Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id UAA17305; Wed, 1 May 1996 20:35:26 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 20:35:26 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick A. Townson) Message-Id: <199605020035.UAA17305@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #209 TELECOM Digest Wed, 1 May 96 20:35:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 209 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MFS Purchases UUNET (TELECOM Digest Editor) MIT Internet Telephony Interoperability (Gill Cable-Murphy) AT&T Doesn't Know When to Stop (Atri Indiresan) Adult Entertainment Lines (Scott Enriquez) ISDN Conference (Bob Larribeau) Big Problems With AT&T WorldNet Service (Greg Eiche) Competition and Anti-Trust (turner7@pacsibm.org) Further Notes to Those Who Ordered Clocks (Eric Roellig) Wanted to Buy: Manuals for Dialogic/Gammalink (Les Kula) ITU Standards on OAM (Steve Liu) Employment Opportunity: Communication Jobs (Leslie Farrell) Possible Work-Around to Avoid 911 ANI? (Philip Evans) Suing AT&T/Nynex For Credit Card Charges (Danny Burstein) Microsoft Funding Ends June 30; Corporate Sponsor Needed (Digest Editor) 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: Wed, 1 May 1996 17:49:29 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: MFS Purchases UUNET In an interesting business development late Tuesday, MFS Communications Company, Inc announced it is buying UUNET Technologies, a major supplier of Internet service. This will be done in a stock deal worth just over two billion dollars. MFS is the name for Metropolitan Fiber System, which began as a small private telecommunication service in Manhattan, New York just a few years ago. It is now based in Omaha, Nebraska. MFS competes with regional Bell companies in the business market for data and telephone services. UUNET, which is based in Fairfax, Virginia and is thirteen percent owned by Microsoft Corporation is well known on the Internet as a major site for the transfer of news. It has a large number of customers of its own and in addition it priovides Internet access for the Microsoft Network. It focuses much of its Internet access service on the business market. In a press release Tuesday, the companies said the merger will create a single source for Internet, voice, other data and video services over its international fiber optic network. "This merger is especially compelling because of the unique fit between MFS and and UUNET," said MFS Chairman James Crowe. "Because there is substantial overlap between our networks, we can improve our margins," he said. The deal promises to accelerate the rapid integration of voice and Internet-based communications. It could also resolve some of the bottle- necks that constrain wider use of the Inernet for data, voice and video communications. As part of MFS, UUNET will be the only Internet service provider to own or control fiber optic networks for local, intercity and undersea connections in the United States as well as France, Britain and Germany. Internet providers usually must lease these facilities from telephone companies. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said his organization fully supported the deal. Under the terms of the merger which will be will be implemented in phases over the next few months, UUNET shareholders will control about thirty percent of the combined stock. The announcement on Tuesday caused UUNET's stock to jump $10.50 to $58.75 per share while MFS stock fell a little over six cents to $34.56, both according to Nasdaq. I am wondering what Digest readers think of this, and what differences they see in the months ahead in the performance of the two companies. In particular, what about UUNET and its long standing role with the net for many years. Comments welcome. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 14:15:58 -0400 From: gcm@rpcp.mit.edu (Gill Cable-Murphy) Subject: MIT Internet Telephony Interoperability "MIT to Form Internet Telephony Consortium" Contact: Lee McKnight (617) 253-0995 mcknight@rpcp.mit.edu http://rpcp.mit.edu/~itel/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology is announcing the formation of the Internet Telephony Interoperability Project. An informational meeting will be held on May 7 at MIT for all firms that might be interested in joining. Internet telephony applications span traditional telecommunications infrastructures and the Internet enabling the development of new personal communications services. Among them is the use of the Internet for long distance calls. The project will be based in MIT's Research Program on Communications Policy (RPCP), a multidisciplinary research group focusing on infrastructures' interoperability and Internet economics. The project will be multidisciplinary in nature and will consider technical, economic, regulatory and business issues that are presented by Internet telephony. RPCP has succeeded at highlighting the need for interoperability for high bandwidth applications such