TELECOM Digest Mon, 5 Dec 94 14:09:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 437 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Apartments Getting Into the PBX Business (John Lundgren) Programmable Distant Extension Needed (Glenn Foote) Kuwait/Islam Telephone Information Service (Daniel Metz) CID Comes to Texas (Mark W. Earle) Emergency Numbers in Various Countries (Kimmo Ketolainen) The "Roadkill" Incident (Workers World Service via Danny Burstein) Re: New York Suspends Baltimore-DC Roaming (Douglas Reuben) 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 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: jlundgre@kn.PacBell.COM (John Lundgren) Subject: Apartments Getting Into the PBX Business Date: 4 Dec 1994 20:46:32 GMT Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network I was talking to one of the Pac Bell techs this morning, and he said that many larger apartment complexes are getting a PBX. He said that as of Jan 1, anyone can get into the business of furnishing dial tone. Evidently, apartment complexes are putting in their own PBX and getting DID lines, and then reselling them to their tenants. I'm just kind of parroting what he said, since I work for a public entity and I haven't the foggiest what really happens with a PBX and reselling it. We use Centrex. John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs Rancho Santiago Community College District 17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706 jlundgre@pop.rancho.cc.ca.us\jlundgr@eis.calstate.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Interesting how things that go around come around. (Or is that the other way around?) ... clear up into the late 1960's lots of large apartment complexes in Chicago and other cities had switchboard service to all the apartments, operated from a front desk in the lobby area, which is where the tenants also got their mail. As the economics of running very large, older highrise apartment buildings changed during the 1970's, one of the first things the owners did was pull out the switchboard and make tenants get their own phones. This saved a lot of the payroll costs for the buildings. along with the elimination of maid service, which was also very common. They did not have the nerve to simply raise the rent to make up for the increasing costs of running the building; far easier in their estimation was to gradually let the building deteriorate at a slow enough pace it would be years before the tenants found out how crummy the place had gotten. Of course who is to say that if in the 1970's we had had the modern phone systems we have now, perhaps the apartment building owners would have switched from plugboard to automated console rather than simply killing the phone service entirely ... but still, that would have required a front desk attendant; something they wanted to eliminate because of the cost of staffing same three shifts a day, seven days per week including holidays, etc. And maid service was cut out in the early seventies as the buildings began to find it increasingly difficult to get black women willing to work at the wages they wanted to pay. FYI, the maids and porters were always black; the front desk/switchboard operators were always white, except in black neighborhoods. A white woman always served as 'housekeeper'; that is, the maids' supervisor. PAT] ------------------------------ From: glnfoote@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Glenn Foote) Subject: Programmable Distant Extension Needed Date: 5 Dec 1994 15:43:35 -0500 Organization: The Greater Columbus Freenet I am looking for a device (or service) that allows me to call a number at one location, get an answer, re-dial, and complete the call from that location. For example: I am in (say NV, or even HI). I want to call an 800 number in KY (or PA, NY, or ??) that only accepts calls from within the state of KY (or wherever)... to reach that 800 number I must complete the call from a KY exchange ... (NO, the people who own the 800 number WILL NOT accept calls other than on the 800 number). Suggestions, anyone?? (Yes, you can assume that I am willing to rent office space and and telephone lines in the various states.) Thanks, Glenn L Foote ...... glnfoote@freenet.columbus.oh.us ------------------------------ From: dmetz@dgs.dgsys.com (Daniel Metz) Subject: Kuwait/Islam Telephone Information Service Date: 5 Dec 1994 13:25:15 -0500 Organization: Digital Gateway Systems [This message is posted on behalf of my client, Sam Messinger, of Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. Mr. Messinger is currently traveling in the Middle East and is seeking responses to this posting from interested investors, academic experts in the fields described below, and anyone else interested in helping with the development of this project. Information on how to respond to this posting can be located at the bottom of the message.] Kuwait/Islam Telephone Information Service (1-800-Kuwait) The Kuwait/Islam telephone information service will employ a touch-tone menu system similar to many telephone information services available today. Through the use of a touch-tone phone, the user will be able to