TELECOM Digest Tue, 17 Jan 95 17:57:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 38 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Attention: 800 Number Subscribers (News Alert) (Judith Oppenheimer) Re: 800 Numbers From Overseas (Tor-Einar Jarnbjo) Re: Help ... Ancient Party Lines Must Die! (Raymond Mereniuk) Re: Help ... Ancient Party Lines Must Die! (Jim Cebula) Call Waiting and Comm Software (Mansoor Chishtie) Call Waiting and Caller-ID Question (Repeat) (Keith Knipschild) Re: Bellcore Standards Question (Wally Ritchie) Re: B8ZS, AMI, Bipolar Line Coding? (synchro@access3.digex.net) Re: Where is PicturePhone II Now? (synchro@access3.digex.net) Re: ATT Entering Rochester Market (Steve Samler) Re: Wireless CO's Challenge New NPAs? (John Nagle) Re: Some Questions About the LDDS Calling Card (Rob Boudrie) Re: "High-end" Phone Products (Paul Crick) Re: Inter-LATA Rates in California (Eric Paulak) Re: SNA Over Token Ring (James Dollar) Re: Urgent Help Needed With European Phone Systems (Christian Weisgerber) Re: Urgent Help Needed With European Phone Systems (Harri Kinnunen) 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. 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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: producer@pipeline.com (Judith Oppenheimer) Subject: Attention: 800 Number Subscribers (News Alert) Date: 17 Jan 1995 13:32:56 -0500 Organization: Interactive CallBrand(TM) Negotiations are under way for a new International Freephone Service which would compromise the value and integrity of existing 800 numbers for U.S. 800 customers. There is a User Statement which was presented in Geneva in November '94 that calls for grandfathering of existing 800 assignments. This position protects and promotes the interests of all U.S. businesses utilizing 800 service for brand reinforcement, direct marketing, customer service, etc. This user position fully supports the U.S. position as developed in January, '93, and was signed by the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee, Aeronautical Radio, Inc., American Airlines, American Express Company, Continental Airlines, Electronic Data Systems Corp., Ford Motor Company, International Communications Association, Norwest Technical Services, Inc., USAir, and Versus Strategy Group, Inc. However, due to the immense revenues awaiting their clearance into international freephone service ($1.10 per minute), the U.S. carriers are not supporting the U.S. position. (No disrespect to European participants of this newsgroup.) They are siding with the European position that calls for starting with a "clean slate" because they can then enter this market more quickly. The European position imposes a lottery where there is more than one applicant for a specific international freephone number. You can imagine the land rush this will create among European carriers and their customers, especially for valuable numbers such as 800 THE CARD, 800 HOLIDAY, and 800 FLOWERS, or Home Shopping Club's well-ensconced 800 284-3200. This per the final report from a source who has been present at the meetings: "U.S .Carriers appear to be rushing for approval of a service that is unsatisfactory. Although the proposed service is unfair to the U.S. Customer as it is currently written, it appears that if the service can be approved before there is wide spread customer awareness of the situation, the carriers can "blame" the Europeans for not supporting a compromise that would protect users." Some of you may already be aware of this, but having just found out about it, I'm bringing it to the attention of everyone I know who is a major 800 subscriber. J. Oppenheimer, Producer@Pipeline.com Interactive CallBrand(TM) ------------------------------ From: bjote@cs.tu-berlin.de (Tor-Einar Jarnbjo) Subject: Re: 800 Numbers From Overseas Date: 17 Jan 1995 17:38:31 GMT Organization: Technical University of Berlin, Germany Mr Robert Hall (robhall@HK.Super.NET) wrote: > 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 have tried sometimes to call US 800-numbers from Norway, and either they are completed or I get a message telling "Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the numbers and try again, or call your local operator for assistance". When you try to call 800-numbers from Germany you get a German message telling, that the area-code you have dialed does not exist. Dialing Norwegian toll-free numbers from Germany does not work (exept for the tip-phone of the Norwegian Customs) because the phone-system in Norway have recently been changed, so when I call 00 47 80 0x xx xx (which is a toll-free number) the Norwegian exchange believes of some reason that I have dialed the Norwegian number (080) 00x xx, and since the (080) area-code earlier was for cellulars, it just tells me that the number have been changed, and to call a local operator for the new one. Tor-Einar Jarnbjo ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 15:38:10 -0800 From: Raymond Mereniuk Subject: Re: Help ... Ancient Party Lines Must Die! > ..land in Francois Lake - near Burns Lake in Northern BC > .."Gee, what about ISDN" Canada has 26 - 27 million people living mainly within 200 miles of the 49th latitude. I live in the Lower Mainland area (Vancouver), within 30 miles of the 49th latitude, which has a population of approximately two million and within this area ISDN is very difficult to obtain. ISDN is available only out of selected COs and even if you have a local loop out of one of these COs you will find ISDN very difficult to obtain. Switched 56 (Northern Telecom Datapath) should be available out of most Lower Mainland COs providing your local loop is less than 4.5 kilometers. Burns Lake is at