TELECOM Digest Wed, 7 Sep 94 14:14:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 361 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson First French Book on Internet (Jean-Bernard Condat) France Numbering Changes (Dave Leibold) Disaster Discussion Groups (Dave Sellers) New Wireless Journal; Call For Papers (Chester A. Ruszczyk) Looking For CLASS Serial Port Device (Dan Dodson) Modems in Germany (Tom Satterfield) Paging Systems and Hardware (orfanosg@aol.com) 1957 Note on Pagers (Carl Moore) Radius Pager Question (rosman@swri.edu) Mitel SX200 Light Pinouts (Joe Terry) Forcing Calling Card Provider to Refund Credit Balance (Eric DeMund) On-line Information About ISDN Available Free via WWW (Daniel R. Kegel) New Fiber Service in Oklahoma (Wes Leatherock) New Area Code in East TN (David Marks) 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: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * 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: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** 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: 07 Sep 1994 11:55:47 GMT From: JeanBernard_Condat@Email.FranceNet.fr (JeanBernard Condat) Organization: FranceNet Reply-To: JeanBernard_Condat@Email.FranceNet.fr Subject: First French Book on Internet New Book in French Language: INTERNET Internet is now available from Editions JCI, Inc. (2700 Joliette #201, Montreal, Quebec, H1W 3G9, Canada) The *Internet* book goes beyond all business school case studies and descriptions of Internet tools, teaching French readers how to effectively use the Internet to boost sales and cut costs. Through real world examples and expert advice, you'll learn how to use the Internet to build European/international market share, track down business leads, communicate with colleagues, search online databases, provide cost- effective customer support and access time-critical information. You'll also explore the many business opportunities now available on the Internet and get tips on shopping for the best deal on Internet access and cyber-mail space. Just as importantly you'll learn about the culture of the Internet, find out what type of advertising is acceptable and can generate a positive response, and which forms are verboten and can provoke community hostility (the famous 'netiquette'). The *Internet* also contain detailed descriptions of the author's first-hand and experienced experience in doing business on the Internet. Co-author Jean-Bernard Condat is a veteran information science writer and publisher of electronic newsletter that tracks trends and developments in electronic newspaper and magazine publishing. Co-author Nicolas Pioch is the conceptor of WebLouvre--Paris, the first consulted WWW in Europe (http://www.enst.fr/~pioch). Here's the basic information: Jean-Bernard Condat & Nicolas Pioch, "Internet", J.C.I. Inc., Oct. 1994, 224 pages, 195 FF (CAN$29.95), ISBN 2-921599-06-6. Table des Matieres: 1. Preface; 2. Premieres notions; 3. Documentation Internet; 4. Le courrier electronique; 5. Smileys (emoticons); 6. telnet; 7. Formats de fichiers; 8. FTP; 9. Archie; 10. Prospero; 11. Usenet/newsgroups; 12. Netiquette; 13. WAIS; 14. Gopher; 15. WWW; 16. cryptographie; 17. Adresses utiles; 18. MacTCP/PPP; Index. Note that you can receive more information on this publication by ordering it direct from: - Diffulivres, Canada: +1 514 738 2911, fax: +1 514 738 8512; - Distique, France: +33 37 34 84 84, fax: +33 37 30 78 65; - Context SA, Belgium: +32 41 40 19 82, fax: +32 41 490 19 82; - Micro-Distribution, Switzerland: +41 227843482, fax +41 227840945. Don't hesitate to contact us for more information on Internet ... in France. Jean-Bernard Condat, 47 rue des Rosiers, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Tel: +33147874083, Fax: +33149450129, Alphapage: +3336605050 code 0030006 Email: JeanBernard_Condat@Email.FranceNet.FR *or* an113309@anon.penet.fi ------------------------------ From: dave.leibold@gvc.com Organization: GVC Technologies - The Name you can Trust. Public ACCESS Date: Wed, 07 Sep 94 05:59:11 -0400 Eastern DST Subject: France Numbering Changes France will be changing its numbering plan to have an area code for all regions, effective in 1995. The area codes (as posted before) will be: 1 Ile-de-France (Paris, ...) 2 Northeast France 3 Southeast France 4 Southwest France 5 Northwest France The change also apparently means dialing will be done as 0 + area code + number, rather than the 16+ that was in use. However, there are toll-free numbers with the format 05+number. What will be happening to those numbers if 05 means calls to Northwest France? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 07:57:30 EDT From: sellers@on.bell.ca (Dave Sellers) Subject: Disaster Discussion Groups Question folks, Is there a discission group for disaster planning? I'm sure businesses and Telco's all have some plans, and would like to pass ideas on from time to time. I haven't been able to locate such discussions except from time to time in this Digest. The recent report here of the fire in the telco building has raised my interest in this. If there is one, please direct me to it. Thanks in advance ... Dave Sellers, Managing Consultant Bell SYGMA - Telecom Solutions Floor 17 Grey, 160 Elgin St. Ottawa, Ont., Canada, K2P 2C4 sellers@ON.Bell.ca VOICE= (613) 785-2694 IIS= SELLERS ENVOY= DA.SELLERS ------------------------------ From: ruszczyk@risky.ecs.umass.edu (Chester A Ruszczyk) Subject: New Wireless Journal; Call For