Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id VAA10807; Mon, 10 Nov 1997 21:51:24 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 21:51:24 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199711110251.VAA10807@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #309 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Nov 97 21:51:00 EST Volume 17 : Issue 309 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Operators and Rates (was Re: Drakesbad No.2 Ringdown) (Mark Cuccia) 704/828 Schedule Change (John Cropper) 408 to Split Yet Again in 1999! (John Cropper) Last Laugh! Re: Where is Dust Coming From (Richard Redmond) 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'. 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Cuccia Subject: AT&T Operators and Rates (was Re: Drakesbad No.2 Ringdown) Lee Winson wrote: > Mark, thanks for the interesting report. Some questions I'd like to > share with the newsgroup ... > 1) I'm curious as to if the AT&T operators would know how to connect > you if you did NOT give them the operator dialing code -- just > said "Drakesbad Number 2 in Susanville California". Normally, > that's all you would know. > [When I've used Enterprise numbers in recent years, the typical > AT&T operator has no idea what I'm talking about and refuses to > do anything until I provide a proper number. One even cut me off. > I have to ask them to get a supervisor to explain how to look it > up. (Several AT&T operators referred me back to the local Bell > operator, who then referred me back to AT&T.) One time the AT&T > operator placed the call as collect, but asked the called party > if they'd accept it -- on an Enterprise call, that's supposed to > be a given.] I happened to have the Inward Operator's Routing Code (916+028+121, now 530+028+121) from some old AT&T documents (1981), which was the same as what is shown in current Bellcore documents. But the travel advertisement indicated to call Drakesbad No.2 CA via Susanville CA Operator. Even though most AT&T operators would have such a request maybe once a month (if that often), they are trained to know that such a request is for a call to a "Ringdown" or "Toll-Station", etc., which _MUST_ be handled by the (LEC/AT&T) Operator(s). And had I not know the operator's route code (530+028+) or mark-sense billing ID code (887-439), the operator simply looks it up from an informational and instructions database that her OSPS terminal dips into. These days, AT&T operators don't really need to go to the "Rate and Route" operator anymore. I didn't mention in my original post that on one of my attempts to call Drakesbad No.2, that the AT&T operator disconnected. Whether she did this deliberately, or accidently (when I told her that I needed to place a call to Drakesbad No.2 California via Susanville CA Inward, she told me to hold the line, but I was disconnected), I don't know. About ten years ago, I needed directory assistance for a number in a small village in India (+91). I did have the city-code, and the small village was customer IDDD-able from the US, but I didn't have the subscriber's number. It so happened that I was requesting directory assistance during the Christmas/New-Years' Holiday Season. Traffic was _QUITE_ heavy during that time. When the originating AT&T TSPS Operator (and at that time, they still had a TSPS switch and operator-team in New Orleans, NWORLAMA1UD) would attempt to use operators' routing for inward or directory for whatever town in India, their PTT's heavily accented recording kept repeating _OVER-and-OVER_, "Please wait for operator to answer, your call is in queue", with little-to-no pausing. Since the recorded announcement didn't "supe", after two-minutes of the recording endlessly repeating itself, the connection timed out, "Your AT&T International call did not go through in the country you have dialed. Please try your call again. 504-2T". On some attempts, the AT&T operator would let the recording play a few times, but tell me that I should call back later on. On one attempt, when I requested directory for whatever village in India, the AT&T operator simply disconnected. I did call back and tell a supervisor about this. And while I knew that the originating AT&T operator 'could' have passed me to AT&T's IOC in Pittsburgh, which had the cordboard for particular international locations (Kp+160+910+St, for the positions handling calls to India), I was told that IOC Operator Assistance was for customers _paying_ for calls to non-dialable locations in foreign countries, or calls to non-dialable countries, or other special assistance. Directory requests for numbers in dialable countries didn't seem to merit my attempts being handled by the 160+910 operator. Incidently, directory assistance requests in countries outside of the NANP (i.e. international/overseas) were still FREE at that time, and _only_ AT&T operators (when calling from the US) could handle such requests. Sprint and MCI (etc) operators had always told me to call 10288-0 for such assistance! Even today, you occasionally get a _RUDE_ AT&T operator who will disconnect on you. Sometimes, on such out-of-the-ordinary assistance or requests (in these days and times), it might be necessary to ask for a supervisor right away. The supervisors have _always_ apologized for the rudeness of some operators, and ask if you had just had the trouble, and if you were calling from the same number. Maybe they have a way to track complaints about operators. I