Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id AAA28752; Sun, 29 Dec 1996 00:07:31 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 00:07:31 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199612290507.AAA28752@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #683 TELECOM Digest Sun, 29 Dec 96 00:07:00 EST Volume 16 : Issue 683 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T's New Prepaid Phone Card (Mark J. Cuccia) Prepaid Phone Card Scams (Tad Cook) Re: The InterNIC: A Case Study in Bad Database Management (Lars Poulsen) Cellular Translations (was Dialing Procedures and Charging) (Stan Cline) Re: AT&T Merlin Used Equipment Needed (Don Ritchie) Utah, 385, 435 and Possibilities (John Cropper) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 15:51:43 -0800 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: AT&T's New Prepaid Phone Card In the mail at home the other day, I received a promotion from AT&T. It was a gift of one of their new pre-paid Phone Cards with 100-units of calling! This is part of their new "Personal Account Service" for 'special' customes. I am a high-volume toll user of AT&T's service, incidently. Regarding the prepaid (actually gift) card, it is good for 100 units of calls, in which domestic calls (which, of course, includes Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands) are 1 unit per minute. International calls are "rated" as follows: Canada, Mexico ......... 3 units per minute United Kingdom ......... 3 units per minute non-US Caribbean ....... 4 units per minute Central/South America .. 4 units per minute Japan, Australia ....... 4 units per minute Asia/Pacific ........... 5 units per minute The dialing procedures to use this card are as follows: Dial up the 800 number printed on the back of the card. This number is *NOT* 800-CALL-ATT nor 800-3210-ATT. Voice-recording prompts are now heard, welcoming you to the service. DTMF enter the prepaid card number. It is ten-digits in length, rather than fourteen. The ten-digits on my card are of the form NXX-NXX-XXXX. I don't know if the fourth digit in ten-digit card number could be '1' or '0', or if the first digit could be '1' or '0' as well. It possibly could, as I don't think that you can 'cut thru' to an operator when using this card. More voice-recording prmpts are now heard -- first indicating how many units are remaining on the card, and if enough, then instructing you to enter '1' if the call is in the US, Canada or the Caribbean, then the area code and local seven digit number; *OR* to enter the country code plus city-code and local number of a country outside of North America. NOTE: *** "You do not need to enter the 011 before the country code, because AT&T does it for you." *** In other words, you are entering the 'full worldwide' telephone number, without any 'access prefixes'. Calls within the NANP are preceded with a '1' (which you do normally dial from a home/business phone on 'station sent paid' calls, anyhow), and all calls to non-NANP locations are dialed with the country code first, and then continuing. If there are enough units on the card, the call will go through. If you get a busy, no-answer, or intercept/vacant type of recording, you can hit the '#' button and redial that call or place another call, or hang up. At the end of a completed call, when the called party hangs up, you then hear how many units remain on the card. If you wish to call another number, hit the '#' button, and enter the number as desrcibed above, or hang up. When only one minute remains on the card, an announcement will 'cut-in'. You can then enter another valid prepaid card number to continue. There are another 800 numbers for customer service, as well as for my "Personal Account Representative." On the terms and conditions, it mentions that the card can't be used from rotary phones (unless you have a portable touchtone signaling dialer - like the one I have from Radio Shack), nor can it be used to call 700, 800, or 900 calls. It doesn't mention anything about 500 number calls, however. Nor can the card be used for certain types of operator assisted calls such as 3rd-party billing or collect (how would anyone want to use a prepaid card, but then place calls to 800 numbers, or billed collect/3rd-party?), nor can the card be used calls to Directory Assistance. (I don't understand why one or more units can't be deducted for DA, even with 'Directory Link' connecting the call. Maybe it is because that DA is a 'fixed' charge, and