Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id AAA27828; Tue, 31 Dec 1996 00:29:33 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 00:29:33 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199612310529.AAA27828@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #685 TELECOM Digest Tue, 31 Dec 96 00:30:00 EST Volume 16 : Issue 685 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Miami Herald on Telecom Competition (Tad Cook) Sleazy Telcos Get You by the Calls (Ray Normandeau) Book Review: "Expanding Your BBS" by Wolfe (Rob Slade) Intel to "Debunk" Telco ISP Complaints (oldbear@arctos.com) SPA Legal Action Against Small ISPs (Bill Sohl) Re: AT&T Merlin Used Equipment Needed (we202c3f@aol.com) Re: AT&T Merlin Used Equipment Needed (Robert Becnel) 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: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * 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. * ************************************************************************* 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Miami Herald on Telecom Competition Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 23:11:58 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Consumers Will Benefit from More Competitive Telecommunications Industry By David Poppe, The Miami Herald Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Dec. 30--Pleasantly plump Ma Bell, monopoly supplier of local telephone service, is on her deathbed. When she's gone, the telecommunications industry -- one of the nation's largest -- will look profoundly different. Millions of U.S. consumers will benefit. Many companies will disappear. As a result of federal legislation and state-by-state regulatory actions, thto survive from among the hundreds that today provide telephone, cable TV or Internet service. At the same time that companies are bracing for a new order, they're fighting intensely to ensure it's favorable to them. Herb Kirchhoff, editor of State Telephone Regulation Report, expects 1997 to be the year in which telephone companies go to court to try to change new rules they don't like. He expects it could be five years before the courts clear the air. In the interim, investors should expect uncertainty. "There is going to be just as much of it in '97 as there was in '96," he said. "So for nervous investors, '97 will be another year of hell." What makes deregulation so compelling is that, for the companies that figure out how to deliver a full menu of services at a good price, the rewards will be astronomical. Local and long-distance telephone services generate about $160 billion in annual revenue, with AT&T alone posting $51 billion in annual sales. Cable TV is an estimated $25 billion-a-year industry. About 10 million people bought wireless telephones last year, and industry revenues grew by 25 percent, to $21.5 billion. Some analysts believe demand for Internet access will add another $20 billion to phone company revenues by 2002. Most analysts expect only a handful of today's big telecom players to survive -- and virtually no small telephone companies, Internet service providers or cable TV companies to remain independent. A recent Yankee Group survey found that two-thirds of consumers like the idea of buying all their telephone and cable TV services from one company. In the Southeast, the survey found, a slim plurality of 36.1 percent prefer to use BellSouth for all their phone services; 35.1 percent said they'd prefer AT&T. About 4.6 percent said they'd use MCI, and even fewer picked Sprint -- but those two have traditionally done well with business customers and affluent consumers, meaning their future revenues could be disproportionate to their market share. About 20 percent of consumers were undecided. But that's not to say BellSouth or AT&T are prohibitive favorites to dominate Florida's telecom industry. Some analysts fear the Bells' lack of marketing expertise will hurt them in a competitive environment. BellSouth stock was flat this year, despite rising profits. And AT&T has been restructuring for years, with little to show for it. Its stock is off 5 percent this year, and profits are down. The fear that only giants will survive deregulation has prompted many smaller companies to look for suitable marriage partners. "You've had four mega-billion dollar deals in the last 12 months, and I don't think there's any reason to believe that it's all over," said Bob McNamara, managing director at Broadview Associates, a New Jersey mergers and acquisitions consultant. (The four deals he cites are the mergers of MCI-British Telecom, Nynex-Bell Atlantic, Pacific Telesis-Southwestern Bell and MFS-WorldCom.) McNamara calls these mergers "hedging strategies" by anxious companies. "The issue that each of the players is figuring out," he said, "is how do I strategically best-position my company? Defensively, how do I defend my turf, and offensively, how do I take advantage of all the opportunities available to me?" Why is the future so uncertain? Mainly because it is no mean feat to make the telephone business competitive. Over the years, the heavy hand of government regulation has tangled telephone charges in ways that aren't easy to unwind. In Florida, for example, consumers pay $10.65 per month for basic local phone service. BellSouth says the fee is far below its actual cost. BellSouth, in turn, is subsidized by the long-distance companies, which pay about 40 percent of their total revenues, or $30 billion a year, in access fees to the regional Bell companies that connect their long-distance phone calls. The access fee is meant to reimburse the Bells for offering phone service to the poor and in rural areas. But industry analysts say the charges are much higher than the Bells' actual cost, providing the Bells with fat profits. The popularity of the Internet