Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id BAA28063; Thu, 6 May 1999 01:24:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 01:24:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199905060524.BAA28063@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V19 #72 TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 May 99 01:24:00 EDT Volume 19 : Issue 72 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson 17th Annual ICFC Conference (David Loomis) Re: 4+8? (was Re: The NANP Has 8+ Years to Go) (Jim Bellaire) The Vortex Daily Reality Report and Unreality Trivia Quiz (L. Weinstein) Any Guesses as to What This All Meant? (phs3@watvm.uwaterloo.ca) The End of Privacy (Monty Solomon) Re: 90# "Feature" on Your Phone? (Terry Kennedy) Re: Archives Update: Opera Browsers Now Included (Andy McFadden) Employment Opportunity: Switch Manager (David Eide) Re: Last Laugh! No Sex Please - We're Saudi Arabian (Majdi Abuelbassal) Re: Last Laugh! No Sex Please - We're Saudi Arabian (Mike Pollock) 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 networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copywrited. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occassional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 10:02:41 -0700 From: David Loomis Subject: 17th Annual ICFC Conference 17th Annual ICFC Conference: An International Communications Conference for Marketing, Forecasting, and Demand Analysis "Challenges for the New Millennium: Implications of Global Alliances and Local Competition" HOSTED BY ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY & THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY (ITS) SPONSORED BY NATIONAL ECONOMIC RESEARCH ASSOCIATES & PNR AND ASSOCIATES, INC. June 15-18, 1999 Denver, Colorado USA Conference website: http://www.icfc.ilstu.edu (Preliminary Agenda Posted) The ICFC Conference is an international communications conference for marketing, forecasting and demand analysis. The ICFC provides state-of-the-art information and analysis of existing and emerging issues as they pertain to communications forecasting, planning, demand analysis, market research and cost analysis. The ICFC is designed by industry experts specifically for Communications Professionals. The theme of the 1999 conference is Challenges for the New Millennium: Implications of Global Alliances and Local Competition. In 1998 alone, proposed U.S. telecom mergers included Bell Atlantic/GTE, SBC/Ameritech, AT&T/TCI and MCI/Worldcom. Global alliances included AT&T with British Telecom and Sprint with Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom SA. In addition to these strategic events, competition has accelerated on the local level. In the U.S., the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and subsequent orders from the Federal Communications Commission have laid the ground rules for local competition. In Europe, national carriers lost their monopoly status on January 1, 1998. These changes have far reaching effects on the industry and on professionals in telecom and internet marketing, forecasting and demand analysis. The 1999 ICFC is the ideal forum for understanding of these issues in up-to-date research presentations by professionals in communications marketing, forecasting, and demand analysis. If you want one cost-effective conference this year targeted to your needs- this is it! INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN SPEAKERS William J. Stewart, Vice President - Retail Market Strategies, US WEST "The Evolution of Local Network Services" Commissioner Martin Bangemann, Member of the European Commission "Globalization and the Information Society: Impacts on the Economy and Politics" Henry R. Carabelli, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, ICG Telecom Group, Inc. "Market Opportunities For Emerging Communications Providers" James H. Alleman, Professor - Telecommunications Economics, University of Colorado "Implication of New Valuation Techniques on Estimation" Dave Helmkamp, Technical Manager, Bell Labs "A Futuristic Look at Residential Telecommunications Demand" ORGANIZED BY REPRESENTATIVES FROM: ADC Newnet AT&T Ameritech Bell Atlantic Bell Canada Bellcore BellSouth Cincinnati Bell Eurodata Foundation GTE ICG Telecom Group Korea Telecom Lucent Technologies MCI-Worldcom Nokia SBC Communications Sprint Telstra US WEST WIK (Germany) David G. Loomis Email: dloomis@ilstu.edu Illinois State University Voice: (309) 438-7979 Department of Economics FAX: (309) 438-5228 Campus Box 4200 Normal, IL 61790-4200 Web Site: http://www.ilstu.edu/~dloomis/ ------------------------------ From: bellaire@tk.com (James Bellaire) Subject: Re: 4+8? (was Re: The NANP Has 8+ Years to Go) Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 17:04:44 GMT It was Tue, 04 May 1999 18:11:17 GMT, and John David Galt wrote in comp.dcom.telecom: >> All NXX codes will