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- 17 Sep 90 1:45 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa03449;
- 17 Sep 90 0:17 CDT
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- 16 Sep 90 23:14 CDT
- Date: Sun, 16 Sep 90 23:01:57 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #651
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009162301.ab13978@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Sep 90 23:01:29 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 651
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: MCI As Slamming King [Dave Archer]
- Re: Sprint Puts It In Writing: On Your Bill! [Henry Mensch]
- Re: 50th Anniversary of Data Communications! [Peter G. Capek]
- Splitting Call Transmission Directions [Larry Lippman]
- Re: Best and Worst (was: Labor Day, 1990) [Jim Breen]
- Annoying Cross Talk Problem, HELP! [Lance Ware]
- Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony [Jim Gottlieb]
- Re: What Kind of CO is This? [Dave Levenson]
- Can AT&T "Attack" a Specific Carrier? [J. Eric Townsend]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Archer <v116kznd@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu>
- Subject: Re: MCI As Slamming King
- Date: 16 Sep 90 19:40:23 GMT
- Reply-To: v116kznd@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu
- Organization: University at Buffalo
-
-
- In article <12195@accuvax.nwu.edu>, 0003829147@mcimail.com (Sander J.
- Rabinowitz) writes...
-
- >>From all accounts MCI does seem to be the slamming king. I have,
- >>on several occasions, had to "clean off" MCI as the default carrier
- >>on some of my clients' trunks. Associates of mine report the same ...
-
- I've wondered if any of this has anything to do with telemarketers
- hired by the LD companies imposing quotas on their employees. Such
- as, "if you don't get 10 people an hour to switch over, you're out of
- a job". This might explain alot. And as far as MCI, it could just be
- they don't keep as close a watch on their telemarketers as the other
- companys do.
-
- BTW, I've not had any problems with MCI bothering me. In fact, the
- only time I remember MCI calling me, I could barely understand the
- person with all the static and buzzing and such. Sounded more like
- the call was coming from the moon during solar flare season. Not
- exactly very impressive. This was several years ago however, I would
- assume things are better, or at least hope that they don't call from
- the moon anymore. :)
-
- (I have however, had two people from AAA drive over and insist that I
- had ordered a membership while I very much recalled having told the
- telemarketer a month earlier that I wasn't interested, although I
- still have no idea how they knew my liscense plate number.)
-
- Note: I do not represent my employer or school, & sometimes not even
- myself.
-
-
- Dave Archer | Internet: V116KZND@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU
- | Bitnet: V116KZND@UBVMS.BITNET
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 16 Sep 90 15:54:48 -0400
- From: Henry Mensch <henry@garp.mit.edu>
- Organization: MIT Project Athena Network Services Evangelist
- Subject: Sprint Puts It In Writing: On Your Bill!
-
-
- They did, indeed ... for the WD40 promotion, it took four phone calls
- to get them to apply the free hour credit that I 'won' in the promo,
- and then four more phone calls to get two "non-recurring" $10 charges
- stricken from my account ... not to mention that things stricken from
- my account showed up on the next statement because (according to the
- Sprint CSR) it may take up to 45 days to appear on the statement.
-
- Right.
-
- That's all the writing I needed to see ... I had hoped things would
- have gotten better since I last used Sprint regularly, but I see they
- haven't.
-
-
- # Henry Mensch / <henry@garp.mit.edu> / E40-379 MIT, Cambridge, MA
- # <hmensch@uk.ac.nsfnet-relay> / <henry@tts.lth.se> / <mensch@munnari.oz.au>
- # via X.400: S=mensch; OU=informatik; P=tu-muenchen; A=dbp; C=de
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 16 Sep 90 16:01:35 EDT
- From: "Peter G. Capek" <CAPEK%YKTVMT.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
- Subject: Re: 50th Anniversary of Data Communications!
-
-
- In recent postings, Will Martin and Dave Levenson have commented on the
- first use of telephone lines to transmit data. If what is really
- meant here is tranmission of digital data over voice phone lines, I
- believe the "first" may be around 1953 or '54; I've been unable to
- determine the exact date. The SAGE project, a joint effort of IBM,
- Lincoln Labs (an adjunct of MIT which was established for the purpose)
- and the Air Force claims a number of "firsts", among them this one. I
- quote from "History of the Design of the SAGE Computer - the AN/FSQ - 7"
- by Mort Astrahan, IBM Research Report RJ 3117, 1981:
-
- "Highlights of ...these innovations:
-
- Data communication over standard phone lines: The transmission of
- digital data over voice-grade lines at 1300 bits per second was
- pioneered by the Lincoln [Labs] people. Jack Harrington's group
- of Division 2 designed the first modems to convert digital data to
- and from analogue waveforms that could be accommodated by
- voice-band channels. The channels required special conditioning
- to minimize noise pickup and eliminate unequal phase shifts across
- the frequency spectrum. The phase shifts were not noticeable in
- voice transmission but distorted the data waveforms."
-
- By the way, Astrahan claims other "firsts" for SAGE: Light Pens (which
- he calls Light Guns; this was a military system, after all :-) ),
- time-sharing (which might better be thought of as multiprogramming),
- I/O in parallel with computing, associative memory implemented using
- drums, hot-standby duplexing, core memory in a production machine,
- computer control of voltage margins, and components automatically
- mounted on and soldered into circuit boards.
-
-
- Peter Capek
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: Splitting Call Transmission Directions
- Date: 16 Sep 90 10:54:09 EDT (Sun)
- From: Larry Lippman <kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net>
-
-
- In article <11532@accuvax.nwu.edu> dolf@idca.tds.philips.nl (Dolf
- Grunbauer) writes:
-
- > I always assumed that when making a telephone call the line to the
- > otherside is the same the line back from him to me. The other day
- > someone told me that this is not the case, especially when making a
- > international phone call. According to him it is possible that for
- > example when calling from Europe to the USA one line could use a
- > satellite connection while the other could use a transatlantic cable.
- > Is this true?
-
- Unless echo suppressors have become *much* more sophisticated
- than those with which I was once familiar, I would be surprised if
- such vastly different propagation paths could be used on the E-W and
- W-E directions of a given intertoll circuit.
-
- Control of echo on intertoll circuits can be implemented by
- simple attenuation in the trivial case, and voice-switched attenuation
- through echo suppressors in the more common case. The proper design
- of intertoll circuits, including configuration of echo suppressors, is
- governed by the Via Net Loss (VNL) concept. VNL design requires
- knowledge of propagation delay in milliseconds. At the time I was
- involved in the telephone industry, the VNL design with which I was
- familiar imposed a maximum of 22.5 milliseconds propagation delay to a
- DDD switching midpoint, with an maximum overall delay of 45
- milliseconds on any given DDD circuit. It was always a "given" that
- VNL design required the same propagation delay in each direction.
-
- While I admit that I have no firsthand experience with
- intertoll circuits involving satellites or transoceanic cable, I would
- find it difficult to believe that any satisfactory transmission (and
- echo) performance could be achieved with the E-W and W-E directions
- that have widely *differing* propagation times.
-
- Obviously, satellite transmission by its very nature imposes
- propagation delays which far exceed 45 milliseconds. However, echo
- suppressors and intertoll circuit design can be set up to deal with
- such increased propagation delays - *provided* that the delay is equal
- in each direction.
-
- Also, I can think of no valid reason to split E-W and W-E
- routing between different transmission facilities. *ALL* transmission
- facilities used for intertoll circuits are, by their very nature,
- bi-directional. While I have seen all sorts of route diversity and
- failure protection switching, I have never seen anything that split
- transmission directions through different facilities.
-
-
- Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp.
- {boulder||decvax||rutgers||watmath}!acsu.buffalo.edu!kitty!larry
- VOICE: 716/688-1231 || FAX: 716/741-9635 {utzoo||uunet}!/ \aerion!larry
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jim Breen <jwb@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>
- Subject: Re: Best and Worst (was: Labor Day, 1990)
- Organization: Monash_University
- Date: Fri, 14 Sep 90 00:09:48 GMT
-
-
- In article <12064@accuvax.nwu.edu>, jimmy@denwa.info.com (Jim
- Gottlieb) writes in support of comments by John Higdon disagreeing
- with my vote:
-
- > >> > In the best/worst voting, my opinions (based on experience) are:
- > >> > BEST: Japan
-
- > >> Bzzzzt! Wrong -- but thanks for playing anyway.
-
- > >> * About one out of ten calls bomb (don't go through).
-
- > >Not on my observation.
-
- > I would say it may even be higher. ......
-
- [etc.etc.etc.]
-
- At this point I crawl back under my stone. I could try and argue point
- by point, but anecdotal "evidence" isn't worth much anyway. I suppose
- I will just have to accept that I lead a charmed existence when in
- Japan, whilst in the US I just happen to get more than my share of
- lousy lines, rude operators, failed connections, international lines
- with broken eco-suppression, etc. etc.
-
- > >Jim Breen ($B%8%`(J)
-
- > Ahh, but he has Japanese in his .signature. That increases his
- > qualifications a bit.
-
- $B$"$"!"F|K\8l$,>e<j$@$h!#(J
-
-
- Jim Breen ($B%8%`(J) (jwb@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au) Dept of
- Robotics & Digital Technology. Monash University
- PO Box 197 Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
- (ph) +61 3 573 2552 (fax) +61 3 573 2745
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "W.L. Ware" <ccicpg!cci632!ritcsh!ulta.rit.edu!wlw2286@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Annoying Cross Talk Problem, HELP!
- Date: 16 Sep 90 16:26:47 GMT
- Organization: Information Systems and Computing @ RIT, Rochester, New York
-
-
- I've got an annoying situation on my hands. All four of my incoming
- phone lines suffer from intermittent cross talk. It seems to be worse
- when it is wet outside, but that is definitely not always the case.
-
- I have had the phone company out numerous times, and they say it is
- inside the house (of course.) I have had the alarm/electricians out,
- they say it is the phone company (of course.) And I myself have
- checked out the connections at the entrance to my house (looks fine,
- infinite resistance between all eight wires, with the incoming lines
- and phones disconnected.) I have also looked in the phone company's
- green box, which is about ten feet from where the lines come into my
- house.
-
- The only possibilites which I can think of are:
-
- The cables between the house and box are bad.
- (Unlikely though because they are < one year old.)
-
- One of my two line phones is causing the problem.
- (This is a possibility because when things really get
- bad, and voice line #1 rings so does #2 even though
- there is no call on that line. But my other lines,
- FAX and modem still have x-talk and they are in no
- way connected to the two voice lines.)
-
- The Telco's equipment is screwed up somewhere.
- (Good possibility.)
-
- In my basement I have two punchdown blocks, where all telephone cables
- come to; it is pretty tangled. I have a network running over twisted
- pair to a few rooms in the house, and one incoming line to an alarm
- box far away and then comes back allowing the alarm to sieze the line.
- All of the rooms in the have both voice lines, which I assume are all
- wired in parallel because only to pairs are connected to each
- incomming voice line, and one pair on each goes to a jack I installed.
-
- This situation is getting annoying, and has cost me quite a bit for no
- solution. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix it?
-
- How would I check my phones to see if they are the problem (besides
- buying new ones)?
-
- Is there a way I can check the internal wiring for shorts?
-
- Any help, comments or suggestions are welcome.
-
-
- Thanks in Advance,
-
- *W .L. Ware LANCEWARE SYSTEMS*
- *WLW2286%ritvax.cunyvm.cuny.edu Value Added reseller*
- *WLW2286%ultb.isc.rit.edu Mac and IBM Access. *
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jim Gottlieb <jimmy@denwa.info.com>
- Subject: Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony
- Date: 16 Sep 90 22:39:50 GMT
- Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb <jimmy@denwa.info.com>
- Organization: Info Connections, West Los Angeles
-
-
- In article <12159@accuvax.nwu.edu> 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E.
- Kimberlin) writes:
-
- [description of telco employees listening in to
- calls]
-
- >But of course, NOBODY ever listens in on YOUR calls...why, the Company
- >would NEVER permit that!
-
- >[Moderator's Note: I still don't think it is funny. I regard it as a
- >major violation of trust;
-
- I always laugh when I hear telephone company spokespeople make the
- (expected) claim that their employees would never ever listen in to
- calls. Everyone I know who has ever worked in a central office has
- great stories about the calls they listened in to.
-
- The employees in the central offices serving Beverly Hills, for
- example, often liked to put famous people's lines up on the C.O.
- loudspeakers. I hear Lucille Ball's were pretty fun to listen to.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <westmark!dave@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: What Kind of CO is This?
- Date: 16 Sep 90 23:08:34 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In an article posted last week, I described a CO line failure in which
- inbound calls did not ring the called line, even though the calling
- party was given audible ring tone, and even though the called party
- could answer the call and converse with the caller, if he/she knew
- there was in incoming call.
-
- Three times this was reported to NY Tel, and two times the promised
- repair-by date passed with no apparent change in the situation. On
- the third call, the repair-service agent took all of the details
- again, asked when somebody would be at the customer location (it's
- attended around the clock, seven days per week) and promised that
- somebody would be there the next day. I advised the agent that I was
- reporting a CO trouble, and that it would probably not be necessary to
- dispatch anybody to the customer site.
-
- Next day, I got a call from a NY Tel craftsperson at the customer
- site. He wanted me to tell him what was wrong ... said he got dial
- tone on the line. I told him to try calling the line from another
- line, and listen for ringing. He did, and then told me, in a rather
- astonished manner, that there was no ringing -- that the number
- assignment must be wrong. I suggested that he try answering the line
- that wasn't ringing. He did, and discovered as much as I then knew
- about the situation. He then told me that I was wasting my time with
- him; that it was a CO trouble. I told him that I'd already given that
- much information to the repair-service agent.
-
- An hour later, the trouble was cleared.
-
- Thanks to all who replied. I gather that the CO is an AT&T 5ESS, and
- that Larry Lippman was probably right - that the line circuit pack was
- probably defective.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 16 Sep 90 19:30:37 CDT
- From: "J. Eric Townsend" <jet@karazm.math.uh.edu>
- Subject: Can AT&T "Attack" a Specific Carrier?
-
-
- In a propaganda class the other day, we were watching an episode of
- Nightline. It was full of Sprint's "Lighten up, AT&T" series of
- adverts.
-
- My question is this: Could AT&T, if it wanted, decide to attack
- carrier X? ie: "Carrier X says they give you better prices, but it's
- not true. AT&T is much cheaper." Or are they somehow legally
- required to say: "Some other carriers say they give you better prices,
- but it's not true."?
-
-
- J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120
- Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Skate UNIX(r)
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Although most successful advertising consists of
- positive statements about one's own products rather than negative
- comments directed to one's competition, there is no law they cannot
- advertise their competitor's shortcomings if they wish to do so,
- naming those shortcomings specifically; libelous and slanderous
- statements excluded, of course. Please note also the courts have ruled
- there is a big difference between 'free speech' when citizens speak
- it, and 'commercial speech'. Some fine points of law might apply.
- Inquire in misc.legal. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #651
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa00314;
- 17 Sep 90 2:47 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa08907;
- 17 Sep 90 1:20 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab03449;
- 17 Sep 90 0:17 CDT
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 0:10:25 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #652
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009170010.ab27497@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Mon, 17 Sep 90 00:10:05 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 652
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines [Donald E. Kimberlin]
- Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin [Leland F. Derbenwick]
- ANI and CO Call Data Recording [Larry Lippman]
- Caller ID Technical Intros Sought [Bruce Klopfenstein]
- Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony [Donald E. Kimberlin]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 16 Sep 90 17:33 EST
- From: "Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL 34695
- Subject: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines (was: Hostile Service Person!)
-
-
- Fischer writes <in Digest v10, Iss 649>:
-
- > ... he was incredibly hostile! He said every time he called,
- >"some fax machine or something" answered the line. Now he's
- >really hostile! "You are using a standard dial tone line, what you
- >get is what you get ... If you want a data line, pay for it. You
- >people abuse the system, but it's gonna change..."
-
- Sounds like you met one of the remaining "telco gents of the Olde
- School," Bill. One of those types who really cares FAR less for making
- the customer happy than pushing his weight around. (Of course, he's
- probably a pretty responsible guy with a family who has been made that
- way by HIS bosses, but that's beside the point. I just wanted to make
- the point that he is a type, and not all that unusual.) His
- _modus_operandi_ runs along a classic line.
-
- The problem is that line contains a lie that he uses to avoid doing
- his job, and if he can get you to swallow it, not only will he get rid
- of the problem of having to do some work, he'll even get you to pay
- extra to get the work done. (WHEN are Americans EVER going to learn
- about these petty flim-flams they get subjected to daily?)
-
- Fortunately, you clung to some reason he could not deny, so you were
- able to make him do his job. Lo and behold: A plain old POTS line
- good enough to talk on is good enough for your modem. Amazing fact!
- (You rotten abuser of the "telephone network, you!)
-
- >What is this data line he referred to, how much does it cost and is
- >it really necessary to get one for modem use? Is there any way Bell
- >can determine if a line is used exclusively for data?
-
- The flim-flam here is one that local Telcos have even gotten the
- imprimateur of regulatory approval for; more's the pity. I don't know
- which one started it, but in their classic style of ripping the people
- state by state, keeping the general public in the dark that it's going
- nationwide, they file tariffs to "add" some "special conditioning" or
- "special treatment" to your old POTS line for a price that ranges from
- about $2.50 to $8.00 a month, depending on which Telco is your local
- rip-off agent. Oh, you'd pay the usual $50 or so worth of service
- order and "installation" charges, too.
-
- The real rip-off behind it is that what you get is a guarantee that
- the noise level, frequency response and envelope delay of the piece of
- cable from your premises to the Telco exchange meets the very same
- limits it is supposed to meet before they EVER use that cable for POTS
- service! That's right: Pay them extra to get them to meet their own
- limits for every dial-up phone line they ever put in! How's that,
- Telecomm sports fans? (For those into jargon, the numeric limits are
- the SAME as those for "acceptance testing" new subscriber cable; the
- tests they were supposed to do when they put the cable into service.)
-
- You proved to yourself you don't need that extra cost to make a
- modem work, and the tariff they sell it under has NOTHING to do with
- the volume of traffic or the nature of your messages. It merely
- guarantees they will do the job they are supposed to do. Why does
- your modem work OK? Simply because those self-same numeric limits
- they are supposed to meet for a POTS line are what the Telco
- industry tells modem makers their lines ALWAYS meet ... whether you
- paid extra or not.
-
- So, no you don't need it, unless you cave into letting them snow you
- into buying something they should have done in the base price;
- something they tell the modem makers (and indeed the PUC) they do for
- EVERY line.
-
- There are a number of ways they MIGHT find you use it exclusively for
- data, but all involve making the effort to "snoop" about what you are
- doing ... guessing from the length of your calls or investigating to
- find the number you dial is a computer; actual eavesdropping at length
- to hear nothing but tones every call you make, or calling the number
- themselves as did the cretin Illinois Bell sent to you.
-
- But, the BIG point is, they can't REQUIRE you to buy it. You can, as
- you did, stand on some rights to get them to do what they are always
- supposed to do and assume for yourself the responsibility that your
- modem will then work ... which it was in fact designed at their advice
- to do.
-
- >The whole deal kinda smells bad to me.
-
- You're absolutely right. It stinks to high heaven, and I hope you
- have the time and gumption to sit down and write a complaint letter in
- detail to the Illinois PUC, detailing not only the actions of the
- employee, but also the fact that you have an FCC-registered device
- that has been certified to operate properly on an ORDINARY line (RTFM
- and quote its applicable passages, which it is certain to have), and
- tell the PUC that they should be investigating WHY Illinois Bell
- charges extra for something they should be maintaining for ALL lines.
-
- Big Brother is really too slothful to mark your record card, but you
- can bet such a letter will get you about a hundred phone calls from
- all sorts of insects in the woodwork who will want to be your friend
- from now on, giving you their secret phone number and telling you to
- please call them directly for ANY future trouble you have. Your
- investment at this point to let them know you are a tough cookie will
- lead to a long period of excellent telephone service.
-
- You'll be a "special person" to all of them!
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 16 Sep 90 21:12:52 EDT
- From: Leland F Derbenwick <lfd@lcuxlq.att.com>
- Subject: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- In article <12125@accuvax.nwu.edu>, eli@pws.bull.com (Steve Elias)
- writes:
-
- (In reply to and quoting some email I sent him. Since he's made it
- public, I feel I should reply in public. These are my own personal
- comments, as I am in no position to speak for AT&T on this -- I'm
- not even involved with the long-distance side of the business.)
-
- > lfd@lcuxlq.att.com (Leland F Derbenwick) writes:
-
- > > Would you mind posting a description of those "monopolistic advantages"
- > > that AT&T "still enjoys"?
-
- > The large inventory of switching equipment that ATT has and their
- > practice of giving it away in order to win contracts. Isn't some of
- > this inventory leftover from the monopoly days?
-
- I most sincerely hope not. It costs big bucks to store and pay the
- interest on investments in non-productive inventory. And end-user
- equipment from the days when the IBM XT was a _really good_ PC is
- hardly going to be worth much these days, anyhow.
-
- > ATT's enormous cash and capital reserve is a leftover from the
- > monopoly days and allows them to outspend their competition when it
- > comes to advertising and shmoozing cusomters, as well as allowing them
- > to give away equipment in order to win bids. Note that the FCC and
- > Judgefolk decided that these things are not in violation of
- > divestiture. My opinion obviously doesn't carry much weight on this
- > legal issue! (Not the first time!)
-
- Our capital reserve is essentially all invested in our network, our
- factories, and our offices, and I don't know of any huge cash reserve.
- (If we had one, I doubt if we'd have cut our workforce from about
- 400,000 employees at divestiture to somewhere around 270,000 today.)
-
- And I may just not have kept up with the news, but I haven't heard
- about any great giveaways. Sorry.
-
- How about a fact or two, rather than unsubstantiated accusations about
- huge hoards left over from more than six years ago?
-
- Speaking strictly for myself,
-
- Lee Derbenwick, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Warren, NJ
- lfd@cbnewsm.ATT.COM or <wherever>!att!cbnewsm!lfd
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: ANI and CO Call Data Recording
- Date: 16 Sep 90 10:42:53 EDT (Sun)
- From: Larry Lippman <kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net>
-
-
- In article <11739@accuvax.nwu.edu> den0@midway.uchicago.edu (funky
- chicken) writes:
-
- > In the process of recording information for billing, are there any
- > times when the originating or destination number is not recorded?
-
- It depends upon the type of central office, the type of
- message accounting apparatus (if not an ESS CO), and the policy of the
- operating telephone company for a particular CO or CO region. Nothing
- like a *specific* answer, huh? :-) Unfortunately, as far as I know,
- this situation really varies all over the map.
-
- > I suspect there are. For example, I recall that, in SxS offices with
- > ANI, each phone number's sleeve wire was cabled to a grid of bus
- > panels. Each directory number terminated on a card which held 10
- > numbers. An identifier would come by and hierarchically (sp?) scan
- > this bus system for a 5800 hz which identified the calling number.
-
- Hey, you've been around! :-) Tone identification was only used
- in ANI-B; the later and far more common ANI-C and ANI-D all used 340
- volt 200 microsecond pulses instead of the tone.
-
- > However, my memory tells me that all the directory numbers associated
- > with a PBX were fed into a single number network associated with the
- > primary or billing number. If this were the case, wouldn't ANI always
- > identify the calling number as being the primary number, regardless of
- > the actual line used?
-
- From what I have seen of ANI-C and ANI-D, there were two
- schools of thought that were *both* implemented: (1) send the actual
- line number and let revenue accounting sort it out; and (2) wire the
- ANI number network cards to send only a pilot billing number. When
- anyone ever asked my opinion, I always recommended (1) since it always
- provided more data in the event that troubleshooting was required.
-
- > When I used my modem
- > extensively, I had a service which allowed me to make unlimited calls
- > within my LATA for a a monthly fee of $25. Except for analyzing
- > traffic patterns, there would seem to be no reason to keep detailed
- > logs of calls in this sort of situation.
-
- Many operating telephone companies, including the RBOC's,
- record *all* of the call data in an ESS CO and keep it around for as
- long as six months on mag tape - although they might not publicly
- admit such a practice. This situation represents the ultimate in
- traffic usage recording and analysis. It's also pretty cheap
- insurance for billing dispute and toll fraud matters.
-
- This is really not that much data, and it's easy to sort out
- on a "straight line" basis for actual revenue accounting purposes.
- Consider that as a typical example, a 10,000 line CO making 20 calls
- per day per line (quite a bit of traffic, btw) will only generate
- between 10 and 15 megabytes of raw accounting data per day. That's
- for full, raw call data collection of even incompleted calls. One
- 6250 bpi mag tape reel can readily store 10 days or more data.
-
- > Hmmm. I suppose that it is, unfortunately, improper to refer to SxS
- > in the past tense.
-
- There's still a lot of SxS around in the boonies - even in
- RBOC territory!
-
-
- Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp.
- {boulder||decvax||rutgers||watmath}!acsu.buffalo.edu!kitty!larry
- VOICE: 716/688-1231 || FAX: 716/741-9635 {utzoo||uunet}!/ \aerion!larry
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Bruce Klopfenstein <bgsuvax!klopfens@cis.ohio-state.edu>
- Subject: Caller ID Technical Intros Sought
- Date: 17 Sep 90 04:11:30 GMT
- Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
-
-
- I am interested in learning about the basic technology of Caller ID.
- I am not an engineer, and need to start with a fairly simple overview.
- I also would like to continue to more technical readings once I get my
- feet wet.
-
- I would like to get perhaps trade press cites of articles on the
- technology of Caller ID. Any help would be much appreciated.
-
- Thanks.
-
- Bruce C. Klopfenstein | klopfens@barney.bgsu.edu
- Radio-TV-Film Department | klopfenstein@bgsuopie.bitnet
- 318 West Hall | klopfens@bgsuvax.UUCP
- Bowling Green State University | (419) 372-2138; 372-8690
- Bowling Green, OH 43403 | fax (419) 372-2300
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 16 Sep 90 17:33 EST
- From: "Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL
- Subject: Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony
-
-
- Summarizing the story thus far:
-
- In a footnote <Digest vol10, iss637), our Moderator suggests,
-
- >> "... some children, phreaks and assorted other folks consider it
- >>quite a funny joke to conference two unrelated parties via
- >>three-way calling, then let them (the two called parties) squabble
- >>with each other while the perpetrator goes spastic with laughter
- >>at his little prank. PAT]"
-
- This writer responded in an article in Digest V10, Issue 646,
- describing three incidents of internal phreaking that occurred in the
- monolithic era. They included connecting two inward operators in
- Puerto Rico and Hawaii to each other; listening in and engaging some
- lewd conversation on an intercity FX, and interposing as God on DDD
- trunks.
-
- Our Moderator was rightfully irate about such abuses, saying:
-
- >[Moderator's Note: I still don't think it is funny. I regard it as a
- >major violation of trust ...
-
- No doubt about it, Dear Moderator. The point in exposing this to
- you was to show just how widespread such abuses were in the "good
- old days." As to the employees getting caught, my recent comments
- about a benign, complacent environment of employees and managers
- didn't seem to be understood.
-
- In the cases cited here, supervisors and managers would as often be
- part of it as not. The ONLY case of an employee who ever got caught
- was one who was feeding horse race results from the telegraph channels
- to the bookies. He only got caught because the FBI caught the bookies
- and traced it back to him. Despite his being clearly identified and
- his part of it making national press, he merely got transferred off
- the telegraph board over to the toolroom 50 feet away, and enjoyed the
- rest of his admittedly promotionless career to retirement on the phone
- in the toolroom.
-
- I never saw him walk back to the telegraph board to read the race
- results. By the time I came on that scene, he was running a sales
- operation for bridal hope chests and kitchenware from that phone..of
- course, on the public's "expense" for operating the monolithic "phone
- company." ... just another form of violation of the public trust.
-
- You've queried in one place why we would EVER have broken up AT&T and
- caused ourselves all the problems we now have. The purpose was to
- give you some evidence of just how far from the public trust the
- monopoly establishment had wandered ... and in a myriad of ways the
- anti-trust court case never even got to. None of these stories was
- unique. The people in that office weren't the first. Such "tricks"
- were going on all over the country. If you want a whole book full of
- them, I can supply them.
-
- Just square the issue for our less sophisticated readers' paranoia,
- rest assured that today, a combination of (digital) technology and
- reduced profit margins makes it far, FAR less likely that such things
- continue. It's just not so easy to get into a digital timeslot, and
- there aren't enough idle employees hanging around any more to engage
- such games.
-
- Why, indeed, should we ever have broken up the Bell monolith? How is
- it we have so many unforeseen problems to solve? Why, indeed, do we
- find so many scammy practices and people involved?
-
- The answer is simple; Rot had penetrated far deeper than anyone on the
- "outside" might imagine.
-
- And last point: Why on earth would they be so quick to recognize
- misuse of the network? What's the old conundrum ... it takes one to
- know one? Pin them down to how much personal practice they have had
- at doing it. I doubt there's a former local exchange switchman in
- this nation (and most countries) who hasn't engaged in some
- international calling "phreaking!" Diogenes' lantern would have
- failed inside the monolithic Telco, too. Why do you think I left
- them? Why do you think I bring these tales up now decades later?
- Simple ... I still feel a sense of outrage at informing you of them.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #652
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa25499;
- 18 Sep 90 3:02 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa19046;
- 18 Sep 90 1:28 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa13039;
- 18 Sep 90 0:25 CDT
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 0:13:31 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #653
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009180013.ab20915@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 Sep 90 00:13:05 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 653
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Larry Lippman]
- Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony [Tony Davis]
- Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony [David Schanen]
- Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony [John Debert]
- Re: Help Needed With Panasonic KX-T2355 on Rolm System [Fred R. Goldstein]
- Re: Telecom In Alaska [Brian Crawford]
- Re: Tracing Obscene/Nuisance Calls in the UK [Martin Harriss]
- Re: Annoying Cross Talk Problem, HELP! [John Higdon]
- Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing! [Jeffrey C. Halle]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Subject: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
- Date: 17 Sep 90 23:31:41 EDT (Mon)
- From: Larry Lippman <kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net>
-
-
- In article <12159@accuvax.nwu.edu> 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E.
- Kimberlin) writes:
-
- > Well, it brings to mind three incidents that I guess can now be
- > told:
-
- [recollections of sheenanigans by Long Lines personnel deleted]
-
- > [Moderator's Note: I still don't think it is funny. I regard it as a
- > major violation of trust; and I'm sure you are aware that had the
- > employees involved in this little prank been caught and the
- > subscriber's involved elected to sue, telco would have had to pay
- > financially and the employees involved probably would have lost their
- > jobs. PAT]
-
- Humor is a very subjective concept. Almost every industry,
- profession and vocation has inside humor and humorous escapades which
- would be abhorrent to the general public if disclosed.
-
- I cannot justify or particularly defend the actions of such
- Long Lines craftspersons as related in the previous article. However,
- I can state from experience in the industry that such antics have
- indeed occurred in the past, are occurring at the present, and will
- continue to occur in the future. Such antics will always occur
- because of *human* nature.
-
- I have to admit that *I* found humor in the previous article.
- I must also admit that as a one time member of a secret fraternity
- known as The Telephone Company :-), I, too, have participated in
- similar antics. While I am not inclined to disclose details of my own
- sheenanigans in this forum, I suppose that I owe Telecom readers
- *some* kind of story from my past, so here goes:
-
- Once upon a time there was a young engineer supervising the
- installation of an expansion to an existing SxS CO which served a
- small city in the middle-of-nowhere. Said engineer and a solitary
- Western Electric installer were bored to tears after being in said
- small city for the better half of a month. Since it was common
- knowledge [there were two people in the city who didn't wear cowboy
- boots at all times :-)] that the CO was being upgraded to include such
- newfangled features as direct distance dialing without having to give
- the operator your calling number :-), we figured that we could have
- some fun by causing some temporary, but "creative" wiring "errors".
- Aided by couple of 106-type loudspeakers, we decided to monitor the
- results of some connector terminal assignment errors. Like crossing
- the numbers of a small meat packing-freezer plant with the major
- undertaking establishment in the city.
-
-
- Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. "Have you hugged your cat today?"
- {boulder||decvax||rutgers||watmath}!acsu.buffalo.edu!kitty!larry
- VOICE: 716/688-1231 || FAX: 716/741-9635 {utzoo||uunet}!/ \aerion!larry
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Isn't that marvelous! So there has been a death in
- someone's family; it is a time of grief; they call to make funeral
- arrangements and wind up getting the meat processing plant. You must
- have really split your pants open with laughter at that one. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tony Davis <ted@cs.brown.edu>
- Subject: Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony
- Date: 17 Sep 90 08:32:30 GMT
- Reply-To: Tony Davis <ted@cs.brown.edu>
- Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
-
-
- In article <12230@accuvax.nwu.edu> 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E.
- Kimberlin) writes:
-
- [Deleted discussion of abuse during Ma Bell's monopoly.]
-
- >Such "tricks" were going on all over the country. If you want a
- >whole book full of them, I can supply them.
-
- Please post some of them.
-
- I'd like to hear both your story and our Moderator's. What are the
- arguments for and against the breakup of AT&T?
-
-
- Tony Davis
- ted@cs.brown.edu
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: The fact that some employees of AT&T in the past
- acted like jerks is not a sufficient reason to have broken them up,
- that's for sure. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Schanen <mtv@milton.u.washington.edu>
- Subject: Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony
- Date: 17 Sep 90 08:43:03 GMT
- Organization: Independent Study of Art, Music, Video, Computing
-
-
- >..... it was a favorite pastime to dial 809+121 (San Juan,
- >Puerto Rico) and 808+121 (Honolulu, Hawaii) and let two Ernestines of
- >the Lily Tomlin era argue about which had called which and what they
- >were supposed to do. Meantime, gales of laughter could be heard
- >around the monitoring loudspeaker in a testroom thousands of miles
- >from either of them!
-
- >[Moderator's Note: I still don't think it is funny. I regard it as a
- >major violation of trust.... PAT]
-
- This reminds me of the time I worked for a company that had a ten
- button set at the receptionist's desk with a broken mechanism allowing
- you to push several lines at once. Every now and then I would hit all
- ten lines and call 800 directory assistance. :)
-
-
- Dave
-
- Internet: mtv@milton.u.washington.edu * UUNET: ...uunet!uw-beaver!u!mtv
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Did you think it was funny at the time? Do you
- still think it is funny? PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: John Debert <claris!netcom!onymouse@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
- Subject: Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony
- Date: 17 Sep 90 08:32:30 GMT
- Organization: Netcom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 241-9760}
-
-
- From article <12230@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by 0004133373@mcimail.com
- (Donald E. Kimberlin):
-
- > Just square the issue for our less sophisticated readers' paranoia,
- > rest assured that today, a combination of (digital) technology and
- > reduced profit margins makes it far, FAR less likely that such things
- > continue. It's just not so easy to get into a digital timeslot, and
- > there aren't enough idle employees hanging around any more to engage
- > such games.
-
- What's to keep the folks at the SCC's from eavesdropping? The SCC's
- are staffed around the clock and have the power to listen in on all
- calls in the Bell network as well as the power to kill dialtone and
- battery. (I once received a call from someone who told me to "stop
- doing it" and afterward I was without dialtone for an hour or so. I
- later found out that someone at the Richmond (CA) SCC had done it but
- I never found out why.) The frames may no longer have anyone in them
- but there is always someone "in the network".
-
-
- jd
- onymouse@netcom.UUCP
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: I had a guy in the Chicago-Wabash CO rip me off
- once many years ago (1974). He ran my bill up several hundred units
- two or three months in a row before I caught on, making calls by going
- on my line in the frames. I guess he figured because my number ended
- in /00/ (WEbster 9-4600) it was a large company and I would never
- notice the difference. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Fred R. Goldstein" <goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com>
- Subject: Re: Help Needed With Panasonic KX-T2355 on Rolm System
- Date: 17 Sep 90 16:17:37 GMT
- Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA
-
-
- In article <12142@accuvax.nwu.edu>, matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.cts.com
- (Matthew McGehrin) writes...
-
- >First off, I feel sympathy for you. Rolm is a monster of a system. I have many
- >friends who attend colleges with Rolm systems installed and it is a pain in
- >the a** to use. It re-defines the word simplfy. I know people who before Rolm
- >to dial a operator you would dial '0' , but with rolm you may dial 678 then 0.
- >Also, I thought that 'non-Rolm' phones are not compatible with the network.
-
- To be fair, Rolm systems are not "monsters"; they are, however,
- moderately difficult to program and use. Thus if they are not
- carefully installed by somebody sympathetic to human factors, they can
- be a bear.
-
- A "single line" analog interface on a Rolm is reasonably compatible
- with any standard telephone. Only the proprietary Rolmphone and ETS
- interfaces aren't. I've attached lots of ordinary things (answering
- machines, speakerphones, 1A2 key, etc.) to Rolm lines. No sweat.
-
- What makes Rolms tricky is that they use a human interface model
- that's optimized to allow the fully-priv'd business phone user, even
- with a 2500 set, to have more features than any other set's 2500 set.
- It's a 'two call' model, totally non-standard. Once you learn it, you
- can do a lot. But hardly anybody ever seems to learn it. The
- engineers who designed it in 1974 enjoyed it, probably for its hack
- value. The Rolmphones with lots of buttons are easier to use,
- thankfully, but of course you then need a second (analog) line for
- your answering machine, modem, etc., just as with any fancy PBX.
-
-
- Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com
- or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com
- voice: +1 508 486 7388
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Brian Crawford <crawford@enuxha.eas.asu.edu>
- Subject: Re: Telecom In Alaska
- Date: 17 Sep 90 19:53:01 GMT
- Organization: Arizona State Univ, Tempe
-
-
- In article <12106@accuvax.nwu.edu>, judice@sulaco.enet.dec.com (Lou
- Judice) writes:
-
- > I recently took a vacation in Alaska (mostly the interior areas), and
- > was fascinated by the question of how telecom services are provided
- > there.
-
- Just happened to go there myself: Attended High School in Wasilla
- during the late 70's / early 80's.
-
- > In the cities (Fairbanks and Anchorage) it appeared as though the
- > local telcos were municipal utilties. One odd thing - the phone book
- > contained (in both cities) a two page set of instructions on what to
- > do in the event of a nuclear attack - something I can't remember
- > seeing in a while.
-
- Don't suppose the Anchorage Telephone Utility is still charging ten
- cents for a pay phone call, are they? They were still that low long
- before the 'lower 48' went to 25 cents in most places!
-
- If I remember correctly, my CO, Matanuska Telephone, was considered
- <ahem> a "Non-Profit Organization"
-
- > As a former RCA-er, I know that Alaskcom, the long distance carrier in
- > Alaska was formerly part of that great old company. I seem to recall
- > it being sold to a west coast power utility in the early 1980's.
-
- Yep. PP&L bought them out in 1980. Recently, Gencom (or something
- else, I can't remember the exact name) took Alaskcom to court over
- getting the right to offer long distance service per equal access and
- won.
-
- Phone service up there was always a little unique and was somewhat
- different than the Bell System before the diversture.
-
- They leased an entire RCA F# satellite back then. First it was F1 I
- think just after RCA F2 was first launched. It's been a long time.
- One benefit to Alaskans of this was all U of Alaska campuses and
- community colleges had email ties to each other for student use way
- back then, before these networks really hit it big.
-
-
- Brian
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Martin Harriss (ACP" <cellar!martin@bellcore.bellcore.com>
- Subject: Re: Tracing Obscene/Nuisance Calls in the UK
- Date: 17 Sep 90 21:33:40 GMT
- Reply-To: "Martin Harriss (ACP" <cellar!martin@bellcore.bellcore.com>
- Organization: Bellcore
-
-
- In article <12193@accuvax.nwu.edu> julian@bongo.uucp (Julian Macassey)
- writes:
-
- >Now the technical stuff. Her local exchange (CO) which is a
- >TXE-4 (Reed relay job) now has itemised billing. So they obviously
- >have records of outgoing calls. I also recall a court case I sat in on
- >in Lambeth Magistrates court, this was in 1967. The prisoner was
- >accused of "Stealing electricity". His actual offence was calling the
- >emergency services - 999 (UK equiv of 911 that goes back to the
- >forties). But annoying the emergency services is on the cops home turf
- >and is more important to them than some poor soul being woken at one
- >in the morning to hear an anatomical inventory. Obviously if they
- >could trace calls then, they can trace calls now. In the old days,
- >special equipment had to be placed on lines in the CO to trace a call
- >and sometimes an engineer had to be present. But today with computers
- >and electronic switching, no one has to be around while the call is
- >going through.
-
- 999 (and for that matter 100, for the operator) is a special case -
- it's not like a normal call. When an operator answers, the circuit is
- held all the way back to the calling phone. Even if the call is
- coming from another exchange, special equipment will hold the call
- over the junction (operator calls often use a different set of
- circuits than normal calls). The only way to release the circuit is
- for the operator to pull the plug or throw the release key.
-
- This 'Manual Hold', as it is known, has been BT/PO/GPO's way of doing
- busness for many years. I suspect what was happening in the case
- cited here was that the accused was continually calling 999. Someone
- got fed up with it, and held the call while the engineering staff
- traced it back. Even if the calls were made in the middle of the
- night, the circuit could be held indefinitely, such as until the
- engineering staff comes to work the next day.
-
- Incidentally, ANI, and hence itemised billing is not native to TXE4's
- - it's an after-market add-on unit. Touch tone, though, is a standard
- option.
-
-
- Martin Harriss
- martin@cellar.bae.bellcore.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: Annoying Cross Talk Problem, HELP!
- Date: 17 Sep 90 00:21:03 PDT (Mon)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 16 at 23:01, "W.L. Ware" <ccicpg!cci632!ritcsh!ulta.rit.
- edu!wlw2286@uunet.uu.net> writes:
-
- > I've got an annoying situation on my hands. All four of my incoming
- > phone lines suffer from intermittent cross talk. It seems to be worse
- > when it is wet outside, but that is definitely not always the case.
-
- First, disconnect the telco circuits at the point of demark. Using a
- buttset or telephone with clip leads dial up a silent line on one of
- the lines (or call someone and tell them to be very quiet), then make
- a call on another with your modem (such that it connects with another)
- and listen for crosstalk. Do this with all appropriate combinations of
- lines.
-
- If you hear no crosstalk, then you may have to rewire your home with
- twisted pair. The fact that you measure infinite resistance between
- conductors points to inductive or capacitive coupling between
- circuits, which is what twisted pair is designed to prevent. Cleaning
- up your "terminal" might help also, although the rat's nest in my
- garage has never caused any trouble.
-
- If you hear crosstalk on the naked telco circuits then get MA back out
- and demonstrate. If that doesn't work, you may be forced to use my
- patented "Ultimate Solution". Order four new lines. When they are in
- and working, have the old ones disconnected. Update numbers as
- desired. I have had to use this approach twice in the last thirty
- years.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 12:24:33 EDT
- From: Jeffrey C Halle <halle@homxb.att.com>
- Subject: Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing!
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- From article <12191@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
- (Jeff DePolo):
-
- > Having been using US Sprint from home (while still having AT&T at
- > work) since before US Telecom and GTE Sprint merged, I can honestly
- > say that their fiber optic network is second to none. If you make
-
- You mean the fiber network that they lease from AT&T? Virtually all
- noise in a line is due to the CO and the drop, i.e. the copper from
- the CO to the network interface at the building. The noise difference
- between the AT&T line at your office and the Sprint line at your home
- is due to Bell of PA equipment differences, not IEC differences.
- (I've heard U of PA phones; they're lousy even for local calls.)
-
-
- > Jeff DePolo N3HBZ Twisted Pair: (215) 386-7199
- > depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu RF: 146.685- 442.70+ 144.455s (Philadelphia)
- > University of Pennsylvania Carrier Pigeon: 420 S. 42nd St. Phila PA 19104
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #653
- ******************************
-
- IN ERROR ISSUE 655 WAS TRANSMITTED BEFORE 654. 654 WILL FOLLOW AFTER
- 655 HERE, THEN 656 WILL FOLLOW THAT, ETC.
-
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21135;
- 19 Sep 90 4:10 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa23445;
- 19 Sep 90 2:38 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa29613;
- 19 Sep 90 1:33 CDT
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 1:01:06 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #655
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009190101.ab18109@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Sep 90 01:00:55 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 655
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- NJ Bell Business Office Problems! [Lou Judice]
- 1+313 Needed Within 313 [Carl Moore]
- Call-Me Card [Mark Brader]
- N.J. Bell Directory Bug [George L. Sicherman]
- Bell Canada Restricts 976 [Mark Brader]
- N0X/N1X Prefixes [Carl Moore]
- West Virginia -- School and Calling Area [Carl Moore]
- That AT&T Fiji Commercial [Tom Lowe]
- How do PBXs & COCOTs Spot 7D Toll Calls? [Carl Moore]
- Sprint and Writing [Michael Gammal]
- Sprint Select, Sprint Express, and Sprint Crediting [Carol Springs]
- Sprint Whining (Was: Make Sprint Put it in Writing) [Kevin Blatter]
- Nynex Fast Track: Phone Directories on CD-ROM [Nigel Allen]
- Building Local Area Networks [Michael Andrews)
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 07:07:02 PDT
- From: "Lou Judice, 908-562-4103 17-Sep-1990 1000" <judice@sulaco.enet.dec.com>
- Subject: NJ Bell Business Office Problems!
-
-
- Egads! Last Wednesday, I tried to call the local NJ Bell Business
- Office serving my local exchange (Peapack, NJ). Whether dialing the
- 800-number, or the direct number, you received the following:
-
- Ring, Ring, Ring.
- Click.
- Ring.
- Human Voice: New Jersey Bell
- Click.
- Recorded Voice: Please wait for the next available
- operator.
- Hangup.
-
-
-
- I tried this several times on Wednesday. On Thursday I called the NJ
- Bell Operator. The operator, then her supervisor tried for over 15
- minutes to connect. No luck. The supervisor then said she would call
- repair service. I mentioned that in my humble opinion, it seemed like
- the call director at the business office was mis-programmed.
-
- On Friday - Same Problem. I called the operator again - still NO luck.
-
- Today is Monday. Same problem!!!!!!!!!!
-
- I envision a room of service representatives at the business office
- wondering why no one has called for the past four days.
-
-
- Louis J. Judice
- Digital Equipment Corp.
- Piscataway, NJ
- 908.562.4103
- judice@sulaco.enet.dec.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 10:49:21 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: 1+313 Needed Within 313
-
-
- "1 + 313" does appear for within-313-area toll calls in the Flint,
- Michigan directory this year.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mark Brader <msb@sq.com>
- Subject: Call-Me Card
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 1990 11:02:07 -0400
-
-
- An insert in the current Bell Canada phone bill introduces a new
- restricted Calling Card, called the Call-Me Card. Calls made on the
- Call-Me Card can be made to one number only, to which (I presume) the
- calls are then billed. In other words, it's automatic collect
- calling, but processed like Calling Card calls. The charge for use is
- the same as for Calling Card calls, thus cheaper than collect calls.
- It can be used for calls from Canada and the U.S. and "many Caribbean
- islands" and through Canada Direct. Obtaining the card is free.
-
- The examples given of who might want to use this card refer to family
- members. The subtext, not quite stated, is: family members who
- couldn't be trusted not to run up your long-distance bill if you gave
- them your Calling Card number.
-
-
- Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 11:11:05 EDT
- From: George L Sicherman <gls@odyssey.att.com>
- Subject: N.J. Bell directory bug
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- We recently got our 1990-1991 N. J. Bell directories at home (late, by
- mail). A N. J. Bell directory consists of white pages for a county or
- comparable area, and yellow pages and general information for a
- portion of that county. Our white pages are for Monmouth County, and
- they come with yellow pages for Asbury Park, Freehold, or Red Bank.
-
- The local calling information is supposed to match the yellow pages.
- We're in the Asbury Park yellow-pages district, so the local calling
- information in the front of our directory should cover the exchanges
- in the Asbury Park area. Last year it did. This year it covers the
- exchanges in the Red Bank area! Our exchange is absent.
-
- Has this problem been seen with other 1990-1991 N. J. Bell
- directories?
-
-
- Col. G. L. Sicherman gls@odyssey.att.COM
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mark Brader <msb@sq.com>
- Subject: Bell Canada Restricts 976
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 1990 10:50:22 -0400
-
-
- An insert in the current Bell Canada phone bill reads in part:
-
- # Effective August 24, 1990 Bell Canada customers will be able
- # to reach only Bell 976 Service programs within their area code.
- # Long distance calls to Bell 976 Service programs elsewhere
- # within Bell Canada territory -- for example, Ottawa to Montreal
- # -- will automatically be blocked.
- #
- # ... Bell filed the proposal to block long distance calls to 976
- # Service programs as a result of customer complaints over unauth-
- # orized calls. This restriction is meant to protect them from
- # unexpected long distance charge for 976 Service.
-
- Now, all of Bell Canada territory still has the rule that dialing only
- seven digits is equivalent to the call being local and therefore free.
- Long distance calls within the area code are dialed as 1+ seven
- digits, except in 416 where they are 1-416 + seven digits. Local
- calls to another area code are dialed as seven digits. So it is not
- possible here to dial a long distance call by accident here.
-
- Now, to be fair, I should note that because 976-number calls are not
- free, Bell Canada introduced the rule that dialing a 976-number within
- your area code is done like dialing a long-distance call within your
- area code, even though there may not actually be a long-distance
- charge in addition to the 976 charge. (I don't know if there ever is
- one.) So there may be some room for confusion about charging for 976.
- But blocking all long-distance calls to 976-numbers, just because some
- people weren't aware of the charging structure, strikes me as
- unreasonable.
-
- (This is not to say that I am in favor of the existence of 976-
- numbers in the first place, but that's another story.)
-
-
- Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 12:45:28 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: N0X/N1X Prefixes
-
-
- Joel B. Levin <levin@bbn.com> writes:
-
- >The first time I saw NXX exchanges in real application (Manhattan
- >telephone numbers in A.C. 212)"
-
- Apparently he did not have occasion to look up or call the U.S. west
- coast? Area 213 had N0X/N1X prefixes (starting in 1973) before area
- 212, which until 1984 covered all of New York City.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 12:54:46 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: West Virginia -- School and Calling Area
-
-
- I was in West Virginia myself recently, and heard of a case where a
- local calling area was expanded because of a problem involving a
- school. The Philip Barbour High School is on U.S. 250 between
- Belington (304-823) and Philippi (304-457). Calls between these 2
- prefixes used to be toll (that is beyond my memory), and the school
- had a Philippi number, resulting in a long distance call for students
- from areas served by Belington exchange.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: tel@cdsdb1.att.com
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 14:09 EDT
- Subject: That AT&T Fiji Commercial
-
-
- I just found out what is said in the much talked about AT&T FIJI
- commercial ... If it has been mentioned before, sorry.
-
- They say "Baku vinaka, beach side". Baku vinaka means "hello" in Figian.
-
- Tom Lowe
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 17:04:58 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: How do PBXs & COCOTs spot 7D toll calls?
-
-
- I don't know the answer to this question (see subject header),
- nor do I know how local calls requiring 1+NPA+7D are spotted.
-
- To review: more-than-7-digit local calls appear in the DC area (from
- 301-621 etc. to 301-569, plus those extended-area calls from Va.
- suburbs to Prince William area--these should reduce to 7 digits after
- the dust settles from NPA+7D scheme for inter- NPA local calls in DC
- area) and also in local calls from Pa. to Del., and in local calls
- across NPA lines in San Francisco and Los Angeles areas
- (California).
-
- Toll calls within a New Jersey NPA are 7 digits.
-
- (But I now stand corrected on toll calls within 313: those are
- 1+313+7D instead of 7D.)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Michael Gammal <gammal@cam.org>
- Subject: Sprint Won't Service Canadian Phones
- Organization: None
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 22:04:19 GMT
-
-
-
-
- I found this to be bothersome.
-
-
- I reside in both Canada and the US from time to time, and wanted to
- subscribe to Sprint. I dialed 1-800-877-4000 and asked to subscribe.
- They put me on hold for a moment then asked me for information (name,
- phone, address...etc). I gave them both my American and Canadian
- numbers, and as soon as the representative heard the Canadian number,
- he said "that's a Canadian number right?". So I said "yes" and then
- they became rude saying you can't sign up, you can't make calls from
- canada, and then hung up on me.
-
- Crazy service - trying to discourage me from signing up!
-
- This makes no sense at all. Don't they need customers?!
-
- - Annoyed to say the least -
-
-
- Michael Gammal Concordia University gammal@Altitude.CAM.ORG
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Carol Springs <drilex!carols@husc6.harvard.edu>
- Subject: Sprint Select, Sprint Express, and Sprint crediting
- Date: 17 Sep 90 23:23:45 GMT
- Organization: DRI/McGraw-Hill, Lexington, MA
-
-
- The insert in my Sprint bill this month contains a couple of items of
- interest. To quote from the first:
-
- Beginning October 1, US Sprint will offer Sprint Select
- Interstate Evening/Night/Weekend, a custom plan that
- charges a flat $8.10 a month for the first hour of
- interstate calling from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. and on
- weekends. Additional hours within that period are
- billed at $6.50 per hour, prorated per minute used.
-
- And with Sprint Select Interstate Evening/Night/Weekend,
- you'll receive a 10 percent discount off the regular
- Dial 1 service rates for your interstate daytime long-
- distance calling. Plus, you'll receive 5 percent off
- all direct-dial intrastate and international, as well as
- interstate FONCARD, calls....
-
- [I don't think this deal sounds like a win for me over
- Sprint Plus. My Sprint Plus rates are already in this
- price range, and it appears that I'd lose the volume
- discounts on my evening/night/weekend interstate Dial 1
- calls.]
-
- And also beginning October 1, we'll have a special option for our
- California customers called Sprint Select Intrastate
- Evening/Night/Weekend. You can select a plan that lets you pay a flat
- monthly rate of $7.90 for your first hour of in-state US
- Sprint-carried calls. National calls cost $6.50 an hour, prorated per
- minute used, and you can receive the same discounts for daytime Dial 1
- service and other direct dial calls as you do with Sprint Select
- Interstate.
-
- The other item I found interesting was about Sprint Express, Sprint's
- answer to AT&T's USA Direct. "You can charge your calls [from the six
- enumerated countries] to your FONCARD, call collect, or charge calls
- on your local telephone company calling card." Presumably this means
- that non-Sprint customers can use their AT&T cards, uh, local
- telephone company cards, with Sprint Express. A Sprint operator
- completes the call. The access numbers are as follows:
-
- Argentina 001-800-777-1111
- Australia 0014-881-877
- *
- France 19 0087
- Japan 0039-131
- Singapore 800-0877
- United Kingdom 0800-89-0877
-
- *
- Wait for tone
-
-
- Incidentally, I called Sprint customer service this evening to request
- credit for both a long distance directory assistance call and a
- one-minute call to the number D.A. had erroneously given me, which was
- not the number of the party I'd asked for. The Sprint rep said she
- could credit me for the one-minute call, but not for the call to
- directory assistance. When I asked why, she said that it was because
- directory assistance is handled by the local phone companies and that
- therefore I'd have to go through the company responsible to get the
- credit [fat chance]. Now, I can understand this denial of direct
- responsibility, but it makes me wonder: Does AT&T likewise refuse
- credit for directory assistance calls in these cases? How about MCI?
-
- Funny thing is, the Sprint rep said she was crediting me with both the
- 75-cent surcharge for the FONcard call and "78 cents for the first
- minute of your call." Now, I'd given her the number I'd reached, the
- call to which had cost only 87 cents including the surcharge. And
- I've made no daytime calls in the last couple of months for her to
- have mixed up with the cheapie call. Can you say "pacification"?
- (This was before I'd even asked about the reason for the "no D.A.
- credit" policy, and I never acted irritated during our conversation.)
- Or maybe she couldn't quickly find the call in question, and just took
- the daytime rate as a default.
-
- One final thing I noticed in both my bill insert and the bill itself:
- "Effective July 1, 1990, US Sprint discontinued monthly complimentary
- credits for interstate directory assistance." Thanks, folks.
-
-
- Carol Springs carols@drilex.dri.mgh.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 12:46:32 EDT
- From: Kevin Blatter <klb@pegasus.att.com>
- Subject: Sprint Whining (Was: Make Sprint Put it in Writing)
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- The other night while I was watching "Nightline" I observed Sprint's
- "Rebuttal" to AT&T's get "them" to put it in writing. This was the
- commercial which closes with "Lighten up AT&T".
-
- At first I thought, "what an interesting way to close a commercial?".
- AT&T has made fun of Sprints "so quite you can hear a pin drop" bit
- before, but I never thought we (as if I have anything to do with
- AT&T's advertising!!) were pointing the finger at Sprint with the new
- ad campaign.
-
- Anyway, I guess that Sprint feels as though AT&T is trying to capitalize on
- Sprint's recent misfortunes with making money (ie. record 2nd quarter losses).
- If this *is* the case, it is quite interesting since wasn't it Sprint who took
- the cheapshots last January with the "Only LD carrier never to have had a
- major outage" ad campaign.
-
-
- Kevin L. Blatter
- AT&T - Bell Laboratories
- Lincroft, NJ
-
- P.S. AT&T pays me to write software, not to write advertisements nor
- to share opinions in this forum. These opinions are my own.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 18:39 EDT
- From: Nigel Allen <ndallen@contact.uucp>
- Subject: Nynex Fast Track: Phone Directories on CD-ROM
- Organization: Contact Public Unix BBS. Toronto, Canada.
-
-
- Someone has already made posted an article here discussing Nynex's
- CD-ROMs containing telephone directory information for Nynex's
- operating companies, New York Telephone and New England Telephone.
-
- Nynex has produced a demonstration floppy disk to show off the
- capabilities of the Fast Trask CD-ROM. If you would like a free copy
- of the demo disk, call toll-free 1-800-338-0646, or write to:
-
- NYNEX Information Resources Company
- Attention: Fast Track
- P.O. Box 3518
- New York, N.Y. 10277
- Specify whether you want a 5.25" or 3.5" disk.
-
- Nigel Allen telephone (416) 535-8916
- 52 Manchester Avenue fax (416) 978-7552
- Toronto, Ontario M6G 1V3
- Canada
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 13:32 CDT
- From: "Michael P. Andrews" <mikea@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Building Local Area Networks
-
-
- New item submission by mikea@ddsw1 for conference comp.dcom.telecom.
-
- Response to item 4047\nThere's a chart in "Building Local Area
- Networks with Novell's Netware" by Patrick H. Corrigan and Aisling
- Guy. M&T Books, publisher. ISBN 1-55851-010- 9. The chart on page 236
- gives standard 25 pair and 50 pair connector numbers, wire color
- codes, and match-ups to standard 2-pair, 3-pair, and 4-pair RJ-??\
- harmonicas.
-
- If you're using Netware, I recommend the book highly for that information
- also.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #655
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11164;
- 19 Sep 90 23:43 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa28921;
- 19 Sep 90 21:47 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa19492;
- 19 Sep 90 20:43 CDT
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 20:31:58 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #654
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009192031.ab11986@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 Sep 90 23:55:00 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 654
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Telephone Humor at the Moderator's Expense [Christopher Ambler]
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Mike Olson]
- Re: Splitting Call Transmission Directions [Ihor J. Kinal]
- Re: Splitting Call Transmission Directions [Tom Gray]
- Re: Voice Mail Passwords [Jeff Carroll]
- Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords) [Jeff Carroll]
- Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing [Jeff DePolo]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar)
- Subject: Telephone Humour at the Moderator's Expense
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 8:8:37 GMT
-
-
- Our Moderator recently said...
-
- >>[Moderator's Note: I still don't think it is funny. I regard it as a
- >>major violation of trust.... PAT]
-
- >[Moderator's Note: Did you think it was funny at the time? Do you
- >still think it is funny? PAT]
-
- Come on, Pat, lighten up. It's going to happen. It happens in ALL
- areas. Some of the computer labs I have worked in DELIGHTED in
- sending messages to novice users' screens. Similarly to the phone
- incidents, there were times when we'd throw two terminals into ntalk
- with each other and watch the totally unaware users type at each
- other.
-
- Perhaps what is irking your squid is a bit more serious than this, but
- like I said, IT HAPPENS. It *IS* funny. Roll with it.
-
- Or another point ... is it funny when a subscriber pulls pranks on the
- phone company? How about the subscriber that records SIT tones and the
- "this number..." recording on a digital answering machine and drives
- an operator nutty? What about the hours of work tracing down the
- trouble in a perfectly working line?
-
- I guess my point is, do you expect this industry to be free from this
- sort of behaviour? I don't.
-
-
- Christopher(); --- cambler@polyslo.calpoly.edu --- chris@fubarsys.slo.ca.us
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mike Olson <mao@postgres.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 07:53:08 PDT
-
-
- In <12247@accuvax.nwu.edu>, kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman)
- writes:
-
- > Humor is a very subjective concept. Almost every industry,
- > profession and vocation has inside humor and humorous escapades which
- > would be abhorrent to the general public if disclosed.
-
- Perhaps, but the law is far from subjective on this point. The
- activities you describe are illegal. If you listen in on a private
- communication for any other reason than verifying that line quality is
- acceptable, you are breaking the law.
-
- > ... Such antics will always occur because of *human* nature.
-
- So what's the point? Does that excuse the blatant disregard for
- privacy?
-
- > I have to admit that *I* found humor in the previous article.
- > I must also admit that as a one time member of a secret fraternity
- > known as The Telephone Company :-), I, too, have participated in
- > similar antics.
-
- About the nicest thing I can think of to say here is that you must
- have been pretty immature to find it amusing to play practical jokes
- on people bereaved by the death of a loved one. The fact that you're
- willing to boast about it now indicates that you haven't made a lot of
- progress since then.
-
-
- Mike Olson
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 10:06:57 EDT
- From: Ihor J Kinal <ijk@violin.att.com>
- Subject: Re: Splitting Call Transmission Directions
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- Larry Lippman wrote:
-
- > Also, I can think of no valid reason to split E-W and W-E
- > routing between different transmission facilities. *ALL* transmission
- > facilities used for intertoll circuits are, by their very nature,
- > bi-directional. While I have seen all sorts of route diversity and
- > failure protection switching, I have never seen anything that split
- > transmission directions through different facilities.
-
- The way I remember this, the reason that a split was put into effect
- was excessive delay on satellite calls. Remember that the satellites
- are at approx 22,000 miles up. Double that, and it means that we need
- approx a quarter of a second to traverse in ONE direction. [Speed of
- light = 186,000 m.p.s.].
-
- If both sides went over satellite, that would mean a half-second of
- extra delay from when one person stopped talking, until the next
- person could possibly reply. This much delay would then then cause
- the original person to start talking again, to see if the distant
- party was still there, leading to great confusion.
-
-
- Ihor Kinal
- att!cbnewsh!ijk
-
- [Include standard disclaimers and although I work at Bell Labs, I
- never did any work satellite communications - I'm just a software
- person anyway.]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tom Gray <mitel!spock!grayt@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Splitting Call Transmission Directions
- Date: 18 Sep 90 16:51:43 GMT
- Reply-To: Tom Gray <mitel!halligan!grayt@uunet.uu.net>
- Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada.
-
-
- In article <12220@accuvax.nwu.edu> kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry
- Lippman) writes:
- X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 651, Message 4 of 9
-
- >In article <11532@accuvax.nwu.edu> dolf@idca.tds.philips.nl (Dolf
- >Grunbauer) writes:
-
- >> I always assumed that when making a telephone call the line to the
- >> otherside is the same the line back from him to me. The other day
- >> someone told me that this is not the case, especially when making a
- >> international phone call. According to him it is possible that for
- >> example when calling from Europe to the USA one line could use a
- >> satellite connection while the other could use a transatlantic cable.
- >> Is this true?
-
- >Unless echo suppressors have become *much* more sophisticated
- >than those with which I was once familiar, I would be surprised if
- >such vastly different propagation paths could be used on the E-W and
- >W-E directions of a given intertoll circuit.
-
- Echo suppressors have been succeeded by echo cancellers and differing
- W-E and E-W paths are used in the network.
-
- >Control of echo on intertoll circuits can be implemented by
- >simple attenuation in the trivial case, and voice-switched attenuation
- >through echo suppressors in the more common case. The proper design
- >of intertoll circuits, including configuration of echo suppressors, is
- >governed by the Via Net Loss (VNL) concept. VNL design requires
- >knowledge of propagation delay in milliseconds. At the time I was
- >involved in the telephone industry, the VNL design with which I was
- >familiar imposed a maximum of 22.5 milliseconds propagation delay to a
- >DDD switching midpoint, with an maximum overall delay of 45
- >milliseconds on any given DDD circuit. It was always a "given" that
- >VNL design required the same propagation delay in each direction.
-
- The control of echo is given by the requirement of the echo path delay
- which is the ROUND TRIP delay of a connection. For echo it doesn't
- matter if one path has longer dealy than the other only the total
- delay is important. The delay ind thus loss for different frequencies
- is of course different and thus a measure called the Weighted Echo
- Path Loss is generated.
-
- WEPL = -20log (1/3200 Integral 200 to 3400 (10**-EPL(f)/20) df
-
- From this measure the required loss around the loop may be derived
- from curves of subjective measurements. This may be partitioned in
- any manner on transmit and receive paths with no effect on the
- perception of echo.
-
- The VNL plan has been superseded in the digital network by the fixed
- loss plan since the VNL assumed losses in trunks that do not occur in
- digital trunks. Rather than place digital pads in the network (and
- ruin transmission) appropriate analog pads are used at the end points.
-
- >While I admit that I have no firsthand experience with
- >intertoll circuits involving satellites or transoceanic cable, I would
- >find it difficult to believe that any satisfactory transmission (and
- >echo) performance could be achieved with the E-W and W-E directions
- >that have widely *differing* propagation times.
-
- Separating the transmit and receive paths between terrestrial and
- satellite paths lowers the echo path delay (round trip delay) and
- lowers the requirements on the echo cancellers. Such split path trunks
- are used.
-
- >Obviously, satellite transmission by its very nature imposes
- >propagation delays which far exceed 45 milliseconds. However, echo
- >suppressors and intertoll circuit design can be set up to deal with
- >such increased propagation delays - *provided* that the delay is equal
- >in each direction.
-
- The allocation of delay to tranmit and receive paths is unimportant
- Only the round trip (echo path) delay is perceptible to the user.
-
- >I have never seen anything that split transmission directions
- >through different facilities.
-
- Such facilities do exist.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jeff Carroll <bcsaic!carroll@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
- Subject: Re: Voice Mail Passwords
- Date: 17 Sep 90 21:28:02 GMT
- Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
-
-
- In article <12066@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- writes:
-
- (Advocacy of POS terminal transactions)
-
- >Get used to ATM-style transactions. It's a happening thing.
-
- Another concern about POS terminals and ATMs which is related
- to security is the question of whether the ATM card constitutes the
- Mark of the Beast. :^)
-
- Followups to talk.religion.misc (or alt.flame).
-
- Jeff Carroll
- carroll@atc.boeing.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jeff Carroll <bcsaic!carroll@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords)
- Date: 17 Sep 90 21:22:54 GMT
- Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
-
-
- In article <12065@accuvax.nwu.edu> phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip
- Miller) writes:
-
- >In article <12026@accuvax.nwu.edu> Dave Speed <dspeed@well.uucp>
- >writes:
-
- >>On a similar note, our local <Sacramento, CA> grocery chain has
- >>installed pseudo ATM's for banking from the checkout line. Perhaps I'm
- >>paranoid, but I don't see any advantage (to *me*) in giving the
- >>merchant my bank number and PIN. Am I being silly?
-
- I asked myself the same question the other night when I bought
- gas at an Arco station in a fairly unsavory part of town (not far from
- my office :^) ). Since the POS terminal asks you whether you want a
- receipt, I pushed "yes" and walked into the station, as directed by
- the machine. The rather harried clerk looked at me, surmised since I
- was standing outside the turnstile that I was a POS customer waiting
- for a receipt, and then took a *long* piece of cash register tape into
- his hand. In addition to gas receipts from the POS terminal, this tape
- was printing receipts for every Pepsi and Hostess Twinkie passing
- through the cash register. After a few seconds of puzzling over the
- tape, the clerk asked me which pump I used, and more puzzling ensued
- until the printer started growling again. Clerk: "Oh, here it is.".
-
- He ripped the tape from the printer, removed the piece of the
- tape containing my receipt, and (presumably) threw the rest away. I
- checked the tape - it did not contain my PIN.
-
- I've concluded that if the PIN *does* find its way into
- Atlantic Richfield's network, it's not likely to do so in such a form
- as to become archived anywhere. What legal purpose could be served by
- such a database?
-
- >Well, this gets a bit far from Telecom, but there are several potential
- >advantages to the consumer from this type of arrangement:
-
- >For certain types of checking accounts from some banks, this type of
- >transaction may be free, while writing a check is not.
-
- Or, in this case, writing a check is impossible (would be free
- if the gas station accepted checks), and this type of transaction is
- not (Arco charges $0.10 transaction fee). To me the advantage is
- merely not having to stand in line behind a bunch of people buying
- cigarettes, pseudo-hot dogs, and Ho-Hos.
-
- (stuff excised)
-
- >The proliferation of ATM terminals and retail stores using ATM type
- >cards seems to be particularly popular in urban areas, but seems to be
- >much less popular in small town America. Now this may be because of
- >attitude differences, but I have assumed that much of it is also due
- >to the fact that connecting the terminal to necessary host equipment
- >is also considerably more expensive and thus the amount of traffic for
- >a particular location would need to be much higher for a rural
- >location than an urban one. Can someone knowledgeable describe the
- >typical type of connections utilized by ATM equipment (both stand
- >alone and in conjunction with a point of sale terminal)?
-
- I would assume that the functional differences between an ATM
- and a POS terminal would be embedded in the terminals themselves.
-
- Both use plain ole asynchronous modems (usually hidden where
- you can't see them, but sometimes where you can see them but can't get
- at them. The usual scheme (I believe) is that the ATM dials up a
- central site which multiplexes several signals and connects to the
- network's central mainframe (often via satellite link).
-
- It may not be cost effective to run ATMs in locations that are
- far removed from the central site of a bank/retailer which uses land
- lines, but even in remote localities it would be easy for large
- retailers who already have satellite networks in place (e.g., Safeway,
- which distributes its own background music via satellite to a downlink
- in each store, at least in this part of the country) to have ATMs and
- POS terminals.
-
- The parts of "small-town America" which I frequent are well
- populated with them.
-
- Jeff Carroll
- carroll@atc.boeing.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jeff DePolo <depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu>
- Subject: Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing!
- Date: 18 Sep 90 13:50:11 GMT
- Reply-To: Jeff DePolo <depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu>
- Organization: University of Pennsylvania
-
-
- In article <12255@accuvax.nwu.edu> halle@homxb.att.com (Jeffrey C
- Halle) writes:
-
- > From article <12191@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
- >(Jeff DePolo):
-
- >> Having been using US Sprint from home (while still having AT&T at
- >> work) since before US Telecom and GTE Sprint merged, I can honestly
- >> say that their fiber optic network is second to none. If you make
-
- >You mean the fiber network that they lease from AT&T? Virtually all
- >noise in a line is due to the CO and the drop, i.e. the copper from
- >the CO to the network interface at the building. The noise difference
- >between the AT&T line at your office and the Sprint line at your home
- >is due to Bell of PA equipment differences, not IEC differences.
- >(I've heard U of PA phones; they're lousy even for local calls.)
-
- I strongly disagree. If I use my USS calling card from the office,
- noise is greatly reduced. Some of the other LD carriers heavily rely
- on satellites (MCI purchased Satellite Business Systems, owners of
- "Skyline"). These, I admit, are worse than AT&T. I remember having
- Skyline before they were bought by MCI and echoing was a problem.
- Also, at times, the connection was half duplex - you couldn't
- interrupt the person on the other end while they were talking. But
- still, anything other than fiber optic for a long haul will typically
- have a lower S/N ratio, in reality. Theoretically, if all of the
- microwave links/ hard wire/satellite equipment was up to spec, there
- shouldn't be much difference between fo and the old mediums. But this
- isn't the case.
-
- BTW, all of U of P is on its own campus-wide system known as Penntrex,
- and isn't maintained, wired, or supported by Bell of PA.
-
- A second BTW, I lived on campus for two years and never had local line
- noise problems when using USS.
-
- Basically the argument boils down to this: overall, all of the LD
- carriers still have to use Ma Bell local lines at the ends of the
- connection, so whoever has the highest quality _between_ regions wins
- the prize. Local telco noise is common to everyone, so it has nothing
- to do with the argument regarding which service has the cleanest
- audio.
-
-
- Jeff DePolo N3HBZ Twisted Pair: (215) 386-7199
- depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu RF: 146.685- 442.70+ 144.455s (Philadelphia)
- University of Pennsylvania Carrier Pigeon: 420 S. 42nd St. Phila PA 19104
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #654
- ******************************
-
- IN ERROR ISSUE 655 WAS TRANSMITTED BEFORE 654 AND APPEARS BEFORE 654
- IN THIS ARCHIVES. 656 FOLLOWS NEXT HERE.
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12022;
- 20 Sep 90 0:32 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa11628;
- 19 Sep 90 22:50 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab28921;
- 19 Sep 90 21:47 CDT
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 21:40:32 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #656
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009192140.ab23321@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Sep 90 21:40:16 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 656
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: 900 Number Woes [Donald E. Kimberlin
- Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines [Rolf Meier]
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Gregory G. Woodbury]
- Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin [Jon Baker]
- Re: Annoying Cross Talk Problem, HELP! [Isaac Rabinovitch]
- Re: New Whizz-Bang Phone! [Dan Ross]
- Re: Octothorpes [Dave Archer]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [David Tamkin]
- Re: MCI As Slamming King [Jon Baker]
- Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony [Jon Baker]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 17:33 EST
- From: "Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL
- Subject: Re: 900 Number Woes
-
-
- In article <Digest v10,Iss647>, Larry quoted an interesting report
- from the {Cincinnati Post} about how a 15-year-old boy ran up a
- $40,500 bill between June 30 and August 22 on an MCI 900 number.
-
- While I favor no "free speech rights" for purveyors of slime by
- telephone, there was something that just seemed strange in the
- numbers:
-
- The time period described is 54 days long. If the calls were $25
- minimum each, that amount would have bought 1,620 calls. In 54 days,
- it would have taken 30 calls EACH day, 7 days a week to run up that
- bill.
-
- Again, while I hold no excelsior banner for MCI or Cincinnati Bell,
- that amount of usage by a teenager seems to me it should have raised
- parental interest.
-
- I think there's more to this story than was printed and we do have an
- issue of parental responsibility to investigate before jumping to
- conclusions.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Rolf Meier <mitel!spock!meier@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines (was: Hostile Service Person!)
- Date: 18 Sep 90 14:02:08 GMT
- Reply-To: Rolf Meier <mitel!healey!meier@uunet.uu.net>
- Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada.
-
-
- >Sounds like you met one of the remaining "telco gents of the Olde
- >School," Bill. One of those types who really cares FAR less for making
- >the customer happy than pushing his weight around. (Of course, he's
- >probably a pretty responsible guy with a family who has been made that
- >way by HIS bosses, but that's beside the point. I just wanted to make
- >the point that he is a type, and not all that unusual.) His
- >_modus_operandi_ runs along a classic line.
-
- >The problem is that line contains a lie that he uses to avoid doing
- >about these petty flim-flams they get subjected to daily?)
-
- >(You rotten abuser of the "telephone network, you!)
-
- Look, the real reason the telephone companies don't like you using a
- "voice" line for "data" is the different traffic characteristics.
-
- Why do you think a data line is a ripoff? A typical data call lasts a
- lot longer than voice calls. This means that the Telco has to supply
- more call paths in order to maintain the same grade of service. This
- costs them money. It is only fair that the users of data lines pay
- the extra.
-
- You can argue that "but MY data calls are ALWAYS short, and I talk for
- HOURS"; unfortunately the rates are not figured like that right now.
- In the future, when you will be paying for bandwidth x connect time,
- you may be satisfied that the rates are "fair".
-
-
- Rolf Meier Mitel Corporation
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Gregory G. Woodbury" <ggw%wolves@cs.duke.edu>
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
- Organization: Wolves Den UNIX and Usenet node
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 14:31:03 GMT
-
-
- In <12247@accuvax.nwu.edu> kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman)
- writes:
-
- >Like crossing the numbers of a small meat packing-freezer plant
- >with the major undertaking establishment in the city.
-
- >[Moderator's Note: Isn't that marvelous! So there has been a death in
- >someone's family; it is a time of grief; they call to make funeral
- >arrangements and wind up getting the meat processing plant. You must
- >have really split your pants open with laughter at that one. PAT]
-
- Oh get off it Pat. Your holier than thou attitude in relation to the
- telco antics issue is getting old. Just because you didn't think of
- it or get a chance to do it is no reason to be a puritan and deny
- others their own enjoyment of a situation. I am willing to bet that
- you are not spotlessly clean in terms of abusive humor.
-
-
- Gregory G. Woodbury @ The Wolves Den UNIX, Durham NC
- UUCP: ...dukcds!wolves!ggw ...mcnc!wolves!ggw [use the maps!]
- Domain: ggw@cds.duke.edu ggw%wolves@mcnc.mcnc.org
- <standard disclaimers apply>
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jon Baker <asuvax!mothra!bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu>
- Subject: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
- Date: 18 Sep 90 17:07:53 GMT
- Organization: gte
-
-
- In article <12125@accuvax.nwu.edu>, eli@pws.bull.com (Steve Elias) writes:
-
- > My gripe with the local telcos is their obnoxious instate long
- > distance rates.
-
- Perhaps a technical nitpick, but it's 'intra-lata', not 'intra-state'.
- In smaller eastern states, it may be the case that lata=state, but
- this is not the case in the west. e.g. a Phoenix-Tucson call is not
- handled by USWest.
-
- > luckily, these can usually be avoided by strategic use of long
- > distance carriers for in state long distance calls.
-
- I've found that only AT&T is diligent about blocking intra-lata calls.
- Using LD carriers for intra-lata (although they're not supposed to do
- this) is good method of obtaining better quality transmission or
- better rates (depending on the carrier, quality of trunks from US West
- to the carrier, etc.).
-
-
- JB
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Isaac Rabinovitch <claris!netcom!ergo@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
- Subject: Re: Annoying Cross Talk Problem, HELP!
- Date: 18 Sep 90 17:48:06 GMT
- Reply-To: claris!netcom!ergo@ames.arc.nasa.gov
- Organization: UESPA
-
-
- I'm no telecom expert, but I've experience with a cause of crosstalk
- that nobody seems to have thought of. It affected a bunch of
- residential lines that had just been installed. Turned out (according
- to the guy who finally fixed it) that all the affected phone lines hat
- been connected to various cable wires (go ahead and flame me, I'd like
- to know the correct terminology) without reference to which twisted
- pair each individual wire belonged to.
-
- Incidentally, this was pre-breakup, and the battle between the
- California PUC and Pacific Telephone (90% owned by AT&T) was still
- going strong. I was told that the reason for the initial problem was
- inadequate training/apprenticship for the workers who made the initial
- mistake and failed to diagnose the problem (or couldn't even find my
- house!). It seems likely to me now that the PUC's rate policy was
- determined more by an anti-big business mentality than realistic
- economics. I'm no lover of big business (especially AT&T!) myself,
- but this experience raised my kneejerk reflex threshold somewhat.
-
-
- ergo@netcom.uucp Isaac Rabinovitch
- {apple,amdahl,claris}!netcom!ergo Silicon Valley, CA
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dan Ross <dross@cambizola.cs.wisc.edu>
- Subject: Re: New Whizz-Bang Phone!
- Date: 18 Sep 90 20:58:22 GMT
- Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
-
-
- There is a similar phone (voice-activated dialing of pre-entered
- numbers) in the "Damark" catalog of technological wonders. I gave my
- catalog away, so I don't have the info, but I remember it had an LCD
- display, and was available for "substantially below list price".
-
-
- Dan Ross dross@cs.wisc.edu ..!uwvax!dross
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Archer <v116kznd@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu>
- Subject: Re: Octothorpes
- Date: 19 Sep 90 00:43:23 GMT
- Reply-To: v116kznd@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu
- Organization: University at Buffalo
-
-
- In article <12267@accuvax.nwu.edu>, wiml@milton.u.washington.edu
- (William Lewis) writes...
-
- >the other buttons? On a related question, is there any "standard" for
- >what the * and # buttons do on pulse-dial phones? Mute and redial are
- >(respectively) fairly common in my experience, how widespread is this?
- >Maybe sending 11 and 12 pulses would be more consistent, if less
- >useful =8)
-
- I've got a pulse/tone switchable phone that uses * for mute and # for
- redial. It does mute/redial regardless of whether you're in pulse or
- tone mode, which of course means, you can't send a * or # in tone.
- What bothers me about it is that they still have the buttons labeled
- as * and #.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 14:11:48 CDT
-
-
- John Higdon wrote in volume 10, issue 643:
-
- | So how 'bout it? From all accounts MCI does seem to be the slamming
- | king. I have, on several occasions, had to "clean off" MCI as the
- | default carrier on some of my clients' trunks. Associates of mine
- | report the same. So while Sprint is exhorting potential customers to
- | switch from AT&T, MCI is doing it for them whether they like it or
- | not.
-
- Last autumn I regaled the Digest's readership with the story of how
- MCI slammed my parents and tried to slam me. I opened a 10XXX-only
- account with them and put my two lines and their two lines on it.
- Some overeager clerk decided to code it for 1+ service and they kept
- trying to switch us. [For details, consult Digests in volume 9.]
-
- My parents' telco is Illinois Bell; they dutifully obeyed MCI's order
- ("Yes, it was MCI who told us, not you, but they wouldn't lie.") and
- switched my parents' 1+ to MCI and charged them $5.00 per line for the
- honor. Central Telephone, on the other hand, called me to confirm
- (and called again when MCI told them again) and I said no, no way, I'm
- sticking with Telecom*USA, and I'll be the one to say so if there are
- to be any changes. IBT got earfuls from my mother and from me and
- switched my parents' lines back to AT&T, credited them for the fee for
- the first switch to MCI, and didn't charge for returning them to AT&T.
- Centel told me they fully understood my position and that that was why
- they had a policy of checking with the customer rather than acting on
- a third party's greed, so they never had to make any changes, undo any
- changes already made, or bill and credit any charges.
-
- In our case it was the IEC's own sleaziness; frequently, an IEC hires
- some marketing firm, who dutifully report that 100% of all customers
- called are eager, eager, eager to switch, and no one at the IEC, since
- they have the marketer's report to get them out of trouble ("We didn't
- lie to your telco! It was the marketer who lied to us, see?"), is
- willing to admit that the results are a bit hard to believe. The IEC
- then cheerily repeats the marketer's lies to the telqi.
-
- The telqi could learn not to listen to the IEC's but only to the
- customers, and that would instantly end slamming, though I feel that
- it's the IEC's who should be held responsible when it occurs. Still,
- I notice the difference between the two telqi: the BOC decides that a
- colleague in the industry knows what is best for the customer, but the
- independent is interested in what the customer wants.
-
- On the other hand, the sales rep at Cable & Wireless told me that if I
- decide to switch, she will three-way with me and Central Telephone at
- C&W's expense so that all three parties will know that the transaction
- is on the up-and-up. I wonder whether they learned from other IECs'
- experiences or their own. (One of C&W's requirements is that at least
- one number on the account have them as primary carrier, so the policy
- might also stem from their own interest in seeing that the customer
- follows through on a promise to notify the telco to switch the line.)
-
- On another note, in volume 10, issue 644 (the real one), Jerry Altzman
- quoted an old OGM of his:
-
- | "Hello, this is the law offices of Hillel and Shammai. Please leave
- | your name, number and brief message at the beep. These are the words
- | of Hillel. Shammai says, leave your message first, and then your name
- | and number, but both are the words of the living God."
-
- | (Hillel and Shammai were Rabbis who almost always disagreed.)
-
- That doesn't sit right. Shammai would never say to leave your message
- first and then your name, making the recipient rely on the hope of
- recognizing your voice to know how to interpret the message (the same
- words, such as references to children and spouses and employers, will
- mean different things from different people).
-
- No, Shammai would have said to leave your name first, then your number
- to complete the frame of reference and background information, and
- then your message. Hillel would have said, since messages are easier
- to remember than telephone numbers, leave your name first, then your
- message, and then a number at which you can be reached LAST so that it
- will be freshest in the listener's memory, unobscured by surprises in
- the message, in case the listener wishes to dial right away or cannot
- write it down. But this is valid, and that is valid.
-
- Follow-ups on the Hillel/Shammai answering machine debate to soc.-
- culture.jewish, but wait until Chol Hammo`ed Sukkoth so that people
- will be in a Simchat Torah mood. Shnat brakhah v'hatzlachah.
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
-
- Moderator's Note: Holiday greetings to you, David, and our other
- Jewish participants on the net. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jon Baker <asuvax!mothra!bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu>
- Subject: Re: MCI As Slamming King
- Date: 18 Sep 90 17:20:46 GMT
- Organization: gte
-
-
- In article <12217@accuvax.nwu.edu>, v116kznd@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu
- (Dave Archer) writes:
-
- > I've wondered if any of this has anything to do with telemarketers
- > hired by the LD companies imposing quotas on their employees. Such
- > as, "if you don't get 10 people an hour to switch over, you're out of
- > a job". This might explain alot. And as far as MCI, it could just be
- > they don't keep as close a watch on their telemarketers as the other
- > companys do.
-
- According to the WSJ report, MCI was not using outside telemarketers;
- the agents were employees of MCI. Quotas were imposed by MCI HQ.
- Unfortunately, the persons responsible for monitoring the marketers
- and reporting such behavior were working for the same management
- responsible for the quotas.
-
- The tactic was directed primarily at the elderly, hard-of-hearing, and
- non-english speaking victims. Although MCI led the pack in slamming
- complaints (both to FCC, and to local telops), Sprint was not far
- behind, and a few complaints were registered against AT&T as well.
- The practice is growing to epidemic proportions, and is becoming a
- major concern for the telops. It costs them time/money to deal with
- the flood of customer complaint, of a problem which they can legally
- do nothing to stop. It would also be expensive if all default-carrier
- conversions were accompanied by paperwork which had to be processed by
- the telop. They seem to be stuck in a no-win situation. Perhaps
- AT&T's lawsuit will deter the practice in the future. MCI HQ claims
- to be making management and policy changes, and increased efforts to
- monitor/stop slamming by their telemarketers.
-
-
- JB
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jon Baker <asuvax!mothra!bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu>
- Subject: Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony
- Date: 18 Sep 90 22:23:27 GMT
- Organization: gte
-
-
- > [Moderator's Note: The fact that some employees of AT&T in the past
- > acted like jerks is not a sufficient reason to have broken them up,
- > that's for sure. PAT]
-
- Sure it is. Such behavior is the lowest-level manifestation of what
- 'the company' had become. Directly or indirectly, this activity was
- representative of the company's attitude and philosophy - the overall
- AT&T gestalt, if you will.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Then we disagree on the extent of the 'jerk-ism',
- and its prevalence in the old Bell System. My experience was that the
- fools there were only a very small percentage of the total work force.
- Most of the people were hard workers, dedicated to the welfare of the
- customers. As my former neighbor here in Rogers Park, Charlie Brown,
- former Chairman of AT&T, once said, (speaking of MCI) "When's the last
- time *they* had a couple of their men working working in the mountains
- of Montana in January accidentally fall off a cliff and kill
- themselves in the line of duty while trying to restore phone service
- to a community which had lost all its links in a severe storm the day
- before?" And *that* to me is what the old Bell System was about:
- people who cared, and got the job done right. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #656
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12898;
- 20 Sep 90 1:26 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa15987;
- 19 Sep 90 23:54 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab11628;
- 19 Sep 90 22:51 CDT
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 22:21:00 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #657
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009192221.ab22379@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Sep 90 22:20:54 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 657
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Answering Machine Messages [Douglas Scott Reuben]
- Re: Answering Machine Messages [David Lesher]
- Re: Answering Machine Messages [Barton F. Bruce]
- Answering Machine Messages and SIT [Amanda Walker]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: 19-SEP-1990 03:33:09.46
- From: "DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)" <DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine Messages
-
-
- Pat-
-
- While I agree with you that making use of a Telco recording MAY
- rightfully get you in trouble with said Telco due to false
- representation, I find it hard to believe that the tariff(s) which
- specify degradation of service were intended towards callers leaving
- "confusing" outgoing messages.
-
- For example, what if I had an Outgoing Message (OGM) on my machine
- that said: "We're sorry, the number you have reached is being checked
- for trouble. Please try your call again later. Thank you. 508-221."
- Now this may SOUND like a NETel recording, yet nowhere is NETel
- mentioned, and NO reference is made to the phone company at all.
- Simply because something SOUNDS similar doesn't mean it is the same
- thing, and in this case the entire OGM can be quite "legitimate" (ie,
- everything said in there is true, as I may be checking the phone for
- trouble and using the machine for my own purposes to see if I can call
- in or not, and I don't want anyone else to call.) It may very well
- sound a LOT like a NETel recording, but as long as I don't mention
- "NETel" or the "phone company" etc., ie, I don't try to pass my number
- off as one of theirs, then I doubt they can legally do anything about
- it.
-
- If you insist that they CAN do something about a message like this,
- then where do we draw the line? Must I put a disclaimer in ANY message
- which sounds SOMEWHAT similar to the Telco's saying "This is not XXX
- Bell Co., but my own message!"? That is to say, if I had a carphone
- set *71 (no answer transfer) to my answering machine, and the OGM
- said: "The mobile customer you have reached is not in the vehicle.
- Please call 702-741-7626. Thank you. 415-3E.", can the telco tell me
- to get rid of that message? If your argument is followed to its
- conclusion, the answer seems to be "yes, they can." For example,
- someone calls my car number, hears that I am not in, and then calls
- 702-741-7626. The caller gets a dial tone (from the ROAM port). The
- caller hangs up, and dials again. Same thing. After 10 calls, the
- caller calls Directory Assistance in 702 and asks for me. No listing.
- The caller then calls the operator, who if she isn't aware that "7626"
- is a Roam port and/or it doesn't show on her screen (which HAS
- happened - I've managed to make COLLECT call attempts to Roam ports a
- few years ago!), will keep trying to get a non-dial tone answer, may
- talk to her supervisor, and may then put in a trouble report.
-
- Clearly, a LOT of time is taken up. And one could argue that I SHOULD
- have said "Hi, I'm not around now ... if you are calling my mobile #,
- try calling me at the Reno Roam port, 702-741-7626. Thanks. 415-3E.".
-
- Yet what if that one answering machine served a group of mobile
- phones, and we all wanted the same generic OGM? Then what? Do we have
- to structure OUR OGM so that it is acceptable to the phone company?
- How innocuous does a message have to get before no "disclaimer" is
- necessary? I can think of numerous other OGMs that would cause similar
- trouble. How about my brother, who sometimes has 30 seconds of a
- guitar solo on his OGM? Too confusing? Too many people will call
- operators asking "Why am I getting KZAP-FM on my phone line?".
-
- Or how about some of my old college roomates, who were too busy to
- leave a message and just left the OGM blank, and had an answering
- machine that picked up so quickly sometimes you wouldn't even hear a
- ring? What if someone called and claimed "I called 346-9999 and no one
- answered and nothing happened at all." Should the Telco then call my
- roomates and say "Look, we don't like your answering machine because
- it picks up too quickly, and for that matter, we don't like the lack
- of a message on your machine - put one on there or we will bother
- you."
-
- And while I'm at it, what if my phone line is used as a data line for
- five days out of a week? Now lots of people try to call me during the
- week, but they keep getting this busy signal. So one guy who thinks he
- is particularly clever calls the operator and asks for a
- "Verification" (which is free in my area.) The op. tests the line,
- says "It's in use", and hangs up. But the guy is very curious, so he
- does this every day until he can get through - AND, he goes to
- payphones each time so that the telco never knows it is really the
- same person calling. Should the telco be able to tell me: "Hey, this
- guy keeps calling you, and your line is always busy, and he is
- bothering our operators,so we don't want you using the phone line so
- much so that he can get through!"? Of course not! I am using my phone
- for a legitimate purpose, and although the telco derives no revenue
- from my usage (let's say it's a local call), it is certainly not my
- fault that someone keeps calling the operators for a verification
- every day.