throws a monkey wrench into the system. The government has exempted Internet service providers from paying access charges for connecting computers over the telephone lines. As a result, it's cheaper to send data via electronic mail than over a fax line. That boosts Internet traffic, but reduces long-distance company revenues. Also, many companies are developing software that would enable people to talk over the Internet. If successful, Internet telephony would be much cheaper than conventional long-distance calling. That would reach much deeper into the long-distance companies' purses. The Federal Communications Commission plans to reexamine the whole system. At the state level, regulators are setting the terms under which new competitors will be allowed to enter the local telephone business. That's not an easy process, either. Because BellSouth owns a $10 billion telephone network in Florida, built under the umbrella of monopoly protection, competitors won't be expected to build competing networks to offer local phone service. Instead, they'll be able to buy access to BellSouth's system and resell phone service under their own brand names. But because local telephone rates are heavily subsidized by long- distance users, regulators have struggled to determine how much BellSouth should charge new entrants for access to its service. Both AT&T and MCI have expressed disapproval of the Florida Public Service Commission's framework for competition. The PSC says BellSouth must grant newcomers a 21.8 percent discount off the rates it charges regular consumers. AT&T says 21.8 percent won't be enough to let it sell service at a price competitive with BellSouth's prices. "The commission didn't set the rules correctly," said Mike Tye, an AT&T government affairs vice president. "Given the way the rules are coming out skewed ... the real disadvantage is going to come to the consumer." In an allusion to litigation, Tye said, "There will have to be some maneuvering on our part" in 1997. In addition to regulatory uncertainty, there is uncertainty about the future demand for some services. McNamara, the mergers specialist, noted that nobody knows whether the huge investments that phone companies have to make to become full-service providers will pay off. "Nobody has quite figured out how soon demand for video services is going to take off. And people aren't sure if the Internet is a fad, or are we just at the tip of the iceberg," he said. Yet the phone companies can't wait around to see how things will shake out. They're making moves today that anticipate a different business environment tomorrow. BellSouth, for example, is rolling out PCS wireless phone service in the Carolinas and Eastern Tennessee and testing video services in Atlanta, with an eye on challenging cable TV operators. It's also testing a program where it jointly markets traditional telephone service and wireless service, with consumers getting one bill for all their phone lines. And over the past two years, BellSouth has consolidated all its businesses under one brand name, so that customers no longer do business with Southern Bell, South Central Bell or BellSouth Mobility. That's a move made strictly for the future. With all its services sold under a single name, BellSouth can afford a huge advertising campaign. "We want consumers to understand that going forward, if you have communications needs, there's a company that you probably already do business with that can address those needs," said Kevin Doyle, a BellSouth spokesman. Early returns are promising. "Our brand, in our region, is very strong. There's nobody in our region who is stronger than us," he said. Boyd Peterson, a telecommunications analyst at Yankee Group in Boston, said BellSouth is rare among the Baby Bells, which aren't used to marketing products: "It is one of the best-run. It seems to me to be the most focused, from a marketing perspective." Analysts think BellSouth might be the only Bell to survive the next few years as an independent company. "If any company could, it would be BellSouth or Ameritech," Peterson said. McNamara agreed, although he predicted that within a decade virtually all of today's top phone companies will gobble up smaller players -- or be eaten themselves. "Do I think BellSouth will do a multibillion dollar deal in the next five years? Yes. Do I think they have to do something in the next two years? No. There's not the urgency for them," he said. Herb Kirchhoff said he expects legal challenges to various state and FCC rulings to go on for years, suggesting that BellSouth would be wise to wait before tying its future to another company. However, he said it's not too early to see that the regional Bell companies will have significant advantages over the long-distance companies. In Kirchhoff's view, one might think of AT&T, MCI and Sprint as owning interstate highway systems, while each Bell company controls all of the surface streets in its region. Once the industry is deregulated, Kirchhoff said, it will be a lot easier for a company like BellSouth to lease space on the highway to carry its long-distance calls than it will be for AT&T to buy access to the local streets, which it needs to complete every call on its system. He said the discounts offered to long-distance companies in Florida and elsewhere will not enable them to undercut the Bells' prices for local service. But the Bells, conversely, will be able to undercut the long-distance companies, because they'll be able to negotiate with more than one "highway" system to carry telephone traffic. Also, unless the FCC changes access charges, the Bells will pay themselves an access fee every time they carry a long-distance call. "In effect, it is a super-hidden discount that allows a lot of pricing flexibility," Kirchhoff said of the Bells paying access fees to themselves. "For the