From telecom-request@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Thu Aug 31 23:52:46 1995 by 1995 23:52:46 -0400 telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 31 Aug 1995 20:38:42 -0500 1995 20:38:40 -0500 To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu TELECOM Digest Thu, 31 Aug 95 20:38:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 368 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: AT&T Moving Into Local Exchange Market (Richard F. Masoner) CryptoCom Secure Modems (Tyler Proctor) GSM Compatible Cellular Phones (edgewd@aol.com) Need Foreign X.25 Service Providers (Richard Brandt) Re: War on Payphones (Robert Jacobson) Re: War on Payphones (Mark J. Cuccia) Listening in to Cellular (Mike Wengler) 860 Startup Problem (Gerry Belanger) Re: Area Code Crisis -- A Different Viewpoint (Sam Spens Clason) Major MFP Developer Conference 9/28 - 9/29 (Tom Geldner) Re: Seven Digits Across North America (Wes Leatherock) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. * ************************************************************************ * In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- David Breneman (david.breneman@mccaw.com) wrote: > [middle-class to riches story] > (Puget Sound area) provider of petroleum products. "Only in America..." > I know thia doesn't have anything to do with telecom issues, but it > shows what's possible. :-) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are right of course. It can happen > here, but sadly a lot less often than it used to many years ago. Remind Just tell that to all the instant millionaires who work for Spyglass or Netscape who all used to work at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Urbana, Illinois. Richard ------------------------------ Jeff Sweitzer of Western Datacom will demonstrate the new line of CryptoCom V.32V.34 pocket modems at Cellucomm 95. CryptoCom utilizes DES encryption and is N.I.S.T approved. The modem boasts a base data rate of 28.8 kbs (V.34) and utilizes MNP levels 2 through 5 for dial up and MNP10EC for cellular connect rates up to 14.4 kbs. The line includes the 528 CryptoCard rackmount unit designed for host communications. The 528 CryptoCard utilizes DES encryption and Caller ID technology to secure both dial up and cellular calls. When used with the Line Guard 6000 Network Management System, the user can manage 960 modems and up to 10,000 users from a central site. Western Datacom will also have it's 800 series "Quadra Press" Network Data Compressors, 528 Synchronous Node cellular modem, and the Line Guard 6000 dial up modem management products. Using compression technology, Western Datacom's products are capable of providing throughput of up to 56kbps over a cellular connection. Cellucomm 95 is the place to see the latest the cellular data industry has to offer. For more information on attending, e-mail 75260.710@ compuserve.com or call 800-594-5102. ------------------------------ Any information on obtaining GSM Cellular phones would be greatly appreciated. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What do you mean by 'any information'? That's a very large topic with many angles and opinions. You might want to check back issues of this Digest in which GSM articles have appeared, and talk directly to the authors of those articles. PAT] ------------------------------ I am needing to use X.25 to link several sites in the following locations worldwide. If someone can tell me who to contact about data rates and equipment compatibility I would really appreciate it. Thanks. Countries: England, Hong Kong, Berlin, Mexico, Argentina, Capetown SA, Sidney AU. Richard L. Brandt Hughes Aircraft Company (303) 344-6586 rbrandt@redwood.dn.hac.com ------------------------------ I served as principal telecommunications policy analyst with the CA legislature as the move toward removing payphones gained full force, in the mid-1980s. Although it's fun and popular to attribute controversial policy decisions, like the removal of payphones, to stupid politicians "battling" drugs, in fact this policy originated with the local telephone companies themselves. I remember in particular a PUC action designating payphones a "competitive" market, which all knew originated with the telcos and had their full support. The telcos' idea was, and remains, to maximize profit by limiting service to high-security, high-spending venues (like airports, upscale shopping malls, and tourist hotels). Private firms take over the marginal phones, charging more through AOS to ensure a profitable ROI even though the cost of maintaining marginal phones may be higher and their use less intense. Payphones that neither the telcos nor the private firms wanted to operate are simply removed. The drug thing was strictly a red herring, though historically fortuitous as a ruse. In CA, a bill requiring a