TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 Jan 95 12:08:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 57 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Where to Find tpage? (Rob Etzel) Want Information on Wireless Short WAN Links (Eduardo Kaftanski) What's the Current Status of LEOS? (Donald R. Newcomb) Data Wanted Measuring Internet Performance (Jeff Grau) PC Board For Terminal Emulation (SNA, BSC, VIP) (Massimo Fusaro) Cellular Service in the Lincoln Tunnel (Doug Reuben) New RJ-48 Jack Used in Nynex Service Area For T-1? (Steve Pinkston) Marketing Strategies Information Request (Angelo Raffaele Fernicola) Looking For Voice Mail For Panasonic Key Switch (Rebecca Brooke) Where Can I Find a Telecom Group in Chicago? (logicarsch@aol.com) Re: Looking For TDM Box (Roger Atkinson) Re: Flat Rate Long Distance (Edwin Chen) Re: Inter-Lata Rates in California (Ed Smith) Re: GSM Cellular Operators List (Lim Kong Hong) Re: T1 vs. T3: What's the Difference? (sjohn0421@aol.com) Re: Areas Covered by Phone Book? (Paul Robinson) Re: CallerID and ANI (Glenn Foote) Re: Antenna For Cellular Phone in Bangkok (Alan Shen) Re: Is the Pentium Bug Really That Bugging? (Alan Shen) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rob@cutter.cpac.washington.edu (Rob Etzel) Subject: Where to Find tpage? Date: 24 Jan 1995 00:59:47 GMT Organization: The Center for Process Analytical Chemistry Can someone please tell me where I can find tpage, the perl (?) code to talk to alpha-numeric pagers? Also, where are the FAQ's that might have answered this question? Thanks, Rob Etzel Computing Services Manager Center for Process Analytical Chemistry 153 Chemistry Library Building University of Washington, BG-10 Seattle WA 98195 Office: (206) 543-9881 Fax: (206) 543-6506 E-Mail: rob@cpac.washington.edu ------------------------------ From: ekaftan@mailnet.rdc.cl (Eduardo Kaftanski) Subject: Want Info on Wireless Short WAN Links Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 02:36:49 GMT Hi, I need information on small (less than 300 meters) WAN/LAN wireless links. I have two offices separates less than three blocks, with a clear line of sight, and as I am in a non-purely business area, leased lines involve digging in the street at my expense. I am looking forward to near Ethernet speed if posible. Can it be done? At what cost? I can buy direct from a US company (I am not in the US but have a Miami address for shipping). Many thanks for any answer. I can be reached at: ekaftan@ing.puc.cl for direct e-mail. ------------------------------ From: dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu (Donald R. Newcomb) Subject: What's the Current Status of LEOS? Date: 24 Jan 1995 08:01:14 -0600 Organization: University of Southern Mississippi A few years ago we were hearing about numerous proposals for global personal communications based on LEOS (Low Earth Orbital Satellite) systems. One was Motorola's proposed Iridium system. I have not heard anything about these in the last few months. Have we reached some sort of watershed. What's the news? I'd like to find a low-power (e.g. ~1 W) system with better bandwidth than ARGOS. Donald R. Newcomb University of Southern Mississippi dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu "The God who gave us life gave us liberty dnewcomb@falcon.st.usm.edu at the same time." T. Jefferson (1774) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Jan 95 10:12:44 EST From: grau@library.mt.att.com Subject: Data Wanted Measuring Internet Performance I am a reference librarian at Bell labs who has been asked to find data measuring Internet performance. Specifically, my client wants to know how long it takes for ascii text to travel from a point "A" to a point "B" under different situations that might be time of day, day of week, etc. A colleague of mine says measurements of packet transfer rates have been done but doesn't know where to find them. If you have such data and are willing to share it or know where I might find it, I would appreciate hearing from you. Please send any responses to: grau@library.mt.att.com Thank you, Jeff Grau ------------------------------ From: max@sixcom.it (Massimo Fusaro) Subject: PC Board For Terminal Emulation (SNA, BSC, VIP) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 14:36:52 +0100 Organization: Sixtel S.p.A I need information about sells and forecast of PC board for terminal emulation (BSC, SNA, VIP) for the european market or where to find such information. Please reply by mail, I'll summarize. Massimo Fusaro E-mail: max@sixcom.it Sixtel S.p.A. X400: c=it;admd=garr;prmd=IUnet;O=sixcom;S=max Milan, Italy Phone: +39 (2) 3192 216 ------------------------------ From: dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) Subject: Cellular Service in the Lincoln Tunnel Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 13:42:57 EST Just a quick note ... Cell One/NY (00025) has added cellular coverage in the Lincoln Tunnel ("Temp" I-495 between NY and NJ), providing through service from one end to the other. Callers can now