Papers Date: 2 Sep 1994 15:41:02 GMT Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst Editor-in-Chief: I. Chlamtac, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003, USA ANNOUNCEMENTS AND CALL FOR PAPERS for forthcoming special issues: (If interested in receiving the full call for paper contact: ruszczyk@bruha.ecs.umass.edu) ****** SPECIAL ISSUES ****** Title: Issues in Wireless Multimedia Networking Guest Editors: Georges Makhoul (georges@ctr.columbia.edu) Zhensheng Zhang (zhang@ctr.columbia.edu) The Center for Telecommunications Research, Columbia University, Rm 801, 530 W, 120th Street New York, NY 10027-6699, USA Title: Error Control in Wireless Packet Networks Guest Editors: Magda El Zarki, Department of Electrical Engineering University of Pennsylvania 200S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA Sanjay Gupta Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Illinois Institute of Technology 3301 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60616, USA Title: Performance Evaluation Methods for Wireless Networks Guest editors: Stephen S. Rappaport (rappaport@sbee.sunysb.edu) Thomas G. Robertazzi (tom@sbee.sunysb.edu) Department of Electrical Engineering SUNY at Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA Title: Routing in Mobile Communications Networks Guest editors: Martha Steenstrup (msteenst@bbn.com) Ram Ramanathan (ramanath@bbn.com) Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. Title: Hybrid and Satellite Communication Networks Guest editor: Anthony Ephremides (tony@eng.umd.edu) Univ. of Maryland College Park, MD 20742, USA Title: Channel Access in Wireless Networks Guest editors: Ioannis Stavrakakis (ioannis@cdsp.neu.edu) Lazaros Merakos (merakos@neu.edu) Title: Free-Space Optical Local-Area Networks Guest editors: Joe Kahn (jmk@eecs.berkeley.edu) Georgia Inst. of Technology John Barry (barry@ee.gatech.edu) Univ. of California at Berkeley ****** JOURNAL DESCRIPTION ****** Aims & Scope: The wireless communication revolution is bringing fundamental changes to data networking, telecommunication, and is making integrated networks a reality. By freeing the user from the cord, personal communications networks, wireless LAN's, mobile radio networks and cellular systems, harbor the promise of fully distributed mobile computing and communications, any time, anywhere. Numerous wireless services are also maturing and are poised to change the way and scope of communication. The journal will fill an existing gap by focusing on the networking and user aspects of this field. It will provide a single common and global forum for archival value contributions documenting these fast growing areas of interest. The journal will publish refereed articles dealing with research, experience and management issues of wireless networks. Its aim will be to allow the reader to benefit from experience, problems and solutions described. Regularly addressed issues will include: Network architectures for Personal Communications Systems, wireless LAN's, radio, tactical and other wireless networks, design and analysis of protocols, network management and network performance, network services and service integration, nomadic computing, internetworking with cable and other wireless networks, standardization and regulatory issues, specific system descriptions, applications and user interface, and enabling technologies for wireless networks. The journal will also publish special issues devoted to topics of particular interest to the readers. Proposals for special issues can be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief. Article submission: Manuscripts must be submitted in five copies to the Editor-In-Chief: Professor I. Chlamtac, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003, USA All manuscripts will be refereed. The final decision of publication will be taken by the Editor-In-Chief. Manuscripts for publication must be written in English and typed double-spaced on one side of the page only with wide margin. They must begin with the title, the authors' names and addresses, and a self-contained abstract. The same manuscript must not be submitted, in any language, for publication elsewhere. The copyright of a paper accepted for publication transfers automatically to the Publisher. 25 reprints will be made available free of charge to authors. After acceptance of their paper, authors are invited to send a diskette with the TEX (or LATEX or AMS-TEX) source of their paper together with a hard copy including the letter of acceptance to the Editor-in-Chief. Editorial Board Anthony S. Acampora (Columbia University, New York, USA) Hamid Ahmadi (IBM, Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights NY, USA) Ian Akyildiz (Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta GA, USA) Robert R. Boorstyn (Polytechnic Inst. of NY, New York, USA) Jin-Fu Chang (National Taiwan University, Taiwan) Magda El Zarki (Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA) Anthony Ephremides (Univ. of Maryland, College Park MD, USA) Luigi Fratta (Polytecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy) Robert Gallager (MIT, Cambridge MA, USA) Bezalel Gavish (Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, USA) Mario Gerla, (UCLA, Los Angeles CA, USA) Zygmunt Haas (AT&T, Holmdel NJ, USA) Pierre Humblet (Eurocom Institute, Sophia Antipolis, France) Chih-Lin-I (AT&T, Holmdel NJ, USA) Leonid Kazovsky (Stanford, Stanford CA, USA) Shay Kutten (IBM, Yorktown Heights NY , USA) Leonard Kleinrock (UCLA, Los Angeles CA, USA) Hisashi Kobayashi (Princeton University, Princeton NJ, USA) Victor Li (USC, Los Angeles CA, USA) Jon Mark (Univ. of Waterloo, Waterloo ONT, Canada) Laszlo Pap (Tech. U. Budapest, Budapest, Hungary) P. Papantoni-Kazakos (University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) Raymond Pickholtz (George Washington Univ., Washington DC, USA) Stephen S. Rappaport (SUNY, Stony Brook NY, USA) Tom Robertazzi (SUNY, Stony Brook NY, USA Raphael Rom (Technion, Haifa, Israel) Izhak Rubin (UCLA, Los Angeles, USA) Krishan Sabnani (AT&T, Murray Hill NJ, USA) William Sander (Army Research Office, NC, USA) M. Schwartz (Columbia Univ, New York NY, USA) Nachum Shacham (SRI Intnl, Menlo Park CA, USA) Moshe Sidi (Technion, Haifa, Israel) Khosrow Sohraby (Univ. of Missouri at KC, MO, USA) F.A. Tobagi (Stanford Univ., Stanford CA, USA) Andrew J. Viterbi (Qualcomm Inc., San Diego CA, USA) ------------------------------ From: dandodson@aol.com (Dan Dodson) Subject: Looking For CLASS Serial Port Device Date: 7 Sep 1994 11:31:06 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) I'm looking to OEM an inexpensive CLASS device to support Caller Line ID and autodialing from a PC. We will bundle it with our Mac and PC software. A driver will be written to integrate the capabilities of the device into our software product. I'm with a large telecommunications firm and would appreciate all correspondence via E-Mail to dandodson@aol.com. Thansks, Dan ------------------------------ From: ladybug040@aol.com (Ladybug040) Subject: Modems in Germany Date: 7 Sep 1994 09:56:11 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) please reply to ******* satterfield@conti.de Hi I'm an American recently assigned to Germany for my company for one year. As I have not yet been able to reestablish direct Internet access this is being posted on my behalf by a friend. The subject of this message is the reason why I do not yet have direct net access. Anyway, after resolving all sorts of problems with getting my American computer operational here in Germany (problems mostly related to different electrical standards) my computer is now working more or less satisfactorily EXCEPT that I can't get the modem to connect through the German phone system. I need some clues and advice on what to try to resolve this and have a few questions. Can I expect any problems with operating an American modem with the German phone system? If I replace my modem should I replace it with one of a German source or can I order one from America? Will a German modem work with my American computer? Will it work with the American phone system? The initial error I was recieving from my modem is "no dial tone" yet the phone appears to be working fine otherwise. Are my problems software or hardware related or some combination thereof? (operator error?) Please, I am suffering severe online withdrawal and have GOT to get reconnected!! Any advice or suggestions gratefully appreciated. Please reply to: satterfield@conti.de Thank you, Tom Satterfield ------------------------------ From: orfanosg@aol.com (Orfanosg) Subject: Paging Systems and Hardware Date: 7 Sep 1994 15:55:04 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Can anyone provide (or tell me where to get) info on paging systems and hardware? I am looking for full system configuration/tech. specs/pricing and regulatory info. Thanks for your help. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 10:24:50 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: 1957 Note on Pagers Wilmington (Del.) Morning News, Tuesday, April 9, 1957; page 27, column 6 of 8 CALLING DR. KILDARE. BOSTON (AP) -- A $10,000 doctor-radio paging system has been installed at Beth Israel Hospital. Pocket radios are now standard equipment for all physicians serving the hospital. A doctor's code number is beeped to the radio clipped to his pocket. This signal comes from a transmitter installed near the telephone switchboard. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My first experience with pagers was around 1960 or so when I was working at the University of Chicago and they installed a paging system in the hospitals. My first personal pager was a few years after that when Illinois Bell started selling a service called 'Page Boy'. It was just a beeper without voice or text capability. Around 1970 or so I got one of the (then) new 'talking pagers'. On those the caller's voice actually came out through the speaker. Everyone had to dial the same seven digit number if they had touchtone service, and then enter the five digit number of the paging unit. After a 'beep tone' they had ten seconds to record a message which was then relayed over airwaves to the pager a few seconds to a minute later as air traffic permitted. After getting the message you had to press a little button on the unit to squelch it again; otherwise you got to listen to all the other pages which followed yours, along with dead air (what little there was of it). There were only a couple of answering services in Chicago which offered paging services. If your answering service did not offer paging, then they brokered it for you from an answering service which did. I subscribed to Annex Answering Service for a couple of years and they had pagers. Their antenna was on the roof of the Chicago Temple Building, which was also the building where Annex Answering Service was located. There was only one frequency for all voice paging units, and it was quite busy. If you left