TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 Jan 95 05:20:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 21 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: AT&T First to Deliver Long-Awaited "Follow-Me" 500 Numbers (M. Weiss) Re: Cellphone Now Giving ANI? (Mr. James Holland) Re: Need Information on EXCEL (Gerry Gollwitzer) Re: Need Information on IS-54 (Glenn Shirley) Re: "High-end" Phone Products (Michael N. Marcus) Re: Information Wanted on Northern Telecom Phone (Michael N. Marcus) Re: MANs in USA (Roger Fajman) Re: Emergency Numbers in Various Countries (Carl Moore) Re: How Can I Encrypt a T-1? (Ted Hadley) Re: Phone Rates From Israel (Jay Kaplowitz) Re: Interim Results of FCC Auctions (Raj Gajwani) Re: NANP Changes (Fran S. Menzel) Re: Telecom Texts (Mark Peacock) Re: NANP 800 Numbers From the UK (Ari Wuolle) ISDN Wish List (Syd Weinstein) General Datacom ATM Switches Sign Deal With Siemens (Peter Granic) Atlanta Airport's Pay Phones Reject 1-800 Numbers Randomly (Robert Casey) Digital Cellular in the USA (reb@xyzzy.com) Re: Computer Caller-ID (Seymour Dupa) Starting a Ratepayers Association (Aryeh M. Friedman) PCS Auction Results (M.J. Sutter) ETSI Standards - Where? (Gabor Lajos) 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: 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. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mweiss@interaccess.com (Mitch Weiss) Subject: Re: AT&T First to Deliver Long-Awaited "Follow-Me" 500 Numbers Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1995 22:07:04 In article A Alan Toscano writes: > Calls within the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin > Islands during off-peak hours (from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. weekdays, and all > weekend) will cost 15 cents a minute, whether the caller or receiver > pays. Calls during peak hours (from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays) will > cost 25 cents a minute. Rates for some in-state calls may vary. > Calls made to or from other countries will be charged the regular AT&T > rates for those countries. Who pays for the call? Is it the caller or the owner of the number? If it is the caller, would I be charged for an international call if I call someone who happens to be overseas at the time? Mitchell Weiss mweiss@interaccess.com ------------------------------ From: holland@perot.mtsu.edu (Mr. James Holland) Subject: Re: Cellphone Now Giving ANI? Date: 9 Jan 1995 15:49:16 GMT Organization: Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee > In article 8@eecs.nwu.edu, keith.knipschild@asb.com writes: > I guess NYNEX Mobile has made some progress, Today I dialed 1-800-MY- ANI-IS > from my Cellular phone ... and guess what ... it came back with my > cellular phone number. In the past it would come back with a WEIRD > number. > Is NYNEX Mobile the first company to pass along the ANI from cellular > phones? The ANI returned on my cellular service (CellOne of Tennessee) is that of the business office of the local 911 office. Any idea why that is, or if it's only a fluke? Kind of unnerving to call back the ANI to my phone and be greeted with "911, can I help you". It's NOT their actual 911 emergency line, and other cell phones in the area get the same ANI number as I. James Holland holland@knuth.mtsu.edu ------------------------------ From: gerryg@earth.execpc.com (Gerry Gollwitzer) Subject: Re: Need Information on EXCEL Date: 9 Jan 1995 15:54:57 GMT Organization: Exec-PC Bill Dankert (graphite@netcom.com) wrote: > Has anyone heard of, or participated in, Excel Telecommunications, > Inc.? It is a long distance service provider that uses network > marketing instead of a sales force. Please post, or email me > directly, any comments concerning Excel. Your help will be greatly > appreciated. Bill, I have been with Excel since the end of July. I have also been a telecom consultant for almost four years. Excel is working great for us. They really have put together an great income producing program. Let me know if you have further interest. Gerry ------------------------------ From: shirleyg@stanilite.com.au (UL ENG) Subject: Re: Need Information on IS-54 Date: 9 Jan 1995 21:26:15 +1100 Organization: Stanilite Electronics Pty. Ltd. Sydney, Australia Dharshana P. Jayasuriya writes: > I would appreciate very much if someone can recommend a good book or > some other material which has sufficient information on the architecture > and protocols of the US digital standard IS 54. > Is it possible to buy a copy of the standard itself? (I mean not the > whole thousands of pages but a summary.) Or is it strictly proprietary? You can order the standard (its $US 218) from: Global Engineering Documents 15 Inverness Way East Englewood CO 80112 Ph. (303) 792-2181 (800) 624-3974 Fax (303) 397-7935 Don't forget your international prefix and the 1 for the U.S before the above numbers. I haven't tried the 800 number above so I don't know if it works outside the U.S. or not. My employer regularly buys standards through them (they are the official EIA/TIA supplier) by mail from Australia so you shouldn't have any problems. Note the above phone numbers are for international enquiries (outside the U.S and Canada) and there are other