Telecom/1996-04-telecom-walnutcreek.iso/back.issues/1991.volume.11/vol11.iss1051-1061

Text File | 1991-12-31 | 189KB | 4,759 lines

Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa06445;
          27 Dec 91 2:20 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08833
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 27 Dec 1991 00:29:04 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03357
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 27 Dec 1991 00:28:46 -0600
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1991 00:28:46 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1051

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 27 Dec 91 00:28:39 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1051

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: AT&T Echo to the UK (Floyd Davidson)
    Re: AT&T Rates and Low Income Customers (Gihan Dias)
    Re: New AT&T Charge For Overseas Information (Henry Mensch)
    Re: New AT&T Charge For Overseas Information (Andy Sherman)
    Re: Area Code 206 Changes (Steve Forrette)
    Re: Life on Hold: Unhappy Inbound Campers (Steve Forrette)
    Re: Telecaroling (Scott Dorsey)
    Re: BWI Airport Payphones (Desi Fuller)
    Re: Sprint Calling Cards and the 'Bong' Tone (Henry Mensch)
    Re: Lack of Phone Numbers in Yellow Page Ads (Mike Berger)
    Re: Call 1-900-SOMEONE (Peter da Silva)
    Re: Caller-ID Chip Spec Sheet Humor (Peter da Silva)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Floyd Davidson)
Subject: Re: AT&T Echo to the UK
Organization: University of Alaska Institute of Marine Science
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1991 11:01:51 GMT


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

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

>> [ complaints about short time-constant echoes on AT&T circuits
>> to the UK ]

>> AT&T *always* had a slight delay -- if you hit a Touch Tone key right
>> when the other side was making some sound (FAX carrier or "not in
>> area" carphone message), you could hear the touch tone returned to
>> you. It wasn't as long as what one would expect from a satellite
>> circuit, so maybe they are using fiber one way and satellite the other
>> way? (Hey, AT&T *still* uses satellites to Hawaii!)

> And, yes, *every* carrier still has satellite circuits for international
> calling and places like Alaska and Hawaii.  (Floyd from Alascom can
> correct me if I'm wrong about Alaska.  I believe that Alascom is the
> only IXC there.)

Things recently changed ... there is a spur off the North Pacific
Fiber that goes to Seward, Alaska which now handles all traffic going
out of state.  It was placed in service last summer.

Alascom, Inc. is the regulated carrier at this time, but not the only
carrier.  MCI and Sprint connect calls via General Communications
Inc., a small but well known (in Alaska) company.

And in the very near future the inter-state service will belong to
AT&T no less!  The deal is done and the regulators are working on it.
Alascom will become just another RBOC type entity.

> There are some places where a satellite is the only way to get there.

Much of the traffic within the state of Alaska fits that description.
Nome, Barrow, Bethel, Kotzebue ... and all small villages are served
only by satellite.

> There are other places where satellite circuits
> provide needed excess capacity.  To the UK there are undersea fiber,
> undersea cable, and satellite circuits.

This is certainly the way it is normally done.  Before the fiber was
in place we routed traffic via both microwave and satellite.  First
choice was determined by which type of facility the call arrived at
the toll switch on (ie. an attempt was made to avoid double hops on
satellite if possible).

> I believe that all three
> media are used by all the major carriers, but guess who takes the lead
> in laying new undersea cables?  (Points off if you answered Sprint).

Pacific Telecom, Inc. ???  (Ok, second maybe!  And is there anyone in
third place?)

> However, the older but servicible facilities are not ripped out when a
> new fiber comes on line.  You wouldn't want to pay the long distance
> charges that would result if they were.

That is a serious statement in relation to AT&T, and I wouldn't want
to make light of it ... but let me tell you what happened to PTI in
late November when the Alaska spur broke.  For two weeks all traffic
was re-routed via satellite and most of it was compressed at a 4:1
ratio because much of what used to be used for our own trunks has been
sold to other users (we own our own bird).

It was horrible.  CompuServe called me one night because they could
not connect with their local modem at 300 baud!

> I don't know why you are getting the echos on your calls.

Even fiber has an echo if the path is long enough.  The first day we
had the fiber in place I had a conversation with another tech sitting
ten feet away from me over a circuit that was looped through AT&T's
office in Seattle.  It sounded like a local call, until I multipled
both lines together just to see exactly how much echo there is over a
2000 mile fiber link.

It isn't like a satellite where you can NOT talk if you can hear it.
It isn't that annoying, but you can sure tell its there.

> If the echo problem persists, I suggest you call AT&T repair service.
> But a word of advice -- don't try to diagnose the problem, just give
> them the symptoms.  Your credibility will be much higher if you don't
> give impossible technical explanations for what you are observing.

Note that I'm staying about 2000 miles away from some of what Andy
said, but this paragraph is some very good advice.


And if I spoke for Alascom, they would have fired me a *long* time ago.

Floyd L. Davidson        [e-mail]        Salcha, Alaska

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

From: [e-mail] (Gihan Dias)
Subject: Re: AT&T Rates and Low Income Customers
Date: 26 Dec 91 21:56:41 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. -  U.C. Davis.


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Tad Cook)
writes:

> It said that AT&T is raising prices for direct dialed interstate calls
> "citing rising costs of providing service to low-income telephone
> users."

> I am confused.  I thought that local telephone companies were the only
> entities in the telephone business involved in providing subsidized
> service to low income customers.  I can understand how this could have
> been a cost to AT&T prior to divestiture, but why now?

In California, at least, customers on "Lifeline" phone service do not
pay the $3.50 "Network Access Charge". This may be what they're
talking about, though I thought that this money goes to PacBell, not
the LD carriers.


Gihan     Internet: [e-mail]   or   [e-mail]
Bitnet:   gdias@ucdavis  UUCP:     ...!ucbvax!ucdavis!gdias
JAnet:    [e-mail]-relay

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

From: [e-mail] (Henry Mensch)
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 16:21:52 -0800
Subject: Re: New AT&T Charge For Overseas Information
Reply-To: [e-mail]


well![e-mail] (Emmanuel Goldstein) wrote:

> As of Saturday 12/21 AT&T has begun charging $1.50 for every
connection to overseas directory assistance.

This is a drag.  I suppose they will begin to supply international
phone directories upon request at no charge (winkey-smiley)?


# henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc.  / <[e-mail]>

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 11:16:48 EST
Subject: Re: New AT&T Charge For Overseas Information
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Murray Hill, NJ


In article <[e-mail]> well![e-mail].
ca.us (Emmanuel Goldstein) writes:

> As of Saturday 12/21 AT&T has begun charging $1.50 for every
> connection to overseas directory assistance. The charge applies
> whether or not you get a number but won't apply if you don't get
> connected. This is unfortunate -- up until now the service had been
> free. If other companies still allow free overseas information, I'll
> switch to them for my international calls. Anyone have info on this?

Other carriers don't have *ANY* overseas directory assistance, free or
otherwise.  Their version of free directory assistance is to tell
their dial-1 customers to "call 10288-0 to get the number free from
AT&T and then place the call with us."  Their D.A. service will be no
freer than ours after the charge begins.

The abuse I've described above may be connected with the decision to
start charging for overseas D.A., but I wouldn't swear to it.


Andy Sherman/AT&T Bell Laboratories/Murray Hill, NJ
AUDIBLE:  [phone]
READABLE: [e-mail]  or att!ulysses!andys
What? Me speak for AT&T?  You must be joking!


[Moderator's Note: You are correct. Charging was started on domestic
directory assistance (555-1212) for the same reason. Sprint and MCI
would tell their customers to use AT&T for directory, but not for the
call.   PAT]

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

Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 02:11:36 pst
From: Steve Forrette <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Area Code 206 Changes
Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA


In article <[e-mail]> it was written:

> For calls to informative numbers beginning with the prefixes
> 976- or 960-, dial 1 + 206 before the prefix (customers in the
> following communities will need to dial 1+503 before 976- and 960-
> prefixes: Battle Ground, Camas-Washougal, Castle Rock, Cathlamet,
> Longview-Kelso, Ridgefield, Vader, Vancouver, Woodland, Yacolt).

> Huh?? 503 is, of course, most of Oregon, and those communities are
> in that direction. Any body know why they hafta do that?

Probably because these communities are in the southernmost part of
206, which is in the Portland LATA, separate from most of 206 which is
in the Seattle LATA.  Since US West can't provide service from those
areas up to Seattle where the 976 and 960 stuff lives, and the part of
206 that's in the Portland LATA is too small to justify its own
976/960 setup, you have to call to 503 in Portland.  Keep in mind that
even though a call from Vancouver WA to Portland OR is both inter-NPA
and inter-state, it is still intra-LATA.


Steve Forrette, [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 02:26:50 pst
From: Steve Forrette <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Life on Hold: Unhappy Inbound Campers
Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA


In article <[e-mail]> it was written:

> I have yet to see this done right. Let's say you call your credit card
> company's 800 number, then punch in your card number and zipcode, and
> it tells that you have $xxx available credit. You say to yourself,
> "That can't be right!" and press the button to get a live operator.
> After holding, live operator comes on and asks you for your card
> number and address ... even though the auto-attendant already got that
> information from you. It was smart enough to grab the next available
> operator, but it didn't bother to tell that operator anything about
> you!

Citibank does this.  I did just what you described -- entered my
account number and ZIP code to get my balance.  Then, I requested an
operator, and she already knew who I was.  It caught me off guard for
an instant until I realized what had happened.  Citibank has
repeatedly shown itself to be quite "high tech" when it comes to stuff
like this.  Recently, I have noticed that this hasn't been happening
for me.  I asked the rep about it, and she said that "sometimes it
works -- sometimes it doesn't".  Hmmm.


Steve Forrette, [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] ( Scott Dorsey)
Subject: Re: Telecaroling
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1991 13:45:34 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Matt
Simpson) writes:

> I was at my parents' house the Sunday night before Christmas. It was a
> damp drizzly night. The phone rang. Mom answered it, and started
> singing Jingle Bells. The rest of us sat there wondering if she had
> gone off of the deep end. At the end of the song, she said "Thank you,
> Merry Christmas" and hung up. She then explained to us that the caller
> had said he was calling from a local church, and wanted her to sing
> Jingle Bells with them.

   Now, with a teleconferencing bridge, you could have yourself a nice
little choir ...


scott


[Moderator's Note: Somehow I don't think it will replace the real
thing, and not just because of the poor audio quality!    PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Desi Fuller)
Subject: Re: BWI Airport Payphones
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 17:48:30 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail].
unc.edu (Michael Rosen) writes:

> I was at the Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) today
> picking up my folks and noticed something interesting.  The last time
> I'd been there the payphones were Washington Metro area phones and a
> call to Baltimore would be ld.  Now, there are separate phones.  I saw
> two phones for AT&T Long Distance, two for C&P Local, and alternating
> phones for Washington Metro area and Baltimore Metro area.  I'm not
> quite sure if that C&P one was local, I'm trying to remember them now.
> It wouldn't make much sense since there were already Baltimore and
> Washington Metro area phones.

Just for your F.Y.I., there has always been phones at B.W.I. which
allowed local calls to Washington D.C., EXCEPT it was not until the
past year that they made them widely distributed.  It use to be that
they had them on the lower levels but not at the gates/piers.


Desmond S. Fuller - Network Administrator       American Red Cross
                                                Jerome H. Holland Laboratory
Office - [phone] or -0894                15601 Crabbs Branch Way
FAX    - [phone]                         Rockville, MD  20855

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

From: [e-mail] (Henry Mensch)
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 11:26:19 -0800
Subject: Re: Sprint Calling Cards and the 'Bong' Tone
Reply-To: [e-mail]


[e-mail] (Brian Gordon) wrote:

> I just talked to AT&T about that very issue today ... when I
> called and asked for status, the representative said that the process
> of automatically sending new cards to old subscribers had not gone
> well, that my order was still in progress, and that he couldn't really
> guess whether we were talking days, weeks or months until they were
> sent ...

Hmm ... sorta surprising ... when iIgot my new service here in
April/May I got an new-style AT&T calling card right off the top.
You'd think it'd be pretty easy to cancel the old ones/update the new
ones.


# henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc. / <[e-mail]>

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

From: [e-mail] (Mike Berger)
Subject: Re: Lack of Phone Numbers in Yellow Page Ads
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1991 22:15:33 GMT


[e-mail] (Steve Forrette) writes:

> But this brings up an interesting question: Isn't the whole point of
> the Yellow Pages to increase usage of the telephone?  I thought that
> the ad revenue was secondary to the traffic it generated.  Until I saw
> this ad, I would have guessed that there was a rule that you had to

You have a misconception.  The Yellow Pages are published by a
printing firm.  The advertising dollars are everything.  The printing
firm makes nothing from the phone calls.


Mike Berger    Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
AT&TNET  217-244-6067    Internet   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Call 1-900-SOMEONE
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1991 04:04:18 GMT


[e-mail] (H. Peter Anvin N9ITP) writes:

> This business of Caller*ID and blocking, etc, raises an interesting
> question: would it be not only possible but legal to create a 900 or
> 976 number that would relay a phone call anonymously?

There was at least one such service advertised as 1-900-STOPPER.


Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS.  [phone]|1032 2400/n/8/1.


[Moderator's Note: This is the number of that lawyer I mentioned
yesterday, but at the time I could not remember the number.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Caller-ID Chip Spec Sheet Humor
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1991 04:11:56 GMT


[e-mail] (Lauren Weinstein) writes:

> But when you look at the sample data message shown
> for the extra 109 bits frame in "multiple message" format, did they
> use "MOTOROLA"?  Did they say "JOHN SMITH"?  Naw!  They clearly are
> looking towards advanced call screening applications for the mass
> market, because it says "MOTHER IN LAW"!

Hey, if CNID becomes really popular, they might actually start making
phones where you can add such "cover-sheet" info for delivery by a
descendent of Caller-ID. I can easily see people thinking up cutsey
"handles" to append to their phone number. "Good Buddy", or "Joe's
Pizza", or "Love Handles".  It could be the CB/vanity plate craze of
the 21st century. With only 109 bits (why 109? What's the character
set?), you'll have to think carefully: "IN 4 THE MONEY", "BIG JOE 10S
NE1" ...


Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS.  [phone]|1032 2400/n/8/1.

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1051
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa10230;
          27 Dec 91 3:54 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06420
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 27 Dec 1991 02:22:09 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03300
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 27 Dec 1991 02:21:55 -0600
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1991 02:21:55 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1052

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 27 Dec 91 02:22:04 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1052

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    New Archives Exhibit: Detailed Country Code Listings (David Leibold)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Brandon S. Allbery)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Eric Florack)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (G. L.Sicherman)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Joel B. Levin)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Warren Burstein)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Bob Ackley)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (John Boteler)
    Re: Wrong Number (Dave Levenson)
    Re: Swedish Telecommunications Network (Peter da Silva)
    Re: Gadgets to Help Take Advantage of Custom Ringing (Russ Nelson)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 23 Dec 91 20:55:08 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: New Archives Exhibit: Detailed Country Code Listings


Announcing the TELECOM Digest Detailed Country Code List (DCCL)
                   December, 1991

A new set of detailed country code listings is being made available
via the TELECOM Digest Archives at lcs.mit.edu in the subdirectory
telecom-archives/country.codes. While the Archives had country code
lists for some time, these lacked the details of the area or STD
(subscriber trunk dialing) codes within each country.

The Detailed Country Code List (DCCL) will now provide not only the
"first level" country code information, but also much of the "second
level" of area code or STD code information. The local exchange prefix
within the STD or area code itself can be thought of as a third level
of detail. Third level information will not be dealt with in this list
except in a few instances where there are area codes used within a
country (ie. prefixes indicate the location within a country).

Format

The lists are broken up into files representing each world numbering
zone (ie. country codes beginning with 2 are in one file, country
codes beginning with 3 are in another, etc). The zones are as follows:

    2       - Africa
    3 and 4 - Europe
    5       - South America
    6       - South Pacific (eastern portion)
    7       - Soviet Union (and now including separate republics)
    8       - Southeast Asia, South Pacific (western portion)
    9       - Middle East, western portion of Asia

As North American area codes (zone 1) would be listed in other
documents in the Archives, these are not available in the DCCL at this
time.

In the country.codes subdirectory on lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest
Archives) the lists will appear as separate files: zone.2, zone.3,
zone.4 ... zone.9.

Limitations, Disclaimers and Conditions

The list is incomplete in many portions; conversely, it may seem to be
all too complete in other parts. This reflects the availability of
detailed telephone information for particular countries. Furthermore,
some countries have detailed information readily available, but time
constraints did not permit complete listings at this time.  Assistance
in filling in such gaps would be appreciated; please use one of the
contact e-mail addresses listed below. Not everything was treated
consistently in the list, either, owing much to the aforementioned
discrepancies and time constraints in compiling the lists.

** This listing is subject to changes or errors in source or compilation. **

The DCCL was compiled for the benefit of the Internet community,
and particularly for TELECOM Digest and may be freely distributed
for non-commercial or individual use.

Features and Notes on the Lists

If a * designator appears within any country code, this indicates that
only the local number need be dialed following the country code for
purposes of international calls. In a few cases (France, Cuba) a main
area code such as 1 needs to be dialed before a number in the main
metropolitan area (Paris, Havana) but no area code would be needed for
points elsewhere in the country.

The STD/area codes are provided as they would be used in international
dialing. That is, any domestic leading access codes are not listed
(eg. 071 area code in the UK would be listed under country code 44 as
STD/area code 71, and not 071).

Some countries have completely revised their domestic dialing systems,
or are about to, thus many STD codes available in previous years have
changed or are no longer available. For such cases notes have been
included in the DCCL where possible.

Spellings of place names is complicated by various spellings for given
places, often due to spelling within the language group of that place,
or due to varying spellings applied in translation. The place names
listed were ones that would be most familiar or plausible. In some
cases, a listing in an English-language directory was accepted as a
suitable spelling. In a few cases, the Encyclopaedia Britannica was
helpful in determining a few place names. There are a few entries such
as "Lisbon (Lisboa)" or "Prague (Praha)" which indicate differences
used in spelling domestically and internationally.


Credits

Much of the information was distilled from various telephone
directories and information posted on TELECOM Digest. Telephone
directories from such places as Toronto, the UK and other
international points were helpful. Sometimes an English-language
business classified directory was available that could list the
various STD codes for a country.  The Hotel & Travel Index also
provided some leads for area/STD codes.  Some international calling
guides from AT&T and Telecom Canada/Teleglobe were helpful in finding
new codes or verifying others.

Thanks to the following for their contributions: Warren Burstein
(reviewed Israel codes), John Covert (previous work done on country
code listings), J. Gao (an extra China STD code), Ben Kinchant (New
Zealand information), David Wilson (Australian information). There
could be others who have contributed directly or indirectly to the
list; anyone who was omitted from the credits is encouraged to contact
one of the e-mail addresses below.  Other credits might appear in the
lists themselves where appropriate.

