Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id BAA06190; Fri, 16 May 1997 01:10:17 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 01:10:17 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199705160510.BAA06190@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #121 TELECOM Digest Fri, 16 May 97 01:10:00 EDT Volume 17 : Issue 121 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Cell Phone Cancer Study (Stewart Fist) We Have Been Attacked. Reward Offered. Assistance Requested (Jim Youll) Book Review: "The Modem Coach" by Blankenhorn et al (Rob Slade) Book Review: "The Online Deskbook" by Bates (Rob Slade) Automated Attendant Tutorial Now On-Line (Pacific Telephony Design) Network Manager Needed For Large Biotech Company (Michael Jones) Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes (Derek Peschel) Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes (John B. Hines) Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes (Bill Sohl) Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes (David E. Bernholdt) Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes (John Stahl) 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!) They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org 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. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 12:18:03 +1000 From: fist@ozemail.com.au (Stewart Fist) Subject: Re: Cell Phone Cancer Study George Gilder writes: > And of course this issue cannot be resolved in the face of a > baffling complex of coincident and correlative factors and > conditions, which can be summed up as industrial civilization > itself with its associated measuring apparatus and vast increases > in longevity. Obviously the new 'measuring apparatus' (the ability to detect cancers earlier) has boosted the figures to a degree, but probably not as much as many people suppose. There does appear to be a general 1% pa increase in the brain cancer rate, for instance, which if it continues to be compounded over my son's 70 year life span, would be more than slightly significant. George also points to the problem of longevity -- we live longer, and therefore get more cancers. While this may certainly be a part-explanation for the increase in incidence, it is also THE PROBLEM. Obviously, since we are living longer, we must pay much more attention today to cumulative environmental-health conditions that would have been ignored a generation ago. The longer people live, the more attention the society must pay to potentially carcinogenic triggers. > We are left with the choice of either overthrowing industrial > civilization with all its overwhelming benefits (the choice of the > radiophobes) or ignoring the latest legal target until conclusive > scientific evidence is available. These aren't the only two choices, as George would have you believe. There is a third choice, which is to: a) adequately test products for safety before they are released into the mass market (this was not done with GSM cellular phones); b) adequately fund independent research to keep watch over drugs, chemicals and devices which could conceivably create major epidemic problems over time; c) legislate to protect citizens who have no way of making these judgments themselves. I've never yet met a radiophobe who wants to overthrow industrial civilization, so I must guess that George is sending up some mad ranting of the lunar right in America. I have, however, met a lot of radiation experts, radio engineers and many, many biomedical scientists who are seriously concerned -- but who's concern is generally limited to the cell-phone handset placed against the side of the head. > If every innovation had to face a prolonged barrage of > speculative challenges, and endless courtroom speelunking for > deep pockets, no innovation -- from the automobile to aspirin-- > could ever have been launched. I've never really thought about computers and communications as belonging to an industry sector where the motivation for innovation had been destroyed by "endless courtroom speelunking" or a "prolonged barrage of spectulative challenges". I've always thought of convergence more in terms of a mad-house where the doors have been left open. I've never seen an industry where so many false claims are openly made, so many products and services are advertised as 'breakthoughs' and then turn out to vapourware; and where so many people get suckered into buying useless products, or products which are superseded within months of purchase. None of this, to my knowledge, is generated by lawyers. Perhaps a bit of restraint by the technical innovators wouldn't be amiss. > Of course, the theory of global warming would have prohibited > the industrial revolution itself. I think George reveals his true biases and motivations here. He sees progress simply in technical terms, and so denies the obvious -- that a lot of what we do in this society is destructive as well as constructive. What we need to learn to do, is to balance the value with the dis-value. Nothing would have "prohibited the industrial revolution" more than minds that were closed to research evidence. > So far the enemies of cellphones have offered absolutely no > evidence of interest except to the usual hypochondriacs with > lawyers and rodents in tow (feeding on a now preposterous > theory of linear human response to radiation). That's George's view. It certainly isn't mine. I can only guess that he refuses to read anything from "radiophobe" scientists - which in his terms means anyone finding evidence contrary to George's certainties. And who says the response is linear -- it could even be exponential!!! Readers can rest assured that we "enemies of the cellphone" and "radiophobes" are not about to take over the world and ban all radio devices. We are very much in the minority, and