be converted to 4 digits by adding a 9 as the second >> digit. That is ABC will become A9BC. This will provide almost 8000 new >> area codes (A[0-8]BC). > Linc Madison proposed that plan and has been talking it up on his > areacode-info.com site to try to get people behind it. That does > not make it official. To my knowledge he has no connection with > Lockheed-Martin NANPA, which (or its successor) will make the actual > decisions. Actually Linc Madison runs WWW.LINCMAD.COM , John Cropper and Eric Morson run AreaCode-Info.com . And I once got the credit for suggesting nxx -> n9xx , although that seems too simple for anyone to take credit for. Linc does deserve the credit for expanding it out to 9+3=12. I would also support a nxx -> n9nxx or n9nx-x type of transfer. The second pattern wouldn't work well if 'local' area codes didn't end with different numbers - and we've already broken that possibility. Still waiting for an 'official' decision - LM may get to make it, but IIRC it isn't their responsibility to plan expansion - just to assign numbers based on industry plans. James Bellaire Telecom Indiana http://tk.com/telecom/ ------------------------------ Subject: "The Vortex Daily Reality Report and Unreality Trivia Quiz" Date: Wed, 05 May 99 00:14:56 PDT From: Lauren Weinstein Greetings. As you might expect, I get a lot of e-mail, tending to run the gamut in a variety of ways ... One frequent class of received messages is requests for comments or advice on matters concerning not only privacy but also a variety of related (and sometimes unrelated) fields. Since there tends to be considerable overlap between many such requests, suggesting common points of interest, I've now launched the audio program with the long name: "The Vortex Daily Reality Report and Unreality Trivia Quiz" It's available via RealAudio over the net, and is updated each day from Monday through Friday. Essentially, it's a daily brief blast of (my) opinionated commentary, focusing on exposing the fallacies of muddy thinking, crazy ideas, misguided concepts, and other related areas that seem to be sending the signal/noise ratio of our society down the drain. As you can imagine, privacy issues are included, but are but one of the topic areas covered. These short (just a minute or two) audio reports tend to be more opinionated than my National Public Radio commentaries, and cover a much wider range of subjects. Each of these short audio reports also includes an "Unreality Trivia Quiz" question (and the answer to the previous program's question). What's an "unreality" question? Try it and see ... These daily features can be heard via a link at the main PRIVACY Forum page: http://www.vortex.com/privacy or can be played directly via the RealAudio file URL: http://www.vortex.com/reality.ram Please feel free to forward this announcement, or link to the associated program URLs, as you feel appropriate. Comments, opinions, and ideas for segments are always welcome, of course! Thanks very much. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein Moderator, PRIVACY Forum http://www.vortex.com ------------------------------ From: Subject: Any Guesses as to What This All Meant? Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 08:13:49 -0400 Last Wednesday my wife called me to say that she couldn't make outgoing calls. Dialtone, yes; incoming, yes (we verified), complete with CLID; outgoing would wait then get "Call did not go thru" intercept. She *was* able to dial the operator (for those who were wondering how she called me!), who put her through to me at the office. Called Hell Titanic, and they told me there was "a cable problem" and that it would be corrected by COB the next day. During the day, wife talked to various neighbors, some in our NNX, some not. None had a problem. Finally we called repair again that night to ask if this was reasonable, were assured that (a) it was, (b) both our lines were shown as being affected, and (c) it was a far-reaching problem, including both 703 and 804 numbers. Next afternoon, service returns. So far so good. BUT ... no CLID. We call, and nobody can verify that we had had an outage! But they agree (finally, grudgingly -- they seem to think it's likely to be dead batteries in all 4 of our CLID boxes at once. Curious.) to open a trouble report, to be worked on the next day (Saturday). Saturday AM bright and early, tech calls, says he's out at the crossbox, and thinks it's a card problem. Throughout the morning, he calls various times, tries various things, no dice. Finally he decides to turn it over to another guy, who decides it's a specific card, and that it's "related to switching us from analog to digital lines". But he doesn't have the mapping for the ports, must wait until Monday. Monday afternoon, CLID finally returns. But now we can't get over 26.4Kbps from a V90 modem. Any guesses, other than that the left, right, and