Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id VAA09139; Mon, 17 May 1999 21:57:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 21:57:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199905180157.VAA09139@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V19 #86 TELECOM Digest Mon, 17 May 99 21:57:00 EDT Volume 19 : Issue 86 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #183, May 17, 1999 (Angus TeleManagement) Qwest Sued by Marketing Agent (Wally Reece) Book Review: "Removing the Spam", Geoff Mulligan (Rob Slade) Non-Subscription Access to ISP? (Jacob Thakadu) TTS to Dialogic VOX Format (jgerlich@ziplink.net) Re: 90# "Feature" on Your Phone? (David Willingham) TDA - Telecommunications Officials from Czech Republic (Peter Robinson) Pursuing a Career in Telecommunications (Kendall Cole) NPA-NXX & Cities (Clay Koontz) Re: Click-Click-Click: What Causes It? (Jeffrey M. Vinocur) 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. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 765 Junction City, KS 66441-0765 Phone: 415-520-9905 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe/unsubscribe: subscriptions@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* In addition, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 11:49:13 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #183, May 17, 1999 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 183: May 17, 1999 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * AT&T Canada ............... http://www.attcanada.com/ * * Bell Canada ............... http://www.bell.ca/ * * Lucent Technologies ....... http://www.lucent.ca/ * * MetroNet Communications ... http://www.metronet.ca/ * * Sprint Canada ............. http://www.sprintcanada.ca/ * * Telus Communications....... http://www.telus.com/ * * TigerTel Services ......... http://www.citydial.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** CRTC Won't Regulate the Internet ** Telus to Build National Fiber Net ** Metromedia to Offer Dark Fiber in Toronto ** Mobility Canada Splits ** Internet Direct, Look to Merge ** Nortel to Drop 4,000 Manufacturing Jobs ** Bell Mobility Launches Digital Wireless Data ** Bell Strike Ends ** Shaw to Accelerate Internet Rollout ** 24-Hour LD Plan From Bell ** Profit, Revenue Down at Teleglobe ** CRTC Rules on IX Forbearance ** Motorola Establishes Montreal Software Center ** Hummingbird Wins PC Docs Bidding War ** MetroNet Installs 100,000 Lines ** Cantel Offers Text Messaging for the Deaf ** BCnet Seeks Partners for Advanced University Network ** CRTC Publishes 1999-2000 Calendar ** Corporate Reports Microcell TIW ** Techniques to Quell the Wireless Work Overload CRTC WON'T REGULATE THE INTERNET: On May 17, the CRTC announced that new media on the Internet "are achieving the goals of the Broadcasting Act and are vibrant, highly competitive and successful without regulation." The full report is available on the CRTC Web site at: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/bcasting/notice/1999/p9984_0.txt and http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/bcasting/notice/1999/p9984_1.txt TELUS TO BUILD NATIONAL FIBER NET: Telus will spend about $260 Million to build a fiber network from Edmonton to Halifax, including 118 km of fiber rings in the Toronto area. Completion is planned for late in 2000, but Telus expects to begin offering Internet and data services in Toronto and southern Ontario this fall. ** Shares in Call-Net Enterprises fell 13% following the announcement. Some analysts had predicted that Telus would buy Call-Net fiber to obtain national coverage. METROMEDIA TO OFFER DARK FIBER IN TORONTO: Telus will keep only 15% of the fiber it is installing in Toronto. The rest will be offered to carriers and business customers as unmetered dark fiber by New York-based Metromedia Fiber Network Inc. MOBILITY CANADA SPLITS: Following Stentor's example, the consortium of telco-owned wireless companies is splitting into two competing groups, Telus versus the rest. National customers will still be served by Mobility Canada "for the duration of all existing contracts," but otherwise the two camps will compete with each other nationally by reselling each others' services. INTERNET DIRECT, LOOK TO MERGE: ISP Internet Direct and Look Communications have agreed to amalgamate. Look's shareholders (principally, Charles Sirois' Telesystem) will own 60% of the new entity, which will offer high-speed wireless Internet access in addition to Look's existing TV services. ** Internet Direct has announced that its subscribers can now dial up without charge from more than 20 cities across Canada. NORTEL TO DROP 4,000 MANUFACTURING JOBS: In the next three years Nortel Networks will divest or eliminate 4,000 manufacturing positions, including 2,400 in Canada. Two of the centers coordinating Nortel's worldwide supply chain will be in Canada -- in St. Laurent, Quebec, and Calgary. (See Telecom Update #166) BELL MOBILITY LAUNCHES DIGITAL WIRELESS DATA: Bell Mobility now provides e-mail, Internet access, and e-commerce applications to subscribers with a data-capable phone. Price: 15 cents/minute. ** The services include Veev (wireless banking at the Bank of Montreal) and