Correspondence:

For any correspondence regarding these country code listings including
updates to information, corrections or suggestions, please send e-mail
directly to Carl Moore ([e-mail]) or David Leibold
([e-mail] or [e-mail]).  Occasional updates
are expected to appear in the TELECOM Digest archives as new or
improved information can be compiled. Updates will not be provided on
any fixed schedule, however.


[Moderator's Note: My sincerest thanks to Dave and Carl for the hard
work and large amount of time they spent getting this exhibit ready. I
must apologize I had it a few days ago but simply had no time of my
own to get it installed. It is available now, and I hope you will pick
up your copy today. The Telecom Archives is available using anonymous
ftp as follows:

     ftp lcs.mit.edu
     login anonymous    use [e-mail] as password
     cd telecom-archives
     cd country.codes (if that is the desired directory)

If there is sufficient demand I may send this out as a special issue
of the Digest as well.   PAT]

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

Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 12:32:41 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH)
Organization: North Coast Public Access *NIX, Cleveland, OH


I seem to remember something performed by (James Taylor?  Don't
remember) that starts off with "I am a lineman for the county...".
Whether that was a remake of the aforementioned "Wichita Lineman" or
not, I don't know.

Yes did "Long Distance Runaround", but it's a trifle marginal with
respect to telecom.


Brandon S. Allbery, KF8NH [44.70.4.88]        [e-mail]
Senior Programmer, Telotech, Inc. (if I may call myself that...)

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

Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1991 12:00:13 PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


OK, How about Shel Silverstien, whgen he was with Dr Hook and the
Medicine show back around 72? Anyone recall what their first hit was
(Columbia Records)?  Sylvia's Mother.

(And the operator says 40c more for the next three minutes...)

John  Lennon: You know my name, look up the number.

Rupert Holmes: Answering Machine. (Circa 77?)

For Jazz nuts: Takayama's "The line is Busy"

Paul Macartney and Wings: Admiral Halsey. (THe middle 8 of the song....)

Jim Croce's "Operator"

I forget who did the original, but The Manhattan Transfer did "Operator" around
74...(No, not the Croce Song...)

(Gee, this is kinda fun!)

Jerry Corbetta, ex of Sugarloaf: DOn't call us, we`ll call you.

(Complete with Touch-tone) Dionne Warwick, (and a half gross more) "

Call me" (65?)  ELO's "Telephone Line" (76?)

Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace"

Memphis... Berry and J RIvers (or did someone mention that one?)

"You Won't See Me" Beatles, Ann Murray. (When I call you up; your
line's been changed)

Steely Dan: Rikki Don't lose that number.

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 15:59:25 est
Subject: Telecomm's Greatest Hits


Don't forget the rock and roll standard "Western Union."  And how
about the instrumental "Telstar"?  (Guess who I work for!)

There's an old gospel song called "Jesus on the Main Line."  I have a
phonodisc with Ry Cooder singing it ...


Col. G. L. Sicherman    windmill.ATT.COM

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

Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Reply-To: Joel B Levin <[e-mail]>
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 16:44:26 -0500
From: Joel B Levin <[e-mail]>


I haven't seen anyone mention the Broadway musical and movie based on
things telephonic, BELLS ARE RINGING, and Geoffry Moss's number
plugged in song,

    PLaza 0-4433 (area code 212, of course).

So is that a real exchange?  Was it in the late '50s when the song was
written?  Possibly the answer is no because of the third digit zero.


JBL
Internet: [e-mail]    |    USPS:  BBN Communications Division
UUCP:     [e-mail]    |           Mailstop 20/7A
     or {any}!bbn!levin    |           150 CambridgePark Drive
Telco:    [phone]    |           Cambridge, MA  02140

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

From: [e-mail] (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (was Pseudo-Area Code 311)
Date: 26 Dec 91 08:26:40 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: WorldWide Software


"6060-842" (yes, the dash is after the fourth digit) by The B-52's is
about a disconnected "for a good time" phone number.


[e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 04:26:38 cst
From: [e-mail] (Bob Ackley)
Subject: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Reply-To: bob.ackley@ivgate..omahug.org


In a message of <21 Dec 91 02:50:07>, Floyd Vest writes:

> Blondie (and many others) recorded "Call Me" ... Jim Croce & the
> Manhattan's had lyrical conversations with the "Operator" ...
  ^^^^^^^^^^^

  I think that was the 'Manhattan Transfer.'  Picky little detail ...
Brenda Holloway (1965) and Mary Wells (1962) had similar conversations.

  From my music archives:

  The Telephone Song; (Stan) Boreson & (Doug) Setterbourg - a takeoff
      on Jimmie Rodgers' Honeycomb, circa 1957 (and *VERY* funny)

  The Telephone Song; (same title, different song) the Baja Marimba Band

  Telephone Girlie;  from the Soundtrack album 'No No Nanette'

  Telephone Hour; from the Soundtrack album 'Bye Bye Birdie'

  Telephone Lover; Connie Francis

  Call Me; Petula Clark, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis, Chris
       Montez, Allan Sherman and Nancy Sinatra (same title, different songs)
       (some of the many others Floyd noted)

  Call Me Anytime; Frankie Avalon. (1958)

  Calling You;  Hank Williams (Sr.) (1953)

  Pnone Call; Tammy Wynette

  Phone Call from God; Jerry Jordan (there's another, similar, recording
    'Phone Call from the Devil' by somebody else whose name escapes me)

  Obscene Phone Bust; Hudson & Landry (1971)

I'm sure there are dozens, if not hundreds, of others.


msged 1.99S ZTC    Bob's Soapbox   Plattsmouth Ne  (1:285/2.7)

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

From: John Boteler <[e-mail]>
Subject: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 16:30:44 EST


Summary: A new one

(Readers of the frank-cd-list may skip this one.)

An artist local to the Washington, D.C. area, Kit Watkins, put out a
song "My Telephone", replete with various telephone sounds of the area
and era (1981). There is even a "talking computer" operated out of an
R&D company in Reston VA, a true novelty to the public in those days.

Too bad for Kit, he even uses his phone number being dialed as part of
the rythm of the song -- it didn't take long for that number to be
disconnected after the song received airplay.

A fun, rollicking, rocky kind of upbeat song expressing wonderment and
disgruntlement at crazy phone calls.


[e-mail] (John Boteler)
Skinnydipper's Hotline => 703.241.BARE  Touch-Tone info at your fingertips

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Levenson)
Subject: Re: Wrong Number
Date: 27 Dec 91 00:02:07 GMT
Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA


A friend used to have a PBX extension numbered 411 on his desk.  Quite
a few others at his company used to forget the 9 when dialing for
directory assistance, and would reach my friend.  When he figured out
that they meant to dial 9 + 411, he'd politely take out his local white
pages and look up a number!  (He said it preferred that duty to the
job he was paid to do at the time!)


Dave Levenson        Internet: [e-mail]
Westmark, Inc.        UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
Warren, NJ, USA        Voice: 908 647 0900  Fax: [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Swedish Telecommunications Network
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1991 04:21:28 GMT


[e-mail] (Harold Hallikainen) writes:

> Is there some
> standard clear way of printing phone numbers so that anyone in the
> world can make sense of them?

Yes. See my "signature" on this message. The "+1" in my phone number
means "national code 1" (think of the + as an abbreviation for your
local "international access" sequence (011 in the USA).


Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS.  [phone]|1032 2400/n/8/1.

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

From: [e-mail] (Russ Nelson)
Subject: Re: Gadgets to Help Take Advantage of Custom Ringing
Organization: Crynwr Software, guest account at Clarkson
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1991 14:37:43 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(David Ptasnik) writes:

> [e-mail] (Bob Barker) wrote:

>> 1. Is there a commercial device that will listen to the first (full)
>> ring, determine if its the normal ring or custom ring, and then
>> connect the line to either device A or device B depending on the ring?

> Be careful of a product called Ring Rite by CMP, Inc.  While it
> appears from it's ads that it will send a call to either line A or
> line B, it will not.  It is just a filter.  It will prevent a custom
> ring from going to line B, but line A will get all rings.  There is no
> way around this that I have found.

And I'll bet that line B can't make outgoing calls, or else you have
to do something special to make them.  Bob Barker's message got me to
thinking about how you'd make such a device.  It's not obvious.  This
is what I was going to do:

  o Leave both lines connected, for the purpose of making outgoing calls.
  o At the first sign of an incoming ring, disconnect both A and B until
    you determine which ring you're getting.

The problem with this is that both A and B will get a short, spurious
ring.  This may cause a problem with some devices.

The proper way to do such a device is to make a mini-PBX, or else to
find someone who sells a one or two-line PBX that knows about
distinctive ringing.


russ <[e-mail]>

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1052
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa19138;
          28 Dec 91 2:11 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28024
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 28 Dec 1991 00:35:08 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08001
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 28 Dec 1991 00:34:52 -0600
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 00:34:52 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1053

TELECOM Digest     Sat, 28 Dec 91 00:34:49 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1053

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Martin Harriss)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits John David Galt)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Steve Thornton)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Brian Gordon)
    Re: Motorola Acquires GEOSTAR's Satellite Services for Iridium (R. Haddock)
    Re: Lack of Phone Numbers in Yellow Page Ads (Ken Weaverling)
    Re: Swedish Telecommunications Network (H. Peter Anvin)
    Re: Yellow Page Ads (Paul S. R. Chisholm)
    Re: Area Code 206 Changes (John David Galt)
    Re: AT&T Rates and Low Income Customers (John Higdon)
    Re: Call 1-900-SOMEONE (Guy J. Sherr)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Martin Harriss)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Reply-To: bdsgate![e-mail] (Martin Harriss)
Organization: Beechwood Data Systems
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 16:13:06 GMT


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

> On a slightly more contempory note there was Nick Lowe's song called
> "Switch box Susie", in which he tries to pick up the operator for a
> date.  The best lyrics went something like ...

> <insert rock tune and tempo>

> Switchbox Susie won't you give me a line, I need a number give me 999.
> Switchbox Susie, can we be friends. After six, and on weekends.

In case anyone's interested, 999 in the UK is the emergency number,
like 911 in the US.  The 'After six and on weekends' comes from a
telco advertising slogan from many, many years ago:

"The cheapest time to call you friends is after six and at weekends."

Aside: I disagreed with this at the time and proposed an alternative
slogan: "The cheapest time to call your friends is when the're out."
(Answering machines notwithstanding.)


Martin Harriss    uunet!bdsgate!martin

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 17:22:45 PST


There's also the Laurie Anderson song "O Superman," in which a parody
of an answering machine message is played.  I used to use this as my
outgoing message.  (Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" is also good
for this, but isn't telecom related.)

Also don't forget the B-52's "6060-842".  (This came out about 1979; I
doubt if it was a valid phone number anywhere in US/Canada at that
time.)


Happy new year.

John David Galt

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 09:43:31 EST
From: Steve Thornton <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


Blondie -- "Hanging On The Telephone" (way better than "Call Me").

Steve

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

From: [e-mail] (Brian Gordon)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: 27 Dec 91 22:06:43 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.


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

>> In the 40's Glenn Miller dialed "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" for a hit.

> This was the number of the NYC hotel where the Glenn Miller orchestra
> was playing a New Year's Eve gig at which they first performed the
> song.

>> Any other nominations for telecommunications greatest hits? :-)

What do you mean, "was"?!  When I stayed there a few years ago, that
was still their main number, although they did list it as 736-5000.  I
don't remember its name, but it is across the street from Madison
Square Gardens Station.  The ballroom is still there, still rather
glitzy, but not as big as one would imagine.

It was real easy for both my wife and I to remember when we needed to
call them or to call my room!


Brian G. Gordon      [e-mail]   [e-mail]


[Moderator's Note: It would be interesting to find out what
organization or person has had their phone number longer than anyone
else. The Drake Hotel in Chicago has had SUPerior/SU-7/787-2100 since
it was built in 1921. The Palmer House Hotel has had the same number
for more than half a century: RANdolph/RA-6/726-7500. Yellow Cab Radio
Dispatching had CALumet/CA-5/225-6000 from about 1918 until late in
the 1980's when the radio room operations were merged with Checker Cab
(for over sixty years they were MONroe/MO-6/666-3700) on the new
number TAXICAB (312-829-4222).   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Rusty Haddock)
Subject: Re: Motorola Acquires GEOSTAR's Satellite Services for Iridium
Date: 27 Dec 91 19:02:59 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Ralph W. Hyre) writes:

> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
> (Steve Pope) writes:
> X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 1023, Message 11 of 13

>>> Wasn't Geostar a navigation system?  If Moto can convert it into a

>> More likely Motorola intends to use Geostar as part of a positioning
>> system for the 77 (or thereabouts) Iridium platforms.

> Navstar GPS is the positioning system.  I wouldn't think it would be
> that useful in space, it was designed for accurate positioning of
> objects on Earth.  CMUs Autonomous Vehicle used a Navstar receiver.

[This should probably go into the *.space.* newsgroups but...]

Why wouldn't it be useful in space ("relatively" near the satellite
constellation anyhow)?  Aircraft can use GPS for positioning -- it's
far more accurate than that inertia guidance cruft :-).  Receiving
signals from (let's say) 4 GPS satellites can give you the distances
from each of them.  From this it's a matter of mathematics to
determine your position and speed with regards to those satellites
whose positions are fairly well known.  Where you are on the Earth in
terms of lat/lon/alt is a transformation of that position information
given a 3D map/description of the world and the satellites' know
positions w/ respect to that map.  Being out in space you just won't
have a map ... but you will still know where you are and how fast
you're going in terms of a geocentric model.

Disclaimer: It's been a while ('82/'83) since I was on Texas
Instruments' NAVSTAR receiver effort but I believe what I'm writing is
correct.


Rusty

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

From: [e-mail] (Ken Weaverling)
Subject: Re: Lack of Phone Numbers in Yellow Page Ads
Date: 27 Dec 91 21:38:33 GMT
Organization: University of Delaware


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve
Forrette) writes:

> I saw an interesting Yellow Pages ad in the Pacific Bell Sacramento
> book.  It was a full-page ad for an auto wrecking yard, and it had no
> phone number.

I have had a somewhat similar experience with the Wilmington, DE train
station.  The phone book (both yellow and white), only lists Amtrak's
800 number, not the phone number of the train station. DA told me it
was an unlisted number!

My friend is a quadriplegic and uses a motorized wheelchair. Since the
commuter train we occasionally take usually arrives on a low platform,
the Station Master must reroute Amtrak and Septa trains so the desired
train we need arrives on the high platform. In order to have enough
time to arrange this, they want us to arrive at the station two hours
ahead of time.

I kept asking for their local number so I could just call ahead, and
they refused, until after much complaining, they finally gave me the
phone number with strict instructions not to give it out to anyone.


Ken Weaverling    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (H. Peter Anvin N9ITP)
Subject: Re: Swedish Telecommunications Network
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1991 22:40:37 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> of comp.dcom.telecom,
[e-mail] (Harold Hallikainen) writes:

> Previously, it was mentioned that one might dial a leading
> digit (I think a 0) from within Sweden, but not if calling from
> outside.  This variation in numbering has always made it interesting
> for me to try to place international calls.  People give me phone
> numbers that work great within their countries, but I don't know how
> much of the number represents what.  Did they include a country code,
> a city code?  Since the number of digits in the number also varies
> country to country, I often end up calling an international operator
> to try to figure out what I actually need to dial.  Is there some
> standard clear way of printing phone numbers so that anyone in the
> world can make sense of them?  For example, I have area code and a
> seven digit phone number for phone, and another for fax.  To allow for
> international callers who may not have the US country code memorized,
> should we add that to our stationery?

Yes, you definitively should.  There *is* a standard way of writing
phone numbers, it looks like this:

<plus sign> <country code> <dash> <in-country digits>

Any separators conventionally put in the in-country dialling digits
should be replaced by spaces, unless you have to wait for a new dial
tone, in which case there should be a dash.  So assuming your U.S.
phone number is [phone] you should put on your stationnery:

Phone:  Nat [phone]   Int [phone]

Let me assure you that the U.S. conventions of writing ( ) around
their area code, having several dashes in the number or worse to spell
out the number ( (708) 555-DORK ) can be *very* confusing to
outsiders.  I know it by my own experience!

A general hint for calling other countries:

If the first digit of the number is 0, 8 or 9, don't dial it after the
country code.

I wish, though, that the U.S. phone books would list the country codes
and appropriate dialing sequences for other countries just like the
European phone books do.  AT&T has a brochure on the topic, including
rates, I believe.


hpa

INTERNET: [e-mail]   TALK:      [e-mail]
BITNET:   HPA@NUACC     HAM RADIO: N9ITP, SM4TKN
FIDONET:  1:115/989.4   NeXTMAIL:  [e-mail]
IRC:      Xorbon        X.400:     /BAD=FATAL_ERROR/ERR=LINE_OVERFLOW

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 21:42:11 EST
From: [e-mail] (Paul S R Chisholm)
Subject: Re: Yellow Page Ads
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve
Forrette) writes:

> But this brings up an interesting question: Isn't the whole point of
> the Yellow Pages to increase usage of the telephone?  I thought that
> the ad revenue was secondary to the traffic it generated.

I don't have any numbers on this, but I doubt it.  Revenue from the
Yellow Pages was a significant divestiture issue.  Judge Green
considered it to be one of the Good Things that should be handed over
to the RBOCs along with local calling (considered one of the Bad
Things) when they lost long distance and the opportunity to have their
own computer business (two of the Good Things AT&T got).

I'd also guess this from the treatment my brother-in-law got.  When he
first started his steel fabrication business, he took ads in about
five counties' worth of Yellow Pages.  After a year, word-of-mouth was
pretty good, and Yellow Pages referrals were pretty mediocre, so he
cancelled the ads.  He got regular calls from his New Jersey Bell
account representative for over a year: Was there a problem with his
ads?  Perhaps bigger ads would work better?  Would he like to try
focusing on smaller area instead of giving up?  Wasn't there *any* way
they could convince him to take out new ads???  This sounds like a
high commission, high profit deal to me.


Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories, [e-mail]
att!sewer!psrc, [e-mail], AT&T Mail !psrchisholm
I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind.

P.S.: Yellow Pages is a trademark in the United Kingdom, but not in
the U.S.A.  Sun Microsystems was dismayed to hear this; they had to
rename the SunOS "Yellow Pages" features to "Network Information
Services" or some such.  They couldn't change the names of common
commands such as ypcat without breaking lots of shell scripts, though.

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Area Code 206 Changes
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 18:24:41 PST


The elimination of (1-xxx-xxxx) calls is part of a change that has
been going on throughout the US and Canada, at least since breakup and
maybe longer.  Its ultimate purpose is to allow AREA CODES of the form
NXX.  (N = 2 through 9, X = any digit.)

