TELECOM Digest Tue, 31 Jan 95 22:11:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 70 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NYNEX Offers Unlimited Weekends (Stan Schwartz) Cellphone Car Antennas - Passive Repeaters Any Good? (Charles Beatty) SONET Telephony Engineer Needed ASAP (imi@bilbo.pic.net) Billing Data Formats LD Carriers <-> RBOCs (Antony Upward) Help Wanted With Nokia 6050 GSM Car Phone (Jurgen Morhofer) For Sale: Motorola Codex 6525 (Benoit Maneckjee) AT&T 500 Number Problems (Matthew Spaethe) AudioText Applications (Richard Cayne) Another Look at the 'Old Days' (Dale Neiburg) Test Line Directory (Steve Coleman) Re: Cellular in Israel (Steve Samler) What to Look For in Choosing an LD Carrier? (Steve Chinatti) Strange Stuff (Stan Schwartz) Looking For High-Speed Wireless Tech (Roger Bergstrom) Looking For Chip Modem V22 (perretc@eiga.unige.ch) Using a Laptop Modem With ATT Public Phones (Thomas Hinders) Planning to Start a Pager Network (Thu Ra Tin) Pac-Tel New Standard Plus Phones (Dan Srebnick) Re: Radio Station Transmission Lines (Alan Sterger) Re: Bell Atlantic ISDN, Part II (Dan Brown) Last Laugh! Career Opportunities With the RBOCs (David McCord) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 17:37:51 EST From: Stan Schwartz Subject: NYNEX Offers Unlimited Weekends As per the ad in today's {Long Island Newsday}, this is NYNEX Cellular's current New York area promotion: One Year Contract: $29.99/month 30 minutes included (peak or off-peak) .69 peak/.45 off-peak beyond 30 minutes HERE'S THE KICKER: Free weekend calls through July. (home region) Not only is NYNEX the first in the NY Metro area to offer the unlimited weekend plans that the rest of the country offers, but their rates are lower than Cell One and their off-peak band begins at 8pm, rather than 9pm. Once again, I am forced to re-think my cellular choice! Stan ------------------------------ From: beatty@access3.digex.net (Charles Beatty) Subject: Cellphone Car Antennas - Passive Repeaters Any Good? Date: 31 Jan 1995 23:03:55 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA I am considering buying one of those passive repeater antennas for my car to get my portable cellphone signal out of the vehicle. You know the type, a piece inside the glass with a small horizontal antenna, no wires, about $60 from Hello Direct. Are these things any good. I use the phone in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Any comments? ------------------------------ From: imi@bilbo.pic.net (imi) Subject: SONET Telephony Engineer Needed ASAP Date: 31 Jan 1995 03:28:29 GMT Organization: imi Major project in Dallas, TX needs High Level SONET Engineer to conduct JAD sessions, Analysis and Design to assist Major LDS company. Phase I starting in Feb. - please contact us ASAP. IMI Systems, Inc. 800-828-0180 Press #3 for Dallas Office Press #113 for info pertaining to opportunities ... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 17:36:34 -0500 From: upward@hookup.net (Antony Upward) Subject: Billing Data Formats LD Carriers <-> RBOCs Organization: KPMG Management Consulting I am looking to understand how LD carriers pass billing data to RBOCs for inclusion on subscribers local statements. I believe there is a standard data interchange protocol between LD carriers and RBOCs for this data. Can anyone supply details of this protocol. Many thanks, Antony Upward = Voice: +1 416 691 1560 = Internet: upward@hookup.net Fax: +1 416 691 3694 = 24 Devon Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 2J8 KPMG Management Consulting, Business Systems and Technology Suite 3300, Commerce Court West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5L 1B2 Voice: +1 416 777 8791 = X.400: /C=CA/S=UPWARD/G=ANTONY/P=KPMG/A=MARK400 ------------------------------ Reply-To: morhofer@heavyfun.com Date: Tue, Jan 31 1995 12:50:36 GMT From: Jurgen.Morhofer.morhofer@heavyfun.com Subject: Help Wanted With Nokia 6050 GSM Car Phone Recently I bought a Nokia 6050 GSM car phone with built-in hands-free-kit and I experienced some trouble with my antenna. Before switching to GSM I had a NEC P3 (ETACS version; the same system that is used in UK and Austria too) with a Hands-Free-Kit and external antenna. During installation of the new Nokia phone I connected the existing antenna, that always had worked fine with my NEC P3, to it. When making phone calls everything works fine if I use the handset but in case of using the hands-free option the called or calling party on