Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id XAA23252; Sat, 11 Oct 1997 23:15:23 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 23:15:23 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199710120315.XAA23252@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #281 TELECOM Digest Sat, 11 Oct 97 23:15:00 EDT Volume 17 : Issue 281 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Personal 800 Service (Thomas Hinders) Re: 101-XXXX For Traditional Intra-LATA LEC Toll (Jeffrey Rhodes) Re: Perhaps 888 Was a Poor Choice (Brent Best) Employment Opportunity: CAD Supervisor Needed (Thom Erickson) Phone Problem in Residence Hall (Janet Price) Another Spam 800 Number (Dale O. Miller) Not Spam: If Anyone Needs Info on How to MAKE MONEY FAST (A. Reader) Help: Cellular/Wireless Notebook Solution (Roque Aranador) Qualcomm Q Phone Paging/Voice Question (Scott R. Ehrlich) Re: Phone Stuff on TV (Mark J. Cuccia) 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: * telecom-request@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. 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Telecommunications Resources Survey (John McHugh) Simulation of an ATM-Based Network (course@socrates.berkeley.edu) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Thomas_Hinders/CAM/Lotus@lotus.com (Thomas Hinders) Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 16:17:10 -0400 Subject: Personal 800 Service Sometime ago, there was a discussion of personal 800 service. My daughter has gone off to college (200 miles from home) and I think its time to consider one. ATT offers $.20 a minute with a $2.50 per month charge. Any suggestions? Tom Hinders Thomas_Hinders@lotus.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Forget about AT&T. There are many better deals around, or at least deals just as good from a lot of small vendors. How would you like an 800 service which allows all these features: 1) Use it not only for incoming calls, but for *outgoing* calls as well, eliminating the need for a separate calling card? Just dial your 800 number, insert your pin, and dial out again. 2) Program it to follow you around. Dial into your 800 number and put it in maintainence mode by inserting your pin. Then tell it where (a) priority calls are to be sent; (b) other, normal calls are to be sent; (c) how do deal with no-answers; i.e. to system provided voicemail or your own voicemail or some third backup number. 3) Call screening: When it first answers and receives a call for you the caller is asked to state his name. The connection is then split and you get a call giving you the name provided by the caller. You then either accept the call or send it to voicemail. 4) Call waiting and three way calling (on an 800 number, yet!) If a call comes in for you and the system knows you are on line; i.e. you are making an outgoing call, accepting another incoming call, or in maintainence mode, listening to voicemail or whatever, the system makes a little chirp and says 'you have a call waiting'. You have the option of taking the new call while holding the old one or dropping the old one and taking the new one or ignoring the new call. If you are on a call either incoming or outgoing and need to make another call you can either consult on the side or conference the existing call with a new one. It is all done with the touch tone buttons. 5) A pretty standard voicemail package is available as part of it if you want to use it. (There is an extra charge.) 6) The system can tell the difference between fax/data and voice calls so if a fax machine calls your 800 number there is a provision in maintainence mode to tell it where to send the fax/data call, for example to a different number with a fax machine on it. It all happens automatically. If a fax machine calls your 800 number it gets sent to your fax line. If voice, the call comes to your voice line. 7) Wakeup service and callback service. Tell it to call and wake you at 7:00 AM and the number to reach you at and it will do so. If you are at an international location and prefer to use USA dialtone you can do that also. Just dial in and ask it to call you back at whatever number you give it. For this purpose, not only do you have your 800 number but on request they will assign you a regular POTS number in 408 or 415. For example, on mine I have my 800 number but I also have 415-xxx-xxxx which simply ties into the 800 ... if you call the 800 line I pay for it, if you call the 415 side then you pay for that portion of the call and I pay for the outbound to wherever it locates me. 8) Data transmission is *GREAT*. I can easily go 28.8 or faster with my existing modem through the 800 number. Only rarely is the connection not good enough to go that fast. 9) Your personal greeting, recorded in your own voice answers incoming calls and tells the caller 'please hold while your call is transferred to me'. You can change your destination number as often as desired at any time. If that is not enough features, there are a few more. The system is very robust, but I will let the proprietors tell you about it. The charges are fifteen cents per minute inbound and ten cents per minute outbound. So if someone called your 800 number and the call was