In the past, all area codes were of the form N0X or N1X, and all
prefixes were of the form NXX.  Thus, in many places you could just
dial seven or ten digits, and the first three digits were enough to
tell the equipment how many digits followed.  (Where an initial "1"
was required for toll calls, this was usually not a technical
requirement, but rather was imposed by a state commission that assumes
you are too stupid to distinguish a seven-digit toll call from a local
call.)

As certain areas get more crowded, they have started requiring that
all 10-digit calls be preceded by a "1" (or 0), and that seven-digit
calls NOT have an initial "1".  With this change, the equipment can
use the "1" to distinguish seven- and ten-digit calls; thus prefixes
of the form N0X and N1X can be issued in those areas.  But that isn't
enough.

The telcos collectively are now adding four or five new area codes per
year.  At this writing, fewer than a dozen N0X/N1X codes remain unused
(I exclude N00 and N11 codes -- it would be seriously stupid to issue
these as "normal" area codes, IMHO.)  Therefore, within about two
years they will have to start issuing NXX AREA CODES.  And that means
that the new dialing instructions will have to be used throughout the
US and Canada.

What this boils down to is: You have to dial 1-206-xxx-xxxx for toll
calls within your own area because the choices were either that or to
remove the 1, and you have a "stupid" state utility commission.


Happy new year.

John David Galt

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 01:16 PST
From: [e-mail] (John Higdon)
Reply-To: John Higdon <[e-mail]>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Subject: Re: AT&T Rates and Low Income Customers


[e-mail] (Gihan Dias) writes:

> In California, at least, customers on "Lifeline" phone service do not
> pay the $3.50 "Network Access Charge". This may be what they're
> talking about, though I thought that this money goes to PacBell, not
> the LD carriers.

The $3.50 that Pacific Bell holds you up for in the name of "FCC
mandated network access charge" goes straight into the utility's
pocket. It is not earmarked for any purpose, nor does the utility have
to account for it other than as general revenue. In other words, any
rate that you are quoted should have $3.50 added to it to obtain the
TRUE monthly rate that you pay.

If Lifeline customers are not required to pay that charge, then add
$3.50 to any amount that is discounted from standard rates to obtain
the total discount available on Lifeline.

In the Victorville hearing that I attended, the PB spokesperson kept
talking about the difference between the requested rate and the actual
cost of the service. He kept referring to the difference between the
requested $13.00/month and the "actual cost" of $24.00/month. I
pointed out that he had overlooked the $3.50 NAC which reduced the
difference from $11/month to $7.50/month. He reluctantly agreed that
this was correct.

The LECs would like you to ignore that "access charge" and think about
it as a "tax". But always remember that every dime of that money goes
right into the LEC kitty along with the regular monthly service
charge.


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

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 14:37 GMT
From: "Guy J. Sherr" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Call 1-900 SOMEONE


I have seen this advertised in {The City Paper} (Washington, DC),
where the rate was mentioned at $2/Minute, not $2/Call which would
seem a bit more fair.

I am reminded of an old saying about how in this country, you can just
nail two boards together, and somebody will want to buy it from you.


Guy Sherr               [e-mail]
!Not really employed by MCI!

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1053
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa25291;
          29 Dec 91 3:13 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04509
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 29 Dec 1991 01:38:22 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14127
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 29 Dec 1991 01:38:07 -0600
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 01:38:07 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1054

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 29 Dec 91 01:38:03 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1054

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Call Return Has Its Problems (Dannie Gregoire)
    Hayes V Series 9600 Upgrade? (Ron Saad)
    Call From MCI (David Niebuhr)
    So How do Rail/Air Phones Work? (Steve Chafe)
    ANI in NJ (Dave Levenson)
    Telephone Museum in Chicago? (Maurice R. Baker)
    Bells and Information (John Higdon)
    Telephone Number Presentation (was Swedish Network) (Tony Harminc)
    AT&T Does An Excellent Job on Calls Down Under (Dennis G. Rears)
    This is Class? (Rick Rodman)
    Weird AT&T Rates (Ron Schnell)
    Cellular Coverage on the Southwest Chief? (Jim Rees)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Dannie Gregoire)
Subject: Call Return Has Its Problems
Organization: Copper Electronics, Inc.
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1991 17:30:40 GMT


I have a few problems with the phone company's CALL RETURN services.
The other day, I was placing a call and pressed two numbers on the
keypad similtaneously, while trying to dial the last digit.  As soon
as I did this, I hung up, redialed the number correctly, and completed
my call.

As soon as I completed my call and hung up, my phone rang.  I answered
it, and was immediately screamed at "What the f*** do you want?"  Not
having any clue what had taken place, I said "excuse me" and was
answered with a rage of obscenities, about calling and hanging up.  A
moment later, another person got on the phone, who was a bit more calm
and explained that they had dialed *69 to return my "hang up".  Then
this person began demanding to know why I had hung up on them.  I
tried to explain to them what I thought had taken place, but was of
little use. Finally, these people slammed their phone down and HUNG UP
ON ME! (If only I had call return ;-)

After the person mentioned CALL RETURN, I knew what had taken place.
My incorrect dial had actually rung their phone.  However, on my end I
heard no ring.  I had hung up immediately giving barely enough time
for their phone to just "ping".

My disgruntledness over CALL RETURN is three fold.

1) The phone company should allow at least one full ring to occur
   before storing a callers number for call return.  Perhaps call
   return blocking is in order ;-)

2) A nice phrase should be developed to use when returning such a call.
   This is something that has made me wonder wince the service came into
   existence.  "What do you want?" is not quite the thing.

3) Does the returned call I received constitute a harrassing/obscene
   call?

        COMMENTS???  SUGGESTIONS???


Dannie J. Gregoire         [e-mail]
Copper Electronics Inc.    !uunet!coplex!dannie


[Moderator's Note: People have quickly caught on to the fact that call
return can be used not only to conveniently return a call intended for
you that you just missed (coming out of the shower, or whatever), but
it can also be used to give a piece of your mind to wrong number
callers who simply hang up without an apology after they have
disturbed your peace and quiet. I'll grant you the response you got
from your unintended action -- and the relatively minor disturbance
caused at the other end -- was a bit of an overkill, to say the least.
I've found in my own experience though that people (at least the ones
who were chronic about wrong-numbering me) have begun to be a bit more
careful and courteous in their dialing now that I call them back in
the same way you were called; although I am not quite so vigorous in
my response. I merely ask, 'you rang here, did you want me?'. Most of
them will then apologize and say it was an accident. What's funny
though are the ones who lie about it; claim they did not call, and
have 'no idea' why I am calling them. :)  The ones who are chronic
misdialers simply get added to my call-screening list. Call-Screening,
Caller-ID and Return-Call (which will return the call even if the
caller used *67) are certainly changing everything we have assumed
about telephony in the past.   PAT]

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

Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 16:20:40 EST
From: [e-mail] (Ron Saad)
Subject: Hayes V Series 9600 Upgrade?
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories


Hello,

We have a bunch of these modems that say V.32, V.42 and V.42bis on
them.  However, the manual specifies a half duplex, "ping pong" V.32
implementation and these modems will not talk to other, "normal" V.32
modems at anything above 2400 bps.

Anyone know if there is an upgrade (EPROM?) for these to make them
speak real V.32 (or, dare I hope, V.32bis) ?


Ron Saad - WF2K    ...!att!whamg!ron    [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 26 Dec 91 17:35:22 -0500
From: [e-mail] (david niebuhr)
Subject: Call From MCI


In <[e-mail]> and <[e-mail]>
I spoke about AT&T outages.

Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from someone from MCI who
wanted more information which could be found in two issues of
{Newsday}.

I tried to find out where she recieved the information which I'm
assuming came from someone in MCI who reads c.d.t.

The upshot was that I told her to get the information from the same
source that I did: {Newsday}.  They can get the address and dates just
the same as I can.

Interesting.


Dave Niebuhr      Internet: [e-mail] / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl
Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973  (516)-282-3093


[Moderator's Note: TELECOM Digest has a wide-ranging readership. The
direct email edition goes to several hundred names at various telcos
and long distance carriers.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Chafe)
Subject: So How do Rail/Air Phones Work?
Date: 26 Dec 91 22:35:52 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Steve Chafe)
Organization: University of California, Davis


With all the discussion about Rail phones, and the mention of the GTE
Airphone which I used once to really surprise someone, could someone
explain how they work? I can see the Railphone using the cellular
network, but the airphone couldnt possibly do that -- could it? The
sound quality on the airphone I used was too good for shortwave
radio -- anyone know what frequency band it uses?


Steve Chafe    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Levenson)
Subject: ANI in NJ
Date: 27 Dec 91 00:03:31 GMT
Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA


Dial 958 in Northern New Jersey.  You get a verbal readback of the
number you're calling from.  This did not work a few months ago; does
anybody know exactly when NJ Bell turned this on?


Dave Levenson        Internet: [e-mail]
Westmark, Inc.        UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
Warren, NJ, USA        Voice: 908 647 0900  Fax: [phone]

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 11:45:31 EST
From: [e-mail] (Maurice R Baker)
Subject: Telephone Museum in Chicago?
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories


Hi ---

I just returned from a Christmas trip to the Chicago area.  While
planning one of my excursions into the "city" (we stayed in Evanston)
I noticed the notation "Telephone Museum" on the transit map of the
subways, El, etc.  It appeared to be at or near the corner of Franklin
and Randolph Sts.

Well, after a quick visit to the Sears Tower Observatory, I decided to
walk over to Franklin and Randolph.  When I got there, the only thing
related to telephones that I could find was the Illinois Bell
building.  No one at the information desk seemed to know about a
"telephone museum".  I even checked the phone book (yellow and white
pages) with no success.  After wandering about the neighborhood a bit,
I gave up and went to Marshall Field & Co. department store to finish
my Christmas shopping.

To complicate my confusion even more, the Fodor's Guide to Chicago
which I was using (quite a recent edition, possibly 1990 or 1991)
lists a "Telephone Museum" in its index twice.  Upon checking one of
the pages mentioned, I can't find a clue.  The other page does include
it in a list of "museums and attractions which are free" but fails to
give an address.

Either the museum isn't there anymore, or I blatantly overlooked it.
In any event, I had a nice visit to Chicago although I'm still full
from lunch at Ed DeBevic's Diner.


M. R. Baker   AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel   jj1028  at  homxc.att.com


[Moderator's Note: You did not overlook it. Illinois Bell, in their
wisdom -- and they are never wrong about anything (: -- closed down
the exhibit about two years ago and built something called 'Work at
Home Center' in its place where they sell fancy phone equipment and
services to people who work at home. The Telephone Pioneers maintained
this very wonderful exhibit for many years, right where your tourist
book said it would be found. But IBT knows best, and they ripped it
out.  PAT]

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 13:28 PST
From: [e-mail] (John Higdon)
Reply-To: John Higdon <[e-mail]>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Subject: Bells and Information


In side-by-side articles in today's {San Jose Mercury}, Arthur C.
Latno, Jr., Executive VP for Pacific Telesis and Jim Cooper, (D.
Tennessee), discuss the issue of the RBOCs providing information
services.  Mr. Latno brings up the usual Pacific Telesis
misinformation about how special interests are preventing the public
from having information services at all. He also seems to question the
ability and propriety of the Congress to pass laws that "are contrary
to a federal court ruling". Perhaps someone ought to explain to Mr.
Latno how our system of government works.

But I will cut right to the chase. Rep. Cooper mentions what I think
is the one restriction that the Bells fear most: the prohibition of
service providing in the RBOC's own service area. If Pacific Telesis
would be allowed to offer information services everywhere EXCEPT
California and Nevada, I would get off this horse and find another
cause.

But would that not be fair? Allow any and all RBOCs to compete in the
IAS industry -- but ONLY in some other RBOCs service area. That way
Pacific Telesis could offer any service it liked in New York or
Florida or even Washington. US West could compete in California or
Texas. But somehow I suspect that the seven sisters will fight such a
provision with all the might and ratepayer money that can be mustered.
And if they DO fight such a provision it would be interesting to see
the justification.

Of course, there is still the issue of risky and costly ventures
financed on the backs of ratepayers, but that problem exists in every
non-regulated activity practiced by the RBOCs, not just the IAS arena.


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

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 22:57:47 EST
From: Tony Harminc <[e-mail]>
Subject: Telephone Number Presentation (was Swedish Network)


[e-mail] (Harold Hallikainen) wrote about the
Swedish Telecommunications Network:

> Is there some standard clear way of printing phone numbers so that
> anyone in the world can make sense of them?  For example, I have area
> code and a seven digit phone number for phone, and another for fax.
> To allow for international callers who may not have the US country
> code memorized, should we add that to our stationery?

Yes -- precede your "national number" with a plus sign.  Don't use
parentheses or any other punctuation except spaces and hyphens.

So:

[phone]      a number in New York, USA
[phone]      a number in Toronto, Canada
[phone]      a number in London, England
[phone]       a number in Sydney, Australia

Don't include any access digits in the number.  In many countries the
national access code is commonly quoted as part of the number (a
bizzare practice IMHO which in North America is common only for 800
numbers).

Much confusion has been caused by the fact that the "country" code for
the USA, Canada, and the rest of the NANP is 1, which is also the
access code in many of those countries.

This "leading plus sign" scheme is often listed in the front of phone
books in European countries.  It doesn't seem to be as popular in
North America.


Tony H.

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 0:25:34 EST
From: "Dennis G. Rears " <[e-mail]>
Subject: AT&T Does An Excellent Job on Calls Down Under


  For the last year I have had Sprint as my dial 1 service.  I have
made many calls to my brother in Australia (Aikenvale) using Sprint.
Recently, I signed up for AT&T Reach Out World (Yes, I am frugal) and
called him using AT&T and was pleasanty surprised by the quality of
the connection.  Previously, if we both spoke at the same time our
voices would cancel each other out.  With AT&T we can both speak at
the same time.  Has anybody any similiar experiences?


Dennis

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

From: virtech![e-mail] (Rick Rodman)
Subject: This is Class?
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 91 0:17:49 EST


John Higdon says he feels Contel (now GTE) is "classy".  Hah!

Here in Manassas, I had the problem that 10XXX + 1 calls to
neighboring states were blocked or stolen by Contel.  I've heard that
C&P (Bell Atlantic) doesn't do this.  There's one reason for it:
GOUGING.

Contel charges 23 cents a minute for a call from Manassas to, say,
Bethesda.  MCI (via 950) charges 11 cents a minute.

And Bethesda is about 30 miles from here.  It's in another state.  Why
shouldn't Contel honor my selection of a long-distance carrier?
GOUGING.

IMHO, GOUGING the customer is NOT Class.  I hope to find someone at
Contel/GTE who understands the issue and give him a piece of my mind.

Hope, that is, not expect.  In the past, I have been unable to find
anyone there who understood either 10xxx or 950 access.  Today I
called them asking about ISDN -- and they'd never heard of it.

We gave them local monopolies to get universal service.  That was a
bad mistake. Contel stinks -- and the first local telco competitor
that comes here will get 90% of the business in the first week.  TOO
BAD THE PUC STANDS IN THE WAY.  ECCH.

Those scumbags ripped us off so John can have a nice Xmas card?
Sickening.  Putrid.  I'd tell them where to stuff it, John.

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 91 17:39:40 -0500
From: Ron Schnell <[e-mail]>
Subject: Weird AT&T Rates


I called AT&T to find out about various rates, and changes which will
affect Reach Out America(tm) next month, and discovered some very
interesting things.

Under ROA Evening plan, until next month, the rate is 30% off of their
already discounted evening rates.  This means that it would be cheaper
for me to call Massachusetts and New York during evening rates, than
during night rates (I am in Miami).  The evening rate is under 15
cents each minute.  I really wish I had realized that earlier.  Of
course the discount is going down to 20%, and evening rates are going
up!

I also found out that the rate to call Massachusetts is more expensive
for the first minute than for each additional minute.  I asked the rep
why, and she said it is because there are so many people using faxes
and answering machines, and it is to give them a break.  Of course the
implication is that it is cheaper to hang up every minute and call
back, than to stay on the line.  Apparently, this is true for many
different city pairs.  I thought it used to be the opposite.

Also, the fact that All Hour Savings (or whatever it is called) is
going down to 11 cents/minute really makes Reach Out America pretty
useless, unless you don't make that many calls.


Any comments?

#Ron   ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (Jim Rees)
Subject: Cellular Coverage on the Southwest Chief?
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: University of Michigan IFS Project
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 91 18:48:14 GMT


I'll be taking the train from Chicago to San Francisco in a few weeks,
and I plan to take my Outback cellular modem along (I have to keep up
with the TELECOM Digest!).  I'll be taking the Southwest Chief from
Chicago to L.A., then the Coast Starlight to S.F.  How good is the
cellular coverage along this route?  Will I have any trouble roaming?

Also, is the Outback likely to work while the train is moving?  They
don't recommend using it while in motion, but in my experience PEP is
pretty good at keeping a connection going.

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1054
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29062;
          29 Dec 91 5:07 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18103
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 29 Dec 1991 02:57:09 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13975
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 29 Dec 1991 02:56:54 -0600
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 02:56:54 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1055

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 29 Dec 91 02:56:30 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1055

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (John Higdon)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Andrew C. Green)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Gil Kloepfer Jr.)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Haroon H. Dogar)
    Re: AT&T Echo to the UK (Roy M. Silvernail)
    Re: Another Way to Make a Profit at Cellular (Macy Hallock)
    Re: Swedish Telecommunications Network (Jim Rees)
    Re: Gadgets to Help Take Advantage of Custom Ringing (Gil Kloepfer Jr.)
    Re: International Dialing (was Swedish Telecom Network) (Bruce Clement)
    Problem With Procomm; Help Needed ([e-mail])
    Telemarketing cartoon (Bruce Oneel)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 91 00:49 PST
From: [e-mail] (John Higdon)
Reply-To: John Higdon <[e-mail]>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


On Dec 28 at  0:34, TELECOM Moderator writes:

> [Moderator's Note: It would be interesting to find out what
> organization or person has had their phone number longer than anyone
> else.

I object. Only the larger cities will even have entries that will be
in the running. While San Francisco may have come competing entries,
the suburbs will not. For instance, San Jose has no phone numbers any
older than 1948. This is the year that dial service was introduced and
the prefix was CYpress. Previously, the exchange names were Ballard
and Columbia and were very manual.

It may be of interest to note that the first dial equipment in this
town was #1 crossbar. When it was introduced, all telephone numbers
changed from either Ballard or Columbia to CYpress and due to the
difference in digit count (variable to all seven-digit), no one's
number remained.

