TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 Jan 95 01:28:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 55 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Wireless and Mobile Computing Presentation (David Scott Lewis) U.S. 800 Subscribers and Freephone Issue (Judith Oppenheimer) MCI Digital 800 Information (0003436453@mcimail.com) Nynex-Prodigy News Conference (Barry M. Brooks) Markets for 220 vs. 800 vs. 900 MHz Communications? (Will Estes) Faxing Through a PABX (Doug Pickering) Questionnaire Reposting - Datacom Over Mobile Phones (Simon J. Wallace) Tonetalk / TTS (Erwin Lubbers) Does Anybody Need an ATM PBX? (Alex Zacharov) 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: callewis@netcom.com (David Scott Lewis) Subject: Wireless and Mobile Computing Presentation Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 18:29:31 GMT [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This message only arrived on Monday here so it is not going to be of much value for people outside the southern California area, but perhaps some of them will want to attend. In the future, please try to get meeting notices to the Digest at least two or three weeks before they occur if possible. PAT] ------------- A presentation providing an overview and forecast on wireless and mobile computing, and the overall activities of Cellsys Inc., will be held on Tuesday evening, Jan. 24, at the Los Angeles office of JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization. David Scott Lewis, president and chief operating officer of Cellsys, will discuss emerging industry trends, including remote access and teleporting, third-generation electronic messaging, wireless LANs and `RoomLANs,' home automation and home LANs, computer-based iconic communication and agent-oriented software, palmtop and handheld communication and computing devices such as PDAs and PICs, and the role of wireless communications in interactive entertainment and virtual reality. Lewis, a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Institute, served for the past several years as the head of business development with a leading systems integrator. He is the editor and publisher of the largest-circulation Internet-based trade publication, the editor of IEEE's `hands-on' journal for engineering managers and technology executives, and a member of AEA's national `Infobahn' and `Information Superhighway' committee. The meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Conference Room of JETRO Los Angeles. Pizza and refreshments will be served. The meetings of the 4th Tuesday Group are fully sponsored and funded by JETRO Los Angeles. JETRO is located in the Citicorp building above the Seventh Street Market Place, between Seventh and Eighth streets on Figueroa Street. Coming from the Harbor Freeway, take the Ninth Street exit (East) from either direction. The eight-story parking-structure entrances are located on either side: Eighth Street or Seventh Street. There is no cost to attend the meeting, but reservations are requested. For reservations, contact Susana Herman by fax at 213/629-8127. CONTACT: Cellsys Inc. David Scott Lewis Telephone: 818/786-0420 Fax: 818/994-5026 E-mail: d.s.lewis@ieee.org or cellsys@earthlink.net (after March 1, 1995, use `david@cellsys.com' without the quotation marks). David Scott Lewis, Editor and Publisher HOTT (Hot Off The Tree) Internet-based electronic magazine E-Mail: d.s.lewis@ieee.org Telephone: +1.818.786.0420 ------------------------------ From: producer@pipeline.com (Judith Oppenheimer) Subject: U.S. 800 Subscribers and Freephone Issue Date: 23 Jan 1995 17:18:56 -0500 Organization: Interactive CallBrand(TM) As you read the following, remember: If the ITU is not forced to consider alternatives ... IF THE DOCUMENT THAT IS NOW ON THE TABLE PASSES UNOPPOSED ... The 1 800 FLOWERS vs. 011 800 FLOWERS scenario as I've outlined it, will become reality. THIS COULD HAPPEN AS EARLY AS THIS APRIL. That said, I've tried to answer Bob Goudreau's posting as logically as possible. It gets involved -- I've tried to keep it theaded. I'd written, > Remember, too, that international freephone numbers will *co-exist* > with domestic toll-free numbers in the U.S.. So there will be 1 800 > FLOWERS, and 011 800 FLOWERS, both of which can be called and > advertised within the United States, but which may reach competing > companies! And I'd like to add, What is worse is that the 1-800-AIRWAYS which is British Airways terminates in London now, and 011-800-AIRWAYS could go to American Airlines and terminate in Tulsa. **** For every 800 number dialed the customer will have to determine if it is international or domestic, and understand that "international" doesn't mean it terminates internationally, just that the number belongs to the international number pool. **** Bob went on, > This seems to imply that the +800 country code will contain numbers > with only