TELECOM Digest Tue, 17 Jan 95 09:15:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 33 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New Area Codes Working From Toronto (Dave Leibold) Cell Phone Programming - Follow-up (Alex McPhail) Caller ID Software (and Hardware) (Alex McPhail) Telplus 1648 Phone System Peripherals, Phones (James Deibele) Telecom Market Reports on Web (Joseph Flicek) Canadian Area Code Information Now on a WWW Page (Dave Leibold) Mercury Computer Products Now on the WWW (dspnet!dspadmin@uunet.uu.net) Computer Telephony Convention (fonaudio@ix.netcom.com) Alert! USWest Cellular in 360/206 (Alan Shen) Looking up Addresses and Phone Number From Just Names (Tim Bach) Anyone from Globalstar, Inmarsat, Iridium or Odyssey? (Eric Tholome) Looking for TDM Box (Andrew P. Dinsdale) PC-Based Voice Mail and AMIS (David Reeve) BC Tel, SaskTel, Internet (Sarah Holland) T1BBS Gone? (Mark Fraser) Help Needed With Displaying X Windows on the PC (Ken Stack) US <> Puerto Rico: Options? (James Dollar) Where to Find Nice-Looking Phones? (Philip Borenstein) Distinctive Ringing Specifications (Vincent Lai) Returning Blocked Local Calls to b e Discontinued in Canada (Dave Leibold) Reports on Internet Communication Links (Christopher Dyke) How to Improve Line Quality? (scorpion@phantom.com) Programmable Touch-Tone Interpreter Needed (Jeffrey A. Porten) 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. 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. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Jan 95 20:58 EST From: dleibold@gvc.com (Dave Leibold) Subject: New Area Codes Working From Toronto Some of the directory assistance numbers for the newest U.S. area codes are reachable from Toronto. In particular, there appear to be no problems dialing the new area codes from payphones. As of Sunday (the official start-up for the area codes is 15 Jan 95), 334 (Alabama), 360 (Washington state) and 630 (Chicago area) area codes appeared to be working, if reaching directory assistance numbers in those places is any indication. 520 (Arizona) is not active yet nor is 970 (Colorado). Strangely enough, I got the Seattle Public Library number from the (360) operator (360 should not include Seattle). For (630) 555.1212, I requested the number for the Skokie, Illinois library and got it (just the seven digit numbers retrieved in most cases, no mention of the area codes in the robotic replies). Dialing numbers in inactive area codes obtain strange messages from Bell Canada's recordings ... things like the numbers aren't long distance calls, etc. rather than mere not-in-service recordings. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Speaking of the Skokie Public Library, I was over there for a few hours this afternoon looking at some very old reference materials on microfilm: Haines Cross Reference (crisscross) directories from the 1950-60 era and Skokie telephone books for the same period of time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: amcphail@hookup.net (Alex McPhail) Subject: Cell Phone Programming - Follow-Up Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 05:19:35 GMT Organization: TeraScope Research I posted an article a while ago, but haven't had any luck yet (except to hear from others that they too would like the same information). I am looking for how to re-program a cell phone's phone number for the TechnoFone and the Motorola FlipPhone cellular phones. If anyone as any information about this, or knows where I can look, I would appreciate a reply. Thanks in advance, Alex McPhail TeraScope Research amcphail@hookup.net Voice: +1 (613) 730-1416 Fax: +1 (613) 730-1408 ------------------------------ From: amcphail@hookup.net (Alex McPhail) Subject: Caller ID Software (and Hardware) Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 05:17:22 GMT Organization: TeraScope Research Someone asked some time ago about caller ID software for the PC. Sorry for the delay, but I just came across something here and it reminded me of the posting earlier. A company in Canada, called VIVE, sells caller ID hardware and software for the PC. For more information, call the company at (905) 882-6107 and ask for extension 16, 20, or 25. Or you can call their fax-back product description service at (905) 882-6238 and press '8'. Alex McPhail TeraScope Research amcphail@hookup.net Voice: +1 (613) 730-1416 Fax: +1 (613) 730-1408 ------------------------------ From: jamesd@teleport.com (James Deibele) Subject: Telplus 1648 Phone System Peripherals, Phones Date: 16 Jan 1995 22:01:04 -0800 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 We are now the proud owners of a Telplus 1648 phone system. We're reasonably happy with