TELECOM Digest Thu, 2 Mar 95 17:18:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 128 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Wanted: International Phone Directories (alex@worldaccess.nl) North Pacific Fiber Now Repaired (Edward W. Bennett) MCI Cashes AT&T Checks (Scott Lorditch) Interesting New Information Service and Prefix (Linc Madison) Bellcore Telecomm Overview Video Series (Robohn Scott) Communications Books For Sale (Tuan T. Ho) mu-law to a-law PCM (John Combs) 800 Directory Listings Wanted (jps0723@aol.com) Wanted: Software to link Caller-ID With ProPhone Database (Paul Cascio) Looking For RACE Project CFS (John Scourias) New NPA in Colorado (phrantic@plains.uwyo.edu) Bell Canada 500 Service? (John S. Nelson) Need 500 Service Information (Bhaktha Keshavachar) Re: A Tip When Working With Electricity (Paul Houle) Re: Inquiry on CDMA and QUALCOMM (Sergei Anfilofiev) Answering Machine Calls For You! (James E. Bellaire) Re: Motorola Flip Phone and Low Battery (Michael Berlant) Re: 900 Providing Advice Sought (hihosteveo@aol.com) Re: What is DMS-100? (Brian Bebeau) Automatic Message Accounting Standard Wanted (Gerry Goldman) 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. 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: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 19:46:26 +0100 From: Alex@Worldaccess.NL (Alex) Subject: Wanted: International Phone Directories Hello everyone ... Perhaps this may sound a little odd to all of you ... but besides my general interest of telecom stuff (why would I otherwise be subscribed to this service) I also collect phone directories ... and preferably international ones. There are several ways to get them; one of the ways is to buy them from our very own PTT Telecom here in Holland. The problem is that they charge quite a lot for this service. (I am sorry people from the PTT who read this). Another way is to request complementary copies from the telephone companies around the world; sometimes I get lucky, and they send one; often they won't, since there is some ITU regulation on this matter (at least someone told me once). Therefore I am asking the readers here if they would be intrested in helping me to increase my collection of phone directories. I collect also yellow pages. Of course I will pay for the surface mail. At this point I already got all the directories of: - The Netherlands - Zimbabwe - Tchad - Bermuda - Grenada - Macao - Botswana Besides that I've got some directories of: - USA (New York, Los Angeles both yellow and white pages) - France (Paris yellow pages) - Italy (Padova area white pages) - Israel (Haifa area and Tel Aviv white pages in hebrew) =) - United Kingdom (London business directory) - Germany (Bonn white pages) - Belgium (Brussels & Antwerps) If you consider it took me about two years to get this far, you can imagine how much help I could use. Therefore, anyone having some directory laying in some corner of his room ... make someone happy ... send it ... please! Greetings, Alex P.S. And of course if you need a listing or an address write me. Alex@Worldaccess.NL, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 08:40:09 -0800 From: EDWARD W BENNETT Subject: North Pacific Fiber Now Repaired The {Anchorage Daily News} reports that the North Pacific Fiber should be back in service either today or tomorrow. The cable failed Feb. 5 about 20 miles off the Oregon coast. Splicing was completed Wednesday and testing is underway now. The cable carries most of Alaska's long-distance traffic, as well as international traffic to Japan. During the outage, Alaska traffic was rerouted to a satellite. Ed Bennett JSEWB@acad1.alaska.edu ------------------------------ From: gryphon@j51.com (Scott Lorditch) Subject: MCI Cashes AT&T Checks Date: 2 Mar 1995 17:42:02 GMT Organization: TZ-Link, a public-access online community in Nyack, NY. Over the past few months I've gotten several solicitations in the mail to switch to AT&T. One of them was in the form of a check for $40. We currently use MCI, so I called their customer service number. While they don't publicize it, MCI will redeem these checks for their face value in an "MCI Certificate of Savings". And further, for each month that I hold the certificate before cashing it, it's value increases by another $5, for up to 12 months. So, the useless $40 check from AT&T will save me $100 on my MCI bill this time next year! Scott Lorditch / gryphon@j51.com ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Interesting New Information Service and