Telecom/1996-04-telecom-walnutcreek.iso/back.issues/1994.volume.14/vol14.iss251-300

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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
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Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #251

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 26 May 94 11:01:30 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 251

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router? (Carol Gwilt)
    Re: GSM "Short Messages"==Pager? (Paul Hulbert)
    Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns (Steven Grevemeyer)
    Re: What Kind of Capacity is in VBI? (John Lundgren)
    Re: Pac-Tel (PC) Communication Software (Rob Lockhart)
    Re: Need Information on Complete PC ([e-mail])
    Re: 800 number Billback (Smut) ([e-mail])
    Re: 800 Number Billback (Joseph Romero)
    Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range (William Sohl)
    Re: Speech Recognition "Word Spotting" (Al Varney)
    Re: Need Criteria for Choosing a Phone Number (Randy Gellens)
    Re: Long Range "Cordless" telephones (Scott D. Fybush)
    Re: DID Loophole or I'm Screwed up? (Paul Robinson)
    Re: "Erlang" the Programming Language (Jan van der Meer)
    Re: FAX Mailbox Services (Clarence Dold)
    Re: Hackers On Planet Earth Newsgroups (Carl Moore)
    Re: Hackers On Planet Earth Newsgroups (John Slater)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Carol Gwilt)
Subject: Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router?
Date: 25 May 1994 22:35:48 -0700
Organization: Wimsey Information Services


[e-mail] writes:

> internet. Of course, we have very little money, but do have a few
> computers. So the question is, can a computer (ie Unix) function as an
> Internet router, or must we buy one of these routers like CISCO or
> WellFleet?

The answer is *mostly* yes.  Most Unix distrib's come with all you
need to set up some pretty elaborate routing on the host itself.  The
reason I say "mostly" is because you can usually find some extra
goodies on a router that was built to be a router.  All of the WAN
protocols (and possibly some of the LAN protocols) might not be
available on your brand of Unix -- ask your Unix vendor, or tell us
what flavor Unix you have.

>If so, what's the *cheapest* router available?

CISCO routers have dropped in price substantially, but you pay for the
WAN and LAN protocols that you need -- so, if you have a mix of
protocols, you're still going to pay a pretty penny.  A company called
Cabletron has a program called GAN (good-as-new) and sells CISCO
routers on this program (which I understand to mean that the equipment
is "used").  ACC has some good mid-range routers/bridges that rival
competitive high-end equipment.  I've recently seen at least two
reviews of *cheap* routers -- if you want really CHEAP, email me and
I'll weed through my mountain of mags to find the manufacturers for
you.  If Cabletron and/or ACC aren't in your phone book, let me know --
I've got the numbers at my office.

> Can a Unix box connect to a digital comm line (56k)?

Normally you communicate on a high-speed serial port to a digital
modem.  You need a serial port that is capable of 56k -- but these are
generally available.


Good Luck!!!

[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Hulbert)
Subject: Re: GSM "Short Messages"==Pager?
Organization: Ascom Hasler AG, Berne, Switzerland
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 06:59:45 GMT


In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (K. Ketheesan)
writes:

> In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (Greg
> Alexander) writes:

>> Is it a pager -- or a digital message that appears when your phone is
>> in range? My interest is because I will often be in No service areas
>> (eg Asia Pacific -- Thailand, and non city areas of Australia). If its
>> a pager -- cool, I will still be contactable. If it relies on being in
>> the area -- good too (I will NEVER miss the message).

> My understanding is that in order to deliver SMS messages in GSM, signaling
> connection has to be established (if one is not already existing).  So
> that implies that when you are outside the coverage area, you will not
> be able to send or receive SMS messages.

But it is very important to add that if you are out of range when the
message is sent to you you will still be able to receive it the next
time your mobile makes radio contact with the network.


Paul Hulbert

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven Grevemeyer)
Subject: Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns
Date: 25 May 1994 16:44:36 -0400
Organization: Vetronics Technology Center,US Army TACOM,Warren, Michigan USA


Hmm. I wonder why they just didn't dial "0" for the operator and have
the operator connect them?

I have always used the operator as a fall back position in case the
emergency system didn't work. (If the operator goes away chances are
so did the rest of the phone system ...)


Steven E. Grevemeyer    Phone: [phone] FAX: -5008
US Army TACOM/Software Enginnering Division (AMSTA-OS)
Vetronics Technology Center Warren, MI 48397-5000
Email: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: What Kind of Capacity is in VBI?
Date: 26 May 94 00:15:52 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Paul Robinson ([e-mail]) wrote:

> A question I have is, for a U.S. signal, which I believe the Vertical
> Blanking Interval also exists, how much capacity is available on a
> single TV channel and at what speed can the data be sent? Is this
> related to closed captioning?  If not, what type equipment is needed
> to decode VBI data and what kind of costs are involved to build it?

Well, the line is (for the U.S.), occurring at 30 times a second, and
there are a couple hundred dots.  Maybe about 3K baud, I would say.
Of course there would be other stuff like error correcting and such.

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

From: [e-mail] (RLockhart)
Subject: Re: Pac-Tel (PC) Communication Software
Date: 26 May 1994 06:11:03 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


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

> We had a home grown telecommunication package that allowed us to send
> alphanumeric messages to our PAC-TEL pagers. We are interested in
> updating the softwaree. We are interested in reasonably priced
> commercial software or in the protocol specs of the 800 number we
> communicate with the old package.

Seems you've received some good advice on this, but let's take it one
or two steps further ...

I produce Motorola's Third Party Referral Guide to Alpha and Data
Paging -- a freebie we give away at various shows and elsewhere.  The
Guide is updated on a quarterly basis and covers everything I know to
be commercially available in the alpha and data paging sending and
receiving software marketplace (both generic, app enablers/APIs, and
vertical market apps) for DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macs, AS/400s, UNIX,
Mainframes, Atari Portfolios and HP100s. It's organized by platform,
application type, and manufacturers/publishers and also covers some of
the information service providers available for use on most paging
services.  The 04 March 94 edition of the Guide is available on some
of the commercial services (e.g. CIS, AOL, AppleLink) as a Stuffed
MacWord file or may be obtained on paper via our NewsStream/NewsCard
hotline.  (BTW, it lists contact information for some of the apps
listed in the other responses to your request.)

You also asked 'bout the protocol used by Pac*Tel -- now AirTouch,
BTW.  The protocol used is called TAP (Telocator Alpha Paging. PET
and IXO are different (older) names for the same industry-standard
alpha paging) protocol.  The only formal source for this spec is PCIA
(Personal Communications Industry Association, formerly Telocator)
in Washington, DC, at 202.467.4770.  If, however, you'd like to look
at the more commonly used portions of TAP, I've a thread (culled from
a now-out-of-print programmer's guide we used to publish that
Telocator used to form the basis of TAP) I can send you that covers
these.

More than you *ev*er wanted to know, right? <VVVVVVVV> <- big toothie
grin.


Rob Lockhart, Resource Manager, Interactive Data Systems
Paging Products Group, Motorola, Inc.
Desktop I'net:  [e-mail]
Wireless I'net (<32K characters):  [e-mail]
Wireless I'net (< 1K characters):  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Need Information on Complete PC
Date: Wed, 26 May 94 20:49:04 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


Almost every computer corner store that you walk into carries the
Complete PC line of voicemail hardware; just give them a call.

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: 800 Number Billback (Smut)
Organization: Rowan College of New Jersey, Glassboro, NJ 08028
Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 23:00:51 GMT


I went through the game of blocking my numbers, calling the carriers
ordering toll billing exception and none of it works.  I have heard
that since March 9 you can restrict your billing info on non-published
numbers, but it doesn't work either.

Now I have an idea ... I recently tries to dial a smut number from a
private pay phone and guess what? I got a recording that I should
try another phone. (This came from the sleeze provider).

Can I order private pay phone trunks and terminate them in my switch and
route my 800 calls over it?  Would this be legal?

I am getting $1500.00 a month worth of these calls placed by students
in a college dorm.  They are getting the majority of these numbers
from {Rolling Stone Magazine}.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you term 'private payphone trunks' are
just normal coin service lines from the central office provided the COCOT
is correctly registered in telco's records. And no, telco won't give you
coin lines to terminate on a PBX. They expect a phone with a coin box to
be attached on that line (yours or theirs, no matter, but that kind of an
instrument). I assume -- correct me if I am wrong -- that you have been
successful in blocking 900 numbers. I assume, if you allow long distance
calls in general from student dorm phones, that you have some method of
requiring a PIN or access number that identifies *which* student and *which*
phone made the call. If you do, why not simply require this PIN to be
used on 800 calls as well? Also, you say billed number screening does not
work, but maybe you have not gotten on enough databases yet or tried it
long enough. In addtition to telling your local telco (which gets your
number on the database used by telco, AT&T, Sprint, and MCI) you need to
tell a couple of the other carriers directly. They'll add your numbers
to their list also. Telling two or three of the other carriers, especially
the ones which specialize in doing billing for the sex services, will
get rid of 90 percent or more of those charges. Add to that requiring PINS
on outgoing 'long distance' calls -- even 800 numbers -- for the purpose
of identifying who made what calls, and your trouble should be greatly
reduced if not eliminated entirely. PAT]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: 800 Number Billback
Date: Wed, 25 May 94 22:03:31 PDT
Organization: Mt. San Antonio College


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steven
Bradley) writes:

> Call the service as much as you want and as often as you can from PAY
> PHONES and see how easily they (don't) get their money then!

> Since pay phones permit 800 number calls without charge and the phone
> companies see fit to permit them to go through since they are free,
> there is no reason to prevent it passing.

But alas ... some pay phones DO block 800 numbers.


Joseph Romero   [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But legally they are not supposed to.
Genuine Bells never block 800, and the COCOTS are slowing learning
they cannot legally do it either.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (sohl,william h)
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range
Date: 25 May 1994 11:40:09 -0400
Organization: Bell Communications Research (Bellcore)


In article <[e-mail]>, Guorong Roger <[e-mail].
odu.edu> wrote:

> Is there any kind of CORDLESS PHONE which can be used for ten to
> twenty miles distance (not a cellular phone, not the regular cordless
> phone which can only be used within the house). The telephone should
> still use the regular telephone switching system. The master piece of
> the phone should be installed at home, and the handset could be bring
> ten to twenty miles away from the home but be still access the phone
> at home.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are, but they are not legal for use
> in the USA. About the closest you can come to this legally in the USA is
> to use a manual phone patch attached to a CB radio or some other type of
> legal radio service.

CB description deleted for brevity ...

> Now, if you use radios equipped for 144 megs -- what is known among
> hams as 'two meters' -- then repeater sites equipped with telephone
> patches are quite common. They usually belong to a local club whose
> members jointly maintain the cost of the repeater site and phone line,
> etc. A license is required from the FCC to operate a two meter radio,

It is probably worth noting too, that the license requires passing a
test on FCC regulations, elements of radio theory and safety.

Additionally, the "phone patch" via an amateur radio repeater is only
operated on an "originating call" basis.  That is, a call from the
person with the radio is the only way a call can be made.  There is no
provision (nor is it allowed by FCC rules) for a call to be made by
someone (a non-ham) to the repeater phone patch line in an effort to
contact someone via the radio (repeater) connection.

> If you've got the money, you might consider setting up a little two
> meter arrangement of your own with a private phone line attached, etc.

While that is possible, it can only be done legally within the
constraints of the FCC regulations as per my comments above.
Additionally, there is a frequency coordination process that must be
followed to obtain a fixed set of assigned two meter frequencies to
establish a permanent repeater which is the only way this could be
done and still be legal on the amateur two meter band.

If you have any additional questions on this please ask.


Cheers,

Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.)
Morristown, NJ             email via UUCP      bcr!cc!whs70
201-829-2879 Weekdays      email via Internet  [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 25 May 94 10:47:11 CDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Speech Recognition "Word Spotting"


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

> I'm looking for info on Word Spotting. Any info on developing a HMM to
> do this would be much appreciated. Please mail information or names of
> books, papers etc. that will do this.

   (It's in the mail.)

   November, 1993 issue of IEEE Communications Magazine contains an
article by Roe & Wilpon called "Whither Speech Recognition: The Next
25 Years".  HMMs are discussed -- 21 references are given, including
Wilpon's "Automatic Recognition of Keywords in Unconstrained Speech
Using Hidden Markov Models", from the Nov. 1990 IEEE Transactions on
Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ASSP).

   The Transactions and the companion Proceedings of IEEE
International Conferences on ASSP are key to understanding the
technology, and for finding people involved in it.


Al Varney

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: 25 MAY 94 23:06:00 GMT
Subject: Re: Need Criteria for Choosing a Phone Number


[e-mail] (Ross Oliver) writes:

> I personally dislike lettered phone numbers.  I don't like having to
> translate on the telephone keypad, and it makes modem dialing VERY
> difficult (1-800-CHK-DUAT for example).

I also dislike lettered numbers.  I notice some ads list both forms.

Also, the Convergent Technologies Voice Module (which is a fun thing
to play with, having two phone line jacks, a phone set jack, a modem,
a CODEC, and an analog cross-point switch) comes with driver software
that, among other nifty things, lets you enter a dial string as digits
or letters.  (Since this means A, B, C, and D now mean 2 or 3, the
extra DTMF digits A-D are dialed with a ! first).

I wish standard modems had this feature.


Randall Gellens        [e-mail]
[phone]         fax [phone]
Mail Stop MV 237       Net**2 656-6350

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

From: [e-mail] (Scott D Fybush)
Subject: Re: Long Range "Cordless" telephones
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 00:59:10 GMT


Al Cohan <0004526627/{[e-mail]> writes:

> Pat, someone recently asked about long range (ten to twenty mile)
> "cordless" telephones -- not cellular. Yes, there are several illegal
> high power full duplex cordless phones, but there are also rural
> systems that are perfectly legal.

[deletia]

> Maybe Scott Fybush will jump on this thread and tell us how it worked
> when he attended Deep Springs College here in CA. I actually saw and
> heard their unit in a radio shop in Bishop, CA where the telco line
> was connected.  Didn't sound bad, but has now been replaced with
> cellular.

It has?  That must be costing an arm and a leg!  When I was there (six
years ago already), the setup worked like this:

At the Deep Springs end, a small (24 student) private college in an
isolated desert mountain valley, we had a Panasonic KX-T616, set up
with the full complement of 16 extensions, but with just the one
incoming phone line.  That line came in over a business-band radio
system that operated, if memory serves, on 461.XXX/466.XXX (I'm not
concealing; I just don't remember!)  There was a small vertically-
polarized yagi on the roof of the school, aimed up at Silver Peak in
the White Mountains.  A repeater up there bounced the signal down to
that radio shop in Bishop.  That was where Contel terminated 619-872-
2000.

At the Deep Springs end, the transceiver box in the radio closet
presented a standard RJ-11 to the KX-T616.  From our end, it was
essentially transparent: when we picked up the line at Deep Springs,
the transceiver would send the appropriate signals to Bishop, the
actual Contel line would be picked up at that end, and we'd dial just
like normal.

Audio quality?  Well ... let's just say it was better than the ancient
Contel wireline over the mountains, the old "Deep Springs Toll Station
#2" that was pulled out circa 1986-1987.  And of course you could
direct dial into and out of the valley with the radio system.  But the
system was being pushed a bit beyond its capacity ... some 12 miles from
Bishop up to Silver Peak and about 15 or so from Silver Peak back down
to Deep Springs.  There was a lot of audio fading ... a lot of noise
whenever there were storms, and if that antenna were to be knocked
ever so slightly off-beam, well ... forget about the phone! :-)

When I left Deep Springs in June 1989, there was still no cell service
in the valley, or in Bishop for that matter.  I'd like to know more
about the cell system they have in place now ... especially how Deep
Springs justifies the cost of cellular usage.  (When I was there, the
40 or so people living in the valley kept that one radio line humming
almost 24 hours a day, and since the college had absorbed the initial
cost of the equipment, we paid only the normal telco LD charges for
our own personal calls!)


Scott Fybush - Deep Springs '88

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 05:24:12 EDT
From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: DID Loophole or I'm Screwed up?
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA


>>   Per FCC Part 68 and TELCo tariffs, anything other than audible
>> ring and busy tone (with some exceptions) is "meaningful" -- and
>> the call must be supervised (answered).

> I thought it was OK for a PBX to issue an intercept without
> returning supervision.  For example, "The extension you dialed
> does not exist.  Please call xyx-xxyy for assistance."  Do these
> messages have to be supervised?

My office has Centrex service.  As lines are not used, they return
exactly that type of message, referring people to our main switchboard.
I would assume that it is permitted to provide an unsupervised announcement
since I believe the message does not supervise.  And I doubt that even
the telephone company can provide a class of service that violates an
FCC regulation.

Or perhaps Telco Centrex is not subject to the same rules as PBX service.

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

From: [e-mail] (Jan van der Meer)
Subject: Re: "Erlang" the Programming Language
Date: 26 May 1994 11:33:10 GMT
Organization: Ericsson Telecom bv, Rijen, the Netherlands


Hi, I am using Erlang for a couple of years now. There is more information
available by anonymous ftp: euagate.eua.ericsson.se, start looking in
file: /pub/eua/erlang/info/INDEX.

The ISBN number of the book is: ISBN 0-13-285792-8

They classify Erlang as follows -

    Classification: Concurrent functional programming language for
large industrial real-time systems. Untyped.  Pattern matching syntax.
Recursion equations.  Explicit concurrency, asynchronous message
passing.  Relatively free from side effects.  Transparent cross-platform
distribution.  Primitives for detecting run-time errors.  Real-time
GC.  Modules.  Dynamic code replacement (change code in running
real-time system, without stopping system).  Foreign language interface.

    Availability: Free version (subject to non-commercial licence) with
no support.  Commercial versions with support are available (Erlang
Systems AB).

Hope this helps you,


Jan van der Meer
Research Manager, Intelligent Networks Application Lab
Ericsson Telecom, Rijen, the Netherlands

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

From: [e-mail] (Clarence Dold)
Subject: Re: FAX Mailbox Services
Organization: a2i network
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 05:48:57 GMT


Jack Bzoza ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Clarence Gold wrote:

Hmm, how much effort was it to misspell my name in the quote?

Jack and I hashed out his slightly inflated claims via email.

I think WinFax 4.0 is a wonderful product.  I use it to retrieve my
FaxMail from my system at work, which happens to be an AudioFax.  This
is done on a turnaround line, which Jack implies is my imagination.

In order to retrieve my fax, I do need to key some touchtones.  I
might be able to accomplish this via a clever dialing strings, with
empirically determined commas for delays, but I use a telephone.

If you can use WinFax 4.0 to retrieve faxes without the need for
touchtones, then it is an advance in program technology.

My other point, that requiring a step backwards from Class 2 to Class
1 faxmodems seemed odd, was also lost on Jack.  Perhaps everyone has
the CPU power to drive Class 1 faxmodems, and Class 2 is a waste of
time.

I certainly hope Jack isn't in Tech Support.


Clarence A Dold - [e-mail]
                - Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA.

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 04:17:35 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Hackers On Planet Earth Newsgroups


And of course there is the song (from the "big band era") PEnnsylvania
6-5000.

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

From: [e-mail] (John Slater)
Subject: Re: Hackers On Planet Earth Newsgroups
Date: 24 May 1994 15:43:02 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems (UK)
Reply-To: [e-mail]


> it and used that number as part of the movie's theme.  Then of course
> there was the campy Dracula movie a few years ago which used a take-off
> on the same thing with the number TRansylvania 6-5000.   PAT]

Then, of course, there was the Sesame Street version with Count von
Count singing a song called "Transylvania 1-2-3-4-5".

And no, I am not making this up. I saw it.


John


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know you are not making it up. Sesame
Street is on television here every day; my nephew watches it.  PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #251
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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
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To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #252

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 26 May 94 12:18:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 252

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Eleven Montrealers Arrested in Telephone Fraud (Peter M. Weiss)
    Book Review: "Riding the Internet Highway" by Fisher (Rob Slade)
    Message Waiting Problem on OPX in CA (Barton F. Bruce)
    Nice Job, if You Can Get it! (Gerry Brown)
    Tellabs Information Request (Leroy Casterline)
    Flames For ISD? (Joe Jarrett)
    Looking for FEC Decoder (Harry Smith)
    What's a 1A3B? (Stan Schwartz)
    SIGNIDR V Preliminary Meeting Announcement (Manette B. Lazear)
    Paper on International Callbacks (Douglas Mckeen)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
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use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 05:36:37 EDT
From: "Peter M. Weiss" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Eleven Montrealers Arrested in Telephone Fraud
Organization: Penn State University


Original received From: Melvin Klassen <KLASSEN@UVVM>

A Canadian Press story:

MONTREAL - Eleven people have been arrested in connection with an
alleged scheme to defraud the phone systems of British Columbia,
Alberta, and Edmonton of about $700,000.

RCMP said the operation was run out of Montreal -- the eleven arrested
are all Montrealers -- and it offered illegal cut-rate long-distance
telephone service to overseas clients.

Once a client got interested, an agent would contact a cohort in
Edmonton, who could reroute the call anywhere in the world.  The
client had no indication that it wa an illegal operation.

RCMP Corporal Dominique Delage said the mechanism used for conference-
calls make long-distance fraud easy for people who charge the calls to
companies that exist only on paper.

Four men were arrested April 19 in Edmonton, and charged with theft,
fraud, and conspiracy.  The seven people arrested Thursday in Montreal
were released, but are to be charged soon.

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

Mel's subtitle: "RCMP reach out and touch someone" :-)

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: RCMP = Royal Canadian Mounted Police,
essentially the Canadian federal police force and equivilent to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation in the USA.  PAT]

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 14:42:28 MDT
From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "Riding the Internet Highway" by Fisher


BKRIDINT.RVW  940204

New Riders Publishing
201 W. 103rd Street
Indianapolis, IN  46290
[e-mail]
[e-mail] Alan Apt
Beth Mullen-Hespe [e-mail]
"Riding the Internet Highway", Fisher, 1993, 1-56205-192-X, U$16.95/C$21.95
[e-mail]

Fisher shows admirable restraint in limiting the scope of this book.
Where others try to produce "complete" documentation for the "whole"
Internet, Fisher flatly states (correctly) that this is impossible.
Where others try to take you "from the modem up," Fisher suggests you
get some basic experience with local bulletin boards.  The intent is
to give desktop (PC and Mac) users some basic grounding in Internet
functions and tools.  As such, the book is much less imposing than
most of the others of this ilk.  (Cheaper, too.)

The emphasis on the micro computer is followed through in the material
covered.  Like a number of other guides, some very basic UNIX
background is given.  It is clear, though, that the expectation is
that the UNIX box is not on your desk, but a remote system on which
you have an account.  When discussing ftp, readers are reminded that
they still need to download from the local host to their own desktop.

Although I appreciate the limitation of the information contained
herein, at times things are kept just slightly too terse.  The very
important tip about not sending subscription and signoff requests to
the mailing list, itself, is here but the material isn't completely
explicit about what *is* the correct procedure.  Readers are told that
ftp.misc.sri.com has a list of mailing lists; they aren't told the
file name or directory.  (Ironically, thirty-three pages later an ftp
screen is used from that very directory -- although it doesn't list the
interest-groups file.)  One other regrettable shortcoming is the
limited discussion of mail servers.  Although Fisher obviously feels
local service providers are the answer, for many users online
commercial service vendors may be the only realistic answer, and these
are often limited to email access.

Some topics may appear fragmented, since the book is organized by
application rather than function.  Finger and whois are discussed
under "Finding Information" rather than under email.  Fisher's
discussion of the distinctives of Usenet is very good -- but news
*could* be discussed alongside mailing lists.

For the majority of new users, however, this is a good, basic
introduction.  What shortcomings there are in specific information can
be quickly filled in once a user has gotten onto the net.  The very
personal style here probably more than makes up for any other lacks --
the Internet is primarily other people, not technologies.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKRIDINT.RVW  940204. Distribution
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.


Vancouver      [e-mail]
Institute for  [e-mail]
Research into  [e-mail]
User           [e-mail]
Security       Canada V7K 2G6

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Message Waiting Problem on OPX in CA
Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society
Date: 25 May 94 23:30:09 -0400


A site in CA has a problem getting the message waiting lamp to light
at an off premise location three miles away.

I am in Mass and so can only guess what is happening and have suggested
some tests that may help pinpoint what is happening, but any help is
most welcome.

The PBX is a big Fugitsu with an OPX station card using 48VDC for talk
battery, so loop supervision over that range should be no problem.

The message waiting lamp signal is on the station line where it leaves
the PBX site, but does not light the lamp at the remote station.  The
phone at the remote site does have the lamp flash during ringing, so
it seems to be a working traditional neon lamp across T and R.

I am assuming that PACBEL is running the line through something akin
to a traditional dial-long-line (DLL) unit that lets them reinsert
talk battery and is really necessary when working any distance from a
PBX with 24VDC station battery. PACBEL probably just does this on all
OPX lines to 'protect' themselves. This is all in the same town
(Sebastopol).

I am assuming that at that distance they are NOT doing a full four
wire transmission system with FXO and FXS ends which could extend the
station to any place even thousands of miles away.

Any such equipment will immediately eliminate the message waiting
signal.

I am also assuming that breaking the loop at the PBX or reversing T
and R there will propably not result in any differance in the on hook
open circuit voltage seen at the station end -- further proving there
is a DLL unit or equiv in between.

Is there an alternate service that can be ordered that is just copper
wires that PACBELL officially tolerates OPX stations on? USOC code or
other incantation for it?

Does one have to resort to ordering LADD type copper lines for
'short-haul' line driver modems and then using them otherwise? Are
such copper only circuits readily available in CA? Is a four wire version
only a tad more or is it exactly twice. i.e. could a second such circuit
be ordered for peanuts more since only a single pair is really needed.

Does PACBELL put those "RUDE" protectors/filters on LADD circuits that
preclude DDS (or even faster:-) ) 'abuse' and that also preclude
normal station battery let alone superimposed ringing and message
waiting battery?

There are plenty of 'cute' ways to repeat the message waiting signal
given enough $s and possibly another circuit in parallel, but what is
needed here is the right magic incantation to get an appropriate
circuit from them that lets the message waiting light on the OPX line
work the way it is supposed to.

Does PACBELL have a consultant liason / out of state vendor type
contact group with a competant staff? EMAIL if posting it is a bad
idea.


TIA,

Barton

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

Date: 26 May 94 03:17 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Gerry Brown Assoc, Gerry Brown,PAS)
Subject: Nice Job, if You Can Get it!


This could be retitiled, How can I ever thank them..

This afternoon, my home telephone went south.  Anyone who called in
got one ring followed by a fast busy.  I called the local (Pac Bell)
operator who forwarded me to PacBell service after confirming my
problem.  Service reminded me that they would have to charge me if it
was internal wiring.  I agreed to wait to report the problem until
AFTER I had tested their side of the line.  PacBell supplies each
house with an external box that has a modular jack.  To test it all
one has to do is plug a phone into the external jack.  If it works,
the problem is internal -- my fault.  If it doesn't, the problem is
outside PacBell's fault.

While reporting the problem, the service tech told me that effective
June 1, 1994, PacBell will be charging for a service call WHETHER THE
PROBLEM IS INSIDE OR OUTSIDE.  The only way around the charge is to
subscribe to their Wire Service Plan.

Not a bad scam, heh!  I pay for service no matter who is at fault.
The PacBell repair service claimed that the California PUC forced them
to implement this plan.  Boy am I glad that the telephone industry has
been deregulated.  Imagine what we would have to pay if that hadn't
happened.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would double check the source on
this. Do you mean to tell me that if there is a problem in the CO
that *you* are going to have to pay for the repair?  If the problem
is on the pole in the alley behind your house *you* will have to pay?
Gimme a break.  PAT]

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

Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 21:59:53 -0600
From: Leroy Casterline <[e-mail]>
Subject: Tellabs Information Request


Salutations, telecom netlanders!

Not long ago, I requested information from this group on loop-start
<-> ground-start converters.  My thanks to all who responded.

Now I come to you once again requesting your assistance.  Tellabs
produces converters which appear to satisfy our need.  While I have
heard of Tellabs, I have no direct experience with them or their
products, and therefore solicit your input on the company and its
converters.  The converters we are considering are:

  Tellabs Model 6007 - 2 line, PBX-side converter
  Tellabs Modem 9006 - 4 line, CO-side converter

Thank you one and all!


Leroy

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

From: [e-mail] (Joe Jarrett)
Subject: Flames For ISD?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 21:49:57 GMT


I'm the Field Applications engineer for Information Storage Devices,
commonly known as "ISD".  ISD makes a series of chips that store audio
(speech, sounds, etc).  I've been told that we have taken some bad
press in one of the "telecom" newsgroups.

Did that happen here?  If so, if anyone has any copies of the threads
that ran then, I'd appreciate them being sent to me.  Otherwise, I
would be willing to discuss the subject either via Email or here in
the TELECOM Digest.


Thanks for your time.

Joe Jarrett, K5FOG     [e-mail]
Information Storage Devices FAE   Austin, Texas

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

From: [e-mail] (Harry Smith)
Subject: Looking For FEC Decoder
Organization: Lockheed
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 00:54:45 GMT


I have just picked up Sklar's book on digital communications. (It is a
great book.)  In the back it has code for doing Viterbi decoding on a
PC.  Does anyone know of an FTP site where I can find it in softcopy.
(I have typing several pages of some elses code.)

While I am at it, is this the correct location find information about
the different error correcting codes and what people are doing?  ( If
not, can you point me to the right place.)


Harry Smith     [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Stan Schwartz)
Subject: What's a 1A3B?
Date: 26 May 1994 00:32:28 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


Here in downstate NYNEXland if an exchange has not been "taken over"
by a pager or cellular company, you can dial the NNX and 9901 to find
out what kind of switch is in that C/O.  For example, dialing
[phone] will tell you that you have reached the Farmingdale 5ESS
test number, serving the following prefixes ... (you get the idea).

When dialing [phone], however, I am told that I have reached
the Floral Park 1A3B, the only one of it's kind in Nassau County.  Now
I have heard of 5ESS's and DMS-100's, but what is a 1A3B, and why is
it such a distinction to have one?


Thanks!

Stan

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 12:30:39 +0100
From: [e-mail] (Manette B. Lazear)
Subject: SIGNIDR V Preliminary Meeting Announcement


               SIGNIDR V Preliminary Meeting Announcement
Special Interest Group on Networked Information, Discovery, and Retrieval
(Previously SIGWAIS, Special Interest Group on Wide Area Information Server)

  The MITRE Corporation will sponsor the next meeting of the Special
Interest Group on Networked Information, Discovery, and Retrieval.
General topics of interest for this group are WAIS, gopher, World Wide
Web, and other information retrieval and discovery technologies.  We
are planning for an interesting and exciting meeting.  We look forward
to seeing you there.

  This meeting will focus in on three areas: 1. security including
firewall issues, 2. electronic publishing and copyright issues, and 3.
knowbots and other information discovery technologies.  IF YOU WOULD
BE INTERESTED IN MAKING A PRESENTATION IN ANY OF THESE AREAS, PLEASE
INDICATE THIS ON THE REGISTRATION FORM BELOW AND SEND IT TO US AT
"[e-mail]".

Date:   Thursday, August 4, 1994

Time:   9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Place:  The MITRE Corporation
        7525 Colshire Drive
        McLean, VA  22102

Registration:
        PLEASE REGISTER EARLY TO ASSURE YOUR ATTENDANCE.
        Space is limited to 300 attendees.

        Complete registration form below and return by e-mail or fax:
             e-mail: [e-mail]
             fax:    [phone]        (c/o Lorrayne Schaefer)

Fee:    None

Demos Welcome:
        If you have a demo you would like to share with your colleagues
        in our demo area, there is space to indicate this on the registration
        form; please let us know.  Demo selection will be coordinated based on
        space availability and focus of presentation.

Vendors Welcome:
        We would like to include vendor information and demos at this meeting.
        If you are a vendor and would like to participate please indicate this
        in the space provided on the registration form.  Selection will be
        coordinated based on space availability and focus of presentation.

Access: Free, on-site, parking at MITRE Corporation.  Driving directions to
        MITRE will appear in a later announcement.  Nearest Metro is
        West Falls Church (orange line) with approximately an $8 taxi ride
        (~7 minute) from Metro to MITRE.  Bus #3B marked "Tyson's Corner"
        also runs from West Falls Church Metro to the vicinity of MITRE.
        The fare is $1 and takes about 15 min. plus a short walk from the
        bus stop.

Airport:
        MITRE is approximately equi-distant from Washington National Airport
        and Washington Dulles Airport.  Travel time from the airports to
        MITRE is about 25 minutes and taxi cost is approximately $30.00.

Nearby Hotels:
        Best Western Tyson's Westpark   2 miles to MITRE
        8401 Westpark Drive
        McLean, VA 22102
        703/734-2800

        McLean Hilton at Tyson's Corner 1.5 miles to MITRE
        7920 Jones Branch Drive
        McLean, VA  22102
        703/847-5000

        Ritz-Carlton, Tyson's Corner     .5 miles to MITRE
        1700 Tyson's Blvd
        McLean, VA  22102
        703/506-4300

        Tyson's Corner Ramada   1 mile to MITRE
        7801 Leesburg Pike
        Falls Church, VA  22043
        703/893-1340

        Tyson's Corner Marriott 1 mile to MITRE
        8028 Leesburg Pike
        Vienna, VA 22182
        800/228-9290


          -------------Registration Form------------


                          SIGNIDR V Registration
                         Thursday, August 4, 1994
                             MITRE CORPORATION
                                McLean, VA


Name:___________________________________________________________________

Title:____________________________________________________________________

Affiliation:_____________________________________________________________

Address:__________________________________________________________________

        __________________________________________________________________

E-mail:___________________________________________________________________

Phone:_________________________________FAX:______________________________

Which previous SIGNIDR/SIGWAIS have you attended?  (Check all that apply.)
SIGWAIS I (USGS, Reston, VA)                       _________
SIGWAIS II (Library of Congress, Wash., DC)        _________
SIGNIDR III (Nat. Library of Med., Bethesda, MD)   _________
SIGNIDR IV (Dept. of Commerce, Wash., DC)          _________

Participant Information:
If you wish to participate through a presentation, demonstration, or vendor
display please complete the appropriate information area(s) below.  For
demos you must supply all equipment you will need, including workstations
and other hardware, software, etc.  Connections to the Internet will be
available.

PRESENTATION Title:_______________________________________________________

Brief Description:_________________________________________________________

 __________________________________________________________________________

 __________________________________________________________________________

 __________________________________________________________________________

DEMO Name:________________________________________________________________

Demo Description:_________________________________________________________

 __________________________________________________________________________

 __________________________________________________________________________

 __________________________________________________________________________

VENDOR Name:______________________________________________________________

Description of how you would like to participate:__________________________

 ___________________________________________________________________________

 __________________________________________________________________________

 __________________________________________________________________________


Manette B. Lazear
Digital Libraries Technologies
MITRE, 7525 Colshire Dr., McLean, VA  22102
Phone: [phone]   FAX:[phone]
([e-mail])   MITRE Mail Stop: Z160

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

From: [e-mail] (Douglas Mckeen)
Subject: Paper on International Callbacks
Date: 26 May 1994 06:18:21 GMT
Organization: University of Alberta


I am taking an international marketing course at the University of
Alberta right now and I'm considering doing a paper on international
callback.  I am looking for information on callback services and any
problems/experiences that either customers or suppliers of callback
services have encountered.  I am still debating whether to pursue this
paper from a business plan perspective or from a research perspective.
Any input I receive will probably sway me one way or the other.

I am also looking to expand on some of the ideas I have already.  Such
as ...

-The name of the service - One name for all markets served or tailor
the name to suit the countries/customers served.

-Language problems - I only speak one language. Will my customers
require more?  If so, how do I solve this?

-Legal/Regulatory Issues (Possibly a whole paper on its own)

-What markets should I serve? There are a few possible target markets.

 1) Any customer wishing to connect from anyplace to any other place. (pretty
    broad)
 2) Canadian companies abroad wishing to call Canada or other countries.
 3) The many Americans struggling to call Cuba every day. (Canada doesn't have
    the embargo against Cuba)

-Strategic Business Alliance - Should I form some form of alliance
with "agents" in the foreign countries?  That is, to what degree
should I get involved?  I could try promoting the service from here
but it would be difficult.

-Other - Still very important are issues such as price, billing, what
countries to serve, costs, sales force, etc.

I mentioned mostly marketing or business issues above; however, I am
also interested in the technical and operational issues (these are
part of the product).  Any piece of information or insight you may
have will be greatly appreciated.  Also if you know of any
documentation/articles on the subject I would appreciate hearing about
them.

Thanks, in advance, for any info you send. If you would like to call
me, my phone number is [phone] (5pm-11pm MST) or you can e-mail
me. :-)


Regards,

Doug McKeen   [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #252
******************************


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Date: Thu, 26 May 94 12:51:04 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #253

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 26 May 94 12:51:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 253

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Phone/FAX/Data Calls (Summary/On-Site Experience) (Peter Leif Rasmussen)
    Call For Paper: CFIP'95 (French) (Jean-Marc Jezequel)
    Mandatory 1+ Dialing Coming to Area Code 516 (Dave Niebuhr)
    Micro Portable Suggestions (Bill Verry)
    How Smart is Call-Forwarding? (Shag Aristotelis)
    Large Norstar Systems (John Warne)
    Trans-Atlantic Fiber Operators (US Based) (Stu Jeffery)
    Looking for Used Panasonic 308KSU (Al Cohan)
    Directory Assistance Companies (Eric Maillet)
    Re: Annoyance Calls From Answering Machine ([e-mail])
    Rude Not to Leave Answering Machine Messages? (Joe Harrison)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 14:48:00 JST
From: [e-mail] (Peter Leif Rasmussen (SY-Gi))
Subject: Phone/FAX/Data Calls (Summary/On-Site Experience)


Long time ago (no, this is not an adventure :-) I asked some questions
here in the TELECOM Digest about getting my telephone connected in a
way that would make it possible for me to receive FAX and data calls,
unattended.

I got some answers with the most useful (for me) being from Stuart
Whitmore ([e-mail]) about a share ware program called
BGFAX, now v.1.21, made by B.J. Guillot ([e-mail]),
anonymous FTP://csn.org/Computech

Being just a private hobby among several it took me a while to put it
together, but I promised to post a summary if I got something useful
and that is what I am doing now. As I have also been succesful in
setting it up to work with redirection of incomming phone calls to an
answering machine, if that is what the caller want, it may also be of
some use for those with interest in such matters.

My PC is an IBM Notebook (Japanese model) with a plain vanilla
V.22bis/V.42bis MNP4-5 FAX/modem. To effectively split voice from
FAX/data I bought a FAX- switch from JDR Microdevices of $90 USD. They
also have a smaller version at $60 USD, which should work as well. The
only difference being an extra connection for a modem, which will be
useful if you have FAX and modem on different machines (not
interesting in this case). The "effective split" is dealt with this
way because I don't know of any special functions implemented in the
(high-tech?) Japanese telephone network, e.g. distinctive ring, ANI,
CID, etc.  that seems to be available anywhere else?! So, if this
works in Japan it should work in most other countries.

The JDR Microdevices FAX-Switch can be programmed to redirect the call
upon detection of certain DTMF tones upon connection. If no tones are
heard, e.g.  a FAX CNG tone, for a period of four seconds it assumes
it is a telephone call and connects the phone. My phone has the
answering machine built in (like about 90% of all phones in Japan),
but there is a connector for a stand alone answe- ring machine. This
means that a normal telephone caller only hear a different ring after
connection, until I or the answering machine answers the phone.  A FAX
will also go through with no special action, unless the caller has an
old FAX machine that doesn't transmit a CNG tone. However, the data
caller has to add a pause (a few commas) and then the code for the
modem redirection.

Having come so far BGFAX takes over, to decide whether the incomming
call is a FAX or a data call. If it is a FAX call, BGFAX receives the
FAX and stores it on disk in a proprietary format, which is
convertible to PCX or the format used by QL2FAX (a program usually
bundled with modems). Various data about the call is stored in a
log-file. There is also a program with it that makes you able to
transmit FAX'es. It is shareware and costs $25 USD to register.  It is
simple, using a no-nonsense non-GUI style userinterface. It is shipped
with a document, which is also a no-nonsense type making efforts to
explain the (chaotic?) world of FAX/modems. For the unexperienced user
it can be hard to understand, but unless you have a very odd modem it
looks like you should be able to make it work (Said by the
unexperienced user ;-)

If BGFAX detects that the call is not FAX but data, it attempts to
load a BBS program, set to be loaded by a front end processor. This is
the way I have set it up, however it seems that originally BGFAX was
made to make Fido Net SysOp's able to receive FAX'es on the same line,
so BGFAX can also be loaded in a another way, called Rear End Mode. I
didn't try that, but if you are a Fido Net SysOp you probably already
know about it.

Having entered the BBS, all control is taken over by that so now the
caller will be able to do whatever he/she normally would. It is
because BGFAX works in the Front End Mode with Batch files calling
each other, so when the BBS is up and running BGFAX is totally out and
vice versa.

As stated before this is just a fun hobby, so I want it to cost as
little as possible. Therefore I have been searching for cheap BBS's
(and still are). In the beginning I tried Executive Host, which is the
BBS extension of Telix.  However, I couldn't make it work and tried by
FAX and email to contact the people producing it, but I never got any
answer even though I wanted to register?! I also tried a totally
different approach, with a program called FreeMail that works with MS
Windows and should be able to receive phone and data calls by some
nifty software construction? But it weren't able to use a combined
FAX/modem and split those two, so I dropped that. I also got some info
about using QL2FAX as it has an "auto detect" option when answering
the phone. It would seem perfect to have everything in the same
package, but QL2FAX does nothing else but answering the phone? There
is no info on how to for example write a script to make it continue as
simple BBS, and at that time I was getting quite far in making BGFAX
work so I dropped that, too.

I finally made a BBS program called TriTel work together with BGFAX.
It is very simple, though it claims to be very powerful, but the
people that made it (shareware) wants $75 USD to register, so I am
still searching.  Stuart Whitmore claims that Wilcat works well with
it, but that is a commercial software package costing $100 USD, so
that is not yet interesting.

A long story about getting connected in more ways, without having to
pay the (competitive?) price of $770 USD in (no-competition-land)
Japan for an extra telephone line (just to get connected). You realize
that a little extra sweat can save you a lot of money. A little more
"bashing" will hopefully eventually bring prices down (Go for it
Clinton! EU are too busy "bashing" each other ;-)

If questions are asked directly to me I will do what I can to answer,
at least now being able to claim that I have some experience.


Peter Rasmussen

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

From: [e-mail] (Jean-Marc Jezequel)
Subject: Call For Paper: CFIP'95 (French)
Date: 26 May 1994 09:30:45 GMT
Organization: Irisa, Rennes(FR)


*** If you don't understand French, you wouldn't be interested in this ***

                       Appel aux communications

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        #       #          #    #     #    #    #     # #
        #       #####      #    ######    #      ######  ######
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         #####  #         ###   #               ####### #######


         Colloque Francophone sur l'Ingenierie des Protocoles

                   9-12 mai 1995 - Rennes - France

                         Comite de Programme

                             Presidents :

Claude Jard (IRISA, France) et Pierre Rolin (Telecom-Bretagne, France)

                              Membres :

Paul Amer (Universite du  Delaware, Etats-Unis)
Bennani Abdelfdil (ENSIAS, Maroc)
J. William Atwood (Universite de  Concordia, Canada)
Benkiran Amine (EMI, Maroc)
Mohamed Bettaz (Universite de Constantine, Algerie)
Ed Brinksma (Universite de  Twente, Pays-Bas)
Stanislaw  Budkowski (INT, France)
Richard Castanet (LaBRI, France)
Ana Cavalli (INT, France)
Wojciech  Cellary (EFP, Pologne)
Andre Danthine (Universite de Liege, Belgique)
Piotr Dembinski (Academie des Sciences, Pologne)
Michel Diaz (LAAS, France)
Rachida Dssouli (Universite de Montreal, Canada)
Jean Marc Farines (UFSC, Bresil)
Serge Fdida (MASI, France)
Alain Finkel (ENS Cachan, France)
Roland Groz (FT/CNET, France)
Farouk Kamoun (ENSI, Tunisie)
Jacques Labetoulle (Eurecom, France)
Guy Leduc (Universite de Liege, Belgique)
Francis Lepage (CRAN, France)
Luigi Logrippo (Universite d'Ottawa, Canada)
Gerard Michel (IMAG, France)
Pascale Minet (INRIA, France)
Abdellatif Obaid (Univ. du Quebec a Hull, Canada)
Omar Rafiq (Universite de Pau)
Behcet Sarikaya (Universite de AIZU, Japon)
Andre Schiper (EPFL, Suisse)
Samir Tohme (ENST, France)
Gregor von Bochmann (Univ. de Montreal, Canada)


L'idee  du  Colloque Francophone sur l'Ingenierie des Protocoles qui a
deja eu  lieu par trois  fois (1988, 1991 et 1993), est de permettre a
la communaute francophone  des enseignants, chercheurs  et industriels
dans le  domaine  des  protocoles  et reseaux informatiques, de  faire
regulierement le  point en langue francaise. Le colloque comprend  une
journee de tutoriels, suivie de trois jours de conference.

Le comite de programme souhaite  se voir  soumettre des communications
qui traitent de tout  sujet relatif au developpement des protocoles de
communications.  La liste  non exhaustive  qui  suit,  donne  quelques
points qui peuvent etre traites :

- Conception, mise en oeuvre et gestion de reseaux et  d'architectures
de communication ;

- Techniques et langages de specification ;

- Techniques et outils de verification et de simulation ;  application
de ces techniques ;

- Mise  au  point  et integration  des  logiciels  repartis  dans  les
systemes ;

-  Architectures,   methodes  et  outils  de  test  de  conformite  et
d'interoperabilite ;

- Methodes formelles ou pragmatiques couvrant l'ensemble des etapes de
developpements des protocoles ;

- Conception et developpement de protocoles a haut debit ;

- Modeles, evaluation et mesure de performances des reseaux ;

- Conception, developpement et application multimedia dans les reseaux

- Reseaux de mobiles ; reseaux radio ;

- Securite dans les reseaux ;

Le comite de programme souhaite recevoir des communications de la part
d'universitaires,  de  chercheurs  et  d'industriels. Des  articles de
syntheses didactiques, des exposes de travaux de recherches theoriques
et d'experiences  pratiques  sont attendus, ainsi que des propositions
d'exposes pour les tutoriels.

Les  publications emanant de jeunes  chercheurs  sont particulierement
les bienvenues. Un  prix  recompensera la  meilleure  publication. Les
meilleures publications seront publiees dans des revues.

Un  espace  sera  disponible  pour des demonstrations,  le  comite  de
programme sollicite des propositions sur les themes ci-dessus.

                       Instruction aux Auteurs
                       -----------------------

Si vous desirez soumettre une  communication (12  pages maximum) ou un
tutoriel,  veuillez  envoyer  cinq exemplaires  de  l'article complet,
avant le 1er septembre 1994, a :

               Pierre Rolin (Telecom-Bretagne, France)

                           Telecom-Bretagne
                          Antenne de Rennes
                           Departement RSM
                       Rue de la Chataigneraie
                                BP 78
                    35512 - Cesson - Sevigne cedex
                                FRANCE
                        Tel : [phone]
                        Fax : [phone]
                email : [e-mail]

Les  decisions  du comite de  programme  vous seront  notifiees  le 15
janvier  1995. Pour etre  publiees  dans  les  actes  du colloque  les
versions finales  des articles  doivent parvenir avant  le 15  fevrier
1995.

                           Dates a retenir
                           ---------------

1er  septembre  1994  :  date  limite pour la reception  des  articles
  soumis.

15 janvier 1995 : notification aux auteurs de la decision du comite de
  programme.

15 fevrier 1995 :  date limite pour la reception des textes definitifs
  a inclure dans les actes du colloque.


                        Comite d'organisation
                        ---------------------

Jean-Marc Jezequel (IRISA)      Sylvie Brunet (Telecom-Bretagne)
Noel Plouzeau (IRISA)           Elisabeth Lebret (IRISA)
Joseph  Fromont (CCETT)         Marie-Noelle Georgeault (IRISA)
Alain Leger (CCETT)


Jean-Marc Jezequel, IRISA/CNRS, 35042 RENNES (FRANCE) // [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 08:28:37 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Dave Niebuhr)
Subject: Mandatory 1+ Dialing Coming to Area Code 516


Today's {Newsday}, 5/26/94, contained an article with the title "LI,
Get Set to Dial '1'".

Mandatory 1+ dialing to numbers in area codes other than 516 (Long
Island) will go into effect on Sept. 24, 1994.  It now is and has been
optional for several years.  Area code 914 is also affected by this
change but I cannot say anything about the other area codes in New
York with the exception of 212 (Manhattan), 718 (Brooklyn (Kings
County), Bronx, Queens and Staten Island (Richmond County) and 917
(cellular, pager, etc.  that is an overlay area code.


Dave Niebuhr      Internet: [e-mail] (preferred)
                            [e-mail] / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl
Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility
Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973  1+[phone]
                                          FAX   1+[phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (BillVerry)
Subject: Micro Portable Suggestions
Date: 26 May 1994 09:24:02 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


I'm in the market for a micro portable cell phone and need some
advice. From what I've gathered it seems these devices are not too
reliable when it comes to clarity and battery life. Most everyone I've
spoken to has suggested I stay with the car phone and forget the
"pocket" phone. I suspect this has to do with the low ouput of the
units? If there is a manufacturer or a particular type of phone I
should get I would greatly appreciate such contrasting opinion.


Thank you,

BV   Please respond via email ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (Shag Aristotelis)
Subject: How smart is call-forwarding?
Date: 26 May 94 06:39:36 GMT
Organization: Screaming in Digital, the Queensryche Digest


A question for those more knowledgeable than I:

Being out in the sticks and not "local" to the nearest dialup, I got a
line put in at a relative's house in an NXX bordering both my NXX and
the net's NXX a couple years back, with call forwarding on it.  Simply
put, my connectivity looks like this:

 [Me] -- [Fwd] -- [Net]

In my state (NJ) the telco (Bell Atlantic-NJ) has diligently replaced
all the trunk lines with fiber, much to my delight.  Most of the
overhead wires are still copper, at least as far as residential lines
go, though.  There's a fiber shed around the corner from my house, and
the transition is made at that point.  Thus, we arrive at one of two
scenarios:

1) If BA-NJ's switching computers are smart and simply shunt calls on
to their forwarded destination:

 [Me] -c- [Shed] -f- [CO1] -f- [CO2] -f- [CO3] -c- [Net]

2) If BA-NJ's switching computers aren't smart, and actually route a
forwarded call out to the number (over copper!) and back again(???):

 [Me] -c- [Shed] -f- [CO1] -f- [CO2] -c- [Fwd] -c- [CO2] -f- [CO3] -c- [Net]

Recently, I've encountered _nasty_ noise.  Even the latest greatest
28.8kbps modems with all the connection-holding capability in the
world can't connect.  If I dial _directly_ without using the forward
(thus incurring big tolls) the routing is as follows, and there is no
noise:

 [Me] -c- [Shed] -f- [C01] -f- ([C02] -f-?) [C03] -c- [Net]

(Note, I'm not sure whether a direct call would pass through the CO in NXX 2.)

It looks like one of two things is happening here:

1) The computers are dumb, and are routing the call out to the number and
   back again, and something's causing noise on the loop.

2) The computers are ok, but something's causing noise in NXX 2's CO itself.

I'm going to call BA-NJ in the morning, and go through the usual
process of explaining to them that I'm _absolutely certain_ it's not
my inside wiring, since there _is no inside wiring_ on that line... ;)
but I figured I'd toss this out, in hopes that someone out there knows
more about how the computers handle call-forwarding.


Shag
Screaming in Digital: [e-mail]
GEOS Binary Moderator: [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 13:20:59 EDT
From: John Warne <[e-mail]>
Organization: School Board of Alachua County, FL.
Subject: Large Norstar Systems


We have some IWATSU IDS-128 hybrid switches that we will have to
schedule for replacement soon (new North American Dialing/Numbering
plan, a recently discovered method to totally defeat existing software
toll restriction in the things, age, parts, etc).

On option being studied (one of *many* options being studied) is to
replace the systems with Norstar systems. I am comfortable with the
Norstar in small configurations, but would like to chat with anyone
with experience in using/supporting large configurations (20X88 or
20X104, for example).


Thanks,

[e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 15:11:43 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Stu Jeffery)
Subject: Trans-Atlantic Fiber Operators (US based)


I am trying to find out the names of the smaller US based companies
that operate trans-Atlantic fiber cables. The ones I know of are: ATT,
MCI, Sprint, Wiltel and Compuserve.

Does anyone know of any others? Any pointers would be appreciated.


Stu Jeffery          Internet: [e-mail]
1072 Seena Ave.         voice:   415-966-8199
Los Altos, CA. 94024      fax:   [phone]

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

Date: Wed, 25 May 94 16:29 EST
From: Al Cohan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Looking for Used Panasonic 308KSU


I have a small client that is upgrading his old *I mean OLD* 1A2 to a
PBX. If anyone has a used Panasonic 308 for sale, please contact me
direct.


Thanks in advance,

Al

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Directory Assistance Companies
Date: Wed, 25 May 94 23:32:17 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


Responding to [e-mail]:

The Alliance Network is a telecommunications consulting company that
specializes in serving clients with monthly billings exceeding $1,000.
Depending on your specific needs, we should be able to help you
significantly reduce those $5,000 monthly directory assistance
charges.

If you are spending $5,000 just on directory assistance, chances are
good that you are spending too much on your other telephone services
as well.  If this is the case, then The Alliance Network can be of
considerable service to you.

For details, you can contact The Alliance Network at 1-800-608-0028.
Ask for Michael Nicosia.  Or, if you prefer, leave us a message here
on the Internet.  We will get back to you promptly.

Thank you for your consideration.


Eric Maillet    The Alliance Network

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Annoyance Calls From Answering Machine
Organization: Eskimo North
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 04:55:06 GMT


Somehow I missed the first article of this thread.  But I assume you
are talking about an answering machine that when it receives a
message, it will dial a preprogrammed number to alert about the
message just received.

I would be interested in such a machine, either the one mentioned in
this thread or similar ones in the market. Any help with brands or
where to buy them, will be greatly appreciated.


Carlos

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 09:22:40 +0100
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Rude Not to Leave Answering Machine Messages?


General view of Digest readers (except Miss Manners) seems to be that
it is, on the basis that it leaves the called party with a gnawing
feeling of wonderment as to who called them and why. I can't see how;
do modern answering machines work differently from my fairly-old
Panasonic?

With mine, callers who hear the outgoing message all the way through
and then hang up (before the beep) just don't activate the message
counter, so I don't even know they called. The few seconds gap between
the end of the outgoing message and the beep gives them plenty of
time. Suits me fine, and I had assumed they all worked much the same
way.

Incidentally while I'm at the keyboard ... it's taken me a while to
realise that US analogue cellular systems providers require you, the
the phone owner and payer of the airtime bill, actually to pay for
incoming calls. How the heck have they managed to convince people to
go for that?!?


Joe    ICL Ltd. Bracknell Berkshire RG12 8SN  UK ([phone])
[e-mail]
S=Harrison/I=J/OU1=bra0112/O=icl/P=icl/A=gold 400/C=GB

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #253
******************************


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Date: Thu, 26 May 94 13:56:10 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #254

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 26 May 94 13:56:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 254

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Bulk Call Display (Alan Leon Varney)
    Re: CNID and ANI - Will They Become One and the Same? (Alan Leon Varney)
    Re: SMDI Question (Al Farnham)
    Re: RBOCS & Video Remote learning in Schools? (Robert Virzi)
    Re: DTMF Decoding Help Needed (John Lundgren)
    Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range (John Lundgren)
    Re: Hunting Service From GTE (Jeff Hibbard)
    Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router? (David Devereaux-Weber)
    Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router? (Lars Poulsen)
    Re: Call Return (Hugh Pritchard)
    Re: Microsoft Telephony API (Guy Blair)
    Re: Internet Access from the Solomon Islands? (Don Newcomb)
    Re: How Can I Ring Up Myself? (Nathan N. Duehr)
    57x in Old Area 312 (Carl Moore)
    Announcing New FCC BBS - FCC World ([e-mail])

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
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* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 08:29:47 +0600
From: [e-mail] (Alan Leon Varney)
Subject: Re: Bulk Call Display
Organization: AT&T Network Systems


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

>>> So what interface are they using to receive the Call Display data?

>> I believe there is just such a bulk interface available, called
>> something like SMDA (Service Message Desk Accounting?).

> I think you mean "SMDF" -- Simplified Message Desk Format.  Some
> attendant console systems have the capability to use it in order to
> route calls automatically.  I know the system we have at my other
> office has it as an option.

   From the switch perspective, it's SMSI (Simplified Message Service
Interface), an early version of the Voice Messaging Interface.  Both
of these deliver the number of a forwarding telephone (so they will
know the client or "mailbox" they are representing for voice messaging
purposes) unless the call is "direct" to the VM system.

   Some switches offer a Bulk Calling Line ID interface -- basically
the same as SMSI/VMI.  In fact, both pieces of information can be
delivered if the message service is configured properly.  The standard
interface is RS-232 asynch, up to 9600 baud.  Bellcore has requirements
for BRI and PRI to provide the same information.


Al Varney

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 08:30:13 +0600
From: [e-mail] (Alan Leon Varney)
Subject: Re: CNID and ANI - Will They Become One and the Same?
Organization: AT&T Network Systems


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John R Levine)
writes:

   [someone wrote]

>> With the FCC mandate for CNID service, is it not possible that the
>> telcos will use this to drop ANI?

> Considering that ANI is what they use to bill for toll calls, I would
> think that such a move is, to put it mildly, unlikely.

   Not only that but, for many classes of calls (many PBX, forwarded
calls, etc.), the CNID and ANI are different numbers.  I would not
like paying the toll charges when calling a local phone forwarded to
China -- particularly if it was made without using my favorite INC :).

>> Also it has been mentioned that "911 service requires special trunk lines
>> and equipment". Clearly CNID does not and needs only a low-cost display.

    CNID may only need a low-cost display; 911 needs a lot of other
things.  Even if 911 used CNID, it's likely that a few dedicated 911
trunks would be required.  At least they would after the first lawsuit
claiming that congestion on "public trunks" in competition with a 911
call lead to injury/death.

>> Will this make local 911 response a possibility?

   I'm not sure what this means -- 911 is a "local response" mechanism
today.  How would CNID change this????

> The hard part about 911 isn't delivering the ANI.  The hard part is
> creating a complete and reliable data base with accurate street
> addresses in which the number can be looked up. ....
> Whether the number comes from ANI or CLID is a nit.

   My friends down the hall (in AT&T Public Safety) would disagree.
The hard part of 911 is EVERYTHING ABOUT IT.  Getting it routed to the
right PSAP, insuring there are adequate (but not too many) trunks from
EVERY switch, getting a myriad of public agencies to cooperate,
funding on an ongoing basis, providing operator HOLD or RINGBACK where
needed, educating the PBX folks (and cellular), getting a myriad of
TELCOs and vendors to agree on standards, receiving/making daily
updates from multiple LECs, etc.  So maybe the database is a problem
 -- but it isn't the only (or hardest) one to handle.


Al Varney

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: 26 May 94 09:56:00 -0400
Subject: Re: SMDI Question


Here is the message format for an SMDI link between a switch and a
Message Desk (Voice Mail System).

The link is normally 1200bps full duplex without handshaking although
some new implementations run at 9600bps.

The Bell spec is TSR-TSY-000283.

SMDI Message protocol:

The system checks messages that it receives from the Message Desk for
adherence to the following message protocols.

Incoming messages - (Voice Mail System to Switch):

There are two kinds of incoming messages the switch can accept
from the message desk:

OP:MWI(SP)nnnnnnn!(D)

RMV:MWI(SP)nnnnnnn!(D)

where:    nnnnnnnnnn = station number (can be 7 or 10 digits)
          (D) = control-D (End Of Transmission)   (SP) = space

The first message activates the message waiting indication. The second
deactivates the message waiting indication.

For example, if Station B (DN 234-2000) forwards calls to the Message
Desk and receives a message, the Message Desk activates message waiting
indication for Station B with the following message:

OP:MWI 2342000!(D)

After Station B retrieves the messages from the Message Desk, the Message
Desk deactivates message waiting indication for Station B with the
following message:

RMV:MWI 2342000!(D)


Outgoing messages - (Switch to Voice Mail System)

There are two groups of messages from the switch to the message desk.

Call details - These message types give items of information concerning
calls which the Message Desk received:

    (CR)(LF)MDgggmmmmannnnnnn(SP)yyyyyyy(SP)(CR)(LF)(Y)
    (CR)(LF)MDgggmmmmannnnnnn(SP)(SP)(CR)(LF)(Y)
    (CR)(LF)MDgggmmmma(SP)yyyyyyy(SP)(CR)(LF)(Y)

MWI change failure - The request to change the Message Waiting Indication
                     failed because it was either invalid (INV) or the switch
                     unable to perform the change when requested (BLK).

    (CR)(LF)MWInnnnnnn(SP)INV(CR)(LF)(DL)(DL)(Y)
    (CR)(LF)MWInnnnnnn(SP)BLK(CR)(LF)(DL)(DL)(Y)

where:
(CR)       = carriage return
(LF)       = line feed
(SP)       = space
(DL)       = delete character (ASCII value FF)
(Y)        = control-Y
ggg        = message desk number (001-063)
mmmm       = message desk terminal (0001-2047)
nnnnnnnnnn = forwarding from station number (can be 7 or 10 digits)
yyyyyyyyyy = calling station number (can be 7 or 10 digits)
a          = type of call
             where D = Direct Calls, A = Forward All Calls,
                   B = Forward Busy Calls, N = Forward No Answer Calls

For example, Station B (DN 234-2000) forwards all calls to the Message
Desk. Station A (DN 678-1234) calls Station B and forwards to Message
Desk number 002, terminal 009. The switch sends the following message
to the Message Desk:

(CR)(LF)MD0020009A2342000 6781234 (CR)(LF)(Y)

Hope this information answers the question.


Regards,

Al

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Virzi)
Subject: Re: RBOCS & Video Remote learning in Schools?
Date: 26 May 1994 14:54:19 GMT
Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA


In article <[e-mail]>, Gerry Moersdorf <gerry@aiinet.
com> wrote:

> Does anyone have an opinion on what the RBOCS are trying to do by
> pushing TV remote learning grants and equipment to school systems?
> The schools in our district don't even have telephones in classrooms
> let alone a LAN for a client server teaching tool.  To me the priorities
> are all turned around.  What possible business could RBOCS build with the
> "poor" school districts?

Well, I have an *opinion*, which is probably worth what it cost you.  ;-)

Telcos want to get into the data highway business, whatever that
means.  There is much concern over the potential for creating a "data
underclass" that threatens the entire enchilada.  By showing a willingness
(to congress, the FCC, the press) to support not just wealthy communities,
the telcos could be buying a great deal of good will.  The goal is to
turn this good will into a multi-billion dollar business.

Of course, these are only my opinions, and do not in any way relate to
what my employer may or may not be doing in this arena.


Bob Virzi   [e-mail]
Just another ascii character   [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding Help Needed
Date: 26 May 94 16:05:02 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


DANIEL FINKLER ([e-mail]) wrote:

> [e-mail] writes:

>> I am writing a program that needs to decode telephone touch tone
>> signals.  The problem is that I am having trouble finding a DTMF
>> decoder.  If anyone know where I can get ahold of one I would
>> appreciate it.

> You can use USRobotics courier modems' touch tone recognition feature.
> They can recognize DTMF tones, including A,B,C,D.

Also, ZyXEL modems can recognize DTMF.  There is a ZyXEL FAQ at
nctuccca.edu.tw.  Under /pc/zyxel/ directory.

There are other sites also.


John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs
Rancho Santiago Community College District
17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706
VOI (714) JOHN GAB \ FAX (714) JOHN FRY
[e-mail] \ [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range
Date: 26 May 94 16:11:55 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Guorong Roger ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Is there any kind of CORDLESS PHONE which can be used for ten to
> twenty miles distance (not a cellular phone, not the regular cordless
> phone which can only be used within the house). The telephone should
> still use the regular telephone switching system. The master piece of
> the phone should be installed at home, and the handset could be bring
> ten to twenty miles away from the home but be still access the phone
> at home.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are, but they are not legal for use
> in the USA. About the closest you can come to this legally in the USA is
> to use a manual phone patch attached to a CB radio or some other type of
> legal radio service. I have a phone patch here for example which I have

[stuff deleted]

> and hard to find here in the USA.  If you've got the money, you might con-
> sider setting up a little two meter arrangement of your own with a private
> phone line attached, etc.   PAT]

The important point here is that the amateur radio service is for
recreational non-commerial use only, and the hams tend to police
themselves fairly well, especially in metro areas where the bands are
crowded.  And, naturally, the phonempany co doesn't want people to
bypass their cellular service.  So getting a legal ten mile phone is
not easy.


John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs
Rancho Santiago Community College District
17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706
VOI (714) JOHN GAB \ FAX (714) JOHN FRY
[e-mail] \ [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Jeff Hibbard)
Subject: Re: Hunting Service From GTE
Date: 26 May 1994 10:18:25 -0500
Organization: Bradley University


[e-mail] (Steve Forrette) writes:

> In many states, GTE does not offer hunting to residential customers
> at any price (here in Washington State is an example), even though the
> RBOC in the same area does.

Both are also true in Illinois.  GTE here doesn't offer hunting on
residential lines at any price; Ameritech lets you have it for free.

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 10:15:18 CDT
From: David Devereaux-Weber <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: David Devereaux-Weber <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router?


Most routers _are_ UNIX computers.  However, the routing software
within them is not trivial.

The purpose of requiring a router is to prevent traffic from going to
or coming from the outside network.  A router looks at each packet,
examining the protocol and destination.  Only packets whose protocols
and addresses are OK are forwarded.  This reduces unnecessary traffic
from the Internet to your network, and from your network to the
Internet.

Despite the cost of a router, you will be better off in the long run
to buy it.  Further, using a commercial router will reassure your
Internet provider -- they may even require it.

However, on lines slower than T1, many network implementors are using
lower cost bridges from companies like Combinet instead of routers.

Internet access can be provided on a 56 KBPS line, but that is slow.
ISDN is better, T1 is better than that, and so on.  It depends on how
may schools and computers you intend to connect, how many users will
be using the network, and how much the schools can afford.

Explore any benefits which may acrue to you because of your status as
an educational institution.  Is Ameritech your local telephone
provider?  They may be willing to set up a pilot ISDN project.  They
may be offering fiber to the schools as a deregulatory incentive to
state legislators.

If a router will be required, give several vendors a call.  They may
be able to give you some pointers to foundations who may be able to
help out.

Who is your local cable television provider?  You might want to
explore connectivity through them.  Who are you thinking of using for
your provider?  Are they local to Terre Haute?  If so, a cable
television connection may be feasible.


David Devereaux-Weber, P.E.             [e-mail] (Internet)
The University of Wisconsin - Madison   [phone] (voice)
Division of Information Technology      [phone] (FAX)
Network Engineering

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

From: [e-mail] (Lars Poulsen)
Subject: Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router?
Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK
Date: Thu, 26 May 94 11:35:48 GMT


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

> can a computer (ie Unix) function as an Internet router,

Certain UNIX systems include enough routing code that they can be
configured as routers. In general, however, this requires you to
install add-on hardware and software to drive multiple line interfaces.

This complicates both the network setup and the system management of
the unix system. In particular, I suspect that since you are
emphasizing your lack of money, the UNIX system in question is a
PC-based unix system, for which you do not have source code for the
system itself.

> or must we buy one of these routers like CISCO or WellFleet?
> If so, what's the *cheapest* router available?

Routers come in all sizes and price classes, depending on what you
want to connect to. One of the least expensive is the Rockwell
NetHopper, which is designed to connect a local area network to the
Internet over a dial-up modem connection. Including the built-in
V.32bis/V.42bis modem, the list price is $1695.

> Can a Unix box connect to a digital comm line (56k)?

Starting in August, we will be shipping a version of the NetHopper
with a synchronous line interface. This can be connected to either a
leased DDS-56 line, a switched-56 line, or an ISDN BRI line running at
up to 112 Kbps. I don't think pricing has been set yet.

These units can also be used to connect two LANs at different
locations using either Internet Protocol or Novell IPX or both.

Where the other options that you have mentioned require significant
investment in learning how to set them up, the NetHopper is very
simple to install and configure. The initial configuration asks you a
few simple questions (name of this box, management password, IP
address, remote IP address, remote phone number, and the like) and
leaves you with a working system, which you can then tune if you want
to.

Before I get accused of too blatant advertising, I hasten to mention
that there are other, similar products. The May 31 issue of {PC Magazine}
 has a comparative test of several routers in this class.

Claimer: I am one of the engineers working on the NetHopper products.

Lars Poulsen            Internet E-mail: [e-mail]
Rockwell Network Systems    Internets: designed and built while you wait
Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B            Phone: (011-) [phone]
DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK    Telefax:      [phone]

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 10:38 EST
From: Hugh Pritchard <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Call Return


I used Call Return once.  It didn't quite work as advertised.

I was at home, and just missed a call which I was sure had been from
my wife at work.  Instead of using our speed-dial, I chose to dial
*69, Call Return.  I reached the firm in the basement of her building!
The building's owner has his own offices in the basement, and
apparently Call Return saw the "main" number for the building -- even
though each firm in that three-level building has its own phone system
(not quite -- there's an intercom capability between floors, possibly
meaning a single PBX for the entire building).

I re-placed the call, using the speed-dial.  The original call I'd
missed had indeed been from my wife at work; moreover, she was annoyed
that I'd "wasted" 75 cents trying Call Return.


Hugh Pritchard, [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Guy Blair)
Subject: Re: Microsoft Telephony API
Date: 25 May 1994 23:57:48 GMT
Organization: Intel Corporation


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Marco
A. Pinones) writes:

> I would like to know if there is any advance on Microsoft efforts to
> provide a "standard" programming interface for PBXs and telephony
> services.  I sent mail to people at Ericcsson about this and they told
> me they are working on it.  Does somebody know if other companies are
> working on it?

Marco,

THere are over 40 vendors developing Service Providers for the
Telephony API (TAPI) developed by Intel and Microsoft.  There is a
list of companies in in a Technical Note included with the TAPI SDK
you can get (free of charge) off CompuServe (GO WINEXT) or via
anonymous ftp from ftp.microsoft.com \devtools\tapi.  The list
includes products, estimated release dates and contact names/phone
numbers/email addresses.

Service providers from PBX vendors, analog add-in board vendors,
isoethernet, switch to host link, client server, ISDN, etc. have been
announced and demonstrated this year. If you have specific questions,
either post them on GO WINEXT or send to [e-mail].  I
can try to help you as well.


Regards,

Guy Blair   Intel Architecture Labs

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 10:19:29 -0500
From: don newcomb <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Internet Access from the Solomon Islands?
Organization: Naval Oceanographic Office


In article <[e-mail]> TELECOM Digest Editor notes:

> In response to your side note, I certainly hope your comments were not
> driven by any cannibalphobic attitudes on your part. If the Solomon Islands
> do join the Internet and get a news feed, will someone issue a Call For
> Votes on a newsgroup devoted to cannibalism? I wonder where such a news-
> group would go in the Usenet hierarchy?  Probably under rec.food.cannibalism.

Pat, how dare you?! Don't you know it's not called "cannibalism" any
more; that is a term of oppression! The Politically Correct term is
"human recycling."  Have a nice day.


Donald R. Newcomb              * [e-mail]
Naval Oceanographic Office     * [e-mail]
Stennis Space Center, MS 39522 * Voice: [phone]
FAX: [phone]            * DSN: 485-5998


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You have a nice day also, and thank you
for sharing.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Nathan N. Duehr)
Subject: Re: How Can I Ring Up Myself?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 10:21:50 GMT


Joseph Herl ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Our family is moving to a new house next week, and we will have the
> same telephone number at both places for several days.  How can I call
> between them?

Pat replied with information regarding how to ring back a phone in the
Illinois area.  For the the information of others on the net, in the
Denver, Colorado area use the same technique described by Pat except
with a 99x prefix and do not dial a 1 before the prefix.

I live in the North Glenn/Westminster area and 996 works here.

It appears that it works in exactly the way as Pat described his to
work.


Regards,

Nate Duehr   [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 6:07:50 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: 57x in Old Area 312


In old area 312, I found all 57x in use and all of them moving to 708.
And you mention 1-57x (with that leading 1)?


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, in the old, old, old days of
312, it was just 571, get new dial tone, click, get high pitched tone,
dial 6, hang up, get ringback, go off hook, end ring back. Needless to
say, we had no 312-571 exchange in those days. No matter what your number
was, that did it.

In the more recent 'old 312' times, even though we had a 312-571 prefix,
doing it as 1-571 (and as per above) worked. Then finally it changed to
the present scheme where it became 1-57x-last four, etc.

Another excursion into weird numbers here are the 'prefix-1-prefix' num-
bers. I don't know if those are around in other than Illinois Bell terri-
tory or not. For example, 708-329-1329 or 708-677-1677; and there are
lots more. After the area code (312 or 708) dial the prefix, then a one,
and the prefix again. Quite a few respond with a high-pitched tone, and
others respond with a rapid busy or reorder tone. All the old 9954/9955
loop-arounds are dead though; they were all killed after that scandal
several years ago.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (FCC World)
Subject: Announcing New FCC BBS - FCC World
Date: 26 May 1994 17:57:39 GMT
Organization: Capital Area Internet Service


The Washington, DC telecommunications law firm of Smithwick &
Belendiuk proudly announces the launch of a new BBS -- FCC WORLD --
featuring information on the Federal Communications Commission.  We
feature FCC documents on-line (many you cannot find on Internet),
texts of important FCC Reports and decisions (IVDS, PCS Auction info --
on-line now!), Forums on hot FCC issues, free Classified ads and more!
The best thing -- its free and without a daily time limit.  Give it a
try at 202-887-5718 (14.4 baud)!


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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #254
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #255

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 26 May 94 14:55:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 255

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Caller ID With Serial Port (John Harris)
    VIVE Caller ID Device Problems (Evan Gamblin)
    Even More on VIVE Caller ID Box (Dan Lanciani)
    Need Distinctive Ring Line Splitter (Al Cohan)
    Re: Replace POST-MAIL by FAX (Timothy L. Kay)
    Re: What Kind of Capacity is in VBI? (Robert Berger)
    Re: "Erlang" the Programming Language (Steven King)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
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organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 17:43 WET
From: [e-mail] (John Harris)
Subject: Re: Caller ID With Serial Port


[e-mail] wrote:

> [e-mail] (John Harris) wrote:

>> Try contacting  Vive Synergies Inc.,
>>                 30 West Beaver Creek Road, Unit 2,
>>                 Richmond Hill, Ontario  L4B 3K1
>>                 [phone]   Fax [phone]

>> This manufacturer advertises in the local paper as having a "CALL
>> EDITOR II" for $199.00

> Beware of this device.  The design is seriously flawed and Vive isn't
> interested in fixing it.  Here is something I wrote about it a while
> back when I (foolishly) bought one from HAL.  (HAL sells Vive's Call
> Editor II, obviously ...)

> The HAL box also has a fairly severe bug.  When a call comes in, you
> see a lot of garbage characters on the RS-232 interface before the
> actual CNID string.  Worse, what you are seeing is the box's echo
> of garbage characters that it thinks came in over the RS-232
> interface.

/* text deleted */

> The third person said that it is the fault of the CNID chip that they
> use and cannot be fixed.  He insisted that all I needed to do was
> write a ``software filter'' to ignore the garbage.  He did not seem to
> understand that their command interpreter was seeing the garbage and
> could generate spurious dial commands (or who knows what else).  He
> also said that this isn't a problem with telephones in Canada (where
> they are).

It's true.  In Bell Canada territory, we are almost exclusively DMS-100
switches; and there are fewer problems than elsewhere.

I thought I recognized a problem typical of the GTD-5 switch with a
Motorola MC145447 Caller ID chip.  So I forwarded Dan's comments to
VIVE Synergies.

>             An ``engineer'' is supposed to get back to me sometime so I
> can tell him how to fix the firmware...

> (Needless to say, the engineer never called back.)

I will concede to Dan that some companies are hard to get hold of; but
having Carl's extension number makes a big difference.

The following comes from VIVE.  For point number 3, I confess.  It was
I that didn't read the ad close enough to see that software was included,
too.


John Harris      BEL-Tronics Ltd, 2422 Dunwin Drive
                       Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1J9
[e-mail]  [phone]  Fax [phone]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The letter from John Harris included a
reply from VIVE, but that letter was also forwarded directly to me by
Evan Gamblin ... so I have deleted it here and present it as a stand-
alone message on its own immediatly following this one.   PAT]

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

Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 22:20:59 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Evan Gamblin)
Subject: VIVE Caller ID Device Problems


In an earlier message, Dan Lanciani (ddl@harvard.*) wrote:

>> Try contacting  Vive Synergies Inc.,
>>                 30 West Beaver Creek Road, Unit 2,
>>                 Richmond Hill, Ontario  L4B 3K1
>>                 [phone]   Fax [phone]

In the interests of getting Dan an answer, and maybe getting this
fixed, I forwarded the above to Vive (with whom I have no other
connection).  The president, Carl K.S. Too, replies as follows:

1. Call Editor II is a product that we supply:

i.   as part of a package consisting of Call Editor II + WindowsHinge, an
     interfacing software for use with all Windows applications in general
     and with ACT! For Windows in particular,
ii.  as part of a package consisting of Call Editor II + VIVE Vision,
     contact management software running under DOS and published by us, or
iii. as a hardware component with Caller ID capability for bundling with
     specific applications software (as in the case of HAL).

We supplied Call Editor II to Home Automation Laboratories (HAL) for use
with its Dynasty software.

2.  The Caller ID decoder used in Call Editor made by Sierra has some
inherent limitation in that it does not lend itself to noise filtering
to eliminate the noises that occur on the telephone line.  As such we
have to implement noise-filtering function in the software for use
with Call Editor II. Both WindowsHinge and VIVE Vision have such noise
filters implemented in the software. I believe Dynasty software has it
as well.

Dan Lanciani should have been advised of the limitation of use. In any
event HAL should not have offered Call Editor II for sale to people
who are not prepared or who do not have the knowledge to develop the
noise-filtering programs in their application software.

3. It was wrongly quoted in the previous message that "this mfr
advertises in the local paper as having a Call Editor II for $199".
The fact is Call Editor II + WindowsHinge as a package is offered at
C$199 in Canada and at US$149 in USA.

4. Dan Lanciani is only partially correct in his surmise about the
circuit design of Call Editor II. While we do not wish to discuss
details of our design, we would comment that the suggestion detailed
by Dan Lanciani for improvement to the hardware firmware is a valid
one, but our engineers believed that such modification would not be
sufficient to overcome the inherent weakness of the Caller ID decoder
used, with repect to the noises and the resultant stray characters. An
engineer would have contacted Dan Lanciani to discuss the technical
aspects of the proposed modifications with him if not for the fact
that unfortunately the telephone number given by Dan Lanciani was
inadvertently misplaced and lost.

However, readers should know that Dan Lanciani's experience with Call
Editor II is at least 6 months old. In our industry 6 months is a long
time. We have made many improvements to the product and have
introduced some other products for Caller ID applications in this
period.

Dan Lanciani is invited to call me to discuss our current products or
provide us with his mailing address so that we may mail him current
product information on our Caller ID products, including a multi-line
adaptor known as Concentrator (for use with multiple telephone lines
in a LAN environment) and a recent release known as TeleServer.


5. Call Editor II works very well with WindowsHinge and VIVE Vision as
they are designed to do.

6. Readers may be interested to know that we make another product
known as Call Editor RSA which uses a different Caller ID decoder that
enables it to output decoded data without "garbage" characters.
However, unlike Call Editor II it is not capable of standalone
operation, and must be used with a computer.

Dan Lanciani is advised to use Call Editor RSA for his application
instead of Call Editor II. With Call Editor RSA, he would not have to
worry about any noise interference.

Call Editor RSA + WindowsHinge as a package is being offered at
C$119.99 in Canada and at US$89.99 in USA. Call Editor RSA (as a
separate unit) is offered at US$80 in USA and C$100 in Canada.


Carl K.S. Too
President
VIVE Synergies Inc. 30 West Beaver Creek Rd, Unit 2, Richmond Hill, Ont
L4B 3K1. Tel [phone], ext 11. Fax: [phone]

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

Evan Gamblin   The Halifax Group
903-275 Sparks St  Ottawa, Ont K1R 7X9 Canada


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In the next message in this issue, Dan
gives his response to the comments by Carl Too.   PAT]

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

Date: Wed, 25 May 94 20:22:18 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Dan Lanciani)
Subject: Even More on VIVE CNID Box


I'm sorry, but I can't let this pass without further comment:

 From [e-mail] Wed May 25 17:43:56 1994

> [e-mail] wrote:

>> [e-mail] (John Harris) wrote:

>>> Try contacting  Vive Synergies Inc.,
>>>                 30 West Beaver Creek Road, Unit 2,
>>>                 Richmond Hill, Ontario  L4B 3K1
>>>                 [phone]   Fax [phone]

>>> This manufacturer advertises in the local paper as having a "CALL
>>> EDITOR II" for $199.00

>> Beware of this device.  The design is seriously flawed and Vive isn't
>> interested in fixing it.  Here is something I wrote about it a while
>> back when I (foolishly) bought one from HAL.  (HAL sells Vive's Call
>> Editor II, obviously ...)

>> The HAL box also has a fairly severe bug.  When a call comes in, you
>> see a lot of garbage characters on the RS-232 interface before the
>> actual CNID string.  Worse, what you are seeing is the box's echo
>> of garbage characters that it thinks came in over the RS-232
>> interface.

[my original technical description deleted]

Let me try once more to describe the problem.  I think maybe it's
so simple that some people are missing the forest for the trees
looking for a more subtle/complicated interpretation.

The device in question connects to the phone line and to an RS-232
serial interface.  The RS-232 interface presents a very simple command
interpreter "shell" to the user.  There are a few commands that the
user can type at this shell, including a Dial and a List command.

The microcontroller within the device has a single, built-in,
bi-directional serial port.  The output side of this port is routed
directly to the RS-232 interface.  The input side of this port is
switched between the RS-232 interface and a caller ID chip's serial
output.  In other words, some of the time the microcontroller is
receiving user keystrokes and sometimes it is receiving the output of
the caller ID chip -- all through a single serial port.  The
microcontroller uses one of its parallel output bits to switch between
the two uses of the serial port.  Most of the time the port is
connected to the RS-232 interface.  However, when a call is detected,
the port is switched to the caller ID chip.

The problem is that the microcontroller takes some bytes from the
caller ID chip as "shell" input.  That is, it thinks the user typed
these bytes at the RS-232 interface.  This may be caused by a failure
to clear the serial buffers after switching usage or perhaps by
setting usage flags at the wrong time.  The net result is that the
simple "shell" believes that the user (or program) has sent it these
bytes as commands.  Being an interactive ``shell,'' it echos the
garbage bytes back out the RS-232 interface AND ACTS ON THEM.  In just
a few minutes of trials I saw the box generate several unknown-command
messages when the garbage bytes managed to include a return character.
It is just a matter of time until the bytes include a "D" and a
return ... all the "filter" software in the world isn't going to
prevent this since it happens entirely within the unit.

If anybody is interested in examining the device, I'd be happy to make
mine available for loan.  (It certainly isn't going to be connected to
my phone line. :) Just cover the postage.  I suggest this might be a
good idea for anyone considering purchase.

[...]

> It's true.  In Bell Canada territory, we are almost exclusively DMS-100
> switches; and there are fewer problems than elsewhere.

This is not a switch problem.

> I thought I recognized a problem typical of the GTD-5 switch with a
> Motorola MC145447 Caller ID chip.  So I forwarded Dan's comments to
> VIVE Synergies.

I don't see how you could have concluded this from my comments.  The
problem is not with the caller ID chip.  It is with the incorrect
manipulation of the microcontroller's serial port.  Please re-read my
original explanation or the new one above.

[...]

> The following comes from VIVE.  For point number 3, I confess.  It was
> I that didn't read the ad close enough to see that software was included,
> too.

> Response to Dan Lanciani's statements (surmises) on Call Editor II

[Comments following are from Too's response]

> 2. The Caller ID decoder used in Call Editor made by Sierra, has
> some inherent limitation in that it does not lend itself to noise
> filtering to eliminate the noises that occur on the telephone
> line.As such we have to implement noise-filtering function in the
> software for use with Call Editor II. Both WindowsHinge and VIVE
> Vision have such noise filters implemented in the softwares. I
> believe Dynasty software has it as well.

This is obfuscation.  You are confusing the interface of the caller id
chip (which is a component of your product) with the external
interface of the product itself.  You have a microcontroller in
between these two interfaces.

> Dan Lanciani should have been advised of the limitation of use.

Indeed.  The limitation is that it cannot be used reliably.

> In any event HAL should not have offered for Call Editor II for sale
> to people who are not prepared or do not have the knowledge to develop
> the noise-filtering programs in their application software.

This is more obfuscation combined with an almost-clever insult.  No
"noise-filtering programs" will help since the "noise" is being seen
and processed by the command interpreter of the product before it ever
gets to the external interface!

> 4.  Dan Lanciani is only partially correct in his surmise about the
> circuit design of Call Editor II.

Enlighten us!  As I mentioned, my analysis was based on only a few
minutes with a logic probe, and some of the ICs have their part
numbers obscured.  Still, it's hard to hide the functioning of such a
simple circuit.  A few years ago I would have fixed the firmware
myself just for an exercise.  Now, time has become too valuable.
Besides, there are plenty of competitive solutions that work out of
the box.

> While we do not wish to discuss details of our design,

If it were my design, I'd be embarrassed to discuss the details too.

> we would comment that the suggestion detailed by Dan Lanciani for
> improvement to the hardware firmware is a valid one but our engineers
> believed that such modification would not be sufficient to overcome
> the inherent weakness of the Caller ID decoder used with respect to
> the noises and the resultant stray characters.

Sorry, wrong answer.  The problem isn't with the caller ID decoder
chip.  It's how you use it.  Regardless of what "noise" the chip puts
out on its serial line, there is simply no excuse for sending those
bytes into your command interpreter.  You _know_ when the serial input
of the microcontroller is switched to the caller ID chip.  You should
not be treating caller-ID-chip-generated bytes (be they garbage or
valid characters) as user keyboard input.

> An engineer would have contacted Dan Lanciani to discuss the
> technical aspects of the proposed modifications with him if not for
> the fact that, unfortunately, the telephone number given by Dan
> Lanciani for contact was inadvertently misplaced and lost.

No comment.

> However, the readers should know that Dan Lanciani's experience
> with Call Editor II is at least 6 months old. In our industry 6
> months is a long time. We have made many improvements to the product ...

So, exactly what changes have you made and do they fix the problem?
Are you sending out firmware updates?  If, as you say above, you
didn't implement my suggestions, then how did you improve the situation?

> and have introduced some other products for Caller ID applications in
> this period.

[remainder of advertisement deleted]

> 5. Call Editor II works very well with WindowsHinge and VIVE Vision
> as they are designed to do.

I truly look forward to the day when just the right combination of
"noise" has one of these units repeatedly generating hang-up calls to
a nice, litigious subscriber. :) Seriously, though, it's devices like
this that contribute to the growing problem of "flakey" systems.  They
work a lot of the time and we are expected to simply tolerate the
glitches as long as nothing too bad happens.  We build bigger systems
around them and then try to patch the problems with "filters" (otherwise
known as quick hacks).  Eventually, circumstances conspire to make the
whole fail in an unpleasant way.  Then we start talking about software
engineering and project management and ...  (Well, this is turning into
a RISKS posting.)

> Dan Lanciani is advised to use Call Editor RSA for his application
> instead of Call Editor II. With Call Editor RSA,  he would not have
> to worry about any noise interference.

Gee, thanks, but no thanks.  I'm perfectly happy with the simple,
direct caller ID<->RS232 interface I'm now using.  It generates plenty
of garbage characters, but it doesn't have a microcontroller trying to
act on them to dial my phone.  In any case, I think this answers my
question about whether the Call Editor II was fixed ...

> Carl K.S. Teo
> President,VIVE Synergies Inc., 30 West Beaver Creek Road, Unit 2,
> Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 3K1.
> Tel:  [phone] Ext.11,  Fax: [phone]

[address left for reference]


Dan Lanciani    ddl@harvard.*

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 12:32 EST
From: Al Cohan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Need Distinctive Ring Line Splitter


I purchased a device from Lynx Automation, Inc. in Washington State
and the device is purported to sense the incoming ring cadence an
forward the call to either a phone system or fax. This unit is
available in two and four line versions corresponding to the four
distinct industry standard cadences available.

We now come to find out that the company says "Oh, it sometimes
doesn't work with 1A2 and some PBX's. It seems to work okay with the
newer electronic key systems". Well I am steamed! MY client is not
about to upgrade to a new system nor pay the $100 installation charge
for a residential line plus about $26.00 per month for low fax usage.

The select-a-ring option only cost $9 to install and $4 - $5 per month
for the second number on the line.

Now, what do I do? My client thinks I'm a damn fool and don't know
what I'm doing -- and isn't about to get a separate fax line.

Does anyone on the net know of another company or companies that
manufacture a ring decoder that actually *works*?


Thanks in advance,

Al Cohan

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

From: [e-mail] (Timothy L. Kay)
Subject: Re: Replace POST-MAIL by FAX
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 18:30:27 GMT


Herb Effron ([e-mail]) wrote:

> I have never had a fax machine. Instead, I use a 14.4 fax modem (which is

>  New way #1:
> I now send a "Quick Fax" -- when I want to ask a brief question or
> New way #2:
> I now send _only_ fax correspondence (in place of 'paper') whenever

I agree that the concept of using a fax modem to handle my correspondences
seems a good idea.  Unfortunately, I find that technology is letting me down.
Unlike Herb, I am trapped in the world of Microsoft Windows, and I have been
unable make fax software work reliably.  I have tried Delrina (the market
leader) Winfax Pro 3.0 and 4.0 and Sofnet Faxworks Pro 3.0. None of these
packages will reliably receive faxes.  Winfax Pro 3.0 was by far the
best, but it has a very poor user interface.  The other two packages
are quite unreliable at receiving faxes.  And the upgrade to Winfax
4.0 disables version 3.0.  I'm finally so disgusted that I now leave
my old, dusty, curly-paper fax machine turned on to receive faxes.

Details: I am using a Supra Fax Modem V.32bis which is on the approved
list from both Delrina and Sofnet.  I upgraded to Supra's latest ROM
to make sure that the modem wasn't at fault.  My testing consists of
trying to receive a fax-back catalog from various companies.  The
testing is repeatable, and invariably fails with Winfax Pro 4.0.  It
is slightly less unreliable with Faxworks Pro 3.0 but still fails
frequently.  As I said, I can no longer test Winfax Pro 3.0.  My dusty
fax machine has no trouble receving any faxes.

I tried faxing a question to Delrina.  My note was very explicit, and
mentioned all relevant information.  I received back from them a fax
stating that, if I am to receive help from them via fax, then I must
fill out the attached form.  They then also included a ten page
document of troubleshooting tips which was completely inappropriate
for the problems I was experiencing.  To make matters worse, they had
problems sending the fax to me and kept trying, so I ended up with
about 50 pages of curly paper.  I have as yet been unable to get an
answer from Delrina.

For those of you familiar with the software, I will also mention that
I have applied the latest Winfax Pro 4.0 patches from Delrina.  Their
patch program took an hour to run!  And it didn't fix any problems.

D E L R I N A, are you out there??  All indications are that you have
many unhappy (want-to-be) users out here.

And I know it isn't my modem.  I talked to another user of Winfax Pro
4.0 who has a completely different modem, and he was having identical
problems.  We had to revert from the nifty concept of computer-to-computer-
communications-via-fax-modems to the (relatively) old-fashioned paper-to-
paper-via-fax-machines.

As for the matter of sending faxes, all of the programs work flawlessly.
And I paste a scanned signature, and nobody ever complain. Personally, I
would never accept a faxed signature, but that is a different matter.


Tim

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Berger)
Subject: Re: What Kind of Capacity is in VBI?
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 19:07:57 GMT


> A question I have is, for a U.S. signal, which I believe the Vertical
> Blanking Interval also exists, how much capacity is available on a
> single TV channel and at what speed can the data be sent? Is this
> related to closed captioning?  If not, what type equipment is needed
> to decode VBI data and what kind of costs are involved to build it?

The WST standard for NTSC puts 32 bytes on a VBI line. These lines are
per field, so with one VBI line you get:

    32 bytes x 8 bits/byte * 60 fields/second = 15 kbps

If you use all 10 available data VBI lines, you can get 150 kbps.

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven King)
Subject: Re: "Erlang" the Programming Language
Date: 26 May 1994 19:13:52 GMT
Organization: Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group
Reply-To: [e-mail]


[e-mail] publicly declared:

> Does anyone have any information on a programming language called
> "Erlang"?

Minutes after sending this inquiry I remembered that we have a very
nice technical library just upstairs from me.  In the immortal words
of Homer Simpson, "Doh!"

In any case, our library had the book.  In there I found contact
information for the authors.  One of the authors responded to my query
with a pointer to their ftp site.  Now I have *tons* of information on
the language, as well as a compiler for MS-DOS.  (Would have prefered
a Unix version, but hey ...)  Thanks to everyone else who responded to
me as well!

The email contact is [e-mail]; the ftp location is
euagate.eua.ericsson.se (directory /pub/eua/erlang).  Here's the short
blurb I pulled from the site.  I'll let interested parties grab the
rest of the docs (mostly PostScript) themselves.

    Erlang - "Concurrent Programming in Erlang", J. Armstrong,
    M. Williams & R. Virding, P-H 1993.

        Classification:  Concurrent functional programming language
    for large industrial real-time systems. Untyped.  Pattern matching
    syntax.  Recursion equations.  Explicit concurrency, asynchronous
    message passing.  Relatively free from side effects.  Transparent
    cross-platform distribution.  Primitives for detecting run-time
    errors.  Real-time GC.  Modules.  Dynamic code replacement (change
    code in running real-time system, without stopping system).  Foreign
    language interface.

        Availability:  Free version (subject to non-commercial licence)
    with no support.  Commercial versions with support are available
    (Erlang Systems AB).

The language looks very interesting to me.  I'd still like to hear from
people who have direct experience with it.


Steven King <[e-mail]> -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #255
******************************


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Date: Fri, 27 May 94 02:22:03 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #256

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 27 May 94 02:22:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 256

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Book Review: "NetWare for Dummies" by Tittel (Rob Slade)
    Need Information on "Microcel" Technology/Products/Company (Jeff Miller)
    Lower Domestic Telephone Rates (National Information Systems)
    Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted (Steve Chafe)
    DTMF Decoding via SoundBlaster Card? (Eric L. Hinson)
    Two Line/LED 'In Use' Mod (Eric L. Hinson)
    NYNEX Announces Mandatory 1+NPA (Stan Schwartz)
    Reverse Directory FAQ Wanted (Lloyd Matthews)
    Un*x Based SS7 Decoders (Mark Gallion)
    NH E911 (was Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns) (Paul S. Sawyer)
    Name and Address -> Long Distance Companies (Jonathan Loo)
    FCC World BBS Now Distributes TELECOM Digest (TELECOM Digest Editor)
    National BBS Numbers Available (David Smith)
    Re: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts (Paul Lee)
    Re: Internet Access at Home? (Dave Mausner)
    Re: Internet Access at Home? (K. M. Peterson)
    Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns (Carl Moore)
    Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns (Jonathan)
    What Did You Have For Dinner Today? (was Re: Solomon Islands) (Carl Moore)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
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information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
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* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 13:23:48 MDT
From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "NetWare for Dummies" by Tittel


BKNTWDUM.RVW  940208

IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.
155 Bovet Road, Suite 310
San Mateo, CA  94402

"Netware for Dummies", Tittel, 1993, 1-56884-003-9, U$19.95/C$26.95

Dummies are not supposed to run networks.

This was probably not a terribly good concept.  A computer network is
a complicated object.  There are many factors to consider in planning,
building and running a network.  Given the complexity, the topic is
not a good candidate for an easy reading manual.  In addition, the
network operating system chosen is Novell NetWare, which is not only
complex in terms of the feature set, but also in terms of incompatible
versions.

The "... For Dummies" breezy and light-minded style does not suit the
topic.  Too many topics are opened simply to be discarded when the
going gets tough.  An example is security rights, one of the areas
that many administrators have problems with.  Combinations of
attribute rights, trustee rights, and rights masks contribute to
effective rights.  All of the various rights and attributes are
mentioned, but no formula is given for calculating effective rights
and there is only a single example.

The content is presented in an organized and amusing manner.  If you
are faced with getting up a Novell network and are terrified of the
prospect, you may find this easier to read through than the NetWare
documentation.  It will also help you consider some aspects, such as
cabling (although there is not much detail here, either).  This may,
therefore be a helpful starting guide -- but no more.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKNTWDUM.RVW  940208. Distribution is
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.


Vancouver      [e-mail]
Institute for  [e-mail]
Research into  [e-mail]
User           [e-mail]
Security       Canada V7K 2G6

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 17:26:09 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Jeff Miller)
Subject: Need Information on "Microcel" Technology/Products/Company


Hi, a surplus dealer friend of mine has stumbled onto some "Microcel"
equipment and I'd like to know if it would be usefull to me. If it
simply can be used as a decent cordless phone I'd be happy!

The system consists of three rechargeable handsets that seem at least
as fancy as the typical cellular phone, an ~15 pound "control unit"
and another plastic unit which I would guess is an antenna/receiver
unit. The control and "antenna" are joined by an ~25 conductor DIN
cable. A photocopy stuffed in with the antenna indicates minimum
clearance figures.

A quick glance at the owner's manual for the handset (the only manual
available) indicates the handsets can intercom to each other and what
not.  A modular cord is boxed with the control unit, so I guess you
can plug it into a standard telephone outlet. With luck it has modest
PBX funtionality, too.

Pawing over the system, I remembered a press release I read about a
year ago about a "new" type of cellular phone with 1/4 mile radius
blah blah blah ... I wonder if this system might be related.

This surplus dealer friend suggested the system might not work out of
the box, that the phones might somehow be (hmmm, what's the phrase?)
node locked or some such. I myself wondered if the whole affair might
have been a test-bed or demo system and might not have proper FCC
approval at this point.

So I am looking for any hints or information on this system. If you
are familiar with these systems, deos it sound complete? Will it work
out of the box, and is it feasible for me to get it working without
any technical docs?  What is its status in the eyes of the FCC?

I'm suspicious of the whole thing because I've never heard of anything
quite like it being generally available. But it sure deos seem cool
and I can probably get it cheap so I'd like to know.

The only model number I gleaned from the system was "2400".

I'd be glad for any information via e-mail. Thanks!


[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (National Information Systems)
Subject: Lower Domestic Telephone Rates
Organization: NIS, San Jose CA
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 21:44:02 GMT


Does anyone know of a company that shops for low telephone rates for
you?

For the last five years, we've changed phone companies every year.
Each time we sign up for low rates in one area we're calling to but
the other areas are very expensive.

We use the telephones for tele-sales and heavy outgoing FAXes.  I've
heard there are small, independent telephone consultants that can mix
and match the best rates into a coherent package deal.  We're looking
for something customized to us.

Has anyone ever heard of this?

Please respond in this group -- don't email me, ok?


dave   ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Chafe)
Subject: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted
Organization: Information Resources, UC Davis
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 21:58:45 GMT


Hello,

Does anyone know what the average speed (in characters per minute, or
whatever is appropriate) of a professional telegrapher would have been
when wire telegraphy was the main mode of electronic communication?
I'm trying to do a comparison of data communication speed then and
now, so I'd love to hear any thoughts that people can offer.


Thanks,

Steve Chafe     [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Eric L. Hinson)
Subject: DTMF Decoding via SoundBlaster Card?
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 20:42:47 MDT


I would like to be able to call up my computer from a remote phone,
dial in a code and then have the system transfer me to various places.
For this I would need a line controlling device of some sort (could
just use a modem) and a way to link the SoundBlaster to the phone
line.  Any information/suggestions on this will be greatly
appreciated.


Eric L. Hinson (kb4rzf) / 'finger -l [e-mail]' for PGP Public Key
Internet: [e-mail]  (finger this address for more info about me)
Snail Mail: 69 Sanford St, St. Augustine, FL 32084 USA / Phone: [phone]
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above may not be those of the sys admin(s)

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

From: [e-mail] (Eric L. Hinson)
Subject: Two Line/LED 'In Use' Mod?
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 20:51:07 MDT


I have an old Western Electric desk phone that I would like to modify
for two-line use.  If possible I would like to have the ability to
determine which lines are in use before picking up the phone.  Does
such a modification exist already?  If so, how is it done?


Thanks,

Eric L. Hinson (kb4rzf) / 'finger -l [e-mail]' for PGP Public Key
Internet: [e-mail]  (finger this address for more info about me)
Snail Mail: 69 Sanford St, St. Augustine, FL 32084 USA / Phone: [phone]
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above may not be those of the sys admin(s)

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

From: [e-mail] (Stan Schwartz)
Subject: NYNEX Announces Mandatory 1+NPA
Date: 27 May 1994 00:54:32 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


NYNEX announced yesterday that they will close the last gap and make
1+NPA dialing mandatory for inter-NPA calls from the 516 and 914 area
codes, effective 9/24/94.  Until now (as far as 516 was concerned), we
were able to use the old-style ten-digit dialing method.

In related news, the new Suffolk County (516) phone book instructs
callers to dial 0+516+XXX+XXXX for INTRA-NPA operator-assisted/calling
card calls.  I assume this will also be mandatory on 9/24/94.


Stan

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

From: [e-mail] (Lloyd Matthews)
Subject: Reverse Directory FAQ Wanted
Date: 26 May 1994 21:21:57 GMT
Organization: TTC - ESL, Inc.


Is there a Reverse Directory FAQ available? From the comments in the
Digest, it seems that a Reverse Directory with consistently up-to-date
telco databases would be welcomed. I am new to commercial telecom
applications, and have found this group fascinating and educational. I
would welcome any information that would help me put one together.
(And also whether I could actually make any money operating one!)

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

From: bellcore!iscp.bellcore.com![e-mail] (Mark Gallion)
Subject: Un*x Based SS7 Decoders?
Organization: Bellcore
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 19:23:08 GMT


Does anyone know of any Un*x based software that might convert binary
SS7 data to a "pretty print" format.

I'm trying to find something that isn't unlike a protocol analyzer,
but would just format and display the binary data that I already have
access to and not be a separate hardware device.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Mark S. Gallion    Bell Communications Research
Piscataway, NJ     [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul S. Sawyer)
Subject: NH E911 (was Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns)
Date: 26 May 1994 20:13:05 GMT
Organization: UNH Telecommunications and Network Services


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail].
edu (Rob Levandowski) writes:

> [article about child drowning because parents dialed '911' in an area
> with no '911' service deleted]

> In any case, I'm sure the following bit of information is as true in
> other rural non-911 areas as it is in Cheshire County: If you can't
> get through to 911, you should try dialing 0 for the operator. The
> operator can connect you more quickly than it would take you to look
> up the number in a phone book or try to dredge it out of memory when
> you're in a panic.

Most N.H. towns, especially the non-911 ones, have nice fluorescent
stickers which they hand out so that the number can be handy on each
of your phones.  A few years ago, my town, on the other side of the
state, had six or seven numbers on that sticker under "to report a
fire ..."  These were the home numbers of the volunteer firefighters
which would likely have someone there to answer most of the time.  If
the first one did not answer, just go down the list until someone
answers (or the fire burns itself out ... :-) Of course, we have just
one number (not 911) now, and that is to a 24-hour dispatch center;
and soon,

> The gossip I've heard is that Cheshire County will jump directly to
> Enhanced 911 once all of the local offices install modern switches.
> Since virtually all emergency calls are handled out of the Mutual Aid
> center in Keene as it is, the political-boundaries question Pat
> mentioned is already resolved.

The statewide E911 system is more than gossip.  At this point, it is a
"done deal" with NYNEX, to be up and running mid-1995.  This of course
cuts through the petty bureaucracies by imposing a much larger one and
adds a level of complexety or more.  Your parents, and all the rest of
us are already paying for it through a monthly charge on our phone
bills.

By the way, the center you speak of (S.W.N.H.) has been operating for
many years as a good example of a coordinated regional dispatch
center, thanks in a large part to its first chief/coordinator, Bob
Callahan.


Paul S. Sawyer    - University of New Hampshire CIS -  [e-mail]
Telecommunications and Network Services                VOX: [phone]
50 College Road                                        FAX: [phone]
Durham, New Hampshire  03824-3523

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 20:39:06 -0400
From: Jonathan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Name and Address -> Long Distance Companies


In a recent TELECOM Digest Editor's Note, Pat Townson wrote:

> the rules currently say that local telcos may not withhold
> name and address information from long distance carriers -- even if
> the number is otherwise non-published -- for billing purposes.

This is a security problem.  Customers should be allowed to block the
delivery of their name and address information if they have non-published
telephone numbers or non-listed addresses.  If a customer does this,
then the telephone company should either act as billing agent for the
long distance companies, or billing-block all calls placed through
long-distance companies that the customer doesn't want.  This won't
affect COCOT equal access; users should still be able to place calls
from the COCOT over whatever company that they choose; but the customer
may request a BILLING block for all companies except those designated
by the customer.  This would prevent excessive dissemination of customer
name and address information.

Also, the customer name and address information should be confidential
by law.


Jonathan D. Loo


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Fancy that; customer name and address
information should be confidential by law; I guess under such a law
only criminals would publish, distribute or possess telephone directories.
Jonathan, how do you suppose R.L. Polk, Haines, and the other directory
publishers all did business back in the 1920's? (Yes, they have been
around that long compiling their 'criss-cross' books ...)  They had
dozens of women sitting at the machines of those days each with pages
taken from local telephone books, sitting there keying in the data by
hand. When punch cards became the norm, the same women sat at keypunch
machines and punched cards with the data right off the pages of the
phone book. They'd then take those cards to the IBM machine (was it
a 1401 that sorted cards out to the ten pockets based on the punches
in each column?) and sort them by phone number, then by street number
and name, etc ... off it went to the printer. Until you outlaw phone
books you will not be able to outlaw the dissemination of customer
names and addresses. And there is *already* a law in place which says
long distance companies can use CNA for one purpose, and one purpose
only: billing for calls. Already, they are unable to get the names of
subscribers who are not their customers. Why add another layer?   PAT]

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 18:30:58 CDT
From: TELECOM Digest Editor <[e-mail]>
Subject: FCC World BBS Now Distributes TELECOM Digest


I am pleased to welcome FCC World, a new BBS operating in Washington,
DC to the network of independent systems on which this Digest is
distributed on a regular basis.

Effective in the next few days, each issue of the Digest will be made
available to read or download in a section of the Library files on
FCC World, and our readers in the Washington, DC metro area may find
it more convenient to use this new service than reading through Usenet
and comp.dcom.telecom. The choice of course is yours, and I hope you
will join me in thanking attorney Shaun A. Maher (sysop of FCC World)
for making this option available.

They are also inviting TELECOM Digest readers to open a user account
on the BBS if you want up-to-date news from the Federal Communications
Commission as it occurs.  In addition to the email address '[e-mail]'
you can contact these folks as follows:

Shaun A. Maher, Esq.
Smithwick & Belendiuk, P.C.
Sysop of FCC WORLD
Voice - 202-785-2800
Fax - 202-785-2804
BBS - 202-887-5718

The BBS is multi-line, but I am told it has been quite busy in the past
week with new subscribers coming on board, so be patient in trying to
get in.  Thanks again to Shaun Maher for agreeing to make TELECOM Digest
available on a regular basis to the FCC World subscribers.


Patrick Townson

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

From: David Smith <[e-mail]>
Subject: National BBS Numbers
Date: Thu, 26 May 94 23:15:45 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


This is an invitation to join DJSA Bulletin Board.

You can call DJSA BBS in one of two ways. You can either call us
direct at [phone] or you can call your local Tymenet or Telenet
number and connect through Global Access.

DJSA Bulletin Board has been online since April 21, 1989.  We are a
multi-node BBS specializing in SHAREWARE and PUBLIC DOMAIN software.

We publish the National BBS Directory which contains a list of over
2,000 BBS numbers throughout the USA. The directory is released
quarterly in March, June, September and December.

You can gain immediate membership to DJSA BBS by calling our Telephone
Access Billing System (TABS).  TABS will allow you to call our 1-900
numbers from any touch tone telephone, 24 hours per day.  This phone
call is not made with your computer modem, it is made by voice.  A
computer automated voice will ask you to input the number of our BBS.
You enter the following phone number ... <749-6458>.

Have a pen handy so that you can write down the access code that you
are given by the computer automated voice. You need this access code
to gain entry to DJSA BBS.  Then, call DJSA Bulletin Board and enter
the access code when you log in.

You have two choices of subscriptions at DJSA BBS.

You can pay $10.00 for one month of access by calling TABS at
[phone].

You can pay $25.00 for four months of access by calling TABS at
[phone].

The cost of this call will be on your next telephone bill.  Customers
under the age of 18 must get their parents permission before they call
TABS.  TABS is a service of True Media Inc.

If you would like more information,then please call customer service
toll free number at (800) 889-DJSA.

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 23:30:00 CDT
From: Paul A. Lee </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>
Organization: Woolworth Corporation
Subject: Re: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts


In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 250, Steven Bradley <[e-mail].
org> wrote:

> if you are a developer, do NOT use the internal redial option in the
> faxmodem, use the BUSY, VOICE, NO ANSWER result codes to re-dial it using
> the software command to ... allow unlimited and unregulated re-dialing

Indeed, most of the communications software I've encountered uses the
modem result (either numeric code or verbose text string) to determine
the result of a dial attempt. The software can keep track of "BUSY"
results and redial up to a preset number of attempts.

Why, though, would one want to redial upon encountering a "VOICE" or a
"NO ANSWER" result? A "VOICE" result would typically indicate that the
modem's dial attempt has reached either an intercept message or a live
body at the dialed number, indicating that a wrong number is being
dialed (for legitimate purposes, at least). A "NO ANSWER" result on a
valid number typically results from a problem with the modem or fax
machine that should have answered at the other end.

I can understand making numerous redial attempts on a "BUSY"
condition, but what would be the purpose of redialing on a "VOICE" or
"NO ANSWER" result, other than to harass (whether innocently,
ignorantly, or maliciously) the recipient of the call?

And our esteemed and unflappable editor admonishes Mr. Bradley:

> I hope you are the next victim of someone's 'unregulated and
> unlimited redialing' rather than me. And no, I do not think 'it is
> about time we fired the FCC ...'. I think it is time we gave the
> agency even greater enforcement powers in a few instances that I will
> not go into here at this minute.

If I may presume to interpret and amplify Mr. Townson's sentiment:

Much of the basis for the existence of the FCC and most government
regulatory agencies is the trouble and frustration brought about by
careless, thoughtless, malicious, or brazenly stupid actions taken by
a relatively small percentage of society. The irony in this, of
course, is that many actions taken by those very agencies (that is,
the people who constitute those agencies) are, themselves, careless,
thoughtless, malicious, or brazenly stupid.

I cannot determine which of those four categories might describe Mr.
Bradley's desire to provide for "unregulated and unlimited redialing",
but I would like to point out to him, and to others who might engage
in such a practice, that they and their actions comprise a part of the
*reason* for the existence of the FCC and other regulators of
telephone equipment and services. Bearing that in mind, Mr. Bradley's
sentiment concerning it being "about time we fired the FCC" seems
disturbingly hypocritical, self-righteous, and irresponsible.

The irresponsibility is manifested by proposing the demise of an
agency, while promoting practices that serve to justify the existence
of that same agency.  That's like an organized crime boss proposing to
do away with the FBI, or a drug lord advocating the demise of the DEA.
It smacks of thugism, and it annihilates credibility. It's an argument
that proves itself false.


Paul A. Lee                           Voice  414 357-1409
Telecommunications Analyst              FAX  [phone]
Woolworth Corporation            CompuServe  70353,566
INTERNET  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com

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

From: dmausner@brauntech (Dave Mausner)
Subject: Re: Internet Access at Home?
Organization: Braun Technology Group
Date: Thu, 26 May 94 14:51:27 PST


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

> I am interested in getting a internet link to my home. I'm not
> talking about a call up service, but am referring to an actual link to
> my house. I am thinking of setting up a server. I need to know where
> to start. How does one go about getting a line set up and what
> hardware is required? Any response will be appreciated.

Start here:

1. Contact the system or network manager at the nearest college or
university, either by phone, or by mail. Engage this person in the
above discussion. By offering a bottle of booze or other spiffs, you
might obtain help in connecting to the backbone; if not, at least you
will have a new friend. You will have to pay for your telco line.

2. Obtain a list of internet service providers near you (the guys who
offer dialup access).  One example I can think of is PSI, Inc.
(Telephone 1-800-82-PSI-82). They usually offer higher-cost direct-line
services, such as ISDN connections to their routers.

3. There are often bedroom sysops running public unix systems who
already have net connections, and they will either offer you a feed,
or put you in touch with their upstream connection. Continue swimming
upstream until the costs are beyond your reach.

Warning: Don't be surprised by costs starting at several hundred bucks
per month. the faster your connection, the more you will pay for
termination gear and phone charges. Still think the internet is free?

Suggestion: let the group know how your quest progresses.


Dave Mausner, Sr Consultant, Braun Technology Group, Chicago.

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

From: [e-mail] (K. M. Peterson)
Subject: Re: Internet Access at Home?
Date: 26 May 1994 21:01:42 GMT
Organization: KMPeterson/Boston


In article <[e-mail]> TELECOM Digest Editor noted
in response to an [e-mail] and articles by others:

> They're very typical of what I get in the mail, and hopefully
> answers from readers will be seen by many others who are asking the
> same thing.  PAT

1) Monitor alt.internet.access.wanted to find out what questions are
currently being posed and how they are being answered.

2)  Purchase the book "Connecting to the Internet" ($15.95 from
O'Reilly & Associates 800-889-8969, ISBN 1-56592-061-9).

3) Call the network support people at ASU and ask _them_.  Ask them
who their regional provider is.  Ask them about whether they would
sell you the service.

A pointer: getting a dedicated line is probably going to be _very_
expensive, depending on the provider that you settle on and the
distance to their point of presence (POP).  You really may not need
that kind of access ... try finding a provider who can provide dialup
PPP and try that first.

You didn't say much about what kind of setup you want and why.  You
may be under the (mistaken) impression that the only dialup access is
to a Un*x box, and running Un*x commands in a shell.  This isn't true:
running PPP on my Mac, InterNews, Eudora (for mail), and a collection
of other utilities gives me _identical_ access as if I were connected
to an Ethernet connected to the 'Net, except for the speed of the
connection.  And you pay for speed, eh PAT?


K. M. Peterson    email: [e-mail]
phone: [phone] voice   [phone] fax


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You sure do ... then you pay some more. PAT]

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 17:18:15 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns


There are lots of cases where a phone prefix crosses county lines.
Near me:

1. Extreme southern New Castle County (Delaware) is served by the
Smyrna CO, whose service is mostly in Kent County.

2. A tiny portion of eastern Baltimore County (Md.) is served by
the Edgewood exchange, in Harford County.

3. A tiny portion of the 610-388 Mendenhall exchange (Chester County,
Pa.) is across the Brandywine creek in Delaware County.

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 21:16:51 -0400
From: Jonathan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns


The Editor wrote:

> The trouble is, no one seems willing to let some other town
> handle their emergency calls.

I think that it would be a good idea to coordinate 911 so that each
911 center can transfer calls to any emergency agency that serves
nearby areas; and 911 centers within each state should be able to
handle calls throughout the state.  This would allow the telephone
company to re-route calls more flexibly around network congestion, and
also would keep people from being bounced from agency to agency or
being told to call a seven-digit number.

In addition, many areas have several emergency response agencies
serving them; for example, some places are served by state, county and
city police at the same time.  911 should be able to dispatch the
nearest available unit, regardless of agency.

If E911 is not available then 911 should route calls to some nearby
emergency agency, such as the state police, or to the operator, or
somebody who can provide emergency dispatch.

People who call the emergency number should get intercept only when
the system is hopelessly malfunctioning.

Just my suggestions, for the record.


Jonathan D. Loo

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

Date: Thu, 26 May 94 16:25:56 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: What Did You Have For Dinner Today? (was Re: Solomon Islands)


<chuckle> How could you write about cannibalism and forget Alfred E.
Packer?


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Alfred Packer is probably the most
famous (or infamous) cannibal in the history of these United States,
or at least he was until Mr. Dahmer's naughty behavior became known to
the police officers who opened the door of his refrigerator and looked
inside.

Packer, a resident of Colorado in the middle to late 19th century found
himself stuck in the Rocky Mountains one cold, very extreme winter with
nothing to eat but his associates in the party of six persons who were
on the expedition. So he did just that ... killed the other five and ate
them. With the warm spring weather, a rescue party was able to traipse
up the mountain to bring all concerned back to safety. Shocked at finding
a healthy and well-fed Mr. Packer and but the bones and unedible remains
of the others they arrested Alfred and held him over for trial on charges
of cannibalism. (Oops, pardon me, there goes my politcal incorrectness
again, I mean 'human recycling'.)

At his trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to the peniteniary for
the remainder of his natural life to be served at hard labor. At the
time of his sentencing, a furious judge remarked, "there were only
seven Republicans in the entire county, and you, you son of a bitch,
you had to kill and eat five of them!"

To honor his memory after his death in the late 1800's, a university
there (I believe in Boulder but I am not certain) named its student
dining hall after him. The Alfred E. Packer Memorial Cafeteria in the
Student Union Building at the university served nutricious and
delicious meals to students for many years. For all I know it may
still be in operation.  Seriously ... some historians contend that
naming the student dining hall after Packer was not done to glorify
his cannibalism but rather to remember him as an individual persecuted
by the government for doing, well, what he had to do under the circum-
stances in order to survive all winter in the rugged mountains.

In other correctional industry news, the {World Weekly News}, one of
the few journals which Tells the Truth About Things -- other than this
Digest of course -- reported in a recent issue that Jeff Dahmer has
been placed in solitary confinement at the maximum security mental
hospital where he is being cared for after he killed five other inmates
in their sleep and was caught eating them.

My thanks to Carl Moore for reminding me of Alfred Packer and suggesting
this commentary which many of you will read during your breakfast on
Friday!  <smile> ...  PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #256
******************************


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Date: Sat, 28 May 94 00:17:04 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #257

TELECOM Digest     Sat, 28 May 94 00:17:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 257

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Annoying COCOT Problem (Darren Alex Griffiths)
    Performance of L.A. Cellular System (Dan Matte)
    Book Review: "Networks" by Ramteke (Rob Slade)
    Countries Using GSM? (Stephane Bausson)
    DS3 to Fiber Optic Convertor (Multimode) (Chuck Ludinsky)
    Interactive "Voice Mail" System For PC? (Axel Cleeremans)
    Anyone Using SwiftCall in the UK? (Dinesh Rehani)
    Security of a Code? (Andy La Varre)
    Hexadecimal Uuencode??? (Andy La Varre)
    Re: Nice Job, if You Can Get it! (Rich Greenberg)
    Re: Nice Job, if You Can Get it! (Tony Pelliccio)
    Re: SMS Messages on ORANGE (Richard Cox)
    Re: Distinctive Ring Line Effects? (Steven Bradley)
    Re: Need Distinctive Ring Line Splitter (Paul Mokey)
    Telecommunications Management (Jose Luis Sanchez)
    Need Site Name For Bellcore Standards (Kevin Hanson)
    Re: What Did You Have For Dinner Today? (Cole Keirsey)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

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The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
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All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Darren Alex Griffiths)
Subject: Annoying COCOT Problem
Date: 27 May 1994 15:49:02 -0700
Organization: Fujitsu Open Systems Solutions, Inc.


The area I live in (the Mission District of San Francisco) has a
number of COCOTs provided by a company called T.D. Rowe. They also
make jukeboxes and various vending machines.  I've had a number of
problems with the phones and would dearly love to stop using them, but
they are so prevalent that I frequently don't have a choice.  Besides
over charging, poor maintenance and seemingly random assignment of
long distance provider there has been one problem that is extremely
annoying.

Basically, if I call my voice mail system to check for messages the
phone frequently cuts out the keypad, disabling DTMF tones, before I'm
finished with the call.  I've given up using my calling card since the
extra digits allow me to only check two or three messages; without the
calling card I can get through a few more messages but using the pause
or rewind functions are not advised. Misdialing of the password essenti-
ally makes the call useless since I have to redial it and by that time
I wasted most of my precious digits.

I believe that the company is only allowing a certain number of digits
be pressed to limit your choices of other long disance companies, I've
never counted the number of digits but it appears to be less than 25.
I have called their service line but they don't seem to want to help.
Does anyone happen to know if the CPUC requires complete operation of
the keypad? If they do then I can start to get a little meaner with
them. If they don't I suppose I'll have to live with the problem.


Thanks,

Alex Griffiths    [e-mail]   Senior Software Engineer
Fujitsu Open Systems Solutions, Inc.   408-456-7815


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why not consider getting a cellular phone
and putting an end to the hassle once and for all? I think you will find
that on short (one or two minute) calls, the cost on cellular will be
almost equal with what the COCOT is charging, particularly if you are
getting a surcharge for the call due to using your calling card.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dan Matte)
Subject: Performance of L.A. Cellular System
Date: Fri, 27 May 94 16:21:10 PDT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada


I am working on a proposal for an email system that will operate
exclusively over cellular in case of disaster resulting in land line
failure.  Essentially, remote offices will dial-up over cellular to
the central office and retrieve messages in case of emergency.  The
system will operate independently of land lines.

There is one technical issue for which I need some additional
information.  In British Columbia the cellular provider that we will
be using deploys "Class-A" service only in case of emergency so that
cell phones that have been registered with the Provincial Emergency
Program will still have access to the cellular system while
non-Class-A subscribers will be denied access.  This is accomplished
by front end control access channels that validate the calls and
determine whether or not to allow access to actual communication
channels.  The idea is that there should be enough capacity in the
control access channels that the front end won't be a bottleneck to
Class-A subscribers' ability to access the actual communication
channels.  As there hasn't been an event that triggered Class-A only
service on a wide scale (such as an earthquake), I have no data
showing if or how access for Class-A subscribers would be affected
given that non-Class-A subscribers will make many attempts to access
the system.

If anyone can provide information on the performance of the cellular
system in L.A. after the recent earthquake or direct me to where I can
find information pertinent to my project, I would be greatly
appreciative.


Dan Matte   [e-mail]

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

Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 09:39:06 MDT
From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "Networks" by Ramteke


BKNTWRKS.RVW  940209

Prentice Hall/Brady/Ellis Horwood/Simon and Schuster/New Riders/Digital Press
113 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ   07632
[phone]    FAX [phone]
[e-mail]  [e-mail] Alan Apt
Beth Mullen-Hespe [e-mail]
"Networks," Ramteke, 1994, 0-13-958059-X
[e-mail]

The task of a reviewer is not necessarily an easy one.  The hours
involved in doing the actual reviews are not overwhelming when set
against the tracking down and requesting of materials.  So, when an
author asks if you want a copy of his book, you generally jump at the
chance.  There is, however, a danger here.  When the book arrives not
from the publisher, but directly from the author, with a covering
letter, personally autographed, you tend to feel a sense of obligation.
One may be dismayed at the possibilities of a book said to cover both
voice and data communications technologies.  To have the book then
arrive with the singular title of "Networks" is bemusing.  What does
it cover?  More on TCP/IP?  LANs?  WANs?  Public switched telephone
networks?

Yes.

And very well, too.

When a book less than 500 pages long attempts to cover concepts of
networks, OSI, fiber optics, telephony, voice processing, SNA, X.25,
SONET, Ethernet, NetWare, ATM and much, much more, something has to be
left out.  Ramteke, though, seems to be able to keep the most practical
aspects of everything he covers.  I have often bemoaned the inability of
NetWare specific books to clarify Novell's security structure.  Here,
it is set out clearly in one page and a single illustration.  Can't
recall the minimum transceiver distance on Ethernet?  It's here.
(Unfortunately the "half wave length"; the reason for the transceiver
distance; isn't.)  Want to know how AT&T differs from MCI and Sprint --
technically?  This is your book.  (And I am not just saying this from any
sense of obligation.)

In the Preface, and more so in the covering letter, Ramteke makes it
clear that he sees this as an introductory networking text.  An outline
is included which sets forth four different course streams for digital
transmission, voice, WANs, and LANs.  Questions are included at the
end of each chapter.  This, however, may sell the book short.  With
the convergence of all forms of communications and networking, the
computer and systems professional may have a need for such a book to
cover gaps in the spectrum of knowledge.  The technical manager, or
even executive, will very likely have a use for the diverse information
contained herein.