Revolv, which links wireless users to their corporate data base. BELL STRIKE ENDS: After a five-week strike, Bell Canada operators and technicians returned to work on May 16. The 9,500 members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union voted 80% in favor of a new five-year contract. SHAW TO ACCELERATE INTERNET ROLLOUT: Shaw Communications says it will accelerate deployment of two-way cable service, making its high-speed @Home Internet service available to all of its customers within six months. ** Shaw@Home Internet service now forwards e-mail to Shaw pagers for $9.95/month. Shaw@Home also provides two extra computer hook-ups from a cable modem for an additional $9.95/month each. 24-HOUR LD PLAN FROM BELL: Beginning May 31, Bell Canada will offer residential customers the option of paying 10 cents/minute for calls to Canada and 20 cents/minute for U.S. calls, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Users of the First Rate 24 Hours plan must also pay a $4.95/month subscription fee. PROFIT, REVENUE DOWN AT TELEGLOBE: Teleglobe reports that first-quarter revenue declined 13% from last year, mostly because of a 21% drop in sales by its Excel subsidiary. Net income (excluding one-time items) fell 26%. ** Teleglobe's Excel Canada long distance service says it has signed 10,000 representatives and 52,000 customers since its launch in March. CRTC RULES ON IX FORBEARANCE: In Telecom Order 99-435, the CRTC says it will forbear from regulating Interexchange Private Line (IXPL) services offered by non-dominant carriers. The Commission rejected a Call-Net proposal to re-institute regulation of dominant carrier IXPL services, and a Stentor proposal to remove the requirement that forbearance be applied on a route-by-route basis. ** CRTC Telecom Order 99-434 sets out the criteria the Commission will use when deciding whether to forbear from regulating high capacity and digital data services offered by the major telcos. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/internet/1999/8045/04/o99-0434.htm http://www.crtc.gc.ca/internet/1999/8045/04/o99-0435.htm MOTOROLA ESTABLISHES MONTREAL SOFTWARE CENTER: Motorola Canada is establishing a $100-Million software development center in Montreal, with several hundred staff positions. HUMMINGBIRD WINS PC DOCS BIDDING WAR: Hummingbird has raised its bid for PC Docs Group International, a Toronto-based software company, to about $305 Million. In response, the rival bidder, Open Text Corp, has withdrawn its offer. (See Telecom Update #181) METRONET INSTALLS 100,000 LINES: MetroNet Communications says it has now installed 100,000 switched local access lines. A majority of the access lines are now on MetroNet-owned fiber and switches. CANTEL OFFERS TEXT MESSAGING FOR THE DEAF: Cantel's Interactive Messaging Service now forwards text messages to users of TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) equipment. BCNET SEEKS PARTNERS FOR ADVANCED UNIVERSITY NETWORK: BCnet has issued a Request for Proposals for establishing an advanced optical network to link universities and other high- technology institutions in the province. Register by May 18. http://www.bc.net/RFI.html CRTC PUBLISHES 1999-2000 CALENDAR: The CRTC has posted its calendar of activities until March 2000. Go to http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/backgrnd/calendar/cal9905e.htm CORPORATE REPORTS: ** Microcell: Microcell Telecommunications reports 344,000 subscribers, more than three times last year's level. Revenue per user is up 6%; cost of subscriber acquisition has been cut almost in half, to $455. (See Telecom Update #179) ** TIW: Telesystem International Wireless says it now has 1.56 million customers, most of them in Brazil and Romania. Revenue rose to US$391 Million in 1998 from US$71 Million the previous year. TECHNIQUES TO QUELL THE WIRELESS WORK OVERLOAD: In the May issue of Telemanagement, John Riddell reports on the most promising techniques for reducing reduce the burden of managing corporate cellphones. Also in Telemanagement #165: ** Gerry Blackwell talks to Research In Motion, the Waterloo, Ontario, company that is bidding for leadership in wireless "wearable computing." ** Rob Slade discusses books on how to secure Internet commerce. To subscribe to Telemanagement call 1-800-263-4415, ext 225 or visit http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm.html. HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1999 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: Wally Reece Subject: Qwest Sued by Marketing Agent Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 13:51:44 -0400 Contact: Wally Reece Phone: (423) 899-8010 E-Mail: wreece@ncn1.com NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK, INC VS QWEST COMMUNICATIONS The growing giant long distance carrier, Qwest Communications, may have used smaller companies as victim stepping-stones to achieve its success. National Communications Network, Inc., once Qwest's largest agent, has filed a $23 million suit in Hamilton County, Tennessee asserting that not only did Qwest fail to provide acceptable service to their customers, but actually stole customers through mass mailouts, telephone solicitations, and through