Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (5.58/4.7) id AA08761; Wed, 7 Dec 88 02:30:55 EST Message-Id: <8812070730.AA08761@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Wed, 7 Dec 88 1:22:07 EST From: The Moderator Reply-To: TELECOM@bu-cs.BU.EDU Subject: TELECOM Digest V8 #195 To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu TELECOM Digest Wed, 7 Dec 88 1:22:07 EST Volume 8 : Issue 195 Today's Topics: Re: Switched 56kbps services Re: What make/model phone has the best sound quality? Toll charges and call forwarding Re: Long Distance carriers: ATT, MCI vs. Sprint Is there a way to dial '800' numbers from outside the USA? Re: Network Access Fee Up December 1 We Tested Switched 56kbps Service 613/819 (Ottawa, Ont./Hull, Que.) Is AT&T giving up 'touch tone' trademark? [Moderator's Note: We again remind you that XX.LCS.MIT.EDU will be closed to traffic in early January. Your mail to us *must* be sent to bu-cs.bu.edu henceforth. Mail via XX will *not* be forwarded much longer! Historical trivia: 12-7-1941 was a clear, but cold day in Chicago. At the time, our telephone service here was almost entirely manual. The news which reached us that day at about 1:00 PM brought phone service to a virtual halt for several hours, as did the events nearly 22 years later on the Friday in November, 1963 when JFK was killed. For several hours, and into the late evening that Sunday in 1941, lifting the telephone receiver brought a *five to ten minute wait* followed by a special operator who came on the line and said "emergency calls only being handled at this time...if not an emergency, then hang up and try again later; else wait for the next available operator...." Patrick Townson] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To: comp-dcom-telecom@husc6.harvard.edu Date: 6 Dec 88 20:01:19 EST (Tue) From: chip@vector.uucp (Chip Rosenthal) Subject: Re: Switched 56kbps services Below is information from AT&T's 3/13/87 FCC tariff for Switched-56: 56kbps Switched Digital Service is furnished for the switching and transmission of simultaneous two-way 56 kbps digital signals. It consists of a common user digital network which is furnished between designated AT&T Central Offices. Service is available for use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A call can access the 56 kbps Switched Digital Service network at designated AT&T Central Offices via an access line. Access lines are provided. Access lines are connected at the AT&T Central Office for switching to: - another access line for communications between two Customer's premises served by the same AT&T Central Office, or - the common user digital network for communications between two Customer's premises served by different AT&T Central Offices. Customer equipment is required to terminate a 56 kbps Switched Digital Service call. Technical Publication - PUB 41458 sets forth the network specifications of this equipment. __Mileage_Rates__ Airline Initial Period Each Add'l Period Mileage (30 sec) (6 sec) 0 $0.35 $0.06 1-100 $0.36 $0.06 101-500 $0.38 $0.07 501-1000 $0.43 $0.08 1001-up $0.47 $0.08 Possible documents of interest: AT&T TR41458 - Special Access Connections to the AT&T Communications Network for New Service Applications, October 1985, $60.00 AT&T TR41458A2 - Addendum to TR41458, February 1987, no charge Bellcore TR-880-22135-84-01 - Circuit Switched Digital Capability Network Interface Specifications, Issue 1, July 1984, $48.50 -- Chip Rosenthal chip@vector.UUCP | Choke me in the shallow water Dallas Semiconductor 214-450-5337 | before I get too deep. ------------------------------ To: att!comp-dcom-telecom From: hsc@mtund.ATT.COM (Harvey Cohen) Subject: Re: What make/model phone has the best sound quality? Date: 6 Dec 88 16:20:57 GMT >From article , by harvard!cbnews.att.com!dar@vector.uucp (David A. Roth): > I am aware of the sound quality limited to the telephone because > of bandwidth, however I have noticed that certain makes and model > phones have better sounds. > I have a $12-13 radio shack phone that sends and receives sound > better than the higher priced GTE phone I have. > So what is the top of the line phone to use for sound quality? A telephone is a specialized device for voice communication. It is not intended for use with music or any sounds other than