TELECOM Digest Tue, 31 Jan 95 19:46:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 69 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson GEnie Services Offers Free Japan Access Until Further Notice (Finkenstadt) Job Posting: Aspect Telecom, CTI Product Marketing Manager (James McDonald) FAQ'S re: Connectivity Options (routers@halcyon.com) Federal Judge Rules Against FCC - Historical Precedent (Bill Sohl) Clock Slips Again (Martin McCormick) Emergency Cellular Phone (Testmark Laboratories) Ericsson GH337/EH237 Cellular Modem I/F (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) Metro Mobile (CT/RI/MA) Added to the NACN (Doug Reuben) Product to Prevent PBX Phone Fraud (Paul Murray) Electro 95 Electronics Conference, June 21-23, Boston (Paul R. Baudisch) 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, 31 Jan 1995 18:04:16 -0500 From: Andy Finkenstadt Subject: GEnie Services Offers Free Japan Access Until Further Notice January 23, 1995 -- GEnie Services is offering free access to its online service to all current and new GEnie members in Japan to assist in restoring the lives of Kobe and Osaka earthquake victims and establish a communications vehicle both in Japan and around the world. Effective immediately and until further notice, GEnie will waive all usage fees as well as the standard connect fee for all GEnie users in Japan. "The tragedy in Japan has struck all of us. Although too small a token of our desire to help, we hope that free access to the worldwide interconnectivity of the GEnie network and specifically our Japanese roundtable will help concerned citizens around the world keep in contact with affected locals", said Mark Walsh President of GEnie Services. "We hope that life soon returns to normal and wish only that we can help the process." The Japanese roundtable is an online meeting place for users with an interest in Japanese affairs. The forum is accessible to GEnie users around the world. GEnie Services, which became operational in 1985, is one of the leading online information services with subscribers around the world. GEnie had been available in Japan since December 1988. GEnie Services is a part of GE Information Service, Inc., which is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. For more information about GEnie, send electronic mail to info@genie.com, visit the GEnie gopher (gopher to gopher.GEnie.com), the GEnie web (use an URL of "http://www.GEnie.com"). andy@genie.geis.com Andy Finkenstadt, GEnie Sysop, GEnie Postmaster postmaster@genie.com personal account: genie@panix.com Andrew Finkenstadt andy@genie.geis.com Gaithersburg, MD 301-975-9890 ------------------------------ From: james_mcdonald@interramp.com (James McDonald) Subject: Job Posting: Aspect Telecom, CTI Product Marketing Manager Date: 31 Jan 1995 23:45:09 GMT Organization: Aspect Telecommunications, Inc. Reply-To: pball@cctosmtp.west.aspect.com Aspect Telecommunications, the market leader in stand-alone Automated Call Distribution systems, is announcing the following position: Product Marketing Manager, Computer-Telephony Integration, San Jose, CA ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE POSITION (Include special duties and responsibilities) This senior level Product Marketing Manager will: Perform a catalyst role for Aspect's long-term computer-telephony product strategy and direction. Define market forces, opportunity, and metrics, and paint a long-term CTI product vision for Aspect with ROI analysis and business case justification. Define business expansion and market development strategies for Aspect's CTI product line. Develop marketing requirements for CTI products within the framework of the long-term product vision, and define a roll-out plan for delivering the individual products to market. Develop product positioning, packaging and pricing strategies, and champion the product launch process for CTI products. QUALIFICATIONS (Include technical skills, education and experience): BA/BS; MS/MBA a plus. This person must possess strong technical and business analysis skills in order to quickly assess and remain abreast of the state of the CTI industry. This includes synthesis of any promising new technologies, new applications of technology, standards activities, changes in buyer behavior and expectations, strategic vendor positioning or moves, etc. They must also must possess excellent interpersonal skills to quickly gather and distill information, to build relationships with strategic vendors outside of Aspect and with many key people within Aspect, and to evangelize and champion their CTI-related ideas within Aspect. (Minimum requirements.) Seven or more years experience in one or more of the following areas: product marketing, product management, strategic planning, business development, systems integration, and/or international marketing for advanced telecom or data products. (Preferred qualifications.) Knowledge and experience with CTI products and with systems integration in multi-vendor environments. Please send resume to: Phyllis Ball Aspect Telecommunications, Inc. 1730 Fox Dr. San Jose, CA 95131 or by E-mail in ASCII or Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0 format (uuencoded) to: pball@cctosmtp.west.aspect.com ------------------------------ From: routers@halcyon.com Subject: FAQ'S re: Connectivity Options Date: 31 Jan 1995 02:00:45 GMT Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. This posting may be freely distributed to Internet and commercial online sites. Keywords: UTP distance standards, campus networks connectivity, ethernet, wireless, LAN, microwave, repeaters, video 1. QUESTION: What is the maximum bandwidth that 4-wire copper UTP can handle in campus environments? ANSWER: ---E-1 up to 2.5 miles (4 km) 2. QUESTION: What is the longest distance that 4-wire copper UTP can transmit at T-1 band width? ANSWER: ---5 miles (8 km), up to 7 miles (11.2 km) with a repeater 3. QUESTION: Can you transmit data, voice, and video across 4-wire UTP at the same time without cross-talk? ANSWER: ---Yes 4. QUESTION: What is the maximum distance that ethernet at 10 Mbps can be extended? ANSWER: ---1500 ft (495 m), up to 3000 ft (990 m) with repeater 5. QUESTION: Is there a wireless solution that would allow a campus to connect all buildings together, and allow any PC or laptop computer on campus to communicate, even if they move about the campus? ANSWER: ---Yes. One solution allows building -to- building connections up to 6 miles (9.6 km), and allows any PC or laptop to be on line. It operates at 2 Mbps, has SNMP, and requires no FCC licence. 6. QUESTION: Are there any wireless solutions at 10 Mbps for LAN-to-LAN connections? ANSWER: ---Yes. A microwave solution allows LANs to connect up to 5 miles (8 km). This same system has options that will allow voice, data, and video at the same time, in either 4 -T1 slots, or 8 -T1 slots. The 8 -T1 version can handle 192 voice-grade circuits. For further information and product data sheets, please contact Router Solutions (routers@halcyon.com), or check our FTP site: ftp.halcyon.com /pub/local/routers ------------------------------ From: billsohl@earth.planet.net (Bill Sohl Budd Lake) Subject: Federal Judge Rules Against FCC - Historical Precedent Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:33:27 GMT Organization: Planet Access Networks - Stanhope, NJ I offer the following to the telecom newsgroup as it indirectly relates to an entire series of postings related to the allegation that operation/use of radio receivers/scanners that have been modified is illegal. From the post below relating to the problems the FCC is having just enforcing its laws/regulations against actual pirate broadcasting, is there anyone that can even perceive the FCC has any resources to worry about the thousands of people using and/or modifying radio scanners to receive cellular telephone broadcasts? I think not. As before, don't kill the messenger. I point this out to illustrate the practical side of life and the law as opposed to those that suggested illegal activity was going on by modifying radios. Bottom line is ... no one cares, least of all the FCC. Begin post from misc.legal.moderated newsgroup In another newsgroup, Stephen Dunifer (frbspd@crl.com) wrote: Victory for Micro Power Broadcasting - Historical Defeat for the FCC On Friday, January 20 Federal judge Claudia Wilken refused to grant the Federal Communications Commission a preliminary injunction to stop the micro power broadcasts of Stephen Dunifer and Free Radio Berkeley. Stating serious constitutional concerns as her reason, Judge Wilken denied the request, ordered the FCC to exhaust administrative remedies and to rule on Dunifer's appeal of their $20,000 fine before seeking any further court action. This ruling sets a historical precedent: it is the first time the FCC has been denied an injunction to stop the broadcasts of an unlicensed radio station. The Commission will have to address the issue of the constitutionality of their regulations when ruling on Dunifer's appeal. Any further court proceedings are delayed until the FCC acts on the appeal which has languished in Washington for more than a year. In the meantime the government's attempt to enjoin broadcasting by non- licensed micro radio has been put on hold. Luke Hiken, attorney for Stephen Dunifer, stated, "This is the second time a Federal court has recognized the constitutional implications of micro radio technology. We hope the FCC will recognize the importance of facilitating the use of this technology for the benefit of the American people instead of denying its existence and obstructing its use." Speaking on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild Committee on Democratic Communications, Peter Franck commented, "The CDC hopes that the court's refusal to enjoin micro radio is the beginning of a recognition by the country that any hope for democracy depends on free access to the airwaves. Micro power broadcasting has the potential for creating a 'green movement' of low-cost, easy-to-use media. It is as totalitarian to require expensive, hard-to-get licenses for micro radio as it would be to say you can only speak from a soap box if it is made of gold." Stephen Dunifer said, "Judge Claudia Wilken's decision affirms the validity of our legal position. Further, this victory is a credit to four years of work by the National Lawyers Guild Committee on Democratic Communications and my attorney, Luke Hiken, on behalf of the micro power broadcasting movement. Unlike FCC attorney, David Silberman, I do not see irreparable harm resulting from micro power broadcasting. Instead, I see an