Telecom/1996-04-telecom-walnutcreek.iso/back.issues/1990.volume.10/vol10.iss901-908

Text File | 1990-12-31 | 133KB | 3,283 lines

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Date:     Sun, 23 Dec 90 10:28:45 CST
From:     TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
[To]:     [e-mail]
Subject:  TELECOM Digest V10 #901
BCC:
Message-ID:  <[e-mail]>


TELECOM Digest     Sun, 23 Dec 90 10:28:22 CST    Volume 10 : Issue 901

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Vacation Time: Stop Sending Messages Now [TELECOM Moderator]
    Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter' [Scott D. Green]
    Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter' [George L. Sicherman]
    Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter' [Carl Moore]
    Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter' [Peter da Silva]
    What's The Deal With '1-313' ? [John Palmer]
    Re: Last Four Digits of Phone is '0000' [Paul Schleck]
    Re: Distinctive Ringing [John Higdon]
    Re: Information Needed on AT&T Select Saver Plan [Gil Kloepfer Jr.]
    Re: Collect Call from AT&T to: AT&T Employees [Mike Wescott]
    Re: How Does One Access a Hearing-Impaired TTY [Peter da Silva]
    Re: COCOT's on the Corner [John Stanley]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 1:52:22 CST
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Vacation Time: Stop Sending Messages Now


Beginning at this time, the Digest will be winding down for about a
week while I take a few days of needed rest and relaxation as the year
comes to an end.

The Digests you will receive from now through Christmas are made up of
articles currently in the queue waiting for distribution. When those
have been printed, I'll be off line for a few days.

**  PLEASE DO NOT SEND MESSAGES TO COMP.DCOM.TELECOM / TELECOM DIGEST
UNTIL THE START OF THE NEW YEAR. **

Messages received between Christmas and New Year's will be carefully
screened and if they say something newsworthy and important will
be held for the start of the new year. If not then I'll return them
unused.

Let's have all fresh topics to start the new year. No further 'Re'
messages on existing subjects after this weekend please.


Patrick Townson

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 20 Dec 90 12:54 EDT
From: "Scott D. Green" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter'


It's true.  I believe I reported it to the Digest when the story first
broke several months ago.  The issue, of course, is using
NPA-appearing prefixes.  If one uses 1+N0/1X-xxxx the switch needs to
time-out to realize it's not getting another three digits (and an
inter-NPA call), right?  So, the 1+ will only be used for inter-NPA;
anything within 215 (local or long-distance) will be seven digits
only.  I assume that to place 0+ calls within 215 will require
0+215+xxx-xxxx for a similar reason.


scott

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 17:47:07 EST
From: George L Sicherman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter'
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (bill)
writes:

> I've heard of ADDING a "1" to dialing in order to create more NXX
> possibilities, but ELIMINATING it to create more numbers?  How can
> this be?

It's obvious enough if you think it through.  Probably BoP wants to
use N0Ns and N1Ns as exchanges.  With the change, you will be able to
dial:

    1-202-234-5678 to reach the Znosko-Cola plant in Newark;
    202-2345 to reach Elfonzo's Used Ingots in East Allentown.

This simply doesn't work if they let you dial 1 first to reach
Elfonzo's Used Ingots.  Our esteemed Moderator's afterword has it
backwards:

                              [... I guess what she was trying to say
was that '1' would be required henceforth in order that area codes
could be used as prefixes. ... --PAT]


Col. G. L. Sicherman     [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 12:08:53 EST
From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter'


Replying to Steve Schallehn <[e-mail]>:

The instructions vary if you make a local call which crosses an area
code boundary.  You wrote about the Kansas City area.  In the
Washington DC area, prefixes had to be unique for the entire area;
when prefixes started running short in that area, they were
generalized from NNX to NXX, and when they ran short again, the local
calling instructions were changed to require the area code (without
leading 1) for a local call crossing an area code boundary.  Also,
Kansas and Missouri each have more than one area code.  1 + 7D there
should only work within your own area code (in Kansas City, the area
codes are 816 and 913).

Replying to David Cornutt <[e-mail]>:

The leading 1's meaning "what follows is an area code" makes N0X/N1X
numbers (not NNX numbers, which were already available) useable as
exchange numbers; in other words, the exchange numbers generalized
from NNX to NXX.  Yes (from other sources in this Digest), area codes
of the form N0X/N1X are projected to run out circa 1995, and then area
codes will have to generalize to NXX.

Replying to Lyle A. McGeoch <[e-mail]>:

The calling instructions you cite for northern New Jersey (201 and
908) were also put into effect in 609; a message to me on this matter
cited statewide uniformity, and there later appeared a special case
where local service from Barnegat (609 area) includes two N0X prefixes
in Toms River (201, to become 908), with local calls from 609 area to
other areas still being seven digits, at least then.

Replying to Michael Scott Baldwin <[e-mail]>:

No, in New Jersey you did not force 1 for long distance calls.  You
forced 1 in front of an area code (we're not talking about 0+ calls).
Long distance within your own area code in New Jersey is just 7D, not
affected by the use of N0X/N1X prefixes.

------------------------------

From: peter da silva <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter'
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 14:32:36 GMT


The logical solution would be simply to make all calls within the area
code local. The price structure is pretty much arbitrary, and they
sure could afford it: I don't know of any phone companies losing
money...


Peter da Silva   [phone]   [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (CAT-TALK Maint. Account)
Subject: What's the Deal With "1-313"?
Organization: CAT-TALK Conferencing System, Detroit, MI
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 90 21:12:18 GMT


For about six months now, Michigan Bell has been enclosing a little
sheet with the phone bills entitled "Now's the time to start dialing
1-313", indicating their plans to require people to dial 1-313 for
toll calls instead of just "1".

Well, our local CO (DTRMINICGO, a #1 ESS) must have just implemented
this in the last day, because now whenever I forget the "313", I get a
message saying "It is neccessary to dial an area code when making this
call. Please hang up and try again". It is REALLY ANNOYING!!

Michigan Bell claims that this will somehow allow them to free up
about 1.2 million phone numbers. My question is "how"?? They aren't
creating a new area code (yet), so how does adding the 313 requirement
free up telephone numbers??


John Palmer


[Moderator's Note: I think your answer can be found in the discussion
the past several days regarding area 215. By adding 1-313 on the
front, they will be able to use 'area code look-a-like' numbers for
prefixes, i.e. 215 without actually conflicting with area codes.  PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 12:48:16 PDT
From: Paul Schleck <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Last Four Digits of Phone is '0000'
Reply-to: [e-mail]


John Higdon writes:

>6. The number, while out of service, may have only recently been
>disconnected and the "dead" time has not expired. If you agree to
>accept any wrong numbers, this can be negotiated.

That brings up an interesting point.  Just how long does the phone
company wait before reassigning numbers?  According to my mother,
calls for the previous subscriber *never* happened in the past (my
mother is 58).  In recent years, when she moves and/or switches phone
numbers, she complains about receiving a significant number of calls
for the previous owner of the number. "Stupid phone company doesn't
give its numbers a chance to cool off anymore!" she complains.  Is
this just my mother's imagination or has Ma Bell, in her hunger for
numbers to assign in populated areas, shortened the "cooling off" time
to less than ideal?

My mother lives in the Washington DC area, by the way.


Paul W. Schleck, KD3FU  [e-mail]   [phone]

 --- Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.12 r.5
[1:285/27@fidonet] Neb. Inns of Court 402/593-1192 (1:285/27.0)

------------------------------

Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Reply-To: John Higdon <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Distinctive Ringing
Date: 22 Dec 90 18:27:24 PST (Sat)
From: John Higdon <[e-mail]>


Charles Buckley <[e-mail]> writes:

> PacBell should clean up its act, and be responsive to customer
> requests, period.  Sandbagging with saccharine politeness and
> browbeating the customer by defining his requests as illogical are no
> substitute, especially when others are willing to (but barred by law
> from) fulfilling them.  These blocking strategies seem particularly
> misplaced when they exist only to protect intra-organizational
> political traditions.

Hear! Hear! I was beginning to feel a little out of step with reality.
One of the reasons I have TEN lines is because distinctive ringing is
not available (one of the comprehensive list of "not available"
features) from my local phone company.

With this in mind, we have Pacific Telesis running full-page ads
decrying the regulations preventing it from pursuing other service and
manufacturing markets. Its regulated arm, Pac*Bell, provides the
barest, most minimal telephone service to be found in the world and
yet summons up the effrontery to whine in the media that we the public
are losing out because regulations prohibit the company from competing
with enhanced information service providers and equipment
manufacturers.

I have lived within the service area of Pac*Bell (formerly Pacific
Telephone which was even worse) all of my life. It has become a way of
life to have new telephone services become commonplace in the rest of
the country five to ten years before seeing the light of day in
California. There were some who thought that this would change with
divestiture. They were wrong.

If there was another telephone company, I'd sign up in a minute. How
about competing LECs? Wouldn't that be great?


        John Higdon         |   P. O. Box 7648   |   [phone]
    [e-mail]     | San Jose, CA 95150 |       M o o !

------------------------------

Subject: Re: Information Needed on AT&T Select Saver Plan
Organization: Southwest Systems Development Labs, Houston, TX
Date: 23 Dec 90 00:22:22 CST (Sun)
From: "Gil Kloepfer Jr." <[e-mail]>


In article <[e-mail]> Dan writes:

>     Recently I received in the mail a "Request for Change in Billing"
>from AT&T (my default LD carrier), and would like to get the opinion
>of the readers of TELECOM Digest.  The letter begins:

What I think is interesting is what happens if you DON'T select this
calling plan. Here's one that borders on being as bad as slamming"...

On the outside of the envelope:

    "Decsision requested concerning your long distance account.

     Second Notice-
     Please read and respond promptly."

Inside the envelope is the same stuff as the last time, with no
opportunity to *respond* "NO" to the mailing.  I know some sleezy
credit card protection companies who do the same thing.

The really bad thing about this is the way they determined the area
code of choice in this case.  Two isolated calls were made to
California one month to place an order for some electronic parts.  In
general, no calls are made outside the area code.

Lastly, the calling plans AT&T is now providing are so confusing to
the consumer, it is now truly difficult to decide WHICH plan to get,
and what savings you will really obtain from that plan.

It took me nearly four months to get my AT&T long distance service moved
properly from NY to Texas, and a friend of mine had the same problems
three months after my move.  AT&T will not put your account "in writing",
making it impossible to track the various credits being applied to your
bill when various calling plans are "turned back on."

I'm not saying that any of the other LD companies aren't doing this
too -- I'm sure they are.  However, if AT&T really wants to keep my
business, and claim to provide better service, then I'd like to see
them concentrate on "providing me with excellent service" and leave
the sleezy solicitations out of it.


[Moderator's Note: For reasons unknown to anyone, Illinois Bell
recently dumped me from AT&T's Reach Out America program. It took me
two months to merely get it back on again. AT&T kept saying they were
telling IBT about it; IBT kept saying they were not, etc. Meanwhile, I
got the very same form letters you mention.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: sauron!micky![e-mail]
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 12:12:06 EST
Subject: Re: Collect Call from AT&T to: AT&T Employees
Organization: E&M-Columbia, NCR Corp, W Columbia, SC


> [Moderator's Note: I am sorry the phone number was not sent along with
> the article. I didn't remove it ... I did not receive it!  Please send
> this number so that AT&T employees and stockholders who read the
> Digest can use if if they wish.  PAT]

In "The State" newspaper, Dec. 19 there was an article about the ads
NCR was running.  It seems that one of the ads suggests that AT&T
employees call members of the AT&T board to express disapproval of the
proposed merger.  Well, number given for Walter Y. Elisha (CEO Springs
Industies) was actually the number for a Mrs. Beulah A. Lee of Conway
SC.  An NCR spokeswoman in Dayton blamed "some fancy firm in New York"
for the error.


Mike Wescott     [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: peter da silva <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: How Does One Access a Hearing Impaired TTY
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 90 18:54:23 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>  hpubvwa!ssc!Tad.Cook@
cs.washington.edu writes:

> I helped a hearing impaired friend shop for a computer, and I
> installed a 2400 bps modem and terminal software for her.  She found
> modem communications in the chat mode quite liberating.

My sister in law is deaf, and at various times I have given her a
terminal, a modem, and all sorts of information about the same. She
now has a PC with a modem ... and after all that, she just called us
via one of those deaf-relay operators. She found it too much trouble
to arrange a time to call us directly. Sigh.


Peter da Silva  [phone]    [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: John Stanley <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: COCOT's on the Corner
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 90 14:30:24 EST
Organization: One Man Brand


motcid![e-mail] (Gary Segal) writes:

> [e-mail] (John Stanley) writes:

> But did Mr. Stanley experience a case of COCOTery gone bonkers, or did
> the phone get bitten by it's proximity to someone's transmitter?  I'd
> love to blame the COCOT too, but don't forget that there could be
> something else wrong outside of the phone.

   I live about 100' from this phone. The only transmitters in this
area are mine (not a country music broadcast, and not on at the time
anyway) and a paging service. The closest broadcast stations are
several miles away. I guess it is probably a crossed wire in the telco
service, or something in the phone acting as a receiver.

   The point was that there was no way outside calling the operator to
report the problem, and she had no idea where I was calling from.