don't know if AT&T still has "AWT" for their operator teams. AWT stands for "Average Work Time", and I'll let some former operators who participate in the Digest explain what that was all about. > 2) When AT&T first began giving discounts for dialed direct calls > (1970s?) there were a few places that still didn't have DDD > service. For those places, or for when a customer had trouble > making the call, AT&T always charged the dialed-direct rate even > if the operator placed the call. I don't know what today's > rate plans are, but by that tradition you should be billed the > dialed direct rate. > Also, I thought on operator-handled rates that the operator > surcharge is only on the first minute and that subsequent > minutes are the same as dialed direct. Further, aren't there > now two classes of operator handled -- one sort of a "self-serve" > type--dial 0+ and enter your calling card, and the other a > "full serve"? > Regardless of how they bill you, it might be interesting to > call them and ask for an explanation when you get the bill. > I'll bet their customer service people won't have a clue on it! I don't know the exact date or year, but sometime around 1992 or 1993, AT&T operators would _RARELY_ complete a call for you and bill you at the direct-dialed rate or customer-card or even customer-station rate, even if you indicated trouble in completion when you tried to dial the call yourself, or if the location wasn't (yet) customer-dialable. On wrong-number reports, the Operators will tell you that they did key-in a credit, but then tell you that you can hang-up and redial, or that they can place the call at operator _HANDLED_ rates. It used to be that on wrong-number reports, the operator would ask you what number you really intended to call, credit you, and that _THEY_ would dial the (intended) number, at the cheaper rate depending on the class of the call. Similarly, on reports to the operator that you were 'cut-off', the operator would credit you for two or three minutes, and then dial the number _for_ you at the original rate. A few years back, I can remember that many sleazeball COCOTs not allowing me to dial 10(10)288+0/01+, and 0+ would cause the COCOT to send me off to some AOSlime. But when I tried to dial 1-800-CALL-ATT or 1-800-3210-ATT, the COCOT would cut-off its touchtone keypad. I was unable to DTMF-enter the destination number (not to mention my calling-card number). Use of an acoustic DTMF tone-generator would cause the COCOT to shut-off its mouthpiece voice-path, or even disconnect me! :( If I told the AT&T operator that I was having _trouble_ with the call, they would usually give me the customer-card rate rather than operator-handled rate. But not anymore. I _assume_ that the rationale is that so many people who usually use MCI, Sprint, etc., but _rarely_ ever use AT&T, were placing the occasional call via AT&T, at the cheper rates. But I've been told that for cases where the operator bills you Operator-Handled rates on such trouble conditions, AT&T's customer service is frequently helpful in reducing the charge or giving you a credit (if you are noted as a 'regular' customer of AT&T). But the originating operator on the initial call doesn't seem to be authorized to give one the 'cheaper' rates, _UNLESS_ there is previous notification from higher-up, such as Network Management. i.e., NM knows that a switch or trunk is down, and alerts all OSPS chief-operators or supervisors to tell the individual operators to give the customer the cheaper rate, _IF_ the customer indicates a trouble condition. As for initial and addition minute rate structures themselves, with all of the various recent changes in AT&T's rates or package plans or discount programs, it is more and more difficult to get a clear answer as to what one might be charged. Incidently, I've been told that AT&T's '0+' card-billing is more expensive than 800- access for card-billing. And even if you have _dialed_ the destination number as (10(10)288)+0+, but are calling from a rotary dial telephone, I've been told that the rates are _higher_ for the operator to key-in your AT&T (or LEC) card number rather than when you key it in yourself from a DTMF telephone. Maybe it is better to have a battery-powered (Radio Shack) touchtone (DTMF) generator, and even from rotary-dial phones, at least you could rotary-dial the 800- access number (if the _line_ has DTMF subscribed service from the local telco, you could even acoustically DTMF _that_) and then acoustically DTMF-enter the destination number and card number at the "bong" and AT&T "sparkle" jingle, and as such you would be billed the least expensive AT&T card rate. NWORLASKCG0 (BellSouth #1AESS Class-5 Local "Seabrook" 504-24x-) NWORLAIYCM1 (BellSouth-Mobility Hughes-GMH-2000 Cellular-MTSO NOL) NWORLAMA0GT (BellSouth DMS-100/200 fg-B/C/D Accss-Tandem "Main" 504+) NWORLAMA20T (BellSouth DMS-200 TOPS:Opr-Srvcs-Tandem "Main" 504+053+) NWORLAMA04T (AT&T #4ESS Class-2 Toll 060-T / 504-2T "Main" 504+) JCSNMSPS06T (AT&T #5ESS OSPS:Operator-Services-Tandem 601-0T 601+121) 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- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your comment about the call to India and the crude 'on hold' device they used to keep you waiting struck a very sympathetic chord with me. I'll tell you who else used to be (still is?) simply awful: try reaching an inward operator in France very late Sunday night in the USA when it is Monday morning and