Ramteke requests readers to comment on the work to improve it.  I
would heartily recommend that experts in the various fields do so.
This has the potential to become a technical classic.

It isn't perfect.  The chapter questions are very simplistic and
probably only of use as a check to make sure the reader hasn't skipped
anything.  The historical sections, while containing interesting
tidbits, really don't contribute to an analytical understanding of
what is involved.  (Note to authors: when outlining the history of
X.25, don't forget to mention Datapac and the Canadian contribution.
Particularly if you are sending the book to a Canadian reviewer.)  I
can, however, forgive a lot to someone who entitles his glossary of
acronyms, "Last Call for Soup."

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKNTWRKS.RVW  940209. Publication
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.


Vancouver      [e-mail]
Institute for  [e-mail]
Research into  [e-mail]
User           [e-mail]
Security       Canada V7K 2G6

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

From: [e-mail] (Stephane BAUSSON)
Subject: Countries Using GSM?
Date: 27 May 1994 19:45:48 GMT
Organization: Ensem, Nancy, France


Hello,

Does anyone have the list of countries using GSM?


Thanks,

Stephane BAUSSON
Engineering student at ENSEM (Nancy - France)
Smail: 4, Rue de Grand, F-88630 CHERMISEY, France
Email: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: DS3 to Fiber Optic Convertor (Multimode)
Date: 27 May 1994 20:03:40 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Reply-To: [e-mail]


Does anyone know of a DS3 to fiber optic (multimode) converter?  That
is a device that extends a T3 line over multimode optical fiber>


Chuck Ludinsky

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

From: [e-mail] (Axel Cleeremans)
Subject: Interactive "Voice Mail" System For PC?
Date: 27 May 1994 08:10:19 GMT
Organization: ULB - Laboratoire de Psychologie Industrielle


Hello,

A friend of mine would like to set up an interactive voice-mail system
based on a PC for a small business, and was wondering about what kind
of solutions are available. The basic requirement is that callers, who
would interact with the remote PC through a touch-tone phone, should
be able to receive different kinds of information by working their way
through a hierarchy of "menu" selections. The system should also allow
users to input strings of digits, for instance to order an item or to
request that specific information be mailed to them.

I am not sure how such a system is called but we have all interacted
with something like that while communicating with banks or mail-order
businesses.

The specific question I have to this group is whether there exists a
hardware device that will perform these functions, or a subset of
them, when hooked up to or put inside a PC. If so, I would greatly
appreciate receiving pointers to who would be selling such devices,
and some indication of their cost.


Thanks,

Axel Cleeremans - NFSR Research Associate - Psychology
Internet: [e-mail] - Voice: [phone]
ULB CP122 - Ave FD Roosevelt 50 - 1050 Brussels Belgium

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

Date: Fri, 27 May 94 12:31:18 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Dinesh Rehani [phone])
Subject: Anyone Using SwiftCall in the UK?


I am looking for comments from TELECOM Digest readers who might be
subscribers to the SwiftCall service, especially in the UK. How good
is their service? Are the advertised savings for real or are there
hidden charges? How does Swift compare to TP and other callback
services available?


dinesh   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Security of a Code?
Date: Fri, 27 May 94 15:59:46 EST
Organization: IDS World Network Internet Access Service, [phone] GUEST


Any cryptology/code gurus out there that could help?

What is the basic measure of the security of a code?  What is the
"bible" on the topic?

The problem at hand is to assess the "security" of some encoding/encryption
techniques.  Where does one go to get smart about the basic measure of
security in this context -- presumably the probability of cracking the
code within X hours given a PRN sequence of length Y, etc. etc.

Just a quick and dirty table of relative securities of different types
of codes and ciphers would help me get started in the right direction.

Email if you prefer, and


Thanks in advance

Andy La Varre   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Hexadecimal Uuencode?
Date: Fri, 27 May 94 16:04:35 EST
Organization: IDS World Network Internet Access Service, [phone] GUEST


We're having a problem properly recieving attachments from a remote
site.  The administrator claims the remote site has a "binary to
hexadecimal" encoder, implying that hex is being transmitted.  The
remote site is using CC:Mail.  The users we're working with haven't
got a clue ...

Sounds like hogwash to me, I've never heard of such, and all my docs
on three different sets of uuxxcode only talk about binary to ASCII
and back.

But before I jump down their throat I thought I'd ask somebody that
*really* knows what's happening ...


TIA,

Andy La Varre   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Rich Greenberg)
Subject: Re: Nice Job, if You Can Get it!
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 18:12:10 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail].
COM (Gerry Brown Assoc, Gerry Brown,PAS) writes:

> While reporting the problem, the service tech told me that effective
> June 1, 1994, PacBell will be charging for a service call WHETHER THE
> PROBLEM IS INSIDE OR OUTSIDE.  The only way around the charge is to
> subscribe to their Wire Service Plan.

> Not a bad scam, heh!  I pay for service no matter who is at fault.
> The PacBell repair service claimed that the California PUC forced them
> to implement this plan.  Boy am I glad that the telephone industry has
> been deregulated.  Imagine what we would have to pay if that hadn't
> happened.

Pat, I had a problem believing this so I called the CPUC to try and
get the answer from "the Horses Mouth" so to speak.

Its not correct.  If the problem is outside the NIJ, its still no cost
to the user.  What has changed is that previously, some PaBell techs
were coming out, finding the problem was inside, and just telling the
customer they had an inside problem and leaving without charging them
if the customer assumed responsibility for the repair.  They would
only charge if they actually did the inside repair (assuming the
customer didn't have the inside wire repair ripoff).

Now, they have been instructed to enter a charge in any case if the
problem is inside from the NIJ.


Rich Greenberg            Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677
N6LRT   TinselTown, USA   Play: [e-mail]                  310-649-0238
Pacific time.  I speak for myself and my dogs only.  Canines: Chinook & Husky

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

From: [e-mail] (Tony Pelliccio)
Subject: Re: Nice Job, if You Can Get it!
Date: 27 May 1994 19:14:25 GMT
Organization: Brown University ADIR


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail].
COM (Gerry Brown Assoc, Gerry Brown,PAS) wrote:

> While reporting the problem, the service tech told me that effective
> June 1, 1994, PacBell will be charging for a service call WHETHER THE
> PROBLEM IS INSIDE OR OUTSIDE.  The only way around the charge is to
> subscribe to their Wire Service Plan.

> Not a bad scam, heh!  I pay for service no matter who is at fault.
> The PacBell repair service claimed that the California PUC forced them
> to implement this plan.  Boy am I glad that the telephone industry has
> been deregulated.  Imagine what we would have to pay if that hadn't
> happened.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would double check the source on
> this. Do you mean to tell me that if there is a problem in the CO
> that *you* are going to have to pay for the repair?  If the problem
> is on the pole in the alley behind your house *you* will have to pay?
> Gimme a break.  PAT]

Hey, I kind of like that. By their logic it means you now have
free-run of the cable right through to the CO, and then on the switch
itself. So next time a pair goes south on you, just go on up and swap
it yourself. Let the phone company figure out the rest. Then again,
it's not like telcos records of cable pair are all that accurate
anyhow.

I agree with Pat though, if they're going to charge for service wether
or not it's your fault then rates should go down.


Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR
[e-mail], Tel. [phone] Fax. [phone]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But see Rich Greenberg's response earlier
in this issue. Apparently all that is changing is they are cracking down
on charging for visits made by technicians; if a technician is dispatched
to your premises you will pay for it whether the tech does the work or
you do the work.    PAT]

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

Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 15:48:14 -0700
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SMS Messages on ORANGE


[e-mail] (Sam Spens Clason) wrote:

>>  Yes, but wouldn't [e-mail] be nicer?!

No ... my ORANGE number (when I publish it) will be a lot nicer than
that !

>>  Is there any such service out there?

It will be coming soon.  However there are some VERY long mail
messages on the 'net ... you wouldn't even get the header of some in
160 characters!

>>> It will become possible to send text messages from the handset (or
>>> computer) to any other GSM/PCN system, to any of the old analogue
>>> paging networks, or as an X400 message or a facsimile document.

>>  I am pretty sure that what you are talkin about is ordinary datatransfer
>>  that occupies a 9600 bit voice channel.  Actually the rate of transfer is
>>  sligtly higher but I've never heard of a 11.4kbit modem :-)

Data transfer will indeed be available, but SMS 160-character messages
can be converted into fax format, and then sent as such *directly* from SMS.

>>  Like if your voice-mailbox or fax-mailbox sent you an SMS every time
>>  it receives a message.

Yes, all ORANGE phones have voicemailboxes.  They are *free* ... calls
diverting to them are *free* (for anyone outside the UK, can I add
that free access to voicemail is for from being the norm here.  In
some cases on cellular the calls are surcharged (33p/min for calls
that were diverted to voicemail as opposed to 25p/min for ordinary
calls).  On ORANGE you only pay for retrieving messages from voicemail
(and then it's only 7.5p/minute)

The voicemailbox does indeed use SMS notification, as you suggest.
However there are even quicker ways to respond to a voicemail
notification.  Clever people, these Finns !!!


Richard D G Cox

Mandarin Technology, P.O. Box 111, Penarth, South Glamorgan, Wales:  CF64 3YG
Voice: 0956 700111 Fax: [phone]  VoiceMail: 0941 151515 Pager 0941 115555
E-mail address: [e-mail] - PGP2.3 public key available on request

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven Bradley)
Subject: Re: Distinctive Ring Line Effects?
Organization: The Forest City Exchange, Forest City, Florida
Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 01:30:01 GMT


Rattlesnake Stu ([e-mail]) wrote:

> 1.  I recently had distinctive ringing enabled on a phone line that
> leads to my BBS.  Since then, I've had a significant increase in
> handshake problems when receiving BBS calls.  (The modem itself
> determines the ring, and seems to be 100% accurate in doing so.  I use

I have a four line multi-user Unix system.  Three lines on an inward
rotary and a fourth line outward only.  There are five phone numbers
total.  Two numbers go to the third line in the rotary.  I use a Ring
Decipher made by Command Communications ($70) box which decodes the
ring pattern and sends to correct line. Such a box may help you if you
feel the modem is having problems doing both tasks.  The main number
is for voice, the special ring number is for data, and it's accessed
with fwd on busy from preceding line.  Works well everytime.  It does
need two rings before it will answer though.

> 2.  Is there a way to boost a signal between the wall and the modem,
> or would I even want to?  I'm running an extension cord about 200'
> that distance -- should I even worry about it?

Should not be a problem normally, line voltage should be between 48
and 52v DC.  If its less, you have a problem, if its a little more, do
not worry about it.  Ringing voltage is around 90v AC as I recall.
Normally, the larger problem is the number of phones on a single line
making a load, this measurement is listed with the FCC ID data.  Your
modem should have come with instructions that explained what the load
number means and how many devices you can have (based on these values)
on one line.

I doubt you need to boost the signal.  You may need a 16550 UART
though to handle the throughput.  You also may have handshake problems
by not having configured it correctly.  Normally you use RTS/CTS flow
control, through hardware, but this requires the modem to be set up
properly.  Try looking in comp.dcom.modems.


Internet:        [e-mail]         Steven G. Bradley
                 [e-mail]
GEnie:           [e-mail]
CompuServe:      [e-mail]
America Online:  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Mokey)
Subject: Re: Need Distinctive Ring Line Splitter
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 05:49:44 GMT


Al Cohan <[e-mail]> writes:

> Does anyone on the net know of another company or companies that
> manufacture a ring decoder that actually *works*?

I've been using a Multi-Link SR3 for just such a purpose for years
without a single problem.  They're located in Lexington, KY; but their
products are sold in telephone specialty shops everywhere. Call 'em
for a dealer near you or look in the Yellow Pages under Telephone
Equipment & Systems.  I bought mine retail for under $100.

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Telecommunications Management
Organization: Oklahoma State University Computer Center
Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 15:29:19 GMT


Hello,

I am looking for special events or seminars (one or two weeks) related
to Management, Marketing, Strategic Planning, and Privatization in
Telecommunications. People selected for these events are managers of
several telecommunications areas with no technical background.

Would you please let me know if you have some information about that.

I want to thank you kindly, before hand, for your prompt response.


Jose Luis Sanchez   [e-mail]
Electrical and Computer Eng.  Oklahoma State University


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I suggest you simply keep on reading here.
This Digest publishes a large number of seminar announcements, training
class notices and related matter on the subjects you mention.   PAT]

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

Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 12:37:31 -0500
From: Kevin Hanson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Need Site Name for Bellcore Standards
Organization: Texas Metronet, Internet for the Individual  214-705-2917 (info)


Does anyone know if there is an ftp site where I can find Bellcore
documents?  Specifically I am looking for the Common Language Code set
(CLLI, CLFI, etc) plus any TL-1 documentation that may be available.


Kevin Hanson    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Cole Keirsey)
Subject: Re: What Did You Have For Dinner Today? (was Re: Solomon Islands)
Date: 27 May 1994 17:29:39 GMT
Organization: U S WEST Advanced Technologies


Yes, the cafeteria in the student center at the University of
Colorado, Boulder, is still called the Packer Grill.  If memory
serves, the folks Packer ate, and the judge who sentenced him, were
Democrats (not Republicans as the previous article said).  Honestly,
now, who do you think would make a better meal -- Senator Dole or
President Clinton?  Packer did not serve out his life sentence, but
was released after a few years.  I believe that he became a personal
body guard for the editor of a Denver newspaper, who had lobbied for
Packer's release.  Bon apetite.


C. C. Keirsey    [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #257
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
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To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #258

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 29 May 94 11:05:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 258

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Telegraph Wires [Transcript of American Numismatic Broadcast] (N. Allen)
    Re: How Smart is Call-forwarding? (Brett Frankenberger)
    Re: How Smart is Call-forwarding? (John Lundgren)
    Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted (Fred Blonder)
    Re: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts (Aaron Leonard)
    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing (Gordon Burditt)
    Book Review: "The Internet Message" by Rose (Rob Slade)
    Re: Hunting Service From GTE (Paul Lee)
    Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range (John Lundgren)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
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* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 28 May 1994 14:06:47 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Nigel Allen)
Subject: Telegraph Wires [Transcript of American Numismatic Assn Broadcast]
Organization: 52 Manchester Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Reply-To: [e-mail]


The American Numismatic Association, a long-established group of
collectors of coins and other types of money, prepares a daily radio
broadcast about some aspect of collecting and posts it to the
rec.collecting newsgroup. The following transcript was posted by
[e-mail] (ANA), and will be of particular interest to
readers of the TELECOM Digest.


Transcript No. 427
May 24, 1994

                    TELEGRAPH WIRES
                  By Lee F. McKenzie

      Along the roadside, a determined tourist trips over a cactus.
She struggles up an embankment and through sagebrush to get past
telephone poles and wires.  Finally, with camera in hand, she has an
unobstructed view of Jenny Lake and the beautiful Teton Mountains.
How often have you struggled to get just the right picture -- a photo
without telephone wires to ruin a beautiful scene?

      This is "A-N-A's Money Talks."

      Many years ago, an artist sat at his workbench carefully
engraving metal plates.  He was an employee of the American Bank Note
Company.  The work before him was a vignette, or small picture, which
would be used on checks issued by a bank in Elmira, New York.  In the
1870s, banks prided themselves on the beautiful art work that adorned
their checks.  The vignettes often reflected achievements of society
or the ambitions of local people.

        When the new checks for the Elmira bank were completed, a
small vignette showed a country scene with cows in a quiet meadow, a
distant bridge, and poles with a pair of wires connected between them.
How odd that an artist would "ruin" a beautiful country scene with
telegraph wires!  What you and I would find annoying in our photos,
was somehow important to an artist in 1878.

      Today marks the 150th anniversary of Samuel Morse's first
telegraph message.  In 1844, that message was sent 40 miles between
Washington D.C. and Baltimore.  The message Morse sent was, "What God
Hath Wrought."  These simple words reflected the inventor's own humble
awe at a miracle.  Suddenly, the pioneers of America had a fast way of
hearing from home.  Loved ones no longer seemed so far away.  Business
decisions that once took weeks now took a couple of days or less.  In
so many ways the art and history in old coins and paper money speak to
us.  When we see telegraph wires carefully engraved on an old check,
we're reminded that money truly does talk.

      This has been "Money Talks."  Today's program was written by Lee
McKenzie and underwritten by Heritage Rare Coin Galleries, the world's
largest rare coin firm.  This is a production of the American
Numismatic Association, America's coin club for over a century.  For a
transcript and a free ancient Egyptian coin, be the first to call
1-800-367-9723 with your local station's call letters. Request program
427.


Nigel Allen     [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Brett Frankenberger)
Subject: Re: How Smart is Call-forwarding?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Sat, 28 May 1994 20:39:54 GMT


[e-mail] (Shag Aristotelis) writes:

[ SUMMARY: The author has obtained a standard residential line with
call forwarding in a town half way between the author's residence and
a number that the author wishes to call frequently.  Author has
programmed the call forwarding on the 'middle' number to forward to
the number he wishes to call frequently, for the purpose of
eliminating toll charges.

Author wants to know if, when he calls the middle number from his
residence if it routed from the author phone to the author's CO, to
the 'middle' CO, to the terminating CO, then to the number he is
calling, or if it router from the author's phone to the authors CO to
the middle CO, to the telephone terminating the 'middle' line, back
from that telephone to the middle CO (presumably on a separate pair?),
then to the terminating CO, and to the terminating number.  (Obviously
I'm not mentioning any intermediate Tandams between COs here).

Author also notes that all inter-CO trunks are fiber.]

The answer is that the CO handles it ... it doesn't go out and back.
There isn't any means for it to do so, as the path between the CO and
the 'middle' telephone can only carry one call.

(Some people get two lines and have a forwarding device that they buy
perform a rudimentary type of forwarding whereby when line one rings,
line two automatically calls another number and the lines are connected,
and they would send the call out and back ... also, large businesses
sometimes program forwarding on their PBX's to take an incoming call
and route it back out somewhere else, and that would also send the
call out and back ... but in both cases there are *2* lines going to
user's location, not one ... and in both cases, the telco is not
invloved with the forwarding ... in the case you mention where you are
buying the call forwarding feature from the telco (*72 or whatever it
is), it doesn't go out to the 'middle number's' telephone and back.

> Recently, I've encountered _nasty_ noise.  Even the latest greatest
> 28.8kbps modems with all the connection-holding capability in the
> world can't connect.  If I dial _directly_ without using the forward
> (thus incurring big tolls) the routing is as follows, and there is no
> noise:

[ NOTE : In a part of the original msg that I deleted, author defines
CO1 as his CO, CO2 as the CO of the middle line, and CO3 as the CO of
the terminating connection, and [Net] as the number he is seeking to
avoid toll charges to. ]

> [Me] -c- [Shed] -f- [C01] -f- ([C02] -f-?) [C03] -c- [Net]
>
> (Note, I'm not sure whether a direct call would pass through the CO
> in NXX 2.)

It may or may not, depending on how the telco has set up the routing
for calls from CO1 to CO3.

> It looks like one of two things is happening here:
>
> 1) The computers are dumb, and are routing the call out to the number and
>   back again, and something's causing noise on the loop.

That's not an issue ... it couldn't do that ... the wires just ain't
there ...

> 2) The computers are ok, but something's causing noise in NXX 2's CO
> itself.

Unless you *know* what the routing of your call is, don't assume you
do.  The routing for the toll versus the non-toll version of the call
could be *completely different* ... Also, don't assume the routing is
100% fiber unless you *know* it is ... the routing could be completely
different ...

> I'm going to call BA-NJ in the morning, and go through the usual
> process of explaining to them that I'm _absolutely certain_ it's not
> my inside wiring, since there _is no inside wiring_ on that line... ;)

Most telco types will immediately know that of course it doesn't
involve the wiring on the middle line since the switch handles the
forwarding ... (I'm not saying *you* are an idiot for not knowing
that, but for someone in the telephone industry, they should know it
immediately).

> but I figured I'd toss this out, in hopes that someone out there knows
> more about how the computers handle call-forwarding.

So ... to address the issue of what is it ... if the only place it is
analog is between your home and your CO and the terminating CO and the
terminating number, then the problem has to be digital, since those
same analog lines are used for the toll and the forwarded way of
calling.  Do you know if it is digital all the way.  (i.e. are all the
intermediate switches digital, or they converting the fiber back to
analog to route through some kind of mechanical switch?)

If it is digital all the way, they probably are taking frame-slips
somewhere between the two COs ... make data calls from CO2 to CO3 and
CO1 to CO2 and see which one fails ... (Ovviously, it's the telco's
responsibility to do that, not you, but if there is anything
compliated about the problem at all, they will probably be confused ...)

If it is analog, then somewhere, there is something noisy ... it might
be in CO1 or CO3, but just on trunks to CO2 ... who knows ...

Good luck.


Brett  ([e-mail])    Brett Frankenberger

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

From: sgiblab!news.kn.PacBell.COM![e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: How Smart is call-forwarding?
Date: 28 May 94 18:18:54 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Maybe something in the carrier plant is causing the trouble.  Something
like a ADPCM or whatever circuit that doesn't recognize the modem and
tries to compress what it thinks is voice.


[e-mail] \ [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Fred Blonder)
Subject: Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted
Date: 28 May 1994 23:30:49 GMT
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- InterNetNews site


> Does anyone know what the average speed (in characters per
> minute, or whatever is appropriate) of a professional
> telegrapher would have been when wire telegraphy was the main
> mode of electronic communication?
    . . .

I don't know, but I've got a funny story:

One of my C.S. professors at the University of Maryland was a ham
radio operator, and was always trying to combine his hobbies.  He
wanted to transmit ASCII, but at the time the FCC didn't allow ASCII
on the ham bands.  (I've no idea if that's changed.)  He and his
friends settled on transmitting computer-generated and decoded Morse
Code.

The funny part is when they decided that nothing in the regs set a
maximum rate for morse code, so they cranked it up to the equivalent
of about 1200 baud.  It was completely unintelligible to the human
ear, but it was proper morse, and the FCC never gave them a hard time
about it.

If you want more info on archaic transmission methods, about four
months ago, {Scientific American} ran a good article about semaphore
telegraph systems.


Fred Blonder         [e-mail]
Hughes STX Corp.     [phone]
7701 Greenbelt Rd.   Greenbelt, Md.  20770

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

From: [e-mail] (Aaron Leonard)
Subject: Re: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts
Date: 28 May 1994 17:26:34 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona Telecommunications
Reply-To: [e-mail]


In article <[e-mail]>, Paul A. Lee
</DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com> writes:

> In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 250, Steven Bradley <[e-mail].
> org> wrote:

>> if you are a developer, do NOT use the internal redial option in the
>> faxmodem, use the BUSY, VOICE, NO ANSWER result codes to re-dial it using
>> the software command to ... allow unlimited and unregulated re-dialing

> Indeed, most of the communications software I've encountered uses the
> modem result (either numeric code or verbose text string) to determine
> the result of a dial attempt. The software can keep track of "BUSY"
> results and redial up to a preset number of attempts.

> Why, though, would one want to redial upon encountering a "VOICE" or a
> "NO ANSWER" result? A "VOICE" result would typically indicate that the
> modem's dial attempt has reached either an intercept message or a live
> body at the dialed number, indicating that a wrong number is being
> dialed (for legitimate purposes, at least). A "NO ANSWER" result on a
> valid number typically results from a problem with the modem or fax
> machine that should have answered at the other end.

> I can understand making numerous redial attempts on a "BUSY"
> condition, but what would be the purpose of redialing on a "VOICE" or
> "NO ANSWER" result, other than to harass (whether innocently,
> gnorantly, or maliciously) the recipient of the call?

I agree that redialing on voice would seem to be a rude and useless
thing to do.  However, redialing on NO ANSWER can make some sense.
For example, assume that you are dialing into a pool of hundreds of
modems (for example, the one we run).  At any given time, it's likely
that a small number of these modems will fail to answer, due to some
malfunction.  However, the odds are great, in such a case, that a
successive dialin to the same pool, will succeed (because we've
configured our rotary to "walk thru" the lines.)


Aaron Leonard (AL104), <[e-mail]>
University of Arizona Network Operations, Tucson AZ 85721

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

From: [e-mail] (Gordon Burditt)
Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing
Date: Sat, 28 May 1994 08:56:24 GMT


> Currently, 0+ calls are sent to the operator services provider
> (OSP) to which the premises owner or payphone provider presubscribes.
> Under BPP, calls would be routed automatically to the OSP preferred by
> the party being billed for the call.  For example, a calling card call
> would be routed to the cardholder's preferred OSP.  A collect call
> would be routed to the called party's preferred OSP.  A call billed to
> a third party would be routed to the OSP to which that third party had
> presubscribed.

Interesting.  It's a good way to avoid AOS rates that approach those
of 900 numbers.  But what happens if:

- The called party's preferred long distance carrier is "none of the above"?
  (This is a valid choice, and it does not prevent making LD calls using
  10XXX codes.)

- The called party's preferred long distance carrier has no presence in
  the area the caller is calling from?  (E.g. how many areas of the USA
  DON'T have service from Vartec Telecom (10811)?  If I selected them,
  could someone call me collect from one of these areas?)

- The called party's preferred long distance carrier doesn't handle
  collect calls (yet, or has no plans to)?

Does the call not complete?  Does the carrier used fall back to the
dialed prefix or the carrier of the originating phone?


Gordon L. Burditt    sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon

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

Date: Sat, 28 May 1994 11:03:36 MDT
From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "The Internet Message" by Rose


BKINTMSG.RVW  940309

Prentice Hall
113 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ   07632
[phone]   FAX [phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail] Alan Apt
Beth Mullen-Hespe [e-mail]
"The Internet Message", Rose, 1993, 0-13-092941-7
[e-mail]

Could there be some connection between a cover design strongly
reminiscent of Douglas Adam's, "Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" and a
banner stating that this is the fourth book in Marshall Rose's
trilogy?

For those wanting to know how to use Internet mail, this is not your
book.  This is a technical work examining the design aspects of
electronic mail systems.  The Internet RFC822 and OSI's (Open System
Interconnection) MHS (Message Handling System), aka X.400, are the two
major examples used in the review.  Those who know Rose's views of OSI
will know which comes off better.

In spite of the strong (and readily admitted) bias, this is a thorough
analysis of a frequently bypassed field.  For those who need to build
or design messaging systems, this is required reading.


copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKINTMSG.RVW  940309. Distribution
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.


Vancouver      [e-mail]
Institute for  [e-mail]
Research into  [e-mail]
User           [e-mail]
Security       Canada V7K 2G6

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

Date: Sat, 28 May 1994 12:57:31 -0400
From: Paul A. Lee  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>
Organization: Woolworth Corporation
Subject: Re: Hunting Service From GTE


Since this thread seems to have expanded into a general comparison of
GTE service offerings compared to other LECs, I'll offer a few pieces
of my experience with GTE:

About two years ago, I moved from a GTE area in Pennsylvania to
Ameritech territory in Wisconsin. I now have two residential lines
(with hunting), instead of one, and make about three times as many
calls in a local service area that's about eight times as large, for
about the same money.

My company has two major sites that are served by GTE -- one in
California and one in Florida. Digital (T-1) trunking is agony to get
installed and running. DID trunks cost $350-$415 per month from GTE,
compared to $45-$120 per month from NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, Ameritech,
PacTel, etc.

I can almost rely on GTE to be anywhere from several hours to a few
*days* late -- or sometimes *early*, just to keep it interesting -- on
installs and changes of service.

On the other hand, GTE people seem to go out of their way to try and
be helpful in case of a problem -- that is, beyond professional, to
downright friendly. I've had GTE technicians give me their home phone
numbers. I've been able to talk directly with OP crew leaders about
coordinating their work with our contractors' work. I've been given
phone numbers to directly reach test boards and central offices. That
kind of stuff has been rather rare in the Baby Bells.

Overall, I guess I'd have to chalk it up to "cultural diversity".


Paul A. Lee                           Voice  414 357-1409
Telecommunications Analyst              FAX  [phone]
Woolworth Corporation            CompuServe  70353,566
   INTERNET  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>

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

From: sgiblab!news.kn.PacBell.COM![e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range
Date: 28 May 94 16:11:55 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Guorong Roger ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Is there any kind of CORDLESS PHONE which can be used for ten to
> twenty miles distance (not a cellular phone, not the regular cordless
> phone which can only be used within the house). The telephone should
> still use the regular telephone switching system. The master piece of
> the phone should be installed at home, and the handset could be bring
> ten to twenty miles away from the home but be still access the phone
> at home.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are, but they are not legal for use
> in the USA. About the closest you can come to this legally in the USA is
> to use a manual phone patch attached to a CB radio or some other type of
> legal radio service. I have a phone patch here for example which I have

The important point here is that the amateur radio service is for
recreational non-commerial use only, and the hams tend to police
themselves fairly well, especially in metro areas where the bands are
crowded.  And, naturally, the phone co doesn't want people to bypass
their cellular service.  So getting a legal ten mile phone is not
easy.


John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs
Rancho Santiago Community College District
17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706
VOI (714) JOHN GAB \ FAX (714) JOHN FRY
[e-mail] \ [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #258
******************************


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Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #259

TELECOM Digest     Tue, 31 Jun 94 07:07:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 259

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Some D-Day Telecom History (Donald E. Kimberlin)
    Book Review: "Exploring the Internet" by Malamud (Rob Slade)
    Communication Courses at Berkeley This Summer (Richard V. Tsina)
    Dialing Changes For West Virginia and Connecticut (Carl Moore)
    Pac*Bell Plans to Become Internet Provider? (Robert L. McMillin)
    Current List of Areacodes Wanted (Michael Conley)
    How do You Simulate Telco Battery Voltage? (Kevin Centanni)
    ETSI Contact (Joao Perdigoto)
    Why Does Long Distance Cost Extra? (James Baker)
    Cost of Caller ID in PA (Greg Vaeth)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 30 May 94 15:56 EST
From: Donald E. Kimberlin <[e-mail]>
Subject: Some D-Day Telecom History


As the 50th anniversary of D-Day nears, here are a couple of sntaches
of an incomplete story about the parts radio people played in the
largest invasion so far accomplished by man.  There were at least two
relatively unpublished items of interest to the technically-inclined
about radio in that era:

First, there are lots of recordings of bits of Edward R. Murrow from
London during the blitz, as well as other correspondents like Richard
C. Hottelet dating back to before D-Day.  Bear in mind we are speaking
here of a time before telephone cables crossed the Atlantic (although
21 telegraph cables had been laid dating back to 1866, so "cablegrams,"
competing with RCA's "radiograms" were the business communications norm
of the era for civilians).

There was telephone connectivity available, dating back to 1927.  In
addition to the one (ever) low-frequency telephone circuit between New
York and London (50 kHz USB eastbound; 60 kHz USB westbound), HF radio
links that operated ISB with channel shifters to produce two 3 kHz
speech channels on each sideband had been put into operation between
various capital cities.  Within the limits of the selective fading and
noise of HF radio, broadcasters could order, in general, either a 3
kHz "message grade" channel or a 6 kHz "program channel," by special
arrangement, occupying the space of two telephone circuits and using
program-equalized channels linking the HF radio plants and the
broadcasters.  The cost was rather high for those, of course.

There was strain on the capacity of the total installed plant, however,
and in fact, a different mode of operation called "EB circuits" for
"Emergency Bandwidth" was put into place as the U.S.  entered the
European war and Eisenhower's SHAPE settled into the buildup of the
invasion force in England.  "EB" used the channel filtering abilities
of the Type A "band-splitting" Privacy units developed in the late
1930's.  A Type A Privacy was a beastly affair containing iron/copper
speech channel filters and modulators that could split a 3 kHz voice
channel into five sub-bands, and shift each sub-band to a different
range for transmission, while restoring the proper sequence at the
receiver.  Type A Privacies were beastly things, each one for a
typical four-channel HF link occupying THREE 30-inch-wide, eleven-foot
high relay racks.  In addition to shifting sub-bands around, the Type
A Privacy also contained a motor-driven cam switch that could change
the shifting pattern every few seconds.  However, maintaining sync
between the transmitting and recieving Type A's was so difficult that
after only a few years, they were generally operated in a fixed
pattern, perhaps changing the code once a day at most.  (By the early
1960's, they were largely disused, but maintained, as technical
operators would use them for an adjustable band-stop filter when
needed to knock out one sub-band to get rid of QRM by plugging out one
filter.)

But, at the time of D-Day, the Type A Privacies, with some minor
modifications, were pressed into service, to split the nominal 3 kHz
channels into two "Emergency Band" telephone circuits, effectively
doubling the number of circuits by producing telephone circuits of
around 1700 Hz bandwidth.  Thus, if you hear some WWII actualties from
HF radio that sound rather muffled and lacking any sibilance or
fricatives in the speech, it's likely they were on EB circuits.

That's one aspect, fine for public communications where on the U.S.
end, it was AT&T connecting into the telephone network, met on the
U.K. (or in later cases, other country's) government-owned telephone
"Adminstration," as they are called in ITU lingo.  But another,
far-less published aspect has to do with the actual invasion of Normandy
and the rush across Europe to end the war in just eleven months --
that of the people of a firm called Press Wireless in its support of
actualities from the moving Allied Expeditionary Force.

No small part of operating a full-bore war effort and keeping the
"folks at home" at maximum interest and production was to provide them
news actualities, in an time after "no radio" (WWI) and the Satellite
Era (Vietnam).  The scheme drawn up was to have mobile HF broadcast
transmitting facilities landed as soon as possible after a beachhead
was established, and make origination facilities available to radio
journalists as close to the front as possible.  Fortunately, although
sunspot counts were nearing their eleven-year cyclic minimum in 1944,
solar disturbances were also relatively minor, so HF radio across the
Atlantic was rather reliable.

To accomplish this, the services of a firm called Press Wireless were
engaged.  Few people know much about "Pree-Wee," jargon that grew out
of its telegraphic route address of PreWi, but it actually dated back
to the earliest days of HF radio, PreWi was established in the time
when RCA, Westinghouse and GE tied up purchase of HF radio gear, by
setting conditions under which you effectively had to purchase a
complete transmitter from RCA using the patented high-power vacuum
tubes of GE or Westinghouse, or nothing.  This was tied to a strong
suggestion that "you might as well rent channels from RCA rather than
do so."  Well, that was fine, except then getting RCA to run channels
where the press wanted them was not always realistic.

So, the press associations formed Press Wireless, to purchase
high-powered tubes from Brown-Boveri in Switzerland, and develop its
own HF links.  And, develop a lot, PreWi did.  if you ever get into
those musty old textbooks and IRE Proceedings of the 1920's and
1930's, many of the studies of HF propagation can be found to be of
PreWi origin.  Although not well known to the public, PreWi was well
known in the HF radio community and the press establishment.  And, its
people had built any number of prioneering and/or one-time HF links to
connect sites around the world; places that the public telephone or
telegraph establishments weren't prepared to handle.  D-Day was an
event tailor-made for PreWi to make its largest single effort ever, as
well.

The PreWi engineers built up 50 kW HF transmitter plants into sets of
trailers, complete with an AC power trailer and a studio trailer, and
staffed them with "war correspondents" who were, in fact civilian
radio broadcast engineers seconded to PreWi for the job.  They landed
right behind the troops on the firing line, and were in operation back
to the PreWi receivers at Southampton, Long Island by the night of
June 6, with German bullets still whizzing close by, providing program
channels back to the States for radio journalists of the several
networks from a war-torn Normandy.  When you hear actualities from HF
radio during this week that originated in Normandy, they were on those
PreWi HF links, received at Southampton, then carried into New York on
phoneco facilities to the several radio networks.  (Similarly, PreWi
trailer-mounted links were operating from Juno and Gold Beaches back
to England for the BBC to get its feeds, when you hear British
actualities of the events of D-Day.)

The entire operation continued, moving with the Allied Expeditionary
Force, providing Eisenhower his HF radiotelephone links back to the
telephone networks of England and the U.S. once he moved onto the
continent, and until the war was over and the regular facilities of
the government-owned PTTs were rebuilt in each nation.

You'll likely hear snatches about the heroics of the journalists and
even the Army Signal Corps, which went about placing AM broadcast
transmitters (sometimes jammers) in carious cities as the armies moved
across the Continent, but you're not likely to hear anuything about
the civilians who supported the Allies in war as PreWi provided the
news to "back home."  I know I wouldn't, if I had never had the
privilege of working for Gene Rider, who had been Chief Engineer of
WQAM and later WIOD at Miami, who had himself been one of those
"civilian war correspondents" on loan to PreWi at the time.  Gene
never spoke about it, and only tipped his hand to me a while after I
went to work for ITT, and sent him a postcard from the rather famous
Westbury Hotel in London.  His only real comment, in a reply card was,
"The Westbury" Oh, yeah, I know that place!"  Only then did some of
his comments made over the years fall into place.

(epilogue)

PreWi went on after the war to continue its pioneering work, and was
purchased by ITT.  ITT merged PreWi into ITT's World Communications
operations, which took over the PreWi transmitters at Brentwood and
receivers at Southampton.  One of its later innovations that never
flew was a proposal to put HF radiotelephones onto Captain Eddie
Rickenbacker's Constellations that flew passengers to Latin America.
Regrettably, Captain Eddie declined, saying there was not sufficient
payload space on the Connies to accommodate the function.  I have a
copy of Rickenbacker's letter to the president of PreWi declining the
offer.

So, I hope that little story gives you some interesting insight into a
little-published portion of the D-Day Story.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As always Don, thanks for another very
interesting history lesson. An organization here in Chicago is planning
a complete historical re-inactment of D-Day for later this month. They
are going to be using the Lake Michigan beach around Montrose Avenue for
anyone interested in attending.    PAT]

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

Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 12:44:28 MDT
From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "Exploring the Internet" by Malamud


BKEXPINT.RVW  940310

Prentice Hall
113 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ   07632
[phone]   FAX [phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail] Alan Apt
Beth Mullen-Hespe [e-mail]
"Exploring the InterNet", Malamud, 1993, 0-13-296898-3, U$26.95
[e-mail]

The naive reader might be forgiven for thinking that this book is
about the Internet and how to use it.  The author seems to think that
this book has something to do with the ITU's initial interest in, and
later refusal of, publishing the "Blue Book" of telecommunications
standards on the Internet.  The phrase, "technical travelogue," gets
bandied about as if it had some meaning.  (It is interesting that on
the fourth or fifth visit to Paris the author is unable to explain to
anyone, including his aunt, what the phrase means.)  Dan Lynch reports
as Malamud's proposal a statement that makes as much sense as
anything: "Buy my airplane tickets and I'll try to get into as much
trouble as I can.  Then, I'll write a book."  After reading the cover
blurbs, one suspects that if you were to try to design a project
antithetical to the aims and workings of the Internet, one couldn't
get much closer than a six- month trip circling the globe a few times,
dropping in on a number of people engaged in esoteric projects for
interviews.

It isn't a travelogue, since that would imply some sort of logical
plan behind the route travelled or the places visited.  It isn't all
that technical, except that the majority of people discussed work in
technical fields.  Some of it has to do with the Internet; much of it
doesn't.

What it is, is hilarious.  While novice users looking for documentation
on ftp will be mystified, net gurus, particularly those with some
knowledge of the players mentioned, will be laughing their socks off.
Even the net-illiterate will get some chuckles out of it -- Malamud has
a dry wit and a keen eye for the absurd.  I can readily sympathize
with his tale of a story killed by a marketing department.

I still haven't got the slightest idea what the book is supposed to be
*about*, but it's a lot of fun.


copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKEXPINT.RVW  940310. Distribution per-
mitted in TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups.   PAT]


Vancouver      [e-mail]
Institute for  [e-mail]
Research into  [e-mail]
User           [e-mail]
Security       Canada V7K 2G6

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

Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 03:45:47 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Richard V Tsina)
Subject: Communication Courses at Berkeley this Summer
Organization: University of California, Berkeley



U.C. BERKELEY  Continuing Education in Engineering
Announces 2 short courses on Communication Technology:

1.   WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
     (July 26-27, 1994)

     There are technical bottlenecks to developing a ubiquitous
wireless multimedia environment: the capacity of the radio link, its
unreliability due to the adverse multipath propagation channel, and
severe interference from other channels.

     This course covers the principles and fundamental concepts
engineers need to tackle these limitations (e.g., a thorough treatment
of channel impairments such as fading and multipath dispersion and
their effect on link and network performance).  Topics include:
Introduction to Wireless Channels, Cellular Telephone Networks, Analog
and Digital Transmission and Wireless Data Networks.  Comprehensive
course notes will be provided.

Lecturer: JEAN-PAUL M.G. LINNARTZ, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of
California, Berkeley.  His work on traffic analysis in mobile radio
networks received the Veder Prize, an innovative research in
telecommunications award in the Netherlands.  At Berkeley he works on
communications for intelligent vehicle highway systems and multimedia
communications.  Professor Linnartz is the author of numerous
publications and the book "Narrow Land-Mobile Radio Networks" (Artech
House, 1993), the text for the course.

2.   COMMUNICATION NETWORKS: FROM FDDI TO ATM
     (August 9-10), 1994)

    This course provides an overview of the operating principles and
design guidelines for communication networks, and includes a
description of the popular current networks and a discussion of major
industry trends.  Topics include: History and Operating Principles,
Open System Interconnection, Overview of High-Speed Networks, Physical
Layer, Switching, Trends in Data Networks (FDDI, DQDB, Frame Relay,
SMDS), Trends in Telecommunication Networks (SONET, Fiber to the home,
ISDN, Intelligent Networks, ATM), Topological Design of Networks,
Control of ATM Networks.  Comprehensive course notes will be provided.

Lecturers:

PRAVIN VARAIYA, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley.  At Berkeley he
works on stochastic systems, communication networks, power systems and
urban economics. He is the author of "Stochastic Systems: Estimation,
Identification, and Adaptive Control" (Prentice-Hall, 1986) and
coeditor of "Discrete Event Systems: Models and Applications"
(Springer, 1988).  He is a fellow of the IEEE.

JEAN WALRAND, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Sciences, University of California, Berkeley.  He is the author of "An
Introduction to Queuing Networks" (Prentice-Hall, 1988) and
"Communication Networks: A First Course" (Irwin/Aksen, 1991).

For more information (complete course descriptions, outlines,
instructor bios, etc.,) contact:

Richard Tsina
U.C. Berkeley Extension
Continuing Education in Engineering
2223 Fulton St.
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 30 May 94 20:29:40 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Dialing Changes For West Virginia and Connecticut


The Huntington (W.Va.) and Cumberland (Md.) directories have
dialing changes for West Virginia (area 304):

16 or 30 April 1994 -- 1 + NPA + 7D for local to other area codes; 7D
for long distance within 304 is permissive April 30 and mandatory
October 1.  There is at least one case of a local prefix outside of
304 duplicating something in 304: 722 at St. Albans (W.Va.) and
Cumberland (Md.), and I wrote earlier of local calls from Ridgeley
(W.Va.) to Cumberland, Md.

For Connecticut, I found Southern New England Telephone directories
whose effective date is 25 April, and they have 1 + 203 + 7D for long
distance within Connecticut.  Notice that the southwestern corner
(Greenwich and vicinity) is served by NYNEX, not by SNET.

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

Date: Sun, 29 May 94 19:02 PDT
From: [e-mail] (Robert L. McMillin)
Subject: Pac*Bell Plans to Become Internet Provider?


Has anyone heard anything about Pac*Bell's plans to become an Internet
provider?  It seems perfectly logical that they would do so -- after
all, they *do* own a lot of the physical "plant".  I have heard rumblings
 from a couple of sources, and wondered if anyone on this forum may
have heard of something.

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

From: [e-mail] (MICHAEL CONLEY)
Subject: Current List of Areacodes Wanted
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 03:14:00 GMT
Organization: The MOG-UR'S EMS/TGT Technologies, Los Angeles, CA


Does anyone happen to know where I might acquire an ASCII text listing
of current telephone area codes including the communities that they
serve?

Any replies should be addressed to [e-mail]

Thanks!

The MOG-UR'S EMS, Granada Hills, CA: 818-366-1238/8929, @mogur.com


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You might check out the Telecom Archives
for a general summary of area codes and the territories they serve. In
addition, Carl Moore and David Leibold are our resident area code archivists
here, and they may have more complete lists. In fact, I am sure they do.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Kevin Centanni)
Subject: How Do You Simulate Telco Battery Voltage?
Date: 30 May 1994 13:48:11 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


I have some voice mail cards for PC's such as Watson, BigMouth, and
the NSC TyIn2000.  Each of these cards has two modular jacks -- one
for 'phone' and one for 'line'.  I'd like to be able to send audio
into the telephone and send and receive touch-tones WITHOUT being
connected to an actual working teleco line.  None of these cards
provides the appropriate voltage to power the telephone.

I've tried to just hook a 12V supply directly to the TIP and RING on
my phone ... the phone works (I can hear touch-tones in the receiver)
 -- but I cannot decode those tones with the voice mail cards ...
additionally, there is a very annoying hum (60 Hz?) in the earpiece of
the telephone.

Does someone sell a box that provides the right voltage?  Is this a
simple circuit that I can construct?


Thanks.

[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You need to wire the voicemail card in
series to the telephone through the battery -- not in parallel. That
is, the tip of the telephone to the ring of the card, the tip of the
card to the negative of the power supply, and the positive of the
power supply to the ring of the phone. If you have the phone and the
voicemail card wired in parallel to the power supply, they (phone and
card) won't be able to hear or talk to each other. For example, I have
a Dialogic card here which I trip by applying ringing voltage to the
circuit *while the phone is on hook*, thus no open path and potentially
high voltage to harm the card's innards. Press the momentary switch
to apply the ringing voltage; the phone rings, the card sees the ringing
voltage and responds. I take the phone off hook immediatly to create
the series loop the card is looking for to stay off hook and use it to
do what I want to do with the card. The ringing voltage will wake up
the card, but upon waking if it does not find that current from the
series loop on there it will disconnect and go back to sleep. So remem-
ber, all devices (phones, etc) on one side of the power supply have to
be in series -- not parallel -- with whatever is on the other side (voice
mail card, etc).

And the way to get rid of that hum is by rectifying the direct current.
It has to be clean. You can't just use any old power supply with the
right voltage. Try one of the 13.8 volt DC supplies from Radio Shack. I
have one and it works fine for intercom use with a couple phones here.
Then get a separate supply for the ringing voltage and wire it in
parallel with the 'clean' DC talk battery. Break the circuit through a
little minature push-button you build into the phone. Superimpose ringing
current on the line by depressing the little button for a second. Listen
to the phone itself ring (at the same time the voicemail card is being
tickled). Let go of that button and lift the phone receiver immediatly;
you should be in business. I use the yellow/black second pair for this.
Green/red first pair operates the phone as always; they are the two wires
that are in series through the Dialogic card and the power supply. The
negative of my ringing current supply is in parallel with the negative
of the talk battery. I bring the positive of the ringing voltage up to
the phone through the yellow wire, break it at the press-switch, and
take it back down through the black wire to be in parallel to the positive
of the talking battery. **As long as the phone is not off hook when you
press the button for the ringing voltage** the loop will not be completed
and no harm will come to the voicemail card or the talk-battery.

Now if you find yourself accidentally pressing the button supplying the
ring current while the phone is off hook (and looped in series to the
card), you can eliminate ugly accidents (like blowing up the card) by
using the 'normally closed' contact in the phone itself. (I am speaking
now of a standard 500 desk set type phone). While most contacts in the
phone 'network' (or innards) are 'normally open' and close only when the
phone is off hook, there is one in there which functions the other way
around. It is not used for anything else that I know of, so I take that
ringing current and break it not only at the push button I installed, but
also through the 'normally closed' contact in the phone itself. This
way, when the phone is off hook, you can press the button all you like,
but the ringing voltage will go nowhere because you have that loop cut
off. Of course it never hurts to add a couple fuses in the line to prevent
other short circuits, etc from playing nasty games.   PAT]

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

From: perdigot@hp_1.dee.uc.pt (Joao Perdigoto)
Subject: ETSI contact
Date: 30 May 1994 08:54:08 GMT
Organization: Dep. de Matematica da Univ. de Coimbra


Hi,

Does anyone knows if ETSI has an ftp site available?


joao perdigoto

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

From: [e-mail] (James Baker)
Subject: Why Does Long Distance Cost Extra?
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 18:13:22 -0800
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.


As I understand it, 90 percent of the cost phone service is for the
'last mile', ie the local loops. So 10 percent or less is for long
distance. Yet we pay dearly for the use of this 10 percent.  I also
understand it costs more to track and bill for long distance than to
provide the service. Is this correct?

And somebody has to pay for those TV ads ... or do they?

   I know the historical reasons for charging extra for what years ago
was technically difficult (sendind undistorted signals over long
wires). And how business users were thought to be bigger users and
better able to afford long distance. That's not what I'm asking here.
I'm wanting more technical info for a possible article.

   Does anybody know how much the national long distance plant cost to
build? And what would it cost if useage doubled or increased five
times because long distance was "free"?

   In case you can't guess I think it would be great for the economy
and the country as a whole to have one nationwide calling zone.  But
is it technically feasable?

   Comments?


James Baker   Seattle, WA   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Greg Vaeth at Jerrold Communications)
Subject: Cost of Caller ID in PA
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 00:48:37 GMT


Hi,

An insert in my latest bill contained a notice that Bell Atlantic will
offer Caller ID in Pennsylvania in August.  The cost for residential
customers is $6.50/month, business is $8.50.  Call blocking and
anonymous call rejection are free.  This charge seem outrageous
considering that the equipment to do it is already there, right?  How
else does return call, repeat call and all that stuff work. How does
this rate compare to other states?


Regards,

Gregory Vaeth                 General Instrument
internet: [e-mail]   Communications Division
voicenet: [phone]      2200 Byberry Road
faxnet:   [phone]      Hatboro, PA  19040

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #259
******************************


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To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #260

TELECOM Digest     Tue, 31 May 94 07:46:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 260

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Help Needed: Fax/Answering Machine/Phone (Kathy Vincent)
    x.25 and Internet (Min Hu)
    Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose (Terry Greenlee)
    Re: Need Distinctive Ring Line Splitter ([e-mail])
    Re: Hexadecimal Uuencode? (Glen C. Hoag)
    Re: Hexadecimal Uuencode? (Rob Levandowski)
    Re: Hexadecimal Uuencode? (John Gardiner Myers)
    Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted (John Lundgren)
    Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted (Evan Gamblin)
    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing ([e-mail])
    Re: Annoying COCOT Problem (Stu Jeffery)
    Re: Annoying COCOT Problem ([e-mail])
    Re: DTMF Decoding Help Needed (John Lundgren)
    Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router? (John R Levine)
    Re: Using Call Forwarding to Avoid Tolls (Shag Aristotelis)
    Re: Sprint "Combined Billing" Error (Mark E Daniel)
    Re: Equal Access is Not Available Here (David Devereaux-Weber)
    Re: Rude Not to Leave Answering Machine Messages? (Ole Hellevik)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

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Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
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*************************************************************************

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All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Kathy Vincent)
Subject: Help Needed: Fax/Answering Machine/Phone
Date: 31 May 1994 03:23:49 GMT
Organization: Wake Forest University


A friend of mine is having problems on her business telephone line
with a combination FAX machine, answering machine, and two-line cordless
telephone.

Description of the setup:

She has two telephone lines -- two separate jacks, one for the
business line and one for the personal line.  (Both are voice lines.)

The business line has three pieces of equipment on it, connected
in the following order:

  WALL    ----> FAX  -------> Answering ----> Cordless
              Machine       Machine         Telephone

The answering machine has to come after the FAX machine on the line so
that if the answering machine picks up and a FAX tone is coming in,
the FAX machine will hear the tone and pick up the line.

The personal line is also connected to the same cordless telephone --
from the wall directly to the telephone (a two-line phone).

The equipment is:

    FAX machine: Sharp GQ-60 (5 yrs old)

    Answering machine: Sony digital TAM-1000 (3 mos old)

    Telephone: Panasonic 2-line phone system KX-T3980H  (1 mo old)
            (cordless)


Description of the problem:

Anytime the line is open for 120 seconds, the FAX machine cuts in.
Even if my friend is talking on the phone, even if she is just calling
in remotely to pick up messages from her answering machine.  The only
way to stop the FAX machine from cutting in is to turn it off -- which
defeats the purpose of having the machine.  Also, my friend spends a
lot of time out of the office as part of her work, so she's not there
to turn off the machine -- and, furthermore, needs the whole
collection of equipment to be working precisely BECAUSE she's not
there.


Request for help/suggestions/anythingelseuseful:

1.  Does anyone have any ideas how my friend might be able to
    get all that equipment to work together -- and keep the
    FAX machine from interrupting after any and every 120
    seconds of open line?  Any useful tricks to try?
    Might there be some piece of not-too-expensive (<$100) equipment
    that could solve the problem?

2.  Can anyone recommend integrated equipment -- a 3-in-one
    combination in which all THREE elements are quality?
    She says she's found some combinations, but the answering
    machine is usually junk.  She would prefer a digital answering
    machine (i.e., no tapes).  Can anyone recommend anything that might
    do the job -- especially anything <=$500?

Thanks for any help, via follow-up or email.  If anyone else is
interested, I'll summarize any email responses on the net.


Kathy Vincent   [e-mail]

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

Subject: x.25 and Internet
From: Min Hu <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 02:24:32 -0400


I am wondering if there is any free gateway between X.25 network and
Internet.  Specifically speaking, a friend of mine has account in the
X.25 network -- DATAPAC, a X.25 network in Canada. I have an account
on an Internet machine. I want to transfer some files to him, but do
not know if there is a gateway between DATAPAC and the Internet so
that he can log into my system.


Thanks,

MIN

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

From: [e-mail] (Terry Greenlee)
Subject: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose
Date: 30 May 94 20:44:36 GMT
Organization: Hip-Hop BBS


I am having trouble with my phone lines at home and I was wondering if
anyone else had this same thing happen to them?  My existing two
lines in my home work fine at 14.4. The phone company brought in more
lines to add a third line.

The third line will only connect at 7200 bd at best and usually 4800
bd. I tested them at the box beside the house to make sure it was not
my inside wires. The phone company tested it from the main office and
found no problem. Monday a Bell tech will come out to test.

I have this same problem in Modesto on a fax line also.  Does anyone
at Pacific Bell know how to fix these problems?  Can you point my in
the right direction?


Thank you for any help.

Terry  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (puma)
Subject: Re: Need Distinctive Ring Line Splitter
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 01:07:21 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, Al Cohan <0004526627@mcimail.
com> wrote:

> I purchased a device from Lynx Automation, Inc. in Washington State
> and the device is purported to sense the incoming ring cadence an
> forward the call to either a phone system or fax. This unit is
> available in two and four line versions corresponding to the four
> distinct industry standard cadences available.

> We now come to find out that the company says "Oh, it sometimes
> doesn't work with 1A2 and some PBX's. It seems to work okay with the
> newer electronic key systems". Well I am steamed! MY client is not
> about to upgrade to a new system nor pay the $100 installation charge
> for a residential line plus about $26.00 per month for low fax usage.

I would think, provided that your PBX or 1A2 has individually numbered
trunk lines coming in (as opposed to a DID scheme where telco passes
the number dialed to you on common trunk lines) that you could install
a distinctive ring type switch on the line BEFORE the PBX/1A2.  In
other words, the incoming line would go to the switch, and the normal
single ring output would go to the PBX/1A2, the double ring output
would go directly to the FAX.

The problem I still see is with hunt groups.  The fax line would have
to be a separate line not part of a hunt group, otherwise you could
not tell which trunk the calls would come in on.  I wouldn't think you
could get distinctive ring in that situation anyway.


[e-mail]

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

From: Glen C. Hoag <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Hexadecimal Uuencode?
Date: Mon, 30 May 94 10:46:07 CDT
Organization: Lamir Software Corp.
Reply-To: [e-mail]


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

> We're having a problem properly recieving attachments from a remote
> site.  The administrator claims the remote site has a "binary to
> hexadecimal" encoder, implying that hex is being transmitted.  The
> remote site is using CC:Mail.  The users we're working with haven't
> got a clue ...

> Sounds like hogwash to me, I've never heard of such, and all my docs
> on three different sets of uuxxcode only talk about binary to ASCII
> and back.

> But before I jump down their throat I thought I'd ask somebody that
> *really* knows what's happening ...

Is it possible that the site in question is Mac-based and using
BinHex?  BinHex is a standard encoding for Macintosh files over
"foreign" systems.  I'm not familiar with the encoding choices that
cc:Mail offers, but many Mac <-> SMTP/UUCP gateways support BinHex and
UUencoded AppleSingle (which is yet another can of worms).

The actual standard for BinHex is available at the usual Macintosh
archives, such as sumex-aim.stanford.edu and mac.archive.umich.edu.
There are BinHex decoders for other platforms, as well.

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

From: [e-mail] (Rob Levandowski)
Subject: Re: Hexadecimal Uuencode?
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York
Date: Mon, 30 May 94 17:46:52 GMT


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

> We're having a problem properly recieving attachments from a remote
> site.  The administrator claims the remote site has a "binary to
> hexadecimal" encoder, implying that hex is being transmitted.  The
> remote site is using CC:Mail.  The users we're working with haven't
> got a clue ...

Could it be "BinHex", the Macintosh file converter? Mac files are
usually run through this program for UNIX emailing; the Mac file
structure is difficult to convert to a binary format that other
computers can deal with.  BinHex, and its workalikes, convert the Mac
file to an ASCII representation (which, I believe, is in hexadecimal
code).

Such files are normally suffixed ".hqx".


Rob Levandowski   [e-mail]
Computer Interest Floor associate / University of Rochester

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

From: John Gardiner Myers <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Hexadecimal Uuencode?
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 16:48:39 -0400
Organization: Systems Group 97, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


Well, it would help to see a sample of the message to determine what
format it might be in.

One possibility might be that it is in MIME (Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions) format, a relatively new but increasingly popular
standard for encoding non-text things in messages.

The base64 encoding of MIME, which is usually used for the encoding of
binary objects, looks something like:

WW91IGhhdmUgdG9vIG11Y2ggdGltZSBvbiB5b3VyIGhhbmRzLCB0byByZWFkIHRoaXMuICAg

There is also an encoding called quoted-printable, which looks like
normal text with a bunch of = signs in it, especially at the ends of
lines.

Assuming you don't have any existing MIME-aware software, the easiest
way to be able to decode MIME is to get mpack/munpack, via anonymous
FTP to ftp.andrew.cmu.edu, in directory pub/mpack.  Versions are
available for Unix, MS-DOS, Macintosh, and the Amiga.  The software
can also decode uuencoded messages.

If munpack does not produce any results on a particular MIME message,
it might help to try again using the "-t" switch (or on the Macintosh,
by checking the "Extract Text Parts" box under Preferences).


John G. Myers    Internet: [e-mail]
LoseNet: ...!seismo!ihnp4!wiscvm.wisc.edu!give!up

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

From: [e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted
Date: 31 May 94 00:49:44 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Steve Chafe ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Does anyone know what the average speed (in characters per minute, or
> whatever is appropriate) of a professional telegrapher would have been
> when wire telegraphy was the main mode of electronic communication?
> I'm trying to do a comparison of data communication speed then and
> now, so I'd love to hear any thoughts that people can offer.

The biography of Thos. A. Edison had some stuff about how fast Edison
was at the key.  But he was at least twice as fast as an average
telegrapher, maybe more.  My guess would be about twenty words per
minute.  BTW You could ask the hams on rec.radio.amateur.misc for an
answer.

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

Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 20:23:03 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Evan Gamblin)
Subject: Re Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted


> Does anyone know what the average speed (in characters per minute,
> or whatever is appropriate) of a professional telegrapher would have
> been when wire telegraphy was the main mode of electronic
> communication?

"A top operator could bang out 40-50 words a minute; 25-35 words was
competent".

This was the situation in the mid-1850s, according to A Voice From
Afar (The History of Telecommunications in Canada), ISBN 0-07-082867-9.

Were these five-letter words, as in typing?


Evan Gamblin    The Halifax Group
903-275 Sparks St   Ottawa, Ont K1R 7X9 Canada

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing
Date: Mon, 30 May 94 18:12:20 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


Gordon Burditt <[e-mail]> writes:

>> Currently, 0+ calls are sent to the operator services provider
>> (OSP) to which the premises owner or payphone provider presubscribes.
>> Under BPP, calls would be routed automatically to the OSP preferred by
>> the party being billed for the call.  For example, a calling card call
>> would be routed to the cardholder's preferred OSP.  A collect call
>> would be routed to the called party's preferred OSP.  A call billed to
>> a third party would be routed to the OSP to which that third party had
>> presubscribed.

That just great, lay off thousands from OSP companies.  Destroy an
entire inudstry, just because a couple of people can't figure out
10xxx? Plus we the consumer will have to come up with millions to fund
Bill Party Preference.  Then as consumers were going to have to
subsidize it too.  If you want my opion it's just simplier to dial
1-800-COLLECT or 1-800-CALL-ATT.

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

Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 05:30:47 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Stu Jeffery)
Subject: Re Annoying COCOT Problem


In TELECOM Digest V14 #257, Darren Griffitsh writes:

> Basically, if I call my voice mail system to check for messages the
> phone frequently cuts out the keypad, disabling DTMF tones ...

Why don't you try a pocket dialer from Radio Shack, etc.


Stu Jeffery              Internet: [e-mail]
1072 Seena Ave.                   voice:   415-966-8199
Los Altos, CA. 94024              fax:     [phone]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Annoying COCOT Problem
Date: Tue, 31 May 94 07:02:16 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


Darren Alex Griffiths <[e-mail]> writes:

> Basically, if I call my voice mail system to check for messages the
> phone frequently cuts out the keypad, disabling DTMF tones, before I'm
> finished with the call.  I've given up using my calling card since the
> extra digits allow me to only check two or three messages; without the
> calling card I can get through a few more messages but using the pause
> or rewind functions are not advised. Misdialing of the password essenti-
> ally makes the call useless since I have to redial it and by that time
> I wasted most of my precious digits.

As a owner of 2000 COCOTS I like to say in defense that we lock out
our keypads after connection for protection against fraud because the
LEC splashes back dial tone sometimes after a disconnect.


[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why don't *you* resolve that problem by
registering with telco to get a coin line then? With telco's assistance
and using call supervision, you could eliminate most of the fraud problems
you encounter while not making it so rough on your honest customers.  PAT]

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

From: sgiblab!news.kn.PacBell.COM![e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding Help Needed
Date: 30 May 94 16:05:02 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


DANIEL FINKLER ([e-mail]) wrote:

> [e-mail] writes:

>> I am writing a program that needs to decode telephone touch tone
>> signals.  The problem is that I am having trouble finding a DTMF
>> decoder.  If anyone know where I can get ahold of one I would
>> appreciate it.

> You can use USRobotics courier modems' touch tone recognition feature.
> They can recognize DTMF tones, including A,B,C,D.

Also, ZyXEL modems can recognize DTMF.  There is a ZyXEL FAQ at
nctuccca.edu.tw.  Under /pc/zyxel/ directory.

There are other sites also.


John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs
Rancho Santiago Community College District
17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706
VOI (714) JOHN GAB \ FAX (714) JOHN FRY
[e-mail] \ [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 30 May 94 12:37 EDT
From: [e-mail] (John R Levine)
Subject: Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router?
Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass.


> If so, what's the *cheapest* router available?  Can a Unix box
> connect to a digital comm line (56k)?

The answer to the first question is an old 286, which costs about
$300, running PCROUTE, which is free.  You need to add in an Ethernet
card, about $60, and the DDS interface.  The leased line FAQ just
posted includes, a reference for a DDS interface with packet driver
software that will let it work under PCROUTE.

It's true, PCROUTE has been around for a while.  But fortunately IP
routing (other than at the highest performance backbone sites) hasn't
changed for years, so it works just fine.  I use a pair of 286es with
Wavelan wireless Ethernet cards to hook to the Internet and it works
great.  Hard to beat the price.


Regards,

John Levine, [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Shag Aristotelis)
Subject: Re: Using Call Forwarding to Avoid Tolls
Date: 31 May 94 00:42:52 GMT
Organization: Screaming in Digital, the Queensryche Digest


I can offer some practical experience and information concerning the
legality of this practice.

Two years ago, I put in a forwarding line at a relative's house to
avoid tolls on calls to the 'net.  At the time, I talked quite a bit
to multiple people at the RBOC, and established that it was legal (if,
perhaps, not very ethical) since I was paying for all the services
involved.  Since that time, I have paid $15/month for the line with
forwarding, and have as a result had unlimited access to the 'net.

The dialin I use has 48 modems on it, in a hunt group, so I also let
other net-users from my county (a fairly rural area) dial in through
that number and through the data line here, which now also has
forwarding on it, pointing to the original forwarding line.  This
effectively provides free dialins to the state universities for users
in two dozen townships.  The maximum distance possible from a user
through the two forwards to the university dialup is currently
approximately 35 to 40 miles.

I have developed diagrams covering the entire RBOC territory in this
state, and at least one other similar (one-hop) system is in place in
the next area code.  In the coming months, there's a possibility that
an internet access provider will be established in my county, using
forwarding lines (set up by guess who) to connect to a higher-level
service provider near the city.


Shag

Screaming in Digital: [e-mail]
GEOS Binary Moderator: [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 30May 1994 16:53:04 EST
From: [e-mail] (Mark E Daniel)
Subject: Re: Sprint "Combined Billing" Error


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

> [e-mail] (Mike Pollock) writes:

>> Sprint recently changed me over from direct billing to "combined
>> billing" on my NYNEX local telephone bill.  Simple, right?  Wrong.

> One solution is simply to not pay the NYNEX bill, call Sprint, and

The thing I really dislike about combined billing is that it takes so
damn long to be billed for a call.  If I make an Ameritech Calling
Card today I will be billed for it on my June 1, 94 bill.  But if I
make a 1+ or a FONCARD call with Sprint (my default carrier) I won't
be billed until 7/1.  I suppose I ought to call Sprint and say I want
a seperate bill as it *used* to be.  Either that or switch back.  AT&T
doesn't suffer from this slowness.


Mark E Daniel                  (Loving SysOp of The Legend BBS)
Inet: [e-mail]  [e-mail] (Direct INet)

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

Date: Mon, 30 May 94 14:47:45 CDT
From: David Devereaux-Weber <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: David Devereaux-Weber <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Equal Access is Not Available Here


[e-mail]  asked about equal access.

Jeff, you don't say where this is.  Equal Access depends on "generic"
software in the telephone central office switch.  If their switch
doesn't support it, they can't do it untill they put in a new CO
switch.  Switches costs continue to rise.  The increase of technical
complexity and cost is making it increasingly difficult for small
independents.

Public Service Commissions regulate telephone service within their
state, and the Federal Communications Commission regulates telephone
companies at the federal level.  If you want to get the phone company's
attention, send them a letter asking them to let you know when they
intend to implement equal access.  Let them know that if you don't get
a response, your next letter will be copied to the PSC and the FCC.


David Devereaux-Weber, P.E.             [e-mail] (Internet)
The University of Wisconsin - Madison   [phone] (voice)
Division of Information Technology      [phone] (FAX)
Network Engineering

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

From: [e-mail] (Ole Hellevik)
Subject: Re: Rude Not to Leave Answering Machine Messages?
Organization: Eskimo North (206) For-Ever
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 21:26:02 GMT


[e-mail] wrote:

[ stuff about answering machines deleted ]

> Incidentally while I'm at the keyboard ... it's taken me a while to
> realise that US analogue cellular systems providers require you, the
> the phone owner and payer of the airtime bill, actually to pay for
> incoming calls. How the heck have they managed to convince people to
> go for that?!?

By making the other cost of calling to and from a cellular phone the
same as a land line phone, i.e.: no charge (except airtime) if you're
in the same city.  I don't know how it works in the UK, but I know
that in Norway, there is always a toll charge equivalent to the most
expensive LD call no matter how close (or far away) the cellphone is.


Ole C. Hellevik
linqdev![e-mail]   [e-mail]   [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #260
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
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To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #262

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 1 Jun 94 12:34:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 262

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Annoying COCOT Problem (Mark E. Daniel)
    Re: Annoying COCOT Problem (Steve Kass)
    Re: How Do You Simulate Telco Battery Voltage? (Paul Jonathan E. Go)
    Re: How Do You Simulate Telco Battery Voltage? (David B. Thomas)
    Re: DTMF Decoding Help Needed (David B. Thomas)
    Re: RBOCS & Video Remote Learning in Schools? (Bob Schwartz)
    Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range (David B. Thomas)
    Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range (Tawfig Al-Rabiah)
    Re: Book Review: "Internet: Mailing Lists" by Hardie/Neou (Nick Sayer)
    Re: DS3 to Fiber Optic Convertor (Paul J. Zawada)
    Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted (Bill Mayhew)
    Re: Misdialed Numbers (Mike Pollock)
    Re: Sprint "Combined Billing" Error (Mike Pollock)
    Re: Annoyance Calls From Answering Machine ([e-mail])
    Re: Annoyance Calls From Answering Machine (Gary D. Shapiro)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
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use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 04:16:06 EST
From: [e-mail] (Mark E Daniel)
Subject: Re: Annoying COCOT Problem


You could just use an external tone dialer.  They don't disable the
mouth piece. :) I believe this is done to stop hackers and the like.
But all it really does is annoy honest people since a hacker is
probably going to have a tone dialer or a tape recorder anyway.

I also find it annoying that the COCOT (what does that stand for
anyway) phones have these little computers in them that verify what
I'm dialing.  Only problem is that they are not kept up-to-date. And
what's the point of verifing my dialing anyway ... I've never had it
deny an 800 number. But then I've never tried a 900 number. :) Maybe
that's it.

Also within the last ten months GTE made a deal with Ameritech to
allow me to use my Ameritech calling card in GTE-land for local calls
except that I get billed 10 cents extra plus three cents tax for that
one call. :).  Oh, I HATE non-Ameritech payphones.  I stick my tounge
out at them and run ... :)


Mark E Daniel   (Loving SysOp of The Legend BBS)
Inet: [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: COCOT = 'Customer Owned, Coin Operated
Telephone'. Or perhaps the correct phrase is 'Coin Operated, Customer
Owned Telephone'. For all the rotten things people have had to say about
the Telephone Company over the years, you sure can't beat their coin
phone service, eh?  At least not when compared to the others.  PAT]

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

Subject: Re: Annoying COCOT Problem
From: [e-mail] (Steve Kass)
Date: 1 Jun 94 11:25:52 EDT
Organization: Drew Univ Academic Computing


In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 : Issue 260 Stu Jeffery <[e-mail].
com> writes:

> In TELECOM Digest V14 #257, Darren Griffitsh writes:

>> Basically, if I call my voice mail system to check for messages the
>> phone frequently cuts out the keypad, disabling DTMF tones ...

> Why don't you try a pocket dialer from Radio Shack, etc.

A pocket dialer may not work.  The technology is in place to detect
DTMF whether or not it is generated by the instrument.

This is not solely a COCOT problem, either.  NYTel and many other BOCs
routinely disable the keypad, and even disconnect calls, after some
"excessive" number of tones, under the guise of the war against drugs.
My belief from hazy information provided me by AT&T, NYTel, and various
regulatory organizations is that local law enforcement officials work
with the telcos to discourage the use of voice mail and beeper services
in certain parts of certain cities at certain times.

So far as I have been able to gather, the telcos are free to do this,
or at least no regulatory agency seems to care that they do this.  I
do wonder, however, how they can get away with detecting DTMF generated
outside the instrument and disconnecting a call as a result.  Is this
any different from disconnecting a call when vulgar words are spoken?
Anyone care to speculate?

For now, the best solution is to ask your long distance carrier to
remove the charges for calls that have been disconnected.  AT&T will
do so, and perhaps if this happens often enough, they will get annoyed
enough to help put pressure on the BOCs to stop this nonsense.


Steve Kass/ Math & CS/ Drew U/ Madison NJ 07940/ 201-514-1187
[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Jonathan E. Go)
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 23:21:22 -0700
Subject: Re: How Do You Simulate Telco Battery Voltage?
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA


> ... The ringing voltage will wake up the card, but upon waking if it
> does not find that current from the series loop on there it will
> disconnect and go back to sleep ...


Pat --

Would you know how the card detects the series loop current?  I'm
building a patch through box, and it would be nice if the box could
hang up when everyone else has hung up.


Paul Jonathan E. Go   Caltech MSC 1028   213 344 7275
Pasadena CA 91126     [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Off hand I do not know the technical
aspects of the card itself; only what it will and won't do. Remove
the current from the line and the card quits. That's one reason why
in my opinion anyone using such a card in a public voicemail applica-
tion is advised to get ground start lines from telco. That way once
the calling party hangs up, the current is gone; no risk of (for
example) the card getting hung somehow, coming back into service and
finding dialtone on the line and doing something ugly you don't want
it to do, like making outgoing 900 calls for someone hanging on the
other side of it. To answer your question, the easy answer would be
just make sure the current is not there between calls. No current, no
action.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (David B. Thomas)
Subject: Re: How Do You Simulate Telco Battery Voltage?
Organization: Yenta public access, Albuquerque, NM
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 00:53:26 GMT


I have a schematic for a loop simulator that offers short and long
line simulation as well as ring and backward polarity.  It's pretty
simple to build.  I have the schematic only in paper form but I am
willing to snailmail it to anyone who is interested.  (I have built
myself one of these and I use it all the time.  You can even plug two
phones in and have them talk to each other, or one phone and one
answering machine, for offline testing.)


David

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

From: [e-mail] (David B. Thomas)
Subject: Re: DTMF Decoding Help Needed
Organization: Yenta public access, Albuquerque, NM
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 00:55:32 GMT


If you're an electronics hobbyist, you can get a DTMF receiver chip
that never fails for under five bucks.  Then you can interface it with
a display and/or memory (to make your own standalone device) or with a
serial line, for attaching to your computer or a terminal.  I can get
you part numbers, supply houses, even example circuits.  Also try on
sci.electronics.  Nuts&Volts magazine has ads for kits and also
ready-made DTMF readers.


David

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

Subject: Re: RBOCS & Video Remote Learning in Schools?
From: [e-mail] (Bob Schwartz)
Date: Tue, 31 May 94 18:08:59 PDT
Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California


[e-mail] (Robert Virzi) writes:

> In article <[e-mail]>, Gerry Moersdorf <gerry@aiinet.
> com> wrote:

>> Does anyone have an opinion on what the RBOCS are trying to do by
>> pushing TV remote learning grants and equipment to school systems?
>> The schools in our district don't even have telephones in classrooms
>> let alone a LAN for a client server teaching tool.  To me the priorities
>> are all turned around.  What possible business could RBOCS build with the
>> "poor" school districts?

Consider that such "video lines" would allow teachers of special
subjects to "travel" to schools telephonically. Advantage: One teacher
could instruct more students in the course of a day. Disadvantage: The
quality of instruction and the impact on jobs for teachers.  This
represents financial benefit to a school which must either bus the
student to the teacher or get the teacher to be on campus. Stickey
wicket with very broad ramifications 'eh?

Education via television ... who else could benefit by turning teachers
into TV proctors? Oh yes, let's not forget the absent mechanisms protecting
children from commercial advertisment when they're a captive audience.


Bob Schwartz                                       [e-mail]
Bill Correctors, Inc.   [phone]   Marin County, California


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Wasn't that the complaint about a company
called 'Channel One' which was going to give a bunch of video equipement
free to any schools that wanted it?  In return, all the schools had to do
was tune in the broadcast Channel One presented every day to students with
news reports, etc.  Of course, there would be messages from the sponsor
as well.

But really, I can't get too worked up about that scenario. Life in the
real world -- a place not frequented by very many Usenetters it seems -- :)
calls for *money*, the root of all evil/good, to accomplish certain
things. To me, its a trade off which if kept in the proper balance is
a good one. For example, the schools in Chicago are in such terrible
condition that anything -- anything at all -- would help. But they turned
down Channel One's offer here; after all, there might be a commercial for
some product and all the little children and their stupid teachers might
somehow be unduly influenced. I suggest taking all those free offers being
made to the schools, etc. After all, with the general condition of public
education in the United States today, what possible harm could it do? Oh,
I am sure the teacher's union would not like it, but phooey to them.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (David B. Thomas)
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range
Organization: Yenta public access, Albuquerque, NM
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 01:07:40 GMT


I used to belong to a ham radio club and we had a repeater up on a
nearby mountain (sandia crest, for those who know new mexico).  It has
a phone patch on it and of course the range is in the hundreds of
miles.

Unfortunately, ham radio people in Albuquerque being what they are,
anyone under 50 years of age is subtly discouraged from using it, with
whatever lame excuses are handy at the time.

Naturally, I quit paying the dues!  But the technical part worked
great, and I came really close to establishing my own club and repeater.
I still own the phone patch and repeater hardware (wanna buy it??).

I ended up setting up a simplex autopatch for my own use (which I'm
also trying to get rid of).  This is not as cool as a full duplex
unit, as you cannot interrupt each other.  It relies on timeouts and
pauses during conversation.

Actually I found that how well it works is a good indicator of the
intelligence of the person on the other end.  It definitely stopped me
from dating some real bimbos. ;^) My grandma, a relative technophobe,
handled it magnificently.  Perhaps she comes from the old school where
you wait till the other person stops speaking before you start. :-/

My setup wasn't strictly legal because the base station lacked an
automatic station identifier.  But those are cheap.  (So was I.)

I lived in a suburb of Albuquerque and beamed my signal into the city.
It covered the whole city just fine, plus several miles outside in all
directions.  I had a nice high antenna on high terrain, though.

So if you have a ham license or don't mind getting one, and are
willing to spend some money up front on radios and the like, you can
set yourself up pretty well.

It's true that you're not allowed to conduct business transactions
over the amateur radio service.  This has never stopped me from
ordering a pizza but it should be borne in mind!


David   occasionally admitting to call sign N5IZU

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

From: [e-mail] (Tawfig Al-Rabiah)
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range
Date: 31 May 1994 18:24:01 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh Computer Science


Do you know who sells this type of phones?  I need to get one to use
overseas.


Tawfig


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, we understand, for export only.
(Loud guffaws heard coming from audience). I suggest you buy one
overseas in whatever country you plan to use it in. If it is legal
in that country, I'm sure there are radio and telephone sales places
that will gladly part with one in exchange for money.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Nick Sayer)
Subject: Re: Book Review: "Internet: Mailing Lists" by Hardie/Neou
Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: [phone], log in as 'guest'.
Date: 31 May 1994 18:02:40 UTC


Rob Slade <[e-mail]> writes:

> "Most of the book is a listing of a number of mailing lists.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

It's bad enough that electronic sources for lists of mailing lists are
so out of date. Now we have it all carved in stone so that generations
of newbies yet to come will send mail to obsolete addresses that died
eons ago.

I don't suppose the authors asked before they put lists in their book.
I don't suppose they _even_ _checked_ _up_ to see if the list was
still alive. Will someone who has the book please look and see if
'[e-mail]' or '[e-mail]' is in there and please
put a contract out on the author(s) if so?

> You can get similar lists on the net, but this includes lists from a
> number of sources, as well as more detail than you might get from a
> simple listing.  They also have probably done some editing to get rid
> of some deadwood.  More than deadwood, actually.  NETTRAIN doesn't
> make it."

> "So you could get all this free?  Why buy the book?"

> "Oh, you could get all the info, and more up to date stuff as well.

That's the understatement of the year. I bet the rough draft was
obsolete before it even got to the editor's.

> But you'd have to grab yourself three or four huge files.  Even then,
> you wouldn't have all the info that is listed here.  You'd also have
> to check it out different ways, search all the synonyms for what you
> want, and that sort of thing.  If you are just a hobby user, maybe you
> don't want this, but if you are serious about the Internet, then you
> probably do.  If you are acting as an Internet resource or trainer you
> *definitely* want this book."

NOT! They really want us to believe that a book is easier to search
than a file? Barnum was right.


Nick Sayer <[e-mail]>    N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM
[phone], log in as 'guest'   PGP 2.2 key and geek code via finger

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

Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 16:26:32 -0500
From: Paul J Zawada <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: DS3 to Fiber Optic Convertor


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

> Does anyone know of a DS3 to fiber optic (multimode) converter?  That
> is a device that extends a T3 line over multimode optical fiber>

Canoga-Perkins (818-718-6300) make T3-to-fiber converters in both
multi- and single-mode varieties.  Canoga-Perkins sells direct.

Telco Systems makes a single-mode version but I don't know about
multi-mode. (You can make single-mode optics work over multi-mode
fiber over short distances.) Telco Systems equipment can be obtained
through one of the big telecom distributors like Anixter.

These things are pretty expensive.  You can expect to pay about
US$10,000 for a pair of multi-mode T3 extenders; US$15,000 for a pair
of single-mode extenders.


Paul J. Zawada                                    KB9FMN
NCSAnet Network Engineer                          [e-mail]
National Center for Supercomputing Applications


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I though Anixter was more in the wire
and cable business. Their headquarters is a block away from me over on
Golf Road; in fact I applied for a job there once.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Bill Mayhew)
Subject: Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 02:48:29 GMT


That would be a good question to refer to the rec.ham-radio.  There
were some pretty good articles on the subject posted there within the
last year.  From my faulty recollection, unassisted human send and receive
speed records are in the 70 WPM range.  That is five character words
separated by a space.  International Morse Code is a bit strange in
that the symbol length is variable.  Common letters such are encoded
with short symbols.  For instance, E is a single "dit".  J is
di-dah-dah-dah.  ... and you thoght that the ideas behind LHZ compression
were born in the 20th century?

It isn't too difficult with a little practice to send and receive
about 20 WPM without special equipment.  That is about my level, and I
don't particularly like brass-pounding on the radio.  Several of my
friends can hear 40 WPM, but use electronic keyers that have separate
dit and dah paddles to make sending easier.  I've never really gotten
the hand of an electronic keyer ... it seems a little like defeating
the purpose of sending Morse Code to use a keyer.  Purists like to
think of Morse Code transmission in religious terms.  I don't really
care too much, but code sending has the great advatage of being able
to send a message around the world with just a few watts of power.  A
five watt Morse Code rig can probably send just as copyable, albeit
slower, message as a 1500 watt single sideband voice rig in many
situations.  For Morse transmissions, the bandwidth necessary is
approximately the WPM * 4.  60 WPM code only needs 240 Hz of bandwidth
to prevent intersymbol interferece at the receiving end.  On the
shortwave bands, a voice signal might use as much as 2,300 Hz
bandwidth and probably won't be able to do any better than 60 WPM
spoken without error.

For 8-bit radio telegraphy, ASCII for instance, the necessary
bandwith is approximated by BW = ISHIFT * 1.2 * BAUD.

To answer the prvious posting, yes, ASCII coded transmissions are now
allowable.  I forget when ASCII was adopted, but it's been in the ham
radio hobby for 15 years or so.  Before ASCII, the FCC permitted
5-level Baudot coded transmissions.  A lot of Teletype brand and
Kleinschmidt gear filtered out of the Bell system into ham radio in
the 1960s.  I still have a Teleype model 19 that first went into bell
system service in 1932 sitting in my basement.  The poroblem is that I
can't find any easy way to get rid of it.  Hams typically used 60 WPM
transmission, but 72 was common in some nets.  Some military machines
were geared for 45.45 baud.  I worked at Ft.  Meade as late as 1980,
and 45.45 baud maritime service was still common them.  Such low
speeds seemed ridiculous even then, but there was still a huge
infrastructure of model 28 TTYs still around.  60 mA current loop
operation was common for ham equipment.  Government stuff operated at
60 uA with special magnets and contacts to minimize RF emissions for
keyboards, perfs and trnamsmitter-distributor equipment.

Ham radio has come a long way.  10.55 GHz links running tcp/ip at two
Mb/s are in use.  There are national infrasctructures running 9600 bps
backbones AX.25 packet on VHF links scattered around the globe.  Most
local traffic is still relatively slow 1200 bps AX.25, but 9600 is
gaining in popularity.  HF links use multitone CLOVER systems now,
with 300 baud the defacto standard, but 1200 baud and even higher
tieing the continents together.  Hams have even launched quite a few
low earth orbit satelites with packet store and forward capabilities
in an assortment of HF, VHF and UHF link and speed combinations.


Bill Mayhew        NEOUCOM Computer Services Department
Rootstown, OH  44272-0095  USA      phone: [phone]
[e-mail]       amateur radio 146.58: N8WED

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

From: [e-mail] (Mike Pollock)
Subject: Re: Misdialed Numbers
Date: 31 May 1994 14:40:32 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


About a year ago I got a call on my personal 800 number from a
southern- accented guy.  Apparently some friends of his at a truckstop
had told him about the personal 800 numbers they use to keep in touch
with loved-ones back home.  He, it turned out, was simply trying to
call his sister, who did NOT have an 800 number, by putting 800 in
front of her seven-digit local number, which was the same as the last
seven digits of my 800 number.

I found all this out only after getting two confused-sounding hang-ups
on my answering machine (I was screening).  I answered the third call
with "customer service?" at which point the gentleman explained his
plight.  I politely explained that, unless his sister subscribed to an
800 service, he couldn't just call her by adding 800 to her local
number.

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

From: [e-mail] (Mike Pollock)
Subject: Re: Sprint "Combined Billing" Error
Date: 31 May 1994 14:45:49 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


Robert M. Hamer ([e-mail]) wrote:

> One solution is simply to not pay the NYNEX bill, call Sprint, and
> tell them you don't want "combined billing."  They didn't kick when I
> did that.  If they did kick, tell them you'll feel free to change to
> another long distance company.  You ought to be able to get rates
> similar to Sprint's from lots of places.

I subsequently did change back from combined to direct billing, but
that was mostly because, as a combined subscriber, I could no longer
get automated account information from the Sprint 800 number.


Mike

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

From: [e-mail] (Animal Lib)
Subject: Re: Annoyance Calls From Answering Machine
Date: 31 May 1994 17:32:02 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


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

One other solution is to get the "CALL BLOCK" service from your local
telco. This service, at least in Florida, allows you to enter a code
to block the last number called. Since you don't have Caller ID you
don't know the number anyway, but the call block service will permanently
stop the machine from calling you.

Also, Carlos, the SONY A3000 has call transfer. It lets you enter up
to 32 digits so you can program it to call a beeper or whatever.


Peace ...

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

From: [e-mail] (Gary D. Shapiro)
Subject: Re: Annoyance Calls From Answering Machine
Date: 01 Jun 1994 01:08:40 -0700


[e-mail] wrote:

> Somehow I missed the first article of this thread.  But I assume you
> are talking about an answering machine that when it receives a
> message, it will dial a preprogrammed number to alert about the
> message just received.

> I would be interested in such a machine, either the one mentioned in
> this thread or similar ones in the market. Any help with brands or
> where to buy them, will be greatly appreciated.

Panasonic has more than one model that will forward messages.  Mine, a
KXT2634, is currently in a box in the closet.  Its audio quality, both
for the digital announcement and the microcassette messages is poor.
Hopefully, this model is no longer available.


Gary D. Shapiro <[e-mail]>
Santa Barbara, California   [phone]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #262
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #261

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 1 Jun 94 11:23:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 261

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (Nigel Allen)
    Canadian Telcos and Access Awareness Week (Dave Leibold)
    New Bellcore Documents (Dave Leibold)
    Firewall FAQ and Products Wanted (Thomas Hinders)
    S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection (K.M. Peterson)
    Out-Going Call Blocking to Local Numbers ([e-mail])
    Information Wanted on IVPN (Gerard Carat)
    CLID Information on Trunks Needed (Tom Ridgeway)
    Ground-Start Trunk Line Sharing Product? (Rod Regier)
    Could SLC-96 Cause Low Volume? (Michael D. Corbett)
    Bellcore Specifications of AIN/1 and Later (David D'Lima)
    Information Wanted on AMIS (Rob Schmersel)
    Information Wanted on Cyclone (Gerard Carat)
    New Kinds of Inmarsat Service (Dave Leibold)
    Help: Program For Cumulative Normal Function (Wei-Tyng Hong)
    Software Information Mailing List Being Compiled (Peter Bruce)
    Remote Access to the 'Net (Lynne Gregg)
    Re: Announcing New FCC BBS - FCC World (Ted Timar)
    Bibliography of Telecom Periodicals Wanted (Bruce Roberts)
    Re: Trans-Atlantic Fiber Operators (US Based) (Kevin McConnaughey)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
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should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 17:25:16 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Nigel Allen)
Subject: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway
Organization: 52 Manchester Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M6G 1V3, Canada
Reply-To: [e-mail]


The following article appeared in the alt.snail-mail newsgroup.  It
was originally posted by [e-mail] (Ed Jackson).


Usenet Philatelic New Service
Release 94-44   May 30, 1994

         Runyon Sees Role for the USPS on Information Highway

Once a national electronic communications infrastructure is fully
defined, Postmaster General and CEO Marvin Runyon sees an opportunity
for the Postal Service to help the American public gain access.

"The Postal Service is America's first 'information superhighway' with
123 million information channels as close as the mailbox," Runyon said
in his annual report to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
"None of us should lose sight of the fact that the residents and
businesses of our nation depend on us to communicate and do business."

Change is having a dramatic effect on the Postal Service and on the
communications industry as a whole.  The PMG said the USPS needs to
remain competitive in a communications market that continues to
evolve.  "The mail remains the most pervasive means of communication
and commerce available to our nation, but technology and other
companies continue to challenge us with new alternatives," he noted.
"As far as I am concern, the competition is good.  It is pushing us to
improve, and to look ahead to the next century and the next generation
of communications products our customers will need."

As technology evolves and an electronic infrastructure provides
greater access for interaction among individuals, business, and
government the Postal Service is particularly well placed to
participate, he noted.

"We can and should make a contribution to this effort," Runyon said.
"After more than two centuries of service to the American people, we
are a trusted third party for millions of businesses and residents.
We have a strong technological base, with expertise in high-speed
electronic recognition, message interchange, material handling, and
infrastructure maintenance."

The National Performance Review team established by President Clinton
and overseen by Vice President Al Gore has asked the Postal Service to
deliver electronic information available from the federal agencies to
the public using interactive kiosks in post office lobbies.

"There may be other ways we can contribute," Runyon said.  "Perhaps
post office lobbies could serve as on-ramps providing access to anyone
who wants to be on the electronic highway.

"Or, maybe we can help certify electronic messages and safeguard their
privacy, securing one company's market-sensitive information from the
intruding eyes of its competitors," he said.

Runyon told the senators he looks forward to returning to the committee
with ideas approved by its Board of Governors.

"In the meantime, we will be working to improve the information
superhighway that we have, by focusing on listening to and satisfying
the needs of our customers, improving our finances, and demonstrating
our commitment to employees," he said.  "We see a continuing need for
a nationwide hard-copy mail system well into the future.  The better
the job we do, the more value the mail will represent, and the more
likely people will continue to use the trusted, reliable, and
economical mail."

(This article appeared in the may 1994 issue of "memo to mailers," a
non-copyrighted monthly publication of the U.S. Postal Service
distributed to mail center managers.  For more information on UPNS,
contact Ed Jackson at <[e-mail]>.)


Nigel Allen                     [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Despite what Runyan may say, the United
States Postal Service is in very bad condition. Over the past three months
there have been major upheavals in the USPS here in Chicago, as Runyan
himself can attest. Several top officials of the post office here have
been replaced; several local mail carriers have been discovered stealing
mail -- thousands of pieces of mail each -- and local postal operations
in some of the branch stations here are in complete dissarray. There is
a considerable amount of personal unhappieness among USPS employees over
the entire country. What other organization has had three instances of
employees turning into mass-murderers on the job and killing several
co-workers on the spot, ie, Highland Park, Michigan a few years ago and
Enid, Oklahoma a few years ago to name two examples? Although we here
in Chicago have not had the violence seen in the two post offices named
above, it was necessary for Runyan to come here to visit a month or so
ago and try to sort out the several problems with our mail which have
been occurring with an alarming frequency over the past few years. He
found mail carriers with *tons* of undelivered mail stashed in the base-
ment of their homes. One guy had over ten thousand undelivered letters
in his home; it was discovered only when his house caught fire and the
firemen were sorting through the basement making sure the fire was out.

The best thing the USPS could do at this point is gracefully go out of
business and turn things over to private companies like Federal Express
and Emory. But oh no, instead of that, not only are they not willing to
simply admit their defeat and get out of business, they *refuse* to allow
any competition! You've probably read in the papers recently about how
they are hassling people who are using private courier services. If you
use a private courier service to deliver first class mail in the USA on
a *non-emergency basis* (they do allow that much latitude), then if the
Post Office finds out about it, you can be (a) fined, and (b) forced to
pay the amount of money the post office *would have charged* had they
been the ones to deliver (or mis-deliver, or not deliver at all) your
mail. But try suing the USPS for their malfeasance; for losing your very
important documents, or for stealing cash they find in the mail. (Tell
me about it! The sorting room employees at 60690 hit me up for thousands
of dollars over the years once they learned my box got cash money in the
mail) ... *they* are immune, like all other government agencies in these
rotten United States; you can't sue them. I say close it down completely
and let the private companies take it over.    PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Leibold)
Date: 31 May 94 01:01:04 -0500
Subject: Canadian Telcos and Access Awareness Week
Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway


[from Bell News, 30 May 1994]

National Access Awareness Week aims to show "Access is Working"

As an official sponsor of National Access Awareness Week (NAAW), the
Stentor alliance is kicking off the event today May 30 in Calgary with
Prime Minister Jean Chretien assisting in a demonstration of the 711
Relay Service.

The service allows hearing people and persons who are deaf, hard-of-hearing
or speech-impaired to communicate through a TTY/TTD - Teletypewriter/
Telecommunications Device for the Deaf.

Following Rick Hansen's Man in Motion Tour in 1987, NAAW was established
to sensitize Canadians to creating and supporting equal access for persons
with disabilities in the areas of transportation, housing, recreation,
education and employement.

Further east, Bell Canada, for the sixth consecutive year, is showing
its commitment to workforce diversity through direct involvement in
NAAW.

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Leibold)
Date: 31 May 94 01:01:16 -0500
Subject: New Bellcore Documents
Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway


 From Bellcore's list of New Releases:

- a new edition of the famous "Notes" book is out: BOC Notes on the
LEC Networks - 1994 (SR-TSV-002275 Issue 2, April 1994) ... cost is
only USD$395.00 (the same cost as the previous issue, if I recall
correctly) ... this is an overview of technologies and topics of the
phone network

- Telephone Area Code Directory (TACD) Issue 9, January 1994
(TR-EOP-000093) is also available, with list of dialable locations,
NPAs (ie. area codes), and a bonus list of Carrier Identification

Codes for USA use. Price is USD$49,(I remember the 1991 edition of
TACD selling for USD$30)

- a National ISDN-3 document, going for USD$70, that describes and
defines the latest ISDN standards (SR-NWT-002457, Issue 1, December
1993)

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

Date: 31 May 1994 10:47:10 EDT
From: Hinders, Thomas <[e-mail]>
Subject: Firewall FAQ and Products Wanted


I am looking for a FAQ on Internet firewalls and products ... any
leads.

Please reply directly; I will summerize and repost.


Tom Hinders/Soft-Switch
[phone] (v/vm)
[phone] (f)
Internet:  [e-mail]
X.400: C=US A=Telemail P=Softswitch S=Hinders G=Thomas

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

From: [e-mail] (K. M. Peterson)
Subject: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection
Date: 31 May 1994 15:22:35 GMT
Organization: KMPeterson/Boston


Hi,

Stretching my one phone line ever further, I'm considering getting
voicemail from our local telco.

My problem: I don't want to have to lift the handset to find out if I
have messages.  Has someone come up with a box to sit on one's line
and detect this (and flash a lamp or something)?

Thanks for any pointers!


K. M. Peterson   email: [e-mail]
phone: [phone] voice   [phone] fax

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

From: [e-mail] (jani)
Subject: Out-Going Call Blocking to Local Numbers
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
Date: Tue, 31 May 94 15:32:38 GMT


Is it possible to block outgoing calls to selected local numbers?
Ameritech says they do not have such a service. Only kind of outgoing
call blocking they offer is to 1-900 numbers and total blocking to
long distance service.

They suggested I should check out if there was such a device available
from a third party. Is there such a thing?

I would prefer if the phone company could do it at their end as it
would be more secure. (The device can not be unplugged and disabled.)


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Telco does have classes of service which
allow total blocking to local calls; blocking of long distance calls
(toll restriction); service which allows direct dial only with the
subscriber blocked from reaching the operator; or in reverse, no DDD
with all calls going through the operator and denial of third number
billing, i.e. collect calls only, but not for selected local calls that
I know of. Some of these very specialized classes of service are primarily
used in correctional institution settings. The classes of service I know
about are:

Unrestricted (just regular service, call anywhere, get collect calls, etc);
No long distance (1+ is blocked, operator cannot complete on 0+);
No local calls (but long distance allowed, 1+ only, or 0+ only or both);
No calls to any number on a given exchange (exchange entirely blocked out);
900/976 restrictions (no DDD to these and operator cannot complete calls);
Directory assistance blocked (no calls to '411' or '555-1212');
No incoming service (outgoing only, with or without above restrictions);
No outgoing service (incoming only, with or without collect, third number);
No incoming or outgoing service (intercom only, from within customer premises);
No coin calls allowed from 'payphone' (calls must be collect or calling card);
No DDD service (calls can only be made to operator who completes or denies);

There are customer-maintained toll restrictors which do a pretty good job
and are quite secure. You might check into the one offered by Radio Shack
or the one from Hello Direct (1-800-HI-HELLO). Both can be programmed for
the usual connections along with a dozen or so local numbers; really whatever
you want to put in them, but it is against the law to block 911 calls. Both
of these have the components in a secure plastic case which screws together
and can be secreted in an out-of-the-way place on your premises. A detirmined
person could get into them, but they do the job in most cases.  PAT]

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

Date: Tue, 31 May 94 15:08:31 GMT
From: [e-mail]
From: Gerard Carat <[e-mail]>
Subject: Information Wanted on IVPN
Organization: aiit
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 14:08:29 GMT


Can anyone explain how an international VPN works?

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: CLID Information on Trunks Needed
Date: 31 May 94 10:27:36 EST
Organization: University of Cincinnati


Could someone please refresh my memory on Caller ID?  We have a large
switch with hundreds of outbound local trunks and all calls out show
the actual line number of the trunk on caller I.D. displays.  This
causes lots of confusion for the receiver of calls from our campus -
users don't understand about trunk lines and DID numbers.

I think I remember someone posting here that they had the local telco
set the line ID for all their outbounds to show the lead/billing
number.  We have requested this from Cincinnati Bell and they don't
know how to do this for us, although they agree it would be handy.  I
do know that our C.O. was recently upgraded to an ESS5 and can tell
you that all of our ourbound locals are ground starts.  If you have
had your lines set to all show a specific number or know how to
program this on a "5", please drop me a line with at least the name of
your telco so I can let Cinti.  Bell who to contact for more
specifics.  And if I'm dreaming, I'm sure you'll let me know that as
well! :-)


Tom Ridgeway [e-mail] University of Cincinnati V. 513-558-2580
Telecommunications F. 513-558-0999

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

From: Rod Regier <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Ground-start trunk line sharing product?
Date: 31 May 94 15:20:11 AST
Organization: Dymaxion Research Limited, NS, Canada


Background:

My organization is currently using a Mitel SX-100 PBX.  The incoming
TELCO trunk lines are ground-start trunks.  I have no "free" locals
remaining on the PBX.  I do not want to purchase any more line cards
to add locals.  If I invest in any more PBX equipment, it will be to
install a new system, not to upgrade my existing system.

I have a two-line "rotary" pool coming from a Telco electro-mechanical
exchange as part of the over-all PBX trunk pool.  These two lines are
used for both incoming and outgoing calls.

The two line-pool is used during the day to accept incoming sales
calls using our old published number.  They are corrently not being
used in any significant way at night.

Problem:

I would like to use the two-line pool at night to add to my dialup
modem pool without adding any additional (expensive, $C1000/yr) telco
lines.

If the two-line pool used normal loop lines, I could use a product
like the Cardinal Communications Comshare 550 to support both incoming
voice and data calls, as well as outgoing PBX calls.

There doesn't seem to be a product or combination of products that
will offer the same solution for the ground-start trunks.

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive solution to this apparent dilemma
without investing money in PBX components?


TIA,

Rod Regier, Software Development                     bus: [phone] x108
Dymaxion Research Ltd., 5515 Cogswell St.,           fax: [phone]
Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 1R2 Canada            Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 12:13:31 -0700
From: Michael D. Corbett <[e-mail]>
Subject: Could SLC-96 Cause Low Volume?


Greetings,

I seem to recall some discussion in this group about SLC-96 and it's
associated peculiarities.  I can't find anything in the archives on
this subject.  In a nutshell, is there a situation where one would
encounter low volumes using SLC-96 trunks?  My understanding of SLC-96
is where the CO doesn't have enough copper, they multipelx 96
Subscriber Loop Circuits on something like three or four pairs.  Am I
correct?  Anyway, the end coustomer is complaining of "low volume" and
"chopped" voice mail messages from one of our systems which is fed
trunks off of a SLC-96.  Any help or pointers would be appreciated.


Regards,

Mike Corbett                         Internet: [e-mail]
Applied Voice Technology             Voice:    [phone]
P.O. Box 97025                       Fax:      [phone]
Kirkland WA 98083      AVT has never taken me seriously, either should you.

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

Subject: Bellcore Specifications of AIN/1 and Later
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 08:49:25 IST
From: David D'Lima <[e-mail]>


Pat:

I wonder whether I can pick up the Bellcore AIN/1 and later specs off
an anon-ftp site. If so, can you let me know the hostname?


Thanks in advance,

David D'Lima    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Rob Schmersel)
Subject: Information Wanted on AMIS
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Ericsson Telecommunication Rijen (ETM)
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 13:19:39 GMT


Hello,

Anybody ever heard about AMIS (Audio Messaging Interchange Specification)
and know where I can find any documentation about this protocol?


Thanks in advance,

Rob

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

From: Gerard Carat <[e-mail]>
Subject: Information Wanted on Cyclone
Organization: aiit
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 13:49:29 GMT


Following the FCC's green light to Newco (the BT-MCI venture), has anyone
got ideas on Cyclone's development?

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Leibold)
Date: 31 May 94 23:37:06 -0500
Subject: New Kinds of Inmarsat Service
Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway


[from Infocom (Bell Canada), April 1994]

Inmarsat Service - Reduced Rates

Effective 1994 04 27, customers will pay less for outbound Inmarsat
calls with two new options, Inmarsat B and M.

Inmarsat is a mobile service that uses satellite facilities to provide
two- way voice and data communications from Canada to remote locations
virtually anywhere in the world. Using Inmarsat, a customer can call
(direct dial or via an operator) a mobile terminal on an off-shore
base, aircraft, ship, or in countries where terrestrial communications
cannot always be relied on.

Inmarsat B and M are established as alternative mobile systems which
also provide calling to Inmarsat Service destinations.

Service Description:

Inmarsat B:   Enables customers to place voice grade digital communications
              (voice, fax, data) at transmission speeds up to 16 kbps.
              Per minute rate is $11.95

Inmarsat M:   Enables customers to place voice grade digital communications
              (voice, fax, data) at transmission speeds up to 2.4 kbps.
              Per minute rate is $10.20.

By comparison with Inmarsat A (previously known as Inmarsat Maritime
Service), Inmarsat M & B offer improved voice and data transmission
quality through digital technology, as well as service charges that
are lower by 33% to 43%. With rates as low as $9.20 per minute for
Advantage Preferred users, Inmarsat B and M are the most cost
effective solutions to communicate with travellers in remote areas as
well as operators of marine vessels or oil rigs.

In the past, the main users of Inmarsat Service have been shipping,
mining and oil companies, as well as government departments. However,
with the establishment of Inmarsat B & M, business travellers to
remote areas where telecommunications infrastructures are not fully
developed can now also take advantage of these new offerings and place
Inmarsat calls at less cost.  Coupled with the fact that new portable
terminals are more compact, reliable and a lot less expensive,
Inmarsat Service B & M can be attractive alternative choices in these
special situations.

For further information, please contact your sales representative.

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

From: [e-mail] (Jeff)
Subject: Help: Program For Cumulative Normal Function
Date: 1 Jun 1994 08:10:10 GMT
Organization: Computer Sci. & Information Eng. Chiao Tung Univ. Taiwan, R.O.C


Hello,

I need a program to calc. the C(x) (the cumulative normal function).

    C(x)=prob(X<x),  X is N(0.1)

Could you mail to me if you have the C or Fortran version?

Thank you very much.


Wei-Tyng Hong,   Dept. of Communication Eng.
National Chiao Tung University

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 00:46:57 EDT
From: Resample <[e-mail]>
Subject: Software Information Mailing List Being Compiled


Would you like to receive information via email about commercially
available statistical software?  We're compiling a list of people who
would like such information, and another list of people who do not
want such information.

    ____  Yes, want info
    ____  No, do not want info

Thanks!

Attn: Peter Bruce   [e-mail]   Resampling Stats, Inc.

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

From: Lynne Gregg <[e-mail]>
Subject: Remote Access to the 'Net
Date: Tue, 31 May 94 13:01:00 PDT


Jarlath Lyons asked for suggestions on accessing Internet from remote
locales.  I highly recommend the use of a VAN like Compuserve.  All
your pal needs is a dial tone to reach CIS.  It's unlikely that any of
the major networks have local access nodes in such far-flung corners,
but there's always one accessible by long distance call.

Best of luck to your adventurous friend. There's a lot to be said for
vegetarianism!


Regards,

Lynne


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Lynne's last paragraph is of course in
response to last week's discourse here on cannibalism and whether or
not it is still practiced in the Solomon Islands and/or Boulder, Colorado
and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Ted Timar)
Subject: Re: Announcing New FCC BBS - FCC World
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: ISG Technologies, Inc
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 08:59:22 -0400


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (FCC World)
writes about a new BBS, "FCC WORLD" which features info on the FCC,
and is free to anyone with a 14.4 baud modem.

Two questions:
1) Is there going to be a tax on using this bulletin board?  :-)

2) Where do I get a 14.4 baud modem?  Who in their right mind would use one?
   Most modems I know of only go down to 110 baud.  Is the FCC going to call
   for a tax on all modems faster than 14.4 baud?  :-)

   (For those who don't know, one longtime Usenet Urban Legend is that
   the FCC is about to start taxing modems.)


Ted Timar    [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Just to remind our Washington, DC readers
about the new availability of this Digest on a local connection, I
reprint an excerpt from the original message:

> The Washington, DC telecommunications law firm of Smithwick &
> Belendiuk proudly announces the launch of a new BBS -- FCC WORLD --
> featuring information on the Federal Communications Commission.  We
> feature FCC documents on-line (many you cannot find on Internet),
> texts of important FCC Reports and decisions (IVDS, PCS Auction info --
> on-line now!), Forums on hot FCC issues, free Classified ads and more!
> The best thing -- its free and without a daily time limit.  Give it a
> try at 202-887-5718 (14.4 baud)!

Your favorite telecommunications e-journal (I hope!) is also available
as each issue is published in a special file section on the FCC World
BBS. Check it out.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Bruce Roberts)
Subject: Bibliography of Telecom Periodicals Wanted
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 05:35:00 GMT
Organization: The Great Escape - Gardena, CA - [phone]


Hello all.  I'm currently subscribing to {Telephony Magazine} and find
it fascinating but primarily marketing/business oriented.  I'm looking
for a periodical that is more technical in nature and covers the same
PSTN, Information Infrastructure, ISDN, Sonet, ATM sort of stuff.
This is not my line of work so but rather something I find interesting
(and something that will affect all of us soon) so it will be an
educational experience.  Suggestions and subscribing information would
be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,


Bruce Roberts, [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: {Telephony} is the grandfather of all
telecom industry publications. It has been around since sometime in
the 1920's. It was the only publication of its kind in an era when there
was but one phone company. The two were closely intertwined and there
was a point at which subscriptions to the magazine were restricted to
persons who were employed somewhere in the Bell System. It used to be
much more technically oriented. I've always considered it sort of dry
and boring compared to (for example) Harry Newton's {Teleconnect}, a
more recent arrival on the scene.  PAT]

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

Subject: Trans-Atlantic Fiber Operators (US based)
From: [e-mail] (Kevin McConnaughey)
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 94 09:24:59 EDT
Organization: Retrograde Motion BBS - Oakton, VA.


[e-mail] (Stu Jeffery) writes:

> I am trying to find out the names of the smaller US based companies
> that operate trans-Atlantic fiber cables. The ones I know of are: ATT,
> MCI, Sprint, Wiltel and Compuserve.

Stu:

I assume that you mean companies that *own* capacity in trans-Atlantic
fiber cables, not operate.  If you do mean operate then the list you
have is not correct.  AT&T is a cable operator of numerous US cables
landing on the US East coast.  Sprint is the operator of PTAT-1 with
C&W the operator on the UK end.  MCI is not a cable operator in the US
to my knowledge nor is Wiltel or Compuserve.

On the Pacific side, Pacific Telecom operates the North Pacific Cable
and all others connecting to CONUS are operated, I believe, by AT&T.

I have heard that Wiltel has applied for permission to build and
operate a cable to Cuba but this would still be in the planning
stages.

One might also include in your list BT, C&W, and possibly other PTTs
that have operations here in the US and that are cable operators on
the Western side of the Atlantic.

I am not sure what your purpose is, but I would not want to limit
myself to looking at just the US.  There are trans-Atlantic cables
that terminate in Canada too.  These are (I am assuming since I have
not actually checked) operated by Teleglobe.

I hope this is helpful.


[e-mail]  (Kevin McConnaughey)
Retrograde Motion BBS - Oakton, Virginia [phone]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #261
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #264

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 1 Jun 94 15:35:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 264

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Geographical Boundaries of COE's Reference Needed ([e-mail])
    CALTEL Membership Questions (Russell Bunge)
    Box to Add Digits When Dialing (Marco A. Pinones)
    British Call Forwarding in 1960s (Randy Gellens)
    Re: Itemized Billing in UK (Richard Barry)
    Re: Itemized Billing in UK (Carl Moore)
    Recommendation For AlphaNumeric Paging Software (David Dodell)
    Re: Frame Relay SVC Specs Wanted (Dick Rawson)
    Re: How Smart is Call-Forwarding? (John Lundgren)
    Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System (Steven H. Lichter)
    Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System (John Nagle)
    Correction: Re: VIVE Caller ID Device Problems (Evan Gamblin)
    Re: SMS Messages on ORANGE (Sam Spens Clason)
    Re: Nice Job, if You Can Get it! (Rich Greenberg)
    Re: RBOCS & Video Remote learning in Schools? (Michael Chui)
    Re: Lower Domestic Telephone Rates (Chris Barr)
    Re: Leased Line Internet Access (Joseph J. Gerber)
    Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose (Rob Levandowski)
    Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns (Ry Jones)
    Re: What's a 1A3B? (Alan Leon Varney)
    Re: What Did You Have For Dinner Today? (Dave Thompson)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Seminar Network)
Subject: Geographical Boundaries of COE's Reference Needed
Date: 1 Jun 1994 11:29:07 -0400


Is there a book or set of maps that contain the Central Office Exchanges
corresponding with geographical boundaries?  For example, if I would
like to know what physical boundary belongs to 617-753-0000, where 753
is the COE, is there a resource for that type of information.  That
is, I'm looking to know where all the subscribers who are in the 753
exchange are located.

An analogy to this is the zip code maps where a certain zip code has a
defined physical boundary.  The bounday may overlap a couple of cities
however.

Just to re-iterate, a MAP is what I'm looking for, not a criss-cross
directory that has street names or anything like that.  Perhaps
Bellcore has a set of publications for each LATA or NPA, I don't know.


Thank you,

[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I suggest you begin by speaking with Carl
Moore ([e-mail]). He maintains those things in great detail.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Russell Bunge)
Subject: CALTEL Membership Questions
Organization: SLONET Community Access System
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 18:00:16 GMT


I'm looking for membership information on an association called
CALTEL.  I understand that CALTEL is an organization of Independent
Long Distance providers in California, but I can't seem to find out
where they are headquartered nor which companies belong.  I've checked
the Encyclopedia of Associations, no luck.  I'd appreciate any
information on this organization readers of this newsgroup can
provide.


Thanks,

Russell Bunge  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Marco A. Pinones I.)
Subject: Box to Add Digits When Dialing
Date: 1 Jun 1994 18:14:16 GMT
Organization: ITESM, Campus Monterrey


I am looking for a box that could detect when digits are being dialed
and add some digits at the very beginning. This is because we have a
Vsats arrangement and the NEC equipment can only identify the links
with two to four digits. To be compatible with our actual numbering,
we need the vsat stations to be able to dial between them and to the
rest of the net (with four digit extensions).  The equipment at the vsat
nodes is a Panasonic 1232. There is a link group on the NEC box that
handles 16 channels to the voice net, asigned to a number that my vsat
stations need to dial.

I want this to be transparent to the user at each end, so I am
thinking about a box that could read the digits when being dialed from
vsat stations and can add the digits for the NEC equipment to select
the 16 channels and the pass the other digits.  Does such equipment
exist?

Greetings and thanks for any help.

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: 01 JUN 94 00:55:00 GMT
Subject: British Call Forwarding in 1960s


On an episode of _The_Avengers_ shown the other day (this British
series from, I think, the 1960s is probably always in re-runs
somewhere -- I see it on the A&E Network), the central character is
about to go on holiday.

He puts his luggage down, and runs through a checklist (plants,
lights, windows, etc.)  On reaching 'phone,' he pick up his phone
(black, rotary desk set of course) and dials three digits.  He says
"Operator?  This is WHitehall xxxx.  My name is John Steed.  I will be
away for the next three weeks.  Please forward my calls to the usual
number."  (He might have used 'direct' or a similar word instead of
'forward.')

What sort of call-forwarding was offered by British Telecom in the 1960s?


Randall Gellens       [e-mail]
[phone]        fax [phone]
Mail Stop MV 237      Net**2 656-6350


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think they had the same kind of 'call
forwarding' that we had here in the USA in the 1930's:  (pick up the
receiver and wait for operator) ... "Beulah?  This is Mr. Smith. I am
going down to my office for a few hours so if any calls come in put
them on that line instead" ... And how did Caller-ID work here in the
USA back in the same era?  (pick up the receiver and wait for operator) ...
"Gertrude, is that you? Hi Gert ... listen the phone was ringing when I
was coming in the door with my three bags of groceries (unspoken: which
I got from Safeway for five dollars) ... who was calling me? Would you
get them back on the line please?"   PAT]

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

From: Richard Barry <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Itemized Billing in UK
Date: 01 Jun 1994 09:42:20 +0100
Organization: Ireland On-Line


In article [e-mail], John Slater (johns@scroff.
uk) wrote:


> First of all, East End and West End are areas of London, so it's a
> local call.  (I believe Greater London is the largest geographic
> calling area in the world).
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
While Greater London might have the largest population of any local
calling area, it is not geographically the largest.  The longest
distance local call in London would be about 50km.  In many parts of
Ireland you can call up to 100kms away at the local call rate.  And at
weekends the entire country is a 1p/min "local call" area (including
calls *from* IRL to Northern Ireland.  Using the weekend tariff you
can call points up to 400kms distant between 0h SAT - 24h SUN for the
equivalent of 1.4 US c/min.  One suspects that there are even larger
local calling areas in Australia, Greenland, etc?


Richard Barry     [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 94 12:07:45 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Re: Itemized Billing in UK


So in summary:

In the UK, over a certain cost gets itemized (and this can include a
very long local call on measured service).

In the U.S., all calls beyond my local calling area are itemized.  In
my case, I opted for no local-call allowance, so any local calls I
make are lumped into local-message-unit charge item on my phone bill.

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

Subject: Recommendation For AlphaNumeric Paging Software
From: [e-mail] (David Dodell)
Reply-To: [e-mail] (David Dodell)
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 94 06:38:47 MST
Organization: Stat Gateway Service, WB7TPY


I'm always seeing inquiries about alpha numeric paging software for
PC's and would like to recommend a company that I have no connection
with.  The software is called PopPage and sells for $19.95

The software is DOS based, will run under Window.  It handles IXO/TAP,
and will load high as a TSR if desired.

Statistical Control Systems can be reached at 1-813-954-8816 voice,
1-813-954-8624 fax.

They also make something called Interceptor - Digital Paging System
Analyzer but I do not know anything about this product.  I'm just a
happy user of PopPage.


David Dodell    Editor, HICNet Medical Newsletter
Internet: [e-mail]  FAX: [phone]
Bitnet: ATW1H@ASUACAD

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

Date: Tue, 31 May 94 15:22:31 PDT
From: [e-mail] (Dick Rawson)
Subject: Re: Frame Relay SVC Specs Wanted


Recently?  You want ANSI T1.617-1991, with the Supplement
T1.617a-1993.  Maybe it was the supplement that was "recent".


Dick

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

From: [e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: How Smart is Call-Forwarding?
Date: 31 May 94 18:18:54 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Maybe something in the carrier plant is causing the trouble. Something
like a ADPCM or whatever circuit that doesn't recognize the modem and
tries to compress what it thinks is voice.


[e-mail] \ [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven H. Lichter)
Subject: Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System
Date: 01 Jun 1994 13:22:23 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)


Right after the earthquake I was able to reach my father on his
cellular phone which is on LA Cellular. I have PacBell (Air Touch) and
used it to call him since all wire lines were blocked. Since his is A
and mine was B it seemed to work fine. Also arn't most cellular phones
switchable, I know mine witll go A or B or both.


Sysop: Apple Elite II -=- an Ogg-Net Hub BBS
[phone] 12/24/96/14.4 V32/V42bis

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

From: [e-mail] (John Nagle)
Subject: Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 16:41:47 GMT


[e-mail] (Dan Matte) writes:

> I am working on a proposal for an email system that will operate
> exclusively over cellular in case of disaster resulting in land line
> failure.  Essentially, remote offices will dial-up over cellular to
> the central office and retrieve messages in case of emergency.  The
> system will operate independently of land lines.

      Er, cell sites are typically linked by land line to a central
site that controls the system.  Only the last hop to the mobile phone
is radio.  If you lose the link to the central site, even two phones
in the same cell can't talk.  It's not a distributed system at all.


John Nagle

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

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 06:29:59 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Evan Gamblin)
Subject: Correction Re: VIVE Caller ID Device Problems


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Carl Moore wrote to inquire about an
error in a previous posting, and Evan Gamblin responded.   PAT]

> I notice there are inconsistencies in the spelling of the
> following Carl's last name, and there is also an inconsistency
> in the fax number.

> Carl K.S. Too
> President
> VIVE Synergies Inc. 30 West Beaver Creek Rd, Unit 2, Richmond Hill, Ont
> L4B 3K1. Tel [phone], ext 11. Fax: [phone]

> Carl K.S. Teo
> President,VIVE Synergies Inc., 30 West Beaver Creek Road, Unit 2,
> Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 3K1.
> Tel:  [phone] Ext.11,  Fax: [phone]

Thanks for pointing those out, Carl.

I don't know what type of fax VIVE uses, but it compresses characters
vertically.  Makes it tricky to decide whether a letter is a, o, or e,
and whether nos.  are 0, 6, or 8.


Cheers,

Evan Gamblin   The Halifax Group
903-275 Sparks St   Ottawa, Ont K1R 7X9 Canada

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

From: [e-mail] (Sam Spens Clason)
Subject: Re: SMS Messages on ORANGE
Date: 01 Jun 1994 13:48:44 GMT
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden


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

> [e-mail] (Sam Spens Clason) wrote:

Richard:
>> It will become possible to send text messages from the handset (or
>> computer) to any other GSM/PCN system, to any of the old analogue
>> paging networks, or as an X400 message or a facsimile document.

Me:
>> I am pretty sure that what you are talking about is
>> ordinary datatransfer that occupies a 9600 bit voice
>> channel.  Actually the rate of transfer is sligtly
>> higher but I've never heard of a 11.4kbit modem

Oops, since no one else has either corrected nor flamed me I guess
I'll have to do it myself :-)

It should say 13kbit (22.8 including overhead), I was sligtly ahead of
my time as 11.4kbit is the data-transfer in future halfrate encoding
systems.


Related question:

When can we expect halfrate encoding being in use?!


Sam Spens Clason, <A HREF="http://www.nada.kth.se/~d92-sam/">Web</A>

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

From: [e-mail] (Rich Greenberg)
Subject: Re: Nice Job, if You Can Get it!
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 23:50:21 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> TELECOM Digest Editor noted
in response to [e-mail]:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But see Rich Greenberg's response earlier
> in this issue. Apparently all that is changing is they are cracking down
> on charging for visits made by technicians; if a technician is dispatched
> to your premises you will pay for it whether the tech does the work or
> you do the work.    PAT]

That is only partly correct Pat.  It would be correct if you add:

 ... you do the work if the trouble is found to be on the customer
side of the demark.


Rich Greenberg            Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677
N6LRT   TinselTown, USA   Play: [e-mail]                  310-649-0238

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

Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 21:34:38 -0500
From: Michael Chui <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: RBOCS & Video Remote learning in Schools?
Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University


In article <[e-mail]>, Gerry Moersdorf
<[e-mail]> wrote:

> Does anyone have an opinion on what the RBOCS are trying to do by
> pushing TV remote learning grants and equipment to school systems?
> The schools in our district don't even have telephones in classrooms
> let alone a LAN for a client server teaching tool.  To me the priorities
> are all turned around.  What possible business could RBOCS build with the
> "poor" school districts?

    Ameritech has installed their Genius Theater distance learning
system in some of the local schools here gratis, but with a commitment
only for two years.  I'm sure they wouldn't complain if the schools
found it an *indispensable* tool (even if only as a symbol of
commitment to using technology in the school), and were willing to
start paying for it when the two years is up.  Others might suggest
that some cheap local bitpipe would be a much more effective
contribution to learning.


Michael Chui   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Chris Barr)
Subject: Re: Lower Domestic Telephone Rates
Organization: Entrepreneur's Source
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 15:36:18 GMT


> Does anyone know of a company that shops for low telephone rates for
> you?

> We use the telephones for tele-sales and heavy outgoing FAXes.  I've
> heard there are small, independent telephone consultants that can mix
> and match the best rates into a coherent package deal.  We're looking
> for something customized to us.

At least a few long distance providers read this newsgroup regularly --
why don't you post your current rates and usage and ask for responses?


Chris

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

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 05:05:01 PDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Leased Line Internet Access


Very interesting and informative article.  Would like to obtain FAQ on
modems.  Is this available?

We have a Help Desk at Xerox and we are running into every strange and
wonderful modem man ever built.  Having an FAQ might strengthen our
training program on subject.


Thanks,

Joe Gerber


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well you might also try subscribing to the
Usenet newsgroup 'comp.dcom.modems'. A lot of readers there will be able
to assist you from time to time with questions and answers also.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Rob Levandowski)
Subject: Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 94 15:55:14 GMT


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Terry Greenlee)
writes:

> The third line will only connect at 7200 bd at best and usually 4800
> bd. I tested them at the box beside the house to make sure it was not
> my inside wires. The phone company tested it from the main office and
> found no problem. Monday a Bell tech will come out to test.

I have had similar problems with phone companies out here. Often, their
test equipment says "perfect" when that is not the case. I had a phone line
in Geneseo, New York, that tested perfect but had audible crosstalk
from a ringer in the CO. Because of that, my modem was very unhappy.

Finally, I called the unresolved-complaints line, and spoke to a very
pleasant person there. I kindly asked if they could swap the line from
my apartment to the CO with a new pair, and she said it would be no
problem. They came and swapped the line, and everything was fine. My
modem was happy.

So, I guess that telco "perfect" isn't always modem "perfect" :)


Rob Levandowski    [e-mail]
Computer Interest Floor associate / University of Rochester

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

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 09:39:09 -0700
From: Ry Jones <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: No 911 Available as Tot Drowns - comp.dcom.telecom #1701


In article <[e-mail]>, Andrew C. Green <ACG@dlogics.
com> wrote:

> [e-mail] (Dave Leibold) writes:

>> {The Toronto Star} reports of a 14-month-old boy in Barrie, Ontario
>> who drowned while his mother attempted to dial 911. Unlike many
>> centres in Canada, Barrie does not have a 911 service, thus calls to
>> 911 are usually completed to a not-in-service recording.

> I have encountered this myself occasionally in the past when I had to
> call 911 from some unfamiliar location, and precious seconds would be
> wasted slamming down the phone and redialing for the Operator. This
> sort of begs the question, naive though this may be: Instead of
> routing the call to an intercept, can't it be routed to an operator
> instead? Any operator anywhere would probably be better than a
> recorded intercept telling the caller to hang up and guess again.