as digital television and networked multimedia and is extending its ground breaking work to the intersection point between the Internet and the Public Switched Telephone Network. Internet telephony has already presented regulatory concerns. For example, America's Carriers Telecommunications Association, a lobbying organization for non-dominant long distance carriers, has filed a petition before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). A graduate student team at MIT has been organized to study the petition and will provide comments to the FCC. An information clearinghouse about the petition can be reached at: http://rpcp.mit.edu/~itel/acta/ MIT has shown its leadership in the development of the Internet most recently through the formation of the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT's Laboratory of Computer Science which develops standards for the World Wide Web. MIT's Laboratory of Computer Science has played a key role in the development of protocols for the Internet, and will be advising the project. More information about the project can be found on the Web at: http://rpcp. mit.edu/~itel/ ------------------------------ Subject: AT&T Doesn't Know When to Stop Date: Wed, 01 May 1996 14:33:10 -0400 From: Atri Indiresan Here's another twist on checks for LD switching. I live in University housing, and we have to use their phone service for local and long distance. However, this has not stopped AT&T from calling me at least three times asking me to switch to them. Each time I explained to them that given the nature of my phone service, it was not possible to me to make the switch to them, or anyone else. Yesterday, I received a check for $100 which, if I encash, authorizes them to switch me to their LD service (with 40% True Reach savings for the first 6 months). I really have no objection to being switched to AT&T - their rates seem better than what I get now. Do you think I should encash the check, and let them try to switch my LD service? Once they realize that I cannot be switched, maybe they will stop pestering me by phone? The way I see it, in spite my of telling them more than once that I cannot be switched, if they send me a check for $100, they deserve to lose the money. Comments? I have till May 23 to cash the check. Atri Indiresan ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 22:55:54 -0700 From: Scott Enriquez Subject: Adult Entertainment Lines I am new to this list and I have a question that has been bugging me for awhile. In my line of work, I see a lot of AEL calls on customers' bills that, of course, they do not claim. But what I'm wondering is how do these types of places make any money? I'm sure that, probably, some use customers' credit cards to be billed in addition to the normal international call. But there are some places like: Guyana & Sao Tome that you can just dial straight through and talk with someone on the other end and I don't believe that they ask for any credit information. I've never really stayed on the line long enough, once I determine that it is indeed an AEL, to find out. I'd appreciate any answers that anyone has on this puzzling question. In addition, it seems *subscription fraud has become a big problem in particular regions of the country (mostly the BellSouth region). Is there any reason that BellSouth has more of this type fraud than USWest, Ameritech, SouthWestern Bell and NYNEX combined? Are the other companies just more capable of keeping the problem under control or does BellSouth just have that many more customers that it can't be helped? *(assigning telephone numbers to customers who run up their phone bill thousands of dollars and then split only to be reassigned, in some cases, another number under another name to do it again) Scott Enriquez [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In those situations where you can dial through to a sex line and not be required to provide any billing infor- mation, the provider of the service makes his money via kickbacks or commissions from the long distance carrier serving the point. Many of those places have a very out of balance account with the American telcos regards the amounts each owe the other for traffic handled. Many very small foreign countries are chronically in debt to the USA carriers since most of their traffic is to the USA rather than the other way around. A good way to reverse that trend they have found is by inducing people here to call there. Now, how do you do that? Well, you create a reason for traffic in your favor to exist which would not occur otherwise. A good market for this are all the guys who are into phone sex and who are otherwise sick and tired of having outlandish charges on their bill for calls to 900 numbers, or charges on their credit cards for the same thing. So you take the charges for calls to international points which are higher than domestic USA calls; you inflate them just a little bit more but so they are still priced much less than calls to some 900 numbers, and then