Prefix Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 21:49:18 GMT As some of you may know, there is a service operated by the local newspaper(s) in San Francisco which offers sports scores, stock quotes, news updates, and other stuff, for only the cost of the applicable tolls and having to sit through the commercials they occasionally insert. The number for this service was originally (415) 512-5000, and that number is still working. What makes the situation more interesting is that the service is now being advertised as (415/510/408) 808-5000. This is the first I have heard of an 808 prefix in any of those area codes, and my PBX at work rejects it as invalid. It is also, to my knowledge, the first N0/1X prefix in 408, which I don't think is particularly close to exhausting its supply of NNX prefixes. Does anyone know the telecom story behind this new prefix? Is it set up as a local call in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, with the latter two forwarded to San Francisco, or perhaps terminating with duplicate equipment remotely maintained in those sites? Is Pac*Bell planning to offer any other uses of this prefix or others with the same 7-digit number in all three area codes? Is the call charged as Zone 3 or Local Toll from some areas? If the answer to the last question is yes, caution is warranted for some folks. For example, from Mountain View 415-254, San Francisco (415) is a local toll call, but downtown San Jose (408) is not. A surprisingly high percentage of people still aren't clued in that "toll" and "same area code" are separate issues. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ From: Robohn Scott Subject: Bellcore Telecomm Overview Video Series Date: Wed, 01 Mar 95 16:22:00 PST Has anyone seen Bellcore's Telecommunications Overview video series? The series consists of five tapes: 1 - Introduction 2 - Distribution 3 - Traffic, Signaling, and Switching 4 - Transmission 5 - Network Architectures and Services We're considering using this series as part of an in-house training curriculum on telecommunications. I'd be particularly interested in comments from people who have viewed it who can identify areas that it might lack in (Bellcore readers, notice I said _might_ lack in). Thanks in advance, Scott Robohn robohns@bah.com ------------------------------ From: tuanho@netway.net (Tuan T. Ho) Subject: Communications Books For Sale Date: 1 Mar 1995 21:36:14 GMT Organization: Netway 2001 I have the following books for sale: Please note the book condition: Brand New = (!) Good = (***) Excellent = (****) Average = (**) Poor = (*) - W. Stallings, Local Networks: An Introduction, Macmillan, 1984, $20 (***). - K. Sherman, Data Communications: A User's Guide, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall, 1990, $25 (!). - K. Kummerle, J. O. Limb, F. A. Tobagi, eds., Advances in Local Area Networks, IEEE Press, 1987, $19 (****). - F. Ivanek, ed., Terrestrial Digital Microwave Communications, Artech House, 1989, $35 (!). - W. M. Brown and C. J. Palermo, Random Processes, Communications and Radar, McGraw Hill, 1969, $25 (****). - H. E. G. Jeske, ed., Atmospheric Effects on Radar Target Identification and Imaging (Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute), D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1976, $25 (****). - H. Stark and F. B. Tuteur, Modern Electrical Communications: Theory and Systems, Prentice Hall, 1979, $39 (****). - P. F. Panter, Communications Systems Design: Line-of-Sight and Tropo- Scatter Systems, McGraw Hill, 1972, $39 (***). - C. G. Guy, Data Communications for Engineers, McGraw Hill, 1992, $29 (!). - J. Martin, Telecommunications and the Computer, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, 1976, $25 (!). - T. C. Bartee, Editor-in-Chief, Digital Communications, Howard Sams & Co., 1986, $29 (!). - J. D. Gibson, Principles of Digital and Analog Communications, 2nd ed., Macmillan, 1993, $29 (****). - L. W. Couch II, Digital and Analog Communication Systems, Macmillan, 1983, $25 (***). - D. R. Smith, Digital Transmission Systems, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985, $20 (****). - M. Barkat, Signal Detection and Estimation, Artech House, 1991, $30 (!). If interested, Please e-mail me at: tuanho@netway.net or Phone me at : (303) 364-4426 Thanks, Tuan ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Mar 95 17:46 EST From: Testmark Laboratories <0006718446@mcimail.com> Subject: mu-law to a-law PCM I need to check the acoustics of the handset of a European ISDN BRI phone. Unfortunately, I only have a North American ISDN BRI