numbers for the different regions within North America. Hope that helps, Glenn ------------------------------ From: mnm914@aol.com (MNM 914) Subject: Re: "High-end" Phone Products Date: 10 Jan 1995 08:05:33 GMT Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: mnm914@aol.com (MNM 914) I'm 99.9995832% sure there are no three-line cordlesses, other than those dedicated to work with specific multi-line phone systems. Panasonic KX-T3980 is my first choice for two-line analog cordlesses, and Uniden 9200 and Vtech Platinum (and similar ATT 9132, if it's finally available) are good 900MHz digital phones. There is a lot of discussion of these products in the phone equipment section of the Consumer Electronics Forum on CompuServe (I'm the sysop). Michael N. Marcus CompuServe: 74774,2166 AOL: MNM914 Netcom: MNMarcus@ix.Netcom.com Prodigy: Duh? Fax: 914 961-7899 ------------------------------ From: mnm914@aol.com (MNM 914) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on Northern Telecom Phone Date: 10 Jan 1995 08:05:37 GMT Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: mnm914@aol.com (MNM 914) Hi, Keith. Your name is familiar; have we spoken on CompuServe? It's an amazing piece of equipment. It's even smart enough to put a message in the right mailbox based on its Caller ID. I'm presently testing one, and reviews will be in the library of the phone equipment section of Consumer Electronics Forum on CIS, and in {Teleconnect} magazine, and probably {Home Office Computing}. Michael N. Marcus ------------------------------ From: Roger Fajman Date: Mon, 09 Jan 1995 23:06:21 EST Subject: Re: MANs in USA > I need some help in getting info about Metropolitan Area Networks > in USA. The questions are: > 1. What is the physical structure of MANs (fiber, coax)? > 2. If fiber what is the protocol (fddi, atm)? > 3. Who is the main investor (banks)? > 4. Does banks use MAN for data transmission? > 5. What services are provided, and which are most popular? Bell Atlantic (the local phone company) operates a metropolitan FDDI network (called FNS) in the Washington, DC area. There are multiple interconnected FDDI rings covering different parts of the area. They offer 10 Mbps Ethernet and 4 and 16 Mbps token ring connections. The service looks like a Ethernet or token ring to the customers. Network Systems brouters are located in Bell Atlantic central offices. Fiber Ethernet or token ring connections run to the customer locations. I believe that the fiber is single mode, both for the FDDI ring and the drops. Filters in the brouters prevent customers from seeing each others traffic. Roger Fajman Telephone: +1 301 402 4265 National Institutes of Health BITNET: RAF@NIHCU Bethesda, Maryland, USA Internet: RAF@CU.NIH.GOV ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 95 20:59:05 GMT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Emergency Numbers in Various Countries Telephone dials vary from one country to the next. As set up here in country code 1 (U.S., Canada, and part of the Caribbean area), a zero is 10 dial clicks, and any other digit is its face value of clicks. So 112 would use 4 clicks and 999 would use 27 clicks, but those are not in use here for emergency. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 95 12:56:43 PST From: tedh@cylink.COM (Ted Hadley) Subject: Re: How Can I Encrypt a T-1? In article synchro@access1.digex.net (Steve) writes: > There is a company in California called Cylink. They make several > different kinds of crypto gear for communications. I'm unable to come > up with a telephone number for them at the moment. Telephone number is 408-735-5800. Ted A. Hadley tedh@cylink.COM Cylink Corporation, 910 Hermosa Ct, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA 408- 735-5847 ------------------------------ From: jayk372@aol.com (JayK372) Subject: Re: Phone Rates From Israel Date: 9 Jan 1995 19:50:52 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: jayk372@aol.com (JayK372) I believe that you can call from Israel for about 80 cents per minute from midnight Israel time to 8 a.m. My recollection is that the highest rate, during the day, is about $1.50 per minute. This is via Bezeq, the PTT. Jay Kaplowitz ------------------------------ From: rgajwani@husc.harvard.edu (Raj Gajwani) Subject: Re: Interim Results of FCC Auctions Date: 10 Jan 1995 02:15:57 GMT Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts Brian Miner (bminer@wireless.ultranet.com) wrote: > Has anyone seen results from the FCC auctions of the PCS licenses on > the net ? FTP, gopher, or WWW to "fcc.gov" for full results and documents. ------------------------------ From: f.s.menzel Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1995 13:31:32 -0500 Subject: Re: NANP Changes On 22 Dec 94 Joe Bergstein wrote: > I thought the NANP changes weren't going into effect until 7/1/95. > Now I hear that CPE vendors are harrasing small customers with > outrages upgrade prices to support NANP changes as of 1/1/95. My > understanding was that changes were permissive (both old and new A/C > OK) until 7/1/95, at which point they would become mandatory. Is this > correct? If not, please update. Since I'm not sure of the dates, I'll assume they're correct and provide the following humble defense