select from a wide variety of information choices, several of which are outlined below. The service will be available throughout the United States, and will present material in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish. The service will be advertised in major newspapers, including the {International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, and The Los Angeles Times}. Among the many services envisioned are: Greetings from the Kuwaiti Emir; A daily quote from the Koran; An explanation of what the Koran is for those unfamiliar with Islam; Daily prayer times by time zone; Daily price quotes on gold, silver, and oil; Information on Kuwaiti petroleum and mineral resources; History of Kuwait; Information on Kuwaiti manufacturing and businesses; Information on Kuwaiti society, customs, and traditions; Information on the Kuwaiti economy; Information on Kuwaiti art; Information on Kuwaiti science; Information on Kuwaiti medicine; Information on Kuwaiti recreation and sports; Information on Kuwaiti government; Information on Kuwaiti agriculture; Explanations of Islamic holidays; Explanations of the Islamic calendar and months; Special section for children on growing up in Kuwait; Information on Kuwait-U.S. relations; Information on Kuwaiti ecological concerns; Interactive services, for instance, the ability for a user to leave his/her name and address to receive a Kuwaiti calendar and quarterly updates of available services; In some instances, famous American figures will be used to read and explain topics. The American public will readily recognize the voices of these people, which should create a good public response as well as favorable publicity from the U.S. media. The phone lines to the Kuwait/Islam Telephone Information Service would be available 24 hours per day with the exception of religious holidays. Similar programs are envisioned for France, England, Germany, Japan, etc. Academics interested in lending their expertise to this project are encouraged to submit resumes. Interested investors and others who would like to help in the establishment of this system are encouraged to submit informal proposals and inquiries. Mr. Messinger can receive correspondence in two ways: 1) Mail can be sent to: Sam Messinger 11305 Baroque Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20901 USA 2) E-mail sent to the following address dmetz@dgs.dgsys.com and addressed to Mr. Messinger will be promptly forwarded to him. Thank you. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Dec 94 13:39 EST From: Mark W. Earle <0006127039@mcimail.com> Subject: CID Comes to Texas Caller ID has come to South Texas (Southwestern Bell, A/C 512 and 210). The 'default' if you do nothing is that your number is transmitted. However, Per-Call blocking of ID transmission is available with *67 and is free, regardless if you subscribe to receive CID information or not. Anonymous Call Rejection may be purchased for a monthly charge. If purchased, it may be turned off/on with seperate codes not noted in the brochure/bill insert. It did say it was not a toggle though. You may send a written certification that you have a compelling need for 'per line blocking' by completing the enclosed reply card ... it will be granted automatically free of charge without any need to explain your compelling need. Interestingly, if you subscribe to per line blocking, there is no overide, according to the bill insert. To make calls to ACR subscribed customers, you would "call from a payphone or cellular phone, make a credit card or operator assisted call, or ask someone who does not have per line blocking to place the call for you." A hassle, but that's good. No toggle conditions to worry about. They're also offerring a "try a CID unit free until Jan 1" promotion. You call and order a SB 60 memory unit. If you keep the unit, you are billed $60 in four convenient monthly installments beginning January 95. mwearle@mcimail.com--- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not only is it turned on in Texas, it is being transmitted around the USA. My sister lives there and I got a call from her over the weekend. Guess what? Her number showed up on my Caller ID box here in Skokie. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Emergency Numbers in Various Countries Date: Mon, 5 Dec 1994 03:40:24 EET From: Kimmo.Ketolainen@utu.fi (Kimmo Ketolainen) Organization: Turun yliopisto - University of Turku, Finland Do you have any other to add, Pat? Some of these have been extremely hard to find, because people in many countries have not known what to do in case of emergency ... and thus don't know the number at all. Kimmo. Australia 000 Austria 122 fire dept, 133 police, 144 ambulance Belarus 01 fire dept, 02 police, 03 ambulance Belgium 112 Bosnia and Herzgovina 92 police, 93 fire dept, 94 ambulance Brazil 190 police, 193 fire dept Bulgaria 160 fire dept, 166 police, 155 ambulance Canada 911 Chile 133 police, 132 fire dept, 131 ambulance Columbia 111 police Corea 112 police, 119 fire dept and ambulance Croatia 92 police, 93 fire dept, 94 ambulance Czech Republic 150 fire dept, 155 ambulance, 158 police Denmark 112 Estonia 01 fire dept, 02 police, 