-
- Moreover, this is analogous to the answering machine situation: I have
- a message which creates some confusion, so people call the operators
- all the time, and this takes up the operators' time. SO WHAT? The
- Telco is getting revenue from the calls to my machine, and I am in
- good faith leaving messages which *I* like to leave and which in no
- way represent myself as an agent of the Telco. I am not trying to hurt
- the telco, and I am using my phone line in the way which I see fit,
- which doesn't actively cause trouble for anyone.
-
- Although the tariff may indeed have implications for customers who
- cause harm to the network (such as using line current to charge
- batteries! :-)), I doubt that it was the intent of those who drafted
- the tariff to prevent customers from leaving ambiguous or confusing
- messages. Although an OGM may cause a higher degree of use of telco
- faclities than would have otherwise been necessary, this is one of the
- costs of being in the phone business, the same way that not EVERY
- phone will be answered when it is called, wasting Telco (and possibly
- LD) facilities on the attempt.
-
- The intent of the tariff more probably lies in efforts to reduce the
- use of non-Bell or non FCC certified equipment which the telco
- previously feared would damage the network, to reduce the amount of
- fraud committed by use of Telco facilites, to prevent customers from
- using their lines to annoy other customers or to make it impossible or
- more difficult for other customers to use their line(s) (as in a prty
- line), etc.
-
- Rather than put the burden of having an "acceptable" message on the
- customer, it seems more realistic to expect the Telco to have people
- well qualified enough to realize that they are getting a machine, and
- can thus inform the customer. Simply because some customers are too
- stupid to try to figure it out for themselves, or some operators too
- lazy to listen to see what happens at the end of the message (or
- whatever else..these are only examples) doesn't validate the phone
- company in trying to prevent me from leaving whatever message I
- choose, as long as I don't pass myself off as being their agent.
-
- As noted above, there are so many other examples of instances where
- the Telco's time is "wasted", that singling out answering machines and
- allowing the telco to control the content of my OGM defies logic. If
- they can't tell me to stop using my phone/keeping the line busy, why
- should they be able to tell me that they don't like my message and I
- have to remove it? Both circumstances may cause the Telco a lot of
- trouble, yet simply ecuase it is the EASIEST thing for the telco to do
- doesn't mean it is the right thing, and pesonally, I don't like the
- idea of the Telco being able to censor or control the content of my
- messages when it only tangentally may affect them.
-
- Thus, I would say that since the message "<ALERT TONES> The number you
- have reached XXX-XXXX is not in service." is not specific to the Bells
- (Bell Canada uses it, as well as other telcos around the world, BT for
- example...), one could have such a message on their line and not
- violate any specific tariffs. As long as the Alert Tones and the
- message were not copies of a Bell recording (ie, you made them up
- yourself or something) I can't see how Bell could get you on the
- tariffs issue ... they may be able to on "impersonating the telco", but
- that's a different story...! :-)
-
-
- Doug
-
- dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
- dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Here is an example of how someone can send an 8000 +
- byte message to rationalize the use of a misleading OGM for the
- purpose of doing what they are apparently unable to do in person: Say
- NO to a telemarketer and replace the reciever graciously. Even if
- your peculiar traffic patterns as described above were in fact real --
- and I doubt *anyone* could have such bizzare requirements as you note
- in your message -- there would still be no legitimate reason to add the
- identification code on the end. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine Messages
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 23:40:25 EDT
- Reply-To: David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>
- Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers
-
-
- |Michael P. Deignan tells of his "special" answering machine tape that
- |sounds like
- |
- | "<beep> The number you have reached ...
- | <number> has been disconnected..."
- |
-
- I guess it is time to tell the best telco_tale I have ever heard. I
- hope Mr. Moderator will keep his flames in check. First, it's not MY
- story, and secondly, it comes from his Pax Belliphonis era, i.e.
- recorded history.
-
- A long long time ago, in a CO far, far away ... A friend of mine named
- Phil opened a service business. Since, at that time, he lived with his
- mother, he needed a second line for the enterprise. The only problem
- was that the LAST sub on that assignment was a woman who led, shall we
- say, an active social life. Men (LOTS of MEN) called at ALL hours of
- the day and night. Some implied that they were paying for the phone,
- and her apartment, and ... They tended to be upset with Phil's mother
- (much less Phil!) when she answered the phone. They got very abusive
- and DEMANDED to talk to Jane, who it seems, had left town in a manner
- imitated years later by the Baltimore Colts.
-
- Now Phil knew that his mother would not tolerate much of this. But
- short of getting a new assignment, and reprinting all his cards and
- stationary, AND telling all his customers, what could he do? Clearly
- an answering machine was the solution. The only problem was: In those
- pre-Carterphone days, you could not buy such. (After all, it was
- FOREIGN EQUIPMENT.) So Phil called up his friends in the {deleted}
- stockroom (guess where he worked BEFORE he opened his business) and he
- soon had a used (oops -- remanufactured) 1B answering machine at home.
-
- The only problem was: Only those folks willing to rent one were
- supposed to have same. So Phil recorded the standard panel office
- message "I'm sorry, the number you have reached is not a working
- number" as an OGM. He also futzed with the box (more like a M1 tank,
- really -- have you ever seen a 1B?) so that it answered with a flash
- of supervision, then played the message, the way the CO did. (Alas, it
- did NOT cut through to an intercept operator afterwards -- the way a
- real disconnected number did.) All was fine for months. Most of the
- men gave up on Jane, and Phil's customers all knew enough to talk to
- the box. Besides, if you called from a coin slot, you got your nickel
- back!
-
- Then the machine started to take LOTS of calls. No messages, but there
- were many click-click-click sounds in the background, along with some
- words later heard on tapes made in the Oval Office. This kept up for
- about a week. One day, Phil got back in a little early (1900) and sat
- down to do paperwork. The phone went crazy. Ring, "I'm sorry.." Click.
- Ring "I'm", click, etc. After about 20 rounds of this, Phil reached
- over and answered the phone: "Hello?"
-
- "Oh my god, mister ... whatever you do, don't hang up," the
- voice said.
-
- "Oh, why is that?" Phil asked.
-
- "This is the telephone company, and you have REAL PROBLEMS
- on your phone."
-
- Then the poor switchman went on to explain what had happened. It seems
- that Ma had botched his bill, and claimed that he was three months
- behind on his local service. So the business office called to chew him
- out. But ... "the number you have reached" ... So of course the
- Business Office asked Accounting why THEY were still billing this guy
- whose line was not in service. They, of course, said it WAS in
- service. This filtered on down to the CO, where they checked his
- pair. Nope, it is NOT tied to intercept at the frame. "Ring, I'm
- sorry" ... But IT MUST BE! So they traced the pair out through the
- cable vault. "Ring, I'm sorry" still came through.
-
- So The Boss told Joe Frame to "CLEAR THIS TROUBLE before you leave
- today" and that's what Joe was doing. At first, Joe thought it must be
- crossed with another pair in the switch. So he unplugged the old
- intercept announcment machine. "Ring, I'm sorry" ... So Joe's NEXT
- thought was that the pair was SOMEHOW crossed with one ending up in
- another CO. So, one after another, Joe was calling the night man at
- the other CO's, having each one unplug HIS announcer, and trying
- again. Even in those days, that was a lot of CO's -- hence a lot of
- calls. Joe had worked his way through about 60% of the list when Phil
- answered.
-
- Joe asked Phil's indulgence, and said he would call back. Phil
- answered, but as he said years later: "I really should have let it
- ring through ONE more time." Joe proclaimed the trouble cleared, and
- went home. Phil disconnected the 1B, and got a friend to help him move
- it to the basement.
-
- Oh, BTW. Phil got a refund for three months service. He would have
- sent it back, but HOW could he explain it?
-
-
- wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (305) 255-RTFM
- pob 570-335 33257-0335
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Barton F. Bruce" <BRUCE@ccavax.camb.com>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine Messages
- Date: 19 Sep 90 03:06:30 EDT
- Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc.
-
-
- PAT said:
-
- > And since most subscribers would reasonably
- > associate the tones and message text with telco, telco could claim
- > that the person making such an announcement over the phone was
- > falsely claiming to represent, or speak for the company. PAT]
-
- I always thought any random SIT tones were a great idea to thwart
- telemarketers. The really good ones are using predictive dialers that
- use DSP chips to monitor the call and can switch to an idle agent
- (assuming one is free) so fast that MOST of your "Hello" will be
- heard. Who you are, etc. also pops up on the agent's screen at the
- same time. The trunk to agent ratios can be 1.5:1 or higher. They
- DON'T want idle agents.
-
- That same DSP chip also listens for things other than human voice, and
- SIT tones immediately indicate the called party is NOT going to be
- answering, or so they think.
-
- If telco complains, say you will stop using SIT tones when they
- provide free telemarketer blocking for your phone. If you are a
- regular at DPU hearings, and send a few letters a week to various
- legislators about Telecom issues, I doubt telco would find cutting you
- off worth while, even though they would like to.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 16:38:14 EDT
- From: Amanda Walker <visix!amanda@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Answering Machine Messages and SIT
-
-
- I've been wondering how useful (or conversely, confusing) it would be
- to have an answering machine message which started with an SIT and
- then went on into a "normal" announcement. This would avoid problems
- with people who don't realize that they are not talking to a human,
- and with any luck it would fool telemarketing autodialers :-). Since
- the message itself would describe how to leave a message, I wouldn't
- think that it would "fool" anyone into thinking it was a telco
- message -- it would just alert them to the fact that they aren't going
- to be able to talk to the person they think will answer the phone.
-
-
- Amanda Walker
- amanda@visix.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #657
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12948;
- 20 Sep 90 1:30 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab15987;
- 19 Sep 90 23:56 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ac11628;
- 19 Sep 90 22:51 CDT
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 22:46:09 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #658
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009192246.ab01540@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Sep 90 22:45:49 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 658
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: May AT&T Attack a Specific Carrier? [David Tamkin]
- Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway [Dave Levenson]
- Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls [Dave Levenson]
- Re: Call Forwarding Set From a Remote Site? [David Lesher]
- Re: Local Calling Numbers [Dave Levenson]
- Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug [Mark Wilkins]
- Re: Crosstalk on Two lines on One Four-Wire Cable [Jay Libove]
- Re: Sprint Won't Service Canadian Phones [Carol Springs]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: May AT&T Attack a Specific Carrier?
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 14:03:44 CDT
-
-
- J. Eric Townsend wrote in volume 10, issue 651:
-
- | In a propaganda class the other day, we were watching an episode of
- | Nightline. It was full of Sprint's "Lighten up, AT&T" series of
- | adverts.
-
- | My question is this: Could AT&T, if it wanted, decide to attack
- | carrier X? ie: "Carrier X says they give you better prices, but
- | it's not true. AT&T is much cheaper." Or are they somehow legally
- | required to say: "Some other carriers say they give you better prices,
- | but it's not true."?
-
- Law, schmaw; it's standard advertising practice. The company [that is
- or believes it is] in the #1 position *never* names the competition in
- its commercials or ads; competitors, however, figure everyone has
- heard of #1 anyway and that they must go directly after the leader's
- customers, so they don't worry that mentioning #1's name will be free
- publicity for #1. But the leader will just reassert how wonderful it
- is and give no reminder of competitors' names; at the most, #1 will
- tell you that it is "best".
-
- Royal Crown tells you their cola tastes better than Pepsi or Coke and
- that people will go out of their way for it; Pepsi tells you people
- prefer Pepsi to Coke but never mentions RC; Coke tells you that they
- are an unassailable component of the American tradition and never even
- hint that other colas, other soft drinks (even Coke's own products),
- or any other beverages exist; the alternative to drinking Coca-Cola is
- purportedly death by thirst.
-
- The long-distance telephony industry is just as full of gas as
- carbonated beverages are.
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway
- Date: 19 Sep 90 01:30:10 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12175@accuvax.nwu.edu>, monty@sunne.east.sun.com (Monty
- Solomon) writes:
-
- > How does cellular phone use in the air interfere with users on the
- > ground?
-
- The cellular telephone system depends upon spatial diversity. The
- channel you're using is also in use at numerous other cell sites, far
- enough from your location that others may use them without
- interference. A cellular phone in a plane, being approximately
- equi-distant from numerous cell sites, occupies a channel
- simultaneously throughout the cellular system. This may impose a
- heavy switching load on the cellular switch, which may continually try
- to hand the call off among the numerous cell sites, each of which
- thinks it's got a close location to the mobile unit. It may also
- cause interference with other calls on the same frequency.
-
- It is also possible that the cellular phone's transmitter, aboard the
- aircraft, would cause interference with the navigation or
- communication radio equipment aboard the same plane. When the plane's
- autopilot, having been misguided by the interfering signal on a
- coupled approach, attempts to land the plane somewhere _near_ the
- airport rather than on it, people on the ground may get hurt (not to
- mention the danger to people on the plane). This is why the operation
- of most portable electronic devices is prohibited in flight.
-
- > It would seem reasonable to permit cellular phone use from the plane
- > once it lands. Why did the FCC prohibit this as well?
-
- As the original article described, it would be difficult to ensure
- that the use ends as the plane takes off.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA Internet: dave@westmark.com
- [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls
- Date: 19 Sep 90 01:40:49 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12181@accuvax.nwu.edu>, motcid!ellisndh@uunet.uu.net (Dell
- H. Ellison) writes:
-
- > The ringback tone is just put there to let you know that the phone is
- > actually ringing on the other end. When you hear a 'ring', it
- > probably is not at the same time that it is ringing on the other end.
- > I don't know how people supposedly send messages by letting the phone
- > ring a certain number of times.
-
- What you say is certainly true today, in most electronic switches. It
- was not always true. In the #5 Crossbar and most earlier
- electromechanical switches, the ringback tone is synchronized with the
- actual ringing applied to the calling party's line. These stories are
- probably history from a few years to a couple of decades ago.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA Internet: dave@westmark.com
- [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>
- Subject: Re: Call Forwarding Set From a Remote Site?
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 22:05:27 EDT
- Reply-To: David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>
- Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers
-
-
- |I haven't seen a device that will do this, but it isn't that tough to
- |design. You could program your Watson or other voice mail board to do
- |it for you. The major problem is how do you dial into the device to
- |change the programming, if it's already forwarded and you only have
- |one phone line at home?
-
- |Answer: Have the thing unforward for a short period if it receives N
- |calls in quick succession.
-
- I've looked at another method (call it Hal), but have not spent much
- time on it.
-
- Don't use call-forwarding. Rather, use 3-way calling.
-
- Set up autoanswer with TT decoder driving Hal driving TT encoder. You
- call it up. Hal answers. You feed it a password, and a desired number.
- It flashes the line, grabs the 2nd {logical, not physical} 'pair',
- dials the number, flashes again. You hear ringing, answer, talk, etc.
-
- Problems we've thought of so far:
-
- Supervision/timeout: How do you assure that Hal will not get hung?
- Possible solutions: CTCSS (a subaudible tone encode/decode scheme used
- in the two way radio business. Also called PL -- the Galvin Mfg.
- trademark. While frequencies around 100 hz. are used there, something
- above 3000 might be more usable in this application. When Hal hears
- no tone for 1 minute, he goes back on hook until rerung. If a ring
- counter reaches 15 rings, hardware counter reboots Hal.
-
- Security: Write the software so he CANNOT dial anything other than
- seven digits. (Unit is to be located in a state with a PUC-mandated
- "if it's toll, it's gotta have a '1' first rule" so any call would be
- local. Flat rate service is the norm. Thus, if the software is intact,
- no abuser, even with passwords, could do anything but tie up Hal.
- Note the the incoming call has NO way to directly dial the outgoing
- number -- Hal must. (Oh, yes, 976 blocking is there, too ;-]) Be
- extra-sure: order the line with no default carrier.
-
- Sequence: Will that CO allow the second flash (to tie the ends
- together) before getting supervision from the call Hal dialed? (Some
- do, others don't) If not, how do you identify that the far end has
- answered, was busy, etc? Even if you do, how do you convince the
- called party to hang on until you get connected? (i.e. "Please stand
- by for an important call.")
-
- One important advantage to this method is that Hal could automatically
- forward 'incoming' calls with no touchtones (within x seconds) to the
- 'control' house. This gives you automatic incoming service from the
- distant town, too.
-
- Net-comments?
-
-
- wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (305) 255-RTFM
- pob 570-335 33257-0335
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: Local Calling Numbers
- Date: 19 Sep 90 01:37:33 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12178@accuvax.nwu.edu>, matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.cts.com
- (Matthew McGehrin) writes:
-
- > With NJ Bell, you have the option of getting unlimited local calling,
- > which is an option I have on my phone. For about $9 a month, I have
- > unlimited calling to about 83 exchanges.
-
- Note that NJ Bell offers untimed local calling only to residential
- customers. Businesses are charged message units for calls within the
- local calling area, and intra-state toll for all other calls. A
- message unit elapses every five minutes, and costs about 5.5 cents.
- You get 50 message units per month before you get charged for them.
- The 50 applies to the account, not per line.
-
- > ... a suggestion about making a list of local exchanges ...
-
- They did that for you. Look in the preface of your NJ Bell directory.
- They publish a list of the prefixes in your local calling area.
-
- > ...Another good feature
- > available is Selective Calling. Which allows you to have 20 hours of
- > calling to a exchange that is maybe a little out of your 'free
- > exchanges'.
-
- This, too, is only available to residence subscribers in NJ. It is
- offered only to points which would otherwise be a ten of fifteen cent
- call for the initial period, and only intra-LATA.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA Internet: dave@westmark.com
- [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mark Wilkins <wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug
- Date: 18 Sep 90 05:54:28 GMT
- Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711
-
-
- This is a little different than the problem being dealt with in the
- earlier thread, but an associate had a very strange experience and I
- was curious if anyone had any idea how it could come about.
-
- This individual, who wants to remain anonymous for obvious reasons,
- received an extremely odd call on her answering machine at home. A
- rather mercenary discussion between two college students was recorded,
- in which they described such matters as exchanging various social
- favors in return for finding each other jobs.
-
- In particular, one of them said something like "She told me I couldn't
- have another part-time job at the same time if I wanted this one. I
- was thinking I could recommend you..."
-
- "Great," said the other.
-
- "If I do it," said the first, "will you buy me clothes, and take me
- out to dinner?"
-
- At first, she just assumed this was crosstalk of some particularly
- nasty kind, although the voices were much more clear than they often
- are when crosstalk is a problem.
-
- However, the next day a person she'd been interviewing for a job
- came in and said that he was unavailable, but he knew the perfect
- person. Instantly, everything clicked. He had been the one whose
- conversation was recorded on the phone. Apparently he had a
- sophistcated auto-dial speaker phone, either with more than one line
- or with three-way calling.
-
- The question I have is this: Does anyone know of a way that someone
- inexperienced with such matters could accidentally set up a three-way
- call? Or did this have to be intentional? Ignore, for the moment,
- the possibility of a strange switching error. Specifically, do many
- types of production phone equipment have bugs which could cause this
- sort of thing?
-
- As it turns out, the position was not funded by higher-ups and
- therefore nobody got the job. However, it is good to know that things
- like this can happen, I think, because such accidents could cause
- significant damage.
-
-
- Mark Wilkins
- wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 10:11:04 -0400
- From: Jay Libove <libove@libove.det.dec.com>
- Subject: Re: Crosstalk on Two lines on One Four-Wire Cable
-
-
- In article <11803@accuvax.nwu.edu> sherpa!rac@uunet.uu.net (Roger
- Cornelius) writes:
-
- >When I had my second line installed, I specifically requested a
- >completely separate line coming off the pole because I had heard of
- >problems like the above. The phone company didn't seem to mind, and
- >there was no additional charge either. Some months later, someone
- >pointed out that once my two lines connect to the pole, they're
- >connected back to a single line -- with everyone else's in the
- >neighborhood to boot. Makes sense to me, but then I know next to
- >nothing about phone systems.
-
- Interesting. I was told that if I wanted not only the amazingly huge
- and complex (put in a wall plate, yeah right, could've done it myself
- EXCEPT that my apartment complex didn't want to let me f*** with THEIR
- wires) but also wanted to actually make them do work and install
- another whole wire, I'd pay for all of the time (well, at least I'd
- have gotten a little more for my money) and equipment involved. Given
- that the network interface box on the building was a good hundred or
- more feet from where the wire would have to enter my apartment, I took
- my chances on sharing the existing four-wire line for two phone lines,
- rather than pay even more. Now I'm sorry about it, since I do get
- crosstalk.
-
- It just seem stupid that, now that we "own" the wires between the
- network interface unit and our phones, the phone company gets off
- providing unacceptable service just because that's typical. If I want
- another phone line, I should get another phone _line_ - the standard
- shouldn't be to mix and match signals in a known unclean electronic
- fashion.
-
-
- Jay Libove libove@libove.det.dec.com
- Digital Equipment Corporation decwrl!libove.det.dec.com!libove
- Detroit ACT/Ultrix Resource Center Opinions? They're mine, mine, all mine!
- Farmington Hills, Michigan and D.E.C. Can't have 'em!
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Carol Springs <carols@world.std.com>
- Subject: Re: Sprint Won't Service Canadian Phones
- Organization: The World
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 11:54:52 GMT
-
-
- In Volume 10, Issue 655, Michael Gammal writes:
-
- >I reside in both Canada and the US from time to time, and wanted to
- >subscribe to Sprint. I dialed 1-800-877-4000 and asked to subscribe.
- >They put me on hold for a moment then asked me for information (name,
- >phone, address...etc). I gave them both my American and Canadian
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- >numbers, and as soon as the representative heard the Canadian number,
- ^^^^^^^
- >he said "that's a Canadian number right?". So I said "yes" and then
- >they became rude saying you can't sign up, you can't make calls from
- >canada, and then hung up on me.
-
- Well, it took me a second reading of this paragraph to notice that
- you'd given them a U.S. number as well. Presumably they went into
- "Canadian" mode when they heard the second number, and ignored all
- previous evidence that they were dealing with a customer who had a
- U.S. phone. Of course, their terminating the conversation in such a
- rude fashion, without giving you a chance to explain your
- circumstances, was inexcusable.
-
- Anyhow, the "You can't make calls from Canada" contradicts Sprint's
- own literature. According to their September bill insert, "You can
- ...[use] your FONCARD for calls from Canada to the U.S. Simply dial
- 1-800-877-8000 and complete the call as you usually do with your
- FONCARD."
-
-
- Carol Springs carols@world.std.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #658
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa14090;
- 20 Sep 90 2:34 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa28257;
- 20 Sep 90 1:00 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ac15987;
- 19 Sep 90 23:57 CDT
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 23:26:25 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #659
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009192326.ab10638@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Sep 90 23:25:44 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 659
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Best and Worst (was: Labor Day, 1990) [Vicraj T. Thomas]
- Re: Best and Worst (Was Re: Labor Day, 1990) [Laird Heal]
- Re: Calling Examples Needed Showing Sprint Costs More [Rich Sims]
- Re: Complaint to Telco Brings Hostile Service Person! [Brian Litzinger]
- Re: Bay Area Sprint Report (Higdon Vindicated!) [Carl Moore]
- Re: MCI As Slamming King [Tom Ohmer]
- MCI Slams Me Again [Chris Johnson]
- Help For a Telecom Illiterate [Mike Jezierski]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: "Vicraj T. Thomas" <vic@cs.arizona.edu>
- Subject: Re: Best and Worst (was: Labor Day, 1990)
- Date: 19 Sep 90 17:10:23 GMT
- Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
-
-
- In article <12062@accuvax.nwu.edu>, john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon)
- writes:
-
- > Which reminds me of why many Americans don't experience such problems
- > in other countries. They carry a card which is accepted for telephone
- > calls around the world. It's called the AT&T Calling Card. It works
- > because AT&T established agreements with countless foreign telecom
- > agencies. It works from hotels, public phones -- U-name-it.
-
- I was in the transit lounge of the Tokyo airport this summer
- and wanted to call somebody in the city. I didn't have any yen with
- me but I did have my AT&T calling card. There were two kinds of
- phones in the lounge -- regular KDD (did I get the name right?) phones
- that took coins and the KDD debit card and a USADirect phone. I
- talked to a KDD operator using the USADirect phone but she said I
- couldn't use my AT&T calling card or my Visa to make a local call. I
- got the same answer from the regular KDD phone. So Mr. Higdon, the
- AT&T card is not as "universal" as you might think. It is however a
- great card to have for calling the US from almost anywhere in the
- world, including India which was a runner-up for this newsgroups
- "Worst Telecom Network in the World" award.
-
- If I was going to be in Japan for longer than the hour and a half at
- the airport, I could have easily bought a KDD debit card and made all
- the local calls I wanted. Try getting a calling card in the USA
- without a "permanent" address.
-
-
- vic@cs.arizona.edu Dept. of Computer Science
- ..!{uunet|noao}!arizona!vic University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Laird Heal <laird@slum.mv.com>
- Subject: Re: Best and Worst (Was Re: Labor Day, 1990)
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 22:54:56 GMT
-
-
- In article <12104@accuvax.nwu.edu>, 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E.
- Kimberlin) writes:
-
- >In article <digest v10,iss627>, one of our Canadian readers reports on
-
- >To which, our Moderator replies:
-
- >>whatever service they want; but why was AT&T smashed to pieces in the
- >>process? PAT] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
- [accord with emphasized text omitted]
-
- > I submit it was caused by utter corporate arrogance toward the
- >Federal government.
-
- Um, have your telephone bills gone DOWN since divestiture? The
- breakup allowed the now-independent subsidiaries to enter and compete
- in other fields of business. Where did the monies used to invest in
- those other business activities come from? Were the shareholders'
- dividends reduced?
-
- > When the Feds did come back over the hill, they were armed to the
- >teeth, and Ma Bell simply had no good answers. Students of the detail
-
- IBM fought off their case. Ma may have reached out and touched more
- of the citizens, but they both have high thrones.
-
- > Ma Bell, actually hoisted by her own petard of technology, committed
- >hari-kari. But, like good sci-fi, she exploded into nine pieces that
- >live today. A lot of her DNA still runs through their veins. And,
-
- Once she found out what Uncle Sam was doing, she discovered she liked
- it. While the Bell system might have held onto long-distance primacy
- more creatively, as you point out local lines are still locked up as
- tight as a drum.
-
- > Now, Dear Moderator, you yourself are a lifelong resident of one of
- >the more visibly nefarious children of Ma Bell ... Illinois Bell. You
-
- I spent last year living in Cook County with Ameritech's service.
- Each call carries a charge, even if only $.03. Finding out how much a
- call will cost or did cost is painful when possible. Service was
- reasonable but, for instance, my nickel call to Tymnet was fraught
- with static. I could make a long-distance call to South Bend Indiana
- at 14.4Kbps while the five-mile one-hop link could not maintain 1200
- bps.
-
- Here in New Hampshire things are much better, although the line costs
- a little more. The 'local' calling area runs about 15 miles each way.
- I also, to consternate the LATA-holics, am listed in a Massachusetts
- phone book and dial at least a dozen 508 exchanges in seven digits
- from 603.
-
- ><Now stepping down off soapbox and putting on flameproof suit. If
- >challenged, I can fill five or more Digests with abuses of the public
- >trust that only one*small*individual observed and even participated in
- > ... but they never made an addict of me!>
-
- Don't send them to this Digest - write a book, then get a lawyer to
- edit the unprintables out, get a ghostwriter to add some drama and a
- comic artist for comic relief, and call it "Ma Bell on the Half
- Shell".
-
-
- Laird Heal laird@slum.MV.COM
- (Salem, NH) +1 603 898 1406
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 18:52:11 EDT
- From: Rich Sims <rich@pro-exchange.cts.com>
- Subject: Re: Calling Examples Needed Showing Sprint Costs More
-
-
- eli@pws.bull.com wrote:
-
- > (You didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition, did you?)
-
- Nope, but I'll try and answer the questions anyway.
-
- > Could you please detail for me [us] your 'calling patterns'
- > So I can determine why you paid higher rates than ATT rates when you
- > tried out Sprint??? Which rate schedules did you compare?
- > (e.g. sprint plus vs. reach out or normal rates?)
-
- I thought I did that! I live in South Florida, just north of Miami,
- and the majority of my calls were to California, specifically the area
- around San Diego. Apparently the Sprint rates were distance-based,
- while the AT&T rates were strictly time based. The calls were also
- (as much as possible) made at the lowest (night) rates for both
- companies.
-
- The comparison I made was between AT&T's ROA plan and Sprint's regular
- plan. I don't think it was called Sprint Plus, but I'm not sure.
- This was a couple of years ago.
-
- > What exchanges were you calling from and to?
-
- Ouch! Don't have the bills any more. All outbound calls were from
- the 305-431 exchange.
-
- > What was the disconnect rate? When and how many calls?
-
- I didn't mention any "disconnects". The phrase I used was "failed
- connections". Sorry if that was ambiguous. I meant a failure to
- reach the number I was calling in the first place. At this point, I
- couldn't possibly supply numbers, dates, or times. There were several
- times I was unable to get the dialled number at all, although this was
- the least of the problems. The main problem was an excessively long
- time between placing the call and the connection being made
- (apparently), or "busy circuits".
-
- Since the vast majority of the calls were computer-originated, via
- modem, the computer would usually give up trying. Apparently, my
- computer has even less tolerance for bad telephone service than I do! :-)
-
- In all fairness, I have to admit that when I managed to place a call
- and get a connection, the line quality was usually good for the voice
- calls. I don't know if I could have "heard a pin drop", but I wasn't
- particularly listening for that sound. Data connections were no more
- than "so-so", but this may not have been a problem with Sprint's
- equipment/lines.
-
- For what it's worth, I also tried the same test sometime later, but
- using "casual caller" access to Sprint's service, following receipt of
- a fairly large volume of Sprint's propaganda. The results were even
- worse.
-
- It's entirely possible, I suppose, that Sprint has *now* gotten their
- act together and is the finest LD company in the world (but I doubt
- it). At this point, however, I'll stick with AT&T, simply because
- I've *never* had any problems with them, and it's not worth all the
- hassles just to try and save a small amount of money, which never
- happened in the first place.
-
- BTW - In comparison to many of the readers of this group, I'm
- extremely "unworldly" in matters telephonic. I just want to be able
- to have the silly thing do what I expect ... which it does with AT&T
- and did not with Sprint.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Brian Litzinger <brian@apt.bungi.com>
- Subject: Re: Complaint to Telco Brings Hostile Service Person!
- Organization: APT Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 19:00:17 GMT
-
-
- In article <12197@accuvax.nwu.edu> wmf@chinet.chi.il.us (Bill Fischer)
- writes:
-
- >When this joker arrived, he was incredibly hostile! He said he had
- >been monitoring the line and every time he called, "some fax machine
- >or something" answered the line. So I tell him that it's a modem for
- >dial in and out of our little Xenix box. Now he's really hostile! "You
- >are using a standard dial tone line, what you get is what you get ... If
- >you want a data line, pay for it. You people abuse the system, but
- >it's gonna change..."
-
- I ran through this exact same gambit with Pac*Bell in California.
-
- The answer was:
-
- Pac*Bell gaurentees a certain set of specifications for voice lines
- and "data lines". I'm guessing that the specs are different for the
- two kinds of line.
-
- Our story is:
-
- Our Telebit trailblazer began having very slow transmission rates. We
- called Pac*Bell and complained that the line was faulty. They asked
- us what we used it for and we explained about the modem. At they
- point the pitch about misusing the phone system started and that we
- should get a "data line" if we expected the modem to work. I
- explained that our modem was specially designed to operate in the same
- bands as the human voice and that we didn't need a "data line". They
- didn't buy my argument, but were willing to send someone out to look
- at the line.
-
- When the service person showed up we watched him test our voice line.
- Inside the lid of his test box were two charts with the specifications
- that the line had to meet. One for data lines and one for voice
- lines. On the third test the box reported that the line failed to
- meet the specifications for a voice line.
-
- So off went the service person, and the Pac*Bell performed some
- central office magic, and lo-and-behold our trailblazer was back up to
- speed.
-
- The moral is:
-
- At least at Pac*Bell, they guarentee a certain set of specifications
- with each type of service. If your modem will operate within the
- specs of a standard voice line, then that is all you need, all you
- have to pay for, and all your using.
-
- Also, I believe the reason the phone companies become hostile is
- because they believe you are stealing service when you run data over a
- voice line. They mistakenly think you are using more than you are
- paying for.
-
- Disclaimer:
-
- State Laws and Regulations vary. So will your mileage.
-
- <> Brian Litzinger @ APT Technology Inc., San Jose, CA
- <> brian@apt.bungi.com {apple,sun,pyramid}!daver!apt!brian
- <> Disclaimer: Above are my opinions and probably wrong.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 10:27:05 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Re: Bay Area Sprint Report (Higdon Vindicated!)
-
-
- Jeff Carroll <bcsaic!carroll@beaver.cs.washington.edu> mentions three
- bay-area prefixes, so I looked them up. (Area code 415, but to move
- to 510 later.)
-
- 521 is Alameda.
- 653, 655 are both Oakland.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tom Ohmer <nam2254%dsacg2.dsac.dla.mil@dsac.dla.mil>
- Subject: Re: MCI As Slamming King
- Date: 19 Sep 90 16:45:41 GMT
- Organization: Defense Logistics Agency Systems Automation Center, Columbus
-
-
- From article <12195@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by 0003829147@mcimail.com
- (Sander J. Rabinowitz):
-
- < I had a similar experience with MCI. For a time, I was making a
-
- So did I. My apartment-mate got involved in that pyramid company from
- Michigan ;-). They had a `deal' of some kind for him to use MCI. I
- found out about it by accident (apartment-mate never mentioned that he
- was changing the LD carrier on *MY* phone.).
-
- I was calling Florida collect and got an answering machine, so I told
- the operator "never mind." She said "Thanks for using MCI." No big
- surprise here, I figured MCI was the called party's carrier, since the
- call was collect. Then I called back direct to leave a message on the
- machine and got another MCI thank you. Wait a minute! This isn't
- right.
-
- I called MCI Customer `Service' and they told me I had requested the
- switch. "No, I did not." "Aren't you <so-and-so>?" "No."
- Apartment-mate even used own name when changing my service. Anyway,
- after several calls to Ohio Bell, AT&T, and MCI, everything is better
- now. I haven't said anything to apartment-mate and likewise. I'm
- waiting to see. ;-)
-
- < they immediately credited my account (without haggle) for $10, to cover
- < the original switchover, plus the switch back to AT&T.
-
- Pleasantly surprisingly did the same for me. Do they do this so often
- that it is handled so casually?
-
- < Given John's latest account of MCI practices---
-
- << What a slimepit!
-
- < --- the extra caution is not without merit.
-
- Oh, yeah, I had OBT put a flag on my account allowing future changes
- in my service to be made by me in writing ONLY.
-
-
- Tom Ohmer @ Defense Logistics Agency Systems Automation Center,
- DSAC-AMB, Bldg. 27-6, P.O. Box 1605, Columbus, OH 43216-5002
- UUCP: ...osu-cis!dsac!tohmer INTERNET: tohmer@dsac.dla.mil
- Phone: (614) 238-8059 AutoVoN: 850-8059 Disclaimer claimed
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Chris Johnson <plains!com50.c2s.mn.org!chris@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: MCI Slams Me Again
- Organization: Com Squared Systems, Inc.
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 20:00:22 GMT
-
-
- Well, they did it again!
-
- A few years ago, MCI changed my dial 1+ long distance service from
- AT&T (my selection) to themselves, against my wishes. After some
- wrangling, and about a year or so, they finally credited my local
- phone co. account (U.S. West) with the change order service fees.
-
- The other day, I received a letter in the mail from MCI saying welcome
- to MCI's 1+ service. Wait, I thought, didn't I speak to an MCI
- telemarketer a month or so ago, asked to speak with their supervisor,
- and explicitly told him NOT TO CHANGE ONE THING? Yes, in fact I did.
-
- So I dialed the 700-555-4141 number to see who my long distance
- carrier really was, and lo-and-behold, it said MCI.
-
- Those jerks told U.S. West to change my service from AT&T to MCI
- again, without my permission. Can you tell that I'm annoyed?
-
- I'm writing MCI a nasty letter, and I'd like to send copies of it to
- U.S. West, AT&T and oh, say the attorney general, too. I can get
- addresses for the former and latter easily enough, but which address
- for AT&T would be the right one for maximum attention and effectivity?
- Maybe I need to send it to several places.
-
- I don't have time for screwing around like this, and I don't like
- having to pay someone for something I didn't want. I want to get
- MCI's attention once and for all. I'd appreciate any suggestions.
-
-
- ...Chris Johnson chris@c2s.mn.org ..uunet!bungia!com50!chris
- Com Squared Systems, Inc. St. Paul, MN USA +1 612 452 9522
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 09:46 EST
- From: The VAX Commander <IWNQ500@indyvax.iupui.edu>
- Subject: Help For a Telecom Illiterate
-
-
- Patrick:
-
- I, being a new reader of TELECOM Digest would like some basic
- definitions so I could figure out some of what you guys are talking
- about...
-
- What are COCOTS? and what is this NXX/NOX for dialing thing??? Is
- this a new type of phone number we're supposed to get? Help!
-
-
- Mike Jezierski Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
- IWNQ500@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU standard disclaimer
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Once again, COCOT = <C>ustomer <O>wned, <C>oin
- <O>perated <T>elephone. NXX is simply a way of abbreviating the three
- digit area code or local prefix. Some good files in the Telecom
- Archives to assist you are the glossaries. To view the archives, and
- pull files of your choice, use the ftp command: ftp lcs.mit.edu. You
- would then use anonymous login, with your name@user.site for a
- password. Then, 'cd telecom-archives'. Enjoy your visit there! PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #659
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa15384;
- 20 Sep 90 3:37 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa20858;
- 20 Sep 90 2:04 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab28257;
- 20 Sep 90 1:00 CDT
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 0:17:31 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #660
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009200017.ab14054@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Thu, 20 Sep 90 00:17:09 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 660
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin [Paul Frommeyer]
- Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls [Craig Jackson]
- Re: Name That Tone [Walter Kemmerer]
- Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway [Tad Cook]
- Re: Sprint Puts it in Writing: On Your Bill! [Tad Cook]
- Re: Telecom in Alaska [Mike Jezierski]
- CLASSPLUS Services [William Degnan]
- Feedback on Books [Mary J. Leugers]
- Looking For Call Pattern Analysis Service [C. David Covington]
- Canadian Call-Me Card [Ed Greenberg]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Paul Frommeyer <corwin@apple.com>
- Subject: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
- Date: 19 Sep 90 17:59:39 GMT
- Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
-
-
- [various complaints about divestiture from our Moderator]
-
- [various praises of divestiture and complaints about our Moderator]
-
- My .02, for what it's worth:
-
- I'm afraid my views on divestiture parallel those of our esteemed
- Moderator. I think the divestiture thing looked good on paper, but
- has proven to be less than great in practice.
-
- The whole intent of divestiture, as I remember it from Judge Greene,
- was to break up the AT&T monopoly. This may have succeeded in part
- with the long distance carriers; it certainly went nowhere with the
- local telco, which at least for me is the area that affects my phone
- service the most.
-
- I want to have a choice of subscriber loop carriers; If I don't like
- Pac Bell, I want to be able to get dial tone from Bob's Fone Company
- if I so choose. Until that free market choice exists, the One Big
- Monopoly of AT&T has simply been replaced with Several Small
- Monopolies.
-
- If phone service is in fact a "public utility", then why break up AT&T
- in the first place? If it is not, and should simply be yet another
- service provided in a free market economy, then why do the RBOC's
- still have a monopoly on phone service?
-
- A lot of good has come of divestiture, but I think even more good
- would arise if our friends in Congress and the FCC would dispense with
- what I see as half-measures aimed at perpetuating the monopoly of the
- local telco. The place divestiture would benefit subscribers most is
- at the level of the local telco, not only through market-driven
- pricing, but also through market-driven services, such as data and
- video, to name two.
-
- Anticipating complaints about an "unfair advantage" had by the RBOCs
- in the event of their deregulation, I raise a point made in a previous
- posting in the Digest, namely that there is ready-made competition for
- the telcos in the form of the local cable television company.
-
- Of course, that would require that the CATV carriers not be
- monopolies...!
-
- OK, now you can all flame away! :-)
-
-
- Paul "Corwin" Frommeyer Network Sorcerer and Telecomm Hacker
- Apple Computer Incorporated Internet: corwin@apple.com
- Disclaimer: "My opinion, not Apple's","No comment"
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Craig Jackson drilex1 <drilex!dricejb@husc6.harvard.edu>
- Subject: Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls
- Date: 19 Sep 90 18:51:58 GMT
- Organization: DRI/McGraw-Hill, Lexington, MA
-
-
- About the difference between the timing of ring-back and the actual
- rings, I think there are several things going on here:
-
- 1. I believe that at one time, ring-back really was the sound of the
- ring voltage to the other phone. (Correct me if I am wrong; I'm
- talking about the early part of the century here.)
-
- 2. In the days of mechanical ring-back generation, the ring voltage
- and the ring-back voltage came from the same generator and
- interrupter, so there really was no reason why they couldn't be
- synchronized.
-
- 3. Today, ring-back certainly comes from an oscillator somewhere; the
- ring voltage may still be mechanically generated. But they aren't
- related closely.
-
- 4. There always have been exceptions; for example, key sets used to
- sense the ring voltage, and then ring the phones using a
- locally-generated ring signal. These were nearly always 1/2 ring
- out-of-sync.
-
- 5. With modern PBXs, I would expect that the CO doesn't generate any
- "ring voltage" at all, but rather some sort of digital signal that
- says "there's a call coming in on trunk 3 for extension 4567". In
- this case, the ring voltage comes from the PBX, rather than the CO. I
- don't know for sure, but I would expect that the ring-back signal
- still comes from the CO.
-
- I'm sure there are a number of errors in the above, but John Higdon
- will correct them. :-) I'm pretty sure I've got the general
- information right.
-
- Note that it is in the interest of the Telco to give you ringback,
- approximately at the same rate as a normal phone rings. It allows you
- to make a more informed judgement as to whether your party is there,
- and probably allows you to do so sooner, thus freeing up common
- equipment sooner.
-
-
- Craig Jackson
- dricejb@drilex.dri.mgh.com
- {bbn,axiom,redsox,atexnet,ka3ovk}!drilex!{dricej,dricejb}
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Walter Kemmerer <wkemmerer@sugar.hackercorp.com>
- Subject: Re: Name That Tone
- Date: 19 Sep 90 18:13:00 GMT
- Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston
-
-
- Jeff, there sure seems to be a lot of us with this problem these days!
- I just completed surviving a round of these kind of calls on a four to
- five minute interval for about eight hours. Like you, it seemed to be
- a comm device at the other end, but it sure didn't like my modem and
- Procomm. The local telephone company (go for a supervisor to get
- something done) was quite nice about all this, and put a trap on the
- line to track down the call.
-
- It was coming from another local telephone company, and they got
- together and managed to contact the owner of the originating number.
- They didn't know what could be causing it, but when the other
- telephone company cut the service off at that number, the calls
- disappeared!
-
- This fixed it for that day, but darn if it didn't come back the next
- day at noon! Went through the rounds again (this was a Saturday), and
- the local telehone company actually contacted the supervisor I had
- been working with at home. He in turn contacted the other telephone
- company office and just happened to catch the same technician that he
- had worked with the previous day. They went after it again, and this
- time isolated the problem; seems the customer at the other telephone
- company had a home burgular alarm that had been fried in a storm that
- came through the night that the phone calls first started. So it had
- been calling (my home number) for assistance...
-
- What bothers me about the problem is that if I wasn't a lurker here, I
- wouldn't have known what to ask to get the darned problem to go away!
-
- What bothers me even more is that the folks at the point of
- origination never noticed that their alarm system was dead!
-
- Good luck ... the first folks I talked to just told me to take the
- telephone off hook, too!
-
-
- Walt Kemmerer
- Sugar Land, TX
-
- wkemmerer@sugar.hackercorp.com
- 72737.563@compuserve.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tad.Cook%ssc.UUCP@hpubvwa.uucp
- Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway
- Date: 18 Sep 90 05:14:00 GMT
-
-
- In article <12175@accuvax.nwu.edu>, monty@sunne.east.sun.com (Monty
- Solomon) writes:
-
- > An article in today's "Wall Street Journal" (9/14/90 p B1) states that
- > the FCC banned the use of cellular phones in planes on the ground
- > because they figured that people wouldn't hang up when the flight took
- > off.
-
- > How does cellular phone use in the air interfere with users on the
- > ground?
-
- Because it hogs a frequency used by many users in different cells.
- The great thing about cellular phone systems is that they are very
- efficient in terms of spectrum usage. This is because as you move
- from cell to cell, you are shifted by the cell site to different
- frequencies. Two adjacent cells never use the same frequencies, but
- the frequency that you are on may be used by another user two or three
- cells away. The system depends on everyone being on the ground and
- running low power. Otherwise it cannot function.
-
- When you use a cellular phone from a plane, many cell sites can hear
- your signal, so you end up hogging that frequency throughout the
- entire system. A few cellular callers in the air could cause major
- problems.
-
- > It would seem reasonable to permit cellular phone use from the plane
- > once it lands. Why did the FCC prohibit this as well?
-
- Because they were afraid the users would not stop talking once the
- plane took off. I also have a feeling that they may have been nervous
- about possible interference with the plane's various electronic
- systems for navigation and communications.
-
-
- Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089
- MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW
- USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tad.Cook%ssc.UUCP@hpubvwa.uucp
- Subject: Re: Sprint Puts it in Writing: On Your Bill!
- Date: 18 Sep 90 05:24:28 GMT
-
-
- In article <12176@accuvax.nwu.edu>, eli@pws.bull.com (Steve Elias)
- writes:
-
- > C'mon, folks. Enough whining about Sprint "putting it in writing".
- > Save a few ATT bills, switch to Sprint, and compare the quality of
- > service as well as the price for your calls. That should be plenty of
- > writing for you. Use 10333 if you just want to try out Sprint's
- > standard rates. If you make $8 of long distance per month, sign up
- > for Sprint Plus and you'll get night rates from 5pm on -- that's about
- > 10 cents per minute anywhere in US.
-
- I agree with Eli! Enough bashing of carriers because they are not
- AT&T! I have two lines at home, one uses MCI, the other Sprint as the
- default carriers. I have had nothing but great service from each.
-
- At work we use AT&T. They have been getting better, but for a long
- time Sprint's audio quality was FAR SUPERIOR to AT&T. This varied
- with the location called, but Sprint was always better. Now as AT&T
- gradually upgrades it's massive embedded plant, they are getting
- better too.
-
- Now unlike John Higdon, I don't run Trailblazers or HSTs at 9600 bps,
- but my various 2400bps modems have had no problems with Sprint (or
- MCI).
-
- During the time when we had to choose a default carrier, I ran some
- rough tests by ear, using the 10XXX access. For most places, MCI and
- Sprint sounded superior. At one time before MCI retired their older
- microwave gear, calls from Seattle to the east coast didn't sound so
- hot, but now they are fine.
-
- Was Sprint the first carrier to offer SS7?
-
-
- Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089
- MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW
- USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 09:23 EST
- From: "Mike Jezierski....The VAX Commander!" <IWNQ500@indyvax.iupui.edu>
- Subject: Re: Telecom in Alaska
-
-
- The Alaskans use a RCA satellite all to themselves. It's Called Aurora
- F5 (or it could also be called SATCOM F5). It can only be seen in the
- Western US because it's so far West so it could be picked up in
- Alaska.
-
- Mike Jezierski IWNQ500@INDYVAX.BITNET IWNQ500@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU
- Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
-
- This is my view because this this place won't pay me enough for my opinions
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 90 11:37:14 CDT
- From: William Degnan <William.Degnan@f39.n382.z1.fidonet.org>
- Subject: CLASSPLUS Services
- Organization: Communications Network Solutions, Austin, TX
-
-
- A recent update from Northern Telecom reports that three new flavors
- of enhanced services will be available to the operating companies over
- the next three upcomng Batch Change Supplements.
-
- Calling Name Delivery NTXE52AA
-
- Anonymous Caller Rejection NTXP12AA
-
- "The party you dialed does not accept anonymous calls. Please hang
- up and call back with your caller identification unblocked."
-
- And this one (which _I_ expect will be interesting):
-
- Call Waiting Display NTCN97AA
-
- You get to see the caller ID of a camped-on call so you can decide if
- it is worth interrupting your call in progress.
-
-
- Disclaimer: Contents do not constitute "advice" unless we are on the clock.
-
- William Degnan | wdegnan@mcimail.com
- Communications Network Solutions | !wdegnan@at&tmail.com
- Independent Consultants | William.Degnan@telemail.com
- in Telecommunications | UUCP: ...!natinst!tqc!39!William.Degnan
- P.O. Drawer 9530 | ARPA: William.Degnan@f39.n382.z1.FidoNet.Org
- Austin, TX 78766-9530 | Voice +1 512 323 9383
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 1990 13:17:08 EDT
- From: "Mary J. Leugers" <leugers@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu>
- Subject: Feedback on Books
-
-
- In an attempt to further my knowledge of data communications, I made a
- trip to my neighborhood computer bookstore and looked at several
- books. I was wondering if anyone could give me feedback for use in
- deciding what book(s) might be best.
-
- The titles are:
-
- Basic Data Communications by William Beyda
- Data Communications, Networks and Systems published by SAMS w/
- Thomas Bartee as Editor
- Handbook of Computer Communications Standards; Vols. 1 through 3
- by William Stallings
- Data Communication Technology by James Martin
-
- Thanks!
-
- Center for Advanced Study in Telecommunications
-
- Mary Leugers 1971 Neil Avenue
- Graduate Research Associate 210 Baker Systems
- Columbus, OH 43210-1271
- E-mail: Phone: (614) 292-8444
- leugers@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu Fax: (614) 292-7852
- Home: (614) 421-1552
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "C. David Covington" <eleg!cdc@uafhp.uark.edu>
- Subject: Looking For Call Pattern Analysis Service
- Date: 19 Sep 90 14:02:19 GMT
- Organization: College of Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
-
-
- I need to send someone my call detail or at least my calling
- pattern and have them tell me how much it is going to cost me if I
- select AT&T, MCI, Sprint, or Brand X as my default carrier. I will
- provide as much information as necessary in order to obtain an
- accurate estimate of my costs.
-
- I assume the company would receive a copy of my bill in paper form
- or possibly on mag tape and return to me an analysis of the bottom
- line using the various carriers available. Anyone can do crude
- estimates, but it would take a company or individual with a full-time
- commitment to maintaining the latest tariff information in their data
- base to be effective in this kind of task.
-
- Is this kind of service available? How much does it typically
- cost? What kind of information do I need to provide for the analysis?
-
-
- C. David Covington (WA5TGF) cdc@uafeleg.uark.edu 501-575-6583
- Asst Prof, Elec Eng Univ of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR 72701
- also Strategic Telecommunications, Inc. 501-521-0375
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: One consulting organization doing precisely the
- sort of thing you want which comes to mind is a firm called "Telco
- Research", in (I think) Nashville, TN. They've been around for years,
- and I think they may have been bought out recently by one of the
- BOC's, but I am not sure which one. I think some of the readers here
- are also in this line of work, and perhaps you will receive some
- direct correspondence from folks who can help you. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 08:39 PDT
- From: Ed_Greenberg@fin.3mail.3com.com
- Subject: Canadian Call Me Card
-
-
- Mark Brader <msb@sq.com> describes the Bell Canada 'Call Me Card.'
-
- The US version of this card has been available from AT&T for quite
- some time now, but experimentation described in this Digest about a
- year ago revealed that Call-Me cards could be used to call anywhere on
- most non-AT&T long distance services.
-
- Dangerous,
-
- edg
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #660
- ******************************
-
- ISSUES 661-662 REVERSED IN TRANSMISSION. 662 APPEARS NEXT, THEN 661.
-
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11503;
- 21 Sep 90 3:56 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab03462;
- 21 Sep 90 2:19 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab19020;
- 21 Sep 90 1:10 CDT
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 0:44:15 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #662
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009210044.ab11597@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Fri, 21 Sep 90 00:43:40 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 662
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines [John Higdon]
- Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls [John Higdon]
- Re: Tracing Obscene/Nuisance Calls in the UK [Tim Oldham]
- Re: Call-Me Card [Leland F. Derbenwick]
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Tom Gray]
- Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug [Lee Chen]
- Re: Call-Me Card [Lars Poulsen]
- Re: Complaint to Telco Brings Hostile Service Person! [Norman Soley]
- Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor [Hui Lin Lim]
- Re: Divestiture - Keep on Truckin [Jeff Sicherman]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines
- Date: 20 Sep 90 00:30:22 PDT (Thu)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 19 at 21:40, Rolf Meier <mitel!spock!meier@uunet.uu.net>
- writes:
-
- > Look, the real reason the telephone companies don't like you using a
- > "voice" line for "data" is the different traffic characteristics.
-
- Before we go around with this again, let me share with you a comment
- by a "deep throat" within Pac*Bell. The reason telcos want to charge
- you extra for "data" dialups is "revenue enhancement" -- no more, no
- less. It has nothing to do with traffic patterns (business usage is
- metered and charged anyway, and residential use occurs off-peak) or
- bandwidth considerations. It is just another in a long line of
- "extras" that the telco has managed to convince the PUC it has
- justification for grabbing more. Like voice usage, data usage is all
- over the map in terms of network usage.
-
- So please, let's not go making up a lot of garbage justifications for
- extra charges for lines used for data.
-
- > Why do you think a data line is a ripoff? A typical data call lasts a
- > lot longer than voice calls. This means that the Telco has to supply
- > more call paths in order to maintain the same grade of service. This
- > costs them money. It is only fair that the users of data lines pay
- > the extra.
-
- Local calls are charged for and timed. Isn't one charge enough? Or is
- data something "magic" that costs telco extra? What costs the telco
- more: a twenty-minute news delivery from my news feed, or a two-hour
- converstation by my neighbor's teen-aged daughter? See? Forget the
- authoritative declaration from a Pac*Bell "informant" -- the logic of
- the position fails as well.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls
- Date: 20 Sep 90 01:59:46 PDT (Thu)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 20 at 0:17, Craig Jackson writes:
-
- > 1. I believe that at one time, ring-back really was the sound of the
- > ring voltage to the other phone. (Correct me if I am wrong; I'm
- > talking about the early part of the century here.)
-
- Sort of. The ring voltage generated by the old rotary ring generators
- was rich in harmonics. A high-pass version (with the 20 Hz filtered
- out) was sent back to the caller.
-
- > 3. Today, ring-back certainly comes from an oscillator somewhere; the
- > ring voltage may still be mechanically generated. But they aren't
- > related closely.
-
- In electronic switches, the ring voltage is generated electronically.
- The cadence of the actual ring and the ringback tone is the same in
- normal cases, but may be "out of phase".
-
- > 4. There always have been exceptions; for example, key sets used to
- > sense the ring voltage, and then ring the phones using a
- > locally-generated ring signal. These were nearly always 1/2 ring
- > out-of-sync.
-
- Not only out of sync, but the cadence is different in a standard 1A2
- key system than that of a standard CO. In that case, the ringing of a
- key phone common audible bears little relation to the ringback that
- the caller is hearing.
-
- > 5. With modern PBXs, I would expect that the CO doesn't generate any
- > "ring voltage" at all, but rather some sort of digital signal that
- > says "there's a call coming in on trunk 3 for extension 4567". In
- > this case, the ring voltage comes from the PBX, rather than the CO. I
- > don't know for sure, but I would expect that the ring-back signal
- > still comes from the CO.
-
- What you describe is DID (direct inward dialing). In that case, the
- call is delivered to the PBX as if it was the end office. Ring voltage
- comes from the PBX and the ringback tone, busy (if appropriate), or
- even any intercept recording is supplied by the PBX. When a DID call
- is answered, the PBX even supplies answer supervision (usually via
- battery reversal on the trunk) back to the telco CO.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tim Oldham <tjo@its.bt.co.uk>
- Subject: Re: Tracing Obscene/Nuisance Calls in the UK
- Organization: BT Applied Systems, Birmingham, UK
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 09:02:03 GMT
-
-
- BT has set up a trial "Nuisance Call Bureau" in Canterbury, Kent. I'm
- not involved in this area of work, or any part of the telecom network,
- but I believe it's intended to help victims in whatever way it can,
- presumably including tracing and location mapping. My back copies of
- internal magazines show that there is a `BT Task Force examining the
- problem'.
-
- All I can say is ask your local BT office for advice and more on this
- bureau. The cops should be involved.
-
- Standard disclaimer applies. I speak for myself, not BT.
-
-
- Tim Oldham, BT Applied Systems. tjo@its.bt.co.uk or ...uunet!ukc!its!tjo
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 08:16:39 EDT
- From: Leland F Derbenwick <lfd@lcuxlq.att.com>
- Subject: Re: Call-Me Card
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- In article <12290@accuvax.nwu.edu>, msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
-
- > The examples given of who might want to use this card refer to family
- > members. The subtext, not quite stated, is: family members who
- > couldn't be trusted not to run up your long-distance bill if you gave
- > them your Calling Card number.
-
- Or ones whose roommates can't be trusted not to steal a peek and give
- copies to their friends, etc., etc., etc.
-
- This has been available in the U.S. (from AT&T, at least) for a few
- years. (I would imagine that all the long-distance carriers have it
- by now.)
-
- Speaking strictly for myself,
-
- Lee Derbenwick, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Warren, NJ
- lfd@cbnewsm.ATT.COM or <wherever>!att!cbnewsm!lfd
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tom Gray <mitel!spock!grayt@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
- Date: 20 Sep 90 12:47:24 GMT
- Reply-To: Tom Gray <mitel!halligan!grayt@uunet.uu.net>
- Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada.
-
-
- I would ask the Moderator to use his perogative to end the thread on
- these "jokes". Perhaps you could refer those interested to the
- alt.moron or the alt.two_year_old.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: I have to agree that the 'answering machine
- messages' and 'inside humor' threads are getting to be sort of tiring.
- There are too many other things to talk about. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Talking Head <garif@cmcl2.nyu.edu>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug
- Date: 20 Sep 90 17:26:35 GMT
- Organization: New York University
-
-
- wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu (Mark Wilkins) writes:
-
- >This individual, who wants to remain anonymous for obvious reasons,
- >received an extremely odd call on her answering machine at home.
-
- I get these on my office answering machines quite often.
-
- The conversations that I overhear usually concern me or my data
- centers. Eighty percent of the time its interesting in a negative
- sort of way.
-
- >The question I have is this: Does anyone know of a way that someone
- >inexperienced with such matters could accidentally set up a three-way
- >call? Or did this have to be intentional? Ignore, for the moment,
- >the possibility of a strange switching error. Specifically, do many
- >types of production phone equipment have bugs which could cause this
- >sort of thing?
-
- Sure, quite a few people who call me use either a) antiquated AT&T
- PBXs with three-way calling or b) brand new systems that are set to
- the wrong PBX selector. When they call me with three-way, i.e. when
- they're talking to someone and want to bridge me in, my answering
- machine will answer and normally they will either hang up or leave a
- message and then hang up. The trick is this: with the old AT&T PBX
- the flash is signalled by going onhook then offhook in a short
- interval; this causes the PBX to hang up the third call and lets the
- primary continue hir call with the original called party. (with the
- new switches, the flash will not work properly if the PBX selector is
- set incorrectly) Sometimes, the PBX will not hang up the call and you
- will continue to talk to the third party...
-
- Next time you initiate a third way call and get an answering machine,
- be sure your third party is properly disconnected, else hir answering
- machine may confer your conversation at a later time.
-
- >As it turns out, the position was not funded by higher-ups and
- >therefore nobody got the job. However, it is good to know that things
- >like this can happen, I think, because such accidents could cause
- >significant damage.
-
- Damage? That depends on to whom. I'm usually quite entertained when
- individuals who work for me call and say they can't do something or be
- somewhere then promptly inform someone that I am a gullible fool. A
- better example: someone was trying to sell me a very expensive car; he
- called me and left a message stating that he couldn't do better than
- $NNN,NNN; then he goes on to tell some lady (turns out to be his
- ex-wife) that the car was as good as sold and that I would never try
- to negotiate a price that would even get near the $NN,NNN that they
- paid for it two years hence. Well, you can imagine that I didn't
- quite pay what HE was asking and instead negotiated with HER and got a
- Big Cash Savings. The Bell System at work. You just have to make it
- work for you.
-
- Forgive me if I've rambled. I'm a bit surprised people haven't caught
- on to this neat little phenom yet. I "use" it all the time.
-
-
- Lee Chen
- garif@nyu.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Lars Poulsen <lars@spectrum.cmc.com>
- Subject: Re: Call-Me Card
- Organization: Rockwell CMC
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 18:48:41 GMT
-
-
- In article <12290@accuvax.nwu.edu> msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
-
- >An insert in the current Bell Canada phone bill introduces a new
- >restricted Calling Card, called the Call-Me Card.
-
- >The examples given of who might want to use this card refer to family
- >members. The subtext, not quite stated, is: family members who
- >couldn't be trusted not to run up your long-distance bill if you gave
- >them your Calling Card number.
-
- AT&T has been issuing these for a while; several of my friends with
- kids at college have been giving these to their kids; it's
- colloquially referred to at an "E.T." card (after the little guy who
- needed to "phone home").
-
-
- Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer
- CMC Rockwell lars@CMC.COM
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Norman Soley <oracle!oracle.com!nsoley@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Complaint to Telco Brings Hostile Service Person!
- Reply-To: Norman Soley <oracle!nsoley@uunet.uu.net>
- Organization: Oracle Corporation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 19:55:49 GMT
-
-
- In article <12347@accuvax.nwu.edu> brian@apt.bungi.com (Brian
- Litzinger) writes:
-
- >Also, I believe the reason the phone companies become hostile is
- >because they believe you are stealing service when you run data over a
- >voice line. They mistakenly think you are using more than you are
- >paying for.
-
- Once upon a time someone told me that the reason a data line costs
- more was because a voice call used less bandwidth when it was
- multiplexed with other calls on a trunk than a data call did
- (accompanied with a rather hokey explanation about voice having lots
- of silent parts but data was always "noisy") at the time I bought it
- (hey, give me a break I was in High School) but now I have all this
- fancy technical education which tells me I was probably slid a line.
- Well was I?
-
-
- Norman Soley - Systems Administrator - Oracle Corporation Canada
- 155 University Ave. Suite 400 Toronto, Ontario (416)-362-7953 X646
- nsoley@cnseq1.oracle.com uunet!torsqnt!cnseq1!nsoley
- "These opinions are mine, not the company's"
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Hui Lin Lim <limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com>
- Subject: Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor
- Date: 13 Sep 90 05:08:55 GMT
- Organization: HP Singapore
-
-
- > I seem to recall a request posted here a couple of months ago asking
- > whether there was any such beast as a call distribution device (for
- > the home) based on Distinctive Ringing Service offered by the LECs
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- Could anyone elaborate on how this service is provided? Does it
- require an ISDN switch etc?
-
- Thanks,
-
- HuiLin Lim HP Singapore limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 12:24:22 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
-
-
- > The whole intent of divestiture, as I remember it from Judge Greene,
- > was to break up the AT&T monopoly. This may have succeeded in part
- > with the long distance carriers; it certainly went nowhere with the
- > local telco, which at least for me is the area that affects my phone
- > service the most.
-
- The divestiture was forced by AT&T's abuse of its monopoly power and
- position, namely cross-subsidization that was expressly to avoid and
- ruin competition. Existing monopolies are not expressily forbidden,
- though they may be regulated, the formation of new ones may be
- blocked.
-
- > I want to have a choice of subscriber loop carriers; If I don't like
- > Pac Bell, I want to be able to get dial tone from Bob's Fone Company
- > if I so choose. Until that free market choice exists, the One Big
- > Monopoly of AT&T has simply been replaced with Several Small
- > Monopolies.
-
- If local telco's engage in the same practices as they divesify, they
- may be subject to the same accusations and actions.
-
- > If phone service is in fact a "public utility", then why break up AT&T
- > in the first place? If it is not, and should simply be yet another
- > service provided in a free market economy, then why do the RBOC's
- > still have a monopoly on phone service?
-
- Not being a lawyer or sematicist, I'm not sure what you mean by a
- "public utility", but it's not a publicly owned utility, in the sense
- that some cities or counties have municipaly owned power, gas, etc.
- As a private corporation, it has a fudiciary duty to serve the
- interests of it's stockholders, not the public at large. It has some
- moral and civic duty for the latter, but it's the responsibility of
- the regulators to define and decide what those are, not the company.
-
- > A lot of good has come of divestiture, but I think even more good
- > would arise if our friends in Congress and the FCC would dispense with
- > what I see as half-measures aimed at perpetuating the monopoly of the
- > local telco. The place divestiture would benefit subscribers most is
- > at the level of the local telco, not only through market-driven
- > pricing, but also through market-driven services, such as data and
- > video, to name two.
-
- It's not within the traditions or constitution to 'nationalize' (or
- staticize, or whatever the equivalent would be) private companies.
- They can be restricted in operation and penalized for violations, but
- that is not the same thing as just breaking them up. The violations
- must be pervasive and intentional before that remedy is permitted.
-
- > Anticipating complaints about an "unfair advantage" had by the RBOCs
- > in the event of their deregulation, I raise a point made in a previous
- > posting in the Digest, namely that there is ready-made competition for
- > the telcos in the form of the local cable television company.
-
- > Of course, that would require that the CATV carriers not be
- > monopolies...!
-
- With regard to this and Bob's Fone Company, if the means of
- distribution, namely the wires, cables, etc. were municipaly installed
- and owned, like water, sewers (and some gas and electric), then your
- competition for dial tone would be practical. Unfortunately, until
- some community somewhere takes such an approach or it becomes a state
- law, don't hold your breath.
-
- Then, of course, since history repeats itself, we can look forward to
- "slamming" (e.g. MCI thread) by local tone providers :-)
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman
- jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #662
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11668;
- 21 Sep 90 4:06 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa03462;
- 21 Sep 90 2:15 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa19020;
- 21 Sep 90 1:10 CDT
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 0:11:14 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #661
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009210011.ab12265@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Fri, 21 Sep 90 00:10:49 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 661
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Ross Miller via M. Solomon]
- ATM Handling of PINS [David Barts]
- Need Telex Numbers in England [Mathew Zank]
- Sleazy 900 Numbers [Robert M. Hamer]
- Re: Call Detail Recording, or Beating the SMDR [Donald Kimberlin]
- Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing [Tad Cook]
- Intro to Telecom University Course: Help Sought [Bruce Klopfenstein]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 05:19:46 EDT
- From: Monty Solomon - Temp Consultant <monty@sunne.east.sun.com>
- Subject: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Mr. Solomon kindly passed along this message which
- appeared recently in misc.consumers. PAT]
-
- From: miller@mali (Ross M. Miller)
- Newsgroups: misc.consumers
- Subject: AT&T Universal Card is not two cards in one
- Date: 17 Sep 90 21:19:57 GMT
- Reply-To: millerrm@crd.ge.com (Ross M. Miller)
- Organization: General Electric R&D Center
-
- In case any of you are under the impression (created by AT&T) that the
- AT&T Universal Card is both a bankcard and AT&T Credit/Calling Card in
- one, I have an interesting story for you. On a recent trip, I tried
- to use my new Universal Card in an AT&T credit card payphone by
- inserting it into the credit card slot. The payphone immediately
- rejected it as not being an AT&T credit card. Upon returning from my
- trip I calling AT&T and asked why the card would not work in their
- payphone and learned an interesting fact about the AT&T Universal
- Card.
-
- The fact: The AT&T Universal Card is simply a bankcard (VISA or
- Mastercard) with an AT&T credit card number embossed onto it. The
- magnetic stripe on the back of the card indicates that the card is
- only a bankcard and contains no information about the AT&T credit
- card. Hence, when run though a payphone (or any other device that
- reads the stripe), it is treated as a bankcard.
-
- This "feature" has two "gotchas":
-
- 1. As noted, standard AT&T credit card payphones will not read it.
- To charge calls you need to enter your credit card number manually.
-
- 2. In payphones that accept multiple types of cards, the card is
- treated as a bankcard, not an AT&T credit card. According to what
- AT&T told me this means that the 10% discount DOES NOT APPLY to calls
- made in this manner.
-
- Apparently, modern credit card technology cannot yet deal with
- magnetic stripes that contain "dual" identities, and so, some of the
- potential convenience of a combined bankcard/phonecard is, for now,
- lost.
-
-
- Ross Miller
- GE R&D Center
- millerrm@crd.ge.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 12:09:14 pdt
- From: David Barts <davidb@pacer.uucp>
- Subject: ATM Handling of PINS
-
-
- john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) writes:
-
- > Do you think that he is capturing all those
- > PINs in the back room so that he can retire to Tahiti? I would lay
- > odds that the merchant does not record your PIN, which is normally
- > simply sent along with the rest of the encrypted transaction to the
- > banking center or network...
-
- Precisely. If the ATM terminals found in stores are anything like the
- ATMs in banks, it just encrypts the number on the card and the PIN and
- sends them off to the bank computer for verification. The merchant
- has no business knowing what your PIN is -- that is confidential
- information between you and your bank. The only information that the
- merchant needs to know is that (a) the PIN you entered is valid, (b)
- there are sufficient funds in your account to pay for the purchase,
- and (c) that funds have been successfully transferred to pay for the
- purchase. If anything, this represents an increase in security over
- credit cards (with which the merchant gets a slip with your complete
- credit card number and signature on it -- all the information needed
- to commit fraud).
-
- The major issue with these devices (and also with virtually any other
- non-cash method of payment) is what happens to the record of your
- purchases after the bills have been settled. The technology already
- exists so that a laser-scan cash register, ATM terminal, and mainframe
- database could be tied together to keep a detailed record of every
- item you purchase. (I don't know if it is being done anywhere, but it
- certainly COULD be.) Who gets access to this information, and what is
- it used for? Targeting junk-mail advertising (a minor annoyance)?
- Targeting junk phone calls (a major annoyance)?
-
- Paranoia aside :-), I have never used any of these new ATM's because
- all the ones in the Seattle area seem to stick you with a surcharge.
- Paying with a bank card may be more convenient, but only marginally so
- and the tiny amount of convenience isn't worth the fee for me.
-
-
- David Barts Pacer Corporation, Bothell, WA
- davidb@pacer.uucp ...!uunet!pilchuck!pacer!davidb
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mathew Zank <claris!netcom!zank@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
- Subject: Need Telex Numbers in England
- Date: 19 Sep 90 23:05:17 GMT
- Organization: Netcom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 241-9760}
-
-
- I need to get some Telex or FAX numbers in England (U.K.) I do not
- feel like buying those $100 telex number books. Can anyone help me?
-
-
- Matthew Zank - Eau Claire, Wi
- netcom!zank@apple.com -or- 0003690668@mcimail.com
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: In some cases the Western Union manual assistance
- (operator) position can obtain *single* numbers for you if it is your
- intent to send the telex message at that time. Check your dialing
- instructions for how to reach the Western Union operator, but I think
- you dial '17' if you are on a WUTCO circuit. But if they are as
- understaffed and overloaded as in the past, you'll decide your time is
- worth money and buy the directory! The last time I had occassion to
- use WUTCO operator assistance (on a Saturday morning about 10 AM) I
- waited ten minutes on hold, with only the message 'All positions are
- busy, MOM ... MOM' flashing on my terminal screen every thirty seconds
- or so. (In telex parlance, MOM = 'One Moment Please'). PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 08:22 EDT
- From: "Robert M. Hamer" <HAMER524@ruby.vcu.edu>
- Subject: Sleazy 900 Numbers
-
-
- Not to revisit the sleazy-900-number topic too often (Patrick, should
- we perhaps have a separate Digest on that? Just kidding) a
- 30-year-old, IQ presumable > 100, or 120 or something like that,
- graduate student of mine showed me today a postcard she received. One
- side was blank, except for "URGENT NOTICE. PLEASE RESPOND
- IMMEDIATELY" printed diagnonally in _large_ block print across the
- card.
-
- The other was a jumble of print, with "FINAL ATTEMPT" in large letters
- prominently displayed, under which it said, "Dear C. A. Fortner, We
- are trying to reach you. _Your $5000 credit limit has been approved._
- Call 1-900-230-2600* __Now__.
-
- (The __Now__ represents that it was double underlined. The asterisk
- by the phone number referred to _small_ type at the bottom of the card
- that said, "*1.95 per minute".
-
- Various other phrases were scattered across the "busy" face of the
- card such as "CREDIT APPROVED FOR" above her address, etc. (Except
- for the print on the first-class-postage-paid notice itself, the price
- of the phone call was the smallest print on the credit card. The
- organization was United Productions, Inc., 2300 West Sahara #820/Box
- 18, Las Vegas, Nevada 89102.
-
- Now, this intelligent, post-master's graduate student did not realize
- that the 900-number was one of the call-and-we-charge-as-much-as-we-
- want numbers. She brought the card to me just because she got a kick
- out of the pre-approval of a credit limit for which she hadn't
- applied, considering she is a poor graduate student.
-
- I don't know. As I said before, even being basically a libertarian at
- heart, I am beginning to think some sort of control is warrented.
- This card was designed deliberately to mislead, similarly to cards
- that in the past have come to elderly people in envelopes that looked
- like the envelopes that Social Security stuff comes in, and containing
- "bills" for "insurance" that the elderly hadn't requested. I am
- beginning to harden my position that the only thing that should be
- allowed to appear on a phone bill is the cost/charge of the phone call
- itself. Having an RBOC or similar monoply act as the billing agent
- for anyone it wants to seems to be inappropriate somehow. I suppose
- it might be problematic to define the "cost of the call itself," but
- some sort of solution could be worked out.
-
- Pat -- of course this sort of stuff is a result of the breakup. One
- thing I haven't seen mentioned in the discussion of the merits of the
- breakup of ATT lately is the fact that in many ways, ATT was behind
- the breakup. They wanted to get into computer/hardware/software/data/
- data service etc. sales, and under their tariffs at the time were
- severely restricted. When they pushed to get the restrictions removed
- they were basically told they couldn't because they were a monopoly.
- So they solved that. They agreed to divest themselves of the monopoly
- portion of their business -- the RBOCs. They started out with some
- restrictions on what they could do, but my understanding is that some
- of those restrictions were "sunsetted" and some have been phased out
- according to a schedule and some are being phased out currently.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 0:15:15 CDT
- From: "Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL 34695
- Subject: Re: Call Detail Recording, or Beating the SMDR
-
-
- David writes <inDigest V10,Iss649>:
-
- >When Ma offered TWX ... she did so with a dataset (modem to us folks)
- >run by a telephone that resembed a 565. You called up ... with a
- >special reserved area code...{example: (710)...},listened ... hit
- >the DATA button, and hung up the handset.
-
- >But as the years went by, Ma started having ... people complaining
- >about being billed for TWX calls that they had never made ...
-
- >So some 'brain' decided that rather than adjust a zillion wrong
- >numbers/month, it was easier to put exception code in the billing
- >software to bit bucket all TWX--->POTS {areacode} calls. (This was
- >easy ... as the TWX lines had those xx0 area codes.)
-
- In fact they were only 510, 610, 710, 810 and 910, David ...trash
- anything else.
-
- >But ... some smart user noted this, and installed a {transmitter
- >element in the phone associated with} ... his TWX. Presto-free LD!
- > I understand ... this spread like wildfire, it was YEARS before
- >Ma figured out she was getting had. I suspect she then tried to
- >back-bill some people, but that's locking the barn door after the
- >cow is gone.
-
- In fact, your tale is largely true. Ma had a plan to get every TWX
- over onto a "special exchange" in each major city called a WADS
- exchange (Wide Area Data Service -- Rule Number 14 is NEVER make the
- name something people can figure out; don't simply say it is the TWX
- exchange. In fact, WADS was a compartmented piece of a crossbar
- office. Yes, Virginia, they could compartment an "old" crossbar! It
- was all just good old "class-marking" the lines for a different rate
- treatment.)
-
- But herein lies some understanding of the slothfulness of the old
- monolith. The local exchange people were just slaveys of AT&T, and TWX
- was an AT&T product, not a local Telco product. The whole grand plan
- was organized and run from AT&T. The local slaveys only did as
- instructed, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Billing problems were
- AT&T's problems. So, it was a clever patch to avoid all the hassle by
- just scrapping obviously wrong numbers. The reasoning ran like:
- "Well, the locals probably have a lot of digit errors in what they are
- handling; we'll be getting a better handle on this mess when we get
- all the subscribers in WADS offices; there's NO way they could defraud
- the company from a TWX machine, because I don't know how to or our
- trusty installers out there will bust them in the field anyway; and
- the overhead for losing all those calls is less than the overhead we
- incur to try to take all those complaints. Just charge it off to
- operating expense. We'll get it back in the next rate case when we
- show how our expense is increasing."
-
- THAT, Dear Readers is another example of what can best be called the
- "Bell-Shaped Head." It is one of thousands of things that got Ma Bell
- lynched; the result of a 1913 "cost-plus contract with the public"
- that went so very wrong. It exemplifies why we are going through the
- throes of today. Many of those attitudes STILL pervade the minds of
- local Telco people, like to hear it or not.
-
- <Now crouching in foxhole with flameproof gear on, 'cause I KNOW the
- bees buzz when they get flushed out!>
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Didn't they also have 410 as an area code, serving
- the New England area? PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook)
- Subject: Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing!
- Date: 20 Sep 90 16:46:47 GMT
-
-
- In article <12255@accuvax.nwu.edu>, halle@homxb.att.com (Jeffrey C
- Halle) writes:
-
- > From article <12191@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by depolo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
- > (Jeff DePolo):
-
- > > Having been using US Sprint from home (while still having AT&T at
- > > work) since before US Telecom and GTE Sprint merged, I can honestly
- > > say that their fiber optic network is second to none.
-
- > You mean the fiber network that they lease from AT&T? Virtually all
- > noise in a line is due to the CO and the drop, i.e. the copper from
- > the CO to the network interface at the building. The noise difference
- > between the AT&T line at your office and the Sprint line at your home
- > is due to Bell of PA equipment differences, not IEC differences.
-
- This is BALONEY! I have compared the two carriers with 10XXX access
- from the same location, and Sprint has much better transmission
- quality.
-
- So if Sprint leases their fiber circuits from AT&T (?!), how come AT&T
- can't get as good transmission quality as Sprint?
-
- In article <12187@accuvax.nwu.edu>, rich@pro-exchange.cts.com (Rich
- Sims) writes:
-
- > For what it's worth, I tried Sprint ... it was more expensive than
- > AT&T and the number of connection failures was *significantly* higher.
- > Admittedly, the cost difference was probably caused by my calling
- > patterns from down here in the southeast corner of the country out to
- > the west coast.
-
- WHAT? How can this be? Granted, the rate differences between toll
- carriers these days are mighty small, but AT&T cheaper than Sprint?
- Maybe he is comparing apples and oranges ... some AT&T discount package
- against Sprint's regular rates?
-
-
- Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089
- MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW
- USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Bruce Klopfenstein <bgsuvax!klopfens@cis.ohio-state.edu>
- Subject: Intro to Telecom University Course: Help Sought
- Date: 19 Sep 90 16:20:53 GMT
- Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
-
-
- We are revising our curriculum at Bowling Green State University to
- reflect the changes in the electronic media industries. In this
- light, I am working on redesigning our introduction to broadcasting
- course to become an introduction to telecommunication course. A key
- portion of this course will be a technical overview of various
- telecommunication transmission systems in both broad- casting and
- telephony.
-
- I am seeking example syllabi, course descriptions, textbook citations,
- and any other useful input from colleagues in both industry and
- academia. Suggestions for continuing education workshops and other
- telecommunication tutorials that would help individuals with a
- non-technical background would also be appreciated (cost *is* a
- factor).
-
- Please send email to me directly.
-
- Thanks, in advance, for your assistance.
-
-
- Bruce C. Klopfenstein | klopfens@barney.bgsu.edu
- Radio-TV-Film Department | klopfenstein@bgsuopie.bitnet
- 318 West Hall | klopfens@bgsuvax.UUCP
- Bowling Green State University | (419) 372-2138; 372-8690
- Bowling Green, OH 43403 | fax (419) 372-2300
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #661
- ******************************
-
- ISSUES 661 AND 662 REVERSED IN TRANSMISSION. 662 CAME BEFORE 661.
- ISSUE 663 IS NEXT IN THIS ARCHIVE.
-
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12367;
- 21 Sep 90 4:55 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa29203;
- 21 Sep 90 3:23 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ac03462;
- 21 Sep 90 2:19 CDT
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 1:54:48 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #663
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009210154.ab28572@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Fri, 21 Sep 90 01:54:25 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 663
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Can AT&T "Attack" A Specific Carrier? [Charles H. Mingo]
- Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway [Dan Flak]
- Re: Alternate Call Forwarding [David Lemson]
- Re: Nynex Fast Track: Phone Directories on CD-ROM [Barton F. Bruce]
- Re: Best and Worst (was: Labor Day, 1990) [Mark Steiger]
- Last Laugh! Re: Answering Machine Messages [Gene Spafford]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Charles Hawkins Mingo <decwrl!well.sf.ca.us!well!mingo@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Can AT&T "Attack" a Specific Carrier?
- Date: 21 Sep 90 01:03:52 GMT
- Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
-
-
- The Moderator writes:
-
- >[Moderator's Note: Although most successful advertising consists of
- >positive statements about one's own products rather than negative
- >comments directed to one's competition, there is no law they cannot
- >advertise their competitor's shortcomings if they wish to do so,
- >naming those shortcomings specifically; libelous and slanderous
- >statements excluded, of course.
-
- Actually, making misleading claims about the competition is considered
- "unfair competition" and is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission.
-
- It's not necessary that your claim be false, and the burden of proving
- truth is on the advertiser. Hence the reluctance to make
- generalizations about anything hard to document (such as line quality
- or operator service). Price is about the only thing they can easily
- prove.
-
- This sort of negative advertising is very common where generic goods
- are being sold (such as Tylenol, Anacin, etc.), and there isn't much
- to compare. The FTC has been chasing those giys for years.
-
-
- Charlie Mingo Internet: mingo@well.sf.ca.us
- 2209 Washington Circle #2 CI$: 71340,2152
- Washington, DC 20037 AT&T: 202/785-2089
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dan Flak <flak@mcgp1.uucp>
- Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway
- Date: 20 Sep 90 19:18:24 GMT
- Reply-To: flak@mcgp1.uucp
- Organization: McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc, Seattle, Wa
-
-
- In article <12213@accuvax.nwu.edu> Randal Schwartz <merlyn@iwarp.intel.
- com> writes:
-
- >Well, not quite. The PIC (pilot in command) on a part 91 flight (your
- >typical small plane operation) is responsible for approving the use of
- >nearly any onboard electronics *after* determining that such use will
- >not interfere with any of the avionics in use at the time. I s'pose
- >that you probably aren't using your navigational radios on the ground
- >(one would hope!), but if it interferes with communications with
- >ground control or clearance delivery, the FAA would have a fit.
-
- Not quite! The pilot checks navigation radios on the ground. You
- wouldn't want to have your flight taxi back in because of an erroneous
- "bad check" of the instruments. I suspect that the "right" type of
- transmission would even "spoof" an INS which gets no electronic data
- from the outside world. Also RMI isn't just limited to navigation /
- communications equipment. Nearly everything on a modern jet transport
- is electronically reported. There are transducers of every
- description to measure engine power, airspeed (OK, not the actual
- airspeed itself, but the Central AIr Data Computer), pitch trim ...
-
- (Which, by the way, is one reason why MIL-SPEC coffee pots cost $700.
- This still doesn't explain the toilet seats).
-
- The relatively short wavelengths used by cellular makes it a good
- candidate for producing RMI. I, as a Pilot in Command would be
- hesitant to allow its use during any phase of flight.
-
-
- Dan Flak - McCaw Cellular Communications Inc., 201 Elliot Ave W.,
- Suite 105, Seattle, Wa 98119, 206-286-4355, (usenet: thebes!mcgp1!flak)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 18:02:37 CDT
- From: David Lemson <FREE0612@uiucvmd>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug
-
-
- In a message of 18 Sep 90 05:54:28, Mark Wilkins <wilkins@jarthur.
- claremont.edu> writes:
-
- >In particular, one of them said something like "She told me I couldn't
- >have another part-time job at the same time if I wanted this one. I
- >was thinking I could recommend you..."
-
- [Details of conversation deleted]
-
- > The question I have is this: Does anyone know of a way that someone
- >inexperienced with such matters could accidentally set up a three-way
- >call? Or did this have to be intentional?
-
- >Ignore, for the moment, the possibility of a strange switching error.
- >Specifically, do many types of production phone equipment have bugs
- >which could cause this sort of thing?
-
- Here's my scenario for how this happened:
-
- For simplicity, your friend is person A. Person A is the person with
- the answering machine. The guy who knew your friend and knew there
- was a job opening is person B. Person B has three-way calling, maybe
- doesn't even know it. Regardless, he isn't an expert in its use (as
- are most people who have it). Person C is person B's friend, who is
- about to be sold a job.
-
- Person B called your friend to find out some details about the job.
- He reached Person A's answering machine. Dismayed, he clicked the
- receiver down for a millisecond, and dialed up Person C at the dial
- tone. What he didn't hear was that when he clicked down the receiver,
- he merely flashed and got the dit-dit-dit-duuuuh of a three-way
- calling alternate dial tone. He called person C, connected, spoke for
- a minute, and ... here's where it gets iffy. Person B must have
- accidentally either hit the "flash" button or the switchhook for a
- second, because he clicked over to three-way calling. Before he did
- this, Person A's answering machine could not hear the conversation
- between men, but after this second click, all three were linked
- together. The rest is on cassette.
-
- The moral of the story is: Don't ever use "Flash" to hang up, unless
- you really mean to! You might have three-way calling even if you
- don't know about it! If you hang up, count to five, and then dial,
- you should be safe.
-
- One other thing: The guy must have dialed his friend really fast.
- Because, unless your friend's answering machine is really old, it
- should have timed out when it didn't hear anyone on the line for more
- than ten seconds or so. (While the guy was in the alternate dial tone
- dialing up his friend, your friend's answering machine should have
- heard silence)
-
-
- David Lemson d-lemson@uiuc.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Barton F. Bruce" <BRUCE@ccavax.camb.com>
- Subject: Re: Nynex Fast Track: Phone Directories on CD-ROM
- Date: 20 Sep 90 19:01:50 EDT
- Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc.
-
-
- In article <12300@accuvax.nwu.edu>, ndallen@contact.uucp (Nigel Allen)
- writes:
-
- > Someone has already made posted an article here discussing Nynex's
- > CD-ROMs containing telephone directory information for Nynex's
- > operating companies, New York Telephone and New England Telephone.
-
- Having the phone book on CD-ROM is a tremendous idea, but what NYNEX is
- doing just seems so horribly WRONG.
-
- I see this as the non-regulated NYNEX taking advantage of their
- position and really ripping off the customers of their regulated
- operating companies NYTel and NET&T. The Feds recently fined NYNEX for
- other abuses, and MA and NY need to get them for the same violations.
-
- The phone company provides a pile of local books free for every phone,
- and in large companies that get the annual directory delivery by truck
- load, you probably can't find ANYONE with a recent directory. Why? The
- building super is no fool. He knows if they get delivered, he will
- have mountains of old books to cart to the dumpster. Its much simpler
- to take the NEW pallet load directly to the dumpster. Sure, he saves a
- few for 'special' people. CD-ROMS could come by mail.
-
- Here in Boston, you MUST know whether you need central, north, south
- or west book for the 411 folks to find anyone, and heaven help you if
- your lost friend moved one town farther west than the west book
- covers. Their service and attitude is very poor. The most frustrating
- thing was knowing that the CD-ROM existed last year when we had a long
- phone strike and 411 took many minutes to answer. If NET&T offered me
- a choice of CD-ROM or paper books, I would grab the CD-ROM and run. 411
- would seldom if ever get called.
-
- Many obvious uses include keeping older directories for reference
- later to see who lived where 'back then'. Many libraries have very old
- phone books. CD-ROM would also be good for archiving of this sort, but
- NYNEX MAKES YOU return old CD-ROMS!
-
- Many people have problems reading the fine print in directories, and a
- simple PC based solution would solve this problem, too. Imagine a
- payphone with a built in CD-ROM based directory.
-
- There are ethical issues of sawing down forests to make phone books
- when a very inexpensive CD-ROM would be a much better solution.
- Making the CD-ROM master costs about $1500, and, even in modest
- quantities (under 100), copies with their silk-screened label, a black
- and white simple label insert and the plastic snap open jewel case,
- cost maybe $1.85 each. The raw 'stamp another disc' cost is about 26
- cents.
-
- If the local telco were to offer you a choice of a CD-ROM, or the
- normal pile of white pages, would that seem a fair and reasonable
- option? Maybe a CD-ROM in place of 10 , or 20, sets for a business
- would make sense. Maybe extras should cost $5.00 or even an outrageous
- $10. Maybe monthly phone line charges for subscribers taking one
- CD-ROM rather than twenty sets of books should be LOWER!
-
- When I first heard on NYNEX's service it was about $10,000, and that
- was ONLY for a single workstation and could not be networked! The
- network version cost even MORE!
-
- Something smells rotten.
-
- So what is the problem? The old issue of who 'owns' the phone number
- list, and who can print phone books comes up. The phone industry needs
- its wings clipped, and though I don't seriously want more government
- agencies, I would suggest that if the phone companies think they 'own'
- our phone number list, maybe someone would suggest a government agency
- that would license you to use phone numbers (you would take your
- license to which ever dialtone provider you chose...) and this same
- agency would provide to anyone the master list in some machine
- readable form for a reasonable processing fee. Of course we don't
- want this to happen, BUT use the idea as a club to ensure that the
- telcos don't get too greedy providing lists.
-
- If your local telco is trying to get 411 made chargable, try to get
- the local regulators to only allow it when the telco gives you at
- least a LATA wide CD-ROM as an optional phone book for the same price
- they charge you for the current book(s).
-
- Nynex claims there is all sorts of proprietary software and database
- compression involved in that CD-ROM. I don't doubt it. But it won't
- take long for public domain software to fill the gap, and if
- regulatory mandates required every LEC to provide users a CD-ROM or
- paper book free choice, I am sure MANY software houses would gladly
- provide ALL NECESSARY SOFTWARE at a per copy royalty so low (pennies)
- that, with even a $1.85 cdrom, the TOTAL cost would be drastically
- less than the phone books are now.
-
- The NYNEX CD-ROM doesn't include Soundex lookup, either, so there is
- VAST room for improvement by somebody.
-
- Of course a combined white/yellow CD-ROM book that also had PC
- software ON THE CD-ROM that would let you search for a local hardware
- store that sold metric screws with lefthand threads and automatically
- dial into each hardware store's computer to check inventory and
- offered pricing, and even could let you place an electronic order,
- would need WIDE FREE distribution that the advertisers would gleefully
- pay for if it was competitively (NOT NYNEX style) priced. Well, next
- year, maybe...
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com (Mark Steiger)
- Subject: Re: Best and Worst (was: Labor Day, 1990)
- Date: 20 Sep 90 12:16:24 GMT
-
-
- I was over in Russia about a month ago. I think they had the worst phone
- system. Local calls sounded worse than when I called home!! Go figure...
-
-
- Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo 218/262-3142 300/1200/2400 baud
-
- ProLine.:penguin@gnh-igloo America Online: Goalie5
- UUCP....:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin MCI Mail......: MSteiger
- Internet:penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com
- ARPA....:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin@nosc.mil
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Gene Spafford <spaf@cs.purdue.edu>
- Subject: Last Laugh! Re: Answering Machine Messages
- Date: 20 Sep 90 23:23:09 GMT
- Reply-To: Gene Spafford <spaf@cs.purdue.edu>
- Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
-
-
- This has always been a topic of interest to netters. From my
- archives:
-
- From: spaf@gatech.UI@iUCP (Gene Spafford)
- Newsgroups: net.followup,net.humor
- Subject: Re: Boring answering-machine recordings
- Date: Sun, 20-May-84 19:46:11 EDT
- Posted: Sun May 20 19:46:11 1984
-
- Well, I try to keep mine from getting too boring. The following
- recordings seem to have been enjoyed by most of our callers. Fun
- recordings just take a little imagination and a little time. Anybody
- else got any good ones they'd like to share? (BTW, Dave is my roommate,
- and Waldo is our cat.)
