TELECOM Digest Tue, 28 Jun 94 04:35:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 301 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bidding War For - Western Union ?! (James H. Haynes) MCI Used NEXTSTEP For "Friends and Family" Campaign (Robert La Ferla) AT&T, Paris and Freedom (Jean-Bernard Condat) NYNEX 1+10D; EasyReach 700 International (Jeffrey W. McKeough) Need New ESN For my Cellphone (Douglas Reuben) Trunk Switch Bypass Device Needed (Leroy Casterline) Africa Email via X.25? (Ed Moore) TELECOM 95 Space Available (Jerry Skene) Industry Numbering Committee to Meet (Greg Monti) International Calls to Taiwan; Sometimes System Says "Not Valid" (R. Casey) Looking For Cell Phone Parts (gleason@mwk.com) How to Put '*' in Phone Number (Modem) (Henry Alan Segal) Washington Post Article (Stephen Goodman) (Very) Sorry Wrong (800) Number (Dave Thompson) Re: O.J. Simpson Case (David G. Cantor) Re: O.J. Simpson Case (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: * 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (James H. Haynes) Subject: Bidding War For - Western Union ?! Date: 28 Jun 1994 05:20:22 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz Item in the Sunday paper says two companies, First Data Corp. and Forstmann Little & Co. are bidding for Western Union. First Data is described as an information-and-transaction-processing company that transfers money. Forstmann Little & Co. is a leveraged buyout firm. First Data bid $896 million, Forstmann Little bid $951 million, and First Data added $65 million to its bid. A bankruptcy court judge ruled friday that the company will be auctioned in September. (Get your bid in by Sept 2.) "Millions of people in the United States do not have bank accounts. Western Union, now 144 years old, wires money out of town for them and sells them money orders." Western Union Financial controls estimated 90% of the money-transfer business, took in about $400 million last year. (I guess that means the retail money-transfer business. First Data transfers money between bank accounts.) "Western Union created New Valley in 1991 and transferred all debt to it. [Some of us prefer to call it New Abyss.] New Valley, based in Paramus, N.J. went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in 1993." - haynes@cats.ucsc.edu ------------------------------ From: Robert La Ferla Subject: MCI Used NEXTSTEP For "Friends and Family" Campaign Reply-To: Robert La Ferla Organization: Hot Technologies Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 04:46:34 GMT I just got back from NEXTSTEP Expo where Steve Jobs mentioned in his keynote that MCI was able to steal tens of millions of customers away from it's competitors using a custom billing application developed under NEXTSTEP. He said that the object oriented NEXTSTEP gave MCI an 18 month jump on it's rivals. He also demonstrated an application (similar if not the MCI one) and I must say it was quite impressive. A marketing manager could send electronic mail with a "business object" (in this case a new marketing campaign) and the sales staff could simply drag it out of the mail application and drop it into the marketing application - the application would instantly have the "smarts" about "Friends and Family" or whatever the new campaign was. Incredible stuff. He said that "Enterprise Objects" is the most important innovation that NeXT has produced since they designed "NEXTSTEP" itself. Robert La Ferla Hot Technologies Registered NEXTSTEP Developer and Consultant Robert_La_Ferla@hot.com ------------------------------ From: JeanBernard_Condat@Email.FranceNet.FR (JeanBernard Condat) Organization: FranceNet Reply-To: JeanBernard_Condat@Email.FranceNet.FR Subject: AT&T, Paris and Freedom Date: 28 Jun 1994 07:22:36 GMT PARIS, France - June 27, 1994 18:30-22:00. AT&T salutes the one thing that brings people together better than we do. Freedom. Yesterday, I was invited to look at 'a sound sculpture for the Arc de Triomphe by Bill Fontana' in Paris. " This sound sculpture sponsored by the French Ministry of Culture, the City of Paris and AT&T includes three installations relating to the visual and aural experience of the Arc de Triomphe in the pedestrian access tunnels, at ground level, and on the observation level. In the pedestrian tunnels, the sound of the sea creates an acoustical passage for the traffic island as a sound island. On ground level, the same sound serves as a white sound to transform and hide the traffic noise occuring in the immense traffic circle. On the observation level where visitors have a panoramic view of Paris, an installation explores the idea of hearing as far as one can see, acoustically viewing Paris. " The Arc de Triomphe is part of one of the most dramatic visual perspective in Paris, being in the axis defined by the Pyramide at the Louvre and La Defense. Visitors standing on the upper observation level have dramatic panoramic views of Paris." -------------------- I invite all the reader of this message to appreciate during the next holidays in France, the Arc de Triomphe of Place de l'Etoile and to drink a beer on the Champs-Elysees without the poor Bill Fontana' sculpture and the English-written AT&T Direct Services publicity. Phone me directly with your "AT&T Calling Card" to +331 47874083, ok? Jean-Bernard Condat Chaos Computer Club France 47 rue des Rosiers, 93400 St-Ouen, France Phone: +331 47874083, Fax: +331 49450129 Email: JeanBernard_Condat@email.FranceNet.FR ------------------------------ From: jwm@student.umass.edu (Jeffrey W. McKeough) Subject: NYNEX 1+10D; EasyReach 700 International Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 03:36:02 -0400 Last Friday seems to have marked the end of the permissive dialing period in the 413 NPA. Since then, all intraLATA calls outside my local calling area must be dialed 1-413-NXX-XXXX. This includes calls that were formerly seven digits, which I hadn't expected from what I had read. One nice side-effect of this is that seven-digit calls are now entirely local (and included in my basic service fee), while all toll calls are now dialed via 1+. Having used a similar setup at UMass/Amherst, where local calls were 9 + 7D, and toll calls required use of a security code, I grew to like the reminder that the call I was dialing was in fact a toll call. Monday marked the beginning of International calls via AT&T EasyReach. When I entered the forwarding menu, I was told to enter AC + seven digits for a domestic number, and 011 + Number (it didn't specify Country Code, City Code, etc.) for international numbers. The help menu indicated that if I forwarded to an AT&T World Connect Country, all US and World Connect calls would be forwarded. If I forwarded to a non-World Connect country, only US calls would be forwarded. Jeffrey W. McKeough jwm@student.umass.edu ------------------------------ From: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) Subject: Need New ESN For my Cellphone Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 00:59:49 PDT My old Audiovox CMT-450 is in the shop - after five years it stopped working and shows "NO SVC" even in excellent coverage areas. Audiovox is going to tell me how much it will cost to fix (I can't wait till they see the Novatel ESN in there and ask me why I have a 142/Novatel ESN instead of a 138/Audiovox one! ;) ) So I may need to get a new phone. However, in the past, I've sent my phones out to get them cloned, and although generally reliable, it takes a week and I have to lay out like $200 *each* for the process, so that I can have a variety of phones for differing situations, all with the same number(s). (But never on at the same time, of course ...) Is there any shop or service provider out there who will burn a chip for me if I give them the proper ESN? I can easily put the new chip in the phone myself, and thus save on the cost and time of not having my phone. I'd like to get all my phones onto one ESN, and if I do get a new phone I don't want to send all three (or four, depending on how much Audiovox wants to fix the old CMT-450) phones away and pay $800 to do the ESN changes. Obviously I'd like a reputable place, and I'd be glad to substantiate that I am the TRUE owner of the phone, ie, provide sales receipts, etc., so that no one suspects that I am trying to commit cell fraud by cloning other people's phones. (Although this would be a really dumb and slow way to do it, and most cell fraud criminals have phones which they can just put whatever ESN they want into ... Hey, actually, I'd like a phone like that, but for my own legitimate purposes...) So if anyone knows of a place where I can call in an ESN and a manufacturer's model, send some sales receipts or something, and have them mail me a new chip, PLEASE save me $800 and let me know! :) Thanks in advance, Doug CID Technologies (203) 499 - 5221 ------------------------------ From: casterli@csn.org (Leroy Casterline) Subject: Trunk Switch Bypass Device Needed Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 21:06:54 -0600 Organization: Cahill Casterline Limited Reply-To: casterli@csn.org Hello once again, telecom experts! I am looking for a device that I can use on a multi-line PC-based switch to bypass the switch in the event of a malfunction. The PC goes between the CO and the PBX on several trunks, so bypass in the event of failure is important. I'd like the bypass to operate in a 'watchdog' mode, where I send it confirmation every few seconds that I am alive and working, presumably via an RS-232 port. In the event that I stopped 'tickling' the port, it would switch the CO line directly to the PBX, bypassing my PC-based system. Ideally, the bypass device would be intelligent enough to switch each line individually, and could be set to NOT switch a line while it carried loop current, waiting for loop current to cease before switching that particular line. Lines which carried no loop current would be switched immediately. I need to handle between 12 and 48 lines (on each side of the PC box) per installation. What I have now: ------------------- | | CO ---------| PC-based Switch |--------- PBX | | ------------------- What I'd like: ------------------- | | CO ---------|-| - - - - - - |-|--------- PBX --| | Bypass | | | ------------------- RS-232 | | | Control | | | Line | ------------------- | | | --| PC-based Switch | | | ------------------- Thank you for your kind assistance. Leroy Casterline Cahill Casterline Limited 303/484-2212 casterli@csn.org ------------------------------ From: edmoore@vcd.hp.com (Ed Moore) Subject: Africa Email via X.25? Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 03:32:17 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard VCD Friends of mine will soon move to Togo (West Africa). We are exploring possibilities for them to establish email service. In another forum I'm discussing the email services available locally in Africa. Togo also has international X.25/X.28 service. My extremely limited knowledge of X.25 comes from hearing people talk about TYMNET and SPRINTNet, plus one paragraph in the O'Reilly book "Connecting to the Internet." I have no idea what X.28 is. 1) What kinds of email service providers in the US could be reached via X.25/X.28? I saw something that said MCIMail is reachable. Probably CompuServe. One site in Togo runs UUCP over X.25. Should I expect to find US Internet service providers who provide UUCP accounts, who are reachable via X.25? 