passed along to you, the charge would be 15+10=25 cents per minute. If they only leave voicemail then it is just 15 cents per minute. If you use it for outgoing calls, that is dial in to 800, enter your pin and dial out again, the same charge applies of 15+10=25, but bear in mind there is no surcharge if using a calling card or a pay phone, etc. Anytime it makes an outgoing call to you, for example to wake up, the charge is the ten cents per minute noted above. Inter- national calls are permitted at prevailing rates. I think the monthly fee for the service, in addition to calling charges is about ten or fifteen dollars per month; I would have to look at my latest bill to be sure. So now, not only can your daughter use it at school, but you can throw away your other calling cards and use it yourself from any payphone, etc. You can use it like AT&T's 500 Service by only giving out the POTS version of your 800 number. Callers pay to reach you but the system locates you wherever. It is called "MY LINE" and is marketed by Call America, a company located in the Silicon Valley area of California. Jeff Buckingham is the president, and the company has been a loyal and generous patron of this Digest for a few years now. For more information and immediate signup (they turn you on rather quickly) contact one of these people: jbucking@callamerica.com (Jeff Buckingham) estrong@callamerica.com (Ernie Strong) beth_harris@callamerica.com (Beth Harris) Mention to them please that you appreciate their support of this Digest and inquire further about MyLine, or ask to try it for a couple months to see how it fits in to your telecom requirements. Personally, I cannot imagine ever going back to a 'traditional' sort of 800 number, personal or not, with as many features as MyLine includes as part of their standard package. I know that some of you have signed up with them in the past at my recommendation and if you would care to share your experiences, please do. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jeffrey Rhodes Subject: Re: 101-XXXX For Traditional Intra-LATA LEC Toll Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 14:47:35 -0700 Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Al Varney wrote: > In article , Jack Decker > wrote: >> The thing that I am curious about is this: As I understand it (and >> feel free to correct me if I am wrong), if you do not have GTE as your >> default toll carrier, they have to load a PIC code into the switch for >> your preferred carrier. And it is possible to have NO default toll >> carrier (both interLATA and intraLATA), in which case no toll call >> will go through unless you dial an access code first. So, it would >> seem that there MUST be a code for GTE intraLATA toll, that would be > ^^^^ > not true, see below > Switches generally implement two levels of routing. One is based on > dialed digits only -- no carrier code is needed or used. The other is > routing based on carrier code. Dialed digit analysis can trigger > carrier routing (using an interLATA or intraLATA PIC), or the customer > can force it with a Carrier Access Code (CAC=101XXXX)... Forcing no intra-LATA toll calling unless casually dialed is trickier than simply not having a default PIC. I doubt this option is really offered since billing and routing are distinctly different processes and most lines have some sort of "free" radius of non-toll intra-LATA calling. Calls within this radius are often charged as toll when dialed with access codes, ie. so-called casual dialing, either 10XXX or 101(0,5,6)XXX. The XXXX carrier can refuse to accept such calls dialed as 101XXXX1+ in order to force 101XXXX0+ when a suitable billing arrangement is not in place for casual dialing. A carrier usually charges more for casual dialing calls than for 1+ inter-LATA calls, sometimes more for their own customers who choose to casual dial, so maybe GTE wants this capability for when the intra-LATA PIC is not GTE? The XXXX carrier can even require the dialing carrier's network to block the casual calling at their network. This comes up with traditional inter-LATA carriers who must pay per-second access charges, even for calls that they do not wish to complete! When do LATAs go away? What is keeping GTE from converting all their local customers to use GTE long distance? That might not go over too well with the public (or the state PUCs) but does the Telecom Act of 1996 require a CLEC or ILEC to provide choices for "toll" calling? I'd kind of like it if I could extend my GTE local unlimited ISDN voice and data calling for $50 a month to "any" distance ;-) Jeffrey Rhodes at jeffrey.rhodes@attws.com ------------------------------ From: Brent Best Subject: Re: Perhaps 888 Was a Poor Choice Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 02:07:35 -0700 Reply-To: bjbest@interlog.com Linc Madison wrote: > It occurs to me (with 20/20 hindsight) that 888 was a poor choice for > the second toll-free SAC. It just doesn't jolt the average Joe enough > as being distinct from 800. A different choice -- maybe 822 -- would > have been more distinctive, and might have resulted in fewer problems. > There could've been ads with the jingle "8-2-2 is toll-free, too!" The solution is to throw open as