the other side hears some very loud interference-like sounds mixed together with my voice. First I thought that the hands-free section of my phone would be defect but then by case I tried to turn off my antenna leaving the antenna cable connected to my phone and surprise, surprise, everything was perfect. I called Nokia Customer service but their representitive did not understand very much about GSM phones as they are still not very popular here in Italy. For now I attached a small FM-antenna to cover the ugly knob that comes out of my trunk, but I'm afraid to burn my amplifier (8W) without a proper antenna. Who has any idea of what happened and what I should do? Please e-mail to morhofer@heavyfun.com. Thanks in advance, Jurgen ------------------------------ From: bmaneckj@random.ucs.mun.ca (Benoit Maneckjee) Subject: For Sale: Motorola Codex 6525 Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:33:16 GMT Organization: NLnet Spare Unit, Never Used. Originally purchased from Motorola Canada in 1992. SPECIFICATIONS: Modulus 18 Slot Enclosure with 1 Power Supply 6525 CPU Card (Switch) with 2 80K WAN Ports, 4 high speed ports Network Port Card w/ 6 high speed ports PAD port card with 6 19.2K ports V 2.10 SW dor 6525 6500 SN?SDLC Firmware (applies to all high speed ports) Complete with all documentation & original invoices Frame relay ready with firmware upgrade Willing to part with entire unit or spare parts. Am willing to trade for a router or Unix Workstation. Originally paid CDN $17,000 wholesale from Motorola; will part with it for much less - need cash. Please EMAIL serious enquires only to: bmaneckj@random.ucs.mun.ca Benoit Maneckjee President, SiNET Corporation ------------------------------ From: mspaethe@umr.edu (Matthew Spaethe) Subject: AT&T 500 Number Problems Date: 31 Jan 1995 23:50:10 GMT Organization: UMR My 500 number isn't scheduled to be ready until Feb 3, but I've been trying it pretty much everyday. Well, AT&T completed the call today (the local switch has been accepting 1-500-367-XXXX for sometime) and the only billing option was calling card. Well, I tried that, and someone other than me answered the phone. I have no idea who it was, but I guess I'll have the number when I receive my calling card bill! Matt :) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, you have gotten a lot further with it than I have here. My 500 number was supposed to be turned on yesterday, January 30. Still no go as of Tuesday evening, January 31. The AT&T rep suggested calling the Illinois Commerce Commission and asking them to ask Ameritech to unblock 500. A call to the ICC got me the response that 'so far as they knew' (the ICC), there was nothing yet tariffed for 500 here. AT&T said try using it via 800-225-5288 (CALL-ATT), but guess what? That didn't work either. Since my long distance service is defaulted to AT&T I tried double zero, and ask the operator to get it for me. After asking someone what to do, she tried dialing it and it went nowhere. She said it was 'blocked' in her computer and would not 'leave'. I am sure the AT&T billing department is more effecient and that I will be billed for this month anyway, just as I was for last month. :( PAT] ------------------------------ From: r_cayne@pavo.concordia.ca (Richard Cayne) Subject: AudioText Applications Date: 31 Jan 1995 09:23 -0500 Organization: Concordia University Please send details on audiotext applications currently in use by retailers to better serve their clients. Am interested in contacting these organizations to explore how effective are their systems. Regards, Richard email address: r_cayne@pavo.concordia.ca Tel: (514) 488 7110 Fax: (514) 488 1629 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 13:12:34 EST From: DNEIBURG@npr.org Subject: Another Look at the 'Old Days' In TELECOM Digest, v15/58, the Moderator wrote: > When I was in high school, 1956-60, the school gave us the 'option' > of using ball-point pens instead of fountain pens, although the latter > were preferred. In my high school days (1959-63), ball-point pens were also allowed, fountain pens preferred. Curiously, during my later university years I first encountered some classes where fountain pens were required for exams. > large city where television stations could be received. A few people > had television sets as early as 1946-47. Our family got one in 1949; > it had a two or three inch screen that was totally round with a very > large magnifying glass attachment which hooked on the