TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Apr 94 02:07:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 178 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Study Hi-Tech With George Gilder (Mike W. Perry) Nicholas Negroponte to Give Keynote at ICMCS 94 May 17 (John F. Buford) Question About Digital Telephony and Delayed Dial Tone (Kris) T1 & T3 Lines Number of Connections (Greg C. Meador) Questions on Fractional T-1 Service (Mike Foltz) Collect Call Business (Judith Oppenheimer) International Wireless Services (Alex Cena) AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted (Megan Kelleher) Occupied Territories Telecom (Miguel Cruz) PacBell Billing Exceptions to Cell, Page, Other WAC Subs (Bradley Allen) Phoning Cuba (Bubbette McLeod) Pricing on Northern Telecom SL/1 Switch (Paul Costello) Need TIE UMT-32 KSU Series 2 Information (Alan York) X.25 Card Required (Ray Wong) IEEE Symposium on Planning and Design of Broadband Networks (Ian Easson) Re: Source For T1 CSU/DSU? (Christopher G. Oxenreider) Re: Answering Machine With Voice Mail and Paging (Pete Ferris) Re: 800-555-1212 is Not Southwestern Bell (A. Alan Toscano) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: discover@halcyon.com (Mike W. Perry) Subject: Study Hi-Tech With George Gilder Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 03:00:19 -0900 Organization: Discovery Institute Discovery Institute is offering a fellows program in technology and public policy from June 13-18 in Seattle, Washington. Faculty include: George Gilder, author of Wealth and Poverty, Recapturing the Spirit of Enterprise, Microcosm and Life After Television and a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute. Roberta Katz, Senior VP and General Counsel, McCaw Cellular Communications. Bruce Chapman, President of Discovery Institute and a former director of the U.S. Census Bureau. Dr. Edward Larson, Professor of History and Law, University of Georgia. Dr. Philip Gold, lecturer at Georgetown University and a writer for Insight magazine. Dr. John West, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow. The week-long seminar will explore the history of technology, the role of entrepreneurs, ethical problems posed by technology, and the proper role of government in regulating and encouraging innovation. College juniors and seniors, graduate students and recent graduates are encouraged to apply. The $350 tution includes all books and reading materials, lodging and most meals. Students must pay their own way to and from the seminar. Some scholarships are available. For more information, contact Dr. John West, Program Director at (206) 287-3144. Applications should be received by mid-May. ___________ Discovery Institute is a Seattle-based public policy and research center. Named after the element of discovery that often attends sound research and inspires fresh policy ideas, Discovery Institute explores the benefits of free political and social institutions, free markets, high technology, regionalism and internationalism. Discovery Institute, 1201 Third Ave. 40th Fl., Seattle, WA 98101, USA ------------------------------ From: buford@remus.uml.edu (John F. Buford) Subject: Nicholas Negroponte to Give Keynote at ICMCS 94 May 17 Date: 19 Apr 1994 22:34:03 GMT Organization: UMass-Lowell Computer Science NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE, DIRECTOR OF MIT MEDIA LAB, TO ADDRESS IEEE MULTIMEDIA COMPUTING AND SYSTEMS CONFERENCE MAY 17, 1994, 9:30 am - 10:30 am Nicholas Negroponte, Director of the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass, will deliver the keynote address at an international multimedia conference to be held at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. Negroponte will give his view of "What Multimedia Means" -- is it a convergence of industries, ubiquitous communications and computing, or simply the progress of digital technology? He will review the remarkable shift that multimedia has recently made to center stage, and predict the challenges ahead in truly global systems. Nicholas Negroponte is a founder and the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's uniquely innovative Media Laboratory. The six-year-old Media Lab, an interdisciplinary, multi-million dollar research center of unparalleled intellectual and technological resources, is focused exclusively on study and experimentation with future forms of human communication, from entertainment to education. Programs include: Television of Tomorrow, School of the Future, Information and Entertainment Systems, and Holography. Media Lab research is supported by Federal contracts as well as by more than seventy-five corporations worldwide. The address by Negroponte will open the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems which is being held at the Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston, from May 15 -19. In addition to Negroponte's address, the