In Terre Haute, IN, before we got 911 (the tariff was passed but the
service wasn't turned up), dialing 911 generated a GTE intercept.  The
operators would forward your call to the local police.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This goes back a number of years, but here
in Chicago in the month or so prior to 911 starting (when we were still
dialing 'POlice 5-1313' and 'FIre 7-1313' there was a special intercept in
place. Someone called 'Chicago Special Operator' answered by asking what
was the number you were calling from, then dialed into the proper number.
Under the old arrangement, every CO took calls to PO-5-1313 or FI-7-1313
and translated them into 'other.things-1313' so that the police and fire
dispatchers could see the *general location* from which the call was orig-
inating. For example, where I lived, calls to PO-5-1313 were actually
translated in the central office to HAymarket 1-1313. When the HAymarket
phone rang at police headquarters, they knew it was a call from my area
of the city. It speeded up dispatching even if they did not know the
exact address until the caller told them. Then, when 911 was turned on,
for about two months after that the PO-5 and FI-7 numbers were routed into
911 with a very quick recorded intercept message tossed in as the call
was being forwarded: "In the future please dial 911 for emergencies."  PAT]

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

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 11:39:29 +0600
From: [e-mail] (Alan Leon Varney)
Subject: Re: What's a 1A3B?
Organization: AT&T Network Systems


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Stan Schwartz)
writes:

> Here in downstate NYNEXland if an exchange has not been "taken over"
> by a pager or cellular company, you can dial the NNX and 9901 to find
> out what kind of switch is in that C/O.  For example, dialing
> [phone] will tell you that you have reached the Farmingdale 5ESS
> test number, serving the following prefixes ... (you get the idea).

> When dialing [phone], however, I am told that I have reached
> the Floral Park 1A3B, the only one of it's kind in Nassau County.  Now
> I have heard of 5ESS's and DMS-100's, but what is a 1A3B, and why is
> it such a distinction to have one?

   It's no distinction, except in areas quickly going to digital COs.
The "1A3B" is really a 1A ESS(tm) switch with an Attached Processor
System (APS) controlled by a 3B20 Duplex(tm) processor.  The 3B20D
supplies the switch with backup disk storage, and possibily other
services such as SS7.

   There are several hundred such analog COs deployed across the USA.


Al Varney

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

From: Thompson, Dave <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: What Did You Have For Dinner Today?
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 94 11:58:00 PDT


In TELECOM Digest 14.256, Thu, 26 May 94 16:25:56 EDT Carl Moore
<[e-mail]> wrote:

> <chuckle> How could you write about cannibalism and forget Alfred E.
> Packer?

[explanation by PAT deleted that we might still have an appetite for
dinner tonight ...]

Coincidentally, CNN sometime late this past Memorial weekend had a
filler item (sorry!), which I only caught part of while surfing, about
some city (I *think* they said in CO) which has an annual "manburger"
coooking contest in memory of Packer.  The (female) anchors were, or
acted, stumped for innocuous patter on this one.


Dave Thompson, [e-mail]   Logica North America, [phone]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, every year or so the folks there have
a 'memorial service' to honor Mr. Packer. 'Manburgers' are served as
part of the occassion. Not content to let this thread die peacefully, a
regular Digest contributor (who must remain unnamed since his comments
were sent to me not for publication under his name) had an additional
query:

> Regarding the Alfred Packer thread you were reminiscing about, isn't
> there another old celebrity a bit closer to home? I am referring here
> to Ed Gein -- if memory serves, didn't he do much the same thing in
> Wisconsin back around 1957? I don't recall the details myself ...

Ah yes, Ed Gein. When Ed made the cover of {Time Magazine} back in 1957
I was a sophomore in high school.  The news reports were certain to
point out that his name was pronounced 'Gein, as in fiend, not Gyne as
in fine.'  Why the two most recent well-known cannibals in the USA both
came from Wisconsin -- within fifty miles or so of each other -- I do not
know. Maybe it is something in the atomosphere. Dahmer was from Milwaukee
and Gein was from a little rural village maybe fifty miles from there.
Of course we had John Gacy and Larry Eyler both here in Chicago and they
lived only five miles apart but never knew each other.

Alfred Hitchcock was so inspired by Ed Gein that he produced his most
famous movie ever ("Psycho") based on Ed's true story. Ed was a bachelor
farmer about fifty years of age living in rural Wisconsin. He had this
hangup about his mother who had died a few years earlier. He missed her
so much one night he went out to the old cemetery and dug her up and
brought her back home with him. He sat her in her favorite rocking chair
in the living room and left her there for a couple more years. But that's
not all!  Two children in the nearby village disappeared and no one ever
knew what happened to them; except Ed, that is ... he ate them. He killed
another woman and kept only her hair and her skin, tossing out the
remainder. He would wear the skin on himself along with the hair. There
were other disturbances at the old cemetery outside the village but the
townspeople always attributed the problem to animals.

Then one day Ed killed Mrs. Wharton, the proprietor of Wharton's Hardware
Store in the village. He slipped up; he was seen by her son in the store
a few minutes before she disappeared. Knowing his mom would never leave
the store in the middle of the day, abandoned and unlocked, he notified the
police. The country bumpkins they were, it took them a couple days to get
around to deciding maybe Ed had something to do with it (everyone in town
knew him; they knew he was mentally retarded but never suspected anything
of this magnitude). When the police went to his house they found Mrs. Wharton
in the barn, completely disemboweled and hung upside down from a rafter;
the way one would go about slaughtering and preparing a deer or a cow. Her
intestines and the rest of her organs were in a large galvanized tub
nearby, still steaming in the chilly fall air in Wisconsin. The police on
the scene told Ed they wanted to go look inside his house, and he had no
objections to that at all; he proudly let the way. Inside they found the
preserved skin and hair of the other victim; they found evidence of the
two children Ed had kidnapped (he preserved some body parts in jars) and
a few other things. But the best was yet to come: the police walked into
the living room and there sat Mrs. Gein -- Eddie's mother -- right in
the rocking chair where he had left her all this time.

Over the next two months, Ed Gein was questioned at length (when the
police were able to make any sense out of what he was talking about at
all) about other unsolved crimes in recent years. Of particular interest
to the authorities were the mutilation murders of three young boys in
Chicago in September, 1955. Anton and Robert Schuessler, brothers aged
11 and 13,and their friend Robert Peterson, age 12 had been murdered with
their nude and mutilated bodies left in a wooded area on the northwest
side of Chicago. Ed Gein had been in Chicago that day. He would not confess
to that crime despite having knowledge known otherwise only to the police.
That crime has never been solved or closed off the books.

After a mental examination, Ed Gein was found to be totally insane.
When the results of his mental examination were entered in evidence at
his trial, the state of Wisconsin dismissed the charges against him
(in this country we do not prosecute or punish persons who are incompetent
or unable to understand that what they did was wrong) and he was placed in
the protective custody of the state hospital for criminally insane people.
About ten years later he attempted to be granted parole from the hospital
but it was not given to him. He died in the maximum security unit of the
state hospital after twenty years there in the middle 1970's.

Poor Ed Gein ... {Time Magazine} called him a hideous monster. Alfred
Hitchcock called him 'my biggest money maker ever' ... you do remember
Norman Bates' mother in the rocking chair in the cellar in 'Psycho' don't
you?  <grin>  And it was Ed who spoke the words said later by Norman Bates
as he was in jail awaiting trial: "My son is a good boy! Why, he would
not even harm a fly ..."  PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #264
******************************


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Date: Wed, 1 Jun 94 13:21:06 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #263

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 1 Jun 94 13:21:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 263

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Billed Party Preference (Doug Reuben)
    Re: Some D-Day Telecom History (Andrew C. Green)
    Re: DID Loophole or I'm Screwed up? (Alan Leon Varney)
    Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range (Ken Thompson)
    Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range (Ed Ellers)
    Re: Cellular Billing (John R. Levine)
    Re: Name and Address -> Long Distance Companies (Mike King)
    Re: Internet Access at Home? (Laurence Chiu)
    Re: Replace POST-MAIL by FAX (Chris Barr)
    Re: Money Talks (Daryl R. Gibson)
    Re: LD Carrier's Message Delivery Service (Mark E. Daniel)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
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* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Cid Technologies)
Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Billed Party Preference
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 14:32:21 PDT


On Mon May 30, 1994, [e-mail] writes:

[post about how the FCC wants to implement a system where your calling
card is linked to your default Long Distance carrier for 0+ calls from
payphones, hotels, other phones, etc. omitted]

> That just great, lay off thousands from OSP companies.  Destroy an
> entire inudstry, just because a couple of people can't figure out
> 10xxx?

This reminds me of a windshield wiper guy I "met" upon driving into
NYC one day. He came to my car, attempted to "clean" my windshield,
and when I indicated that it was not in his best interests to do so,
he said something like "Hey, if I didn't do this I'd be stealing and
robbing people".

Now I don't mean to equate AOS firms and what the poster calls OSP
firms with the guy in the above example (much...;) ), but come on!
Does the poster mean to assert that AOSs should be allowed to continue
ripping off the general public just so we can continue to employ their
(not all too friendly) employees?

The main reason the industry exists is because most people (rightly or
wrongly) just don't have the technical background, desire, or even the
time to try to figure out how to use 10XXX dialing or 800 access
methods prior to getting burned by a $5 local call billed to a Bell
Calling Card.

This is how most AOS firms make money -- they "service" a generally
captive audience at private payphones, hotels, colleges, etc., and
rake up an outrageous surcharge because the caller didn't know to use
a 10xxx code or an 800# to access his or her preferred LD carrier.
There are many COCOTs and hotels which either totally block 10XXX
access, or do things like disable the keypad after "X" digits to make
it difficult to use another carrier. (Yes, I know, blocking is
illegal, yet it's still done.  Many COCOTs also block 800-321-0288,
etc ...)

I'm not going to go into the problems with most AOS firms; they've
been discussed widely here in the Digest. What I will say is that when
you subscribe to an LD carrier at home or at your office, you or your
company probably wants to use that same LD carrier on the road, etc.
If not, there are plenty of OSPs which provide VERY reasonable Calling
Card service through both 0+ and 800 access, many without any surcharge
at all.  What most people probably DON'T want is to be billed by a
company which they don't normally do business with, at a rate which
they are not used to paying, just because some AOS or OSP agreed to
pay the owner of a given phone a kickback for using them.

What I and I think (hope?) other Calling Card users want to know is
exactly what they will pay before making a call. We also do not want
to be forced to go through some silly procedure (which can vary from
phone to phone, adding to the confusion) in order to assure that we
will get billed by the correct company.

> Plus we the consumer will have to come up with millions to fund
> Bill Party Preference.  Then as consumers were going to have to
> subsidize it too.  If you want my opion it's just simplier to dial
> 1-800-COLLECT or 1-800-CALL-ATT.

I have seen no figures on the cost of BPP, so I can't comment on that,
but whatever it is I'm sure it's considerably less than what AOS firms
rip off from American consumers over the period of a year.

If OSPs and AOSs are so great, then why fear BBP? I'm sure *SO* many
people will all of a sudden notice a great void in their lives (yet no
longer in their wallets!) that they will all rush out to get the 10XXX
codes for their favorite AOS and OSP so they can use them instead of
their preferred carrier. So you AOs have nothing to fear, of course,
because you all provide such a great service that everyone will just
go out of their way to start using you once BBP comes into effect!

Let me make myself clear: I think that AOSs, and to a lesser extent
OSPs like Sprint (who has (had?) a 0+ system in place ONLY to get
AT&T/Bell card calls and which doesn't service their OWN customers)
are illegitimate business, and need to be removed. They prey on the
ignorance of the general public, and charge a large markup for
unquestionably inferior service. In the case of Sprint, MCI, et. al.
who have 0+ service just to capture AT&T/Bell traffic, they migrate
customers who normally use AT&T to use *their* service, causing
billing confusion and reducing the number of calls which an AT&T
customer can apply to his or her savings plan (or business WATS
Calling Card plan).

Billed Party Preference is an EXCELLENT idea -- it will force slimey
AOS firms out of business, and make MCI, Sprint, AT&T and anyone else
who wants to play compete more aggressively for your business. If they
want your business, they will have to provide you with something
better than your preferred carrier (lower rates, lower surcharge,
etc.) in order to get you to use them. Who knows, it may even bring
into the market a 0+ OSP with no calling card surcharge and rates in
line with standard direct dial rates.

But whatever the case may be, anything which lessens consumer
confusion in the industry and removes the "hold" which AOSs still seem
to have over many calling card users will be a positive step. I am
sympathetic to the actual people who will lose their jobs at AOS firms
as a result of this, but as for the AOSs themselves, well, the sooner
we are rid of these outfits the better.


Doug    CID Technologies   [phone]

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

Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 17:52:11 CDT
From: Andrew C. Green <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Some D-Day Telecom History


Donald E. Kimberlin <[e-mail]> writes:

> First, there are lots of recordings of bits of Edward R. Murrow from
> London during the blitz, as well as other correspondents like Richard
> C. Hottelet dating back to before D-Day.

 ... and our Moderator notes:

> An organization here in Chicago is planning a complete historical
> re-inactment of D-Day for later this month.

This might be a good time to mention the rebroadcasts of news
bulletins from D-Day and days following it, planned for upcoming
Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts of "Those Were the Days", hosted
by Chuck Schaden on WNIB-FM 97.1 here in Chicago, each Saturday
afternoon from 1 to 5 p.m. A large portion of the material is also
syndicated nationwide, so it may be available in other cities on or
around the same dates. (I believe the syndicated programs are hosted
by Art Fleming, but I can't swear to that.)

For some time now, Chuck has been rebroadcasting the CBS World News
from fifty years ago each Saturday afternoon, almost to the day. These
braodcasts give a good impression of the state of radio at that time,
and how reports were assembled, recorded, transmitted or shipped. The
broadcast itself, uncut and with wartime commercials for Admiral
radio, appears to have been recorded on transcription discs, basically
really big records. The majority of each broadcast is concerned with
the war effort, of course, and almost always features interviews with
the troops. These interviews are presumably genuine, but it is
painfully obvious that both reporter and subject are reading their
comments from a printed script; presumably the interview had to be
written down and approved by a censor for broadcast, at which point
the two people would sit at a microphone and read their remarks all
over again.

Again just guessing here, I get the distinct impression that those
man-in-the-trench recordings were made in Europe on disc, then shipped
to the states for broadcast, since in some programs they have run what
sound like phoned-in reports, usually from the Pacific. These reports
are always introduced with the cautionary phrase, "Following a short
delay, we will take you to" (so-and-so reporting from somewhere). And
sure enough, there is a pregnant pause of five seconds or so before
the on-site correspondent gets going. I have no idea what the pause
was for; I have visions of engineers at a cord board somewhere madly
yanking on plugs and switching phone lines as fast as they can ...


Andrew C. Green           [phone]
Datalogics, Inc.          Internet: [e-mail]
441 W. Huron
Chicago, IL  60610-3498   FAX: [phone]

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

Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 11:38:59 +0600
From: [e-mail] (Alan Leon Varney)
Subject: Re: DID Loophole or I'm Screwed up?
Organization: AT&T Network Systems


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

   [I originally wrote]

>>> Per FCC Part 68 and TELCo tariffs, anything other than audible
>>> ring and busy tone (with some exceptions) is "meaningful" -- and
>>> the call must be supervised (answered).

>> I thought it was OK for a PBX to issue an intercept without
>> returning supervision.  For example, "The extension you dialed
>> does not exist.  Please call xyx-xxyy for assistance."  Do these
>> messages have to be supervised?

    "... have to be ..." is an interesting phrase in a world of
standards, requirements, regulations, tariffs and shady PBX operators.

> My office has Centrex service.  As lines are not used, they return
> exactly that type of message, referring people to our main switchboard.
> I would assume that it is permitted to provide an unsupervised announcement
> since I believe the message does not supervise.

   I hesitate to quote old material, but if everyone keeps in mind
that it is from 1992 (and that I am not a lawyer or FCC lackey) I'll
proceed ...

   From 10-1-92 Edition of 47 CFR (FCC), Part 68:

   Section 68.314  Billing protection
(a) Call Duration Requirements.... (no data for 2 seconds after answer)
(b) ... on-hook power ... (no on-hook transmission)
(c) ... loop current on answer ... (maintain current for 5 seconds)
(d) ... signaling interference ... (no blue-boxing)
(e) ... AIOD ... (no lying about numbers)
(f) ... on-hook signals for digital connections (no on-hook transmission)
(g) ... off-hook signals for digital connections (hold off-hook for 5 seconds)
(h) DID requirements
  (1) Answer supervision for DID calls ... through a PBX or similar system
      shall be returned ... on all calls:
     (i) Answered by called DID station
     (ii) Answered by attendant
     (iii) Routed to an announcement, except for "number invalid", "not in
           service" or "not assigned" recordings
     (iv) Routed to a dialing prompt, or
     (v) Routed back to the public switched network by the PBX, including
         calls routed to [above announcements].
  (2) DID calls which do not require the PBX to return answer supervision
      are those:
     (i) Which are not routed back to the public switched network and,
         in addition, are:
       (A) Unanswered (the called DID station is alerted and does not
           answer, or the DID station o which the call is forwarded
           is alerted but does not answer)
       (B) Routed to busy signal
       (C) Routed to a reorder signal, or
       (D) Routed to [above mentioned announcements]
     and those
     (ii) Which are routed back to the public switched network and, in
          addition, are:
       (A) Unanswered (called or forwarded station)
       (B) Routed to busy signal
       (C) Routed to a reorder signal.
  (3) Answer supervision on DID calls shall be provided in accordance with
      industry engineering standards [EIA RS-464, for example]
  (4) PBX and similar systems built after 1990 shall comply.  Earlier
      systems shall comply if newly installed or relocated by mid-1992.
      Such equipment must be reregistered if previously not compliant
      with paragraph (h).  Compliance ... shall require that ... it will
      return answer supervision in conformity with this rule in a manner
      which cannot be readily altered by software control or other user
      controlled media.
  (5) "similar systems" means key equipment, multifunction systems,
      multiplexers, and any equipment for which adopted industry standard
      signaling is the standard mode of returning answer supervision.

    [Originally written in 1980, amended in March 1982, Sept. 1982,
     again in Sept. 1982, Dec. 1984, July 1985, Jan. 1986, May 1986
     and Nov. 1990.]

   As CPE "users" try other means of avoiding being charged for
completed calls, I'm sure the regulations will evolve.  The PBX
interface extends the public network into the PBX, and relys on it to
be "honest".  Those manufacturers and/or users who abused this
interface in the past caused many of the above regulations to be
spelled out -- perhaps limiting other legitimate uses of withholding
answer supervision.  Unfortunately, the good users and applications
are saddled with the fruits of the shady ones.

   And I still can't believe the FCC ruling regarding international
call-back services, which are receiving a "free" service.


Al Varney

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

From: Ken Thompson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 08:27:38
Organization: AT&T Global Information Solutions


> Guorong Roger ([e-mail]) wrote:

>> Is there any kind of CORDLESS PHONE which can be used for ten to

>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are, but they are not legal for use
>> in the USA. About the closest you can come to this legally in the USA is
>> to use a manual phone patch attached to a CB radio or some other type of
>> legal radio service. I have a phone patch here for example which I have

> The important point here is that the amateur radio service is for
> recreational non-commerial use only, and the hams tend to police
> themselves fairly well, especially in metro areas where the bands are
> crowded.  And, naturally, the phone co doesn't want people to bypass
> their cellular service.  So getting a legal ten mile phone is not
> easy.

Another note.  It is very illegal to use CB with phone patches.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It most certainly is *NOT* illegal to use
a phone patch with Citizen's Band radios. To be sure, there are lots of
more effecient ways of doing it these days, but it is not illegal. The
rules say in the case of CB, the process has to include an operator at
the base station to physically make the connection and key/unkey the
microphone. It cannot be an automated process. Where it gets to be a real
pain is due to the ignorance of the party receiving the call. Generally
they do not realize until it has been explained to them three or four
times that unlike a 'regular' phone call they are not on a full duplex
connection. It is useless for them to speak while the party on the
radio end is speaking or when they hear 'hash' or static in their ear.
They are only to speak when the base station operator tells them to
speak. Unlike a regular phone call, there have to be short, precise
sentences by the speakers on each end followed by a pause in speaking,
otherwise the base operator goes crazy trying to anticipate when to key
and unkey the microphone. Twenty years ago I used to do this to help the
expressway motorists in distress but I haven't fooled with CB for many
years other than my own personal handheld I use for fun sometimes.  PAT]

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

From: Ed Ellers <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 94 00:43:04 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


sohl,william h <[e-mail]> writes:

> While that is possible, it can only be done legally within the
> constraints of the FCC regulations as per my comments above.
> Additionally, there is a frequency coordination process that must be
> followed to obtain a fixed set of assigned two meter frequencies to
> establish a permanent repeater which is the only way this could be
> done and still be legal on the amateur two meter band.

A minor correction to what Bill's saying -- it's no longer MANDATORY
to get coordination for an amateur repeater.  If you can find a
frequency pair you can use it, BUT if you cause interference to a
coordinated repeater you'll have to move or shut down.

Also, 2m isn't the only repeater band -- a ham who wants to set up his
own autopatch badly enough can do it on a higher band where open
frequency pairs are more likely to exist.

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

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 94 12:02:00 EDT
From: [e-mail] (John R Levine)
Subject: Re: Cellular Billing
Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass.


> Incidentally while I'm at the keyboard ... it's taken me a while to
> realise that US analogue cellular systems providers require you, the
> the phone owner and payer of the airtime bill, actually to pay for
> incoming calls. How the heck have they managed to convince people to
> go for that?!?

Given the way that billing works here, there isn't much choice.  We
don't have billing pulses, we record call detail information and
compute the charges at the time the bill is printed based on the
originating and terminating numbers, time of day, and any of the
15,000 special billing plans now available.

Our cellular numbers are integrated into the regular dialing plan, so
for example my car phone's numbers in Boston and Vermont are as far as
callers can tell regular local phone numbers.  The number in Vermont
is in 802-296, a prefix shared with wireline phones.  This means
there's no way for billing software to distinguish between calls to
cellular and calls to wireline numbers, so the cellular customer has
to pick up any extra charges beyond the normal call charge to his
number.

In a few places, the local phone company has a special prefix for
caller-pays cellular.  But there's no way to charge back the surcharge
to long distance callers.  (Remember, long distance and local service
are provided by separate companies, and the long distance company pays
a flat per-minute access charge to the local telco.)  Long distance
companies block calls to other surcharged numbers such as 976-XXXX
audio programs, so I expect that you won't be able to call a caller-pays
cellular number from out of the local area.  Depending on the cellular
customer's needs, this may be either an advantage or a disadvantage.

The 500 NPA is apparently being allocated to new wireless services,
and it may be possible that national caller-pays cellular numbers
could reside there.


Regards,

John Levine, [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: However John, why aren't cellular carriers
treated like any other telco or long distance carrier for the purpose of
intercompany billings and settlements. When we call between a telco one
place and some other telco elsewhere via a long distance carrier, the
whole thing is very transparent to the caller/called party. As we have
discussed in the 'combined billing' thread recently, you can write one
check to the telco and be done with it for all anyone cares. Why are
the cellular companies not part of the process as a routine thing?   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Mike King)
Subject: Re: Name and Address -> Long Distance Companies
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 06:33:07 PDT


In TELECOM Digest, V14, #256, TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to
Jonathan <[e-mail]>:

>> the rules currently say that local telcos may not withhold
>> name and address information from long distance carriers -- even if
>> the number is otherwise non-published -- for billing purposes.

They can now.

Someone else said:

> This is a security problem.  Customers should be allowed to block the
> delivery of their name and address information if they have non-published
> telephone numbers or non-listed addresses.  If a customer does this,

The FCC has decreed this.

Because a friend here in CA is being harrassed by Integratel over a
call he did not make, I'm not about to allow that to happen to me.  I
have a non-published number.  When P*B announced that I can prevent my
billing name and address from being released, I immediately signed for
the plan.  P*B's requirements include (1) a non-published number, (2)
collect and 3rd-party blocking, and (3) no P*B calling cards.  [Darn!
<g>] Should I wish to remove the restriction, I have to inform them in
writing.

I realize that I can call Integratel and ask to be added to their
blocking database, but I don't think it should be my responsibility to
search for every potential OCC to have my number added to their
blocking database.


Mike King    [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It isn't your responsibility, and in fact
historically -- back in the days when we had the Bell *System* (my
emphasis) -- you did do business with just one place, the local telco
business office. But the rules are different now. The carriers do not
cooperate with each other except when they feel it is in their best
interest to do so. The first rule in telephony these days is the customer
be damned!  I speak purely from a pragmatic approach: go around and
tell each of them what you want. It will get done that way (usually)
and with a minimum of effort on your part cleaning up messes later.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Laurence Chiu)
Subject: Re: Internet Access at Home?
Date: 01 Jun 1994 11:55:17 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access


In article <[e-mail]>, K. M. Peterson wrote:

> You didn't say much about what kind of setup you want and why.  You
> may be under the (mistaken) impression that the only dialup access is
> to a Un*x box, and running Un*x commands in a shell.  This isn't true:
> running PPP on my Mac, InterNews, Eudora (for mail), and a collection
> of other utilities gives me _identical_ access as if I were connected
> to an Ethernet connected to the 'Net, except for the speed of the
> connection.  And you pay for speed, eh PAT?

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You sure do ... then you pay some
> more. PAT]

Well I have a SLIP connection to an Internet provider for which I pay
$30/month for 30 hrs and $1/hr over that. I chose to go with 14.4
modems even though the provider offers 28.8. I think if I got 28.8
working okay, then SLIP at that speed would be quite acceptable since
if you're using Mosaic or Cello to access WWW, much of the stuff
coming down is plain text which should benefit from modem data
compression. Mosaic at 14.4 is okay apart from the embedded GIF files
and trying to play those 900K MPEG movies :-)

As an aside I could get 24x7 SLIP for $90 I think.


Laurence Chiu             Walnut Creek, California
Tel: [phone] (work)  Internet: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Chris Barr)
Subject: Re: Replace POST-MAIL by FAX
Organization: Entrepreneur's Source
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 15:55:45 GMT


> ... I have been unable make fax software work reliably.  I have
> tried Delrina (the market leader) Winfax Pro 3.0 and 4.0 and Sofnet
> Faxworks Pro 3.0. None of these packages will reliably receive faxes.

Well, are the sends comparable to the receives?  i.e. as long and numerous
and to/from similar end points?  If so -- well, what's different?  You
might try using a lower speed, for starters.  Also I'd look at Delrina's
modem initialization string.

Is the phone line good?  Some 2nd phone lines use yellow & black wires in
a bundle with wires for the 1st line - crosstalk can disturb data calls.

> Details: I am using a Supra Fax Modem V.32bis which is on the approved
> list from both Delrina and Sofnet.  I upgraded to Supra's latest ROM
> to make sure that the modem wasn't at fault.

Supra has a nice reputation but still they're based on the Rockwell
chipset which has poorer line noise handling than US Robotics, Hayes
or Microcom.  See the modem newsgroup -- some users at sites with
multiple brands of modem report that Supras fail under noisy line
conditions which other brands can handle.

> I tried faxing a question to Delrina. ...

You sound like a glutton for punishment :-) I've gotten good help by
mailing/posting a problem on their Compuserve newsgroup (go delrina).
No BS about long descriptions of my situation, but I did include some
key details.

Please let us know how it turns out!


Chris

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

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 10:38:11 (MST)
From: Daryl R. Gibson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Money Talks


> Along the roadside, a determined tourist trips over a cactus.
> She struggles up an embankment and through sagebrush to get past
> telephone poles and wires.  Finally, with camera in hand, she has an
> unobstructed view of Jenny Lake and the beautiful Teton Mountains.
> How often have you struggled to get just the right picture -- a photo
> without telephone wires to ruin a beautiful scene?

> This is "A-N-A's Money Talks."

All right. I'm being picky, but while money may talk, it's not too
accurate a conversationalist. This was obviously written by someone
who has never been to Jenny Lake. I can't think of more than a couple
of exposed wires inside the park. There are a few, but by and large,
everything's buried underground. I've yet to see cactus there, and
since Grand Teton's at an altitude of around 7,000 feet, temperatures
in the winter drop down to -20F and lower, and the area's covered by
several feet of snow through March. I was there once on January 1, and
the snow banks were much higher than I was.

As someone who intentionally photographs telephone and power wires and
structures occasionally, I know there are many ways to shoot a photo
without getting a wire in it. Of course, that hasn't kept me from
finding one in a frame, without realizing it was there when I shot it.

But there's nothing like a row of telephone poles paralleling a country
road at sunset, glass insulators shimmering in the sun to set a mood.

Admittedly, there aren't too many of those around anymore ...


Daryl
(801)378- 2950    [phone]
[e-mail]   [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 04:13:46 EST
From: [e-mail] (Mark E Daniel)
Subject: Re: LD Carrier's Message Delivery Service


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

> MCI is offering one of these services via their calling cards, and in
> the three occasions I have tried it, all three parties have not
> received their messages.  In one case, the party may not have been
> home within the allotted eight hour time frame in which the call must

I just tried delievering a message on my voice line which has an
answering machine on it using Sprint's service.  It was in the middle
of the message by the time the machine started recording.  It did
however repeat the message from the begining after completeing it.  So
as long as the greeting isn't LOOOOONG you should have no problems.
Mine runs about ~20 seconds.  I guess they figure we're all capible of
leaving messages on answering machines ourselves. :) And they're
right.  But it would be nicew if they did it intellegently enough to
wait until the answeree stoped speaking before they delievered the
message.


Mark E Daniel                   (Loving SysOp of The Legend BBS)
Inet: [e-mail]   [e-mail] (Direct INet)

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #263
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
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To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #265

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 2 Jun 94 09:29:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 265

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    TAP-INFO Memo to NSF on Internet Access (Bill Blum)
    716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D (Scott D. Fybush)
    OSP's Aren't the Only Ones (A. Padgett Peterson)
    Question About OO-CHILL (Hwan Wook Sohn)
    Internet Through Local Cable TV Provider (Jeff Lin)
    Telephone Switch Vendors - Read This (Scott Sanbeg)
    Does MCI Transmit CNID? (Eric R. Sandeen)
    Interactive "Voice Mail" System For PC? (Paul A. Lee)
    Re: Rude Not to Leave Answering Machine Messages? (Robert Casey)
    Re: E911 Portland OR Has Problems (Robert Casey)
    Re: 800 Number Billback (Paul S. Sawyer)
    Re: Micro Portable Suggestions (Steve Wood)
    Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA (Stephen Denny)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 94 16:44:48 EDT
From: Bill Blum <[e-mail]>
Subject: TAP-INFO Memo to NSF on Internet Access


 Subject: Metered Usage of the Internet: JSN

In the future, you might have to pay a charge for every E-mail message
you send or receive, every Usenet article you read, every kilobyte of
data you transfer with ftp, every hypertext link you follow with NCSA
Mosaic or Gopher ...

Hopefully this frightens you as much as it does me.  But it will
happen, unless YOU do something about it.

Please read the attached, fill out the requested info, and mail it
back to [e-mail].  It also wouldn't hurt to forward a copy
of this to everyone you know on the Internet.

Thanks for your support.

Craig Smith, <[e-mail]  or <[e-mail]
Texas A&M University, Dept. of Computer Science
205 HRBB, 862-2084 (CPSC).


 TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
 May 7, 1994

 -    Request for signatures for a letter to NSF opposing metered
      pricing of Internet usage

 -    Please repost this request freely

The letter will be sent to Steve Wolff, the Director of Networking and
Communications for NSF.  The purpose of the letter is to express a
number of user concerns about the future of Internet pricing.  NSF
recently announced that it is awarding five key contracts to telephone
companies to operate four Internet "Network Access Points" (NAPs), and
an NSF funded very high speed backbone (vBNS).  There have been a
number of indications that the telephone companies operating the NAPs
will seek permission from NSF to price NAPs services according to some
measure of Internet usage.  The vBNS is expected to act as a testbed
for new Internet pricing and accounting schemes.  The letter expresses
the view that metered pricing of Internet usage should be avoided, and
that NSF should ensure that the free flow of information through
Internet listserves and file server sites is preserved and enhanced.

Jamie Love, Taxpayer Assets Project ([e-mail]; but unable to
answer mail until May 15).  Until then, direct inquires to Michael
Ward.

If you are willing to sign the letter, send the following information
to Mike Ward of the Taxpayer Assets Project ([e-mail], fax:
202/234-5176; voice: 202/387-8030; P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC
20036):

Names:    ___________________________
Title:    ___________________________   (Optional)
Affiliation:   ____________________________________
(for purposes of identification only)
Address:       ______________________________________
City; St, Zip  ________________________________
Email Address: _____________________________________
Voice:         __________________________________
(for verification)

                            The letter follows:

Steve Wolff
Director
Division of Networking and Communications
National Science Foundation
1800 G Street
Washington, DC  20550

Dear Steve:

It is our understanding that the National Science Foundation (NSF) and
other federal agencies are developing a new architecture for the
Internet that will utilize four new Network Access Points (NAPs),
which have been described as the new "cloverleaves" for the Internet.
You have indicated that NSF is awarding contracts for four NAPs, which
will be operated by telephone companies (Pac Bell, S.F.; Ameritech,
Chicago; Sprint, NY; and MFS, Washington, DC).  We further understand
that NSF has selected MCI to operate its new very high speed backbone
(vBNS) facility.

There is broad public interest in the outcome of the negotiations
between NSF and the companies that will operate the NAPs and vBNS.  We
are writing to ask that NSF consider the following objectives in its
negotiations with these five firms:

      PRICING.

We are concerned about the future pricing systems for Internet access
and usage.  Many users pay fixed rates for Internet connections, often
based upon the bandwidth of the connection, and do not pay for network
usage, such as the transfer of data using email, ftp, Gopher or
Mosaic.  It has been widely reported on certain Internet discussion
groups, such as com-priv, that the operators of the NAPs are
contemplating a system of usage based pricing.

We are very concerned about any movement toward usage based pricing on
the Internet, and we are particularly concerned about the future of
the Internet Listserves, which allow broad democratic discourse on a
wide range of issues.  We believe that the continued existence and
enhancement of the Internet discussion groups and distribution lists
is so important that any pricing scheme for the NAPs that would
endanger or restrict their use should be rejected by the NSF.

It is important for NSF to recognize that the Internet is more than a
network for scientific researchers or commercial transactions.  It
represents the most important new effort to expand democracy into a
wide range of human endeavors.  The open communication and the free
flow of information have make government and private organizations
more accountable, and allowed citizens to organize and debate the
widest range of matters.  Federal policy should be directed at
expanding public access to the Internet, and it should reject efforts
to introduce pricing schemes for Internet usage that would mimic
commercial telephone networks or expensive private network services
such as MCI mail.

To put this into perspective, NSF officials must consider how any
pricing mechanisms will change the economics of hosting an Internet
electronic mail discussion groups and distribution lists.  Many of
these discussion groups and lists are very large, such as Humanist,
GIS-L, CNI-Copyright, PACS-L, CPSR-Announce or Com-Priv.  It is not
unusual for a popular Internet discussion group to have several
thousand members, and send out more than 100,000 email messages per
day.  These discussion groups and distribution lists are the backbones
of democratic discourse on the Internet, and it is doubtful that they
would survive if metered pricing of electronic mail is introduced on
the Internet.

Usage based pricing would also introduce a wide range of problems
regarding the use of ftp, gopher and mosaic servers, since it
conceivable that the persons who provide "free" information on servers
would be asked to pay the costs of "sending" data to persons who
request data.  This would vastly increase the costs of operating a
server site, and would likely eliminate many sources of data now
"published" for free.

We are also concerned about the types of accounting mechanisms which
may be developed or deployed to facilitate usage based pricing
schemes., which raise a number of concerns about personal privacy.
Few Internet users are anxious to see a new system of "surveillance"
that will allow the government or private data vendors to monitor and
track individual usage of Information obtained from Internet
listserves or fileserves.

      ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES

We are also concerned about the potential for anti- competitive
behavior by the firms that operate the NAPs.  Since 1991 there have
been a number of criticisms of ANS pricing practices, and concerns
about issues such as price discrimination or preferential treatment
are likely to become more important as the firms operating the NAPs
become competitors of firms that must connect to the NAPs.  We are
particularly concerned about the announcements by PAC-Bell and
Ameritech that they will enter the retail market for Internet
services, since both firms were selected by NSF to operate NAPs.  It
is essential that the contracts signed by NSF include the strongest
possible measures to insure that the operators of the NAPs do not
unfairly discriminate against unaffiliated companies.

Recommendations:

As the Internet moves from the realm of the research community to a
more vital part of the nation's information infrastructure, the NSF
must ensure that its decisions reflect the needs and values of a much
larger community.

 1.   The NSF contracts with the NAPs operators will include
      clauses that determine how the NAP services will be priced.
      It is important that NSF disclose and receive comment on all
      pricing proposals before they become final.  NSF should
      create an online discussion list to facilitate public dialog
      on the pricing proposals, and NSF should identify its
      criteria for selecting a particular pricing mechanism,
      addressing the issue of how the pricing system will impact
      the Internet's role in facilitating democratic debate.

 2.   NSF should create a consumer advisory board which would
      include a broad cross section of consumer interests,
      including independent network service providers (NSPs),
      publishers of Internet discussion groups and distribution
      lists, academic networks, librarians, citizen groups and
      individual users.  This advisory board should review a
      number of policy questions related to the operation of the
      Internet, including questions such as the NAP pricing, NAP
      operator disclosure of financial, technical and operational
      data, systems of Internet accounting which are being tested
      on the vBNS and other topics.

 3.   NSF should solicit public comment, though an online
      discussion group, of the types of safeguards against
      anticompetitive behavior by the NAPs which should be
      addressed in the NSF/NAPs contracts, and on issues such as
      NAPs pricing and Internet accounting systems.

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 PLEASE FORWARD TO OTHER DISCUSSION FORUMS YOU MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH

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

From: [e-mail] (Scott D Fybush)
Subject: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 23:54:25 EDT


NYNEX/NY announced today that its portion of 716 in Western NY will
use 1 + 716 + 7D for LD within the area code.  This is apparently a
change from the previously-announced 7D dialing.

It is also in conflict with the Rochester Tel half of 716, which as
far as I know is sticking with 7D.  So now Buffalo will need to dial
1+ 716 to get to Rochester, while Rochester only has to dial 7D to get
to Buffalo.  I hope RochTel will support 1 + 716 as well, just to ease
the confusion as people cross from NYNEX's Buffalo LATA to the
Rochester Telephone LATA.

Are any other NPAs split in dialing methods like this?

Also, today was phase-in day for 1 + 413 dialing in Western MA.
NYNEX/NE will phase in 1 + 508 and 1 + 617 in mid-July, and all three
will be mandatory in September.  This replaces the earlier plan for
7D, which was quashed by the DPU.


Scott Fybush - [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 08:08:27 -0400
From: [e-mail] (A. Padgett Peterson)
Subject: OSP's Aren't the Only Ones


Last week I had occasion to visit Curacao in the Netherland Antilles,
about two hours flight from Miami (guesstimate, was not able to go
direct and the first plane I got on had propellors).

Previously, I had commented that the U$1.58/minute my Sprint service
charged for an earlier call to the island seemed high (compared to
London at three times the distance for half the charge) but the rate
from the Hotel (using ATT Direct) was U$10.28 for three minutes (USA
was broken into three zones & Florida was lowest).

A calling card purchased outside the hotel and used to dial direct was
U$2.00 per minute. Hapily, that phone (Phillips) had a volume control 8*).

It is going to be interesting to see what happens when the Motorola
Satellite telephone system (Meridian ?) becomes available worldwide.
Will it have any way to pinpoint exactly which country the signal is
coming from or will customs officers in lands with government mandated
monopolies confiscate sat-phones?

The coming global communications structure is going to injure a lot of
sacred cows and it will be interesting to see how they react (was the
Post Office directive earlier a first step towards requiring a stamp
for E-Mail ?)


Warmly,

Padgett

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

From: [e-mail] (Hwan Wook Sohn)
Subject: Question About OO-CHILL
Organization: Computer Science Engineering at the Univ of Texas at Arlington
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 00:22:28 GMT


Hello everybody,

I am studying CHILL language which is a special computer language for
telecommunication applications and I want to know more about Object
Oriented CHILL(so called OO-CHILL).

I found some papers related to OO-CHILL. However, they are all talking
about their concepts and implementation issues (they were under developing).
I guess the OO-Chill maybe developed somewhere now. But I am not sure.

Is there anybody who knows current status of OO-CHILL language?  Are
there some fully developed commertial OO-CHILLs?  If you know about
the status of OO-CHILL, some information or references, please let us
know.  I also want to know about the Object Oriented SDL (System
Description Language).


Thanks in advance,

Name    : Sohn, Hwan Wook         E-Mail  : [e-mail]
Phone   : [phone]            Fax     : [phone]
Address : 416 Yates
          CSE Dept. UTABOX-19015
          Arlington, TX 76019

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jun 94 17:25:02 CDT
From: [e-mail] (Jeff Lin)
Subject: Internet Through Local Cable TV Provider


Hi,

Is it possible to get Internet connectivity through a local cable TV
provider? Has any cable TV provider around the country started (or
planned) this kind of service?

If this is possible, how does the bandwidth privided by a typical
local cable TV media compare with T1 and other media types?

Any ideas or information is welcome.


Jeff Lin     [e-mail]    [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Scott Sanbeg)
Subject: Telephone Switch Vendors - Read This
Date: 1 Jun 1994 15:32:27 -0700
Organization: Connected INC -- Full Service Internet Providers(tm)


We are beginning a research project into switching in a call-center
environment and are inviting switch vendors to contact us. Our
environment is fiber and of interest to us are other, fiber products.


Scott Sanbeg
Kelley's Personal Communications, Seattle, WA
[phone] x131
Computer Systems Engineer, Seattle, WA
[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Eric R Sandeen)
Subject: Does MCI Transmit CNID?
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 15:30:32
Organization: USA CERL


Does MCI transmit CNID?

I call from Champaign (IL) to Austin via MCI, and in Austin it says
"out of area."  Anyone else have this problem?


Eric Sandeen   USA CERL
[e-mail]
http://kazoo.cecer.army.mil/~sandeen/eric.html


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is not just MCI. I don't think any long
distance carrier at the present time would provide the CLID between those
points.   PAT]

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

Date: Tue 31 May 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Paul A. Lee  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>
Organization: Woolworth Corporation
Subject: Interactive "Voice Mail" System For PC?


In {TELECOM Digest} Volume 14 Issue 257, Axel Cleeremans wrote:

> A friend of mine would like to set up an interactive voice-mail
> system based on a PC ... is ... there ... a hardware device that will
> perform these functions ... when hooked up to or put inside a PC.

The basic hardware device that meets these requirements is typically
referred to as a "voice board" or a "voice port board". Most such
boards contain a telephone line interface, a telephone-bandwidth audio
signal coder/decoder (CODEC), and a DTMF (touch tone)
receiver-decoder, for one or more ports, and sometimes an external
audio interface and foreplane interfaces to adjunct boards.

Following are some North America-based manufacturers of such boards;
many of these companies also make European versions and have European
sales and support operations:

     Dialogic                         [phone]
     Brooktrout                       [phone]
     New Voice                        [phone]
     Rhetorex                         [phone]
     Natural MicroSystems             [phone]
     SpeechSoft                       [phone]
     Pika Technologies                [phone]

Each of these manufacturers provides some degree of software support,
from basic hardware drivers and development kits, to more sophisticated
voice mail or IVR (interactive voice response) applications. The
manufacturers can also refer you to developers and system integrators
using their hardware.

A typical voice port board will cost from US$500 to US$1500. A typical
four port voice response system, including the PC and application
software, ready to be loaded with your data and programmed for your
application, will cost between US$5000 and US$10000. There are
thousands of companies (and individuals) writing applications and
assembling systems based on voice boards and PCs. You will have to do
quite a bit of shopping to find the best product for your needs at the
best price.

You may also be able to adapt one of the "shrink-wrapped" single port
voice mail/modem boards to your application. National Semiconductor,
Intel, and Boca Research are among the US manufacturers, and there are
certainly others.  Check with a full-line PC communications products
dealer in your part of the world. These devices should cost under
US$800 -- some as low as US$200.


Paul A. Lee                    Voice  [phone]
Telecommunications Analyst       FAX  [phone]
Woolworth Corporation           CompuServe  70353,566
INTERNET  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Casey)
Subject: Re: Rude Not to Leave Answering Machine Messages?
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 17:09:12 GMT


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

> General view of Digest readers (except Miss Manners) seems to be that
> it is, on the basis that it leaves the called party with a gnawing
> feeling of wonderment as to who called them and why. I can't see how;
> do modern answering machines work differently from my fairly-old
> Panasonic?

> With mine, callers who hear the outgoing message all the way through
> and then hang up (before the beep) just don't activate the message
> counter, so I don't even know they called. The few seconds gap between
> the end of the outgoing message and the beep gives them plenty of
> time. Suits me fine, and I had assumed they all worked much the same
> way.

My answering machine (a Code-a-phone) puts short beeps to indicate
that someone called but left no message.  Sometimes, when I'm trying
to reach someone to actually talk with, I'll get their machine several
times before they're there, so I don't leave a message each time (why
waste the tape on their machine?).  Except for one friend who gets
annoyed if I don't leave a message every time, then I'll leave a short
message.  Other times, I just called to say the equivalent of "Hey,
how's it goin'", in which case, a message on the machine is somewhat
pointless.

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Casey)
Subject: E911 Portland OR Has Problems
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 17:20:42 GMT


Read in the local paper (Oregonian) last week about how Portland's 911
system has some serious problems and poor morale.  Mentioned about the
Fire Department didn't like the use of "civilians" for the 911 call
takers, and that they didn't like having to deal with some elements of
the police methods. (Note: I'm not familiar with the details of such
work).

Portland installed new 911 equipment a few months ago, (same stuff
that San Diego, CA has, according to the paper) and has had many
problems.  People on hold for like 15 minutes on 911.  Wrong locations
given to ambulances and such.

Portland got rid of their old emergency director, and appointed a new
one.

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul S. Sawyer)
Subject: Re: 800 Number Billback
Date: 31 May 1994 19:31:56 GMT
Organization: UNH Telecommunications and Network Services


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: [...]  Add to that requiring PINS
> on outgoing 'long distance' calls -- even 800 numbers -- for the purpose
> of identifying who made what calls, and your trouble should be greatly
> reduced if not eliminated entirely. PAT]

There is no problem identifying "who made what calls" -- but the way
they are billed usually has no relation to how they are made.  The
dialed number looks nothing like the billed number, the time and
length may not match, and misleading terms like "credit card" and
"collect call" appear when the only call is an outgoing 800- call.

We don't need to require authorization codes for 800 - numbers, since
we can bill to the extension for such calls, and to "punish" the users
of legitimate 800- numbers by having them dial extra digits would not
be favorably met by our customers.  Most of these bogus charges can be
tracked and/or denied, but the problem is definitely bigger than it
needs to be.


Paul S. Sawyer    - University of New Hampshire CIS -  [e-mail]
Telecommunications and Network Services                VOX: [phone]
50 College Road                                        FAX: [phone]
Durham, New Hampshire  03824-3523


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, another solution is sort of rough and
dirty, but it would work. How many outgoing trunks do you have that those
800 calls would be routed on?  If you have some way to insure that calls
to 800 numbers get routed over some minimum number of trunks, and always
the same trunks then get some el-cheapo call restrictors and add them to
those outgoing lines. For example, Radio Shack has some nifty little units
which allow restricting specific numbers, local or long distance. I think
maybe you can program up to 30 numbers you don't want dialed in them. Get
one for each outgoing trunk handling 800 calls, and again, if you can fix
things so the 'toll-free' calls are all wedged into a group of maybe a
half-dozen to a dozen trunks you will minimize your expense. Get as many
of the toll restrictors as needed. Load them with the dozen or two dozen
most commonly (ab)used 800 numbers, as noted in your personal copy of
{Rolling Stone} and/or {Penthouse} magazine. No one else will even see
the difference, but boy, will those kids trying to reach the selected
800 numbers be frustrated! :). They'll dial those numbers, your switch
will process normally and send them out on the appropriate trunks. The
toll restrictors will see them coming and dump them. Your users hear
dial tone, click, click, clunk!  Dead line, switch dial tone returned
to them. Total investment, maybe a thousand dollars for several toll
restrictors. Start by loading them with the 800 numbers you have been
able to match up from your last couple phone bills. Each time you get
your phone bill for a couple months, add the newest discoveries. You
watch ... after two or three months it will drop to zero or almost zero.

The best part of all will be the nitwits who come to you to report that
their phone (or your lines) must be 'out of order'. <grin> ... you will
innocently ask them what number they were attempting to reach so that
you can investigate the problem ... they'll tell you (or if they have
a few brains they will try to avoid telling you the exact number) and
you'll clean them out right on the spot. <grin> ...  PAT]

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

From: Steve Wood <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Micro Portable Suggestions
Date: Tue, 31 May 94 14:11:00 PDT


Bill Verry writes:

> I'm in the market for a micro portable cell phone and need some
> advice. From what I've gathered it seems these devices are not too
> reliable when it comes to clarity and battery life. Most everyone I've
> spoken to has suggested I stay with the car phone and forget the
> "pocket" phone. I suspect this has to do with the low ouput of the
> units? If there is a manufacturer or a particular type of phone I
> should get I would greatly appreciate such contrasting opinion.

I suggest getting a portable with a hands-free adaptor kit for the
car. At McCaw I get to try out lots of phones, and that is the setup I
use. I've got a Motorola digital flip phone with the hands-free kit.
Most car kits offer a three watt amplifier for use in the car, so you
get the best of both worlds.


Steve Wood ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (Stephen Denny)
Subject: Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA
Date: 1 Jun 1994 03:55:31 GMT
Organization: DSC Communications Corporation, Plano, Texas USA


In article <[e-mail]>, Greg Vaeth at Jerrold
Communications <[e-mail]> wrote:

> An insert in my latest bill contained a notice that Bell Atlantic will
> offer Caller ID in Pennsylvania in August.  The cost for residential
> customers is $6.50/month, business is $8.50.  Call blocking and
> anonymous call rejection are free.  This charge seem outrageous
> considering that the equipment to do it is already there, right?  How
> else does return call, repeat call and all that stuff work. How does
> this rate compare to other states?

I can't remember the exact Southwestern Bell charges for Caller ID but
they were in the same range for Caller ID number, perhaps more to
include the Caller ID name.  I'd love to have it, but I don't know if
it's worth that much to me.

As far as the equipment, I can't really speak for the Central Office
equipment, but assuming the info is to be carried via SS7 (as the
number is now), adding a name look-up adds a significant load to the
SS7 signaling network, if this is to be done for most every call.  To
support this additional load, I would expect the regionals as well as
long distance carriers to add additional SS7 links, processing
capacity and database lookup support (which may be billed by a
separate supplier).  This additional SS7 capacity *don't come cheap*.


Stephen Denny             [e-mail]
DSC Communications Corp.
Plano, TX                 **Standard Disclaimer**

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #265
******************************


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Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 11:22:19 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #267

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 2 Jun 94 11:22:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 267

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    FCC Fact Sheet on Future Changes in Telephone Numbering (Bob Keller)
    2nd Radio Montreux (June 9-11) (Alfredo E. Cotroneo)
    NYNEX Bill Insert - Rate Changes (Jonathan Welch)
    Spread Spectrum Video (Charbel Tannous)
    ATT/MCI Numbering War (Rick Watson)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 11:40:10 EDT
From: Bob Keller <[e-mail]>
Subject: FCC Fact Sheet on Future Changes in Telephone Numbering



nrcc4029.txt ==> from ftp.fcc.gov

                     FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
                        INDUSTRY ANALYSIS DIVISION
                                FACT SHEET

                 MAY 1994

                   Future Changes in Telephone Numbering

Several important changes will affect the North American Numbering
Plan during the next few years.  These changes will require telephone
companies to modify their network switches.  They will also require
some users to modify their customer premises equipment.  The equipment
affected includes payphones and privately owned switchboards
(generically known as private branch exchanges or PBXs).

This Fact Sheet has been prepared to answer the most frequently asked
questions about upcoming changes in telephone numbers.  It also
provides sources of further information and assistance.

                        Interchangeable Area Codes

Currently, the second digit of an area code is always "0" or "1".

All usable three-digit numbers in this format have been assigned as
area codes.  Beginning in 1995, new area codes will have numbers other
than "0" or "1" as the second digit.  As a result, area codes will
have the same format as the central office codes that appear at the
beginning of local telephone numbers -- hence, the term "interchangeable"
codes.

Three interchangeable area codes have been assigned for service during
early 1995.  These new area codes will be placed in service in Alabama
(334), Washington State (360), and Arizona (520).

Some parts of the telephone network -- including both telephone
company switches and customer equipment -- were not designed to handle
interchangeable codes.  When a call to an interchangeable area code is
attempted from such equipment, the call will not be routed correctly.
Therefore, this equipment must be reprogrammed, modified, or replaced
in order to handle the dialing of interchangeable area codes.

                          New Dialing Procedures

Dialing procedures have traditionally been determined by local
telephone companies and state public utility commissions.
Consequently, they are not uniform, especially for toll calls that
originate and terminate within the same area code.  Over a period of
many years, three basic dialing procedures have evolved for toll calls
that do not cross an area code boundary.  In some states, such calls
are made simply by dialing a seven-digit number.  In other states,
these calls are placed by dialing "1" as a toll indicator, followed by
the seven-digit number.  In still other states, toll calls within the
same area code are placed by dialing "1" plus ten digits (the local
area code plus the seven digit number).

When interchangeable codes are activated in 1995, the prefix "1" will
be used to indicate that the call is longer than seven digits.  This
means that the "1 plus 7" method of dialing toll calls within the same
area code will no longer be feasible.  Each state that used "1 plus 7"
dialing has selected one of the other two dialing options.  Some
states have already completed the change and others are in the process
of doing so.

The use of "1" as an indicator of ten-digit calls means that, in most
areas, systems cannot rely on a leading "1" as a toll indicator.  PBXs
or other switches that have been programmed to block toll calls based
on the use of "1" as a toll indicator will need to be altered.

                    Conversion to 101XXXX Access Codes

Callers sometimes reach long distance carriers by dialing carrier
access numbers in the format 10XXX (where "XXX" represents a carrier's
three-digit identification code).  AT&T's code is 288, MCI's is 222,
etc.  Thus, customers can reach AT&T by dialing 10288, reach MCI by
dialing 10222, etc.  Because almost all three-digit identification
codes have been assigned, four-digit identification codes will be
assigned in 1995.  Carriers with four-digit identification codes will
be reached by dialing 101XXXX.

Under current law, new equipment manufactured for use by aggregators
(PBXs or key systems used by hotels, motels, hospitals, universities,
payphones, and others that provide telephones for "transient" users)
must be capable of processing 10XXX access code dialing.

Newly manufactured equipment should have the capability of processing
101XXXX dialing, but some payphones and other older equipment will not
be able to complete calls to 101XXXX numbers.

During a transition period, both 10XXX and 101XXXX access codes will
be used.  At the end of the transition period, all access codes will
use the 101XXXX format.  The transition period will provide owners of
non-conforming equipment with time to modify, reprogram, or replace
that equipment.  However, users of such equipment will not beable to
reach carriers with the new four-digit identification codes until
modifications are made.

The FCC has proposed a transition period of six years.  Thus, users
may have several years to make the necessary changes.  The date when
such changes will become mandatory has not yet been established.

                  Longer International Telephone Numbers

Under international agreements, international telephone numbers are
now limited to 12 digits.  Beginning in 1997, the maximum permissible
length will be increased to 15 digits.

Although there are no plans to increase the length of telephone
numbers in the United States, Germany has announced its intention to
lengthen its numbers.  Several other countries are also likely to do
so.

When the length of international telephone numbers is increased, customer
premises equipment will have to store and process the longer numbers.

                         Where to Go for More Help

For questions regarding specific customer premises equipment and what
must be done to ensure readiness to process the new numbers, users
should first consult the manufacturers or equipment suppliers.

Additional information is also available from the following sources:

                                    ***

The North American Numbering Plan is administered by Bell Communications
Research.  The administrator has prepared a report, Status of Numbering
in the NANP Served Area, that provides more detail on each of the coming
changes and includes the dialing plan in each state.  The report is
available without charge from:

          Claudette Keith
          North American Numbering Plan Administration
          Bell Communications Research
          Room 1E240
          290 West Mt. Pleasant Avenue
          Livingston, New Jersey  07039-2798
          201 740-6792
          201 740-6860 (FAX)

Questions on interchangeable area codes, dialing plans, and international
telephone numbers can be addressed to:

          Garry Benoit
          North American Numbering Plan Administration
          Bell Communications Research
          Room 1B227
          290 West Mt. Pleasant Avenue
          Livingston, New Jersey  07039-2798
          201 740-4592
          201 740-6860 (FAX)

Questions on the expansion of carrier identification codes can be
addressed to:

          Jim Deak
          North American Numbering Plan Administration
          Bell Communications Research
          Room 1B227
          290 West Mt. Pleasant Avenue
          Livingston, New Jersey  07039-2798
          201 740-4594
          201 740-6860 (FAX)

                                    ***

The vast amount of information necessary for routing calls throughout
the telephone network is maintained by Bellcore's Traffic Routing
Administration.  The information is contained in large data bases and
most can be reached through on-line computer access.  Much of the
information can also be purchased in a variety of formats (paper,
tape, microfiche, and CD-ROM).

A catalog describing the products available can be obtained from the
Traffic Routing Administration Hotline at 201 740-7500.  For more
information, contact:

          Donald Baechler
          Traffic Routing Administration
          Bell Communications Research
          Room 1E235
          290 W. Mt. Pleasant Ave
          Livingston, N.J.  07039-2798
          201 740-7575
          201 740-6999 (FAX)

                                    ***

Local telephone companies and long distance carriers have been
preparing for the coming changes.  The United States Telephone
Association has prepared several information bulletins that are
available without charge.  These publications can be obtained from,
and questions about the telephone network can be addressed to:

          Dennis Byrne
          Executive Director
          Operations and Engineering
          United States Telephone Association
          Suite 600
          1401 H Street N.W.
          Washington, D.C.  20005-2136
          202 326-7296
          202 326-7333 (FAX)

                                    ***

The North American Telecommunications Association represents both
suppliers and users of telecommunications equipment.  They have
prepared a publication called The North American Numbering Plan: A
Guide to Preparing for the New Number Formats.  This publication can
be obtained for a charge of $25.00 by calling 800 538-6282, Ext. 260.
Questions can be addressed to:

          Mary Bradshaw
          Director, Industry Relations
          North American Telecommunications Association
          Suite 550
          2000 M Street N.W.
          Washington, D.C.  20036
          202 296-9800, Ext. 210
          202 296-4993 (FAX)

                                    ***

All of the publications referred to above are available in the Public
Reference Room operated by the Commission's Industry Analysis
Division.  Questions may be addressed to the Commission's staff at:

          Industry Analysis Division
          Federal Communications Commission
          1250 23rd Street N.W.
          Washington, D.C.  20554
          202 632-0745
          202 632-1411 (FAX)

                -FCC-


Bob Keller <KY3R>        Robert J. Keller, P.C.        Tel [phone]
[e-mail]    Federal Telecommunications Law    Fax [phone]
finger me for daily FCC info + see ftp.clark.net:/pub/rjk/ for other files

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

From: [e-mail] (Alfredo E. Cotroneo)
Subject: 2nd Radio Montreux (June 9-11)
Date: 2 Jun 1994 09:51:15 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway


 From Thursday June 9, 1994, till Saturday June 11 Montreux will host
the 2nd Radio Montreux, with an interesting Symposium and Technical
Exibition for those who are interested in Radio Broadcasting,
especially in Europe. Montreux is one hour drive/train from Geneva, on
the Lake of Geneva (Switzerland).

There will be three parallel sessions during the three days, divided on
topics related to Radio Station Management, Programming, and Engineering.

Below I am transcribing the titles of the sessions, as they appear on the
official program:

* THURSDAY JUNE 9, 1994 *

10:30    Opening Ceremony
12:00    Highlight Session: The future of Radio, followed by Wine Reception

Management:    THURSDAY JUNE 9, 1994
14:30-16:00    The Co-existence of Public and Private Radio -
        The rules of the Game (The Funding of Radio)
16:30-18:00    Open Discussion
18:00-19:00    Traffic and service information

Programming:    THURSDAY JUNE 9, 1994
09:00-10:30    Continuity and Broadcast Operations
        (also Automation, and RDS in BBC Radio Networks)


* FRIDAY JUNE 10, 1994 *

Management:    FRIDAY JUNE 10, 1994
08:00-09:00    Workshop: Methods of Audience Rating
09:00-10:30    Who will pay for new technologies?
11:00-12:30    What will DAB change in Broadacsting Life?
14:30-18:00    Maximising Advertising, Sponsorship and Sales Income

Programming:    FRIDAY JUNE 10, 1994
08:00-09:00     Workshop: Human Resources, How to Save your Job?
09:00-10:30    Changes in Musical Formats
11:00-12:30    The Future of International Programme Exchange
14:30-16:00    Is the Format Model Still Valid in Europe?
16:30-18:00    Is Automation Killing the Spirit of Radio?

Engineering:    FRIDAY JUNE 10, 1994
09:00-10:30    Training
11:00-12:30    Transmission and Reception (Excluding Digital Radio)
14:30-18:00    Digital Radio
18:00-19:30    Workshop- Additional Data Services for DAB: Dynamic Range
Control (DRC)

* SATURDAY JUNE 11,1994 *

Management:    SATURDAY JUNE 11,1994
08:00-09:00    Workshop - The Future of International Radio Services
09:00-10:30    The Regulation of Radio in the Year 2000
11:00-12:30    Marketing and Promotion

Programming:    SATURDAY JUNE 11,1994
08:00-09:00    Breakfast Session -
        New Tools and Applications for Integrated Research
09:00-10:30    Planning and Positioning the Station
11:00-12:30    Winning with Consultants

Engineering:    SATURDAY JUNE 11,1994
09:00-12:30    Production Environment and Acoustic Developements

and, to end, on Saturday:

FAREWELL EVENING: Concert and Buffet reception at the Auditorium
Starvinski, Montreux.

The technical Exhibition is open daily between 10:00-18:00.

Any error or omission is mine, so check the source, and do not trust
me :)

FINAL NOTE, AND DISCLAIMER: Needless to say that I have no relation
with the organizers, and for any details you have better to check with
them: Phone: [phone] or fax: [phone]. They can take
care of Hotel reservation as they did for me, as well as for travel,
and Conference registration.

I will be there, so if you plan to be there as well you may leave me a
message at the desk, if you want. Please contact the 2nd Radio Montreux
organizers for more information, *NOT* ME, please.


Alfredo E. Cotroneo, NEXUS-Int'l Broadcasting Associaton
PO BOX 10980, I-20110 Milano, Italy
phone: [phone] Fax: [phone]

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

Date: Thu, 02 Jun 1994 11:51:44 -0500
From: Jonathan_Welch <[e-mail]>
Subject: NYNEX Bill Insert - Rate Changes


April 1994 bill insert on rate changes:

         On April 14, 1994 new rates became effective for our customers
         in Massachusetts. The new rates are reflected in this bill.
         These rate changes are part of a series of changes designed to
         gradually move the prices of NYNEX services closer to the
         actual costs of providing the services.

         NYNEX receives no additional revenue as a result of the new
         rates. Increases in prices of some services have been offset by
         decreases in prices of other services.

         RATE CHANGES AT A GLANCE
         Residence Services
         New Service:
         A new calling service is introduced for residence service cus-
         tomers in the 413 area code. The new optional calling plan is
         called CallAround 413 Plus Service and it allows unlimited
         calling within the 413 area code for a single monthly rate of
         $29.80, including the dial tone line rate.

         Exchange Service:
         Residence unlimited basic exchange service is increased by an
         average of $1.96. The residence measured service dial tone line
         rate is increased by $2.49 to $9.91. Circle Calling, a Residence
         Premium exchange service, is increased by an average of $4.57.

         Until now, residence unlimited exchange service had five sep-
         arate rates and Circle Calling Service had three, depending
         upon the exchange in which the service was provided. Now,
         there is a single statewide rate for each of these services. The
         applicable charges are: Residence unlimited one-party service
         - $16.85; Circle Calling Service - $34.24.

         Service Rates:
         The residence Temporary Suspension of Service charge equals
         the residential dial tone line rate. It increases by $2.49 to $9.91.

         Business Services

         Until now, business unlimited exchange line service and
         Private Branch Exchange (PBX) trunk service had four sepa-
         rate rates depending upon the exchange in which those ser-
         vices were provided. Now, there is a single statewide rate of
         $38.42 for each business unlimited exchange line and $57.63
         for each unlimited PBX trunk.

         The 800 Service dial tone line monthly rate is reduced from
         $25.00 to $20.00.

         Operator-Handled Business, Residence and Coin Calls
         Operator-handled surcharges will continue to apply to opera-
         tor-assisted calls.

         Other Changes
         Rates for various analog private line services will be increased;
         the prices for some digital private line services will be
         decreased.

         Rates for Direct Inward Dialing Service for business Private
         Branch Exchange (PBX) trunks and stations are reduced.

         RESIDENCE SERVICE OPTIONS**

         Service        Description                            Rates

         Measured       Provides per-call charging on          $9.91
                        all local calls

         Unlimited      Provides unlimited calling within     $16.85
                        the local calling area

                        Two Party                             $11.75


         Circle Calling Provides unlimited local calling      $34.24
                        and toll-free calling within 20 miles

         CallAround 413 Provides unlimited calling within     $29.80
         Plus Service   the 413 area code.

         **Not all services are available in all locations. Please consult
         the introductory pages of your NYNEX telephone directory for
         detailed information, or call your service representative at the
         telephone number on page 1 on the NYNEX Itemization of
         Account section of your bill.

         If you want or need to change your local service, there is no
         charge to change from Circle Calling to Basic Unlimited or
         Measured Service.

         HOW TO CONTACT US
         If you want more information or if vou have any questions
         about these changes, please call our Customer Response
         Center at 1 800 555-5000, weekdays between 7:30 am and
         8:00 pm and Saturday between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. If you
         are calling from outside Maine, Massachusetts, New
         Hampshire, Rhode Island or Vermont, please call a NYNEX
         Service Representative at the telephone number on page 1 of
         the NYNEX Itemization of Account section of your bill.

         Customers with disabilities should contact us at our
         Customer Contact Center for Individuals with Disabilities by
         calling 1 800 974-6006 (V/TTY).

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

Date: Wed, 01 Jun 1994 20:51:44 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Charbel Tannous)
Subject: Spread Spectrum Video
Organization: University of Saskatchewan


            SPREAD SPECTRUM FOR INDOOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
                                     by
       Dr. Eric J. Salt, Dr. Surinder Kumar and Prof. David Dodds
                       250 page manual included $395.

A comprehensive 3 cassette program for engineers and researchers
wanting to achieve a thorough understanding of the principles of
Spread Spectrum.  [Six hours].

                            Description

Principles of Spread Spectrum in a single path setting: Spreading with
PN sequences. Effects of Broad-band Noise & Simultaneous users. Types
of PN sequences. Receiver performance in the presence of Co-users.

The In-Building channel: The effect of absorbers and scatterers. A ray
model of the Channel. Delay power spectrum. Doppler spreading.
Distance dependent loss. Statistical model of the Channel.

The principles of Spread Spectrum in a Multiple Path Setting: Performance of
a RAKE receiver. Effects of a Co-user on the decision variable. Performance
calculation.

Issues in Synchronization: Single user- Single path. Multiple Access- Single
path. Multiple Access- Multiple path.

SAW and RAKE Receivers in an in-building CDMA system: Matched Filter concepts.
SAW devices for implementing Matched Filters. Receiver Structure using a SAW
matched filter. System performance with a RAKE receiver.

                            TABLE OF CONTENTS

 SECTION                            PAGES


1.Principles of Spread Spectrum in a Single Path Setting (Eric Salt)

(a) Mechanisms for Spread and Despreading             1- 12
(b) Effects of a Co-User                    13- 17
(c) Spreading Codes                        18- 42
(d) Receiver Performance                     46- 67
(e) System Performance Example                    68- 72



2.The In-Building Channel (Eric Salt)

(a) The Channel Viewed as a Collection of Scatters        73- 85
(b) Delay Spread & Coherence Bandwidth                86- 91
(c) Doppler Spread                        92- 94
(d) Odds & Ends                            95- 105


3.Principles of Spread Spectrum in a Multiple Path Setting (Eric Salt)

(a) Simple Receiver in a Two-Path Channel            106- 112
(b) Two-Tap RAKE Receiver                    113- 134
(c) Increasing the Capacity with Forward
    Error Correction & Sectorization                            135- 148
(d) Pedagogical Example                        148- 164


4.Issues in Synchronization (David Dodds)

(a) Single User - Path                        165- 169
(b) Multiple Access - Single Path                170- 174
(c) Search Strategies                        175- 182
(d) Multiple Access - Multiple Path                183- 188


5.SAW and RAKE Receivers for In-Building CDMA Systems (Surinder Kumar)

(a) Matched Filter Concepts                    189- 200
(b) SAW Devices for CDMA Systems                201- 208
(c) CDMA Receiver Using SAW Devices                209- 220
(d) RAKE Receiver                        221- 222
(e) Computer Simulation Results                    223- 244

                              ** ORDER FORM **

To order: telephone, FAX or mail to:
TRLabs, Suite 108- 15 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK
CANADA S7N 2X8
Tel: [phone]  FAX: [phone]

Please send me one (1) @ 395 Candian Funds          $ _______________
Please send me    additional sets @ $160.0 each     $ _______________
Please send me    additional manuals @ $180.0 each  $ _______________
Please send me    additional cassettes @ $80.0 each $ _______________

(Prices do not include shipping and handling)

TOTAL                                               $ _______________


Payment options:

My cheque is enclosed _____ Please bill me _____ Purchase order # ____

Please charge my credit card:

Visa _____ American Express _____ Card # _____________Exp. Date_______

Signature:________________________

PLEASE SHIP MY ORDER TO:

Name:__________________________________       Title:__________________

Company Name:__________________________       Street:_________________

City:__________________________________        Province/State:________

Postal code/ZIP:_____________ Telephone:(   )_______________

                              Fax:(   )______________

About TRLabs:

TRLabs is a non-profit joint Industry-University-Government
collaboration in applied telecommunications research with the aim of
contributing trained people and innovative technology to industry.

TRLabs Sponsors:
AGT Limited              Digital Equipment Corp.      QCC Communication Corp.
Alberta Government       Digital Systems Group Inc.   Saskatchewan Government
AT&T                     MTS                          Manitoba Government
Bell Northern Research   EDTel                        SaskTel
Communications Canada    LSI Logic Corp.              SED Systems Inc.
NovAtel Communications   University of Alberta        SMART Technologies

                         University of Calgary
                         University of Saskatchewan
                         University of Manitoba
                         WaveCom Electronics Inc.
                         Develcon Electronics Ltd.

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

Date: Thu, 02 Jun 94 12:06:27 EDT
From: Rick Watson <[e-mail]>
Subject: ATT/MCI Numbering War


> In an effort to snag more long distance telephone calls (charged to
> a credit card or a third number), AT&T reserved the toll-free number
> 1-800-OPERATOR.  Not to be outdone, and perhaps knowing the public
> better, MCI reserved the number 1-800-OPERATER and has been scooping
> up calls intended for its arch-rival.

Is this why AT&T is switching from 1-800-OPERATOR to 1-800-CALL-ATT?

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: AT&T had the latter of the two numbers in
> service for quite awhile prior to starting 'OPERATOR'. I would not be
> surprised to hear there was a lot of confusion between OPERATOR and
> OPERATER however.   PAT]

You think thats where it ends? Try dialing 1-800-ATT-CALL. (You get MCI!)


Rick Watson     Telecomm Analyst/NYU Computer Center

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #267
******************************


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Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 11:05:01 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #266

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 2 Jun 94 11:05:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 266

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose (John R. Haggis)
    Re: Help Needed: Fax/Answering Machine/Phone (Steve Cogorno)
    Re: Security of a Code? (Mark Brukhartz)
    Re: Ground-start trunk line sharing product? (Dave Ptasnik)
    Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection (Dave Ptasnik)
    Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (Dave O'Shea)
    Re: Out-Going Call Blocking to Local Numbers ([e-mail])
    Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy (Wes Leatherock)
    Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy (Dick St.Peters)
    Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA (Fred Linton)
    Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA (Robert G. Schaffrath)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (John R. Haggis)
Subject: Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose
Organization: Millennium Research
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 12:21:03 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Terry
Greenlee) writes:

> I am having trouble with my phone lines at home and I was wondering if
> anyone else had this same thing happen to them?

Terry, I've had bad phone lines all over the place, including the
rusty, musty lines up in Boulder creek.

> Monday a Bell tech will come out to test.

Yeah, and he'll say, "We don't guarantee lines for more than 4800
baud.  You have to get a leased line to do better."  This is their
mantra.  Don't accept it for a second.

> Does anyone at Pacific Bell know how to fix these problems?

No.  That's the problem.  Short of replacing all the lines,
everywhere.  Maybe we should get phone service over the cable TV
lines ...

Seriously, here's how you deal with them.

To the "not rated over 4800 baud" mantra, just insist that everybody
else has better operation, and keep insisting that it's your individual
lines.  Keep insisting that they change drops or incoming trunk lines
until it works.  Tell them it worked before for you at another house
(it has for me, both the strategy and the mechanics).

Above all, keep calling and going over peoples' heads.  The people at
Pac Bell, while regular, nice people on the outside, become flaming
assholes when at work under the strain of a job they have no concept
or understanding of.

Give 'em h*ll.


John  ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Cogorno)
Subject: Re: Help Needed: Fax/Answering Machine/Phone
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 11:14:56 PDT


Said by: Kathy Vincent

> 2.  Can anyone recommend integrated equipment -- a three-in-one
>     combination in which all THREE elements are quality?
>     She says she's found some combinations, but the answering
>     machine is usually junk.  She would prefer a digital answering
>     machine (i.e., no tapes).  Can anyone recommend anything that might
>     do the job -- especially anything <=$500?

Does she have a computer?  I have a modem that is made by Promethus
Products, called the Ultima Home Office.  It integrates 14,400 bps
DATA, 14,400 Send/Receive Fax, and Voice mail with up to 100
mailboxes.  It will only handle one line, and it has a few quirks, but
once you get the hang of it, it works wonderfully.

There are PC and Macintosh versions availible for around $390.  One
caveat: for voice mail, the computer must be on, and running the
MaxFax software (it can be in the background; the modem will
automatically bring it to the front).  If she has a Macintosh with
Solid-State power (All of the Macintosh II series, Quadra 700, 800,
840, 900) there is an adated availible for about $30 that will turn on
the computer on the first detected ring.  For other models, you can
get a similar adapter, but more expensive (around $150) which is like
a power strip: you plug the computer into it, and it turns the power
on after the first ring.


Steve   [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jun 94 14:12:25 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Mark Brukhartz)
Subject: Re: Security of a Code?


The basic measure of cipher strength is key length. If a cipher has no
other weaknesses (a major point), it can still be broken by trying
every key until one produces recognizable data. This is known as a
"brute force attack."  Each bit of key length doubles the time needed
for a brute force attack.

Assume that an attacker has a million CPUs, each capable of trying a
thousand keys per second. (I believe that those are reasonable figures
for a well financed opponent attacking a typical cipher.) Here are the
average times to break a cipher by brute force for several key
lengths:

     40 bits    9 minutes
     48 bits    40 hours
     56 bits    1 year
     64 bits    300 years
     72 bits    7 thousand years
     80 bits    20 million years

These times will shrink as computers get faster. For data which must
remain secure for several decades, extraordinarily long keys are
warranted.

Ciphers based upon typical pseudo-random number generators are weak,
and can be broken quickly by a professional cryptographer regardless
of key length.  Such ciphers are all too common, often built in to
applications such as word processors and spreadsheets.

Academic cryptographers publish new ciphers which have passed analysis
by their immediate colleagues. Many of these ciphers, if not most of
them, are still broken within a few years. Beware of proprietary
ciphers, because they have not been subjected to such scrutiny.

For moderate data security, the old US Data Encryption Standard (DES)
is still a decent algorithm. In over fifteen years of academic
analysis, no serious weakness has been revealed. Unfortunately, its 56
bit key is small by today's standards. It is widely speculated that
government spy bureaus have built specialized DES cracking hardware
which can complete a brute force attack within minutes. DES still
provides excellent security from ordinary hackers and nosy employees,
though.


Mark Brukhartz   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Ptasnik)
Subject: Re: Ground-Start Trunk Line Sharing Product?
Date: 1 Jun 1994 19:16:42 GMT
Organization: University of Washington


Rod Regier <[e-mail]> writes:

> Background:

> My organization is currently using a Mitel SX-100 PBX.  The incoming
> TELCO trunk lines are ground-start trunks.  I have no "free" locals

> I would like to use the two-line pool at night to add to my dialup
> modem pool without adding any additional (expensive, $C1000/yr) telco
> lines.

> If the two-line pool used normal loop lines, I could use a product
> like the Cardinal Communications Comshare 550 to support both incoming
> voice and data calls, as well as outgoing PBX calls.

One of the Mitel family of SMar-T dialers includes a loop/ground start
converter.  Placet this on the line and you can use any 2500 equivalent
on a ground start trunk.  Ask you Mitel dealer for details. A 4 line unit
probably costs less than $300.


Dave Ptasnik     [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Ptasnik)
Subject: Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection
Date: 1 Jun 1994 19:26:00 GMT
Organization: University of Washington


[e-mail] (K. M. Peterson) writes:

> My problem: I don't want to have to lift the handset to find out if I
> have messages.  Has someone come up with a box to sit on one's line
> and detect this (and flash a lamp or something)?

A Canadian company called Xinex Networks, Inc. makes an amazing
telephone called the mindSET.  It periodically samples the line
looking for stutter dial tone, and turns on a big message light when
it finds it.  There is a nice display that shows Caller-ID information.
It also has a whole bunch of speed dial keys and function keys, or you
can enter in bunches of names and scroll through them on the display,
like a Rolodex.  Naturally it has a speakerphone.  It also passes
through the ring provided by the phone company, so if you have custom
ringing, you can hear the different patterns.  All in all a very nice
unit.  Don't know the price, just got to play with a demo unit for a
while.


Dave Ptasnik     [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave O'Shea)
Subject: Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway
Date: 1 Jun 1994 20:04:27 GMT
Organization: WilTel
Reply-To: [e-mail]


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Despite what Runyan may say, the United
> States Postal Service is in very bad condition. Over the past three months
> there have been major upheavals in the USPS here in Chicago, as Runyan
> himself can attest. Several top officials of the post office here have

There is value in the post office, though: Much like New York City's
subways, where "I took the subway" is excuse for any lateness at all,
"it's in the mail" is a wonderful, irrefutable excuse for whatever
kind of misbehavior you feel like. If I forget to send my car loan
payment in, I just say "the check's in the mail" when they call. End
of case, I have two weeks to do whatever I want. Now, If I was dumb
enough to use someone like Fedex, the bank could simply ask for an
airbill number, and in 30 seconds, I'd be hanging my head in shame,
admitting that I blew the car payment on a new 500mb drive.

(Sarcasm intended. I drop by the post office weekly to give them the
mail that has been delivered to me, though it is addressed to people
sometimes near, sometimes far. And exchanging mis-delivered mail is a
great way to meet the neighbors.)


Dave O'Shea                         [e-mail]
Sr. Network Support Engineer        201.236.3730
WilTel Data NelzNitwork Services


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do the same thing at my post office
box downtown. Whenever I go in, I'll find several items in my Box 1570,
Chicago, IL 60690 (intended for me) with a rubber stamp endorsement
on the front of the envelope saying 'opened in error by First National
Bank of Chicago'. As well, there will be a few items in my box not for
me, but either for a nearby box or as often as not, someone who lives
at 1570 (some street) or Apartment 1570 (at some address), Chicago
60609, or Buffalo Grove, IL 60090. I used to simply take them to the
call counter and leave them with the clerk, but sometimes the very same
letter would be in my box *again the next day*. Now I have a little
rubber stamp which reads "Not For Box 1570 at Chicago 60690"  and I
stamp that on the envelope before giving it back. If I still get the
same letter back a couple times more (it has happened) then I take
a pen and completely obliterate the zip code the writer put on the
envelope forcing the 'nixies clerk' to seek it out manually.

One little kid sent a postcard to WGN-TV at their box, which is 10003
(note the extra zero in the middle), Chicago, IL 60610. He wanted his
free prize offered on some television show for little folks. I got
that damn postcard *three times* recycled to my box. Finally I penciled
in a note on the front by the address saying 'Try Fort Dearborn Station
at 606-one-oh'. When it arrived a fourth time (yes!) at my box the
next day with my 'try Fort Dearborn' notation scratched out I took the
card with me and dropped it off with the receptionist at the front
desk at WGN's offices, 2301 W. Bradley Place on my way home.

But the best one of all was printed in {Pravda} several years ago. It
seems some Soviet school children had been given the assignment of writing
letters to the leaders of different countries asking them about their
country and encouraging them to work for peace among nations. One little
guy named Ivan had written to President Reagan. The picture in {Pravda}
showed this kid about ten years old with a very bewildered look on his
face and an envelope in front of him addressed to "President Reagan,
United States of America". On the envelope, a rubber stamp endorsement
quite plain for everyone to read, "Moved, left no forwarding address,
return to sender" with indicia of the Washington, DC post office. (He
was president at the time.) The newspaper's caption to the picture
read, "Postal Service says cannot locate President".  The picture and
accompanying story was on the employees bulletin board at 60690 for
several months. It was taken down finally when it had accumulated quite
a bit of graffiti written on it, no doubt by disgruntled postal workers
and/or customers who saw it.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (jani)
Subject: Re: Out-Going Call Blocking to Local Numbers
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 94 20:08:28 GMT


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

> Is it possible to block outgoing calls to selected local numbers?
> Ameritech says they do not have such a service. Only kind of outgoing
> call blocking they offer is to 1-900 numbers and total blocking to
> long distance service.

> They suggested I should check out if there was such a device available
> from a third party. Is there such a thing?

> I would prefer if the phone company could do it at their end as it
> would be more secure. (The device can not be unplugged and disabled.)

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Telco does have classes of service which
> allow total blocking to local calls; blocking of long distance calls

[deleted...]

> and can be secreted in an out-of-the-way place on your premises. A
> detirmined person could get into them, but they do the job in most
> cases.  PAT]

The phone company, Ameritech in Illinois says they do not offer the
class of service that blocks all local calls as they are in the
business of getting people to make more calls -- not restrict calls.

Are they saying this because it is not technically possible or is it
because they have marketing considerations in mind?

Is it possible to change to a phone company that offers such a service.
The line is located in a apartment building.  Is there another local
phone company in the area (Chicago) that would offer such a service?


amj


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is, for all intents and purposes,
no alternative to Illinois Bell (Ameritech) in your case. Your volume
of business does not warrant it. If your phone bill was like that of
University of Chicago, or City of Chicago, or Amoco, or Rush-Presbyterian
and around five hundred thousand dollars per *month* and you had a service
representative at telco assigned exclusively to your account, who
worked on nothing but 'amj' business eight hours a day like the above
accounts, then telco would be coming around asking you what you wanted.

*Yes*, they do offer a class of service which restricts all local calls
and only allows long distance. And when you called and asked about it,
the rep who dealt with you probably wrote you off as a crackpot and
let it go at that. They won't give it to you, so forget it. For quite
a few years I had a part time job reconciling the phone bill and making
service changes for a large company downtown with centrex. A phone
on my desk was for long distance only. If I dialed seven digits to
anywhere it went to intercept (call cannot be completed as dialed). It
did accept 1+ ten digits; it did not accept 0+ dialing. I think the
bill there was only about sixty thousand dollars per month, making it
one of the smaller 'larger' accounts.

If you want to do business with the 'competition' at Teleport (or
whoever it is that moved in on Ameritech's territory), plan to show
them where you can give them at least several thousand dollars per
month in business. They do not handle residence stuff. You are not in
Central Telephone's territory (I assume you are not in the little
sliver of land they control on the northwest side) so you cannot go to
them unless you want foreign exchange service and believe me you, when
you see the bill for FX you'll wish you had stayed with IBT and a few
unauthorized local calls from time to time.

Do as you were told here yesterday and visit the local Radio Shack
store in your neighborhood. Be creative and find a way to secrete the
device on your premises, under lock and key if necessary. You will get
along just fine. PAT]

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 94 08:50:22
Organization: [ OU BBS University Of Oklahoma  [phone] TBBS ]
Subject: Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted


Quoting [e-mail] (Steve Chafe)

> Does anyone know what the average speed (in characters per minute,
> or whatever is appropriate) of a professional telegrapher would
> have been when wire telegraphy was the main mode of electronic
> communication?  I'm trying to do a comparison of data communication
> speed then and now, so I'd love to hear any thoughts that people
> can offer.

I can't give a numeric figure, but I can provide some anecdotal
information.

In the 1950s, I was a reporter and editor for United Press in Dallas.
Our circuits serving clients (newspapers and radio stations,
primarily) were 60-speed Teletype circuits fed by ASR machines
(punched tape run through a distributor so that full throughput could
be obtained, unlike hand keying which is not more than two-thirds as
fast effectively, and often much less.)

On Saturday afternoons during the football season, many of the
accounts of football games came in on Western Union short period
leased circuits.  (At that time, Western Union had exclusive contracts
with virtually all stadiums, including college stadiums.)

We would have several such games coming in over Western Union
circuits, most of them set up on teletypewriters which were apparently
hand cranked at the stadium end by Western Union operators drawn from
their regular pool.

However, occasionally we had the pleasure of seeing a real live
operator show up with his key and sounder.  This was always a
pleasure.

The stories that came in by Western Union teletypewriter were always
slow and frequently had errors that had to be questioned.  (Press copy
uses full text, full punctuation, etc., and a story about a football
game is naturally full of figures and statistics, all of which seem to
be foreign to what Western Union operators usually handled.)

But the Morse operator with his key was something different.  (Some
used bugs, some straight keys.)  And obviously his counterpart at the
game was similarly competent.

You could start a story moving on the wire as soon as the Morse
operator gave you a couple of paragraphs.  He would stay ahead of the
60-speed Teletype circuit without any difficulty.  If there was a
question, he would break the sending operator and get the matter
straightened out immediately, even if the operator at the game had to
ask the writer.  (Often, if there was something questionable, the
receiving operator had already noticed and asked the sending
operator.)

They were real professionals and it was always a pleasure to deal with
them.  And their real output was a whole lot faster than the hand
cranked teletypewriter copy of the other circuits, and much more
accurate.

Of course, these were operators with real press experience and used
the Phillips code, understood what the press requirements were, and I
think got real pleasure out of exercising their skills, and
incidentally drawing our admiration.

A few years before, I had been writing play-by-play (newspapers used
that in early editions in the 1940s) for University of Oklahoma games,
and I had a Western Union operator sitting beside me, sending each
paragraph as I wrote it.  He, too, was similarly good and not
infrequently caught me in mistakes (in a friendly, helpful manner,
too).

Press operators were, I think probably the elite of operators sending
in the wire telegraph days.  Perhaps those working for brokerage wire
houses could also put in a claim to this, but I'm not sufficiently
familiar with them to be able to judge.


Wes Leatherock   [e-mail]
[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dick St.Peters)
Subject: Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 22:54:12 GMT


What a bunch of old memories this question brings up!  30 years ago I
used to run very high speed machine-keyed transmissions for people to
practice listening to, out of W1MX, the MIT student ham radio station.
W1AW, the ARRL station, used to tranmit practice transmissions at
speeds up to 35 wpm.  We started there and ran up to 65 wpm.

How fast someone can copy depends a LOT on the nature of what is being
sent.  Simple text that makes sense is an awful lot easier than the
random letters and numbers taken from the tables of vacuum tube
characteristics that were sent for a latter portion of the transmission
at each speed.  Nobody can copy that at the higher speeds, because of
the way people hear code.

At very low speeds, you hear individual dits and dahs.  Somewhere
around 5 wpm there's a barrier where you can't go higher until you
learn to hear whole letters.  Get past that barrier, and you can run
up to 20+ wpm pretty quickly, where there's another barrier where you
have to start hearing whole syllables, even whole words.  Once through
that, you can again progress rapidly (with practice) up to 60 wpm or
so, where you max out.  At these speeds, code essentially has become
another language.  If the transmission has a spelling error, you
"hear" the error as a sort of dissonance ... you still get the
meaning, but it doesn't sound right in the same way a basic grammar
error doesn't sound right in language.

That changed way of perceiving code at ca. 20+ wpm makes it very hard
to transcribe code at higher speeds.  Up to the character-at-a-time
barrier, you can learn to type the characters as they come in with a
kind of brain bypass ... code character to finger keystroke.  Once you
hear whole words, you can no longer do this.  Also, someone who can
hear the 60 wpm language with no sweat can have a problem copying very
slow transmission.

Ah well, 'twas a looong time ago.


Dick St.Peters, Gatekeeper, Pearly Gateway; currently at:
GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 20:41:25 GMT
Organization: Wesleyan University


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Greg
Vaeth at Jerrold Communications) writes:

> Caller ID in Pennsylvania ... for residential customers is
> $6.50/month, business is $8.50.  How does this rate compare to other
> states?

Caller ID for SNET residential customers in Connecticut is also
$6.50/mo., where available.  Calls to New Haven (203 776 xxxx) often
get reported as "out of area" or, more bluntly, "error", or even just
" ------ " whenever the routing utilizes a non-caller-ID-aware switch
(even on calls known independently to originate in the same 776
exchange (!)).  So a "perfect privacy filter" Caller ID is certainly
not.  But, at $0.20 per day, it's good cheap fun, anyway, to see
whether SNET got it right this time, or muffed it yet again.


Fred [E.J. Linton : [e-mail] : [e-mail]]

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

From: gfimda![e-mail] (Robert G. Schaffrath)
Subject: Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 01:09:40 GMT
Organization: Kraft General Foods


> An insert in my latest bill contained a notice that Bell Atlantic will
> offer Caller ID in Pennsylvania in August.  The cost for residential
> customers is $6.50/month, business is $8.50.  Call blocking and
> anonymous call rejection are free.  This charge seem outrageous
> considering that the equipment to do it is already there, right?  How
> else does return call, repeat call and all that stuff work. How does
> this rate compare to other states?

New York Telephone, uh NYNEX, also charges $6.50.  It's a rip off but
I really wanted the technology.  I got even though.  I was carrying
custom calling feature (forwarding and call waiting) which totalled
more than the $6.50.  I dropped them so my bill actually went down!


Robert G. Schaffrath, N2JTX    Internet:   [e-mail]
Systems Engineer               CompuServe: 76330,1057
Maxwell House Coffee Company   Phone:      [phone]
Kraft General Foods Corp.      Slogan:     "ervice is ur mott"

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #266
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #268

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 3 Jun 94 12:13:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 268

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    NYNEX Bill Insert on DA Changes (Jonathan Welch)
    NYNEX April 1994 Bill Insert on Maintenance Changes (Jonathan Welch)
    Gathering Cellular Statistics (Richard L. Shapiro)
    Splitting Newswires (RS-232) (Marty Lyons)
    How to Get White pages Data From GTE? (Frank Dziuba)
    Replacement Wanted For Bogen Friday (Robert La Ferla)
    Pointers Wanted to TDD Specifications Please (Joseph Chiu)
    Need Book Recommendations For CTI (Paul Kendall)
    Positions Available: Telecommunications Senior Engineers (John F. Nymark)
    Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Michael L. Judson)
    German Telephone Equipment in France (Niedner)
    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing (Steve Brack)
    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing (James Payton)
    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing (Karl Johnson)
    Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System (Thomas N. Harding)
    Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System (Jim Burks)
    Re: Recommendation For AlphaNumeric Paging Software (Rob Lockhart)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
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Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
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*************************************************************************

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All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 02 Jun 1994 11:55:50 -0500
From: Jonathan_Welch <[e-mail]>
Subject: NYNEX Bill Insert on DA Changes


April 1994 bill insert on DA changes:

During June, NYNEX will begin the introduction of a new service in
selected telephone exchanges in Massachusetts. This service will
enable you to complete a call within the 617, 508 or 413 Area Codes to
a telephone number which you have requested from Directory Assistance
without having to hang up and dial the number.

How does new the service work?

After receiving the telephone number you have requested from Directory
Assistance, you will hear a brief recorded announcement. Simply press
"1" from any touch-tone phone any time during the special announcement,
or say "yes" after the tone at the end of the announcement and the
number you received will then be automatically dialed.

How much will it cost?

Each completed call will cost 35 cents plus the applicable usage and
directory assistance charges. If there is no answer or the line is
busy, there is no charge.

How do I get this service?

NYNEX will add the ability to use this service to all residence and
business lines served by telephone switching offices that are equipped
to provide it.

What if I don't want to use this service?

If you want the telephone number from Directory Assistance but do not
want the call completed automatically, simply hang up after you
receive the requested number.

Can I block this service from my telephone?

Yes. If you decide that you do not want to have access to this new
service, please advise us and this option will be removed from your
line(s) at no charge. To make these arrangements, customers with
residential telephone service should call 1 800 555-5000, ext. 80.
Business telephone service customers should call their account
representative, or call a service representative at the number
following the words "to order or change your service call" listed at
the top of page 1 of your monthly bill.

Can I still get two numbers on one call to Directory Assistance?

Yes, you can continue to get two numbers from Directory Assistance on
one call. Just ask the Directory Assistance operator at the beginning
of the call.

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

Date: Thu, 02 Jun 1994 11:59:11 -0500
From: Jonathan_Welch <[e-mail]>
Subject: NYNEX April 1994 Bill Insert on Maintenance Changes


April 1994 bill insert on maintenance changes:

NYNEX is making changes in the optional TeleSure Basic maintenance
plan for residence and business customers. The changes are effective
July 1, 1994 and affect the TeleSure Basic maintenance plan only. The
TeleSure PLUS maintenance plan is not affected.

The rate for the residence TeleSure Basic maintenance plan is
increased from $0.45 to $0.95 per month.

The business TeleSure Basic maintenance plan is eliminated.

The TeleSure Basic maintenance plan covers inside jack and wire
repairs only. If, after diagnosis, the problem is determined to be in
your equipment or telephone, residence telephone service customers
will be charged a visit charge of $25.00 plus a minimum time charge of
$13.75, a total of $38.75 for the first 15 minutes of the visit. Each
additional 15 minutes will be billed at $13.75, and charges apply for
materials used.

The minimum repair visit charge for business customers is $49.95 plus
a minimum time charge of $13.75, a total of $63.70 for the first 15
minutes. Additional 15 minute increments will be billed at $13.75
each. Also, charges apply for materials used.

In addition to the above changes in the Telesure maintenance plans,
the changes include the introduction of visit charges for time and
material installation service for both residence and business
customers.

For residence customers, the installation visit charge of $39.95 is
coupled with the minimum time charge of $13.75 for a total of $53.70
for the first 15 minutes. The charge for each additional 15 minute
increment is $13.75, and charges apply for materials used.

The installation visit charge for business customers is $49.95.  This
charge, coupled witll the minimum time charge of $13.75 adds to a
total of $63.70 for the first 15 minutes. The charge for each
additional 15 minute increment is $13.75, and charges apply for
materials used.

Residence customers with questions about the changes or rates should
call the NYNEX Customer Response Center at 1 800 555-5000 between 8:30
am and 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday.

Business customers with questions about the changes or rates should
call the NYNEX Direct Marketing Center at 1 800 343-4343, ext. 687,
between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday.

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

From: [e-mail] (Richard L. Shapiro)
Subject: Gathering Cellular Statistics
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 11:57:39
Organization: InterAccess,Chicagoland's Full Service Internet Provider


Good Day,

My name is Richard Shapiro with Sprint Cellular and we are trying to
locate some data related to cellular services through Internet.

For about the past month I have been exploring Internet as a way to
make other contacts in the Cellular Industry.  But we have a specific
piece of information we are seeking and I thought someone might know
where I could look or who I could speak to thru an e-mail.

I am trying to find the growth rate of the top 10-15 Cellular carriers
in the U.S. for the past year including the 1st quarter of this year.
Does anyone has any idea where I might look.

Thanks for your help in advance.


Richard

V J Enterprises - Joshua Shapiro - Niles, IL
Internet:[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Marty Lyons)
Subject: Splitting newswires (RS-232)
Date: 2 Jun 1994 17:30:13 GMT
Organization: CERFnet


I have a need to split a newswire feed (UPI, Reuters, etc), which is
one way RS-232 traffic, out to several devices.

Has anyone ever gotten a general purpose device such as:

- Telebit Netblazer
- Xylogics Annex
- Gandalf
- Equinox

to take an input stream (call in I) and generate multiple outbound
streams (call them O1 ... On).

Ideally, I'd rather use something off the shelf than making custom cables
(which we've done, for one of these splits, and it is a pain).

Kinda looks like:
               +----- O1
                       |
       I ---->---------+----- O2
     dataflow      |
               .
               .
               +----- On

Thanks in advance!


          Marty Lyons * Sprocket Labs, Inc. * [e-mail]
1030 East El Camino Real, Suite 450, Sunnyvale, CA 94087, USA [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Frank Dziuba)
Subject: How to Get White pages Data From GTE?
Date: 2 Jun 1994 14:08:52 -0700
Organization: Regional Access Information Network


Hi,

I would like to get the White Pages listings for my area from GTE in a
computer-readable format. I know that there are cd-roms of the US
phone books available, but they have heavy copyrights on them and I
want to put a searchable phone book on my BBS. I called GTE who said
they don't sell that data, but how did ProPhone get it? I heard that
they scanned the phonebooks and OCR'ed them.  Is that legal? Aren't
they breaking some kind of copyright law? What is the copyright on the
phone book information anyway? Any info would be greatly appreciated.


Frank Dziuba    MS-Windows Consulting    [e-mail]

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

From: Robert La Ferla <[e-mail]>
Subject: Replacement Wanted For Bogen Friday
Reply-To: Robert La Ferla <[e-mail]>
Organization: Hot Technologies
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 04:34:54 GMT


Anyone know of a better product (and $300-500) than the Bogen two-line
Friday voicemail system?  I am having quite a few problems with it.


Robert

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

From: [e-mail] (Joseph Chiu)
Subject: Pointers Wanted to TDD Specifications Please
Date: 2 Jun 1994 09:05:29 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena


After looking through various journals and computer-rags (all the way
back to mid-80's!), and looking around at FAQ's and such, I'm still
stumped in my search for technical information on TDD's.

In particular, I'd like to know what the mark/space frequencies are,
the data format, and what the character codes are.  As I recall, it
was a 5-bit encoding system, and (obviously) non-ASCII ...

*sigh*  If I had only saved those _really_ _old_ manuals!  :->

So, this is my last-ditch effort for help.  If TELECOM Digest can't
help, I dunno who can!

Thanks in advance!


Joseph Chiu          If America On-Line is truly America on-line, then I
MSC 380 - Caltech    am worried about the future of America...
Pasadena, CA 91126
[phone]      [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now, now ... don't have thoughts like that
about the folks at aol.com. A lot of them are just a bunch of kids having
a good time. They're okay. Not terribly bright perhaps, but the same is
true of any commercial online service of that genre, i.e. Compuserve and
Prodigy. What you see there is a picture of the USA painted with a rather
broad brush. Americans generally are not quite as well-bred as people in
other parts of the world. You should hear the young guys on Compuserve
talk about 'getting an account on the Internet' ... to them, that would
be the thrill of a lifetime.

To answer your question about TDD specs, why not check out the Telecom
Archives (anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then cd telecom-archives). We might
have some of what you want there.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (J Frank and Associates)
Subject: Need Book Recommendations For CTI
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 21:30:33 GMT


I'm an Open Systems software developer just getting started on a
Computer Telephone Integration project and need literature to get me
up to speed.

I'm mostly interested in the "big picture" view at this point; that
is, how all the various pieces of equipment connect, what protocols
are involved, etc. (specifically, literature that explains what
switches do, what SS7 is used for, that sort of thing).

In addition, I'm interested in who's doing development on telephony
APIs to tie ACDs and VRUs together, like that. (I have the Microsoft
TAPI stuff.)

So, any book reviews out there?


Thanks,

Paul Kendall   J. Frank Consulting
Palo Alto, CA  [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Our resident book reviewer here in the
Digest is Rob Slade ([e-mail]). He sends in a lot of review
material; you might ask him about your topic of interest.   PAT]

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

Reply-To: [e-mail] (John F. Nymark)
Date: Thu, 02 Jun 1994 15:47:50
Subject: Positions Available: Telecommunications Senior Engineers
From: [e-mail] (John F. Nymark)


                TELECOMMUNICATIONS/TELEPHONY
                  MULTIPLE OPPORTUNIITES
               SOFTWARE & HARDWARE ENGINEERS

Positions require bachelor's degree in CS,EE or equivalent and
a minimum of three (3) years INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE.

SOFTWARE:

Experience in software and systems development with an emphasis
on embedded systems. Direct experience with telephony systems,
real-time systems applications and "C" language needed.

Senior Software Project Engineer - Develop the system strategies
for fault tolerance including performance monitoring, fault
detection, isolation, recovery with protection switching, logging
and distributed processing.

Senior Software Design Engineer - Develop the detailed operation
for Network Element Management implementation.

HARDWARE:

Design methodologies will employ HP UNIX workstations with Mentor 8.25
software.  Requires knowledge in the following areas:

*  ASIC/FPGA Design
*  PCB and Micro Controller Design
*  Collision Based Protocols
*  Telecommunication Standards

These opportunities are in Minneapolis, MN. with a company that offers
offers a REAL opportunity to expand your career and in a community
that sets standards for QUALITY OF LIFE!!!!!

PLease contact Michael Wagner @ NYCOR 4930 West 77th Street,
Suite #300, Minneapolis, MN.  55435
Phone [phone]  FAX [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Michael L Judson)
Subject: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Organization: North Bay Network
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 22:47:34 GMT


I saw in a news report about a new service from Pacific Bell called
"ISDN Anywhere."  When I called up Pac Bell, they had no idea what I
was talking about.  The news report didn't give much more information
other than they would start offering it in about a month.

Does anybody else have any ideas about what is so different about "ISDN
Anywhere?"


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So typical, isn't it, of the telcos that
they run big full page advertisements on new services they are going to
offer, then don't bother to tell any of their front line people what it
is about, leaving them completely ignorant where customer questions are
concerned. It is almost as big a waste of money as those American firms
which take out full page ads in European publications then only give an
800 number for contact.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Niedner)
Subject: German Telephone Equipment in France
Date: 2 Jun 1994 14:27:51 GMT
Organization: CRIBX1 , Universite de Bordeaux I , France


Hello, everyone!

Is there anyone reading this who has experience with German (or any
other European) phone equipment connected to the network of France
Telecom?

What happened: I bought an adapter and changed the western plug
(1234 -> 2143). Now the phone works, but I cannot end the communication.

Any help?

Please sent answers as e-mail as well: [e-mail]


Thanks,

Sven

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Brack)
Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing
Organization: University of Toledo
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 19:17:00 GMT


[e-mail] wrote:

> That just great, lay off thousands from OSP companies.  Destroy an
> entire inudstry, just because a couple of people can't figure out
> 10xxx? Plus we the consumer will have to come up with millions to fund
> Bill Party Preference.  Then as consumers were going to have to
> subsidize it too.  If you want my opion it's just simplier to dial
> 1-800-COLLECT or 1-800-CALL-ATT.

In almost every other area of business I can think of, the greatest
latitude in billing arrangements is given to the person paying for the
service, rather than the person using it.  All BPP will do is bring
telephone billing in line with standard commercial practice.


Steven S. Brack          [e-mail]
Toledo, OH  43613-1605   [e-mail]
MY OWN OPINIONS          [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing
Date: 3 Jun 1994 04:36:02 GMT
Organization: INS Info Services, Des Moines, IA USA
Reply-To: [e-mail]


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

> Billed Party Preference is an EXCELLENT idea -- it will force slimey
> AOS firms out of business, and make MCI, Sprint, AT&T and anyone else
> who wants to play compete more aggressively for your business. If they
> want your business, they will have to provide you with something
> better than your preferred carrier (lower rates, lower surcharge,
> etc.) in order to get you to use them. Who knows, it may even bring
> into the market a 0+ OSP with no calling card surcharge and rates in
> line with standard direct dial rates.

First of all, I don't think you should lump OSPs like MCI and Sprint
in with the rest of the AOS firms.  It was MCI who first offered
1-800-COLLECT as a way to make cheaper collect calls.  Sure AT&T
offered a similar product a short time later, but do you think they
would have done so without the competition from MCI?

It's true that people are being ripped off by some AOS companies.  But
that is the reality of a free marketplace.  Uneducated consumers get
ripped off on everything from toasters to automobiles all the time.
Like it or not, the old Bell System goals of universal pricing and
service are long gone.

And even with a BPP system in place, there are *still* going to be
problems for consumers.

Example:

A caller is making an AT&T CC call to an MCI customer.  Caller dials
0+ but fails to enter the card number correctly.  The local telco (who
has the called number but not the CC number) routes the call to an MCI
operator.  The MCI operator cannot bill the proprietary AT&T card and
refers the caller to 1-800-321-0288.  This is similar to what happens
today, *without* BPP.

Example:

A caller is making a third party call from a public phone.  Dials 0+
and holds for an operator.  The called party has AT&T, so the call
routes to an AT&T operator.  The caller requests a third party call
and gives the billed number.  The billed number's "preference" is
Sprint.  Would the AT&T operator be able to tell this?  If so, does
the AT&T operator process the call anyway, somehow hand it off to a
Sprint operator, or refer the caller to 10333 + 0?  To my knowledge
there is no transfer system in place among IXC operators.

Billed Party Preference wouldn't really solve all the problems, and it
would obviously be expensive to implement.  And *everyone* would end
up paying for it (even those who never make 0+ calls) through
increases in their local phone service.

I'm sorry that some people are being ripped off by AOSs, but *I* don't
want to be forced to pay higher rates because they are unwilling to
educate themselves about the phone system.  I think BPP is a BAD idea.


James Payton   [e-mail]

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

Date: 03 Jun 94 08:28:58 EDT
From: Karl Johnson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing


[e-mail] writes:

> Gordon Burditt <[e-mail]> writes:

>> Currently, 0+ calls are sent to the operator services provider
>> (OSP) to which the premises owner or payphone provider presubscribes.
>> Under BPP, calls would be routed automatically to the OSP preferred by
>> the party being billed for the call.  For example, a calling card call
>> would be routed to the cardholder's preferred OSP.  A collect call
>> would be routed to the called party's preferred OSP.  A call billed to
>> a third party would be routed to the OSP to which that third party had
>> presubscribed.

> That just great, lay off thousands from OSP companies.  Destroy an
> entire inudstry, just because a couple of people can't figure out
> 10xxx? Plus we the consumer will have to come up with millions to fund
> Bill Party Preference.  Then as consumers were going to have to
> subsidize it too.  If you want my opion it's just simplier to dial
> 1-800-COLLECT or 1-800-CALL-ATT.

I disagree with what you are said here.  The rates at COTs will go
down as the result of this as the which carrier is PICed for each COT
on the basis of who gives the owner of the phone the highest
commission.  Where as under the new rules it will be who ever gives
the consumer (the one who pays the bill) the best price.  The OSP
companies will then lower their prices to truly compete or go out of
business IMO any company that makes the latter choice does not belong
in business anyway.  I think that when TPC was broken up and Equal
Access was set up that all payphones should have been required to have
their PIC set to none so that the consumer would have to make the
choice.  This would be true competition.

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

From: [e-mail] (Thomas N. Harding)
Subject: Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System
Date: 3 Jun 1994 13:24:46 GMT
Organization: Cellular Infrastructure Group, Motorola


In regards to a cellular based email system for disaster use, remember
that during disasters the priority of things like email is pretty low.
Some systems can invoke emergency priority calling which prioritizes
fire and police calls.  As far as system stability goes I believe that
cellular holds its own in emergencies due to backup power systems
which are not feasible for distributed land line systems.  San Francisco
cellular service was the only thing up after their big quake.


TH

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

From: Jim Burks <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System
Date: 3 Jun 1994 15:13:28 GMT
Organization: The Promus Companies, Inc.


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (John
Nagle) says:

> Er, cell sites are typically linked by land line to a central
> site that controls the system.  Only the last hop to the mobile phone
> is radio.  If you lose the link to the central site, even two phones
> in the same cell can't talk.  It's not a distributed system at all.

Here in the Memphis area, most carriers link their cells with
microwave links.  Each tower has a horn pointed at another cell's
tower, and the central site has horns going off in many directions.

That still wouldn't replace the link from the central cell switch
to the wireline telco.


Jim Burks                   [e-mail]
Database Administrator /    Systems Engineer
The Promus Companies, Inc.   Memphis, TN USA
http://stargate.promus.com/public/jbb.html

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

From: [e-mail] (RLockhart)
Subject: Re: Recommendation For AlphaNumeric Paging Software
Date: 1 Jun 1994 22:43:01 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


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

> I'm always seeing inquiries about alpha numeric paging software for
> PC's and would like to recommend a company that I have no connection
> with.  The software is called PopPage and sells for $19.95

SCSC's PopPage certainly works in a DOS environment, but there are
quite a few other DOS alpha paging apps available ... and Windows ones
and OS/2 ones and Mac ones and Unix ones and HP100 ones and Newton
ones (hmm, those aren't shipping yet ... scratch that one <g>) and ...
well, quite a few.  If you're looking to compare what's in the market-
place for alpha paging apps, app enablers, vertical market apps,
information service providers, Internet paging gateways, and the like,
try taking a look at our freebie Motorola Third Party Referral Guide
to Alpha and Data Paging.  It's available on some of the commercial
services (e.g., CIS, AOL, AppleLink) in a Stuffed MacWord 5.1 file
format.

> They also make something called Interceptor - Digital Paging System
> Analyzer but I do not know anything about this product.

Interceptor is a bundled, PC-based hardware/software package that
monitors the paging channel and decodes all the numeric and alpha
paging information on the channel in real time.  The purpose in using
such an animal is to allow frame/channel optimization.


Rob Lockhart, Resource Manager, Interactive Data Systems
Paging Products Group, Motorola, Inc.
Desktop I'net:  [e-mail]
Wireless I'net (<32K characters):  [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #268
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #269

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 3 Jun 94 13:35:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 269

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: 800 Number Billback (Paul S. Sawyer)
    Re: 800 Number Billback (Jonathan Loo)
    Re: Need Criteria for Choosing a Phone Number (Jack Brand)
    Re: Help With Northern Telecom Meridian System ([e-mail])
    Re: Name and Address -> Long Distance Companies (Jonathan Loo)
    Re: Announcing New FCC BBS - FCC World (James Holland)
    Re: Box to Add Digits When Dialing (Russell Nelson)
    Largest Calling Areas (was Re: Itemized Billing in UK) (Brendan Jones)
    Re: Internet Through Local Cable TV Provider (Mike Perry)
    Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection (John Costello)
    Re: Does MCI Transmit CNID? (Glen Roberts)
    Re: Help Needed: Fax/Answering Machine/Phone (Kathy Vincent)
    Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range (Les Reeves)
    Re: Internet Access at Home (Noel Moss)
    Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s (Andrew C. Green)
    Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System (Gerald Serviss)
    Seeking Bellcore CID Specifications ([e-mail])
    Re: Need Site Name for Bellcore Standards (Marty Lawlor)
    Re: Cellular Billing (Gregory Youngblood)
    Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D (Carl Moore)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Paul S. Sawyer)
Subject: Re: 800 Number Billback
Date: 2 Jun 1994 15:49:29 GMT
Organization: UNH Telecommunications and Network Services


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, another solution [...]

> [...] If you have some way to insure that calls
> to 800 numbers get routed over some minimum number of trunks, and always
> the same trunks then get some el-cheapo call restrictors and add them to
> those outgoing lines. [...]   Load them with the dozen or two dozen
> most commonly (ab)used 800 numbers, as noted in your personal copy of
> {Rolling Stone} and/or {Penthouse} magazine. [...]

> The best part of all will be the nitwits who come to you to report that
> their phone (or your lines) must be 'out of order'. <grin> ... you will
> innocently ask them what number they were attempting to reach so that
> you can investigate the problem ... they'll tell you (or if they have
> a few brains they will try to avoid telling you the exact number) and
> you'll clean them out right on the spot. <grin> ...  PAT]

This is almost exactly how we operate, except that our switch handles
the restrictions directly.  New numbers keep appearing, though ...

By the way, when someone calls one of these numbers belonging to an IP
that HAS restricted our numbers (as we ask all of them), the message
says something like "BECAUSE OF NON PAYMENT (or at your request) the
number you have dialed can not be connected.  Please try again from
another phone".


Paul S. Sawyer    - University of New Hampshire CIS -  [e-mail]
Telecommunications and Network Services                VOX: [phone]
50 College Road                                        FAX: [phone]
Durham, New Hampshire  03824-3523

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

Date: Thu, 02 Jun 1994 20:42:57 -0400
From: Jonathan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 800 Number Billback


If you call an 800 number with billback from a pay phone, then either
the local telephone company or the owner of the property on which the
telephone is located will have to pay for the call.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is generally correct. In cases of
'Genuine Bell' payphones, if the phone is installed on a 'semi-public'
basis (meaning the proprietor of the establishment pays a fee for the
phone to be there and gets no commission on calls made) then he is the
subscriber; he gets stuck with those billback charges. On the other hand
if the phone is 'public' (rather than 'semi-') the person on whose
premises the phone is located receives a commission on usage and pays
nothing for it to be there. In those cases, telco itself is technically
the 'subscriber', and yes, they get the billback charges. But this only
happens if somehow the phone was not listed in the database. When telco
as the 'subscriber' in this instance refuses to pay the billback (and
they always refuse to pay), then the phone is quickly added to the OAS's
list of phones to which service is to be refused.   PAT]

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

From: uswnvg![e-mail] (Jack Brand)
Subject: Re: Need Criteria for Choosing a Phone Number
Date: 02 Jun 94 23:46:46 GMT
Organization: US West NewVector, Inc., Bellevue, WA


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Barry S.
Rein) writes:

> I'm looking for criteria on what makes a telephone number easy to
> remember.  Restaurants are supposedly willing to kill for a memorable
> phone number, so I wonder if there is any research or recommendations
> on how to select one, ie what combinations are remembered; what
> combinations are most often mis-dialed, etc.

One idea that works nicely is if your street address happens to be
four digits long, get your last four digits of your phone number to
match.  Very convenient, especially for small children in the
household who need to memorize their address/phone number.  (We did,
however, have to straighten them out when we realized they thought
*everyone's* phone number was their address :-} ).


jb

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Help With Northern Telecom Meridian System
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 94 08:34:19 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


Lance Ware <[e-mail]> writes:

> 800 number into our system. Currently the line terminates at one
> phone, and goes unanswered if the desk where the phone sits is vacant.

Just input the CO line that goes to that phone into an unused if you
have one CO port on your meridian systgem. You need to program that
line to ring at the answering position. I'd be glad to help, how far
are you from Baltimore, MD?

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

Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 15:33:45 -0400
From: Jonathan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Name and Address -> Long Distance Companies


The editor of the TELECOM Digest wrote a note to the effect that my
proposal to make customer name and address information confidential
would prevent the publishing and use of telephone directories.

I would like to clarify my point.  I want to prohibit the publication
of the names and addresses of customers with non-published numbers,
and the addresses of customers with unlisted addresses.  If the name
and address are in the telephone book, then anybody can have access to
them.  I hope that people will also respect (and enforce) existing
privacy laws.

This should make my point clearer.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes it does make it clearer, however you
must bear in mind that the criss-cross directory publishers rarely have
non-pub numbers listed anyway. All they have to work with is what appears
in the regular phone book, plus whatever they are able to pick up from
other sources.  Generally if you have a non-pub number you need not worry
about being listed in a criss-cross book. Of course your neighbors *will*
be listed, and it is the easiest thing in the world for someone to call
your neighbors, claim to have an important reason to get in touch with you
and have the neighbors inadvertently spill the beans by giving out your
number to whoever asks on the phone. It happens all the time.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Mr. James Holland)
Subject: Re: Announcing New FCC BBS - FCC World
Date: 2 Jun 1994 19:26:04 -0500
Organization: Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (FCC World) writes:

> The Washington, DC telecommunications law firm of Smithwick &
> Belendiuk proudly announces the launch of a new BBS -- FCC WORLD --
> featuring information on the Federal Communications Commission.  We
> feature FCC documents on-line (many you cannot find on Internet),
> texts of important FCC Reports and decisions (IVDS, PCS Auction info --
> on-line now!), Forums on hot FCC issues, free Classified ads and more!
> The best thing -- its free and without a daily time limit.  Give it a
> try at 202-887-5718 (14.4 baud)!

Is there not a (modem reachable) service ran by the FCC where you can
punch up a FCC ID number from a FCC Class B item and find out some
info about it.  I'd like to check on some off-shore PC's that I
suspect aren't quite legit as far FCC Class B is concerned ...


Thanks,

James Holland   [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 23:10 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Russell Nelson)
Subject: Re: Box to Add Digits When Dialing


[e-mail] (Marco A. Pinones) wrote:

> I am looking for a box that could detect when digits are being dialed
> and add some digits at the very beginning.

You want a Mitel PAV+.  You can call Mitel at [phone] and ask
for the list of dialer distributors, or buy it from Dale Waton at
404-978-3426 with Hollis Group, cost me about $130.


russ <[e-mail]>  ftp.msen.com:pub/vendor/crynwr/crynwr.wav
Crynwr Software   11 Grant St.   [phone] (9201 FAX)
Potsdam, NY 13676

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

From: [e-mail] (Brendan Jones)
Subject: Largest Calling Areas (was Re: Itemized Billing in UK)
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 15:35:57 EST


In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (John Slater)
wrote:

> I believe Greater London is the largest geographic calling area in the world.

Then you believe mistakenly!  Australia has many calling areas larger
than this.  Much *much* larger!

The largest calling area in Australia is the (089) zone which covers
all of the Northern Territory and then some.  It is about 1700 km N-S
and about 900 km E-W in size, and has an area of approximately 1.55
*million* square kilometres, hence is about 6.5 times the size of the
entire United Kingdom.

The next largest is the (091) calling area in Western Australia,
centred on Derby and occupying the northern 40% of that State.  It has
an area just over one million square kilometres.

Despite these impressive sizes, they still may not be the largest in
the World.  If Greenland is one calling area, it would be larger still
at about 2.2 million square kilometres.  And what about possibly huge
calling areas in the north of Canada?  However, Australia should beat
all of these by 1997.

The current dialing plan reorganization in Australia will introduce eight
digit local numbers and reduce the number of area codes from 54 to 4.
These new area codes will dwarf the old ones in size.

A new calling area will be created covering all of Western Australia,
South Australia and the Northern Territory, an area of 4.9 million
square kilometres.  *20* times the area of the United Kingdom or
nearly 60% of the area of the United States.


Brendan Jones (PhD Student) Email: [e-mail]
Electronics Department      Voice: [phone]
School of MPC&E             Fax  : [phone]
Macquarie University        Snail: +NSW 2109 AUSTRALIA

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

From: [e-mail] (Mike Perry)
Subject: Re: Internet Through Local Cable TV Provider
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 1994 08:11:40 -0900
Organization: Discovery Institute, Seattle


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Jeff Lin)
wrote:

> Is it possible to get Internet connectivity through a local cable TV
> provider? Has any cable TV provider around the country started (or
> planned) this kind of service?

> If this is possible, how does the bandwidth privided by a typical
> local cable TV media compare with T1 and other media types?

Technically, it's easy if the cable is two-way. Just use a chunk of
unused spectrum. I believe there is a cable company on the east coast
that has been providing HP employees with an ethernet connection to
work this way.  Intel and several other companies are also in the
process of developing cable-tv modems that initially sell for about
$500 but should quickly drop to under $200. That could give you an up
to 10 megahertz connection.

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 94 11:32:43 PDT
Organization: The Internet Access Company


> Stretching my one phone line ever further, I'm considering getting
> voicemail from our local telco.

> My problem: I don't want to have to lift the handset to find out if I
> have messages.  Has someone come up with a box to sit on one's line
> and detect this (and flash a lamp or something)?

I believe the BelTronics Caller-ID unit also has a "MSG" display on
the unit.  You can get this unit at Lechmere.


John Costello   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Glen Roberts)
Subject: Re: Does MCI Transmit CNID?
Organization: RCI, Chicago, IL
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 16:16:54 GMT


Eric R Sandeen ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Does MCI transmit CNID?

> I call from Champaign (IL) to Austin via MCI, and in Austin it says
> "out of area."  Anyone else have this problem?

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is not just MCI. I don't think any long
> distance carrier at the present time would provide the CLID between those
> points.   PAT]

I get CNID from Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, from people who, in
those locations use WilTel as their long distance carrier. I am in
Northern Illinois. (Remember, California is not even a caller-id
state). Also, *67 before the number, does not block it from appearing
on my box.

I have get CNID from numerous other locations, but have not tracked it
down as to carrier specifics. Dialing to Michigan from here, via
WilTel, DOES NOT pass CNID.


Glen L. Roberts, Publisher, Directory of Elect Surv Equip Suppliers
Host Full Disclosure Live (WWCR 5,810 khz - Sundays 7pm central)
Box 734, Antioch, Illinois 60002      Fax: [phone]
Surveillance Hotline: [phone]  Bust the Bureaucrats: [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Kathy Vincent)
Subject: Re: Help Needed: Fax/Answering Machine/Phone
Date: 3 Jun 1994 16:36:47 GMT
Organization: Wake Forest University


Steve Cogorno ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Said by: Kathy Vincent

>> 2.  Can anyone recommend integrated equipment -- a three-in-one
>>     combination in which all THREE elements are quality?

> Does she have a computer?  I have a modem that is made by Promethus
> Products, called the Ultima Home Office.  It integrates 14,400 bps

Alas, the computer is otherwise occupied in another room in the house.
She's been thinking about getting a computer of her own, though, so
that's one approach to consider.


Thanks,

Kathy

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

From: [e-mail] (Les Reeves)
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Wanted With Ten Mile Range
Date: 2 Jun 1994 09:53:26 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access  [phone]  [login: guest]


Tawfig Al-Rabiah ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Do you know who sells this type of phones?  I need to get one to use
> overseas.

If you really are going to use it overseas, you should get in touch
with TeleDynamics in Austin, TX.  800 847 5629 or 512 928 1533

They carry the SuperFone long range cordless by Tamagawa.

They show various models with ranges of 4 km to 70 km.

BTW, the TeleDynamics catalog has lots of really cool stuff, at very
good prices.


Les     [e-mail]       Atlanta,GA      404.874.7806

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Internet Access at Home
Organization: SLACC STACK BBS - St. Louis, Missouri
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 94 11:58:38 CST


In V14, #263, Laurence Chiu wrote about his cost for SLIP access at
14.4 Kbps dialup. He estimates a cost of about $90/month for 7x24
service.  This is realistic. Washington University in St. Louis has
7X24 dialup SLIP access in the $1200 - $1500 per year range, if I
recall their rate schedule correctly. The system on which I access
Internet uses the university's 7x24 dialup UUCP access at $360 per
year.


Best regards,

Noel Moss

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

Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 12:24:22 CDT
From: Andrew C. Green <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s


Randall Gellens ([e-mail]) writes:

> He picks up his phone [...] and dials three digits.  He says
> "Operator?  This is WHitehall xxxx.  My name is John Steed.  I will
> be away for the next three weeks.  Please forward my calls to the
> usual number."

> What sort of call-forwarding was offered by British Telecom in the
> 1960s?

At the risk of over-analyzing a fictional scene, I get the impression
he wasn't speaking to the telephone company operator, but to some sort
of government operator at the other end of a private line. I base this
conclusion on the fact that he dialed only three digits (I would have
expected contemporary numbers in the London area to be at least five),
and referred to his own number as "Whitehall", an inspired (if not
fictitious) choice for a British government phone network prefix. Had
he called whatever the local equivalent of 611 was (for repair or some
other service), I don't think he would have addressed the other party
as "Operator".

Just my tuppence, of course ...


Andrew C. Green           [phone]
Datalogics, Inc.          Internet: [e-mail]
441 W. Huron
Chicago, IL  60610-3498   FAX: [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Gerald Serviss)
Subject: Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System
Date: 3 Jun 1994 17:35:12 GMT
Organization: Cellular Infrastructure Group, Motorola


In article <[e-mail]> (John Nagle) writes:

> Er, cell sites are typically linked by land line to a central
> site that controls the system.  Only the last hop to the mobile phone
> is radio.  If you lose the link to the central site, even two phones
> in the same cell can't talk.  It's not a distributed system at all.

Some of what you say is true but, we have many customers that
exclusively use microwave systems to haul the cell to switch traffic.
In addition we have customers that use a combination of microwave and
leased land circuits to haul the traffic. Both of these methods can
provide improved reliability in the event of an outage and are fairly
common.  It is of course possible for an earthquake to take out the
microwave towers and then you are sunk.