03 ambulance Finland 112, 10022 police France 112 Germany 112 fire dept and ambulance, 110 police Great Britain and N.Ireland 112 Greece 112 Hong Kong 112 Hungary 04 ambulance, 05 fire dept, 07 police Iceland 0112 (to be replaced by 112) Ireland 112 Italy 112 Japan 119 fire dept Kuwait 115, 119 Latvia 01 fire dept, 02 police, 03 ambulance Liechtenstein 112 Lithuania 01 fire dept, 02 police, 03 ambulance Luxembourg 112 Macedonia 92 police, 93 fire dept, 94 ambulance Mexico No emergency number. Number for police varies. Monaco 112 Netherlands, The 112 New Zealand 111 Norway 112 Portugal 112 Poland 997 police, 998 fire dept, 999 ambulance Russia, rest of CIS 01 fire dept, 02 police, 03 ambulance Saudi Arabia 999 police, 998 fire dept, 997 ambulance 996 traffic accidents, 995 narcotic police Singapore 999 police, 995 fire dept Slovakia 150 fire dept, 155 ambulance, 158 police Slovenia 92 police, 93 fire dept, 94 ambulance South Africa 10111 Spain 091 police Sweden 112 Switzerland 112 Thailand 191 police Turkey 155 police Ukraine 01 fire dept, 02 police, 03 ambulance United States 911 Yugoslavia 92 police, 93 fire dept, 94 ambulance [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A footnote should be added to the USA entry noting that 911, while the common number, is not available in all areas. Many places still use seven digit numbers. Also, various forms of 911 are available, some more sophisticated and useful than others. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: The "Roadkill" Incident Date: 5 Dec 1994 02:46:52 -0500 (Pat, etc.: I found this floating around the net. Workers World Service is a somewhat, ahem, unique source of news and viewpoints often overlooked by the mainstream media /danny) From: schneider332@delphi.com Newsgroups: alt.society.labor-unions Subject: Penn. Bell Date: Sun, 4 DEC 94 23:25:11 -0500 From: Workers World Service Subject: Phila.Communications Workers Fight Layoffs Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu Date: Sun, 4 Dec 1994 16:30:42 GMT Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit PHILADELPHIA/COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS FIGHT LAYOFFS By Joe Piette Philadelphia Bell Atlantic workers held a rally outside company offices here Nov. 23. They protested against the "downsizing" of 5,600 jobs. They also challenged the two-day suspensions of over 1,000 Bell Atlantic workers for wearing T-shirts opposing layoffs. Two months ago, Bell workers started wearing plain red T-shirts on Thursdays to protest planned massive layoffs. In November, a new protest shirt began to spread. The popular "Road Kill" T-shirt depicts a furry animal labeled "Bell Atlantic Employees" squashed on the information superhighway as Bell Atlantic and AT&T trucks speed by. úÿ On Nov. 22, when Bell bosses ordered workers to take the shirts off or turn them inside out, workers wearing the roadkill shirt refused. Between 1,000 and 1,200 were then sent home and suspended without pay over the "Thanksgiving" holiday. Besides calling the protest rally, the Communications Workers union also filed charges with the Labor Board. The union charged that the disciplinary suspensions violate labor law and infringe on workers' rights to freedom of expression. UNIONIZE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY WORKERS The Philadelphia-based telephone company announced in August that it would eliminate 7.7% of its work force in order to cut costs and expand into a vast video network. Instead of using the unionized workers who now maintain and install current telephone lines, Bell Atlantic wants to use non-union workers and subcontractors to install the new fiber-optic cables that would transmit audio and video signals into customer homes. Some of the costs for these high-tech changes will be passed on to phone customers, subject to approval by the Public Utility Commission, as authorized by new state legislation passed this year. Communications Workers District 13 Vice President Vincent Maisano explained: "We don't want the company contracting out our work. We have built the best telephone system in the world, and we want to build the best information highway in the world." Bell Atlantic paid Chief Executive Officer Raymond W. Smith $2,462,800 in salary, bonuses and stock options in 1993. The next four executive officers split $3,434,600. Bell Atlantic has had a 211-percent increase in value of investment over the last five years. Those rewards came at the expense of 8,000 jobs eliminated at Bell since 1988. In addition, Bell Atlantic now wants to replace the 5,600 relatively low paid but unionized workers with lower-paid, non-union subcontracted-out labor. The so-called information highway is the convergence of many formerly separate products and services into one multi-media industry. Telecommunications, cable, computers, television, publishing, postal services and other information media are all under intense competitive pressure to grow or die. Information companies have been merging and acquiring each other in a race to become the strongest and most profitable provider to residential homes of a wide range of interactive superhighway services. The future