neighborhood hearing before a phone was removed was watered down to simply require a notice to be slapped on a phone before it was yanked. I think the advance notice was 14 days, just enough time to call the PUC and request redress -- but not soon enough to actually interfere with the removal of the payphone. Just wanted to set the story straight. Bob Jacobson Principal Consultant (Analyst) CA State Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, 1981-1989 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you say may have happened in Calif- ornia, but here at least, Illinois Bell flatly denied for the record on a couple of occassions having anything at all to do with the manipulation of payphone locations and the working characteristics (i.e. no coin after dark, etc) of payphones. They stated it was purely in response to community pressures and law enforcement requests. The reason this came up was because persons who were stuck with the 'no coin after dark' rule went to Bell demanding a rebate on operator surcharges saying that it was not their desire to use the operator to place a call (via calling card), and that they should not be penalized with a surcharge for their inability to 'dial direct'. You will recall that for however long, telcos routinely handled non-dialable calls at the direct dial rate rather than penalize customers. Illinois Bell's response was to speak with the self-proclaimed 'community representatives' who put the pressure on the 7/Eleven stores regards the pay phones in their parking lots, etc. On those payphones located on the public way, i.e. a sidewalk where the 'subscriber' to the telephone was given in records as Illinois Bell itself, their response was that they operated those phones at the pleasure of the City of Chicago and its City Council whose mandates had to be observed, again, i.e., the police want to see the phone set up as one way outbound only, no coins after dark, or removed completely, etc. So, said IBT, talk to the community, not us. It is all in who you know of course, and whether your politician friends and attorney can suck-up better than my politician friends and attorney. Although just as many drug transactions are done each day by the cocaine- snorting people who work at the Chicago Board of Trade and other financial houses on LaSalle Street downtown, you don't presume *their* payphones would ever be removed or modified do you? PAT] ------------------------------ snake wrote: > Don't forget the payphones installed in Las Vegas casinos, which are > rigged to keep your quarter even if your call doesn't go through. At > least the slot machines give you a chance at a payout. and our Esteemed Moderator noted: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Twenty-five cents just for the right > to touch the phone, pick it up and try to get someone, eh? Actually > if you ask Mark Cuccia (see the message before this one) about it, > he would probably tell you that the people who manufacture slot machines > and other gambling devices are the same people who make COCOTS, and > probably using a lot of the same circuit boards at that! Grin. PAT] I enjoy gambling (in Louisiana, its legally known as 'GAMING' not gambling). We now have a landbased casino in New Orleans proper and various gambling boats in suburban areas. I haven't yet been to them in New Orleans, but I do enjoy gambling on the boats in Mississippi (601) along the Gulf Coast. I just do NOT enjoy gambling that the payphone (COCOT) will put my call thru at the correct rates, via the carrier *I* want. About a month ago, the New Orleans City Circus -- Council -- no maybe circus was right the first time -- passed an ordinance that bars and liquor stores cannot have an outside payphone, even if it is on private property. This is 'supposed' to help out on the 'war' on drugs and crime. Most of these payphones are not SCBell telco payphones, but -- you guessed it -- COCOTS. AND, could the City be trying to squeeze out payphone competition? About a year and a half ago, City Hall cancelled its contract with South Central Bell (Bell South) for payphones on City-owned property -- whether in City office buildings, or outside on City parks, grassy "Neutral-Grounds" (what we call boulevard medians here), or on the city side of the property line on sidewalks. Over a period of six to eight months, Bell was one by one removing outside payphones on the city contract, and 'GLOBAL' Telslime - I mean Telcoin - came in. These charged overtime for local calls, did not have all local NNX c/o codes programmed in as local (some newer ones like my 460 for my cellular STILL isn't programmed as local), and the usual. Initially, Global's PAY-PAY-PAY-PHONIES would NOT give you a LEC (Bell) operator on a single 0 or on 0+ inTRA-Lata. After a few months and several complaints to the Public Service Commission, they were reprogrammed