Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id XAA01493; Thu, 15 May 1997 23:57:04 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 23:57:04 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199705160357.XAA01493@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #120 TELECOM Digest Thu, 15 May 97 23:57:00 EDT Volume 17 : Issue 120 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: The "Call Director" Telephone Set? (Richard Taylor) Re: GSM SIMS and Crypto (Peter Morgan) Audio Monitoring When Phone is On Hook (S Hemphill) 1997 Canadian Telecom Management Update (Ian Angus) ICB News Update (Judith Oppenheimer) ANI Used to Track Stolen Laptops (oldbear@arctos.com) Network Switching (Simon Edgett) Re: Rural Telcos and the Internet (Tel-One Network Services) Re: GSM, SIM Cards, International Roaming (jfmezei) Re: Cell Phone Cancer Study (George Gilder) Re: Cell Phone Cancer Study (Dana Paxson) Re: Western Union = 4321 (wlevant@aol.com) 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: * subscriptions@telecom-digest.org * 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: 847-727-5427 Fax: 773-539-4630 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org (WWW/http only!) 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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: Richard Taylor Subject: Re: The "Call Director" Telephone Set? Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 01:57:12 +0100 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lee Winson wrote: > In the 1960s, the Bell System introduced a "Call Director" telephone > set, which was a key telephone set, but with many buttons. The > handset was on the side, there was a dial (or keypad), then vertical > rows of buttons. > I was wondering: Were there any special features in a Call Director > system that were not available in the six-button key sets? If so, > could someone describe some of the features? > Or, was a Call Director merely a keyset with more buttons to handle more > lines? As a telephone technician for the Air Force in 1969-72, I used to install, repair and reconfigure key equipment, including 30 button Call Directors. They had 100 pair cables with 5 Amphenol fingers (20 pair per finger), and were a bitch to terminate and cross connect. But basically, except for a common Hold button, they were just like 5 six-button 2564 or 564 sets wired together. Each line had a Tip and Ring, an "A" control lead (part of A and A1) and a LG and L for lamp (Basically 3 pair per line). In the military, the first row or two were dial lines, then on the next 3 rows, each command post had a hot line to other command posts on base or across country. The 1A2 system had special line cards for dial line, ring down or DC tie line. You could make some keys non-locking for signaling buzzers, and you could even take the "dogs" (detents) out of the keys to make the buttons non-locking for a mechanical cheap conference arrangement. With Call Directors and 1A2, you could do just about anything. Some sets had speakerphones built-in or adjunct. I've still got some 100 pair "tails" I pulled out of some abandoned offices in the late 80s when I worked Interconect. Almost totally obsolete now, but great reliable technology when it existed. That Western Electric gear was top notch. There were a lot of tricks I could do with a 30-button set and 1A2 that you still can't do with Electronic Key Systems. Of course, there's much more an EKTS can do (like memory and programming) that 1A2 could never do. Richard Taylor Carrboro, NC ------------------------------ From: Peter Morgan Subject: Re: GSM SIMS and Crypto Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 06:31:40 +0100 In message Rishab Aiyer Ghosh wrote: > terms. e.g. we all know about sim portability - use on any phone. but > you can also protect your phone from being stolen by locking it to > your sim - so it won't work with another card. In some cases, it could be used by the carrier to lock you into their network ... the phone cannot be used with another SIM card and they will charge you a fee for unlocking your phone. This may be peculiar to the UK, where even the latest digital phones are often available for free, or for a low sum of cash, and with some networks even the connect fee (often US$45) is also waived. The network I use has a one year minimum contract, but the charges are quite low -- first three months cost me US$90 plus US$50 connect fee, and further 9 months I have changed to a lower cost tariff -- just US$25/month so the network may not break even if I get a new number and new phone when my 12 months are up :-) It may be interesting to see if the old phone will accept the new SIM, as both phones will be tied to the same network. For comparison purposes: For the first three months, I had 60 minutes of included airtime, while the lower tariff gives 15 minutes/month only. [An option is to have a second number available on the same phone, with a monthly rental of US$9, but giving 60 minutes "chat" time in off-peak hours (ie outside M-F 07:00-19:00)] Peter Morgan, North Wales, UK. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 16:54:22 -0700 From: S Hemphill Subject: Audio Monitoring When Phone is On Hook Question: A tech at my place of employment (a west coast silicone wafer fabrication facility) says he was appoached by a telemarketer in the mid 1980's who offered a security service. According to the marketer, the 'security' company worked in conjunction with the phone company and they were able to provide audio monitoring of your home/business through your telephones with no additional equipment. They simply, with your permission, activated a switch at the telephone co., and they were able to hear inside your home through your phones even though they were ON HOOK! What I want to know is, can this actually be done??? Can my home be invaded through phones that are HUNG UP? Thanks in advance for any assistance, S Hemphill hemphill@worldaccessnet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes it can, but not without some re-wiring of the phone itself. It is not just a simple matter of 'activating a switch at the telephone company'. The handset on the phone needs to be wired a little differently on the 'network' or internal connections area of the phone. You need to make the handset bypass the switchook while having the switchook continue to open and close the phone line (leaving the handset alive at all times). Then, add a capacitor of a certain value in parallel to the pair, shunting the capacitor in and out of the line based on the condition of the switchook. The capacitor tricks the central office in the way it would normally respond. I suppose they could shunt the capacitor in and out of line via 'a switch at the telephone company'. It is quite similar to the way a phone is tapped. Go find your neighbor's pair at some nearby point where the cable is multipled. Take a spare pair under your control and tie it on to his pair. Now at your (distant) end attach the pair to a amplified speaker of some kind. You say that will keep his line 'off hook' ... but you add a capacitor (or maybe it is a resistor ... grin) in parallel across your pirate pair at some point in the line and that prevents the central office from 'seeing' you out there; or him seeing you either. Now whenever someone dials your neighbor your little speaker will come to life and you will hear the same ringing signal that the caller is hearing. You will hear him talking anytime he goes off hook. Run the output into a tape recorder if you want, particularly if you'd enjoy going to prison for a few years. I'll let you do the math on the resistor (or was it a capacitor?) values required. You need to diddle the voltage in the line when the phone is on hook so that the central office does not notice the intrusion. If you get in his house and rewire his handset as described above -- although I admit I am being skimpy in my documentation -- then you will hear him all the time. When he goes off hook you'll hear his phone conversations; when he is on hook you'll hear him doing whatever he is doing otherwise. It is a dirty, sleazy business, that wiretapping and monitoring, but someone has to do it ... why not you? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ian Angus Subject: 1997 Canadian Telecom Management Update Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 09:56:17 -0400 Organization: Angus TeleManagement Group 1997 TELECOM MANAGEMENT UPDATE An intensive briefing on today's revolution in Canadian business telecommunications. ** Vancouver: June 2 ** Calgary: June 3 ** Toronto: June 11 ** Ottawa: June 16 ** Montreal: June 17 On May 1, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced sweeping changes, designed to allow competition in local telephone service and cable television across Canada. For seventeen years, Angus TeleManagement's Update briefings have set the standards for focused, action-oriented information, specifically designed to meet the needs of Canadian telecom professionals. So of course this year's Update will include full details and analysis of the impact of the CRTC's latest local competition decisions, as well as the state of long distance competition, technology trends, convergence, the impact of the Internet and new wireless services, and much more. Full details on the 1997 briefing available on the Web at: http://www/educatn/ed-mu.html To request a brochure, or to register, call 1-800-263-4415, ext 500. ------------------------------ From: Judith Oppenheimer Subject: ICB News Update Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 07:37:26 -0400 Organization: ICB Toll Free News Reply-To: joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com May 7, 1997 ICB TOLL FREE NEWS - http://www.icbtollfree.com New Report - TOLL FREE CELLULAR Borne of regulatory loophole -- and welcomed by cellular carriers -- TollFree Cellular and its telco partners will perhaps escape the greedy clutches of the FCC control patrol, currently wreaking havoc in the wireline toll-free marketplace. New Service - ICB BOOK STORE ICB is proud to announce that, in affiliation with Book Stacks Unlimited, we are now offering an extensive library of telecommunications, marketing, and other business books for purchase via the Internet. Plus more new articles, links and sponsors. ICB TOLL FREE NEWS - http://www.icbtollfree.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 08:16:24 -0400 From: The Old Bear Subject: ANI Used to Track Stolen Laptops This, as sumarized in Educom's online newsletter "Edupage" ... LAPTOP THEFT IS RAMPANT Last year, a record 265,000 laptop computers worth $804.8 million were stolen in the United States, according to SafeWare, a computer insurance firm. That number is up 27% from 1995. To combat the theft, companies are turning to asset management software, which records computer serial numbers, the employee assigned to the machine and other information, or theft software such as CompuTrace, made by Absolute. CompuTrace works by installing a hidden software program that automatically dials Absolute's headquarters every two weeks. The call is then traced by AT&T Canada and the phone number is cross-checked with the owner's file. If the number doesn't match up, the laptop is told to call the