TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 Jan 95 02:46:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 56 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Changes to 411 Directory Assistance Service in Atlanta (Nigel Allen) BellSouth ISDN Rates (Was ISDN in Florida) (Ed Goldgehn) Belgacom and Greek Panaphone (Juha Veijalainen) LD Provider Juggling (Justin T. Leavens) Sub-Lease 900 Number Possible? (Clint Scott) GAO's Information Superhighway Report (Mike Dolak) Voice Over Frame Relay and ISDN (Dino Sims) Spokane Service Outage (Ry Jones) Jobs Available in San Diego: ATM/SONET/OC48 (Shaun Maki) FAX Group 3 and Group 4 Standard Information Wanted (Elron Adar) Help Needed Locating Retailer For MicroTac Ultralite (Steve Chinatti) Help Needed With Procomm (kbsherm@holonet.net) PC Telcom Equipment Wanted (Tom Lempicke) Re: Where to Find Nice-Looking Phones? (Alan Boritz) Re: Where to Find Nice-Looking Phones? (Wes Leatherock) Re: US <> Purto Rico: Options? (Julio Frondeur) Re: CO/Boston Added to NACN (John R. Covert) 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, 24 Jan 1995 03:35:21 -0500 Subject: Changes to 411 Directory Assistance Service in Atlanta From: ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) Organization: Internex Online (io.org) Southern Bell says it is introducing a more-automated directory assistance service which will reduce the amount of speaking a directory assistance operator has to do. The company didn't say whether the resulting savings in operator time will lead to layoffs. And it seems as if the company is reducing operator time at the expense of making customers wait on the phone longer while a shortened recorded version of their request is played back to an operator. It is not clear whether the service will also be used for long distance directory assistance requests from outside the Atlanta area. A Southern Bell press release says: "With the company's new DA*Plus service, customers dialing 411 are greeted by the system and then are asked for the name of the city and the person or business whose phone number they need. The system will then record the customer's response. After the information is recorded, DA*Plus automatically trims the silence at the beginning and end of the customer responses and places the call in queue for the next available operator. By eliminating the pauses and silence on each call, the operator hears only the customer's responses, not any hesitation or pauses. The operator then checks for the listing and provides the number requested to the caller just as it is done today. At any time, a caller who wishes to bypass the service can press zero and is immediately connected to an operator." (The press release does not explain how someone with a rotary dial can be connected to an operator.) The company says that customers who have questions or comments about this new service may call 404-780-2323. Attendants will be available to answer questions Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Journalists can call Lynn Bress of Southern Bell at 404-391-2484. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ndallen@io.org ------------------------------ From: edg@ocn.com (Ed Goldgehn) Subject: BellSouth ISDN Rates (Was ISDN in Florida) Date: 22 Jan 1995 16:01:31 GMT Organization: The INTERNET Connection, LLC Reply-To: isdn@ocn.com In article , xu@gate.net says: > I was wondering if anyone has heard anything about Southern > Bell implementing ISDN in Florida? I've been considering it to get a > link to the net and a business line as well. I was also wondering if > anyone could give me an idea of the rates I might get charged. If no > one knows or isn't sure how about a number I might call to get this > info? Barring that I was wondering if anyone was currently using ISDN > in Florida and what their experiences with it were. The rates for BellSouth ISDN in all areas are: BELLSOUTH RESIDENCE --------- --------- ISDN RATES (2B+D) Flat Rate Monthly* State Minimum Maximum Installation Alabama $63.85 $68.60 $210.00 Florida 52.80 56.15 226.00 Georgia 60.05 66.40 184.50 Kentucky 54.67 60.05 213.00 Lousiana# 70.50 70.50 259.80 Mississippi 61.29 65.51 196.00 North Carolina 72.44 75.01 197.50 South Carolina 57.70 60.40 212.50 Tennessee 24.50 29.50 N/C** *Minimum & Maximum Rates are due to different rate groups. (The rate will not be more than the maximum or less than the minimum.) #Louisiana rates are not rate group sensitive **Residence service order charge and line connection charge for initial installations will be waived for a period of one year beginning October 29,1993. (Tenn. Only) BELLSOUTH BUSINESS --------- ^^^^^^^^ ISDN RATES (2B+D) Flat Rate STATE MONTHLY