San Francisco has had dial service (on panel) since before the flood.
However, over the years many of the businesses that might have been
around all of these years have grown and had number changes due to
phone system upgrades, etc. For instance, the {San Francisco Chronicle}
had the number GArfield 1-1111 for years and years. It is now 777-1111,
probably due to a change to Centrex, or because the change was
necessary to provide certain features.

BTW, Chicago was a panel town, was it not? How did you like the way
that you would dial a number and get a burst of ringback tone that
would sort of slide into a busy signal? And the noise while it was
completing a connection could blow your ear off.


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


[Moderator's Note: Yes indeed, panel was very prevalent here, with the
last of it downtown pulled out in the middle seventies when the
Chicago-Wabash CO went from ancient panel to ESS overnight. One other
panel exchange was LOngbeach-1, which was wired out of the
Chicago-Edgewater office, and it finally cut over to ESS about 1978 /
79 if my memory is correct.  LOngbeach subscribers couldn't even use
911 after everyone else in the city had the service, and they had to
keep the old POLice-5-1313 and FIRe-7-1313 numbers for those
subscribers until they were cut. And yes, they were noisy monsters.
IBT craftspeople did not call it the Wabash Cannonball for no good
reason. Sometimes there'd be several seconds of chattering and
clacking in your ear as the switch train shuffled along. If the called
line was busy, there'd be one, two or sometimes three rings in your
ear before it would finally cut over to a busy signal. The coin phones
were funny also, because the local operator for some reason could not
collect or return the coins deposited. If you did not get an answer on
a toll-call the operator would tell you to hold on a second ... you'd
hear a connection made to 'Wabash trunking' (that's how the new
operator on the line would answer) and your operator would say
something like 'return on 6096'. You'd hear an irritating buzz in your
ear and your coins would fall down the return slot. Or, the request
would be to 'collect on XXXX' ... and sometimes Wabash trunking would
do it the other way by accident, and your operator would say "oops! so
sorry! Please be a good sport and deposit it again for me ... " or if
it was collected by accident they'd tell you 'when you try again, just
tell the operator you have XX cents credit by Operator <number>.'  All
very charming.

But what you are forgetting John, is that we had manual service here
until 1939, and a combination of manual / automatic exchanges from
that year until the final office (Chicago-Avenue) was cut over in
1955. The dial conversion here was interuppted by the war when Western
Electric was pressed into service full time for the war effort.  But
for the most part, the names stayed the same after the conversion, and
were only changed when a conflict occurred. The original 'central' of
1878 became Central a couple years later when Franklin was introduced;
and CENtral with automation in 1939. It became CEntral-6 later, and
for about 25 years now has been 236. Suffixes less than four digits
under the old system had zeros prepended to them at the cutover, so
that "Central 1" which was the number for City Hall in the 1880's
eventually became CENtral-0001 when dialing was introduced. By that
time (1939 or so) it was a private line in Mayor Cermak's office. It
was 312-236-0001 when (the first) Mayor Daley was around.   PAT]

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 13:07:43 CST
From: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


Good grief, I thought SOMEONE would have mentioned the album that
actually FEATURES an anonymous telecom employee by now ... (The
following is courtesy of my wife, the music expert, so refer all
corrections to her :-)

Find a copy of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and play the cut entitled
"Young Lust". At the end of the song, you hear a series of comments
from a rather perplexed Long-Distance operator trying to complete a
call from the U.S. to the caller's wife in London, England. The phone
rings, a man's voice answers, and as the operator starts to say "I
have a collect call for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd; will you accept the
charges?", he hangs up on her. This happens several times, with the
puzzled operator saying, "He keeps hanging up, sir...", "There's
someone there besides your wife, sir...", and stuff to that effect.

The story is that Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, while in L.A. or some
other city in the U.S., conspired with a friend in London to pull this
off. He would tell the operator that he wanted to place a long-
distance call to his wife in England, person-to-person I assume. Upon
receiving the call, the guy in England would simply hang up the phone,
and Waters would persuade the operator to try again. All this was
taped for the album. Waters was hoping for a talkative operator that
would put up with this nonsense for at least a few attempts, and on
only the second call to an operator, he found one. He said in a radio
interview about the making of the album, "You could tell [that] her
imagination just went berserk ... that lady thought she was witnessing
the breakdown of a marriage!" I don't know whether the poor telecom
lady was ever let in on the joke.


Andrew C. Green       [phone]
Datalogics, Inc.      Internet: [e-mail]
441 W. Huron          UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg
Chicago, IL  60610    FAX: [phone]

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 16:35:46 -0600
From: "Gil Kloepfer Jr." <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Organization: Southwest Systems Development Labs, Houston, TX


> Any other nominations for telecommunications greatest hits? :-)

How about "BEechwood 4-5789" ("...you can call me up and have a date
any old time...").  It's been done by a couple of groups I think, the
latest I heard was by the Carpenters.

As far as Wichita Lineman (by Glen Campbell) ... isn't that really
about an electric lineman (not telephone)?

And how can anyone who hasn't seen movies on cable lately forget the
rather silly (but telecom-related) movie "976-EVIL".  Heck, with all
the talk about 900-numbers and the like, everyone'd get a real thrill
out of this one!


Gil Kloepfer, Jr.            [e-mail]     ...!ames!limbic!gil
Southwest Systems Development Labs (Div of ICUS)       Houston, Texas


[Moderator's Note: In the April 1, 1989 issue of TELECOM Digest, our
resident movie critic Charles Manson reviewed that film.  :)   PAT

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

From: [e-mail] (Haroon H. Dogar)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group, RTSG
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 17:42:39 GMT


[e-mail] writes:

> There's also the Laurie Anderson song "O Superman," in which a parody
> of an answering machine message is played.  I used to use this as my
> outgoing message.  (Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" is also good
> for this, but isn't telecom related.)

Man's voice: "Hello."
Operator's voice: "Collect call for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd.
                   Will you accept the charges?"
Click.

Am I mistaken, or is this supposed to be a collect call from the
United States to England?

Finally, a reference to a band from *this* century.

hd

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

Subject: Re: AT&T Echo to the UK
From: cybrspc![e-mail] (Roy M. Silvernail)
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 23:10:25 CST
Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN


[e-mail] (Floyd Davidson) writes:

>> There are some places where a satellite is the only way to get there.

> Much of the traffic within the state of Alaska fits that description.
> Nome, Barrow, Bethel, Kotzebue ... and all small villages are served
> only by satellite.

And a great improvement it was over the previous arrangement.  When I
was a lad in Nome (circa 1970), the only long distance service was via
White Alice, a tropospheric scatter arrangement.

Floyd, do you happen to know how many long distance trunks could be
carried over a White Alice link?  I seem to recall only 8 or 10 trunks
available out of Nome in those days.  What with rotary dial, it made
for a lot of '00' tries on the busy days.


Roy M. Silvernail |+| [e-mail]

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 91 20:59 EST
From: fmsys![e-mail] (Macy Hallock)
Subject: Re: Another Way to Make a Profit at Cellular
Organization: The Matrix


In article <[e-mail]> is written:

> I've got a new bone to pick with my cellular carrier: they bill for
> calls from the moment that SEND is pressed.

You are not alone.  Cellular One (CCI) in Ohio has been doing this
from the beginning, too.  GTE Mobilnet and Ameritech Mobile bill from
the actual answer, though.  (Cell One is the Ohio A Carrier, the other
two are the predominant B carriers here.)

When I had a Cell One phone, many moons ago, I called their business
office about this ... and was told -repeatedly- that they billed from
answer, not send.  It took quite a bit of wrangling to clear this up,
too.  I've been told that the GE/NTI cellular MTSO equipment that Cell
One uses could only bill this way in the beginning, but it turns out
that the access lines they were obtaining from the telcos for local
exchange access on outbound calls did not have answer supervision in
all cases.

Although Cell One bills from send to this day, the technical barriers
have long since fallen that began this practice.


Macy M Hallock Jr N8OBG 216.725.4764 [e-mail] [e-mail]
[No disclaimer, but I have no real idea what I'm saying or why I'm telling you]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Swedish Telecommunications Network
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: University of Michigan IFS Project
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 91 19:28:25 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(H. Peter Anvin N9ITP) writes:

> I wish, though, that the U.S. phone books would list the country codes
> and appropriate dialing sequences for other countries just like the
> European phone books do.  AT&T has a brochure on the topic, including
> rates, I believe.

US phone books usually include country codes, but no longer include
dialling instructions since the advent of "equal access."  This is
apparently because different long distance carriers could use
different access methods, although in practice they all use the same
(011 for direct dial, 01 for operator assisted).  I do wish US phone
books would include the country code for the US.  At one time it was
nearly impossible to find out what the code was from inside the US,
although most operators seem to know it now.

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 16:48:33 -0600
From: "Gil Kloepfer Jr." <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Gadgets to Help Take Advantage of Custom Ringing
Organization: Southwest Systems Development Labs, Houston, TX


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Russ
Nelson) writes (in regard to personalized ring decoders):

> thinking about how you'd make such a device.  It's not obvious.  This
> is what I was going to do:  [his recommendations deleted]

I have built such a device.  You *can* sense the first pulse of the
ring and cut off the ring to all devices fast enough with a relay to
prevent most devices from seeing that pulse.  I have a modem which
sees it, but I can simply set that to answer after two rings.

The commercial model I have seen (I can't remember what the name of it
was) worked the same way (they may have used solid state relays
instead of mechanical ones though).  I have a cheapie phone that will
let out a quick "chirp" when the device catches that first ring.

Beware to those who plan on building a device like this about the ring
interface.  5ESS switches are very picky about what they consider a
trouble condition on the line...and a couple of designs I used caused
the 5ESS to report trouble (ie. the old ring-busy syndrome).  I
finally used my own common sense design (rather than borrowing "tried
and true" ideas) and this worked fine.  Remember to load the phone
line as little as possible.


Gil Kloepfer, Jr.            [e-mail]     ...!ames!limbic!gil
Southwest Systems Development Labs (Div of ICUS)       Houston, Texas

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

From: [e-mail] (Bruce Clement)
Subject: Re: International Dialing (was Swedish Telecom Network)
Organization: Children of Ingle-Frey
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 91 21:49:58 GMT


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

> A general hint for calling other countries:

> If the first digit of the number is 0, 8 or 9, don't dial it after the
> country code.

Another tip (Especially for commercial users): If you are advertising
etc.  internationally, it might seem like a friendly move to have a
1-800 number for your callers, but always give an other number as we
can not dial into your 1-800 (or 1-900 for that matter) numbers from
here.

Twice now, I have wanted to buy from a US company (which advertised
that it wanted to sell internationaly) which only gave a 1-800 number.
Each time the sale has gone to a rival which *did* give a normal
number.

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

Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center
Date: Thursday, 26 Dec 1991 17:50:42 EST
From: Eddie G <[e-mail]>
Subject: Problem with Procomm; Help Needed


I have a problem with Procomm 2.4.3.  When I turn on the printer
(ALT-L), procomm doesn't send line feeds to the printer.  I get the
display output all bunch up together.  The log function does the same.
I had the same problem with version 2.4.2.  Can anyone tell me what am
I doing wrong?  I use VT100 emulation.

Please write back to:  [e-mail]


[Moderator's Note: Please reply only by email to the writer.   PAT]

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 91 10:34:07 EST
From: [e-mail] (Bruce Oneel )
Subject: Telemarketing Cartoon


In the 10/28 issue of the {Washington Post} there was a cute telcom
related cartoon in the comics section.

The strip CROCK is about the French? Legion in Africa (at least from
the pictures it is).  Today we have two different members talking
while one of them patrols the wall.

"It taks a man totally devoid of compassion and pity to stay in the
Legion."

"I LOVE it! ... I signed up for thirty years."

"What did you do before?"

"I was in telemarketing."


bruce

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1055
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23557;
          29 Dec 91 22:33 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30210
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 29 Dec 1991 20:55:21 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27330
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 29 Dec 1991 20:55:01 -0600
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 20:55:01 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1056

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 29 Dec 91 20:54:59 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1056

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    White Alice in Nome, Alaska (Floyd Davidson)
    Proposed New Vermont Telecommunications Agreement (G. A. Wollman)
    Current Prices - Modems (Shawn Beltz)
    Call-Forwarding Loops? (Michael Ho)
    Re: Call Return Has Its Problems (Peter da Silva)
    Re: Call Return Has Its Problems (Mark Oberg)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Larry Rachman)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Glen Overby)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Floyd Davidson)
Subject: White Alice in Nome, Alaska
Organization: University of Alaska Institute of Marine Science
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 12:22:55 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> cybrspc![e-mail] (Roy
M. Silvernail) writes:

> And a great improvement it was over the previous arrangement.  When I
> was a lad in Nome (circa 1970), the only long distance service was via
> White Alice, a tropospheric scatter arrangement.

> Floyd, do you happen to know how many long distance trunks could be
> carried over a White Alice link?  I seem to recall only 8 or 10 trunks
> available out of Nome in those days.  What with rotary dial, it made
> for a lot of '00' tries on the busy days.

Nome was connected to the world via the Anvil Mountain White Alice
Site located some 13 miles out of town.  (And it turns out that when
they finally found the source of gold for the "golden sands of Nome"
beaches, it was right along side the Anvil Mountain Road, 125 feet
down.  About four years ago they walked a dredge right over it, at 50
feet too high to get the gold ... strange people mine for gold.)

The particular equipment at Nome could handle all of two "L" carrier
supergroups of 60 channels each, plus one each "K" group.  So there
could have been 132 channels into Nome.  But of the 11 groups of 12
channels, two went to North East Cape AFB on St. Lawrence Island, and
four went to Tin City AFB right on the Bering Straights.  So that
would leave a maximum of only 60 channels for everything in Nome.
Except you couldn't get that many there ... here is a diagram of about
what it was like.  (I am only absolutely positive of Tin City, I was
there.  The rest is a fair guess.)


  TNC           NEC           OME           GMT           KKK
 -----         -----         -----         -----         -----
 |   |---3 L---|   |---4 L---|   |---7 L---|   |---10L---|   |
 |   |         |   |         |   |         |   |         |   |
 |   |---1 K---|   |---1 K---|   |---1 K---|   |---1 K---|   |
 -----         -----         -----         |   |         -----
                                           |   |
                              OTZ          |   |
TNC = Tin City AFB           -----         |   |
NEC = N.E. Cape AFB          |   |---2 L---|   |
OME = Nome, AK.              |   |         |   |
GMT = Granite Mnt. WACS      |   |---1 K---|   |
OTZ = Kotzebue, AK.          -----         |   |
KNR = North River WACS                     |   |
      (Unalakleet, AK.)       KNR          |   |
KKK = Kalakaket Creek WACS   -----         |   |
      (Galena, AK. and       |   |---2 L---|   |
       Galena AFB)           |   |         |   |
                             |   |---1 K---|   |
                             -----         |   |
                                           -----


There was a bottle neck between Granite Mountain and Kalakaket Creek.
The maximum configuration was 10 L groups (two supergroups).  Out of
that everything for the radar sites of Tin City (yes, there is a tin
mine) and North East Cape, plus the three towns of Nome, Kotzebue and
Unalakleet had to be served.  Plus each WACS (White Alice
Communications System) site needs a couple circuits.  It got fairly
tight for circuit use.

KKK was the busiest WACS site.  Not shown are two other tropo shots
from KKK that connected it (through other sites) to Pedro Dome
(Fairbanks, AK.), Neklason Lake (Palmer,AK.), and Big Mountain (remote
WACS site).  Each of those sites had 4A crossbar autovohn switches.
Pedro Dome and Neklason lake were upgraded to DMS-200 autovohn
switches in about 1982 (and the other two closed), and Pedro Dome was
closed in 1989/90.  Just a short distance from KKK is the town and
F-16 fighter base at Galena.  F-16's from Galena played cat and mouse
games with Russian Bear bombers right up till earlier THIS year.

Tin City AFB was kind of special and had more autovohn trunks than
most radar sites.  They were (still are) in visual contact with
Siberia and in radar contact with a fighter base in Siberia.  (The Air
Force people there called it "Tin City, first to know, first to go."
That wasn't true, but they took it serious.)

Your estimate of eight or ten LD trunks to Nome would be about right.
There would also have been at least one 931Y teletype system, Armed
Forces Radio Network (at that time AFRN was the only 1A priority
circuit in Alaska), a few autovon lines to such places as the
National Guard and the FAA, plus a couple for the WACS site itself.

Nome today has a modern digital switch (I don't know what kind) and
gets local telephone service from GTE.  There are about 72 toll trunks
into Nome.  They are all via satellite of course, but all are digital
and use the most modern equipment around ... AT&T's packet switched
IAC compression equipment (with no compression on the toll trunk).

Of the people who worked at the Anvil Mountain WACS site, the fellow
who was site supervisor there for 20 years that I know of retired last
month (he spent the last ten years in the Anchorage Toll Center as mid
shift network supervisor).  Only one tech from 1970 is still around,
and he works day shift at the Fairbanks Toll Center.


   Floyd L. Davidson        [e-mail]        Salcha, Alaska

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

Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 19:44:39 -0500
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Proposed New Vermont Telecommunications Agreement


I received an announcement of this new agreement between the Vermont
Public Service Board and New England Telephone recently, and I thought
I might share it with Telecom readers.  The proposed agreement, if no
serious objections are raised during the public hearing process, would
come into effect on 15 July 1992 and terminate 14 July 1997.

Here are the terms, according to the NET pamphlet that was sent out
(my comments in brackets).

 - Expansion of local usage calling areas and increase in local usage
charges.  [Currently, "local" areas are defined rather haphazardly.
Metered service is $0.005/minute off-peak and $0.02 peak, which would
increase to $0.01/$0.03 for adjacent exchanges and $0.03/$0.07 for
nonadjacent exchanges within 24 miles of originator's exchange.]

 - Reduction of in-state long-distance rates.  [56+-mile calls would go
from .63 first minute/.31 add'l (day rate) to .20 per minute flat in
FY 1993; flat rate would be for all toll calls in the state.]

 - Phase-in of higher monthly local exchange service charges, with
annual price adjustments related to the annual inflation rate.

 - Reduced wholesale prices for NET's in-state long-distance
competitors, which could mean lower rates from competitors.  [Most
people have never even heard of NET's in-state long-distance
competitors.]

 - Specific network improvement requirements.

 - An expansion of the calling area for local pay telephone calls and
an increase [$0.10 -> $0.25] in the price of such calls.

 - A 50% reduction in local mileage changes in 1993, with total
elimination in 1994.

 - Elimination of the Directory Assistance three free call allowance
for residence customers.

 - Service quality requirements for NET services, with local rate
increases tied to performance.

 - Continued freedom from most traditional utility regulation.

 - Streamlined products and services introduction.

 - Phase-out of multi-party service.  [I think they're determined to do
this anyway.]

 - Continued Lifeline discounts and new local usage calling discounts
for eligible low-income and elderly Vermonters.

