate charge for businesses would rise to $19 a month from $14.55. 'Fairly Ambitious' Martin Mattes, legal adviser to PUC president John E. Bryson, described the requested rate hike as "fairly ambitions," adding, "It's highly unlikely that they'll get all they asked for." But Bryson and other PUC officials have predicted that the phone company's local rates will rise sharply in the next few years. Debt-burdened Pacific Telephone needs additional revenues because it is being severed from American Telephone & Telegraph Co., the parent firm that has long subsidized its operations. Mattes said a decision on the rate-hike request will probably take at least a year. About two thirds of California telephone customers are served by Pacific Telephone. Public telephone calls have cost a dime in California for more than 30 years. But phone company officials said the cost of a call is close to a quarter, and noted that resident of nine other states, including Florida, Texas, and Oregon, already pay a quarter for public telephone calls. The company said the dime rate would remain in effect in public phones that do not allow emergency calls to be made without charge. Pacific Telephone is now converting all its phones to free emergency service, and should complete the job in 1985, the company said. About 89% of Pacific Telephone's California customers use the flat rate in paying for residential service. The flat rate for minimal "lifeline" residential service would remain at $2.50 under the proposed hike. But the allowance of 30 free local calls with that service would be trimmed to 10 calls. The effect would be to increase the average lifeline bill to $24.24 from the current $21.21, according to Pacific Telephone. The 4% of Pacific Telephone customers who take the "standard measure service" would see their rates rise from the current $3.75 a month with $3 worth of free calls to $6 a month with all calls billed at 4 cents for the first minute and 1 cent for each additional minute. The company's rate hike request would also raise installation charges, to $35 from $23 for orders placed through Phone Center stores, and to $83 from the current $55.50 for orders telephoned into the company. The Public Utilities Commission last August approved a rate increase of $610 million, which was scaled down from a $790-million rate hike requested in June, 1980. Mattes said that if the requested increases are approved, Pacific Telephone's public telephone and basic residential rate services would be slightly more expensive than those of most U.S. telephone operating companies. The phone company has asked that its maximum authorized return on investment be increased to 14.31%, up from the 9.91% that was authorized to be in effect for the firm next year. By comparison, General Telephone Co. has a current authorized return on investment of 12.71%, Mattes said. In announcing the planned rate hike request, Pacific Telephone stressed its continuing financial problems. It said the hike was not sought in connection with the impending AT&T divestiture. Bonds Downgraded "We have the poorest financial performance" of any of the Bell System's 22 local operating companies, a spokesman said, noting that company bonds have been downgraded several times in recent years so that they now carry an A-minus rating. The recession has brought a significant drop in phone use and caused revenues so far this year to fall $500 million under projections, the spokesman said. The drop in usage has forced the company to delay $141 million in capital spending planned for 1982 and $760 million in work planned for 1983. One securities analyst, Adam Leight of San Francisco-based Sutro & Co., said the utilities commission has been stricter than other state regulatory bodies in approving telephone company requests for rate increases. One consumer activist, Ken McEldowney, co-director of Consumer Action, called the request "outrageous." ------------------------------ Date: 30 Aug 1982 2346-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Battery reversal on Bell System payphones There are various bits of folklore about why dials don't work on Bell payphones, most of them wrong. Battery does not reverse back to the calling station when a connection is made; that is not the reason. If you pay close attention to when the dial goes dead on a phone, you will find that it is at the point at which the call is connected to a trunk on which additional coins will be collected. In areas where you get flat rate coin calls (or some areas with simple rate structures where an additional nickel has to be thrown in every once in a while) battery will not reverse except when the call goes to TSPS. So on local calls the dial works; on LD calls, it doesn't. Nonsense from TELCO security folks might be "it is to prevent fraud," so that you can't fool an operator about coin deposit by using the touch-tone buttons. Poppycock! The truth is that the way the totalizer works is that coins can count up beyond the local-call-deposit only when battery is reversed. In order to make the dial work for Auto-Bill-Calling, new TSPS trunks have to be installed that allow TSPS to arrange to reverse battery to the phone ONLY when an operator or the automatic collection machine is on the line. ------------------------------ Date: 31 August 1982 00:57-EDT (Tuesday) From: Robert A. Carter <Carter at RUTGERS> To: Eliot R. Moore <ELMO at MIT-MC>, CSL.JLH.Celoni at SU-SCORE, MERRITT at USC-ISIB Subject: 1200-baud modems (TELECOM Digest V2 #108, 26 Aug 1982) The 3451 Auto Dialer cost me $160 (aftermarket), and aint worth it. It will not connect at all (although CXR shows on) if the other end responds too slowly or too quickly (i.e. while the dialer is printing out its cutesy-poo msg). The lack of tone capability is a major misfeature; even Radio Shuck knows better. I bought the thing because I often call a. A local modem hung on a MUX (which signals whenever it feels good and ready), and b. A 23-digit alternative carrier goodie. The auto-dialer is useless for either. When I grumbled to Racal-Vadic about it, the lady told me sweetly that I could buy a separate auto- dialer for $600. So I got Speed-Calling for (a) and just suffer for (b). Sigh. In fairness, there is one nice feature: When the autodialer is called from the term, the modem ignores the position of HS; setting the terminal speed set the modem speed automatically. _Bob ------------------------------ Date: 30 Aug 1982 2209-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Carter Lake, Iowa Carl Moore just sent me another cross-state NPA-NXX combin- ation. 402-347 and 712-347 both work for calls to Carter Lake, Iowa. I just checked the Rate & Route database for Carter Lake. At first glance it looked like it was the same situation as with Stewarts- town, Pa. However, on closer inspection, although the database lists 402-347 as C.L., Nebraska and 712-347 as C.L., Iowa, it is extremely strange that they have exactly the same Vertical and Horizontal components. My National Geographic atlas shows C.L. to be in Nebraska. However, a friend of mine in Omaha has a city map which shows that C.L. is in Iowa (in fact it has a Council Bluffs Zipcode). This is more likely a case of the state line being changed as a result of the Mississippi River changing course, something it occasionally does. In fact, Carter Lake (the Lake), a crescent shaped lake, is likely to be the old river course. It seems odd that the old NPA-NXX combination was not retired (maybe it will be; I don't know when the boundary was moved) -- and then again, maybe there are phones served by the exchange on the other side of the boundary, and to keep from changing their phone rate, the V&H wasn't moved for the people who stayed in Nebraska. Being in Nebraska with a V&H in Iowa is strange, but not surprising. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Aug 1982 2313-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Postscript on Carter Lake I should have looked at my own copy of the database, but that machine was not easily accessible at the time I was looking into the question. The database actually lists 402-347 as Iowa; the operator I talked to read it wrong. The area served actually was transferred from Nebraska to Iowa as a result of a river course change. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 1-Sep-82 19:15:57-PDT,4082;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 1-Sep-82 19:14:59 Date: 1 Sep 1982 1914-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #112 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 2 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 112 Today's Topics: Bryant Pond - Don't Yank The Crank More on VADIC 3400 Modems Tone Encoder & Decoder Query More Carter Lake, Iowa Trivia - State Boundaries Vs. River Course ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: uucp at NPRDC From sdchema!bam Tue Aug 31 18:03:52 1982 remote from sdcsvax An interesting article in Time Magazine about the last 'crank' telephone system in the country brings up a few questions.. I was under the impression that there were still quite a few of these manual systems left in the country... Mostly in some southwest desert communities. The last one to go in California was Catalina Island but that still should leave several in the state?! Does anyone have any details of similiar systems still operational? By the way, the Time article was about the impending loss of the 'crank' system to a dial one. The community of Bryant Pond was not thrilled by the idea and have organized a protest against the impending upgrade. "Don't yank the Crank" T-shirts are availble directly from them for Ten dollars. For more info, contact: DON'T YANK THE CRANK BOX 56 BRYANT POND, MAINE 04216 or call, Alice Johnson at: Bryant Pond 137 Bret Marquis ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!bam sdcsvax!sdchema!bam@NPRDC ------------------------------ Date: 1 Sep 1982 0359-EDT From: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Subject: More on Modems I have used a Vadic 3405 thru both direct calling *and* Sprint with very favorable results. Most of the direct calls are about 30 miles. The occasional hit does indeed show up as a ''y'', usually... this seems to be the default character that the Vadic gives you when it doesn't know what it received. If you begin to get lots of them on a good line, it is probably time to have the modem card looked at. Sometimes the echoing on a carrier service causes what approaches a loopback effect, and throws the whole thing off, but usually the transmission thru these is quite satisfactory unless you try and go cross-country or something. Okay. While someone is answering that question about 212, 212A, etc. could he also throw in a little piece about 202?? I believe this is a real protocol but I have no idea what it's about. In one of our pieces of Vadic documentation, there is mention of ''202 protocol'', but the reference is very unclear. Does it have anything to do with Vadic protocol? _H* ------------------------------ Date: 1 Sep 1982 0402-EDT From: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Subject: Tone chips I have for a while now wanted to build an autodialer that uses tones. Has anyone had any experience with any of those chips that do the tone generation? I hear they are cheap; if I could interface one to a micro with some simple port hardware I would be happy. Also, does anyone know any easy way to do tone *detection*? I would like to be able to talk to a micro remotely thru a touchtone pad. _H* ------------------------------ Date: 1 Sep 82 8:08:09-EDT (Wed) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> To: john covert <rsx-dev@Dec-Marlboro> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: river & state line Without knowing the details about Carter Lake, Iowa, I do recall reading years ago that if a river suddenly changes course (as it did at Carter Lake?) the boundary stays put. So the following is possible: Carter Lake was always part of Iowa and simply got shifted to "wrong" side of river by sudden course change. [I think John Covert was talking about Legislation to permanently move Carter Lake into Iowa (?) --JSol] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 2-Sep-82 23:32:19-PDT,6041;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 2-Sep-82 23:31:12 Date: 2 Sep 1982 2331-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #113 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 3 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 113 Today's Topics: Reprogramming ESS Touch-Tone Line Bryant Pond - Address Correction Requested DTMF Signalling and Encoding Documentation Pointer DTMF Encoders & Decoders - Experience Calling Cards Revisited ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 September 1982 20:55 mst From: Lippard at M (James J. Lippard) Subject: Touch-tone line Sender: Lippard.Scouting at M Reply-To: Lippard%PCO-Multics at MIT-MULTICS In my phone bill last month was included a notice which stated that touch-tone phones were now available for my area, as well as call forwarding, call waiting, and the other special features. It said that my area was now on new equipment, so calls to other people on the same equipment would result in the ring as soon as the last number was dialed. I sent in the card requesting a touch-tone phone, and about a week later I get a call from Colorado (I'm in Arizona). It turns out they want to charge me for shipping from Colorado, plus they want to charge me $27.50 for "reprogramming the line" for touch-tone. I said forget it, and just plan to go down to the local Phone Center Store to take care of it. Has anyone else had a similar experience? What is this "reprogramming the line" business? Jim ------------------------------ Date: 2-Sep-82 15:33:33 PDT (Thursday) From: Jheinrich at PARC-MAXC cc: Jheinrich at PARC-MAXC Anybody know if the address for Bryant's Pond in this digest For more info, contact: DON'T YANK THE CRANK BOX 56 BRYANT POND, MAINE 04216 or call, Alice Johnson at: Bryant Pond 137 is correct? An earlier Digest gave it as Box 67, as I recall. Joe JHeinrich.pa@PARC-MAXC ------------------------------ Date: 2 Sep 1982 at 1403-PDT From: worthington at SRI-TSC To: AWalker at Rutgers There is a fairly extensive rundown on the options available for DTMF signaling and decoding for just the application you describe in Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar feature in the December, 1981 issue of BYTE entitled "Build a Touch Tone Decoder for Remote Control"... Dave ------------------------------ Date: 2 Sep 1982 21:27:12-PDT From: D.jlapsley at Berkeley Subject: Touch-tone chips The two Touch-tone chips that I have had experience with are the MM5395 touch-tone generator (by National Semiconductor), and the MM53125 (also made by National Semiconductor). Both of these chips are CMOS and require an external 3.58... MHz crystal. They both use 3x4 or 4x4 matrix keyboards to decide on which tone to generate. The only real difference between the two is that the MM53125 generates the 1633 Hz tone for the fourth column of touch-tones. On the subject of receiving touch-tone signals, there is an excellent article on doing this (as well as generating touch-tones, and there are circuits given which do both) in the December 1981 Byte magazine. Phil ------------------------------ Date: 3 Sep 1982 0043-EDT From: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Subject: Calling cards revisited It seems that the customer-entry system has just been implemented [cut over, rather] here in New Brunswick. When I was near the Morristown office I tried to find out when they were going to install it there also. I went through a number of loops and backtraces that the readership may find entertaining. I talked to a regular operator, and no, they had not received any training about the system yet, nor had the supervisor received any instructional material for it. One super gave me a mumble that it wasn't due till next year, but I'd better try the business office, they'd know better. I tried them. They gave me a similar mumble. It was at this point that I introduced my real complaint: that the dials did not work when connected on an existing call thru TSPS [which has been true around here for years, but with the increasing popularity of MCI and friends, one would expect that more people would find this out and complain about it.] It took me about 3 tries to make these people understand what I was driving at. I did the standard thing and asked for a supervisor. Finally from there I was directed to repair [they probably thought I was trying to report *one* broken pay phone]. I gave up on the B.O. and tried business repair, and finally from them I got the number of the ''coin headquarters'' for the state. I talked to a friendly supervisor there who gave me the following information: A local company in Morristown had requested that polarity guards be installed on the pay stations in their plant. This work was done. She didn't know about the rest of the area. The Mechanized Calling Card System [MCCS [Oh, so **that**'s what you call it!]] was not due to be cut over until May '83. To find this out, she had to go off the line for about 5 minutes while she called elsewhere, to someone who had the implementation schedule for the whole state. Therefore I found out that there is indeed a statewide master plan for MCCS cutovers, and Morristown's problem is just that it's at the end of the line. She didn't know why. She couldn't find out about projected installation of polarity guards, either. So there sits the Morristown office: While the rest of the state is turning digital all around it, it sits there with two of its exchanges happily clacking away on some of the oldest #5 crossbar equipment around, and making its operators bear the full burden of calling card calls. Oy, vey. _H* ------- ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 4-Sep-82 00:08:30-PDT,5424;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 4-Sep-82 00:05:28 Date: 4 Sep 1982 0005-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #114 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Saturday, 4 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 114 Today's Topics: Public Touch Tone Polarity Sensitivity Stewartstown - PA or MD Collect Local Calls When Problems Arise Reprogramming ESS For Touch Tone 202, 212A, 3400 - 1200 Baud Protocols & Tone Detection Sprint Charges For Ringing Signal Time ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 3 Sep 1982 04:16:58-PDT From: whuxlb!mag at Berkeley Note on coin phone polarity. I know the guys at the labs who designed those pay phones. I have spent the last year designing testing methods for them. The polarity sensitivity of the Touch-Tone pad IS, repeat IS, a security measure. The person who authored the article saying it is not is all wet. Believe me, I know. With normal battery, the totalizer will home after any coins are deposited greater than initial rate. With reversed battery, or in ANY toll situation, the totalizer will home after EVERY coin, whether or not it equals initial rate. If its accumulating coins, then the phone is BROKEN. MAG. P.S. Perhaps the author was confusing the totalizer with the hopper, which will accumulate coins untilthe coin relay collects or returns them. ------------------------------ Date: 3 Sep 82 7:47:46-EDT (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> Subject: Stewartstown; NXX It would be interesting to learn what it says on pay phones in the Stewartstown (Pa.) exchange. I would guess that it says 717-993 instead of 301-996, and that the (rural?) area served by this exchange in Md. might not have a pay phone in it. What "step-by-step" areas are likely to get N0X and N1X prefixes? (I.e., areas that already have 1+ dialing.) I don't think LA area (213) had 1+ before N0X and N1X; NYC (212) did not, and Chicago area (312) does not have it now. ------------------------------ Date: 3 September 1982 08:29-EDT From: Jeffrey Krauss <KRAUSS at MIT-MC> Subject: Collect Local calling I received a collect LOCAL call last night!! It was in the middle of a thunderstorm, and my wife was trying to call home from a pay station, and she was getting no ringing (high-and-dry) after dialing. The operator refused to assist with the diaaling--that's what they will do on toll calls--but offered to put through a clooect call. Cost is 15 cents for the call plus 30 cents for operator handling. I am interested to see how it will appear on my bill ---Jeff Krauss--- ------------------------------ Date: 3 Sep 1982 0812-PDT From: Lynn Gold <FIGMO at KESTREL> Address: Kestrel Institute, 1801 Page Mill Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304 Phone: (415) 494-2233 Subject: "Reprogramming the line" A friend of mine in New York City was given a similar line, so he complained to the PUC (Public Utilities Commission). It is, in fact, CHEAPER for most phone companies to install and maintain touch-tone lines than pulse! The reason they still charge more for the former is that it is "unfair to those customers who live in areas where touch-tone is not available (i.e., where there are mountains in the way, etc.), so to be fair, we HAVE to charge more." There is no "conversion" that takes place on your line unless you actually have to change your phone number. --Lynn [In the case of older switching, it may require central office work to enable your line for touch tone, until we are all on Electronic Switching, we will continue to class, and pay for, similar services based on obsolete switching restrictions. The same argument applies to Calling Card Calls which can be "dialed direct" (without an operator). --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 2 Sep 82 09:17:33 EDT (Thu) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #112 -- 202 modems, tone encoders Cc: AWalker at Rutgers Via: UNC; 3 Sep 82 1:59-EDT The 202 modem is an old half-duplex 1200 baud modem; when you're done sending, you drop RTS and the carrier goes away. That in turn will free the remote modem to send its carrier, and present CTS to its machine (after the machine requests it via RTS). The advantage of the Vadic 3400 and the Bell 212 protocols is that they are full duplex. About tone detection -- there was a pretty good article on it in BYTE a few months back that describes some nifty ICs for the purpose. If anyone wants, I can dig up more specific information on it. ------------------------------ Date: 3 Sep 1982 1119-PDT From: Ted Shapin <BEC.SHAPIN at USC-ECL> Subject: Sprint Gotcha Mail-Address: 2500 Harbor Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92634 Phone: (714) 970-3393 I am in the habit of using SPRINT at home for long distant calls. I used it to call a talk-show radio station on their long distance line (mistake!). They don't answer this line until they are ready to take the call on the air. I let it ring for 1-1/2 hours. Surprise - Sprint billed me for a 1-1/2 hour call! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 9-Sep-82 18:22:49-PDT,14535;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 9-Sep-82 18:21:57 Date: 9 Sep 1982 1821-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #115 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 10 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 115 Today's Topics: Paystations & Polarity & 1+ Dialing & Common Carriers Tone Polarity Mismatch - Repair Service Comments PBX Extensions - Quality (or lack thereof) Vadic Audodial - Blind Outpulser Warning RSVP Service - More Custom Calling NJ Phone Prefix Lists - Independent Companies Conversion To Touch Tone - Processing Charges Bryant Pond Is Really The Last Of The Ancient... Carter Lake, Always Part Of Iowa Morristown Has It Bad... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 4 September 1982 1516-PDT (Saturday) From: lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: misc. items It's time to tie together some loose ends, I guess... 1) Paystations. I don't recall anyone saying that payphone polarity reversal was not a security measure. In my discussion on this topic, I simply said that polarity was reversed as part of the "phone control" mechanism... I didn't feel it was appropriate to go into a detailed discussion of battery reversal and its effects on the coin totalizer; these are fairly well known. In any case, the point is that there is nothing stopping operating companies from adding polarity guards to the pads ... allowing the pads to work does NOT effect totalizer security. 2) I remember getting the first DIAL 1 FIRST promos from PacTel many years ago. I believe we started on 1+ dialing well before the first N 0/1 X prefixes were cutover -- at least a couple of months ahead. On the subject of such prefixes, there is a "700" prefix out in the valley. Bizarre. 3) As has been discussed before on this list (or was it HUMAN-NETS way back when), the "alternate" common carriers do not receive answering supervision information on calls they originate, so they have no way to really *know* when a call is answered. They usually operate on a fixed time interval... any call lasting more than N seconds begins to charge. I believe that most of them operate with N in the range of 60 to 120 seconds or so. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 8 Sep 1982 2344-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Polarity guards on payphones They aren't needed once MCCS is installed, because part of MCCS includes the feature that makes sure polarity is only reversed when needed to allow the totalizer to rehome as coins are dropped rather than only after the initial deposit amount is in the totalizer. If you can get to a phone somewhere with MCCS, you can see this in action. Dial a few calls, and hold a button down. You'll notice when polarity is reversed and when it isn't (ignore short interruptions of less than a second, that's just the open switching interval). ------------ Without dial-tone first, you will often find that what it takes to get the dial beeping again is stuffing coins (equal to the required initial deposit) into the totalizer after you've gotten connected. This is only true when then call has gone through a process where the coins have been returned (such as an 800 or calling card call). These coins will be returned at the end of the call. With dial-tone first, you need MCCS to get the dial beeping if you've been through TSPS. ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 82 11:45:03 EDT (Sun) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: Repair service The other day, I tried to make a call, and -- suprise! -- I didn't get any tones from the keypad. Being a loyal reader of this digest (and having had the problem when they first made TouchTone available here), I knew what the problem was. But, since it was a bit late to go crawling under the house, I just called repair service (and refrained from trying to explain to the clerk what was wrong -- though I did get a little impatient when he was asking when I'd be home -- damnit, if they can break it without coming out to the house, they can fix it that way, too). Anyway -- it was fixed promptly the next morning. The odd part, though, was after a technician called me and verified the problem, she went off the line for about 30 seconds, and fixed it -- hardly enough time to swap a pair of wires. Then she asked me to test the fix by dialing her at some 800 number. Why an 800 number? Can they reverse polarity on some line by programming? I know that the exchange is physically located here in Chapel Hill; it was just installed last summer, amidst much publicity and hoopla. --Steve ------------------------------ Date: 6 September 1982 01:05 edt From: Frankston.SoftArts at MIT-MULTICS Subject: Phones on a PBX Reply-To: Frankston at MIT-MULTICS (Bob Frankston) We have just moved from the 617-491 (Cambridge, MA) exchange to 617-237 (Wellesley MA). 617-237 was also just converted to ESS and is not taking new change orders. Furthermore they are out of pairs on the street and can't replace bad trunks. I am also using Chestel EPBX inhouse. My current arrangement is to use the PBX for the computer dialup lines in order to gain flexibility in playing with hunt groups and the like. I use DISA [Glossary at the end of this letter) for this. The problem is that the line quality to the computer varies from unusable to relatively clean. It seems to be correlate with some trunks, but not perfectly. It also seems to correlate with the source of the calls with Cambridge (ESS) being better quality than Newton MA (adjacent). It seems to be both a problem with lousy trunks coming in and attenuation in the switch. I am also experimenting with DIL. I plan to convert to DID as soon as the exchange is willing to service change orders. I have had the interconnect people (IPC - Interconnect Planning Corporation of New England) check out the trunks but they have not found anything significant. The noise itself is bursty at times. It is known, however, that the Telco trunks can be very very poor since people have had problems with the voice lines. I know that the "obvious" solution is to use direct telco trunks, but this greatly reduces my flexibility and requires a larger pool of apparently as yet unavailable wires from Telco. Suggestions? Glossary: DISA - Direct Inward System Access Allows you to dial a number, give a password and act like a station. DIL - Direct Inward Line A trunk is immediately connected to a specified station (which may hunt internally). DID - Direct Inward Dialing What used to be called Centrex service. This is the preferred mode since the there is no direct relationship between the physical and logical trunks. It probably makes the task of tracing down bad trunks to be even more of an adventure. ------------------------------ Date: 6 September 1982 01:05 edt From: Frankston.SoftArts at MIT-MULTICS Subject: Re: Vadic Audodial Reply-To: Frankston at MIT-MULTICS (Bob Frankston) Be warned that Vadic autodialler is a "blind" outpulser. In particular, one cannot send DTMF signals for things like credit card dialing or whatever. