Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id IAA05711; Sat, 11 Jan 1997 08:51:40 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 08:51:40 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199701111351.IAA05711@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #8 TELECOM Digest Sat, 11 Jan 97 08:52:00 EST Volume 17 : Issue 8 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Run For Your Lives! Beepers Go Berserk, Refuse to be Silent (G Beuselinck) New 562 Area Code (Tad Cook) Book Review: "The FAQ Manual of Style" by Shaw (Rob Slade) N.Y. Phone Deregulation Hits Snag (Mike Pollock) Re: This Day in Telecom History - the Telegraph (John R. Levine) Re: This Date in Telecom History - Divestiture (Lisa Hancock) Re: This Day in Telecom History - the Telegraph (Robert Weller) Last Laff: Latest Goodtimes Virus! (Tad Cook) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: George Beuselinck Subject: Run For Your Lives! Beepers Go Berserk, Refuse to be Silent Date: 10 Jan 1997 17:35:04 GMT Organization: GB Enterprises 'A technical problem on the Skytel paging network led to a nationwide bout of beeper madness, as a digital deluge of erroneous call-me-back messages swept over more than 100,000 unwitting pager customers' o Skytel: "one frequency of our one-way nationwide network experienced an anomaly in the database that caused" erroneous pages". - the 'technoid' explanation for what happened to 100K+ customers: - a number was displayed on their beeper that looked like a phone number; - 'thousands obligingly tried to return the call' at 8 AM EST. o 'it got worse ... three dozen especially diligent customers' recognized the number as an identification (PIN) number. - they dialed Skytel, entered that code and their own phone numbers. - 'unbeknownst to them, the Skytel system then efficiently zapped those real phone numbers out: to the same 100,000 pager customers. Ever eager, thousands of them then returned calls to the diligent 36'. - they got 300 calls an hour or more, still 40 an hour in the afternoon o 'The result was an embarrassing communication chasm in the Wireless Age'. o the real explanation behind what happened: - a SKytel customer was trying to reactivate her service; - somehow she was assigned 'a terribly wrong PIN:' one linked to a secret code Skytel uses to broadcast news to 100K users. - the networks computer saw the PIN was wrongly linked and rejected it; - 'but the Skytel staff successfully overcame the computers recalcitrance'. - Scott Hamilton, Mtel (Skytels parent company) spokesman: "With any kind of computer system, from time to time, numbers have to be jiggled, and they were attempting to jiggle. It was just a mistake." o 'Then the Skytel staffer, ever helpful, tested the new customers PIN by zapping the 7-digit number -- which looks suspiciously like a phone number -- over the network so it would show up on the display'. ------------------------------ Subject: New 562 Area Code Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 00:25:30 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) 562 to become California's 14th area code LOS ANGELES -- Jan. 9, 1997 The new 562 area code will begin serving sout 562 to become California's 14th area code Business Wire LOS ANGELES -- Jan. 9, 1997 -- The new 562 area code will begin serving southeastern Los Angeles County on January 25. The 562 area code is being created through a geographic split of the 310 area code approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in 1995. The new 562 area code will become California's 14th area code and will serve about one-third of the phone numbers currently served by the 310 area code. The details are as follows: New Area Code Boundaries -- Existing 310 area code customers in the southeastern part of Los Angeles County and small portions of Orange County will receive the new 562 area code. Some of the cities in this area are: Paramount, Downey, Pico Rivera, Whittier, Norwalk, Lakewood, most of Long Beach, Los Alamitos and La Habra and part of Bell Gardens, Brea, La Mirada and La Palma. -- Existing 310 area code customers in the southwestern portion of Los Angeles County will keep the 310 area code. Some of the communities in this area are: San Pedro, Wilmington, Compton, Torrance, Redondo Beach, El Segundo, Santa Monica and Malibu and most of Gardena, Culver City, West Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Price of Calls Will Not Be Affected California Code Administrator Bruce Bennett, who oversees area code relief efforts on behalf of the telecommunications industry, said the introduction of the 562 area code will not affect the price of telephone calls. `Call distance determines call price. What is a local call now will remain a local call regardless of the area code change.` He also said the area code's introduction will not affect customer's seven-digit phone numbers. `Only the area code portion of their phone number will change.` Bennett said the new area code is needed to meet the seemingly insatiable demand for new phone numbers being seen not only in Los Angeles, but across the state. `Californians are continuing to use telephone numbers at record rates,` he said. `California already has 13 area codes and will need to double that number in the next four years to keep pace with customer demand.