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V10 #901
******************************










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          23 Dec 90 12:36 CST
Date:     Sun, 23 Dec 90 11:40:46 CST
From:     TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
[To]:     [e-mail]
Subject:  TELECOM Digest V10 #902
BCC:
Message-ID:  <[e-mail]>


TELECOM Digest     Sun, 23 Dec 90 11:40:38 CST    Volume 10 : Issue 902

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Vacation Time: Stop Sending Messages Now [TELECOM Moderator]
    Re: 900 Sweepstakes, Space Flight is Prize! [Scott D. Green]
    Re: Payphones and DTMF Dialing [Peter Anvin]
    Re: 215 Area Codes Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter' [Peter Clitherow]
    Re: How Does One Access a Hearing-Impaired TTY? [Jeff Sicherman]
    Boosting Revenues Through Marketing [Bob Sutterfield]
    NT News Release - SONET Goes Live [Henry Troup]
    What Are We Paying For on 900 Numbers? [Dennis G. Rears]
    Is TAP Still Around? (was: For Telecom-ers Who Live up North) [Phydeaux]
    Michigan Bell Rate Increase [Ken Jongsma]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 1:52:22 CST
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Vacation Time: Stop Sending Messages Now


Beginning at this time, the Digest will be winding down for about a
week while I take a few days of needed rest and relaxation as the year
comes to an end.

The Digests you will receive from now through Christmas are made up of
articles currently in the queue waiting for distribution. When those
have been printed, I'll be off line for a few days.

**  PLEASE DO NOT SEND MESSAGES TO COMP.DCOM.TELECOM / TELECOM DIGEST
UNTIL THE START OF THE NEW YEAR. **


Patrick Townson

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 03:10 EDT
From: "Scott D. Green" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 900 Number Sweepstakes, Space Flight is Prize!


Well, to confirm John Higdon's report from KGO, today's {Philadelphia
Inquirer} carries a story from the AP:

HOUSTON- Soviet officials yesterday verified that a contract has been
signed with organizers of a space sweepstakes to allow an American to
travel to the Mir space station.

    Tass, the official Soviet news agency, reported Tuesday that
the contest was a hoax, throwing the already chaotic sweepstakes into
greater turmoil.  Space Travel Services officials, organizers of the
contest, insisted it was genuine and displayed copies of contracts
between them and the Soviets.

    But in a fax sent yesterday, an official of the Soviet agency
that handles commericial deals for the Soviet space program said, "I
consider the statement in our press as a disappointing
misunderstanding."

    The agency, NPO Energia, negotiated the deal with Space
Commerce Corp.  of Houston, on behalf of Space Travel Services.

    Dimitry Poletayev, head of the proton rocket department at
Glavkosmos USSR, the Soviet equivalent of NASA, also faxed a letter to
contest operators, saying, "No problem from Soviet side."

    Also yesterday, Space Travel Services executives were summoned
before a Harris County grand jury investigating possible violations of
Texas lottery statutes.

    Subpoenas for David Mayer, president of Space Travel Services,
and James Davidson, the company's senior vice president, were
dismissed after the two agreed to cooperate, said Russel Turbeville of
the district attorney's consumer fraud division.

    Mayer and Davidson spent nearly three hours before the jury,
then told reporters the sweepstakes would continue.

    "It's our position we are not conducting a lottery and we are
conducting a legal sweepstakes because purchase is not required,"
Davidson said.

    Texas law bars charging people for a chance to win something.
[what then is the $2.95 cost of the call? -sg]

    The contest was announced Monday.  A person will be selected
in a random drawing in December, 1991 for a trip in 1992 or 1993 and a
week's stay at the space station, plus $500,000, Space Travel Services
said.

    The firm keeps more than half the income from calls to the 900
number, each of which costs $2.95.

                - 3 0 -

scott

------------------------------

From: Peter Anvin <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Payphones and DTMF Dialling
Date: 23 Dec 90 09:06:34 GMT
Organization: Northwestern University


>What I would like to know is: How do the American and Swedish telcos
>avoid fraud of this type? (They are the only two countries I
>personally know to have DTMF payphones. Comments from elsewhere are
>also welcome.)  Is it possible to use a tone-sender to dial from a
>payphone in USA or Sweden or elsewhere?

Swedish payphones (or, in fact, any Swedish phone with the proper
equipment installed) have access through the phone line to a pulse
signal sent out for each marking period = 0,23 SEK.  In other words,
although I have not tried it myself, I presume anyone could use a
tone-sender on a Swedish payphone, but it wouldn't help: you would
have to feed it coins anyway!

Televerket (Swedish Telecom) sells a "COCOT phone" to anyone that
wants one, it is just to plug into a regular Swedish four-prong phone
jack.  (By the way: all the four RJ11 wires are mandatory in Sweden
and are supported by the phone network: there are TWO
twisted-pairlines (for a total of four wires) in the local loop to
each line.  Maybe that has something to do with it.

Further note of interest: You have to feed a Swedish payphone its
minimum fee (the payphone fee for two marking periods, usually two
SEK) before it gives you dialtone (but you dial the number at the
dialtone).  Therefore, it costs you two SEK to call a "toll-free" 020-
number from a payphone.

Here in the USA, it seems like the amount of toll to pay is similarly
controlled from the switching office, except for local calls, which
are untimed anyway.  Illinois Bell's payphones give you a digitized
voice telling you how much you should put in the slot and which warns
you when you are about to run out of money.  Doesn't sound like
something run inside the phone, IMHO.


H. Peter Anvin +++ A Strange Stranger +++ N9ITP/SM4TKN +++
INTERNET:  [e-mail]   FIDONET:  1:115/989.4
BITNET:    HPA@NUACC                 RBBSNET:  8:970/101.4

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 21 Dec 90 13:58 EST
From: Peter Clitherow <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter'


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Scott Barnes) writes:

> I have heard from a different source that Bell of PA intends to
> implement exchange codes of the type "XXX", so that exchanges such as
> 131 will now be possible.  It is certainly not a case where 1+ dialing
> is being more stringently enforced.

This sounds totally amazing!  How, other than a timeout such as is
needed for international calls are LD calls to other NPAs to be
discriminated?

Consider, that if PA implements the 131 exchange, we could have:

131-2xxx as a local number, and

1312-xxx-xxxx as a LD call to Chicago.  I.e. the exchange must wait
until a timeout, before completing the first (local) call?!

Has anyone else heard of this?

pc


[Moderator's Note: Well, you know the '#' symbol is almost universally
available on touch tone phones these days. Known as the octothorpe and
sometimes as a carriage return -- which I guess is functionally what
it does -- it has long served as a time-out signal when entering
international numbers, calling the local '0' operator (in some
places), and when entering just the PIN of your calling card number
(when calling the number where the card is assigned). There is no
reason people couldn't be trained to stick it on the end of all
dialing as a signal they are finished. Then, *any combination* could
be a local number, no?    PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 00:42:27 PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: How Does One Access a Hearing-Impaired TTY?


  Regarding TDD's and modems, the following is the DOC file from a
rather old s/w package that allows use of a true-blue IBM PC (not XT,
AT, or PS/2): REQUIRES the cassette port of the original PC although
appropriate TDD modems are possible. I can send the who file (ARC'ed
and uuencoded to some internet addresses or provide it for the telecom
library.


Jeff Sicherman


                  HANDICAPPED EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE
                        11523 Charlton Drive
                       Silver Spring MD 20902
  Computer: [phone]                        MCI Mail: "RBARTH"
  Home:     [phone]   January 7, 1985      TELEX: 650 248-8912

                                   TDD54

     This software permits the IBM-PC and PC-Jr to function as TDDs,  or
Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf. These devices are also known as
TTYs.  This  (TDD5.4) is the fourth generation of IBM-PC software by the
same author,  and is the first to provide for operation with the PC  Jr.
This software was written by John Spalding of Atlanta Georgia and placed
by him in the public domain.

     The  TDD was originally a mechanical teleprinter used with a unique
modem which employed the same tone pair (1400 Hz mark and 1800 Hz space)
in each direction.  The modem was developed by Dr.  Robert Weitbrecht, a
deaf physicist,  and was unfortunately incompatible  with  any  industry
standard modem. The TDD also uses the Baudot code rather than ASCII, and
so in order for a computer to talk to a TTY is has been  necessary  both
to  include  code  conversion  in the computer software and to provide a
separate modem.

     Adaptive  software  has  been  developed  for  a  number   of  home
computers.  Details on this work are available from HEX.  Two computers,
the IBM-PC and the Radio Shack Color Computer, incorporate hardware that
permits  them to emulate a modem,  permitting their cassette ports to be
connected to the phone line via an inexpensive telephone amplifier. This
amplifier  may  be  built  by  the user,  or is available at cost (forty
dollars) from John E. Steele, 2100 N.  New Road, Waco, Texas 76707.  The
same amplifer is plug compatible with either the PC or the CoCo.

     Similar software for the Apple,  Smoke Signal Broadcasting 6800 and
6809 machines,  Atari,  Pet,  TRS-80 Model I,  VIC-20  and  Commodore 64
computers can be obtained from the AMRAD, the sponsor of the HEX.  These
machines require addition of modems and  interface  circuitry.  Complete
details  can  be  obtained  by writing to the letterhead address,  or by
calling the HEX BBS at the number above.  Calls will be accepted  either
from an ASCII device (300 baud, 8 bits, no parity, one stop bit) or from
a standard TDD.


[Moderator's Note: If you wish to do so, send along the code for this
and it will be placed in the archives with related files.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: Bob Sutterfield <[e-mail]>
Subject: Boosting Revenues Through Marketing
Reply-To: Bob Sutterfield <[e-mail]>
Organization: Morning Star Technologies
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 90 14:02:11 GMT


We have ATT WATS lines for customer support.  A few moments ago our
secretary received a call (over one of those lines) from an ATT WATS
marketing person offering to tell the office manager about a new
discount deal.  The marketing person couldn't say whether or not we'd
be charged for his call to us to tell us about the deal.  Sigh...

------------------------------

Date: 20 Dec 90 12:03:00 EST
From: Henry Troup <[e-mail]>
Subject: NT News Release - SONET Goes Live


Edited for length...

CONTEL OF VIRGINIA INSTALLS NORTHERN TELECOM SONET TRANSPORT SYSTEM

ATLANTA, December 17 -- Contel of Virginia is among the first
telephone operating companies in the U.S.  to transport live,
commercial traffic at 2.4 gigabits-per-second using the Northern
Telecom S/DMS TransportNode.

The four-terminal OC-48 system is in service between Contel central
offices in Hoadly, Dale City and Occoquan in northern Virginia.  It is
being used to provide for growth in these high traffic corridors
according to George Edwards, director of Network Design for Contel of
Virginia.

Introduced last year, the S/DMS TransportNode is the first in Northern
Telecom's synchronous optical network (SONET) family of products.

Several other telephone operating companies and interexchange carriers
in both the U.S.  and Canada have tested the S/DMS TransportNode and
are expected to place systems in service in the near future.


Henry Troup - BNR owns but does not share my opinions
P.O. Box 3511, Stn. C. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Y 4H7
uunet!bnrgate!hwt%bwdlh490 [e-mail] [phone]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 04:25:09 EST
From: "Dennis G. Rears (FSAC)" <[e-mail]>
Subject: What Are We Paying For on 900 Numbers?


  When I dial a 900 number am I paying for the connection or the
information provided?  Let me give you an example.

  On November 4, I ran and finished the NY city marathon.  In the race
packet, there was a card that announce an 900 number that you could
call for your personal race statistics (overall place, sex place, age
place, time, etc).  The service was available starting the night after
the race up and finishing two weeks later.  Because the information
would be be printed in the next day's {New York Post}, I suspect calls
were only made the night of the race.

   The call would be $2.00.  I called it and after entering race
number the service said I did not finish.  I called it again (just in
case I had misdialed my race number) and got the same message.  I was
an offical finisher as I got my certificate several weeks later.  I
feel I should not have to pay for those calls becuase they did not
provide the information they stated they would.  I did pay for them
because it was only $4.00 for both calls.  Did I have any recourse?


Dennis


[Moderator's Note: When calling a 900 number, you are paying for the
information provided and the cost of the call. Most 900 numbers only
cost a few cents each to the information provider however. I'd think
you could go to whoever ran the 900 service and demand your money
back. Better still, just don't pay that part of your NYT phone bill
and let NYT squabble with the IP about it.  PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 03:47:18 PST
Subject: Is TAP Still Around? (was: For Telecom-ers Who Live up North)
Reply-To: mtxinu!Ingres.COM![e-mail]
Organization: From the grass eaters at the Bovine Munching Works
From: Phydeaux <mtxinu!ingres.com![e-mail]>


In article <[e-mail]> wsrcc![e-mail]
(Wolfgang S. Rupprecht) writes:

>Ahem.  Old trick is right.  Didn't TAP recomend an NE-2 bulb?
                                    ^^^
Are these guys still around? Haven't heard of them in a *long* time...

reb


[Moderator's Note: It seems to me quite a while back we had a note in
the Digest from someone providing an address and subscription
information for TAP. Maybe someone will send the information in again,
if the publication is still operating.    PAT]

------------------------------

Subject: Michigan Bell Rate Increase
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 19:10:44 EST
From: Ken Jongsma <wybbs![e-mail]>


Michigan Bell has just filed for an extremely involved change in their
rate structure for all business and residential users. Some of the
changes and new services Michigan Bell wants:

   1)  $50 for a customer requested number. Currently no charge.
   2)  Additional lines in the white pages at $2/line/month.
   3)  Unpublished number $1.25/month. (Same charge as unlisted).
   4)  Customer Name and Address Service at .50/call within own area.
   5)  A slight reduction in rates for calls between 20-100 miles.
   6)  Flat Rate Residential Service increased by $2-3/month.
   7)  Reduction in local calling rate zones from 6 to 3 causing
       an additional increase of up to $1/month for some flat
       rate customers.
   8)  An approximate doubling of rates for all operator assisted
       services.
   9)  Coin rates increase to .25 from .20 per call.
   10) Introduce 3 "Circle Calling" plans for extended local
       service on a per hour basis, similar to AT&T's ROA.
   11) Reducing the measured service residental rate from 8.01 to
       8.00 and capping measured service rates at $15.00/month.