to route you to Bell operators for 0- and InTRA-LATA 0+. (I CAN get 950-XXXX, 1-800-, and 10-XXX+ access to other carriers okay; I only wish SCBell and ALL Local Exchange Carriers had a 10-XXX/101-XXXX, 950- and 800 number as well) Global (aka Schlumberger Industries) has been in and out of trouble with the PSC before. Global is HIGHLY connected politically with other state and various local political figures. They have also had the 'prison' contract with the state over the past several years. There have been MANY complaints over the past three to five years from families, relatives and friends of prisoners at the State Pen and other low-security prisons from around the state that they have been billed HUGE collect or third party charges on their local telco bill due to the unregulated AOSlime that Global's prison phones use. The PSC is ALWAYS trying to get after Global, but due to the other political connections Global has, it seems to be only a slap on the wrist. Maybe the FCC should step in and pre-empt various states who don't keep Private-Payphones/AOSlime in line. If a state's regulations could be proven to be even tougher than that of the FCC, then that state's regulations would be the law in that state. Theodore Vail must be turning in his grave, probably since 1 Jan 1984! (I'll let Pat explain who Mr. Vail was, for those who don't know.) MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1- 2497 WORK: mcuccia@law.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241- 2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865- 5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ted Vail was the chairman of American Tele- phone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) at the beginning of the twentieth century. *He* built the Bell System into what it was before Judge Harold Greene came along and wrecked it. Greene, who never attempted to hide his animosity and prejudice where Bell was concerned, let it be known to some cronies in the United States Department of Justice -- and don't get me started on them please! ... those software pirates -- that he would entertain their motions to divest AT&T. Now and then people write to remind me that the Judge did not *order* anything; that AT&T 'voluntarily' signed the consent decree. ... that's like me holding a gun to your head and telling you want I want, and because I don't have to actually shoot you, reach in your pocket and get what I want that I then claim you did it 'voluntarily'. You didn't see any guns in Greene's courtroom? Where the United States government is concerned, there is always the *implied presence of guns*. It rarely gets that far of course because everyone understands the basic rules here. They always start out like gentlemen. If anything here in the Chicago area, the city council favors Illinois Bell over the COCOT people. Maybe its because IBT people pay bigger bribes to the council members to keep the exclusive contract on payphones at Ohare Airport. When that scandal broke here a few years ago, everyone just said 'ho-hum' and went on about their business. But in fairness to the COCOT people, if they were not serving the jails and prisons, no one would be. AT&T said they were more than happy to leave the corrections industry business to 'the others'. The rate of fraud and other inappropriate calls made from correctional center pay phones is astronomical. PAT] ------------------------------ Chris.Farrarr@p1.f20.n246.z1.fidonet.org is right: it is not illegal to own or even sell an old cellular capable scanner in the US. It is illegal in the US to listen to cellular phone calls with one, however. Chris.Farrarr@p1.f20.n246.z1.fidonet.org writes> > Here in Canada, your neighbour to the north, listening to cellular > phones (as well as cordless phones and baby monitors) with a scanner > is 100% legal, provided you don't profit from what you hear. I wonder if doing a statistical survey of cellular usage patterns, and then selling it would be profiting from what you hear? It would be about the most accurate information I could imagine on phone usage patterns ... without tapping in on inter-CO trunks. Cellular provides a skewed database, but the opportunity to sample randomly within that database. PAT wrote: >> just are *not interesting*, and furthermore, all you get are just fleeting >> whisps of conversation as the cars drive past. There is no continuity in >> the conversations overheard ... Not true. First, you monitor the base station channels broadcasting 100W, not the mobiles broadcasting max 3W. So you hear the conversation continuously while the "mobile" is in good contact with a particular base station, which has a much better antenna/amplifier than your scanner. Not just while some car is driving past you. And de facto, it seems well less than one in six calls does get handed off. This is based on