the use of its customer service line. "Customers were actually solicited to change directly over to Qwest long distance when they called in for customer service", stated Ms. Reece, Director of NCN's customer relations. "We actually have recordings of Qwest attempting to steal NCN's customers. Qwest even went so far as to directly solicit various NCN employees who had previously signed up with Qwest for their personal long distance service." In a statement given by Mr. Greg Casey, President of NCN, he reported that the company was well on its way to obtaining the goal of $1 million in monthly billings by December of 1997. "We had seen an average growth rate of over 45% the first 6 months of the contract. We also brought over 30,000 new customers to Qwest and were within a few dollars of billing $300,000 per month at our peak. It's unfortunate that many of these customers were directly switched to the Qwest system - keeping NCN from receiving the monthly commission due to us according to our contract with Qwest." He also stated, "The chain of events that began late in 1996 progressively slowed and eventually stopped our phenomenal growth." In a marketing effort to interest new customers and to retain existing customers, NCN reports that Qwest agreed to introduce an initiative called "The Rewards Program". This program was designed to allow customers to receive points for every dollar spent on their long distance calls, similar to frequent flyer programs. The program was introduced on two separate occasions by Qwest management: once in February of 1997 at the Annual National Leadership Conference held in Orlando, Florida and again in August of the same year at the National Homecoming Conference held in Chattanooga, Tennessee. "The Rewards Program", although introduced by Qwest management with great enthusiasm, had not even been approved by Qwest's upper management, something NCN found out later. Mr. Casey states, "You can imagine what happened to the credibility of our company when this exciting new program was pulled out from under our feet on not one but two separate occasions!" After the appointment of Joe Nacchio as President & CEO of Qwest in December of '96, NCN hoped that the situation would change for the better. According to Mr. Reece, things did change, but unfortunately it was for the worse. In a meeting between Mr. Reece, Steve Jacobson (Senior Vice President of Consumer Sales for Qwest and hand picked by Mr. Nacchio),the Qwest National Sales Director and the NCN Qwest Agent Manager, Mr. Reece states,"After I shared with Mr. Jacobson the many problems we had experienced over the past months, he looked me right in the eye and told me that Mr. Nacchio had brought him on board because he got things done and that he would personally see to it that these problems were taken care of. From that point on it seemed that the bottom fell out from underneath us." Mr. Casey added, "Not only did the deceptions continue, but also Qwest set out to misappropriate NCN's customer base by direct solicitations seeking to circumvent the NCN contract. Our customers were contacted through direct mailouts, telephone solicitations and even customers who called into Qwest customer service were solicited. When our over 3,000 independent representatives found out that their customers were being switched to Qwest and away from our commission program, they stopped signing up new customers." He added, "I had heard that Mr. Nacchio was known for those types of practices at AT&T and now I know why." It has also been reported that NCN has sworn statements from former employees of Qwest, solidifying these claims. Despite REPEATED objections by NCN, Qwest continued these fraudulent and unethical tactics, which left NCN no recourse other than to file suit. This is definitely a case of David verses Goliath; however, with the stones NCN has in its pockets and sling, this Goliath may well take a hard fall. ---------------- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I reported on this just briefly here a couple weeks ago, when NCN sent me a complete copy of the formal filing. After the merger between Qwest and LCI -- reported to be the fourth largest long distance carrier in the USA most of the time -- things apparently just got even worse. The formal filing which was copied to me lists 34 counts of absolutely disgraceful activities which NCN alleges took place, as summarized above. You may recall that beginning shortly after telco divestiture, all sorts of companies were springing up devoted to selling long distance service via various programs, quite a few of which were either MLM (multi-level-marketing) schemes or closely resembled it. It all came down eventually to getting your service from Sprint since in the old days, even LCI was a reseller of Sprint, and until Sprint's own network was up and running they were a reseller of AT&T or MCI. And I can remember when MCI used to be a reseller of AT&T, circa 1980. !! So Sprint would sell to LCI and LCI would sell to Qwest and Qwest would market it via NCN and others who in turn would sign up agents and the agents would sell to the church ladies and the church ladies would get everyone else in the church to sign up