-
- "Hi, this is Gene. Neither Dave, Waldo, nor I can come to the phone
- right now. We're being detained by the authorities due to a
- misunderstanding about some underage sheep. If you'll leave your name,
- phone number, and the time of your call after the tone, we'll get back
- to you just as soon as we can post bail. Baaah-baaahh."
-
- "Hi, this is Gene. Dave, Waldo and I are currently on Neptune helping
- to thwart an invasion by the evil lizard men and their sinister
- companions, the brain moles. If you'll leave your name and number
- after the tone, we'll get back to you as soon as we return
- victorious....or as soon as the drugs wear off and reality reasserts
- itself."
-
- "Hi, this is Gene. Dave, Waldo and I aren't exactly here exactly now.
- We're out testing a new time machine. If you'll leave your name and
- number after the tone, we'll get back to your as soon as we return. In
- fact, if the test is successful, we may even call you before we leave!"
-
- "Hi, this is Gene. Dave, Waldo and I are on a secret mission with the
- galactic patrol and we can't answer the phone. Since call forwarding
- doesn't extend outside the solar system, we've set up this little
- miracle of modern electronics. Just recite your name, phone number,
- and planet of origin after the 'beep', and we'll call you back upon our
- return."
-
- At Christmas:
-
- "Ho, ho, ho! This is Santa. Dave, Gene, and Waldo can't come to the
- phone right now because they're out practising pulling my sleigh.
- It seems those new elves I hired were actually fairies, and all my
- reindeer are down with AIDS. The boys have agreed to pull my sleigh in
- return for my not releasing the photos which illustrate why they're not
- getting anything but coal in their stockings this year. Leave your
- name and number after the tone, and I'll unhitch them and have them
- call. Merry Christmas!"
-
- And for the next few weeks:
-
- "Hi, this is Gene. Dave, Waldo and I can't come to the phone right
- now, because we're taking a hypnotism lesson. But you don't mind,
- because you're feeling so relaxed. Your eyelids are feeling heavy and
- you are getting very drowsy. You're asleep. After you hear the tone,
- you'll leave your name and telephone number. Then you'll hang up and
- mail us all your money. Then you'll dress up in a rubber chicken suit
- and gather twigs to build a nest in your front lawn. After that, we'll
- either return your call or visit you in the home."
-
-
- Not at all a well duck,
-
- (long ago, when this message was written)
-
- Off the Wall of Gene Spafford
- The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
- CSNet: Spaf @ GATech ARPA: Spaf%GATech @ CSNet-Relay
- uucp: ...!{akgua,allegra,ihnp4,masscomp,ut-ngp}!gatech!spaf
- ...!{rlgvax,sb1,uf-cgrl,unmvax,ut-sally}!gatech!spaf
-
-
- (at present, fall, 1990)
-
- Gene Spafford
- NSF/Purdue/U of Florida Software Engineering Research Center,
- Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004
- Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu uucp: ...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spaf
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #663
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08044;
- 22 Sep 90 5:10 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa17605;
- 22 Sep 90 3:47 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa11869;
- 22 Sep 90 2:42 CDT
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 1:43:11 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #664
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009220143.ab00136@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sat, 22 Sep 90 01:42:16 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 664
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- I'm AT&T and I'm Writing to Help You [Bob Clements]
- Toll Denial/Control [Carl Moore]
- AT&T Card (was: Best and Worst) [Carl Moore]
- T1 Dial Backup Options? [Tom Hampton]
- Coin Calls From Narita [Dan Hepner]
- Re: ATM at Retailers (Was: Voice Mail Passwords) [Steve Friedl]
- Seven-Digit Toll Calls and Rate Information [Joe Konstan]
- Re: New Whizz-Bang Phone! [Tom Adams]
- Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug [Dave Levenson]
- The Number of Clicks [Carl Moore]
- Re: SIT Tones on an Answering Machine [Douglas Scott Reuben]
- Awhile Back AT&T Didn't Put it in Writing [Alec]
- Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway [olsen@xn.ll.mit.edu]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Subject: I'm AT&T and I'm Writing to Help You
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 12:14:18 -0400
- From: clements@bbn.com
-
-
- I just got a couple of AT&T's Reach Out offers in the mail, for two of
- my home phone lines (individually billed).
-
- This offer is the one that says (paraphrasing) "We aren't sending this
- offer to just anyone. We're sending it to you because we've analyzed
- your phone bill and you can save money by buying Reach Out, etc."
-
- One of the lines is used only for local calls (mostly data) and has
- not had more than one or two long distance calls in a year. I'd sure
- like to know how Reach Out is gonna save me money with a monthly fee
- and no usage. Unfortunately there's no phone number to call and ask
- them to put their analysis in writing.
-
-
- Bob Clements, K1BC, clements@bbn.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 11:26:20 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Toll Denial/Control
-
-
- From June 1990 Waynesboro (Va.) phone book (CFW Telephone, where CFW
- stands for Clifton Forge-Waynesboro):
-
- Toll Denial blocks all 1+ and 0+ (note that all local calls in this
- call guide are 7D).
-
- Toll Denial 700/900: blocks 700, 900, or both.
-
- Toll Control: Long distance can only be made by dialing personally-
- assigned access code.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 11:48:13 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: AT&T Card (was: Best and Worst)
-
-
- Apparently the AT&T card can only be used (outside the USA) to call
- the USA. It cannot be used for calls within a foreign country (I was
- in the UK early this year). Also, it cannot be used for calls between
- foreign countries.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: You are partly wrong. The AT&T card can be used
- between two countries other than the USA in the case of Japan. And in
- fact, I think in the case of Japan to somewhere (other than USA) you
- don't even use the '1M' international number ... just the regular
- calling card number and PIN. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: tom hampton <tom@litle.litle.com>
- Subject: T1 Dial Backup Options?
- Date: 20 Sep 90 21:24:32 GMT
- Reply-To: tom hampton <tom@litle.litle.com>
- Organization: Litle & Co.
-
-
- We are looking for a way of backing up our T1 line with dial backup
- modems. We are running all TCP/IP traffic over the link, which
- terminates with two Wellfleet bridges.
-
- Any ideas?
-
- Tom Hampton, Mgr. New Technology, Litle & Co. | POB A218, Hanover, NH 03755
- 603 643 1832
-
- tom@litle.com tom@litle.uucp {backbone}!dartvax.dartmouth.edu!litle!tom
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 16:55:38 pdt
- From: Dan Hepner <dhepner@hpcuhc.cup.hp.com>
- Subject: Coin Calls From Narita
-
-
- From: vic@cs.arizona.edu (Vicraj T. Thomas)
-
- >I was in the transit lounge of the Tokyo airport this summer
- >and wanted to call somebody in the city. I didn't have any yen with
- >me but I did have my AT&T calling card. [...]
-
- Here's a story from Narita (Tokyo International).
-
- I changed flights from a direct from Seoul to San Francisco, to a
- flight with a stopover in Narita, and a different arrival time. I was
- being met on arrival, and had to phone the modified arrival time home.
-
- There were pay phones all around, at least one of which was labeled
- with an "international" designation. Right above it was the dialing
- sequence for some 900# to get weather in New York, so you could tell
- what digits to dial.
-
- I _knew_ that calls from Japan were expensive, so I got $10 worth of
- Yen (1200 then) and prepared to spend it all on a quick call home.
- After getting to the phone, I started to put one Y100 coin (88c) into
- the slot, but a Japanese person nearby pointed to the sign suggesting
- that it took only Y10 to use the phone. Well, I went ahead and put in
- my Y100 coin in, dialed as suggested, it rang ... normal 45 second
- conversation ... hangup, all the time waiting for a demand for another
- Y1000 or so. It never happened. The whole call cost 88c.
-
- Now what happened there? Do coin calls from Japan really only cost
- Y100? Did I somehow rip them off? For all I know, I should have
- listened to the local and only used Y10.
-
-
- Dan Hepner
- dhepner@hpda.cup.hp.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Steve Friedl <friedl@mtndew.tustin.ca.us>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords)
- Date: 20 Sep 90 14:16:01 GMT
- Organization: VSI*FAX Tech Ctr, Tustin, CA
-
-
- In article <12318@accuvax.nwu.edu>, bcsaic!carroll@beaver.cs.
- washington.edu (Jeff Carroll) writes:
-
- > I've concluded that if the PIN *does* find its way into
- > Atlantic Richfield's network, it's not likely to do so in such a form
- > as to become archived anywhere. What legal purpose could be served by
- > such a database?
-
- ARCO does not keep this information at all. The in-store computers
- have no way of getting the information from the network, and the
- financial software that does the mini-market accounting does not use
- it at all either [runs on a 3B15]. The franchisees don't get the $.10
- either, ARCO does and probably helps pay for the network.
-
-
- Stephen J. Friedl, KA8CMY / I speak for me only / Tustin, CA / 3B2-kind-of-guy
- +1 714 544 6561 / friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US / {uunet,attmail}!mtndew!friedl
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 17:21:17 PDT
- From: Joe Konstan <konstan@elmer-fudd.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Seven-Digit Toll Calls and Rate Information
-
-
- Repeatedly in the Digest there are people bemoaning the loss of 1+
- dialing for non-local intra-NPA calls. I happen to prqefer 1+ solely
- for "ten digits follow" and seven digit calling otherwise (with all
- intra-NPA calls being seven digits allowed) because I tend to program
- dialers (including the one on my Casio watch) that will move around.
- Recently, I had an idea that would solve most of the problems:
-
- 1. As for dialing patterns, 1+ indicates 10 digits, seven digits
- indicates within NPA, ten digits can include local calls within NPA
- (with 1+NPA removed).
-
- 2. 099+[10xxx]+[1+NPA]+nxx-xxxx gives automatic rate readback.
- Minimum suggested level is voice indicating cost for first n minutes
- and per additional m minutes. Additional features could be provided
- (especially by long distance carriers) to indicate costs at different
- hours, under different calling plans, etc. Pay phones would indicate
- (where appropriate) the coin cost and the default cost (including
- service charge) for a credit card call.
-
- 3. 098+nxx-xxxx is a toll restrictor. It places the call only if it
- is "local" as defined by the local phone company (free, single message
- unit, whatever is currently desired by the 1+7D crowd) and returns a
- non-local number recording otherwise.
-
- The big advantages are that nobody has to dial extra digits if they
- choose not to, and people who want to be protected from toll calls can
- be.
-
- 900 numbers could also be handled through this (easy solution).
- Operators would not be bogged down with rate questions.
-
- The biggest problem is convincing the carriers (and the PUCs) to go
- for it (and I see all the telcos opposing it since they all have
- business they stand to lose if people were aware of the cheapest way
- to place each call.
-
-
- Joe Konstan
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tom Adams - 235-7459 <adams@swbatl.sbc.com>
- Subject: Re: New Whizz-Bang Phone!
- Organization: Southwestern Bell Advanced Technology Laboratory
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 15:25:08 GMT
-
-
- In article <12182@accuvax.nwu.edu> Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com>
- writes:
-
- >>[There is no manufacturer identified, the text calls the phone
- >>"Voiceprint", the illustration shows the name "Voicephone".]
-
- >The *very* first thought I had was "will it work for both my wife and
- >I?". I can see those 50 reduced to 25 by double recordings. Actually
- >some mix, she calls different people than I do, but also some of the
- >same people I do.
-
- The Voicephone *does* work well, with a wide variety of speakers. I
- don't know about ambient noise, though I can bring one into the
- computer room if someone *really* cares. The Voicephone is sometimes
- folled by similar names, but does a good job of distinguishing
- distinctive sounds spoken by different people.
-
-
- uunet!swbatl!adams or adams@swbatl.sbc.com
- Tom Adams: 314-235-7459: Southwestern Bell
- Telephone Advanced Technology Lab
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug
- Date: 21 Sep 90 03:51:31 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12341@accuvax.nwu.edu>, wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu
- (Mark Wilkins) writes:
-
- > This individual, who wants to remain anonymous for obvious reasons,
- > received an extremely odd call on her answering machine at home. A
- > rather mercenary discussion between two college students was recorded,
- > in which they described such matters as exchanging various social
- > favors in return for finding each other jobs.
-
- [What followed was a description of an answering machine's having
- recorded a conversation between two parties, neither of whom was the
- owner of the answering machine, but they conversed about the owner.]
-
- I think I can explain how the recording came to be made. One of the
- parties had called the owner of the answering machine, and reached the
- machine. The caller, having decided not to leave a message, hung up
- for a moment, and then called the other party. The caller, however,
- was calling from a line with three-way calling, or from behind a PBX
- with three-way calling. The hang-up was not long enough to disconnect
- the call, but resulted in a transfer dialtone. The caller then dialed
- the other party. At this point, we have a consultation call. The
- caller is conversing with the second party, while the answering
- machine is on hold. The caller, perhaps thinking it was taking too
- long to connect with the called party, hangs up again, picks up to
- re-dial, but hears the far end answer. At this point, we have a
- conference call involving the two parties and the answering machine.
- By now, the machine has finished its announcement, and is recording a
- message -- the conversation between the other parties.
-
- I have come upon this scenario before, while attempting to debug what
- was originally reported as a faulty voice-mail system.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA Internet: dave@westmark.com
- [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 23:59:06 EDT
- From: cmoore@brl.mil
- Subject: The Number of Clicks
-
- 4 clicks used by 211.
- 5 clicks used by 212, 311.
- 6 clicks used by 213, 312, 411.
- 7 clicks used by 214, 313, 412, 511.
- 8 clicks used by 215, 314, 413, 512, 611.
- 9 clicks used by 216, 315, 414, 513, 612, 711.
- 10 clicks used by 217, 316, 415, 514, 613, 712, 811.
- 11 clicks used by 218, 317, 416, 515, 614, 713, 812, 911.
- 12 clicks used by 219, 318, 417, 516, 615, 714, 813, 912.
- 13 clicks used by 201, 210, 319, 418, 517, 616, 715, 814, 913.
- 14 clicks used by 202, 301, 310, 419, 518, 617, 716, 815, 914.
- 15 clicks used by 203, 302, 401, 410, 519, 618, 717, 816, 915.
- 16 clicks used by 204, 303, 402, 501, 510, 619, 718, 817, 916.
- 17 clicks used by 205, 304, 403, 502, 601, 610, 719, 818, 917.
- 18 clicks used by 206, 305, 404, 503, 602, 701, 710, 819, 918.
- 19 clicks used by 207, 306, 405, 504, 603, 702, 801, 810, 919.
- 20 clicks used by 208, 307, 406, 505, 604, 703, 802, 901, 910.
- 21 clicks used by 209, 308, 407, 506, 605, 704, 803, 902.
- 22 clicks used by 200, 309, 408, 507, 606, 705, 804, 903.
- 23 clicks used by 300, 409, 508, 607, 706, 805, 904.
- 24 clicks used by 400, 509, 608, 707, 806, 905.
- 25 clicks used by 500, 609, 708, 807, 906.
- 26 clicks used by 600, 709, 808, 907.
- 27 clicks used by 700, 809, 908.
- 28 clicks used by 800, 909.
- 29 clicks used by 900.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Thank you Carl, for a particularly delightful item!
- I hope other readers enjoy it as much as I did. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 20-SEP-1990 23:45:46.53
- From: "DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)" <DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
- Subject: Re: SIT Tones on an Answering Machine
-
-
- In response to the Moderator's addition to my earlier posting:
-
- Pat- I thought it was obvious from my posting, but after reading your
- comments allow me to make myself clearer:
-
- I couldn't care less about blocking Telemarketers or whoever from
- calling, and am not trying to rationalize any specific message using
- "8000+ bytes of bandwidth" or whatver.
-
- The point is this: The message is mine, as is the machine and the
- phone line. As long as I don't represent myself as the Telco, I have
- the right to express myself in whatever manner I choose for whatever
- reason, and this is beyond the scope of the Telco's inquiry or
- authority.
-
- I am not disputing that there are very limited circumstances when one
- would forseeably place a SIT tone or whatever on their machines, yet
- that's the customer's business. The point which I was attempting to
- make is that this is not within the realm of the Telco's control, and
- your claim that the Telco has a 'right' to tell customers to alter or
- eliminate a non-fraudulent Outgoing Message is seemingly baseless and
- rationally unsound.
-
- I briefly checked Westlaw the other day before my initial posting, and
- found no recent cases to support Pat's contention. (Doubtful many of
- them would get to Westlaw, granted...)
-
- Perhaps this message is short enough so that I won't hear any
- bandwidth complaints and find out *exactly* what right was granted to
- the Telcos which allows them to censor what they consider to be
- offensive messages and the basis by which is applied.
-
-
- Doug
- (return address removed to conserve even more bandwidth! ;-) )
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 23:24 EDT
- From: Alec <PCHROMCZ@drew.bitnet>
- Subject: Awhile Back AT&T Didn't Put it in Writing
-
-
- Long before AT&T's "put it in writing" commercial, they (or a
- telemarketer representing them) called me, saying that I could save
- money by subscribing to the Reach Out America plan. I told them I was
- extremely interested, could they please send me a pamphlet or
- something in writing? Dead silence...
-
- No kidding, this is a true story. (I still use AT&T though...)
-
-
- -*- Alec -*- -_-
- PCHROMCZ@drunivac.bitnet `---'
- PCHROMCZ@drunivac.drew.edu
- ...!rutgers!njin!drew!drunivac!PCHROMCZ
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 00:12:17 EDT
- From: olsen@xn.ll.mit.edu
- Subject: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway
- Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
- Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA
-
-
- This thread (and the {Wall Street Journal}, and other publications)
- has mentioned a general prohibition against cellular telephone use in
- aircraft. I have searched the FCC regulations for this prohibition
- (to find out its details), but I cannot find it.
-
- Does anyone know what regulation prohibits cellular calls from
- aircraft? (I know that you need the permission of the pilot and/or
- the airline, but that is supposedly not good enough in this case.)
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: It is not so much cellular phones as it is radio
- equipment in general. All radios -- even those which 'only' receive
- i.e. scanners, AM/FM broadcast receivers -- also radiate at least a
- little via what is called the IF, or intermediate frequency. Try
- holding two little pocket radios back to back, both turned on, and
- listen to them fight with each other; squealing, etc. Even that tiny
- amount of RF could adversely affect the aircraft's electronics. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #664
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08069;
- 22 Sep 90 5:12 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab17605;
- 22 Sep 90 3:49 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab11869;
- 22 Sep 90 2:42 CDT
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 2:11:47 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #665
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009220211.ab15936@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sat, 22 Sep 90 02:11:16 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 665
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines [Jim Budler]
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Jim Budler]
- Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor [Hui Lin Lim]
- Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing! [Rich Zellich]
- Re: Answering Machine Messages [James Watcher]
- Re: Call-Me Card [David Tamkin]
- Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing! [John Higdon]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [David Tamkin]
- A Nice Christmas Gift For a Child [Steve Wolfson]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com>
- Subject: Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines (was: Hostile Service Person!)
- Reply-To: Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com>
- Organization: Silvar-Lisco,Inc. Sunnyvale Ca.
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 07:28:45 GMT
-
-
- In article <12321@accuvax.nwu.edu> Rolf Meier <mitel!healey!meier@
- uunet.uu.net> writes:
-
- >Look, the real reason the telephone companies don't like you using a
- >"voice" line for "data" is the different traffic characteristics.
-
- >Why do you think a data line is a ripoff? A typical data call lasts a
- >lot longer than voice calls. This means that the Telco has to supply
- >more call paths in order to maintain the same grade of service. This
- >costs them money. It is only fair that the users of data lines pay
- >the extra.
-
- Uh, this has been argued many, many times. But I have to ask you again
- why phone companies offer discounts for teen lines, and ask premiums
- for data lines?
-
- Teen calls last longer than typical adult voice calls. I admit they
- are comparable to interactive data calls.
-
- Teen calls last longer than the typical data call I see at work.
- During the average hour I have four one minute data calls, and one
- five minute data call.
-
- I spent two hours on the phone to a company employee requiring
- technical assistance from the field. This was a voice call, and it
- happened to be at home. Many of our voice calls are long, really long.
- Trying to type on a keyboard 12,000 miles away, or read a crash
- traceback over the phone can take a long time.
-
- Obligatory Humorous Illustrative Example:
-
- Person supporting by phone says:
-
- "Type cd space slash U S R slash L I B"
-
- Three hours later they determine the person on the other end typed:
-
- cdspaceslashusrslashlib
-
- Back to the subject. I disagree that data calls are by definition
- longer than voice calls. In fact I believe that data calls are on
- average *shorter* than voice calls.
-
- Why?
-
- As I mentioned, I average four one-minute calls per hour, one
- five-minute call per hour. These are the automated mail and news
- exchange calls. They are data calls.
-
- I average ten interactive (i.e. people) dialins per day. Most are about
- twenty-minutes, some are a couple hours. On average it breaks down to
- something like 8x20-minutes, 1x1-hour, 1x3-hour.
-
- Let's figure this out:
-
- 4 calls per hour * 1 minute * 24 hour = 96 minutes per day
- 1 calls per hour * 5 minutes * 24 hour = 120 minutes per day
- 8 calls per day * 20 minutes = 160 minutes per day
- 1 call per day * 180 minutes = 180 minutes per day
- 96 times + 24 times + 8 times + 1 time 556 minutes
-
- 556 minutes / 129 calls = 4.31 minutes per call
-
- Are you really going to try to say that the average voice call is less
- than this?
-
- This is all over voice grade lines.
-
- Why do you insist I pay for a data grade line because usage exceeds
- voice usage? I don't have comparable numbers for our voice usage. But
- I do believe that excluding only two catagories, wrong numbers and
- "He's not in, do you want to leave a message", where they don't leave
- a message, our average voice phone call exceeds five minutes.
-
- 'nuff said. I disagree with your argument.
-
-
- Jim Budler jimb@silvlis.com +1.408.991.6115
- Silvar-Lisco, Inc. 703 E. Evelyn Ave. Sunnyvale, Ca. 94086
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com>
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
- Reply-To: Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com>
- Organization: Silvar-Lisco,Inc. Sunnyvale Ca.
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 07:59:31 GMT
-
-
- In article <12322@accuvax.nwu.edu> ggw%wolves@cs.duke.edu (Gregory G.
- Woodbury) writes:
-
- >In <12247@accuvax.nwu.edu> kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman)
- >writes:
-
- >>Like crossing the numbers of a small meat packing-freezer plant
- >>with the major undertaking establishment in the city.
-
- >>[Moderator's Note: Isn't that marvelous! So there has been a death in
- >>someone's family; it is a time of grief; they call to make funeral
- >>arrangements and wind up getting the meat processing plant. You must
- >>have really split your pants open with laughter at that one. PAT]
-
- >Oh get off it Pat. Your holier than thou attitude in relation to the
- >telco antics issue is getting old. Just because you didn't think of
- >it or get a chance to do it is no reason to be a puritan and deny
- >others their own enjoyment of a situation. I am willing to bet that
- >you are not spotlessly clean in terms of abusive humor.
-
- Oh get off it Greg. Ethically Pat is absolutely correct. This *is*
- abuse of trust. And yes, my thesaurus shows "ethically" as synonymous
- with "carping". Shows our attitude towards ethical behaviour doesn't
- my thesaurus?
-
- "Everybody does it" is *not* an excuse for doing something wrong.
-
- If your children want to smoke pot because "All my friends do and I'll
- look like a (something) if I don't" would you accept that? I hope
- not.
-
- It's a major problem in our society.
-
- Everybody:
- lies on their tax return
- drives 45 in a 35 zone
- makes personal calls on their company phone
-
- It doesn't make it right.
-
- Practical jokes are fun. Yes. Everyone laughs. Yes. Therefore anyone
- who has ever laughed at a "Practical Joke" is guilty of enjoying
- abusive humor.
-
- That doesn't make it right. And the example given was in extreme poor
- taste, and an extreme case of abusive humor. And it *is* a good
- example of abuse of trust.
-
- Pat is correct to find it bad.
-
- My $0.02 worth.
-
- Goodnight, sweet dreams.
-
-
- Jim Budler jimb@silvlis.com +1.408.991.6115
- Silvar-Lisco, Inc. 703 E. Evelyn Ave. Sunnyvale, Ca. 94086
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Hui Lin Lim <limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com>
- Subject: Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor
- Date: 13 Sep 90 05:08:55 GMT
- Organization: HP Singapore
-
-
- > I seem to recall a request posted here a couple of months ago asking
- > whether there was any such beast as a call distribution device (for
- > the home) based on Distinctive Ringing Service offered by the LECs
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- > (variously sold as RingMaster, SmartRing, RingMate around the country,
- > in which multiple numbers mapped to the same line generate different
- > ring patterns). Well, here are excerpts from a recent article
- > describing just such a device.
-
- Could anyone elaborate on how this service is provided? Does it
- require an ISDN switch etc?
-
- Thanks,
-
- HuiLin Lim
- HP Singapore
- limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 7:58:53 CDT
- From: Rich Zellich <zellich@stl-07sima.army.mil>
- Subject: Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing!
-
-
- Tad Cook writes:
-
- > WHAT? How can this be? Granted, the rate differences between toll
- > carriers these days are mighty small, but AT&T cheaper than Sprint?
- > Maybe he is comparing apples and oranges ... some AT&T discount
- > package against Sprint's regular rates?
-
- Well, the last two times I compared *regular* rates (because I don't
- do enough long-distance calling for the discount packages to be cost-
- effective for me), the Sprint rates were cheaper than AT&T's only for
- the first one (or three) minute(s), after which AT&T's were cheaper.
- And the difference on that first increment is only a couple of cents.
-
- Given my calling patterns - a few calls of multi-minute duration each
- - it generally works out that AT&T will be cheaper.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: watcher <nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu>
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 02:09:22 EST
- Organization: Northern Star Communications, Ltd.
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine Messages
-
-
- I had a friend that used MacRecorder and SoundEdit to digitize several
- of PcaBell's "the number you have called..." recordings and then patch
- them together into an OGM that, while resembling the telco's
- recordings, could not possibly have been same; this was done with
- reverb and echo effects. Unfortunately, when most people hear the
- tri-tones, they fear the worst and hang up; hence the next revision of
- this message was preceded by him saying "WAIT! don't hang up...", then
- the tri-tones, etc. thus it is obviously NOT the telco's message, even
- though it is made up of the same component parts. Could this really be
- considered copyright infringement, much the same way copying records
- or CD's or photocopying copyright protected books at the library is
- considered infringement (as per the statement in most books about
- unauthorized reproduction, etc) ?
-
- I was thinking (as I sometimes do) that a neato-keen OGM would be the
- tri-tones, followed by "the person you have reached <name> is
- currently out of service. Please hang up and try again later, or leave
- a message for their convenience." This way people's OGMs would follow
- the same general format, making the interface "standard". Perhaps this
- is silly. My message? Right now it's "we're sorry, we have lost the
- picture portion of our picture-mission, however we will continue with
- the sound..." I'm sure somebody out there in netland will be able to
- guess where I got that little snippet of audio ... (there isn't a
- newsgroup for that stuff, is there?)
-
-
- James Watcher (yes, that's what it says on my driver's license)
- nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu (fast)
- PO Box 875 Notre Dame, IN 46556 (slow)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: Call-Me Card
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 13:35:26 CDT
-
-
- Mark Brader wrote in volume 10, issue 655:
-
- | The examples given of who might want to use this card refer to family
- | members. The subtext, not quite stated, is: family members who
- | couldn't be trusted not to run up your long-distance bill if you gave
- | them your Calling Card number.
-
- The subtext I gather is this: the Call-Me Card (I've also heard it
- named a "Call Home Card" and simply a "restricted calling card") was
- implemented for businesses to issue to employees who couldn't be
- trusted not to make personal calls on a company telephone credit card;
- with the restricted card, the employee could dial only to the
- designated receiving number.
-
- With the software in place, there was no overhead other than the
- advertising to encourage its use for additional calls home by college
- students and the like and thus additional IEC or LEC revenue.
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing!
- Date: 21 Sep 90 11:32:45 PDT (Fri)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 21 at 0:11, tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) writes:
-
- > This is BALONEY! I have compared the two carriers with 10XXX access
- > from the same location, and Sprint has much better transmission
- > quality.
-
- In the Seattle area this may be true. Sprint was the first to provide
- any decent sounding transmission to the Pacific Northwest. I remember
- specifically using it to call friends that live in Tacoma. From here
- and perhaps other parts of the country, that is not true. While they
- are very close, AT&T has the quality nod.
-
- > WHAT? How can this be? Granted, the rate differences between toll
- > carriers these days are mighty small, but AT&T cheaper than Sprint?
- > Maybe he is comparing apples and oranges ... some AT&T discount package
- > against Sprint's regular rates?
-
- Sorry, but my latest rate comparisons (I do this for a living) show
- AT&T to be somewhat cheaper for casual calling inter-LATA but
- intra-state. The most glaring example is a call from San Francisco to
- LA. Night rate: AT&T, $0.14 first minute, $0.11 each additional.
- Sprint, $0.14 each minute, no reduction for additional minutes. The
- cheapest intra-state rates for dialup are AT&T's 800 service which is
- half that of Sprint for the same setup.
-
- I don't mean to be argumentative, but those ARE the quotes.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 14:13:06 CDT
-
-
- Tom Ohmer [O] and Chris Johnson [J] wrote in volume 10, issue 659:
-
- O> My apartment-mate got involved in that pyramid company from
- O> Michigan. They had a `deal' of some kind for him to use MCI. I
- O> found out about it by accident (apartment-mate never mentioned that
- O> he was changing the LD carrier on *MY* phone.).
-
- O> I called MCI Customer `Service' and they told me I had requested
- O> the switch. "No, I did not." "Aren't you <so-and-so>?" "No."
- O> Apartment-mate even used own name when changing my service. Anyway,
- O> after several calls to Ohio Bell, AT&T, and MCI, everything is better
- O> now. I haven't said anything to apartment-mate and likewise. I'm
- O> waiting to see. ;-)
-
- Robert Michael Gutierrez is the local expert on these matters, but
- I'll venture a theory: Tom's apartment-mate wanted MCI 1+ on his own
- line but 10222 access to his own MCI account if he should need to
- place a long-distance call from Tom's line, so he gave MCI both phone
- numbers with explicit instructions that his was to get primary service
- but Tom's was to get secondary service. However, once Tom's number
- gets listed on an account where at least one number has 1+ service,
- MCI's conveniently poor customer service software thinks all numbers
- whose MCI accesses are on that account should have MCI as primary
- carrier.
-
- That was one of the explanations given me about their slamming my
- parents and attempting to slam me; however, Tom Ohmer's apartment-mate
- really *did* want MCI 1+ on his own line. Neither my parents nor I
- wanted MCI as primary carrier, but some overeager MCI rep decided to
- score points by coding my account that way. Result: points possibly
- scored by rep with bosses, many points lost by MCI with me. When
- Telecom*USA loses its autonomy and I get MCI service instead, they'll
- lose me as a 1+ customer.
-
- J> A few years ago, MCI changed my dial 1+ long distance service from
- J> AT&T (my selection) to themselves, against my wishes. After some
- J> wrangling, and about a year or so, they finally credited my local
- J> phone co. account (U.S. West) with the change order service fees.
-
- J> The other day, I received a letter in the mail from MCI saying welcome
- J> to MCI's 1+ service. Wait, I thought, didn't I speak to an MCI
- J> telemarketer a month or so ago, asked to speak with their supervisor,
- J> and explicitly told him NOT TO CHANGE ONE THING? Yes, in fact I did.
-
- J> So I dialed the 700-555-4141 number to see who my long distance
- J> carrier really was, and lo-and-behold, it said MCI.
-
- J> Those jerks told U.S. West to change my service from AT&T to MCI
- J> again, without my permission. Can you tell that I'm annoyed?
-
- Ohio Bell accepts MCI's slam on Tom Ohmer, US West Communications
- accepts it on Chris Johnson, Illinois Bell accepts it on my parents,
- NJ Bell and Pac*Bell let IEC's slam other readers and their acquain-
- tances: as I said before, BOC's believe a comrade-in-arms knows what's
- best for the customer and accept a slammer's word, but independent
- telqi can grasp the concept that customers have some intelligence of
- their own and can make their own decisions. It's enough to make me
- pity the Illinois Bell customers I see out my window.
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Steve Wolfson <motcid!wolfson@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: A Nice Christmas Gift For A Child
- Date: 19 Sep 90 13:26:59 GMT
- Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Hgts, IL
-
-
- They look, like Motorola Portable Phones, but on close examination
- they have the AT&T Logo. But they are not Cellular Phones, for only
- $12.99 the little yuppie in your house can have fun playing Stock
- Broker, Take-Over Artist, or even CEO. with his or her own AT&T
- cellular phone style walkie-talkie.
-
-
- Steve Wolfson -- Motorola Cellular, Arlington Heights, IL --
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #665
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa26820;
- 23 Sep 90 1:24 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa16657;
- 22 Sep 90 23:57 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa03225;
- 22 Sep 90 22:53 CDT
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 22:07:44 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #666
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009222207.ab01247@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sat, 22 Sep 90 22:06:58 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 666
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: CLASSPLUS Service [Douglas Scott Reuben]
- Re: Octothorpes [David E. A. Wilson]
- Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug [Norman R. Tiedemann]
- Re: Complaint to Telco Brings Hostile Service Person [W. Randolph Franklin]
- Re: Bell Canada Restricts 976 [Pete Smith]
- Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines [Dave Levenson]
- Re: Sleazy 900 Numbers [Dave Levenson]
- Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor [Jeff Sicherman]
- Re: MCI Slams Me Again [John Nagle]
- MCI Wins One by Default [Bruce E. Howells]
- What is This World Coming To? [Lou Judice]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: 22-SEP-1990 01:09:38.63
- From: "DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)" <DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
- Subject: Re: CLASSPLUS Service
-
-
- Hi-
-
- I saw that William Degnan in his post on new "CLASSPLUS" services
- mentioned that one of these new services would allow customers with
- Call-Waiting to get a display of a third party calling via
- Call-Waiting. This is indeed interesting, but a bit troublesome.
-
- I thought that the data for Caller*ID was sent between the first and
- second rings, ie, before the phone is picked up. How is it possible
- then to send the Caller*ID signal while a call is allready in
- progress? I am presently working on a few devices which utilize
- Caller*ID, so it would be a real pain if Call-Waiting type Caller*ID
- is not compatible with the "standard" type of Caller*ID (ie, the kind
- Bellcore describes in their literature.)
-
- Do they verebally tell you the calling number after the Call-Waiting
- beep, as in: <BEEP> (or CLICK <BEEP> CLICK for older machines) You
- have a call from 555-1212. Flash once to answer." Nah ... would take
- too long ... oh well, sounds interesting to me, nevertheless.
-
-
- Doug
-
- dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
- dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David E A Wilson <munnari!cs.uow.edu.au!david@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Octothorpes
- Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Wollongong University
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 06:03:58 GMT
-
-
- v116kznd@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Dave Archer) writes:
-
- >I've got a pulse/tone switchable phone that uses * for mute and # for
- >redial. It does mute/redial regardless of whether you're in pulse or
- >tone mode, which of course means, you can't send a * or # in tone.
-
- Here in Australia, Telecom introduced pulse only push button phones in
- about 1970. Some years later they became tone/pulse switchable with 9
- memories (*1 thru *9) and last number redial (#) in both pulse & tone
- mode. To get a * or # in tone mode you had to push ** or ##.
-
-
- David Wilson Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 14:38:50 EDT
- From: Norman R Tiedemann <normt@ihlpy.att.com>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- In article <12341@accuvax.nwu.edu>, wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu
- (Mark Wilkins) writes:
-
- >This individual received an extremely odd call on her answering
- >machine at home. At first, she just assumed this was crosstalk of
- >some particularly nasty kind, although the voices were much clearer
- >than when crosstalk is a problem.
-
- >However, the next day a person she'd been interviewing for a job came in.
- >Instantly, everything clicked. He had been the one whose conversation was
- >recorded on the phone. Apparently he had a sophistcated auto-dial speaker
- >phone, either with more than one line or with three-way callbing.
-
- >The question I have is this: Does anyone know of a way that someone
- >inexperienced with such matters could accidentally set up a
- >three-way call? Or did this have to be intentional?
-
- This is not that odd, I have gotten this on my machine a couple of
- times and I now know exactly what causes it here. The person who was
- recorded just has to have three way calling on his line and it is a very
- easy thing to do completely ACCIDENTALLY!
-
- He calls you, (to schedule the appointment or whatever), gets your
- machine and decides he doesn't want to leave a message. He taps the
- switch hook, which instead of hanging up, gives him the second line,
- the CO on your end doesn't even detect the disconnect and keeps your
- machine connected (and recording). He now has a threeway setup between
- your machine, himself and the next person he called. Everything is
- recorded and unless your machine has a beep or time limit or something
- on it, he never knows. (I guess he would really get confused if he
- tried to three way again.)
-
- So it is fairly easy for an inexperienced "phone user" to do this and
- not have a clue about what is going on.
-
-
- Norm Tiedemann AT&T Bell Labs IH 2G-419
- att!ihlpy!normt 2000 Naperville Rd.
- normt@ihlpy.att.com Naperville, IL 60566
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Wm Randolph Franklin <wrf@mab.ecse.rpi.edu>
- Subject: Re: Complaint to Telco Brings Hostile Service Person!
- Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
- Date: 21 Sep 90 19:43:27 GMT
-
-
- In article <12382@accuvax.nwu.edu> Norman Soley <oracle!nsoley@
- uunet.uu.net> writes:
-
- >Once upon a time someone told me that the reason a data line costs
- >more was because a voice call used less bandwidth when it was
- >multiplexed with other calls on a trunk than a data call did.
-
- At least in the past on transatlantic lines, a form of time division
- multiplexing was used where you had a line only when talking. The
- result was that 1/20 second of so was clipped of the start of every
- phrase while the system was allocating you a new circuit. Therefore
- they had to make the first tone longer when transmitting a number.
-
- Is this still used, and where?
-
-
- Wm. Randolph Franklin
- Internet: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (or @cs.rpi.edu) Bitnet: Wrfrankl@Rpitsmts
- Telephone: (518) 276-6077; Telex: 6716050 RPI TROU; Fax: (518) 276-6261
- Paper: ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 22 Sep 90 09:35:40 GMT
- From: wisdom@cs.uwindsor.ca
- Subject: Re: Bell Canada Restricts 976
- Organization: School of Computer Science, Univ. of Windsor, Ontario, Canada
-
-
- In article <12292@accuvax.nwu.edu>, msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
-
- > An insert in the current Bell Canada phone bill reads in part:
-
- > # Effective August 24, 1990 Bell Canada customers will be able
- > # to reach only Bell 976 Service programs within their area code.
- > # Long distance calls to Bell 976 Service programs elsewhere
- > # within Bell Canada territory -- for example, Ottawa to Montreal
- > # -- will automatically be blocked.
-
- > # ... Bell filed the proposal to block long distance calls to 976
- > # Service programs as a result of customer complaints over unauth-
- > # orized calls. This restriction is meant to protect them from
- > # unexpected long distance charge for 976 Service.
-
- Right. The unmentioned reason is that BC's customers don't make any
- money from calls out of your Area Code ... such calls are only charged
- the LD rates, NOT the maximum $3 per call for a maximum 4 minute
- recorded msg.
-
- With service providers losing out on, for instance, calls to their 416
- numbers by 519 dialers, instead of to the 519 numbers, BC had to
- appease their REAL customers somehow. Thus the "restriction".
-
- In almost all cases, the "unexpected long distance charge" works out
- to about half the cost of an "unexpected local 976 charge".
-
- Service providers for Ontario 976 numbers are required to rent a
- minimum of 30 phone lines, with equipment in specific locations
- (closer to certain CO's, the cheaper the line rentals). I can
- understand why they want to make as much money as they can; but BC's
- "meant to protect" smoke is just annoying.
-
- Ah well, at least we don't have to worry about 900 numbers; the only
- ones we have access to here are the automated voting lines; the most
- popular one is used on the national Movie Channel to pick a new
- release to be shown early.
-
-
- Pete Smith
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines
- Date: 22 Sep 90 11:45:17 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12375@accuvax.nwu.edu>, john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon)
- writes:
-
- > Local calls are charged for and timed. Isn't one charge enough? Or is
- > data something "magic" that costs telco extra? What costs the telco
- > more: a twenty-minute news delivery from my news feed, or a two-hour
- > converstation by my neighbor's teen-aged daughter? See? Forget the
- > authoritative declaration from a Pac*Bell "informant" -- the logic of
- > the position fails as well.
-
- John is quite correct. Using today's technology, and using timed
- billing, data calls cost the telco what voice calls do, and they
- produce the same revenue that voice calls do. Extra charges for data
- calling are not justified.
-
- This may not always be true, however. Future trends go toward
- allocating only the bandwidth required to every connection. Rather
- than assign 64kbit/second of bandwidth to every conversation, whether
- or not it needs it, the future network will only assign the bandwidth
- actually required by the message channel being carried. Speech
- compression and coding technology has advanced a long way since the
- first digital telephony standards were written.
-
- An example of this trend is the use, in the coming digital cellular
- telephony networks, of speech carried at 8 or 16 kbit/second with
- sophisticated digital signal processing being used to remove virtually
- all redundancy from the channel. It's like running batched netnews
- feeds through compress(1). These channels don't work with wideband
- data. The amound of information is greater, and the amount of
- compression that can be realized is less. The minimum required
- bandwidth is greater. The cost is higher. At some point, we should
- expect the price to be higher.
-
- There is technology under development that will characterize
- individual calls as voice or data. Data calls will be further
- characterized by the amount of compression possible (i.e. the minimum
- required bandwidth). I predict that at some point, we'll not only
- find timed local billing, but bandwidth-dependent timed billing. It
- will probably work out that the cost of sending 100,000 bytes of data
- will be essentially the same, whether we use 1200 bps modems, 9600 bps
- modems, or ISDN digital channels without modems. The high-speed links
- will take less time, but the price per minute will be higher, to
- reflect the increased bandwidth requirements.
-
- What I don't know is how long it will be before such things become
- common. I do know that the call-characterization technology is under
- development for the RBOCs today.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
- Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: Sleazy 900 Numbers
- Date: 22 Sep 90 11:29:22 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12371@accuvax.nwu.edu>, HAMER524@ruby.vcu.edu (Robert M.
- Hamer) writes:
-
- [A description of yet another sleazy 900 number practice.]
-
- >Pat -- of course this sort of stuff is a result of the breakup.
-
- I didn't realize that 900 number sleaze was the result of divestiture!
- Could somebody please explain this one?
-
- There are many effects of divestuture, some are good, and some are
- bad. There are also many changes in telecommunications technology and
- in its application. Some are good; some (like 900 sleaze, IMHO) are
- bad. I don't believe, however, that retention of AT&T's monopoly
- status would have prevented this sort of application of their services
- by their customers.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
- Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 12:48:24 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor
-
-
- > I seem to recall a request posted here a couple of months ago asking
- > whether there was any such beast as a call distribution device (for
- > the home) based on Distinctive Ringing Service offered by the LECs
- > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- > (variously sold as RingMaster, SmartRing, RingMate around the country,
- > in which multiple numbers mapped to the same line generate different
- > ring patterns). Well, here are excerpts from a recent article
- > describing just such a device.
-
- I called my LEC (Pactel) and was informed by the representative that
- they do not provide this service, at least in this area (Anaheim,
- Orange County, California). She did say that GTE did support it,
- however.
-
- I would appreciate any information to the contrary, i.e. how to
- educate the reps to exactly what I'm talking about.
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman
- jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: John Nagle <decwrl!well.sf.ca.us!well!nagle@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: MCI Slams Me Again
- Date: 22 Sep 90 06:05:57 GMT
-
-
- How about not paying MCI's bill?
-
- John Nagle
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 21:12:21 -0400
- From: "Bruce E. Howells" <beh@bu-pub.bu.edu>
- Subject: MCI Wins One by Default
-
-
- About two months ago, I wrote an article for TELECOM Digest outlining
- my "slamming" my (now old) residential service, and how a smiling MCI
- rep promised me that the billing would end immediately, that I'd be
- credited immediately for that month's billing on MCI, and would I
- please accept their apology.
-
- Well, since then:
-
- I recieved my September NJ Bell bill. Not only wasn't the promised
- refund there, but ANOTHER month's billing.
-
- Immmediate call to the person at MCI who so kindly fixed this a
- month ago.
-
- Call 1 - Sorry, but she's not working at the moment. May I
- take your name and have her return your call?
- Call 2 - same.
- Call 3 - "I've gotten this story twice now, when is she working?"
- Given schedule.
- Call 4 during appropriate time - Sorry, she's on another call, may I
- put you on hold? Certainly. 10 minutes later, dialtone.
- Call 5 - same
- Call 6 - I'm sorry you've gone through all this Mr. Howells, I'll
- leave a message for her and her supervisor to call tomorrow.
- Call 7 - 9 - same.
-
- Well, MCI, you've won one by default. To keep NJ Bell happy, I've
- paid your bill (MCI billed me via NJB), and since I've now moved to
- Boston, and am being kept quite busy by my studies here, I'm not going
- to pursue this any further. However, you might want to consider the
- public relations damage, at least locally - this story has travelled
- across USENet, as well as throughout the group of people here in
- Boston and New Jersey whom I know ... Maybe it's not a large
- customer-base, but there are a few people out there quite thoroughly
- polarized against MCI, and from what I understand, I'm not the only
- person to be "slammed" in this manner ... It's not really that big a
- thing, when you come down to it - but I'll never do business with you
- again, nor will any phone line I have contact with. My roommate was
- quite interested to hear why I so strenously did not want MCI as our
- Dial-1 carrier.
-
- Oh, by the way - I notice that you've somehow managed to be assigned
- to my new residence number here as the Dial-1 carrier, even after all
- the service requests had "NO DIAL-1, BY SUBSCRIBER REQUEST" on them.
-
-
- Bruce Howells, beh@bu-pub.bu.edu | engnbsc@buacca (BITNet)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Lou Judice <judice@sulaco.enet.dec.com>
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 05:42:33 PDT
- Subject: What Is This World Coming To?
-
-
- I don't understand several of the recent postings in Telecom ... What
- is the point of putting bizzare messages on your answering machine to
- mislead some hapless telemarketing representative, when as Patrick
- states, A POLITE NO THANK YOU WILL DO!
-
- And exactly why would you want to even RISK interference with air
- traffic communications by using your cellular phone while taxiing to
- the gate on an airliner? Remember, an accident here may result in
- severe damage to your portable cellular phone (not to mention you).
-
- What exactly is this world coming to when we can no longer talk to
- strangers, and/or can't wait two minutes to get to make a darned
- telephone call?
-
- Sorry, I just don't get it!
-
- ljj
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Sometimes, Lou, neither do I. And there you have
- issue 666 of the Digest. I wonder if the Devil made me do it. :) PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #666
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa00908;
- 23 Sep 90 13:09 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa17265;
- 23 Sep 90 2:01 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab23679;
- 23 Sep 90 0:58 CDT
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 0:21:06 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #667
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009230021.ab28647@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 23 Sep 90 00:20:59 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 667
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords) [Marc T. Kaufman]
- Re: Splitting Call Transmission Directions [Bill Cerny]
- Re: Calling Examples Needed Showing Sprint Costs More [Jeff Carroll]
- Re: Automatic Call Forwarding [James Watcher]
- Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug [Kevin Mitchell]
- Re: POETS Sets [Donald E. Kimberlin]
- Re: Answering Machine Messages [Peter da Silva]
- Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway [Marc T. Kaufman]
- Re: SIT Tones on an Answering Machine [Jeff Sicherman]
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Bob Yasi]
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Jeff Sicherman]
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Mark Kerr]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman)
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords)
- Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 15:54:43 GMT
-
-
- In article <12026@accuvax.nwu.edu> Dave Speed <dspeed@well.uucp>
- writes:
-
- >On a similar note, our local <Sacramento, CA> grocery chain has
- >installed pseudo ATM's for banking from the checkout line. Perhaps I'm
- >paranoid, but I don't see any advantage (to *me*) in giving the
- >merchant my bank number and PIN. Am I being silly ?
-
- You are not giving your PIN number to the merchant. The PIN is
- encrypted (mixed with your bank card number) in a ONE WAY algorithm by
- a chip that is in the PIN pad itself. The plaintext PIN never sees
- the light of day.
-
-
- Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Toto uucp <Utoto@crash.cts.com>
- Subject: Re: Splitting Call Transmission Directions
- Date: 21 Sep 90 04:14:30 GMT
-
-
- In article <12315@accuvax.nwu.edu> ijk@violin.att.com (Ihor J Kinal)
- writes:
-
- >If both sides went over satellite, that would mean a half-second of
- >extra delay from when one person stopped talking...
-
- Would any reader care to confirm or deny the rumor I heard that in the
- late 1970's AT&T used "satellite avoidance codes" for its inbound WATS
- (now called "800 Service") customers receiving data calls? As I
- recall, certain 800-NNX codes were guaranteed a terrestial routing;
- e.g., 800-223 (NYC Broadway 24) was an avoidance code, but its sister,
- 800-221, might catch a satellite hop on a transcontinental call.
-
-
- Bill Cerny
- bill@toto.info.com | attmail: !denwa!bill
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jeff Carroll <bcsaic!carroll@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
- Subject: Re: Calling Examples Needed Showing Sprint Costs More
- Date: 21 Sep 90 02:10:16 GMT
- Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
-
-
- In article <12208@accuvax.nwu.edu> eli@pws.bull.com writes:
-
- >(You didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition, did you?)
-
-
- NO ONE expects the SPANISH INQUISITION !!!!!
-
-
- (Sorry, couldn't resist. Aren't there any other Monty Python
- fans out there?)
-
- >As for Mr. Higdon being "vindicated" ... by GTE switch local telcos?
- >My guess is that John would rather vindicate the Bay Area *from* GTE
- >switches.
-
- The point I was trying to make is that there *are* some places
- in 415 where the S/N gets pretty bad between the local CO and Sprint.
- I can imagine a variety of reasons for this, some of which would be
- the local telco's fault rather than Sprint's.
-
-
- Jeff Carroll
- carroll@atc.boeing.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: watcher <nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu>
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 02:27:42 EST
- Organization: Northern Star Communications, Ltd.
- Subject: Re: Automatic Call Forwarding
-
-
- Some years ago I heard of an automatic call fowarding device (this was
- before call forwarding was offered as an option by the telcos; it was,
- in fact, pre-divestiture) that worked like this: you had two lines;
- the first one rings (your "real" number); device dials out on the
- second line; then conferences the lines together. Sure, you would have
- to have two lines, but if you already have an extra one for the
- dial-out modem, this wouldn't be a problem.
-
- Such a device would be simpler and more straightforward, and with the
- addition of some intelligence (say, a 6502? :-) could be reprogrammed
- remotely, have pin numbers, etc, as well as other interesting
- features, such as the ability to forward a number only during certain
- hours, otherwise leaving it unanswered or diverting it to an answering
- machine.
-
- It could forward to different numbers based on the time of day, or the
- day of the week. It could keep a log of when calls were forwarded,
- where, and for how long. If it knew how much it cost, it could keep
- tabs on that. If the volume of calls was not too terribly high, it
- could even forward both directions, i.e. calls on line A get
- forwarded to number C through line B, while calls to line B get
- forwarded to number D through line A. Better yet: have three-way
- calling on the outgoing line that could then be used remotely; even
- better still, have TWO outgoing lines with three-way calling that
- could be conferenced together WITH the incoming line, making it
- possible to set up small conferences by dialing in. Of course, the
- more complicated, the more engineering headaches and programming
- nightmares, but such a thing is definitely feasible, and probably not
- very expensive. I could probably even design the controller and
- write the software! Unfortunately, I'm just not an analog person.
-
-
- James Watcher (yes, that's what it says on my driver's license)
- nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu (fast)
- PO Box 875 Notre Dame, IN 46556 (slow)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: kam@dlogics.COM (Kevin Mitchell)
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug
- Date: 22 Sep 90 05:40:44 GMT
- Organization: Datalogics Inc., Chicago
-
-
- We have had similar problems with a voice mail system we were
- evaluating here at Datalogics.
-
- We have over 100 phones on Centrex, with some third party call
- direction equipment for the receptionist, and a setup that connects
- you to the paging loudspeakers if you dial 8 from any phone.
-
- People would try to make intraoffice calls. After four rings, they
- would figure the person wasn't at his desk, so they'd flash the
- switchhook, dial 8, and announce "XYZ please call 3NNN" or somesuch.
- Immediately afterward, the voicemail system would ask the entire
- company if they would want to leave a message via the loudspeakers.
-
- You see, the "dial 8" is just another extension, and the switchhook
- flash had the effect of transferring the voicemail system to the
- paging extension. When the paging system "answered," the voicemail
- would announce. After about a month of listening to this, we decided
- against the voicemail system. It turns out that people would rather
- leave computer mail instead.
-
- Now, we only have to smirk at the occasional accidental connection of
- the operator to the paging system.
-
-
- Kevin A. Mitchell (312) 266-4485
- Datalogics, Inc Internet: kam@dlogics.UUCP
- 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!kam
- Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 16 Sep 90 17:33 EST
- From: "Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL
- Subject: Re: POETS Sets
-
-
- Tad writes <in Digest Vol10,Iss648>:
-
- >This is an electronic key system called the Walker Poet.
-
- Didn't ANYBODY recognize the product marketing failure a "clever" name
- like POETS put in the mind of every office worker, the expectation it
- only worked on Friday: "P... On Everything; Tomorrow's Saturday!" Oh,
- how much I heard that and it burned into the buyers' minds. Small
- wonder Walker didn't get rich on that one!
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine Messages
- Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
- Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 14:13:24 GMT
-
-
- In article <12141@accuvax.nwu.edu> tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) writes:
-
- > Reading it doesn't do it justice. You have to hear it. Maybe someday
- > I can arrange to put it on for a weekend, just so Digest readers can
- > call and hear it!
-
- Digitize it and send it in to Pat. I'm sure he'd LOVE to ship binaries
- with TELECOM Digest.
-
- Actually, now that I think of it, an FTP site for answering-machine
- messages might not be a bad idea. They're certainly more *useful* than
- the dirty pictures group.
-
-
- Peter da Silva.
- +1 713 274 5180.
- peter@ferranti.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman)
- Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway
- Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 17:35:42 GMT
-
-
- In article <12412@accuvax.nwu.edu> olsen@xn.ll.mit.edu writes:
-
- >This thread (and the {Wall Street Journal}, and other publications)
- >has mentioned a general prohibition against cellular telephone use in
- >aircraft. I have searched the FCC regulations for this prohibition
- >(to find out its details), but I cannot find it.
-
- It is certainly too recent to have found itself printed in CFR47 (the
- FCC rules and regulations). In any event, the cabin crew announcement
- these days is exceedingly explicit in disallowing operation of ANY
- radio equipment (transmitters or receivers) at any time. US Air also
- requested that we turn off laptop computers and video games during
- takeoff and landing.
-
- All of the above is, I believe, related to the FARs proscribing
- interference to navigational equipment. The airborne cellular
- (specifically) prohibition has be discussed here before, and relates
- to cell overloading. Maybe someone can look it up in the cellular
- rules.
-
- I wouldn't be surprised to find the laptop prohibition on takeoff and
- landing to be an attempt to prevent injury from flying objects in the
- event of an accident.
-
- Sometimes there may be MORE THAN ONE reason for a rule.
-
-
- Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 12:46:47 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Re: SIT Tones on an Answering Machine
-
-
- I'm not a lawyer or a regulatory expert, but it seems to me that
- requesting and being granted telephone service creates at least an
- implied contract between the subscriber and the supplier which
- includes an obligation to follow all regulations and rules whose
- purpose is to maintain the reliability and efficiency of the phone
- network and which do not unreasonably interfere with the customers use
- of it.
-
- It seems to me that aping signalling tones could, under some
- circumstances interfere with its operation, if only by confusing
- humans whose job it is to troubleshoot and repair. And their use seems
- like mostly a game to those using them, not a necessary use.
-
- Like the highway system or any other shared media or conveyance, the
- phone system works because there are limits on its use to maximize its
- benefits for all (even the stockholders), not merely for those who
- want to maximize their own satisfaction or amusement.
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman
- jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Bob Yasi <mtxinu!algol.la.locus.com!yazz@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
- Date: 21 Sep 90 19:50:36 GMT
- Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Inglewood, CA
-
-
- I was pretty surprised that our Moderator posted the so-called joke
- about crossing the lines of the meat packing plant with the funeral
- home -- unless the purpose was to let people that these things
- actually DO occur and to get some comments. Well, here are my
- comments.
-
- Perhaps the perpetrators have not yet experienced much grief at the
- death of a loved one, or have not comforted a loved one going through
- such grief themselves. Well, I hope you do, and soon, and that
- someone does something awful to make it worse and that you think of
- this when it happens.
-
- Then laugh. Ha Ha Ha.
-
- These jerks have my utter condemnation -- and I haven't even addressed
- the privacy issue!
-
-
- Bob Yazz
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: You saw the messages because I try to avoid
- censoring on the basis of content, provided there is at least some
- telecom relationship in the message. Sometimes when there are *so
- many* replies all saying the same thing I have to cut out a few, but I
- avoid censoring merely because I don't like the content. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 12:47:46 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
-
-
- I wonder how some of the apologists for the shenanigans being
- passed off as inside humor would react if the Postal Service did the
- following to their mail:
-
- - randomly opened it and made copies to pass around the
- office and to other parties
- - intentionally routed it to the wrong party occasionally
-
- I don't see any difference between these and the activities of the
- insiders, other than the media and the employer, and that doesn't
- change the ethics of the situation.
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman
- jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 08:16:24 EDT
- From: Mark Kerr <markke@pro-charlotte.cts.com>
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
-
-
- In-Reply-To: message from ggw%wolves@cs.duke.edu
-
- >Oh get off it Pat, Your holier than thou attitude in relation to the
- >telco antics issue is getting old. Just because you didn't think of
- >it or get a chance to do it is no reason to be a puritan and deny
- >others their own enjoyment of a situation. I am willing to bet that
- >you are not spotlessly clean in terms of abusive humor.
-
- That's probably true ... someone should ask Pat about the things he
- used to do with some BBS software that a branch of the Chicago Public
- Library used to run. Something about "back doors".
-
- I'm sure none of us are perfect. Heck, I still remember getting my
- wrists slapped in college over using the state tie line to call
- friends at other campuses. Hey, the tie line was programmed and
- available from my dorm phone!
-
- Mark Kerr
-
- UUCP: ....!crash!pro-charlotte!markke
- ARPA: crash!pro-charlotte!markke@nosc.mil
- INET: markke@pro-charlotte.cts.com
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: The Chicago Public Library used to run a BBS for
- book and movie reviews, plus social issues discussion. This was in the
- period 1981-83. It ran on an Apple II computer donated by Friends of
- the Chicago Public Library. It originally used the ABBS program. Three
- of us donated money to buy the People's Message System (PMS) software
- which had recently been written by Bill Blue. The same three of us
- installed it. I was the volunteer Sysop for several months in 1982-83,
- and maintained the board from home most of the time. The library
- staff was supposed to turn on the machine on at 9 PM each night when
- the library closed, and turned it off in the morning. Library patrons
- used the computer and a variety of software during the day. I never
- knew what I would find from one night to the next or if in fact they
- would remember to turn on the BBS before closing for the night. The
- only trap door I knew of in the PMS software was the one the author
- put there and documented in the manual: a certain command permitted
- the Sysop or super-user to exit to DOS for maintainence work on the
- board, followed by a PR#6 to bring it back up again, although frankly
- there were so many people getting involved there what you say about
- additional trap doors -- if there were any -- doesn't surprise me.
-
- I finally resigned in May, 1983 when my own BBS was about to go on
- line. There were various differences of opinion between the
- supervising librarian and myself about how the library BBS should and
- should not be operating. One such difference centered on the lack of
- security on the BBS. In the early eighties, only a few of us were
- demanding verifiable user information before issuing passwords. Most
- BBS', including the library, ran wide open in those days. The attitude
- of the supervising librarian was that 'it had to be open to all users
- since it (the library) was a public, tax-supported institution.'
- Needless to say, the message base was a mess much of the time and
- apparently the software got that way also.
-
- It made better sense to spend my energy on my own board instead,
- although I still do volunteer work for the Chicago Public Library, as
- I have since 1981. Now I produce programs for the visually handicapped
- in the library's Radio Information Service which are broadcast over
- closed-circuit SCA (Subscriber Carrier Access) radios throughout
- northern Illinois. If you are interested, our signal travels with
- WBEZ, the Chicago Board of Education radio station. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #667
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa00922;
- 23 Sep 90 13:09 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab17265;
- 23 Sep 90 2:03 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ad23679;
- 23 Sep 90 0:58 CDT
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 0:51:46 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #668
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009230051.ac11564@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 23 Sep 90 00:51:28 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 668
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Payphone Message Service Trial Ending [David Leibold]
- Teleconferencing Symposium in Toronto [David Leibold]
- COCOTery [John Higdon]
- Multiple "Zones" in One Cell Service Area [Douglas Scott Reuben]
- Answering Machine OGM = Telco Message? [Dave Levenson]
- False Telco Trouble Reports [Dave Levenson]
- Sprint Wars (was: Sprint Puts it in Writing: On Your Bill!) [Todd Inch]
- Crosstalk in Nontwisted Cable [Alec]
- Two-way Radio/Telephone Dispatch Interface [Tad Cook]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: woody <djcl@contact.uucp>
- Subject: Payphone message service trial ending
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 23:09:51 EDT
-
- From the Bell (Canada) News, it seems that the Payphone Messenger
- trial that has been going on in Ottawa is something of a success. This
- is the service for payphones that allows one to leave a voice message
- should a called number be busy or unanswered. If the caller wants to
- leave a message, the '#' button is pressed and the caller leave a
- message. The called number will ring every fifteen minutes until
- answered or until two hours have passed. Leaving a message costs the
- coin deposit (25c); the caller can also hang up on the busy or
- no-answer and get the deposit back.
-
- The Ottawa trial will end on 1st October, and the service will stop,
- at least until the service is offered commercially next year, as a
- feature of the new Millenium payphones. The Marketing and Development
- groups of Bell Canada involved in the trial won an award for the
- project.
-
- 89% of Payphone Messenger users who tried the service were satisfied
- with it. On the receiving end, three-quarters of those receiving a
- payphone message considered it a "major improvement" in payphone
- service. (The figures were based on those interviewed with respect to
- the message service).
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: woody <djcl@contact.uucp>
- Subject: Teleconferencing Symposium in Toronto
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 23:16:45 EDT
-
-
- Telecom Canada presents a Teleconferencing Symposium
-
- 15-16 October 1990, Downtown Holiday Inn, Chestnut St, Toronto
-
- Highlights:
-
- * Keynote speaker F.G. "Buck" Rodgers, author of "The IBM Way"
- * Professor Jerry White, author of "Intrapreneuring, The Secrets of
- Corporate Success in Canada"
- * Dr. Robert Johansen, President of the Institute for the Future
-
- Costs: 2 days, meals + workshops incl - $495
- 1 day, meals + workshops incl - $325
- trade show postion only - two days - $25
-
- To register, send cheque or money order (payable to the 1990
- Teleconferencing Symposium) to Debbie Smith, Corporate Business
- Development, Rm 740, 160 Elgin Street, Ottawa Canada.
-
- More info: Cathy Thompson (613) 781.1394
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: COCOTery
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com>
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Date: 20 Sep 90 23:22:48 PDT (Thu)
- From: John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com>
-
-
- An informal cruise of COCOTs in the "Post PUC Reform Era", reveals
- that little if anything has changed. Every (read that EVERY) COCOT
- that I have fiddled with since that fateful day in August when all was
- supposed to be made right has at least one significant PUC violation.
- Some are still charging $0.25 for local calls. Some restrict 950. Most
- restrict 811. A few don't allow end-to-end DTMF signaling. None allow
- 10XXX dialing. None post rates or instructions on how to access
- different carriers.
-
- So what is the point of regulation? COCOT owners will do what they
- please, anyway they please. No one will enforce anything in this
- arena. I have reported many of the more flagrant violators by phone
- and in writing, using a Pac*Bell form designed expressly for the
- purpose. Not one reported phone has yet cleaned up its act.
-
- So what is to be done about these things? Personally, I replaced my GE
- Mini cellular phone with a Motorola flip phone so that I could always
- carry it with me. I'd rather pay a few cents more to a cellular
- provider than to COCOT scum. The principle of COCOTs has got to be
- near the top of the list of "bad things" to come out of divestiture.
-
- To those of you who have groused about the impracticality of making
- international calls from payphones, I have a comment: It will only get
- worse. To the degree that COCOTs take over and displace Utility
- payphones, casual public use of this country's telephone network will
- disappear. Not only is it impractical to call Fiji, it is also
- impossible to call across town to retrieve voice mail messages.
- Instead of becoming more useful, the public telephone has become
- practically useLESS.
-
- COCOTs have certainly played a part in the roaring success of cellular
- communications. You don't suppose...
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 21-SEP-1990 04:20:38.88
- From: "DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)" <DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
- Subject: Multiple "Zones" in One Cell Service Area
-
-
- Hi-
-
- I was going over my Roam charges for Cell One/San Francisco, and
- noticed that not only was I billed the $2 daily charge for the SF
- area, but they also billed me $2 for going to Santa Cruz and Santa
- Rosa, both of which are "part" of the Cell One/SF system.
-
- When I first called Cell One/SF in June, I asked "What is the extent
- of your coverage area?", and after that, "Could you please tell me
- your system ID code so that I can set it in my phone so the "ROAM"
- light will come on when I leave you area..." (and not have to pay Roam
- charges for temporarily calling from another system)? They (VERY
- politely, with NO hesitation!) told me "Oh, sure, it's 00041, and as
- long as you don't see the ROAM light come on, you'll definitely be in
- our area...".
-
- Now when I was down in Santa Cruz, or up in Petaluma (in the Santa
- Rosa "Zone"), my "ROAM" light didn't show up, yet Cell One/SF insists
- that both the Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa systems have different System
- ID numbers. I was told Santa Cruz was something like 30041 and Santa
- Rosa was 50041. (Can't recall exactly.) If this is the case, why
- didn't my phone show ROAM while I was in those areas? Is the first
- digit (ie, the 3 or 5 in this case) insignificant, ie, do cell phones
- ignore it for purposes of comparison with the "home" Sys. ID code in
- the phone?
-
- A friend of mine who has Cell One/SF as her "home" system says that
- when she goes down to Santa Cruz her "ROAM" light doesn't go on, and
- she isn't billed anything extra or at higher airtime rates.
-
- So is this just some way to rip-off Roamers unsuspectingly? (Which in
- my experience with Cell One would be quite atypical). I try to make
- every effort not to incur lots of daily charges, including programming
- my phone so I can tell when I'm in a new system, but if I can't tell
- when I am "roaming" by the "ROAM" indicator, how can I tell?? The
- amount in question was only $18, so it's more the principle of the
- thing that concerns me.
-
- Anyone else notice this?
-
- (I am on GTE so this is the first time I noticed this myself...)
-
- Just wondering.
-
- Doug
-
- dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
- dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Answering Machine OGM = Telco Message?
- Date: 21 Sep 90 15:06:36 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- A friend in Morristown, NJ went away for a couple of weeks. His
- number was 267-1234 (actual number changed to protect...). He didn't
- want a ring-no-answer situation for two weeks, and didn't happen to
- have an answering machine at the time. He used call- forwarding.
-
- He forwarded his calls to 263-1234 (note the similarity to his own
- number) in nearby Boonton, NJ. That number was not in service at the
- time.
-
- Callers who dialed 267-1234 got a SIT followed by "The number you have
- dialed, 263-1234, is not in service." This probably gave many callers
- the impression that they had mis-dialed the third digit. Someone
- called NJ Bell repair service. They investigated, and then canceled
- call-forwarding on my friend's line. When he returned home and found
- that callers were reaching ring-no-answer, he complained to NJ Bell.
-
- In the end, they wrote him a letter appologizing for having cancelled
- his call-forwarding, and promising never to do it again! They never
- claimed that he was not within his rights in forwarding his calls to a
- non-working number. He has since forwarded his calls to
- permanently-busy test numbers on such occasions.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA Internet: dave@westmark.com
- AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: False Telco Trouble Reports
- Date: 21 Sep 90 15:15:05 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- Here at Westmark, the number on the second line in the hunt-group that
- serves our modem pool was assigned to us about three months after its
- former subscriber had requested a number-change to unlisted.
-
- While I was installing the modems, it began to ring. I answered from
- the butt set, and explained to the caller that the Schwartz family no
- longer had that number. This happened several times during the first
- hour. I called NJ Bell and advised them that the number they had just
- assigned was perhaps not yet "ripe for reassignment" and asked them
- for another. Because it is the second line in a hunt group, we don't
- care what its number is, and nobody else needs to know. NJ Bell
- replied that they'd charge us $50 for a number-change. I replied that
- in that case, I'd keep the number and let them deal with the resulting
- confusion.
-
- Repair service has called four times in the past year, apparently when
- a caller complained to them that they were trying to call Mr. Schwartz
- and got a loud tone (modem answer tone) on the line. On each
- occasion, I explained to the repair agent that the line had been
- re-assigned, no-longer belongs to anybody named Schwartz, and is now
- part of a group of data lines.
-
- I'm still willing to let them change the number if they're willing to
- do it gratis, but they aren't. I haven't heard from repair service
- lately, so perhaps the callers have finally learned.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA Internet: dave@westmark.com
- AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Todd Inch <gtisqr!toddi@yang.cpac.washington.edu>
- Subject: Sprint Wars (Was: Sprint Puts it in Writing: On Your Bill!)
- Organization: Global Tech International Inc.
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 21:11:06 GMT
-
-
- In article <12176@accuvax.nwu.edu> eli@pws.bull.com (Steve Elias)
- writes:
-
- >C'mon, folks. Enough whining about Sprint "putting it in writing".
-
- I don't think so. I wish I HAD it in writing before I did switch to
- Sprint, it might have saved a lot of time and some money.
-
- Both on their TV ads and on the phone to both myself and my wife,
- their sales staff promised that I would save money switching to
- Sprint. LIE!!!
-
- I found out about their lie when AT&T "slammed" me after my wife
- called for information. I was infuriated that I had been slammed and
- demanded GTE change me back and refund the difference I would have
- saved if I had been on Sprint, as was my desire.
-
- The nice service rep at GTE called back and told me I would have paid
- $8.50 MORE if I had Sprint for the (typical, for me) calls on my bill.
- She called each carrier and got their costs for those calls and
- compared them for me. That worked out to about 10% of that bill.
-
- Yes, all my LD calls are normally intRA-state, inter-LATA (206 to 509)
- but Sprint never EVER mentioned intER-state call savings, or
- intRA-state exceptions, or "average calling patterns" or anything like
- that.
-
- >10 cents per minute anywhere in US.
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- This is a continuation of the BIG LIE. It means "anywhere except
- within your own state." But, who would ever dial long distance inside
- their own state? (sarcastic smiley here)
-
- And you want to talk about Customer Service? Took six calls, with
- LOTS of auto-attendant menus and "on-hold" time to get Sprint to
- credit me for the difference between them and AT&T and the $12 dial-1
- LD changeover fee.
-
- While I'm ranting, let's talk about those 100% digital calls. Yes,
- CALLS is what they've told me, not NETWORK. Lie #2, especially if
- you're in the west half of the United States. How many miles of
- analog lines does your call travel through to get to their digital
- network?
-
- I don't know, maybe it does help if you're calling cross-country, but
- I just can't get past the notion of your quality is only as good as
- the weakest link. Is this as opposed to a satellite-based network?
- Maybe that is the weakest link for the other guys.
-
- Well, I haven't thrown out the 800-service literature from Sprint yet,
- and I did give the lady an hour of my time to discuss the company's LD
- plans, so I'm not totally predjudice about Sprint, they just don't
- help me at home and I don't like sales jer ... uh, people, lying to
- me.
-
- Can anyone comment on the modem-connection quality via Sprint from/to
- the Seattle area? Sounds controversional in central CA, anyway.
-
- I also don't like being slammed, but that did show me true costs, and
- they (AT&T) paid for the changeover themselves. I also give them a
- little leeway since my wife did said she was interested, but didn't
- explicitly ask for or authorize the switchover.
-
- Interesting note here, GTE swears the LD carrier cannot authorize a
- changeover (maybe local policy?), that the subscriber has to call it
- in himself, but obviously it can happen here.
-
-
- Todd Inch, System Manager, Global Technology, Mukilteo WA (206) 742-9111
- UUCP: {smart-host}!gtisqr!toddi ARPA: gtisqr!toddi@beaver.cs.washington.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 23:18 EDT
- From: Alec <PCHROMCZ@drew.bitnet>
- Subject: Crosstalk in Nontwisted Cable
-
-
- For some reason, my house was wired with six pair nontwisted cable.
- When I got a second line and hooked it up to a second pair, the
- crosstalk was so bad as to make both lines unuseable. At the time I
- had one of those cheap phones that when the ringer is turned on and
- you pulse dial on that line it chirps. Well, from that phone (with it
- on hook!) you could listen to this side of the conversation on the
- *OTHER* line! I ended up running quad (I had some) separately for the
- second line.
-
- -*- Alec -*-
- PCHROMCZ@drunivac.bitnet
- PCHROMCZ@drunivac.drew.edu
- ...!rutgers!njin!drew!drunivac!PCHROMCZ
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook)
- Subject: Two-way Radio/Telephone Dispatch Interface
- Date: 21 Sep 90 18:19:59 GMT
-
-
- I am looking for a device that can go between the telco line side of a
- key telephone system and a two-way radio system. The operator of the
- device pushes the line button on the key telephone associated with
- this device, and audio from the radio system is patched into the
- telephone. The operator can then press a footswitch to key the
- push-to-talk circuit of the radio, and talk over the radio using an
- operator's headset that is part of the telephone.
-
- I thought of using a ringdown circuit between a line position on the
- key system and one of those simplex autopatches, but there must be a
- simpler solution that does not require the ringing voltage from the
- ringdown circuit, and provides it's own battery feed to the phone
- system. I also would not need the sampling that the simplex patch
- provides which allows a mobile unit to access the phone system. This
- is a very simple patch that would be under control of the operator.
-
- Is there a stand-alone unit that would do this? I know that Plant
- Equipment has a card (the 3134 KTU Radio Access) that does this, but
- only as part of their whole key system.
-
- If anyone has some thoughts on this and cannot reach me via email, you
- can call me from 7:40am to 3:50pm Pacific Time weekdays at
- 800-824-9719 or 206-881-7000, and ask for PAUL COOK.
-
-
- Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089
- MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW
- USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #668
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07953;
- 23 Sep 90 20:37 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa26316;
- 23 Sep 90 19:10 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa10863;
- 23 Sep 90 18:07 CDT
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 17:39:03 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #669
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009231739.ab30593@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 23 Sep 90 17:39:04 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 669
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [Robert Michael Gutierrez]
- Re: What Is This World Coming To? [John Higdon]
- Re: Sprint Wars (Was: Sprint Puts it in Writing) [John Higdon]
- Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing! [Rich Sims]
- Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords) [Steven King]
- Stealing ATM PINS [Isaac Rabinovitch]
- The Phone Book [David Leibold]
- Finding Your Own Phone Number [Patrick Tufts]
- References Wanted on Toll Fraud [David Appell]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Robert Michael Gutierrez <gutierre@noc.arc.nasa.gov>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 05:54:01 GMT
- Reply-To: Robert Michael Gutierrez <gutierre@noc.arc.nasa.gov>
- Organization: NASA Science Internet - Network Operations Center
-
-
- dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) writes:
-
- |> Tom Ohmer [O] and Chris Johnson [J] wrote in volume 10, issue 659:
-
- |> O> My apartment-mate got involved in that pyramid company from
- |> O> Michigan. They had a `deal' of some kind for him to use MCI. I
- |> O> found out about it by accident...
-
- |> O> I called MCI Customer `Service' and they told me I had requested
- |> O> the switch. "No, I did not." "Aren't you <so-and-so>?" "No."
-
- |> Robert Michael Gutierrez is the local expert on these matters, but
- |> I'll venture a theory: Tom's apartment-mate wanted MCI 1+ on his own
- |> line but 10222 access to his own MCI account if he should need to
- |> place a long-distance call from Tom's line,....
-
- I agree with this theory, but unfortunately, there are a number of
- customer service reps who don't know how to implement this theory.
-
- All customer service reps are trained in a two week class, and in that
- two week class, about one semester's worth of Telecomm 101 is shoved
- down their throat, and three days is left to use the CICS-VS system
- MCI uses on their IBM 3090's. (The specific CICS system was named
- OCIS [On-Line Customer Information System]). Even for me, coming from
- a totally different computing environment and never having used an IBM
- 3270 terminal, it was difficult (I caught on the telecomm part real
- easily).
-
- Let's face it, customer service is there for one purpose only in any
- industry, to hold people's hands. Comprehensive training to use the
- equipment is secondary. Most of the customer service new-hires always
- end up getting trained by their next-door cubicle neighbors, not in
- the training class. And the new-hire, with 30+ calls on hold, isn't
- going to go run off to find his/her manager or "group leader" for
- something he or she does not understand. He or she is going to take a
- guess.
-
- Personally, I'd ask the rep how long they have been working there.
- Over three months would be a minimum. Six months to one year is
- preferable. Over one year is considered an "old-timer", and is rare
- in their Customer Service Department.
-
- |> J> A few years ago, MCI changed my dial 1+ long distance service from
- |> J> AT&T (my selection) to themselves, against my wishes....
-
- |> J> The other day, I received a letter in the mail from MCI saying welcome
- |> J> to MCI's 1+ service. Wait, I thought, didn't I speak to an MCI
- |> J> telemarketer a month or so ago, asked to speak with their supervisor,
- |> J> and explicitly told him NOT TO CHANGE ONE THING? Yes, in fact I did.
-
- |> J> Those jerks told U.S. West to change my service from AT&T to MCI
- |> J> again, without my permission. Can you tell that I'm annoyed?
-
- |> Ohio Bell accepts MCI's slam on Tom Ohmer, US West Communications
- |> accepts it on Chris Johnson, Illinois Bell accepts it on my parents,
- |> NJ Bell and Pac*Bell let IEC's slam other readers and their acquain-
- |> tances:.... [etc]
-
- All done on mag tape. Nameless and faceless.
-
- No amount of "tag my LEC account *never* to accept changes from an IEC
- (L.D. Company) concerning my PIC (Primary Interexchange Carrier, or
- L.D. company)" wil ever help anybody in the U.S. of A. All that is
- done is a "note" is entered on your account ... three whole lines that
- a rep can enter into your account ... anything can be entered (like
- "Customer is a 5150"* [see note below]) etc ... but the computer could
- care less about those notes. It still will merrily process the PIC
- change off the mag tape.
-
- Computers out of control:
-
- This should be a comp.risks issue, really. A telemarketer sets off a
- chain of computer events that is vurtually unstoppable. Only the
- hapless customers get to clear the aftermath ... or at least try.
-
-
- Robert Michael Gutierrez
- Office of Space Science and Applications,
- NASA Science Internet - Network Operations Center.
- Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.
-
- (Footnote: "5150" is the Welfare and Institutions code that gives the
- State of California power to incarcerate anybody found to "mentally
- unstable", and is the official California Highway Patrol code for
- "Mental Case". "5150" designations were used liberally at MCI at one
- period in time until they got nervous about it.)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: What Is This World Coming To?
- Date: 23 Sep 90 00:09:00 PDT (Sun)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 22 at 22:07, Lou Judice <judice@sulaco.enet.dec.com> writes:
-
- > What exactly is this world coming to when we can no longer talk to
- > strangers, and/or can't wait two minutes to get to make a darned
- > telephone call?
-
- I would agree, but there was one time that I couldn't take it anymore
- and whipped out the phone anyway. To set the scene, you have to know
- something about the San Jose airport. Picture a sign that reads "San
- Jose Municipal Airport" and the "Municipal" is scratched out and the
- word "International" is scrawled above it. That describes the
- pretentions.
-
- OK, on with the story. I was scheduled to fly to Burbank (a minor
- flight) and the delays were mounting. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we regret
- to inform you [of another excuse for the flight being delayed]". So I
- went to the nearest Pac*Bell payphone to call my customer and announce
- my delay. It seems that all of the phones in the San Jose Cattle
- Airport are on some screwy carrier back to the CO on 95 Almaden Ave.
- And at that time, it was out of whack. Apparently the DTMF was being
- distorted to the point of unrecognition. It took several attempts to
- dial the call, and it was impossible to enter the calling card. The
- operator could barely understand me (from any payphone -- they were
- all the same) and so I gave up.
-
- On board the plane, we hit more delays and were informed that it would
- be at least twenty minutes before we would be in position to take off.
- That did it. Out came the cellular phone and a quick and easy call was
- made to my customer. Being fully aware of the RF ramifications, it was
- the least I could do to an airline that had really blown it. However,
- since we did eventually take off and arrive safely in Burbank, it
- apparently did them no harm.
-
- > Sorry, I just don't get it!
-
- Sometimes one can't help it.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: Sprint Wars (Was: Sprint Puts it in Writing: On Your Bill!)
- Date: 23 Sep 90 02:36:06 PDT (Sun)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 23 at 0:51, Todd Inch writes:
-
- > Yes, all my LD calls are normally intRA-state, inter-LATA (206 to 509)
- > but Sprint never EVER mentioned intER-state call savings, or
- > intRA-state exceptions, or "average calling patterns" or anything like
- > that.
-
- > >10 cents per minute anywhere in US.
- > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- > This is a continuation of the BIG LIE. It means "anywhere except
- > within your own state." But, who would ever dial long distance inside
- > their own state? (sarcastic smiley here)
-
- This is a point that should probably get more than a mention,
- particularly for those who live in the western United States.
- Intrastate rates, not being regulated by the FCC, are usually a
- ripoff. And ALL advertising by the IXCs involves interstate calling.
- That's just fine for folks who live in the tiny (areawise) eastern
- states and make lots of calls across state lines.
-
- But a lot of us out here find that virtually all of our calling is
- within the state. In fact, many businesses find that the majority of
- calling is within the LATA. A frequent converstation I find myself
- having is with LD salescritters who can't understand that it doesn't
- make any difference what carrier my client uses -- it won't affect the
- amount spent on telephone calls one bit. Ninety-nine percent of the
- toll calls are carried by Pac*Bell anyway.
-
- A number of well-meaning readers advised me a while back to check out
- this plan or that plan involving long distance. Unfortunately, no IXCs
- currently offer any calling discounts for traffic within California.
- Since I make about two calls outside the state per month, no IXCs
- interstate rates or packages interest me in any way.
-
- Periodically, I do review my calling within the state and look for the
- best bargain. Right now, it's AT&T, particularly their WATS service.
- Recently, I checked the various rates and found Sprint intrastate
- INWATS to be nearly twice the AT&T rate. When the Sprint rep proudly
- quoted me the rate, I mentioned that I would stick with AT&T. He asked
- why and I told him that he had just quoted an amount that was double
- AT&T's. He insisted that I was mistaken and then went into a spiel
- about how when I actually got the bill, I would find that I had been
- "misled" by AT&T. Then I told him that I was looking at my bill. He
- told me that he needed to check it out and would call me back.
-
- Still waiting.
-
- Moral of the story: Be very careful when shopping for intrastate
- rates. Don't just assume that everyone is cheaper than AT&T. In fact,
- don't assume anything!
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 06:09:52 EDT
- From: Rich Sims <rich@pro-exchange.cts.com>
- Subject: Re: Make Sprint Put it in Writing!
-
-
- In-Reply-To: message from tad@ssc.UUCP
-
- > In article <12187@accuvax.nwu.edu>, rich@pro-exchange.cts.com (Rich
- > Sims) writes:
-
- >> For what it's worth, I tried Sprint ... it was more expensive than
- >> AT&T and the number of connection failures was *significantly* higher.
-
- > WHAT? How can this be? Granted, the rate differences between toll
- > carriers these days are mighty small, but AT&T cheaper than Sprint?
- > Maybe he is comparing apples and oranges ... some AT&T discount package
- > against Sprint's regular rates?
-
- I dunno ... ask Sprint "how it can be"! As I've already said, the
- rates compared were Sprint's best rates (at least, the best ones they
- told me about) and AT&T's ROA plan.
-
- Are you trying to say that the comparison is only valid if Sprint's
- best rate is better than AT&T's worst rate? I can save you lots of
- money on all your daytime L/D calls myself, and no hassles with
- changing your current L/D carrier, either. Just start making the
- calls at night! Send me the $5 signup fee and 10% of your monthly
- savings, please. :-)
-
- I hereby extend my previously stated offer to discuss a "wonderful
- business opportunity" to you, also!
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Steven King <motcid!king@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords)
- Date: 23 Sep 90 16:49:02 GMT
- Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Hgts, IL
-
-
- In article <12439@accuvax.nwu.edu> kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T.
- Kaufman) writes:
-
- >You are not giving your PIN number to the merchant. The PIN is
- >encrypted (mixed with your bank card number) in a ONE WAY algorithm by
- >a chip that is in the PIN pad itself. The plaintext PIN never sees
- >the light of day.
-
- A one way algorithm? Pray, how does the bank decode it to verify you?
- A gigantic lookup table?
-
- I really am curious about this, the sarcasm is just a side-effect. :-)
-
-
- Steve King, Motorola Cellular (...uunet!motcid!king)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Isaac Rabinovitch <claris!netcom!ergo@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
- Subject: Stealing ATM PINS
- Date: 23 Sep 90 15:43:32 GMT
- Reply-To: claris!netcom!ergo@ames.arc.nasa.gov
- Organization: UESPA
-
-
- In <12369@accuvax.nwu.edu> davidb@pacer.uucp (David Barts) writes:
-
- >john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) writes:
-
- >> Do you think that he is capturing all those
- >> PINs in the back room so that he can retire to Tahiti? I would lay
- >> odds that the merchant does not record your PIN, which is normally
- >> simply sent along with the rest of the encrypted transaction to the
- >> banking center or network...
-
- >Precisely. If the ATM terminals found in stores are anything like the
- >ATMs in banks, it just encrypts the number on the card and the PIN and
- >sends them off to the bank computer for verification.
-
- You're assuming that the terminal is functioning the way it was meant
- to. An obvious way to steal PINs would be to modify the terminal so
- that it records each PIN before transmitting it. True, this would be
- too sophisticated a fraud to be managed by your typical dishonest
- merchant (the kind that pads his credit-card transactions). But it
- occurs to me that somebody who knows your PIN can authorize a lot of
- heavy-duty funds transfers.
-
-
- ergo@netcom.uucp Isaac Rabinovitch
- {apple,amdahl,claris}!netcom!ergo Silicon Valley, CA
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: woody <djcl@contact.uucp>
- Subject: The Phone Book
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 0:30:24 EDT
-
-
- Someone wanted some details on a publication called "The Phone Book"
- written by an ex-Bell employee.
-
- The Phone Book - What the Telephone Company Would Rather You Not Know
- by J. Edward Hyde (a nom de plume)
-
- The copyright on it was 1976
- Publisher: Henry Regnery Company of Chicago
- (Canadian publication by Beaverbooks in Pickering Ontario)
-
- Library of Congress Catalog Card #: 76-6275
- ISBN: 0-8092-8008-6
-
- Indeed, it is something of an inside scoop of the old Bell monopoly;
- it is now something of a historical reference what with the
- divestiture and other technological changes ... however, some rather
- shady stuff, and some rather humorous stuff, gets an airing.
-
- More details can be provided if there is interest.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Why not! It is an old book, and somewhat out of
- date as a result of divestiture, but if you would care to quote a few
- of the juicier tales I imagine some readers would enjoy it. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Patrick Tufts <zippy@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
- Subject: Finding Your Own Phone Number
- Date: 21 Sep 90 19:17:49 GMT
- Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science Dept
-
-
- How can you find out the number of a given phone? I seem to recall
- that linesmen dial the operator and ask for a ringback.
-
- What do you have to say to an operator to get the number of the line
- you're calling on? Are there any numbers you can call that will tell
- you your own number (like how (700)555-4141 tells you your LD
- carrier)?
-
-
- Pat
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: In nearly every telephone exchange there is some
- number which will read back the number of the phone placing the call.
- There is no standardization to this; the numbers are different
- everywhere, and change frequently. They are always non-pub, of course.
- I suppose you could always make a collect call from the phone in
- question to a number you control, then examine your phone bill when it
- arrives the next month to see whose call you agreed to pay for. The
- linemen can call the test board, but there has to be some reasonable
- excuse, such as a pending work order. It also helps if the test board
- recognizes your name/voice. The most honest way to go about it would
- be to ask the person who owns the phone, "what number is this?" PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 10:59:00 EDT
- From: David Appell <appell@hou2d.att.com>
- Subject: References Wanted on Toll Fraud
-
-
- I'd appreciate any references to books or journal articles on the
- history and current state of fraud on telephone networks. Thanks.
-
-
- David Appell
- ...att!hou2d!appell
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #669
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08818;
- 23 Sep 90 21:36 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa25412;
- 23 Sep 90 20:14 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab26316;
- 23 Sep 90 19:11 CDT
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 18:57:39 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #670
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009231857.ab31764@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 23 Sep 90 18:57:22 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 670
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- A Sprint Employee Comments About ATT and Divestiture [via Steve Elias]
- Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony [Craig Jackson]
- Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin [Donald E. Kimberlin]
- Equal Access on College Campus [James Watcher]
- Itemised Bills - An Australian Followup [David E. A. Wilson]
- Burglar Alarm Problems [Nigel Allen]
- AMI on T1 Lines [Roger Fajman]
- AT&T USAdirect Service News: New Regions; Slightly Better Rates [W. Uhrig]
- MCI Around Town Surcharge and +1 800 444 4444 [tim@maggot.gg.caltech.edu]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Reply-To: eli@pws.bull.com
- Subject: A Sprint Employee Comments About ATT and Divestiture
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 16:12:59 -0400
- From: Steve Elias <eli@pws.bull.com>
-
-
- Patrick -- here are some edited email messages from my Sprint friend.
- I've cleaned up the grammar and stuff (I guess Telemail has a fairly
- hokey editor.)
-
- Comments from a person who works for Sprint.
- He is writing his own opinions, not the official company line:
-
- ----------
- About 800 from intrastate, there is nothing illegal about it from an
- OCC standpoint. I don't know what the deal is about ATT having a
- different 800 # for intrastate but I think it goes back to the days of
- band 5 wats type stuff. I will check this.
-
- Again, the ATT guy was right [I was wrong -- eli]; It's not that ATT
- is giving switching stuff away, it's giving away PBX and telephone
- equipment and services. I will get back into this when I get a chance
- to give a more in-depth reply.
-
- One other thing: ATT was extremely inefficient prior to divestiture,
- going from 400k employees to 240k wasn't because they needed the
- money, it was to cut out fat. Also, when you are digital, you need
- less manpower to maintain.
-
- ----------
-
- Subj: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
-
- The guy has a few points, he's not quite right on all of them. But he
- did point out a few flaws in your [Eli's] argument. I can't go into
- them all right now but I will mention a few things.
-
- 1) Most important: ATT can combine long distance and equipment.
- NOBODY ELSE CAN to that extent because nobody else owned a company
- like Western Electric. For large customers looking for all in one
- vendors (ie: tariff 12) this is where it makes a huge difference and
- where the free "pops" in the equipment arena hurts (this is illegal by
- the way, but is under the table). The thing that stops MCI and Sprint
- is that it's impossible for us to do that unless say, we get Northern
- Telecom to throw in some free stuff to subsidize our contracts -- not
- likely. You get the idea, one side of the company subsidizes the other
- (in the ATT world which is a luxury OCCs don't have.)
-
- 2) The residential market is NOT relatively unprofitable; it's
- extremely profitable because overhead is much less than in say, the
- WATS area of the business. Also, the big argument about price
- ceilings and floors in the FCC had to do with ATT lowering rates for
- tariff 12 type large customers to lock them in and subsidizing this by
- raising residential rates. To some extent this is exactly what has
- been done.