place and receive calls, or continue on existing calls uninterrupted. A very productive addition considering how backed up traffic can be there! No service yet (that I have heard of) in the Holland Tunnel (was going to be I-78 when they still built new roads in NYC ...). NYNEX is dead in the Lincoln Tunnel. It seems that most of the tunnels in the northeast are now covered: -In Boston, CO/Boston (and NYNEX/Boston?) has excellent coverage in the Callahan and Sumner Tunnels. -In NYC, the Lincoln Tunnel is now covered by CO/NY. -In Baltimore, both tunnels are covered quite well by CO/Baltimore-DC and BAMS/Baltimore-DC. -In DC, the "tunnels" under the Mall (I-395, was to be I-95) and the I-195 (?) tunnels both have excellent coverage with both carriers. (How's the coverage in the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel and in Newport News, VA?) Am I missing any? Doug Reuben dreuben@interpage.net (203) 499 - 5221 Interpage Network Services -- E-Mail/Telnet to Alpha or Numeric Pagers & Fax ------------------------------ From: pinkston@kentrox.com (Steve Pinkston) Subject: New RJ-48 Jack Used in Nynex Service Area for T-1? Organization: ADC Kentrox - Portland, Oregon Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 19:13:52 GMT We've had reports of a new type of RJ-48 jack being used in the Nynex service area for T-1 service. Can anyone familiar with Nynex practices and materials help us out? The traditional RJ-48X jack provides shorting bars which loop transmit (pins 4 and 5) to receive (pins 1 and 2) when the customer's plug is withdrawn. The RJ-48X jacks we're familiar with do this by means of a small stationary printed circuit board upon which the "fingers" of the jack rest when the plug is withdrawn. The reports we're getting describe a jack which has some sort of mechanism that is moved off of its shorted position by contact with the flat areas of the plug adjacent to the outside pins (1 and 8). The problem is that some vendors' RJ-48 jacks are solid in this area and some have grooves that look as if they could accomodate a 9th and 10th contact. These grooves apparently prevent the shorting mechanism from releasing. If anyone is familiar with these jacks, we would appreciate your help. We need: 1. The name of the manufacturer of these jacks. 2. The part number of these jacks. 3. The spec, if any to which they are designed. 4. A sample of the jack itself, if possible. Please respond directly by email to pinkston@kentrox.com and cc: lilesc@kentrox.com. You can also reach me at 1-800-733-5511, ext 6341. We would greatly appreciate any help or pointers to resources. ------------------------------ Subject: Marketing Strategies Information Request Date: Mon, 23 Jan 95 16:49:29 CET From: Angelo Raffaele Fernicola Hi, I'm looking for someone who can help me to find (or tell me where to find) information on marketing strategies of communications companies in the EEC. Maybe it's not clear what I want, so if somebody thinks they can help me, e-mail to MC56652@mclink.it. Thank you, Raffaele Fernicola ------------------------------ From: Rebecca Brooke Subject: Looking For Voice Mail For Panasonic Key Switch Date: 23 Jan 1995 14:38:32 GMT Organization: The Internet Access Company We have a Panasonic 616(KXT) key switch and want to add auto- attend/voice mail. Can voice mail be added to this system at all? Is there a "generic" component we can add on that will do the job and acts like a separate extension? ------------------------------ From: logicarsch@aol.com (LogicaRsch) Subject: Where Can I Find Telecom Group in CHICAGO? Date: 22 Jan 1995 22:05:25 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: logicarsch@aol.com Are there any telecom groups/clubs/associations that meet in Chicago? I'm not talking about cyberspace -- I mean the sort of thing where real, live humans come together in a defined physical space -- a room, for example -- and converse. I'm an independent market research consultant specializing in telecom? How can I hobnob with all you telecom types? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Someone is not checking through recent back issues before submitting questions ... this identical question came up here two or three weeks ago and perhaps one or more of the people who responded at that time will write directly to the correspondent with an answer. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rogera@cts.com (Roger Atkinson) Subject: Re: Looking for TDM Box Organization: R. F. Atkinson & Co. Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 04:26:18 GMT In article aa293@detroit.freenet.org (Andrew P. Dinsdale) writes: > 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. Try Glasgal Communications, Inc. Their number is 800-LANWAN1 (800-526- 9261). They have a huge variety of equipment, and in my experience, their people are competent. Good luck! Roger Atkinson ------------------------------ From: chen@leland.stanford.edu (edwin chen) Subject: Flat Rate Long Distance Information Wanted Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 20:26:52 -0800 Organization: Stanford University If anyone has any information about flat rate long distance calling, please e-mail me with it. I'm trying to diminish my phone bill. I currently have a $149/month service but it has a 20 minute/call limit. Thanks. Edwin chen@leland.stanford.