center hands at BA don't know what they're doing? TIA ...phsiii ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 02:12:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The End of Privacy LEADERS REMEMBER, they are always watching you. Use cash when you can. Do not give your phone number, social-security number or address, unless you absolutely have to. Do not fill in questionnaires or respond to telemarketers. Demand that credit and data-marketing firms produce all information they have on you, correct errors and remove you from marketing lists. Check your medical records often. If you suspect a government agency has a file on you, demand to see it. Block caller ID on your phone, and keep your number unlisted. Never use electronic toll-booths on roads. Never leave your mobile phone on-your movements can be traced. Do not use store credit or discount cards. If you must use the Internet, encrypt your e-mail, reject all "cookies" and never give your real name when registering at websites. Better still, use somebody else's computer. At work, assume that calls, voice mail, e-mail and computer use are all monitored. http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/1-5-99/index_ld5357row.html ------------------------------ From: Terry Kennedy Subject: Re: 90# "Feature" on Your Phone? Organization: St. Peter's College, US Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 11:30:30 GMT Telecom Moderator writes: > robot asks his name, splits the connection so the inmate cannot hear or > speak, and annouces to the called party, "This is a collect call from > (recorded name), an inmate at the (name of prison or jail) in (town)" > ... pause ... (recorded name), an inmate at (prison name) is calling > you collect. Will you accept the charges? Press one to accept, hang up > now to refuse, or hold for operator assistance." If the called party > accepts the call, the robot resumes the connection and annouces to > all, "go ahead with your call please". If the party refuses, the robot > breaks the connection and returns to tell the prisoner it was refused. Furthermore, at least here in New Jersey, the announcement also says "Note: do not use features such as 3-way calling during this call or your call *WILL* be disconnected" (that's the way it's emphasized in the recording). This is part of the initial "You have a collect call from inmate ..." greeting. [I get a lot of wrong numbers.] Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.spc.edu St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA +1 201 915 9381 (voice) +1 201 435-3662 (FAX) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are some peculiar, but interesting things which can be done for 'special subscribers', especially very large ones, which telco will not always admit to. Your example above of 'use 3-way and you will be cut off' is one. Have you ever heard the intercept message which says, "the number you have dialed can only be reached from within the subscriber's premises". Some very large centrex systems have certain extensions just used internally between various departments, with no need for calls from outside and no desire to have the line busy with an outside call. So somehow, the switch is able to tell where it is getting the call from, and if it is not another exten- sion on the same switch, off it goes for treatment and return to caller. But the clever part is disallowing a call-transfer to that extension from a phone that has an outside call on it. For example at the Fort Riley Army Base in Junction City, KS, a number may be unreachable from anything but another 785-239 number. So you dial the Fort Riley operator and ask for it. He cannot put it through for you either, having picked you up on an outside trunk. He tries, but it bounces back. So you call a friend at Burger King on their unlisted 239 number (239 is military only; 'tenants' at Fort Riley have 784 numbers but some of the tenants, like Burger King who do delivery service on the base have a 239 number through some long standing arrangement but they are all non-pub; the tenant's listed number is 784-xxxx) ... you ask your friend, do me a favor please, transfer me to extension xxxx. He tries, but guess what, the call bounces again. Now walk across the street to the north side of Eighteenth Street, where Fort Riley officially starts, into the parking lot of the Amoco station, where in a cluster of pay phones is one cubicle with just a regular wall-mounted phone, *highly restricted* in where it can call, only to other 239 numbers, no outside line, etc. and try it from there, your call goes through fine. Try dialing the number on that phone from a 238 Junction City pay phone in the stall right next to it, and 'the number you have reached is in service for outgoing calls only. Have your friend at Burger King use his 239 number to call the 'convenience phone' there at Amoco, his call makes it through. A little notice on the convenience phone says 'dial 411 for Base Locator' (what we would call 'information'). The little sign also notes, 'in any emergency, dial 911'. Calls to 911 are answered by the 301st Company of the United States Military Police; ditto with calls to 911 from 784 'tenant' phones. 