Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id HAA19289; Wed, 8 May 1996 07:34:20 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 8 May 1996 07:34:20 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick A. Townson) Message-Id: <199605081134.HAA19289@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #224 TELECOM Digest Wed, 8 May 96 07:33:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 224 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson ISLIP 96 Next Week! (Dr. Edward Ashcroft) Cellular LD Charges (Zev Rubenstein) California Bill Seeks Internet Accountability (Tad Cook) Coda to the "Livingston-Exon" Router Fracas (Robert McMillin) 888 Problem: Callers to Motorola Reaching Hospital (Tad Cook) PBX Acceptance Criteria and Testing (Larry E. Holmen) TMU Level Programming Reference Wanted (Paul Burgess) Programming Cable Pinout For Motorola Bravo (Pat Barron) 1-800 Dealer Locators (We Want to Install One) (Robert Zeff) Zenith Electronics/USR Telco Return RF Cable Modem (cablemodem@aol.com) 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: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.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: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 500-677-1616 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: Tue, 7 May 1996 17:20:50 -0700 From: Dr. Edward Ashcroft Subject: ISLIP 96 Next Week! Reply-To: Dr. Edward Ashcroft All, ISLIP 96 takes place next week, namely 13 - 15 May, 1996. Here is the program: Detailed Program for ISLIP96 Lectures will be held at the Kaleidoscope Room, Computing Commons at ASU. The Demos will probably be given in the same place. The Dinner will be held at restaurant in Tempe, and the Party (drinks and snacks) will probably be held Chez Ashcroft (sur le lac) in Tempe, possibly followed by a meal at Rosa's, Mesa. (They actually have Habanero Salsa that will be too hot for even John Plaice to handle - but they also have milder salsas.) Monday, May 13, 1996 9:15am - 10:00am Networking and Computing: from The Chip to The Web Peter Kropf and John Plaice Laval University 10:00am - 10:30am Break 10:30am - 11:15am Intensional Intentional Programming Bill Wadge University of Victoria 11:15am - 12 noon Eduction: a General Model for Computing John Plaice and Slim Ben Lamine Laval University 12 noon - 1:45pm Lunch 1:45pm - 2:30pm Implementing GLU on Dynamic Heterogeneous Systems R Jagannathan and C Dodd SRI International 2:30pm - 3:15pm Extensional Intensions Ed Ashcroft Arizona State University 3:15pm - 3:45pm Break 3:45pm - 4:30pm Visual Java, Anyone? Visual Java, Everyone! Tony Faustini Arizona State University 7:00pm Dinner Tuesday, May 14, 1996 9:15am Demo 12 noon - 1:45pm Lunch 1:45pm - 2:30pm Knowledge-Based Modeling Methodology for Simulation of Distributed Computation Using Chronolog(MC) Chuchang Liu and Mehmet Orgun Macquarie University 2:30pm - 3:15pm Time-Parameterized TemporalLogic-Based Framework for Discrete-Event Simulation Quan Nguyen and Tu Van Le University of Canberra 3:15pm - 3:45pm Break 3:45pm - 4:30pm Explicit Choice Higher Dimensional Automata, Omega-Multigraphs, and Process Algebra Operations Richard Buckland and Michael Johnson Macquarie University 7:00pm Party Wednesday, May 15, 1996 9:15am - 10:00am 8 1/2: Data-Parallelism and Data-Flow Olivier Michel, Dominique De Vito, and Jean-Paul Somsonnet LRI 10:00am - 10:30am Break 10:30am - 11:15am Type Safety for Versioned Object-Oriented Programs Xue Li Queensland University of Technology 11:15am - 12 noon Software Reuse in Intensional Programming Weichang Du University of New Brunswick If you haven't already done so, PLEASE E-MAIL ed.ashcroft@asu.edu IMMEDIATELY TO INDICATE THAT YOU WILL BE ATTENDING. On receipt of your mesage, and unless otherwise directed, he will make a reservation for you at the Twin Palms Hotel, 225 E Apache Blvd, Tempe (telephone 602 967 9431, FAX 602 968 1877). ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 07 May 1996 16:49:08 -0500 From: zev@wireless.attmail.com (zev) Subject: Subject: Cellular LD Charges Babu Mengelepouti writes: > In my cell carrier's case, they don't allow equal access and they bill > for AT&T -- all the billing is done through their switch, to make it > "easy" so they claim. The only thing that isn't "easy" is paying the > outrageous charges! The rates billed are AT&T's basic rates and AT&T > won't allow any discount plans because the carrier is "not equal > access" -- meaning, I guess, that they know you have little or no choice, > so why do they need to be nice about it? Actually, carriers that bill for both air time and AT&T long distance on the same bill fall into two categories: "A" side carriers that are buying AT&T LD in bulk (very cheaply) and "B" side carriers (which were, before the Telecom Act "equal access" carriers) who have billing and collections (B&C) agreements with AT&T. The B side carriers