folks that are powers in long-distance now, they have every reason to be terribly worried." But Yankee Group's telecom analyst, Boyd Peterson, said long-distance companies are generally much better at marketing than the Bells. He believes that AT&T, MCI, Sprint and others will succeed by creating new service packages that combine many services into one bill. For example, he said a company such as MCI could offer a local phone- service package for $30 a month that would include caller ID and call waiting as standard features and would expand the local service area to include all of the 305 and 954 area codes. The flat rate would be high, but consumers would get more. "What we think of as local phone service is going to be redefined," Peterson said. Janet Craft, assistant vice president of sales at BellSouth Business Systems, agrees. She markets BellSouth service to large businesses, the one area of the telecom market where buyers have a choice for local phone service. Craft said she sees companies scrambling to offer new services and cutting prices to retain good ones. One common strategy is to offer a popular service, perhaps long-distance, as a loss-leader to customers who spend a lot on telecommunications. The toughest part? Maintaining profits. "There must be some kind of margin," Craft said. "You can't go into a death spiral." She predicts regular consumers will eventually reap the same rewards that big business customers enjoy: simplified pricing, more product offerings and better customer service from their phone company. "There are going to be so many funky things happening in the next 18 months," she said. "It's going to be amazing." ------------------------------ Subject: Sleazy Telcos Get You by the Calls From: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 96 16:00:00 -0500 Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York NY - 212-274-8110 Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) CONTACT: Ray Normandeau 718-392-1267 Email: ray.normandeau@factory.com http://www.buzznyc.com/actors/res.normandeau.raymond.html http://www.buzznyc.com/actors/res.frazier.rita.html Sleazy Telcos Get You by the Calls ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Have you been slammed lately? In telephone company parlance, "slamming" is when your long distance company is switched against your will. Ray Normandeau and Rita Frazier Normandeau of Queens, New York were recently surprised to receive a letter addressed to Mrs Normandeau stating: "Welcome! We have received your LONG DISTANCE APPLICATION AND ENTRY FORM for the Qcc Ford Explorer or $10,000 Cash Giveaway. ... With Qcc, your rates for state-to-state calling are among the lowest in the industry. Daily 19.9./minute, Evenings/Weekends 17.9./minute." The Normandeaus were a bit taken aback as Mrs Normandeau never had filled out such an application and would never even consider such rates as their current carrier LCI offers Daily 19; Evenings of 14; with Weekends at 12, all with a minimum of thirty seconds, or calls as low as six cents coast-to-coast. To add insult to injury, Qcc stated that there would be a monthly fee of three dollars for this overpriced service! The letter threatening them that they would be switched against their will and charged thirty-six dollars a year was signed by K. Martin Chadwick, Customer Service Manager at 1-800-267-0157. Altho the Normandeaus are members of Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, they are out of work and must watch every penny. So they decided to call this sleaze-ball Chadwick to demand to see a copy of this "LONG DISTANCE APPLICATION AND ENTRY FORM". Every time they called for Chadwick at 1-800-267-0157, Chadwick was always at a meeting or out for the day. Finally one of the co-conspirators at Qcc said that the Normandeaus would be faxed a copy of the application the next day. Several days later the fax still had not arrived. Ray Normandeau then called 1-800-267-0157 again and upon being told that Chadwick was at a meeting said "I'll hold on until he comes out." Qcc hung up on him. He kept calling back as the 1-800-267-0157 was on their bill and refused to give up. Finally Qcc faxed Mrs Normandeau's "application" which not only was an obvious forgery but even had her signature misspelled! NYNEX billed the Normandeaus five dollars for switching long distance carrier to Allnet which was obviously paying Qcc for fraud and forgery. With all the long distance calls to be billed for Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year's, some customers will be very surprised when they see calls billed by strange phone companies at strange rates with strange monthly service charges. There is one way that anyone can immediately find out if they have been slammed. That is to call 1-700-555-4141 from their home phone. A recording will tell you who is handling your long distance calls. The Normandeaus are happy that New Years Day is one of eight holidays when LCI gives customers half an hour of calling at a penny a minute because on that day they will be faxing Washington. Their Congressperson (Tom Manton, D-Queens) is a member of the Congressional telecommunications sub-committee. They are also offering to fax the media copies of the forged application and are making themselves available for media interviews while they are not working. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 02:32:22 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Expanding Your BBS" by Wolfe BKEXPBBS.RVW 960923 "Expanding Your BBS", David Wolfe, 1995, 0-471-11566-5, U$34.95 %A David Wolfe dwolfe@pandy.com %C 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor, Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 %D 1995 %G 0-471-11566-5 %I Wiley %O U$34.95 416-236-4433 fax: 416-236-4448 800-567-4797 fax: 800-565-6802 %P 371 %T "Expanding Your BBS" Since the publication of "The BBS Construction Kit" (cf. BKBBSCON.RVW), Wolfe has kept some of his views, changed others, and added more. He now, though, more strongly identifies opinions as such, and is more inclined to provide reasons. The result is that this work is still useful, but is much more good- humored. As with his prior work, this guide is eminently practical. It even starts with an in-depth overview of batch files, and the COMMAND.COM replacement 4DOS. Wolfe then proceeds to cover advanced modem and port information, fax capability, fossil drivers, doors (BBS add-on programs), graphics, CD-ROM, QWK, and Internet connectivity. The discussion of ports was the only disappointment, still failing to cover the addition of more than two modems with standard hardware. With the rise of interest in the Internet, the running of a BBS is becoming something of a lost art. BBSes are by no means dead, though, and for those still keen on the local online scene this makes an excellent reference. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKEXPBBS.RVW 960923. Distribution permitted in TELECO Digest and associated publications. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca BCVAXLUG Envoy http://www.decus.ca/www/lugs/bcvaxlug.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 10:55:09 -0500 From: The Old Bear Subject: Intel to "Debunk" Telco ISP Complaints It will be interesting to see the Intel submission to the FCC which is mentioned in the last paragraph ... FCC RELUCTANT TO APPLY ACCESS CHARGES TO INTERNET PROVIDERS The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should not have to pay the same "access fees" that long-distance companies now pay to local phone companies for connecting long-distance calls at their initiation and destinations. ISPs are not currently paying such fees, although the local phone service companies argue that Internet usage accounts for an increasing amount of phone traffic and the phone companies are being prevented from recovering the associated costs. AOL chief executive Steve Case dismisses such arguments as a request for a "modem tax," and Intel executive Paul Misener says that Intel will submit to the FCC a paper that will "debunk Bell studies which have wildly overstated the negative impact on their network" resulting from Internet communication. source: New York Times December 26, 1996 page C2 via edupage ------------------------------ From: billsohl@planet.net (Bill Sohl) Subject: SPA Legal Action Against Small ISPs Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 23:26:46 GMT Organization: BL Enterprises Just received the Feb. 97 issue of {Internet World} and it contains another excellent article by Attorney Mike Godwin (of CDA fame). The article is entitled "Foul Play" and as its intro contains the following: "The Software Publishers Association appears to be using strong-arm tactics to force small ISPs to settle meritless lawsuits." The three page article chronicles Mike's investigation of one alleged complaint by SPA against a single, small ISP. Mike notes: "The SPA's code of conduct seems to put each ISP in the role of policing content on the net as a whole." Rather than tell all here, I suggest that everyone who wants an open internet free of privacy violations by ISPs should read the article and judge for yourself what is going on. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) billsohl@planet.net Internet & Telecommunications Consultant/Instructor Budd Lake, New Jersey ------------------------------ From: we202c3f@aol.com Subject: Re: AT&T Merlin Used Equipment Needed Date: 30 Dec 1996 20:27:16 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Steve, have you considered a Partner Plus system (AT&T)? You could use two 2 line by 6 station plus one 0 by 6; the multiline sets use two pair rather than the 4 pair of Merlin (though I would recommend wiring your whole house with at least 4 pair home run from each staion to the basement). The 3 multiline sets you want can be bridged with single line sets, cordless, ans. mach, whatever on the same port -- just use a bridging adapter (ie a 12 button phone and a trimline on the same port, say ext. 14) ... even rotary phones will work; (each turn of the dial is translated to a dtmf tone as you dial). I like being able to use everyday phones -- proprietary single line sets (as with the comdial dxp) obviates the need for touchtone receivers and ring generators but necessitates added expense for proprietary digital phones. A trimline touch-tone wall is plenty for a bathroom. I'm using a Partner Plus at my house with three partner multi-line sets and the rest single lines. The single lines can be programmed for intercom dial tone first, dial 9 for an outside line, though if programmmed to ring on incoming calls from the c.o., then with ringing line preference you just pick up to seize the trunk call; then you can flash and transfer to another extension. ------------------------------ From: becnel@crl.com (Robert Becnel) Subject: Re: AT&T Merlin Used Equipment Needed Date: 30 Dec 1996 05:49:23 -0800 Organization: CRL Network Services (415) 705-6060 [Login: guest] Steve Bagdon (bagdon@rust.net) wrote: > My wife and I believe we have *finally* found our first house, so tha > means I can finally wire up a property the way I've always wanted to. > We've rented up to now, so wiring a house for networking, phone > systems, television, etc, has never gotten past the planning stages - > no reason to put a lot of work into a house that we don't own! Wow! I'd like to visit you houst just to play with the toys. :) Wouldn't you rather just buy a 900 MHz portable and put the cost into something else, like a big screen? :-) Robert G. Becnel becnel@crl.com (email) http://www.crl.com/~becnel (www) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #685 ******************************