center again in five minutes. By tracing the phone call every five minutes, police can pinpoint the laptop's location. U.S. officials point out that CompuTrace couldn't be used in the United States, where companies are not allowed to use AT&T's automatic number identification information to sell services to a customer. [sumarized from: Investor's Business Daily, May 5, 1997] ------------------------------ From: Simon Edgett Subject: Network Switching Date: 15 May 1997 19:19:21 GMT Organization: grouptelecom Reply-To: Simon Edgett The number of T1's etc in this scenario are actually larger but I'll simplify ... We have a customer that currently brings in 2 T1's for inbound 800 trunking and 2 t1's inbound direct dial. All inbound calls are classified by ANI information and the callers responses to an IVR system. Currently answer supervision is returned by the IVR system. The problem comes from the fact the after the IVR questions (about 3min) 30%-50% of the traffic is deemed to be "outsourceable". This calls are then re-routed through a free outbound trunk to an out sourcing partner. This is fine for the direct dial customers. The problem arises when an 800 caller calls, the gets outsourced. For the duration of the call the call centre ends up paying for two trunks plus double the LD. Assuming the outsource partner and the call center use the same LD and trunk provider for the inbound circuits, is there an easy way to do network level switching to actually re-route the call at the network level to the outsource company. Current plans are to use AT&T US. Comments? Simon Edgett | grouptelecom Manager, Operations | 1000 - 701 West Georgia Street 604-688-3010 fax 688-3011 | PO Box 10143, Pacific Centre sedgett@gt.ca http://www.gt.ca/ | Vancouver, B.C., Canada V7Y 1C6 ------------------------------ From: telone@shout.net (Tel-One Network Services) Subject: Re: Rural Telcos and the Internet Date: 15 May 1997 15:17:21 GMT Organization: Shouting Ground Technologies, Inc. Well, there are *scams* going on, of course ... a company will come to an ISP and ask for a set fee per user using an "all you can use (800) access number" on a per subscriber basis. They load the (800) onto an underlying carrier and let the carrier take the loss when the original facilitator takes off. If unlimited use of an (800) number is 19.95 per month, why isn't regular long distance? nwdirect@netcom.com wrote: > Stanley Cline (roamer1@RemoveThis.pobox.com) wrote: >> Re: (rural Internet access) > There are now several ISPs that provide flat-rate, unlimited access > service for around $19.95 via an 800 number. There is now no reason > why everyone with a U.S. phone cannot have reasonably priced access. ------------------------------ From: jfmezei Subject: Re: GSM, SIM Cards, International Roaming Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 19:16:30 -0500 Organization: SPC Reply-To: "[nospam]jfmezei"@videotron.ca John R. Covert wrote: > Pocket Communications, and (in Canada) Microcell/Fido. Customers of > Omnipoint (and eventually the others) will be able to roam all over > the world simply by taking their SIM card out of their 1900 MHz phone > and inserting it into a 900 MHz or 1800 MHz phone. This was the convincing argument to me, avoid the proprietary USA protocol and choose a carrier that has GSM in North America to allow worldwide roaming with the SIM card. HOWEVER, since current North American GSM offerings have telephones that are not compatible to the rest of the world with only the SIM card transferable, one must still deal with a telephone set rental when going overseas. This is especially troublesome if your home telephone uses a full SIM card, but the ones you rent require that you have the "cut up" SIM card (about 1.5cm * 1.5cm instead of the credit-card size). Of course, dual frequency phones will solve the roaming problem. Furthermore, one must question how much it costs to rent a telephone without service vs renting one with a local service package. Not all rental shops at airports may be willing to rent you a telephone without a sim card (service). Perhaps this will change, or perhaps this is only isolated cases in certain countries. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 20:56:25 -0400 From: George Gilder Subject: Re: Cell Phone Cancer Study I was simply pointing out that your original cell phone claim (comparing cancers of users to those of nonusers) was based on faulty reasoning. I don't think the reasoning was faulty. It was based on the observation that cellphones, and other similar radiators such as computers, are part of an industrial civilization that enriches its participants and allows them to survive in greater numbers for longer lives. I reject regression analysis that eliminates all the benefits of industrial civilization from the ledger, while enabling some group of litigants to extort potential billions from the cellular phone industry by analogizing radiation to tobacco. There are enough important threats in the world to require brusque dismissal of the trivial. Incidentally, in my original response, I was not making a serious scientific argument. Such arguments against the radiophobes have been patiently rendered for decades, most recently in the case of radon gas, which was found in a vast government survey to be accompanied, with statistical significance, by a reduction in cancer rates. This result -- the more radon the less cancer -- suggests hormesis. I do not claim that hormesis accounts for the longevity of humans in industrial civilization. I was merely suggesting that the contrary view of radiation, based on studies of irradiated mice, was pretty silly