TELECOM Digest Fri, 1 Apr 94 09:22:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 156 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson ISDN in Texas? Your Input is Requested, Please (bkravitz@vtel.com) Canada Direct to European Customers - Why Not Possible? (Francois Dufresne) Anyone Attending the APCC Show? (safer@delphi.com) RS-423/RS-422/RS-232 on a DB-25 Connector (Robert Inch Jr) UC Berkeley Short Courses on SONET/ATM and Wireless Networking (H. Stern) Alert! New CD-Rom Database a la Lotus: Household! (David S. Greenberg) Where Can I Find A Copy of Mosaic? (Ellis Claggett) Telemarketing Systems - Need Help/Suggestions (unique7@aol.com) Address of 'Planet Connect' Needed (Christian Ekhart) Wireless Standards: GSM, UPT, UMTS, and FPLMTS (Kimberly Kirlin) Privacy on Rolm Switch (Chris Michael) Hacking != Fraud (was Re: Cellular Phone Hacking) (Nick Sayer) 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. 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 compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** 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 gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. 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, 31 Mar 94 09:01:58 CST From: bkravitz@vtel.com Subject: ISDN in Texas? Your Input is Requested, Please PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION OF TEXAS REQUESTS COMMENTS ON INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK (ISDN) The Public Utility Commission of Texas (the Commission) has established a project (Project No. 12756) to examine Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) issues. The Commission seeks comments from interested parties in response to the following questions. If your answers would differ depending upon time-frame considerations, please provide answers for each time-frame. Parties are requested to organize their comments to address the specific questions asked in the order asked and are encouraged to include an executive summary emphasizing the main points of their comments to each question. Comments (13 paper copies) should contain a reference to Project No. 12756 and should be submitted to John M. Renfrow, Secretary of the Commission, Public Utility Commission of Texas, 7800 Shoal Creek Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78757, no later than April 30, 1994. Informal comments may be sent to Ms. Pam Whittington at the Commission via e-mail addressed to: pam.tel@email.puc.texas.gov Or you may call her at (512) 458-0100. 1. To which local exchange carriers (LECs) should a rule on ISDN apply? Why? 2. Should ISDN-based services be considered to be a replacement of or successor for "plain old telephone service"? Why? 3. Should all Texas customers and customer classes have access to ISDN? Why? If not, why not? What policies should be adopted by the Commission regarding customer access to ISDN? Why? 4. What are the policies which the Commission should adopt regarding the determination of costs and the pricing of ISDN and ISDN-based services? Explain why. Provide detailed cost information for each position if available. 5. Should the manner in which ISDN is deployed affect the price? How? 6. Should the Commission grant regulatory incentives, penalties, or flexibility in exchange for a LEC's provision of ISDN? Why? If yes, describe the incentives, penalties, or flexibility. 7. Does the Commission have jurisdiction to compel the provision of ISDN? Why? Explain the legal basis for your position. 8. Should the LECs be required to provide ISDN services in a manner that is conducive to competition in the provision of ISDN? Why? If so, how? 9. What policies should the Commission adopt regarding the deployment of ISDN? Should the Commission directly mandate deployment, require deployment to be driven by customer demand, or require deployment in some other manner? Why? Describe in detail how. 10. Describe in detail how these policies regarding deployment should be implemented and enforced. 11. If customer driven demand deployment was ordered by the Commission, should the trigger for deployment be thirty customer requests for ISDN per central office? Why? If not, why not, and provide evidence to support your position. If thirty requests is not the appropriate number, explain what is. 12. Should LEC compliance with deployment requirements be monitored on a periodic basis by the Commission? If so, explain in detail how and why. 13. What are the appropriate time frames for completion of deployment of ISDN in a LEC's service territory and in the entire state respectively? Why? 14. What are the technological options of the LECs with respect to the system upgrades necessary to deploy ISDN within their service areas? Explain in detail how the costs should be determined and reported to the Commission. 15. Are there any other policies, aspects, technical characteristics, costs, or obstacles (e.g. switch architecture, software, or SS7) regarding deployment that the Commission should consider? If yes, list and describe each and explain why. Provide detailed cost information for each item if available. 