The last item is the real killer! Tell me Michigan Bell won't do
anything to get everyone on measured service. Then, once they
eliminate flat rate, watch out. Not that all the other increases don't
hurt. They did not publish the amount of additional income they expect
to get from these changes.


Ken Jongsma                [e-mail]
Smiths Industries          [e-mail]
Grand Rapids, Michigan     ..sharkey.cc.umich.edu!wybbs!ken

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V10 #902
******************************










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Date:     Sun, 23 Dec 90 13:53:07 CST
From:     TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
[To]:     [e-mail]
Subject:  TELECOM Digest V10 #903
BCC:
Message-ID:  <[e-mail]>


TELECOM Digest     Sun, 23 Dec 90 13:52:17 CST    Volume 10 : Issue 903

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    AT&T Mail Update: Internet Gateway Announced [Edward Hopper]
    PUC Requires Blocking For CID in MD [Michael Katzmann]
    GTE and Courts Agree: BBS' a Business [Michael H. Riddle]
    They Keep Going ... [Christopher Ambler]
    International City Code Directory or Database? [Toby Nixon]
    Detecting Answer Before First Ring (was: Own LD company) [Kevin Collins]
    UK STD Code Database? [Joe Isham]
    "Sick in Bed ... No Phone" [fico2![e-mail]]
    Intro. to <comp.dcom.telecom> - Frequently Asked Questions [Bob Thompson]
    Vacation Time: Stop Sending Messages Now [TELECOM Moderator]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Date: Sun Dec 23 01:36:58 CST 1990
Subject: AT&T Mail Update: Internet Gateway Announced


This was posted on AT&T Mail Wed. Dec. 19, 1990:

THE INTERNET GATEWAY
====================

The Internet Gateway provides Internet e-mail users with a method of
communication to AT&T Mail.  The Interconnect consisits of various
private e-mail networks and uses an addressing format better know as
Domain Addressing Service (DAS).

A domain address consists of a user name, followed by an @ sign and/or
% sign and a domain name, which is usually the system name.

Example:

        [e-mail]


SENDING E-MAIL TO INTERNET USERS
================================

To send e-mail from the AT&T MailService to the Internet community use
the UUCP addressing style.

Example:

        internet!system.domain!username

Translates to:

        internet!princeton.edu!jdoe

If you are sending e-mail to an Internet user whose e-mail address may
be in the RFC 822 format (user@domain), you must translate the RFC
address before sending your message to an Internet receipient.

        [e-mail] (Internet user's address)

        internet!system.domain!username (to a UUCP address)


Example:
        [e-mail] (Internet user's address)

Translates to:
        internet!system.domain!system2!username


SENDING E-MAIL FROM INTERNET
============================

To send e-mail to the AT&T Mail Service, Internet users can choose
either the RFC 822 or UUCP addressing style. The Internet recognizes
attmail.com as the domain identifier for AT&T Mail when electronic
messages are sent through the gateway. Although many Internet users
choose to send e-mail using the RFC 822 addressing style, the UUCP
style is also available on many UNIX systems on the Internet, but not
every system supports UUCP. Below are examples of both addressing
styles:

RFC 822 Addressing: [e-mail]

Example:

        [e-mail]

UUCP Addressing: attmail.com!username

Example:

        attmail.com!jdoe

Although e-mail can be sent through the Internet gateway, surcharged
services, such as Telex, FAX, COD, U.S. Mail, overnight, urgent mail
and messages destined to other ADMDs connected to AT&T Mail are not
deliverable.  If you are an Internet e-mail user attempting to use a
surcharged service and are not registered on AT&T Mail, you will not
be able to send your message, and will be automatically notified.
Below is a list of surcharged services that are unavailable to
Internet users.

*  FAX
*  Telex
*  COD
*  U.S. Mail
*  Overnight
*  Administrative Management Domain (ADMD) Messages


SENDING E-MAIL TO BITNET USERS
==============================

To send e-mail to BITNET users from AT&T Mail, enter:

        internet!host.bitnet!user


SENDING E-MAIL TO UUNET USERS
=============================

To send e-mail to UUNET users from AT&T Mail via the Internet Gateway,
enter:

        attmail!internet!uunet!system!user

INTERNET RESTRICTIONS
=====================

The following commercial restrictions apply to the use of the Internet
Gateway.

*  Users are prohibited to use the Internet to carry traffic between
   commercial (for profit) electronic messaging systems.

*  Advertising and solicting i.e., messages offering goods or services
   for sale or offers of jobs.

*  Provision of for-profit service, other than electronic messaging to
   Internet users, is permitted (e.g., database services) if such
   service is used for scholarly research purposes and its costs are
   borne by individual or institutional subscription.


[Moderator's Note: So there you have it! The official announcement
from AT&T Mail describing how to get mail beteen Internet and ATTMail.
Remember, the key coming this way seems to be they hand off everything
to the Internet for further routing, so be sure to get 'internet!' in
as the first part of the address, followed -- using the 'bang' method
of addressing -- the actual internet address. This would include
Bitnet, Fido and assorted other points.  It is unfortunate that AT&T
never did send me a copy of this, despite requests. But at least we
now have an official go-ahead for using the gateway.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: opel!vk2bea!eccles![e-mail]
Subject: PUC Requires Blocking For CID in MD
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 14:28:27 UTC


This is paraphrased from a WAMU (Washington, DC public radio) news
bulletin, Saturday morning 22/Dec 1990. :

The Maryland Public Utility Commission has ruled that C & P Telephone
Company of Maryland must provide, within 45 days and free of charge,
blocking of Caller ID for subscribers.

C & P is also required to present to the Commission a sample of an
insert, to be sent to all customers with their bill, describing the
procedures to be followed to enable per-call CID blocking.


Michael Katzmann    Annapolis. Maryland.
Amateur Radio Stations: NV3Z / VK2BEA / G4NYV
UUCP: ..uunet!opel!vk2bea!eccles!michael

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 12:35:53 cst
From: "Michael H. Riddle" <[e-mail]>
Subject: GTE and Court Agrees: BBS' a Business


The following cross-posted information is extracted from alt.cosuard.
Can anyone in Indiana or a closely neighboring state provide any
details on this?

>From: BILL BLOMGREN - Sysop: St. Pete Programmers Exchange RIME: PETEX

Well ... thought I would pass this tidbit of bad news along ...  GTE
Indiana prevailed against the BBS systems there ... ALL BBS's in GTE's
area there are now at BUSINESS RATES. Which means $50 per month base
rates, plus MUCH higher long distance charges.

Indiana Bell ... has filed the same tariff with the PUC (Public
Utilities Commission) there, making it state wide.

Needless to say, GTE has a history of going after the little guy, so
you can expect it here in the REAL near future!  I expect it nation-
wide in the near future.  In Indiana, they decided that THE PHONE
COMPANY can decide that your residence is a business, and charge high
rates to all service incoming.

Unfortunately, the courts agreed with them.

Ain't Monopolies Nice???

                              -----

  Not a nice situation huh?  We didn't need a precedent to be set like
this ... now this paves the way for other companies to follow suit.
It'll be interesting to watch the nodelist to see if the nets in
Indiana (201 in Lafayette, 227 in South Bend, 230 in the Gary Area,
231 in Indy, 236 in Ft. Wayne/NE IN and 2230 in Terre Haute and 11/15
in Evansville) start shrinking.


Paul

UUCP: crash!pro-lep!shiva
ARPA: crash!pro-lep![e-mail]
INET: [e-mail]

                  --- End of Cross Posting ---

            <<<< insert standard disclaimer here >>>>
[e-mail]                  |   University of Nebraska
[e-mail]   |   College of Law
[e-mail]  |   Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Fubar's Carbonated Hormones)
Subject: They Keep Going ...
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 90 22:33:52 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Fubar's Carbonated Hormones)
Organization: Fantasy, Incorporated: Reality None of Our Business.


I'm sure you're familliar with those _Energizer_ commercials where it
appears to be a regular (albeit really stupid) commercial, and then
the rabbit comes through banging his drum. One of their recent ones
advertises the "fantastic harp music of olga" for christmas before the
rabbit comes in, then shows the rabbit marching over the "here's how
to order" screen.

Funny, though, the 800 number on the screen was a valid Sprint
number... interesting ... so I called it.

I suggest you do the same, for a quick laugh. 1-800-729-0730. I knew
something was up when it wasn't 800-555 or some such number. Two
points to the ad men for following through.


Christopher(); --- [e-mail] --- [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: Toby Nixon <hayes![e-mail]>
Subject: International City Code Directory or Database?
Date: 21 Dec 90 12:14:30 GMT
Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA


Our manager of international sales asked me a question yesterday to
which I did not know the answer, and I hope y'all can help.

Is there a directory, paper or online or whatever, that lists ALL city
codes in ALL countries?  Sure, the local phone directory here lists
major city codes in several countries.  But to find other city codes,
it means going through an international operator to get a directory
assistance operator in the other country, just to get the city code --
and sometimes that takes quite a while, if all the operators are busy.
It would be so much easier to just have a book, or database, or online
service we could access to look up the codes.

Any ideas?


Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer    | Voice   [phone]  Telex 151243420
Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. | Fax     [phone]  CIS   70271,404
P.O. Box 105203                   | UUCP uunet!hayes!tnixon  AT&T    !tnixon
Atlanta, Georgia  30348  USA      | Internet       hayes![e-mail]


[Moderator's Note: What you are seeking is published in the
"International Telecomunications Guide" by AT&T. This is publication
number 1-WB-952, and is available free of charge from AT&T's
International Rate and Dialing Information Service: 1-800-874-4000.
While it does not list *every* locality, it lists every country and
all major areas within each country. Included is a table to calculate
the time in each country, information on USA Direct and a lot of other
useful information about making international calls to and from the
USA. It is an 88 page book loaded with information. You can get a
similarly-detailed book listing US/Canada area codes from the AT&T
Information Center in Indianapolis, IN.  The domestic version costs
about two dollars, but the international guide is free. If they've got
their act together the day you call, they'll send you a copy. Please
note no smiley. The reason why no smiley discussed soon.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: Kevin Collins <aspect![e-mail]>
Subject: Detecting Answer Before First Ring (was: Own LD Company)
Date: 23 Dec 90 08:31:48 GMT
Organization: Aspect Telecommunications, San Jose, Ca


On 17 Dec 90 at 9:44:56 PST in message <[e-mail]>,
[e-mail] (Tad Cook) writes:

[talking about a box that would accept digits to dial over an incoming
line and dial those digits over an outgoing line.]

> I heard that after awhile the box was modified to listen for ringback
> and busy tone, and stayed on the line long enough to determine whether
> or not to bill.  This must have been a little tricky, because what
> does it do if the called party answers before the first ring?

For a universal two-wire analog trunk, one way to detect that type of
"early answer" is to start a timer after the digits have been sent on
the outgoing trunk and stop that timer when you get the first
recognizable tone (ringback, busy, etc.). If the timer expires, then
no tone was detected, so you can assume that the outgoing line was
answered at the far end and answer the near end. What's important here
is choosing the right value for the timer. If the timer's too short,
it may expire before ringback has been detected, and you'll answer
calls that are still ringing. If it's too long, whoever answered at
the far end will get sick of waiting to hear a reply to their repeated
"Hello"s and hang up.

Note that this is all assuming that telco can't/won't supply battery
reversal on answer. For E&M, T1, or ISDN Primary Rate Interface
trunks, the above situation is not an issue since it is easily
detected via the various signalling protocols.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to help anyone provide phone service in
violation of any applicable tariffs/regulations/laws.


Kevin Collins                   |  Aspect Telecommunications
USENET: ...uunet!aspect!kevinc  |  San Jose, CA
Voice:  [phone]         |  My opinions are mine alone.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 21:34 CST
From: Joe Isham <[e-mail]>
Subject: UK STD Code Database?


Is there a list of UK STD (area) codes available from someone here in
the newsgroup?  Thanks for your help.


Joe Isham   [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 16:12:29 -0800
From: fico2![e-mail]
Subject: "Sick in Bed ... No Phone"


I won a small claims judgement against my ex-landlord for $1200
recently.  (He paid only a pittance of my deposit back, 27 days late,
with a bad check.  Charming fellow.)  Anyway, now he's trying to have
the judgement vacated on the basis that he was "sick in bed ... no
phone" on that day.  Funny, the phone number worked fine both before
and after that day by several weeks...  :-)

Are there any repair records I can subpeona to show that there was no
trouble with his line during that period?  What records, and who would
be in charge of them?  Any other ideas?  (Besides pointing out how
lame an excuse "no phone" is?  I do plan on doing that, at least!  Heh
heh.)


[Moderator's Note: Telco records can be subpoened via the Security
Department at the telco, if you think it is worth the trouble. Ask
your attorney to take the matter back to the court where you started
out first. The court may rule the excuse is bogus.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: "Robert D. Thompson" <mailrus!umich!vela![e-mail]>
Subject: Intro. to <comp.dcom.telecom> - Frequently Asked Questions
Date: 22 Dec 90 21:47:06 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Robert D. Thompson)
Organization: Oakland University, Rochester MI


Could someone please provide an introduction to this newsgroup ...
preferably in the form of a "Frequently Asked Questions List" (as I
have seen on other groups).


