Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id IAA12290; Tue, 7 Jan 1997 08:21:33 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 08:21:33 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199701071321.IAA12290@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #1 TELECOM Digest Tue, 7 Jan 97 08:21:00 EST Volume 17 : Issue 1 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Starting Out Another Year (TELECOM Digest Editor) CFP IJCAI'97 WS: Programming in Temporal and Non Classical Logics (M Orgun) Book Review: "Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 Front Runner" (Rob Slade) "True" Cost of Local Telephone Service? (Shawn Barnhart) BellSouth Long Distance Plans Move Ahead (Mike King) LDDS Worldcom Service Charges - Fraud? (Prakash P. Thatte) ISPs vs RBOCs: Are the Battle Lines Being Drawn? (oldbear@arctos.com) This Day in History - the Telegraph (Mark J. Cuccia) 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 lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 07:37:33 EST From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Starting Out Another Year This issue marks the start of Volume 17. Over the past few days I have been doing maintainence work on the mailing list and the archives exclusively. Earlier today for example, I purged the mailing list of several hundred names and email addreses which were no longer in service. I added nearly a hundred new subscribers who indicated over the holiday that they wished to subscribe. Anyone who did not receive the 1997 Table of Contents for the Telecom Archives -- this would be primarily the new names added in the past two or three days -- who wants to have a copy should write to the Digest and request a copy. The mailing list is larger than ever, even following the pruning of several hundred addresses no longer in service. I also had to purge about 800 messages from the queue of pending articles which will go unused. Starting this year, let's make better use of the 'chat' feature in the archives for the posting of questions and simple responses on such topics as 'where can I find ...', etc. Indications are that beginning this year, postings in the Digest itself are going to have to be severely limited in proportion to the total amount of mail coming in, so the more you can use the 'chat' area for the sort of repetitive questions/comments I receive here, the more likely those things will be to get posted at all. Also, where the chat area is concerned, the established time for group sessions there is 9-11 pm Eastern time nightly. Any of you who can converge on the web page about that time will likely find others there to provide quick responses. I have given that area the informal name 'Quick Connections' for just that reason. The URL is http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/chat Anyway, a day or two later than I planned to get started, let's get underway with another year of TELECOM Digest. Happy New Year! Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 10:49:23 +1100 From: Mehmet ORGUN Subject: CFP IJCAI'97 WS on Programming in Temporal and Non Classical Logics Reply-To: Mehmet ORGUN CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION Workshop on PROGRAMMING IN TEMPORAL AND NON CLASSICAL LOGICS to be held as part of 15th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-97) Nagoya, Japan, 23th, 24th, or 25 August 1997 Temporal logics originating in philosophy and formal linguistics have been intensively investigated within both AI and traditional Computer Science. A variety of different approaches and formalisms have been developed, some of them admitting and supporting automated reasoning techniques and having strong similarities to those which have evolved in the context of classical logic. Executable fragments of these logics have been proposed in order to provide more appropriate logical techniques for dealing with change in time. Basically, two different approaches to execution of the temporal logic formalism have evolved. The first, which is compatible with the classical logic programming paradigm, is aimed towards a logical basis for temporal databases and knowledge based systems for reasoning about time and, to be more general, a robust basis for the development of advanced AI systems. Its execution is based on deduction in tractable fragments of suitable temporal logics. The second approach is more motivated by a classical computer science problem, namely to define and develop a uniform framework for programming and verification of computer programs, especially those relying on imperative and reactive behavior. Execution within this second approach corresponds to model construction of the formulae in question and is based on the so called imperative future approach. A renewed interest on programming paradigms based on non classical logics has also been stimulated recently by new issues in the context of concurrent constraint logic programming, (temporal) deductive databases, programming of reactive systems, embedded AI systems and multi-agent systems. WORKSHOPS AIMS -------------- The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum both for the exchange of ideas and for the identification of the potential roles and nature of the emerging paradigm of Executable Temporal and Non Classical Logics. Our intention is to bring together researchers in this area, to identify common ground, relevant experiences, applications, open problems and possible future developments. In particular, we wish to encourage cross-fertilization between different approaches and to improve the understanding of (tractable) execution of temporal logics. Special emphasis will be given to the study of computation models in the context of Artificial Intelligence, and to new approaches to programming in the context of programming of reactive and embedded AI systems. AREAS OF INTEREST ----------------- This workshop will build upon the 1993 Workshop on Executable Modal and Temporal Logics that was organized as part of IJCAI-93, and the 1995 Workshop on Executable Temporal Logics organized as part of IJCAI-95. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, * theoretical issues in executable temporal logics * relationship between execution and temporal theorem-proving * relationship of executable temporal logics to (temporal) databases * design of executable temporal logics * operational models and implementation techniques * programming support and environments * comparative studies of languages * applications and case studies WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION ---------------------- To encourage informal interaction and the exchange of ideas, attendance will be limited to approximately 30 invited participants. Those wishing to attend are encouraged to submit either (a) an extended abstract (of no more than 5000 words) describing relevant preliminary or completed work to be presented at the workshop by March 1st, 1997, or, (b) a statement of interest consisting of a single page description of research interests and current work, to be used to demonstrate the ability of the non-presenting participants to contribute to the discussions by April 25th 1997. Selected participants will be asked to provide complete papers to be distributed as preprints to the workshop participants. SUBMISSION DETAILS ------------------ All submissions should include: author's name(s), affiliation, (complete) mailing address, phone and fax number, and e-mail address. Preferably, the submission should be sent in Postscript format (uuencoded, gzipped/compressed) by email to either of the programme chairs below. The deadline for receipt of submissions is March 1st 1997. Christoph Brzoska Email: brzoska@ira.uka.de Department of Computer Science Tel: (+49) 721 608 35 64 University of Karlsruhe Fax: (+49) 721 60 77 21 P.O. Box 69 80 D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany Michael Fisher Email: M.Fisher@doc.mmu.ac.uk Department of Computing Tel: (+44) 161 247 1488 Manchester Metropolitan University Fax: (+44) 161 247 1483 Chester Street Manchester M1 5GD, United Kingdom Alternatively, five (5) paper copies of all submitted materials may be sent to either of the programme chairs. WORKSHOP PROGRAMME COMMITTE --------------------------- Marianne Baudinet (Free University of Brussels, Belgium) Christoph Brzoska [co-chair] (Karlsruhe University, Germany) Thom Fruehwirth (Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany) Michael Fisher [co-chair] (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) Rajeev Gore (Australian National University, Australia) Vineet Gupta (Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, USA) Shinji Kono (University of the Ryukyus, Japan) Stephan Merz (Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany) Ben Moszkowski (Newcastle University, UK) Vijay Saraswat (AT & T Research Labs, USA) Karl Sch\"afer (Karlsruhe University, Germany) Mehmet Orgun (Macquarie University, Australia) Papers will be refereed and notification of acceptance will be given by March 21th 1997. Authors of accepted papers will then be given the opportunity to revise their papers prior to the final submission (due April 15th, 1997). IMPORTANT DATES -------------- Deadline for paper Submissions: March 1st, 1997 Author notification by: March 21st, 1997 Camera ready version of the paper due: April 15th, 1997 Deadline for statements of interest: April 25th, 1997 Workshop: during August 23-25, 1997 Copies of accepted papers will be provided as a pre-proceedings by the IJCAI organizers at the workshop itself. PUBLICATION ----------- The proceedings of the 1993 IJCAI workshop on Executable Modal and Temporal Logics were published by Springer-Verlag as a volume in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence series, while revised contributions from the 1995 IJCAI workshop on Executable Temporal Logics are appearing in a special issue of the Journal of Symbolic Computation. Our intention is again to publish polished versions of the papers from the workshop proceedings. Selected contributions of the 1997 workshop may be considered for publication by Springer-Verlag as a special volume in the LNAI series. COSTS ----- All workshop participants will be required to be registered to the main IJCAI'97 conference. An additional fee of $US 50 will be charged to cover costs of the workshop. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ---------------------- Information about IJCAI'97 can be accessed via the IJCAI home page: http://www.ijcai.org/ijcai-97/ Information about the workshop will be available via http://iseran.ira.uka.de/~brzoska/ijcai97tlp.html. Christoph Brzoska Institute for logic, complexity, and deductive systems University of Karlsruhe Phone: + 49 721 608 35 64 P.O.Box 69 80 Fax: + 49 721 60 77 21 D - 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany E-mail: brzoska@ira.uka.de URL: iseran.ira.uka.de/~brzoska ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 07 Jan 1997 03:18:59 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 Front Runner" BKMSIEFR.RVW 960925 "Micrsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 Front Runner", Mary Millhollon/Luanne O'Loughlin/Toni Zuccarini, 1996, 1-57610-006-5, U$29.99/C$41.99 %A Mary Millhollon %A Luanne O'Loughlin %A Toni Zuccarini %C 7339 East Acoma Drive, #7, Scottsdale, AZ 85260 %D 1996 %G 1-57610-006-5 %I Coriolis %O U$29.99/C$41.99 800-410-0192 fax: +1-602-483-0193 anne_tull@coriolis.com %P 448 %T "Micrsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 Front Runner" In a not very well identified piece at the front of the book, someone states that the objective of this book series "is to provide [the reader] with the best possible information on new technology products the day they're released to the public. Not `soft stuff' or hot air, either--just real, useful, practical information ..." Well, quick off the mark I can give them, but this book certainly is mostly soft stuff and hot air. There is decent documentation for Internet Explorer here, and given that third party documentation is the only documentation that you'll find, that is a plus. But the book certainly is not an unbiased look at the product. There are repeated cries that "Internet Explorer 3.0 will dramatically shift how the world views the Internet." The content, however, does not support that statement. IE does Web browsing, IE does downloads, IE does email (well, not yet), IE does news (well, not yet), but then so do other browsers. There is mention of additional and advanced functions, but that is all there is: mention. The book states that "MSIE is the first browser to support the safe downloading of code and controls by offering code signing". This may be technically true, but without a definition and explanation of "code signing" it is meaningless. Good enough docs if you need docs for IE. Watch out for details of functions that don't exist yet. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKMSIEFR.RVW 960925 roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy. Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER) ------------------------------ From: swb@mercury.campbell-mithun.com (Shawn Barnhart) Subject: "True" cost of local telephone service? Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 07:17:02 -0600 Organization: Chaos I've often heard cited by Telcos and others citing Telco billing practices that flat-rate local calling plans are either too low (for heavy users) or too high (for infrequent users) and are the cause of other dubious economics in telephone costs (LD termination fees, etc). Does anyone know what the actual cost per minute of local telephone service is? I'm sure it varies by region, but what are some close estimates? And are the residential costs calculated based on residential infrastructure and operations costs? Or do they include costs from operations which have nothing to do with residential phone service (business data and infrastructure, long-distance infrastructure, etc). Although I realize that access that the residential service has to pay for it's "share" of the network outside of the local loop. My phone bill lists "RESIDENCE LINE $14.71" as the basic charge for phone service. Assuming 15 hours of use per month, it's about $.016 per minute which seems pretty cheap. Dropping my modem use would about double the cost to $.032, which I would assume is about average for most non-computing households served by US West in Minnesota. How close or far is this from what it actually should cost? Shawn Barnhart swb@mercury.campbell-mithun.com ------------------------------ From: Mike King Subject: BellSouth Long Distance Plans Move Ahead Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997 19:22:07 PST ----- Forwarded Message ----- Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 16:12:19 -0500 (EST) From: BellSouth Subject: BELLSOUTH LONG DISTANCE PLANS MOVE AHEAD BELLSOUTH LONG DISTANCE PLANS MOVE AHEAD Georgia Customers Will Benefit From New Long Distance Services ATLANTA -- BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) today took its first major regulatory step toward becoming a true single source supplier of both local and long distance services by demonstrating in a filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) that the local telecommunications market in Georgia is now fully open to competition. Testimony filed with the PSC also stated that there is clear public interest support for BellSouth entry into the long distance market. The Company's filing comes at the request of the Commission as it opens proceedings on related local and long distance issues. BellSouth intends to file with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow it to offer long distance services to cust omers in Georgia immediately following the Georgia proceeding. Approval by the FCC would open the long distance market in Georgia to full-fledged competition, new market choices, and bring with it the promise of increased economic development in the state. "As a result of both state legislation and recent industry leading action by the Georgia PSC, the local Georgia telecommunications market is now fully open to competition. Our response to the PSC requests is the next step toward BellSouth's entry into long distance," stated Carl Swearingen, President of BellSouth's Georgia operations. "Today, because of artificial boundaries, BellSouth cannot fully compete in the long distance market. While BellSouth can provide toll services between locations like Columbus to Athens, it cannot offer services from Columbus to Augusta or interstate and international calling out of Georgia. Federal legislation passed in February set a checklist of terms for BellSouth's entry into long-distance. According to Swearingen, "This filing clearly demonstrates that BellSouth has fully met all federal checklist requirements and is in full compliance with the PSC arbitrated rules for local telephone interconnection which are the only prerequisites to ope ning up the long distance market. "BellSouth has been the most aggressive of all local companies in promoting competition. We have worked closely with all parties and the Georgia PSC and have signed 28 interconnection agreements with competitors in Georgia. It is clearly time now to open the long distance market in a parallel manner," stated Swearingen. BellSouth's filing also included both testimony and other evidence clearly supporting the public interest value to be gained from its entry into long distance. "Our filing provides dramatic customer and economic value to be gained by the State of Georgi a from our entry into long distance," said Bill Reddersen, BellSouth Group President, Long Distance and Video Services. A comprehensive economic evaluation conducted by The WEFA Group, a nationally respected econometric forecasting concern concluded that BellSouth's entry into the long distance market will clearly provide real competition to the major carriers, generate over 35,000 new jobs and boost Georgia's economy by $3.3 billion over next the next ten