simulator, which uses mu-law PCM, and the phone uses a-law PCM. I know from prior experience that the two PCMs can be connected together, and the phone conversation still sounds "normal." However, can anyone tell me what the error would be in dB when I sweep from 300 to 3400 Hz at a constant level, and do a loudness calculation? Also, does anyone know if the S/T bus used in Europe is compatible with the North American S/T bus? John Combs, Project Engineer, TestMark Laboratories, testmark@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: jps0723@aol.com (JPS0723) Subject: 800 Directory Listings Wanted Date: 02 Mar 1995 19:25:41 GMT Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: jps0723@aol.com (JPS0723) Is there any place to get the 800 directory listings and to whom the numbers belong? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think you are referring to a criss- cross style directory for 800, and I do not think one has ever been published. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Framer@ix.netcom.com (Paul Cascio) Subject: Wanted: Software to Link Caller-ID With ProPhone Database Date: 02 Mar 1995 00:56:56 GMT Organization: Netcom I am trying to find software that will take a phone number supplied by a caller-ID signal from my modem (Rockwell chip set) and lookup the name in ProPhone, a CD-Rom database. Any information on where I can obtain such software would be appreciated. Thanks, Paul Cascio ------------------------------ From: jscouria@neumann.uwaterloo.ca (John Scourias) Subject: Looking For RACE Project CFS Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 17:48:39 GMT Hi everyone, I am looking for the Common Functional Specification D733, for the RACE project MONET (R2066). An older version, published in August 1994, is available at aachen.de but a new version was supposed to be available in December 1994. Does anyone know if and where an electronic version is available? Thank you in advance, John Scourias http://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/~jscouria University of Waterloo jscouria@neumann.uwaterloo.ca Waterloo, ON, Canada ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 09:00:08 MST From: THE PILOT Subject: New NPA in Colorado Does anyone have any information concerning the addition of a new NPA in Colorado? Supposedly (from a USWest CSB guy) metro Denver will get the new area code in April of '96. Anyone able to confirm this and/or tell us what the new NPA might be? Thanks, úÿ Phrantic@plains.uwyo.edu ------------------------------ From: jsnelson@netaccess.on.ca (John S. Nelson) Subject: Bell Canada 500 Service Date: 02 Mar 1995 20:45:59 GMT Organization: NetAccess Systems Inc., Hamilton, Ontario > Is 500 service beeing offered by Bell Canada yet (or will it be > offered in the future), and what costs should I expect for making use > of 500 service if and when it is available here? Here's a bit of background (which most comp.dcom.telecom readers probably already know), plus Bell Canada's similar service called Primeline. SAC 500 is the Service Access Code selected by the North American Industry for providers of Personal Communications Services. Wireline and Wireless service providers have intentions of using this code to support Personal Mobility, Terminal Mobility and Service Profile Management. Bell Communications Research Inc. (Bellcore) administers the North American Numbering Plan, and in July 1994 began assigning blocks of personal go anywhere numbers to Telephone Companies and Wireless Carriers across the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean Islands. Stentor Resource Center Inc (SRCI), on behalf of Bell Canada and other Canadian Telephone companies, has applied and received SAC 500 NXX resources from Bellcore. However, no tariffs for related services have yet been filed or approved by the Regulator (CRTC). Although today Bell Canada does not yet offer a 500-based go anywhere service, Bell offers a follow me service called PrimeLine which does not require a 500 number. Customers in Bell Canada's serving area can call 310-BELL (310-2355) from any exchange to obtain detailed information on Primeline. Hope that was useful, Evan. Recently, a question came up wondering why a gentleman from Kingston, Ontario couldn't reach Pat on his SAC 500 number. I tried to call Pat and had the same result. Thinking it might be a technical problem, I asked a few questions. Well, what I discovered is (as we probably all know) telcos enter into agreements with other carriers with respect to SAC 500 service, not only so that