Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id CAA26686; Fri, 24 Jan 1997 02:59:28 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 02:59:28 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199701240759.CAA26686@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #20 TELECOM Digest Fri, 24 Jan 97 02:58:00 EST Volume 17 : Issue 20 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson CFP: ICTL'97 (Mehmet Orgun) UCLA Short Course: Cellular, PCS, and Wireless Data Technology (B. Goodin) Ordering a "Dedicated" Modem Line (Marlon Brando) How to Remove a Bogus DA Listing? (Rick Prelinger) Using a "700" Number to Dial Around (Charles Holcomb) PBS "American Experience" Telephone History (Lee Winson) International Operator Services Reciprocal Billing (tmccall) Book Review: "Managing Computer Networks" by Lewis (Rob Slade) E911 Adjuncts for NEC PBX (Greg Stahl) Fridays Free - Again? (Ed Kleinhample) Prepaid Phone Card Collecting (TELECOM 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: 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 10:44:37 +1100 From: Mehmet Orgun Subject: CFP: ICTL'97 Reply-To: Mehmet Orgun [DEADLINE FOR PAPER SUBMISSION IS EXTENDED TO FEBRUARY 20] ICTL'97 - CALL FOR PAPERS SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TEMPORAL LOGIC http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/fmethods/ictl97.html Hulme Hall, Oxford Place, Victoria Park, Manchester, England July 14 - 18, 1997 CONFERENCE GOALS Following the success of ICTL'94, the first international conference on temporal logic, this conference attempts to create bridges between the various communities working in Temporal Logic. Connecting methods and researchers from areas such as temporal representation in natural language and the handling of time in software engineering to the study of pure systems of Temporal Logic and the applied temporal systems of AI. Areas of interest to the conference thus include: (1) Pure Temporal Logic, e.g. temporal systems, proof theory, model theory, expressiveness and complexity issues, algebraic properties, application of game theory; (2) Specification and Verification, e.g. of reactive systems, of real-time components, of user interaction, of hardware systems, techniques and tools for verification, execution and prototyping methods; (3) Temporal Databases, e.g. temporal representation, temporal querying, granularity of time, update mechanisms, active temporal databases, hypothetical reasoning; (4) Temporal Aspects in AI, e.g. modelling temporal phenomena, interval temporal calculi, temporal nonmonotonicity, interaction of temporal reasoning with action/knowledge/belief logics, temporal planning; (5) Tense and Aspect in Natural Language, e.g. models, ontologies, temporal quantifiers, connectives, prepositions, processing temporal statements; (6) Temporal Theorem Proving, e.g. translation methods, clausal and non-clausal resolution, tableaux, automata-theoretic approaches, tools and practical systems. Research papers (of up to 15 pages) are welcomed, especially those making connections among the above areas; short survey papers (no more than 30 pages) of areas for the benefit of participants from other areas will also be considered. The proceedings is expected to be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. Short position papers and system descriptions (of up to 5 pages) are also welcomed for poster sessions and will be published as a volume in the University of Manchester Computer Science technical report series. The best papers will be considered for publication in the Journal of Logic and Computation. If appropriate, revised and extended versions of survey papers will be published as a special volume in Kluwer's Applied Logic Series. CONFERENCE LOCATION The conference is being held in Manchester, one of the major higher education precincts of Western Europe, under the auspices of the University of Manchester at one of its long-standing halls of residence, Hulme Hall. The Hall's location, although close to the busy and vibrant Oxford Road with its numerous Indian and oriental restaurants of excellent value, is secluded, quiet and well equipped with excellent facilities for supporting large conference parties. The University of Manchester, itself, is short 10 minutes walk away in the city direction, taking you past the famous Whitworth Art Gallery, and the Manchester Museum. Further into the city, you can visit the Museum of Science and Industry at Castlefields, where the history of cotton industry and mills, engines, transport, computing and information unfolds, or view the glorious architecture of the Town Hall and other civic buildings, or shop, and when exhausted from sightseeing take refuge in one of Manchester's pubs to down a few pints of real beer. Manchester is well connected by road, rail, air and canal. Manchester International airport is 20 minutes away by taxi from the conference location, while a direct (and fast) rail link connects the airport with the city centre. FORMAT OF CONFERENCE The full conference will extend from an initial evening time reception on Monday July 14th 1997 through to mid afternoon on Friday July 18th 1997. To encourage graduate students and researchers wishing to