911 from the payphone next to it, or any 238 number gets you the Junction City Police Department. I found out the reason they can go with a three digit number '411' or '911' on their system is because they have no *four* digit extensions numbered 411x or 911x. Some arrangements can be quite creative. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Andy McFadden Subject: Re: Archives Update: Opera Browsers Now Included Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 11:43:41 -0700 (PDT) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I had someone write me who was using a 'web-tv' setup to read the Digest and the Archives. I was really curious about his 'reception' and asked for a report. PAT] Pat Townson asked: > I would be interested in knowing more about the web TV display. > You should have gotten a box asking for your name, a box asking if > you wanted music or not, a display that was sort of blue background > with green letters saying good afternoon, etc ... > Did you also get the music? > Were you able to see the short movie I made talking about the Digest? > > What about the Year 2000 countdown clock? I compared Netscape 4.51 (under Solaris 2.5.1) to a WebTV Plus. On both: (1) Page title appears. (2) Want musical background on page? Hit OK, music works great on WebTV. Don't have music plugin for Solaris, so can't compare. (3) Asked to enter a name. On the WebTV, all I see is: Please type in the name you would like to use here. I will remember it on your future visits. If (4) Rest of page draws. I get the same color scheme on both. Both show the same name I entered in the previous dialog. All of the animated GIFs are happily animating. Selecting the "Audio-Visual Page" produces different results. Under Netscape, I get two dialogs at once, each of which is wider than my screen. This might be a side effect of using a virtual window manager. On the WebTV, I get two dialogs, one after the other, each with the full text. On Solaris, I get two big "Null Plugin" blocks, because I don't have the audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin installed. On WebTV, there's simply nothing between the "Autobiography" link and the horizontal line. BTW, the "to return to the archives, close this window" doesn't make quite as much sense on a WebTV, since WebTV doesn't have windows or a notion of forking off a second browser. Hitting the "back" button does what you'd expect. Y2K Countdown works fine on Solaris, but doesn't update often on WebTV. About once a minute it will update. (Actually, it appears to update once every 66 seconds.) The line appears as an input text field, and can be selected as a link, though it just reloads the current page without updating the time. Attempting to modify the contents of the field or move the text insert position around fails, just like it does under Solaris. The "telecom-chat-2" works. Java isn't supported by the current WebTV boxes, so the other chat room was inaccessible. Andy Send mail to fadden@netcom.com (Andy McFadden) CD-Recordable FAQ - http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/ (a/k/a www.spies.com/~fadden) Fight Internet Spam - http://spam.abuse.net/spam/ & news.admin.net-abuse.email [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks very much for that report. I notice that Opera 3 browsers, at least as they come new, right from the download site, are also unable to see the movie, and get the null plugin message, but the various Netscapes I have tested such as not only my own, but the one at the library terminals work okay. You see folks, I *am* serious about this; I would like to bring telecom into Century 21 with multimedia -- for those who want it, the Lynx people will always get everything I have to offer also as will the users who still prefer anonymous FTP -- but I may have back down a wee bit, eh, or maybe at least stop while I am ahead of things. A line from Milton comes to mind, his poem 'My Mind to Me a Kingdom is, No Pleasanter Joys I Find' .. the line, "Oppressed am I by things undone, oh that my thoughts and deeds were one!" My sentiments exactly, Mr. Milton. PAT] ------------------------------ From: 915604@candseek.com (David Eide) Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 13:28:43 CDT Subject: Employment Opportunity: Switch Manager I represent a new and fast growing company in the Worldwide IP Telephony Market. We are seeking a Switch Manager. The position description and Minimum requirements are listed below: Switch Manager Primary Job Description: Aid in the design and utilization of the PSTN