in the case of humans who have steadily increased their lifespans through the centuries bathed in ultraviolet sunlight, while living in a planetary magnetic field of half a gauss, charged by lightning strikes a hundred times a second to a capacitive level of 100 volts per meter of height, all the while spending an average of seven hours a day couched in front of a CRT. All the natural sources of radiation dwarf the millionths of gauss involved in cellphones. I was trying to laugh the charges out of the house. I guess it didn't work. I apologize for implying that my correspondents are part of a radiophobic conspiracy. I don't believe that. But I am afraid -- and I truly believe this -- that in the current litigious climate it is a mistake even to entertain the radiophobic claims. If I did, for example, I could guarantee myself a good living testifying against telecom and computer companies. But I -- and all of you -- have far better things to do. George Gilder ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 19:11:01 -0700 From: Dana Paxson Reply-To: dwpaxson@servtech.com Organization: Dana Paxson Studio Subject: Re: Cell Phone Cancer Study This is a subject and a statistic to which I like to apply the 'struck by lightning' test: Am I more likely to be killed, maimed, made ill or retarded, and so forth, by the threat in question, than I am to be killed by a bolt of lightning? If not, why in the world should I care? To the threat of cellphone cancer, I say: Get in line behind strokes, drunk drivers, escaped serial killers, undiscovered serial killers, prostate cancers, Alzheimer's disease, choking on Brazil nuts, rogue cop on a rampage, mad bombers, flesh-eating bacteria, the next great plague, comets striking Earth, militant gun nuts, second-hand smoke, AIDS, suicidal depressions, cleaning pistols, arson, poison-gas spills, pets turned feral, misprescribed drugs, nosocomial fatality, iatrogenic diseases, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, muggers, bad doctors, bad psychiatrists, wilful stupidity, falling down a flight of stairs, falling down on the floor, falling out of bed, falling off a building, coffee burns, hypersensitive allergic reactions, ventricular fibrillation, manure-tank methane, mistranslated directions on a fuel pump, lethal toys, aortic aneurism, rabid squirrels, and oh yes, lightning strikes. I could go on. Want me to? I'm a writer of fiction, among other things, but I can't keep up with reality for bizarre and improbable ways to die that actually happen. Just read the papers. See my point? Dana Paxson ------------------------------ From: Wlevant@aol.com Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 23:10:50 EDT Subject: Re: Western Union = 4321 Dear PAT : Thanks for the informative history of Western Union's Chicagoland operations. You mentioned other "regular" numbers, one of which was the telco's business office. Here in Philadelphia, back when I was a kid, telco's business office was always "OFficial 3-0050". They got rid of that some years ago, and gave every office its own POTS number. Now they all have 800 numbers (no wonder we're running out) and OF-3 (633) has been converted to a regular NXX code in a suburb of the city. As a general proposition, Bell of Pennsylvania (now BA) doesn't assign numbers ending in -00XX, and used to reserve some for testing purposes. For example, some NXX-0028 combinations (but not every active NXX) would connect to local repair; useful if you needed to call repair for your home phone from somewhere else. Some NXX-0094 and NXX-0095 combinations would connect to each other (you'd dial one, and wait for someone else to dial the other one to yak ...) By contrast, NJ Bell routinely assigned numbers like NXX-0003 to regular customers. THEIR internal numbers were always NXX-99XX (regular NXX). In the front of the NJ Bell telephone book, the business office was listed with the number "NXX-9950 -- out of area, ask Operator for NXX-Official-50". The coin bureau had another number, maybe NXX-9951. You could get their operators to connect you for free by asking for the "Official" number. There are some exceptions to those assignment policies, though. A law firm in town has the number 215-569-0000. Some time back, Bell tried to reclaim it (said it was supposed to be a "test" number, or some nonsense). The law firm said that it would be glad to give it back, if Bell paid for all of the associated expenses ... needless to say, they still have that number. Those -00XX/-99XX numbers didn't return supervision, and you'd get your dime^h^h^h^h quarter back upon hanging up. I've also noticed, particularly in small towns, that main switchboard numbers tend to end in -XX01 or -XX11, rather than XX00. I always thought that had something to do with how SxS and 5XB offices were wired (it was easier to set up a hunt group from -XX11 to -XX19 [all in a single selector or crossbar relay bank] than from -XX00 to -XX08 [from the bottom of one selector/bank to the top of the next]), but can anyone confirm that? On a related subject, I think that's why hunt groups almost always had numbers in sequence ... otherwise, you'd have jumpers running all over the frame. In fact, at one job I had when I was in college, the phone system was a Bell 757 (which is, I'm told, essentially a crossbar-style CO, in miniature), and we had a bunch of highly arbitrary hunt groups set up, with -- that's right -- jumpers all over portions of the frame. You had to be careful pulling out some of the slides, for fear you'd cut one of the hunt group jumpers. Bill ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #120 ******************************