-
- 3) Don't let anyone kid you, ATT was at one time the largest company
- in the world. Even today, in an unregulated environment, they could
- blow anybody away. It isn't in their best interest to do that now
- because, then, they would be right back where they started and the
- feds would crank down harder. The idea is, to gain as much market as
- possible but make sure a few of the OCCs get some crumbs to keep the
- 'competitive market' alive.
-
- ----------
-
- Subject: Monopolies (was: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin)
-
- ATT is probably about 10-15 times our size; closer to 10 I think.
- Also, you forgot to mention 800. ATT has major control over that
- market: about 90%. There are also only a limited # of exchanges
- available to OCCs. Also, there isn't yet portability of 800 numbers
- so pretty much when you have a good number or want a specific number,
- it depends who has the exchange. Again, ATT has 90%.
-
- ----------
-
- The deal of the consent decree (the deal of the century) ended up with
- ATT taking the most profitable parts of Ma Bell (Long Lines and
- equipment) and dropping the least profitable (RBOCs). The original
- goal of Justice in the whole antitrust suit was to separate Western
- Electric from ATT. This fight goes back to Eisenhower (I think) in
- 1954. Read _The Deal of the Century_ by Stephen Cole.
-
- [all previous text written by the US Sprint person, edited by Steve
- Elias.]
-
- Peace.
-
- eli
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Thanks for sending this along, but I again ask why
- it is your friend at Sprint feels it is necessary to remain anonymous.
- No one else does that here, and we have had many far more controversial
- messages than your friend has sent along. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Craig Jackson drilex1 <drilex!dricejb@husc6.harvard.edu>
- Subject: Re: Phreaks of the Monolithic Era of Telephony
- Date: 22 Sep 90 16:03:05 GMT
- Organization: DRI/McGraw-Hill, Lexington, MA
-
-
- In article <12329@accuvax.nwu.edu> asuvax!mothra!bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu
- (Jon Baker) writes:
-
- >> [Moderator's Note: The fact that some employees of AT&T in the past
- >> acted like jerks is not a sufficient reason to have broken them up,
- >> that's for sure. PAT]
-
- >Sure it is. Such behavior is the lowest-level manifestation of what
- >'the company' had become. Directly or indirectly, this activity was
- >representative of the company's attitude and philosophy - the overall
- >AT&T gestalt, if you will.
-
- >[Moderator's Note: Then we disagree on the extent of the 'jerk-ism',
- >and its prevalence in the old Bell System. My experience was that the
- >fools there were only a very small percentage of the total work force.
- >Most of the people were hard workers, dedicated to the welfare of the
- >customers.
-
- I agree that really serious forms of jerk-ism, like breaking into
- people's calls from the frame, was uncommon before, and is probably
- uncommon today. I suspect that milder forms of jerk-ism, like
- listening to those calls, was as common as idle time in the frame.
- The breakup seems to have reduced that idle time, judging from telco
- employment statistics. Electronic exchanges have also contributed to
- this -- by eliminating most needs for monitoring personnel, less
- people are standing around the frame, busy or not.
-
- Pre-breakup telco personnel were dedicated professionals, at least
- when they weren't on strike. But there probably were too many of
- them, and the subset of them who worked in the business office all too
- often were not interested in serving the customer, but rather the
- company.
-
- About the breakup, I don't think it was morally necessary. I do think
- that it was necessary to remove all monopolies, local and
- long-distance. (The fact that the local monopolies have not been
- eliminated does not change my opinion.) I also think that given the
- political clout of the higher echelons of AT&T, something like the
- breakup would have been necessary to get through to them that things
- were supposed to change.
-
-
- Craig Jackson
- dricejb@drilex.dri.mgh.com
- {bbn,axiom,redsox,atexnet,ka3ovk}!drilex!{dricej,dricejb}
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 16:43:56 CDT
- From: Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL
- Subject: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
-
-
- John writes <in Digest V10, Iss 648:
-
- >The only direct competitor attack that {referring here to AT&T}
- >I have noticed seems to be against MCI in the use of the counters at
- >the bottom of the screen showing the "big savings". This is a direct
- >takeoff on the old MCI commercials.
-
- >Which ads go after Sprint specifically?
-
- It probably is a regional thing, John. The nets and local buys allow
- smart advertisers <and AT&T is certainly a smart advertiser> to vary
- campaigns by areas. Here, we get a mixture of the slams on MCI with
- counters, but also an equal proportion of panning the "Sprint
- Pin-Drop."
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: watcher <nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu>
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 19:38:05 EST
- Organization: Northern Star Communications, Ltd.
- Subject: Equal Access on College Campus?
-
-
- Here at Notre Dame (I don't go to school here, just visit), all the
- telephone service in dormitories is handled by CTI (meaning
- CTI-installed switches and CTI-provided 1+ long distance). Apparently
- students can't get AT&T (or other) long distance provided via 1+; they
- have to place operator-assisted calls (and pay rates for same). Is
- this strictly legal? I haven't checked to see whether 10XXX dialing is
- permitted, but I would gather that it is not, given the state of
- affairs. Can anything be done about this, considering that it is
- indeed a campus, and as such the facilities are either privately owned
- or in some other sort of legal grey area which exempts them from
- having to provide Equal Access?
-
-
- James Watcher (yes, that's what it says on my driver's license!)
- nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu (fast)
- PO Box 875 Notre Dame, IN 46556 (slow)
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Not long ago a thread here in the Digest discussed
- blocking of 10xxx from privately owned switches. I maintained it was
- not legal to block access (after all, the court order called for it to
- work that way), and a couple special issues of the Digest were devoted
- to rebuttals from folks saying they should have the right to run their
- switches the way they wanted. That's where it seems to stand at this
- point. A university would seem to be a re-seller of long distance
- service (except for its own administrative calls) and probably would
- be in a different category than a business in which all the long
- distance calls placed were presumably administrative, or business
- related. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David E A Wilson <munnari!cs.uow.edu.au!david@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Itemised Bills - An Australian Followup
- Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Wollongong University
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 90 08:47:34 GMT
-
-
- A few months ago I mentioned that Telecom/OTC were now providing IDD
- itemised bills to customers on new exchanges. My quarterly phone bill
- arrived with my first itemised IDD call:
-
- Date Time Place Number Min:Sec $
- 19 Jul 11:06pm USA Rhode Is 1401863xxxx 1:59 2.42 [my xxxx's]
-
- So on a sample of one I guess OTC at least decodes the country and
- area code to get the place.
-
- As for Trunk call itemisation, metropolitan residential customers will
- start getting it in November, 1990 and all should have it by 1994.
- Country residential customers should have it by 1997. This should give
- us one of the most missed features of the US phone system.
-
- We don't have COCOTs - although businesses can rent Telecom Gold
- Phones and get the difference between the 22c charged to subscribers
- and the 30c charged to pay phone users (per call unit).
-
- Telecom are going to introduce pre-purchase phone cards (looks similar
- to the Japanese variety - punches a hole to show the remaining value
- of the card). They hope this will reduce vandalism by reducing the
- coins held in the phone.
-
-
- David Wilson Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Nigel Allen <ndallen@contact.uucp>
- Subject: Burglar Alarm Problems
- Reply-To: ndallen@contact.uucp (Nigel Allen)
- Organization: Contact Public Unix BBS. Toronto, Canada.
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 06:45:21 GMT
-
-
- Walter Kemmerer describes receiving strange calls at five-minute
- intervals that turned out to originate from a fried alarm system.
-
- It is probably a bad idea to rely upon an alarm system that calls 911
- itself. In Toronto, the police will not respond to computer-generated
- emergency calls because if the large number of false alarms.
-
- If you want a burglar alarm system, you should probably consider
- having one installed by a reputable contractor and monitored by a
- reputable security company. When an alarm comes in, the security
- company calls 911.
-
- Security is more than just alarms, of course. Your local police
- department can offer advice on making your house less attractive to
- burglars (good locks everywhere, lights above all entrance-ways,
- Neighborhood Watch programs, etc.). If you run a BBS and ask new
- users to request validation in writing or to send you a financial
- contribution, consider using a post office box so that your address is
- not widely known.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Roger Fajman <RAF@cu.nih.gov>
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 13:06:28 EDT
- Subject: AMI on T1 Lines
-
- I would appreciate a short definition of exactly how AMI works on T1
- lines. I took a short course from Datatech Institute recently on
- T1/T3 technology. (I liked the course, by the way.) Now I would like
- to compare AMI to B8ZS for meeting one's density requirements on our
- clear channel T1s, but can find only the definition of B8ZS in the
- course notes. AMI is mentioned as being less preferable, but is not
- defined.
-
- A reference to look it up in would be helpful too, especially if it's
- a publication likely to be found in a computer-oriented library.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 1990 5:43:50 CDT
- From: Werner Uhrig <werner@rascal.ics.utexas.edu>
- Reply-To: Werner Uhrig <werner@rascal.ics.utexas.edu>
- Subject: AT&T USAdirect Service News: New Regions; Slightly Better Rates
-
-
- ***** for an updated free wallet card, call 1-800-874-4000 ext. 374 *****
-
- I just received ATT's International TraveLer Newsletter in which they
- announce USAdirect service availability in some new regions and better
- rates in some others (as follows):
-
- a) The initial rate period is reduced from three to one minute
- (additional minutes rate is effective after first minute.)
-
- b) The rate for "additional minutes" stays the same, but the
- "initial minute" is slightly cheaper.
-
-
- NEW regions (and their access numbers) are:
-
- Anguilla 1-800-872-2881
- Antigua Boatphone Marine 872
- Bermuda 1-800-872-2881
- Egypt 356-0200
- El Salvador 190
- Haiti 001-800-872-2881
- Honduras 123
- Malaysia 800-0011
- Montserat 1-800-872-2881
- Zimbabwe 110-899
-
-
-
- Examples of (new) RATES for some countries:
-
- <country> <first> <additional> [rates per minute]
-
- Australia $3.10 $1.25 [first minute seems unusual]
- Bahamas $1.20 $.78
- Bermuda $1.27 $.85
- Brazil $2.50 $1.04
- France $1.71 $1.06
- Germany $1.77 $1.09
- Japan $3.36 $1.24
- Korea $3.10 $1.37
- Netherlands $1.70 $1.05
- UK $1.20 $.94
-
-
- Applicable Service Charges: (per call)
-
- AT&T Calling Card $2.50
- Collect $5.75
- Person-to-Person $6.00
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: <tim@maggot.gg.caltech.edu>
- Subject: MCI Around Town Surcharge and +1 800 444 4444
- Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
- Date: 23 Sep 90 18:45:48 GMT
-
-
- I read in this group that Around Town calls are no longer free of
- surcharge, but cost 25c per call surcharge. I asked an MCI
- representative if that is the case, and she confirmed it.
-
- I recently listened to the information available on MCI's information
- line (+1 800 444 4444) ....
-
- "The unique money saving feature ... is called
- Around Town. ...can save you up to 80c on every
- card call. ...Around Town savings means that
- your calls are free of normal..."
-
- I had kept replaying the message to get the actual wording. After
- awhile, the computer must have tired of talking to me and handed me
- off to a live person (:-D). I asked her why the message claimed there
- was no surcharge for Aound Town, and she said that AROUND TOWN IS
- STILL FREE OF SURCHARGE IF YOU CALL FROM WITHIN A FEW FEET of your own
- house. Does anybody know if this is really the case? Can MCI
- distinguish actual distances within a single prefix? I guess I'll
- have to watch my phone bill closely.
-
- (I use the feature even from my own home to avoid outrageously high
- PacBell intra-lata long distance charges. I can't dial 10xxx because
- PacBell blocks that for intra-lata calls. The absense of a surcharge
- on the 950-1022 calls was a convenient work-around.)
-
-
- Tim
-
- [Moderator's Note: Did she say 'from within a few feet' or was that a
- typographical error on your part? From within a few feet would entitle
- one to use their cordless phone in the backyard, I guess. When I
- called the recording just now, it made reference to 'within your local
- calling area', which I assume means your toll-free area. Why don't you
- call again and ask a live human-being there for more specifics. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #670
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09835;
- 23 Sep 90 22:39 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa07096;
- 23 Sep 90 21:18 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ae25412;
- 23 Sep 90 20:14 CDT
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 20:09:14 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #671
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009232009.ab12096@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 23 Sep 90 20:09:04 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 671
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: ATM at Retailer's (was: Voice Mail Passwords) [Randal Schwartz]
- Re: Signal Routes [Donald E. Kimberlin]
- Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug [Brandon S. Allbery]
- Re: Automatic Call Forwarding [Marc T. Kaufman]
- Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines [Peter da Silva]
- Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Ken Stox]
- Re: Answering Machine Messages [Donald E. Kimberlin]
- Canadian Cellular Users [Ken Jongsma]
- Audible Ringback (was: Leaving Brief Messages) [Donald E. Kimberlin]
- 1-900-963-3333 [Peter da Silva]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [David E.A. Wilson]
- TCA Social Studies [Bill Cerny]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Randal Schwartz <merlyn@iwarp.intel.com>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords)
- Reply-To: Randal Schwartz <merlyn@iwarp.intel.com>
- Organization: Stonehenge; netaccess via Intel, Beaverton, Oregon, USA
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 00:14:10 GMT
-
-
- In article <12469@accuvax.nwu.edu>, motcid!king@uunet (Steven King)
- writes:
-
- | >You are not giving your PIN number to the merchant. The PIN is
- | >encrypted (mixed with your bank card number) in a ONE WAY algorithm by
- | >a chip that is in the PIN pad itself. The plaintext PIN never sees
- | >the light of day.
-
- | A one way algorithm? Pray, how does the bank decode it to verify you?
- | A gigantic lookup table?
-
- | I really am curious about this, the sarcasm is just a side-effect. :-)
-
- One algorithm is a query-response ... Bank sends QUERY (a random
- number) to merchant box. Merchant box sends QUERY to keypad. You
- enter PIN into keypad. Chip in keypad computes oneway (QUERY,PIN) as
- RESPONSE, sends that to merchant box. Merchant box sends RESPONSE to
- bank. Bank computes oneway (QUERY,PIN), compares it with RESPONSE, and
- says yay or nay.
-
- See... the PIN is both at the bank, and in the keypad, but nowhere
- else. And recording the traffic for later replay won't help.
-
- (Yes, there are *other* ways.)
-
- Just another security weenie,
-
- Randal L. Schwartz, Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095
- on contract to Intel's iWarp project, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, Sol III
- merlyn@iwarp.intel.com ...!any-MX-mailer-like-uunet!iwarp.intel.com!merlyn
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 16:49:18 CDT
- From: Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL
- Subject: Re: Signal Routes?
-
-
- William carries a thread <in Digest V10, Iss 648>:
-
- >On <Sep 12 17:31> Timothy C Wolfson (tcwst@unix.cis.pitt.edu )
- >writes:
-
- >TC> 1.) I use my telephone to make an intrastate call. Is there a
- >TC> possibility that the signals, whether via wire or microwave,
- >TC> etc., will be routed over the state line?
-
- WD> Sure. Happens all the time.
-
- In fact, the principle is worldwide. You may have noticed recent
- posts on here that a reader in South Africa found calls to Kuwait were
- going via England. It's a very common principle, much like mail or
- freight, "Not your concern how we get it there, so long as we deliver
- it undamaged." <Damage is a different story, though! What do you
- expect? Do you know WHAT we have to do to get it there for you?">
-
- >TC> 2.) Same idea, but instead of a telephone, I send an email
- >TC> message to another computer on a network.
-
- WD> Even more likely. If the email message depends on batched
- WD> transmissions over the PSTN, it often makes sense to send them to an
- WD> out-of-state hub and back in to take advantage of lower interstate
- WD> rates.
-
- Adding to Bill's remarks, it is even more likely yet on an
- international basis. Many underdeveloped nations do not even
- physically have a hub, so everything for the nation is done in a
- partition of a larger nation's machine. This principle extends at
- least as far back as Telex, in which some notable cases were: Iran
- Telex subscribers actually getting their Telex "dial tone" from New
- York, about 9300 miles away; lesser cases for Trinidad getting theirs
- from Montreal and Martinique getting theirs from Paris.
-
- Makes for interesting routing table work in international public
- networks.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR" <allbery@ncoast.org>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug
- Reply-To: "Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR" <allbery@ncoast.org>
- Organization: North Coast Public Access *NIX, Cleveland, OH
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 19:10:11 GMT
-
-
- As quoted from <12430@accuvax.nwu.edu> by Norman R Tiedemann
- <normt@ihlpy.att.com>:
-
- | In article <12341@accuvax.nwu.edu>, wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu
- | (Mark Wilkins) writes:
-
- | >The question I have is this: Does anyone know of a way that someone
- | >inexperienced with such matters could accidentally set up a
- | >three-way call? Or did this have to be intentional?
-
- | He calls you, (to schedule the appointment or whatever), gets your
- | machine and decides he doesn't want to leave a message. He taps the
- | switch hook, which instead of hanging up, gives him the second line,
- | the CO on your end doesn't even detect the disconnect and keeps your
- | machine connected (and recording). He now has a threeway setup between
- | your machine, himself and the next person he called. Everything is
-
- I had the younger brother to this problem for a while. When I moved
- into the apartment I currently live in, the local CO had an older
- version of the custom calling package; for example, they had call
- waiting but no way to turn it off. Until they upgraded, I could not
- simply flash the switch-hook to hang up, despite the fact that I had
- *only* call waiting, none of the other features. I got into the habit
- of holding the switch-hook down for a count of five before dialing
- another number. I think the problem is gone now, since the CO has
- upgraded to support *70 (1170), etc., but since I still use the count-
- of-five approach, I don't know for certain. I also got into the habit
- of making sure I had dial tone before doing anything else.
-
- Until I got wise and changed my ways, a caller (or callee) might have
- gotten a bit of a surprise just after I supposedly hung up. (Not that
- this happened often; much more often was that I'd continue to get the
- busy signal I'd gotten the first time I tried to dial out.)
-
-
- Me: Brandon S. Allbery VHF/UHF: KB8JRR on 220, 2m, 440
- Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG Packet: KB8JRR @ WA8BXN
- America OnLine: KB8JRR AMPR: KB8JRR.AmPR.ORG [44.70.4.88]
- uunet!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery Delphi: ALLBERY
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Marc T. Kaufman" <kaufman@neon.stanford.edu>
- Subject: Re: Automatic Call Forwarding
- Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 17:12:07 GMT
-
-
- In article <12442@accuvax.nwu.edu> nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu
- (watcher) writes:
-
- >Some years ago I heard of an automatic call fowarding device (this was
- >before call forwarding was offered as an option by the telcos; it was,
- >in fact, pre-divestiture) that worked like this: you had two lines;
- >the first one rings (your "real" number); device dials out on the
- >second line; then conferences the lines together. Sure, you would have
- >to have two lines, but if you already have an extra one for the
- >dial-out modem, this wouldn't be a problem.
-
- When I took the public tour of the FBI building, the agent giving the
- tour described these devices as "cheese boxes", typically used by
- bookies to keep simple call traces from finding them. The agent said
- that now, bookies just use the call forwarding feature of the line to
- do the job.
-
- I told here that was dumb, because the forwarding number was in the
- telco data base ... and got a very strange look in response. I got
- the impression that they were deliberately trying to encourage
- would-be bookies to use the call forwarding method.
-
-
- Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
- Subject: Re: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines
- Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
- Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 21:30:27 GMT
-
-
- In article <12433@accuvax.nwu.edu> dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave
- Levenson) writes:
-
- > It will probably work out that the cost of sending 100,000 bytes of data
- > will be essentially the same, whether we use 1200 bps modems, 9600 bps
- > modems, or ISDN digital channels without modems.
-
- I doubt it. As soon as modems come into the picture the *real*
- bandwidth costs go way up. If ISDN isn't way cheaper than modems it'll
- be purely for political reasons.
-
-
- Peter da Silva.
- +1 713 274 5180.
- peter@ferranti.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Ken Stox <stox@balr.com>
- Subject: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Organization: BALR Corporation
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 15:16:18 GMT
-
-
- Recently, we have been seeing a bit of discussion of the cost (to the
- operating company) of a data call versus a voice call. All the
- statements I have seen, so far, seem to agree that a data call costs
- the operating company the same as a voice call. TTBOMK (To The Best Of
- My Knowledge), this is not true for the following reasons:
-
- First of all, I should state this is the case for a DIGITAL
- phone system. If everything were still analog, many would be false. In
- fact, this is where the problem lies! It seems that everyone is using
- the analog case.
-
- 1) Although your connection is analog in nature, it will only
- be that way until it reaches the C.O.
-
- 2) Once digitized at the C.O., the digital data from your
- phone call is blocked into packets of data which are routed through
- the phone network.
-
- 3) Human speech contains a great deal of dead air/silence.
- When you are pausing in a word/sentence/etc., you are no longer
- sending data. The phone company can now send more packets of data over
- that trunk line while you are pausing between word/sentences/etc.
-
- 4) Modems don't pause, they will use every available packet
- for that data path. In other words, a modem conversation will not
- allow any other packets through.
-
- So, we can now understand why the RBOC's get so blustered
- about data traffic. The service that they expected you to use 50% of,
- you are using 100% of. I am sure we all feel a great deal of pity for
- that poor accountant, who, at this very moment is writhing in agony
- over uncollected potential revenue. No doubt, in the not so distant
- future, the RBOC's will figure out how to bill you on a packet by
- packet basis. This may be the beginning of a much more equitable
- method of billing ( right, when hell freezes over :-> ) by which the
- customer purchases X number of packets at a given routing grade. Well,
- someday, maybe ISDN.
-
-
- Ken Stox internet: stox@balr.com
- BALR Corporation uucp: {uunet|att|attmail}!balr!stox
- 600 Enterprise Drive voice: (708) 575-8200
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 16:53:36 CDT
- From: Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine Messages
-
-
- The story so far (in Digest v10, Iss648>:
-
- >mpd@anomaly.sbs.com (Michael P. Deignan) writes:
-
- >>...l record the "<beep> The number you have >reached ... <number>
- >>has been disconnected..." which I save for later use. Then, when
- >>the time comes ... I leave >the "special" OGM tape in.
-
- David responded:
-
- >My housemate did this once, and the confusion it caused among
- >callers, and their queries to the phone company, ultimately caused NJ
- >Bell to call him and tell him, "Hey, just cut it out, OK."
-
- Gee, I'm surprised some minion of NJ Bell didn't swoop down with
- intimidation that threatened disconnecting the phone for real, because
- you were "violating the LAW" by transmitting a false message! (They
- really would be right, you know.) Anyhow, must have been one of the
- "new heads" in the business. Refreshing in that regard. Maybe we are
- making some progress toward humanized relations in the public
- telecommunications sector.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: Canadian Cellular Users
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 16:52:19 EDT
- From: Ken Jongsma <wybbs!ken@sharkey.cc.umich.edu>
-
-
- Some interesting factoids on Cellular Service in Canada:
-
- o Canada accounts for 500,000 of the worlds 6 million users
- o Toronto has the most concentrated urban network
- o 95% of Canadian users are male
- o 70% of corporate users are small businesses
-
- (Facts from an article in this week's {Insight Magazine})
-
-
- Ken Jongsma ken@wybbs.mi.org
- Smiths Industries ken%wybbs@sharkey.umich.edu
- Grand Rapids, Michigan ..sharkey.cc.umich.edu!wybbs!ken
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 16:39:56 CDT
- From: Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL
- Subject: Audible Ringback (was: Leaving Brief Messages...)
-
-
- Dell writes <in Digest V10, Iss648>:
-
- >What you hear (called 'ringback' in the telephony industry) does not
- >directly correspond to the ringing of the phone on the other end of
- >the line.
-
- In fact, its "slang name" among many local telco people is "pacifier
- ring."
-
- >The ringback tone is just put there to let you know that the phone is
- >actually ringing on the other end.
-
- Correction: I'd like to say it means that there is a presumption that
- the phone on the other end is ringing. If the instrument on the
- receiving end is dead or optioned off; if the line is open, or if,
- indeed there is a ringing relay in the office out of adjustment, you
- get the "pacifier," but nothing notifies the party you are calling.
- This IS a major weakness of the analog plant that ISDN will cure ...
- someday.
-
- Incidence of maladjusted ringing relays in mechanical plant is FAR
- higher than anyone would ever admit, as well. I found one town of
- about 10,000 people in New Jersey where a full 60% of incoming long
- trunk calls from other exchanges were not ringing through! Saddest of
- all, this condition was known and permitted to continue for months,
- even by the telco plant management of the entire area. Such
- situations were not unusual in the days of the telco monolith, and
- probably still exist in some corners. THESE are the sorts of
- "problems" that the stock answer of, "Just wait for the new exchange"
- are meant for ... but in the meantime, just do the maintenance job you
- are being paid for? Nah.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
- Subject: 1-900-963-3333
- Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
- Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 21:34:48 GMT
-
-
- While sitting here reading TELECOM Digest, I was just interrupted by
- one of those call-back-at-a-900-number scams. Any way of finding out
- who's at the other end of a 900 number without calling the 900 line?
-
-
- Peter da Silva.
- +1 713 274 5180.
- peter@ferranti.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David E A Wilson <munnari!cs.uow.edu.au!david@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Wollongong University
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 00:04:09 GMT
-
-
- gutierre@noc.arc.nasa.gov (Robert Michael Gutierrez) writes:
-
- >Computers out of control:
- >This should be a comp.risks issue, really. A telemarketer sets off a
- >chain of computer events that is vurtually unstoppable. Only the
- >hapless customers get to clear the aftermath ... or at least try.
-
- This is beginning to sound like John Brunner's "The Shockwave Rider"
- where with a single call a malicious person could stop your phone
- service (and your credit) until you somehow managed to get the
- tapeworm killed.
-
- David Wilson Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: bill@toto.info.com (Bill Cerny)
- Subject: TCA Social Studies
- Date: 23 Sep 90 22:22:18 GMT
-
-
- For those visiting America's Finest City for TCA, there will be a
- couple of evening forums hosted by the San Diego Chapter of AC*ID
- (Abolish Caller*ID) and Mothers Against COCOTs. On Tuesday evening,
- the venue is the Bayou Bar & Grill, 329 Market (corner of Fourth), a
- short walk from the Convention Center/Marriott. The concluding
- session will be held at the Princess of Wales Pub, 1665 India (quite a
- hike from the Convention Center; take the trolley). The jaws start
- flapping around six both evenings. Look for the brown 2500 set on the
- bar.
-
- For additional info, call Bill Cerny on (619) 287-5050 (locals: AC*ID
- is conducting a membership drive! No annual dues, and a different bar
- each month!)
-
- %^)
-
- Bill Cerny
- bill@toto.info.com | attmail: !denwa!bill
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #671
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20144;
- 24 Sep 90 10:02 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa14735;
- 24 Sep 90 8:26 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa12522;
- 24 Sep 90 7:21 CDT
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 6:48:09 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #672
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009240648.ab23027@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Mon, 24 Sep 90 06:47:52 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 672
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor [Hui Lin Lim]
- Moderator = Chaotic Evil (was: Telephone Humour) [Talking Head]
- Re: Answering Machine Messages and SIT [Tad Cook]
- Dynamic Bidding For Cheapest LD Service [Barton F. Bruce]
- Re: The Phone Book [Christopher Ambler]
- USEnet PC Access [John Stanley]
- Re: ATM at Retailers [David Lemson]
- A Description of 976 Numbers (was: Bell Canada Restricts 976) [Mark Brader]
- Re: Stealing ATM PINS [John Higdon]
- Re: AMI on T1 Lines [Dave O'leary]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Hui Lin Lim <limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com>
- Subject: Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor
- Date: 23 Sep 90 05:08:55 GMT
- Organization: HP Singapore
-
-
- > (variously sold as RingMaster, SmartRing, RingMate around the country,
- > in which multiple numbers mapped to the same line generate different
- > ring patterns).
-
- Could anyone elaborate on how this service is provided? Does it
- require an ISDN switch etc?
-
- Thanks,
-
- HuiLin Lim HP Singapore limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Talking Head <garif@cmcl2.nyu.edu>
- Subject: Moderator = Chaotic Evil (Was: Telephone Humour)
- Date: 23 Sep 90 17:40:54 GMT
- Organization: New York University
-
-
- cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar) writes:
-
- >Our Moderator recently said...
-
- >>>[Moderator's Note: I still don't think it is funny. I regard it as a
- >>>major violation of trust.... PAT]
- >>[Moderator's Note: Did you think it was funny at the time? Do you
- >>still think it is funny? PAT]
-
- >Come on, Pat, lighten up. It's going to happen. It happens in ALL
- >areas. Some of the computer labs I have worked in DELIGHTED in
- >sending messages to novice users' screens. Similarly to the phone
-
- >I guess my point is, do you expect this industry to be free from this
- >sort of behaviour? I don't.
-
- Hmmm, I can only hope our Moderator is not one of those outspoken,
- righteous No-Can-Do-Wrongs who society later uncovers as having an
- unspeakable miasma of heretical beliefs and a past full of unameable
- criminal acts against nature and the law. 8^o
-
- What sort of chaotic little secrets do you hide that the net can't yet
- see... ? ;-)
-
- Lee(); --- garif@nyu.edu
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Oh, plenty of them, I'm sure. Take your pick: mass
- murderer; drug dealer; you name it. I'll be whatever you'd like. Today
- being my birthday, I was particularly pleased to receive your note
- since it does everyone good to be abused occasionally. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook)
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine Messages and SIT
- Date: 23 Sep 90 22:12:45 GMT
-
-
- In article <12335@accuvax.nwu.edu>, visix!amanda@uunet.uu.net (Amanda
- Walker) writes:
-
- > I've been wondering how useful (or conversely, confusing) it would be
- > to have an answering machine message which started with an SIT and
- > then went on into a "normal" announcement.
-
- John Higdon claimed in a telephone coversation earlier this year that
- recording SIT on an answering machine outgoing message tape will fool
- many COCOTs into refunding money. He claimed that this was very
- useful on a personal voice mailbox, as one could walk up to any COCOT
- and retrieve messages for free!
-
-
- Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089
- MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW
- USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Barton F. Bruce" <BRUCE@ccavax.camb.com>
- Subject: Dynamic Bidding For Cheapest LD Service
- Date: 23 Sep 90 21:55:53 EDT
- Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc.
-
-
- I wonder if LECs could get into the LD brokering business in the
- following way: I would be perfectly happy if they got a reasonable and
- VERY small commission to perform the following service for me.
-
- If there were some way the IXCs could dynamically on a minute by
- minute basis advertise their willingness to accept traffic at
- substantially lower than normal rate probably in some predefined
- steps, the LEC could connect me to the current bargain of the minute
- carrier. Perhaps some SS7 message could carry the bid pricing.
- Perhaps the 10000 code is unassigned it could be the flag that I was
- requesting optimised routing to brokered cutrate service.
-
- Perhaps this optimised routing should be for some flat monthly service
- charge rather than a call by call charge.
-
- This could lead to some very interesting off hours pricing, and if the
- 'big boys' didn't want to bid, maybe some resellers of BIG-BOY's
- services would bid, probably forcing everyone to.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar)
- Subject: Re: The Phone Book
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 3:0:53 GMT
-
-
- djcl@contact.uucp (woody) recently informed us:
-
- >The Phone Book - What the Telephone Company Would Rather You Not Know
- >by J. Edward Hyde (a nom de plume)
-
- A quick jaunt down to the Cal Poly library found this book on the
- shelf, so I checked it out and read it the other night. I agree, it's
- interesting, but quite dated. Pre-breakup, pre-ESS (well, not really,
- it's mentioned, but in the vein of "here we have this new thing that
- will make it all better")...
-
- Very biased. The author does NOT like the phone company.
-
- I suppose my favourite part is where the author lists the rates for DX
- calling in 1976, and muses on what they will be 10 years hence. Heh.
-
- He also lists some possible future scenarios, like vidphone, call
- forwarding, call tracing (hints at ANI) and other things. He mentions
- that all of these things "can be done today, but because of [blah blah
- I-hate-the-phone-co] you won't see them for years." As of this time,
- he's about 50% on the mark.
-
- All in all, interesting, but I'm sure there's better...
-
-
- Christopher(); --- cambler@polyslo.calpoly.edu --- chris@fubarsys.slo.ca.us
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 23 Sep 90 22:47:14 EDT
- From: John Stanley <73765.1026@compuserve.com>
- Subject: USEnet PC Access
-
-
- Help. I am looking for a cheap PC package that does UUCP mail and
- news. I have a free one that does mail, but no news. Vortex has a
- $335 package that does both, but fails the cheap condition. I am
- getting really tired of Compuserve time charges, but want NEWS!
-
- I already have set up contact with a UUCP source (cheap, mail to
- info@psi.com), now I need the receiving end. Any ideas/names?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 21:16:24 CDT
- From: David Lemson <FREE0612@uiucvmd>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers
-
-
- In a message of 23 Sep 90 16:49:02 GMT, Steven King <motcid!king@
- uunet.uu.net> writes:
-
- >In article <12439@accuvax.nwu.edu> kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T.
- >Kaufman) writes:
-
- >>You are not giving your PIN number to the merchant. The PIN is
- >>encrypted (mixed with your bank card number) in a ONE WAY algorithm by
- >>a chip that is in the PIN pad itself. The plaintext PIN never sees
- >>the light of day.
-
- >A one way algorithm? Pray, how does the bank decode it to verify you?
- >A gigantic lookup table?
-
- The bank doesn't need to "decode" it. The bank's computer knows
- what your PIN is supposed to be. So, it codes it with the same
- trap-door algorithm as the keypad did, and compares the two. FYI,
- this is the same way that the Unix operating system encrypts passwords
- with a one-way coding scheme, and stores them encoded. My guess is
- that your bank's computer stores your PIN encoded, so it simply
- compares the encoded incoming message with the encoded number stored
- in the machine.
-
-
- David Lemson d-lemson@uiuc.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mark Brader <msb@sq.com>
- Subject: A Description of 976 Numbers (was: Bell Canada Restricts 976)
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 1990 20:33:30 -0400
-
-
- I received a response from Australia to my recent posting relating to
- Bell Canada's new restriction on 976-numbers:
-
- > Could you please tell me what a 976 number is, and what do you have
- > against them? Perhaps you could post the answer to the digest for
- > the benefit of other non-N.American readers.
-
- Okay, for the benefit of non-North-American readers:
-
- 976-numbers are operated by businesses that you do business with
- simply by calling their phone number. When you connect to a 976
- number, a fee (payable to the business operating the number) is
- automatically charged on your phone bill. This is in addition to any
- regular phone company charges for reaching the number.
-
- 976-numbers look like ordinary (7-digit) phone numbers that just
- happen to begin with the three digits 976: for example, 976-1234. The
- reason for the use of those particular numbers, like other "why that
- number?" questions in North America, seems to go back to the days when
- phone numbers began with letters, using the equivalence 2=ABC 3=DEF
- 4=GHI 5=JKL 6=MNO 7=PRS 8=TUV 9=WXY. Not a lot of words start with
- the letter combinations for 97, so those numbers were generally
- available.
-
- (I don't know if there were ever, say, WRight numbers, or if 97 was
- always reserved. Anyone know? I might ask the same question about
- 55, which is similarly reserved for special purposes. In movies and
- TV shows, 555-numbers are often used so as to not coincide with any
- real numbers, and the scriptwriters noted long ago that KLondike was
- 55; were there ever any real KLondikes?)
-
- Now, in some parts of North America, there is a clear distinction
- between local calls (which are free or cheap) and long-distance calls
- (which cost more), and this distinction does not follow area code
- boundaries. In some areas they are dialed in different ways so that
- you can't incur a long-distance charge by accident. (This distinction
- in dialing is doomed over the coming years, for reasons related to the
- exhaustion of available numbers.)
-
- In the Bell Canada service area (i.e. most of Ontario and Quebec plus
- some of the Northwest Terrritories), there is such a distinction in
- dialing, and calls to 976-numbers are always dialed as long distance.
- This remains true even though actual long-distance calls to
- 976-numbers are now to be blocked.
-
- There is a second flavor of number that works the same way; these are
- 900-numbers. They are dialable from a wider area than 976-numbers,
- and in this case the 900 replaces the area code, e.g., 900-333-1234.
-
- The world, or at least North America, got by just fine until a few
- years ago without these numbers; their creation seems to have merely
- opened up a new niche for sleazy businesses, in particular, the sort
- who want to trick people into paying their charges. (All you have to
- do is make a phone call, right?) The advertisements that I see around
- here for them tend to be pathetic come-ons for dating and "talk"
- services. Another thing I've heard of them being used for, although
- not locally, is information-by-telephone services that formerly were
- free. It is for these reasons that I find myself feeling that we
- would be better off without these numbers at all.
-
- I understand that several other countries have the same concept, for
- example, Britain's 0898-numbers are similar to our 900's, but I've
- never heard of a simple name for it. Is there one? Do other
- countries have two flavors like our 976 (local) and 900 (callable from
- wide area)?
-
-
- Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: Stealing ATM PINS
- Date: 23 Sep 90 19:20:39 PDT (Sun)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 23 at 17:39, Isaac Rabinovitch writes:
-
- > But it
- > occurs to me that somebody who knows your PIN can authorize a lot of
- > heavy-duty funds transfers.
-
- Only if there are heavy-duty funds to transfer. Also, I know of no
- place an ATM card (BTW, where does someone who has your PIN get a
- duplicate card?) can transact large amounts in one transaction. CASH
- ATMs have a small limit, and how much gas CAN you pump into your
- RoadHogster. As far as "transfering" money goes, it can only be done
- between accounts under the control of the card holder. And if it goes
- into a merchant account, how much trouble would it take to figure out
- who was up to something?
-
- Sorry, I don't consider this a real problem. Has it ever happened?
- I've never heard of a case.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 22:44:06 EDT
- From: dave o'leary <oleary@noc.sura.net>
- Subject: Re: AMI on T1 Lines
-
-
- Roger Fajman wrote:
-
- >I would appreciate a short definition of exactly how AMI works on T1
- >lines. I took a short course from Datatech Institute recently on
- >T1/T3 technology. (I liked the course, by the way.) Now I would like
- >to compare AMI to B8ZS for meeting one's density requirements on our
- >clear channel T1s, but can find only the definition of B8ZS in the
- >course notes. AMI is mentioned as being less preferable, but is not
- >defined.
-
- AMI is Alternate Mark Inversion. Basically it means that each ones
- bit is opposite in polarity from the ones bit proceeding it - this is
- used to deal with capacitive effects, etc. If two consecutive ones
- bits are received on the line with the same polarity, it is called a
- bipolar violation. These could be due to noise or a bunch of other
- factors.
-
- One's density is defined in different ways, with a certain number of
- ones bits necessary to maintain line energy and keep the repeaters in
- sync. FCC Part 68 and the AT&T 62411 specs disagree on what ones
- density means. I can provide more details if anyone cares.
-
- AMI does nothing to meet one's density requirements by itself - it
- just takes a synchronous bit stream and flips the ones bits. B8ZS is
- a technique used to maintain ones density - when the bit stream
- contains 8 consecutive zeroes, the "Binary 8 Zero Substitution" code
- is inserted in place of the 8 zeroes. This code intentionally
- contains a bipolar violation. This is why you have to work it out
- with the telco when you want to run B8ZS - their repeaters have to
- pass the bipolar violations (BPV's) rather than "fixing" them.
-
- Another technique for meeting ones density is called bit stuffing,
- i.e. you simply clock the DTE slower than 1.536 Mb/s and but a one bit
- into each byte, which is stripped out at the other end. When you work
- out the arithmetic it comes out to a DTE bit rate of 1.344 M/s, your
- ones density is insured, and AMI works as usual. The bit stuffing is
- not standardized between CSU's :-( so if you want different CSU
- manufacturer's equipment to talk to each other on different ends of
- the T1 (and not lose the extra bandwidth) then you need to run B8ZS.
- However, not all phone company equipment does B8ZS, although this
- seems to be getting a lot better. I guess this is why they say that
- B8ZS is preferable. Our C&P sales guy told us that B8ZS costs more
- and that we need to run ESF to use it (which I didn't understand...if
- anyone can explain that one I'd appreciate it).
-
- So basically you are always kind of running AMI, its just that B8ZS
- allows the special BPV's to get through.
-
- >A reference to look it up in would be helpful too, especially if it's
- >a publication likely to be found in a computer-oriented library.
-
- I've seen a bunch of books on the digital hierarchy around - however
- the ones I've purchased aren't with me right now. Two that I would
- recommend are a book by Bernard Keisler, which I can't remember the
- title of (something like Digital Transmission Systems, it is yellow
- with black lettering) and another book called something like "Megabit
- Communications Systems", I can't remember the author (it is orange and
- black). The Keisler book is older and is more technical/mathematical.
- The other book is new, from this year I think, and covers a wider
- range of material. I should have these books back by later this week,
- let me know if you can't find them. I saw the "Megabit.." book at the
- Maryland Book Exchange and at Reiter's downtown today.
-
- Good luck...drop me a line or give me a call if you have other
- questions...
-
- dave o'leary oleary@noc.sura.net
- SURAnet NOC Mgr. (301)982-3214
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #672
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21338;
- 24 Sep 90 11:04 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa29543;
- 24 Sep 90 9:29 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab14735;
- 24 Sep 90 8:26 CDT
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 7:24:07 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #673
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009240724.ab26443@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Mon, 24 Sep 90 07:23:57 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 673
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords) [Marc T. Kaufman]
- Re: Data Lines cs. Voice Lines [Dave O'leary]
- Re: A Sprint Employee Comments About ATT and Divestiture [John Higdon]
- Re: Call-Me Card [Jim Riddle]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [David Tamkin]
- Re: CO's Split Across AC's [David Tamkin]
- Re: A Nice Christmas Gift For a Child [Mark Steiger]
- 16 Buttons Not 12? [John Clayton Webster]
- Make AT&T Put it in Writing? Why Not MCI? [Jim Riddle]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman)
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords)
- Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 02:50:12 GMT
-
-
- In article <12469@accuvax.nwu.edu> motcid!king@uunet.uu.net (Steven
- King) writes:
-
- >In article <12439@accuvax.nwu.edu> I write:
-
- ->You are not giving your PIN number to the merchant. The PIN is
- ->encrypted (mixed with your bank card number) in a ONE WAY algorithm by
- ->a chip that is in the PIN pad itself. The plaintext PIN never sees
- ->the light of day.
-
- >A one way algorithm? Pray, how does the bank decode it to verify you?
- >A gigantic lookup table?
-
- No, the bank stores the encrypted PIN and does a straight match. The
- technique was invented by John Atalla, one of the early Fairchild
- people. Most of the bank PIN pads I have seen have been made by
- Atalla Technovations. The chip performs a one-way (e.g. many-to-one)
- encryption of an arbitrary number of key presses. It is sufficiently
- slow (deliberately) so that even if you got one of them it would take
- a VERY long time to try to find a sequence that gives you a particular
- output word.
-
- Since you really don't have access to the data link side of the
- system, you can't spoof it there. The link between an ATM (or
- merchant system) and the bank is encrypted also, so picking up the
- pair outside the building won't work either. By far the easiest way
- to learn a person's PIN is to look over his shoulder while he is
- typing it in (or hold him up at gunpoint).
-
-
- Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 23:21:08 EDT
- From: dave o'leary <oleary@noc.sura.net>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines cs. Voice Lines
-
-
- stox@balr.com (Ken Stox) writes:
- X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 671, Message 6 of 12
-
- >Recently, we have been seeing a bit of discussion of the cost (to the
- >operating company) of a data call versus a voice call. All the
- >statements I have seen, so far, seem to agree that a data call costs
- >the operating company the same as a voice call. TTBOMK (To The Best Of
- >My Knowledge), this is not true for the following reasons:
-
- > First of all, I should state this is the case for a DIGITAL
- >phone system. If everything were still analog, many would be false. In
- >fact, this is where the problem lies! It seems that everyone is using
- >the analog case.
-
- > 1) Although your connection is analog in nature, it will only
- >be that way until it reaches the C.O.
-
- To the best of My knowledge, your connection is indeed analog to the
- CO in the general case, however....
-
- > 2) Once digitized at the C.O., the digital data from your
- >phone call is blocked into packets of data which are routed through
- >the phone network.
-
- If the CO's are packetizing and integrating data and voice through the
- public network in the general case then I'd really like to hear about
- the details. These techniques will probably be common in the future
- (this is what ATM switching is all about) but I think there are only a
- couple of beta tests going on.
-
- > 3) Human speech contains a great deal of dead air/silence.
- >When you are pausing in a word/sentence/etc., you are no longer
- >sending data. The phone company can now send more packets of data over
- >that trunk line while you are pausing between word/sentences/etc.
-
- Byte interleaved multiplexing is done after the digitization - each
- analog signal gets a 64kb slot, times 24 slots plus framing bits
- yields the 1.544 Mb/s of a T1 line. Four T1's multiplexes to a T2,
- Seven T2's multiplex to a T3 (44.something Mb/s - this is how the
- signal generally travels over the inter-CO fiber and to the IXC POPs.)
- A modem's analog signal digitizes to the 64kb DS0 channel, just like a
- voice digitizes to a 64 kb DS0 channel. Sometimes compression is
- performed on the signals after digitization so more circuits can use a
- single DS0, I don't know how common this is, but the techniques are
- multiplexing rather than packet switching.
-
- > 4) Modems don't pause, they will use every available packet
- >for that data path. In other words, a modem conversation will not
- >allow any other packets through.
-
- The bits (either digitized voice or digitized data) are sent through
- the network in a 64kb virtual circuit. This 64kb is allocated for
- that particular call for the length of the call - nobody else's bits,
- either data or voice, are packet switched onto the virtual circuit.
-
- > So, we can now understand why the RBOC's get so blustered
- >about data traffic. The service that they expected you to use 50% of,
- >you are using 100% of. I am sure we all feel a great deal of pity for
- >that poor accountant, who, at this very moment is writhing in agony
- >over uncollected potential revenue. No doubt, in the not so distant
- >future, the RBOC's will figure out how to bill you on a packet by
- >packet basis. This may be the beginning of a much more equitable
- >method of billing ( right, when hell freezes over :-> ) by which the
- >customer purchases X number of packets at a given routing grade. Well,
- >someday, maybe ISDN.
-
- Well, there are a slew of acronyms for technologies and services that
- if/when they are implemented or available all the stuff typed in above
- will change. ATM, "Fast Packet", SMDS, Frame Relay, BISDN ... etc.
- Lots of fun.
-
- Of course, what Ken said earlier in his message about a digital
- network and integrated voice and data packetizing may apply to a
- private network. If such private networks do exist in practice, I'd
- be interested in hearing about them. From what I understand, however,
- the situation described does not exist in the present public network.
-
-
- dave o'leary oleary@noc.sura.net
- SURAnet NOC Mgr. (301)982-3214
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: A Sprint Employee Comments About ATT and Divestiture
- Date: 23 Sep 90 20:41:33 PDT (Sun)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 23 at 18:57, Steve Elias quotes "Deep Throat":
-
- > The deal of the consent decree (the deal of the century) ended up with
- > ATT taking the most profitable parts of Ma Bell (Long Lines and
- > equipment) and dropping the least profitable (RBOCs).
-
- And now the post divestiture RBOCs are racking up profits that are
- postively embarassing. Take a look at Pacific Telesis' quarterly
- report sometime. And if that wasn't enough, the MFJ (assuming the
- above) tilted the playing field in favor of the RBOCs. No competition
- in LATA calls, "FCC Mandated Access Charge (money for nothing; chicks
- for free)", the ability to charge extra for nearly every aspect of
- providing exchange service, etc., etc., are now the give-away perks of
- a guaranteed rate of return. And as the final (what on earth could be
- next?) stroke, the attitude that RBOCs no longer need any supervision.
- State PUCs are saying, "Now just be good and play by the rules (that
- you made up), and we will stop looking over your shoulder."
-
- If AT&T could have pulled all of this off when they were the phone
- company, there really would have been an new world order.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 13:58:26 EDT
- From: Jim Riddle <Jim.Riddle@f27.n285.z1.fidonet.org>
- Subject: Re: Call-Me Card
-
-
- The Call-Me Card has been available in the States for some time. I
- have four of them, one for each of my children who is old enough to
- use the phone. Not only is it usable ONLY to call home, it also
- ensures that they won't forget the number to call home (I know that
- sounds almost trivial, but there are situations in which anyone can
- forget anything).
-
- I told my daughter at college and my daughter on her own miles away
- just to respect the hours of billing and try to call daytime as little
- as possible. Since we are almost always around, they can get us
- without having to do a collect call or call and call back.
-
- Moreover, the advantage over collect is that we do get Reach Out
- America on these calls, as I have ROA applied to my calling card.
- Yeah, I could PROBABLY save $7 a month by doing collect calls and
- direct-dial backs, and even more if I used a free-message collect call
- (see other mail in the journal area) which I personally refuse to do,
- but I also find that my kids are more willing to call with the Call
- Me. Remembering how hard it was for my folks to get hold of me at
- these ages, I appreciate how much my kids DO call home.
-
-
- Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.11 r.4
- [1:285/27@fidonet] Neb. Inns of Court 402/593-1192 (1:285/27.0)
-
- --- Through FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390
- Jim.Riddle@f27.n285.z1.fidonet.org
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 23:18:42 CDT
-
-
- Robert Michael Gutierrez wrote in volume 10, issue 669:
-
- | All [PIC change orders are] done on mag tape. Nameless and faceless.
-
- | No amount of "tag my LEC account *never* to accept changes from an IEC
- | concerning my PIC" will ever help anybody in the U.S. of A. All that is
- | done is a "note" is entered on your account ... three whole lines that
- | a rep can enter into your account ... anything can be entered, ... but
- | the computer could [not] care less about those notes. It still will
- | merrily process the PIC change off the mag tape.
-
- But there are telqi who will accept with blind faith the mag tapes
- that the IECs send them, input them, and slam away, and there are
- telqi who will examine the data on those tapes and check records first
- to see if they have received such a request from the customer. No, it
- shouldn't be necessary for telqi to protect customers from slamming
- IECs, but it says a lot about a telco to find out whose side it is on
- and whose word it takes over whose. It appears so far that one good
- indicator is the answer to this question: "Who was your corporate
- parent at the close of business on Friday, December 30, 1983?"
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: CO's Split Across AC's
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 0:31:27 CDT
-
-
- Jack Winslade wrote in volume 10, issue 619:
-
- | A while ago we had a discussion on CO's that straddle area code
- | boundaries and are dialable as more than one. If you remember, we
- | found one here in the Omaha area which was -- in SOME cases --
- | dialable either as 402 or 712.
-
- | [There] were cases where there are communities right on or near the
- | Nebraska - South Dakota border. From the limited amount of
- | dorking around I found time and place to do, I determined that these
- | were all SxS offices (with some REALLY funky ringback and busy tones)
- | which maybe served 100 or so subscribers on both sides of the border.
- | These offices came nowhere near to filling up a complete 1000's group
- | out of an office code. In some cases, the NNX were the same in both
- | area codes, in some, they were different.
-
- | In every case, the same lines (and vacant levels, etc.) could be
- | reached via either AC. My conclusion is that in the 48 states, there
- | are potentially thousands of examples of 'split' central offices if we
- | consider all of the rural communities that are adjacent to or straddle
- | state lines.
-
- Ah, how different rural life is from urban life! Here in Chicago the
- prefixes dialable as either 312 or 708 are in CO's whose area coverage
- is not split, and prefixes in CO's whose coverage areas *are* split
- are dialable only as one area code or the other, not as both, and
- require eleven digits to be reached from the other side of the line
- and the correct area code to be reached from the rest of the world.
-
- For examples, (708) 591 [choke prefix], (708) 796 [customer name and
- address], and (708) 976 all are aliases for their area code 312
- namesakes and are switched in the Canal East office. I believe that
- anyone outside area code 708 must dial these as 312; inside 708
- dialing 1312+7D to reach them is forbidden, and only 7D will work.
- <(708) 950 might similarly be an alias for (312) 950, but it might be
- separate; one would never dial another area code's 950 anyway.>
-
- On the other hand, (708) 825 and (312) 825 are both wired from the
- Park Ridge CO, but neither is an alias for the other as a dialing
- convenience; they are two separate prefixes. I wouldn't be at all
- surprised if some larger customers had identical numbers on (708) 825
- and (312) 825 assigned to them, but both must be wired in or one must
- be forwarded to the other if they are to ring in the same place. And
- yes, to call between the two 825's one has to dial eleven digits.
-
- I imagine that rural CO's straddle an area code boundary only when
- they spread across a state line; an intrastate area code boundary in a
- rural area just about never would divide a CO's territory.
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com (Mark Steiger)
- Subject: Re: A Nice Christmas Gift For A Child
- Date: 24 Sep 90 11:16:03 GMT
-
-
- That gift idea is a little too scary for me.
-
-
- [ Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo 218/262-3142 300/1200/2400 baud]
-
- ProLine.:penguin@gnh-igloo America Online: Goalie5
- UUCP....:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin MCI Mail......: MSteiger
- Internet:penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com ARPA....:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin@nosc.mil
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Would you like to tell us why? It seems innocuous
- enough to me. How do you see the situation? PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: John Clayton Webster <webster@romulus.rutgers.edu>
- Subject: 16 Buttons -- Not 12?
- Date: 24 Sep 90 07:37:32 GMT
- Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
-
-
- An odd thought sprang upon me recently while talking to a friend. Do
- telephones actually use sixteen tones rather than just twelve normally
- available? I apologise if this has been brought up before, I just
- found this group.
-
- Clay Webster
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Actually, the topic has come up frequently. Yes,
- telephones have sixteen tone combinations available. The four you do
- not normally see on your dial are frequently known as A,B,C, and D.
- They have a very limited application at this time. Perhaps some
- readers will be so kind as to send you recent messages from the Digest
- discussing these tones and their application. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 13:56:07 EDT
- From: Jim Riddle <Jim.Riddle@f27.n285.z1.fidonet.org>
- Subject: Make AT&T Put it in Writing? Why Not MCI?
-
-
- AT&T has never specifically claimed that their plans are lower cost
- than Sprint; their commercials are quite cleverly worded. They
- suggest that if someone else alleges to have a lower-cost plan, that
- you should get that in writing, but at the same time don't offer that
- their plan IS less.
-
- As a personal point, I believe that my AT&T ROA plan IS less than
- Sprint would be.
-
- Anyway, AT&T will gladly put in writing the whole summary of plan
- names and costs for you and will NOT compare it with anyone else. I
- prefer that approach as it offers a product on its merit and costs and
- leaves the comparison to the consumer. How often does a Honda
- dealer's claim sway your feelings about a Toyota anyway?
-
- Everyone in the echo is talking about AT&T and Sprint. Well, how
- about recognizing that the point of AT&T's ads MAY have been MCI who
- keep calling me at ridiculous hours and rant and rave about how much
- they're going to save me? MCI won't put ANYTHING in writing or even
- bother to advertise on TV any more; I conclude that that is because
- they don't want to get caught.
-
-
- Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.11 r.4
- [1:285/27@fidonet] Neb. Inns of Court 402/593-1192 (1:285/27.0)
-
- --- Through FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390
- Jim.Riddle@f27.n285.z1.fidonet.org
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #673
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11878;
- 25 Sep 90 4:13 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa20897;
- 25 Sep 90 2:42 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ac02709;
- 25 Sep 90 1:37 CDT
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 1:12:40 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #674
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009250112.ac31313@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Tue, 25 Sep 90 01:12:24 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 674
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Answering Machine OGM = Telco Message? [David Tamkin]
- Re: MCI Around Town Surcharge [David Tamkin]
- McDonalds 900 Scam [Jeremy Grodberg]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [James Watcher]
- Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor [Tad Cook]
- Re: Splitting Call Transmission Directions [Mark Harris]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Ed Benyukhis]
- Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor [Dave Levenson]
- Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runways [John R. Covert]
- Re: Data vs Voice [Tom Olin]
- Script Files for Sys 85 [Mike Miller]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine OGM = Telco Message?
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 11:15:06 CDT
-
-
- Dave Levenson wrote in Volume 10, Issue 668:
-
- | A friend in Morristown, NJ went away for a couple of weeks. His
- | number was 267-1234.
-
- | He forwarded his calls to 263-1234 in nearby Boonton, NJ. That number
- | was not in service at the time.
-
- | Callers who dialed 267-1234 got a SIT followed by "The number you have
- | dialed, 263-1234, is not in service." Someone
- | called NJ Bell repair service. They investigated, and then canceled
- | call-forwarding on my friend's line.
-
- | In the end, they wrote him a letter appologizing for having cancelled
- | his call-forwarding, and promising never to do it again!
-
- To say that NJ Bell "canceled" your friend's call forwarding is
- ambiguous. Dave, do you mean that they did a 73# equivalent on his
- line to shut Call Forwarding off or do you mean that they removed the
- Call Forwarding feature from his account?
-
- I'm not trying to be picky here; I want to know just how far the telco
- went in stepping on a customer's own decisions.
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: MCI Around Town Surcharge
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 22:58:56 CDT
-
-
- A surnameless Tim from Caltech wrote in volume 10, issue 670:
-
- | (I use [Around Town] even from my own home to avoid outrageously high
- | PacBell intra-lata long distance charges. I can't dial 10xxx because
- | PacBell blocks that for intra-lata calls. The absence of a surcharge
- | on the 950-1022 calls was a convenient work-around.)
-
- It might not be Pac*Bell blocking your attempts at intra-LATA 10XXX
- dialing. It might be MCI rejecting them. I can dial one of my lines
- from the other with 10XXX via US Sprint or Telecom*USA, but not via
- AT&T nor MCI. If my telco were setting the policy, then either all
- four carriers would connect the call or none would. As long as there
- is no surcharge, though, 950-1022 will do; too bad AT&T has no such
- alternative dial-up.
-
- I've also heard that MCI's Around Town (for 25c, not for free, but
- still not 80c) applies only for intra-LATA calls now; originally, at
- least so I _thought_, it was for any calls placed from near your home
- base, regardless of where in North America the call terminated. One
- of the other things I dislike about MCI Long Distance (in addition to
- slamming and to their promising to make corrections and updates and
- then never putting them in) is getting five conflicting answers from
- every three customer service reps to a straightforward question.
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jeremy Grodberg <jgro@apldbio.com>
- Subject: McDonalds 900 Scam
- Date: 23 Sep 90 05:41:09 GMT
- Reply-To: Jeremy Grodberg <biosys!lia.com!jgro@cad.berkeley.edu>
-
-
- I went into McDonalds today for dinner (or breakfast, depending you
- how you look at it), and found more sleaze than usual there. It seems
- that McDonalds has figured out how to legally run a sweepstakes for
- profit, and once again 900 telephone service is the key.
-
- You can get a "McMillions on NBC" sweepstakes ticket for free, no
- purchase necessary, at any participating McDonalds. Then you watch
- for the winning number on NBC during a specified time. Although the
- number on my ticket is nine digits, I suspect that there are only a
- few numbers actually given out for a given time period. Anyway, they
- don't tell you what you have won, and to claim your prize you have to
- call a 900 number (75 cents per call) within about 20 hours. There is
- no way to claim your prize other than to call this 900 number. There
- is another 900 number (also 75 cents per call) which you can call to
- find out what the winning number is.
-
- The scummiest part of this scam is that having the winning number does
- not even mean that you have won *anything* but rather that you are a
- *potential winner*. As far as I am concerned, that makes this setup a
- clearly illegal gambling enterprise, where for 75 cents you might win
- a prize. However, I am not a lawyer, and I am sure McDonalds has
- checked with their lawyers and decided it was legal, so I wouldn't be
- surprised to find that they have found a valid loophole in the law.
-
- To me, this kind of thing is much more offensive than porn-by-phone,
- and is further evidence that the 900 services should be eliminated
- because they provide much more opportunity for abuse than the benefit
- they provide is worth.
-
- Major Disclaimer: I haven't read the official rules posted inside
- McDonalds, only the rules on the ticket, and have, of course, made
- some guesses about what is going on. Maybe there will be only one
- ticket with the winning number, the prize will be announced along with
- the number, and you will definitely win it if you call the 900 number
- within the time period specified, and they are saying you are a
- *potential* winner when the prize number is announced becuase you
- won't win the prize if you don't call. Still, if that is the case,
- they shouldn't make prize winners pay to claim their prizes, and I
- would suspect that they are only doing it so that a) they can get
- names and addresses to mail people "Free soft drink" coupons (and
- later other advertizing), or b) cash in on all the people who get
- confused by the rules (e.g. have a prize number for Monday's drawing,
- which loses, but wins a millon dollars on Tuesday).
-
- Any way you slice it, I think it is scummy for prize winners to have
- to pay to claim their prize, and I doubt that McDonalds would be doing
- it unless they were going to make money on it (or at least cover all
- their promotional and administrative costs for the sweepstakes, which
- means they'll get sweepstakes junkies, who are typically from the
- lower income brackets, to give McDonalds millions in free advertising).
-
-
- Jeremy Grodberg
- jgro@lia.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: watcher <nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu>
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 02:37:08 EST
- Organization: Northern Star Communications, Ltd.
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
-
-
- This brings to mind a funny story. I lived with two roommates, and we had
- two phone lines (voice/data, just like anybody :-). Somebody needed the
- number of the data line to update our newsfeed, since it was wasting lots fo
- time not being able to get through. As it so happened, I knew what the
- number was, but I happened not to be home at the time. Both numbers were
- unlisted. so, my roommate called the Pac*Tel operator and told them who he
- was (side note: for purposes of dealing with the phone company, we would
- all simply use the name on the bill, that of the third roommate, whether we
- were him or not ... once I was home when the installer came, and when he
- called the CO, he said "for all intents and purposes, I have Phil here..."
- anyway) and that he wanted to know the (unlisted) phone number.
-
- After being bounced up a couple levels of incompetence ("you'll have
- to talk to my manager about that..."), he was told that they would
- call him back to get his permission to give him his phone number.
- (They wondered why he didn't have any of the old bills laying around,
- but of course they'd all been tossed after being paid, not too
- bright.) Half an hour later, they called him back to get his
- permission. About forty minutes later, they call and tell him that
- they can't give him his own phone number, even though he is the
- customer, because it's UNLISTED! Shortly thereafter I arrived home,
- and peals of laughter could be heard as the story was related. I could
- not believe it. Anyway, I told him the number, and he told the admin
- of our newsfeed, and life was happy again since we could read the
- Digest :)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook)
- Subject: Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor
- Date: 24 Sep 90 17:23:42 GMT
-
-
- In article <12383@accuvax.nwu.edu>, limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com (Hui Lin
- Lim) writes:
-
- > > I seem to recall a request posted here a couple of months ago asking
- > > whether there was any such beast as a call distribution device (for
- > > the home) based on Distinctive Ringing Service offered by the LECs
- > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- > Could anyone elaborate on how this service is provided? Does it
- > require an ISDN switch etc?
-
- Nope. They do it on a standard digital switch. I can get it on a
- 5ESS in my area. What they do is assign two or more telephone numbers
- to one line ... and each number produces a distinctive ringing signal
- (like a double-ring for line two) when someone dials it.
-
- Actually, in an older form it is available on really old SXS switches
- from 40 years ago. It's called Party Line ringing.
-
- These call distribution devices for the home (like the AutoLine Plus
- from ITI in Endicott, NY at 800-333-0802) are typically used as a way
- of routing calls to a fax machine without the added expense of a
- second line.
-
-
- Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089
- MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW
- USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mark Harris <harrism@omhftre.raidernet.com>
- Subject: Re: Splitting Call Transmission Directions
- Date: 23 Sep 90 00:38:05 GMT
- Organization: Omhftre BBS
-
-
- kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) writes:
-
- > Unless echo suppressors have become *much* more sophisticated
- > than those with which I was once familiar, I would be surprised if
- > such vastly different propagation paths could be used on the E-W and
- > W-E directions of a given intertoll circuit.
-
- I recently took a course in telephony taught by a person with many
- years experience working for Bell Canada, ATT, and BNR. He stated
- that, in general, overseas calls try to avoid using a satellite path
- for both E-W and W-E directions. The reason he gave was to avoid a
- long delay between, say, a question and a response.
-
-
- Mark Harris
- UUCP: ...!uunet!mjbtn!raider!omhftre!harrism
- Domain: harrism@omhftre.raidernet.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Ed Benyukhis <motcid!benyukhi@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Date: 24 Sep 90 14:34:20 GMT
- Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Hgts, IL
-
-
- In article <12490@accuvax.nwu.edu>, stox@balr.com (Ken Stox) writes:
-
- > 2) Once digitized at the C.O., the digital data from your
- > phone call is blocked into packets of data which are routed through
- > the phone network.
-
- Digitization of speach does not imply packet switching.
-
- > 3) Human speech contains a great deal of dead air/silence.
- > When you are pausing in a word/sentence/etc., you are no longer
- > sending data. The phone company can now send more packets of data over
- > that trunk line while you are pausing between word/sentences/etc.
-
- Speech interpolation techniques are not prevelent in the land networks
- yet.
-
-
- Edward Benyukhis
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor
- Date: 24 Sep 90 14:50:57 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12503@accuvax.nwu.edu>, limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com (Hui Lin
- Lim) writes:
-
- > > (variously sold as RingMaster, SmartRing, RingMate around the country,
- > > in which multiple numbers mapped to the same line generate different
- > > ring patterns).
-
- > Could anyone elaborate on how this service is provided? Does it
- > require an ISDN switch etc?
-
- No, it doesn't require anything more than a plain, ordinary analog
- space-division switch such as the 1A-ESS, when it's offered here in
- NJ. It only requires that the telco equip its switch with a generic
- that provides the service, and that they tariff it or whatever is
- required by your state before a new service may be offered.
-
- Nothing special is required at the customer end. Just an ordinary
- telephone set equipped with a ringer. Different ring cadences are
- used to identify which of several phone numbers was dialed, when they
- all ring the same line.
-
- Just make sure that your tel set ringer is powered directly from the
- tel line, not by a key system, PBX, or other device which generates
- its own cadence. Also, watch out for answering machines that count
- rings. It may count the individual signaling elements of a
- short-long-short ring cadence as three rings.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
- [The Man in the Mooney] Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 08:08:39 PDT
- From: "John R. Covert 24-Sep-1990 1105" <covert@covert.enet.dec.com>
- Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runways
-
-
- It is my understanding of the FARs that use of electronic equipment is
- prohibited from the time the aircraft begins to move under its own
- power until the cancellation of the VFR flight plan.
-
- I turn my phone off at push-back (since I can't necessarily tell for
- sure whether we're being pushed back by a tractor or under the craft's
- own power -- sure I can, but why bother) and turn the phone on after
- the aircraft has completed its braking and moved off the active
- runway.
-
- This is what airline pilots have told me is acceptable. Other airline
- employees have (on one occasion) grumbled about the phone after
- landing, but I tend to believe pilots rather than flight attendants.
-
- In Germany, you won't even be allowed on an aircraft with a cellular
- phone. On my last flight within Germany (with a cellular phone rented
- from Budget), I was not allowed to board the aircraft until the phone
- was placed within my luggage. The airline would not sell me insurance
- to cover the cost of the phone, and made me sign a document absolving
- them of financial responsibility for it.
-
-
- john
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 11:11:22 EST
- From: Tom Olin <adiron!tro@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Data vs Voice
-
-
- Please pardon my ignorance. I don't work in the telecom industry and
- I don't know many of the technical details.
-
- Several contributors to c.d.t. have discussed the method of
- transmission of data calls vs voice calls over the network. They have
- pointed out the higher bandwidth utilized by data calls and the
- problems of multiplexing such calls.
-
- I would like to better understand the nature of this multiplexing.
- Suppose that we have enough simultaneous voice calls to saturate the
- capacity of some portion of the network. As the other writers have
- mentioned, these voice calls are assumed to have a duty cycle of less
- than 100% - let's say 50%.
-
- What happens if all those callers simultaneously break into song or in
- some other way push their duty cycles up to 100%? Do they start
- losing parts of their conversations? Or do pieces merely get delayed?
- Or does something else happen?
-
-
- Tom Olin ...!uunet!adiron!tro (315) 738-0600, Ext 638
- PAR Technology Corp, 220 Seneca Tpke, New Hartford NY 13413
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 12:12 EST
- From: Mike Miller <0004330819@mcimail.com>
- Subject: Script Files For Sys 85
-
-
- I want to write a script file for our Definity G2 that will do a
- station directory. While I know how to write a script file, the thing
- that puzzles me is how do you print the output of the script file to
- the printer or a file while the script is running. Unlike the System
- 75, the 85 can't do a station directory. I want to read the database
- in the switch and print the results on a file or printer.
-
-
- Thanks,
-
- Mike Miller St. James Hospital & Health Centers (708)756-6879
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #674
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12870;
- 25 Sep 90 5:26 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa07275;
- 25 Sep 90 3:48 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab20897;
- 25 Sep 90 2:42 CDT
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 1:46:16 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #675
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009250146.ab08944@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Tue, 25 Sep 90 01:45:46 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 675
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: One Way Algorithm (was: ATM at Retailers) [Joe Konstan]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Ronald T. Crocker]
- Re: New Whizz-Bang Phone! [George D. Nincehelser]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [Larry W. Seals]
- Re: A Sprint Employee Comments on ATT and Divestiture [Jack Dominey]
- Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin [Len Rose]
- Re: Equal Access on College Campus? [Eric Dittman]
- Re: COCOTery [Dave Platt]
- Re: Last Laugh! Re: Answering Machine Messages [Brent Capps]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 16:04:34 PDT
- From: Joe Konstan <konstan@elmer-fudd.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Re: One Way Algorithm (was: ATM at Retailers)
-
-
- In Telecom Digest #669 Steven King writes:
-
- > A one way algorithm? Pray, how does the bank decode it to verify you?
-
- Just like Unix does. Many (perhaps most) bank ATM systems do not
- store your PIN but instead only store the encrypted version of your
- PIN (the encryption scheme is designed to prevent many-to-one
- mappings).
-
- I recall that BayBanks in Boston had a problem when I was in college
- where only the first four digits of the PIN (which could be four to
- eight digits) were being used in the encrytion scheme. I don't know
- if they ever fixed it.
-
- For better information on these schemes in general, consult a
- reference on Unix passords, as this is a bit far out of Telecom
- territory.
-
- Joe Konstan
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Ronald T. Crocker" <motcid!crocker@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Date: 24 Sep 90 16:13:30 GMT
- Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Hgts, IL
-
-
- In article <12490@accuvax.nwu.edu> stox@balr.com (Ken Stox) writes:
-
- > 3) Human speech contains a great deal of dead air/silence.
- >When you are pausing in a word/sentence/etc., you are no longer
- >sending data. The phone company can now send more packets of data over
- >that trunk line while you are pausing between word/sentences/etc.
-
- > 4) Modems don't pause, they will use every available packet
- >for that data path. In other words, a modem conversation will not
- >allow any other packets through.
-
- From my experience (former Bell Labs), the type of multiplexing that
- you describe above (item 3) is not typical of any switches (digital or
- analog) that I am familiar with. Most telephony connections are
- "circuit-switched", i.e. equivalent to hooking a pair of wires between
- the two parties. The only "packet-switched" connections that I know
- of are those for ISDN packet data (B or D channel), and these are
- handled as "special cases," at least in the 5E.
-
- Voice is not packet data. It is not treated in a packet manner.
- Whatever happens to be on the voice channel is digitized (PCM),
- transmitted across digital carrier facilities (T1) to another switch,
- decoded to the equivalent analog signal, and played out of the
- receiver in the handset. No where in this loop is anything trying to
- figure out if the digitized voice signal represents "quiet". T1 is
- simply a multiplexed digital version of 24 analog trunks. Voice-grade
- lines are 64Kbps, T1 channels are [nominally] 64Kbps. Maybe if there
- were some compression done the case would be different, but I don't
- know of any of that either.
-
-
- Ron Crocker
-
- Motorola Radio-Telephone Systems Group, Cellular Infrastructure Division
- (708) 632-4752 [FAX: (708) 632-4430]
- ...!uunet!motcid!crocker
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "George D. Nincehelser" <george@swbatl.sbc.com>
- Subject: Re: New Whizz-Bang Phone!
- Reply-To: "George D. Nincehelser" <george@swbatl.sbc.com>
- Organization: Advanced Technology Laboratory - Southwestern Bell Telephone
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 16:16:10 GMT
-
-
- In article <12407@accuvax.nwu.edu> adams@swbatl.sbc.com (Tom Adams)
- writes:
-
- >The Voicephone *does* work well, with a wide variety of speakers. I
- >don't know about ambient noise, though I can bring one into the
- >computer room if someone *really* cares. The Voicephone is sometimes
- >folled by similar names, but does a good job of distinguishing
- >distinctive sounds spoken by different people.
-
- The Origin Voicephone 200 that I have doesn't seem to like changes in
- ambient noise levels. After I programmed the phone the first time, a
- Summa Four Switch was installed in the general area the Voicephone was
- located (the Summa Four sounds a lot like one of those noisy
- computers). The noise caused all kinds of problems. I re-programmed
- the phone from scratch (with the new background noise) and then things
- worked OK. Noise from people watching me demo the phone can also
- cause errors. (Our lab has poor acoustics.)
-
- BTW, it seems to work very well when people use the names that *I*
- train the system with. Other trainers don't have as much luck. Maybe
- I just have a generic voice.
-
- P.S. Tom - Don't you dare take my Voicephone ;-)
-
-
- George D. Nincehelser \ uunet!swbatl!george
- Southwestern Bell Telephone \ Phone: (314) 235-6544
- Advanced Technology Laboratory \ Fax: (314) 235-5797
- 1010 Pine, St. Louis, MO 63101 \ de asini umbra disceptare
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Larry W. Seals" <seals@uncecs.edu>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 18:16:32 GMT
-
-
- An MCI rep called my missus while I was out and about and asked if we
- were interested in switching to their service to which she replied
- with an emphatic NO! The rep continued with my wife getting more
- irate by the second. She finally told this person that we had AT&T
- and were more than happy with the service (we do very little out of
- state calling, even less in-state LD) and got off the line. Upon
- arriving home she told me the story and I related to her the info I
- have gleaned here (thank you very much :-) ) about slamming. We
- called AT&T (glory be! They had a live person manning the 800 number
- at 8:30pm EST) and explained the situation.
-
- The AT&T rep verified that MCI could change our LD carrier without our
- consent and that we should contact our local telco. We called
- Southern Bell the next morning and had our account flagged so that no
- changes could be made without written permission.
-
- Nuff said. Or so I thought. When September's bill came in, it
- appeared that MCI had somehow beaten us to the punch :-( but AT&T (or
- Southern Bell) had switched us back (credit issued for a 6 day period
- in August) and had covered the switch back charge.
-
- So, whatever anyone else says, I'm sticking to AT&T for no other
- reason than the quality of the service (their rep even apologized for
- the MCI phone call!) and the promptness of their staff.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: jdominey@bsga05.attmail.com
- Date: Mon Sep 24 14:02:45 EDT 1990
- Subject: Re: A Sprint Employee Comments About AT&T and Divestiture
-
-
- In V10#670, Steve Elias <eli@pws.bull.com> relays a message from a
- friend who works for Sprint.
-
- ----------
-
- >I don't know what the deal is about ATT (sic) having a different 800
- ># for intrastate but I think it goes back to the days of band 5 wats
- >type stuff.
-
- It does indeed go back to pre-divestiture days. Apparently our
- original tariffs didn't provide for the same 800 number covering in
- and out-of-state, but we started fixing that several years ago with an
- arrangement called Single Number Service. You still had to have
- different lines for each service. Later, when we introduced our
- Readyline service (800-on-a-POTS-line), we got the state Public
- Utility Commissions to allow intra-state service along with it. This
- year we've introduced MasterLine, which does the same thing with
- dedicated lines. There are still some companies using the older
- services, with separate 800 numbers.
-
- And yes, most of our competitors had similar services available well
- before AT&T did.
-
- >Again, the ATT guy was right [I was wrong -- eli]; It's not that ATT is
- >giving switching stuff away, it's giving away PBX and telephone equipment and
- >services.
-
- >1) Most important: ATT can combine long distance and equipment.
- >NOBODY ELSE CAN to that extent because nobody else owned a company
- >like Western Electric. For large customers looking for all in one
- >vendors (ie: tariff 12) this is where it makes a huge difference and
- >where the free "pops" in the equipment arena hurts (this is illegal by
- >the way, but is under the table).
-
- No wonder Mr. Elias' friend prefers to remain anonymous. This is an
- *extremely* serious accusation, and if the FCC believes it, AT&T will
- get slam-dunked quickly. Some people would probably go to jail.
-
- I work in the low end of the business market, where T1's are rare, and
- Tariff 12 is unimaginable. At this level, network services and
- equipment have separate salesforces. We can and do coordinate our
- sales efforts, but there is no way for us to create a "package deal"
- of any kind. The equipment folks have some discretion in their
- pricing, but it's independent of what we network people do. And our
- network prices are all in the tariffs - we can't write new ones for
- every $50,000/year customer.
-
- I'm not saying that the alleged bundling can't possibly occur. There
- are unscrupulous people in any large organization, AT&T included. But
- it is against the law, and it is against company policy, and I have
- honestly never heard even a rumour of such an arragement.
-
- >Also, the big argument about price ceilings and floors in the FCC had to do
- >with ATT lowering rates for tariff 12 type large customers to lock them in
- >and subsidizing this by raising residential rates. To some extent this is
- >exactly what has been done.
-
- To what extent? Our last price hike was for WATS services - didn't
- affect residental customers at all. (BTW, MCI and Sprint made raised
- their WATS-type prices within a month of our announcement.)
-
-
- Jack Dominey - AT&T Commercial Marketing - (800) 241-4285 - AT&TMail !jdominey
- These are my opinions, and not necessarily AT&T's.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Len Rose <lsicom2!len@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
- Date: 24 Sep 90 18:40:56 GMT
- Organization: LSI Communications
-
-
- This isn't specifically telecom related,but it does relate to
- divestiture et al.
-
- I am extremely happy about one aspect of divestiture. Because of it,
- Unix System V was more easily obtained and AT&T 3B2 systems were made
- available to customers outside of AT&T. Perhaps we would all be using
- BSD if it never happened ... And maybe some aspects of my life would
- be different too :-)
-
-
- Len
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: The current issue of Computer Underground Digest
- has an article about Len Rose, and his difficulty in finding gainful
- employment due to his current legal difficulties. If you can help him
- out with this, contact him at the address shown above. For more
- information on his case, read the issue of CUD distributed Monday. For
- a subscription to CUD, write the Moderators: tk0jut2@niu.bitnet. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Eric Dittman <dittman@skbat.csc.ti.com>
- Subject: Re: Equal Access on College Campus?
- Date: 24 Sep 90 14:41:03 CDT
- Organization: Texas Instruments Component Test Facility
-
-
- > Here at Notre Dame (I don't go to school here, just visit), all the
- > telephone service in dormitories is handled by CTI (meaning
- > CTI-installed switches and CTI-provided 1+ long distance). Apparently
- > students can't get AT&T (or other) long distance provided via 1+; they
- > have to place operator-assisted calls (and pay rates for same). Is
- > this strictly legal? I haven't checked to see whether 10XXX dialing is
- > permitted, but I would gather that it is not, given the state of
- > affairs. Can anything be done about this, considering that it is
- > indeed a campus, and as such the facilities are either privately owned
- > or in some other sort of legal grey area which exempts them from
- > having to provide Equal Access?
-
- My brother attends the University of Alabama and they have MCI. To
- save money he usually calls my parents collect, but when he calls me,
- he calls direct unless there's an emergency, because I don't accept
- any non-emergency calls from MCI or Sprint. If he does call direct, I
- just get the number he's at and call him back. He's tried 10XXX
- before without success.
-
-
- Eric Dittman Texas Instruments - Component Test Facility
- dittman@skitzo.csc.ti.com dittman@skbat.csc.ti.com
-
- Disclaimer: I don't speak for Texas Instruments or the Component Test
- Facility. I don't even speak for myself.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: A couple times I have inadvertently accepted
- collect calls which arrived via Sprint or MCI. Talk about a ripoff!
- The bill was unbelievable. When you get a collect call, *always*
- before accepting ask the operator 'who are you', and request time and
- charges afterward. Avoid surprises later on! PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 10:11:10 PDT
- From: dplatt@coherent.com
- Subject: Re: COCOTery
- Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA
-
-
- In article <12453@accuvax.nwu.edu> you write:
-
- > An informal cruise of COCOTs in the "Post PUC Reform Era", reveals
- > that little if anything has changed. Every (read that EVERY) COCOT
- > that I have fiddled with since that fateful day in August when all was
- > supposed to be made right has at least one significant PUC violation.
- > Some are still charging $0.25 for local calls. Some restrict 950. Most
- > restrict 811. A few don't allow end-to-end DTMF signaling. None allow
- > 10XXX dialing. None post rates or instructions on how to access
- > different carriers.
-
- > So what is the point of regulation? COCOT owners will do what they
- > please, anyway they please. No one will enforce anything in this
- > arena. I have reported many of the more flagrant violators by phone
- > and in writing, using a Pac*Bell form designed expressly for the
- > purpose. Not one reported phone has yet cleaned up its act.
-
- Well, I've had somewhat better luck, in the one case I've dealt with.
- I ran into a COCOT in Palo Alto (Liddicoats, on University Avenue)
- which was in violation of most of the new regs: $.25 for a local call,
- 950 restricted, 1-800 restricted, 10xxx restricted, no instructions or
- rates.
-
- I called the operator and reported the problem (the PacBell operator
- tranferred me to her supervisor, who took the actual report). A
- couple of days later, the phone was still in violation ... so I stuck a
- laserprinted "Out of order, programming violation" sticker over the
- coin-slot and checked off all of the violation categories.
-
- The next week, most of the violations had been corrected ... $.20 for
- a local call, 950 works, 1-800 works, and the tonepad wasn't disabled
- after connection to 950. 10xxx still didn't work. I spoke with the
- folks at PacBell, and they said they'd need to give the COCOT owners a
- couple of weeks to reprogram the phone and get someone out to post
- instructions and rates. I don't think this has happened yet; I may
- call in a new complaint later this week if the phone is still not
- quite up to snuff.
-
- The two COCOTs outside the Long's in Mountain View seem to have been
- brought fully into compliance ... the rates are right, there seem to be
- no invalid dialing restrictions, and the necessary information is
- posted.
-
- So ... things are getting better ... but we aren't there yet.
-
-
- Dave Platt VOICE: (415) 493-8805
- UUCP: ...!{ames,apple,uunet}!coherent!dplatt DOMAIN: dplatt@coherent.com
- INTERNET: coherent!dplatt@ames.arpa, ...@uunet.uu.net
- USNAIL: Coherent Thought Inc. 3350 West Bayshore #205 Palo Alto CA 94303
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 09:16:27 PDT
- From: Brent Capps <kentrox!ktxc5!brent@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Re: Answering Machine Messages
-
-
- In article <12390@accuvax.nwu.edu>, spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)
- writes:
-
- > It seems those new elves I hired were actually fairies, and all my
- > reindeer are down with AIDS.
-
- I suggest that further comments of this nature are better suited to
- alt.bigot, alt.tasteless, or perhaps alt.jerk.
-
-
- Brent Capps
- Kentrox Ind, Inc. Portland, OR "Insert standard disclaimer here"
- (503) 643-1681 x325 uunet: ...!kentrox!ktxc5!brent
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Thank you. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #675
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05268;
- 26 Sep 90 2:37 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa14227;
- 26 Sep 90 0:54 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa22484;
- 25 Sep 90 23:50 CDT
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 23:41:36 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #676
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009252341.ab19877@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Tue, 25 Sep 90 23:41:01 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 676
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Alana Shoars' Battle With Epson [Information Week, via Thomas Lapp]
- Two-Way Radio/Telephone Dispatch Interface [Dave Johnston]
- Dialing From 215-377 [Carl Moore]
- AS/400 <-> X.400 ? [Daniel R. Kegel]
- AT&T --> Michigan Bell Billing Mix-up [Daniel Wynalda]
- Call Quality to Japan: AT&T vs. MCI [Nobuya Higashiyama]
- Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude [Jeff Johnson]
- Re: I'm AT&T and I'm Writing to Help You [PCHROMCZ@drew.bitnet]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 17:29:40 EDT
- From: Thomas Lapp <thomas%mvac23.uucp@udel.edu>
- Subject: Alana Shoars' Battle With Epson
-
-
- This is a summary/paraphrase of an article which appeared in
- {Information Week} in the 18 June 90 issue. It was the cover article
- in the magazine that week.
-
- Abstract: A question of privacy: Alana Shoars says she was
- fired from Epson when she questioned management
- about its reading of electronic messages between
- employees. She has filed suit. The case may be
- the first legal test of electronic mail privacy
- and it raises issues that have wide ramifications
- for corporate E-mail use.
- (From the front cover of the magazine).
-
- Alana Shoars, who was the electronic mail administrator for Epson
- America Inc., was fired from Epson for wanting to know why her
- supervisor was printing out employees' electronic mail messages. But
- the way it was done, and what happened as a result are the interesting
- parts.
-
- In March 1989, Shoars was hired on (for $36,000/year) as an office
- systems programmer and analyst. In her job, she was responsible for
- in-house electronic mail and their link to MCI Mail. However, in
- October, she came to believe that her supervisor was reading other
- employees' messages. When she questioned her supervisor about it, she
- was told that "it is none of your business" (despite the fact that
- e-mail administration *was* her business). Soon after asking him
- about it, she claims that Robert Hillseth, Epson's data communications
- manager, began to monitor *her* messages.
-
- According to the article, she was fired soon after an incident in
- which she sent an e-mail message to a colleague, Dick Flanagan, asking
- how to get a personal MCI Mail account so that she could work from
- home. Apparently, she had already asked this of Hillseth, who had
- denied her request. A few days later, on January 25, 1990, she was
- fired for "gross misconduct and insubordination". She was led out of
- the building by armed guards, and local police were waiting for her to
- frisk her for what they were told was an employee with a gun.
-
- The article leads off with the transcript of a call placed to the
- Torrance, CA police from an Epson mailroom employee:
-
- "Dispacher: Do you know what she was being terminated for?
- Stone: It is speculation... absenteeism and speculation of
- theft..."
- Dispacher: Okay.
- Stone: ...and erratic behavior. She said that she has a gun and
- that she was going to come back and wipe everybody out.
- Dispacher: Okay. All right. I'll send a unit out there."
-
- No gun was found, and Shoars was not charged (Epson won't discuss the
- police call incident). Shoars says that the bit with the police was
- meant to intimidate her. When others in the company heard about this,
- they were upset as well. Dick Flanagan, who was communications
- software manager in Santa Clara, quit in protest. He said that he was
- under the impression that e-mail was being monitored in Torrance, and
- they were in the process of resolving the issue when Alana was fired.
-
- Shoars challenged Epson to claim unemployment benefits and a judge
- ruled in her favor. "Her actions cannot be considered misconduct,"
- according to the judge.
-
- Experts are saying that what she did next will be the first legal test
- of e-mail privacy. Shoars has filed wrongful discharge and invasion
- of privacy action against Epson, but Epson says that the charges are
- without merit and not related to the issue of e-mail privacy.
- According to Hillseth, he was checking the systems audit and error
- logs in order to track down a problem with message addressing. Alana
- responded that it is not necessary to read messages to do that.
-
- Michael Cavanagh, executive director of the Electronic Mail
- Association in Arlington, VA, comments, "What is the level of privacy
- that should be expected in the corporate environment?" His belief is
- that privacy laws about corporate paper mail and telephone
- conversations should extend to e-mail as well.
-
- Epson refuses comment on the situation while it is in litigation, but
- said that they have a policy to not monitor e-mail. They claim to
- only look at messages which are mis-directed or at the request of an
- employee (who might be out of the office, for example).
-
- Lee Cheaney, the former director of quality leadership within Epson
- (he was laid off in a corporate downsizing which removed 150 Epson
- employees), says that the company is trying to save their corporate
- a**, but that Shoars is in the right on this one.
-
- Shoars, however, has a long road ahead on this case. The privacy of
- e-mail has not been tested before, and most people just assume that
- monitoring of e-mail is just Not Done. Shoars believes that no one
- has the right to monitor e-mail messages. The problem, according to
- Walter Ulrich (a founding member of the Electronic Mail Association),
- is that monitoring of e-mail is so easy and so risk free. He feels
- that companies with good employee relations would not monitor e-mail
- any more than they would rifle through someone's desk. Those people
- who would are small-minded and cowardly, he says. Most experts agree
- with Ulrich on this point.
-
- Contrary to the picture that Epson painted, Alana Shoars is not a
- gun-toting crazy. She is 32 years old, has associate degrees in
- mathematics and chemistry as well as law enforcement and a B.S. in
- geology from Cleveland State University (1985). According to John
- Blank (of Cleveland State, and Alana's boss for a year after her
- graduation), she was very trustworthy. She had keys to his office and
- desk. She was also aware of the privacy of the PROFS system which ran
- at the university.
-
- At her next job, with a management consulting firm in L.A., the same
- thing applied: e-mail was private. Same with her next job at Cal
- State Long Beach, where she was an e-mail administrator.
-
- Her job at Epson included responsibility for supporting and training
- over 700 people on H-P's DeskManager messaging software and to learn
- how to access the newly installed MCImail gateway. While at Epson,
- e-mail usage nearly doubled from 48% to 80% use (due to the popularity
- of the MCI Mail link).
-
- Alana claims that e-mail is not the only type of communication that
- Epson tampers with. With the help of some others, she had several
- hundred buttons with the slogan "Bring Alana Back" made up and sent
- them to Epson employees by first class mail. However, they never made
- it past the Epson mail room, she claims. Flanagan (who was assisting
- Shoars) claims that Gary Le Monte (an Epson employee relations
- manager) had all of the envelopes intercepted in the mailroom,
- collected, picked up and destroyed. The Shoars suit also names Le
- Monte as a co-defendant.
-
- The final part of the article goes into some discussion of the law in
- the case of e-mail privacy. HR 2168 (the Consumers and Workers
- Privacy Act -- pending in committee) has been submitted to try to
- address this issue. But it is more intended for addressing monitoring
- of telephone conversations rather than e-mail. But legal experts say
- that it shouldn't matter the medium. So far only the telephone medium
- has been tested and the results were that monitoring is okay if there
- are legitimate business reasons, but as soon as it can be determined
- that the conversation is personal in nature, they are supposed to hand
- up immediately.
-
- The question is whether or not this can be done electronically. How
- do you "hang up" on an e-mail note? Some say it cannot be done,
- although others say it is very easy to do. An example was a case
- where a company's president thought that there might be abuse of the
- e-mail system. The MIS director was asked to investigate. So a
- program was written which extracted only the subject line and didn't
- collect info on author or destination.
-
- The consensus of many of the views expressed in the article was that
- regardless of the situation with Epson, companies should have their
- MIS departments come up with a corporate policy -- which is explictly
- stated -- in place *before* some problem comes up.
-
-
- tom
-
- internet : mvac23!thomas@udel.edu or thomas%mvac23@udel.edu (home)
- : 4398613@mcimail.com (work)
- uucp : {ucbvax,mcvax,psuvax1,uunet}!udel!mvac23!thomas
- Location : Newark, DE, USA
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 24 Sep 90 08:30 +0000
- From: Dave_JOHNSTON%01%SRJC@odie.santarosa.edu
- Subject: Two-Way Radio/Telephone Dispatch Interface
-
-
- In <TELECOM Digest V10 #668>, Tad Cook <tad@ssc.UUCP> wrote:
-
- >I am looking for a device that can go between the telco line side of a
- >key telephone system and a two-way radio system. The operator of the
-
- I've had experience with a product from Selectone. This name should
- be familiar to anyone in the Two-Way world. They're a manufacturer of
- tone encoding and decoding products.
-
- I had a customer install one and its worked great. If need be I can
- get the model number etc.
-
- Basically, it just looked like a CO line to the key system. It is VOX
- operated with a delay so there is no need for footswitches etc. The
- user just picks up the phone and talks. It also can ring the phone.
- Its selectable to allow three microphone clicks, DTMF, or PL (Private
- Line for all you non-radio people ... a Motorola name for CTCSS sub-
- audible tone encoding) to trigger the unit to ring the phone.
-
- I highly recommend it. The customer is a radio station and they
- certainly put it through it's paces. Its been in service for several
- months without a hitch.