Thanks,

Robert


[Moderator's Note: An introduction is published monthly during the
first few days of each month called "Welcome to comp.dcom.telecom".
This goes out to Usenet, but not to the mailing list. It will appear
again in about ten days. For 'frequently asked questions' I refer you
to the Telecom Archives:  anonymous ftp to lcs.mit.edu;  then when on
line 'cd telecom-archives'. You should find everything you want there,
and probably a lot more than you want.   PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 90 1:52:22 CST
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Vacation Time: Stop Sending Messages Now


Beginning at this time, the Digest will be winding down for about a
week while I take a few days of needed rest and relaxation as the year
comes to an end.

The Digests you will receive from now through Christmas are made up of
articles currently in the queue waiting for distribution. When those
have been printed, I'll be off line for a few days.

**  PLEASE DO NOT SEND MESSAGES TO COMP.DCOM.TELECOM / TELECOM DIGEST
UNTIL THE START OF THE NEW YEAR. **

Messages received between Christmas and New Year's will be carefully
screened and if they say something newsworthy and important will
be held for the start of the new year. If not then I'll return them
unused.

Let's have all fresh topics to start the new year. No further 'Re'
messages on existing subjects after this weekend please.


Patrick Townson

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V10 #903
******************************










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Date:     Mon, 24 Dec 90 2:06:23 CST
From:     TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
[To]:     [e-mail]
Subject:  TELECOM Digest V10 #904
BCC:
Message-ID:  <[e-mail]>


TELECOM Digest     Mon, 24 Dec 90 02:05:23 CST    Volume 10 : Issue 904

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: 900 Number Sweepstakes, Space Flight is Prize! [Barry Margolin]
    Re: 900 Number Sweepstakes, Space Flight is Prize! [John Murray]
    Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter' [Randal L. Schwartz]
    1 = Toll (was: 215) [David Lesher]
    Re: Caller ID in Atlanta [Peter Marshall]
    Re: Last Four Digits of Phone is '0000' [David Lesher]
    Consumer's Omsbudsman Needed For Indiana [David Feustel]
    Should Telcos Offer VMS Through Separate Subsidiaries? [Peter Marshall]
    Re: Don't Pay For Slamming! [Peter da Silva]
    One Way to Handle Multiuser Conference Calls [Jamie Tatum]
    Pranksters Abuse Emergency Call Interrupt [Jamie Tatum]
    Uniform Call Distribution For Modem Pool [Brian Kantor]
    Re: AT&T Mail Update: Internet Gateway Announced [Peter da Silva]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Barry Margolin <think![e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 900 Number Sweepstakes, Space Flight is Prize!
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 23:42:07 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Scott D. Green) writes:

>    "It's our position we are not conducting a lottery and we are
>conducting a legal sweepstakes because purchase is not required,"
>Davidson said.

>    Texas law bars charging people for a chance to win something.
>[what then is the $2.95 cost of the call? -sg]

It's presumably for the convenience of entering by phone.  You can
enter the contest for free by mail.


Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp.

[e-mail]    {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar

------------------------------

From: John Murray <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 900 Number Sweepstakes, Space Flight is Prize!
Date: 24 Dec 90 02:54:11 GMT
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University


Hey, if anyone manages to dredge out the snail-mail address and rules
for the 'free' way to enter this contest, how about posting the info?


Disclaimer: Yeah, right, like you really believe I run this place.

John R. Murray   [e-mail]   Supercomputer Research Inst.

------------------------------

From: "Randal L. Schwartz" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter'
Reply-To: "Randal L. Schwartz" <[e-mail]>
Organization: Stonehenge; netaccess via Intel, Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 19:16:22 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, peter@ficc (peter da silva)
writes:

| The logical solution would be simply to make all calls within the area
| code local. The price structure is pretty much arbitrary, and they
| sure could afford it: I don't know of any phone companies losing
| money...

Making all of Oregon local (Oregon = 1 area code over a *huge* area)
is an attractive idea from *my* perspective, but I doubt that you'd
ever get the 28 (or so) phone companies within Oregon to agree on a
rate that I could afford even on *my* wages.

Heck, they're talkin' about bumping my local rate up by $6/month just
so that I can call Gresham and Oregon City "for free" (see previous
note).  And I don't even make $6/month in LD calls to those cities
*now*.

By the way, when "Moderator Pat" sez Local, and when I say Local, we
mean different things.  Around here ... local means flat-rate
unmeasured service.  That's what 90% of the residential customers have
around here (baby bell, GTE, independent telcos, all the same kinda
rate structure).  Not even a per-call charge or per-minute charge, or
a tiny local "zone" that makes it a toll call after 7.99 miles.  So
when you started offering me "local service" to all of Oregon, my ears
really perk up.  :-)

Just another phone user,


Randal L. Schwartz, Stonehenge Consulting Services [phone]
on contract to Intel's iWarp project, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, Sol III
[e-mail] ...!any-MX-mailer-like-uunet!iwarp.intel.com!merlyn

------------------------------

From: David Lesher <[e-mail]>
Subject: 1 = Toll (was: 215)
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 16:53:14 EST
Reply-To: David Lesher <[e-mail]>
Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers


|It has not only been considered, it's been planned.  It appears in the
|Bellcore "Notes on the Intra-LATA Networks".

|The plan is that all intra-NPA calls will be dialed with seven digits,
|whether or not a toll charge applies.  Moreover, all inter-NPA calls
|will be dialed as 1 + 10 digits.  Non-conforming areas are expected to
|implement these procedures during the 1990's.

I expect some P{U,S}C's to fight this ... Ohio, for example, has been
pretty strict on it. OBT started up some extended area discount plan
in NE Ohio last year. (Of course, they did not bother to tell you it
only applied on Bell CO --> Bell CO calls.) As part of it, you did not
use a "1" on a call that was toll, albeit at a lower rate.

One month later, a letter arrived from OBT saying: The PUC hath said ...


[e-mail]  (305) 255-RTFM
pob 570-335      33257-0335

------------------------------

Subject: Re: Caller ID in Atlanta
From: Peter Marshall <halcyon![e-mail]>
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 11:44:10 PST
Organization: The 23:00 News


There needs to be far more critical questioning of assumptions under
the too-commmon, naive acceptance of the function of Caller ID trials,
including the easy-out/quick=fix/plug-hole-in-dike they seem to offer
to regulators willing to approve such trials. The cart's at too much
distance from the horse.


Peter Marshall

------------------------------

From: David Lesher <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Last Four Digits of Phone is '0000'
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 16:39:57 EST
Reply-To: David Lesher <[e-mail]>
Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers


|That brings up an interesting point.  Just how long does the phone
|company wait before reassigning numbers?  According to my mother,
|calls for the previous subscriber *never* happened in the past (my
|mother is 58).

|My mother lives in the Washington DC area, by the way.

The reuse time varies inversely with the number of empty assignments.
The DC area has been hurting for years (After all, it's the only place
[other than John Higdon's house ;-} ] where the phone to people ratio
is >1.0) hence the recent mandatory NPA dialing.

I've often talked Assigning into giving me numbers that were too
'fresh' but the price is lots of wrong numbers.

------------------------------

From: David Feustel <claris!netcom![e-mail]>
Subject: Consumer's Ombudsman Wanted for Indiana
Date: 23 Dec 90 23:34:17 GMT
Organization: DAFCO - An OS/2 Oasis


Is there a Consumer's Ombudsman for Indiana?


David Feustel, 1930 Curdes Ave, Fort Wayne, IN 46805,
[phone]    EMAIL: netcom.uucp

------------------------------

From: Peter Marshall <[e-mail]>
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 13:06:39 PST
Subject: Should Telcos Offer VMS Through Separate Subsidiaries?


John Higdon makes some very good, and by no means isolated, points
about voice-mail and RBOCs.

The usual X-subsidy/competition questions are relevant, and so are
others, in a wider context. For instance, the little matter of the
recent 9th Circuit decision over-ruling the FCC, and subsequent
FCC-granted "waivers" to RBOCs. Thus, little questions here too about
state jurisdsiction over RBOC VMS as an enhanced service.

In the NW, apparently both WA and OR PUCs are attempting to require US
West to provide VMS through structurally separate subs. In such
examples, RBOC VMS evidently becomes a "point" issue, attracting
attention from interests with a stake in the wider issues of ONA and
enhanced services. Such has been the case in WA State, where the PUC
staff had previously informed USW that they wanted to see VMS in a
separate sub. by 1/1/91.

This perspective does not even reach another dimension, described here
10/23 as "the tyranny of voice mail." No mere matter this, but as
noted in this earlier post, one of treating the person "like a data
entry device"; or, to put it differently, a little matter of defining
the person as a "data commodity."

Yet while these regulators don't seem to attend to this "sociological"
dimension of the voice-messaging scene, in WA, at least, they took an
initially tough posture. E.g.,:"... the recent Appeals Court decision
remanded the Computer III decision back to the FCC and US West has
relied on a waiver of Computer III rules in order to offer VMS on a
non-regulated basis in the State of Washington. In the opinion of our
Attorney General's office, the FCC waiver has no standing in this
state ..." (see COMM DAILY, 10/3/90)

------------------------------

From: peter da silva <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Don't Pay For Slamming!
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 90 21:54:15 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> portal!cup.portal.com!mingo writes:

> >Like hell they don't! They have a contract with you, via your local phone
> >company.

>     The contract you have with AT&T governs *how* you will pay for
> service *if* you place LD calls using AT&T.  You never agree to place
> *all* your calls with AT&T.

But I already *have* placed many many calls with AT&T, before I got
slammed, right? By the time I've been slammed I've already consummated
the marriage.

I also have the right to dial 10333 and call via Sprint, or terminate
my agreement with AT&T by telling the phone company to switch
carriers, but no damn third party has that right.


Peter da Silva    [phone]    [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: Jamie Tatum <[e-mail]>
Date: Sat Dec 15 90 at 20:07:34 (EDT)
Subject: One Way to Handle Multiuser Conference Calls


There is another way of making multiuser conference calls: Our line
has call waiting, three-way calling, forwarding, and speed dialing.
If you call someone and three-way call someone else with Totalfone,
they can call someone ... the only thing about this is, one time
someone had an emergency interrupt.  You should have heard the
operator trying to yell over all of us!  Then they sorted through what
was going on and gave specific instructions, i.e.  xxx-1234, release
your line, then xxx-3253 will release thiers, then <blah blah blah> ...
it was funny...

------------------------------

From: Jamie Tatum <[e-mail]>
Date: Sat Dec 15 90 at 20:07:34 (EDT)
Subject: Pranksters Abuse Emergency Call Interrupt


I was talking to an operator the other day regarding emergency call
interrupt.  She said that SNET (Southern New England Telephone) has
been having problems with phreaks abusing emergency call interrupt.
The way our emergency call interrupt works is (due to privacy reasons
I think ...) the person who wants to interrupt calls the operator and
says they want to make an emergency call interrupt to xxx-yyyy. The
operator says okay; then you hang up.  You have to call back the nuber
you wanted to call and by this time, the operator will have kicked
them off whatever they were on. You can see how this may have become a
problem.  Does anyone know what they would do in a data call?


INET: [e-mail]
UUCP: crash!pnet01!gnh-porthole!jtatum
ARPA: crash!pnet01!gnh-porthole![e-mail]


[Moderator's Note: I would like to point out that in every
jurisdiction, the law plainly says that failure to yield a telephone
line in an emergency when asked to do so is a crime. But the same law
goes on to say that when you falsely claim an emergency exists in
order to influence the use of a telephone line you have also committed
a crime. I'm surprised SNET is as sloppy about this procedure as you
claim. Illinois Bell operators handle it differently: If a caller asks
for an emergency interrupt, the operator notes their number, and asks
for the person's name. The operator then splits the connection and
goes on the busy line to listen for conversation. If none is heard,
the operator reports the line is now clear. If conversation is heard,
the operator breaks in to say (person's name) at (person's number)
claims there is an emergency and needs to reach this line. Will you
give up the line?  That person says yes or no, and the operator
returns to the other side of the connection and replies accordingly.
Only if they agree to yield will the operator instruct the emergency
caller to re-dial the call at that time. *And your request is logged
in telco's records of people who have requested this sort of thing.*
No game-playing here with so-called emergencies. Either it is or it is
not; if it is not then you may find your service suspended until you
go down to the Business Office and explain yourself.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: Brian Kantor <[e-mail]>
Subject: Uniform Call Distribution For Modem Pool
Date: 23 Dec 90 19:41:29 GMT
Organization: The Avant-Garde of the Now, Ltd.


In the large hunt group on our campus Ericsson switch, I have had the
lines set up with 'uniform call distribution' so that the least
recently used line is selected first when a new call comes in.  This
is a real boon for modem banks like this, since it means that one
failed modem won't inconvenience everybody - someone connects to it,
disconnects when it provides unsatisfactory service, and on their call
back, they'll get a different modem.  That way people can still get
some service until I get a chance to fix the bad one.

I also have about a hundred PacBell single measured business lines in
modem hunt groups.  I'd like to get uniform call distribution on them
as well, but the campus telecom people tell me they couldn't get an
answer out of PacBell as to whether it's available or not, how to
order it if it is, nor how much it might cost.  We're served by a
5-ESS and a DMS-100, so I don't believe switch capability is the
problem.

Anyone know what PacBell might call this (yeah, Higdon, I know,
"unavailable") so I can get a price and/or order it?


Brian

------------------------------

From: peter <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: AT&T Mail Update: Internet Gateway Announced
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 1990 06:00:05 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:

> *  Users are prohibited to use the Internet to carry traffic between
>    commercial (for profit) electronic messaging systems.

I haven't seen this one before? Is this perhaps just AT&T trying to
keep people from realizing they now have access to MCI and Compu$erve
customers ... and thus are now selling what is purely a commodity
service?