you run advertising in the media which will likely attract the customers you are trying to reach inviting people to call your phone sex service 'for free'. You tell them no charge to use the service; all you pay is the international toll charge. That, to many of your customers, seems like a better deal -- and by and large it is cheaper -- so they flock to your phone sex service and quit using the one with the 900 number which is 'ripping them off'. Now all of a sudden, instead of a few measly calls every day to some third-world country from the USA, telco is suddenly getting thousands of incoming calls, all from hungry men in the United States lookng for nourishment. The local telecom administration in the third- world country is pleased to see this, because it helps get rid of that nasty imbalance in their books with AT&T, Sprint and MCI. The telco there agrees to give the proprietor of the service -- unless they themselves happen to be running it, which is not unheard of -- a commission, or piece of the action on all incoming calls. A dime for this one, twenty five cents for that one, etc ... the guy who runs it does not have to charge you the caller anything -- and in fact that is his stock in trade -- because the local telecom takes care of him nicely as long as he manages to keep the American men all stirred up and excited and on the phone daily making obscene calls to whoever he has on his end of the line listening to them and encouraging them to continue what they are doing. This scheme could only work in America, or more specifically, from America outbound to those points. Stop and think about it; I think you will agree. All those guys in other countries do in fact take calls from all over the world, but nothing makes their balance with the American telcos look as sweet as the gay guys in the United States calling to discuss their fantasies with new friends around the world, via some conference bridge in the Netherland Antilles or Guyana. The rest of the world put together gives them about ten percent of the traffic, with the Americans generating the other ninety percent or more. It is not all from the USA outbound however. AT&T has a deal going with that guy in Nevada who operates the gay conference bridge which seems to be packed night after night. You dial a 702 number, and if your telco gives it to AT&T, when AT&T sees it they convert it to some other number and send it via their own T-1 to the bridge. What they save in local access charges they don't have to pay to the Nevada telco, they split with the bridgetender. If you try to call that same 702 number on anything other than AT&T (for example Sprint) then the call goes straight through to the bridgetender on his POTS line where it is answered without billing supervision and the caller is told 'to reach this number you must dial 10288 first, then one plus the number.' For obvious reasons, he does not want anyone on the bridge who he won't get payment for. In some cases you may just get a busy signal if he leaves his POTS lines off hook all the time. In other words you are forced to use AT&T to call the number (or whatever carrier runs it; there are many and I do not mean to single out AT&T on this.) In New Jersey you will find some 201 numbers which terminate in a place where you can speak with astrologers, along with Tarot practioners, numerologists and related 'sciences'. But the numbers are never advertised in the USA! Where *are* they advertised? In all the newspapers in Spain and Portugal, and newspapers in some African countries, with the same 'generous' offer from the proprietors: 'Use the service free! All you pay is toll.' Whatever is the equivilent of the {National Enquirer} or the {Weekly World News} in those countries are full of these ads, always involving a call to the USA. I guess the USA carriers say turn about is fair play; if the telecom in Guyana is going to hustle the gay guys here in the States, then they'll work on superstitious old women in Europe. Advertisment seen once in the {Advocate} newspaper: Picture shows very muscular, attractive men mostly naked but of course wearing boots and leather jackets. Some have handcuffs; others have whips. One is dressed like a police officer. The caption underneath read, "Reach Out and Touch a New Friend using the AT&T Long Distance Network. Hundreds of men waiting to talk to you now, and have you tell them what you would like to do to them. Absolutely no charge! All you pay is toll." You were then advised to "call this 'special' number" followed by 10288-011, a country code and number. The only thing 'special' about it was it was international and in the advertising it was parsed in such a way to make it confusing looking to the average person. It was not the sort of advertisement Ma Bell would run in the {New York Times} to announce new custom calling features or changes in calling plan rates. :) So to answer your question, that is how they make money. And when you have someone claim they know nothing about it, whatever you