P/HUN Issue #4, Volume 2: Phile 10 of 11 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ __________________________________ | | | P/HUN Telecom News/Advancements | | PART 1 | | By DareDevil | |__________________________________| Feb. 17-19, 1989 SATELLITE USE WILL KEEP SOARING: Satellites and fiber-optic cables will be used for international communications well into the 21st century, according to a Communications Satellite Corp. study. The study suggests that services using satellite systems could be up to 45% less expensive than international transmissions that use fiber. Also giving satellites staying power: Ability to reach remote areas. RCI SENDS CALLS OVER THE WATER: RCI Long Distance, a subsidiary of Rochester Telephone, said Thursday that it has added 122 countries to its international service, including popular calling areas such as West Germany and Israel. Rates: RCI says only that the service will be priced competitively with other carriers offering international services. PROGRAM PUTS NETWORK ON THE MAP: A computer program from Connections Telecommunications can be used by network designers to create a visual map of their wide-area network, reports Computerworld magazine. The program, called Mapconnect, will superimpose over a map of the USA the serving office, hubbing point and area sites with their connections. Cost: $2,000 per copy, plus $400 annual maintenance after the first year. CALIFORNIA, MORE FIRMS COMPETE: Competition for local access and transport area data transmissions to long distance carriers has been strengthened in California by a recent PUC decision. The commission approved a deregulation plan that will likely have MCI, US Sprint and Cable and Wireless Management Services competing with Pacific Bell and GTE California, says CommunicationsWeek. VERMONT TO UPGRADE TELE SYSTEM: The State of Vermont will be getting technical support for improvements in its telecommunications network from Federal Engineering Inc., according to CommunicationsWeek. Contract value: Not revealed. Federal Engineering has provided similar service in Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming. CAMPUS GETS BIG DOSE OF HI-TECH: Southwestern Bell is putting more than 40 miles of high-speed fiber optics into the St. Louis Community College system, reports CommunicationsWeek. The network will link the school's 3 campuses and headquarters to provide video, voice and data transmissions for educational programs. Cost to the school: $580,000, plus $2,000 per month to use the system. SOMEONE MIGHT BE LISTENING: About 30 hours worth of recorded audio-visual material was recorded by New York City residents recently for transmission into outer space, reports InfoText magazine. AT&T set up the free service at its headquarters. Messages were beamed into space on the company's satellite dishes. Among the messages: A young student reported on a pro basketball game for any interested "aliens." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb. 20, 1989 AT&T PLANS OVERHAUL: AT&T announced a sweeping overhaul Friday designed to make the long-distance company more competitive and profitable. AT&T will split its 5 business groups into 12 units to 25 units that each will have sole responsibility for a product or service. The idea will be phased in over a period of months this year. (For more, see special AT&T package below. From the USA TODAY Money section.) JAPAN SET FOR JUNGLE LAUNCH: The first of 2 satellites for the Japan Communications Satellite Co. lifts off Feb. 28 from a jungle launch pad in French Guiana. The launch will inaugurate commercial satellite communications in Japan and be the first of Hughes Communications' new HS 393 series. The satellite will begin serving the Japanese islands, including Okinawa, after a 30- to 60-day testing period. SATELLITE HAS MANY CUSTOMERS: The JCSAT 1 satellite going into orbit on Feb. 28 will provide the Japanese islands with various new services. Scheduled to come off the satellite: Network and cable TV distribution, used-car auctions, prep school classes, religious programming, automobile dealer training, a specialized engineering video network. Also: A business group plans to offer business communications. BIG SATELLITE WON'T BE THE LAST: With a deployed height of 10 meters, the Hughes Communications' satellite being launched by Japan next week will be the largest Hughes commercial satellite ever launched. It contains 32 transponders, each one capable of transmitting one TV channel, 45 million bits of data per second, or more than 250 telephone circuits. Japan will launch a second satellite this summer. SPACE STATION MAKES AUDIO PLANS: NASA has chosen Harris Corp. audio communications systems for use on the space station Freedom, scheduled for operations in 1995. CommunicationsWeek says that under a $35 million subcontract with Boeing Aerospace, Harris will design, develop and produce systems for onboard use. Special feature: At times when crew members have their hands busy, a voice recognition capability will be available. CHINA SPRINTS FOR THE MICROWAVE: About 90% of its surplus microwave network has been sold or dismantled by US Sprint, according to CommunicationsWeek. The old equipment is being replaced by a fiber network. Most recently, the People's Republic of China spent about $15 million for 6,000 used analog microwave radios and 600 parabolic antennas. China