Peter da Silva  ([e-mail])
                ([e-mail])


[Moderator's Note: I doubt that is their motive simply because AT&T
Mail and MCI Mail subscribers have been interconnected directly for
some time now, and MCI Mail customers have been interconnected
directly with Compuserve people for some time now. Neither MCI or AT&T
Mail need the Internet to route their inter-commercial network
traffic. And yes, I have heard it said -- but can't immediatly put my
finger on the reference -- that the Internet is not designed nor
intended to function as a switchboard for third parties not otherwise
using the net. That is, at least one end -- sender or recipient -- to
the mail is supposed to be here on the Internet to start with. It may
be stretching the rules a little to even allow routing of the form
'internet!bitnet!etc' and 'internet!fidonet!etc' but that can be done.
Both MCI and AT&T Mail reach dozens of other commercial networkd
direct, both here in the USA and many other countries.  PAT]

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V10 #904
******************************










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Date:     Mon, 24 Dec 90 23:49:01 CST
From:     TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
[To]:     [e-mail]
Subject:  TELECOM Digest V10 #905
BCC:
Message-ID:  <[e-mail]>


TELECOM Digest     Mon, 24 Dec 90 23:48:49 CST    Volume 10 : Issue 905

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: On Who You Owe When Slammed [Steve Forrette]
    Re: Avoiding Slamming (Warn Your Local Company) [Rich Wales]
    Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter' [[e-mail]]
    Re: Uniform Call Distribution For Modem Pool [Roger Fajman]
    Re: Is TAP Still Around? (was: Telecom-ers up North) [Bill Cerny]
    Full Service Long Distance [John Higdon]
    How Did 976 and 950 Become Special Prefixes? [Ron Newman]
    A Christmas Poem for Net People [Mark Steiger]
    Holiday Vacation Break: Back in About a Week [TELECOM Moderator]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Steve Forrette <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: On Who You Owe When Slammed
Organization: University of California, Berkeley


While it's not a total solution, here's something that Pacific Bell is
doing that should minimize calls to a "slamming" carrier: They now
send a confirmantion notice to you right away for all changes to your
service.  You generally get the notice two or three days after the
change.  It is sent for any type of change, from equal access carrier
change, custom calling feature change, calling card order, etc.  So at
least you don't have to wait to be shocked by the bill a month later.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 24 Dec 90 18:31:34 GMT
From: Rich Wales <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Avoiding Slamming (Warn Your Local Company)


Pat Barron said:

>This seems like the obvious solution for avoiding being slammed.  I
>called up my LEC's customer service number, and told them that I
>*never* wanted to have my long dis- tance carrier switched without
>*written* authorization from me, personally.  They said "fine", and
>noted my records to that effect.

When I called my local company (GTE) some time back and made an iden-
tical request, they flagged my phone records so that they would only
accept a long-distance carrier switch from me, personally.

I told them I only wanted them to honor a request from me in writing.
However, the GTE representative refused to do this; he said GTE would
continue to accept a verbal LD carrier switch, provided the caller
sat- isfied them (via either my driver's license number or Social
Security Number) that he was me.

I asked if there were any way to make my phone records more secure
than this, and was given the option of associating a "code name" with
their records.  Then, someone calling up GTE and claiming to be me
would have to supply said "code name" (in addition to either DL# or
SS#) before the phone company would deal with them.  I did this.

I called GTE again just now, and verified that my phone number is
indeed marked with a "no slamming" flag in accordance with my earlier
request.

For practical purposes, I suspect that this will suffice to block most
ordinary "slam" efforts.

What GTE might do if I were to send them a =letter= (via certified
mail with return receipt, of course) demanding no LD carrier switches
without my personal signature, I can't say.


Rich Wales <[e-mail]> // UCLA Computer Science Department
3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // [phone]

------------------------------

From: Sean <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 215 Area Code Loses "1" per Newspaper 'Reporter'
Date: 24 Dec 90 04:08:06 GMT
Organization: A civilization beneath the Earth, The Underground Empire.


[e-mail] (bill) writes:

> Sign me "puzzled",
> Bill Berbenich             [e-mail]

> [Moderator's Note: Dear Puzzled -- so am I.  I guess what she was
> trying to say was that '1' would be required henceforth in order
> that area codes could be used as prefixes. I guess ??

Pat -

 This reporter, believe it or not, is NOT incorrect. About four days
ago I received a letter from Bell of Pennsylvania which stated the
EXACT same thing, reinforcing the fact that they were eliminating the
'1' to gain more numbers. How, I have no idea. I will try to find the
letter and will type a copy to everyone. As well, I have an interview
set up with a Bell of Pennsylvania official scheduled for after the
holidays, and will get the technical scoop then. This one definately
requires more investigating!


Sean    [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: Roger Fajman <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 90  11:56:08 EST
Subject: Re: Uniform Call Distribution For Modem Pool


In order to get uniform call distribution (aka circular hunt) for a
10-line BBS I run, I had to get Centrex service.  It did not make a
huge difference in the monthly rate, so it wasn't a big deal.  I did
have a lot of trouble getting people in the telco business office to
understand what it was that I wanted.  I also got a separate number
for each of the ten lines on the rotary, with an eleventh number for
the rotary itself.  This lets each line be individually dialed for
problem determination.

This may or may not be of help to you, as I am not in PacBell land.
My BBS is in Rockville, Maryland, which is Bell Atlantic (Chesapeake
and Potomac Telephone) territory.

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Bill Cerny)
Subject: Re: Is TAP Still Around? (was: Telecom-ers up North)
Date: 24 Dec 90 08:56:14 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> mtxinu!Ingres.COM![e-mail]
writes:

>Are these guys still around? Haven't heard of them in a *long* time...

TAP died in 1981 when Cheshire Catalyst squandered the precious few $$
remaining in the TAP account.  He was finally evicted from his apt. on
200th St (Upper Manhattan), and the entire TAP library (back issues,
do-it-yourself projects, etc.) were tossed into a dumpster that the
landlord rented to clear the unit (remember the bedroom stacked five
feet deep with paper?).  It was a very sad day for phreakdom.


Bill Cerny    [e-mail]   |   attmail: !denwa!bill


[Moderator's Note: Now that you refresh my memory, I do remember the
incident and it was a very sad occassion. We were very fortunate here
that when Jon Solomon was no longer able to moderate the Digest or
properly care for the Telecom Archives, Mike Patton of MIT stepped in
and made storage space available. With some effort, I am gradually
reconstructing many of the old issues previously considered lost. I'm
going to spend some time this next week trying to finish the project
if possible. Once recovery of the old issues is finished, I'd like to
completely re-organize the archives to make searching by topic easier,
but that is still down the road a ways.    PAT]

------------------------------

Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Reply-To: John Higdon <[e-mail]>
Subject: Full Service Long Distance
Date: 23 Dec 90 13:38:24 PST (Sun)
From: John Higdon <[e-mail]>


In all the advertising and discussion of IECs, there has been a
service that has had scant attention: coin-paid calls. For the
purposes of disccussion, we are speaking of utility pay phones (COCOTs
are a bogus aberation).

Most Americans are brainwashed from birth that it is essential to
carry an IEC account of some kind. Whether it be a Calling Card,
FonCard, etc., most residents of the US have some kind of alternative
call billing capability. But there are also many, particularly
visitors to the US, that have no such account. These people depend on
the ability to deposit coins into the phone at the time of the call.

And who picks up 100% of this traffic? That's right: AT&T. Why?
Because the other carriers are not really full-service. Next time you
hear Sprint or MCI claiming to provide everything that AT&T does, run
down to your local utility pay phone and dial 10333+NPA+NUMBER or
10222+NPA+NUMBER (insert a '1' if required) and see how far you get. I
quarantee you the call will bomb. Then try 10288+NPA+NUMBER. You will
be asked to deposit money and if you do so your call will be
completed.

Why don't these companies carry coin-paid calls? I don't know. Equal
access has provided them with the means, but apparently they don't
consider that traffic to be worth the effort. It is just another case
of "skimming the cream". The "other" companies love the high volume,
high profit routes and services and are quite willing to leave the
esoterica to AT&T.

Who do you suppose will be the first non-AT&T carrier to accept
coin-paid calls? Do you think we will find out in this generation?


        John Higdon         |   P. O. Box 7648   |   [phone]
    [e-mail]     | San Jose, CA 95150 |       M o o !


[Moderator's Note: You are mistaken on this, at least in Illinois Bell
territory. A review of 'genuine' payphones in Chicago at least will
show an instruction card on the phones explaining how to dial, etc,
and with a notation on each phone saying "Long distance traffic from
this phone is handled by __________". The choices seem to be
(admittedly mostly) AT&T, Sprint, MCI and ITI. Apparently they
contract with Illinois Bell to actually handle the battery reversal,
supervision and other aspects of collecting or returning coins. A
little paste-on sticker fits in the blank space above, giving the name
of the carrier. On public coin phones, the carrier is almost AT&T, but
on semi-public coin service, I've seen all the carriers noted above.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: Ron Newman  <lotus![e-mail]>
Subject: How Did 976 and 950 Become Special Prefixes?
Reply-To: Ron Newman  <lotus![e-mail]>
Organization: Lotus Development Corp.
Date: Mon Dec 24 19:35:02 1990 GMT


How did it come to be that the prefixes 976 and 950 were already
available in every area code when the corresponding services
("extra-cost information services" and "alternate long-distance
carrier access numbers") were introduced?

Or were there some area codes where these exchanges were already in
use, and some unlucky subscribers were forced to change their
telephone numbers?

As far as I can see, 950 and 976 are perfectly ordinary looking NXX's.
Since the purposes that these exchanges now serve were in no way
anticipated when the North American Numbering Plan was first
introduced, how did they come to be "reserved" for such use?

(Even in the days of letter prefixes, I don't see how the phone
company could have always avoided assigning WRigley-6 or
WRightwood-6...)


Ron Newman


[Moderator's Note: '950' was never used prior to being adopted for the
OCC's. I think you will find it was only in the last few years that
the digit zero appeared *anywhere* in the prefix. Prefixes were
constructed (2 -> 9) (2 -> 9) (1 -> 9).  Zeros began showing up a few
years ago in the third position, but even then zeros in the second
position were absolutely verbotin. Generally 976 was idle also because
of an aversion to long dial pulls. They had WABash, WEAther,
WANnamaker and a few others -- maybe even WRigley, although I never
heard of it.  We also had WEbster 9 and WENtworth here, but generally
the nines were not all that crowded. Prefixes with short dial pulls
were more in vogue in the days when rotary dial was all we had. Some
customers thought long dial pulls were fashionable and prestigous,
thus the large number of business places and hotels which have been
around with the same phone number for six or seven decades with
suffixes ending in thousand or a high hundreds number.  But generally
speaking the majority of prefixes were clustered in the low hundreds,
i.e. 221 through 575, etc. Apparently words combining the letters
/ABC/ /DEF/ and /GHI/ were easier to come by also. Since for a long
time prefixes were the first three letters of a word followed by four
digits this also tended to leave the /WXY/ and /PRS/ spots sort of
sparse.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: Mark Steiger <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri Dec 21 90 at 16:36:02 (CST)
Subject: A Christmas Poem for Net People


Here's a neat little poem I found on here. :)

Merry Christmas!

Mark Steiger


=== File Attached ===

        'Twas the night before E-mail and all through the house,
        Not a program was working, not even a browse.
        The Sysops all hung by their tubes in despair
        With hopes that a miracle soon would be there.

        The users were nestled all snug in their beds
        While visions of messages danced in their heads.
        When out in the hall there arose such a clatter,
        I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.

        And what to my wondering eyes should appear,
        But a super programmer (with a six-pack of beer).
        His resume glowed with experience so rare;
        He turned out great code with a bit-fiddler's flair.

        More rapid than eagles, his programs they came,
        And he whistled and shouted and called them by name:
        On Qmail! On MarkMail! On Inquiry! On Delete!
        On Readers! On Closing! On Functions Complete!

        His eyes were glazed over; fingers nible and lean,
        From weekends and nights in front of a screen,
        A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
        Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

        He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
        Turning specs into code, then turned with a jerk.
        And laying his fingers upon the Enter key,
        The system came up and worked perfectly!

        The updates updated; the deletes they deleted;
        The inquiries inquired, and mail runs completed.
        He tested each whistle, and tested each bell
        With nary an abend, and all had gone well.

        The system was finished. The tests were concluded.
        The Sysops' last requests were even included.
        And the users exclaimed with a snarl and a taunt,
        "It's just what we asked for.. but not what we want!"

=====================

[ Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo 218/262-3142  300/1200/2400/9600 (HST/Dual)]

ProLine.:penguin@gnh-igloo                          America Online: Goalie5
UUCP....:crash!gnh-igloo!penguin                    MCI Mail......: MSteiger
Internet:[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 24 Dec 90 21:58:16 CST
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Holiday Vacation Break: Back in About a Week


This is more or less the final issue of 1990, however I may issue one
or two more over the weekend if any news of importance comes along.
Otherwise TELECOM Digest will resume publication about the middle of
next week as the new year and the new decade gets under way. Or are
you like me, insisting that the new decade began a year ago, despite
what the calendar puritans say?

To close this issue, and probably this year, I've attached a couple
quotes of interest received from readers. The one is from a .signature
file I deleted when an article from the reader first appeared. The
other was sent along specifically for your enjoyment today.