conference will include tutorials on multimedia, a panel on the information superhighway, and two technical paper tracks. For further information about the conference and registration, contact Joseph Boykin, (617) 466-2803, boykin@gte.com. Publicity: John F. Buford, ph: 508 934 3618, fax: 508 452 4298, buford@cs.uml.edu. Dr. John F. Buford Dept. of Computer Science, UMass--Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854 buford@cs.uml.edu (508) 934-3618 FAX: (508) 452-4298 ------------------------------ Subject: Question About Digital Telephony and Delayed Dial Tone Reply-To: kris%sanctum%paladin@uunet.uu.net From: sanctum!kris@uunet.UU.NET (Kris) Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 23:54 EDT I have a question that I hope someone can answer for me. With the advent of digital telephony, 1.5 megabit and higher lines running to each house, and even higher bandwidth on the poles, how much less is the potential for a delayed dialtone situation such as what was experienced during several of the many storms the Northeast has had this winter? Our area, like most, is being strung with new aluminum-encased cables by the local Cable TV company which would soon provide a huge amount of digital information, and (hopefully) dialtone service to compete with our local telephone monopoly. Since there is no longer any physical switching of the connection and more of a "sharing of bandwidth" among subscribers, how is overloading and/or delayed dialtone handled? Does the 64 kbit stream of voice data get broken up as the line is loaded down, much like Internet FTP transfers are over a TCP link? Would a subscriber be visited with a delayed dialtone (or a message telling them circuits are busy)? Wouldn't the number of concurrent dialtone users be increased substantially so as to avoid this situation substantially? Thanks, Kris kris%sanctum%paladin@uunet.uu.net uunet.uu.net!paladin!sanctum!kris ------------------------------ From: meadogc@poers1.dnet.dupont.com (Greg C. Meador) Subject: T1 & T3 Lines Number of Connections Organization: Conoco Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 12:49:00 GMT Can anyone tell me what the theoretical limit is on number of connections or concurrent data transmissions that a T1 and a T3 line will support? Greg C. Meador Conoco, Inc. meadogc@poers1.dnet.dupont.com ------------------------------ From: mike_foltz@sgate.com Subject: Questions on Fractional T-1 Service Date: 19 Apr 1994 17:49:39 GMT Organization: Southgate Internet Host To all: Thanks in advance ... Is there a difference in how the fractional T-1 is delivered to a user whether it is inter or intra-LATA? As and example if I want a 128Kbps fractional T-1 is it a Tail Circuit from the C.O. where my DSU/CSU is slaved to a 128Kpbs reference from the C.O. or is it a T-1 from the C.O. with 2 DS0 channels being used in a DACS? Or am I totally messed up? What is the proper way a fractional T-1 gets delivered to a user via inter and intra-LATA? Thanks, Mike Foltz foltzmik@sgate.com 703-803-8361 ------------------------------ From: producer@pipeline.com (Judith Oppenheimer) Subject: Collect Call Business Date: 19 Apr 1994 14:10:26 -0400 Organization: The Pipeline Does anyone have any statistics regarding the market share breakdown among the carriers of the collect call business? Also, any idea of how much market share growth MCI attained with 1 800 COLLECT? And finally, is there an industry demographic breakdown of collect call service users (among all the carriers)? J. Oppenheimer Producer@pipeline.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 17:08:12 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: International Wireless Services Is anyone aware of recent (within the last year and a half) purchases of ownership (either complete, or partial) of wireless service providers in countries other than the U.S. If so, which countries or cities were covered, what price was paid, what percentage ownership was sold, and what population was covered by the wireless coverage or what was the subscriber base of the wireless carrier. If the wireless service did not have an existing base (i.e. a new service provider) I am still interested in as much information as possible. Alex M Cena, acena@lehman.com, Lehman Brothers ------------------------------ From: hst18a20@teetot.acusd.edu Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 14:24:24 PDT Subject: AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted Does anyone have any input they would like to share about the break-up of AT&T and the formation of the Baby Bells? What is your opinion on it? How did it affect the economy? What is its significance in American history? Thank you very much. Megan Kelleher University of San Diego hst18a20@teetot.acusd.edu ------------------------------ From: mnc@css.itd.umich.edu (Miguel Cruz) Subject: Occupied Territories Telecom Date: 19 Apr 1994 08:41:24 GMT Organization: University