that do have B&Cs are merely billing on AT&T's behalf, and usually there are discounts available on the LD portion of the bill -- similar to the wireline environment where LECs usually include LD carrier billing. B side carriers without B&C agreements will not have an LD portion on the bill, and AT&T bills the customer separately, and AT&T's discount plans can be applied to the LD bills. The A side carriers that are reselling the AT&T LD put AT&T on the bill to look good, but in fact (as you pointed out) charge the customer the full AT&T rate even though they have paid a discounted rate to AT&T. So they not only are getting margin on the airtime, but on the LD as well. The exception, after merging with AT&T, is the old McCaw (Cell One) now AT&T Wireless Services, which was an A side carrier but converted to equal access as part of the deal with the DOJ to merge with AT&T. So, it sounds like Babu's carrier is an A side carrier that locked him into a high-priced LD structure, and makes it appear that the high cost is due to AT&T, when in fact the carrier is making additional profit. Zev Rubenstein Independent Telecommunications Consultant ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: California Bill Seeks Internet Accountability Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 10:55:30 PDT Bill seeks Internet accountability; First legislation to address electronic consumer fraud. By Rebecca Smith Mercury News Consumer Writer SACRAMENTO -- The Internet is in its Wild West days, says Assemblywoman Jackie Speier. Now she and Attorney General Dan Lungren want to introduce a little law-and-order through a bill that would apply California mail-order laws to commercial transactions conducted over the Internet. If the bill passes, it will be the first of its kind in the nation. In a Capitol news conference Monday, Speier, D-South San Francisco, said AB 3320 is a "gentle approach" to the growing problem of electronic consumer fraud. It would require all vendors using the Internet to disclose their addresses and refund policies on the screen and to provide a toll-free means of resolving disputes. The bill will receive its first hearing before the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee today. While no formal opposition had announced itself Monday, Speier said she was trying to build a coalition behind the bill, of which her pairing with Lungren behind the measure was highly symbolic. Credit card companies, which suffer heavy losses from fraud, should be pleased by the bill. Speier said on-line customers can be cheated in one of two ways. A scam artist may obtain an identification number (credit card, Social Security, driver's license) and buy merchandise with it, or the goods and services consumers buy themselves either aren't delivered or turn out to be shoddy. "The standards for Internet commerce should be just as high as for telemarketers or mail order," said Speier, former chairwoman of the consumer committee. No one knows how many consumers are defrauded each year over the Internet. "We can't even get good numbers on Internet users, let alone fraud. It's just growing too fast," said Steve Telliano, press secretary for the attorney general's office. He said waiting any longer to establish protections makes no sense. Right now, it's nearly impossible for consumers to tell whether a vendor is reputable without conducting a transaction -- which may be risky. For example, one recent advertiser on the Internet claimed to be able to put people in touch with foundations offering huge cash grants. Another promoted high-risk stocks. A third promised a $24 cure for AIDS. Coinciding with the news conference was the release of a new study titled "Consumer Traps on the Internet" by the California Alliance for Consumer Protection, a Sacramento-based consumer organization. "Our report found lots of traps on the Internet," said Michael Ross, study author. "We aren't trying to impede the Internet but to make it a place that's safer for consumers." The report included a list of five common Internet complaints: -- Deceptive marketing practices. -- Inaccurate on-line information. -- Financial scams, frauds and impersonations. -- "Spamming" or the distribution of electronic junk mail. -- Copyright and trademark infringement. Ross said that consumers never should give credit card information via e-mail or register to gain access to free Web sites. "What many people don't know is that there is as big a market for e-mail lists as for mailing lists," said Ross. "This, often, is what these people really are after. Then they sell your name and information." Speier urged consumers to visit two Web sites devoted to alerting the public to Internet fraud. -- The National Fraud Information Center tells consumers about Internet scams and gives tips on how to avoid being victimized. Address: http://www.fraud.org. -- The California Alliance for Consumer Protection maintains a site containing several resources including the full report, "Consumer Traps on the Internet," and "The Top Ten Consumer Complaints," a report issued last autumn by the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee. Address: http://www.consumers.com. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 11:04:31 -0700 From: rlm@netcom.com (Robert McMillin) Subject: Coda to the "Livingston-Exon" Router Fracas; an NSA Sniffing Update Recently, an article in TELECOM Digest relayed an article appearing in {Inter@ctive Week} discussing Livingston's so-called "Exon" router. Internally they call this Choicenet. If you want to hear something approximating Livingston's story on this, check out the URL: This looks like a public news host, so I don't know if this URL is going to be around much longer. Also, it's not clear to me whether the author of this article is really authorized to act as a spokesman for Livingston. To refresh your memory, this router technology was supposed to shut off certain routes based on remote control from trusted users. I'm not generally in favor of such devices in the first place, since they pretty much can be used to treat adults like children, too. Still, if you believe the info at this URL, Livingston started work on this product long before Exon came around; his unconstitutional amendment just happened to be a marketing bonus. I guess we're just supposed to ignore the fact that Uncle Sam could use such technology at a NAP to shut off access to unwanted Internet sites, foreign or domestic. It's bad enough now that we have the NSA snooping on Internet traffic. According to an article in Jim Warren's GovAccess list, {Puzzle Palace} author Warren Madsen says his sources within both ISPs and government have told him that the following routers are being actively monitored by the NSA: FIX East (College Park, MD) FIX West (NASA Ames Research Center, Sunnyvale, CA) MAE West MAE East CIX (San Jose) SWAB ("a northern Virginia router operated by Bell Atlantic") NAP routers that may also be monitored: Pennsauken, NJ (operated by Sprint) Chicago (operated by AmeriTech and Bell Communications Research) San Francisco (operated by Pac Bell) In this case, monitoring equals "'sniffing' for specific key words and phrases", presumably in plaintext or encrypted e-mail. William Marlow, of the Science Applications International Corporation, and Paul Strassman, of the National Defense University (??), both report that the NSA can decrypt messages using keys of less than 1000 bits. They also reported that "a number of anonymous remailers in the US are run by government agencies scanning traffic". Supposedly, the NSA has deals with Microsoft, Lotus, and Netscape to prevent anonymous e-mail, as well as the "introduction of means to prevent the anonymity of Internet electronic mail, the use of cryptographic key-escrow, as well as software industry acceptance of the NSA-developed Digital Signature Standard (DSS)." Your tax dollars at work, friends. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com Ever feel like you're being watched? You will. ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: 888 Problem: Callers to Motorola Reaching Hospital Date: Tue, 8 May 1996 23:08:39 PDT Some Callers Seeking a Cell Phone Are Landing in a Hospital Instead Via AP By QUENTIN HARDY The Wall Street Journal Ordering Motorola's new phone could send you to the hospital. The cellular-telephone maker's ads in large U.S. newspapers for its new palm-sized cell phone, called the StarTac, feature a toll-free number with an 888 prefix that doesn't work on many phones. The problem: Some telephone systems aren't yet programmed for the prefix; the same problem occurs with many of the new area codes that are being introduced as the old area codes fill up. So potential customers have been trying the older toll-free 800 prefix -- and getting the Methodist Physician's Helpline, a service of the Methodist Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Anna Lee Gaia, the help line's support coordinator, isn't amused. "We got 300 calls a month on this line, then Motorola put an ad in the {Chicago Tribune} and I started getting 200 calls a day," she says. Ms. Gaia frets that doctors who call the hospital for advice can't get through because of the overload. Furthermore, she says, "some people are very rude" when they hear they've got the wrong number, insisting that the Methodist hospital could sell them the telephone. The snafu could be bad news for Motorola, since the programming problem is common among office-type phone networks, and the 3.1-ounce StarTac, which retails for between $1,399 and $1,995, is aimed at business users. On the other hand, the mix-up may also prove that StarTac is the hit Motorola was hoping for. Even with problems getting connected, real Motorola operators have been swamped with calls since the campaign