Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id AAA22799; Mon, 26 May 1997 00:52:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 00:52:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199705260452.AAA22799@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #130 TELECOM Digest Mon, 26 May 97 00:52:00 EDT Volume 17 : Issue 130 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Just as Well We Did Not Bother ... (TELECOM Digest Editor) MCI Cheats, Lies, and Steals (Joseph Kim) "Good Morning, and Please Go Away" (Anthony E. Siegman) ISP Diversification Plans (Krishnan J. Iyer) UCLA Short Course on "Mobile Computing" (Bill Goodin) Pooling Phone Numbers (Tad Cook) New Call Minder Service (Robert Speirs) Oklahoma Area Codes (Tad Cook) Customer Care as Differentiator (Tara D. Mahon) 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. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 00:18:31 EDT From: ptownson@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Just as Well We Did Not Bother ... Readers may recall late last year I suggested the possibility of a meeting of the minds here over the Memorial Day weekend; a sort of convention of telecom readers seeking to meet one another, etc. I *assumed* back then the weather would be very nice and pleasant; that we could have meetings in the park and walk around our little village for dinner and maybe a telco-arranged tour ... Well, excuuuuse me! The weather this weekend has been horrible. On Saturday it was quite nice and pleasant *most* of the day, but a very heavy rain started in the early evening. All day Sunday the temperature was back in the forties (!) with gusty wind and drizzles. Monday is not going to be much better. I've been coughing and sneezing all day; and feel like I may die sometime tomorrow if not overnight tonight. I guess it is just as well we did not plan things any further. PAT ------------------------------ From: joseph kim Subject: MCI Cheats, Lies, and Steals Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 22:49:56 -0700 Organization: Cisco Systems Reply-To: jokim@cisco.com Hi, I was wondering if anyone out there has a suggestion for me. I recently switched my long distance carrier to MCI. They promised me $50 for the switch over. Not only did I not get the $50, but I was also promised a rate of $1.83/minute for a certain country to dial long distance to and have been charged between $4-$8/minute. So I now have a long distance bill of nearly $400 which should, obviously, be much less. Oh, I also didn't mention MCI cut off my long distance without my permission. They saw that I was getting a very large bill from their exorbitant rates that they lied to me about and when I desperately needed to make a long distance phone call I was cut off. Luckily, it only took me two hours of arguing with six differnt MCI customer service representatives to get my long distance turned back on. Actually, I couldn't get it turned back on until a few days after they cut it off and so during the interim had to use 10xxx to get long distance. When I asked MCI if they would pay for the extra charge over $1.83/minute for using 10xxx since it was their fault they hung up on me. Not only will I never use MCI again, I really DO NOT want to pay the large bill that they have charged me. Can anyone direct me to some consumer advocacy group or some agency to report this to? I would also suggest to anyone out there to use extreme caution in dealing with MCI. joseph kim jokim@cisco.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can report it direct to the Federal Communications Commission if you wish, but good luck in getting any action taken. I would suggest you send them only the money actually due, however you may wish to just put a freeze on payments to them until they re-rate the calls and send a corrected bill. In the future stay away from them. Like Sprint, they pull a lot of bait-and-switch type deals where one rate is quoted to get you to sign up and then the terms change in midstream. It is better to go with a smaller company or a reseller which appreciates your business. I have always had very good luck with Frontier/Allnet. PAT] ------------------------------ From: siegman@ee.stanford.edu (Anthony E. Siegman) Subject: "Good Morning, and Please Go Away" Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 11:22:23 -0700 Organization: Stanford University I'll type in a few segments from a column by Jon Carroll recently appearing in the {San Francisco Chronicle} under the above title --------- (From the Carroll column) I hold in my hands an article from the April 24 issue of {American Banker}. It details the groundbreaking work of NationsBank Corp in relating customer profitablility with service. Says the article: "Systems capable of calculating individual customer profitability will make it possible, for example, to let less-profitable customers sit on hold longer when they call into a telephone center." Does that confirm your most paranoid fantasies? "Unprofitable customers are defined ... as those who maintain minimum balances to avoid service charges, write lots of checks, and make heavy use of branches and call centers." "NationsBank began the program April 18, mailing out fliers promoting a 24-hour banking