if you connected to the number looked up, it couldn't deduct those units.) The card has no surrender value and is not refundable. As for me, I consider it a nice gift from AT&T! (And, I've used it a lot already, and I only have 7-units remaining out of the initial 100!) *However*, I don't like the way you enter all NANP numbers as 1+ten-digits, and all non-NANP calls as their full worldwide number but without the 011+. I've mentioned it to the customer service already that even though the instructions are printed on the card, and I am aware of them, I am not always in the habit of entering a '1+' when entering in a called NANP number on various carriers' 'card' services accessed with 950-xxxx or 800/888 numbers, whether the initial call, or a sequence call after the '#' (pound) button. And for calls to non-NANP countries placed via a calling card with AT&T and other carriers (accessed with 950-xxxx and 800/888 numbers), I am always accustomed to entering '011+' or '01+' and then the country code, etc. With my 'regular' AT&T and BellSouth cards, I can enter sequence calls to NANP numbers as ten-digits, 1+ten-digits, or sometimes even 0+ten-digits. And all sequence calls to non-NANP locations as 01(1)+cc+nn+(#). And sequence calls include the 'initial' number when using fg.B (or like) access with a 950-xxxx or 800/888 number, rather than (10(1X)XXX)+0/01+ fg.D access. I even accidently placed a one-minute (4-units deducted) call 'sequence' call to Honduras (Country Code +504) when I really intended to call Baton Rouge LA (area code 504 within the NANP, +1), because when I finished with the earlier call and then hit '#', I entered the NANP ten-digit number without first entering '1+'. And since '01(1)+' isn't required, the 504 was picked up as Honduras' country code, rather than southeastern Louisiana's area code! My "personal account representative" told me that she understood that this could be confusing or misleading, and she would see if she could credit me. I hope that AT&T takes this into consideration; and I am also pleased with the friendliness and response from the "Personal Account Representative" to see if she could credit me! And the card/account itself was really a gift ... something I didn't have to pay for ... except that I am a high-toll-volume customer of AT&T. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE/CABLE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ Subject: Prepaid Phone Card Scams Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 00:11:33 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Scam Artists Cheat Buyers of Prepaid Telephone Cards By Simon Barker-Benfield, The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Dec. 27--A $25,000 fine by the Florida Public Service Commission is a warning flag to consumers to make sure companies selling prepaid phone cards can deliver on the service. "It's a buyer-beware market,"said Rick Moses, a PSC communications engineer supervisor. Last week, the commission said it fined I.S.C. International Telecommunications, (copy is garbled here) ... service providers, including AT&T, GTE and MCI. "The cost of entry is so low that it almost encourages three different classes of people; the undercapitalized, the talent impaired and the ethically challenged," Segermark said. There have been problems with service providers selling more time than they have bought. Other tricks include delivering 54 seconds of calling time but charging for 60 seconds, or increasing charges without warning, Segermark said. There have also been problems with inadequate equipment. Segermark said he knew of companies who had gone into business with a toll-free "800" number, an old personal computer designed for home use and four modems. "It's a small number of ripoff artists, but it hurts all legitimate service providers," Segermark. I.S.C. International Telecommunications was not fined for cheating customers. It was fined for not following state rules for offering telephone service. Certification by the state of Florida is no guarantee that a service provider can deliver what it says it will deliver. But at least it requires demonstration of a minimum level of resources. "They must prove their managerial, financial and technical capability," said Moses. Companies must also file a price list. One problem for regulators is that companies market the cards for a period of time in a given area, then close up shop and move on. Some of the companies are selling in Florida from bases