Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id AAA04305; Thu, 22 May 1997 00:02:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 00:02:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199705220402.AAA04305@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #127 TELECOM Digest Thu, 22 May 97 00:02:00 EDT Volume 17 : Issue 127 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson SBC To Locate International Headquarters in San Francisco (Mike King) Dial Tone Device For a Cell Phone (Joe Plescia) Re: Working With the Public on the Telephone (Randy Miller) Re: Working With the Public on the Telephone (Nils Andersson) Re: Why Not Have a Pizza Delivered by Taxicab (Roger Fajman) Re: Are Cordless' as bad as Cellulars? (Bill Sohl) Re: Are Cordless' as bad as Cellulars? (John W. Hall) Re: Are Cordless' as bad as Cellulars? (Tony Toews) Re: Are Cordless' as Bad as Cellulars? (Ed Mitchell) Re: Are Cordless' as Bad as Cellulars? (jrr0@watson.ibm.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: Mike King Subject: SBC To Locate International Headquarters in San Francisco Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 11:30:24 PDT ----- Forwarded Message ----- Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 10:19:50 -0700 From: sqlgate@pactel.COM Subject: SBC To Locate International Headquarters in San Francisco FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 19, 1997 FOR MORE INFORMATION: Larry Solomon (210 ) 351-3990 solomon@corp.sbc.com SBC To Locate International Headquarters in San Francisco SAN FRANCISCO -- SBC Communications Inc. today announced it will locate the headquarters of its international operations in San Francisco. The headquarters is one of four the company committed to locate in California as a result of its recent merger with Pacific Telesis. It will oversee SBC's investments in telecommunications companies in Mexico, Chile, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, South Africa, South Korea, Israel and Taiwan. "San Francisco is an international city with the right profile and resources to help continue the successful outreach of SBC International Operations," said John H. Atterbury, president and chief executive officer of SBC International Operations. "The city has strong ties to both Latin America and Asia, two key markets for SBC." Last week, SBC announced it had finalized an agreement to form a French company to provide national and international long-distance in France. Also, on May 14 an SBC-led consortium officially completed an agreement to purchase 30 percent of South Africa's national telephone company, which provides local, long-distance and wireless service throughout the country. In addition to France and South Africa, SBC's international investments focus on a wide spectrum of telecommunications services, including wireless, local and long-distance telephone service, as well as video services and directory publishing: SBC owns an approximately 10 percent interest in Telefonos de Mexico, Mexico's national phone company, which provides local, long-distance, wireless and telephone directories. In Chile, SBC holds a 49.3 percent stake in VTR S.A., which offers local, long-distance, cellular and video services throughout the country. In 1995, SBC merged its United Kingdom cable television and telephony operations with TeleWest, creating the largest cable television operator in the U.K. SBC is part of the consortium that designed, built and now operates South Korea's second nationwide digital cellular network, which is adding new subscribers at the rate of 10,000 per month. SBC has investments in companies in Israel which offer international long distance, cable television and telephone directories. In Taiwan, SBC owns 20 percent of the TransAsia Consortium, a cellular company expected to begin providing service in late 1997. "International operations will continue to play a big part in SBC's growth in the years ahead," Atterbury said. "With strategic acquisitions and joint ventures in high-growth territories, SBC is positioned for continued expansion." Atterbury said the company has not yet selected a specific site for the headquarters. In addition to the international operations, SBC also will locate the headquarters of its long distance, Internet and telephone administrative operations in California. SBC Communications Inc. is an international leader in the telecommunications industry, with more than 31 million access lines and 4.7 million wireless customers across the United States, as well as investments in telecommunications businesses in eight countries. Under the Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell and Cellular One brands, the company, through its subsidiaries, offers a wide range of innovative services, including local and long-distance telephone service, wireless communications, paging, Internet access, cable TV and