don't have the multi-million dollar PR and lobby budgets of the cell phone companies. And we are slowly learning to make the distinction between: * handsets and cell towers in terms of power-density; * the obvious emission problems intrinsic in TDMA vs. those of AMPS/CDMA; * the potential difference in likely causation between the ELF and R/F components of TDMA; and * the reliability and importance of totally controlled laboratory research vs. human-statistical epidemiological studies. We may even learn eventually to distinguish mice from men. Stewart Fist, Technical writer and journalist. Current Australian columns: Archives of my columns are available at the Australian and also at the ABC site: Development site: Phone:+612 9416 7458 Fax: +612 9416 4582 Old Homepage: ------------------------------ From: jim@newmediagroup.com (Jim Youll) Subject: We Have Been Attacked. Reward Offered. Assistance Requested. Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 17:59:22 -0400 Organization: Thunderboy Enterprises My domain newmediagroup.com is under attack by someone who doesn't like my MILITANT, PUBLIC ANTI-SPAM stance. To date their actions have included sending apparently several thousand e-mail messages, forged showing my name as the sender. In addition, this same party or someone working with them conducted a denial-of-service attack on our system last night, 5/14. Details will be posted to a website shortly, including system logs clearly showing the terrorists' use of third-party unsecured SMTP servers as relays (which you will also see by looking at the headers of the messages that were sent). Their attack has also included threats of harm against me. PLEASE let people know this did not originate at newmediagroup.com. It is a complete forgery. We are TRYING to investigate and at the moment have a number of backbone carriers, and MCI security, involved. I am doing all I can. PLEASE tell people to stop writing to complain. This did not come from us. We don't spam. I am FIGHTING spam and that is why I was targeted in this manner. When you see their mail-bomb messages to me, you will understand. I am seeking cooperation from the sites which were used as relays. Sheila, apparently an adminstrator at freenet.carleton.ca (office@ is their e-mail address, and if you have received junk that bounced off their mailer, I STRONGLY suggest you contact them and demand the holes be closed). Carleton Freenet has notified me (5/15/97, 1600 EDT by e-mail) that they will not release their SMTP logs, which would show the origin of the message injected into their mailer. A man reached at nevwest.com said he had "one technician working on it" but really didn't understand the specifics, and was not very excited about helping. This is all very exciting for electronic terrorists, I am sure. New Media Group (and I in particular!) do not send or generate commercial e-mail. Ever. We are a small Internet presence provider working closely and on-site with clients in the Midwestern US. Only. We do not seek, service, or advertise to anyone outside that area, and we do not use e-mail for advertising. Copies of all logs and the threatening messages which came here have been forwarded to security officers at all ISPs we could identify, and at the security offices of backbone providers involved in this. We're trying, but it will be difficult to identify who did this. We're trying. I fully intend to press criminal and civil charges at the very moment an indictment becomes feasible. The reason we have been targeted is that I (personally, not this company) have been leading a campaign AGAINST junk e-mail. Please help me find out who did this. I am prepared to file criminal and civil charges at the instant an indictment is feasible. If you look at the headers, you will see that the messages did not come from here. The incoming messages threatened more attacks unless I stop my campaign to free people from unwanted junk e-mail. This is terrorism, plain and simple and I call on the entire Internet community to help track down the responsible parties. I will appreciate any assistance you can provide. See http://www.agentzero.com/junkmail for the information I posted in my fight against junk e-mail. I will shortly post there complete system logs, messages with headers, and everything else that has been sent to authorities. I am offering a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators of this crime. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I too have really had all I can handle of this and I am soliciting the assistance of any attorney who wishes to volunteer. Jay Ashworth has pointed out to me in recent correspondence that Spamford and Company are systematically ripping off names and email addresses from mailing lists including this one. Today alone I personally received a dozen pieces of spam; one of which was even alleged to come from this machine with forged headers, etc. This is not going to stop anytime soon I fear, and at this point I want to proceed with litigation. I want to see enforcement of the federal law against sending unsolicited material to facsimile devices. I want to stop the wholesale ripoff of names which appear in this Digest. I am perfectly willing and desirous of being a plaintiff (or one of several plantiffs as the case may be) in any legal action taken against Spamford Wallace, AGIS and similar outfits. The comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup is a total shambles in some places where it became unmoderated -- quite by accident, I am sure -- filled with spam like most other newsgroups. Please, admins, check to make sure c.d.t. is **moderated** at your site. My bots are generally good at recognizing forged approval lines which do not have my md5sum signature, however the author of that script is making some changes and improvements in it. The point is, I have had it. Enough is enough, and I want to see those idiots start getting **actually sued** and not just complained about. Will any attorney willing to take this on -- especially one who has a good rapport with the local US Attorney -- please contact me. I want to see an actual violation of federal law, with names on it, presented to a grand jury or a federal judge. Will anyone help? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 12:14:57 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Modem Coach" by Blankenhorn et al BKMDMCCH.RVW 961214 "The Modem Coach", Dana Blankenhorn/Kimberly Maxwell/Kevin Stoltz/Tommy Bass, 1993, 1-56205-119-9, U$18.95/C$24.95/UK#17.76 %A Dana Blankenhorn %A Kimberly Maxwell %A Kevin Stoltz %A Tommy Bass %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1993 %G 1-56205-119-9 %I MacMillan Computer Publishing (MCP) %O U$18.95/C$24.95/UK#17.76 800-858-7674 317-581-3743 http://www.mcp.com %P 239 %T "The Modem Coach" Once upon a time, if you wanted to get the most out of a printer, you had to be able to read the manual and figure out the commands. Nowadays printers come with drivers the major word processing programs, and vice versus. In the future, modems will be as easy to install and use as printers are today -- but they aren't, yet. Thus the heart and soul of a modem book has to deal with installation and setup. The current work falls short, in this regard. Initialization strings and modem commands are referred to fleetingly, and without adequate explanation. It is assumed that installation will work out OK without assistance -- a staggering leap of faith where modems are concerned. Setup of the communications software is also confidently expected to be trouble free. The review of BBSes and online services is brief, but reasonable given the space. Chapter six, though, dealing with support software, is surprisingly good. So, too, is the chapter on viruses -- not great, but free of the most egregious and common errors. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997 BKMDMCCH.RVW 961214 roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 10:43:32 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Online Deskbook" by Bates BKOLDSKB.RVW 961214 "The Online Deskbook", Mary Ellen Bates, 1996, 0-910965-19-6, U$29.95 %A Mary Ellen Bates %C 462 Danbury Road, Wilton, CT 06897-2126 %D 1996 %G 0-910965-19-6 %I Pemberton Press Books/Online Inc. %O U$29.95 800-248-8466 +1-203-761-1466 fax: +1-203-761-1444 online@well.com %P 274 %T "The Online Deskbook" Although the Internet comes first in the list on the cover, this book is really about a select group of commercial databases and online services. Within that context, however, Bates has provided a thorough and useful guide. If you want to use DataStar, DataTimes, DIALOG, Dow Jones, LEXIS/NEXIS, or Newsnet, you will find basic information, a description of services, commands, tips, a description of proprietary software (where available), and some evaluation and analysis. Similar information, with greatly expanded annotation, is provided for America Online, CompuServe, Microsoft Network, and Prodigy. The Internet is worth a book (or more) itself, of course. Even the brief chapter given to it, though, shows that Bates is nowhere near as comfortable with the net as with the commercial services. While the major Internet applications are described, and some of the more useful Web search sites, the material is comparatively skimpy. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997 BKOLDSKB.RVW 961214 roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca ------------------------------ From: Pacific Telephony Design Subject: Automated Attendant Tutorial Now On-Line Date: 14 May 97 10:28:43 GMT News From Pacific Telephony Design Automated Attendant Tips We have just published an online article which explains how you can handle incoming calls to your office more efficiently. This article was written using the Altigen telephony server as an example, however, it is applicable to most auto-attendant enabled PBXs. We decided to write this article to educate current and future customers about ways to streamline the flow of incoming calls, and therefore to improve customer service. One of the things we have noticed is that many customers erroneously assume that it is always best to route incoming calls to a live receptionists. As the old saying goes, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." This is a perfect example. Often companies will answer all incoming calls with a live receptionist to add a human touch to the phone system. This is nice, and works fine when calls stream in at a steady, manageable pace. However, in reality, customers tend to call in clumps. What happens when many customers call at once? Most of them languish on hold while waiting to tell the operator who they want to talk to. The truth is that neither approach, always using an auto-attendant or always using a receptionist, is best for all situations. One of the nice things about PC based telephony servers is most offer many options for handling incoming calls. So, you can program these systems to route calls to a human after a short greeting (in which repeat callers can direct dial an extension), to send calls to an operator when the operator is free (otherwise to an auto-attendant), to send calls to a group of people instead of a single operator, and the possibilities go on and on. By adopting a hybrid approach where you route some calls automatically, and others with the help of a receptionist, you can substantially reduce the time it takes a caller to reach live help without degrading customer service. To read more about this, go to: http://www.phonezone.com/support/altigen-attendant-tips.