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Sep 1982 1016-EDT From: Charles B. Weinstock <Weinstock at CMU-20C> Subject: RSVP Service In my current phone bill from Bell of Pennsylvania I received a flyer describing a new service available for customers who have two or more lines. They call it RSVP for Residence Service Variety Package. It includes the following features; Call pickup, Call Transfer - Busy, Call Transfer - Don't Answer, Call Waiting, Convenience Dialing (Speed call for 5 numbers), Call Transfer, 3-Party Calling, and Intercom. Of interest to people with computer lines is that call waiting and call transfer - busy are mutually exclusive, so you can use the package without having your modem disconnect at inconvenient times. They get $7.50 per line for this service plus a $9.00 installation charge per billing (i.e. if all phones are billed together then $9.00). ------------------------------ Date: 8 Sep 82 15:08:33-EDT (Wed) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: NJ phone prefix lists New Jersey Bell directories and at least 2 non-Bell firms serving parts of NJ print lists of prefixes for the NJ areas (201, 609). The NJ Bell lists will use only one place name for all those pre- fixes that have the same calling area, even though different place names may show up on phone bills. E.g.: the "Newark" pre- fixes include Irvington (area 201); and, in 609, Pennsville (678) and Penns Grove (299) are both listed as Penns Grove. (Can't determine how one name was chosen over another.) ------------------------------ Date: 8 Sep 1982 2330-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> cc: figmo at KESTREL Subject: Conversion to Touch-Tone If you are served by either No. 1 or No. 2 ESS running any reasonably recent version of the software (less than 3-4 years old) -- and almost everyone is, they really do have to "re-program" your line. It involves clearing a bit (in No. 1 ESS, No. 2 may be slightly different) in the database in the machine associated with your line. The C.O. will ignore Touch-Tone until this bit is cleared. The $27.50 charge is the cost of having a service order clerk type in a couple of lines on the service order terminal. In New Jersey it's only $13.00 -- just had it done to my father's phone aftwer we bought some Stromberg-Carlson sets (which, of course, didn't work until they typed in the message). ------------------------------ Date: 9 Sep 1982 0956-PDT From: Lynn Gold <FIGMO at KESTREL> Subject: Conversion to Touch-Tone Address: Kestrel Institute, 1801 Page Mill Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304 Phone: (415) 494-2233 However, if the line DOES work with Touch-Tone (as many DO), they STILL charge you the fee! --Lynn ------------------------------ Date: 9 Sep 1982 0006-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Bryant Pond really is the last Although there are a few so-called "toll stations" here and there where you pick up a phone and get an operator for all calls (and some of these even have cranks, although it is not clear you really have to turn it to get the operator's attention) Bryant Pond was the last place where there was a real community with normal subscriber service provided by a manual, community switchboard. The really unique thing about Bryant Pond was that it really was a magneto system (not even like PBXs in some hotels where there aren't dials). When you pick up your phone, nothing happens. You have to turn the crank in order to send ringing voltage down the line, which causes a little metal indicator to drop down and remain down until the operator pushes it back up. (This, by the way, is why your telephone line is called a "drop." Not because the wire drops down the pole into your house, but because the line is connected to a "drop" back at the switchboard.) Likewise, the cord pairs don't have an automatic indication when you hang up. You have to "ring off" before hanging up to cause the drop on the cord pair on the board to drop, so the operator knows to pull down the connection. It has the side effect of letting people on the party line know that the line is available, but that isn't the main purpose. In Bryant Pond, there are also private lines, and you have to ring-off on them, as well. Some readers may have seen the former owner, Elden Hathaway, on Johnny Carson Tuesday night, or may have read the recent TIME article. It is unlikely that the system will be saved; the majority of the people in the town apparently want progress. I'm thinking about going up there again this Friday; I didn't have my camera the last time I was there, although I'm not sure the new owners will let anyone take pictures. When I was there four years ago, Elden showed me all around the system, gave me toll tickets, let me MF a call on his toll trunks (which I filled out a toll ticket for, billing the MF call to my credit card). He used to give out pencils inscribed "All calls are crank at Bryant Pond Telephone Company." The new owners are not happy about the publicity; I know they won't let the press near the place. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Sep 1982 0023-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: cmoore at BRL Subject: Carter Lake You're right, Carter Lake always was part of Iowa; my National Geographic Atlas was wrong. The river was channelized, putting it on the Nebraska side of the Missouri river. I don't have an explanation for the double area-coding, but the state is right, so for rate purposes the area code shouldn't matter. Maybe the double area-coding is just to help callers get through who get confused by funny maps. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Sep 1982 0041-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> cc: awalker at RUTGERS Subject: So you think Morristown has it bad I haven't seen MCCS anywhere in California yet (Lauren, have you found it somewhere?). In fact, I was in Carmel yesterday, and they are still served by a CORD BOARD -- almost unheard of in Bell areas. The local C.O. is all set up to take the extra digits -- then it dumps you to a recording. Since "0" normally goes directly to the Cord Board with no timeout when there is no TSPS, this could mean that TSPS is coming VERY soon, or it could mean that Pa Bell is showing standard klutziness. In order to do the polarity switching required to run MCCS seems to require installation of a new trunk circuit pack in No. 5 Bars. They may not be in any hurry to put those in, especially if the office is scheduled for a cutover to ESS. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 12-Sep-82 13:03:31-PDT,9525;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 12-Sep-82 13:03:21 Date: 12 Sep 1982 1303-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #116 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Monday, 13 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 116 Today's Topics: V & H Coordinate Database Not Up To Date Desirable Features For Residence Line - Camp On Hold & Busy Override Supervisory Information Not Provided To Subscribers French Directory Assistance Article In TIME Bogus Installation Charges - Step Pulse Converters MCCS In California - GTE EAX 3-Way Calling Tarriff? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Sep 82 8:09:09-EDT (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL, rsx-dev at Dec-Marlboro Subject: deleted prefixes? 1981 Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton (Pa.) call-guide and a 1976 prefix list for 201 area in NJ clearly list 201-993 Warren Glen, NJ. However, it's missing from V&H tape, and when I look thru the Pa. directory mentioned above, I find an entry for "Milford- Warren Glen" and the only prefix I find there is 201-995 Milford. 202-381, which I located on an old phone bill of mine, no longer exists (Washington, DC). 202-359 in Va. suburbs showed up in Jan. 1981 Northern Va. directory, but it does not exist. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Sep 1982 0840-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: cmoore at BRL Subject: Re: deleted prefixes? Are you really surprised by the inability of the phone company to supply correct information? Over a year after the country code for Taiwan was changed from 86 to 886 (86 belongs to the People's Republic of China -- I wonder if CCITT even recognizes 886 as a "standard" code), many newly published phone books and an ONLINE "HELP" service (with CRTs) over payphones in the Atlanta airport (near the international departure area) still show it as 86. The problem is simply that old information keeps getting published. In a big company, it's difficult to get changes to every person responsible for a page of a directory. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Sep 1982 0829-PDT Sender: WMARTIN at OFFICE-8 Subject: Desirable phone feature From: WMartin at Office-8 (Will Martin) For years, I have wanted to have a couple features associated with my own phone related to busy situations, which would be independent of any services the other phone in the circuit might have. I fear, though, that they are impossible to implement in the telco world as it is designed today. Let me describe what I want; if anybody knows a way the desired result can be achieved, or the actual reasons why it is technically impossible, info would be appreciated. 1. Break-in on busy on my own phone. When I call home, and my wife is on the line (or vice versa), I want to be able to enter a code number while the busy signal is sounding (I'll accept having to enter this from a Touch-tone phone only) which will cause my call to be connected to the call in progress in a three-way connection. After I talk, and I hang up, the previous call continues uninterrupted. If one of the other parties hangs up, and I don't, I am still connected to the remaining party. Note that I DON'T want "Call Waiting"; I don't care about calls from anybody else, only calls from myself (or anyone I give the code number to) would have any effect on the call in progress. Essentially, I resent being "busied-out" from the phone I am paying for, and I want the capability to override anybody using it. 2. Camp-on on busy on any phone number I call. When I call a number that is busy, I don't want to hangup and redial, even if I had an electronic phone with last-number-redial. I want to just hold on and have the system continully poll that called line until it is no longer busy and then ring it for me. I would hear the busy signal and then a ring at my end. If I hang up, it stops trying; if I continue off-hook, it will keep trying forever. Both these features make life easier for me; since I'm paying for the phone, I feel entitled. Most of the services now sold seem to be oriented toward helping other people call me, which I don't particularily want. (Sometimes I feel I want a dial-out-only phone...) I can see that these require "busy" be treated differently than it is now; now, I believe that your call to a busy line gets routed to a local source of busy signals, and your connection is only that far, after the circuits detect that the destination is in use. This would require a complete and open connection to the local office of the called number. Comments? Will Martin ------------------------------ From: jheinrich at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #115 cc: jheinrich.pa at PARC-MAXC What is the exact answering supervision information which Ma Bell does not supply to the "alternate" common carriers such as SPRINT? Why do they have to go through the ruse of a timeout routine when deciding the phone has been answered? Obviously this is information they do not make available to their users--until the user has been burnt. Joe JHeinrich at PARC-MAXC ------------------------------ Date: 10 Sep 1982 1213-MDT From: Walt <Haas at UTAH-20> Subject: French information terminals The French experiment with home terminals for information is described in detail on page 65 of the 13 September issue of TIME magazine. Apparently they have an algorithm for identifying homynyms of subscriber names, so you don't have to spell the name exactly right. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Sep 82 14:55:25-PST (Mon) From: Stephen Willson <willson.uci@Udel-Relay> Subject: bogus installation costs Re: Cost of switching to touch-tone service. Here in Costa Mesa, California, and the nearby cities (Irvine, Newport Beach, Tustin, ...) they have the following deal: If you don't get any fancy ESS services (call forwarding, speed calling, call waiting) then you get bogus touch tone service where everytime you hit a key on the touch-tone pad it dials (click click click click) the digit you just pressed. I didn't know about this when I first got my phone service put in, and I didn't want any special services, so I got the bogus touch-tone service. After suffering with this for a while, I decided I wanted the real thing, so I called the business office to complain. They told me that I could get the real thing, but that there was a charge of about $50.00 to have them switch me, plus I had to get a new phone number. Fortunately, the nice woman at the business office told me that if I wanted 8 number speed calling, it would cost me about $15.00 (or so, I forget) to get that service, but, since I didn't have ESS they would get me a new ESS phone number anyway! So I got speed dialing (at about $2.00 extra/month) and ESS service. I haven't tried undoing the speed calling service yet... I don't want another phone number! Steve Willson U.C. Irvine ------------------------------ Date: 11 Sep 1982 00:57:42-PDT From: Cory.bloom@Berkeley Subject: MCCS in California I have found MCCS in Coalinga, CA. Coalinga is a small town on I5 about 150-200 miles north of Los Angeles. It probably has been installed other places, but I haven't tried using a credit card very much. Does anyone know of any other areas in California with MCCS? Jim Bloom Cory.bloom@BERKELEY ------------------------------ Date: Thu Sep 9 1982 19:07:52 PDT From: lauren (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: MCCS and other goodies Reply-To: vortex!lauren@lbl-unix Naw! No MCCS around here! Seriously, I have found no areas in Southern California where MCCS is operational. This follows the typical pattern, however. California (or rather, PacTel) can generally be depended upon to be among the last to install "radically" new features on any sort of widespread basis. Part of this is a result of Pacific's financial situation (but, hey, I'm a subscriber too, and I want to keep my phone bills from going sky high), and part is from other causes. Actually, it's sort of amusing. Los Angeles was about the last major metro area to get Automatic Intercept (it went into widespread use here only comparatively recently), and most of the #5 X-bar offices still have no IDDD access. This is very unfortunate, since most of the operating #5's in L.A. will not be converted to ESS until late in the decade (if then) and PacTel has little interest in making IDDD work before then. I suspect that they will finally get around to it within the next couple of years, but these days they've been spending most of their time on other matters. For example, there are still a considerable number of step offices around here in PacTel -- they are working to have these all converted to ESS within the next year or two. (On the other hand, my crufty old General Telephone FX step lines have had IDDD access for some time -- one of the few situations where a step line has more features than crossbar!) By the way, does anyone know why General Telephone of California has no tariff for EAX 3-way calling for residences? --Lauren-- ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 13-Sep-82 17:53:09-PDT,14024;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 13-Sep-82 17:52:40 Date: 13 Sep 1982 1752-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #117 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 14 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 117 Today's Topics: No 5 XBar And IDDD Desirable New Features New Features - "Camp On" & "Barge In" What Telco Doesn't Provide To Customers - Answer Supervision EAX Add-On - 3-Way Calling Humor By Dave Barry Phone Number Changes Cheap Thrills On The International Front Cordless Telephone Query International Dialing Information Heading Correction ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 13 Sep 1982 0101-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> cc: lauren at UCLA-SECURITY Subject: No 5 XBar and IDDD Very, very few No 5 XBars anywhere in the country have IDDD. I know of some in Canada (e.g. 613-592), and I know that there are some in the U.S., but I don't know exactly where any one of them is. I've been told that Princeton may be getting it, but I don't know any details. From 613-592, the "#" at the end to cancel timing does not work; dialing it causes the call to go to reorder; you have to wait. I've also been told that in some of the early implementations in No 5 XBar, the registers were not built out to full length, so only 11 digit (count starts at first digit of World Numbering Area) numbers could be dialed. I've just attempted to dial a twelve digit number from 613-592 and it did go through (I had some trouble at first, and it took several attempts). ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 1982 15:48 PDT From: Lynn.ES at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: Desirable phone feature cc: Lynn.es at PARC-MAXC On my office phone (Pacific Tel, Los Angeles area) I have "Trunk queueing" feature, which allows you to keep trying after getting a busy. If you hang up immediately on busy, then when the line becomes unbusy, your telephone calls back you and the party you were trying to reach (in that order). If you wait till the tone changes on the original busy, then hanging up really hangs up. This seems to be WMARTIN's second desired feature. There is also a code to dial to cancel waiting for the call to go through. This is particularly handy since many people were accidentally hanging up too soon when this feature first was working. Trunk queueing originally was to work on both in-building calls (for which I dial 3 and the last 4 digits) and outside calls (9 and 7 digits). Last I heard, they disabled the feature on either inside or outside calls (I forget which) because it didn't work right. Before trunk queueing was available, we had "automatic call back" feature. It was the same thing, but you had to dial (ok, punch, since there is no * on a real dial) *5 plus the number, and it only worked on inside calls. Note that "trunk queueing" is an automatic version of "automatic call back", which wasn't quite automatic. Incidentally, busy is treated differently than plain busy in one other situation I can think of. If you have "call forwarding on don't answer" (by 3 rings), but the place it then tries to forward to is busy, then it keeps ringing the first line beyond 3 rings instead of giving the caller a busy. As long as we are complaining about phone features, this is my pet peeve. They bundled "call forwarding on don't answer" with "call forwarding on busy". If I don't answer, I would like the call to go to the lab where I spend much time, but if it's busy, I would like the call to go to the other phone I can see from my desk. But I can't activate one feature without activating both to the same phone. /Don Lynn [I want one to know based on what time it is whether or not to do call forwarding from work to home or vice versa. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 1982 0109-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: New features The feature which Will described as "camp-on" is actually planned to become a part of the network, once the "stored-program-control" network is actually in place. It is already available in PBXs and CENTREXs (since it's simpler when only one machine is involved). It's called "Automatic Callback Calling." You activate it by dialing a special code and the the desired number (yes, it makes you hang up and then say you want the feature, and tell it the number again). If the number isn't busy, the call just goes through. Otherwise, you get "confirmation tone" and then you hang up. When both phones are free (you can make other calls in the meantime), it first rings the calling phone back with "priority" ring (three quick rings per cycle), and then, when you pick up your phone, it starts the called phone to ring. The other feature, selective call barge-in, is technically possible in the S-P network, but I have not heard of any implementation plans. This is not to say they don't exist. (It seems likely that here, too, you would have to hang up and start over again.) ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 1982 0115-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: jheinrich at PARC-MAXC Subject: Answer Supervision The information Ma Bell does not provide to the SCCs is any indication of whether or when the called party answers the telephone. Under the recent split-up agreement, the SCCs must be given exactly the same access to the network as AT&T gets. This includes answer supervision and calling number identification, as well as other simplifications in access (the technical details of which have not yet been completely worked out). ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 1982 0118-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: lauren at UCLA-SECURITY Subject: EAX add-on Does GTEL have the other EAX features tarriffed? I once knew someone in St. Petersburg, Florida, who had Add-on, Call Waiting, and Call Forwarding. I think it was an early trial; I no longer have contact with this person. Does anyone else have any more recent experience with EAX features actually operating anywhere? ------------------------------ Date: 13 September 1982 05:02-EDT From: Eliot R. Moore <ELMO at MIT-MC> Subject: EAX 3-Way To: vortex!lauren at LBL-UNIX cc: TELECOM at MIT-MC, ELMO at MIT-MC The last time we inquired, we were told that the marketing department had not found a significant market for the feature, and therefore it was not being offered. GTE also said they were in the process of taking yet another survey to determine whether or not they should offer the service, but declined us the opportunity to comment on the survey. Elmo ------------------------------ Date: Today From: Many sources in the DEC Engineering network Subject: Read on... 17 jul 82 What I Like About The Telephone By Dave Barry What I like best about the telephone is that it keeps you in touch with people, particularly people who want to sell you magazine subscriptions in the middle of the night. These people have been abducted by large publishing companies and placed in barbed-wire enclosures surrounded by armed men with attack dogs. Caller: Hello, Mr. Barry? Me: No this is Adolf Hitler. Caller: Of course. My mistake. The reason I'm calling you at 11:30 at night, Mr. Hitler, is that I'm conducting a marketing survey, and... Me: Are you selling magazine subscriptions? Caller: Magazine subscriptions? Me? Selling them? Ha Ha. No. Certainly not. Not at all. No, this is just a plain old marketing survey. (Sound of dogs barking.) Me: Well, what do you want to know? Caller: Well, I just want to ask you some questions about you household, such as how many people live there, and what their ages are and whether any of them might be interested in subscribing to Redbook? Me: I don't want to subscribe to anything, you lying piece of slime. Caller: How about Time? Sports Illustrated? American Beet Farmer? Me: I'm going to hang up. Caller: No! (The dogs get louder) Please! You can have my daughter! Me: (Click.) The first telephone systems were primitive "party lines" where everybody could hear what everybody else was talking about. This was very confusing: Bertha: Emma? I'm calling to tell you I seen you boy Norbert shootin' his musket at our goat again, and if you don't... Clem: This ain't Emma. This is Clem Johnson, and I got to reach Doc Henderson, because my wife Nell is all rigid and foaming at the mouth, and if she don't snap out of it soon the roast is going to burn. Emma: Norbert don't even own a musket. All he got is a bow and arrow, and he couldn't hit a steam locomotive from six feet, what with his bad hand, which he got when your boy Percy bit it, and which is festerin' pretty bad. Doc Henderson: You better let me take a look at it. Bertha: The goat? Oh, he ain't hurt that bad, Doc. He's skittery on account of the musket fire. Clem: Now she's startin' to roll her eyes around. Looks like two hard-boiled eggs. Caller: Hi I'm conducting a marketing survey is Mr. Hitler at home? Clem: No, but I'll take a year's worth of American Beet Farmer. The party line system led to a lot of unnecessary confusion and death, so the phone company devised a system whereby you can talk to only one person at a time, although not necessarily the person you want. In fact, if you call any large company, you will Never get to talk to the person you're calling. Large companies employ people who are paid, on a commission basis, solely to put calls on hold. These people are trained by the airline reservations clerks. The only exception is department stores, where all calls are immediately routed to whichever clerk has the most people waiting. But we should never complain about our telephone system. It is the most sophisticated system in the world, yet it is the easiest to use. Fore example, my 20-month-old son, who cannot perform a simple act like eating a banana without getting most of it in his hair, is perfectly capable of direct-dialing Okinawa, and probably has. In another year, he'll be able to order magazine subscriptions. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 1982 1340-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: willson.uci at UDEL-RELAY Subject: Phone number changes It seems unlikely that they would go to the work of moving you back into the other machine if you cancel your speed calling, especially since they would have moved you if you had paid the exorbitant number change fee. (In another 17 months you will have paid the $50 anyway...) It's too late now (and maybe for the best) -- if you had decided that the ESS feature you wanted was three-way calling, you might have gotten hooked. I really feel restricted when I'm using a phone that doesn't have three-way. And pretty soon I'll have the six-port on one of my lines. ------------------------------ Date: 13-Sep-82 12:49PM-EDT (Mon) From: John R. Levine <Levine at YALE> Subject: Cheap thrills on the international front I just discovered, while trying to call a friend in Tasmania, that if you go through Bell's new International Information Service (800-874-4000) you can get international directory assistance for free without having to place a call. If you go through the regular operator, you still have to make a call if you get a number. Just what you need - fill in those blank lines in your address book for friends that live so far away that you won't call them anyway. I was surprised to note that the operator here at the 800 number took my request, typed it into something (I could hear the typing) and then just repeated it to the foreign operator she had gotten in the meantime. Perhaps they plan to do some nefarious thing to the people who get numbers that way. ------------------------------ From: uucp at NPRDC From sdcatta:wa143 Mon Sep 13 16:43:36 1982 remote from sdcsvax International information, access numbers, country, city and local numbers can all be obtained from AT&T Long lines directly at 800 874-4000. This is their overseas center specifically set up to aid international callers. Bret Marquis ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!bam sdcsvax!sdchema!bam@NPRDC (not uucp@NPRDC) ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 82 14:36:37-EDT (Mon) From: Randall Gellens <gellens.CC@UDel-Relay> Subject: Cordless Telephone Query Via: UDel-CC; 13 Sep 82 14:45-EDT Can someone give some info on the various "cordless telephones" that are around? Is there one that is significantly better or worse, and what are the prices and warrenties like? What should a potential user look out for? ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 1982 0103-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Heading correction The V&H tape was up-to-date; it was the directory that wasn't. I have found that the "IDDD originate capability" flag is often wrong; not only on the V&H tape, but actually in the database the operators have. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 82 7:43:33-EDT (Mon) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore.BRL-VLD@BRL> cc: cmoore.Brl-Vld at BRL Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #116 My last previous message to Telecom was not meant to say "V&H coordinate database not up to date". I was commenting on info from other sources within phone company. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 15-Sep-82 18:33:31-PDT,8291;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 15-Sep-82 18:32:55 Date: 15 Sep 1982 1832-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #119 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 16 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 119 Today's Topics: PacTel To Sell Station Equipment Another Magneto System Choice Of Area Codes International Information Autodialers And Centrex Systems Are Logan Airport Payphones Timing Local Calls? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 13 Sep 1982 1948-PDT From: ROODE at SRI-NIC (David Roode) Subject: PacTel to sell station equipment Location: EJ296 Phone: (415) 859-2774 It looks like PacTel is going ahead with the PUC mandated offer to sell in place subscriber single-line station equipment. I saw an ad in the local paper. This is interesting, because it was originally motivated by PUC feeling that the subscriber might get overcharged once the equipment was owned by a different entity than provides the local phone service. I still wonder how they are going to resolve the inconsistency of having the "separate" vendor of rental phone equipment located in the offices at which people are commanded to appear in person if they wish to order phone service. ------------------------------ Date: 14 Sep 1982 0026-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Another magneto system Although Bryant Pond is the last Magneto Switchboard serving a real town (with lots of drops & stuff), I've just found another magneto subscriber system. In Shoup, Idaho, I just talked to the owner of the Shoup Country Store, at 24F3, which you reach from the Salmon, Idaho operator. What they have is a one-wire, ground-return, magneto system with 18 telephones. It is a cooperative, completely self maintained (no paid employees). They ring each other with a series of long and short rings. The phone number begins with "24F" which is an old Forest Service designation for the wire (there used to be others) and is followed by the ringing combination, long, then short, then long, etc. So 24F111 is a long, a short, and a long. 24F0121 is a short, two longs, and a short. Unlike Toll Stations (which I mentioned earlier) these guys are a subscriber system and can call each other as a local call. But unlike Bryant Pond, they don't have their own switchboard; they terminate (similar to a toll station) on the Salmon Inward board. Toll stations differ in that all calls placed from them are toll calls. An example of a Toll Station is the phone at the Patrick Creek Lodge out northeast from Crescent City, California. Their toll station is identified as "IDLEWILD 5" -- it has its own entry in the rate and route database. ------------------------------ Date: 14 Sep 82 15:22:01-EDT (Tue) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: choice of area codes I have previously written of the last 2 new area codes (before 619 this Nov. in Calif.): 904 in Fla. in '65, and 804 in Va. in '73. Any ideas on the choice of codes and of which areas within those states got them? (904 and 804 include both state capitals.) 