is very near. While the telephone industry was once 90-percent unionized, the multi-media industry is perhaps 35-percent organized. In other words, high tech means low wages unless or until workers fight back. Bell Atlantic workers and many other workers spread out all over the globe are struggling now for the rights and benefits workers will need on the information superhighway of the near future. -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwp.blythe.org.) ----------------- dannyb@panix.com (or dburstein@mcimail.com) ------------------------------ From: dreuben@netcom.com (CID Tech/INSG) Subject: Re: New York Suspends (Baltimore-DC) Roaming Date: Mon, 5 Dec 1994 05:45:29 PST On Fri, 02 Dec 1994 13:10:46 EST, Greg Monti writes: > I am a Cellular One Washington-Baltimore customer (system owned by > Southwestern Bell). I just got an oversized yellow postcard in the > mail. Verbatim: > Cellular Fraud on the Increase! > As users of Cellular One's service, you know how valuable and useful a > cellular phone has become. Unfortunately, so do numerous criminals > who want to steal your cellular phone and electronic serial numbers, [fraud scare hype deleted, almost as bad as New York Telephone and its payphone "War on Drugs".] > Since implementing the fraud management system, we have monitored an > extremely high amount of fraud originating from the New York City > metro area (including northern New Jersey). To protect our customers > from becoming victims of fraud and to deny criminals use of stolen > cellular phone numbers, we are TEMPORARILY SUSPENDING AUTOMATIC > ROAMING AND CALL DELIVERY TO THE NEW YORK CITY AREA. [emphasis > theirs] They forgot to mention that in all likelihood the reason they are doing this is because they are much more concerned with paying CO/NY a lot of money for fraudulent roaming charges than to save the phone numbers of their customers or to punish fraudulent users. > New Roaming Procedures for New York City: > What does this mean to you? If you are roaming in the New York City > area, incoming calls to your cellular number will not be delivered to > your phone. Instead, callers will be forwarded to your Message Plus > voice mailbox or be advised by a recording that you are out of the > coverage area. In other words, after setting up an automatic call delivery system on the East Coast which will someday (Hello, SWBell/Boston...! :( ) allow for seamless coverage on the "A" side from Maine to Virginia (but no voicemail in Bell-owned properties), SWBell/DC is now telling it's customers that there is sort of this "temporary" big gap in coverage in NYC, and that they should please put up with it ... how nice ... Although I'm not a big fan of the B-side system in the East for a number of reasons (NYNEX's lack of features for one, no re-direct to voicemail, non-standard feature codes, and that God-awful "Please hold on message" which uneccessarily doubles the time it takes to deliver a call), it may be a good time to remind readers that BAMS/Baltimore-DC (00018) 800-922-0204, has automatic call delivery all the way from DC to Maine, reasonable roaming rates ($.59 to $.79 per minute), and none of this annoying "temporary" roaming blockages deal that CO/DC feels comfortable to implement as if they "suddenly" discovered the NYC fraud problem. > Outgoing calls may still be made. However, they will > be intercepted by an operator who will request your credit card > information for billing purposes. Call set-up charges and per minute > rates will be significantly higher than todays' standard roaming > rates. Emergency calls to 911 will continue to be free. Yeah, you talk to a roaming operator, who will (curtly) take your destination number, and your credit card number (Bell or AT&T), and bill you something on the order of $1.99 per minute for the call. On top of that you pay about $.80 for the Calling Card surcharge, and around $.20 to $.25 daytime rates for the call. Note: You don't need an active cell account to do this, so you could just drop CO/DC and go to NYC and not pay CO/DC anything for the "privilege" of roaming in NYC. > YOUR ROAMING SERVICE STILL WORKS ACROSS THE NATION That's comforting to know the next time I find myself along I-95 and somehow it mysteriously has moved itself to Salt Lake City, Utah instead of running through NYC like it used to. (Actually, considering what NYC is like, that may not be so bad! :) ) > With the temporary exception of the New York City area, your Cellular > One roaming and call delivery services will not be affected in other > parts of the nation. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this > may cause, especially during the holiday season. We are hopeful this > situation can be resolved in a short period of time. As I am sure are all SWBell CO/DC customers who travel to NY. If you travel to NY a lot, and feel this will place you in a bit of a spot in terms of cellular coverage, feel free to tell them that you wish to cancel you annual service contract (at no penalty to you of course) and go set up an account with Bell Atlantic Mobile. If they give you some trouble about it being a contract and that you must stay on for a year, tell them that you had the expectation that silly things such as reasonable roaming rates in NYC, auto call delivery, and all those other things that they hyped in order to get you to sign on would continue as well. If they restore these immediately, you will continue to honor your annual agreement. If they break their deal with you because they want to save "hundreds of thousands of dollars" (let's see, they make that in oh, about a hour? Poor little SWBell ... sniff sniff) then you can rightly explain to them that you wish to save a nearly similar amount by not using NY's gouging ... err ROAMING operator. Moreover, although I am not too familiar with CO/DC's Autoplex (?) switch, I do know that in most systems, a given range of numbers can be restored quite readily should a customer need to roam in a blocked market. This happened to me on the B side in Oregon and on the A side in Philly, and it was never a problem to put a range numbers where mine was located back into the blocked system so that I could roam there normally. If you don't want to score points by cancelling your (annual/contract) service with them, try telling them this and INSIST that they explain to you why they can't do it if that's the answer which they give to you. > If you have any questions, please call out Customer Relations Department > at 1-800-CELL-ONE. Oh yeah, like that's going to help -- they couldn't even tell me what the rates were in Boston (another SW Bell property) or if a roam charge would be incurred. > Cellular One. Clearly Better. At what? > Note that it doesn't say what happens if a caller dials 212 847-7626 > (the New York A-carrier roamer port), receives a dial tone and dials > .your ten-digit cellular number. I tried that and got an immediate fast > busy after dialing my own ten-digit cellular number. But this may not > have been a good test since my phone was in the Washington-Baltimore > area at the time -- and turned off. Won't make a difference -- most NACN customers (DC is on the NACN) will get a fast busy if they dial a roamer via the roam port in another NACN city. A silly Call Delivery thing which guarantees that the only way that someone can reach you while roaming is if YOU agree to pick up the LD costs. I think there may be some technical reason for this as well in Ericsson switches -- they are always having problems with the ports in NYC. (You need to use three or four ports in sequence to find a roamer in NY, the switch can't do it.) Overall, another typical SWBell roaming annoyance. This comes from the same people who charge their own customers in Boston HOME (ie, THEY make money too) airtime for call-delivery when customers roam outside the Boston coverage area, the same people who randomly seem to charge a $2 "Roamer Administration Fee" whenever they need some more beer at their headquarters, the same people who will not work out a roaming agreement with another (albeit slimey) cellular outfit in Western Mass, so that roamers who receive calls will unknowingly pay $3 per day, $.99 per minute (and don't forget the CO/Boston HOME airtime and $2 beer fee), and the same people who were supposed to be on the NACN almost a year ago but for some reason just never got around to it. (There's more, of course, but let's not get into that.) What else can you expect? I hope that a lot of their customers who travel to NYC will be so outraged that they just flat out drop their SWBell Cell One service and sign up with BAMS or NYNEX. (One good thing about NYNEX -- unlike SWBell CO/DC, you will NEVER pay a daily roam charge in any B market.) SWBell "tried" to get rid of the free airtime deal in Boston a few years ago (or maybe it was just a marketing ploy), but as a result of a lot of negative customer feedback, they dropped these plans. Hopefully, a significant number of Baltimore/DC customers will complain about this, causing SWBell to reconsider its NYC raoming decision. Finally, may I add that if SWBell were really serious about trying to mitigate any inconvenience to its customers, it would allow regular roaming and call-delivery in CO/NY's market, and force customers to use 0+ dialing for all toll calls outside the local calling area (or an 800 calling card, etc.) I know CO/San Francisco's Ericsson allows for this, and I suspect that CO/NY could do this too, although I don't know if this service restriction can be handed out to specific (e.g. DC/Baltimore) roamers. I was told it could, but that may be misinformation. Any Ericsson people out there? There are other potential solutions, such as the use of the "Fraud Protection" feature supported by CO/NY (even if only when roaming in NY). Again, I don't know if this is possible or if the coding is already in place or not, but at the very least have something like the above available prior to turning off roaming in one of the nation's largest markets. The failure to do this is typical of the generally annoying, petty, nickel-and-diming approach which SWBell manifests in many of its properties. Doug Reuben // CID Technologies/InterPage Network Services Group dreuben@netcom.com // (203) 499 - 5221 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #437 ******************************