messaging, as well as telecommunications equipment, and directory advertising and publishing. SBC (www.sbc.com) has nearly 110,000 employees. SBC and Pacific Telesis Group reported combined 1996 revenues of $23.5 billion. -------------- Mike King * Oakland, CA, USA * mk@wco.com ------------------------------ From: Joe Plescia Subject: Dial Tone Device For a Cell Phone Date: 20 May 1997 17:59:17 GMT Organization: The Plescia Companies Hi all ... Is there a device available that provides dial tone on a cell phone? I have the need for a device that would provide a dial tone to a external device so that a regular telephone or fax machine could be used. I do remember seeing a device, many moons ago at a construction trade show, that connected to a GE 3000 cell phone that allowed regular POTS phones to be used ... (the user picked up the phone, heard a dialtone and dialed) ... Any help or ideas welcome. Thanks, Joe P === NOTICE === return Personal EMAIL TO jplescia@plescia.com === NOTICE === Visit our WWW SITE http://www.plescia.com Joseph P Plescia-Plescia Photo 201.868.0065 201.868.0475fax Photofinishing, Studio, Imaging Paging, Beepers, Cellular Phones ------------------------------ From: Randy Miller Subject: Re: Working With the Public on the Telephone Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 13:59:08 -0400 Organization: Compex Corporation--ODSCOPS Contract Robert S. Hall wrote: > A friend just forwarded this to me. After reading it, I thought you > might be interested in it for one of your editions. There are plenty > of discussions in the Digest about the technology which makes this > person's job possible. Now, for a change, we see things from his > perspective. > (After Surviving 130,000 Calls From The Traveling Public) > By: Jonathan Lee-The Washington Post [Majority of article snipped to save the weary] > Another bunch of people with very thick skins are telephone operators > and directory assistance operators. Ask any operator if she does not > get cussed several times per day and accused of making wrong connections, > charging too much for the call, etc. The American public is difficult > to work with at times. PAT] Pat, Don't forget those of us that had the fortune to work tech support and help desk. Many are the stories I can tell you about working support for a major publisher of microcomputer-based library automation software based in McHenry, IL (who's company name I'll not divulge here because I'm still friendly with most of senior management there, as well as a few that are still working in support since I left in 1991.) D'jawanna (PA dutch slang, for those that ask) talk about a technophobic group of people? Try dealing with public school librarians! While most of them finally caught on to what was going on, there were several who were clueless on where the power switch was on an Apple IIe. Then there were those that hated your entrails because they had a personal computer foisted upon them, and were told to use it or else by their school's administration, never mind that administration was not about to put a phone in the library close to the computer to call support when the needed it, nor were administration going to pay for training. Then, of course there were the eight months of the calendar year I euphamistically called "hell month." Not even the severest hazing in any of the social fraternities at college or university could top August-November and April-July, when the average support person fielded about 60 calls/day (I remember fielding 145 calls in one eight hour period during my tenure in support), and the tempers flowed freely (August-November for the start of school, and April-July for the close of school and inventory of the library). Even tech support at the old WordPerfect Corporation didn't field this many calls per day (of couse, in those days WordPerfect Corp. was abundantly staffed, from what I heard. We were always understaffed in McHenry, no matter what time of year.) Would I do it again? Yes, but on my terms. (Believe me, using a 1-900 number is a great idea for support, ESPCIALLY for those that don't RTFM!) In addition to the job I'm currently working, I run a PC consulting service on the side. A client pays me $100/month and I'll provide service to them for up to 20 hours per month. At least **I** can then determine what is a major fire and what can be left for the weekend ;-). Randy ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 20:42:04 -0400 From: nilsphone@aol.com (Nils Andersson) Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: Working With the Public on the Telephone In article , lwinson@bbs.cpcn.com (Lee Winson) writes: > But in fairness to the general public, today's extremely complex fare > and schedule structures do not make it easy for both the public and > service agents. This applies to airline fares, banking fees, credit > cards, health insurance, and just about everything else that has > centralized 800 numbers serving a very large group of people. Sometimes the craziness is indeed at the service-provider end. While the poor underpaid worker who answers the phone is oftentimes personally not to blame (he was never told, has a flaky computer system, a bizarre company policy designed to confuse etc), the caller is often nevertheless underserved, to put it politely. Examples, in no particular order. 