do, don't fall for their 'injured consumer fighting giant corporation' routine. They know perfectly well what they called, and just like in the old days when it was all done via 900, now that they've had their fun they don't see why they should have to pay for it. Tell them to pay or get sued. For all intents and purposes, telcos do not make mistakes on long distance billings. Well, they do ... but you know what I mean. You'll notice the deadbeats who are always asking telco to write these off rarely give the credit card offices the same kind of sass when they make the same calls via credit card billing. They know telco is easily intimidated and will give them whatever they ask where the credit card office is far more likely to make them pay or put them in collection and place them with an agency, letting them do the 'injured consumer who has been cheated by the giant corporation' routine with the bill collectors. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bob@larribeau.com (Bob Larribeau) Subject: ISDN Conference Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 22:49:22 -0700 Organization: Larribeau Associates The California ISDN Users' Group will be holding its Spring ISDNworld conference June 5 & 6 at the LAX Hilton. Check out our web site for details: http://www.ciug.org/isdnworld/ There will be over 20 sessions and tutorials. 50 different companies will be exhibiting their ISDN products. This is the biggest ISDN-only conference in the U.S. The North American ISDN Users' Forum will be meeting in conjunction with us at the LAX Hilton. Their meeting will be June 3 through June 5. Hope to see you there. Bob Larribeau California ISDN Users' Group ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 19:08:53 PDT From: Greg Eiche Subject: Big Problems With AT&T WorldNet Service Does anybody have any insight in the problems that AT&T WorldNet has been having in registering new accounts? I tried to register for a new account today with the software they just sent me, and was unsuccessful. When I called AT&T's tech support, I was told that their server was overloaded with people trying to sign up and that they were having major problems. I couldn't help but laugh when I recalled all the reports that AT&T was going to give the ISPs a real run for their money. It's quite amazing that the world's largest telecom can't get it right!! I, for one, plan to stick with my local ISP ... ------------------------------ From: turner7@pacsibm.org (TUrner-7) Subject: Competition and Anti-Trust Date: 1 May 1996 02:38:46 GMT Organization: PACS IBM SIG BBS With the announcement of the Bell Atlantic/Nynex merger, many public officials voiced fears of a "monopoly" and anti-trust violations as a result, and called for investigations. I don't understand why this particular merger is raising so much concern, when other mega-mergers in the communications industry and in the business world in general don't raise any eyebrows. For example, Time Warner owns my local cable company, and they're quite ready to throw their weight around in dictating franchise terms to local municipalities. They have a monopoly in service. In addition, Time Warner is a distributor as it owns HBO and Cinemax, plus of course Warner Bros is a major film studio. No one seems to have a problem with this, so why should a local phone company be any different? In the Philadelphia area, there's been a spate of bank mergers, resulting in only FOUR large banks, only ONE is based in the city. No one objected to those acquisitions. In retailing, the last city owned department has been sold -- it's stores will be merged with stores of an outside owned chain or closed, giving consumers significantly less choice of where to buy. Again, no objection, indeed, we hear the praises of "increased efficiency and savings". Comments appreciated. ------------------------------ Subject: Further Notes to Those Who Ordered Clocks Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 15:29:42 CDT From: roellig@cig.mot.com (Eric Roellig) Reply-To: roellig@cig.mot.com TELECOM Digest Editor writes: > This is a note to those of you who contacted Jim Hill regards getting > Western Union clocks. Pat, I finally got mine last week. One side of the case has a rather large rust spot. The glass front of this one is in perfect order. The hands are a little bent but I think I got them worked out. The internal works have some light rust covering but it does run! I wound it by hand and hung it on the wall for a while and it tick-tocked away for over an hour. I haven't given it enough electricity to wind on its own but I did touch a few c-cell ni-cads to the wire and I think it will wind. I just love the way it winds!! A couple of the numbers on the face are scratched and the face has a couple of bends in it. I'm not sure if I can get the face completely flattened out or not. I haven't tried the resetting circuit yet but it does have the light you mentioned when the resetting circuit is activated. Some of the red paint is scratched