Most cellular systems are distributed computing systems, there are
processors and databases in the cells and the switches. This is my
definition of a distributed system You are correct in the assertion
that two mobiles in the same cell do not make a path connect thru the
cell. That is what the switch is for :). I am not aware of any
commercial cellular system that has a distributed switching architecture.


Jerry Serviss     Motorola Inc    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Bellcore CID Specifications Wanted
Date: 3 Jun 1994 17:47:18 GMT
Organization: Technet, Singapore


Can anyone tell me the document number for the specs. for Caller ID
protocol and how I can obtain them from Bellcore (Fax/Tel and Address
please).


Thanks,

Ivan

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

From: [e-mail] (Marty Lawlor)
Subject: Re: Need Site Name for Bellcore Standards
Organization: Northern Telecom Inc., NAS
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 16:21:01 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, Kevin Hanson
<[e-mail]> wrote:

> Does anyone know if there is an ftp site where I can find Bellcore
> documents?  Specifically I am looking for the Common Language Code set
> (CLLI, CLFI, etc) plus any TL-1 documentation that may be available.

Bellcore does not offer an ftp site of fulltext documents; they do
allow telnet access to a database of document abstracts.  Once you
find the documents, you need to order them from Bellcore.

To access the abstracts database, telnet to "info.bellcore.com" and
login as "cat10".

To order docs, call 800-521-CORE.


Marty Lawlor   Northern Telecom   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Gregory Youngblood)
Subject: Re: Cellular Billing
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 1994 08:20:00 PST
Organization: The Complete Solution


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: However John, why aren't cellular carriers
> treated like any other telco or long distance carrier for the purpose of
> intercompany billings and settlements. When we call between a telco one
> place and some other telco elsewhere via a long distance carrier, the
> whole thing is very transparent to the caller/called party. As we have
> discussed in the 'combined billing' thread recently, you can write one
> check to the telco and be done with it for all anyone cares. Why are
> the cellular companies not part of the process as a routine thing?   PAT]

Specifically because the cellular carriers are not connected with the
telcos in such a way to allow that to happen.  For the most part, each
cellular carrier has their own switch, which ties into a telco at some
point to process calls into the landline phone system.  There is no
data communication between cellular switches and telco switches.
There is work being done on connecting cellular switches together
nationwide, and it is coming, and from what I understand some are also
working on connecting into the landline phone system in a similar way.

The problem stems from how calls are processed.  For instance,
incoming calls might come over a T1 span, a circuit is selected, the
appropriate signalling starts and MF or DTMF (usually MF) tones are
sent down the circuit with the terminating number (in this case, a
cellular phone).  The originating number (the land line) is never
identified.  _IF_ the billing were setup to allow for this, an
agreement was reached with landline telco to work this way, and the
originating party were identified, then it would seem possible to run
off a billing tape for the telco for incoming calls, much the same way
that tapes are run off for roaming partners ... but that's a lot of IFs.

As to why ... the cellular carrier (in its infancy) was making money
on airtime.  It was easier to set up and maintain the system so that
the cellular user paid for his airtime, whether incoming or outgoing.
Some carriers have various programs where calls to certain numbers are
free, or calls forwarded to another number don't receive charges, or
calls to voice mail aren't charged.  Some don't.  It depends on where
you're located.  I know at one place, Omaha I believe it was, they had
a great deal (expensive, for it could have been a great deal ... it
was for the taxi driver).  $239 for as much airtime as you wanted ...
no per minute charges.  He had one number ... his cellular, and
forwarded it to wherever he was.  I know of other people that do
similar things because forwarded calls are not charged (except for LD
if they are LD).  Have the phone in the car (or in the shirt pocket)
when they got to the office, they'd forward it to their office.  When
they got home, they'd forward it to home.  Since forwarded calls were
not charged any incoming/outgoing minutes it didn't cost them any
extra, and their business cards were much simpler.  Phone and Fax.  :)

By the same token, I know of some carriers that used to (I don't know
if they still do) charge forwarded calls double.  Incoming AND
outgoing minutes.


Greg

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

Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 20:57:42 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D


I have been assuming statewide uniformity in these dialing changes,
and this is the first I have heard of a split of this nature.  Before
there were N0X/N1X prefixes or NNX area codes to consider, there were
indeed some splits in dialing methods, including in Maryland, where I
am now.  A Maryland motel I stayed in even had a card on the telephone
stand saying that all of Maryland now (it was referring to late 1987
and afterwards) was dialing its long distance the same way; N0X/N1X
prefixes had become necessary due to DC area shortage.

The idea does indeed exist that 1 + NPA + 7D should be useable for any
call within country code 1.

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #269
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #270

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 3 Jun 94 15:45:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 270

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Lower Domestic Telephone Rates (Todd Anderson)
    Re: Training Needed on AT&T PBX Architecture ([e-mail])
    Re: AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted ([e-mail])
    Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (Daryl R. Gibson)
    Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (David H. Close)
    Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (Carl Moore)
    Re: LD Carrier's Message Delivery Service (Jonathan Loo)
    Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA (Steven Bradley)
    Seeking Switching Classes For Employees (Robin Griswold)
    Re: ETSI Contact (Bob Shaw)
    Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System (Sam Spens Clason)
    Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D (James H. Cloos Jr.)
    Re: Interactive "Voice Mail" System For PC? (David H. Close)
    How Are 800 Numbers Billed? (David Wuertele)
    Personal 800 Number Availbility (William Y. Lai)
    Re: What's a 1A3B? (John Zambito)
    Last Laugh! Re: Please Explain Term 'Steaming Terminal' ([e-mail])

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
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Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

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The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
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* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
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is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Todd Anderson)
Subject: Re: Lower Domestic Telephone Rates
Date: 3 Jun 1994 10:57:28 -0400
Organization: Vnet Internet Access, Inc. - Charlotte, NC. [phone]


National Information Systems ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Does anyone know of a company that shops for low telephone rates for
> you?

> For the last five years, we've changed phone companies every year.
> Each time we sign up for low rates in one area we're calling to but
> the other areas are very expensive.

> We use the telephones for tele-sales and heavy outgoing FAXes.  I've
> heard there are small, independent telephone consultants that can mix
> and match the best rates into a coherent package deal.  We're looking
> for something customized to us.

> Has anyone ever heard of this?

Dave,

  From your post I would guess that your company has switched phone
companies yearly amongst the big three [AT&T, MCI, Sprint] perhaps in
response to their intense telemarketing market share battle. They
advertise and give you one low rate on interstate, intrastate,
intraLATA, or 800+ traffic, and stick it to you in other areas.

  There are utility bill audit consultants that check your phone or
electricity bill for incorrect tariff assignments to services,
overbilling, etc. and split the savings with you for their fee. They
usually don't sell alternative long distance services.

  You should definitely consider a full service Long Distance
Reseller.  In the wake of deregulation of the telephone industry, long
distance has effectively become commoditized. There are a wide
spectrum of long distance providers, some solely purchase large blocks
of long distance time and resell them to smaller users, some companies
are regional providers in that they have hardware [switches,
fiberoptics, microwave lines] that augment their service to national
coverage by purchasing long distance minutes from the big three and
other regional providers.  There are legions of independent sales
agents reselling long distance for these resellers, untold MLM
schemes, and many competitive legitimate viable resellers.  Check out
Discount Long Distance Digest by emailing Van Hefner, moderator at
[e-mail] as an excellent resource.

 The big three have engaged in such an expensive advertising war to
capture business as of late requiring them to raise prices in an
lock-step oligarchical fashion- 3.6% rate hike in January; AT&T and MCI
just imposed another 4% rate hike June 1. Choosing an appropriate
reseller for you phone services can definitely save you money.  I am
researching a start-up of reselling long-distance services in NC/SC
and see a definite niche of opportunity to provide discount LD to
small-medium companies with phone bills insufficient to garnish much
attention from the big three. We aim to provide a comprehensive line
of quality long distance products from the major providers coupled
with the attentive customer service of small company.  Email me if you
have other questions.


Regards,

Todd Anderson

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

From: [e-mail] (RKPRKP)
Subject: Re: Training Needed on AT&T PBX Architecture
Date: 3 Jun 1994 12:11:02 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


Sorry no help but I do sympathize.  We sell Northern Telecom PBXs and
NT makes all its architecture, installation, and maintenance courses
available to customers.  Keep hammering on AT&T and maybe they will
too.  Maybe someday when you start replacing switches ...?

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

From: [e-mail] (RKPRKP)
Subject: Re: AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted
Date: 3 Jun 1994 12:24:04 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


I lived through it and survived!  If you want a great book on the
subject, I recommend "The Deal of the Century" by Steve Coll.  The
chapter on "bloody limbs" is incredible.  It is a behind the scenes
story of all the wheeling and dealing that went on behind the scenes
at ATT and DOJ leading to the divestiture agreement.  Great reading
for anyone interested.

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

Date: Fri, 03 Jun 1994 10:28:31 -0700 (MST)
From: Daryl R. Gibson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway


Ah, but Pat, if you reform the postal service, you're going to have to
find some other jobs for the illiterate ...

I guess "postal service" is an oxymoron, isn't it?


Daryl
[phone]     [phone]
[e-mail]    [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I think it was more appropriate when
the agency was called the "Post Office".   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (David H. Close)
Subject: Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway
Date: 3 Jun 1994 05:02:17 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena


[e-mail] (Dave O'Shea) writes:

> (Sarcasm intended. I drop by the post office weekly to give them the
> mail that has been delivered to me, though it is addressed to people
> sometimes near, sometimes far. And exchanging mis-delivered mail is a
> great way to meet the neighbors.)

We all get mis-delivered mail; the more valid mail I get, the more
likely other pieces get included. It does sometimes help to complain
to the local supervisor about a particularly inept carrier.

My complaint lately is about the USPS inability to interpret its own
addresses. I sent a letter last week to XXX, CA 917XX-YYYY. This was
one of those PO boxes which have their own unique zip code. The
address could have been PO BOX XXYYYY, CCC, CA 917XX-YYYY, but
obviously the PO BOX line is totally redundant and I omitted it. The
letter was returned marked "insufficient address". When I complained
to the local supervisor, his response was "you didn't include the box
number; I don't see it." Sometimes this does work, though.


Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa
you [e-mail]    [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've received letters addressed to me
only as '60690-1570'  and nothing else on the envelope. It should
work, but as you point out, some postal workers will contend that the
box number is missing.   :)    PAT]

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

Date: Fri, 3 Jun 94 9:47:35 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway


What sort of mixup would cause something to PO box 10003 in zipcode 60610
to be delivered to PO box 1570, zipcode 60690?

Common arguments against privatization of the mail: the private firms
would snap up the most profitable routes, and leave the rest to the
public agency.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I left out part of the story I
guess. In addition to Box 1570 I also have Box 1003 at the same post
office. The one is more personal mail while the other is more business
stuff. Most post offices use the last two digits of the zip code as
the first two digits of the box numbers; therefore boxes at Ft. Dearborn
Station (60610) are really 10xxx or 10xxxx, with zeros used as filler
when needed. So Box 3 there becomes Box 10003 when writing to it. The
only exceptions to this here are 60680/60690. These are the real old,
original post offices here; they still use box numbers without reference
to the zip code on the front. I used to see the guy who had Box 1 at
60690 all the time when I went to get my mail. He had the box for fifty
years or so and his correct address was <name>, Box 1, Chicago 60690.
Now whenever any very low number boxes become available -- not often,
because the box holders hang on to them -- usually some worker at the
post office grabs it for himself and his personal mail.   PAT]

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

Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 15:51:32 -0400
From: Jonathan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: LD Carrier's Message Delivery Service


C&P Telephone, a Bell Atlantic Company, used to have a service called
Send-A-Call that worked like a message-delivery service.  It worked
from pay phones and cost 50 cents.  The service sometimes did not work
as intended, and would activate when it was not supposed to and
interfere with people's conversations.  It also lost money.  Bell
Atlantic is now in the process of removing Send-A-Call.

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven Bradley)
Subject: Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA
Organization: The Forest City Exchange, Forest City, Florida
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 00:00:26 GMT


Greg Vaeth at Jerrold Communications ([e-mail]) wrote:

> An insert in my latest bill contained a notice that Bell Atlantic will
> offer Caller ID in Pennsylvania in August.  The cost for residential
> customers is $6.50/month, business is $8.50.  Call blocking and
> anonymous call rejection are free.  This charge seem outrageous
> considering that the equipment to do it is already there, right?  How
> else does return call, repeat call and all that stuff work. How does
> this rate compare to other states?

For residences ...

In Central Florida it's $7/month in Southern Bell territory (with same
option as you listed) if you also want name delivery as well as
number.  Also in Southern Bell territory you can have it for $5/month
without name (number only) and without the extras you listed above
(available at extra cost, so high it's cheaper to take name delivery
and not use it).

In Sprint/United (yes, that is a long distance carrier OWNing a local
telephone company, you are NOT seeing things!), it's $7/month, number
only, name supposed to be available in the future, in FEW areas it is
already available.  No difference in costs without name.  No anonymous
call blocking unless you buy a box that automatically does it for you
(non phone company supplied).

As per fee, you forgot the cost of the card they have to install which
includes a 1200 bps modem on it to delivery the service.  That modem
section is NOT needed on the other services you mentioned.  Its good
to see they finally had common sense in PA.


Internet:        [e-mail]         Steven G. Bradley
                 [e-mail]            Forest City, Florida
GEnie:           [e-mail]
CompuServe:      [e-mail]   Phone:   [phone]
America Online:  [e-mail]          Modem:   407/862-8088

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

From: iphase!iex.iex.com![e-mail]
Subject: Seeking Switching Classes For Employees
Organization: IEX Corporation
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 17:36:16 GMT


I am posting this for a friend who is interested in her company
attending classes on switching or indepth telecommunications. I was
not sure where to post this but we do not know of any classes and
didn't know if anyone might be aware of any being offered for
attending by people not associated with any vendors.

If you have any information please email me or call Sherry Dotson at
214-550-0900.

Any help would be appreciated.


Thanks,

Robin Griswold


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Robin, I know that Berkeley has
a large number of continuing education classes on telecommunications
stuff. Their announcements about these classes appear all the time
here in the Digest. Jane Frazer in Ohio also used to send quite a
bit of stuff about continuing education classes at the University there.
Maybe someone in Texas or near you will submit information about
this in your area.   PAT]

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

Date: 03 Jun 1994 13:55:10 CET
From: SHAW [phone] <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: ETSI Contact


perdigot@hp_1.dee.uc.pt (Joao Perdigoto) wrote:

> Does anyone knows if ETSI has an ftp site available?

ETSI does not have an FTP site.  Currently you can contact them
electronically only via X.400 but SMTP mail support is planned for the
near future.  Their email address is:

S=helpdesk; P=etsi; A=atlas; C=fr

Insert the surname of anyone you know at ETSI in place of 'helpdesk'
above to reach ETSI staff.  ETSI's other contact info is:

European Telecommunications Standards Institute
Route des Lucioles
Bote postale 152
Sophia Antipolis
06561 VALBONNE CEDEX
France

Telephone      [phone]
Telex          042 470040 f
Fax            [phone] et
               [phone]

Hope this helps,


Bob Shaw    Information Services Department   ITU


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is just a quick reminder to our
readers that ITU partially funds this Digest with a generous monthly
stipend as part of their information services. If you have not yet
sent them a note of thanks for their support, I wish you would do so
today.  See the masthead of this issue for details.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Sam Spens Clason)
Subject: Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System
Date: 3 Jun 1994 17:25:58 GMT
Organization: The Royal Institute of Technology


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Nagle) writes:

> Er, cell sites are typically linked by land line to a central
> site that controls the system.  Only the last hop to the mobile phone
> is radio.  If you lose the link to the central site, even two phones
> in the same cell can't talk.  It's not a distributed system at all.

Not necessarily, it might run on microwave radiolinks.  The advantage
to landlines is that you don't have to rely on a (sometimes) competitor.

But as John says, if a base station isn't connected with the net, it
wont work.


Sam Spens Clason, <A HREF="http://www.nada.kth.se/~d92-sam/">Web</A>

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

From: [e-mail] (James H. Cloos Jr.)
Subject: Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D
Organization: a2i network
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 06:37:04 GMT


"ScottF" == Scott D Fybush <[e-mail]> writes:

> NYNEX/NY announced today that its portion of 716 in Western NY
> will use 1 + 716 + 7D for LD within the area code.  This is
> apparently a change from the previously-announced 7D dialing.

> It is also in conflict with the Rochester Tel half of 716,
> which as far as I know is sticking with 7D.

> Are any other NPAs split in dialing methods like this?

In the Buffalo LATA, Dunkirk & Fredonia Tel has announced 7D for
Intra-NPA dialing.  As I recall, the announcement indicated that 1 +
716 + 7D will not be supported.  Previously 1 + 7D was standard, and 1
+ 716 + 7D at least used to work, bypassing the checks for toll blocking
in the process.  (Unintentionally discovered.  I'd forgotten that inter-
LATA was 1 + 7D and when my mother asked me why she couldn't get thru to
a hospital in Buffalo to check on her aunt, I replied something to the
effect of: `You have to dial the area code when calling LD.'  :-)

I've heard that the other independents in the Buffalo LATA also
announced 7D, but cannot I cannot confirm this.  (There are at least
two or three other independents, although D&F may be the only one in
Chautauqua county to still be locally owned.)


James H. Cloos, Jr.    [e-mail]
([e-mail])        Snail:    POBox 1111, Amherst, NY 14226-1111
Finger for pgp pub key.    Phone:    [phone] (machine now; fax eventually)

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

From: [e-mail] (David H. Close)
Subject: Re: Interactive "Voice Mail" System For PC?
Date: 3 Jun 1994 04:52:44 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena


Paul A. Lee </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com> writes:

> A typical voice port board will cost from US$500 to US$1500.

You can also buy an ZyXEL modem with built-in codec and DTMF decoder.
With it you get, no charge but no support, source code for a PC-voice
mailbox system. Try [e-mail] or [e-mail].


Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa
[e-mail]   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave)
Subject: How Are 800 Numbers Billed?
Organization: Graphic Communications Laboratories (GCL)
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 06:59:24 GMT


I am interested in finding out how much 800 numbers cost, and how they
are installed.  I'm contemplating a voicemail application that users
would use 1-800-something to access, and I'm trying to get an idea how
these systems are set up.

1. How much does the 800 service cost per call received?
2. How does zone (local or long-distance) of call affect price?
3. How many calls can be received at once? (Is there even a limit?)
4. If a single 800 number is receiving 20-100 calls per minute, what
   kind of PBX <-> Telco connection is necessary?

And most importantly,

5. Is there a book or something where I can read about all this?

Thanks,

David Wuertele

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

From: William Y. Lai <[e-mail]>
Subject: Personal 800 Number Availbility
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 14:55:25 EDT


A while back I remember that several LD companies were offering plans
for personal 800 numbers.  Does anyone know of availaibility/details
of these plans today?


Thanks,

email: [e-mail]   Dept. of Electrical Eng.
George Washington Univ.   Washington, D.C.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They are all over the place. Almost every
carrier I can think of offers some form of 800 service for small users
such as in residential settings. Some have much better deals than others
in my opinion. Cable and Wireless is one of the best.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (John Zambito)
Subject: Re: What's a 1A3B?
Organization: Performance Technologies, Incorporated
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 18:35:17 GMT


[e-mail] (Alan Leon Varney) writes:

> It's no distinction, except in areas quickly going to digital COs.
> The "1A3B" is really a 1A ESS(tm) switch with an Attached Processor
> System (APS) controlled by a 3B20 Duplex(tm) processor.  The 3B20D
> supplies the switch with backup disk storage, and possibily other
> services such as SS7.

Ya gotta love this Internet! Since you're "in the know," how about
giving us a summary of the switches AT&T has offered over the years.
How about starting with a simple question. What does ESS stand for?


John Zambito, Performance Technologies Incorporated    [e-mail]
315 Science Parkway, Rochester, New York 14620    uupsi!ptsys1!jvz


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ESS = Electronic Switching System. So
named because the telephone exchanges of the past were electro-mechanical
in operation. This acronym along with lots of others which puzzle
readers from time to time can be looked up in our interative glossary
program at the Telecom Archives. If you can use anonymous ftp, then
access the archives and pull the glossary files to your site. If you
don't have anonymous ftp (or prefer to just look up single entries) you
can do so using the Telecom Archives Email Information Service. You
need to get the help file for this (just write and ask if you need a
copy) and the command to use is GLOSSARY <argument>, where <argument>
is the abbreviation or acronym you are inquiring about. If you send
email to the archives in the required format (see the help file) you
will get back email giving the definition or meaning of the term(s)
you specified. It is fun to use, even if I do say so myself having
written the script used to process GLOSSARY and SEARCH requests. Oh
yes, you can also search for subject titles and author names in back
issues of the Digest, going back to 1989 using the SEARCH <argument>
command in the same way. Just write and ask for the help file if you
do not already have a copy.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (RKPRKP)
Subject: Last Laugh! Re: Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal'
Date: 3 Jun 1994 11:59:05 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


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

Steaming Terminal is a common term for the situation which arises when
a terminal user spills their coffee or coke into the ventilating slits
on top of the terminal casing.  In such an instance, there is usually
a large "ssssspppppppphhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiittttttzzzzzzzing" sound
followed by a cloud of steam which is formed as the liquid beverage
finds it's way to the power supply of the terminal.  This phenoma has
also occured in several fraternity houses when a drunken greek has
attempted to urinate on live terminal or PC.  In many cases, the
"steaming terminal" will be accompanied by a "screaming frat rat" as
the electricity races up the urine stream and into the student's
private parts.  Hope this helps.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is an urban legend, and nothing but
an urban legend that a homeless man here in Chicago once died from
electrocution after urinating on the third (electrified) rail of the
subway tracks. According to the legend, police found his body in the
subway tunnel, mangled after having been struck by a moving train and
with 'electrical burn marks' in the aforementioned area, leading the
police to speculate on exactly what must have taken place.

However it is true that liquids hot and cold can and do get spilled
in awkward places. I am reminded of what happened to me long ago.
Readers of several years here know that when I was in high school I had a
part-time job working at the University of Chicago in the telephone room.
I worked weekend afternoons and a couple of evenings per week. During
the summer I worked full time hours. I guess I was 16 years old; this
was in the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. A
hot -- very hot -- Sunday afternoon in August, 1959, about three in the
afternoon. I came sashaying into the phone room, annoyed at having to
leave the beach to come to work. With a package of Pall Mall cigarettes
in one hand and a large container of Pepsi-Cola in the other, I sat
down at the position where I usually worked. The woman I relieved was
glad to see me, said "hi" and "bye" in the same breath and split. During
the summer when school was out, and especially on weekends in the summer
the campus was deserted so only one person was needed in the phone room
on the afternoon/evening shift.

I had been working maybe ten minutes when I reached across the switchboard
to grab a pad of paper I needed to use and splash!  Over went the large,
half-full container of Pepsi ... all down through the keys in the switch-
board ... phzzzz ... fizzz ... pop ... all of a sudden the switchboard was
lighting up all over, no one was on any lines, the cross talk was something
else to hear ... I grabbed some rags and started furiously cleaning up
what I could but by that time much of the liquid had dribbled down inside
the operator's console with the switchboard continuing to buzz and hiss
at me, lights flashing off and on everywhere in front of me.

I evacuated myself at that point to a position further down the line
(in those days U of C had a sixteen-position manual cord board) and
resumed handling calls, and I also put in a call to repair service on
'611'. All I told the repair clerk was that 'something seems to have
gone wrong with the switchboard ...' and the clerk put me on hold a
couple minutes. A man came on the line and said he would be out there in
a few minutes. Well sure enough, about fifteen minutes later a man from
IBT repair at the 'Kenwood Bell' office came in. I was working at the
other end of the room at that point trying hard to act as innocent as
I could. The guy sat there at the switchboard, opened it up and looked
inside the console. Giving a sigh, he went and got an electric heater,
sat it there and started drying out the insides. As that was going on
he had a little tool of some kind and was picking at the wires and the
connections, using a cloth to dry things out.

This guy sat there for two hours, from about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon
until about 6:30 .. and he never said a word to me ... just sat there
with his little metal picking tool, his rag, a brush and other stuff.
I thought it wise to keep my distance and sit elsewhere *without* anything
to drink in my vicinity. Finally he put the whole thing back together
and packed up his stuff and he asked me what happened. "I dunno," I
told him, "I guess 'something' must have gotten spilled in there,".
"Well, whatever it was," he said, "it had sugar in it. I wish it had
been a glass of water instead of all that sticky stuff."  He said
nothing for a minute as he reflected on it, then he said, "You know,
if I were to call Mrs. Leyden (the phone room supervisor) tomorrow and
tell her about this, *someone* would probably get fired ...".

Well, bless him, he never did say anything to Mrs. Leyden or anyone
else about it for that matter, but that particular switchboard position
never did work right after that. It worked, but the action was always
a little funny compared to the other positions, and cross-talk on the
extensions served from that position was sometimes present. A day or
two later, another operator who sat at that position most of the time
complained she did not like it any longer and moved somewhere else.

Yes, remember to always keep beverages out of reach. Trouble is most
of us have to learn the hard way; I know I did.    PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #270
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #271

TELECOM Digest     Sat, 4 Jun 94 00:28:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 271

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Book Review: "A DOS User's Guide to the Internet" by Gardner (Rob Slade)
    ISDN PRI Problem (Matt Monsoor)
    Bell Science Series (Ken Jongsma)
    Need Book of Standard Telco Symbols and Icons (James D. Murray)
    Answering Machine Recommendations? (John O'Shaughnessy)
    Country and Area Codes on PC Software (J.J. Fai)
    Call Progress Modems (Bob Heath)
    Seeking Answering Machine With Voice Mail (Norman R. Nithman)
    Re: Cellular Privacy? (Steven Bradley)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Ken Stone)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (bluewtr![e-mail])
    Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D (John Robert Grout)
    Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose (Terry Greenlee)
    Re: How to Get White Pages Data From GTE? ([e-mail])
    Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System (Dan Matte)
    Re: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts (Gordon Burditt)
    Re: What Did You Have For Dinner Today? (Paul A. Lee)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 03 Jun 1994 13:49:46 MDT
From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "A DOS User's Guide to the Internet" by Gardner


BKDOSINT.RVW  940308

Prentice Hall
113 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ   07632
[phone]   FAX [phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail] Alan Apt
Beth Mullen-Hespe [e-mail]
Mortice Kern Systems Inc.
35 King Street North
Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9
[phone]
[e-mail] [e-mail]
Fax: [phone]
"A DOS User's Guide to the Internet", Gardner, 1994, 0-13-106873-3,

This title is almost completely misleading.  This book is not for DOS
users, except that you must be running DOS to run the MKS UUCP for DOS
programs for which this book is a manual.  This book is also not about
the Internet, as such.  Both the specifics and the concepts refer to
UUCP rather than the Internet.  The text of the book does point out
that there are differences, but the examples given relate to UUCP.

That said, for those who are interested in making their first move to
a direct Internet connection, this could be an excellent choice.  UUCP
was designed to be quite comfortable with dialup connections, and this
book, and associated programs, help to automate a number of the
connection functions while freeing the user from much of the technical
detail that TCP/IP requires.  Mail and news are basically the same and
file transfer can be explored later when a dedicated connection is
available or desirable.

Given the author's residence in Canada, the US-centrism of the
Internet Provider/Service supplier list is all the more disappointing.
In truth, any Internet connected UNIX site should do you.  (Perhaps
even a fellow DOS user running MKS UUCP.)  There could also be a bit
more detail on how to configure the remote site, although someone at
the remote system should be able to help you.

This is not an Internet book: it is a niche market, plug and manual
for MKS software.  However, given the current interest in the Internet
and the limited supply of "plug and play" connectivity solutions, this
is worth serious consideration.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKDOSINT.RVW  940303. Distribution
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated news groups/mailing lists.


Vancouver      [e-mail]
Institute for  [e-mail]
Research into  [e-mail]
User           [e-mail]
Security       Canada V7K 2G6

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

From: [e-mail] (Matt Monsoor)
Subject: ISDN PRI Problem
Date: 3 Jun 1994 23:44:45 GMT
Organization: California State University Sacramento


We have an AT&T Definity Switch, G3RV2.2, and are trying to connect an
Ascend Communications, Inc., Ascend "Classic" Multiband using ISDN
PRI.

The Ascend "Classic" work's using it on a normal T1 with inband
signaling, etc but when we set up both the AT&T Switch and the Ascend
to ESF, B8ZS, with the D-Channel set for channel 24 it fails.  What we
see is a level 3 failure.  The Switch does not see the D-Channel from
the Multiband and the Multiband does not see the Switch's D-Channel.

If anyone has a AT&T G3R Switch, access to Switch administration, is
using an Ascend Multiband, and ISDN PRI We would like to compare
notes.

Email me at [e-mail] with a phone number and I will contact
you as soon as I can.


Thanks in advance.

Matthew G. Monsoor     USMAIL: 6000 J st., Sacramento, Ca 95819-6091
  [phone]       Internet:  [e-mail]
pager: [phone]  Packet: n6zsk@km6px.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NA

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

From: Jongsma, Ken <[e-mail]>
Subject: Bell Science Series
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 94 16:07:00 PDT


A while back, we were discussing the old Bell Science Series movies
that many of us watched in grade and high school science class some
years ago. I recently received a video catalog that has four of these
movies listed!

Hemo the Magnificent
Our Mr. Sun
About Time and
Gateway to the Mind

are all available from Time Warner Viewer's Edge for $9.49 each. Each
movie is about 1 hour long. The first two were written, directed and
produced by Frank Capra.  The catalog does not list a non 800 voice
number, but it does have a FAX number:

Time Warner Viewer's Edge
PO Box 3925
Milford, CT  06460

[phone] (Voice)
[phone] (FAX)

Enjoy!

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

From: [e-mail] (James D. Murray)
Subject: Need Book of Standard Telco Symbols and Icons
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 22:00:03 GMT


I need a book that lists commonly used/understood symbols found in the
telco and telecommunications world. I've been thumbing through Bellcore's
Catalog of Technical Information, but haven't found such reference yet.
A source at Alcatel indicated to me that an AT&T document containing such
information, but could give me no leads.

Any references would be greatly appreciated,


James D. Murray, Software Engineer
PairGain Technologies   Cerritos, CA
Voice: 310.404.8811 x540    Fax:   [phone]
James D. Murray  POB 70            Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]   Orange, CA 92666 USA    Fax: [phone]

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

From: John O'Shaughnessy <[e-mail]>
Subject: Answering Machine Recommendations Wanted
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 94 17:22:47 CDT


Our four year old AT&T answering machine seems to have spun it's last
capstan into the dirt.  I assume that a machine that was purchased for
$70.00 would cost more than $50.00 to have repaired, so I'm in the
market for a new answering machine.

The features I'm looking for include:

 * Time & Date stamp
 * Remote access
 * VOX activated/unlimited incoming call length
 * High Quality

What machines would TELECOM Digest readers recommend?  Which machines/
brands should be avoided?


Thanks,

John O'Shaughnessy

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

Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 20:45:30 -0400
From: JJ Fai <[e-mail]>
Subject: Country and Area Codes on PC Software


PC's, the great communicators, don't even provide us with basic
information that we can use, such as country codes and area codes for
leading cities around the world.

As a new subscriber, I wonder whether there is a .DBF, .CSV, .TXT or other
generally compatible databse available that lists this vital information.

Even my little Psion 3A palmtop has country and area codes built-in,
yet the leading PIM's and database programs for DOS and Windows ignore
them.

If such a database has not yet been compiled and been made widely
available, it's about time that we fill the glaring gap.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Check out the country.codes directory in
the Telecom Archives, and also the areacodes directory. You should find
quite a bit of information there.  Anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu.     PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (BobHeath)
Subject: Call Progress Modems
Date: 3 Jun 1994 19:27:07 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


Does anyone know of any modems that provides call progress features?


Thanks,

Bob

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

Date: Fri, 3 Jun 94 13:09:05 CDT
From: clampett![e-mail] (Norman R. Nithman)
Subject: Seeking Answering Machine With Voice Mail


I'm looking for an answering machine with at least two voice mailboxes
in the $100 range.  Any suggestions will be helpful.


Norm   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven Bradley)
Subject: Re: Cellular Privacy?
Organization: The Forest City Exchange, Forest City, Florida
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 18:38:37 GMT


> About form 740, I was told that form 740 could not be used to get
> around the law.  Again, maybe not enforcable, but still illegal.

Why not?  It is for any non certified device in quantities up to three
for non commercial purposes.

>> the 800 mhz band), no re-tuning is needed.  In theory, if they made
>> the EPROM replacable for purpose of field upgrades, and sold the
>> cellular full access EPROM as an after-market item, it would certainly
>> get around the dumb restriction.  It does not stop you from getting
>> the scanners, nor does it stop the modifications, merely makes it more
>> difficult, but does not stop it.

> I doubt that this would work as the ready availability of plug-in
> parts to reenable cellular on the radio would render the radio "easily
> modifiable" and, therefore, supposedly illegal to import/manufacture.

Ok, then I think it is time that they (the scanning industry) included
a serial port on every unit, with the limitations in frequencies
covered being locked out in the MPU for internal keypad operation, and
have code on the computer to do the actual loading and scanning --
such that under serial control, the microcomputer (ibmpc) software
would be under full control, this would meet the language of the law
and still permit it to be scannable under computer control, since the
serial interface accessory would "not yet be available" at time of
testing, therefore the FCC would find it meeting the requirements.  It
would be the same as a Pro 2006 with builtin Opto 456 controller.  I
wonder what the cellular industry and FCC think of that situation!  It
is a fact they can NOT touch it.


Internet:        [e-mail]         Steven G. Bradley
                 [e-mail]
GEnie:           [e-mail]  Don't you think it's about
CompuServe:      [e-mail]   time we FIRED the Federal
America Online:  [e-mail]          Communications Commission?

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

Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 15:28:17 -0700
From: Ken Stone <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Organization: Hewlett Packard, San Diego Division


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

> I saw in a news report about a new service from Pacific Bell called
> "ISDN Anywhere."  When I called up Pac Bell, they had no idea what I
> was talking about.  The news report didn't give much more information
> other than they would start offering it in about a month.

> Does anybody else have any ideas about what is so different about "ISDN
> Anywhere?"

Well it does exist and it is different and it does work!!

Up until recently, we here in PacBell land had two tariff's.  One for
Centrex which was no repeaters (ie 18k ft from CO), but no message
units within the Centrex and one called SDS/IS (I believe) that had
repeaters included but no Centrex capability.  Either of these
>required< your CO to be ISDN ready.

With ISDN Anywhere, you get just what they say.  Right now, I am
having a repeatered Centrex line installed that I could not get
before.  I also have several people that we could not serve due to non
ISDN ready COs that I should be able to get lines to now ... how they
do it is their problem.  I am assuming that they will back haul to a
CO that is capable.


Ken Stone    Hewlett Packard, San Diego Site Telecomm

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

From: bluewtr![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Date: Fri, Jun  3 21:07:35 1994 GMT


ISDN Anywhere means that you can have ISDN anywhere in the Pacbell
area for the price of local ISDN.  If your serving CO does not offer
ISDN Pacbell will provide the FX for free.

Part of what Pacbell is pushing as:

    POTS to PANS

Plain Old Telephone Service to
Pretty Advanced Network Stuff ...


T3

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

From: [e-mail] (John Robert Grout)
Subject: Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D
Date: 03 Jun 1994 19:22:44 GMT
Organization: U of I College of Engineering Workstations


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

> I have been assuming statewide uniformity in these dialing changes,
> and this is the first I have heard of a split of this nature.

If a state's PSC didn't enforce uniformity (probably forcing 1+AC+7D),
setting a "de facto" standard within a LATA would usually fall to the
"Baby Bell" providing service within it.

So, the most reasonable explanation for substantive nonuniformity
within a state is the existence of a LATA (in a multi-LATA state)
which has all local service provided by non-Baby Bell companies.  So,
if one ignores the corner of Greenwich, CT which is not in the CT
LATA, the Rochester (NY) LATA is the only one I know which meets this
test.

I expect that New York's PSC will eventually bully Rochester Telephone
into uniformity with NYNEX.


John R. Grout     INTERNET: [e-mail]

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

From: sgiblab!hh.sbay.org![e-mail] (Terry Greenlee)
Subject: Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose
Date: 3 Jun 94 05:38:17 GMT
Organization: Hip-Hop BBS


In an article to comp.dcom.telecom I wrote:

> I am having trouble with my phone lines at home and I was wondering
> if anyone else had this same thing happen to them?  My existing two
> lines in my home work fine at 14.4. The phone company brought in more
> lines to add a third line.

> The third line will only connect at 7200 bd at best and usually
> 4800 bd. I tested them at the box beside the house to make sure
> it was not my inside wires. The phone company tested it from
> the main office and found no problem.

Well, when Pacific Bell came out, I had my laptop and a 14.4 modem on
the side of the house to demonstrate the problem. I did stress that
the bad line was for a fax and the modem was for debugging.  A good
friend did suggest that I be extra polite but insistent.  If they did
not fix this line, they would have dug up two front yards for nothing.

What the repair man found was that the two good lines went to the main
connection box (many blocks away) thought a 27 pair line and the new
bad line used a 30 pair line. He changed it so all three lines went
through the 27 pair trunk line. The change took 1.5 hours and then the
problem was fixed. The modem connected at 14.4 and all that 'bis'
stuff. The main logic is not that anything was wrong with the 30 pair
trunk, just that the other lines worked great through the 27 pair and
why do anything different. Always stick to what you know works, first.

I want to thank everyone that sent me advice on this. It all helped.
And a special thanks to Pacific Bell.


AIX/UNIX Systems Administration       [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Krusty)
Subject: Re: How to Get White pages Data From GTE?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Sat, 4 Jun 1994 00:34:01 GMT


[e-mail] (Frank Dziuba) writes:

> I would like to get the White Pages listings for my area from GTE in a
> computer-readable format. I know that there are cd-roms of the US
> phone books available, ...
> ... GTE said they don't sell that data, but how did ProPhone get it?

When I looked at ProPhone about a year or so ago, it didn't contain
any GTE listings -- only Baby Bell listings.  In fact, I have yet to
find a CD-ROM product which contains GTE listings (unless, of course,
the GTE subscriber has purchased a listing in a Baby Bell directory).
Also, discussions about these products which I've had with their
manufacturers has confirmed that they don't contain GTE directory
data.

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

From: [e-mail] (Dan Matte)
Subject: Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 94 17:37:09 PDT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada


True, priority for email is low in general.  This particular
application will have an organization that will be directly involved
in emergency response using the cellular email setup for internal
communication.  We are fairly certain that any cell numbers would be
deemed as Class-A (priority service).

The part of the solution that has caused the most concern is Reverse
Control Channel Occupancy rates that would result in call blocking.
Forward Control Channel Occupancy Rates a less of a concern as the
wireline carrier would also impose Class-A service in case of a major
disaster.  This would drastically reduce the number of wireline to
cell calls made and reduce the Forward Control Channel Occupancy rate.

As we have not had a wide scale disaster in British Columbia that
would require Class-A only service, I have been looking for call
blocking statistics for the L.A. Earthquake.  I know that some
cellular carriers' philosophy is not to implement Class-A service only
and give the highest level of access to all subscribers.  Despite this
difference, blocking rates would be useful in order for us to
determine if cellular email is really the most effective solution for
this application.  If anyone has any insight to these statistics(load,
blocking rate etc), I would be greatful.

I would be happy to post any relevant info that I find.


Dan Matte   REON Corp    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Gordon Burditt)
Subject: Re: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organi[sz]ation
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 11:24:58 GMT


> Why, though, would one want to redial upon encountering a "VOICE" or a
> "NO ANSWER" result? A "VOICE" result would typically indicate that the
> modem's dial attempt has reached either an intercept message or a live
> body at the dialed number, indicating that a wrong number is being
> dialed (for legitimate purposes, at least). A "NO ANSWER" result on a
> valid number typically results from a problem with the modem or fax
> machine that should have answered at the other end.

You would want to redial (eventually) on a "NO ANSWER" result because:

1. Call waiting generally makes sure you never see a "BUSY".
2. Systems occasionally go down and sometimes for short periods of time.
3. You might get a "NO ANSWER" as a result of a collision of the
   recipient picking up the phone to dial out, answering your call.


Gordon L. Burditt    sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon

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

Date: Thu, 2 June 1994  15:08:00 GMT
Name: Paul A. Lee  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>
Organization: Woolworth Corporation
Subject: Re: What Did You Have for Dinner Today?


In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 264, our Editor wrote (in part):

> Why the two most recent well-known cannibals in the USA both came from
> Wisconsin -- within fifty miles or so of each other -- I do not
> know. Maybe it is something in the atomosphere.

As a relatively recent transplant to the Milwaukee area, I'm prompted
to offer this hypothesis: Maybe these two guys were driven mad by the
*taxes* here in Wisconsin (the highest in the country, according to a
1992 survey).  Perhaps the "ultimate eating disorder" could be one of
the results of the high tax rate. After all, I've seen widespread
sociopathic behavior in the way people here _drive_ ...

(I hope I can forfend being flamed by hundreds of Wisconsin natives by
emphasizing that most of the folks here are as genial, friendly, and
helpful as any I've met anywhere ... as long as you keep them out of
their cars!)


Paul A. Lee                    Voice  414 357-1409
Telecommunications Analyst       FAX  [phone]
Woolworth Corporation        CompuServe  70353,566
INTERNET  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Funny you should mention it. The way it
is usually explained around here, it is the people in California who
'drive crazy'. Maybe a lot of them were originally from Wisconsin.
Speaking of good, wholesome things to eat, I've always liked the lunch
counters at Woolworth's stores here in Chicago. The two big stores on
State Street downtown both have nice, inexpensive food. The little
Woolworth's near where I used to live did not have a lunch counter,
but I still liked shopping there. When they closed for good last year
they still had the old red colored 5/10 cent sign over their front door
even though there was nothing left there which cost five cents any
longer except possibly the individual pieces of bubble gum. The 'dime
store' was there for years and years and years -- as long as anyone
in the neighborhood could remember; then last year right after Christmas
I went past one day and the signs were gone, everything was boarded up
and another neighborhood institution was gone. The two stores downtown
are still in business, even if not exactly thriving.  Now let's forget
about the cannibals, eh, unless someone has something further to add.
Have a nice weekend, one and all!     PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #271
******************************


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Date: Sun, 5 Jun 94 11:06:02 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #272

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 5 Jun 94 11:06:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 272

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Book Review: SSC Command References (Rob Slade)
    Bills Online, Action Needed Now (TAP-Info via James D. Wilson)
    800 Traffic Query (Judith Oppenheimer)
    Second Phone Line: How Can I Do it Myself (Edgar Estrada)
    How Does the Telephone Work? (Chua Tai Wei)
    New Book: The Electronic Traveler (Marcus L. Endicott)
    AT&T to be Held Accountable? (Ken Kopin)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 04 Jun 1994 18:01:11 MDT
From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: SSC Command References


BKSSCREF.RVW  940318

Specialized Systems Consultants Inc.
P.O. Box 55549   Seattle, WA  98155
[phone]   Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
"UNIX System Command Summary", 1993, 0-916151-61-1

Specialized Systems Consultants publish a series of tutorial and
reference cards and booklets.  The standard "tri-fold page" size of
8.5" by 3.5" is a bit difficult to fit on a bookshelf.  While a bit
awkward, it will fit in a shirt pocket or, opened, in a file folder.
It fits quite nicely in a suit jacket inside pocket for those going
out on service calls.  I received an ANSI C reference card, five UNIX
(Beginning Commands, System 4 and 4.2 Command Summaries, and Bourne
and Korn shell) references, an Emacs reference, a vi tutorial and
reference, an MS-DOS Command Summary and an RS-232 reference card.
Most prices appear to range between three and ten dollars.

The material is generally well chosen and useful.  For most quick
reference these will be much handier than full documentation.  The
layout is good, with logical divisions between boxed groups of
commands or information tables.

Unfortunately, there are oddities, vagaries and outright errors.  The
RS-232 card gives pinouts for DB25 and DB9 connectors but not the
Macintosh's DIN-8.  The MS-DOS summary lists CON only as the console
screen, PRN only as LPT1 and fails to mention that a .COM file is
executable.  The Bourne shell tutorial gives a brief introduction to
wild cards: it will probably surprise novice users when they find that
other UNIX documentation refers to these patterns as regular
expressions (or regexp).  The UNIX references fare somewhat better,
particularly since they are primarily command listings.

The tutorials are probably a lot less intimidating for new users than
some of the bulkier texts.  (And cheaper, too.)  The reference cards
are handy and reasonably valuable.  Likely, their list of titles is
growing fairly rapidly.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKSSCREF.RVW  940318. Distribution is
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.


Vancouver      [e-mail]
Institute for  [e-mail]
Research into  [e-mail]
User           [e-mail]
Security       Canada V7K 2G6

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

Date: Sun, 5 Jun 1994 00:23:11 HST
From: NetSurfer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Bills Online, Action Needed Now


Message forwarded FYI from TAP.

James D. Wilson
P. O. Box 15432
Honolulu, HI  96830


  Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 23:32:54 -0400
  From: email list server <[e-mail]>
  To: [e-mail]
  Subject: Bills Online, Action Needed Now

Distributed to TAP-INFO, a free Internet Distribution List
(subscription requests to [e-mail])

TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
(please distribute freely)

Crown Jewels Campaign - LEGIS
June 2, 1994


-    SPECIAL TASK FORCE OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO TAKE
     ACTION ON INTERNET ISSUES

-    ACTION NEEDED (NOW) TO GET COPIES OF CONGRESSIONAL BILLS
     ONLINE THROUGH THE INTERNET

-    QUICK ACTION CAN MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE

     by:  Mike Ward ([e-mail]), TAP
          Jamie Love ([e-mail]), TAP

A special 60 day "Task Force on the Internet," has been created within
the House of Representatives Committee on House Administration.  This
Task Force will be issuing a report (possibly the week of June 6-10)
on the use of the Internet by the House of Representatives.  Among the
issues that the Task Force should address is the dissemination of
bills being considered by the House. It is critically important to
alert Task Force members to your interest in accessing bills before
Congress through the Internet. TAP recommends that you email and fax
the following House members, telling them that the House of
Representatives should make available all bills pending before
Congress through ftp, email ftp and gopher.

Members of the TASK FORCE ON THE INTERNET are:

Thomas Manton (D-NY)
ph.  202-225-3965        fax  [phone]   NO EMAIL

Sam Gejdenson (D-CT)
ph.  202-225-3965        fax  [phone]   [e-mail]

Dale Kildee (D-MI)
ph.  202-25-3611         fax  [phone]   NO EMAIL

Bill Thomas (R-CA), Ranking Minority Member Comm. on House Admin.
ph.  202-225-2915        fax  [phone]   NO EMAIL

Jennifer Dunn (R-WA)
ph.  202-225-7761        fax  [phone]   NO EMAIL


Also important is:

Pat Roberts (R-KS), Ranking minority member of the Joint
Committee on Printing
ph. 202-225-2715         fax [phone]

                    -----------------------------------
                      Our letter reads as follows:

Representative Sam Gejdenson, et. al
Task Force on the Internet
U.S. House of Representatives

Dear Representative:

We are writing to urge you to make all pending bills available on the
Internet.  We have been asking for online access to congressional
bills for three years.  It is our understanding that the principal
opposition to this has come from a handful of commercial data vendors.
We think that the time has come for Congress to think in terms of how
it can make democracy work better for the public, rather than find
ways to enrich a few commercial interests.  If Congress can find
millions of dollars for Congressional franking privileges, sending out
thinly disguised campaign literature, it can find a few thousand
dollars to put copies of pending legislation online so that ordinary
citizens can better monitor the activities of Congress.

Thank you.


Sincerely
James Love
Mike Ward
Taxpayer Assets Project

                   ------------------------------------
            GPO Access Program Announcement on "enrolled bills"

Several readers wrote us in regards to a post circulated on the
Internet announcing the Government Printing Office's plan to make
bills accessible through the Internet on June 8th. The announcement
about the GPO Access Program only pertained to bills already passed by
both the House and Senate, "enrolled bills", that are awaiting the
President's signature.  These bills are of little use for citizen
participation in the democratic process since they have already been
passed by congress.  mike

                        --------------------------
                  letter from Representative Charlie Rose

Attached is a letter from Rep. Charlie Rose ([e-mail]),
Chairman of the Committee on House Administration, responding to those
who wrote him in regards to the May 9th TAP-INFO, "Zimmer Urges House
Legislation Be Accessible on the Internet."


Dear Interested Network Citizen:

 Thank you for your recent interest and thoughtful comments regarding
the availability of proposed legislation on the Internet.  As you may
know, the Committee on House Administration, which I Chair, and House
Information Systems have been working hard to make Member and
Committee offices accessible to the Internet.  Currently, twenty-five
Members and several committees have established Internet mail boxes.
In March I announced the availability to all Member offices public
electronic mail services using the Internet.  We are also providing
access for Member offices directly to the Internet for staff research.
As part of these efforts, House Information Systems has also
established a server on the Internet which uses the University of
Minnesota GOPHER software to provide a wide variety of information
about the House of Representatives, its Members, and committees.  This
server is accessible on the Internet, and is named GOPHER.HOUSE.GOV.
Information regarding the public electronic mail system, which
provides a mail box for constituents to send electronic mail messages
to their Member of Congress, can be obtained by sending an electronic
mail message to:

    [e-mail].

 The Committee on House Administration is currently considering
various policy alternatives regarding the release of the electronic
version of congressional documents printed by the Government Printing
Office.  In fact I have created a task force, which conducted a
hearing this past Wednesday, May 5, to explore those alternatives.
After receiving input from the task force, the Committee will direct
House Information Systems to add the electronic data base version of
printed documents that can be economically and accurately made
available.  I would also encourage you to write Bill Thomas of
California, the Ranking Minority Member of the Committee on House
Administration and Pat Roberts of Kansas, the Ranking Minority Member
of the Joint Committee on Printing.  It is important that they know
your views of this important subject.

 Once again, thank you for your interest and please watch for
additional announcements regarding the availability of on-line
congressional information.

 With my very best wishes,

      Sincerely,


      Charlie Rose
        Chairman


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

TAP-INFO is an Internet Distribution List provided by the Taxpayer
Assets Project (TAP).  TAP was founded by Ralph Nader to monitor the
management of government property, including information systems and
data, government funded R&D, spectrum allocation and other government
assets.  TAP-INFO reports on TAP activities relating to federal
information policy.  tap-info is archived at ftp.cpsr.org;
gopher.cpsr.org and wais.cpsr.org

Subscription requests to tap-info to [e-mail] with
the message:  subscribe tap-info your name.

Taxpayer Assets Project; P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC  20036
v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet:  [e-mail]

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

Date: Sat, 4 Jun 1994 12:41:21 -0400
From: Judith Oppenheimer <[e-mail]>
Subject: 800 Traffic Query


I have a client who plans on retaining an inbound telephone
center/fulfillment house for an advertising campaign.  My client wants
to use one of his existing 800 numbers for this campaign.

How can he transfer service of the 800 number from his business
location to an adequately equipped and staffed telemarketing center,
without losing ownership of his number?

We assume this is done all the time, but have no idea how. Can anyone
advise?  Please respond by email to [e-mail].


Judith Oppenheimer   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Edgar Estrada)
Subject: Second Phone Line: How Can I Do it Myself
Organization: Los Angeles Free-Net
Date: Sat, 4 Jun 1994 19:45:24 GMT


I'd like to add a second phoneline in my apartment. I called the local
phone company and they want $100 just to install the jack.  I suspect
that I can probably do it myself. I remember reading somewhere that
most new aparments have been wired for two lines so all I would have
to buy is a phone panel with two jacks and connect the right wires.
Would this be right? If so what are the right wire? Does anybody know
of a how to book that will tell me how to do it?


Thanks,

Edgar

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: How Does the Telephone Work?
Date: 5 Jun 1994 01:16:00 GMT
Organization: Technet, Singapore


I am looking for information on how normal telephones (POTS) work.

I am particularly interested to know:

1.      How are signals sent into the network?
2       How are signals received from the network?
3       How will loop current affect 1 & 2?
4       Are there any differences between POTs of various countries?
5       Technical Specifications for POTs (eg. Ringing voltages,
        Return Loss, Call Progress Tones)
6.      How the telephone network will affect modems (eg. Phase
    distortions, Amplitude Distortions, etc)

Any pointers to technical documentations (FCC, BELL, ITU, BT, etc),
FTPable documents or any other sources would be most appreciated.

7.    During a recent trip to the US, I note that many hotel phones are
    digital types and do not work with normal modems... I also read
    somewhere that there are special converters that can adapt modems
    to work on such systems.   Where can I find more technical
    information on such systems?   Are all digital systems (PABX)
    the same?

8.    I understand that in Europe, there are special requirements to
    'seize' the telephone line, something about ground start and mute
    relays ... any idea what these refer to?


Thanks,

Chua Tai Wei
MediaCom Technologies     Tel:        [phone]
287, Beach Road, #03-00     Fax:        [phone]
Singapore 0719         Internet:    [e-mail]
Republic of Singapore            [e-mail]

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

Date: Sun, 5 Jun 1994 05:05:20 -0700
From: Marcus L. Endicott <[e-mail]>
Subject: New Book: The Electronic Traveler


                       THE ELECTRONIC TRAVELER:
               DIRECTORY OF TOURISM INFORMATION SOURCES

    copyright   1994 M. L. Endicott all rights reserved worldwide


                 With a Forward by Steven K. Roberts
                       of Nomadic Research Labs

as the title says, The Electronic Traveler is a directory of tourism
information available to everyone with a computer and a telephone: it
is a guidebook to travel information sources on the emerging
information superhighway.

Although the much touted "information superhighway" is under
construction, its principal components are already in evidence and
many lanes are open for use.  As this historic technological
convergence and social restructuring takes place right before our
eyes, The Electronic Traveler provides signposts, empowering you to
participate in this process.  It explains exactly what travel and
tourism information is available on the information highway and how to
access it.  It covers the vast Internet, popular proprietary
interactive systems, Computer Reservation Systems (CRSs), independent
bulletin board systems (BBSs), and commercial fulltext databases.  It
is for everyone who loves travel and the world: from the traveling
public to the industry that provides them with services and products.

The Electronic Traveler will help you learn of and about destinations
and how best to get there, including buying transportation and
accommodation.  It will help you find people and places, organizations
and events, restaurants and stores, museums and libraries, historic
sites and scenic vistas, entertainment and adventure to satisfy your
individual needs and desires.  It will help you amuse yourself in
transit, as well as keep you in better contact with home while away.
It will help you connect with travel partners.  The Electronic
Traveler will not only do all this and more but will also help you get
the best value for your time and money.


                             ORDER FORM:
The Electronic Traveler: Directory of Tourism Information Sources

Publication Date: June 1, 1994
Format: Spiral Bound, approx. 130 pages
Cost: U.S. $50.00, postpaid (priority mail U.S., airmail outside U.S.)
Enclose check or money order payable to M. L. Endicott with order form and
mail to:
M. L. Endicott, P.O. Box 20837, Saint Simons Island, Georgia 31522-0437,
USA

Number of Copies:

Amount Enclosed:

Your Name:

Street Address or P.O. Box:

City and State:


Postal Code and Country:



                               TABLE OF CONTENTS
0.0  Introduction
     0.1  Origins Of The Information Superhighway
     0.2  Origins Of This Book
     0.3  What To Expect From This Book
     0.4  What To Bring To This Book
     0.5  Short List Of Useful Books And Periodicals
     0.6  Overview Of The Matrix
     0.7  About The Internet
     0.8  Some Major Online Functions
     0.9  Information Technology In Travel And Tourism Today

1.0  Internet/Usenet/Bitnet
     1.1  Newsgroups
     1.2  Mailing Lists
     1.3  F.A.Q.s: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FILES/GOPHER/WORLDWIDE WEB
     1.4  List of Travel Related Worldwide Web and Gophers on the Internet

2.0  Proprietary Systems
     2.1  America Online (AOL.COM)
     2.2  CompuServe (CompuServe.COM)
     2.3  Delphi (Delphi.COM)
     2.4  eWorld (eWorld.COM)
     2.5  GEnie (genie.geis.com)
     2.6  Institute for Global Communications (IGC.APC.ORG)
     2.7  National Videotex Network (NVN.COM)
     2.8  Prodigy (prodigy.com)
     2.9  TogetherNet (together.org)
     2.10 Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (well.com)

3.0  Computer Reservation Systems/Consumer CRS
     3.1  Eaasy Sabre
     3.2  OAG Electronic Edition
     3.3  WORLDSPAN Travelshopper
     3.4  TravelFile/ORG

4.0  Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)
     4.1  BBS Software Support BBS
     4.2  List of Travel-Related BBS Listkeepers
     4.3  BBS Networks
     4.4  Travel BBS List - Short
     4.5  Travel BBS List - Long

5.0  Commercial Fulltext Databases
     5.1  General Fulltext Databases
     5.2  Travel Periodicals Online
     5.3  Travel Databases

6.0  International Telephony/Connectivity
     6.1  Where-To
     6.2  How-To
     6.3  What-To

7.0  Travel Information Technology Trade Organizations
     7.1  HEDNA
     7.2  ITTA
     7.3  CASMA

8.0  Bibliography
     8.1  Travel Information Technology Books
     8.2  Internet Books
     8.3  Travel Information Technology Periodicals


4.4  Travel BBS List - Short

Active as of April 1994:

Access America                     918-747-2542
Alaska Information Cache           907-373-3205
American Travel Network            704-567-0893
Back Lounge of the Tour Bus        908-637-6336
Backpacker's Wilderness            305-245-7601
CABB (Consular Affairs Bulletin Board) 202-647-9225
Cave God BBS                       513-890-6261
ChicAAgo Hanger & The Eagles Nest BBS  708-980-1613
Colorado TravelBank                303-671-7669
Digital Inn                        303-296-1300
DirectLink                         subscriber-only
Europe Through The Back Door(ETBD)BBS  206-771-1902
Export-Import (ExIm) Bank BBS      202-566-4699
FAA Headquarters BBS               202-267-5697
FedWorld Gateway                   703-321-8020
Fountain Travel BBS                0273 584827
Gaia Passage                       912-265-0784
Hawaii DBED BBS                    808-586-2496
Home Exchange Network              407-869-5956
Immigration Law BBS                718-463-1091
Independent Travel Technology Association (ITTA) BBS
 (c/o ARINC BBS)                   410-573-3244
LeisureTyme Free Travel Club       401-943-7093
Modern Traveller                   7-0562-425901
National Park Service              215-597-2710
OSSN BBS                           subscriber-only
Outdoor Almanac                    206-363-0195
Outdoor Education BBS              216-374-8850
Outdoors BBS                       317-887-9466
PCTravel                           919-831-4848
Sun Vacation & World Travel        914-758-2485
Time Traveler BBS                  886-4-276-0160
Travel Connection                  415-691-0954
Travel Friends Information Service 800-328-2427 (Interspan)
                                   303-573-1800 (US West)
Travel Info Net                    519-428-9287
Travel Mates BBS                   708-928-0281
Travel Online (St. Louis Online)   314-973-4073
                                   314-625-3874
                                   314-625-4045
Travel Online Recreation Info System   708-830-4BBS
Travel Search BBS                  914-358-0480
Traveller-Box                      49-7664-95185
Travelmatic                        39-11-502423
USCS BBS (U.S. Customs Service)    703-440-6155
Vacation Source                    800-868-7555
                                   303-738-0972
Vacationland (New Hampshire)       603-444-0701
World Travel Online                212-717-5922
Worldwide Brochures                218-847-3027

Apparently defunct:

Airline BBS/DFW (System One)       817-540-2794
Alexair Travel                     513-836-8170
AlpineTrail Source                 206-882-0110
Belize Tourism                     011501233711
Boundary Waters BBS                218-365-6907
Game & Travel BBS                  415-221-6456
International Travel Briefing Service  n.a.
ModemCity/Europe-On-Line           n.a.
Premier Vacations & Travel BBS     619-741-2392
The Traveler BBS                   804-420-9573
The Traveler                       305-944-4394
US Information Agency Bulletin Service
 (USIA) BBS                        n.a.

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

From: [e-mail] (Ken Kopin)
Subject: AT&T to be Held Accountable?
Date: 5 Jun 1994 06:19:13 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Ken Kopin)


I just witnessed a commercial from AT&T which implies that we will all
soon have Personal AI assistants! Cute little Doggies, even! (I guess
they didn't think a gopher would interest most 'regular people')

Don't believe it?? YOU WILL. And the Company that will bring it to
you? AT&T

Now, either I have fallen farther behind in my reading than I think I
have or that kind of interactive AI assistant isn't going to make it
here in time to see The Simpsons' 20th Aniversary Special :-)

Can AT&T actually get away with this kind of misleading advertising?
Now granted, they never laid out any kind of time table for this stuff,
but I think it's safe to imply from "YOU WILL" that they intend to get
ALL THIS STUFF to market within one lifetime.


**Dramatization**

  Have you ever ordered Earl Gray Tea ... from a hole in the wall?

  Have you ever called your shipmates ... by talking into your jewelry?

  Have you ever climbed a mountain ... 10^7 lightyears from the nearest planet?

  Have you ever seen a commercial that was SO outlandish in it's claims ...
                ... You expected to see a pink bunny with a drum wander in?

YOU WILL!            ... (eventually)

  It's just so annoying ...

  Thank you for your bandwidth. I feel much better now.


Internet: [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Just this morning I heard a radio commercial
saying AT&T was now actively competing with Ameritech/Illinois Bell for
local traffic between the 312/708 area codes. If local calls here are to
points (relative to the calling party) in the 'C' or 'D' bands (the most
expensive of the local intra-lata calls here) then according to the message
on the radio, AT&T will be less expensive. The commercial said one will
save 'up to twenty percent' on those calls by prepending 10288 (or actually
'one-oh-ATT' was the way it was phrased in the commercial) to the dialing
string.  This will be interesting to test out. If any Digest readers in
the 312/708 area routinely make calls to far-away local points (what would
be a 'C' or 'D' band call for you) then you might want to test out AT&T's
claims. Please note that 1+ from/to 312/708 still defaults to local service
via Illinois Bell. You need to do it 10288 + 1 +.  Let us know.   PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #272
******************************


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Date: Mon, 6 Jun 94 12:40:59 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #273

TELECOM Digest     Mon, 6 Jun 94 12:41:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 273

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Introducing Incombank and ISKRA-2 ([e-mail])
    GSM Question: Power Controllers (Robert Jansen)
    Unix to Alpha-Numeric Pager (Lester Knutsen)
    Information Wanted on Satellite BBS (Gary E. Chidester)
    Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 +7D (Dave Niebuhr)
    Re: Personal 800 Number Availability (Glenn McComb)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Kevin Martinez)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Jeremie Kass)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (John R. Haggis)
    Re: How Can I Ring Up Myself? (Randy Gellens)
    Re: What's a 1A3B? (David Wuertele)
    Re: Annoying COCOT Problem (Mark E. Daniel)
    Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s (Steve McKinty)
    Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s (Clive D.W. Feather)
    Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s (Peter Campbell Smith)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: InBankCom <[e-mail]>
Subject: Introducing Incombank and ISKRA-2
Date: Mon,  6 Jun 94 14:14:36 +0400
Organization: USTAR Moscow
Reply-To: [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The following message was received today
in my mail but due to technical problems in the transmission it had to
be reconstructed somewhat. I hope I got it all correct.  PAT]

"InBankCom" (IBC):

InComBank (Bank Communications) is a commercial satellite telecommunica-
tion systems Company which services the whole territory of Russia, Europe
and Asia.

International Bank Communications Moscow, is a telecommunications company
that services all banking needs of Russia, Europe and Asia.

"Inbankcom" System of operations is based on Central Satellite
Communications (HUB) Moscow and the system of remote terminal stations
(VSAT) distributed throughout the territory of Russia and Community of
Independent States.

"Inbankcom" offers their customers the following services: digital
data satellite communication, telephone, fax and  Teleconferencing
communication channels in all regions of Russia.

- Design, deliver build and operate all equipment in satellite
telecommunication service;

- "Inbankcom" system uses and operates very sophisticated, modern
technical equipment made in USA and Russia that, ensures high quality
of communication service and reliability with minimum costs, and rapid
connection to the system.

- "Inbankcom" offers to reserve capacities at the Moscow HUB Station.
Application for survey and service is available.

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Jansen)
Subject: GSM Question: Power Controllers
Date: 5 Jun 1994 17:49:55 GMT
Organization: Brussels Free Universities (VUB/ULB), Belgium


After visiting several dealers of GSM phones, I finally found one with
the technical know-how about GSM.

He told me things like:
"Well, I don't recommend booster kits in a car."

Probably everyone now goes "HEY, WHAT ??$%#$$".

The story is quite simple:

He told me that when 8W phones are near a groundstation, the transmit
power is trottled by the groundstation, in order to allow the nearby
2W devices to "enter" the groundstation's receiver.

This is what he called "GSM phones with a build-in POWER CONTROLLER"
(8W phones have this feature, so don't panic :) )

The problem arises when a normal handheld with a car kit is fitted
(afterwards) with a normal antenna signal booster.  It's a
straightforward amplifier, which HAS NO way of being power controlled
by the groundstation, nor the 2W handheld.

Result: the groundstation kicks you of the net if you get to close to
the groundstation and are blasting the full 8W to it's antenna,
because you are surpressing the signals from the handheld 2W phones.

Many will now ask themselves: why are they selling such boosters?
Well, it works fine if the net operator doesn't have very intelligent
groundstations.

If for some reason or another a net operator implements Power Control
in their groundstations, you are out of luck with your antenna signal
booster.

Q: And what about a handheld with a booster from the same manufacturer?
A: well ... that's the point here,  I getting the idea that NOT ONE!!!
manufacturer of GSM phones (which have a booster kit for their phones)
implemented Power Control when you have your handheld in the car,
connected to it's booster. The handhelds don't have the control over the
booster.

Questions arise:

1) Does anyone have more information on this matter?

2) Are there manufactures who have a "handheld booster" which is
Power Controlled whenever you have your handheld in the car? (The handheld
communicates with the booster.)

Thanks for any replies at all, I'm still puzzled on what I should buy.


Robert Jansen   Computer Center VUB/ULB
Brussels  Belgium (Europe)  VUBnet
email: [e-mail]
Tel:  [phone]  Secr: +32-2-650.37.38
Fax:  [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Lester Knutsen)
Subject: Unix to Alpha-Numeric Pager
Date: 6 Jun 1994 00:39:39 -0400
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA


Is there any Unix software that can send messages through a
modem to an alpha-numeric pager?  Does anyone have recommendations
on set-ups and paging services that work well?

Thanks for any information.


Lester

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

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 10:49:48 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Gary E. Chidester)
Subject: Information Wanted on Satellite BBS?


I read an article the other day about BBS via satellite and how it
would be cheaper because there would be no long distance charges
accrued.  How is this possible?  I can see how you could receive
information via satellite, but unless there is two-way communication
how can you request the information you want?  Is there somewhere that
I can get more information?


Gary Chidester    Instructor of Broadcasting   Snow College

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

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 94 06:56:20 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Dave Niebuhr)
Subject: Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 +7D


In TELECOM Digest V14 #269 Carl Moore <[e-mail]> writes:

> I have been assuming statewide uniformity in these dialing changes,
> and this is the first I have heard of a split of this nature.

That is because area code 716 is split between NYNEX and Rochester
Telephone and each may (and probably does) have different tariffs for
the same thing as well as dialing plans.

I don't know how this will be affected in 1995 when the changeover
occurs in dialing local vs. long distance starts.

This could also affect another area code that is split between two
companies: NYNEX (516) and Fisher's Island Telco which gets its feed
from Connecticut (probably SNET).

Fisher's Island is strange: closer to CT than Long Island but part of
Long Island and therefore New York.

In TELECOM Digest V14 #271 [e-mail] (John Robert Grout)
wrote:

> If a state's PSC didn't enforce uniformity (probably forcing 1+AC+7D),
> setting a "de facto" standard within a LATA would usually fall to the
> "Baby Bell" providing service within it.

> I expect that New York's PSC will eventually bully Rochester Telephone
> into uniformity with NYNEX.

Nah.  It's more busy approving outlandish rate hikes for the Long
Island Lighting Company and it's exeutives ($41k+ bonus for the
Chairman in 1993) plus the defunct Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant (we,
the ratepayers had to pay for it to be built).

It never was put into use and now the fuel is being transported
to Pennsylvania.

The PSC allowed the plant to be sold to the state for $1.00 (US) and
the ratepayers have to pay to dismantle it in addition to bulding it.
For that we pay $.22 (US) for basic kilowatt usage up to a little over
800.

What makes anyone think that the PSC will be harsher on NYNEX than
it is with LILCO?


Dave Niebuhr      Internet: [e-mail] (preferred)
                            [e-mail] / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl
Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility
Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973  1+[phone]
                                          FAX   1+[phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Glenn McComb)
Subject: Re: Personal 800 Number Availability
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 06:58:55 GMT


William Y. Lai ([e-mail]) wrote:

> A while back I remember that several LD companies were offering plans
> for personal 800 numbers.  Does anyone know of availaibility/details
> of these plans today?

I've been using AT&T's 800 Starter Line service, which recently
dropped from $6/mo + 0.31/min to $5/mo + 0.26/min, billed in six-second
increments.  Just the other day, I added 800 call forwarding, which
lets me point my 800 number to any other number from any phone in the
world.  Cost was $20 setup, plus $1.00 for every change.

I needed the portability primarily because AT&T wouldn't point my 800
number without me giving them the street address where the phone is
located.  Since I wanted my personal (800) number to point to my pager
company's voicemail number, I didn't know the street address, and
neither did the pager company!  So, I'll point the number myself and
give the goobers $20 for the privilege.  Since they charge $10 for any
service change anyway, it works out pretty good.


Glenn McComb  [phone] | McComb Research
Fax           [phone] | 10440 Mann Drive
Internet      gm @ mccomb.com | PO Box 220
Compuserve    MHS:gm@mccomb   | Cupertino, CA 95015

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

From: [e-mail] (Kevin Martinez)
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Organization: a2i network
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 08:06:29 GMT


[e-mail] (Michael L Judson) writes:

> I saw in a news report about a new service from Pacific Bell called
> "ISDN Anywhere."  When I called up Pac Bell, they had no idea what I
> was talking about.  The news report didn't give much more information
> other than they would start offering it in about a month.

> Does anybody else have any ideas about what is so different about "ISDN
> Anywhere?"

Same Old Stuff: Marketing Hype.

When I finally found a Pac Bell representative that knew what ISDN was
and the procedures for having it installed, I was told it was not
available in my exchange (Milpitas, Ca., near the heart of Pac Bell).

It appears that whatever switching mechanism they have is not up to
the claims of their Marketing, Advertising and Sales force. Maybe next
year ...

Still waiting for the '90s,


Kevin Martinez    [e-mail]
Work: 1 800 50 SATAN   Home: 1 510 676 1111

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

From: [e-mail] (Jeremie Kass)
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 94 7:25:27 EDT


What that service does is that Pac Bell will provide ISDN to any
customer whose switch doesn't provide ISDN itself via foreign
exchange, or FX.  This involves running a T1 type line to the nearest
switch that supports ISDN and can get quite pricey.  Ameritech, in the
metro Detroit area, will do all FX'ing for free as they will upgrading
all the switches in the near future.  But, for a client that I have
who is 25 miles from an ISDN capable switch, it will cost around $700
to install the FX, and a mileage charge of $25.75/month that will be
add to the regular $147 install and $35/month ISDN charges.

Hope this helps!


Jeremie Kass              Internet:   [e-mail]
Information Systems                   [e-mail]
 Consultant                           [e-mail]
JPK Computer Consulting               [e-mail]
Huntington Woods, MI,    U.S.A.

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

From: [e-mail] (John R. Haggis)
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Organization: Millennium Research
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 11:28:21 GMT


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

> ISDN Anywhere means that you can have ISDN anywhere in the Pacbell
> area for the price of local ISDN.  If your serving CO does not offer
> ISDN Pacbell will provide the FX for free.

Could've fooled me.  I've been trying to get straight talk out of
PacBell for months about ISDN.  Latest word is that they can't even
take it out to my house because it's greater than 15K (or 18K?)
network feet away from the CO (measured by a hand-meter).  They hinted
that if I twisted arms I might be able to get them to put in repeaters
and stuff but I would really have to stroke people to do this special
thing just for me ...

And what about the basic service?  I can't get anyone there to tell me
in plain English what I get.  It's all acronym-soup, and PB speaks one
language and all the Internet providers speak a totally different one!
Tower of Babel here we come (those who do not learn from history ...).

For you PacBell flame afficionados: I tried to call in last week and
find out what their BBS number was (hinted in a post about Scott Adams
of Dilbert fame).  I called 15 times, got rerouted 23 times, and got
absolutely nobody who even knew what a BBS was.

Sheesh ... this is the future?


JohnR ([e-mail])


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you describe is quite common. Telco
will run an advertisement on television or the radio, or maybe in the
newspaper for some new and advanced service, then when you call any of
the front line people for more information, none of them have the foggiest
idea what you are talking about or what you want, etc. Too bad their
advertising people don't send memos to the Business Office people telling
them the kinds of things the public will be asking about.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: 06 JUN 94 02:35:00 GMT
Subject: Re: How Can I Ring Up Myself?


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: After dialing do you get a busy signal
or some special tone? If we here dial our own number, in some
exchanges we get a busy signal and in other exchanges get an intercept
that 'your call cannot be completed as dialed, please check the number
and dial again, etc ..." Even if we have call waiting installed,
dialing our own number produces a busy signal or the above recording. PAT]

In most GTE areas, when you dial your own number you hear a soft
beeping.  Hanging up causes the phone to ring.  Two people in a house
can talk to each other this way.  It is free.  I understand it is a
carry-over from the party line days.  PacBell offers a functionally
equivalent service as part of their home Centrex service (I think that
is the name.  I just checked the new phone books, and the several
pages that used to be there on these features have been replaced by
information on their automated information lines (which don't mention
this service) and the Message Center).


Randall Gellens      [e-mail]
[phone]       fax [phone]
Mail Stop MV 237     Net**2 656-6350

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave)
Subject: Re: What's a 1A3B?
Organization: Graphic Communications Laboratories (GCL)
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 10:17:39 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Zambito)
writes:

    [question about an acronym]

And the TELECOM Digest Editor appends:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ESS = Electronic Switching System. So
> named because the telephone exchanges of the past were electro-mechanical
> in operation. This acronym along with lots of others which puzzle
> readers from time to time can be looked up in our interative glossary
> program at the Telecom Archives. If you can use anonymous ftp, then
> access the archives and pull the glossary files to your site.

You did not mention where the Telecom Archives are.  I looked for the
glossary files on rtfm.mit.edu, but did not find them there.


David Wuertele


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well I nearly always do mention where to
find the archives. Try anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu.   PAT]

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

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 00:30:52 EST
From: [e-mail] (Mark E Daniel)
Subject: Re: Annoying COCOT Problem


In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 : Issue 260 Stu Jeffery <[e-mail].
com> writes:

> do wonder, however, how they can get away with detecting DTMF generated
> outside the instrument and disconnecting a call as a result.  Is this
> any different from disconnecting a call when vulgar words are spoken?

Since COCOT = Customer Owned perhaps the FCC and or has not set any
regula tions on what a Customer can do with the service they are
providing.  I've seen evverything.  Most COCOTs have fake everything.
The tones you dial are generated for the benifit of the user only.
For that matter a COCOT dial tone is even generated for the benifit of
the user.  I have the ability to identify touch tones based upon the
sounds I'm hearing.  I recently used a CO: COT which I have no idea
how it works unless it just mutes everything.  This COCOT used touch
tones but the tones did not equal what I dialed.

In this case service calls had a code.  Repair (you were told to dial
211 by the card on the phone) produced "#21" when dialed.  That's
easy.  It just routes to a preprogrammed number when it hears. #21.
But for things like calling card calls it truly *was* one digit behind
me.  Ditto for local calls which produced # + phone number digit -1
yet still went through.  The only logical thing to conclude then is
that it just uses a contacting system to know which buttons (as in
electronic circuit or something; I don't know too much about this) are
being pressed and cares noting about what they are really supposed to
sound like, yet still produces "tone" sounds because pushbutton phones
are supposed to beep when you hit the button.  The tone patterns
likely have nothing to do with how this phone routes calls.

Then it mutes the sound and dials it on the real line (another oddity
is that the phone number printed on the phone could not have been it's
real "line".  That CO serves the a much farther south part of town
that where this phone is located.  Plus the number on the phone rings
and rings when dialed.  Perhaps they paid big bucks or use some kind
of leased line to route outbound calls on that number.  And when you
make a 0 + call the phone "clicks" and instantly you get "Telecall
USA" and a non-standard bong.  Almost too instantly to be produced
externally.  His COCOT has my curiosity poised.  I wonder if I am
absolutely incorrect about the way it works ... :)


Mark E Daniel  (Loving SysOp of The Legend BBS)
Inet: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve McKinty - SunConnect ICNC)
Subject: Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s
Date: 6 Jun 1994 11:08:05 GMT
Organization: SunConnect


In article <[e-mail]>, Andrew C. Green <ACG@dlogics.
com> writes:

> Randall Gellens ([e-mail]) writes:

>> He picks up his phone [...] and dials three digits.  He says
>> "Operator?  This is WHitehall xxxx.  My name is John Steed.  I will
>> be away for the next three weeks.  Please forward my calls to the
>> usual number."

>> What sort of call-forwarding was offered by British Telecom in the
>> 1960s?

> At the risk of over-analyzing a fictional scene, I get the impression
> he wasn't speaking to the telephone company operator, but to some sort
> of government operator at the other end of a private line. I base this
> conclusion on the fact that he dialed only three digits (I would have
> expected contemporary numbers in the London area to be at least five),

Except the public operator, for whom you dial 100 in the UK

> and referred to his own number as "Whitehall", an inspired (if not
> fictitious) choice for a British government phone network prefix.

Could be a genuine one, the phone number for Scotland Yard was
WHItehall 1212, and I believe the present day New Scotland Yard still
has the equivalent all-numeric number.

It still doesn't, of course, explain how such call forwarding would have
worked. Prior to direct dialing asking the Operator to forward calls
manually would be the thing to do, but the mid-60s seems late for that.


Steve McKinty
Sun Microsystems ICNC
38240 Meylan, France
email: [e-mail]

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

Subject: Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 12:56:00 BST
From: Clive D.W. Feather <[e-mail]>


>> He picks up his phone [...] and dials three digits.  He says
>> "Operator?  This is WHitehall xxxx.  My name is John Steed.  I will
>> be away for the next three weeks.  Please forward my calls to the
>> usual number."

> At the risk of over-analyzing a fictional scene, I get the impression
> he wasn't speaking to the telephone company operator, but to some sort
> of government operator at the other end of a private line. I base this
> conclusion on the fact that he dialed only three digits (I would have
> expected contemporary numbers in the London area to be at least five),
> and referred to his own number as "Whitehall", an inspired (if not
> fictitious) choice for a British government phone network prefix.

WHItehall (note the capitalization) was indeed the exchange for much
of the Civil Service, and many government offices still have
071-944-XXXX numbers. At the time in question, local dialing would
have been seven digits.  On the other hand, to reach the Post Office
(this pre-dates BT by a long way) operator would only be three digits:
100.

On the other other hand, I can't quite see this being real either way.
If it was a PBX operator, then they would have had no control over the
routing of directly dialed calls (this was before the days of DDI; a
person's phone was either a direct line or via a switchboard, and if
necessary you had two phones on your desk). If it was the GPO operator,
then she would have had a major effort to organise a redirection (WHItehall
was almost certainly a Strowger exchange).


Clive D.W. Feather      Santa Cruz Operation
[e-mail]           Croxley Centre
Phone: [phone]  Hatters Lane, Watford
Fax:   [phone]  WD1 8YN, United Kingdom

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

From: [e-mail] (Peter Campbell Smith)
Subject: Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s
Organization: Logica, London
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 13:59:46 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, Andrew C. Green
<[e-mail]> wrote:

> Randall Gellens ([e-mail]) writes:

>> He picks up his phone [...] and dials three digits.  He says
>> "Operator?  This is WHitehall xxxx.  My name is John Steed.  I will
>> be away for the next three weeks.  Please forward my calls to the
>> usual number."

> At the risk of over-analyzing a fictional scene, I get the impression
> he wasn't speaking to the telephone company operator, but to some sort
> of government operator at the other end of a private line. I base this
> conclusion on the fact that he dialed only three digits (I would have
> expected contemporary numbers in the London area to be at least five),
> and referred to his own number as "Whitehall", an inspired (if not
> fictitious) choice for a British government phone network prefix. Had
> he called whatever the local equivalent of 611 was (for repair or some
> other service), I don't think he would have addressed the other party
> as "Operator".

A sort of call forwarding was offered by BT - or rather Post Office
Telecommunications - in the 1960s.  You had to set it up in advance,
ie tell them what 'the usual number' was, and then you called the
operator (by dialing 100 or maybe 151, which was and is the repairs
number) to have it turned on or off.  Or, you could have it turned on
and off at fixed times of the day.  The number you forwarded to had to
be in the same exchange.  The service was mainly used by doctors and
was not cheap, and I imagine it was implemented by plugging and
unplugging a hardwired connection between the two outgoing subscriber
loops.

Whitehall was indeed a real exchange.  Most of us over the age of 40
remember that Scotland Yard's number was Whitehall 1212 (dialed as
WHI 1212), much more memorable than the current 230 1212.  But judging
by the scenery around Steed's pad I'd say he was in BELgravia or
KENsington rather than WHItehall.


Peter Campbell Smith, Logica plc, London.  Voice: [phone]
Fax: [phone]  Internet: [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A curious coincidence discussed in the
Digest in the past involved a demented fellow here in the United
States about thirty years ago who was fond of making lewd and threatening
telephone calls to Queen Elizabeth. After authorities in the UK traced
the calls back to overseas circuits to the USA and asked AT&T to help
with the investigation, the calls were found to originate here in Chicago
on a north side phone exchange then known as WHItehall. As Mr. Smith
points out, the investigators in the UK were using WHItehall 1212 and
the offender here in the States was calling from WHItehall 6211, then
and now (944-6211) the switchboard at the Lawson YMCA.  PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #273
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #274

TELECOM Digest     Mon, 6 Jun 94 14:40:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 274

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Calling Card Suggestion (Bob Maccione)
    Fast Packet Switch-Based Networks (Pedro Ramalho Carlos)
    Is Meridian 1 Option 11 Current? (Paul Havinden)
    Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Keith Knipschild)
    What Do I Get When Dialing 311? (Keith Knipschild)
    Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club (Dave Leibold)
    Re: DTMF-Tones: Alternating or Overlayed? (John Lundgren)
    Re: Piping Sound From a Stereo to a Telephone Line (John Lundgren)
    Re: Second Phone Line: How Can I Do it Myself (Carl Oppedahl)
    Re: Answering Machine Recommendations Wanted (Steve Gibons)
    Re: Book Review: "Internet: Mailing Lists" by Hardie/Neou (Peter M. Weiss)
    Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose (Ronald L. Wright)
    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing (Samuel A. Simon)
    Re: Country and Area Codes on PC Software (Les Reeves)
    Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router? (Paul Begley)
    Re: What is a New Activation? (Ed Ellers)
    Re: Current List of Areacodes Wanted (Mark E. Daniel)
    Re: LD Carrier's Message Delivery Service (Nathan N. Duehr)
    Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (Wes Leatherock)
    Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (Carl Moore)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Bob Maccione <[e-mail]>
Subject: Calling Card Suggestion
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 08:34:18
Organization: The Promus Companies, Inc. (Memphis, TN)


With all of the calling card fraud going on out there I'm curious as
to why the card companies don't issue cards that can't be used for
international calls.  It should be easy enough and if the user really
needs to have access to international numbers they can add a level of
country restrictions.  So since all I call is the US I wouldn't have
to worry about someone abusing my card (at least from the international
level of abuse).

Reasons?

Bob Maccione   [e-mail]

PS: MCI and AT&T can send me 1% of the savings and I'll finally afford to
get ISDN into my house ...


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As a matter of fact, even though their
policy is not stated in writing -- they refuse to state it in writing
for obvious reasons -- AT&T routinely redlines the use of their calling
card to selected international points from payphones in inner city areas
where ethnic populations reside. For instance, try calling Pakistan or
Iran using an AT&T Calling Card from some communities on the north side
of Chicago. The call will always be rejected, and the operator will pro-
fess an inability to put it through on the card. When you scream and
get really obnoxious about it, a supervisor at the Pittsburgh International
Operating Center will give you this rap about how 'the telephone company
in Iran does not honor AT&T cards ...'. The first time I heard that it was
hard to keep from snickering while talking to her. They must take their
customers for a bunch of fools, which may not be too far off base in a
few cases. There are a lot of places where AT&T will not honor their own
calling card if they do not like the combination of where you are calling
to and calling from using a payphone. Of course if you are in a mostly
white, relatively well-off suburban community calling a nice anglo-saxon
part of the world such as the UK or France or Australia, well ... no
problem!  Your call goes right through. If you are a student from India or
Pakistan or Iran attending the University of Illinois at Chicago, don't
bother trying to call your parents using the AT&T card however.

And AT&T is not the only long distance company placing illegal restrict-
ions on their card. Sprint (at least they were for several years) was
refusing to honor its own calling card from payphones at the Port Authority
terminal as well as other poor, ethnic neighborhoods in New York to call
anywhere.

The classic case came up several years ago when Sprint sent out a promotion
to people on a list of parents of older teenagers likely to be going away
to college or traveling during the summer, etc. The promotion said this
bit about 'keeping in touch with your kids when they are away from home'
and inviting the parents to get a Sprint calling card for the kids to use
to call home. One mother did just that; got her eighteen year old son a
Sprint card when he went on his own to visit NYC with a friend during the
summer.

Despite the omnipresence of discrete and pleasant poster signs in Port
Authority (and the Greyhound station here in Chicago) showing the
silhouette of a young kid walking with his luggage and a caption which
read "Teenage travelers: Please don't rely on strangers!" he did just
that. He wound up minus most of his possessions and money, but he
still had his Sprint card ... guess what! Sprint would not accept it
for a call back home to his mother. The Traveler's and Immigrant's Aid
social worker at Port Authority got the kid back home, and the mother
sued Sprint for false advertising, etc. The kid may have been an idiot
or simply naive, but that is not the point. Sprint settled with her on
it.

Both Sprint and AT&T have been sued many times for their discriminatory
credit practices where calling cards are concerned; it does not phase
them. They blame it all on fraud, and that, to them, is a sufficient
response. It apparently is easier to pay off complainers with a bunch
of free 'pay to the order of the telephone company' gift certificates
than to change their routine.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Pedro Ramalho Carlos)
Subject: Fast Packet Switch-Based Networks
Organization: INESC (Inst. Eng. Sistemas e Computadores)  -LISBOA -PORTUGAL
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 15:16:00 GMT


Hi all,

 Does any one around have experience with pre-ATM cell based networks
(normally referred as Fast Packet Switching, I guess), allowing voice
and data integration with slow links?

 I'm specially interested in your experience regarding the reliability
of the switches, to compare with the info the vendors provide. Data on
MTBF, Uptime, and even qualitative information on your experience will
be greatly appreciated.

 The main objective I have is to find out whether this technology is
stable enough to be used in an environment where a very high
availability is needed (> 99.995%) without additional redundancy
regarding the switches (i'm refering to external redundancy, since I
believe that most FP Switches have quite a lot of internal
redundancy).  In my model I assume that comms interfaces can have
smaller availability as long as the core cell switch remains
operational.

 Please email any info, and I'll summarize.

 Thanks a lot in advance.

Cheers,

pedro ramalho carlos    email: [e-mail]    INESC
tel: [phone]    Av. Duque de Avila, 23
fax: [phone]    1017 Lisboa Codex - PORTUGAL

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Is Meridian 1 Option 11 Current?
Date: 6 Jun 1994 16:00:37 GMT
Organization: Graphics Data Systems Ltd, Cambridge, UK


We are about to purchase a new phone system and have decided on the
Northern Telelcom Meridian 1 option 11 system. However we now here
that this is about to be discontinued.  Can anyone confirm this, and
if so what has/is replacing it?  We are in the UK and buying this
system through British Telecom, who are unable to confirm that this
system is still current.


Paul Havinden  ([e-mail])
Graphic Data Systems,  Cambridge, UK

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

From: [e-mail]
Organization: America's Suggestion Box - BBS [phone]
Date: Mon, 06 Jun 94 18:22:26
Subject: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?


Is it true that you can have your local telephone company BLOCK ANI,
So that when you call a 800 number they can't know who you are?

I am not talking about Caller ID. I know the difference.

Any help would be great.


[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No it is not true. You cannot prevent the
person or company paying for your call from knowing who called. And why
would you want to force someone else to pay for your call while you
remained anonymous?  If you don't see any problem with it, I have a few
calls here I need to make that I will have billed to you under the
condition telco promises not to reveal my name or number to you.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail]
Organization: America's Suggestion Box - BBS [phone]
Date: Mon, 06 Jun 94 18:22:26
Subject: What Do I Get When Dialing 311?


When I dial 311 (I live on LI.N.Y -NYNEX-) I get connected to a
TELETYPE sounding device. Does anyone know what this is? In the past
311 would announce the telephone number you were calling from, like
958 does.


[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Leibold)
Date: 06 Jun 94 14:01:30 -0500
Subject: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club
Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway


 From tests on Friday night, it seems Bell Canada recently activated
certain aspects of the equal access system. 1+ dialing with other
default carriers is expected to be set up around 1st July (though
thousands of carrier cutovers will take several days to complete).

When 1 700 555 4141 is dialed from a Toronto phone, the following
recording is heard:

"Your provider of long distance service is Bell Canada. Thank you for
choosing us. This is a recording... 416 11"

Looks like casual calling format 10XXX + 1 700 555 4141 doesn't work
at this point, so that one can check out what other carriers are
announcing.

 From a Millennium type payphone, 1 700 555 4141 does not complete,
but rather gets a "restricted" number error. From an older type
Centurion payphone, the 700 number gets to an operator who starts off
announcing a cost for the call, then falls silent in bewilderment as
there is apparently no cost information for the call.

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

From: [e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: DTMF-Tones: Alternating or Overlayed?
Date: 06 Jun 94 15:54:25 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Christian Kral ([e-mail]) wrote:

> I would like to know if DTMF tones are alternating (i.e. 10ms low tone, 10ms
> high tone, 10ms low tone, ....) or if they are overlayed?

> I have alredy got the frequency table, but I don't know how they appear.

I'm not sure what you mean by overlayed.  If you mean are they simultaneous,
then the answer is yes.  They are dual tone multi-frequency.

Over on alt.2600 newsgroup, someone uploaded a .UUE of a program
called BOX, i believe.  If you have a sound card, it generates all the
tones, including A,B,C,D.  It also (I think) generates the ones used
in the trunks.

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

From: [e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: Piping sound from a stereo to a telephone line.
Date: 6 Jun 94 15:08:41 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Homer J. Simpson ([e-mail]) wrote:

> I am curious is finding a way to pipe music into a phone line (for
> example hold music).  I know that a phone line uses 50 Volts AC.  Can
> someone send me plans or a electronic device that will allow me to do this.
> I am not interested in purchasing commercial hold music equipment.  I
> would like to make this a project for myself.  Anyone with info on this,
> please email me at [e-mail].

Oops.  It's 48 to 54 volts DC, not AC.  Also about 100 volts AC at 20
Hz for ringing current.  The audio is much weaker than that.

In the U.S., the device has to meet FCC part 68 rules to be connected to
the phone line.  There are manufacturers such as Cermetek that make part
68 accepted DAAs.

There are devices called phone patches that the hams use to connect
their gear to the phone line.  It's a circuit called a hybrid.  Ask
the guys in the rec.amateur.equipment or .misc about them.  The Radio
Amateurs Handbook usually has some circuits for phone patches.

The transformer that can be used is the 600 ohm 1:1 audio job from Radio
Shack.  They also had a 10K to 2K C.T. but it's no longer available.
Another place to check for info is comp.dcom.telecom and alt.dcom.telecom.


John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs
Rancho Santiago Community College District
17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706
Voice (714) JOHN GAB \ FAX (714) JOHN FRY
[e-mail]\[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Carl Oppedahl)
Subject: Re: Second Phone Line: How Can I Do it Myself
Date: 6 Jun 1994 14:28:37 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Edgar Estrada) writes:

> I'd like to add a second phone line in my apartment. I called the local
> phone company and they want $100 just to install the jack.  I suspect
> that I can probably do it myself. I remember reading somewhere that
> most new aparments have been wired for two lines so all I would have
> to buy is a phone panel with two jacks and connect the right wires.
> Would this be right? If so what are the right wire? Does anybody know
> of a how to book that will tell me how to do it?

Your header suggests you are writing from California.  If so, you
should know you are in a "renter beware" state, as defined on page 51
of The Phone Book.  It means that before you sign a lease in California
it would be smart to find out these things.  Otherwise you may end up
paying a lot of money for an improvement that the landlord gets to
keep when you move out.

Not to mention, the cost to install your second line may include the
telco charging as much as the whim of the day leads to, for the
portion of the work that goes from the basement of your building to
your apartment.

But from your posting I gather you have probably figured this out
already.

Since you have already signed the lease, here's what you do.

Follow the instructions in chapter 2 (ordering new telephone service),
chapter 7 (two-line telephone service) and chapter 14 (doing your own
two-line wiring).

The book should be at your local bookstore (ISBN 0-89043-364-X).  If it
is not, then maybe if you ask they will order a hundred copies.  :)  :)

Or, call Consumer Reports Books at 1-800-272-0722.


Carl Oppedahl AA2KW     Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers)
Yorktown Heights, NY    voice 212-777-1330


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For readers who have not figured it out,
Carl wrote The Phone Book. Not the one you find in the payphone stall
with half the pages missing and other half scribbed on ... his book
about phones -- which should be required reading for all Digest people --
is called The Phone Book. Look for it at your local bookstore.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Gibons)
Subject: Re: Answering Machine Recommendations Wanted
Date: 6 Jun 1994 10:23:36 -0500
Organization: TEZCAT - Wicker Park's Own Internet Services 312-850-0181


John O'Shaughnessy ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Our four year old AT&T answering machine seems to have spun it's last
> capstan into the dirt.  I assume that a machine that was purchased for
> $70.00 would cost more than $50.00 to have repaired, so I'm in the
> market for a new answering machine.

I heartily recommend the Panasonic Easa-phone line, I own the KX-T1920.
It has never failed in any way. Older models of a similar unit are still
working after six or seven years. I don't know if you can find one that
supports time stamp.


Steve Gibons            [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Radio Shack has an answering machine which
does time and date stamp.   PAT]

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

Date: Mon, 06 Jun 1994 11:23:26 EDT
From: Peter M. Weiss <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Book Review: "Internet: Mailing Lists" by Hardie/Neou
Organization: Penn State University


For an authoratative document on how to search for lists, e-mail
[e-mail] and include the single line of text:

get listsof lists

This was editted by Marty Hoag.  It contains a LISTSERV script, which
one edits and mails back to the LISTSERV and will do a search for you.
(General LISTSERV search techniques are discussed via another list
called LDBASE-L.)


co-owner INFOSYS, TQM-L, CPARK-L, ERAPPA-L, JANITORS, -> LDBASE-L
[e-mail]                                        [phone]
31 Shields Bldg. -- Penn State Univ -- University Park, PA 16802-1202 USA

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

From: [e-mail] (Ronald L. Wright)
Subject: Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose
Date: 6 Jun 1994 08:58:12 -0700
Organization: Connected INC -- Internet Services


That is very true. I am a Network Technician for US West Communications
in Washington State, and have seen that happen a few times. Using our state
of the art test gear, there will be no physical trouble at all, and
noise and transmission readings will be picture perfect. The difficulty is
that there has really been very little training on data communications
problems, so the average technician uses his equipment and tells you
that everything is fine, while you are only getting 2600 bps out of a
28.8 modem :(

I'm really not sure what the answer is aside from cutting the line to
a new cable pair. I heard once that heavy power influence (from power
company lines) could also be a source of difficluties, but I have no
real verification of that.

I am real interested in the information that gets posted from this
thread, and will keep an eye out for any info that I may be able to
pass along to the techs up here.

See Ya!


Ron Wright    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Samuel A. Simon)
Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing
Date: 6 Jun 1994 16:14:33 GMT
Organization: Capital Area Internet Service


In my view, the FCC should have actd to make AOS service illegal as
not being in the public interest to begin with.  The ONLY reason they
developed, and the only reason they now succeed, is that they have
what has been referred to as a "situational monopoly."

    But for the fact that consumers either did not hve a choice or
did not know the rates, they were in effect forced to use the AOS
associated with the pay phone.  The rates were and are non-competitive.

    If one assumes consumers would NEVER pick a service that
charges more than either (a) their own standard service or (b) the
prevailing rate (AT&T) for the same call if made from home or at
"stnadard" rates, then they would never have an AOS business.

    AOS serivces are essentially legal rip-offs of consumers. There
is no business of just operator services, it is the long distance
business to begin with.  The only reason it exists is consumers are
either captive or uninformed of choices.  What a sham.


[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Except something you are forgetting is that
there are many locations where a payphone would NOT be installed by the
phone company otherwise which now have them because the COCOT owner was
willing to put one in at a somewhat higher cost to the end user. There are
many cases where merchants can not get a *commissioned* coin phone on the
premises because telco won't give them one unless the traffic volume is
as high as telco wants it to be. Telco would give the merchant a 'semi-
public' coin phone but the merchant not only gets no commission from those
but he has to pay a monthly fee as well for the convenience of a phone for
his customers to use. So COCOTS do sometimes fill a gap in areas where
telco will not otherwise provide a payphone yet one is needed.  Unlike
private residential service where telco MUST provide service to any qual-
ified customer (a 'qualified customer' is any person who requests service
and demonstrates both the ability and willingness to pay for the service),
telco has no legal obligation to put payphones anywhere. Whether or not
to install payphones, and under what terms are purely a business decision
by telco. the COCOT people do fill a need, but regulation is very important
as well.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Les Reeves)
Subject: Re: Country and Area Codes on PC Software
Date: 6 Jun 1994 09:59:45 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access  [phone]  [login: guest]


JJ Fai ([e-mail]) wrote:

> PC's, the great communicators, don't even provide us with basic
> information that we can use, such as country codes and area codes for
> leading cities around the world.

> As a new subscriber, I wonder whether there is a .DBF, .CSV, .TXT or other
> generally compatible databse available that lists this vital information.

> Even my little Psion 3A palmtop has country and area codes built-in,
> yet the leading PIM's and database programs for DOS and Windows ignore
> them.

> If such a database has not yet been compiled and been made widely
> available, it's about time that we fill the glaring gap.

Below is the first page of the documentation of an excellent shareware
program called NPA.  My copy is almost a year old, but perhaps the
author has released a newer version.

                                   -  NPA  -

                              Numbering Plan Area

                          The Comprehensive Area Code
                              and Exchange Locator

                                   <06Sep93>

                             (C) Copyright 1991-93

                               The PC Consultant
                                 P.O. Box 42086
                             Houston TX 77242-2086
                      Ph. 713/826-2629  (v-mail no answer)
                                 CIS 73670,1164


   What does NPA do?
   -----------------

   NPA is a comprehensive area code and prefix locator.  NPA stands for
   Numbering Plan Area which is telephone company jargon for "area code".
   NPA contains information for over 20,000 cities in the United States and
   Canada.  Such information includes:

      * area code (NPA)
      * state in USA or province in Canada
      * local exchange or prefix (NXX)
      * the city that NXX belongs to
      * county that city resides in
      * population of county
      * pravelent zip code within NXX
      * central office latitude and longitude of record for NXX (plus a
        feature for instantly calculating mileage)


Les    [e-mail]       Atlanta,GA      404.874.7806

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Begley)
Subject: Re: Can a Unix Box Work as an Internet Router?
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 14:57:57
Organization: Net Access - Philadelphia's Internet Connection


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John R.
Levine) writes:

>> If so, what's the *cheapest* router available?  Can a Unix box
>> connect to a digital comm line (56k)?

> The answer to the first question is an old 286, which costs about
> $300, running PCROUTE, which is free.  You need to add in an Ethernet
> card, about $60, and the DDS interface.  The leased line FAQ just
> posted includes, a reference for a DDS interface with packet driver
> software that will let it work under PCROUTE.

This is true, but the performance is pretty poor.  If you only require
a connection and don't need the performance, PCROUTE is fine.  If you
have a UNIX box available (particularly a RISC box), you can use it as
a router no problem.  Most UNIX's have it built in (SUN, HP, (even)
IBM if you use AIX 3.2.x).

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

From: Ed Ellers <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: What is a New Activation?
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 94 22:53:56 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


Bob Berger <[e-mail]> writes:

> In most states buying a cellular phone is much cheaper with a new
> activation; the carrier essentially subsidizes the purchase.

> Now, just how do they define "new"? Let's say I have an old, clunky
> cellular phone, and I want one of those whizbang pocket models. If I
> cancel my old service on May 31st, can I get a "New Activation" from
> the same company on June 1st? Or must I switch carriers to get a good
> deal on the phone purchase?

It worked out better than that when a fellow I know bought a new
Cadillac a while back.  He had a factory cellular phone in the car he
was trading in, and the dealer was giving away a free phone with every
new car -- with a one-year contract with BellSouth Mobility.  It
turned out that BellSouth let the guy simply extend his existing
service for a year to get the deal.

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

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 14:46:54 EST
From: [e-mail] (Mark E Daniel)
Subject: Re: Current List of Areacodes Wanted


Speaking of area code lists .... there used to be a lot of services
offered by Bell Labs? in NJ (Morristown to be exact) which were done
with a computer generated voice.  The whole system was rather nifty,
but just as usual with anything that's nifty hackers abused the crap
out of the entire system and it went away ... they had literally
everything.  Even a radio that could be controlled via touchtones! :)
(I've always wanted that for call waiting and the like ... entertain
your friends while they wait and let them pick the station!  Or give
me a hook up to my stereo ... :)) But anyway one of these services was
an area code listing by NPA-XXX.  Does anyone know of a similar
service that exists today?


Mark E Daniel  (Loving SysOp of The Legend BBS)
Inet: [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There was a discussion at one point about
adding 'music on hold' as an auxilliary service to 'call-waiting'. If
you put a call on hold via call-waiting, the CO would dump background
music to the caller while he was sitting there. I think the monthly fee
was going to be something like 95 cents or one dollar. Every so often
a recorded voice would tell the caller he was still on hold waiting for
his party to flash and reconnect.  Anyone know whatever happened to that
proposal for a service enhancement, or if it ever got off the ground?  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Nathan N. Duehr)
Subject: Re: LD Carrier's Message Delivery Service
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 06:56:21 GMT


Mark E Daniel ([e-mail]) wrote:

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

> I just tried delivering a message on my voice line which has an
> answering machine on it using Sprint's service.  It was in the middle
> of the message by the time the machine started recording.  It did
> however repeat the message from the beginning after completing it.  So
> as long as the greeting isn't LOOOOONG you should have no problems.
> Mine runs about ~20 seconds.  I guess they figure we're all capable of
> leaving messages on answering machines ourselves. :) And they're
> right.  But it would be nice if they did it intelligently enough to
> wait until the answeree stopped speaking before they delivered the
> message.

Even better would be to require the callee to press a digit on a touch
tone phone before the system were to play the message to them.  This
might be a problem for those without touch tone phones, (ahem, excuse
me ... DTMF phone to keep the folks at AT&T happy ...) but there aren't
too many people who don't have them anymore.

This would make it a positive and cheap way to assure that the message
was being delivered to a live human being.


Regards,

Nate Duehr    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Wes Leatherock)
Date: 06 Jun 94 21:45:18 -0600
Subject: Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway
Organization: Fidonet


> There is a considerable amount of personal
> unhappieness among USPS employees over the entire country. What other
> organization has had three instances of employees turning into
> mass-murderers on the job and killing several co-workers on the spot,
> ie, Highland Park, Michigan a few years ago and Enid, Oklahoma a few
> years ago to name two examples?

         It was Edmond, Oklahoma (not Enid, Oklahoma).  Edmond is a
suburb of Oklahoma City, and a co-worker was driving by the post
office to work when a wounded and bleeding man staggered into the
street.  She loaded him into her car and drove him to the hospital.
The shooting was still going on and she may have been in considerable
danger.

         She was certainly shook up when she came to the office
several hours later, or maybe it was the next day.  She became friends
with the wounded man and his family (he recovered).  As I recall, she
was awarded a Vail Medal.


Wes Leatherock    [e-mail]
[e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 94 13:34:25 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway


I also normally get mail addressed this way:

my name
PO box number
city, state, zipcode (-xxx)

where the xxxx includes the PO box number.

I do have some Postal Service work experience, and in cases of a
mistake and/or illegible writing, it helps to have some redundancy in
the name and address so that a context exists in which the correct
address can be figured out.

I have lived in an apartment where it and about five other apartments
had the same nine-digit zipcode, and another nine-digit zipcode was
available for ANYWHERE in that complex.  I can understand mail headed
for someone in one of those nine-digit zipcodes getting bounced for
insufficient address; the carrier doesn't necessarily know what
apartment to send it to.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is true, however in the case that
the nine-digit zip (that's the acronym for <Z>one <I>mprovement <P>lan
by the way) code is unique, then why not just deliver as addressed?
If it is undeliverable as addressed then return it to the sender. That
would not be the fault of the carrier. By the way Carl, when you were
working for the post office did you notice or experience the anger and
disenchantment that seems to be so pervasive there?  I won't ask you if
you ever woke up one morning angry and went to work with a gun and shot
everyone you saw. :)   I assume you did not do that ...    :)  In the
case in Highland Park, Michigan that was just a young kid, somewhere in
his late teens who had just started working for USPS I think. He had
worked there about a month and they fired him.   PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #274
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #275

TELECOM Digest     Mon, 6 Jun 94 15:25:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 275

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: AT&T to be Held Accountable? ([e-mail])
    Re: AT&T to be Held Accountable? (Clifton T. Sharp)
    Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s (Alan Wright)
    Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s (Philip J. Tait)
    Re: Largest Calling Areas (Bob Goudreau)
    Re: Largest Calling Areas (Dave O'Heare)
    Re: Largest Calling Areas (Peter Campbell Smith)
    Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection (B.J. Guillot)
    Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection (Steven Bradley)
    Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection (John Harris)
    Re: "Line in use" Circuit For Phone (John Lundgren)
    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing (Wes Leatherock)
    Best Way to Get Many (~50) Phone Lines? (Dick St.Peters)
    711 in Atlanta (Les Reeves)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Kronos)
Subject: Re: AT&T to be Held Accountable?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 03:33:03 GMT


[e-mail] (Ken Kopin) writes:

> Can AT&T actually get away with this kind of misleading advertising?

I always consider such advertising as "image advertising" - like those
ads by the Plastic Manufacturers saying how much better it is to use
paper plates and throw them away in the National Park's "recycling
dumpster."  If you spend enough for television ads, then the networks
become dependent on the income and are less likely to run stories
which portray you in a negative light.

> ...  AT&T ... now actively competing with Ameritech/Illinois Bell for
> local traffic between the 312/708 area codes.

When I was talking to our AT&T Account Executive here in Seattle last
week, she informed me that, as of about six months ago, they could now
provide intralata toll here in LATA 674.  The rates she quoted me were
slightly less than what the LEC, US West, charges.  But when I tried
to verify her figures by calling the AT&T "00" operator, I found the
toll guides the operator had showed substantially higher rates!  I
presumed that, since I hadn't heard any advertising about this new
alternative to local toll traffic by AT&T (or any other IEC, for that
matter), the operator was probably right and the AE was ... wrong.  By
the way, she said the same thing about having to prepend AT&T's 10288
access code.

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

From: [e-mail] (Clifton T. Sharp)
Subject: Re: AT&T to be Held Accountable?
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 17:24:25 GMT


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

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Just this morning I heard a radio commercial
> saying AT&T was now actively competing with Ameritech/Illinois Bell for
> local traffic between the 312/708 area codes. If local calls here are to
> points (relative to the calling party) in the 'C' or 'D' bands (the most
> expensive of the local intra-lata calls here) then according to the message
> on the radio, AT&T will be less expensive. The commercial said one will
> save 'up to twenty percent' on those calls by prepending 10288 (or actually
> 'one-oh-ATT' was the way it was phrased in the commercial) to the dialing
> string.  This will be interesting to test out. If any Digest readers in
> the 312/708 area routinely make calls to far-away local points (what would
> be a 'C' or 'D' band call for you) then you might want to test out AT&T's
> claims. Please note that 1+ from/to 312/708 still defaults to local service
> via Illinois Bell. You need to do it 10288 + 1 +.  Let us know.   PAT]

   I've heard the commercial myself (and think I saw one on TV), and it
raises a little curiosity in my mind.

   I've been trying hard to figure out what actually happens, WRT
billing, when I make a long-distance call.  My copy of the V-H
coordinates in hand from the current Illinois Commerce Commission
tariff filing, I see two tables, one called "V and H coordinates of
S.A. Centers" and the other "V and H Coordinates of Exchange Rate
Centers".  The former (in Part 6, Section 1, "Series Channel Service")
lists all the various CO names in Chicago (e.g., Pullman, Irving,
Lawndale, even one called "105"); the latter (in Part 4, "Long
Distance Telecommunications Service") lists one V-H set for Chicago,
apparently at Canal.

   I get the impression that that one item on the latter list is the
LD gateway for the entire city of Chicago, which makes me wonder
whether someone calling from Pullman to Irving (which looks enough
like a "C" band call that I'll treat it as such for this discussion)
wouldn't be paying MORE for the call by calling through AT&T, or any
LD carrier for that matter; seems to me they'd be charged "message
units" for the B (or C?) call to Canal, plus the AT&T charge for the
call itself.  This, of course, wouldn't be visible to anyone who's not
monitoring every call and every second spent on the phone and
tabulating "message units"; all we'd find out is whether the AT&T
charge (not counting the Pullman-Canal connection) would be cheaper
than the Pullman- Irving connection.

   Of course, it could be that the LD call is routed through the
Calumet City "Exchange Rate Center", which is closer and (without
doing the math) looks like an A call.  But we all know that if Chicago
is tariffed through Canal, they probably wouldn't do a thing like
that.  Or, it could even be that the tariff specifies that LD access
is not billed by Ameritech ... naaaaah.  (I don't have and can't
afford a copy of the entire tariff; all I got was the V-H tables and a
page on mileage measurement.)


   Cliff Sharp
     WA9PDM
  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Alan Wright)
Subject: Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s
Organization: Griffith University, CIT.
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 04:03:04 GMT


Andrew C. Green <[e-mail]> writes:

> Randall Gellens ([e-mail]) writes:

>> He picks up his phone [...] and dials three digits.  He says
>> "Operator?  This is WHitehall xxxx.  My name is John Steed.  I will
>> be away for the next three weeks.  Please forward my calls to the
>> usual number."

>> What sort of call-forwarding was offered by British Telecom in the
>> 1960s?

> At the risk of over-analyzing a fictional scene, I get the impression
> he wasn't speaking to the telephone company operator, but to some sort
> of government operator at the other end of a private line. I base this
> conclusion on the fact that he dialed only three digits (I would have
> expected contemporary numbers in the London area to be at least five),
> and referred to his own number as "Whitehall", an inspired (if not
> fictitious) choice for a British government phone network prefix. Had
> he called whatever the local equivalent of 611 was (for repair or some
> other service), I don't think he would have addressed the other party
> as "Operator".

The UK equivalent of 611 is 192.

All UK numbers in the big cities, (London, Manchester, etc.), were
made up of an exchange name, followed by four digits.  You dialed the
first three letters followed by the four digits, (eg CHO 1234, for
Chorlton 1234), Only local calls were self dialed then.  Later the
letters were replaced by numbers, (eg CHO was replaced by 881).  The
Operator was obtained by dialing 0, (later changed to 100); this
change happened during the late 60's/early 70's.  However London, (as
the capital), was always the first to get the new technology, (dial
100), and therefore the operator would offer the govenment, (as their
boss), special MANUAL call forwarding for long distance (trunk) calls.

In those days the Post Office ran the telephone system, not British
Telecom, (which was invented to allow the option of selling off the
phone system, and this was done in the 1980's).


Al

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

From: [e-mail] (Philip J. Tait)
Subject: Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s
Date: 6 Jun 1994 19:42:55 GMT
Organization: AlliedSignal Engines
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Philip J. Tait)


100 was the number to reach the operator after STD was introduced in
the 1960s.

> and referred to his own number as "Whitehall", an inspired (if not
> fictitious) choice for a British government phone network prefix.

WHItehall was a valid London "exchange", as I recall.



Philip J. Tait         AlliedSignal Engines, Phoenix, Az        [phone]
GED::B12635         [e-mail]         [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 12:02:34 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Bob Goudreau)
Subject: Re: Largest Calling Areas


[e-mail] (Brendan Jones) writes:

> In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (John Slater)
> wrote:

>> I believe Greater London is the largest geographic calling area in
>> the world.

> Then you believe mistakenly!  Australia has many calling areas larger
> than this.  Much *much* larger!

> The largest calling area in Australia is the (089) zone which covers
> all of the Northern Territory and then some....

Unless I'm mistaken about how Australian calls are billed, you're
completely missing John's point.  He's not bragging about the size of
*area codes* (indeed, Greater London is the densest node of population
in the UK and requires two area codes now).  Rather, I infer that by
"calling areas" he means "the geographic area to which one can make
those calls billed at the lowest rate".  In the US, we would probably
say "local calling area" -- the region in which residential customers
can make free calls (for most of the US) or calls metered at the
cheapest rate (for those unfortunate areas that have local measured
service).

The bragging rights for largest local calling area in the US have been
debated before in TELECOM Digest, although I don't recall who won.  (I do
remember someone saying that the local calling area for the Atlanta,
Georgia region was something like 50 to 80 miles [80 to 130 km] in
diameter.)  Of course, most North American area codes are much larger
than local calling areas; sparsely populated western states and
Canadian provinces usually have but a single area code each.  Indeed,
Alaska (area code 907) is geographically larger than the NT.  Area
codes 413 and 819 together cover Canada's vast Northwest and Yukon
Territories, not to mention all of Alberta and a chunk of Quebec.  And
there are probably Russian area codes in eastern and northern Siberia
that dwarf even these examples.

Now, is it really true that a call from anywhere in the Northern
Territory to anywhere else in the NT is always billed at anything
close to the same rate?  I.e., that a call down the block within
Darwin costs the about the same as a call from Darwin to some deep
outback town?  If so, I'll concede that you are indeed comparing
apples to apples.


Bob Goudreau            Data General Corporation
[e-mail]        62 Alexander Drive
[phone]            Research Triangle Park, NC  27709, USA

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

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 11:31:03 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Dave O'Heare)
Subject: Re: Largest Calling Areas


You know, I would have thought that Inmarsat was the largest single
calling area :-)


Dave O'Heare   [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your humor is noted, but see the earlier
letter in this issue as to the way we are defining things. I suppose to
use your criteria, 'area code' 800 would be the largest area.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Peter Campbell Smith)
Subject: Re: Largest Calling Areas
Organization: Logica, London
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 14:20:52 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(Brendan Jones) wrote:

> In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (John Slater)
> wrote:

>> I believe Greater London is the largest geographic calling area in
the world.

> Then you believe mistakenly!  Australia has many calling areas
> larger than this.  Much *much* larger!

I presume the original writer meant the largest number of people or
phones in a local calling area defined by a geographical area.  By
'local' he meant (referring to the original post) the area within
which all calls are charged at the local rate, which may not be the
same as those having the same dialling code.

The resident population of the local calling area in London must be
around eight million. I don't know, but I would doubt that this is a
record, since several third world cities have much larger populations
and I might guess that they do not all have phone systems which divide
the city into several charging zones.  London might win, however, on
number of phones or exchange lines, though I wouldn't bank on possibly
Tokyo or New York City (212) beating it.  Does anyone have the facts?

Around 20 years ago Atlanta claimed to have the largest local calling
area in the US, though I'm not sure I believed it even then.


Peter Campbell Smith, Logica plc, London.  Voice: [phone]
Fax: [phone]  Internet: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (B.J. Guillot)
Subject: Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection
Date: 6 Jun 1994 12:47 CDT
Organization: University of Houston


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(Dave Ptasnik) writes...

> [e-mail] (K. M. Peterson) writes:

>> My problem: I don't want to have to lift the handset to find out if I
>> have messages.  Has someone come up with a box to sit on one's line
>> and detect this (and flash a lamp or something)?

> A Canadian company called Xinex Networks, Inc. makes an amazing
> telephone called the mindSET.  It periodically samples the line
> looking for stutter dial tone, and turns on a big message light when

Speaking of "stutter dial tone", I called SW Bell the other day to get
information on their voice mail service (Call Notes), and the rep guy
said "When you lift up the handset, you will hear a SPECIAL noise that
indicates a message is waiting."

I then asked him, you mean "stutter dialtone?"

He replied "Exactly!  But it's politically incorrect for us to use
that term now, or we could get fired."

Well, I thought it was interesting.  :-)...


Regards,

B.J. Guillot ... Houston, Texas USA

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven Bradley)
Subject: Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection
Organization: The Forest City Exchange, Forest City, Florida
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 18:52:26 GMT


> I believe the BelTronics Caller-ID unit also has a "MSG" display on
> the unit.  You can get this unit at Lechmere.
                                      ^^^^^^^^
Do you have an address or phone number for this company?


Internet:        [e-mail]          Steven G. Bradley
                 [e-mail]             Forest City, Florida
GEnie:           [e-mail]
CompuServe:      [e-mail]    Phone:   [phone]
America Online:  [e-mail]           Modem:   407/862-8088

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

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 94 15:45 WET
From: [e-mail] (John Harris)
Subject: Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection


[e-mail] wrote:

>> Stretching my one phone line ever further, I'm considering getting
>> voicemail from our local telco.

>> My problem: I don't want to have to lift the handset to find out if I
>> have messages.  Has someone come up with a box to sit on one's line
>> and detect this (and flash a lamp or something)?

> I believe the BelTronics Caller-ID unit also has a "MSG" display on
> the unit.  You can get this unit at Lechmere.

Beware.  The message waiting feature on the BEL-Tronics Caller ID unit,
which is not an advertized feature, will only work in specific instances.

The telephone company must deliver a Caller ID message waiting signal as
specified by Bell Canada ID-0008.  Multiple Data Message Format, paramater
code 11, status 255 to turn ON, status 0 to turn OFF.

The telephone company must deliver a ring signal before the Visual
message waiting signal; since the Caller ID unit is battery powered
and goes to sleep except for 28 seconds after a ring.

In words of one sylable.  Don't expect it to work unless you live in
Toronto or Montreal.

John Harris      BEL-Tronics Ltd, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1J9
[e-mail]  [phone]             Fax [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: "Line in use" Circuit For Phone
Date: 6 Jun 94 17:14:57 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Re: Phone in use indicator LED.  Some of the enquiries are for
something to prevent the abort of the modem session when another phone
is picked up.  There is another, better way around this.

The decent quality modems have two jacks, one for line and one for
phone.  The phone jack is disconnected from the line when there is a
session in progress.  Some cheap modems don't because the two jacks
are just in parallel.

If you have a direct two pair line from your modem to the phone line
entrance point, you can use this method.  Connect the second pair to a
modular plug that connects to the 'phone' jack on the modem.  Then run
this line clear back to the entrance point, and connect all the other
phone lines to it.  When your modem is off-hook, the other phones
won't get any dial tone.  Connect green to black and red to yellow.

You have to make up a jumper block to use when you've got the modem
unplugged.  Take a regular modular block with two jacks and connect
the green and red wires together.  Then when you have the modem
unplugged, plug both lines into the two jacks, so that others have
dial tone.

People say that this isn't a very realistic way to do it, but it's the
ONLY way that will guarantee that the session won't be aborted by
someone picking up a phone ... because blinking LEDs won't!


John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs
Rancho Santiago Community College District
17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706
Voice (714) JOHN GAB \ FAX (714) JOHN FRY
[e-mail]\[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Wes Leatherock)
Date: 05 Jun 94 21:46:00 -0600
Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing
Organization: Fidonet


 -=> Quoting [e-mail] (Steve Brack) <=-

 > In almost every other area of business I can think of, the greatest
 > latitude in billing arrangements is given to the person paying for the
 > service, rather than the person using it.  All BPP will do is bring
 > telephone billing in line with standard commercial practice.

        This is definitely not true in anything when you are sending
something to someone else.  The sender decides whether to send
something by regular U.S. mail, Express Mail, Federal Express (three
different levels of service), UPS (numerous levels of service),
Roadway Package Systems, Airborne Express, Emery Airfreight, a large
number of common carrier truck lines, contract truck lines and
independents, railroads (numerous different routings).

        Many of these offer "collect" service that works just like it
does for a telephone call.  And in every case the carrier that the
shipper tenders the shipment to will take the shipment to its
destination, or give it to a connection that takes it to its
destination, and will collect for the charges.  (And there are some-
times difficulties when the consignee wants the shipment sent one way
and the shipper sends all its shipments some other way.  But nobody
has suggested a government regulation ought to cover this, even though
they all use the same public streets and highways to pick up and
deliver.)

       When there were separate telegraph companies, if you sent a
telegraph by Postal Telegraph it would be delivered by Postal
Telegraph, which would collect the charges if the message was sent
collect.  If you sent it by Western Union, Western Union would carry
it and collect for it.  And Postal did not deliver over Western
Union's tielines ("WUX") to the customer, nor did Western Union
deliver over Postal's tielines.

       The same thing was true of international record carriers.  If
you sent your message by RCA Communications, it would be delivered
(and collected for) by RCA Communications.  If you sent it by Mackay
Communications that carrier would carry it and collect for the charges
from the received.  Same thing was true if you sent it by the French
cable company (I forget their exact name), or one of several other
carriers that served various parts of the world.

       In all these similar cases in the past and into the present, it
has been up to the intended receiver of the shipment or communication
to get -- or try to get -- the sender to send it by the way preferred
by the receiver.  Why shouldn't the same be true of telephone calls?

       The FCC proposal was in its formative stages at least three
years ago, and it seems a very expensive project, especially as it is
at variance with the common custom.


Wes Leatherock    [e-mail]
[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you say is true, but you must remember
that the recipient has the right to refuse the collect shipment or telegram
or whatever. If Federal Express shows up at my door with a package I did
not order and it was sent collect, do you think I am going to pay for it?
I just tell the man to take it back wherever it came from; then when the
recipient gets it back he *has* to pay, even for the non-delivery since he
caused the freight company to carry the package both ways, etc.  Likewise
if I get a collect phone call announced by the <whoever> operator, I refuse
it rather than risk a very high surcharge, etc. If you want me to pay for
something (package or phone call, etc) then you deliver it according to
my instructions or it does not get delivered. If you pay, then you make
those decisions.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dick St.Peters)
Subject: Best Way to Get Many (~50) Phone Lines?
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 19:24:04 GMT


Hi.  I'm new to telecom things and need help.  (Lots of it ...)

I'm becoming an Internet provider -- dialup PPP/SLIP, so I need a lot
of phone lines.  NYNEX says it wants a ten-year contract (with a bond)
before it will install a lot of pairs to my house.

They will gladly sell me several T1s, but even though I'm less than a
mile from my CO, this is more than twice the cost per line ... without
even including costs of the equipment to demux the T1s.  Further, they
tell me that all 24 lines on a T1 must be used for voice lines ... I
can't use any of them as 56k DDS local loops ... no tariff, they say.
(I forgot to ask about 3002 leased voice lines.)

NYNEX would be happier about stringing lots of pairs to a real office,
but I'd have to rent the office, so the costs actually work out sort
of similar unless the demux equipment is really expensive.  How expensive
is it?  What is it?

NYNEX says I need a PBX.  Do I really need one if I only want to tie
each line to a modem and/or terminal server?

Finally, what am I not asking that I should be?


Dick St.Peters, Gatekeeper, Pearly Gateway; currently at:
GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY   [e-mail]
                             soon:  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Les Reeves)
Subject: 711 in Atlanta
Date: 6 Jun 1994 12:52:43 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access  [phone]  [login: guest]


The second N11 service sold by BellSouth to the highest bidder gets
off the ground this week.  Williams' 711 service is working in most
parts of the city now.  The official start-up is June 15.

Some of the services are free, others are $ 0.25 or more per call.
According to the 711 operator, the pay services will not be charging
for the next week or so.  Unlike Cox's 511 service, 711 will have both
free and pay-per-call programs.

The time, weather, and lottery info is free. Dial #5 to get connected
to WAGA's free time, weather, and lottery info.