service. Customers calling in were assigned personal identification numbers, on which the bank relies in routing calls on the basis of a predetermined profitability score ..." "Customers will be routed to 'agents trained to handle their special needs'. The idea is to give customers in the most profitable tier bend-over-backwards service within seconds. Customers ranked in the lower tiers will be routed to different service representatives. Because of larger volume, they may experience longer hold times ..." My favorite quote from the article: "Separating customers into classes could be dangerous from a public relations standpoint, said industry observers." Those industry observers: sharp as tacks, they are. ------------------------------ From: krish@bcmfax.net (Krishnan J. Iyer) Subject: ISP Diversification Plans Date: 24 May 1997 06:09:31 GMT Organization: Reference.Com Posting Service Did you know that "average fax costs of an United States Fortune 500 company is US $ 15 million a year", according to 1996 Gallop / Pitney Bowes study. Also fax costs is about 41% of their total cost of telephone communications. It is high time one should think of transferring fax traffic to low cost networks like Internet. This is where entrepreneurs like you come in to setup local nodes on a worldwide network. bcmfax.net is a company in the forefront of international communication technology. It has some interesting business opportunities to offer and you may like to find out more by visiting them at http://www.bcmfax.net or sending an email to krish@bcmfax.net What's more ... ISPs have a tremendous opportunity to leverage network access and throw it open to fax traffic? It certainly means fax costs will come down. But how much will international fax traffic increase. We have to wait and see? I appreciate your comments on "the future of faxing" and information on your diversification plans. Thank you for your time, Krishnan J. Iyer bcmfax.net Internet fax network - Join bcmfax.net now Email : krish@bcmfax.net http://www.bcmfax.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You pose an interesting scenario. I would like to hear responses if any from ISPs who have considered this angle. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bgoodin@unex.ucla.edu (Bill Goodin) Subject: UCLA Short Course on "Mobile Computing" Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 22:28:55 GMT Organization: University of California, Los Angeles On July 14-17, 1997, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Mobile Computing: Applications, Infrastructure, and Performance", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Mario Gerla, PhD, Professor, Computer Science Department, UCLA; Rajive Bagrodia, PhD, Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, UCLA; Randy H. Katz, Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, UC Berkeley; and Peter Reiher, PhD, Associate Adjunct Professor, Computer Science Department, UCLA. Mobile computing is the ability to retrieve remote files, process data, collaborate and coordinate with other individuals, and update distributed data bases while "on the move". This course provides an integrated, vertical view of the mobile computing phenomenon, starting from applications and middleware, and continuing with the network infrastructure support components (wired and wireless). The characteristics of radio hardware and software, and of the radio channel, are also discussed. Two key applications are addressed: 1) a distributed file system in a mobile environment where different users work on local copies of the same file which must be periodically reconciled, and; 2) a video conference involving users connected to the network via various types of channels, from Ethernet to wireless, thus requiring dynamic rate adjustment to match different channel speeds. An important requirement for successful deployment of mobile applications is the careful evaluation of performance and investigation of alternatives prior to implementation. Given the complexity of the mobile computing system, simulation is the method of choice. This course includes a description of simulation tools which have been successfully applied to mobile network and application models. The course concludes with several demonstrations of applications--middleware and network protocols for mobile computing based on a wireless LAN testbed. Several simulation tools based on the MAISIE simulation language are also demonstrated. The course fee is $1295, which includes extensive course materials. Course materials are for participants only, and are not for sale. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses/ This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ Subject: Pooling Phone Numbers Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 17:13:42 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Penn. Public Utility Commission Seeks Alternative to New Area Codes By David DeKok The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pa. May 23--The state Public Utility Commission voted yesterday to explore alternative means of expanding the supply of telephone numbers in the hope of avoiding more area code splits or overlays. A tentative order approved by the commission is intended to free up millions of unused telephone numbers and delay the need to add more area codes or possible mandatory 10-digit dialing. Commissioner John Hanger's motion, which was approved unanimously by the PUC, seeks comment on alternative number distribution methods, one of which is called pooling. With pooling, the Number Plan Area coordinator would give out numbers only as they were actually needed to serve customers. Unused numbers presently being banked by telephone companies would be required to be returned. At present, telephone, cellular and pager companies are assigned three-digit central office codes as needed, each of which carries a block of 10,000 telephone numbers. Even if a company needs only a few dozen numbers, it receives 10,000. Last week, the PUC held a hearing in Harrisburg to discuss proposals for splitting or overlaying the 717 area code. Most witnesses at the hearing favored a split, allowing the southern half of the area code, which includes Harrisburg, to retain the 717 designation. In accordance with Hanger's motion, the PUC will enter an order allowing for a 20-day comment period plus 10 days for reply comment on the viability of a pooling proposal. The PUC also directed that a technical conference be conducted in Harrisburg by an administrative law judge 10 days after the order is entered. Final action is to be taken July 10. (c) 1997, The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pa. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------ From: speirs@chebucto.ns.ca (Robert Speirs) Subject: New Call Minder Service Date: 26 May 1997 04:46:11 GMT Organization: Halifax, NS Thursday 22 May 1997: William (Bill) McMullin reports that Maritime Telephone and Telegraph (MT&T) and InfoInterActive (IIA-A) have signed a letter of intent to formalize a working relationship between the two companies and an ownership interest by MT&T in IIA. The agreement follows successful technology and market trials in Halifax of IIA's flagship product, Internet Call Manager (ICM). With ICM, customers with a single phone line can monitor their calls while on the Internet by way of a pop-up window with the calling party's Caller-ID (both name and number). There are four call handling options: ignore the call, acknowledge the call with a short greeting, transfer the call to another number (such as a private cellular telephone), or accept the call. If the customer also subscribes to a voice messaging service, such as MT&T Call Answer, ignored calls are handled by this service in the usual way. There is no need for the customer to subscribe to telephone- oriented call management services like Call Display or Call Waiting, no additional hardware is required and no additional software must be purchased. As part of this agreement, MT&T has taken an investment position in InfoInterActive. This reflects the company's new focus on participation with its customers and partners. When it was reorganized last year, the company's two major objectives were to rebuild around the needs of its customers and to make investments in companies with export potential. The speed to market of Internet Call Manager and the investment in InfoInterActive reflect these new priorities. MT&T is acquiring 250,000 shares for resources contributed under the venture and 125,000 warrants, exercisable until 1 April 1999 at prices between C$0.60 and C$1.25 per warrant. The MT&T service will be offered in two varieties at prices of C$4.99 and C$9.99 per month, a fraction of the cost of a second phone line. The first includes basic calling name and number information and the ability to acknowledge the call. The complete version adds the call control capability and includes MT&T's Call Answer voice messaging service. The ICM service offering will be expanded to include all Internet Service Provider customers, and will be made available across the province over the next six offering will be expanded to include all Internet Service Provider customers, and will be made available across the province over the next six months. MT&T will work with IIA to launch the ICM service on a national basis across Canada in June 1997, assisting with product development and playing the role of reference customer. IIA has an immediate opportunity to capitalize on market requirements with ICM MT&T is a Nova Scotia-based telecommunications company serving over 900,000 customers in Nova Scotia. For more information, contact: William (Bill) McMullin, President Infointeractive Inc Sun Tower suite 604, 1550 Bedford Hwy Bedford, NS B4A 1E6 tel:(902)832-1014/832-1611/1-800-270-1014 ext.21 fax:(902)832-1015 bill@interactive.ca http://www.interactive.ca/ Kenneth (Ken) Gary Noland, CEO & CFO Director & Investor Relations/ Sidney (Sid) P. Dutchak Chairman/ InfoInteractive Inc suite 200, 209 19th St NW Calgary, AB T2N 2H9 tel:(403)270-8421 tel:(403)630-2157/283-3600 fax:(403)270-8124 tritech@cadvision.com ------------------------------ Subject: Oklahoma Area Codes Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 10:34:52 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Oklahoma to Dial Up Two More Area Codes to Meet Phone Demand BY SHAUN SCHAFER, TULSA WORLD, OKLA. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News May 22--Oklahomans' hunger for phone-related gadgets is devouring the numbers available under the state's two area codes and will lead to the creation of two more area codes to meet needs. The 405 area code, which includes Oklahoma City, is nearing the exhaustion of possible number combinations, and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission is hurrying to get rules in place to handle another area code. John Gray, senior assistant general counsel for the commission, said 405 will run out of numbers at its current rate of use by the third quarter of 1998. The 918 area code, which includes Tulsa, should run out of numbers in the first quarter of 2001, Gray said. "An extra phone line, a modem, a pager, a beeper -- these all take numbers," Gray said. "And people keep adding them." Numbers could be gobbled up even faster as local calling opens up to competition, as promised by the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. An incoming local provider generally reserves a block of 10,000 phone numbers, Gray said. While there was no statistical breakdown on the numbers already in use, local competition will speed the demise of numbers available in the 405 and 918 areas, Gray said. "We need an order issued by the first of July" for 405, Gray said. The process to install a new area code takes about 18 months, leaving little time in the 405 area, he added. The two entities watching over the state's phone numbers -- the Oklahoma Central Office Code Administrator and the Numbering Plan Area Relief Coordinator -- filed an application with the corporation commission to deal with the exhaustion of 405 numbers. The commission, which has been busy meeting other deadlines under the Telecommunications Act, is collecting testimony from providers, such as Southwestern Bell, and other interested parties, Gray said. An administrative law judge is scheduled to hear a summary of the evidence on June 23 and issue an oral recommendation to the commission. Any appeals or requests for approval of the judge's recommendation will be presented to the corporation commission on June 26, with the commission's ruling to follow. There are two ways to provide more numbers, and whichever one is chosen in the 405 area will affect Tulsa and the 918 area. A new area code can overlay an existing one, or an area can be divided, with one section keeping the old number and the other receiving a new one. Both methods have been used in recent years. In the Chicago area, an overlay was instituted when reports showed that the area code for suburban Chicago would run out of numbers. Since 1996, that suburban area has been served by 708 and 630 area codes simultaneously. When the San Francisco Bay Area started to run out of 415 numbers in the late '80s, the area was divided. The city of San Francisco kept the 415 numbers, and the new 510 area code covered phones outside of the city limits. In Oklahoma City, the local service companies favor dividing the existing 405 area rather than bringing in an overlay number, Gray said. "All providers of local exchange are pretty much in agreement on what should be divided," Gray said. "There's an agreement that Oklahoma City should have one number and everybody else should have another. "The question is, who gets which?" Oklahoma City and Tulsa have the two largest Wide Area Calling Plans in the nation, with each measuring more than 4,200 square miles. In the 405 case, that area would be left intact and would have only one area code, either 405 or a new code, Gray said. Calls within the wide area plans are toll-free calls. In similar fashion, Tulsa's Wide Area Calling Plan, which stretches from Henryetta to Ochelata and from Snug Harbor to Jennings, would receive one area code. Whether it keeps the existing number or gets a new area code will probably be determined by whatever decision is made in the 405 area, Gray said. "Nine-one-eight will be a little easier because we will have already done it once in Oklahoma," Gray said. "It's still probably a year or so" before work will start on rules in this area. Running out of 405 number combinations marks only the latest change wrought by the boom in telecommunications. In January 1995, residents making long-distance calls in the same area code started dialing the area code along with that number. For instance, before that date a call from Tulsa to Miami was made by dialing a "1" followed by the number. That change was made as number combinations filled up in the other area codes. From 1947 to 1995, U.S. area codes contained a "0" or a "1" as the middle number in the three-digit codes. That restricted area codes to 152 combinations, and to meet the rising demand for phone numbers, the middle digit was opened in 1995 to include any number from "2" through "9." Bellcore, the administrator of the number system used in North America and parts of the Caribbean, said the change added 640 area codes to the system and would be adequate to meet needs through 2025. (c) 1997, The Tulsa (Okla.) World. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually 708/630 are two separate and distinct geographic areas. It is true that in the very early days of 630, it was cellular/pager stuff only, and used over the entire 312/708 area. When 847 opened, 630 was shoved to the far western suburbs, but the cellular/pager people who were in it were allowed to stay there if they desired to do so. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 May 97 13:01:20 +0000 From: Tara D. Mahon Subject: Customer Care as Differentiator Pat, Here is a piece we put out recently as part of our NewsFirst Telecom email newsletter -- hope it interests the DIGEST. Regards, Tara D. Mahon The Insight Research Corporation Insight Examines Customer Care as a Key Differentiator Between Competing Carriers -------------------------- As competition between wireless and wireline, and between local and long distance carriers intensifies, carriers will be searching for ways to make their services distinctive and uniquely appealing to both business and residential customers. Insight has been studying this challenge and possible solutions that carriers can and are taking to make their customer services a unique differentiator. In the past month, Michael French, Insight's Vice President of Market Research, toured one of MCI's customer service centers and spoke to customer service managers at Sprint Corp. to update Insight's understanding of leading edge practices in this important area and to stimulate managers' thinking about customer needs today and how they will evolve tomorrow. Here are highlights of his message to both major carriers: 1. Serious competition has come to key sectors of the telecom market. Driven by deregulation, improved technologies, and expanding customer expectations, business and residential customers are increasingly choosing carriers and often switching carriers. No longer will carriers operate in protected territories, based upon natural monopolies or FCC licenses. 2. Carriers need to gain and sustain a critical mass of customers. Whether in the wireless, local, or long distance markets, carriers must reduce churn, which often costs them 20% of their customers each year. For example, customer acquisition costs in the wireless markets average over $500 per new customer. Thus the costs of attracting enough customers just to maintain one's market share can eat into profits and reduce a carrier's ability to deploy the advanced features needed to win tomorrow's competition. 3. Insight's research reveals that there are only three basic ways that a carrier can attract new customers: by lowering prices, by creating unique bundles of services, or by improving customer service. While these are often used in combination, Insight has observed that each carrier tends to rely on one strategy as its driving theme. Lowering prices often leads to price wars, as competitors match price cuts and everybody's profit margins are reduced. Offering unique services--like MCIOne which combines cellular, voice mail, and long distance service--is increasingly hard to accomplish for some carriers. For most carriers, this leaves customer care as the most effective asset that can be used competitively. 4. With customer care identified by all leading carriers as a key competitive asset, it becomes harder and harder for a carrier to make this a unique and cost-effective advantage. 5. Insight recommends two powerful strategies to shape customer care into an asset supporting each carriers particular goals and resources. A) Increasingly target specific groups or markets with services suited to their needs. Segment markets with different services and types of customer service. Whether it's by customer size, vertical market, or another variable like end-user mobility, segmentation is the key to uniquely serving customers' needs. Mining databases and creating new bundles of services will become more frequent and lower cost for carriers. One service or type of customer support does not fit everybody, and successful carriers will increasingly take advantage of this trend. B) Learn from the winners in other industries how companies can recreate themselves periodically. Leaders in industries as diverse as airlines, financial services, and PC manufacturing have each identified their particular strength and then developed it into a key marketing advantage. Telecom carriers can alter the traditional customer relationship management paradigm (the cycle of acquisition, retention, and win-back) by periodically re-inventing how they are perceived by customers. Insight recognizes the difficulty of this strategy, but sees the alternative as erosion of market share and profits. 6. As the telecom market becomes more competitive and competing carriers have access to similar technologies, carriers' strategies are shifting from reliance on lowest price and advanced features to more sophisticated marketing modus operandi. Insight sees this as an exciting challenge as carriers segment their markets and work to exploit their unique advantages in each market. While this may seem difficult, the alternative is to offer services as commodities and risk being viewed as slightly old-fashioned by customers. Further analysis of the customer service opportunities in telecom will be published in Insight's "Carrier Customer Services and Operations Support Systems" market research report, due out later this year. For more information on this or any of Insight's reports, please visit www.insight-corp.com. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #130 ******************************