plans to use the equipment on 11 existing microwave networks. NYNEX BEGINS ANOTHER TEST: Nynex is providing a digital data-over-voice private-line access service for Telenet Communications in a New York City field trial. It is one of 35 basic service elements Nynex specified in its Open Network Architecture plan for the FCC, reports CommunicationsWeek. Nynex expects to present 14 other new offerings before the end of the year. BOSSES GET MORE RESPONSIBILITY: The reorganization plan announced by AT&T Friday is the first major policy move by Robert E. Allen since he took over last April as chairman. The goal: Get managers to focus more on customers and on costs by giving them total responsibility for any money they make or lose. Right now most of that responsibility is held by top managers at AT&T. AT&T HOPES FOR BIGGER SALES: The AT&T move to split its business groups comes at an opportune time. AT&T is losing market share in the long-distance phone market to rivals MCI and US Sprint. Also: AT&T's overall sales growth has been modest over the last several years. Under the new plan, the presidents of AT&T's 5 operating groups will be renamed group executives. The new units will operate as independent businesses. NEW APPROACH MIGHT START SLOWLY: Analysts say it will take years to streamline AT&T's bureaucracy and get managers accustomed to being directly accountable for the performance of their businesses. AT&T reported a loss of $1.67 billion on sales of $35.21 billion in 1988. Earnings were reduced by a net charge of $3.94 billion from writing off old equipment and accelerating modernization of its long-distance network. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb. 21, 1989 DATA CROSSES MILES WITH SPEED: Northern Telecom yesterday announced the availability of the High Speed Data Module, a data connectivity device that is an addition to the Meridian SL-1 Data Services product line. A typical application might involve a bank that uses the module to connect a programming facility with the bank's main data center, located approximately 400 miles away. Cost: $725. INMATES TOUCH, SAVE AND LOSE: Some 15 inmates from local prisons in the Nashville, Tenn., area face computer fraud charges after figuring out Touch & Save long-distance phone customers' user codes. Officials say the inmates charged more than $2,000 in calls. The inmates gained access to the codes and sold them for $5 or more to others in the prison. (From the USA TODAY News section.) PRODUCTS WILL PROTECT DATA: CompuServe Inc. has introduced new encryption products for its public packet data network, Network World reports. The encryption services let users move data from expensive leased lines to cost-effective dial-up public circuits, while protecting the data from unauthorized access. The cost ranges from $1,495 to $8,100. PROTEON UNVEILS FIBER MODEM: Proteon Inc. has developed a single-mode, fiber-optic modem that will extend the distance between 2 nodes on a token-ring network, says Network World. The p3282 modem permits 2 nodes to communicate over a maximum distance of 30 kilometers without using a repeater. The fiber also uses optical laser technology instead of LEDs for transmission of the signal. Cost: $10,000. NETWORK CHARGES ARE DROPPED: Transettlements Inc. has stopped making additional charges for internetwork transmission, reports Computerworld magazine. The firm will no longer charge its users fees, penalties or premiums for interconnection with other value-added networks. The charge for going through 2 networks will be the same for going through only Transettlement's network. AIRLINES, HOTELS JOIN NETWORK: GEnie, a consumer online information service from GE Information Services, is now offering the Official Airline Guide Electronic Edition Travel Service. The edition will permit GEnie subscribers to view airline schedules, fares and hotel information. Cost: A surcharge on GEnie of 17 cents/minute during non-prime hours and a surcharge of 47 cents/minute during prime time. RESERVATIONS ARE A TOUCH AWAY: Harrah's Reno introduced a guest service center at the Reno Airport yesterday that uses interactive, live video to streamline guest reservations. Guests can check into Harrah's, make dinner reservations and arrange to see a show by touching a TV screen. The system uses Nevada Bell's new ISDN network that allows voice, data and video communications to use fiber optic wires simultaneously. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb. 22, 1989 PHONE USERS DO IT THEMSELVES: US West's 35,000 Bellingham, Wash., customers will test the first of what could be a major telephone innovation: Instantaneous, do-it-yourself phone service. In the plan, a person could shut off service, have a 3-way holiday conversation and have calls sent to work - all by dialing a series of numbers. (For more, see special Phones package below.) SATELLITE TO SERVE INDONESIA: Scientific-Atlanta has been selected to supply a half dozen major communication systems in the Pacific Rim: A VSAT satellite link for Indonesia and 5 private television networks for Japanese firms. The satellite network will provide interactive data, video and voice communications to as many as 4,000 sites on the 13,677 islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia. NETWORKS TO GO ON NEW SATELLITE: Nippon Telephone & Telegraph Co. of Tokyo and 4 other Japanese