under them then those people would go sell it to their friends at the Elks Club or the neighborhood school's PTA. Soon, there was no one left to actually *use* the long distance service because they were all so busy selling it to each other. But, there was a lot of money to be made (oh heck, Ted Vail could have told you that much back in 1900), so the ones who got in on it very early did not too bad financially, each with their own little 'downline' of a dozen or so people contributing two cents here and five cents there throughout the month. And as long as at least two or three cents for each minute of traffic made its way back to the top, the Big Three were happy; after all, they no longer had all that messy customer service to bother with (that was now part of what the church ladies, the agents for NCN, and others like it had to deal with) and if the end user did somehow figure out that dialing 10333 at the start of each call meant he was dealing with Sprint no matter how many slices of the pie were gone before he got his, the answer to that was just cut him over to being one of their customers instead. NCN's litigation with LCI/Qwest claims that the Denver-based company took some awfully large slices of the pie, even sneaking them off of other people's plates when they thought no one was watching or would catch them in the act. As for customer service, what a quaint notion that is! Let the church ladies, the Usenet newsgroup moderator who thought he could make a couple dollars and others of that ilk worry about the customer service. So as people started going back to the 'traditional' carriers leaving the agents holding the bag, the agents started abandoning companies like NCN. I used to sell long distance for an agency which resold AT&T through some intermediate reseller. I sold '800 numbers' for another agent who got them third or fourth hand from Sprint. Old time readers may recall I did so shamelessly right here a couple of times, around 1989-90. No more. I would not touch reselling phone service for any reason. We all have to learn things as we go along in life. I hope the NCN vrs. Qwest/LCI debacle serves as an example for others. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 10:57:05 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Removing the Spam", Geoff Mulligan Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKRMSPAM.RVW 990328 "Removing the Spam", Geoff Mulligan, 1999, 0-201-37957-0, U$19.95/C$29.95 %A Geoff Mulligan %C P.O. Box 520, 26 Prince Andrew Place, Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 %D 1999 %G 0-201-37957-0 %I Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. %O U$19.95/C$29.95 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 bkexpress@aw.com %P 190 p. %T "Removing the Spam: Email Processing and Filtering" This book is intended for the system manager, rather than the end user. More specifically, it is aimed at the mail administrator for an ISP (Internet Service Provider) or corporate network. Slightly unfortunate is the fact that it becomes more particular still, being of greatest use to those running UNIX, sendmail, ProcMail, and either Majordomo or SmartList. Regardless of system expression, anti-spam configuration is, as Mulligan points out, important for two reasons. The lesser of the two concerns is the most obvious: that of restrict- ing the amount of spam reaching your own users. The more vital is that by failing to restrict the possible abuse of your system by spammers, and particularly by permitting unrestricted relays, you face the increasing possibility of becoming blacklisted, and therefore hampering the legitimate use of the net by your clients. Chapter one is an excellent overview of electronic mail. It is concise, complete, and accurate. Newcomers to the field will find not only a conceptual foundation for all the aspects of Internet email, but also pointers to other references. Professionals will find fast access to a number of details that need to be addressed on a fairly frequent basis. The main theme, of course, is how spam uses the functions of email systems, and how it can be impeded, with as little impact as possible on normal communications. A good framework is presented in this chapter, with a number of references to spam- fighting resources. If I were to make one suggestion, it would be to increase the number of examples of forged email headers, and how to dissect them. Chapter two describes sendmail, and goes into sufficient detail for interested people to obtain it and start using it. At that point, the text concentrates on barriers to spam, such as restriction of relaying and the access database. Administrators using sendmail will find this a quick guide to basic functions. ProcMail has a variety of functions, and most of chapter three looks at the number of uses it can have. The spam filtering section is relatively brief, but provides some recipes, and directions to other ProcMail based filters. Again, sysadmins can use this as a quick start for basic mail processing. Chapter four doesn't have a lot to say about spam, but it does review the proper setup of mailing lists, which can have a significant impact in reducing unwanted mail. This book should be required reading for all mail administrators. The usefulness is not restricted to spam, since admins will be able to find brief discussions of a variety of common mail problems. As Mulligan notes, the fewer improperly configured mail servers there are out there, the more constricted spam sites will become, until at last they can be eliminated altogether. While the details of managing other mail server programs may not match those given in the book, the functions should be available, and should be turned on. If the functions aren't available, perhaps it's time you got some new software. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999 BKRMSPAM.RVW 990328 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@sprint.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca p1@canada.com This is a very good sign, [that someone] is a humanist, a universal spirit, too interested in too many things to become a monomaniac. Only a monomaniac gets what we commonly refer to as `results'. - Albert Einstein http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev or http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 20:26:33 +0200 From: Jacob Thakadu Subject: Non-Subscription Access to ISP I have been trying to investigate this, but cannot find information because the people I have been to told that it is a non-existing situation here in South Africa. The problem reads like this: A new service being planned by a network provider is defined as follows: Non-subscription access to ISP: Allows access to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) using a computer and dial-up modem by a person who has no subscription to the ISP. The user dials the ISP's "non-subscriber" single access. The SCP translates the number to an appropriate point of presence . Call and ISP services charges are debited to the user's telco account. The telco pay the ISP the service charge to the ISP, retaining the call charges. Examine the roles of the various parties involved in such a service. I need some information please. Regards, JMM Thakadu Engineer Eskom Bloemfontein Tel : +27 51 404 2944 Fax : +27 51 404 2002 Email : THAKADJ@ESKOM.CO.ZA ------------------------------ From: jgerlich@ziplink.net Subject: TTS to Dialogic VOX Format Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 20:27:47 GMT Organization: Posted via RemarQ Communities, Inc. I'm looking for an off-line text-to-speech conversion to Dialogic VOX format. I want to use it to pre-process e-mail messages and place them in people's voice mail. ------------------------------ Date: 16 May 1999 18:30:07 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com From: we202c3f@aol.com (David Willingham) Subject: Re: 90# "Feature" on Your Phone? > This will not happen on your home telephone, Mr. Wu, since residence > lines rarely are equipped with the feature allowing one to flash, dial > something and disconnect, transferring the caller elsewhere. There > *was* a few years ago a sort of hybrid centrex -- a special 'flavor' > offered to residential subscribers marketed under various names. I do > not think any telcos offer it any longer at all, Pat-- Bellsouth does offer once again the ability to transfer calls on residential lines; this is offered only as part of the 2-line or 3-line "complete choice" package; it is called "3-way calling with transfer." On Bellsouth Centrex ("Essx") lines, this is a typical feature. (Can't have government lines that would not allow transferring the call to someone else or that would not allow employees to hide behind voice mail!) WE202C3F@aol.com (David Willingham) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 17:32:07 -0400 From: Peter Robinson Subject: TDA - Telecommunications Officials From the Czech Republic The United States Trade and Development Agency (TDA) will be conducting an Orientation Visit to the United States for senior executives of private telecom companies and officials from national telecom carriers in the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. This visit is scheduled to take place from June 5, 1999 to June 12, 1999. The purpose of the orientation visit is to introduce U.S. telecom operators, technologies, and equipment to the delegates of the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia as they prepare to modernize and expand their telecom operations in the near future. The delegation comprises twelve (12) delegates from companies or telecom operations such as SPT Telecom, Telekom Slovenije, Slovak Telecom, Rann Globenet, Micos, Gity, GTS Czech Net/Dattel, Ceske Radiokomunikace, FPD Telecom, and Kable Plus/Cable Plus. The delegation will be in Atlanta, Georgia at SUPERCOMM 99 from Sunday June 6, 1999 to Wednesday June 9, 1999. In addition, the delegation will be in Washington D.C. on Thursday June 10, 1999 and Friday June 11, 1999. For details on sponsoring this important delegation, projects summaries, and meeting the delegation members, please contact the following person. U.S. TDA's coordinator for this orientation visit is Parter International, Inc. and the primary points of contact for all activities is: Mr. Peter Robinson Tel: 212/587-1340 ext. 32 Fax: 212/571-9563 email: info@assist-intl.