Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id LAA18228; Fri, 3 May 1996 11:59:11 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 3 May 1996 11:59:11 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick A. Townson) Message-Id: <199605031559.LAA18228@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #213 TELECOM Digest Fri, 3 May 96 11:59:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 213 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Phone Records for OK City Bombing Suspect (Tad Cook) US West Cutbacks Shake Oregon Employees (Tad Cook) Call for Professorship in Telecommunication (Pekka Neittaanmaki) Bell Atlantic Announces Mandatory 10 Digit Local Dialing (Roger Fajman) Last Laugh! "Important News for Frontier Customers" (Tim Tyler) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tad Cook Subject: Phone Records for OK City Bombing Suspect Date: Fri, 3 May 1996 02:07:28 PDT Phone record shows calls to suppliers of bomb parts DALLAS (AP) -- A telephone card found in the home of Oklahoma City bombing suspect Terry Nichols was reportedly used to make more than two dozen calls to suppliers of bomb components in the months leading up to the attack. One of the calls was to the Ryder store in Junction City, Kan., that rented the truck used in the blast, The Dallas Morning News and CBS reported Thursday. The suspects used the prepaid card in the mistaken belief that it would prevent their calls from being traced, authorities said. But a log of every single call was obtained by the government, and this record suggests Nichols' involvement in the bombing may have been more extensive than first thought. Nichols' lawyer has said his client split with fellow suspect Timothy McVeigh in February 1995, but government sources told the News that the phone records will be used in court to show that the suspects stayed in close touch in the days before the explosion. "It's not a crime for Terry Nichols to call Tim McVeigh," McVeigh's lawyer Stephen Jones told CBS. "It's only a crime if it was part of a conspiracy. You don't see that by just looking at the credit cards." Terry Nichols' lawyer and prosecutors declined to comment. Twenty-two of the calls were made during three days in September 1994, to companies including racing fuel suppliers, chemical distributors and one of the nation's largest explosives manufacturers. That wave of calls came just days before Nichols and McVeigh allegedly began buying tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the component used in the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people. Records show the calls to companies whose products can be used in bombs continued in October 1994 from Kingman, Ariz., about the same time that the suspects allegedly drove there to hide stolen explosives, the newspaper said. Three of the Arizona calls were made from the home of Michael Fortier, whom McVeigh often visited. Fortier, a former Army buddy of McVeigh's, has pleaded guilty to knowing about the bomb plot and doing nothing to stop it. He plans to testify for the government. The phone records show that as McVeigh traveled around the country, several calls were made to Nichols' home, right up until the day before the bombing, according to the news reports. Although Nichols said McVeigh called him from Oklahoma City on Easter Sunday in 1995, the logs show he called from just down the street, CBS reported. Investigators now believe McVeigh and Nichols were together and drove to Oklahoma in two vehicles to drop a getaway car, the network said. Two of the calls were made on April 14, 1995, from the Junction City, Kansas bus station: one to Nichols' home and one less than a minute later to a Ryder agency in Junction City that rented the truck used in the blast. The card, which cost $480, was mailed in November 1993 to the Michigan farm owned by Nichols' brother, James. McVeigh and Terry Nichols were both staying there at the time, the News reported. The bombing indictment alleges both defendants used the card "as a means of concealing their true identities and as a means of preventing calls from being traced." Joel Soto, a marketing representative for a company formerly known as WCT Communications, which issued the card, said FBI agents came to the company's Santa Barbara, Calif., headquarters within days of the bombing. He said they obtained toll records for the 684 calls made on the card. WCT's records show that the card was issued through The Spotlight, a far-right political publication in which McVeigh had once advertised to sell replicas of rocket-launchers, in the phony name Daryl Bridges. ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: US West Cutbacks Shake Oregon Employees Date: Fri, 3 May 1996 02:11:38 PDT US West Cutbacks Shake Oregon Employees By Sherri Buri, The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News May 3--Every workday morning, Curt Nyquist leaves Eugene at 3:15 to reach the US West office in Portland by 6. He works until 4:30 or 5:30 in the evening and gets back to Eugene by 7. He says the commute doesn't bother him. He likes to drive, doesn't require much sleep and would rather pay $400 a month in gas, insurance and parking than see a third of his paycheck go to a Portland landlord. When faced with the choice of working in Portland or leaving the company last year, Nyquist decided to commute. He's a year away from retirement and he didn't want to uproot his wife in Eugene for an uncertain future with US West in Portland. But Nyquist is bothered by the fact that US West's Eugene office on Country Club Road remains open eight months after company officials said it would close. And some workers there are doing the same