First, a very wise business decision by Western Union over a hundred
years ago which they probably still wish they could change. Gabe
Wiener sent this with an article some time ago:


Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ.  "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings
[e-mail]          to be seriously considered as a means of
[e-mail]    communication. The device is inherently of
[e-mail]      no value to us."  -Western Union memo, 1877

Thanks to Gabe for sending that along. Now a thought from Mark Twain:

  From: 99700000 <[e-mail]>
  Subject: Holiday Greetings From Mark Twain

"It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration
that all of us - the high, the low, the rich , the poor, the admired,
the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage - may
eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and
peace and bliss -- except the inventor of the telephone."

                    Mark Twain, 1890


Let's being 1991 with new topics please: No 'Re' messages on existing
threads, most of which have worn thin. Please hold your articles and
do not mail them here before about December 29 - 30.

In case we don't chat again for a week or so, have a very happy new
year!


Patrick Townson

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V10 #905
******************************










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Date:     Sat, 29 Dec 90 3:14:06 CST
From:     TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
[To]:     [e-mail]
Subject:  TELECOM Digest V10 #906
BCC:
Message-ID:  <[e-mail]>


TELECOM Digest     Sat, 29 Dec 90 03:14:00 CST    Volume 10 : Issue 906

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Bell Canada Tackles the AOS Issue [David Leibold]
    AT&T Rate Changes as of January 1 [John R. Levine]
    Prodigy Must Refund Fees to Unhappy Subscribers [Patrick A. Townson]
    TAP is Alive and Well! [Aristotle, writing in CuD via Jim Thomas]
    Speaking of Cheshire Catalyst ... [F.E. Carey]
    Another Christmas Poem - RFC 968 [Vint Cerf via Randolph J. Herber]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: woody <[e-mail]>
Subject: Bell Canada Tackles the AOS Issue
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 90 22:30:38 EST


[from Bell News, 17 Dec 1990]

Independent Operator Companies Confuse Customers

OTTAWA - Imagine you are on vacation or a business trip. You call home
long distance from your hotel, and when presented with your bill the
next morning you find that the total charge for the call amounts to
two or three times the Bell Canada rate!

Or, suppose you made the call from Ottawa to Montreal, but were billed
for a call from Toronto to Montreal.

Somebody has made a mistake! Right? Today, probably; but tomorrow,
maybe not.

"Customers in the United States have been experiencing this type of
situation for several years," said Mike Peacocke, director-Policy
Development, "and unless some action is taken here, we could be facing
the same thing very soon."

The root of the problem is the emergence of alternate operator
services (AOS) providers. They have been in the U.S. for some time,
and, with the relaxation of the rules governing resale by the CRTC
earlier this year, they could set up business here as well.

Resale is the sale or lease of telecommunications services originally
purchased (generally at bulk discount rates) from a telephone company.

"AOS firms target mainly pay telephone owners and institutions such as
hotels, hospitals and universities," said Peacocke.  "They sign
contracts with them to handle all operator-assisted calls originating
from guests, patients and students, giving these organizations a
percentage of the profits. Problems and confusion arise when the
callers are billed exorbitant rates for operator-assisted calls, or
when the origin of a call appearing on a customer's bill is not what
it should be."

A Consumer Protection Issue

The issue of just what rules Canadian AOS providers should operate
under is now before the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The company wants safeguards put
in place to protect customers from the unfair practices experienced in
the U.S..

AOS firms have not been regulated in the United States. As a result,
they can charge any price they wish and, in some instances, charge two
or three times the rates charged by telephone companies.

U.S. customers' complaints about AOS providers have prompted the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review the industry and
consider how it should be regulated. On October 17, 1990, the Operator
Services Consumer Protection Act was signed by U.S.  President Bush.
This new law directs the FCC to take immediate action to introduce
restrictions on AOS activities and provides for the FCC to set
guidelines for rates.

"Call Splashing" Causes Nightmares

In addition to the issues surrounding AOS rates, the practice of "Call
splashing" is also being discussed. As Peacocke explained:

"You are in an Ottawa hotel placing a call to Montreal, for example.
Your call is forwarded from the hotel via private line facilities to
the AOS provider's traffic office in Toronto. You wantr to use your
Calling Card [TM] and ask to be transferred to a Bell operator.

"The AOS operator transfers you to a Bell operator in Toronto who
presumes you're calling from that city, not Ottawa. As a result, you
end up being charged for a Toronto-Montreal call.  Imagine the billing
and collection nightmares that could cause!"

Telephone Companies Propose AOS Guidelines

So what's the solution to avoiding all of this confusion?

According to Peacocke, the solution will be found in making changes to
the tariffs governing the use of telecommunications services for
resale that would require AOS providers to:

* identify themselves to the caller and the accepting party of a
collect call at the onset of the call;

* after identification, allowing enough time for the caller to
terminate the call or be passed on to a Bell operator without charge;

* where a call is transferred to a telephone company operator, it must
be in the same city to avoid the confusion caused by call splashing;
and

* provide callers with the option of dialing a Bell operator directly
if they wish from locations serviced by AOS operators.

"These points were included in our submission to the CRTC," he said.
"There are a number of interveners in the proceeding, including
several major U.S. AOS companies, and the process will continue until
late December. We expect the Commission to issue a decision early next
year."

------------------------------

Subject: AT&T Rate Changes as of January 1
Date: Thu, 27 Dec 90 11:13:19 EST
From: "John R. Levine" <[e-mail]>


I haven't seen these reported on Telecom yet, so here are the AT&T
rate changes that go into effect January 1, from a press release on
the business wire:

The total decrease is supposed to be $33 million, not a whole lot.

A 1.1 percent drop in the MTS day rate, and corresponding drop in ROA
rates.

Calls from mainland US to what used to be East Germany now charged at
the lower West German rate.  No info on when country code 37 goes
away.

Cuts in basic prices from Hawaii to 17 countries and areas.

Lower prices for some operator-assisted and station-to-station calls
to Mexico.

Lower Reach Out World prices, including a reduction in the plan's
service order charge from $5 to zero, lower peak and off-peak prices
from the U.S.  mainland to Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and the
Philippines, lower peak prices to 11 other countries and lower prices
from Hawaii to five countries and areas.

Also, don't forget that seven-digit numbers in Tokyo have an extra 3
prefixed to the number to make them all eight digits.

If anyone cares, I don't work for AT&T and my regular carrier is
Sprint.

Regards,


John Levine, [e-mail], {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 29 Dec 90 0:51:02 CST
From: "Patrick A. Townson" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Prodigy Must Refund Fees to Unhappy Subsribers


UK Tony wrote me recently to mention a new development in the
situation with Prodigy, the White Plains, NY information service owned
jointly by Sears and IBM.

After discussions with the Texas Attorney General's office, Prodigy
has agreed to refund up to four month's of fees to Texas subscribers
who want to cancel the service.

The Texas Attorney General's office had accused Prodigy of misleading
customers about the rates and fees to use the service. According to
Jim Mattox of that office, the main selling point of the service was
that it charged a flat monthly rate with no usage charges. He said
that Prodigy did not adequately notify subscribers of the change to
usage-sensitive pricing of email when that new plan went into effect
back in Septmeber.

Although Prodigy disputed the claims of the Texas agency, saying that
adequate notice was given and that their billing practices were not
deceptive, they agreed with the Attorney General that the best
interests of all would be served by offering refunds to customers who
wished to cancel out.

Prodigy has agreed to notify Texas subscribers to the service for the
period September 6, 1990 to December 7, 1990 that they may cancel at
any time with no further obligation or penalty, and that they are
entitled to a refund of up to four month's of service fees.  Notices
must be posted electronically on the system in conspicuous places
making this same announcement.  In addition, Prodigy must clearly
disclose all fees for the service in future advertisement in Texas.

By it's own admission, Prodigy has 'several hundred thousand'
subscribers in Texas.

Prodigy also agreed to reimburse the government $12,500 for the costs
involved in the investigation and negotiations.

My thanks to UK Tony for passing along this interesting bit of news.
I'm sure many Prodigy subscribers and ex-subscribers are accepting the
news gleefully, even if they don't reside in Texas!    :)


Patrick Townson

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 26 Dec 90 15:40 CST
From: jt <[e-mail]>
Subject: TAP is Alive and Well!


TAP is alive and well. In addition to a newsletter, they also have a BBS for
exchange of information and news. TAP is available for the price of a postage
stamp for each issue by writing:

   TAP
   PO Box 20264
   Louisville,  KY  40250

Following is an editorial statement (from CuD 1.26) by the TAP editors
explaining its resurrection:

Jim Thomas

                             *********

  To: CuD Editors
  From: Aristotle, TAP Editor.

It had some to my attention that you may be confused about what TAP
Magazine is all about.  In this mail, I will aid you by explaining how
TAP came into our hands and why it is printed.  If you should have any
further questions, feel free to e-mail the address that this is sent
from.

HOW WE CAME INTO PRINTING TAP.  Since the first time I came into the
techno-underground scene, I had always heard of a 'cool' magazine
called TAP in New York.  After searching for a set of issues, my
friend and I came into purchasing a complete set.  At that time I had
been reading 2600 for about three years and my friend and I agreed
that what the techno-underground needed was a publication (in hardcopy
form), that would print article concerning all corners of the
techno-underground.  We liked 2600 and the other magazines (when they
came out), but we just felt that info on telephones and computers was
not enough.  There are a multitude of ways someone can hack.  To us,
hacking computers, phones, cable systems, satellite systems, and LIFE,
were all equally interesting.  Well since there was no current
magazine that we knew of which dealt with all the above things, we
decided TAP had been the perfect magazine for the situation.  After
pondering on what we could do with it, we tried to contact the last
editors.  We admit that we did not get a hold of the past editor until
we had complete an issue, Number 92.  We did though, get in touch with
both Cheshire Catalyst and Tuc after our first issue was done.

Cheshire Catalyst was sent a copy for his 'approval' and he proceeded
to give us permission to resume TAP where he had left off.  Tuc
expressed his approval after seeing 92 and speaking with us at
Summercon 89, in St.  Louis.  Cheshire, at first, decided he would let
us print but he would not openly admit that we had his permission
until we were established as a reputable publication.  Well, after we
showed Tuc and Cheshire the magazine, Cheshire gave his full
cooperation with our production of TAP and even offered some helpful
words of wisdom on running TAP.  I am not going to get into the debate
of whether we are the original TAP, but I would like to say that you
could not get any closer to the original than we are.  TAP never had
one consistent editor.  Many people edited TAP and published it.  The
way we see it is that we are just following in the footsteps of the
original editor.  I suppose you could call it a tradition, TAP WAS
HANDED DOWN TO ME PERSONALLY BY THE LAST EDITOR.

WHAT TAP IS ALL ABOUT.  TAP is printed for the sole purpose of
promoting the free distribution of useful information concerning the
techno-underground.  Every so often we will print articles concerning
politics or human rights but that is part of the flavor of TAP.  If we
decide that some info fits the format of the magazine, we print it.
The staff of TAP has always believed in opposing any and all
censorship.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES. One of the major reasons for our deciding to print
TAP was that there was a gaping hole in the market.  The only popular
hack/phreak publication that we could find was 2600.  With 2600 asking
$18 for four issues, we felt something had to be done for the people
that could not afford something that expensive.  Therefore, we decided
to give TAP away.  Everyone should have the ability to access TAP.
Since TAP is free, we also decided against copyrighting our magazine.
Anyone if free to copy any part of TAP at their own free will.  The
only thing we ask is that we get credit in their reproduction for what
we produced.

To get a copy of TAP, all a subscriber has to do is send us a 25 cent
stamp to cover postage.  We will pay all other costs.  The price might
go up to 50 cents soon as we are using larger envelopes which cost
more to mail.  If someone wants to get a subscription, he/she only
needs to send the correct amount of postage for the amount of issues
he/she wants to receive.  We like to get subscriptions in lots of ten
or less issues.  Anything over ten issues is considered a donation.
Back issues of all one-hundred issues are also being offered now.
These will cost actual money.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 26 Dec 90 23:22:59 EST
From: F E Carey <[e-mail]>
Subject: Speaking of Cheshire Catalyst ...
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories


>>Are these guys still around? Haven't heard of them in a *long* time...

>TAP died in 1981 when Cheshire Catalyst squandered the precious few $$
>remaining in the TAP account.  He was finally evicted from his apt. on

I spotted the Cheshire Cat at one of the Computer Security Institute
Conferences in Chicago in the mid-eighties - either '84 or '85.  He'd
gotten in with a press pass (whose - unknown), was fairly well groomed
(haircut), and seemed to be keeping a low profile.

------------------------------

Subject: Another Christmas Poem -- RFC 968
Date: 29 Dec 90 00:04:32 CST (Sat)
From: "Randolph J. Herber" <[e-mail]>


Another Christmas poem is RFC 968.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


Randolph J. Herber,
 @ home: {att|mcdchg|laidbak|obdient|wheaton}!yclept!rjh,
[e-mail]


Network Working Group                        V. Cerf
Request for Comments: 968                    MCI
                                             December 1985

                    'Twas the Night Before Start-up'


STATUS OF THIS MEMO

   This memo discusses problems that arise and debugging techniques used
   in bringing a new network into operation.  Distribution of this memo
   is unlimited.

DISCUSSION

   Twas the night before start-up and all through the net,
     not a packet was moving; no bit nor octet.
   The engineers rattled their cards in despair,
     hoping a bad chip would blow with a flare.
   The salesmen were nestled all snug in their beds,
     while visions of data nets danced in their heads.
   And I with my datascope tracings and dumps
     prepared for some pretty bad bruises and lumps.
   When out in the hall there arose such a clatter,
     I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.

   There stood at the threshold with PC in tow,
     An ARPANET hacker, all ready to go.
   I could see from the creases that covered his brow,
     he'd conquer the crisis confronting him now.
   More rapid than eagles, he checked each alarm
     and scrutinized each for its potential harm.