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Edwin, are you seeking information or trying to slip in a sales pitch? ... by the merest coincidence of course (of course!) this very topic consumed a great deal of bandwidth in a couple other telecom newsgroups in recent weeks. Some respondents were very suspicious of the program. Wasn't there some discussion of having to make payment by courier service rather than regular mail? Weren't there a couple other questions raised but never really answered about the firm? If you are getting truly unlimited service for $149 per month, with no gimmicks and no fraud (there was a hint of that in the other discussion, wasn't there?) then I would say you probably have the best deal you are going to find if your usage otherwise would total at least $200-250 or more per month through more 'conventional' carriers. If all you are using normally is $100-150 per month, then its just a dollar for dollar trade, with your twenty minute per call restriction and (I think I read) a limit of one call at a time. Since all the major and well-established carriers will cut various deals with large users, even if your 'normal' usage came to $200 or so per month, you would not be getting any significant savings. I don't know of any instances where the major carriers will give a forty or fifty percent discount, so if your bill would usually be in excess of $250-300 per month, then I would say you have a good bargain. But at the going rate per minute, if you are on the phone long distance that much time, you must be on the phone for úÿ something or other for several hours per day. Well ... I guess I am also, now that I think about it. I am on the dialup to Northwestern University for several hours each day, but I don't know how I could live with the twenty minute per call limit. Is your useage mainly for data transmissions, or do you use it for voice also? Does the carrier allow data transmissions? PAT] ------------------------------ From: knute@netcom.com (Ed Smith) Subject: Re: Inter-Lata Rates in California Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 09:21:24 GMT I know of at least one company in California that has inter-lata rates that start at .096 flat per minute billed in six second increments for a one year term. I am not permitted to post the company's name. I will respond to any email on the subject. (See Biz.Comp.Services) Puerto Rico $0.20; Australia $0.34; Germany $0.46; U.K. $0.29; Hong Kong $0.52; Brazil $0.69; Canada $0.23; France $0.41; Netherlands $0.40; Singapore $0.50. knute@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: limkh@einstein.technet.sg (Lim Kong Hong) Subject: Re: GSM Cellular Operators List Date: Tue, 24 Jan 95 02:45:52 PST Organization: Siemens (Pte) Ltd Reply-To: limkh@technet.sg In article , Kimmo.Ketolainen@utu.fi says: >> Estonia EMT > New: > Estonia=09=09Radiolinja >> Hong Kong Smartone > Also: > Hong Kong=09Telecom CSL In Singapore there is Singapore Telecoms Mobilelink GSM GSM Code 525- 01. In Singapore, GSM subscribers have the option to subscribe to autoroaming services to Hongkong, UK, Australia, Switzerland and Denmark. This means that with their GSM SIM Card, they are able to send/receive call in the above countries. ------------------------------ From: sjohn0421@aol.com (SJohn0421) Subject: Re: T1 vs. T3: What's the Difference? Date: 24 Jan 1995 10:05:21 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: sjohn0421@aol.com (SJohn0421) The difference, (besides pricing) is bandwidth. A T1 has total bandwidth at 1.54 Mbps. Thats 24 channels at up to 64kb of speed. A DS3, or T3, has enough bandwidth to carry 28 T1's. That's quite a bit of bandwidth. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 11:13:54 EST From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Subject: Re: Areas Covered by Phone Book? Benjamin P. Carter , writes: > A typical phone book with both white and yellow pages has a > map with a large white area surrounding a smaller yellow area. > What is this map trying to tell me? The white area shows the limits of the white pages covered by that book. In the case of the Los Angeles area, there can -- and will be -- holes in that area because pieces will be covered by different telephone companies there. The yellow area is the maximum area that yellow pages for that area will cover, and again, may have holes. > Are all the listed numbers in the white area supposed to be in > white pages of the phone book? They don't seem to be. Let's not forget that people can have nonpublished numbers that you can still get from directory assistance, and in California, 40% of the telephone subscribers are unlisted which means they don't show up anywhere. > The GTE phone books where I live (near LA) show the parts of the > puzzle covering