calls can be properly routed, but that the appropriate rating and billing can take place, the revenues collected, and settled. To date, no agreements have been negotiated with any US provider for 500 service. Will that happen? Well, that's just not something that I can discuss on a newsgroup! John Nelson, Bell Canada Access Network Provisioning (905) 526-5760 FAX 527-2187 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh go ahead, you can whisper it to me. I won't tell anyone who doesn't read the Digest or Usenet. You think Ma Bell is a bitch, is that it? PAT] ------------------------------ From: keshavac@enuxsa.eas.asu.edu (Bhaktha Keshavachar) Subject: Need 500 Service Information Organization: Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 18:22:20 GMT Hi, Can someone on the net tell me about the 500 service. If you can direct me to a FAQ, it will be great. I know that the 500 service has been discussed in TELECOM Digest for a while. I don't have a clue as what it is as I missed reading the Digest for a few months. Thanks, Bhaktha [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Umm, yeah, I seem to recall we had a few messages on the topic not too long ago. I'm not going to tell you anything about 500. Let that be a lesson to you; not reading this Digest each day. Actually, 500 is called 'Personal Number Service' and it allows you to have a single number which can be forwarded to you at any time, anywhere you may happen to be. Check out the back issues of this Digest for the last couple months of 1994 and the first two months of this year. There were quite a few detailed commentaries. Back issues are available in the Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ph18@crux2.cit.cornell.edu (Paul Houle) Subject: Re: A Tip When Working With Electricity Date: 02 Mar 1995 19:17:45 GMT Organization: Cornell University Bob Mueller writes: > Dear Pat, > I just read about your experiences with the capacitors in a TV > unloading through you and recalled another tip which can prevent a > nasty accident. It is related to the thread because auto batteries are > part of schemes to revive NiCads. Electrocution from these may be > possible (I heard of a case but have no certainty if it really happened), > but is quite unlikely. Serious burns are not so uncommon. One should > remove metal jewelery, including watch bands and rings when working > around these batteries; they can deliver huge currents, enough to spot > weld the jewelery, and heat it up to skin burning temperatures in a > second or so. I had a job working at Cornell's particle accelerator, CESR last summer -- one of the many safety problems that we were warned about were the two thick copper busbars that went underneath the accelerator: these supplied 40 V or so DC for the main magnets; although the voltage is low, really too low to produce a lethal current passing through the body under most circumstances, it is a very serious hazard if you short them out with a ring or a tool held in your hands. Of course there were many other electric hazards, including most of a megawatt of RF power that goes into the accelerating cavities and the linac, several higher voltage distribution systems and a lot of things that can get you hurt or killed. After seeing how much work it took just to keep this little 1-km long accelerator working, the logistic challenge of running a superconducting supercollider just leaves me staggering; it would take a literal army to run it. I'll also say a word about telecommunications at CESR. Throughout the building and under the ring one will find many "beam phones", each of which has a dial with nine positions. To call somebody on a beam phone, you'd turn the dial to a position which wasn't being used, say, number 3 -- then you'd push the page button, announce to the called party that you want them to pick up on line 3, and then they'd do that. ------------------------------ From: Sergei Anfilofiev Subject: Re: Inquiry on CDMA and QUALCOMM Date: 02 Mar 1995 11:11:09 +0300 Organization: ZNIIS Reply-To: sanfi@zniis.msk.su eswu@v9000.ntu.ac.sg writes: > 2) Where to get the published materials on CDMA designed by QUALCOMM? > I have heard that QUALCOMM has designed a CDMA system, but I still > did not find any wirtten material on it. Try to call ftp.qualcomm.com as anonymous user. You'll find a lot of information on CDMA. For example, in /pub/cdma directory. I hope this will help. Best wishes, Dr. Sergei Anfilofiev | Tel:(7 095)368-9127 Chief Internat. Depart.