Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id GAA10154; Sat, 8 May 1999 06:05:32 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 06:05:32 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199905081005.GAA10154@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V19 #73 TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 May 99 06:05:00 EDT Volume 19 : Issue 73 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Government's Secret Y2K Plans (Babu Mengelepouti) Re: Forcing MCI to Change Advertising (William Brownlow) Telecom Firms Rush to Help Oklahoma Tornado Victims (Tad Cook) Book Review: "Telecom and Networking Glossary", Aegis (Rob Slade) Book Review: "ATM for Public Networks", Ronald H. Davis (Rob Slade) Re: Any Guesses as to What This All Meant? (W.D.A. Geary) Re: Any Guesses as to What This All Meant? (James H. Cloos Jr.) Re: Any Guesses as to What This All Meant? (LARB0) Re: 90# "Feature" on Your Phone? (Terry Kennedy) 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: Thu, 06 May 1999 02:18:25 -0700 From: Babu Mengelepouti Reply-To: dialtone@vcn.bc.ca Organization: US Secret Service Subject: Government's Secret Y2K Plans If you are a student of history you will remember Jack Anderson broke the Pentagon Papers/Daniel Ellsberg Story. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, I remember that, and I remember also several government high-ups claiming what a liar he was until it got to where the government was not in a position to call anyone a liar any longer ... but on with the current item of his, which appeared in several papers a couple days ago. PAT] http://www.desnews.com/cgi-bin/libstory_reg?dn99&9905030384 The government's secret Y2K plans By Jack Anderson, and Jan Moller The story our government doesn't want you to know was broken not by a major TV network or national newspaper. It was encapsulated instead by a front-page picture, which ran in February on the front page of a small Virginia paper called "The Potomac News." Captioned "Y2K riot training," the photo depicted a Marine private trying to "force herself backward through a line of Marines during a civil unrest exercise at Quantico Marine Corps base" outside Washington. In this case, unfortunately, a picture was not worth a thousand words. In fact, a Quantico spokesman denied the story and says the Marines were not, in fact, preparing for civil unrest. But the reporter (and photographer), Dave Ellis, stands by his story. "They told me what the exercise was about and then asked me not to report it," he told us. "(The Marines) were worried that people would think they were painting helicopters black and training for a huge government crackdown at the millennium." Such is the great dilemma behind preparation for the phenomenon know as Y2K: No one knows exactly what will happen to our technologically dependent lives when computer dates roll forward from "99" to "00" at midnight on Dec. 31. Yet planning for the worst-case scenario carries the danger of inciting panic and becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy. This might explain why most military folks we talked to claimed no knowledge of any Y2K-specific preparations. But we have learned that the U.S. military is quietly planning a sophisticated social-response network in case civil unrest should erupt. It was confirmed to us recently by Sen. Robert Bennet, R-Utah, who chairs a special Y2K Technology Problem Committee. "This problem is everywhere and nowhere all at once," Bennett told us. "We can only take a snapshot of portions of infrastructure and attempt to provide the most accurate information we can. But there is simply not sufficient time to understand where all the problems are going to surface, so we must be practical and prepare for the worst." In the worst-case scenario, public alarm spreads rapidly as vital services such as health care, public safety and utilities are temporarily disrupted by computer breakdowns. The stress, of course, is on "temporary." Most experts suggest that people prepare for Y2K like they might prepare for a winter storm. Thomas Barnett, director of the Y2K security project, says his team has been coaching every branch of the military -- indeed even the Marines -- since last fall, planning drills and simulating Y2K breakdowns. Just this week, Barnett plans to take some military and FBI people to the World Trade Center to develop possible responses to a stock market crash. Later this month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will also hold a national "table top" simulated scenario drill -- similar to the "war games" played out in the military -- which will pull together all emergency and military resources. FEMA, along with the National Guard, is responsible for coordinating state and local responses to Y2K problems while the State Department will cover international social problems. But it is a small agency within the FBI, quietly created by Janet Reno recently, that will be the federal authority for any national Y2K repercussions. The agency, The National Domestic Preparedness Office, is now up and running -- and preparing -- despite the fact they don't officially exist; Congress has yet to approve its budget. United Feature Syndicate Inc. ------------------------------------- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: On more than a few occassions such as the Pentagon Papers during Vietnam days Jack Anderson has correctly told where things are at with our government. I believe him this time also. I suspect they know by now that many government computer systems are hopelessly