broaden their expertise, the first day proper, Tuesday July 15th 1997, will be dedicated to tutorial presentations. The research paper presentations will last from Wednesday July 16th to Friday July 18th 1997; it is planned that each day of the research presentations will be preceeded by an invited talk. Social events are being arranged for the evenings. Further details will appear on the Web page. SUBMISSION OF PAPERS Each submission should include a separate cover sheet containing: the title of paper, the category of the paper and which of the topic areas listed above best describes their paper (if none is appropriate, please give a set of keywords that best describe the topic of the paper), the names and complete addresses (including email, when possible) of all authors, and an abstract. Correspondence will be sent to the first listed author, unless otherwise indicated. To be considered, papers must be received by the programme committee chair NO LATER THAN January 20th, 1997. Electronic submission in the form of a postscript file (uuencoded and gzipped if possible) is preferred (email to: ictl97@cs.man.ac.uk), alternatively 4 paper copies by regular mail is acceptable. Authors are encouraged to use the Springer llncs style which can be obtained from the directory: gopher://trick.ntp.springer.de/11/tex/latex/llncs/ Authors will be notified of the Programme Committee's decision by March 15th, 1997. Final camera-ready versions of accepted papers will be due by April 15th, 1997. PLANNING TO ATTEND People planning to attend the conference are asked to send a note stating their intention as early as possible to the local conference secretary, Mrs Lynn Howarth (Lynn.Howarth@cs.man.ac.uk), in order to help estimate the facilities needed for the conference. (Postal address: Mrs Lynn Howarth, ICTL'97, c/o Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, England. Phone: +44 (0)161 275 6154, Fax: +44 (0)161 275 6204) GENERAL CONFERENCE CHAIR Dov M. Gabbay Department of Computing Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Huxley Bld. 180 Queen's Gate London SW7 2AZ England Voice: +44 (0)171 594 8205 Fax: +44 (0)171 594 8201 Email: dg@doc.ic.ac.uk http://theory.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ar3/gabbay.html PROGRAMME COMMITTEE CHAIR Howard Barringer Department of Computer Science University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester, M13 9PL England Voice: +44 (0)161 275 6248 FAX: +44 (0)161 275 6211 Email: howard@cs.man.ac.uk http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/fmethods/people/howard.html LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS CHAIR Bill Mitchell Department of Computer Science University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester, M13 9PL England Voice: +44 (0)161 275 6117 FAX: +44 (0)161 275 6211 Email: bill@cs.man.ac.uk http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/fmethods/people/wprm/new-fm-page.html TUTORIALS CHAIR Michael Fisher Department of Computing Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester, M13 England Voice: +44 (0)161 247 1488 FAX: +44 (0)161 247 1483 Email: M.Fisher@doc.mmu.ac.uk http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/STAFF/M.Fisher PROGRAMME COMMITTEE (Provisional) Howard Barringer (University of Manchester, UK) Gerd Brewka (GMD Bonn, Germany) Jan Chomicki (Monmouth University, USA) Allen Emerson (Austin, Texas) Michael Fisher (MMU, UK) Nissim Francez (Technion, Israel) Dov Gabbay (Imperial College, London) Joe Halpern (Cornell University, USA) Hans Kamp (IMS, Stuttgart, Germany) Angelo Montanari (Udine, Italy) Istvan Nemeti (Math Institute, Hungary) Hans Juergen Ohlbach (Max-Planck-Institut, Saarbruecken, Germany) Amir Pnueli (Weizmann Institute, Israel) Wojtek Pencek (University of Warsaw, Poland) Antonio Porto (Univ Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) Mark Reynolds (King's College London, UK) Willem Paul de Roever (Kiel University, Germany) Eric Sandewall (Linkoeping University, Sweden) Andrzej Szalas (University of Warsaw, Poland) Yde Venema (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) TUTORIAL SPEAKERS Temporal Logic and Planning -- Faheim Bacchus (Waterloo, Canada) Temporal Databases -- Jan Chomicki(Monmouth, USA) and David Toman (Toronto, Canada) Temporal Logic of Actions -- Peter Ladkin (Bielefeld, Germany) Temporality in Natural Language -- Mark Steedman (Pennsylvania, USA) IMPORTANT DATES Submission receipt deadline: January 20th, 1997 Author notification date: March 15th, 1997 Camera-ready copy due to publisher: April 15th, 1997 Conference: July 14th-18th, 1997 ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF PAPERS By email to: ictl97@cs.man.ac.uk Michael Fisher http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/STAFF/M.Fisher Department of Computing email: M.Fisher@doc.mmu.ac.uk Manchester Metropolitan University tel: (+44) 161 247 1488 Manchester M1 5GD, United Kingdom fax: (+44) 161 247 1483 ------------------------------ From: Bill Goodin Subject: UCLA Short Course: Cellular, PCS, and Wireless Data Technology Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 14:19:00 -0800 On April 15-18, 1997, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Cellular, PCS, and