-
-
- Dave Johnston johnston@Odie.SantaRosa.EDU
- Supervisor, Campus Data/Telecom Santa Rosa Junior College
- Phone: +1 707 527 4853 1501 Mendocino Ave, S.R., CA 95401
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 14:18:53 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Dialing From 215-377
-
-
- Yesterday, I was able to get to a pay phone in Lehighton, Pa.
- (215-377), where the Jim Thorpe exchange (717-325) is a local call.
- 325 (this is NOT 325-xxxx) got "cannot be completed as dialed".
- 717-325-xxxx got message that it was now necessary to dial 1+717+
- number; no change in billing.
- 1-717-325-xxxx -- message about 25 cent deposit.
-
- The bottom line is that yes, this local call from 215 area to 717 area
- does require 1+areacode. (Also required on local calls from 215 to NJ
- and to Delaware.)
-
- I also tried the following:
-
- 656-xxxx -- must dial a 1 in front of this call (I chose this because
- there is, barring very recent change, no 215-656, but 302-656 has
- been around for more than 30 years)
- 1-656-xxxx -- "cannot be completed as dialed".
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Daniel R. Kegel" <dank@truebalt.cco.caltech.edu>
- Subject: AS/400 <-> X.400 ?
- Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 17:59:52 GMT
-
-
- My friend works on an AS/400 system in Stuttgart and would like to
- exchange E-mail with the world. The system has internal E-mail and a
- DATEX-P link (which they use to log in to remote AS/400 systems).
- Does anybody know how to get the AS/400 to send/receive E-mail to/from
- the outside world over a DATEX-P link?
-
- Please reply to dank@moc.jpl.nasa.gov.
-
- Thanks!
-
- p.s. Ich kann deutsch lesen, traue mich aber nicht, so etwas
- Technisches auf deutsch zu schreiben...
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: AT&T --> Michigan Bell Billing Mix-up
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 11:49:51 EDT
- From: Daniel Wynalda <danielw@wyn386.mi.org>
-
-
- I smell a rat!
-
- Recently I got a notice in the mail from ATT that they will begin
- billing their long distance directly, rather than sending the billing
- through Michigan Bell. This seemed like a fair thing to me, so no
- problem.
-
- Last week I received my billing for the month of August. We normally
- run up a bill of $1200-1500. My Michigan Bell bill appeared normal -
- all calls for AT&T were summarized with appropriate discounts etc.
- Even the "cheap days" were discounted as well.
-
- Two days later I got a formal apology letter in the mail from Michigan
- Bell. They accidentally kept some of my AT&T calls in the billing
- system and it was "Michigan Bell's computer" that was in error. They
- requested I NOT pay the AT&T portion of the bill, and I should pay the
- AT&T bill I would get soon.
-
- Today I received my AT&T bill - Call for call the two bills are
- identical. Times are identical and I can trace the lines more easily.
- The Michigan calls are separated from the Interstate calls on the AT&T
- bill, but here's the rub.
-
- The AT&T bill is $100 HIGHER than the Michigan Bell AT&T summary. I
- called and questioned WHY THE BILLS DIFFER. Here's AT&T's
- explanation.
-
- 1. I am on the PRO WATS and PRO MICHIGAN plan. These plans are not
- eligible for the "reduced rate days" because I already get a discount.
- My first question is WHY NOT?
-
- 2. Each call cost SLIGHTLY MORE on the AT&T bill than on the Michigan
- Bell bill. Here explanation for this was "between the time my
- Michigan Bell bill was issued and the AT&T bill was issued the rates
- were increased by 2%".
-
- My question is -- why shouldn't I be billed for the rates that were in
- effect WHEN I PLACED THE CALL?
-
- Anyone who'd like to enlighten me and the Digest would do me a great favor.
-
- I am still awaiting a return call from AT&T regarding getting NOTICE
- OF CHANGES IN RATES. Let's see if they will put it in writing.
-
-
- Daniel Wynalda | (616) 866-1561 X22 Ham:N8KUD Net:danielw@wyn386.mi.org
- Wynalda Litho Inc. | 8221 Graphic Industrial Pk. | Rockford, MI 49341
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Nobuya Higashiyama <nxh@meaddata.com>
- Subject: Call Quality to Japan: AT&T vs. MCI
- Date: 24 Sep 90 20:16:54 GMT
- Reply-To: meaddata!nxh@uunet.uu.net
- Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
-
-
- I found that there's a significant difference in call quality when
- calling Japan from Dayton, OH between AT&T and MCI. I used to use
- MCI, and I had to put up with frequent dropouts, noise, etc. This
- seemed to happen on just about every call I made. I switched to AT&T,
- and the dropouts disappeared completely and the noise is now quite
- tolerable. I'd like to know if anyone else has had the same
- experience, or if mine is an isolated case.
-
-
- Nobuya "Higgy" Higashiyama
- Mead Data Central, Dayton, OH
- meaddata!nxh@uunet.uu.net (temporary) or
- nxh@meaddata.com or uunet!meaddata!nxh
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 08:54:35 PDT
- From: Jeff Johnson <jjohnson@hpljaj.hpl.hp.com>
-
-
- Excerpted from the 9/21/90 {San Jose Mercury-News}:
-
- PHONE BILL'S WRONG NUMBER: $8.7 MILLION
-
- Chicago (AP) -- Cori Ward's mother got a little defensive when she
- received a phone bill for three weeks' service -- $8.7 million.
-
- "She says, 'I only called my sister,'" said Ward, who handles her
- elderly mother's bills.
-
- The bill from Illinois Bell should have read $87.98, not $8,709,800.33.
-
- Ward said she had a hard time explaining the mistake to the phone
- company.
-
- The error occurred when someone incorrectly typed a "correction" into
- the computer system, said Larry Cose, a Bell spokesman.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 16:24 EDT
- From: Alec <PCHROMCZ@drew.bitnet>
- Subject: Re: I'm AT&T and I'm Writing to Help You
-
-
- >This offer is the one that says (paraphrasing) "We aren't sending this
- >offer to just anyone. We're sending it to you because we've analyzed
- >your phone bill and you can save money by buying Reach Out, etc."
-
- If they wanted us to "save money" they would just lower their rates
- rather than trying to sell us a "money saving plan."
-
-
- -*- Alec -*-
- PCHROMCZ@drunivac.bitnet
- PCHROMCZ@drunivac.drew.edu
- ...!rutgers!njin!drew!drunivac!PCHROMCZ
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #676
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa06543;
- 26 Sep 90 3:38 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa18986;
- 26 Sep 90 1:57 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab14227;
- 26 Sep 90 0:54 CDT
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 0:13:04 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #677
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009260013.ab23280@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Wed, 26 Sep 90 00:11:54 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 677
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: ATM at Retailers [Jim Budler]
- Re: What Is This World Coming To? [Tom Ace]
- Re: Slamming [Don Lynn]
- Re: Sprint Wars (Was: Sprint Puts it in Writing) [Joe Konstan]
- Re: SIT Tones on an Answering Machine [Douglas Scott Reuben]
- Re: AMI on T1 Lines [Barton F. Bruce]
- Re: MCI Around Town Surcharge [Joe Konstan]
- Re: A Description of 976 Numbers [David E.A. Wilson]
- Re: A Nice Christmas Gift For a Child [Benjamin Ellsworth]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers
- Reply-To: Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com>
- Organization: Silvar-Lisco,Inc. Sunnyvale Ca.
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 18:26:12 GMT
-
-
- In article <12509@accuvax.nwu.edu> FREE0612@uiucvmd (David Lemson)
- writes:
-
- >In a message of 23 Sep 90 16:49:02 GMT, Steven King <motcid!king@
- >uunet.uu.net> writes:
-
- >>In article <12439@accuvax.nwu.edu> kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T.
- >>Kaufman) writes:
-
- >>>You are not giving your PIN number to the merchant. The PIN is
- >>>encrypted (mixed with your bank card number) in a ONE WAY algorithm by
- >>>a chip that is in the PIN pad itself. The plaintext PIN never sees
- >>>the light of day.
-
- >>A one way algorithm? Pray, how does the bank decode it to verify you?
- >>A gigantic lookup table?
-
- > The bank doesn't need to "decode" it. The bank's computer knows
- >what your PIN is supposed to be. So, it codes it with the same
- >trap-door algorithm as the keypad did, and compares the two. FYI,
- >this is the same way that the Unix operating system encrypts passwords
- >with a one-way coding scheme, and stores them encoded. My guess is
- >that your bank's computer stores your PIN encoded, so it simply
- >compares the encoded incoming message with the encoded number stored
- >in the machine.
-
- I'm not even positive the bank always has your PIN in the first place.
-
- Last year I was one of the lucky people to receive a letter telling me
- that my Versateller card was being shut down, and that I would receive
- a new one in a few days. Concurrently my HomeBanking stopped also.
-
- This shutdown occurred because some people at one of the system
- providers broke their trust and obtained a significant block of
- records containing names, ATM numbers and PINs. By system providers I
- mean the companies like Plus System, or Star, who connect to the
- retail merchants and route request from the retail merchants to the
- bank ATM computer. The service providers are not necessarily banks,
- they are potentially just a wholesale transaction merchant. They do
- their thing for the $1 - $2 per transaction that they get paid for
- facilitating the transaction.
-
- So in the past some "merchant's employees", not a merchant, and
- actually not the retail merchant did exactly what was feared at the
- start of this thread.
-
- It took three seperate mailings to get my Versatel card back in
- action.
-
- 1. The notice of the action and its cause.
-
- 2. The new Versatel account number and card.
-
- 3. A form on which I selected a new PIN to replace my old one. My old
- PIN was time bombed so I was forced to select a new one.
-
- Now back to the encryption algorythm. There actually was a
- transposition pad on the form, so I encrypted my PIN, and sent the
- encrypted PIN, not the PIN itself back to the Bank.
-
- In addition, the PIN could now be variable length, and the length was
- not reflected in the encrypted PIN I sent back to the bank.
-
- So I'm not sure the bank ever has ny unencrypted PIN.
-
- Who knows, though? Only the bank, for sure.
-
-
- Jim Budler jimb@silvlis.com +1.408.991.6115
- Silvar-Lisco, Inc. 703 E. Evelyn Ave. Sunnyvale, Ca. 94086
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 11:01:58 PDT
- From: Tom Ace <ace@lever.com>
- Subject: Re: What Is This World Coming To?
-
-
- In TELECOM Digest issue 666, judice@sulaco.enet.dec.com (Lou Judice)
- writes:
-
- > ... What
- >is the point of putting bizzare messages on your answering machine to
- >mislead some hapless telemarketing representative, when as Patrick
- >states, A POLITE NO THANK YOU WILL DO!
-
- Hapless telemarketing executive? No one is forced to take such a job.
- Telemarketers know they are calling people they don't know, who might
- be asleep, ill, eating, or otherwise occupied and who would rather
- only be receiving calls from people they want to hear from.
-
- >What exactly is this world coming to when we can no longer talk to
- >strangers...?
-
- The same place it has come to where telemarketers have lost a sense of
- what is courteous. It is the rare telemarketer who has asked me a
- question like "is this a good time to talk?". If someone wants to
- sell me something, they can send me mail which I can peruse at leisure
- and give all the attention I determine it deserves.
-
- Also, the general topic of "talking to strangers" has little to do
- with the vast majority of unsolicited phone calls. Strangers call me
- to sell me things, to take surveys, to solicit donations, and (about
- once a month) to ask me to subscribe to the {San Francisco Chronicle}.
- Only once has a stranger ever called me for the purpose of initiating
- a friendly personal conversation -- and even though he called at 1 A.M.,
- I talked to him for two hours.
-
-
- Tom Ace
- {sun,pyramid}!hoptoad!lever!ace
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 1990 15:16:33 PDT
- From: DLynn.El_Segundo@xerox.com
- Subject: Re: Slamming
-
-
- Just so everyone doesn't get the idea that MCI is the only bad guy and
- AT&T is the good guy, I have to tell you my story...
-
- A few years ago, when my area first got a choice of long distance
- carrier on 1+ dialing, I signed up for Allnet. I have been reasonably
- happy with them since. However, AT&T apparently decided that all
- those people who left when given the choice couldn't still be happy,
- and so it appears that AT&T called all such people in my area some
- months after the choice was first given. They invited me back into
- the AT&T fold. I said, No Way (though I occasionally use them with
- 10ATT), and guess who slammed me. At least AT&T had the courtesy to
- send me a nice little note how happy they were to have me back just
- before getting Pac Tel (local carrier) to switch me. They got a nasty
- note back from me and they soon straightened it out without cost to
- me, but they (or their hired telemarketers) had slammed me.
-
- I have bad-experience stories on MCI, Allnet, General Tel, and Pac Tel
- too, but at least none of those slammed me.
-
-
- Don Lynn
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 15:58:55 PDT
- From: Joe Konstan <konstan@elmer-fudd.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Re: Sprint Wars (Was: Sprint Puts it in Writing: On Your Bill!)
-
-
- In TELECOM Digest #669, John Higdon writes:
-
- > A number of well-meaning readers advised me a while back to check out
- > this plan or that plan involving long distance. Unfortunately, no IXCs
- > currently offer any calling discounts for traffic within California.
- > Since I make about two calls outside the state per month, no IXCs
- > interstate rates or packages interest me in any way.
-
- That is not presently true. While AT&T does not offer a "Reach Out
- California" plan (and I keep getting told by their reps that the PUC
- will approve it any month -- this has been for over two years), MCI's
- PrimeTime Plus *does* include in-state long distance calls in its
- 10.whatever cents per minute (one hour min) rate. An additional
- benefit is that this rate starts at 5pm weekdays.
-
- MCI is missing a bunch of other features (no calling card integration)
- and has the annoying habit of not allowing calls that would have been
- cheaper to be deselected from the bulk plan (except by 10XXX with some
- other carrier) but it is a pretty good savings for me (as my Wife has
- family in Sacramento and San Diego).
-
- Joe Konstan
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 24-SEP-1990 18:25:23.62
- From: "DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)" <DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
- Subject: Re: SIT Tones on an Answering Machine
-
-
- Hi-
-
- After reading Jeff's <jajz@calstate.bitnet> posting about SIT tones, I
- am beginning to wonder if they are actually used for anything, as in
- the case of signalling within the telephone network.
-
- The only time that I've noticed this myself is on COCOTs, as John
- Higdon (sp?) noted earlier. I still haven't managed to get a free call
- to my answering machine/voicemail, however, as once the COCOT hears
- the SIT tones it turns off the mouthpiece and the touch tone keypad.
- More commonly, at least in my area, the COCOTs just don't seem to
- care, and if you hang on the line for too long (maybe anything greater
- than 30 seconds) the COCOT will swallow the coin anyhow. (NOT that I
- make it a point to actually USE the things...!) But there are so many
- flavors of COCOT that I'm sure just about anything is possible with
- them.
-
- I've noticed that many Telco's (like independents and SNET) don't use
- the SIT tones at all on their recordings. SNET has even *eliminated*
- the SIT tones from their AIS (?- correct term) messages. (Isn't AIS
- what you hear after the SIT, ie, "The number you have reached, 5 5 5 -
- 1 2 1 2, is not in service. Please check the number, and dial your
- call again."). For a while, I think Illinois Bell was doing this as
- well, since I called O'Hare Airport a few times, (312-686 from what I
- recall), and got the AIS message w/o the SIT tones. Now, however, they
- seem to have gone back to using the SIT tones on AIS recordings.
-
- If the SIT tones have no function with the Telcos, then I don't see
- why the Telco would object to it being used, as per se, it does not do
- anything to their equipment. (Compared to leaving 2600Hz or MF tones
- or something which, assuming the answering machine could duplicate
- faithfully, may affect signalling equipment, etc. [Hmmm ... would it?])
- If the SIT tones DO in fact cause Telco equipment to become "confused"
- or in some way hinder their operation, then perhaps the Telco would
- have a right to object.
-
- As an aside, Jeff mentioned that service with the Telco may be
- considered in contractual terms. I've always thought that it was more
- like "implied consent", ie, by using the service you agree to certain
- pre-arranged terms, which presumably are set forth by an
- administrative body, usually the state Public Utilities Commission.
- ("implied consent" is the same thing that states use to get
- out-of-state motorists to comply with their driving regulations, such
- as submission to DWI tests, etc.) I've never had to deal with this
- aspect of a Telco service "contract", but it is an interesting (albeit
- admittedly esoteric) question. Anyone ever have to deal with this area
- of the Telco service "contract"? (I'll summarize if anyone's
- interested ... and sorry to make this sound like misc.legal! :-) )
-
-
- Doug
-
- dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
- dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Barton F. Bruce" <BRUCE@ccavax.camb.com>
- Subject: Re: AMI on T1 Lines
- Date: 24 Sep 90 18:58:35 EDT
- Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc.
-
-
- In article <12480@accuvax.nwu.edu>, Roger Fajman <RAF@cu.nih.gov>
- writes:
-
- > I would appreciate a short definition of exactly how AMI works on T1
- > lines. I took a short course from Datatech Institute recently on
- > T1/T3 technology. (I liked the course, by the way.) Now I would like
- > to compare AMI to B8ZS for meeting one's density requirements on our
- > clear channel T1s, but can find only the definition of B8ZS in the
-
- AMI simply means Alternate Mark Inversion, and translated to english
- means that each one bit will have the opposite polarity of the
- preceeding one regardless of how many zero bits are in between. In
- fact if a plus follows a plus or a minus follows a minus, that is a
- bipolar violation and is an error in a pure AMI system. The dumb
- repeaters need to see some ones to keep their clock in step, so long
- strings of zeroes are to be avoided.
-
- All B8ZS does is replace a string of zeroes with a recognisable
- pattern providing some needed ones that could not be normal data, and
- that is itself balanced around zero (same number of plus 1s as minus
- 1s so there is no net DC component). This recognisable pattern is
- simply replaced with the equivalent number of zeroes at the far end of
- the span, but the repeaters see the ones they need to keep their
- clocks in sync.
-
- The special pattern B8ZS uses has two bipolar violations. There will
- be a plus followed by a plus and a minus followed by a minus. The B8ZS
- notes you found probably show that special string being substituted
- for eight zeroes. If you simply DON'T do that substitution, you have
- a vanilla AMI line.
-
- A vanilla AMI line can't guarantee ones density if all bits are to be
- available for your random use. If you rob a bit fron each DS0 you get
- your 56kb rate rather than the 64 you should have.
-
- Some T 1/2 fractional services provided by a LEC may give you clear
- channel on 'your' 12 DS0s, but they can simply ram ones on in 'their'
- 12 DS0s. Theirs will be every other time slot. You get the odd and
- they get the even, or vice-versa. That way there can NEVER be long
- strings of zeroes no matter what you send, and they can use most of
- their OLD hardware to provide you the service. YUK.
-
- Clear as mud, right?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 16:58:50 PDT
- From: Joe Konstan <konstan@elmer-fudd.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Re: MCI Around Town Surcharge
-
-
- I received yet another story about this. First, I spent time wading
- through the training system to hear the "no surcharge" message. Then,
- unable to find an escape to a real person, called up a customer
- service person who said that:
-
- 1) The feature now costs 25 cents (I knew that)
- 2) The message should have been changed (wow!)
- 3) The local calling area is your home city (I know that isn't true, here in
- the San Francisco area it is approximately the free local calling area).
- 4) There is no surcharge IF you make a local call from within your local
- calling area!!!!
-
- This is the one I want to check out! I've often called home via MCI
- from BART stations (pre 25 cent surcharge) since the cost was 8-12
- cents instead of 20. I stopped when the surcharge came in, but will
- try again and let the Digest know if this too turns out to be false.
-
- By the way, is this a legal thing for them to provide (and I imagine
- even promote)? Can long distance carriers provide alternative local
- service at discount rates through 950-xxxx???
-
-
- Joe Konstan
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David E A Wilson <munnari!cs.uow.edu.au!david@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: A Description of 976 Numbers (was: Bell Canada Restricts 976)
- Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Wollongong University
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 00:29:16 GMT
-
-
- msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
-
- >I understand that several other countries have the same concept, for
- >example, Britain's 0898-numbers are similar to our 900's, but I've
- >never heard of a simple name for it. Is there one? Do other
- >countries have two flavors like our 976 (local) and 900 (callable from
- >wide area)?
-
- Here in Australia we have three flavours which all go under the name
- "0055 - Information on the Double" or "Recorded Information Services".
-
- The three types are:
- Cost per minute
- Day Night Economy
- Metrowide (capital cities only) 0055 x9xxx 33c 22c 13c
- Statewide (intrastate only) 0055 x5xxx 39c 26c 15c
- Austwide 0055 xyxxx 57c 38c 23c
- y = 0-4,8
-
- Provided you are on a modern exchange, 0055 calls will be a separate
- item on your bill.
-
- In addition, Dial-it Services (usually numbers of the form 11xxx) are
- charged at normal local call rates or STD rates if you dial another
- area code to get them.
-
-
- David Wilson Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 18:18:40 pdt
- From: Benjamin Ellsworth <ben@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com>
- Subject: Re: A Nice Christmas Gift For A Child
-
-
- Mark Steiger wrote:
-
- > That gift idea is a little too scary for me.
-
- > [Moderator's Note: Would you like to tell us why? It seems innocuous
- > enough to me. How do you see the situation? PAT]
-
- Remember that the original posting said it was for
-
- > ... the little yuppie in your house ...
-
- Isn't that scary enough for you Pat? Or, do you want all of your
- children to grow up to be self absorbed icons of conspicuous
- consumption?! ;-)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #677
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07407;
- 26 Sep 90 4:36 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab26963;
- 26 Sep 90 3:01 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ad18986;
- 26 Sep 90 1:58 CDT
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 1:33:09 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #678
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009260133.ab05823@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Wed, 26 Sep 90 01:32:49 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 678
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls [Joe Pace]
- Re: Local Calling Numbers [Matthew McGehrin]
- Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor [Tom Gray]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Michael Coleman]
- Re: Burglar Alarm Problems [Paul Colley]
- Re: AMI on T1 Lines [Jon Baker]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Chris Johnson]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Matthew McGehrin]
- Re: Itemised Bills - An Australian Followup [U5434122@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number - In Australia [U5434122@ucsvc.ucs]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Joe Pace <pace@usace.mil>
- Subject: Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls
- Organization: US Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 00:27:41 GMT
-
-
- A friend and I came up with a method for letting the other know that
- he was on a local pay phone, and what the number was, by using a
- collect call with an odd name. It has worked very well, and now we
- have an easy way to refer to particular phones.
-
- Since all the numers in our area begin with 75, only the last five
- digits are important -- the goal is to form a name like:
-
- Paris H. Bulb
-
- Where the first and last letter of the first name and last name and
- the middle initial are significant. So, the number is encoded as
- "PSHBB" using the mapping:
-
- 1-9 -> A-I
- 1-9 -> J-T
-
- U-Z are left out...
-
- So, this name maps to 756-9822. The trick is to figure out a good name
- for your pay-phone, one that will be easy for the operator to repeat
- and will make sense if it's a little mispronounced.
-
-
- Joe Pace
- US Army Corps of Engineers pace@usace.mil
- Sacramento District JPPACE@UCDAVIS.BITNET
- 650 Capitol Mall, Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 551-1133, FAX: 551-1100
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.cts.com (Matthew McGehrin)
- Subject: Re: Local Calling Numbers
- Date: 25 Sep 90 00:56:22 GMT
-
-
- In-Reply-To: message from dave@westmark.westmark.com
-
- Dave,
-
- You made a comment about 'the list of local exchanges'. No, I
- did that myself. I typed in all the 'exchanges' they listed for me, I
- then had the computer sort it by 'exchange' that way, i say for
- instance, look thru the list for exchange '647' if 647 is not on my
- list, then it is not local?
-
- Do you get it?
-
- matt
-
- Arpa / DDN : pro-graphics!matt_mcgehrin@nosc.mil
- UUCP : crash!pro-graphics!matt_mcgehrin
- Internet : matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.ctc.com
-
- From : (908) 469-0049, Free Access, 24 hours a day
- 300/1200/2400 baud, 'Pro-Graphics'
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tom Gray <mitel!spock!grayt@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor
- Date: 25 Sep 90 09:10:52 GMT
- Reply-To: Tom Gray <mitel!halligan!grayt@uunet.uu.net>
- Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada.
-
-
- In article <12415@accuvax.nwu.edu> limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com (Hui Lin
- Lim) writes:
- X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 665, Message 3 of 9
-
- >> I seem to recall a request posted here a couple of months ago asking
- >> whether there was any such beast as a call distribution device (for
- >> the home) based on Distinctive Ringing Service offered by the LECs
- > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- >> (variously sold as RingMaster, SmartRing, RingMate around the country,
- >> in which multiple numbers mapped to the same line generate different
- >> ring patterns). Well, here are excerpts from a recent article
- >> describing just such a device.
-
- >Could anyone elaborate on how this service is provided? Does it
- >require an ISDN switch etc?
-
- This is just dressed up party line service. Different ringing codes
- are supplied for different directory number assigned to the same loop.
- The easiest switch to implement this service would be a step by step -
- just cross connect the connector outputs for the various directory
- numbers on the MDF. An ISDN switch requires an amazing amount of
- software to do the same function - ie assign multiple DN's to the same
- line circuit. Any switch sold in North America in the last 60 years
- will have the capability of providing party line service and this new
- new ultra-modern Distinctive Ringing Service (an extra cost item).
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Michael Coleman <coleman@cs.ucla.edu>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Date: 25 Sep 90 06:38:20 GMT
-
-
- stox@balr.com (Ken Stox) writes:
-
- > 4) Modems don't pause, they will use every available packet
- >for that data path. In other words, a modem conversation will not
- >allow any other packets through.
-
- This may be kind of a dumb solution, but why can't the phone company detect
- dead modem carrier and compress it the way they do with silence. I realize
- that modem silence isn't as simple as people silence, but there must be some
- way to do this. How about it?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: pacolley@violet.uwaterloo.ca (Paul Colley)
- Subject: Re: Burglar Alarm Problems
- Organization: University of Waterloo
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 20:13:55 GMT
-
-
- In article <12479@accuvax.nwu.edu> ndallen@contact.uucp (Nigel Allen)
- writes:
-
- >Walter Kemmerer describes receiving strange calls at five-minute
- >intervals that turned out to originate from a fried alarm system.
-
- >It is probably a bad idea to rely upon an alarm system that calls 911
- >itself. In Toronto, the police will not respond to computer-generated
- >emergency calls because of the large number of false alarms.
-
- As I recall the announcement a couple of years ago, they announced
- that they would stop responding after a certain number of false
- alarms, something like two in a one-year interval, not that they
- wouldn't respond at all.
-
-
- Paul
- pacolley@violet.waterloo.edu or .ca
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: In Chicago, the Fire Department continues to
- respond to each automatic fire alarm -- false or not. However they
- send bills to companies which generate 'frequent' false alarms, to the
- tune of $550-575 per thirty minutes of service: responding,
- investigating and returning to Quarters. An expensive lesson, eh?
- Likewise, the police respond to automatic alarms. Our city officials
- said they have no intention of jeopardizing a citizen actually in
- distress because of a history of malfunctioning alarms at the same
- location. Instead, the offending alarm owner is sued or fined by the
- city after the second or third time around. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jon Baker <asuvax!mothra!bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu>
- Subject: Re: AMI on T1 Lines
- Date: 24 Sep 90 22:34:17 GMT
- Organization: gte
-
-
- In article <12480@accuvax.nwu.edu>, RAF@cu.nih.gov (Roger Fajman)
- writes:
-
- >I would appreciate a short definition of exactly how AMI works on T1
- >lines. Now I would like
- >to compare AMI to B8ZS for meeting one's density requirements on our
- >clear channel T1s, but can find only the definition of B8ZS in the
- >course notes. AMI is mentioned as being less preferable, but is not
- >defined.
-
- From ANSI T1.403-1989, Carrier-To-Customer Installation -
- DS1 Metallic Interface :
-
- AMI, Alternate Mark Inversion: A pseudoternary signal, conveying
- bindary digits, in which successive "ones" (marks, pulses) are of
- alternating, positive (+) and negative (-) polarity, equal in
- amplitude, and in which a "zero" (space, no pulse) is of zero
- amplitude.
-
- In AMI, one's density is maintained by converting a zero sample (i.e.
- eight consecutive zero-bits) into a '2'. Thus, clear-channel is not
- possible. This method of maintaining one's density is called Zero
- Code Suppression (ZCS).
-
- B8ZS: Bipolar with 8-Zero Substitution.
- A code in which eight consecutive "zeros" are replaced with the
- sequence 000+-0-+ if the preceding pulse was +, and with the
- sequence 000-+0+- if the preceding pulse was -, where +
- represents a positive pulse, - represents a negative pulse,
- and 0 represents no pulse.
-
- B8ZS basically inserts deliberate bi-polar violations when
- transmitting a zero; the far-end is expected to detect the deliberate
- BPV's and unencode them into the zero-sample without reporting an
- actual BPV.
-
-
- JB
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Chris Johnson <plains!com50.c2s.mn.org!chris@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Organization: Com Squared Systems, Inc.
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 19:27:56 GMT
-
-
- In article <12368@accuvax.nwu.edu> monty@sunne.east.sun.com (Monty
- Solomon - Temp Consultant) writes:
-
- >The fact: The AT&T Universal Card is simply a bankcard (VISA or
- >Mastercard) with an AT&T credit card number embossed onto it. The
- >magnetic stripe on the back of the card indicates that the card is
- >only a bankcard and contains no information about the AT&T credit
- >card. Hence, when run though a payphone (or any other device that
- >reads the stripe), it is treated as a bankcard.
-
- >Apparently, modern credit card technology cannot yet deal with
- >magnetic stripes that contain "dual" identities, and so, some of the
- >potential convenience of a combined bankcard/phonecard is, for now,
- >lost.
-
- Well, that seems like an awfully easy thing to rectify with no new
- technology whatsoever: just put two magnetic stripes on the back of
- the card, one with the bankcard data and one with the phonecard data.
- Then in all those glossy brochures they send to holders of the
- Universal Card (like me), they need only instruct the users to insert
- the card one way to use the VISA/MC capabilities, and the other way to
- use the AT&T phone card capabilities.
-
- I'm amazed that this incredibly simple and inexpensive solution
- escaped the designers of the card. Is there some other reason they
- didn't make the card completely dual purpose, I wonder? Does the
- ordinary AT&T phonecard give you a 10% discount on calls?
-
-
- ...Chris Johnson chris@c2s.mn.org ..uunet!bungia!com50!chris
- Com Squared Systems, Inc. St. Paul, MN USA +1 612 452 9522
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.cts.com (Matthew McGehrin)
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Date: 25 Sep 90 00:56:11 GMT
-
-
- Another thought came to mind about the 'AT&T Universal Card': Just
- think, if you use the 'card' to charge purchases, your 'phone number
- with four-digit code', along with the 'ATT Credit card number' goes on
- the same slip (since its one huge carbon) ... Reach Out and Touch
- someone's life, since you have their credit card number, (their bank
- since ATT uses only one bank), their phone number with a 'universal'
- calling card ... not bad huh??
-
-
- matt
-
- Arpa / DDN : pro-graphics!matt_mcgehrin@nosc.mil
- UUCP : crash!pro-graphics!matt_mcgehrin
- Internet : matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.ctc.com
-
- From : (908) 469-0049, Free Access, 24 hours a day
- 300/1200/2400 baud, 'Pro-Graphics'
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: U5434122@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au
- Subject: Re: Itemised Bills - An Australian Followup
- Date: 25 Sep 90 16:33:22 +1000
- Organization: The University of Melbourne
-
-
- In article <12478@accuvax.nwu.edu>, munnari!cs.uow.edu.au!david@
- uunet.uu.net (David E A Wilson) writes:
-
- > A few months ago I mentioned that Telecom/OTC were now providing IDD
- > itemised bills to customers on new exchanges. My quarterly phone bill
- > arrived with my first itemised IDD call:
-
- > Date Time Place Number Min:Sec $
- > 19 Jul 11:06pm USA Rhode Is 1401863xxxx 1:59 2.42 [my xx's]
-
- > So on a sample of one I guess OTC at least decodes the country and
- > area code to get the place.
-
- OTC is kind enough to give the state or province for calls to North
- America, but calls to London (4471+7D) are listed as 'United Kingdom',
- just the same as calls to Glasgow (4441+7D). I don't think it would
- have been much effort to add major UK cities with area codes of the
- form (0N1), but they did not bother. Odd, considering that the UK is
- in the top three destinations for Australian international calls.
-
- It should be noted that while automatic itemisation of IDD calls is
- now provided to everyone, it was available on request to many
- subscribers before this.
-
- > As for Trunk call itemisation, metropolitan residential customers will
- > start getting it in November, 1990 and all should have it by 1994.
- > Country residential customers should have it by 1997. This should give
- > us one of the most missed features of the US phone system.
-
- LD itemisation is also a feature available on request, depending on
- the local exchange (CO) equipment. The new AXE exchanges and the
- older ARE and ARF switches can itemise, but the old SxS monsters
- can't.
-
- I am on an AXE exchange and I have had LD itemisation for 18 months.
- My only beef is that TA (Telecom Australia) charges 6c per call for
- the itemisation, to a maximum of $5.00 per quarter.
-
- 1994 is the target for fully digital service in metropolitan
- Australia.
-
- TA seems to have a policy of witholding services from everyone if not
- everyone can have it. For example, Call Forwarding costs $480 /year
- for a rack mounted device to be installed, so that subscribers on SxS
- exchanges can also use it, Call Forwarding on an AXE exchange would
- cost TA nothing, but they still charge the $480.
-
- At least they allow me to have call waiting, conference and a crippled
- call forwarding.
-
- My call forwarding is crippled because I can only forward to exchanges
- in the same group as my own, ie I can't use an intergroup trunk for
- the forwarded call. At least I only pay $17 a year and no call
- charges for the forwarded calls.
-
- > We don't have COCOTs - although businesses can rent Telecom Gold
- > Phones and get the difference between the 22c charged to subscribers
- > and the 30c charged to pay phone users (per call unit).
-
- Correction needed here. A Gold Phone *is* a COCOT, but a regulated
- one. The old Redphone was leased from TA, but the replacement
- GoldPhone was available by purchase only from its introduction in
- 1983. Back then it cost $1300. Probably $2000 now. The owner of the
- GoldPhone has no say in the charge for using the phone.
-
- TA has also released a Bluephone COCOT which is a small low security
- phone for use in restaurants etc.
-
- > Telecom are going to introduce pre-purchase phone cards (looks similar
- > to the Japanese variety - punches a hole to show the remaining value
- > of the card). They hope this will reduce vandalism by reducing the
- > coins held in the phone.
-
- These are currently on trial in Geelong, Victoria. They claim that
- they are better than the European variety, but I could not get any
- real evidence out of the rep to back the claim.
-
- There are also EFTPOS telephones which accept ATM cards, and debit
- your savings account. These were developed as a joint venture with
- ANZ bank, and they are connected directly to that bank's computer,
- even for cards issued by other banks.
-
-
- Danny
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: U5434122@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number (In Australia)
- Date: 25 Sep 90 16:58:14 +1000
- Organization: The University of Melbourne
-
-
- In article <12472@accuvax.nwu.edu>, zippy@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu
- (Patrick Tufts) writes:
-
- > How can you find out the number of a given phone? I seem to recall
- > that linesmen dial the operator and ask for a ringback.
-
- > What do you have to say to an operator to get the number of the line
- > you're calling on? Are there any numbers you can call that will tell
- > you your own number (like how (700)555-4141 tells you your LD
- > carrier)?
-
- > [Moderator's Note: In nearly every telephone exchange there is some
- > number which will read back the number of the phone placing the call.
- > There is no standardization to this; the numbers are different
- > everywhere, and change frequently. They are always non-pub, of course.
-
- In Australia the number to ring is 19123. This works from most
- private phones. Payphones give the message "No information to
- identify telephone number", while mobile phones give a seemingly
- endless string of 9's and 0's in no apparent order. Even COCOTS give
- the "No info" message, unless they are connected to the same line as
- the shop's own phone (a not uncommon practice in Oz).
-
- Dialling (0xx)19123, to a different area from the caller may give the
- correct number, or the congestion tone. I guess that it depends on
- whether the area you are calling has a digital link with the area you
- are calling from.
-
-
- Danny
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #678
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08117;
- 26 Sep 90 5:32 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa23578;
- 26 Sep 90 4:06 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ac26963;
- 26 Sep 90 3:01 CDT
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 2:17:12 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #679
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009260217.ab11442@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Wed, 26 Sep 90 02:17:05 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 679
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [Andrew Boardman]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [William Clare Stewart]
- Help Needed With Panasonic KX-T2355 on Rolm System [Andrew Boardman]
- Telephone Ortsnetzkennzahlen [John R. Covert]
- Networked Scheduling System [Jeffery R. Wisnom]
- Information on Technical Training Needed [David M. Meyer]
- Phone Book Publishers [Samuel W. Ho]
- What Do You Do With a Worn-out Intercontiental Cable? [Donald Kimberlin]
- MCI VisaPhone [Joe Konstan]
- Host-to-Switch Interfaces, ANSI T1S1 [David Gurevich]
- Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin [Paul Mooney]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Andrew Boardman <amb@ai.mit.edu>
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 19:48:32 EDT
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
-
-
- >The most honest way to go about it would be to ask the person who owns
- >the phone, "what number is this?" PAT]
-
- The easiest, at least in NYNEX and Atlantic Bell land, is to call the
- operator and ask "what number is this?" I've never had the request
- refused.
-
- (BTW, in the wake of recent talk about the book "The Phone Book," I
- wandered over to the business library and gave it a read. It was
- somewhat interesting, but extraordinarily anti-Bell biased. Its
- attitude was matched only by the extraordinary pro-Bell attitude of
- its shelf-mate, titled "The Rape of Ma Bell.")
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 21:00:06 EDT
- From: William Clare Stewart <wcs@erebus.att.com>
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
- Organization: AT&T Bell Labs Random Organization Name Generator
-
-
- In article <12472@accuvax.nwu.edu>, zippy@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu
- (Patrick Tufts) writes:
-
- > How can you find out the number of a given phone? I seem to recall
- > that linesmen dial the operator and ask for a ringback.
-
- > What do you have to say to an operator to get the number of the line
- > you're calling on? Are there any numbers you can call that will tell
- > you your own number (like how (700)555-4141 tells you your LD
-
- I have to do this periodically when we've been reshuffling modems in
- our lab. The phrase "Telephone repair - what number am I calling from?"
- seems to work 99% of the time, assuming I can get the right code for
- the local operator (0, or 9-0, or *9-0, depending on whether the
- line is direct, or one of the Centrexes - haven't tried 00.)
-
- Thanks,
-
- Bill Stewart 908-949-0705 erebus.att.com!wcs AT&T Bell Labs 4M-312 Holmdel NJ
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Andrew Boardman <amb@ai.mit.edu>
- Date: Mon, 24 Sep 90 20:02:52 EDT
- Subject: Help Needed With Panasonic KX-T2355 on Rolm System
-
-
- >A "single line" analog interface on a Rolm is reasonably compatible
- >with any standard telephone. Only the proprietary Rolmphone and ETS
- >interfaces aren't. I've attached lots of ordinary things (answering
- >machines, speakerphones, 1A2 key, etc.) to Rolm lines. No sweat.
-
- At least on the 9751, the standard interface for the proprietary sets
- is indeed standard; for POTS devices the interface card is a costly
- add-on.
-
- >What makes Rolms tricky is that they use a human interface model
- >that's optimized to allow the fully-priv'd business phone user
-
- This is what makes it massively inappropriate (IMHO) for the frequent
- university setting. The student users enjoy none of the privs with
- all of the hassles. An illuminating paraphrase from Columbia
- University administration after their recent installation: "This
- system is perfect for our use. We realize that it raises manifold
- problems for the student population, but you guys are only here for
- four or five years; we *work* here." Makes me wonder who these
- universities are for, anyway...
-
- >but of course you then need a second (analog) line for your answering
- >machine, modem, etc., just as with any fancy PBX.
-
- Analog phones: the moden-day undergrad dream...
-
-
- Andrew Boardman
- amb@ai.mit.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "John R. Covert" <covert@covert.enet.dec.com>
- Subject: Telephone Ortsnetzkennzahlen
- Date: 25 Sep 90 03:10:48 GMT
- Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
-
-
- OK, so if the DBP has (as reported in soc.culture.german) officially
- announced that the postal codes will be D-Wxxxx and D-Oxxxx until a
- complete reorganization in 1992, have they announced what is happening
- with the telephone system?
-
- One option is to just decide that Germany is fortunate to have two
- country codes and continue to use both.
-
- Another option would be to move all of East Germany's codes into the
- combined system by prefixing all of them with "3" (e.g. Dresden is now
- -51 and would become -351; Berlin might, like London, have two codes,
- -30 for the western part and -31 or -32 for the eastern part). This
- is possible because +49 currently only has -30 assigned, and no +37
- codes begin with -0. East Berlin is currently -2.
-
- This would only work if there are no eight digit numbers in Dresden
- (and corresponding restrictions on other cities), since the CCITT
- recommends a maximum of twelve digits for an entire phone number
- counting the country code but not the international access code.
-
-
- john
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 8:49:17 CET
- From: "Jeffery R. Wisnom" <1pc-doim@heidelberg-emh2.army.mil>
- Subject: Networked Scheduling System
-
-
- I would like to submit the following for comment by the Digest's
- readers. It is telecom related though it applies more to local Area
- networking communications.
-
- Our office is planning to install a campus-wide network
- scheduling system system (appointment calendar) for 200 users
- connected by an IBM Token Ring LAN. The individual micros are MS-DOS
- Zenith 286 machines. We have a UNISYS (Sperry) 5000/80 minicomputer
- running unix with an Eicon gateway to the Token Ring. I see three
- possible ways to implement this calendar system:
-
- (1) install the system on the unix machine and have users access it
- from the LAN through the gateway.
-
- (2) install the system on the 7 Token Ring LAN servers.
-
- (3) install the system on each PC and let organization-wide updates be
- transmitted over the LAN.
-
- Because I have had virtually no experience in selecting or
- installing networked scheduling systems for a whole organization I am
- not sure which of the above alternatives is even feasible. Some
- technical advice on the best way to implement such a system would be
- appreciated. As far as specific products, I have asked for
- information from the following vendors concerning PC/MS-DOS products
- with network compatibility:
-
- a. "TimeWise" sold by APC Technology Group
- b. "Who-What-When Enterprise" sold by Chronos Software Inc.
- c. "Office Works" sold by Data Access Corp.
-
- If anyone has good/bad/indifferent experience with these products
- or any additional products to suggest I would greatly appreciate it.
- Please post your comments to the Digest as I read it daily.
-
-
- Thanks in advance,
-
- Jeff Wisnom
-
- 1pc-doim@heidelberg-emh2.army.mil
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "David M. Meyer" <meyer@hogg.cc.uoregon.edu>
- Subject: Informaton on Technical Training Needed
- Organization: Deptartment of University Computing, University of Oregon,
- Date: 25 Sep 90 09:05:26
-
-
- I'm looking for information on technical telephony training seminars,
- conferences, etc. I'd like to find training on topics like T1 (or high
- speed serial networks in general). Does anyone have any experience or
- recomendations?
-
- Thanks,
-
- David M. Meyer Voice: 503/346-4394
- Network Systems Analyst Internet: meyer@mailhost.uoregon.edu
- Office of University Computing Bitnet: meyer@oregon
- University of Oregon UUCP: ...!uoregon!meyer
- 1225 Kincaid FAX: 503/346-3127
- Eugene, OR 97403
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 11:15:46 CDT
- From: Samuel W Ho <ho@csrd.uiuc.edu>
- Subject: Phone Book Publishers
-
-
- I'm sure that many readers have noticed the proliferation of telephone
- books in recent years. I believe that it's not directly related to
- the Breakup, just that the LEC's are happily selling white pages
- information to whoever wants to pay 40c/listing or so. Anyhow, most
- major cities have at least a couple of third-party phone books.
-
- In Seattle, I noticed US West (the LEC), GTE (the other LEC; GTE buys
- some US West listings), the American Directory Company, Great
- Northwest Publishers, and assorted "neighborhood" directories. That
- all made sense, even if it did make for a lot of excess phone books
- for the recycle bin.
-
- In Champaign, Illinois, I notice that there is the Ameritech Pages
- Plus, which has the shape and thickness of an LEC book, and an Illini
- Country phone book from Old Heritage publishers, which has the
- letter-size shape and thinness characteristic of a third-party book.
-
- So far so good. But then, I notice that the Ameritech Pages Plus is
- published by Donnelly Directory, and Old Heritage, of Ballwin, MO, is
- a subsidiary of Ameritech. What's going on? Did Ameritech contract
- out their phone book, and then create some competition for their
- contractor? Is Ameritech trying to have its cake and eat it, too?
- Did Ameritech and Donnelly get into a fight? It's peculiar.
-
- Incidentally, Old Heritage's ad in their own Yellow pages claims
- advertising coverage in a dozen states, about half of which are in
- Ameritech country. Each of Donnelly and Old Heritage has a big ad in
- its own yellow pages and a tiny ad in the other's, all under
- "Advertising, Directory and Guide", for the curious. Our Chicago
- friends and Moderator might look around in the half-dozen phone books
- that they probably have lying around for any other Ameritech
- surprises.
-
- Insights on the soap-opera lives of telephone book publishers welcome.
-
-
- Sam Ho (ho@csrd.uiuc.edu)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 14:08 EST
- From: Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL 34695
- Subject: What Do You Do With a Worn-Out Intercontinental Cable?
-
-
- The following news release from AT&T didn't seem to make any visible
- general press. It may however have some interest for readers of the
- Digest:
-
- AT&T and Kokusai Denshin Denwa Ltd. (KDD), of Japan, will donate
- to the U.S. and Japanese scientific community a portion of
- TransPacific Cable-1, the first undersea cable system to span the
- Pacific.
-
- The 26-year-old cable, which carried up to 138 simultaneous
- telephone conversations, was replaced in April, 1989 by a fiber-optic
- cable with a capacity of 40,000 simultaneous calls. It continued to
- function as a backup system until last month.
-
- The retired copper cable will be given to the Earthquake Research
- Institute of the University of Tokyo and the Incorporated Research
- Institute for Seismology (IRIS) in the U.S. on November 1.
-
- The two groups will use the 2,656-kilometer cable system the
- backbone of an undersea observation system to monitor acoustical
- waves, geomagnetism, water pressure and temperature, speed of water
- current, and other seismological factors. The cable had formerly been
- used to handle telephone traffic between Japan and Guam.
-
- The system will make it possible for scientists to study the sea
- bed between the Philippine Plate and the Pacific Plate, where
- earthquakes occur frequently. It is expected to increase the accuracy
- of earthquake and tidal wave forecasting and to advance understanding
- of the inner structure of the earth.
-
- AT&T Bell Laboratories scientists, who developed the cable,
- predict that the vacuum tubes in the system's underwater amplifiers
- will, after 25 years of telecommunications life, now have a scientific
- lifetime of 50 or even hundreds of years.
-
- "This cable, which has served to bring the cultures and economies
- of the U.S. and Far East closer together, will continue to serve
- scientists in their search for fuller understanding of the scope and
- implications of the natural mysteries of our planet," said James
- Barrett, Deputy Director, AT&T International Communications Services.
-
- At its retirement last month, TransPacific Cable-1,
- state-of-the-art technology in 1964, was still functioning reliably as
- part of an overall system from California to Japan. Its replacement
- digital optical system was built by AT&T and KDD for their
- international information service needs as well as those of a
- consortium of 20 additional owners.
-
- # # #
-
- Not too shabby for a bunch of researchers to have their own private
- group of 138 voice channels between Guam and Japan, eh? I wonder if
- they will interconnect one so computer bulletin boards in Japan and
- Guam will be a local call from each other? (Forget that I even
- suggested the notion!)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 13:13:59 PDT
- From: Joe Konstan <konstan@elmer-fudd.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: MCI VisaPhone
-
-
- I just got off the phone with the MCI VisaPhone people and here is the
- scoop:
-
- 1. While they say you just use your Visa Card, you actually end up
- getting a card from them with your VISA number plus a four-digit PIN
- (I'm glad, more secure).
-
- 2. I don't have dialing instructions yet, but it seems to be a
- typical 950 access.
-
- 3. Charges appear on your Visa Bill--sign up now (1-800-627-3119) and
- receive a $5.00 credit on your second month's bill after usage starts.
-
- 4. Rates are milage insensitive: 18 cents per minute weekday
- 13 cents per minute evening
- 10 cents per minute night/weekend
-
- 5. Service charge is 70 cents per call.
-
- My analysis:
-
- It makes sense only when:
-
- 1. You are not home, and
- 2. You are calling an "expensive" area (cross country or
- intrastate long distance), and either
- 3a. You are not within an "Around Town" area, or
- 3b. You expect a long enough call (about 7-8 mins) to cover
- the 45 cent higher fees.
-
- Other Notes:
-
- Cannot be combined with travel award or other programs.
- Does not count towards volume discounts
-
- Open Questions:
-
- I don't have information about rates for international dialing (if
- it is available). If anyone wants this, or other information, I can
- find out, or some other Digest reader probably already knows.
-
- What I did:
-
- I signed up for the service (only plan to use it outside local area)
- predominantly for the $5.00 credit. I'll probably have my wife sign
- up too, just for good measure!
-
-
- Joe Konstan
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Gurevich <dgurevic@dhlmis.dhl>
- Subject: Host-to-Switch Interfaces, ANSI T1S1
- Date: 25 Sep 90 21:59:32 GMT
- Reply-To: David Gurevich <dgurevic@dhlmis.dhl>
- Organization: DHL Systems, Inc., San Mateo, CA
-
-
- It talks about the host-to-switch interfaces. Host being some computer
- system, switch - a PBX, CO Switch, etc.
-
- It seems that ANSII T1S1 subcommettee is trying to define a set of
- specs called the Switch - to - Computer API (SCAI). SCAI would provide
- common ground for any host to communicate to with any switch.
-
- This means that all kinds of applications may be developed on the host
- computer that would be able to add to the switch capability/
- functionality. A sophisticated development environment, rich in
- labor-saving tools could be provided for this application development.
- Data network interfaces could be easily added.
-
- Is there a large market for this kind of a product?
-
- What would be common applications?
-
- Who would buy it?
-
- What are the potential regulatory problems?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Paul Mooney <paul@hpsciz.sc.hp.com>
- Subject: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
- Date: 24 Sep 90 15:10:16 GMT
- Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Santa Clara, CA
-
-
- > It's not within the traditions or constitution to 'nationalize' (or
- > staticize, or whatever the equivalent would be) private companies.
-
- Last constitution of U.S.A. I read said that nationalization with
- compensation was allowed.
-
- Just thought I'd mention it.
-
-
- Paul Mooney
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Unfortunatly, you are correct. Something very scary
- here in Chicago right now are the local politicians talking about
- stealing (only they prefer to call it 'municipalizing') the property of
- Commonwealth Edison, and taking over the electrical power system here
- as an agency of city government. I guess they need another patronage
- hive. Imagine! The people who brought us the Chicago schools, the
- Chicago Housing Authority and the Chicago Transit Authority -- now
- they want to take over the nuke plants. It is really bad news. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #679
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04111;
- 27 Sep 90 3:56 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa27416;
- 27 Sep 90 2:15 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa00241;
- 27 Sep 90 1:10 CDT
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 0:12:26 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #680
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009270012.ab28229@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Sep 90 00:11:59 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 680
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Barrey Jewall]
- Re: McDonalds 900 Scam [Sanjay Hiranandani]
- Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway [olsen@xn.ll.mit.edu]
- Re: Equal Access on College Campus? [S. M. Krieger]
- Re: McDonalds 900 Scam [Roy Smith]
- Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords) [Kevin P. Kleinfelter]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Ed Benyukhis]
- Re: Data vs Voice [Tim Oldham]
- Re: COCOTery [Tom Perrine]
- Re: New Whizz-Bang Phone! (Info on One From Damark) [Dan Ross]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Barrey Jewall <barrey@ka>
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
- Date: 25 Sep 90 07:33:42 GMT
- Reply-To: Barrey Jewall <barrey@ka.novell.com>
- Organization: Novell, Inc., San Jose, Califonia
-
-
- In article <12449@accuvax.nwu.edu> JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet writes:
-
-
- > I wonder how some of the apologists for the shenanigans being
- >passed off as inside humor would react if the Postal Service did the
- >following to their mail:
-
- > - randomly opened it and made copies to pass around the
- > office and to other parties
- > - intentionally routed it to the wrong party occasionally
-
- > I don't see any difference between these and the activities of the
- >insiders, other than the media and the employer, and that doesn't
- >change the ethics of the situation.
-
- What you apparently don't recognize, is that this DOES occur within
- the hallowed halls of the US Post Office (I refuse to call it a Postal
- Service!)
-
- Carriers have time and again been caught with BAGS of opened and
- unopened mail, usually when another carrier drops by to check on a
- carrier who hasn't called in sick, but didn't show up either...
-
- Carriers have also been known to destroy mail, rather than bother
- delivering it.
-
- Anyway, the telco folk who did this, as are the mail carriers, are
- merely a small subset of the hardworking main force. If they all went
- home tomorrow, what would happen???
-
-
- + Barrey Jewall ++ "My opinions are my opinions" +
- + barrey@novell.com ++ (rather self-evident, eh?) +
- + Novell, Inc.- San Jose, Calif.++ +
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Sanjay Hiranandani <vu0425@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
- Subject: Re: McDonalds 900 Scam
- Date: 25 Sep 90 13:41:50 GMT
- Reply-To: Sanjay Hiranandani <vu0425@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
- Organization: SUNY-Binghamton Computer Center
-
-
- In article <12535@accuvax.nwu.edu> Jeremy Grodberg <biosys!lia.com!
- jgro@cad.berkeley.edu> writes:
-
- >You can get a "McMillions on NBC" sweepstakes ticket for free, no
- >purchase necessary, at any participating McDonalds. Then you watch
- >for the winning number on NBC during a specified time. Although the
- >number on my ticket is nine digits, I suspect that there are only a
- >few numbers actually given out for a given time period. Anyway, they
- >don't tell you what you have won, and to claim your prize you have to
- >call a 900 number (75 cents per call) within about 20 hours. There is
- >no way to claim your prize other than to call this 900 number. There
- >is another 900 number (also 75 cents per call) which you can call to
- >find out what the winning number is.
-
- What's even scummier is that the ticket said that the numbers would be
- announced between 8-8:30pm EDT on NBC. However my local TV station
- that carries NBC didn't showit till 11:30. When I turned on my TV at
- 8, I didn't see anything about it till 8:15 ... when I saw a
- commercial that said it would be announced at 11:00 pm. At 11 pm
- nothing happened except the 11 pm WICZ 40 newscast. between 11 and
- 11:30 nothing was even mentioned about it during the commercial
- breaks. At 11:30, they briefly announced the number.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Use on Airport Runway
- Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 09:45:55 -0400
- From: olsen@xn.ll.mit.edu
-
-
- In article <12412@accuvax.nwu.edu> I wrote:
-
- >Does anyone know what regulation prohibits cellular calls from aircraft?
-
- (The Moderator appended a note pointing out the potential risks from
- IF-leakage interfering with the aircraft's avionics.)
-
- I see that I wasn't quite clear in my question. There are two distinct
- problems arising from cellular use in aircraft:
-
- 1. Interference with the aircraft avionics, due to IF leakage.
- (this is an *aviation* problem).
-
- 2. Overloading the cellular radio network, by accessing multiple cells.
- (this is a *telecom* problem).
-
- The first problem is addressed by FAA regulation 91.21 (formerly
- 91.19), which prohibits the operation of most portable electronic
- equipment on commercial flights, unless the airline has determined
- that the equipment will not interfere with the aircraft avionics.
-
- The second problem is what I was asking about.
-
- Suppose someone is flying high over Los Angeles, in circumstances
- where FAR 91.21 does not apply. If he uses his cellular phone, it
- might activate hundreds of cells and confuse the network. It would be
- impolite for him to make a cellular call from there, but would it be
- illegal? If so, how?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 10:02:21 EDT
- From: S M Krieger <smk@attunix.att.com>
- Subject: Re: Equal Access on College Campus?
- Organization: Summit NJ
-
-
- > Here at Notre Dame (I don't go to school here, just visit), all the
- > telephone service in dormitories is handled by CTI (meaning
- > CTI-installed switches and CTI-provided 1+ long distance). Apparently
- > students can't get AT&T (or other) long distance provided via 1+; they
- > have to place operator-assisted calls (and pay rates for same).
-
- At West Chester University, where my daughter is enrolled, there is
- also no 1+ calling allowed. The phone system does support 10XXX LD
- carrier selection (i.e., after "9" to get an outside line, 10XXX can
- be dialed before the "0"; I have verified that it ends up going to the
- selected LD company).
-
- What I did to help ease the cost is to sign up for Reach Out America
- and paid the extra $2.00 for the calling card option. As I understand
- the way it works, the time we can make the cheapest interstate calls
- is pushed back to 10 pm, and any interstate calling card call made
- during the plan's hours do not include the 80 cents surcharge. All I
- asked my daughter to do was to find out if her friends' parents won't
- mind their phones ringing at 10:10 pm.
-
- (Disclaimer: what I am posting about Reach Out America is based
- solely on my being an AT&T customer. Although I am an employee of
- AT&T, my work is entirely with UNIX System V development and does
- not involve any of the company's long distance telephone business).
-
-
- Stan Krieger
- Summit, NJ
- ...!att!attunix!smk
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 13:46:28 EDT
- From: Roy Smith <roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu>
- Subject: Re: McDonalds 900 Scam
- Organization: Public Health Research Institute, New York City
-
-
- Jeremy Grodberg writes:
-
- > It seems that McDonalds has figured out how to legally run a sweepstakes
- > for profit, and once again 900 telephone service is the key. [...]
- > Any way you slice it, I think it is scummy for prize winners to have
- > to pay to claim their prize, and I doubt that McDonalds would be doing
- > it unless they were going to make money on it [...]
-
- I have no love of 900 numbers either, and I agree that
- charging $0.75 for the phone call to see if you've won is pretty low,
- but Jeremy isn't being entirely fair in his condemnation. My ticket
- back goes on to say: "net proceeds, if any, donated to Ronald McDonald
- Children's Charities (registered trademark)". It's still pretty low,
- but at least they aren't just pocketing the money. Then again, if
- they are soliciting money for their charity fund, why be so
- underhanded about it? Maybe that's not 100% fair either, since they
- do have plainly marked donation boxes on every counter, but I digress.
-
- The thing that gets me is the "if any" part. Obviously they
- are charging back against net profits some sort of costs. The cost of
- running the phone line? Printing the tickets? Advertising costs?
-
-
- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
- 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Kevin P. Kleinfelter" <msa3b!kevin@gatech.edu>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords)
- Date: 25 Sep 90 16:27:43 GMT
- Organization: Management Science America, Inc., Atlanta, GA
-
-
- motcid!king@uunet.uu.net (Steven King) writes:
-
-
- >In article <12439@accuvax.nwu.edu> kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T.
- >Kaufman) writes:
-
- >>You are not giving your PIN number to the merchant. The PIN is
- >>encrypted (mixed with your bank card number) in a ONE WAY algorithm by
- >>a chip that is in the PIN pad itself. The plaintext PIN never sees
- >>the light of day.
-
- >A one way algorithm? Pray, how does the bank decode it to verify you?
- >A gigantic lookup table?
-
- One way encryption is very common. You store the encrypted PIN on the
- card. Then when the user enters his PIN, it is encrypted using the
- same algorithm. If the two encrypted PINs match, the original PINs
- were the same.
-
-
- Kevin Kleinfelter @ Dun and Bradstreet Software, Inc (404) 239-2347
- {emory,gatech}!nanovx!msa3b!kevin
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Ed Benyukhis <motcid!benyukhi@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Date: 25 Sep 90 17:39:20 GMT
- Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Hgts, IL
-
-
- In article <12545@accuvax.nwu.edu>, motcid!crocker@uunet.uu.net
- (Ronald T. Crocker) writes:
-
- > From my experience (former Bell Labs), the type of multiplexing that
- > you describe above (item 3) is not typical of any switches (digital or
- > analog) that I am familiar with. Most telephony connections are
- > "circuit-switched", i.e. equivalent to hooking a pair of wires between
- > the two parties. The only "packet-switched" connections that I know
- > of are those for ISDN packet data (B or D channel), and these are
- > handled as "special cases," at least in the 5E.
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- I agree that most connections are circuit-switched and that most calls
- are POTS type calls. But what is so special about B/D channel packet
- switching???
-
- > Voice is not packet data. It is not treated in a packet manner.
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- It could be. VSCS (FAA) at Bell Labs is implementing just that i.e.
- Packatizing voice for air traffic controllers communications. Voice
- packatezation perhaps warrants some discussion/explanation by someone
- more familiar with the process. How about it Pat????
-
- > Whatever happens to be on the voice channel is digitized (PCM),
- > transmitted across digital carrier facilities (T1) to another switch,
- > decoded to the equivalent analog signal, and played out of the
- > receiver in the handset. No where in this loop is anything trying to
- > figure out if the digitized voice signal represents "quiet". T1 is
- > simply a multiplexed digital version of 24 analog trunks. Voice-grade
- ^^^^^^^^^^^
- > lines are 64Kbps, T1 channels are [nominally] 64Kbps. Maybe if there
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- When you say Voice Grade Lines, are you referring to th subscriber
- loops?? And if you are, than, how about BRI connection piping 144Kbps
- over a wire pair. And even this can be increased by playing tricks
- with the loading coils. Also, depending on the Super Frame format,
- you might not even get a 64Kbps clear channel on the T1 either.
-
- In general, these are long and, at times, complex subject matters.
-
-
- Regards,
-
- Ed Benyukhis, Motorola, CID.
- (708)632-4658
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tim Oldham <tjo@its.bt.co.uk>
- Subject: Re: Data vs Voice
- Organization: BT Applied Systems, Birmingham, UK
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 16:35:14 GMT
-
-
- In article <12542@accuvax.nwu.edu> adiron!tro@uunet.uu.net (Tom Olin)
- writes:
-
- >What happens if all those callers simultaneously break into song or in
- >some other way push their duty cycles up to 100%? Do they start
- >losing parts of their conversations? Or do pieces merely get delayed?
- >Or does something else happen?
-
- As another contributor has said, the technique of zero compression
- isn't prevalent on land nets. It is, I believe, prevalent on satellite
- links; certainly sometimes I get completely dead patches on a noisy
- phone line, which I have always contributed to zero compression.
-
- So, am I correct in this assumption? If I'm right, what happens when
- satellite virtual-circuits *do* start using more bandwidth. For
- example,
-
- Take a satellite which has 64Kbps bandwidth (it's a pretty crap
- satellite :-):
-
- time t: I'm on the line to the US from the UK, and it I'm on a
- zero-compressed satellite link. I'm put on hold, and keep my
- mouth shut. No bandwidth being used.
-
- time t+1: Another person decides to call the US. Whatever-it-is decides
- that statistically (assuming a 50% zero compression winnitude),
- and currently actually, there is sufficient bandwidth to route
- the call via the satellite. It does so, and the 2 parties are
- connected. They start talking. No problem; plenty of bandwidth,
- as I'm still not saying anything.
-
- time t+2: All four parties start screaming blue murder at each other. We
- need 128Kbps bandwidth. Which the satellite can't deliver.
-
- What happens? Is it just a case of the designers allowing for
- statistically very low data loss, given that the numbers are very much
- bigger for a typical satellite? If not, what techniques are used?
-
- Yeah, I work for a telecomms company, but I'm not directly involved in
- telecomms. Just interested.
-
-
- Tim Oldham, BT Applied Systems. tjo@its.bt.co.uk or ...uunet!ukc!its!tjo
- Living in interesting times.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tom Perrine <tep@tots.logicon.com>
- Subject: Re: COCOTery
- Date: 25 Sep 90 20:13:23 GMT
- Reply-To: Tom Perrine <tep@tots.logicon.com>
- Organization: Logicon, Inc., San Diego, California
-
-
- In article <12551@accuvax.nwu.edu> dplatt@coherent.com writes:
- X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 675, Message 8 of 9
-
- >Well, I've had somewhat better luck, in the one case I've dealt with.
- >I ran into a COCOT in Palo Alto (Liddicoats, on University Avenue)
- >which was in violation of most of the new regs: $.25 for a local call,
- >950 restricted, 1-800 restricted, 10xxx restricted, no instructions or
- >rates.
-
- >I called the operator and reported the problem (the PacBell operator
- >tranferred me to her supervisor, who took the actual report). A
- >couple of days later, the phone was still in violation ... so I stuck a
- >laserprinted "Out of order, programming violation" sticker over the
- >coin-slot and checked off all of the violation categories.
-
- Perhaps our fearless Moderator can persuade Dave to post the text (or
- Postscript?) for the "Out of Order" signs? What are the possible
- violation categories?
-
- I have run into many COCOTS that are missing local-call cost and LD
- carrier info here in the San Diego area, and I would like to leave an
- appropriate sign behind, to protect the TELECOM-impaired :-)
-
-
- Tom Perrine (tep) |Internet: tep@tots.Logicon.COM
- Logicon |UUCP: nosc!hamachi!tots!tep
- Tactical and Training Systems Division |-or- sun!suntan!tots!tep
- San Diego CA |GENIE: T.PERRINE
- |+1 619 455 1330
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: I hope the original poster will share his program
- with us here for printing up those labels. Then, let's get busy using
- them as needed. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dan Ross <dross@cambizola.cs.wisc.edu>
- Subject: Re: New Whizz-Bang Phone! (Info on One From Damark)
- Date: 25 Sep 90 20:24:38 GMT
- Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
-
-
- somebody writes:
-
- >>>[There is no manufacturer identified, the text calls the phone
- >>>"Voiceprint", the illustration shows the name "Voicephone".]
-
- I posted earlier, and went and checked my [given-away] Damark catalog.
-
- The phone in the Damark catalog (which is NOT necessarily the one
- originally mentioned) did NOT have an answering machine. It was a
- Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone. It was $49.95, which is a bunch less
- than the Mobil catalog price (especially for just the "fun" part of
- the phone).
-
-
- Dan Ross dross@cs.wisc.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #680
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04251;
- 27 Sep 90 4:05 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab27416;
- 27 Sep 90 2:19 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab00241;
- 27 Sep 90 1:10 CDT
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 0:36:10 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #681
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009270036.ab00498@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Sep 90 00:36:01 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 681
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: 976 Numbers [Bob Goudreau]
- Re: USEnet PC Access [Gary Becker]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [Nickolas Landsberg]
- Re: Data vs Voice [Jerry Durand]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [Jon Baker]
- Re: AMI on T1 Lines [Jon Baker]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Chris Sowden]
- Re: Call-Me Card [Dave Levenson]
- Re: Answering Machine OGM = Telco Message? [Dave Levenson]
- Re: Sprint Wars (Was: Sprint Puts it in Writing) [Greg Onufer]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [John Nagle]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 14:22:19 edt
- From: Bob Goudreau <goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com>
- Subject: Re: 976 Numbers
- Reply-To: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau)
- Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
-
-
- In article <12510@accuvax.nwu.edu>, msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
-
- > The world, or at least North America, got by just fine until a few
- > years ago without these numbers; their creation seems to have merely
- > opened up a new niche for sleazy businesses, in particular, the sort
- > who want to trick people into paying their charges.
-
- And for thousands of years, the world, or at least North America, got
- by just fine without telephones either. Their invention opened the
- way for many abuses: obscene calls, boiler-room scams, costly long
- distance calls made by houseguests, etc. Should we do away with the
- telephone because of these problems?
-
- 900 and 976 numbers do in fact serve a useful purpose. The fact that
- they continue to thrive should be some indication that many consumers
- *want* the ability to connect to information and specialty services.
- You and I may both think that it's silly to pay good money to vote for
- a video on MTV, or get your fortune read, or engage in erotic
- conversation with a phone-sex service -- but it's not *our* money at
- stake. People are also free to "waste" their money on _People_ or
- _Playboy_ magazines, or on a state lottery ticket, or by attending a
- football game or a concert -- but it's *their* money in all cases, and
- for them to decide whether the expenditure was worthwhile. That's
- freedom. With it comes the responsibility for one's own actions.
-
- > Another thing I've heard of them being used for, although
- > not locally, is information-by-telephone services that formerly were
- > free. It is for these reasons that I find myself feeling that we
- > would be better off without these numbers at all.
-
- Just because some information providers (e.g., newspaper sports lines,
- etc.) were generous enough in the past to provide information at no
- charge does not mean that they should be required to forever forgo
- charging a fee.
-
- Now, switching gears completely and referring to an earlier part of
- the article:
-
- > Now, in some parts of North America, there is a clear distinction
- > between local calls (which are free or cheap) and long-distance calls
- > (which cost more), and this distinction does not follow area code
- > boundaries. In some areas they are dialed in different ways so that
- > you can't incur a long-distance charge by accident. (This distinction
- > in dialing is doomed over the coming years, for reasons related to the
- > exhaustion of available numbers.)
-
- > In the Bell Canada service area (i.e. most of Ontario and Quebec plus
- > some of the Northwest Terrritories), there is such a distinction in
- > dialing, and calls to 976-numbers are always dialed as long distance.
- > This remains true even though actual long-distance calls to
- > 976-numbers are now to be blocked.
-
- What I would ideally like to see (not that this has a snowball's
- chance of ever happening :-)) is a completely different approach to
- the dialing of toll-free and extra-cost calls. Currently, the NANP
- just reserves various area codes and prefixes (800, 900, 976, and so
- on) for these purposes. But what if the "flavor" of a call could be
- indicated by a special prefix, similar to the way that non-default LD
- carriers can be selected with 10XXX?
-
- Here's how it would work:
-
- First, we need to invent a new class of prefixes. Anything will do,
- as long as it's not already in use. How about 110? Anyone know of
- any custom-calling features that already use this?
-
- Next, we define two of these prefixes:
-
- 1108: means that the call is to be billed to the callee (similar to
- 800 numbers now)
-
- 1109: means that the call will be billed to the caller, and at a
- special rate above and beyond the charges that would normally
- apply to calls to this number (similar to 900 and 976 numbers
- now)
-
- Under this scheme, I could do several things with my existing number:
-
- 1) Keep my line as is. To reach me, you dial 248-6231, or
- 1-919-248-6231, or +1-919-248-6231, depending on where you're
- calling from. You pay the charges, if any.
-
- 2) Set up a toll-free number. You can still reach me as above (and
- pay for the call yourself), but in part or all of the NANP
- (whatever regions I sign up for), you can dial 1108-1-919-248-6231
- and get *me* to pay for the call. (Local callers could also dial
- 1108-248-6231.) Note that since the "real" telephone number
- is embedded in the toll-free number, international callers won't
- have any trouble finding out my number, although they must pay for
- the call themselves.
-
- 3) Set up a pay-service number. If you try to reach me at either of
- the two numbers above, you'll receive a rejection method. The
- only way to reach me is 1109-1-919-248-6231 (or locally,
- 1109-248-6231). You pay (big!) for the call.
-
- In essence, there would be three ways to dial any number: normal
- charges (no prefix), toll-free (1108 prefix), and premium service
- (1109 prefix). I could tell the telco which combination of these
- methods should be enabled (though of course I'd be foolish to enable
- normal or toll-free if I had premium turned on).
-
- Any thoughts on the practicality of this wild daydream?
-
-
- Bob Goudreau +1 919 248 6231
- Data General Corporation
- 62 Alexander Drive goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com
- Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 ...!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!goudreau
- USA
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 17:28:16 EDT
- From: Gary Becker <grb@mtuxo.att.com>
- Subject: Re: USEnet PC Access
-
-
- John,
-
- Read the comp.sys.ibm.pc and comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest newsgroups. An
- article describing USEnet PC Access is posted or requested every few
- weeks. I seem to recall articles that said public domain USEnet PC
- software is available from SIMTEL. Please ask on that newsgroup about
- access to SIMTEL. I've not personally retrieved software from the
- SIMTEL archives, and so am not the best person to go to for advice on
- it.
-
- If you find cheap, but not public domain, uucp software I'd be
- interested in the source. My employer has a policy, to prevent
- viruses, of no use of public domain software on company PC's.
-
- Gary Becker
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 17:33:23 EDT
- From: Nickolas Landsberg <npl@mozart.att.com>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- Regarding the slamming situation: Whenever I get called by <name your
- least favorite here>, I reply that I am an AT&T employee. It gets
- them off the line FAST, and I've never been slammed (yet). Of course,
- in my case it's the truth.
-
- Your mileage may vary.
-
- Cheers,
-
- Nick Landsberg
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: JDurand@cup.portal.com
- Subject: Re: Data vs Voice
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 12:38:56 PDT
-
-
- In Message-ID: <12542@accuvax.nwu.edu> adiron!tro@uunet.uu.net (Tom
- Olin) writes:
-
- >Please pardon my ignorance. I don't work in the telecom industry and
- >I don't know many of the technical details.
- I work in the industry and still don't know a lot of the details. 8-)
-
- >They have pointed out the higher bandwidth utilized by data calls
- >and the problems of multiplexing such calls.
-
- >What happens if all those callers simultaneously break into song or in
- >some other way push their duty cycles up to 100%?
-
- It just occurred to me that all of us people sitting on hold all day
- should have the lowest duty cycle except for the constant
- music-on-hold that raises our duty cycle up to that of the dreaded
- modems. Does that mean there should be higher rates for companies
- that put people on hold for a large percentage of their calls? 8-)
-
-
- Jerry Durand, Durand Interstellar, Inc., jdurand@cup.portal.com, 408 356-3886
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jon Baker <asuvax!mothra!bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Date: 25 Sep 90 15:58:21 GMT
- Organization: gte
-
-
- In article <12517@accuvax.nwu.edu>, dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David
- Tamkin) writes:
-
- > But there are telqi who will accept with blind faith the mag tapes
- > that the IECs send them, input them, and slam away, and there are
- > telqi who will examine the data on those tapes and check records first
- > to see if they have received such a request from the customer.
-
- Name one. From everything I've read/heard/experienced, no telco
- verifies the allegedly-required written record except in cases of
- customer complaint. And, MCI rarely produces the written record,
- claiming that they 'sent the card out to the customer for signature,
- but never got it back'.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jon Baker <asuvax!mothra!bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu>
- Subject: Re: AMI on T1 Lines
- Date: 25 Sep 90 15:48:01 GMT
- Organization: gte
-
-
- In article <12512@accuvax.nwu.edu>, oleary@noc.sura.net (dave o'leary)
- writes:
-
- > However, not all phone company equipment does B8ZS, although this
- > seems to be getting a lot better. I guess this is why they say that
-
- It should gradually become more widespread. B8ZS is the preferred
- long-term method of providing Clear Channel.
-
- > B8ZS is preferable. Our C&P sales guy told us that B8ZS costs more
- > and that we need to run ESF to use it (which I didn't understand...if
- > anyone can explain that one I'd appreciate it).
-
- Of course B8ZS will cost more, because it requires special equipment
- to handle it. There is no particular reason why B8ZS can not be used
- in an SF format T1. If they only support B8ZS on ESF, it is due to
- limitations particular to the equipment they are using, or due to
- their own (marketing?) restrictions.
-
-
- JB
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Chris Sowden <csowden@compulink.co.uk>
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 20:39 GMT
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
-
-
- There is a CCITT recommendation describing Digital Circuit
- Multiplication Equipment (DCME) which improves the efficiency of
- international trunks.
-
- DCME works by encoding the speech data from 64kbit/s down to a lower
- rate such as 32kbit/s (ADPCM) and by only connecting the speech
- channel to a trunk when it is carrying a burst of speech (Digital
- Speech Interpolation). DCME, while not quite fitting the packet
- model, does allow a number of 64kbit/s speech channels to be carried
- on a smaller number of transmission channels.
-
- Voice band data, OTOH, is not suitable for compression by DSI. Also,
- ADPCM can cause problems with high speed voice band data. Digital
- data (ISDN) requires a whole channel to itself.
-
- DCME can only be cost effective where the circuit costs are high (long
- trunks). If DCME is used, data calls will require more bandwidth on
- these trunks than voice calls. Therefore, data calls will cost the
- operator more to carry.
-
-
- Chris Sowden
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: Call-Me Card
- Date: 25 Sep 90 23:41:40 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12516@accuvax.nwu.edu>, Jim.Riddle@f27.n285.z1.fidonet.org
- (Jim Riddle) writes:
-
- > The Call-Me Card has been available in the States for some time. I
- > have four of them, one for each of my children who is old enough to
- > use the phone. Not only is it usable ONLY to call home, it also
- > ensures that they won't forget the number to call home (I know that
- > sounds almost trivial, but there are situations in which anyone can
- > forget anything).
-
- Be careful with the assumptions here ... The call-me card is only
- restricted if they happen to call via AT&T. The AT&T card is accepted
- by numerous other LD carriers, but they impose no restrictions on its
- use, and it can be used to call anywhere.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
- [The Man in the Mooney] Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: But my assumption is if you received a bill from
- some OCC -- probably as part of your regular telco bill -- you would
- just automatically refuse payment for that portion, citing the
- restricted nature of the media used for billing, and the failure of
- the OCC to verify it before accepting it. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine OGM = Telco Message?
- Date: 26 Sep 90 01:32:41 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12533@accuvax.nwu.edu>, dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David
- Tamkin) writes:
-
- > Dave Levenson wrote in Volume 10, Issue 668:
-
- [ regarding my friend in Morristown NJ who forwarded his calls to a
- telco-provided SIT and recording ]
-
- > To say that NJ Bell "canceled" your friend's call forwarding is
- > ambiguous. Dave, do you mean that they did a 73# equivalent on his
- > line to shut Call Forwarding off or do you mean that they removed the
- > Call Forwarding feature from his account?
-
- Sorry! I didn't mean to be ambiguous here. NJ Bell performed the 73#
- equivalent, and un-forwarded my friend's line until he was able to
- return home. Call forwarding service was never removed from his
- account.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
- [The Man in the Mooney] Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Greg Onufer <greg@cheers.bungi.com>
- Subject: Re: Sprint Wars (Was: Sprint Puts it in Writing: On Your Bill!)
- Organization: Cheers Bar & Grill
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 01:30:27 GMT
-
-
- john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) writes:
-
- >A number of well-meaning readers advised me a while back to check out
- >this plan or that plan involving long distance. Unfortunately, no IXCs
- >currently offer any calling discounts for traffic within California.
- >Since I make about two calls outside the state per month, no IXCs
- >interstate rates or packages interest me in any way.
-
- >Moral of the story: Be very careful when shopping for intrastate
- >rates. Don't just assume that everyone is cheaper than AT&T. In fact,
- >don't assume anything!
-
- I just called AT&T because they sent me a little insert in my bill
- stating that, after routine examination of my bill, they have
- determined that I would save money with Reach Out America (or
- whatever). Seeing how 99% of my calls are intrastate (209->408/415),
- Reach Out America plans do not really apply. The interesting comment
- the sales critter made was that a new intrastate plan was going to
- come into existence at the end of the year and that information would
- be sent to me then. There may be hope in California after all.
- Apparently the plan already exists on the East coast (at least in some
- areas) --- anybody know about it?
-
-
- Cheers!greg
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: John Nagle <decwrl!well.sf.ca.us!well!nagle@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
- Date: 26 Sep 90 17:17:06 GMT
-
-
- It's time to lobby for some standardized way to find out your own
- phone number. With Caller ID, the other end can find out; it's
- annoying that you can't. It would be especially valuable if it were
- available in machine-readable form, probably as Touch-Tone signals or
- in the same format used for Caller ID, so that devices like answering
- machines and computers could locate themselves automatically upon
- installation. This would be really valuable when you plug a laptop
- into a strange outlet, and it needs basic location info so it can dial
- the appropriate local access numbers.
-
-
- John Nagle
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #681
- ******************************
-
- ISSUES 682 AND 683 REVERSED IN TRANSMISSION. 683 COMES NEXT, THEN 682.
-
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05327;
- 27 Sep 90 5:10 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab10902;
- 27 Sep 90 3:25 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ad27416;
- 27 Sep 90 2:19 CDT
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 1:55:45 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #683
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009270155.ab30911@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Sep 90 01:55:24 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 683
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Steve Lemke]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Eduardo Krell]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Jim Budler]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Ron Newman]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Dave Levenson]
- Re: AT&T Card (was: Best and Worst) [Jim Gottlieb]
- ATT Universal Card (Dual Card) [Lauren Weinstein]
- Re: Host-to-Switch Interfaces, ANSI T1S1 [Vance Shipley]
- Re: 16 Buttons -- Not 12? [Brent Capps]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [Roger Cornelius]
- Re: Itemised Bills - An Australian Followup [Carl Moore]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Steve Lemke <radius!lemke@apple.com>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Date: 26 Sep 90 22:33:31 GMT
-
-
- matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.cts.com (Matthew McGehrin) writes:
-
- >Another thought came to mind about the 'AT&T Universal Card': Just
- >think, if you use the 'card' to charge purchases, your 'phone number
- >with four-digit code', along with the 'ATT Credit card number' goes on
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- >the same slip (since its one huge carbon) ... Reach Out and Touch
- >someone's life, since you have their credit card number, (their bank
- >since ATT uses only one bank), their phone number with a 'universal'
- >calling card ... not bad huh??
-
- Perhaps someone has already corrected you on this, but in case not:
-
- My AT&T MasterCard contains a MasterCard number, and an AT&T Long
- Distance Calling Card number, but the four digit PIN is _NOT_ there.
- In addition, as has been previously discussed (I think), the AT&T LD #
- is NOT my home phone number. It is a completely different ten-digit
- number.
-
- However, I _do_ agree with another poster who mentioned that if you
- stick this card into a card reader, it looks like an ordinary
- MasterCard. I found this out when I stuck it into a GTE Airphone
- which was supposed to recognize AT&T Calling Cards. The bill for the
- phone call came through on my AT&T Monthly statement, but it appeared
- under the MasterCard section, rather than the long distance calling
- section, meaning I did NOT get my 10% discount on the call. It was
- instead treated like any other credit purchase. (On the other hand,
- it therefore fell into the category of things that is NOT required to
- be paid off every month, but instead could be rolled over. However,
- the entire bill was so small that I paid the whole thing at once
- anyway.)
-
-
- Steve Lemke, Engineering Quality Assurance, Radius Inc., San Jose
- Reply to: lemke@radius.com (Note: NEW domain-style address!!)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: ekrell@ulysses.att.com
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Organization: AT&T Bell Labs
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 19:40:31 EDT
-
-
- >Another thought came to mind about the 'AT&T Universal Card': Just
- >think, if you use the 'card' to charge purchases, your 'phone number
- >with four-digit code', along with the 'ATT Credit card number' goes on
- >the same slip (since its one huge carbon) ...
-
- What do you mean by this?. The number on the Universal Card is not
- your phone number and is missing the four-digit PIN. They would still
- have to guess your PIN. How different is this from the current system
- that uses your home phone number (which I can get from the phone book
- or directory service)?
-
-
- Eduardo Krell AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
-
- UUCP: {att,decvax,ucbvax}!ulysses!ekrell Internet: ekrell@ulysses.att.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Reply-To: Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com>
- Organization: Silvar-Lisco,Inc. Sunnyvale Ca.
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 23:47:20 GMT
-
-
- In article <12594@accuvax.nwu.edu> matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.cts.com
- (Matthew McGehrin) writes:
-
- >Another thought came to mind about the 'AT&T Universal Card': Just
- >think, if you use the 'card' to charge purchases, your 'phone number
- >with four-digit code', along with the 'ATT Credit card number' goes on
- >the same slip (since its one huge carbon)
-
- Nope.
-
- The calling card number bears no relation to my phone number, and the
- PIN portion is not embossed on the card. It arrives by seperate post
- after the card arrives. While a binary search of the 10,000
- possibilities is not an impossibility, I would hope the security
- system would invalidate any calling card number if sufficient probes
- against it occured.
-
- With any credit card the issuing bank information is contained within
- the credit card number. So what? It isn't the bank where I have any of
- my other accounts. This statement is true both of the AT&T Universal
- card I hold, and of the Visa card I acquired from the same bank at
- which I *do* have my checking and savings account. This is because
- although my bank accepted my Visa application, the card itself was
- issued by a regional clearing house.
-
-
- Jim Budler jimb@silvlis.com +1.408.991.6115
- Silvar-Lisco, Inc. 703 E. Evelyn Ave. Sunnyvale, Ca. 94086
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Ron Newman <lotus!rnewman@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Organization: Lotus Development Corp.
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 00:29:08 GMT
-
-
- From article <12594@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics
- .cts.com (Matthew McGehrin):
-
- [Moderator's Note: Matt's quote eliminated to save space. Read it in
- prior messages if necessary. PAT]
-
- An AT&T Universal card does NOT have a real phone number embossed on
- it. Instead, it has a 10-digit made-up 'Calling Card number' that is
- not a phone number and does NOT have the four-digit code at the end of
- it. (My card has 508-096-xxxx which is unlikely to ever become a real
- phone number.) The user of the AT&T Universal card must remember the
- four-digit code him/herself.
-
-
- Ron Newman
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Date: 27 Sep 90 02:22:42 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12593@accuvax.nwu.edu>, plains!com50.c2s.mn.org!
- chris@uunet.uu.net (Chris Johnson) writes:
-
- > In article <12368@accuvax.nwu.edu> monty@sunne.east.sun.com (Monty
- > Solomon - Temp Consultant) writes:
-
- > >The fact: The AT&T Universal Card is simply a bankcard (VISA or
- > >Mastercard) with an AT&T credit card number embossed onto it. The
-
- > Well, that seems like an awfully easy thing to rectify with no new
- > technology whatsoever: just put two magnetic stripes on the back of
- > the card, one with the bankcard data and one with the phonecard data.
- > Then in all those glossy brochures they send to holders of the
- > Universal Card (like me), they need only instruct the users to insert
- > the card one way to use the VISA/MC capabilities, and the other way to
- > use the AT&T phone card capabilities.
-
- The AT&T card-caller public phones around here are not like those
- where you can insert the card two different ways. They have a slot
- into which you insert the card, more like an ATM, except that it
- doesn't have the capability that ATM's have of keeping the card once
- you've inserted it.
-
- The phones with the less expensive readers where the user sweeps the
- card through a stationary reader on the phone might be able to use the
- design proposed by Chris, but how many 'card-carrying members' of the
- public would understand such instructions?
-
-
- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
- [The Man in the Mooney] Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jim Gottlieb <jimmy@denwa.info.com>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Card (was: Best and Worst)
- Date: 26 Sep 90 19:03:10 GMT
- Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb <jimmy@denwa.info.com>
- Organization: Info Connections, West Los Angeles
-
-
- In article <12402@accuvax.nwu.edu>:
-
- >[Moderator's Note: You are partly wrong. The AT&T card can be used
- >between two countries other than the USA in the case of Japan. And in
- >fact, I think in the case of Japan to somewhere (other than USA) you
- >don't even use the '1M' international number ... just the regular
- >calling card number and PIN. PAT]
-
- Ahh. So this explains KDD's claims that their "Hello Card" number can
- be used to make calls within the U.S. too. The sample number in the
- picture on their brochure sure did look like a normal BOC 14-digit
- calling card number. I guess some kind of agreement was worked out.
- Maybe fictitious RAO codes for Japan? I'll have to apply for one and
- try it out.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 10:23:31 PDT
- From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
- Subject: ATT Universal Card (dual card)
-
-
- I haven't looked at the ANSI specs recently, but I suspect that trying
- to set up a card that had more than one stripe would violate the ANSI
- requirements for card striping, which are very precise in terms of
- defining "top" and "bottom" of card, etc. Also, I can think of few
- things with more potential for confusion by a typical card user than
- trying to figure out which way to feed in the card for different
- situations. Even now people have problems since some readers want the
- card right-side-up, others want them upside-down, some face-up, some
- face-down, etc. It would be a human factors nightmare to have a dual
- stripe that was card position dependent.
-
- As for the calling card number aspect of the Universal card, the
- number does not include the necessary PIN, which is mailed to the
- customer separately. One can argue the insufficiency of four digit
- PINS in the general case, but that's pretty much an industry standard,
- and at least it's not on the card.
-
-
- Lauren
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Welcome back to the Digest, Lauren! We haven't had
- a posting from you in YEARS. For the new readers among us, Lauren was
- a regular Digest contributor several years ago. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Vance Shipley <vances@xenitec.on.ca>
- From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley)
- Subject: Re: Host-to-Switch Interfaces, ANSI T1S1
- Reply-To: vances@ltg.UUCP (Vance Shipley)
- Organization: SwitchView - The Linton Technology Group
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 01:29:19 GMT
-
-
- In article <12606@accuvax.nwu.edu> David Gurevich
- <dgurevic@dhlmis.dhl> writes:
-
- >It seems that ANSII T1S1 subcommettee is trying to define a set of
- >specs called the Switch - to - Computer API (SCAI). SCAI would provide
- >common ground for any host to communicate to with any switch.
-
- Nothern Telecom have an interface of this type now; Meridian Link.
- AT&T, Mitel and others have them too. All are incompatable.
-
- >This means that all kinds of applications may be developed on the host
- >computer that would be able to add to the switch capability/
- >functionality. A sophisticated development environment, rich in
- >labor-saving tools could be provided for this application development.
- >Data network interfaces could be easily added.
-
- IBM have a tool box called CIT (Computer Integrated Telephony) for the
- AS/400. DEC have a similiar offering.
-
- >Is there a large market for this kind of a product?
-
- I think there is. Today the best way to sell a switch, PBX or CO, is
- to be able to fit neatly into the customers business environment.
- This usually involves multi-vendor scenarios. With this new enabling
- technology it is possible to do things never before possible. When a
- customer presents a need for a feature that does not exist in the
- current switch software it may be possible to implement it on an AP
- (Auxiliary or Adjunct Proccessor). The AP might be a Unix PC or mini
- dedicated to the switch or an application running on the corporate
- mainframe.
-
- Five years ago many in this industry were trying to convince us that
- the PBX would be the office computer of tomorrow, doing both switching
- and business computing! Consumers were not, and are not, interested
- in this. What they want is equipment that does it's intended function
- reliably, economically and integrates with equipment from other
- vendors performing their functions. An AS/400 and a Meridian 1 make a
- better platform for office automation than a new ALLINONE by StartUp, Inc.
-
- The key of course is seamless integration, hopefully on an open
- interface (non-proprietary).
-
- >What would be common applications?
-
- The most often cited application is one in which incoming calls are
- routed to ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) agents while customer
- profiles are extracted from the computer and sent to the agents
- computer screen. This is based on the availability of the calling
- party number, an ISDN feature. Subsequent transfers to other agents
- would cause the computer to forward the customers account to the next
- agent's screen.
-
- Some more inventive applications include:
-
- - Database query from an LCD equipped phone (look up part number,etc.)
- - Display incurred call charges in real time on LCD display
- - E-Mail retreival from LCD phone
- - Enhanced call waiting information (Persons Name)
-
- >Who would buy it?
-
- No one without applications.
-
- >What are the potential regulatory problems?
-
- Sorry that's not my problem :-)
-
-
- Vance Shipley
-
- SwitchView - The Linton Technology Group
- 180 Columbia Street West Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3L3
- CANADA (519) 746-4460 vances@ltg.on.ca.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 11:01:51 PDT
- From: Brent Capps <kentrox!ktxc5!brent@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: 16 Buttons -- Not 12?
-
- > An odd thought sprang upon me recently while talking to a friend. Do
- > telephones actually use sixteen tones rather than just twelve normally
- > available?
-
- The extra tones are used in the AUTOVON/SCOPEDIAL system for
- precedence dialling. The only phone I've ever seen that uses them is
- a very peculiar device known as a "4-wire set". A 4W set is
- essentially a trunk-line combination that consists of a trunk with a
- special phone set terminating one end, and is used by the military to
- run direct connections from AUTOVON COs out to missle silos in the
- middle of God-knows-where. 4W sets use all 16 keys. The numeric keys
- and the * key are the same as on a 2500 set, but the # key is called
- A, and the right-hand row of keys are called (top to bottom) FO, F, I,
- and P.
-
- These keys are used for precedence dialling: A stands for Automatic
- (lowest), P for Priority, I for Immediate, F for Flash, and FO for
- Flash Override (the highest precedence level). The highest allowed
- precedence level associated with a particular set is datafilled at the
- CO; there are only a handful of FO 4W sets in the country. 4W sets
- are extremely strange beasts; their charms include off-hook ringing
- (the phone can physically ring while you are off-hook talking to
- someone else). This can be somewhat disconcerting to the uninitiated.