 - Procedures intended to protect customers' privacy interests in
connection with new services from NET.  [This probably refers to ANI
blocking...]

 - New customer information and protection policies regarding 900
number charges.

 - Access to emergency services in 911 areas [count them on the fingers
of one hand] even from disconnected phones.

[Under a separate heading...]

 - Customers with two party lines would be converted to local measured
service.

 - Nonrecurring Charges and Analog Private Line rates would be
increased.

 - OUTWATS would be eliminated.

[Note:  NET handles most of the phone service in Vermont.  Elsewhere,
customers are "served" by Contel or by a handful of municipal
telephone companies; all of them purchase much of their service (such
as directory listing, directory assistance, and service outside of
their domains) from NET, so this agreement affects almost everyone who
has a telephone in Vermont.]


GAWollman

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

From: disk![e-mail] (unknown)
Subject: Current Prices - Modems
Organization: Digital Information Systems of KY
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 15:35:50 GMT


   Would anyone happen to have a list of standard prices for all
varieties of modems?  I'd like to buy a 9600 Baud modem, if the price
is right, else I'll live with an MNP and v.42 bis 2400..  Also, what
have 1200 baud modems dropped to?  And 300?

And what are the fastest modems going for?  Thanks in advance..


Shawn Beltz   [e-mail]      uunet!coplex!disk!unknown

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

From: [e-mail] (Tiny Bubbles...)
Subject: Call-Forwarding Loops?
Organization: A Figment of Your Imagination
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 17:45:19 GMT


(was Re: Technological Nightmare Keeps Lincoln [NE] Phone Busy)

That story about a family in my hometown who ended up with a bizphone
forwarded to them makes me scratch my non-existent beard and say
hmmm ...

I have call-forwarding myself.  If someone forwards to *me*, and I
forward to *them*, what happens?  I am permitted to forward to a busy
phone by entering the request twice, so it would be easy to generate a
loop.

*  Would everyone get busy signals?  (The desired effect.)

*  Would the phone company figure it out and remove my forwarding?

*  Would I get charged for thousands of 1-minute calls to a busy number?
   (I doubt it, because my LD carrier uses answer supervision, but
   Lincoln Telephone's own LD service does *not* use supervision.)

Yes, I know the *easiest* way to deal with the situation is to take the
phone off-hook (did the Mannings do this?) -- but it brings up an odd
question.  Any takers?


Michael Ho | UNTIL JAN. 9: University of Nebraska, Internet:[e-mail]


[Moderator's Note: Different systems work different ways, but what
usually happens is only one call can be forwarded at a time, and on
your first cycle around to the person who was forwarding to you, you
(and consequently the people behind you) would receive a busy signal,
and the forwarding would come to an end. The reason for this seems to
be that the person who was forwarding to you already had one call in
progress being forwarded when you approached them for the first time.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Call Return Has Its Problems
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 13:59:58 GMT


Danny Gregoire brings up a general problem with phone dialing that
has caused lots of low-grade irritation to people all over the
country ... and now can bounce back on the guy who made the mistake:

Phone dialing probably needs to be redesigned from the ground up to
require a "send" key like cellular (probably #) before processing the
number. I mean, it's not like you're hitting all those switches with
uniselector pulses any more.


Peter da Silva. Taronga Park BBS.  [phone]|1032 2400/n/8/1.

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

From: grout![e-mail] (Mark Oberg)
Subject: Re: Call Return Has Its Problems
Date: 29 Dec 91 14:41:44 GMT
Organization: Grout, Beltsville, MD


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dannie
Gregoire) writes:

> I have a few problems with the phone company's CALL RETURN services.
> The other day, I was placing a call and pressed two numbers on the
> keypad similtaneously, while trying to dial the last digit.  As soon
> as I did this, I hung up, redialed the number correctly, and completed
> my call.

> As soon as I completed my call and hung up, my phone rang.  I answered
> it, and was immediately screamed at "What the f*** do you want?"  Not
> having any clue what had taken place, I said "excuse me" and was
> answered with a rage of obscenities, about calling and hanging up.  A
> moment later, another person got on the phone, who was a bit more calm
> and explained that they had dialed *69 to return my "hang up".  Then
> this person began demanding to know why I had hung up on them.  I
> tried to explain to them what I thought had taken place, but was of
> little use. Finally, these people slammed their phone down and HUNG UP
> ON ME! (If only I had call return ;-)

    Call Return is available here in C&P territory on a per-call
basis, as well as by monthly subscription.  I often use it to return
calls missed due to being "indisposed" or in the shower or just busy
and not near the phone.  My experience is that 80-90% of the times
I've used it, the party on the other end denies calling -- even if I
suggest to them that a wrong number call might have been dialed.  In
most cases, the person answering has informed me that they are the
only resident in the household and that no call was attempted on or
around the time my phone was ringing.  As I rarely receive wrong
number calls here when I do answer the phone, I wonder what the
possibility might be for an incorrect Return Call to be made?

    Calls to C&P about this result in an answer that the service
is perfect with no chance of error and that the dialing party must be
too embarassed to admit calling.  Rather than berating the caller, I
do try to ask enough of the right questions to determine the exact
reason for the call but usually get the type of response shown above.

    Has anyone else experienced a similar situation?  Does anyone
know of any technical reasons why the call might be returned
incorrectly?

[P.S. to Pat:  Thanks for another great year of Telecom!  Hope that 1992
brings more of the same!  Happy New Year to all.]


Mark Oberg   NATel, Inc.   |  UUCP: wb3ffv!grout!mark
Voice: [phone]       |  Internet: [e-mail]
  BBS: [phone]       |  Fidonet: 1:109/506


[Moderator's Note: Thanks for your kind words, and happy new year to
you also!  Like yourself, a great many calls I have returned result in
the person denying any knowledge of it ... but listen to their voices
carefully; you know they are lying. So let them ... who cares.   PAT]

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

Date: 29 Dec 91 12:26:58 EST
From: Larry Rachman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hit


Wish I could give more specific information on this one, but there was
a song a bunch of years ago called 'Don't Call Us, We'll Call You',
about an unknown band seeking their way to fame and fortune. It starts
out with a string of ten touchtone digits, followed by a first verse
telling about the band being ignored by one agent after another. As
the song progresses, the band gets more and more popular until they
are world-renowned, and the song ends with anothe ten-digit touchtone
string.

The beginning phone number was CBS studios in New York, and the ending
phone number was the White House!


Larry Rachman, WA2BUX                  Reply-to: [e-mail]

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

Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 15:05:22 CST
From: [e-mail] (Glen Overby)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


Who ya gonna call?  GHOSTBUSTERS!

I don't remember if they showed a phone number on the "TV" adds in the
movie, but there was a almost identical commercial aired on national
TV that had a 800 number (that was before the days of 900 numbers!).
I called it several times, but it was always busy.

Going a bit further off track ...

Don't forget Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure where our heroes used
a phone booth as a time machine.  They had one heck of a phone book!
Did anyone catch the 'phone number' for those babes?

One of the Superman series had Clark giving a rather dismayed look
when he found that modern phone booths are no longer enclosed boxes (a
revolving door sufficed).

I think this one has allready been mentioned, but try giving Jenny a
call at 8765-309 (I can't remember the group, but I vaguely remember
the video).


Glen Overby    <[e-mail]>

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1056
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa25409;
          29 Dec 91 23:50 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28594
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 29 Dec 1991 22:15:56 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32351
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 29 Dec 1991 22:15:40 -0600
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 22:15:40 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1057

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 29 Dec 91 22:15:28 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1057

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    What a Way to End the Year! Cell Phone Blows Up (TELECOM Moderator)
    WLUP Challenges FCC on Indecency Ruling (TELECOM Moderator)
    Re: This is Class? (John Higdon)
    Re: Weird AT&T Rates (Mark Oberg)
    Re: Cellular Coverage on the Southwest Chief? (Bob Denny)
    Re: ANI in NJ (Terry Kennedy)
    Re: ANI in NJ (And Other Telco Test Lines) (Macy Hallock)
    Re: Swedish Telecommunications Network (David G. Lewis)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 21:06:34 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: What a Way to End the Year! Cell Phone Blows Up


I just a few minutes ago managed to blow up a cellular phone.  I have
two cell accounts, one with each carrier and the 'bag phone' was being
used in our car, mainly by my brother.  The cigarette lighter adapter
was acting funny on the thing, and somehow it got shorted out. Had it
blown the fuse in the adapter, that would be simple enough, but as it
turns out it somehow got passed there and apparently blew a diode in
the phone. I feel sort of sick right now since I had planned to have
my brother use that phone in the car on his (and his wife's) trip to
Ohio the week after next. Maybe I can get it repaired, but something
tells me it will cost more to repair it than to buy a new phone, with
Cellular One looking for a new commitment and a new security deposit,
etc. A great way to end the year! Does anyone have a bag phone, easily
programmable they'd like to sell me for fifty dollars or so?  I'd get
it reprogrammed on my existing Cell One account.

Time is of the essence since I'd like to have something in the car
when my family leaves next Friday night. Anyone in Chicago?


Gratefully,

PAT

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

Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 22:07:05 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: WLUP Challenges FCC on Indecency Ruling


Steve Dahl and Garry Meier are two radio personalities with a large
following in the Chicago area. Their stock in trade on the airwaves
here includes a big dose of lewd jokes, sexual innuendo and commentary
on current events. They consistently poke fun at various lifestyles,
including very unflattering commentaries about gay people, women and
other minority groups.  They're on WLUP (1000 on the AM dial, formerly
known as WCFL) during the late afternoon for a couple hours.

In 1989, Dahl and Meier, along with their employer Evergreen Media
Corporation, the owner of WLUP were cited by the Federal Communications
Commission with three counts of on-air indecency based on two broadcasts
in 1987 and one in 1989 in which the pair, according to the FCC,
employed "terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community
standards [to describe] sexual and excretory activities or body organs
used in these activities."

The FCC levied a $6000 fine against the corporation, along with Dahl
and Meier as individuals, and recently made demand for payment of the
fine. The response from the station was that the corporation intends
to fight the matter, and will refuse to pay the fine. Their response
was that the FCC can now seek resolution in federal court if the
Commission wishes to do so ... the FCC has not given a formal
response yet, but it appears likely the matter will be referred to the
United States Attorney for collection.

"I'm pleased that Evergreen is backing me and Gary, and our freedom of
speech," Dahl said. "We all talked about it and decided that if we are
willing to profit by the exercise of our constitutional rights, we
also have to be willing to fight to protect them."

This pair does indeed profit from their 'free speech rights'. Despite
their ugly remarks about gays and others, their show sells a huge
amount of advertising at a great profit for the station, as well as
Dahl and Meier who produce their own show. Now we shall see if the FCC
is willing to push harder on this, and if so, how the court will
respond.


PAT

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

Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 01:43 PST
From: [e-mail] (John Higdon)
Reply-To: John Higdon <[e-mail]>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Subject: Re: This is Class?


virtech![e-mail] (Rick Rodman) writes:

> IMHO, GOUGING the customer is NOT Class.  I hope to find someone at
> Contel/GTE who understands the issue and give him a piece of my mind.

Well, one man's caviar is another man's poison. Contel of California
is for all practical purposes THE LEC of the high desert region of the
state. The local rates are somewhat higher than Pac*Bell's because of
provisions in the tariffs that give special consideration to rural
areas. It is considered more difficult and costly to provide service
in a sparcely populated locale.

Contel does a fine job. It has fully implemented FGD, uses nothing but
DMS and 5ESS switches and is quite reliable. It provides service to
some very out of the way places and yet has good audio quality and
availability of facilities. An associate lives half way between
Victorville and Barstow. Those of you who know the terrain are aware
that this is some pretty barren and desolate land. But Contel has all
the facilities you might want served out of a remote office providing
Victorville prefixes.

And unlike Pac*Bell, the Contel DMSes have all the good feature
packages and generics. The three-way does not sound like excrement as
it does in Pac*Bell land. (When you talk to Pac*Bell, the people deny
that it can be any better than currently provided.)

CLASS features are scheduled to be offered long before Pac*Bell ever
gets off its behind and does so. And in general (sorry), Contel's
personel are well trained and helpful, unlike some of the front-line
trainees that many seem to be getting lately when calling Pac*Bell's
business office.

> Hope, that is, not expect.  In the past, I have been unable to find
> anyone there who understood either 10xxx or 950 access.  Today I
> called them asking about ISDN -- and they'd never heard of it.

Not only does Contel of California fully implement 10XXX and 950 (and
has for some time), it carries 811-XXXX calls which are toll-free to
Pac*Bell offices around the state. Ask Pac*Bell about ISDN sometime!

> Those scumbags ripped us off so John can have a nice Xmas card?
> Sickening.  Putrid.  I'd tell them where to stuff it, John.

Quite honestly, if I could get Contel at my home, I would pay the
extra money willingly. As it stands, it looks as though I will have a
choice from Pac*Bell: eventually be able to have CLASS features on the
wretched-sounding 5ESS, or do without on the much-better-sounding
1ESS.  Some choice, eh?

What I suspect is that it is all relative. You are comparing Contel to
C&P and I am comparing it to Pac*Bell. That should probably clear up
any questions.


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

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

From: grout![e-mail] (Mark Oberg)
Subject: Re: Weird AT&T Rates
Date: 29 Dec 91 15:08:39 GMT
Organization: Grout, Beltsville, MD


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Ron
Schnell) writes:

> I called AT&T to find out about various rates, and changes which will
> affect Reach Out America(tm) next month, and discovered some very
> interesting things.

> I also found out that the rate to call Massachusetts is more expensive
                                                          ^^^^ ???
> for the first minute than for each additional minute.  I asked the rep
> why, and she said it is because there are so many people using faxes
> and answering machines, and it is to give them a break.  Of course the
> implication is that it is cheaper to hang up every minute and call
> back, than to stay on the line.  Apparently, this is true for many
> different city pairs.  I thought it used to be the opposite.

    I assume that you meant to say "less expensive" from the
context of the paragraph.  If so, the reason might be marketing rather
than any corporate sympathy for the plight of fax users.  MCI has had
the very interesting habit of quoting first minute rates that are
lower than the additional minute rate for quite some time now.  If the
rate were, for example, $0.10/min first minute and $0.13/min
additional minutes. Someone calling to compare rates might ask "How
much do you charge for a one minute call to <insert location>?" and
receive the truthful and accurate answer "Ten cents" without further
explanation.

    Also, the advertising people can make the rate comparisons
look a lot better by showing one to five minute calls where the lower
first minute will reduce the apparent cost per minute.  Of course, on
more typical calls of longer duration, the rate per minute might
actually work out to be higher than the other carrier.  AT&T might be
making a change to allow for higher revenues while appearing to reduce
rates <pure speculation on my part>.


Disclaimer: These are my own ideas and opinions. NATel, Inc. does not have
anything to do with them.

Mark Oberg   NATel, Inc.   |  UUCP: wb3ffv!grout!mark
Voice: [phone]       |  Internet: [e-mail]
  BBS: [phone]       |  Fidonet: 1:109/506

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

From: [e-mail] (Bob Denny)
Subject: Re: Cellular Coverage on the Southwest Chief?
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 19:28:10 GMT
Organization: Alisa Systems, Inc.


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jim
Rees) writes:

> I'll be taking the train from Chicago to San Francisco in a few weeks,
> and I plan to take my Outback cellular modem along (I have to keep up
> with the TELECOM Digest!).  I'll be taking the Southwest Chief from
> Chicago to L.A., then the Coast Starlight to S.F.  How good is the
> cellular coverage along this route?  Will I have any trouble roaming?

I do know that the coverage along US101 and I5 from LA to SF is good.
I believe the railroad follows US101 so you should have good luck.
Expect breaks when transiting between systems, and of course, the
roaming charge for each system you talk thru. If you have a choice,
stay with non-wireline ... LA Cellular definitely has better services
(at least for LA home subscribers), including instant follow-me
roaming. I have used both PacTel and LA Cellular, and I dumped PacTel
for LA's coverage, quality, and value-added services.

> Also, is the Outback likely to work while the train is moving?  They
> don't recommend using it while in motion, but in my experience PEP is
> pretty good at keeping a connection going.

Can't comment on signal problems, but I have found that your call will
not get passed from system to system, once you get out of LA
Cellular's "super roaming" service area, which covers up to San Luis
Obispo, and then picks up again south of the Bay area.


Robert B. Denny        voice: [phone]
Alisa Systems, Inc.    fax: [phone]
Pasadena, CA           ([e-mail], ..uunet!alisa.com!denny)

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

From: [e-mail] (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.)
Subject: Re: ANI in NJ
Date: 29 Dec 91 12:12:21 GMT
Organization: St. Peter's College, US


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

> Dial 958 in Northern New Jersey.  You get a verbal readback of the
> number you're calling from.  This did not work a few months ago; does
> anybody know exactly when NJ Bell turned this on?

  Shortly after the 200 exchange (a 5ESS in Jersey City) went live.
958 replaces the older 200-xxxx number. Note that 958 is the same code
as is used in New York. Perhaps this is going to become a standard?
I'll have to look at some Bellcore documents to see if this is the
case. It would be interesting to see what area codes don't have a
958 exchange in service.


Terry Kennedy        Operations Manager, Academic Computing
[e-mail]    St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA
[e-mail]    [phone]

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

Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 11:58 EST
From: fmsys![e-mail] (Macy Hallock)
Subject: Re: ANI in NJ (and Other Telco Test Lines)
Organization: The Matrix


In article <[e-mail]> Dave Levenson writes:

> Dial 958 in Northern New Jersey.  You get a verbal readback of the
> number you're calling from.  This did not work a few months ago; does
> anybody know exactly when NJ Bell turned this on?

A number of random comments here:

My list of reserved exchange codes show 958 is reserved for telco use.
Its my understanding that the original purpose of the exchange was for
internal telco numbers and special services, much like PacTel uses
811, but also with Dialing Number Identification Announcements,
various test lines and such included.

I've seen it used in only a few areas in the past.  In at least one
area code it seems to have been assigned as a regular exchange.  I
know that at least one area code in Canada that has placed 958 into
regular service.

In converstations with Ohio Bell and GTE North engineers, I have
suggested that they place 958 in service for just these types of
service.  Most were unaware of the special status of 958.

Ohio Bell still seems to feel that these types of number are internal
and confidential.  I know that Ohio Bell employees have been told not
to give these numbers out or else they will be subject to disciplinary
action.

There is a procedure mandated by the FCC to obtain certain telco test
numbers.  This yields 1000hz and quiet line numbers in requested
exchanges when filed and executed.  The Ohio COG office (this is the
business office arm that deals with interconnect vendors) has great
difficulity dealing with these requests, it seems.  Requests for
number identfication numbers are refused.