Wireless Data Technology", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are C. R. "Rick" Baugh, PhD, consultant, and Peter Rysavy, MSEE, consultant. The new digital cellular, Personal Communications Services (PCS), and wireless-data communications technologies are the most exciting advances in mobile communications since analog-cellular telephone technology was introduced in the late 1960s. By the end of 1996, there will be over 80 million wireless voice subscribers and over 75 million paging subscribers worldwide. A. D. Little predicts penetration of wireless services into 60% of U.S. households by the year 2005. Wireless local loop applications of cellular and PCS technologies will stimulate vigorous competition in local telephone services throughout the world. This course provides an understanding of the various wireless technologies and lays the foundation for answering these technical, planning, design, and business development questions: o What are the most important trends and significant recent advancements in this field? o How do the competing wireless technologies compare? o What voice, data, and paging services will these technologies support? o What technologies are best for which applications? o Which wireless data technologies are being used today? o What are the standards for digital wireless, wireless data, and wireless software? What is their status? o How will existing wireless data technologies coexist with new PCS technologies? o How does wireless interconnect with the existing telecommunica- tions and public data networks? o Will wireless local loop be an alternative for traditional telephone service? o Is PCS competitive with alternative wireline and wireless services? This course is intended for engineers and technical managers who plan, design, implement and operate voice and data communications systems for common-carrier service providers; corporate telecommunications planners and technical managers intending to include wireless voice and data systems within their firm's communications networks; and designers of equipment used for wireless voice and data products and systems. UCLA Extension has presented this highly successful short course since 1992. The course fee is $1395, which includes extensive course materials. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ From: kline@cyberenet.net (Marlon Brando) Subject: Ordering a "Dedicated" Modem Line Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 19:53:52 GMT Organization: Cyberbrewer Reply-To: kline@cyberenet.net I ordered a second phone line from Bell Atlantic Monday, they said it should be installed on Friday. I did the wiring myself I ran a modular wire directly from the telco.'s termination box into my modem. Needless to say, "it's a dedicated line." OK, my question. Before the line is installed, just a POTS line, is there a way to get a better grade line WITHOUT going digital or ISDN? (If they are one in the same please excuse my ignorance.) The second line that I ordered will, hopefully, be a solution to an ongoing problem that I've been having with my connect preformance. I use a Courier 336 v. everything. But, although it connects at 19.2-24.0, it is constantly renegotiating it's connection. This constant start-and-stop is very frustrating. I ran the gambit with my phone co., they're useless. The ISP blames the phone co. I think that I believe them. They are still in business after all. With reguards to my question, I just need to know if I'm asking the phone co. for the correct line (without going ISDN$$$.) Thank you in advance, mark kline@cyberenet.net http://www.cyberenet.net/~kline ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 10:19:05 -0400 From: footage@well.com (Rick Prelinger) Subject: How to Remove a Bogus DA Listing? Lately my customers have been informing me that Directory Assistance is giving them an outdated, three-year-old number for our business. As it happens, this number isn't in the NYNEX database, but I've determined that those getting this bad information are Sprint/MCI customers probably reaching some contract DA provider. Who are these providers? And how does one reach them to remove an outdated or incorrect listing in their DA databases? Rick Prelinger Prelinger Archives 430 West 14th Street, Room 403 / New York, NY 10014 USA 212 633-2020 / Fax: 212 255-5139 footage@well.com Visit the Our Secret Century web site at: http://www.secretcentury.com ------------------------------ From: Charles Holcomb Subject: Using a "700" Number to Dial Around Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 09:08:00 -0600 Organization: DSC Communications Corporation On of my relatives can not use her LD carrier's PIC code to dial around her LEC for her long distance calls in her LATA. I was told you can use a 1-700-xxx-xxxx to be able to dial around and still use your prefered LD carrier. Is this true, and why is it not mentioned by LD carrier's?? What excatly is the "700" number used for?? Just curious. Thanks, Charles Holcomb ------------------------------ From: lwinson@bbs.cpcn.com (Lee Winson) Subject: PBS "American Experience" Telephone History Date: 24 Jan 1997 03:57:12 GMT Organization: The PACSIBM SIG BBS In February, PBS' "American