least 360 miles north of Vancouver; considering the strengths and weaknesses of BC Tel you may be lucky to have access to any sort of functioning land line. The telcos in Canada are still regulated monopolies and BC Tel is definitely not one of the best managed of the Canadian telcos. Some third-world countries have better infrastructure than BC Tel and it is difficult to have employee relations that can be any worse than BC Tel's. The union problem is so bad at BC Tel that all sales people and some management people are unionized, the good union brothers can't have too many scabs near them. Dealing with BC Tel is very difficult, BC Tel may offer certain services but they don't keep your BC Tel rep informed and finding someone who is in the know is almost impossible. I worked for a company which sold data comm equipment and it was not uncommon to send a service tech out to do an install who then spent a day or more trying to convince BC Tel that their lines had a problem or two. Now you want `IS..D..what'. I heard a rumor a few years ago which indicated BC Tel's main source of CO switches was Chile, as the Chilian telco upgraded their switches BC Tel took all their old switches through a deal with BC Tel's parent GTE. In an attempt to satisfy demand for digital and enhanced analog services they have installed at least one Northern Telecom DMS 100 switch in all exchanges within the Lower Mainland area; not all have the software to offer ISDN. If you do not live within a major population centre, Lower Mainland, Victoria, Kelowna, or Kamloops you are right of luck if you require anything more than POTS. The Telco in Saskatchewan has announced universal Internet access as part of their normal offering. BC Tel responded with a statement, something like since the Lower Mainland area has the highest density of Internet access providers in Canada there is no requirement for BC Tel to provide universal Internet access anywhere in BC. I believe BC Systems Corp., a BC government Crown corporation, is attempting to become the main source of Internet access in BC, but possibly primarily on a wholesale basis and maybe only to government facilities. The best solution may be for you and your neighbors to contact the local MLA (member of the legislative assembly - BC gov't) and have him help you make your voice heard. Unfortunately, due to Canadian politics, if your MLA is part of the oppostion you are really out of luck. Maybe you could try the CRTC, the same people who attempted to institute a $6 per month (over three years) increase in basic telephone rates which the telcos did not even request. Welcome to Canada, the country where the government taxes you but never listens to you. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They probably learned how to govern by following the example seen to their south in the USA. Down here we get taxed a-plenty also and no one wants to listen to anything you have to say ... nothing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jimmyc@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu (Jim Cebula) Subject: Re: Help ... Ancient Party Lines Must Die! Date: Tue, 17 Jan 95 01:45:27 GMT Organization: Carnegie Mellon Computer Club In Article TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to John Leong : > maintain the subscribers who have it. I don't think telcos in the USA > can take on new party line customers either; they just have to sit and > wait patiently to get rid of the ones they have had all along. PAT] I'm certainly not sure about the regulations regarding new party lines, but Bell Atlantic (Greater Pittsburgh area) still states "A two-party line is available for $xxxx" in the front section of the phone book where they list the rates for the different residential service plans. Jim ------------------------------ From: mansoor@newshost.micro.ti.com (Mansoor Chishtie) Subject: Call Waiting and Comm Software Organization: Texas Instruments, Houston Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 21:14:19 GMT I am wondering why I have to disable my call waiting feature before I can run my PC comm software. I know that there are some comm packages available such as PC Anywhere that automatically detects call waiting beeps and warns you that a call is coming in. You can do a quick save and software will connect you to the incoming voice call. It probably disconnects itself from the remote modem (loss of carrier) and reestab- lishes the connection after the voice call is over. I think that it is possible due to the fact that modems on both sides are running the same software. Hence they can communicate with each other and hang-up safely without any loss of data. But I'm not sure how they detect call-waiting beeps from real data and during brief moments when exchange switches from data to warning beeps, how do they manage to recover. Any thoughts from telecom experts welcome. I'm interested in learning how to do that as well as any comm software that successfully does that. If possible, please email any responses directly to me. I can post a summary here if others are interested. Regards, Mansoor A. Chishtie ------------------------------ From: keith.knipschild@asb.com Organization: America's Suggestion Box - BBS (516) 471-8625 Date: Mon, 16 Jan 95 18:46:37 Subject: Call Waiting and Caller-ID Question (Repeat) I posted a message last week concering CALL-WAITING's CALLER ID, But got no responces ... so here I go again: I just my the lastest copy of the "HELLO DIRECT" Catalog and on page 24 they adverise a Northern Telecom phone model# " PowerTouch 225 " The ad states : CALLER ID, CALL WAITING MODULE Comming in mid-1995, You'll see who's on a CALL WAITING call, without inter- rupting the call you're already on ... I never heard of any telcos offering this. The only way to achive this was by having an ISDN line. Also, they mention "ADSI" ???? The ad states: Looking ahead to the future Comming in late-1995, is ADSI It will help you do your banking, pay bills, and such - by phone... If anyone has info please POST or E-Mail me ... Thanks, Keith Keith.Knipschild@asb.