INSTALLATION ---- ------- ------------ Alabama $93.50 $219.00## Florida 93.50 206.00## Georgia 93.50 208.25## Kentucky 91.00 230.00## Louisiana 95.50 254.19## Mississippi 94.50 236.00## North Carolina 93.50 212.50## South Carolina 91.00 232.50## Tennessee 93.50 58.50## These rates do not include any features or packet services. Rates Subject to change. Rates Subject to all applicable taxes ====================================================================== ==== ##Before firm rates can be confirmed, loop qualification and facilities availability request must be processed for each address. This request is to determine if the local facilities meet distance and provisioning requirements. This will determine if ISDN can be provided to that address without additional charges. To have the above request performed for your location, send your name, the name telephone service is listed to, the address and existing telephone number to: isdn@ocn.com ====================================================================== ==== Open Communication Networks, Inc. (OCN) provides turnkey ISDN implementation services which includes the ordering and coordination of ISDN installation with BellSouth (and other telcos) as well as coordination with ISP's (we'll check what customer equipment requirements they have). OCN also provides a "dial-in" test site for all forms of ISDN data connections including terminal emulation, SLIP, and PPP (sync and async). OCN provides the above services *at no additional charge* when the customer's ISDN equipment is purchased at LIST PRICE. For more information, send e-mail to isdn@ocn.com Ed Goldgehn E-Mail: edg@ocn.com Sr. Vice President Voice: (404) 919-1561 Open Communication Networks, Inc. Fax: (404) 919-1568 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Belgacom and Greek Panaphone From: juha.veijalainen@pcb.compart.fi (Juha Veijalainen) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 95 22:33:00 +0200 Organization: ComPart BBS - Helsinki, Finland References: > I send this letter to protest for the services of Belgacom Proximus > Cellular Telephone service and that of the Greek Panaphone. I am an > owner of a Panaphone number and I am visiting Belgium since 10 > December 1994. My telephone is not working in a certain area of > Belgium even the Proximus signal is very stong. This area is This sounds familiar. Let me guess, you are using a handheld phone, right? I visited Belgium and Holland last autumn and had similar problems. IMHO the problem is that GSM networks in those countries are not built for handheld phones. Cells are too widely apart and use maximum power allowed for a cell site (20 W?). Your phone sees the cell transmitter and may even show maximum field strength. When you try to _use_ your phone, you'll see that field strength indicator rapidly goes to zero and net connection is lost (that is what happens with Nokia 2110). Handheld phones' 2 W maximum transmitting power is not enough, when cell transmitter is shouting at 20 W! The only decent GSM nets (for handheld phones) are in my opinion in Finland and Sweden (I've used my phone also in UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland). Lots of low power cell sites make it work. Juha Veijalainen Helsinki, Finland ------------------------------ From: jtleavens@aol.com (JT Leavens) Subject: LD Provider Juggling Date: 23 Jan 1995 13:35:15 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: jtleavens@aol.com (JT Leavens) I had my LD service provided to me by AddTel, a LDDS reseller until October 94, when I switched it all to LDDS directly, except for a lonely 800 number that I was hanging on to, but not really using. So I was still getting bills from AddTel for this 800 number with just a few wrong numbers that called the line; no big deal. In December, I took a closer look at my bill and noticed that AddTel was still charging me for the monthly rates for the 800 number they were no longer carrying, and I got suspicious. I then combed through bills since I had switched my service, and found that there were calls that were still being billed by them on that 800 number, even though LDDS was supposedly my provider. Not a lot of calls, mind you, but just a few. Checking my AddTel bills against my LDDS bills I found: *Most of the service was provided by LDDS, as it should have been. *There was an entire week in November when AdTel billed my service and LDDS did not. It was a Monday through Friday, for no explanation I can provide. *There were some days when LDDS and AdTel seemed to fight for my calls, some calls in a day going to one carrier and others going to the other, right after each other with no pattern. *Most upsetting were calls