screwed up and will never be fixed in time. Consider just the IRS as one example: they have some well-publicized internal problems of their own they are having a lot of trouble curing; stuff like employees who steal from them (in effect the taxpayers); most of their huge staff either flunking or getting barely passing grades on tests of their knowledge of the monster-like tax code in the USA; I am told the morale of IRS employees is slightly better than that of an average postal employee (we have not yet heard of anyone 'going IRS' however :) )... I suspect next year will be one of their worst years ever at collection and compliance. Most people will realize they don't have to pay and that for many months at least, there will be little or nothing the IRS can do about it. I am *not* saying don't pay your taxes, just that after the commmotions at the end of this year that go on into next year and the number of instances in which records are wrong or unavailable, etc I suspect many folks are going to be rethinking a lot of what has traditionally been required of them by the government. Perhaps you read recently that an IRS employee intercepted several checks in the mail payable to 'IRS' and forged them to read 'I.R. Smith' then cashed them. Now the hundred or so people whose checks were cashed in that way have lawsuits pending against Internal Revenue Service alleging fraud by the agency saying that the agency failed to properly supervise its employee and thus is responsible for his actions. I am told IRS has settled out of court with a couple of them, but has a few others that are being quite stubborn about settling. Not only IRS, but I would expect that many law enforcement computer systems are going to be in a shambles early next year also. On the one side, false arrests based on bogus information; on the other side, people getting out of jail free. The thing is none of them would listen to anyone five or ten years ago warning them repeatedly about this. I guess that is not surprising though; I have never really expected anyone in the government or at a large corporation to ever listen to or take advice from the people they serve. No reason they should start now. And really, there is no reason they have to. After all, they have those big tough Marines and lots of guns and things. You will do as you are told next year, computer or no computer. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wbrownlo@my-dejanews.com (William Brownlow) Subject: Re: Forcing MCI to Change Advertising Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 19:02:42 GMT In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Someone asked me to repeat this, so here it is. I originally wrote > about this in {Telephony Magazine}, the journal which was very popular > among telco employees until at least sometime in the early eighties. I > do not hear much about them these days. > Anyway, MCI, which means (M)icrowave (C)ommunications, (I)nc. first > went business in the 1960's, under a different name. It was a small, > storefront operation in Joliet, IL in the business of selling and > repairing microwave communications gear. Then Bill McGowan got into > the business, and partnered with the fellow who owned the little shop > in Joliet, and the whole nature of their business changed in the next > few years. A lot of you already know that part of their history. > <> > How SPRINT (S)outhern (P)acific (R)ailroad (I)nternal (N)etwork (T)elecom > got its start is an interesting story also for another time. It > literally consisted of three or four people who maintained the > telecom department of the railroad back in the late 1960's, and a > modernization of the phone network which left a lot of excess > capacity the railroad decided to sell to other large businesses. > Sprint got started about three or four years after MCI was established. I remember SP Comm from the mid 70's. Around '74 - '76 the computer company I was working for sold Key-to-Disk systems to them for billing. If I remember correctly, you could only make calls to cities that were served by Southern Pacific Railroad. Signals traveled over microwave along their railroad right- of-way. It was sometime between '76 and '78 they became known as SPRINT. William "Bill" Brownlow "While my employer has their opinions, I have mine. Occasionally they converge" "Wise men are not wise at all time." Emerson, The Conduct of Life, 1860 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, something like that. Sprint first had service to about five or six big cities going south and west of Chicago on the way to Los Angeles. In the olden days, when wires ran on poles next to the railroad track, all major locations for Southern Pacific Railroad were connected through a switchboard via those wires along the tracks, strung for miles on end. SP comm sold its excess capactity to companies in those areas only at first; then they decided to call it Sprint a few years later as you pointed out. And Sprint only served those same cities with business customers. Maybe it was about 1980 that Sprint started accepting some residential customers. They used the same kind of crude dialup system that MCI used. You had to dial a seven digit number, get their dialtone and take it from there. They soon learned not to complete calls to 976 numbers also. :) Both Sprint and MCI had 950 numbers also? Anyone remember those? They were intended for use at payphones so the caller did not have to use coins to reach the Sprint or MCI switches. --------------------- Want to hear something REALLY hysterical? Sprint is now mailing out its bills in certain parts of the country (the bills issued by their office in Tyler, Texas) with a slogan on the front of the envelope saying 'Celebrating 100 years of service' ... yes, you read that correctly ... Sprint is claiming to be one hundred years in business. I received a copy of it the other day, the envelope with Sprint's name and address in Tyler, Texas on the envelope and the '100 years' comment on the front of the envelope. I am going try and scan it in and put it on a web page. I thought it was just a riot that they can lie about something ***that obvious*** and not get called to account for it. If I can get it scanned in correctly I bet that web page will get a huge number of hits. Watch for it soon; I will announce it again when I get it online. A hundred years in business, geeze. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Telecom Firms Rush to Help Oklahoma Tornado Victims Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 08:29:43 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) By D.R. Stewart, Tulsa World, Okla. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News May 7--In the wake of storms that left more than 2,000 people homeless in central Oklahoma, several telecommunications companies rushed in Wednesday and Thursday to plug the breach in communications, company officials said. Nearly three days after tornadoes hit the area, some cellular phone disruptions still were being reported, although much wire-based service was said to be functioning. New Jersey-based AT&T Corp. is donating phones, money, long-distance calling cards and free operator assistance to help tornado victims, while Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. and MCI WorldCom Inc. have established emergency relief and communications centers at various locations in the Oklahoma City area. GTE Corp., which has 113,000 access lines in the state, donated $20,000 through an affiliated foundation to help disaster victims in Stroud. "Our network is still performing. It has actually done quite well," said Southwestern Bell spokesman Karen Kay Speer. "The morning after the tornado, we had six central offices (out of 275 in the state) at Moore, Mulhall, Fort Gibson, Copan, Red Rock and Bennington operating on (diesel generator) backup power. All except Mulhall are operating today on regular power." Southwestern Bell has established customer service centers at the Red Cross Command Post at the First Baptist Church of Moore, 316 N.E. 27th St.; and in Del City at the Del City High School at the intersection of 32nd Street and Sunny Lane. At the customer service centers, Southwestern Bell representatives are offering, free of charge, the use of several pay phones, 300 wireless phones, telephone number transfers, number cancellations, call forwarding and call notes, company executives said. "The only customers without service are the ones who don't have homes," said Southwestern Bell spokesman Sue McCain. "We are estimating 1,500 to 2,000 homes destroyed." Southwestern Bell also moved four mobile cellular telephone towers into the Oklahoma City area to expand the company's cellular network. The cell towers have been placed at the First Baptist Church of Moore; the intersection of 15th Street and Air Depot Road in Midwest City; the intersection of 44th Street and Center Road in Dell City, and the intersection of 125th Street and South Penn at the Church of the Rock. A mobile phone bank that includes 23 phone lines and one fax line in a 54-foot trailer was moved by MCI WorldCom to a disaster command post at the intersection of Interstate 35 and 27th Street North in Moore. Equipped with satellite uplink capability, the portable communications center is permitting disaster workers, tornado victims and emergency services providers to make free long-distance telephone calls. "In the wake of these devastating tornadoes, MCI WorldCom is glad to be able to assist Gov. Keating's disaster relief efforts by offering support to those who have been affected, helping connect them with friends and family, insurance companies and relief agencies," said John Barnett, president of wholesale services for MCI WorldCom, which has 4,500 employees in Oklahoma. MCI WorldCom's mobile telephone facility is self-sufficient, with onboard generators that provide electricity, heating and cooling. The trailer can provide emergency communications through its own satellite hook-up. Developed originally to assist victims of Hurricane Andrew in Florida, the mobile rig has been used to assist victims of the Oklahoma City bombing and the Northridge earthquake in Southern California. AT&T donated 120 cellular phones and unlimited air time to the American Red Cross chapters in Oklahoma City and Wichita. The company also donated 600 pre-paid calling cards to the Red Cross to be disbursed to victims in Oklahoma, Kansas and DeKalb, Texas, which also was struck by a series of tornadoes. Additionally, the AT&T Foundation and Pioneers contributed $25,000 to support disaster relief efforts of the Red Cross and other agencies. Within areas struck by the storms, AT&T Wireless and the AT&T Network Disaster Recovery Team set up mobile calling centers in Oklahoma City to permit victims to make free local and long-distance calls. To assist people outside the disaster areas reach relatives and storm victims, AT&T is waiving its normal operator service charges to consumers having difficulty completing calls to Oklahoma and Kansas. In Stroud, which also was hit hard by the tornadoes, GTE Corp.'s GTE Foundation, based in Irving, Texas, donated a $20,000 check to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. The money will help families and communities affected by a series of storms that swept through central Oklahoma. Out of 2,400 GTE customers in Stroud, 1,000 lost services. ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 08:32:14 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Telecom and Networking Glossary", Aegis Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKTLNWGL.RVW 990402 "Telecom and Networking Glossary", Aegis, 1999, 1-890154-09-1, U$9.95 %A Aegis %C 796 Aquidneck Avenue, Newport, RI 02842-7246 %D 1999 %G 1-890154-09-1 %I Aegis Publishing Group Ltd. %O U$9.95 401-849-4200 fax: 401-849-4231 aegis@aegisbooks.com %P 141 p. %T "Telecom and Networking Glossary" The book is intended for non-technical newcomers to the telecom industry, such as new hires, managers, suppliers, vendors, policy makers, decision makers, investors, or anyone else. (Why all of these people are considered non-technical is a bit beyond me.) Neither the introduction nor the material itself seems to present a clear picture of a specific area of concentration, yet the content is too narrow to cover the full range of telecommunications. Some terms, such as "accounting rate," are quite terse and rely on undefined terms ("call termination charge") for full understanding. Others, such as "asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)," carry paragraphs of trivia, but do not provide the promised "big picture" understanding. ISDN (integrated services digital network) gets a two page editorial. Some are missing obvious, but perhaps non-essential details: why does ARDIS expand to Advanced National Radio Data Service? While relatively few entries are affected, it is worth noting that numbers are spelled out and listed in alphabetical order, so that "eight hundred (800) service" appears in the "E" section. (There is no entry for "toll free.") The book contradicts itself in a number of places. Application program interface (API) is defined properly on page 14, but is clearly misused in the discussion of Internet telephony. We are told that X.25 "data packets vary [in size] during the course of a transmission" on page 16, but that "packets on an X.25 network are fixed in length" on page 64. (Neither of these statements is really accurate.) A significant number of the terms are either relatively archaic (in a fast moving industry) or probably outside the range of non-specialist experience or operation, such as AUTODIN. Acronyms usually are not defined, but point to the expanded phrase for the explanation. Not all acronyms are included, however. For example, synchronous digital hierarchy is listed, and the acronym SDH is noted for it, but there is no entry in the glossary for SDH. On the other hand, "MIS" is simply defined as "Abbreviation for management information system." The choice of slang terms for inclusion is odd. "Cells on wheels" probably won't ever be used or heard except by cellular network repair people. "Choppiness" is both obvious and unimportant, as is "dial-a- porn." The only computer or Internet related slang is "spam." As noted in a number of places above, definitions of computer or Internet terms suffer in accuracy even in comparison to the rest of the book. The explanation for "Universal Resource Locator" (and the more common expansion of URL uses "uniform") only refers to Web sites, whereas the really important aspect of a URL is that it presents a consistent addressing format for almost all Internet applications. (And there is no entry for "virus.") Even given its advantages in size and price, I find it hard to think of anyone who would benefit from this glossary. I remember the days when works of similar size and scope were handed out by the boxload as freebies from networking and communications companies. I don't recall them being either this limited, or this error prone. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999 BKTLNWGL.RVW 990402 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@sprint.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca p1@canada.com Real programmers use: COPY CON PROGRAM.EXE http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev or http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 08:40:57 -0800 Subject: Book Reviedw: "ATM for Public Networks", Ronald H. Davis Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKATMFPN.RVW 990404 "ATM for Public Networks", Ronald H. Davis, 1999, 0-07-134476-4, U$59.95 %A Ronald H. Davis %C 300 Water Street, Whitby, Ontario L1N 9B6 %D 1999 %G 0-07-134476-4 %I McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne %O U$59.95 905-430-5000 800-565-5758 905-430-5134 fax: 905-430-5020 %P 384 p. %T "ATM for Public Networks" The book is aimed primarily at technical managers and communications engineers. It is technical and somewhat demanding, but not beyond the reach of those without an engineering background. Part one presents a general, conceptual picture of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode). Chapter one gives a clear explanation of both circuit and packet switching, the relative strengths and weaknesses, and the need for integration. The relation between ATM and a physical layer such as SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) is described well in chapter two, but the connection between ATM and B-ISDN (Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network) is not quite as clear. Part two deals with specific protocols within ATM. Chapter three gives an overview of the data and cell formats of