TELECOM Digest Sun, 5 Mar 95 07:55:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 134 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New Delphi Forum (Scott Gordon) Cubix Remote Access Server (Scott Gordon) Radio Commentator Gets a Caller ID Callback (Dave Leibold) GSM Roaming (was E(TACS) and GSM) (Mark J. Elkins) POTs Wanted! (Jay W. Shoup) Analog Interface Parameters (Eli Cohen) 64 Kbps HDLC PCMCIA Interface (Milo S. Medin) Book Review: "USENIX Conference Keynote Address" by Barlow (Rob Slade) Help Wanted Wtih ISDN Service (Gregory Hicks) Pizza Hut in Atlanta (Ted Koppel) Re: Pizza Hunt Consolidated Phone Number - All Locations (Chris Hudel) Re: Pizza Hunt Consolidated Phone Number - All Locations (Scott Montague) Re: And the Grammy For Poor Planning Goes to ... (Bob Wilkins) 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: GORDONSBBS@delphi.com Subject: New Delphi Forum Date: 5 Mar 1995 04:36:52 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation SBBS Communications has recently opened a CUSTOM FORUM on the DELPHI network. This forum is dedicated to Wireless communications (i.e. Numeric and Alphanumeric Pagers, Cellular Phones, PCMCIA Modems, Etc.). In addition to various discussions, wireless products will also be sold throughout this forum. Delphi Customer Forum #393 - SBBS Communications - Wireless Forum The following items are only a small sampling of the products SBBS currently offers: - Pagers (Motorola Numeric & Alphanumeric) - Cellular Phones (Motorola, Nokia, Audiovox, OKI) - Cellular Accessories (Batteries, Cigarette Adapters, Leather Cases) - PCMCIA Modems & Data-Links How To Get A Delphi Account: 1. Call 1-800-695-4002 Using Your Modem 2. When your prompted for a USERNAME, enter JOINDELPHI 3. When your prompted for a PASSWORD, enter CUSTOM393 New users are allotted their FIRST five (5) hours of usage FREE. * Brought To You By * SBBS Communications 444 Skokie Blvd. Suite #211 Wilmette, Illinois 60091 Voice: (708) 256-4600 Fax: (708) 256-4488 Scott Gordon - Internet ID: GORDONSBBS@DELPHI.COM Need A Pager and/or Cellular Phone? You need it, I've got it! Host Of Delphi Custom Forum #393 - SBBS Communications/Wireless Forum ------------------------------ From: GORDONSBBS@delphi.com Subject: Cubix Remote Access Server Date: 5 Mar 1995 04:36:21 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation Quoting dmorey from a message in comp.dcom.telecom > Has anyone used Cubix products? We are looking at their remote access > server solution for our dial-in lines. We have pretty much picked > their product but I wanted to get some comments from the field. I've used cubix boards along with Netware Connect. What info were you looking for? Scott Gordon - Internet ID: GORDONSBBS@DELPHI.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Mar 1995 23:49:13 EST From: Dave Leibold Subject: Radio Commentator Gets a Caller ID Callback Andy Barrie's commentary on CFRB Radio Toronto on 3rd March dealt with the subject of Caller ID technology. Barrie told the story of a call he got at 2 am one morning from someone saying "you called me". He was mystified for a while until the mystery caller identified his last name. It turned out Barrie was trying to reach someone else with the same last name (two listings were found for the surname; call attempt #1 was for the mystery caller who didn't answer at the time; attempt #2 was the person being looked for). Caller #1 had a call display unit that recorded the Caller ID transactions, and thus Andy Barrie's unblocked call would have shown up as one of the calls. The commentary was on the CFRB 1010 access line at +1 416 872.2372 (872.CFRB) - select 4 on touch tone to hear the feature commentaries; Andy Barrie's material is then obtained by selecting 2). This will likely be replaced with Barrie's next commentary as of Monday 6th March. David Leibold -+- dleibold@gvc.com -+- aa070@freenet.toronto.on.ca ------------------------------ From: mje@posix.co.za (Mark J Elkins) Subject: GSM Roaming (was E(TACS) and GSM) Date: 5 Mar 1995 08:26:44 -0200 Organization: Posix Systems > GSM is up and running in *all* western european countries except for > Spain. Other European countries are Hungary and Russia. Some none- > European countries running or opening shortly are: > Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, New > Zealand, South, Africa, Namibia, Egypt, Marocco, United Arab