job as Nyquist, he says. "They should have done this differently," he says. "If you're going to move a department, move it." US West officials began a corporate-wide restructuring several years ago to cut costs and boost profits. Using new processes and technologies, the company consolidated 103 local business offices into 19 megacenters in big cities across the West and South. The upheaval is a case study in how employees and customers are affected when an industry refashions itself, in part using technological solutions. "It's been pretty well documented that (the reorganization) didn't go as well as we wanted it to," says Gary Miller, a US West spokesman. Thousands of employees throughout the company's 14-state territory moved, left, retired or were laid off in the shuffle. "Everyone has their own story," Nyquist says. Some workers in Eugene accepted jobs at the megacenters and moved their families to such cities as Portland, Seattle, Albuquerque or Salt Lake City. Some fashioned temporary solutions, renting an apartment in Portland and seeing their families in Eugene on weekends. Others traded full-time positions for part-time ones to stay in Eugene. Telephone industry regulators, customers and some employees say US West's consolidation strategy has failed miserably. "There's a clear correlation between downsizing and (US West's) technical and service problems," says Roger Hamilton, chairman of the Public Utility Commission. "Clearly, they downsized to the point where they couldn't meet the demands," he says. "They needed to be growing -- not shrinking -- in rapidly growing areas such as Portland, Bend and Eugene." Responding to mounting consumer complaints, the commission recently penalized US West by stripping it of a regulatory framework that gave the company considerable leeway to increase prices it charged for nonessential services, such as call waiting and caller ID. Now, the company is scrambling to restore service levels and stay afloat in a fiercely competitive market. US West began downsizing in 1991 and announced it was shedding 1,000 workers throughout its 14-state territory. In September 1993, the company said it would cut another 8,000 workers companywide by 1997. "In order for us to be competitive in this new environment we had to increase service and reduce costs," Miller said. According to the latest count, about 4,500 workers companywide have left US West. Of that group, about 600 were laid off and most of the others retired, Miller said. Much-needed expertise left the company when those workers retired, employees say. Eugene lost about 200 positions when US West consolidated its so-called back-office operations, such as the business office and directory assistance. As US West slashed thousands of jobs, it added 2,700 others, mostly technicians and jobs related to new products and services, such as videoconferencing and distance learning. "We're hiring for positions we didn't even know would exist three years ago," Miller says. Some questioned the timing of US West's reorganization. "They made all these cuts and they might have done it too quickly," said Connie Luecke, telecommunications analyst at Duff & Phelps Equity Research in Chicago. US West officials admit they made mistakes, but they say there's more to the story. The company underestimated the demand for new phone lines and overestimated how long existing cable would be sufficient, Miller says. With the proliferation of fax machines, interactive computer systems and other technologies, the demand for phone lines surged. Oregon even needed a new area code to accommodate the huge demand. Each month, US West receives 36,000 requests for new lines in Oregon. In the Eugene-Springfield area, the number of phone lines rose 3.5 percent from 1994 to 1995. The company also encountered unanticipated problems with new computer and telecommunications network technology, Miller says. It tied the hands of service representatives. They weren't able to access information to respond to installation and repair requests, he noted. The result: Long waits for service, escalating unmet orders, in which orders were delayed because existing cable couldn't handle new lines, and a growing perception that US West was falling down on the job. When JoAnn Andersen started work at US West's Eugene office as a customer service representative in 1977, she was responsible for answering calls from customers in Lowell and Dexter. The woman seated across from her handled calls from Cottage Grove. "We got to know everyone on a first-name basis because we handled such a small area," she recalls. "We had maps to show repairmen how to get there and we wrote specific directions: go to red mailbox, take right, you'll see a dog barking." Andersen says today's technology allows that same representative to take calls from all over the state, perhaps even from two states. And handwritten directions are seldom needed because dial tones often can be provided and repairs made from the central office, she says. Customer complaints fell from January to February, which shows the company is turning a corner, Miller says. "We're having problems, we're addressing the problems," he says. "But at the same time, 97.5 percent of our Oregon customers have no problems in making or receiving calls or receiving the kind of service that they expect from us." That company-generated figure is based on US West benchmarks for installation and repair, Miller says. As further evidence that US West is improving customer service, Miller says the company currently exceeds its goals for responding to customers. The company's objective is to answer 85 percent of customer phone calls for line access and repair