Switched network. The individual will have telecommunications design skills and will be able to help bridge the gap between the traditional PSTN world and the new IP telephony world. Successful candidate will have management responsibility of all equipment, circuitry, and facilities related issues at remote location. Minimum Qualifications: 4+ years switch experience Working knowledge of switch engineering Design and implementation Multiple platform experience Routing table design Ability to operate PSTN circuit test equipment Line configuration Desirable Qualifications: Excel ISOS Software SS7 PRI/ISDN BS in Telecommunications related field or technical equivalent IP telephony exposure We offer a competitive compensation package (up to $80,000 plus bonus) Excellent benefits and an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a rapidly expanding business Geographic Location of Position: New Jersey If you know anyone that might be interested, please forward this to them or contact: Dave Eide Quest_IT Voice: 609-584-9000 ext 273 Fax: 609-584-9575 Email: 915604@candseek.com ------------------------------ From: Majdi Abuelbassal Subject: Re: Last Laugh! No Sex Please - We're Saudi Arabian Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 11:34:09 -0500 I always enjoyed a touch of humor often in your posts, but the subject title that you posted the above mentioned news item is totally tasteless and lacks the respect that should be applied when handling diverse cultures. I know such a measure (taken by the Saudi Arabia telecom authority) would not agree with the US traditional culture current norms. But, you have to remember that this is a difference culture. Sex and Porno business is not tolerated in those communities and authorities are obligated to protect the society, especially, the youth from such exposure. That what his parents expect. They might be not aware of such a measure, but they do expect that their officials are doing their jobs. The same problems face my US community. The family puts a block on the (900) lines to protect their youths and filter these sources. The idea of sex has several meanings depending where you live in this globe. And believe me, there is sex in Saudi Arabia, but the context of sex, there, happens within a matrimony. Between a husband and a wife, which is the norm for THAT society, not the norm of THIS society. I'm engaged to be married, and do not have children, BUT, I respect the norms of my society (regardless if I'm Muslim, Christian, or a Jewish) in the same time I live in a different society and respect this society. And I'm all hopeful that we all have the same attitude. The subject title reflected a stereotyping though that I think at this time of social conflicts in the same society and across society, we can do without. I enjoyed the articles and exchanges on this forum. And as I said, the frequent touches of humor that get posted, But, the subject title does not reflect any of this but rather a misconception and stereotyping. Majdi Abuelbassal Phone: (972) 671-1972 DNA Enterprises Fax: (972) 671-1581 Lead Design Engineer Pager: (214) 899-7884 1240 E. Campbell Road Email: mabuelba@dnaent.com Richardson, TX 75081 www: http://www.dnaent.com/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you for writing. I really do appreciate your feedback. I remember in high school (what a long time ago!) that some guys would tell jokes which always began, 'What did Confucious say about (whatever)', and of course the punch line was always something obscene or ridiculous. Then one day a student who was an immigrant from China asked everyone present, How would you like it if I told some stories which always began, 'What did Moses (or Jesus) say about something', and then give some idiotic or lewd reply to answer the question? Or suppose I asked you why, if Jesus was born in Bethlehem, his mother gave him a Mexican name? ... No one had any answers for him, not suprisingly. I am getting to be an old man, Mr. Abuelbassal, but not too old to learn new things once in a while. Thanks again for writing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mike Pollock Subject: Re: Last Laugh! No Sex Please - We're Saudi Arabian Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 14:07:42 -0400 Gentlemen, May I direct your attention to the following URL http://us.imdb.com/Title?0070450 -- the relevant contents of which I will summarize: "No Sex, Please - We're British" -- a film released in 1973. Directed by Cliff Owen Writing credits Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer My title for the submitted article was merely a humorous play on words, wherein I simply substituted "Saudi Arabian" for "British." I'm a comedy writer. That's my job. No disrepect was intended nor should be implied. Mike ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V19 #72 *****************************