the system but we have a couple of questions about expanding it. First thing is getting more phones -- is there a good place to buy them? Are there any portables available? My Tropez 900MHz doesn't have the range I hoped for (it may be good for 2000 feet outdoors (though I haven't tried it) but it only goes down five floors or so from our eighth floor office -- so much for checking wiring in the basement with it nearby) but I have gotten used to the portability. Second thing is that we were told that it was possible to get voicemail for the thing. Doing this probably involves buying an analog card and attaching an external unit. Does anybody have any suggestions on where to find a system that's known to work? Ideally we'd end up with voice mail, automated attendant, etc. This is our second phone system and we don't expect it to last forever -- the future clearly seems to be computer/telephone integration. But we're a Windows/Mac/UNIX shop and that makes it a little more difficult to come up with a solution that fits everybody. Thanks, jamesd@teleport.com "7104 newsgroups & nothing on ..." Full internet (ftp, telnet, irc, ppp) available. Voice: (503) 223- 0076 Portland: (503) 220-1016 Vancouver: (360) 260-0330 Salem: (503) 364- 2028 Bend, Corvallis, Eugene access coming in February. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Flicek Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 01:13:00 -0500 Subject: Telecom Market Reports on Web BLAKE TECHNOLOGIES, Ltd. 1 West 67th Street, suite 410, NY, NY 10023 Tel:(212) 580-2272 Fax:(212) 595-4278 Email: flicekjr@pipeline.com URL: http://adware.com/mall/blake/welcome.html SUBJECT: MARKET TREND REPORTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB AT: URL: http://adware.com/mall/blake/welcome.html REPORT TYPES BY KEY WORDS: CD-ROM, ON-LINE, TELCOM INDUSTRY, LIBRARIES, EDUCATION, ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY, CHILDREN'S PUBLISHING, INTERACTIVE TV & VIDEO. If you have any difficulty locating the WEB please email, call or write. Thank you. ------------------------------ From: woody Subject: Canadian Area Code Information Now on a WWW Page Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 21:40:19 EST Various charts of exchanges for Canadian area codes, plus bonus charts for Canadian long distance carrier codes (10xxx, 950) and 809 (Caribbean) exchanges are now available through a "Phone Booth" web page. This should be reachable at http://www.io.org/~djcl/phoneb.html ------------------------------ From: dspnet!dspadmin@uunet.uu.net (DSPnet Administrator) Subject: Mercury Computer Products Now on the WWW Date: 17 Jan 1995 00:30:45 GMT Organization: DSPnet, Inc., Waltham MA, USA DSP Product NEWS on the World Wide Web Mercury Computer Products has just introduced on DSPnet two product documents. The first product: Race SERIES 9U - MCV9 describes the System Module, Environment. The Raceway Communications Fabric as well as the Interlink Module and the Software environment. The second document: "Embedded Systems for Realtime Airborne Applications" describes Mercury's Product profile and the Technology. Access on the WWW through a browser. http://www.dspnet.com Access through a dialup line. telnet dspnet.com (login as lynx) ------------------------------ From: fonaudio@ix.netcom.com (TELEPHONETICS) Subject: Computer Telephony Convention Date: 16 Jan 1995 17:03:04 GMT Organization: Netcom Is anyone planning on attending the Computer Telephony convention in Dallas on March 7th? Please let me know. ------------------------------ From: Alan Shen Subject: Alert! USWest Cellular in 360/206 Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 09:16:08 -0800 Organization: University of Washington All USWest Cellular Users that are being reprogrammed to the 360 NPA, please note that For the past 10 HOURS, USWest Cellular has techs working on a switch to get the bugs out of the switchover. They do not know how widespread it is. If you have had your phone reprogrammed, you MAY NOT be able to receive calls. If you have digital messaging or message center, those will be inoperable until the problem is fixed. You can still dial out of your cellular phone. But you cannot receive calls. The switch does NOT recognize your number, and will give you the the message, "Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number and dial again. Message 2." I HIGHLY recommend that you wait until the bugs are fixed before you change-over. This problem only affects people who have changed over. I know that the whole 360, prefix 791 (Olympia, WA area) has been shut down. I do not know if Cellular One is having this much trouble. I'll keep everyone posted on this. Daniel Kao E-mail Always: rvkc60e@prodigy.com Olympia, WA USA Sometimes: kermee@u.washington.edu Voice/Voxmail/Pager: (360) 791-8032 <-- *CURRENTLY INOPERATIVE* Facsimile: (360) 866-8173 ------------------------------ From: timb@europa.com (Tim Bach) Subject: Looking up Addresses and Phone Number From Just Names Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 11:43:13 PST I have a bunch of names I need addresses and phone numbers to. They are all mostly in the same local calling area. Is there a service or product I can buy that will allow me to take a ASCII file of names and have it try and lookup the addresses plus phone numbers? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't know how many you think is a 'bunch', but unless it is really a lot, and you plan to do this on a frequent basis, why don't you ask the telco serving the local calling area for a copy of their directory. Most telcos will send it free of charge, or they may get some small handling/postage fee. Then you would sit there and look them up. After you have found all you can, then call AC-555-1212 for the (hopefully) few remaining names. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tholome@dialup.francenet.fr (Eric Tholome) Subject: Anyone From Globalstar, Inmarsat, Iridium or Odyssey? Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 20:53:25 +0200 I need precise and up to date information about Globalstar, Inmarsat, Iridium and Odyssey. If you know how to get in touch with any of these organizations, please let me know by email. This is urgent. Thank you in advance. Eric Tholome 23, avenue du Centre tholome@dialup.francenet.fr 78180 Montigny le Bretonneux phone: +33 1 30 48 06 47 France fax: same number, call first! ------------------------------ From: aa293@detroit.freenet.org (Andrew P. Dinsdale) Subject: Looking for TDM Box Date: 16 Jan 1995 22:27:21 GMT Organization: The Greater Detroit Free-Net Hi, We are looking for a Time Division Multiplexing Box to split a 56k digital line into one voice channel, one data channel and handle more than one point-to-point digital circuit with one voice and one data channel. We are demoing a Tellabs Crossnet and are interested in demoing others. Please forward ideas or replies to the group or myself. Andrew Dinsdale DataServ,Inc aa293@detroit.freenet.org ------------------------------ From: tci@crl.com (David Reeve) Subject: PC-Based Voice Mail and AMIS Date: 16 Jan 1995 03:13:01 GMT Organization: Timberline Communications, Inc. úÿ Hello group, I am researching a business opportunity that will require extensive use of the AMIS-Analog networkng protocol to send voice mail messages from system (Octel) to a different PC-based voice mail system. By way of explanation, the application is off-site technical support. Does anyone out there have much experience in AMIS networking? For instance, when a message is transferred via AMIS, what type of call data (envelope information) is available? Any recommendations (or warnings) regarding PC based voice mail vendors? Thanks, David Reeve tci@crl.com ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jan 95 22:22:59 EST From: Sarah Holland <70620.1425@compuserve.com> Subject: BC Tel, SaskTel, Internet An interesting article recently in the {Vancouver Sun} told about SaskTel's new universal access to the Internet, and BC Tel's refusal to do the same. Living as I do in a more remote area of British Columbia, where ALL Internet access is long-distance, I find this most frustrating. I plan to call BC Tel about this -- any bets as to how far I get? Sarah Holland Fort St. James, BC == story from newspaper follows == SaskTel casts (Inter)net for clients, but BC Tel won't follow suit David Smith - Sun Business Reporter Vancouver Sun, January 10, 1995 A Prairie telephone company will soon be offering all of its customers universal access to Internet, but don't expect BC Tel to follow suit. That's because this province already has the highest number of electronic bulletin board services and value-added resellers in the country offering Internet access, the product development manager of BC Tel Advanced Communications said Monday. "For us to get involved in universal access we would be competing with small businesses and we don't think that's to our benefit or to B.C. as a whole," said Bill Neale. "For us to try and compete with that sector probably would be a mistake." Recently, goverment-owned SaskTel, which serves Saskatchewan, announced rates for its universal Internet access service SaskNet. The services starts in the next few months. NBTel in New Brunswick was the first phone company in Canada to offer universal Internet access to its customers. Neale said there are many B.C. companies such as Mind