their turf, but the PacBell phone books don't. Also, > GTE has "neighborhood" directories that invade PacBell's turf. A > "neighborhood" directory is typically much thinner than a real > directory. A "neighborhood" directory is a private directory sold to companies for a lot less money than additional Yellow Pages listings in the phone book from the telephone company, but listings in those still have to be purchased separately, and this costs extra money, so the secondary books typically tend to be thinner. Also, they usually cover smaller areas (so the salesman can collect more commissions from those who want good coverage by selling them listings in multiple books). > Why? What is going on? Directory advertising means money, and as long as they can sell advertising to people, they will continue to publish them. I'm surprised we haven't seen fringe directories, say the "National Gay & Lesbian Yellow Pages" for businesses that want to solicit to those groups. Or this could be used for people to run personal ads. :) (I would have thought this was silly until I discovered American Express was advertising it's double signature travelers checks in gay-oriented newspapers and showing two men in the picture). How about the "National Amputee Yellow Pages" where companies that specialize in services for people with missing limbs can look. Etc. If you can figure out something that you can sell advertising for, chances are someone, somewhere, will create a magazine, directory or catalog to cash in on it. You or I may think it's wierd or unusual, but 50% of a niche market can be a lot more revenue than 1/2 of 1% of a major national one. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A few responses are in order. First of all, in large cities like Chicago, there *are* the equivilent of 'gay and lesbian yellow pages' directories. One published covering the Chicago area is called 'OUT'. Next point: telco itself also publishes 'neighborhood phone directories'. For instance, there are a couple hundred phone books covering the greater Chicago area all of which are published by DonTech, which is the recent name for the Ameritech subsidiary formerly known as R.R. Donnelly and Company. There is the large Chicago alphabetical directory and corresponding two-part Yellow Pages. There are about thirty 'neighborhood' books, with their own yellow pages in the back of the book. These are just subsets of the larger book, extracted by address groupings within a given area of the city, and all published by telco. There are eight 'regional books' for the suburbs, broken down by near north, far north, northwest, near west, far west, southwest, south, and 'Calumet Region' (northern Indiana suburbs). Each of these books contains a couple dozen suburban communities, and each regional book is roughly equivilent to the Chicago White Pages for their particular area. Just as the large Chicago book has about thirty smaller 'neighborhood' books based on it, each of the eight regional books has its own collection of smaller 'neighborhood' (or actually, suburban town) books, usually with two or three villages or towns grouped together. For example in Skokie where I am, we are in the near north suburban regional book (white pages only, no yellow pages, but with alpha listings divided into two categories, business and residential), and we are in the book known as 'Skokie/Evanston/Morton Grove' with addresses defaulting to Skokie unless 'MG' or 'EV' is shown following the address. These little community books also have yellow pages. The other telco- published directory comes from Centel. That phone company serves Des Plaines and Park Ridge in their entireity. It also serves a small portion of Chicago on the northwest side, along with bits of Niles, Illinois and bits of the Ohare Airport complex not considered within the city of Chicago for whatever reason. They publish their own book for those towns, and Centel even has its own book for that part of Chicago it serves, entitled 'Chicago- Newscastle' for the central office involved. But all of Centel's listings also show up in the Illinois Bell/Ameritech/DonTech books in routine alphabetical order as well with no mention made they are really Centel numbers. Finally, although Lincolnwood, Harwood Heights, Norridge and unincorporated Norwood Park Township are suburbs and not part of Chicago, for whatever reason (I guess, since they are mostly surrounded by Chicago), their listings appear in the large white pages book for the city itself. There are a couple of independent (non-telco) directory publishers serving this area, and there is even something called the 'Sprint Yellow Pages' which I presume comes from that company. It seems like every few days a new book or books is dropped on our doorstep in a plastic bag. Some of these independent directories are rife with errors; some so obvious even an untrained eye like mine can scan through the pages and find mistakes. Oh yeah -- DonTech also publishes numerous 'crisscross' or cross reference directories for the entire area. I think there are