TELECOM Digest Wed, 25 Jan 95 21:54:30 CST Volume 15 : Issue 64 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Service Outage ND and MN (Kevin Bluml) Telebit Introduces Two V.34 Modems (Eileen Lin) UC Berkeley Short Courses on Communication (Harvey Stern) AT&T LD Carrier CID Question (Terrence McArdle) Cellular Provider in Israel (Isaiah W. Cox) RS449 - Help Please! (Vadim P. Kikin) WAN Employment Opportunities (Bobby Lowe) Alpha Paging via PC (Kevin Kadow) GSM SIM Simulator Suppliers Wanted (Gurj Bahia) Re: Old Phone Number Format (Wes Leatherock) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Jan 95 10:40:33 CST From: kevin@carina.cray.com (Kevin Bluml) Subject: Service Outage ND and MN Phone service to Moorhead, Minnesota and portions of Fargo, North Dakota is still out after someone cut at least five different major cables in the Fargo area over the weekend. Most of the service lost is in Minnesota even though the cuts were in North Dakota. Some cables were above ground, others were in manholes. Most were cut in several places so simple splicing is not possible. Some of the cables were up to five inches in diameter. Full service has been restored as of Tuesday night to the Fargo area, with only 911 service and long distance service restored to Moorhead, full service is expected to be restored by Saturday. Emergency services had cellular service available and instructed people needing assistance to go to the local fire stations or police stations to seek help. I have not heard of any emergencies that were worsened due to this, but many areas in northwestern MN had no dial tone for several days. I believe as many as 500,000 people were impacted by this at one time or another. The police and FBI are looking for a suspect in a burglary of a stereo store from Saturday night where the alarm wires where also cut. Initial suspicions were that it was someone with knowledge of the system due to the way things were damaged, however the current burglary suspect is not a past telco employee according to current reports. From: Kevin V. Bluml - Cray Research Inc. 612-683-3036 USmail - 655 - Lone Oak Drive, Eagan, MN 55121 Internet - kevin.bluml@cray.com UUCP - uunet!cray!kevin ------------------------------ From: eileen@telebit.com (Eileen Lin) Subject: Telebit Introduces Two V.34 Modems Organization: Telebit Corporation; Sunnyvale, CA, USA Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 15:41:08 GMT Contact: Direct Marketing Dept., Telebit Corp. Tel: 408/734-4333 or 800/835-3248 Fax: 408/734-3333 Internet: sales@telebit.com TELEBIT INTRODUCES TWO V.34 MODEMS SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 16, 1995 -- Telebit Corporation, a leader in the on-demand remote access industry, today announced that its FastBlazer 8840 modems now support the ITU-T V.34 standard. The FastBlazer(R) 8840 is designed for environments where large central site modem requirements include reliability, comprehensive network management, high speed and global homologation. In addition, today the company introduced the TeleBlazer, a V.34 modem designed for remote users dialing into LANs who want to take advantage of increased speeds. Product Features: Features of the FastBlazer 8840 include: - Speeds of up to 28.8 Kbps uncompressed and up to 115.2 Kbps with compression - Support for V.34, V.32terbo and eight other ITU-T and Bell standards - Flash memory for simple upgrades - Simple on-site configuration, control and monitoring via an 18- button front panel keypad and LCD display - Extensive command set and configuration parameters - Automatic single-call dial restoral of leased lines - Full configuration, control, testing and monitoring of FastBlazer rackmount modems via Telebit's ViewBlazer (R) network management system - Full compatibility with Telebit's NetBlazer(R) family of dial-up routers - Available in standalone and rackmount versions - Conformity to worldwide regulatory requirements - Extensive global homologation plans TeleBlazer features include: - Speeds of up to 28.8 Kbps uncompressed and up to 115.2 Kbps with compression - Support for V.34, V.FC and eight other ITU-T and Bell standards - Support for 14.4 Kbps fax transmissions - V.42bis and MNP 5 data compression - Full compatibility with Telebit's NetBlazer(R) family of on- demand routers - MNP 10 with `Adverse Channel Enhancement' for reliable cellular communications Price and availability The FastBlazer 8840 Standalone and FastBlazer 8840 Rackmount are available at the end of January 1995 and have a list price of $1,199 (U.S.). Telebit's TeleBlazer is also available at the end of January 1995 and has a list price of $399 (U.S.). V.34 support can be added to the FastBlazer through a free software upgrade that is available through Telebit's Customer Service bulletin board. The telephone number for the Chelmsford, MA bulletin board is 508-656-9103; to contact the Sunnyvale, CA bulletin board, phone 408-745-3707 or 408-745-3861. Telebit Corporation designs, manufactures and markets a family of remote network access products to enable cost-effective extension of LANs to remote users. The company has offices in the United States and Europe and markets its products and services worldwide through value-added resellers, wholesale distributors and OEMs. Telebit is traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol TBIT. Telebit, FastBlazer, ViewBlazer and NetBlazer are registered trademarks of Telebit Corporation. ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Courses on Communication Date: 25 Jan 1995 18:20:13 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces 3 Short Courses on Broadband Communications, Wireless Networks MODERN TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Wide Area Networks, Personal Communication Systems, Network Management and Control, and Multimedia Applications (March 2-3, 1995) This course is designed as a gentle but comprehensive overview of telecommunications including current status and future directions. This course traces the evolution of telecommunications, starting from its voice roots and progressing through local, metropolitan, and wide area networks, narrowband ISDN, asynchronous transfer mode, broadband ISDN, satellite systems, optical communications, cellular radio, personal communication systems, all-optical networks, and multimedia services. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (March 29-31, 1995) It is widely accepted that future broadband networks will be based on the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards and the ATM (Asynchronous transfer Mode) technique. This course is an in-depth examination of the fundamental concepts and the implementation issues for development of future high-speed networks. Topics include: Broadband ISDN Transfer Protocol, high speed computer/network interface (HiPPI), ATM switch architectures, ATM network congestion/flow control, VLSI designs in SONET/ATM networks. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: H. Jonathan Chao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brooklyn Polytechnic University. Dr. Chao holds more than a dozen patents and has authored over 40 technical publications in the areas of ATM switches, high-speed computer communications, and congestion/flow control in ATM networks. NETWORKS FOR DIGITAL WIRELESS ACCESS: Cellular, Voice, Data, Packet, and Personal Communication Systems (March 6-8, 1995) This comprehensive course is focused on the principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, and market forces driving wireless access. At the core of this course are the cellular/microcellular/ frequency reuse concepts needed to enable adequate wireless access capacity for Personal Communication Services (PCS). Presented are both the physical-level issues associated with wireless access and the network-level issues arising from the inherent mobility of the subscriber. Standards are fully treated including GSM (TDMA), IS-54 (North American TDMA), IS-95 (CDMA), CT2, DCT 900/CT3, IEEE 802.11, DCS 1800, and Iridium. Emerging concepts for wireless ATM are also developed. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. For more information (complete course descriptions, outlines, instructor bios, etc.) send your postal address or fax to: Harvey Stern or Loretta Lindley U.C. Berkeley Extension/Southbay 800 El Camino Real Ste. 150 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel: (415) 323-8141 Fax: (415) 323-1438 ------------------------------ From: mcardle@paccm.pitt.edu (Terrence McArdle) Subject: AT&T LD Carrier CID Question Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 14:09:27 -0500 Organization: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center I have seen articles indicating the LD carriers WilTel and US West (at least in Phoenix area) forward CID information interstate. Does anyone know if the major LD carriers, notably AT&T, Sprint, & MCI, foward CID information interstate? As secondary questions, (1) can anyone tell me if the areas of Louisville, KY and Cincinatti, OH can send the CID information and (2) whether Pennsylvania (that CID-fearful state) will accept the information? The Bell Atlantic person told me that PA switches suppress CID information on INTER-LATA calls, but my understanding is that this is only an outgoing suppression, not an incoming supression. Specifically, I'm interested in pinning down why I get an out-of-area message on calls from Louisville, KY to my number in Pgh, PA. They use MCI, I use AT&T. Thanks for the info/experiences, Terry McArdle email mcardle@paccm.pitt.edu Mgr, Information Systems work (412) 648 9218 Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care University of Pittsburgh Medical Center ------------------------------ From: Isaiah@borealis.com (Isaiah W. Cox) Subject: Cellular Provider in Israel Date: 25 Jan 1995 22:30:33 GMT Organization: The Direct Connection (Call London, 0181 317 2222 for demo) Bezek has a cellular competitor -- they are like $0.03/minute in Israel, which beats the pants off of Bezek. I know these phones are selling well -- but I have been unable to find people selling them! I know that the venture is jointly done by Southwestern and Cellcom (not the one is Wisconsin). So if I could get an e-mail address for Southwestern Bell, I could track this down. If anyone could help, it would be most appreciated. Thanks, Isaiah [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sometimes it is simply easier to call on the phone than it is to look all over for an email address. Have you considered calling their offices in St. Louis, finding out where their cellular headquarters is located, then calling there? PAT] ------------------------------ Organization: UGTU-UPI From: Vadim P. Kikin Date: Wed, 25 Jan 95 18:18:24 +0300 Subject: RS449 - Help Please! Hi friends, I want to connect my hardware to a sort of cisco router. They say I have to match my output connector with RS449 interface. I couldn't find any hints what RS449 is. People who own the router cannot help me.Can anybody give me advise were to look for schematic of connections with RS449 and its signals description? Every help will be appreciated: hints on Internet locations of docs, titles of printed books or articles etc. Thanks in advance. Regards, Vadim Kikin Department of Transmitting devices Ural State Technical University Ekaterinburg, 620002 Russia Email: vad@rpu.rcupi.e-burg.su ------------------------------ From: lowekawk@onramp.net (B. LOWE) Subject: WAN Employment Opportunities Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 19:43:24 +0000 Organization: emjay Network Application Engineer - Integration of Network Application in WAN Network Design Engineer - Design a Cell Swithching Backbone Network Network System Engineer - Integration of WAN systems tools Satellite/Wireless Engineer - Design and Integration ( x.25, Frame Relay, TCP/IP) DEGREE REQUIRED, Masters Degree preferred THE OPPURTUNITY!: Major Partnership to build a Worldwide Network Service Company to provide Frame Relay, x.25 and Cell Backbone Network Services. This network will reach over 100 úÿ countries and will utilize state of the art technology. Great growth potential for the company as well as the individual employees. Call BOBBY @ (713)529-5000 or FAX(713)529-0141 OR lowekwak@onramp.net ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Jan 95 21:00 CST From: kadokev@rci.ripco.com (Kevin Kadow) Subject: Alpha Paging via PC Organization: Ripco Internet BBS, Chicago [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The original message shown below did not appear in this Digest. PAT] In article <3fsmd0$2ajo@usenetp1.news.prodigy.com>, Robert Babcock v wrote: > I have a Motorola advisor pager, it is an alpha/numeric pager is > there any way to send a message to my pager via a pc? A friend who > used to work for a local messenger service said that it is possible. > He said that he would type a phone number for the local transmitting > tower and type in the message and that would send the text to the > pager. Well if anybody has got any info on this please let me know. You need the modem number for the paging company; usually it connects at 300 or 1200 baud. At least for the system I use the pager ID is the same as the phone number for the pager. A MS-DOS program for paging is available from ftp.ripco.com: /pub/msdos/comm/acspg31.zip [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A new service started here on the net is also worth exploring. Send email to info@internet.net. Or perhaps Doug Reuben will see this message and reply directly to the writer. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gurj Bahia Subject: GSM SIM Simulator Suppliers Wanted Date: 25 Jan 1995 16:30:14 GMT Organization: Fujistu Systems Europe Ltd Anyone know if there are any other GSM SIM Simulator providers apart from GemPlus and Orga ? Please email me at the address below. Thanks, Gurj Bahia email: gurj@fujitsu.co.uk smail: Mobile Radio Division, Fujitsu Europe G S M Telecom R & D Centre Ltd.2 Longwalk Rd, Global Stockley Park, Middx, UB11 1AB, U.K. System for phone: 0181-6064523 (natl) Mobile com. +44-181-6064523 (intl) ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Wed, 25 Jan 95 15:47:25 Subject: Re: Old Phone Number Format Question Quoting Andrew C. Green > The following question appeared recently in the Old Time Radio > Digest mailing list, and seems tailor-made for an answer from this > forum. > From: "Richard M. Weil" > The number for the store in Rockford was curiously 8-22-47. I'm > too young to know anything about 5 digit phone numbers. Is that > how it was back then in small cities? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > It was in fact a Philco (for anyone interested, that was our > friends at Phillips) [ ... } I must respectfully disagree with Pat on this. Philco was a big U.S.A. appliance company not connected, at least at that time, with the Netherlands electronic giant N.V. Philips (not Phillips). "Philco" was formed from the company's original corporate name, the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, and was one of the biggest manufacturers of radios in the 1930s and probably earlier. Perhaps they got into radios as allied to their battery business, since radios, at least home radio receiver, originally were all battery operated. It is my recollection that they became a major player in the television business because in the 1930s they acquired the rights to the patents of Philo T. Farnsworth, who had invented a television system entirely compatible with, but not the same as, the system invented by Vladimir Zworkin, the RCA genius. Farnsworth invented his system at age 16 and was granted the key patent at age 22. Some commentators have suggested he has largely been dropped out of the history of television because the idea that this callow youth could have developed a system that worked as well as the system developed by great corporate laboratories staffed with multiple Ph.D.'s is inconsistent with the supposed value of extensive higher education and big R&D expenditures, and the big embarrassment this caused RCA. Philco, I believe, was the only manufacturer that didn't have to pay licensing fees to RCA, although I think they later reached a cross-licensing agreement with RCA. Philips, the Netherlands company, was not very well known in the United States before World War II. During World War II, after the Netherlands was occupied by Germany, their American operation became separate under the name North American Philips Company, which used the trade name Norelco. But Pat's description of the early television sets and how they developed is right on the mark. > Five digit numbers were common in communities which had automatic > dialing systems in those days but only one exchange in the > community. Since the exchange name was always the same, it was > assumed when dialing. In your example you parsed the number > incorrectly. It was 8-2247, or to be complete about it, > ROckford-8-2247. I couldn't speak to the situation in Rockford, but I'm very familiar with Oklahoma City, which had five-digit numbers for many years, starting in 1920 when the "Northwest" office was put into service as the first dial operation in the city (and the first central office outside the downtown area). The downtown office was all manual, with exchanges Maple and Walnut (not MAple and WAlnut; they were manual exchanges and you spoke their names to the operator). The manual numbers were the exchange name plus one, two, three or four digits: Maple 5, or Walnut 4434. Maple 5, for example, was not Maple 0005; it wouldn't have had any meaning in a manual exchange. The "Northwest" office (it's really part of the inner city now) had five-digit numbers starting with 4, such as 4-1468. But there was no name associated with that; there was no toll dialing and it was just 4-1468 in Oklahoma City; not Oklahoma City 4-1468. The downtown office was cut over to dial in 1928, using the prefixes 2 and 3. Tulsa had a different history, and right up until the days of 2L-5N numbering (seven digits expressed as two letters and five numerals) in the 1950s or 1960s, had four, five and six digits numbers. In a small town I lived in (Konawa, Oklahoma, one of the first CDOs in Oklahoma) the numbers were three and four digit. My home number was 287; office 234. Four digit numbers there were party lines; the central office was terminal per line and the fourth digit selected the type of ringing. It's true that Bell companies usually recommended printing five digit numbers as "8-2247," as Pat said, and six digit numbers as "54-1468." But it was variable; Dallas and Houston expressed their numbers as, for example, Riverside-4085, which was dialed as R-4085. But not too many telephones outside the largest metropolitan areas had letters on the dial in those days. And independent companies often recommended displaying numbers in different ways, such as 8-22-47, or 82-247. "All Number Calling" (ANC) (seven numerals) came after the 2L-5N (two letter and five number) arrangement, usually in the 1960s or thereabouts. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wes.leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #64 *****************************