Link, Wimsey and Cyberstore that link their customers to Interent. "There's more here than anywhere else in Canada. The Prairie provinces have been kind of left out so the telephone companies had to do this." Although it has no plans to offer universal Internet access, BC Tel's Advanced Communications does provide the regional infrastructure that allows resellers to connect their customers to Internet and it offers commercial Internet access to its larger and medium-sized corporate customers. It will cost $35 to sign up for SaskNet, including software. The service carries a minimum monthly charge of $19.95, which includes six hours of free usage. After that, subscribers pay 10 cents a minute during the day and five cents a minute at night. "With SaskNet's dial access service, customers in the province's smaller communities will not long [sic] have to pay long distance charges to connect to the Internet, providing savings of up to 64 per cent over existing access rates," SaskTel said. SaskTel said it will spend about $1.2 million to upgrade and expand existing Internet access facilities. The province's two universities have provided Internet access in the province since 1991, SaskTel officials said. ------------------------------ From: mfraser@vanbc.wimsey.com (Mark Fraser) Subject: T1BBS Gone? Date: Wed, 11 Jan 95 10:19:34 PST Pat: It's been a while since I last tried, but both of the net addresses 192.187.216.5 and ....3 don't return a ping, nor respond to telnet/ftp respectively. Likewise, phone calls to the previously published modem numbers don't give much satisfaction. I must admit I haven't spent much time reading traffic in this group recently, so may have missed any announcement on the movement or demise of the service. Likewise, don't have an address for Art Graham, so figured since you seem to know anything that matters in the whole subject area of telecom, you'd be my first try for info. Cheers, Mark [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I'm afraid I cannot be much help on this personally. Maybe others have the answer. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stack@me.rochester.edu (Ken Stack) Subject: Help Needed With Displaying X Windows on the PC Date: 14 Jan 1995 13:49:51 -0500 Organization: University of Rochester, School of Engineering I am trying to fins a way to display x windows on my PC from my Sun at work. The problem is that my Sun at work does not have slip or ppp for security reasons. I have attempted to use PSI's interramp service coupled with white pine's exodus software to display x, but I can't seem to make it work. Does anyone know of a company or vendor that sells a complete solution, i.e. will sell me internet access so that I can telnet into my Sun at work AND sell me the correct PC software that s already configured? I am not a Unix person by trade and I am also not a super user on my Sun at work, so I cannot do much in the way of customizing my Sun. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. Kenneth D. Stack Mechanics of Flexible Structures Project Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Rochester Rochester, N.Y. 14627 tel: (716) 275 4077 fax: (716) 256 2509 email: stack@me.rochester.edu ------------------------------ From: James Dollar Subject: US <> Purto Rico: Options? Date: 15 Jan 1995 04:20:19 GMT Organization: InfiNet We are looking for options connecting an office in Carolina, PR to our Domestic US WAN. Currently we can barely maintain 9600 baud modem connections for mail. The circuit would probably be switched/Demand- Dialed, and the speed could be as slow as 9.6, if only reliable. A nailed-up 56k connection was estimated ~4k/month (not justified for six users). Thanks for your ideas, j$ ------------------------------ From: philip@world.std.com (Philip Borenstein) Subject: Where to Find Nice-Looking phones? Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 04:33:03 GMT Is there any place (retail or mail order) that sells good quality attractive telephones? In our old apartment one phone on a long cord was enough, but in our new house, we need several phones. Most of what we've seen in various stores (AT&T Phone Stores, Circuit City, etc) are flat office-style phones, cute Bart Simpson novelty phones, variations on the Trimline theme, and one that looked like a giant marble. While I personally have a fondness for the old desk style phone, my wife wants something more aesthetic -- and we're not talking faux French phones either. philip philip@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: vlai@wimsey.com (Vincent Lai) Subject: Distinctive Ringing Specifications Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 05:20:45 GMT Organization: Achiever Canada Does anybody know how to get the specifications for distinctive ringing in USA and Canada? Any help is appreciated. Vincent ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 95 02:32 EST From: dleibold@gvc.com (Dave Leibold) Subject: Returning Blocked Local Calls to be Discontinued in Canada [from Bell News, (Bell Canada) 9 Jan 95 - content is Bell Canada's] No Call Return of blocked local calls With the Call Return feature - one of the several SmartTouch[tm] services we provide - a person who receives an abusive phone call from an anonymous caller can, by dialing *69, call back to the phone from which the disturbing call was made. By June 30, a called party will no longer be able to do this. In a decision handed down on December 5 [1994], the CRTC ordered Bell to "implement the disablement of call return on blocked local calls." Also told to do likewise were BC Tel, Island Tel, MT&T, NBTel and Newfoundland Tel. All must implement software changes to make it impossible for customers to return local telephone calls where the caller has used a form of blocking, such as per-call blocking. Currently, Call Return and Last Call Return cannot be used to return blocked long distance calls. However, they can be used to return blocked local calls. The companies must extend this privacy safeguard to local calling by June 30, 1995. While acknowledging that the CRTC's order was "not unexpected," Mike Kassner, associate director, Consumer Market Management, said, "It tilts the balance once again in favour of the calling party and might cause problems with increased use of Call Trace now that the handling of minor annoyance calls via Call Return has been taken away." All is not lost, however. Call Screen, said Mike, is still an "effective device" for preventing unwanted calls from the same number. "Call Screen can be activated to work on the last incoming number even though the number is blocked," he noted. ------------------------------ From: bd_n227@kingston.ac.uk (Christopher Dyke) Subject: Reports on Internet Communication Links Date: 16 Jan 1995 20:54:25 GMT Organization: Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames. If anyone out there has got any reports on how the internet is linked to other networks in terms of protocols etc. please send them to me; it would be greatly appreciated. Chris ------------------------------ From: scorpion@phantom.com Subject: How to Improve Line Quality Date: 16 Jan 1995 04:36:00 -0500 Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800- MindVox) Hi, I have a question for you all. I saw a post not to long ago about how to improve the quality of the telephone line by changing the wire. I live in a apartment, and I have a jack in a window, and from the window to my modem is about 40 feet of 22# wires. From the panel in the basement to the window is about 75 feet to 100 feet. My questions are: 1) How much inprovement can I get from the window to the modem with other types of wire, like 20#, or level 3 pvc or level 5 plenun or fiber? 2) How much inprovement from the panel to the window to the modem with other types of wire, like 20#, or level 3 pvc or level 5 plenun or fiber? 3) How good is the wire the telephone company uses?. It looks like it is a cable with 100 wires or more probably 26#G. How can the quality of the line in the apartment can be improved if the wire that the telco uses from the panel to the telco office is 26#? ------------------------------ From: jporten@mail1.sas.upenn.edu (Jeffrey A. Porten) Subject: Programmable Touch-Tone Interpreter Needed Date: 16 Jan 1995 07:35:51 GMT Organization: University of Pennsylvania I need help in coming up with a solution for a client. She wants to provide her incoming callers with a automated system that will allow them to schedule time with her by using a touch-tone phone, similar to the system that Amtrak uses to tell people about the trains closest to their selected travel time. I just attended the Consumer Electronics Show, and was very disappointed with the selection there; most vendors basically said, "can't be done" or "I'll do it if you order 10,000 units." Anyone with suggestions on how to do this? Proposals from vendors also cheerfully accepted. I figure there are three basic genres of solutions: a stand-alone box that intercepts calls; a program on a computer with a voice-equipped modem; a service provided by a major telco. If there are other options I'm missing, please say so. Anyone with a proposal who thinks we can do business, I can be reached faster via e-mail to jeffporten@aol.com. Many thanks, Jeff Porten Millennium Consulting ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #33 *****************************