seven digits, yielding a total of no more than ten million > international free-phone numbers for the entire world! Given that the > North American Numbering Plan alone is already close to running out of > seven-digit intra-NANP free-phone numbers, isn't this +800-XXX-XXXX > arrangement a bit short-sighted? Back to me, Seven or eight digits has not yet been decided. Also there are many options. You can have seven and eight digit. There is a proposal for variable format seven to nine digits. The majority want eight fixed right now so the US could have 1-800-0-xxxxxxx and the rest of the world could have what ever they want. I'd also said, > If the U.S. position, and U.S. Users Group Position, of grandfathering > existing U.S. 800 numbers is not aggressively supported by U.S. 800 > subscribers, these companies will find they have a 50-50 chance of > winning -- or losing -- their branded number to a lottery, and > competition for the same customers and marketshare in the U.S., and > abroad. I'd like to add here, There could be dozens of people who want your number. Having the number now will give you 50/50 chance, but others can obtain the numbers today or next year in other countries (say five other countries) and have a five to one chance better than you even though you have had the number for years. Based on what's currently on the table, it doesn't matter if you've had the number 30 years or 30 minutes to qualify for priority. So, Bob responded, > Many countries besides the US have intra-national free-phone > services. Some even use the same 800 area code! I believe that > Ireland, for example, even uses 1-800 as the full prefix, just like > the NANP (although I understand that the number that follows is only > six, not seven, digits). So why should owners of US 800 numbers (or > even NANP 800 numbers -- don't forget Canada and the islands!) be > singled out for the privilege of "grandfathering" their existing > numbers into the worldwide +800 number space? That doesn't sound very > fair to the rest of the world. > I think that better schemes are available that could address both > these issues (number scarcity and number collision). My response: There are approximately four million U.S. toll-free subscribers, and 150,000 freephone subscribers outside of the U.S. (Some of the 150,000 also are U.S. marketers' international freephone numbers.) U.S. marketers, large and small, corporate and entreprenurial, have invested in, developed and designed the infrastructure for, and nurtured the 800 industry into the marketing powerhouse it is today. Now, I'm a marketing person, and this is important to me. But I don't want to be unfair, or impractical, either. Bob's 100% right here. The question is, why won't the ITU allow alternatives to be discussed? Remember, random numbers mean there's no way to translate from the domestic to international. Bob's scheme is good: +800--. As Bob discusses, the US number 1-800-FLOWERS would also be available internationally (assuming the company was willing to pay for incoming international calls) as +800-1-FLOWERS, and a hypothetical Irish number 1-800-FLOWERS could be dialed internationally as +800-353- FLOWERS. Since each country code would have its own domain within the overall +800 number space, no collisions would be possible. Of course, even this simple scheme could still run into the number scarcity problem, since it presumes only a single free-phone area code for each country. So perhaps the only fool-proof plan is to just use +800- as a prefix to the entire national toll free number, area code and all. Under this method, the US and Irish examples above would become +800 1 800 FLOWERS and +800 353 800 FLOWERS, respectively. There are disadvantages with this idea too, of course. One is that all national free-phone numbers that can be mapped transparently into the +800 space must be no longer than - 3 digits, where is the ITU limit on the number of digits that can follow the "+" sign. Fortunately, itself will soon change (or has just recently changed) from 12 to 15 anyway, so this might not be a problem. But the sheer length of the resulting +800 numbers would be unattractive. Bottom line, we agree that there are better options that merit serious consideration. So the question for U.S. 800 Subscribers to ask their U.S. carriers at the ITU is, why isn't this being discussed?!!! J. Oppenheimer, Producer@Pipeline.