TELECOM Digest Wed, 11 Jan 95 00:38:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 24 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Enters Rochester NY Local Telephone Market (wegeng.XKeys@xerox.com) Gain Hits (Steven Hoga) Looking For ADPCM Test Vector Set (Mark Indovina) How to Keep Track of Calls on Busy (Caller ID on Busy)? (Pete Kruckenberg) Recent Movie with Telecom Theme (Benjamin L. Combee) Optus Cision in Australia (Iaen Cordell) Re: Cell Phone PINs (Steve Seydell) Re: Cell Phone PINs (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Bell Atlantic Mobile Joins the PIN Crowd (coyne@thing1.cc.utexas.edu) Re: GSM in Canada? (John Scourias) Re: MANs in the US (Edward W. Bennett) Re: 800 Numbers From Overseas (Tony Harminc) 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. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 11:25:47 PST From: wegeng.XKeys@xerox.com Subject: AT&T Enters Rochester NY Local Telephone Market Several recent messages to the Digest have discussed the recent changes to the local telephone service regulations that allow for competition in the Rochester, Ny telephone market. The January 10, 1995 edition of the {Rochester Democrat & Chronicle} contains a full page ad from AT&T advertising that they are entering this market. For fun, I called the toll free number contained in the ad (1 800 716- 4ATT) to learn more about what AT&T is offering. According to the AT&T rep that I spoke to, AT&T is reselling service provided by Rochester Telephone (or is it Frontier Communications? I`m confused). With AT&T service customers keep their same telephone numbers, but are billed by AT&T. AT&T`s current rates are essentially the same as Rochester Telephone`s, minus a 10% new customer discount that is garanteed to be good for at least three months. The AT&T rep didn`t know what the rates would be after the three month period, but suggested thay they would remain competitive. AT&T is offering most of the advanced services that Rochester Telephone offers, with voice mail being the most asked for missing service (again all of this is implemented by Rochester Tel and resold by AT&T). I also learned that there is no sign up fee through March 31. Other items of interest: When I dialed the toll free number the greeting identified that it was intended for Rochester AT&T customer service (so it may not work elsewhere). ANI displayed my calling number to the rep (I asked), but their database contained the wrong name/address (probably because I was assigned this number about a month ago, though it`s interesting that the number was not listed as "unassigned"). The rep was physically located in Missouri (I asked). It will be interest to see what other companies enter this market. I have heard rumors that NYNEX, other baby bells, etc. are watching things closely, but I have not heard of any other companies that have definite plans to join in the fun. Don Wegeng dlw.xkeys@xerox.com ------------------------------ From: steven_h2@verifone.com (STEVEN HIGA/HNL DQ) Subject: Gain Hits Date: 10 Jan 95 11:31:16 -1000 Organization: VeriFone Inc., Honolulu HI I've been having a terrible time with a modem due to gain hits. I've used both a Consultronics TCS-500 and TAS101/Gemini Modem testers and discovered that this particulary modem can't seem to handle 1 dB gain hits. This has plagued me for awhile and unfortunately I don't know how to test for it. Both the new EIA/TIA TSB-37A and TSB-38 only define gain hits but does not specify rate, level, duration, or Bit Error Rate. Anybody know of a spec that covers gain hits, maybe IEEE, ANSI, others? ------------------------------ From: ep520mi@pts.mot.com (MARK INDOVINA) Subject: Looking For ADPCM Test Vector Set Organization: MOTOROLA, Strategic Semiconductor Operation, IC Tech Lab Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 01:21:02 GMT I'm looking for a copy of the test vectors for G.721, 32kbps Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM). Was there a set available from Committee T1? Pointers, FTP sites? Thanks in advance, Mark A. Indovina, Principal Staff Engineer mark_indovina@pts.mot.com MOTOROLA Strategic Semiconductor Operation, IC Technology Laboratory Mail Stop 63, 1500 Gateway Boulevard, Boynton Beach, FL 33436-8292 USA phone: 1-407-364-2379, fax: 1-407-364-3904 ------------------------------ From: pete@dswi.com (Pete Kruckenberg) Subject: How to Keep Track of Calls on Busy (Caller ID on Busy)? Date: 10 Jan 1995 21:38:17 -0700 Organization: DahlinSmithWhite, Inc. I'm running a dial-up computer service, and I'd like to be able to keep track of how many people are getting busy signals when they dial, so I can respond by adding more lines. I've thought of a couple of ways of doing this, and wanted to know if any of them are do-able. The first one is easy, but might not be feasible. If I could get caller ID's on a busy line, I'd just add caller ID to the last line in the hunt group, then feed the caller ID via serial into the computer. Is caller ID on busy even feasible, and if so, does/will US West offer it? What do I need to get to make it work? Second option, if caller ID on busy is not available: get another line (again, last in hunt group), which would always be busy (I don't want it to ring and confuse the users), but would have call waiting and caller ID on call waiting, then just pipe the caller ID into the computer via serial. Again, does US West offer caller ID on call waiting, and what do I need to make it work? Final option: get a line (last in hunt group) which would never answer, put caller ID and a caller ID -> serial box on it. It'll ring, which might confuse the users, but at least it'll keep track of who's calling and how often, when the other lines are busy. If there are other, better ways of doing this, I'd appreciate your input. Thanks for your help. Pete Kruckenberg pete@dswi.