companies said yesterday they will use Scientific-Atlanta's B-MAC satellite technology to establish 5 private business television networks in Japan. When their private television networks are completed, Nippon, Nikken, Telecom Sat and Video Sat plan to send video signals to JC-Sat, Japan's new communications satellite. TELCO ENTRY IS UNPREDICTABLE: Congress will probably not address the issue of telephone companies entering the TV business in the near future, National Assn. of Broadcasters President Eddie Fritts tells Broadcasting magazine. He says the telco entry will be one of the top issues of the 1990s. But he stops short of making predictions, saying only that free over-the-air broadcasting will survive. MORE STATIONS PICK UP SATELLITE: Satellite-delivered talk-radio programs are growing as AM station directors look more closely at the potential of low-maintenance, national talk shows. Broadcasting magazine says the 3 month-old American Radio Networks joined the field with 22 affiliates and now has 110 stations receiving its 24-hour satellite service. SATELLITES FLY FOR GERMAN TV: Highly competitive satellite and cable TV services are expected to grow significantly during the next 2 years in West Germany, according to Broadcasting magazine. West German private TV channel RTL Plus, a satellite-to-cable service, is expected to expand its market to 10 million viewers. U.S. firm Capital Cities/ABC has a holding in Tele-Munchen, part owner of the Tele5 satellite channel. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON PHONES: ------------------------- SERVICE COULD START IN A SNAP: Customers moving into new homes could start phone service within minutes by dialing telephone responses to a series of computer-voiced questions with a new service being tested by US West Communications. Officials liken the change to the switch from operator-assisted to direct-dial local calls in the 1920s or the similar change in long-distance calls in the 1950s. SERVICE COULD LINE THE WEST: If an upcoming test of do-it-yourself phone service works in Bellingham, Wash., another 2-year test will be done on the same service in a larger market, such as Denver. If that also goes well, the entire US West market - 14 states - will get the new system by the year 2000. Throughout the test, all customers still will be able to use their telephones as they now do. FEATURES ARE A BUTTON AWAY: US West customers with do-it-yourself service will be able to start or stop telephone feature services at any time, including such commonly used services as call forwarding and 3-telephone conversations. These services already are available, but only by calling US West sales representatives during daytime business hours. The new system will allow changes to be made at any time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb. 24-26, 1989 CELLULAR SIGNAL GOES FARTHER: Pacific Telesis has installed antennas at both ends of an Oakland, Calif.-area tunnel to carry signals from cellular car telephones, reports Forbes magazine. Also: PacTel is using a solar cell to power a repeater signal and extend coverage into Laguna Canyon. Forbes says the developments are indications of coming improvements in cellular transmissions. THE AIRWAVES ARE CROWDED: The main problem for cellular phone users in large metropolitan areas is the addition of new subscribers to already jammed cellular systems, reports Forbes magazine. The FCC has allocated only 437 channels of radio waves to each carrier. To add customers, systems have been subdividing cells, with each cell having low-power antennas that operate in limited boundaries. SENDING COSTS WOULD BE HALVED: Digital cellular technology could solve the problem of cramped airwaves for cellular telephone systems, reports Forbes magazine. With digital, ordinary radio interference is eliminated, conversations are private, data from laptop computers can be sent to the office from the road. Also: Digital cellular would cost about half the transmission price because it's twice as fast. LOYOLA PLANS FOR ISDN USE: AT&T recently said that the Definity 75/85 communications system will be the base for an Integrated Services Digital Network that will carry voice, data and images for Loyola University. Computerworld says Loyola is expected to be the first commercial customer to use Definity. By early next year about 7,000 phones on the 3 Chicago-area campuses will be on the system. TELENET LINKS WITH STRATACOM: Telenet Communications has made an agreement with Stratacom Inc. to develop the technology for what the companies said will be the first broadband Integrated Services Digital Network service to be based on the ISDN frame relay interface, reports Computerworld. Telenet, a subsidiary of U.S. Sprint, will integrate packet switches with Stratacom digital multiplexers. THE PHONE IS IN THE BANK: Banks are playing it smart with their money and are winning price concessions from telephone companies by pitting carriers against one another, reports Network World. Some banks are negotiating for new services; others are cutting costs by striking custom contracts with local carriers. Example: Irving Trust of New York used MCI and AT&T to get a new international calling service. CIA HELP IS NO SECRET: The CIA linked its electronic-mail systems together with the help of Soft-Switch, a company in Wayne, Pa., that specializes in connecting multivendor