off the light. Anyone know of a good substitute to use to repaint? I can see how this could be the beginning of an addictive hobby :) Thanks for spreading the word on these wonderful clocks. Eric roellig@cig.mot.com (Eric Roellig) Motorola CIG +1-847-632-5774 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am not really a clock collector, but I love collecting the old Western Union clocks, with all the different models and styles they had. You can *carefully* repair the scratches on the dial with the proper color of paint. The little light bulb which was intended to illuminate for just a half second on the setting can be replaced, but it is hard to find 3.2 or 6.3 volt 'bayonet' bulbs that size which also have red glass on the front. I use red fingernail polish. Lightly and carefully touch the tiny brush with the fingernail polish on the bulb as needed. Just like when doing your nails! Since there is no longer a setting circuit, the bulb would not be used much. You might want to rewire the clock so the bulb illuminates on the winding rather than on the setting. That way you get to see the bulb flash on each time the clock rewinds itself. All you have to do is move one of the wires from the bulb to the chassis ground on the clock and the other to the proper side of the little contacts which connect for winding. Then you jump the contacts which before had caused the bulb to illuminate when the arm fell down which grabs the minute hand to yank it into place. The power supply is critical. If you use two 1.5 volt batteries *and* have the light on there, the batteries will run down fast, like after a few months. On one clock I use four 1.5 volt batteries but the resulting six volts is a bit more than the winder would like, so having that bulb in there to pull some of the current away helps out. Obviously a 3.2 volt bulb will burn out right away. A 6.3 volt bulb lights nicely and steals enough current that the winder gets a nice (but not big) portion of the juice. On the others I own, they share an AC/DC transformer which gives them 4.5 volts when they call for it. If you are going to go with strictly three volts from a transformer then I would say use a 3.2 volt bulb, otherwise it never gets very bright and the poor clock takes the better part of a minute to wind as the winder pulls very slowly when it is starved for juice. Two of mine wind hourly; one taking eight seconds and the other taking about twelve or thirteen seconds. The 'newest' one I have with the sweep second hand winds every five minutes for a total of one second each time. The minute hand can go on at various ninety degree angles so you want to make sure when putting it on you install it in the one position where when moved backwards it won't go backwards past the twelve. If you want to get clever and put a pseudo-setting circuit on it, note the little hole in the top where the WUTCO wires used to come out. From Radio Shack, get a mini push-button switch of the normally off type. It will fasten right in that little hole. Use some double sided tape to stick a nine volt battery on the back wall of the case and wire it in series through the switch to the setting circuit. Now when you tap that little mini-push button on the top of the case and provided the clock is within two minutes of either side of the hour, the battery will energize the magnet which grabs the arm and drops it on the gears of the minute hand, yanking it straight up to the twelve. Using NAVOBS or NIST, when the time is exactly at the hour, tap that little button just for a half second and the clock will instantly set to the correct time. If you *carefully* regulate the pendulum and have the clock hanging *perfectly level* you can get it to the point manual adustments seldom need to be done more than once a month for a few seconds of discrepancy. Whatever you do, do *not* scrap the movement inside and replace it with a quartz movement or an electric movement. If that's the way you feel about it, :( -- send me the works; I can always use spares in rebuilding my others, etc. I love the way they wind up also! The soft 'whirring' noise is pretty neat. I wish I could find a master clock somewhere; I have enough slave clocks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lkula@eng.sun.com (Les Kula) Subject: Wanted to Buy: Manuals for Dialogic/Gammalink Date: 30 Apr 1996 00:24:21 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc. Reply-To: lkula@eng.sun.com WTB: I) Manuals for Dialogic T-1 card : 1) Voice Software Reference 2) Network Interface Software Reference Guide II) Gammalink Gammafax CP4LSI Fax Reference manual III) Any other related manuals Please respond directly to my e-mail address. Les ------------------------------ From: Steve Liu Subject: ITU Standards on OAM Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 10:47:02 -0400 I'm doing some research on Operations and Management standards, more specifically front end standards for managing and controlling telephony services and wanted to see what kind of