Emirates, > Argentine, Kamerun, China, India, Pakistan, Fidji. I probably forgot > about half of them, but my point is that there are more than seven ... > You can roam within Europe, at least one network per country and the > "older" nets in Asia, such as Australasia, Hong Kong, Thailand, > Singapore. Just had some international people come to South Africa for some training. There were two people from Denmark and one from the UK. Their GSM phones worked just fine -- without any prior setup -- although the Danes reported that one local carrier - MTN - stopped working after two days -- were as Vodacom stayed working for the three week duration they were here for. My carrier says I must swap my SIM card before going overseas. (ie - Let them know). Some differences between networks, for voice mail, I am notified via SMS, they get a phone call from the provider. I can send SMS to other phones -- they can't (I believe). Olivetti Systems & Networks, Unix Support - Sth Africa mje@posix.co.za - Mark J. Elkins - Postmaster Tel: +27 11 456 3125 Cell: +27 83 601 0496 ------------------------------ From: jshoup@holli.com (Jay W. Shoup) Subject: POTs Wanted! Organization: Advanced Technologies Date: Sun, 5 Mar 1995 07:53:56 GMT Cute subject line ehh! This will sound like a really wierd request. My telco supplier does not have a telephone that will shortly be needed by one of my customers! If anyone has the name and telco number where I can locate a phone to "fill the bill" I would appreciate it! 1. Powered from AC wall adapter NOT telco lines); 2. Line busy indicator; 3. Ringer control (on/off); 4. CHEAP!; 5. Single line; 6. POTS (Plain old telephone service compatable). I have in mind a Northern Telcom model QT200 (NT2N17AA332) but can not locate where I bought it or where to get it now. Any help would be greatly appreciated! About 30 of the phones will be needed! Jshoup@holli.com 317-664-2066 ------------------------------ From: gandalf!elic@uunet.uu.net (Eli Cohen) Subject: Analog Interface Parameters Organization: Tel-Aviv University Computation Center Date: Sun, 5 Mar 1995 08:56:46 GMT I'm looking for information in the form of articles, research papers etc. on the topic: Analog Interface Parameters. The parameters I'm looking for (such as Line Impedance, Dial Tone, Cadences, etc.) should be categorized be country of origin. Thanks for your help. Eli Cohen elic@lannet.com ------------------------------ From: medin@nsipo.nasa.gov (Milo S. Medin) Subject: 64 Kbps HDLC PCMCIA interface Date: 5 Mar 1995 08:59:33 GMT Organization: Nasa Science Internet Hi. I'm looking for a way to interface an IBM ThinkPad 755 series computer with an INMARSAT-A ground station at 64 Kbps, without using a seperate device such as a router. Since the TP's onboard serial ports can't support this, I am thinking that the only way to pull this off is via some sort of PCMCIA interface, that could support sync. PPP at 64 Kbps (externally clocked). Does anyone know of anyone that makes such a beast? I know about ISA boards that can do this, but the TP has to operate (in this context) without a dock, so it's only the onboard interfaces or PCMCIA gear that works. Thanks, Milo Medin NASA Ames Research Center ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 04 Mar 1995 14:09:22 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "USENIX Conference Keynote Address" by Barlow CSBARLOW.RVW 950110 "USENIX Conference Keynote Address: San Francisco, CA, January 17, 1994", Barlow, 1-56592-992-6, U$9.95 %A John Perry Barlow %C 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472 %D 1994 %G 1-56592-992-6 %I ORA Audio/O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. %O U$9.95 800-998-9938 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com %P 70 min. %S Notable Speeches of the Information Age %T "USENIX Conference Keynote Address: San Francisco, CA, January 17, 1994" John Perry Barlow, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (and self-described "retired Wyoming cattle rancher") was the keynote speaker for the Usenix conference in San Francisco, January 17, 1994. This tape includes both his talk and the question period. (It is also available on Internet Talk Radio for those willing to consume that much bandwidth, and possibly spend longer downloading the file than the playing time of the speech.) Barlow primarily discusses the cultural conflict between the