of my employer, a CPE vendor. Many of our customers will be faced with system upgrades to deal with the NANP change. It would be irresponsible for the vendors to wait until the last minute to inform customers of the issue, since it would be impossible to fill the demand if all NANP system upgrades were ordered during the final month of premissive dialing. For our larger customers, expenditures for equipment upgrades typically need to be budgeted in the preceeding year. A small comment on the "outrageous" upgrade prices: in cases where customers have older systems, the NANP upgrade is likely to require bringing the system up the level of systems being currently sold, a costly procedure. My employer,for one, did lots of soul-searching related to NANP issues, and ended up generating NANP releases for many (but not all) versions of our systems in order to keep the price reasonable. On the bright side, once you do upgrade, you'll probably find lots of things in addition to NANP to appreciate about your upgraded system. Fran Menzel, AT&T Global Business Communication Systems ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 12:29:47 -0600 From: mpeacock@dttus.com Subject: Re: Telecom Texts A text that I've used is Engineering and Operations of the Bell System, 2nd Edition, published by AT&T (c) 1981 or 1983. I may be slightly off on the title since someone seems to have nicked my copy. It úÿ doesn't cover recent digital developments but does a nice clear job discussing the POTS network. It's not full of jargon; a good introductory text. Indeed, I believe it was originally written for new hires at Bell Labs. Mark Peacock Deloitte & Touche Management Consulting Detroit, Michigan ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 03:37:11 +0200 From: Ari.Wuolle@hut.fi (Ari Wuolle) Subject: Re: NANP 800 Numbers From the UK > All of a sudden, I can now dial 1-800 numbers from the UK. There is a > few seconds of silence, and then an American female voice tells me > that this call will *not* be free, but charged at standard direct- dial > rates. If I don't want to pay, I should hang up now. Just the same here from Finland -- but only if I call using Telecom Finland. (990-1-800-XXX-XXXX). When I try to call using Telivo, I will get tritone meaning number is not in use after 994-1-800. Finnet lets me dial the whole number 999-1-800-XXX-XXXX and then gives tritone. (Telecom Finland is former monopoly carrier here. Telivo is owned by Finnish (electrical) power company Imatran Voima Oy. Finnet is owned by private telephone companies in co-operation. Telivo and Finnet have had licence to carry international trafic to everywhere from last summer.) > Just for fun, I tried 1-800-MY-ANI-IS. It told me: "702 000 5555" ! I got exactly the same number. Pity that only one carrier here let US 800 calls go through. It would have been nice to see what ANI would read back when using other carriers. Ari Wuolle e-mail Ari.Wuolle@hut.fi s-mail Kolkekannaksentie 10 B 4 telephone + 358 0 509 2073 02720 ESPOO cellphone + 358 49 431 140 FINLAND fax + 358 0 428 429 (temporary) ------------------------------ From: syd@myxa.com (Syd Weinstein) Subject: ISDN Wish List Date: 9 Jan 1995 12:06:36 -0500 Organization: Myxa Corporation, Huntingdon Valley, PA Reply-To: syd@Myxa.com Looking for a product that meets a wish list of mine: Basically I am looking for an ISDN TA with the following features: 1. RS-232 interface up to 115.2kbps; 2. accepts 1B call and performs compression to get 115.2 async out of it; 3. Desirable, but not mandataory, can accept two calls, one per B, and take each to 115.2 async individually. (likewise can make two outbound, one per B using each of the RS-232 interfaces); 4. Dials with the AT style command set. optional feature: O-1. Accepts 230.4kbps RS-232 serial interface and uses compression to make use of it via 2B single call; O-2. Imbedded V.34 modem, accepts calls from POTS lines by using modem portion and ISDN lines using TA portion. Anybody know of anything? Please e-mail to me and I will summarize to the group. Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator - Current 2.4PL24 Myxa Corporation Projected 3.0 Release: ??? ?,199? syd@Myxa.COM or dsinc!syd Voice: (215) 947-9900, FAX: (215) 938- 0235 Welcome Page: http://www.myxa.com Elm WWW: http://www.myxa.com/elm.html ------------------------------ From: stari@io.org (Peter Granic) Subject: General Datacom ATM Switches Sign Deal With Siemens Date: 9 Jan 1995 20:43:31 -0500 Organization: Internex Online (io.org) Data: 416-363-4151 Voice: 416- 363-8676 Last week General Datacom announced that it had signed an agreement with German Telecom multinational Siemens in which Siemens will roll out their ATM network services with General Datacom switches. This is the second big announcement which General Datacom made regarding ATM switch sales, the other being to a large Canadian telecommunications provider. Does anyone know if they are having success in the U.S. right now? I did not really know about them being into ATM until a few months ago. I thought the big players at the moment were shaping up to be Fore Systems, IBM, Hughes, and Newbridge, but seeing that GDC is rolling out switches to large data service providers it is obvious that