listening to calls, (although I am not saying it is me that did the listening.) Some real fraction of the calls get made with the mobile standing still. And with good enough reception, you'd be able to scan and find the new frequency of the same conversation at its next base station in a few seconds of scanning. Until digital, you should assume your call is being listened to on ·_ cellular. I predict legislation will not accomplish what digitization and encryption will trivialize. Mike Wengler Phone/Fax: 716 244-0238 Cell: 716 748-1930 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Of course not, we understand you are not saying that you did the listening. You are merely reporting what they call 'anecdotal evidence' from unknown third parties. I am not saying this is *you*, but you know, it always amazes me the way phone phreaks -- cellular or landline or both -- and others who think nothing of deliberatly invading the privacy of others through interception of their phone calls, breaking into their computer accounts, etc are often among the biggest whiners when it comes to *their own* 'privacy' being invaded, often in the most malign of ways, i.e. a clerk in Radio Shack asking their name for the printed receipt, or some innocent teenage kid working the courtesy counter at Safeway 'having the audacity' to ask them for a social security number in the process of getting approval to issue a check cashing card, etc. Read some of the newsgroups and see if it isn't true: one day they are telling us how to use technology to stick our nose illegally into someone else's affairs then the next day the same person writes about what an affront it was to them when the five dollar an hour clerk at Sears or wherever made them sign a form or show some ID. PAT] ------------------------------ I ran into a couple of 203/860 split problems. Being over-eager, I tried stuff on August 27. I was able to dial my ISP's 860 pop from 203-426 fine. But I could not dial the test number 1-860-203-0950. It was apparently a translation problem in the 2B-ESS serving me. It was fixed by the time I got home today. At work, I tried to call it and got an intercept. Since my employer does not use SNET for long distance, I dialed 00 and got a Sprint operator. I explained the problem. She could not complete to the test number either. So a trouble report was filed. I also tried AT&T, 10288-1-860-203-0950. Intercept. Called AT&T operator. She claimed 860-203 is not a valid exchange. Explained the problem to a supervisor. She transferred me to repair. Explained to her. Apparently SNET chose to put the test number in an NXX that was never used before, and neglected to tell the industry. The moral of this story? Make sure your LD carrier can route before you suspect your PBX. IMHO, SNET's PR people got too fancy in selecting the test number. Gerry Belanger, WA1HOZ wa1hoz@a3bbak.nai.net Newtown, CT g.belanger@ieee.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Telcos are not supposed to turn on new exchanges without letting the other telcos know about it so that all tables can be updated. PAT] ------------------------------ In Tony Harminc writes: > rbarry@iol.ie (Richard Barry) wrote: > [UK numbering scheme not recommended as a model] > The French system is nothing like this. The Departement > numbers are scattered randomly around the country, so you > can't tell where a number is unless you have memorized the > list. The French are about to split their "0 + 1" area codes in five. Ile de France (greater Paris, code 1) stays the same but the rest of France (which lacks area code) is divided in four quadrants. I haven't read about the details but this is of course a great chance to set anything that mightn't be right right. >> *Variable number length* so that cities that outgrow 7 >> digits can have 8 digit local numbers. No multiple area >> code confusion. Small towns can have even shorter local >> numbers, if desirable. > This is terrible idea, for the one simple reason that > telephones don't have Enter keys. So the switch has to > decide when you've finished dialing by some means, usually a > timeout. Or if the switch is smart enough it may be able to > avoid timeouts on certain calls, but the result is > inconsistent behaviour. What?! In Sweden phone numbers ranges from 0 + 7D to 0 + 9D and I've never experienced any timeout problems. Stockholm numbers (08) can be six, seven or eight digits long. In fact calls between AXE10 stations (~90% of the subscribers) connect immediately after I've entered the last digit regardless of if the called number is in Kiruna (1500 km north of Stockholm) or to my mum four blocks away. I applausd the concept of adding an extra digit when the area code has been outgrown. We've done that here over the last five years and it's an excellent idea. If BT had decided to add an extra digit to the old London