I found on BOTH bills, billed by both companies. There is no doubt that these were the exact same calls. How exactly can this happen? I got a partial explanation from a tech at LDDS who said a "send resporg command to the SDS database" would take care of the routing to LDDS (I assume that's the central 800 database that ensures the proper call routing), but how exactly could the two companies both bill for a single call? And do I have any responsibility to pay AdTel for providing service when I expressly did *not* want them to? Especially since being able to compare identical calls billed side by side proved that I had saved a good bit of money by switching to LDDS. Any ideas from anyone? Thanks in advance! Justin Leavens ------------------------------ From: cscott@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM (Clint Scott) Subject: Sub-Lease 900 Number Possible? Date: 22 Jan 1995 16:02:37 -0600 Organization: NeoSoft Internet Services +1 713 684 5969 I am in need of 'renting' a 900 number for a one month trail period. I don't want to have to pay the whole down money, etc just for this brief time. Is it possible to sort of sub-lease a 900 number with a particular extension? E-mail is preferable to news post. cscott@starbase.neosoft.com ------------------------------ From: mjdolak@access3.digex.net (Mike Dolak) Subject: GAO's Information Superhighway Report Date: 23 Jan 1995 00:00:40 GMT Organization: Digex Net The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) has released a report entitled Information Superhighway: An Overview of Technology Challenges (GAO/AIMD-95-23). The 84 page report provides an overview of pivotal technical issues -- security and privacy, interoperability, and reliability -- facing the industry and federal regulators in planning and implementing the information superhighway. Orders for a single free copy of this report may be placed by calling (202) 512-6000, by using fax number (301) 258-4066, or by mailing a request to the U.S. General Accounting Office, P.O. Box 6015, Gaithersburg, MD 20884-6015, USA. ------------------------------ From: dino@crl.com (Dino Sims) Subject: Voice Over Frame Relay and ISDN Date: 23 Jan 1995 14:02:53 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access Hello all, My company is in the process of installing a WAN between our locations here in Atlanta, Hong Kong and Holland. And I was wondering is it possible or even practical to do voice over frame relay or isdn to extend our digital PBX system (Executone 432) so users here can just punch in an extension and get someone over seas. Also has anyone done video conferencing over frame relay? I know that all of this is possible by using 56k leased lines but I would like to try and save some money :-) Dino Sims Systems Administrator Atlanta, GA email1 dino@crl.com email2 DSims_+a_AJC_+lDino_Sims+r%AJC_International@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: rjones@rjones.oz.net (Ry Jones) Subject: Spokane Service Outage Date: 23 Jan 1995 19:55:50 GMT Organization: The SenseMedia Network, http://sensemedia.net/ Saturday morning on KIRO (710 AM, Seattle) they said that USWest was trucking in hundreds on service persons from Idaho and Western Washington to "Dry out lines on the south hill of Spokane", where apparently several thousand people are without service at this hour. Does anyone have the 411 on this outage? What happened? ------------------------------ From: smaki@teleport.com (Shaun) Subject: Jobs Available in San Diego: ATM/SONET/OC48 Date: 23 Jan 1995 20:27:51 GMT Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 ATM/SONET/DS3/T1/FAX/modem in moderate sunny San Diego: Pay can be over 100K/year depending on experience! If you have the above skills please read to the bottom. More than ten jobs are being filled right now. From Component Engineer to Hardware Manager. From Software Engineer to Software Manager. With the right background you may find yourself working as a technology scientist planning the next generation. HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: úÿ Overall responsibility for board level hardware development including initial high level definition, detailed design, simulation/verification building and debugging of prototypes, and successful introduction into production. In addition to extensive hands-on detailed design experience (uP, ASIC's, FPGA's, ...), a minimum of three years of management experience is required along with a BSEE /MSEE. Must be comfortable working in a team oriented high energy environment, T1/DS3/SONET telecom experience is a plus. SOFTWARE MANAGER TELECOMMUNICATIONS: BSEE/BSCS (Masters desired): Eight + years experience with a minimum of three