   On LAPB, on OSI, X.25!
     TCP, SNA, V.35!

   His eyes were afire with the strength of his gaze;
     no bug could hide long; not for hours or days.
   A wink of his eye and a twitch of his head,
     soon gave me to know I had little to dread.
   He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
     fixing a net that had gone plumb berserk;
   And laying a finger on one suspect line,
     he entered a patch and the net came up fine!

   The packets flowed neatly and protocols matched;
     the hosts interfaced and shift-registers latched.
   He tested the system from Gateway to PAD;
     not one bit was dropped; no checksum was bad.
   At last he was finished and wearily sighed
     and turned to explain why the system had died.
   I twisted my fingers and counted to ten;
     an off-by-one index had done it again...

   Vint Cerf
   December 1985


[Moderator's Note: And a second time around from me: Happy holidays to
one and all!  I had time to get this issue out over the weekend, and
wanted to pass along the news herein ... so here it is!  In two or
three days regular publication of the Digest will resume.    PAT]

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V10 #906
******************************










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Date:     Sun, 30 Dec 90 11:10:30 CST
From:     TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
[To]:     [e-mail]
Subject:  TELECOM Digest V10 #907
BCC:
Message-ID:  <[e-mail]>


TELECOM Digest     Sun, 30 Dec 90 11:10:25 CST    Volume 10 : Issue 907

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Apple-Cat Modem and TDD [Ralph W. Hyre]
    Apple-Cat Modem: Quite a Hacker's Toy [Lazlo Nibble]
    Re: Full Service Long Distance [Ken Abrams]
    C/NA Number for 716 Area Code? [Lance Ware]
    Personalized Ring Recognizing Hardware? [M. Khan]
    Correction on Price of TAP [Jim Thomas]
    Sprint WORLD [John R. Levine]
    What is the Latest Model of Motorola Mobil Phone? [Kevin K. L. Wong]
    Sorry, Wrong Number [Clayton Cramer]
    LEC Competition in Washington? [Peter Marshall]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Apple-Cat Modem and TDD
From: [e-mail] (Ralph W. Hyre)
Date: 30 Dec 90 06:40:47 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Ralph W. Hyre)
Organization: AT&T OSS Development, Cincinnati


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark
Steiger) writes:
>X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 890, Message 8 of 11

>The old Apple-Cat modems can also be used to connect to TTY machines.
>Also to TDD machines.

>[Moderator's Note: Do you mean they had a switch-selectable setting
>allowing them to work both ways?  I had one and don't remember it.  PAT]

No, they had a multiprotocol modem chip that could handle various FSK
and PSK frequencies (Bell 103, 202, several CCIT frequencies and the
'Weitbrecht' modem at 45.5 bps for TDD using Baudot coding (supported
by ASCII Express Pro and Novation's firmware ROM chip.)  An add-on
card supported Bell 212.

The Apple-Cat was a neat modem, you could run a crude voice-mail
system on it and build an answering machine surpassing anything
available commercially at the time.  I heard rumors (on Telecom, in
fact) that the manufacturer was sued by AT&T because of the fraud
potential.  (And perhaps because they heard that John Draper, aka
Captain Crunch, designed it) The modem had an on-board D/A converter
for touch-tone generation and voice synthesis, and some folks wrote
programs to generate 2600hz and other signalling frequencies, TSPS
being the most infamous.  It even had menu items for 'Quarter',
'Dime', and 'Nickel'.


Ralph Hyre,    soon to be  [phone] tdd/45.5/300/1200/2400
               later 4800/9600/fax

------------------------------

From: Lazlo Nibble <[e-mail]>
Subject: Apple-Cat Modem: Quite a Hacker's Toy
Organization: Studio Nibble -- Trashy Eurodisco DJ Squadron
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 90 07:24:21 GMT


[e-mail] (Mark Steiger) writes:

> The old Apple-Cat modems can also be used to connect to TTY machines.
> Also to TDD machines.

> [Moderator's Note: Do you mean they had a switch-selectable setting
> allowing them to work both ways?  I had one and don't remember it.  PAT]

The Apple-Cat (I take umbrage to their being called "old", because as I
type this I'm using one with a Bell 212 (1200 baud) upgrade board
attached :-) could/can handle the following baud rates, as listed in
the manual:

    50/75 baud -- for, as they call it, "very low speed communication"
    110 or 150 baud -- "TWX or TELEX transmissions"
    300 baud -- the old standby, Bell 103
    1200 baud -- in half-duplex Bell 202 mode . . . which a lot of
        folks actually wrote software to handle; it wasn't much
        fun for calling boards with, even when they supported it,
        but it was just fine for 1200 baud transfers.  Anyone
        remember Cat-Fur?
    45.5 baud -- "communications with the deaf network"; this last
        required a "simple, no-charge hardware modification" from
        the factory, probably a trace cut on the board.

All these modes were supported right out of the box (except the latter
which required the hardware modification and special software that was
free but not supplied automatically when you bought the modem) and
were switchable from software.

In addition to the 212 upgrade board, you could also get an expansion
module that added an RS-232 connector, a BSR interface, and
input/output/remote control jacks for a cassette recorder; a firmware
ROM that let the modem be easily controlled from BASIC, a BSR
transformer for the expansion module, and an IC that added touchtone
decoding.  There were pins on the expansion port I/O connector that
allowed for a speech synthesizer interface but I don't think it was
ever developed, though I have some underground software that takes
advantage of the onboard DAC to produce synthesized speech from
software (as well as music, phone-related sounds and tones, and other
esoterica).

Quite a hacker's toy.


Lazlo ([e-mail])

------------------------------

From: Ken Abrams <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Full Service Long Distance
Date: 26 Dec 90 19:09:13 GMT
Reply-To: Ken Abrams <pallas![e-mail]>
Organization: Athenanet, Inc.,  Springfield, Illinois


In article <[e-mail]> John Higdon <[e-mail]>
writes:

[Speaking of 1+ coin calls.....]

>And who picks up 100% of this traffic? That's right: AT&T. Why?
>Because the other carriers are not really full-service. Next time you
>hear Sprint or MCI claiming to provide everything that AT&T does, run
>down to your local utility pay phone and dial 10333+NPA+NUMBER or
>10222+NPA+NUMBER (insert a '1' if required) and see how far you get. I
>quarantee you the call will bomb. Then try 10288+NPA+NUMBER. You will
>be asked to deposit money and if you do so your call will be
>completed.

>[Moderator's Note: You are mistaken on this, at least in Illinois Bell
>territory. A review of 'genuine' payphones in Chicago at least will
>show an instruction card on the phones explaining how to dial, etc,
>and with a notation on each phone saying "Long distance traffic from
>this phone is handled by __________". The choices seem to be
>(admittedly mostly) AT&T, Sprint, MCI and ITI. Apparently they
>contract with Illinois Bell to actually handle the battery reversal,

I just HATE trimming quotes of exchanges between John and Pat.  It's
so hard to leave anything out because it is all (usually) pertinent.

Anyhow, on this issue they both are partly right and partly wrong.
(and I'm not really sure I can give the whole story accurately
either!)

About eight months ago, Judge G or the FCC finally ruled on the issue
of "pre-subscribed" carriers for "real" coin phones.  In a nutshell,
the pre-assigned carrier can apply either to 1+ calls, 0+ calls or
both depending on what the IEC orders from the LEC.  To date, in
Illinois, no carrier has indicated that it cares to handle the 1+
calls where the caller puts money in the box (except AT&T).

The matter gets a little complicated if you think the whole thing
through.  The order, as I understand it, said that the LECs shall
arrange the coin routing such that 1+ calls WILL go to an IEC that can
handle these calls.  So, in Illinois, if you dial a 0+ inter-lata
call, it will go the the pre-assigned carrier (the one on the
sticker).  If you dial an inter-lata 1+ call, it will go to AT&T
because they are the only IEC that can handle these calls at the
moment.

The complicated part in having other IECs handle coin-paid calls is, I
think, as much an accounting problem as it is one of technology.  If
it is possible to have several different carriers collecting money
into the pay phone, how does the LEC divide up this money when it
collects the coin box?

John's experience seems to indicate that in his area, the 1+ calls
will be blocked so maybe there is more flexibility in the "order" than
I think.  Maybe the routing of the 1+ calls to AT&T is a regional
policy instead of a legal requirement.


Ken Abrams                     uunet!pallas!kabra437
Illinois Bell                  [e-mail]
Springfield                    (voice) 217-753-7965


[Moderator's Note: Why do you feel the accounting would be any more of
a problem than it is now? At present, the collecting agent (here, it
is of course IBT) still has to detirmine which coins were deposited
for local calls and which coins were deposited for long distance
calls. AT&T bills IBT for long distance calls from each payphone; IBT
in turn pays the bill and keeps all the coins. Would it matter if
other carriers were billing IBT for long distance calls they handled
from the phone? IBT would still keep all the coins deposited, deduct
their commission for handling the collection, etc, and remit the
balance due to the specific company.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: Lance Ware <[e-mail]>
Subject: C/NA Number for 716 Area Code?
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 90 04:27:56 GMT


Does anyone know the C/NA number for the 716 area code?  My list has
become somewhat outdated and the number I have doesn't work.

Thanks in Advance.


Lance Ware               Mac and IBM Reseller
   [e-mail]        [e-mail]


[Moderator's Note: I do not know of any telco specifically offering
CNA to the public except Illinois Bell (312-796-9600). Am I mistaken
on this?   PAT]

------------------------------

From: "M. Khan" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Personalized Ring Recognizing Hardware?
Date: 29 Dec 90 05:38:46 GMT


Where can I get a box that recognizes and directs to a separate
physical line the personalized ring that some telcos are offering.
Cost? Experiences?

What I am NOT asking about are the boxes that answer the call and then
make FAX/voice/computer decisions based on what they hear.


[e-mail]   bigtex!wroach!mk

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 29 Dec 90 17:22 CST
From: jt <[e-mail]>
Subject: Correction on Price of TAP


TAP "subscriptions" are no longer the price of a postage stamp.  Alas,
like most other good deals, escalating costs required a rise in fees.
Each issue is now $2, but it's still worth it.


Jim Thomas

------------------------------

Subject: Sprint WORLD
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 90 16:16:01 EST
From: "John R. Levine" <[e-mail]>


Here's another rate change that nobody noticed.

On December 21st, Sprint announced Sprint WORLD, their response to
AT&T's Reach Out World and MCI's analogous program, the name of which
eludes me.

Salient points:

Effective immediately:

$3/month charge waived until the end of February.

Off-peak Rates: Asia/Pacific, 79 cents/min; Europe, 59 cents/min;
Canada, 17 cents/min. Mexico 24 to 89 cents/min depending on where you
call.

Available with either regular dial-1 or Sprint Plus.  With Sprint
Plus, the Sprint WORLD rates are not further discountable, though
international calls not at WORLD rates are.  (Sprint Plus has a
$8/month mimimum fee and volume discounts from 5% to 15%.)

These rates are good but not great.  In particular, to Canada AT&T and
MCI offer rates as low as 12 cents/minute.

I'm a Sprint customer, but I don't make many international calls.

Regards,


John Levine, [e-mail], {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl

------------------------------

From: Kevin K L WONG <[e-mail]>
Subject: What is the Latest Model of Motorola Mobil Phone?
Date: 30 Dec 90 03:41:00 GMT
Reply-To: Kevin K L WONG <[e-mail]>
Organization: Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Melbourne


A friend of mine would like to know what is the latest model of mobile
phone from Motorola in particular. The Australian market may be a bit
behind. Particularly, he would like to know the dimensions, the
weight, functionalities and special features.  When did it come to the
market? Thanks.


Kevin WONG                       |  ACSnet   : [e-mail]
Department of Elec Engineering   |  internet : [e-mail]
University of Melbourne          |  uunet    : uunet!munnari!mullian!kklw

------------------------------

From: Clayton Cramer <optilink![e-mail]>
Subject: Sorry, Wrong Number
Date: 27 Dec 90 23:00:19 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA


> [Moderator's Note: One example which has stuck in my mind since this
> thread began was the use of BOWery 9-1000. A 'crime on the waterfront'
> type movie from the 1940's (title long forgotten -- anyone remember
> [...]
> tavern, madame."  (woman) "What? What number is this?"  (man) "Boweryp
> nine one thousand. You're connected with the city morgue. Your husband
> is dead, madame; you'll have to come and get him, I'm afraid."  PAT]

The movie, of course, is not a "crime on the waterfront" movie --
it's that most blatantly of telecom movies -- "Sorry, Wrong Number"!


Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
You must be kidding!  No company would hold opinions like mine!

------------------------------

Subject: LEC Competition in Washington?
From: Peter Marshall <halcyon![e-mail]>
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 90 08:24:35 PST


The following is from a 12/12/90 Protest filed with the WA Utilities
and Transportation Commission by GTE-NW against a pending application
for registration as a telecom company and competitive classification,
filed by GCI FiberNet, Inc., apparently, a TCI affiliate.

According to the GTE-NW Protest, GCI wants to provide "non-switched
services which are presently provided -- or might be provided -- by
GTE-NW and other local telephone companies...," and GCI wants "to
pursue the most lucrative customers;" so GTE-NW says "The application
raises very signficant issues about duplicating services provided by
local telephone companies and infringing on their franchised
territories ... significant revenues are at stake, and eventual
impacts on the price of local basic service are probable ... the
Commission's action ... will naturally constitute an important
precedent...."