714 area & new 619 area will NOT have N0X and N1X, but how will local calls across the boundary between those areas be dialed? Also, I take it there will be a message notifying long-distance callers of the new 619 area; what of long-distance callers from 619 to trimmed-down 714? ------------------------------ Date: 14 Sep 1982 at 1637-PDT cc: Worthington at SRI-TSC Subject: Breaking in on ongoing calls From: worthington at SRI-TSC When I worked on an Automatic Electric step system for a large company overseas years ago I noticed a bank of connectors that had a few extra relays in them to implement what the prints called "executive break in". Special executive phones suposedly had a button that would ground one side of their line, which in a step system comes at that point from the connector. This would trip the relays and the busy signal would be replaced by the call in progress. The possibility of being broken in on was thus tied to the phone number, though anyone who knew how to ground the line could emulate an "executive" phone... Dave ------------------------------ Date: 14 Sep 1982 2015-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: International Information Whenever I want an overseas number I just tell the operator I'm going to direct dial the call later. 800 874-8000 is usually a bit faster than the local operator, because what answers you is an ISPS (International Services Position System) board (the same type that is used to actually place overseas calls). These fancy boards have CRTs, so the operator types in the name of the country in order to place calls. International marketing in New Jersey hasn't really decided what all they want the operators to do when answering the 800 number. Officially they are not supposed to get local numbers for you, but they do seem quite willing to do so. ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 1982 0102-EDT From: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Subject: International directory I just called the local operator, and asked if they had received word of the 800 number for international DA. They hadn't heard a thing about it. Fascinating!! The typing that was heard by <I forget who> was probably the oper in this country keying the sequence to get to the foreign DA. That system really makes sense; back when I was on TSPS those used to be the real pain-in-the-rear calls, cause the overseas DA was so flakey and rarely deigned to answer their phones. Therefore to make any headway at all required staying on the call for about 5 minutes [which screwed up your calls-per-hour figure something fierce]. Hooray for sensible ideas. Now all they need is a complaints department staffed by technical wizards and customer relations people, so we don't have to go through all this hackery to find out what we want. _H* ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 82 18:47:26 EDT (Wed) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: autodialers and Centrex systems Cc: Jim Ellis (MCNC) <jte.unc@UDel-Relay> We've been trying to get a UDS autodialer to reach a machine on the Dimension PBX at Bell Labs - Holmdel. It never seems to recognize the secondary dial-tone from the PBX; in fact, sometimes it seems to think the ringing signal is the dial tone. At best, the signal seems weak. On the other hand, we have no trouble getting through the Dimension at Murray Hill. Any suggestions about what might be going on? Might we need a programmable jack on our end? (It's on a GTE Centrex system, at Research Triangle Institute.) Could we get away with a fixed-time delay instead? In tests just now, it seemed to take about 10 seconds after end-of-number to get an answer from the PBX; is that time likely to be fairly constant? (Incidentally, does one get billed for calling the PBX, or does billing not start until after the extension answers?) --Steve ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 82 20:41:58-EDT (Wed) From: J C Pistritto <jcp@BRL> Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #115 Last time I was at Logan airport using a pay phone, (about two weeks ago), a strange thing happened. I made a local call to Cambridge, (a friend of mine at MIT), and after a couple of minutes, the line disconnected for ~5 seconds, beeped, and then reconnected. About 20 seconds later, the line disconnected TOTALLY and didn't come back. The phone was a pay phone on the 617-659 exchange. No one at the airport, even the employees, knew anything or had heard anything about timed pay calls. I was going to call an operator and ask, but I was in a hurry at the time. What gives? By the way, there was NOTHING on the phone instructions about timing. -JCP- ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 21-Sep-82 13:41:53-PDT,11185;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 21-Sep-82 13:40:28 Date: 21 Sep 1982 1340-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #120 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Wednesday, 22 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 120 Today's Topics: Adminis-Trivia Timed Pay Phone Calls In Mass Area Code Split & PBX Call Charging 202 Area & "DC Metro" DIMENSION (r) : Camp-on And Executive Break-in 1200 Baud Triple Modem With Tone Auto-Dialer The TPC Toll Network - How Does It Work? TPC Selling Phones Cordless Phones - No Privacy Delaware River V & H Trivia ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Sep 1982 1333-PDT From: The Moderator <JSol at USC-ECLC> Subject: Adminis-Trivia Two minor points: 1- There hasn't been a digest since last Thursday, it was issue #119. 2- Due to a system crash while I was in the middle of processing issue #118, I neglected to send the digest out. Instead, the material for #118 was combined with issue #119 and was sent out last Thursday. Sorry for the confusion. I may be a bit slow with the digests for a while. I'm currently apartment hunting and don't have a home terminal anymore (sigh). ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 1982 2246-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: jcp at BRL Subject: Timed Pay phone calls in Mass Yep, that's the way it's supposed to work, and it's been that way for many years (I've had it happen at least six years ago from the air- port. The charge is 10 cents for the first five minutes, then 5 cents for each additional three. [Thanks also to Jeff Del Papa <DP at MIT-ML> for also pointing this out. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: Thu Sep 16 1982 03:54:09 PDT From: lauren (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: area code split & PBX call charging Reply-To: vortex!lauren@lbl-unix To: lbl-unix!TELECOM at ECLB Greetings. The 619/714 split takes place on November 6. For three months starting at that date, the codes will be partially interchangeable. DDD callers who dial 714+ for locations in the new 619 area will still have their calls completed. After this period, recordings will announce misdialed area codes (where unique prefixes make this determination possible) for an unspecified time into the future. --- Call charging on inward calls into PBX's depends on the type of termination. Where DID (Direct Inward Dialing) is being used, charging does not take place until the call is answered by its final "destination". The PBX has complete control over tones, recordings, and call answering supervision. On the other hand, if you're receiving a second dialtone from the Dimension, you are accessing the PBX via a "remote access" line. (The Dimension generally requires a four digit "security" code before you can actually use the remote access line to complete a call). In this case, the call is completed (and charging begins) as soon as you hear the second dialtone. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 16 Sep 1982 09:24 PDT From: Lynn.ES at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: new 619 area cc: Lynn.es at PARC-MAXC I assume that local calling across 619 to 714 boundary will be the same as local calling across the 714 to 213 boundary. You just dial the 10 digits, and it never shows on the phone bill. That's how it worked when I used to call Long Beach (213) from Huntington Beach (714). Incidentally, it wasn't (and probably still isn't) the same going the other direction. A 1 was required in 213 for out-of-213-area calls regardless of whether long distance, while a 1 in 714 is required on non-local calls regardless of area code. /Don Lynn ------------------------------ Date: 16 Sep 82 13:49:08-EDT (Thu) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: 202 area & "DC metro" The "DC metro calling area" (where all phones are local to one another?) seems to include some Md. (301 area) prefixes which can't be reached via areacode 202. These include 621 & 953 Laurel and 261 Annapolis (and a few others), which are pseudo- foreign exchanges. However, their counterparts in Va. can be reached via 202; e.g., I think that 471 & 620, which show up as Vienna on V&H tape in 202 area, are actually at Herndon, with Vienna service. ------------------------------ Date: 16 Sep 82 23:52:38-EDT (Thu) From: Randall Gellens <gellens.CC@UDel-Relay> Subject: Camp-on and Executive Break-in Via: UDel-CC; 17 Sep 82 0:07-EDT A place I was with in the Washington, DC area (Crystal City a/k/a Arlington) had just recently installed a Dimension (r) system from C&P of Va. It did not offer direct-inward dialing (all calls had to go thru the switchboard) but it did offer all sorts of local (in-house only) goodies, most of which I considered more bother than use. For example, it had a sort of "camp-on" called auto-call back, where (as has been described) first the caller and then the callee are called when both are free. It also had "executive break-in" which allowed a phone with the feature to blast through to a busy line. If you were on the phone and someone blasts in on you, you hear a "priority ring" signal -- I think it was three fast rings. It offered either call- forwarding:all or call forwarding:by/da -- you could not get da without by. It also had "message waiting" whereby pushing a button on one phone caused a pre-designated other phone to ring and light the "msg wait" button. The system was user-programable in the sense that the office manager was the phone czar -- she could enable or disable any feature for any phone. She decided which phones would have which extensions, and who would get executive b/i, and so on...the speed calling was organized into "global" and "group" with a few "global" codes working from all phones s/c enabled, and the rest in small groups sharing common codes. The programming was nasty, though...lots of long sequences of gibberish keyed in on a portable "control console" that had a small dot-matrix led display, with frequent unintellegible error codes. The worst feature was the list they printed out of every call sequence made or attempted from any phone...it had the time, and sequence of buttons pushed, and a supervision code indicating call completion (by,da,&c), duration, and other stuff (such as o+ or 1+, toll-free, etc). I hated it! I used to make most of my calls from one of the numerous pay phones located throughout the lobbies of the office complex (hmm, maybe there were so many phones, and so much use of the pay phones, because others were also paranoid?) ------------------------------ Date: 17 Sep 1982 12:19:34 EDT (Friday) From: Steve Dyer <sdyer at BBN-UNIX> Subject: 1200 baud triple modem with tone auto-dialer To: info-micro@brl Does anyone know of a triple (103/212/VA3400) modem which also supports an touch-tone autodialer? Racal-Vadic seems to have autodial triple modems with pulse dialing only. I want to use this with MCI/Sprint services, so I need the tone dialing. On the other hand, maybe some of you can convince me that 212 1200 baud isn't so bad after all. I have always heard that the VA3400 system is more robust and less error prone over the dial-up network. Is this anything I should care about? (People on the TELECOM mailing list should respond by mail; I'm not on that mailing list.) Thanks, Steve Dyer sdyer@bbn-unix decvax!wivax!dyer ------------------------------ Date: 17 Sep 1982 2254-PDT Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL Subject: The TPC Toll Network -- How does it work? From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow Reply-To: Geoff at SRI-CSL I've always been curious as to how the TPC Toll Network works... I.e. when i am out of town and make a credit card call or a third party bill to call, how do those charges end up on the bill? What gets the information to my rate center for inclusion on my bill? More specifically, I'm really interested in how calls I place on my mobile telephone on a roaming basis get back to my rate center for inclusion on my mobile bill. Most of the calls are placed by mobile operators and hence the billing information is recorded on slips of paper. Any idea how these slips of paper get sorted and routed and how often to my home area's rate center? What about area's where they offer IMTS (Direct-dial) service, and my billing information goes on the billing tape with all the local subscribers calls. How do they get pulled off and sent out? Does it work the same for AT&T BOC's as it does for Independents? I would think that the AT&T BOC's to Independent mobile toll traffic gatewaying must add extra complication into the scheme!? ------------------------------ Date: 18 September 1982 07:51-EDT From: "Marvin A. Sirbu, Jr." <SIRBU at MIT-MC> Two miscellaneous points 1. Pay phone calls in Boston are indeed timed. 5 cents for an additional 3 minutes please. 2. The Computer Inquiry II decision says AT&T can only sell NEW phones through a separate subsidiary. How to handle the phones already in place is still being debated at FCC. The PacTel decision only refers to the telephones in place. If you choose to buy them, you'll be billed, but you won't be able to get new equipment from PacTel till after the divestiture. After the divestiture, the Bell Operating Companies will, as a result of modifications insisted on by Judge Greene, be able to sell telephones directly to customers. The separate subsidiary requirement of the Computer Inquiry will apply to the remaining AT&T. One might ask whether Computer Inquiry II needs to be re-examined in light of the divestiture. Marvin Sirbu ------------------------------ Date: Wed Sep 15 19:29:20 1982 From: UCBVAX.decvax!utzoo!henry@Berkeley Subject: cordless telephones I have no specific experience with any of the cordless telephones, but note one, uh, feature that is common to all of them: since there is a radio link as part of the connection, your calls are potentially much less private than they are with wires. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Sep 82 9:02:54-EDT (Tue) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: both sides of Delaware River The following uses of place names on both sides of state line along the Delaware River are known to me. Name of state where the town is actually located is in parentheses. Belvidere (NJ): 201-475, 215-498 Stroudsburg (Pa.): 717-223,421,424,476,629; 201-841 Bushkill (Pa.): 717-588, 201-581, but my V&H tape (more recent than the listing which produced the Bushkill prefix in 201 area) shows 201-581 at Whippany, NJ ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 22-Sep-82 16:04:43-PDT,235;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 22-Sep-82 16:04:12 Date: 22 Sep 1982 1604-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #121 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB ------- 22-Sep-82 16:06:42-PDT,3265;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 22-Sep-82 16:06:06 Date: 22 Sep 1982 1606-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #121 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 23 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 121 Today's Topics: 1200 Baud Triple Modem With Tone Auto-Dialer MASS.: Time Limits On Payphone Calls DC Metro, Prefixes Dialable But Not In Area Code 202 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 September 1982 02:06-EDT From: Eliot R. Moore <ELMO at MIT-MC> Subject: 1200 baud triple modem with tone auto-dialer To: sdyer at BBN-UNIX Catch-22! If you're using Sprint/MCI/ITT, 212 protocol may be awful. It depends purely on luck. ITT gave me great 212 connnections from Los Angeles to Boston, but Sprint was impossible to use from Los Angeles to San Diego (150 miles). Comparitively, from LA => San Diego, Vadic protocol generated 2 errors/minute, while 212 did about 100. I think you're looking at a vadic triple and dialing it yourself OR getting a 3481 card with an 801 autodialer card in a 1601 rack... much more expensive. Cheers, Elmo ------------------------------ Date: 21 September 1982 16:52 edt From: York.Multics at MIT-MULTICS (William M. York) Subject: time limits on payphone calls cc: jcp at BRL Calls from payphones in the Boston area have been automatically broken after a fixed amount of time (10 minutes or less) for several years. I remember being incredibly annoyed when I first came to MIT in 1975. There was apparently no such limit in the Detroit area. (Since then, Michigan Bell has raised payphone rates to $0.20, but if they still allow unlimited duration calls, it might be worth it. Today I had to call my wife back at a payphone when we got the beep, and sometims payphones don't accept incoming calls!) ------------------------------ Date: 21 Sep 1982 2204-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: DC Metro area The phones in the distant suburbs of DC such as Herndon, Annapolis, and Columbia are not DC Metro phones; they can't call the entire metro area. They can usually get as far as the District, but can usually not call the other side of the river. Thus they do not belong to the unique group of NXXs that is dialable with both the 'real' area code and 202. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Sep 82 8:40:37-EDT (Wed) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> To: John R Covert <RSX-DEV@Dec-Marlboro> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: Re: DC Metro area I will limit this note to Laurel, Md. exchanges. (area 301) (I had written that 621 and 953 were in DC metro area.) 490,497,498,725,776 Laurel; and 596 Columbia (Laurel service) have local service into DC but not to Va. 621 Laurel (Bowie-Glenn Dale service) & 953 Laurel (Berwyn service) both have local service to DC metro area. 792 Laurel (Waterloo service) has local service to Baltimore metro area. None of the above is reachable via area code 202. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 24-Sep-82 13:56:03-PDT,6478;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 24-Sep-82 13:55:16 Date: 24 Sep 1982 1355-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #122 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 23 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 122 Today's Topics: Bell 212 Modems Foreign Exchange (FEX) Circuits Credit Card Automation Local Phone Books - Coupons & Advertising Enhancements Prefix Trivia - 202 NPA And Elsewhere ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Sep 1982 1944-PDT From: Jeff Dean <DEAN at USC-ECL> Subject: 212 modems To: sdyer at BBN-UNIX I used to used a 212 under somewhat adverse circumstances with relatively good luck. I dialed from NJ to Boston through a somewhat circuitous route (in order to get to a WATS line), yet most of the time I had no problem. Sometimes, things would work even though the connection sounded awful. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Sep 1982 2359-EDT From: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Subject: FEXes I was messing around with one of our dialup lines recently, which is a FX. When you pick up on it, you hear way off in the distance a crossbar line kick to dialtone, but you don't get any local voltage changes, even when you dial a number from there. This points to some fairly strange hardware hung off the line. Can someone who knows go into more detail about how FEXes work? Do they use dedicated pairs [something that NJ Bell is apparently trying to *outlaw* now??!?!], or a multiplexed trunk? My [belated] thanks to all those who replied concerning the tone-decoder question. I haven't managed to latch on to that issue of BYTE yet [our local on-campus library had their copy stolen a while back] but when I get more time for dinking around with the micro I will certainly look it all up. Ian, I will get those replies out to you soon. _H* ------------------------------ Date: 23 Sep 1982 1407-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Credit Card Automation CLEM /62S/ CNS1 MESSAGE-ID: <EMS:5176599943:171> FROM: ART MOLINEAUX <MOL\79671 @CLEM> (DP: CORP TELECOM SERVICES) (LC: VR05-2/B9) (EX: 273-3133) (CC: 62S) TO: CASTOR/COVERT <ZK @CNS1> SUBJECT: CREDIT CARD AUTOMATION DATE: THU 23 SEP 1982 9:35 AM EDT The price of automation: To dial an off-net call from Logan Airport- 0+xxx-xxxx (remote access)+14 credit card #+xxxx(barrier code)+ "8"+10 digit call for a total of 37 digits. 23-SEP-82 09:53:39 S 01076 CFS0 23-SEP-82 10:04:08 S 27537 RCS2 [Note: Sorry for the confused mess, The header was so complicated that I didn't know what information was useful. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: Mon Sep 20 1982 19:02:17 PDT From: Dave Siegel <vortex!dave@LBL-UNIX> Subject: New L.A. Airport Directory Yes Folks it just arrived! The new Los Angeles Airport Area phone book just landed on my doorstep in its shiny clear plastic wrap... kinda like the ground beef you buy at the supermarket. It just as well could have come in a plain brown paper wrapper. First off, there is a piece of cardboard glued to the front of the book promoting the new Bell System Gold Pages Coupons (tm). These coupons aren't new to the world but are new to this neck of the woods. I wonder how much they stick you for one of those? Next I noticed that some of the ads in the Yellow Pages have these red borders and ink in the middle of them... sort of like the old Bell System Practices (next comes the little pointing finger). But the thing that caught my eye were the ads in the section labeled "Massage". This section was always in the book, but I had never noticed the ads before. The flashy red borders around *this* year's ads, however, immediately attracted my undivided attention. "WILD COEDS OUTCALL MASSAGE" (call Lynn for an appointment), "AFTERNOON DELIGHT BY 'MONIQUE'" (personal attention with discretion -- male and female escort and massage), "CALIFORNIA GIRLS" (our escorts are out of this world!), "DIANNE & LISA" (we'll go anywhere!)... They even have their pictures in the ad. Do their mothers know they have famous daughters? Gosh! I hadn't realized that the local phone book could be this much fun! And those coupons... I'm going to rush right out to get the buck and a half off on the large pepperoni pizza (with extra cheese!) Dave Siegel ------------------------------ Date: 23 Sep 82 15:08:41 EDT (Thu) From: R Dennis Rockwell <dennis.duke@UDel-Relay> Subject: DC Metro area Cc: cmoore at Brl There's actually a bit of strangeness about Bowie; exchanges available there can apparently be local to either DC or Baltimore, as the town is mostly commuters. I do know that 262 CAN be reached thru area code 202; my wife's parents live there, and I used 202 a couple of times. If Glenn Dale cannot be called thru 202, that's pretty strange, as Glenn Dale is directly between Bowie and DC. However, that's TPC for you... ------------------------------ Date: 24 Sep 82 7:53:13-EDT (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> To: cmoore at BRL Subject: Re: DC metro area What Bowie exchanges are you talking about? I was referring to 301-621, which provides the Bowie-Glenn Dale local service but does not serve the Bowie-Glenn Dale area (it serves Laurel, which is further north). As for prefixes being local to either DC or Baltimore, you'd have to look up Laurel, Columbia, & vicinity. The prefixes serving the Bowie-Glenn Dale geographic area CAN be reached via area 202. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Sep 82 8:41:01-EDT (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: more boundary cases These are the only other cases I know of where a place name is picked up across a state line. All of these are from phone books. Waynesboro (Pa.): 717-762, 749 (latter in Mont Alto area); 301-631 Terra Alta (W. Va.): 304-789, 301-785 Zenda (Wisc.): 815-649 (don't yet know what Wisconsin prefix is involved; the Ill. prefix given here was in list of prefixes for Chicago area, which includes parts of 815 and 219) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 28-Sep-82 14:34:00-PDT,3419;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 28-Sep-82 13:59:25 Date: 28 Sep 1982 1359-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #123 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 23 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 123 Today's Topics: Incredible Translation Screw-Up In Nashua, NH Adaptive Equalizers In 212 Modems Bell System International Information Service ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 28 Sep 1982 1002-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Incredible Translation screw-up in Nashua, NH Customers in Nashua who misdial calls to Manchester (the error is to include the 603 NPA as part of the call) are being routed over the Foreign Exchange lines installed in DEC's Merrimack/Nashua CENTREX. It seems that the 3-digit translator entry for normal customers for 603, which should point to error recording (since you aren't allowed to dial your own NPA in NH) points to DEC's translator for 603, used to automatically route calls to the Manchester area over the FX. This is due to be fixed today (I discovered it yesterday) and applied to calls from all Nashua/Hudson NXXs except 888. The "correct" way to dial Manchester is 1+7D or 0+7D; calls went on the FX if dialed with 1+603+7D, 0+603+7D (no stop at TSPS along the way), or 603+7D. When calling from a pay station, the call, normally a toll call, routed on the FX and returned the dime at the end of the call. DEC, of course, had to pay for all the local calls in Manchester and also incurred other costs, since the FX lines were unavailable which caused calls to be routed over WATS. (Fortunately calls from the outside phones went to reorder, rather than WATS, when the FXs were busy.) This error may have existed for years. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Sep 1982 22:27:35-PDT From: mo at LBL-UNIX (Mike O'Dell [system]) Subject: Adaptive equalizers in 212 modems I recently saw an article (latest Computer Design) on a 212 modem with a real, honest-to-goodness adaptive equalizer. This won't help a lot if you only have one, unless the errors are on only one side of the circuit!! But if you have them on both ends, it should work quite a bit better. The same company makes a V.22 version (European 212 standard) which the Swedish national telephone company just adopted as its standard! Imagine, getting state-of-the-art hardware from the PTT as a matter of course!! Another interesting thought: since the 3400 frequency choices are inherently more immune to distortion, would an adaptive 3400 be much better than the adaptive 212?? I guess to answer that you would have to know how much intersymbol distortion results from second-harmonic distortion in the 212 signal. Any budding EE out there have any ideas about this? Also, is the Vadic 2400 baud autoadaptive? I would think that would be a necessity. -Mike ------------------------------ Date: 28 Sep 1982 0948-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Bell System International Information Service It's finally listed with 800 D.A. (After I complained to the folks at Long Lines in New Jersey.) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 30-Sep-82 16:34:09-PDT,4318;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 30-Sep-82 16:33:11 Date: 30 Sep 1982 1633-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #124 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 1 October 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 124 Today's Topics: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 Sep 1982 13:07 EDT From: Slade.WBST at PARC-MAXC cc: Slade.wbst at PARC-MAXC Re: auto tape message senders; cordless phone information Does the following device really exist and could someone give me the name of the folks that make them? I thought that I had heard of such a device some months ago but cant recall where I saw it. For want of a better name, I call them automatic message senders. The device dials a series of phone numbers and plays a precorded tape message whenever the phone number is answered. A single phone number capability is not sufficient (these single call devices are used in some burglar alarm reporting systems to call say, the police department). Conceptually the device is easy to design with standard autodialers and a continuous tape machine. What about the part of the system that recognizes that the phone has been answered? On another subject, people were asking about cordless phones recently. For those that have not seen it, a review of the cordless phones available was published in the October, 1982 Popular Science, p 84. Included is the statement that several of the units will do true touchtone dialing. Has anyone confirmed that this is true? The units claimed to do this are the Electra FF-4000, Mura 800/801 and the Pathcom 8800 and 9800. mike slade ------------------------------ From: decvax!ittvax!tpdcvax@Berkeley Date: Mon Sep 27 12:30:53 1982 Subject: PBX that won't hang up I have a problem with a PBX that won't hang up. I am describing it here in the hopes that it may prevent new equipment from being designed this way. I don't expect anyone to suggest a fix, but if you've got one, by all means tell me (address below). Many of the management types who use this (UNIX) machine have 1200 baud direct connect modems and a separate phone line. There is a switch on the phone marked "TALK" and "DATA". They have a habit of logging out and leaving the switch in the "DATA" position, thus tying up the line. I attempted a fix by having the UNIX end hang up on logout. This'd work fine if they were outside calls, but since both the managers and the modems are on the same PBX the line is held open until the originating end (the manager) hangs up. My CO at home behaves this way but has a timeout of 30 seconds or so. This gives me enough time to hang up on an incoming call and move to another phone without loosing the call -- a marvelous feature. Without the timeout, I'd have no recourse against obscene phone calls or pushy telephone salesmen. I guess the designers of our PBX didn't worry about obscene phone calls or forgetful managers. Bob Van Valzah (...!decvax!ittvax!tpdcvax!bobvan) ------------------------------ Date: 30-SEP-82 12:08:18 From: STAR::LIONEL To: ALIEN::PARMENTER Sender: John Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Name That Bell [From MIS Week - Sept. 29, 1982] The North American Telephone Association, composed of many equipment vendors who want to sell to independent phone companies and to AT&T's purchasing division, has a Washington office which every other week publishes a "Washington Update." Last week, dispensing with serious reporting for a moment of levity, Update revealed that "an ambitious soul, believed to be employed somewhere in the Bell System" has come up with nicknames for the seven regional holding companies that will be formed from the divested 22 Bell operating companies. In the Northeast region will be Yankee Bell; in the Mid-Atlantic region, Liberty Bell; in the Midwest, Cow Bell; in the South, Southern Belle; in the Rockies and the West, Buffalo Bell; in the Southwest, Taco Bell; and in California, Tinker Bell. [Taco Bell is already a registered name for a Taco stand. --JSol] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 3-Oct-82 17:01:26-PDT,7279;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 3-Oct-82 17:01:00 Date: 3 Oct 1982 1701-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #125 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 1 October 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 125 Today's Topics: New Services - Hotel And Airplane Phones/Terminals Auto Tape Message Senders ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 3 Oct 1982 1211-PDT From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow Reply-To: Geoff at SRI-CSL Subject: Travelers' Computers. a203 0920 03 Oct 82 AM-Focus-Travelers' Computers, Bjt,820 TODAY'S FOCUS: Placing Computers in the Air and in Hotel Rooms Laserphoto Cartoon NY6 By NORMAN BLACK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - John Q. Public, a sales manager at a major corporation, is working at his computer terminal in New York when he gets an order from the boss - get out to Los Angeles and help close a major deal. Two hours later, Public is on the airplane. He checks in by phone for some final instructions, then pulls out a portable terminal provided by the airline and resumes work. When he's done, his latest sales report is transmitted back to New York, from 40,000 feet in the air. Later that night, Public checks into a hotel. He flips on a small computer terminal in his room, reads several ''electronic mail'' messages waiting for him from other sales agents and files his own report back to New York on the Los Angeles contract. Sound farfetched? Guess again. The computer age is arriving faster than you think. Dallas-based Travelhost Inc. plans to begin placing small computer terminals in hotel and motel rooms in January. The company is convinced it can entice hotel operators to place 500,000 terminals in the field by mid-1985. An unrelated company, Airfone Inc., hopes to begin testing the nation's first commercial air-to-ground telephone system next month. Assuming the experiment works, Airfone officials say it's a small step from an airplane telephone system transmitting voices to a phone system transmitting computer data. Some preliminary tests indicate that the idea is feasible, says John D. Goeken, founder and president of Airfone, a Washington, D.C.-based company that is now 50 percent owned by the Western Union Corp. Officials of Airfone and Travelhost, although approaching their ventures from different perspectives, are focusing on the same travel market. The development of video teleconference facilities, allowing corporate executives to meet via television, will never completely replace the need for face-to-face meetings, the officials say. ''This will be the first amenity introduced for the hotel industry in the last 30 years that's significant enough to help push the industry into a new future,'' says Dr. Lee H. Smith, president of Travelhost. ''... this will become a vital service to the in-room traveler that allows him to avail himself of some very good travel-related services in an easy fashion.'' Travelhost and another Dallas company, the Quazon Corp., have already developed a simple, ''user friendly'' computer terminal for the new service. Quazon will manufacture the devices, with the first to be available in January. Smith says the terminals will prove attractive to hotel operators because they'll receive a payment every time a terminal in one of their rooms is turned on. Travelers, meantime, after punching in a credit card number, will be able to send and receive electronic messages; make airline reservations; check addresses and menus at restaurants; peruse the offerings of merchandisers, and check the stock market and latest news reports. ''If a person can count to 10, he or she can operate this Travelhost terminal,'' Smith claims. Travelhost has yet to announce how much the service will cost the traveler, although Smith says the rates ''will certainly be competitive with what's out there now for home computer users. A rough ballpark might be $20 an hour during peak time and $7 or $8 during non-peak. ''Portability isn't here yet for computers, and we think the timing is absolutely right and that we can ... capture a significant share of the market,'' he adds. While there might not be many people carrying portable computers now, that is clearly something envisioned by Airfone. The company says that one day airline travelers will be able to use their own terminal or a portable device provided by the airline to work during flights. ''Our main concern right now is the in-flight telephone system,'' says Stephen Walker, the joint venture liaison for Western Union. ''But computer data transmission is one of the next steps,'' he continued. ''There's no trick to that, really.'' If you have the equipment to attach a computer to a telephone, he adds, ''it doesn't make any difference whether the phone is on the ground or in the air.'' Bill Gordon, Airfone's director of network planning, says the company has been developing the air-to-ground telephone service since 1974. ''But it took us until 1979 to ask the Federal Communications Commission to authorize the service and allocate frequencies,'' he added. ''The FCC hasn't done that yet, because they want to see the results of our experiment. We've got licenses now to build 37 ground stations and we're reaching the point of putting the gear into the airplanes. ''The airlines are very interested in this,'' Gordon concluded. ''They want to make the transportation time for their passengers as enjoyable and productive as possible.'' ap-ny-10-03 1219EDT *************** ------------------------------ Date: 1 Oct 1982 09:38 PDT From: Lynn.ES at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: auto tape message senders In-reply-to: Slade.WBST's message of 29 Sep 1982 13:07 EDT cc: Lynn.es The device you describe (automatic message senders) has become popular with sales people that operate over the phone, the electronic version of the door-to-door salesman. They even have ones that record anything the callee replies to the recording, so they can take down your mailing address, when you are asked by the recording, to harrass you by mail as well as phone. I saw in the news awhile ago that they (California legislature, I believe) were passing a law against machines calling up people. So now a person calls up (apparently with machine help on the dialing) and asks if it is ok to proceed with their tape. The last one that called me didn't really give me a chance to reply. By careful timing, they can still get 10 or so people on the line with 10 or so machines, but only 1 paid employee. The purpose of the law was allegedly to prevent machines from tieing up phones when a true emergency required the recipient of the call to use his phone, but I think it was more to keep down nuisance solicitation. It wasn't too effective in that respect. Anyway, I don't know who makes the device, but I wish they wouldn't. /Don Lynn ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 8-Oct-82 15:56:11-PDT,5794;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 8-Oct-82 15:55:15 Date: 8 Oct 1982 1555-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #126 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 8 October 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 126 Today's Topics: New List For Bankers Warning! General Telephone To Buy SPC/Sprint Automatic Credit Card Numbers With Non-Bell Companies Automatic Message Senders Operator Routing Information Shutting Off Coin Phones ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 3 October 1982 22:44-EDT (Sunday) From: The Banking List <Banking at ML> Sender: Feinberg@OZ Subject: New Mailing List Howdy! There is a new mailing list, Banking@ML. The current description of the list is: BANKING@ML is an interest group to discuss the banking industry as it is and as it could be, especially including but not limited to the impact of computer technology. Topics of interest might include EFT security, technical details of existing and future systems, rate structures, policies, and regulatory climates. Requests for addtions (or deletions) should be sent to Banking-Request@ML. The archive is contained in the file COMMON;BANK ARCHIV at ML. Questions, comments and suggestions regarding the operation of the list should be sent to Banking-Request@ML. --Neal Feinberg ------------------------------ Date: 5-Oct-82 21:31:11 PDT (Tuesday) From: Newman.es at PARC-MAXC Subject: Warning! General Telephone to buy SPC/Sprint cc: Newman.es at PARC-MAXC If you susbscribe to Southern Pacific Communications' "Sprint" long-distance telephone service, get ready to switch to another service! Yesterday's Wall Street Journal (October 4, page 6) reports that General Telephone has agreed to buy Sprint from Southern Pacific. Anyone who has ever lived or worked in Santa Monica can recite numerous horror stories about the quality of GenTel's "service". /Ron ------------------------------ Date: 3 Oct 18:48- 198 (Sun) From: smb.rabbit at UDel-Relay Reply-To: smb.unc at UDel-Relay Subject: automatic credit card numbers with non-Bell companies Via: (rabbit); 3 Oct 82 18:53-EDT Via: UNC; 5 Oct 82 20:11-EDT Recently, while driving to D.C., I stopped to make a call from a non-Bell phone (Continental Telephone of Virginia, I believe). I was quite surprised to here the familiar BEEP-Beee...... tone; when I keyed in my credit-card number, it said "thank you" as usual. Did this phone company have to install any special equipment, or was it a consequence of Bell having installed the gear at their center? ------------------------------ Date: 6-Oct-82 18:25:44-PDT (Wed) From: UCBVAX.pur-ee!davy@Berkeley Subject: automatic message senders In regard to your query about automatic message senders, I saw an ad for a telephone with automatic message sending capabilities in a catalog (from JS&A, I think) a few months ago. It was being marketed as something for you to buy for your parents/grandparents as a safety type thing. If I remember right, you were able to record a little message, along with a couple of numbers (fire, police, etc.). There was a "panic button" which you would mount on the wall next to the bed or whatever, and when it was pushed, the phone would dial each of these numbers and relay the taped message. (I sort of wondered about that one, though -- what's the fire dept. gonna do about a break-in?) The phone also had all the other nifty stuff they've come out with in the past years -- automatic dialing of numbers, a speaker, etc., etc. I beleive that JS&A wanted somewhere around $300-400 for the thing, but I'm not positive. --Dave Curry decvax!pur-ee!davy pur-ee!davy@berkeley ------------------------------ Date: 7 Oct 82 8:05:11-EDT (Thu) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: operator routing A little while ago, we discussed places like Montague, NJ; Fishers Island, NY; and Greenwich, Conn. These areas have operator routing thru neighboring states; I now ask if this implies anything about a prefix' possible existing in those neighboring areas. E.g.: 201-293 Montague, NJ is routed via 914; does that mean there is no 914-293 prefix? (Answer to this question appears to be "yes", but I recently came across 205-291 Phenix City, Alabama, routed via 404 area in Ga., and both my notes and the phone co. operators say there is indeed a 404-291 prefix at Rome, Ga.) ------------------------------ Date: 8 Oct 82 9:39:00-EDT (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: op. route; shutoff pay phones Here are some unusual operator codes I have found (just 1st 3 digits of such codes are given here): 206-945 Point Roberts, Wash. state; op. code starts with 604 (This point is at south end of a British Columbia peninsula.) 207-339 (S. Lebanon), 363 (York), 384 (S. Berwick), Maine. Op. codes start with 617, although Maine does not touch Massachusetts. At recently-closed Delaware Park, I found pay phones with signs "Tele- phones out of service during races" and the receivers taped so they could not be removed (easily) from hooks. The phone numbers are (302) 994-9969 and 994-9951, and both were disconnected (no further info available, according to recording, when I called them. (I was also at Keystone track near Phila., and could find no pay phones in clubhouse area.) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 12-Oct-82 23:08:02-PDT,5868;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 12-Oct-82 23:03:16 Date: 12 Oct 1982 2303-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #127 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Wednesday, 13 October 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 127 Today's Topics: GTE And Sprint Hayes Smartmodem (300) Problem Electronic Mail Service Dialing 1-NPA- From Within The NPA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Oct 8 1982 13:35:31 PDT From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX> Subject: GTE and Sprint I wouldn't worry much about GTE buying SPC. SPC will just join a long list of companies owned by GTE (of which General Telephone is one). Other companies that haven't collapsed when GTE bought them include Sylvania and Telenet. I certainly haven't noticed any problems with Telenet just because they became part of a larger company -- no technical problems, anyway. Such wheelings and dealings do not necessarily reflect on the technical quality of service. I hardly think that GTE is going to replace all of SPC's equipment with Step by Step gear! Actually, GTE's EAX equipment performs very nicely... and they are moving as fast as they can to get all their old Step gear out of service. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 12 Oct 1982 at 0903-PDT From: hampton at ACC Subject: Hayes Smartmodem (300) Problem I've got a R E A L problem with my Hayes Smartmodem which should be of general interest whilst we all await the draining of the Smartmodem-1200 backlog... Given a burst of noise from my Central Office while connected to my host, "Carrier Detect" will go off and all incoming data (this only happens with data incomming, like reading mail...) will flash the LEDs but never make it out to the terminal! Frantic kicking, poking, and prodding sometimes gets its attention again but it may just as easily time out Carrier Detect and drop the connection, even though the host modem is still transmitting carrier! In the process of chasing this problem, I discovered that should you set S10=255 before dialing a call (in an attempt to keep carrier loss due to noise from breaking the connection) the monitor speaker will be left on forever and "Carrier Detect" happens immediately upon completion of dialing even though their is no modem on the other side, yet. This is only a minor annoyance but perhaps the back side of the same call-state confusion. I would appreciate any comments and/or commiseration... Hampton G. Miller Associated Computer Consultants ------------------------------ Date: 11-Oct-82 19:32:17-PDT (Mon) From: UCBVAX.pur-ee!davy@Berkeley Subject: Electronic Mail Service Perhaps this doesn't belong on this list, but it uses the phone system, so then again maybe it does. I just found this advertisement stuck on the bulletin board here describing a service where you can call up to this company's computer and send electronic mail, "notefiles", etc. to other subscribers of the service. Some excerpts of the advertisement (two pages) are below, in order: "THE CONNECTION is a new and exciting concept in telecommunications about to sweep the nation. You can use The Connection wherever there's a phone, in your home or office and, with a portable terminal, even in a telephone booth." WHAT DOES THIS SERVICE DO? "....You can send private electronic mail to any subscriber......You can use our public 'notefile' system to express your views about anything and everything....." WHAT DO I NEED TO USE THE CONNECTION? ".....you will need a modem and a terminal, personal computer, or communicating word processor. ......If you already have a personal computer but lack the software to use a modem, you can get it from us. ....To use our network you simply call our network (a local number in most cities).....Our computer will present you with a simple menu of things you can do." They also plan on offering an "Author System": "where subscribers can write stories (of any type, fiction or nonfiction) and get paid a royalty when other users read them. This service will even be able to handle on-line magazines and newsletters with articles written by several users. It will cost the user nothing extra to read a story from this system." Their rates are given for 300 or 1200 baud, and range from $3.00-$9.50 for "low-density" to "high-density" cities. They also have various charges for other services, such as hardcopy printouts of things which are then mailed to you via U.S. Mail, etc. This service is offered by: THE CONNECTION Kangaroo Koncepts, Inc. 19141 Summers Drive South Bend, IN 46637 (219) 272-2136 Looks sort of interesting, but I'm not sure how quick it really will take hold. Right now they're soliciting for "charter members", the service isn't supposed to start until March 1983. --Dave Curry decvax!pur-ee!davy pur-ee!davy@berkeley ------------------------------ Date: 11 October 1982 02:35 edt From: Frankston.SoftArts at MIT-MULTICS Subject: 1-NPA- Reply-To: Frankston at MIT-MULTICS (Bob Frankston) A recent letter mentioned that one cannot dial 603 which in 603. The same is true of 617. Why does this restriction exist? Why can't I always dial 1-NPA-XXX-XXXX to get a number no matter where I am? Otherwise it is a pain to provide a piece of equipment that knows how to dial home no matter where it is in North America. Even internationally all one needs to do is get into the international network. 1-617 thus works everywhere except 617. Why? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 29-Oct-82 01:20:43-PDT,18453;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 29-Oct-82 01:20:01 Date: 29 Oct 1982 0120-PDT From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #128 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 29 October 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 128 Today's Topics: Dialing Ones Home NPA Re: Electronic Mail Service Cermatek Automatic Call Processing Unit (ACPU) GTE/Telenet 617vs617 More On Op. Codes Query - Local Area Data Sets "Equal Access" to competitve Inter-Exchange Carriers PBX Inquir TWX History NY Telephone Selling Phones 2nd Area Code Planned For New York City Daemon Dialer [I was on vacation last week, so no TELECOM digests were published] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 13 Oct 1982 0739-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Dialing one's home NPA Home NPA can usually be dialed in Georgia and North Carolina; it seems to depend on the local dial administration folks. To do it right does require extra translation (Ga and NC sent calls to your own C.O. out to the toll machine and back, which is kind of wasteful). It is not perceived that the extra translation is worth allowing both ways to work. Telco mentality is simply "there shouldn't be two ways to do anything." ------------------------------ Date: 13 Oct 1982 1248-MDT From: Walt <Haas at UTAH-20> Subject: Re: Electronic Mail Service Telenet offers a service called Telemail which has a similar effect - ie. they provided the computer that stores your mail, and you dial into your local Telenet PAD (of which there are a whole lot), connect to this computer and read or send mail. I've never used the service myself. -- Walt Haas HAAS@UTAH-20 ...harpo!utah-cs!haas ------------------------------ Date: 14 Oct 1982 0830-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Cermatek Automatic Call Processing Unit (ACPU) The new Cermatek ACPU chip, CH1820, appears at first glance to be a really nice new product. Closer inspection, however, shows that it has at least two major deficiencies which make it unusable for its designed purpose. It would be nice if manufacturers of products which would use the CH1820 would recognize these deficiencies and prevail upon Cermatek to redesign the chip. The first major deficiency will prevent the ACPU from processing calls correctly under many circumstances. The chip claims to incorporate a feature enabling it to determine whether the line to which it is attached accepts DTMF (Tone-Dial) signals. The description of the "feature" follows: After dial tone detection, an automatic selection process of DTMF or Pulse dialing is begun. The first digit to be dialed is dialed via DTMF tones. The ACPU then monitors the telephone line to see if dial tone has been broken. If dial tone is absent the local TELCO switching system accepts DTMF tones. In this case the balance of the number is dialed using DTMF. If dial tone remains, DTMF is not supported by the local TELCO, and the CH1820 responds by backing up and dialing the complete number using pulse dialing. There are two flaws in this algorithm. The first, and most obvious, is in the case of CENTREX and PBX systems, where the first digit is used as an access code (e.g. 9 for outside). Using the above algorithm, the CH1820 would dial 9, discover that dial tone has not been broken, and back up and dial the 9 again. The call would be sent to an incorrect number. The second flaw is less obvious. In modern, electronic switching systems, the number being dialed is often buffered until the switching system's CPU is ready to process the digit. In busy central offices, there is often a substantial delay after the first digit is dialed before dial tone is removed. Additional digits may be dialed in this time, but the CH1820 would make the error of backing up, causing the call to go to an incorrect number. The second major deficiency in the chip is in the call progress tone detection algorithm. The detection of ringing versus busy is not very easy. The algorithm the CH1820 uses is inadequate. The following description of the tone detection appears in the preliminary data sheet: Dial tone is recognized as constant energy in the frequency band of 300 to 700 Hz. Busy tone is recognized as 200 to 700 ms of energy in the dial tone band followed by a minimum of 200 ms of non-dial tone band energy or silence. Ringback [audible ring] tone is recognized as 700 ms or more of dial tone band energy followed by 200 ms or more of non-dial tone band energy or silence. One of the most widely used PBXs in the industry, the Rolm MCBX, provides an audible ring of 500 ms on calls dialed into the switch from the outside. Calls to modems (or other devices) in this PBX would fail. Avoid products incorporating the CH1820 until a new version is available which corrects these deficiencies. ______________________________ Date: 14 Oct 1982 10:56:08-EDT From: dee at CCA-UNIX (Donald Eastlake) To: telecom at rutgers Subject: GTE/Telenet 617vs617 Telenet vs GTE: It may depend on what type of connection you have with Telenet but I would dispute Lauren's claim that Telenet has not detriorated under GTE. When Telenet was its own thing, the people working for it at least had some idea what was going on and you could generally find someone responsible. Now they are trying to do the service end of things increasingly with random GTE people and dispatching them through general complex GTE channels such that you have to talk to 3 or 4 people, none of whom seems to be willing to take much responsibility or be very definite. They also have taken to doing cute things like reloading the software into our TP with no notice and throwing away the old version such that we were without service for 4 days. 617vs617: Re: Frankston's remarks, I am equally annoyed that you can't simply always dial 1 in front of numbers within 617 if you are within 617. I suppose the claim is that people want to know if they are dialing a "toll" call and want to minimize the number of digits but no one seems to care about the wasted effort in having to look up whether or not you have to dial 1 or more likely randomly try to wrong thing first and then the other. If I go to the effort of making a telephone call, I really don't care if its local or not though I suppose it might make some difference if it was overseas. In any case, it would be nice to be able to dial what ever prefix is required to effectively declare that I don't care if its a "toll" call or not. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 82 8:05:47-EDT (Mon) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: op. codes, 209 area There are several prefixes in 209 area whose operator codes start with 916 (different area in SAME state). These include 555 (dir. asst.), although its V&H coor- dinates match those of Fresno. ------------------------------ Date: 14 Oct 82 15:52:58-EDT (Thu) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: more on op. codes I presently don't know why any prefixes would have operator code from a non-bordering state or province. Earlier, I noted a few Maine prefixes whose op. codes start with 617 (eastern Mass. area code), and I have since found these combinations: Maine, op. code starting with 802 (Vermont) Idaho, op. code starting with 303 (Colorado) I wonder what I'll find for op. codes in New Hampshire and Wyoming, the states "skipped over" above. ---------- Note (not by me) about 1 + your own area code + 7 digit number for automatic, transportable dialer makes me wonder how complex the changes would be to accomodate such a thing. I do see how it is a nuisance without "+ your own area code" being possible when you and the number you call are in same area. This is in addition to other notes about one's own area code. I wrote about DC area and NYC, and someone else wrote that it's the best solution to toll calls within same area code when "area code" prefixes and 1+ DDD are in same area (no such areas at least for now). ------------------------------ Date: Thursday, 14 October 1982 15:55-EDT Sender: KLOTZ at MIT-OZ From: Leigh L. Klotz <KLOTZ at MIT-MC> To: jsol at MIT-OZ Subject:Help? Being a telephone expert, do you know anything about "Local Area Data Sets"? They're 9600 and greater "modems" for direct connection. I have a 4-wire connection to BBN from Terrapin and one of these critters, but not two. The phone company has stalled for 3 months, and I just found out today that they don't have any more and have to buy them. I talked to the guy who designed it and he referred me to Codex, who sells them to the phone company. They can get me a pair in 4 weeks, but that doesn't help me today when I need it (or three months ago...). Do you know anybody who has a pair or one they aren't using that I could borrow or least or rent for 4 weeks? Thanks, Leigh. ------------------------------ Date: 16 October 1982 13:21-EDT From: "Marvin A. Sirbu, Jr." <SIRBU at MIT-MC> Subject: "Equal Access" to competitve Inter-Exchange Carriers To: Telecom at USC-ECLB The divestiture agreement calls for the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) to provide "equal access" to both AT&T Long Lines and the other inter-exchange carriers (IECs) The following is from a paper by Norwood G. Long, Director Loop Planning, Bell Telephone Laboratories presented at a Workshop on Local Access in St. Louis last month. "When a telephone call is placed in the switched message network, the user must specify the unique number of the called party by entering a structured list of identifiers and geographical designators. For local calls only central office (3 digit) and customer (4 digit) codes are needed.... The next level in addressing is the area code, a 3 digit code identifying a region with the second digit a "1" or a "0", such as "201" for Northern new Jersey. Finally, the initial digit or digits may have, in some locations, a specialized call-type identification function; "1" can mean a toll call, "01" can mean international call, etc. "One way of allowing the user "equal access" in selecting among all available inter-exchange carriers would be to add digits identifying the selected carrier to the dialing code.... "The following example... shows one way in which the issues discussed above might be approached. Since the issues are still under active discussion by regulators, carriers, and others, it should not be construed as a proposal. "Numbering for message toll: 10XX + normal ten digit number, where "XX" specifies the carrier. If 10XX is absent, call is carried by a carrier preselected by the user. "Access to all IEC's would be through an intermediate tandem switch, unless traffic studies show wnough traffic to justify the cost of direct end-office-IEC hub trunks. From an end office, trunks to both the access tandem switch and an IEC hub would have 3 dB loss; access tandem to IEC hub trunks would have 0 dB loss. Traffic blocking on a two link end office to access tandem plus tandem to IEC hub call would be adjusted to be the same as on a direct end office to IEC hub call." ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 1982 1226-PDT From: Jim Celoni S.J. <CSL.JLH.Celoni at SU-SCORE> Subject: PBX inquiry The University of Santa Clara is shopping for a 1200-line PBX for our 44-building campus and has received proposals from Northern Telecom (SL-1 VLE Generic X11), CP National (Mitel SX-2000), American Bell (AT&T D2000 FP8), InteCom (IBX), Rolm (LCBX Release 7), United Technologies (Stromberg DBX 5000), and ComPath (Wescom 580L). Other companies weren't interested in bidding (e.g. GTE, Anderson-Jacobson, Datapoint, Harris, IBM). Staying with the Centrex served from our #1 ESS CO (in Pacific Telephone territory) is possible too, either month-to-month or under a forthcoming tariff offering guaranteed rates for three years. (Centrex is about all the operating companies will have for large customers after the split.) Rumor has it that Rolm's developing a new incompatible MC68000-based switch, Northern a new incompatible switch, that Bell's Antelope is not a Dimension add-on (and will be out soon for smaller sizes and later for ours), and that still-uninstalled switches (some from startup companies) will outshine them all. I'm not permitted to give prices or say which bidders are finalists or how the terms they're offering us are different from their standard ones, but I'd really appreciate your comments on the proposed systems, on the rumors, on PBX vs. month-to-month vs. Centrex contract, etc.. I'll keep your reply between us if you want, and I'll summarize for Telecom whatever of the rest is of general interest. Many thanks. --j ------------------------------ Date: Fri Oct 22 1982 21:18:24 PDT From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX> Subject: TWX history Greetings. Can somebody tell me when the ASCII TWX network first began to appear? When did the term "twix" first start to be used, and has it ever been used outside of the U.S.? I am not concerned with the Baudot telex network, which has been available domestically and internationally for many years. (As an aside, I believe that use of the term "TWX" is now being discouraged -- you're now supposed to call the ASCII service "Telex II".) Any info would be appreciated. Thanks much. --Lauren-- P.S. I started thinking about this while watching an old rerun of "M*A*S*H"! Klinger ran into a room holding a slip of paper and said, "I've got a twix here you're going to want to see..." Seems to me that the usage is wrong both in space and time. TWX in *Korea* during the Korean War? Telex, yes, but TWX? Looks like the writers blew it on this one -- probably didn't realize there was any difference. --LW-- ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 82 17:27:52 EDT (Sun) From: floyd!cmcl2!edler@Berkeley Subject: NY Tel. selling phones New York Telephone is offering to sell currently installed telephones to residence and business customers with single-line telephones. The offer applies to Standard, Trimline, or Princess sets, dial or tone, desk or wall. There is a 30 day limited warranty for electrical parts, excluding cords. If you take them up on this, they will put it on your bill, and if you are a residence customer they will bill you in six installments if you like. The offer is good until December 31, 1982, after which it will presumably change. The price is $50 for either of my two standard desk touch-tone sets, which I have had for less than a year. The current monthly charge that I would save is $3.73, so it would take about 14 months to make my money back. Are other phone companies making similar offers? Is this a good deal? Will the price go down after January 1, 1983? Will significantly better phones be available soon for a better price? Should I take them up on the offer? Jan Edler cmcl2!edler (nyu) pyuxll!jse (btl piscataway) ------------------------------ Date: Wed 27-Oct-1982 16:48-EDT From: Bill Russell <RUSSELL@NYU> To: DORN.ACF1@NYU, Richard Kenner <KENNER@NYU>, TELECOM@USC-ECLB Subject: 2nd Area Code for New York City Planned From the NY Times, Wed, October 27th, 1982, by The Assocciated Press The New York Telephone Company said yesterday that it was considering a second area code for New York City in 1984 to meet the growing demand for and use of the telephone. The company ``is presently looking into ways to increase the supply of phone numbers in New York City to meet future needs,'' said a spokesman, John Quinn. Mr. Quinn said that amoung the proposals being considered was ``a new area code covering Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.'' He said the new area code would be 718, with Manhattan and the Bronx keeping 212. The 718 area code would be considered a local call if dialed from in New York City. If the plan, which requires approval by the State Public Service Commission, is adopted, it would be implemented in mid-1984, he added. A second area code would free up to 800 exchanges--the first three digits of a phone number, Mr. Quinn said, double the amount now available. The telephone company nearly two years ago began requiring the dialing of the numeral ``1'' before all long-distance numbers from New York City, but ``the several hundred'' exchanges it provided are being rapidly ``eaten up'' as a result of a growing technology and direct inward dialing, Mr. Quinn said. He said all the exchanges provided by adding ``1'' would be used up by 1985. Direct inward dialing--dialing without going through a central operator--``requires a large nunber of code blocks,'' he said. More extensive use of beepers and mobile radio systems, which will make car telephones much more accessible, also reserves large blocks of numbers. The proposal for dual area codes is currently being studied by San Diego and Los Angeles, two cities that will implement the system before New York does, Mr. Quinn said. New York City currently has more than six million phone numbers. ------------------------------ Date: 29 October 1982 00:05 edt From: Schauble.Multics at MIT-MULTICS Subject: Daemon Dialer I have been seen ads for this beast for a long time. It is a small box that you plug into any extension outlet in your house. It then provides speed calling services for all of the phones in your house. You pick up the phone, dial the speed call code (touch only) and the daemon dials the number for you. I would very much like to know how this works, in detail. Seems to me that if you do this, the CO will also receive the tones directed at the daemon and attempt to respond to them. How is this avoided? Paul ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 4-Nov-82 15:33:01-PST,16233;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 4-Nov-82 15:32:33 Date: 4 Nov 1982 1532-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #129 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 4 November 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 129 Today's Topics: Generic Dialer & TeleMail & 1-NXX & Buying a Phone & TWX & Complication of LD Access & Switching Trivia Operator Codes And State Boundaries TELECOM Digest V2 #128, CH1820 TELENET TWX History Queries About DTMF Chips Building An AutoDialer Demon-Dialer Area Codes, N0X & N1X Prefixes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 October 1982 12:31-EDT From: Jeffrey R. Del Papa <DP at MIT-ML> generic dialer: I recently heard (from the director of the gte group that sells pbx'n, who was filling in for the instructor of this telephony class I started taking tuesday) that "10 digit dialing is coming... tho not till after the dust from the consent decree settles a bit" telemail: is a crock. it's user interface is worse than any mailer I have seen. We showed some of the telenet people (Gulp, I will have to admit, I work for GTE, tho I have nothing to do with the telephone groups.) RMAIL, and BABYL. There reaction was "too complex.." (I was rather incredulous at the idea that rmail was complex) (of course these same people were suprized at the idea of someone using a mail system. very few people (at the labs anyway) use electronic mail, and those that do use it mostly as a novelty.) (by the same token the only people at honeywell that use multics emacs are consultants. all the real employees us the line editors.) Telemail is organized in an almost reasonable way... It has a front end running on a number of vaxen, and file storage done by a tandem. this leaves more than a few warts tho. you can file messages away, and delete the messages from the files. you cannot (once they have been created) delete the file. so after a few years, you wind up with a directory full of empty files. At least there is hope by some people in the telent group of providing a different mailer interface. dial 1+nxx: the theory I most often hear concerning 1+ dialing, besides the ovbious routing switch simplification, is that it reduces ths proablility of small children to direct dial the other side of the world. with 1+ the chance is down to 10% with the 0 or 1 requirement for the second area code digit means it now is a 2% chance. buying a phone: Supposedly the guts of a modern telephone are worth $22 retail (actual cost of about $4, tho that may be for gte phones) The GTE flip fone was known to it's developers as the "disposaphone" originaly designed to sell for ~$10 and disposed of when broken. when the manufacturing people got through costing the thing it had to cost $18. the marketing people said "we can't do that", so the sell the phone for ~$50, and fix them when they break. complication of ld access: The 10xx for ld acess may happen because the nice people at MCI,SPC,ITT,etc.. are going to do there best to see that mother doesn't get the code 1 for ld access when they are stuck with 547. switching trivia: The digest already carried the history of the strowger (step by step) switch. Bell hates patents it doesn't own. It developed panel to avoid paying ericson for crossbar. well, it didn't even use step until the twenties, staying with manual switching, to avoid the strowger patent. In 1919 they did this study. if every female born that year became a telephone operator when she turned 18, it would provide some 40% of the projected need. enjoy, Jeff ------------------------------ Date: 29 Oct 1982 2057-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Buying telephones $50 is not an unreasonable price for a Western Electric Standard Touch- Tone set. The wholesale price for Stromberg or ITT equivalent set is around $37 (depending on cord lengths, etc.). But if I were you, just before calling them to buy the phone, I'd go by the Phone Center Store and exchange the set for a new one. (Tell them you don't like the color, or that it sometimes doesn't dial right, or something.) At $50 they can afford to sell you a new phone. And what are they going to do about all the "Bell System Property, Not For Sale" stamps in the sets? ------------------------------ Date: 29 Oct 1982 2130-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> cc: lauren at UCLA-SECURITY Subject: TWX From "Events in Telephone History:" November 21, 1931 -- Inauguration of teletypewriter exchange service, TWX, by A.T.&T. Company. Teletypewriters had been in use on private lines since 1915. The new service established central switching exchanges through which any subscriber could commun- icate by teletypewriter with any of the other subscribers to the network. August 31, 1962 -- Bell System's Teletypewriter Exchange Service cut from manual to dial operation on a nationwide basis. December 1, 1962 -- TWX service at speeds up to 100 wpm introduced. January 15, 1969 -- AT&T agreed to sell its teletypewriter exchange service to the Western Union Telegraph Company. July 28, 1970 -- The FCC gave final approval to WU Corp's acquisition of the TWX service operated by AT&T and several independent companies. The TWX sale doesn't include AT&T's private line teletypewriter service or the teletypewriter machines used by AT&T's DataPhone customers. The transfer was scheduled to take effect March 31, 1971. The term TWX is used like "Kleenex" to mean any hard-copy electronic message. It certainly was a common term in the military during the Korean War, and it is still a common term used within Digital for any message sent over the company's internal, private, hard-copy message system. It was in use even when AT&T's offering of the service was on Baudot machines. The ASCII machines were assigned telephone numbers in the N10 NPAs; the Baudot machines had numbers with regular NPAs. It was possible to communicate between the two types of machines because the network sent calls that transited the two sets of NPAs through a speed and code converter. Model 33s on DataPhone service could not commun- icate with TWX at all, since they would not go through the converter if calling a Baudot machine (same NPA set) and would go through the converter if calling a 33 on TWX service. ------------------------------ Date: 29 Oct 1982 at 2006-CDT From: mtbill@UTEXAS-11 Subject: a little TWX history To: vortex!lauren@lbl-unix You have probly been getting many msgs in response to your query on this topic, but let me add a few lines, and maybe I can help. If you could edit the responses you receive, you might prepare a 'History of TWX' for export over the network. TWX was a commercial offering that appeared in the early '60s from AT&T. TWX was made possible by the development of the 33 and 35 model Teletypes, and the agreement on a standard communication code, viz., ASCII. A separate dialing plan using the area codes 510, 610, 710, 810 and 910 was set up in the US and Canada allowing switched message traffic between TWX customers at 110 baud, a noticeable improvement over the 50 or 60 baud of Telex. The FCC ordered AT&T to transfer TWX to Western Union in the late 60s (something to do with the 1956 Consent Decree perhaps?) and the transfer was complete in 1972. However, many customers were still being served on Bell facilities until as late as 1980, when WU finally consolidated TWX onto its own switching network, at which time they dubbed the service Telex II. Before the migration occurred, translation of many TWX numbers to regular 10 digit phone numbers was possible, which allowed all kinds of mischief. But, those happy days are over. As for your note on Klinger's alleged TWX message... It is entirely possible that the military was using the acronym TWX before AT&T, but I can't confirm this supposition. You need not be concerned that Klinger was not on mainland US, since DoD used Bell's trans-oceanic cables for their communications, and installed plenty of outside plant in Korea during the war, just as they did in Viet Nam. Whether or not Klinger's TWX came in at 60 or 100 baud is debatable, but you can assume it was carried in Baudot form. The speed of the terminal equipment was modified in the field by Army types, just as they did during WWII. The Navy is on record for rebuilding old TTY's to do in excess of 100 baud, which also required more frequent main- tenance. But TTY's are like old Mustangs: once they wear out you simply rebuild it and proceed to run the crap out of it. Another intereting historical note on TTY traffic... during the Viet Nam fiasco DoD began to use satellite circuits for data traffic, becuz of the shortage of cable facilities. Nobody ex- pected problems they had trying to rewrite all their communications software to handle the propogation delays up to the bird and back. Oh well, TWX or Telex II...a rather interesting and sordid history indeed. Good luck with your research on this topic. ------------------------------ Date: 29 Oct 1982 2152-EDT From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: Operator codes and state boundaries I really don't see what a state boundary or NPA has to do with where the operators are who serve a particular exchange. What seems to be important is how the network is trunked. NPAs and state boundaries should not restrict the operation of a single operating company. If N.E.T. wants to put the inward operators for Wilson's Mills, Maine in Montpelier, Vermont, why not. You might not have noticed without looking at a map, but all of the northern part of New Hampshire which separates that part of Maine from Vermont is also served out of Mont- pelier (it's only 30 miles wide). Likewise, all of coastal New Hamp- shire is served out of Lawrence, Mass, so it's not so strange that some of southern Maine is, too. And by the way, the inward operators for Lawrence, Mass, are actually in several different locations, both in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Operators used to be sort of local to your exchange. Not any more. They can be located anywhere. Inward used to really be able to do something about putting calls through. Now all they can do is some- times bypass a translation error in your local toll system. ------------------------------ Date: 29 October 1982 22:01-EDT From: Ken Harrenstien <KLH at MIT-MC> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #128, CH1820 To: RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO If the CH1820 is unacceptable for the reasons you have given, could you please explain what the "right" things to do might be? I have looked into this to some extent (a means of properly diagnosing the audio feedback on a phone would be a very useful thing for deaf users) and just don't see how it is possible to win for every case. At least this chip sounds like someone is finally trying to do the job. I would certainly want to use it unless something better exists, and it's not clear that anything does, or that anything better can be constructed. Would appreciate more comments and info... ------------------------------ Date: Fri Oct 29 1982 15:20:12 PDT From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX> Subject: Telenet Well, I guess it all depends on where you are and what you're doing. I've seen no service variations in Telenet since the GTE takeover, and still find them to be highly superior to such competitors as Tymnet. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: Fri Oct 29 1982 20:09:01 PDT From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX> Subject: TWX history Well, the truth begins to emerge. It does indeed appear that "TWX" is a generic term stretching all the way back to the early days of teletypewriter communications. Particularly in the military, the term "twix" has been used without regard for the actual technology (i.e. Baudot 3-row vs. ASCII 4-row) in use. More strict adherence to use of the term "telex" for Baudot TTY systems appears to be mainly restricted to the commercial environment. Even here, however, there is some confusion, since some people use the term "telex" to mean a commercial "cablegram" communication. I should have known better than to doubt Klinger. Thanks to all who responded directly to me and to the list. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 27-SEP-1982 09:17 From: "EVE::VACON c/o" <Schriesheim at DEC-Marlboro> Subject: Question about DTMF CHIPS We have had considerable success with a number of "standard" parts for DTMF (TOUCHTONE) generation and detection from AMI. I would suggest than if someone wanted to design their own that they get the "telecommunications design manual" from AMI. AMI's phone is (408)246-0330. There are alos many standard parts for repertory dialer design in this book. ------------------------------ Date: 31 Oct 82 23:59:11-EST (Sun) From: J C Pistritto <jcp@BRL> Subject: Autodialer Construction I'm building an auto-dialer, based on a Z80 micro. I would like to be fairly intelligent about dialing, (ie. either pulse or tone), detecting secondary dial-tones, (for use with SPRINT/MCI services). I also would like to be able to use it to link my two phone lines, (ie. place calls for me when I'm not at home and connect me to the line after it answered). Remote operation would work as follows: I dial my home phone, wait for it to answer, and dial an access code (tone only), then the number. It then picks up the second line, dials the number, waits for answer, and then connects that line to the first line. 1) I assume this is possible, if not, please let me know before I spend a lot of time on it. 2) What are some good parts/techniques to do this. I would like to do it on a reasonably small (1 Multibus slot) type card, with parts that I can get fairly easily, (and are likely to be in production for a while). 3) Other than the obvious problem with connecting something non-FCC registered to the phone line, and with the possibility of evading tariffs using the remote dialing feature, are there any notable legal hassels involved. -JCP- ------------------------------ Date: Sat Oct 30 17:53:56 1982 Subject: demon-dialer I tried one. When you lift the phone & punch a special command key it hangs up the line until the command is complete and then dials the number. What I didn't like, (I tried it for 30 days and returned it) was in using the auto-redial feature you left the phone off the hook. Then if you got an incoming call it would beep in the headset. Requires you to be close to the handset at all times. It is also overpriced and there are not many discounts to it. $100 would be better than $200 for it. ------------------------------ Date: 2 Nov 82 11:46:46-EST (Tue) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: area codes, N0X & N1X At what time on Nov. 6 will 619 area be set up in southern Calif.? Is it a new idea to have transition period? (i.e. can still use 714 for a while to reach 619) July 1982 Chicago directory, which has note about 1+ becoming necessary on out-of-area direct-dial in October, says to dial 0+312+number for 0+ calls within 312 area. (I'd also like to check on local service from some southern suburbs into 219 area, Ind.) Proposed NYC split into 2 areas (212,718) would be less than 4 years after it got N0X and N1X, which are found in 4 of 5 boroughs (NOT Staten Island, if I recall my V&H notes OK). ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 8-Nov-82 15:43:18-PST,4182;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 8-Nov-82 15:42:22 Date: 8 Nov 1982 1542-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #130 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 9 November 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 130 Today's Topics: Administrivia - Disk Crash Area Code 619 - What Time On Nov 6 (3 Msgs) When DTMF Breaks - It REALLY Breaks ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 7 Nov 1982 1541-PST From: The Moderator <TELECOM-REQUEST at USC-ECLB> Subject: Administrivia Due to a disk failure, the TELECOM and TELECOM-REQUEST addresses were refusing mail last night. Also it is possible that some submissions to both lists were lost. The disk has been recovered and everything seems intact, but if you don't see your article in this digest; or your request to be removed or added (for you people who can read my mind), then please resubmit your message because I have lost it. Sorry, [--JSol--] ------------------------------ Date: 4 Nov 1982 1614-PST From: Ian H. Merritt <MERRITT at USC-ISIB> Subject: What time on Nov 6. To: cmoore at BRL Just called 619 directory assistance (it works from GTE (213-822)), and was informed that it is to be completed by 12:00 (noon, I think). ------------------------------ Date: 5 Nov 82 8:39:05-EST (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> To: Ian H Merritt <MERRITT@Usc-Isib> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: Re: What time on Nov 6. I dialed 619 this morning and did NOT get a fast busy signal. (From 302-731, dialing a non-existent area code or a prefix which is not a local call or in 302 area yields an immediate fast busy signal.) Also, I called an operator yesterday afternoon to check the area code of Palm Springs, CA (to go to 619 area) and I got 714 with no reference to 619. ------------------------------ Date: Sat Nov 6 1982 14:18:35 PST From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX> Subject: area code 619 At 0245 this morning, I tried to call directory assistance for the new area code 619, and it went through fine. I asked the operator how long they had been "up", and she said that they actually would not be officially coded in until 12 noon. Apparently some areas (I'm served out of the Los Angeles "Airport Area" central office) were coded for 619 somewhat earlier for testing and just left turned on... --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 6 Nov 82 22:48:49-EDT (Sat) From: Randall Gellens <randall.CC@UDel-Relay> Subject: when tone dialers "almost" work I recently came accross a Bell touch-tone princess model phone that I tried to use. The tones work in the sense that when you press them, they break dial and generate an audible, normal-sounding tone. However, dialing "0" drops you back to dial-tone, a local 7-digit number gets a fast busy after a few (~4) digits, and some special numbers, such as 611, 411, etc, don't do anything. The phone reportedly used to have some sort of external device, such as a conference speaker or external ringer, connected via a "Y" modular jack where the wall cord connects to the base. To test ringing and call-pickup, I dialed the operator using the usual phone, requested a call-back, and immediatly switched phones. The new phone rang, I picked it up, heard the operator, but she couldn't hear me. (It seemed to cut-out the xmitter when she spoke, but I couldn't be sure.) (While she was on the line ("Sir? Did it ring? Sir?") I switched phones back, (luckily it didn't disconnect) and answered her.) There is a round hole with wing-slots about the diameter of a finger, on the bottom, and there is small plastic switch that slides between two positions on the side, next to the wall-cord plug. It has "2702B" stamped on the bottom, with "2702BM 09-78" pasted over top. Any ideas, suggestions, etc? --randall ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 14-Nov-82 15:01:35-PST,12041;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 14-Nov-82 15:01:07 Date: 14 Nov 1982 1501-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #131 Sender: JSOL at USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Monday, 15 November 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 131 Today's Topics: Telephone Net History - To 1+ Or Not To 1+ Product Query - Telephone & Terminal Combination Collecters Corner - 3 Slot Coin Phone Product Reply - Telephone & Terminal Combination (800) Dialing Glitch NY NPA Split - '718', Like Calling Scranton Buying The Phones You Rented From TPC Now You Can Dial An Ocean? V&H Map Trivia - 215 NPA & Surrounding Uses You Can Make Of All This V&H Map Trivia ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 8 Nov 1982 2303-EST From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Why 1+ Sorry, folks, but 1+ to prevent children from dialing long distance is pure baloney. All of the first places to get DDD (Washington, D.C. area, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, etc.) did not have to dial 1+. 1+ (or some other access code; many places required more than just a 1) started in areas where SxS equipment was common, where it was quite expensive to handle routing calls based on the second digit rather than the first. NPAs had a zero or one as the second digit to distinguish; the 1+ was not required. That also was not to reduce the chance that a child would dial; it was because NNXs (they were NNXs in those days, not NXXs) didn't ever have a zero or one in them because NNXs were actually office codes consisting of one, two, or three letters. (Standardization on two letters and a digit occurred in the early fifties.) The reason that the letters started on the "2" rather than the "1" is explained in an old document describing Panel, dated 1921: It will be seen from the photograph that no letters appear under the "one" or "zero" holes, so that no numerical office codes can begin with either "one" or "zero." The use of numerical office codes starting with "1" is undesirable due to the liability of a subscriber causing a "preliminary pulse" when making a call. A preliminary pulse may be produced by an unintentional momentary interruption of the subscriber's line at the switchhook springs after the receiver is lifted and before dialing is started, as might be caused by accidentally striking the hook with the receiver. A preliminary pulse may also be caused by a P.B.X. operator when plugging into a trunk. When a preliminary pulse occurs the mechanical switching equipment is affected the same as though a "1" had been dialed. Numerical office codes beginning with "1" are therefor avoided since such codes would in effect be dialed whenever a preliminary pulse occurred on any call. Avoiding such codes permits the central office equipment to be arranged so as to absorb all pre- liminary pulses, thus allowing a call on which a preliminary pulse occurs to be properly completed. The #1 Xbar which served me in the 50s ignored all initial "1"s. ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 9 Nov 1982 10:35-PST Subject: Combinations of Telephones and Terminals From: norm at RAND-UNIX I am looking for products which combine a CRT terminal and a telephone. I recall seeing several advertised but can't recall the vendor names. Any pointers to the makers of such gadgets would be appreciated. (I already know about Northern Telecom and Mitel.) I am: Norm at Rand-Unix or Norm Shapiro, 1700 Main Street, Santa Monica CA 90406 or (213) 393 0411 - Norm Shapiro ------------------------------ Date: 9-Nov-82 17:04:09-PST (Tue) From: harpo!ber@Berkeley Subject: 3 slot coin phone Could someone help me purchase a three slot coin phone? I had seen them for sale in department stores a few years ago. I didn't buy one then and now I don't see them anywhere. Ideally I would like a WECo phone that hasn't been modified for home use. brian redman harpo!ber (201) 386-2884 ------------------------------ Date: 10 Nov 82 17:04:35-EST (Wed) From: Ron Natalie <ron@BRL> To: norm at Rand-Unix Subject: Re: Combinations of Telephones and Terminals Bell makes this CUTE little CRT which is part of a telephone, and has a little full ascii keyboard detached from it. I think it's called a Datascan? Anyhow, the DoD DEERS project is interested in them for putting ASCII terminals in cramped quarters (I believe the application was pharmacy counters in Veteran's centers). ------------------------------ From: tekmdp!laurir.Tektronix at Rand-Relay Date: 10 Nov 1982 at 2100-PDT (Wednesday) Subject: (800) dialing glitch Via: tektronix; 10 Nov 82 23:17-PDT Yesterday morn I tried to dial an (800) number which leads to Wicat in Orem, Utah. I'm in Portland, Oregon. I tried several times, and each time got a message of the form "the number you have dialed, xxx-yyyy, is not in service..." with each digit of the number pronounced. The problem was that all three digits of the exchange (xxx-) had been changed. Called the local operator, got no help and a rather surly send-off. Called another local operator, prepared to ask for the supervisor, and got a not-so-bored voice telling me that the local operating company couldn't do a thing, I should call (800) 555-1212. Called them, they couldn't do a thing 'cept take a trouble report, but fortunately they told me that Wicat has more than one toll-free number. The question: if there hadn't been an alternate toll free number, I would have been quite peeved with my inability to get some action. What should I have done? When I have this problem with toll calls, somebody's always willing to invoke special inter-operator communication circuitry to get me through. -- Andrew Klossner (decvax!teklabs!tekmdp!laurir) [Usenet] (laurir.tektronix@udel-relay) [ARPA] ------------------------------ Date: 11 Nov 82 01:09:36 EST (Thu) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: new area codes Via: UNC; 11 Nov 82 3:31-EST The following editorial appeared in Wednesday's NY Times: '718' Is Like Calling Scranton The telephone company, a friend from Brooklyn notes glumly, contemplates a disturbing step: to assign a new area code to that borough, along with Queens and Staten Island. The company says it's running out of room in the 212 code. The new code would mean dialing 11 digits to complete a local call from Manhattan or the Bronx to the other boroughs, but for our friend the issue is more than inconvenience. "The area code contributes to collective identity," he says. When it begins and ends with a 2 or a 3 -- the middle digit is always 1 or 0 -- that connotes substance and class. The rest of New York City would remain 212. Washington D.C. is 202. Los Angeles is 213, Chicago 312, Detroit 313. Not only that but some suburbs, such as in Connecticut and northern New Jersey, have the built-in prestige of the codes 203 and 201. "I don't mean to sound snobbish, but for the most part codes that include numbers larger than 3 are for duller, smaller cities like St. Louis (314) and Milwaukee (414), or for deep country. Northern Kansas is 913, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is 906. "Most states with only one area code are strictly pickup trucks and Sears Roebuck suits, and they usually have high numbers: Utah (801), Montana (406), Vermont (802). Exceptions only prove the rule: Connecticut, of course, with that 203. Also, all of Colorado is 303 but it's the most chic of the Rocky Mountain states. And Westchester County, with prestige to spare, easily lives down its 914. "The code to be assigned to the three boroughs is 718 -- clearly a dowdy figure. Calling Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island from Manhattan or the Bronx would be like calling Scranton, Pa. (717), Council Bluffs, Iowa (712), or anywhere in North Dakota (701). I don't have anything against Scranton, Council Bluffs, or North Dakota, but Manhattan already thinks of Brooklyn as being as remote as North Dakota, and it's not. "Some years ago the telephone company provoked complaints by changing named exchanges like MUrray Hill 6 and TRafalgar 4 to numbers -- 686 and 874. Substituting numbers for words, the critics said, dehumanized the telephone. They overlooked a fact of modern digital life: numbers can be human, too." ------------------------------ Date: 11 Nov 82 01:15:15 EST (Thu) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: buying phones Via: UNC; 11 Nov 82 3:32-EST It was suggested that before purchasing the phones currently installed, you should exchange them for newer ones. Here's another reason -- you may get a better phone. The unit I'm just rented from Jersey Bell, an ordinary-looking TouchTone desk set, has a polarity guard (the wires in my house were indeed reversed, as I discovered when I tried plugging in my other phones), and has internal connections to the black and yellow wires. One seems to go to the hookswitch, the other to the keypad. I haven't traced things any further yet; any help would be gratefully appreciated, as I will probably purchase it when I'm offered the option (soon, I'm told). The phone is marked "2500DMG R82-8"; I picked it up at the end of September. ------------------------------ Date: 11 November 1982 21:35-EST From: Phillip C. Reed <PCR at MIT-MC> I got this little flyer in my phone bill a while back that has a bunch of dialing codes for different countries. What was amusing was the last paragraph: * * * NOW DIAL 3 OCEAN AREAS Marine satellite telephone service with Communications Satellite Corporation is now available to ships equipped with satellite terminals. To place a dialed station call to ships on the Atlantic Ocean (Ocean Code 871), Pacific Ocean (872) or the Indian Ocean (873), dial: 011 + Ocean Code + Ship Telephone Number * * * I would have thought that anybody on a cruise would want to get away from phones for a while. ...phil ------------------------------ Date: 12 Nov 82 17:11:05-EST (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: 215 area From V&H tape: 215-891, which I wrote of as "Media (Chester Heights service)", showed up with place name and V&H coordinates of Chester Heights, in a sur- prise to me. Also, dir. asst. (555) had the V&H coordinates of Lansdowne (Delaware County just outside Phila.) and not of Phila.! Several prefixes in & around Reading had op. codes starting 717, and 215-498 Belvidere (NJ) had op. code starting with 201. ------------------------------ Date: 12 Nov 82 17:30:59-EST (Fri) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: 215-891, etc. My notes about "Chester Hts." or "Media (Chester Hts. service)" can come into play if you are visiting (or reading about) such area, whether you are from the next county or from the other coast. Even if you're from the next county, you might save on such things as driving time if you get as much info as possible from such things as the phone prefix. [I agree. It was infinitely easier to figure out Los Angeles once I had memorized the prefixes in Area Code 213 (and it's only a logical step upward to switch to Two Area Code Mode. There are exceptions: don't try it in Manhattan, the street grid is far superior to the prefix map for directions.--JSol] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 19-Nov-82 22:39:35-PST,4233;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 19-Nov-82 22:38:55 Date: 19 Nov 1982 2238-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #132 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Saturday, 20 November 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 132 Today's Topics: (800) Dialing Glitch Problems Dialing 900 Number Pay Telephones For Home Use Telephone Status Circuit Pac Tel Sheds Home Wiring ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 14 Nov 1982 1607-PST From: Ian H. Merritt <MERRITT at USC-ISIB> Subject: Re: (800) dialing glitch Sometimes InWATS numbers are translated to local numbers. The recording you received was probably the result of this. Either an improper translation occured in some tandem somewhere, or the number was in fact disconnected. In any case, when an AIS (Automatic Intercept Service) recording is received, almost universally, an operator will come on the line at the end of the message (stated once, then repeated paraphrased). This operator may have been able to assist you, or if not, perhaps her supervisor... <>IHM<> ------------------------------ Date: Sunday, 14 November 1982 16:11-PST From: mo at LBL-UNIX (Mike O'Dell [system]) Re: Problems dialing 900 number Just thought I would pass on this curiosity. Several times I have tried to dial the STS-5 DIALIT number 900-410-6272 but could not because as soon as I dialed the "0" in 410, I immediately got the "Your call cannot be completed as dialed intercept." I could dial some of the other DIALIT numbers without the zero there, but the zero causes an immediate intercept. The interesting part is that I am served by a brand-new ESS (model unknown) central office (the old Xbar was cut-out about 6 months ago). Even more amusing, when I dial the operator and complain, I get the expected multitude of stupid answers. Moveover, when I ask them to dial them for me, about half the time they claim they can't dial DIALIT numbers for me, and the other half the time the operator cheerfully complies and it works fine. I claim there is a bug in the CO, but where in the world do I send the SPR?? -Mike ------------------------------ Date: 15 Nov 1982 1426-PST From: Lynn Gold <FIGMO at KESTREL> Subject: Pay telephones for home use cc: harpo!ber at UCB-C70 I saw a pay telephone for sale at Macy's out here (Palo Alto, to be exact) about a year ago; perhaps they still have such an animal at a Macy's near you. --Lynn ------------------------------ Date: 19 Nov 1982 0008-PST Subject: telephone status circuit From: William "Chops" Westfield <BillW @ SRI-KL> A long time ago, in a state far away, Someone published a very nice circuit that used a single CMOS IC (a 4001 quad nor gate, I think) that differentiated between hung up, ringing, and off hook phone conditions, displaying the result on a LED (off, on, or flashing, not necessarilly in that order). Unfortunately, I lost the xerox I made of the circuit at that time. Does anybody happen to remember or have this circuit (I though it was in the "Electronic Casebook" section of an "Electronics" magazine, but I recently went through all the issues I could find since 1972, and I didnt see it...) Thanks Bill W ------------------------------ Date: 19 Nov 1982 1037-PST From: Jim Celoni S.J. <CSL.JLH.Celoni at SU-SCORE> Subject: Pac Tel Sheds Home Wiring Pacific Telephone has filed a tariff with the Calif. Public Utilities Commission to decouple maintenance of residential station wiring from the basic monthly service fee. If it's approved, PT&T will maintain home wiring only if customer pays $0.35/mo OR $60.00/visit. I think inside wiring becomes customer property on 1-1-83 whether or not the above scheme's approved, and people can legally work on wiring themselves or pay third parties to do so. (I remember a note about NY Tel changing its treatment of home wiring, too.) --j ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 28-Nov-82 19:33:08-PST,12522;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 28-Nov-82 19:29:03 Date: 28 Nov 1982 1929-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #133 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Monday, 29 November 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 133 Today's Topics: Customer Provided Inside Wiring 619 Area Code 1200 Baud Fdx Autodialers Brantford, Ontario - Trivia Question Touch Tone Decoding Last Operator Cordboard Office in Maryland NYC Directory Assistance (2 Msgs) Computerized Directory Assistance Operators ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "ELROND::D_MITTON c/o" <Schriesheim.Mitton at DEC-Marlboro> Date: 22-Nov-82 18:40 Subject: Comments on NET Customer-Provided Inside Wire I transcribed the New England Telephone pamplet on CPIW because I thought it would be basically similar to programs that may be implemented by other operating companies. It also contains useful background info for those who haven't played with doing your own installation. [This pamphlet is available as ARPANET: [USC-ECLB]BUG:<JSOL.TELECOM>SELF-SERVICE-WIRING.TXT (FTP convention user ANONYMOUS password GUEST supported) DEC Enet: SMAUG::USER$:[MITTON.TELECOM]USERWIRE.TXT A copy of it will be mailed to the UUCP and CSNET distribution addresses. If you still can't obtain a copy of this, please mail to TELECOM-REQUEST@USC-ECLB and I will mail you one.] Reading the document gives you a new insight on how the companies will be treating inside wire in the future. Basically they're going to put in a modular jack just past the protector block. All the rest of the wire in the house will become your problem. You will be free to fiddle with it, but if you do something wrong, it's your responsibilty to fix it (unless you're willing to pay a service fee.) Notice, that they now can easily lose track of the number of extensions you have wired in. This sort of makes sense. It allows the companies to ease out of the installation business, where installer time and equipment is costly. After I read this, I finally figured out what those funny looking terminal blocks that they were selling at the Phone Store where for. They had four screw terminals with rather prominent colored labels (green,red,yellow,black) next to each and a 6-inch cord with a modular plug on the end. It's your entrance block! You place it next to your NI and wire away from there. You can also purchase modular jacks, quad, and wire strippers, as well as the typical extension and handset cords. All are, of course, "Genuine Bell" quality equipment. I wish I'd known about this before I got my service installed in my current place. NET charges an itemized installation fee that sort of works like this: - Central office setup charge - Premises visit service charge - Outside drop wiring from the pole to the house - Installing a station wire run - Installing a jack For them to come out, connect and wire one jack typically cost about $32 I had three lines (two new ones) and four jacks put in and it cost close to $100 dollars. Not only that, but I had to talk the installer into wiring it my way. Installers DO NOT want to do any inside the wall wiring. He explicitly said "We don't fish walls!" They only want to do open wiring on baseboards. I talked him into fishing my kitchen wall phone, because the wall was open to the basement, and I could show him that there were no electrical wires in there. As it was, his supervisor showed up, helped him, and then said "Good fish job, but remember, We don't fish walls!" as he left. I got him to do the run to the third floor via an old unused heating duct (which you could see through) and drilling between floors in a closet. It turned out okay, but I could have saved a lot of money if I had done the station wiring, (especially since I have recently redone it with 25-pair!) and just let him do the drop. Sigh. Dave Mitton. ------------------------------ Date: 20-Nov-82 16:59:33-EST (Sat) From: cbosgd!mark@Berkeley (Mark Horton) Subject: 619 area code 619 may have cut over, but from Columbus, Ohio, I cannot dial 619. I dial the whole number and then get reorder. 714 still works. I dialed an operator and asked what was going on, and he was barely aware of the 619 area code. He tried the number, using 619, and it went through. My guess is the local system somewhere has a table of valid area codes that needs to be updated. Anybody understand it any better? Other parts of the country having the same problem? Mark ------------------------------ Date: 20-Nov-82 19:17:23-PST (Sat) From: amd70!pn@Berkeley Subject: 1200 baud fdx autodialers Does anyone know how the various autodialing 212 style modems on the market (Bizcomp,Cermatek,Hayes,Microbaud,NEC,Omnitec,Penril,Prentice, Omnitec,Vadic,Ventel, etc?) compare for error rates and tolerance of noise? I understand the Vadic 3400 protocol is much better. But the Vadic autodialer is just terrible. How bad is 212? And does it make a difference whose 212 you buy? Phil Ngai amd70!pn@ucb ------------------------------ From: "ELROND::D_MITTON c/o" <Schriesheim.Mitton at DEC-Marlboro> Date: 22-Nov-82 19:30 Subject: Trivia question While I was driving through Brantford, Ontario last Christmas time, I was suprised to see the slogan "The Telephone City" on the municipal water tower. Well, I had to consult an expert, John E. McNamara, to get the answer on why Brantford is special. There are probably a lot of you that know, Can someone fill in some of the particular details as to why, and when Brantford choose this slogan? Dave Mitton. ------------------------------ Date: 24 November 1982 11:11-EST From: "Marvin A. Sirbu, Jr." <SIRBU at MIT-MC> Subject: touch tone decoding Does anybody know anything about decoding touch tone signals by using an A/D converter and simply processing the signal in a microcomputer? Has anyone seen any articles in the hobbyist magazines on this? Marvin Sirbu ------------------------------ Date: 24 Nov 82 13:02:04-EST (Wed) From: John W Kinch (REB/VLD) <kinch@BRL> Subject: Last Operator Cordboard Office in Maryland The following advertisement appeared in today's issue of a local paper. " The Upper Bay Community Relations Team, of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, cordially invites you to attend an open house to commemorate the retiring of the Last Operator Cordboard Office in Maryland. We hope that you will join us for this historic event. Dates: December 2 and 3, 1982 Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM Place: 650 Fountain Street, Havre de Grace, Maryland" ------------------------------ Date: Thu Nov 25 1982 14:58:06 PST From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX> Subject: NYC Directory Assistance Greetings. I recently had an odd experience with Directory Assistance for the NYC area... I was curious to see if anybody out there could shed some light on the situation: I was trying to get the number for someone in Queens, NY. I had the full name, including middle initial. I gave the name to the operator, who informed me that she had no PUBLISHED listings for that name, but did have a NON-PUBLISHED listing for the name. She then asked me what PART of the country I was calling from (note that she did NOT ask me the typical "what is your area code?" question that WATS directory assistance asks.) Apparently she didn't like my answer (Los Angeles) since she then repeated that she only had a non-published listing: that she had an address but no phone number! I tried calling back, got a different operator, but EXACTLY the same results. My query: what the hell is going on out there? Since when do non-pub subscribers show up AT ALL in directory assistance listings? And why the questions regarding my "location"? Is there anybody out there in the N.Y. area who can help explain these events? Thanks much. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: Thu Nov 25 1982 19:45:01 PST From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX> Subject: more on NYC Directory Assistance I thought I'd try one more time, and, just like before, I got the same results. This time, however, I was able to get the operator to at least give me some idea of what was going on. It seems that the reason they ask for your location is that if you are in the NYC calling area, they'll give you credit for your D.A. call if the number turns out to be unlisted. (Nice idea. Out here in California you get charged the standard amount (is it 20 cents? I forget...) in any case. However, we do have a pretty healthy free D.A. call allowance [20/month/line]). She also claimed that she actually had the listing, but simply could not give it to me since it was marked non-pub. This is in contrast to California, where the regular D.A. operators don't have non-pub listings at all. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 23 Nov 1982 0449-PST Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL Subject: Computer Operator. From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow Reply-To: Geoff at SRI-CSL a017 2328 22 Nov 82 PM-Computer Operator, Bjt,450 That Information Operator Is Inhuman DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Telephone users who don't let their fingers do the walking can hear a computer do the talking when they call directory assistance here. Northwestern Bell's new system lets a human operator take a call, search a computer for the number requested and then hit a button, putting the computer on line to read the area code and number in a slow, female voice. The electronic voice will then repeat the number and advise callers to stay on the line if they have a question or need more assistance. Bell officials say the system, now handling 70 percent of the information requests in Iowa, Nebraska and Indiana, saves about 5 seconds a call. In Iowa alone, Bell averages 150,000 directory-asistance calls a day. Operators, who continue to handle emergency requests, say it saves their voices. ''I like it,'' one operator in Iowa, where the system has been used since Sept. 1, said Monday. ''I think it's all right myself,'' said another. ''It's no extra work.'' The operators said they were not allowed to give their names while on duty. A supervisor, Joyce Lutz of Des Moines, said the system helps operators because they ''don't have to talk quite as much. It's a lot speedier.'' The computer voice, more formally known as the Audio Response System, will be used in other states as soon as the equipment can installed, said Ed Mattix, Northwestern Bell's media relations manager. ''Only a very few have complained they can't understand the voice,'' he said. ''Some people say they'd rather talk to a live operator rather than a computer and I guess that's to be expected. ''Some people think computers are coming along and replacing people, but you still have to have people servicing those computers, working with them.'' He said operators can handle more calls more efficiently. ''The most tedious part of their job was the repetition of the numbers. This way, they can keep going and take more calls. They stay busier and the time goes faster,'' he said. Many people think the computer's voice, which Mattix described as ''very understandable,'' comes from a tape recording. But it's straight from a computer where it's generated by silicon chips. Phone company policy allows callers to get two phone numbers from directory assistance for each call. After receiving the first number from the computer, the caller stays on the line and is automatically referred back to an operator where the process is repeated. Mattix said the use of computer voice technology has only begun. ''We've just scratched the surface,'' he said. ''Next thing, we'll be able to talk to computers rather than sitting at a computer keyboard like we do now. It's really amazing.'' ap-ny-11-23 0220EST *************** ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 30-Nov-82 20:31:16-PST,9615;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 30-Nov-82 20:30:40 Date: 30 Nov 1982 2030-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #134 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Wednesday, 1 December 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 134 Today's Topics: Dialing 1 + 213 + N0X/N1X Errors Query - Telephony Books - Are They Worth Buying/Reading Using Call Waiting With A Ventel 212+ Getting 619 Bugs Fixed Non-Pubs And Directory Assistance (2 Msgs) News Feature - Callular Radio ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 Nov 82 14:58:35-EST (Mon) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: 1 + 213 + N0X (or N1X) A few years ago, dialing the above from a pay phone (302-366) got an error message (I'm not sure if I had to dial the rest of the phone number first). I would have had to call the operator and ask him/her to place call (and possibly explain that LA area was an excep- tion in permitting N0X and N1X--a point that may be a lot easier to explain here on the East Coast with addition of N0X & N1X in NYC in 1980 and in Chicago area this fall). I think 302-366 pay phone now puts such a call thru properly. (302-366 is Newark, Del.) ------------------------------ Date: 29 November 1982 1702-EST (Monday) From: Mark.Sherman at CMU-CS-A Subject: Telephony Books Has anyone heard of these books and say whether they are worthwhile reading or buying? All About Telephones Van Waterford The Master Handbook of Telephones Robert J. Traister -Mark (Sherman@CMU-CS-A) ------------------------------ Date: 29-Nov-82 16:21:05-PST (Mon) From: UCBKIM.luria@Berkeley (Marc Luria) Subject: Using call waiting with a Ventel 212+ Does anyone have any experience with this? Does the modem disconnect and let the phone ring? We get very few calls, so this seems to be a reasonable solution if I don't have to keep my eyes glued to the screen and rush to pick up the phone. ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 1982 1959-EST From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Getting 619 bugs fixed Theoretically a call to repair service should solve the problem. It probably won't, but if you call 714 555-1212 and ask for a number in San Diego, insisting that there is no other way for you to get through and that your operator told you to dial 714, you will get passed to a supervisor with the keyword "code blue" who will take your area code and NXX. Whether she'll get it fixed or not is another story. ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 1982 2009-EST From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Non-pub Most places east that I have lived usually have non-pub numbers in DA's copy of the directory. I believe they usually have "np" and not the number. Here in Acton I was working at the town fair and a purse was turned in. We found that the owner had a non-pub number, and our local DA operator, once we agreed that loss of purse was an emergency, had to call a "non-pub" bureau, which of course, wasn't answering on Saturday. By the time she called us back to tell us that she would have to learn on Monday what the correct procedure for Saturdays was, we had found the number on her son's school record. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Nov 1982 0746-MST From: Jay Lepreau <Lepreau at UTAH-20> Subject: Non-pubs and directory assistance cc: vortex!lauren at LBL-UNIX Some years ago I worked for a company (Datacomp in Philly-- are they still around?) that provided all the database maintenance, customer books and DA operator books/data for many operating companies in the East and Midwest. In general, the DA books/tapes contained everyone's name including the non-pubs, but not the numbers for those. Looking at those books was surprising-- there were slews of non-pub entries, sometimes up to a third or so-- particularly for Chesapeake & Potomoc in the Wash D.C. area, of course. Since we did the database maintenance too, for most opco's we actually had the phone numbers of non-pubs, but for C&P we sure didn't! Think how much one of us could have made by selling Congressmens' numbers! The practise of listing non-pubs in the DA operators info is certainly in effect at Mountain Bell: as part of political work this year I did a lot of DA calling, and frequently the op would say "non-pub." I don't think I ever got credit tho... Something to check out. -Jay (also harpo!utah-cs!lepreau) ------------------------------ Date: 24 Nov 1982 2038-PST Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL Subject: Cellular in the news. From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow Reply-To: Geoff at SRI-CSL n110 2025 23 Nov 82 BC-MARKETPLACE (BizDay) By DANIEL F. CUFF c. 1982 N.Y. Times News Service NEW YORK - Cellular radio, which holds the promise of making phones in cars commonplace, is a technology that has been long in coming but still holds tremendous potential profitability for companies that eventually make a success of it. Cellular radio is a radiotelephone system that divides, say, the New York metropolitan area into small geographic cells, and through computer switching ''hands off'' calls as a car moves from one cell to another. The same frequencies can be used over and over within a given area, vastly increasing the number of users from the current limited system. The system, which has applications for any portable phone, has been in development for more than a decade by AT&T, Motorola and other companies. The Federal Communications Commission has accepted applications for licenses in the top 60 markets so far and some analysts expect licenses to be granted within five months to a year. A report by John S. Bain, Winston E. Himsworth and Susannah B. Bristol of Lehman Brother Kuhn Loeb estimates that revenues for equipment manufacturers could be expected to begin in late 1983 and for systems operators, in 1984. The report adds that there could be further delays as the FCC struggles with the application and if there are court challenges to the procedure. Two licenses will be awarded in each market, one to a telephone company and the other to what is called a nonwireline operator. ''This is the most exciting new area for the 1980s and will have a major impact on Wall Street,'' said Stephen S. Weisglass, president of Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., the brokerage firm. After all, there are more motor vehicles (160 million) than homes in the United States and currently only one-tenth of 1 percent of the vehicles are equipped with mobile telephones. Growth will be slowed at first by the cost of the new phones, which some analysts estimate at $150 a month. Further technological developments could bring that cost down sharply, however. ''There is a much larger market than people are willing to admit publicly to try to forestall competition,'' said one analyst, who did not wish to be identified. To give an idea of the potential, Weisglass said that in the Los Angeles market, capital expenditures might be about $300 million for a nonwireline operator to set up a system. ''We can see profits on a pro forma basis starting in the third year of $120 million and those profits should grow at a 40 percent annual rate,'' he said. For the investor, however, there are few ''pure'' plays in cellular radio, the Lehman Brothers report said. ''MCI, Metromedia and Western Union may well all be major factors in the future marketing of cellular service,'' it said, ''and Anaconda-Ericsson, Harris and Nippon Electric may be major manufacturers.'' But cellular radio, it added, will not be the business that determines the future of these companies and many of the other players. The report made only two recommendations, Communications Industries, a carrier, and E.F. Johnson, a supplier - but Johnson is now being taken over by Western Union. Other companies have been taken over. Metromedia, for example, bought up several companies, including Radiofone. Some large companies have formed ventures with smaller companies to get in on the cellular action. Millicom, for example, has put in for 20 licenses, some in conjunction with Kansas City Southern Industries and United Brands. Millicom's stock, on the over-the-counter supplemental list, has moved from 5 to close to 10 in the last month. ''The most leveraged opportunity for investors would be Graphic Scanning,'' Weisglass said. Graphic Scanning, perhaps the largest company in the paging business, is also a major and aggressive force among the nontelephone applicants for cellular radio. It was the only one, for example, that sought licenses for all 30 top markets when the FCC accepted the first batch June7. Applications for the second tier of 30 cities went in earlier this month and on March 8 applications will be accepted for the rest of the nation. The top 30 markets drew some 200 applicants and the second tier close to 400. The application picture may be eased in some of the markets if the competing nontelephone applicants can get together. Smaller companies might bow out in return for an equity position in a larger company, for example. nyt-11-23-82 2330est *************** ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 1-Dec-82 21:05:32-PST,18276;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 1-Dec-82 21:05:03 Date: 1 Dec 1982 2105-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #135 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 2 December 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 135 Today's Topics: DTMF Decoding Using An A/D Converter Touchtone Decoding NJ Areacode Boundaries Telephony Books Eastern DA Standards No Matter What Country, Everyone Complains About The Phone Company ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 Dec 1982 0116-EST From: Bob Iannucci <Iannucci at MIT-XX> cc: Iannucci at MIT-XX, Sirbu at MIT-MC Subject: DTMF decoding using an A/D converter A much easier (but not necessarily cheaper) scheme is to use Mitel's latest DTMF chip (MT8870) which they herald as a "third generation single chip DTMF receiver with single 5V power supply". It is packaged as an 18 pin DIP, and is claimed to interface easily to a microprocessor data bus. This is a new chip with which I have no experience, but I would suspect it is worth investigating. A nice, flashy ad appeared in the latest (November 30) issue of Electronics, p. 34. Bob Iannucci ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 82 3:08:39-EST (Wed) From: Ron Natalie <ron@BRL> Subject: Touchtone decoding While people are discussing touch tone decoding via various methods let me put forward the WORST proposed way of doing it. This appeared in the amatuer radion magazine QST a couple of years ago and signifies it's declining technical quality. The circuit uses a large number (greater than 24) of Phase Lock Loop tone decoders. In addition to being more expensive in the long run than a commercial chip that does everything, I can't seem to figure out why they need more than 24 tone decoders. The twelve tones it decodes are made up of two tones each so the most it could possibly use would seem to be 12 X 2 = 24. However since there are really only 7 tones in use, you could get by with 7 PLLs and 3 7400's. The article was submitted by a guy who works for a company that sells etched PC boards, and was selling the boards for the circuit in the article. Seems to me that his point was to maximize the amount of PC board he could sell with each decoder. -Ron ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 82 10:54:46-EST (Wed) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: NJ areacode boundaries Because most NJ points do not require 1+ for DDD, I have checked as many cases as I can of NJ local service across areacode boundaries. If 1+ is not required for DDD, then I have a prefix which can't exist in a certain areacode! Example: Trenton, NJ (609 area) has local service to 215-295 Morrisville, Pa., and does not require 1+ for DDD; therefore, there is no 609-295. I wrote the above because I have not been able to get my hands on the calling instructions for Barnegat, NJ (609 area), which has local service to Toms River (201). I have seen the Ocean County directory, but the only calling instructions I found were for Toms River, not for Barnegat. ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 1982 12:51 EST From: Axelrod.wbst at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #134 - Telephony Books Speaking of telephony books, I've seen a number of references to a Bell document called "Notes on The Network". Is that worthwhile having, and does anybody know how to go about ordering it? Thanks. Art Axelrod ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 1982 2308-EST From: Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS> Subject: Eastern DA standards A while ago I managed to lay hands on a substantial piece of the local directory that DA uses [This was back before they had the online database]. It has *all* listings, but for those that aren't published, there is a little ''NP'' where the number should go. This thing was about 2 inches thick [white pages only], has something like 4 columns [so the paper is this large ungainly size], and except for that looks like a regular phone book, same printing and all. When I was working for them, I could see the lackeys going about during the day distributing new pages that the operators would replace old pages with. So, instead of telling you there is no listing for a NP number, they can say it's nonpublished [and frustrate you even more]. _H* ------------------------------ Date: 24 Nov 1982 1824-EST From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: No matter what country, everyone complains about the phone company [The following is a large (13K) article about the German Post Office (which doubles as the phone company). This is the last message in this digest, therefore readers not interested in this topic need not read any further. --JSol] Robbers from the Post Office Stern, 18. November 1982 Tens of thousands of citizens suspect that the Post Office is collecting excessive Telephone charges. There are 150,000 sources of error which can lead to overcharges on the telephone bill. The monthly drawing is not public. No official ensures that the device is in proper working order. The twenty-two million participants may only hope that they won't be one of the losers in the great Telephone Fee Lottery at the German Federal Post Office. One of the unlucky ones is insurance salesman Ingomar Nitsche in Schwelm. For months he got by for about 180 units at 23 Pfennig each. "Then suddenly I had to pay for 564 units, and I hadn't used the telphone anymore than before," he said. Things went much the same way for Irmhild Pawalek in Ennepetal. For seven years the thrifty housewife spent about 45 Marks per month. This summer the state telephone company, blessed with profits in the billions, suddenly demanded ten times as much. Frau Pawalek was said to have telephoned away 461.45 Marks. And Irmgard Fahrin, housewife in the Saarland, upon seeing her telephone bill this April, wondered if she had actually "congratulated every monkey in Africa on Mothers' Day." In any case, she had no explanation for the 2058 units which had been presented to her in the bill. The three examples stand out from the tens of thousands of citizens who feel they have been hit up by the Post Office. 83,000 complaints from telephone customers were recorded by the Federal Postal Ministry just last year. Fully 23,000 times the yellow giant had to admit that it had snatched too much from its customers. Irmhild Pawalek got money back as well: 422.61 Marks. The Post Office explained that a circuit malfunction was present. The admission came late. Three complaints remained fruitless for some time. Once the local paper had reported about the "Post Office Robbers" an official arrived, made a few calls from Frau Pawalek's set and presented his employer with a certificate of good health: "Everything totally in order." Tough going for those who complain Only after the Duesseldorf Consumer Center took up the case and brought influence to bear upon the responsible telephone office in Hagen did the Post Office agree to look more thoroughly into the matter and finally to give in. Technical malfunctions and human error during fee calculation are the order of the day in telephone offices. The Dortmund Area Headquarters admitted that there are 150,000 possible sources of error. The most common cause are faulty connections in the lines and functional failures in the switching apparatus. For example, upon overhearing the conversation of another user during a call, one must count on getting not only one's own fees, but also the fee for the other call slapped onto his meter. Technicians speak in such cases of "Crosstalk suppression". The charge impulse from one timing machine can run up both message registers. Overcharges can also come about if a backhoe runs into a Post Office cable. Then the charge impulse generator goes crazy and annoys entire sections of town with extra charges. The most common indication that something is foul: crackling during the connection. Then it is recommended that one immediately interrupt the call and dial again. A further failure can surface when making calls to other countries. As soon as the ringing of the desired party begins in Denmark or Italy the charge impulses let loose. This only becomes evident to an individual citizen when -- as happened to Hamburg postal customer Ewald Steinhoff -- the counter turned completely around. 227,624 Marks and 18 Pfennig was the amount the Hamburg Area Postal Headquarters wanted from him. This record-making failure cleared itself up rather rapidly. But practically noone notices anything if he is burdened with 20 or 30 Marks too much. The Union of Postal Users in Offenbach presents a high figure. It estimates that a half million bills containing overcharges are sent to postal customers each year. Those who complain don't have an easy procedure. The disadvantaged customer, not the Post Office, must prove that he kept his telephone calls short. Even the courts usually start by assuming that the high telephone bill is correct. As a rule, the Post Office need only claim that it found no technical malfunctions when reviewing the case. The state operation prefers to place blame for gigantic bills on third parties: "The most common cases of presumable overcharges can be traced back to secret calls made by children, cleaning ladies, or neighbors who had the key to the residence during a vacation." There is something in that. An unguarded and unlocked telephone leads to toll theft. And the peace at home is disturbed when suddenly the demand from the telephone office is higher than the monthly rent payment. But unlike the case with the public utilities providing electricity, gas, and water, the postal customer seldom has the opportunity to check his usage on a tried and true meter. The Post Office will, indeed, provide sets with meters. However, what is displayed on the meter is not accepted by the Post Office as proof. Manfred Bergman from the Federal Post Ministry: "These meters are never as good as the meters in the local exchange." Maybe they aren't good, but they are expensive: 40 Marks one-time installation charge and then every month the toy costs another 5.70 Marks. The Union of Postal Users nonetheless recommends your own meter. Director Wilhelm Huebner recommends that in addition to that, every single telephone call and the associated message units should be noted in writing -- a piece of work that seems difficult to demand. In court the postal customer still only has a real chance when he can prove that a lock in the dial had made misuse impossible. Customers who make use of one of the new push button dialling telephones have tough luck. These do not allow a lock on the dial. The monopoly at the Post Office, which is currently heavily advertising these convenient push button devices, is not only improving its profits, but is also improving its strong position of power against the users. Customers are made subjects of the State Monopoly The cornerstone of the postal monopoly was laid in 1595. In that year Kaiser Rudolf II granted the Lord of Thurn and Taxis the post of Head Postmaster-General. What the Lords of Thurn and Taxis once were, is today the Postal Minister in Bonn, currently Christian Schwarz-Schilling of the Christian Democratic Union, who replaced the Social Democrats Gscheidle and Matthoefer. As in the Age of Empire, the citizens are not seen as customers, but as subjects of the state monopoly. Then as well as today no prices are requested for services, rather fees are "levied." The citizen still can't simply buy a telephone; he must "apply" for one, and, if he is lucky, there will be no long waiting time before one is loaned to him to be used carefully and properly. Only in the last few years has the subscriber been able to choose from a variety of sets, at a higher price, it must be understood. If the subscriber would like to have a longer cord, maybe because his chair is seven meters away from the connection box, the accomodation capability of the Post Office is already exceeded: It cuts, by maxim, only lengths of at least three and at most six meters from its cable drums. Seven meters are beyond the rules -- and cost extra. If the telephone wants to ring, then it must be allowed to do so. The customer is forbidden by Postal-Edict to shut off the bell if he would like to have some peace. Those who do it anyway -- and many do -- run the danger that the authority will shut off service. "The right of the Post Office should stop outside the home" One who has fought the almighty decrees of the Yellow Monopoly for years is Engineer Ulrich Jochimsen from Flensburg. He was advisor to three Postal Ministers and Director of a scientific institute for communications technology and systems research. Since then the engineer has given up on reforming the Post Office from the inside. Because, the communications expert says, "The word 'monopoly' means single. At the Post Office this has led to single-mindedness." The internationally trained specialist Joachimsen even sees an unconstitutional reach into the private sphere of the citizen in the operation of the Postal Monopoly: "The right of the Post Office should stop outside the home." The monopoly must restrict itself to the installation and maintenance of a network. The customer must have the right, as in other countries, to connect devices of his own choosing at the end of the line: "After all, the electric utilities don't have the idea that they should proscribe which television set, which toaster, which iron, or which heating pad can be used." Jochimsen: "If the market were opened up here we would create desperately needed jobs and might also again gain technical advantage over other countries." What is presumed impossible in the Federal Republic has long been standard practice in the USA -- to the advantage of the customers. There many private telephone companies compete and can only remain in the market through high standards. So the telephone customers in New York obtain detailed bills for each telephone call. Complaints are, as a rule, acknowledged without bureaucratic problems. Sets with all technically possible finesse are available in every department store. Naturally the collect call, eliminated in the Federal Republic, is available, and at every street corner there are telephone booths, at which one can also receive calls. Such a useful service is unknown here. Ulrich Jochimsen believes he knows why: "That is a remainder from the Nazi era. In that time the Gestapo wanted to prevent resisters from being able to make contact with each other without being overheard or identified." In Europe, with the exception of the Federal Republic, only the East Bloc retains this principle. The Federal Post Office argues: "The telephone booths are there so that outgoing calls can be made. If one could dial them, they would be tied up." In order to eliminate growing criticism over their high-handed customer tutelage, the Post Office has finally agreed to at least start a trial of dialable telephone booths in Frankfurt. There are other things the Federal Post Office could also learn from foreign postal authorities. In Denmark, for example, overpayments at payphones do not immediately disappear, never to be seen again. The device holds the overpayment for further calls -- even for the next customer. Here, whoever throws in a 1 Mark coin to make a 20 Pfennig call hears his money rattle loudly, and then it's gone. Telephone rates support the letter service This 500,000 man company is more inventive than almost any other undertaking when it comes to collecting money. The Post Office even levies fees for authorizing delayed payment of fees. On the balance sheets all this looks good. In 1981 the Post Office took altogether more than 24,000,000,000 Marks from its customers and used that to support other services which, -- like the shipment of letters or packages -- regularly operate at a loss. This year the income from telephone charges will be even higher. The CDU/CSU, which protested loudly against the last rate increase, wanted to see the reduced moonlight-tariff for calls after 10 PM reinstated, and did not want to see the billions in profits ooze away in the Federal budget, has suddenly changed its mind now that it is in power. The new Federal Postal Minister Schwarz-Schilling has already made firm plans for using up the expected increased revenue and is leaving everything else in addition to the charges the same as before. Only one thing was promised: Telephoning will not become more expensive -- at least not until 1984. Heiko Tornow ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 3-Dec-82 16:56:44-PST,5598;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 3-Dec-82 16:56:13 Date: 3 Dec 1982 1656-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #136 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Saturday, 4 December 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 136 Today's Topics: Query - How To Use InSprint DTMF Decoding (2 msgs) Directory Assistance After Divestiture V & H Coordinate Tape Trivia - Area Code 218 Notes On The Network - Address To Order Non Published Numbers & Directory Assistance Operators "Telephony" Books Modems And Call Waiting ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 12/02/82 00:27:08 From: A2DEH@MIT-MC Subject: InSprint At the risk of appearing ignorant, how do you use it? I would like to call someone who gave me their InSprint number. Do I find out a local Sprint number and dial it, or what? Any tips on how to use this? -Don (reply directly to me as I am not on the list. Thanks.) ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 1982 2159-PST From: Ian H. Merritt <MERRITT@USC-ISIB> Subject: DTMF decoding I have built a decoder using the MITEL MT8870 chip, and will comfirm their claims of its ease of operation. It is very tolerent of variations in the external component values, requires an easy-to-find 3.579545 MHz crystal, which is about $2.00 at radio shack, probably less from suppliers. It is indeed easy to interface to a microcomputer bus, and our little circuit worked the first time. <>IHM<> ------------------------------ Date: 2 Dec 1982 0926-PST Sender: BILLW at SRI-KL Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #135 From: BILLW at SRI-KL Indeed, the standard "poor man's" touch-tone decoder consists of 7-8 (the full touchtone pad is 4x4) 567 phase locked loops and some gates. 567s typically sell for around a buck (Jameco: .89) These circuits frequently appear on the spec sheets of the 567 ("typical application"), which you can probably pick up at your friendly neighborhood distributer, or check out something like the Signetics Analog applications hanbook... BillW ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 82 20:42:43-PST (Wed) From: Mark Wadsworth <mw%uci@USC-ECL> Subject: Directory assistance after divestiture How will long-distance directory assistance which seems to be handled when Bell isn't my long-distance server? Right now, I can call anywhere free to find the phone number, Bell pays the directory operators (or do they?), and then MCI gets the money when I make the real call. For that matter, how is directory assistance handled now? Do all the local phone companies contribute to a DA fund? Who runs directory assistance? ------------------------------ Date: 2 Dec 82 11:29:39-EST (Thu) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: 218 area Most of the operator codes for 218 area (northern Minnesota) started with 612! The exceptions were 14 prefixes routed via North Dakota (701) and 555, routed via 218 and having the Duluth V&H coordinates (although the Duluth exchanges had op. codes starting 612, as above). ------------------------------ From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Ordering Notes on the Network This is most definitely worth having! Send $30 plus tax (they won't accept your order without local sales tax) to: Mary Ellison Western Electric Indiana Distribution Center PO Box 26205 Indianapolis, Indiana 46226 317/265-3339 (This is a new address. Previously this was ordered from Greensboro.) ------------------------------ Date: 2-Dec-82 20:33:26-PST (Thu) From: pur-ee!davy@Berkeley Subject: Non-published numbers Here in Lafayette, Indiana (GTE unfortunately), directory assistance apparently *does* have the actual numbers for "non-published" customers. I tried calling a friend of mine who had recently moved, and had gotten an unlisted number. I had lost the piece of paper I had the new number on, and calling directory assistance basically got me nowhere. If you are really desperate (which I pretended to be), and you can convince the operator that it is an emergency, she will call the non-published number for you and tell the person on that end to call you back (she won't just connect you, though). Of course, I believe it is actually illegal to claim that you have a emergency when you don't, but...... --Dave Curry decvax!pur-ee!davy pur-ee!davy@berkeley ------------------------------ Date: 2 Dec 82 15:56:35 EST (Thu) From: Steve Bellovin <smb.unc@UDel-Relay> Subject: Telephony books I've seen them listed in the Etco catalog, and have wondered the same thing, but haven't purchased them (yet). --Steve Bellovin ------------------------------ Date: 2 December 1982 18:26 est From: Jarrell.Advisor at M.PCO.LISD.HIS Subject: Re: modems and call-waiting. Reply-To: Jarrell.Advisor%PCO-Multics at MIT-MULTICS The experience I've had with call-waiting is that the interrupting party will only ring the phone if your modem happens to be designed to hang-up it's end of the phone after the remote system hangs-up. Call waiting only patches through the ringing if you hang up on one party or the other. The remaining party is rung in then. -Ron ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 12-Dec-82 15:19:03-PST,7858;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 12-Dec-82 15:18:39 Date: 12 Dec 1982 1518-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #137 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Monday, 13 December 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 137 Today's Topics: Billing Errors And Usage Sensitive Billing Directory Assistance After Divestiture Toll Stations - Calling Non-Dialable Locations V & H Coord. Tape Trivia - Tie-In With Geography Query - Calling Barnegat, NJ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Dec 2 1982 15:16:14 PST From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX> Subject: Billing errors and Usage Sensitive Billing The recent article about inaccurate billing by the German P.O. reminds me of an important local issue: General Telephone of California has filed (at the PUC's *request*) a plan for the implementation of usage sensitive billing for all local calls. I believe that the plan calls for a phase-in of the plan starting sometime in '84 (it would have to be phased-in since General could not handle such billing except in their EAX offices). A similar filing by PacTel is expected shortly. As usual, the typical statements about how "fair" it is to charge for "local" calls have accompanied the proposal. I won't repeat the many arguments regarding this issue that have aired in this digest in the past. In any case, since the telcos have no intention of regularly providing itemized billing detail for local calls, it seems to me that we're opening up a whole new area of possible billing errors. Who can really keep track of how many total minutes of local calls they actually made? And think of all the bad connections, wrong numbers, and similar events that you ignore now but that you'd be getting *charged* for under a usage sensitive plan... I doubt if any sort of "limit" on the maximum local charges is being proposed for the California plan. I have grave doubts about how successfully this plan can be fought here in California, and you can be sure that the rest of the country will follow quickly if the plan is implemented here. Offhand, I can only see three ways to "deal" with such proposals (assuming you are not a fan of usage sensitive billing on local calls): 1) Fight the proposal at the PUC. (Always a thrill. I've spoken at informal PUC hearings in the past; they're always a whole bunch of fun. Sigh.) 2) Make sure that your telephone service is provided by older Step by Step offices that are *not* scheduled for early cutover to ESS/EAX. This might buy you a year or two extra of flat rate service. 3) Start planning now for local full-duplex radio networks. These could be used for both voice communications and for data communications by remote terminal users. Note that the currently existing ham "packet radio" plans would not seem to be suitable for many online data tasks, since the packet plans are essentially half-duplex message switching mechanisms. Still, they might provide a starting point for further development. All in all, not very encouraging. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 9 December 1982 09:26-EST From: Jeffrey Krauss <KRAUSS at MIT-MC> Subject: Directory Assistance after Divestiture There is really no specially-identified service as "long distance directory assistance." DA is a service of the local telephone company that is provided to any requesting caller, regardless of his/her location. Compensation does depend upon many factors, however. For calls made over AT&T Long Lines, compensation comes either through Settlements (for Independents) or Division of Revenues (for BOCs). For calls made over MCI or SP, compensation to the local telephone company comes through ENFIA, COATS or whatever the access charge is called. Compensation is on a statistical average basis, rather than for each DA inquiry individually. In the future, the local telcos will be compensated by whatever access charge plan the FCC adopts. This would be true even if there were no divestiture of BOCs. The actual operation of a DA service is typically based on local agreement between Bell and Independent telcos. ---Jeff Krauss--- ------------------------------ Date: 9-Dec-82 20:51:22 PST (Thursday) From: Hamilton.es at PARC-MAXC Subject: Toll Stations To: John Covert <RSX-DEV @ DEC-MARLBORO> Could you explain some of the black magic behind calling a Toll Station? If I want to call Deep Springs #2 out of Bishop, California, I (or some sort of information operator) has to tell the operator something like "numbers: mark 887 225 routing: 619+054+181". This gets her to the Bishop operator, who knows how to ring one long, three short, so that the right toll station will answer. 619 is the area code, but what does the other stuff mean? And how come I can't dial the Bishop operator directly? There are some parts of the country where it's hard to convince an operator that such places as Deep Springs exist. --Bruce ------------------------------ Date: 10 Dec 1982 0419-EST From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: Hamilton.es at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: Toll Stations The "Mark" is a fake first six digits which points into the Rate&Route database in order to pull up a Vertical and Horizontal coordinate so you can be charged the appropriate rate for Deep Springs #2. For toll stations the Mark usually begins with 8xx. For real towns, like Bryant Pond, the mark is the NPA+NXX which will eventually be assigned to that exchange when it becomes dialable. The routing is what your operator has to dial in order to get you connected to the appropriate operator to handle the call. You are not permitted to dial the Bishop operator directly because the billing has to be done locally. The Bishop operator would not be able to know where you are calling from. Just the other night I was discussing with some people why something isn't done to make "everywhere" dialable. For example, Deep Springs #2 could be assigned a dialable NPA-NXX-xxxx, which would somehow directly ring the toll station (even if some weird ringing arrangement were required). The answer is simply that as long as it is either cheaper to handle the call manually than to build hardware to handle it automatically or still physically impossible to, the phone company has no reason to go to great lengths to eliminate operator handling. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Dec 82 11:17:52-EST (Wed) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: tie-in with geography The following are presented in ascending order of precision (descending order of size of land area), with example from Newark, Del. shown in parentheses: telephone area code (302) 1st 3 digits of zipcode (197) telephone prefix (731) 5-digit zipcode (19711) 9-digit zipcode (don't know) The pattern in rural areas is that each major town and the surrounding area have only one phone prefix. The larger the city, the more likely it is to have distinction between city & suburban exchanges. E.g.: If you're on 215-835 & 839, Bala-Cynwyd (Phila. rates), you do NOT get Phila. police by calling 911. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Dec 82 14:14:59-EST (Thu) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: Where to find... A while ago, I wrote of wanting calling instructions for Barnegat, NJ. I have not been able to obtain them. Any hints? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 15-Dec-82 16:33:19-PST,7381;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 15-Dec-82 16:32:45 Date: 15 Dec 1982 1632-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #138 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Thursday, 16 December 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 138 Today's Topics: Callular Radio Making Headlines How To Get Dialing Instructions Machines Making Telephone Calls Modular Plugs and "Curly" Cords ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 24 Oct 1982 1434-PDT Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL Subject: Cellular Article on the Chicago grant. From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow To: wb4jbx at SRI-CSL By Mark Brown (c) 1982 Chicago Sun-Times (Field News Service) The Federal Communications Commission gave American Telephone & Telegraph Co. the go-ahead Thursday to begin building a cellular mobile telephone system in Chicago. The commission's action opens the way for Chicago to become the first city in the nation with the revolutionary system that is expected to increase the use of portable telephones greatly. An AT&T spokesman said the company hopes to have the service available by late 1983. The FCC decision came as a major disappointment to a pair of firms vying for a chance to compete with AT&T in the Chicago market: Graphic Scanning Co. and Rogers Radio Communication Services Inc. They had sought a delay to keep AT&T subsidiary AMPS Inc. (Advance Mobile Phone Services) from getting what they have termed an unfair ''head start.'' The FCC plans to allow only two cellular systems per city and had already decreed that half of the radio frequencies being made available would be reserved for local telephone companies. The telephone companies have negotiated agreements between themselves so that only one application was made from each city for their half of the spectrum. All other applicants were left to fight among themselves for the lone remaining license, a process that could require lengthy FCC hearings. The other applicants, generally radio paging companies, say they fear the AT&T will be dominating the market before they can get a chance to put their systems into action. Bud Kahn, executive vice president of Rogers Radio Communication Co., one of the companies in the portable phone chase, complained that AT&T will have a ''double head start'' in Chicago because it is already operating an experimental cellular system here. He said AMPS will have the advantage of being able to retain the 2,000 customers who participate in that experimental system. Kahn said he expects the cellular phone service market in Chicago to attract between 100,000 and 200,000 users and have a value in excess of $100 million. Its attraction is that it will make mobile phone service available to a great many more people. The cellular system will also provide technically superior service and privacy, both of which are lacking in present mobile systems. The FCC sought to calm those complaining about AT&T's ''head start'' by stipulating that AMPS will not be able to begin serving customers until it finishes its construction and applies for an operator's license. But the complainants said they doubted the FCC would allow AT&T to invest the necessary $18 million for construction and equipment and then tell the company it would have to wait to use it. ''We trust that there will not be any other delays,'' AT&T spokesman Pic Wagner said. The FCC has urged Graphic Scanning and Rogers Radio to make some sort of settlement between themselves, Kahn said. However, no talks have taken place, he said. END nyt-10-22-82 0452edt ********** ------------------------------ Date: 14 Dec 1982 1341-EST From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> To: cmoore at BRL Subject: Calling instructions The best way to get calling instructions is to call the business office (collect). Your request reminded me that I had been curious about local calling between Falmouth (617-548 and 540) and Naushon Island (617-299). Naushon Island is a privately owned island whose residents own the Elizabeth Islands Telephone Company. This company has lines and telephones, but no switching equipment. Their calls are switched by the Number 5 XBar in Falmouth, but it is not a local call, even though it is within the same machine. (Also, for customers with Bay State Service, which allows two hours of calling to "anywhere" in Massachusetts with additional minutes at a very low rate, Naushon Island is still toll.) From Barnegat, NJ, the following exchanges are a local call: Toms River (201) 240,244,255,269,270,341,349,929 Tuckerton (609) 296 Beach Haven (609) 492,494 Barnegat (609) 597,693,698,971 For all local calls, only seven digits are required. There are no ambiguities, since the 201 codes in Toms River are all unassigned in 609. These are known as "protected codes" and reduce the total number of NXXs available in a given area. When 415 and 408 ran short on codes, the dialing plan was changed to require the NPA on local calls to the other NPA. ------------------------------ Date: 14 Dec 82 17:26:36-EST (Tue) From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL> cc: cmoore at BRL Subject: phone call FROM machine! Previously, I've heard of machines which dial an entire sequence of phone numbers to play advertising messages via recording; such things reach EVERYTHING on the phone system including prisons, unlisted #'s, etc. (Do some of these not permit hanging up, possibly delaying an emergency call you want to make right then?) What prompts this message: I placed an order by visiting a store's catalog department, and was told that a machine makes the calls notifying customer that the order is in. Because I have an answering service, I had to tell the sales people that it was people, not a machine, answering the phone. (The store's machine can't send a message to an answering set.) I got the message OK (" <store name> called, your order is in") from switchboard operator. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Dec 1982 0656-PST From: Gene Autrey-Hunley <Autrey-Hunley at SRI-KL> Subject: Modular Plugs and Curly Cords cc: AUTREY-HUNLEY at SRI-KL Have you ever noticed that the modular plugs for a phone's handset and for its line cord (= the "wall" connection cord) are different sizes? Why? The only explanation I can imagine is that the size difference is to prevent accidental insertion of the line cord into the jack intended for the handset. If that's true, is there some reason (potential damage to the phone or something else) for Bell wanting to prevent such accidents from happening? (Note that the smaller handset modular plug can be inserted into the line cord jack, or for that matter, even directly into a wall mounted modular jack even though it may not work properly.) Finally, why isn't there a curly cord made for the line cord? For some applications, a curly line cord would be much less bothersome than the traditional "extension" cords. --Gene ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 16-Dec-82 21:42:50-PST,8323;000000000000 Mail-From: JSOL created at 16-Dec-82 21:42:19 Date: 16 Dec 1982 2142-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #139 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Friday, 17 December 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 139 Today's Topics: Customer Provided Equipment - Not For Party Lines Just How Private Is Cellular? Hotel Surcharges Going Haywire At Disneyland Coiled Vs. Straight Cords - Maximum Length ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 15 Dec 1982 at 1817-CST From: Keith Pyle <pyle@UTEXAS-11> Subject: Radio Shack phones & party lines The Radio Shack telephones (e.g., Slim-Fone UDS #43-332) indicate that they are not to be used on party lines. Is this related to the telephone's inability to tell if the ring signal is for it or another party, or is there another incompatibility? Could the RS phone be used with the bell disabled? My parents bought one of the RS units for a relative who is on a 4-party line and, when they took it back, all the RS folks could say was "The box says 'Not for party lines'". (Replies to me, please; the Digests have been several days in arriving lately.) Thanks. Keith Pyle (pyle@utexas-11) ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, 15 December 1982 22:07-EST Sender: GAVAN at MIT-OZ From: GAVAN at MIT-MC Its [cellular phone service's] attraction is that it will make mobile phone service available to a great many more people. The cellular system will also provide technically superior service and privacy, both of which are lacking in present mobile systems. Perhaps I'm missing something about cellular. How does cellular enhance privacy? Is it just that a potential eavesdropper would have to be listening in to the right "cell" or area of town? Or is there something more sophisticated about cellular that makes it more private? ------------------------------ Date: 16 Dec 1982 1246-EST From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Massive hotel surcharges While at DECUS at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim last week, I noticed that the hotel uses a local accounting system for long distance calls placed from the rooms. I noticed this by noting that 8+1+NPA+NXX+XXXX went through without a request for my room number. Although this could mean that the hotel had either Automatic Identified Outward Dialing or a CO-CENTREX, I did not believe that either AIOD or CENTREX was the case. It was clear that there was no CO CENTREX because all the characteristics of a local PBX were present. Determining for sure that there was no AIOD was not so easy. To do this, I placed a call to a number I knew would not answer and let it ring for three minutes before hanging up. Upon checkout, there was a charge on my bill for a three minute call. The hotel removed it from the bill with no argument when I told them that I had let it ring for a long time. Later, I looked at the charge. The hotel has a sticker on the front of the phone stating that they will charge one dollar in addition to the rate charged by the telephone company on all long distance calls. They had charged me 4.59 for a three minute call at 23:44. This seemed a bit high. So I checked on the rates: 1. Direct Dial rate after 11PM: 1st Minute 0.29 2 add'l at 0.20 0.40 ---- 0.69 1% Tax 0.01 ---- 0.70 Hotel Charge 1.00 ---- 1.70 This seems to be the correct rate they should have charged. It would make money for them, the phone company, and me (since it is a nickel cheaper than a credit card call). 2. Direct Dial Operator assisted rate after 11PM 1st Minute 1.84 2 add'l at 0.20 0.40 ---- 2.24 1% Tax 0.02 ---- 2.26 Hotel Charge 1.00 ---- 3.26 This is what they should have charged if they intend to charge the rate the phone company charges hotels with HOBIC service plus a dollar. This is a rip-off for the customer, since they say that they are charging only $1 more than the phone company rate. If they use this rate, they are charging $2.55 more than the direct dial rate. They are in fact getting the service at direct dial rates or lower (since they can use MCI, SBS, or whoever to handle the calls). 3. Operator assisted day rate 1st Minute 2.29 2 add'l at 0.49 0.98 ---- 3.27 1% Tax 0.03 ---- 3.30 Hotel Charge 1.00 ---- 4.30 This is the most they could have possibly charged me, based on the information in the room. But, in fact, they charged $4.59, which is a bit more than even this. I talked to the Assistant Controller at the hotel, who told me that he would contact their communications company which has the billing system. I am awaiting a written response. Other people staying in the hotel told me of absurd rates they were charged, such as more than $6 for a two minute call into Los Angeles. Up until about 18 months ago, hotels were not allowed to add any surcharges to telephone rates. All calls were placed through operators at the phone company operator assisted rate. The phone company notified the hotel of the charge by either calling the hotel or by sending the charge to a hard copy terminal. The phone company paid the hotel a 15% commission for handling calls. In order to foster competition, the FCC now allows hotels to do what they want with long distance calls, both in terms of routing and charging. Making telephone calls from hotels has become a dangerous practice. If you are going to be in a hotel for a week and intend to use the phone a lot, it now pays to have your own phone installed! [That of course assumes the Hotel will let you! --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 15 Dec 82 21:03:03-EST (Wed) From: Ron Natalie <ron@BRL> Subject: Curly Cords I think you hit the nail right on the head about the difference in phone cord plug sizes. Although there may not be any adverse effects from plugging things into the wrong holes (other than the instrument not working), it is probably to cut down on the confusion over which cable goes in which holes. As for curly cords for the phone to wall jack connection. These are made. I bought a TeleConcepts Smalltalker phone from TPC and it comes with only one cord (this is one of these "hang-up on any surface", one piece phones) which has the larger moduler plug that goes from the phone to the wall. It is a normal straight cord for about eight feet and then becomes curly for about aonther six feet (contracted). I guessed that the coiled side is for the phone end of the cable, although it really makes no difference. However, I've never seen these cords sold seperately. -Ron ------------------------------ Date: 16 Dec 1982 14:42:38-EST From: Christopher A. Kent <cak@Purdue> Reply-to: cak@Purdue Subject: Curly cords and modular plugs Why can't I plug my line cord into the handset? Because Bell is afraid of being sued. The reason is that they have placed a restriction on the length of the cord from the base to handset, to avoid lawsuits from people who trip over cords and hurt themselves. I've gotten the runaround on this a number of times. We used to have an "old-style" (no modular plugs) wall phone in the kitchen. We special ordered a 15' straight cord, which we were told had to be specially made AT WESTERN! This was the limit, and we had to sign a statement that we wouldn't take legal action for any damages that might be cause by this cord. Some years ago, our phone broke and was replaced with a modular unit. The operating company (Cincinnati Bell) wouldn't give us a long cord; we were stuck with the standard curled one. I begged, pleaded, cajoled, threatened, to no avail. Finally I bought a long line cord and took a grinder to the cord and made my own. Works just fine, but I don't know if I'll be able to get it replaced when it breaks. A pretty stupid situation, overall. Cheers, chris ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 26-Dec-82 16:26:06-PST,9689;000000000000 Return-path: JSOL@USC-ECLB Mail-From: JSOL created at 26-Dec-82 16:24:49 Date: 26 Dec 1982 1624-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #140 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Monday, 27 December 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 140 Today's Topics: Registration Program And Party Lines Legalities - Owning Long Cords Vs. Renting Them Alternative Long Distance Carrier Question ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Friday, 17 Dec 1982 07:40:01-PST From: RHEA::CASTOR::J_COVERT%Shasta at SU-Score Subject: The registration program and party lines The registration program does not permit installation of registered sets by the user on party lines because the interface is not always a simple two-wire interface. On some party lines, the central office determines which party is making the call (for billing purposes) by measuring the circuit parameters of the phone at the end of the line. This can take several forms, the most common of which is a ground test, to see whether the bell is between ground and the ring or tip side of the line. Since setting this sort of thing up properly requires the set to be opened and wires to be moved, only the phone company is allowed to do this. ------------------------------ Date: 17 Dec 82 9:12:40-PST (Fri) From: Mark Wadsworth <mw%uci@USC-ECL> Subject: Long curly cords Chris Kent complains that the phone company won't let him have a long handset cord. At the Pacific Telephone Phone Center stores here, they sell curly cords in 6, 12, and 25 foot lengths. Something must have changed, because about a year ago I asked for a replacement for a replacement for a long wall cord and they told me they didn't supply them any more, for the legal reasons mentioned by Chris. Maybe I take responsibility for the hazard by owning it myself. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Dec 1982 2331-PST From: ROODE at SRI-NIC (David Roode) Subject: alternative long distance carrier question Location: EJ296 Phone: (415) 859-2774 Who can tell me if Sprint and MCI enforce a ban on use of their services for intrastate connections? I understand ITT City Call does not. [At least in Los Angeles, both Sprint and MCI don't enforce the ban. Apparently, someone claimed that the call goes interstate physically, and because of that dispite the fact that the destination and source are in the state, it is an interstate call. ITT used to enforce it, but now has stopped doing so. In Hartford, CT., you can call numbers local to other Connecticut switches, but you can't use it to make calls local to Hartford (my mother lives in a fringe area of the Hartford Local Calling area, and wants to call a number which is local to Hartford but toll for her. In LA you can make any call you want. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 20 Dec 1982 1249-PST Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL Subject: Privacy of Cellular mobile phone service. From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow Reply-To: Geoff at SRI-CSL To: Gavan at MC Your question is best answered by comparing the aspects of cellular mobile phone service to the "traditional" mobile phone service(s) that exist today: --- Coverage area. In today's mobile phone services, the object is to cover the widest area possible on each channel/frequency. Hence, you can "hear"/"listen in" on a conversation over a very wide area. This makes for poor frequency reuse, as you might imagine. However, with cellular, the object is high frequency reuse, where the coverage area of any single channel will be between ~1 and ~8 miles. So, in a sense, your conversation is being compartmentalized into smaller coverage areas. If one wanted the ability to listen in on any phone conversation, they would need to have a reciever placed within the coverage area of each "cell" a given cellular service area might cover. --- Hand-Off. In today's mobile phone service, there is no hand-off. When you get on the channel, by the virtue that the high powered transmitter covers a large area, you stay on it until you are done (or drop out of its coverage area). With cellular, however, depending on the coverage area of a given "cell" and your mobility during a conversation, you can be "handed-off" to another pair of frequencies in another cell any number of times. In order for someone to follow your conversation, if they were so inclined, they would firstly, have to have synthesized recievers placed within the coverage areas of the cells they wished to monitor. All of the synthesized recievers would then have to be linked back to a central monitoring station. When a call of interest is detected, they would have to listen in for the data burst the cell sends out to direct the mobile to retune to a new pair of frequencies. The central monitoring station would then have to slurp up this data burst, and also "know" which cell they belonged to and tune into the new pair in that cell. Messy & complicated as you an see. --- No manual units. Today's mobile phones (usually) have two operating modes. One is "automatic" (Direct-Dial) and the other is "manual" (Operator places call). Hence, even when operating in an automatic, direct-dial system, where you do not "listen in" on the channel to see if it is not in use (as you would in a "manual system"), you can just flip a switch and change your unit from operating in "automatic" mode to operate in "manual" mode, which then allows you to "listen in" and monitor conversations. However, with cellular, there is no such thing as manual placed calls or service. Everything is directly dialed, and hence, the mobile units, both car mounted and portable, are only capable of automatic/direct-dial operation and there is no provision/capability, to change the unit to operate in a "manual mode" and listen in on any channel as. --- Current scanners. 800 MHz is a bit more private than 450 or 150 MHz in that the scanners available today for around $300, at least that I have seen, haven't had an 800 MHz capability (YET!). --- Summary. If you have a scanner which can pick up 800 MHz, then you can listen in on cellular phone conversations. However, any given phone conversation would have to stay within the coverage area of the cell you are in (i.e. not hand-off) in order for you to listen to it from beginning to end. Second, given the smaller coverage area of a given cell and the greater number of channels, listening in on calls is going to be harder. And finally, given the fact that the mobile units themselves will not have a "manual" capability, users will be prevented from evesdropping via their mobile sets. ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, 22 Dec 1982 14:36:28-PST From: ELROND::C_STRUTT Reply-to: "ELROND::C_STRUTT c/o" <RHEA::CASTOR::J_COVERT%Shasta at Sumex-Aim> Subject: More phone overcharging. Both Disney and New England Telephone Hi John, I saw a copy of your note on phone charges at Disneyland, and I thought I'd let you know what I noticed. One of the calls I made was to Pasadena, and I had checked the phone book - it told me I would get charged $0.24. I assumed I would get charged $1.24 or thereabouts because of the hotel surcharge. Boy, was I surprised when I checked my bill and found the charge listed as $3.96!!! I haven't complained to the hotel (I have already paid the bill of course) but I would be interested to know if you have found out anything more. Another thing - you mentioned that you got charged for a 3 minute call that never answered. This is interesting, because on my last home phone bill, I was charged for 5 separate one minute calls to California in November - my wife phones here brother from time to time. In each case, the phone was not answered - we complained to the telephone company and they agreed without question to drop the disputed charges. However, given what happened to you I am beginning to wonder if the the phone company (or maybe just Pacific Bell) have a good thing going - after all, who usually checks their whole bill. I would like to hear your views on this. Colin ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, 22 Dec 1982 14:40:37-PST From: CASTOR::D_DONCHIN Reply-to: "CASTOR::D_DONCHIN c/o" <RHEA::CASTOR::J_COVERT%Shasta at Sumex-Aim> Subject: N. E. Tel in New Hampshire won't allow mixed flat/message service For your interest, just got into a little squabble with the phone company. I have two phone numbers in my house for which I get two distinct bills. One phone I use for personal calls, while the other is used for the modem. Because I use the modem heavily, I have the regular billing on that phone line, where I get unlimited local calls for a flat fee. However I noticed that I don't use the other number much, and in fact I received a brochure with my last bill that spoke about the advantages of message unit billing. So I asked the phone company to change the billing of one number to message units, which they refused to do if I kept the other number without that same type of billing. Thus they are forcing me to pay for service I don't need or want on one of my numbers, for which I receive a separate bill anyway. Sometimes you can get very frustrated dealing with those people. Thanks for listening, Dale ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** ------- 27-Dec-82 18:14:59-PST,8918;000000000000 Return-path: JSOL@USC-ECLB Mail-From: JSOL created at 27-Dec-82 18:14:22 Date: 27 Dec 1982 1814-PST From: Jon Solomon <TELECOM at USC-ECLB> Subject: TELECOM Digest V2 #141 Sender: JSOL@USC-ECLB To: TELECOM: ; Reply-To: TELECOM at USC-ECLB TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 28 December 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 141 Today's Topics: Administrivia - Bad Reply-To Addresses Different Numbered Billing Rates Classes Of Service And Restrictions Query - Type Of Local Central Office ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 26 Dec 1982 2103-EST From: Alyson L. Abramowitz <ALA at MIT-OZ> Subject: Bad Addresses in Telecom Jon: I'm not sure if your realized this, but the last TELECOM Digest contained a number of addresses which are not viable to use for a personal responce. All the addresses contained "RHEA::CASTOR::J_COVERT%Shasta at SU-Score". While I'm sure this was the exact address you got the messages from, unfortunately you've hit into a multi-network addressing software bug. As you may be aware there is now a gateway between the ENet and USEnet. Messages can be addressed over this link from the ARPAnet by sending them via USEnet. Unfortunately, the software providing the gateway currently has a bug in it which creates addresses which cannot be replied to on EITHER side of the gateway. A message coming from the ENet to USEnet gateway is easily recogized by it's address which always starts with RHEA::, includes either %Shasta or @Shasta and ends with "at SU-SCORE" or "at SUMEX-AIM". Unfortunately to reply back you need a TO: field of the form: decwrl!<site>::<user>@shasta@SUMEX-AIM where SU-SCORE could be substituted for SUMEX-AIM (except that SCORE is down for two weeks), <site> is the host of recipient, and <user> is the username of the recipient. For example, the message from "RHEA::CASTOR::J_COVERT%Shasta at SU-SCORE" should really read "decwrl!CASTOR::J_COVERT@SHASTA at SU-SCORE". You may want to change these addresses or at least be aware of the problem if someone complains they can't respond. Best, Alyson PS The problem is with the stanford software providing the USEnet end of the link and has been reported. Supposedly it will be fixed in the next release from Shasta.--ala [I am posting this as information which readers might need to know when replying to messages. I will watch out for this in the future. --JSol] ------------------------------ Date: 27 Dec 1982 0631-PST From: Chris <Pace at AFSC-SD> Subject: Different Numbered billing rates This is in response to Dale message about billing rates. Whereas, I cannot speak to N. E. Tel situation, in the Los Angeles area, I have two telephone numbers on different billings for the same reasons that you mentioned (ie one for personal calls and one for modem calls). I have message unit service on the personal line and unlimited for the modem line. The only restriction that we have is that if you have unlimited service in the same residence, you must have at least 60 msg unit service, rather than the slightly cheaper 30 msg unit service. Our telco is Pacific Tel. Chris. ------------------------------ Date: 27-Dec-82 1752-PST From: Jon Solomon <JSol at USC-ECLC> Subject: Measured Service, Lifeline, Unlimited Service, etc. What the telephone company provides in your area is usually a combination of what is demanded of it, and what is "cost effective" to provide. In areas where there is a large investment of Step-by-step switching, it is unreasonably expensive to provide timed measured service, although untimed measured service is possible. I will discuss 3 types of service: Untimed Unlimited - This type of service allows as many calls as you like within your local calling area. The charge for these calls is expected to be included in the basic rate for the service, but in practice is usually recovered from long distance charges, directory assistance, installation charges, and whatnot. All types of switching support this form of service, including those that aren't direct dial. Untimed Measured - This is a type of service where you pay by the call, like a coin phone, for local calls, but you can talk as long as you like (note: some areas have timed coin phone calls also.) Older switching can only support this form of measured service, because this only requires a counter on your line to count how many calls you complete. Timed Measured - This service is the most lucrative for phone companies. Most switching forms can handle this easily. Step-By-Step switching is the only form of switching where it is not cost effective to time and measure calls. Pacific telephone is doing it in Los Angeles (and in other areas as well), but not on local calls (on "zone calls") and I can only imagine the headaches and cost of implementing it on that form of switching. You pay by the call, and per minute (or per 5 minutes). "Lifeline" service - this is not actually a form of service, but was intended as a solution to a social/political problem. People were complaining that they could not afford the "high" cost of phone service, yet felt entitled to service, forced all the phone companies to implement *some* form of measured service that would not cost quite as much as normal "unlimited" service. This was interpreted differently in each area, depending on the phone companies ability to provide one of the services listed above, and whether or not they already provided a viable alternative. The way you know this service is in affect is that the service rep won't let you mix it with other forms of service. In some areas that means not even two lifeline phones, in others it just means you can't mix them, but you can have more than one. In the Pacific Telephone case, Lifeline is the 30 call service, you can't have more than one line (even if it is also lifeline) and "Timed Measured" service is allowed to mix with flat rate (unmeasured) service in normal situations. General Telephone, on the other hand, has "Lifeline" (they call it MLS for Measured Local Service), and unlimited, and you can't mix them. This is due to the fact that they have mostly Step-By-Step exchanges, and can't support all the measured traffic they would like. In New Hampshire (New England Telephone) "measured" service is the lifeline. In Boston, Mass (also NET) you can get both Timed Measured, and Unmeasured in the same house, and Measured was considered cheap enough to satisfy the "Lifeline" people. In New York city, their standard service is untimed measured, and allows 75 calls. You can get the same form of service, without the allowance for $2.50, so that was considered reasonable. They have no restrictions on class of service. In Connecticut (Southern NE Telephone - 18% owned by Bell), they have "Lifeline" as untimed measured service, and you can not mix that with flat rate service, but you can have more than one measured line (my father has 2 and loves it). This information is changing rapidly, with the conversion of areas from mechanical to electronic switching, and with the divestiture on Jan 1st of AT&T and the subsequent deregulation of the phone company, there should be some interesting changes in all areas. Keep us informed of the changes in your area, by mailing to TELECOM@USC-ECLB. Cheers, [--JSol--] ------------------------------ Date: 27-Dec-82 12:27:35-EST (Mon) From: cbosgd!mark@Berkeley (Mark Horton) Subject: type of local central office Anybody have an algorithm for determining what kind of central office a given phone is on (e.g. #1ESS, #5 Xbar, SxS, etc?) Over Christmas I go to Youngstown to visit and half the time I can't get through. (My father in law says it's because the tomato can is being used.) Modem calls fail 2 out of 3 times, when I dial I have to disconnect the modem to prevent it from "detecting carrier" halfway through the number being dialed, touch tone is not available. Over Christmas, I could dial 1+one or two digits of the area code before getting a busy signal. And once, I dialed the number (in Eastern Washington), got an operator who wanted my phone number, which I gave her, then got a recording telling me all circuits were busy. This area is served by Bell, not GTE, and normally they do not ask for my number when I dial direct. 0+ works. Is it step by step or might it be something else? [If you get a busy signal after dialing two digits of an area code, then it's probably Step-By-Step switching. Bell is not perfect either, just better than GTE in California (opinion.) --JSol] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest ********************** -------