the ATM layer, and the various sublayers of the ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL). ATM signalling is described in chapter four. The provision for operations administration and maintenance is explained in chapter five. Chapter six looks at traffic management, with analysis of quality of service, delay, and variation. Part three examines the means of interconnection with existing networks and services. Circuit, trunk, and framing emulation for existing services is reviewed in chapter seven. Chapter eight discusses IP over ATM while nine deals with TCP level functions. The Internet and its requirements are analyzed in chapter ten with a view to the benefits ATM can provide as an underlying layer. The chapter concludes with a comparison of IP/SONET versus IP/ATM/SONET, but the material is limited by the fact that IPv6 has not been used significantly in the overview. Chapter eleven covers voice and other constant bit rate traffic carried over ATM. Part four consists only of chapter twelve, looking at the future of ATM with particular reference to coming technologies. Resources for further study are given at the end of each chapter. In addition, the figures and illustrations are worthy of note. All too often, graphics are introduced either because they are expected, or as space fillers. The illustrations and tables in this work, while not universally clear, generally do contribute to understanding of the material. At first glance, a lot of the content is full of equations and alphabet soup. That should not, however, scare you off. The intelligent reader, with a bit of telecommunications background, should be able to gain a reasonable understanding of ATM, its implications, and its use in heterogeneous networks. "Hands On ATM" (cf BKHDOATM.RVW) and "Understanding ATM" (cf. BKUNDATM.RVW) are both good, but this is a very serviceable guide, and worthy of serious consideration. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999 BKATMFPN.RVW 990404 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@sprint.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca p1@canada.com ------------------------------ From: wdag@my-dejanews.com (W.D.A. Geary) Subject: Re: Any Guesses as to What This All Meant? Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 21:27:04 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion In article , wrote: > 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). .... > 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? Sounds like they cut your two real direct-copper-to-CO lines over to one pair-gain adapter, in order to "free up" lines in your neighborhood for more customers: Wednesday: They cut it over, but did not correctly provision the pair-gain line card at the CO, so you had incoming service but no outgoing service. Friday: They reconfigure the adapter, but now forget to enable CLID. Monday: Enable CLID. Wednesday+: Pair-gain link unit is performing multiple A/D/A conversions (or is older unit using with crummy bandwidth), so kiss V90 goodbye. Wednesday+: Hell Titanic's usual BS aimed at unknowledgeable sheep - er, customers. You are royally screwed. Bell makes no claim that lines can support more than "voice and FAX". Recommendation: Order ADSL on both lines (to get clean copper), then cancel it. W.D.A.Geary Wardenclyffe Microtechnology Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana. ------------------------------ From: James H. Cloos Jr. Subject: Re: Any Guesses as to What This All Meant? Date: 06 May 1999 17:47:19 -0500 Organization: Illuminati Online |> 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 now we can't get over 26.4Kbps from a V90 modem. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The former probably is the cause of the latter. James H. Cloos, Jr. 1024D/ED7DAEA6 E9E9 F828 61A4 6EA9 0F2B 63E7 997A 9F17 ED7D AEA6 ------------------------------ Date: 6 May 1999 13:57:58 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com From: larb0@aol.com (LARB0) Subject: Re: Any Guesses as to What This All Meant? Sounds like they switched you to another pair -- of poor quality which won't support higher bit rates ... ------------------------------ From: Terry Kennedy Subject: Re: 90# "Feature" on Your Phone? Organization: St. Peter's College, US Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 07:56:42 GMT Telecom Digest Editor noted: > 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. Another reason for that is to negotiate away the "FCC Subscriber Line Charge" -- if the line is in fact not connected to the PSTN, then you can apply for a waiver of the SLC for the line. > 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] Here at SPC, Centrex outside number access is with 8+ instead of 9+ - we got the 9xxx range on a newly-opened prefix (201-915) under "special terms" because we wanted a block of numbers and were willing to use a non-standard outside number access prefix (9 is the common one). Since then we've expanded and have Centrex extensions on at least two other prefixes. We can also dial 5 from any phone for campus security emergencies, though this was added much later. I wanted to use 911, but other folks didn't want to renumber the existing 911x range of extensions and deal with the mis-dials. So all of our phones (including the ones behind PBX's and key systems, where it doesn't apply) have big red-and-white stickers on the handset that say "IN EMERGENCY DIAL 5". 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) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V19 #73 *****************************