TELECOM Digest Thu, 9 Feb 95 00:20:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 87 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson North Pacific Cable Cut? (Stephen Palm) SVNet Meeting February 15: Cellular Digital Packet Data (Paul Fronberg) Rolm 6200/b CBX Information Wanted (Christopher L. Browne) Re: MCI Gave me a Deal (Tony Pelliccio) Re: MCI Gave me a Deal (Lindsay L. Meeks) Re: How I Fooled Caller ID (Anthony Chor) Re: How I Fooled Caller ID (Shawn Gordhamer) Campus Wiring/Connectivity Innovation (routers@halcyon.com) Re: Clock Slips Again (Harold Hechinger) Re: Ten Digit Dialing (Jill Arnson) Re: International Tariff d (Allyson Anthonisz) Re: New Motorola Micro-tac Elite AMPS Cellphone (Michael Berlant) Re: New Motorola Micro-tac Elite AMPS Cellphone (Steven King) Re: Caller ID and Call Waiting (Integral1@aol.com) 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: 500-677-1616 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: palm@tokyo.rockwell.com (Stephen Palm) Subject: North Pacific Cable Cut? Organization: Rockwell International Japan, JEDC Date: Thu, 9 Feb 1995 02:19:13 GMT We have 56kbps digital leased line between Tokyo and California that used the North Pacific Cable (NPC). Apparently NPC was cut on 2 Feb 1:00 AM JST (1 Feb 8:00 AM PST) and we are now on satellite backup. Does anybody have any more information? Does anyone know when they are planning to fix NPC? Thanks, Stephen [kiwin] Palm TEL (Voice mail): +81-3- 5371-1564 Rockwell - Digital Communications Division COMNET: 930-1564 Japan Engineering Design Center (JST=PST+17hours) FAX: +81-3- 5371-1507 palm@tokyo.rockwell.com s.palm@ieee.org spalm@cmu.edu palm@itu.ch ------------------------------ From: paulf@panic.Eng.Sun.COM (Paul Fronberg [CONTRACTOR]) Subject: SVNet Meeting February 15: Cellular Digital Packet Data Date: 9 Feb 1995 04:38:48 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, CA SVNet Meeting: Wednesday, Feb 15, 1995, 7:30pm Mtn View (FREE, Open to Public) SVNet is a SF Bay area UNIX and Open Systems user's group which sponsors technical presentations at its monthly meetings. The meetings are free and open to the public. The next presentation will be: WHAT: Coming Soon to a Beach Near You??? Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) Will we really be able to telecommute and surf the Net from our "branch" office on the beach in Tahiti? While Cellular Digital Packet Data may offer the next level of freedom from those pesky wires representing data and network connections, delays in equipment availability and geographic coverage are still a challenge to would-be service providers. On top of that, service providers are still deciding how to price the services. Tonight's speaker will give us the latest news about a variety of technical and standards/specifications issues on CDPD, including what functionality is currently being anticipated by the recently published Release 1.1 of the CDPD spec. TCP/IP services, the inclusion of a Hayes AT command set, etc. are among the items to be covered. WHO: Chuck Berman, McCaw Cellular WHEN: Wednesday, February 15, 1995 at 7:30 p.m. WHERE: Sun Microsystems Bldg 6, 2750 Coast Avenue, Mountain View Coast Ave appears to be just a driveway next to Bldg 5 on Garcia Ave between Amphitheatre Pkwy and San Antonio, so don't get confused. For more information, please call either Paul Fronberg at (415) 366- 6403 or Ralph Barker at (408) 559-6202. SVNet is a UNIX and open systems user group supported by member dues and donations. SVNet Meetings are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. UNIX is a registered trademark licensed solely by X/Open ------------------------------ From: cbrowne@usr.com (Christopher L. Browne) Subject: Rolm 6200/b CBX? Date: Wed, 08 Feb 95 11:51:34 PST Organization: USRobotics, Inc. I am looking for technical references or manuals for the Rolm 6200/b pbx. Are such documents available any where on the net? Christopher L. Browne cbrowne@usr.com USRobotics, Inc. cbrowne@interaccess.com Applications Engineering 72002.1027@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: Tony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: MCI Gave me a Deal Date: 8 Feb 1995 20:16:12 GMT Organization: Brown University -- Providence, Rhode Island USA In article , md@pstc3.pstc.brown.edu (Michael P. Deignan) wrote: > In my opinion, Sprint is the real winner now, with their penny-per- minute > promo. At least you know what you're paying and when the rate is applicable. > With the other two, its a percentage crap-shoot over some elusive "basic" > rate. I have to agree. I spend at LEAST $25.00 a month and with Sprint Sense get .10 a minute from 7PM-7AM weekdays and from 7PM Friday to 7AM Monday morning. So at that rate it comes to 250 minutes of talk time. If I'd spent that with AT&T's TrueUSA it came out to only 192 minutes. The best part was when the sleaze from MCI called me last night asking if I'd switch to their new Friend & Family II. Ha! My reply? "Send me a check for $75.00 and I'll think about it." I'm waiting to see how many people do this with my data line which makes NO long distance calls -- I should make a fortune off that one. Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR Box 1908, Prov, RI 02912 Tel. (401) 863-1880 Fax. (401) 863-2269 ------------------------------ From: llmeeks@aol.com (LLMeeks) Subject: Re: MCI Gave me a Deal Date: 8 Feb 1995 18:12:44 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: llmeeks@aol.com (LLMeeks) In article glen@cs.wisc.edu (Glen Ecklund) writes: > MCI called yesterday, and made me an offer I didn't want to refuse. > 50% off on all calls for six months. After that, 50% off on calls to > MCI customers (no list required) and 25% off (if I recall correctly) > to everyone else. Yes, MCI is offering 50% off all calls fro six months to NEW customers. After that it is 25% off all calls if the monthly bill is over $10, 30% if over $50. The 50% discount will only be to other MCI customers in your Friends & Family list. This is off the standard rates (generally just slightly less than AT&T's). It makes more sense than any other plan they have except for intralata calls in Texas. Other plans might make sense for that but are being grandfathered by the company. In comparing New F&F to True USA, the rate will always be less than AT&T, even without the 50% MCI to MCI discount. Lindsay Meeks ------------------------------ From: Anthony Chor Date: Wed, 8 Feb 95 16:40:30 PST Subject: Re: How I Fooled Caller ID In TELECOM Digest #78, 0006718446@mcimail.com (John Combs) writes (about ADSI): > Bellcore deserves praise for this well thought out service, laid out > in several Bellcore standards. Another smart move on their part is > that they didn't bother submitting the standard to an international > standards body to try to get it adopted. (We all know how long that > takes.) Instead, they have been visiting the PTTs of dozens of > countries, and trying to convince them to sign on to the ADSI standard > as defined by Bellcore. Several European nations have expressed > interest already, as have Pacific Rim nations, including China. > ...It is my opinion that ADSI, along with V.34 modems giving > true 115 kbps data throughput (via compression), could be an ISDN BRI > "killer" one-two punch...By the way, even though ADSI works on POTS lines, it > qualifies as PANS. (Pretty Amazing New Stuff.) ADSI is state-of-the-art technology -- for 1975. However, it is 1995, and Bellcore's low speed, asymmetrical protocol doesn't meet today's expectations for a multimedia information terminal. A little background: ADSI provides 1200 baud signalling to the CPE and a DTMF backchannel. So, ADSI is really slow sending info to the user, and the user can only signal back in DTMF. This is inherently limiting, as you might imagine. ADSI also defines presentation capabilities which allow the server to write text and options on the CPE screen. However, this capability is text-only. So, here we are on the brink of the Infobahn with cable companies and on-line services promising users a rich multimedia world replete with full motion video and CD quality sound and here's Bellcore offering 1200 baud text only services. OK, maybe the Infobahn stuff is a little way out, but ADSI adoption hasn't exactly been earth-shattering. By the time there is any appreciable penetration of ADSI phones (if ever), people will have truly state-of-the-art capabilities in their TVs and PCs. Meanwhile, the phones, phone companies, and telecom folks (us) will look dumb showing off ADSI stuff. Furthermore, we would then have a backward compatibility issue with these installed devices as we tried to move into some new technology. Therefore, we in the telecom industry should be pushing for a more modern voice/data solution than ADSI, one which will carry us into the next century. For instance, the Radish VoiceView protocol is a fully symmetrical switched voice/data solution which allows data (anything, not just text) to be carried at much higher speeds; the protocol also allows negotiation for fax (unlike ADSI). We should see VoiceView modems appearing later this year. Plus, digital simultaneous voice/data (DSVD) standards are coming soon (i.e. next year) which will allow high speed data connections plus voice on the same analog line. Finally, I'm not sure how v.34 and ADSI finish off ISDN. If I'm running v.34, I can't talk on the line. ADSI makes no provision for interrupting a data call with voice or a voice call with v.34 data, so these two things are unrelated. (Besides, I'd like to meet the person who gets 115kbps reliably over real phone lines using v.34.) (Other random thoughts: when the head of any RBOC talks about the Information Superhighway, none of them has ever mentioned ADSI as a key technology in making our future happen. If they don't believe in it, why should we? Something else to keep in mind: who will be the torch bearer for ADSI? Last I checked, Bellcore was for sale. Given the uncertainty of their future, I wouldn't count on them to propagate any standards.) Thus, ADSI is hardly new (technology wise) and not very amazing. Just say 'no' to ADSI. Tony Chor Program Manager Telecom Product Unit Microsoft Corporation ------------------------------ From: shawnlg@netcom.com (Shawn Gordhamer) Subject: Re: How I Fooled Caller ID Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 19:31:34 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, you can put a resistor across the > line then attach a listening device behind that and listen all you want > without being detected. That's how phones are tapped. And, I suppose > you could send data, since as far as everyone else is concerned, your > phone is still on hook. But how would the person who is attempting to > spoof *your* display box know that you had such resistance on your line > unless he came to your house and put it there himself? Seems like a lot > of trouble to me. PAT] No, you would put a resister on your phone. Then, when you detected the first ring, you would send "fake" caller-ID data which would fool the callers box. Is this possible? Shawn Gordhamer shawnlg@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No it would not work since anything you do on your phone only applies as far as the central office. If it were possible for me to do something to *my* phone which influenced the behavior of *your* phone then lots of folks would add resistors or whatnot to their own lines to fool the exchange into thinking *you* had not answered, thus there should be no charge for the call, etc. Remember the book and movie a few years ago called 'Tandem Rush'? The sick phreak sits at home and dumps all this very high current on the phone line causing the phone on the *other end* to catch fire and/or electrocute the recipient ... yet it goes unnoticed in the central office ... balogna! Whatever hardwiring you do on your phone only influences the behavior of your phone(s) and line(s). Once the results of your handiwork reach the CO maze, that, as they say, is that. Notice I said nothing about audio tones, just hardwiring. Anyway, if you put this resistor in your phone, then the CO would think you were the one *not* off hook and would never extend dial tone to you. Or were you planning to switch it in and out of the circuit as appropriate? As soon as you switch it in (if off hook) the CO will think you disconnected. Won't work! PAT] ------------------------------ From: routers@halcyon.com Subject: Campus Wiring/Connectivity Innovation Date: 8 Feb 1995 05:22:28 GMT Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. CAMPUS WIRING INNOVATIONS ------------------------- This information may be of interest to network services- voice and data network groups. I can provide information on how to change existing utp from a single voice circuit to 24 or 32 64Kb voice circuits up to 7 miles (11 km). Change existing utp to E-1 or T-1 for lan to lan connections up to 7 miles (11 km). Allow ethernet to be extended on existing 2 wire copper up to 3000 feet (990 m) at lOMbps. Also latest information on wireless lan bridges at 2Mbps for campus area networks. Works both inside with roaming range of 800ft(260m), and outside to remote locations up to 3 miles (5km). No FCC license required in North or South America. Includes SNMP management. For specific product information, please contact: Router Solutions 5527 Preston Fall City Road Fall City, Wash. 98024 USA 800-837-4180 (USA and Canada) 206-644-6082 (elsewhere) 206-222-7622 (FAX) routers@halcyon.com (Email) Or check our FTP site: ftp.halcyon.com /pub/local/routers ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Feb 95 17:19:02 CST From: harold_hechinger@wiltel.com Subject: Re: Clock Slips Again When using DS1 circuits, a switch needs to be timed with the rest of the network. On the switches I have worked on, I designate which DS1s úÿ the switch should use for timing. Check where your PBX is receiving timing. Assuming your switch is clocking off of the DS1 like it should be, a second problem can come from having the clocking DS1 on SONET facilities. We have found that SONET DS1s have significant jitter, and can not be used for timing. We have gone so far as to require special facilities from the LEC to avoid SONET routing. With the T1 on SONET, your PBX may be unable to clock properly. Ask your telephone company how the T-1 is routed to the central office. You will need to convince the LEC to keep at least one DS1 off of SONET facilities, and program your PBX to use that DS1 for timing. I hope this will give you a few more ideas. Please give me a call or EMAIL if I can help you more. Harold Hechinger WILTEL 918-588-3404 ------------------------------ From: jilla@teal.csn.org (Jill Arnson) Subject: Re: Ten Digit Dialing Date: 8 Feb 1995 23:59:19 GMT Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc. In article , Terrence McArdle wrote: > Just for clarification's sake, I assume the phrase "local numbers that > are in a different phone number" means dialing a destination existing > in separate exchange, but the same area code, as the originator? > Calls that cross a LATA boundary currently require eleven digit > dialing, do they not? One other reason for the 10 (11) digit dialing is that the NPA and NXX in an area may be the same now that '0' and '1' are no longer required to be the middle digit of the NPA. So far it has been avoided mostly, but in the future it will not. If only seven digit dialing were used in this case, there is the possiblility that the switch will construe it as a misdialed number if only seven digits are dialed if it thinks the first three digits are an NPA. Granted the software can be designed to get around this, but well ... Jill C. Arnson Omnipoint Corporation Colorado Springs, Co (but Denver's where I hang my hat) jilla@csn.