Les          [e-mail]         Atlanta, GA     404.874.7806

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #275
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
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To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #276

TELECOM Digest     Tue, 7 Jun 94 15:22:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 276

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    New Player in the 800 Game (TELECOM Digest Editor)
    Does MCI Have Answer Supervision? (Philip J. Tait)
    High-Speed Serial Boards For PC's Wanted (Joseph Kruckenberg)
    Digiboard Takes the Place of PBX? (David Wuertele)
    Motorola Offers Baseball Pager (Dave Leibold)
    Advanced Features for Lesotho's Phones (Dave Leibold)
    v.35 Interface For PC Wanted (Joseph Kruckenberg)
    Moving to DC From the UK (David Wigglesworth)
    LAMA Equipped Exchange (Dimitri Vekris)
    Cellular ESN Change (Robert S. Helfman)
    Looking For a Voice Mail/Auto Attendant System (Eduardo Tribaldos)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Mike Wilcox)
    Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s (Richard Cox)
    Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose ([e-mail])

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
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is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest Editor)
Subject: New Player in the 800 Game
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 1994 14:50:00 CDT


I had a very pleasant conversation earlier today with Steve Betterly
about a new 800 service available to small and medium size users. It
sounds so exciting in fact, I thought I would discuss it here and let
the readers know about it.

There are residential and small business 800 services aplenty. They
are all over the place, and of course the Big Three also offer various
toll free inbound calling plans.  The only one until now which offered
*immediate* call forwarding of 800 numbers was to the best of my
knowledge the service from Cable & Wireless.

The company is called Call America and the 800 service is called 'My
Line'.  Like the others, you get your own 800 number which is set up
as a DID  (direct inward dial) number on the Call America switch in
San Luis Obispo, CA. Now the fun begins:

At anytime you wish, you control where the number is routed to. Your
caller hears a precorded message in your own voice which says, "Hi
this is Patrick, please hold while your call is transferred to me"
(or whatever phrase you wish to use).  The call is then redirected
to wherever you have indicated, and that could be your cell phone,
your home phone, your office, a payphone at the bus station or
whatever. If you prefer, you can route calls to a pager or to
voicemail. If you are staying in a hotel, your greeting might say
"Hi this is Patrick, I am at the Hilton Hotel, when the operator
answers ask for room 3212."

You control where the calls are forwarded by calling your own 800
number and punching in a security code while the greeting is being
played. Entering your code take you out of the greeting and into a
menu on the Call America switch where you then manipulate things as
you want them. Likewise, there is a method where your caller can
enter a priority code during the greeting (if he has been tipped off
to do so) and his call will be transferred to your 'priority number'.
For example maybe you are forwarding all calls to voicemail, but
the caller who enters a priority code will be routed to your cell
phone instead.  Changes in where calls are routed take place right
away; there are no delays.

You can use 'My Line' as a calling card for outgoing calls also.
You dial your 800 number, enter your private code and are then
extended to dial tone. The rates are much cheaper than calling cards.

Speed dialing is part of the package (for example your repretoire
of numbers where you would be routing your calls from time to time
can be put on speed dial). Also, wake up and reminder service is
available along with time and charges notification.

Here is the pricing structure:

Basic service is $8.50 per month. That gets you:

    A personal 800 number;
    Unlimited call forwarding to wherever you route it;
    Priority call screening (take some calls direct if the caller
       knows to enter the priority code during the voice greeting,
       otherwise call is sent to 'regular' number or voicemail);
    Calling card features;
    Wake up/reminder calls;
    Time and charges when requested on outcalls, etc;
    Date and time.

If you want voicemail from Call America, add another $9.50 per month.

Additional options at this time include an expanded speed dialing
arrangement (more numbers can be stored) and scheduled call forwarding.
What this does is automatically routes calls to your home or your
office or wherever at the times you specify on a daily basis, etc.
These extra features are $2.00 per month each.

You can also have a DID number in San Luis Obispo if desired. I do
not have all the details on that service.

So monthly, figure $8.50  plus $9.50 if you want their voicemail.

Per minute usage charges:

Calls forwarded to you are 25 cents per minute.
Calls forwarded to your voicemail are 15 cents per minute.
Calls *from* you to retrieve voicemail or change the forwarding, etc
   are 15 cents per minute.

If you use 'My Line' as your calling card arrangement on outgoing
calls the rate is 55 cents for the first minute and 25 cents for
each additional minute on your outgoing calls. After the first minute
minimum, additional minutes are in six-second intervals.

For this you dial your 800 number, override the voice greeting with
your PIN, get dial tone and dial your number.

One other kink:  *at any time* in a conversation forwarded to you,
hit the pound key and some other digit (as per the literature they
will send you) and the call is plucked away and transfered to voice
mail or transferred to some other number. What this means, as an
example, is let's say you have the 800 number set to ring your home.
But you are out with your cellphone and your roomate answers. Instead
of taking a message, he can tell the caller, "just a minute, I will
transfer you to voicemail (or transfer you to where he is at)" and
press certain keys on the phone ... poof, the call is lifted back
by the switch and transferred to (a) voicemail or (b) your 'priority
number' or whatever ...

Calls that are not answered after a certain number of rings are
automatically defaulted to voicemail if you have it set that way, or
you can skip their voicemail entirely and arrange for it on your own
so that if you have voicemail on your home phone now or your cell
phone or whatever, calls routed to that phone will eventually fall
into your own voicemail if you prefer.

Overall, this looks like an excellent and very flexible 800 service
even though the price is a little higher than the others we have
bandied about in our discussions here.

Contacts:

     Call America 'My Line' Customer Service   800-549-3500
     879 Morro Street  San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

Digest readers should contact:  Steve Betterly  [e-mail]
                                800-549-3500  or 805-547-6464  fax

Tell him you read about the 'My Line' service in TELECOM Digest.

Experiences will be welcomed; we can open a discussion here on it once
a few of you have had a chance to try it out.


Patrick Townson

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

From: [e-mail] (Philip J. Tait)
Subject: Does MCI Have Answer Supervision?
Date: 7 Jun 1994 19:27:33 GMT
Organization: AlliedSignal Engines
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Philip J. Tait)


My latest phone bill seems to indicate that unanswered LD and International
calls that are allowed to ring for > one minute get billed as a one minute
call.

I call elderly relatives, who get a little upset if I hang up just as
they answer :-), so I let it ring a good while.  When I used to be
with Sprint, I got tired of calling Customer Service for refunds --
when I changed to AT&T, I was gratified to see the problem cease.

An MCI rep. mumble-spoke about not getting the proper signals back
from the other telco (BT in this case).  He could not explain why AT&T
never had the problem, and it doesn't explain why this recently happened
on some domestic LD calls.

Is this one more reason to change back to AT&T?


Philip J. Tait         AlliedSignal Engines, Phoenix, Az        [phone]
GED::B12635         [e-mail]         [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Joseph Kruckenberg)
Subject: High-Speed Serial Boards For PC's Wanted
Date: 7 Jun 1994 16:15:48 GMT
Organization: University of Utah


I am trying to connect a high-speed (56kb - 115.2kb) serial port to a
PC (running Linux) from a partial-T1 DSU/CSU, and I'm wondering what
options I have. I know we could go with a 16550-based board, but is
the 16550 going to be able to handle this kind of speed without
dropping characters or seriously loading down the CPU? Is anyone using
Linux for high-speed connections like this? If so, what are you using?

Does Linux support the Hayes ESP board in its enhanced (non-16550-
emulation mode), or is there a similar board that supports these
high-speed rates and is supported by Linux?

Thanks for your help.


Pete Kruckenberg   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave)
Subject: Digiboard Takes the Place of PBX?
Organization: Graphic Communications Laboratories (GCL)
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 03:01:18 GMT


I recently heard (from a friend who heard from...) that a peripheral
called the "Digiboard" can take the place of a PBX for large voicemail
projects.  The rumor is that the Digiboard plugs into your WS/PC and
allows you to receive and drive up to 100 simultaneous DTMF voicemail
calls.

Has anybody heard of this product?  It sounds too good to be true,
from both a load perspective and a communications perspective.  First
of all, timesharing a workstation between 100 users even for as simple
a task as reading mail can render the workstation useless.  Secondly,
can you really fit the electronics to interface with multiple T1 lines
on a single thing called a "board?"

I would be grateful if someone could provide me with details about
this product (or others like it).  Most importantly,

    1.  Who makes it, and what's their phone number?
    2.  What platforms does it work with?
    3.  Can it handle even a single T1 connection?


Thanks a bunch,

David Wuertele

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Leibold)
Date: 07 Jun 94 01:51:41 -0500
Subject: Motorola Offers Baseball Pager
Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway


Motorola is selling a form of display pager that can track baseball
games as they are being played. The Sports Trax units will indicate
the teams involved, score, outs, which bases have runners, which team
is at bat, and even the start time of the next game. The pager unit
will even make noises according to game activity (runs, start of game,
end of inning, etc).

The units are being sold in Canada, and will cover all games played by
the Toronto Blue Jays of the American League. The service costs $149
for three years. This includes capability to receive Sports Trax data
throughout Canada in areas covered by Motorola paging.

Too bad the Jays seem to be having minor league results so far this
year :-(


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I cannot imagine anyone bothering to
purchase one to follow the Chicago Cubs this year!   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Leibold)
Date: 07 Jun 94 01:30:23 -0500
Subject: Advanced Features For Lesotho's Phones
Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway


I had a chance to look through a 1990 phone book for the nation of
Lesotho yesterday. There appeared to be extensive deployment of
digital switching, as of that edition (no doubt things have improved
even more during the past four years). Some areas require manual, or
at least less than automatic access, though.

International dialing was also available to many subscribers, using 00
plus country code and national number format. Strangely enough, they
listed such places as Tillsonburg, Ontario and Tilney, Saskatchewan
(Tillsonburg has a but few thousand residents; Tilney is a place I'm
not familiar with, but it is certainly not one of the major
Saskatchewan centres like Saskatoon).

They also have familiar digital exchange calling features such as call
forward, which are activated by commands that resemble those used with
the AXE switches. The most interesting feature is a "lock" feature
that can disable a telephone from placing calls, such as during a
vacation. Dialing *33*<code># locks the phone, and will only unlock it
when the password <code> is dialed in the sequence #33*<code>#. This
means of preventing phone misuse is not too common in North America
(if any telcos offer such a feature at all).

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

From: [e-mail] (Joseph Kruckenberg)
Subject: v.35 Interface For PC Wanted
Date: 7 Jun 1994 14:48:53 GMT
Organization: University of Utah


I'm trying to find out how I can connect the v.35 output of our Codex
box to a PC so we can gateway TCP/IP through our T1 to the Internet.
If you know of an interface that would do this, especially one that
will work with the freeware Unix version, Linux, I'd love to hear from
you.


Pete Kruckenberg     [e-mail]

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

From: David Wigglesworth <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 94 09:03:03 GMT
Subject: Moving to DC From the UK


I will be moving from the UK to Washington DC in a couple of months.
Please could someone tell me what my options for phones are? My
requirements are quite simple, I want cheap and reliable service, I
won't be making many long distance US calls although I will probably
be making a few to the UK and possibly Hong Kong.


Thanks,

David Wigglesworth
Offshore & International Telecommunications
Conoco (UK) LTD    N2 Conoco Centre
Gallows Hill   Warwick CV34 6DB.  UK
Internet [e-mail]       Voice [phone]

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

From: Dimitri Vekris <[e-mail]>
Subject: LAMA Equipped Exchange
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 19:30:00 -0400


My situation is this. I have the use of an (800) voice mailbox number.
On my telephone line at home, I also have call forwarding with the
intent that when I am not home, I can forward or divert those calling
me to my voice mailbox so that they can leave me a message.  The
advatage to this is that if I am travelling (or on holidays) and I
wish to retrieve my messages, I can do so toll-free.

The problem I run into is this: Those calling me from a local number
(either seven or ten digit number) will be forwarded with no problem.
However, those calling my home telephone number from a long distance
number (or a local cellular phone oddly enough) will get a recording
that says "The number you have dialed is out of service. Please check
the number and dial again or ask your operator for assistance". When I
called the phone company about this (Bell Canada), they were hesitant
to describe or explain the reason behind this, most likely because
they person at the other end didn't know. After a lengthy hold, she
came back to me to say that the reason behind this is that my exchange
is not LAMA equipped.

What does this mean and why should it make a difference whether
someone calls me from Texas or from down the street?


[)imitri Vekris

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert S. Helfman)
Subject: Cellular ESN Change
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 15:22:51 -0700
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA


I recently purchased a Motorola PC-550 flip phone. Since I was already
a PacTel cellular customer (using a transportable Motorola), this was
a very easy switch. I just called PacTel Cellular, gave them some
personal identification and the new ESN, and in 20 minutes they had
made the switch.

My question is (and I suspect this has been answered before):

In what form is the ESN stored in the Motorola phones? Is it a
removable ROM? A PROM? What would be involved in changing it? I
clearly understand the prohibition of two phones with the same phone
number being on the system at the same time. But being single, and
having no reason whatever to use both phones at the SAME time, there
ARE times when I would like to use the transportable (say, while
driving on a long trip where the added range and battery life would be
useful).

PacTel's central folks said there is no problem switching ESN's any
time I want to. They have no company policy that discourages this, and
it only takes a phone call and about 20 minutes to an hour to make the
switch. BUT, it would be a lot easier if I could diddle the ESN on my
transportable to match my flip phone. Then, whichever one happens to
be powered up will be the one that the systems 'sees'.

Just how big a job is this? Does anyone have the technical details?
[Yeh, PAT, I know YOU have probably seen this before, and I'm sure you
think it's some kind of mortal sin to consider the possibility.]

I am sure that some of the 'gangster' cellular phone stores along
Crenshaw Blvd would be delighted to do this for me, but I feel certain
that when they were through, half the cellular phones in the area
would be charging to my account.

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

From: [e-mail] (Eduardo Tribaldos P)
Subject: Looking for a Voice Mail/Auto Attendant System
Date: 6 Jun 1994 23:58:56 GMT
Organization: ITESM Chihuahua


Hello,

   I am looking for a Voice Mail/Auto Attendant System that can run
with a Mitel SX-200 (analog) PBX.  There is one I know of called
COMPASS that looks pretty good, but it is also very expensive, so I
wonder if somebody in the NET knows of another such system that we can
use in our PBX.

   Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Eduardo Tribaldos
ITESM - Campus Chihuahua   Mexico

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

From: [e-mail] (Mike Wilcox )
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Date: 6 Jun 1994 23:27:55 GMT
Organization: Intel Corporation , Folsom


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

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

>> I saw in a news report about a new service from Pacific Bell called
>> "ISDN Anywhere."  When I called up Pac Bell, they had no idea what I

>> Does anybody else have any ideas about what is so different about "ISDN
>> Anywhere?"

> Well it does exist and it is different and it does work!!

> With ISDN Anywhere, you get just what they say.  Right now, I am
> having a repeatered Centrex line installed that I could not get
> before.  I also have several people that we could not serve due to non

However you cannot get ISDN Anywhere everywhere. Tried to order an
ISDN line for one of my customers. Pacific Bell said they couldn't do
it. I said "What about ISDN Anywhere?" They said that it isn't
everywhere yet.  Try again in late July.

But hey, at least they don't have a little girl in a black outfit
spouting off about a road that goes Anywhere but not everywhere.


Mike Wilcox  [e-mail]   Intel Corp.
Folsom Information Technology   Telecomm and Network Services


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Aren't they precious! Anywhere but not
everywhere. Any other company would be slapped with a false advertising
suit ... as usual, telco's advertising gurus and front line business
office people are not in contact with each other. Each is in their own
orbit and like Haley's Comet maybe once every 71 years they pass in
proximity of the other. But hey, Mike ... you are lucky you found
someone in the business office to talk to about it. Usually when there
is something they have not heard about (as often as not) they just write
the customer off as some sort of crackpot or dingbat and let it go at
that. I'll bet when you used the phrase 'ISDN Anywhere' the person you
were talking to had to put you on hold and go inquire about that from
a supervisor of supervisors or something. Next time you talk to them
ask if they know what the phrase 'competition in local dialtone' means.
Most of them have heard of that and don't like it at all.   PAT]

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

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 16:32:09 -0700
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: British Call Forwarding in 1960s


Clive said:

> WHItehall (note the capitalization) was indeed the exchange for much
> of the Civil Service, and many government offices still have
> 071-944-XXXX numbers.

Aarrgghh !  There are no 071-944 numbers.  WHItehall numbers moved to
071-930, with the exception of New Scotland Yard (Metropolitan Police
HQ) which changed to 071-230 to get the necessary capacity to handle
their Direct-Dialing-In to extensions. In fact "The Met" had been
using 071-230 prior to conversion of the all-figure numbers: 230
translated to WHItehall exchange but the charging signals were
suppressed when 230 was dialled.  That facility has gone now - it was
believed to be the first (primitive) example of automatic 800 service
in the UK - but there are, ahem, a few other codes outside London that
behave similarly.  Other famous-named exchanges in WHItehall area are:
TRAfalgar (now 071 839) and ABBey (now 071-222).  WHItehall exchange
did in fact have quite a few out-of-area (translated: FX service)
lines on it so the scenario is not implausible.

> this was before the days of DDI

DDI was *just* beginning to appear around this time; apart from the
Post Office's own systems, which were really modified non-director
exchanges, I clearly remember calling DDI numbers on TABard exchange
(01-822, as it then was - now 071-822) in the late sixties.  Even if
telling you that does reveal more about my age than I would like.

> the GPO operator, then she would have had a major effort to organise
> a redirection (WHItehall was almost certainly a Strowger exchange).

On any other exchange this would have been true.  Facilities on the
WHItehall AMB (Auto-Manual Board) were, perhaps, slightly non-standard.

[e-mail] (Peter Campbell Smith) added:

> you called the operator (by dialing 100 or maybe 151, which was and
> is the repairs number) to have it turned on or off.

You would have called 191, the "enquiries" or "supervisor" number.  This
would have also served as the fault report number until the separate 151
was introduced a few years later.

>>  I imagine it was implemented by plugging and unplugging a hardwired
>>  connection between the two outgoing subscriber loops.

In fact it was a complex relay set, remotely activated.  It was
important that restoring the diversion should not interrupt any calls
in progress at that time: and so the system had to hold if there was
an incoming call that had been diverted, but release if the incoming
call at that time was dialled direct to the receiving number without
being diverted.  Heavy stuff in terms of the technology of the day.
Full details are of course in copies of the "Post Office Electrical
Engineering Journal" published at that time.

And the TELECOM Digest Editor noted, in connection with a case of nuisance
calls to Queen Elizabeth:

>>  investigators in the UK were using WHItehall 1212 and the offender in
>>  the States was calling from WHItehall 6211, then and now (944-6211)

Whereas Her Majesty was, and still is, on WHItehall 4832.  The number
has always been published under "Buckingham Palace" in the London
Phone Book.  When the London phone book was split into "business" and
"residential", the Buckingham Palace number was moved across into the
"business" section.  That did always strike me as a little odd!


Richard D G Cox

Mandarin Technology, P.O. Box 111, Penarth, South Glamorgan, Wales:  CF64 3YG
Voice: 0956 700111 Fax: [phone]  VoiceMail: 0941 151515 Pager 0941 115555
E-mail address: [e-mail] - PGP2.6 public key available on request


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's because I think Her Majesty's residence
is actually Windsor Castle, not Buckingham Palace. What a tragic fire that
was which destroyed so much of Windsor. You might check the Windsor listings
and see how things are listed there, i.e. business or residence.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (DSD)
Subject: Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose
Date: 6 Jun 1994 22:46:02 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail].
com (Ronald L. Wright) writes:

> That is very true. I am a Network Technician for US West Communications
> in Washington State, and have seen that happen a few times. Using our
> state of the art test gear, there will be no physical trouble at all, and
> noise and transmission readings will be picture perfect. The difficulty is
> that there has really been very little training on data communications
> problems, so the average technician uses his equipment and tells you
> that everything is fine, while you are only getting 2600 bps out of a
> 28.8 modem :(

Ron,

I'm a Customer Service Tech over here in Spokane and I'll try and shed
some light on this subject. I'm not an expert, but learning more on my
own every day.

First off DATA usually runs at 1200 HZ - 1800HZ.  I deal primarily
with data and voice circuits over carrier; hence we do what is called a
3 tone slope. 400, 1000 and 2800 HZ tones are sent each direction over
a 2 wire or a 4 wire circuit. The reading are taken in DB's and are
based upon a 4.0 db at 1000 hz. 2800 Hz levels can go as low as -6.0
db from the 1000 hz reading. This is based over carrier from one C.O.
to another and then to the subscriber. You'll notice we never take
reading at the critical data freq's.  I don't know why!

The reason these reading are crucial is that in a perfect telephone
pots world every thing is designed and built correctly. Voice
transmission will allow so many digressions in the telco plant.
Missing loads, customers placed between loads and end section too
long, or too much bridge tap.

Doing a freq run is the only way to find these things. Sending tones
from 400hz to 3200hz at 100hz increments will allow you to see how
the cable is made up.

NORMAL properly loaded cable will result in almost flat db respone
from 300-3000 hz, then it will take a dive to the cellar after 3000
hz.  Normal UNLOADED cable will take a gradual drop from 300-3000hz.
It will start at anywhere from 2.0 db upto 8.0 db and fall gradually
in the minus column upto the 3000 hz level. If it falls suddedly and
then starts back up there is a problem. And if the valleys are at the
1200 or 1800 hz level, well it doesn't take a rocket scientest to
figure out what happens to the data! :)

I don't remember the USOC code, but the name of this test is called
"Transmission Analysis Test". I've done this twice so far this year on
a pots line and a centrex line over carrier. Unfortuanetly, the test
came out good for US and bad for the customer.

I'm not saying this is the resolution to every situation, but it does
point out a possibilty of an item overlooked by far too many companies.

One other item I thought I'd point out was a trouble call I once took
from a Net Tech. Customer would get this woderful music over his
internal mode speaker every morning at 10 am and it would go away at
10 pm. SAme time this AM station down the road would keep broadcast
hours.  I checked the bonding and such, looked for physical trouble;
nothing clicked. I removed the yellows from the ground connection, but
no go. Last thing I tried was disconnecting the yellow black at the
jack. Voila! Seems the modem uses all 4 wires in the jack and the
yellow-black were just a perfect antenna. Obviously, the modem is the
culprit here and by just changing the line cord from a 4 wire to a 2
wire would have solved the problem as well without me having to climb
under and around his desk.

Just a little food for thought.


Scott

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #276
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #277

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 8 Jun 94 15:11:30 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 277

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection (Dave Ptasnik)
    Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection (Howard Wharton)
    Re: Interactive "Voice Mail" System For PC? (John R. Haggis)
    Re: Answering Machine Recommendations Wanted (John R. Haggis)
    Re: Largest Calling Areas (Bob Goudreau)
    Re: Largest Calling Areas (Carl Moore)
    Re: AT&T to be Held Accountable? (Anthony Campbell)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Sam Spens Clason)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Nathan N. Duehr)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Harbir Singh Kohli)
    Re: Replacement Wanted For Bogen Friday (Bob Rankin)
    Re: Bibliography of Telecom Periodicals Wanted (Bob Schwartz)
    Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311? (Dave Niebuhr)
    Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose (Bob Schwartz)
    Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (Steven Grevemeyer)
    Re: How to Get White pages Data From GTE? (Carl A. Wright)
    Re: Best Way to Get Many (~50) Phone Lines? (Les Reeves)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
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Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
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organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Dave Ptasnik)
Subject: Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection
Date: 7 Jun 1994 15:43:29 GMT
Organization: University of Washington


[e-mail] (B.Jsig. Guillot) writes:

> Speaking of "stutter dial tone", I called SW Bell the other day to get
> information on their voice mail service (Call Notes), and the rep guy
> said "When you lift up the handset, you will hear a SPECIAL noise that
> indicates a message is waiting."

> I then asked him, you mean "stutter dialtone?"

> He replied "Exactly!  But it's politically incorrect for us to use
> that term now, or we could get fired."

The politically correct term appears to be "interrupted dialtone".  At
least that is what the local hearing impaired support group has told
our telecommunications department.


Dave Ptasnik     [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Howard Wharton)
Subject: Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection
Organization: University at Buffalo
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 21:25:00 GMT


> Speaking of "stutter dial tone", I called SW Bell the other day to get
> information on their voice mail service (Call Notes), and the rep guy
> said "When you lift up the handset, you will hear a SPECIAL noise that
> indicates a message is waiting."

> I then asked him, you mean "stutter dialtone?"

> He replied "Exactly!  But it's politically incorrect for us to use
> that term now, or we could get fired."

New York Telephone (opps-NYNEX) calls the "stutter" dialtone an
"interrupted" dialtone for its voice mail service which they call
Residence Call Answering.


Howard S. Wharton   Fire Safety Technician
Office of Environmental Health and Safety
State University of New York at Buffalo

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

From: [e-mail] (John R. Haggis)
Subject: Re: Interactive "Voice Mail" System For PC?
Organization: Millennium Research
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 11:37:16 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(David H. Close) writes:

> Paul A. Lee </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com> writes:

>> A typical voice port board will cost from US$500 to US$1500.

> You can also buy an ZyXEL modem with built-in codec and DTMF decoder.
> With it you get, no charge but no support, source code for a PC-voice
> mailbox system. Try [e-mail] or [e-mail].

$500-$1500?  I didn't read the original post, but I've seen several
modest packages for < $100 at local computer stores (ZyXEL modems are
> $250 and software has no support).

If you just want voice mailboxes on a single line without a lot of
customization, and can dedicate a machine, any of these packages would
work.  They all seem to have ponderous TSR's that render the PC
useless for anything else, so beware.  (Tho' they claim to be
"windoze", or run in the "background" ...)

1.  National Semi "Tyin"
2.  Complete PC "Complete Communicator?"
3.  Boca Research has one also but it may be a buyout deal
    to/from Complete PC.
4.  Computer Peripherals, Inc: "Viva Message Center" modem.

None of them come anywhere near the quality of the ZyXEL, but they have
productized software that has mailboxes, forwarding, paging, etc.

Good luck.


JohnR  ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (John R. Haggis)
Subject: Re: Answering Machine Recommendations Wanted
Organization: Millennium Research
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 11:44:23 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> John O'Shaughnessy
<[e-mail]> writes:

> Our four year old AT&T answering machine seems to have spun it's last
> capstan into the dirt.  I assume that a machine that was purchased for
> $70.00 would cost more than $50.00 to have repaired, so I'm in the
> market for a new answering machine.

> The features I'm looking for include:

> * Time & Date stamp
> * Remote access
> * VOX activated/unlimited incoming call length
> * High Quality

> What machines would TELECOM Digest readers recommend?  Which machines/
> brands should be avoided?

All my friends seem to like the new ATT fully digital gizmo.  I like
the idea, but I won't personally buy any product or service from a
company who's logo is the "DeathStar".

All digital would be a good thing to look for in general.  Anything
with moving parts, or anything from a company that sells washing
machines should be avoided.  No matter how lonely they are.

On the serious side, Sony has a cool all-digital model that has
variable-speed playback without changing the pitch of the voice ...
This seems really neat to me.

Above all, go to a place that has a no-questions-asked return policy
and don't be afraid to try 'em out.

I use a computerized system with some dastardly custom mods (and I'm
getting a Panasonic switch in my house ... five incoming lines and
growing) so I don't have a whole lot to offer in my personal experience.


Good luck.

JohnR  ([e-mail])

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

Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 12:07:03 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Bob Goudreau)
Subject: Re: Largest Calling Areas


Carl Moore writes:

> When you were referring to the Canadian Northwest Territories, you
> made use of area code 413.  That is in western Massachusetts; I
> think you meant 403, which also serves Alberta.

Right you are.  'Twas a slip of the fingers or brain.  NPA 413 is like
the remote western and northern areas in having a very small
population, but on the geographical size scale, it's at the opposite
end of the spectrum.


Bob Goudreau            Data General Corporation
[e-mail]        62 Alexander Drive
[phone]            Research Triangle Park, NC  27709, USA

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

Date: Tue, 7 Jun 94 1:10:42 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Largest Calling Areas


[e-mail] refers to New York City (212).

212 used to cover all of NYC until 1984.  718 was formed then, to
include Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, and later, because of
continuing upward pressure on 212, the Bronx.  Also, 917 was set up as
cellular/pager overlay.

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

Subject: Re: AT&T to be Held Accountable?
From: [e-mail] (Anthony Campbell)
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 94 14:23:53
Organization: Cryogenic Software - Portland, OR


[e-mail] (Ken Kopin) writes:

> I just witnessed a commercial from AT&T which implies that we will all
> soon have Personal AI assistants! Cute little Doggies, even! (I guess
> they didn't think a gopher would interest most 'regular people')

> Don't believe it?? YOU WILL. And the Company that will bring it to
> you? AT&T

> Can AT&T actually get away with this kind of misleading advertising?

Is this really any different from being shown prototypes of flat
screen TVs for the last couple decades or longer?

Did this keep you from buying a TV now?  :)

Or how about 'concept cars' shown at auto shows?  Did this cause you
to put off buying a vehicle that were really for sale at the show?

> Now granted, they never laid out any kind of time table for this stuff,
> but I think it's safe to imply from "YOU WILL" that they intend to get
> ALL THIS STUFF to market within one lifetime.

I hope so.  I think ...


[e-mail]    R.I.P. C=/Amiga 1985-1994

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

From: [e-mail] (Sam Spens Clason)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Date: 7 Jun 1994 13:47:37 GMT
Organization: The Royal Institute of Technology


In <[e-mail]> Bob Maccione <[e-mail]>
writes:

> With all of the calling card fraud going on out there I'm curious as
> to why the card companies don't issue cards that can't be used for
> international calls.  It should be easy enough and if the user really
> needs to have access to international numbers they can add a level of
> country restrictions.  So since all I call is the US I wouldn't have
> to worry about someone abusing my card (at least from the international
> level of abuse).

How big a part of all calling card frauds could be avoided if the PIN
wasn't actually printed on the card?!

Apart from AT&T and MCI I also have a swedish calling card, not very
good for calling in the US but it works the same way and hasn't got
the PIN printed all over it.

The calling card business is rather new here in Sweden (two years),
but still, we haven't had any frauds worth mentioning.  I think it's
because of better security.

So, stop printing the PIN on calling cards, that would not make them
as easely used if stolen or just glimpsed at.


Sam Spens Clason, <A HREF="http://www.nada.kth.se/~d92-sam/">Web</A>

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

From: [e-mail] (Nathan N. Duehr)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 10:09:48 GMT


Bob Maccione ([e-mail]) wrote:

> With all of the calling card fraud going on out there I'm curious as
> to why the card companies don't issue cards that can't be used for
> international calls.  It should be easy enough and if the user really
> needs to have access to international numbers they can add a level of
> country restrictions.  So since all I call is the US I wouldn't have
> to worry about someone abusing my card (at least from the international
> level of abuse).

(snip huge reply from Pat about AT&T and Sprint's illegal blocking of
card calls from "poor" or ethnic areas... :) )

I work for a teleconferencing company that contracts out to a
medium-sized long-dist and value-added services provider to do their
conference calls on our equipment using their lines.  One of our
funnier experiences with them is that we use THEIR customer's calling
card numbers to place these calls, therefore billing their customer
for the long-distance incurred automatically and we invoice the l-d
company we contract to for the actual bridge time.  (I don't know what
they charge their customers for the actual conference service...?)

Anyway, one of their customers called on the reservations line one day
to set up a call.  We checked the list of countries that this l-d
provider's lines would access, and Puerto Rico was included.  We
booked the call in our reservations system, and proceeded to tell the
customer that his call would take place momentarily and the operator
would call him back shortly.  (Normal procedure.)

Our operator starts dialing these people (including the customer who
ordered the call) and gets intercepted by an operator from the l-d
company when she dials Puerto Rico.  Now realize that the customer has
no idea that we are a middle man doing the conferencing, and that
according to all of their literature and the lists we had, Puerto Rico
was a valid call.  Our operator tries to explain that she is a
conference operator working for basically the same company and that
this call needs to be put through in order for the entire conference
to begin.  The operator at the l-d provider tells our operator that
the party that wishes the call to Puerto Rico MUST dial the line
directly in order to have the call and that they are "cracking down"
on unauthorized calling card use.

You'd think that they would know who we are by now, and what services
they offer, but nooooo!  :)

So finally after letting the l-d operator talk privately with the
chairperson of the conference call about his billing address, mother's
maiden name, etc etc ... she finally put the call through.  All the
while, this customer was paying for l-d time to all the other participants
who were listening to music hold.  Sad.

He never did find out that we were a middle man, though, and that's
the way our contract is set up ... they aren't to know that we do
this.  I'm glad we don't treat *our* customers this poorly, but we
couldn't tell him to switch to us, now could we?  :)

Just a medium-sized anecdote for this thread.


Regards,

Nate Duehr   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Harbir Singh Kohli)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Date: 7 Jun 1994 23:44:01 +0200
Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway


Nice piece of information posted by Patrick ...

In Norway the calling card comes with a four-digit code which makes it
a lot safer to use for both the customer and the telephone company.
Though it does produce a hell of lot of digits to dial.  I feel safe
carrying it instead of my ATT, MCI and Sprint cards.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Jun 94 10:08:08 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Bob Rankin)
Subject: Re: Replacement Wanted For Bogen Friday


In TELECOM Digest V14 No. 268 (item 6) Robert La Ferla <Robert_La_Ferla@
hot.com> writes:

> Anyone know of a better product (and $300-500) than the Bogen two-line
> Friday voicemail system?  I am having quite a few problems with it.

A good PC-based solution would be one of Talking Technologies multi-line
products.  Call 800-info for the toll-free number, get all the tech inform-
ation you need, then contact Central Computer Products (see ads in
Computer Shopper or get the 800 number) for a good price.  :-)


Bob Rankin ([e-mail])

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

Subject: Bibliography of Telecom Periodicals Wanted
From: [e-mail] (Bob Schwartz)
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 11:07:28 PDT
Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California


[e-mail] (Bruce Roberts) writes:

> Hello all.  I'm currently subscribing to {Telephony Magazine} and find
> it fascinating but primarily marketing/business oriented.  I'm looking
> for a periodical that is more technical in nature and covers the same
> PSTN, Information Infrastructure, ISDN, Sonet, ATM sort of stuff.
> This is not my line of work so but rather something I find interesting
> (and something that will affect all of us soon) so it will be an
> educational experience.  Suggestions and subscribing information would
> be greatly appreciated.

Your local public library may well have "The Reader's Guide to
Periodicals Published in the USA" or the international Guide. It has
listings for well over 50,000 magazines and does have a heading for
Telecommunications.


Bob Schwartz                                       [e-mail]
Bill Correctors, Inc.   [phone]   Marin County, California

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

Date: Wed, 8 Jun 94 12:57:30 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Dave Niebuhr)
Subject: Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311?


In TELECOM Digest V14 #274 [e-mail]

> When I dial 311 (I live on LI.N.Y -NYNEX-) I get connected to a
> TELETYPE sounding device. Does anyone know what this is? In the past
> 311 would announce the telephone number you were calling from, like
> 958 does.

I posted an article about this not too long ago in TELECOM Digest.
311 is used by NYNEX in its service area for hearing impaired people
to be able contact emergency services in a similar manner as normally
hearing people do by dialing 911.

The sound is a TTY device, the same one as heard when dialing a
hearing impaired person.


Dave Niebuhr      Internet: [e-mail] (preferred)
                            [e-mail] / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl
Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility
Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973  1+[phone]
                                          FAX   1+[phone]

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

Subject: Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose
From: [e-mail] (Bob Schwartz)
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 11:07:13 PDT
Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California


> Above all, keep calling and going over peoples' heads.  The people at
> Pac Bell, while regular, nice people on the outside, become flaming
> assholes when at work under the strain of a job they have no concept
> or understanding of.

Maybe there is another element ... management. It was Upton Sinclair
that said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when
his salary depends on his not understanding it."


Regards,

Bob Schwartz                                       [e-mail]
Bill Correctors, Inc.   [phone]   Marin County, California

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven Grevemeyer)
Subject: Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway
Date: 8 Jun 1994 08:39:46 -0400
Organization: Vetronics Technology Center,US Army TACOM,Warren, Michigan USA


What you see in the post office is indicative of the entire government
workforce.  An acquaintance of mine put a name to this phenonmenom:
"The Non-Profit Mentality".  This is the attitude of people who work
for organizations that are not accountable for their actions,
outcomes, or policies.  Government work is characterized by "doing
your time" for promotions and the like. Job satisfaction is low due to
the leveling of the personell.  Everyone is equal, no differentiation
is allowed.  Much like the current liberal mentality being espoused by
the Clinton Administration over items like health care, etc.
Attempting to actually accomplish anything is like shoving manure up a
pipe -- you'll go pretty good for a while but eventually it will all
end up on you. 8-)

Other entities with this mentality are: city government, education,
welfare, etc.

With the removal of accountability comes the removal of responsibility.
With the removal of compensation (financial or otherwise) comes the removal
of initative.

The organization stagnates --- the Post Office has just stagnated
for longer than most anywhere else.


Steven E. Grevemeyer            Phone: [phone] FAX: -5008
Software Enginnering Division (AMSTA-OS)
US Army Tank-Automotive RD&E Center
Vetronics Technology Center    Email: [e-mail]
Warren, MI 48397-5000

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: How to Get White pages Data From GTE?
Date: 8 Jun 1994 13:56:19 GMT
Organization: Lynn-Arthur Associates, Ann Arbor, MI
Reply-To: [e-mail]


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

> I would like to get the White Pages listings for my area from GTE in a
> computer-readable format. I know that there are cd-roms of the US
> phone books available, but they have heavy copyrights on them and I
> want to put a searchable phone book on my BBS. I called GTE who said
> they don't sell that data, but how did ProPhone get it? I heard that
> they scanned the phonebooks and OCR'ed them.  Is that legal? Aren't
> they breaking some kind of copyright law? What is the copyright on the
> phone book information anyway? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Frank,

   The federal court decided a couple years ago that white pages data
was only copyrightable in its specific compilation form. Contact a
lawyer to get the exact details, but in general it means that you
can't xerox the phone books and then sell them, but you can type in
the information and then produce your own document and sell it. See
lawyers for more details.

I understood from a sales promotion from Pro_phone that they have the
white pages typed in at some location in China. Thus they should also
be able to include GTE data. I'm waiting for my own copy of Pro-phone
so I can see about GTE in the database.


Carl A. Wright       Lynn-Arthur Associates, Inc.   [phone]
[e-mail]         Operations Support Systems     [phone] (fax)
2350 Green Road      Suite 160                      Ann Arbor, MI, 48105 USA

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

From: [e-mail] (Les Reeves)
Subject: Re: Best Way to Get Many (~50) Phone Lines?
Date: 8 Jun 1994 07:09:19 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access  [phone]  [login: guest]


Dick St.Peters ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Hi.  I'm new to telecom things and need help.  (Lots of it ...)

> I'm becoming an Internet provider -- dialup PPP/SLIP, so I need a lot
> of phone lines.  NYNEX says it wants a ten-year contract (with a bond)
> before it will install a lot of pairs to my house.

That's amazing!  Ask for a copy of the part of the tariff that applies
to deposits and residences.  Southern Bell put 50 pairs into my
residence in 1987 with a three-year ESSX contract.

Have you considered asking them about Centrex?  In some places it is a
more economic way to get a bunch of lines.  They may be easier to deal
with too since it has contracts and a slightly higher one-time charge.

> They will gladly sell me several T1s, but even though I'm less than a
> mile from my CO, this is more than twice the cost per line ... without
> even including costs of the equipment to demux the T1s.  Further, they
> tell me that all 24 lines on a T1 must be used for voice lines ... I
> can't use any of them as 56k DDS local loops ... no tariff, they say.
> (I forgot to ask about 3002 leased voice lines.)

A T1 mux (aka channel bank) bought on the secondary market may be the
best way to go.  If you are willing to shop, learn a little channel
bank terminology, and do part of the installation work, you can save
yourself a lot of money.

An excellent magazine for the secondary market is {Telecom Gear};
[phone].  It's free to qualified subscribers.

There is a good book on T-1 available from Telecom Library,
[phone] or 800 LIBRARY.  The book is called "The Guide to T-1
Networking".

> NYNEX would be happier about stringing lots of pairs to a real office,
> but I'd have to rent the office, so the costs actually work out sort
> of similar unless the demux equipment is really expensive.  How expensive
> is it?  What is it?

> NYNEX says I need a PBX.  Do I really need one if I only want to tie
> each line to a modem and/or terminal server?

It's none of their business what you are connecting each line to.  All
they should be asking is whether you want the demark on RJ11 or a 66
block.  They *are* allowed to ask the FCC registration number of your
telephone equipment.

> Finally, what am I not asking that I should be?

Ask them why they are being such weasels.


Les     [e-mail]       Atlanta,GA      404.874.7806

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #277
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #278

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 8 Jun 94 23:32:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 278

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Haakon Styri)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Andrew McLeod)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
    Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
    Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers (Nathan N. Duehr)
    Re: Information Wanted on Satellite BBS? (Nathan N. Duehr)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Ry Jones)
    Re: Personal 800 Number Availability (Steve Forrette)
    Re: Best Way to Get Many (~50) Phone Lines? (Barton F. Bruce)
    Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA (Steve Atlas)
    Re: Cellular in Emergencies (Lynne Gregg)
    Re: Cellular in Emergencies (Mike Borsetti)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
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*************************************************************************

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All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
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should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 1994 21:00:00 GMT


Bob Maccione <[e-mail]> writes (in Volume 14, Issue 274)

> With all of the calling card fraud going on out there I'm curious as
> to why the card companies don't issue cards that can't be used for
> international calls.  It should be easy enough and if the user really
> needs to have access to international numbers they can add a level of
> country restrictions.  [...]

Well, I just had visitors from the US and while helping them to place
a call using their calling cards I noticed that at least one of them
did have different card numbers. Quite funny in fact, because it was
kind of hard for the card holder proper to realize that she had to use
the _domestic_ card number to place a call from Norway to the US using
a US Country Direct service. (Another thing was that she had no
information about how to reach that service from other countries ...)
Guess it's simple to say, cancel the international card number and
only keep the domestic.

Different operators have different systems, and I know there are
systems allowing you to block all but a short list of phone numbers to
call to. Great when you want to give your kids a card in order to make
them call home every now and then.

Wrt to the PIN being printed on the card, I believe that some
operators don't do this, and some make it an option. I've been told so
through the TELECOM Digest, so it may be the truth.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As a matter of fact, even though their
> policy is not stated in writing -- they refuse to state it in writing
> for obvious reasons -- AT&T routinely redlines the use of their calling
> card to selected international points from payphones in inner city areas
> where ethnic populations reside. [...]  The call will always be rejected,
> and the operator will profess an inability to put it through on the card.
> [...]

Now, that's probably stupid because by the time you've given up
placing that call you've keyed in your card number and PIN more than
once in addition to spelling out every digit to the operator.  Guess
anyone shoulder surfing just love this ... (Why not just block that 800
number from public phones in that area?)

Anyway, things like this is done in a number of countries. Guess it's
a pain when you add it to all them hotels either blocking 800 numbers
or adding a surcharge on 800 calls.


Haakon Styri

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

From: [e-mail] (Andrew McLeod)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 02:50:44 GMT


Unitel (a Canadian LD company) has a card which allows the user to
request restriction on overseas calls.  If this option is chosen, then
the card can only be used between points in Canada and the USA.

(Unitel is 20% owned by AT&T, and calls made in the US go through the
AT&T network).


Andrew

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

Date: Wed, 08 Jun 1994 20:40:05 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst


In article <[e-mail]>, Harbir Singh Kohli
<[e-mail]> wrote:

> In Norway the calling card comes with a four-digit code which makes it
> a lot safer to use for both the customer and the telephone company.
> Though it does produce a hell of lot of digits to dial.  I feel safe
> carrying it instead of my ATT, MCI and Sprint cards.

I just ordered an AT&T "True Choice" calling card, which allowed me to
pick my own card number.  I was offered (and accepted) the option of
omitting my PIN from the card.  I think it's a good security measure,
and I don't know why it wasn't done sooner.

BTW, there was a thread a while back (I believe it was here) about
Telcos using a checksum digit method to verify the authenticity of a
calling card number.  It would seem that this is not the case with my
card, as I chose the number and PIN myself without a whole lot of
thought about checksums.  So is there some other lookup method?


Jeffrey W. McKeough   [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 08 Jun 1994 20:51:21 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
Subject: Re: S-s-s-stuttering Dial Tone Detection
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst


In article <[e-mail]>, John Harris <joharris@io.
org> wrote:

[snip]

> The telephone company must deliver a Caller ID message waiting signal as
> specified by Bell Canada ID-0008.  Multiple Data Message Format, paramater
> code 11, status 255 to turn ON, status 0 to turn OFF.

I just purchased a Radio Shack Caller ID System 320.  According to the
manual, it will provide message waiting notification "if you subscribe
to the telephone company's message waiting service."  A NYNEX rep said
she hadn't heard of the feature, but that it might be included in a
future software upgrade.  (How she knew that if she never heard of the
feature ...)  Since we just got Caller-ID, Call Trace, Repeat Call and
Return Call, (in 413-549 land) I don't expect an upgrade anytime soon.

Does anyone else know of an area that offers message waiting?


                      | "After going through a rather difficult time, I
Jeffrey W. McKeough   | consider myself comparatively sane.  I am proud
[e-mail] | of that." --Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I deliberatly left Jeffrey's signature
file intact ... and for my digression today I will be unusually brief:
she was a wonderful lady who for most Americans including myself will
remain part of our fondest memories for many years to come. After JFK
was murdered in Dallas, *she* did not owe this country a damn thing; yet
for all these years afterward she maintained a tremendous amount of
dignity and graciousness. She was a wonderful person.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Nathan N. Duehr)
Subject: Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 09:48:27 GMT


Robert Jansen ([e-mail]) wrote:

> After visiting several dealers of GSM phones, I finally found one with
> the technical know-how about GSM.

(snip)

> He told me that when 8W phones are near a groundstation, the transmit
> power is throttled by the groundstation, in order to allow the nearby
> 2W devices to "enter" the groundstation's receiver.

Actually since all the phones are using separate frequencies (I
assume ...) then the presence of an 8W phone near a groundstation
should have no effect at all on incoming RF from other lower-power
phones, unless the receivers at the groundstation's site are very poor
in selectivity.

> This is what he called "GSM phones with a build-in POWER CONTROLLER"
> (8W phones have this feature, so don't panic :) )

> The problem arises when a normal handheld with a car kit is fitted
> (afterwards) with a normal antenna signal booster.  It's a
> straightforward amplifier, which HAS NO way of being power controlled
> by the groundstation, nor the 2W handheld.

Why not?  Amplifiers only put out the other side a multiple (not
always linear as far as I know) of their input wattage.  If the
groundstation tells your phone to switch to miliwatts, the output of
the amplifier hooked to your phone reduces accordingly too.  The
groundstation may ask your phone to continue down to it's lowest
output which *might* not be enough wattage to drive your amplifier at
all, depending on design, which could cause the below-mentioned to
happen.

> Result: the groundstation kicks you of the net if you get to close to
> the groundstation and are blasting the full 8W to it's antenna,
> because you are surpressing the signals from the handheld 2W phones.
> booster.

(snip)

> Q: And what about a handheld with a booster from the same manufacturer?
> A: well ... that's the point here,  I getting the idea that NOT ONE!!!
> manufacturer of GSM phones (which have a booster kit for their phones)
> implemented Power Control when you have your handheld in the car,
> connected to it's booster. The handhelds don't have the control over the
> booster.

I disagree due to the reasoning above ... any manufacturer's booster
is automatically a part of the power control scheme by basic RF
amplifier design.  If the amp is designed in a manner in which any RF
input comes out at a particular level (i.e. 2w in gets 8w out and so
does 150mw in get 8w out) then your comments about power control being
a problem are valid, but most amplifiers (at least cost effective
ones) are not built in this fashion.

Disclaimer: In case I have no idea what I am talking about, ignore me!  :)


Regards,

Nate Duehr    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Nathan N. Duehr)
Subject: Re: Information Wanted on Satellite BBS?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 10:21:39 GMT


Gary E. Chidester ([e-mail]) wrote:

> I read an article the other day about BBS via satellite and how it
> would be cheaper because there would be no long distance charges
> accrued.  How is this possible?  I can see how you could receive
> information via satellite, but unless there is two-way communication
> how can you request the information you want?  Is there somewhere that
> I can get more information?

You may have read an article about the newest generation of ham-radio,
packet radio, low orbit satellites.  PacSat's as they are called by
ham radio operators.  These statellites are very small lightweight
satellites that are usually launched by piggybacking them for a ride
on a commercial payload.  They usually contain packet radio store-and-
forward BBS's.  Ham's around the world can place messages in the RAM of
the satellite by radio (and expensive radios, at that!) and others can
retrieve them on the other side of the globe.

For more info, check the ham-radio newsgroups for messages about
AMSAT, PacSat, and Packet radio.


Regards,

Nate Duehr   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Ry Jones)
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?
Date: 8 Jun 1994 20:40:58 GMT
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.


[e-mail] wrote:

> Is it true that you can have your local telephone company BLOCK ANI,
> So that when you call a 800 number they can't know who you are?

> I am not talking about Caller ID. I know the difference.

To which our Esteemed Moderator replied:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No it is not true. You cannot prevent the
> person or company paying for your call from knowing who called. And why
> would you want to force someone else to pay for your call while you
> remained anonymous?  If you don't see any problem with it, I have a few
> calls here I need to make that I will have billed to you under the
> condition telco promises not to reveal my name or number to you.   PAT]

Pat,

Wrong. You are so dead wrong it is not even funny. To defeat ANI
(everyone, now, try this, it works all over the US but your milage may
vary) have your 0 operator dial 1 800 THN HAHA. (800 ANI demo).  If
you get your number read back, ok, it passed ANI. However, people all
over the US report that ANI fails (returns the ANI of the operator)
when you have the 0 operator dial it. Also, try having your 0 operator
dial 1 800 COLLECT or OPERATOR or whatever. The service will generate
an intercept and the operator will ask for the number you're calling
from. Works for me all the time.


Ry     [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But you are discussing a technical
and/or logistics problem. Things are *not supposed* to happen the way
you describe. When placing an 800 call through the operator, your
number is *supposed* to appear on the operator's console and be passed
the same as usual. If your number does not appear on the operator's
console then she is *supposed* to inquire about your number and bubble
it in in the process of releasing the call. I think if you zero plus
the 800 number it will appear on the console and in further billing
records. If you simply dial zero, and pass the number verbally, she is
supposed to refer you to the double-zero (or long distance carrier's)
operator. Now granted, many operators do not bother to follow the
rules on this. They are supposed to handle it the same way they (are
supposed to) handle calls to 911 placed through the operator: take the
caller's number -- if it is not already in the system for some reason
 -- and pass it along. For instance with 911, the operator is supposed
to stay on the line until 911 answers and pass the calling party's
number so the 911 dispatcher can key it in manually.  So I think when you
are not receiving ANI as a result of a call being placed through the
operator it is the exception rather than the rule.  And I believe that
when you do this, many times you *just think* the ANI is not getting
passed when in fact the operator bubbles or forces it into the network
without specifically telling you that is what she is doing.

The general rule though is correct: if you call an 800 number in the
normal and usual way, with 1+800+ then there are no secrets. By the
way, will zero plussing an 800 number work in your location?  One person
said to me once that 0+800+ always went to intercept in his switch.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Forrette)
Subject: Re: Personal 800 Number Availability
Date: 8 Jun 1994 00:33:49 GMT
Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc.
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Steve Forrette)


In <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Glenn McComb) writes:

> I've been using AT&T's 800 Starter Line service...

> I needed the portability primarily because AT&T wouldn't point my 800
> number without me giving them the street address where the phone is
> located.  Since I wanted my personal (800) number to point to my pager
> company's voicemail number, I didn't know the street address, and
> neither did the pager company!

Yes, AT&T is very particular about knowing the physical service
address of all 800 terminations.  At one point, I had my 800 ReadyLine
pointed to my cellular number, and the rep didn't know what to do when
I told him that there was no physical address for the service.  We
settled for the address of the cellular MTSO.


Steve Forrette, [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think the new 800 service discussed here
yesterday called 'My Line' from Call America is going to become very
popular given that it is the only one other than Cable and Wireless which
offers call-forwarding, and to three different numbers at the same time
at that (priority calls, routine calls, and no answer/busy transfer). For
$8.50 per month and 25 cents per minute that is not a bad deal. If you
using the outbound call option (dial into your personal 800 number then
dial outbound at 25 cents per minute (after 55 cent first minute) it
becomes an even better bargain. If you missed yesterday's message on this
you can contact Steve Betterly at betterly.callamer.com for details and
to sign up.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Best Way to Get Many (~50) Phone Lines?
Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society
Date: 8 Jun 94 21:27:09 -0400


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(Dick St.Peters) writes:

> Hi.  I'm new to telecom things and need help.  (Lots of it ...)

> I'm becoming an Internet provider -- dialup PPP/SLIP, so I need a lot
> of phone lines.  NYNEX says it wants a ten-year contract (with a bond)
> before it will install a lot of pairs to my house.

> They will gladly sell me several T1s, but even though I'm less than a
> mile from my CO, this is more than twice the cost per line ... without
> even including costs of the equipment to demux the T1s.  Further, they
> tell me that all 24 lines on a T1 must be used for voice lines ... I
> can't use any of them as 56k DDS local loops ... no tariff, they say.
> (I forgot to ask about 3002 leased voice lines.)

You DON'T want to mix these. Well you DO, but you want them to stay
working.  Technically, you CAN do it. Order their NRS service (you get
to juggle your own DS0s in THEIR DACS!!!). Order the T1s from wherever
to ALL terminate in the DACS based NRS service, and configure as you
please. You just spent more money than you saved, probably.

DON'T even dream of 3002 lines. USE DDS-II. Its the same price in NY
for 2.4kb or 56kb with or without secondary channel. Get cute with a
QUALITY DSU/CSU that has a scrambler, and you probably can run 64kb
DDS on a line ordered as 56kb w/secondary. The scrambler prevents
accidentally sending codes that loop the far end!

But instead, don't be that cute. Just use innexpensive CSU/DSUs (the
56kb SYNC ones I use cost WAY less that $200 wholesale), and for a few
$s more you can get ones that do 38.4kb on a 56kb sync line. Ones that
do 57.6kb async on 56kb sync do cost more -- for a while at least.

> NYNEX would be happier about stringing lots of pairs to a real office,
> but I'd have to rent the office, so the costs actually work out sort
> of similar unless the demux equipment is really expensive.  How expensive
> is it?  What is it?

Use quality equipment that you don't need to visit often. Rent rack
space from Met Fiber. Get local dialtone and all your IXC connections
from them.  Basically ignore NYNEX -- didn't they just ask you to!
Then show up at DPU hearing and say the state isn't doing a very slick
job of regulating. Bring your reporter buddies from the local bar with
you.

Buy ASCEND's MAX box and **NO** modems. have your customers use ISDN
to get to you:-) The MAX replaces the modem and terminal server and
costs you ~$250 a port for 56/64kb digital service. No ISDN PRI? Just
use T1 Flexpath DID trunks! Will probably limit you to 56kb and, if
like here in MA, limit you to free residential access in 'voice' mode
rather than 64kb in data mode (which costs even from the home by the
minute).

> NYNEX says I need a PBX.  Do I really need one if I only want to tie
> each line to a modem and/or terminal server?

> Finally, what am I not asking that I should be?

Ask whether Met Fiber or Teleport is selling local dial tone up there yet.
They certainly ARE in NYC.

Ask when NYNEX's next filing is with the DPU/PUC and where the public
hearings are being held.

Ask which elected officials Nynex has been hosting at tropical
islands. (The {Boston Globe} caught our neighborhood state senator on
one of their junkets).

Ask which tariffs apply for ANYTHING they say that seems unreasonable.
As an IAP, much of what your order (at least under the leased line
stuff), can and should be ordered under FCC not DPU/PUC tariffs.

DON'T order through NYNEX DROIDS. Find one of their 'authorised
agents' (aka $profitable$ businesses started by former NYNEX brass
'retired' to making $S$S beyond regulatory or union clutches). Don't
get me wrong!  These **ARE** the folks you need! They are 'wired' into
NYNEX, but are quite independant.

We sell Internet access using Nynex frame relay, and DEFINITELY use an
authorised agent.

Get as far past the local business offices as you can. Get product
management folks names. Use the 'executive-appeals' consumer complaint
hotline Nynex offers.

Join the just starting Internet trade association.

And last but not least, don't totally give up on NYNEX. It is getting
a LOT better. They are learning and adapting. There is some very good
young blood in management. They old is slowly retiring. Find the right
folks (not in the local business office!) and you can get excellent
support without most of the hassles you are seeing.

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Atlas)
Subject: Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA
Organization: PictureTel Corporation
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 03:13:33 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Greg
Vaeth at Jerrold Communications) writes:

> An insert in my latest bill contained a notice that Bell Atlantic will
> offer Caller ID in Pennsylvania in August.  The cost for residential
> customers is $6.50/month, business is $8.50.  Call blocking and
> anonymous call rejection are free.  This charge seem outrageous
> considering that the equipment to do it is already there, right?  How
> else does return call, repeat call and all that stuff work. How does
> this rate compare to other states?

That does seem a bit high.  In the Boston area (NyNex) it's $4.95/month.
Call blocking is free, but I don't think that anonymous call rejection
is available.

It's ironic that call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling, and
voice mail ("Call Answering" in NyNex-speak) are all available free
(except for airtime charges) from Cellular One in this area.  You can
get a free-night-and-weekend plan for $29.  I may throw away my home
phone ;-).

Unfortunately, Caller-ID is not available on cellular, although it doesn't
seem as though it would be a major technical hurdle to provide it.


Steve Atlas       [e-mail]

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

From: Lynne Gregg <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Cellular in Emergencies
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 16:35:00 PDT


In response to [e-mail] (Thomas N. Harding)

> Some systems can invoke emergency priority calling which prioritizes
> fire and police calls.

In an emergency, an emergency call is an emergency call.  I'm unaware
of any U.S. carrier's "prioritizing" calls.

> As far as system stability goes I believe that cellular holds its
> own in emergencies due to backup power systems which are not feasible
> for distributed land line systems.  San Francisco cellular service was
> the only thing up after their big quake.

You are correct, the L.A. Cellular system ran without a hiccup during
the recent (big) quake.

Cellular can be used to carry voice and data (as well as fax) communication
during emergencies and ANY time wireline service is unavailable or inaccess-
ible.


Regards,

Lynne

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

From: Mike Borsetti <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Cellular in Emergencies
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 1994 12:50:21 PDT


In TELECOM Digest V14 #268 [e-mail] (Thomas N.
Harding) writes:

> As far as system stability goes I believe that cellular holds its
> own in emergencies due to backup power systems which are not feasible
> for distributed land line systems.  San Francisco cellular service was
> the only thing up after their big quake.

Correct.  We spend quite a lot of money to guarantee that the system
survives any major disaster as intact as possible.  Besides power backup, we:

* operate a backup microwave system to provide redundant double-feed to
  many cellsites;
* perform maintenance on cellsites no longer in use, so that they can quickly
  be recomissioned in case of need;
* operate a private SONET ring between switches to provide redundant
  interconnection;
* configure the system so that we can operate even if a switch is lost;
* have multiple redundant interconnection sites with PacBell's tandems and
  with IXCs;
* have detailed emergency plans;

Given the proven reliability of cellular, and our efforts in making
sure that the system survives any major disaster, it would be very
difficult for any telecom manager to justify NOT to have any cellular
backup (for example using rack-mounted trunk-simulating cellular
equipment in the PBX room).


[e-mail]
Cellular One/San Francisco   ++++  oO)) Digital Network  ++++

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #278
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #279

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 9 Jun 94 08:11:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 279

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Internet Access From Cuba (Bob King)
    Dual PPI-14.4Kbaud -- Can't Talk! (Dave Spensley)
    Looking for Cheap, Portable Terminal (Tim Nyce)
    Historical Private Line Price Compression (Scott Pope)
    Position: Sr. Software Engineer - Telecom/Telephony - MN (John F. Nymark)
    PacBell "California Calling Plan" (Lloyd Matthews)
    1-800-CALL-ATT x 21 Returns! (Paul Robinson)
    Which Court Case Decided Phone Records Were (Almost) Public? (D. Burstein)
    Help Needed With Meridian Trunks (Paul Samuelson)
    Toll-Charge 800 Numbers (Richard King)
    Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted (Nathan N. Duehr)
    Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose (John R. Haggis)
    Re: Seeking Answering Machine With Voice Mail (John R. Haggis)
    Re: Bills Online, Action Needed Now (James D. Wilson)
    Re: New Book: The Electronic Traveler (Carl Moore)
    Re: Geographical Boundaries of COE's Reference Needed (Carl Moore)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (K. M. Peterson)
    Re: Call Waiting (Carl Oppedahl)
    Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311? (S.H. Schwartz)
    Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311? (Les Reeves)
    Re: Is Meridian 1 Option 11 Current? ([e-mail])
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Dee Hardiman)
    Re: Bellcore CID Specifications Wanted (Lynne Gregg)
    Question About FCC FTP ([e-mail])
    Cisco Mail List ([e-mail])
    Help - Telecommuting Information Needed ([e-mail])
    Re: Last Laugh! Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' (puma@netcom)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] ([e-mail])
Subject: Internet Access From Cuba
Date: 9 Jun 1994 04:28:02 -0000
Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation


Some friends of mine are traveling to Cuba later this month on
journalists' visas and are seeking a convenient way of sending
articles back to the United States. Does anyone know if Internet
access is available in Cuba -- and if so, how easily available?

Much thanks!


Bob King    Sarasota, FL    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Spensley)
Subject: Dual PPI-14.4Kbaud -- Can't Talk!
Organization: Motorola Land Mobile Products Sector
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 03:29:17 GMT


Gentlepeople,

     A friend and I are having trouble connecting two PPI 14.4K baud
modems together!

     Even though we use the same modem settings, we get major CRC
errors, limiting our transfer rate to <800 cps.  We are both using
Procomm for Windows.

     One modem is internal, one is external.  Are Procomm settings
interfering with modem efficiency?  Any clues will be appreciated.


moc.tom.mmoc@psevad  \  yelsnepS evaD  |  Dave Spensley  /  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Tim Nyce)
Subject: Looking for Cheap, Portable Terminal
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1994 19:24:13 GMT


I have a friend who needs an inexpensive terminal that can be
attatched to a modem or has one built in. Not particularly fancy, just
cheap with a decent-sized display. He wants to be able to check mail,
read news, etc.  If you have any reccomendations, sources, or units
for sale, please reply or mail me and I will pass it on to him.


Thanks,

Tim Nyce    [e-mail]    TRA# 2492
Dallas Hi-Power    214-783-4563        NAR# 58591

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Historical Private Line Price Compression
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 16:03:58 PDT
Organization: WilTel


Does anyone know where I could find a study showing compression of
private line prices from 1984 or 1985 to present?

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

From: [e-mail] (John F. Nymark)
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 1994 10:50:58
Subject: Position: Sr. Software Engineer - Telecom/Telephony - MN
Reply-To: [e-mail] (John F. Nymark)


                  SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER
                     TELECOMMUNICATIONS
                         TELEPHONY

Here's an opportunity to have your contributions greatly impact a
company's growth and success.

Rapidly growing, telecommunications company in beautiful, Minnetonka,
Minnesota needs strong C/UNIX software engineer with 7+ years software
cycle development experience, 3+ years experience working on designing
wide and local area networks and 4+ years in a lead or management
role.

Will be working on products geared to interactive voice response and
recognition, faxcimile on demand, and many other telephony products.

Ideal candidate should have a software development background out of
the telecommunications/telephony industry, have lead development teams
and/or have been in a management role.

Should also have a strong business/market savvy to be able to cater to
market trends in research and development.

Salary and bonus commensurate with experience.

To learn more, contact Julie O'Connell
                       The NYCOR Group
                       4930 West 77th Street
                       Suite 300
                       Minneapolis, MN  55435
                       [phone]
                       [phone]  FAX

Please send E-Mail to [e-mail]  ATTN:  Julie.

Please let your friends know of this opportunity.

            WE LOVE REFERRALS.

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

From: [e-mail] (Lloyd Matthews)
Subject: PacBell "California Calling Plan"
Date: 8 Jun 1994 23:01:39 GMT
Organization: TTC - ESL, Inc.


My boss has heard at nth-hand of a business service offered by PacBell
called the "California Calling Plan", that's supposed to be cheaper
than an 800 number. The salestypes at PB don't have a clue what it is.
Do any TELECOM Digest readers know if this service exists?


Thanks,

Lloyd Matthews ([e-mail])

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

From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Subject: 1-800-CALL-ATT x 21 Returns!
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 19:25:15 EDT
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA


About a year and a half or so ago, I posted a notice here that AT&T
had announced that their 1-800-CALL-ATT, then dial 2-1 to get to
AT&T's switch computer to place calls using a Local Exchange Company
or AT&T Calling Card had been discontinued in favor of 1-800-32-10ATT.

Now, AT&T's 1-800-CALL-ATT number has been returned to service for
this purpose, with the announcement saying to press "1" to make a
call.  But the interesting thing is that the old "2-1" (e.g. extension
21) dialing will *ALSO* work!

Oh, and the 1-800-32-10ATT number still works.  It does the same thing
as 1-800-CALL-ATT but without having to dial 1 or 21 first.

What goes around, comes around ...


Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>

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

From: [e-mail] (danny burstein)
Subject: Which Court Case Decided Phone Records Were (Almost) Public?
Date: 8 Jun 1994 19:13:00 -0400


Reference has been made numerous times in this Digest that a person's
telephone billing records are business records of the phone company,
and are not personal or private.  As I recall the thread, since these
records belonged to the telco, the phone company could cheerfully hand
them over to the local gendarmes (among others) without a warrant.

Being an ordinary mortal wihout access to Lexis or other legal data
bases, if I tried searching blindly for this case it would take me
forever. Could some kind soul out there in net-land extend a gentle
hand and guide me along?


Thanks muchly,

Danny Burstein   [e-mail] (or [e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (PSS)
Subject: Help With Meridian Trunks
Date: 8 Jun 1994 21:07:06 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


I am having a problem programming an analog trunk card. I need to be
able to program CO Call Forward Variable (72# XXX-XXXX and 73#) on a
1FB (I guess it might not be a 1FB if I run it through the switch, but
I will worry about that later). I would like to run the line thru an
analog trunk to be able to program the forwarding from any phone on
the switch.

My problem is when I seize the trunk with the trunk access code, I
cannot send DTMF directly to the trunk. The PBX seems to be absorbing
digits or not sending them directly. I can seize the trunk and dial a
local number, but not change the CFV.

Any tips?


Thanks,

Paul Samuelson

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

From: [e-mail] (Richard King)
Subject: Toll-Charge 800 numbers
Date: 8 Jun 1994 17:39:51 GMT
Organization: IBM T. J. Watson Research


I just read in my local paper that there is such a thing as toll-
CHARGE, rather than toll-FREE, 800 numbers.  This struck me as so
completely outrageous and bizarre that I was wondering if any of you
folks out there could confirm or deny the existence of such things.


Richard


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes indeed, we do know about these
things. Actually, you are not paying for the call to the 800 number;
you are paying for the 'information' passed over the phone line to you
as part of the call. Consider it like calling an 800 number to make
airline reservations or some mail order purchase. In those instances
you call the number, then make your purchase and give your credit
card number for payment. In the cases you mention however, the charge
for the services rendered (but not the call into the information
provider in and of itself!) is billed to your telephone bill in the
same way 900/976 calls are billed. Since we just finished a thread on
this during the past couple weeks it seems premature to start the
discussion all over again so I refer you to the back issues of this
Digest during the last part of May and the start of June for more
details. The consensus here seems to be most of those operations are
sleazy, however they are legal, and a perfect work-around to the
'problem' many information providers were encountering with 900 of
being unable to collect their fees.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Nathan N. Duehr)
Subject: Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 03:06:27 GMT


[e-mail] wrote:

> Press operators were, I think probably the elite of operators sending
> in the wire telegraph days.  Perhaps those working for brokerage wire
> houses could also put in a claim to this, but I'm not sufficiently
> familiar with them to be able to judge.

Don't forget the railroad ops ... they had their fair share of traffic
as well!


Regards,

Nate Duehr    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (John R. Haggis)
Subject: Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose
Organization: Millennium Research
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 01:07:50 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> sgiblab!hh.sbay.org!terry@
uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com (Terry Greenlee) writes:

> And a special thanks to Pacific Bell.

Yeah, but they were finally just doing their job.  Days/weeks later ...


JohnR ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (John R. Haggis)
Subject: Re: Seeking Answering Machine With Voice Mail
Organization: Millennium Research
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 01:49:07 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> clampett![e-mail]
(Norman R. Nithman) writes:

> I'm looking for an answering machine with at least two voice mailboxes
> in the $100 range.  Any suggestions will be helpful.

Norm,

There are several available <= $100, with caveats.  See my post in
this group with the title: "Re: interactive Voice Mail system for PC".

In summary, National Semi Tyin, Complete PC Communicator EZ, Computer
Peripherals Viva Message Center.  Go to a good computer store.


JohnR  ([e-mail])

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

From: NetSurfer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Correction Re: Bills Online, Action Needed Now
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 21:03:35 HST


On Mon, 6 Jun 1994, Carl Moore wrote:

> Your message to telecom includes:
> >Dale Kildee (D-MI)
> >ph.  202-25-3611         fax  [phone]   NO EMAIL

> Is the first phone number supposed to be 202-225-3611?
> Apparently a digit is missing from it.

Yep - put it to good use ...


James D. Wilson        V.PGP 2.4:   512/E12FCD 1994/03/17
P. O. Box 15432        finger for key / Viacrypt Reseller
Honolulu, HI  96830
Serendipitous Solutions   Also [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 8 Jun 94 14:38:23 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: New Book: The Electronic Traveler


I'd suggest using "+", the country code, the city code, and the local
number.

> Fountain Travel BBS                0273 584827

What country?

> Modern Traveller                   7-0562-425901
> Time Traveler BBS                  886-4-276-0160
> Traveller-Box                      49-7664-95185
> Travelmatic                        39-11-502423

Each of these is the complete telephone number, including the country code?

> Belize Tourism                     011501233711

Should use + instead of the leading 011?

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

From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Geographical Boundaries of COE's Reference Needed
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 94 15:12:34 EDT


I vaguely recall hearing that the correlation between telephone
exchange and location was telephone-company proprietary information.
In that case, what I know (largely -- not all -- being near me) is
just a case of reverse engineering.  I noticed 508-753 in Worcester,
Mass., so if that 617-753 is an actual prefix, it came in after the
617/508 split was fully cut over.  I do correlate telephone exchange
and zipcode if possible, but some phone-company place names turn out
to be nonpostal.  And I am even less familiar with such correlations
occurring outside the United States.

Pilot Books on Long Island (in New York) does publish a zipcode-
areacode correlation.

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

From: [e-mail] (K. M. Peterson)
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?
Date: 8 Jun 1994 14:53:23 GMT
Organization: KMPeterson/Boston


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

> Is it true that you can have your local telephone company BLOCK ANI,
> So that when you call a 800 number they can't know who you are?

> I am not talking about Caller ID. I know the difference.

Speaking of which:

There was a shooting here in Boston a couple of days ago.  I noticed
that the telephone number that our TeeVee stations are advertising to
call information into the Boston Police is an 800- number.

I wonder if the ability to get ANI has anything to do with having an
800-number rather than a local number.

By the way, in Massachusetts, local calls on [non-COCOT] payphones are
still $.10 .


K. M. Peterson    email: [e-mail]
phone: [phone] voice   [phone] fax


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You betcha it does! They are not so much
interested in making sure poor people can call them for free to provide
theories on the crime as they are in getting the phone number of the
people who choose to call for whatever reason. Be extremely careful of
calling those 800 numbers given to 'help the police' as shown on the
shows like 'Unsolved Mysteries' and 'FBI Most Wanted'.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Carl Oppedahl)
Subject: Re: Call Waiting
Date: 9 Jun 1994 01:12:30 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Robert A.
Rosenberg) writes:

> In Article <2su4jt$[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Andrew Taeyon
Kim) wrote:

>> Is there a way to temporarily disable call waiting so that I wouldn't get
>> disconnected in the middle of the download?

> Yes - prefix your number with *70W (or *70,, or, if you have a dial phone,
> 1170,,). Thus *70W1-212-787-3100.

On the central offices I have used, there is quite a noticable stutter
of the dial tone after I dial *70, giving the impression that one must
wait until the dial tone is steady again to dial the rest of the
telephone number.  Contrary to this impression, however, I found I
could leave out the W or the commas.  This saves quite a bit of time
in dialing if it works.  YMMV.


Carl Oppedahl AA2KW    Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers)
Yorktown Heights, NY   voice 212-777-1330


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes Carl, this is quite true. Any of the
service codes which can be prepended to the dialing string will produce
the stutter tone, such as *70 or *67 for ID blocking, etc. I've found
you can dial straight through them without any pause at all.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (S. H. Schwartz)
Subject: Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311?
Date: 8 Jun 1994 17:58:45 GMT
Organization: NYNEX Science & Technology, Inc
Reply-To: [e-mail]


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

> When I dial 311 (I live on LI.N.Y -NYNEX-) I get connected to a
> TELETYPE sounding device. Does anyone know what this is? In the past
> 311 would announce the telephone number you were calling from, like
> 958 does.

THIS RESPONSE IS NOT AN OFFICIAL MESSAGE OF THE NYNEX CORPORATION OR
ANY OF ITS SUBSIDIARIES.

Just covering my rear.  :-)

311 is now set up by NYNEX-New York to handle TDD calls for emergency
services, whether or not 911 is configured in that local area.

TDD = Telecom. device for the deaf


Steven H. Schwartz    Network Operations Laboratory
[e-mail]    NYNEX Science and Technology Center
PROFS: SCHWARTZ@UNIX    400 Westchester Avenue
914-644-2960        White Plains NY 10604

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

From: [e-mail] (Les Reeves)
Subject: Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311?
Date: 8 Jun 1994 17:26:23 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access  [phone]  [login: guest]


Dave Niebuhr ([e-mail]) wrote:

> In TELECOM Digest V14 #274 [e-mail]

>> When I dial 311 (I live on LI.N.Y -NYNEX-) I get connected to a
>> TELETYPE sounding device. Does anyone know what this is? In the past
>> 311 would announce the telephone number you were calling from, like
>> 958 does.

> I posted an article about this not too long ago in TELECOM Digest.
> 311 is used by NYNEX in its service area for hearing impaired people
> to be able contact emergency services in a similar manner as normally
> hearing people do by dialing 911.

> The sound is a TTY device, the same one as heard when dialing a
> hearing impaired person.

Is this the code which the Telecommunications Relay will use nation-wide?
I heard they had lobbied for a standard national access number to the
relay service.

FWIW, 311 has been going to something which does not answer here in
Atlanta for the past two months.


Les     [e-mail]       Atlanta,GA      404.874.7806

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

From: [e-mail] (RKPRKP)
Subject: Re: Is Meridian 1 Option 11 Current?
Date: 8 Jun 1994 14:56:01 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


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

Option 11 is current and there are plans in place to continue to
expand and enhance the product.  I would feel very comfortable
recommending an Option 11 to anyone in the appropriate size range.  If
you have any specific questions, feel free to e-mail me.  I'm with
Southwestern Bell Telecom and we distribute the Northern Telecom
product.  One thing that may be a bit confusing is that the Option 11
has lagged the other Meridian 1 systems by 1 release level in software.
For example, most Meridian 1's are at release 19, while Option 11 is
at Release 18.  By the end of this year that discrepancy should go
away.  The Option 11 is a great system.

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: 8 Jun 94 20:04:00 GMT
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Organization: AT&T


Helpful info:

PacBell runs an ISDN BBS.
510-277-1037 for pokey old modems.
510-823-4888 for speedy new BRI or SDS 56/64K access

The sysop is Scott Adams and can be e-mailed at [e-mail]

Please understand that the LEC sales teams, like many telco sales reps
spend most of their time selling 800 type service, and that data is a
small part of their bag.  Hence the field training is sometimes thin.
PacBell happens to be one of the better LECs wrt getting information
out to the field and the customers.


dee hardiman    (AT&T isdn sales support for N. CA & pacific nw)

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

From: Lynne Gregg <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Bellcore CID Specifications Wanted
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 16:50:00 PDT


Bellcore Customer Service 800/521-CORE in U.S. or 908/699-5800 for
outside U.S.

TR-TSY-000860   ISDN Calling Number ID Services (and Supplement 1).

TR-NWT-000031 LSSGR CLASS Feature Deliv. Calling Number Delivery.


Regards,

Lynne

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 20:48:53 EDT
Subject: Question About FCC FTP


Hello all.  I seem to recall that the FCC began requiring long
distance carriers to file outage reports with the FCC if the outage
resulted in the blockage of over 90,000 calls.  (This was in the wake
of 'the' AT&T outage a couple of years ago.  Remember when their CCS7
crashed?)  Anyway does anyone know if these outage reports are available
thru a FCC FTP?

I'd appreciate any info!


[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 20:56:58 EDT
Subject: Cisco Mail List


Another question, (figured I would make use of a great resource).  Has
anyone ever heard of an Internet distribution list for Cisco?  I saw
it listed in the Internet yellow pages but I have not received any
kind of response back.  (This was two weeks ago.)  If anyone knows
please drop a note.  From what I read about the list it sounds like a
good one to get on to.


Thanks!

[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Help - Telecommuting Information Needed
Organization: University of California, Davis
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 02:36:36 GMT


Hi everyone -

I'm trying to put together a proposal for work to convince the boss to
let a few of us telecommute.  I'm looking for information to present
which shows telecommuting in a positive light. Can anyone recommend
some good sources, either on the net or magazine articles/books/organi-
zations where I might find this type of information?

Thanks in advance!

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

From: [e-mail] (puma)
Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Re: Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal'
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 1994 10:00:00 GMT


> is a common term for the situation which arises when
> a terminarwl user spills their coffee or coke into the ventilating slits
> on top of the terminal casing.  In such an instance, there is usually
> a large "ssssspppppppphhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiittttttzzzzzzzing" sound

And TELECOM Digest Editor partially noted in respose:

> Yes, remember to always keep beverages out of reach. Trouble is most
> of us have to learn the hard way; I know I did.    PAT]

Folks are always spilling drinks into keyboards here.  Some can't be
disassembled or are designed in such a way that they never work again.

The funniest story I have was when a professor spilled a cup of coffee
into the vents of the lower portion of a WYSE computer terminal, where
the circuit board is located.  He then proceeded to try and dry it out
(without cleaning it first) with a heat gun, and melted the plastic
case down on top of the circuit card.


[e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #279
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #280

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 9 Jun 94 09:15:30 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 280

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Bob Larribeau)
    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing (Steve Howard)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?  (Ry Jones)
    Re: Cellular ESN Change (Joseph Renda)
    Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club (Mark Brader)
    Re: Does MCI Have Answer Supervision? (Philip J. Tait)
    1+ 804 + 7D in Virginia (Carl Moore)
    Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D (Stan Schwartz)
    Four-wire to Five-wire Adapter to Use US Modem in England? (Will Dye)
    800 Number Statistics (Dave Leibold)
    35 Residential Lines, and Pac*Bell Tariffs (Christopher Ambler)
    Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency? (Shawn Gordhamer)
    Sources Wanted: Telemedicine and Telecommuting ([e-mail])

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

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*************************************************************************
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* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Bob Larribeau)
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Organization: Consultant
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 14:51:21 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Kevin Martinez)
writes:

> [e-mail] (Michael L Judson) writes:

>> I saw in a news report about a new service from Pacific Bell called
>> "ISDN Anywhere."  When I called up Pac Bell, they had no idea what I
>> was talking about.  The news report didn't give much more information
>> other than they would start offering it in about a month.

>> Does anybody else have any ideas about what is so different about "ISDN
>> Anywhere?"

> Same Old Stuff: Marketing Hype.

> When I finally found a Pac Bell representative that knew what ISDN was
> and the procedures for having it installed, I was told it was not
> available in my exchange (Milpitas, Ca., near the heart of Pac Bell).

> It appears that whatever switching mechanism they have is not up to
> the claims of their Marketing, Advertising and Sales force. Maybe next
> year ...

Call Pac Bell at 1-800-4PB-ISDN and they should be able to give you
the straight story.  The ISDN Anywhere program does not go into effect
until mid-July.  They are setting up this 800 number to handle orders.


Bob Larribeau    Consultant   San Francisco

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

Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 94 17:17:02 MDT
From: Steve Howard <[e-mail]>


In-reply-to: your article <[e-mail]>

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Except something you are forgetting is that
> there are many locations where a payphone would NOT be installed by the
> phone company otherwise which now have them because the COCOT owner was
> willing to put one in at a somewhat higher cost to the end user. There are
> many cases where merchants can not get a *commissioned* coin phone on the
> premises because telco won't give them one unless the traffic volume is
> as high as telco wants it to be

 ..... [snip]

This is a *major* benefit of COCOTs that the FCC must seriously look
at!

Our LEC (US West) will not install a public/coin phone unless they are
fairly sure that it will make plenty of money.  (Can you blame them?).
I think that they are just too conservative in their revenue
estimates.  Due to seasonal nature of our business (skiing!), they
don't like to install their phones at most of our locations :-(.  Here
(and at a previous employer) we have been forced to install COCOTs
becuase their owners are *very* willing to install them at the
locations deemed "undesirable" by US West.  We insist that the rates
"mirror" AT&T rates so that we don't gouge our guests.  (Additionally,
they also offer $1 for four minutes anywhere in the US -- which is
cheaper than residential rates for IntraLATA!).

The COCOTs have been installed at ~10 locations that US West wouldn't
touch.  Those same phones would cost $474.10/month (~$5,690 annually)
if they were owned by US West.  We could not justify the cost of LEC
pubilc phones -- if it weren't for the COCOTs those locations would
not have any public phones.

If the AOSs were eliminated (via FCC ruling or whatever making them
unprofitable) there would only be LEC phones available for public use
in this and other "rural" parts of the country.  When your car breaks
down/or you are involved in an accident in the middle of nowhere you
will be very pleased to find that the walk to the nearest LEC phone
will only take a day or two!  :-( (BTW, don't think that you could
just pick up your cellphone in the above scenario -- many, many, areas
of this country still do not have cell coverage).

I think that the current proposal of "looking up" the receiving
persons IXC (for collect calls) and then handing off the call to that
IXC has some problems: (1) Prohibitively expensive; (2) I have BNS - I
will never use this collect/3rd party lookup -- will I have to share
the cost?  I bet that I will :-( (3) What if I subscribed to one of
the regional carriers and someone tried to call me collect from
outside the service area?  Or worse, placed a third party call billed
to my number where neither party to the conversation was in the
service area of my IXC?

How about a different solution?  Here is one that I have been thinking
about: Why not require all public phones manufactured after date X to
have several carrier select buttons? (similair to the ones at
Stapleton and other airports).  The customer could simply choose the
carrier of his/her choice before placing the call.  The IXCs could pay
a "rent" charge to the public phone owners (i.e. $0.10/call or
whatever) for each call placed by their "button".  This way the
(generally untrainable) American public would have the choice of
several carriers without the need to memorize any codes and the public
phone owners could get reimbursed for the IXCs use of their phone and
thus would be encouraged to install more phones at convenient
locations!  The LEC could even be required to have the carrier select
buttons -- they could then earn the "rent" from the IXC buttons (as
well as FGD charges).  Hopefully this would encourage the LECs to
install more phones and encourage them and the COCOTs to compete
directly.

One of the major problems with this idea: How do you keep all of the
IXC select buttons from being occupied by scummy AOS companies?  Limit
to companies whose rates are in the lowest X%?  Limit to the companies
who don't have a calling card surchage :-) ?


Steve Howard    Town of Breckenridge, Colorado     [e-mail]

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

From: Ry Jones <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 23:37:39 PDT


In article <[e-mail]> TELECOM Digest Editor noted:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But you are discussing a technical
> and/or logistics problem. Things are *not supposed* to happen the way
> you describe. When placing an 800 call through the operator, your
> number is *supposed* to appear on the operator's console and be passed
> the same as usual.

This is true. Emphasis on *supposed*. The 0+ operators are failing,
true, but since they always fail ... the system is broken.

> console then she is *supposed* to inquire about your number and bubble
> it in in the process of releasing the call. I think if you zero plus
> the 800 number it will appear on the console and in further billing

0+800 fails for me.

> records. If you simply dial zero, and pass the number verbally, she is

Here's a transcript of a typical call:

RJ: 0
USW: (bong) USWEST <pause> USWest, how can I help you?
RJ: My 8 key is broken, can you please dial a number for me?
USW: Yes, may I have the number, area code first, please?
RJ: 1 800 265 5328, please.
USW: Please wait...

ATT: Number you are dialing from please?
RJ: 206 xxx xxxx
ATT: Number you would like to call?
RJ: 812 xxx xxxx
ATT: What is your name please?
RJ: Ry.
ATT: Thank you. <ring>
IP <indiana pal>: Hello?
ATT: This is AT&T, I have a collect call from Ry. Will you accept the
charges?
IP: Yeah.
ATT: Thank you.

The number that comes out on the bill of IP is whatever I told ATT.
ATT does *not* get the number from the USW operator. Period. I know
they *should*, they are *supposed* to, but they *don't*.

> supposed to refer you to the double-zero (or long distance carrier's)
> operator. Now granted, many operators do not bother to follow the
> rules on this. They are supposed to handle it the same way they (are

There you go. Lazy operators.

> supposed to) handle calls to 911 placed through the operator: take the
> caller's number -- if it is not already in the system for some reason
>  -- and pass it along. For instance with 911, the operator is supposed
> to stay on the line until 911 answers and pass the calling party's
> number so the 911 dispatcher can key it in manually.  So I think when you

I have not had to call 911 in 206, and if I did, I sure wouldn't try
to defeat ANI or anything. But the theory is interesting.

> are not receiving ANI as a result of a call being placed through the
> operator it is the exception rather than the rule.  And I believe that
> when you do this, many times you *just think* the ANI is not getting
> passed when in fact the operator bubbles or forces it into the network
> without specifically telling you that is what she is doing.

However, evidence suggests this is not true. I place collect calls all
the time in this manner and the 800 collect operator asks for my
number. By calling 800 ANI demos from the 0 operator, I get the INWARD
DID number. (If the INWARD dialed it). If I direct dial an 800 demo,
boom, ANI in full form. If I have the 0+ operator do it, no ANI is
passed. I agree this is a failure of US West's, but this technique
works in PacBell, Ameritech, SWBell, NyNex ... everywhere.

> The general rule though is correct: if you call an 800 number in the
> normal and usual way, with 1+800+ then there are no secrets. By the

Correct. But I have never had a problem calling 1 800 collect from the
0 operator and hiding the calling number. Every time I do so, I am
asked for my number.

> way, will zero plussing an 800 number work in your location?  One person
> said to me once that 0+800+ always went to intercept in his switch.  PAT]

This is true. I cannot 0+800, it intercepts before I finish dialing.


[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Whenever I zero plus anything (although
like you, my zero plus 800 fails to complete) the operator always has
my number available without asking me anything. When I call collect,
using zero plus which is rare, she merely asks my name. Even just dialing
zero to get the operator produces my number on her console. I know this
since I dialed zero and asked to speak to a supervisor. When my call was
passed the operator advised the supervisor that 'subscriber wishes to
speak with the supervisor, he is calling from 708-xxx-xxxx.'

I certainly hope you are not giving a phalse number to the operator
when she asks for it. The reason is, even if you are calling collect,
should the called party later refuse to pay for the call, it will be
bounced back to the 'caller' for payment, which would be whatever
number you had given. Billing options such as collect and third-party
are courtesies extended by telco and not absolute. That is, the rule
that you are responsible for the use of your instrument still applies.
If other methods of collection fail, then it is your problem; you
placed the call and used the network. I guess this comes down to
whether or not the operators are (1) equipped to see the calling number
or not and (2) if they are doing their job correctly.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Joseph Renda)
Subject: Re: Cellular ESN Change
Date: 8 Jun 1994 19:30:06 -0400
Organization: Communications Accessibles Montreal, Quebec Canada


In article <[e-mail]>, Robert S. Helfman
<[e-mail]> wrote:

> I recently purchased a Motorola PC-550 flip phone. Since I was already
> a PacTel cellular customer (using a transportable Motorola), this was
> a very easy switch. I just called PacTel Cellular, gave them some
> personal identification and the new ESN, and in 20 minutes they had
> made the switch.

> My question is (and I suspect this has been answered before):

> In what form is the ESN stored in the Motorola phones? Is it a
> removable ROM? A PROM? What would be involved in changing it? I
> clearly understand the prohibition of two phones with the same phone
> number being on the system at the same time. But being single, and
> having no reason whatever to use both phones at the SAME time, there
> ARE times when I would like to use the transportable (say, while
> driving on a long trip where the added range and battery life would be
> useful).

Many times this is a simple bi-polar Prom. usually a 32x8 bit.

Newer phones have ESN & NAM inside some VLSI chips ...

> PacTel's central folks said there is no problem switching ESN's any
> time I want to. They have no company policy that discourages this, and
> it only takes a phone call and about 20 minutes to an hour to make the
> switch. BUT, it would be a lot easier if I could diddle the ESN on my
> transportable to match my flip phone. Then, whichever one happens to
> be powered up will be the one that the systems 'sees'.

> Just how big a job is this? Does anyone have the technical details?
> [Yeh, PAT, I know YOU have probably seen this before, and I'm sure you
> think it's some kind of mortal sin to consider the possibility.]

> I am sure that some of the 'gangster' cellular phone stores along
> Crenshaw Blvd would be delighted to do this for me, but I feel certain
> that when they were through, half the cellular phones in the area
> would be charging to my account.

This is a "very" big possiblity. I know, that when I recieve cellular
phones for repairs, I tend to look the phone "totally" over. But once
I have your ESN the NAM isn't real hard; it can be accessed via the
keypad.  Its the ESN that really needs to be "protected".

All you really need to commit fraud is your ESN and NAM. The NAME
is nothing but your cellular phone number.


Joseph Renda    N.K.E. Computer Development   Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 04:35:25 -0400
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club


> When 1 700 555 4141 is dialed from a Toronto phone, the following
> recording is heard:

> "Your provider of long distance service is Bell Canada. Thank you for
> choosing us. This is a recording... 416 11"

Not when I tried it just now from my home phone (416-488-XXXX).

I got as far as 1-700-5554 and at this point heard one ring followed
by "We're sorry. Your call cannot be completed as dialed ...".  This
is particularly interesting since we haven't had 1 + seven digit
dialing in this area for several years now.


Mark Brader, [e-mail]   SoftQuad Inc., Toronto

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

From: [e-mail] (Philip J. Tait)
Subject: Re: Does MCI Have Answer Supervision?
Date: 8 Jun 1994 22:51:01 GMT
Organization: AlliedSignal Engines
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Philip J. Tait)


Summary:

Various people replied, with various viewpoints.  An ex-MCI employee
said that MCI does have answer-supervision, whereas an "AT&T dweeb"
stated that only AT&T has it.  One person claimed to have had a
substantial number of answer supervision failures with AT&T.

I plan to gather evidence of incorrectly-charged calls, and pursue the
matter.


Philip J. Tait         AlliedSignal Engines, Phoenix, Az        [phone]
GED::B12635         [e-mail]         [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 9 Jun 94 00:43:03 EDT
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: 1 + 804 + 7D in Virginia


As of May 16, area 804 in Virginia has permissive 1 + 804 + 7D for
long distance within it.  This becomes mandatory on Nov. 16.

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

From: [e-mail] (Stan Schwartz)
Subject: Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D
Date: 8 Jun 1994 20:05:04 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


It seems like it would just be simpler to split the 716 NPA into a new
NPA for NYNEX and non-NYNEX LATAs.  This would force uniform dialing
requirements.


Stan

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

From: [e-mail] (Will Dye)
Subject: Four-wire to Five-wire Adapter to Use US Modem in England?
Date: 9 Jun 1994 05:08:49 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln


I'm shipping out a modem to a customer in England.  The customer tells
me that his phone jack, I think they're called RJ11 adapters or
something like that, has five wires in it.  But the jacks I normally
plug into a modem have four wires.  I've seen some with six wires in a
PBX phone, but never five wires.

The local electronics stores don't know what I'm talking about, and
say they've never heard of a four-wire to five-wire adapter.  Am I
nuts?  Did my customer count wrong?  Does such an adapter exist?  If
so, I'd like to have the address and phone number of the store that
carries them.


Will
Non-disclaimer:  Well whaddaya know?!  This time I AM speaking
for my employer!

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Leibold)
Date: 08 Jun 94 23:35:39 -0500
Subject: 800 Number Statistics
Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway


{Washington Post} (as reported in {The Toronto Star}) had an item on
the growth of toll-free "800" number services.

An AT&T service marketing executive gave the following stats:

- approximately 3 million U.S. 800 numbers in use in the U.S.

- a prediction of another million numbers in service this year
  (which, assuming 8 million possible 800 numbers of NXX.XXXX form,
  and assuming current growth, means 800 number capacity would be
  exhausted by 1998)

- of 160 million AT&T network calls, more than 40% are for the 800 service.

- 22 billion 800 calls made in 1993; AT&T's market share of that is 60%

The continued popularity of 800 is partly due to lower monthly costs
and competitive provision of service.

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

From: [e-mail] (Christopher Ambler)
Subject: 35 Residential Lines, and Pac*Bell Tariffs
Organization: The Phishtank
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 1994 06:40:39 GMT


I recently ordered an engineering report to have 35 POTS residential
measured-service lines installed for a network we're installing
(we're, as in myself, and 32 friends. A real live cooperative Internet
setup using 28.8KBPS modems to run PPP. But I digress :-)).

The engineer told me okay, and that they'd be in touch with me within
a week or so, but also mentioned that if there was construction that
had to be done in order to get us that many lines, I might have to pay
for part of it.

Can anyone quote me the tariffs in this case, or tell me where to find
them? Must I drive to Monterey to look at them at Pac*Bell's office? I
hope not.

Thanks in advance!


++Christopher(); // Christopher J. Ambler ([e-mail])

The above verbosity is strictly the opinion of the author, his dogs, various
AI, an ISDN Internet connection, and the occasional Ozric Tentacles CD.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Say, whatever happened with that lawsuit
you guys -- you and roomates? -- were going to file against Sprint for
cheating you out of all those fax modems you allege you were entitled to
as a result of switching all your phone lines over? Did that ever get
resolved?  You never did give us the final summary.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Shawn Gordhamer)
Subject: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 12:17:05 GMT


I'd like to get my mom a cheap bag cellular phone at a pawn shop to
stash in the glove box.  Even though it is not connected, I am hoping
911 will still work.  I think it will, because I can change my cell
phone to the B setting where I am not registered, and when I dial a
number, an operator comes on asking for my ESN, a credit card, the
name of my first-born son, etc.  I haven't tried 911, but I assume it
will work or at least give me an operator who would connect me to
Emergency.

Is this assumption correct?  Can any cellular phone be used for calls
to Emergency even if they are not registered?  If so, this would be a
good thing for people to stash in their cars and should be encouraged
for those who have no plans to establish cellular service.


Shawn Gordhamer    [e-mail]   Rochester, Minnesota  USA

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

From: [e-mail] (TeleConXIV)
Subject: Sources Wanted: Telemedicine and Telecommuting
Date: 9 Jun 1994 08:59:04 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


We're looking for people currently using desktop video conferencing or
collaborative computing systems for telemedicine or telecommuting.
Please e-mail information on your application, locations, numer of
people involved, duration of use, systems and networks being used.

Include your name, title, organization, address, phone and fax numbers
so we may contact you.  Indicate if you wopuld be willing to speak in
October at TeleCon XIV - Anaheim, CA about your work.

We also want to write an article of applications for {TeleConference
Magazine}.

E-mail info to:  [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #280
******************************


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Date: Fri, 10 Jun 94 13:49:46 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #282

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 10 Jun 94 13:49:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 282

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Book Review: "The Instant Internet Guide" by Heslop/Angell (Rob Slade)
    Information Wanted  on SMDI (Bill McMullin)
    "Re-readiating" Car Cellular Antennas (Greg Vaeth)
    Infomation WAN's Requested (Matthew Scott Weisberg)
    Optical to Electrical Converters? (Carl Silva)
    Caller ID With a New Twist (Kevin Bluml)
    Emergency Services Without Dialing (Josh Backon)
    Forwarding and PacBell (Steve Cogorno)
    CellularOne/Detroit Announces Rate Change (Matthew Scott Weisberg)
    Ericsson on the Information Superhighway (Ken Ryan)
    Slamproofing Your Phone Line (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
    Summer Course in Berkeley (Richard Tsina)
    Network Tech Course in Berkeley This Summer (Richard Tsina)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "The Instant Internet Guide" by Heslop/Angell
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 12:10:00 MDT


BKINSINT.RVW  940324

Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
Heather Rignanesi, Marketing, x340, [e-mail]
P.O. Box 520  26 Prince Andrew Place
Don Mills, Ontario   M3C 2T8
416-447-5101   fax: [phone]
or
Tiffany Moore, Publicity  [e-mail]
Bob Donegon  [e-mail]
John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing [e-mail]
Tom Stone, Editor, Higher Education Division  [e-mail]
Philip Sutherland, Schulman Series [e-mail]
1 Jacob Way
Reading, MA   01867-9984
800-822-6339  617-944-3700
Fax: [phone]
5851 Guion Road
Indianapolis, IN   46254
800-447-2226
"The Instant Internet Guide", Heslop/Angell, 1994, 0-201-62707-8,
U$14.95/C$18.95
[e-mail] [e-mail]


This is an easy, step-by-step, keystroke-by-keystroke, guide that will
get you onto the Internet instantly -- providing you are using (1) a
dial-up UNIX based Internet provider; (2) pine; and, (3) tin.  (It
also helps if you already know your way around a modem, but let's not
quibble.)

With few exceptions, the content is readable and aimed at the newcomer
getting onto the net.  There is never any overload with technical
details, but it would be hard to say that any basic information is
missing.  Certain simplifications may lead to misconceptions.  The
phrase, "logging on to the Internet," is used to refer to logging on
to the access provider or host.  The concept of the Internet as a
multi-faceted entity, rather than a single entity, can be important to
activities such as telnet, gopher and World Wide Web.

Chapters two and three give an introduction to pine and tin.  They
also introduce email and Usenet news.  For those who are using only
pine and tin, this presents no problems, but for those, probably a
majority, who are using mail agents and news readers other than pine
or tin, the general concepts are interwoven with the program
specifics.  This is not to say that the chapters are useless if you
are using other programs.  The material is clearly presented and
logical.  This one major flaw is perhaps the result of relying on
experience from only a single system, and it is too bad it degrades
from what is otherwise a generally logical and "friendly"
presentation.  Two minor oddities are the discussing of mail lists
under news, rather than mail, and the lack of any discussion of
finding email addresses either in chapter two or chapter six (which
covers search tools).

Chapter four is perhaps more telnet than beginners really need, with
an odd digression into IRC.  Chapter five is a very solid presentation
of ftp, including the various types of archiving and compression
programs, but silent on unencode.  Most of the general searching and
resource tools, such as archie, gopher, WAIS and World Wide Web are
logically grouped in chapter six.  Chapter seven is "UNIX in About an
Hour."  It may take a bit longer than that if you want to try things
out, but the basics are there, and the placement in the book is
appropriate.  There is one appendix giving contact info for (again,
mostly US) Internet service providers.

With the noted exceptions, the book is well put together and tightly
crafted.  One senses, however, a lack of feeling for the Internet
which pervades, say, a "Zen (BKZENINT.RVW) or "Whole Internet"
(BKKROL.RVW).  This is a professional book, greatly useful to some,
potentially more useful to a number of others if the system
specificity can be corrected.


copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKINSINT.RVW  940324. Distribution
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.


DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer [e-mail], [e-mail], Rob Slade at 1:153/733
BCVAXLUG ConVAXtion, Vancouver, BC, Oct. 13 & 14, 1994 contact [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 12:25:14 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Bill McMullin)
Subject: Information Wanted  on SMDI


Patrick, I am trying to find articles and technical information on
SMDI.  Is there some place in the Telecom Archives where I might look?

Also I want to find out what the physical connection is between a
telco switch (DMS, AT&T etc) and their voice mail systems such as
those provided by Octel.  Is there some standard connection such as
PRI or SMDI that handles the signalling which tells the voice mail
system that a call was forwarded from a residence or business.

Since there are typically two proprietary systems (switch & voice
mail) the voice mail companies such as Octel must receive the DNIS
before the call is answered.  How do they get this information?

Any help appreciated.


Bill McMullin

InterActive Telecom   Ph: 902-832-1014
1550 Bedford Hwy.     Fx: 902-832-1015
Sun Tower Suite 304   Em: [e-mail]
Bedford, Nova Scotia  B4A 1E6


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The Archives is getting to be so large
I don't always know myself what all is there from day to day. A new
index to the archives is being prepared now and will be circulated on
the net probably over the weekend. In addition, the author/subject
index to the Digest for the first part of this year (through issue
250) is also being organized and probably will be available using
the SEARCH command via the Email Information Service in a few days.
Watch for the summer, 1994 index in this newsgroup soon.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Greg Vaeth at General Instrument)
Subject: "Re-readiating" Car Cellular Antennas
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 15:24:42 GMT


Does anyone have any experience with the car antennas that are to be
used with a hand-held or luggable cell phone? I mean the type that
does not actually connect to the phone, but looks like a normal cell
antenna on the outside, and has a little stub on the inside.  The guy
at Radio Shack said they work great, but I would like "independent"
confirmation.

Thanks.


Regards,

Gregory Vaeth                    General Instrument
internet: [e-mail]      Communications Division
voicenet: [phone]         2200 Byberry Road
faxnet:   [phone]         Hatboro, PA  19040

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

From: [e-mail] (Matthew Scott Weisberg)
Subject: Infomation WAN's Requested
Date: 9 Jun 1994 12:29:52 -0400
Organization: UMCC, Ann Arbor, MI


Hello.

I am currently seeking advice/information on metropolitan WANs.  I am
currently serving on a computer advisory committee to my local city
council.  While I am quite informed on LANs, I have little or no
experience in the area of WANs.

We are looking at linking the City Hall, Police Department, Library
and four Fire Departments on a City Wide WAN.  City Hall currently has
a Novell Netware Network running 10BASET Ethernet with Synoptics
concentrators.  No other buildings have networks.  We are planning on
Netware LANs in the other locations.  We may also connect the city's
engineering firm into the WAN.  Specific uses are for a City-Wide
Database of information, electronic mail, and other data sharing (i.e.
AutoCAD drawings, voter-reg. info, etc.).

 From what I have gathered on the net and other sources, I was
thinking about doing the following:

Using 56K leased lines to connect the various locations.
I assume I would need a CSU/DSU and Bridge in each location.

My questions are as follows:

1) Ameritech is the RBOC here. I will call them for pricing info, but
are there competitors? Can they offer the same services as the RBOC?
Or am I best off staying with Ameritech?

2) The Police Department, City Hall and Library are all within walking
distance of one another.  Is there another better solution then
leasing lines for those short distances?  Is it common to string up
cable on the telco poles?

3) Is 56k the correct type of service, both speed and cost wise?

4) Is there a definitive book on How-To-Do WANs? Not something glossed over,
I mean the nitty-gritty down to what type of CSU/DSU, bridge, router etc ...

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.


Matt Weisberg, CNE       MILLIWAYS - Computer and Network Consulting
PP-ASEL                              21650 West Eleven Mile Road #202
Amateur Radio: KF8OH                 Southfield, MI 48076
Internet: [e-mail]    [phone] Fax:[phone]

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

From: Carl Silva <[e-mail]>
Subject: Optical to Electrical Converters Wanted
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 12:00:00 GMT


    Is anyone aware of who provides optical to electrical
converters?  I am interested to locate manufacturers in this area to
desing a video distribution network, whwre the backbone is fiber optic
and the connections to the subscribers is a passive cable network.


Carl

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

Date: Thu, 9 Jun 94 10:37:38 CDT
From: [e-mail] (Kevin Bluml)
Subject: Caller ID With a New Twist


US West in Minneapolis/St. Paul area has a interesting version of the
Caller ID bag of services. It seems to handle many of the previously
noted concerns fairly well - Here is a synopsis:

Caller ID - Name and number - $5.95
            Number only     - $5.50

Note that Caller ID includes the "Anonymous Call Rejection" feature.
(Sounds like they assume you want that whether you ask or not, it
doesn't say whether they can be separated)

Last Call Return            - $2.95 (Calls last caller if not blocked)
Call Rejection              - $4.50 (the list of numbers you don't want to
                                     hear from)
Priority Call            - $3.50 (Special ring for certain group of #s)
Continuos Redial            - $3.50 (redials busy numbers for you)
Selective Call Forwarding   - $3.50 (Forwarding version of Priority Call)
Call Trace                  - $1.00/use (For Harassing/Obscene calls - Info
                                        forwarded to US West Security for
                                        future use - Can't be blocked)

The interesting and new (at least to me) area is how they handle Call
Blocking -

Per Call Blocking           - Free  (*67 prevents name/number from being
                                     delivered, also prevents Last Call Return)
Per Line Blocking           - Free  (Functions the same as above w/o having
                                     to do it for each call)
Per Line Blocking Unblocking - Free  (*82 Unblocks the blocking in place -
                                       Notice that this eliminates the
                                       *67 toggle problem)

Checking the status of your blocking -- they provide a number to call
that will tell you whether blocking is active on your line or not.

I can't tell you for sure how they all interact -- since it isn't
starting for a few weeks, and I won't be getting many of them anyway,
but I do like the blocking/unblocking combination they came up with.

All in all seems to be a good combination of features.


Kevin V. Bluml  - Cray Research Inc. 612-683-3036
USMail -   655 - Lone Oak Drive, Eagan, MN 55121
Internet - [e-mail]  UUCP - uunet!cray!kevin

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Emergency Services Without Dialing
Date: 9 Jun 94 15:33:15 GMT
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem


BEZEK, the Israeli PTT will soon offer a service that will connect
subscribers to an emergency center if they lift the phone receiver for
ten seconds without dialing. The service is aimed primarily at the
elderly and those convalescing at home. The service will automatically
link subscribers in distress to one of seven emergency centers. The
person on duty will call an ambulance, the police, fire department, or
even an electrician or plumber depending on the problem.

This service may be of value to those who are unable to dial the usual
emergency number (e.g. 911).


Josh    [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The local telephone company for Park Ridge/
Des Plaines, Illinois and part of Chicago-Newcastle (Centel) has offered
this service for quite a few years. They call it 'warm line', and it
works just as you describe it. A phone off hook with nothing dialed after
a few seconds is automatically routed to whatever number was pre-programmed
at the central office switch. It need not be to the police; it can be
wherever the suscriber told telco to forward it. The subscriber is not
able to remotely change the forwarding however; it has to be done on an
order through the business office.  I think they get a couple dollars
per month for it. Illinois Bell never has offered it.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Cogorno)
Subject: Forwarding and PacBell
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 17:22:54 PDT


Well, I think I finally got my phone service hooked up correctly after
two weeks and several hours on the phone of nagging Pac Bell.  It
really irks me that the reps *assume* that I really don't know what I
want.  I wish I could have written the original order myself!

Call 1) Added new line 459-xxxx and should busy/delay call forward to
    457-yyyy.

But it didn't work.

Call 2)    Order was typed wrong, 459-xxxx calls were being sent to 459-xxxx.
    (Yes - I know, the same number)  This time the representative said
    it would be fixed.

But it wasn't.

Call 3) After several mysterious wrong numbers for "Linda" I called Pac Bell
    AGAIN - it turns out they were forwarding my calls from 457-xxxx,
    which isn't my number, to 457-yyyy which IS my number.  The last four
    digits are mine, but the prefix isn't.  Somehow this got into my file
    because the first rep suggested I get hunting which required the same
    prefix (I didn't want hunting - I needed delay forwarding too) They
    re-issued the order, and corrected it to be 459-xxxx  -> 457-yyyy.
    Will definately be fixed by 5 today.

It's 5, and it isn't.

Call 4)    Turns out that they forgot to enter the AREA CODE on the order, and
    it was programmed to forward calls to 415 457-yyyy instead of
    408 457-yyyy.  Supposedly, my calls from Santa Cruz, were being sent
    to Marin (north of San Francisco), some 100 miles away.  New
    estimate, working in two hours MAX.

We'll see.


Steve    [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, two hours has passed. Heck, a full
day has passed by the time this is in circulation on the net. Got any
followup report for us?   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Matthew Scott Weisberg)
Subject: CellularOne/Detroit Announces Rate Change
Date: 9 Jun 1994 23:36:09 -0400
Organization: UMCC, Ann Arbor, MI


For those of use who use the Cellular Phone Call Forwarding Feature to
avoid local toll calls, there was some bad news today, at least in
Detroit ...  I received the following in the mail:

"RATE CHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT

Effective July 1, 1994, there will be a $.15/minute usage charge
applied to all Call Forwarding, Busy Transfer and No-Answer Transfer
calls.  Local, toll or long-distance charges may apply.  Feature usage
does not count toward minutes included in rate plans or usage tiers."

I wonder if Ameritech, the RBOC here and CellOne's competition here,
is doing the same thing?

Also, is this being done specifically because of people doing the "Call
Forwarding Scam?"

It sounds to me like they are just trying to find another way to make
even more money (I guess it IS why they are in business ... heh).

Since my phone was stolen, and I have no phone right now, I'd be
tempted to switch to Ameritech if they haven't done the same!


Matt Weisberg, CNE      MILLIWAYS - Computer and Network Consulting
PP-ASEL                             21650 West Eleven Mile Road #202
Amateur Radio: KF8OH                Southfield, MI 48076
Internet: [e-mail]   [phone] Fax:[phone]

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

From: LME.LMEDISTR <[e-mail]>
Subject: Ericsson on the Information Superhighway
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 09:37:00 +0100


                                       PRESS RELEASE
                                       1994-06-10

ERICSSON ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

Ericsson has opened a public information service in the Internet,
one of the 'information superhighways'. The new service provides
information about Ericsson's systems and activities to a broad
international audience.

Internet is an interconnected group of computer networks linking
roughly 2.5 million computers. Each computer typically serves a
number of people; the Internet has an estimated 25 million users.
About two-thirds of the networks connected to Internet are owned
by companies, the remainder are academic and government owned. It
is also possible for individuals to connect through public service
providers.

The technology behind Ericsson's system was originated at CERN in
Switzerland. It allows reading and transfer of texts, color
graphics, software and even sound from central computers to remote
workstations and PC's connected anywhere in the network. The
information presented to users can be located on any number of
interlinked computers, and the reader can follow a thread from one
text or picture to another without knowing where the information
is physically stored. The concept is known as the world wide web.

Ericsson's information base will contain press releases, texts
extracted from Ericsson's customer, technical and internal
periodicals, systems information and job openings. It also
provides bi-directional links for reader feedback, and will be
developed in response to user reactions.

The service can be accessed at Internet address www.ericsson.nl

Ericsson's 70,000 employees are active in more than 100 countries.
Their combined expertise in switching, radio and networking makes
Ericsson a world leader in telecommunications.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Ken Ryan, International Press Officer, Ericsson
Tel. [phone], e-mail: lme.lmekr at memo.ericsson.se

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

From: [e-mail] (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
Subject: Slamproofing Your Phone Line
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 09:10:00 EDT


I called NYNEX today to have comprehensive premium service blocking
(900, 976, 550, etc.) activated on my new line.  My conversation with
the rep drifted from 900 horror stories to LD companies practicing
slamming.  She informed me that NYNEX will now "freeze" a customer's
account, denying requests for presubscription changes unless the
customer requests the change directly through NYNEX.  The freeze was
free of charge.  It's good to know that the next time my father sics
the Friends and Family police on me, I don't have to worry about any
potential confusion.

The rep also told me that NYNEX will bill any carrier who slams a
non-freezed customer for the $10 in fees ($5 to switch to the slamming
carrier, $5 to switch back to the customer's preferred carrier),
unless the company can provide NYNEX with a signed request from the
customer.  She said she's noticed a bit of a decline in certain
companies' slamming practices.


Jeffrey W. McKeough   [e-mail]

[TD Editor's Note: The writer adds his own postcript.  PAT]

[Signature snipped to spare Pat some editing.  Jackie Kennedy was a
wonderful symbol for our nation, and a wonderful role model for anyone
who has dealt with tragedy and persevered.  Even people in my
generation (I'm 24) felt a sense of loss, despite having been born
after the Camelot era.  Rest in peace, Mrs. Onassis.]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Summer Course in Berkeley
Date: 10 Jun 1994 17:57:03 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley


U.C. BERKELEY   Continuing Education in Engineering
Announces a short course on Wireless Technology:

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
(July 26-27, 1994)

     There are technical bottlenecks to developing a ubiquitous
wireless multimedia environment: the capacity of the radio link, its
unreliability due to the adverse multipath propagation channel, and
severe interference from other channels.

     This course covers the principles and fundamental concepts
engineers need to tackle these limitations (e.g., a thorough treatment
of channel impairments such as fading and multipath dispersion and
their effect on link and network performance).  Topics include:
Introduction to Wireless Channels, Cellular Telephone Networks, Analog
and Digital Transmission and Wireless Data Networks.  Comprehensive
course notes will be provided.

Lecturer: JEAN-PAUL M.G. LINNARTZ, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of
California, Berkeley.  His work on traffic analysis in mobile radio
networks received the Veder Prize, an innovative research in
telecommunications award in the Netherlands.  At Berkeley he works on
communications for intelligent vehicle highway systems and multimedia
communications.  Professor Linnartz is the author of numerous
publications and the book "Narrow Land-Mobile Radio Networks" (Artech
House, 1993), the text for the course.

For more information (brochure with complete course descriptions,
outlines, instructor bios, etc.,) send your postal address to:

Richard Tsina
U.C. Berkeley Extension
Continuing Education in Engineering
2223 Fulton St.
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Network Tech Course in Berkeley this Summer
Date: 10 Jun 1994 18:04:45 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley


U.C. BERKELEY   Continuing Education in Engineering
Announces a short course on  Communication Networks:

COMMUNICATION NETWORKS: FROM FDDI TO ATM
(August 9-10, 1994)

     This course provides an overview of the operating principles and
design guidelines for communication networks, and includes a
description of the popular current networks and a discussion of major
industry trends.  Topics include: History and Operating Principles,
Open System Interconnection, Overview of High-Speed Networks, Physical
Layer, Switching, Trends in Data Networks (FDDI, DQDB, Frame Relay,
SMDS), Trends in Telecommunication Networks (SONET, Fiber to the home,
ISDN, Intelligent Networks, ATM) , Topological Design of Networks,
Control of ATM Networks.  Comprehensive course notes will be provided.

Lecturers:

PRAVIN VARAIYA, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley.  At Berkeley he
works on stochastic systems, communication networks, power systems and
urban economics. He is the author of "Stochastic Systems: Estimation,
Identification, and Adaptive Control" (Prentice-Hall, 1986) and
coeditor of "Discrete Event Systems: Models and Applications"
(Springer, 1988).  He is a fellow of the IEEE.

JEAN WALRAND, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Sciences, University of California, Berkeley.  He is the author of "An
Introduction to Queuing Networks" (Prentice-Hall, 1988) and
"Communication Networks: A First Course" (Irwin/Aksen, 1991).

For more information (brochure with complete course descriptions,
outlines,instructor bios, etc.,) send your postal address to:

Richard Tsina
U.C. Berkeley Extension
Continuing Education in Engineering
2223 Fulton St.
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #282
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #283

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 10 Jun 94 15:46:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 283

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Jonathan Haruni)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (John Adams)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Supak Lailert)
    Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club (Mark S. Brader)
    Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing (Wes Leatherock)
    Re: Does MCI Transmit CNID? (Darren Alex Griffiths)
    Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA (Really Cell One Features) (Dan Lanciani)
    Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted (Michael Covington)
    Re: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts (Jan Ceuleers)
    Re: Sources Wanted: Telemedicine and Telecommuting (Linda Garross)
    Re: Sources Wanted: Telemedicine and Telecommuting ([e-mail])
    Re: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency? ([e-mail])
    Re: Help - Telecommuting Information Needed (Peter M. Weiss)
    v.35 (T1) Board for Linux Available Soon (Joseph Kruckenberg)
    International Callback Services (Ed Swenson)
    Re: Call Waiting (Brett Frankenberger)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Les Reeves)
    The Jargon File (was Re: 'Steaming Terminal') (Andrew C. Green)
    Re: Last Laugh! Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' (A. Shapiro)
    How Many Readers Are There of This Digest? (Lynne Gregg)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Jonathan Haruni)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Date: 10 Jun 1994 15:54:50 GMT
Organization: Micrognosis, a division of CSK(UK)


Bob Maccione <[e-mail]> wrote:

> With all of the calling card fraud going on out there I'm curious as
> to why the card companies don't issue cards that can't be used for
> international calls.

In the UK, when you order a card from British Telecom you can request
one of three options:

  - unrestricted
  - International and operator-assisted calls barred
  - calls only to one preselected number

If you choose the third option, you don't even have to dial the number
when you use the card, and even if you don't choose the third option,
you get to attach one "quick dial" number to the card.

The third option is advertised as ideal for getting extra cards for
your kids, so that they will never have an excuse not to have phoned
home.  If you get multiple cards they can have different restrictions
and different quick-dial numbers.

And the PIN is not on the card.


Jon

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

From: [e-mail] (John Adams)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Date: 10 Jun 1994 18:06:30 GMT
Organization: Tallahassee Free-Net


Sam Spens Clason ([e-mail]) wrote:

> How big a part of all calling card frauds could be avoided if the PIN
> wasn't actually printed on the card?!

> So, stop printing the PIN on calling cards, that would not make them
> as easely used if stolen or just glimpsed at.

IMHO, not printing the PIN on the card wouldn't make a big difference.
Everyone I know has their card number memorized and does not carry
their card.

The problem, or angle, is that a crook can stand at one payphone and
simply watch what numbers you press on the keypad.  Perhaps this easy
tactic is the reason for the wave of "voice cards" (a la Sprint) where
you speak the name of a preprogrammed voice sample/digit sequence to
place a call?


John M. Adams  -*-  Vax Systems Manager, NADEP Pensacola FL
Inet:  [e-mail] *or* [e-mail]
Sysop of the Beachside - 1.904.492.2305 28.8k DS  (Fidonet)

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

From: [e-mail] (Supak Lailert "spk")
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Date: 10 Jun 1994 08:45:28 GMT
Organization: San Diego State University Computing Services


Sam Spens Clason ([e-mail]) wrote:

> How big a part of all calling card frauds could be avoided if the PIN
> wasn't actually printed on the card?!

> So, stop printing the PIN on calling cards, that would not make them
> as easely used if stolen or just glimpsed at.

As I called MCI early this week to request for a new calling card,
they give me an option not to have the PIN printed on my card. Nice
move, MCI.


Supak Lailert -- MBA (Information System) Program, San Diego State University
[e-mail]   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 14:02:26 -0400
Subject: Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club


>>> "Your provider of long distance service is Bell Canada. Thank you for
>>> choosing us. This is a recording... 416 11"

>> Not when I tried it just now from my home phone (416-488-XXXX).

> Bizarre.  Works fine from my home number (416 486-).  I think there
> are two DMS100s in the 50 Eglinton building; perhaps 488 and 486
> are not on the same one. ...

Or they're still experimenting somehow or other and we just tried it at
different times.

> Do you subscribe to a non-Bell LD service that perhaps has already
> PIC'd you ?

No.

However, my office (416-239-XXXX) has LD service from Fonarola.  We
dial local or operator-assisted calls with 9, and Fonarola calls with
81.  9-1 produces a busy signal, so I can't try 9-1-700-555-4141.
9-0-700-5554 produces the "must dial 1 or 0 message" you mentioned.
And 81-1-700 or 81-700 (the 1 is optional on normal calls through them
for us) is intercepted at *that* point and produces:

 Fonarola.  4 1 6 10 3.  We're sorry, you're call cannot be
 completed as dialed. Please dial the number with the area code
 first.  This is a recording.

We dial international calls with 81-011-, so 81-0 works, but 81-07
apparently puts the system into an error state, just giving rapid
clicking on the line.

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

From: [e-mail] (Wes Leatherock)
Date: 10 Jun 94 10:18:07 -0600
Subject: Re: FCC Seeks Further Comments on 0+ Call Routing
Organization: Fidonet: The Tranquility Grille


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you say is true, but you must
> remember that the recipient has the right to refuse the collect
> shipment or telegram or whatever. If Federal Express shows up at my
> door with a package I did not order and it was sent collect, do you
> think I am going to pay for it? I just tell the man to take it back
> wherever it came from; then when the recipient gets it back he *has* to
> pay, even for the non-delivery since he caused the freight company to
> carry the package both ways, etc......]

        This called up a memory of when I used to have need to read
freight tariffs and the phrase in the tariff that covers this on
returned shipments:

        "...earning freight both ways."


Wes Leatherock  [e-mail]
[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, and a lot of the freight companies
are adamant about this point: "we hauled it one way; we hauled it
back; that's two trips, so you pay twice ..." although most will settle
for being paid once.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Darren Alex Griffiths)
Subject: Re: Does MCI Transmit CNID?
Date: 10 Jun 1994 12:01:30 -0700
Organization: Fujitsu Open Systems Solutions, Inc.


[e-mail] (Glen Roberts) writes:

> I get CNID from Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, from people who, in
> those locations use WilTel as their long distance carrier. I am in
> Northern Illinois. (Remember, California is not even a caller-id
> state). Also, *67 before the number, does not block it from appearing
> on my box.

This is really annoying; it seems that if Caller-ID is not allowed in
California then long distance companies should be prohibited from
sending it out of state.  Unfortunately I don't believe it's that
easy, first the CPUC did allow some form of Caller-ID, the LECs just
decided that the restrictions were to strict for them to do a decent
business.  Also it's unclear whether inter-state calls can be
regulated by the CPUC.

The different restrictions for each state are quite confusing, does
anyone know if the recent FCC rulings will simplify this, and more
importantly will they overrule the CPUC rulings allowing those of us
who live in California to finally get Caller-ID?


Cheers,

Alex Griffiths    Senior Software Engineer
Fujitsu Open Systems Solutions, Inc.
[e-mail]   408-456-7815

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

From: [e-mail] (Dan Lanciani)
Subject: Re: Cost of Caller ID in PA (really Cell One features)
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 94 22:28:08 EDT


 From [e-mail] Tue Jun  7 23:13:33 1994:

> It's ironic that call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling, and
> voice mail ("Call Answering" in NyNex-speak) are all available free
> (except for airtime charges) from Cellular One in this area.

Ironic?  Are you kidding?  They love for you to use these services.
They cost nothing to provide and let them rack up air time charges
(two for one with call waiting or three-way; one for nothing with
forwarding) for channel capacity that is never actually in use.

I have always subscribed to forwarding and three-way since I might
possibly want to use them on rare occasions.  I never subscribed to
call waiting since, among other reasons, I hate it. :) Just last week
I received a notice from Cellular One saying that I would now have
this popular service at no charge!  Whether I wanted it or not.  The
wording of the notice would cause anyone who didn't know otherwise to
assume that they were changing from an extra-cost option to a free
feature.  In fact, they were changing from a free option to a
mandatory (or at least default -- I haven't called yet to see if I can
have it disabled) setting.


Dan Lanciani   ddl@harvard.*

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

From: [e-mail] (Michael Covington)
Subject: Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted
Date: 10 Jun 1994 03:31:34 GMT
Organization: AI Programs, University of Georgia, Athens


I can only speak for present-day radio telegraphy, but 20 words per
minute is considered the minimum professional speed, and a network of
experienced operators could probably do twice that.  Remember that
both operators have to be equally fast for the system to work.


Michael A. Covington, Assc Rsch Scientist, Artificial Intelligence Center
The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7415 USA  [e-mail]

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

Date: Fri, 13 May 94 10:49:06 PST
From: [e-mail] (Jan Ceuleers)
Subject: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts


I quote John Harris:

> My understanding is that the Canadian requirement (CS-03) is
> 10 redial attempts, the American (FCC Part 68) requirement
> is 15 redial attempts; and the harmonized requirement coming
> out of the Free Trade Agreement will be two redial attempts.

In Belgium, the limit is three unsuccessful redials (that's four
attempts in all) within a period of one hour. This limit must be
enforced by auto-dialing devices (modems, fax machines etc.) for them
to be approved for use in this country.

This rule is apparently intended to protect the network from unprofitable
traffic, not to protect the public from misprogrammed auto-dialers (the
point being that it's perfectly legal for a fax machine to continuously
try to deliver a fax every 15 minutes for days on end).


Jan
Origin: Experimenter Board, Antwerp, Belgium (2:292/857)
uucp: uunet!m2xenix!puddle!2!292!857!Jan.Ceuleers
Internet: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Linda Garross)
Subject: Re: Sources Wanted: Telemedicine and Telecommuting
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 05:13:53 GMT
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.


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

> We're looking for people currently using desktop video conferencing or
> collaborative computing systems for telemedicine or telecommuting.

You might want to post this message to sci.med.telemedicine, too.