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 14:46:00 EST From: Hardwire <0003436453@mcimail.com> Subject: MCI Digital 800 Information Contact: David Sutton MCI Business Markets 404/644-NEWS MCI LAUNCHES TOLL-FREE ALTERNATIVE FOR MULTIMEDIA ACCESS First-Ever 800 Digital Service Integrates Voice, Data and Video Redefines the Way Businesses Service and Sell to Customers WASHINGTON, DC, January 23, 1995 -- In its latest extension of the Information Superhighway, MCI today announced at ComNet the first-ever tariffed and commercially available 800 digital service. MCI 800 Digital Service enables users to send and receive simultaneous voice, data and video communications through a single 800 number. Available immediately, MCI 800 Digital Service is ideal for high-speed applications including on-line shopping, remote access to corporate database libraries, customer service, technical support, videoconferencing, document sharing and software distribution. MCI's new service differs from existing data services by transferring connection costs to the service provider, thus encouraging customer access and increasing the likelihood that applications will succeed commercially. "We believe MCI 800 Digital Service will revolutionize the way companies do business," says Brian Brewer, vice president of marketing for MCI Business Markets. "For example, this service will easily allow consumers to call an 800 number to not only order software but also have it simultaneously delivered to their PC. In this same scenario, technical support could then conveniently follow via on-line screen-sharing." Wide Range of Applications By combining the ease of toll-free dialing with the power of high-speed switched data services, MCI is providing users with a highly effective, cost efficient communications link to businesses, consumers and suppliers. Typical applications might include: * On-line Interactive Catalogs -- By dialing a toll-free number, customers can view and purchase a company's products and services directly, dramatically reducing sales cycles. * File Sharing and Collaborative Computing -- Companies can work faster and smarter by enabling workers in different locations to use toll-free desktop videoconferencing and document sharing to edit documents simultaneously. * Toll-Free Access to Corporate Systems -- Companies can connect telecommuters and other office locations to corporate systems, data libraries and LANs. * Multimedia -- Users can combine voice, data and video at speeds of up to 64 Kbps, toll-free. Represents Evolution of Switched Data Services More and more of today's data applications require greater transmission bandwidth and, as a result, are tightly coupled to the underlying technology used to connect to end users. Traditional transmission rates achievable with modems, even high-speed modems, are in many cases unacceptable and degrade an application's quality until it is no longer a viable commercial product. MCI 800 Digital Service offers a solution to this problem by supporting switched data at up to 64 Kbps speeds, six times the speed of a 9.6 modem, toll-free. Digital 800 can originate through a local telephone company's ISDN basic rate interface (BRI) connection or via switched data access. Consumers can call the local phone company to order a BRI line. For consumers already using ISDN BRI or switched data access technology, connecting to a digital 800 application is as simple as dialing an 800 number. Service providers interested in developing digital 800 applications have the option of providing terminating access to their application through a choice of local exchange carrier (LEC) provided switched data, primary rate interface (PRI), BRI or MCI provided PRI terminating access methods. MCI 800 Digital Service is an integral component of MCI's portfolio of 800 services and can be used along with all existing Vision 800 and MCI 800 features. For example, time-of-day routing or percent-allocation routing can be used to ensure that every incoming call is routed to the correct location on the first attempt. MCI reporting tools, Perspective and TrafficView analysis, are also compatible with MCI 800 Digital Service. Pricing for MCI 800 Digital Service will initially reflect standard MCI Vision 800 or MCI 800 voice rates based on the type product platform selected. As with standard voice rates, 800 Digital Service rates will differ based on selection of switched BRI or dedicated PRI termination. All usage will contribute to overall 800 discounts and term commitments. MCI, headquartered in Washington, D.C., has grown from its core long distance business to become the world's third largest carrier of international calling and a premier provider of data communications over the vast Internet computer network. With annual revenues of $12 billion, the company today provides a wide array of consumer and business long distance and local services, data and video communications, on-line information, electronic mail, network management services and communications software. ------------------------------ From: BARRY M. BROOKS Subject: Nynex-Prodigy News Conference Date: Mon, 23 Jan 95 08:53:01 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) úÿ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Again unfortunatly, this arrived on Monday, with little chance for anyone to plan it into their schedule. Meetings should be announced here two or three weeks