the start of the work week in Paris. An AT&T operator in the Pittsburgh IOC who usually works night shift says Sunday night into early Monday morning here is pure hell as far as a shift to work. They are extremely busy with calls going to businesses in Europe and trying to reach directory inquiry operators in France and a couple other European countries. Pittsburgh is swamped all night long and my contact says one of the most annoying parts of it are what she termed the 'absolutely damnable wait-your-turn machines' used in France. In about a fifteen second cycle, a man with a very crisp British accent says, "We are trying to extend your call, please stand by", followed by three or four bars of some bit of music. This is then repeated, and repeated, and repeated with the very short two or three second at best intervals between the man's request for patience, and the same music. If your operator remains on hold three minutes for a response from *their* operator, she and you will hear that message and music repeated a dozen times. And to quote her, "whoever sold that piece of junk to the France telecom found another sucker in Singapore; check them out Sunday about noon in the USA as they are getting all fired up and starting work on Monday morning there." I tried; sure enough, same man's voice urging the Americans to show patience while attempts were made to extend the call; same three or four bars of the idiotic music. It would appear in many parts of the world, the telecom administration is simply not geared up to handle nearly the volume of traffic they should be able to handle. I suspect the telecom revolution in the USA and the amount of international calling being done these days caught many of them by surprise. But which would you prefer? In the 'olden days' (make that how many years ago you feel like) the routine was the AT&T operator would try to call the other country and it would simply ring, and ring, endlessly, unceasingly. The AT&T operators in White Plains, NY (when much of the IOC was located there) would matter-of-factly tell the American caller they would wait up to five minutes for an answer and no longer. Then after, say, forty or fifty rings, when Paris or New Delhi finally answered (almost resentfully it seemed) and your operator asked for a directory listing there, the distant operator would go away and be gone up to five minutes or so before coming back on the line with the requested number, or to say she could not find it at all. My contact in Pittsburgh said she believes AT&T encouraged the telecom admins in those places to install 'wait-your-turn' machines mainly to placate USA operators/users so that at least it could be detirmined if the connection got through or not at all ... in the past did the 'open ring' mean the distant point was very busy or did it mean the circuit was out of order and not getting through at all? Well, the crude 'on hold' things they use now at least confirm the connection is part-way there. :) An American in Cuba; circa 1950-55, before the borders closed: a reader pointed out to me he tried to call 'back home' to the USA one day. Normally operators in Havana connected to AT&T's Inter- national Operating Center in Miami for call completion. This day though it rang and rang and rang, maybe three dozen times or so, and finally the Cuban operator in Havana advised our reader, "I am sorry sir, the United States is not answering the phone today." And she said it in dead seriousness. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Cropper Subject: 704/828 Schedule Change Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 18:10:06 -0500 From BellSouth: November 10, 1997 CHARLOTTE -- North Carolina's telephone companies will implement the new 828 area code for the western part of the state 10 weeks sooner than originally announced, moving the schedule in line with the plans for the other two new area codes -- 336 and 252. The new implementation date of March 22, 1998, will mean customers will have six months of "permissive dialing" during which they may use either the new 828 code or the old 704 code in completing calls that require an area code. The original schedule allowed only four months of permissive dialing. In addition, some cellular companies throughout the state will be taking an additional 18 months of permissive dialing to complete the conversion to the data chips inside their customers' telephones, as ordered by the North Carolina Utilities Commission. "When we originally announced the schedule last month we said the date for the 828 implementation was tentative," said Chuck Reiley, Regional Director of Corporate & External Affairs for BellSouth. "We are pleased that we were able to advance the schedule so customers will have the same time in which to adjust to the new 828 code as they do to the new 336 and 252 codes." The final implementation schedule for the state's new area codes are: 336 will split from 910 to serve the Triad area beginning Dec. 15, 1997, with mandatory dialing beginning June 15, 1998; 252 will split from 919 to serve the northeastern section of the state beginning March 22, 1998, with mandatory dialing beginning Sept. 21, 1998; and 828 will split from 704 to serve the western section of the state beginning March 22, 1998, with mandatory dialing beginning Oct. 5, 1998. During permissive dialing, calls which require an area code may be dialed using either the new code or the original code. At the end of the permissive