1) I often fly LA-Singapore. There are several routes. Flying United, you can change planes in either Tokyo or Hong Kong. Now, the via Tokyo flight is considered a DIRECT flight, whereas the one through HK is a CONNECTING flight, and you often have to specifically ask them to check the availability of seats on that second route. The mileage is about the same. (What is the difference between a DIRECT flight where you in fact change planes and a CONNECTING flight? Easy. In the former case, both segments have the same FLIGHT NUMBER. Thus, a direct flight enables you to go directly from A to B without changing FLIGHT NUMBER. Ain't it wonderful! You may change planes, plane types and even airlines, several times, the whole thing is a marketing ploy! All airlines use this same terminology, without explaining to the passenger.) 2) I live in Thousand Oaks, CA. The city borders on the city of Westlake Village in the East. WV is in LA County, and TO is in Ventura county. (In Ca, cities may NOT straddle a county line.) The area code (805 in TO, 818 in WV) boundary follows the county line in this area. (There are minor local exceptions, and in other parts further north, chunks of LA County have the 805 area code). Now, the Easternmost couple of miles of TO have Westlake Village mailing addresses. This has no real meaning, as WV and TO use physically the same post office, but apparently WV has more cachet or something. (It is unclear where the dividing line between this elusive slice of TO and "regular" TO actually goes, there is NOT a 5-dig zip code boundary except one perpendicular to the city limit.) Now, if I call 411 (from 805) and ask for a business in TO, they will often not find it if it is in the Westlake Village address area, despite the fact that it is physically in the city of TO, and has an 805 area code. I have to know about this geographic anomaly, and ask them to check Westlake Village. Now they will alert me to that I should check a different area code! GROAN. 3) GTE has a "time" number (+1-805-495 1811), which gives time, or so they claim. Trouble is, for all of this year, it has been about 7 seconds off, it is to "slow". I have spent LITERALLY HOURS trying to find somebody at GTE who can fix this. At the best of times, I am given a runaround. At worst, I am told that it is I who do not know what time it is. (Suggesting the US Naval observatory +1-202-762 1401 does not seem to help, despite the fact that they are legally by definition correct in any US jurisdiction.) The battle goes on. Regards, Nils Andersson [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Greyhound has the same sort of ambiguities in their system timetables which frequently cause confusion to the bus- riding public. At their national telephone information center in Omaha, the clerks punch in certain variables provided to them by the caller and the computer displays schedules and pricing information based on traveling *exclusively* by Greyhound or one of the several other bus companies which pay Greyhound to be included in its timetables. This same computer system is used to provide information and print bus tickets in the company-owned terminals. It will also provide information regards schedules at the 80-85 percent of the bus stations which are privately owned and operated as commission agencies (versus the 15 percent or so of Greyhound facilities which are actually operated by Greyhound and the 5 percent or so which are jointly owned by Greyhound and others) but -- and here is where the confusion comes in -- the private comm- ission agents are allowed by law, and it is to their financial advan- tage to do so, to sell tickets for any bus line listed as 'interline' with Greyhound. They assuredly will quote on the telephone the prices and schedules of any bus line operating through their station, whether it is Greyhound or not. Let me quote my friend here in Skokie: "Customer dials local number and asks for afternoon schedule to Madison, Wisconsin. He is told bus leaves at 5:10 pm and reaches Madison at 9:30 pm. Customer then calls the Greyhound 800 number, asks the same question and is told bus leaves at 5:30 pm and reaches Madison at 1:05 am." (Continuing in his words) "He then called me back four or five times to argue and argue saying I could not possibly be correct since 'the 800 number' told him otherwise, and they would have to be correct since they are on computer." ... "Then he would call