within 20 seconds. Last year, representatives answered only about half the calls within that time, but by the end of February, they met the objective more than 85 percent of the time, Miller says. But getting the phone answered doesn't necessarily mean that customers receive the help they need, says Hamilton, the commission chairman. "If you call you may get an operator in Midwest," Hamilton says. "It's great that you can get through, but if you're getting through to someone who can't help you because they don't know where your little town is or they have to forward the message and have someone else call you back, then they have a real customer service problem on their hands." Where the service representative is located isn't the problem, Miller responds. The problem was that new technology wasn't functioning properly so that representatives had customer information at their fingertips, he says. "Whether a repair bureau is in Portland, Seattle, or Spokane, representatives have the same information and customer records, and are able to provide the same level of service as people in Eugene," he says. Now that US West has fixed the bugs in the system, the company will start showing customers the rewards of reorganization, Miller says. "We took one step backwards, but we are taking two steps forward," he says. One recent success: During the flood in February more than half the 90 long-distance operators at the Corvallis office were unable to show up for work. New networking systems allowed US West to forward those calls to operators in Seattle, providing better service for customers, Miller says. But customers and the Public Utility Commission will be the final judges of US West's success. ------------------------------ From: Pekka Neittaanmaki Subject: Call for Professorship in Telecommunication Date: Fri, 03 May 1996 14:48:24 +0300 Organization: Juvaskyla University Call for Professorship in Telecommunication The University of Jyvaskyla in cooperation with Telecom Finland seeks Pro fessor position for its new Telecommunications Program (TP) for teaching, resear ch and development. The successful candidate must demonstrate a strong commitmen t to graduate education and research projects in Master School in Information Technology. Additionally, he/she is expected to develop a skillful resear ch program in partnership with Telecom Finland. This is due to the fact that Telecom Finland has created a telecommunications environment which repres ents the state of the art by any comparison and acts as a pioneer and "field laboratory" in European telecommunications. Telecom Finland's optic trunk network covers the whole country while broadband SDH technology enables the construction of the Information Super-highway with fast ATM services. The company's representatives also participate in important quality standardisation organisations like ISO 9000, EOQ and EFQM. Telecom Finland experts have developed new ATM specifications, which are applied internationally. Telecom Finland's digital mobile network is growing fast and already offers short message and data transfer services. The mobile network will also become broadband. Among the achievements of Telecom Finland, it could be counted: Intelligent, customer oriented services; Centralised network management (Network Management Centre is in Jyvskyl) R&D production platforms, process interfaces; First commercial ATM network in the world. Fields of Teaching/Research/Development The professorship position is eligible in one of the following areas in telecommunications networks design: Mathematical Modelling of Communication Systems Digital and Adaptive Signal Processing Electronics and Hardware Design of Communication Systems Network Management and Computer Controlled Interfaces Database Processing of Automated Exchanges Intelligent Networks and Mobile Phone Networks Requirements The Telecommunications Program is focused on graduate and postgraduate ed ucation and involvement in the industrial research projects. Course development is to place emphasis on student participation in solving practical problems from telecommunication networks. Due to the industrial partnership with Teleco m Finland, it is expected that the program's members will successfully employ innovative teaching methods and involve students in substantive research activities. Although applications are welcome from anyone who holds a Ph.D. in Telecommunication, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or Computer Systems Engineering, the Telecommunications Progr am has a particular interest in candidates who are qualified in electronics and telecommunication systems. The actual staff of the Telecommunications Program is expected to offer M.S. and PhD degrees in telecommunication systems. More information about the city, the university and the department can be found in the WWW pages: http://www.infoma.jyu.fi (MSc Programs in Information Technology) http://www.math.jyu.fi (University of Jyvskyl) http://www.jsp.fi/jsp (Jyvskyl Science Park Ltd.) http://www.jkl.fi (City of Jyvskyl) The starting salary is, depending on the qualifications of the person, ab out 20.000 Finnish marks per month. Duration The professorship position is available starting with 1st September 1996 for a five year term. An extension can be negociated, depending on the quality of the teaching/reasearch activity and on the achievements in applying the research to Telecom Finland development projects. A shorter than five year term is also possible. Contact Person: Applicants should submit a detailed resume and the names of at least thre e references to: Professor Pekka Neittaanmki, Department of Mathematics, University of Jyvskyl, FIN-40351 