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ The Phone Zone Newswire - (c) 1997 Pacific Telephony Design Joining and Leaving The List To join or leave this or other e-lists, simply go to http://www.phonezone.com/newswire.htm You'll find a simple form which you can use to sign on and sign off of our lists. ------------------------------ From: Michael Jones Subject: Network Manager Needed For Large Biotech Company Date: 13 May 1997 15:42:33 GMT Organization: Roche Bioscience Network manager/analyst needed for biotech company in Palo Alto, Ca Roche Bioscience (formerly Syntex - one of the top ten company's to work for). Must be very knowledgeable with tcp/ip; have good knowledge of ethernet, LAN's and WAN's. HP OPenview skills a plus. call (415) 855-5218 ------------------------------ From: dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) Subject: Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes Date: 14 May 1997 08:43:50 GMT Organization: University of Washington, Seattle In article , the TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is pathetic. That is almost as > bad as the time the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance saying > that Chicago was a 'nuclear free zone' and that the manufacture > of nuclear weapons within the city limits was prohibited. PAT] Lucky for us that Enrico Fermi created the first workable nuclear reactor (at the University of Chicago -- IIRC in the squash courts!) _before_ the city council came up with that silly rule. Some (not me) might even argue that the city council should be _glad_. Anyway, the threat of being nuked might make the rule hard to enforce. Derek ------------------------------ From: jhines@enteract.com (John B. Hines) Subject: Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 11:00:13 GMT Organization: The Conspiracy rad@railnet.nshore.org (Rick DeMattia) wrote: > I heard on the radio yesterday that the City of Parma, a suburb of > Cleveland OH, is considering legislation which would require that all > telephones within the municipal boundaries be in the same area code. > Presumably this is in response to the pending split of 216. > Whether municipal government has authority over the topic is another >issue, of course. I wonder what affect this would have on business that use 800/888 and 900 number services? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It will not have any affect on such a business because 800/888/900 are not 'area codes'. They are 'access codes'. Admittedly people call them area codes but that is not what telco calls them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: billsohl@planet.net (Bill Sohl) Subject: Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 13:38:16 GMT Organization: BL Enterprises Steven Colins wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is pathetic. That is almost as >> bad as the time the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance saying >> that Chicago was a 'nuclear free zone' and that the manufacture >> of nuclear weapons within the city limits was prohibited. PAT] > Pathetic? I don't think so -- it is just the wish of a city to have a > unifying area code, to give the place some "identity". Afeter all, > someone has to top this proliferation of area codes ... or the term > will simply lose it's meaning. However, the province of the national numbering plan and local area codes is not the jurisdiction of any local government having been given exclusively to the FCC and state Public Utility commissions respectively. As to stopping the proliferation of area codes, the only way that can happen is to stop the proliferation of more telephones. Perhaps that's something you want, but millions more don't. There are only limited possibilities to handle ever increasing telephones (and obviously telephone numbers). Within any are code there is a limit of 10 milliondifferent numbers (less actually when you factor out certain unusable number sequences). Given that reality,area codes must split when they exhaust the numbers available. Is there an alternative? Yes, if you want to go to an eight digit phone number, but who wants that? The implications of the change that would be involved are massive. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) billsohl@planet.net Internet & Telecommunications Consultant/Instructor Budd Lake, New Jersey ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes Organization: Netcom On-Line Services Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 14:21:37 GMT In article , Steven Colins wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is pathetic. That is almost as >> bad as the time the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance saying >> that Chicago was a 'nuclear free zone' and that the manufacture >> of nuclear weapons within the city limits was prohibited. PAT] > Pathetic? I don't think so -- it is just the wish of a city to have a > unifying area code, to give the place some "identity". Afeter all, > someone has to top this proliferation of area codes ... or the term > will simply lose it's meaning. The desire is not what is pathetic. The legislation is what is pathetic. It's as if they tried to outlaw rain. They have no control over either. If the state PUC approves a split right through town, they'll have a split right through town. City governments don't get to overrule state governments, even if they might like to. In fact, I'd suggest that this particular law *increases* the chances that there will be an area code split within the city limits, just so some power-hungry ego-driven PUC commissioner can show them who the boss is. Then when the split happens, they'll spend a gazillion dollars fighting and losing in one court after another. (I grew up in St. Louis County, not too far from Ladue, MO, where they tried to defend a law banning political signs but allowing some other signs all the way to the Supreme Court. They lost. Then they reworded the law and tried again, and again lost all the way to the Supreme Court. fortunatley, it wan't my Tax Dollars being wasted on it.) Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ... Coming soon to a | Brett Frankenberger .sig near you ... a Humorous Quote ... | brettf@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And in Chicago, the city has tried for years to enforce a ban on 'for sale' signs placed in front of houses. Let's face it, they are starting to get frantic. Everyone with money or the ability to live elsewhere is leaving town as rapidly as they can. So what do you do when large numbers of citizens move out and leave fewer and fewer behind? Just ask the Chicago City Council: you become more oppressive and dictatorial than ever with those who remain. On three different occassions now, the Supreme Court has struck down ordinances in Chicago banning 'for sale' signs as an infringment on the free speech rights of the property owners. So the city makes slight revisions in the ordinance and starts over again. They get sued, they drag it out for years, eventually lose and proceed to write a similar ordinance. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bernhold@npac.syr.edu (David E. Bernholdt) Subject: Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes Date: 14 May 1997 15:53:16 GMT Organization: NPAC, Syracuse Univ., Syracuse, NY, USA In article , Mark Steiger wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is pathetic. That is almost as >> bad as the time the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance saying >> that Chicago was a 'nuclear free zone' and that the manufacture >> of nuclear weapons within the city limits was prohibited. PAT] > In Iowa City, IA they did that too. There are little signs all over > the city that have a nuclear bomb mushroom cloud with a circle around > it and a line through it. Rather funny, yet pathetic. On the other side of the coin ... I lived for several years in Richland, WA, home of the Hanford Reservation, where the government produced plutonium for nuclear weapons for many years. They were actually rather proud of it, with establishments like Atomic City Bowling and one of the high school teams being called the Hanford Bombers. There have also been quite a variety of t-shirts sold in the area with humorous boasts about their status. Of course the site employs about 1/3 of the local population, and until some time in the 1960s you couldn't live there without permission of the government ... By the way, the site still employes about 1/3 of the local work force, but now they're mostly trying to clean up the mess left behind by the plutonium production. David E. Bernholdt | Email: bernhold@npac.syr.edu Northeast Parallel Architectures Center | Phone: +1 315 443 3857 111 College Place, Syracuse University | Fax: +1 315 443 1973 Syracuse, NY 13244-4100 | URL: http://www.npac.syr.edu ------------------------------ From: aljon@worldnet.att.net (John Stahl) Subject: Re: Ohio Suburb Attempts to Ban Multiple Area Codes Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 16:19:02 +0000 Doesn't anyone know what is causing this mess of new area codes (AC's)? It's very simple, it is the proliferation of the multiple telephone numbers that started when the FCC opened the US market for Cellular phone service back in the early 80's. Instead of following the prevailing European cellular model at the time that assigned a whole bunch of (what amounted to be) new AC's to this specialized wireless service, the FCC told the US cellular A/B providers and (re-)sellers to go to the telcos in their local service areas and obtain exchanges (NXX's) for their own specialized use. That methodology has quickly robbed all the telephone numbers originally slated for wire-line expansion from the telcos causing them to have to add new AC's to get enough telephone numbers to satisfy both their demand and that of the cellular users. So here we are, over ten years into wireless and the major cities have already split their AC's many times and now smaller markets (MSA's) are having to plan the same. The 'system' is now struggling with what to do to solve the glut of telephones for both wire line and wireless that are bring sold as far as future telephone numbers are concerned. What's going to happen with the new PCS market starting to come on line? Are we going to be able to use our existing telephone numbers or will this new wire-less service require masses of new phone numbers (more NXX's, here we come)? If the latter happens, we may very soon totally run out of AC's! Then what's next, 15 digit or 20 digit phone numbers to be dialed to call your neighbor's phone across the street? Isn't it wonderful how BIG Government screws things up? They never seem to learn from either their own mistakes or learn from other's who have already 'solved' the problem! Finally, what good does it do for Ohio (or any other legislative body) to 'ban' something like future AC-splits? As long as there is a demand for wire-line and wire-less services, with the supposition that the method of assigning telephone numbers can't (or won't be) changed, the present method seems likely to be the prevailing one for the forseeable future! If you want more phones, more AC's will be the 'penalty'. John Stahl Aljon Enterprises Telecommunications and Data System Consultants email: aljon@worldnet.att.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As a closing note, I want to stress that I am *serious* about filing suits and trying to get the federal law enforced where spammers like Wallace are concerned. I haven't the money to pay for an attorney but will gladly cooperate with any attorney seeking plaintiffs in such a case. Please contact me. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #121 ******************************