GCI, says GTE, wants to construct and run fiber nets in the Seattle
area and to provide intrastate and intraexchange services; and
granting its application would authorize it to provide intra and
interLATA service, including that within and between exisiting local
exchange boundaries.  According to GTE,approval would let GCI actually
provide any type of service.

The Protest also indicates GTE's view that "GCI-F's application raises
affiliate and cross-subsidy issues;" explaining that they are
"indirectly owned by or otherwise affiliated with TCI," and that the
PUC should determine "whether any improper subsidy will flow in either
direction between GCI-F's ratepayers and TCI's customers."


Peter Marshall

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V10 #907
******************************










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Date:     Sun, 30 Dec 90 12:42:51 CST
From:     TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
[To]:     [e-mail]
Subject:  TELECOM Digest V10 #908
BCC:
Message-ID:  <[e-mail]>


TELECOM Digest     Sun, 30 Dec 90 12:42:44 CST    Volume 10 : Issue 908

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Disturbing Actions by Lotus [Steve Kass, with a note from Larry Seiler]
    Much Ado About Nothing [TELECOM Moderator]
    COCOT in GTE land [Stan M. Krieger]
    Another Year Finished [TELECOM Moderator]
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Date: Sun, 30 Dec 90 00:43 EDT
From: Steve Kass <[e-mail]>
Subject: Disturbing Actions by Lotus
Organization: Math & CS Dept/Drew U/Madison NJ 07940


Lotus Development Corporation has a new product due out in 1991,
called "Household Marketplace."  It's a database on CDROM.  It has the
estimated income and a profile of the buying habits of 120 million US
residents.  That's a high percentage of the US population -- the odds
are pretty good that YOU are in the Lotus database.

A Lotus spokesman has said that the company is concerned about privacy
issues, so to help prevent misuse of the data only legitimate
businesses can get the disk.  With easy access to a laser printer, a
POBox, and/or a fax machine, however, it is hard to see how Lotus can
determine the legitimacy of anyone, however, and I'm sure that with
minor effort almost anyone will be able to purchase Marketplace.  The
cost, by the way, is under $1000 with quarterly updates available.

The database does not contain any of the data covered by the Fair
Credit Practices Act so Lotus is under no legal obligation to let you
see what they are saying about you.  In fact, during interviews they
have said that there is NO WAY for an individual to review their
personal data, nor are there any provisions to make corrections on
what is recorded.

Lotus will remove anyone from their database who writes to them.
Send a letter to:

    Lotus Development Corp.
    Attn:  Market Name Referral Service
    55 Cambridge Parkway
    Cambridge, MA 02142

             -----  additional comments by Larry Seiler -----

Folks,

I recently forwarded a message about a new Lotus product -- a database
on CDROM of 120 million US residents with their estimated incomes and
buying profiles.  Someone questioned whether Lotus is really doing
this, so I checked by calling Lotus and speaking to someone in
pre-sales service.

It really is true.  Lotus is still gearing up to sell their "Household
Marketplace" product, and it really does give information on
individual people, not just regional statistical summaries.  I learned
the following (and I asked for literature, so I'll soon know even
more):

1) Yes, it really *DOES* have names and addresses of individuals.

2) They have divided up the database by regions, and you specify the
region you are interested in when you buy the product.  That explains
how they could have 120 million people in their database and still
sell you just 1 CD (or a few) for your purchase price.

3) They also have a "Business Marketplace" CD with data on seven
million US businesses.

I forebore yelling at the sales-type who handled my call, merely
asking if there was a place to write with comments about the service.
Apparently the sales types haven't heard of the controversy the
product is raising, since she replied that several different reports
can be generated by the product, and some of them do have space for
comments.

GREAT!  So not only do they have the audacity to print an estimate of
your income (which could be quite damaging if they get it wrong, and
is an intrusion into your privacy if they get it right), they also
have space on the disk for arbitrary comments about you -- and they'll
be selling this data in volume to mass marketing companies across the
country!

In interviews, Lotus has said that individuals will NOT be able to
correct their own entries, or even see what they are.  I didn't try to
confirm this in my call to Lotus, but I did confirm that the person
who reported it -- Rich Salz of BBN -- has an excellent reputation on
the internet.  Also, everything he said that I checked with Lotus is
absolutely accurate.  Further, the {Wall Street Journal} has reported
on it -- saying that the database has ages, marital status, and other
such personal data as well.

So I believe it, and you should to, since it is going to affect your
life.  Remember -- a database of 120 million US residents comes to
almost half the people in the country.  Considering that the database
is probably biased toward those with higher incomes, the chances are
*really good* that anyone able to electronically read this message is
in the database.

What can you do about it?  A couple of things.  Lotus has said that
they'll omit from their database anyone who asks.  Therefore, start by
writing to the address below.  Tell them that you don't want to be in
the database, and tell them exactly what you think of their database.

Second, pass this message along to anyone whom you think might care.
To me, this is not just a matter of privacy.  Lotus is going to sell
information behind our backs -- we are not allowed to dispute their
data or even know what it is.  Worse, Lotus is going to sell rumors
about our income.  Still worse, they will do it on a scale never
before achieved.  This should not be tolerated.  Please help to stop
Lotus.

Thanks,

Larry Seiler


[Moderator's Note: The {Wall Street Journal}, November 13, 1990
discussed this in detail in a story on page B-1 entitled "Lotus - New
Program Spurs Fears Privacy Could be Undermined".  WSJ has in the past
complained about TELECOM Digest reprinting their stuff, so it is
omitted here.  See my reply in this issue, 'Much Ado About Nothing". I
hope telecom-priv will pick up this discussion at this point and
allow it to continue there.   PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 30 Dec 90 11:53:42 CST
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Much Ado About Nothing


In this issue of the Digest, I've included a greatly edited file I
received discussing the plans of Lotus to market a national database
of names, addresses, telephone numbers and other details. The opinion
of the submitter was that this is going to be a terrible invasion of
privacy, and a source of much incorrect information, leading to
trouble for the individuals in the data base. I don't think this is
the case at all.

We've heard news in recent weeks about another national, computerized
and publicly accessible database of telephone numbers and addresses:
the one offered by Compuserve (GO PHONEFILE) to anyone who wants to
pay a $15 per hour surcharge to use it in addition to normal
Compuserve rates.

The only thing different about the CIS program and the proposed Lotus
program -- the only break with the past -- is that these are a little
easier and more convenient to use. The information has always been
there. Criss-cross directories, listing precisely the same
information, have been around since before this century. Credit
bureaus have had the information for just as long: the first credit
bureau in this country started in the middle 1800's. There have been
*regional* databases for many years containing all this information.

You cannot place information about yourself in the public record and
then object when someone gathers it all together in a convenient, easy
for the public to read style. My home telephone numbers are non-pub. I
have yet to see them in any criss-cross -- electronic or paper --
anywhere. Why should Lotus and/or Compuserve be castigated on this net
any more or less than the Haines Publishing Company?  Why should
credit bureaus keep records and Lotus not keep records? How many times
have you filled out credit applications and listed your salary and
place of employment? Now you object that businesses rely on the
information *you* provided earlier?

If anything, the lesson here should be to keep your mouth shut. The
less you say about yourself in public records, the less there will be
to be compiled, but to repeat: you cannot do things publicly then
object when someone recalls your public actions. There are numerous
techniques -- perfectly legal ways -- to maintain your privacy. One is
the use of non-pub telephone numbers. Another is by using post office
boxes to receive mail. I use both of these. You look up my street
address in the cross reference and you draw a blank. You can transact
business with cash. When you start asking society for *privileges* --
i.e. extensions of credit, or the ability to pay your bills with
promissory notes (checks are merely promises to pay at the time the
check is presented to your bank) -- then you will be scrutinized based
on your public actions to date. How can you legitmatly complain about
that? Extensions of credit, writing checks, driving an automobile and
signing contracts are not automatic rights in this country. No one has
to do business with you.

So we make trade-offs and put what information we think is important
to our well-being in the public record. You turn this flow off and on
at your will. Don't blame the compilers of the records for what YOU
put there!

Another point raised in the article dealt with the accuracy of the
records maintained. The suggestion was that the records would be
inaccurate and thus harmful to the individual named when the records
were obtained by others. While there is no doubt that no database is
one hundred percent accurate, how long do you think any credit bureau
or information-gathering organization could stay in business if their
records were chronically inaccurate?  As as mail-order company, I ask
the credit bureau for a list of AAA+ individuals I can solicit with my
product for sale on open account credit. In error, the credit bureau
supplies me a list of deadbeats. I ask Haines (or Lotus, or whoever)
for a list of new residents in a community so I can attempt to sell
them my real-estate services. In error they send me a list of people
who have lived in their homes for thirty years. The information
services have a vested interest in accuracy also it would seem.

But they told you they would not correct your record, didn't they?
What they meant was they do not accept *unsubstantiated and/or
undocumented* requests for changes, additions and deletions. Part of
acheiving the goal of accuracy and completeness comes from accepting
changes to the database from reliable sources. Your intentions may be
only the best -- not everyone operates the same way as yourself!

In summary, Lotus and Compuserve are doing nothing that hasn't been
done for many years in a different format. There is nothing unethical
or immoral in compiling an overview of the PUBLIC actions of other
people. When you buy and sell, transact business with the public and
use publicly owned facilities, then you dig your own hole, so to
speak. When you are called into court to answer for your actions, the
Constitution of the United States says the trial will be open to the
public ** for your protection ** among other things. We do not have
secret courts and trials in the USA. And finally, there is absolutely
nothing to be gained by not keeping accurate records. No one who buys
the information wants inaccurate data. What good would that do them?

If the records are maintained inaccurately out of malice or the
records involve a true invasion of your privacy -- what you do in your
home, on your own property, out of the public view -- then you have a
complaint. Until then, you do not. Errors can be corrected by
documenting the correct information.

As disagreeable as I found the original article in this issue of the
Digest, I printed it out of my own sense of obligation as a Moderator
to fairly present both sides in issues of importance. I hope that
further distribution of the article will include this reply.  I hope
also that our companion mailing list, [e-mail] will
permit the many replies anticipated to be published.


Patrick Townson


------------------------------

Date: Sun, 30 Dec 90 12:30:14 EST
From: S M Krieger <[e-mail]>
Subject: COCOT in GTE Land
Organization: Summit NJ


While trying to place a call from a COCOT in Fort Myers, FL last week,
what happened made me wonder how they interface with GTE.

After getting an "invalid number" synthesized message as I started
pushing 10288, I pushed "0".  It took about 8 rings for the GTE
operator to answer, but if she had answered earlier, she would have
heard a synthesized message from the phone, repeated twice, that said
something like, "Operator, this is a private phone.  Do not allow any
billing to this number".  When the operator did answer, I told her the
phone did not allow LD company selection and asked her to connect me
to AT&T.  She said I should dial 10288, but when I told her that
either the phone or line was broken (yeah, right) and treated 10288 as
an invalid number, she connected me to AT&T.

So I wonder what exactly the interface between the COCOT and phone
company is.  For example, in Bell Operating Company areas, the
operators know that the line is a COCOT, and often refuse to provide
any assistance because of it, but in this case, between the phone's
recorded message to the operator (which she didn't hear because it
took about twenty seconds to answer the phone and the recorded
messages ended in about ten seconds) and the fact she splashed me over
to AT&T, I wonder if the line appeared to her to be a normal phone
line.


Stan Krieger Summit, NJ
 ...!att!attunix!smk

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 30 Dec 90 12:19:10 CST
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Another Year Finished


Another year is finished ... and the decade of the eighties is ending.
During the summer of 1991, TELECOM Digest will complete ten years on
the net, and I thought you might be interested in seeing the
introduction to TELECOM Digest which went out with the very first
issue back in 1981.


  25-Aug-81 01:35:31-EDT,0013963;000000000001
  Date: 25 Aug 1981 0135-EDT
  From: JSOL
  Subject: TELECOM Digest V1 #1
  To: Telecom: ;

TELECOM AM Digest     Tuesday, 24 Aug 1981       Volume 1 : Issue 1

Today's Topics:     Administrivia - Welcome Aboard
            USRNET - Alternative to A. T. & T.
           Problems with Dimension - One Persons Views


Date: 24 Aug 1981 0118-EDT
From: the Moderator <JSol at Rutgers>
Subject: Administrivia

Welcome to TELECOM. This digest is a spinoff from the HUMAN-NETS
discussion on the telephone network and switching equipment.  Parts of
this digest are in fact submissions to HUMAN-NETS which were never
published, and are presented here to spark the discussion.

The archive for this is in the usual place, DUFFEY;_DATA_ TELCOM at
MIT-AI, and we will shortly be adding to the archive the discussions
that have taken place in HUMAN-NETS relating to telecommunications.

I will be moderating this list from Rutgers, as I do with POLI-SCI,
but you can still send mail to TELECOM@MIT-AI, or TELECOM@RUTGERS.
If you want to communicate with the maintainers then you should
send mail to TELECOM-REQUEST@MIT-AI, or TELECOM-REQUEST@RUTGERS.

Enjoy,
JSol

                 ---------------------------

Jon Solomon was of course the Moderator here for several years, until
the summer of 1988. He published the Digest using the facilities at
his places of employment including Rutgers and Boston University.
Although I am not employed by Northwestern University, the staff of
the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department there has
always been very gracious to me and generous with their facilities. A
word of thanks is due at the end of another year to Bill LeFebvre for
accomodating my accounts -- and heavy volume of traffic! -- at his
site. Thanks also go to Mary Riendeau at Boston University for
continuing to provide a backup site for comp.dcom.telecom as needed
and Mike Patton at MIT for providing space for the Telecom Archives.

Have a happy new year!


Patrick Townson

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V10 #908
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