Jyvskyl, FINLAND, Tel. (358)-41-602732 (Secretary,Ms Heidi Laaksonen), Fax. (358)-41-602731, Email: pn@tarzan.math.jyu.fi, WWW site: http://www.math.jyu.fi/~pn/cfp.html. Applications must be received by 14th June, 1996. ------------------------------ From: Roger Fajman Date: Fri, 03 May 1996 01:14:15 EDT Subject: Bell Atlantic Announces Mandatory 10 Digit Local Dialing BELL ATLANTIC LAUNCHES STATEWIDE PUBLIC INFORMATION CAMPAIGN IN MARYLAND Ads Acquaint Customers With 10-Digit Local Dialing Baltimore, MD -- Bell Atlantic today launched a statewide customer information campaign in Maryland, encouraging customers to begin using the "Ten-number Number" for local calling. The new dialing method comes as the company prepares to introduce two new area codes in the state next year. Effective today, customers across the state will be able to use the area code plus seven-digit phone number on all local calls. During the next 12 months, local calls can be completed using either 10 digits or seven. However, on May 1, 1997, 10-digit local dialing will be required throughout the state. "We intend to tell all Marylanders about this important change. Our primary objective is to make sure customers know about the change and their frustration is kept to a minimum," said Daniel J. Whelan, president and CEO of Bell Atlantic - Maryland. Bell Atlantic newspaper ads will begin appearing throughout the state this week. The company will also be reaching its customers initially through bill inserts and direct mail. Radio and billboard advertising will be added in 1997. The campaign is all part of the company's implementation of an "overlay" solution to accommodate the need for additional phone numbers in the state. Maryland's supply of numbers is rapidly exhausting in the wake of an explosive demand for new telephone numbers for fax machines, cellular phones, pagers, computer modems, and other telecommunications equipment. The overlay plan keeps the 301 and 410 area codes in the same geographic regions as they are today, but adds a new code to each region. 240 will be added to the 301 region; and 443 will be added to the 410 region. The neighbor next door could potentially have a different area code, which is why the area code will need to be included when dialing all local phone calls. With the overlay, existing telephone numbers will not change. As the phone numbers in Maryland's 301 and 410 area codes are depleted, new phone lines will be assigned numbers with a new area code, essentially doubling the total amount of numbers that can be assigned. New area codes will not be assigned until sometime after May, 1997. One of the alternatives to the overlay method would have split geographically the 301 and 410 area codes, thus adding two new codes to the newly split areas. However, this approach would have divided communities and forced over a million Marylanders to change their phone numbers. Even though the geographic split would have maintained 7-digit dialing in some areas, 10-digit dialing would have been required for the vast majority of customers to reach some portion of their local calling area. Rates and local calling areas will not be affected by this new dialing change. A local call is still a local call. Long distance calls will require, as they do today, a '1' in addition to the area code and phone number. Customers will still dial 911 for Emergency Service, 411 for Directory Assistance, and 611 for Repair. Businesses with in-house switchboards, or PBXs, are encouraged to contact their vendor to see if an upgrade is needed. Bell Atlantic Corporation (NYSE: BEL) is at the forefront of the new communications, entertainment and information industry. In the mid-Atlantic region, the company is the premier provider of local telecommunications and advanced services. Globally, it is one of the largest investors in the high-growth wireless communication marketplace. Bell Atlantic also owns a substantial interest in Telecom Corporation of New Zealand and is actively developing high-growth national and international business opportunities in all phases of the industry. #### INTERNET USERS: Bell Atlantic news releases, executive speeches, news media contacts and other useful information are available on Bell Atlantic's media relations World Wide Web site (http://www.ba.com), by gopher (gopher://ba.com) or by ftp (ftp://ba.com/pub). ------------------------------ From: tim@umcc.umcc.umich.edu (Tim Tyler) Subject: Last Laugh! "Important News for Frontier Customers" Date: 3 May 1996 04:09:01 -0400 Organization: University of Michigan Computing Club (UMCC) On a separate page included with the Frontier Communications (my LD carrier) bill, is a statement that reads: EFFECTIVE MAY 1, 1996, PENDING REGULATORY APPROVAL, YOUR INTERNATIONAL RATES WILL BE INCREASED BY AN AVERAGE OF 5%. THE GOOD NEWS IS...FRONTIER CONTINUES TO PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICE AND INDUSTRY LEADING INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS... What sort of stupidity is this?! They're saying that the rates will increase, but there service continues to be good?! Maybe I should send them a statement, advising that effective 1 June, 1996 my payments will be mailed ten days beyond the due date, but the good news is that I'll continue to use quality stamps on the payment envelope. I don't have a problem with them raising rates, just the nonsensical statement! Tim Tyler Internet: tim@umcc.umich.edu C$erve: Hooligan AOL: Hooligan P.O. Box 443 Amateur Radio: KA8VIR @WB8ZPN.#SEMI.MI.USA.NOAM Ypsilanti, MI 48197-0443 In cyberspace, no one can hear you scream. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #213 ******************************