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 20:14:15 -0600 From: Kendall Cole Subject: Pursuing a Career in Telecommunications Mr. Townson: I am a 19 year old who is very interested in Telecommunications. I will be attending community college in the fall in Colorado. I would like to pursue a career in Telecommunications and my dream is to start my own Telecom company. Do you have any advice for me such as courses to take? Where to go to college (4yr)? or any general advice for someone my age who is interested in telecom?? What can I do right now to prepare for the future? I am trying to learn what I can and look forward to getting your e-mail newsletter. Thanks For Your Time Sincerely, Kendall Cole [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've added Mr. Cole to the mailing list; we shall see how he feels about it in six months or so; maybe he will decide to run for his life and get away before the bad guys have tried to get him. (smile) ... readers with suggestions for school, training and/or apprentice programs please write Mr. Cole direct. Personally, I would opt for providing him some hands-on training, maybe in customer service at a telco, or possibly back office with all those drones and worker-bees in their hive. At one time many years ago, the Bell System made *all* their top executives spend a few weeks working in the Traffic Department, i.e. the telephone operators. The guys would watch astounded as the operators could yank those cords around in and out of the switchboard faster than they could blink their eyes. Every operator saying 'number please?' about every three to five seconds while plugging in a cord with one hand and yanking another one down with the other hand. Row after row of them, human telephone switches. Then maybe a couple months in the back office pushing huge stacks of paper toll tickets around between the drones all day and six months or so after that in the Business Office. If, said Ma Bell, after six months or a year of that, if they have survived the Traffic Department, the back office hell-hole and managed to learn something without either quitting, stealing our money or giv- ing away all our secrets and getting fired, we will consider giving them a private office upstairs with a high-backed swivel chair, a window to look out of, and several hours of time each day to spend in meditation and contemplation, hopefully to our benefit, but you never can tell. (grin) And there were many, many executives of the 'old' AT&T who came up just that way. Learned the business at a local Bell, became an executive at the local Bell, then eventually transferred into the hierarchy on the east coast. Many were the men who started their telecom career in the Repair Department, outside plant at the customer's premises, etc. It was not that Ma Bell did not care about formal education -- she did -- but if you got anywhere in a telecom career, and 'telecom career' meant 'employment by Ma Bell' in those days, you had best know how to handle a very heavy load 'working the boards', where the red, green and yellow wires went inside a telephone, and the 'right' things to say to subscribers who called about their accounts, etc. Remember when Ma would not even let you near one of the 'boards' until you had completed a training class of several weeks and service representatives underwent six months of rigorous training at the company's expense before they were allowed to speak to customers without being supervised in every motion and word? Heavy handed perhaps ... but we are beginning to discover that Ma Bell had one way of doing things, one System ... the Bell System ... and it worked quite well. So what do readers suggest for Mr. Cole? Readers can write him directly, or if it is a thread worth pursuing here, i.e. 'How to Start a Career in Telecom in Century 21', then cc: your correspondence to me if you wish. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Clay Koontz Subject: NPA-NXX & Cities Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 21:53:56 -0400 Hi, I am a small business in telecommunications and I need information on the Area Code and prefixes ... NPA - NXX data with Rate Centers (Cities). Can you supply this data? If not were can I get it? All I need is N. Carolina's data. Clay Koontz CPPC ------------------------------ From: jmv16@cornell.edu (Jeffrey M. Vinocur) Subject: Re: Click-Click-Click: What Causes It? Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 17:15:23 -0400 Organization: Cornell University In article , eraimy@my-dejanews.com wrote: > I just added a Radio Shack headset telephone, a handheld computer > (Jornada) with a modem, a Radio Shack "telephone recording control," > and a tape recorder to my telephone line. Now I hear a loud, steady > click-click-click on some, but not all, incoming calls. Any > suggestions? Thanks. I don't know what causes it, but first rule in diagnosing something like this is to pinpoint the problem. Can you try different combinations of devices and try to figure out exactly what causes it? Jeffrey M. Vinocur * jmv16@cornell.edu http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jmv16/ ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V19 #86 *****************************