of Michigan ITD/User Services Does anyone know who will be providing telecom services in the occupied territories following an agreement with Israel for self-governance (or something like it; I don't want to get into the political questions)? My understanding was that projects were underway (on paper, anyway) to provide infrastructure independent of Israel's. Anyway, if anyone does have such information (preferably an email address of someone at the organization involved) please send it to me. I'm roughing it through Asia at the moment so I can't really read news (but oh, the stories I could tell about trying to place international calls), so direct email would be appreciated. Thanks. Miguel ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 17:29:12 EST From: Bradley_Allen_at_PPCFINAC@smtp-pub.prenhall.com Subject: PacBell Billing Exceptions to Cell, Page, Other WAC Subs (Please send all replies to Ulmo@Pyrzqxgl.Q.Net, as replies to the above sending address do not work.) My goal: Payphones calling my Cellular be a local 20 cent call. Result: Not yet; I just have to give people my 800 number. Details follow. Prompted by a descrepency in Pacific Bell operator price quotes and the claims of my LA Cellular Tel. Co. representative regarding pricing of PacBell->LACell calls, I called Pacific Bell Administration (811-9000 from PacBell phones). I asked for someone familiar with the price contracts between LA Cell and Pac Bell. Bob Duff returned my call. He explained in perfect detail and with great politeness the situation. My LA Cell rep was right. Companies such as cellular, pager, etc. may sign up with PacBell for "wide area calling". A whole NXX code (prefix) is required to be assigned to the company (he mentioned putting them into the access tandems). Then, everything within the (PacBell?) service area to that prefix is a "local" (i.e. free or near-free) call. The PacBell billing databases bill this correctly. However, there is a different database that both PacBell operators and payphones use to do pricing. This database knows an approximate "location" for each prefix, and then the price quotes are calculated on a formula according to mileage. The result is that operators are incorrect when quoting prices to certain cell and pager numbers within the service area, and payphones use this older system to charge the customers real coins. Bob explained that the database for billing is so large that it's difficult to update the database the operators use, but that Pacific Bell plans to fix this within a few years. Besides my obvious question of why don't they just plug the computers together and use the same database (I forgot to ask), I was happy to have the answer and decided I was ahead of the game because I knew what was up and have an 800 number anyway. Still waiting for the day that everything is flat-rate ... -Bradley Allen aka Ulmo P.S. Any companies offering 800 service that I can change my target at the touch of a button as often as I like (without the obnoxious per-minute air charge my cell phone gives me)? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Cable & Wireless is one such provider of 800 service, and so far as I know, the only one allowing immediate change of forwarding numbers automatically by the subscriber. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bub@fid.morgan.com (Bubbette McLeod) Subject: Phoning Cuba Organization: Morgan Stanley & Co., New York, NY Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 21:39:08 GMT Does anyone know how to phone Cuba for a reasonable amount of money from the U.S.? Please reply via mail. bub@morgan.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Calls to most areas of Cuba (except for the United States Naval Base there) must be placed through the AT&T International Operator. The Naval Base can be dialed direct. PAT] ------------------------------ From: paul@corporate-staffing.com Subject: Pricing on Northern Telecom SL/1 Switch Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 20:15:07 PDT Organization: The Internet Access Company I'm looking to sell a Northern Telecom SL/1 Switch, and I need some advice as to its value. The following is an inventory of the switch, software, and cards. Any help would be much appreciated. Please contact me at paul@corporate-staffing.com. Thanks, Paul Costello NORTHERN TELECOM SL/1 SWITCH INVENTORY CARDS: QPC 163D QPC 187D QPC 190E QPC 197C QPC 219 QPC 33D QPC 362A QPC 376A QPC 41M QPC 425E QPC 43P QPC 450 QPC 450B QPC 451A QPC 452A QPC 478B QPC 574A QPC 61C QPC 71D QPC 74C QPC 80F QPC 82D QPC 84R SOFTWARE: NTI/00017009 MISCELLEANEOUS: BATTERY DISTRIBUTION BOX ABSOLYTE GNB BATTERY BACKUP DATE OF PURCHASE 12-85 Purchase Price $85,000 Located in Norwell, Massachusetts ------------------------------ From: Alan_York@mindlink.bc.ca (Alan York) Subject: Need TIE UMT-32 KSU Series 2 Info. Date: 20 Apr 94 01:07:58 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada I have just acquired a TIE UMT-32 KSU Series 2 KSU and a number of 10832 desk sets. Since there is no documentation with the system of course, can anyone advise to it capabilities etc. The KSU has 2 x CO cards and 3 x STU cards, a TSU card and a CPU card. So far I've figured out that it has eight incoming line, 12 station capacity. Thanks for an help. Al York Dynamic Datacorp People dynamic@mindlink.bc.ca Vancouver, B.C., Canada 604/294-9193 ------------------------------ From: rayw@research.otc.com.au (Ray Wong) Subject: X.25 Card Required Date: 20 Apr 1994 07:49:50 GMT Organization: Telstra Corporation Limited I am looking for a high performance X.25 card for a PC. The critical parameters are: 384 kbits/second and 200 packets/second mininum. The other requirements are: OS/2 and ISA bus support. I have tried a card made by Eicon but have not been able to achieve the packet rate required. Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 23:26:00 -0400 From: ian easson Subject: IEEE Symposium on Planning and Design of Broadband Networks IEEE SYMPOSIUM ON PLANNING AND DESIGN OF BROADBAND NETWORKS Montebello, Quebec, Canada October 21 - 23rd, 1994 CALL FOR PARTICIPATION The first IEEE Symposium on Planning and Design of Broadband Networks will be held at Le Chateau Montebello, Montebello, Quebec, Canada on October 21 - 23rd, 1994. The purpose of this symposium is to provide an environment for the discussion and exchange of ideas concerning computer-aided planning and design techniques and tools for broadband networks. The symposium will include both invited and contributed talks, panel discussions, and demonstrations of broadband network planning and design tools. Abstracts of all presentations will be distributed at the symposium but no proceedings will be published. The symposium will address topics in the following areas: - Challenges in broadband network planning and design - Simulation methodologies and tools for planning and design of broadband networks - Tool applications and deployment case studies Please submit by June 15, 1994, 5 copies of the abstract of proposed talk or demo to the Technical Program Chairman: Professor Hussein Mouftah, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N0, Telephone: (613) 545-2934, Fax: (613) 545-6615 EMAIL: mouftahh@qucdn.queensu.ca For further information please contact: Ihor Gawdan, Symposium Chair, Bell Northern Research, P.O. Box 3511, Station C, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Y 4H7, Telephone: (613) 763-9926, Fax: (613) 763-2976 EMAIL: igawdan@bnr.ca Technical Program Committee: Hussein Mouftah (Queen's U.) Marek Wernik (BNR) Victor Frost (U. Kansas) Robert Cahn (IBM) Treasurer: John Hopkins (BNR) Publicity: Ian Easson (BNR) IEEE Ottawa Chairperson: Ibrahim Gedeon Sponsors: IEEE BNR NT OCRI TRIO Ian Easson Bell-Northern Research easson@bnr.ca Usual disclaimers apply ------------------------------ From: oxenreid@chaos.cs.umn.edu Subject: Re: Source For T1 CSU/DSU? Organization: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 21:55:23 GMT In freedman@jane.sas.upenn.edu (Avi Freedman) writes: > Does anyone know a good source for a T1 CSU/DSU? I need it to do full > T1, not fractional, and to have a v.35 cable. I was told to look for > a GDC 552A, but I assume any T1 CSU/DSU would work? ADC Kentrox. ATT. You may try this number, 800-985-8855. I do not work for them, I have not even called them myself. However, they have a nice ad in {Communications Week}. Datatech mostly deals in new/leased equipment. Another AS IS /WHERE IS is Metrocom 800-364.8838. Christopher G. Oxenreider Electronics Technician Sr. #include oxenreid@chaos.cs.umn.edu ------------------------------ From: pferris%mohawk.uucp@drd.com Reply-To: pferris%mohawk.uucp@drd.com Organization: Laughing Pines Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 07:12:26 -0600 Subject: Re: Answering Machine With Voice Mail and Paging? Fclark@deathstar.cris.com (Franclark) wrote to inquire about such a combination. Hi Frank, Here's a not-so-elegant method I came up with. You might be able to adapt/adopt it: Panasonic makes a series of speaker-phone/answering machines called "Easa-Phone"'s. I believe there are _several_ variations and models (2-line, 1-line, # of memories, etc, etc.). They are all DTMF remote controllable. Places like Circuit City, Service Merhandise, J&D, etc.) will give you a selection. There's even a model (or maybe several now) that will forward calls to a pager -- supposedly forwards the DTMF the caller enters to your pager service... can't vouch for this. However, here's the good news... ALL of the Easa-Phone's I've seen have a "Transfer" feature. All this does is to rattle your cage at a 2nd number after a message has been recorded. Here's how I exploit that with my pager -- also alpha-numeric, but a moot point for this trick! Note: The TRANSFER memory can hold, I believe, something like a 13-14 digit