in other states. For instance, the PSC is having trouble tracking down I.S.C. International Telecommunications. It first refused to accept a registered letter from the PSC at its Biscayne Boulevard offices in Miami in July. A second letter was returned with the notation "moved, no forwarding address," said Paula Islar, the PSC investigator on the case. Telephone numbers listed on the company's prepaid card have been disconnected. The account at BellSouth was listed in the name of Interglobal Services Corp., according to PSC filings. Phone card buyers can check to see whether their phone card company is registered with the Public Service Commission by calling the division of communications at (904) 413-6600 and talking to Tommy Williams or Moses. Consumers can also find out whether a service provider is a member of the International Telecard Association by calling 1-800-333-3513. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Interesting that AT&T was one of the companies fined for poor performance in this area when considering the marketing push they are making at this time according to the earlier article in this issue by Mark Cuccia. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lars@anchor.RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: The InterNIC: A Case Study in Bad Database Management Date: 28 Dec 1996 18:06:07 -0800 Organization: RNS / Meret Communications In article kd1hz@anomaly. ideamation.com (Michael P. Deignan) writes: > You think that trying to change existing Internic records are bad, > just try getting a new block of IP address assignments from them! > I manage a large munipical wide-area-network. I filed paperwork with > the Internic on several occasions asking for a block of Class-C IP > address assignments to use on my network. > The response, each time, was that I should contact my ISP and obtain > IP address allocations from them. As surprising as this may seem to you, this is the correct answer. > So, I wrote back explaining that I was a large municipal wide-area > network, and like many municipalities, the ISP was not 'set-in-stone' > as it was a service that goes out to competitive bid every year or so. > I explained that I was in no position to manually re-assign the IP > address on the hundreds of machines under my control on a yearly basis > should the ISP winning the contract change. > Their response? "Please contact your ISP for an IP address allocation". You seem to assume that if you were to get a "class C" sized address assignment from the InterNIC ("provider-independent addresses"), it would be globally routable, even if you change ISPs. The truth is that it would not be routable ANYWHERE. As the global Internet routing tables are now well over 30,000 entries, service providers are refusing to advertise routes to networks whose addresses cannot be aggregated into larger blocks. The only way to make small amounts of address space aggregatable, is to assign it out of a larger block assigned to the service provider ... then all other providers can just maintain a single route for the entire aggregated block. Small networks (less than a few thousand hosts) MUST renumber when their connectivity changes. The only exceptions are for addresses issued prior to about 1993, when this policy was instituted. That old address space (192.*.*.*) is known among network operators as the "Toxic Waste Dump" because it is totally unstructured and cannot be aggregated. You may ask why we can have telephone number portability for individual numbers in the 800- and 888- service codes, but not for blocks of a few hundred IP addresses? The answer is that telephone numbers need to be looked up and routed only once per call, and as you may have experienced, it takes a few seconds. On the other hand, IP-addresses need to be looked up at each router for each packet passing through, and at some major routing points, the flow is over a quarter million packets PER SECOND. > I went through this four times over the past year. I still don't have > a block of IP addresses. I gave up six months ago and just selected a > block at random to use. If and when we ever do connect to the Internet > (not a high priority right now anyway) I'll worry about it then (and > probably use another tool like a proxy server to "fix" it.) If you don't need the addresses to be routable or globally unique, you can use the addresses SPECIFICALLY SET ASIDE FOR LOCAL ADMINISTRATION. See RFC1597: "Address Allocation for Private Internets". A quote: The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the following three blocks of the IP address space for private networks: 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 It is unfortunate, if nobody explained this to you at the time, but this particular issue has been given *a lot* of thought. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@OSICOM.COM OSICOM Technologies (Internet Business Unit, formerly RNS) 7402 Hollister Avenue Telefax: +1-805-968-8256 Santa Barbara, CA 93117 Telephone: +1-805-562-3158 ------------------------------ From: roamer1@pobox.com (Stanley Cline) Subject: Cellular Translations (was Dialing Procedures and Charging) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 00:21:46 GMT Organization: Catoosa Computing Services Reply-To: roamer1@pobox.com On Fri, 27 Dec 1996 11:21:53 -0800, you wrote: > the 'SEND' button be pressed ... with my cellular, I can *still* even > make 0+ calls in the 504 area code as _0+seven-digits+SEND_, whether > enter 0+504+seven-digits+SEND. Same goes for toll calls in 504 to the > Baton Rouge LATA ... I can enter seven-digits+SEND, 1+seven-digits+SEND, To comment: This does *not* work in BSM/Chattanooga for all calls, mainly because the Chatt local area is split between two area codes. Local customers of BSM can dial seven digits for calls *within MOST of the Chattanooga LATA/local calling area* whether the area code is 423 or 706. HOWEVER, there are numbers that must STILL be dialed as TEN digits, even though there's NO conflict: 706-397 Villanow, GA LOCAL, but STILL ROUTED BY BSM AS INTERLATA CALL, THROUGH SPRINT <-- I have complained about this but their MTSO techs won't change the translations. ALLTEL, the LEC In this area, says these calls should be routed as intRALATA... Oh FCC... 423-496, 706-492 Copper Basin, TN/GA = LOCAL on most plans (there is no B-side cellular here, of course) 706-462 Rising Fawn, GA INTERLATA TOLL (even though this area is INSIDE the Chatt LATA, and really should be LOCAL.) 205-437 Bridgeport, AL INTERLATA TOLL (again, withIN the Chatt LATA) (This is nearly as bad as ALLTEL's stupidity of requiring 7/10/11 digits for different local calls in the LaFayette, GA area.) Calls outside the Chatt LATA (to Knoxville, Dalton/Atlanta, etc.) whether toll is charged or not must be dialed as ten digits. Both ten and eleven digits are allowed as permissive for all calls. Examples: to call someone in Chatt (local): 265-xxxx, 423-265-xxxx, 1-423-265-xxxx all work. to call someone in Rossville, GA: 861-xxxx, 706-861-xxxx, 1-706-861-xxxx to call someone in Knoxville: 423-522-xxxx, 1-423-522-xxxx to call someone in Nashville: 615-386-xxxx, 1-615-386-xxxx to call LA, CA: 213-221-xxxx, 1-213-221-xxxx to call an 800 number: 800-222-xxxx, 1-800-222-xxxx CellularOne/GTE allows the dialing of seven digits for all of NPA 423, and requires the area code for intra-region (within SID 93*) calls that are "local", and 1+ the area code for out-of-region (outside SID 93*) calls: to call someone in Chatt (local): 265-xxxx, 423-265-xxxx, 1-423-265-xxxx to call someone in Rossville, GA: 706-861-xxxx, 1-706-861-xxxx to call someone in Knoxville: 522-xxxx, 423-522-xxxx, 1-423-522-xxxx to call someone in Nashville: 1-615-386-xxxx (even though call is rated for most customers as "local") to call LA, CA: 1-213-221-xxxx to call 800: 800-222-xxxx, 1-800-222-xxxx (888 requires the leading 1?!) On both carriers, for 0+ calls 0 and the area code MUST be dialed. *SID 93 now includes Chattanooga, Knoxville, and the Tri-Cities (Bristol/Johnson City) area, as well as Bristol, VA and parts of five counties in Georgia. It does *not* include TN RSA 4 (licensed to Bachtel Cellular, butcalls are switched by GTE in Knoxville.) This doesn't apply to roamers, or even those customers part of the "statewide*" local calling plans of CellOne, BSM and US Cellular, who must dial ten digits for ALL calls (and for CellOne, 11 digits for "out of NPA 423 or 800 or SID 93" calls.) (*They are *not* statewide, as has been posted before.) When roaming, in fact, there is no true "standard" dialing procedure. The B-side MobiLink standard (followed by the major B-side carriers, except US Cellular and BANM) is: ten digits for calls local to the roaming area 11 (1+) for calls outside the local roaming area Some carriers [BellSouth] use ten digits for *all* calls; others [Century Cellunet/Tupelo] allow seven digits for calls local to the roaming area; yet others [ATTWS/NYC] require 1+ on *all* calls, even local. Stanley Cline (Roamer1 on IRC) ** GO BRAVES! GO VOLS! dba Catoosa Computing Services, Chattanooga, TN mailto:roamer1@pobox.com ** http://www.pobox.com/~roamer1/ ------------------------------ From: dritchie@nacs.net (Don Ritchie) Subject: Re: AT&T Merlin Used Equipment Needed Date: 28 Dec 1996 14:04:40 GMT Organization: New Age Consulting Service, Cleveland, OH, USA Steve Bagdon (bagdon@rust.net) wrote: Lots of "big house" stuff snipped > Basically, I'm looking for an AT&T Merlin system that can handle this > setup. I don't know where the 'systems' fit into a particular scheme, ie: > max extensions, max incoming lines, etc. I'm sure I'll go against all > rules of the extension/lines ratio (I want a lot more extensions then > lines), so I figure I'll have to overbuy to get the number of extensions > that I want. What is the reason you would buy/build a house like you discribed, and put in a twenty year old Telephone system? Merlin hasn't really changed since the late 70's (and the legend is "just another Merlin") and even tends to be over-priced on the secondary market. For not much more then you would pay for a used Merlin, you can buy a new Panasonic. With Panasonic you can use single line telephones in every port, if you wanted to, and only get one 4 port C.O. card. With the Digital 1232 you could have just 4 "trunks" and as many as 64 stations IF YOU DID IT "RIGHT". (This would require 32 digital stations and 32 single lines sets) but I digress. I sell mostly Vodavi StarPlus, but in you kind of setting I would recommend the Panasonic, Most likely the analog 1232 configured 4/24 would already be overkill and you could add another eight station card and two more four C.O. cards. > So, is there a central clearing house for used Merlin equipment (cpus, > extensions, etc) that an individual can buy from? Thanks in advance to > anyone who can recommend a particular system, and where to get it at a > reasonable price! E-mail me with any questions. I CAN supply equipment and may be able to supply installation through a network of "friends". Free advice is worth every penny you paid for it ! Don Ritchie Century Communications Euclid, Ohio e-mail dritchie@nacs.net OR k8zgw@hamnet.org ------------------------------ From: John Cropper Subject: Utah, 385, 435 and Possibilities Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 09:41:22 -0500 Organization: MindSpring Reply-To: psyber@mindspring.com Two weeks ago, Utah announced (rather inadvertently) that it had been given a choice (by USWest) of one of *two* area codes for the state. Having tipped its hand slightly (USWest has obviously reserved BOTH numbers for use in their territory), USWest gave us a holiday gift ... speculation. Here's are a few facts, and my 2c: USWest territory, and NPAs needing relief in the next 24 months: Arizona 602: no NXX 385, 435 in use (Glendale) 520: no NXX 435, 385 in use (San Manuel) Conclusion: Use would cause someone confusion; neither code could be used here ... Minnesota 612: 385 in use (Red Wing), 435 in use (Burnsville) Conclusion: no-brainer ... even with mandatory 10D HNPA-L, no dice ... Washington 206: (yeah, I got a feeling the 3-way in April won't last too long): While neither 385 nor 435 is in use in 206, both are in use in 360. However, after the 206/253/425 split is completed, 206 will no longer be adjacent to 360 ... Conclusion: A slight possibility here, since neither NXX was used in 206 after 206/360. New Mexico 505: Neither 385 nor 435 is in use here. San Manuel, AZ (520-385) is not local; Littlefield, TX (806-385) not local; Perryton, TX (806-435) is not local; Odessa, TX (915-385) is also not local. Conclusion: a much better possibility here, if it runs out of prefixes before 206 ... As for Utah itself, no adjacent state has an NXX 385 or 435 that would be a 7D FNPA local call from Utah (closest 385 & 435 NXXs are both in Las Vegas, NV!), so there is no general sway for Utah itself to favor one code over the other. I predict a coin flip, or perhaps an old native legend to offer guidance in choosing the code. :-) Given the above factors and conditions, the code not chosen by Utah stands an excellent chance of being used for New Mexico in 1999 (give or take a year). John Cropper voice: 888.NPA.NFO2 LINCS 609.637.9434 PO Box 277 fax: 609.637.9430 Pennington, NJ 08534-0277 mailto:psyber@mindspring.com http://206.112.101.209/jcbt2n/lincs/ ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #683 ******************************