I have had several instances where I could not identify numbers of
lines on telco demarcation blocks.  Each time I ask to have these
lines identified, the telco sends out a tech to do so.  In
converstations with supervisors and test board staff, all agree that
just dialing the number identification number will fix the problem,
but they cannot give it out ... so they send out a tech, at telco (and
subscriber) expense to do so.

In one instance, the telco did not want to send a tech or give me the
number ID number.  I asked how I could identify the lines on their
demarcation block and was told to check my paperwork and call the
business office.  After asking for a supervisor, explaining the
situation, and reminding them I knew the procedure for submitting a
PUC complaint, they dispatched a tech.  Sigh.

GTE used 311 in most exchanges for nubmer ID up until a couple of
years ago.  I was told by at least on GTE engineer that the change was
caused by a new software generic that came out during the implementation
of Centrex type services.  GTE North now uses random seven digit
numbers for test purposes, just like they used to years ago.  Their
people do not seem inclined to divulge number ID lines, but noone has
told be that they have been threatened with discipline in the manner
that Ohio Bell staffers have been.

I have not filed a format request for these numbers with their
business office because a couple of helpful GTE staffers verbally
advised me of their number ID numbers in certain CO's I work with.
This action has saved GTE several tech dispatches for non-identfied
lines on demarc block.  (Especially useful with GTE's occasional
sloppy cable pair reassignments.)


Regards,

Macy M Hallock Jr N8OBG 216.725.4764 [e-mail] [e-mail]
[No disclaimer, but I have no real idea what I'm saying or why I'm telling you]

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

From: [e-mail] (david.g.lewis)
Subject: Re: Swedish Telecommunications Network
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 21:33:56 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Harold Hallikainen) writes:

> Is there some standard clear way of printing phone numbers so that
> anyone in the world can make sense of them?

The standard is     +CC NN

where               +      equals the (administration-specific) code used
                           for access to international dialing (e.g. 011
                           in the USA)
                    CC     equals the country code
                    NN     equals the national significant number

So I would show my number as +1 908 949 XXXX.  "Qualifiers" between CC
and NN, and within NN, are probably specified by CCITT (I think they
prefer spaces or single periods), but are pretty much at the
discretion of the specific administration.


David G Lewis                    AT&T Bell Laboratories
[e-mail]  or  !att!houxa!deej      ISDN Evolution Planning

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1057
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa14127;
          30 Dec 91 22:17 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08932
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Dec 1991 20:41:27 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28631
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Dec 1991 20:41:07 -0600
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 20:41:07 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1058

TELECOM Digest     Mon, 30 Dec 91 20:41:00 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1058

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Call Return Has Its Problems (John Temples)
    Re: Call Return Has Its Problems (Tony Harminc)
    Re: AT&T Does An Excellent Job on Calls Down Under (Michael G. Katzmann)
    Re: Gadgets to Help Take Advantage of Custom Ringing (Andrew M. Dunn)
    Re: Problem with Procomm; Help Needed (Ken Abrams)
    Re: ANI in NJ (Don Maslin)
    What is "System Code Please"? (John R. Levine)
    Massachusetts DPU Ponders ISDN Request (Middlesex News via Adam M. Gaffin)
    Re: Yellow Pages (Joshua E. Muskovitz)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: jwt![e-mail] (John Temples)
Subject: Re: Call Return Has Its Problems
Organization: The Museum of Barnyard Oddities
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 05:59:15 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dannie
Gregoire) writes:

> [Moderator's Note: [...] Call-Screening, Caller-ID and Return-Call
> are certainly changing everything we have assumed about telephony in
> the past.  PAT]

I'll say.  I had an episode of "high-tech phone wars" last week.  My
roommate has a RingMaster number on my line (distinctive ring with its
own phone number).  He got a call at 2 AM which consisted of laughing
followed by a hang up.  He immediately called back (we have Caller-ID
rather than Call Return) and gave them a piece of his mind.  A few
seconds later, the phone rang again, but this time with *my* ring --
they had apparently called back with Call Return, since he had *67'd
his call to them.  (Would this be considered a "bug" in Call Return?)
I answered, and got a half dozen "hellos" shouted at me.  I started to
file an annoyance complaint against them, but decided I'd give them
another chance.  Anyway, I've now got their name, address, and phone
number thanks to Caller-ID and Phone*File.  :)

> [PAT continues: The ones who are chronic misdialers simply get added
> to my call-screening list.]

I have a little more fun with them.  I annotate all wrong numbers as
such in my Caller-ID database.  When I get a repeat wrong number
(which happens surprisingly often), it's displayed on my computer's
screen, and I'll answer the phone with "You have the wrong number" or
"There's no 'Herbert' here."  It draws some startled reactions.


John W. Temples -- [e-mail] (uunet!jwt!john)


[Moderator's Note: Sorry, but just imagining someone calling at that
time of night, making some insane laughter then hanging up and your
roomate's indignant response caused me to sit here with the giggles
reading it. I guess this whole thread could be retitled 'phun with
phones' or something. Its funny -- but its not funny -- if you
understand what I mean. Your roomate's mistake was in not *immediatly*
adding 'last call received' to the Call Screening list, and *then*
calling back. When he hung up and they called back, they'd get
screened, since *69 does not override Call Screening, nor does *67
prevent the number from being captured for screening purposes.  PAT]

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

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 12:51:52 EST
From: Tony Harminc <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Call Return Has Its Problems


[e-mail] (Dannie Gregoire) wrote:

[ Description of people using Call Return to call back after an
inadvertant wrong number and swear at the caller]

> 3) Does the returned call I received constitute a harrassing/obscene
> call?

I would say so, yes.  If I had Call Display (Caller*ID) or Call Trace
I would turn 'em in.

When I was an intervenor before the CRTC on Bell Canada's application
for Call Management Services in 1989/90, I made the point that Call
Return could itself be used to make harrassing calls.

The phone company's answer to your problem is undoubtedly to tell you
to subscribe to Call Display or Call trace.

This brings us to the point made by Administrative Law Judge John
Schnierle in the Pennsylvania case: "An appropriate, albeit extreme
analogy, is that of an arms dealer selling advanced weapons to both
sides in a war so that each side may, alternatively defend and attack
with the most modern technology."

[The Moderator uses Call return for wrong numbers]

> What's funny though are the ones who lie about it; claim they did
> not call, and have 'no idea' why I am calling them. :)

Has it occured to you that perhaps you are not reaching the person who
misdialed you ?  There are all sorts of situations, most of them PBX
related, that will lead you to call back someone other than the person
who called you.  Here I have picked up the night line and got someone
claiming that I called them.  Presumably it was someone else in this
company who happened to get the same PBX trunk.


Tony H.


[Moderator's Note: I'm not as dumb as I look, Tony. A call at midnight
with a two year old child on the other end saying 'da da da' then a
voice in the background screaming 'hang up the phone and get back in
bed you little 'bas---d' followed by a receiver going on hook most
likely did not originate from the Widget Corporation's PBX.   PAT]

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

From: vk2bea![e-mail] (Michael G. Katzmann)
Subject: Re: AT&T Does An Excellent Job on Calls Down Under
Date: 30 Dec 91 14:45:53 GMT
Reply-To: vk2bea![e-mail] (Michael G. Katzmann)
Organization: Broadcast Sports Technology, Crofton. Maryland.


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dennis
G. Rears ) writes:

> voices would cancel each other out.  With AT&T we can both speak at
> the same time.  Has anybody any similiar experiences?

It sounds like you just got a cable circuit rather than a satellite
path.  My experience with AT&T, is that it's about 50/50 cable to
satellite.  The satellite delay (one-way) is about 1/4 second whereas
the trans-pacific cable is about 50 milliseconds.

I gather the cable is all digital now, judging by the quality of the
audio.  A few years ago when they used TASI (an analog multiplexing
scheme) very strange effects were noticable.

I think that the cable is owned by AT+T and so SPRINT and MCI et al
would use leased Intelsat/Comsat paths in preference to the cable.  I
think SPRINT were talking about a fiber cable to Japan but I don't
think this has happened.


Michael Katzmann     Broadcast Sports Technology Inc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     Crofton, Maryland. U.S.A
Amteur Radio Stations:
NV3Z / VK2BEA / G4NYV     opel!vk2bea![e-mail]

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

Date: Sun Dec 29 17:39:40 1991
From: mongrel![e-mail] (Andrew M. Dunn)
Organization: A. Dunn Systems Corporation, Kitchener, Canada
From: [e-mail] (Andrew M. Dunn)
Subject: Re: Gadgets to Help Take Advantage of Custom Ringing
Organization: A. Dunn Systems Corporation, Kitchener, Canada
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 22:39:32 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gil
Kloepfer Jr.) writes:

> I have built such a device.  You *can* sense the first pulse of the
> ring and cut off the ring to all devices fast enough with a relay to
> prevent most devices from seeing that pulse.  I have a modem which
> sees it, but I can simply set that to answer after two rings.

Why not include a relay to cut off the line to other devices, until a
ring comes in and is detected?  Ie. don't pass anything on to the
devices until you have decided they're good and ready.

Of course, if some of the "devices" also want to make outgoing calls,
you'll have to supply them with -48V and an off-hook detector can be
used to pull in the above-mentioned relay.

When the relay is open, the devices are connected to a 48V battery or
other relevant supply, through a current detector (a simple transistor
will often do) and not connected to the telephone line.  If a current
is detected, or if the telephone line rings and you WANT to pass
whatever ringing pattern you have detected, the relay is pulled in.
The devices are no longer connected to the battery; they are now
connected to the telephone line, and they'll catch the NEXT set of
rings in the cycle.

You can have as many of these as you like ... one device per group for
which you want to decode a unique ring.


Andy Dunn ([e-mail])  ({uunet...}!xenitec!mongrel!amdunn)

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

From: [e-mail] (Ken Abrams)
Subject: Re: Problem with Procomm; Help Needed
Organization: Athenanet, Inc.,  Springfield, Illinois
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 15:47:20 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Eddie
G) writes:

> I have a problem with Procomm 2.4.3.  When I turn on the printer
> (ALT-L), procomm doesn't send line feeds to the printer.  I get the
> display output all bunch up together.  The log function does the same.
> I had the same problem with version 2.4.2.  Can anyone tell me what am
> I doing wrong?  I use VT100 emulation.

> [Moderator's Note: Please reply only by email to the writer.   PAT]

I will (try) to send the author mail but I think this is likely to
have some general interest value since the problem is probably not
unique to Procomm.  I have had the same problem and it took me a while
to figure out what caused it.  In my case, also using VT100 emulation,
I discovered that the host system was not SENDING cr/lf to make a new
line but was instead sending cursor positioning commands.  Since the
capture file expects to store pure ASCII and the printer doesn't
respond to the escape sequences, this creates a problem.  In my case,
column alignment was also done by cursor positioning instead of tabs
or spaces so text alignment was all messed up too.  The only solution
I have found is to display the data one screen at a time and do a
series of screen dumps.


Ken Abrams           nstar!pallas!kabra437
Springfield, IL      [e-mail]   (voice) 217-753-7965


[Moderator's Note: Actually Ken, I'm glad you did reply to the Digest;
I hadn't thought about it before, but the problem is common.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Don Maslin)
Subject: Re: ANI in NJ
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 20:16:34 GMT


[e-mail] (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.) writes:

> Shortly after the 200 exchange (a 5ESS in Jersey City) went live.
> 958 replaces the older 200-xxxx number. Note that 958 is the same code
> as is used in New York. Perhaps this is going to become a standard?

Dialing 958 in the 619 area produces nothing but silence.


UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd ucsd nosc}!crash!pnet01!donm
ARPA: crash!pnet01![e-mail]
INET: [e-mail]

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

Subject: What is "System Code Please"?
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 0:36:48 EST
From: John R. Levine <[e-mail]>


While up in Vermont over Christmas, I discovered a most peculiar thing
about the local phone exchange.  Whenever I dialed a *, after a few
seconds a synthesized voice would ask for "System Code Please."  A
zero dropped back to where I was, nothing else I could think of did
anything interesting, except that one time a # read back in the same
voice what sounded like a list of alarms generated at the CO.  This
happens no matter when I push the star, whether it's at dial tone,
ringing, busy, or in the middle of a conversation.  It occasionally
happens in the middle of conversation without any dialing, I suppose
because something sounded like a star.

What in the world is this obnoxious thing?  The exchange is Woodstock,
Vt., 802-457.  It's a NET exchange, with reasonably new equipment that
supports equal access, upgraded within the last five years or so,
though this 'System Code Please' business is new within the last year.
We're ten miles or so from the CO so there might be a SLC or something
in between.

By the way, in reference to a previous thread about getting both sides
of a party line as a kind of rich man's distinctive ringing, I note
that the phone book has for several years stated that you can't get
private line service in Woodstock or nearby Bethel, only two or four
party.  In fact, nearly everyone I know has a private line, so I'm not
sure who NET thinks they are kidding here.  It's not like either town
is in the middle of a construction boom which suddenly swamped the
equipment, either.


Regards,

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

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

From: [e-mail] (Adam M Gaffin)
Subject: Massachusetts DPU Ponders ISDN Request
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 19:41:23 GMT


{Middlesex News}, Framingham, Mass., 12/24/91

Phone company will offer data system; competitors cry foul

By Adam Gaffin
NEWS STAFF WRITER

     FRAMINGHAM - New England Telephone says a proposed high-speed
data system could bring a wealth of new services to companies in
Framingham and Marlboro.

     But a pair of opponents says the company's proposed rates are so
high they would squelch innovation and deprive residents of
potentially valuable new information services.

     The computerized system, known as an ``integrated services
digital network'' or ISDN, would allow such things as simultaneous
voice and data communications on one line and would let users tap into
the power of a phone company central office.

     The state Department of Public Utilities is expected to rule in
early February on the proposal.

     New England Telephone has proposed a $35 installation fee and a
monthly fee of $8 a month for the basic 960-character-per-second
residential service. Users would also have to pay a fee each time they
accessed the network, and there would be far higher charges to use a
faster data system and other features of the network. Framingham and
Marlboro would be among the first six communities in the state to get
the service, the company says.

     Prodigy Services Co., which runs the national Prodigy consumer
computer network, says the phone company unfairly built in huge
profits made possible by its monopoly position in the local market.
Providing that $8 service would cost the phone company only $3.30, it
says.

     Mitch Kapor, co-founder of Lotus Development Corp,, and chairman
of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argues that the phone company
should be forced to set low enough rates to encourage ``another
generation of explosive growth of services, led by a generation of
information entrepreneurs.''

     The phone company, however, argues that there is a limited
potential home market for ISDN at present for technical and economic
reasons: High-speed data can only be transmitted over short distance
through the copper cable that still connects almost all homes to the
phone system. The phone company also notes that ISDN data converters
cost $700 or more and are incompatible with existing answering
machines and other phones.

     And it argued that its ISDN service would not be a monopoly
because other companies already provide similar services, such as
high-speed data links.

     Kapor countered that ``in order to become ubiquitous, ISDN access
must be priced low enough that the average consumer finds it
affordable.  As a practical matter, this means that there must be a
residential tariff comparable to the unlimited local calling plans
available to residential customers.

     ``Today these information entrepreneurs enjoy a marginal
existence in the largely non-commercial world of bulletin boards and
on the national research and education network called the Internet,''
Kapor said. ``Give them a commercial information infrastructure which
can reach large numbers of people inexpensively, and I believe we will
all be truly amazed at the results.''


Adam Gaffin     Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass.   [e-mail]
Voice: [phone]. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: [phone].


[Moderator's Note: As always, Adam, thanks for sharing your column
with the Digest. Your stories are always great!  Happy New Year!   PAT]

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

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 09:15:21 EST
From: "Joshua E. Muskovitz" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Yellow Pages


Not only SunOS, but IBM AIX, too, has Network Information Services.
All the commands start with yp.  I guess BT didn't have a problem with
that. ;-)

Personally, I don't see why they made a big deal out of it.


josh

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1058
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa17321;
          31 Dec 91 0:28 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21583
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Dec 1991 22:49:26 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25084
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Dec 1991 22:49:09 -0600
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 22:49:09 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1059

TELECOM Digest     Mon, 30 Dec 91 22:49:03 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1059

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Michael G. Katzmann)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Ethan Miller)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Douglas W. Martin)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Tom Coradeschi)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Scott Fybush)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Andrew Burt)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Doug Lee)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Tony Harminc)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Andrew M. Dunn)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (John David Galt)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Jon Bosak)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Guy R. Berentsen)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Bill Pfeiffer)
    PEnnsylvania 6-5000 (was Greatest Hits) (Charles MdGuinness)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (TELECOM Moderator)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: vk2bea![e-mail] (Michael G. Katzmann)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: 30 Dec 91 14:58:04 GMT
Reply-To: vk2bea![e-mail] (Michael G. Katzmann)
Organization: Broadcast Sports Technology, Crofton. Maryland.


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Haroon
H. Dogar) writes:

> [e-mail] writes:

> Am I mistaken, or is this supposed to be a collect call from the
> United States to England?

If it was an English operator it would be:
       "A Reverse Charge call for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd.
            Will you accept the charges?"


Michael Katzmann    Broadcast Sports Technology Inc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    Crofton, Maryland. U.S.A
Amteur Radio Stations:
NV3Z / VK2BEA / G4NYV    opel!vk2bea![e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (ethan miller)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: 30 Dec 91 11:46:43


> Any other nominations for telecommunications greatest hits? :-)

Does anyone else remember a parody of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do"
which came out around the time of the AT&T breakup?  It was called
"Breaking Up Is Hard On You" and featured such lines as (from memory,
so they may be off):

They say that breaking up is good to do
Then they send six bills to you.
Don't say it's fate my friend.
Even though they're breaking up they're also jacking up the rates again.

AT and T, don't say goodbye.
Don't want to use my MCI.
When they divest, then I'll be blue.
'Cause breaking up is hard on you.

I don't remember who sang it, but it'd be interesting to get my hands
on a copy.  Any ideas?


ethan miller--cs grad student
[e-mail]  #include <std/disclaimer.h>

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

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 13:15:53 PST
From: [e-mail] (Douglas W. Martin)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


     Here are some songs I haven't seen mentioned yet.

     In country music, from the late 50's, Don Gibson had a hit with
"Call me at Lonesome Number One".  The lyric, which I can't quote
exactly, talked about: "I had my number changed today.  You're the
only one I'll give my number to.  So if my phone rings, I'll know it's
you.  Call me at Lonesome number one."

     Stevie Wonder had: "I just called to say I love you."

    In James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" is the line: "It's been hours of
time on the telephone line, to talk about things to come.".


Doug Martin     [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 16:46:28 EST
From: Tom Coradeschi <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


Operator. Written by Ron McKernan (pigpen), it appears on American
Beauty by The Grateful Dead. Performed four times in 1970, so it might
even be on a tape somewere ... (and who says work isn't all fun:-}).