Greyhound and argue with them about what I said, pitting one of us against the other. "We both gave him the same price of sixteen dollars for the trip, and I finally decided to be very elaborate in explaining to him what was going on. I would have sent him north to Milwaukee on the 5:10 bus and had him transfer to the Badger Bus Line which is across the street from Greyhound in Milwaukee. He would have left there at 8:00 pm and been in Madison an hour and a half later at the station in Madison where Greyhound and Badger jointly operate. But Greyhound, you see, rather than quote Badger service would rather have the customer go south to Chicago and sit in the Chicago terminal three hours until 9:30 pm then go north on the Seattle-bound bus which happens to go via Milwaukee to Madison where it arrives at 1:05 am. I told the customer finally to suit himself; to go either way he wanted." (customer says) "Badger? You mean Badger comes through your station there in Skokie? Well why didn't Greyhound tell me that?" (Jim again) "Badger does not come through here, but we sell them all the time out of Milwaukee. You call Greyhound, they are going to quote their own schedules and those of their affiliates. We sell Greyhound here, and a couple dozen other bus lines as well which Greyhound does not quote. Although the only one actually in this station is Greyhound, in Madison, Wisconsin Badger owns the facility and Greyhound passes through a few times per day. The agent there sells both, the same as we do. Greyhound would rather keep all the revenue for themselves even if you have to sit in Chicago for three hours to wait for their bus to ride on. I would rather see customer convenience even if Badger gets part of the ticket. Unless a customer indicates a *specific* bus line he wants to use, most agents will sell on the *next* bus to the customer's destination regardless of which company it is." The *next* bus is the 5:10 pm to Milwaukee. If you miss that one, the one which follows is the 5:30 pm bus to Chicago. Either one will get you to Madison sir. Take your choice. The same fare applies either way: sixteen dollars; the only difference is on the first one the ticket will have a 'coupon tear' for Badger. Thank you for calling and I have to move on to my next call of three presently waiting on hold." PAT] ------------------------------ From: Roger Fajman Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 01:46:10 EDT Subject: Re: Why Not Have a Pizza Delivered by Taxicab > It's amazing how people can place a phone call, and then complete > that call, without actually LISTENING to a single word the other > party says. How you could possibly confuse "Good evening, Checker > Cabs" with "Good evening, Mother's Pizza" is beyond me ... Well, there's no excuse for not listening to what the person on the other end says -- if you can understand it. I've noticed a number of times that when I call someone that the first few words I hear from the other end seem garbled. These are usually the ones giving the name of the business that I have reached, so I have to ask if I have reached the right place. Does anyone know how long it takes after the line goes off-hook before a clear signal can be passed? I wonder if people wearing headsets might not start speaking too soon. ------------------------------ From: billsohl@planet.net (Bill Sohl) Subject: Re: Are Cordless' as bad as Cellulars? Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 17:29:30 GMT Organization: BL Enterprises fist@ozemail.com.au (Stewart Fist) wrote: > Michael Wright (voe@telalink.net) writes: >> There is no research out there that has established ANY causal >> relationship between cell phones and brain tumors. > Complete utter balderdash. Apparently this correspondent can't read. Please point us (me) to the specific study or studies that hae made such a conclusion. Additional comments deleted for brevity. > And a number of studies have show an increase in problems with ham radio > operators, military radio operators, military radar operators, police radar > operators, merchant marine radio operators, diathermy opeators, plastic > welding operators -- and a few other, I can't remember, off hand. I have never seen any such references or conclusions made in relation to ham radio operators (I am a ham), or most of these other jobs and occupations. Without specific references, your comments are hearsay at best and without substantiation at all. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) billsohl@planet.net Internet & Telecommunications Consultant/Instructor Budd Lake, New Jersey ------------------------------ From: hallj@cadvision.com (John W Hall) Subject: Re: Are Cordless' as bad as Cellulars? Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 20:40:34 GMT Organization: Digital Magic Reply-To: Digital.Magic@cadvision.com fist@ozemail.com.au (Stewart Fist) wrote: > I would suggest that perhaps the > invoice square law <<<<<<<< At first I thought this was an error, but since you're a technical writer of course it isn't. I suppose the amout owing doubles each month until paid? John Hall / Digital Magic "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" (Arthur C. Clarke) ------------------------------ From: ttoews@telusplanet.net (Tony Toews) Subject: Re: Are Cordless' as bad as Cellulars? Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 01:21:33 GMT Organization: TELUS Communications Inc. fist@ozemail.com.au (Stewart Fist) wrote: > I would suggest that perhaps the invoice square law may be a factor > here - Ummm, would that be the inverse square law? Tony Toews, Independent Computer Consultant The Year 2000 crisis: Will my parents or your grand parents still be receiving their pension in January, 2000? See www.granite.ab.ca/year2000 for more info. Microsoft Access Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm ------------------------------ From: Ed Mitchell Subject: Re: Are Cordless' as Bad as Cellulars? Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 14:19:32 -0700 voe@telalink.net (Michael Wright) wrote in reply to Bemson : > A cell phone operates with a transmitter power of only 3/4 of > a watt. As you read this, you are sitting in a far more powerful > electromagnetic field, the one generated by your computer monitor. Actually, conventional cellular phones dynamically adjust power levels from a low of about 40 milliwatts up to 0.6 watts. The cellular base station always tries to keep your phone operating at the lowest power level to reduce interference potential to other phones and to extend your battery life. > As to cordless phones, they operate with a transmitter power of 100 > milliwatts (one-tenth of a watt) so they, too, constitute no hazard > whatsoever ... at least from the magnetic field. This too is incorrect. Almost all cordless phones in the U.S. operate under Part 15 rules limiting their output to about 0.7 milliwatts. Spread spectrum phones (e.g. digital 900 Mhz phones) often operate at about 10 mw and very few phones go as high as 100 mw. Second, most consumer cordless phones in the U.S. operate at 46/49 MHz - a wavelength of over 18 feet. You can't compare the human absorption of 0.7 mw RF at 46 MHz with 0.7 mw at 902-928 MHz. You are likely to encounter much stronger electro-magnetic fields from ordinary household wiring, anything with an AC power transformer, or your computer display. There are a great many variables in calculating the effects of RF, if any, on humans. There does not appear to be any epidemic associated with either class of phones, or radio stations. The overwhelmingly largest cause of death of modern humans are cardiovascular disease, lung disease, vehicle accidents and cancer caused by how you choose to lead your life - not "bogey man" of modern technology out to kill you. Ed Mitchell, KF7VY, publisher, Ham Radio Online Visit Ham Radio Online, read in 67 countries at http://www.hamradio-online.com Email vbook@vbook.com ------------------------------ From: jrr0@watson.ibm.com Subject: Re: Are Cordless' as Bad as Cellulars? Date: 18 May 1997 19:26:46 GMT Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center Reply-To: jrr0@watson.ibm.com In , Joel Upchurch writes: > I wonder how much it would effect the range of a cell phone to move > the antenna to the bottom of the phone? It seems to me that this > would reduce any effects of the phones transmissions on the brain by > at least an order of magnitude. The trouble is that some lawyer would > use any design change as an admission that the previous design was > unsafe. Of course, even if they do cause an occasional brain tumor > the health risks are down in the noise compared cell phone related > automobile >accidents :-). Of course, if the antenna were at the bottom, it would be blamed for causing some other medical malady. I detect that many of these studies don't really investigate the parameter that should be of interest -- the electric field strength inside the heat, caused by the transmitter. That's a very tough measurement to do, for obvious reasons. It's like the power line study which claimed to show correlation between power lines and certain diseases -- but *nobody* was actually going into the houses and measuring field strength. All the study did was see how far the house was from the line. The correlations went away when the actual electric field measurements were done. But the correlation that still did stand out was that the folks who lived near the power lines had much lower than average incomes. So all that money was spent on proving: Poor folks get sick more often than rich folks. Folks have to have *something* to blame for their ills. Cell phones might as well be it ... Jim ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #127 ******************************