front of it. It Our first set was a '46 model, as I recall. It was an RCA with a screen about eight inches diagonal, in a cabinet about three feet long, a foot and a half deep, and about the same height. If memory serves, it weighed about 100 pounds -- but by the standard of the time, RCA called it a "portable". It was one of very few sets I've ever seen with channel 1 on the tuner. That channel space (44-50 MHz) was originally intended for low-power stations to serve smaller towns, but was quickly taken away for FM broadcasting, which was then moved to 88-108 MHz. > 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 When we moved to a new house in Washington, DC, in 1953, we still had a six-digit number (actually 2 letters/4 digits: KEllogg 1528), but very soon after it received an extra digit and became KE7-1528. Ten years later, my parents retired and moved to a little town in the western "corner" of South Carolina. They had a modern seven-digit number (646-nnnn, previously released as MIlton 6-nnnn: I have no idea who "Milton" was), but since the entire town was on the same exchange, only four digits needed to be dialed to reach anyone else in town. I don't believe seven-digit local dialing became mandatory until about 1970. Dale Neiburg, STC National Public Radio Phone: 202-414-2640 635 Massachusetts Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001 Internet: dneiburg@npr.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Channel 1 was gone from television sets by around 1949-50 I guess. There is a national organization which provides educational (but some say infomercial) television to school students on closed circuit called 'Channel One'; you may have heard of them. I have a General Electric portable color television which still goes up all the way to Channel 83; so you can guess how old it is. Most folks are unaware there is a HUGE gap in the frequency spectrum for television between Channels 6 and 7. Where Channel 6 ends at about 88 megs, Channel 7 does not start until about 175 megs, way up in VHF. About thirty years ago when FM radios were still sort of new (they had been around for twenty years, but not for over fifty years like now) a religious station called WYCA went on the air in Hammond, Indiana, around 88-90 megs someplace. We have discussed *them* here in the past, a few years ago when thier station was the cause of many complaints to the FCC. In those days, around 1962-63 they had the nerve to tell people, 'if you do not have an FM receiver, you can still listen to the Word of God daily on this station by putting your television set on Channel 6 then moving the fine tuning dial until you hear our signal.' How's that for brass? By the way, 'Milton' was Milton Berle, one of the first people to appear on your 1946 television set. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevecoleman@delphi.com (Steve Coleman) Subject: Test Line Directory Date: 31 Jan 1995 20:39:21 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation Does anybody know of an FTP site where a list of test lines can obtained? I am looking specfically for 102 type test lines by NPA-NXX. I know that Pacbell and GTE in Southern California use NPA-NXX-0002 as a standard for the 102 test. In Northern California Pacbell uses NPA-NXX-0020 for the most part. USWest also uses the NPA-NXX-0020 format in most parts of Oregon and Washington. If anybody knows a standard format for other regions, I would also appreciate that information if the test line directory is not available. Thanks in advance, Steve Coleman stevecoleman@delphi.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 14:44:59 EST From: Steve Samler Subject: Re: Cellular in Israel úÿ Celcomm is in NYC; their fax is 212 752 1157. The international division of SWBell is in the UK. I have a phone number 44 483 751 756. By the way, SWBell has most of their headquarters in San Antonio now. Most everybody who was in St. Louis is now there. ------------------------------ From: chinatti@SRTC.COM (Steve Chinatti) Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 10:43:24 -0500 Subject: What to Look For in Choosing an LD Carrier? Well, I've been following this and some of the other related newsgroups for a while, and I've finally decided to try to pick a good LD carrier to cut down on my LD bills. I use about $60+/mo. in LD for one residential line, so I don't expect any earth shattering savings, but I figure that I shouldn't pay any more than I have to. I know from reading articles