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way we did it for several years was to have telco send the count of busies. We had meters on each line which advanced each time a call was recieved on that line. We had a meter which advanced each time all incoming lines were busy. Having all lines busy of course is not the same as turning away additional calls; maybe there were none in the interim, maybe there were. For this we had a dedicated pair from the central office. Whenever the CO had to bounce a call due to all our lines busy (I think we had 100-125 incoming lines, most of which were 800 numbers in a hunt group, but maybe a dozen were local Chicago lines, and another dozen or so were 'ring-down' or 'tie-lines' which were terminated in the Automatic Call Distributor along with the 800 numbers) then the CO sent a pulse over that dedicated pair to a meter which kept track of those calls the CO bounced. We also kept track of 'lost calls'; those were the calls received in the queue in the ACD which were answered with a recording 'all positions are busy, please hold for an available position ...' and the calling party chose to hang up or disconnect prior to getting a live answer. The 'meter clerk' was a person on each shift whose job it was to read all the meters hourly, jot down the figures and prepare a report for management. There were also meters showing how many calls were taken by each position each hour. We generally averaged 600-800 calls per hour during the day and evening hours, and about 200-300 calls per hour during the overnight period, or about 13,000-14,000 calls per day. As I recall, we had fifteen positions, but only kept about ten of them staffed at any given time during the day, and just two or three staffed during the overnight hours. Everyone could see the backlog of calls waiting. If one or two calls were in the ACD queue waiting for a clerk position, then a small lamp on each console marked 'CW' would illuminate steadily. If three or four calls were in the queue, the same lamp would blink slowly. If there were five or six calls waiting, the same lamp would blink rapidly. If there were seven calls waiting, a large 100 watt red lightbulb mounted on the wall at the front of the room would illuminate. Eight or more calls waiting caused the red light to blink off and on. It did not happen too often, but when that red light started blinking and blinked for more than about a minute at a time, the shift supervisor would get up and go to a section of the room where some typists and filing clerks were working. With just a motion of his fingers, everyone knew what was needed; everyone would stop what they were doing and go into the other area and sit down at an idle position and start taking calls. They would stay there doing so until they were told to go back to their regular assignments. Every month or so the management would carefully scrutinize all the numbers produced by those meters, and use the information for staffing purposes, and to order additional lines installed by telco as needed. A simple solution for you might be to have a meter on the final line in the hunt group. Note the number of times every day that line is selected. If the number of times that line is selected is more than say, two or three times each day, then you probably have some callers getting busy signals. The other thing you can do is install a timer at the end of the line. It has to be wired in series through all the phones (you can use the A/A1 supervision pair in your modems for this purpose) so the timer will not start unless it has a connection all the way down the line; ie all phones have to be off hook. When all are off hook the timer starts; when any single line is available, the timer stops. At the end of the day you see how many minutes in total (god forbid hours in total!) all lines were engaged. Again, if it is more than some acceptable value, you need to add additional lines. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Recent Movie With Telecom Theme From: combee@prism.gatech.edu (Benjamin L. Combee) Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 13:32:37 -0500 Organization: ROASF Atlanta Reply-To: combee@prism.gatech.edu Hello, TELECOM Digest. I recently saw the French film _Three Colors: Red_, and was reminded of it by a recent thread here on cordless phone snooping. This is an excellent movie, and it has several scenes of interest to the telecom fan. First, the opening credits to the movie are overlayed over a breathtaking first-person flythrough the telephone connection between two friends, and later in the film, a retired judge confesses to spying on his neighbors cordless phone conversations, even complaining about one guy with a Japanese phone he couldn't pick up. Ben Combee E-MAIL combee@prism.gatech.edu http://www.gatech.edu/acm/combee.html ------------------------------ From: iaenc@sydney.DIALix.oz.au (Iaen Cordell) Subject: Optus Vision in Australia Date: 11 Jan 1995 14:43:40 +1100 Organization: DIALix Services, Sydney, Australia. Following, for the information of all Optus staff, is a media release distributed this afternoon confirming Optus Vision's plans to compete in Pay TV and local calls. OPTUS VISION CONFIRMS PLAN TO DELIVER COMPETITION IN PAY TV AND LOCAL CALLS Optus Vision - the joint venture between Optus Communications, Continental Cablevision and Publishing and Broadcasting Limited - today confirmed its plan for delivering increased choice in telephony, pay television and interactive services over the most advanced broadband network of its kind in the world. The project will position Australia at the forefront of the world in delivering combined telephony and home entertainment services. The undoubted winners will be Australian customers as true competition in the local loop becomes a reality. Optus Vision also announced it will offer a powerful programming package of over 20 channels, including two movie channels, two sports channels and a wide variety of other channels from local and international sources. The movie channels are supported by a supply of movies from Warner Bros., Disney, MGM, Village Roadshow and New Regency. The sports channels will include major Australian sporting events as well as significant international sports sourced through ESPN International. Nine Network will provide programming expertise to these channels. The Optus Vision rollout plan will see the network passing approximately three (3) million households throughout Australia in the first four years starting with Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Capital expenditure associated with the project is estimated to be approximately $3 billion and the required funding for the venture is expected to be around $2 billion which will be provided by a combination of equity and debt. The joint venture will employ some 3,000 people. The network will showcase leading-edge technology and infrastructure which the communications industry elsewhere in the world is looking at introducing at the turn of the century. Technical and engineering planning has been under way for the last six months and construction will commence this month. A hybrid fibre-coaxial cable network will be deployed using both underground and overhead distribution systems. The network will be bi-directional and the first of its kind in the world to deliver phone calls to the home exclusively over a single fibre-coaxial system. Announcements are expected to be made soon on supply contracts for locally-manufactured fibre and coaxial cable. An Optus Vision spokesperson said major considerations in the decision to proceed with the joint venture included: - Finalisation of programming elements essential to driving market penetration; and - Clarification of the November 24 statement by Communications Minister, Michael Lee, on rules governing broadband networks, particularly in relation to Optus Vision's ability to manage access to its network on a commercial tariff basis, rather than incremental cost-based interconnect. This clarification was received via the draft Ministerial statement released on December 23 which followed extensive discussions with the Department of Communications and the Arts. The timeliness and scope of the statement were major factors in enabling Optus Vision to maintain momentum of its business activities through the Christmas-New Year period, a spokesperson for the joint venture said. One of the major public benefits of the Optus Vision joint venture will be the very real prospect of cheaper local phone calls being delivered on its fibre-coaxial network. The Optus Vision spokesperson said price reductions in local phone calls were long overdue for most Australians. According to figures compiled by AUSTEL and the Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics, compound annual growth of local phone call charges for the period 1981-1993 were in the vicinity of nine (9) per cent. "This is a direct result of there not being competition in the local loop. The real benefits of competition can be seen by the fact that in the same period the prices of international and national long distance calls fell by three (3) per cent and four (4) per cent respectively and fell by much more after Optus started operations in 1992. "Consumers directly connected to the Optus Vision network will see considerable reductions in their overall phone bills as we drive local call prices down, similar to what we have done with long distance prices over the last two years. "We have set aside capacity on the network for the development of educational and community based multimedia services and will be looking forward to working closely with government and community bodies to fully exploit the potential of our state of the art broadband network. This capacity alone is equivalent to capital investment in the vicinity of $100 million." The Optus Vision shareholding will be: - Optus Communications (47.5 per cent); - Continental Cablevision (47.5 per cent); and úÿ - Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (5 per cent). (Publishing and Broadcasting Limited has an option to increase its shareholding to 20 per cent. This option is exercisable at any time in the period up to July 1, 1997. If the option is exercised after March 1, 1995, the exercise