period, the new area code must be used to complete the call. Calls within the basic local calling area that are currently dialed using seven digits are not affected by the area code change and will continue to be dialed using only seven digits. "Permissive dialing gives customers time to notify others of the change, make whatever changes to their telephone equipment or services that are needed, and become accustomed to the new code," Reiley said. "During this time, BellSouth will be completing the conversion of our switching equipment and our billing and records systems -- everything from displaying the proper number by Caller ID and to assuring that the correct number is billed for a call." The Commission granted an extension of permissive dialing for some cellular customers because of the logistics requirements for cellular providers to actually convert chips inside each phone. Reiley said that during this extended permissive period, BellSouth customers will be able to call cellular customers using the same dialing pattern they use today. Cellular providers will furnish their customers with information regarding dialing patterns and procedures for converting to the new area codes. Reiley said that some BellSouth customers, who live close to a new area code boundary, may experience a change in the dialing patterns for some calls. If a customer is now using seven digits to place calls to an Expanded Local Calling Plan area which will be in a different area code, the customer will need to use 10 digits after the new code is introduced. He said BellSouth will send detailed information directly to affected customers. ### For more information, contact: Chuck Reiley 704-258-7005 ------------------------------ From: John Cropper Subject: 408 to Split Yet Again in 1999! Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 18:32:53 -0500 408/831 isn't going to solve things ... from PacBell: November 10, 1997 408 Area Code to Split Again in 1999 Demand for Additional Phone Numbers Rapidly Growing SAN FRANCISCO -- Due to increased demand for telephone numbers, an additional new area code will be introduced in portions of the South Bay Area Peninsula and Central Coast areas of California that now use the 408 area code. The new area code is expected to be in use as early as November 1999. This area code introduction will occur just 16 months after the 831 area code splits off from the 408 area code in July 1998 and more than one year earlier than previous projections due to unprecedented number demand. "The good news is that not everyone will have to change their area code in 1999," said California Code Administrator Doug Hescox, who coordinates area code relief planning statewide for the telecommunications industry. "Only those customers who kept their 408 area code last time will be affected this time around. Customers with the 831 area code will not have to change their area code." The 408 area code currently serves the majority of Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties and very small portions of Alameda, Merced, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo and Stanislaus counties. As proposed, on July 11, 1998 the new 831 area code will begin serving most of Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties and very small portions of Merced, San Luis Obispo and San Mateo counties. Originally the 408 area code was not expected to split again until the year 2001. "However, the demand for telecommunications services far exceeded the industry's expectations, so we've had to move the next area code introduction date up," Hescox explained. Hescox said the skyrocketing demand for new phone numbers is being seen not only in the South Bay and Central Coast areas, but across the state. California now has 18 area codes - more than any other state - and will need to add another five by the end of 1998 to keep pace with demand. Two primary factors driving that demand are the high technology explosion and local telephone service competition. "The rising demand for additional phone numbers is caused by the increased use of fax machines, pagers, cellular phones, modems for Internet access and data communications networks like ATMs and pay point services, all of which require phone lines. Further, with the onset of widespread competition in California's local telephone market in 1996, each new provider requires its own supply of phone numbers. In California, we have more companies entering local telephone competition than any other state," Hescox continued. Under California law, public participation and comment is obtained before the industry submits an area code relief plan to the California Public Utilities Commission. Hescox explained that a series of meetings will be held before May 1998 to seek public comment and input on potential options for the 408 area code. Locations, dates and times of the public meetings will be announced at a later time. Boundaries for the new area code, as well as the actual three-digit number, will be announced in late 1998. Area code relief plans are collectively developed by a telecommunications industry group composed of more than 30 companies, including AT&T, AT&T Wireless, AirTouch, the California Cable Television Association, Cox California PCS, Cox Communications, GTE, ICG Telecom Group, L.A. Cellular, MCI, Mobilemedia Communications, Pacific Bell, Pacific Bell Mobile Services, PageNet, Preferred Networks, Sprint and The Telephone Connection. California Code