many 8XX SAC's as possible for toll-free use. Companies can then have virtually unlimited choice to use unique 9-character alpha names. A company could pick a number like 1-865-263-7422, which spells out 1-8-OK-AMERICA. If your "slogan" starts with a T, U, or V, a complete ten-character name is possible. An example could be " 1-TO-CALL-4-LAW " ( 1-862-255-4529 ) ------------------------------ From: tpe@dmc10.com (Thom Erickson) Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 16:47:43 CDT Subject: Employment Opportunity: CAD Supervisor Needed I am looking for a third shift CAD Supervisor to perform supervisory roles in a CAD and CNC Dept. The individual will be responsible for overseeing the Computer Aided Design, CNC Machining areas and mold fabrication areas supervising 10 people. This department is responsible for the design and prototyping of medical implants and located in Pennsylvania. Experience with 3D design and machining would be ideal. A college degree is not neccessary. Knowledge of Computer Aided Design technology is a must. We have benefits, stock options, retirement plans and excellent salary for the area. If you know anyone that might be interested please contact: Thom Erickson Voice: 609-584-9000 ext. 259 Fax: 609-584-9575 Email: tpe@dmc10.com ------------------------------ From: Janet Price Subject: Phone Problem in Residence Hall Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 15:02:11 -0500 Organization: Carroll College Reply-To: jprice@carroll1.cc.edu We have a student with a cordless phone that works fine in the room across the hall, but has a lot of line noise in his room. However, a plain phone works fine in his room. We'd appreciate any suggestions regarding simple things to try. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: domiller@ualr.edu Subject: Another Spam 800 Number Date: 9 Oct 97 14:57:07 CST Organization: University of Arkansas at Little Rock I received a nice UCE today, and thought that telecom readers would appreciate a small portion of it. > [ Unimportant portion of UCE deleted ] > For details call 1-800-322-6169 ext 3747 today for a brief recorded > overview Some people just won't learn, will they? This number has a rather long recorded message which I encourage you to call and be sure to listen to in its entirety, then leave your message expressing your dislike of UCE. Dale O. Miller - domiller@ualr.edu | University of Arkansas at Little Rock Systems Programmer | 2801 S. University Ave. Voice: +1 501 569 8714 | Little Rock, AR 72204-1099 USA http://www.ualr.edu/~domiller/ | KC5NXW ------------------------------ From: a-reader@aol.com (A. Reader) Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 20:32:46 EDT Subject: If Anyone Needs Info on How to MAKE MONEY FAST Dear PAT: I received the enclosed in my in-box today. It appears to have originated (as has much recent spam) from an MCI.NET dialup. ** The important part of the message is : 1-800-304-5632 ** My comments are in brackets; I wouldn't bother you with this, but the sender must REALLY want calls, since he offers to pay for 'em himself. --and just this once, please don't use my real return address-- > Yes... that can be *you* at the top... [Oh, I'm sure] > and... > not just the top of another scam pyramid.... [Right. At the bottom...] > but a great product that all mlmers can use! > A 3x9 forced matrix that has a 50% matching sponsor bonus [That's right; confuse > and a 33% payout on the first level to keep the little guy in! 'em with jargon ! ] > *************************************** > 3 [million] BELOW YOU - AND YOUR POSITION IS FREE!!! > *************************************** > This program is so new, NOBODY knows about it yet! [There's a reason for that] > There are less than 50 distributors in the company [Mr. Grammar Person sez > as of today, "don't you mean 'FEWER', > but that will change dramatically, dammit ?"] > as this is the first email ad > being sent. [But not the last. Oh, no, not by a longshot] > We need people to call back the people who respond to this ad! [Then we'll need people to call back the people who call back the people who call back the people who call back the people who call back the people who call back...] > Call 1-800-304-5632 NOW for your free issue and business plan! [If this isn't an open invitation, I'll eat this spam. You heard him; do it RIGHT NOW, even if you're walking down the street and see some phone booths that look a bit lonely, or perhaps from work, behind your employer's PBX....] Other numbers to try are 1-888 [NOT 800] 365-0000 x1732 or 1-800-613-3456. Tell 'em you wanna know about the Laundry CD. I kid you not. A. Reader [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Okay readers, including you, 'A. Reader' you know what needs to be done; you know the routine by now. In the olden days we thought it was great when Jeff Slaton got a bill from his telco for right about a hundred thousand dollars one month as a result of netizens working together to pollute his number. Let's see if we can pledge at least a half-million dollars to distribute among the fools listed in these two messages today. The 'Laundry CD' is really worth everything you can put into it ... but Make Money Fast needs to learn his lesson also. When you are at a bank of pay- phones, dial them up and walk away leaving the phones off hook. Ask your employer to make a 'matching contribution' by using those DID lines and PBX extensions at your school, etc. Remember, lunchmeat will go away -- at least in large amounts -- when the *perception* that it is profitable goes away. Help show these fools how costly it really can be. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Roque Aranador Subject: Help: Cellular/Wireless Notebook Solution Date: 10 Oct 1997 18:41:11 GMT Organization: BHP HAWAII INC I'll be taking a trip to Australia and France and I'm looking for the following devices: -cellular/wireless phone that can be attached to a pcmcia modem (that works in Australia, France, and USA) -pcmcia modem card that will work with a cellular/wireless phone (that works in Australia, France, and USA) The notebook is a Toshiba Libretto running Windows 95. Please provide Manufacturer and Model for both devices. Many thanks in advance!!!! Roque Aranador aranador.roque.rr@bhp.com.au ------------------------------ From: sehrlich@shore.net (Scott R. Ehrlich) Subject: Qualcomm Q Phone Paging/Voice Question Date: 11 Oct 1997 20:37:20 -0400 Organization: Shore.Net; a service of Eco Software, Inc. (info@shore.net) I was considering buying a pager until I saw the specs of the Q phone. Can the present Q phone, along with the upcoming dual-mode Q phone in Nov/Dec, simultaneously receive alpha pages along with receiving incoming calls and making outgoing calls? In other words, if I want to make/receive calls and receive alpha pages simultaneously, will the Q phone be my all-in-one answer, or will I still need two devices - a pager and a phone? For paging, I would take advantage of the carrier's email -> pager gateway. As I am in the Boston area, and don't plan to go too far in the near or far future, what cellular providers plan to take full advantage of the Q phone's capabilities? I know we have Bell Atlantic Mobile, and Sprint PCS is coming soon. Who else is coming to the area in the near future? Can I assume BAM and Sprint PCS are/will be able to offer alpha paging via email to the Q phone? Thanks, Scott Ehrlich sehrlich@shore.net Scott Ehrlich Consulting http://www.shore.net/~sehrlich Amateur Radio Callsign: wy1z ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 11:59:41 -0500 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Phone Stuff on TV Leonard Erickson wrote: > It's interesting how much stuff they get right (and wrong!) in TV > shows. Last year, I posted an article to TELECOM Digest regarding inconsistancies about ringers used on TV shows, movies, old radio entertainment, etc. I had mentioned that you might see a WECO/NECO 500/554 telephone, but when it rings, you hear that of an old steel ringer-box, old bakelite ringer-box, or WECO/NECO 302/352 telephone, vice-versa, etc. (i.e. a Trimline phone ringing like a 500/554 telephone). Or, the ringing cadences aren't always correct - they are too long, too short, not 'spaced' consistantly, etc. And the telephone in the TV show or movie is _NOT_ intended to be on a party line! Sometimes, in a TV show (or movie), when you see the party pick up the receiver, the ringing STOPS DEAD, without ANY remaining 'reasonance' of the brass bells. In that last year's mid-June posting "Questions about ringing", I also stated: > In some movies, two telephone calls come in at different times on > the same telephone shown. Each time the phone is shown to be ringing, > a different type ringer gong has been used. I remember this in a > scene of "Vertigo" (James Stewart and Kim Novak) and in a scene of > "Imitation of Life" (Lana Turner and Juanita Moore). In both movies > (circa late 1950's), the same telephone rings like a WECO 302 in one > scene, but like an old bakelite ringer box in another scene! Actually, in "Vertigo", the telephone rings first like a WECO/NECO model #302 (B-type ringer with brass-gong-pair 41-A and 41-B), but later on in the scene, the telephone rings like an old WECO steel ringer-box (type-8 ringer). This is all in one scene, in the apartment of John 'Scotty' Fergusen (Jimmy Stewart), where he had taken Madeline Elster - really Judy Barten (Kim Novak), after he had rescued her from her suicidal dive into San Francisco Bay. The telephone that Jimmy Stewart answers _IS_ a WECO/NECO model #302 desk telephone. It seems that the call is from Gavin Elster, Madeline's husband. Jimmy Stewart tells the caller that he will return the call later on. After several minutes of dialogue with Kim Novak, the phone rings again, but that of a WECO steel ringer-box. Well, that is how it is shown and heard in an airing of "Vertigo" that I taped off TV about seven years ago. Last year, MCA/Universal 'restored' "Vertigo" for theatrical re-release, by going to the original 1958 Paramount Pictures 35-mm VistaVision negatives/prints and audio soundtrack, and putting togather a 70-mm restored color print with new digital stereo soundtrack. Last Saturday night, AMC (American Movie Classics) aired "Vertigo" (one-time-only) on cable-TV. It was the 1996 'restored' version, shown in the wide-screen ('letterbox') version. There was a 30-minute special prior to the