traditional Internet and the new commercial interests generally identified with the "information superhighway". There is discussion of government, cryptography, censorship, and the evolution of the aims and work of the EFF. One point reiterated throughout is the need for those deeply involved in the technology to study and become involved in the political forces which drive the use (and abuse) of advanced communications. A minor theme is the call for "rich media". Barlow laments the fact that human beings assimilate text at a very low rate (generally below 1200 bps), but take in experience far faster. Rich media (or multimedia) are therefore much more efficient for human communications purposes. Barlow ignores two, very vital, factors here. The first is that the bandwidth requirements for non-text messages are currently very expensive, and promote a dependence on an elite level of technology. (This is interesting in view of the link with Internet Talk Radio). The second consideration is that, despite almost a century of involvement with multimedia, people seem to be only marginally capable of generating communications in non-text forms. Automation isn't likely to effect that. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 CSBARLOW.RVW 950110. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver roberts@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into slade@freenet.victoria.bc.ca User rslade@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Mar 95 7:12:21 EST From: Gregory Hicks - Santa Clara Ca Subject: Help Wanted With ISDN Service Pat: I've been following -- off and on -- the discussion on ISDN for awhile, and, since I've been receiving quite a few complaints from my family (father) about the phone being busy (because of my online time), I thought I'd investigate ISDN Residential Service with PacBell. While the lady that I placed my order for a phone to the apartment with was quite helpful, she just didn't know much about ISDN. When the office she referred my call to called back, they grudgingly answered my questions, but didn't volunteer any info. (Most unhelpful.) My questions to you (or the readership) are: What equipment is required at the customer's site? Any recommended sources? Or, for that matter, *any* sources? (PacBell didn't want to provide info on this other than "We do have some 'associated' vendors") What are benefits to me? I want to have high speed access (I'm going to get *almost* full time access to the net after I get a house). I'd like to be able to get incoming/outgoing calls when online (I know! I know! get a second line!) Other than cost (metered 8am-5pm M-F) and expense of equipment, what are potential drawbacks? Any info will be appreciated. Regards, Gregory Hicks ------------------------------ From: tkoppel@carl.org (Ted Koppel) Subject: Pizza Hut in Atlanta Date: Sat, 4 Mar 1995 09:17:17 MST Organization: CARL Corporation (Atlanta) / The UnCover Company Reply-To: tkoppel@solaris.carl.org Curiously, the Pizza Huts in Atlanta are moving in a direction opposite to that in Toronto. Last fall, there was one number (662-5555) that was for the entire metro area, and they did the routing of the pizza order themselves. úÿ Now, a call to 662-5555 gets you to a person who asks your home phone number (don't they have caller ID?), and asks you to dial the Pizza Hut in your area (and supplies you that number). I haven't been buying nearly as much Pizza Hut pizza since they changed their system here. Ted Koppel * The UnCover Company * The CARL Corporation * tkoppel@carl.org Work: 404 242 8733 Fax: 404 242 8511 ------------------------------ From: hudel@waterloo.hp.com (Christopher Hudel) Subject: Re: Pizza Hunt Consolidated Phone Number - All Locations Date: 4 Mar 1995 14:48:09 GMT Organization: Hewlett Packard (Panacom Division) Eric Canale wrote: > Dave Sellers (sellers@on.bell.ca) wrote: >> "No other food service company in Canada offers this level of >> convenience for its customers," says Corbett. "Our goal now is to make >> 310-1010 available across the country so no matter what city our >> customers are in, they dial the same number for a Pizza Hut pizza." > It's been a while since I lived in Canada, but Toronto based Pizza Pizza > has had the single (416) 967-1111 delivery number for all its locations > since the early 80s. I really don't see how Pizza Hut's system is any > different, other than the