Administration is an independent planning group that coordinates area code relief planning and administers numbering resources on behalf of the California telecommunications industry. Final decisions on area code issues are made by the California Public Utilities Commission. ------------------------------ From: Richard Redmond Subject: Last Laugh! Re: Where is Dust Coming From Date: Sun, 09 Nov 1997 20:06:15 -0600 Organization: Ethos Communications [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Usually I save this sort of message for around April 1 each year, but what the heck; this one is a bit more elaborate than the usual 'blow dust out of the lines' messages which appear in April, and I thought you might get a laugh from it. So here goes ... PAT] Vicki Blier wrote: > In article <63kvhj$1cgk$2@news.rchland.ibm.com>, > seurer@nordruth.rchland.ibm.com (Bill Seurer) wrote: >> A lot of dust comes from the phones when the phone company cleans the >> lines. Around here they warn us to put plastic bags over the phones. >> Strangely they usually do this operation right at the beginning of >> April. >>:-) > Telephone wires are like heater ducts, little empty tubes that carry > your voice's vibrations to the person you're calling. When the phone > company cleans them, they send little cockroaches through them with > feather dusters attached to their backs. The dust that is not picked > up by the feather dusters is stirred up and comes out the little holes > in the mouthpiece. Please don't take this issue lightly! Before you allow the telephone company (telco) to clean out your phone lines ... The following is taken from a Telephone New Subscriber Phamplet dated November 1, 1997. There is a serious side-effect to having the phone company blow or clean out your lines. If there is a weak spot in the insulation anywhere between the central office and your phone, it can cause an insulation break in your phone line. Through this break, solder ants can enter thus causing an infestation, especially when the insulation break is close to your house. For the uninformed, solder ants, a close cousin to the leaf-cutter ant, crawl through the phone lines and attack the soldered connections in phone equipment, answering machines, telephones, modems, digital satellite receivers (plugged into a phone jack) and home computers, especially those using an internal modem. They eat the solder off of joints causing cold solder joints and opens. Symptoms of a solder ant infestation are the crackling and popping sounds heard on your phone, spurious reboots on your computer and wrong numbers/incomplete calls on your phone. Remember the electrical outage that affected nearly the entire western United States several years ago? It was caused by solder ants. Three ways to combat this pest are as follows ... 1. Cracks in your phone line insulation, the cause of solder ant infestations, are caused by excess slack in cables between the central office and your home. This slack causes excessive bending of the insulation on your phone lines thus causing cracks thus allowing solder ants to enter. In order to correct this, insist that the phone company pull all the slack out of your lines from the central office end. This is not widely known, but the telcos must do this at no charge to the subscriber requesting it. Lobbying by the telcos prevented them from having to do this automatically. 2. Four to six inches from the device (phone, modem, etc.) tie a tight knot in the phone cord to prevent solder ants from exiting to your equipment (Make sure you loosen the knot when the lines are blown out!). This also has the added benefit of preventing lightning from destroying your equipment. It is a known fact that lightning must travel in a straight line and it cannot make it around the bends of a tight knot tied in your phone cord. This is a little known fact that companies such as APC, who make surge suppression equipment, do not want you to know. 3. Insist that the phone company flush your lines instead of blow them out. Chemicals contained in the flushing solution ward off solder ants and are just as effective in cleaning out your lines. The only problem is that once notified that your lines are to be flushed, you have the responsibilty of unplugging all telecom devices and leaving the phone cord ends extended in to some type of bucket to capture the flushing solution. Otherwise the solution will drain all over your equipment and require professional cleaning. An environmental note: Smaller, less well-financed telcos use cheaper, older, more dangerous flushing solutions. The residue left from line flushing must be dealt with the same way you would deal with any petroleum based solvent. The easiest way to get around this is to insist that your telco use environmentally friendly subscriber line flushing solvents. Warning: Do not attempt to blow out the lines yourself or try to look into a line that is being blown clean. You could destroy your phone equipment or injure yourself. It is best left to the experts. I have been in the telephone business for twenty-two years. I know what I am talking about! ;^) ----------- Spammers: Welcome to my kill file! | Everyone else: Drop the underscores. Richard Redmond | r_redmond@plan_o.net | "Another Rich Republican Wanna-Be" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And you, sir, are a charlatan! Solder ants, indeed! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #309 ******************************