movie, about the restoration process of "Vertigo". It was mentioned that _some_ of the original sounds had to be re-created on a sound-effect machine, so that the original dialogue and musical soundtrack, now in digital stereo could be properly heard. Well, in the 'restored' version, in the scene in Jimmy Stewart's apartment when the first telephone call rings in, it doesn't ring anymore like a WECO/NECO model #302 (gongs 41-A and 41-B), but rather like that of a WECO/NECO model #500/554, gongs 54-A and 55-A. When Jimmy Stewart answers the phone, you do see it as a WECO/NECO model #302, though. But when the second telephone call rings several minutes later, the ringing is still that of the old WECO steel ringer-box. One other telco topic in "Vertigo" is when Jimmy Stewart is early in the movie, when he is at "Midge's" (Barbara Bel-Geddes') apartment. He mentions that he needs to call Gavin Elster, an old college friend. The number is a 'MIssion' number. I _assume_ that in 1958 there was an exchange in San Francisco named 'MIssion'. Of course, most movies made in the "good-old-days" referred to all telephone numbers with EXchange names, or if in a small town or rural area, in all numbers (and possible party line station letters) but as five-digits or less. MARK_J._CUCCIA__PHONE/WRITE/WIRE/CABLE:__HOME:__(USA)__Tel:_CHestnut-1-2497 WORK:__mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu|4710-Wright-Road|__(+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity-5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New-Orleans-28__|fwds-on-no-answr-to Fax:UNiversity-5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail- ------------------------------ From: John McHugh Subject: Telecommunications Resources Survey Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 17:28:00 -0500 Dear Colleagues, Our municipality is revising its Comprehensive Plan, as required by Minnesota State Statute. This version will have a telecommunications component in it. As we survey our telecommunications resources, we already know the capability and location of facilities for the upgraded TWI cable tv system serving our city. However, specifics about US West's plant, switches and capabilities aren't readily at hand. The MN PUC said they didn't know, but did send us a list of companies who have been granted certificates of authorization for local service, and the name of a USWC regulatory affairs office representative. I'm sure others, as part of a business plan or comprehensive plan, have flattened the learning and lingo curve. Can you recommend any information resources, www-based or otherwise, which I can reference so we ask productive questions and get useful answers from the right wire-line and wireless teleco operators? Also, in a recent development, the Benton Foundation's Communications Headlines listserv had this summary in their 10.7.97 edition: Title: Electric Outlets Could Be Link To the Internet Source: Wall Street Journal (B6) Author: Guatam Naik Issue: Infrastructure Description: Engineers claim they have developed technology that would allow people to make phone calls and access the Internet at high speeds through the electrical outlets in walls. (How fast? Like the speed of light, man). If the technology developed by United Utilities PLC and Northern Telecom Ltd is successful, it would transform the world's power lines into major conduits on the information superhighway and give electrical companies easy entree into the phone and Internet access business. The companies believe the technology is "ready for mass market" and will announce plans at a press conference tomorrow. "At long last, the local monopoly of the incumbent telecom operators is about to be demolished," said a spokesman. (c)Benton Foundation, 1997. Redistribution of this email publication -- both internally and externally -- is encouraged if it includes this message. What do you readers think? Will Buck and Flash arrive sooner than believed? Grateful for your insights, John McHugh Cable TV Office @ City Hall 5005 Minnetonka Boulevard St. Louis Park, MN 55416 jmchugh@ci.saint-louis-park.mn.us 612-924-2660 fax-924-2175 ------------------------------ From: course@socrates.berkeley.edu Subject: Simulation of an ATM-Based Network (Course) Date: 11 Oct 1997 17:44:16 GMT Organization: Data Communication and Newtorking Services Announcing a hands-on short course in Boston, Massachusetts November 5-7, 1997 "SIMULATION OF AN ATM-BASED NETWORK" with William E. Stephens, Ph.D. and Christopher Ward, Ph.D., both of the David Sarnoff Research Center, Princeton, N.J. This short course examines key issues involved in simulating high-performance local and wide area networks. Topics covered include: High-Speed Transport Protocols, Simulation Steps, System Simulation Considerations, ATM Switch Architectures, and ATM Signaling. The course is instructed by William E. Stephens, Head of the Wireless and ATM Networking Group at the David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, NJ and Christopher Ward, technical staff at Sarnoff. More information? Call (510) 642-4151 Fax (510) 642-6027 Electronic Mail to: course@unx.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #281 ******************************