` Permissive Dialing Period A six-month get acquainted or `permissive` dialing period will begin January 25 when the new 562 area code is introduced. During this period, people can dial either the old 310 or new 562 area code to reach most telephone numbers in the new 562 area code. Also, during this six month period, customers in the 562 and 310 area codes can call between the two area codes using seven-digit dialing on most calls, Bennett said. Exceptions to Permissive Dialing Begin on February 1. Many of the new phone numbers issued in the new 562 area code after February 1 will not have the six-month `permissive` dialing period and must be dialed with the correct area code, Bennett said. `This is because we're assigning the same seven-digit phone numbers in both the 310 and 562 area codes in 53 new prefixes. This is needed because we're running out of phone numbers faster than expected,` Bennett said. `People dialing these new numbers will need to dial the correct area code to avoid getting a wrong number. This is true both for residents calling between the 562 and 310 area codes as well as people calling in from other area codes,` he said. The six-month permissive dialing period ends on July 26, 1997, and is followed by a three-month `mandatory` dialing period during which a recording will inform callers to the old area code to dial the new area code. Things to Remember Change stationery, notify friends and associates. Bennett said these get acquainted dialing periods not only allow residence and business customers time to get used to the new area code, but also to make other important changes including: -- Change stationery, business cards and advertising to reflect the new area code; -- Notify friends, relatives, clients and customers of the change; -- Reprogram fax machines and auto-dialers; -- Customers with cellular phones and pagers should check with their service provider to see if reprogramming is required. Make Sure Equipment Can Accommodate The New Area Code The 562 area code is part of a series of new-style area codes introduced in North America beginning in 1995 that can be any three digits. This has special implications for certain types of telecommunications equipment, which must be reprogrammed to recognize the new-style area codes, Bennett said. `Historically, area codes always had either a `1` or `0` as the middle digit for identification purposes, but all of those codes are gone. The new number combinations allow area codes to be any three digits from 220 to 999, creating an additional 5 billion telephone numbers. `Because of this, it's important for customers to know that PBX (private phone) systems, auto-dialers, alarms and other telecommunications equipment will have to be re-programmed to recognize these new-style area codes,` said Bennett, adding that people should check with their equipment vendors to see if their equipment needs to be reprogrammed. The new 562 area code is expected to accommodate the need for new phone numbers through the year 2007, while the reconfigured 310 area code is expected to have enough telephone numbers to last until 2002. The need for area code relief in the 310 area code was originally announced in March 1994. In August, 1995, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered a geographic split of the 310 area code to meet the need for more phone numbers. A group of city and county government officials from the affected areas proposed the area code boundaries, which were later approved by the Commission. More Area Codes To Come Statewide Southeastern Los Angeles County is the latest in a series of regions in California requiring area code relief. Today, California has 13 area codes, more than any other state. Plans call for doubling that number from 13 to 26 by the year 2001 to keep up with the state's record telephone number consumption. That consumption is being spurred by several factors, the two primary being the high-technology explosion of fax machines, pagers, cellular phones, modems for Internet access, and data communications networks like ATMs and pay point services, all of which require phone lines. The other factor is the onset of competition in California's local telephone service market, with each new provider requiring a separate supply of telephone numbers. At least 10 of the 13 new area codes will be introduced by the end of 1998. In addition to 310, California areas which have already been designated as requiring new area codes are: 818 and 213 in the Los Angeles area, 619 in the San Diego, Palm Springs and Inland County areas, 415 in the San Francisco Bay area, 916 in Northern California, 510 in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, 714 in Orange County, 408 covering the South Bay Area Peninsula and Central Coast areas and 209 in the Fresno and Stockton areas. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 17:53:31 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The FAQ Manual of Style" by Shaw BKFAQMOS.RVW 961017 "The FAQ Manual of Style", Russell Shaw, 1996, 1-55828-498-2, U$24.94/C$34.95 %A Russell Shaw %C 115 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011-4195 %D 1996 %G 1-55828-498-2 %I MIS Press %O U$24.94/C$34.95 +1-212-886-9378 fax: +1-212-633-0748, +1-212-807-6654 %O 76712.2644@compuserve.com http://www.mispress.com fburke@fsb.superlink.net %P 287 %T "The FAQ Manual of Style" The net is doubling in population every year. That means every second person on the net has been there less than a year. Some newcomers aren't too thrilled with the net, but most are enthralled with the ability to find, and interact with, groups of people discussing a common interest, however arcane your interests may be. Given the wealth of "newbies" entering the Internet all the time, existing discussion groups get flooded with questions. The *same* questions. Time after