immeasurable benefit for all citizens if the micro power broadcast movement prevails. For too long, media access and the tools of communication have been concentrated in the hands of corporate and essentially anti-democratic interests. If any harm results, it will be to those monopoly interests." For further information contact: Free Radio Berkeley - (510) 644-3779, (510) 464-3041 or Luke Hiken, attorney at law - (415) 705- 6460. Email: frbspd@crl.com or hiken@igc.apc.org. Send request to frbspd@crl.com for information packet. Legal briefs and documents are available at our ftp site - ftp.crl.com. Directory path is ftp/users/ro/frbspd/legal. -------------------------- Bill Sohl K2UNK (Budd lake, New Jersey) (billsohl@planet.net) ------------------------------ From: Martin McCormick Subject: Clock Slips Again Date: 31 Jan 1995 19:27:51 GMT Organization: Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK I am pretty sure that we have a chronic case of clock slippage somewhere in the interface between our campus' Ericsson MD110 and the Southwestern Bell trunks. I would like to prove it once and for all. It occurred to me that a modem sending a steady carrier such as is used to establish a 300-baud connection would be a perfect signal generator. It could be placed on a line off-campus and then called from on-campus. An oscilloscope placed on an analog campus line should show clock slips as sudden phase shifts in the carrier. Is this a valid test? If so, we could show the phase shifts through such a line and then demonstrate that no such problems occur on campus or between two Southwestern Bell lines. Any suggestions are appreciated since the feeling is that there is really nothing wrong because the lines all sound clean and voice calls don't get dropped. With a 2025hz tone, a clock slip should advance or retard the carrier 90 degrees which should truly destroy the phase component of a data transmission. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK OSU Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Jan 95 18:00 EST From: Testmark Laboratories <0006718446@mcimail.com> Subject: Emergency Cellular Phone I once heard of a cellular phone that was intended primarily for emergency use, something to carry in a car for instance. One could purchase it, have it authorized, and pay no monthly fee. If one used it, they paid a fairly high per minute airtime that was automatically charged to a major credit card. Does anyone know of a product like this? John Combs, Project Engineer, TestMark Labs, testmark@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: 100020.1013@compuserve.com (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) Subject: Ericsson GH337/EH237 Cellular Modem I/F Date: 31 Jan 1995 14:56:13 -0600 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway I am looking for information on availability of cellular modem I/F for the Ericsson GSM GH337 model, and for the European TACS version EH237. For both models the modem I/Fs are not apparently on sale (yet) on the Italian market. An Italian reseller also told me that in it is not possible (yet?) to operate any modem/data communication over the Italian GSM network; I made some experiment myself sending a modem signal over the voice channel, but had no success, apparently for the losses induced by the quantization/compression on GSM. I would be most interested in knowing your experiences -- good or bad -- with the use of the GSM version of this phone, for both voice and data (?). Please cc by e-mail to : 100020.1013@compuserve.com, since I do not get a regular news-feed. Thanks, Alfredo Cotroneo Milano, Italy ------------------------------ úÿ From: dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) Subject: Metro Mobile (CT/RI/MA) Added to the NACN Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 13:23:46 EST After years of holding out, Metro Mobile CT/RI/Western and Southeastern Mass (collectively known as Bell Atlantic's Northeast service area) has been added to the NACN. The NACN, or North American Cellular Network, is the A-side's automatic call delivery service, initiated by McCaw Cellular and some of it's roaming partners, to provide increasingly seamless coverage throughout the US and Canada. Prior to Metro Mobile's addition to the NACN, Metro Mobile CT and Western Mass customers had the use of most of their features as well as call-delivery to Cell One/NY, ComCast/NJ-PA-DE, Metro Mobile/RI-SE Mass, Cell One/Boston, and CO/Boston's Concord, NH "partnership" service with Atlantic Cellular. So the addition of the NACN won't make too much of a difference in terms of added coverage near Metro Mobile's territory. Moreover, Metro Mobile, unlike CO/NY, will assess a roam charge for most (all) markets outside of it's properties, Boston, and NY. Additionally, the link between NY and CT (and everywhere else) seems to lack the functionality of a typical NACN link. I've noticed that ALL features normally available to a customer on his/her home system are also available on a visited system (although some switches won't allow this.) Thus, Cell One/Boston customers can *successfully* set up and remove voicemail from most NACN systems, as well as get call-waiting, yet on Metro Mobile's switches, the same Boston customer will find that none of these features will work. Additionally, Metro