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We briefly discussed Caller-ID on Call Waiting here about a month ago or so. Maybe someone will point you to that message for starters. PAT] ------------------------------ From: writchie@gate.net Subject: Re: Bellcore Standards Question Date: 17 Jan 1995 04:25:57 GMT Reply-To: writchie@gate.net In , charris@coypu.cig.mot.com (Craig Harris) writes: > I am looking for any Bellcore specification on an idle T-1 channel. > That is, if the channel is idle, would the T1 equipment send 01111111 > or 10000000? The "classic" spec is PUB 43801. Equivalent information, however, is contained in many other documents. For PCM voice, idle channels are required to be encoded with a near zero level which may not necessarily be a continuous code. Digital generation of a zero level, however, result in all zero PCM level which can be transmitted as all ones. There are actually two zero level code words in PCM which are sometimes called positive and negative zero. Some equipment will alternate positive and negative zeros for a zero level. Accordingly the MSB may alternate between zero and one. The LSB will contain signalling every 6th frame. The state of the signalling bits will depend on the particular channel units (or equivalent) involved. Unequipped channels MUST transmit a 1 in the A bit position. This normally corresponds to a OFF-HOOK state for most channel units. The general rule is that a receiver should interpret X111111X as an idle or zero level code. Wally Ritchie Ft. Lauderdale, Florida ------------------------------ From: synchro@access3.digex.net (Steve) Subject: Re: B8ZS, AMI, Bipolar Line Coding? Date: 17 Jan 1995 11:55:29 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA AMI (Alternate Mark Inversion) is a linecode that has a one's density requirement so as to prevent the repeaters from freaking out. B8ZS (Binary Eight Zero Substitution) is a linecode that substitutes a special string when eight zeroes in a row are presented. This method was developed so as to eliminate the one's density requirement thus allowing various "clear channel" applications to flourish (64k, crypto, video, ...) When you order a T1 from telco you specify the linecode flavor and set your CSU/DSU accordingly. Take it easy, úÿ Steve ------------------------------ From: synchro@access3.digex.net (Steve) Subject: Re: Where is PicturePhone II Now? Date: 17 Jan 1995 11:57:41 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA My RBOC has a few floating around as conversation desk ornanments. Take it easy, Steve [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder whatever happened to the various private vendors of 'picturephone' like instruments a few years ago? One company was offering a slow-scan version in sets of two. Presumably you had one and members of your family elsewhere had the other one. Then too, in a unique approach to the adult sexphone market, about three years ago an Information Provider made an unusual offer: He had this bunch of nice ladies working for him, and not only did they want to talk to you about whatever, they wanted to *show* you what they were doing! His solution to that was to offer slow-scan video/picturephone devices to his customers. You could purchase one outright and get some period of time free on his network to chat and view the folks of your choice, or you could lease the device from him, having made some sort of security deposit with your credit card. After a certain number of months on the lease, you bought it for a dollar more if desired. His ad ran in a few adult magazines for several months, then I did not see it any longer. He was based out of Florida somewhere; Pensacola comes to mind. Anyone know who I mean? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 10:14:24 EST From: Steve Samler Subject: Re: ATT Entering Rochester Market MFS Intelenet is planning to offer service by March 31. Time Warner has plans for mid year. Both will be using their own switch MFS (AXE 10) TW 5ESS. For more info see page 6 of last week's {Telephony}. ------------------------------ From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: Wireless CO's Challenge New NPAs? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 17:48:47 GMT Linc Madison (LincMad@netcom.com) wrote: > In some of the recent discussions of the swarm of new area codes > coming this year, I've seen notations that the wireless companies are > challenging plans to move wireless services (cellular, beepers, etc.) > into an overlay area code. The challenges are being made to the state > regulators and/or to the FCC. > My question is, on what grounds are they challenging the overlays? It > seems to me that the tariffs have always been pretty clear that the > telco does not in any way guarantee that you will be able to keep a > given number or area code. It's a monopoly competition issue. The RBOCs shouldn't be allowed to keep the "good" numbers while insisting that competitors use the new "bad" numbers. See the article in the 13 Jan 95 {Wall Street Journal}. John Nagle ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@ecii.