fact it's 10 years late. The difference is that 967-1111 went to only *one* phone number (or hunt group) and Pizza Pizza dispatched the nearest franchise to take the order. With Pizza Hut, the 310-1010 number routes to the nearest franchise for *them* to take the order. Which probably saves Pizza Hut Inc. some money and puts more onus back on the franchises. Not to mention that Pizza Hut -- like most franchise operations -- will likely transfer 2x the 310* cost to its franchisees. (Unless they are all store owned in which case, we see another example of the distributed client-server model biting the dust!) Christopher Hudel -- hudel@waterloo.hp.com -- (519) 883-3013 Technial Support/Marketing ------------------------------ From: 4sam3@qlink.queensu.ca (Scott Montague) Subject: Re: Pizza Hunt Consolidated Phone Number - All Locations Date: Sat, 04 Mar 95 19:24:50 GMT Organization: Queen's University at Kingston >> "No other food service company in Canada offers this level of >> convenience for its customers," says Corbett. "Our goal now is to make >> 310-1010 available across the country so no matter what city our >> customers are in, they dial the same number for a Pizza Hut pizza." > It's been a while since I lived in Canada, but Toronto based Pizza Pizza > has had the single (416) 967-1111 delivery number for all its locations > since the early 80s. I really don't see how Pizza Hut's system is any > different, other than the fact it's 10 years late. It's been a long time since you lived up here, I see! About five years after Pizza Pizza instituted their well known 967-1111 number they stopped using it as their "main" number. Why? Because their operations had spread beyond Toronto, into many small towns outside of the local calling area. They first tried to solve this problem by telling people to call long-distance, and they would reimburse them $0.50 for their phone call. This did not go over well (people just don't like the idea of long distance) so they tried an 800 number (short-lived). So, since then, they have just tried to set up vanity phone numbers in the smaller community that end in 1111 (eg. 542-1111 in Kingston, 697-1111 in Bowmanville, etc.) Their 967-1111 number was just a plain old Toronto number. Pizza Hut's new "PrimeLine" number is a lot different from Pizza Pizza ... a) The 310 exchange is a local seven digit call from ALL places in Ontario (with the exception of some FAR FAR North exchanges), and soon all places in Canada (hopefully); b) When you dial 310-1010, it will connect you to your LOCAL Pizza Hut, not a big dispatch which would resend your order to your local store (such as Pizza Pizza's old 967-1111 service used to do), and c) Depending on such things as your postal code, your exchange, and the time of day, it will forward to the appropriate Pizza Hut. This is so that if I want to order a pizza at 2am, and my local Pizza Hut is closed, it will connect me to the next nearest open one. (This would only have to be programmed once, not forwarded nightly). BTW, The jingle <967-11-11 phone Pizza Pizza, yeah-yeah-yeah> was so well-known in Toronto (and still is) that there were some stories about customs officials who would ask people who claimed to be from Toronto and forgot to bring sufficent ID to prove that they were, what the number for Pizza Pizza is. If they knew the phone number, they could get across. Now a part of Pizza Pizza's jingle is . Almost makes a case for the ownership of a phone number, eh? Scott ------------------------------ From: rwilkins@ccnet.com (Bob Wilkins n6fri) Subject: Re: And the Grammy For Poor Planning Goes to ... Date: 4 Mar 1995 11:16:10 -0800 Organization: home in the cAVe Scott D Fybush (fybush@world.std.com) recently wrote in : > Seems to me if I were advertising something, especially if I were the > (well, "a") phone company, I'd try harder to have enough lines > available to handle expected caller demand ... I doubt if any carrier would be able to have a quarter million line touch tone interactive demonstration. Well maybe even a thousand lines. They gave a recording to call back in five minutes, sure beats the re-order you normally get from the rest of the pack. Bob Wilkins work bwilkins@cave.org Berkeley, California home rwilkins@ccnet.com 94701-0710 play n6fri@n6eeg.#nocal.ca.usa.noam ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #134 ******************************