------------------------------ Reply-To: dgc@math.ucla.edu Subject: Re: Apartments Getting Into the PBX Business Date: Thu, 15 Dec 1994 13:19:40 -0800 From: David G. Cantor In TELECOM Digest, Volume 14, Issue 437, John Lundgren states: > . . . many larger apartment complexes are getting a PBX. . . as of > Jan 1, anyone [in California] can get into the business of > furnishing dial tone. It was roughly two years ago when the California PUC turned over responsibility of telephone wiring in an apartment complex to the owner. By PUC regulations, the owner is required to provide at least one working line from the telco point of demarcation to each apartment. The telcos simply stopped maintenance of the usual rat's nest and left it for the apartment management. In their mailing-insert on this matter Pac Tel said that either the management or the tenant could pay the usual rate for the telco, interior-wiring, maintence plan. I assume that management can require that the tenant pay for the wiring by putting that requirement in the laese. BUT this plan stops whenever a tenant stops telephone service (usually by vacating the apartment). The owner or new tenant may reinstate the plan. The problem is that the most likely time for problems to occur is when a new tenant moves in and orders telco service, perhaps with more lines and perhaps with jacks at different places. David G. Cantor Department of Mathematics dgc@math.ucla.ed University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024 ------------------------------ From: dodgly@wwc.edu (Lyle E Dodge) Subject: Re: Pager Advice Wanted Date: Thu, 15 Dec 1994 05:17:29 GMT Organization: Walla Walla College In article brunelle@u.washington.edu (Russell Brunelle) writes: > Hi. I'm not very well versed in modern telephone technology, but I have > decided to buy my girlfriend a beeper (or are they called pagers now?) > for Christmas. We live in the Seattle area. Great area. I live there too. > It would have to have a monthly fee that's very low (I don't mind if > the unit is expensive to buy, because I'm paying for that, but she > will be paying the monthly fee so that should be QUITE low), a display > that can light up so you can read it when it's dark, the ability to > vibrate (or do something quietly) instead of beep so it doesn't bug > people, and the ability to store a few numbers in case several people > call in a row. Most pagers support the above features. You will of course want to get a Motorola pager. They are by far the best, hands down. > I would also like (and perhaps here is where some advice would come > in) the ability to send some sort of message with the phone number. > This could be as simple as the pager allowing me to type more than > seven digits so the first seven digits would be the phone number she > should call and the rest are a code indicating generally what the call > is about and how urgent it is (i.e. 44 for it's just to chat, 77 for > the cat died, etc.). Is there some way to type a space or dash > character so the person can tell where the phone number ends and the > code begins? The Motorola "Memo Express" supports several messages. The memo express has two basic operations. 1) Digital. Dial an service number, tone, key in your callback number. The number can be more than seven digits if you wish. If you only use seven there is a '-' between the third and fourth digits. If you key in tons more, there is not. You could key in your phone number, and have the eighth and ninth digits represent your code. Whatever, that is up to you. 2) Alpha. With special service you can call up and have an actual text message sent to the pager (120 characters). Here at the college we are able to send email to an address on our LAN and have the body of the message sent to the pager. I doubt pager service providers provide that kind of service. The pager was about 160 bucks for us. We also have the Bravo, which may suit your needs better. It offers beep/vibrate modes (ooh, exciting), and lit up display, but only has support for digital, no alpha. > What sort of pager should I get, and where could I get it the most > inexpensively? Is there some neat new feature I should look for in a > pager? Get a Motorola, definately. Grab a Seattle phone book, I know they are HUGE, and look up "Telephone Service", or "Pagers" and find a big company. Usually the ones that have been around for a long time usually have better services. Best of luck. Lyle Dodge Telecommunications Walla Walla College dodgly@wwc.edu ------------------------------ From: spencer@z-code.com (Spencer Sun) Subject: Re: PacBell Not Aiming to "Please" Date: 14 Dec 1994 21:42:27 -0800 Organization: Gizmonic Institute Reply-To: spencer@z-code.com (S. Spencer Sun) In , David Leibold writes: [directory assistance operators no longer saying "please" after "what city"] > Seems some critics, including Judith "Miss Manners" Martin, don't like > PacBell's triumph of efficiency over politeness. PacBell, meanwhile, > claims the new please-less greeting saves $5M/year