here that I can do much better than the big three, and I realize that I'll have to do a little leg work for this. The big problem is that I'm not sure exactly what I should be looking for, specifically what questions to ask and what pitfalls I should look out for. I've heard of LD resellers, six second increment billing; are there any other important issues? Should I be concerned with who the resellers are reselling from? Is there a good starting point for finding LD carriers that don't advertise much (my Yellow Pages lists only two companies in the Long Distance heading)? How about LD calls not carried by my LD carrier (i.e. in my area code, covered by Bell Atlantic)? Is there anything that I'm not asking that I should be? Also, I'll be adding a cellular phone soon, and is there any way that I can get a better rate by virtue of having two accounts with an LD carrier? Thanks in advance for any information that anyone can provide. Steve Chinatti [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would refer your questions to that genius Marilyn Von Savant -- the smartest person in the world with an extremely high IQ whose column appears each week in {Parade Magazine} -- but the last time someone asked her the same question you are asking here, namely which long distance company to pick, she admitted that even she was unable to answer that one. Put the names of several carriers in a hat. Close your eyes, reach in and pick one. Live with it for a few months, then try one of the others. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stans@panix.com (Stan Schwartz) Subject: Strange Stuff Date: 31 Jan 1995 14:58:31 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC I was driving home last night and saw this sign on a bar: "Tonight: Live music with 'Star 69'" I wonder if any other CLASS service has its own band. Stan ------------------------------ From: roger.bergstrom@lkab.se Subject: Looking For High-Speed Wireless Tech Date: Tue, 31 Jan 95 16:02:29 PDT Organization: Unisource Business Networks Sweden AB LKAB, a northern Swedish mining company, is planning to use remotely operated loaders in the production levels of the underground iron mine in Kiruna. The loaders will be fully automated and operated and monitored by operators above ground. Each loader will be equipped with up to 4 CCD-cameras. For the moment we are investigating the possibilities to transfer data from and to the remote machines. Since the loaders are mobile we've considered some kind of some broad-band wire-less technology (spread-spectrum). The data transfer is divided into three categories, the transfer of digitalized video signals the transfer of status information from the loader and the transfer of steering information from the operator to the loader. Anybody out there heard of: - the possibility for high-speed wireless transmission of data and video? - any suppliers of such a system? - any similar works or studies? - conferenses? Please mail any information to roger.bergstrom@lkab.se. ------------------------------ From: perretc@eiga.unige.ch Subject: Looking For Chip Modem V22 Organization: E.I.G Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 01:37:38 GMT Hello, I'm looking for a modem chip who can do V22 and his alimentation (power) have to be 3.3 Volt. Thanks if you can E-mail me the answer. Perretc@eig.unige.ch Perret Cedric. ------------------------------ Date: 31 Jan 1995 21:43:21 EDT Reply-To: THINDER@SOFTSW.SSW.COM From: Hinders, Thomas Subject: Using a Laptop Modem With ATT Public Phones The instruction for using the Data Port on the ATT Public phones are confusing (dialing the line waiting for the modem to answer). Why can't you dial-through? Thanks in advance ... reply directly and I'll summarize and re-post. Tom Hinders thinder@ssw.com Lotus Dev ------------------------------ From: thura@crl.com (Thu Ra Tin) Subject: Planning to Start a Pager Network Date: 31 Jan 1995 18:45:45 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [Login: guest] I have been contacted by a brother-in-law of the Deputy Trade Minister from a southeast Asian country about setting up a pager network in the country. The country has been closed for the last 30 years, and about four years ago, they opened up as a market oriented economy. Currently, there are no pager services there. I need to find a company that can set up the whole turnkey pager systems for a country. If anybody on here is interested, please contact me as soon as possible. My E-Mail address is or