price is the market value at the time.) ------------------------------ From: seydell@tenrec.cig.mot.com (Steve Seydell) Subject: Re: Cell Phone PINs Date: 11 Jan 1995 00:46:04 GMT Organization: Cellular Infrastructure Group, Motorola padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: > Mark Smith Mercerville, NJ writes: >> The new effort combines a Personal Identification Number (PIN) code >> system recently pioneered by NYNEX Mobile Communications in New York >> City with a new Fraud Protection Zone technique developed by Bell >> Atlantic Mobile. > Sorry but I seem to be missing something here. If the PIN is sent in > the clear then anyone grabbing the cell phone number off the air will > also get the PIN. The PIN is sent as DTMF across the voice channel. The ESN and mobile ID are currently stolen by listening to the reverse signalling channel. It is technically possible to steal the PIN, but it will take some time for thiefs to catch up. The money saved by the telcos will easily cover the cost of purchasing and operating this feature. Motorola, Inc. Steven Seydell Cellular Infrastructure Group seydell@cig.mot.com ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@patents.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Cell Phone PINs Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 02:38:05 GMT Organization: Oppedahl & Larson In article padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: > Mark Smith Mercerville, NJ writes: >> BEDMINSTER, NJ, AND ORANGEBURG, NY -- Two of the nation's largest >> wireless carriers are teaming up in a unique program to prevent their >> customers from being victimized by criminals who steal cellular >> service. >> The new effort combines a Personal Identification Number (PIN) code >> system recently pioneered by NYNEX Mobile Communications in New York >> City with a new Fraud Protection Zone technique developed by Bell >> Atlantic Mobile. > Sorry but I seem to be missing something here. If the PIN is sent in > the clear then anyone grabbing the cell phone number off the air will > also get the PIN. >> In the rare instance that they are cloned, customers only need to call >> their home carrier and receive a new PIN to restore service. > Oh, I see, once a phone is compromised, and the customer gets the > bill, they can change the PIN and start all over again. True the > customer could deactivate/change the PIN daily (hourly?) but how many > will? How fast can the cloners react? > There are several means already available but since most involve some > form of encryption they seem to be too dangerous for the public to > have. With the PIN, the carriers can say they have done *something*. There was a rather exhaustive thread about this a couple of months ago in alt.dcom.telecom, as I recall. The ESN and phone number are transmitted unencrypted on the control channel. The cell site returns several items including instructions on which audio channel is to be used. The PIN code is conveyed unencrypted on the audio channe. Apparently the reason PIN codes help the cell carriers is that most of the phone-cloners are so dull and stupid that they can monitor the control channel but not also monitor the particular audio channel to which the call gets passed. I assume this will simply escalate the conflict. The cloners will either (1) pick an audio channel to monitor along with the control channel, and note down the pin number and esn that go together, or (2) wire up the receiver that is receiving the control data stream, to control the audio scanner channel changer. I was reading a book about the cellular system that was published eight years ago ... it identified the problem that if people copy down the ESN and phone number they could get free calls ... despite this the cellular industry moved ahead with the present system. Carl Oppedahl Oppedahl & Larson, patent law firm oppedahl@patents.com ------------------------------ From: coyne@thing1.cc.utexas.edu Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic Mobile Joins the PIN Crowd Date: 10 Jan 1995 20:12:46 GMT Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas > Why don't they start spending the money they spent on ECPA lobbying to > invent a more secure system?!?!?!? The reason they dont invent a more secure system is that the bulk of the problem with the present system is designed in. The new system would have the same defective design feayures and would not help. Originally the electronic serial number was meant to be built in to the cell phones. It was not to be programmable even with a soldering iron. Sellers did not like this because the cell carriers charged a lot to make accounting changes so that it cost them to sell an upgrade or to issue a loaner. Sellers demanded and carriers aquiesed in programmable esn phones. Individual sellers have little clout but collectively they are a force to be reckoned with. Programmable esn are what makes cell fraud a cottage industry. Without them cloning a phone would be a fairly technical task and it would require some outboard parts. There would be many fewer people technically capable of cloning and most of them would have real jobs. In the absence a significant change in the relationship between sellers and carriers, any encryption based system would have fully programmable parameters. The new system would retain the problem feature, which is clonability. It would not give us releif it would only give a half time till cloners adjust the game plan. A new system should be non-clonable. It would also be helpful if carriers could program whatever needs programming with a secure link so that at least one puzzle piece is known only to the carrier. A puzzle piece known only to the consumer would be good too. That would stop guys who reprogram switches and steal numbers wholesale. As a side note: anti-theft systems for cars brought us little relief from car thefts. Thieves quit doing their work quietly in the middle of the night and went to car jacking. ------------------------------ From: jscouria@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (John Scourias) Subject: Re: GSM in Canada? Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 15:16:52 -0500 Reon_Can@mindlink.bc.ca (D. Matte) writes: > I have been doing some initial research on the development of the PCS > market in Canada. Recently some of the players that have received > licenses to test 1.9GHz systems have been touting GSM as the way to go > (Telezone & Microcell 1-2-1). If GSM is implemented would it mean > that users would not be able to make use of their terminals in the > U.S. as GSM is not likely to be adopted by the U.S. on a large scale? > It would seem to me that having a system that is compatible with our > largest trading partner would make for a more attractive service > offering. Hi Dan, The PCS systems that operate at 1.9GHz are a derivative of GSM. The actual GSM standard operates at the 900MHz range, and its 'brother' DCS-1800 operates at 1.8GHz. At least one of the proposals currently under consideration in the U.S. for a PCS involves a 1.9GHz derivative of GSM, so it is still too early to know whether GSM will or will not be implemented on a large scale in the U.S. Also, the GSM-900 and DCS-1800 systems have been standardized in Europe by ETSI. The 1.9GHz system, however, as far as I know, has NOT been standardized. Theoretically, it should be just like DCS-1800, but you never know what tweaks the Americans might put in. So, if the U.S. implements a 1.9GHz system, and Canada copies the same system, (I don't think vice-versa would apply here ...) then you _should_ be able to use a mobile phone across the border. Of course you are right in saying that mobility should extend beyond our borders. The principles of PCS of 'communication anywhere, anytime' would be violated if each country implements its own system. In this regard, I believe the Europeans are on the right track in coordinating their telecommunications research and development, as well as implementation, on a Europe-wide basis. Best regards, John Scourias Department of Computer Science University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1 jscourias@barrow.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 11:23:15 -0800 From: EDWARD W BENNETT Subject: Re: MANs in the US The company I work for, ATU Telecommunications (the LEC for Anchorage) just received regulatory approval for a MAN service. It's based on FDDI, but is time-division-multiplexed so that multiple customers can occupy the system. Bandwidth is available in 5 Mpbs segments; a 10 Mbps Ethernet LAN would thus need two of those channels. Total system payload is 100 Mbps and runs over dual survivable fiber optic rings; if demand warrants, a second 100 Mbps system can be added using lasers operating at a different frequency (color). One of the advantages of the system is that it can easily be carried by SONET/ATM in the future. We call the system ATLAS, for Anchorage Transparent LAN Service; it is based on a similar offering from U.S. West called TLS (Transparent LAN Service). Ed Bennett Sr. Communications Specialist ATU Telecommunications, Anchorage, Alaska Voice (907) 564-1742 JSEWB@acad1.alaska.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jan 95 19:17:49 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: 800 Numbers From Overseas From: Mr Robert Hall > The call appears to have been processed by the Hong Kong switch, but I > get a recording in a very American voice telling me: > "access to the 800 number you have dialed is not free when dialed from > outside the United States. If you proceed with this call, you will be > billed international direct dial rates for this call. If you do not > wish to proceed with this call, hang up now". > So, I wonder if the assumption that it's up to my local IDD provider > to just turn on access to U.S. toll-free numbers is, in fact correct, > or whether the U.S. 800 service provider has a say in the deal as > well. Are there all of the usual tariff negotiations between the > carriers? I've been wondering about overseas access to non-US NANP 800 numbers. What happens if you dial a Canadian 800 number this way? Is the overseas carrier actually doing an SS7 lookup to determine the carrier or are they just assuming that country code 1 = USA ? Sigh -- I can guess the answer. Could someone with a few pence to burn try a Canadian number that isn't reachable from the US, such as Bell Canada's Ontario business office line 800 668-2355 (or 800 NOT-BELL as I prefer to think of it)? I won't be surprised to hear that you get to pay for a call that says "the number you have dialed cannot be reached from your calling area". Tony Harminc ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #24 *****************************