Experience" will have a segment on the development of the telephone. Watch your local listings. Other segments will cover various technologies. They said this was financed by the "Sloan Technology Series". This series is an excellent history of technology, they have sponsored several excellent technology history books (such as Aspray's Computer history.) ------------------------------ From: tmccall Subject: International Operator Services Reciprocal Billing Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 22:55:34 -0500 Organization: World Telecommunications Services Inc. Reply-To: tmccall@technologist.com Hello to All, I am attempting to determine if any settlement mechanism would exist for foreign nationals using US based operators services with a foreign PTT's travel card. As an example. A US traveler abroad dials an international access number for a US based operator services company, say, AT&T's USADirect product. Any third party Operator Services Company with a billing agreement with AT&T can handle the call. But, can a US based operator services company establish the same kind of reciprocal billing arrangment with a Foreign PTT?? So they would be able to bill a call made with a foreign PTT's travel card?? Like Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, or British Telephone. Please forgive my ignorance ... I am not familiar with a lot of the operational aspects of operator services. Any feedback on this question would be greatly appreciated as would any information on operational aspects of US based operator services companies. Thanks to all, tmccall@technologist.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 12:20:42 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Managing Computer Networks" by Lewis BKMNCMNT.RVW 961018 "Managing Computer Networks", Lundy Lewis, 1995, 0-89006-799-6 %A Lundy Lewis %C 685 Canton St., Norwood, MA 02062 %D 1995 %G 0-89006-799-6 %I Artech House/Horizon %O 617-769-9750 800-225-9977 fax: +1-617-769-6334 %O artech@world.std.com bookco@artech.demon.co.uk %P 205 %T "Managing Computer Networks: A Case-Based Reasoning Approach" This book is not so much about computer network management as about expert systems and case-based reasoning. The background and fundamentals, as well as an overview of the problems and difficulties, of these two fields of artificial intelligence are presented in chapters two and three. Chapter four looks at some established software systems that use CBR. Lewis does, then, move on to review computer network management systems which use CBR techniques. A number of problem areas in network management are raised, but at this point, the material seems to be more of an overview of the software's capabilities, rather than any discussion of network management as such, or the application of case-based reasoning to the problem. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKMNCMNT.RVW 961018 ====================== roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca Ceterum censeo CNA Financial Services delendam esse Please note the Peterson story - http://www.netmind.com/~padgett/trial.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 07:37:44 CST From: Greg Stahl Subject: E911 Adjuncts for NEC PBX I am looking for information on E911 adjuncts for the university's NEC NEAX 2400 PBX. I have been looking for information regarding E911 on the WWW, but hav'nt had much luck. We are exploring the possiblility of adding an adjunct to our PBX, does anyone know of any vendors that sell a product like this and is anyone familiar with the laws regarding E911 or can point me in the right direction. Do we, by law, have to send the ANI/ALI info down to the county emergency center? Any help with this, or letting me know of any sources for this kind of info would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Greg A. Stahl- KE4LDD Communications Technician St. Lawrence University Telecommunications Canton, NY (315)379-5918 GSTA@music.stlawu.edu Telecom is Cool !! ------------------------------ From: edhample@sprynet.com (Ed Kleinhample) Subject: Fridays Free - Again? Date: 23 Jan 1997 13:49:51 GMT Organization: K-Systems Software and Consulting - Land O' Lakes, FL. Over the weekend, I saw an ad for Sprint (on CNN) advertising the now-famous Fridays Free promotion. I listened carefully when I heard the ad again on Sunday evening -- I heard no mention that this promotion was for business customer, or that there were any limitations on the destination of calls on Friday. Same promotion as last spring -- $50 dollar/month minimum -- unlimited free calls every Friday. Do those people at Sprint ever learn their lesson? Ed Kleinhample (edhample@sprynet.com) Consultant - Land O' Lakes, FL. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh indeed they do learn their lessons Ed. They caught on fast that Friday Free was one of the most profitable bait-and-switch scams in their repertoire. For those not familiar with it, and so you won't fall in their trap, here is how it works. Sprint reps will claim to you that if you sign up with them and contract to spend at least fifty dollars per month for the next year, they will give you all your calls on Friday for free. They will indeed give you one or two Fridays of entirely free calling while they secretly evaluate your account. If it turns out to be profitable for them they'll let you stay on the plan, but if it appears it will not be profitable for them then they send you a letter telling you it was all a big mistake and that actually you do not get any free calls on Friday, you simply get a discount of some percentage on all your calls. They'll claim the rep who made all the promises to you had no right to do so, and to their way of thinking, that will be that. Some customers who were defrauded by Sprint on this promotion have reported that none-the-less Sprint kept on dunning them to pay the fifty dollars per month even after they had quit using Sprint entirely out of disgust at being tricked into signing up in the first place. Sprint tends to mail out the letter telling you about the 'mistake' late in the day on Wednesday, cancelling all free calls as of the Friday two days later. Naturally most customers do not get the letter before the weekend, so they get stuck with some humongous bill for all the calls they made that Friday thinking they would be free. Sprint of course wants payment on all those calls. It is really quite a scam. They sign the letter advising of the 'mistake' with the name of an employee who deliberatly then dodges phone calls from irate customers. Did anyone ever manage to get Robin Lloyd the last time Sprint promoted the Friday Free scam? After the company first started this last year, I suspect they waited to see how severe the backlash would be -- i.e. any class action lawsuits, etc -- before running it again. Now that experience has shown them most customers are not going to try and go up against a large corporation with endless dollars to spend on lawyers, they've apparently decided to advertise for a few more suckers. The best advice I can give any business thinking about signing up for the Sprint Free Friday promotion is don't fall for it. And if you have already been stiffed by Sprint either on Free Friday or some other case where their reps have been trained to fraudulently misrepresent the company's services, about all you can do at this point is put a complete freeze on all accounts payable to Sprint. Force them to go legal to get as much as a nickle out of you which they allege is due. It is the only way you will recover whatever you paid Sprint on the Friday (not really) Free at $50 per month plan. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 01:35:42 EST From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Prepaid Phone Card Collecting I got an interesting magazine in the mail a couple days ago on this topic, full of beautiful illustrations of prepaid phone cards. It seems collecting these things has become a very popular hobby, much like stamp collecting. But with stamp collecting, it always occurred to me that the real beneficiary was the US Postal Service, which sells the stamps for face value but is never called upon to deliver any service for the affixing of the stamp on a letter. The stamp is intended to be saved in a scrapbook rather than used for postage. I have to wonder if the telcos are in the same situation with their prepaid phone cards. They sell lots of these cards, getting paid in advance for service on their network which will never be used since the object seems to be collecting them in large numbers for their various designs and illustrations, etc. Or am I wrong, and people actually use prepaid phone cards and then proceed to save the expired card in their collections? The magazine I got claims phone cards are a 'billion dollar industry' and that people who buy/sell/trade them will make a lot of money. This magazine is called {Premier Telecard} and its USA ediion is on sale for $4.95 in many bookstores. You can also contact them at http://www.premier-tele.com for details. They've been in business now for a few years covering this theme exclusively: the buying and selling of prepaid phone cards. If for no other reason than to check out some really nice illustrations you might want to look at the magazine. I personally cannot imagine using prepaid phone cards since they cost a lot more per minute than DDD or other ways of placing calls and my personal experience in distributing them was not a very big success. Old-time readers will recall back in 1993 or so I had a bunch of sample two dollar cards I distributed on a test basis to readers here. I was not impressed with the results, but then this may not be the best source of customers for same. I suppose as collectibles they have some value so my question is are the telcos encouraging them for collectible purposes in the same way the United States Postal Service supports stamp collector clubs ... as a good way of making some money with little effort? In the sample copy I was sent, a letter said that Tom Foley, editor of the now defunct Private Line, a magazine on phones and phone systems he published for about a year is now a writer on the staff of their sister publication {Industry Review}. Any thoughts/opinions/actual hard data and facts on prepaid phone cards as collectibles? Truly a 'billion dollar business'? PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #20 *****************************