and 0.5 seconds per > call, to keep the entire greeting within a 1.2 second limit. Yet, the > current average call times are slightly longer (19.6 sec, versus the > previous 19.35 sec). I heard from a friend (always a sure sign of reliable information, eh? :-) ) that, in fact, even the operator's greeting is now recorded and played automatically before the operator comes on the line to take your request. For what reason I don't know. Does someone know if there's any truth to this? S. Spencer Sun / Network Computing Devices, Z-Code Software Division [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, this is correct in many places. Here in the Chicago area Ameritech has experimented with having the operator's voice pre-recorded on a small chip which holds about two seconds of recording. It goes something like this, "Operator Jane, may I help you?". This is intended mainly to save the operator's voice; to make less talk necessary on her part. When the operator responds to a call that message is played automatically. You can even get these devices for business phones and receptionists who answer a large number of calls daily. When the phone rings, just press the start button then lift the receiver. By the time you get the phone to your ear it has given its little speech; all you do is sit there and listen to what the person on the other end says. They can be wired through the second pair in the phone via the handset so they start by themselves when the receiver is lifted if you want. I guess you would wire them through the A/A1 leads probably. These were in the Hello Direct catalog (1-800-HI-HELLO) at one time. To illustrate how refined the process of being an operator has become, consider the directory assistance operator: she sits there wearing a headset. There is no need to push a button to answer a call since the call distributor hands her the call automatically. She knows there is a call on the line since she hears a click in her headset and breathing on the other end of the line. At that point her recorded voice has already answered the call. The person on the other end asks for whatever it is he wants and she types on a keyboard to pull up the record. She puts the cursor on the desired record and hits another key. This causes the computer's voice to read off the number to the caller. After two recitations of the number, the computer adds that, 'if you need further assistance, an operator will return ...'. In this example, our operator is long gone, now handling still another call. If the caller stays on the line, he will 'recall' to the first available operator; not necessarily the one who handled his call originally. She will get the screen on her computer automatically which was referenced the first time around. For a large percentage of the calls to directory assistance, the operator does not speak at all, at any time in the connection. Although she has a key on the console to dump the caller if he is obnoxious, normally when the caller disconnects on his own it automatically leaves the console with no further effort on the operator's part. On a typical day, the very instant one caller hangs up (click! dead earpiece) a new call will be handed to the operator (click! live earpiece, breathing, noise in the background). If traffic is slow, there may be five or ten seconds of silence between callers. All day long, the operator may say ten words of actual speaking to callers, in unusual circumstances, or where she has to ask the caller to spell a name, etc. An operator is expected to handle 80-100 calls per hour in this fashion, or 600-700 calls per shift. When I was at the credit card sales authorization office twenty years ago, although we did not have the speech modules at that time, the nine to eleven thousand calls received each 24 hour period were expected to be handled in 20-30 seconds each with a minimum of spoken words. They began looking at speech modules right after they moved to Des Moines in 1975. When I get a case where the recording on the front end is really lousy (there was a lot of background noise when the operator logged on and made her recording that day, etc) I tell her about it ... "operator you should remake your recording, it sounds terrible ..." PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Dec 94 11:17:03 +1100 From: mehmet@macadam.mpce.mq.edu.au (Mehmet Orgun) Subject: Preliminary Planning For ISLIP'95 Hi all, It is time to get cracking with the organization of ISLIP'95. At this stage, I would like to ask people a couple of questions. _______________ Are you able to attend ISLIP'95 in Sydney? (YES/NO) (If NO, please state the reason) _______________ Are you able to attend ISLIP'95 in late May/June? (give your preferred dates) Please reply as soon as possible. Cheers, Mehmet A Orgun, Department of Computing, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia Tel: +61 (0)2 850 9570, Fax: +61 (0)2 850 9551 E-mail: mehmet@mpce.mq.edu.au ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #450 ******************************