Operator. Can you help me. Help me if you please.
Give me the right area code and the number that I need...


tom coradeschi    <+>    [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 18:33 EDT
From: Scott Fybush <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


Several readers have mentioned PEnnsylvania 6-5000.  It is still the
main number for the Pennsylvania Hotel (until last year the New York
Penta) on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan.  Of course, they give the phone
number as 736-5000, but then what do they know?

One amusing note: Brandeis University's PBX is on the 617-736
exchange.  When they assigned the new 736 numbers about six years ago,
they decided to give the police dispatcher extension 5000.  Thus,
anyone needing emergency service on the Brandeis campus has to call
PEnnsylvania 6-5000! :) (I don't think anyone in the Brandeis telecom
department realized that, somehow.)

PAT asked what telecom customer has kept the same number the longest.
I'm not sure, but his comment brought to mind one useful idea.

If one has a rough idea of the relative age of the various exchanges
in an area, one can (sometimes) tell how long a business has been
around.  Thus in my hometown of Brighton, NY, I can assume that a
phone on the 473 exchnage, around since the early days of dial
service, has been in place longer than one on the 256 exchange,
introduced a couple of years ago.  This is not always reliable, but it
can be of use occasionally.

Happy New Year, and thanks PAT for another fun year of c.d.t!


Scott Fybush -- [e-mail] -- Waltham MA USA
*Please no mail to the above address between 6-16 Jan 1992!!!*

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

From: [e-mail] (Andrew Burt)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 23:59:15 GMT


My father-in-law, who put in 40 years with Mountain Bell, has a tape
of a song, title is something like "Mr. Telephone Man".  Has a dizzy
sounding woman singing enticing lines like "I'm gonna tell him where I
want it" and "I'm gonna let my fingers do the walking on the telephone
man".  A real hoot.  I have no idea who sings it -- anyone know this
gem?


Andrew Burt   uunet!isis!aburt or [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Doug Lee)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 17:15:05 GMT


I haven't seen any mention of Rupert Holms' (sp? on both) song:

I'm so sorry.  You have just reached my
     answering machine.
I'm not here at present - I'm sure you
     know this whole routine.
Leave your name and number, and I'll
     try to get back to you.
You have thirty seconds to talk to me before you're
     through.


Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the song.  It was written
back when most (all?) answering machines could only record very short
messages, and it is basically a series of examples of messages cut off
at most inopportune moments.


Doug Lee  ([e-mail] or nstar!pallas!dlee)

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

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 12:45:45 EST
From: Tony Harminc <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


[e-mail] wrote:

> Find a copy of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and play the cut entitled
> "Young Lust". At the end of the song, you hear a series of comments
> from a rather perplexed Long-Distance operator trying to complete a
> call from the U.S. to the caller's wife in London, England. The phone
> rings, a man's voice answers, and as the operator starts to say "I
> have a collect call for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd; will you accept the
> charges?", he hangs up on her. This happens several times, with the
> puzzled operator saying, "He keeps hanging up, sir...", "There's
> someone there besides your wife, sir...", and stuff to that effect.

On one of the attempts a burst of MF tones is clearly audible.  I
remember wondering years ago if it would be considered illegal to
possess the album.  Certainly interesting to play it very loudly into
the phone.


Tony H.

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

From: [e-mail] (Andrew M. Dunn)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Organization: A. Dunn Systems Corporation, Kitchener, Canada
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1991 22:33:29 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> John Higdon <john@zygot.
ati.com> writes:

> On Dec 28 at  0:34, TELECOM Moderator writes:

>> [Moderator's Note: It would be interesting to find out what
>> organization or person has had their phone number longer than anyone
>> else.

> I object. Only the larger cities will even have entries that will be
> in the running. While San Francisco may have come competing entries,
> the suburbs will not. For instance, San Jose has no phone numbers any
> older than 1948 ...

Not many old numbers are still around.  Most established businesses
like to have two things:

  (a) multiple lines on a hunt group
  (b) easy-to-remember numbers ending in zeroes (ie. xxx-2500)

These were mutually exclusive on step-by-step gear.  Since the digit
zero was the LAST position on the step canister, it couldn't START a
hunt group.  Hunt groups of any size usually started with a 1.

Well, as soon as xbar or something else came along, most businesses
changed their numbers, to get both (a) and (b) above.  Even if they
didn't have to.

So a lot of the original numbers, while remaining in the same exchange,
changed as soon as the equipment did.

Pity ...


Andy Dunn ([e-mail])  ({uunet...}!xenitec!mongrel!amdunn)


[Moderator's Note: When I worked in the phone room at the University
of Chicago (around 1958-62) our numbers were all wired from what was
known as 'the Kenwood Bell', officially the Chicago-Hyde Park CO at
61st and Kenwood Sts.  The 13 *yes, thirteen* position switchboard had
three hunt groups, all of which began with zero. MIDway-3-0800 had
about 80 trunks hunting upward from it; MUseum-4-6100 had 95 trunks
hunting upward from it, and NORmal-7-4700 had about 20 trunks running
up from that number. I think they were all 5-Xbar. The 'Midway boards'
had all the 2xxx, 3xxx, and 4xxx extensions. The 'Museum boards' were
for the 5xxx, 6xxx and 7xxx extensions. 8xxx was wired from what we
called the 'Normal boards'. Calls from 2/3/4xxx to 5/6/7xxx or 8xxx
went from the operator who picked up the call via a 'tie-line' from
that position to a position across the room equipped with the 5/6/7xxx
or 8xxx lines. Each cluster of extensions ([2-3-4] [5-6-7] [8]) had
their own LDN (listed directory number) as per the above, but calls to
any of the hunt groups could be routed to any extension, of course.

The reason so many older businesses have double or triple zero endings
is because at one time, numbers with 'long dial pulls' were considered
very fashionable. Your house could burn down while you were rotary
dialing TUXedo-9-9000, the number at a branch fire station on the far
northwest side in the 1950's.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 22:24:35 PST


Haroon H. Dogar writes:

> Man's voice: "Hello."
> Operator's voice: "Collect call for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd.
>                    Will you accept the charges?"
> Click.

No, no.  That is (an almost-accurate transcription of) something from
a different Pink Floyd album, "The Wall."  "Welcome to the Machine"
starts off with a lot of machine sound effects, and then:

   Welcome, my son
   Welcome to The Machine
   What did you dream
   It's all right, we told you what to dream
   ...


John David Galt

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

From: [e-mail] (Jon Bosak)
Subject: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 01:30:01 GMT
Organization: Netcom, a Commercial Internet Service in San Jose


Let's not forget those little keepers of popular culture -- the kids.
My six-year-old daughter has been chirping that hoary old song that
lets you say "naughty" words without really saying them -- you
remember, the one that goes something like:

    Behind the 'frigerator
    There is a piece of glass
    Little Jenny found it
    And stuck it up her --

    Ask me no more questions
    And I'll tell you no lies ...

and so on; we all know some version of this.  Well, one of the verses
starts out:

    Hello, operator
    Give me number nine ...

Curious, I asked her, "What does that mean?"  Of course, she hadn't
the faintest idea, and was slightly amazed when I explained that there
was a time when you had to ask a PERSON to make your telephone
connection for you.  It's interesting to see how oral transmission can
preserve a piece of language that goes on with a life of its own long
after its meaning has been lost.  I wonder how many centuries that one
will last.


[Moderator's Note: And the last part of that one goes, " .... and if
he does not answer, give me back my dime."    PAT]

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

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 13:24:40 EST
From: [e-mail] (Guy R Berentsen)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories


    My favorite is "Telephone" by Arlo Guthery from his 1979 album
"Outlasting The Blues".  The song complains about being bothered by
unwanted phone calls all day. I once put the chorus on my answering
machine:

    "Hang up ... Hold on...
     You've got a dime so you come on so strong.
     Save your money and let me be.
     Hang up the phone and quit bothering me."

I took the message off due to the large number of people that couldn't
figure out they had reached an answering machine.  "Something is wrong
with your phone, I tried to call you and all I heard was music."

(Would you put a bell in your house that anyone in the world can ring
whenever they want to?)

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

From: [e-mail] (Bill Pfeiffer)
Subject: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 21:04:13 CST


Hello Telecom folks,

Here are a few more gems of Ma Bell Music trivia.

"Don't call us ... we'll call you" was indeed done by Sugarloaf.  I
didn't know that the tones actually dialed working numbers, though.

The song '867-5309' by Tommy Tutone actually rang an answering machine
in the Chicago suburb of Harwood Heights where the machine would
answer and say "Hi, this is Tommy Tutone and even if your name isn't
Jenny, I love you."  That recording was there for years and our
'reverse directory' service here always said it was non-published.  I
wonder how many people in other area codes got weird calls on that
one.

Mojo Nixon had a song last year in which he implored Elvis to call him
at 619-239-KING.  When I called, it was usually busy (of course), but
when I did get through, it was an answering machine asking if I was
Elvis, or had seen Elvis.  I got a 30 second chance to leave a
message.  I don't know if it is still up and running, though.

AC/DC's hit if the late 70's called Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap had a
line in it saying ... call me anytime 36-24-36 HEY! The 'Hey' was
mistaken by many to be an 8 and people with the number 362 4368 were
getting calls requesting dirty deeds ... etc.


Later,

(Wild) Bill Pfeiffer   [e-mail]

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

From: Charles McGuinness <jyacc![e-mail]>
Subject: PEnnsylvania 6-5000 (was Greatest Hits)
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 10:13:48 EST


It's worth a brief mention that (212) PEnnsylvania 6-5000 connects you
to Hotel Pennsylvania, across the street from the Pennsylvania train
station (aka Penn Station), which is underground and has Madison
Square Garden sitting on top of it.

The interesting thing telecom-wise is that, for a while, the hotel had
given up the number (when it was refered to as the "Penta Hotel"), but
apparently got the number back when they changed their name back. The
rest of the hotel is on the 502 exchange, however, making me wonder if
they just have a call forwarding on the 736-5000 number.

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

From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Date: Mon 30 Dec 1991 22:40:00


Well, fellas and girls, have we finally gotten this out of our system?
Gawd, I hope so!  Enuff already!  "Greatest Hits" has been one of the
more popular threads here in the Digest this past year, for sure. What
do you suppose 1992 will bring to the forum?


PAT

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1059
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18838;
          31 Dec 91 1:43 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08448
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Dec 1991 23:51:23 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08387
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Dec 1991 23:51:06 -0600
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 23:51:06 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1060

TELECOM Digest     Mon, 30 Dec 91 23:50:59 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1060

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Computer Integrated Telephony (Kjetil Otter Olsen)
    Telephony Museum (Patrick Fargo)
    How do Party Lines Work? (Russ Latham)
    New "Charge Cards" in NYTELland (Jerry B. Altzman)
    Telephone Number Format (Robert La Ferla)
    Rate Table For 900 Numbers (Mike Sullivan)
    Re: So How do Rail/Air Phones Work? (Lance Hall)
    Various Questions About Phone Company Numbers (Sean Petty)
    Re: White Alice (Jim Haynes)
    Extra Lines Wanted: Landlord Says No (Dennis G. Rears)
    Re: Gadgets to Help Take Advantage of Custom Ringing (John Levine)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Kjetil Otter Olsen)
Subject: Computer Integrated Telephony
Organization: University of Oslo, Norway
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 15:26:26 GMT


Does anyone use Computer Integrated Telephony (CIT)??

At the University of Oslo (in Norway) we are shortly installing new
PABX's and want to explore the possibilities of making applications
use both our computers and the PABX's. Today we think of making
applications to do student registration, to inform about grades,
general information telephones etc. mostly to enhance student
services. Other plans also exist.

To avoid reinventing the wheel I would like to get in contact with
universities (or others) with experience in this field and ask them
for some friendly advice and maybe get a few ideas.

Our PABX will be a network of approximatly ten Northern Telecom
Meridian 1's and we plan to use CIT 3.0 from Digital for the computer
connection.

All information is most welcome!

Please answer by E-mail.

Thanks in advance!


Regards,

Kjetil Otter Olsen                             E-mail:     [e-mail]
Senior System Engineer,         PABX / Computing / Communications / Networking
Center for Information Technology Services (USIT),  University of Oslo, Norway
PoBox 1059 Blindern, 0316 Oslo, Norway. Phone [phone], Fax [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Pat Fargo 6266)
Subject: Telephony Museum
Organization: Ericsson Business Communication, Anaheim, California
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 14:33:02 GMT


Many years ago, while I was a Bell Labs employee, I visited the
basement at the Holmdel Bell Labs facility, and was amazed at the old
equipment set up by decades. They had rows of old equipment, starting
from the early 1900's arranged like a museum. Does anyone know if it
is still there? Do they allow tours now?


Patrick A.  Fargo
Ericsson Business Communication
Anaheim, California

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

From: Russ Latham <[e-mail]>
Subject: How Do Party Lines Work?
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 11:22:07 CST


I was visiting a friend in Colorado (Steamboat Springs) over
Christmas, and they have a party line, due to lack of telephone lines
serving their area.  Without knowing much about party lines, I
suggested connecting an LED and a resistor (used an 8.8 K) across the
line to tell when another person at another house was using the phone.

After connecting the LED and the 8.8K resistor, everything was working
fine, except that they started getting phone calls for another
telephone number.  They have two phones in the house, one with an
electronic ringer.  The calls received for the other number caused
only the phone with the electronic ringer to ring.  Calls intended for
their number still came through as normal, ringing both phones.  I
disconnected the LED after this happened a couple of times.

Does anyone have an explanation of party line service, and why this
would happen?  The party line is NOT the older type which had
different ringing signals to indicate which number was being called.
The phone ONLY rings for the number being dialed, like the usual
private line service.  But you can pick up the phone when someone at
another house is on it, and hear them talking, typical of a party
line.

Thanks for any info!


Russ Latham ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (Jerry B. Altzman)
Subject: New "Charge Cards" in NYTELland
Organization: mailer daemons association
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 16:34:45 GMT


Well, it happened. NYTEL came out with those "stored value cards"
(whose technical names I forget) that you stick into new, funky-yellow
phones with a certain amount (either US$5.25 or US$10.50) charged onto
them so you "don't have to carry change" around.

So far all the phones of this type I've seen are at the St. George and
Whitehall terminals of the Staten Island Ferry. The cards themselves
are reminiscent of the ones issued by the Belgian PTT when I was there
in 1987, except that instead of a plain red, the NYTEL ones have a
pretty picture of the Manhattan skyline on them. As well, the phones
themselves look like the Belgian counterparts. I haven't tried them
yet, but my fiancee' has a card and will be trying it soon to see how
long a $5.25 card lasts ($5.25 bought for $5.00).


jerry b. altzman          [phone]
[e-mail]       jauus@cuvmb (bitnet)
NEVIS::jbaltz (HEPNET)    ...!rutgers!columbia!jbaltz (bang!)

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

From: lotus!rlaferla![e-mail] (Robert La Ferla)
Subject: Telephone Number Format
Reply-To: lotus![e-mail]
Organization: Lotus Development Corp.
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 16:30:33 GMT


Can someone please explain what the new format for telephones is all
about?  What implications does it have for foreign telephone numbers?

For example:

[phone]

is now

[phone]

Thanks,


Robert La Ferla   Lotus Development Corporation
Advanced Technology Group / Improv   [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 17:58:46 PST
From: "Sullivan" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Rate Table For 900 Numbers


Is there a vendor that keeps track of rates for 900 number service?
PacBell seems to have no such thing according to co-workers who have
checked into it.  I imagine that someone who has gone through the
trouble of compiling a Rate Table could also have compiled a directory
though that is not as useful.  For how much would you sell the table?

Work-in-progress anyone?

If others are interested, let me know, in the absence of a canned
ready-made rate table perhaps one could be built.


Mike Sullivan

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

From: [e-mail] (DX516 Lance Hall)
Subject: Re: So How do Rail/Air Phones Work?
Organization: base_stations
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1991 22:31:51 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve
Chafe) writes:

> With all the discussion about Rail phones, and the mention of the GTE
> Airphone which I used once to really surprise someone, could someone
> explain how they work? I can see the Railphone using the cellular
> network, but the airphone couldnt possibly do that -- could it? The
> sound quality on the airphone I used was too good for shortwave
> radio -- anyone know what frequency band it uses?

Steve is correct that the RailFone units used the available cellular
systems along the train's route. The AirFone units have a dedicated
network of stations throughout the US, Canada (I believe now), and the
Carribean. If they have expanded beyond that, I have not kept in
contact with my collegues at GTE AirFone. The AirFone system used some
800-900 MHz frequencies on an experimental FCC license.  The
modulation scheme was some narrow band (6KHz) AM sideband that I never
understood and always seemed extremely finicky at best. In addition,
the cabin system used frequencies similar to commercial cordless
phones (1.7/45 MHz).

My knowledge comes from my being an employee of GTE AirFone from
1985-1988. I was solely in charge of keeping the software working on
the airborne radios, controllers, wall units, & handsets. IMHO, it
still is a prototype not worthy of consumer usage. I hope this gives
some further depth of understanding of these services.


Lance N. Hall
[phone]          (Client) [e-mail]
[phone] x387     (Work)   [e-mail]

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

Subject: Various Questions About Phone Company Numbers
From: Sean Petty <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 22:35:44 EST
Organization: The Underground - Pennsylvania


I have a few questions that have been bothering me over the past few
months, and I figured that this was the best place to get answers.

First, my local phone company has a number (XXX-0083) that they call a
DATU, or Digital Access Test Unit.  When you call, it immediatly gives
you a low tone.  You enter a four digit code, then another low tone.
At this second low tone, you enter a phone number in that exchange.
After a few odd beeps, it responds either "OK", or "A LEAD LINE" (Not
sure about second one, can someone clarify what it says?).  If it says
ok, you can put high level tones on the line, low level tones, short
to ground, open line, close line, etc.  You can also monitor lines.
If they are in use, it allows you to listen to extremely scrambled
speech.  Can anyone tell me more about this, or what it is used
by/for?

Next, if I dial XXX-0070, a message comes back saying "You have
reached XXX-0070, (City) DS0, (City) RS0, and (City) RS0."  What does
this mean, and what is it good for?

Another number, XXX-0081, gives me an IMMEDIATE tone, then kills my
line (no dial tone, voltage, etc) for about 2 minutes.  Can anyone
help with the use of this?

One that I can identify, the quiet line, has a brother right next door
to it.  Where the local quiet line is 0078, and gives a short (ten
seconds) LOUD tone, then goes quiet, it's neighbor at 0079 gives a
long (30 seconds) tone, a one second pause, then another 30 second
tone over and over.  What is this for?

Lastly, when my local area code (215) killed 1+ dialing, they also
killed the ANI and Ringback numbers that I knew which were 410-4100
and 610-XXXX respectivly.  Now I have found the new ANI (958) but the
new ringback eludes me.  Is there a number which commonly goes with
958?

Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated.


Sean Petty    undr![e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Jim Haynes)
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 21:00:02 -0800
Subject: Re: White Alice


I passed that item along to a friend, Larry Laitinen who used to work
for RCA Alascom.  Here's his response.

 From [e-mail] Mon Dec 30 18:02:00 1991

Very interesting on the AK WACS et al.  Pacific Power and Light
(parent company is PacifiCorp or something like that) is moving their
Pacific Telecom AK engineering back to Anchorage from Vancouver, WA.
PP&L bought RCA's Alascom back in the 1979-80 time frame and moved the
engineering from Anchorage to Vancouver.

Most of the USAF AC&W (Aircraft Control & Warning) sites went to the
MAR concept (Minimally Attended Radar).  The old 1950's AC&W sites
typically had 100 to 150 or so people.  I think with the MAR upgrade
they were able to get away with only six to twelve people or so,
mostly civilians.  But I don't really know as I left before any of
that was implemented.

Most of the interior WAC tropo sites had 60 ft billboard antennas
while those on the Aleutions between Adak and Shemya had 120 ft
billboards with 50 KW transmitters as I recall.  The interior sites
mostly ran 10KW xmtrs.

Some of the small communities were spurs on the WAC network and had
PT-80 VHF radios giving them a couple of MTS circuits, often with lots
of fading!

Nome was one of two RCA sites with a coast telegraphy station
operating manual Morse code at the time.

The AC&W radar sites typically had search and height finder radars.
The search operated in 'L' band around 1300 to 1400 MHz and the height
finder radar was up higher, I think about 2500 MHz or so and used a
vertical banana peel section of a prarabola antenna.

The tropo rigs operated in the 800 MHz spectrum.

My favorite places included Lake Iliamna, Sand Point and Indian Mtn.
Sand Point is a small fishing village in the Popof Islands where the
main street was made up of wooden boards from WW-II.  The streams were
abundant with fish.  Nearby Cold Bay has some of the most awful
weather and is also the site of the longest airport runway as it was
an Air Force Base (Thornburg?) before being decommisioned and turned
over to the state.  It was a favorite refueling point for Flying
Tigers as it is a shorter route to the Orient than Anchorage.  Flying
Tigers operated a roadhouse there.  The place is covered with WW-II
quonset huts and so it was interesting to go check them out and the
junk left behind.

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

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 0:17:38 EST
From: "Dennis G. Rears " <[e-mail]>
Subject: Extra Lines Wanted: Landlord Says No


  Does anyone know how I can get an extra two lines?  I currently have
two lines (two pair wiring with a two line enterprise bridge) in an
1000+ unit apartment complex.  The complex won't allow TPC to install
additional lines into the complex.  I tell the TPC (NJ Bell) to just
install another two pair wire to my glass sliding door and that will
be my demarc.  I will supply my own bridge.  They say no way; my
landlord has to approve.  I know it will look shitty but I am willing
to absorb all charges, why won't NJ Bell allow me to have another two
lines?


Dennis


[Moderator's Note: If you really fought them on this, you'd probably
win in the short term since in most situations telco's easement rights
allow them access to the landlord's property provided they do not do
something to harm the property or degrade its value, etc, and they are
required to provide service to qualified persons (ie those people who
exhibit an ability and willingness to pay for the service). But *your*
fight with your landlord is another matter. He is not the telco, and
he doesn't have to allow additional phone service, etc. So you could
have the phones installed and he could evict you, I suppose, or give
you a hard time. Did the landlord give any reason *why* they would not
permit more lines in the complex? Can you overcome those objections
with him, ie paying for required construction, etc?    PAT]

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

Subject: Re: Gadgets to Help Take Advantage of Custom Ringing
Organization: I.E.C.C.
Date: 30 Dec 91 23:41:35 EST (Mon)
From: [e-mail] (John R. Levine)


In article <[e-mail]> is written:

> 1. Is there a commercial device that will listen to the first (full)
> ring, determine if its the normal ring or custom ring, and then
> connect the line to either device A or device B depending on the ring?

This should definitely go in the FAQ, it's about the tenth time it has
come up.  I have an Autoline Plus from ITS Communications in Endicott
NY.  It has a short modular cord and three jacks for the three devices
corresponding to the different ring patterns.  There are two DIP
switches to adapt to various funky variations on the ring patterns,
and a small transformer to provide 9V power.  For incoming calls, it
listens to the first ring and then connects the appropriate device.
It never answers the phone itself.  For outgoing calls it acts as an
exclusion unit, so only one of the devices can be talking at once.  I
use it to share a single line among a fax modem, a data modem, and a
phone and answering machine.  It works like a charm.

I paid about $85 for it, although I gather that the price has gone up
since I bought it about a year ago.  I've heard reports of other
similar devices but haven't followed them up since this one is
entirely satisfactory.


Regards,

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

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1060
*******************************










Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa24798;
          31 Dec 91 23:01 EST
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04458
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 31 Dec 1991 21:04:45 -0600
Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08445
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 31 Dec 1991 21:04:31 -0600
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1991 21:04:31 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V11 #1061

TELECOM Digest     Tue, 31 Dec 91 21:04:27 CST    Volume 11 : Issue 1061

Index To This Issue:                       Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (H. Peter Anvin)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits (Floyd Davidson)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hots (Doctor Math)
    Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits ([e-mail])
    Re: Call Return Has Its Problems (Peter da Silva)
    Re: Massachusetts DPU Ponders ISDN Request (Peter da Silva)
    How Do I Connect Two Lines Together at Home? (Steve Chafe)
    "Minimum Charge" for Unsuccessful LD Calls from Bell Canada? (C. Mingo)
    900-SPELLIT (Jeffrey Mattox)
    Gov. Jerry (1-800-Moonbeam) Brown (R. Freeman)
    Phone Company Humor (Andrew C. Green)
    That's All, Folks! (TELECOM Moderator)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (H. Peter Anvin)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1991 07:00:40 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> of comp.dcom.telecom,
vk2bea![e-mail] (Michael G. Katzmann) writes:

> If it was an English operator it would be:
>        "A Reverse Charge call for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd.
>             Will you accept the charges?"

Not necessarily.  When I was in England this summer I wanted to call
my family in Sweden to tell them I had arrived OK.  Seeing only
BT-card phones, I decided to call collect.

I told the operator I wanted to make a collect call to Sweden
21-XXXXXX, and she asked me for my first name, then called and said
(with a strong London accent): "This is Peter calling you collect from
England.  Will you take this call?"

Apparently the term "collect call" goes over there as well.


INTERNET: [e-mail]   TALK:      [e-mail]
BITNET:   HPA@NUACC     HAM RADIO: N9ITP, SM4TKN
FIDONET:  1:115/989.4   NeXTMAIL:  [e-mail]
IRC:      Xorbon        X.400:     /BAD=FATAL_ERROR/ERR=LINE_OVERFLOW

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

From: [e-mail] (Floyd Davidson)
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits
Organization: University of Alaska Institute of Marine Science
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1991 07:43:42 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bill
Pfeiffer) writes:

> Mojo Nixon had a song last year in which he implored Elvis to call him
> at 619-239-KING.  When I called, it was usually busy (of course), but
> when I did get through, it was an answering machine asking if I was
> Elvis, or had seen Elvis.  I got a 30 second chance to leave a
> message.  I don't know if it is still up and running, though.

That number does get a recording, though not an answering machine.

Ahhhem, an unusual recording too.


Floyd L. Davidson        [e-mail]        Salcha, Alaska

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

From: [e-mail] (Doctor Math)
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 13:26:07 EST
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Subject: Re: Telecom's Greatest Hits


The Steely Dan album "Pretzel Logic" (1974) includes the song "Rikki
Don't Lose That Number", the chorus of which is:

Rikki don't lose that number
You don't wanna call nobody else
Send it off in a letter
To yourself ...

Rikki don't lose that number
It's the only one you want
You might use it if you feel better
When you get home ...

Does anyone else here think it might be a fun idea to gather all these
Great Telecom Hits of Yesteryear and produce a compilation tape/CD?
Getting all required permission from the respective parties, of
course.  I'd certainly buy a copy ...

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

Subject: Telecom's Greatest Hits
From: [e-mail] (System Operator)
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 16:12:59 PST
Organization: Telecommunications Central, San Diego CA


[e-mail] (Bill Pfeiffer) writes:

> Mojo Nixon had a song last year in which he implored Elvis to call him
> at 619-239-KING.  When I called, it was usually busy (of course), but
> when I did get through, it was an answering machine asking if I was
> Elvis, or had seen Elvis.  I got a 30 second chance to leave a
> message.  I don't know if it is still up and running, though.

It is. Mojo has been running that for quite a while now. I just called
today, and he's singing holiday jingles ... :)


[e-mail] (System Operator)
Telecommunications Central   San Diego, CA.


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

From: [e-mail] (peter da silva)
Subject: Re: Call Return Has Its Problems
Organization: Ferranti International Controls Corporation
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 17:54:36 GMT


> [Moderator's Note: I'm not as dumb as I look, Tony. A call at midnight
> with a two year old child on the other end saying 'da da da' then a
> voice in the background screaming 'hang up the phone and get back in
> bed you little 'bas---d' followed by a receiver going on hook most
> likely did not originate from the Widget Corporation's PBX.   PAT]

Why did you return call such a number? You know what the cause was,
and it's unlikely that a return call would do much good. Or did you
just feel like harassing someone who was already aware of the problem
and acted to resolve it?


Peter da Silva
Ferranti International Controls Corporation
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012;  [phone]


[Moderator's Note: It was not a question of harrassment. I thought it
proper that the mother, or babysitter or whoever at least take the
receiver and listen to see if someone was on the line, and if so, two
things might have been in order: (1) She might say she was sorry the
little bas---d, uh, I mean the little tyke had caused a disturbance.
(2) She might have asked my approximate location, to see if there was
going to be a long distance -- or even international! -- call on her
bill. Instead, if she gets a long distance charge on the bill, she
will naturally call telco and deny making the call and accuse telco of
making an error. From what I could understand of the little bugger's
speech, I think he was trying to call Santa Claus.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (peter da silva)
Subject: Re: Massachusetts DPU Ponders ISDN Request
Organization: Ferranti International Controls Corporation
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 18:03:57 GMT


> New England Telephone has proposed a $35 installation fee and a
> monthly fee of $8 a month for the basic 960-character-per-second
> residential service. Users would also have to pay a fee each time they
> accessed the network, and there would be far higher charges to use a
> faster data system and other features of the network.

In other words, you'd have to pay a premium to actually use *less*
bandwidth on the phone system (that is, a 2400 baud POTS call uses a
64 KB channel or a dedicated line (in the local area), where a 9600
baud ISDN connection only uses a 9.6 KB channel. Sounds like Touch
Tone fees all over again.

> The phone company also notes that ISDN data converters
> cost $700 or more and are incompatible with existing answering
> machines and other phones.

The network has to be in place for the economy of scale to exist for
cheap convertors. There is no reason an ISDN convertor should cost any
more than a 2400 baud modem (currently, about $70 external) given the
existing chip sets and reasonable FAB run sizes.

>      And it argued that its ISDN service would not be a monopoly
> because other companies already provide similar services, such as
> high-speed data links.

Since they're not allowed to deliver digital dialtone to your home,
that's pretty much irrelevant.


Peter da Silva
Ferranti International Controls Corporation
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012;  [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Chafe)
Subject: How Do I Connect Two Lines Together at Home?
Date: 31 Dec 91 21:54:20 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Steve Chafe)
Organization: University of California, Davis


Does anyone know how to connect two phone lines together so that I can
make a three way conversation using the two lines I have? Is there a
circuit I could build that would allow me to do this? I want to be
able to dial up one person, then add in the second line so that we
both can hear the dial tone, and then once I dial, all three of us
should be able to converse.  Anyone who has done this or who knows a
good book that might show how to do this, I would very much like to
hear from you.


Thanks,


Steve Chafe    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Charlie Mingo)
Date: 31 Dec 91  15:27:40
Subject: "Minimum Charge" for Unsuccessful LD Calls from Bell Canada?


My sister who lives in Toronto believes that Bell Canada has begun
charging tolls for incomplete call attempts (busy or no answer), as
numerous one minute charges have been appearing on her bill after no
call was completed.  Several of the one minute tolls are marked
"minimum charge" which suggests that Bell knows they didn't complete.
(The calls are from Toronto to Ottawa, Kingston and Halifax.)

     I had thought that any "legitimate" LD company would look for
answer supervision before starting the clock, and that such practices
were confined to sleazy AOS's.

     Does anyone know if Bell Canada has started doing things like
this?

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

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 17:07:36 CST
From: [e-mail] (Jeffrey Mattox)
Subject: 900-SPELLIT


WGN television (Chicago) has been running a late-night advertisement
for a spelling contest via telephone.  If you call 900-SPELLIT, you
are asked to spell out words on your telephone keypad.  An example
word is "CASH".

The fine print says: $1.95 per minute, average call 5 minutes.
The quickly-spoken rules say: Spell 21 words correctly in 2 minutes and win
$200.00 instantly!

More fine print says: $5,000.00 grand prize awarded to the best
response (most correct words in least amount of time).  Contest runs
from 9/1/91 through 12/31/91.

Because it's so hard to type words on a telephone pad, I think the
only way to spell 21 words in 120 seconds (that's only 5.7 seconds per
word, including overhead) would be to have a computer do the
"dialing."  That is, instead of typing the word on your telephone,
type it on a computer keyboard and have the computer spit out the
correct tones.  The computer could spell-check the word along the way.
If I had the right software and interface hardware, I'd go after the
$200.00 and probably be on top for the grand prize.  Has anybody else
heard of this 900 number and/or tried it (manually or with a
computer)?  Keep your eyes open -- maybe they'll run the contest
again.


    Jeff

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

Subject: Gov. Jerry (1-800-Moonbeam) Brown
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 91 17:59:20 CST
From: rfreeman <[e-mail]>


After reading the following I decided to have my name legally changed
to either 1-800-America or 1-900-Freedom and then promote it like
Billy Blue Blazes. Which do you think would rake in the most cash?


    Campaign Trail Roundup: Brown, Wilder, Duke Brown's 800 line
brings in cash ... he may have been the brunt of jokes for hawking an
800 telephone line, but Democratic presidential candidate Jerry Brown
is laughing all the way to the bank.

    The former California governor, once nicknamed "Governor Moonbeam"
for his penchant for off-beat causes, is relying heavily on the
toll-free telephone line to solicit campaign contributions.

    Charging that big money controls politics, Brown has pledged to
accept no donation larger than $100.

    Brown is turning away contributions from political action
committees that represent businesses and unions.

    Much to the consternation of his opponents, Brown unabashedly
recites the telephone number at campaign appearances, including a
recent nationally televised debate.

    But Jodie Evans, Brown's campaign manager, says the toll-free
number has generated about $600,000 in pledges and $200,000 in
contributions. Evans says the average contribution is about $60.

    Brown has raised about $500,000 so far.

    The tactic hasn't stopped the jabs, however. A spokesman for Sen
Tom Harkin of Iowa, another Democratic candidate, has compared Brown's
fund-raising to "televangelism," and a newspaper columnist jested that
the number was "1-800-MOONMAN."

    Brown expressed anger at such criticism.

    "It is ironic that media outlets are attempting to censor a
presidential campaign that seeks to reach beyond the small elite that
now bankrolls national politics," Brown told the Orange County
Register. "My 800 number is no gimmick."

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

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1991 15:48:39 CST
From: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Phone Company Humor


Our Moderator writes:

> Well, fellas and girls, have we finally gotten this out of our system?
> Gawd, I hope so!  Enuff already!  "Greatest Hits" has been one of the
> more popular threads here in the Digest this past year, for sure. What
> do you suppose 1992 will bring to the forum?

Well, as I type this, it's only New Year's Eve, but I'm submitting
this as a new topic for 1992. "Phone Company Humor" is NOT an
oxymoron; the (previously) monolithic phone company does have human
beings working for it, after all, and it looks like we could all use a
break from the sturm und drang ... two stories come to my mind.

Back in the late '60's someone gave me a phone book which I think came
from Houston, Galveston or Corpus Christi -- somewhere in Texas,
anyway.  The cover of the White Pages phone book was strictly routine,
an artist's drawing of an aerial view of the city, and the book simply
credited the artist on an inside page without further comment. Anyway,
as time went by, people began to notice that if you squinted closely
at the drawing, you could see some very strange things going on: a
horse and buggy going down the middle of a major highway; a Spanish
galleon sitting in the middle of the harbor; a couple of early
explorers in canoes going up the river; and so on. I lost the
illustration years ago, but I remember that some things in the drawing
were pretty bizarre, and rumor had it at the time that no one at the
printers' had noticed any of it until the books hit the street.

When I was studying, more or less, at Ball State University in Muncie,
Indiana, in the late 1970's, I came across a strange entry in the
White Pages when looking up a friend's number. It read something like
"PHONE COMPANY, THE", and proceeded to list some of their main
numbers. It was NOT a simple cross-reference like "See Indiana Bell
Telephone Company"; someone had very patiently keyed in the entire
entry. Thinking I was on to something here, I started looking around.
Sure enough, I found more full listings under "TELEPHONE COMPANY,
THE", "BELL TELEPHONE", "THE PHONE COMPANY", "THE TELEPHONE COMPANY",
and the wonderfully inspired "FONE COMPANY, THE". I guess someone at
the keyboard must have been getting a little punchy that day.

Well, that's all I can come up with at the moment. Gee, I wonder if
there might be any other stories out there!  :-)


Andrew C. Green       [phone]
Datalogics, Inc.      Internet: [e-mail]
441 W. Huron          UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg
Chicago, IL  60610    FAX: [phone]


[Moderator's Note: Apparently we did not get it all out of our systems
since I got a few more today which are the first articles in this, the
final issue for 1991. For many years (maybe still) the Chicago phone
book had an alphabetical entry for 'America' which it cross referenced
to 'see US Government listings in front pages of directory'.  PAT]

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

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1991 20:56:34 -0600
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: That's All, Folks!


And there you have it ... 1061 big issues of TELECOM Digest, wrapping
up another year. The next time you hear from me, the masthead will say
Volume 12.

The subject and author index for Volumes 9-10-11 will up updated over
the holiday with the final issues of this volume, so you may wish to
pick up a copy from the archives Thursday.

Are you making any New Year's resolutions? A poem by Rudyard Kipling
might be a good outline to use, and perhaps it will help sustain you
during the year to come:


        If you can keep your head when all about you
        Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

        If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
        But make allowance for their doubting too;

        If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,
        Of being lied about, don't deal in lies,
        Of being hated, don't give way to hating ...


Adios!


PAT

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

End of TELECOM Digest V11 #1061
*******************************