numbers (01) instead of splitting in 071 and 081 I guess Londoners would be dancing in the streets right now. A real example is the Swedish island of Gotland. It used to be 0498 (west coast including Visby) and 0497 (the rest. Visby was growing "too much" so either a split of 0498 or longer numbers. I guess in this case 0499 could have been used but this is not always a possibility. Instead a 2 was added before the 0498 numbers and 0497 was merged with 0498. Since then extra digits have been added before some of the old five digit number series to make even more room. Advantage; Gotland became one code, most Gotlanders never call outside their island => shorter dialing on average. No strange area code which didn't fit the "hierarchy" had to be used. And finally: it's so damned flexible! >> *Distinctive non-geographic codes* so that anyone can tell >> a mobile number or a pager or a premium rate number from a >> regular phone number easily. All GSM mobiles are in 070 (Telia Mobitel = 0705, Comviq = 0707, Europolitan = 0708 etc) and all NMT mobiles are in 010. However I did count the different UK mobile prefixes and I found them to be 17, and as someone stated earlier they're scattered all over the numbering space. Denmark, Norway, Finland are equally well organized. Apart from that I don't know except for Germany which I've heard is a great mess because of some 20 million new citizens that came knocking on their door a couple of years ago (former East Germany). I've tried to make a more thorough description on my web pages (soon to be changed to .../~sam). Sam www.nada.kth.se/~d92-sam, sam@nada.kth.se, +46 7 01234567 ------------------------------ Are you involved with developing products that print, fax, scan or communicate? Are you interested in standards issues? Protocols? Host-to-device communication? Device-to-device communication? If so, you need to attend this conference. Many of the top companies in the computer industry will be attending and making presentations including IBM, Microsoft, QMS, Xerox, Intel, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, BIS Strategic Decisions, Novell and Eastman Kodak. Over 21 seminar sessions are offered. Dates: 9/28 - 9/29 Place: Del Mar Hilton, Del Mar, CA (near San Diego) Sponsor: MultiFunction Peripheral Association Cost: $595 members, $695 non-members - discounts available. For more info call 1-800-603-MFPA. Or set your WWW pointer to: http://www.cognisys.com/browse/mfpa Tom Geldner GELDNER ASSOCIATES Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations ------------------------------ Stan Schwartz wrote: [ ... text deleted ... ] > It was also recently mentioned that Atlanta has the > world's largest local calling area. Can someone confirm this? Oklahoma City has the largest local calling area. Atlanta's has more telephones, but is smaller in area. fgoldstein@bbn.com (Fred R. Goldstein) wrote: > The reason 1+ means "toll" in SOME places is historical: With > step-by-step switches, dialing 1 immediately cut through to a toll > trunk, and a toll switch ate the rest of the digits directly. The 1 > was literally an access code for a different switch, one which had > call detail billing. Local calls never had detail billing, and never > hit the toll switch. In Southwestern Bell territory, 1+ was used in crossbar offices long before there was any CAMA (centralized automatic message accounting) which was required for toll dialing with step-by-step switches. In Oklahoma, for historical reasons almost entirely step, when conversions to common control (then #5 XB) offices began, most of them went in with subscriber toll dialing. Except for the first one or two, 1+ was standard on all of them to identify a toll call. The curious result of this was that much of outstate Oklahoma had toll dialing before Oklahoma City and Tulsa (which required CAMA to serve their many step offices) and the usual question by customers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa was not "what is DDD (Direct Distance Dialing) and how does it work?" but "When are we going to get DDD?" One result was that when the CAMAs were turned up in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, customer-dialed calls reached the projected one year (or may be it was two year) percentage after one week. (Usually customer education and promotion was expected to be required over many years to get people to use DDD; in Oklahoma City and Tulsa the percentage of people who knew what DDD was and how to use it was very high, since they already knew from friend, relatives and business contacts in the outstate area. As soon as they knew it was available, they started using it. Has quite an effect on the loads and the facilities required.) Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wes.leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #368 ******************************