16. What policies regarding ISDN standards should be adopted by the Commission? Why? 17. To what standards (e.g. National ISDN, ITU-T standards, etc.) should the Commission require ISDN be deployed and provided? Why? 18. What specific service capabilities (e.g. bearer services, teleservices, supplementary services, etc.) should be required to be provided to customers? Why? 19. How should the policies regarding ISDN be implemented by the Commission? Why? If tariff filings were required, what should they contain? Why? 20. What end-user applications (e.g. telemedicine, distance learning, telecommuting, and video conferencing) using ISDN are available? Will these applications be available using technology other than ISDN? Should the Commission consider this in its rulemaking? Why? 21. Does Texas need ISDN to compete with other states? Why? 22. Would the widespread availability of ISDN have a beneficial impact (e.g., through telecommuting, video conferencing, etc.) on Texas' compliance with the Clean Air Act? Explain how. 23. Are there any other aspects or characteristics of providing ISDN that should be considered by the Commission? If yes, describe each and explain why. Parties interested in providing additional comments are welcome to do so. The Commission also welcomes data and documentation supporting the parties' comments. General Counsel and staff will review the comments and use them in preparing a recommendation to the Commission. Comments (13 paper copies) should contain a reference to Project No. 12756 and should be submitted to John M. Renfrow, Secretary of the Commission, Public Utility Commission of Texas, 7800 Shoal Creek Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78757, by April 30, 1994. Informal comments may be sent to Ms. Pam Whittington at the Commission via e-mail addressed to: pam.tel@email.puc.texas.gov Or you may call her at (512) 458-0100. ------------------------------ From: Francois.Dufresne@isa.unil.ch (Francois Dufresne) Subject: Canada Direct to European Customers - Why Not Possible? Date: 31 Mar 1994 13:42:47 GMT Organization: Cypherpunks Hi there! Does anyone know why Teleglobe Canada can not offer the service Canada Direct to European customers? Are there legal reasons? Agreements with other countries? Is it because it belongs to Bell Canada? I would be very interested to have access to this service since their rates are much better than those of the Swiss PTT. Thanks in advance. Francois Dufresne Ecole des HEC, University of Lausanne, Switzerland e-mail: Francois.Dufresne@isa.unil.ch tel.: 41.21/692.4022 apres/after: 1994.04.05 : 41.21/692.33.74 fax : 41.21/692.4193 41.21/692.33.05 ------------------------------ From: safer@delphi.com Subject: Anyone Attending the APCC Show? Date: Thu, 31 Mar 94 23:05:56 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Is anyone out there going to the APCC show in Vegas? ------------------------------ From: transpak@netcom.com (Robert Inch Jr) Subject: RS-423/RS-422/RS-232 on a DB-25 Connector Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 04:32:22 GMT Here at work, we have a sparc 1, and an hp laserjet 4. The sparc manual says it uses rs-423 to talk to printers on the serial line, and the hp has rs-232 and rs-422, both using db-25 connectors (the sparc and the printer). When I print I get 22 error message which means protocol confusion. So, I think it is true that rs-423 and rs-422 could not talk since rs-422 uses balanced send and receive lines or whatever (send and send-inverse), but rs-423 I think uses equivelant or one to one matchable lines. So, my questions is what is the pin layout for rs-423 over a db-25 coming out of a sparc, and can I connect it to the printer as if it were rs-232? ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Courses on SONET/ATM and Wireless Networking Date: 31 Mar 1994 01:52:53 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces 3 Short Courses on Communications Technology SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (April 18-19, 1994) It is widely accepted that future broadband networks will be based on the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards and the ATM (Asynchronous transfer Mode) technique. This course is an in-depth examination of the fundamental concepts and the implementation issues for development of future high-speed networks. Topics include: Broadband ISDN Transfer Protocol, high speed computer/network interface (HiPPI), ATM switch architectures, ATM network congestion/flow control, VLSI designs in SONET/ATM networks. Lecturer: H. Jonathan Chao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brooklyn Polytechnic University. Dr. Chao holds more than a dozen patents and has authored over 40 technical publications in the areas of ATM switches, high-speed computer communications, and congestion/flow control in ATM networks. GIGABIT/SEC DATA AND COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS: Internetworking, Signaling and Network Management (April 20-21, 1994) This short course aims to provide a general understanding of the key issues needed to design and implement gigabit local and wide area networks. The topics are designed to compliment those covered in the SONET/ATM-Based Broadband Networks course (above). Topics include: technology drivers, data protocols, signaling, network management, internetworking and applications. Specific issues addressed include TCP/IP on ATM networks, design of high performance network interfaces, internetworking ATM networks with other network types, and techniques for transporting video over gigabit networks. Lecturer: William E. Stephens, Ph.D., Director, High-Speed Switching and Storage Technology Group, Applied Research, Bellcore. Dr. Stephens has over 40 publications and one patent in the field of optical communications. He has served on several technical program committees, including IEEE GLOBECOM and the IEEE Electronic Components Technology Conference, and has served as Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. PERSONAL (WIRELESS) COMMUNICATION NETWORKS: Cellular Systems, Wireless Data Networks, and Broadband Wireless Access (April 20-22, 1994) This comprehensive course focuses on principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, equipment, implementation, public policy, and evolving trends in wireless networks. Topics include: modulation, coding, and signal processing; first generation systems; second generation systems; broadband networks; third generation systems; and applications and technology trends. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. For more information (complete course descriptions, outlines, instructor bios, etc.) contact: Harvey Stern U.C. Berkeley Extension/Southbay 800 El Camino Real Ste. 150 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel: (415) 323-8141 Fax: (415) 323-1438 ------------------------------ From: mgreeny@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (David S. Greenberg) Subject: Alert! New CD-Rom Database a la Lotus: Household! Date: 31 Mar 1994 09:48:27 -0600 Hi all, just thought I'd let everyone out there know that I just received in my daily pile of junk mail yet another company (which shall be named shortly ...) which has decided that they have the right to sell ****YOUR**** name and address AND PHONE NUMBER on CD ROM! Not only are they doing this for your home, but also for businesses as well! They pull no punches and have an ad which has several subheadings: "The Hook", "The Line", "The Sell", "The Close" -- they designed the paperwasting junk mail flyer for resellers. At any rate, I called to protest this unlicensed and unwanted use of my name/address and was told by the wonderful person I spoke to (after being forced to wait on hold with a joyful voice mail system for several tortous minutes) that "she'd certainly pass my request along". All I've got to say is that they'll be getting a FAX from me shortly and from my lawyers as well. I'd encourage EVERYONE out there reading this to call and protest this as well -- let your friends know and have them call as well. If you recall, the only reason that Lotus dropped their moronic Household CDROM was because they received 20,000 letters/calls requesting removal from the database. Lotus LEARNED THE HARD WAY HOW TO ALIENATE YOUR CUSTOMER BASE -- MAYBE THIS COMPANY NEEDS A GOOD KICK IN THE *&*(& AS WELL... CAll and let them know just how you feel about this sort of crapola: ProCD, Inc. 8 Doaks Lane, Little Harbor Marblehead, MA 01945-9866 1-800-992-3766 (800-99-CD-ROM) FAX: 1-617 631 9229 For DOS machines only ... worst of all, this product allows UNLIMITED downloading/searching of the database -- no metering, no extra fees so it encourages people to use it (or abuse it...). CALL NOW! Protect your right to privacy! Stop the abuse! Microcomputer Support Specialist, Student Residential Programs, WIU, Macomb, IL 61455 Internet: mgreeny@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu, greeny@srp.wiu.bgu.edu GEnie: GREENY (once a month, Internet's preferred) AOL: GREENY1@AOL.COM (really infrequently....use the internet!) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The thing is, they *do* have the right to see compiled listings -- as did Lotus or as does anyone else -- if they wish to do so. If a telephone book containing alphabetical listings is not illegal then neither is a consolidated listing of several telephone books made into one. Neither is the same thing when the medium happens to be CD Rom. Lotus decided it was in their best business interests to discontinue the sale of the product when sufficient numbers of people who expressed interest in all their products were angered by this. I think what you will find in this case however is that the company in question is merely a list seller. They specialize in lists for other companies to purchase, and they are not going to be impressed very much one way or the other by consumers, per se. Lists like this in all sorts of formats (both alphabetical by name and numerically by street address and/or phone number) have been compiled for over half a century. Haines of Cleveland, Ohio and R.L. Polk of Detroit were the pioneers at this, starting back in the 1920's. All of a sudden because the medium has changed (from great big hardover books with several thousand pages each in several volumes) to CD Rom the complaints become more vocal. Why? Is it because the ease and availability in obtaining the information has become greater? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ellis Claggett Subject: Where Can I Find A Copy of Mosaic? Date: Thu, 31 Mar 94 09:14:00 PST Hello, I recently heard of a product called Mosaic which acts as a front end for Internet access. Could some one provide me additional information on this product an where I might locate a copy on the internet. Your help will greatly appreciated. Ellis R. Claggett The Travelers claggette@bsp03c.primerica.com ------------------------------ From: unique7@aol.com Subject: Telemarketing Systems - Need Help/Suggestions Date: 31 Mar 1994 00:49:03 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) I am trying to put together a telemarketing function for a small start-up software firm. To facilitate this I am looking for any information I can on software to support the telemarketing function by doing things such as: tracking phone calls, tracking customer leads (including automatic "tickler" call reminders), interfacing with an email system to alert other parts of the organization of customer issues that might be of concern to them (e.g. reporting a bug to engineering), etc ... Does anyone have any thoughts on what systems might do this and where I could get info. Also can anyone recommend any journals that I might peruse to get a better handle on these products. Thanks in advance. I can be reached directly at unique7@aol.com. Marc ------------------------------ From: ekhart@fochsg01.tu-graz.ac.at (Christian Ekhart) Subject: Address of 'Planet Connect' Needed Date: 31 Mar 1994 12:16:41 GMT Organization: Graz University of Technology, Austria Hi, I need the address and fax number of a company called Planet Connect. They offer direct satellite uplinks at data rates of 19.2 kbit/s for about $500/month. Is that correct and is this possible with connects Europe-USA? This would be very cheap leased lines. One idea (grin) would be to link this line to the US-phone system (whereas only 9.6 kbit/s would be needed for compressed voice data) and to obtain that way an US-phone-line routed to Europe ;-) Are there any other providers for reasonably priced direct satellite uplinks. Thank you! Christian Ekhart University of Technology voice: +43-316-8738247 Department of Organic Chemistry fax: +43-316-811057 Stremayrgasse 16, 8010 Graz email: ekhart@fochsg01.tu-graz.ac.at Austria - Europe fidoNet: 2:316/3.0, DTP-Mailbox ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 13:09:54 -0600 From: Kimberly Kirlin Subject: Wireless Standards: GSM, UPT, UMTS, & FPLMTS Organization: Texas Metronet, Internet for the Individual 214-705-2917 (info) These are statements that I have taken from articles about GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications) in telecom trade journals: "... no one yet knows how first generation digital will mesh or evolve into PCS/PCN or from there into wideband FPLMTS or UMTS." GSM Phase 2 will provide for the "integration of GSM in UPT to make provision for UPT subscribers and services through GSM networks and vise versa." In fact in many articles there is reference to the eventual evolution of second generation digital cellular into UPT or UMTS or FPLMTS. FPLMTS - Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunications Systems (I think); UMTS - Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems; UPT - Universal Personal Telecommunications. My QUESTION is: What is the difference between UPT, UMTS, and FPLMTS? From what I have read they all refer to having a personal number which is unique to each subscriber, which can be registered on any terminal on any network, fixed or mobile. And what makes these technologies so different from what GSM is trying to accomplish with the use of a SIM card? Any input to this debate is greatly appreciated! Kim Kirlin University of Colorado Telecommunications Program kirlin@metronet.com ------------------------------ From: cm@nwu.edu (Chris Michael) Subject: Privacy on Rolm switch Date: 31 Mar 94 23:18:20 GMT Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL USA Reply-To: cm@nwu.edu (Chris Michael) My company has a Rolm 8000 (9000?) (something) switch. It's configured so that certain supervisors can monitor conversations on certain exten- sions by hitting the right key on their phone. This is all above board and well understood by everyone. There is a persistent rumor, however, that these people can monitor *all* conversations. The person who manages the switch believes this to be true, although she's never configured anything like that. The Rolm service people say it can't be done. Is it possible? If it were, could it be hidden from the switch console? christopher michael, george s. may international, 708-825-8806 x 395 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Persons with the ability to monitor the calls can probably do it on all extensions except that possibly there is some class of service higher than theirs and they are unable to monitor the extensions 'above them' in class of service. But if they can monitor anyone in class of service 'below them' then they can monitor all such lines. I've seen that feature on a couple of Rolm systems. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 16:47:26 -0800 From: Nick Sayer Subject: Hacking != Fraud (was Re: Cellular Phone Hacking) Might I interject at this point to mention that EVERYONE in this thread so far has mis-used the term 'hacking'? Until I saw the reference to cloning phones, I thought the original poster might have wanted tips on NAM programming his phone to roam differently, or perhaps to do any of the other things that are perfectly legitimate ways to alter the behavior of ones phone that have nothing at all to do with fraud of any sort. The term has, unfortunately, been hijacked and now those of us who hack (traditional definition) are left linguistically orphaned by the prevalance of the incorrect definition. Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' PGP 2.2 key and geek code via finger [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Programming the NAM in a phone is not the same thing as duplicating the ESN. The only people who have permission to install, record, or change an ESN are the manufacturers of cell phones. Everyone else, keep away! That's the law. You are correct about how the words 'hacker' and 'hacking' have been confiscated. It reminds me of the word 'gay' and how traditionally it always meant happy, cheerful or merry. Now if the word is used, it is always taken to refer to persons who are, well, gay ... times change and so do definitions of words. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #156 ****************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------