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Its not that the software can be designed around this -- it HAS been designed. Ever hear of timeouts? If you dial something which can be interpreted in a couple different ways depending on what digits follow, if any, the central office will sit there a few seconds following your last key press waiting for more. Lacking any further entry on your end, translation is started based on the context of what you did enter. For instance, you dial just zero for the operator. It is going to sit there a few more seconds waiting to see if you plan to continue dialing with 011, or 01, or 00, or 0+area code and number, all of which are valid combinations. To avoid timeouts and waiting, try dialing 0#. That 'pound sign' on the end functions as a carriage return. It means the dialing string is finished. Ditto with credit card calls to the number associated with the card; you only need to enter the four digits of the PIN. But the computer does not know what you are dialing, so it will sit there and wait to see if more digits are following. Terminate the PIN with # and watch how fast your call is processed. Anytime the number of digits to be entered is variable depending on context, use the # on the end to speed up the process in the same way you were told to do with international calls. Note that when you dial a seven or eleven digit number, adding # at the end does absolutely nothing to speed up the connection. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 8 Feb 1995 15:50:55 +1000 From: Allyson Anthonisz Subject: Re: International tariff database providers I used to subscribe to T-Guide produced by Eurodata Foundation, which contains tariffs for mainly European countries with the exception of the USA, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong. I think they have a PC version of it called T-Calc 2 which I have not used. I also recently received a brochure on the LYNX Global Telecom Guide which contains tariff data for a wider range of countries and is available as a database. Contact details: Eurodata Foundation, Empire House, 175 Picadilly, London W1V 9DB Tel: 44-71-629 0774 Fax: 44-71-583 0516 Lynx Technologies Inc., 710 Route 46, Fairfield, N.J. 07004 Tel: 201-256 7200 Fax: 201-882 3583 Allyson Anthonisz Tel: 61-3-828-7376 Information Services Manager Fax: 61-3-820-3021 AUSTEL Library E-mail: ava@austel.gov.au 5 Queens Road Melbourne, 3004 Australia ------------------------------ From: lnjptyo1.mberla01@eds.com (Michael Berlant) Subject: Re: New Motorola Micro-tac Elite AMPS Cellphone Date: 9 Feb 1995 02:29:44 GMT Organization: EDS Japan In article , aj.knox@auckland.ac.nz (Andrew Knox) says: > Motorola New Zealand is apparently about to launch a new AMPS > cellphone called the Microtac Elite. The Elite was introduced in the USA about three months ago. It is smaller and lighter than the MicroTAC Ultra Lite, which was Motorola's previous lightweight champ. Aside from the electronic feature improvements, physical presentation is the big news for this model. Until now every last one of Motorola's "Flip Phones" was designed so that its accessories (batteries, cig adapters, car adapters, modem adapters, etc.) would interchange with any other Flip phone. As I understand it, the new Elite cannot share accessories with any other model of Motorola phone. This may present you with "new product accessory availability" problems which were not present, for example, when Motorola introduced the MicroTAC Ultra Lite a year and a half ago. ------------------------------ From: king@wildebeest.cig.mot.com (Steven King) Subject: Re: New Motorola Micro-tac Elite AMPS Cellphone Date: 8 Feb 1995 16:04:00 GMT Organization: Cellular Infrastructure Group, Motorola aj.knox@auckland.ac.nz (Andrew Knox) publicly declared: > Motorola New Zealand is apparently about to launch a new AMPS cellphone > called the Microtac Elite. > I would be quite interested to know whether anyone has any details > about this phone or about pricing of it throughout the world. The phone has more features than you can shake a stick at and is extremely light. I'd have purchased one instead of the MicroTAC Ultra-Lite I bought two days ago, if it weren't for the fact that street price in the U.S. is a little over US $1000. The street price on the Ultra-Lite is less than half that. (Of course, actual price depends on what kind of deal you can get with your service plan. With the plan I got, I received $150 off any phone in the store.) Please note that I work in the Infrastructure group at Moto, not the Subscriber group. I get all my information about these phones through the same retail channels as anyone else. Sorry, no inside dope for you. :-( Steven King -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group ------------------------------ From: integral1@aol.com (Integral 1) Subject: Re: Caller ID and Call Waiting Date: 8 Feb 1995 18:05:21 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: integral1@aol.com (Integral 1) Ameritech now offers what they call "Access 24" in many areas of Detroit and suburbia, a service which offers Caller ID combined with Call Waiting. You must purchase a whole new phone to use this feature; Ameritech offers this phone for, I believe, a cost of around $250. The phone, produced by none other than Northern Telecom, features "soft keys" that can be pressed to instantly access other custom calling features; the screen will display Caller ID information of normal incoming calls and of calls that are waiting. This particular phone is supposed to also be compatible with future home banking and other electronic services. Scott Barnett Detroit, MI integral1@aol.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #87 *****************************