your unit unsquelched just to listen, there was rarely any dead air except maybe in the middle of the night. The answering service operators would never shut up, and they had to contend for air time with each other and with the general public using touchtone phones to page directly. Rotary dial users called a certain number which went to Rogers Radio Paging and passed their message to operators who repeated it over the air for them. The frequency was so busy that sometimes pages were delayed 5-10 minutes in getting out; even the ones sent directly via touchtone phone in the caller's voice would get backlogged in the machine, which itself contended with the live operators ... and those women were fast at seizing the circuit going across town to Annex's tower on the Chicago Temple Building downtown. To make it worse, the frequency was shared by two mobile phone users who had some type of radio equipment long pre-dating cellular phones. There were just two of them, but they would sometimes makes calls from their car and tie up the frequency for five minutes or so. I gave myself a test page one day and five minutes later it had not come through the unit I was carrying, so I opened the squelch to see what was going on. This guy with his car phone was talking! He gave some sort of signal to the answering service serving him that he was finished. The operator came on, "This is Rogers are you clear?" No he says, I need to make another quick call. He passed that number to her and she dialed it then must have gotten busy and forgotten to supervise the call, since the number turned out to be disconnected and an intercept recording came on. He hung up right away, but the answering service operator forgot all about him and that blasted intercept recording played for five minutes over and over and over .... 'the number you have dialed is not in service please check the number and dial again.' Someone must have called from one of the other answering services and told them to pull the cord down; after endless repeats of the 'not in service' recording all of a sudden it stopped and a woman's voice came over the pager, "This is Rogers are you clear?" and getting no response after asking a second time saying "Rogers is clear, KOH761 the Rogers Telephone Answering Service is clear" ... Of course *instantly* it was seized again and the long backlog of pages pushed through the circuit. All the operators from Annex, General Telephone Answering Service, Illinois Bell and everyone else with pager subscribers started their stuff moving; stuff that had been sitting for 15-20 minutes in the queue waiting. My test page came through about 15 minutes after that. The operators all had a little light on their switchboard which illuminated when the circuit to the tower was in use. They'd sit there staring at that little light; when it went out the one with the fastest response to the keys on her switchboard was the winner and got her page out next. The automated machine for touchtone subscribers was the fastest of all. It always got the circuit first if it had stuff waiting. Some days the system did not work right at all; in theory the person getting the circuit to the tower excluded everyone else in the process; if that did not work the answering services would keep a radio turned on listening for dead air to get their chance; but the operators did not care. Very discourteous at times and overwhelmed with pages, they would walk all over each other's transmissions; some would just open the key and start talking. Individual, or DID numbers for pagers did not start until sometime in the 1980's. Before then it all went through answering services on a single switchboard number at each service, and until the middle or late 1970's to a tower-in-common shared by all and actually owned by Annex, at least here in Chicago. The individual units we carried weighed about five pounds and were about six inches long by two inches or so wide. We used big Ni-Cad batteries that sort of resembled 'C' batteries today. You put the unit in the charger at night and got 10-12 hours of use the next day provided you did not leave the squelch open all the time to snoop on other subscribers and the messages they were getting. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 8:19:26 CDT From: ROsman@swri.edu Subject: Radius Pager Question > it has volume and on/off and stuff. But one thing which I couldin't > figure out, is why it has this white button, and when you press it, > you hear everything (static when nothing is being broadcast, or tones > then voice when a page is going on) on the freq that the crystal in > the pager is tuned to. What would the point of having a button where > you could hear any page be? You have to hold down the button and you > hear whatever is on the frequency that it is tuned to, and when you I think that the pager you reference opens the speaker for a fixed time period and the button allows the user to hear long pages. In the early days of paging your pager beeped and you had to hold a button down to hear the page. Users got in the habit of using that button for setting volume, too. Later (still first generation) pagers would beep, and then open the speaker automatically. The button then did double duty, open the speaker (squelch, if you like) and reset the circuit closing the speaker. Later generation pagers auto-reset after a fixed (often programmable) time. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: On ours, the speaker would stay open forever, unsquelched once the answering service set it off until/unless the subscriber pressed the button to silence it again. Once I was riding home from downtown in a cab and forgot my pager which I left laying on the back seat of the cab. I no sooner got in my house than I realized what I had done. Solution: called the pager and gave a message saying, "cab driver! please drive back here immediatly with the pager and I will pay the fare for your trip." I called the pager two or three times with that message and sure enough in five minutes or so the cab driver pulled up to my door. The answering service contracts all warned against leaving the speaker open to monitor others. It was, they said, in violation of the tariff to spy on other subscribers and cause for your service to be terminated. PAT] ------------------------------ From: joet@xmission.com (Joe Terry) Subject: Mitel SX200 Light Pinouts Date: 7 Sep 1994 10:34:27 -0600 Organization: XMission Public Access Internet (801-539-0900) I am in the process of moving a Mitel PABX this weekend and nee some pinout/configurations information to hook up telephones, T1's, etc. Is there anyone out there in netland that could fax or email me some information or perhaps give me some phone assisstance. Please let me know via email. Thank you very much. Joe Terry Sandy, Utah joet@xmission.com ------------------------------ From: ead@netcom.com Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 10:11:16 -0700 Subject: Forcing Calling Card Provider to Refund Credit Balance Reply-To: Organization: Netcom Folks, I've got a credit balance on one of my long distance calling cards. The calling card provider all but refuses to refund this balance to me. I have not used this card in at least a month, and don't intend to use it until they refund this balance. They're located in Ohio and I'm located in California. Which state's public utilities commission do I file a complaint with? I'm certain this practice must be in violation of their tariff, if not the law. (They say they will not refund the balance unless I close the account.) Thank you, Eric De Mund [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Before complaining, check your contract with that carrier and see if they are required to refund credits on still open accounts. Under the rules, they may not have to. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dank@alumni.caltech.edu (Daniel R. Kegel) Subject: On-Line Info About ISDN Available Free via WWW Date: 7 Sep 1994 23:38:47 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Those interested in ISDN might find my WWW page a good place to start when looking for vendors, carriers, or technical info. You'll need Internet access and Mosaic or any other Web browser; it's at http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/. Enjoy, Dan ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Wed, 07 Sep 94 08:50:36 Subject: New Fiber Service in Oklahoma {The Daily Oklahoman} (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) for September 3, 1994, reports that another competitive access provider is building a fiber optic network in Oklahoma City. Brooks Fiber Properties, Inc., of St. Louis said it is building a fiber optic network of 33 route miles that will connect to more than 50 Oklahoma City office buildings. Brooks Fiber joins Cox Fibernet and Southwestern Bell Telephone Company as access providers in Oklahoma City. Cox Fibernet, a division of Cox Cable of Oklahoma City, a cable television company, announced earlier this week that it would offer competitive access to long distance companies over its fiber optic network. Brooks Fiber said it should have its Oklahoma City network completed by the fourth quarter of this year. It said it is currently operating or building competitive access networks in Springfield, Mass.; Hartford, Conn.; Sacramento and San Jose, Calif., and Providence, R.I. The general manager of Brooks Fiber's Oklahoma City operation will be Chris Hugman, who the company said has seven years of experience with WilTel and Southwestern Bell Corp. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu ------------------------------ From: tijc02!djm408@uunet.uu.net (David Marks) Subject: New Area Code in East TN Organization: Siemens Industrial Automation, Johnson City TN Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 12:38:27 GMT I recently posted to this group an article concerning a change to the 615 area code wherein East TN was being split off to a new code to be implemented in 1996. Details were sketchy and the proposed area code numbers were either 931 or 249. Well, as reported this morning (9/2) in the {Johnson City Press}, the decision has been made: the new area code for East TN will be 423. It was decided that 249 was "too close to some exchanges in Kingsport" and that 931 "could be confused with the 901 area code for Memphis". The new area code will take effect September 1, 1995, and there will be a permissive dialing period where both the old and new codes will be in effect until February 1, 1996, after which only the new code will be in effect. Middle TN will continue to use 615. Exact boundaries were not stated, but almost certainly Knoxville and the Tri-Cities of Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol will in the 423 area code. This is the second area code change announced for this region: SW VA is being split off from 703 to 540 as of 6/95. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #361 ******************************