time after time. Questions, in other words, that get asked frequently. Hence FAQs, or lists of Frequently Asked Questions, with the attendant answers. The original FAQs were spawned in an attempt to reduce the bandwidth consumed (and annoyance generated) by these endless questions. FAQs quickly became reference materials in and of themselves, as well as fulfilling their initial role of educating novices. The writing and maintenance of a FAQ can be a significant chore. I participate in one FAQ maintained by committee, contribute to a few others, and maintain one of my own. Recently, however, the FAQ format has been used to produce different types of documents. These newer FAQs tend to be more commercially oriented, being used to introduce a company or product, or to serve in place of technical documentation. It is these pseudo-FAQs that Shaw is primarily interested in. The book does provide some common sense advice that those not long familiar with the net could easily miss. There are suggestions on advertising, marketing, and the restriction of documents to a "user-friendly" size. Shaw does touch on the more traditional documents (which he refers to as "Newsgroup" FAQs). His advice there, however, is quite limited. As an example, the biggest problem facing a FAQ maintainer is deciding what to include. Shaw's answer? This is "a judgement call based almost entirely on instinct and experience." copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKFAQMOS.RVW 961017 ====================== roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use - Galileo Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 13:58:03 -0800 From: Mike Pollock Organization: SJS Entertainment Subject: N.Y. Phone Deregulation Hits Snag By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press Writer ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A key detail of how New York will open local phone service to competition is up in the air. Literally. On top of telephone poles. The creosoted roadside poles might be a mundane bit of Americana, but they're also hot real estate. Power, phone and cable companies all need them to provide service to customers. But since power and phone companies raised the poles over the course of this century, they own them. Johnny-come-lately cable companies rent pole space up top so they can hang wires. It has worked like that since the 1970s, when cable TV first appeared. But now that cable companies are planning to provide local phone serv- ice -- in direct competition with their pole-top landlords -- a question has emerged: How much rent should utilities be able to charge cable phone subsidia- ries for the use of their poles? With untallied millions at stake, it's a touchy question. Some utilities believe it's time to raise what they call subsidized rental fees, which average about $10 per pole, per year. Cable companies disagree. After a year of fruitless talks, opposing sides this summer asked the state to intervene. The state Public Service Commission is holding hearings on the issue. At stake is what it will cost to compete with established local phone companies, said Philip Shapiro, an attorney with the Cable Television an d Telecommunications Association of New York. Higher rental fees could chase smaller start-up phone companies from the market, he said. "We are dependent upon those poles. They've got a monopoly there," he said. "If we're assuming that lower phone rates are just around the corner ... you're only going to get that with meaningful choice." The irony is New York is moving into an era of wide open telecommunic- ations with an infrastructure dating to the rotary phone era. The endless wire web strung from poles and buried beneath suburban lawns and urban concrete would be impossible for cable companies to recreate. Such a far-flung system requires plenty of maintenance. And some util- ities say cable phone subsidiaries should pay more -- as high as $30 per year, per pole -- to cover costs. "They're not paying their fair share," said Cliff Lee of Nynex Corp.,= which has yet to offer its own dollar figure. "Every time somebody expands a road or it gets hit by a car, we have to go in and replace those poles." It costs Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. about $130 a year to maintain a utility pole, according to spokesman Nicholas Lyman, and cable companies pay about 8 percent of the tab. He said that's why the utility wants to triple its collections from cable companies, to about $9 million a year. "If you're on a pole, you ought to be paying for the privilege," he said. The cable industry counters that New York's pole attachment rates are already well above the national average of about $4.73, and should be lowered. Shapiro said maintenance costs are already built into utility rates. Richard Aurelio, president of the Time Warner New York City Cable Group up, said he believes the push for higher rates by telephone companies could freeze his company out of the market. Time Warner, which has about five million cable subscribers in New York state, has plans to offer phone service in the New York City area, he said. "At a minimum, this would slow down any plans of ours to go into resi- dential telephony, and it could very well imperil our whole investment in New York," he said. Cable companies are also worried about the fees because they are facing ng strong challenges from wireless cable and satellite dish outfits, which don't rely on telephone poles. In another sign of the scope of the debate, electric utilities like Niagara Mohawk will be affected because not only do they own so many poles, but they too are venturing into the telecoms market. Gary Miller of Aragon Consulting Group in St. Louis said utilities and cable companies in other states have gone through similar battles, with competitive forces usually driving a settlement. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jan 97 09:10 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: This Day in Telecom History - the Telegraph Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg, N.Y. In article was written: > Mark J. Cuccia wrote: >> 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! > Morse's first message: "What hath God wrought?" But not in Morristown. That was the demo message on his first commercial telegraph line, built somewhat later by Ezra Cornell (now you know where he got the money to start the university) between Baltimore and Washington. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 640 Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869 johnl@iecc.com, http://iecc.com/johnl, "New witty saying coming soon." ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: This Date in Telecom History - Divestiture Date: 10 Jan 1997 14:34:24 GMT Organization: Net Access BBS I seriously question whether consumers are better off as a result of divesture. They talk about competition ... well, why is it that pay phone competitors charge MORE than the Bell System does? A lot of significant changes in the Bell System happened regardless of competition. For instance, owning your own sets was a separate decision, as was long distance competition. As to long distance competition, AT&T's long distance rates were on a steady decline for years and were pretty reasonable. I question whether "competition" really made a difference. I think it was technology that did it. I also think companies like MCI got an unfair start by skimming the cream -- serving high volume profitable corridors leaving AT&T to serve the low end and provide emergency capacity for outages. (For years, whenever you had trouble on MCI their operator would tell you to dial 10288+ to make your call. I wonder how MCI would have grown if it did not have the backup capability.) As to owning your own equipment, everybody knows the old Western Electric 500 and 2500 sets were sturdy enough to take a direct nuclear hit. Today's sets, even those made by AT&T are cheap and fragile. You can't buy the good sets, except through the second hand market. Are consumers really better off? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not at all; but that was never the point of it. Well yes, that is what the anti-AT&T people in the Justice Department and Judge Greene told everyone, but don't you believe it for a minute. Smashing up the Bell System was a terrible thing to do; none of the later entrants on the scene wanted any competition; they just wanted to rip off what they could from the network and they convinced the government to help them do it. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: This Day in Telecom History - the Telegraph Date: Fri, 10 Jan 97 10:05:11 PDT From: rweller@h-e.com Organization: Hammett & Edison, Inc. Does the second 'T' in AT&T still have meaning in this age? Bob Weller [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do either of the letters 'T' in ITT mean anything these days for the company which bakes bread among other things? How long has it been since International Telephone and Telegraph had any involvement with either? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Last Laff: Latest Goodtimes Virus! Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 15:54:02 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) *** The Goodtimes Email Virus *** Goodtimes will re-write your hard drive. Not only that, but it will scramble any disks that are even close to your computer. It will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all your ice cream goes melty. It will demagnetize the strips on all your credit cards, screw up the tracking on your television and use subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you try to play. It will give your ex-girlfriend your new phone number. It will mix Kool-aid into your fishtank. It will drink all your beer and leave its socks out on the coffee table when there's company coming over. It will put a dead kitten in the back pocket of your good suit pants and hide your car keys when you are late for work. Goodtimes will make you fall in love with a penguin. It will give you nightmares about circus midgets. It will pour sugar in your gas tank and shave off both your eyebrows while dating your current girlfriend behind your back and billing the dinner and hotel room to your Visa card. It will seduce your grandmother. It does not matter if she is dead. Such is the power of Goodtimes; it reaches out beyond the grave to sully those things we hold most dear. It moves your car randomly around parking lots so you can't find it. It will kick your dog. It will leave libidinous messages on your boss's voice mail in your voice! It is insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and terrifying to behold. It is also a rather interesting shade of mauve. Goodtimes will give you Dutch Elm disease. It will leave the toilet seat up. It will make a batch of Methamphetamine in your bathtub and then leave bacon cooking on the stove while it goes out to chase gradeschoolers with your new snowblower. That is all, you've been warned. Tad Cook tad@ssc.com (I stole this!) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #8 ****************************