years. Donald Ratajczak, Ph. D., nationally renowned Georgia State University economist, after reviewing the WEFA study said, "I have little doubt that the public interest will be served by immediate competition in long distance services in Georgia." "BellSouth's goal has been to provide our local customers with a full range of quality long distance and local services tailored to their unique calling needs as quickly as the law would permit. This filing begins the process which will allow us to be that convenient full service provider for our customers," Reddersen said. Full and open competition in both the long distance and local markets at the same time was the intent of the telecommunications act, according to Mr. Reddersen. "BellSouth will move forward in its other eight states as aggressively as possible, because all of our customers deserve the competitive value BellSouth can provide once we achieve the regulatory freedom to compete," he added. This filing by BellSouth is being made in light of the national telecom legislation signed into law February 8, 1996 by President Clinton. The law requires that local companies open their markets to competition through negotiated agreements with competitors, through a set of generally available terms and conditions or a combination of both. In 1995, the Georgia General Assembly passed landmark legislation that opened up the local telephone market to competition. BellSouth's filing today complies with t he 14-point checklist defined by the federal legislation and meets all requirements of the Georgia law as well. BellSouth is a $17.9 billion communications services company. It provide telecommunications, wireless communications, directory advertising and publishing and other information services to more than 25 million customers in 17 countries worldwide. Its telephone operations provide service over one of the most modern telecommunications networks in the world for approximately 21 million telephone lines in a nine-state region that includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North C arolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. ### Internet users: For more information on BellSouth go to For information, contact: Lynn Bress BellSouth Telecommunications (Ga.) 391-2484 Joe Chandler BellSouth Telecommunications (HQ) (404) 927-7420 Bill McCloskey BellSouth Corporation 202-463-4129 ---------- Mike King * Oakland, CA, USA * mk@wco.com ------------------------------ From: Prakash P. Thatte Subject: LDDS Worldcom Service Charges - Fraud? Date: 6 Jan 1997 04:31:24 GMT Organization: Prime Performance Technologies On four occassions over the past 14 months, I have found late payment service charges on my LDDS Worldcom bills. In each case LDDS Worldcom had received and deposited my check at their bank well before the due date on the bill. On two of the four cases, the check had cleared my bank as well. When I called customer service, I found the reps to be either ignorant or arrogant or blamed accounts receivable. None of this is either proper behaviour or a valid excuse. Is this the kind of stuff that should be reported to the FCC and to the state public utilities commission? I believe that this is fraud. Your advise and the address where I could forward my complaint and documentation (copies of bills and cancelled checks) will be appreciated. My business is located in Virginia. If I have found this to occur this frequently, I could not be alone. Thank you for your assistance! Regards, Prakash Thatte ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Jan 1997 12:21:35 -0500 From: The Old Bear Subject: ISPs vs RBOCs: Are the Battle Lines Being Drawn? Forwarded from the com-priv list which discusses issues related to the commercial and privatized use and development of the internet ... -----------begin included text----------- Date: Sat, 4 Jan 1997 02:31:00 -0500 From: nelson@crynwr.com Subject: Resources to counter RBOC network usage studies? Mike O'Connor writes: > I'm heading into a public meeting with US West in a few days in > which US West folks will be talking to an assembled crowd of ISP's > about their version of the "ESP's, and especially ISP's, have unique > usage patterns that impact our local network" rant. They are > proposing rate changes aimed at "reducing Internet demand" and the > Minnesota Internet Services Trade Association is sponsoring the > public meeting on the topic. > I know that this has seen extensive discussion in this list, and > don't want to impose by rekindling the dialog. But I was wondering > if somebody has a good resources page that I could go study up at. Become a telephone company. Co-locate, buy Ascend's Max 4002 box; put in IDSL (ISDN DSL -- works with existing TAs by pretending to be a telco switch), and compete with them. Problem is, of course, that the regulations will kill you. So ... some legal types (are you listening??) need to come up with a "Here's how to become a telco in your state" package. If they *really* are trying to give you an incentive to become a telephone company and compete with them, *let them*. If they do this, the telco boards and their hired help need to have their heads examined. If you want to see a list of what the telcos need to, but aren't going to, do, go read Graham Finnie's Worldview piece once the January issue of tele.com online at < http://www.teledotcom.com/ >. Or read it in print if you must. :) russ http://www.crynwr.com/~nelson ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Jan 1997 10:15:45 -0800 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: This Day in Telecom History - the Telegraph I heard on the radio this morning, that on this date (today) January 6, in 1838, Samuel B. Morse publically demonstrated the electrical telegraph machine, in Morristown NJ! (and Bellcore has had offices in that town as well!) - just a bit of this date in telecom history! 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 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #1 ****************************