started in early April. In Memphis, Ms. Gaia has steered so many people to a correct 800 number for Motorola sales (which unlike the current number doesn't spell "StarTac" but does spell "Edmgjo," among other possibilities) that she thinks Motorola "ought to be paying me a salary." So far, though, Motorola's telemarketers have only called to thank her "for being so nice to their customers," she says. Motorola initially wasn't aware of the wrong-number problem, but, when informed, Jim Cale, vice president of marketing, said of the Methodist Hospital operators: It is "nice they have patience with us ... that was a pun." ------------------------------ From: Larry.E.Holmen@cdc.com (larry.e.holmen) Subject: PBX Acceptance Criteria and Testing Date: 7 May 1996 18:44:35 GMT Organization: Control Data Systems, Inc. My company is evaluating moving from a CO based Centrex system to an in-house PBX. We have little if any PBX experience or expertise. One of the questions that has come up in our discussions has been "how is acceptance defined and measured?". If it were a mainframe we could easily come up a suite of test jobs and benchmarks, but its not. How are PBXs measured? I am sure that is not this the first time this question has been asked. Does anyone out there have any thoughts on this, experiences, examples, that they would be willing to share? The system will be a Nortel Meridian 1/81 system with about 1200 users. Regards and thanks, larry holmen control data systems leh1@cdsmail.cdc.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 14:32:58 +1000 From: paulb@geko.net.au (Paul Burgess) Subject: TMU Level Programming Reference Wanted Hi, I am looking for a good reference of TMU level programming of switches and equipment, Can anyone adivse a suitable text or URL? Paul Burgess Mobile: +61 414 414 375 Fax : +61 2 256 6057 Work: +61 2 256 6019 paulb@geko.com.au ------------------------------ From: Pat_Barron@transarc.com Subject: Programming Cable Pinout For Motorola Bravo Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 18:53:03 -0400 Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Can anyone tell me how to build one of these? I need to get to the pager via a PC (with the Motorola programming software). I'm guessing that the signals at the pager input are TTL levels, so I'd at least need to convert them to/from RS-232 levels. Assuming I even knew which pin was "transmit" and which was "receive"! :-) Any information would be welcome. Thanks, Pat ------------------------------ From: rz@Nikola.com (Robert Zeff) Subject: 1-800 Dealer Locators (We Want to Install One) Date: Tue, 07 May 1996 00:27:30 GMT Organization: SONNET Networking - Central Valley & Foothills (800)50-ONLINE We have an 800 dealer locator service that sucks. We are thinking it might be possible to do this ourselves with voicemail equipment. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks, Robert Zeff Nikola Systems rz@nikola.com CServe: 70323,1251 ------------------------------ From: cablemodem@aol.com (Cablemodem) Subject: Zenith Electronics/USR Telco Return RF Cable Modem Date: 6 May 1996 23:25:41 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: cablemodem@aol.com ZENITH (Cablemodem), U.S.ROBOTICS JOIN FORCES ON ENHANCED CABLE MODEM SYSTEMS Telco Return Option Benefits One-Way Cable Systems LOS ANGELES, April 29,1996 -- Zenith Electronics Corporation and U.S.Robotics today unveiled a new cable modem system that will enable the vast majority of cable operators with one-way systems to deliver lightning-fast data capabilitiy. U.S. Robotics is one of the world's leading suppliers of products and systems that provide access to information. The company designs, manufactures, markets and supports remote access servers, enterprise communications systems, desktop/mobile client products and modems and telephony products that connect computers and other equipment over analog, digital and switched cellular networks, enabling users to gain access to, manage and share data, fax and voice information. Its customers include Internet service providers, regional Bell operating companies, inter-exchange carriers and a wide range of other large and small businesses, institutions and individuals. The company's fiscal 1995 sales were $889.3 million; sales for the first six months of fiscal 1996 were $819.3 million. Zenith Electronics Corporation, based in Glenview, Ill., has been a leader in electronics for more than 75 years. Zenith's core business -- Consumer Electronics and Network Systems -- is at the center of the company's digital strategy, which includes interactive television, digital video disc players, digital and wireless cable, data communication and HDTV systems. Zenith is the industry- leading supplier of high-speed cable modems to more than 300 cable systems worldwide. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #224 ******************************