Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (5.58/4.7) id AA00541; Fri, 16 Dec 88 01:31:14 EST Message-Id: <8812160631.AA00541@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Fri, 16 Dec 88 1:13:12 EST From: The Moderator Reply-To: TELECOM@bu-cs.BU.EDU Subject: TELECOM Digest V8 #202 To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu TELECOM Digest Fri, 16 Dec 88 1:13:12 EST Volume 8 : Issue 202 Today's Topics: An Historic Day: TAT-8 Put in Service; Asimov Makes First Call Re: Finding Someone Technical To Speak With (1) Re: Finding Someone Technical To Speak With (2) Re: IBM Sells Rolm To Siemens AG Re: Touch-Tone around the world ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Dec 88 01:03:34 EST From: telecom@bu-cs.BU.EDU (TELECOM Moderator) Subj: TAT-8! FIRST LASER PHONE CALL ZIPS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC! ISAAC ASIMOV DEDICATES TAT-8; MAKES FIRST CALL ------------------------------------------------ A shark-proof undersea cable began carrying laser beam phone calls across the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday as the first leg of a network designed to revolutionize service on three continents. AT&T, British Telecom and France Telecom, the three principal owners of the cable asked well known author Isaac Asimov to dedicate the new cable and place the first call. In his remarks, Asimov said, "Welcome everyone to this historic trans-Atlantic crossing -- this maiden voyage across the sea on a beam of light..." He noted, "...our world has grown small, and this cable, which can carry 40,000 calls at one time is a sign of the voracious demand for communications today....... .....the clarity is in striking contrast to the crackling first telephone message from Alex Bell to his assistant Thomas A. Watson 113 years ago..." Mr. Asimov was the first speaker of several in a video conference in New York that was transmitted to Paris and London by the new cable. The fiber-optic cable, which is thinner than a child's wrist, is able to handle double the capacity of all the trans-Atlantic copper-cable predecessors combined. It took seven years to design, build and install. The total cost was $361 million, but the people involved insist that in the long run, it will mean a continued decline in the price of overseas phone calls. Ordinary television broadcasts will continue to be carried by satellite because they would take up too much room on TAT-8. But the cable will be used for video conferences on a regular basis between the United States and Europe, using a method to compress the signals and take up very little bandwidth. American Telephone & Telegraph Company, which will operate TAT-8, said 1988 is the first year it will handle more than one billion international calls. Commenting on Asimov's remarks of '...a voracious demand for communications..' an AT&T spokesperson noted that even this new cable will start running out of room late in 1991. The fourth quarter, 1991 is when a new fiber-optic cable with nearly double the new cable's capacity is scheduled to begin operation. Fiber-optic service to Japan and the far east will start in the second quarter of 1989 under the name PTAT, and fiber-optic links to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean will open in 1991 or 1992. Lasers have revolutionized phone networks by making it possible to transmit information in the form of rapid pulsesof laser light through hair thin strands of glass. The lasers transmit information in digital form coded into a series of ones and zeros. Most long distance calls within the United States are already carried on optic fibers. Ownership of TAT-8 is as follows -- American Telephone and Telegraph, 34 percent British Telecommunications , 15.5 percent France Telecom , 10 percent The remaining 40.5 percent is divided among 26 partners, some of whom own up to two percent interest; while others own less than one percent interest. The principal partners are -- Sprint Communications, MCI, Western Union and Northern Telecom. Will overseas telephone rates go down in the next few years? AT&T says they will. The exact amount is anyone's guess, but a spokesperson from AT&T said "....I think within a few years the rates will be *less than half* of what they are now..." Wednesday, December 14, 1988: An historic day in telecommunications history, and one I believe is only third to the invention of the telephone itself; the second most historic occassion being the completion of the cable which connected the east and west coasts of the United States in the early 1920's. ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@decwrl.dec.com From: jbn@glacier.stanford.edu (John B. Nagle) Subject: Re: Finding Someone Technical To Speak With Date: 13 Dec 88 21:39:45 GMT I never found this to be an insurmountable problem, but the operating companies do try to protect their technical people. If you're a commercial account, paying business rates, and have a clear idea of what you want, you can usually get it. John Nagle ------------------------------ To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Re: Finding Someone Technical To Speak With Date: 14 Dec 88 20:27:00 PST (Wed) From: bovine!john@apple.com (John Higdon) I suggest that if Miguel Cruz cannot find technical people in the phone company, it is because he hasn't tried hard enough, or because he hasn't convinced the front line people that he knows enough to deserve to speak with technical people. The operating companies maintain a solid protection screen that shields the really technical people (and they're there, trust me) from all the wanabees and jargon speakers that would otherwise totally waste their time. In the last year I have spoken with an old-line crossbar tech (who knows what every single relay is for, what it does, and how it all works together) when I had a really sticky problem with some lines in a xbar office that had just had CONTAC installed. The problem was with insufficient loop current from the originating register upon dial tone acquisiion on ground start lines. He found fourteen bad originating registers. Also I have had some interesting conversations with an in-house person who happens to write generic code for the 1/1AESS in wide-spread use by the local phone company. Frankly, to say that the operating companies don't have any technical people is admission of a serious deficiency on the part of the speaker. -- John Higdon john@bovine ..sun!{apple|cohesive|pacbell}!zygot!bovine!john ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Dec 88 15:02 CST From: linimon@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Mark Linimon) To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Re: IBM Sells Rolm To Siemens AG In article you write: >From its beginning until 1984, Rolm could not run itself very well; now >IBM has washed its corporate hands. > >Patrick Townson To represent not my own, but the opinions of (several) ex-ROLMers: Rolm wasn't doing so badly until IBM starched all the collars. At that point many of the "good folks" departed. Mark Linimon Mizar, Inc. uucp: {convex, killer}!mizarvme!linimon disclaimer: not only not Mizar's opinion but also not necessarily my own. ------------------------------ To: mcvax!cwi.nl!comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.UU.NET From: mcvax!ruuinf!piet@uunet.UU.NET (Piet van Oostrum) Subject: Re: Touch-Tone around the world Date: 14 Dec 88 14:54:35 GMT A few months ago I got a new telephone number (second line). The telephone (supplied by the telephone company (PTT)) was a new model, with a switch between touch tone and pulse dialling. It works both ways. I think in Holland most exchanges are now on touch tone. -- Piet van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, University of Utrecht Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands Telephone: +31-30-531806 UUCP: ...!mcvax!ruuinf!piet ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest *********************