E-mail systems, reports Government Computer News. A key function of the software package: Directory services that maintain information on all mail systems directly or indirectly connected to the software. FCC GETS COMPLAINT ON PACBELL: Conference-Call USA, based in Chicago, has filed a complaint with the FCC, accusing Pacific Bell of refusing to change its practice of automatically routing all conference-call traffic to AT&T, reports CommunicationsWeek. The firm says the practice is stunting the growth of competitive companies. STUDENTS ARE ON THE PHONE: School children in Denver are using computers and transmission facilities from US West Advanced Technologies to communicate with teachers, special subject experts and other students. CommunicationsWeek says the equipment will be given to the school system at the end of the school year. US West is using information gained from the trial to plan an information gateway in Omaha, Neb. HEARING IMPAIRED CAN MAKE CALLS: The State Relay Center is scheduled to begin service Friday in Birmingham, Ala. The new relay center was created to link hearing-impaired customers by teletype to people they want to call. The service is funded by a small surcharge on all phone bills in the state. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb. 28, 1989 CALLERS MUST BE TOLD THE COST: The FCC yesterday ordered 5 companies that charge customers 20% to 80% more than AT&T, MCI or Sprint to toe the line. The alternative operators must now tell callers how much the call will cost and which company is placing it before it goes through. The high rates usually are placed on hotel, airport or hospital phones. (From the USA TODAY News section.) FIRMS GIVE A PART OF REVENUES: The phone companies told by the FCC yesterday to reveal costs: Central Corp., International Telecharge Inc., National Telephone Services Inc., Payline Systems Inc. and Telesphere Network Inc. Right now all these companies buy phone time from a major carrier such as AT&T and MCI and then give the hotel, airport or hospital that uses the service a cut of revenues from every call. CALLERS WILL GET MORE RIGHTS: The FCC said yesterday that alternative long-distance operators must: Put a sticker on the phone with price information or tell the caller the price verbally; give callers an chance to hang up without any charge; offer callers a chance to go through AT&T or another phone service. Right now many alternative operators stop you from using another carrier. NISSEI PLANS A FAX EXPANSION: Portable facsimile machine manufacturer Nissei says that a major expansion of its operations will be completed within 2 months. To come: As many as 5 new fax machines, a revamping of the field staff to cover all sales territories. Also: Vice President John Haggerty says Nissei will move into other areas of the retail information technology market. BELL GOES TO COLLEGE: Bell Atlanticom Systems said yesterday it has signed a contract with the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., for a fully integrated voice and data communications system. The campus-wide system will provide resale of communications services to students, a management system, and a universal wiring plan to provide voice and data transmission. SYSTEM INCLUDES TRUNKS, LINES: The communications system obtained by the College of William and Mary yesterday will provide 300 trunks, 3,800 faculty and student lines, 150 voice/data faculty users and 1,050 host data ports. It includes more than 5,000 inside wiring runs and several miles of fiber optics. Also included: A 1,000-user Aspen Voice Mail System and the Alex-IS Telecommunications Management System. MESSAGES GO AROUND THE GLOBE: GE Information Services has announced a new capability of its QUIK-COMM System (electronic mailbox service) which enables users to send QUIK-COMM messages to facsimile machines throughout the world. Receiving fax machines must be Group III facsimile terminals that conform to CCITT standards. Recipients do not have to be QUIK-COMM System subscribers to receive the fax document. MCI GETS THE INSURANCE: Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. said yesterday it has selected MCI Communications to replace AT&T's data network with a nationwide data communications network linking Northwestern Mutual's Milwaukee-based home office with its remote general and district agency offices. The 3-year, multimillion dollar agreement will eventually link more than 200 agency offices. BELLSOUTH GETS CLOSER TO EUROPE: BellSouth Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Air Call Holdings' shares in Air Call Communications, providers of cellular, paging and telephone answering and telemarketing services in the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe. BellSouth provides mobile systems services in the USA, Argentina, Australia, Ireland and Europe. SYSTEM OFFERS NEW OPTIONS: New networking and programming capabilities for the McDonnell Douglas REALITY Operating System are being scheduled for beta testing at several customer sites, the company said yesterday. Dubbed ROS 7.0, the system will offer capabilities previously unavailable in PICK systems. Also: Data and processing can be distributed transparent to users and, in cases, the programmer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS 304-744-2253 Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253 12yrs+