years experience in managing software development for multiprocessing embedded systems; strong C/C++ programming skills in UNIX development environment; experience with real-time kernels (PSOS, VRTX, OS-9, must also have experience with systems oriented towards fault tolerant software architecture and software associated with Digital Telephony switching systems. TECHNOLOGY SCIENTISTS (multiple jobs): Requires masters degree or higher with extensive ATM/SONET real world experience. Develop the next generation in a laboratory environment with all the toys you want. Within reason you will be given whatever you need. LEAD SOFTWARE ENGINEER: TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: BS/MS, EE/CS and eight+ years of experience in multiprocessor embedded system software development. Strong C/C++ programming experience in UNIX development required. Experience in software architectures typified by digital telephony switching systems, telephony network access servers/routers, etc. a plus. Candidates will lead design team in the architecting and development of real-time, fault tolerant, multiprocessor software. Must posses strong technical leadership skills and proven ability to be a self-starter in the ground-level architecting and development of new products. LEAD SOFTWARE ENGINEER: DSP PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: BS/MS/PhD in EE or a related discipline and five + years DSP software development experience. Qualified candidates will lead design team in the development of real-time DSP engine for high speed analog and digital protocol analysis, Must Posess strong technical knowledge in the area of DSP algorithms used in the transmission and discrimination of FAX and modem protocols, associated training sequences, signal constellations, and compression (Group III FAX, V.32, V.32bis, V.42bis, MNP, etc.). Strong technical leadership/decision making skills and proven ability to deliver products from conception to production also required. SOFTWARE ENGINEERS: TELECOMMUNICATIONS (multiple jobs): Candidates must posses BSEE/BSCS (masters desired); strong C/C++ programming skills; five + years experience in the development of real-time embedded systems; basic knowledge of assemble language (particularly the Motorolla 68K family); strong debugging skills using native debugger and associated emulators. Experience with products interfacing to the digital telephone network a plus. PHYSICAL DESIGN MANAGER: Overall responsibility for Mechanical Engineering and Document Control including mechanical/OEM issues, managing the engineering change control process, and successfully transitioning new designs from engineering into production. BSME/MSME is required along with experience in introducing complex multi-level products into volume production in an ISO/Bellcore quality environment. Hands on experience is beneficial along with a minimum of four years of management experience. COMPONENT ENGINEER: BSEE Required. Work with design engineers selecting components and perform functional/performance analysis of components. Do not reply to this message. EMail direct to smaki@teleport.com with a phone number and reasume (if easy). Otherwise just your phone number will do. I will call you on my nickel. Or you may call me if you wish at the number below. -- Shaun Maki smaki@teleport.com 503 614 9627. Must be legal to work in the US (no H1/F1 visa!). If you are a student without experience please do not respond. ------------------------------ From: vocaltec@datasrv.co.il Subject: FAX Group 3 and Group 4 Standard Information Wanted Date: Tue, 24 Jan 95 07:02:11 GMT Organization: Elron Adar Where can I find the CCITT standard for fax group 3 and group 4 transmission? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: chinatti@SRTC.COM (Steve Chinatti) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 16:45:27 -0500 Subject: Help Needed Locating Retailer for MicroTac Ultralite Hi, I'm looking for information on purchasing a Motorola MicroTac Ultralite flip phone. I'm in the central NJ area and I am interested in activating with Bell Atlantic mobile, as one of their plans seem to best fit my travel area and calling patterns. My problem is that I cannot find a discounter in the area that activates with Bell Atlantic and carries the Ultralite. I've called Bell Atlantic but I have been unable to get a list of discount retailers that activate with BAMS, probably because Bell Atlantic would like to have me buy the phone through them (at list price!). The coverage area I'm looking for is Central NJ - Philly. I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to find a discount retailer in this area that I can buy from, or possibly some