speech. Telephone sound quality, therefore, is normally perceived in terms of human speech in a matrix of background noise. The best telephone sound quality maximizes intelligebility and recognizability of the speech and the speaker while minimizing background noise. This is NOT done by making the frequency response or the dynamic response as flat as possible, as one would for hi-fi music. Nor is bandwidth as important as it is for hi-fi music. Telephone speech quality is also sensitive to the type and amount of acoustic background noise. This is partly because telephones are designed to feed the user's speech back to the user's ear (i.e. sidetone) at a reduced level. Many of the sets sold for home use (and perfectly acceptable there) are poorly adapted to noisy offices because of the effects of sidetone response as well as dynamic response. The shape and position of the transmitter and receiver in relation to the user's mouth and ear are also important. In summary, designing a phone to work well is much more complicated than just putting together sound components to yield the highest fi, and selecting a phone depends at least somewhat on your usage pattern as well as the quality of the phone. -- Harvey S. Cohen, AT&T Bell Labs, Lincroft, NJ, mtund!hsc, (201)576-3302 ------------------------------ To: uw-beaver!comp-dcom-telecom@beaver.cs.washington.edu From: ssc-vax!clark@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Roger Clark Swann) Subject: Toll charges and call forwarding Date: 5 Dec 88 16:24:09 GMT I know we have talked about call forwarding stuff here in the past, but I don't remember that the following case ever came up: Station A, in area ONE, makes call to station B in area TWO. (This is a normal toll call for station A) However, station B is set to forward to station C back in area ONE, where station C is in the normal free calling zone of station A. How will this call be charged? 1> as a local call 2> as an toll call for the around trip A -> B -> C 3> other... The ideal case would be choice 1, but the all the required hooks are probably not three and won't be there until IDSN becomes common. The other thing that almost forces choice 2, is that different carriers may be used for each leg of the connection. (i.e. the A->B leg might be ATT and the B->C leg might be MCI) There might even be some non-technical tariff requirements forcing the call to be charged a certain way... ______ ______ _______ ___ ___ ___ ________ / ___ \ / ___ \ / ____/ / / / \ / / / _____/ / /__/ / / / / / / /__ / / / /\ \ / / / / ____ / ___ \ / / / / / ___/ / / / / \ \ / / / / /_ / / /__/ / / /__/ / / /____ / / / / \ \/ / / /___/ / /________/ \______/ /_______/ /__/ /__/ \___/ \_______/ Roger Swann @ The Boeing Co., Aerospace Div. uucp: uw-beaver!ssc-vax!clark voice: 206/657-5810 ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@rutgers.edu From: ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) Subject: Re: Long Distance carriers: ATT, MCI vs. Sprint Date: 6 Dec 88 18:48:29 GMT I don't have any problem with AT&T sound quality, but they are not immune to outage either. Just a couple of weeks ago most of Northern New Jersey was without AT&T Long Distance service, plus it killed all my AT&T leased data circuits. Mostly I stay away from SPRINT because in the past I have had inordinate problems with dealing with their billing departments. -Ron ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 88 01:28:41 PST (Monday) Subject: Is there a way to dial '800' numbers from outside the USA? From: "hugh_davies.WGC1RX"@Xerox.COM To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu Advertisements in US publications (I'm particularly thinking of 'Byte') often quote an '800' number to call for information, and no other number. These numbers apparently cannot be dialled from outside the continental United States (ignore the routing info in the address - I'm in the UK). Is there any way of 'getting at' these numbers? I'm quite happy to pay for the calls. Perhaps via an operator? The only alternative is snail mail. Bleagh. Thanks, Hugh. [Moderator's Note: There are a few -- very few -- 800 numbers which in fact are outside the USA and can be reached by us. One example is British Telecom which is located in London but has an 800 number for callers from the United