my phone number is (415) 552-4653. Sincerely, Thu Ra ------------------------------ From: dan.srebnick@islenet.com Organization: Isle-Net (908) 495-6996 Date: Tue, 31 Jan 95 13:53:18 -0500 Subject: Pac-Tel New Standard Plus Phones I'm the owner of a couple of Pacific Telesis (Pac Tel) "New Standard Plus 2-Line" phones. They appear to have been manufactured in Hong Kong by TeleQuest in 1984. I require a replacement receiver for one unit. I cannot seem to locate anyone in either firm who can refer me to a parts department. The service center phone number in the manual was changed long ago. Does anyone here know how I may obtain a replacement receiver for this unit? ------------------------------ From: sterger@PrimeNet.Com (Alan Sterger) Subject: Re: Radio Station Transmission Lines Date: 31 Jan 1995 05:43:30 GMT Organization: Primenet In article , Daniel Ritsma says: > I am working for a small radio station that is now using two 8kHz > lines to feed four tansmitters (AM). On one line we feed three > transmitters since they are for buildings next to each other; the other > line is for a building some 150 blocks from here. Are STLs out of the question? Regards, Alan Sterger sterger@primenet.com 75210.1022@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: brown@eff.org (Dan Brown) Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic ISDN, Part II Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:02:43 -0500 Organization: Subversive Student Publications un-inc. In an earlier posting Hersh Jeff writes: > In TELECOM Digest V15 #63 I wrote: >> My office (located in Eatontown, NJ, area code 908) recently had two ISDN >> lines installed for experimental purposes. We receive our ISDN from a >> #5ESS. It was obvious, despite what is written about Bell Atlantic in >> "Reengineering the Corporation," that it is very inexperienced and >> unorganized in providing ISDN service. All we asked for was two ISDN >> BRI lines with NT-1s. It took about two months before we were able to >> get the lines installed, and we have already had to replace the NT- 1s >> once. Anyone else have experience with Bell Atlantic ISDN? EFF has actually had decent luck with ISDN service from Bell Atlantic, though, it hasn't been particularly high volume. We've had a line for occasional use with our Picture-tel system. We are in Downtown DC. When the line was originally installed, we had it installed and usable in about the same ammount of time as we would have had a normal telephone line. No complaints. We did have some trouble (seems like one of the B channels was down) but were able to get service for it on a Saturday afternoon. We recently moved, and, again, the install went off as planned, no troubles. We're not probably more than a few blocks from a CO ... so YMMV accordingly. I do have a few gripes on other services from Bell Atlantic, such as our RCF which has been up and down (currently down, supposed to be up tomorrow AM) a couple times ... first time maybe because of paperwork shuffle, this time because they are moving over to a "new and enhanced digital switching center" at the downtown CO where our old lines (202-347-xxxx) go/went into. Later, Dan (Dan Brown brown@eff.org) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 11:27:13 -0800 From: david_mccord@ins.com (David McCord) Subject: Last Laugh! Career Opportunities With the RBOCs? Passed along FYI (For Your Insomnia?) ..... From: "Mark D. Baushke" From: fred@cisco.com (Fred Baker) Subject: Human Intrusion found on com-priv... At a symposium at MIT earlier this year, a representative of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) began a presentation bemoaning the loss of union craft jobs among telcos by drawing on the chalkboard a sketch representing the telco C.O. of the future: +--------------------------------------------------+ | *** | | (o o) +-----------+ | | ~ | ( ) ( ) | | | /-+-\ | | | | / | \ | | | | o | o @@\ / | ( ) | | | / \ ++ \=======/ | | | | / \ /\ /\ | | | | / \ / \ / \ | | | | == == = = = = +-----------+ | +--------------------------------------------------+ In this picture, there is a single man, a dog and a computer. The man's job is to feed the dog and the dog's job is to bite the man if he touches the computer. david_mccord@ins.com Network Wizardry International Network Services + 1 415 254 4229 voice on demand Mountain View, California, USA + 1 415 967 3247 fax Thank you Sensei!!! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #70 *****************************