mail order house that has good prices. Since this is a pretty specific question, it would probably be best to e-mail responses to me, and if I come up with any leads I'll post a summary. Thanks in advance, Steve Chinatti ------------------------------ From: kbsherm@holonet.net (tacnav) Subject: Help Needed With Procomm Date: 23 Jan 1995 23:27:50 GMT Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access System: 510-704- 1058/modem I am having trouble using PROCOMM. Can anyone offer me some help? Thanks, ken kbsherm@holonet.net ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 04:43:27 GMT From: tlempicke@sunbelt.net Subject: PC Telcom Equipment Wanted Organization: SunBelt.Net Does anyone know of a drop in board for a PC which would allow it to handle an office phone system? I have three incoming lines and eight extensions, and it seems like a perfect project for a dedicated PC. The open architechture and programming would allow future expansion, etc>. Thanks, Tom Lempicke Tlempicke@sunblet.net ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Where to Find Nice-Looking Phones? From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 95 20:59:55 EST Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 ophidian59@aol.com (Ophidian59) writes: > If you want an inexpensive high quailty phone, try buy a plain > telephone at the parts counter of your local Greybar, a telephony > supply house. Figure into the cost of picking up that phone, window or car repair. The last time I parked down the street from Graybar, in Long Island City, someone broke off a new padlock from the back of my truck (within about 15 minutes). It's much safer to deal with them via mail order. ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Mon, 23 Jan 95 19:14:36 Subject: Re: Where to Find Nice-Looking Phones? Quoting ophidian59@aol.com (Ophidian59) > While on the subject of phones, I'd really like to find one of > those old yet very mod (e.g. 60's) British phones with the dial > and the hook-switch on the bottom. Anyone? Do you mean the Ericofon? That was Swedish, made by L.M. Ericsson Company. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wes.leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I knew someone with an Ericofon back in 1967; they were really considered very avante-guard back then. Of course he had *no permission* whatsoever from telco to have it on his line. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Julio Frondeur Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 16:13:42 -0500 Subject: Re: US <> Purto Rico: Options? Organization: InfiNet You may try asking Puerto Rico Telephone Co. for their Switched-56 offering which is much less expensive than the 4K monthly figure you actually have. The C.O. serving the Carolina area is a DMS-100 equipped with the TCM-based SW-56 feature called DATAPATH by Northern Telecom. If you are within 15K feet from the C.O., it will be piece of cake for PRTC to give you the service. Julio Fondeur ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jan 95 11:42:23 EST From: John R. Covert 21-Jan-1995 1125 Subject: Re: CO/Boston Added to NACN NACN in Boston does not appear to be working very well. Sitting here in Boston, I just turned on my Montreal CanTel number; the first thing I tried was to call in via the Montreal number. Usually (e.g. in Pittsburg) calls are properly routed to the phone within five seconds of power-on. Calls continued to no-answer transfer at the Montreal end until I actually attempted to originate a call with the Montreal number here in Boston. Then call delivery started working some but not all of the time. Frequently there was just a fast-busy. None of the feature codes work -- I've tried to use the Ericsson codes (*21* to forward, #21# to cancel) which work when roaming using the CanTel number in Albany, Rochester, Pittsburg, Florida, and San Francisco but not in Utica or Dallas/Fort Worth. I also tried the Cellular One/SWBell feature numbers for Boston, but nothing. At the moment I have turned the phone back off, and calls are no longer going to the no-answer transfer location. That works properly when the phone is turned off in most other places (such as Florida), without the need for any timeout period. It even worked on failed pages; in South Florida I could leave my CanTel number forwarded on no-answer to my NYNEX number; if I got a failed page on the CanTel number I had time to switch to the other NAM and would receive the call on the NYNEX number via BellSouth. But none of this works in Boston; it looks like Boston's NACN connection is either AFU or not completed. /john ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #56 *****************************