Linda Garross                      Voice: 206-788-8389
Garross & Associates               Fax:   [phone]
Government Contracts Consultants   Email: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Sources Wanted: Telemedicine and Telecommuting
Date: 9 Jun 1994 14:23:02 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


I met a guy at Austin Radialogical Associates @ 512/795-5100 who said
they're doing remote image transfer for X-ray, etc.  They are planning
to move toward ISDN services in the near future to speed it up even
more.  Don't have a good contact but it's a start.

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency?
Date: 10 Jun 1994 01:43:01 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


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

> Can any cellular phone be used for calls to Emergency even if they
> are not registered?

They can on our system.  I would think everyone else's too. Unfortunately,
the penalty for finding out by experiment is quite high ...


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way to do this would be to install the
phone in your car *but not rely on it for emergency purposes*  until after
a test or two had been made. DO NOT call 911 (or *999 or the zero operator
as the case may be in your community) just to test the phone. Wait until
in the course of your driving around that you spot something minor which
does not affect you personally; maybe a fender-bender on the expressway
or a stop and go light out of order or a railroad crossing gate stuck
in the down position. Then see if you can call that in successfully. In
other words have a reason -- even a minor one -- before contacting 911.
If it works, then you know you are all set. If it does not, then junk
the phone when you get back home.   PAT]

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

Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 14:54:23 EDT
From: Peter M. Weiss <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Help - Telecommuting Information Needed
Organization: Penn State University


Check the notebook archives of FLEXWORK on the [e-mail].
edu.  At the moment, you MUST be a subscriber (which is opened to
anyone) to fetch/search the notebook archives.

For those of you who join, you may e-mail the following to that LISTSERV:

/* --------------------- clip and save ---------------- */
//ListSrch JOB Echo=no
Database Search DD=Rules OUTLIM=3000 f=mail
//Rules DD *
s proposal in flexwork
index
print
/*
//  EOJ
/* --------------------- clip and save ---------------- */


[e-mail]       "Are you an infomaniac?"         [phone]
31 Shields Bldg. -- Penn State Univ -- University Park, PA 16802-1202 USA


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That word is starting to make the rounds
and with the expected ramifications. On the Compuserve CB Simulator (or
Stimulator as it is sometimes known) I was logged in the other day using
just 'Pat' as my handle. Although a convenient, gender-neutral handle, it
does prompt a lot of the 'are you m/f how old?' questions. Some guy who
simply assumed I was 'f' and (hopefully) not that old propositioned me
to go into chat with him. I told him I'd be glad to go into chat with
him since I was an infomaniac and never could get 'enough'. His response
was " ... my last girlfriend was the same way ...". I never did respond
directly to his implied assertion about my gender until a few minutes
later when he asked me directly, and I told him I was an 'm' in the f/m
question. "Hey, you are not playing by the rules around here!," he typed
back angrily to me as he broke the connection.  Infomaniac indeed!  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Joseph Kruckenberg)
Subject: v.35 (T1) Board for Linux Available Soon
Date: 9 Jun 1994 15:49:14 GMT
Organization: University of Utah


A company called SDL develops a single- and dual-port v.35 interface
board for the PC, which supports bit rates up to 1.44MB (T1 speeds).
Currently they are only supporting UnixWare, SCO Unix, and BSDI Unix.
They expressed great interest in supporting Linux, and I am currently
negotiating with them to help write the drivers (see my post to
comp.os.linux.development on v.35 Driver Development).

SDL would like to get an idea of how many people would be interested
in this board for use on Linux machines. I would also be very
interested in this information, to help me find potential testers for
the driver I'm working on, and just out of personal curiosity. The
prices are $540 for the single-port, and $585 for the dual-port. If
you would consider buying either of these within the next year or two
(after the driver is available), please send me email
([e-mail]) telling me which one and how many, and
approximately how soon you'd buy them. I'll pass the votes on to SDL,
and summarize them to comp.os.linux.misc.

If you'd like more information on SDL's products, you may send mail to
[e-mail], or FTP to ftp.sdl.com. Files are in the pub/sdl/N1
(single-port) and pub/sdl/N2 (dual-port) directories.


Pete Kruckenberg    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Ed Swenson)
Subject: International Callback Services
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 20:12:15 GMT


I had a friend ask me recently about a service I think I've seen
discussed here before -- international callback services that take
advantage of lower rates when calling from the US.  I think the way
they usually work is that one subscribes, calls a number in the US
from anywhere in the world, enters a code and waits for a callback.
They then receive a callback, and after entering a code, receive a
dial tone and can call and be charged US rates.

As I've said, I'm pretty sure I've seen this type of service mentioned
here before, but didn't save the discussion. I'm mainly interested in
finding out how to subscribe, who offers such services, how they work,
what they charge, etc. They are legal, right? Although I'm sure some
PTT's don't like them too much ;-). Email is ok, or a pointer to an
old telecom digest. I can summarize if there is interest.


Ed


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The legality of the callback services
is a gray-area. Maybe, maybe not. In any event, what Telepassport
started several others have come to imitate with various degress of
success. Now in addition to several callback service providers, the
international telcos have caught on (or perhaps they found out that
telephone users caught on) and they reduced thier rates to the point
that the difference between their rates and the callback rates are
very marginal.  The latest addition to this is one  I discussed here
the other day without mentioning this aspect of their service. The
Call America/My Line people also offer international callback service
using your personal 800 number. You dial into your 800 number (they
will also give you a local AC 805 number in San Luis Obispo if needed
and you cannot reach the 800 number) and ask for a callback anywhere
in the world. When you get the callback you then dial wherever you
want to call.

By the way, I signed up for My Line and I must say that for $8.50
er month and 25 cents per minute of usage (when receiving a call) or
15 cents per minute when administering my account at the switch,
it is a pretty good deal. Some come cheaper; some are more expensive
but none except Cable and Wireless offer user programmable call
forwarding, a very desirable feature with an 800 number. If you did
not see my earlier message on this, contact [e-mail]
for details.     PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Brett Frankenberger)
Subject: Re: Call Waiting
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 17:44:15 GMT


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes Carl, this is quite true. Any of the
> service codes which can be prepended to the dialing string will produce
> the stutter tone, such as *70 or *67 for ID blocking, etc. I've found
> you can dial straight through them without any pause at all.  PAT]

Depends on the switch ... Of the two major digital switches (DMS and
5ESS), one of the two (and I can't recall which one) allows you to
dial through the stutter dial tone and the other does not ...


Brett  ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (Les Reeves)
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?
Date: 10 Jun 1994 10:32:57 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access  [phone]  [login: guest]


<discussion of ANI and the operator deleted>.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Whenever I zero plus anything (although
> like you, my zero plus 800 fails to complete)

Hasn't it always been this way?

I thought 0+ was not allowed for 800 service by tariff.


Les     [e-mail]       Atlanta,GA      404.874.7806


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think that is true. The reason is,
there is not supposed to be operator assistance on 800 calls. Strictly
speaking, when we require assistance with dialing a call, we are to
zero plus the number and wait for operator intervention. Since no
tariff allows the operator to handle 800, therefore no 0+800.  PAT]

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

From: Andrew C. Green <[e-mail]>
Subject: The Jargon File
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 10:31:58 CDT


Our Moderator Notes:

> And I believe that when you do this, many times you *just think* the
> ANI is not getting passed when in fact the operator bubbles or forces
> it into the network without specifically telling you that is what she
> is doing.

I *think* I know what you mean by bubbling operators (they probably
work at steaming terminals), but you don't come right out and explain
the term anywhere.

I'm sure that this industry, like any other, is absolutely awash in
clever jargon, but I have yet to see a good compilation of it, such as
the little "Buzzwords" feature in {Newsweek} magazine which spotlights
the strange, funny and (usually) behind-the-scenes slang of a
different industry each week.

I'm not referring to terminology that has official meaning but just
looks strange; I'm know that's covered in the Telecom Archives. I'm
thinking of the jargon we use as a polite label for obnoxious truths,
and funny language that just, well, appears one day from nowhere. I
believe we can compile a good list of the bizarre verbal shorthands we
use these days.


Andrew C. Green    Datalogics, Inc.  Internet: [e-mail]
441 W. Huron       Chicago, IL  60610-3498

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: 10 Jun 94 13:42
Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal'

I think I can top the story of the melted terminal, although it's
straying a bit from telephony.  A few years ago my wife overwatered a
plant which resided on top of the television (not my idea), a unit
with a large sloping back with ventilation slits.  Oddly enough, a few
seconds later, the expected effluvium of smoke and odor was wafting
from the television.  So she did what any sane, thinking person would
do under like circumstances: she called the cable company!  Happily,
the poor soul at the other end suggested that she Rapidly Unplug The
Television, Please!

I came home to hear the sad story, and started removing the ridiculous
number of screws holding the back onto the set as she insisted that
nary a drop had spilled from the plant in question.  I was amazed how
much water flowed out once the back was off the set.  Amazingly, after
drying out for a day or two, the set was as good as ever and lasted a
few more years, finally being replaced at age 19.


Art Shapiro

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

From: Lynne Gregg <[e-mail]>
Subject: How Many Readers Are There of This Digest?
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 94 12:32:00 PDT


Patrick,

Just curious.  Can you tell me HOW MANY individuals subscribe to
TELECOM Digest?


Thanks,

Lynne Gregg


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: *Subscribers* and  *readers* are two
different things of course. And *individuals* who subscribe directly
versus people whose names are on mailing lists served elsewhere are
also to be considered.  On any given day, the direct mailing list
which I service from here has about 2000 names. There will be four
or five additions daily and three or four deletions daily, leaving
a net increase on average of one or two new subscribers each day or
about 40-50 new subscribers per month. I remember well when the list
had only about 300 names several years ago. Now of those 2000 or so
names, about 80-90 percent are individuals with the remaining 10-20
percent being 'exploder addresses' or 'expansion addresses' if you
are familiar with the term. That is, I send one copy to those addresses
and they in turn 'explode' on reciept and redistribute the Digest to
names under their control. My best estimate is there are about 1000
more individuals serviced from the 200-300 'exploder addresses' on my
main list. Some have five or ten names, some have just two or three.

My single biggest drop off point on the mailing list is mcimail.com
where I (yesterday) delivered the Digest to 78 names. ATT Mail is
another point with multiple subsribers.  America OnLine and GEnie
have several names each on my list. Compuserve gets serviced in two
ways: there are about a dozen names on my list who prefer to get the
Digest via email, but in addition a copy goes to a special address
there where it is put out on display in Library #1 of the TELECOM
forum for people who use that forum or special interest group on
Compuserve. There are about fifty 'independent' BBS's which have
internet links for email -- but not the newsgroups -- which are on
the mailing list and they put their copies of the Digest up however
they wish in file areas for use by readers.  I don't really have
any idea how many people read the Digest through those services.

Then of course there is Usenet, and the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup.
Several thousand people *read* the Digest via Usenet who are not
actually *subscribers* via the mailing list or through a BBS which
is subscribed via the mailing list. Over all, I believe there are
about 3000 direct or indirect subscribers and about 15,000 additional
readers. For several years the old PC Pursuit system distributed
the Digest automatically to its subscribers via their bulletin board
called the Net Exchange as well. The Telecom Archives gets about
a dozen email inquiries each day and about two dozen ftp/gopher
visitors. I receive about 100-150 pieces of editorial mail on any
given day and another 50-75 pieces of administrative mail. Since
autoreplies are generated on all mail I receive, therefore I send
out 150-200 autoreplies most days. If three issues of the Digest
are produced (I have done six or seven in a day, and once did ten
in a single day) then there will be about 6000 copies mailed plus
the administrivia mails and the autoreplies, etc.  I think I am
the largest user of sendmail at Northwestern, and bless them for
tolerating me as long as they have.  <grin>

No one is required to pay anything for it. The ITU in Geneva,
Switzerland assists me with a monthly grant, and like public radio
I rely upon the generosity of Digest reader/subscribers to help out
in ways they feel are appropriate. When I began my work with this
journal, perhaps an hour or two every other day was required to
keep it going; now it requires about five hours per day if the
maintainence of the Archives is included. That's my problem of
course, no one else's. I guess I am a victim of my own success. Have
a nice weekend one and all!     PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #283
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #284

TELECOM Digest     Sat, 11 Jun 94 08:40:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 284

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Pioneer Preference and Mathew 20 ([e-mail])
    Where's the Demarc in Hawaii (Carl Oppedahl)
    Centrex - Good/Bad? (David K. Bryant)
    My Company's Phone System Lets Me Use "Wrong" Lines (Robert Casey)
    Pager on a Watch? (David Lawrance)
    Parity vs. Apex? ([e-mail])
    Does PAT Work for USWest? (Ry Jones)
    SS7 Management Information Wanted (Ross Mayne)
    Information Wanted on GSM in US ([e-mail])
    LEC's in LD Toll Business (Hjalmar Syversen)
    Calling Number ID for Cellular Users (Lynne Gregg)
    Re: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency? (Robert Palumbo)
    Re: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency? (John R. Covert)
    Re: 1-800-CALL-ATT x 21 Returns! (Sven Dietrich)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Daryl R. Gibson)
    Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers (Jan Schiefer)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 94 20:49:30 EDT
Subject: Pioneer Preference and Mathew 20


Has Bible Study Replaced Policymaking at the FCC?

 The Bible may be the best selling book in the history of the world,
but there may be a reason that the "Leadership Secrets of Attila the
Hun" became a more popular text on incentive management. Unfortunately,
as is clear from Federal Communications Commission's decisions on
Personal Communications Services ("PCS"), the FCC appears to have been
studying the wrong book.

 This does not bode well for the future of telecommunications and
innovation in this country.

 PCS is set to become a major new wireless communications service.
The FCC is allocating more than two times the amount of radio spectrum
to PCS than is now available to cellular telephone.  Government
auctions of the PCS spectrum are scheduled to start next May.

 But while PCS is just about to emerge as a real business, a number of
technology developers and entrepreneurs have been hard at work over
the past few years experimenting with the technology and preparing to
bring it to market.  PCS is the first major telecommunications service
being developed out from under the umbrella of the old integrated Bell
System.  In this new more competitive environment, the development
process has been highly decentralized.  The FCC issued over 150
experimental PCS licenses to various companies, large and small.  Many
have made significant contributions to PCS.

 This broad scale effort is both a necessary and a positive force for
telecommunications development in the United States.  The issue before
us now is what incentives can be provided to assure similar efforts on
behalf of future services.

 The FCC, in its wisdom, selected as "pioneers" one each of three
types of companies who had been working on PCS.  Under the FCC's
pioneer's preference rules, each of these three companies is to be
given one of the most valuable of the more than 2,500 PCS licenses
that are otherwise to be auctioned.  The three companies each can
legitimately claim contributions to PCS, but represent only the tip of
an iceberg supported by the many other developers.  The other efforts
were ignored.  Small companies, in particular, who have been devoting
a substantial portion of their resources to PCS, are being admonished
to merely join with all newcomers to bid for licenses.  Dollars, not
merit, will become the determining factor.

 Is this fair?  Or is that even a reasonable question? To understand
how the FCC might have reached its decision one might divine that the
Commissioners have been steeped in the lessons of the Bible.  Mathew
20:1-16, for example, relates the parable of the farmer who hired a
group of laborers at the usual daily wage to harvest grapes in his
vineyard.  They started early in the morning and worked steadily
throughout the long hot day.  But the farmer went out later in the
morning, again at noon, and twice in the afternoon, to hire additional
laborers At day's end, the farmer paid everyone the same wage.

 To an early worker's complaint that this was not fair, the farmer
replied "Friend, I am doing no wrong: did you not agree with me for
the usual daily wage?  Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to
give to the last the same as I give to you ... are you envious because
I am generous?"

 So too, the FCC Commissioners, fresh from their Bible study class,
reply to the many early PCS developers, "Friends, we can think of no
better approach: when did we promise that if you put your time,
hearts, and money into developing PCS that you'd actually be able to
get into the business?  Take what you've learned; get some more money
and stand in line to bid with everyone else."

 Now recognizing that we'd been following the wrong text, we've dug
deep into Mathew 20 looking for the sequel, the second grape harvest.
We can't wait to find out how many laborers showed up for work at
dawn, and how many waited until it was a little cooler at 5 p.m.
Fresh from our original text, we can't help wonder how Attila would
have handled the harvests: he probably would have been a bit less
generous the first time, but had more manpower the second.

 Maybe we should suggest to the FCC, that Mathew 20 should not be read
literally.  Perhaps it's a simple parable illustrating the generosity
of the Lord when it comes to entering the Kingdom of Heaven.  For most
"laborers" this is a one-time event.  There might not be a second
"harvest."

 Maybe PCS will be the last telecommunications service to be developed
in the U.S.  Perhaps, if we don't want it to be, we should pay more
attention to incentives for innovation.  Somewhere in Washington --
dare we guess in one of the private law firms? -- there must be someone
who could organize an Attila the Hun Study Group.

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

From: [e-mail] (Carl Oppedahl)
Subject: Where's the Demarc in Hawaii?
Date: 10 Jun 1994 15:25:36 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Kevin Tsuji) writes:

> Say, that reminds me, I talked to GTE Hawaiian Tel last week regarding
> a second residential line. Aside from trying to trick me into
> admitting that it was going to be used for business, the installation
> price changed suddenly in mid-call. Originally, the guy told me that
> installation would run me around $78. I then mentioned that I did not
> need premises installation, and did not wish to pay for it. all I
> needed was dialtone to their demark.  He kind of got uncomfortable (do
> these guys get commission!?) and said that he'll knock off the $35
> premises wiring charge. I then cheerfully mentioned that I live in a
> condo (If this chump was on the ball he would have been looking at my
> account info anyway ...) and hey doesn't that make the telco demark the
> RJ-11 jack on my wall?

> At this point all I remember was a bunch of throat-clearing and quite
> a bit of snow blowing about. When the dust settled, it appeared that
> instead of the $35 premises wiring fee, I would be paying a $35
> "transportation" fee.  I hinted nicely that a transportation charge is
> a load of crap they made up to get around the tariffs, but the only
> thing I could get him to say in defense of the charge was that "it's
> very complicated installing new copper in a multi-story building".
> What that has to do with transportation defies me. At least (after ten
> minutes of arm-twisting) I got him to fax me an itemised list of the
> one-time and monthly charges for the new line, complete with his name
> on it.

> Is this "transportation charge" as much of a load as it sounds? Should
> I complain to management at the CS department, or go to the PUC?

It's actually the FCC you would go to.  They, not your state
regulators, are the ones who made nationwide policy back in 1982 or
so, preempting state regulation, to the effect that telco cannot
discriminate against those who wish to provide and/or maintain their
inside phone wiring.

Thus whenever the telco does something to screw someone who is providing
his/her own inside wiring, it is FCC regs they are violating.

The local telcos hate this, of course, for many reasons.  1, it cuts
into their rate base to dedicate inside wire to the public.  2, inside
wire installation and maintenance has always been a profit center.  3,
the telcos saw this as a shift of control from regulation at the state
level to regulation at the national level, and while utilities usually
have little difficulty compromising the state regulators, it is more
difficult to compromise the regulators in Washington.

The one question the FCC ducked, back in 1982, was ... where exactly
does the customer wire end and the telco wire start?  They basically
punted, leaving it to the state regulators or to the telcos themselves
in the states where the regulators are weak.

The consequences of this are numerous.  For a single-occupancy
building such as a detached private home, or a large building occupied
by one company, the main issue is if the "demarc" is inside the
building (safe from vandals and thieves), outside the building (at
risk), or at the edge of the property (meaning one has to deal with
getting the wire from the edge of the property to the building).

The answer differs from state to state.

For a multitenant building it is far more complicated, and the oppor-
tunities to screw the customer are greater.  Is the demarc in the
individual apartment?  In the basement?  Outdoors?

My book on phone service lists states that are in the various categor-
ies.  But I don't know where Hawaii comes out -- my book does not give
the answer.

Where the installation to be done is partly on the telco side of the
demarc and partly on the customer side, then there are numerous
opportunities to rip off the customer.  The work on the telco side is
generally supposed to be fixed-price -- not based on the time or
materials.  The work on the customer side is time and materials,
generally.

So suppose the new dial tone takes four hours to install.  The
installer arrives at your premises, introduces himself, says he is
starting.  Four hours later he is done and you have a dial tone.  He
hands you a form to sign, the contents of which will later be used to
generate your bill.  It says, among other things, that the guy was
working four hours.  Later your bill arrives with a charge for four
hours of labor.

But now suppose in reality the work on the telco-to-demarc side was 3.5
of the hours, and the work on the customer side was half an hour.  Then
telco has ripped you off for 3.5 hours' worth of money.

The way to protect yourself (if you must have work done on both sides
of the demarc the same day) is to ask the installer to do all the
telco-side work first, and to come and find you when it is done.  Then
you test the network interface jack at the demarc and make sure you
have a working dial tone there (you just plug in a phone).

All this while you forbid the guy doing any work on your side.

Then, once the network interface jack is working, you note the time
and authorize the installer to do the inside work.  And when you get
the form to sign, make sure the only hourly amount shown is the inside
work.

Better yet, of course, is to order no inside work at all.  (Do it
yourself, or pay someone else to do it.)  When you are given the form
to sign it will show *no* hourly charges at all.  Then just be sure
you test the network interface jack by plugging in a known good phone.
Place and receive some calls, that sort of thing.

This is all in my book, of course.

Please let us all know how it works out.


Carl Oppedahl AA2KW    Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers)
Yorktown Heights, NY   voice 212-777-1330

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

From: [e-mail] (David K. Bryant)
Subject: Centrex - Good/Bad?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 19:16:19 GMT


The comany I work for is planning to move headquarters next summer.
We now have a PBX system that is running at 95+% capacity.  Rather
than move the PBX to the new location or lease/buy a new one we are
giving consideration to using Centrex.

PacBell will be here Wednesday (6/15) to make their presentation.  The
good points of Centrex are well known.  But what are the bad points?
What are the caveats, bad experiences, etc.

We have a T1 that brings us our Sprint LD, 800 and X.25 services.  This
is connected to our CoastCom channel bank and that is connected to our
Fujitsu Focus 960 PBX.

By switching to Centrex what are we going to have to give up?


David Bryant   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Casey)
Subject: My Company's Phone System Lets Me Use "Wrong" Lines
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 1994 00:11:07 GMT


A few days ago, my boss told me that I ran the phone bill for my desk
phone too high.  (Great, just what I needed, only been here two months).
:-(

Today, in a meeting, he mentions about phone call procedure.  "Use the
"8" lines for long distance, "9" for local".  I had been doing it the
other way around, because other places I've worked used "9" for LD,
"8" for local.

Question is why the PBX here let me complete LD calls on the wrong
lines?  My boss said it's twice as expensive.  And "Didn't they tell
you at new employee orientation?".  "They told us tons of stuff, like
401K's, and stock options, medical plans, and a lot of other crap".
Probably fell asleep during "phone class".  I had thought that, "if it
works, it must be OK", as 900 doesn't go thru.

(name of the company not specified, to protect the guilty.  A 9000
employee place, Fortune 500 and all that.  They even own themselves!)

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

From: [e-mail] (David Lawrance)
Subject: Pager on a Watch?
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 21:11:18 -0600
Organization: University of Illinois


At one time, Motorola and Timex were marketting a pager built into a
watch.  Are there still such beasts?  Who sells and who supports?

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave)
Subject: Parity vs. Apex?
Organization: Graphic Communications Laboratories (GCL)
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 1994 04:14:15 GMT


I am trying to decide between two Voice Mail application developers'
kits: Parity, and Apex.

If anyone has any experience or comments about these two companies
and/or their products, it would help me greatly.


Thanks!

Dave

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

From: [e-mail] (Ry Jones)
Subject: Does PAT Work For USWest?
Date: 10 Jun 1994 21:59:51 GMT
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.


OK ... I think PAT is a Bellcore dude! Now when I do the 0 trick to
turn off ANI on collect calls, 1 800 collect functions correctly.
(ANI *is* passed) ...

HOWEVER, if I have the 0 operator dial the oncor 800 operator, I am
still able to fool them.


[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you go entirely through a manual
operator you are still able to defraud them, eh?  PAT]

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

From: Ross Mayne <[e-mail]>
Subject: Information Wanted on SS7 Management
Date: 10 Jun 1994 17:01:59 -0000
Organization: Broadcom Eireann Research Ltd, Dublin, Ireland.


Hi all,

Can anyone tell me what SS7 Management products are currently, or will
shortly be available and what their scope is.

It might be a good idea if you email the information, I will
send an overview of what I receive to the list.

Thanks for any help you can offer,

Ross

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Inormation Wanted on GSM in US.
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 21:42:39 GMT


Hi Everyone:

Does anybody know if there is any activities in GSM for US? Is
anyone working on implementing GSM or any Deviations of GSM in US?


Rgerads

zareh

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 21:36:35 EDT
Subject: LEC's in LD Toll Business


Hi:

I am looking for a list of local exchange carriers who are providing
long distance toll service.  Any assistance or direction would greatly
be appreciated.  Please respond via e-mail.


Thanks,

Hjalmar Syversen    Bombeck/Syversen
Anchorage, AK  (voice) 907/258-4557  (internet) [e-mail]

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

From: Lynne Gregg <[e-mail]>
Subject: Calling Number ID for Cellular Users
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 94 11:41:00 PDT


[e-mail] (Steve Atlas) wrote:

> It's ironic that call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling, and
> voice mail ("Call Answering" in NyNex-speak) are all available free
> (except for airtime charges) from Cellular One in this area.  You can
> get a free-night-and-weekend plan for $29.  I may throw away my home
> phone ;-).

> Unfortunately, Caller-ID is not available on cellular, although it
> doesn't seem as though it would be a major technical hurdle to provide
> it.

Steve, I like the way you think!  McCaw operations will start offering
Calling Number ID Service to its Digital cellular subscribers
beginning in September.  When Digital was launched by Cellular One in
New York, Calling Number ID was heralded as one of several enhanced
services to come.

CNI should be available in that area at the start of 1995.  We
recognize that our customers have a greater need for such a call
screening tool by the very nature of present-day charging practices
(airtime is charged on inbound cellular calls).  CNI will permit our
customers to determine whether or not they want to pay for that call.

I encourage you and other Digest readers to contact me directly with
your comments and questions.


Best regards,

Lynne Gregg   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Palumbo)
Subject: Re: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency?
Date: 10 Jun 1994 22:56:30 -0400
Organization: Cloud 9 Internet + White Plains, New York, USA


Shawn Gordhamer ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Is this assumption correct?  Can any cellular phone be used for calls
> to Emergency even if they are not registered?  If so, this would be a
> good thing for people to stash in their cars and should be encouraged
> for those who have no plans to establish cellular service.

It is on the Nynex system in NY. I had a car phone on Nynex and later
bought a pocket phone on CellOne and cancelled the Nynex account. 911
still works.

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

From: John R. Covert <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency?
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 94 19:01:30 EDT


> TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way to do this would be to install the
> phone in your car *but not rely on it for emergency purposes*  until after
> a test or two had been made. DO NOT call 911 (or *999

Good suggestion so far ...

> or the zero operator

Well, no reason not to call the zero operator and ask for an area code
or something, but I can bet you that you aren't going to reach the
zero operator from a deactivated phone.  And even from an active
phone, quite often the cellular class mark will completely prevent the
zero operator from extending your call to an emergency service agency
unless you come up with a calling card number.

> as the case may be in your community) just to test the phone. Wait until
> in the course of your driving around that you spot something minor which
> does not affect you personally; maybe a fender-bender on the expressway
> or a stop and go light out of order or a railroad crossing gate stuck
> in the down position.

Remember that in some areas 911 is STRICTLY reserved for life-and-death
emergencies.  Los Angeles is particularly strict about enforcing this, I'm
told.  In Massachusetts, 911 or *SP from cellular doesn't go to 911,
it goes to 800 525-5555, the State Police emergency line, and they
won't even take a report of a traffic light out of order, though they
do like to know about disabled cars on the highway.  Cellular 911
might change when statewide 911 goes in next year; I don't know.

Last time I encountered a real emergency was last Saturday, on the
Minuteman Bike Trail.  Woman had fallen off her bike, no helmet, and
was in and out of consciousness and bleeding.  I called 911, and
simply said "please tell me the Lexington, Mass., emergency rescue
number.  It took about 45 seconds for them to find it; I then dialled
it.  It probably would have been faster to call Directory Assistance;
later I tried the zero operator to see if she could come up with the
number faster (I knew she couldn't connect), but the only thing she
would suggest was calling D.A., and she couldn't connect to that.  Oh,
BTW, in Boston, you can call the zero operator from NYNEX Mobile, but
from Cellular One you get a stupid recording telling you that calls to
the operator are not allowed.  Of course, you can get to her by
dialling 0+7D and then dialling 0 at the bong.  You can get the AT&T
operator with 10288-0, but not with 00.  Both of these work on NYNEX
Mobile.  And of course, this all changes from month to month.

> If it works, then you know you are all set. If it does not, then junk
> the phone when you get back home.

With a cellular phone, just because something works today doesn't mean
it will work tomorrow, or work the same tomorrow.  Today you might get
through to an emergency operator, tomorrow you might get nothing, or
might get put into the wait queue for the cellular customer service
operator and never get to report your emergency.


/john

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

From: [e-mail] (Sven Dietrich)
Subject: Re: 1-800-CALL-ATT x 21 Returns!
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 12:06:04 EDT


Paul Robinson <[e-mail]> writes:

> About a year and a half or so ago, I posted a notice here that AT&T
> had announced that their 1-800-CALL-ATT, then dial 2-1 to get to
> AT&T's switch computer to place calls using a Local Exchange Company
> or AT&T Calling Card had been discontinued in favor of 1-800-32-10ATT.

[stuff deleted]

> Oh, and the 1-800-32-10ATT number still works.  It does the same thing
> as 1-800-CALL-ATT but without having to dial 1 or 21 first.

Yes, but if I recall correctly, 1-800-CALL-ATT will not let you dial
an international number, whereas 1-800-32-10ATT will. I had talked to
some AT&T operator after repeatedly dialing an international number
without success. She said that 1-800-CALL-ATT was not programmed to
dial abroad and told me to use 1-800-32-10ATT instead.


Sven Dietrich -- A/UX SysAdmin | Internet: [e-mail] (MIME)
Faculty Support Lab            |    Voice: [phone] | PGP public key
Adelphi University, NY         |      Fax: [phone] | avail. via finger

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

From: Daryl R. Gibson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 14:47:44 MST


>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Whenever I zero plus anything (although
>> like you, my zero plus 800 fails to complete) the operator always has
>> my number available without asking me anything. When I call collect,
>> using zero plus which is rare, she merely asks my name. Even just dialing
>> zero to get the operator produces my number on her console. I know this
>> since I dialed zero and asked to speak to a supervisor. When my call was
>> passed the operator advised the supervisor that 'subscriber wishes to
>> speak with the supervisor, he is calling from 708-xxx-xxxx.'

> All of this is correct, and it is the same for me too. When I asked to
> speak to the supervisor, he had my name and everything.

Some 15 years ago, I tried making a call from a pay phone at a 7-Eleven
(I was lost, and calling for directions); I called the number, but it
wouldn't go through. I hung up, picked up the phone again, dialed "0",
and said to the operator "I'm having difficulties placing a call from
this payphone." "Oh, let me try," she said, and *immediately* I started
getting a ringing tone.

I almost dropped the phone. I hadn't told her (hadn't had time) the
phone number I was calling, but sure enough, the party I had been
trying to reach answered ...

Started to make me think those conspiracy addicts might not be too far
off ...

As an aside, my cable system uses ANI for pay-per-view scheduling. I
call an 800 number, which gives me a short announcement while it
checks my credit. I never enter any information about myself. About 15
seconds later, the addressible decoder on my TV unscrambles the
signal. They tell me the 800 number I call is in Atlanta, and it's
unscrambled from there.


Daryl
(801)378- 2950   [phone]
[e-mail]  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Jan Schiefer)
Subject: Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 20:39:02 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, England


Nathan N. Duehr ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Robert Jansen ([e-mail]) wrote:

>> He told me that when 8W phones are near a groundstation, the transmit
>> power is throttled by the groundstation, in order to allow the nearby
>> 2W devices to "enter" the groundstation's receiver.

> Actually since all the phones are using separate frequencies (I
> assume ...) then the presence of an 8W phone near a groundstation
> should have no effect at all on incoming RF from other lower-power
> phones, unless the receivers at the groundstation's site are very poor
> in selectivity.

They do not necessarily use seperate frequencies. As GSM uses a combi-
nation of TDMA and FDMA, up to eight subscribers can share a channel,
in different timeslots.

Power control is a required feature in all terminals, in a range of
20-30dB, depending on its power class. The amplification Robert is
talking about is 6dB, so it can always be compensated.

>> Result: the groundstation kicks you of the net if you get to close to
>> the groundstation and are blasting the full 8W to it's antenna,
>> because you are surpressing the signals from the handheld 2W phones.
>> booster.

I doubt that there is a mechanism to do that.

Who manufactures such boosters anyway?  I have never seen them ad-
vertised anywhere, and it is not a trivial task to build one.  For
example, to switch from receive to transmit, you would need to trigger
on the RF level from the handset's transmitter.  This costs time, and
you need to get the burst shape right.  If you delay the transmission
signal in order to gain time to switch in your amplifier, the delay
will be compensated by the timing advance mechanism, but that in turn
reduces the maximum distance you can have from a base station, which
is probably not what you wanted an amplifier for.

The right way to do this would be to build a handset that can produce more
power when car-mounted (although there might be heat dissipation problems
then). Sigh. Not an easy life, is it :-).


Cheers,

Jan Schiefer, g0trr, [e-mail], HP Labs Bristol, UK.  [phone]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #284
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #281

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 10 Jun 94 13:02:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 281

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Hugh Pritchard)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Mike Neary)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Philip J. Tait)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Ry Jones)
    Re: Help With Meridian Trunks ([e-mail])
    Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers (John R. Covert)
    Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers (Dan J. Declerck)
    Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers (David Hough)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" ([e-mail])
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (K. M. Peterson)
    Re: Personal 800 Number Availability (Carl Oppedahl)
    Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (Bobby Krupczak)
    Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club (David Jones)
    Re: 35 Residential Lines, and Pac*Bell Tariffs (Kevin Tsuji)
    Re: Last Laugh! Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' (R. Woodhead)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
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* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Jun 94 12:29 EST
From: Hugh Pritchard <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?


On 8 Jun 1994 20:40:58 GMT [e-mail] (Ry Jones) of
Northwest Nexus Inc. said,

> [e-mail] wrote:

>> Is it true that you can have your local telephone company BLOCK ANI,

> To which our Esteemed Moderator replied:

>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No it is not true.

> [insult deleted] To defeat ANI (everyone, now, try this, it works
> all over the US but your milage may vary) have your 0 operator dial 1
> 800 THN HAHA. (800 ANI demo).

Just tried 1-800-THN-HAHA, for kicks.  Got a pleasant female voice
informing me that "This number is not in service.  Please hang up and
try your call again."  Is the demo dead?  Perhaps on the East Coast my
mileage is very bad.


Hugh Pritchard     [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 16:49:22 PDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?


In TELECOM Digest V14 #279, K. M. Peterson noted:

> I wonder if the ability to get ANI has anything to do with having an
> 800-number...

In Los Angeles, one of the local TV channels has an 800 "tip" hotline.
They repeatedly reassure viewers "you don't have do give your name".

What percentage of the viewers really understand WHY they don't have
to give their name?  I'll bet that 99% of the population here thinks
this means that their call can be anonymous.  After all, we don't have
"caller ID" (CNID) in California because THAT would be an invasion of
privacy!  ;-)


Mike

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

From: [e-mail] (Philip J. Tait)
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?
Date: 9 Jun 1994 21:40:08 GMT
Organization: AlliedSignal Engines
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Philip J. Tait)


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

> (everyone, now, try this, it works all over the US but your milage may
> vary) have your 0 operator dial 1 800 THN HAHA. (800 ANI demo).  If

I just dialed this myself, and was told that I had reached a number
that had been disconnected.  Perhaps it was overwhelmed with TELECOM
Digest readers trying it!


Philip J. Tait         AlliedSignal Engines, Phoenix, Az        [phone]
GED::B12635         [e-mail]         [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Ry Jones)
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?
Date: 9 Jun 1994 22:19:21 GMT
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.


In article <[e-mail]> TELECOM Digest Editor noted:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Whenever I zero plus anything (although
> like you, my zero plus 800 fails to complete) the operator always has
> my number available without asking me anything. When I call collect,
> using zero plus which is rare, she merely asks my name. Even just dialing
> zero to get the operator produces my number on her console. I know this
> since I dialed zero and asked to speak to a supervisor. When my call was
> passed the operator advised the supervisor that 'subscriber wishes to
> speak with the supervisor, he is calling from 708-xxx-xxxx.'

All of this is correct, and it is the same for me too. When I asked to
speak to the supervisor, he had my name and everything. Also, when I
got caller ID installed, I called several USWest operators and had
them call me back. The typical conversation would be:

RJ: 0 <bong> USWEST
USW: USWest, how may I help you?
RJ: Yes, I just got my caller ID box, and I'd like to test it out. Can
you call me bck please?
USW: Yes sir, one moment please.
RJ: Thank you. <phone goes on hook>
(pause) RING (caller ID box lights up) RING
RJ: <answers> thank you.
USW: You're welcome sir... etc etc

But I never had to give them my number or anything.

> I certainly hope you are not giving a phalse number to the operator
                                        ^^^^^^
Does Pat have the phreak nature?

> when she asks for it. The reason is, even if you are calling collect,
> should the called party later refuse to pay for the call, it will be
> bounced back to the 'caller' for payment, which would be whatever
> number you had given. Billing options such as collect and third-party
> are courtesies extended by telco and not absolute. That is, the rule
> that you are responsible for the use of your instrument still applies.

No, no fake numbers. I have two lines, one public, one private. When I
call collect on my private (data) line, I call and give my other
number as the calling number. That way my private number stays that
way.

> If other methods of collection fail, then it is your problem; you
> placed the call and used the network. I guess this comes down to
> whether or not the operators are (1) equipped to see the calling number
> or not and (2) if they are doing their job correctly.  PAT]

Point 1: Yes, they are equipped.
Point 2: No, I don't think they are.


Ry    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (RKPRKP)
Subject: Re: Help With Meridian Trunks
Date: 9 Jun 1994 14:17:07 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


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

Depends on what model PBX you have.  Some older Meridian 1 switches
would not allow outpulsing of DTMF unless you had a special software
package called "end to end" signalling.  Most of the newer Northern
switches have it built in.  Try seizing the trunk, then dialing a #
sign.  This will trip the "end of dial timer" to allow DTMF to be
outpulsed immediately.  However, if your switch is using BARS (Basic
Automatic Route Selection) you will not be able to dial "9" and use
the # technique.  You are correct that the switch is absorbing digits.
It does this to keep from tying up trunks while users fumble around
for phone numbers.  It only sends digits to the Telco when the dialing
is complete.  You will have to directly access that trunk with a
special trunk access code or by terminating it on a button on a phone.
Give it a try and e-mail me if you still have problems.

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

Date: Thu, 9 Jun 94 15:25:36 EDT
From: John R. Covert <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers


[e-mail] (Robert Jansen) wrote:

> The problem arises when a normal handheld with a car kit is fitted
> (afterwards) with a normal antenna signal booster.  It's a
> straightforward amplifier, which HAS NO way of being power controlled
> by the groundstation, nor the 2W handheld.

Which is why you would never use a normal antenna signal booster with
GSM, AMPS, TACS or any similar system.

For AMPS and TACS, most manufacturers make car kits which take over
the function of the handheld and deal with the power control through
all the additional power steps now available.

There may be such kits available for GSM as well, but the need is not
as great.  Why?  Well, with AMPS and TACS, with the number assignment
module (NAM) being part of the phone, you need a special car kit that
is compatible with the phone to interface with the NAM.

With GSM, the Subscriber Information Module is contained on a
removable SIM-Card.  So you just purchase a separate complete phone
for the car, and instead of plugging your handheld into the car kit,
you pull the card out of the bottom of it and slide it into the car
phone.

I've used a Motorola GSM handheld; it did have the same interface plug
on the bottom that my Motorola AMPS Micro-TAC-Lite uses to connect to
the AMPS car booster, so it's possible that Motorola makes a similar
system for Europe, but why bother?  At least here in the U.S., the
Motorola car booster was MUCH more expensive than a plain Motorola Car
phone, and the only reason I bought the car booster was to be able to
use the same number in the car and with the handheld.  In Europe I
could just pull the card out of the Motorola GSM handheld (it was
easily accessible without opening the phone) and slide it into a slot
in the car.


/john

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

From: [e-mail] (Dan J. Declerck)
Subject: Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers
Date: 10 Jun 1994 14:25:17 GMT
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group


In article <[e-mail]>, Nathan N. Duehr <nduehr@netcom.
com> wrote:

> Robert Jansen ([e-mail]) wrote:

>> After visiting several dealers of GSM phones, I finally found one with
>> the technical know-how about GSM.

>> He told me that when 8W phones are near a groundstation, the transmit
>> power is throttled by the groundstation, in order to allow the nearby
>> 2W devices to "enter" the groundstation's receiver.

> Actually since all the phones are using separate frequencies (I
> assume ...) then the presence of an 8W phone near a groundstation
> should have no effect at all on incoming RF from other lower-power
> phones, unless the receivers at the groundstation's site are very poor
> in selectivity.

The phones aren't necessarily the same frequency, as GSM is TDMA, with
eight timeslots/4.615 ms.

ETSI requires the ramp-up time of the power amplifier to be 28 microseconds
and ramp down to be about 15 microseconds. What I think is happening,
is that the ramp-down time is being violated, and thus affects the
adjacent timeslot (other subscriber).


Dan DeClerck             EMAIL: [e-mail]
Motorola Cellular APD    Phone: [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (David Hough)
Subject: Re: GSM Question: Power Controllers
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 94 18:34:27  GMT


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

> Actually since all the phones are using separate frequencies (I
> assume ...) then the presence of an 8W phone near a groundstation
> should have no effect at all on incoming RF from other lower-power
> phones, unless the receivers at the groundstation's site are very poor
> in selectivity.

8W at close range is enough to upset a receiver if the receiver
frequency is anywhere close to the transmitter frequency. With phones,
all the base transmitters will be fairly close in frequency and the
base receivers will be fairly lcose in frequency but spaced from the
transmit ones. therefore, if you bring a mobile up close, you will be
transmitting close to all the receiver frequencies and so upset them.

A more technical description of what goes on is available, but not
sure if this is really the right group for it.


Dave

G4WRW @ GB7WRW.#41.GBR.EU AX25
[e-mail]  Internet
[e-mail]      Amprnet

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

From: [e-mail] (The Recluse)
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Organization: Recreational pharmaceuticals: Better living thru chemistery.
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 20:24:13 GMT


In reference to Moderator's Note asking if telephone company employees
are familiar with the phrase 'competition in local dial tone' ...

*They* might not like it, but *I* sure do.


Trenton    Internet: [e-mail]
WWW: ftp://netcom4.netcom.com/pub/trenton/www/trentonville.html

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

From: [e-mail] (K. M. Peterson)
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Date: 9 Jun 1994 21:05:55 GMT
Organization: KMPeterson/Boston


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

> PacBell runs an ISDN BBS.
> 510-277-1037 for pokey old modems.
> 510-823-4888 for speedy new BRI or SDS 56/64K access

> The sysop is Scott Adams and can be e-mailed at [e-mail]

BTW, I understand that this "Scott Adams" is one and the same the
person who draws the "Dilbert" comic strip.


K. M. Peterson     email: [e-mail]
phone: [phone] voice   [phone] fax

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

From: [e-mail] (Carl Oppedahl)
Subject: Re: Personal 800 Number Availability
Date: 9 Jun 1994 10:19:09 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


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

> In <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Glenn McComb)
> writes:

>> I've been using AT&T's 800 Starter Line service...

>> I needed the portability primarily because AT&T wouldn't point my 800
>> number without me giving them the street address where the phone is
>> located.  Since I wanted my personal (800) number to point to my pager
>> company's voicemail number, I didn't know the street address, and
>> neither did the pager company!

> Yes, AT&T is very particular about knowing the physical service
> address of all 800 terminations.  At one point, I had my 800 ReadyLine
> pointed to my cellular number, and the rep didn't know what to do when
> I told him that there was no physical address for the service.  We
> settled for the address of the cellular MTSO.

I think what one must not overlook is that what AT&T (and Sprint, in
my experience) is very particular about is (1) asking the question,
(2) getting some sort of answer and (3) entering the answer into their
computer system.

I don't think that there is anything about how the 800 service works
that actually requires the customer to give a correct answer.  For
example, I have three 800 numbers that terminate at three different
telephone company central offices ... when the 800 provider asked me
the address of termination I gave an answer (basically, the billing
address for all three local telephone bills as I recall) that was
*not* in the physical service area of any of the three central
offices.

In other words, if the 800 provider cared to go to the trouble, it
would have taken the termination address I gave, figured out what
local telco central office serves that address, and noted that the
central office did not match any of the exchanges of any of the
terminating telephone numbers.

The most extreme case is one of my 800 numbers which terminates at a
phone number in the 914 area code, and yet I gave a termination address
in the 212 area code.


Carl Oppedahl AA2KW     Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers)
Yorktown Heights, NY    voice 212-777-1330

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

From: [e-mail] (Bobby Krupczak)
Subject: Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway
Date: 9 Jun 1994 10:28:41 -0400
Organization: College of Computing


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail].
Mil (Steven Grevemeyer) writes:

> What you see in the post office is indicative of the entire government
> workforce.  An acquaintance of mine put a name to this phenonmenom:
> "The Non-Profit Mentality".  This is the attitude of people who work
> for organizations that are not accountable for their actions,
> outcomes, or policies.  Government work is characterized by "doing

(Name withheld to protect the innocent?)

> Software Enginnering Division (AMSTA-OS)
> US Army Tank-Automotive RD&E Center
> Vetronics Technology Center    Email: [e-mail]
> Warren, MI 48397-5000

I love these broad sweeping generalizations of government employees,
etc.  This all coming from someone working for the Army of all things.

Lets move the subject back to telecom oriented issues.


Bobby


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Perhaps you also noticed he does not
even know how to correctly spell the name of the place where he
works, i.e. 'enginnering'.  :)   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (David Jones)
Subject: Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club
Organization: University of Toronto, Computer Engineering
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 11:04:24 -0400


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

> I got as far as 1-700-5554 and at this point heard one ring followed
> by "We're sorry. Your call cannot be completed as dialed ...".  This
> is particularly interesting since we haven't had 1 + seven digit
> dialing in this area for several years now.

It's interesting you say this.

I am 416-463-xxxx.

I tried dialing 905-639-4xxx a few days ago, and got an intercept
after the 4.  Funny.  I tried again, managed to dial the whole number,
and it rang and rang, no answer.

This has happened with at least one other 905 number.

Any ideas what's going on?  Was 905 a valid exchange in the 416
calling area before the split?

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

From: [e-mail] (Kevin Tsuji)
Subject: Re: 35 Residential Lines, and Pac*Bell Tariffs
Organization: University of Hawaii
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 16:55:54 GMT


[e-mail] (Christopher Ambler) writes:

> The engineer told me okay, and that they'd be in touch with me within
> a week or so, but also mentioned that if there was construction that
> had to be done in order to get us that many lines, I might have to pay
> for part of it.

Say, that reminds me, I talked to GTE Hawaiian Tel last week regarding
a second residential line. Aside from trying to trick me into
admitting that it was going to be used for business, the installation
price changed suddenly in mid-call. Originally, the guy told me that
installation would run me around $78. I then mentioned that I did not
need premises installation, and did not wish to pay for it. all I
needed was dialtone to their demark.  He kind of got uncomfortable (do
these guys get commission!?) and said that he'll knock off the $35
premises wiring charge. I then cheerfully mentioned that I live in a
condo (If this chump was on the ball he would have been looking at my
account info anyway ...) and hey doesn't that make the telco demark the
RJ-11 jack on my wall?

At this point all I remember was a bunch of throat-clearing and quite
a bit of snow blowing about. When the dust settled, it appeared that
instead of the $35 premises wiring fee, I would be paying a $35
"transportation" fee.  I hinted nicely that a transportation charge is
a load of crap they made up to get around the tariffs, but the only
thing I could get him to say in defense of the charge was that "it's
very complicated installing new copper in a multi-story building".
What that has to do with transportation defies me. At least (after ten
minutes of arm-twisting) I got him to fax me an itemised list of the
one-time and monthly charges for the new line, complete with his name
on it.

Is this "transportation charge" as much of a load as it sounds? Should
I complain to management at the CS department, or go to the PUC?

Incedentally, I have a choice of being on either a "DMS-1000" switch or
a "GTD-5" switch. He said it would be easier to change my number over to
ISDN service if it was on the GTD-5. Was he correct?

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Say, whatever happened with that
> lawsuit you guys -- you and roomates? -- were going to file against
> Sprint for cheating you out of all those fax modems you allege you
> were entitled to as a result of switching all your phone lines over?
> Did that ever get resolved?  You never did give us the final summary.
> PAT]

I hope you guys reamed 'em good. The slimy lackeys.

toodles!

mat

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert J Woodhead)
Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Re: Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal'
Date: 9 Jun 1994 23:38:21 GMT
Organization: Foretune Co., Ltd.


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

> "Steaming Terminal"
> is a common term for the situation which arises when
> a terminarwl user spills their coffee or coke into the ventilating slits
> on top of the terminal casing.  In such an instance, there is usually
> a large "ssssspppppppphhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiittttttzzzzzzzing" sound

This is widely referred to as "The Pepsi Syndrome."  It was coined in
a Saturday Night Live skit (around the time of the Three Mile Island
incident) and refers to the fact that if you drop a Pepsi (or any
other Cola) on the control panel of a nuclear power plant, it triggers
a meltdown.


Robert J. Woodhead, Biar Games / AnimEigo, Incs.    [e-mail]
ALL GENERAL ANIMEIGO QUERIES SHOULD GO TO [e-mail]. PLEASE


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The boys up at Commonwealth Edison's plant
in Zion, Illinois almost had a melt down the other day. It seems they were
doing routine maintainence work at some point in the past and as part of
the plumbing managed to uncap the wrong pipe and cap up still another
wrong pipe. No harm came of it, and when the inspectors saw it they raised
hell about it and corrected the problem. No hassles came from it and
Edison's spokesperson said the public be damned ... ooops no, I am sorry,
he said the public need not be concerned.  PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #281
******************************


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Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #285

TELECOM Digest     Tue, 14 Jun 94 06:46:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 285

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Calling Midway ("Hello, Inward?") (Linc Madison)
    Book Review: "Mastering Serial Communications" by Gofton (Rob Slade)
    Remote Fax Retrieval From Telco (S. L. Lee)
    PageNet Pager Service in New Mexico? (Andrew Laurence)
    GTE California Weirdness (Gary D. Shapiro)
    ICASSP'94 List of Papers by Email; CDROM Available (George Vokalek)
    AT&T Surity 3700 Addresses Needed For Fax Security (David R. Arneke)
    Ten Mile Cordless Phones (Nilay Sheth)
    Experiences Wanted With Newbridge Equipment (Art Beckman)
    The True Choice Catch (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
    DID Question (Paul Robinson)
    Demand Linux Support for v.35 (56kb - T1) Interface! (Joseph Kruckenberg)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Linc Madison)
Subject: Calling Midway ("Hello, Inward?")
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 16:55:32 GMT


At work the other day, I had occasion to do something which is rather
rare in this day and age -- I had to complete a call via the Inward
operator.  I was calling Midway Island in the Pacific Ocean, west of
Hawaii.  I don't think there's anything on Midway except for U.S.
Military operations, plus a couple of temporary buildings with people
from the company I was working for.

The procedure:

(1) Dial 00.  Sprint operator informs us that they can't dial Inward,
suggests dialing 10288-0.

(2) Dial 102880# (I know better than to wait for a timeout!).  Ask AT&T
operator for International Operator for Inward to Midway, ext. XXX.

(3) Lonnnnnggggg wait while operator figures out how to connect to a
different operator in the same building who can connect to Inward for
Midway.

(4) Operator asks Inward operator to connect to Midway XXX.  Inward
operator says something amounting to "Huh?"  I explain to Inward
Operator how to dial Midway (It's dialed as 808-999-0XXX, but is only
dialable by Inward).

(5) Inward dials the number, but gets a "Network Failure" indication.

(6) Several repeat attempts, each taking 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

(7) Finally reach an Inward operator who has been doing this a while and
has actually completed a call to Midway before.  Discover that the
numbers dialed by stations on Midway are REVERSED from the way we dial
them from the outside world (we think).  So we try dialing 808-999-0CBA
instead of 808-999-0ABC.  It rings but doesn't answer.

(8) Repeat the process from the fax machine to send them a fax asking
them to call us.  The fax goes through, and they call, but the person
they were calling was away from his desk.  They don't have touch-tone
phones on Midway, so they are stuck in his voicemail.

(9) Reach someone in the barracks who agrees to call the lab and ask the
person there to call us and to ask the receptionist to just page the
person here in California without transferring to his extension.

Total time involved to actually complete the call: almost 3 hours; we
were relatively lucky.

I got to chat a while with one of the regular operators (who didn't even
know how to connect me to Inward and had to fetch a supervisor) and muse
about what it must've been like in the old cord-board days.  BTW, our
engineers took a touch-tone phone with them this time so that they can
retrieve their voicemail; they were for the first week or two giving
their password to the receptionist who would transcribe it and read it
back to them.  No one had thought to bring a pocket tone dialer.
(Surely you saw the front-page banner headline on the {New York Times}:
"DTMF Comes to Midway!"!)

On each attempt, it took about two minutes or more for the operator to
connect to another operator, who then took maybe half a minute more to
connect to Inward, who then took up to two or three minutes to set up
the call attempt.


Linc Madison   *   Oakland, California   *   [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You probably knew too much for your own
good. I think you would have been better off to simply ask the AT&T
operator for connection to the number on Midway Island; it would have
been transferred to the International Center for handling. Your use of
the term 'inward' probably added confusion to the request. The call was
not strictly speaking handled by an 'inward' operator. Next time see
if it goes through faster by simply asking for the number.   PAT]

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 13:08:57 MDT
From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "Mastering Serial Communications" by Gofton


BKMSSRCM.RVW  940323

Sybex, Inc.
2021 Challenger Drive
Alameda, CA  94501
510-523-8233   800-227-2346
Fax: [phone]
or
Firefly Books
250 Sparks Avenue
Willowdale, Ontario M2H 2S4
416-499-8412  Fax: [phone]
"Mastering Serial Communications", Gofton, 1994, 0-7821-1202-1, U$26.99/C$36.95

The title overstates the case a bit here.  To begin with, the serial
communications are to take place only on an RS-232 port.  The promise
of the inclusion of LAN technology refers only to a brief discussion
of the Novell NetWare Asynchronous Services Interface (NASI); a means
of accessing a COM port over a LAN.  The COM port had better be on an
MS-DOS machine: other than mentioning that the Macintosh serial ports
are not "true" RS-232, they don't rate any ink.  Finally, the
communications had better be with a modem or host computer.  This
might be the primary use of MS-DOS COM ports, but there isn't even the
slightest mention of the possibility of using serial communication for
process control or data collection.

Within those limits, Gofton has written an interesting book.  The
coverage is quite distinct from other personal computer communications
guides.  Gofton states that he is interested in a technical resource,
and does give significantly more detail in some areas than other
works.  On the other hand, he is surprisingly coy about some topics.
The difference between band and bits per second is mentioned, but
never defined.  The Hayes "AT" command set explanation is possibly the
best I have seen to date, but there is no help with diagnosing the
most common parameter setting mistakes.  The modem reference explains
V.32, but not V.42, MNP levels or 14,400 bps modems.

Part of this may be due to the fact that the book appears to have been
hurriedly updated from the 1986 edition.  All references are to the
RS-232-C version, rather than the more recent D version (more properly
referred to as EIA-232-D).  The importance of IRQ settings is
explained, and COM3 and 4 are mentioned, but there is no explanation
of the means of using COM3 and 4 given that most configurations only
allow you to use two IRQs.

Gofton's writing style is clear and, when he gives sufficient
information, is quite suitable for the end user.  The communications
novice, given a necessary level of interest and perseverance, should
be able to obtain a lot of useful material from the first half of the
book.  The utility to the programmer, or more technically advanced
user, is problematic.  However, even the experienced programmer, if
approaching serial communications for the first time, could get a lot
of value from this book.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKMSSRCM.RVW  940323. Distribution
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.

DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer [e-mail], [e-mail], Rob Slade at 1:153/733
BCVAXLUG ConVAXtion, Vancouver, BC, Oct. 13 & 14, 1994 contact [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (S. L. Lee)
Subject: Remote Fax Retrieval From Telco?
Date: 13 Jun 1994 14:18:54 -0400
Organization: Central Ohio Internet Link  (614-538-8294  login: guest)


Could anyone tell me if there is a way to forward faxes to a telco
(AT&T, etc.) let them store it there to be retrieved from another site
by dialing an 800 number?  I seem to have seen that service, but
forgot where. This is necessary when someone goes out of town for a
while but wants to get the fax while on the road. Thanks in advance.


S. L. Lee, PhD, President, InTechTra, Inc., Columbus, Ohio, USA
Email:    [e-mail]        Voice:     614 326 0888
    [e-mail]     Fax:    [phone]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not know about other telcos, but
Ameritech offers 'fax mailbox' service. It works on the same principle
as voicemail. Callers use a DID number which reaches your fax mailbox
and you retrieve from anywhere you happen to be located.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Andrew Laurence)
Subject: PageNet Pager Service in New Mexico?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 04:37:33 GMT


I have a PageNet pager which covers all of Northern California, down
at least as far as Fresno and at least as far north as Redding. Last
month I went to Las Vegas for a few days, and they were able to add
that area on for a very reasonable fee (I have since had it taken
off).

On Friday I am going to New Mexico (mainly Albuquerque, Santa Fe and
Los Alamos), and I called PageNet to try to have that area added on,
but they told me I would need to go to "nationwide" service and pay
for the entire western and southern regions of the U.S. (which roughly
cover the entire west coast and the southern U.S. from New Mexico to
Arkansas). This service is MUCH more expensive than adding just Las
Vegas, and there is a substantial setup fee.

What I'm wondering is, can I purchase airtime in Albuquerque from a
different vendor and simply get a (505) phone number for my pager, so
that if someone dials that number, I get paged in Albuquerque (if I'm
there), and if someone dials my (510) number, I get paged in northern
California (if I'm there)?

This would seem to solve my problem, but I'm not sure of the
technical, economic, legal or logistical issues. Any advice would,
therefore, be MOST appreciated.


Andrew Laurence              Oakland, California USA
[e-mail]    Pacific Daylight Time (GMT-7)

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

From: [e-mail] (Gary D. Shapiro)
Subject: GTE California Weirdness
Date: 14 Jun 1994 00:12:51 -0700
Organization: Regional Access Information Network (RAIN)


Direct-dial intra-LATA calls using an LDC are not allowed in California
(or at least LECs are allowed to not allow them) but every once in a
while I try just to see if it'll work.  The recording I get when
dialing 103331+6 of 10D is: "We're sorry.  A long distance company
access code is required for the number you have dialed.  Please dial
your call with the access code."  Either I misunderstand what they
mean by LDC access code or this is a recording from the Twilight Zone.


Gary D. Shapiro <[e-mail]>   Santa Barbara, California

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

From: [e-mail] (Causal Systems George Vokalek)
Subject: ICASSP'94 List of Papers by Email; CDROM available.
Date: 14 Jun 94 08:18:40 GMT
Organization: The University of Adelaide


ICASSP'94 was held in April 94 in South Australia.  ICASSP is an
annual signal processing conference sponsored by IEEE.  The conference
covers the following areas:

1.  audio and electroacoustics
2.  underwater acoustics
3.  speech processing
4.  digital signal processing
5.  statistical signal & array processing
6.  image and multidimensional signal processing
7.  VLSI for signal processing
8.  neural networks for signal processing
9.  fuzzy logic principles

The ICASSP'94 Proceedings on CDROM are still available from my
company, Causal Systems.  The CDROM contains the full proceedings of
the conference scanned at 300dpi.  There are in excess of 3500 pages
on the CDROM, which costs just a fraction of the price of the paper
books.

If you want an ASCII copy of the list of papers and authors presented at
ICASSP'94, I can send it to you by email.  Just ask.

For more information, please email me.


George Vokalek, Director.
CAUSAL SYSTEMS PTY LTD.      Phone [phone]
PO BOX 100,                  Fax   [phone]
Rundle Mall 5000,
South Australia.   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (David R Arneke)
Date: 13 Jun 94 11:31:52 GMT
Subject: AT&T Surity 3700 Addresses Need For Fax Security


FOR MORE INFORMATION:
David Arneke, AT&T
910 279-7680 (office)
910 273-5687 (home)
!darneke (ATTMAIL)
[e-mail] (Internet)

FAX SECURITY A GROWING CONCERN, AT&T FINDS

FOR RELEASE MONDAY, JUNE 13, 1994

     GREENSBORO, North Carolina -- AT&T is finding that corporate
concern over fax security is growing.

     The threats range from casual snooping at the office fax machine
to systematic interception by competitors and foreign intelligence
agencies.  And as fax machines become more heavily relied upon,
corporations are becoming increasingly aware of the danger.

     "Some of the issues are obvious, like messages sitting in the fax
machine's tray," said Joe Murawski, product manager for AT&T Secure
Communications Systems. "But faxes are as easy to tap as phone calls,
and they can contain a much greater quantity of detailed information
than many phone calls.

     "And even the less visible dangers, like interception by
competitors or foreign intelligence agencies, are becoming more and
more well known."

     As a result, sales of the company's advanced fax security device,
the AT&T Surity (TM) 3700, have taken off.  The Surity 3700 attaches
easily to Group 3 fax machines to provide DES encryption.  It also
allows users to create a closed fax network.

     "Corporate customers have been telling us that fax security is a
high priority, and their early reaction to the Surity 3700 bears that
out," Murawski said.

     AT&T began delivering the product to customers in March.  Early
adopters of the fax encryptor are major corporations in a variety of
industries, including aerospace, agriculture, automobile, banking and
finance, computer, defense, engineering, oil and telecommunications.

     "Our customers told us transparent operation is a high priority,"
Murawski said.  "And they wanted a robust platform that would be
compatible with future products.  We built the product to their
requirements."

     The Surity 3700 series offers the most complete set of advanced
features available in a fax encryptor: transparent operation,
including key exchange, after initial set-up; dual-modem design for
real-time transmission; a secure fax mailbox in the Model 3710;
closed-network capability; and multiple encryption algorithms.

     Encryption is implemented through a PCMCIA card embedded in the
device.  That technology, Murawski said, can be extended to such other
products as PCMCIA cards that can be used for fax encryption on
personal computers.

     Surity fax encryptors sold in the United States contain both DES
and a powerful 192-bit AT&T proprietary encryption algorithm.  Models
sold for export contain the AT&T algorithm, allowing compatibility
with units used in the United States.

     This month, AT&T will begin delivering the Surity 3710, which
adds a secure mailbox to physically safeguard messages.  Faxes are
automatically stored in the mailbox until an authorized user enters a
valid Personal Identification Number (PIN) to retrieve them.

     To alert users to the receipt of a secure fax, the machine prints
out a notice when faxes enter the mailbox.

     Mailbox storage capacity is 120 pages, upgradeable to a maximum
of 720 pages.  Faxes stored in the secure mailbox are unaffected by
power outages.

     The Surity Fax Device 3700 sells for $1,995.

     The Surity Fax Device is available directly from AT&T Secure
Communications.  Customers can call the Surity Customer Service Center
at 1 800 243-7883 for sales or for further information.

The AT&T Surity Fax Device 3700 and 3710 are products of AT&T Secure
Communications Systems, the world's largest supplier of secure
communications products.  AT&T SCS is a unit of AT&T Paradyne and is
based in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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

From: [e-mail] (Nilay Sheth)
Subject: Ten Mile Cordless Phones
Date: 13 Jun 1994 20:02:16 -0400
Organization: University of Central Florida


Hi Netters:

Has anybody used the ten mile range cordless phones? If so,could you
please write me your experiences on using these?Also I would like to
know about some of the good models (including typical prices for
these) and what would be a good place to look for them.

You could send your replies/suggestions to the Digest or mail them to
me at [e-mail].


Thanks a lot,


Nilay   jjdfouuhwddfljlwf


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As you may know, we discussed this topic
here just a couple weeks ago, and the long range cordless phones are
illegal for use in the United States.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Art Beckman)
Subject: Experiences Wanted With Newbridge Equipment
Date: 14 Jun 94 04:51:21 GMT


I am posting these questions for someone who doesn't have net access.
Please email me your response and I will summarize if enough interest
is shown.

(1)  Which Newbridge product do you have experience with?

(2)  What sort of experiences have you had with the product you
are using: performance, price/performance, and reliability?

(3)  What are your experiences with Newbridge: technical support,
service, quality focus, and ease of doing business?

(4)  Would you purchase from Newbridge again?  Any competitors more
compelling?

(5)  Does the company fall short in any important areas?


Thanks!

Arthur A. Beckman    [phone]
Auspex Systems, Inc., 5200 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA 95054
[e-mail] or ...!uunet!auspex!abeckman

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

Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 05:32:08 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
Subject: The True Choice Catch
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst


I just discovered the hitch to using the AT&T True Choice calling
card.  Having used my former AT&T nonsubscriber calling card to place
0+ intra-LATA calls via NYNEX, I attempted to do the same using the
True Choice card.  The NYNEX auto attendant (the ever pleasant Joan
Kenley, I believe) interpreted the card number as an attempt at
third-party billing.  After seven digits (out of eight digits plus
PIN), Joan intercepted with "the number, as dialed, is incomplete."

I was able to complete the call by prepending 10288 to the dialing
string, thereby routing the call via AT&T.  I should have figured that
a nonstandard-length calling card would be carrier-specific.  An AT&T
agent argued that it was a useful feature, since it would guarantee
that my calls were placed via AT&T.  I would agree if it were only
long-distance calls at issue.  Even if, as the agent explained, I am
billed the same amount by AT&T as I would be by NYNEX, dialing 10288
or 800-CALL-ATT is a bit inconvenient for a local call.  I'm curious
about how these cards will function under the FCC's new 0+ regulations.

As it is, I have a NYNEX calling card on order, so I should be able to
choose between cards depending on the situation.  Although, it might
make sense just to stick with the NYNEX card, or scrap the True Choice
card for a standard one.  I just wonder how folks who are less
telephone-literate deal this kind of thing.


Jeffrey W. McKeough    [e-mail]

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

From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Subject: DID Question
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 18:17:28 EDT


Someone outside the US asked me privately about DID numbers.

They wanted to know about a source for DID numbers if they wanted to
provide local dialup service in different area codes.  I explained
that the service is provided locally in each area.

He didn't want to tie up bandwith because he was afraid that it was a
stupid question.  Well, it's not and I think other people might be
interested in understanding the issue.

DID numbers are ordered from each telephone company in each city you
want the service in.  There are two parts to the order; first is the
actual number of "trunks", that is, the actual number of physical
connection paths you are willing to simultaneously accept transactions
on, and second is the "numbers" or the actual assigned phone numbers.

For example, a paging company might buy 10,000 numbers, say every
number from 500-0000 to 500-9999, but only have 40 incoming trunks on
the assumption that in the busiest period a maximum of 40 people will
send pages during any 10-15 second period.

You might very well want to reconsider this in order to figure out
exactly what you want as it sounds like what you want is something
else.  DID service is used when you want a large number of phone
numbers for a small number of actual physical lines.  For example, an
office with 100 people might obtain, say 15 incoming and 15 outgoing
trunks, but have 200 phone numbers.  Each desk has its own number,
some might have two or three, four or five for fax machines, one or
two for voice mail direct calls, one for the main number, some for
recorded announcements, and then a conference room might have a
couple, each elevator has one, one at the reception desk, one in the
telephone room itself, and a group of spares so that when someone
leaves the company his number can be deassigned for a while and a
different number given to whoever takes that desk.

If people are going to be tying up lines for long periods (such as
either modem dialups or access numbers local connection for a long
distance service) what you need are more trunks and fewer phone
numbers.  You may want to look at centrex service, foreign exchange or
other services.  It depends on what your phones are being set up for.

A system for providing inward dialing for a modem pool (like Prodigy,
Compuserve or Netcom) or a long-distance company, would require a
small number of telephone numbers and a lot of trunks.  A system for
providing inward signalling for pagers would require a large number of
telephone numbers and a small number of trunks.  Your mix will depend
on the application.

If, on the other hand, you are going to create the equivalent of an
inward dialing service, you could get a single number by obtaining a
950 number and paying the service charge for calls going into it (it
works like an 800 number; the caller doesn't pay anything, not even a
local charge).  If you have to reduce costs, then this might not work,
and you'd probably have to have a "laundry list" of local numbers in
each area code and local area in each area code the way the
nationally-operating providers do in order to avoid their being
charged a service charge.

For anyone interested in setting up this type of service, write back
with an idea of what you are trying to do and I'll get you some prices
locally, which you can use as a guideline, other cities will probably
be different.  If I have an idea of what you are trying to do, I can
probably guess what is more appropriate for your needs.

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

From: [e-mail] (Joseph Kruckenberg)
Subject: Demand Linux Support for v.35 (56kb - T1) Interface!
Date: 14 Jun 1994 00:29:11 GMT
Organization: University of Utah


[All follow-up's directed to comp.os.linux.misc]

[This message is not an endorsement of SDL's product, only a attempt
to inform and coordinate the efforts of the Linux community to help
another company realize the size and potential of the Linux market. I
have no interest in promoting the sale and use of this product other
than that I'd like to be able to use one myself. I am in no way
affiliated with SDL except as a potential customer.]

[Soapbox on]

Over the past few days, I've been in discussion with a company called
SDL ([e-mail]) which builds a v.35 board for the PC.
Currently, they have drivers for UnixWare, BSDI, and SCO Unix. I've
been discussing with them the Linux OS, and the demand for such a
product for Linux. They've expressed interest in supporting Linux, but
like any company, I assume they're hesitant to enter a new market with
as little market-potential information as there is about Linux.

I would ask that if you would consider purchasing such a board that
you let them know of your interest. Now that gated has been ported to
Linux, Linux is a very viable alternative to the traditional
computer/router gateway. With a v.35 interface, you could achieve
speeds of 56kb up to 3Mb/sec (with their dual-port version), while
still keeping your costs below a few thousand dollars (the SDL boards
are priced at about $550) by avoiding the purchase of a router.

If you would like to contact SDL, please send email to [e-mail].
[For more information on their products, ftp to ftp.std.com and look
at the files in pub/sdl/N1 and pub/sdl/N2.] Let SDL know that there is
a market for their product in the Linux community, if they will invest
in a driver for Linux. I've suggested that if they don't have the
resources to devote to developing a driver that they offer a free
board to anyone who successfully develops the driver, and offer
substantial discounts to those who purchase one and use it in alpha-
and beta-testing of the driver.

For those of you who use Linux as a gateway to the Internet over a
conventional 14.4, 19.2, or 28.8kb modem, you know the limitations of
these bandwidths. Up to now, Linux has not been able to support more
than 115.2kb, and has difficulty at that speed. Let SDL know that
there is a demand for higher bandwidth connections from Linux
machines: send mail to [e-mail].

If you could, please cc: me ([e-mail]) so I can keep
tabs on how many requests have been sent in. Also, if you get any
replies from SDL, I'd appreciate it if you'd forward them to me.

Some of you have already mailed me about my posts in linux.development
and linux.admin, and I've notified SDL of your interest in a summary
(just numbers, no names). You may want to mail them directly to have
more impact.

[Soapbox off]

Thanks for your support, and here's to hoping that we'll get another
company to acknowledge that free software is the best of the present
and the only future!

I will post any results from this effort to comp.os.linux.misc, and if
SDL makes any announcements, I will be sure to put them in comp.os.linux.
announce, as well as comp.dcom.modems and comp.dcom.telecom.


Pete Kruckenberg   [e-mail]

P.S. If for any reason you wouldn't feel comfortable attaching your
name or email address to your message to SDL, feel free to send it to
me and I will forward it to SDL after removing any such information.

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #285
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #286

TELECOM Digest     Tue, 14 Jun 94 07:42:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 286

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Future Changes in Telephone Numbering (FCC via Monty Solomon)
    Cell One/Boston <-> Maine New Connection (Doug Reuben)
    AT&T Mail to Charge for Internet Reception in Canada (Dave Leibold)
    CSPA Annual Conference - Touring the Information Superhighway (Daniel Ho)
    Bell Atlantic Gets More Maryland Competition (Greg Monti)
    BOX Software Wanted (Max Russell)
    Pre-CCITT G4 Compression (Alan Hawrylyshen)
    AT&T Calling Cards in 1982 (Shawn Gordhamer)
    Voice Mail/Information Front-End (PC Based) (Andrew R. D'Uva)
    Customer Choice With 800 Numbers (Judith Oppenheimer)
    Line Simulator Suggestions Wanted (Shawn Herzinger)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 01:22:49 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Monty Solomon)
Subject: Future Changes in Telephone Numbering


                     FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
                        INDUSTRY ANALYSIS DIVISION
                                FACT SHEET

                                 MAY 1994

                   Future Changes in Telephone Numbering

Several important changes will affect the North American Numbering
Plan during the next few years.  These changes will require telephone
companies to modify their network switches.  They will also require
some users to modify their customer premises equipment.  The equipment
affected includes payphones and privately owned switchboards
(generically known as private branch exchanges or PBXs).

This Fact Sheet has been prepared to answer the most frequently asked
questions about upcoming changes in telephone numbers.  It also
provides sources of further information and assistance.

                        Interchangeable Area Codes

Currently, the second digit of an area code is always "0" or "1".

All usable three-digit numbers in this format have been assigned as
area codes.  Beginning in 1995, new area codes will have numbers other
than "0" or "1" as the second digit.  As a result, area codes will
have the same format as the central office codes that appear at the
beginning of local telephone numbers -- hence, the term "interchangeable"
codes.

Three interchangeable area codes have been assigned for service during
early 1995.  These new area codes will be placed in service in Alabama
(334), Washington State (360), and Arizona (520).

Some parts of the telephone network -- including both telephone
company switches and customer equipment -- were not designed to handle
interchangeable codes.  When a call to an interchangeable area code is
attempted from such equipment, the call will not be routed correctly.
Therefore, this equipment must be reprogrammed, modified, or replaced
in order to handle the dialing of interchangeable area codes.

                          New Dialing Procedures

Dialing procedures have traditionally been determined by local
telephone companies and state public utility commissions.
Consequently, they are not uniform, especially for toll calls that
originate and terminate within the same area code.  Over a period of
many years, three basic dialing procedures have evolved for toll calls
that do not cross an area code boundary.  In some states, such calls
are made simply by dialing a seven-digit number.  In other states,
these calls are placed by dialing "1" as a toll indicator, followed by
the seven-digit number.  In still other states, toll calls within the
same area code are placed by dialing "1" plus ten digits (the local
area code plus the seven digit number).

When interchangeable codes are activated in 1995, the prefix "1" will
be used to indicate that the call is longer than seven digits.  This
means that the "1 plus 7" method of dialing toll calls within the same
area code will no longer be feasible.  Each state that used "1 plus 7"
dialing has selected one of the other two dialing options.  Some
states have already completed the change and others are in the process
of doing so.

The use of "1" as an indicator of ten-digit calls means that, in most
areas, systems cannot rely on a leading "1" as a toll indicator.  PBXs
or other switches that have been programmed to block toll calls based
on the use of "1" as a toll indicator will need to be altered.

                    Conversion to 101XXXX Access Codes

Callers sometimes reach long distance carriers by dialing carrier
access numbers in the format 10XXX (where "XXX" represents a carrier's
three-digit identification code).  AT&T's code is 288, MCI's is 222,
etc.  Thus, customers can reach AT&T by dialing 10288, reach MCI by
dialing 10222, etc.  Because almost all three-digit identification
codes have been assigned, four-digit identification codes will be
assigned in 1995.  Carriers with four-digit identification codes will
be reached by dialing 101XXXX.

Under current law, new equipment manufactured for use by aggregators
(PBXs or key systems used by hotels, motels, hospitals, universities,
payphones, and others that provide telephones for "transient" users)
must be capable of processing 10XXX access code dialing.

Newly manufactured equipment should have the capability of processing
101XXXX dialing, but some payphones and other older equipment will not
be able to complete calls to 101XXXX numbers.

During a transition period, both 10XXX and 101XXXX access codes will
be used.  At the end of the transition period, all access codes will
use the 101XXXX format.  The transition period will provide owners of
non-conforming equipment with time to modify, reprogram, or replace
that equipment.  However, users of such equipment will not beable to
reach carriers with the new four-digit identification codes until
modifications are made.

The FCC has proposed a transition period of six years.  Thus, users
may have several years to make the necessary changes.  The date when
such changes will become mandatory has not yet been established.

                  Longer International Telephone Numbers

Under international agreements, international telephone numbers are
now limited to 12 digits.  Beginning in 1997, the maximum permissible
length will be increased to 15 digits.

Although there are no plans to increase the length of telephone
numbers in the United States, Germany has announced its intention to
lengthen its numbers.  Several other countries are also likely to do
so.

When the length of international telephone numbers is increased, customer
premises equipment will have to store and process the longer numbers.

                         Where to Go for More Help

For questions regarding specific customer premises equipment and what
must be done to ensure readiness to process the new numbers, users
should first consult the manufacturers or equipment suppliers.

Additional information is also available from the following sources:

                                    ***

The North American Numbering Plan is administered by Bell Communications
Research.  The administrator has prepared a report, Status of Numbering
in the NANP Served Area, that provides more detail on each of the coming
changes and includes the dialing plan in each state.  The report is
available without charge from:

          Claudette Keith
          North American Numbering Plan Administration
          Bell Communications Research
          Room 1E240
          290 West Mt. Pleasant Avenue
          Livingston, New Jersey  07039-2798
          201 740-6792
          201 740-6860 (FAX)

Questions on interchangeable area codes, dialing plans, and international
telephone numbers can be addressed to:

          Garry Benoit
          North American Numbering Plan Administration
          Bell Communications Research
          Room 1B227
          290 West Mt. Pleasant Avenue
          Livingston, New Jersey  07039-2798
          201 740-4592
          201 740-6860 (FAX)

Questions on the expansion of carrier identification codes can be
addressed to:

          Jim Deak
          North American Numbering Plan Administration
          Bell Communications Research
          Room 1B227
          290 West Mt. Pleasant Avenue
          Livingston, New Jersey  07039-2798
          201 740-4594
          201 740-6860 (FAX)

                                    ***

The vast amount of information necessary for routing calls throughout
the telephone network is maintained by Bellcore's Traffic Routing
Administration.  The information is contained in large data bases and
most can be reached through on-line computer access.  Much of the
information can also be purchased in a variety of formats (paper,
tape, microfiche, and CD-ROM).

A catalog describing the products available can be obtained from the
Traffic Routing Administration Hotline at 201 740-7500.  For more
information, contact:

          Donald Baechler
          Traffic Routing Administration
          Bell Communications Research
          Room 1E235
          290 W. Mt. Pleasant Ave
          Livingston, N.J.  07039-2798
          201 740-7575
          201 740-6999 (FAX)

                                    ***

Local telephone companies and long distance carriers have been
preparing for the coming changes.  The United States Telephone
Association has prepared several information bulletins that are
available without charge.  These publications can be obtained from,
and questions about the telephone network can be addressed to:

          Dennis Byrne
          Executive Director
          Operations and Engineering
          United States Telephone Association
          Suite 600
          1401 H Street N.W.
          Washington, D.C.  20005-2136
          202 326-7296
          202 326-7333 (FAX)

                                    ***

The North American Telecommunications Association represents both
suppliers and users of telecommunications equipment.  They have
prepared a publication called The North American Numbering Plan: A
Guide to Preparing for the New Number Formats.  This publication can
be obtained for a charge of $25.00 by calling 800 538-6282, Ext. 260.
Questions can be addressed to:

          Mary Bradshaw
          Director, Industry Relations
          North American Telecommunications Association
          Suite 550
          2000 M Street N.W.
          Washington, D.C.  20036
          202 296-9800, Ext. 210
          202 296-4993 (FAX)

                                    ***

All of the publications referred to above are available in the Public
Reference Room operated by the Commission's Industry Analysis
Division.  Questions may be addressed to the Commission's staff at:

          Industry Analysis Division
          Federal Communications Commission
          1250 23rd Street N.W.
          Washington, D.C.  20554
          202 632-0745
          202 632-1411 (FAX)

                                -FCC-

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Cell One/Boston <-> Maine New Connection
Date: 14-JUN-1994 04:21:08 GMT


Just drove up from Hampton Beach, NH to Maine for a few hours, and I
noticed that Cell One/Boston (00007) customers can now use all of
their features, and get calls AUTOMATICALLY in the nearby Biddeford/
Portland Maine system, SID 00501.

I believe that the Biddeford system is going to come online on McCaw's
NACN soon, as will Boston, so this seems like the first step along
that line.  Other NACN customers (like those from Cell One/NY 00025)
can't use their features in Maine or Boston yet, nor can they get
calls. It just seems as if they set it up locally between the Boston
system and the Maine system.

You need to use the NACN codes (not the *28/*29 codes) to turn call
delivery on or off. The NACN refers to this as "DDN", which somehow
translates into the "Do Not Disturb" feature. To get calls in Maine
(or anywhere, ie, to turn your call delivery on), dial *350. In Boston,
you can't (?) dial *350, and must dial the Motorola code which
is *28; maybe Maine will implement this soon for CO/Boston and other
customers with home systems which are Motorola based. To turn off call
delivery while in Maine, dial *35. (IE, *350=*28, *35=*29. Note that
in many areas, you can use the *35X and the *2X codes interchangably,
yet Maine is not one of them, at least for the time being).

All your Custom Calling features work VERY smoothly, and you can even
set no-answer-trasnfer to your voicemail (IE, you can hit *71
#555-1212 which is how you do it from the Boston system, but for some
reason you can't do this in the other Motorola-based call-delivery
areas. It will work from Maine, though.)

About the only thing that doesn't work is that unanswered calls do not
bounce back to voicemail (no surprise here, its one of the main flaws
in the NACN, although in this case DOJ rules may prevent it anyhow).
As a matter of fact, unanswered calls just get dead air -- no recording
or anything. Sort of weird.  I suspect they may fix this soon, as
customers begin to complain that their callers don't know what's going
on after four rings.

But other than the inane Department of Justice/MCI rules which only an
IXC like MCI could love (gotta pick up those three cents from ALL those
calls bouncing back to voicemail, huh? How pathetically cheap..!), the
interconnectivity really works great -- it's probably "cleanest" and
most user-transparent system I've seen so far!

I think the Manchester 00445 system in New Hampshire is also linked up
now, although the serivce was so poor I couldn't really try it. I know
that hitting *28 or *29 got me dead air for two seconds, and then the
switch hung up on me, as it if were processing the call but just
didn't want to send confirmation tones back to me. Previously, this
used to get an error recording.


Doug   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Leibold)
Date: 13 Jun 94 14:45:23 -0500
Subject: AT&T Mail to Charge for Internet Reception in Canada
Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway


The AT&T Mail service in Canada has announced its intention to apply
charges to receive Internet messages. Reportedly, such charges are
already in effect for AT&T Mail subscribers in the U.S.

This means receiving a 31k sized Digest will cost $0.30 + 30 * $0.05
or CAD$1.80 (before taxes) starting in August.

No mention of charges for inbound x.400 networked mail, though.

The following is the announcement of Internet reception charges:

 . . . . .

 Date: Fri Jun 10 12:06:42 EDT 1994
 From: CUSTOMER ASSISTANCE <!cndahelp>
 Phone: [phone]
 Fax-Phone: [phone]
 Subject: Internet Messages

Dear Valued AT&T Mail Customer,

Due to increasing costs associated with the delivery of messages
received from the Internet, Unitel Electronic Commerce Services will
implement a new inbound Internet pricing structure beginning August 1,
1994.

AT&T Mail customers in Canada will be charged to receive Internet
messages at the following rate according to the message size:

        - 0 to 1,000 characters                                 CA $0.30
        - each additional group of 1,000 characters or less     CA $0.05

Unitel is able to provide customers with the capability to REFUSE the
receipt of Internet messages.  Please send a message to !cndahelp/COD
or contact the Customer Assistance Centre at 416-502-1740 or
1-800-567-4671 to request that your mailbox configuration be updated
to reflect the desired refusal of all incoming messages from the
Internet.

Should you have any questions about this or any other integrated
messaging service feature, please feel free to contact our Customer
Assistance Centre.

Sincerely,

Unitel Electronic Commerce  Services
A  Member of the AT&T EasyLink Services Global Alliance

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

From: [e-mail] (Daniel Ho)
Subject: CSPA Annual Conference - Touring the Information Superhighway
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 05:43:53 GMT


             | 1994 CSPA Annual Conference |
   | "A Magical Tour Down Software Superhighway 2000" |

                      June 18, 1994
                  12:00 noon - 5:00 pm
                 Registration at 11:00 am
                  Santa Clara Marriott

                          Fee:
                    CSPA member : $10
                  Non CSPA member : $15


            Speakers
            ========
                Wei Yen, VP of Silicon Graphics
            Sherman Ting, VP of Oracle Corporation
Patrick Lanthier, Director of Public Policy & Technology of Pacific Bell
   Jay Marty Tenenbaum, CEO of Enterprise Integration Technologies
  Dr. H.K. Huang, UCSF Vice Chairman of Radiological Information Lab
             Fred Greguras, Partner of Fenwick & West

                            Topics
                            ======
              * Information Highway : Hype or Real?
              * Architecture and Infrastructure of Superhighway
              * Concerns and Strategies of the big players
              * Business opportunities for software developers
              * Demonstrations

              * Door Prizes Drawings at 2:30pm and 4:30pm


* Members of AAMA, CBA, CINA, and Monte Jade eligible for a discounted
entry fee of $10, and CSPA members who renew their '94 membership at
the door receive a futher $5 discount off member registration fee.

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

From: Greg Monti <[e-mail]>
Subject: Bell Atlantic gets More Maryland Competition
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 7:20:13 EDT


According to the May 23, 1994, issue of {Communications Daily},
Southwestern Bell has filed an application with the Maryland Public
Service Commission to offer local telephone service in Montgomery
County.  SWB owns Cable TV Montgomery and would use the cable
operation to provide the telephone service.  SWB would spend $100
million to upgrade the cable operation for telephony.

It would provide competition for Bell Atlantic by late 1995.

Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) has also applied to offer local
telephone service in (almost all of) Maryland, which means that,
should both applications be approved, we will be treated to the
spectacle of three, wireline, local telephone companies competing in
what is in the top five wealthiest per capita income counties in
America.

Unlike MFS, SWB would aim to serve residential as well as
business customers.

Most of Montgomery County is in the Washington LATA, but a small slice
of it is in the Hagerstown, MD, LATA.  The story didn't note whether
SWB would be applying for an MFJ waiver to serve both areas with one
system (SWB is an RBOC).

If I recall later announcements correctly, both SWB and Bell Atlantic
will use AT&T equipment to upgrade their networks, but the equipment
will be dissimilar.  SWB is upgrading a coaxial plant for telephony
while BA is upgrading a twisted pair plant for multimedia.

The story notes that SWB's cable system has 185,000 subscribers and
that the county has a population of 320,000.  The latter is incorrect.
There are about 800,000 people living in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Perhaps 320,000 is the number of households, but that still seems low.


Greg Monti, Arlington, Virginia, USA   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Max Russell)
Subject: BOX Software Wanted
Date: 14 Jun 1994 07:06:46 GMT
Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland


In a message somewhere on this news group someone made reference to a
software called BOX which made dtmf tones over a sound card.

Can someone tell me where I can get BOX or maybe someone can uuencode
it and send it to me.


Thanks.

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

From: [e-mail] (Alan Hawrylyshen)
Subject: Pre-CCITT G4 Compression
Organization: University of Calgary Computer Science
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 17:14:08 GMT


I have a question concerning something to do with CCITT group 4
compression.

I have heard that there is a genre of filter that can be applied to an
image that will greatly improve the compression factor of the subsequent
CCITT group 4 compression. (without serious image quality loss).

Does anyone have any information or pointers WRT this?


Thanks,

[e-mail]    Dept. of Computer Science
Alan B. Hawrylyshen    University of Calgary, CANADA

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

From: [e-mail] (Shawn Gordhamer)
Subject: AT&T Calling Cards in 1982
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 02:55:05 GMT


I figured out, quite by accident, that when AT&T first came out with
their calling cards, they only looked at the LAST digit of the pin
number.  I did this by randomly trying PIN numbers for my own number,
while I waited for my card to be mailed.  My first try, 612-333-xxxx-0001
worked.  I knew 0001 couldn't be my pin, so I tried 0002 and it failed.
Eventually, I figured out that xxx1 worked, where x is any digit.

I then discovered that you could make calls using the weather number,
the time of day number, etc, and you had only to guess at most ten pin
numbers.

Being an honest, upright citizen, I called AT&T and explained all of this
to an operator who didn't have any idea what I was talking about.  I told
a few people at college, and soon, hundreds of "free" calls were being
made.

Some time in 1984 or so this trick stopped working.


Shawn Gordhamer   [e-mail]    Rochester, Minnesota  USA


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I don't know about your formula.
I do know that AT&T Calling Cards started a log time prior to 1982. I
had a calling card (they were called credit cards back then) in the
middle 1960's. In those times, they used a so-called 'key letter' which
was based on one of the digits in the middle of the number. Usually the
key letter would be tied to the fourth, fifth or sixth digit of your
phone number. Therefore, a typical credit card number would look like
this: (If your number was 312-555-2368)  555-2368-097-J. The last three
digits were the RAO, or Regional Accounting Office Code; these started
out at 001 on the east coast and worked their way up to numbers around
097 or 098 when they were assigned on the west coast. In the above
example, perhaps that year the key letter was based on the 6 in the
phone number with 6=J, 7=L, 8=B, etc. Although the formula worked
pretty well where *honest people* were concerned, generally the key
letters were common knowledge among phreaks by the second week in
January each year (cards were mailed out each year the last couple
weeks in December for the year to come). All the phreaks would request
credit cards for their own number, then several would meet early in
January and sit down to compare their numbers with each other after
promising not to abuse *each other's* numbers. By a process of elimin-
ation, they'd figure out which digit was being used to construct the
key letters for that year, and which letters went with each digit, etc.
It got so ridiculous by the late 1960's that AT&T decided to completely
revamp the whole thing. The present system, using a four digit pin as
part of the process began sometime in the middle 1970's.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Voice Mail/Info Front-End (PC Based)
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 19:20:13 EDT


I'm looking for bibliographic sources (or actual products) which would
allow me to program my own "information system" using PC-based
technology.  Basically, I would like to write an interface between a
PC database and voice mail cards so that people calling in to the
system would be offered various choices (DTMF selectable) based on
what was available in the database.

I'm not quite sure where to start.  I know I need a PC or unix box
running an appropriate database, plus a PC-based voice-mail/auto
response system.  What else might be required?  Who sells this sort of
gear?  Does anyone have experience in this area?

I'll be happy to compile responses and send them to TELECOM Digest.

Many thanks in advance.


Andrew R. D'Uva   [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 11:03:04 -0400
From: Judith Oppenheimer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Customer Choice in Dialing 800 Numbers


I have a client who's raised in interesting question.  Consumers can
dial a five-digit code (example: 10288 for AT&T, etc.) and chose, call
by call if they wish, who to use for long distance service.

Does it therefore follow that an 800 number service could design its
voice mail navigation to allow callers to chose, at each call, who
they want to have carry their 800 call?  (Press 1 for AT&T, 2 for MCI,
3 for Sprint, etc.)

Please email responses to [e-mail].


J. Oppenheimer   [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But don't forget, the 'consumer' or
customer is the person *paying* for the call. When you dial an 800
number, you are *not* telco's customer ... the call recipient is
the customer, and in fact the customer does get to choose which
carrier he wants to use, does he not?   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Shawn Herzinger)
Subject: Line Simulator Suggestions Wanted
Date: 13 Jun 1994 15:01:50 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


Can anyone suggest a source for telephone line simulators that would
provide a feature where when one connected phone is taken off-hook the
simulator would ring a second telephone. No dialing should be required.

I am aware of the 1040 CO simulator from Northeast Innovations but the
cost for this unit is rather high at $399. Its a great unit but has
more features than I necessarily need. I am aware of the TLS-4 from
Teltone but it is also expensive.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!


Thanks,

Shawn M. Herzinger   [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #286
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #287

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 15 Jun 94 13:04:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 287

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Still Another 800 Forwarding Service (TELECOM Digest Editor)
    Long Range Radio Modems (Dinesh Rehani)
    France and Germany to Buy Sprint (Clive D.W. Feather)
    Call Progress Tones (Scott Coleman)
    IXC's and InterLATA CID (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
    More Sneaky MCI Marketing (T. Stephen Eggleston)
    Oncor Slam (Rob Boudrie)
    Sprint, eh? (John R. Levine)
    Smooth Operator (Compass Voice Mail) (Eric A. Litman)
    Nine Track IBM Standard Labels (Aaron Jones)
    Assured Service (Bob Schwartz)
    International 900 Numbers (Joe Bowker)
    Problem With Telecom Archives pager.bin.uqx (Neil Weisenfeld)
    List of NACN Cities Wanted (Don Wegeng)
    Pac Bell to Offer Remote Access to Call Forwarding (Richard Kashdan)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 Jun 94 16:22:47 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest Editor)
Subject: Still Another 800 Forwarding Service


After posting that message last week about 'My Line', I got a fax from
another firm offering the same service located here in the Chicago
area, and I will tell you about it today.

Arch Telecom is located in Northbrook, Illinois; a suburb of Chicago
and just a couple miles northwest of where I live. Steven Friedlander,
President of the Sales Group at Arch Telecom sent me a fax describing
their 800 service, and it appears to be quite similar to 'My Line'.
The major difference seems to be in the pricing, which also is quite
similar to 'My Line' but handled differently. Depending on your own
application it may work out better for you.

Arch Telecom includes a fraud protection/cost control feature. They
guarentee not to charge a customer for more than $50 if there is
fraudulent usage on the account, and they allow the customer to set
geographic restrictions on the outbound calling portion of their
service to further guard against abuse or misuse of the service.

Like 'My Line', the 800 service from Arch allows outbound calling via
an inbound call to your personal 800 number.

Arch also offers voicemail for incoming 800 calls, and an additional
feature they offer which 'My Line' seems not to have is a toll-saver
arrangement. If you call your 800 number, it will answer immediatly
if there are messages in voicemail; otherwise if there are no messages
calls to your number will ring two times before answering. If all you
wish to do is check for messages you can hang up if you hear the ring
and save yourself the cost of the call.

Arch offers ANI/DNIS capture on all calls which make it as far as
the voicemail system, even if no actual message is left. You can also
get the time and date for any access made to voicemail via your
number.  I don't think 'My Line' offers this, at least as of yet.

In addition to message notification, where a call is made out to a
pager to to notify you of voicemail received, the Arch Telecom system
offers zero transfer and voicemail transfer, meaning you can receive
a call and while conversing transfer the call elsewhere, or to the
voicemail if you prefer.

Like 'My Line', calls to your 800 number can be forwarded instantly
to wherever you choose; you control the destination by calling your
own number and punching in new instructions which take effect at the
same time as you enter them.

For additional fraud protection, and to prevent nuisance callers from
reaching you, Arch Telecom's system allows ANI blocking and passing.
You can allow or deny access to your 800 number on a phone number by
phone number basis. You can block specific numbers or entire area
codes as desired.

Arch Telecom says they can route your incoming 800 calls based on the
caller's location. That is, callers from Chicago might get sent
through to the Chicago office while calls in Missouri might get sent
to the office in St. Louis, etc.

They offer online, up to the second call detail if you have a PC and
a modem ... and who among the TELECOM Digest readers woudn't have one!
You can call in and view your phone activity and billings on a 'real
time' basis for analysis. You need 'PC Anywhere' for windows software.

MONTHLY RATES AND PER MINUTE CHARGES:

Arch refers to their service as 'Vision 800'.

The monthly recurring line charge is $20.00 for an Arch Telecom 800
number, but according to what I received, that charge is presently
being waived, at least for new customers.

   For comparison, 'My Line' charges $8.50 plus $9.50 if you want
   voicemail.

Per minute charges are rated by band, with the USA divided into six
bands. Charges are further calculated by time of day and day of week.
For example, the closest points (band one) are charged 23.9 cents per
minute weekday business hours. Far away points (band six) are charged
28.8 cents per minute. Evening rates range from 19.7 cents per minute
to 23.7 cents per minute. Night and weekend rates range from 16.8
cents per minute to 19.9 cents per minute.

    For comparison, 'My Line' charges 25 cents per minute, all times.

So if your usage is primarily evenings and weekends, then Arch Telecom
is less expensive. Bear in mind the monthly recurring charge difference
between Arch and 'My Line' is only one dollar ($20 vrs. $19 per month)
however if you don't want the voicemail part, 'My Line' does let you
opt out and get by for $8.50 per month instead. As far as I can tell
by reading what I got from Arch, voicemail is part of the package and
not optional.

If your usage is primarily during weekday business hours, then Arch
rates are about equal to 'My Line' for many calls, and slightly
higher on others. From the table they sent me and based on my own
calls as an example, I think Arch would be about a penny per minute
higher during the day on average. Evenings and nights are always cheaper
on Arch, sometimes by as much as five cents per minute.

But, Arch also gives discounts on total dollar usage per month. If you
use more than $50 per month, they give a five percent discount off the
total. If you use more than $350.00 per month, the discount is ten
percent. This in effect would bring the cost of daytime calls down to
equal 'My Line', or maybe even a little less.

Overall, it looks to me like Arch Telecom is aiming for business
customers with a higher volume of traffic. Whether your calling pattern
is mostly days, mostly nights/weekends, etc is an applications problem
you have to solve. That's not to say that 'My Line' would not like some
large business customers as well, but the pricing (per month recurring
without voicemail and per minute charges) probably would be a little
more appealing than what Arch is asking. Again, you have to analyze
your own application and if you can make Arch pay off in the long run
based on your own configuration and calling patterns, then go for it.

Arch has a second plan which may be more to your liking:

They average out the calls at rates of:

     24.5 cents per minute during the day;
     20.5 cents per minute during the evening, night and weekend hours.

On this plan there is no monthly charge or installation charge, but
there is a $5 per month minimum usage requirement. For a very low
volume user, this might be much more in line with what you want to
pay; this plan certainly is better than 'My Line' but it is unclear
to me if it includes all the fancy features described above which apply
to 'Vision 800'.  If Arch is giving automtic forwarding of calls and
voicemail essentially free under this second plan (I do not know that
to be the case or not), then obviously it is a better deal than
'My Line' with its $8.50 per month and optional $9.50 per month deal
and per minute charges of 25 cents flat rate.

One other point not touched on clearly in the fax I got from Arch
was the pricing on outbound calls. 'My Line' gets 55 cents for the
first minute and 25 cents each additional minute on calls outbound
via your 800 number. I *assume* -- might be wrong -- that Arch charges
the same rates for outgoing calls that they charge on incoming stuff
per the figures shown above. If so, then the question is are you going
to be making more outgoing calls via that number (eliminating the use
of a conventional calling card) than you are going to receive incoming
calls ... if so, Arch again is best in pricing. If not, then maybe
'My Line' is your best deal.

This message has already gotten quite long, and there are parts of the
Arch Telecom service I have not even touched on such as the interactive
voice response service, the fax on demand, and other neat things.

One thing though is certain -- this I do know:  the days of the old
style 800 number, good for incoming calls only are over with. Remember
how here in the Digest we used to discuss the fact that (back then)
only Cable and Wireless was offering 'forwardable 800' ... and
remember how AT&T charged so much for their 'Ready Line', to say
nothing of their more conventional, dedicated line 800 service?

And what about those poor fools using the MCI shared-line, insert
a PIN number after getting answered numbers?  Wny would *anyone*
bother with MCI, Sprint or AT&T 800 service these days when new and
exciting services like Arch Telecom, 'My Line', Cable and Wireless
and others are around?

For more information on Arch Telecom's 800 services, you can contact
them as follows:

Steven Friedlander  [e-mail]
Arch Telecom
3330 W. Dundee Road #C-8
Northbrook, IL  60062
Phone: 800-ARCHTEL
       708-509-ARCH
Fax:   [phone]


Mention that you read about their service in TELECOM Digest.


Patrick Townson

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

Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 06:57:32 MST
From: Dinesh Rehani [phone] <REHANI@UTCDSV>
Subject: Long Range Radio Modems


I have been trying for over a year to get BT to install a 64kbps grade
line (the BTspeak is KiloStream) to my office without any success so
far, and without much hope for the next half year or so.

I am therefore looking at alternative means of obtaining 64kbps
capability. I recall having seen (not "read") a spate of articles
recently regarding radio-modems.

Would someone enlighten me on these please? I intend to have Cisco
routers on each end, and the two nodes I need connected are about 60
miles as the crow flies ...


Thanks and regards,

dinesh rehani   [e-mail]

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

Subject: France and Germany to buy Sprint
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 08:21:48 +0100 (BST)
From: Clive D.W. Feather <[e-mail]>


According to the BBC today, the France and German PTTs are to take a
20% stake in Sprint (similar to British Telecom's share in MCI).


Clive D.W. Feather      Santa Cruz Operation
[e-mail]           Croxley Centre
Phone: [phone]  Hatters Lane, Watford
Fax:   [phone]  WD1 8YN, United Kingdom

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

From: [e-mail] (Scott Coleman)
Subject: Call Progress Tones
Date: 15 Jun 94 13:57:05 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana


The following chart summarizes common call progress tones as well as
the DTMF frequency combinations. I asked about these earlier, but all
I got were "tell me what you found" responses, so this post is for
those guys.  ;-) Also, if anyone spots any errors, please feel free to
correct them.  Pat, I'm sure this will make a good addition to the
Telecom Archives. I know I wish it had been there when I looked a few
weeks back. ;-)

BTW, the source is the October '93 issue of Circuit Cellar INK
magazine in an article on a telephone interface for a home automation
system.

                          Call Progress Tones

Function                Frequency               On Time         Off Time
               (Hz)         (seconds)    (seconds)

Dial            350 + 440        continuous
Busy            480 + 620        0.5        0.5
Ringback        440 + 480        2        4
No Such Number        200 to 400      continuous FM @ 1 Hz
Left Off Hook        1400 + 2060 +        0.1        0.1
            2450 + 2600
Congestion        480 + 620        0.2        0.3
Reorder         80 + 620        0.3        0.2
Ring Back PBX        440 + 480        1        3

                        DTMF Tone Combinations

        697 Hz        770 Hz        852 Hz        941 Hz
1209 Hz       1          4          7          0
1336 Hz       2          5          8          *
1477 Hz       3          6          9          #
1633 Hz       A          B          C          D



Scott Coleman             [e-mail]
President ASRE (American Society of Reverse Engineers)

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

Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 01:25:54 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
Subject: IXC's and InterLATA CID
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst


Having read the text of the FCC's Caller ID decision, I am curious to
know if any carriers have announced their schedule for transmitting
CNID between LATAs.  The FCC has mandated April 12, 1995 as the
effective date by which all carriers must comply, but it seems
possible, especially given reports of sporadic CID delivery, that
capable carriers may go nationwide before that deadline.

The decision also asked for comments regarding other CID-based
services, including Return Call, and Repeat Call.  From the looks of
the report, it would seem that the arguments that led to nationwide
CID with per-call (*67/1167) blocking would tend to argue for the use
of these services on a nationwide basis as well.  The only difficulty
that comes to mind would be the use of Return Call to numbers that had
blocked CID delivery.  The most sensible compromise (IMO) would be to
preserve both parties' privacy by allowing Return Call on blocked
numbers without revealing the actual number to the party invoking the
Return feature, as NYNEX does in MA.  Is this current practice in most
states?  (I believe that it is not true for MN.)

BTW, while paging through the archives (via Gopher), I came across a
post by someone who intended to switch to the first carrier that
offered interLATA CID.  Am I correct in believing that the IXC of the
caller, and not the recipient, would be the one delivering the
information?  If so, such a switch would only guarantee that the
individial's outgoing LD calls would deliver his CID to the recipient,
and not vice versa.


Jeffrey W. McKeough   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (T. Stephen Eggleston)
Subject: More Sneaky MCI Marketing
Date: 15 Jun 1994 03:00:06 -0400
Organization: Nuance Data Systems, Alexandria, VA    22304


Well, this one took the cake.

MCI sent a "check" for 25.00, which when cashed switched my service.
Nothing unusual here, but they sent it to my teenage daughter.  She
has NEVER had a phone in her name.

She came to me and told me she was going to the bank.  Someone sent me
a check, and all I have to do is sign it.

Again, she is a kid, living at home, and has NEVER EVER had a phone in
her name.

I was tempted to let her do it, and see what legal goodies I could
pull, but decided I had too much of a life to play games with "The
Phone Company."

I did, however, call my carrier (Sprint) and told them about the
"dirty trick."  They said that if I would send them the entire package
with a brief note explaining this, they would credit my account the
25.00.

Not of great importance, but what are these folks going to stoop to
next?

"Hey little girl, want a piece of candy, just initial this box!"

Talk about sleaze ball marketing!

And people complain about Amway and Jehovah's Witnesses ...

MCI, the C&S of the Phone Business!

$include flameshield.  But Then Again, I Could Be Wrong


Steve Eggleston                         Internet:[e-mail]
Nuance Data Systems  [phone]           CIS:72040,713


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note" I doubt that MCI *knew* she is only a
child. I am sure there was a data entry error somewhere from some other
list where they obtained her name.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Rob Boudrie)
Subject: Oncor Slam
Date: 14 Jun 1994 22:58:11 -0400
Organization: Center for High Performance Computing of WPI


A visitor to a club I'm in recently used the coin unit to call long
distqance from MA to NJ.  The phone labeled AT&T, and the readback
from 1-700-555-4141 confirms an AT&T connection.

But, this person made two card calls and received a bill from Oncor
(at $7 for the one minute call and $12 for the five minute call).

Anyone know any way this could happen?  Is there such a thing as
slamming an individual call on a phone defaulted to AT&T?


rob boudrie    [e-mail]

PS: please copy reply to email as I am an intermittent reader of this group.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Read the tag on the phone carefully. All
*coin calls* (which is what 1+ would be from a payphone; the caller would
have to deposit coins in the box) everywhere in the USA are handled by
AT&T. They are the only company set up with equipment in the telco central
offices to handle coin collections. Now zero plus calls from a coin phone
are a different matter. They can go to whatever carrier happens to have
that pay phone assigned to them. The tag on the phone should have said
something like 'operator services to this phone are provided by Oncor'.
In some cases, the tag is identical to all others except after the
phrase 'provided by' a tiny slice of paper with the word 'Oncor' was
pasted on top of whatever had been there before. This is done when the
phone starts out one way and zero plus gets defaulted elsewhere at some
point in time. This sounds to me like the default was changed but the
tag on the front was not. Usually this is the job of the coin collector
when s/he comes around to get the money from time to time.

If the phone in your club is *semi-public*, which is quite likely, then
the club pays a monthly fee for it to be there even though telco gets
all the coins and no commission is paid. If that is the case, then whoever
in your club is responsible for the phone got to pick the carrier. I would
suspect that person was approached by a sales rep for Oncor and told that
they would receive a better commmission on long distance calls than what
AT&T/local telco was willing to provide, so they made the switch. On the
other hand, if the coin phone in your club is 'public', or commissionable,
then telco is technically the 'subscriber' to the phone, and telco
is required to distribute its long distance zero plus traffic from coin
phones on an even-handed basis, assigning some phones to AT&T, some to
Sprint, etc ... in the case of coins deposited in the box, (what would
be one plus traffic) as stated above, AT&T gets that by default since
they are they only company equipped to handle it.

This probably explains the confusion. The tag was not correctly updated
to match the realities of where the phone was assigned for zero plus
calls, and a call to *1* plus 700-555-4141 will correctly yield AT&T as
the carrier for those (coin paid) calls.

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

From: [e-mail] (John R Levine)
Subject: Sprint, eh?
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 94 23:17:00 EDT


The current {America's Network} (formerly TE&M, a rag read by most
telco engineering managers) reports that Sprint's Canadian affiliate
is now cranking up an advertising campaign for Canadian customers.

By a huge stroke of luck, spokesbeing Candice Bergen, who is married
to French filmmaker Louis Malle, speaks fluent French and is doing
both the English and French commercials.  Competing carriers in
Quebec sniff that there's more to capturing the Quebec market than a
few commercials in French.

Speaking of French, I hear that Sprint today in the wake of their
failed talks with EDS announced a multi-billion dollar investment by
the monopoly carriers France Telecom and Deutche Telekom.  Sprint
will sell 20% of the company over several years for $4.2 billion in
cash.  A joint Global Partnership will market combined services
worldwide, and they may invite an Asian carrier or two to join.

AT&T promptly complained, not without reason, that it's unfair that
the European monopoly carriers can invest in U.S. carriers, but AT&T
can't buy into Europe.


Regards,

John Levine, [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Eric A. Litman)
Subject: Smooth Operator (Compass Voice Mail)
Date: 14 Jun 1994 10:54:12 -0500
Organization: Proxima, Inc.


Has anyone on this group used Compass Technology's Smooth Operator
PC-based voice mail system? I am in the market for a system, and am
going through the merits of a PC-based system as opposed to picking up
an aftermarket Octel system.

Apparently, Compass was purchased by Octel a few years ago, and now
sells one of their products as the Call Performer. Notes on this would
be welcome, as well.


Eric Litman                   Proxima, Inc.              vox: [phone]
Director, Network Services    McLean, VA                [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (aaronjones)
Subject: Nine Track IBM Standard Labels
Date: 14 Jun 1994 17:47:55 GMT
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA


Hi there,

I'm trying to deal with Bell Canada's SYGMA (Bell's Computer Systems
Group) to exchange information on 9-track magnetic tapes.  They
require that the tapes that we ship to them have (drum roll please) ...

            "Standard IBM Labels"

Bell SYGMA has said that we should contact IBM for the format of these
labels. I've tried to do so and failed most miserably (sigh).  I did
get to talk to a rather large number of nice people at IBM, but
unfortunately none of them were able to help me.

BTW, these are labels written to the tape media rather than little
adhesive stickers on the side of the reel. ;-)

Any and all help with this would be greatly appreciated.


Adv-thanks-ance,

Aaron Jones        Ph: [phone]
InterAccess Consulting  Fax:[phone]
Toronto, Ontario    Email: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Bob Schwartz)
Subject: Assured Service
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 94 12:39:19 PDT
Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California


According to an article in {Teleconnect Magazine} a couple of months
ago Assured service is costly and often identical to Basic service.

Are there ever any situations under which Assured service is necessary?


Bob Schwartz                                       [e-mail]
Bill Correctors, Inc.   [phone]   Marin County, California


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Wouldn't that (if they were identical
or not) depend on who was giving the 'assurances', and whether or not
a technically sophisticated person (like most Digest readers I assume)
felt they could accept such guarantees and 'assurances'?  PAT]

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

From: Joe Bowker <[e-mail]>
Subject: International 900 Numbers
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 94 16:14:31 EDT


I thought I was safe from my teenage sons from using 900/976 numbers,
but I was wrong. I have had my 900/976 numbers blocked for my home
phone for some time now. I recently got hit for about $135 worth of
international calls to adult enterainment services in the Dominican
Republic and Sao Tome.

Although the guilty party has been caught (eleven year old son) and is
being punished and I don't think he'll do it again (if he wants to see
the ripe age of twelve).

I would like to spread the word that these slime balls are coming up
with new and inventive ways to get around the call blocking.

My questions for the net are:

1. Has anyone ever succesfully had this type of charges reversed? (LD
carrier is Sprint) If so how did you manage it? Sprint is stonewalling
me and refuses to write them off.

2. How successfully can one get the local CO to block this sort of
call, without making it impossible to use the phone for all international
calls?

3. Have there been any recent court/legal cases that may be relevant?
If I challenge the charges, do I have any chances of winning? Or will
it be just a delaying action that annoys the LD carrier and eventually
I will end up paying?


Joe Bowker          EMail: [e-mail]
Digital Equipment Corp    508-858-3021


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Let's repeat together the long-standing
rule, expresssed time and again: each person is responsible for the
use(s) made of his instruments. Period. You are legally going to have
to pay. Sprint may or may not decide as a matter of goodwill to write
off the charges; and a write off it will be since they have no recourse
against the telco which accepted the inbound traffic.

For those not in the know about this, here is what is happening: the
business of international calls is a lucrative one. Although they do not
cost much more than domestic long distance calls, they are priced much
higher. As a result, anyone who can generate a lot of international calls
(by 'a lot' I mean many, many thousands of dollars worth of them per month)
can solicit and will receive -- with pleasure! -- a commission from the
international carrier handling the traffic. Now, how do you stir up lots
of international calls?  Simple ... you advertise in the media in one nation
telling the citizens there to call for something they want in another country
and you tell them why it is better to do it that way. You appeal to the
interests of those people. Care for a couple examples?  Newspaper adver-
tisements in Spain and Italy encourage those people to call a number in
New Jersey, USA for consultation with an astrologer. On the flip side of
the coin, newspapers in the USA, such as the {Advocate} and {Windy City
Times}, to name two examples, run advertisements encouraging gay guys to
meet other gay people for hot chat by dialing a number in Guyana or in
Bonaire, Netherland Antilles.

Now you ask, why would a person place an international call to do that?
The advertisements explain why: "No premium or 900 charges! No charges on
your credit card! All you pay is the regular toll!"  If you have ever used
a 900 service and paid three dollars per minute, or had charges like that
billed on your credit card, then obviously the savings are quite apparent.
The toll charge is only 50-75 cents per minute. Now your next question
quite logically follows: If all the caller has to pay is the toll charge,
and the telco gets that, then how does the 'information provider' -- the
dude with his conference bridge setup handling all that hot chat -- get
paid?  How do the astrologers in New Jersey get paid?  He gets paid a
commission, or kickback by the international carrier. They get five or
ten cents per minute of traffic sent their way. The telecom administration
in the foreign country gets a piece of the action also which helps a lot
in getting their outstanding balance cleaned up with AT&T. 'Everyone'
benefits: the IP gets rich, the telcos make out like bandits, and the gay
guys or dirty old men or whoever in the USA call those numbers get much
lower phone bills. 'Everyone' that is, except the parents of eleven year
old boys who are curious about life ...:)

Its not just Sprint, or those hooligans at Telesphere (or whatever name
they are going by now) involved. Would the Mother Company -- AT&T, the
Grand Dame of telcos -- engage in such dealings?  You betcha!  Madam Bell
runs electronic houses of ill-repute also ... what's that number in
Colorado which can only be reached by using the AT&T network? Then there
is that advertisement which ran in the underground newspapers for awhile
showing these dudes with boots and leather, whips and chains and a caption
saying, "Make new friends using AT&T ... reach out and touch the one you've
been seeking ... call <10288-011-international number in Netherland Antilles>
 ... no premium charges!  Just regular toll charges apply on your call."

Hot chat over the long-distance telephone is a lucrative business, especially
when an established carrier is willing to handle the mechanics for you.
Your options in the future?  Get one of those Radio Shack toll-restrictors
and block out the individual numbers you don't want called. Either that, or
take that eleven year old and slap him silly. :)   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Neil Weisenfeld)
Subject: Problem With Telecom Archives pager.bin.uqx
Organization: NIH Div of Comp Rsrch and Technology
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 14:41:43 GMT


Has anyone successfully decoded this software from the Telecom-Archives
(I think in /telecom-archives/technical)?  I transferred it as text,
uudecoded it, de-bin-hex-ed it, but the resulting stack just won't run
under Hypercard 2.1.  I've done the process a million times, making
sure that the uuencoded stuff gets correctly transferred as text (and
doesn't have something stupid happen like paragraph filling).  It
still gets "Filesystem Error -50".  Has anyone had more luck (er,
skill)?


Regards,

Neil Weisenfeld, Computer Engineer       Internet: [e-mail]
Nat'l Insts. of Health, 12A/2033         Voice:    [phone]
Bethesda, MD  20892                      Fax:      [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Don Wegeng)
Subject: List of NACN Cities?
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 94 16:14:31 EDT


Does anyone know of an Internet accessible updated list of cellular
phone systems that are members of McCaw's North American Cellular
Network?  In a couple weeks I plan to travel across several states via
car, and I need to provide instructions on how to contact me.  NACN
will auto-deliver calls, but of course that only works if I'm in an
NACN area.  When I'm in other cities I need to provide roaming port
numbers, etc.

This would seem like something that the Cellular One WWW server could
easily provide, but it's not there (http://www.elpress.com/cellone/cellone.
html).

I know that there are roaming handbooks that contain this info, or I
could inquire with my local provider before I travel, but an electronic
list would be easier and/or cheaper to access, and probably more up to date,
too.


Thanks,

Don    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Kashdan)
Subject: Pac Bell to Offer Remote Access to Call Forwarding
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 21:17:17 GMT


Pacific Bell submitted Advice Letter 17006 to the California PUC on
June 6 requesting authorization to offer the Remote Access to Call
Forwarding service.  They request that the tariff go into effect on
July 16, 1994.  This type of Advice Letter usually goes into effect
automatically on the requested date without needing any formal
approval process by the PUC.  The only thing that might stop or delay
it would be legitimate protests that the PUC staff might decide to
take seriously.

Remote Access to Call Forwarding already exists in some other states.
The customer is given an access phone number (one per ESS switch) and
a PIN.  They can call that phone number from anywhere and when it
answers, touch tone in their own phone number, their PIN, and a
command to re-program their call-forwarding feature to either start
forwarding calls to wherever they now find themselves (or any other
number), or deactivate call forwarding.

The price will be $1.50 per month for business service, $1.00 per
month for residence.  This is in addition to the normal charges for
the call forwarding feature.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Illinois Bell/Ameritech offers this
service for free. If you subscribe to Call Forwarding, you can request
a PIN to use via a certain telephone number which allows you to remotely
turn on or off call forwarding and change the destination, etc.  PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #287
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #288

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 15 Jun 94 14:38:30 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 288

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Donald J. Miller)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Steve Cogorno)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (D. Castillo)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Scott Coleman)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Leo Nederlof)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Michael D. Sullivan)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Dan Reifsnyder)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Jeffrey Rhodes)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Tim Gorman)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Mike King)
    Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (Rich Padula)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Carl Oppedahl)
    Re: Caller ID With a New Twist (Ross E Mitchell)
    Re: Caller ID With a New Twist (Phil Bullock)
    Re: Caller ID With a New Twist (B.J. Guillot)
    Re: Does PAT Work For US West? (Hugh Pritchard)
    Re: Does PAT Work For US West? (Ry Jones)
    Correction of Attribution - Re: What Did You Have For Dinner (G. Burditt)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Donald J. Miller)
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 08:17:45 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access [phone]  [login: guest]


David Lawrance ([e-mail]) wrote:


> At one time, Motorola and Timex were marketting a pager built into a
> watch.  Are there still such beasts?  Who sells and who supports?

The Motorola/Timex watch was kind of large and klunky.  Lately,
however, there have been numerous commercials in the Atlanta area (and
I assume elsewhere) for pager watches made by Swatch.  The units
displayed in the commercial, at least, look as stylish as regular
Swatch watches.


Don Miller   Electronic System Products   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Cogorno)
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 14:09:22 GMT


David Lawrance said:

> At one time, Motorola and Timex were marketting a pager built into a
> watch.  Are there still such beasts?  Who sells and who supports?


Swatch makes watches like this; they are availible at the AT&T Phone
Centers.


Steve    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (D. Castillo)
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 06:26:01 -0600
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque


In article <[e-mail]>, David Lawrance <d-lawrance@
uiuc.edu> wrote:

> At one time, Motorola and Timex were marketting a pager built into a
> watch.  Are there still such beasts?  Who sells and who supports?

Swatch sells them. According to one of their ads, they're available at
AT&T Phonecenters. (Haven't checked this myself, have yet to go to one
of the ATT centers, seem awfully expensive from their ads.)


[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Scott Coleman)
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Date: 15 Jun 94 14:21:19 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana


I once tried to track down the writwatch pager. It does exist, but
none of the paging companies around here seems to want to carry them
(I checked several). The reason is that they are apparently very
fragile.  One outfit was willing to try and order one for me. Since
they didn't have one for me to look at, I requested a brochure and
other information which I never received, promised callbacks were
never made, etc. This was both from the local paging companies as well
as Motorola itself, which manufactures the thing. After some time I
just gave up on the idea. It's a cool idea, but if it's prone to
breakage, and nobody wants to support it when it does break, the
hassle of ownership would outweigh the benefits.

I now own a standard Motorola display pager, which has been 100%
problem fee and was less than half the price of the wristwatch model.
And besides, I have a Casio Infrared controller wristwatch which I use
for A/V and Home Automation equipment; I don't want to wear two
wristwatches. ;-)


Scott Coleman             [e-mail]
President ASRE (American Society of Reverse Engineers)

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

Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 12:48:35 +0200
From: Leo Nederlof <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?


Swatch has them. Until now I've only seen them in the shops in Switzerland,
but I assume they will be marketed in other countries as well.

What I've seen is only one type, black, the body slightly larger than
a standard Swatch. Probably they will come up with trendy designs and
coulours shortly.  Unless nobody buys them of course ...


Leo Nederlof               Alcatel Bell Research Centre
[e-mail]     Network Technology Group
phone: [phone]       Francis Wellesplein 1
fax:   [phone]       2018 Antwerp - Belgium

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

From: [e-mail] (Michael D. Sullivan)
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 01:05:37 -0400
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA


Dunno about Motorola and Timex.  Swatch markets several models of its
"Piepser" watch/pager in conjunction with BellSouth's MobileComm
paging service.


Michael D. Sullivan | INTERNET E-MAIL TO:  |also: [e-mail]
Washington, D.C.    | [e-mail] |   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dan Reifsnyder)
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 15:11:07 GMT
Organization: IAC
Reply-To: [e-mail]


I saw an advertisement on TV this weekend ... macho guy riding his
huge motorcycle down the highway.  His watch beeps ... a number shows
up in a small lcd window on the watch ... (you see a stuffy-looking
person on a phone somewhere) ... he apparently recognizes the number
and ignores it.  This happens two or three more times, until the
person calling is a gorgeous woman ... he slams on the brakes and pulls
over to a pay phone.  Strange as it seems, the watch/pager seems to be
made by Swatch (yep, the cheesy-colored plastic watch people).  Hope
this helps.


Dan Reifsnyder   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Jeffrey Rhodes)
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 14:53:28 GMT
Organization: McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc.
Reply-To: [e-mail]


Seiko is offering the Seiko Receptor. This is an alphanumeric pager
that receives messages and time adjustments from a Stratum 1 atomic
clock (every thirty minutes). FM subcarriers are used, so some
messages get missed while in a tunnel or basement.

I get the daily stock market closing and WA lottery numbers as part of
the Information services. It is offered in Seattle, Tacoma and
Portland but should be in CA, NY and Washington, DC by year end. I
have my cellular Voice Mail Notification call my pager number so I
know when someone leaves me Voice Mail.

A six month contract is $20 activation and $8 per month. Roaming is
extra, but it will be neat to get off a plane in NY and have the time
adjusted to local time automatically!


Jeffrey Rhodes at [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Except I think you are in for a slight
disappointment. I think (am not positive) that the radio time adjustment
only sends the seconds and minutes; those two parts of the time are
the only things absolute about the time in the USA. In other words,
whatever the hour may be in your time zone or mine, we still are at
the same number of minutes and seconds. I think when you travel around
the USA (or most of the world, if the radio signals go that far) you
will still have to advance or retard your watch manually for the
correct hour. If I stand corrected on this, let me know.   PAT]

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

From: Tim Gorman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?
Date: 15 Jun 94 09:50:24 EDT


If you dial 0 and ask the local RBOC operator to dial an 800 number
for you AND the local RBOC is off of a Northern Telecom operator
system your ANI will not be passed on to the carrier the 800 number is
sent to. In order to launch the 800 database query to find out which
carrier gets the traffic the call must be sent out of the system and
back in. The way this must be done does not pass the ANI.

I have no knowledge of how AT&T's or anyone else's operator systems
work.

If you dial your interLATA carrier operator and ask them to dial the
800 number for you they will have your ANI. Whether this ANI is passed
on to the 800 number recipient is based on the interLATA carriers
switch and it's capabilities. If the call terminates back to a local
RBOC the ANI is not passed on since terminating Feature Group
protocols do not provide for ANI to be passed on a terminating leg.

0+800 is typically blocked from most classes of service. There is no
reason for any 800 call to be dialed in this fashion from most classes
of service and it needlessly ties up operator system capacity if
allowed.