-
- 4W sets are a pain to design CO software for, mainly because of their
- hybrid nature (ever try to apply staggered dialtone to a trunk? It's
- not easy) and since there is little that a 4W set can do that a normal
- 2W set cannot, the CO mfgs have been pushing the military to phase
- them out.
-
-
- Brent Capps
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Roger Cornelius <sherpa!rac@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
- Date: 26 Sep 90 20:10:19 GMT
- Organization: Personal System Computing, St. Petersburg, FL
-
-
- In article <12472@accuvax.nwu.edu>, zippy@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu
- (Patrick Tufts) writes:
-
- >How can you find out the number of a given phone? I seem to recall
- >that linesmen dial the operator and ask for a ringback.
-
- In Florida (St. Pete. area), dialing 118 will get a recorded message
- telling you the number you're dialing from. I've never tried this
- from anywhere else so it may be just a local convenience for the
- repair guys.
-
-
- Roger A. Cornelius rac@sherpa.UUCP uunet!sherpa!rac
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 13:34:23 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Re: Itemised Bills - An Australian Followup
-
-
- This reply is to a message from U5434122@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au:
-
- You write of "withholding services from everyone if not everyone can
- have it". In the U.S., direct-dialed international calling was (is?)
- not available everywhere, and if you cannot dial direct because of
- your exchange not being equipped for international dialing, you still
- get the direct-dial rate unless your call requires any other operator
- assistance.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #683
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05367;
- 27 Sep 90 5:13 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa10902;
- 27 Sep 90 3:22 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ac27416;
- 27 Sep 90 2:19 CDT
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 1:20:00 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #682
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009270120.ab02809@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Sep 90 01:19:48 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 682
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: COCOTery [Barrey Jewall]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [Nigel Allen]
- Re: I'm AT&T and I'm Writing to Help You [John Higdon]
- Re: Sprint Wars (Was: Sprint Puts it in Writing) [Carol Springs]
- Re: Two-way Radio/Telephone Dispatch Interface [Mike Wilson]
- Re: AT&T Universal Cad is Not Two Cards in One [Andrew Boardman]
- Re: Alana Shoars' Battle With Epson [Carl Moore]
- Re: Automatic Call Forwarding [Piet van Oostrum]
- Re: ATM at Retailers [Ed Greenberg]
- Re: A Description of 976 Numbers [John Slater]
- Re: Putting it in Writing [Nigel Allen]
- Re: 1-900-963-3333 [Mark Steiger]
- Re: A Sprint Employee Comments About ATT and Divestiture [L. Derbenwick]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Barrey Jewall <barrey@ka>
- Subject: Re: COCOTery
- Date: 26 Sep 90 05:43:21 GMT
- Reply-To: Barrey Jewall <barrey@ka.novell.com>
- Organization: Novell, Inc., San Jose, Califonia
-
-
- In article <12551@accuvax.nwu.edu> dplatt@coherent.com writes:
-
- >> {Much useful info about a COCOT search deleted for brevity}
-
- >I ran into a COCOT in Palo Alto (Liddicoats, on University Avenue)
- >which was in violation of most of the new regs: $.25 for a local call,
- >950 restricted, 1-800 restricted, 10xxx restricted, no instructions or
- >rates.
-
- >I called the operator and reported the problem (the PacBell operator
- >tranferred me to her supervisor, who took the actual report). A
- >couple of days later, the phone was still in violation ... so I stuck a
- >laserprinted "Out of order, programming violation" sticker over the
- >coin-slot and checked off all of the violation categories.
-
- >So ... things are getting better ... but we aren't there yet.
-
- Perhaps if you were able to distribute copies of say, the PostScript
- file for that little label, and a few hundred or dare I say, thousand
- of TELECOM Digest's readers were to stick these on whatever COCOT's
- were found to be in violation, we might see a bit more compliance with
- the rules and regulations.
-
- I suggest distributng a file for the reason that we are a lazy lot
- here, and if we can just download it and print it out, we are more
- likely to do so thna if we had to create our own labels. Besides, if
- they all look the same, the net effect is much better!!
-
- I am just assuming PostScript because that is what I use, if another
- format is more universal, let's go with it....
-
- Anyone else think this is a good idea???
-
-
- + Barrey Jewall ++ "My opinions are my opinions" +
- + barrey@novell.com ++ (rather self-evident, eh?) +
- + Novell, Inc.- San Jose, Calif.++ +
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Well, I think it is a good idea! If he will send
- along a script, preferably in 'c', I will post it here, or in a
- special edition, depending on the size. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 19:23 EDT
- From: Nigel Allen <ndallen@contact.uucp>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Organization: Contact Public Unix BBS. Toronto, Canada.
-
-
- Some months ago, I received a call from a telemarketing company trying
- to sell me an "affinity" MasterCard, endorsed by and bearing the logo
- and colours of a a good cause that I support. I decided to get the
- card, and at the end of the application processor, the telemarketing
- person passed me on to a woman he identified as his supervisor, who
- confirmed that I indeed wanted the affinity MasterCard, and made sure
- I understood how it worked.
-
- Perhaps the "slamming" abuses people have described here would not
- happen so often if MCI and its telemarketing contractors were required
- to have requests to make MCI the 1+ carrier verified by a second
- person who was paid a flat hourly or weekly wage which does not have
- anything to do with sales results. This would go a long way towards
- keeping telemarketers honest.
-
-
- Nigel Allen telephone (416) 535-8916
- 52 Manchester Avenue fax (416) 978-7552
- Toronto, Ontario M6G 1V3 Canada
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: I'm AT&T and I'm Writing to Help You
- Date: 26 Sep 90 02:27:26 PDT (Wed)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 25 at 23:41, Alec <PCHROMCZ@drew.bitnet> writes:
-
- > If they wanted us to "save money" they would just lower their rates
- > rather than trying to sell us a "money saving plan."
-
- I was wondering how long it would take for someone to realize the
- absurdity of "calling plans". An associate of mine refers to this as
- "charging for a discount". AT&T, Sprint, MCI, and all the other IXCs
- aren't the only ones who play this game, but the LECs do it as well.
-
- A Pac*Bell person explained that, "calling plans are not designed to
- save anyone money. They are designed to guarantee a level of revenue
- and to create the impression that the customer maximizes his savings
- the more he uses the service. He tends to make more calls to take the
- greatest benefit of that special plan that he is paying for."
-
- If you think about it, why "WATS" or "ProWATS" or "ROA" or any of that
- stuff? Why not just have a sliding scale where the rate gets cheaper
- as usage increases? The "special" plans are nothing more than theater
- to convince the customer that he is getting something "special".
-
- Also, "plans" make it necessary for the customer to continually
- re-evaluate his service to make sure that he has the right "plan".
- What the service provider hopes all the while is that the customer
- will forget about it and will end up paying for a plan that is
- useless. A customer of mine paid AT&T hundreds of dollars over the
- course of a couple of years for a LD plan and Sprint was the
- customer's carrier!
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Carol Springs <carols@world.std.com>
- Subject: Re: Sprint Wars (Was: Sprint Puts it in Writing)
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 12:36:15 GMT
-
-
- Joe Konstan writes in Vol. 10, issue 677:
-
- >In TELECOM Digest #669, John Higdon writes:
-
- >> A number of well-meaning readers advised me a while back to check
- >> out this plan or that plan involving long distance.
- >> Unfortunately, no IXCs currently offer any calling discounts for
- >> traffic within California.
-
- >That is not presently true.... MCI's
- >PrimeTime Plus *does* include in-state long distance calls in its
- >10.whatever cents per minute (one hour min) rate. An additional
- >benefit is that this rate starts at 5pm weekdays.
-
- Starting October 1, Sprint will institute a California plan called
- Sprint Select Intrastate Evening/Night/Weekend. The first hour of
- in-California calls made after 5 p.m. or on weekends is billed at
- $7.90, and additional hours are $6.50 (prorated per minute). There
- are extra five to ten per cent discounts on daytime direct dial calls
- and (I think) on interstate and international direct dial calls
- regardless of time of day. Perhaps someone with more hard facts can
- post about the discounts and about how Sprint's Intrastate and
- Interstate Sprint Select plans work together if a Californian signs up
- for both.
-
-
- Carol Springs carols@world.std.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mike Wilson <mwilson@orion.arc.nasa.gov>
- Subject: Re: Two-way Radio/Telephone Dispatch Interface
- Organization: NASA - Ames Research Center
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 13:34:15 GMT
-
-
- In article <12459@accuvax.nwu.edu> tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) writes:
-
- >Is there a stand-alone unit that would do this? I know that Plant
- >Equipment has a card (the 3134 KTU Radio Access) that does this, but
- >only as part of their whole key system.
-
- I have used the Plant Equipment 3134 KTU in generic 1A2 Key Systems
- with no problems. It was the perfect solution.
-
-
- Mike Wilson Phone: (415) 604-6846 mwilson@orion.arc.nasa.gov
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Andrew Boardman <amb@ai.mit.edu>
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 09:56:13 EDT
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Cad is Not Two Cards in One
-
-
- Chris Johnson writes:
-
- >Well, that seems like an awfully easy thing to rectify with no new
- >technology whatsoever: just put two magnetic stripes on the back of
- >the card, one with the bankcard data and one with the phonecard data.
- >Then in all those glossy brochures they send to holders of the
- >Universal Card (like me), they need only instruct the users to insert
- >the card one way to use the VISA/MC capabilities, and the other way to
- >use the AT&T phone card capabilities.
-
- This occcured to me also when I read the original note, but...
-
- -What about instruction for the POS clerk who runs the card through
- backwards, gets a "bad card" report, and cuts your card in two?
-
- -What about instruction for the relatively unsophisticated users who
- might foul it up as well? In an ATM style machine, it's not always
- obvious where the stripe should go, and many such machines actually
- look at the way the raised type is oriented and go by that, i.e.,
- the one in Penn Station, Baltimore...
-
- -Do you *really* want more glossy brochures from the Universal Card
- people? My collection is at 1.5 shoeboxes already... :-)
-
- Why not just get a separate phone card with the same number? (Or
- maybe make your own, with your own account on it? Where can magstrip
- readers/writers be had, anyway?)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 11:15:21 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Re: Alana Shoars' Battle With Epson
-
-
- Without further comment here, please be reminded that in the U.S.
- mail, there are guidelines as to what can be opened. (E.g., the rules
- of the dead letter office.)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Piet van Oostrum <piet@cs.ruu.nl>
- Subject: Re: Automatic Call Forwarding
- Date: 26 Sep 90 14:41:55 GMT
- Reply-To: Piet van Oostrum <piet@cs.ruu.nl>
- Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
-
-
- In article <12442@accuvax.nwu.edu>, nstar!watcher@ndmath.math.nd.edu
- (JW) writes:
-
- JW> Some years ago I heard of an automatic call fowarding device (this was
- JW> before call forwarding was offered as an option by the telcos; it was,
- JW> in fact, pre-divestiture) that worked like this: you had two lines;
- JW> the first one rings (your "real" number); device dials out on the
- JW> second line; then conferences the lines together. Sure, you would have
- JW> to have two lines, but if you already have an extra one for the
- JW> dial-out modem, this wouldn't be a problem.
-
- I know somebody (a vet) who uses such a device to redirect calls to
- his cellular phone when he is not at home. Call forwarding is a new
- thing here, and not many people have even heard of it.
-
-
- Piet* van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University,
- Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- Telephone: +31 30 531806 Uucp: uunet!mcsun!ruuinf!piet
- Telefax: +31 30 513791 Internet: piet@cs.ruu.nl (*`Pete')
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 08:46 PDT
- From: Ed_Greenberg@fin.3mail.3com.com
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers
-
-
- Jim Budler <jimb@silvlis.com> writes:
-
- >Last year I was one of the lucky people to receive a letter telling me
- >that my Versateller card was being shut down, and that I would receive
- >a new one in a few days. Concurrently my HomeBanking stopped also.
-
- >This shutdown occurred because some people at one of the system
- >providers broke their trust and obtained a significant block of
- >records containing names, ATM numbers and PINs. By system providers I
- >mean the companies like Plus System, or Star, who connect to the
-
- John Higdon's gonna love this one...
-
- The Bank of America customer group that had their Versatel cards
- invalidated were that subset that had used an ATM in Safeway
- Supermarket. Safeway ATM's are provided by an organization called
- GTEL, a service of -- you guessed it -- GTE!
-
- The scope of the breach was not known, but everybody who had a GTEL
- transaction in a particular time period was uncerimoniously dumped
- from the Versatel system and then sent the mailings that Jim Budler
- described. Since Versatel numbers are used to log into Homebanking,
- that service was lost as well, even though Homebanking passcodes are
- not the same as the Versatel PIN.
-
- It was inconvenient, to say the least, although no money was ever
- stolen using the purloined information, and _the_bank_says_ that the
- perps were apprehended.
-
-
- edg
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: John Slater <johns@scroff.uk.sun.com>
- Subject: Re: A Description of 976 Numbers
- Date: 26 Sep 90 16:24:57 GMT
- Reply-To: John Slater <johns@scroff.uk.sun.com>
- Organization: sundc.East.Sun.COM
-
-
- In article <12510@accuvax.nwu.edu>, msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
-
- |> I understand that several other countries have the same concept, for
- |> example, Britain's 0898-numbers are similar to our 900's, but I've
- |> never heard of a simple name for it. Is there one?
-
- Yes. BT now call these "Callstream" services. I think this name is
- relatively new. I presume their marketing people decided it would be a
- good idea to have a name to sell.
-
- Everyone else calls them "0898 numbers". Can't think why. :-)
-
- BTW, they carry a fixed charge of 44p/minute peak, 33p off-peak,
- unlike 900 numbers where the charge is variable (to say the least).
-
-
- John Slater
- Sun Microsystems UK, Gatwick Office
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: ndallen@contact.uucp (Nigel Allen)
- Subject: Re: Putting it in Writing
- Reply-To: ndallen@contact.uucp (Nigel Allen)
- Organization: Contact Public Unix BBS. Toronto, Canada.
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 07:38:15 GMT
-
-
- A number of people have described their attempts to get a
- telecommunications carrier to "put it in writing".
-
- You might have more luck if you ask for a copy of the relevant tariff
- pages. Carriers are normally required to make their tariffs available
- for public inspection, and to furnish copies of the tariffs for a fee
- (although the agency that regulates the carrier may require it to
- waive the normal charges if a customer only wants a few pages).
-
- I believe that the FCC no longer requires "non-dominant" carriers to
- file tariffs, and every long distance company other than AT&T is
- considered "non-dominant". However, perhaps MCI and Sprint continue to
- have conventional printed tariffs that can be furnished to cranky
- customers (such as TELECOM Digest readers!) who insist on reading
- them.
-
- Local exchange carriers, such as the individual Bell operating
- companies, still publish tariffs, and you can confuse first-level
- telephone company managers by wandering into a public office and
- asking to see the individual exchange tariff for Grover's Mill, or
- whatever.
-
- * Disclaimer: This is all terribly second-hand, since I live in Canada.
-
-
- Nigel Allen telephone (416) 535-8916
- 52 Manchester Avenue fax (4160 978-7552
- Toronto, Ontario M6G 1V3 Canada
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com (Mark Steiger)
- Subject: Re: 1-900-963-3333
- Date: 26 Sep 90 10:36:25 GMT
-
-
- Try calling 1-900-555-1212. There you get a recordeing of all active
- 900 numbers and who owns them. It is toll free even. :)
-
-
- [ Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo 218/262-3142 300/1200/2400 baud]
-
- ProLine.:penguin@gnh-igloo America Online: Goalie5
- UUCP....:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin MCI Mail......: MSteiger
- Internet:penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com
- ARPA....:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin@nosc.mil
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Actually, 900-555-1212 is *far* from being a
- complete list of 900 numbers. It is a partial list with only a small
- percentage of the numers listed. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 17:25:58 EDT
- From: Leland F Derbenwick <lfd@lcuxlq.att.com>
- Subject: Re: A Sprint Employee Comments About ATT and Divestiture
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- In article <12474@accuvax.nwu.edu>, eli@pws.bull.com (Steve Elias)
- writes:
-
- > Comments from a person who works for Sprint.
-
- > 1) Most important: ATT can combine long distance and equipment.
- > NOBODY ELSE CAN to that extent because nobody else owned a company
- > like Western Electric. [ ... ]
-
- Does the "person who works for Sprint" not remember "GTE Sprint"?
-
- It's quite true, of course, that Sprint never owned a company that
- manufactured switching equipment and such, or that had a monopoly on
- local telephone service anywhere.
-
- They were owned _by_ one, instead.
-
- Speaking strictly for myself,
-
- Lee Derbenwick, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Warren, NJ
- lfd@cbnewsm.ATT.COM or <wherever>!att!cbnewsm!lfd
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #682
- ******************************
-
- ISSUES 682 AND 683 REVERSED IN TRANSMISSION. 683 CAME BEFORE 682. 684
- COMES NEXT.
-
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa06423;
- 27 Sep 90 6:13 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa02907;
- 27 Sep 90 4:29 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ac10902;
- 27 Sep 90 3:25 CDT
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 2:30:26 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #684
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009270230.ab15629@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Sep 90 02:30:13 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 684
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Laird Heal]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Toby Nixon]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Ken Abrams]
- Re: Stealing ATM PINS [Jack Winslade]
- Re: ATM at Retailers [Martin Harriss]
- Re: Coin Calls From Narita [Jim Gottlieb]
- Re: COCOTery [Paul Fuqua]
- Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug [U5434122@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au]
- Re: Local Calling Numbers [Carl Moore]
- Re: Burglar Alarm Problems [Carl Moore]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [Spyros C. Bartsocas]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Organization: dis
- Reply-To: laird@slum.mv.com
- Date: 26 Sep 90 14:37:19 EDT (Wed)
- From: Laird Heal <laird@slum.mv.com>
-
-
- >Recently, we have been seeing a bit of discussion of the cost (to the
- >operating company) of a data call versus a voice call.
-
- > 1) Although your connection is analog in nature, it will only
- >be that way until it reaches the C.O.
-
- Forgive my ignorance, but it seems to me that with mature technology
- the voice call should be more costly than a data call.
-
- This is because of the simple nature of the modem tones as compared to
- the less predictable modulations of human voices. Furthermore,
- correct me if I am mistaken but the back-channel of the current
- listener still sends any background noise, from breathing to, in the
- case of U. S. Sprint, pins dropping. The exception listed was for
- cable transmission where the number of circuits was strictly limited:
- so that's what the modem 'guard tones' are for?
-
- A modem's tones should be much more predictable than a human's voice,
- and generally any compression algorithm or sampling could clock much
- lower for data transmission. The most preferable from the Telephone
- Company's standpoint would be direct digital transmission
- point-to-point because they could bypass analog devices, and measure
- data throughput.
-
- It does seem another case of paying the utility more for service that
- costs them less; can someone prove to me that touch-tone service
- actually does cost the phone company more today than ol' reliable?
-
-
- Laird Heal laird@slum.MV.COM (Salem, NH) +1 603 898 1406
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Toby Nixon <hayes!tnixon@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Date: 26 Sep 90 18:10:01 GMT
- Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA
-
-
- > This may be kind of a dumb solution, but why can't the phone company detect
- > dead modem carrier and compress it the way they do with silence. I realize
- > that modem silence isn't as simple as people silence, but there must be some
- > way to do this. How about it?
-
- CCITT Study Group XV is currently leading a study (along with Study
- Groups VIII and XVII) on compression of fax and modem traffic on
- digital trunks. It would involve demodulation of the signal,
- transmission of the original bits, and remodulation when the signal
- reaches the other end. This way, instead of wasting an entire 64kHz
- DS0, the network can use only 2.4KHz for a V.22bis connection, 9.6KHz
- for V.32, etc -- and pack them into DS0s to save bandwidth.
-
- In the case of fax, the half-duplex nature of the link allows the
- network to insert this mechanism at any line turnaround. Also, the
- fax T.30 handshake always indicates what kind of modulation scheme is
- going to be used next, so the demodulator/remodulators can track the
- protocol and keep the fax machines happy, without introducing any
- appreciable delay. With data, it's a bit trickier, because you don't
- know for sure what the modulation scheme is going to be, and in the
- case of full-duplex modems there's no natural place (like a
- line-turnaround) where the network can switch in this mechanism.
-
- It's an interesting project.
-
-
- Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer Fax: +1-404-441-1213 Telex: 6502670805
- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. Voice: +1-404-449-8791 CIS: 70271,404
- Norcross, Georgia, USA BBS: +1-404-446-6336 MCI: TNIXON
- Telemail: T.NIXON/HAYES AT&T: !tnixon
- UUCP: ...!uunet!hayes!tnixon Internet: hayes!tnixon@uunet.uu.net
- MHS: C=US / AD=ATTMAIL / PN=TOBY_L_NIXON / DD=TNIXON
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Ken Abrams <kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Date: 26 Sep 90 21:56:48 GMT
- Reply-To: Ken Abrams <pallas!kabra437@uunet.uu.net>
- Organization: Athenanet, Inc., Springfield, Illinois
-
-
- In article <12490@accuvax.nwu.edu> stox@balr.com (Ken Stox) writes:
-
- > 2) Once digitized at the C.O., the digital data from your
- >phone call is blocked into packets of data which are routed through
- >the phone network.
-
- This has been explained in some detail in earlier posts but I think a
- quick recap is in order. While what Mr. Stox says might be true (to
- some degree) sometime in the not too distant future, it is NOT true
- today. As far as I know, there are no telco owned switches in service
- today that use packet switching for voice. At the present time, a
- path through a digital switch used for voice grade communications is
- not pre-emptable. Time division multiplexing is NOT the same as
- packet switching. A voice grade call gets a "full time" channel
- regardless of what is transported, voice, data or even silence.
-
-
- Ken Abrams uunet!pallas!kabra437
- Illinois Bell kabra437@athenanet.com
- Springfield (voice) 217-753-7965
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 22:16:42 EDT
- From: Jack Winslade <Jack.Winslade@f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org>
- Subject: Re: Stealing ATM PINS
- Reply-to: Jack.Winslade@p0.f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org
- Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha, Ne. 402-896-3537
-
-
- In a message of <24 Sep 90 02:20:38>, John Higdon () writes:
-
- >Sorry, I don't consider this a real problem. Has it ever happened?
- >I've never heard of a case.
-
- Yes, it has, as is widely (??) known in this bit of Omaha/hacker
- trivia:
-
- A couple who lived not too far from where we live was arrested a
- couple of years ago for conspiring to rip off many kilobucks, a few
- hundred at a time, from ATM machines. The guy worked for a company
- that developed ATM software and happened to come across a 'live' list
- of cards and PINs. They made a crude but usable machine to write the
- data on surplus mag tape and then glued (or taped, I forget) the
- strips to cardboard cards.
-
- They planned to rip off a whole slew of ATMs somewhere in California
- over one holiday weekend. They needed some help, since the scam would
- obviously work once and only once, so they recruited some <ahem>
- trusted friends and relatives. One of them snitched and they were
- caught with their pants down, but not before they had tested their
- goodies and had proven that they worked.
-
- I have the entire story somewhere, but I can't find it right now. It
- was written up in the Omaha Weird-Herald shortly after they were
- arrested and hit the national wire. If/when I can find it, I will key
- it in and send it along.
-
- Good Day! JSW
-
-
- [1:285/666@fidonet] DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha (1:285/666)
- --- Through FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390
- Jack.Winslade@f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Martin Harriss (ACP" <cellar!martin@bellcore.bellcore.com>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers
- Date: 26 Sep 90 19:11:58 GMT
- Reply-To: "Martin Harriss (ACP" <cellar!martin@bellcore.bellcore.com>
- Organization: Bellcore
-
-
- I thought that Digest readers may be interested in the following "hard
- evidence" about banks and ATM PINS.
-
- About six months ago I opened a new account at a nearby bank. I also
- requested an ATM card to go with the new account. The ATM card
- arrived a few days later and with it was a note saying I could stop by
- the bank to select a PIN and have the card activated.
-
- So I went to the bank, and they got out this machine, punched a PIN in
- while the bank employee wasn't looking, then she punched my account
- number in and then ran my card through the machine. Presto - a
- working ATM card.
-
- Now I, like many others, had always assumed that the machine encrypted
- some combination of the PIN and the account number and stored that on
- the card. I don't remember seeing any external connection on this
- machine, such as a data link to the bank's computer, but at the time I
- probably wasn't looking for one. As I remember, the card worked
- immediately - I went straight to the ATM after activation to check it
- out. In other words, I believed all the information needed to use the
- card was encoded on the card itself, and needed no information about
- the PIN at the central computer. I thought.
-
- Now it so happens that this bank was acquired by another bank, and
- with the takeover they sent me a new card. Fine, I thought; I really
- don't care who's logo is on the card as long as it works. With the
- new card was a note telling me that a new PIN would be sent to me in a
- few days. (It seems to be quite common that banks select a PIN for
- you and mail it in those envelopes with the carbon on the inside, so
- you can't see the PIN until you open it.)
-
- Well, I was a little upset about this because I rather liked the PIN
- that I had - I had been using it at this and another bank for some
- years; in an odd sort of way it was, in fact, telecom related.
- Anyway, my new PIN arrived yesterday. You guessed it - it was the
- same as the old one.
-
- I attribute this to one of three scenarios:
-
- 1. Coincidence. (not likely.)
-
- 2. They decoded my PIN. (also, I suspect, unlikely.)
-
- 3. They knew my PIN all along.
-
- I strongly suspect number 3. When I opened the envelope I was
- somewhat surprised, even shocked, that they knew it, but know it they
- do.
-
- Comments, anyone?
-
- Martin Harriss
- martin@cellar.bae.bellcore.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jim Gottlieb <jimmy@denwa.info.com>
- Subject: Re: Coin Calls From Narita
- Date: 26 Sep 90 19:11:05 GMT
- Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb <jimmy@denwa.info.com>
- Organization: Info Connections, West Los Angeles
-
-
- In article <12404@accuvax.nwu.edu> dhepner@hpcuhc.cup.hp.com (Dan
- Hepner) writes:
-
- >Here's a story from Narita (Tokyo International).
-
- >it rang ... normal 45 second
- >conversation ... hangup, all the time waiting for a demand for another
- >Y1000 or so. It never happened. The whole call cost 88c.
-
- >Now what happened there? Do coin calls from Japan really only cost
- >Y100?
-
- Unlike the ridiculous $9.75 for the first three minutes that is
- demanded from AT&T-served public phones, NTT's will charge you 100 yen
- per X seconds where X varies due to time of day, location, and the
- overseas carrier you select.
-
- So yes, it is very possible that a 45 second call would cost you only
- 100 yen. Sometimes I'm able to check my Los Angeles voice mail for
- only 100 smackeroos.
-
- >For all I know, I should have
- >listened to the local and only used Y10.
-
- No. An international call will not complete unless there is at least
- 100 yen in the hopper or at least ten units left on an inserted
- telephone card.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 13:53:34 CDT
- From: Paul Fuqua <pf@islington-terrace.csc.ti.com>
- Subject: Re: COCOTery
-
-
- I had my first encounter with a COCOT a few weeks ago. (I live a
- telephonically sheltered life -- all the payphones at work and in my
- neighborhood are SWBell phones.)
-
- A few miles east of Opelousas, Louisiana, I found a payphone with
- no identifying marks, in the same awful housing as the GTE phones at
- DFW airport (metal chiclet buttons in supposedly-fingertip-shaped
- sockets).
-
- Following the directions on the phone, I tried to place a
- calling-card call with 0+504+XXX-XXXX. The phone turned out to be
- pulse, not tone, but if I pressed any digit after the first, it
- spouted weird tones in my ear.
-
- When I gave up and just dialed 0 for the operator, the phone
- pulse-dialed a seven-digit number, at which point I gave up and drove
- to the next town, where I found comprehensible South Central Bell
- phones.
-
-
- Paul Fuqua pf@csc.ti.com, ti-csl!pf
- Texas Instruments Computer Science Center, Dallas, Texas
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: U5434122@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au
- Subject: Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug
- Date: 27 Sep 90 10:12:11 +1000
- Organization: The University of Melbourne
-
-
- In article <12430@accuvax.nwu.edu>, normt@ihlpy.att.com (Norman R
- Tiedemann) writes:
-
- > In article <12341@accuvax.nwu.edu>, wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu
- > (Mark Wilkins) writes:
-
- >>However, the next day a person she'd been interviewing for a job came in.
- >>Instantly, everything clicked. He had been the one whose conversation was
- >>recorded on the phone. Apparently he had a sophistcated auto-dial speaker
- >>phone, either with more than one line or with three-way callbing.
-
- > He calls you, (to schedule the appointment or whatever), gets your
- > machine and decides he doesn't want to leave a message. He taps the
- > switch hook, which instead of hanging up, gives him the second line,
- > the CO on your end doesn't even detect the disconnect and keeps your
- > machine connected (and recording). He now has a threeway setup between
- > your machine, himself and the next person he called. Everything is
-
- In Australia three-way calling and enquiry call are the same function.
- To make a call while in the middle of another, you <Flash> and dial.
- You are then connected to that party in an enquiry call. If you hang
- up, your phone will ring with the person you left on hold, or, you can
- initiate three-way conversation with <flash>3. Every 15 seconds a
- beep will let all parties know that there are three people connected,
- to avoid eavesdropping, supposedly.
-
- It is possible to use <flash>2 repeatedly to flip between calls
- without connecting them, or to separate them after three-way has been
- initiated, and <flash>1 is used to hang up on the person you last
- spoke to and connect you with whoever is left.
-
- From my reading of Norman's comments, three way calling in the USA is
- initiated by the CO after answer supervision of the second dialled
- number. Is this the way things *do* work? Can you have enquiry
- without conference?
-
- Curious...
-
- Danny
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 13:25:44 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Re: Local Calling Numbers
-
-
- If, say, 647 (201 area now, later to be in 908 area) is not on "local"
- list, it could be:
-
- a) a toll call
- b) so new that some equipment doesn't yet recognize it as a valid
- prefix (201-647 has been around for years, so it can't be new)
-
- I had a case where I could not place a self-service 0+ call to
- 301-850, apparently brand new at the time; and someone I knew could
- not call 202-994. (These were both toll calls.)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 13:28:30 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Re: Burglar Alarm Problems
-
-
- Moderator writes:
-
- >Our [Chicago] city officials
- >said they have no intention of jeopardizing a citizen actually in
- >distress because of a history of malfunctioning alarms at the same
- >location. Instead, the offending alarm owner is sued or fined by the
- >city after the second or third time around.
-
- So no redlining here? Apparently, in areas which are redlined for a
- history of phone (credit card?) abuse, it is harder to identify who is
- committing the fraud.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: You are correct. No redlining by the City of
- Chicago where false alarms are concerned. *Nor should AT&T be
- permitted to do it.* Maybe they will get sued to make them stop
- redlining. Instead of punishing the whole community, punish the guilty
- persons. Imagine the confusion AT&T's policy must cause for the
- unsophisticated but legitimate user of their 'Universal Card' --
- universal that is except for calls to several countries from several
- neighborhoods they (AT&T) don't like doing business in. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 14:44:30 -0400
- From: "Spyros C. Bartsocas" <scb@cs.brown.edu>
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
-
-
- >The easiest, at least in NYNEX and Atlantic Bell land, is to call the
- >operator and ask "what number is this?" I've never had the request
-
- The easiest at NYNEX land (according to older postings and
- experimentation) is to call 200-222-2222. For pay phones the number
- is 200-2222. This does not work for pay phones that do not have
- incoming service.
-
-
- Spyros Bartsocas
- scb@cs.brown.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #684
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27787;
- 28 Sep 90 1:16 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa14843;
- 27 Sep 90 23:39 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa10213;
- 27 Sep 90 22:34 CDT
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 22:18:56 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #685
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009272218.ab32087@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Sep 90 22:18:37 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 685
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- 215 to Join the N0X/N1X World [Scott D. Green]
- A Search For COCOT Tariffs [Roy Smith]
- Inexpensive Way to Increase Calling Area Needed [Dan Birchall]
- Continuing Saga With MCI Around Town [Joe Konstan]
- List For Italy [Carl Moore]
- Debit Cards (was: Re: Best and Worst) [Jerry B. Altzman]
- New TDD Relay Centers; Other AT&T Promotions [Jeff Jonas]
- Industry Ethics (Was: Telecom Humour) [Alan Millar]
- More on Suspected AOS Story [Roy Smith]
- Need Help With Plantronics Headset [Roger Clark Swann]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 10:17 EDT
- From: "Scott D. Green" <GREEN@wharton.upenn.edu>
- Subject: 215 to Join the N0X/N1X World
-
-
- The {Philadelphia Daily News} reports on Sept. 18 (and Bell of PA's
- Newsline confirms today) that 1+ will be prohibited within 215 after
- May 20, 1991. You all know the rest of the story - running out of
- prefixes, needing to use prefixes that look like area codes,
- forestalling the introduction of a new area code. And, of course,
- after 5/20/91 we won't know if we're making a toll call within 215 or
- not.
-
- The Consumer Advocate's Office has no plans to fight the switch, since
- it's been in effect in 412 (Pittsburgh area) for more than a year, and
- the state PUC hasn't gotten any complaints said a PUC spokesman.
-
- Just to review, local calls are and will remain 7 digits. Toll calls
- within 215 are 1+7 digits. They will be 7 digits. Outside 215, 1+10
- digits now and later. Operator calls within 215 are 0+7 digits. They
- will be 0+10 digits. DA is now 1+555-1212. After 5/20/91, 555-1212.
-
- The optional period (where you may use the new or the old dialling
- schemes) will be 1/1/91 through 5/20/91.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 12:19:50 EDT
- From: Roy Smith <roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu>
- Subject: A Search For COCOT Tariffs
-
-
- After reading about COCOTs for quite a while on this group, it
- eventually occurred to me that various people seem to know a lot about
- the details of what COCOTs are and aren't allowed to do, but I was
- basically in the dark. What to do? I opened my phone book and
- started leafing through the front pages, looking for COCOT info, but
- none was to be found.
-
- Next, I dialed the operator and asked for the tariff on
- Customer Owned Coin Operated Telephones. She gave me to directory
- assistance, who gave me the number for the coin phone business office,
- who gave me an 800 number (she thought it was NYNEX, but wasn't sure,
- I think it ended up being NYTel). At some point in this chain, to one
- of the people who sounded like they weren't sure where to send me, I
- suggested (in a helpful sounding way), "Is the Public Utilities
- Commission the right place to ask?", but this seemed to get her
- flustered. I guess PUC is a dirty word to telco folks. Anyway, the
- 800 folks told me (after going off-line for a minute) that I could
- either see the tariff at the library, or I could write away for it, no
- charge. I figured other people might find the address useful
- (probably just for NYTel-land?), so here it is:
-
- CCMI/McGraw Hill (anybody know what CCMI stands for?)
- 50 South Franklyn Turnpike
- Ramsey, NJ 07446
-
- P.S. I did find something funny and/or interesting in the phone book, under
- the heading "About Telephone Sales Calls". It says:
-
- Many people enjoy receiving telephone calls at home from
- companies [yes, it really says that! RHS] offering them information
- about products or services that they may need or want. When you
- receive a telephone sales call:
-
- 1) Find out who is calling.
-
- 2) If you think you may be interested but want to know more,
- ask the caller to mail information about the offer.
-
- 3) If you are not interested, just cut in and say so.
-
- 4) If you don't want to get another call from that company,
- ask the person to take your name off the company's list.
-
- If you want to reduce the number of your at-home telephone
- solicitations calls from national companies, write to:
-
- Telephone Preference Service
- Direct Marketing Association
- 6 East 43rd St.
- New York, NY 10017
-
- ------------------
-
- Of the list above, number three seems to be the one people
- have the most trouble with. What's so hard about a polite "No thank
- you, we're not interested" and hanging up?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 13:01:30 EDT
- From: "D. Birchall" <birchall@pilot.njin.net>
- Subject: Inexpensive Way to Increase Calling Area Needed
-
-
- Due to my tendency to incur huge dialin-related bills, my family has
- become increasingly interested in finding new and novel ways to extend
- our calling ability. Our NXX is not local to, and cannot (in theory)
- 'scope' to the nearest dialin. The _next_ NXX, however, is totally
- local (no 'scope' needed) to it.
-
- Since a 'scope' would only give me 20 hours a month for the flat rate,
- which is far less time than I spend on line, we were considering
- getting the data line (line two, as we call it) moved to the next NXX,
- in a manner of speaking. (The only modifications needed would be in
- the telco's own computers).
-
- My mother contacted the telco, and was told that yes, they would do
- that, and that it would only cost us $400, PLUS mileage. (About nine
- miles from one CO to the other).
-
- $400+ a month is more than the bills that we are trying to cut down
- on. $400+ a month is enough to LIVE (with a phone) in the next NXX.
-
- Is it just me, or does the telco here have a couple screws loose? Can
- someone familiar with NJ Bell explain the reasoning behind this, or
- (better yet) suggest some kind of possible alternative, for someone
- who spends about 80-100 hours per month on the computer and would like
- to do it for less than $300?
-
-
- Dan
-
- Birchall@Pilot.NJIN.net
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: My experience with FX, or Foreign Exchange lines,
- which is what you want to accomplish, is that it is very rare they
- ever pay off from casual use. Large businesses can keep their FX and
- other special circuits loaded all the time. You probably can't. If
- you were to use Line 2, (configured for the next town away) for maybe
- 12-15 hours per day, one call after another, preferably lots and lots
- of one and two minute calls and very few longer than that, then you
- would probably break even or profit slightly from an FX. But without
- the call volume -- in terms of lots of very short calls, one after
- another -- you are better off simply placing regular toll calls and
- paying for them. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 12:56:22 PDT
- From: Joe Konstan <konstan@elmer-fudd.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Continuing Saga With MCI Around Town
-
-
- After waiting ten minutes for customer service (my first wait of more
- than one minute with MCI), I have the next round of customer service
- info from MCI:
-
- 1) MCI cannot guarantee service or _RATES_ on local calls. (Not
- surprising, but exactly opposite what I had been told yesterday).
-
- 2) Around Town is 25 cents whenever it applies.
-
- This is where it got interesting. I mentioned the recording and the
- customer service rep asked me to hold on. She came back to ask what
- sequence of keys I hit to get the message, and she went away again fro
- five minutes (those messages are hard to navigate and are slow). When
- she came back, she told me that the message was wrong, but she would
- refund the 25 cents on all of the Around Town calls I made. They only
- have current bills, so I will have to send her older bills, but this
- could amount to $20-30 as a refund!!!!!
-
- I'm impressed that they would do this. I asked if the recording would
- be changed and they said it would.
-
-
- Joe Konstan
-
- PS: I'm going to call next to get info on MCI VisaPhone and will send
- the details to the Digest when I get them.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 16:17:04 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: List For Italy
-
-
- Recently, a note from Paolo Bellutta (bellutta@irst.it) explained
- Italian city codes, which he referred to as "the area codes (called
- prefix)". Phone books I have seen in the U.S. refer to these as city
- codes, with the "area code" term being used only for U.S./Canada/
- Caribbean area (country code 1). Anyway, I combined that note with
- earlier information I had for Italy (country code 39), trimmed off the
- leading zeroes (used only on calls within Italy?), and came up with
- this list (using anglicized names like Venice, Rome, etc.):
-
- 39 Italy
-
- 1xx is north west
- 10 Genoa
- 11 Turin
- 2 Milan
- 3xx is Lombardia
- 4xx is north east
- 41 Venice
- 45 Verona
- 461 Trent (Trento)
- 5xx is central
- 51 Bologna
- 541 San Marino (independent country, to change to +295)
- 55 Florence
- 6 Rome (includes Vatican City, independent country,
- whose country code is given as "39 66982")
- 7xx is south west
- 8xx is south east
- 80 Bari
- 81 Naples
- 9xx is the islands
- 91 Palermo
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Jerry B. Altzman" <jbaltz@cunixe.cc.columbia.edu>
- Subject: Debit Cards (was: Re: Best and Worst)
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 21:44:36 GMT
-
-
- In article <12344@accuvax.nwu.edu> vic@cs.arizona.edu (Vicraj T.
- Thomas) writes:
-
- >If I was going to be in Japan for longer than the hour and a half at
- >the airport, I could have easily bought a KDD debit card and made all
- >the local calls I wanted.
-
- Are these anything like the cards that you can buy for the Belgian
- PTT? When I was in Benelux a few years ago (thank you USAF) I bought
- two of these beauties (one for 200BF, one for 1000BF) and used them to
- call my parents and my girlfriend (no messages in collect call names
- for me from Belgium :-) They were the greatest things -- no need to
- plug coins into the machines, reusable up to the total amount of the
- call, and to the US they (I think) gave a slight discount (I talked
- for 12 minutes Belgian daytime to my (then) girlfriend for about 90%
- of the 1000BF card).
-
- The Belgian PTT is good, but not great. In 1987, when I visited a
- satellite station somewhere (I don't remember the town name, and my
- notes from the trip are at home) they were moving *up* to IBM 308*
- systems from what appeared to be very old blinkenlights technology.
-
- Next week: Why I love and hate Bezeq (Israeli BellTel)
-
-
- jerry b. altzman 212 854 8058
- jbaltz@columbia.edu jauus@cuvmb (bitnet)
- NEVIS::jbaltz (HEPNET) ...!rutgers!columbia!jbaltz (bang!)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 04:49:30 -0400
- From: synsys!jeffj@uunet.uu.net
- Subject: New TDD Relay Centers; Other AT&T Promotions
-
-
- AT&T Reach Out World to Canada is being lowered 10% starting Oct 5,
- pending FCC approval (5PM-8AM Mon-Fri, all day weekends). There's a
- two day promotion October 7 & 8 for Canadian Thanksgiving Day from six
- major U.S. cities (NY, LA, SF, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Miami).
- For info, call +1 800 525 6152
-
- TDD Relay centers is being expanded to
- Nashville, Tennesee:
- TDD +1 800 848 0298
- voice +1 800 848 0299
- Wayne, Pennsylvania:
- tdd +1 800 654 5984
- voice +1 800 654 5988
-
- (This makes six centers: California, New York, Alabama and Illinois)
- (Virginia and Deleware centers are scheduled to open early next year.)
-
-
- Jeff Jonas
- jeffj@synsys.uucp
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: AMillar@cup.portal.com
- Subject: Industry Ethics (Was: Telecom Humour)
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 00:06:46 PDT
-
-
- In <recent messages>, <recent posters> write:
-
- > <recent items about inside pranks>
-
- Which lead to:
-
- >Come on, Pat, lighten up. It's going to happen. It happens in ALL
- >areas. Some of the computer labs I have worked in DELIGHTED in
- >sending messages to novice users' screens. Similarly to the phone
-
- >I guess my point is, do you expect this industry to be free from this
- >sort of behaviour? I don't.
-
- And the topper:
-
- >Hmmm, I can only hope our Moderator is not one of those outspoken,
- >righteous No-Can-Do-Wrongs who society later uncovers as having an
- >unspeakable miasma of heretical beliefs and a past full of unameable
- >criminal acts against nature and the law. 8^o
-
- >What sort of chaotic little secrets do you hide that the net can't yet
- >see... ? ;-)
-
- Now, anyone who posts a controversial view is open to flamage,
- including Pat (and me for this message). And responsibility is always
- controversial. But I congratulate Pat for taking a stand, and not
- sitting by siliently.
-
- Yes, it is probably true that we can expect these things to happen.
- But no way should we condone them!
-
- We should all lighten up when it comes to fraud or perhaps incest
- because these things too are just GOING to happen, right? But wait,
- those are serious, and we're only talking about harmless pranks.
- Calling a person of a particular ethnic background a derogatory name
- is all in good fun; can't they take a joke?
-
- "It's going to happen anyways" is a cop-out. If you don't take a
- stand against unethical behaviour, then you are supporting it BY
- DEFAULT.
-
-
- Alan Millar AMillar@cup.portal.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 11:22:30 EDT
- From: Roy Smith <roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu>
- Subject: More on Suspected AOS Story
-
-
- A few weeks ago, I told a story about what I had to go through
- to place an AT&T calling card call from a phone in a Manhattan (area
- code 212) hospital room to Mt. Sinai on Long Island (516). Various
- people suggested I was silly to use the calling card at all, since
- that forced me to pay Long Distance rates on what many people
- suspected was really an intra-LATA call.
-
- Anyway, I got my Universal Card bill yesterday. There's the
- call; placed to Port Jefferson (next town over from Mt. Sinai, so
- that's OK) at the right time and date. The kicker is where the call
- was placed from: Orange, NJ (201)! I called the customer service 800
- number to enquire about this, and got no good explanation as to why
- the call originated from the NJ number. What was really interesting,
- was she suggested that it actually came out cheaper that way, since
- you only get the 10% discount (rounded up, BTW, $0.20 on a $1.95 call)
- on calls between area codes. I pointed out that Manhattan and Port
- Jeff are not the same area code, and requested the rate to Port
- Jefferson, NY from both Manhattan, NY and Orange, NJ. She said they
- were exactly the same.
-
- Now I'm really confused. Two questions. Is it reasonable
- that the rates from Manhattan and Orange, NJ are really identical?
- And (more interesting) why is the call shown as originating in New
- Jersey at all?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 08:23:28 pdt
- From: Roger Clark Swann <clark@ssc-vax.boeing.com>
- Subject: Need Help With Plantronics Headset
-
-
- I need some help with this headset that I found today at the surplus
- store. It is a Platronics StarSet (R) Supra (TM) with the numbers
- HS0552-1 on the back of the connector. This is the type that uses an
- _adapter_ to connect to the phone instrument. The connector is the
- PJ327 flavor, (two 1/4 inch phone plugs side by side on one end of
- small box). I looked in the ATT source book and the unit is listed
- there for $130 and the adapter for hookup to a 1A or single line set
- an additional $130.
-
- Question: What is in the adapter box other than an on/off switch and a
- push switch for flashing the line?
-
- Followup question: Can I make an adapter to hook this headset into a
- phone?
-
- Yes, the little adapter box looks nice, but not a $130 nice.
-
- I assume that the network interface in the phone set is used just as
- it is with the regular handset and that the _adapter_ is wired so as
- to provide hookswitch control and connects the headset in place of the
- regular handset. If this is true, I should be able to roll my own
- adapter. The only other thing I need to know is; Which plug on the
- headset is the mic circuit and which is the earphone circuit?
-
- All help is greatly appreciated!
-
-
- Roger Swann | uucp: uw-beaver!ssc-vax!clark
- @ |
- The Boeing Company |
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #685
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa00226;
- 28 Sep 90 3:33 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa31360;
- 28 Sep 90 0:48 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab14843;
- 27 Sep 90 23:39 CDT
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 23:28:44 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #686
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009272328.ab21035@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Sep 90 23:28:35 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 686
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Oh My Stars, I Have Seven Fooncards! [David Tamkin]
- Speaker Phones and the Courts [Jeff Dalton]
- Another "Award" Call [Carl Moore]
- Now ... The AOS's Slam the COCOT's! [Donald E. Kimberlin]
- Interactive Voice Response Systems [Kenny J. Hart]
- Charges For Changing Numbers [Jim Riddle]
- CuD Survey - Please Participate [CuD Moderators]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Oh My Stars, I Have Seven Fooncards!
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 18:04:31 CDT
-
-
- {I don't know how the practice of calling US Sprint's FONcard a
- "FO(O)Ncard" got started, but what the heck.}
-
- Until the beginning of 1989 US Sprint was my 1+ carrier. There were
- three active fooncardz on my account. Then United Telecommunobfusca-
- tion pulled its trickery with the PC Pursuit rate increase and I
- switched to Teleconnect, who became Telecom*USA, who got eaten by MCI,
- but that's another story.
-
- Just in case I ever wanted to use US Sprint again, I didn't cancel the
- account. I stopped using it very suddenly, but it remained open. I
- had never even told them that they were no longer my primary carrier;
- as long as my phone numbers were in their records to be recognized
- when I dialed 10333, that was enough.
-
- My telco here is Central Telephone Company, a subsidiary of Centel
- Corporation. Centel started its own IEC called Centel Net, actually a
- reseller of US Sprint connections as they freely admitted. CentelNet
- mailed an offering of its services to Central Telephone customers, and
- I thought, ah, what the heck.
-
- Centel Net didn't do any billing on its own, only through telqi; they
- issued me a calling card for each of my numbers as I requested,
- insisting that they had to mail them to the exact address that
- appeared on Central Telephone's records, and before the cards came I
- made a couple test calls by dialing 10721-1-NPA-NXX-XXXX. They never
- did put their own ID recording out; if you dialed 10721-1-700-555-4141
- from service with a telco that billed for them, you got Sprint's
- recording, same one as at 10333-1-700-555-4141. If you tried that
- from service with a telco that had no agreement with Centel Net, the
- call was refused by the IEC. I kept my 1+ service on both lines with
- Telecom*USA and never used the Centel Net calling cards.
-
- Eventually I came to hear advertising for AT&T's Reach Out plans while
- I'd be on hold with Central Telephone, so I asked, gee, shouldn't you
- be promoting Centel Net? "They've closed." Huh? Well, they had
- closed all right, and calls to both their customer service number and
- their access number were intercepted with referrals to US Sprint's
- customer service number. (Now both are simply not in service with no
- referral any more.) When I said that Centel Net should have notified
- their customers, the Central Telephone rep told me that as she
- understood, they did notify 1+ customers but not calling card carriers
- like me. (The secondary service on 10721 was automatic for any
- customer of a telco that did billing for Centel Net.) Hmmm. Attempts
- to dial 10721-1-700-555-4141 were intercepted after the third 5.
-
- Meanwhile, I had not used US Sprint in a year and a half. Not
- recognizing my name at my home address in Chicago as belonging to the
- same person as the same name at my post office box in Des Plaines (it
- would fill a Digest issue to detail what happened once before, just
- because even at the same address, US Sprint decided David Tamkin and
- David W. Tamkin had to be two different people), US Sprint sent me an
- offer of a fooncard with thirty minutes free. I phoned the number and
- was told well, the offer does say it's for new customers only, but
- I've been gone so long that what the hey, but they had to open a new
- account for me to get the credit. So I said fine and asked for two
- fooncardz on it (so that I could share it with my parents).
-
- One day about three weeks later I left for the day's activities.
- First I checked my post office box, and amid my mail in it was an
- envelope from US Sprint with a new account number and two fooncardz.
- Joy, delight, pleasure, gratification, fulfillment, ecstasy ...
-
- Late that afternoon I returned home, and since mail to my building had
- been delivered by then, I checked my mailbox in the lobby. There were
- two envelopes from US Sprint, each with a new account number and a
- fooncard inside. Just too much happiness to bear! I noted that the
- form of my address was identical to that used by Central Telephone
- when I had first ordered the Centel Net calling cards.
-
- OK, onto the phone with US Sprint customer service we go, tra la.
- Yes, account three and four were indeed maggots spawned in the rotting
- corpse of Centel Net. Darn, marketing forgot to put the credit for
- the upcoming thirty free minutes onto account two. I'll have to call
- the same number that was on the offer to get them to fix that.
- Marketing is closed; I must call them the next morning.
-
- The next morning marketing confirmed that account two was entitled to
- the thirty-minute (actually $3.90) credit, but I have to ask customer
- service to post it. Fortunately, they connected me to C.S. instead of
- my having to wait again.
-
- The marketing folk had told me the code number for the promotion, so
- when I repeated it to the c.s. person, she posted the credit to
- account zero (account one had been put out of its misery in 1987).
- She told me she could either cancel the extra three accounts or
- consolidate them into account zero; the only difference would be that
- cancellation would invalidate the new fooncardz and consolidation
- would link them to account zero instead. I thought, well, I like some
- of these numbers; let's consolidate and I'll decide later which
- fooncardz I want to keep. We finally got everything straightened out:
- account one was indeed dead beyond resuscitation; the spelling of my
- name on account zero was fixed; accounts two, three, and four were
- merged into account zero, fooncardz and all; and they knew they were not
- my primary carrier any more. [I wanted to be sure that they didn't
- think they were supposed to be and wouldn't try to slam me, though in
- all fairness US Sprint never has attempted it yet, not even to my
- parents, whose numbers were on the account only for 10333 all the time
- that my numbers really and later supposedly were on it for 1+. MCI
- thinks it has a God-given right to slam all numbers with 10222 service
- on any account where at least one number has 1+ service.]
-
- So now account zero has my parents' and my 10333 service, my name
- listed properly, a $3.90 credit balance, its original three fooncardz,
- two fooncardz from account two, and one each from accounts three and
- four. I wish I'd known about consolidation back in 1987, when the rep
- who finally gave account one euthanasia omitted that one possibility;
- perhaps US Sprint couldn't do it at that time. See, I had this
- fooncard on account one whose number I really loved. Now I have seven
- that I merely like. It's just not the same, you know?
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
-
- [Moderator's Gasp: Whew! Readers, did you get all that straight? I'll
- wait while you go back and read it again. Wouldn't you love to be a
- CSR for Sprint handling the billing cycle David is in and get into
- these commotions with him month after month about something or another? PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Jeff Dalton <esl!jsd@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
- Subject: Speaker Phones and the Courts
- Date: 26 Sep 90 17:26:09 GMT
- Reply-To: Jeff Dalton <esl!bambam!jsd@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
- Organization: ESL Inc., Sunnyvale, CA
-
-
- I'm guessing that a tape recording of a phone conversation cannot be
- used as evidence in court unless both parties are aware they're
- being recorded. But what if one end of the conversation is on a
- speaker phone with witnesses listening. I would guess that the
- witness could testify about the content of the conversation and the
- person on the other end of the phone wouldn't have to know someone
- else is listening.
-
- Does anyone know anything about this?
-
- Jeff Dalton, ESL Inc.
- jsd@esl.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 15:15:19 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Another "Award" Call
-
-
- Does anyone know where 904-492 is? (Yes, I know it's somewhere in
- northern Florida.) I just got, on my office phone, a so-called award
- notification call, was given (in a RECORDED message) a two-character
- "claim number", and was told to call 904-492-0001 during the next 24
- hours. Supposedly, "they" were trying to reach me and were having
- problems. How would "they" get my office number? That's on 301-278
- and I do not think 301-278 has any residences on it.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 20:37 EST
- From: "Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com>
- Subject: Now ... The AOS's Slam the COCOT's!
- Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL 34695
-
-
- And Now Ladies and Gentlemen -- COCOT/AOS Slamming!
-
- Yep, you got it: That fine group of citizens that sell AOS services
- have gotten into the slamming act, too. Here's an excerpt from AT&T's
- summary of recent news about how New Jersey COCOTs are getting THEIR
- Long Distance access slammed:
-
- "PAY PHONE -- ... Responding to reports of ... inconsistencies [in pay
- phone charges], the [N.J.] State Board of Public Utilities said it
- would take a closer look at the practices of alternative operator
- companies that provide long-distance services to thousands of pay
- phones ... across the state. ... All six telephones in the Hudson
- County Administration Building lobby, for example, contain cards
- indicating that long-distance calls are handled by AT&T.
- Notwithstanding that, one of the phones, until recently, was serviced
- by an alternative operator. ... Apparently, [said one county
- official], a salesman for an AOS company had simply called the number
- of a payphone and asked whoever answered for authorization to provide
- the company's services. ... New York Times, p. 1, N.J. sec., 9/23."
-
- -----------------
-
- Truly, truly, Alexander Graham Bell must be filling Telephone Heaven
- with tears ... to see the slimy mess of a marketplace his proud
- invention has become.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Alex got out of the phone business almost as soon
- as he got in ... after the first couple years, he lost all interest in
- the business and ceased to have any management role. He of course
- remained a major stockholder in Bell Telephone, a/k/a AT&T until his
- death, and his wife Mabel remained a major stockholder until her death
- several years later. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Kenny J. Hart" <kjhar@pacbell.com>
- Subject: Interactive Voice Response Systems
- Date: 27 Sep 90 23:08:11 GMT
- Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
-
-
- Is anyone out there using Periphonics IVR systems????? I am very
- interested in your relationship with the company. We have quite a few
- of their machines and would like to know how you deal with their
- hardware and software problems. Also, anyone else using a IVR vendor,
- let me know the pros and cons of them, too!!
-
-
- Kenny Hart
- {att,bellcore,sun,ames,pyramid}!pacbell!pbhya!kjhar
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 22:33:49 EDT
- From: Jim Riddle <Jim.Riddle@f27.n285.z1.fidonet.org>
- Subject: Charges For Changing Numbers
- Reply-to: Jim.Riddle@f27.n285.z1.fidonet.org
-
-
- The Digest related the story of someone's second line being the
- Schwartz's old number and the four calls to repair service about the
- loud tone and the insistence of the telco that they wanted to charge
- $50 to change it. A similar anecdote may contain your answer.
-
- A friend in college, female, had HER number listed under the listing of
- Dewey, Stickum and Howe, Attys at law, in the new directory. Her number
- was also, correctly, listed under her name. She called the phone company
- and was told that it would cost $50 or whatever to change. Dewey, et al,
- couldn't get an intercept or changed to her number without ... well, you
- get the idea. No one was going to do anything. Until ...
-
- Ring ... hello ... Mr. Jones? I'm sorry, he's in the backroom with
- his secretary and won't be available until a half hour from now.
-
- Ring ... hello ... Mr. Stickum? I'm sorry, he's down at the school
- molesting little girls ...
-
- It took two days and no cost.
-
-
- Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.11 r.4
- [1:285/27@fidonet] Neb. Inns of Court 402/593-1192 (1:285/27.0)
-
- --- Through FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390
- Jim.Riddle@f27.n285.z1.fidonet.org
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 21:57 EDT
- From: KRAUSER@snysyrv1.bitnet
- Subject: CuD Survey
-
-
- Computer Underground Digest Survey
-
- This following is the survey described in CuD 2.04. We are
- attempt- ing to estimate the demographics of the network readers as a
- means of improving the quality and range of the articles. The results
- will be confidential and summarized in a future CuD issue.
-
- The easiest way to complete an e-mail survey is to use a full screen
- editor, fill in the blanks, and hit "reply" when done. Or, you can
- just type each answer on a separate line, preferably with the question
- number included, and when finished, hit "reply"
-
- The survey should take less than three minutes to complete, and can be
- sent via reply or returned to either:
-
- TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET or KRAUSER@SNYSYRV1.BITNET
- Thank you for your time and cooperation.
-
- [Moderator's Note: Please DO NOT return these to me!! Thanks. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------
-
- 1. Your age: ____
- 2. Sex: ___
- 3. Highest Degree held:___________________
- 4. Your ethnic background: _____________
- 5. Your occupation: __________________________
- 6. Have you read/subscribe to the following: ______________
- a. Computers and Security
- b. Computer Fraud and Security Bulletin
- c. Computer Law and Security Report
- d. Computer Security Digest
- e LOD/H Technical Journal
- f. Phrack Magazine
- g. 2600 Magazine
- 7. How would you rate your view of the computer underground has been
- formed (1-4, with 1 being major influence and 4 lease influence):
- _ a. media reports (ie. television, newspaper, general periodicals)
- _ b. technical reports (ie. security related periodicals, papers)
- _ c. computer underground articles (ie. Phrack, LOD/H, text files)
- _ d. actual contact with individuals of the computer underground
- 8. What definition do you associate with the word "hacker"
- (1-8, with 1-best definition, 8-worst definition):
- _ a. Someone who makes furniture with an axe
- _ b. A person who enjoys learning the details of programming
- systems and how to stretch their capabilities.
- _ c. One who programs enthusiastically, or who enjoys programming
- rather than just theorizing about programming.
- _ d. A person capable of appreciating hack value.
- _ e. A person who is good at programming quickly.
- _ f. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does
- work using it or on it.
- _ g. A malicious or inquisitive meddler who tries to discover
- information by poking around.
- _ h. A dangerous individual that obtains information or uses
- computer resources illegally or for illegal purposes.
- 9. Which best describes your view of computer hackers
- _ a. Opposed
- _ b. Ambivalent
- _ c. Sympathetic
- _ d. Strongly Opposed
- 10. Do you own a computer (Yes or No): ___
- 11. Do you own a modem (Yes or No) : ___
- 12. Do you call computer bulletin board systems
- _ a. Usually daily
- _ b. Occasionally
- _ c. Rarely
- _ d. Never
- 13. Have you ever read any types of science fiction stories that
- are classified as Cyberpunk? (Yes or No): ___
- 14. Would you be willing to participate in another survey concerning
- the Computer Underground (Yes or No): ___
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: This is being run here to assist CuD. It is their
- questionaire -- not mine. Return answers ONLY to the addresses shown
- within the questionaire. Thanks. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #686
- ******************************
-
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa00818;
- 28 Sep 90 4:22 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa09542;
- 28 Sep 90 1:58 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab31360;
- 28 Sep 90 0:48 CDT
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 0:14:21 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #687
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009280014.ab21532@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Fri, 28 Sep 90 00:14:05 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 687
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- References/Fixes Needed For "Slippage" on Dialins [Joe St. Sauver]
- Cellular Phones on Trains [David Leibold]
- CCITT and Plenary Sessions/Books Summary [David Leibold]
- Dial-a-Social Change? [John Higdon]
- Another Air Cellular Question [Dan Bloch]
- "110" Code (was Re: 976 Numbers) [Douglas Scott Reuben]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Dave Platt
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Dave Levenson]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Ethan Miller]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: JOE@oregon.uoregon.edu
- Subject: References/Fixes Needed For "Slippage" on Dialins
- Date: 27 Sep 90 09:44:53 PDT
- Organization: University of Oregon
-
-
- We've been experiencing a severe problem with noise on our dialins
- which began, coincidentally, immediately after we got a new in-house
- phone system here at the University of Oregon. :-)
-
- In talking with an E.E. friend and describing the symptoms (phantom
- curly right braces and other characters typed "player-piano" style
- with no keyboard assistance from the user required!), he suggested
- that we are experiencing "slippage."
-
- Because we run full-duplex, we've been able to determine that
- sometimes the noise is introduced "inbound" (i.e., the phantom
- characters appearing on the user's screen are also seen by the system
- they've dialed into), while other times the noise is introduced
- "outbound" only (i.e., the phantom characters appear on the user's
- screen, but are never received by the remote minicomputer -- the
- garbage disappears when the user forces a screen refresh).
-
- The phenomena is stochastic, and apparently uncorrelated with anything
- else we've been able to monitor (weather, system load, time of day,
- type of modem user has, modem speed, particular modem dialed-in-to,
- etc.).
-
- Since this is driving our users crazy, we'd really like to resolve
- this problem.
-
- Can anyone provide me with a citation to some technical references on
- slippage? Has anyone come up with a fix for this sort of problem?
- (I'd love to hear, "Well, if you just put an xxpF filter capacitor on
- each of the modem lines...")
-
- Thank you,
-
- Joe St Sauver (JOE@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU or JOE@OREGON)
- Statistical Programmer and Consultant
- University of Oregon Computing Center
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: woody <djcl@contact.uucp>
- Subject: Cellular Phones on Trains
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 23:55:26 EDT
-
-
- Some VIA Rail trains running in the Ontario-Quebec corridor have had a
- Cantel cellular card-reading phone installed. Cards accepted would
- include the Visa or MC.
-
- Calls cost $1.95 per minute plus any long distance charges. Thus,
- local and 800 numbers would get the $1.95/min charge only. Calls to
- '0' (actually, Cantel's customer service centre, where you might be on
- hold for a while), '411', '911' (for emergency purposes) and long
- distance directory assistance are free to call, as likely are the
- special '*xxx' services that radio stations use for trouble reporting,
- etc.
-
- The Cantel phone needs to have your credit card before it will start
- doing anything, even for free calls. It does seem to spend a fair bit
- of time verifying the card, before allowing dialing. Nevertheless, it
- seems to be a good item to have on board the train, and many consider
- Cantel service to be better than the competitor, Bell Cellular.
-
- However, one conversation with the Cantel customer service "operator"
- suggested that VIA Rail is taking in a nice profit from the deal. The
- rep mentioned something in passing about a 50c/min airtime charge,
- plus whatever markup that the owner was putting on. Shades of COCOT
- fever here??? (It should be said that passenger rail service in
- Canada is struggling, and VIA is trying to hold on to every nickel and
- dime it can get its hands on.)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: woody <djcl@contact.uucp>
- Subject: CCITT and Plenary Sessions/Books summary
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 23:58:06 EDT
-
-
-
- Summary of Plenary Assemblies of the International Telegraph and
- Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT):
-
- Every four years, CCITT holds a session to update international
- telephone and telecommunication standards. The next one is due in
- 1992. Here are the locations dates of the sessions to date, along with
- the colour of the books that resulted from each session (the latest is
- the Blue Book series from 1988's session).
-
- Session Location Dates Book Colour
- ------- ---------------------- ------------- -----------
- I Geneva 10-20 Dec '56 Red
- II New Delhi 8-16 Dec '60 Red
- III Geneva 15-27 Jun '64 Blue
- IV Mar del Plata 23 Sep-25 Oct '68 White
- V Geneva 4-15 Dec '72 Green
- VI Geneva 27 Sep-8 Oct '76 Orange
- VII Geneva 10-21 Nov '80 Yellow
- VIII Molaga-Torremolinos 8-19 Oct '84 Red
- IX Melbourne 14-25 Nov '88 Blue
-
- It appears that the book colours are forming a cycle. If so, the books
- coming out of the '92 conference, wherever that will be, will be
- white.
-
- The announcement for the '92 conference will likely show up in an
- edition of the ITU's _Telecommunication_Journal_ at some point.
-
- Various study groups are formed to tackle various questions of
- standards and policies. To be studies in 1989-92 are 16/I (public
- international directory services) or 34/I (international
- telecommunication credit card service). One of the first volumes of
- the Blue Book series should have some details on that.
-
- On a side note, it is interesting to note that the CCITT has developed
- standards for a programming language called CHILL (CCITT High Level
- Language). I don't know if this is actually in use anywhere, or if
- there have been any CHILL compilers/interpreters developed. It's an
- interesting language, what with various set operators developed, and
- the typical 'if', 'for' and 'while' looping mechanisms.
-
- The preceding was distilled from a recent quick run into Ottawa; this
- information is subject to spelling or errors of reading things too
- quickly. Any corrections or additional information would be
- appreciated.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Dial-a-Social Change?
- Date: 27 Sep 90 13:31:55 PDT (Thu)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- Mail Brochure:
-
- "SOMETHING WONDERFUL IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN TO YOUR PHONE LINE.
-
- "Now there's a fiber optic long-distance service that helps you save
- forests, animals, rivers and children -- just by talking on the
- telephone.
-
- "The wonderful thing is that you won't pay a penny more.
-
- [inside]
-
- "WHAT MUST WE DO TO MAKE OUR WORLD A SAFER, CLEANER, MORE CARING
- PLACE?
-
- "At the very least, we must give to the Earth as much as we take.
-
- "That's why Working Assets is proud to offer the first long-distance
- phone service that works for peace, human rights, economic justice and
- a safer environment -- at no cost to you.
-
- "Here's how it works: Every time you call long-distance, we give one
- percent of your charges to non-profit groups working to clean up toxic
- wastes, preserve rainforests, feed the hungry and more. The more you
- talk, the more we give. (See back page for groups we've funded in the
- past.)
-
- "Why does Working Assets do this? Because we know that time is short.
- That unless citizens and businesses act now, irreparable harm will be
- done and countless living beings will be lost.
-
- "We also do this because we're innovators. Four years ago we
- introduced the Working Assets Visa Card--the only credit card that
- works for peace, human rights and the environment every time it's
- used. Since 1986, Working Assets cardholders and long-distance users
- have generated over $700,000 for non-profit groups like Amnesty
- International, Earth Day 1990, Rainforest Action Network and Oxfam
- America.
-
- "Now we're turning your telephone line into another convenient,
- cost-free tool for change.
-
- "HOW OUR LONG DISTANCE SERVICE WORKS
-
- "Working Assets uses the all-new fiber-optic network of US Sprint -- and
- adds our own unique commitment to the future of our world.
-
- "That means you get the same low rates and high quality service all US
- Sprint customers get. Including 24-hour operator services and the
- pin-drop quality sound US Sprint is famous for.
-
- "It also means that if you switch from AT&T's basic residential
- service, you'll save money on every interstate call.
-
- "To get you started, we'll give you a credit equal to 30 free minutes,
- and a free calling card. (See back page for details.)
-
- "NOW, MAKING A DIFFERENCE IS NOT ONLY COST-FREE, IT'S ABSURDLY EASY.
-
- "There's absolutely nothing to lose. And signing up couldn't be
- simpler. Just fill out the card below or dial 1-800-669-8585. That's
- all.
-
- "We'll hook you up with no intrusion or interruption. Then, every time
- you call long distance, you'll help save a species or two.
-
- "Possibly even our own."
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 1990 18:59:45 -0400 (EDT)
- From: Dan_Bloch@transarc.com
- Subject: Another Air Cellular Question
-
-
- The recent discussion reminds me of a question I've been wondering
- about for a while. How do the pay phones on airplanes work? I assume
- they must be some kind of cellular with a very large cell. How many
- cells are there nationwide? What wavelengths do they use? What
- capacity does the system have and how much use does it get? Who runs
- them? And, for that matter, why don't they interfere with the pilots'
- radio communication?
-
- Answers to these questions, or any others I may have forgotten to ask,
- will be appreciated.
-
-
- Dan Bloch
- dan@transarc.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 27-SEP-1990 03:46:05.65
- From: "DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)" <DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
- Subject: "110" Code (was Re: 976 Numbers)
-
-
- In response to Bob Goudreau's posting about a special code for "976"
- like numbers (sorry for the terrible oversimplification of your
- posting...):
-
- Just in case anyone cares, I think 110 is used to call back an
- operator on an operator assist call IF you have three way-calling.
-
- See, let's say I make a operator assist call, and after the call is
- over, I want to talk to the operator again (perhaps for "time and
- charges"). If I have Three-Way calling, any FLASH that I generate with
- the hookswitch or whatever will usually cause me to get a three-way
- dial tone, and no matter what I won't be able to flash the operator on
- the initial leg of my call.
-
- SO, some Bell Co.s (or psuedo-Bell Co.s) use the code "110" to flash
- an operator. You basically get the three way tone, dial "110", and
- then you are dropped back to the initial call and an operator will
- come on the line shortly. (It is similar to dialing *70 [Call Waiting
- Block] using three-way calling, after you dial *70 your calls are
- blocked and you are dropped back down to your initial call. )
-
- I've noticed that DMS offices don't seem to support this, but older
- 1/1A ESS offices seem to have it. (I've never had the opportunity to
- try it on a 5ESS ... anyone know if it works there?)
-
-
- Doug
-
- dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
- dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 17:57:50 PDT
- From: dplatt@coherent.com
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA
-
-
- In article <12594@accuvax.nwu.edu> Matt McGehrin writes:
-
- > Another thought came to mind about the 'AT&T Universal Card': Just
- > think, if you use the 'card' to charge purchases, your 'phone number
- > with four-digit code', along with the 'ATT Credit card number' goes on
- > the same slip (since its one huge carbon) ... Reach Out and Touch
- > someone's life, since you have their credit card number, (their bank
- > since ATT uses only one bank), their phone number with a 'universal'
- > calling card ... not bad huh??
-
- Nope. They aren't stupid enough to do it that way.
-
- The four-digit PIN is not included on the card. It'd better not be...
- the same PIN is used both for the phonecard authorization, and as the
- auto-teller-machine PIN which enables you to get a cash advance
- against your card. There's no way AT&T would put it on the card ...
- if they did, they'd almost certainly end up being held liable for any
- cash withdrawls made via a card that was reported stolen.
-
- They send you the PIN under separate cover, and warn you not to write
- it down on the card or keep it in your wallet.
-
- Nor is your [home or business] phone number included on the card. The
- phonecard number is a made-up number which isn't in the correct format
- for a real phone number (mine starts out 507 00x, and there are no 00x
- phone exchanges to the best of my knowledge). I understand that this
- is done deliberately, to ensure that AT&T is the only carrier which
- will honor the number (this is a feature, not a bug).
-
- In these respects, the Universal Card is slightly more secure than,
- say, a Pacific Bell or MCI calling card, both of which have the real
- phone number _and_ the PIN embossed on the card. For the benefit of
- those with short memories, I suppose.
-
-
- Dave Platt VOICE: (415) 493-8805
- UUCP: ...!{ames,apple,uunet}!coherent!dplatt DOMAIN: dplatt@coherent.com
- INTERNET: coherent!dplatt@ames.arpa, ...@uunet.uu.net
- USNAIL: Coherent Thought Inc. 3350 West Bayshore #205 Palo Alto CA 94303
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Date: 27 Sep 90 02:24:43 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12594@accuvax.nwu.edu>, matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.cts.com
- (Matthew McGehrin) writes:
-
- > Another thought came to mind about the 'AT&T Universal Card': Just
- > think, if you use the 'card' to charge purchases, your 'phone number
- > with four-digit code', along with the 'ATT Credit card number' goes on
- > the same slip (since its one huge carbon) ... Reach Out and Touch
- > someone's life, since you have their credit card number, (their bank
- > since ATT uses only one bank), their phone number with a 'universal'
- > calling card ... not bad huh??
-
- The PIN is not embossed, or even printed, on the AT&T universal card.
- It is mailed in a separate envelope, a week or so after the card is
- mailed, to the account holder.
-
- Apparently, Matthew, somebody thought of that!
-
-
- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
- Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 02:04:57 PDT
- From: ethan miller <elm@allspice.Berkeley.EDU>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Organization: Berkeley--Shaken, not Stirred
-
-
- Two comments about the AT&T Universal Card:
-
- First, there isn't enough room for two stripes on the back of the
- card. There's got to be enough space to sign the card as well. Even
- if there were room, what happens when someone comes up to a credit
- card/phone card telephone in an airport and swipes the card the wrong
- way? They'll be charged the credit card rates, not the AT&T phonecard
- rates. It's easier just to type in the calling card number.
-
- To the person afraid of calling card numbers on carbons, don't worry.
- The front of the card has only the equivalent of the phone number
- portion of the calling card number -- the four digit security code
- isn't there. Incidentally, the number I have is an illegal phone
- number, though the area code is valid. The exchange number starts
- with a 0, however, so the number is (under the current system) a
- disallowed phone number. Is there any system AT&T is using to assign
- these "phony" calling card phone numbers?
-
-
- ethan miller--cs grad student elm@sprite.berkeley.edu
- #include <std/disclaimer.h> {...}!ucbvax!sprite!elm
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #687
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa01517;
- 28 Sep 90 5:21 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa02177;
- 28 Sep 90 3:13 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab09542;
- 28 Sep 90 1:59 CDT
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 1:00:26 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #688
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009280100.ab26012@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Fri, 28 Sep 90 01:00:00 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 688
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Sprint Wars - AT&T Did it Better For Us [Andrew R. D'Uva]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Fred R. Goldstein]
- Re: Host-to-Switch Interfaces, ANSI T1S1 [David Gurevich]
- Re: 16 Buttons -- Not 12? [Bill Cerny]
- Re: The Phone Book [David Leibold]
- Re: ATM at Retailers (Was: Voice Mail Passwords [Michael P. Deignan]
- Re: 976 Numbers [Christopher Ambler]
- Re: Description of 976 Numbers (was: Bell Canada) [Jack Winslade]
- Re: Data Lines -- Burglar Alarm Problems [haynes@cats.ucsc.edu]
- Re: ATT Universal Card (Dual Card) [Bill Huttig]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: "Andrew R. D'Uva" <andrewda@idsvax.ids.com>
- Subject: Re: Sprint Wars - AT&T Did it Better For Us
- Date: 26 Sep 90 17:38:50 GMT
- Organization: InteleCom Data Systems, East Greenwich, RI
-
-
- In article <12457@accuvax.nwu.edu>, gtisqr!toddi@yang.cpac.
- washington.edu (Todd Inch) writes:
-
- > And you want to talk about Customer Service? Took six calls, with
- > LOTS of auto-attendant menus and "on-hold" time to.....
-
- The customer service aspect is a real problem for Sprint. We
- had just about gotten fed up with them when they initiated a "Premier
- Accounts" group (our usage was running $700-800/mo) with a different
- number. Service was MUCH better on that basis. There were other
- problems.
-
- > I also don't like being slammed, but that did show me true costs, and
- > they (AT&T) paid for the changeover themselves.
-
- I've found that AT&T is often more than willing to pay
- associated switchover charges or startup fees, usually by LD
- certificates. In our case, this added up to several hundred dollars
- saved. You definitely should not be afraid to ask for a "deal," after
- all, they DO want your business. Sprint does not seem to want that
- business. When I had almost decided to switch back to AT&T (their
- rates were cheaper ... more on that later) I called Sprint and asked
- them if our business was really important to them (i.e., how could
- they match rates, offer premiums, etc) and received nothing but
- Sprint's much praised "can even hear a pin drop silence." They just
- didn't want to be flexible.
-
- > Interesting note here, GTE swears the LD carrier cannot authorize a
- > changeover (maybe local policy?), that the subscriber has to call it
- > in himself, but obviously it can happen here.
-
- In our case, the local company in one area (Bell South)
- switched over primary access without EVER contacting me. This was in
- line with my wishes, but I never even spoke to them ... just AT&T.
- New England Tell (NYNEX), on the other hand, practically demanded
- everything in writing before they would do anything ... (And, as it
- turned out, they flubbed the service order even after I had put it in
- writing!) I guess that the RBOCs vary in policy application.
-
- Now about AT&T and their rather novel approach:
-
- AT&T came to us, analyzed our calling patterns and told us
- that they could not, in fact, save us money over Sprint WATS.
-
- BUT>>> What they could do was enroll us with a reseller of their
- service. All customer service and billing would be handled through
- AT&T, but we would incur a small monthly fee ($25) from the reseller.
- If I agreed to this, I could "buy" AT&T service as part of a large
- group of people in my area (I don't even know who they are) at rates
- significantly lower than Sprint's. Technically I have PRO-WATS, but
- the people at AT&T Pro-Wats can't figure out (I called them) where the
- additional discounts are coming from. My AT&T representative claims
- that this is a convenient way for AT&T to avoid what she called
- "restrictive regulation." Worked out quite well, too.
-
-
- Andrew D'Uva
- andrewda@idsvax.ids.com <== Internet ((Add your favorite 3K signature file))
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Fred R. Goldstein" <goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Date: 27 Sep 90 18:15:23 GMT
- Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA
-
-
- In article <12623@accuvax.nwu.edu>, motcid!benyukhi@uunet.uu.net (Ed
- Benyukhis) writes...
-
- >> Voice is not packet data. It is not treated in a packet manner.
- ^^^^^^^^^^^
- >It could be. VSCS (FAA) at Bell Labs is implementing just that i.e.
- >Packatizing voice for air traffic controllers communications. Voice
- >packatezation perhaps warrants some discussion/explanation by someone
- >more familiar with the process. How about it Pat????
-
- [Moderator's Note: Fred Goldstein comes to mind. PAT]
-
- This discussion sounds like a rerun of one we had last year, around
- TASI, but I'll jump in anyway. I've even sent a contribution to ANSI
- T1Y1 for their next meeeting explaining why Digital voted NO on a
- proposed packet voice standard (syntactic and checksum matters), but
- that's beyond the scope of this thread.
-
- Packet voice does occur on the public switched telephone network, but
- it's not common. Old-fashioned Time Assignment Speech Interpolation
- using analog gear has gone the way of the FDM open wire carrier. But
- newer digital interpolation gear does exist, mostly in private nets
- and in international calls. It's not worth the effort for domestic
- calls, since raw transmission is cheap enough and any packetization
- adds delay, making echo cancellation (not so cheap) necessary.
-
- AT&T uses a device of their own manufacture called IACS (Integrated
- Access & Cross-Connect Switch, if I recall) to compress international
- telephone calls. (Undersea cables aren't cheap!) An effect of the
- fax explosion, which they reported at a T1S1 meeting, was that they've
- had to reduce the number of derived channels from each physical pipe,
- since there are no gaps in fax modem tones. So yes, modems do add a
- little to the cost of calls, but only overseas.
-
- IACS uses a technique called Embedded Adaptive Delta Pulse Code
- Modulation. This is like ADPCM except that the low-order three bits
- of a five-bit sample are not used for predicting the next sample. So if
- the network is particularly busy, it can throw away the lowest-order
- bit or two from each speech sample, by truncating the last 32 bytes in
- a frame which carries speech samples arranged by bit significance.
- Thus the tail end of the frame is all low-order bits. On average you
- may get 30 kbps or so, but during the busy hour it may drop and still
- sound okay (just not quite as good) and at real off-hours you may get
- over 32 kbps and sound better than normal.
-
- BTW, the ISDN service definitions for "telephony" and "3.1 kHz audio"
- differ in that the former permits the use of speech processing, TASI,
- etc., while the latter requires that the network listen for the 2100 Hz
- disable tone that modem calls begin with. ISDN interworks with the
- analog network using the 3.1 kHz audio service.
-
- But again, for the bulk of domestic toll and essentially all intra-LATA
- and local calling, you get raw circuit mode and the network doesn't
- care one whit about whether you have a modem or microphone.
-
- Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com
- or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com
- voice: +1 508 486 7388
- opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Gurevich <dgurevic@dhlmis.dhl.com>
- Subject: Re: Host-to-Switch Interfaces, ANSI T1S1
- Date: 27 Sep 90 21:00:09 GMT
- Reply-To: David Gurevich <dhlmis!dgurevic@uunet.uu.net>
- Organization: DHL Systems, Inc., San Mateo, CA
-
-
- In article <12606@accuvax.nwu.edu> David Gurevich <dgurevic@dhlmis.
- dhl> writes:
- X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 679, Message 10 of 11
-
- >It talks about the host-to-switch interfaces. Host being some computer
- >system, switch - a PBX, CO Switch, etc.
-
- The beginning of my original posting got cut off somehow. I was
- talking about an article in the September 1990 issue of Data
- Communications title: "Host, Switches Announce Engagement, Plan
- Nuptials".
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: bill@toto.info.com (Bill Cerny)
- Subject: Re: 16 Buttons -- Not 12?
- Date: 27 Sep 90 19:20:31 GMT
-
-
- In article kentrox!ktxc5!brent@uunet.uu.net (Brent Capps) writes:
-
- >and since there is little that a 4W set can do that a normal
- >2W set cannot, the CO mfgs have been pushing the military to phase
- >them out.
-
- The base operator also has plug access to AUTOVON (now DSN?) trunks
- grouped by precedence. If you tire of reaching reorder when dialing
- '8' for routine AUTOVON, you call the operator and provide the
- authorization code for the precedence (P, I, F) and destination
- (CONUS, Overseas), to which she usually replies, "I'm sorry sir, there
- are no circuits available at this time." :-(
-
- In San Diego, things are a little better now. The old 1ESS AUTOVON
- switch is now a 5ESS, and all the Navy base step switches have been
- replaced by AT&T Sys 75 and 85 PBX's (are any slated for upgrade to
- Definity Generic 1 or 2?). Apparently, the 4-wire desk sets have been
- replaced by regular 2500 (or 74xx, or STU III) sets. You select
- AUTOVON precedence with the trunk code (80 for routine, 81 for
- priority); provided your station has the class of service mark to
- access that precedence (otherwise it's back to authorization codes and
- the operator). I accessed a routine AUTOVON trunk from a peon
- station, and pressed 'P', to which the AUTOVON switch announced "You
- may not access that precedence..."
-
- The AT&T PBX provides the proper ringing for incoming AUTOVON calls:
- routine precedence gives the normal double ring for "outside call",
- while priority (and above) gives a triple ring for "priority call."
-
-
- Bill Cerny bill@toto.info.com | attmail: !denwa!bill
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: woody <djcl@contact.uucp>
- Subject: Re: The Phone Book
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 0:14:43 EDT
-
-
- Here are a few items contained in J Edward Hyde's _The_Phone_Book_, a
- tome that exposes pre-MFJ, pre-divestiture Bell System:
-
- * billing punch cards: in the good old days when punch cards were sent
- with the phone bills, there was some creative carving done to those cards.
- In one case, a customer cut a few holes in one of those cards. The result
- was free phone service indefinitely. However, someone else did a few
- slices to the card, only to wind up paying for 387 red phones instead of
- a single black one.
-
- * The story of T.O. Gravitt, a Southwestern Bell Texas Operations
- Chief who decided not to play by the rules of the big boys and started
- on a reform program. Unfortunately, Gravitt found himself persecuted
- and eventually committed suicide. Much of the information on this
- section of the book came from James Ashley, from a 1975 interview. In
- Gravitt's suicide note contained the words "Watergate is a gnat
- compared to the Bell System."
-
- * {Ramparts Magazine} printed instructions on how to build a "mute
- box" (something to suppress call supervision on incoming long distance
- calls). While Ramparts was in rather illegal territory with that
- article, the actions Ma Bell took were probably the issue here. Bell
- agents were ordered to find all extant copies of the offending
- {Ramparts Magazine}, trying to get the subscription lists, going after
- newsstand dealers, threatening any radio stations that mentioned the
- action, etc.
-
- * A group of Miami students set up phone service under the name S.E.
- Bass; meetings were scheduled with the Bell reps at the end of a pier
- and at Marineland when the question of the bill's non-payment came up
- (the intent was to meet this fictitious "S.E. Bass"). Several months
- later, Bell discovered that the previous residence was the Gulf Stream
- and the occupation: a mantelpiece.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Michael P. Deignan" <mpd@anomaly.sbs.com>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords)
- Date: 26 Sep 90 21:35:30 GMT
- Organization: Small Business Systems, Inc., Esmond, RI 02917
-
-
- motcid!king@uunet.uu.net (Steven King) writes:
-
- >A one way algorithm? Pray, how does the bank decode it to verify you?
- >A gigantic lookup table?
-
- They don't decode it, they encode the PIN you provide and then compare
- the encrypted value of the PIN you entered against the encrypted PIN
- on the magstripe.
-
-
- Michael P. Deignan, President -- Small Business Systems, Inc.
- Domain: mpd@anomaly.sbs.com -- Box 17220, Esmond, RI 02917
- UUCP: ...uunet!rayssd!anomaly!mpd -- Telebit: +1 401 455 0347
- XENIX Archives: login: xxcp, password: xenix Index: ~/SOFTLIST
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar)
- Subject: Re: 976 Numbers
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 5:53:43 GMT
-
-
- Only once have I been prompted to say, "Now THERE is a good use for a
- 900 number!" : Call 1-900-xxx-xxxx for a transcript of this show.
- Leave your address, and you will be billed $4 to your phone bill, and
- the transcript will be mailed to you.
-
- This justifies it for me. Not that I like the sleaze and talk-lines
- that charge upwards of $180/hour, but you have to take the good with
- the bad...
-
-
- Christopher(); --- cambler@polyslo.calpoly.edu --- chris@fubarsys.slo.ca.us
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 22:04:52 EDT
- From: Jack Winslade <Jack.Winslade@f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org>
- Subject: Re: Description of 976 Numbers (was: Bell Canada)
- Reply-to: Jack.Winslade@p0.f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org
- Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha, Ne. 402-896-3537
-
-
- In a message of <23 Sep 90 16:33:30>, Mark Brader writes:
-
- >(I don't know if there were ever, say, WRight numbers, or if 97 was
- >always reserved. Anyone know? I might ask the same question about
- >55, which is similarly reserved for special purposes. In movies and
- >TV shows, 555-numbers are often used so as to not coincide with any
- >real numbers, and the scriptwriters noted long ago that KLondike was
- >55; were there ever any real KLondikes?)
-
- Nope. 97x prefixes are definitely not reserved as we have both 977
- and 978 here in Omaha. Interestingly enough, the 'official' prefix
- list in the Phone Book <tm> lists 976, 977, and 978 as Omaha prefixes.
-
- Also, one of the midtown Omaha offices has all of the 55x prefixes
- except for 555 and 550. (I think those are the only ones not in
- there.) The office serves a rather large irregular geographic area
- which extends well into what is called 'North Omaha' as well as
- crossing the historical city-line into what was once the town of South
- Omaha. My office phone is on 559.
-
- Good Day! JSW
-
- [1:285/666@fidonet] DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha (1:285/666)
- --- Through FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390
- Jack.Winslade@f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: 99700000 <haynes@cats.ucsc.edu>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines -- Burglar Alarm Problems
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 10:31:54 PDT
-
-
- The juxtaposition of subjects in a recent Digest triggered some old
- memories.
-
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Michael Coleman]
- Re: Burglar Alarm Problems [Paul Colley]
-
- There used to be several guys in the northern suburbs of Chicago who
- had their own private telephone exchange. The switch was a Navy
- surplus SxS machine that had been used on a ship, I think. To connect
- their homes to the switch they had private lines leased from Illinois
- Bell. Private voice lines are pretty expensive; but they discovered
- that under the tariffs of the day they could get burglar alarm lines
- at a much lower rate, and they worked just fine for voice.
-
- Supposedly someone at the phone company discovered what was going on
- and had two microfarad capacitors installed in the central office
- shunting the lines. This rendered them practically useless for voice,
- but still serviceable for burglar alarm purposes.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Bill Huttig <la063249@zach.fit.edu>
- Subject: Re: ATT Universal Card (Dual Card)
- Date: 27 Sep 90 18:51:14 GMT
- Reply-To: Bill Huttig <la063249@zach.fit.edu>
- Organization: Florida Institute of Technology, ACS, Melbourne, FL
-
-
- Why can't the program the calling card database with the Visa number
- instead of a different calling card . MCI kind of does this with visa
- phone ... some card numbers are 13 digits others 16 (+4 PIN) so why does
- AT&T have to have 10 + 4 digit cards they could accept 16 + 4 digits?
-
- The first three digits of their MC/Visa card is not the same as the
- first three digits of any vaid phone # or any vaid NPA.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #688
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04635;
- 28 Sep 90 9:14 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab28462;
- 28 Sep 90 4:23 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab02177;
- 28 Sep 90 3:13 CDT
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 2:02:43 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #689
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009280202.ab15648@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Fri, 28 Sep 90 02:02:23 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 689
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [Steve Friedl]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [Jeff Sicherman]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [David Tamkin]
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Jeff Sicherman]
- Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor" [Joel B. Levin]
- Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude [Clayton Cramer]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [Gordon D. Woods]
- Re: 16 Buttons -- Not 12? [Mark Cloutier]
- Re: Data vs. Voice [Vance Shipley]
- Re: 900 Numbers [Jeff Sicherman]
- Re: I'm AT&T and I'm Writing to Help You [Joel B. Levin]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Steve Friedl <friedl@mtndew.tustin.ca.us>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Date: 28 Sep 90 05:42:27 GMT
- Organization: VSI*FAX Tech Ctr, Tustin, CA
-
-
- Nickolas Landsberg (an AT&T employee) writes:
-
- > Regarding the slamming situation: Whenever I get called by <name your
- > least favorite here>, I reply that I am an AT&T employee.
-
- I have found this to be an excellent way to disarm most telemarketers.
- I used to flame at them (MCI especially) but eventually got tired of
- being so confrontational. Now, when I get a call from some phone
- company or newspaper, I just politely say that I work for the
- competition. The caller always thanks me for my time with a bit of a
- chuckle and it makes for a very fast exchange.
-
- If this catches on it could make for some fun meetings at Sprint
- telemarketing HQ: "Dammit, 50% of the people we call work for AT&T.
- How can this happen?"
-
- It is also funny to think about MCI calling John Higdon and having him
- tell them he works for Sprint :-)
-
-
- Stephen J. Friedl, KA8CMY / I speak for me only / Tustin, CA / 3B2-kind-of-guy
- +1 714 544 6561 / friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US / {uunet,attmail}!mtndew!friedl
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 12:12:58 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
-
-
- >Some months ago, I received a call from a telemarketing company trying
- >to sell me an "affinity" MasterCard, endorsed by and bearing the logo
- >and colours of a a good cause that I support. I decided to get the
- >card, and at the end of the application processor, the telemarketing
- >person passed me on to a woman he identified as his supervisor, who
- >confirmed that I indeed wanted the affinity MasterCard, and made sure
- >I understood how it worked.