Mobile customers roaming in NY can not, for example, forward calls to voicemail, selectively unforward unconditional forward calls (by using *723), etc., even though these same features are currently available to Boston customers roaming in NY, and even though both Boston and CT use the same type of switches (Motorola EMX-2500). I've asked CO/NY for years to put in the *723 code so I could use forwarding in NY without killing voicemail, but they were never able to implement it, so it seems as if the same old link to CT is still in place, but somehow Metro Mobile is now "on" the NACN in some limited way. (If they were "fully" connected, I'd expect to be able to use my features in NY or SF or wherever to the same extent that I can use my Boston them from my Boston account.) Additionally, the standard NACN Do Not Disturb codes (*350/*35) will NOT work in NY, instead, the older Motorola codes (*28/*29) are required. In any event, this finally allows most roamers to get automatic call delivery in the Rhode Island system, which has been slow to get any connectivity outside of Boston and CT in recent years. Any NACN customer should now be able to receive calls in RI, use (some) features, etc. RI customers should now be able to receive calls in NY, although they will pay a $3 daily and $.99 per minute. If you are a RI customer, and roam into NY a good deal, get Boston account, which offers no daily roam charge, and 44 peak/29 off-peak. You still have to pay Boston's outrageous home airtime for call-delivery though. Maybe just get a NYNEX account instead and be done with all these silly charges from Metro Mobile and Cell One/Boston, both of whom seem to want to nickel and dime their customers as much as possible. (I still can't see how Boston customers put up with home airtime charges, plus roaming charges, plus a daily roam charge, plus a $2 Boston charge, just to receive phone calls! :( ) Note that Metro Mobile's addition and lack of some features does NOT affect Litchfield, CT, which has been on the NACN since October 1994 (or earlier), and seems to be run through CO/NY's switches. (They are both McCaw owned and have the same messages on their switch/error announcements.) Doug Reuben dreuben@interpage.net (203) 499 - 5221 Interpage Network Services -- E-Mail/Telnet to Alpha or Numeric Pagers & Fax ------------------------------ From: ai093@freenet.carleton.ca (Paul Murray) Subject: Product to Prevent PBX Phone Fraud Reply-To: ai093@freenet.carleton.ca (Paul Murray) Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 12:26:29 GMT Pat, A short while ago, I posted an item enquiring about phone fraud, extent of the problem, etc. You asked for details, in your editorial message following my posting. As I am an agent of the company which owns the technology, I wanted to get their OK before releasing information. They have given that OK. Here is a brief summary: (note that I'm a layman and not a techie) The Call Control System CCS is a controlled access gateway which provides an additional layer of security to the fraud vulnerable components of a PBX system. By validating the call origin using the Calling Line ID (CLID) and an authorization code, the CCS limits access to the DISA ports, maintain- enance ports and voice mail systems of a PBX. The CCS is a combination of Canadian software and hardware. There are three components to the system: Call Control Manager (CCM) software; System Administration Manager (SAM) software; and Call Control Interface hardware. The intial application was developed for a long distance reseller. To date this application has not had any unauthorized access. The traffic runs over 15 million calls per month. The company that developed the system is now offering the technology to the general narketplace. Acquistion cost to users will run in the $20,000 range for the system. This is the general concept. If you would like to know more, I would be pleased to follow up. We think this product will have appeal in the US market (and anywhwere else that phone fraud is a problem) and would be pleased to have your feedback, etc ... Look forward to hearing from you (question from a nephyte Internet user - do you "hear" from someone using this medium??) Best regards, Paul Murray Targeted Communication Management, Ottawa Canada ------------------------------ From: Paul R. Baudisch Subject: Electro 95 Electronics Conference, June 21-23, Boston Date: 31 Jan 1995 22:18:32 GMT Organization: The Internet Access Company Electro '95 is a major electronics conference and exposition to be held in Boston, June 21 - 23, 1995. The show, sponsored by the IEEE in alliance with the IPC (Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits), will highlight important trends in surface mount technology and contract manufacturing. Over 8,000 attendees are expected. Marjorie Clapprood, a popular Boston talk show hostess and 1990 candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, will deliver the keynote address on June 21. She will speak about the business climate in the Northeast and its impact on the electronics industry. For more information, please visit our web site at: http://www.netmarquee.com/electro/electro.html or contact Kathryn Piersall at kpiersall@mfi.com. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #69 *****************************