standards are supported by ITU or any other international standards committee. I tried to look up the ITU web site (www.itu.ch), however, the gopher engine was unhelpful in that it didn't lead me to any abstracts that could tell me if the document was what I needed and I didn't want to buy all of them! Any help on this subject would be appreciated. Steve Liu liu@amarex.com ------------------------------ From: twbiweekly@aol.com (TWBIWEEKLY) Subject: Employment Opportunities: Communication Jobs Date: 01 May 1996 19:31:39 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: twbiweekly@aol.com (TWBIWEEKLY) Telephony Works Bi-Weekly is featuring a new employer in the April 29th issue. Hickory Tech Corporation (HTC), a communications holding company based in Mankato, Minnesota, offers a variety of career opportunities in the following subsidiaries: Mankato Citizens Telephone Company-Minnesota & Iowa National Independent Billing-Minnesota Digital Techniques, Inc.-Texas Collins Communication Systems, Co.-Minnesota Free issues are available to anyone who is interested in alternative employment options and/or listing your own individual ad at no cost. Send your snail-mail address and we will post the April 29th issue to you. Web site is coming!!!!!!!! This forum is by and for industry workers who would like to explore the job market in the local, long distance, wireless, ATM, PCS fields. Resumes for the June issue will be accepted through 5/31/96 ( fax to 817/444-8137). Good luck and best wishes in your job search from TWB! Leslie Farrell Publisher/Editor 817/444-8125 Fax: 817/444-8137 ------------------------------ From: pevans@mindlink.bc.ca (philip evans) Subject: Possible Work-Around to Avoid 911 ANI? Date: Wed, 01 May 1996 17:18:56 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada If I do *67 and call the local non-emergency number, and then get transferred to the dispatcher; and assuming that the non-emergency number does not have ANI but the dispatch number does, can the dispatcher do ANI after the call has started? PS. Um, I know how CID works and when -- that's why I'm asking. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 May 1996 17:24:35 EDT From: danny burstein Subject: Suing AT&T/Nynex For Credit Card Charges Article: misc.legal.moderated.15593 Message-ID: From: TopBell@news-e2d.gnn.com (Glenn Stok) Subject: Looking for Attorney to sue AT&T I am looking for an attorney who would be interested in suing AT&T in a class action for several companies. The issue is as follows and happens to answering services, such as mine, who have hundreds of phone numbers and provide these numbers to the public for the purpose of automated voice mail ... A criminal will "rent" a phone number from an answering service and then order a calling card from AT&T. They provide the number we give them, and AT&T sends the card without checking if they are sending it to an address that matches the phone number. They use the card and we get billed. Long distance takes as much as two months for billing via our local phone company, Nynex. So the thief gets two months of free calls before we find out about it. We have provided AT&T with a list of all our numbers with a request that they refrain from honoring any requests for calling cards billed to these numbers. We continue to find billings for new cards every few months. One time it amounted to $4000 of fraudulent phone calls. It takes many hours of numerous phone calls with the local phone company (Nynex in our case) and AT&T, to get the fraudulent charges removed. This time translates into lost revenue for all answering services who need deal with this. None of us seem to be able to stop this problem with over a year of several reoccurrences. Maybe only a lawsuit will stop it and allow compensation for lost time fighting each occurrence. If you are an attorney experienced with telephone fraud and you are interested in this case, please email me. Glenn Stok, Pres. Stok Software, Inc. email: TopBell@gnn.com I welcome your visit to http://www.stok.com for your Voice Mail software needs. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 14:52:06 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick A. Townson) Subject: Microsoft Funding to End June 30; Corporate Sponsorship Needed I mentioned several days ago that Microsoft has decided to discontine their financial support of the Digest effective June 30. It is not just a matter of this Digest; they do not feel in general this sort of thing fits into their plans at the present time. Above all, first and foremost, they are owed a great deal of thanks for the assistance they gave me over the past year. I am very grateful for it, and without them the Digest would not have been in publication. The fact remains however that corporate support is needed urgently for the year ahead, and I would like to speak with people who can make this happen. The need is very great. Thank you, Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #209 ******************************