-
- >Perhaps the "slamming" abuses people have described here would not
- >happen so often if MCI and its telemarketing contractors were required
- >to have requests to make MCI the 1+ carrier verified by a second
- >person who was paid a flat hourly or weekly wage which does not have
- >anything to do with sales results. This would go a long way towards
- >keeping telemarketers honest.
-
- I suspect this scenario has more to do with the laws regulating
- credit cards, the banks liability for fraudulent use or misissuance,
- and the consequent liabilities that may be passed on to the marketers
- by them. The costs, losses, and laws regulating the phone industry may
- not make it worthwhile (in fact the opposite, apparently) or
- necessary.
-
- If everyone is so incensed at what is purported to be widespread
- slamming by MCI, why hasn't someone considered a class-action suit.
- There obviously wouldn't be much money in compensatory damages but
- there might be something in punitive damages (don't challenge me on
- legalities - I admit ignorance). More important, just the rumor
- (properly leaked) of such a thought, solicitation, or evidence
- gathering might get their attention, the attention of the press, or
- the regulatory agencies. Bad publicity is worth a million complaints.
-
- Just out of curiosity (and to show I have no personal interest in
- this), how come I have never been slammed, given that I live in what
- is claimed to be the telemarketing fraud captial of the U.S. - Orange
- County, California.
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- P.S. I am NOT volunteering to coordinate such an activity, I will
- ignore all material sent to me on the matter. I am merely
- stirring the pot and accept no responsibility for it boiling
- over or spilling.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 12:36:59 CDT
-
-
- After I had previously written this:
-
- DT> But there are telqi who will accept with blind faith the mag tapes
- DT> that the IECs send them, input them, and slam away, and there are
- DT> telqi who will examine the data on those tapes and check records first
- DT> to see if they have received such a request from the customer.
-
- Jon Baker challenged me in volume 10, issue 681:
-
- JB> Name one. From everything I've read/heard/experienced, no telco
- JB> verifies the allegedly-required written record except in cases of
- JB> customer complaint. And, MCI rarely produces the written record,
- JB> claiming that they 'sent the card out to the customer for signature,
- JB> but never got it back'.
-
- In a tale I've told many times here, MCI tried several times to slam
- my parents' Illinois Bell service and my Central Telephone service.
- Central Telephone never honored MCI's mag tape but phoned me for
- confirmation both times. Both times, of course, I denied it, and on
- neither occasion did they make the switch.
-
- So you want me to name one? Central Telephone Company, 2004 Miner
- Street, Des Plaines, Illinois 60016; +1 708 391 6000. In every
- slamming complaint posted to this Digest that named the obeying telco,
- said compliant local utility was a Bell company. No one has yet, as
- far as I've noticed, submitted "my independent telco let a long-
- distance carrier slam me" nor "my Bell telco stymied a slamming
- attempt on me."
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 12:12:06 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
-
-
- In a reply to my reply to ... (by barrey@novell.com)
-
- >> I wonder how some of the apologists for the shenanigans being
- >>passed off as inside humor would react if the Postal Service did the
- >>following to their mail:
-
- >> - randomly opened it and made copies to pass around the
- >> office and to other parties
- >> - intentionally routed it to the wrong party occasionally
-
- >> I don't see any difference between these and the activities of the
- >>insiders, other than the media and the employer, and that doesn't
- >>change the ethics of the situation.
-
- >What you apparently don't recognize, is that this DOES occur within
- >the hallowed halls of the US Post Office (I refuse to call it a Postal
- >Service!)
-
- What's your point ? That there are (almost) always bad apples in
- any organization? Of course. My response was directed at apologists
- for the behavior that said "lighten up", not a condemnation of the
- organizations. You're not suggesting we should accept or tolerate it
- because it happens else/every-where, are you ?
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Joel B. Levin" <levin@bbn.com>
- Subject: Re: Telephone Company "Inside Humor"
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 16:21:03 EDT
-
-
- From: Bob Yasi <mtxinu!algol.la.locus.com!yazz@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
-
- >Perhaps the perpetrators have not yet experienced much grief at the
- >death of a loved one, or have not comforted a loved one going through
- >such grief themselves. Well, I hope you do, and soon, and that
- >someone does something awful to make it worse and that you think of
- >this when it happens.
-
- This sounds like an incredibly cruel joke to play, if it happened that
- way, but I find it hard to believe. I think the perpetrators must
- have cross connected so that the butcher's customers were connected to
- the funeral home, not the other way around.
-
- The horror is now merely bad taste. I am amazed that everyone who has
- posted so far assumed that the bereaved must have been connected to a
- butcher's shop.
-
-
- JBL
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: I don't think it was a butcher shop; I think he
- said it was a beef (or other meat) processing plant. In any event,
- this thread has gone way past its normal life expectancy, as has the
- thread on ATM operations and the handling of PINS. Maybe we can close
- it out in the next couple issues, please. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Clayton Cramer <optilink!cramer@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude
- Date: 27 Sep 90 18:22:44 GMT
- Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
-
-
- In article <12576@accuvax.nwu.edu>, jjohnson@hpljaj.hpl.hp.com (Jeff
- Johnson) writes:
-
- > Chicago (AP) -- Cori Ward's mother got a little defensive when she
- > received a phone bill for three weeks' service -- $8.7 million.
-
- > "She says, 'I only called my sister,'" said Ward, who handles her
- > elderly mother's bills.
-
- > The bill from Illinois Bell should have read $87.98, not $8,709,800.33.
-
- Uh, doesn't the phone company's accounting software have some sanity
- checks in it? Do they regularly send out residential service bills
- that require seven digits left of the decimal point?
-
- > Ward said she had a hard time explaining the mistake to the phone
- > company.
-
- Whoever Ward talked to in customer service, then, needs replacement
- with a non-robodroid. If I were in customer service, and someone
- called up with a $8x10^6 phone bill for three weeks of residential
- service, this would be immediate evidence of serious billing SNAFUs --
- I wouldn't need an explanation at all.
-
-
- Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
- You must be kidding! No company would hold opinions like mine!
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Very few customers of Illinois Bell get seven-digit
- phone bills each month: City of Chicago; University of Chicago;
- General Services Administration (billing for all federal agencies
- here); Cook County government; State of Illinois government;
- University of Illinois at Chicago; Amoco/Standard Oil; and probably
- the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, to name a few. Every
- one of them have a customer service representative for their exclusive
- use: someone who does nothing but attend to that customer's
- requirements eight hours per day, five days per week. There are plenty
- of six-digit monthly billings: Chicago Board of Education, including
- the City Colleges; Transit Authority; and Commonwealth Edison. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 08:38:43 EDT
- From: Gordon D Woods <gdw@groucho.att.com>
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- From article <12597@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by amb@ai.mit.edu (Andrew Boardman):
-
- >>The most honest way to go about it would be to ask the person who owns
- >>the phone, "what number is this?" PAT]
-
- > The easiest, at least in NYNEX and Atlantic Bell land, is to call the
- > operator and ask "what number is this?" I've never had the request
- > refused.
-
- I think this thread has gone on so long because many people share my
- experience: I have called the operator many times and the request has
- been universally refused. In these days of customer provided station
- sets, people don't put their number on the phone and there is no way
- to find out what it is if you want someone to call back.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: If they want you to call back, you'll be given the
- number to call. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mark Cloutier <mitel!spock!cloutier@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: 16 Buttons -- Not 12?
- Date: 27 Sep 90 15:23:57 GMT
- Reply-To: Mark Cloutier <mitel!cloutier!cloutier@uunet.uu.net>
- Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada.
-
-
- In article <12659@accuvax.nwu.edu> kentrox!ktxc5!brent@uunet.uu.net
- (Brent Capps) writes:
-
- >> An odd thought sprang upon me recently while talking to a friend. Do
- >> telephones actually use sixteen tones rather than just twelve normally
- >> available?
-
- These 4*4 phones are more popular in Europe, the application I heard
- of was to use the extra four keys as speed dial keys. This was in a PBX
- environment.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Vance Shipley <vances@xenitec.on.ca>
- Subject: Re: Data vs Voice
- Reply-To: vances@xenitec.UUCP (Vance Shipley)
- Organization: SwitchView - The Linton Technology Group
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 01:20:50 GMT
-
-
- In article <12624@accuvax.nwu.edu> tjo@its.bt.co.uk (Tim Oldham) writes:
-
- >links; certainly sometimes I get completely dead patches on a noisy
- >phone line, which I have always contributed to zero compression.
-
- >So, am I correct in this assumption? If I'm right, what happens when
-
- I doubt it. I would bet it was a case of squelch. when the talking
- stops they suppress the background noise. It's meant to help but many
- find it disconcerting. The Toshiba Strata key systems used to do this
- (some) on CO calls. People would hang up thinking they'd been
- disconnected!
-
-
- vance
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 23:56:08 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Re: 900 Numbers
-
-
- With apologies to Marshall McCluhan (sp?), the medium is not the
- message.
-
- All the complaining about how 900 numbers are the scourge of
- telephony are a little misplaced. You could make similar claims about
- TV, magazines, newspapers, etc. when material is presented that
- offends somebody somewhere. However, the complaints are even weaker
- with 900 numbers - nobody HAS to dial them ! As with demands for
- censorship of other media, I am more worried about the potential for
- damage in the power gained by the censors than anything that can
- happen from the presentation of the material.
-
- However, I do agree that more control is in order to prevent
- misleading (read the small print FAST) and abusive use. If the
- telephone companies are going to route them through a special area
- code I see no reason (being as ignorant as I am of telephone
- electonics) why each call coundn't be intercepted by the switching
- network and prefixed with a computer generated message which would
- announce (this information MUST be in a database already, although I
- expect it's only used at billing time now, just make it active and
- on-line):
-
- 1. The cost/rate of the call
- 2. A classification (subject matter) of the response
- 3. An identification (code, account number) of the service provider
- and the phone company itself
-
- A time allowance would then be announced and given during which the
- caller would have the opportunity to hang up without incurring any of
- the announced charges. I would be willing to let the call (toll)
- charges stand, if any. If complaints were in order, identification
- would be available.
-
- The classification could also be used for selective blocking of
- subject matter, instead of just all 900/976, though I realize this
- would probably require a much more robust calling protocol than is
- currently envisioned or in place.
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Joel B. Levin" <levin@bbn.com>
- Subject: Re: I'm AT&T and I'm Writing to Help You
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 16:57:19 EDT
-
-
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
- >I was wondering how long it would take for someone to realize the
- >absurdity of "calling plans". An associate of mine refers to this as
- >"charging for a discount". AT&T, Sprint, MCI, and all the other IXCs
- >aren't the only ones who play this game, but the LECs do it as well.
-
- I agree with all your comments. Such evaluation is why I use Sprint
- Plus over AT&T's ROA. The reasons are: most calls are short distance,
- NH to MA, so the fixed per-minute rate of ROA represents small
- savings; and a lot of the calls are during the day, when ROA diesn't
- help. The savings would have to exceed the monthly fee before I could
- break even. Sprint Plus has no "cover charge," only a "minimum" of
- $8/month (my phone bills almost always exceed $50), and even during
- the day there is some small discount; so there is no question of
- breaking even; I always do better than straight Sprint or AT&T without
- ROA.
-
- On the other hand, for calling card calling, I always choose AT&T
- because of the straight 10% discount across the board for using my
- Universal card.
-
- When each LD company comes out with a new plan, I have to look at it
- carefully and decide if maybe it's time to switch. So far I think I
- am doing as well as I can.
-
-
- JBL
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #689
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20837;
- 29 Sep 90 4:08 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa30098;
- 29 Sep 90 2:39 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa19996;
- 29 Sep 90 1:35 CDT
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 0:53:12 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #690
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009290053.ab08312@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sat, 29 Sep 90 00:53:00 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 690
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Changes in the Digest - Other Administrivia [TELECOM Moderator]
- Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor [Joel B. Levin]
- Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor [Jeff Sicherman]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [Rop Gonggrijp]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [Joel B. Levin]
- Re: Sprint Wars - AT&T Did it Better For Us [Jack Dominey]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Tom Gray]
- Re: Data vs Voice [Adam J. Ashby]
- Re: References/Fixes Needed For "Slippage" on Dialins [Brian Kantor]
- Re: Inexpensive Way to Increase Calling Area Needed [Wolfgang Rupprecht]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 0:19:44 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- Subject: Changes in the Digest - Other Administrivia
-
-
- A special issue this weekend is entitled "ISDN Introduction". It was
- prepared by Jody Kravitz from interesting excerpts found elsewhere.
- This special issue will probably be distributed Saturday evening.
-
- A new addition to the Telecom Archives is a file donated by U.K. Tony
- entitled, 'modem.access.in.uk'. This lengthy file is a comprehensive
- list of dialup numbers in the UK. It will be available sometime over
- the weekend in the archives. To access the Telecom Archives, use ftp:
-
- ftp lcs.mit.edu
- login anonymous password: yourname@site.name
- cd telecom-archives
-
-
- CHANGES IN HANDLING OF MESSAGES TO THE DIGEST, EFFECTIVE 10-1-90:
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
-
- As you *must* know, traffic here has increased dramatically in the
- past few months, and the past couple weeks have been exceptionally
- heavy. I remember two years ago when almost every message received
- here was published ... then we went to about half ... now it is down
- to less than that.
-
- Even so, I have tried to return articles to their senders with an
- explanation when they were unusable in the Digest. This is taking
- quite a bit of time, in view of the fact that on four occassions in
- the past two weeks alone there have been <seven> issues in one day.
-
- (Do any old timers remember when we had one issue per day *most days*,
- and on the rare occassion of an overflow I would mention 'this is part
- one of two parts today'?)
-
- Starting October 1, there will be no attempt made to return unusable
- submissions. Your only acknowlegement from me will be the auto reply
- message. Either you will see your message in the Digest within three
- or four days of that point, or you may assume it was not used, for
- whatever reason.
-
- Priority will be given to messages which require *little or no editing
- work*. Priority will be given to *short* messages, and messages which
- *paraphrase* earlier writers rather than quote them at length.
-
- Make the 'Re' subject header match the original topic identically.
- Keep signatures to four lines or less of *essential* information. No
- quotes, jokes, political statements, etc. All will be disgarded.
-
- REplies to messages must now be limited to the first dozen or so
- received within a few days of the original article. We cannot keep
- rehashing things over and over for several weeks. There just is not
- room and time to do that and run new, original articles as well.
-
- These changes are not so much because I want them as they are because
- I am rapidly getting buried in messages here and time-consuming work
- in the editing and production of the Digest.
-
- Thanks for your understanding. Remember, ** most messages will neither
- be used in the Digest or returned starting Monday, October 1. **
-
-
- Patrick Townson
- TELECOM Moderator
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Joel B. Levin" <levin@bbn.com>
- Subject: Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 16:26:08 EDT
-
-
- >From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook)
-
- >In article <12383@accuvax.nwu.edu>, limhl@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com (Hui Lin
- >Lim) writes:
-
- >> Could anyone elaborate on how this service is provided? Does it
- >> require an ISDN switch etc?
-
- >Nope. They do it on a standard digital switch. I can get it on a
- >5ESS in my area. ...
-
- Of course, AT&T does ISDN on 5ESS, too.
-
-
- JBL
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 14:36:17 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Re: Distinctive-Ring Based Call Distributor
-
-
- > I seem to recall a request posted here a couple of months ago asking
- > whether there was any such beast as a call distribution device (for
- > the home) based on Distinctive Ringing Service offered by the LECs
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- > (variously sold as RingMaster, SmartRing, RingMate around the country,
- > in which multiple numbers mapped to the same line generate different
- > ring patterns). Well, here are excerpts from a recent article
- > describing just such a device.
-
- The latest issue of the Hello Direct catalog I just received (winter
- 1990) has a "Ring Director" box advertised on page 38. $99.95 qty
- 1-2. As usual for them, no manufacturer given.
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Rop Gonggrijp <ropg@ooc.uva.nl>
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
- Date: 28 Sep 90 12:03:06 GMT
- Organization: uvabick
-
-
- gdw@groucho.att.com (Gordon D Woods) writes:
-
- >>>The most honest way to go about it would be to ask the person who owns
- >>>the phone, "what number is this?" PAT]
-
- You can also call 1-800-666-6258. This gives you a lot of advertising
- bla-bla AND your phone no. (much of the advertising can be skipped by
- pressing a Touch-Tone (tm) digit).
-
-
- Rop Gonggrijp (ropg@ooc.uva.nl) is also editor of Hack-Tic (hack/phreak mag.)
- Postbus 22953 (in DUTCH) | 1100 DL AMSTERDAM tel: +31 20 6001480
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Joel B. Levin" <levin@bbn.com>
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 16:23:57 EDT
-
-
- >[Moderator's Note: ...
-
- >I suppose you could always make a collect call from the phone in
- >question to a number you control, then examine your phone bill when it
- >arrives the next month to see whose call you agreed to pay for. ... PAT]
-
- As has been pointed out, you might get an accounting number for a
- group of lines rather than the number of the actual line used.
-
-
- JBL
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: jdominey@bsga05.attmail.com
- Date: Fri Sep 28 15:27:43 EDT 1990
- Subject: Re: Sprint Wars - AT&T Did it Better For US
-
-
- In V10 Issue 688, "Andrew R. D'Uva" <andrewda@idsvax.ids.com> writes:
-
- > AT&T came to us, analyzed our calling patterns and told us
- >that they could not, in fact, save us money over Sprint WATS.
-
- >BUT>>> What they could do was enroll us with a reseller of their
- >service. All customer service and billing would be handled through
- >AT&T, but we would incur a small monthly fee ($25) from the reseller.
- >If I agreed to this, I could "buy" AT&T service as part of a large
- >group of people in my area (I don't even know who they are) at rates
- >significantly lower than Sprint's. Technically I have PRO-WATS, but
- >the people at AT&T Pro-Wats can't figure out (I called them) where the
- >additional discounts are coming from. My AT&T representative claims
- >that this is a convenient way for AT&T to avoid what she called
- >"restrictive regulation." Worked out quite well, too.
-
- A couple of notes about AT&T's reseller policy (as it has been
- explained to me). The situation that Mr. D'Uva describes is pretty
- common, with one exception. Your salesperson should NEVER enroll you
- under a reseller/ aggregator's program. Those organizations are NOT
- part of AT&T, and other than the agreements and tariffs under which
- they buy our services, there is no connection between us. There are
- some co-marketing agreements, but these are limited. We AT&T
- salesfolk are not supposed to even give the appearance of endorsing
- their services.
-
- If a customer asks me about an aggregator, I tell him/her as much
- about aggregators and resellers as I can. I try to avoid mentioning
- any of them by name. When faced with losing a customer to the
- competition because of a price difference, I would tell them what
- aggregators can do. I could provide - verbally - the names and
- numbers of some aggregators. Policy says I don't give the list in
- writing - could be construed as an endorsement.
-
- Now it is good for you, the customer, to get our service at a
- discount. And it's certainly better for AT&T than having you stay
- with the competition. But aggregators and resellers vastly complicate
- the vendor/customer relationship. And some of those guys engage in
- really marginal business practices - e.g. claiming over the phone to
- be part of AT&T, vastly overstating the savings available, even
- switching service to another LD carrier without notifying the
- customer.
-
- Mr. D'Uva's sales rep was also wrong to imply that our tariffs (the
- Multi- Location WATS plan, Customer-Specific Term Plan, Revenue Volume
- Pricing Plan, and even Software Defined Network) are some kind of
- cheesy way to get around the FCC. We set them up to give discounts to
- customers who promise to deliver a high level of usage. The
- aggregator phenomenon is a side effect, and one AT&T is not entirely
- happy with.
-
-
- Jack Dominey|AT&T Commercial Marketing|800-241-4285|AT&TMail !dominey
- My own opinions: Not to be confused with an official statement.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Tom Gray <mitel!spock!grayt@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Date: 28 Sep 90 11:54:34 GMT
- Reply-To: Tom Gray <mitel!smithd!grayt@uunet.uu.net>
- Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada.
-
-
- In article <12664@accuvax.nwu.edu> Ken Abrams <pallas!kabra437@uunet.
- uu.net> writes:
- >X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 684, Message 3 of 11
-
- >In article <12490@accuvax.nwu.edu> stox@balr.com (Ken Stox) writes:
-
- >> 2) Once digitized at the C.O., the digital data from your
- >>phone call is blocked into packets of data which are routed through
- >>the phone network.
-
- >quick recap is in order. While what Mr. Stox says might be true (to
- >some degree) sometime in the not too distant future, it is NOT true
- >today. As far as I know, there are no telco owned switches in service
- >today that use packet switching for voice. At the present time, a
-
- The ATT IACS (Integrated Access and Control) system uses compression
- to carry voice data. It is a fast packet system using 384kbit chunks
- of T1 channels. A whole industry of networking companies is selling
- compression equipment for private networks - ATT sells its IACS to
- industry to lower their networking costs.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Adam J. Ashby" <motcid!ashbya@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Data vs Voice
- Date: 28 Sep 90 13:27:23 GMT
- Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Hgts, IL
-
-
- In <12630@accuvax.nwu.edu> JDurand@cup.portal.com writes:
-
- >In Message-ID: <12542@accuvax.nwu.edu> adiron!tro@uunet.uu.net (Tom
- >Olin) writes:
-
- >>What happens if all those callers simultaneously break into song or in
- >>some other way push their duty cycles up to 100%?
-
- >It just occurred to me that all of us people sitting on hold all day
- >should have the lowest duty cycle except for the constant
- >music-on-hold that raises our duty cycle up to that of the dreaded
- >modems. Does that mean there should be higher rates for companies
- >that put people on hold for a large percentage of their calls? 8-)
- >Jerry Durand, Durand Interstellar, Inc., jdurand@cup.portal.com, 408 356-3886
-
- Not necessarily, BUT there should be a HUGE, financially crippling
- charge for those companies that employ the usual muzak-on-hold, even
- if they don't keep people on hold that often or for that long. 10
- seconds of the usual dross is enough to make me hang up.
-
-
- Adam Ashby | Most, if not all of the above
- (+1)(708) 632 3876 - work time | came from my mind...and not
- (+1)(708) 934 1431 - play time | even I have control over
- ...!uunet!motcid!ashbya | that. - madA 1990
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 10:24:23 PDT
- From: Brian Kantor <brian%cyberpunk@ucsd.edu>
- Subject: Re: References/Fixes Needed For "Slippage" on Dialins
-
-
- When you get "twinklies", consisting of characters having a lot of
- bits on (especially high order bits) like }, you are probably seeing
- your modem attempting to resynchronize. (1200 bps 212 modems use
- synchronous transmission between each other even though you are using
- async to talk to them.)
-
- My experience is that the A-#1 cause of this is a defective or
- misconfigured interface card on one or both ends of one or more of the
- circuits that connect your university's phone switch to the local
- telco's digital switch.
-
- What happens is that the a/d and d/a conversions at opposite ends of
- the trunk occasionally drop a little data. In other words, one or
- more of the 8k/sec samples was damaged and was discarded at the
- receiving end. This has NO measureable effect on voice - completely
- inaudible - but it makes the modems lose sync and they blow 1's bits
- at each other until they resync, so you see lots of twinklies.
- Sometimes they switches are misclocked so that they drop one sample
- out of every N, so you see a periodic burst of twinklies every M
- seconds.
-
- This is always repairable, but it will probably take a transmission
- specialist to bring his special test equipment and check for it as the
- normal telco voice quality measurement stuff won't show the problem.
-
- We had this problem big-time here at UCSD when the main campus was on
- one machine and the student housing on another in the same telco
- office - the two switches in the same building couldn't talk to each
- other without sync slips. The DMS-100 switch was famous for this - I
- heard they had a production run of line cards that came from the
- factory misconfigured slightly so that they worked ok for voice but
- got lots of slips. I understand they had to pull every single card
- out of the switch to check the jumpers or some equally boring task.
-
- Now that PacBell has fixed that problem with our local switch, we see
- sync slip storms only once or so a year - typically when they've just
- upgraded one of the central office switches in some other part of
- town. A quick call to their technical people handling the campus gets
- it fixed right fast. I get the impression we find out about it before
- they do, sometimes. (We've got over 200 dialup lines and about 8,000
- students and faculty using them 24 hours a day, so we have a large
- window of opportunity.)
-
- My experience parallels others in this regard - once you get high
- enough in the telco to find someone who can understand what you're
- saying, they'll get it fixed. If you're not in a position to bang on
- them from an official campus position, try to talk to whoever runs the
- switchroom in your campus phone facility and explain to them what's
- going on. They can get to the right people in the telco, eventually.
-
-
- Brian
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" <wsrcc!wolfgang@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Inexpensive Way to Increase Calling Area Needed
- Organization: Wolfgang S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Washington DC.
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 18:06:23 GMT
-
-
- birchall@pilot.njin.net (D. Birchall) writes:
-
- >Due to my tendency to incur huge dialin-related bills, my family has
- >become increasingly interested in finding new and novel ways to extend
- >our calling ability. Our NXX is not local to, and cannot (in theory)
- >'scope' to the nearest dialin. The _next_ NXX, however, is totally
- >local (no 'scope' needed) to it.
-
- How about finding some kind soul that has local calling to both areas
- (Eg. is half way to your desired destination). Arrange for them to
- get a second line and have it set up to always forward to the desired
- number.
-
- Is there a rule against this sort of thing or is this a legal low-cost
- alternative to a leased line?
-
-
- Wolfgang Rupprecht uunet!{nancy,usaos,media!ka3ovk}!wsrcc!wolfgang
- Snail Mail Address: Box 6524, Alexandria, VA 22306-0524
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #690
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21687;
- 29 Sep 90 5:07 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa08578;
- 29 Sep 90 3:43 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab30098;
- 29 Sep 90 2:40 CDT
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 1:44:00 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #691
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009290144.ab12077@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sat, 29 Sep 90 01:43:48 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 691
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Changes in Digest Effective October 1 [TELECOM Moderator]
- Re: Inexpensive Way to Increase Calling Area Needed [Bob Lee]
- Re: USEnet PC Access [Roy M. Silvernail]
- Re: Automatic Call Forwarding in Sweden [Dan Sahlin]
- Re: 215 to Join the N0X/N1X World [Carl Moore]
- Re: Now ... The AOS's Slam the COCOT's! [amb@ai.mit.edu]
- Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude [Carl Moore]
- Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude [Herman Silbiger]
- Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude [Robert Michael Gutierrez]
- Re: Two-Way Radio/Telephone Dispatch Interface [John Nagle]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [C. Harald Koch]
- Re: Industry Ethics (Was: Telecom Humour) [Major Panic]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 1:17:44 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- Subject: Changes in Digest Effective October 1
-
-
- Due to the increasing volume of traffic in the Digest, some changes
- are required if I am to keep my head above water with the constant,
- nagging backlog of messages waiting to go out ....
-
- 1. Messages not used will no longer be returned. Your only
- acknowlegement from me will be the autoreply message you (usually)
- receive.
-
- 2. Messages which require a lot of editing work will not be used.
-
- 3. Messages in REply to an earlier topic will be severely curtailed.
- We will have REplies for a couple days only ... maybe a dozen or so in
- all per original article.
-
- 4. Excess signature information is presently being trimmed out. If you
- cannot get your address in a couple lines at most, then your message
- will not likely be used.
-
- 5. Make the REply subject header match the original article. I have to
- spend a lot of time going back and forth to look these up for you.
-
-
- Thank you.
-
-
- Patrick Townson
- TELECOM Moderator
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: lee@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Bob Lee)
- Subject: Re: Inexpensive Way to Increase Calling Area Needed
- Reply-To: lee@gnu (Bob Lee)
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 05:57:58 GMT
-
-
- If you could find a friend in an area whose calling area is local to
- you and to the area you want to call, they could get a line installed
- there with call forwarding which they could program for you. They
- could even just get call forwarding on their own line and when you
- want to make a call, you call them to have them program in the number.
- You wait a few seconds, call them back and get forwarded to the number
- you want. They then cancel the forwarding so they get their calls
- (the forwarded call in progress isn't affected). One could get real
- clever and program a micro- processor + modem with built in tone
- decoder do do it all automatically.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: Re: USEnet PC Access
- From: "Roy M. Silvernail" <cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu>
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 20:18:21 CDT
- Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN
-
-
- grb@mtuxo.att.com (Gary Becker) writes:
-
- > If you find cheap, but not public domain, uucp software I'd be
- > interested in the source. My employer has a policy, to prevent
- > viruses, of no use of public domain software on company PC's.
-
- I have written to the original poster, but it appears this may have
- some general interest.
-
- Waffle is a PC (and Unix) netmail/netnews/UUCP package. I use it for
- my node, and find it quite robust. Source is available, as well. (I
- think it's about $120 for PC source) It's shareware, not public
- domain.
-
- The shareware executable distribution is available on SIMTEL as
- PD2:<MSDOS2.BBS>WAF163.ZIP.
-
- One caveat: if you want to take 16-bit compressed batches of news,
- you'll need a different version of compress than the one supplied.
-
- OB disclaimer ... I didn't write it (Tom Dell did, and a fine job it
- is!), I just use it and like it.
-
-
- Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dan Sahlin <dan@sics.se>
- Subject: Re: Automatic Call Forwarding in Sweden
- Organization: SICS, Swedish Inst. of Computer Science
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 12:48:06 GMT
-
-
- In Sweden the call forwarding facility is available at all modern
- (AXE) exchanges. They are rapidly replacing the old exchanges, so it
- seems that most cities now have this service.
-
- The service is available automatically for everybody, without asking
- the telephone company for anything. There is no charge for invoking
- call forwarding. The only thing you pay is the cost of the call from
- your telephone number at to the phone number that you are forwarding
- to. The caller will not pay for this, but rather the subscriber who
- has call forwarding.
-
- The code for invoking call forwarding is *21*telephone number#. The
- code disabling call forwarding is #21#.
-
- What is the pricing for these services in other countries? Are the
- same codes used for invoking the service?
-
-
- Dan
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 10:08:18 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Re: 215 to Join the N0X/N1X World
-
-
- Local calls WITHIN 215 are and will remain seven digits. Local calls
- from 215 to outside of 215 are 1+NPA+7D and will stay that way.
- (Someone -- was it JSol? -- sent me a note about trying a local call
- from Pa. to Del. leaving off the 1+ and just using 302+7D in, this
- case, the 215-255 exchange at Kemblesville, Chester County; won't this
- have to be "cleaned up"? and the 1+ required?)
-
- Didn't you see my message about the local service from Lehighton
- (215-377) to Jim Thorpe (717-325)? That's 1+717-325-xxxx.
-
- Years ago, I noticed no 1+ in the calling instructions for Pittsburgh
- (i.e. all calls within 412 were 7D, with NPA+7D for calls outside of
- 412, with Pittsburgh being too far from NPA line to have local service
- to another NPA). Is 412 now short of empty prefixes?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: amb@ai.mit.edu
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 11:50:13 -0400
- Subject: Re: Now ... The AOS's Slam the COCOT's!
-
-
- AT&T has run advertisments for quite a while now in NYC urging
- payphone owners to check their carrier, with a special number to call
- to reports changes. It's not just COCOTs, but regular Bell phones,
- that have been getting slammed. On a similar note, in Grand Central
- station, in which all of the phones were a year ago changed to have as
- their default carrier "Sprint PublicFON Service", enough rail riders
- have complained that they are now going back to AT&T. At least they
- aren't COCOTS yet.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 10:00:14 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude
-
-
- I had a case where I was managing a small outside computer account at
- a university, and received a large bill for supposed usage. It was
- off by some order of magnitude (I don't recall what), and I called the
- computing center there, and found out someone had already "flagged" my
- account because she had figured out I didn't spend that kind of money
- on that account. (Error got fixed.)
-
- In other words, the above case had an internal "sanity" check. Does
- somebody do something like that at the phone company office, at or
- before the customer calls?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 21:10:35 EDT
- From: hrs1@cbnewsi.att.com
- Subject: Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- In article <12722@accuvax.nwu.edu>, optilink!cramer@uunet.uu.net
- (Clayton Cramer) writes:
-
- > Uh, doesn't the phone company's accounting software have some sanity
- > checks in it? Do they regularly send out residential service bills
- > that require seven digits left of the decimal point?
-
- Most billing software does not seem to have any sanity checks. For
- the third time, my mortgage bank send me first and overdue notice, and
- then a penalty notice, for a $ 0.01 (that's right, one US dollar cent)
- underpayment.
-
- This underpayment sometimes occurs because my softwarer calculates the
- payment to be be one cent less than the bank's software. I also pay
- most of my checks by EFT (CheckFree). Thus, unless I remember to
- manually correct the amount, it goes out wrong. When I call the bank,
- they fix it, and I send them one extra penny the next time.
-
- It costs them 50 cents in postage, plus paper etc. to notify me.
- Since one notification costs $ 0.25, it would make sense to accept any
- payment that was not more than 25 cents too small, and just add it to
- the next month's statement. That kind of sanity is apparently not
- possessed by the designers of accounting and billing programs.
-
-
- Herman Silbiger
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Robert Michael Gutierrez <gutierrez@noc.arc.nasa.gov>
- Subject: Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 02:00:24 GMT
- Reply-To: Robert Michael Gutierrez <gutierrez@noc.arc.nasa.gov>
- Organization: NASA Science Internet - Network Operations Center
-
-
- optilink!cramer@uunet.uu.net (Clayton Cramer) writes:
-
- |> jjohnson@hpljaj.hpl.hp.com (Jeff Johnson) writes:
-
- |> > Chicago (AP) -- Cori Ward's mother got a little defensive when she
- |> > received a phone bill for three weeks' service -- $8.7 million.
-
- [etc]
-
- |> Uh, doesn't the phone company's accounting software have some sanity
- |> checks in it? Do they regularly send out residential service bills
- |> that require seven digits left of the decimal point?
-
- No. Billing centers only have one purpose in life, to bill as fast as
- they can, and their thinking is that even a simple subroutine to check
- for excessive zeros will slow then down. The same subroutine would
- also bring the accuracy statistics down, something they don't like at
- all. It's better if the mistake was discovered by the customer, then
- that inaccurate billing is not added to the company's accuracy stats.
-
- |> > Ward said she had a hard time explaining the mistake to the phone
- |> > company.
-
- |> Whoever Ward talked to in customer service, then, needs replacement
- |> with a non-robodroid. If I were in customer service, and someone
- |> called up with a $8x10^6 phone bill for three weeks of residential
- |> service, this would be immediate evidence of serious billing SNAFUs --
- |> I wouldn't need an explanation at all.
-
- This I agree on. MCI had problems with so-called "stuck clocks," or
- billed calls that were extremely excessive (like 600 - 2000 minutes).
- These were calls to end offices (CO's) that didn't return supervision,
- and the MCI switch had to depend on voice patterns on the line to
- determine when to start supervision. Unfortunately, they sometimes
- didn't stop supervision when the call stopped, and it would continue
- to clock the call until billing-dump time on the switch, when it
- routined the trunk to see it's usage, and discovered that it was not
- in use, and "end" that call-record. The switch merrily dumped that
- call onto the mag tape, and the billing center merrily billed it on
- the customers bill.
-
- Well, MCI had a standing policy to take the excessive charge off the
- bill, *without question*. Since it was impossible to determine how
- long the customer talked for (unless they volunteered), the call was
- written off. Everybody in customer service knew this. The only thing
- that was needed was a copy of the bill which the call appeared on
- (this being before MCI had on-line call detail).
-
- If somebody called me at MCI with an $8.7 mil. bill on a *residental*
- account, I would *NOT* be arguing with them ... I'd instead give them
- my direct address at MCI, and save the bill as a souvenier instead
- after the mess was straightned out.
-
-
- Robert Michael Gutierrez
- Office of Space Science and Applications,
- NASA Science Internet - Network Operations Center.
- Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: John Nagle <decwrl!well.sf.ca.us!well!nagle@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: Two-Way Radio/Telephone Dispatch Interface
- Date: 28 Sep 90 15:45:32 GMT
-
-
- >In <TELECOM Digest V10 #668>, Tad Cook <tad@ssc.UUCP> wrote:
-
- >>I am looking for a device that can go between the telco line side of
- >>a key telephone system and a two-way radio system.
-
- This is how it all started. Remember Carterfone?
-
- John Nagle
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 12:17:47 EDT
- From: "C. Harald Koch" <chk@alias.uucp>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
-
-
- In article <12368@accuvax.nwu.edu> monty@sunne.east.sun.com (Monty
- Solomon - Temp Consultant) writes:
-
- > Well, that seems like an awfully easy thing to rectify with no new
- > technology whatsoever: just put two magnetic stripes on the back of
- > the card, one with the bankcard data and one with the phonecard data.
-
- There is an ANSI standard describing the magnetic stripe on the back
- of the card. I dont have it in front of me, but from what I remember:
-
- The stripe contains four tracks. The first three are the same, while
- the fourth is a larger, 'high-density' track. The third track is used
- by financial institutions for encoding Visa and Mastercard, bank
- cards, etc, and there is an ANSI standard describing this track
- separately.
-
- It seems to me, therefore, that the easiest solution (and the one that
- should have been used in the first place) is to put the Calling Card
- information on one of the other tracks. Then there is no ambiguity;
- the card is both optically and magnetically a credit card and a phone
- card.
-
- But of course, they never asked me... :-)
-
-
- C. Harald Koch VE3TLA Alias Research, Inc., Toronto ON Canada
- chk%alias@csri.utoronto.ca chk@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu chk@chk.mef.org
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Major Panic <garif@cmcl2.nyu.edu>
- Subject: Re: Industry Ethics (Was: Telecom Humour)
- Date: 28 Sep 90 18:07:42 GMT
- Organization: New York University
-
-
- AMillar@cup.portal.com writes:
-
- >Now, anyone who posts a controversial view is open to flamage,
- >including Pat (and me for this message). And responsibility is always
- >controversial. But I congratulate Pat for taking a stand, and not
- >sitting by siliently.
-
- I submit that "responsibility" is not controversial. Its when an
- individual clearly takes a stand that needn't be taken that questions
- about that person arise. (In some cases you may read "controversial"
- as "confrontational".)
-
- >Yes, it is probably true that we can expect these things to happen.
- >But no way should we condone them!
-
- This is a forum of supposedly intelligent people discussing points of
- interest. Society dictates what is and is not acceptable. It is
- clear to me that everyone here understands the essential difference
- between right and wrong. Preaching about it in this forum SHOULD
- invite scrutiny. Do you take us all for fools?
-
- >We should all lighten up when it comes to fraud or perhaps incest
- >because these things too are just GOING to happen, right? But wait,
- >those are serious, and we're only talking about harmless pranks.
- >Calling a person of a particular ethnic background a derogatory name
- >is all in good fun; can't they take a joke?
-
- Not "WE should all...", YOU should. Its quite plain that such
- behaviour is looked down upon and often illegal. Why must you bring
- it up?
-
- >"It's going to happen anyways" is a cop-out. If you don't take a
- >stand against unethical behaviour, then you are supporting it BY
- >DEFAULT.
-
- Sorry, I don't agree with you there. I believe that the Usenet
- community as a whole to be quite intelligent and it would be contrary
- to that belief to say "oh, there goes a bad joke, quick: remind
- everyone its wrong to espouse genocide, kill people randomly, ad
- nauseum..."
-
- I guess when places like Portal let just anybody post, this should
- have been expected :-) Does this mean that every time someone posts
- anything even slightly "bad", they'd better have a copious amount of
- disclaimer or law-abiding verse to accompany???
-
- sheesh, 'nuff said.
-
- Lee-bo()
-
- p.s. Note that my questions were rhetorical in nature - let's see if
- someone out there just can't let this rest.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #691
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21744;
- 29 Sep 90 5:10 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab08578;
- 29 Sep 90 3:44 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ac30098;
- 29 Sep 90 2:40 CDT
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 2:07:12 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #692
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009290207.ab26892@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sat, 29 Sep 90 02:07:00 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 692
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: List For Italy [Dik T. Winter]
- Re: Nynex Fast Track: Phone Directories on CD-ROM [John Lister]
- Re: CCITT and Plenary Sessions/Books Summary [Herman Silbiger]
- Re: Another Award Call [David Lemson]
- Re: The Phone Book [Clayton Cramer]
- Re: Another Air Cellular Question [John Higdon]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: "Dik T. Winter" <dik@cwi.nl>
- Subject: Re: List For Italy
- Date: 28 Sep 90 20:19:14 GMT
- Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
-
-
- In article <12685@accuvax.nwu.edu> cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) writes:
-
- > Recently, a note from Paolo Bellutta (bellutta@irst.it) explained
- > Italian city codes, which he referred to as "the area codes (called
- > prefix)". Phone books I have seen in the U.S. refer to these as city
- > codes, with the "area code" term being used only for U.S./Canada/
- > Caribbean area (country code 1).
-
- I would certainly refer to them as area codes; not city codes. My
- feeling with the expression city code is that it serves a particular
- city only; this is not true in most countries. In general a code
- serves a large area with multiple cities/villages etc.
-
- > Anyway, I combined that note with
- > earlier information I had for Italy (country code 39), trimmed off the
- > leading zeroes (used only on calls within Italy?), and came up with
- > this list (using anglicized names like Venice, Rome, etc.):
-
- At the end of this note I include a much longer list which was (I
- believe) complete a few years ago; it may have been changed of course.
- On remark though on this short list:
-
- >541 San Marino (independent country, to change to +295)
-
- This is only partly true; 541 does not only serve San Marino, but also
- some neighbouring parts of Italy: Rimini (thus indeed: area code).
-
- Another note: I did not include Vatican City: that is only a single
- extension in the Rome area, and a did not Angliciza the Italian names,
- for some I would not even know what the English name was if there is
- any! And finally: all typing errors are mine!
-
- Enjoy,
-
- dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland
- dik@cwi.nl
-
- Area code list for Italy:
-
- 10 Genova 435 Pieve di Cadore 66 Civitavecchia
- 11 Torino 436 Cortina d'Ampezzo 771 Gaeta
- 121 Pinerolo 437 Belluno 773 Latina
- 122 Susa 438 Conegliano 774 Tivoli
- 123 Ceres 439 Feltre 775 Frosinone
- 124 Pont Canavese 442 Cerca 776 Arpino
- 125 Ivrea 444 Vicenza 781 Iglesias
- 131 Alessandria 445 Thiene 782 Tortoli
- 141 Asti 45 Verona 783 Oristano
- 142 Casale Monferrato 461 Trento 784 Nuoro
- 143 Novi Ligure 462 Predazzo 785 Abbasanta
- 144 \`Acqui Terme 463 Male 789 Olbia
- 15 Biella 464 Rovereto 79 Sassari
- 161 Vercelli 465 Pinzolo 80 Bari
- 163 Borgosesia 471 Bolzano 81 Napoli
- 165 Aosta 472 Bressanone 823 Santa Maria Capua Vetere
- 166 Chatillon 473 Merano 824 Benevento
- 171 Cuneo 474 Dobbiasco 825 Avellino
- 172 Bra 481 Gorizia 827 Calitri
- 173 Alba 49 Padova 828 Battipaglia
- 174 Mondovi 50 Pisa 831 Brindisi
- 175 Saluzzo 51 Bologna 832 Lecce
- 182 Albenga 521 Parma 833 Casarano
- 183 Imperia 522 Reggio nell'Emilia 835 Matera
- 184 San Remo 523 Piacenza 836 Otranto
- 185 Rapallo 524 Fidenza 85 Pescara
- 187 La Spezia 525 Borgo Val di Taro 861 Teramo
- 19 Savona 532 Ferrara 862 L'Aquila
- 2 Milano 533 Mesola 863 Avezzano
- 30 Brescia 534 Porretta Terme 864 Pr\`atola Peligna
- 31 Como 535 Mirandola 865 Is\`ernia
- 321 Novara 536 Pavullo nel 871 Chieti
- Frignano
- 322 Borgomanero 541 Rimini/San Marino 872 Atessa
- 323 Omegna 542 Imola 873 Vasto
- 324 Domodossola 543 Forli 874 Campobasso
- 331 Busto Arsizio 544 Ravenna 875 T\`ermoli
- 332 Varese 545 Lugo 881 Foggia
- 341 Lecco 546 Brisignella 882 San Severo
- 342 Sondrio 547 Cesena 883 Andria/Barletta
- 343 Chiavenna 55 Firenze 884 Manfredonia
- 344 Porlezza 564 Grosseto 885 Cerignola
- 345 Zogno 565 Piombino 89 Salerno
- 346 Clusone 566 Gavorrano 90 Messina
- 35 Bergamo 571 San Miniato Citta 91 Palermo
- 362 Seregno 572 Pescia 921 Cefalu
- 363 Caravaggio 573 Pistoia 922 Agrigento
- 364 Pisogne 574 Prato 923 Trapani
- 365 Bagolino 575 Arezzo 924 Alcamo
- 371 Sante Angelo 577 Siena 925 Sciacca
- Lodigiano
- 372 Cremona 578 Montepulciano 931 Siracusa
- 373 Crema 583 Lucca 932 Ragusa
- 374 Soresina 584 Viareggio 933 Gela
- 375 Viadana 585 Carrara/Massa 934 Caltanissetta
- 376 Mantova 586 Livorno 935 Enna
- 377 Casalpusterlengo 587 Pontedera 941 Tortorici
- 381 Vigevano 588 Volterra 942 Taormina
- 382 Pavia 59 Modena 95 Catania
- 383 Voghera 6 Roma 961 Catanzaro
- 384 Mortara 70 Cagliari 962 Crotone
- 385 Stradella 71 Ancona 963 Vibo Valentia
- 386 Ostiglia 721 Pesaro 964 Locri
- 39 Monza 722 Urbino 965 Reggio di Calabria
- 40 Trieste 731 Iesi 966 Palmi Calabro
- 41 Venezia 732 Sassoferrato 967 Chiaravalle Centrale
- 421 Eraclea 733 Macerata 968 Nicastro
- 422 Treviso 734 Fermo 971 Acerenza/Potenza
- 423 Montebelluna 735 San Benedetto del 972 Rionero in Vulture
- Tronto
- 424 Asiago 736 Ascoli Piceno 973 Lauria
- 425 Rovigo 737 Camerino 974 Agropoli
- 426 \`Adria/Porte Tolle 742 Foligno 975 Sala Colsilina
- 427 Maniago 743 Spoleto 976 Muro Lucano
- 428 Tarvisio 744 Terni 981 Castrovillari
- 429 Montagnana 746 Rieti 982 Paola
- 431 Grado 75 Perugia 983 Rossano Calabro
- 432 Udine 761 Viterbo 984 Cosenza
- 433 Ampezzo 763 Orvieto 985 Verbicaro
- 434 Pordenone 765 Fara in Sabina 99 Taranto
-
-
- dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland
- dik@cwi.nl
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: John Lister <slhisc!jlister@marob.masa.com>
- Subject: Re: Nynex Fast Track: Phone Directories on CD-ROM
- Organization: Shearson Lehman Brother, Inc.
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 20:32:22 GMT
-
-
- In article <12388@accuvax.nwu.edu> BRUCE@ccavax.camb.com (Barton F.
- Bruce) writes:
-
- >In article <12300@accuvax.nwu.edu>, ndallen@contact.uucp (Nigel Allen)
- >writes:
-
- >> Someone has already made posted an article here discussing Nynex's
- >> CD-ROMs containing telephone directory information for Nynex's
- >> operating companies, New York Telephone and New England Telephone.
-
- >Having the phone book on CD-ROM is a tremendous idea, but what NYNEX is
- >doing just seems so horribly WRONG.
-
- >I see this as the non-regulated NYNEX taking advantage of their
- >position and really ripping off the customers of their regulated
- >operating companies NYTel and NET&T. The Feds recently fined NYNEX for
- >other abuses, and MA and NY need to get them for the same violations.
-
- >The phone company provides a pile of local books free for every phone,
-
- The problem is (as I understand it) is that the advertising pays for
- much of the cost of printing the phone book. However, the solution is
- not really the CD-ROM (though think of what the junk mail people could
- do if they got hold of just about all the households in a given area
- conveniently packaged...) rather, it is to provide online access,
- which is what the French have done. They have given away a (cheap)
- terminal to everyone with a phone for (I think) free directory
- lookups.
-
- A side-effect of this is that the terminal can be used for lots of
- other access. I have heard that Bank at home, and Prodigy-like
- services are making a pile of money.
-
-
- John Lister
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 20:58:09 EDT
- From: hrs1@cbnewsi.att.com
- Subject: Re: CCITT and Plenary Sessions/Books summary
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- In article <12700@accuvax.nwu.edu>, djcl@contact.uucp (woody) writes:
-
- > It appears that the book colours are forming a cycle. If so, the books
- > coming out of the '92 conference, wherever that will be, will be
- > white.
-
- A decision has been made by Dr. Theo Irmer, the Director of the CCITT,
- that color books will no longer be published. Instead,
- Recommendations will be published when approved. This approval no
- longer needs to wait until a Plenary Assembly. The 1988 Melbourne
- Plenary Assembly approved. among othrt things, Resolution No.2. This
- resolution empowers each Study Group to approve a Recommenadtion at
- any time by going through a defined process. Once the Recommendtion
- is approved it will be issued and published by the CCITT.
-
- At the recent September meeting of Study Group VIII (Telematic
- Terminals, i.e. facsimile, Teletex, videotex, document transfer) two
- revised Recommendations, one new Recommendation, and amendments to 5
- other recommendations were approved for these Res. 2 procedures.
-
- >The announcement for the '92 conference will likely show up in an
- >edition of the ITU's _Telecommunication_Journal_ at some point.
- >On a side note, it is interesting to note that the CCITT has developed
- >standards for a programming language called CHILL (CCITT High Level
- >Language). I don't know if this is actually in use anywhere, or if
- >there have been any CHILL compilers/interpreters developed. It's an
- >interesting language, what with various set operators developed, and
- >the typical 'if', 'for' and 'while' looping mechanisms.
-
- Yes CHILL is used, mainly in the electronic switching system environment.
-
-
- Herman Silbiger
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 22:17:04 CDT
- From: David Lemson <FREE0612@uiucvmd>
- Subject: Re: Another Award Call
-
-
- In a message of Wed, 26 Sep 90, Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- writes:
-
- >Does anyone know where 904-492 is? (Yes, I know it's somewhere in
- >northern Florida.) I just got, on my office phone, a so-called award
- >notification call, was given (in a RECORDED message) a two-character
- >"claim number", and was told to call 904-492-0001 during the next 24
- >hours. Supposedly, "they" were trying to reach me and were having
- >problems. How would "they" get my office number? That's on 301-278
- >and I do not think 301-278 has any residences on it.
-
- Here's my story about these schemes. I almost got into one a while back.
-
- About three years ago while living in Sacramento, CA, I read an ad in
- the local newspaper (the Bee, I believe) for "Make money with your
- computer" with an 800 number. I called, and waded through an
- auto-attendant to learn that as their employee, I would earn $400 per
- week for only "1-2 hours of system maintenance per day." I gave my
- name and address, and received an application in a few days. I also
- gave the number to a good friend of mine who also had a PC. The
- application asked for information about my PC, including hard disk
- size and if I had a modem. One notable place on the application
- indicated that if I was selected to be an employee, I would receive
- equipment and software valued at $1500. "Would I be averse to sending
- them a fully refundable $600 deposit?" I answered absolutely YES. My
- friend that "maybe" he would send the deposit if asked. Well, you
- guessed it, I was denied and he was approved.
-
- The scheme on this one was that they sent him a Watson Voicemail board
- (from Natural Microsystems) and several megabytes of recorded
- information. He had to type in phone numbers from the phone book each
- night. During the day, the computer would dial each number, wait
- until it heard a voice, and deliver the message. It was a quiz about
- entertainment trivia that anyone over the age of 10 could get all
- correct. Once a person called by the Watson answered about 3
- questions right, the machine would give you a "special code number"
- that was only good for 30 minutes. You had to call a number somewhere
- on the east coast, give them the special code number, and you would be
- given another quiz. This was supposedly much harder, and if you got
- all of those right, you would win $50. Of course, before you got to
- hear those questions, you had to listen to a spiel about whatever it
- was that they were selling. BTW, the code number was always the same,
- of course.
-
- (Another aside: I don't know why they said the equipment was worth
- $1500..a Watson board costs $200 and the software from them might add
- up to $500...)
-
- They told my friend to try not to dial businesses, and definitely
- especially to avoid programming government and LAWYER's offices! Hmm,
- wonder why. Well, my friend worked for him for a few weeks, and got
- his security deposit back. (I forgot to mention, as you all guessed,
- they did make him send it in after he got the Watson board) However,
- he received no more pay checks after the initial refund of the
- deposit. He was in touch with the company and they kept saying that
- they were having "financial troubles" and the employees would
- definitely receive the back pay.
-
- The employees stopped working when they received letters from the US
- Postmaster General. The mastermind of this scheme was being indicted in
- hundreds of counts of interstate mail and wire fraud. It seems the guy had
- started several of these types of schemes before.
-
- The outcome? Another company came by about a year later and offered
- to employ all of the employees in a new, supposedly legitimate plan to
- do the same thing. The employees never were asked to return the
- Watson boards or the VMS software (a piece of software for Watson
- valued at a few hundred dollars). So, my friend has a Watson to show
- for 2 months of fairly boring work.
-
- Just a bit of an insight as to how these companies that call you get their
- slaves ...er ... employees.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Clayton Cramer <optilink!cramer@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: The Phone Book
- Date: 28 Sep 90 22:16:39 GMT
- Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
-
-
- In article <12711@accuvax.nwu.edu>, djcl@contact.uucp (woody) writes:
-
- > * {Ramparts Magazine} printed instructions on how to build a "mute
- > box" (something to suppress call supervision on incoming long distance
- > calls). While Ramparts was in rather illegal territory with that
- > article, the actions Ma Bell took were probably the issue here. Bell
- > agents were ordered to find all extant copies of the offending
- > {Ramparts Magazine}, trying to get the subscription lists, going after
- > newsstand dealers, threatening any radio stations that mentioned the
- > action, etc.
-
- My mother was working for Los Angeles County Library at the time the
- Ramparts article appeared; orders came down from the top to cut out
- the offending article and destroy it. But she made a copy first and
- brought it home. (Not that we ever did anything with it -- she just
- felt uncomfortable having stuff disappear into "the memory hole").
-
-
- Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
- You must be kidding! No company would hold opinions like mine!
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: Another Air Cellular Question
- Date: 28 Sep 90 11:54:55 PDT (Fri)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 28 at 0:14, Dan_Bloch@transarc.com writes:
-
- > The recent discussion reminds me of a question I've been wondering
- > about for a while. How do the pay phones on airplanes work? I assume
- > they must be some kind of cellular with a very large cell.
-
- Correct.
-
- > What wavelengths do they use?
-
- They operate around 950 MHz. This is a thorn in the side of
- broadcasters, since every service and his brother seems to be trying
- to cut a piece out of this frequency region. Radio broadcasters use
- the band from 944 to 951 MHz to relay program material from studio
- locations to transmitter sites. Mention "AirPhone" in the presence of
- a broadcast engineer and see what kind of reaction you get.
-
- > capacity does the system have and how much use does it get? Who runs
- > them? And, for that matter, why don't they interfere with the pilots'
- > radio communication?
-
- Don't know the lastest figures on how successful "AirPhone" is these
- days. Last time I even thought about it, GTE was trying to get its
- "experimental" license extended (it did manage to do that). They don't
- interfere with pilots' radio communication because the frequencies are
- different. Also, and more importantly, the units are designed and
- installed as an intregal part of the aircraft's communication system.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #692
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07309;
- 29 Sep 90 21:23 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa25976;
- 29 Sep 90 19:54 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa19346;
- 29 Sep 90 18:50 CDT
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 18:46:15 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest Special: ISDN Introduction
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009291846.ab29118@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sat, 29 Sep 90 18:45:00 CDT Special: ISDN Introduction
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- An Introduction to ISDN From the CERFnet News [Excerpted by Jody Kravitz]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Jody Kravitz <foxtail!kravitz@ucsd.edu>
- Subject: An Introduction to ISDN From the CERFnet News
- Date: Sat 29 Sep 90 18:00:00 CDT
-
-
- The most recent issue of the CERFnet news contained a long and useful
- article on ISDN. I've excerpted the article from the newsletter:
-
- CERFnet News
- California Education and Research Federation Network
- August-September 1990
- Volume 2, Number 5
-
- <introduction and 5 articles deleted>
-
-
- AN INTRODUCTION TO ISDN
- by Dory Leifer
-
-
- Motivated by the ever increasing public need to send digital
- information in the form of voice, data or image, national governments
- along with private corporations have developed a scheme called
- Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Although this concept
- dates back to the early 1970s, only recently have standards been
- developed. The standardization of ISDN has resulted in an emerging
- market of ISDN equipment and service plans. This technology will have
- widespread impact on both suppliers and users of network equipment and
- services.
-
- In the United States, all seven regional Bell operating
- companies have initiated limited testing and deployment of ISDN.
- General deployment is expected during the mid to late 1990s. Our
- European and Japanese counterparts are committed to the nationwide
- implementation of ISDN.
-
- This article introduces the basic concepts of telephone
- networks and ISDN and explores possible applications of ISDN
- technology.
-
- The telephone network
-
- In order to understand why ISDN evolved, let's look at the
- current telephone network. The basic telephone is an analog instrument
- connected to a pair of wires. The pair of wires from a subscriber's
- premises, a private home for example, is connected over approximately
- a mile of cable to a local telephone company's central office. This
- pair of wires is commonly called the "last mile" or local loop.
-
- Inside the central office, the pair is attached to a device
- called a switch. The switch converts the analog signal to digital by
- sampling it thousands of times a second. The switch also routes the
- call by examining the telephone number called. If the call is
- long-distance, it is routed by the local telephone company, Michigan
- Bell, for example, to an Interexchange Carrier (IEC) such as AT&T,
- MCI, or US Sprint. The IEC routes the call to the local telephone
- company at the destination, still preserving the digital nature of the
- signal.
-
- This conversion between analog and digital seems reasonable
- for voice since humans (even programmers) cannot hear or speak
- digitally. But what if we intend to exchange digital information by
- connecting two computers together? In that case, we must convert
- digital information from our computers into analog signals using a
- modem.
-
- When these signals reach the central office, they are
- converted back to digital. The reverse process is used at the
- destination switch to convert the digital signal back to analog and
- pass it to the destination modem which finally turns it back for the
- last time to a computer bit stream.
-
- This process is not only redundant, it is inefficient. When
- voice is converted from analog to digital, a bit rate of 56,000
- bits-per-second (bps) is typically dedicated to carrying it. This rate
- is required to make sure that the voice will sound natural when it is
- converted back to analog. Since the telephone network treats modems
- the same way, a rate of 56,000 bps is also required to convey modem
- signals. However, most modems send and receive at or under 2400 bps.
- The rest of the capacity is wasted.
-
- Modems serve another purpose apart from digital transmission.
- Most modern modems incorporate automatic dialing and answer functions.
- We say that an autodial modem exchanges signalling information with
- the telephone network. The modem can be instructed to place a call
- and report its progress: examples of what it can report back are
- "ringing", "busy", and "no circuits available".
-
- Again in this case, because the telephone network is designed
- for voice, computer equipment is disadvantaged. The modem requires
- special hardware to detect (actually to listen and guess) the sound of
- a busy signal, ring, or call incomplete message (usually preceded by
- three tones). This type of signalling is not only analog but it is in
- band: that is, signals and real transmitted information use the same
- channel. Sharing a single circuit to convey both transmission and
- signalling information imposes serious limitations.
-
- ISDN relieves the limitations of both in-band signaling and
- analog transmission. The next section describes a standard ISDN
- interface which provides end-to-end digital transmission and separates
- the signaling functions from the transmission functions. ISDN basic
- rate interface.
-
- The ISDN basic rate interface is the standard interface to
- connect subscribers to the ISDN. This interface uses the existing
- telephone wire pair. Instead of using this pair for analog signaling
- and transmission, only digital information is conveyed. On this wire,
- three channels or digital paths exist. The channels are multiplexed
- by giving each a time slice on the wire. Since ISDN channels are half
- duplex or uni-directional, a "ping-pong" method is used so that when
- one end transmits, the other listens. The ping pong happens with every
- tick of some central clock so the link appears to be bidirectional.
-
- Each ISDN circuit includes three channels:
-
- * 2 B or Bearer channels for data or voice (each
- 64,000 bps)
- * 1 D or Data channel for signaling or packet
- data (16,000 bps)
-
- These channels provide both signaling and transmission. Notice that
- there is no distinction between voice and data on the B-channel. The
- ISDN treats both as a stream of bits. The bits have significance only
- to the terminating equipment such as a telephone for voice or a
- computer for data. When a subscriber wishes to place a call, the
- terminating equipment sends a packet on the D-channel containing the
- information needed by the network in order to establish the call.
- Assuming that the call succeeds, the subscriber may then send either
- voice or data on a B-channel. To end the call, a take-down packet is
- sent. This is analogous to hanging up.
-
- Bearer channel transmission
-
- The B-channel is referred to as a clear channel because of its
- ability to pass an arbitrary bit stream transparently. In reality,
- arbitrary bit patterns have limited uses since the B-channel must
- adhere to the disciplines of existing voice and data networks. Sending
- voice using some non-standard encoding would preclude placing calls
- between the ISDN and the existing telephone network. A standard Pulse
- Code Modulation (PCM) scheme has been standardized for digitized voice
- because it is compatible with the existing voice network.
-
- Correspondingly, a data protocol must be employed on the
- B-channel if the subscriber is to reach hosts on the existing packet
- services which are not yet on the ISDN. Even if the host is on the
- ISDN, the network provides no guarantee that the data will be
- transmitted without errors. This is not a serious problem with
- terminal sessions (we live with error-prone modems), but for computer
- to computer connections (for example, performing a file transfer) an
- error-correction protocol may be required.
-
- The B-channel itself provides services that comply with layer
- one of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference model (the
- physical layer). That is, it offers a medium through which bits may
- pass.
-
- If a subscriber uses the ISDN to call another computer
- directly, a minimum of a layer-two protocol is involved for error
- correction and flow control. In many cases, the subscriber will wish
- to access a host on a packet network like Telenet. In this case, both
- a link layer (OSI layer two) and network layer (layer three) are
- required. The subscriber then uses the X.25 protocol between the ISDN
- and his or her machine. An interworking unit acts as a gateway between
- the ISDN and the packet network, using the X.75 protocol.
-
- A somewhat similar service could be deployed by Merit in the
- future to provide Internet access for ISDN subscribers. Off-campus
- users could place an ISDN call to an Internet gateway. They could then
- access TCP/IP applications like file transfer, remote terminal, and
- mail. ISDN provides added support in this case: since the ISDN would
- report the caller's address, a unique Internet address could be
- associated with a particular calling address. Other services which
- require authentication of the caller would also be facilitated by this
- feature.
-
- The data channel
-
- The Data or D-Channel was originally specified by the CCITT
- for signaling but later was re-specified to include both signaling and
- transmission of packet data. Unlike its sister B-channel, the
- D-channel is not designed to carry an arbitrary bit stream. The
- D-channel uses both a link layer, Link Access Protocol-D (LAPD),
- similar to HDLC, and a network layer, Q.931, similar to X.25.
-
- The D-channel may be used for packet data when data throughput
- is not of high priority. No call set-up or take-down is required when
- using the D-channel to interface in packet mode.
-
- The signaling protocol on the D-channel is based on the set of
- signaling messages needed to establish and release a simple 64,000 bps
- B-channel voice or data connection. Included in call set-up are:
-
- * Flexible addressing compatible with many standard
- network
- * Required data rate
- * IEC (long distance carrier) selection
- if applicable
- * Notification if line forwarded to
- another address
- * User information text
-
- Signaling information is exchanged between a subscriber and the ISDN.
- But this information must also be passed within the ISDN to assure
- timely circuit establishment, efficient allocation of resources, and
- accurate billing and accounting between various service providers. A
- protocol called Common Channel Signaling Number Seven (CCS7) performs
- these functions. CCS7 was designed by AT&T and is based on the
- international standard CCITT Signaling System Seven (SS7). CCS7 is
- already used on a wide scale for signaling in the non-ISDN world but
- will be essential to support ISDN.
-
- Equipment
-
- Compatibility with existing equipment is extremely important
- to most of the users who will migrate from switched and private
- networks to ISDN. Therefore, most of the early ISDN equipment which
- users will purchase will be adapters for non-ISDN devices such as
- asynchronous terminals with RS-232 interfaces, 3270 style terminals
- with IBM SDLC and coax interfaces, and various LANs. An interface to
- connect common analog telephones will surely be a hot seller.
-
- Many of these devices are quite complex because they have to
- support both signalling and transmission. For example, an adapter
- which allows RS-232 attachment for terminals needs to interface with
- both the B- and D- channels.
-
- Under development by several manufacturers are integrated
- terminals that combine voice, data, and signaling into a compact
- desktop package. Initially, these terminals will function as
- expensive desktop space savers, replacing a separate phone and
- terminal, but later they will provide access to truly integrated
- services.
-
- What is an integrated service?
-
- An integrated service is one that is capable of providing a
- wide assortment of information well organized into a single package.
- This information may be, for example, in the form of voice, computer
- data, video, or facsimile.
-
- Initially, services available on ISDN will not be integrated.
- Voice and data, although they may be accessed together on an
- integrated terminal, have little to do with one another. Voice calls
- will involve only voice and data calls only data. We speak of this
- relationship as Service Coexistence.
-
- The second generation of ISDN services will be integrated. For
- example, consider a future bank credit card service. A card holder who
- disputes an entry in the credit card bill places an ISDN call to the
- bank. At the bank, a customer representative equipped with an ISDN
- terminal answers the call. The bank representative immediately has
- access to the caller's name and records since the ISDN passes the
- customer's originating address. The bank uses this address as a key
- into its customer database. The representative can address the
- customer by name when answering the phone. When the customer explains
- the nature of the problem, the bank representative retrieves the
- previous month's bill, which appears simultaneously on both screens.
- If the statement is in error, the balance can be recomputed before the
- customer's eyes. Integrated services can also facilitate research
- collaboration via multi-media voice, image, and control functions
- between scientists.
-
- Applications which require exchange of only short, infrequent
- messages can use services offered by the D- channel. Applications such
- as burglary alerting, energy control, credit card verification, cable
- TV requests for service, and home shopping can be accomplished using
- the D-channel packet facilities.
-
- Advantages of circuit switching
-
- Although the data rate of 64,000 bps may be too slow for
- bandwidth-intensive applications like real-time high definition
- imaging, ISDN's circuit-switched capabilities do offer several
- advantages to the research community over packet-switched networks
- like Merit, NSFNET or ARPANET. Certain real-time applications which
- require cross-country connectivity can be run over ISDN. Although the
- individual circuits which comprise modern packet networks may be much
- faster than 64,000 bps, the overhead involved in packet switching and
- queueing is far in excess of similar circuit switching functions on an
- established call.
-
- Packet networks try to optimize aggregate performance across
- the entire network. Real-time applications are usually interested not
- in averages but rather in worst cases. If you get a 64,000 bps ISDN
- circuit, you will be guaranteed 64,000 bps service for the duration of
- the connection. Throughput on a packet network might average 150,000
- bps, for example, but might fall below 64,000 bps 10% of the time,
- causing serious problems for a real-time system.
-
- Another advantage ISDN has over packet networks is its
- potential ability to interface to a wide variety of digital laboratory
- equipment. The ISDN B-channel offers clear channel transmission. There
- is no protocol overhead involved in order to exchange information.
- This bit pipe can be used, for example, between detector/collector
- paired devices without the complication and expense of packet protocol
- gateway machines at each end of the connection. ISDN interfaces will
- eventually be readily available in VLSI, which will allow them to work
- with a wide variety of equipment at minimal additional cost.
-
-
- High speed (broadband) ISDN
-
- Many argue that 64,000 bps, based on the transmission capacity
- of the existing telephone system, is too slow to provide a wide
- assortment of integrated services. High-definition television,
- computer-aided design, medical imaging, and high-quality audio all
- require far more bandwidth than available in the current ISDN. An
- evolving standard for broadband ISDN (B-ISDN) may include 150
- Megabit-per-second subscriber lines over fiber optic local loops.
-
- Conclusion
-
- ISDN will extend the capabilities of today's telephone
- networks, thus providing a market for new services. Most introductory
- services will apply service co-existence; services will be described
- as "running over" ISDN. ISDN will do for data networks what the
- Communications Act of 1934 did for voice -- provide a ubiquitous
- method for public transmission. Pioneer users of this technology will
- have both the opportunity and the challenge of helping to shape the
- future of telecommunications. *
-
- (Dory Leifer is a programmer for the Merit Computer Network, located
- in Michigan. This article was originally published in the Merit
- Network News, Vol 3 # 3, October, 1988).
-
- --------------
-
- CERFNET NEWS AVAILABLE IN HARD COPY
-
- Send a request to help@cerf.net if you would like to be added to the
- hard copy distribution of CERFnet News. Postscript versions are also
- available via anonymous ftp to NIC.CERF.NET in the subdirectory
- cerfnet_news.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest Special: ISDN Introduction
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08324;
- 29 Sep 90 22:25 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa28636;
- 29 Sep 90 20:57 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab25976;
- 29 Sep 90 19:54 CDT
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 19:20:51 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #693
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009291920.ab19237@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sat, 29 Sep 90 19:20:42 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 693
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Packetized Voice (was: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines) [Vance Shipley]
- New Caller-ID Variation [Jeff Sicherman]
- ATM Card PIN Security [Lauren Weinstein]
- Direct Dialing From Saudia Arabia [Jeff Sicherman]
- Sprint Billing Screwup [Steve Elias]
- FCC Changes Wiring Rules [Telephony Magazine via Roger Clark Swann]
- COCOT Woes [Marc C. Poulin]
- The End of Sleaze? [AT&T News Briefs via John Higdon]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Vance Shipley <vances@xenitec.on.ca>
- Subject: Packetized Voice (was: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines)
- Reply-To: vances@ltg.UUCP (Vance Shipley)
- Organization: SwitchView - The Linton Technology Group
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 01:10:19 GMT
-
-
- This thread has taken us into a discussion of Voice Packetization.
- One of my favourite subjects in telecom!
-
- As has been noted, virtually ALL voice traffic is carried over circuit
- switched channels with fixed, dedicated, bandwidths. No extra traffic
- capacity is realized when breaks in the conversations take place. By
- packetizing the voice traffic, and using common circuits to route it,
- utilization would be optimized.
-
- I'm sure the Digest will hear many reasons why this is not currently
- done, why it shouldn't be done on public networks etc., but I wish to
- put forward an ideal application for transmission of voice information
- by packet technology.
-
- VOICE MAIL NETWORKING!
-
- Many voice mail systems on the market have networking capabilities;
- Meridian Mail, Octel and others. The way they "network" is by
- allowing users to compose messages locally and then the system batches
- many messages for later transmission. One call is placed to the
- remote system and the messages are played back along with the
- necessary DTMF commands. Now remember that these same voice messages
- were digitized and compressed for storage on the system when they were
- recorded. Now they are uncompressed and turned back into analog for
- transmission and put back on disk at the receiving end! Now this may
- be neccesary in a multi-vendor public network but what about the
- corporate ISDN network?
-
- The way it should work is this; a user calls another user at another
- location and he is forwarded to voice mail. He hears the outgoing
- message of the other user but is connected to the local voice mail
- system, for composition of a message, automatically. The expensive,
- circuit switched, long distance connection is dropped. Once the
- message is digitized, compressed and stored it is ready for
- transmission. A connection is established to the far end voice mail
- system again, but this time it is a packet connection. In the ideal
- situation it is over the D-channel of the TIE lines to this location
- using what would otherwise be unused bandwith (in ISDN PRA the
- D-channel is allocated 64K which is far more than it needs for most
- applications).
-
- This scheme takes advantage of the compression techniques inherent
- in voice mail systems, the lack of a real time delivery need and the
- unused bandwith of existing facilities. Should be a winner don't you
- think?
-
- Any comments?
-
- Vance Shipley SwitchView - The Linton Technology Group
- Waterloo, Ontario (519)746-4460 vances@ltg.on.ca.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 12:13:43 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: New Caller-ID Variation
-
-
- I'm not really opening up the Caller-ID discussion here, just a
- thought for a related service, called maybe CALLER CLASS BLOCKING or
- something.
-
- There ought to be something like a NO SOLICITORS sign for phone
- lines. Telemarketers (which we may define to be businesses, agencies,
- or charities making unsolicited calls that are not part of any
- on-going transaction or relationship with the callee), would have a
- code transmitted with their number that identified the call/caller as
- such. The recipeint could elect to have such calls blocked or perhaps
- Caller-ID equipment could reject/block them directly (e.g. don't
- interrupt me during dinner with this junk). The CO blocking option
- would be like the service now that let's you (try to) get off various
- mailing lists to cut down on junk mail. Failure to use the
- telemarketer signature or identify the lines use as such when
- obtaining it would be cause for termination of service and fines and
- other legal action.
-
- Please no peppering with the technical difficulties. I make no claim
- to the practicality.
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 10:54:49 PDT
- From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
- Subject: ATM Card PIN Security
-
-
- There are two different scenarios for ATM PIN validation. Up until a
- relatively few years ago, most of the systems did all their validation
- within the ATM terminal itself, using the match between the encrypted
- form of the PIN on the card and the user's entry after being run
- through the same algorithm. These were usually four digit PIN
- systems.
-
- While some banks (particularly small ones not connected to external
- banking networks) may still be using this technique, I believe that
- most of the major banks, or most banks associated with the large ATM
- networks (e.g. STAR, etc.) no longer use this technique.
-
- Instead, the encrypted PIN is stored on the card, but is fed along
- with other user data to a regional or central network where the
- validation is performed. This is generally required by the interbank
- networks for a variety of reasons. In addition to PIN encoding, many
- of the ATM to network lines use higher level (e.g. DES) encryption
- these days.
-
- Under this system, when you take your card into a bank for a new PIN,
- they run the card through a machine that writes the encrypted PIN on
- the card, and that same machine calls a central computer and feeds the
- information into the main system. At Wells Fargo you can watch this
- all happen, since it all occurs in realtime while you sit there.
-
- Under systems that used the older "in-ATM" validation, you would find
- that your PIN was accepted as soon as you finished entering it. Under
- the newer systems, the PIN won't be accepted until there has been
- validation from the regional/central system. Since this introduces a
- delay of some seconds in most cases, the instructions on these ATMs
- usually tell you to go ahead and start entering your transaction
- without waiting after you've entered the PIN. They store up the
- additional data and as soon as the PIN verification is complete the
- transaction goes through.
-
- Most of this change was driven by the rise of the interbank ATM
- networks which let you walk up to tens of thousands of ATMs around the
- country and withdraw money from any of them (for an additional fee, of
- course).
-
- --Lauren--
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 01:14:24 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Direct Dialing From Saudia Arabia
-
-
- According to a news article, U.S. forces in Saudia Arabia will be
- able to use USADirect service as of October 3 to call home.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Reply-To: eli@pws.bull.com
- Subject: Sprint Billing Screwup
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 07:40:51 -0400
- From: Steve Elias <eli@pws.bull.com>
-
-
- Every time I move, Sprint seems to do some new random thing to my
- Sprint accounts. Yesterday I got a bill for $100 of Sprint Plus dial
- 1 calls, from a number in upstate New York. I called and convinced
- the service rep that something was indeed wrong when they were billing
- me in Massachusetts for calls made from a 1+ account in the 716 area
- code.
-
- Some time over the last month, an errant customer service rep added
- this 716 number to my account. Supposedly everything is straightened
- out now. I'll believe that when I see my next bill! Just for yuks, I
- called the dude with the 716 number a little while later. He told me
- that Sprint had just called him, too, in order to straighten out the
- billing mess.
-
- The best part of this fiasco was when the customer service rep started
- insisting that I had sent in a $300 payment the previous month. My
- long distance bills are large, but not that large! I told her that if
- they wanted to credit my account with $300, I wouldn't complain. It
- sure would have beat that silly WD-40 promo...
-
-
- eli
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 15:00:32 pdt
- From: Roger Clark Swann <clark@ssc-vax.boeing.com>
- Subject: FCC Changes Wiring Rules
-
-
- From TELEPHONY / AUGUST 20, 1990
-
- New FCC Wiring Rules Take Effect
- Charles Mason, Washington Editor
-
-
- The Federal Communications Commission rejected petitions to delay the
- implementation of new inside wiring rules last week, allowing the
- agency's revisions to take effect on schedule.
-
- Those revisions liberalize how customers may connect inside wiring
- and how far inside a customer's premises a telco may set the point of
- demarcation between its wiring and the subscriber's.
-
- The Bell regional holding companies, the U.S. Telephone Association
- and others had asked for a delay of the rules to work out several
- issues. The petitioners argued that they could not comply with the new
- regulations by the Aug. 13 implementation date and that rule revisions
- could end up harming the network.
-
- In rejecting these arguments, the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau said
- there was no evidence of danger to the network and that there were
- provisions for making a transition to the new rules. Telcos, for
- example, would not have to immediately notify customers of the changes
- but could do so over a period of time as part of their "ongoing
- consumer education efforts," the bureau said.
-
- A major provision of the revised rules requires that the
- demarcation point between the telco side of the wiring and the
- customer's side be no more than 12 inches from where the wiring enters
- the property. The FCC found that the demarcation point sometimes was
- well inside a customer's premises, frustrat- ing consumer's ability to
- efficiently connect inside wiring since they are not allowed to
- connect wiring on the telco side.
-
- However, the FCC order did not end the controversy. Nynex, filed a
- petition asking for further clarification on the 12 inch rule and
- requested that the FCC take a second look at other areas. It is still
- unclear how telcos are supposed to deal with the demarcation issue in
- conplex wiring arrangements, Nynex said.
-
- Also, last week, the FCC approved a New York Telephone tariff for
- discounts on digital data and high-capacity services, rebuffing
- attempts by Metropolitan Fiber Systems and Teleport Communications
- Group to have the proposal rejected. New York Tel plans to offer
- discounted rates for voice-grade and provate-line service. Both MFS
- and Teleport complete with New York Tel to provide access services to
- large customers in New York City.
-
- **** end of article ****
-
- Roger Swann | uucp: uw-beaver!ssc-vax!clark
- @ |
- The Boeing Company |
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Marc C. Poulin" <poulin@acsu.buffalo.edu>
- Subject: COCOT Woes
- Date: 28 Sep 90 23:12:02 GMT
- Organization: University at Buffalo, Biophysics Dept.
-
-
- My very first experience with a COCOT today was indeed an interesting
- one.
-
- I wanted to call my bank, which is an 800 number. I dialed the
- number, waited a bit, and then an operator came on the line and asked
- me for the number I was calling from. No problem, I thought. Wrong.
- There was no number on the phone at all. I told the operator this,
- and she said she couldn't connect me without it, and suggested I dial
- 0.
-
- Instead, I dialed 877-4000, which was the number printed on the phone
- to call for service. The person who answered there told me that she
- didn't have the information available. Fine.
-
- I dialed 0, waited for the operator, explained the situation to him,
- and asked him to give me the number of the phone I was calling from.
- He told me he was "not authorized to give out that information." I
- took a shot in the dark and told him that since there was no possible
- way for me to connect to an 800 number, this phone was in violation of
- state law. I was immediately transferred to a supervisor. I
- explained the situation to him, and he told me that since the phone in
- question didn't have incoming service, they didn't need to post a
- number on it. I asked him how I could reach an 800 number, and he
- didn't give me an answer. After mentioning the illegality of this to
- him, he took my name and number and told me someone from their legal
- department would get back to me.
-
- Other relevant info:
- The phone is owned by Buffalo Coin Phone
- Their carrier is ITI.
- The missing number on the phone was definitely NOT caused by
- vandalism. It was simply blank where the number should be. Later,
- I noticed the same thing on another phone on the premises.
-
- My questions:
- Was my claim that 800 access must be provided true?
- If so, could someone point me to relevant sections of NYS law
- so that I have firmer legal footing.
- How about those Out-of-Order stickers mentioned recently?
- If this isn't resolved, what is my next step?
-
- Thanks very much for any relevant information. It's four hours later,
- and I'm still incensed that I couldn't make my damn call!!!
-
-
- Marc C. Poulin (I speak for myself only)
- U: ...!{uunet!decuac|kddlab|mcnc|ucsd|watmath}!acsu.buffalo.edu!poulin
- I: poulin@{acsu.buffalo.edu|softvax.radc.af.mil} v069hpms@ubvmsc.cc.buffalo.edu
- B: v069hpms@ubvms.bitnet
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: *Usually* the operator does not have to ask your
- number when you call an 800 number ... my assumption is there may have
- been a temporary equipment failure and the equipment failed to capture
- your number. Try the call again from the same phone, and also from
- regular payphones to see. Payphones *are* supposed to have the number
- displayed on them -- this is required by tariff. So you might want to
- invest a couple dollars in a roll of adhesive labels that you can
- write on. Print the message "OUT OF ORDER - PROGRAMMING/TARIFF VIOLATIONS"
- on the stickers and place them on the phone(s) so they cover the coin
- slot and prevent money from being inserted accidentally by someone
- else. Do it to each phone which responds in the same way, and continue
- doing it frequently (the company which owns the COCOTS will no doubt
- tear the sticker off) until the changes required by law are effected. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: The End of Sleaze?
- Date: 28 Sep 90 23:40:21 PDT (Fri)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- AT&T NEWS BRIEFS
- Friday, September 28, 1990
-
- 900 SERVICES -- Sleaze merchants and con artists threaten to turn 900
- number dial-in services into the Times Square of the phone industry
- unless tough national standards are adopted, Congress was told
- Thursday. ... The hearing before the House Energy and Commerce
- subcommittee on telecommunications and finance was held to consider a
- bill by Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., that would impose federal
- restrictions on the phone audiotext industry. Among other things, the
- bill would require free blocking of 900 numbers; free introductory
- messages describing the service; clearly stated charges and billing
- procedures; and a one-time opportunity to stop charges incurred
- through misunderstandings or unauthorized use. The FCC would be given
- oversight of the audiotext industry. Industry representatives opposed
- the bill. ... San Jose Mercury News, 19E.
-
- -------------------------
-
- So the federal agency that has declared that nothing not suitable for
- an eight-year-old child may EVER be aired on broadcast television will
- now police information providing services? This ought to be good. But
- then if IPs put programming on that is attractive to (and suitable
- for) children, then the screams will rise about how IPs are conning
- kids.
-
- I have no argument with the proposed safeguards described above, but
- then the FCC seems to go overboard in its enforcement sometimes (just
- ask any broadcaster). To bad it can't be so aggressive towards COCOTs.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #693
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23536;
- 30 Sep 90 12:31 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa16881;
- 30 Sep 90 11:03 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa15685;
- 30 Sep 90 9:58 CDT
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 9:26:43 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #694
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009300926.ab17573@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 30 Sep 90 09:26:26 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 694
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Is a Foreign Exchange Worth the Cost? [Carl Moore]
- 800 Recording Question [Will Martin]
- AUTOVON Precedence Dialling (was: Re: 16 Buttons -- Not 12?) [Brent Capps]
- My New 1AESS Generic - Some Missing Features [Steve Rhoades]
- Calling Card Questions [Lawrence M. Geary]
- Which Came First? [John Parsons]
- Yellow Pages Revenues [Marc Kwiatkowski]
- ComSystems Long Distance [John L. Shelton]
- Vanity Phone Numbers [Scott Coleman]
- REPOSITORY at Your Organization? Anyone? [M. Hemmat]
- Telecom Library BBS Available [David Leibold]
- NPA/NXX Listings Available [David Leibold]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 11:55:51 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Is a Foreign Exchange Worth the Cost?
-
-
- A former neighbor of my parents (residence is in the Wilmington, Del.
- exchange) had so many calls to/from the Chester/Marcus Hook/Woodlyn
- area in Pa. that they used Holly Oak as a foreign exchange. Holly Oak
- (a nonpostal name in Delaware) is local to those Pa. points, but
- Wilmington is not. You should be welcome to examine the FX rates, but
- there may be quite a large volume of calls required to make it
- worthwhile compared to using normal long-distance.
-
- Along Foulk Road (state route 261 in Delaware & Pennsylvania), there
- is a case where points maybe only 3 miles apart are long distance.
- Just south of Silverside Road in Delaware, you are in 302-478, a
- Wilmington exchange. But just over the Pa. line, you are in 215-485
- Marcus Hook. Then if you keep going north on Pa. 261 to U.S. 322, you
- are in 215-459 Chester Heights, a local call from Wilmington.
-
- (Between 302-478 and the Pa. border on Foulk Road, you are in 302-475
- Holly Oak, which is local to both 215-459 and 215-485.)
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Typically, an FX line only pays off if you keep the
- line loaded at least 12-15 hours per day. You are starting out with a
- charge of several dollars per month which has to be amortized during
- the month by the savings from toll charges to the desired place. At
- rates of only a few cents per call to nearby points, it takes a long
- time to use up the difference. And if all you do is use it up and do
- not actually come out ahead, why have the aggravation of maintaining
- an FX, with all the telco coordination involved, etc. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 12:47:53 CDT
- From: Will Martin <wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil>
- Subject: 800 Recording Question
-
-
- When I call 1-800-726-3914, which is the number listed on the
- literature given out by "Towne & Kountry Markets" (AKA "HJM Marketing"
- of Thornton, CO), a firm that arranged flea markets at various
- locations, including here in St. Louis, and which seems to have gone
- out of business, I get a recording that says this:
-
- "Your call cannot be completed as entered. Please check the number and try
- again or call customer service for assistance. Forty-four one-twenty"
-
- (Note -- the "one-twenty" is in a slightly different voice, and "steps on
- the tail" of the recorded voice that recites the preceeding data.)
-
- What I am somewhat resentful of, and do not understand, is that this
- recording is worded in such a way that it makes the caller the "guilty"
- party, like we are too dumb to hit the right numbers. If the recording
- had said, "The number you have called has been disconnected," or "is no
- longer in service," I would have thought nothing of it. But this
- particular wording sticks in my mind and in my craw. Also, how am I supposed
- to know who they mean by "customer service"? Is that 800-555-1212? If so,
- why doesn't the recording say that?
-
- Does this recording really just mean "the number has been disconnected"?
- Or does the particular wording indicate something else?
-
- I don't know what company has the "726" 800 exchange; there is a list of
- these in the Telecom archives, but not in a separate file (that I could
- determine) [I've asked the Moderator to put those in such a file when he
- could], and I don't know what to search for (more specific than "800")
- to wade thru the megabytes of past traffic to find it. I hope it isn't
- AT&T; I would think they would know better than to use such
- inappropriate phrasing.
-
- Regards, Will
- wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: The file is in the Telecom Archives as 'npa.800' in
- the main directory. It shows who owns which 800 prefix. I tried your
- example just now, and got the same recording except for the switch ID
- on the end: forty-four, five-oh-three. You are correct that the
- suggestion to call 'customer service' is very misleading: Which
- Customer Service? Your carrier? The operator? 555-1212? Today's Dumb
- Award goes to that recording. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 11:57:24 PDT
- From: Brent Capps <kentrox!ktxc5!brent@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: AUTOVON precedence dialling (was: Re: 16 Buttons -- Not 12?)
-
-
- In article <12710@accuvax.nwu.edu>, bill@toto.info.com (Bill Cerny)
- writes:
-
- > If you tire of reaching reorder when dialing
- > '8' for routine AUTOVON, you call the operator and provide the
- > authorization code for the precedence (P, I, F) and destination
- > (CONUS, Overseas), to which she usually replies, "I'm sorry sir, there
- > are no circuits available at this time." :-(
-
- I would be a little suspicious that I was being fed a line if an
- operator at a batphone (a.k.a. attendent console) told me all circuits
- were busy when I placed a call at flash precedence. That's a pretty
- high precedence level, and should preempt anything and everything that
- gets in its way -- trunks, 2W or 4W sets, 3- or 6-port conference
- bridges, you name it. The only thing it won't preempt is another call
- at flash or flash override precedence.
-
- > Apparently, the 4-wire desk sets have been
- > replaced by regular 2500 (or 74xx, or STU III) sets. You select
- > AUTOVON precedence with the trunk code (80 for routine, 81 for
- > priority); provided your station has the class of service mark to
- > access that precedence (otherwise it's back to authorization codes and
- > the operator).
-
- The availability of the precedence code 80, 81, etc, on 2W sets is why
- the 4W sets aren't needed anymore. Remember, 4W sets are trunks --
- therefore, they have to be able to directly generate the extra DTMF
- tones associated with the precedence level. This is why they have to
- have 16 keys, whereas a 2W set doesn't; the CO intercepts the
- precedence code and inserts the precedence digit when dialling on a
- trunk. The only remaining advantage to a 4W set is the comparitively
- long distance that the set can be located from the CO. I don't know
- about AT&T, but the NT SL-100s at Vandeland and Wright Pitiful AFB
- still have a few 4W sets, or did as of 1988.
-
-
- Brent Capps "insert standard disclaimer here"
- Kentrox Ind., Inc. uunet: ...!kentrox!brent
- Portland, OR (503) 643-1681 x325
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 11:06:55 PDT
- From: Steve Rhoades <slr@tybalt.caltech.edu>
- Reply-To: "Steve L. Rhoades" <slr@tybalt.caltech.edu>
- Subject: My New 1AESS Generic - Some Missing Features
-
-
- The good folks at Pacific*Bell have decided to bless me with a new ESS
- generic. I am sorry I don't know the number.
-
- There were several nice bugs (features ?) in the old generic that I'll
- miss.
-
- Most notably:
-
- Let's say you had call-forwarding on your phone (call this phone A).
- So does a friend of yours who happens to be served by the same C.O.
- (Phone B). Let's say your friend had his call-forwarding enabled.
- You REALLY wanted to reach him and you knew he was at home.
-
- In the old generic, Phone A could dial 72# + Phone B and literally
- "break thru" phone B's call forwarding. It wouldn't cancel the
- forward, it would just allow you to break through.
-
- No more. Phone A will forward to phone B which, if forwarding is
- enabled, will forward normally. It should also be noted that I've
- tried this from a line that has a CO based "Home-Centrex" (Premier,
- Commstarr 2, whatever it's called this week.) I've tried using *72
- (to get the forwarding dial tone), *0X (which is used by CommStarr as
- a special prefix, then the last four. This works if Phone B isn't
- forwarding. If Phone B is, I get a re-order.
-
- Also with Commstarr, through a complex series of events, I was able to
- keep adding on calls. i.e. I didn't just have three-way calling, we
- called it N-way. Through adding on calls, I once had 20 people
- conferenced at once.
-
- No more. Now, when trying this, if I dial anything other than a "*",
- I get a re-order.
-
- Some things DIDN'T need fixing.
-
-
- Internet: slr@tybalt.caltech.edu | Voice-mail: (818) 794-6004
- UUCP: ...elroy!tybalt!slr | USmail: Box 1000, Mt. Wilson, Ca. 91023
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 15:28:00 EDT
- From: Lawrence M Geary <lmg@mtqub.att.com>
- Subject: Calling Card Questions
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- I have a few telephone calling card questions:
-
- If a calling card has your full phone number on it, will the number
- automatically change if your areacode changes? I live in the part of
- the 201 area that becomes 908 next year.
-
- Has anyone compared the surcharges and/or rates charged by the
- different types of cards? For example, would it be cheaper to use a NJ
- Bell card or an AT&T Universal card to make a given call? (And does it
- depend on where one is calling?)
-
-
- Larry Geary: 74017.3065@compuserve.com lmg@mtqub.att.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 15:56:21 mdt
- From: John Parsons <johnp@hpgrla.gr.hp.com>
- Subject: Which Came First?
-
-
- When Touch*Tone first came out, I remember my father griping that the
- number pad was arranged differently from that of ten-key adding
- machines, i.e.,
-
- 1 2 3 7 8 9
- 4 5 6 on the phone, vs. 4 5 6 on calculators.
- 7 8 9 1 2 3
- 0 0
-
- Does anyone remember why Bell chose to be different? (I assume ten-key
- adders came first).
-
- How are the number pads arranged on European or Asian phones? The
- last time I was in a telco building (1975), dir assisters looked in
- paper directories and test boards had rotary dials. Do the keyboards
- of today's operator consoles have the same number pads as us mortals
- (7 8 9 on the top), or do they have 1 2 3 on the top row, as on
- phones? Have I reached max_num_of_trivia_questions_per_posting yet? ;-)
-
- Thanks,
-
- John Parsons
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Marc Kwiatkowski <mtxinu!capella.la.locus.com!marc@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Yellow Pages Revenues
- Date: 28 Sep 90 19:41:05 GMT
- Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Inglewood, CA
-
-
- The Donnelly Yellow Pages have run a television ad featuring a young
- corporate goon for some local carrier reporting to his master about
- the ubiquity of the Donnelly yellow pages. The steel-ball
- manipulating master looks pained and grumbles, "We've got a problem."