prior if not sooner! Thank you. PAT] ------------- Mat Stover, president and CEO of NYNEX Information Resources Company and Ross Glatzer, president of Prodigy Services Company will announce the nations first advertiser-supported, online, interactive Yellow Pages, on the information superhighway, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 1995. You are invited to participate in the interactive press briefing and live demonstration of the new interactive, online service, with Mr. Stover and Mr. Glatzer: Subject: Announcement of the NYNEX Interactive Yellow Pages Live, on PRODIGY Date: Tuesday, Jan. 24, 1995 Time: 10 a.m. (EST) Place: Lincoln Center, Rose Building (Corner West 65 and Amsterdam) Location: The Kaplan Penthouse, 9th floor You are welcome to remain in the Kaplan Penthouse after the press briefing to be among the first in the nation to JUMP NYNEX on PRODIGY. To attend the press briefing, please arrive at the Kaplan Penthouse approximately 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the briefing (9:45 a.m. EST). Refreshments will be served. For more information, please contact Phil Santoro, NYNEX, at (508) 762- 1326. ------------------------------ From: westes@netcom.com (Will Estes) Subject: Markets for 220 vs. 800 vs. 900 MHz Communications? Reply-To: westes@usc.com Organization: U.S. Computer Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 06:45:14 GMT Can someone briefly go over what are the markets for different frequencies of the various spectrums for personal communication markets? I am familiar enough to know that 220, 800, and 900 MHz are the common frequencies that people seem to be using. I gather that 220 is use for Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) applications, which appear to be one-to-many broadcast applications, like information being sent to delivery vehicles. 900 MHz seems to be reserved for high-end digital personal communication services. What are the other parts of the spectrum that are being used? What are the principle applications at each part of the spectrum? Where does current analog and digital cellular telephone fall in this spectrum? Will Estes Internet: westes@usc.com ------------------------------ From: Doug Pickering Subject: Faxing Through a PABX Date: 23 Jan 1995 07:16:42 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Hi, I have just gotten a PABX. Everything seems to be working OK, except I cannot fax out through it (I haven't tried receiving yet). Modem connections are fine all the way up to 14400 (all my modem supports). Without the PABX, faxing is fine, but with it, the modem dials the number get connected then never gets beyond 'Connecting'. I am using WinFAX Pro 4. Picking up an extension proves that connection has been made to the other fax. I have a Rockwell based Voice/Fax/Modem. Any ideas? Doug Pickering ------------------------------ From: Simon J Wallace Subject: Questionnaire Repost - Datacom Over Mobile Phones Organization: Edinburgh University Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 10:10:23 GMT May I first thank all respondant to my questionnaire (14). I was hoping for 20 so I'll repost to see if I can get a few more. I will of course post all results next week. I wonder if you could help me with a questionnaire I am doing for my Masters Degree. I would appreciate some opinions on DATA communications over mobile phones. It should only take a couple of minutes. Could you please post the replies to me at sjw@ee.ed.ac.uk. I shall post my findings as soon as I have collated them. Thanks in Advance. Simon #:-) 1) Do you have a Digital (D), Analog (A) or Dual Mode (DM) phone? 2) Do you at present use your mobile phone to transmit data? 3) Do you at any time in the future plan to use a mobile phone to transmit data? 4) If so what factors would influence your decision: i) ease of use; ii) cost of equipment; iii) cost of calls; iv) reliability; v) Other please state: 5) What be your MAIN use of mobile data comms? Thanks again Simon #8-) ------------------------------ From: elubbers@inter.nl.net (Erwin Lubbers) Subject: Tonetalk / TTS Organization: NLnet Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 10:26:53 GMT I need information about the Tonetalk/TTS voicemail card for the PC. Does someone have this info or do you know where to get it? Thanks, Erwin ------------------------------ From: alexz@tmx100.elex.co.il (Alex Zacharov) Subject: Does Anybody Need an ATM PBX? Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 11:33:34 GMT Organization: Telrad Ltd. I would like to make a little referendum: If somebody had offered an ATM PBX in a form of small N-ISDN servers interconnected by ATM, supporting N-ISDN basic and supplementary services with interfaces to global ATM and PSTN, who would have bought it NOW? Regards, Alex alexz@tmx100.elex.co.il ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #55 *****************************