Tim Gorman - SWBT

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

From: [e-mail] (Mike King)
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 05:17:35 PDT


In TELECOM Digest, V14, #280, Ry Jones <[e-mail]> wrote:

> RJ: 0
> USW: (bong) USWEST <pause> USWest, how can I help you?
> RJ: My 8 key is broken, can you please dial a number for me?
> USW: Yes, may I have the number, area code first, please?
> RJ: 1 800 265 5328, please.
> USW: Please wait...

> ATT: Number you are dialing from please?
> RJ: 206 xxx xxxx
> ATT: Number you would like to call?
> RJ: 812 xxx xxxx
> ATT: What is your name please?
> RJ: Ry.
> ATT: Thank you. <ring>
> IP <indiana pal>: Hello?
> ATT: This is AT&T, I have a collect call from Ry. Will you accept the
> charges?
> IP: Yeah.
> ATT: Thank you.

> The number that comes out on the bill of IP is whatever I told ATT.
> ATT does *not* get the number from the USW operator. Period. I know

Are you certain that AT&T is processing this call?  I'd like to know
how they can snag a call to 1-800-COLLECT, an MCI number.

I guess it's possible that the USWest operator might be handing the
call directly to an AT&T operator without actually connecting you to
800-COLLECT, but I'd think that would be illegal. Of course, in that
scenario, I'd believe the AT&T oeprator would have your ANI information.


Mike King    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 00:28:34 EDT
Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient?


[e-mail] wrote:

> In Los Angeles, one of the local TV channels has an 800 "tip" hotline.
> They repeatedly reassure viewers "you don't have do give your name".
> I'll bet that 99% of the population here thinks this means that their call

> can be anonymous.

Well, here's a better one.  This Sunday's issue of {Parade Magazine}
(June 12) has a big debate on decriminalizing marijuana use. Naturally,
they are conducting an opinion poll on a 900 number (charge is 75
cents).  However, one of the questions is "How often have you used
marijuana?"

Gee, I wonder where THAT data will end up?


Rich

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

From: [e-mail] (Carl Oppedahl)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Date: 15 Jun 1994 18:13:13 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Supak
Lailert "spk") writes:

> Sam Spens Clason ([e-mail]) wrote:

>> How big a part of all calling card frauds could be avoided if the PIN
>> wasn't actually printed on the card?!

>> So, stop printing the PIN on calling cards, that would not make them
>> as easely used if stolen or just glimpsed at.

> As I called MCI early this week to request for a new calling card,
> they give me an option not to have the PIN printed on my card. Nice
> move, MCI.

Huh?  I memorize my card number.  Then it does not matter what is or
is not written on it since I don't carry the card.  Why would any one
carry the card around?

If you feel you *must* have something with you carrying the number,
why the card?  Again, I don't get it.  Why not write the number on
something else, so at least it is not immediately recognizable as a
telephone calling card number.  And maybe change one of the digits or
something, in a way you can easily remember to undo.

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John
Adams) writes:

> The problem, or angle, is that a crook can stand at one payphone and
> simply watch what numbers you press on the keypad.  Perhaps this easy
> tactic is the reason for the wave of "voice cards" (a la Sprint) where
> you speak the name of a preprogrammed voice sample/digit sequence to
> place a call?

Yes, I think you are right about Sprint's reason for this.

At Pennsylvania Station in New York City, all the Nynex pay phones
have a metal shroud around the keypad, making it *very* difficult for
someone to shoulder-surf.  I expect this will become commonplace in
busy places.

All the more reason to get 800 numbers that terminate at the places
you call often.  (You don't have to be the telephone customer at the
terminating end; I have one to call my Internet provider, who has only
a 212 access number, for example.)  If a surfer sees the 800 number
they will not get much benefit from it.

Portions excerpted from The Phone Book from Consumer Reports.


Carl Oppedahl AA2KW     Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers)
Yorktown Heights, NY    voice 212-777-1330

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

From: [e-mail] (Ross E Mitchell)
Subject: Re: Caller ID With a New Twist
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 21:14:27 GMT


Along with a professor from Clark University, I have written an
article for MIT's Technology Review about a solution to telephone
privacy issues such as those raised by Caller ID.  The service to be
offered by US West appears to offer all of the features we recommend
under a general privacy theory which we have dubbed "Dynamic
Negotiation."

The guiding principle of Dynamic Negotiation is that individual users
of the phone system should determine the extent to which they wish to
sacrifice their privacy in a dynamic and interactive fashion.
Per-line blocking is the default, with selective unblocking available.
Per-call blocking is available for users desiring to change from the
per-line default but retain the option to selectively block.

At the same time, Anonymous Call Reject is available as a free option.
Any calls which are rejected route to an instructional message on how
the call can be completed.  (There is no charge to the calling party
and the called party's phone, of course, does not even ring.)

This approach solves everyone's privacy concerns: called parties can
ensure that they are not disturbed by people who do not choose to
identify themselves; callers need not take any special action to
protect their privacy when calling, but have the option to release
their numbers at will in order to complete their call, or to change
their default to release except when explicitly blocked.  With the
per-line blocking default, callers do not release their numbers
without knowledge and consent, since they must take an affirmative
action to enable number release.  The message provided when calling a
number which rejects blocked-number calls provides an instantaneous
and effective training mechanism for the uniformed caller.  We also
recommend Call Trace to permit capture of harrassing caller numbers to
parties who have chosen to accept all calls, regardless of privacy bit
setting.

In our article we call for federal regulation of Caller ID, but simply
in order to permit the creation of a level playing field.  In our
view, government must not determine for us the appropriate level of
privacy protection, but must mandate systems which permit us to do
that for ourselves, just as we have always done in non-electronic
interaction.

I'm delighted that at least one phone company has seen the valid
privacy concerns raised on both sides of this issue, and I would
appreciate your comments concerning Dynamic Negotiation.  Assuming I
can get approval from MIT, I'd be happy to post the final article when
it is ready for publication.


Ross Mitchell - Systems Consultant  - [e-mail]
Newton, Massachusetts   Tel: [phone]    Fax: [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Phil Bullock)
Subject: Re: Caller ID With a New Twist
Date: 15 Jun 1994 11:07:44 -0600
Organization: XMission Public Access Internet (801-539-0900)


Kevin Bluml ([e-mail]) wrote:

> US West in Minneapolis/St. Paul area has a interesting version of the
> Caller ID bag of services. It seems to handle many of the previously
> noted concerns fairly well - Here is a synopsis:

[Deleted to conserve space; list of custom calling features was listed].

> All in all seems to be a good combination of features.

This same system was turned on in Utah June 7, 1994.  So far it seems
to be working fine.

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

From: [e-mail] (B.J. Guillot)
Subject: Re: Caller ID With a New Twist
Date: 15 Jun 1994 17:31:00 CDT
Organization: University of Houston


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Kevin
Bluml) writes...

> Call Trace                  - $1.00/use (For Harassing/Obscene calls - Info
>                                         forwarded to US West Security for
>                                         future use - Can't be blocked)

In Houston (SW Bell), Call Trace originally was $1/month with a charge
of $8.00/use.  Then, they switched it so that it was free/month but
with a charge of $10.00/use.  We just got Caller ID two weeks ago, so
I don't know if that makes any difference or not, but it appears that
Houston is being charged 10 times more than we sould be.

Oh, and we actually tried using it once to see how it worked.

Get this ... SW Bell said that they cannot do ANYTHING with the
information obtained from Call Trace UNTIL there are at least *THREE*
traces done back to the same number.

In other words, it would cost you $30.00 to do what you might be able
to do for $1.00 in your area.


Regards,

B.J. Guillot ... Houston, Texas USA


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'Call Trace' is a complete ripoff service
which is not needed at all. Furthermore, whether or not telco can legally
charge you to trace and stop people harassing you is open to debate. If
you are getting that type of phone call simply notify the Annoyance Call
Bureau at telco. You *do* have to cooperate with them, and that usually
means that prior to beginning any sort of trace or investigation you will
need to sign a form which (a) agrees that the results of the trace are
to be turned over directly to the police by telco, and (b) that you agree
without any conditions attached to prosecute whoever is responsible, and
(c) that you will not discuss the trap on your line with *anyone under
any conditions* while telco is conducting the investigation. That means
you do not tell co-workers, you do not tell roomates or lovers, you do
not tell other family members not living there and already aware of it,
etc. It is well established that most harrassing calls (ring your number
and hang up without speaking, etc) are from persons you know at least
casually, if not better than that. Telco will not serve as your private
detective agency in this regard. If you wish to have this invasion of
your privacy and the harassment stopped, they'll help you stop it alright;
but no playing games in the process.

My personal belief, backed by what a couple of attornies have said to me
is that telco's contract with you for the service entitles you to the
peaceful and undisturbed use of what you are paying for. You do not have
to pay extra (ie some fee for each use of 'Call Trace') in order to have
peace and quiet in your household. You are already paying telco for a
service alleged to be in good working order.  PAT]

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

From: Hugh Pritchard <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Does PAT Work for USWest?
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 12:04:00 GMT


On 10 Jun 1994 21:59:51 GMT, [e-mail] (Ry Jones)
wrote:

> OK ... I think PAT is a Bellcore dude! Now when I do the 0 trick to
> turn off ANI on collect calls, 1 800 collect functions correctly.
> (ANI *is* passed) ...

Pat has no time.  In a response to a question from Lynne Gregg (Digest
#283, "How Many Readers Are There of This Digest?"), Pat admits he
spends five hours a day on the Digest, in addition to his day job.
And how is Bellcore involved?  Bellcore is neither an LEC nor an IXC.

Pat, in that same Note, continues, "My single biggest drop-off point
on the mailing list is mcimail.com, where I (yesterday) delivered the
Digest to 78 names. ... Then of course there is Usenet, and the
comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup."

So, maybe an MCI employee or stock owner among all those thousands of
readers saw Ry's posting, and brought it to the attention of the
1-800-COLLECT people.  (Ry had mis-identified the 1-800-285-5328
[1-800-COLLECT] operators as "ATT"; 1-800-COLLECT is an MCI service.)

> HOWEVER, if I have the 0 operator dial the oncor 800 operator, I am
> still able to fool them.

What is an "oncor" 800 operator?


Hugh Pritchard, Smoke N' Mirrors, Inc., [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, for my full time job I am a
shill for the telcos. My assignment is to post messages on Usenet and
various BBS's and commercial services in such a way as to spread Hate
and Discontent among the other participants. I post messages about
measured service and stuff like that, getting the others to argue and
fuss among themselves. The more they argue and fuss with me about
measured service, etc, the more they stay on the phone, thus the more
they pay for a phone bill each month.

Once a month the telcos scrutinize the phone bills of modem users. They
send the bills to some agency in the far east for review and analysis,
just as that dude explained in comp.dcom.telecom.tech the other day.  His
technical analysis of what happens was brilliant and right on the mark. For
every hour of time the subscriber spends connected to Usenet as a result of
something I posted, the telcos give me a commission. The more Hate and
Discontent I can spread on Usenet in a month's time, the bigger my
commission for that month. I'll tell you, getting that big fight going
on Usenet about a year ago regards the establishment of c.d.t.t. made
me quite wealthy.  They give me an extra premium if I say something
that is an Outright Lie, and of course there is a yearly bonus for any
technical inaccuracies which appear in the Digest itself; that's why you
see so many of them here, and never see any in c.d.t.t.

By the by, an Oncor 800 operator is an operator for the Oncor Long Distance
Company, a fine established firm with a reputation similar to that of
AT&T (back in 1905).   <grin> ... PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Ry Jones)
Subject: Re: Does PAT Work For USWest?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 00:29:56 GMT
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.


Ry Jones ([e-mail]) wrote:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you go entirely through a manual
> operator you are still able to defraud them, eh?  PAT]

Nope ... no fraud. Until 05 31 94, I worked for the uber-SB that
provided Oncor with their network access, etc. Oncor is one of the
biggest independents ... and still, everyone spells it "encore". No,
no, Oncor.

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

From: [e-mail] (Gordon Burditt)
Subject: Correction of Attribution - Re: What Did You Have for Dinner
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 03:43:28 GMT


Dear Mr. Moderator:

How the heck did my name show up on the article quoted below?  It
seems to have been written by Paul A. Lee, and the first I heard of it
was just now when I spotted my name.

                    Gordon L. Burditt
                    sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon

In article <[e-mail]>,
Gordon Burditt <[e-mail]> wrote:
>In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 264, our Editor wrote (in part):
>
>> Why the two most recent well-known cannibals in the USA both came from
>> Wisconsin -- within fifty miles or so of each other -- I do not
>> know. Maybe it is something in the atomosphere.

>As a relatively recent transplant to the Milwaukee area, I'm prompted
>to offer this hypothesis: Maybe these two guys were driven mad by the
>*taxes* here in Wisconsin (the highest in the country, according to a
>1992 survey).  Perhaps the "ultimate eating disorder" could be one of
>the results of the high tax rate. After all, I've seen widespread
>sociopathic behavior in the way people here _drive_ ...

>(I hope I can forfend being flamed by hundreds of Wisconsin natives by
>emphasizing that most of the folks here are as genial, friendly, and
>helpful as any I've met anywhere ... as long as you keep them out of
>their cars!)

>Paul A. Lee                    Voice  414 357-1409
>Telecommunications Analyst       FAX  [phone]
>Woolworth Corporation        CompuServe  70353,566
>INTERNET  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, sorry about that!  Seems those
danged '>' marks got out of synch again. You had commented in this thread
I think (was it the part about the Packer Grill in Boulder?) and somehow
Mr. Lee was careless in his attributions when he followed up later in the
thread. Then when I ran it here, the digest-making software did something
inappropriate to it also. So, let this be an official apology; you did
not say what was attributed to you in that thread which for some reason
won't go away.   PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #288
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #289

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 15 Jun 94 15:37:30 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 289

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Piping Sound From a Stereo to a Telephone Line (Will Spencer)
    Brooks Statement on Crypto (David Banisar)
    Cell One/NY Question (Stan Schwartz)
    Current Status of TAPI? (Clint Eaker)
    Environmental Project Needs Telecom Help (Ben Anderson)
    Calling Philippines From Spain Cheaply? (Mark Maimone)
    Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club (Jim Mercer)
    Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club (Evan Leibovitch)
    Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club (Fred Ennis)
    Re: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency? (Subodh Bapat)
    Re: "Re-readiating" Car Cellular Antennas (Doug Sewell)
    Re: "Re-readiating" Car Cellular Antennas (John Gilbert)
    Correction: Uniformed and Uninformed (TELECOM Digest Editor)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Will Spencer)
Subject: Re: Piping Sound From a Stereo to a Telephone Line
Date: 12 Jun 1994 00:47:28 GMT
Organization: Free Software Foundation / Cambridge, MA  USA


Introducing:   | |_| |_    _ _______    _____    ____             ({})
               | | | |__      |     \  /     \  /    \ |  _/      ({})
                           _ _|_____/  |     |  |      |_/        ({})
})({})({})({})({})({})({})    |   \    |     |  |      | \_       ({})
                      ({})    |    \   \_____/  \____/ |   \      ({})
                      ({})     _ _______    _____  _    _         ({})
                      ({})        |     \  /     \  \  /          ({})
                      ({})     _ _|_____/  |     |   \/           ({})
                      ({})        |     \  |     |   /\           ({})
                      ({})     _ _|_____/  \_____/ _/  \_         ({})
                      ({})                                        ({})
                      ({}) Created & Designed By Video Vindicator ({})
                      ({})                                        ({})
                      ({})({})({})({})({})({})({})({})({})({})({})({})

 INTRODUCTION

    And now for all you basement engineers... Here's the ROCK BOX!
Basicly what the Rock Box does is channel the music from the stereo
out to the phone line via the headphone output.  There are two models
to this Box, the Basic Box and Advanced Box.  I would recommend the
Advanced Box for better sound quality, although the Basic one get's
the job done.  Well ... enough for the formalities, now for the
Advanced Box!

         Identification   Materials        Specification
         --------------   ---------        -------------

         A                1 Resistor       (Brown-Black-Red-Silver)
         B                1 Resistor       (Orange-Orange-Orange-Gold)
         C                1 Resistor       (Gold-Red-Red-Grey)
         D                1 Resistor       (L.Green-D.Green-Brown-Gold)
         E                1 Resistor       (Brown-Red-Red-Gold)
         F                3 Condensators   (1070 (50v))
         G                4 Condensators   (1002 (40v))
         H                1 Condensator    (1060 (16v))
         <*> (Also S)     2 Switches       (2-Channel)
         ?#? (Also K)     1 Transformer    (LUN5250B)
         ~o~              1 LED Light      (Optional)
         J                Junction


                      Wiring Diagram -Advanced

     Switch for Volume Hi/Lo    Switch for Power On/Off
      _______________________________________________________________
     |                                        +---------+            |
     | +-----------+  C-B-A           +-------+  J   J  +--------+   |
     | |  S-S-S-O  |    |       +-S-S | S--------+   +---------> >   |  IN
     | |           |    |       |     +-S+  O    +-------------> >-+ |<LINE
     | +O S S-S+   |    |   O   | S-S    +----------------------+  | |
     | |  |    |   C    |       |   +------G-G   J+  J--------O |  | |
     | |  |  O-+   |    | +C    |                 O---------+ | |  | |
     | |  +-+  |   O B  | |  G  +----------G-G      G+      | | ++ | |
     | |    ++ |     |  F | FG                    O-G+      | |  | | |
     | <  O  | |    O+    +-------+ O    +-----+  |         | | O+ | | OUT
     |    | D+ E--O  |            O------+  K  +O O         | > >+ | |<LINE
     | +--+    |     +----------O      +----+               |      | |
 IN  | |       |   F   F--H----------~o~                    +--> >-+ |
 FROM|<|  +----+   F      H                                          |
STEREO>|       |   F-----------O-----KKK          KKK            |
     | +------D--E-+                     ?#?      K   ?#?            |
     |_______________________________________________________________|

                          Wiring Diagram -Basic
                 ___________________________________
                |                                   |
                | <------+    F--KKK--H       +---> |
                |        |    |  ?#?  |      +----> | OUT
           IN   | <------*----+       +------*      |<LINE
          FROM  |        |                   +----> |
         STEREO>| <------+                    +---> |
                |___________________________________|

    Now some of the Benifits of this wonderful little device is that
you can record conversations, at whatever volume you want, without
those bothersome beeps the answering machines make.  Or another fun
thing is call up a Rodent Bridge and blast this thing with your stereo
at full ... Wala!  The bridge will most likely be clear, even they
won't sit through that shit.  It is a good idea to hit Radio Shack for
a project box and soderless curcuit board, because this can be messy
and a project box can easily make you look like a pro.  One more use
for it is if your computer can generate tones to match a Box of some
sort, this makes a GREAT amplifier for it, with almost no loss in
clearity.  If you have any problems with a humm or it intercepting
radio transmissions, then call up good-old Bell and get a line static
clearer dealy and splice that into the box via the outgoing line,
which SHOULD clear it up.  If that does not seem to help, try putting
a 9v battery (you know, the square ones) on the red and green phone
lines, because this will make up for the power the box drains from the
line.  Hope you enjoy the plans and be watching for more from me!
L8r...

                                                 The Video Vindicator


Will Spencer  Unix geek  PC guru

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

Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 14:20:25 -0400
From: David Banisar <[e-mail]>
Subject: Brooks Statement on Crypto


The following statement by Rep. Jack Brooks (D-TX) was today entered
in the Congressional Record and transmitted to the House Intelligence
Committee.  Rep. Brooks is Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee
and played a key role in the passage of the Computer Security Act of
1987 when he served as Chairman of the House Government Operations
Committee.

David Sobel <[e-mail]>
Legal Counsel
Electronic Privacy Information Center


ENCRYPTION POLICY ENDANGERS U.S. COMPETITIVENESS IN GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

       For some time now, a debate has been raging in the media and in
the halls of Congress over the Administration's intention to require
U.S. corporations to use and market the Clipper Chip, an encryption
device developed in secret by the National Security Agency.

       The Clipper Chip will provide industry and others with the
ability to encode telephone and computer communications.  The use of
the Clipper Chip as the U.S. encryption standard is a concept promoted
by both the intelligence and law enforcement communities because it is
designed with a back door to make it relatively easy for these
agencies to listen in on these communications.

       The law enforcement and intelligence communities have a
legitimate concern that advances in technology will make their jobs
more difficult.  But the issue here is whether attempts to restrict
the development, use and export of encryption amounts to closing the
barn door after the horse has already escaped.

       The notion that we can limit encryption is just plain fanciful.
Encryption technology is available worldwide -- and will become more
available as time goes on.

       First, generally available software with encryption
capabilities is sold within the U.S. at thousands of retail outlets,
by mail, even, over the phone.  These programs may be transferred
abroad in minutes by anyone using a public telephone line and a
computer modem.

       Second, it is estimated that over 200 products from some 22
countries -- including Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan,
India, and South Africa -- use some form of the encryption that the
Government currently prohibits U.S. companies from exporting.
According to the May 16, 1994 issue of _Fortune_, not only are U.S.
companies willing to purchase foreign encryption devices, American
producers of encrypted software are also moving production overseas to
escape the current export controls.

       Third, encryption techniques and technology are well understood
throughout the world.  Encryption is routinely taught in computer
science programs.  Text books explain the underlying encryption
technology.  International organizations have published protocols for
implementing high level encryption.  Actual implementations of
encryption -- programs ready to use by even computer novices -- are on
the Internet.

       The only result of continued U.S. export controls is to
threaten the continued preeminence of America's computer software and
hardware companies in world markets.  These restrictive policies
jeopardize the health of American companies, and the jobs and revenues
they generate.

       I support, therefore, the immediate revision of current export
controls over encryption devices to comport with the reality of
worldwide encryption availability.

       I believe law enforcement and the intelligence community would
be better served by finding real, and targeted ways to deal with
international terrorists and criminals rather than promoting
scattershot policies, which restrict American industries' ability to
design, produce and market technology.

       Now -- more than ever -- we cannot afford to harm our economic
competitiveness and justify it in the name of national security.

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

From: [e-mail] (Stan Schwartz)
Subject: Cell One/NY Question
Date: 15 Jun 1994 00:00:37 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


I'm a CO/NY customer, and I figured that someone on here would have an
answer to a question that Cell One didn't.

I was roaming in Montreal a few weeks ago, and before I left New York
I called Cell One customer service who assured me that Montreal is a
NACN city, with all the benefits that go with it.  I was able to
receive calls, but when attempting to dial out, I was attached to a
live operator from CANTEL who said that there was some weird
restriction indicator on my account (my account is current, so that's
not the reason!).  He said he'd never seen this situation on an
American account before, and if there actually WAS a restriction on my
account, I shouln't have been able to receive calls either.  Weird,
eh?

It gets better.

If I turned my phone off and dialed it from a landline, I got one of two
things:

 A: My CO/NY voice mail.
 B: A French language "the cellular number you are trying to reach..."
    message.

Upon returning to NY, I called CO/NY and the only explanation they had
was that I was roaming on the wrong carrier (I hadn't changed the
settings in my GE CT-700, and I had roamed without a problem in the
past).  If I _WAS_ roaming on the wrong side, why did I get auto-call
delivery?  CO/NY didn't have an answer.  They did clue me in to
*35/*350 to turn the feature on and off so that I could reach my voice
mail, but I can't imagine what CANTEL would have done with _THAT_
code!

Any ideas?


Thanks!

Stan

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

From: [e-mail] (Clint Eaker)
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 15:21:14 EDT
Subject: Current Status of TAPI


A little over a year ago, Intel/Microsoft published a preliminary spec
for a Windows Telephony API (TAPI). A few months ago, they came out
with a software developers kit, that was available over the net.
Lately, I haven't heard a peep about TAPI.  Are there any TAPI enabled
applications out there yet?  Are there TSPI drivers for any specific
devices out there?  Is there any development going on at all?  I'd
like to push for some TAPI development here in my area, but that's
going to be hard to sell if it won't enable any existing or upcoming
applications.

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Environmental Project Needs Telecom Help
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 15:21:15 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Loughborough University of Technology


Hi,

I'm involved in setting up an environmental project to study Elephants
and Rhino in Indonesia and we'd like the field team (way out in the
forest -- nowhere near a fixed phone) to have telecoms access to the
outside world. The prmary reason for this is so that the project can
feed audio/video (via ???) and image/text (via email) reports from the
field into the internet via a WWW server based here at LUTCHI in the
UK. Eventually we'd like to try some 'live' video conferencing from
here to the field team using things like Cu-SeeMe etc. I realise that
this might be stretching things a bit but ...:-)

So, we seem to have two options:

1. Satellite/PC (eg Inmarrsat B/M) direct to the UK or
2. Cell phone/PC feed into Inonesian telecoms structure

and an Internet account somewhere.  Has anyone out there tried a
similar type of thing? Can TCP/IP applications be run over
satellite/cell networks?

Email or post here with any ideas would be gratefully appreciated.


Cheers,

Ben Anderson   Department of Computer Studies
Loughborough University  Loughborough  Leicestershire UK
[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Mark Maimone)
Subject: Calling Philippines From Spain Cheaply?
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 04:45:04 GMT


    Can anyone recommend a service for calling the Philippines
from Spain?  A friend will need to make such calls (to family) many
times over the summer, but unfortunately my US-based AT&T Universal
Card doesn't cover calls based wholely outside the US.  Thanks for any
tips.


Mark Maimone                phone: [phone] - 7698
Carnegie Mellon Computer Science    email: [e-mail]
WWW: http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/afs/cs/usr/mwm/ftp/www/HomePage.html

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

From: [e-mail] (Jim Mercer)
Subject: Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club
Organization: Reptilian Research, Toronto, Canada
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 13:07:55 -0400


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

>> When 1 700 555 4141 is dialed from a Toronto phone, the following
>> recording is heard:

>> "Your provider of long distance service is Bell Canada. Thank you for
>> choosing us. This is a recording... 416 11"

> Not when I tried it just now from my home phone (416-488-XXXX).

> I got as far as 1-700-5554 and at this point heard one ring followed
> by "We're sorry. Your call cannot be completed as dialed ...".  This
> is particularly interesting since we haven't had 1 + seven digit
> dialing in this area for several years now.

I just tried it using our PBX in toronto.

The attempt to dial using an 8 prefix (long distance) resulted in a
fast busy from our PBX, probably because 700 is an invalid area code
on our switch.

I tried dialing 9,17005554141 and got the proper message.


Jim Mercer   Reptilian Research  [e-mail]  [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Evan Leibovitch)
Subject: Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 23:19:48 -0400
Organization: Somewhere just far enough out of Toronto


Also works OK from my number, which is in 905. Reports "416 13" at the
end.


Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software Ltd., located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
       [e-mail] / uunet!utzoo!telly!evan / [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Fred Ennis)
Subject: Re: Bell Canada Joins the 700 Club
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 09:47:23 -0400
Organization: Page 6, Ottawa, Ontario [phone]


[e-mail] (Dave Leibold) writes:

> When 1 700 555 4141 is dialed from a Toronto phone, the following
> recording is heard:

> "Your provider of long distance service is Bell Canada. Thank you for
> choosing us. This is a recording... 416 11"

From 613-723-xxxx I get the same recording with a 613 4 instead of the
416 11.


Fred Ennis, [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Subodh Bapat)
Subject: Re: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phone in Emergency?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 03:43:43 -0400


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way to do this would be to install the
> phone in your car *but not rely on it for emergency purposes*  until after
> a test or two had been made. DO NOT call 911 (or *999 or the zero operator
> as the case may be in your community) just to test the phone.

Just curious: in all E911 implementations, calling 911 supposedly automatic-
ally and always sends the operator the calling number and physical
address of the caller. What calling number would be passed if 911 were
called from a *deactivated* cellular phone?


Subodh Bapat   [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It would send the same as it would if the
phone *was* activated, namely whatever outgoing trunk was seized on the
PBX-like switch of the cellular carrier. For example, although cellular
calls to me report 'out of area' on a Caller-ID box, they return some
weird number at the Illinois Bell central office when ANI is reported to
an 800 subscriber (and I assume to 911). A cellular call to my 800 number
gave ANI as a number in Bedford Park, IL. When I did a cross check of
that number through 796-9600, the 'subscriber' was listed as 'Eye Bee
Tee Company' at the street address where the CO is located. When I tried
to call that number, it was intercepted saying the number was not in
service for incoming calls. But in fact, dialing 911 from cellular here
also returns an intercept that the call cannot be completed as dialed.
"If this call is an emergency, please hang up and dial the operator."  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Doug Sewell)
Subject: Re: "Re-readiating" Car Cellular Antennas
Date: 15 Jun 1994 15:28:26 GMT
Organization: Youngstown State University


Greg Vaeth at General Instrument ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Does anyone have any experience with the car antennas that are to be
> used with a hand-held or luggable cell phone? I mean the type that
> does not actually connect to the phone, but looks like a normal cell
> antenna on the outside, and has a little stub on the inside.  The guy
> at Radio Shack said they work great, but I would like "independent"
> confirmation.

I just switched from an older, starting-to-get-flaky transportable
phone to a new Uniden hand-held phone.  I only paid $40 for the phone,
but the price of add-on options of any kind for the phone was
out-of-this-world ($40 for a car power adapter ?!)

I went to Radio Shack and looked at one of these antennas.  I grudgingly
shelled out the $45 it cost.  This is as compared to roughly $30 for a
wire-connect magnet base jobbie that I used for the transportable.  I
think it's terribly over-priced.

Does it really work?  I don't know.  I still don't get the range I got
with the transportable -- I've had long calls disconnected a few times
as I moved from cell to cell, which rarely happened before.

If I look at the signal strength meter, it appears to be stronger when the
antenna is close to the re-radiator.

One final word ... it has a tendency to want to get stuck in the
window seal, staying in the top of the window even when you roll the
window down partway.  Your options are to put it on a window you don't
open much (my back driver's side window fits this), or keep the window
open "a crack" so that it doesn't get stuck.  Otherwise you'll be
un-sticking it and re-clipping it every time you open the window.


Doug Sewell ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (John Gilbert)
Subject: Re: "Re-readiating" Car Cellular Antennas
Organization: Motorola, LMPS
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 18:30:14 -0500


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Greg
Vaeth at General Instrument) wrote:

> Does anyone have any experience with the car antennas that are to be
> used with a hand-held or luggable cell phone? I mean the type that
> does not actually connect to the phone, but looks like a normal cell
> antenna on the outside, and has a little stub on the inside.  The guy
> at Radio Shack said they work great, but I would like "independent"
> confirmation.

Unless your vehicle is extremly well RF shielded (a battle tank with
the hatches closed), it probably won't do anything for you.  High
coupling losses from the phone to the inside antenna aren't compensated
for by the 3 db of gain the outside antenna provides.

Use a cable between the radio and the outside antenna.  You will have much
better results.


John Gilbert   [e-mail]   KA4JMC

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

From: TELECOM Digest Editor <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 12:56:58 GMT
From: Ross E Mitchell <[e-mail]>
Subject: Correction: Uniformed and Uninformed


A note from Ross Mitchell <[e-mail]> arrived shortly after
he sent me the article on 'Caller-ID With a New Twist' which appeared
in an issue of the Digest earlier today.

He had accidentally left a typo in the article and the (correct) phrase
'uninformed caller' became 'uniformed caller' in error. He caught it
in time, and I caught it in time ... but put it on the side to be
fixed 'later'. Then the article got printed anyway. I feel like such an
idiot some days ... and today is one of them. Errors like that get to
be very annoying.

So, sorry Ross, yes you caught it and told me. I then promptly forgot
about it and to compound matters missed it in the proofreading.

Ross also mentioned that his article for Tech Review will be published
in the October, 1994 issue which will be out in mid/late September if
anyone is interested.


Patrick Townson

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #289
******************************


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Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 00:26:14 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #290

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 16 Jun 94 00:26:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 290

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Ontario Announces Support For LARG*net (Joan McCalla)
    CSPA Annual Conference - Software Superhighway 2000 (Daniel Ho)
    Automated Test Equipment Wanted (Leroy Casterline)
    Help Wanted With Intellepath ii (Gary Merinstein)
    Telecom Services in Chile (Stacy L. Millions)
    Where to Find Bid For Cellular Network Implementation? (Konrad Weigl)
    Questions About Scrambling (Stuart Whitmore)
    Looking For Information on E&M Tie Lines (Anthony Walker)
    Seeking NJ Based Telco People (AFC Chip)
    Help Needed With Wincomm Pro (Rob Lesan)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Matt Holdrege)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Ry Jones)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Kim Prisk)
    Re: Pager on a Watch? (Mark Crispin)
    Re: Forwarding and PacBell (Steve Cogorno)
    Re: Call Waiting (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
    Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway (Robert Casey)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Joan McCalla)
Subject: Ontario Announces Support For LARG*net
Organization: Government of Ontario
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 04:28:59 GMT


June 13, 1994

          ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TRADE MINISTER LANKIN
        ANNOUNCES $2.1 MILLION SUPPORT FOR LARG*net PROGRAM

      LONDON -- Ontario Economic Development and Trade Minister
Frances Lankin today announced Ontario Network Infrastructure Program
(ONIP) funding of $2.163 million to establish LARG*net (London and
Region Global Network), a local initiative that will create a
leading-edge medical image and telecommunications network and create
long-term jobs in the community.

      The Minister was joined by Middlesex MPP Irene Mathyssen and
London South MPP David Winninger and representatives from six local
health care and research organizations.

      "This initiative, which will create at least eight new
high-skill, long-term jobs in its first year, will provide shared
access to a wide variety of resources, including teaching cases,
patient care information and image processing, for doctors and other
health care professionals as well as medical students," said Ms.
Lankin.

      The project partners include Victoria Hospital, St. Joseph's
Health Centre, University Hospital, the University of Western Ontario,
the John P.  Robarts Research Institute and Fanshawe College. LARG*net
will establish a high speed metropolitan network linking these
London-based participants.

      "In addition to enhancing the level of information and service
available to the health care community, LARG*net will save time and
money for hospitals, medical residents and graduate students," said
London Centre MPP Marion Boyd. "Investing in projects like LARG*net is
important for the economic well-being of the province, creating jobs
for the future and putting Ontario back to work."

      Added Mr. Winninger: "For residents of London, this project
means heightened health care services. And by working in partnership
with the Ontario Government, the health care communities are
demonstrating their commitment to build on London's solid reputation
as an international centre for clinical care, research, teaching and
medical imaging."

      "LARG*net will be a key entry point to the information highway
for many Ontario organizations," said Mrs. Mathyssen. "At the same
time, this technology, with its great international export potential,
confirms the position of London as a centre for telecommunications
excellence and will serve to attract increasing amounts of high tech
investment to the London area."

      "LARG*net presents the collective expertise that London, Ontario
possess in terms of telecommunications, health care delivery and
education," said Dr. Trevor Cradduck, General Manager, LARG*net. "As
we respond to the fiscal constraints of the 1990s it is my belief that
LARG*net will provide a cohesive link between the health care and
educational institutions to facilitate their collaboration.

      "We are witnessing the dawn of the information revolution and it
is very exciting for those of us in London to be there at the
forefront. There is every reason to presume the leadership displayed
by London in this activity will attract high technology investment
from industries who will find the concept of a networked city very
valuable."

      Said Dr. Howard Rundle, Acting President, Fanshawe College:
"Fanshawe College is pleased to be part of this project to allow us to
access the usefulness of this technology in the educational process
with our health care students located in various hospitals. In the
longer range, we will be accessing its value in enhancing our distance
education programs."

      "LARG*net builds upon a strong existing partnership between Bell
Canada and the London medical community," said Robert Campbell, Vice
President of Network Operations in Bell Ontario. "This project
provides a valuable test bed for the ATM technology. The potential for
multimedia applications in the health care and education sectors is
significant.

      "Bell is working closely with the LARG*net community to develop
and expand the "Virtual Hospital" environment. The demands for these
types of applications are growing every day. It's exciting to be
involved in this one."

      An initiative under the Ministry of Economic Development and
Trade's Ontario Network Infrastructure Program (ONIP), LARG*net will
be established over the next four years at a total cost of $5.5
million and will become self-sufficient at the end of the third year.
The Ontario Government's contribution represents 40 per cent of the
total project cost.

      A jobsONTARIO Capital program, ONIP was announced in February,
1993 as an economic renewal initiative under the province's telecommun-
ications strategy, with a four-year commitment of $100 million.

      "Today's announcement is one of several initiatives we have
undertaken to promote the future growth of many sectors of the
economy, such as telecommunications and the health industry," added
Ms. Lankin. "We are working with various sectors to help them become
more competitive and create the high skill, long term jobs of the
future. We are doing this by bringing together key players from
industry, labour, government and public institutions to deal with key
issues.

      "The sector development approach spurs ideas into action and
underscores the international marketing potential of Ontario firms. It
boosts innovation, raises skill levels and increases technological
capabilities."

      Currently, the Ontario Government is working with more than
1,500 representatives from 20 sectors, including health care,
aerospace, computing, retail and telecommunications, to develop
strategies and implement recommendations to make each sector stronger.

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

Contacts: Lucy Rybka-Becker, Minister's Office
         [phone]

          John Cooper, Marketing & Public Affairs Branch
         [phone]

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

                           BACKGROUNDER
            LARG*net (LONDON AND REGION GLOBAL NETWORK)

~     LARG*net is a high speed telecommunications network that
      enables universities, colleges, teaching hospitals and research
      institutions to access and share a wide variety of medical
      resources, including teaching cases, patient care information
      and image processing.

~     LARG*net will build on London medical institutions as a global
      centre for excellence in medical imaging and health care
      delivery.

~     Total cost: $5.5 million.

~     Job creation: eight high-skill, long-term jobs in the first
      year of the project.

~     Ontario Government share: $2.163 million (40 per cent).

~     LARG*net is an unincorporated organization including membership
      from large teaching and research hospitals and institutions in
      London: Victoria Hospital, St. Joseph's Health Centre,
      University Hospital and the University of Western Ontario, the
      John P. Robarts Research Institute and Fanshawe College.

~     Over the life of the project, the network will be extended to
      other medical facilities in the region.

~     The LARG*net team members will partner with a number of vendor
      companies to obtain support, including Bell Ontario, Sun
      Microsystems and 3M.

~     LARG*net will include three major activities:

      ~ developing a network;

      ~ testing telecommunications technologies over the network;

      ~ testing applications which use the information technologies
      effectively over a network.

~     LARG*net will develop a high speed Metropolitan Area Network in
      London to link the participating health care facilities and
      research institutions so that members can share information
      electronically.

~     A long-term goal of LARG*net will be to provide London-area
      businesses, health services, educational and other
      organizations with world class networking services.


  -----------

                           BACKGROUNDER
           ONTARIO NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAM (ONIP)

BACKGROUND

~     In February 1993, the Ontario Government announced a
      comprehensive multi-year telecommunications strategy to promote
      Ontario's lead position as a place to live, work, learn, and do
      business through telecommunications.

~     Within this strategy, $100 million in funding was announced for
      the four-year Ontario Network Infrastructure program (ONIP).

~     A jobsOntario Capital program, ONIP focuses on long-term
      infrastructure investment to support the restructuring of the
      provincial economy.

~     ONIP invites applications from Ontario-based groups with
      established needs: users, information and telecommunication
      service providers, network service providers and public bodies.

~     ONIP has received more than 200 inquiries resulting in over 50
      initiatives under development. Approval has been made for 14
      projects with two additional projects currently under review.

ASSISTANCE

~     ONIP provides funds for feasibility studies and business plans
      up to 75 per cent of eligible costs up to a grant maximum of
      $75,000.

~     ONIP also provides network implementation project assistance:
      up to 50 per cent of eligible costs for implementation networks
      and services for up to three years.

PURPOSE

~     The purpose of ONIP is to accelerate long-term development and
      use of a modern, advanced information infrastructure. Its
      objectives include:

      ~ increasing access to an advanced information infrastructure
      through Ontario;

      ~ accelerating the development of high capacity, inter-operable
      networks;

      ~ stimulating development of network-related products and
      services, resulting in new business opportunities and increased
      exports;

      ~ increasing the number of network users with the knowledge and
      ability to obtain and use information;

      ~ leveraging increased investment in Ontario information
      infrastructure;

      ~ stimulating growth in Ontario expertise and knowledge in the
      development, management and operation of advanced networks.

~     The initial network priorities for ONIP include education and
      training, health care, community and advanced technology.

~     The Ontario Government's Council for an Ontario Information
      Infrastructure supports and promotes the provincial
      telecommunications strategy, including recommending ONIP
      priorities and reviewing ONIP applications.

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

From: [e-mail] (Daniel Ho)
Subject: CSPA Annual Conference - Software Superhighway 2000
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 20:32:44 GMT


               -------------------------------
               | 1994 CSPA Annual Conference |
               -------------------------------

              ----------------------------------------------------
              | "A Magical Tour Down Software Superhighway 2000" |
              ----------------------------------------------------

                               June 18, 1994
                            12:00 noon - 5:00 pm
                          Registration at 11:00 am
                            Santa Clara Marriott

                                  Fee:
                             CSPA member : $10
                           Non CSPA member : $15


                Speakers
                ========
                     Wei Yen, VP of Silicon Graphics
                 Sherman Ting, VP of Oracle Corporation
     Patrick Lanthier, Director of Public Policy & Technology of Pacific Bell
        Jay Marty Tenenbaum, CEO of Enterprise Integration Technologies
       Dr. H.K. Huang, UCSF Vice Chairman of Radiological Information Lab
                  Fred Greguras, Partner of Fenwick & West


                                 Topics
                                 ======
                   * Information Highway : Hype or Real?
                   * Architecture and Infrastructure of Superhighway
                   * Concerns and Strategies of the big players
                   * Business opportunities for software developers
                   * Demonstrations

                   * Door Prizes Drawings at 2:30pm and 4:30pm


* Members of AAMA, CBA, CINA, and Monte Jade eligible for a discounted entry
    fee of $10, and CSPA members who renew their '94 membership at the door
    receive a futher $5 discount off Member registration fee.

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

From: [e-mail] (Leroy Casterline)
Subject: Automated Test Equipment Wanted
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 14:47:26 -0600
Organization: Cahill Casterline Limited
Reply-To: [e-mail]


I am looking for sources for automated test equipment for the
multi-line telecom products that we produce.  Ideally, the equipment
would be programmable from a PC via a serial connection, and would
provide battery, ring voltage, standard and user-definable
multi-frequency tones, DTMF generation and detection, the ability to
play voice files, and support 24 to 48 ports simultaneously.

I believe that such a system could be built from Dialogic (or other)
boards, but would like to avoid reinventing the wheel if at all
possible.

I'm just beginning to think about this area of our development, and am
open to any and all suggestions, and to equipment which does not meet
all of the above criteria.


Thanks,

Leroy

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

From: [e-mail] (Gary Merinstein)
Subject: Help Wanted With Intellepath ii
Date: 14 Jun 1994 23:23:43 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


At my new employer we have an Intellepath ii Centrex phone system
(connected by RJ-45 plugs). I need to connect modems and answering
machines to this system. Do I need a special device to convert between
standard analog devices and this system or do I just need some custom
cable (with RJ-10 and RJ-45 jacks on opposing ends)?


gmm

[e-mail]   mci:  489-6979   ci$ 74035,1232

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

From: [e-mail] (Stacy L. Millions)
Subject: Telecom Services in Chile
Organization: Sobeco Ernst & Young
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 11:47:49 GMT


Hello,

It would seem that I may soon have to come up with a method of
providing data connectivity between a company here in Canada and
another in Chile.  I have no idea what to expect to find in Chile in
terms of telecom services, or who would provide them. Can some one
shed some light on this for me?  Do you know of any commercial IP
providers in Chile?


[e-mail]  Stan Kelly-Bootle
[e-mail]   sobeco!stacy

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

From: [e-mail] (Konrad Weigl)
Subject: Where to Find Bid For Cellular Network Implementation?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 14:19:14 GMT
Organization: INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis (Fr)


Title says it all.

In which publication(s) would a national P.T.T. or other telecommunication
agency publish an invitation to bid for the planning and implementation of
a cellular phone network?

For example, if Ghana decided it wanted to have a cellular phone network,
where would it publish an invitation to bid, in order to reach all the
companies worldwide that might be able to execute such a task?

Please answer by email, since I cannot read this newsgroup regularly.


Thanks in advance,

Konrad Weigl     Tel. [phone]
Projet Pastis    Tel. [phone] (Home, answering machine)
INRIA            Fax  [phone]
B.P. 93          email [e-mail]
06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex   France

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

Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 11:38:49 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Rattlesnake Stu)
Subject: Questions About Scrambling
Organization: Central Washington University


Has anyone used scrambler/descrambler setups?  I'd like to know how
well they work.  Do they interfere with signal quality (could they be
used on a data line)?  Is the scrambled signal relatively easy for a
third party (shady competing business, Big Brother, etc.) on a wiretap
to descramble?  Are they based on accoustic input/output or in-line?

Just curious -- I have no need for such a device, but they do pique my
curiosity.  E-mailed replies will be summarized if appropriate.


Stuart Whitmore, [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Anthony Walker)
Subject: Looking For Information on E&M Tie Lines
Date: 15 Jun 1994 14:11:12 GMT
Organization: Internet Access public-access service


I am looking for information on E&M tie lines. Does a system exist
whereby I can hook up my E&M PABX via a data line to a remote
telephone line and use the remote line as if it were oin the PABX?

Failing that, does anyone have any more info on how the E&M standard
works?

Thanks, please reply in email,


[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (AFC Chip)
Subject: Seeking NJ Based Telco People
Date: 15 Jun 1994 15:08:05 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


  Are there any NJ based telco people participating in this newsgroup,
like AT+T, Bell Labs, etc?  If so, could you please let me know here,
or email me?


Thanks,

Chip

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

From: [e-mail] (Rob Lesan)
Subject: Help Needed With Wincomm Pro
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 21:59:00 -0500
Organization: Cincinnati Computer Connection - Cincinnati, OH - 513-752-1055
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Rob Lesan)


Does anyone know of any neat programs for Wincomm Pro?  I don't have
access to Internet ftp so it would have to be on a BBS. I would
also need the phone number of the BBS.


Thanks in advance,

Rob Lesan

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

From: Urban Surfer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 15:13:41 PST
Organization: Pacificare_Health_Systems


[e-mail] (Jeffrey Rhodes) writes:

> Seiko is offering the Seiko Receptor. This is an alphanumeric pager
> that receives messages and time adjustments from a Stratum 1 atomic
> clock (every thirty minutes). FM subcarriers are used, so some
> messages get missed while in a tunnel or basement.

I asked Motorola about NTP for pagers and they gave a long explanation
about how they would have to redesign the transmission equipment and
have fancy schemes for clock drift. They didn't make it sound doable
in the near term.

I hope that Seiko can push Motorola and the paging services to offer
this.


Matt Holdrege          [e-mail]        MH235

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

From: [e-mail] (Ry Jones)
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Date: 16 Jun 1994 00:55:02 GMT
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.


I don't recall who offers it, but in 206 you can buy a pager watch (I
think it's a Casio) for like $140, with six months service. The
downside, as mentioned, is fragility. The watch is called the
Receptor. You get stock reports, etc, and it has the ability to get
pages. It's available at (I think) Mervyn's.

Our Esteemed Moderator noted:

> I think when you travel around the USA (or most of the world, if the
> radio signals go that far) you will still have to advance or retard
> your watch manually for the correct hour. If I stand corrected on
> this, let me know.  PAT]

Yes, perhaps true, but minutes and seconds would not work in the
Newfoundland time zone, with is 1/2 hour off. Check it on your NPA map
in your phone book; the clock over the diamond for Newfoundland it set
to 1/2 hour off.


[e-mail]

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

From: Kim Prisk <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 03:37:17 GMT
Subject: Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Organization: The University of Auckland


6/15/94 - Scott Coleman wrote:

> I once tried to track down the writwatch pager. It does exist, but
> none of the paging companies around here seems to want to carry
> them ..."

I was wondering if this type of watch might also be useful for
lawyers?


Kim Prisk

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

From: Mark Crispin <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Pager on a Watch?
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 18:39:02 -0700
Organization: University of Washington


Seiko sells their Receptor watches in the Portland and Seattle metropolitan
areas.  I'm not sure if they are offered in any other areas.  I have one.

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Cogorno)
Subject: Re: Forwarding and PacBell
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 19:29:17 PDT


Steve Cogorno said:

> We'll see.

TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, two hours has passed. Heck, a full
> day has passed by the time this is in circulation on the net. Got any
> followup report for us?   PAT]

Call 5)    Well, a call to 611 last night revealed that I didn't even have call
    forwarding at all; the Repair tech couldn't pull up the history file,
    so there was nothing she could do.  She said she would take care of
    it today.

Call 6) Called at 11:30, and they said "We re-placed the order when you
    called this morning.  It should be on now." I didn't call this
    morning.  We aren't sure who, but someone wrote an order at 9:48AM
    this morning -- I didn't request it, so we don't know who did.

Call 6.5) Then a 611 repair tech called and said "I am calling to
    see if we can't get your phone working for you.  Hold on a sec.
    No it isn't working.  Give me a few minutes."  Last I heard from
    him.

Call 7)    Called at 3:30.  Still wasn't working.  The rep was very nice, and
    after re-explaining the WHOLE mess, she said "The order from 9:48
    this morning was written correctly.  I don't know why it hasn't been
    completed.  I'll check with installation ... it seems they were
    having a bit of trouble down there -- all of these orders [SC: I
    think there were six total] were confusing them.  I have a system
    programmer working on it right now.  If it isn't working by 5,
    please call repair.

It is finally working.  When did Busy/No Answer forwarding get to be so
difficult? I'm just glad that I don't have THREE lines :-)


Steve   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Jeffrey W. McKeough)
Subject: Re: Call Waiting
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 17:33:41 -0400
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst


In article <[e-mail]>, Brett Frankenberger
<[e-mail]> wrote:

> Depends on the switch ... Of the two major digital switches (DMS and
> 5ESS), one of the two (and I can't recall which one) allows you to
> dial through the stutter dial tone and the other does not ...

My line is on a 5ESS, and I am able to dial through the stutter dial
tone.  My modem refused to recognize the stutter tone as a dial tone,
but I fixed that by increasing the wait-for-tone-before-dialing
parameter from two to ten seconds.  No problem now.


Jeffrey W. McKeough   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Casey)
Subject: Re: U.S. Postal Service and the Information Highway
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 23:51:47 GMT


TELECOM Digest Editor noted:

> There is a considerable amount of personal unhappieness among USPS
> employees over the entire country. What other organization has had
> three instances of employees turning into mass-murderers on the job
> and killing several co-workers on the spot, ie, Highland Park,
> Michigan a few years ago and Enid, Oklahoma a few years ago to name
> two examples?

A few years ago, a rather nasty incident happened in the Rigdewood, NJ
post office.  Another mass shooting, if memory serves.  Does the post
office figure, that out of (what) 100 thousand or so employees, you'll
get a few nuts who shoot up the place?  Maybe they consider it just
some random "noise" in the system?


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, to hear Mr. Runyan discuss it,
USPS officials are quite concerned. You may have read about the latest
developments here in Chicago: On Tuesday they appointed an entirely new
crew at the very top. New postmaster, new operations manager, etc. We
shall see if things improve here as a result of the housecleaning.  PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #290
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #291

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 16 Jun 94 01:45:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 291

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Problem Reaching Emergency Services in UK (Jonathan Haruni)
    Motorola and Grupo Protexa (Alex Cena)
    Cell Service on Long Beach Island NJ (Gerry Moersdorf)
    Voice Mail Vendors Wanted (Paul S. Malone)
    Telephony Interfaces (Sean McLinden)
    Question About SMDS (Matthias Plass)
    Digital to Analog Converters (Gary Merinstein)
    International Long Distance Carrier Information Wanted (Umar M. Badeges)
    Mobile Phones and the Cancer Scare (Craig OShannessy)
    Re: My Company's Phone System Lets Me Use "Wrong" Lines (Paul Lee)
    Re: My Company's Phone System Lets Me Use "Wrong" Lines (John Navitsky)
    Where to Buy Telephone Line Simulators? (Mervyn Quah)
    Re: International Callback Services (Leroy Casterline)
    Re: International Callback Services (Ron Wright)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Robert L. McMillin)
    Re: Personal 800 Number Availability (Rick Brown)
    Re: Information Wanted on GSM in US (David S. Rose)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
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information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Jonathan Haruni)
Subject: Problem reaching emergency services in UK
Date: 15 Jun 1994 13:31:44 GMT
Organization: Micrognosis International, London


A couple of weeks ago I came home to find my house had been robbed.  I
tried calling 999 (emergency), but got a continuous tone (number
unobtainable or system error).  I checked to make sure I had a normal
dial tone, and tried again. Then I tried 150 (operator), but got the
same result.  Then I looked up the number of the police station in the
phone book, and tried them -- no problem.  Afterwards I also called 155
(repair service) to report the problem with 999 and 150, and I got
through to the repair service -- no problem.

They phoned me back a day later and told me that the problem had been
rectified.

But I was not satisfied.  Apparently normal phone service was
available, with all my normal calls completed and no trouble with
incoming calls.  Only two numbers didn't work, and one of them was the
emergency number!  How am I supposed to have any faith in my ability
to reach 999 if necessary?  If I hear smoke alarms or intruders in
the middle of the night, I'm not going to go searching for the phone
book!

It turns out that 150 and 999 are one and the same service in the UK.
The British Telecom operator answers emergency calls, takes the
details, and puts them through to the appropriate emergency service,
along with the calling number ID.  So I was assured by BT that if I
could reach 150, I could also reach 999.  But I wanted to make sure.
I wanted to test a call to the emergency number.  They said I could
arrange this by dialing 150 and warning them.  So I did, but the
operators said they could not arrange such a call.  I should just
trust them, that if I could reach 150, I could reach 999.  But I
persisted, and finally, after many consultations with managers and
their managers, they told me that they could not arrange anything, but
if I just called 999 and explained the situation, it would be ok.  So
I did, and it was.

But I was still not satisfied.  I want to know, with full certainty,
that as long as I have phone service, I can reach the emergency
number.  I want to know that whatever problem existed in my exchange
which prevented me calling 999/150, was not just "cleared" but that
the cause of the problem was removed.  I doubt that is the case, but I
have had no joy in pursuing this issue with BT.  I suspect that the
exchange technicians merely reset something or other which had gone
wrong, but that the same thing could go wrong again and I would never
know.

Any advice on how to pursue this problem would be greatly appreciated.


Jonathan Haruni

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

From: Alex Cena <[e-mail]>
Subject: Motorola and Grupo Protexa
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 00:09:34 EST


A Rueters news article indicated that Motorola and Grupo Protexa have
signed an agreement to create a $6 billion telecommunications firm
that will offer a variety of services, including cellular, long
distance, PCN, data transmission and rural telephony, subject to
Mexican government approval.

Does anyone know what role if any Motorola's WiLL or fixed wireless
applications will play in this deployment?


Thanks in advance,

Alex M. Cena, Lehman Brothers, [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Gerry Moersdorf)
Subject: Cell Service on Long Beach Island NJ?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 10:45:07 -0400
Organization: Applied Innovation, Inc.
Reply-To: [e-mail]


Does anyone know if there is cellular telephone service on Long Beach
Island, NJ?


Gerry Moersdorf   --- Applied Innovation Inc  [e-mail]
614-798-2000        Dublin, Ohio 43017    The datacom pbx guys

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

From: Paul S Malone <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: Paul S Malone <[e-mail]>
Subject: Voice Mail Vendors Wanted
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 13:37:36 EDT


I am trying to find a list of voice mail providers out in the
industry.  The types of vendors I am looking for are like Tigon.
Tigon is a voice mail vendor which sells messaging products, like
voice mail and fax mail, to anyone who wants to buy them.  They are
switch independant meaning you don't need a PBX or a CO which supports
them.  If anyone knows of a vendor like this please forward there name
to me, thanks.


Paul Malone    [e-mail]

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

From: Sean McLinden <[e-mail]>
Subject: Telephony Interfaces
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 10:47:49 -0400
Organization: Sponsored account, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


I am looking for interface card which supports multiline (8-16-32)
voice interface to a PC or Mac-based system and which has an API for
programming (basically a digital dictation system). There are
commercial systems out there but they are ridiculously expensive and
programmatically poor.

Help is appreciated.


Thanks,

Sean McLinden

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

From: [e-mail] (Matthias Plass)
Subject: Question About SMDS
Date: 14 Jun 1994 13:55:33 GMT
Organization: Uni-GH Paderborn, Germany


Hello!

I have a question about SMDS (over DQDB).

With DS3 you have a busbitrate of 44.736 MBit/s on BOTH busses.  As I
understand it, SMDS uses only ONE time 44.736 MBit/s for selling to
it's subscribers.  The reason for this is that else it might be, that
congestion would occur, if stations with a sum of credit > 45 MBit
would send in one destination.

Am I right?  If here is anyone, who can help me, please e-mail me!  (I
am not reading this group regularly.)


Thanks in advance!

Matthias Plass ([e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (Gary Merinstein)
Subject: Digital to Analog Converters
Date: 14 Jun 1994 23:26:46 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


I used to install a device called a "dees box" to connect analog
devices (modems, answering machines, etc.) to digital pbx systems (eg.
Northern Telecom). I now need a new source.

Does anyone know of vendors (or the manufacturer's phone number) for
this device?


[e-mail]      mci:  489-6979      ci$ 74035,1232

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

From: [e-mail] (Umar M Badeges)
Subject: International Long Distance Carrier Information Wanted
Date: 15 Jun 1994 14:50:02 GMT
Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA


I am new to the Internet and I need information on long distance
international carriers.

The questions I have:

1    How big is the industry in terms of revenue, and connect time?

2    Who are the players?  Domestic and international, what are their
share of the revenue and connect time.  Who are the management team of
these players?  Company profile such as history, growth, their strength
and weaknesses, and how do they meet challenges and opportunities in
this industry.

3    What are the marketing strategy these players, such as what
product or service is offered, promotion and advertisement policy,
pricing, etc.

4    What is the customer profile of this industry?

5    What is the key success factor, what factors needed to be
extremely well.

6    I am trying to look at the industry from the management's point
of view.

7    If anybody can suggest book or mail me article in this
subject, I will appreciate it.  Please response by e-mail to
[e-mail].

Thank you in anticipation of your response.

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

From: [e-mail] (Craig OShannessy)
Subject: Mobile Phones and the Cancer Scare
Date: 16 Jun 1994 00:24:03 +1000
Organization: Kralizec Dialup Unix Sydney: [phone] V.42bis


Whatever happened to the scare about mobile phones and the intense
microwaves giving you cancer?

    This was in the Australian news some time back for a few days,
then it just dissapeared.

    Does anyone know what the latest is on this?


Craig O'Shannessy >>>==================> [e-mail] []

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

From: Paul A. Lee  <DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>
Subject: Re: My Company's Phone System Lets Me Use "Wrong" Lines
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994  23:50:00 CDT
Organization: Woolworth Corporation


In {TELECOM Digest} Volume 14 Issue 284, Robert Casey wrote:

> Today, in a meeting, he mentions about phone call procedure. "Use the '8'
> lines for long distance, '9' for local". I had been doing it the other way
> around, because other places I've worked used "9" for LD, "8" for local.

In my own experience, I've seen the "9" for local and "8" for LD
arrangement more often. Of course, that's experience from ten or
fifteen years ago. Anymore, the common pattern seems to be "9" for
outside, off-network, and "8" (or "8x") for (virtual) private network
calls.

> ... why did the PBX here let me complete LD calls on the wrong lines?

Sloppy programming and/or an obsolescent switch.

> "Didn't they tell you at new employee orientation?" "They told us tons
> of stuff, like 401K's, and stock options, medical plans and a lot of
> other crap".

Phone use instructions -- when they differ from the most common "'9'
for outside, extension number for inside, '0' for operator" -- should
be *printed* on a phone system reference card, in a company directory,
or in an office procedures manual.

The writer described, but did not name, a Fortune 500 firm with 9000
employees. If all 9000 are served by the PBX being described, then I
think they have a problem. They apparently do not publish a phone use
guide. They also appear not to have any LCR (least-cost routing) or
ARS (automatic route selection) in their switch. That could be because
of an obsolescent switch, or because of poor programming due to
ignorance of the features available, or because the "feature" was not
"purchased" from a switch vendor that has the gall to charge an
exorbitant extra cost for it.

They evidently have a call accounting system, since the boss can learn
how much billing accrued from a given phone. Call accounting is only
one tool in telecommunications management, though. It sounds like more
attention needs to be paid to other areas, like routing and carrier
optimization, ARS/LCR configurations, and maybe management of the
vendor/provider of the system.

Of course, there's another possible explanation for the call
accounting and costing capabilities coupled with the separate dialing
access codes: Maybe your site has Centrex (Centranet/Centracom/Essex)
service, instead of a PBX.  If that's how your firm is handling a
single geographic location with 9000 employees (my inference), then
you really *do* have some telecommunications management problems!


Paul A. Lee                           Voice  414 357-1409
Telecommunications Analyst              FAX  [phone]
Woolworth Corporation            CompuServe  70353,566
   INTERNET  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>

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

From: [e-mail] (John Navitsky)
Subject: Re: My Company's Phone System Lets Me Use "Wrong" Lines
Organization: Eskimo North (206) For-Ever
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 16:47:16 GMT


Sometimes a company will have more than one long distance carrier.
Typically they prefer one but have the other to access services/
numbers not available, or just in case.


John Navitsky   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Mervyn Quah)
Subject: Where to Buy Telephone Line Simulators?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 13:39:57 GMT
Organization: Hong Kong Internet & Gateway Services, Wanchai, Hong Kong


Hi everyone,

Does anybody know where I can get equipment that will simulate regular
phone connections (ie, dial tones and ring/busy signals)? We need
about a dozen lines to run a suite of configuration tests on our
multi-line fax server, but don't want to install 'real' phone lines
just for this.  Advanced features like introducing line noise and
echoes would be a plus (although not necessary).

Thanks in advance!


Merv   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Leroy Casterline)
Subject: Re: International Callback Services
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 18:02:00 -0600
Organization: Cahill Casterline Limited
Reply-To: [e-mail]


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

> I had a friend ask me recently about a service I think I've seen
> discussed here before -- international callback services that take

> Ed

Ed,

One of my clients, Logotronix Communications, offers a callback
service called GeoTel.  Call 800/442-4887 and ask for Bill Taylor for
more information.  As to the legality, see my response to Pat below ...

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The legality of the callback services
> is a gray-area. Maybe, maybe not. In any event, what Telepassport

Actually, I believe that the FCC has ruled in favor of callback (or so
the folks at Logotronix tell me).  If you're interested, I can provide
the text of the ruling, two pages in length.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I thought Logotronix sold and serviced
the callback devices. I did not know they also offered a callback
service. I got some literature from them at one point showing the
devices they had for sale.  Regards the FCC ruling on callback signals,
yes, I would be interested in seeing it and I suspect other readers would
be as well.  Please send it along for publication here.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Ron Wright)
Subject: Re: International Callback Services
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 13:43:00 PDT


[e-mail] (Ed Swenson) wrote:

> .....  I'm mainly interested in finding out how to subscribe,
> who offers such services, how they work, what they charge, etc.
> They are legal, right? Although I'm sure some PTT's don't like them
> too much ;-).  .....

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The legality of the callback services
> is a gray-area. Maybe, maybe not.  .....

I am a sales affiliate of MTC, a provider of telecommunication services
which include international callback.

First, to the legal question.  Pat's correct.  Until very recently the
legallity of such services was considered by some to be questionable.
However the May/June issue of {Computer TELEPHONY} carries an article
by Tom Crowe which cites a recent FCC ruling -- three rulings actually
 -- that specifically granted applications of companies to provide
"code calling" callback services.

With "code calling" the customer direct dials a US number, lets it ring,
then hangs up before the call is answered.  The system then initiates
a callback in one of two ways.  Some systems assign a specific DID to
each customer.  Any call received on that line generates a callback to
a specified number.  Other systems capture the incoming ANI and return
the call accordingly.

"Code calling" systems were more vigorously opposed by AT&T than the
other type of service, "completed-call" callback.  The latter service
actually answers the customer's call, prompts her to enter an account
number and the number to be called back.  This type service was not as
offensive because someone was paying for the initial call.  Usually
the service provides for access through a toll-free number.

How does one subscribe?  There are frequent postings in the various
forums related to telecom.  And also an occasional posting to "biz.misc".
Here are some questions you will want to ask:

Rates, obviously.  Ask for the specific rates for the countries you
call.  The rate for country A can be cheaper than the rate for country
B for one service and less for another.  Are the rates good 24 hours a
day; if not what are the pricing periods, and are they governed by US
or foreign time?

Account Set Up Fees.  Some services impose a fee.  Others do not.  And
still others leave it up to the sales agent.  As an example, I never
charge a customer set up fees; some MTC sales reps do.

Minimum Service Period.  What are the limits on cancelling the service
if you are displeased or if your need for that type service no longer
exists?

Billing Increments.  Don't accept full minute billing increments.  The
norm these days is "six second increment" billing.  This means that
your charges will much more closely reflect the length of your call.
You won't be billed for three minutes for a call of two minutes fifteen
seconds.

Detailed Statements.  Most service providers bill your credit card
periodically for the calls made in the billing period.  They should
also provide you with a detailed statement showing the particulars of
each call made, date, time, number called, call duration, charges,
etc.

Activation Leadtime.  I have seen references to some services
requiring a customer to wait as long as a month to activate service.
Activation should take place in days, not weeks.  If a service
provider does not have sufficient excess capacity to add new customers
quickly, then I question whether it has sufficient capacity to handle
the load of its existing customer base for peak loads.


Ron Wright
Technology Export                           Voice:  [phone]
An Authorized MTC Sales Affiliate           Fax:    [phone]
113 San Augustine Way                       E-mail:  [e-mail]
Scotts Valley, CA 95066 USA


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One problem that Telepassport (a division
of US Fibercom and a big player in the international callback industry)
had to deal with was the *huge* number of 'wrong number' and telemarketing
'blind calls' made to its DID numbers. People in the USA would call those
numbers by accident and trigger a callback to an unsuspecting subscriber
in Europe, sometimes in the middle of the night in Europe. Then there were
the telemarketers, out to sell whatever they could to whoever they could
using sequential dialing devices to ring one number after another. Maybe
they were selling subscriptions to the San Jose newspaper for all I know.
(John Higdon is probably grinning at that!) ... again, calls were being
made to Telepassport subscribers at all sorts of odd times, and of course
many subscribers blamed Telepassport for it all.

Finally Telepassport tried to refine the way things were done. Since
their switch generates the ringing tone heard by people calling their
DID numbers, they told their subscribers to be certain to hang up
during the first ring under the assumption that telemarketers and/or
wrong number callers would at least let the line ring three or four times
or more before giving up. That way, if it rang one time and no more,
it was treated as a callback request; if it rang more than that the
switch simply ignored it and forgot about it once the intruder
disconnected. They also delayed the ringing tone long enough to give
their subscribers a chance to disconnect as soon as they heard a couple
of 'clicks' on the line, figuring most wrong number callers would be
still hanging around when the ringing started. By golly, *even that was
not enough* ... the number of idiots out there who dial, realize in a
second or two that they dialed incorrectly and hang up -- but still
generating that slight bit of one ring -- is immense. Then Telepassport
tried using real obscure numbers from a very poor inner city neighborhood
in a town in New Jersey (brought in to Manhattan by FX via Nynex). The
assumption was probably there would be fewer wrong number calls to a
201 number, and most likely the telemarketers would have the neighborhood
redlined against calls anyway. The last I heard, that approach had cut
back on the spurious callbacks somewhat. Lower and central Manhattan
must be a real bummer where wrong numbers are concerned. Are the other
international callback providers having the same kinds of problems?  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert L. McMillin)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Organization: Surf City Software/TBFW Project
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 01:17:51 GMT


On 07 Jun 1994 05:47:37 PST, [e-mail] (Sam Spens
Clason) said:

> In <[e-mail]> Bob Maccione <[e-mail]>
> writes:

>> With all of the calling card fraud going on out there I'm curious as
>> to why the card companies don't issue cards that can't be used for
>> international calls.  It should be easy enough and if the user really
>> needs to have access to international numbers they can add a level of
>> country restrictions.  So since all I call is the US I wouldn't have
>> to worry about someone abusing my card (at least from the international
>> level of abuse).

A genuinely lame idea.  Gee, you mean that I have to arrange -- in
advance -- with my phone company to call Mexico?  How about Canada?
The UK?  Minnesota?  (Just kidding, Gopher State residents, just kidding ...)

> How big a part of all calling card frauds could be avoided if the PIN
> wasn't actually printed on the card?!

A lot.  But then, why bother with the card if you can't use it to make
calls?  I could understand not printing the number if we all had magnetic
stripe readers built in to most phones, but that's not the case.

> The calling card business is rather new here in Sweden (two years),
> but still, we haven't had any frauds worth mentioning.  I think it's
> because of better security.

It's probably because you have few immigrantes from El Salvador, Russia,
and God-knows-where (a small island off Tierra Del Fuego :-)  Seriously,
this is why the telephone companies block international calling card
calls: the 'call-sellers' who use stolen calling cards until they
phone company gets wise and shuts down the card number and/or payphone
the 'sellers' operate from.


Robert L. McMillin  | [e-mail] | Netcom: [e-mail]
Surf City Software  | Purveying superior SCSI backup/utilities for the Mac
          Contact [e-mail] for sales info.

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

From: [e-mail] (Rick Brown)
Subject: Re: Personal 800 Number Availability
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 22:23:25 GMT
Organization: Project Nemesis


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Carl
Oppedahl) writes:

(Original conversation on how AT&T demands a physical address for 800
service snipped.)

> I think what one must not overlook is that what AT&T (and Sprint, in
> my experience) is very particular about is (1) asking the question,
> (2) getting some sort of answer and (3) entering the answer into their
> computer system.

> I don't think that there is anything about how the 800 service works
> that actually requires the customer to give a correct answer.

Er, unless you consider billing you in a correct, legal manner as part
of making the service work.

The IXC wants to get a service address so they can calculate the
state/local/etc. taxes on your bill correctly, or at least as best
they can.  To do the taxing correctly, you cannot assume that the
billing address is the same as the service address, hence the
questions.

Now, if a customer wants to claim a particular place is the service
address, it is not AT&T or Sprint's job to check whether you are
lying. They will simply calculate the taxes based on the address you
give and remit the money to the appropriate authorities. (If you say
the service address is in New York, New York gets the tax money.)

You could use one of the terminating physical telephone numbers the
800 number maps to do some kind of sanity checking, but even at that
you are simply guessing. NPAs can cross states in border situations,
and exchanges can be in multiple local jurisdictions. Not to mention
"foreign exchange" lines which could conceivably be dropped anywhere.

Even with your physical address, the IXC may still have to ask which
county you live in since some zip codes cross county lines.

I think it is fair to say that this business of determining a service
address for taxing purposes is a messy one for an IXC, but it has to
at least try to do it. (Otherwise auditors start asking uncomfortable
questions.)


Rick Brown   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Inormation Wanted on GSM in US
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 23:06:09 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


<[e-mail]> writes:

> Does anybody know if there is any activities in GSM for US? Is
> anyone working on implementing GSM or any Deviations of GSM in US?

The US equivalent of GSM is MIRS/ESMR, the Enhanced Specialized Mobile
Radio service just beginning to be rolled out by some of the major SMR
carriers.  The networks are based on the MIRS system by Motorola, and
are to some extent interoperable with GSM.  The network features
include the interconnect (aka 'cellular') point to point voice, Short
Message Service alphanumeric text messaging and binary packet data of
GSM, plus a push-to-talk private voice service (similar to traditional
SMR) for the US market.

There has been an _enormous_ amount of activity in this area, with the
three largest carriers covering something like 98% of the entire US.
The largest of them, Nextel, just got a $1.3 billion infusion from
MCI, on top of many hundreds of millions from Motorola, Northern Telcom
and others.


David S. Rose   Ex Machina, Inc.
(Developers of wireless communications software)

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #291
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #292

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 16 Jun 94 02:42:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 292

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: x.25 and Internet (Lars Poulsen)
    Re: More Sneaky MCI Marketing (Ry Jones)
    Re: More Sneaky MCI Marketing ([e-mail])
    Re: Does MCI Have Answer Supervision? (Bob Schwartz)
    Re: Answering Machine Recommendations Wanted (Mark E. Daniel)
    Re: Centrex - Good/Bad? ([e-mail])
    Re: CellularOne/Detroit Announces Rate Change (Matthew Scott Weisberg)
    Re: How to Get White Pages Data From GTE? (Steven Bradley)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Gordon Burditt)
    Re: Four-wire to Five-wire Adapter to Use US Modem in England? (M McCrohan)
    Re: Privacy on Rolm Switch (Kevin Mayeux)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

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The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
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should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 00:43:42 +0200
From: [e-mail] (Lars Poulsen)
Subject: Re: x.25 and Internet
Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK


In article <[e-mail]> of TELECOM Digest, Min Hu
<[e-mail]> writes:

> I am wondering if there is any free gateway between X.25 network and
> Internet.  Specifically speaking, a friend of mine has account in the
> X.25 network -- DATAPAC, a X.25 network in Canada. I have an account
> on an Internet machine. I want to transfer some files to him, but do
> not know if there is a gateway between DATAPAC and the Internet so
> that he can log into my system.

The relationship between X.25 networks and the Internet are rather
complex. The technologies overlap and intertwine in ways that make the
question less obvious to us insiders than to the questioner.  With the
moderator's permission, I will take this opportunity to ramble a
little about these relationships.

X.25 is a protocol description for an interface between a (multi-user)
computer system, and a network switch, allowing multiple independent
sessions between the computer system and one or more other computer
systems on the same network, or on another, similar network connected
with the first through gateways (implemented according to the X.75
specification). Using the X.25 and X.75 specifications, a true
internet (in the sense of a network of interconnected networks
providing service between clients on different nets) was quickly
established around the world on the 1978-1985 time frame.

But what most people are referring to, when they talk about X.25
network access, is something else, technically called the PAD (Packet
Assembly and Disassembly) function.

One of the most common functions in any multiuser system is the
establishment of a session for an interactive user at a terminal.
Various computer manufacturers had come up with unique terminals that
could only be used with computers from that manufacturer, but with the
slow and steady spread of minicomputers, a less funtional, somewhat
standardized class of asynchronous "ASCII" terminals became dominant
in the market, and a set of adjuncts to X.25 (called X.3, X.28 and
X.29) described how the sessions between such terminals and a
networked computer system could be transported over X.25 connections
in an interoperable way. Since the network transported packets, while
the terminals dealt only with single characters, the interface
function was defined as "the Packed Assembly and Disassembly function"
and a specialized minicomputer that performed only this function was
called a PAD (pronounced as a word). Many network operators installed
such PADs equipped with a bank of dialup modems in conjunction with
their packet switches, thereby allowing major customers operating
centralized computer centers to use these modem banks as remote access
points for their mainframe systems.

About the same time as X.25 networks were being defined, it had become
commonplace in the distributed computing environments of business, to
share the use a single (modem) connection between multiple terminals
using a concentrator device called a statistical multiplexer. This
would allow the use of four to eight terminals running at 2400 bps
over a single (leased) line running at 4800 bps. Or four to eight
terminals running at 1200 bps over a dial-up line at 2400 bps. Such an
arrangement would work quite well, by taking advantage of the ability
to interleave traffic from one session in the pauses of another
session. Thus the term "statistical" multiplexer: In the long run it
evens out. So long as the same model of device was used at each end of
the link, each manufacturer could -- and would -- use its own encoding
scheme between them. It was a short leap to implement these multiplexers
to use the X.29 protocol between them; this lowered the cost of PADs
to the point where many companies built internal X.25 networks to
carry their terminal traffic, which the added side benefit that they
could simultaneously connect to the world-wide X.25 network.

The Internet was being built at the same time, and as it was growing
under the supervision of the US Defense Department's Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA) it was decided that the initial host-computer
interface (BBN-1822) was too expensive, because it was unique, it was
decided to offer an X.25 interface as a connection option for hosts on
ARPAnet and MILNET. During the critical period of growth between 1984
and 1986, hundreds of systems jointed the Internet; and most of the
connections between the campus Local Area Networks, and the wide-area
backbone were VAX-11/780 machines running Berkeley Unix and with an
ACC ACP-6250 X.25 board installed. We watched with amusement as a few
people from Stanford started a small company called Cisco which began
building small machines that ONLY performed this interface function.

The sites that were attached to the Internet, of course also had a
need for dial-up access, but traditionally, they would use a different
type of terminal server box: One that sported an Ethernet port on the
back, instead of a synchronous modem connector. This would allow it to
connect to any of the systems attached to the local area network, as
well as to reach out to the whole Internet. Since most of the users
were of the academic persuasion, when they were at work, they would be
in an environment where they needed access the the local systems, and
when they were travelling, they could usually borrow access from the
people they were visiting.

As the Internet spread outside the academic environment, and Internet
based time-sharing computer centers like the WELL and the WORLD
started to acquire a following outside of their local area, they too
began linking up with the X.25 network operators to make use of the
banks of PADs spread across the United States. Most of these access
arrangements, however, are based on "collect calls" and the operator
of the time-sharing system collects the network transport fee as a
connect-time surcharge for sessions that come in over the X.25
network.

So, with this background information in place, let us get back to the
questions:

> Is [there] any free gateway between X.25 network and Internet.

No; very little in this world is free. However, it seems that your
friend is in fact quite willing not only to pay for transport on the
X.25 service, but also -- in some reasonable amount -- for the gateway
function. One could hope that the X.25 operators would install a small
set of X.29-to-Telnet protocol translator boxes. These are available
from several vendors; you make an X.29 connection to them, and they
prompt you for an Internet host name to connect to. You would do the
world a favor if you could persuade DATAPAC to install one somewhere
in their network.

> I want to transfer some files to him, but do not know if there is
> a gateway between DATAPAC and the Internet so that he can log into
> my system.

If this is something that happens often, the best solution is for your
friend to open an account with one of the many Internet service
operators that have connections to the X29/X.25 terminal access
networks. From a place like Genie, WELL or WORLD, they can FTP and
Telnet to your machine and then download to their own PC with Kermit
or Zmodem.


Lars Poulsen            Internet E-mail: [e-mail]
Rockwell Network Systems    Internets: designed and built while you wait
Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B        Phone: (011-) [phone]
DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK    Telefax:      [phone]
or Santa Barbara, CA 93117, USA ...... Phone: [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Ry Jones)
Subject: Re: More Sneaky MCI Marketing
Date: 15 Jun 1994 19:32:38 GMT
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.


T. Stephen Eggleston ([e-mail]) wrote:

> MCI sent a "check" for 25.00, which when cashed switched my service.
> Nothing unusual here, but they sent it to my teenage daughter.  She
> has NEVER had a phone in her name.

<rest of story axed>

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I doubt that MCI *knew* she is only a
> child. I am sure there was a data entry error somewhere from some other
> list where they obtained her name.   PAT]

My two year old son was offered the chance to switch his phone to MCI
not to long ago. :)  He did.

Stupid but true: AT&T sent me a $35 check to switch back to them. The
same day I was called and asked to switch. I had already deposited the
check. I told the lady if she sent me a $50 check, like MCI does every
other month, I would switch to them. Boom. AT&T cut me a $50 check to
switch. So this month, on AT&T spendings of $0 and MCI LD of $135,
AT&T gave me $85 to switch and MCI gave me $35 in free LD (for this
billing period). So I only paid $15 for $135 in LD.

This has been going on for some time; AT&T will send me either $35
cash and $15, $25, $35 in free ld OR $50 cash to switch, then MCI
sends me $50 and $35 in free LD. Whee!


[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (DeFantom)
Subject: Re: More Sneaky MCI Marketing
Date: 15 Jun 1994 22:14:03 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(T. Stephen Eggleston) writes:

> She has NEVER had a phone!

True, but has she ever subsribed to a magazine?  MCI may, like other
people who send ads in the mail, get names from a master list they
have purchased from another company.  I had a friend of mine who's DOG
got a ton of junk mail when he, just for giggles, subscribed to TIME
magazine in the DOG's name!


[e-mail]

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

Subject: Re: Does MCI Have Answer Supervision?
From: [e-mail] (Bob Schwartz)
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 12:46:03 PDT
Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California


[e-mail] (Philip J. Tait) writes:

> Summary:

> Various people replied, with various viewpoints.  An ex-MCI employee
> said that MCI does have answer-supervision, whereas an "AT&T dweeb"
> stated that only AT&T has it.  One person claimed to have had a
> substantial number of answer supervision failures with AT&T.

> I plan to gather evidence of incorrectly-charged calls, and pursue the
> matter.

Ten years ago I made a living off of the lack of answer supervision.
That was back when you could get credit for every one and two minute
call on your OCC bill. I also supported the class actions back then.

The problem that the FCC and the Cook County court had with the lack
of answer supervision, as it related to billing for unanswered calls,
was that the practice was not disclosed. The solution was in the fine
print of the bill stuffers on page 4. It went something like this: "In
order to avoid the possibility of being charged for unanswered calls,
you may like to limit the amount of time a phone is allowed to ring
before you disconnect".

When Mr. Nader and I went on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in
an expose' on " The Long Distance Call that Goes Nowhere" the credits
began to dry up.

While the Bill Correctors decision ;) at the FCC said that IXC's must
have refund policies on file I've never seen the file. It was
*impossible to get* .

Now, keep in mind that the only problem that the regulators and courts
had with the lack of answer supervision, which allowed some IXC's to
build their networks i.e. profits for expansion (IMHO), was the lack
of disclosure. Also keep in mind that disclosure is now made.

At any rate, when you *prove* this allegation go to your District
attorney and Attorney General. You'll soon see if anyone cares enough
to lift a finger. Good luck.


Bob Schwartz                                       [e-mail]
Bill Correctors, Inc.   [phone]   Marin County, California

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

Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 17:34:53 EST
From: [e-mail] (Mark E Daniel)
Subject: Re: Answering Machine Recommendations Wanted


Regarding the Raido Shack answering machine which does TIME/DATE stap,
that would be the Duophone TAD-450.  It does VOX with a toggleable
message length of thirty seconds or three minutes.  Each message is
stamped in the following way "Message 1. Five twenty-nine PM. Saturday
June eleven."  It will also destinguish between memos and two-way
(conversation) recordings.

It has remote access with a voice menu and a user selectable three
digit code.  The remote also has a room monitor.  It uses leaderless
tapes for the greeting and the largest one of these I've seen is three
Min, which would give you a maximum length of one minute thirty seconds.
Longer might be nicer for Answer Only mode.

:) I suppose you could use a leaderless "message" tape in there. :)

It will talk you through set-up when you plug it in.  All you do is
hit SET.  It also has battery backup for message count, remote code,
time etc. :) I believe it first appeared in 1988.  It is far ahead of
its time even today. :)

You can tell it's old because the cord is hard-wired into it and
you'll need to buy a two-in-one jack adapter from Raido Shack.  But
I've had several of these on my line and had no problem. :)


Mark E Daniel    (Loving SysOp of The Legend BBS)
Inet: [e-mail]    [e-mail] (Direct INet)


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes indeed, this is one of the better
quality answering machines available today, even six years after its
first appearance. Check it out at your local Radio Shack store. But
I beg to differ with you on the tape length: a three minute Mobius Loop
(or endless loop) tape will allow three minutes of recording time. I
have used these when operating 'announcement lines' in the past. And
the leader has to be on the tape when it is an endless loop since it
is the contact of the metalic foil which makes up the 'leader' between
the tape head and ground which shuts down the outgoing tape once it
has played out (regardless of its length). When the leader gets dirty
or loses its continuity that's when you'll occassionally have to sit
through the outgoing announcement two (or three or four) times before
it finally is able to trip the connection and shut itself off.  Remember
in the real old days of answering machines when you could purchase a
little roll of the metalic foil and stick it carefully over the old
leader which had worn out after several dozen cycles?   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Centrex - Good/Bad?
Date: 16 Jun 1994 02:01:03 GMT
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (David
K. Bryant) writes:

> 1.  ANYTHING is better than a Fujitsu 960.  They may provide basic
> voice services but it is a WEAK pbx when compared to Northern or AT&T.

> 2.  Centrex comes in many flavors.

Analog Plexar is basically like a 1970's version of a PBX with only
2500 type (single line) station ports.  Any enhanced voice services
require key systems to be installed behind the centrex, and finding a
good console is the pits.  Also, data will be limited to analog modem
speeds.

A slightly better enhancement is to get Centrex off a DMS-100 switch.
This allows you to use P-phones.  These are programmable multi-button
sets from Northern that work directly off the switch and provide
comparable voice services to most PBXs.

Even better, but more pricey, is ISDN centrex.  This is good if you
have voice and data requirements and can offer some good enhanced
services.

Other questions to ask: How will you handle voice mail, call accounting,
system administration, and ACD (Automatic Call Distribution)?

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

From: [e-mail] (Matthew Scott Weisberg)
Subject: Re: CellularOne/Detroit Announces Rate Change
Date: 15 Jun 1994 22:34:43 -0400
Organization: UMCC, Ann Arbor, MI


[e-mail] (Matthew Scott Weisberg) writes:

> I wonder if Ameritech, the RBOC here and CellOne's competition here,
> is doing the same thing?

> Also, is this being done specifically because of people doing the "Call
> Forwarding Scam?"

In a followup to my own note ...

There was an article in the Saturday, June 11th {Detroit News/Free
Press} about how the cellular phone companies in Detroit are losing
lots of money on the "Call Fowarding Scam."  It stated that Ameritech
will be charging for all forwarded calls by the minute before the end
of the year.  HOWEVER, unlike Cellular One which charges a fee just to
have the call forwarding service, Ameritech WILL NOT charge a monthly
fee for it.

The article stated that people would make calls of two hours and more
and Cell One would have to pay the local phone company by the minute
for them!  It sure was nice while it lasted! :)


Matt Weisberg, CNE         MILLIWAYS - Computer and Network Consulting
PP-ASEL                                21650 West Eleven Mile Road #202
Amateur Radio: KF8OH                   Southfield, MI 48076
Internet: [e-mail]      [phone] Fax:[phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven Bradley)
Subject: Re: How to Get White pages Data From GTE?
Organization: The Forest City Exchange, Forest City, Florida
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 02:51:17 GMT


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

> I understood from a sales promotion from Pro_phone that they have the
> white pages typed in at some location in China. Thus they should also
> be able to include GTE data. I'm waiting for my own copy of Pro-phone
> so I can see about GTE in the database.

You guys do NOT, I repeat N O T want ProPhone, its a lot of inaccurate
shit.  I had a copy for 14 hours, before returning it for a refund; it is
VERY inaccurate.  Very OUT OF DATE, most entries had to be at least TWO
years old to make it.

Try Digital Directory Assistance (DDA) for one thats GOOD!


Internet:        [e-mail]             Steven G. Bradley
                 [e-mail]                Forest City, Florida
                 [e-mail]
CompuServe:      [e-mail]       Phone:   [phone]
America Online:  [e-mail]              Modem:   407/862-8088

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

From: [e-mail] (Gordon Burditt)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organi[sz]ation
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 14:35:10 GMT


> With all of the calling card fraud going on out there I'm curious as
> to why the card companies don't issue cards that can't be used for
> international calls.

Funny you should mention that.  From a May 23, 1994 billing insert
from Southwestern Bell:

[Quote reformatted to fit line length and to not use all caps.  Spelling
and capitalization errors are my fault.]

Fight calling card fraud with the new free SelectAmerica(sm) calling
card.  It can happen to you on the street, at an airport or out
shopping -- while you're making a call, someone steals your calling
card number and contributes to nearly $1.8 billion in long distance
fraud reported annually.  One key reason for this alarming statistic:
illegal international operations -- like drug smuggling -- rely
heavily on stolen calling card numbers.

Now you can help fight back -- for free!  Southwestern Bell Telephone
offers a new option to protect your SelectCard(r) from fraud that
provides extra security for you and helps keep telephone rates
affordable.  Effective April 15, you'll have the ability to block any
international calls from being billed to your account.  If you choose
the new SelectAmerica calling card, only calls to locations in the
U.S. or Canada will be charged to your card.

If you are like most customers, the SelectAmerica calling card will
meet all of your calling needs.  You'll see no change in your service
and you can continue using your existing Selectcard and four-digit
PIN.  If your card is ever lost or stolen, it cannot be used for
illegal international calling.

Your current Southwestern Bell Telephone Selectcard with your home
phone number and the PIN you choose is still the easiest calling card
to use.  There's no long access code -- just dial "0" and the number
you're calling.  Your Selectcard works anywhere for local or long
distance calls.  And you can keep using your Selectcard no matter how
often you change your long distance carrier.

If you still need to make international calls, no action is necessary
 -- your current card will continue to work for calls worldwide.
However, to order the free SelectAmerica calling card, call your local
Southwestern Bell Telephone service center today.  The phone number is
shown on the "detail of charges" page in this bill (See the "to order"
number).  The phone number is also listed in the customer guide section
of your white pages directory -- see the "how to reach us" page.

[end quote]

At least this method lets the customer have the choice.  It
discriminates against one fixed set of countries (everything but the
USA and Canada).  And they didn't pull a surprise change and insist
you call to get back your ability to make international calls.


Gordon L. Burditt    sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon

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

From: Mike McCrohan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Four-wire to Five-wire Adapter to Use US Modem in England?
Date: 15 Jun 1994 10:34:39 +0100
Organization: Ireland On-Line


In article <[e-mail]>, Will Dye wrote:

> I'm shipping out a modem to a customer in England.  The customer tells
> me that his phone jack, I think they're called RJ11 adapters or
> something like that, has five wires in it.  But the jacks I normally
> plug into a modem have four wires.  I've seen some with six wires in a
> PBX phone, but never five wires.

The BT Phone connectors are about 1/2" x 3/16" approx. I believe
RJ<->BT adapters are readily available in the UK (INMAC sells an RJ45
to BT socket adapter for 45 pounds! They sell the plugs for 4.50 and
you can terminate your own cable.) Have your customer look around the
catalogues, etc. If worst comes to worst an adapter can be kludged
from a UK and US cord splice.

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

From: [e-mail] (Raverboy)
Subject: Re: Privacy on Rolm Switch
Date: 16 Jun 1994 06:19:02 GMT
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


I know the Rolm 9751 is mostly for ACD.  Anyway, the silent monitor
function that supervisors have can ONLY monitor ACD extensions that
are also within certain defineable COS's.  For example, I can't
monitor my manager's ACD line, but she can monitor mine, and all of
the CSR's extensions.  The silent monitor function will not work with
a non-ACD line ... for example private internal extensions.


Kevin Mayeux   TCI

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #292
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #293

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 16 Jun 94 03:29:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 293

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Optical to Electrical Converters Wanted (Paul A. Lee)
    Re: Optical to Electrical Converters Wanted (David Kirsch)
    Re: v.35 (T1) Board for Linux Available Soon (Jan Allbright)
    Re: Calling Number ID for Cellular Users (John Gilbert)
    Re: Demand Linux Support for v.35 (56kb - T1) Interface! (Morten Reistad)
    Re: Cell One/Boston <-> Manchester/Nashua New Connection (John R. Covert)
    Re: Nine Track IBM Standard Labels (Tony Harminc)
    Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted (Wes Leatherock)
    Re: Calling Card Suggestion (Garrett Wollman)
    Re: AT&T Mail to Charge for Internet Reception in Canada (Danny Burstein)
    Re: Pointers Wanted to TDD Specifications Please (Jon Sreekanth)
    Re: Information WANS Requested (Richard Layman)
    Re: New Player in the 800 Game (Doug McDonald)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Pete Farmer)
    Re: International Callback Services (Gene Retske)
    Re: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phones For Emergency Calls? (B. Roberts)
    Internet Access in France - State of the Art (Jean-Bernard Condat)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
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Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

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The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
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should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Paul A. Lee  <DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>
Subject: Optical to Electrical Converters Wanted
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 04:00:00 GMT
Organization: Woolworth Corporation


In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 282, Carl Silva wrote:

> ...who provides optical to electrical converters?

Try contacting the following firms:

          Opticom Corporation
          5505 Morehouse Drive, #150
          San Diego, CA  92121
          619 450-0143
          619 450-0155  FAX

          Math Associates Inc.
          5500 New Horizons Boulevard
          Amityville, NY  11701
          516 226-8950
          516 226-8966  FAX

          Optelecom
          9300 Gaither Road
          Gaithersburg, MD  20877
          301 840-2121
          301 948-6357  FAX

Please note that I am simply aware of the product lines of these
firms; I don't have any direct experience with them or their products.


Paul A. Lee                           Voice  414 357-1409
Telecommunications Analyst              FAX  [phone]
Woolworth Corporation            CompuServe  70353,566
   INTERNET  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>

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

From: [e-mail] (David Kirsch - SunNetworks Manager)
Subject: Re: Optical to Electrical Converters Wanted
Date: 15 Jun 1994 15:28:35 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Reply-To: [e-mail]


You might try Canoga Perkins ... they have some of these type
products.

21012 Lassen St.
Chatsworth, CA 91311
818.718.6300

Try Paul Stennes, VP Sales/Marketing


David K.

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

From: [e-mail] (Jan Allbright)
Subject: Re: v.35 (T1) Board for Linux Available Soon
Date: 16 Jun 1994 07:05:54 GMT
Organization: Information Networks Division: Hewlett Packard


Humm ... I thought T1 ran at 1.544 Mbps ...

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

From: [e-mail] (John Gilbert)
Subject: Re: Calling Number ID for Cellular Users
Organization: Motorola, LMPS
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 00:51:27 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, Lynne Gregg <lynne.gregg@
mccaw.com> wrote:

> Steve, I like the way you think!  McCaw operations will start offering
> Calling Number ID Service to its Digital cellular subscribers
> beginning in September.  When Digital was launched by Cellular One in
> New York, Calling Number ID was heralded as one of several enhanced
> services to come.

Caller ID service is among several services that have been available
to analog subscribers on narrow band AMPS (NAMPS) systems since 1991.
See the April 1991 issue of {Communications} magazine for more on
NAMPS.


John Gilbert            [e-mail]              KA4JMC

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

From: [e-mail] (Morten Reistad)
Subject: Re: Demand Linux Support for v.35 (56kb - T1) Interface!
Date: 16 Jun 1994 01:47:56 +0200
Organization: OBI A/S Personal employee account


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Joseph Kruckenberg) writes:

> [Soapbox on]

> Over the past few days, I've been in discussion with a company called
> SDL ([e-mail]) which builds a v.35 board for the PC.

[clip]

> you let them know of your interest. Now that gated has been ported to
> Linux, Linux is a very viable alternative to the traditional
> computer/router gateway. With a v.35 interface, you could achieve
> speeds of 56kb up to 3Mb/sec (with their dual-port version), while
> still keeping your costs below a few thousand dollars (the SDL boards
> are priced at about $550) by avoiding the purchase of a router.

Wow. What is so special about a synchronous, plain V.35 card? Why does
it have to cost as much as the rest of the PC? All the cards I have
seen are fully equipped with a processor requiring downloaded code;
roms and what have you.

The complexity of this is not much greater than a vanilla asynch board
for a PC. OK, you have to pull forward a few extra pins and make an
ugly cable for V.35, but the card should not require more than a USRT
and some driver chips. After all; rather braindamaged ethernet cards
run just fine at twice this speed over a plain ISA bus. And a plain
sync card just has to push frames, no CSMA, transceiver, etc.

These things should cost $50, not $550.

Have a nice day!

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

Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 09:02:33 EDT
From: John R. Covert  15-Jun-1994 0854 <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Cell One/Boston <-> Manchester/Nashua New Connection


[e-mail] wrote:

> I think the Manchester 00445 system in New Hampshire is also linked up
> now, although the serivce was so poor I couldn't really try it. I know
> that hitting *28 or *29 got me dead air for two seconds, and then the
> switch hung up on me, as it if were processing the call but just
> didn't want to send confirmation tones back to me. Previously, this
> used to get an error recording.

This just started working, with fits and starts.  On the days on which
*28 did not return a confirmation tone, it was not working.  It
started working for the first time about three weeks ago on Friday,
did not work all the following week until that Friday, and then was
broken again the following week for a few days but has been working
since.

The connection, for now, is actually only Boston->Nashua/Manchester.

It is no longer possible to call a Boston customer roaming in New
Hampshire via the Merrimack roamer port (345-ROAM).  What seems to
happen if the Boston phone is active in NH is that the roamer port
goes on-hook after the number is dialled.  Customer service claims
this will always be the case now; it will be necessary to send all
calls via Boston.


/john

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

Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 15:21:57 EDT
From: Tony Harminc <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Nine Track IBM Standard Labels


[e-mail] (aaronjones) wrote:

> I'm trying to deal with Bell Canada's SYGMA (Bell's Computer Systems
> Group) to exchange information on 9-track magnetic tapes.  They
> require that the tapes that we ship to them have (drum roll please) ...

>                        "Standard IBM Labels"

> Bell SYGMA has said that we should contact IBM for the format of these
> labels. I've tried to do so and failed most miserably (sigh).  I did
> get to talk to a rather large number of nice people at IBM, but
> unfortunately none of them were able to help me.

The "official" answer is that you need a copy of the IBM publication
commonly called "Tape Labels".  There are several editions for the
various operating systems, but the basic information in all of them is
the same.  A fairly recent version is "MVS/ESA Magnetic Tape Labels
and File Structure Administration", publication number SC26-4511.  Any
IBM office should be happy to order you a copy for an appropriately
outrageous price, or -- if someone is in a good mood -- copy the few
relevant pages.

Now it may be that you are facing a bureaucratic rather than a
technical problem at Bell, and there may therefore be a bureaucratic
response.  It is perfectly valid not to have labels on an IBM tape.
This is often loosely called "label type NL" (i.e. No Labels).  So if
you ship your tape to Bell, with the specifications (on paper) that it
has Label Type NL, LRECL (Logical Record Length) ll (where ll is the
(fixed) length of each record), BLKSIZE bb (where bb is the size of
physical blocks the records are grouped into), plus the actual layout
of data within each record, then you may be OK with no labels.

There are operational reasons why their life is easier if you do have
standard labels, so you might want to write them anyway.  They are
quite simple, 80-byte records.


Tony Harminc

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

From: [e-mail] (Wes Leatherock)
Date: 15 Jun 94 09:52:14 -0600
Subject: Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted
Organization: Fidonet


Quoting [e-mail] (Nathan N. Duehr):

Quoting [e-mail] (Wes Leatherock):

WL> Press operators were, I think probably the elite of operators
WL> sending in the wire telegraph days.  Perhaps those working for
WL> brokerage wire houses could also put in a claim to this, but
WL> I'm not sufficiently familiar with them to be able to judge.

nd> Don't forget the railroad ops ... they had their fair share of
nd> traffic as well!

         I certainly didn't mean to ignore them.  They were generally
outstanding operators and most of them were very fast and exceptional
under pressure.

         But I'm not sure they had the steady, continuous stream of
traffic that press and probably wire house operators had.  You're
probably better informed on this than I am, and I'd be interested in
knowing more.


Wes Leatherock   [e-mail]
[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Garrett Wollman)
Subject: Re: Calling Card Suggestion
Date: 15 Jun 1994 22:31:35 GMT
Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science


In article <[e-mail]>, Carl Oppedahl <oppedahl@panix.
com> wrote:

> Huh?  I memorize my card number.  Then it does not matter what is or
> is not written on it since I don't carry the card.  Why would any one
> carry the card around?

Well, since you asked ...

I don't often have a need to use my calling card, as I am very rarely
away from a free phone in circumstances where I actually would /want/
to make a phone call.  So, I have a calling card account mainly for
security -- that is to say, I keep the account because some day I might
get lost in darkest Somerville and want to call a cab to bring me back
into civilization.

Under these circumstances, I'm not likely to remember the number,
since I never use it, and those circumstances in which I'm likely to
need it are precisely the ones that would send my memory on the fritz.
Furthermore, there are a lot of people (of which I am one) who simply
are unable to memorize numbers except as a process of using them.  For
example, when I lived in Vermont, I at one time had a calling card
number ending in 2644.  I can tell you that now not because I
memorized the number (indeed, I don't even remember which phone it was
attached to), but because I remember the hand motions involved in
dialing it.  (That's how I remember all of those numbers which I
actually use regularly.)


Garrett A. Wollman   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (danny burstein)
Subject: Re: AT&T Mail to Charge for Internet Reception in Canada
Date: 15 Jun 1994 09:40:22 -0400


[good article/bad news piece about how ATT Mail in Canada will soon
start charging for -reciept- of internet mail deleted]

I've been waiting for this shoe to drop. I've been a long-time
customer of a competitor of theirs here in the US (not on this
account, but a different address) and expect it to happen there
anyday.

This other system charges only for the -sending- of msgs with -no-
online time fee, and no charge for receiving msgs. They also have an
800 number for logging in (at no fee).

In the old days, when their system was a standalone, this made sense
since any message you read was paid for by -someone- on their system.
But once the internet gateway came about, all bets were off.

So currently it is possible to pay just the annual fee ($25) and log
in, via an 800 number, and get hours of email reading/day.  Obviously
at some point they will have to do something ...


[e-mail] (or [e-mail])

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

From: [e-mail] (Jon Sreekanth)
Subject: Re: Pointers Wanted to TDD Specifications Please
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 05:55:37 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Joseph Chiu) writes:

> After looking through various journals and computer-rags (all the way
> back to mid-80's!), and looking around at FAQ's and such, I'm still
> stumped in my search for technical information on TDD's.

The closest thing to an official TDD spec is an older draft standard
by EIA. Here is an excerpt of a letter from TIA:

May 16, 1988.

In 1981, the EIA Engineering Committee TR41 undertook the writing of
a voluntary industry standard for telecomm devices for the deaf.
 ... As commercial interest in these devices has diminshed, we now
find ourselves in a situation where only two manufacturers remain in
the market, and they seem unwilling or unable to agree on the terms of
the standard. .. Accordingly, ... (TR41) voted to abandon PN 1663 and
directed me to place the existing document Draft 9 in the public
domain ...  EIA and its successor organizations will no longer
maintain this draft, but will continue to make copies available to
qualified persons and organizations for a reasonable period of time ...

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

So the summary is: Telecommunications Industry Association, TIA, at
202-457-4936 can provide PN 1663, Draft 9, if you ask nicely.


Jon Sreekanth
Assabet Valley Microsystems, Inc.     Fax and PC products
5 Walden St #3, Cambridge, MA 02140   [phone]
[e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 00:50:09 EDT
From: Richard Layman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Information WANS Requested


Matthew Scott Weisberg had a query about linking city government
agencies in a WAN.  Here are some suggestions for resources.  Public
Technology Inc. is a technical consulting group for local governments.
It is a nonprofit group created by the National League of Cities, the
Intl. City/County Management Assn., and the National Assn.  of
Counties.  They provide assistance to local governments on telecommun-
ications, cable, computing, utilities and other issues.  They are at:
1301 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20004, 202-626-2400.

Another option to consider besides an RBOC is the local cable company.
I have read articles in publications concerning local government about
this.  I think San Jose may have used a cable company for such a project.

{Governing Magazine} runs a column on information technology and a
yearly feature on leading telecommunications-computing projects in
government.  {Government Technology}, based in Sacramento, is a
monthly tabloid (similar to {NetworkWorld}) for local and state
government IT/telecom peopole and may be a good resource as well.


Richard Layman, Marketing Director, Computer Television Network
[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Doug McDonald)
Subject: Re: New Player in the 800 Game
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 15:27:10 GMT
Organization: UIUC


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (TELECOM
Digest Editor) writes:

> I had a very pleasant conversation earlier today with Steve Betterly
> about a new 800 service available to small and medium size users.

Sounds interesting and perhaps popular. That brings up the question:
what happens when 800 fills up? Will they just add 820, 830, 840, etc?


Doug McDonald


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't know what they will do. Has anyone
yet announced the code to be used when 800 runs out of space?   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Pete Farmer)
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 17:54:43 -0800
Organization: Tetherless Access Ltd.


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

> PacBell runs an ISDN BBS.
> 510-277-1037 for pokey old modems.
> 510-823-4888 for speedy new BRI or SDS 56/64K access

Pac Bell also has a gopher server:
      gw.pacbell.com

I think this has much of the same information that's on their BBS.


Peter J. Farmer          Internet: [e-mail]
VP, Marketing            Voice:    415-321-5968
Tetherless Access Ltd.   Fax:      [phone]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: International Callback Services
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 22:36:01 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)


As info, my company, Transglobal Telecom, has recently begun offering
"non code calling" calback type services.  If we can be of assistance,
call me at 800-633-3882.


Gene Retske

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

From: [e-mail] (Bruce Roberts)
Subject: Can I Use Deactivated Cellular Phones For Emergency Calls?
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 10:41:00 GMT
Organization: The Great Escape - Gardena, CA - [phone]


John R. Covert <[e-mail]> writes

CC> Remember that in some areas 911 is STRICTLY reserved for life-and-death
CC> emergencies.  Los Angeles is particularly strict about enforcing this, I'm
CC> told.  In Massachusetts, 911 or *SP from cellular doesn't go to 911,

 Cellular 911 calls in Los Angeles (at least on AirTouch [PacTel]) go to
 a special, cellular/mobile phone operator who will take traffic
 problems and up.  We have this number (which I can't recall at the
 moment) programmed into the auto-dialer on our Amateur Radio
 repeater/phone patch because they deal very well with half duplex radio
 calls and "yes, I'll give you my number and, yes, I know it doesn't
 even come close to matching the number you have in your 911 database"
 conversations.  They will take information and pass it on or connect
 you with any police department, fire department or the California
 Highway Patrol.  An excellent service in my humble opinion.  TTFN -br-

  Bruce Roberts, [e-mail]

 * RM 1.3 01036 * Redundancy is prohibitively disallowed again.


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

From: [e-mail] (cccf)
Subject: Internet Access in France - State of the Art
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 7:46:56 GMT


                  INTERNET IN FRANCE

For a long time, I dream to have an Internet address. For an US guy,
it's easy to answer to this request. For me, France-born teenager, I
must have a friend that give me an email box on the computer of a rich
university. At this time, a lot of controls stop like a solution.

The second solution is to access via my free videotex terminal called
Minitel on a gatheway connected to an UUCP or Internet node. The cost
is between FF 1.25 (for 3615 Internet) and FF 9.46 (for 3619 USnet)
per minute ... but for email and news only. Some videotex services
don't like ftpmail requests or more than 520-caracters messages (like
3617 Email) and refuse sending my mails :-8

The third solution is to buy a commercial access: MCIMail have an
"experimental connection with Internet" at this time; AT&T give you an
address in Netherlands and CompuServe ask for my parent's MasterCard
number :-]

Some good associations (like French Data Network, Fnet or Frmug) send
me a little package with a good service, but the guys that don't live
in Paris paid a lot of money for an incredibly expensive phone call
(FF 0.73 all 12 seconds) to access to the service.

The only solution is 3619 USnet (a joke developed by Intelmatique, a
subsidiary of France Telecom that gives you a user-ID on Delphi
domain), the really crazy Audiotel service called FranceNet (that stop
the service all 20 minutes), the last baby born today and called
World-net or, at least, the uncredible 3619 Inet that give you an
email box on "on101"-domain in the USA.

Internet is a real *problem* at this time in France, not a solution.
This message cost me FF 25.00 to be send to you.  A little expensive,
no?

Listing of (Un-)useful Addresses

Altern (3616)
Valentin Lacambre, 29 rue de Cotte, 75012 Paris
Tel.: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Calvacom (RCI-Calvacom)
175 rue J.-J. Rousseau, 92138 Issy-les-Moulineaux Cedex
Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

CompuServe
Centre Atria, Rueil 2000, 92566 Rueil Malmat, 92410 Ville d'Avray
Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

EUnet France SA
52 av. de la Grande Armee, 75017 Paris
Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone]
Acc}s Utopia: (1) 39 63 50 22 ou NUA 17827026961
Email: [e-mail]

USNet (3619)
Intelmatique SA, 16-18 rue du Dome, 92300 Boulogne-
Billancourt
Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

World-NET
SCT, 20 av. Daguerre, 77500 Chelles
Tel.: [phone], 3617 SCT, Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]


Jean-Bernard Condat, General Secretary hc, Chaos Computer Club France
Internet: [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, I know it is expensive for you to
participate in this Digest, which is one of the reasons I always
appreciate hearing from you with news from France. Perhaps someday
things will improve for you there. In the meantime, do the best you
can to stay in touch with us.   PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #293
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #294

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 17 Jun 94 11:18:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 294

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Foreign Country Calling Card Access Numbers ([e-mail])
    Bell Atlantic's Full Service Network (Eric Rabe)
    IXC's and InterLATA CID (Greg Monti)
    Re: Pointers Wanted to TDD Specifications Please ([e-mail])
    Re: More Sneaky MCI Marketing (Stuart Whitmore)
    Re: Nine Track IBM Standard Labels (Wm. Randolph U Franklin)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Consult)
Subject: Foreign Country Calling Card Access Numbers
Date: 17 Jun 94 01:28:28 HST
Organization: University of Hawaii at Manoa


                  FOREIGN COUNTRY CALLING CARD ACCESS NUMBERS

This is a list of phone numbers to use from foreign countries when you
want to place an international call back to the USA or, in certain
cases, to another country and have the call billed to your calling
card.

Extra service charges above the actual long distance rate apply and in
some cases vary from country to country.

Use of AT&T's USA DIRECT, MCI's WorldPhone, and US Sprint's Sprint Express
must be made with each company's respective calling card only (ie AT&T's
USA DIRECT will not accept Sprint's FonCard).  AT&T's USA DIRECT may take
your local BOC's calling card as well.  This would be a calling card issued
by your local telephone service provider.

I make no guarantees as to the accuracy of this list.  Changes in
service do occur, and typographical errors may be present.  Data for
this list was obtained from an AT&T USA DIRECT wallet card dated April
1990, a MCI WorldPhone brochure dated 1994, and a US Sprint pocket
guide I received in November 1993; so the data for AT&T's USA DIRECT
as listed here is severely out of date and lack many countries where
service has since been added.

                    AT&T              MCI               US Sprint
                    USA DIRECT (R)    WorldPhone (R)    Sprint Express (SM)
                    ----------------  ----------------  ----------------

American Samoa                        633-2624(633-2MCI)
Antigua                               #2 (cardphones only)
Argentina           001-800-200-1111  001-800-333-111%  001-800-777-1111
Aruba               800-1011
Australia           0014-881-001      008-5511-11! to   0014-881-877
                                       use OPTUS @
                                      1-800-881-100! to
                                       use TELSTRA @
Austria             022-903-011$      022-903-012$!     022-903-014
Bahamas             1-800-872-2881&   1-800-624-1000
Bahrain             800-001           800-002
Belgium             11-0010$          078-11-00-12$!    078-11-0014$
Bermuda                               1-800-623-0484+   1-800-623-0877$
Bolivia                               0-800-2222$
Brazil              000-8010          000-8012          000-8016
Canada                                1-800-888-8000!
Cayman Islands      1872              1-MCI(1-624)
Chile               00*-0312          00*-0316!         00*0317
China                                 108-12++!
Colombia            980-11-0010+      980-16-0001!      980-13-0010
Costa Rica          114$              162$              163$
Cyprus                                080-90000$
Czech and Slovak    00-420-00101      00-42-000112!
Denmark             8001-0010$        8001-0022$!       8001-0877$
Dominican Republic  1-800-872-2881    1-800-751-6624    1-800-751-7877$
Ecuador                               170               171
Egypt                                 355-5770$!(02 first outside Cairo)
El Salvador                           195$              191$
Finland             9800-100-10$      9800-102-80$!     9800-1-0284$
France              19*-0011$         19*-00-19$!       19*0087$
Gambia              001-199-220-0010$ 00-1-99$
Germany             0130-0010         0130-0012!        0130-0013$
Greece              00-800-1311$      00-800-1211$!
Grenada             872+              1-800-624-8721+
Guam                018-872+          950-1022!
Guatemala           190               189$              195$
Haiti                                 001-800-444-1234+!
Honduras                              001-800-674-7000+
Hong Kong           008-1111$         800-1121!         008-1877
                                      011 to call other 011 to call other
                                      than USA          than USA
Hungary             00*-36-0111$      00*-800-01411$!   00*800-01-877$
Iceland                               999-002$
India                                 000-127++!
Indonesia           00-801-10         001-801-11$!      00-801-15
Iran                                  Special phones+
Ireland                               1-800-55-1001!    1-800-55-2001$
Israel                                177-150-2727!     177-102-2727$
Italy               172-1011$         172-1022$!        172-1877$
Jamaica             0-800-872-2881+   800-674-7000
Japan               0039-111$         0039-121$ to      0066-55-877$ to
                                       use KDD @         use IDC
                                      0066-55-121$ to   0039-131$ to
                                       use IDC @         use KDD
                                      0055$ to call
                                       other than USA
Kenya                                 080011++
Korea               009-11            009-14! to        009-16$
                                       use KT @
                                      0039-12! to
                                       use DACOM @
                                      03 then "*" from
                                       phone booths!+
                                      550-2255! from
                                       military bases
Kuwait                                800-MCI(800-624)
Lebanon                               600-624!
                                      425-036+! (add 01
                                       outside Beirut)
Liberia             797-797
Liechtenstein                         155-0222$!        155-9777
Luxembourg                            0800-0112
Macau               0800-111          0800-131
Malaysia                              800-0012$!        800-0016$
Mexico                                95-800-674-7000
                                       LADATEL phones
                                       only, rate varies
Monaco                                19*-00-19$!       19*0087
Netherlands         06*-022-9111$     06-022-91-22$!    06*022-9119
Neth/Antil.         001-800-872-2881  001-800-950-1022!+
New Zealand         000-911           000-912           000-999
Nicaragua                             166! (dial 02 1st
                                       outside Managua)
Norway              050-12-011$       800-19912$!       050-12-877$
Panama              109               108
                                      2810-108 from
                                       military bases
Paraguay                              008-11-800+
Peru                ##0+              001-190 (dial     196+
                                       190 1st outside Lima)
Philippines         105-11+$          105-14$! to
                                       use PLDT @
                                      1026-12$! to
                                       use PHILCOM
Poland                                0*-01-04-800-222!
Portugal                              05-017-1234!      05017-1-877
Puerto Rico                           1-800-888-8000!
Qatar                                 0800-012-77!%
Russia                                8*10-800-497-7222$!+
Saipan                                950-1022+!
San Marino                            172-1022$!        172-1877$
Saudi Arabia                          1-800-11
Singapore           800-0011$         8000-112-112      800-0877$
South Africa                          0800-99-0011!
Spain                                 900-99-0014!      900-99-0013
St. Kitts           1-800-872-2881
Sweden              020-795-611$      020-795-922$!     020-799-011$
Switzerland         046-05-0011$      155-0222$!        155-9777
Syria                                 0800!
Taiwan                                0080-13-4567$!    0080-14-0877
                                                        on special phones,
                                                         press Sprint
Thailand                              001-999-1-2001%
Trinidad & Tobago                     Special phones
Turkey                                00-8001-1177$
Ukraine                               8*10-013+
United Arab Emirates                  800-111
United Kingdom      0800-89-0011      0800-89-0222! to  0800-89-0877
                                       use BT           0500-800-800 to
                                      0500-89-0222! to   call other than US
                                       use MERCURY
                                      0500-800-800! to
                                       call other than US
Uruguay             00-0410$          000-412
U.S. Virgin Isles                     1-800-888-8000!
Vatican City                          172-1022          172-1877$
Venezuela                             800-1114-0$+      800-1111-0


KEY TO SYMBOLS
--------------

$  - Public phones require coin or card
+  - Limited availability
++ - Available in major cities
*  - Wait for second dialtone at this point
@  - International communications carrier
!  - Country-to-country calling available.  May not be available to/from
     all international locations.  Certain restrictions apply.
%  - Not available from public payphones
#  - Press # key on telephone

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

From: [e-mail] (Eric Rabe)
Subject: Bell Atlantic's Full Service Network
Date: 16 Jun 1994 20:50:32 GMT


We thought that Internet users would be interested in the following
News Release outlining our filing with the FCC to provide a full
service network.

Further information regarding this filing, including maps of the
deployment areas are available at ba.com via anonymous FTP
<ftp://ba.com/pub/Full_Service_Network/Filing_6.16.94> and gopher
<gopher://ba.com:70/11/Full_Service_Network/Filing_6.16.94>.


Eric Rabe
Bell Atlantic                |   Internet:    [e-mail]


NEWS RELEASE ***********************************************************
***********************************************************Bell Atlantic

June 16, 1994                        Shannon Fioravanti
                            703-974-5455

                            Joan Rasmussen
                            703-974-8815
                            <[e-mail]>

***************************************************************************
*        BELL ATLANTIC SEEKS FCC APPROVAL                          *
*        FOR CONSTRUCTION OF FULL SERVICE                          *
*        IN SIX METROPOLITAN AREAS                  *
***************************************************************************

Washington, D.C. -- Bell Atlantic today detailed the first
neighborhoods in six major markets where the company will begin
building its video dial tone communications network.  The plans were
provided in an application for a construction permit, which the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires under section 214 of
the FCC code.

"We're committed to providing our customers the advanced video and
interactive multimedia services they want, as well as the reliable
Bell Atlantic phone service they have come to expect," said Larry
Babbio, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Bell
Atlantic.  "Our network will offer customers a wide array of
entertainment and information choices.  We expect these services to be
competitive, and we're ready to take on the cable companies to win in
the marketplace."

On May 19, Bell Atlantic announced it would build the Bell Atlantic
network starting with deployment in six urban and suburban areas in
the mid-Atlantic region that is Bell Atlantic's telephone territory.
Those areas are: northern New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia/Delaware
Valley, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Today's FCC filing is an essential step in deploying the video dial
tone system that will bring advanced entertainment and information
services to Bell Atlantic's customers. "This filing is a vote of
confidence in FCC Chairman Reed Hundt's commitment to streamlining the
approval process of these 214 applications," said Edward Young, Bell
Atlantic vice president and associate general counsel.  "We anticipate
beginning construction of the Bell Atlantic network as soon as we have
the commission's approval."

The filing proposes an innovative approach to addressing public
interest concerns identified by Congress and the FCC.  Bell Atlantic
announced a "will carry" proposal, a voluntary plan under which the
new network will provide transport without charge to local broadcast
and public, educational and governmental programmers.  These channels
would be available along with programming of all video information
providers.  Customers will need only a cable ready television set to
receive these local channels.

Video dial tone networks are common carrier networks that let
customers connect to video information providers or high speed data
networks in the same way today's telephone dial tone allows customers
to make audio connections.

"We are telling the FCC we will deploy our network throughout our
region as quickly as possible," said Young.  "Not only is this plan
the right thing to do, it is also in our best interest to connect as
many customers as we can since this will make the network more
attractive to information providers."

A hybrid fiber-coax system will connect customers to the network in
each of the six major markets.  In some parts of the metropolitan
Washington, D.C. area, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)
technology will be used as well to provide the services over copper
telephone lines.  This will permit customers to receive interactive
entertainment and information via ADSL before Bell Atlantic deploys
the hybrid fiber coax technology.

"This filing also should put to rest any concern about so-called
'electronic redlining'," Young said.  "The racial diversity in the
areas served by this new network is greater than that in the overall
Bell Atlantic territory." The Bell Atlantic territory is 23.8%
minority.  However, the area where the advanced services will be
deployed is 36.2% minority in population.

Bell Atlantic Corporation, based in Philadelphia, is the parent of
companies which provide a full array of local exchange
telecommunications services in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The
corporation is at the forefront of developing a variety of new
products, including video, entertainment, and information services.

Bell Atlantic also is the parent of one of the nation's largest
cellular carriers and has an ownership position in cellular properties
internationally.  In addition, Bell Atlantic owns and interest in
Telecom Corporation of New Zealand and is the parent of companies that
provide business systems services for customer-based information
technology throughout the U.S. and internationally.

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 10:49:16 EDT
From: Greg Monti <[e-mail]>
Subject: IXC's and InterLATA CID


The combination of Return Call and IXC handling of Caller ID makes for
an interesting combination.  You will be able to use these features
in combination to find out the phone number of someone who called you,
even if their Caller ID is blocked.

I tried it recently on an interstate, intraLATA call.  My LATA,
Washington DC, crosses state lines.  Calls to other states, even if
local, may be preprended by an IXC carrier access code and will go
through.  There is no incentive to do this because you pay the toll
rate of the carrier you select.

I received a (local interstate) call from someone who had blocked
their caller ID.  I told them I could find out their number by
concatenating a carrier access code with a Return Call code.  We hung
up.  I dialed 10288*69.  They answered.

I received a bill from Bell Atlantic Virginia for $0.75 (the "per use"
charge for Return Call), and, on the AT&T page, an itemized charge for
a one-minute interstate toll call to 301 NXX-XXXX for about $0.17.
So, for a grand total of $0.92, their blocked number was no longer a
secret.

In the future, when Caller ID rolls out nationally, *all* returned
calls (using the Return Call feature) to blocked numbers will be
billed by the IXC that carries them.  No need to dial 10288.  The
secret number will be exposed on your bill.


Greg Monti        Arlington, Virginia, USA      [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (ssatchell on BIX)
Subject: Re: Pointers Wanted to TDD Specifications Please
Date: 16 Jun 94 16:36:02 GMT
Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation


[e-mail] (Jon Sreekanth) writes:

> In 1981, the EIA Engineering Committee TR41 undertook the writing of
> a voluntary industry standard for telecomm devices for the deaf.
> ... As commercial interest in these devices has diminshed, we now
> find ourselves in a situation where only two manufacturers remain in
> the market, and they seem unwilling or unable to agree on the terms of
> the standard. .. Accordingly, ... (TR41) voted to abandon PN 1663 and
> directed me to place the existing document Draft 9 in the public
> domain ...  EIA and its successor organizations will no longer
> maintain this draft, but will continue to make copies available to
> qualified persons and organizations for a reasonable period of time ...

Don't believe everything you read!  There is now Recommendation V.18
which describes the modulation/signalling methods used for TDD.  While
TR-41 decided to drop the ball, TR-30 (Data Modems) picked it up and
carried the ball for a three-pointer.

The offical version of V.18 should be available in about 6 weeks.
Joseph Chiu, you might want to call Global Engineering Documents and
make an advance order for the document, so you get it as soon as ITU
is done with the grunt work of getting it printed.

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 09:25:08 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Rattlesnake Stu)
Subject: Re: More Sneaky MCI Marketing
Organization: Central Washington University


On 15 Jun 1994 22:14:03 -0400, DeFantom ([e-mail]) scribbled:

> In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
> (T. Stephen Eggleston) writes:

>> She has NEVER had a phone!

> True, but has she ever subsribed to a magazine?  MCI may, like other
> people who send ads in the mail, get names from a master list they
> have purchased from another company.  I had a friend of mine who's DOG
> got a ton of junk mail when he, just for giggles, subscribed to TIME
> magazine in the DOG's name!

Have you read "Looking Backward" by Edward Bellamy?  I'll come back to
that in a moment.

The direct mail scene is typically caught in a Catch-22: Consumers
only want to receive ads that are relevant to them and their
interests, and get "heated" by inappropriate ads such as asking a
child who has never had a phone to switch long distance carriers
(obviously the result of a bad choice of mailing lists to buy).
Consumers also do not want anyone to store, sell, and otherwise track
their personal interests, and get "heated" by projects like the "Big
Brother" marketing CD-ROM that Lotus got so much flak about.

So what's the answer?  Consumers want it both ways; this might be
possible by only buying locally, and never buying anything (including
magazines) through the mail.  Ah, but that's not perfect either, as
the problem of paying much higher prices is obvious to anyone who
lives in a small town with minimal local competition.  And it also
assumes that consumers will keep themselves aware of products that
might interest them - a doubtful condition.

Bellamy put forth some interesting points about avoiding the fiasco of
looking for the best price (which sometimes costs more than the money
saved); however, I disagree fundamentally with the utopian communist
system he promotes in his "Looking Backward" novel.

My point (since I don't have an answer either) is simply to learn
tolerance for the sometimes-crazy result of the fundamental problems
in our system of marketing.  If you really don't like getting junk
mail (and who does?), take the time to write to the people who SOLD
your address, not the people who BOUGHT it (unless they also resell
it).  I use, and track, variants of my name to see who sells to whom,
and write promptly when I see that my address was sold by a company.

Just some thoughts from somebody on both sides ...


Stuart Whitmore   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Wm. Randolph U Franklin)
Subject: Re: Nine Track IBM Standard Labels
Date: 16 Jun 1994 19:47:00 GMT
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Wm. Randolph U Franklin)


1. The IBM standard label format requires a separate file before and
after the data file.  That's 3 tapemarks total.  The label files are a
couple of 80-byte records with the obvious info.

2. You might be able to find the mentioned IBM pub for free in the
computer center reading room of any large university.  Possibly some
IBM offices have reading rooms also.

3. If you specify LABEL=(1,NL), that requires that there be no label.
I used to use BLP=bypass label processing.

4. All this brings back memories of JCL etc.  If you want to know why
other companies got a toehold in, consider what was needed to copy a
disk file (this is from memory from 25 years ago).