about six or eight volumes of those. PAT] ------------------------------ From: glnfoote@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Glenn Foote) Subject: Re: CallerID and ANI Date: 21 Jan 1995 13:07:55 -0500 Organization: The Greater Columbus Freenet John W. Barrus (barrus@merl.com) wrote: > asked if our number had come through when the customer assistant > answered our phone. He then proceeded to recite our phone number to > me. I did not (and never have) dialed the code to turn on CallerID. > Does this mean that our phone number is being transmitted, even when > the phone company says that it isn't? Or do commercial enterprises > have a different system that always gets our phone number? I assumed > that ANI and CallerID were both blocked with line blocking. > Is there an easy way to test whether or not line blocking is working? > (I don't have any friends with CallerID boxes). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you dial an 800 number then the called > party gets your ID whether you like it or not. There is no way for you to > block this. Regards Caller-ID, it *should* be blocked as you requested > except I think on long distance calls you now need to do the *67 whether > or not you have per-line blocking for local calls. I am not even certain > if you can block CID on interstate long distance any longer after the most > recent FCC rulings. PAT] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Can someone [Pat maybe] shed some light on WHICH rulings you are referring to here ... and why would they remove blocking on interstate long distance calls that are dialed directly? Glenn L Foote ...... glnfoote@freenet.columbus.oh.us [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The FCC said something recently about telcos being required to pass Caller-ID between themselves on an interstate basis beginning this year. I think the caller can still explicitly block his ID if desired with *67, but the caller cannot get careless about this and assume that since it is 'long distance' the other end won't get his ID by default. In other words, no more (or very little) 'out of area' messages. It is not so much that they 'removed blocking' as it is they said ID had to be passed along where interstate calls was concerned. I routinely now get the ID of parties calling me from all over the USA -- even California. There are still some 'out of areas' but they are getting to be fewer and fewer. And it is always worth repeating to the newbies here and others: no matter how many times you press *67 or how big of a tantrum you have on the phone with a telco service rep and her supervisor and the office manager and the president of the telco and the chairman of the board, when you dial an 800 number (or a 500/700 number using a reverse charge pin or you ask for the charges to be reversed to the called party) your number *WILL* be available to the person you are calling. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Alan Shen Subject: Re: Antenna For Cellular Phone in Bangkok Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 10:08:55 -0800 Organization: University of Washington On 17 Jan 1995, Roland Peter Sauermann wrote: [snipped stuff about over-loaded AMPS systesm, dropped calls ...] > Would I do better with a Magnetic mounted antenna on the roof? What would > suit me better a 3db or a 5db one? There seem to be a whole bunch of > options, some cost three times others. One guy told me the material was > different ... some antennas simply have squiggles in them others have a > thick section of a ceramic or hard plastic. I know I need to be sure I > get one for the correct phone system (we have five different types here > from 470mhz, 800, 900 to the new Digital stuff). How do I evaluate these > different antennas that run between $25-$60 and apparently have different > properties? Your best bet is to magnetic mount on the roof, right in the middle so the antenna has a grounding plane. Do not get a 5dB antenna. That's over kill in a metro area. It'll over shoot the towers. Best one's to try out is a 3dB, or a 1/4 wave antenna. Or maybe all you need is the unigain antenna. This setup should help quite a bit. Daniel Kao ------------------------------ From: Alan Shen Subject: Re: Is the Pentium Bug Really That Bugging? Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1995 10:17:41 -0800 Organization: University of Washington On Tue, 17 Jan 1995, Anthony D'Auria wrote: > Question: Does this floating point calculation bug affect system > performance? Is that why some Pentiums bottleneck? What and where > should a person contact to get the messed up chip replaced? Is it > actually worth it? Little off topic, but the bug does not affect system performance. CPU bottlenecks are only caused by how your system was designed (your motherboard). The problem has been solved. Intel will 'swap' chips with you if you have a defective one, OR the NCSA has released a software fix solution for the bug. Daniel Kao ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #57 *****************************