2) This is the scenario I believe to be true. My friend calls a phone number in Togo to connect to X.25. I presume he logs in with a user ID and password. Then it seems he must identify what remote system he wants to connect to. That system prompts for another login. So he uses a standard, voice grade phone line to get to the X.25 entry point. What is the advantage of using X.25 to reach outside the country rather than continuing the call through ordinary voice grade phone lines? Clarity, cost? Thanks for any help you can give me. Ed Moore Hewlett-Packard Vancouver, WA, USA edmoore@vcd.hp.com ------------------------------ From: Jerry Skene Subject: TELECOM 95 Space Available Date: Mon, 27 Jun 94 16:49:03 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) ---------------Telecom 95 space available.-------------------- If your company would be interested in having access to a fully appointed presentation room in the USA pavilion of Telecom 95 in Geneva next year, read on. We have two conference rooms which will be available to other companies for daily presentations or meetings. These rooms seat 16 people, and have video/slide projector, etc. Connection to PC or videoconference lines would also be possible. If your company cannot provide sufficient meeting space on your own stand, or you are on the long waiting list for exhibit space, or cannot afford a dedicated booth at Telecom, this would be an ideal way to ensure your company of a presence at this large and prestigious international telecommunications exhibition. If you are interested, please send me an Email to discuss. jskene@delphi.com ------------------------------ From: Greg Monti Subject: Industry Numbering Committee to Meet Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 17:51:59 EDT The June 24, 1994 issue of {Communications Daily} notes that the Telephone Industry Numbering Committee will meet July 24-29. Among the topics to be considered: personal communications system (PCS) number portability, assignment of 800-555 numbers and assignment guidelines for interchangeable area codes that no longer use 1 or 0 as the second digit. The story shows the contact for TINC to be Ron Havens, 913-634-6881. The meeting will be held in Toronto. Greg Monti, Tech Mgr, FISPO, Distribution Division National Public Radio Phone: 202 414-3343 635 Massachusetts Av NW Fax: 202 414-3036 Washington, DC 20001-3753 Internet: gmonti@npr.org ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Int'l Calls to Taiwan; Sometimes System Says "Not Valid" Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 02:52:19 GMT Called a friend in Taiwan lately, in the middle of the call, the line cuts out. (Backround noise went to zero, nothing unusual, as this happens when he's not talking, but this pause was longer. When I got no response, then I knew the connection was lost), OK, no biggie, it happens. Called the number again, got an error message saying that I had dialed a non-valid international number. Tried again, same message. After trying several times in around 20 minutes, the call went thru, and had my friend back. He says the same thing would happen when he (when living in the USA) tried to call his family from USA to Taiwan. He'd end up waiting a day or so before the problem would clear. He says telephone service in Taiwan is not too reliable. But why did the telephone system say that I dialed a not valid international number, and not say "lines to Taiwan are down now, try later"? Also, do they still have analog lines from here to there? I would have thought everything's digital now? Or is the Taiwan phone system noisy? ------------------------------ From: Lee K. Gleason Subject: Looking For Cell Phone Parts Date: 27 Jun 94 23:06:53 CST Organization: M. W. Kellogg, Houston TX I'm looking for a mail order source for cell phone parts such as power cords and antennae, for my Panasonic TP-500. The local stores charge proces for parts that are beyond outrageous ... anyone know of a source for this stuff? Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants gleason@mwk.com ------------------------------ From: segalh@ecf.toronto.edu (SEGAL HENRY ALAN) Subject: How to Put '*' in Phone Number (Modem) Organization: University of Toronto, Engineering Computing Facility Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 02:20:00 -0400 I have call waiting on my line, and if a call comes in when I am using the line for my modem, it causes a disruption, sometimes logging me out. The solution is to dial *67 (I may have that wrong, but I know what it is) before the phone number. Now, I am using Procomm, and it doesn't accept the '*' character. Is it just the software? Is there an alternative code I can use? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In most telecom jurisdictions, the asterisk can be replaced with '11', as in 'eleven' -- not 'one, one' (to the dismay of some puritans, although you accomplish dialing 'eleven' by pressing the digit '1' twice in a row, granted. That is to say, '1167' will generally be accepted in lieu of *67. In fact, 11-anything generally can be used in place of *-anything if you are using Procomm or have one of those very old *ten* button touchtone sets where there is nothing on either side of the zero key. Try it on your phone and see. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Stephen Goodman <0003945654@mcimail.com> Subject: Washington Post Article on Free Access Wanted Date: Mon, 27 Jun 94 10:41:00 EST The {Washington Post} had a story on either the 6/22 or 6/23 edition on page 1 about how Maryland is offering Free Internet access. Is this article available online? Does anyone have a copy of it they can either post on the Digest or send to me? I'm curious to read it. Thanks! Stephen_Goodman@MCIMail.com ------------------------------ From: Thompson, Dave Subject: (Very) Sorry Wrong (800) Number Date: Mon, 27 Jun 94 16:49:00 PDT {Network World} June 20 1994 page 2 has a "Correction" to an item June 6 page 2 about Bell Atlantic announcing new AIN features for 1-800 subscribers, with the subhead "Dial 1-800-OPTIONS". The correction says this "was believed to be a fictitious 800 number ... [but] is actually in service by another company and should not be used .... [For Bell Atlantic use] (703) 974-4507." Oops! I wonder if they actually tested it -- or maybe it's for an area that doesn't include their location (probably Framingham MA)? Come to think of it, is there a standard or convention for the intercept you get if you dial a 1-800 number from outside its subscribed area (or any of the areas for a geographically reused "local" number), as opposed to one not in service at all? I carefully follow the instructions given (sometimes approaching "from CONUS, PR/VI, and Ontario, except NYC and Ossining, dial ..." ;} so I've never paid attention to this behavior! Dave Thompson, davet@fpg.logica.com Logica North America, +1 617-890-7730 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: "I'm sorry, the number you have dialed cannot be reached from your calling area. This is a recording, ." PAT] ------------------------------ From: David G. Cantor Subject: Re: O.J. Simpson Case Reply-To: dgc@math.ucla.edu Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 21:25:57 -0700 In TELECOM Digest, Mon, 27 Jun 94, Volume 14, Issue 300, Robert L. McMillin, in an article full of opinion, makes a number of comments about the O. J. Simpson case. Frankly, I don't see what the O. J. Simpson case has to do with telecommunications (except, perhaps that it was reported over telecommunications media). Moreover, his posting has numerous minor, but significant, errors. For example, he refers, twice, to the "Los Angeles City District Attorney". TELECOM Digest readers should be aware that the City of Los Angeles doesn't have a District Attorney. Gil Garcetti, the person to whom he is referring, is the Los Angeles COUNTY District Attorney. The difference between Los Angeles County and Los Angeles City is not trivial. While the City is the largest of over 80 cities in the County, the population of the County is roughly three times that of the City. Los Angeles City does have an elected City Attorney who handles, among other things, misdemeanor matters in the City. As another example, McMillin refers to "the municipal courts building in Santa Monica (or Beverly Hills)" as if one of those places is where the case will be heard. The case is, in fact, being tried in the Van Nuys SUPERIOR Court, the same Court in which the Menendez case was, and continues to be, heard. David G. Cantor Department of Mathematics University of California at Los Angeles dgc@math.ucla.edu ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 21:08:46 CDT Subject: Re: O.J. Simpson Case In article I noted: > 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. Someone reading this mentioned to me that when the 'Los Angeles' crashed and burned in 193, souvenier hunters swarmed over the site snatching up anything they could, including the captain's Naval Academy ring (which was still attached to his cold dead finger). There seems to be nothing new under the sun, but sometimes I forget what all is under the sun to begin with. How's this one for exquisite taste and fine citizenship? A couple days ago a woman on the west side of Chicago was crossing the street pushing her shopping cart full of whatever she had purchased and leading her four year old daughter by the hand. A car swerves out of control and heads straight at her. She had the presence of mind to shove her daughter out of the way in the nick of time but she wound up getting hit by the car (with her daughter safely to the side) and her shopping cart overturned in the street. As she laid there unable to get up and unconscious, passers-by on the sidewalk came out into the street -- not to help her, mind you -- but to help themselves to the contents of her shopping cart and her purse which was laying nearby. All the while, the little girl was trying to protect her mother and telling people to 'leave us alone'. All of her groceries were stolen as well as whatever she had in her purse. The paramedics showed up within a couple minutes or less and hauled her off to the hospital along with the little girl who by now was totally terrified. Like one of my heroes Henry Ward Beecher, I've never believed in the concept of a place called Hell, but sometimes *I wish I did* because if anyone deserves to burn there it would be the nasty, greedy people who go to the site of disasters (either small personal ones or the more major type) and pick through the possessions of the helpless victims. That's life in Chicago and I guess its standard operating procedure for some in the City of Angeles as well. Truly, a nation of idiots. Thanks to David Cantor for his corrections to McMillin's article yester- day, but none the less, McMillin's comments are well-taken, at least by some of us. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #301 ******************************