| Fax:(7 095)274-0067 ZNIIS, Moscow, Russia | E-mail: sanfi@zniis.msk.su ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 16:04:36 -0500 From: James E. Bellaire Subject: Answering Machine calls for you! I have noticed that if you call someone's answering machine and immediately hang up when the tape starts that the machine holds the line open for the length of the tape. (This works with every machine I have tested.) If someone calls you, immediately hangs up and you have a long enough message the local exchange has time to reset your line, present you with a local dial tone and start the 'you have waited too long to dial' type message. I've had several dozen of these auto dialed calls over the years. I've also noticed that if you flash and then hang up the switch in my hometown (616-651) likes to reconnect the original parties. It will go as far as redialing BOTH parties at the same time to reconnect this lost connection. This would account for a home phone and a cell phone being called by the switch and then connected to each other. Not all practical jokes are played by people, some are played by machines! James E. Bellaire bellaire@iquest.net bellaire@barnabas.indwes.edu ------------------------------ From: lnjptyo1.mberla01@eds.com (Michael Berlant) Subject: Re: Motorola Flip Phone and Low Battery Date: 02 Mar 1995 00:40:33 GMT Organization: EDS Japan In article , david.chessler@neteast.com (DAVID CHESSLER) says: > I've handled ordinary nicads by putting them in a flashlight, turning > it on, and waiting for the light to go out. The owner's manual for all these electronic devices tells you to drain down the battery in their device for good reason. The device will shut down when the battery has 3-5% life left, not zero. Draining a NiCD battery down to zero is just as unhealthy as leaving it in the charger forever. My experience has been that better-than-average battery life span can be achieved by using the battery until the beeping starts and then swapping for your spare battery (which is always at hand, right?). ------------------------------ From: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) Subject: Re: 900 Providing Advice Sought Date: 02 Mar 1995 01:03:57 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) If my memory serves me right, the cost was $1,200 for the first 900 line and $900 each additional or slightly less. Anyway, look in the Encyclopedia of Associations, there is a 900 service Association that will list the providers and tell you about failure (financial not technical) rates, etc. and lots of other information. Also check a CD Rom library periodical literature searching 900 -- the number of entries will boggle your mind with information available. ------------------------------ From: Brian.Bebeau@att.com Subject: Re: What is DMS-100? Reply-To: brian@hercules.cb.att.com Organization: AT&T Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 13:44:03 GMT >>> I just got a letter from Pac Bell stating that on 10 March they are >>> going to install DMS-100 at the Los Angeles Central office and that my >>> prefix would be affected. The letter also states: >>> What can I expect in the way of problems, if any, using a modem to >>> send or receive call? We had the same thing happen last October. We got a card too advising us of the change. I think they only tell you in case you have some special calling feature that's programmed _in the switch_. You'll need to re-program it in that case. As far as using it goes, we've noticed that our line is a *lot* less noisy than it was, so your modem should work even more reliably. We also now get a *lot* more numbers on our Caller ID display than before. Much fewer "out-of-area" numbers. I don't know what we had before, but it had Caller ID too, and a fair amount of crosstalk. Having said that, I still hate DMS-100s. I'm a software developer on a product that gets maintenance messages from network elements like the DMS-100 and alerts telco personnel to problems. Northern Telecom is not real forthcoming with information, and their input message syntax is quite different from other switches. It's been a real pain to support properly. Brian Bebeau brian@hercules.cb.att.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Mar 95 12:46:22 EST From: telenet!emerson!ggoldman@uunet.uu.net (Gerry Goldman) Subject: Automatic Message Accounting Standard Wanted Can anyone tell me where I can get information on the Automatic Message Accounting (AMA) format. This is purported to be a Bellcore format for ATM billing records. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #128 ******************************