States. And in reverse, there are a couple firms in the USA with `0898' type numbers (I believe 0898 is the UK version of 800) for callers from Hugh's country. But the general rule is 800 numbers are internal to the United States or internal to Canada but not both. They can cover a city, a state, an area code, a large part of the nation, or the entire nation. *Never* outside the USA/Canada however. I suggest the only option available to Hugh is to ascertain the area code where the firm is located, then dial 1-A/C 555-1212 and ask for the regular telephone number. Then dial it and pay for the call. Himself. But ask the company if they will reimburse him for the call if his purchase is over a certain amount. Many firms will do this. Patrick Townson] ==================================== Hugh Davies, (Huge@wgc1rx.xerox.com) Senior Software Engineer, Rank Xerox, England. ==================================== "Test pilots aren't supposed to say they're frightened; But I was real impressed" - X15 pilot. ------------------------------ To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Re: Network Access Fee Up December 1 Date: 5 Dec 88 22:32:36 PST (Mon) From: bovine!john@apple.com (John Higdon) All references in your posting were to interstate traffic. Do you have any information concerning intrastate, such as AT&T Full State WATS? Are intrastate rates going to change, and in which direction? Suddenly, I realize that intrastate is under the auspices of the PUC and not the FCC. Still, this is of some concern, to me anyway. Last month my Sprint bill for interstate calling was $0.62 (call to Boonton, NJ) and my intrastate bill was around $800. Guess which is of more concern. -- John Higdon john@bovine ..sun!{apple|cohesive|pacbell}!zygot!bovine!john ------------------------------ To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Re: Network Access Fee Up December 1 Date: 5 Dec 88 22:32:36 PST (Mon) From: bovine!john@apple.com (John Higdon) All references in your posting were to interstate traffic. Do you have any information concerning intrastate, such as AT&T Full State WATS? Are intrastate rates going to change, and in which direction? Suddenly, I realize that intrastate is under the auspices of the PUC and not the FCC. Still, this is of some concern, to me anyway. Last month my Sprint bill for interstate calling was $0.62 (call to Boonton, NJ) and my intrastate bill was around $800. Guess which is of more concern. -- John Higdon john@bovine ..sun!{apple|cohesive|pacbell}!zygot!bovine!john ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 88 07:58:58 PST (Monday) Subject: Some testing done on switched 56kbs From: "Joseph_J._Gerber.henr801E"@Xerox.COM To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu BRIAN: I AM NO EXPERT ON SWITCHED 56KBS BUT MY GROUP TESTED IT IN 1987 FROM ROCHESTER N.Y. TO CHICAGO AND SANTA ANA, CALIF. BASICALLY YOU NEED A DEDICATED 56KBS FROM YOUR SITE TO THE CLOSEST CO WHICH SUUPORTS SWITCHED 56KBS. THE SERVICE IS DIGITAL 56KBS A T1 IS NOT REQUIRED. FACILITY IS READILY AVAILABLE EXCEPT WHEN AT&T HAS MAJOR OUTAGE ALONG THE NETWORK. FOR EXAMPLE WE LOST ALL CKTS GOING WEST BECAUSE SOMEBODY DUG UP FIBER CABLE ALONG RIGHT AWAY OR AT&T LOSES REPEATER STATION ALONG ROUTE. THEN ALL TRAFFIC GOES ON PRIORTIY ROUTING W/ HOSPITALS, MILITARY, POLICE AND AT&T GETTING CAPACITY BEFORE US PAYING CUSTOMERS. AS A BACKUP CHANNEL WE OPTED FOR SATELLITE. IF YOU NEED EXCESS CAPACITY FROM TIME TO TIME I THINK IT'S FINE. IF YOU ARE LOKKING FOR CONTINGENCY CAPACITY DURING MAJOR CIRCUIT OUTAGES, FIND A DIFFERENT FACILITY AT&T RUN SWITCHED 56KBS ALONG SIDE EVERYTING ELSE, PROBABLY A MUXED T3. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Dec 88 9:20:20 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) To: telecom Subject: 613/819 (Ottawa, Ont./Hull, Que.) Are there prefixes in the Ottawa area that can be reached in both 613 and 819? (I think 777 is one?) This is in Canada ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@rutgers.edu From: ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) Subject: Touch Tone Trademark Abandoned? Date: 6 Dec 88 18:51:02 GMT I heard a rumor that ATT has abandonned the trademark on "TouchTone." Can anyone confirm this? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest *********************