number, so there's (barely) room for the PAUSE character, etc. Program the number to TRANSFER to be your pager _AND_ a PAUSE character or two (to buy time while your paging service rings and answers!) _AND_ your answering machine's call back number (home, work, whatever). As a help to distinguish between my answering machine calling me from home vs. my wife, et al; I program in the FULL number and spaces which no one else would normally both with from within the same area code, e.g.: 999-999-9999 (on your pager you can create the "-"'s by hitting a "*" with most services). To me, that's not ambiguous - only my answering machine (so far) has told me to "call home" and uses an area code to do it ... no area code means it's likely a live human bean. The pitfall: You don't know before you call your answering machine who called, but just that someone did. The machine will attempt calling the TRANSFER number (your pager), I believe, three times. This isn't a big deal to me -- I'd rather get paged three times with that number than not at all. Set pager to vibrate/one chirp if this "feature" annoys you. I think of it as cheap insurance, but you may consider it a bug! Probably this'd only be good for folks with direct dialed pagers. Pagers using PIN's, etc; may call for too long a TRANSFER number to be programmed (possibly you can daisy chain memories, etc..!!). Good points: The world doesn't know your pager number, or even necessarily that their call is ultimately going to activate your pager. _You_ decide how quickly to response. "Just got back to the office..." vs. "Just got your message...". I like to wait at least a couple of minutes so folks don't think I live at home monitoring the answering machine on the local speaker! The Easa-Phones have a good VOX circuit in them, if the caller is answering machine phobic then and hangs up (no msg), then there's NO forward to bother you (to retrieve a null msg!). I know this is somewhat southern engineered, but it meets my needs! And for the cost of a otherwise _EXCELLENT_ answering machine, it's the most cost effective solution I've come up with. WRT: Software - I love Ex Machina's "Notify!" - alpha paging software. There are others. > Thank you in advance for any information. Yer welcome. Pete Ferris, N5KBD pferris%mohawk.uucp@drd.com ------------------------------ From: atoscano@attmail.com (A Alan Toscano) Date: 19 Apr 94 20:18:37 GMT Subject: Re: 800-555-1212 is Not Southwestern Bell In message , PAT writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, 'AT&T Communications' is > not the same company as 'AT&T' -- at least not on paper, and I do > think SWBT is the manager of the service for AT&T Communications. > Do I stand corrected? Back in the '60s and early '70s when I was growing up in suburban Chicagoland, calls from our region to 800 555-1212 (we didn't dial 1+ back then), reached the SW Bell central office in East Saint Louis, IL. I presume this service was staffed by SW Bell employees, under some arrangement with AT&T Long Lines. Since that time, SW Bell ceded its Illinois territory to the late Illinois Bell, as the Bell System redrew its operating companies' boundries to conform with state lines. (FYI: At about the same time, SW Bell picked up the West Texas territory of the late Mountain States Telephone, and the former Indiana Bell acquired Illinois Bell's Indiana territory.) Subsequently, Divestiture further affected the inter-relationships of Bell companies and their (former) parent. If SW Bell, has kept its 800 DA operation (under contract to AT&T), it has almost certainly moved it, in order for it to remain within the SW Bell geographic domain. I asked my sister (who still lives near Chicago) to check into this for me, and she reports that every inquiry which she made about their location was answered with "A Midwestern City." This may, or may not, be E. St. Louis. >From here in Texas, my 800 DA calls have been answered in Chipley, FL for many years. (They have no qualm about saying where they are.) So, to partially answer PAT's question, I think we can safely conclude that ... At a minimum, Southwestern Bell "hosted" an 800 Directory Assistance Operating Center several years ago, in a building it no longer owns. SW Bell may or may not operate such a center someplace today, but if it does, it's under a contract to AT&T, since AT&T has, to date, kept the 800 DA "franchise." We know that there's at least one 800 DA center operating in "A Midwest- ern City," (possibly by SW Bell,) and at least one in Southern Bell's territory (Chipley, FL). I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there are one or two more 800 DA centers in other regions of the US. A Alan Toscano - atoscano@attmail.com - atoscano@speedway.net P O Box 741982 - Houston, TX 77274-1982 - 713 415-9262 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #178 ****************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------