they are also a company trying to take the ATM market as well. Have AT&T and MCI announced which ATM switches they will go with? Fore Systems is apparently the only ATM manufacturer which is making money on ATM right now. I would think that this means they are succeeding with the large U.S. market right now which generates the most ATM revenue. They have an excellent range of products, with the most comprehensive set of desktop to desktop solutions (according to what I've read). Our company has not moved to ATM yet (we are just pondering regular switching!), so I haven't even had a chance to play with the technology yet. If somebody has gotten their hands on some of the switches, and would have an opinion on how they would rate the products, I would appreciate it if you would email me. Thanks, Peter Granic ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Atlanta Airport's Pay Phones Reject 1-800 Numbers Randomly Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 04:44:41 GMT Today, I was in the airport that serves Atlanta, GA. I tried to place a few 1-800 toll free calls, and had a lot of trouble. Numbers I know to be good got responses of "invalid number". I'd reach for another pay phone, and got thru to the number. I tried the same numbers later that day (while getting hung up with the dead Newark airport mess) in the Atlanta airport and got more "invalid number"; another attempt got me thru, then I got cut off. Pay phones were labeled "PTC" (or something like that) and also said that the local exchange didn't "own" these phones. Some phones didnt work at all (bad keypads, or just dead). I don't know who "PTC" is, but they really SUCK! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jan 95 01:01:59 EST From: reb@xyzzy.com (Phydeaux's PC) Subject: Digital Cellular in the USA Exactly how is digital cellular being implemented here in the US? I was under the impression that the control and voice channels were digitally encoded and then sent between the phone and the tower. Today a dealer for a cellphone company told me that only the control signals are encoded. Somehow I don't believe him. Assuming that the signals *are* encoded, how are they doing it? Are they using the same analog bandwidth more efficiently via the digital signal? reb reb@xyzzy.com ------------------------------ From: grumpy@en.com (Seymour Dupa) Subject: Re: Computer Caller-ID Date: 10 Jan 1995 00:28:22 -0500 Organization: Exchange Network Services, Inc. Thomas Fitzurka (LCRS73A@prodigy.com) wrote: > Does anyone know of a software program that enables you to have your > computer identify caller's phone numbers? I saw a movie called > Brainscan that had a computer, using caller id, identify the caller > and tell the person in an "igor" voice, which I perticularly liked, > that "Bobby is calling master". The idea was really interesting to me > and I would like to get something like it. Rochell Communications has caller ID unit with a serial port that feeds the caller id info to a serial port on a computer. They also have a program that reads the computer's serial port, look if the number has called before, and if so, diaplays the info. They are at 800-542-8808 or 512-794-0088. ------------------------------ From: cash!aryeh@darkstar.UCSC.EDU (Aryeh M. Friedman) Subject: Starting a Ratepayers Association Date: 10 Jan 1995 10:12:27 GMT Organization: UCSC Dept of Econ How do I start a effective ratepayers association to protest among other things GTE of California's *OUTRAGOUS* service fee hike from $8/month to $20/month for flat rate? A similor rate hike has happened to lifeline and measured costumers. BTW I have the support of most of the people I know to do this. Also I study telecom in school so I know the basics of the legal aspects of the industry. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Instead of *starting* one why don't you *join* an existing one? There are many effective ones throughout the USA. Save yourself a lot of hassles by working with one of the established organizations which deal with these things. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1995 20:59:48 -0500 From: Mjsutter@aol.com Subject: PCS Auction Results When will the results (winners) of the most recent round of PCS license auctions be made public? How are the results announced? Does FCC maintain a Gopher that could access this type of info? Thanks in advance. Mike [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See an earlier message in this issue for a discussion of interim results. The FCC maintains a public file on all this at 'fcc.gov'. Use FTP, Gopher or similar services to get there. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ethgls@duna.ericsson.se (Gabor Lajos) Subject: ETSI Standards - Where? Date: 10 Jan 1995 05:00:26 -0600 Hello everybody, I am looking for ANY information about how to get ETSI (also pre-ETSI) standards in any form (eg. hardcopy, CD-Rom, postcript file). It can be an office from where I have to order, or an 'FTP site' or anything. I wrote 'FTP site' since I can't do real FTP to the outside world, only that E-mail operated fake FTP is available for me. Thanks in advance. Best Regards, Gabor ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #21 *****************************