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: Some Questions About the LDDS Calling Card Date: 17 Jan 1995 13:30:25 -0500 Organization: Center for High Performance Computing of WPI > b) My card has the logo of "American Travel Network" on the > upper-right-hand side. I also hear "Metromedia" associated with the > LDDS name, but it doesn't appear on the card. Who's ATN, are there ATN = American Travel Network. Some sort of reseller/marketer of LDDS. LDDS is sold through other hcannels at apparantly higher rates. > different versions of the card, and if so are there different rates? I think the ATN card is 17.5 (at leat that's what mine is, and it's mode of delivery and card description matches mine). The only "catch" is that they apear to round the calls individually, then add. (i.e., 10 one minute calls at $.175 round to $.18 each and add to $1.80, not $1.75). ------------------------------ From: paulc@cix.compulink.co.uk (Paul Crick) Subject: Re: "High-End" Phone Products Organization: L C Bickler & Co Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 13:37:46 GMT > I'm 99.9995832% sure there are no three-line cordlesses, other than > those dedicated to work with specific multi-line phone systems. 99.9995832? Obviously using a Pentium :-) Sorry - I couldn't resist! Paul Crick: paulc@cix.compulink.co.uk -- +44-1534-287213 (24 hours) paulc@bickler.demon.co.uk -- PO Box 783, Jersey JE4 0SH, UK ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 11:36:51 -0500 From: ericp@ucg.com (Eric Paulak) Subject: Re: Inter-LATA Rates in California Linc Madison asked: > Have the IXC's reduced their rates on calls between LATAs in > California to be more in line with both the new intra-LATA and > interstate rates? The answers a resounding "yes." In fact, AT&T, MCI and Sprint have all undercut Pac Bell's rates. For example: For a 45-mile call from L.A. to Anaheim using basic 1+ business service, Pac Bell charges $.136 for the first minute and $.114/minute thereafter. AT&T charges $.11 for all mintues With its Preferred service, MCI charges $.04075 for the first 30- seconds and $.00815 for every six-second increment thereafter. There are currently 98 long distance carriers who have signed up to offer service in California's intraLATA market. Call the Consumer Affairs Branch of the Public Utility Commission to get a complete list, to inclue the 10-XXX codes. They can be reached in-state at (800) 649-7570. Eric Paulak The Center for Communications Management Information (301) 816-8950, ext. 327 11300 Rockville Pike, Suite 1100, Rockville, MD 20852 ------------------------------ From: James Dollar Subject: Re: SNA Over Token Ring Date: 17 Jan 1995 07:09:24 GMT Organization: InfiNet Paul Robinson wrote: > Timothy S. Chaffee , writes: >> I am looking into moving our print traffic from a SDLC/SNA >> connection to run over our Token Ring network. Can this be done? Any >> pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated! What my company moved to was using Novell's SAA gateway with HostPrint software; allowing sdlc or sna attachment on one side and both ethernet and token ring connections out the other. Novell captures the print job and spools it to Novell's print queues using JetDirect cards, old pc's, Intel Netports, and we even print to printers on tcp/ip terminal servers via Novell's Flex/IP product. Not a CNE; just solved a problem with their software. j$ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 95 21:03 MET From: naddy@mips.pfalz.de (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: Re: Urgent Help Needed With European Phone Systems In comp.dcom.telecom you write: > What should I do to make a cordless phone work in Europe? DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS. > I bought it in Canada. North American cordless phones operate in frequency ranges reserved for entirely different services in Europe. Using such a phone will interfere with those services. E.g. Berlin airport was not happy to find people's chatter from foreign cordless phone in their tower/aircraft communications. This is *not* like connecting an unapproved modem/telephone set/ answering machine/etc to the phone network. Using a North American cordless phone will be operation of an illegal radio transmitter, i.e. constitute a felony. AFAIK, in Germany the usual sentence for *possession* of such illegal transmitters is one year on probation. (Licensed amateur radio operators are allowed possession.) Laws in other European countries are likely to be very severe about this, too. Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@mips.pfalz.de ------------------------------ From: k22413@kyyppari.hkkk.fi (Harri Kinnunen) Subject: Re: Urgent Help Needed With European Phone Systems Date: 17 Jan 95 14:29:13 GMT Organization: Helsinki School of Economics In petar@trance.helix.net (Petar Nikic) writes: > What should I do to make a cordless phone work in Europe? I bought it > in Canada. There are two problems with the plugs: the phone plug and > the plug for the recharger. Both of them are different than those > which Europeans use. This is not authorative answer, but: If your phone has RJ-plug (the small (1x1x1cm) kind), local phone companies carry adapters for those. I'm not sure about the wiring scheme, but give it a try. > I am sure that somebody else has been faced with these problems. So, I > would appreciate any help. Harri [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But, as our earlier correspondent notes, this fellow's problems go a lot further than just swapping around a few plugs to get it hooked into the phone system. Apparently the entire frequency range is off-limits for this use. I am sorry all this information did not get back to him before he left on his trip. Oh well, maybe they will be lenient on him and simply settle for confiscating the phone. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #38 *****************************