//ABC    JOB  lkajd misc accounting
//       EXEC PGM=IEHGENER
//SYSUT1 DD DSN=INFILE,VOL=SER=USR001,DISP=OLD
//SYSUT2 DD DSN=OUTFILE,VOL=SER=USR001,DISP=(NEW,KEEP,DELETE),
//          SPACE=(CYL,(1,1),RLSE),FCB=(LRECL=80,BLKSIZE=4000,RECFM=FB)
//SYSIN  DD DUMMY

I used nothing but this for five years, then switched to a PDP-10,
where the procedure was this:

    COPY OUTFIL=INFILE

People wonder why I don't like IBM SW!  Even when IBM went
interactive, e.g., with CMS, you still needed to specify much of this.

No joke: I used to think that computers were intrinsically hard, and
that IBM was so smart to design such complicated protocols to solve
such a hard problem.  Then I saw that it could be so easy.  Sort of
like Saul traveling the road to Damascus.


Wm. Randolph Franklin,  [e-mail], [phone];  Fax: -6261
ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180 USA
For more info, including PGP and RIPEM keys, finger -l [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #294
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Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #295

TELECOM Digest     Tue, 21 Jun 94 07:53:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 295

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Forwarding 5-ESS to 1A-ESS to 5-ESS to Hunt Group - Broken (S Aristotelis)
    NYNEX/NY Billing Errors Continue (Doug Reuben)
    MCI Solicits Carphones! (Doug Reuben)
    MCI v AT&T Supreme Court Decision (Monty Solomon)
    International Tariff Filing Required (John R. Ruckstuhl)
    19" Equipment Rack - Heavy Duty - Standard EIA Rails (Chuck Hodgson)
    Book Review: "The Virtual Community" by Rheingold (Rob Slade)
    Windows Zip Navigator (Richard Patterson)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Shag Aristotelis)
Subject: Forwarding 5-ESS to 1A-ESS to 5-ESS to Hunt Group - Broken
Date: 21 Jun 94 01:31:24 GMT
Organization: Screaming in Digital, the Queensryche Digest


  As has been chronicled here in the past, I use Bell Atlantic's "IQ"
call-forwarding service to cut down on my bill for calling the local
(well, not quite local ;) university dialup.  In addition, the line my
PC uses has call-forwarding on it, so that educators at the county
college and local high-schools can "double-forward" through to the
university.  So it has been for nearly three years, with nary a
problem.

     [University] <-- [Forward] <-- [Me & Forward] <-- [Others]

  Last week, this happy state of affairs apparently got a bit unhappy.
One of the educators reported it to me Sunday, shortly before a BA-NJ
tech showed up, test set in hand, to check the wiring here at the
house.  At that time, all we had to go on was that the number here was
returning a busy-signal instead of forwarding through.  Since there
are 48 lines on the modem rack, and hardly that many people in this
part of the state to use them, we were sure that the lines weren't all
in use.  In addition, calling out from that line to the other forward
(the one between me and the university) worked just fine.

  The tech determined that the wiring was fine, and that it had to be
a problem with the C.O.  He called it in to the office, and a
switching tech called me repeatedly throughout Sunday afternoon.  The
number was consistently busy.  That evening, it cleared up, so she
declared it "better" (though we still didn't know what had caused the
problem, and nothing had actually been done to fix it).

  This morning, I received another report from the educator saying
that sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't.  This seemed
illogical, so I called the number from itself, so that I'd be going
through it.  I got the connection, but when I tried calling it from
the voice phone in the next room, it returned a busy signal.  I hung
up the modem, and it rang clear.  At this point, it became apparent
that due to some strange mutation in the switching last week, only one
call was being allowed to forward through the number at a time -
despite the fact that the number being forwarded _to_ (the other
forwarding point) would ring through, and at the final destination
(the university) there were more than three dozen open lines.  My own
use of the line (to dial out to the other forward) doesn't cause any
problems at all, so it's not a simple thing of the line being
off-hook.

  I called the local repair CSC (the tech had given me the number).
They said to call the IQ Service support folks, since forwarding is an
IQ service.  I called them, and they forwarded me back to repair.
Left them a problem report.  I decided to try to get through to the
switching tech, since she seemed clueful, but I hadn't gotten her name
or number.  4-1-1 didn't like the idea of giving me any sort of number
for the switching center *grin* so I called the main office, went
through product support, and ended up talking to a guy in Tier 2
support.  According to the main office, Tier 2 are experts who don't
usually deal with problems involving less than 100 lines.  The expert
I talked to strangely had no experience with forwarding, but he was
very knowledgeable about switches.

  He told me that multiple-forwards (such as mine) wouldn't work
between two identical switches.  I didn't catch the reason for this,
but I accept it, since it's the only useful thing I've heard all day.
My CO has a 5-ESS.  The middle forward has a 1A-ESS, soon to be
replaced with a Siemens digital switch.  The university has a 5-ESS.
Ergo, it _should_ all be working fine.  (Thank goodness BA-NJ has the
good sense not to put identical switches in adjacent CO's.)

  I called repair again, explained the situation briefly, and asked
them to have a switch tech call me.  They said they'd have one call in
an hour.  I called back two hours later, asked why no one had called,
and the revised it to "they'll call you when it's cleared."

  Throughout the last five or six steps, I have told every person I've
talked to that it's almost definitely a software bug on the local
5-ESS.  They don't seem to like it when customers talk about software
bugs, or ask to speak to someone who deals with software.  Oh well.

  If it's still broken in the morning, I'll be calling them again, I
suppose.  Mind you, I'm not _personally_ inconvenienced by this, but
I'd like the equipment to work, since I'm paying for the functionality
it delivers -- when it works correctly.  I'm still a big fan of Bell
Atlantic, and won't move out of their service area any time soon if I
can help it -- but I think I might move to a different exchange. :)


Shag (did Godot work for a telco? ;)

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

From: [e-mail] (Cid Technologies)
Subject: NYNEX/NY Billing Errors Continue
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 15:15:17 PDT


After mentioning to NYNEX/NY that they were incorrectly billing $3
daily roaming charges for MobilReach calls in Baltimore (or in any
MobilReach market), they said that the problem would be immediately
corrected. This was three months ago!

I had mentioned it to them in Jan, Feb, and March, and assumed after
filing a "trouble ticket" about this it would be corrected. One would
think that after three complaints and about one hour on the phone with
them explaining to customer service that these calls should not incur
a $3 charge that they would want to save some time and correct the
problem rather than go through this once a month. Customer service
will *insist* that these calls do incur a $3 charge, even on days when
there is a full page ad in the paper for MobilReach which says just
the opposite!

So if you are a NYNEX/NY customer, and roam into the Bell Atlantic
service areas of Baltimore and DC, check your bills -- there may be $3
daily roaming charges which should NOT apply.

As for me, this is the last time I'll have to deal with NYNEX/NY's
utterly brainless customer service morons -- apparently, they could
not get along too well with Bell Atlantic in the NY "NYNEX/BAMS
partnership system", so this July BAMS will be assuming all of
NYNEX/NY's customers with Jersey numbers, and I will be dealing with
BAMS instead of NYNEX.  (I have a NJ # so that I don't have to pay the
outrageous amount of tax which the state of New York, perpetually
nearing bankruptcy, deems appropriate to levy against cellular
customers with NY numbers - get a Jersey number, save over 10% on your
next bill! ;( )

BTW, I believe NYNEX will drop their cheapest plans in July (if they
haven't done so already.) If they do, then Cell One is definitely the
way to go, as NYNEX/NY offers *nothing* over CO/NY other than better
rates.  (well, OK, they do have call delivery to Orange County and
Dutches County while CO/NY doesn't, and NYNEX does not bill for
incomplete calls over 40 seconds as does CO/NY.) I wonder if BAMS will
continue the $24 plan and I think they had a $19 plan with high
airtime rates as well ... we'll see ...


Doug        CID Technologies    (203) 499 - 5221

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

From: [e-mail] (Cid Technologies)
Subject: MCI Solicits Carphones!
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 15:39:19 PDT


I got a call two days ago on my carphone from MCI. The guy did the
usual "Hello, Douglas ... I want to tell you how I can save you a lot
of money over AT&T!"

I thought this was odd, since I switched to MCI *from* AT&T a few
months ago. AT&T wouldn't give me frequent flier miles for my carphone
usage, and refused to allow me to pay my bills by VISA, which MCI had
no problem with. More importantly, AT&T has this annoying habit of not
opening the voice channel from the calling party TO my carphone until
after I pick up the phone (ie, until I "supervise"). Since I roam a
lot, when someone calls me the call goes to my home system and is
(was) then sent over AT&T to where I am roaming, I would answer the
phone, say "Hello" a few times, hear nothing, and only after five
seconds or so when supervision got back to the calling party would the
line be opened and I would have to apologize for not hearing the
calling party right away. Not very professional! AT&T more or less
said "tough luck", so after I got fed up with their "We don't care ...
we're the Phone Company" attitude on this issue, I just gave up on
AT&T and went with MCI.

So the MCI dweeb goes on about how I would save money if I *switched*
to MCI. I told him that I already USED MCI, and he said "Oh, no, you
are with AT&T, and they charge more ... much more." (As if I were some
four year old and he was telling me about the Big Bad Wolf!).

Finally, rather than spend another minute on airtime, I told him "Do
you know this is costing me airtime -- you're calling a carphone..."
And he cheerfully replied "A carphone -- I love it!" and went on with
his routine. Needless to say, I got his name, sales office, manager's
number, etc, and will talk to MCI Corporate about this.

Does Sprint take VISA, give miles, and not have the AT&T supervision
problem? Maybe I should try them! Unlike AT&T/MCI, I have NEVER
received an unwanted solicitation from them in five years. That's
pretty important to me, especially when AT&T called for WEEKS after we
switched just *2* lines to WilTel! I had to call their executive
complaint # (908-221-4191) to get them to stop, and the next "save"
call from AT&T will result in my yanking all of our lines from them
and handing them to WilTel.

Anyhow, I used to think I was safe on my carphone from these annoying
calls from AT&T, MCI, et. al. Guess not anymore ...:(


Doug        CID Technologies    (203) 499 - 5221

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

Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 01:58:20 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[e-mail]>
Subject: MCI v AT&T Supreme Court Decision


Excerpt from liibulletin -- 18 June 1994

Begin forwarded message:

                         AN E-BULLETIN
       LEGAL INFORMATION INSTITUTE -- CORNELL LAW SCHOOL
                   [e-mail]

The following Supreme Court decisions just arrived on the ftp site
ftp.cwru.edu.


These are not the decisions themselves nor excerpts from them, but
summaries (syllabi) prepared by the Court's Reporter of

Decisions.  Instructions for accessing or ordering the full
text of any of these decisions are provided at the end of this
bulletin.

================================================================
MCI TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP. v. AMERICAN TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH
CO.
Docket 93-356 -- Decided June 17, 1994
================================================================

Title 47 U.S.C. 203(a) requires communications common carriers to file
tariffs with the Federal Communications Commission, and 203(b)(2)
authorizes the Commission to "modify any requirement made by or under
. . . this section . . . ." Relying on the latter provision, the
Commission issued an order determining that its earlier decision to
make tariff filing optional for all nondominant long distance carriers
was within its authority to "modify."  American Telephone and
Telegraph Co., the only dominant long distance carrier, filed a motion
with the Court of Appeals seeking summary reversal of the Commission's
order.  The motion was granted on the basis of that court's prior
decision determining that the Commission's authorization of permissive
detariffing violated 203(a).

Held:

The Commission's permissive detariffing policy is not a valid exercise
of its 203(b)(2) authority to "modify any requirement."  Because
virtually every dictionary in use now and at the time the statute was
enacted defines "to modify" as meaning to change moderately or in
minor fashion, the word "modify" must be seen to have a connotation of
increment or limitation.  That 203(b)(2) does not contemplate basic or
fundamental changes is also demonstrated by the fact that the only
exception to it deals with a very minor matter: The Commission may not
require the period for giving notice of tariff changes to exceed 120
days.  The Commission's permissive detariffing policy cannot be
justified as a nonfundamental "modification."  The tariff-filing
requirement is the heart of the common carrier subchapter of the
Communications Act of 1934, and the policy eliminates that requirement
entirely for all except one firm in the long-distance sector, and for
40% of all consumers in that sector.  Moreover, it is hard to imagine
that a condition shared by so many affected parties qualifies as
"special" under 203(b)(2)'s requirement that when the Commission
proceeds "by general order" to make a modification, the order can only
apply "to special circumstances or conditions."  The Commission's
interpretation of the statute is therefore not entitled to deference,
since it goes beyond the meaning that the statute can bear.  That
Congress seemed to manifest agreement with the parties' respective
interpretations in later legislation is irrelevant; there has been no
consistent history of legislation to which one or the other
interpretation is essential.  Finally, petitioners' argument that
their interpretation better serves the Act's broad purpose of
promoting efficient telephone service should be addressed to Congress.
Pp.  5-16.  Affirmed.

Scalia, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C.
J., and Kennedy, Thomas, and Ginsburg, JJ., joined.  Stevens, J.,
filed a dissenting opinion, in which Blackmun and Souter, JJ., joined.
O'Connor, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the
cases.


             HOW TO ACCESS OR ORDER EMAIL DELIVERY
              OF ITEMS REPORTED IN THIS BULLETIN

The full text of these decisions is archived at the ftp site
ftp.cwru.edu in several formats (ascii, WordPerfect, xywrite...)

You can also access the decisions using the LII's gopher server at
gopher.law.cornell.edu, or through our World Wide Web server at
http://www.law.cornell.edu/.

If you don't have access to a gopher or WWW client, you can access one
via telnet.  Telnet to www.law.cornell.edu and log in as www.

Finally, if you have only email access to the internet, you can
retrieve these documents by sending a mail message to liideliver@
fatty.law.cornell.edu.  Put your document requests
in the body of the message like:

        request 91-611

You can request several decisions at once by putting them on separate
lines.  Request court decisions using the docket number as it appears
with the syllabus.

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

From: [e-mail] (John R. Ruckstuhl)
Subject: International Tariff Filing Required?
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 10:06:40 GMT


For a long time, I've not known which LD carrier would be least
expensive for me.  After all, I listen to the marketspeak with some
suspicion ("save 20%"... off what?).

Last week I decided to take a few minutes (hah) to investigate the
market.  I asked AT&T, MCI, Sprint, and a couple of other LD carriers
I'd never heard of who were listed in my yellow pages, ExpressTel and
LCI.  I asked for STANDARD, NON-DISCOUNTED rates from my residence to
a handful of places I call, because I need a basis to evaluate the N%
off claims.

For the calls I make from California (415) 324- to various US East
Coast locations, and to Montserrat (a non-US island in the Caribbean,
area code (809), 491-) I found the per-minute STANDARD NON-DISCOUNTED
rates for AT&T, MCI, and Sprint are within a penny of each other in
all my cases (your mileage may vary):

    East Coast examples (Day/Eve/Night) were 27/17/14 cents/min for
        AT&T and Sprint, MCI was 26/16/13).
    Montserrat was 90/120/76 cents/min.

ExpressTel is mailing me a copy of their rate structure.

But LCI has quoted rates that aren't believable.  They sound too good
to be true.  I've got three different rate quotes from LCI for my
calls to Montserrat:

(1) 17/14/12 cents/min,
(2) 25 cents/min regardless of time-of-day,
(3) 98/74/59 cents/min.

After I asked each time for them to double check, they each returned
with quote (1).  Yes, 88% off AT&T's standard rate for Evening calls.

Then a little more truth filtered into the conversation.  This rate
(17/14/12) was available only to those who picked them as their
primary carrier and were enrolled in one of their free discount plans.
So I asked what the rate would be if I just used their five-digit
access code and had them carry my call to Montserrat.  The rep
couldn't quote me rates ("they depend on a lot of things").  So I
asked for a quote of the rate in effect right that minute, but he
couldn't provide even that.

Firstly -- any comments on LCI?

Secondly -- must they file tariff rates for int'l calls with any
    authority, e.g. FCC?  If so, who do I contact to request filed info?

Thirdly -- their discount rates to Montserrat sound too good to be true;
    sanity check?

Fourthly -- is there any legal requirement that they be able to quote me
    a specific rate in effect?  Why couldn't I get that info?

Fifthly -- should whether I've chosen a carrier as my primary carrier
for a line matter w.r.t. which discount programs I'm eligible to join?
I seem to remember that, e.g., MCI Friends and Family could be joined
even if MCI wasn't the selected LD carrier, but that many MCI Customer
Servicefolk didn't understand that concept, so the knowledgable
customer had to twist arms.  Could this have been a regulation imposed
on the LD industry or just a MCI fine-print policy?

If the rate is real, then all by itself, it would quickly pay for an
extra telephone line with LCI selected as primary carrier.

Thanks for your comments!


John R. Ruckstuhl  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Chuck Hodgson)
Subject: 19" Equipment Rack - Heavy Duty - Standard EIA Rails
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: SITA
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 02:12:24 GMT


19 " Communcations/Computer Rack    $550 Or Best Offer

Trimm Industries 19" Rack, 36" deep, 70" Tall

 - On Casters
 - Strudy, welded Contruction
 - Grey frame with beige rear and side doors
 - EIA Threaded rails, front and back, adjustable
 - two full length power strips
 - 30Amp -120volt circuit breaker protected
   power panel in rear. (NOTE: 30A is NOT required,
   as the power strips are standed 120V/20Amp )
 - 3 cantilever shelves
 - 4 Flat shelves, 3 mounted on slides.
 - extra slides, mounting screws and cable
   troughs included.


[e-mail]     [phone] Days

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

From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Subject: Book Review: "The Virtual Community" by Rheingold
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 05:00:00 GMT


BKVRTCOM.RVW  940411

Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
Heather Rignanesi, Marketing, x340, [e-mail]
P.O. Box 520   26 Prince Andrew Place
Don Mills, Ontario   M3C 2T8
416-447-5101  fax: [phone]
or
Tiffany Moore, Publicity  [e-mail]
Bob Donegon  [e-mail]
John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing [e-mail]
Tom Stone, Editor, Higher Education Division  [e-mail]
Philip Sutherland, Schulman Series [e-mail]
1 Jacob Way
Reading, MA   01867-9984
800-822-6339  617-944-3700
Fax: [phone]
5851 Guion Road
Indianapolis, IN   46254
800-447-2226
"The Virtual Community", Rheingold, 1993, 0-201-60870-7, U$22.95/C$29.95
[e-mail]

In the dust jacket blurbs, Mitch Kapor is quoted as calling this, "A
Magic Mystery Tour of the human side of cyberspace."  Although the
points of some passages are mysterious, this book definitely
concentrates on the human face of computer mediated communications.
Tom Peters calls it "riveting".  Now the personal aspects of net
communication are important, and too often get lost in the technology.
Rheingold's "stream of anecdote" style is also pretty much guaranteed
to keep your attention.  But Rheingold's view of the nets is limited,
lopsided and even somewhat distorted.

A "Nonsequitor" cartoon shows a long line of people in business dress
waiting their turn at a table.  Standing before the table, with their
backs to a wall, they pick up a dart and throw it over their shoulder
at the wall.  At the top of the wall, large bold letters state, "Today
I am an Expert In ... "  The remainder of the wall is covered with
small pieces of paper with topics written on them.  The title reads,
"How Journalists Start Their Day."  It is possibly important to bear
in mind that this is more or less what Rheingold boasts of doing in
his work (page 59).

Rheingold appears to be paddling at the shores of the cyberspace sea,
calling our attention to oddities in the tidal pools of Prestel,
Minitel, CIX, TWICS, Compuserve, and his home puddle at the WELL.
While not completely unaware of the Internet ocean before him, he
seems to prefer to ignore it (most often referring to it by the
historical name of ARPANET).  In a sense, this does not really matter:
since there is no attempt at any sort of analysis, what does it hurt
if the stories are limited?

Instructive is the fact that whole chapters are devoted to MUD
(Multi-User Domains) and IRC (Internet Relay Chat).  Virtual
communities on the net are rapidly evolving ones, with fast growth
(the Interpedia discussion reached 30,000 members within a month of
its creation), high turnover in membership, and sometimes an equally
rapid demise.  IRC, however, is the ultimate in ephemericity.  MUDs,
on the other hand, are almost antithetical to the idea of community.
Not only are they virtual, but completely unreal, with the permitted;
nay, encouraged; use of false personae.

For those who know the nets, this can be an amusing and entertaining
diversion.  For those who do not, please do not base your judgments on
this.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKVRTCOM.RVW  940411. Distribution
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.

DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer [e-mail], [e-mail], Rob Slade at 1:153/733
BCVAXLUG ConVAXtion, Vancouver, BC, Oct. 13 & 14, 1994 contact [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Patterson)
Subject: Windows Zip Navigator
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 94 16:43:00 -0600
Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Richard Patterson)


June 10, 1994 [Houston, TX].  FlashPoint Windows Zip Navigator
[ZipNAV] has been released, and is available for download from
CompuServe (WINSHARE and other Windows related forums), America Online
(Windows and other forums), Genie (Windows, IBM and other forums), Ye
Olde Bailey -- Houston BBS at [phone].

The shareware/evaluation Windows product is contained in the
self-extracting archive file ZIPNAV.EXE (ZIPNAV.ZIP or ZIPNAV20.ZIP).
A brief description follows:

File:  ZIPNAV.EXE (668316 bytes)
DL time (9600 baud): < 18 minutes

AUTHOR:    Richard Patterson (FlashPoint Development)
NEEDS:     Windows or Windows for Workgroup  3.1 or greater


Type:      Shareware

This is a self-extracting file requiring 1,820,610 bytes when uncompressed.

ZipNAV combines the original 100% Windows FlashPoint ZIP/ZIPX & Zip
Tools with all new user interfaces, File Manager extensions, custom
menus and Microsoft Windows for Workgroup support/toolbar buttons,
"true" drag and drop (now drag ZIP archive member files directly TO as
well as from File Manager dirs/zip), optional PKZIP shell, online
doc/help, support for programmer/user applications (apps that can
execute a program via WinExec() or macros can function as a
compression/decompression shell), temporary checkout (run,
edit/update, view, print files), standalone text file viewer & much
more.

Zip 1.1/2.0 compatible decompression and management; compression
limited to Zip 1.1 file format -- so acceptable for America Online
uploads. These are standalone Windows applications; PKZip for DOS is
NOT required.

See DISCOUNT.TXT which describes early registration and competitive
upgrade discounts available on individual and multiple use licenses.

Note: To install, run the self-extracting archive ZIPNAV.EXE in (or
unzip ZIPNAV.ZIP to) a temporary directory. Then run FPSETUP.EXE to
install ZipNAV.

Documentation: !, FP_NEWS.WRI plus Online Help

For further information, contact the author at one of the following
addresses:

E-Mail:     Internet --     [e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

America Online: FlashPtDev

GEnie:          FlashPoint

CompuServe:     70771,1336

Please do not send Internet mail to CompuServe -- it will be rejected,
as CIS is the only major online service charging its subscribers an
additional fee for incoming mail from Internet (MCI, AT&T and other
non-CIS services).


Ye Olde Bailey BBS Zyxel 713-520-1569(V.32bis) Hayes 713-520-9566 (V.FC)
  Houston,Texas             yob.com           Home of alt.cosuard

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #295
******************************


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Date: Wed, 22 Jun 94 13:40:05 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #296

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 22 Jun 94 13:40:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 296

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Asia Telecom News (Cedric Hui)
    V.34 Standard is Agreed (Robert Shaw)
    Spectrum Allocation (Amy Berger)
    AMPS Inter-Operable With GSM? (Amy Berger)
    Looking for Erlang "B" Equation (Scott White)
    The Third Summer School on Telecommunications (Vesa Ruokonen)
    Help on Dial Line Protection From Storms! (Mike Foltz)
    Germany <-> Canda: Cheapest Rates? ([e-mail])

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Cedric Hui)
Subject: Asia Telecom News
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 18:04:58 GMT


While most of the discussions on telecom developement of in this
Digest are of local issues (North America), I hope that recent telecom
developments in Asia are also of interest to this group's readers:

 FROM HK:

Subject: Motorola Invests US$40M In Hong Kong Wireless Network 06/20/94
Date: 20 Jun 94 22:13:27 GMT

NORTH POINT, HONG KONG, 1994 JUN 20 (NB) -- Motorola has announced
that it is investing US$40 million in Hong Kong to develop a high
speed wireless computing network for the territory based on the latest
microcellular packet switched technology. It is the first such venture
by Motorola anywhere in the world.

One local information technology (IT) industry watcher, who preferred
not to be identified, told Newsbytes that he thought this would be a
forerunner of even more intensified Motorola activity in the region.

"The telecoms giant is one of the pioneers in this part of the world
and as such commands considerable respect throughout. It is expected
that Australia, because of its wide geographical spread, will be
observing this move with more than a passing interest as well," he
said.

The network will be built and operated by a new Motorola subsidiary,
Motorola AirCommunications Ltd. It will give users of notebook
computers, personal organizers, and personal digital assistants
(PDAs) access to information and messaging services wherever and
whenever they need it, freeing them from the constraints of the wired
telephone network.

"Motorola AirComms is the newest and most exciting communications
company in Hong Kong," said Robert Growney, executive vice president
of Motorola and president and general manager of the company's
Messaging, Information and Media Sector (MIMS). "To us it's more than
an investment - it's a chance for Hong Kong to become the world's
showcase for a whole new concept in personal communications."

Growney adds that Hong Kong was chosen as the ideal city in which to
pioneer such a network because of its "dynamic economic environment"
and its proven acceptance of advanced mobile communication services
such as cellular telephones and CT2.  "Motorola will draw on the
experience we gain with this venture to extend our wireless network
operations to other parts of the world."

Operating at 19,200 bits per second (bps), the Motorola AirComms
network will be operational in trial mode by the end of the year.
Unlike other networks it will primarily offer a range of messaging and
public information services specifically designed for consumers.

"We are investing in a service that will offer four times the speed of
the previous wireless data network, together with greatly improved
geographical coverage and a much wider range of applications," said
Pam Thompson, managing director of Motorola AirComms. "By exploiting
microcellular technology, we will provide comprehensive, uninterrupted
coverage throughout the urban areas and in many parts of the New
Territories.

The new network is expected to be the platform for a host of new
services including wireless fax and email, scribble-and-send messaging
through PDAs, and mobile access to information sources such as
CompuServe Hong Kong, Thompson said. Looking a little into the future,
she added, "we foresee that mobile banking and shopping will become
important applications, together with remote access to office local
area networks."

The Motorola AirComms network will be compatible with similar
networks, also using Motorola technology, which are currently under
development in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia. Together
with Motorola, the carriers involved in these networks have formed a
consortium called AsiaPAC Radio Data Net and intend to offer their
customers a transparent "roaming" service throughout the Asia-Pacific
region.

"Our first priority is to provide our customers with top-quality
service and support. While we invest in the new network, we will
simultaneously be investing in people - skilled technical staff who
will be able to understand our customers' needs and help them to
easily make use of the many services available," said Thompson.

(Keith Cameron/19940620/Press Contact: Pam Thompson, Motorola AirComms
[phone])

 FROM CHINA:

Date: Tue, 21 Jun 94 13:57:24 -0700
Subject: China Says It's Leaping Onto Telecom Superhighway

BEIJING (Reuter) - Telecommunications Minister Wu Jiachuan said China
is aggressively leap-frogging its way onto a futuristic information
superhighway by exploiting the country's very backwardness.

Beijing plans to use $7 billion in foreign investment by 2000 but
still will not allow foreigners to take equity or management stakes,
Xinhua news agency late Monday quoted the minister of posts and
telecommunications as saying.

`Compared with Western countries China is spared the pain of
eliminating outdated equipment due to its not-so-developed
telecommunications infrastructure,' Wu said. Instead, he said, it can
install the newest equipment without being hindered by entrenched
technological interests.

`China's telecommunications construction can leap over some
development stages and technical levels which the Western countries
had gone through and directly adopt highly efficient new technology
and equipment,' Wu said.  Wu reiterated a ban on direct management or
equity ownership of services by foreigners, a policy that reflects
national security concerns and -- some analysts say -- the ministry's
strong interest in protecting its lucrative monopoly.

Wu said foreign investment was welcome in telecommunications equipment
production and supply as well as in engineering, design, product
development, research and education.  `China especially welcomes
overseas businessmen to invest in telecommunications construction
projects,' he said. `The Chinese side will ensure their interests
according to the rule of mutual benefit.'

Wu said China hopes by 2000 to tap `at least' $7 billion in foreign
capital -- more than the $5.67 billion it has used over the last 10
years. It will use $2.1 billion in foreign capital in the next 18
months alone, he said.

The addition of 12 million lines last year brought China's total to 42
million -- still one of the world's lowest rates at 3.5 lines for
every 100 people. The target is 140 million lines by 2000, he said.

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

Date: 22 Jun 1994 09:40:22 CET
From: SHAW [phone] <[e-mail]>
Subject: V.34 Standard is Agreed


Patrick,

Greetings from Geneva.  I thought that TELECOM Digest readers might be
interested in the news that the long awaited V.34 "V.fast" modem
standard was approved a couple of weeks ago by the relevant ITU-T
(formerly CCITT) Study Group.  It has now gone out for ballot to all
ITU-T members with the deadline of September 20, 1994 for responses.

Electronic versions of the standard will be available within a few
days to ITU members on our Gopher server.  For non-ITU members, an
electronic version will be available after the September 20th
deadline.


Robert Shaw
Information Services Department
International Telecommunication Union
Place des Nations
1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland

[e-mail]

Here's the "official" ITU press release.

                    ITU/94-16
                    9 June 1994

Milestone in modem technology: the V.34 standard is agreed by ITU-T
and put under ballot for adoption

Study Group 14 of the International Telecommunication Union
Telecommunication Standardization Sector, ITU-T (formerly known as
CCITT), has been meeting in Geneva, Switzerland for the last week to
decide on the approval of the long-awaited standard for future
high-speed modems. The meeting was chaired by Mr K. Kern (Germany).
The work of Study Group 14 covers modems and transmission techniques
for data, telegraph and telematic services.

The adoption of the standard will give a go-ahead signal to the
industry to offer new products using high performance data transfer
technology. Work on the drafting of the standard started some three
years ago Termed by industry experts V.fast in its development stage,
V.34 as it will now be called, will surpass the current technology
used in data transfer via traditional telephone lines.

V.34 future modems will transfer data at speeds twice the current
technology, thus the nickname V.fast. By increasing transmission
speed, they will drastically cut down the time needed by computers and
faxes and in turn lower user phone bills. These new modems will have
variable data transmission capacity ranging from 2 400 bits/second all
the way up to 28 800 bits/second. The new modems will use a feature
called line probing that will allow modems to identify the capacities
and quality of the phone line and adjust themselves to allow, for each
individual connection, for maximum throughput using the highest
possible data transmission rate. In addition the standard will support
a half-duplex mode of operation for fax applications and will support
automoding to existing V-series modems.

Other important features of the new technology include an optional
auxiliary channel with a synchronous date signalling rate of 200
bits/second.  Data conveyed on this channel would be independent of
the primary channel (2 400  28 800 bit/second) and would consist
mostly of modem control data. Multi-dimensional trellis coding will be
used to gain higher immunity to noise and other phone line impairments
thus improving throughput. V.34 modems will also be the first modems
to identify themselves to telephone network equipment (handshaking).
Most important to the industry, V.34 will not only foster world-wide
connectivity due to its adaptive capabilities, but will enlarge the
market opportunities in areas which face poor telephone line quality.

V.34 technology has been long in coming and has had to overcome many
obstacles.  One year ago, members of the modem manufacturing industry
had become so impatient, they suggested that an interim standard for
modems be approved. This interim standard, however, only made speed
improvements.

The proliferation of high-speed non-V.fast modem production led many
market analysts to become sceptical of the interoperability such
non-V.fast technology-oriented products. The adoption of V.34 is
therefore very opportune. "V.34 modems will be transmission devices
that will be faster, more reliable and cheaper to use," said Mr Kern
at the outcome of the meeting.  Given its half-duplex mode of
operation, the use of V.34 will also help reduce costs of fax
transmissions and make feasible the use of colour fax. "The fax market
is in sharp increase on a global basis, thus providing a new market
outlet for modem manufacturers," Mr Kern added. The approved standard
should be applicable within a period of 16 weeks maximum.  "One of the
main issues for the future will be to make it possible for V.34 modems
to adapt their speed while transmitting data to adjust with changes
occurring on the lines such as noise impairments," concluded Mr Kern.

BREAKTHROUGH FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING

At the same meeting of Study Group 14, a standard  Recommendation
V.18  was also approved. It will provide, for the first time,
recognition of the communication needs of the deaf and hard of
hearing. This Recommendation, with its capability to interwork with
all existing devices, provides the platform on which a universal
standard communication device can be built.

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

From: [e-mail] (Frost ca/.nameFsca Sulli)
Subject: Spectrum Allocation
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 16:45:29 GMT


Was there an auction for PCS, especially unlicensed voice and data PCS
services?

As I don't read this group often, please send me e-mail at:

   [e-mail]


Thanks,

Amy Berger - Frost & Sullivan
[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes there was something like this recently
and it was reported here in this Digest. Perhaps one or more of the readers
will send you copies of the notices as they appeared here.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Frost ca/.nameFsca Sulli)
Subject: AMPS Inter-Operable With GSM?
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 16:52:30 GMT


Can anyone tell me if there is any manufacturer working on AMPS/TACS
interoperability with GSM?

Does any one have a contact at the Joint Technical Committee/Air Interface
Standards Group?

Please reply via e-mail at:

[e-mail]


[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Scott White)
Subject: Looking for Erlang "B" Equation
Date: 22 Jun 1994 18:01:19 GMT
Organization: Emory University, Dept of Math and CS


There is an Erlang Equation, I think named "B", which computes the
number of required rotary ports given blocking probability, holding
time, and average calling frequency I think.

Could someone kindly tell me what it is?


Thanks much,

Scott White
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Internet: [e-mail]   UUCP: {rutgers,ogicse,gatech}!emory!swhite
------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Vesa Ruokonen)
Subject: The Third Summer School on Telecommunications
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 12:28:28 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland


(Also available as: http://www.lut.fi/ltkk/tite/SSTC94.html)

Lappeenranta University of Technology   15.6.1994
Data Communications Laboratory

THE THIRD SUMMER SCHOOL ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Lappeenranta University of Technology
August 8 - 11, 1994

Preliminary Program

The 3rd Summer School on Telecommunications will consist of the
International Workshop on Intelligent Networks, during Monday and
Tuesday, August 8 - 9, and two Seminars on Wednesday and Thursday,
August 10 - 11.

The IN Workshop is arranged together with the IFIP TC6 Task Group on
Intelligent Networks and Telecom Finland.  The aim of the workshop is
to collect international state-of-the-art contributions on the
Intelligent Network technology and its applications. In the beginning
of the workshop there will be a Tutorial on Intelligent Networks. The
presentations of the IN Workshop have been selected using a review
process based on the submitted extended abstracts. A more detailed
program including the titles of the presentations will be available by
July 12.

The Seminars concentrate on two rapidly evolving areas of
telecommunications: Network and Service Management and Broadband and
ATM Technologies.  Each topic will take one day, consisting of invited
presentations. The speakers are leading Finnish experts, with one
exception: professor Peter Martini is a high-speed networking
specialist from the University of Paderborn, Germany.

The Workshop and the Seminars will take place in the Auditorium of the
new Ylioppilastalo, in the immediate vicinity of the University main
building and the car park in front of the University. Guidance is
arranged starting from the main door of the University.

The events start at 9.15 am each day. Summer School Proceedings,
social program, lunch and coffee are included in the registration fee.
There is a special student fee, not including the social events on
Tuesday and Wednesday. The lectures are open (no fee) for the students
and personnel of LTKK within the space limits in the Auditorium. For
more detailed information, see the bulletin board of the Dept. of
Information Technology, or contact the Summer School Secretary in the
address given below.

PROGRAM:

Monday     8.8. -     INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON
Tuesday    9.8.       INTELLIGENT NETWORKS

Wednesday 10.8.       SEMINAR ON NETWORK AND SERVICE
                      MANAGEMENT

Thursday  11.8.       SEMINAR ON BROADBAND AND ATM
                      TECHNOLOGIES


Preliminary program for the Seminars:

Wednesday 10.8.

SEMINAR ON NETWORK AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Chairman: Assistant Manager Jouko Parviainen, TELE

9.15 - 10.00
Service and Network Management expectations vs. capabilities
Jouko Parviainen, TELE-TKK

10.00 - 10.45
Evolution of Open SW Architectures and Platforms
Veli Kokkonen, TELE-KV

10.45 - 11.30
Operations Support System Integration with IN Service
Control Point using Transaction Processing
Timo Metsaportti, Independence-Technologies Finland Oy

11.30 - 13.00   Lunch

13.00 - 13.45
Q3 Network Management Software Development
Nassim Bouteldja, Martis Oy

13.45 - 14.00   Coffee break

14.00 - 14.45
Use of X.500 in Service and Network Management
Ismo Heikkonen, TELE-TKK

14.45 - 15.30
Neural Networks in Service and Network Management
Jari Vanttinen, TELE-TKK


Thursday 11.8.

SEMINAR ON BROADBAND AND ATM TECHNOLOGIES
Chairman: Prof. Jarmo Harju, LTKK

9.15 - 10.00
Realistic roadmap to ATM-networks
Hannu Flinck, Nokia Telecommunications

10.00 - 10.30
Routing in ATM networks
Jorma Virtamo, VTT

10.30 - 11.30
The 100VG-AnyLAN standard and its position in high-speed LAN
technology
Prof. Peter Martini, University of Paderborn, Germany

11.30 - 13.00  Lunch

13.00 - 14.00
Recent trends in teletraffic theory
Ilkka Norros, VTT

14.00- 14.15   Coffee break

14.15 - 14.45
The impact of Video-on-Demand Service into ATM networks
Hannu Flinck, Nokia Telecommunications

14.45 - 15.15
FSR - a switching technology for digitized video
Juha Zidbeck, VTT


For more information, please contact the Summer School Secretary:

Ms. Paivi Ponni                           tel. [phone]
LTKK / Centre for Continuing Education    fax: [phone]
P.O. Box 20,  FIN-53850 Lappeenranta
Finland


The 3rd Summer School on Telecommunications

August 8-11, 1994 Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland

REGISTRATION FORM

Please complete and return before July 15, 1994 to:

Ms P{ivi P|nni                    Tel  [phone]
LTKK / Centre for Continuing Education        Fax [phone]
P.O. Box 20
FIN-53851 LAPPEENRANTA
Finland

Please fill out in CAPITAL letters

Family name__________________Given name____________

Organization________________________________________

Postal address______________________________________

___________________________________________________

Phone____________________Fax_______________________

Registration fee should be paid before August 8, 1994 to Lappeenranta
University of Technology, PSP 00007 Helsinki Finland SWIFT PSPB FI HH
Account number 800011 - 12344.  Please mention your name and the
period you participate in your payment.

Payment includes coffee and luncheon every day, and the Welcome Party.
Social Dinner and Lake Sauna Party are included in the regular fee,
but not in the student fee. Extra tickets for the Social Dinner are
available at the price FIM 150.

Please mark X your choice
                       Regular fee       Student fee
August 8-11,1994    FIM 1500 ______   FIM 300 ______
August 8-9, 1994    FIM 1000 ______   FIM 200 ______
August 10, 1994     FIM  500 ______   FIM 100 ______
August 11, 1994     FIM  500 ______   FIM 100 ______

I will also participate in Welcome Party in
Aug 8_____ Social dinner in Aug 9 _____ and Lake
Sauna Party in Aug 10_____.


Date/Signature ______________________________________


HOTEL INFORMATION

For hotel accommodations we have made a block reservation in each of
the following hotels for August 6-14, 1994. Please make your own
reservation at the hotel of your choice as soon as possible and before
the deadline of July 22. You must mention the name "Telecom Finland"
in order to receive the special rate.


CUMULUS HOTEL, Valtakatu 31, Lappeenranta
Tel. [phone]
Fax. [phone]
Single room FIM 340, double room FIM 390. Breakfast included

SOKOS HOTEL LAPPEE, Brahenkatu 1, Lappeenranta
Tel. [phone]
Fax.[phone]
Single room FIM 290, double room FIM 340. Breakfast included.


<A HREF="http://www.lut.fi/~ruokonen/"> [e-mail] </A>

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Help on Dial Line Protection From Storms!
Date: 22 Jun 1994 13:50:27 GMT
Organization: Southgate Internet Host


To all thanks in advance.

I am experiancing problems on our BBS and Internet dial-in lines when
there is wicked lighting storms.  We have a total of 30 lines both
local and 1800 numbers all feeding Multitech a rack mount card cage
with MT1432BR modems.  On the RS-232 the modems feed a Shiva lan rover
for ARA or a cisco CS-516 for Internet access.  We also have other
vendors modems such as Intel, ZyXel and Scout modems for testing, SLIP
and fax services.

I seems that the storms do most harm on the Multitech modems, but it
appears not to bother the other modems.  The past 2 storms i have had
to reprogram the Multitechs most lost what they were originally setup
with.  Some did not recover even with reprogramming. I am able to
connect but either get no data or just garbage.

Is there some type of pads, isolators etc that can be used on the
dialup lines to protect the modems from getting trashed and also let
14.4K rates pass?  Is there guides to BBS or Modem installations that
address this issue?  I am a bit confused why the other modems didn't
have problems?  They have phone lines that come in over the same
copper bundle that feeds the Multitechs.

Any help is appreciated!!


Thanks,

Mike Foltz    [e-mail]   703-803-8361

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

From: [e-mail] (Frank)
Subject: Germany <-> Canda: Cheapest Rates?
Date: 22 Jun 1994 13:59:45 GMT
Organization: Technical University of Berlin, Germany


Could anybody please tell me what rates are offered for calls between
Germany and Canada (and the other way around)?

I am living in Germany and my fiancee is living in Canada at the
moment. The calls would mainly be going to just to one location, so
maybe there's an offer like 'MCI's Best Friend' for example.

Please send the answers via Email, 'cause I am not really reading this
section regularly.


[e-mail]   Frank
http://www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~poing

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #296
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
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To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #297

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 22 Jun 94 15:00:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 297

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    More Problems With 911 Calls (John Musselman)
    AT&T Phones - Junk? ([e-mail])
    Call Back and the Less Developed Countries PTT's ([e-mail])
    PBX vs. ACD (was Re: Privacy on Rolm Switch) (Kevin Collins)
    Centrex Lines vs. Regular Lines for BBS (Ian Evans)
    NT Meridian 9417 Telephone Set (Tony Harminc)
    Modem Doesn't Recognize Hangup - Fixable? (John R. Ruckstuhl)
    Information About Hayes ESP Requested (Marc Schaefer)
    MCI Metro - "Wanted Poster" (Paul Robinson)
    MCI Metro Ad - Analysis (Paul Robinson)
    Another National N11 Code Request (Greg Monti)
    O.J. Simpson Case (Carl Moore)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (John Musselman)
Subject: More Problems With 911 Calls
Date: 22 Jun 1994 14:02:27 -0700
Organization: North County Communications, San Diego, California


While roaming ... if it's odd and bizarre, I will encounter it.

Recently, I was about 20 miles west of El Centro, California. I had my
phone set to scan the A system. My home system is also A, so nothing
bizarre about that. I had observed a reckless driver on the highway
and did my civil duty by calling 9-1-1. I placed two calls to 9-1-1
because I spotted him later when CHP lost him. I never did know the
outcome of the story, however in one fashion I did ...

I received my Bell Atlantic cellular bill yesterday. And to my suprise,
there were some interesting charges on it.

1) A $3.00 daily usage charge for the A system in Yuma, AZ (Cellular One).

2) Two calls originating from Yuma, AZ to El Centro, CA (619-337-3191)
with the usual $.60 per minute roaming airtime charges AND long
distance charges for the calls from Yuma to El Centro! For those of
you who are unaware of the geography angle of things, Yuma is about 70
miles west of El Centro, CA.

My total charges for calling 911 to be a samaritan that day: $7.62

I called Cellular One's Todd Kochanowski in Yuma, AZ. Because of the
location of Yuma and El Centro, Cellular one serves BOTH cities. My
question to him was: Are all 911 calls from El Centro placed on Yuma
Feature Group A lines? Seems to me like that would get quite costly.

He explained to me that the 337 number in El Centro was in fact El
Centro's version of 911 and that the entire billing issue was an
error. Kinda makes me wonder how many other good samaritans have been
stiffed like this.

Now the question is: Will they FIX this, or will roaming customers in
El Centro, California continue to pay for being helpful to law
enforcement officials?


[e-mail]    John C. Musselman
Software Developer/System Analyst

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: AT&T Phones - Junk?
Date: 22 Jun 1994 20:59:04 GMT
Organization: Temple University, Academic Computer Services


Hello,

   Has anyone noticed any problems with the AT&T cordless phones? I
mean particularily the 55xx or 56xx series. It seems as though that
some people have had problems with their AT&T 5515 cordless phones
causing line problems in their homes or offices.  Sometimes the 5515
phones would have problems where the person would not be able to
transmitt their voices and only hear the incoming sounds. Also the
lines all over the house would go dead for a period of time now and
then. What could be causing the problems?

  I have seen a 5600 go bad as soon as two weeks after it was taken
out of the box.

  One of the Bell Atlantic lineman said that AT&T phones are the
worst in the market. He continued to say that they are made in
China and one should go and get a Pansonic cordless (barf). I
recall that AT&T phones are made in Singapore. But regardless of
where it is made, it is AT&T technology.

  Are AT&T phones in general, junk? Quality wise, I think not. They
are rugged, durable and well designed.

Any thoughts?

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

From: [e-mail] (MARTINVARS)
Subject: Call Back and the Less Developed Countries PTT's
Date: 22 Jun 1994 10:13:03 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


Does anybody know of a forum for Call Back companies where we can
share information about what some PTT'sin less developed countries
are doing to interfere with our services?

Uruguay for example has now gone as far as blocking whole area codes
in the USA preventing Uruguayans to call and installing DTMF detection
and cutting off lines where DTMF is heard.  This means that while
users get the call back call they cannot dial into it without being
cut off.

It is remarkable what the Uruguayan people living in a democratic
country have to put up with such illegal blocking from their own phone
company. It is time that call back companies take coordinated
action.  One easy way around the Uruguayan PTT's illegal cutting off
of calls that generate DTMF (imagine all the people trying to
listening to their answering machines getting cut off!) is voice
recognition.

An interesting fact that has escaped some PTT's is that many of them
make more money with Call Back than selling their own services.  When
they sell their services the pay a settlement and when they get a call
back they receive a settlement Therefore if their rate to the USA
falls below the addition of two settlements they are better off with
call back. The Uruguayan and Costa Rican PTT for example have lowered
their rates to the USA so much as a result of call back competition
that they now do much better with call back.  Nevertheless they
continue to try in vain to cut off call back calls.  Obviously it is
not business people that run those companies.  The newly privatized
companies that Telefonica bought are smarter in this respect and
realize that keeping rates high creates market segmentation and allows
them to make money either by themselves or with call back.

Viatel, the company I founded in 1990, has migrated away from Call
Back into direct services using our own $51M leased line network that
reaches 10 cities in Europe, three in the USA and one in the Far East
but there are some countries that seem to be determined to exploit the
business and user community and refuse to give us leased lines or toll
frees and force us to use call back as an access mode.

Viatel's wants to show the PTT's of the world that they will be better
off collaborating with the information revolution.  AT&T's break up
and opening to competition resulted in the USA taking the leadership
in global telecom while the user community in the USA greatly
benefited from it.  But what is most remarkable is that AT&T, the big
loser of the antitrust activities of the 80's is now the winner.  It
is the biggest and sntrongest telecom company in the world.  IBM the
winner of the antitrust cases of the 80's only won that battle to lose
the war.

At Viatel in the USA we were able to defeat AT&T's opposition (AT&T is
still addicted to settlements and continues to behave like a monopoly)
and get our 214 license from the FCC. They will one day thank us for
losing.

Around the world the most advanced countries have welcomed our entry.
Now it is time to show the less developed country that bad and
expensive telecommunications is a luxury they cannot afford.

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

From: [e-mail] (Kevin Collins)
Subject: PBX vs. ACD (was Re: Privacy on Rolm Switch)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 12:32:36 GMT


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

> I know the Rolm 9751 is mostly for ACD.
> [ details about silent monitor deleted - KC ]

As they say on the Hertz commercials, "not exactly". The ROLM 9751
(like all PBX's) was originally designed to provide basic connectivity
 -- internal and external calls, transfer/conference, park, etc. ROLM,
AT&T, NT, and other PBX manufacturers have since written ACD
application software that runs alongside the PBX software to deliver
some ACD functionality to their customers. These ACD packages have
gotten better over the years, but IMHO still don't match the overall
solution delivered by the stand-alone vendors (like Aspect), who
designed their switches from the ground up to do ACD. Of course, the
stand-alone ACD's are generally more expensive than the integrated
ACD's, but you get what you pay for.

Before I'm accused of too much bias, I should say that I've worked on
the Call Processing and ACD software for both ROLM and Aspect for the
last six years.


Kevin Collins                      Aspect Telecommunications
E-Mail: [e-mail]   San Jose, CA
Voice:  [phone]            My opinions are mine alone.

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

From: [e-mail] (Ian Evans)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Centrex Lines vs. Regular Lines for BBS
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 03:05:00 -0400
Organization: Baudeville BBS: Toronto CANADA 416.283.0114


I'll soon be expanding my BBS from two to four lines.  I currently
have a two line hunt group and want to install a second, seperate hunt
group.  I had asked Bell if there was any cheaper way of handling this
new hunt group, as the lines are really incoming only.

They suggested I install Centrex lines:

"The monthly rate for each centrex hunting, incoming line is $39.00/month
(minimum of two).  Each outgoing access line is $13.45/month, (minimum of
one)."

The monthly rate for each regular line, (as you have now) is $52.35/month.

The service charge to install two new centrex lines terminating on
single line sets is $282.00."

I just want to make sure that what they describe (two centrex
incoming, one outgoing) will allow me to have two simultaneous
incoming callers using my BBS.  Past experience has shown that the
front line people you speak to don't always understand what you're
talking about, especially when computers and modems are involved. <g>

Many thanks for any help.

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

Date: Tue, 22 Jun 94 17:30:10 EDT
From: Tony Harminc <[e-mail]>
Subject: NT Meridian 9417 Telephone Set


Does anyone have any experiences good or bad with this new set from NT?

This is a two line POTS set with nearly every bell and whistle I can
think of: CNID name & number display including number lookup (it will
display the caller's name as listed with the number in your personal
directory or use the telco name service where available), endless re-
and auto-dial buttons, two lines with hold and conference, a
programmable 'prime line' chosen when you go off-hook, handsfree with
mute and volume control, 'FAX' jack with built in Identa-ring detect
(routes inbound calls to the second number on one of the lines to the
jack), a paging system (works with other 9417s or an external
speaker), bilingual (selectable English or French) prompts, changeable
ringing cadence, and much much more :-)

This is all taken from the single sheet that NT just faxed me.  I saw
a set at a Bell Canada Phone Centre yesterday, and they claimed they
are the exclusive distributor and it is available for rental only for
C$15/month (ouch!).  But NT tells me that Anixter is selling them - no
list price available.

This is being sold as a small business set, but it sounds like just
what I need in my kitchen.  It's nice to finally see this kind of
thing from a reputable manufacturer; most of the bells and whistles
sets seem to come from little known makers and are on the flimsy side.

I'd be particularly interested in the US price for this unit; perhaps
someone there could call 800-NORTHERN and see if the story matches.


Tony Harminc

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

From: [e-mail] (John R. Ruckstuhl)
Subject: Modem Doesn't Recognize Hangup - Fixable?
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 10:09:30 GMT


I've just purchased a product I've recently seen mentioned (but not
necessarily endorsed) in this newsgroup.

The "Complete Communicator Gold Internal" (by The Complete PC, Inc.),
which I purchased for $149, is a PC internal fax/data modem (14400bps
Hayes-compatible modem with MNP 5 and V.42bis, 14400bps Group III
Fax), with software for Fax send & receive and a voice-mail system.
So says the box.

I've used it for a week or so, but haven't really worked it over.
I've got one major and one minor concern -- I'm hoping some reader
will educate me.

Firstly (major): I've seen the system record an incoming voice message
for ~20 seconds past the hangup.  I know vaguely that some equipment
under some conditions fails to recognize a hangup (terminology?).
I've seen answering machines do this.  I called PacBell and learned
I'm served by a 5ESS, and "Cutoff on Disconnect" (COD) is not
available on this type of switch (would that, whatever it is, have
helped?).  Some answering machines have a CPC switch that I think is
related to hangup detection -- what is (was?)  CPC?  Is there
something in the AT command set that I can use to tell my modem to do
a better job?  I can picture my modem not hanging up, some recording
from the telco coming on, and the voice-mail recording forever.  :(

Secondly (minor): The Fax/voice-mail software, FaxWorks 3.0, not only
has to be running, but a "user" has to log into the software.  At PC
boot, Windows is started by a command in autoexec.bat, and I've put
this FaxWorks software in the Windows group StartUp, so it is started
automatically at boottime as well.  But I can't see an easy way to
shove the login keystrokes & mouse button-pushes down its throat
automatically so that the system comes online at boottime.  Is there a
free/inexpensive utility that will help?  I remember many years ago
using a Borland product called SuperKey which might have had that
capability, but I really don't know much about PCs.  What to do?  I
know, this is better asked in some other newsgroup, so email is
preferred on this nit.

I don't know much about such things, so any comments will be
appreciated.

BTW, this product requires 386 (or higher) PC, half-length slot, 3.5
MB disk space, 2 MB RAM, EGA VGA or Hercules, MSDOS 3.1 or higher,
Windows 3.1 or higher, and touch-tone.


Thank your for any help.

Regards,

John R. Ruckstuhl   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Marc SCHAEFER)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 94 18:09 MET
Subject: Information About Hayes ESP Requested


I'm looking for information on how to interface the Hayes ESP Serial
Port Communication Accelerator with an AT bus interface on a non PC
system.

I know little about AT bus interface, except that the board probably
is configurable to hear data and control at certain addresses via
jumper. I need the jumper configuration the address involved and the
format of the command and data registers.


Thanks !

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

From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 10:10:10 EST
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
Subject: MCI Metro - "Wanted Poster"


The following is the text of an advertisement which appears
essentially as printed in the paper; minor format changes have been
made to reduce space.  Commentary appears in a separate article
immediately following this one.


Advertisement, {Washington Post} June 19, 1994, Page H10

What MCI did for long-distance, MCI Metro is doing for local phone
service.

We're setting the standard - again.

We all know how successful MCI has been in the long-distance industry.
But did you know that a major subsidiary of MCI is just beginning to
make its mark in the local phone market?

MCI Metro represents a multi-billion dollar, nationwide commitment.  It
also represents a career opportunity unlike any other.  After all, this
is your chance to get in on the ground floor and help build a brand new
industry giant.

Engineering

Design, engineering and construction-

 . Fiber Optic Transmission Systems
 . Design and Implementation of SONET-based Network and
   Class 5 Switching
 . Alarm and Network Management Systems
 . Power and Grounding Systems
 . Customer Premise Management

Construction

 . Transmission Engineering
 . Real Estate/Right-of-Way Negotiations
 . Construction Project Management (Fiber)

Systems

 . Database Administration
 . Network Engineering
 . Network Management
 . Network Provisioning

Product Marketing

 . Local Switched Products
 . Marketing Analysis/Pricing/Forecasting
 . Local Data Network Services
 . Dedicated Services
 . Product Development

Positions based in Northern Virginia and Dallas areas.  Additional
opportunities in other metropolitan areas will follow.

If you're up to the challenge, we should talk about your future with
MCI Metro.  Please send your resume, indicating position and salary
requirements, in confidence to: MCI Metro, Human Resources, Dept P6,
1650 Tysons Boulevard, Suite 963, McLean VA 22102.  Or, FAX your
resume to [phone].


An Equal Opportunity Enployer M/F/D/V.
MCImetro   Redefining Local Telecommunications Service

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

From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 10:10:10 EST
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
Subject: MCI Metro Ad - Analysis


On looking at the ad for MCI Metro there are the usual questions as to
whether this is a real invitation or if it is just a fishing
expedition to see how many people are available out there?  I'm
thinking of sending in a resume but I wonder if it's worth bothering.

I note one of the requests mentions SONET and another mentions people
with experience with Fiber.  As has been mentioned on the Com-Priv
list, in discussing Sprint's protest of MCI's grant for a high-speed
network for the NSF portion of the Internet, MCI doesn't have
operational optical switching yet (as opposed to Sprint, which is
selling connections on its optical-based switches).

Does this mean MCI plans "fiber to the drop" (all the way to the
network block in your house or apartment building) or even "fiber to
the curb" (to the drop for the neighborhood) style of service
delivery?  If they are installing a brand-new local network from
scratch, using fiber makes more sense due to capacity.  MCI just got
the most important approval for its merger with British Telecom,
they're going to have some $2 billion in cash available, which means
they will have the financial wherewithal to stand the cost of building
the local portion of a network from scratch.

Also, the types of requests they are looking for imply that they plan
to go for the business service market rather than the (allegedly money
losing) residential service market. It's one way to get experience,
especially for a large company: buy it.

I note that their office is in McLean.  I believe The Virginia
Commerce Commission has authorized a cable company to offer phone
service in one small suburb of Richmond, but reports I have heard say
State Law generally prohibits competition in local phone service.
Maryland is expected to allow Metropolitan Fiber Systems to go ahead
and offer dial tone and local termination to commercial customers next
year when the PUC examines MFS' request.

The other interesting issue is the Dallas location as well.  I believe
it was reported that a test of local service to its own employees was
made by MCI in certain areas, and Dallas might have been one of them.
Also, MCI may want to try to rely on the "dial tone hauling" case (as
reported in TELECOM Digest), which it was decided in that area where a
large company installed a microwave horn on its office in Dallas where
Southwestern Bell operates, in order to haul dialtone into its building
in Richardson because the local service from GTE there was so bad as to
be unusable, and the court ruled that the argument that most of their
calling was interstate in nature was a valid reason to bypass the
local telephone company.

Other people with more experience in telephone company operations
might be able to "read between the lines" on this ad and figure out
more, and perhaps tell some of the other readers (including myself)
some other inferences the ad gives us.

If this is real, it should be interesting.


Paul Robinson -- [e-mail]

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

From: Greg Monti <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 14:06:04 EDT
Subject: Another National N11 Code Request


The newsletter {Communications Daily} reported in its June 20, 1994,
edition that the US Government's General Services Administration (GSA)
has asked FCC to assign a single N11 code for use by the public to
"gain access to federal executive agencies."  Apparently, the request
was made in March.  There is also a proposal afoot that would assign a
single N11 number to reach state governments.  Presumably it would
connect the caller to the government in his or her state.  These
follow requests for a nationwide N11 number to access text telephone
relay services.

With 011 and 111 unavailable, and with 411 and 911 in use in most
places, that leaves only six N11 codes unused (211, 311, 511, 611,
711, 811).  611, 811 (and if applications from newspepers are
approved, 311 and 511) are already used in some places.  The article
notes that the FCC has opened a pleading cycle on the subject.
Comments to the Commission are due Aug. 19.  "Reply comments" are due
Sept. 23.


Greg Monti, Tech Mgr, FISPO, Distribution Division
National Public Radio          Phone:    [phone]
635 Massachusetts Av NW        Fax:      [phone]
Washington, DC  20001-3753     Internet: [e-mail]

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

From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 94 11:59:59 EDT
Subject: O.J. Simpson Case


Two items of note:

1. O.J. Simpson was reported spotted thru cellular phone;

2. Los Angeles police chief Willie Williams, on travel in Philadelphia,
estimated 25-30 hours in court (testifying in unrelated case) and 50
hours on the phone (most or all of it back to L.A.).


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: An article in the {Chicago Sun-Times}
discussing this matter was entitled 'A Nation of Idiots'. It discussed
the people who, with apparently nothing better to do deliberatly went
out on the expressway in the hopes of seeing him as he drove past. The
same article discussed 'hundreds of other idiots who drove to his house
and clogged nearby streets -- as well as parking on his lawn and the lawns
of neighbors, etc -- in a party-like atmosphere, in the hopes of seeing
him come out of his house ...'  Most people there, said the article, were
sympathetic to OJS, booing the police while cheering OJS during the time
he was in the process of being arrested, etc.  Very sad ... PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #297
******************************


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Date: Wed, 22 Jun 94 15:51:42 CDT
From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #298

TELECOM Digest     Wed, 22 Jun 94 15:51:30 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 298

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    FCC Callback Ruling (Leroy Casterline)
    Groups Hail New Bill For Public Space on NII (People For American Way)
    Pointers to Information on Cable Modem Details (Michael S. Pontecorvo)
    Hockey Broadcast Circuit (Fred Ennis)
    Anyone Have a Good PBX Disaster Recovery Plan? ([e-mail])
    Long Dialup String (Randall Pascua)
    WWW Site For Used/New Telecom and WAN Equipment Dealers (Henry Minsky)
    Cellular to Cellular Calling (Shawn Gordhamer)
    WilTel Shows CID to/from CT (Doug Reuben)
    17.5 Cent/Min No-Surcharge Travel Service (Doug Reuben)
    New Phone Circuits Book (David C. LeDoux)
    ISDN Application Survey (Stuart Brainerd)
    Anybody Know Status of Speedway.net? Any Alternatives? (Tom Olin)
    FormFlow Supports MicroSoft Exchange (Jack Bzoza)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
                        Fax: [phone]
  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland    *
* under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES)   *
* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Leroy Casterline)
Subject: FCC Callback Ruling
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:18:48 -0600
Organization: Cahill Casterline Limited
Reply-To: [e-mail]


Pat,

Sorry it took me so long to post this.  I was hoping to OCR it from a
fax, but no such luck. I typed it in, so any errors are mine ...

Leroy

Report No. CC-572         Common Carrier Action        April 22, 1994

              FCC AUTHORIZES THREE APPLICANTS TO PROVIDE
             RESOLD INTERNATIONAL SWITCHED VOICE SERVICE

        The Commission has granted the applications of VIA USA, Ltd.
(Viatel), Telegroup, Inc., and Discount Call International Co. (DCI),
to resell the public switched services of other U.S. carriers, over
the objection of AT&T.

        Viatel is a Colorado corporation that sought authority to
offer resold, tariffed international switched voice and facsimile
service between the United States and various international points.
Telegroup, an Iowa corporation, sought authority to offer resold
international switched voice and data service between the United
States and various international points.  DCI, a Florida corporation,
sought authority to operate a "typical telephone dialback operation"
between points in the United States and various South American and
Central American countries.

        AT&T, in its petition to deny, alleged that the applicants
intended to engage in a "call turn-around" or "call-back" service.
AT&T opposed the applications to the extent that the applicants
proposed to use the resold services to provide call-back services
using a "code-calling" configuration.  AT&T stated that a reseller
using "code-calling" instructs its customers in foreign locations
to dial a U.S. telephone number, hang up after a pre-arranged
number of rings, but before the call is completed, and wait for the
reseller (usually through a conferencing unit) to return a call to
the predesignated foreign telephone number, providing U.S. dial
tone to the foreign customer.  The connection between the calling
and the called party is established via a U.S-originated switched
service call to the called location.  The customer does not pay the
foreign carrier for the initial uncompleted call.

        After reviewing the applications and pleadings, the Commission
found that the public convenience and necessity will be served by
granting the applications to resell the international switched
voice services of various U.S. common carriers.  Moreover, the
Commission could not find, based on the record, that uncompleted
call signalling ("code-calling") constituted an unreasonable
practice under Section 201(b) of the Communications Act.

        The Commission has long recognized that increased competition
in the international marketplace benefits U.S. ratepayers, and has
routinely granted applications for Section 214 authorizations for
the resale of international switched voice services to further that
goal.

        The Commission believes the proposed services would provide
similar benefits associated with increased competition, in line
with its statutory mandate to establish a rapid, efficient, nation-
wide, and worldwide wire and radio communications service.  The
Commission noted that use of the resold services for international
call-back activity could place significant downward pressure on
foreign collection rates, to the ultimate benefit of U.S. ratepayers
and industry.

        The commission disagreed with AT&T that uncompleted call
signalling constituted an unreasonable practice under Section 201
of the Act, or otherwise was not in the public interest.  The
Commission reemphasized, however, that resellers of U.S. switched
voice services are common carriers and continue to be subject to
obligations of common carriers, including those in Sections 201(b)
and 214.

        AT&T alleged that this activity imposed costs on its
ratepayers through use of its facilities without compensation.
However, the Commission agreed with the applicants that AT&T had
presented no evidence that uncompleted call signalling occurred
often enough or made sufficient use of the network to impede
revenue-producing use of the network by AT&T or to otherwise impose
costs on AT&T or its ratepayers.  The Commission noted  that AT&T
and its foreign correspondents have the ability to address
uncompleted call signalling practices that are imposing costs on
them.

        In response to concerns expressed by AT&T and by certain
foreign carriers about the effect of uncompleted call signalling on
principles of international comity, the Commission required that
the applicants provide service in a manner that is consistent with
the laws of countries in which they operate.  However, the Commission
recognized that the legality of the proposed activities under foreign
law is a matter for foreign authorities and courts to decide.

        Action by the Commission April 12, 1994, by Order,
Authorization and Certificate (FCC 94-96).  Chairman Hundt,
Commissioners Quello and Barrett.

                              -FCC-

News Media contact: Patricia A. Chew at [phone].
Common Carrier Bureau contact: Adam L. Kupetsky at [phone].

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

From: NetSurfer <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 06:59:26 HST
Subject: Groups Hail New Bill For Public Space on NII (fwd)


 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
 Date: Sun, 19 Jun 1994 22:20:30 -0700
 From: email list server <[e-mail]>
 To: [e-mail]
 Subject: Groups Hail New Bill For Public Space on NII

This is a press release put out by People for the American Way and the
Media Access Project last week. Additional information, including a
copy of the legislation, will be put online shortly.


June 15, 1994

       PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS HAIL INTRODUCTION OF BILL TO
     PROVIDE "PUBLIC LANE" ON THE INFORMATION "SUPERHIGHWAY"

                PEOPLE FOR CALLS BILL "VITAL" TO
               DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH-TECH DEMOCRACY

           MEDIA ACCESS PROJECT SAYS NON-PROFITS NEED
             TO GET ON NOW, NOT IN FIVE OR TEN YEARS

     Public interest groups expressed enthusiastic support for S.
2195, legislation introduced today by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) to
ensure that there will be space on the "information superhighway" for
schools, libraries, public broadcasters, and non-profit organizations
which promote local artistic, political and social speech.

     Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Inouye's bill
guarantees access on the "superhighway" for non-commercial and
governmental uses.  "Without this protection, we may not get anything
besides home shopping and movies on demand," said Leslie Harris,
Director of Public Policy for the People For the American Way Action
Fund (PFAWAF).  "Senator Inouye's bill creates an electronic `public
square' where diverse political, artistic and cultural expression can
flourish.  It is vital to ensuring that the interests of the public
are not left behind on the information `superhighway.'"

     Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Executive Director of the Media Access
Project (MAP), underscored the short-term impact of Senator Inouye's
proposal.  "We hope -- and expect -- that some day the new technologies
will provide so much capacity at such low prices that there will be no
need to reserve space for public use.  The bill directs the Federal
Communications Commission to phase out the `public right of way' if
and when that happens." But, he added, "It is critical that local
government and non-profit groups have access to the new technologies
right away.  We need to begin using the technologies as they evolve;
it will be too late to do this five or ten years from now."

     Potential uses of this capacity are innumerable, according to
PFAWAF and MAP.  Among them are distance learning (in which master
teachers can work with students locally and nationwide) and
interactive information services such as the video health referral
system established by the Chicago Chapter of the Black Nurses
Association.  Similarly, performing arts groups could distribute their
works on these systems using an upgraded version of the currently
operative Arts Wire.  PFAWAF and MAP are especially enthusiastic about
the Los Angeles-based Democracy Network, an on-line interactive
multimedia political communication prototype which could help reduce
the cost of running for public office by creating high-tech voter
information services, in which all qualified candidates could respond
to citizen inquiries, "post" biographical information, video clips of
their speeches and position statements, and the public can participate
on video bulletin and issue boards.

     People For the American Way Action Fund is a 300,000-member
nonpartisan constitutional liberties organization.

     Media Access Project is a twenty-one year old non-profit public
interest telecommunications law firm which seeks to promote the
public's First Amendment rights to speak and be heard.

    -----------

    As Senator Inouye stated when introducing the bill, "nearly
100 educational, public broadcasting, library, civil rights, labor,
local government, and disability rights organizations and others have
expressed their support for the principles outlined in this
legislation."

    This coalition is asking organizations and individuals to
write the Senate in support of S. 2195. Sample letters to Senator
Inouye, Senator Hollings, and your individual Senators will also put
placed online shortly.


Anthony E. Wright                [e-mail]
Coordinator, Future of Media Project        Center for Media Education

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

From: [e-mail] (Michael S. Pontecorvo)
Subject: Pointers to Information on Cable Modem Details
Date: 21 Jun 1994 18:47:32 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access    [phone]  [login: guest]


I am looking for information on cable modems.  How the technology
works, baud rates, error recovery, etc. Any pointers would be helpful.


Thanks in advance,

Mike Pontecorvo   [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What is a 'cable modem'?    PAT]

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

Subject: Hockey Broadcast Circuit
From: [e-mail] (Fred Ennis)
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 23:28:34 -0400
Organization: Page 6, Ottawa, Ontario [phone]


Hi!

I was talking with the Chief Engineer of CFRA Radio where I do an
afternoon talk show, and I promised I'd raise the question with the
experts here in TELECOM Digest.

What is the most economical way of delivering broadcast quality (5 Khz
or better bandwidth, mono only) sound from other NHL cities back to
our studios in Ottawa.

Bear in mind that installation costs are a killer unless it is
something that can be used by ALL NHL broadcasters to do their away
games and it can then simply be a matter of the home team installing
the facilities for all visiting broadcasters.

Options could include leased line to satellite uplink, ISDN, switched
56, Rood/Comrex/other systems using two dial up POTS lines, etc.

Email is welcome, or post here to let others join in the solving of
this problem.

Thanks in advance!


Fred Ennis, [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Anyone Have a Good PBX Disaster Recovery Plan?
Date: 22 Jun 1994 01:28:02 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


I am interested in seeing if anyone out there has developed a disaster
recovery plan that they would be interested in sharing for their PBX
system.

I'm interested in plans that address switch failure, cable cuts, site
disasters, carrier failures, etc.  Any plan that addresses any or all
of the above would be welcome.

I know each situation is a little different, but I'd love to see a
copy of some.  E-mail me if you have anything to share.


Thanks.

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

From: [e-mail] (Randall Pascua)
Subject: Long Dialup String
Date: 22 Jun 1994 08:35:05 GMT
Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation


Hello all,

I don't know if this is the correct area to post my question, but here
goes ...

I'm trying to have my modem dialup a long string of numbers (to no
avail).  Here's what I want my modem to dial:

           9,18005555555,1,55555555555,1,5555555555

                               (explanation)

9,         <- is to get an outside line from a hotel - followed by a pause
18005555555,  <- is to call up my calling card service followed by a pause
1,   <- is a menu selection on my calling card service followed by a pause
55555555555, <- is my personal password in the service followed by a pause
1,         <- is another menu selection on the service followed by a pause
5555555555 <- is the actual area code and phone number that I wish to reach
              via my calling card service

A bunch of humbug I know -- BUT if I do daytime calls via my calling
card service -- then I get a discount ($).  I'm sure you've seen the
advertis- ments on tv.

Anyway -- I wanted to have my modem dial this long string but it always
replies:  ERROR

Must be because a modem's dialup procedure will only handle so many
characters and numbers.

So I've figured this out: put most of the info in my telephone profile
"0" (non-volatile ram in my modem) then put the rest in profile "1".

                               (example)

at&z0=9,18005555555,1,55555555555,1,     <enter>
at&z1=5555555555                         <enter>

I then type:  at&v <enter> which then shows me the two telephone profiles
stored in my modems' nvram:

&Z0=9,18005555555,1,55555555555,1,
&Z1=5555555555

NOW! my question is: can I just do some sort of "at" commands that
will dial both numbers consecutively?  Or is there a better solution
to this?

Whew!


Thanks,

Please send email reply to:  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Henry Minsky)
Subject: WWW Site For Used/New Telecom and WAN Equipment Dealers
Date: 22 Jun 94 05:06:32
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory


I have started a WWW listing of used and new telecom/internetworking
equipment dealers, specifically dealing in useful stuff for
configuring a PC running BSDI BSD.386 un*x for wide area networking.
The list is made up of some places I have had reasonable experiences
with, and many places I have not dealt with, but were recommended by
various sources on the net. I don't have any relation to any of these
folks, and as always, caveat emptor ...

The list is at:

http://www.ai.mit.edu/datawave/hardware.html

There is an automatic entry form, if you want to add your favorite
source to the list (and you are running a relatively new Mosaic or
other WWW client).


Henry

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

From: [e-mail] (Shawn Gordhamer)
Subject: Cellular to Cellular Calling
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 20:00:51 GMT


When one cellular phone calls another on the same system, is the
equipment smart enough to _not_ use the telephone network?  As the
number of cellular-type phones increase in proportion to the number of
landline phones, will there be less of a dependence on the local
landline network?

I've heard that soon, non landline phones will have about the same
cost as landline ones.  If this is true, then I would think many
people will switch to portable phones and leave the landline network
altogether.


Shawn Gordhamer  [e-mail]  Rochester, Minnesota  USA

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

From: [e-mail] (Cid Technologies)
Subject: WilTel Shows CID to/from CT
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:08:05 PDT


I've noticed that WilTel LD (usually 10555) is now transporting CID
between NY and CT offices which are SS7 equipped.

WilTel seems to be supporting blocking - if you  *67 to block the ID, the
call shows up on the receiving end as "PRIVATE".

(I think) I've heard of other cases noted here on the Digest where
this is not the case - ie, *67 does NOT make a difference, and your ID
is shown no matter what. Does this apply to offices where *67 is
simply NOT available, ie, where the local telco hasn't implemented CID
yet and CID's customer controlled feature codes, like blocking? Or is
this more of a case where WilTel (or MCI or any of the other carriers
who are starting to allow CID transmission) randomly chooses to ignore
the "privacy bit" (can they strip it?) causing the remote Telco to
display the full CID number?


Doug    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Cid Technologies)
Subject: 17.5 Cent/Min No-Surcharge Travel Service
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 14:06:18 PDT


I was just browsing through the pages of the {Consumer Reports Travel
Letter} June issue, and noted an article about a Calling Card company
called "Alliance Travel Network".

The article was quite brief, but it seemed to indicate that ATN was
offering a Calling Card service charging 17.5 cents per minute DAY
rate, which is pretty good compared to the 23 cents which I am paying
now.

There is no surcharge associated with this service, and they didn't
mention any monthly fees. (Although maybe there are - I'll see when I
get their literature.) You access the service via an 800 number, and
they offer Canadian and international calling as well.

I don't know if they offer six-second billing as does ConTelCom
(WilTel reseller with the 23 cent calling card), but if they did, a
quick check to my pager for 15 seconds daytime would run like six
cents!  Compare that with a similar call placed over AT&T, Sprint, or
MCI's calling card "services", which would cost around $1, DAY rate.
With rates as low as ConTelCom's or ATN's (assuming no monthly
minimum), AT&T et. al. are beginning to look like AOSs! Why pay $1
when you can pay six cents (or to be fair, for a full one minute of LD
17.5 cents)?

Anyhow, ATN's number is: 800-477-9692. They will mail you some
literature about their company if you call.


Doug        CID Technologies    [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (David C. LeDoux)
Subject: New Phone Circuits Book
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 01:29:38 GMT


I just bought a new book which might interest some readers.  It is
called "Ready-to-Build Telephone Enhancements", by Delton T. Horn, Tab
Books, 1994, ISBN 0-8306-4359-1, $16.95, and contains home-brew
electronics projects like remote ringers, hold buttons, DTMF
generators and detectors, telephone amplifiers, ring detectors,
off-hook indicators, and a couple of circuits to test phones and phone
lines.  Several of these have been requested in the past by readers of
the Telecom Digest and the other Usenet telecom groups, I believe.
The book also contains a couple of chapters of info on how telephones
work.


David C. LeDoux     [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Stuart Brainerd)
Subject: ISDN Application Survey
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 20:51:59 CST
Organization: Synapse Consulting


To all interested in helping out on an ISDN applications survey, I am
posting this message for Ms. Anderson.

The survey was quick and she actually shared with me some of her
findings.  Interesting.  Such as the number of people who have tried
using ISDN and got so frustrated they gave up completely; and that
most people are either fanatic about ISDN or are very down on it.

                 ________________________________

Attention ISDN users.  I would like your participation in a study of
ISDN usage.  Please contact me with phone number and best day/time to
call.


Thank you.

Sandy Anderson    INTERNET:[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Tom Olin)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 14:23:51 +0500
Subject: Anybody Know Status of Speedway.net?  Any Alternatives?


Speedway.net has been unreachable for the past several days by both
Internet and by dial-up.  They announced that they would be moving to
a new location sometime in early June, but they never announced any
specific information about the move, such as when they would be going
down or when they expected to be back up.  I'd like to have some
confirmation that they will indeed be coming back on-line sometime
soon.  If anybody knows anything about their status, please reply via
e-mail.

I'm also interested in finding any Internet service providers similar
to Speedway, for situations such as this.  speedway provides a full
range of Internet services, including shell access, full Usenet feed,
PPP/SLIP connections, etc.  The key items for me are PPP and the fact
that the service is free except for the long-distance phone call via
AT&T.  speedway makes its money by getting a cut of the LD charges
from AT&T, and AT&T happens to be my only option for LD service.  If
anybody knows of other providers who offer PPP, a charging method like
speedway's, and the usual other Internet goodies, please reply.

I am not affiliated with Speedway in any way other than as a usually
satisfied customer -- except when they disappear for days at a time
without leaving a note!


Tom Olin        PAR Technology Corporation   Voice: [phone] Ext 638
[e-mail]           New Hartford, NY     Fax: [phone]

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

From: Jack Bzoza <[e-mail]>
Subject: FormFlow Supports MicroSoft Exchange
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 94 10:07:00 PDT


Delrina FormFlow to Support Microsoft Exchange

Premier Forms Application Software Will Integrate with Microsoft+s New
Messaging and Information Platform

SEATTLE, WA and TORONTO, ONT - June 21, 1994 - Delrina Corporation
(NASDAQ:DENAF, TSE:DC) today announced plans to integrate the powerful
forms application creation environment of Delrina FormFlow with
Microsoft+s new messaging and information platform.

Microsoft Exchange is part of a family of products that offers a new
generation of enterprise computing and information sharing.  Microsoft
Exchange enables group collaboration across functional, organizational,
and geographical boundaries, and automates business processes.

Delrina FormFlow enables people with little or no programming
experience to quickly create sophisticated forms applications with
conditional logic and deploy them across their organization using
their LAN-based e-mail systems.

FormFlow+s integrated Intelligent forms Language enables professional
developers to get +under the hood+ and design highly complex
applications when necessary.  By tightly supporting Microsoft+s
public/private folders, data replication, and the forms registry in
Microsoft Exchange, FormFlow users can now track their forms
applications across wide area networks.

This combination provides all that customers will need for entering
the evolving electronic commerce marketplace providing critical
capabilities for both intra-company and inter-company structured
information sharing.

+Electronic forms are a key enabling technology for client-server
solutions supporting the flow of structured information,+ said Rob
Shurtleff, General Manager Workgroup Solutions Product Unit.
+Delrina+s support for Microsoft Exchange delivers an enterprise-wide
forms solution.+

+Delrina FormFlow provides a first-class solution to companies looking
to organize and route forms-oriented information through their
enterprise,+ said Albert Behr, Director Forms Marketing at Delrina.
+Combined with Microsoft Exchange, FormFlow offers the first viable
alternative to Lotus Notes for sharing and managing structured
information - and one that is completely platform, operating system,
and messaging system independent.+

Ranked by the editors of PC Magazine as the premier forms-based
application creation environment for automating workflow (Editors
Choice, June 1994) and the best forms processing software by the
editors of PC Magazine and InfoWorld (PC Magazine Editors+ Choice,
March 1994; Infoworld, May 1994), Delrina FormFlow brings front-end
forms creation with conditional routing to Microsoft Exchange.
Delrina FormFlow leverages a company+s current investment in
technology by allowing: DOS, Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX hardware;
the most popular e-mail systems, including MAPI, VIM, MHS, AOCE, SMTP,
LAN-based, and public e-mail; and, the most popular desktop/SQL
databases, and ODBC; to be combined in forms-based applications.

Delrina develops, markets and supports PC-based software products and
services for the PC fax and data communications, electronic forms
processing, and consumer content markets.  Founded in 1988, Delrina
employs more than 500 people with headquarters in Toronto, Ontario and
offices in San Jose, CA; Washington, DC; Kirkland, WA; the United
Kingdom; France; and Germany.

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #298
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #299

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 23 Jun 94 11:39:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 299

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling (Robert Virzi)
    Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling (Bernard Rupe)
    Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling (Steven King)
    Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling (Doug Reuben)
    Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling (Ross E. Mitchell)
    Re: MCI Metro Ad - Analysis (Pete Farmer)
    Re: Information Wanted on Satellite BBS? (Paul Robinson)
    Re: Long Dialup String (Carl Oppedahl)
    Re: Long Dialup String (Neil Weisenfeld)
    Re: Long Dialup String (Ilja Schliffkowitz)
    Re: Long Dialup String (John R. Levine)
    Re: Smooth Operator (Compass Voice Mail) (Bob Koskovich)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Jeffrey Rhodes)
    Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Mike McCrohan)

Telecom Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'.

Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax
or phone at:
                    9457-D Niles Center Road
                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
                       Phone: [phone]
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  ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

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*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
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* project.  Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-*
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*************************************************************************

Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such
as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated.

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Virzi)
Subject: Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling
Date: 23 Jun 1994 14:23:12 GMT
Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA


In article <[e-mail]>, Shawn Gordhamer <shawnlg@netcom.
com> wrote:

> When one cellular phone calls another on the same system, is the
> equipment smart enough to _not_ use the telephone network?

Actually, I believe that the cellular systems are "smart enough" to
avoid the landline network even across cellular systems.  (This may
involve a LD network hop, but not a LEC network).  The reason for this
is that LECs charge cellular providers for landline network access,
and cellular companies would rather avoid this charge.  In fact, if
you have something like a "landline inter-connect fee" appearing on
your cellular bill, you are paying a small portion of this charge
already.

> As the number of cellular-type phones increase in proportion to the
> number of landline phones, will there be less of a dependence on the
> local landline network?

Probably.


Bob Virzi    [e-mail]   [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Bernard Rupe)
Subject: Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling
Date: 23 Jun 1994 14:49:08 GMT
Organization: Cellular Infrastructure Group, Motorola


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Shawn
Gordhamer) writes:

> When one cellular phone calls another on the same system, is the
> equipment smart enough to _not_ use the telephone network?  As the
> number of cellular-type phones increase in proportion to the number of
> landline phones, will there be less of a dependence on the local
> landline network?

Yes, a call within a cellular system would not use the public
telephone network.  A cellular system could be completely independent
of the public network.  In many international systems, this is almost
true.  Keep in mind that calls between two isolated cellular systems
still use the public network to route the call.

> I've heard that soon, non landline phones will have about the same
> cost as landline ones.  If this is true, then I would think many
> people will switch to portable phones and leave the landline network
> altogether.

I wouldn't count of this happening anytime soon.  The main cost difference
is the airtime (maybe 16-30 cents/minute).


Bernie Rupe                   1501 W. Shure Drive  Room 1315
Motorola, Inc.                    Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Cellular Infrastructure Group     [phone]
                  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steven King, Software Archaeologist)
Subject: Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling
Date: 23 Jun 1994 14:14:17 GMT
Organization: Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group
Reply-To: [e-mail]


[e-mail] (Shawn Gordhamer) publicly declared:

> When one cellular phone calls another on the same system, is the
> equipment smart enough to _not_ use the telephone network?

Yes, cellular calls within a single system are carried strictly on the
cellular operating company's equipment.  The local telco isn't
involved.  Crossing a LATA boundary is an exception, of course.

In some cases, trunks between cell sites and the cellular switch are
leased from the local telco.  This is another kettle of fish.  In this
case, telco still isn't handling the call at all, just providing the
physical plant.

> I've heard that soon, non landline phones will have about the same
> cost as landline ones.  If this is true, then I would think many
> people will switch to portable phones and leave the landline network
> altogether.

I'd do it in a minute!  Not because my landline service is bad, but
simply because I'd like to jump feet-first into the 21st century.
Unfortunately, the cost of wireless service is still "what the market
will bear", and at this point the market will bear quite a lot.  I
wouldn't look for any major breakdown in cellular pricing until
something drastic happens, either technologically or legally.


Steven King <[e-mail]> -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group

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

From: [e-mail] (Cid Technologies)
Subject: Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 02:22:23 PDT


On Wed Jun 22 13:00:51 1994, [e-mail] (Shawn Gordhamer) wrote:

> When one cellular phone calls another on the same system, is the
> equipment smart enough to _not_ use the telephone network?

Generally, yes if a "home" or "visiting" (roamer) calls a HOME customer
it goes through the same switch. Otherwise, it goes out via landline.

Thus, if a Cell One/DC (00013) system customer is in Cell One/NY
(00025) territory as a roamer, and calls a Cell One/NY customer who is
also in NY SID 00025, then it will be handled by the switch internally
(and very quickly!), and not use of the landline network and
concomitant local/toll rates will not apply.

However, if the NY customer called the DC customer (again within NY
00025), then even though they are both in the NY system, and NY is
*not* constrained by the MFJ or DOJ rules about "looking ahead" to
other switches, the call will STILL be placed over landline to DC,
where the DC 00013 switch will say "Oh, our customer is in NY, let's
send the call up there." This is because the DC customer may have
forced calls to voicemail or used forwarding or have some other
special treatment at his home switch. If the call DIDN'T go back to
DC, then the NY switch would have no idea if the DC customer's calls
were forwarded or not, and would ring the DC roamer in NY even though
the DC roamer may have chosen NOT to receive phone calls or forwarded
them to his office or somewhere else.

Eventually, I think SS7 and other protocols may be able to handle this
without having to go over an IXC, but generally, when dealing with
disimilar switch types, the calls must go over an IXC or local landline.

Currently, think most switches can communicate with other *similar*
switches by the same manufacturer and (if they are networked) CAN
query the "home" switch to see if any features are active, and respond
accordingly without going through the landline network. This is what
used to allow customers on Motorola EMX systems to have total use of
their features, voicemail, etc., without the current "clicking"
(dialing) periods where the EMX switches have to dial each other up
via an IXC. However, due to Department of Justice requirements on
Bell-owned Cell Co's, a lot of this can no longer be done legally,
much to the detriment of cellular users.

For example, a Connecticut customer USED to be able to roam into Rhode
Island and have all of his features work as if he were on one big
system, including having unanswered calls bounce back to voicemail.
There would be *NO* toll charges for call delivery from CT to Rhode
Island -- it was all handled in the EMX switch and passed back and
forth through the Cellco. The same was true for a CT customer roaming
in Boston, a RI customer in CT, etc. It functioned smoothly, like one
big system, and calls from customer to customer, as long as they were
from one of the New England EMX systems, did not go out to a landline
at all.

When Metro Mobile of CT and RI was taken over by Bell Atlantic, the
silly, MCI-inspired DOJ rules kicked in, and they had to take this
large system down and set up small mini-systems in each LATA (except
for some sections of lower Western Mass) and connect them all via
IXC's (like MCI, so that MCI would get its minuscule cut :( ). This
means customers pay more for call delivery (when it used to be free),
and it means that No-Answer-Transfer and thus voicemail won't work
when you are roaming out of your home "mini" system. You also have to
wait three times as long for a call to be delivered to you due to the
slow way the EMX 500 switch seems to handle this whole process, and
the newer 2500 is not much better, as far as I can tell.

I can't emphasize how ridiculous this seems when it USED to work just
fine -- the government is making us all take a step backwards and
forcing switch vendors to create all these inane workarounds just
because some big babies like MCI whined that doing the above technically
violates the MFJ.  A grand waste of time to placate an LD company(ies) --
the costs in this case IMHO greatly outweigh the benefits.

There are even some rare cases where calls in the *same* system go
over an IXC or landline for local calls. The Eastern New Hampshire
system went bankrupt (or something) a while ago, and the FCC granted
"interim" operating authority to TWO carriers, Cell One/Boston and
Cell One/VT (Atlantic Cellular, Providence, RI). Boston owns the
eastern towers, more or less those east of a large lake in New
Hampshire (I can pronounce it but I won't dare try to spell it! :) It
begins with a W...), and VT owns the western ones.

So if you call a customer on the "same" system, ie, the Eastern NH
system, and he is on the same set of towers that you are being
serviced by, then there is no need for a landline carrier, ie, NETel
or an IXC. But if the call goes between the two carriers (remember,
its still ONE system), then I think it does go over an IXC or
landline. They recently upgraded the interconnection so I don't know
if this is necessary -- it now seem to be working like a big EMX
network up there, but a year ago calls from one side of the lake to
the other took longer and you got those "IXC dialout clicks", while
cell-to-cell calls utilizing just one of the two carriers went through
instantly.

(Eastern NH is really weird in terms of features and rates, especially
if you are a Cell One/Boston or CO/VT customer roaming there. And if
you are not a Boston or VT customer, watch out! The towers/signals are
so close to each other that you could easily be hit with TWO daily
roam charges as you access the two carriers which make up the single
system.)

> I've heard that soon, non landline phones will have about the same
> cost as landline ones.

When this is true I'll never complain about a cell company again! :) I
know there are plenty of carriers with off-peak and special plans, but
overall, they are dramatically more expensive than landline, and I
think it will be that way for good number of years to come. Hopefully,
I'll be proven wrong!


Doug        CID Technologies    (203) 499 - 5221

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

From: [e-mail] (Ross E Mitchell)
Subject: Re: Cellular to Cellular Calling
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 21:28:00 GMT


I have two cellular numbers using Cellular One service in the Boston
area.  I incur no local phone charges when calling from one number to
the other.

Since I subscribe to a plan which gives me free airtime on nights and
weekends, this is especially beneficial: I forward calls from one line
to the other.  When my bill arrives I see two charges: one outbound
for $0.00 and one inbound for $0.00.


Regards,

Ross Mitchell  - [e-mail] - Phone: [phone]  - Fax: [phone]

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

Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 05:28:28 -0800
From: Pete Farmer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: MCI Metro Ad - Analysis


My take on the MCI Metro want ad is that it's for real.  This matches
up with public announcements that MCI has made on their getting into
the local loop market.  It galls them to no end that 50 cents of every
one of their revenue dollars gets handed back to the Local Exchange
Carriers for access fees.

In the press today, in fact, was a story that DEC reported it was
discussing the potential sale to MCI Metro of some of their private
fiber facilities in the Boston area.

What MCI is planning is NOT "fiber to the house or apartment
building," but more likely to the financial district or industrial
park.  What MCI is doing is most comparable to the activity of MFS and
Teleport.  Their focus -- at least initially -- is _solely_ on
business.  (And, after all, how many residential customers are looking
for T1 access?)

Over time, MCI would probably like its fledgling wireless activities
to complement MCI Metro.  MCI has taken a 17% share of Nextel.  It
probably would like residential callers to be able to access its
network without using RBOC facilities, via Nextel.

The $4.3 billion it's receiving from British Telecom is what makes
this possible.  MCI wil probably be able to raise a like amount in the
debt markets.  Always nice to have petty cash!

With regard to the McLean, VA, and Dallas area locations mentioned in the
MCI ad --

  o MCI's world HQ is in the DC area; hence, McLean.
  o The MCI Data Division is headquartered in Richardson, TX; hence, Dallas.

McLean and Dallas have to do with where the rest of the MCI folk are,
and not with _local_ plans that MCI may have for either area.

I think things _will_ be interesting from MCI.  In fact, I'm expecting
we'll hear something this summer from MCI regarding Internet access
services.  Any lurkers from MCI care to comment?


Pete Farmer                     Voice:    415-321-5968
821 Berkeley Ave.               Fax:      [phone]
Menlo Park, CA   945025         Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 06:19:53 EDT
From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Information Wanted on Satellite BBS?
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA


"Gary E. Chidester" <[e-mail]>, writes:

> I read an article the other day about BBS via satellite and how it
> would be cheaper because there would be no long distance charges
> accrued.  How is this possible?

What you are reading about is the delivery of -- what our Esteemed
Moderator refers to as DungHeapNet -- Usenet News via satelite.  You
pay $1800 for a satelite dish and a one year subscription, then it's
$30 a month which gets you a full feed of all 8,000 public newsgroups,
and the satelite dish is connected to whatever computer you want to
take it via.

It is extremely useful for getting a full- or nearly-full news feed
without having to tie up a 56K line simply for incoming news.  For
almost all sites, most of the news traffic is incoming delivery of new
articles, so a setup like this can allow a site to use a UUCP or
dialup SLIP/PPP connection at 14.4K baud for outgoing mail and
bidirectional news and still receive a full feed or even a large part
of a full feed.

> I can see how you could receive information via satellite, but unless
> there is two-way communication how can you request the information
> you want?

The system carries all news as it gets it.  Your computer simply takes
the messages from the groups you normally accept.

Figure that in a two year period, the service will cost roughly $2200
or so.  That's about $100 a month.  If the amount of line costs for
delivery of incoming news raises your rate to take news above $100 a
month, then it's worth considering.

If you want to take a full feed, there are about 8000 public
newsgroups which generate about 80 meg of articles a day.  A 14K slip
line can carry about 120 meg a day figuring full loading at 84K a
minute, but you might not always get that full rate, and second, 14K
is slow.  Also, a full-time 14K slip line is going to run around $250
a month or so from a commercial provider.

If you only want to run a UUCP or dialup on demand connection, which
is probably much cheaper, a satelite connection can give you a full
feed without having to tie up a line to a provider continuously, and
for less money on a long-term basis.  It can also serve as a backup
feed for those who want more reliable service than being dependent on
a single provider.


Paul Robinson - [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Carl Oppedahl)
Subject: Re: Long Dialup String
Date: 22 Jun 1994 18:08:55 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Randall Pascua)
writes:

> I'm trying to have my modem dialup a long string of numbers (to no
> avail).  Here's what I want my modem to dial:

>           9,18005555555,1,55555555555,1,5555555555

> Anyway -- I wanted to have my modem dial this long string but it always
> replies:  ERROR

I assume you have studied your modem's documentation and checked to
see how it handles long lines.

> So I've figured this out: put most of the info in my telephone profile
> "0" (non-volatile ram in my modem) then put the rest in profile "1".

> NOW! my question is: can I just do some sort of "at" commands that
> will dial both numbers consecutively?  Or is there a better solution
> to this?

Well, again you might want to consult your modem documentation.
Something like ATDT&Z0&Z1, maybe.


Carl Oppedahl AA2KW    Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers)
Yorktown Heights, NY   voice [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Neil Weisenfeld)
Subject: Re: Long Dialup String
Organization: NIH Div of Comp Rsrch and Technology
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 23:25:37 GMT


Randall Pascua ([e-mail]) wrote:

> I'm trying to have my modem dialup a long string of numbers (to no
> avail).  Here's what I want my modem to dial:

>            9,18005555555,1,55555555555,1,5555555555

My Telebit WorldBlazer allows you to terminate a dial command with a
';' indicating that it should stay in "command mode" after dialing.  I
could do something like:

ATDT 9,18005555555,;
ATDT 1,5555555555,;
ATDT 1,5555555555

Note the lack of a semi-colon on the last one.  I don't know if other
modems support this feature.


Neil Weisenfeld, Computer Engineer       Internet: [e-mail]
Nat'l Insts. of Health, 12A/2033         Voice:    [phone]
Bethesda, MD  20892                      Fax:      [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Ilja Schliffkowitz)
Subject: Re: Long Dialup String
Date: 23 Jun 1994 10:41:37 GMT
Organization: Regional Computing Center, University of Cologne
Reply-To: [e-mail]


Randall Pascua ([e-mail]) wrote 22 Jun 1994 08:35:05 GMT:

> So I've figured this out: put most of the info in my telephone profile
> "0" (non-volatile ram in my modem) then put the rest in profile "1".

> at&z0=9,18005555555,1,55555555555,1,     <enter>
> at&z1=5555555555                         <enter>

Yep, atds0s1 should dial both stored sequences.

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

Date: Thu, 23 Jun 94 10:28 EDT
From: [e-mail] (John R Levine)
Subject: Re: Long Dialup String
Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass.


Re tricking a modem into sending a longer string of digits than it's
willing to buffer.  Try this:

Send "ATDT --- first part of dialup string --- ;"
wait for OK, or delay
Send "ATDT --- second part of dialup string --- ;"
wait for OK, or delay
send ATDT " --- last part of dialup string --- "


Regards,
John Levine, [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

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

From: Bob Koskovich <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Smooth Operator (Compass Voice Mail)
Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society
Date: 23 Jun 94 04:16:39 -0400


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Eric
A. Litman) writes:

> Has anyone on this group used Compass Technology's Smooth Operator
> PC-based voice mail system?

We just recently installed a Smooth Operator system (for $$ reasons).  In
general, I'm happy with it so far.  Two gripes at this point:

1.  In order to dial-through to an extension from the auto attendant,
the extension MUST have a mailbox defined.  Not a serious problem for
us, but it would be a pain if there were many no-box extensions on our
switch.  This, as I understand, is a common "feature" of PC-based VM
systems.

2.  The message delivery feature is NOT what it could be.  For
instance, I want to be paged with my box number for regular messages,
and box+911 for urgent messages.  To do it requires a kludge; you only
have your choice of delivering urgent messages or all messages, and
can't deliver a different message based on urgency.

Alas, you get wat you pay for.


Bob Koskovich <[e-mail]>  Manager, Information Services
EDM Supplies Inc   Downey, CA

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

From: [e-mail] (Jeffrey Rhodes)
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Date: 23 Jun 1994 15:50:52 GMT
Organization: McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc.
Reply-To: [e-mail]


In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (Pete Farmer) writes:

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

>> PacBell runs an ISDN BBS.
>> 510-277-1037 for pokey old modems.
>> 510-823-4888 for speedy new BRI or SDS 56/64K access

> Pac Bell also has a gopher server:           ?
>       gw.pacbell.com

> I think this has much of the same information that's on their BBS.

> Peter J. Farmer          Internet: [e-mail]
> VP, Marketing            Voice:    415-321-5968
> Tetherless Access Ltd.   Fax:      [phone]

I have AT&T Accunet Service for my ISDN data calls here in Kirkland,
WA and I can only reach the 510-823-4888 at 56k V.120. I get a CONNECT
57,600 but if I set my Hayes System Adapter TA to 64k I get NO
CARRIER.

I am able to make 64k V.120 calls to the UK, so why is this number not
answering 64k V.120 data calls?


Jeffrey Rhodes at [e-mail]

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

From: Mike McCrohan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere"
Date: 23 Jun 1994 06:13:38 +0100
Organization: Ireland On-Line


In article <[e-mail]>, Pete Farmer wrote:

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

>> PacBell runs an ISDN BBS.
>> 510-277-1037 for pokey old modems.
>> 510-823-4888 for speedy new BRI or SDS 56/64K access

> Pac Bell also has a gopher server:
>       gw.pacbell.com

I dialed into their BBS yesterday (expensive business from Ireland
during the business day!) to look up ISDN connectivity/availability
for a client.

The product Definitions refer to Centrex IS and SDS IS:

"PACIFIC BELL ISDN PRODUCT AVAILABILITY AS OF MAY 16. 1994 Source:
 Pacific Bell Applications Bulletin Board System  [phone]

 ISDN Product Definitions:
 Centrex IS - Provides simultaneous voice and data capabilities of Basic
        Rate ISDN as an optional feature to a Centrex line.

 SDS IS - Provides simultaneous voice and data capabilities of Basic
        Rate ISDN as an optional feature to a measured business line
        (1MB).  "

Would I be correct in assuming that SDS IS is a regular ISDN Basic Rate
Access line?

Would I also be correct in assuming that Centrex IS is an ISDN
additional service available to existing Centrex customers, which would
give those customers ISDN BR capability?

If the answer to the latter question is "yes", could a non-centrex
customer contract for a single Centrex IS line if SDS IS is not yet
available?


Mike

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #299
******************************


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From: [e-mail] (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson))
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #300

TELECOM Digest     Mon, 27 Jun 94 17:23:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 300

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Book Review: "Understanding Local Area Networks" by Schatt (Rob Slade)
    Canadian Internet Handbook Now Available in U.S. (Rick Broadhead)
    Wireless Comms Summer Course (Richard Tsina)
    Need Help Setting up Service (Dialins ,etc) (C. Mohr)
    MCI Solicitations Cause Havoc at Our Company (Bill Garfield)
    Book Review: "The Internet Book" by Comer (Rob Slade)
    Canadian Chat Line Case (Dave Leibold)
    Re: O.J. Simpson Case (Robert L. McMillin)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
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It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
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Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

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

From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 06:49:27 MDT
Subject: Book Review: "Understanding Local Area Networks" by Schatt


BKUNDLAN.RVW  940415

SAMS Understanding Series
Prentice Hall Computer Publishing
113 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ   07632
[phone]  FAX [phone]
or
11711 N. College Ave.
Carmel, IN   46032-9903
or
201 W. 103rd Street
Indianapolis, IN   46290
or
15 Columbus Circle
New York, NY   10023
800-428-5331
or
Market Cross House
Cooper Street
Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1EB  England
[e-mail] - Phyllis Eve Bregman is postmaster
[e-mail] Alan Apt
Beth Mullen-Hespe [e-mail]
"Understanding Local Area Networks", Schatt, 1992, 0-672-30115-6,
U$26.95/C$34.95

This is a readable and fairly comprehensive guide to the concepts and
terminology behind Local Area Networks.  While it gives a thorough
background to a wide range of LAN features, technical details are
scant.  This may be good news to the executive trying to get an
initial grasp of networking; it may present problems to the manager
charged with coming up with a plan for implementation.

Three initial chapters provide basic concepts and jargon for LANs,
basic parts and pieces, and connections to wide area networks.  Four
major network operating systems are described in further chapters, and
it is nice to see some mention of OS/2 and Macintosh systems included.
Chapter eight is a bit odd: of the four "other" LANs listed, two are
hardware interfaces rather than network operating systems.  A further
three chapters look at electronic mail options, management and
networkable software.  The book closes with a chapter on LAN selection
and appendices with vendor addresses, a glossary and a bibliography.

The material is very basic and almost completely non-technical.  The
content will certainly help a neophyte to get started, or someone who
has to "start from zero" on a major networking project.  However, the
lack of technical details could allow for major disasters in the
choice of systems.  For example, the topologies are described
correctly, but the load implications of the different access methods
are never discussed.  An ethernet, with repeaters, could conceivably
service an entire ten-storied building.  With heavy loads, however,
you would probably want to break that down into a series of smaller
networks with routing.  If response time is critical, you probably
need token-ring access in order to guarantee an upper bound to
delays.  (The lack of detail extends to the review questions at the
end of each chapter.  These are extremely simple queries from the
lowest level of Bloom's Taxonomy, and only serve to check whether
you've read every sentence.)

A possibly useful start, but far from being complete.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKUNDLAN.RVW  940415. Distribution
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.

DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer [e-mail], [e-mail], Rob Slade at 1:153/733
DECUS Symposium '95, Toronto, ON, February 13-17, 1995, contact: [e-mail]

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

From: Rick Broadhead <[e-mail]>
Subject: Canadian Internet Handbook Now Available in U.S.
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 12:33:00 GMT


June 24, 1994              Contact:  Beth Hespe
                           PTR Prentice Hall
                           [phone] (Tel)
                           [phone] (Fax)

      T H E   C A N A D I A N   I N T E R N E T   H A N D B O O K
                  Now Available in the United States
   Foreword by Jean Monty, President and CEO of Northern Telecom Limited

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, June 24, 1994 -- Prentice Hall/PTR and
Prentice Hall Canada proudly announce that, due to popular demand, the
Canadian Internet Handbook by Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead is now
available in the United States.

In the last three months, the Canadian Internet Handbook has established
itself as a genuine Canadian publishing phenomenon.  It has been on the
Toronto Star's National Bestseller List for the last two months, and
for six consecutive weeks, the book was the #1 selling non-fiction
paperback in Canada.  The authors believe it to be the first
Internet book ever published to reach the #1 position on a general
bestseller list.  The Canadian Internet Handbook has also achieved
bestseller status in several other prominent Canadian newspapers,
including the Financial Post, Ottawa Citizen, and the Globe and Mail.

This is a significant accomplishment for a country the size of Canada.
With over 35,000 copies printed and distributed in Canada alone,
the Canadian Internet Handbook has far exceeded the normal
Canadian bestseller status of 5,000 copies.

Due to great demand for the book in the U.S. market, the Canadian
Internet Handbook is now being distributed in the U.S.  by Prentice
Hall.

The Canadian Internet Handbook provides Internet users with
comprehensive directories of Canadian Internet resources, including
Canadian Gopher servers, WWW servers, and Internet-accessible library
catalogues.  The book also includes a detailed listing of Canadian
Usenet groups, and a list of over 700 organizations that are using the
Internet in Canada.  Other chapters discuss such topics as "What's
Wrong With the Internet?", and "Where is the Internet Going in
Canada?"  The book covers all the popular Internet tools - Mail,
Telnet, FTP, Gopher, WAIS, WWW - and provides many examples of how
Canadian businesses and individuals are using the Internet.  Shell
Canada, Midland Walwyn, the Regina Public Library, and the Canadian
Space Agency are some of the organizations profiled in the book.  Jean
Monty, President and CEO of Northern Telecom Limited, introduces the
book with a foreword.

For further pricing and ordering information, point your Gopher client at:

gopher.prenhall.com

WWW users can point their browser at the following URL:

http://www.csi.nb.ca/handbook/handbook.html

For more information, please contact the authors of the book:

Rick Broadhead           Jim Carroll
[e-mail]        [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Wireless Comms Summer Course
Date: 27 Jun 1994 18:03:09 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley


U.C. BERKELEY
Continuing Education in Engineering
Announces a short course on Wireless Technology:

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
(July 26-27, 1994)

     There are technical bottlenecks to developing a ubiquitous
wireless multimedia environment: the capacity of the radio link, its
unreliability due to the adverse multipath propagation channel, and
severe interference from other channels.

     This course covers the principles and fundamental concepts
engineers need to tackle these limitations (e.g., a thorough treatment
of channel impairments such as fading and multipath dispersion and
their effect on link and network performance).  Topics include:
Introduction to Wireless Channels, Cellular Telephone Networks, Analog
and Digital Transmission and Wireless Data Networks.  Comprehensive
course notes will be provided.

Lecturer: JEAN-PAUL M.G. LINNARTZ, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of
California, Berkeley.  His work on traffic analysis in mobile radio
networks received the Veder Prize, an innovative research in
telecommunications award in the Netherlands.  At Berkeley he works on
communications for intelligent vehicle highway systems and multimedia
communications.  Professor Linnartz is the author of numerous
publications and the book "Narrow Land-Mobile Radio Networks" (Artech
House, 1993), the text for the course.

For more information (brochure with complete course descriptions,
outlines, instructor bios, etc.,) send your postal address to:

Richard Tsina
U.C. Berkeley Extension
Continuing Education in Engineering
2223 Fulton St.  Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel: [phone]  Fax: [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (C Mohr)
Subject: Need Help Setting up Service (Dialins, etc)
Date: 27 Jun 1994 04:43:58 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department, Oregon State University


Hi,

I'm hoping someone(s) out there can help me with a few questions.
First what I am trying to do. A few of us here with some money to burn
(but not to much) and some Unix experience want to set up a internet
access service in a fairly large town here. There is no access except
the local college, which only lets students on their machines due to
lack of dialins. There are also no services that are a "local
sprintnet" call away (unless you count Delphi or Prodigy; I'm refering
to services such as Netcom.) We want to start fairly small and wait
until we start getting more users to upgrade to bigger machines. What
we are thinking of doing is getting a Pentium 99 with 64 or 32 megs of
memory, two or three gigs of SCSI harddrive and putting the latest
version of linux on it (uh oh I hear groans ;]). We are currently
running linux 1.1.18 on a Pentium 60 and it seems to be running fairly
well (although it only has four or five users and a mud running on it)
which is why we choose that OS (plus its free.)  We want to put in a
minimum of 10 dialin lines to start, maybe 16 (this is where I start
having problems ;]) Since there are two local colleges both with T1 or
better lines we plan to (try) to get a T1 line as our connection to
the net.

Now the questions:

Is it a really bad idea to use Linux for this task? If so why? What's a
better suggestion? We dont want to sink 100 grand into this right
away, over time maybe.

Do you think a Pentium 99 will be able to handle 25 users at a time?
50? 100?

Is there a maximum number of connections at a time under Linux? Maximum
memory or HD?

Does Linux support tape backups besides the "qic format" something in
the one to two gig format? Does it support multiple serial port cards
(meaning the 8-16 or higher port cards)? If so what kind (for both
questions)

If (and even if it does) Linux doesn't support multiple serial port
cards what is the best way to get 8-32+ dialins to the Linux box? I'm
guessing some type of modem server, can someone tell me how these work
(the more specific the better) and who some good companies are to
contact about these?

How is a T1 line connected to Unix machines? Directly, a router, what?
Is it different for each case? If this is the sole machine would it be
a direct connection (and later when we add more machines add the
router/gateway/whatever it is ...?) Is a seperate "gateway" machine
required or can the same machine act as both?

Can someone point me at the NW USA internet providers that offer
connections to companies that plan to offer pay for accounts? I am
only aware of one provider (NWnet) and i'm not certain they allow
this. Is there a list of providers such as this? email/voice contact
numbers needed as well if possible.

Are there any suggestions (besides give up ;]) you have? Any technical
knowhow or whatever is also GREATLY appreciated! Sorry if I am asking
some very basic questions or things I "should" know but this will be
my first time setting up a Unix network from ground zero (IE no T1 no
dialins etc). I have set up two new Sequent machines for a university
here but they did all the network connections and the modems were easy
since they wanted them connected to the backplane (64 rs232 connecters
weee fun!) Also any FAQ's would be great if you can point me at them
(books are ok also but prefer free pubs or help for now ;])

Thanks ALOT for all help provided and we hope to see you on the net
soon!

PLEASE E-Mail all replies if someone else is interested I'll be glad
to forward them to you.


[e-mail]

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

Subject: MCI Solicitations Cause Havoc at Our Company
From: [e-mail] (Bill Garfield)
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 94 10:21:00 -0600
Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Bill Garfield)


At my company my whole DID number block has been literally under seige
for the past six months by the MCI autodialers.  At first we had no
idea where it was coming from; hundreds of single-jingles a day, at
16-minute intervals, across large blocks of our DID number span.
These appeared as one-ringers, apparently because MCI's *DYSFUNCTIONAL*
autodialers interpreted our PBX's double ring cadence as a "busy" and so
immediately dropped the call ... BUT KEPT TRYING AND RETRYING AND...
AND...!!!!

After suffering under this continuing barrage of five-second duration
calls for nearly a month I handed the problem to SWBT's Annoyance Call
Bureau.  Ten of the extensions then under assualt were put up on call
trace and the data collection process began.  SWBT's Major Account
Center in Houston contacted me to advise that without exception, *ALL*
the nuisance/harrassing calls were coming from the same trunk group,
MCI.

I was given a local number to use in contacting someone at MCI's
Houston POP -- which coincidentally is right across the street from my
office.  Then for two more weeks I called the MCI POP at least twice
daily and faxed thousands of call records to them to use in continuing
the trace.  "Shirley", one of the switchpersons, finally let it slip
that these calls were coming from MCI Telemarketing Centers at Denver
and Phoenix!

Having positively identified the source, it still took TWO MORE WEEKS
of nuisance calls to get relief.  But it was over, or at least I thought
it was.

Early in May of this year, the by now very recognizeable single-jingle,
16-minute interval calls were back. However, this time attacking only
one extension, 4796.  According to SMDR records my subscriber tolerated
the single-jingle attack an average of twelve times a day for three whole
weeks before contacting anyone. (Patient fellow, huh?)  As soon as I
saw the calling pattern I had strong suspicions of -who- the culprit
was, but I called SWBT's Call Annoyance Bureau again anyway.  The CAB
put the number on call trace and another week passed while we collected
SMDR evidence. Suspicions confirmed! The MCI trunk group was again
identified as the source.  MCI's Houston POP again confirmed that the
calls were originating from their Denver telemarketing center.

Again I demanded, much less politely than before, that this activity
immediately cease and desist.  Again it took an entire week for MCI to
get it under control.

Although I do not speak for my employer, I can assure MCI Corporate
that my switchroom crew in Houston is getting damned sick and tired of
the MCI telemarketing group.

Perhaps someone in this fine group would be kind enough to share with me
some names and telephone numbers of influential individuals within MCI's
corporate hierarchy.


Ye Olde Bailey BBS Zyxel 713-520-1569(V.32bis) Hayes 713-520-9566 (V.FC)
  Houston,Texas             yob.com           Home of alt.cosuard


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Consider the message delivered, but I doubt
that it will do much good until/unless some 'influential individuals' at
MCI send the message to the telemarketing people, and even then I can tell
you what their response will be in return: they have no way to program or
control their dialers -- or so they will claim. As John Higdon pointed out
here in the past in his ongoing battle with the newspaper solicitors in
San Jose, this amounts to the proverbial unstoppable object meeting the
unmoveable one ... when contact is made with an influential person at MCI
you might want to have an influential person at your place of employment --
someone who *can* speak for your employer -- let them know in no uncertain
terms that the contact is being made for reasons of courtesy prior to taking
the whole thing legal. You have, in my opinion, a very good claim for damages
due to the disruption of your business activities and your continued inab-
ility to use the company's telephone system in the manner in which it was
intended. Perhaps some influential person at MCI seeing this will be in
a position to head off any further problems. Perhaps their choice will be
to resolve the dilemma informally for you *now*.  Good luck, and let us
know how this progesses.   PAT]

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

From: Rob Slade <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 06:27:49 MDT
Subject: Book Review: "The Internet Book" by Comer


I hope I'm not releasing this *too* far in advance.  I haven't yet
seen the final copy of this book, but I find it to be a very interesting
and valuable work, and it has come to the top of the pile, so:

BKINTBOK.RVW  940408

Prentice Hall
113 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ   07632
[phone]  FAX [phone]
[e-mail] Alan Apt
Beth Mullen-Hespe [e-mail]
"The Internet Book:  Everything You Need to Know About Computer Networking and
How the Internet Works", Comer, (forthcoming)
[e-mail]

It is difficult to find books which give some background to the
Internet.  Most guides assume that readers are either already
thoroughly familiar with computer communications, or are uninterested.
The history of the Internet often vaguely mentions military or
government projects without giving much idea of the problems which
needed solving.  Given the growth in computer networking, a reference
is needed which lies between non-explanations ("This computer is
connected to that computer and they talk to each other.") and the
TCP/IP programming manuals.

This book fills a lot of those gaps.  After an initial introduction to
the current state of the Internet, chapters two through six give a
very simple introduction to data communications and the need therefor.
Those who have any kind of technical background may find the
explanations a touch simplistic.  With such rapid Internet growth,
however, and for those who need some level of explanation without
getting beyond their technical depth, this is likely to be very
useful.  It's easily readable.  (It's also accurate.)  Chapters seven
to ten explain the drive for, and growth of, the Internet including
excellent explanations of "why".  The basic underlying concepts of the
Internet protocols are covered in chapters eleven to seventeen, before
the remaining nine chapters describe the primary application level
tools of the system.

(Actually, I'm jumping the gun a bit here.  I've seen two drafts of
the book, but the final version isn't done yet.  The drafts I've seen
have had some problems, particularly in regard to repetition of
material and significant variation in reading level from ome section
to another.  A section addressing the concept of bandwidth,
particularly as applied to text versus sound versus video application
might also be helpful.  The explanation of the tools of the Internet
is quite reasonable, although mailing lists get dismissed very briefly
while Usenet news gets perhaps a trifle more ink than it really
deserves.  The latest version, though, shows improvement in many of
these areas, and I have great hopes for the final work.)

The problems notwithstanding, this is an important addition to the
library of Internet references.  I heartily recommend it to those
involved in network training.  To date, the primary source material
for the study of the development of the Internet, aside from the RFCs
themselves, has been the "Internet System Handbook" (cf BKINTSYS.RVW),
but it tends to be written at a technical or academic level.  For
those at the non-technical level who are wondering what the heck the
Internet is (and one of Comer's anecdotes points out the hilarious
misconceptions that are abroad), and what it all means, this is your
book.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKINTBOK.RVW  940408. Distribution
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists.

DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer [e-mail], [e-mail], Rob Slade at 1:153/733
DECUS Symposium '95, Toronto, ON, February 13-17, 1995, contact: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Organization: GVC Technologies - The Name you can Trust
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 94 11:47:11 EDT
Subject: Candadian Chat Line Case


I got a call from a British Columbia legal aid lawyer this week who
wanted some information regarding "chat" line charges on phone bills.
According to that conversation, there is a case coming up involving
substantial charges made to a chat line in the Caribbean. In effect,
these are calls to a +1 809 number, or perhaps to another country
code, with the line operator taking a cut of the international balance
of payments. This was apparently case of a child phoning these lines,
with the parent being surprised by the bill later.  BC Tel wants to
collect these charges; the subscriber is fighting this (through the
legal aid office); likely given that the calls were made without
permission and occurred when the phone was not under the subscriber's
absolute control.

I'm not a lawyer, and thus was of limited help in this matter. This
sort of case appears to favour the telco's side since the terms of
service of most Canadian telcos deem the subscriber responsible for
phone charges, regardless of who made or accepted them (at least for
Bell Canada customers).  Since the calls are in effect standard toll
calls, the telco's case may be stronger than if the calls were to 900
or 976 numbers which sometimes have refund provisions. One could dwell
on whether it is reasonable to expect that a subscriber should be
liable for tolls in cases where there is a loss of full control over
the phone. Perhaps an international challenge could be made, specifically
with how international chat lines are supported.

Information or ideas regarding similar cases, particularly of the
legal variety, should be directed to Phil Dockerill, Legal Aid, at
[phone] (voice) or fax [phone].


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If the tariffs in Canada are the same as
here -- and I suspect in this regard they are -- then the subscriber
remains responsible for the uses made of his instruments. The fact that
the owner of the telephone at one end or the other of the call gets a cut
of the action is not of consequence; proprietors of commissionable pay
telephones also get a peice of the action on 'sent paid' traffic through
their phones, whether or not there are actually coins deposited. Any person
who receives a commission would normally be expected to promote traffic
by reason of his own income. If the parents don't want to pay, then I have
to wonder where they draw the line on responsibility:  suppose it had been
a long distance call to a friend (of the child) who moved to some other
international point, and the call had lasted a couple hours?  Would they
be willing to pay for that call, or is that telco's problem also? Why does
it matter *to whom* the call was placed? As discussed in this Digest a few
days ago, to the Information Provider, the use of International DDD with
a commission on the traffic makes a lot better sense than 'traditional' 900/
976 calls with their refund provisions, etc. Plus which, blocking out 900/
976 is fairly common; a lot of people have those toll-restricted by telco,
but who is going to toll-restrict all international traffic?  <smile, albiet
a bitter one ... >.

On the other hand though, in the case of an incoming collect call, the
operator is *supposed* to get permission for the charges from an adult
person if one is present and if she can 'obviously' tell she is speaking
with a child. If it is 'obvious' that a child has answered the phone the
operator is supposed to *not* mention the collect charges, but instead say
to the child, "is an adult there I can speak with please?"; then, and
only then, when an adult has answered, she is to give her spiel about
'a collect call from whoever, will you accept the charges?' ...

Did anyone see the cartoon recently in the papers showing (in the first
panel) this dirty old man standing at a payphone on a street corner in
a trenchcoat which -- let's say courteously -- is not buttoned up all the
way; he is exposing himself. The second panel shows an operator at a switch-
board with cords and plugs; she is plugging into a connection, and appears
to be a hateful witch. The third panel shows this old lady awakened in the
middle of the night. She is standing there in a bathrobe, her hair in
curlers with the ringing phone to her ear, and a bewildered look on her
face. The message in a bubble coming out of the receiver is the operator
speaking to her: "I have an *obscene* call for anyone at this number,
will you accept the charges?".   I thought it was funny.   PAT]

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

Date: Mon, 27 Jun 94 11:27:00 PDT
From: [e-mail] (Robert L. McMillin)
Subject: Re: O.J. Simpson Case


On 21 Jun 1994 07:59:59 PST, Pat said:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: An article in the {Chicago Sun-Times}
> discussing this matter was entitled 'A Nation of Idiots'. It discussed
> the people who, with apparently nothing better to do deliberatly went
> out on the expressway in the hopes of seeing him as he drove past. The
> same article discussed 'hundreds of other idiots who drove to his house
> and clogged nearby streets -- as well as parking on his lawn and the lawns
> of neighbors, etc -- in a party-like atmosphere, in the hopes of seeing
> him come out of his house ...'  Most people there, said the article, were
> sympathetic to OJS, booing the police while cheering OJS during the time
> he was in the process of being arrested, etc.  Very sad ... PAT]

I think people will change their tunes a bit after the release of the
tape of today's 911 call of Simpson's estranged, late wife.  If you
haven't heard it, it is truly scary to hear him raving in the background,
Nicole Simpson begging the operator to send police.  Frankly, I think
he sliced her open like a Halloween pumpkin.  (Some reports indicated
she was nearly decapitated ...)

It is not looking very good for the Juice, and indeed it should not.
All the circumstantial evidence points directly back to him; should
the police find the murder weapon, it would nearly clinch the case.
But even with a preponderance of evidence, bear in mind that this is
the Los Angeles City District Attorney we are dealing with here, the
same guys who fumbled both the Rodney King and, more troubling, the
Menendez double murder case.  The LA city DA can't seem to get it
together to try high-visibility cases.  There are mumblings in the
department that maybe selecting prosecuting attorneys on the basis of
their last name or their skin color isn't such a great idea after
all ...

We are told Gil Garcetti, the present DA, is out to make a point with
Simpson.  Whether this happens or not, I doubt seriously that the Juice
will end up in the gas chamber.  We are told, incredibly, that he has
retained the services of the top plea bargainer in Los Angeles, in
addition to or supplanting his regular lawyer, Robert Shapiro.  The
trial won't happen for another year, but when it does, you may be sure
we will once more need the apt sign one Brentwood resident had stuck in
his lawn: "MEDIA CIRCUS", only this time, the arrow will point to the
municipal courts building in Santa Monica (or Beverly Hills).


Robert L. McMillin  | [e-mail] | Netcom: [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, he nearly decapitated her ... it was
a very vicious double murder. The bodies were slashed time and again. Mr.
Goldman had over *sixty* stabs in his body. Nicole Simpson appeared to
the police arriving on the scene as 'something that had been run through
a meat grinder ...'; that's how bad it was. Furthermore, according to the
coroner's report, apparently both were alive for several minutes after
the initial attacks upon them, physically unable to leave because of their
injuries and forced to watch the wounds inflicted on the other. Not content
to simply kill you see, there had to be torture involved. With their throats
slashed, neither was able to scream or call for help as they lay there
watching the carnage. I suggest that Mr. O.J. Simpson is going to be in the
penitentiary for the rest of his life, if indeed the court chooses to grant
him more mercy than he granted his victims. Personally I don't like the gas
chamber; it is torture. He ought to be humanely put to death in the same
way we would deal with any vicious animal running loose. Today in the news-
papers, the headline was that 'OJS attorney says client has alibi'. That
should be very interesting to read.

It should be remembered that in the United States, our constitution requires
that Mr. Simpson be presumed innocent of the charges lodged against him until
the government proves otherwise to the satisfaction of the court and/or jury.
The fact that he is who he is means nothing; at least it should not.

Idiots are everywhere it seems; people were at the house the other day
trying to snatch up any bloody souveniers they could find; bits of the
carpet, etc. One fellow had a carpet-cutting tool with him to remove a bit
of the carpet. They in turn were arrested for trespassing; probably none of
them have any idea what they did wrong. Over on the east coast on the other
hand, the landlord of the house where Mr. and Mrs. Bobbitt had their domestic
squabble that night has also found some notoriety for himself and his wife.
He went in and removed the blood-stained carpet in the bedroom along with
the soiled bed linens, etc ... he now has these *on display* in his home
for anyone who cares to go by and look. Entitled 'Bobbit Carpet' and 'Bobbit
Bed Linen', they have provided what he calls 'interesting conversation
pieces' for folks who drop in to visit.  Idiots everywhere.    PAT]

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End of TELECOM Digest V14 #300
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