- My question is, what portion of local-carrier revenues come from
- yellow-page listings? My hunch is that they account for very little,
- and the local carriers couldn't care less if Donnelly or anyone else
- controlled the listing market.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 16:25:04 -0700
- From: "John L. Shelton" <jshelton@ads.com>
- Subject: ComSystems Long Distance
-
-
- These folks claim to have a west-coast-only fiber-optic network, and
- further claim to resell to Sprint, others.
-
- Their rates for California-California calls are remarkably low.
- Anyone have any experience with them? Is their claim credible?
-
-
- John
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: scott <scott@blueeyes.kines.uiuc.edu>
- Subject: Vanity Phone Numbers
- Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 00:41:36 GMT
-
-
- I just read that my local phone company, Illinois Bell, is going to
- start offering "Vanity" Phone Numbers (i.e. numbers that spell words
- which customers will be able to choose themselves) for "only" $38. An
- Illinois Bell rep was quoted as saying that Illinois bell charges
- "only" $38 because they don't want to gouge their customers. Bend
- over, Illinois - up 'til now, you could get a "vanity" number FOR FREE
- (I know, I've requested and been given several over the past four
- years, and they never cost me a penny extra). Now we'll have to pay
- "only" $38...
-
- Incidentally, this comes immediately after Illinois Bell did away with
- our unlimited local calling option here in Central Illinois. :-(
-
-
- Scott Coleman scott@blueeyes.kines.uiuc.edu
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
-
- Wanted: Specs on the control protocol for the Panasonic AG-1960 VCR. If you
- know them or know where I may find them, PLEASE email me! Thanks!!
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Previously, we never paid for a number of choice if
- the number was within our own CO. We always paid if the number of
- choice was outside the CO ... it had to be handled like an FX line. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "M. Hemmat" <HEMMAT@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
- Subject: REPOSITORY at Your Organization? Anyone?
- Date: 29 Sep 90 03:49:30 CDT
- Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
-
-
- I am very much interested to see if any of you have installed or plan
- to install/build a REPOSITORY (data dictionary, encyclopedia) at your
- telecommunications organization, and if so:
-
- - What platforms it is or will be built on?
- (e.g.; Bachman, Brownstone's Data Solution, DBEXCEL,
- Maestro, etc.)
- - Is it a central or distributed repository?
- - What is/are the host computer(s)?
- (e.g.; IBM, DEC, etc.)
- - How useful and reliable it turned out to be?
- - How long have you been using it?
- - What were/are your main concerns/problems?
- - Do you have a migration plan to the IBM's AD/Cycle and Repository
- Manager?
- - and any other comments you may have?
-
- What is a repository? A repository is a way to save, acquire,
- maintain, model, share, query, manage, standardize, verify, compare,
- define, identify, structure, and restructure information about
- information. A repository is a central storage facility, a host-
- workstation communication facility; it is a translator; it is a set of
- standards. A repository is a single point of control for your
- APPLICATION LIFE-CYCLE. It is an amalgam of programs and DASD, of
- hardware and protocols that can run on various platforms and
- communicate with sundry software products from multiple vendors.
- [From Solution Space, An IBM I/S Management Institute publication,
- April, 1990]
-
- Please reply by e-mail, and I'll try to post a summary of replies.
-
- Thanks.
-
- M. Hemmat Hemmat@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (internet) Hemmat@ukanvax (bitnet)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: woody <djcl@contact.uucp>
- Subject: Telecom Library BBS Available
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 23:28:51 EDT
-
-
- The Telecom Library group of publications (Teleconnect,
- Inbound/Outbound) has set up a BBS. This BBS has a small selection of
- files for download, allows uploading of files, press releases,
- information, etc, information about contents of issues of their
- magazines, a section which allows on-line subscription, etc.
-
- The number for Infoboard is (212) 989.4675 for those interested.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: woody <djcl@contact.uucp>
- Subject: NPA/NXX Listings Available
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 90 23:40:28 EDT
-
-
- I just did an update to the exchange listings for New York City 212
- and 718. These will be more accurate than the ones offered earlier.
-
- They are available in two flavours: chart form and line-by-line form.
- The former is similar in format to the Canadian NXX charts on the
- Archives. The latter gives each NXX on a separate line. Distinctions
- are now made by the general municipality (Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn,
- Queens, Staten Island). It can provide a guide as to how the new 917
- NPA will form (that is, the split of 212, giving 917 to Bronx, and
- likely some other NYC services).
-
- Thanks to Patrick Humphrey, there is a chart available for NPA 713
- (Houston TX area). Thanks to another Digest reader, there is also a
- special listing of 214/903 prefixes available (getting ready for the
- 214/903 split).
-
- As for the other NPAs, I do have some listings for each North American
- NPA, but I am in the process of revising these, given that some
- strange data was found in them on occasion. Eventually, the idea is to
- make both a chart and a line-by-line form of each (I have a utility to
- create charts, and a BC Digest reader sent down a C program to do the
- opposite (thanx)).
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #694
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa24580;
- 30 Sep 90 13:35 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa27089;
- 30 Sep 90 12:06 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab16881;
- 30 Sep 90 11:03 CDT
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 10:25:26 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #695
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009301025.ab12502@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 30 Sep 90 10:25:17 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 695
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Sprint Cat Responds to ATT Cat [Steve Elias]
- FAX From ATTmail [J. Philip Miller]
- Summary: USEnet on a PC [John Stanley]
- 950 Brain-Damage [jhultman@bartok.helios.nd.edu]
- Telephone Overload [David O'Heare]
- Discount Plans [John Cowan]
- Phone Tree Hardware [Robert J. Woodhead]
- Clean Telephone Humor! [Dave Levenson]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Reply-To: eli@pws.bull.com
- Subject: Sprint Cat Responds to ATT Cat
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 17:29:00 -0400
- From: Steve Elias <eli@pws.bull.com>
-
-
- [Sprint cat is responding to ATT cat's allegation that Sprint and GTE
- do the same kind of deals as ATT & Western Electric.]
-
- First of all, we were not owned by GTE (US SPRINT that is) we were
- owned by two companies, GTE and Unitel. In case you don't read the
- papers, Unitel bought out most of GTE back in August,1988. They also
- have an option to buy the rest whenever they want (currently, Unitel
- has 80.1%). This buyout occurred pretty much before tariff 12 was
- conceived.
-
- Second, how many people to you know that have GTE PBX's?? They're
- the biggest piece of junk PBX's! Last time I checked, ATT had 26-28%
- of the market, the closest competitors were Northern (who we do try to
- team up with against tariff 12 bids, and NEC, but neither are quite as
- dominant as ATT in the equipment market. GTE doesn't really even get
- an honorable mention. Even so, the fact that they are all DIFFERENT
- COMPANIES counts for a hell of a lot. It's much harder to have a one
- vendor solution when you have more than one company involved. That's
- the point most of the time behind tariff 12.
-
- Third, if it isn't already clear, by the time tariff 12 starting to
- become a threat, GTE was completely divorced from day to day
- operations of US Sprint. It is incredibly difficult to arrange a bulk
- services agreement for one customer that involves two companies, the
- services of which one, will be used to subsidize the price of another.
- In other words, Northern is not going to go into a deal unless they
- can make a reasonable return on investment. GTE equipment isnt even
- in the running so it's not even considered.
-
-
- (forwarded by)
- eli
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "J. Philip Miller" <phil@wubios.wustl.edu>
- Subject: FAX From ATTmail
- Organization: Division of Biostatistics, Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 22:41:19 GMT
-
-
- We finally got our act together and started sending out FAXes via
- ATTmail - they frequently are identical FAXes sent to 10-15 different
- numbers. The bill came the other day and they averaged about $1.75
- each (2-3 pages each).
-
- Now this sure beats paying someone to stand around FAXing to a list of
- numbers, but it got me to wondering about the relationship between the
- mail service and the long distance stuff. Does anyone know the
- details about how the calls are being placed to the receiving FAX
- phones?
-
- 1) Are they all placed via regular LD service from a central place?
-
- 2) Do they pay the same rate for the LD calls as any other, nonAT&T
- business?
-
- 3) If the answer to 2 is yes, are there special rates that would, for
- example, give a discount if they deferred the call if there was high
- demand for curcuits at that time?
-
- 4) If the answer to 2 is no, is this fair to other providers of
- similar services (MCI I guess could do the same thing)?
-
- 5) If the answer to 1 is no it sure opens up some interesting network
- design opportunities, i.e. it takes a lot less time (and therefore
- long distance charges) to send it long haul via the ASCII text, and
- then send the FAX version as a local call.
-
-
- J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067
- Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110
- phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet (314) 362-3617
- uunet!wuarchive!wubios!phil - UUCP (314)362-2693(FAX) C90562JM@WUVMD - bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 29 Sep 90 19:58:03 EDT
- From: John Stanley <73765.1026@compuserve.com>
- Subject: Summary: USEnet on a PC
-
-
- In a recent Digest, I asked for information on USEnet access via PC. I
- have received MANY replies, and some requests to forward what I learn.
- In fact, I received replies BEFORE I had a chance to see the Digest my
- query appeared in.
-
- Many thanks to all who replied. The following is a summary of responses:
-
- 1. The most mentioned product was WAFFLE. WAFFLE is reportedly the
- best, and is available from both SIMTEL and Compu$erve. It consists of
- 9 (nine!) archives, some as small as 700 bytes, located in UNIXFORUM
- Library 13 on CIS. After downloading it, and performing some
- installation, I tried running it. It is very interesting to be
- required to login to one's own PC. It seems that it should do the job,
- but I found several times that it would lock up (with the hard drive
- access light on) the second time it was run between reboots. It is
- also available on SIMTEL as PD2:<MSDOS2.BBS>WAF163.ZIP. It is
- shareware.
-
- 2. UUPC was also mentioned. I have a feeling that there are multiple
- UUPC's, though, as the one described to me does not match the one I
- already have. The one I already have was downloaded from one of the
- IBM fora on CIS. The docs with the archive say it absolutely doesn't
- do news. The docs in the archive say it does, you just have to provide
- your own unbatcher and must use 12 bit compress. The second version is
- available via ftp at clutx.clarkson.edu directory pub/uupc, or
- Clarkson BBS +1 315 268 6667. The files are UUPC08AU.ZIP and
- UUPC08AS.ZIP. Source is available with both versions.
-
- 3. FSUUCP. Available via ftp from polyslo.calpoly.edu as file
- fsuucp11.zip, or by contacting the author at cambler@polyslo.calpoly.
- edu. The shareware reg is $35. I have not yet, but will probably fork
- over the cash for this one. It will be cheaper than the download
- charges.
-
- 4. Carnegie Mellon (CMU) is supposed to have something that will help.
- This lead came from the reseller of the net access, and I haven't
- called them yet. The name and number I have been given are Karen
- Heilman, +1 412 268 5896.
-
- All of the above are shareware, with the exception of CMU which is unknown.
-
- 5. Vortex. The only commercial package I have heard about is UULINK.
- This is $335. The phone number for them is +1 213 455 9300.
-
- I have tried only the UUPC and WAFFLE. I can't say how well either
- works. Unfortunately, I am in a Catch 22. I don't want to fork over
- the money to get a network access until I know I can do what I want.
- But, I won't be able to know I can do what I want until I have an
- access to test the software against. That is why I have waited so
- long to create a summary. I guess I hope a magic hand will reach in
- and straighten this all out (or else I get a job where there is
- already a news feed). Again, thanks to all, and I will let you know
- what I wind up with.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 03:30:32 EST
- From: jhultman@bartok.helios.nd.edu
- Subject: 950 Brain-Damage
-
-
- My CitiBank MasterCard statement came. I had a question for the nice
- people in Customer Service. As it so happens, the only number listed on
- the bill is 950-1492, with the notation "(TOLL FREE)" after it. Calling
- this number gave a "number not in service" recording. I tried 1-415
- before the number and got "number cannot be completed...". I called
- 00 to ask the operator person what was going on. She didn't even know
- what a 950 was!
-
- I called 10288-950-1492 and got a recording telling me that "the
- number cannot be dialed with the long distance carrier code you have
- selected.". I called 10288-0 and told the AT&T operator my story; her
- equipment would not allow 950 dialing! Finally I called 800
- information and found that there was indeed an 800 number for CitiBank
- (which they didn't bother to print anywhere on the bill or its
- enclosed documentation). The customer service rep insisted that their
- 800 number was printed on my MasterCard (it is?) and couldn't
- understand why I was having trouble with the 950.
-
- What's going on here?
-
- I would think it would be (a) easier (b) far more straightforward
- (c) intelligent (d) all of the above for CitiBank to print the 800 number
- on their bills and NOT EVEN BOTHER with the 950. Isn't it more
- difficult to get a 950? Needless to say, I am not impressed, but I
- don't know whether I should blame the telco or CitiBank.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: At one point Citibank thought they could use the
- 950 number as a way to get ANI on all incoming calls to customer
- service. The installation (of 950) was bungled terribly, with a lot of
- telcos not getting it correctly installed; and others refusing to
- install it claiming 950 was only to be used to connect with long
- distance carriers, etc. Citibank finally went with having ANI on the
- 800 number, but the clowns on their staff have never been able to get
- their act together and have the 800 number *actually print out* on all
- the monthly statements. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David O'Heare <dciem!gandalf!oheare@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Radio Station Causes Telephone Overload
- Date: 28 Sep 90 15:13:08 GMT
- Organization: Goodgulf Greyteeth
-
-
- TELECOM Digest readers might be interested in this morning's telephone
- happenings in Ottawa.
-
- One of our local radio stations is running a promotion and giving away
- four cars -- special edition black Mazda Miatas, for those interested.
- Every once in a while the station plays a special "sting", and the
- 106th caller through after it wins (the station is CHEZ, FM 106.1).
- The calls go to a number on a "choke" exchange (613-750).
-
- The sting got played at 7:40 A.M. As a faithful listener and a fan of
- free cars, I try my luck. Pick up the phone, dial, and immediately
- get an odd busy signal - not reorder, but a busy about 30% faster than
- normal. As time passed it took longer and longer (eventually almost
- 30 seconds) to get dialtone when I went off-hook, although I always
- got battery immediately. Strangely, there were a couple of times that
- DTMF tones didn't break dial tone, though pulse dialling always
- worked.
-
- I guess I'm not their only faithful listener :-)
-
- BTW, the fellow who won is a college (read poor) student. I suspect
- he may miss a class or two today.
-
-
- Dave O'Heare oheaer@gandalf.ca +1 613 723 6500
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: John Cowan <cowan@marob.masa.com>
- Subject: Discount Plans
- Organization: ESCC, New York City
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 15:25:34 GMT
-
-
- In article <12640@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- writes:
-
- >If you think about it, why "WATS" or "ProWATS" or "ROA" or any of that
- >stuff? Why not just have a sliding scale where the rate gets cheaper
- >as usage increases? The "special" plans are nothing more than theater
- >to convince the customer that he is getting something "special".
-
- Metromedia ITT does exactly this. There is a volume discount which
- increases in several steps. I don't make enough calls to trigger more
- than the first step of the discount, which is (I think) 5%.
-
- OTOH, Metromedia >still< doesn't seem to deal with supervision
- properly, even though I have them as my 1+ carrier. I go through the
- bill every month and remove ALL calls of 1-2 minutes duration, as I
- always talk longer than that. I also deduct 3% excise tax. To their
- credit, MM/ITT has never had a word to say about this practice, and
- even (back when they were Telesavers, Inc.) actually encouraged it.
-
-
- cowan@marob.masa.com (aka ...!hombre!marob!cowan)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: trebor@biar.UUCP (Robert J Woodhead)
- Subject: Phone Tree Hardware
- Date: 30 Sep 90 00:34:45 GMT
- Organization: Biar Games, Inc.
-
-
- I am looking for some relatively inexpensive hardware to set up a
- phone tree/voice mail system in my house. Basically what I want is a
- board or device that plugs into either a MS-DOS box or a Mac (I seem
- to have a few extras just lying around not earning their keep!) and do
- the following:
-
- * Ring detect & Pickup.
- * Say things to the poor saps who call me.
- * Recognize touchtone.
- * Digitize what they say.
- * Be reasonably programmable.
- * Optional but nice : Handle more than one line at a time.
-
- Needless to say, I'd like to set up a super-answering machine, with
- the ability to let people record messages, store messages for friends
- to call in and get, maybe even put up a simple touchtone game or two
- just for the hell of it.
-
- So, what is available? And how good/bad/ugly is it. Im willing to
- hack at it a bit to get it to do what I want.
-
-
- Robert J Woodhead, Biar Games, Inc. !uunet!biar!trebor trebor@biar.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Clean Telephone Humor!
- Date: 29 Sep 90 18:27:26 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- This happened over twenty years ago. I didn't think it harmed anybody
- then, and I still don't.
-
- I was an undergraduate at Case-Western Reserve University. I had a
- part-time job, as an attendant at the campus PBX, second or third
- shift several nights per week.
-
- The PBX at that time consisted of two rooms of step-by-step switches
- which were used to complete intra-campus calls, and a six-position
- cord board where incoming calls were completed to extentions.
- Outgoing calls from a few privileged people were made by dialing 9 for
- an outgoing trunk. The rest of the campus extension users dialed 0,
- appeared on an attendant trunk on the cord board, and then verbally
- requested an outside line.
-
- A professor who shall herein be called Dr. Smith used to use
- call-forwarding. No, the PBX hardware didn't exactly provide it, but
- when Dr. Smith called the switchboard, he'd ask us to forward his
- calls to extension 2201. We couldn't do anything about directly-
- dialed intra-system calls, but we wrote "2201" on some little white
- plastic caps, and pushed them into the jack on the switchboard where
- his line appeared. Thereafter, when we were about to plug a cord into
- his extention (which was, I think, 2663) we would read the
- hand-written forwarding instructions on the cap that blocked the jack,
- and then plug it into 2201, instead.
-
- Every evening, when he returned to his office, he'd dial 0. When we
- answered, he'd tell us to un-forward his calls. A few minutes later,
- he'd dial 0 again. He'd then request an outside line. A few seconds
- later, an incoming call would arrive. A familiar voice would ask for
- Dr. Smith. We'd find, on trying to connect the call, that his
- extension was busy, and tell the caller. The caller would then hang
- up. As he did so, we'd find an on-hook supervisory lamp on the cord
- circuit used to provide an outside line a few seconds earlier, and
- we'd take down that connection.
-
- Late one night, when I was working alone, Dr. Smith called in and
- requested that we stop forwarding calls from 2663 to 2201. I told him
- I'd 'un-forward' his calls. As I walked down the switchboard, pulling
- the forwarding caps out of each appearance of 2663, an attendant trunk
- call arrived (somebody dialed 0). When I answered it, the caller (who
- sounded a lot like Dr. Smith) requested an outside line. I connected
- the other end of the cord circuit to an outgoing trunk, and closed the
- key that allowed dial-through.
-
- Like clockwork, an incoming call arrived on the main incoming number
- about ten seconds later. I answered the incoming call: "Good evening,
- Case-Western Reserve."
-
- "Dr. Smith's office, please" said the caller -- who also sounded a lot
- like Dr. Smith. I lightly touched the tip of the cord circuit to the
- sleeve of extension 2663, heard the familiar 'tick' that indicates a
- busy extension.
-
- "Dr. Smith's line is busy," I told the caller, "would you like to hold
- until he is free?" (I might have added that it would be a long wait,
- if the caller chose to hold, and a short wait if he chose not to. But
- I didn't.)
-
- "No thanks, I'll try again." replied the caller.
-
- As the caller hung up, I saw the recently-connected outgoing call show
- on-hook, and took it down as well. Then, I plugged a cord into
- extension 2663 and rang once. "Smith" said a voice which answered
- almost immediately.
-
- "Thank you for waiting, Dr. Smith can take your call now," I said.
-
- ----------
-
- I continued working part-time at the PBX for the rest of the semester.
- Many evenings, Dr. Smith would call and have his calls un-forwarded,
- as he always did. But, I don't remember ever again hearing him call
- back to verify that it had been done.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
- Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #695
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa26546;
- 30 Sep 90 15:42 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa25307;
- 30 Sep 90 14:11 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa29669;
- 30 Sep 90 13:07 CDT
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 12:12:02 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #696
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009301212.ab01662@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 30 Sep 90 12:11:49 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 696
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- The 900 Sleaze Keeps Rolling In! [Michael Dorl]
- Thank You For Telling Me So [Matthew McGehrin]
- Correction: DEC is CIT, IBM is Callpath [Vance Shipley]
- Why Did I Reach "215 A Y"? [tygra!cat@sharkey.cc.umich.edu]
- ATT Does Slamming Also [Peter Gross]
- Reminder: Required Changes in Dialing [Carl Moore]
- Working Assets = Lousy Connection (was: Dial-a-Social Change?) [J. Altzman]
- Working Assets = A Contradiction (was: Dial-a-Social Change?) [Lou Judice]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Joel M. Snyder]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Robert E. Stampfli]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Steve Schallehn]
- Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords) [Alain Fontaine]
- Re: ATM Handling of PINS [Mark Brader]
- Last Laugh! Oh, Fie Mars! I Salve Heaven Stooncards! [David Tamkin]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Michael Dorl <dorl@vms.macc.wisc.edu>
- Subject: The 900 Sleaze Keeps Rolling In!
- Date: 30 Sep 90 00:25:24 GMT
- Organization: University of Wisconsin Academic Computing Center
-
-
- I received a letter in the mail today saying I won one of three
- prizes...
-
- $5000 1/300,000 odds
-
- $2500 5/300,000 odds
-
- $1000 discount shopping spree 1/1 odds
-
- A careful reading of the small print shows there's a 1/1 chance of
- winning the last prize which evidentally allows you to buy something
- from their catalog.
-
- The real sleaze in this deal is the $9.00 (3.98 plus 1.97/minute, 2.5
- minute minimum) cost of the 900 number call you must call to claim the
- prize. One can claim the prize my US Mail to avoid making this a
- lottery (illegal in Wisconsin unless run by the state).
-
- I'm curious about the division of the spoils between the perpetrators
- of this sleaze and the phone company. How does the $9.00 get divided
- up between the two LECs and the IXC?
-
- Any of the defenders of the use of 900 service can have my winning
- number for the asking :-).
-
-
- Michael Dorl (608) 262-0466 fax (608) 262-4679
- dorl@vms.macc.wisc.edu MACC / University of Wisconsin - Madison
- dorl@wiscmacc.bitnet 1210 W. Dayton St. / Madison, WI 53706
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Gosh, that's mighty gracious of you, to share your
- discount purchasing power with the rest of us! I so appreciate it I
- think I will answer your question. Between the two LEC's and the IXC,
- they get about a dollar of it, at most. And there may be only one LEC
- involved, since the recipient of your call might have a dish on the
- roof and accept the incoming call direct from the 900 service
- provider. A sales rep from Telesphere once told me (if I wanted a 900
- line) they would charge me fifteen cents per call, and ten cents per
- minute of conversation. Anything above that is profit for the owner of
- the line. Some 900 outfits pay all costs and split with you 50/50 on
- the revenue from callers. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.cts.com (Matthew McGehrin)
- Subject: Thank You For Telling Me So
- Date: 29 Sep 90 10:36:39 GMT
-
-
- I just wanted to post a 'network' message for all those who sent me so
- much mail telling me that I was wrong. It was the highlight of each
- time I logged on here, I averaged four pieces of mail every two days
- telling me I was incorrect. Thanks.
-
- (sarcastic as usual)
-
- Arpa / DDN : pro-graphics!matt_mcgehrin@nosc.mil
- UUCP : crash!pro-graphics!matt_mcgehrin
- Internet : matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.ctc.com
-
- (908) 469-0049, Free Access, 24 hours a day
- 300/1200/2400 baud, 'Pro-Graphics'
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: So you have learned to never underestimate the
- prolific nature of the net, eh? Yes indeed, we have verbosity aplenty
- here ... roughly a six-fold increase in traffic since January. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Vance Shipley <vances@xenitec.on.ca>
- Subject: Correction: DEC is CIT, IBM is Callpath
- Reply-To: vances@xenitec.UUCP (Vance Shipley)
- Organization: SwitchView - The Linton Technology Group
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 18:31:29 GMT
-
-
- In a recent article I attributed the CIT (Computer Integrated
- Telephony) product to IBM. In actual fact DEC sells CIT, IBM markets
- Callpath.
-
- Sorry,
-
- Vance Shipley
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: tygra!cat@sharkey.cc.umich.edu
- Subject: Why Did I Reach "215 A Y"?
- Date: Fri Sep 28 07:24:03 1990
-
-
- Speaking of AC 215, I made a toll free (800) call yesterday from
- Detroit (ac 313) and got the following message:
-
- "Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up and
- try again 215 A Y".
-
- I wasn't calling the 215 area code, I was calling a number in San
- Jose. What gives??
-
- Also - does anyone know what kind of switches Michigan Bell uses
- (1AESS's, 5ESS's, etc).
-
- Thanks.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Peter Gross <pag@hao.ucar.edu>
- Subject: ATT Does Slamming Also
- Date: 29 Sep 90 13:38:52 GMT
- Reply-To: Peter Gross <pag@hao.ucar.edu>
- Organization: High Altitude Observatory/NCAR, Boulder CO
-
-
- With all the recent brouhaha about MCI slamming, I though the net
- might be interested in my experience with ATT slamming. I had chosen
- MCI as my dial 1+ service for their "Call-Canada" plan which was
- substantially better in rates and times of coverage than the ATT
- equivalent. The MCI sales rep told me to call 1-700-555-4141 to check
- when the changeover was made.
-
- Sure enough, in a week or so, my line was switched to MCI. So I told
- my wife she could now start calling all her Canadian relatives and
- friends with abandon. Many calls later ... local phone bill arrives
- (from US West). Long distance bill from ATT. HUGE bill due to
- Canadian calls (I was told by someone that a daytime call to Canada is
- more expensive than Tokyo). I call 1-700-555-4141 and sure enough, we
- had been slammed back to ATT. I would have attributed it to accident
- had we not been inundated with ATT telemarketing calls trying to get
- us to switch back from MCI. So MCI is not the only guilty party in
- this nasty game.
-
- BTW, ATT was very apologetic and cooperative -- they agreed to refund
- based on their "ReachOutWorld" plan (.20/min) on the Canadian calls.
-
-
- peter gross
- pag@scg.boulder.co.us [MX-able]
- ..ncar!scg!pag [uucp]
- pag%scg@ncar.ucar.edu [Internet]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 10:28:25 EDT
- From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil>
- Subject: Reminder: Required Changes in Dialing
-
-
- Based on notes received earlier:
-
- On 9 Sept 1990, 1+512+7D was to be required on toll calls within 512
- area (in Texas), thus making N0X/N1X prefixes available there.
- 214/903 split is coming sometime this fall, elsewhere in Texas.
-
- And on Oct. 1, NPA+7D will be required (1+ optional) for local calls
- in DC area which cross NPA lines (Pentagon is being switched from 202
- to 703, with 202-694 becoming 703-614, and with other Pentagon
- prefixes unchanged except for area code). (202-694 can NOT move to
- 703; 703-694 is already used, at Stuart, Va.)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "Jerry B. Altzman" <jbaltz@cunixe.cc.columbia.edu>
- Subject: Working Assets = Lousy Connections (was: Dial-a-Social Change)
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 14:36:06 GMT
-
-
- In article <12701@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- writes:
-
- >"That's why Working Assets is proud to offer the first long-distance
- >phone service that works for peace, human rights, economic justice and
- >a safer environment -- at no cost to you.
-
- Hurumph. When I was subletting an apartment this summer, my landlady
- switched to Working Assets from AT&T because she wanted a "socially
- responsible" carrier.
-
- In the three months I was in the apartment, I could not make one
- decent LD phone call over their network. I have never had that problem
- when I used just straight Sprint, however.
-
- The funniest part was when she came and told us about the switch,
- claiming she had changed from those "awful, irresponsible bandits" at
- AT&T to the angels at WA (her words in quotes)
-
- Sigh.
-
- DISCLAIMER: This isn't Columbia. This is me. Columbia is them.
-
-
- jerry b. altzman 212 854 8058
- jbaltz@columbia.edu jauus@cuvmb (bitnet)
- NEVIS::jbaltz (HEPNET) ...!rutgers!columbia!jbaltz (bang!)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 08:55:47 PDT
- From: "Lou Judice, 908-562-4103 28-Sep-1990 0938" <judice@sulaco.enet.dec.com>
- Subject: Working Assets = A Contradiction (was: Dial-a-Social Change)
-
-
- >"Working Assets uses the all-new fiber-optic network of US Sprint -- and
- >adds our own unique commitment to the future of our world ...
-
- >"We'll hook you up with no intrusion or interruption. Then, every time
- >you call long distance, you'll help save a species or two."
-
- Hey, I see a contradiction here ... How many groundhogs have lost
- their lives by chewing and swallowing fiber optic cable fragments?
- What about the dangerous disruption of animal migration patterns
- caused by careless ditch escavation along railroad tracks...
-
- Wouldn't troposcatter microwave, or moonbounce, or carrier pigeons
- be an environmentally more sound means of communicating?
-
- ljj
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: At 6:00 AM this morning (Sunday) a squirrel climbed
- the electric pole in the alley behind my home. He got into the
- transformer, short-circuited the power for a couple blocks in either
- direction, and fried his little self in the process. At 6:20 AM, an
- Edison truck pulls up; worker climbs the pole, tosses the carcass to
- the ground below and restarts the power. Another worker uses a
- scoop-shovel to pick up the squirrel, and dumps it unceremoneously
- into the nearest garbage bin after asking 'anyone want fried squirrel
- for breakfast, haha...' The radio in their truck tells of the next
- stop for them: another squirrel, another part of town. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 1990 0:24:51 MDT
- From: JMS@mis.Arizona.EDU
- Subject: RE: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
-
-
- In article <12654@accuvax.nwu.edu>, lotus!rnewman@uunet.uu.net (Ron
- Newman) writes...
-
- >An AT&T Universal card does NOT have a real phone number embossed on
- >it.
-
- Not only that, it CANNOT have a real phone number on it. When I
- applied for the card, I asked if I could have my home phone number on
- it (since my interest in memorizing yet another ten digit number waned
- years ago), and was told "yes." After getting the card, I called in
- (as instructed) to change my "calling card code," and found that I
- could not. The excuse was lame: how will we be able to tell your
- calls apart (duh, how do you tell them apart NOW, jerkos?), but I was
- firmly assured in useless doublespeak that what I wanted was not
- possible. And while I kept the card, my few days of joy at the wonder
- of not having to memorize another calling card number ended RATHER
- abruptly.
-
- Also: someone asked about getting card encoders/decoders. They're
- easy to get; one source for us (here at Arizona) is the company we buy
- our mag-stripe door openers from, Elko in Chicago somewhere. They're
- expensive, about $1000, but if you want one...
-
-
- Joel M Snyder, The Mosaic Group, 627 E Speedway, 85705 Phone: 602.626.8680
- (University of Arizona, Dep't of MIS, Eller Graduate School of Management)
- BITNET: jms@arizmis Internet: jms@mis.arizona.edu SPAN: 47541::uamis::jms
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 00:43:18 EDT
- From: Robert E Stampfli <res@cblpe.att.com>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
-
-
- > (On the other hand, it therefore fell into the category of things
- > that is NOT required to be paid off every month, but instead could
- > be rolled over. However, the entire bill was so small that I paid
- > the whole thing at once anyway.)
-
- Does anyone know a reason why I can't use one of those "checks" I got
- with the card to pay off the phone bill or minimum balance?
-
-
- Rob Stampfli / att.com!stampfli (uucp@work) / kd8wk@w8cqk (packet radio)
- 614-864-9377 / osu-cis.cis.ohio-state.edu!kd8wk!res (uucp@home)
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Using 'one of those checks you got with the card'
- would of course merely roll the balance, not pay it off ... and I
- think if you read the fine print you will see they do not accept those
- "checks" to pay their own bill. Try sending them one in the remittance
- envelope and see what happens. You will probably get a snotty letter
- back and have your account sent to Collections.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Steve Schallehn <steve@matt.ksu.ksu.edu>
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Organization: Kansas State University
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 01:25:25 GMT
-
-
- chk@alias.uucp (C. Harald Koch) writes:
-
- >There is an ANSI standard describing the magnetic stripe on the back
- >of the card. I dont have it in front of me, but from what I remember:
-
- Where would I be able easily find such ANSI standards? I am more
- curious than anything.
-
-
- Steve Schallehn
- Kansas State University
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 14:22:09 +0200
- From: "Alain FONTAINE (Postmaster - NAD)" <af@sei.ucl.ac.be>
- Subject: Re: ATM at Retailers (was: Voice Mail Passwords)
-
-
- A recent Digest article noted:
-
- >One way encryption is very common. You store the encrypted PIN on the
- >card. Then when the user enters his PIN, it is encrypted using the
- >same algorithm. If the two encrypted PINs match, the original PINs
- >were the same.
-
- Homework : with four digits PIN'S, how many milliseconds of Sparc time
- does one need to make an exhaustive search ?
-
-
- AF
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Mark Brader <msb@sq.com>
- Subject: Re: ATM Handling of PINS
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 1990 14:08:07 -0400
-
-
- > ... the bank stores the encrypted PIN and does a straight match. The
- > technique was invented by John Atalla, one of the early Fairchild
- > people. Most of the bank PIN pads I have seen have been made by
- > Atalla Technovations. The chip performs a one-way (e.g. many-to-one)
- > encryption of an arbitrary number of key presses. ...
-
- As noted by someone else, the same techique of storing only the
- encrypted form is used by UNIX for its password file. To clarify the
- above, Atalla's invention was the chip used in ATMs, not the concept
- of storing the encrypted form.
-
- The credit for *that* turns out to go to one of the founders of
- computing -- it first appears in a book from 1966 or so, by Maurice
- Wilkes. Wilkes was the leader of the team that produced the early
- computer -- the first computer, by some people's definition -- called
- the EDSAC.
-
- Thanks to Dennis Ritchie and Marc Kaufman for helping me locate the
- above information.
-
-
- Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Last Laugh! Oh, Fie Mars! I Salve Heaven Stooncards!
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 13:43:55 CDT
- Organization: Pin Droppers Anonymous of Metropolitan Chicago
-
-
- In volume 10, issue 686, il Moderatore commented on my story:
-
- | [Moderator's Gasp: Whew! Readers, did you get all that straight? I'll
- | wait while you go back and read it again. Wouldn't you love to be a
- | CSR for Sprint handling the billing cycle David is in and get into these
- | commotions with him month after month about something or another? PAT]
-
- Getting into commotions with US Sprint CSR'z is more the stuff of the
- story of the death of account #1 (US Sprint account 108640611, sprung
- from hell January 10, 1987, exorcised July 8, 1987). I was giving
- several of them earfuls after every month's bill.
-
- And in all this time since then as a Telecom*USA customer, I've had
- only two problems: (1) concern since the MCI merger that they'll lose
- their autonomy and I'll just have MCI service instead {starting with a
- Grand Slam Breakfast that didn't come from Denny's} and (2) curiosity
- why all their reps have the kinds of first names yuppies give their
- children. (I think they use noms de guerre to avoid duplication of
- first names with other reps and get to choose their own.)
-
-
- Sincerely, Trent -- er no, Jared, no, Lane? Sean! Naah, just keep calling me
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: As a matter of fact, a letter went out from MCI to
- all Telecom*USA customers about two weeks ago announcing the merger
- was complete, but that Telecom*USA would continue to provide the same
- service as before. I will print the entire text of the letter in a
- Digest later on today. And thanks for your clever retort! PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #696
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa26717;
- 30 Sep 90 15:51 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab25307;
- 30 Sep 90 14:13 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab29669;
- 30 Sep 90 13:07 CDT
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 13:00:07 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #697
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009301300.ab23913@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 30 Sep 90 13:00:00 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 697
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Need Help With Plantronics Headset [Julian Macassey]
- Re: Need Help With Plantronics Headset [Dave Levenson]
- Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude [John Higdon]
- Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines [Dave Mc Mahan]
- Automatic Call Forwarding in Australia (was: Sweden) [David E.A. Wilson]
- Re: 215 to Join the N0X/N1X World [David Tamkin]
- Re: A Nice Christmas Gift For a Child [Mark Steiger]
- Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One [Peter da Silva]
- Re: "110" Code (was Re: 976 Numbers) [amb@ai.mit.edu]
- Re: Sprint Wars [Ray Guydosh]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [Tad Cook]
- Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number [Mark Steiger]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Julian Macassey <julian@bongo.uucp>
- Subject: Re: Need Help With Plantronics Headset
- Date: 28 Sep 90 18:19:14 GMT
- Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood California U.S.A.
-
-
- In article <12690@accuvax.nwu.edu>, clark@ssc-vax.boeing.com (Roger
- Clark Swann) writes:
-
- > I need some help with this headset that I found today at the surplus
- > store. It is a Platronics StarSet (R) Supra (TM) with the numbers
- > HS0552-1 on the back of the connector. This is the type that uses an
- > _adapter_ to connect to the phone instrument. The connector is the
- > PJ327 flavor, (two 1/4 inch phone plugs side by side on one end of
- > small box). I looked in the ATT source book and the unit is listed
- > there for $130 and the adapter for hookup to a 1A or single line set
- > an additional $130.
-
- > Question: What is in the adapter box other than an on/off switch and a
- > push switch for flashing the line?
-
- > Followup question: Can I make an adapter to hook this headset into a
- > phone?
-
- > Yes, the little adapter box looks nice, but not a $130 nice.
-
- > I assume that the network interface in the phone set is used just as
- > it is with the regular handset and that the _adapter_ is wired so as
- > to provide hookswitch control and connects the headset in place of the
- > regular handset. If this is true, I should be able to roll my own
- > adapter. The only other thing I need to know is; Which plug on the
- > headset is the mic circuit and which is the earphone circuit?
-
- The Tips of the jack are Transmitter, the Sleeves are Receiver.
-
- The magic box, known in telco speak as a JS-0180 contains an
- amplifier, power feed for the electret mic, flash switch and
- hook-switch. It also contains enough odd leads to enable the device to
- provide A1 lead control (Works with 1A2 phones) and can be wired to
- work with a 4A speaker-phone. But let's be honest, for something made
- by underpaid labour in Mexico, this is a rip off at $95.00
- (Distributor price).
-
- But you need the box with your starset and a regular desk
- phone. Making one would be a hassle. You could possibly Mickey Mouse
- one together, but it would lack many of the facilities of the real
- thing.
-
- Wiring in a jackset is a nightmare at the best of times. There
- is a good instruction book, and only a screwdriver is needed, but it
- is not for the neophyte. If you have never opened a phone before,
- putting in a jackset is not a good place to start. The Manual is good
- and comprehensive, but messing with 16 wires minimum requires patience
- and concentration.
-
- If you want to get a headset going, there is hope. You can
- get a used refurbished one. A company called Comfort
- Telecommunications sells refurbished JS-0180 jacksets and even
- headsets. Here are the details:
-
- Comfort Communications
- Suite 340
- 1417-2 Del Prado Boulevard
- Cape Coral
- Florida 33990
-
- Phone: (813) 945-3224 (813) 472-7065
- FAX: (813) 945-0288
-
- Prices:
-
- Starset 343-1 $39.00
- Starset Classic $39.00
- JS-0180 Jackset $25.00
-
-
- Also Plantronics will "repair", which means send you a new
- one, for good prices. Send them a JS-0180 that has been run over by a
- Mac truck and they will send you a new one for $25.00
-
- You can call Plantronics repair at (800) 544-4660
- For our international readers (408) 426-5868
- TELEX 357-419
-
- If you have questions about which of the many Plantronics
- headsets to use, you can call sales at (800) 544-4660 Sorry no POTS
- number.
-
- Hello Direct sell Plantronics headsets. They are expensive but
- good. But if you are a scrounger, get a "broken" one that someone
- wants to toss and get Plantronics to "repair" it for just a few bucks.
-
- There are other headset makers. The brand names like Unex,
- Danvox etc make good but expensive headsets. It is hard to justify a
- headset that costs more than four times the cost of the phone it is
- attached to. But one experience with a cheapie headset should
- convince you to go with the quality.
-
-
- Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo.info.com ucla-an!denwa!bongo!julian
- N6ARE@K6IYK (Packet Radio) n6are.ampr.org [44.16.0.81] voice (213) 653-4495
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: Need Help With Plantronics Headset
- Date: 29 Sep 90 18:30:55 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12690@accuvax.nwu.edu>, clark@ssc-vax.boeing.com (Roger
- Clark Swann) writes:
-
- [ regarding an operator handset/headset with a dual-jack connector ]
-
- > ... The only other thing I need to know is; Which plug on the
- > headset is the mic circuit and which is the earphone circuit?
-
- The earphone is connected between the two sleeve leads. The
- microphone is connected between the two tip leads. That way, it will
- work, regardless of which way it's plugged in.
-
-
- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com
- Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
- Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
- Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude
- Date: 29 Sep 90 12:12:07 PDT (Sat)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- On Sep 29 at 1:44, Robert Michael Gutierrez writes:
-
- > This I agree on. MCI had problems with so-called "stuck clocks," or
- > billed calls that were extremely excessive (like 600 - 2000 minutes).
-
- MCI also has a problem with excessively small bills. A couple of years
- ago, I opened an MCI secondary account. Not once have I placed a call,
- but the first month the account was opened, one bogus call appeared on
- the bill with a charge of $0.23. I ignored it.
-
- Every month now for two years an MCI bill has appeared with a Past Due
- amount of $0.23 showing. Apparently is too small to trigger any
- collection action but also there is no sanity check to drop it. MCI
- has spent many dollars in postage now reminding me of that 23 cent
- amount.
-
- I do enjoy reading the bill inserts, however.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Mc Mahan <claris!netcom!mcmahan@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
- Subject: Re: Data Lines vs. Voice Lines
- Date: 29 Sep 90 20:08:46 GMT
- Organization: Dave McMahan @ NetCom Services
-
-
- In a previous article, Ken Abrams <pallas!kabra437@uunet.uu.net>
- writes:
-
- >In article <12490@accuvax.nwu.edu> stox@balr.com (Ken Stox) writes:
-
- >> 2) Once digitized at the C.O., the digital data from your
- >>phone call is blocked into packets of data which are routed through
- >>the phone network.
-
- >This has been explained in some detail in earlier posts but I think a
- >quick recap is in order. While what Mr. Stox says might be true (to
- >some degree) sometime in the not too distant future, it is NOT true
- >today. As far as I know, there are no telco owned switches in service
- >today that use packet switching for voice. At the present time, a
- >path through a digital switch used for voice grade communications is
- >not pre-emptable. Time division multiplexing is NOT the same as
- >packet switching. A voice grade call gets a "full time" channel
- >regardless of what is transported, voice, data or even silence.
-
- There is a company in Campbell, CA called StrataCom that I believe
- makes a packet switched voice network that is meant to run over a T1
- line. I think they have had a product available for several years,
- but I'm not sure if any telco offices own it. They use all the
- standard tricks of not sending silence and re-generating a small
- amount of white noise for a listener so that he is pschycologically
- fooled into believing that he has a 100% connection. I think they are
- also offering products that let users insert data channels as well as
- voice into the T1 backbone.
-
- My phone book lists them as :
-
- Stratacom
- 3175 S. Winchester Bl.
- Campbell, CA
- 95130 (I think this is the right zip code, but am not sure)
- (408) 370-2333
-
- dave
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David E A Wilson <munnari!cs.uow.edu.au!david@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Automatic Call Forwarding in Australia (was: Sweden)
- Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Wollongong University
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 01:04:43 GMT
-
-
- dan@sics.se (Dan Sahlin) writes:
-
- >In Sweden the call forwarding facility is available at all modern
- >(AXE) exchanges. They are rapidly replacing the old exchanges, so it
- >seems that most cities now have this service.
- >The service is available automatically for everybody, without asking
- >the telephone company for anything. There is no charge for invoking
- >call forwarding. The only thing you pay is the cost of the call from
- >your telephone number at to the phone number that you are forwarding
- >to. The caller will not pay for this, but rather the subscriber who
- >has call forwarding.
-
- >What is the pricing for these services in other countries? Are the
- >same codes used for invoking the service?
-
- Interesting. Here in Australia we also use AXE exchanges and can get
- Easycall as an extra cost option. It costs A$4.25 per month
- for the first 3 features and A$0.53 per month for each additional
- feature. The features we can get are as follows:
-
- Enable Disable Use
- Last Number Redial 0#
- Call Diversion *21nnnnnn# #21#
- Call Diversion (Busy) *24nnnnnn# #24#
- Call Control *33PCCC# #33PCCC#
- Call Waiting *43# #43#
- Abbreviated Dialing *51ADCnnnnnn# #51ADC# ADC#
- Delayed Hotline *53nnnnnn# #53#
- Call Diversion (No Ans) *61nnnnnn# #61#
- Third Party Enq/Conf Flash nnnnnn Flash 1 Flash 2 swaps
- Flash 3 conferences
- ADC = Abbreviated Dialling Code
- PCCC = Personal Call Control Code - can block LD or international calls
-
- Call diversion costs nothing to use (if you have paid for the feature)
- but is limited to numbers in the same exchange. Abbreviated Dialling
- costs more if you want more memories (8 included in base charge, 20
- +17c/week up to 60 +40c/week).
-
- Are any other codes/features in use in Sweden?
-
-
- David Wilson Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: David Tamkin <dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com>
- Subject: Re: 215 to Join the N0X/N1X World
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 90 21:33:43 CDT
-
-
- Carl Moore wrote in volume 10, issue 691:
-
- | Local calls WITHIN 215 are and will remain seven digits. Local calls
- | from 215 to outside of 215 are 1+NPA+7D and will stay that way.
- | (Someone -- was it JSol? -- sent me a note about trying a local call
- | from Pa. to Del. leaving off the 1+ and just using 302+7D in, this
- | case, the 215-255 exchange at Kemblesville, Chester County; won't this
- | have to be "cleaned up"? and the 1+ required?)
-
- As long as 3-0-2 is never used as a prefix anywhere in area code 215,
- it can work. Generally it's a bad idea to open a prefix that matches
- a neighboring area code, since it gets confusing when people tell you
- their telephone numbers orally (or advertise them on radio); when one
- listens to a telephone number and it begins with the local area code
- or one nearby, one shouldn't wonder whether there are seven or four
- more digits to come.
-
-
- David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591
- MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com (Mark Steiger)
- Subject: Re: A Nice Christmas Gift For A Child
- Date: 28 Sep 90 11:36:05 GMT
-
-
- Thanks for the support Ben. :)
-
- Maybe Pat is looking for those kind of people in the future? ;)
-
-
- [Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo 218/262-3142 300/1200/2400 baud]
- ProLine.:penguin@gnh-igloo America Online: Goalie5
- UUCP....:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin MCI Mail......: MSteiger
- Internet:penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com ARPA:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin@nosc.mil
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: Yeah, maybe I am. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
- Subject: Re: AT&T Universal Card is Not Two Cards in One
- Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
- Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 14:25:39 GMT
-
-
- In article <12594@accuvax.nwu.edu> matt_mcgehrin@pro-graphics.cts.com
- (Matthew McGehrin) writes:
-
- > if you use the 'card' to charge purchases, your 'phone number
- > with four-digit code', along with the 'ATT Credit card number' goes on
- > the same slip...
-
- I don't know about you, but my AT&T card doesn't have a phone number
- on it. And they couldn't put two mag stripes (to address another
- message) because there's imprinting where the second stripe would have
- to go on all credit cards (bad design decision, I'd say).
-
-
- Peter da Silva
- +1 713 274 5180
- peter@ferranti.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: amb@ai.mit.edu
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 12:07:34 -0400
- Subject: Re: "110" Code (was Re: 976 Numbers)
-
-
- Another reason for not using "110" that I'm suprised no one has
- brought up in the last burst of replies: in most modern switches that
- I've used, dialing "11" is the functional equivalent of dialing "*".
-
- (PS: Yet Another Reason the Universal Card PIN is not on the card --
- you can have it changed with a phone call.)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 16:00 EST
- From: Ray Guydosh <GUYDOSRM@snyplava.bitnet>
- Subject: Re: Sprint Wars
-
-
- In Vol 10, Issue 682, Carol Springs writes:
-
- >Perhaps someone with more hard facts can post about the discounts and
- >about how Sprint's Intrastate and Interstate Sprint Select plans work
- >together ...
-
- I must have missed something somewhere. How is this new "Sprint
- Select" different from the old "Sprint Plus".
-
-
- Ray Guydosh
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook)
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
- Date: 28 Sep 90 19:14:06 GMT
-
-
- In article <12597@accuvax.nwu.edu>, amb@ai.mit.edu (Andrew Boardman)
- writes:
-
- > The easiest, at least in NYNEX and Atlantic Bell land, is to call the
- > operator and ask "what number is this?" I've never had the request
- > refused.
-
- I have tried this a few times with US West, and they NEVER give me the
- number.
-
- However, they are quite cooperative when asked to ring back the line
- to test ringers.
-
-
- Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089
- MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW
- USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com (Mark Steiger)
- Subject: Re: Finding Your Own Phone Number
- Date: 29 Sep 90 11:21:22 GMT
-
-
- I know of a number to find your number. It works in most USWest
- sites. If not, you'll get a funny recording.
-
- Only use this in US West areas. I don't know what will happen if used
- elsewhere. ( I'm not responsible if you start WWIII or something :))
-
- 41311
-
- Dial it, then the infamous female voice will come on and say your
- number. Sometimes it does ring a couple of times first.
-
- Let me know how it works for you.
-
-
- [ Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo 218/262-3142 300/1200/2400 baud]
- ProLine.:penguin@gnh-igloo America Online: Goalie5
- UUCP....:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin MCI Mail......: MSteiger
- Internet:penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com ARPA:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin@nosc.mil
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: US West is quite exceptional if it keeps this
- number on a long term basis (like more than another month). Most
- telcos seem to change the number a lot, and they tend to be in the
- range of 200-xxx-xxxx. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #697
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27924;
- 30 Sep 90 16:59 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa22556;
- 30 Sep 90 15:17 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ac25307;
- 30 Sep 90 14:13 CDT
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 14:06:06 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #698
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009301406.ab08770@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 30 Sep 90 14:05:28 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 698
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- COCOT-in-Violation Label File [Dave Platt]
- COCOT-in-Violation Label File - Additional Comments, Help [Tom Perrine]
- Re: A Search For COCOT Tariffs [Dave Levenson]
- Re: MCI as Slamming King [Robert J. Woodhead]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 09:58:40 PDT
- From: dplatt@coherent.com
- Subject: COCOT-in-Violation Label File
- Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA
-
-
- Here's the current version of my COCOT-in-violation label file. It
- was originally created on a Macintosh, using HyperCard and the "Print
- reports" command. I then ran it through Glenn Reid's "Distillery"
- program, to remove all of the Macintosh-specific PostScript constructs
- and convert it into standard PostScript. The positioning and spacing
- of the labels have been hand-tuned a bit.
-
- The resulting PostScript program should be compatible with any Adobe
- PostScript printer that can print on U.S. letter-sized paper. It'll
- produce a single page of output, which can be copied onto label stock
- (10 labels per page ... Avery 5352 or equivalent).
-
- You may wish to edit the text of the labels ... in particular, if you're
- located outside of California, you may want to change the phrase
- "California PUC" to something else ("FCC", perhaps)?
-
- Happy stickering, all!
-
-
- Dave Platt VOICE: (415) 493-8805
- UUCP: ...!{ames,apple,uunet}!coherent!dplatt DOMAIN: dplatt@coherent.com
- INTERNET: coherent!dplatt@ames.arpa, ...@uunet.uu.net
- USNAIL: Coherent Thought Inc. 3350 West Bayshore #205 Palo Alto CA 94303
-
- [Moderator's Note: Dave sent this to me compressed and uuencoded. I've
- undone all that, and present it here in straight ASCII text. However,
- errors will occur, so if you can't get this to work right, you should
- consult Dave at the address he gives above. PAT]
-
- -------- begin code here --------
-
- %!PS-Adobe-2.1 debug version ((V 1.0d release 11 edit 4))
- %%Title: %stdout
- %%Creator: Glenn Reid and still.ps (V 1.0d release 11 edit 4)
- %%Pages: 1
- %%DocumentFonts: Helvetica
- %%DocumentProcSets: Adobe_distill 0.112
- %%EndComments
- %%BeginProcSet: Adobe_distill 0.112 0
- /PROLOGUE 30 40 add dict def
- % 30 procedure entries + room for 40 cached font dictionaries
- PROLOGUE begin
- /clip { } def % causes problems. remove if "clip" is needed
- /bdef { bind def } bind def /ldef { load def } bdef
- /T { moveto show } bdef /A { moveto ashow } bdef
- /W { moveto widthshow } bdef /AW { moveto awidthshow } bdef
- /f /fill ldef /R { { rlineto } repeat } bdef
- /r /rlineto ldef /L { { lineto } repeat } bdef
- /m /moveto ldef /l { moveto lineto stroke } bdef
- /x { 0 rlineto } bdef /y { 0 exch rlineto } bdef
- /X { moveto 0 rlineto stroke } bdef
- /Y { moveto 0 exch rlineto stroke } bdef
- /c /curveto ldef /cp /closepath ldef
- /s /stroke ldef /w /setlinewidth ldef
- /g /setgray ldef /j /setlinejoin ldef
- /d /setdash ldef /F /setfont ldef
- /C /setcmykcolor where { /setcmykcolor get }{ %ifelse
- { %def
- 1 sub 3 { 3 index add neg dup 0 lt { pop 0 } if 3 1 roll } repeat
- setrgbcolor
- } bind
- } ifelse def
- /selectfont where { pop }{ %ifelse
- /selectfont { exch findfont exch scalefont setfont } bdef
- } ifelse
- /MF { exch findfont exch makefont setfont } bdef
- /FF /selectfont ldef
- /DF { selectfont currentfont def } bdef
- /BEGINPAGE { pop /pagesave save def } bdef
- /ENDPAGE { pop pagesave restore showpage } def
- /REMAP { %def
- FontDirectory 2 index known { pop pop pop } { %ifelse
- findfont dup length dict begin
- { 1 index /FID ne {def}{pop pop} ifelse } forall
- exch dup length 0 gt { /Encoding exch def }{ pop } ifelse
- currentdict end definefont pop
- } ifelse
- } bdef
- /RECODE { %def
- 3 -1 roll 1 index findfont /Encoding get 256 array copy exch
- 0 exch { %forall
- dup type/nametype eq
- { 3 {2 index} repeat put pop 1 add }{ exch pop }ifelse
- } forall pop 3 1 roll REMAP
- } bdef
- end %PROLOGUE
- %%EndProcSet: Adobe_distill 0.112 0
- %%EndProlog
- %%BeginSetup
- PROLOGUE begin
-
- %%EndSetup
- %%Page: 1 1
- %%PageFonts: Helvetica
- 1 BEGINPAGE
- 18 -36 translate
- /F1 /Helvetica 9 DF
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 19.48 752.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned ) 19.48 743.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 19.48 734.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 19.48 725.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 19.48 716.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 19.48 707.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 19.48 698.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 19.48 689.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 19.48 680.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 19.48 671.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 19.48 662.56 T
- F1 F
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 309.48 752.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned) 309.48 743.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 309.48 734.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 309.48 725.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 309.48 716.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 309.48 707.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 309.48 698.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 309.48 689.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 309.48 680.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 309.48 671.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 309.48 662.56 T
- F1 F
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 19.48 606.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned ) 19.48 597.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 19.48 588.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 19.48 579.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 19.48 570.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 19.48 561.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 19.48 552.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 19.48 543.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 19.48 534.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 19.48 525.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 19.48 516.56 T
- F1 F
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 309.48 606.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned) 309.48 597.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 309.48 588.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 309.48 579.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 309.48 570.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 309.48 561.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 309.48 552.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 309.48 543.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 309.48 534.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 309.48 525.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 309.48 516.56 T
- F1 F
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 19.48 460.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned ) 19.48 451.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 19.48 442.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 19.48 433.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 19.48 424.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 19.48 415.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 19.48 406.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 19.48 397.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 19.48 388.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 19.48 379.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 19.48 370.56 T
- F1 F
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 309.48 460.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned) 309.48 451.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 309.48 442.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 309.48 433.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 309.48 424.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 309.48 415.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 309.48 406.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 309.48 397.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 309.48 388.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 309.48 379.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 309.48 370.56 T
- F1 F
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 19.48 314.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned ) 19.48 305.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 19.48 296.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 19.48 287.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 19.48 278.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 19.48 269.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 19.48 260.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 19.48 251.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 19.48 242.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 19.48 233.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 19.48 224.56 T
- F1 F
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 309.48 314.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned) 309.48 305.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 309.48 296.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 309.48 287.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 309.48 278.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 309.48 269.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 309.48 260.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 309.48 251.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 309.48 242.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 309.48 233.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 309.48 224.56 T
- F1 F
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 19.48 167.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned ) 19.48 158.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 19.48 149.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 19.48 140.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 19.48 131.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 19.48 122.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 19.48 113.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 19.48 104.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 19.48 95.5601 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 19.48 86.5601 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 19.48 77.5601 T
- F1 F
- (OUT OF ORDER. This telephone's programming violates ) 309.48 167.56 T
- F1 F
- (California PUC rules and regulations concerning customer-owned) 309.48 158.56 T
- F1 F
- (coin-operated telephones \(COCOTs\)) 309.48 149.56 T
- F1 F
- ( ) 309.48 140.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Charges more than $.20 for a local call) 309.48 131.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to alternate long-distance carriers \(10xxx\)) 309.48 122.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to toll-free numbers \(1-800-xxx-xxxx\)) 309.48 113.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to 950-xxxx numbers, or charges for call) 309.48 104.56 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to information \(411\), or charges for call) 309.48 95.5601 T
- F1 F
- (O Blocks access to repair service, or charges for call) 309.48 86.5601 T
- F1 F
- (O Rates not posted) 309.48 77.5601 T
- /showpage {} def
- 1 ENDPAGE
- %%Trailer
- end %PROLOGUE
- %%EOF
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 11:43:15 PDT
- From: Tom Perrine <snoopy!tots.Logicon.COM!tep@ucsd.edu>
- Subject: COCOT-in-Violation Label File - Comments and Help
-
-
- Dave,
-
- Thanks for the "violation stickers". I have successfully printed it on
- our Sun 3, using SunOS 3.5 and Transcript. However, this did require
- some farbling, which may be required for other Transcript users, so I
- am CC'ing the Digest...
-
- If you are using SunOS and Transcript to print the labels, you may
- encounter a situation where the file is spooled, but vanishes from the
- queue without ever being printed. If this happens, there are two
- things to try:
-
- 1. Edit the COCOT-labels.ps file and change the postscript
- version from 2.1 to 1.0, e.g the line should look like this:
-
- %!PS-Adobe-1.0 debug version ((V 1.0d release 11 edit 4))
-
- 2. If that doesn't solve the problem, then just cat the file
- to the serial line where the lazer printer is installed.
- I used "cat COCOT-labels.ps > /dev/lw", your printer name
- may vary. Look in the /etc/printcap file and find the
- printer description for your lazer printer. There will be a
- string "lp=", whatever follows the "=" is your printer. If
- there is no "lp=", but there is a "rm=", then the name
- follwing the "rm=" is the host on your network where the
- printer is attached. Rlogin and do the "cat" there.
-
- Good Luck and happy stickering!
-
- Tom Perrine (tep) |Internet: tep@tots.Logicon.COM
- Logicon |UUCP: nosc!hamachi!tots!tep
- Tactical and Training Systems Division |-or- sun!suntan!tots!tep
- San Diego CA |GENIE: T.PERRINE
- |+1 619 455 1330
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: 'COCOT-labels.ps' is the file I got after I first
- did 'uudecode' against what Dave sent me, then uncompressed that file,
- of the same name with 'z' on the end. If Dave can't help you with
- this, then Mr. Perrine might be willing to help.
-
- Remember, there is no law against marking any mechanical,
- coin-operated device out of order if in fact it is malfunctioning; and
- it is courteous and thoughtful to do so, preventing the next person
- from possibly losing their money in the device. Your 'out of order'
- label should cover the coin slot, making the deposit of money
- impossible without first reading the warning notice. The use of very
- sticky labels will prevent vandals from ripping down your notice prior
- to the owner of the phone having a chance to fix it so it complies
- with federal requirements, the law in your state and hopefully, common
- courtesy as well. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com>
- Subject: Re: A Search For COCOT Tariffs
- Date: 29 Sep 90 17:58:51 GMT
- Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
-
-
- In article <12682@accuvax.nwu.edu>, roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy
- Smith) writes:
-
- > CCMI/McGraw Hill (anybody know what CCMI stands for?)
- > 50 South Franklyn Turnpike
- > Ramsey, NJ 07446
-
- CCMI stands for Center for Communications Management, Inc. They are a
- publisher, and were acquired by McGraw Hill a few years ago. They are
- in the business of maintaining an up-to-date database of all telephony
- tariffs, throughout the country. They publish them on paper, on
- diskette, and probably in other ways, including a dial-in on-line
- service.
-
- The last time I looked, however, their service is not free. You pay
- for their services. Their telephone number is (201) 825 3311.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Robert J Woodhead <biar!trebor@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: MCI as Slamming King
- Date: 29 Sep 90 10:58:52 GMT
- Organization: Biar Games, Inc.
-
-
- dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) writes:
-
- [concerning slamming]
-
- >In every slamming complaint posted to this Digest that named the
- >obeying telco, said compliant local utility was a Bell company.
- >No one has yet, as far as I've noticed, submitted "my independent
- >telco let a long distance carrier slam me" nor "my Bell telco
- >stymied a slamming attempt on me."
-
- Is it just paranoid moi, or do other people notice that since the
- slamming company is the one who gets the bad PR, not the local
- utility, and since we all know who the BOC's don't particulary love
- Sprint, MCI, et al, it follows that the BOC's have no incentive to
- check before they allow a slam?
-
- Nahhh! Silly me! ;^)
-
-
- Robert J Woodhead, Biar Games, Inc. !uunet!biar!trebor trebor@biar.UUCP
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #698
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa06297;
- 1 Oct 90 0:49 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa11958;
- 30 Sep 90 23:21 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa18766;
- 30 Sep 90 22:18 CDT
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 21:47:58 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #699
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009302147.ab23899@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 30 Sep 90 21:47:48 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 699
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Re: Which Came First? [Frederick Roeber]
- Re: Which Came First? [David Lemson]
- Re: Which Came First? [Sandy Kyrish]
- Re: My New 1AESS Generic - Some Missing Features [John Higdon]
- Re: My New 1AESS Generic - Some Missing Features [Vance Shipley]
- Re: 800 Recording Question [Bill Huttig]
- Re: Speaker Phones and the Courts [John G. DeArmond]
- Re: 950 Brain-Damage [Steve Forrette]
- Re: Is a Foreign Exchange Worth the Cost? [Roger Fajman]
- Re: CuD Survey [Chip Rosenthal]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: "Roeber, Frederick" <roeber@portia.caltech.edu>
- Subject: Re: Which Came First?
- Reply-To: roeber@caltech.edu
- Organization: California Institute of Technology; on loan to CERN
- Date: 30 Sep 90 09:07:34
-
-
- In article <12785@accuvax.nwu.edu>, johnp@hpgrla.gr.hp.com (John
- Parsons) writes...
-
- >How are the number pads arranged on European or Asian phones? ...
-
- The pushbutton phones I've seen in France had keypads arranged the
- same way as American phones. The pushbutton phones here at CERN
- (obtained from the Swiss PTT) also have the same keypad, with a couple
- of additions for the usual extra PBX services: an `R' to the left of
- the `7' and a red dot to the left of the `*'.
-
-
- Frederick G. M. Roeber | e-mail: roeber@caltech.edu or roeber@vxcern.cern.ch
- r-mail: CERN/SL-CO, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland | telephone: +41 22 767 5373
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 15:01:35 CDT
- From: David Lemson <FREE0612@uiucvmd>
- Subject: Re: Which Came First?
-
-
- In a message of Fri, 28 Sep 90 , John Parsons <johnp@hpgrla.gr.hp.com>
- writes:
-
- >How are the number pads arranged on European or Asian phones?
-
- The ones I've seen have been just like ours, but I haven't seen
- Eastern Europe, etc. In the older areas (and many countries), you're
- more likely to see rotary dial phones. Some countries don't handle
- Touch-Tone (tm), so the only pushbutton phones you see are actually
- pulse. The country I'm thinking about here is Israel, but this
- situation is changing (slowly).
-
- >The last time I was in a telco building (1975), dir assisters
- >looked in paper directories and test boards had rotary dials. Do the
- >keyboards of today's operator consoles have the same number pads as
- >us mortals (7 8 9 on the top), or do they have 1 2 3 on the top row,
- >as on phones?
-
- The only telco building I've seen recently was this year in an
- AT&T Office in Washington, D.C. that handled operator assistance for
- NPAs 202 and 703. The setup they had there was the newest equipment
- AT&T has, according the guy that showed us around. There was no large
- board with lighted buttons, the equipment consisted of a large (approx
- 100 key) keyboard, paper white monochrome screen, and earpiece/
- microphone. When a call came in, the operator would see the person's
- number and the number they were trying to reach (if they dialed
- 0+NPA+NXX+XXXX). If it was a collect call, the operator typed in the
- caller's name, and hit one button as the call was placed by the
- computer.
-
- The operator asked if they would accept the charges, and one more
- button connected the two. Also, on the keyboards, they could make it
- so that the caller could not hear the callee, the caller could hear
- but not talk to the callee, or make it a full connection. Many of the
- calls involved one keypress to connect, five to ten seconds of talking
- to the caller, and one keypress to disconnect from the operator. The
- operators seemed to like this setup better than the old boards with so
- much work. However, this also seems to make the setup a little more
- Big Brotherish, as the AT&T corporate people can instantly see how
- productive any certain operator is. In this room with the operators,
- they had several large LED message annunciators that put up messages
- like "Good job Jeannie!" I suppose the negative messages were saved
- for review time with the supervisors. In response to your question,
- in this setup, if the operator has to enter a number, it gets entered
- just as you might enter it on your computer's number keypad, with the
- 789 across the top.
-
- Incidentally, in that same building, they had the last cord-board
- setup still in use by AT&T. It's the national TTY (service for the
- deaf) directory assistance center. Each operator has a cord board
- with several incoming and outgoing lines, a PC, and a Baudot modem.
- The accounting for these calls is all done by hand -- they figure that
- the operator has so much time available waiting for slow typists that
- they can fill out cards for each call. And in this setup, when a
- typical caller asked for the relay station in Wherever, Pennsylvania,
- the operator got out the phone book and looked it up. (No
- computerized DA here!)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 16:10 EST
- From: Sandy Kyrish <0003209613@mcimail.com>
- Subject: Re: Which Came First?
-
-
- Regarding why touch-tone pads put the "1" on the top left while adding
- machines put the "7" on the top left ... In 1983, I was doing
- historical research and I read that the early Touch-Tone pads WERE
- configured like adding machine pads -- but the early electronic
- switching systems couldn't handle rapid entry of DTMF, and people
- proficient with adding machines could literally "outdo" the switch.
- Bell engineers flipped the keypad to slow these people down. If this
- is indeed true, will some loyal TC reader please tell me where I found
- that reference? I've often wanted to quote this vignette but can
- never remember just where I read it.
-
- Thanks,
-
- Sandy Kyrish, MCI Mail 320-9613
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Organization: Green Hills and Cows
- Reply-To: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
- Subject: Re: My New 1AESS Generic - Some Missing Features
- Date: 30 Sep 90 13:03:51 PDT (Sun)
- From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com>
-
-
- Steve Rhoades <slr@tybalt.caltech.edu> writes:
-
- > The good folks at Pacific*Bell have decided to bless me with a new ESS
- > generic. I am sorry I don't know the number.
-
- > There were several nice bugs (features ?) in the old generic that I'll
- > miss.
-
- But what you'll get in return is CLASS features, eventually. The new
- generic that supports all of the whizzo/whoopie features that you hear
- about everywhere else in the country is being phased in to all of
- Pac*Bell's switches. Most of the Bay Area switches were upgraded over
- a year ago.
-
- It goes without saying that those "features" that you enjoyed so much
- were, in reality, bugs that were corrected in the natural course of
- software upgrade. Be thankful that you can still receive call waiting
- while on a three-way call and add a third party before
- supervision -- things that some digital switches are incapable of.
-
-
- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
- john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Vance Shipley <vances@xenitec.on.ca>
- Subject: Re: My New 1AESS Generic - Some Missing Features
- Reply-To: vances@ltg.UUCP (Vance Shipley)
- Organization: SwitchView - The Linton Technology Group
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 17:03:41 GMT
-
-
- In article <12783@accuvax.nwu.edu> "Steve L. Rhoades" <slr@tybalt.
- caltech.edu> writes:
-
- >There were several nice bugs (features ?) in the old generic that I'll
- >miss.
-
- >In the old generic, Phone A could dial 72# + Phone B and literally
- >"break thru" phone B's call forwarding. It wouldn't cancel the
- >forward, it would just allow you to break through.
-
- >Also with Commstarr, through a complex series of events, I was able to
- >keep adding on calls. i.e. I didn't just have three-way calling, we
- >called it N-way. Through adding on calls, I once had 20 people
- >conferenced at once.
-
- Are these really changes made to the code or class of service changes
- made during the course of the cutover (or some other such changes)?
- Anyone?
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: I have to make a decision this month whether to
- keep Starline or drop it in favor of CLASS features. Chicago-Rogers
- Park CO gets CLASS starting October 15; but none of the CLASS features
- will work with centrex here. So, do I want call screening and
- auto-return-call, or do I want to keep my group pickup, hold and
- intercom. Maybe new software will be installed which allows me to keep
- it all! Decisions, decisions! PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Bill Huttig <la063249@zach.fit.edu>
- Subject: Re: 800 Recording Question
- Date: 30 Sep 90 16:31:42 GMT
- Reply-to: Bill Huttig <la063249@zach..fit.edu>
- Organization: Florida Institute of Technology, ACS, Melbourne, FL
-
-
- In article <12781@accuvax.nwu.edu> wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will
- Martin) writes:
-
- >When I call 1-800-726-3914, which is the number listed on the
-
- >"Your call cannot be completed as entered. Please check the number and try
- >again or call customer service for assistance. Forty-four one-twenty"
-
- That is a US Sprint recording the number is the location of their
- switch. It more than likely means that the number is disconnected.
-
- They should include the customer service number like MCI does. (But it
- is US Sprint ;-)
-
-
- Bill
- la063249@zach.fit.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: "John G. DeArmond" <rsiatl!jgd@gatech.edu>
- Subject: Re: Speaker Phones and the Courts
- Date: 30 Sep 90 18:47:47 GMT
- Reply-To: "John G. DeArmond" <rsiatl!jgd@gatech.edu>
- Organization: Radiation Systems, Inc. (a thinktank, motorcycle, car
- and gun works facility)
-
-
- In article <12692@accuvax.nwu.edu> Jeff Dalton <esl!bambam!jsd@ames.
- arc.nasa.gov> writes:
-
- >I'm guessing that a tape recording of a phone conversation cannot be
- >used as evidence in court unless both parties are aware they're
- >being recorded. But what if one end of the conversation is on a
- >speaker phone with witnesses listening. I would guess that the
- >witness could testify about the content of the conversation and the
- >person on the other end of the phone wouldn't have to know someone
- >else is listening.
-
- >Does anyone know anything about this?
-
- Yes I do. *Caution* Your mileage may vary widely by state. My
- experience is based on the laws of Tennessee and GA.
-
- I have used tape recordings of my own phone calls in court. According
- to FCC rules, only one party to the conversation (that's me) now must
- to be aware of the recording. In other words, third party wiretapping
- is still illegal but it is not illegal to record your own
- conversations.
-
- The recordings may be introduced as evidence but only under strictly
- controlled conditions. The recordings must have been made available
- for discovery in the pre-trial proceedings. It is advisable to have
- written transcripts made of the important parts. The recordings can
- only be used as rebuttal evidence. It is considered heresay (?!?) as
- direct evidence. In other words, you CANNOT use a recording to prove
- something was said. You CAN use it to prove that the person who said
- it is now lying about what he said.
-
- Tapes are subject to all the usual rules of evidence. The other side
- will do all in its power to discredit the tapes. It is highly
- advisable to set up a recording system with this in mind - a lawyer's
- adivice is highly recommended. One of the big things you'll need to
- do is to be able to prove the authenticity of the tapes and to prove
- the time and dates of the recordings. What I did was after the call
- was finished and with the tape still rolling, I'd dial the local time
- and temp. number and get a time stamp or for really important calls,
- I'd call the National Observatory number in DC. The DTMF would be
- recorded and the charge would show up on the phone bill.
-
- In summary, yes one can make very effective use of phone recordings
- but some legal advice and planning is necessary. I'd imagine that an
- ad-hoc recording of a conversation that started to get hot probably
- would not withstand the challenge to its authenticity. And I'll
- repeat again, get good legal advice in your state. I've heard that
- some states have tried to restrict your right to record. It is my and
- my attorney's opinion that federal preemption would apply but none of
- us likely has enough money to prove the point.
-
-
- John De Armond, WD4OQC Radiation Systems, Inc.
- Atlanta, Ga {emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 13:27:05 -0700
- From: Steve Forrette <forrette@cory.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Re: 950 Brain-Damage
- Organization: University of California, Berkeley
-
-
- >[Moderator's Note: At one point Citibank thought they could use the
- >950 number as a way to get ANI on all incoming calls to customer
- >service. The installation (of 950) was bungled terribly, with a lot of
- >telcos not getting it correctly installed; and others refusing to
- >install it claiming 950 was only to be used to connect with long
- >distance carriers, etc. Citibank finally went with having ANI on the
- >800 number, but the clowns on their staff have never been able to get
- >their act together and have the 800 number *actually print out* on all
- >the monthly statements. PAT]
-
- I guess it depends on where you live. My statements always have the
- 950 number listed, and it works! I call it, and seconds later the
- Citibank automated system answers.
-
- Last year, I lived in a location that was far away from my mailing
- address, and the 950 number didn't work from there. I spoke to
- Customer Service about this, and learned the following:
-
- 1. 950 access is only available from certain areas.
-
- 2. If you area has it, the 950 number is listed on your bill. Otherwise, the
- 800 number is listed.
-
- 3. "Your area" is determined by your ZIP code, not your phone number. So,
- if your mailing address is in 950 land but you are not, then you're on
- your own.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Roger Fajman <RAF@cu.nih.gov>
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 14:45:48 EDT
- Subject: Re: Is a Foreign Exchange Worth the Cost?
-
-
- > [Moderator's Note: Typically, an FX line only pays off if you keep the
- > line loaded at least 12-15 hours per day.
-
- Not so in my case. When we moved to our current house a couple of
- years ago, I checked on FX rates. Washington, DC, has a large local
- calling area that includes portions of Maryland and Northern Virginia.
- We live in Maryland, just outside the Metro Calling Area, as it is
- refered to. We can call DC and certain areas of Maryland as a local
- call, but not Northern Virginia. I was told by C&P Telephone customer
- service that we could get a Layhill number, instead of an Ashton
- number, for about $18 additional per month.
-
- The break even point for that is about three hours per month of calls
- to Northern Virginia. I didn't opt for the Layhill number, as we
- don't call Northern Virginia that much and most of the calls we do
- make there are reimbursed by someone else who wouldn't pay for the
- additional monthly charge. I haven't checked the costs more recently.
-
-
- [Moderator's Note: I guess the break even point would be a function of
- how much the line costs to begin with, i.e. how far it is extended to
- reach you. Years ago we had here in Chicago an FX from Manhattan, NY;
- that is, going off hook on it produced dial tone, etc from New York
- City. It was about $700 a month for the FX ... yet supposedly paid for
- itself because for twelve hours a night it was transmitting data to
- some office in New York. During the day, office staff used it to place
- local calls to New York instead of using the WATS lines. PAT]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Chip Rosenthal <chip@chinacat.unicom.com>
- Subject: Re: CuD Survey
- Date: 29 Sep 90 03:30:03 GMT
- Organization: Unicom Systems Development, Austin, TX
-
-
- In article <12697@accuvax.nwu.edu> KRAUSER@snysyrv1.bitnet writes:
-
- >The survey should take less than three minutes to complete, and can be
- >sent via reply or returned to either:
-
- > TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET or KRAUSER@SNYSYRV1.BITNET
- > Thank you for your time and cooperation.
- >
- >[Moderator's Note: Please DO NOT return these to me!! Thanks. PAT]
-
- For those who have trouble navigating BITROT addresses, the address:
-
- cud@chinacat.unicom.com
-
- forwards to TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET, the submissions address for CuD. Feel
- free to return surveys through the chinacat address if that's any
- easier.
-
-
- Chip Rosenthal <chip@chinacat.Unicom.COM>
- Unicom Systems Development, 512-482-8260
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #699
- ******************************
- Received: from hub.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07464;
- 1 Oct 90 1:51 EDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id aa00944;
- 1 Oct 90 0:23 CDT
- Received: from mailinglists.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id ab11958;
- 30 Sep 90 23:21 CDT
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 22:32:06 CDT
- From: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu>
- [To]: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Subject: TELECOM Digest V10 #700
- BCC:
- Message-ID: <9009302232.ab05487@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
-
-
- TELECOM Digest Sun, 30 Sep 90 22:31:40 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 700
-
- Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson
-
- Telco Mishandled Lobby Expenses [American-Statesman via Bob Izenberg]
- Proposed 10% Federal Tax on "Electronic Equipment" [Lauren Weinstein]
- Call Quality to and From Japan [Scott Trent]
- Question About "Point of Demarcation" [David G. Cantor]
- Question About Ring Current [Larry Krone]
- Question About 950 Numbers [Jeff Sicherman]
- Re: COCOT Woes [Gary Segal]
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- From: Bob Izenberg <bei%dogface@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Telco Mishandled Lobby Expenses
- Date: 30 Sep 90 18:23:02 GMT
-
-
- From the September 30, 1990 edition of the Austin, TX {American-Statesman}:
-
- Phone Company Mishandled Lobby Expenses
- By Seth Kantor
- American-Statesman Washington Staff
-
- WASHINGTON - Southwestern Bell Corp. improperly charged millions
- of dollars in Washinton lobbying expenses to long-distance carriers
- operating in Texas, according to documents filed with the Federal
- Communications Commission.
-
- "Lobbying money has been thrown all over the place by
- Southwestern Bell," and the long-distance companies got stuck with the
- bills, said Roy Morris, deputy general counsel of Allnet
- Communications Services Inc., a Michigan-based long-distance carrier.
-
- The long-distance carriers, in turn, may have passed the charges
- on to their customers - although Southwestern Bell said individuals
- would have ended up paying only a fraction of a penny each.
-
- Bell officials acknowledge that they improperly charged $4
- million in lobbying expenses to Allnet, AT&T, Sprint, MCI and more
- than 44 other long-distance companies. The money helped pay for
- expensive drinks, dinners and entertainment events that a platform of
- lobbyists have lavished on members of Congress and their aides, Morris
- said.
-
- The improper charges were the result of $19 million in accounting
- errors committed by Southwestern Bell from 1985 to 1989, the company
- said.
-
- But Morris said the admitted errors are "just the tip of the
- iceberg," and that Southwestern Bell may have widespread bookkeeping
- problems.
-
- The accounting errors have awakened interest in Bell's lobbying
- activities, have raised questions about the FCC's performance as the
- industry watchdog and appear likely to prompt closer scrutiny of the
- regional phone company the next time it comes before Texas utility
- regulators.
-
- Discovery of the bookkepping errors was triggered by a complaint
- Allnet filed in early 1990 with the FCC against Southwestern Bell.
-
- The five-state regional phone company subsequently told the FCC
- that "we had inadvertently misaccounted for (our) Washington, D.C.,
- lobbying expenses," according to Joseph E. Cosgrove Jr., a lawyer at
- Southwestern Bell's corporate headquarters in St. Louis.
-
- Cosgrove estimated that his company spent $10.9 million on
- lobbying efforts in Washington between 1985 and 1989, including the $4
- million in improper charges to the long-distance carriers. The
- company's lobbying expenditures were incorrectly integrated into other
- categories on Southwestern Bell's books, Cosgrove explained.
-
- "I certainly hope our investigators look into this," said Jo
- Campbell, a member of the Texas Public Utility Commission, which
- regulates phone service in Texas.
-
- "Lobbying charges that are flowed through to long-distance access
- ratepayers are improper," Campbell said. "They should be fully borne
- by the shareholders. My hope is that the FCC examines this very
- closely."
-
- "The FCC has already failed to do its job," said Brian Moir, a
- Washington communications lawyer who represents a coalition of
- business telephone customers. "The FCC hasn't spent one millisecond's
- worth of energy on examining lobbying activities of the phone
- companies since 1984."
-
- That was the year of the landmark federal court consent decree
- that broke up AT&T's "Ma Bell" communications monopoly and created the
- seven so-called "Baby Bells" - the regional phone systems such as
- Southwestern Bell.
-
- Even though long-distance carriers were improperly charged for
- Bell's lobbying, Robert Digneo, a Southwestern Bell spokesman in
- Austin, said local billing rates for residential and business
- customers in Texas have not been affected.
-
- Texans placing calls within Texas were not hit with any extra
- charges because of the accounting errors, Digneo said.
-
- "If anything was affected, it would have been via the
- (customer's) interstate long-distance rates," DIgneo said. "But for
- basic local phone service, this is a different ballpark."
-
- Digneo said a customer in Central Texas placing a call to some
- other state might have had to pay "something like .0001 of a penny
- extra" because of the fouled-up bookkeeping transactions.
-
- "It would have been a very tiny slice of one cent," said Digneo.
-
- But Allnet's Morris said Southwestern Bell's admission that it
- made a $19 million mistake is just the beginning. "There's a lot more
- money than that involved, facts will show."
-
- Allnet's case against Southwestern Bell is still in the discovery
- stage at the FCC. No final resolution is expected until next year.
-
- In the meantime, the case has sparked interest in the
- concentration of Southwestern Bell's lobbying activities in Congress.
-
- Records show that Southwestern Bell has a team of eight
- registered lobbyists promoting special-interest legislation on Capitol
- Hill - six of them based in the company's downtown Washington office.
-
- An outside Washington consulting firm - Bayless and Boland, which
- is well connected with the Bush administration - and Washington
- attorney Mitchell Pettit are also registered as Southwestern Bell
- lobbyists.
-
- Pettit, whose contract with the phone company expires today,
- reported that Southwestern Bell paid him $24,000 plus expenses between
- April 1 and June 30 for lobbying activities that he did not detail.
-
- Two other lobbyists on Southwestern Bell's corporate payroll
- share the same title. Both William H. Shute and M. Camille Barnes are
- listed as director of federal relations for the company.
-
- Shute said he is primarily concerned with issues that come before
- the House Judiciary and the Energy and Commerce committees, while
- Bares is involved in budgetary affairs and tax matters that come
- before the House Ways and Means Committee.
-
- Bares and Shute reported spending $5,748.95 in the first half of
- 1990 on wining and dining members of COngress and congressional aides.
-
- Among Shute's listed lobbying expenses were a $162.50 dinner tab
- on April 15 ar Restaurant Nora's, an expensive French hideaway in
- Washington, and $419.25 for tickets on April 21 to a Paul McCartney
- concert.
-
- In mid-May, Shute reported spending $421.95 in Fort Worth to
- treat a Texas congressman to the annual professional golf tournament
- at Colonial Country Club.
-
- Shute, a University of Texas graduate, refused to identify the
- Texas congressman and did not want to be interviewed on the record for
- this article. But he indicated that as a Washington lobbyist, he
- frequently discusses legislative business with congressional staff
- members at restaurants away from Capitol Hill, "because they have so
- little time for such discussions during the crush of business hours."
-
- Records show that Shute and other Southwestern Bell lobbyists
- like to treat their congressional guests to the posh, members-only
- Tournament Players Club at Avenel, in a neighborhood of million-
- dollar-plus homes near the nation's capital.
-
- Southwestern Bell has been active this year in various political
- arenas. In Texas, for instance, the telephone company denied state
- se. Hugh Parmer, the Democratic challenger to Republican U.S. Sen.
- Phil Gramm, a 900 number that would allow callers to make political
- contributions to Parmer.
-
- But the phone company reversed its stand under Public Utility
- Commission pressure when Parmer proved that the Republican National
- Committee had been granted a 900 fund-raising number in Texas.
-
- Parmer spokesman Mike Kelly said this week that "at best, it
- showed that Southwestern Bell's Washington lobbying activity,
- according to official records, concerns Southwestern Bell's efforts
- strong interest in legislation that would allow the Baby Bells to
- become involved in three communications areas forbidden to them by the
- antitrust consent decree of 1984.
-
- Under that judgment, the Baby Bells are not allowed to originate
- information databases, manufacture telephone equipment or conduct
- long-distance operations.
-
- Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., has sponsored a bill that would
- allow Southwestern Bell and the other six regional companies to plunge
- into the manufacturing business.
-
- The bill is controversial within the Texas congressional delegation.
-
- Sen. Lloyd Bentsen is a strong supporter of the bill, but a
- fellow Democrat, Rep. John Bryant of Dallas, is strongly against it.
-
- "It no longer makes sense to bar the regional Bell companies from
- manufacturing telephone equipment," Bentsen told the Austin American-
- Statesman. "Not when America has a telecommunications trade deficit of
- some $2.6 billion, not when giant foreign firms - many heavily
- subsidized by their governments - can sell their equipment here."
-
- Bryant, a member of the House telecommunications panel, argues
- that such legislation "serves no public purpose."
-
- He said he would be for it "only if each of the regional Bells
- guarantees they would manufacture the equipment in this country. But
- in hearings before our panel so far, officials of every Bell company
- have admitted they would manufacture the equipment overseas under
- their name.
-
- "That's not creating jobs to benefit American labor," Bryant
- said. That's creating jobs to further compete with America.
-
- [ end of article ]
-
-
- Bob Izenberg (512) 346 7019 [ ] cs.utexas.edu!{kvue,balkan}!dogface!bei
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 13:39:26 PDT
- From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
- Subject: Proposed 10% Federal Tax on "Electronic Equipment"
-
-
- Greetings. On Sunday, September 30, agreement was reached by the
- federal budget negotiators on a proposed new budget, including a
- variety of program cuts and new/increased taxes. Ignoring the other
- taxes for the moment (e.g. increases in gasoline tax, energy tax,
- social security taxes, etc.) there is one brand new tax in the
- agreement that might be of particular importance to readers of this
- forum. This is a new "luxury" tax of 10%. Details are sketchy, but
- it apparently is proposed that this tax will apply on items such as
- "luxury cars", furs, jewelry, and *electronic equipment*.
-
- As this message is written, it is unclear what that latter category
- would include. Would it include telecommunications and computer
- equipment, or "only" televisions, VCR's, stereos, etc. above a certain
- selling price? Would it apply only to individuals, or to business use
- of such equipment as well? Would this tax simply be added on to
- existing state and local taxes at the consumer level?
-
- It might be worthwhile for everyone who is involved in the purchase of
- "electronic equipment" to carefully track the details of this
- significant new proposed tax as they come forth, and make their
- opinions known to their House/Senate members (opinions phoned in *do*
- get counted by their offices). At this stage, the budget agreement
- has not yet been approved by Congress, and while the leadership will
- no doubt wish to have the entire package accepted in one piece, it is
- not necessarily the case that changes won't be made. It is important
- that our representatives be informed about the feelings of the
- technical community concerning these specific proposals.
-
- --Lauren--
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 13:56:28 -0500
- From: trent%garfield.cs.wisc.edu@cs.wisc.edu
- Subject: Call Quality to and From Japan
-
-
- Here is a brief summary of my experiences line quality to/from Japan.
- When I was in Japan this past year calls placed through ITJ (0041)
- were crystal clear with very little delay (obviously fiber optic).
- Calls placed through KDD (001) had the characteristic "satellite
- bounce" delay along with a much lower signal/noise ratio (ie it was
- noisy). I'm told that (0061)'s line quality is also good, but rarely
- used it.
-
- As far as calling TO Japan goes, I tried to transfer a file via modem
- over normal Sprint lines over a year ago and was unable to. The line
- was simple too noisy. However, I tried it again this week (Sprint
- again), and had no problem at all.
-
- Does anyone know which long distance calling companies offer fiber
- optic lines to Japan from the U.S.? When I've asked Sprint operators,
- I've received a number of different answers. "No, sir. There is no
- such thing as a fiber optic line to Japan". "Yes, sir. 100 % of our
- lines are fiber optic", etc etc.
-
-
- scott trent
- trent@garfield.cs.wisc.edu
- s_trent@hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: Question About "Point of Demarcation"
- Reply-To: dgc@math.ucla.edu
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 11:26:52 -0700
- From: "David G. Cantor" <dgc@math.ucla.edu>
-
-
- In TELECOM Digest, V10, No. 693, Roger Clark refers to new FCC
- regulations concerning inside wirng rules and, in particular, refers
- to "the point of demarcation" between the telco's wiring and the
- subscriber's wiring.
-
- Does the FCC require that there be such a point of demarcation? I
- live in GTE country and neither I, nor my neighbors, have such a
- point. Does this point (which I assume is a modular jack and plug)
- have to be accessible without entering the subscriber's premises, or
- at least without passing through a locked gate or door?
-
-
- David G. Cantor
- Department of Mathematics
- University of California at Los Angeles
- Internet: dgc@math.ucla.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Larry <swatty!larry@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Question About Ring Current
- Date: 30 Sep 90 16:09:06 GMT
- Organization: swatty
-
-
- I have a question regarding ring current generation....
-
- Is there a gizmo on the market that will generate ring current for an
- electronic key system? In this application, I have line current
- working already, but I need to send ring.
-
- Any ideas???
-
- Email replies to: uunet!swatty!larry
-
- Thanks,
-
- Larry Krone
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 90 18:53:56 PDT
- From: JAJZ801@calstate.bitnet
- Subject: Question About 950 Numbers
-
-
- Please excuse my ignorance, but could someone explain all this about
- 950-prefix numbers. I don't want to restart long dead discussions, so
- reference to threads in the archives would be sufficient. I just don't
- want to have to ftp all that stuff to find it. (Is there a KWIC index
- for it yet ?)
-
- I've read the glossary and similar files from the archives but there
- seems to be a combination of references to things that sound like 800
- numbers, 10xxx access, COCOT blocking, etc. so I'm not exactly clear
- on what it is/does.
-
-
- Jeff Sicherman
- jajz801@calstate.bitnet
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Gary Segal <motcid!segal@uunet.uu.net>
- Subject: Re: COCOT Woes
- Date: 30 Sep 90 22:20:23 GMT
- Organization: Motorola INC., Cellular Infrastructure Division
-
-
- I had an amusing experiance recently:
-
- I paged one of my co-workers who was at a seminar at a nearby hotel.
- When he called me back, it was from a COCOT. After he had kept
- dumping money in it, I asked if he wanted me to call back. He gave me
- the number, and told me that he would pick up the phone in about 30
- seconds. I dialed, and the phone answered with a synthised voice that
- said something like "I'm sorry, this is not a billable number". After
- the message repeated three or four times, it went away and my
- co-worker was on the line. (What is even more intereseting is that
- when I called the number today, the voice said "Thank you" followed by
- some beeps.)
-
- He laughed, because he had heard the same message. Before he picked
- up the reciever, he heard a very brief chirp from the ringer. After
- the message finished, we were able to carry out our conversation
- without interuption.
-
- So, if you are on a COCOT, you *may* be able to accept incoming calls,
- if you pick up the reciever when you think you should, and the correct
- number is printed on the phone.
-
-
- Gary Segal ...!uunet!motcid!segal +1-708-632-2354
- Motorola INC., 1501 W. Shure Drive, Arlington Heights IL, 60004
- The opinions expressed above are those of the author, and do not consititue
- the opinions of Motorola INC.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of TELECOM Digest V10 #700
- ******************************
-